Cackles prevaricating about debating Trump. The talk is she wants to do it in a field with a building with…
Open Thread – Weekend 10 Feb 2024
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- Open Thread – Thurs 25 July 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 22 July 2024
- All the drivel fit to print
- Open Thread – Weekend 20 July 2024
It would be nice if at least one US president censured their track team athletes for dishonouring their fellow competitors…
whacking penalties on childless cat ladies and incels seems to be a step further Sounds great Monty. Let them make…
the-allied-fleet-in-balaklava-harbour.jpg Sorry, I stuffed up the other link.
WTC explosive demolition nuffery has arrived earlier than usual – must be a sign of the uncertain times. Strength of…
Biden may actually not know he has a problem. That means he does have a problem
stfu you gibbering tosser
America’s ‘last best place’ is overrun by Mexican cartels because gangsters ‘can charge 20 TIMES the price for drugs’ – with overdoses ‘SURGING’
Interesting – This was my take on the Tucker-Putin Interview as well.
In Moscow, Tucker Carlson commits journalism
After the big hullabaloo from the left and the Washington swamp types about the all-powerful insidiousness of Russian “propaganda,” plus a lot of Hitler stuff, Tucker Carlson calmly went to Moscow, met Russian President Vladimir Putin and got a doozy of a taped two-hour, seven-minute interview, starting out with Putin’s half-hour recital of a thousand years of Russian history.
You listen to it, and all you can do is mull it afterward — it was so full of substance.
Putin is a deep thinker, an intellectual of sorts, and a policy wonk, someone who wants “a discussion” and “not a talk show” as he put it, and he delivered on that.
His health seemed to have improved, he looked good, and he came off as alert and clear-eyed.
So as Joe Biden yawps his way through his presidency, mixing up the presidents of Mexico and Egypt, Putin calmly recites one thousand years of Russian history in immense detail, decribed off the top of his head, and then moves into deep discussion on Russo-American relations and all the twists and turns as well as standing issues that drive them.
Cutting to the chase, we learned that Putin invaded Ukraine based on a view that Ukraine was full of Nazis but the trouble started with U.S.-driven coup activity with all the Ukrainian color revolutions overthrowing elected governments in the name of ‘democracy,’ the ones where Democrat State Department fixture Victoria Nuland passed out cookies and sandwiches to protestors.
It also was the result of broken promises not to expand NATO, or else to let Russia into it, too.
Some of that seems fanciful — the Nazi stuff was quite hard to believe given that Nazis are marginal losers on the fringes in both Russia and Ukraine, not a power center in either country, but the coup activity argument was fair enough, and the NATO expansion is worth considering.
He made some arguments I have heard from Russians before: That the Russians wanted to work on missile defense systems together with NATO but was rebuffed, drawing Russia closer to Iran and China.
The last time he spoke to Biden was — he was not sure — and Tucker probed on that, learning basically that Putin didn’t really want to discuss it.
That Putin believed the CIA blew up the Nord Stream II pipeline. That Putin understood very well the role of the U.S. dollar as a source of U.S. influence.
That Putin was not concerned about China’s dominance of BRICS.
That Putin could have better prospects with a president other than Biden but much of the U.S. is swamp-driven.
That Putin believes, like China’s leaders, that global development is inevitable and the U.S. will necessarily decline. “Look at Indonesia,” he noted, saying that eventually they too will develop.
That the U.S. adapts to the inevitable decline though sanctions and military force. That Putin had good relations with Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
Tucker also usefully asked Putin who he thinks is making the decisions in the U.S.
Putin’s response: “I don’t know. America is a complex country. It’s conservative on one hand, it’s changing on another.”
Putin baffled at how U.S. elections were held with some states able to disqualify a president from the ballot.
He wondered why the U.S. was so negative against Russia, and mulled a lot about the lost opportunity of NATO missile defense. He mulled again on the “pressure pressure, pressure” regarding Ukraine into NATO.
He saw the U.S. through the lens of what he sees in Russia — a collection of fiefdoms, — with production specialties created, quasi-state entities to create defense vs. China.
He called it a mistake.
Tucker asked him how can a leader be a Christian?
Putin went into thinking about Dostoyevsky and the Russian soul.
The West was practical, production-oriented, scientific, the Orthodox East was spirituality-focused.
Then Tucker asked him if he saw God at work, could he see see forces that are not human? Putin said ‘no.’
He went on about Genghis Khan, the fall of the Roman empire, the rise and decline of empires, noting that it took five centuries for the Roman empire to fall apart.
But things are happening much faster now, he said. Tucker asked him when does the AI empire start? He suggested reaching an agreement with Elon Musk.
As an important coda to the interview, Tucker asked about detained Wall Street Journal Evan Gershkovich, whom he said was obviously not a spy and just “a kid.” Putin demurs on releasing him but Tucker bit down and kept at him for a release, drawing out at least some openness to it.
At the interview’s end, Putin didn’t want to get out of there — he wanted to re-mull and re-expound on some of this points, laying out his thoughts again.
It was interesting and revealing because there was so much of it.
It was like he enjoyed sorting his thoughts out for Tucker.
There were only two areas where one felt he was trying to propagandize the U.S. — on energy and on the justification for the Ukraine war.
The rest seemed to be pretty sincere.
800 comments in and the site is loading quickly without ticks.
Particularly noticeable when flicking between pages.
Could you imagine a second wave feminist demanding to be sexualised?
Dot is trying to make me post the alluring Ms Greers untamed sarlacc pit again, but I wont be tricked into such a cheap shot.
/dare you click…
PS From the Comments
– It’s clear Putin has more respect for America than Democrats do.
If only the US had such a rational, coherent, pragmatic, country-loving leader akin to Vlad.
Oh wait, we did.
But then the Putin-like traitors of the Left stole him away from us, replacing him with a malignant, cabbage-brained cadaver who sold out his country for his personal fortune (the cosmic opposite of Trump).
Had it not been for the virulently evil Deep State (and its phallus-sucking propagandists in the Mandarin media), eight years of a Trump-Putin cooperative alliance could’ve put the West and the world in a far safer and more prosperous place.
FJB and all the treasonous maggots who installed him.
– What we found out in this interview is that Putin is more capable than Biden. Intellectually Putin is completely there; Biden is nowhere.
– Putin displayed his stunning acumen and vast amount of knowledge in wide array of subjects.
Juxtaposed against any of the scripted, carefully edited interviews conducted with Biden since before being sworn in, leaves the audience dumbstruck.
The differences between the two are akin to comparing a used, budget model Kia with a decked out Ferrari.
The fact that the Democrats, Republicans and every mainstream media outlet thinks this is ok is both infuriating and disgraceful.
Everyday this continues is a national embarrassment. America has become the butt of the joke, since the Big Guy was inaugurated.
I will add that I did get the impression that Putin was very careful and measured on most of his assessments.
For example, he intentionally stopped short of expressing the culpability of the global elites/UN/WHO/IMF/WEF etc, for their role in world events.
– The Democrats need boogeymen to control the American public.
Trump is one and Russia/Putin is the other.
We must fear both. Of course Putin hasn’t always been the bad guy when Democrats saw potential profit.
Remember Hillary’s Russian Reset button, the Uranium One deal, Bill’s $500K Moscow speech, or Obama’s promise to Putin the he’d have more flexibility after the 2012 election?
How about Hunter getting $3.5M from the former Mayor of Moscow’s wife?
I wonder who got the yachts and jets seized from Russian oligarchs?
I wonder what Putin thinks about those subjects.
The Democrat and neocon complaints over Tucker’s interview were quickly overshadowed by Biden’s latest scandal, so they can get back to enriching Russia and laundering American taxpayer’s money through Ukraine.
If we learned anything, it’s that a Senile President and the Obamaites are pursuing a lost cause.
But at least they’re getting rich doing it.
I am with Sancho (Sancho Panzer, Feb 11, 2024 9:14 AM).
The pleasure of reading the open forum is that it is like a party with a few conversations going on at once that you can flit between. The conversations evolve over time and we can all see them, but if a comment is posted in a reply it is taken out of the main gene pool. Even if the replies are merely indented rather than hidden (visible on request) they will remain up thread with the original comment rather than appearing at the living lower edge of the thread.
Further, often a the reply to a comment is more intriguing or informative than the original comment. (I occasionally pose questions about things – such as academic outcomes for boys in boys only schools vs co-ed schools – it is all but inevitable that the responses are more interesting than the original question.)
I miss the upticks. It is interesting to see how many people a comment resonated with enough for them to tick instead of immediately scrolling. Downticks are meaningless. I think I have only used the facility once or twice, and I think only for that Strap-on fellow, which was a pointless exercise because it is the sort of thing he wants.
If someone has an issue with something a commenter writes they should articulate it.
Well, that is my two cents worth.
Surveying the wreckage after The Attack of the Drama Queens, I’m a bit bemused.
For some reason, the blog suffered a dose of Leftist Identity Politics Gone Wild. It was weird.
Firstly, just like the ‘racist’ epithet used to avoid discussion when a black person is criticised, the ‘anti-Semitic’ trope appeared when a Jewish person was criticised for reasons unrelated to religion.
Then, even more bizzarely, the reverse tactic of identitarians – attacking an individual because of some immutable quality – reared its ugly head. In this case it was the Dutch. The invective ranged from describing a Dutch person as the offspring of a German and a pig (imagine if that was said about Jews!) to alluding to events where all the participants are now dead during WWII as a slur on me.
At this point, I wish to remind readers that I have repeatedly said that I absolutely 100% support Israel taking whatever measures are required to wipe out Hamas. No ifs or buts.
On the question of thumbs, I am not very invested one way or the other, but am disappointed that the special pleading of the perpetual victim seems to have succeeded without the subject having been discussed more widely as it was today.
Like others, I found them useful for deciding whether or not to click on links such as cartoons, memes and any other links in comments.
Perhaps they were gamed to some extent, but I simply don’t believe that there is someone who consistently, over weeks and months, day and night, sat there logging in and out and all the rest. However, there were some consistent patterns of both positive and negative reactions to certain posters making certain types of comments which apparently upset one or two sensitive souls who should probably stay away from places where debate is robust.
Finally, unlike some of the fragile petals around, I am not personally devastated by the crap that was posted by the New Identitarians. Nor does refusing to succumb to public displays of emotion which everyone is expected to hand-pat and treat as a sign of heightened sensibility mean that I don’t have those feelings or sympathise with them. It’s about self control and maintaining dignity and decorum in public.
A lass named Jane Austen wrote a book about it – worth a read. 🙂
If I was to guess … I’d say your cache was empty
In my time here I was a fairly happy and non-censorious commenter, moving from family and birdies to political matters with good humour much as others do, including newer commenters.
The current world situation makes me very, very suspicious re creeping anti-Semitism in what is looking like a 1930’s redux. People should read more about that, learn from history and call it out early wherever it appears.
Nothing more to say. Good luck.
Labor’s bid to force EVs on Australians will limit choice, cement our reliance on China and make our country a more expensive place to live
It’s time for Australians to get real about how the push towards electric vehicles will remove freedom of choice, create environmental hazards and increase costs for consumers, writes Nicolle Flint. SkyNews.com.au contributor
The Albanese Labor government’s claim that their ‘New Vehicle Efficiency Standard’ will result in “cleaner, cheaper to run cars” is a con, and it’s not just tradies, farmers, rural businesses and residents, grey nomads and 4WD-ers who will ultimately pay.
All Australian taxpayers will foot this bill.
If the worst-case policy is implemented on January 1, 2025, the Albanese Labor government’s rules will increase consumer costs, remove freedom of choice, force lifestyle changes, cement our reliance on China and create a range of new environmental hazards and safety concerns.
As big businesses like car manufacturers couldn’t seem to care less, it is up to taxpayers and voters to make their views clear to prevent Labor going down the same path as Democrat President Joe Biden, who is requiring smaller, less powerful engines in the short-term, and forcing electric vehicles on consumers in the longer-term.
This is one of the many issues that may lead to US President Donald Trump’s re-election, and there is an opportunity for Opposition Leader Peter Dutton here as well.
After all, there were just 1.1 million electric vehicles sold in America last year, of a total of 13.75 million light vehicles. This figure included 10.9 million light trucks, or utes as we call them, that will be the main casualties of the Albanese Labor government’s policy.
It’s worth reading the carefully researched submission ‘Driving Bad Policy’ by Steven G Bradbury, Distinguished Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, that outlines how damaging Biden’s policy is for Americans.
Bradbury lists eight current and future outcomes that may be attributed to Biden’s policy: stifling consumer choice at the dealership, increasing the purchase price of all new vehicles, destroying jobs in the U.S. auto industry, causing more deaths and serious injuries on America’s highways, worsening air quality and increasing global carbon emissions, requiring massive expenditures in electric charging infrastructure, straining America’s power grid and raising the price of electricity, and harming American national security.
So let’s get real about the cost and impact of this proposed policy in Australia.
If Labor requires car manufacturers to reduce the overall emissions of vehicles they import by 60 percent by the end of the decade, car companies will have to vastly reduce the number of utes, SUVs and 4WDs they offer for sale.
Given tradies, farmers, rural and regional businesses and residents, grey nomads and 4WD-ers will be reluctant to give up vehicles like Ford’s Everest and Ranger, Nissan’s Patrol and Pathfinder, Mitsubishi’s Triton and Toyota’s Landcruiser, Hilux and Prado for a range of practical, productivity and safety reasons, consumer demand for the more limited numbers of these vehicles will push prices up.
Vastly reducing new vehicle choice will encourage many people, whether due to preference or economic pressure, to hold onto their current vehicles which will decrease safety and increase emissions as the vehicles age.
This is before we even consider the cost of forcing people to purchase an electric vehicle.
Electric vehicles are not only more expensive upfront than regular cars, if their battery fails owners face a current replacement cost of between $12,420 and $35,397, hurting those on lower incomes most.
And who’s producing these batteries?
China, of course, with 76 per cent market share in 2022, a figure only expected to drop to 68 per cent by 2030 if other countries increase their production.
Then there’s the cost of public and private charging infrastructure, the cost of power, and how we will manage to meet the extra demand in a grid that barely manages to currently cope.
Taxpayers are also underwriting electric vehicle subsidies.
Thanks to President Biden, big business can access the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program (like Ford who recently took a $9.2 billion loan), taxpayers will also fund $7.5 billion for charging stations, and car buyers can claim up to $7,500 in electric vehicle tax credits.
The Albanese Labor government has incentives using taxpayers’ money like the Electric Car Discount worth thousands to individuals, Green Car loans for the purchase of new electric vehicles worth $20.5 million, a $500 million driving the nation fund, $40 million for a national EV charging network, and $20 billion for rewiring the nation.
And what about the huge productivity and safety cost for rural and regional businesses across the US (total land mass 9,833,517 sq km) and Australia (7,688,287 sq km) because electric vehicles have a very limited travel range, and the time needed to charge is significant.
What happens if your battery runs out and you’re stuck on the side of a remote road? Or there’s a bushfire, the power goes out and your car battery needs to charge?
This isn’t just a rural and regional issue as Sydney businesswoman, Sky Contributor and self-confessed reluctant electric vehicle owner, Gemma Tognini has regularly spoken and written about.
Then there are also significant safety concerns if a battery catches fire or explodes. Our fire fighters are warning about the increased hazard lithium batteries pose to the public and those tasked with putting out fires.
How to dispose of these batteries at the end of their life is also a concern, with the CSIRO stating “only 10 per cent of Australia’s lithium-ion battery waste was recycled in 2021, compared with 99 per cent of lead acid battery waste”.
This is another cost taxpayers may well end up funding as well.
Minister Chris Bowen this week said Labor’s policy is “a win for cost of living, a win for consumers, it’s a win for the environment…”.
In reality – you know, the place where Australians battling cost of living pressures live – this is yet another part of the green nightmare being imposed on hard-working taxpayers by Labor, big business and the Greens.
BTW, still waiting to see the lie re Putin on Poland.
this page .. 12 seconds
last page .. 45 seconds
what the hell is the server doing during these gaps ?
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/02/worth-a-read-from-rowan-atkinson.html
AI. Can’t believe your own eyes.
Sunday, 11 February 2024
This stuff is frighteningly good.
Analysis (Brown Nosing?)
Bowen has unfinished business as climate reform arrives
Chris Bowen’s signature Safeguard Mechanism has helped put the nation on a pathway to net zero by 2050 with an effective cap and trade scheme.
He provokes gallons of bile on anti-climate action social media channels, but Chris Bowen has overseen and delivered more climate policy wins than anyone over the past decade.
And that winning streak might run even longer if the most substantive reform he’s ushered in since becoming Climate Change and Energy Minister manages to stick.
Unlike Julia Gillard’s ill-fated 2011 emissions trading scheme, killed off a few years later by Tony Abbott, Bowen’s signature Safeguard Mechanism reform has helped put the nation on a pathway to net zero by 2050 by tackling heavy industrial, manufacturing and resources emissions with an effective cap and trade scheme.
More than 200 of the nation’s biggest emitting facilities – covering everything from coal mines to brick-making – will need to cut emissions every year by up to 5 per cent.
And if they can’t do it by changing their operations or adopting low-emissions technology, they’ll be required to buy carbon offsets from facilities that are beating their “baselines” or other sources, such as Australian Carbon Credit Units.
Unveiled in late 2021, Bowen took the reform to the last election, which delivered a broad mandate for climate action.
But without a clear Senate majority, Bowen was forced to negotiate with crossbenchers demanding a far more aggressive scheme.
While the revised scheme began on July 1, there is still much work for Bowen to do.
He’ll need to ensure polluters are meeting their targets, while ensuring survival of “trade-exposed” industries that compete with countries without carbon policies.
To address that, Bowen has begun the task of establishing a “carbon border adjustment mechanism”, which would aim to put importers on a level playing field with domestic producers subject to the safeguard mechanism.
This will be an important but challenging piece of work.
Always ambitious, Bowen is also pressing into riskier kitchen table-sensitive realms for the Albanese government, including via the introduction of a vehicle efficiency standard to spur greater uptake of electric vehicles.
Despite the wins of 2023, the next 12 months are very likely to keep Bowen in the headlines as he prepares Australians for a new emissions target to expand on the 2030 pledge to cut climate pollution by 43 per cent.
By early 2025, just as the next election ramps up, Bowen has committed to unveiling the 2035 target.
The Coalition will not make life easy for the Climate Minister to sell the electorate a version of the future where Australia rejects the need for tough targets.
Bowen is also the government figure whose political fate is most tightly bound to the resilience of the electricity market.
If the grid falters under the pressure of shifting away from fossil fuels to renewables, he’ll find himself in the maw.
His personal shift to become a more vocal supporter of gas as a crucial back-up to wind and solar reflects pragmatism about the challenges of the transition.
But it also puts him and Labor directly into conflict with the Greens and many teal independents demanding an end to the gas industry.
Australia’s biggest energy customers in North Asia will be watching closely.
Throughout Labor’s first 20 months in office, Bowen has had the backing of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Treasurer Jim Chalmers, and others in cabinet.
His next challenge will be to set Labor up for a battle against the Coalition, which is pushing hard for nuclear energy, while fending off demands from the Greens for greater ambition on climate action.
It will be a big year for Bowen.
Somebody mentioned the reply function as used at Michael Smith News.
If I am reading that site on my mobile much of the text is squeezed to the right with sometimes only one or two words per line. Pointless trying to read it.
MPs’ ‘stunning’ property portfolios fuel crossbench calls for negative gearing changes
More than 65 per cent of all federal parliamentarians own two or more properties, drawing a stark contrast with the lived experience of millions of voters who rent as key crossbenchers and the Greens push the Albanese government to put negative gearing changes back on the agenda.
All MPs and senators must declare their property holdings in their register of interests, which is publicly available.
In the House of Representatives, where MPs must declare property owned by themselves or their spouses, 103 of 151 federal MPs own two or more properties, and 88 have declared having at least one investment property. Only a small number of MPs are renters.
In the Senate, where the rules do not require the disclosure of property in a spouse’s name, 47 of the 76 senators own two or more properties, while 30 have declared at least one investment property.
As the Coalition last week seized on Labor’s broken promise on the stage 3 cuts to mount a campaign warning the government would turn its focus to targeting tax concessions for property investors, the Greens and influential Senate crossbenchers David Pocock and Jacqui Lambie urged the government to revisit the issue in light of the housing affordability crisis.
Pocock said parliamentarians owned a “stunning amount of property compared to the average Australian” and called for a “sensible debate” about changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts on investment properties.
The secret to generating long-term wealth? Staying married
We know that in Australia, some of the greatest ways to generate personal wealth are by earning a high income, owning property, developing a healthy investment portfolio, and staying on top of your superannuation contributions.
Another way, and one that we discuss a lot less, is your relationship status.
There’s something that feels distinctly taboo about saying that marriage is a key driver behind a person’s long-term financial success.
But sometimes the most honest conversations are the most uncomfortable, and it’s time we addressed the ’til death do us part-shaped elephant in the room (or rather, the economy).
‘These people are stealing for a day job’: Professional shoplifters target supermarket meat
A significant spike in meat theft from supermarkets has been linked to organised retail crime groups who are “swarming” shops.
Meat theft increased by 85 per cent between 2022 and 2023, according to data from retail crime intelligence platform Auror, which works with companies such as Coles, Bunnings and Woolworths.
There were more than 67,000 incidents of meat theft recorded on the platform nationally last year.
Pork was the most popular meat to steal, with thefts increasing by 35 per cent, followed by lamb at 31 per cent and beef at 15 per cent.
i think stfu is far more effective if posted in capitals
as in … [press caps lock] …STFU!
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/0/matt-cartoons-february-2024/
trying to keep the back door shut to prevent the escape of toxic waste from 2022
BTW, calli, it is a fair bet that your phantom (but singular) downticker is a regular at the Furniture Store.
Let me have a try Dover. Mole and someone, who I forget, elaborated a little on Poland’s interaction with Nazi Germany with respect to Czech.
Putin’s lie was one of omission by ignoring the Soviet’s double dealing with Hitler in carving up parts of Poland.
not shouting sancho … more of a dead-pan expression of what everybody thinks
as in … it is very plain to see that yours and JC’s antagonistic rubbish stopped things here would markedly improve
is your gibbering going to go on all day ?
Rooster’s concern trolling is off the planet. Even that is low quality.
Sal, the loss of perspective was the moment the conspiracy about ticks being gamed was invented
King’s lead hat put the poker in the fire
It will come, it will come, it will surely come
King’s lead hat was a mother to desire
It will come, it will come, it will surely come
When I read that article and the mention of a “Brilliant Life”, I thought of the Book “Night”.
According to Wikipedia “Night is a 1960 memoir by Elie Wiesel based on his Holocaust experiences with his father in the Nazi German concentration camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald in 1944–1945, toward the end of the Second World War in Europe. Wikipedia”.
It’s a harrowing read, see here for a pdf https://www.longtrailschool.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Elie-Wiesel-Night-FULL-TEXT.pdf
Of particular note is his speech on receiving the Nobel Prize and the importance of speeking out everytime you see injustice.
Eg”……And then I explain to him how naive we were, that the world
did know and remained silent. And that is why I swore never to be
silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and
humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor,
never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and
sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women are
persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views…”
and more besides.
Old Ozzie saw that puke about Bowen filth- oh Lord what blatant agitprop just as you’d expect from fairfax.
Oh man, they were really addicted to tick harvesting and still talking about it.
There was no problem with ticking, but there is a serious issue with cheating. At the end of the day, cheating causes the site to lose integrity and that’s the one thing that should never be lost because of tick harvesting. It was glaringly obvious too, with really dumb comments receiving huge dollops of votes. Not because of the value of the ridiculous comment, but because the individual was on the team.
lemme get this straight …
you two idiots p1ssing in all the corners every day
ranting incessantly about gamed ticks
inventing a scenarios where you’re Lizzie’s or Calli’s knight in shining armour
cryptic incessant gibber about patterns
making every single day into an annoying shit-talking fest because yr saving the forum
etc
isn’t concern trolling?
… you’re are a dead-set mong
The Bureau of Mythology and its allies are slowly backing away and blaming others for the spectacular failure of the summer forecast. Here’s the latest salvo:
Uh, huh.
But get this:
Don’t believe your lying eyes, believe us.
And finally, can anyone see a logic problem re long term predictions here?
Anyone know where I can get a few thousand tonnes of salt?
I predict EVs will take 30% of the domestic market at the most.
And Dover, I forgot, there was also no talk of the Molotov Pact, which wasn’t just a non aggression agreement, it was also an agreement on carving up countries.
I imagine the epicenter (parliament house) or the cesspit that is canbra, a bowen apparatchik briefing Jacob Greber to write a puff piece in the anti business daily.
And a fair share of those drivers will also keep an ICE vehicle.
Not a conspiracy theory MT. I demonstrated it a few times. The tick mechanics go off IP connecting address, which if you use a VPN allows you to change VPN server and multiply tick the same comment. There’re probably more direct ways of doing it also, but I haven’t been interested enough to try.
Ticks are like froth on beer, and cockroaches. They serve their purpose in the world. Worth about the same, and I can live without either if I really have to.
Obviously, you haven’t fact checked the limey’s random and continuous bilge and Trans evening rituals. Count the actual comments and the 90% would be inverted, Dillfred.
Such low quality.
I have thought that for a long time now. Dot commented on some of the vile stuff posted about the women here. The reaction from that quarter of the webs yesterday was like a scalded cat.
Busy with Mum today. She’s becoming frighteningly frail and it’s hard to watch. And, on the subject of watches, I bought her one of those smart watches that has a fall alert and panic button. She has been tinkering with it and toggled something off. Someone said to me that the stress levels involved with caring for the frail elderly are one of the highest. I believe them and kudos to all the Cats here who have done this before.
Matrix, I have no need of White Knights. They’re better off elsewhere.
Sky News should sacrifice their new weather girl into a volcano somewhere, to placate Gaia.
The world has blown past the Paris agreement’s 1.5C warming threshold – here’s what it all means (Sky, 1 Feb)
Bradlyn Oakes Sky News Australia Meteorologist
She’s an idiot. Go hug a tree, lady, and stop polluting Sky with your propaganda.
Crikey!
Venus and Mars are aligned!
I find myself in agreement with BoN at 11:44.
The VPN method is one of four I know of, along with the one mentioned by JC yesterday.
Like a fox focusing on an especially plump rabbit.
Albanese government has a ‘very firm focus’ on middle Australia (Sky, 11 Feb)
Yeah, after you took away that tax cut last year. Now you’re giving some of it back and expecting us to be grateful. Fortunately for you the MSM has less intellectual capacity than a gerbil, let alone a rabbit, so Mr Fox you’re sweet.
Just a note on the discussion re nested comments, ticks of approval/ disapproval, I’m going to leave things as is this week to see how the site performs. Next weekend I’m going to be trialing a new comments plugin for at least a week.
Very grateful, Dover.
Just imagine if your frail elder was also POTUS…
I’ve listened to about an hour of this live stream.
It’s still going.
Putin’s History of Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8puAFFV8Gc
His view is that Putin is dishonest & conflates many different issues over the last 1000 years to build his narrative.
Unseemly. I hope he didn’t swallow.
Re EV market penetration – my understanding is that a hefty percentage of EV sales in Australia comprise fleet sales to government agencies and corporations trying to get woke brownie points. Individuals spending their own money – not so much.
Note that an international hire car company announced last week that it is unloading thousands of EVs because it turns out that customers don’t want them.
An endless source of income for his family. He isn’t The Big Guy for nothing.
🙂
I think Putin means “cherry picker” in Russian.
It becomes very unrewarding & unsatisfying toward the end.
It is very akin to pulling a frail old Hereford cow out of a bog, only to have her continually run straight back in & get stuck.
The stress is compounded by not knowing how long the care will continue – with no idea of how to pace oneself – it could be 48 hrs, 48 days, or 48 weeks.
With round-the-clock care & attention required, often with all the effort and intention under the sun achieving zero improvement in patient comfort or mood.
One of my uncles in his last few weeks, slept in short bursts over 24 hrs, which nobody else could match. Auntie would be up all night moving him around on the bed desperately trying to find a comfortable position.
The whole family & some extras were there, or it would have been unbearable for her. As it was, she was almost at total exhaustion – on his last morning she was standing in the kitchen, collapsed face-first against the wall, saying repeatedly “I can’t do this any more”
He went a few hours later – I don’t believe him witnessing her exhaustion (if he indeed witnessed or registered it) had any bearing – however her guilt level will now be in the stratosphere for the rest of her life.
After the big hullabaloo from the left and the Washington swamp types about the all-powerful insidiousness of Russian “propaganda,” plus a lot of Hitler stuff, Tucker Carlson calmly went to Moscow, met Russian President Vladimir Putin and got a doozy of a taped two-hour, seven-minute interview, starting out with Putin’s half-hour recital of a thousand years of Russian history.
You listen to it, and all you can do is mull it afterward — it was so full of substance.
Old Ozzie – why do we think so much alike? Despite all the reflexive anti-Putin responses, it is refreshing to see someone has thoughtfully and critically examined what he had to say. Spot on.
The one family accusations of elder abuse don’t apply to.
The observation that Biden had approx. 20mins of dementia snaps over a two day period when speaking to the media while Putin (although he looked uncomfortable for the entire time) had a two hour session with Tucker won’t go away.
The advantage Putin had was he could have had Tucker detained/shot at any time.
In a multi-polar world the US has to project strength & competence.
Biden does not aid that.
Uh huh.
Distressed listings in the housing market during in January c/w December:
+ 16.3% in NSW
+ 17.8% in VIC
Yeah, I think that figures in the current situation rather significantly. The Biden clan really really don’t want their various well publicized grifts to be actioned upon, and the very best way for them to stay out of jail is to have Joe in place as their defender against the justice system, such as it is these days.
and got a doozy of a taped two-hour, seven-minute interview,
The threshold for doozy seems to have been lowered.
And where will the indigenous community be without the ubiquitous Land Cruiser? Won’t AnAl think of them?
No need…every question was pre-approved and presumably Putin’s people had final approval over the editing.
Sal at 12.11:
Uptick.
Putin did have an issue during the interview with his tremors, but they seem in reasonable control. Very minor compared to the White House walking corpse.
I previously mentioned an elderly chap hurling abuse at me. It has escalated, now he is threatening violence against me and my property. At present he is not near me but that will soon change. The abusive email account is >30. He has lost control. I can’t do anything about the threats of violence because that requires objective test and he couldn’t swat a fly. An objective test is that a reasonable person believes the threat is genuine and executable. That’s my understanding. Months ago I knew he was declining, now I realise he has rapidly declined.
Think about residential care staff. They have to simultaneously contend with many difficult elderly individuals. I am not surprised staffing shortfalls are common and I’m not confident increased pay solves that problem. There is a euphemism for the aggressive and difficult behavior dementia patients demonstrate, “agitation”. What agitates me is the frequent news articles about how terrible it is to sedate the elderly. The news articles never mention dementia associated agitation, paint a picture that sedation is done because it is an easy solution. Sometimes it is the only solution.
Lode, earlier:
Yes. A million times yes.
It’s like three or four subplots running through an episode of Seinfeld, for example, which doesn’t take away from the overall enjoyability factor.
Someone mentioned nested replies and so on, and referenced Smith’s blog (which I rarely look at) as a highpoint. I would argue that this august journal of record amasses so many comments because of its awesomeness that this type of comment function will push replies closer and closer to the page edge, regardless of device, so as to make it unreadable.
Instead of three or four replies in relation to a discussion, it wouldn’t be unknown for topics here to go into the hundreds.
There are a few things at play:-
1. Not wanting to give up the rivers of cash;
2. Not wanting relinquish the power and prestige;
3. A sudden, dawning realisation that, if Trump wins, it could get a bit hot.
I see Tim Blair has published something which I posted here yesterday (and no doubt many people believe).
The Dimocrats want to ditch Biden. The media boosters are all-in because they know deep down he is unelectable.
But the fly in the ointment is Dr Jill. The goat photo file must be epic.
Ditto.
No need…every question was pre-approved
I had wondered about that.
Wet Season activity (the NT News):
And:
Not that I have experienced this, but I would imagine that a large angry dog slavering in very close proximity to the exposed meat and two veg would induce a strong level of compliance.
Err, BJ.
There will be exemptions.
And the traditional First Nations mode of transport (a fully air-conditioned Cruiser) will be one of them.
Just as the Greens call for a lifetime limit on air travel, Adam Bandit’s trips to Climate Gab-Fests will be exempt.
Well I am having a good laugh at many posts today. All this talk of cheating and gaming upticks. Are you serious? Many times when I clicked an uptick the count went up by 2 or 3 sometimes more. I was not in control of this and do not believe I was the only one.
Shirley no one takes upticks with more than a grain of salt?
Get a life you wingers and controllers, go for a walk or visit the parts of your mind that still function.
And for added emphasis Putin had a picture of the Salisbury cathedral installed in Tucker’s room.
P.S. I gave myself 43 upticks for my last post.
Nambas, I experienced this also. My explanation is that, while recording a single “approve” from my device, the function was also updating the tally between page refreshes.
I don’t think it was recording multiples. That can be done using a series of VPNs or possibly a more sophisticated form of entry and coding beyond the ken of most commenters here.
I also noticed that. Did anyone notice it with downticks?
Nambas, I’m off to Vanuatu in a week or so. Not visiting Malekula though. 🙂
Ditto.
Looking forward to the new plug-in trial.
My view exactly.
the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (Amoc), a vast system of ocean currents that is a key component in global climate regulation.
But but but…..the biggest driver of climate is CO2. What’s happened?
It’s less of a vanity thing and more like a riddle to be solved. While the “I don’t give a stuff”s might sneer about what they believe to be an obsession, it’s the nuts and bolts of the thing that need to be understood.
Even more so when it has cause others so much obvious and unnecessary distress. And that distress was real, not to be shrugged off. I confess I did that at first with my silly downtick memes, but the whole thing got out of hand. In this instance the “never complain, never explain” rule does not apply.
The Poot is a graduate of a modern western history school? Who knew?
MEP: People are realising climate change is a MASSIVE LIE | EU scared of voters after farmers revolt
KD at 12:32
This is true.
If you had 259 comments spread over fifty posts over 15 years, nesting comments is fine.
If comments are running at 700-800 per day the compressing of sub-levels of nesting up against the right-hand margin renders it unreadable. Of course, you might limit the levels of nesting to one or two, but all that gives you is a mini OT, where it is often difficult to tell who is responding to what.
A simple courtesy is to simply preface your reply with a brief reference to the post you are responding to … “Lizzie at 1:42”.
Sinc’s blog had sequential comment numbers which I found useful in referencing a previous comment. If I type “calli #7354947” at the start of a reply, anyone wanting to refer back simply types “4947” into the “Find in page” box and it takes you straight there.
This version has it too, because I can see “comment-691998” in the search bar at the top of the page.
The Great COVID Cover-Up | Rand Paul
Ultra Vires (‘Beyond the Powers’)
The rise of the administrative state and inverse totalitarianism
There is nothing sinister in that, per se.
What it means is that you may have opened or refreshed the page at, say, 12:30.
Three people uptick the comment in question between 12:30 and 12:35. Your page doesn’t refresh every time someone else does something. So when you uptick it at 12:36, the page refreshes and the ticks move from 6 to 10.
Just the same as when you post something and 5-6 comments appear before yours. You action of posting and ticking updates your view of the blog page.
Many times when I clicked an uptick the count went up by 2 or 3 sometimes more. I was not in control of this and do not believe I was the only one.
That happens witha a page refresh and everything updates at once …. nuttin’ sinister ..!
I watched The Death of Stalin last night and, out of curiosity, thought to look for additional info about his daughter, Svetlana, who defected to the West and ended up in America.
Turns out she converted to Catholicism in 1982.
Only 51 000 new dwelling approvals in VIC in 2023.
The VIC govt requires 80 000 approvals per year to meet its decadal target.
Where will all the migrants live? (182 000 settled in VIC last year)
And where will all the builders come from? (not from the migrants, according to govt figures).
Crazy. Almost Candian level crazy.
Canadian
OK, thanks. I suspected that might be the case but good to have it confirmed.
Dr. John Campbell interview with John O’Looney of Milton Keynes Family Funeral Services
New disease
Sure.
Who are you going to believe? Them or your lying eyes? They might be able to fool the young but I have been around long enough to have seen a number of climatic cycles. Along with the facts I tell my grandkids to look at who profits particularly when they are supposed to pay to save something or other.
P
There is a way to get them back – without the abuse of the serial downtickers. Many sites run a plug in that allows the identity of the downticker as a hovercard or similar.
And that’s my last comment on the matter.
I assumed that was because other people upticked since my last refresh and the moment I ‘hammered the thumb’, and the new number was the then total of upticks.
This has been troubling me greatly lately.
We are likely to be the first Australian generation who bequeath a worse standard of living to our children and to our grandchildren in particular. It’s that third generation who will be the ones who pay the real cost for the foolishness of our political caste unless the problems that caste has created around energy, the economy/productivity and immigration can be righted before the end of this decade, preferably sooner.
Ha!
I see Sancho beat me to the explanation.
My comment, therefore, would be a long form of uptick.
And shatterzzz.
I can’t help feeling there was a grudging element to that long-form tick.
But that could just be me being a paranoid wanker tosser mong.
Because I am always right, I won’t argue about this,
BUT: It would seem that those who do not like ups and downs are many of the same people that attract many many downs.
Why am I not surprised?
Look what’s risen from the dead.
Based on the current blog performance, sans ticks makes things slower.
And I beat everyone at 12:43. *pats self on head*
Same for me Dover.
The 100 greatest classic films ever and where you can watch them right now: Veteran critic BRIAN VINER’S movies everyone should see at least once – and they don’t include Marvel, Shawshank Redemption or Titanic
The Mail’s Brian Viner ranks his top 100 movies in the only film guide you need
GIRL BOSS!!!
headline
News live: Coalition plan for young Australians to sacrifice super to buy houses will make housing crisis worse, industry says
Which industry you ask??
The superannuation industry says Coalition plans to get young Australians to sacrifice their super to buy a house will only make the housing crisis worse.
In other news vampires say pointy sticks make global warming worse and pedos say burning them at the stake will lead to a plague of frogs.
Sacrificing super to buy houses no solution to housing crisis, industry says
The superannuation industry says Coalition plans to get young Australians to sacrifice their super to buy a house will only make the housing crisis worse.
The comments follow an interview Coalition shadow treasurer Angus Taylor gave ABC Insiders on Sunday, where he appeared to double down on the proposal.
Super Members Council executive general manager of strategy Matt Linden says:
Demanding young Australians sacrifice their super to get a house is not the solution to housing affordability; it will only make matters worse. It leads to higher house prices, higher mortgages and far less super for the individual when they retire, which in turn puts significant further pressure on the age pension.
The devastating consequences of schemes like this, which undermine super’s preservation rules, is that it puts the cost burden of this generation’s retirement on to our children and grandchildren whose future taxes will have to pay far more for the pension.
There’s ample research that shows the super for a house scheme won’t make houses more affordable, won’t lead to new homeowners but instead will be incredibly harmful to individuals’ savings and [to] society at large.
We are likely to be the first Australian generation who bequeath a worse standard of living to our children and to our grandchildren in particular.
Well, I am not sure about that. As a result of post war economic growth, most boomer Australians are very much more well off than their parents. They will, in turn, bequeath their wealth to their offspring, the Xers, barring expenditure on age care.
The Xers have enjoyed the benefit of what was then – a fair education, including tertiary qualifications. Now in their 50s, they generally have a home to call their own. I assume the same process will ensue, with the Millennials eventually inheriting from their parents – & perhaps grandparents, given the increase in longevity.
Now this will differ according to means of individuals, but I believe the essentials are correct. What may alter this scenario cataclysmically is the outbreak of global warfare.
Get in losers, we’re all buying realistic sex dolls!
(Ironic too, if you know the movie well).
Dot
Don’t buy one now. Wait a few years for better versions. 🙂
You’re in a bubble my love.
The tax burden has been ratcheted up for a while at the State level and now it’s time to pay the piper Federally.
We’re going to be Living In The Seventies; albeit as pomgolians from the actual 1970s.
Groovy, man.
Our standards of living are declining precipitously, Vicki.
Our productivity is in reverse (at 2016 levels presently) as is the diversity and complexity of our economy (dropped about 35 places since 1995 by one well regarded index, now descending to moderately developed 3rd world country territory).
For the time being the prosperity of some will mask the decline, but the trends don’t lie and if they’re not reversed within two generations our decline will be quite apparent.
Many wage earners in the middle class are now being taxed at 50%.
That’s not far from banana republic stuff.
Damn, girl was fine until she started stimming and gave him the silent treatment.
Vicki
Feb 11, 2024 12:13 PM
After the big hullabaloo from the left and the Washington swamp types about the all-powerful insidiousness of Russian “propaganda,” plus a lot of Hitler stuff, Tucker Carlson calmly went to Moscow, met Russian President Vladimir Putin and got a doozy of a taped two-hour, seven-minute interview, starting out with Putin’s half-hour recital of a thousand years of Russian history.
You listen to it, and all you can do is mull it afterward — it was so full of substance.
Old Ozzie – why do we think so much alike? Despite all the reflexive anti-Putin responses, it is refreshing to see someone has thoughtfully and critically examined what he had to say. Spot on.
Vicki,
the other thing that surprises me is that when People criticise Russia & Putin, I ask them if they have been to Russia – have not had a Yes answer yet!
Tucker Carlson was surprised how European Mosow was.
I did the Volga Dreams Cruise from Moscow to St Petersburg in September 2017 and I was pleasantly surprised by how Vibrant, Young & Alive Moscow and St Petersburg were – I would liken it to the ethnic make up of the Northern Beaches – the towns we stopped at on the crusie were more of a traditional Russina Lifestye, but still European
As I have said previously we met both older people who pined for the Communist/Stalin days, but the Younger People were positive and entusiastic about there future and happy with Putin.
There are a number of Australians blogging on life in Russia
One – Cost Of Living Moscow Russia (Prices In 2024)
Australian In Belarus
1,052 views Jan 29, 2024 #russia #costofliving #pricesinrussia
Let’s see the prices in the one of the biggest supermarkets in Moscow. This is at Avia Park Shopping Mall which I believe is the largest mall in Europe. I show the prices of most groceries including, fruit, meat, vegetables, milk, chocolate, drinks and pretty much anything you need to buy.
He has a number of similar videos that give you a good insight to life in the current Russia
Unfortunately Volga Dreams is no more as I had intended to do the Moscow – Astrakhan River Cruise this year.
But https://www.justgorussia.com/us/quick_cruise_finder.html shows no cruises Moscow – Astrakhan – Moscow, only Moscow to St Petesburg
Will consider Trans Siberian
A worthy ton! The only other movies I’d want included are WALL-E and Patton. Be interested to hear from Wolfman what he thinks.
And see the stats on distressed property sales in NSW & VIC I posted earlier this morning. The middle class, which was built up in Menzies’ time, is being slowly squeezed out of existence.
Methinks the anti-nesting brigade protest too much. Blogs with it I find much easier to follow; those such as Jo Nova’s and Michael Smith’s. The critics thereof exaggerate the difficulties. Without nesting, responses, if finally made, are lost in a morass of other matters both consequential and in inconsequential.
There are some things I have valued reading here but I can well manage without as there is plenty else intelligent to read. I like Wattsupwiththat, Notrickszone and Notalotofpeople know that, not to mention subscribing to the UK Telegraph, The Australian and The Spectator (Australian paper version) and forays elsewhere, such as Quadrant.
The Author Name surprised me here!
The two-state solution is dead. Israel must achieve total victory
The fantasy of Palestinian statehood died on October 7
JOHN BOLTON
Foreign Secretary David Cameron recently suggested that the United Kingdom could recognise the state of “Palestine” before waiting for the conclusion of talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
He said that recognition “can’t come at the start of the process, but it doesn’t have to be the very end of the process”.
This is dangerous ground for the unwary, including both Cameron and the credulous Biden administration, which is also musing about recognising a nonexistent state.
Since the first Oslo Accord, if not before, it has been bedrock peace-process doctrine that both Israel and the Palestinians must agree to any “two-state solution”.
Moreover, Israel is responding to a terrorist attack comparable to al Qaeda’s 9-11 attack on America, while simultaneously menaced by Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons.
What kind of ally then puts a knife in Israel’s back?
Without agreement by the two most-concerned parties, there is no agreement at all.
As former US Secretary of State James Baker often said, “we can’t want peace more than the parties themselves.”
Recognising “statehood” in international affairs is far more consequential than recognising a state of mind. In both treaties and customary international law, statehood has critically important characteristics, including having a defined territory and population, a capital city, and being able to implement normal governmental functions.
There is no existing “Palestine” that meets any of these core criteria.
Pretending that the Palestinian Authority (or Hamas for that matter) qualifies does not make it so.
Indeed, wishing wistfully quite likely inhibits achieving the objectives statehood advocates supposedly want.
Imposing this key potential outcome of contentious negotiations almost certainly reduces Palestinian incentives to deal seriously with the Israeli government, which will in turn reduce Israeli interest in any deal.
However much the Foreign Office dislikes Israel or Netanyahu, there is no justification for abandoning a key premise of the international state system.
The origins of the other-worldly notion of recognising a Palestinian state before there is one stem directly from none other than Yasser Arafat.
Beginning in 1988-89 and continuing episodically thereafter, Arafat tried to have the Palestine Liberation Organisation admitted as a member of the United Nations and its specialised agencies.
Because all UN agency charters limit membership to “states,” Arafat believed that admission would confer state status on the PLO, thus constructing not “facts on the ground” in the Middle East, but in the corridors of the UN.
President George H. W. Bush strongly objected to this fantasy, threatening to withhold all American contributions to any UN component that admitted “Palestine,” a threat ultimately embodied in statutory law by overwhelming House and Senate votes.
This is of far more than just historical interest.
The threat worked until American resolve collapsed under Obama, allowing the Palestinian Authority to gain admittance to Unesco (from which Ronald Reagan had earlier withdrawn, with George W. Bush later returning).
Obama’s mistake led to President Trump’s decision to withdraw.
Biden rejoined.
Should Trump win in November, count on a third withdrawal in short order.
Obsessively imagining a Palestinian state has thus caused real damage to the United Nations, which doesn’t matter that much except to the very types of people in the Foreign Office and State Department who also advocate early recognition of Palestine.
Rishi Sunak walked back Cameron’s frolic, saying the remarks had been “over-interpreted”.
During Prime Minister’s Questions, however, he said Britain would recognise a Palestinian state when it was most conducive to the peace process, and stressed his commitment to a two-state solution.
Unfortunately for the Prime Minister, any prospect that Israel would agree, already close to nonexistent, died along with over 1,200 Israelis killed in Hamas’s barbaric October 7 attack.
If further proof were required, consider Biden’s embarrassing efforts to negotiate a second cease-fire and the release of remaining Israeli hostages brutally kidnapped by Hamas.
It was not Israel, but Hamas which effectively scuttled this gambit, by adding conditions guaranteed to provoke Israel’s rejection, which they did
Netanyahu made clear that Israel wants, as it should, “total victory” over Hamas.
In World War II, President Franklin Roosevelt insisted that Germany and Japan agree to unconditional surrender.
There is no reason Israel should not demand the same from Hamas.
We can then turn to other Middle Eastern threats facing Israel and the wider West, nearly all of which emanate from Iran.
As for people maintaining their living standard by inheriting property, that will be the site of the next government attack on the middle class in the name of protecting the entitlement/redistributive state.
If Biden is unfit to stand trial, he’s unfit to lead America
His mental decline can no longer be denied, even by his allies. The USA, and the West, deserves better
DOUGLAS MURRAY
Complaints about Joe Biden’s mental state are nothing new. As a senator he was capable of the most bizarre word-salads.
Claims of incoherence dogged his vice-presidency.
And in the run-up to the 2020 election Donald Trump repeatedly asserted that “Joe’s not really with us”.
Perhaps they overdid it.
Ahead of the 2020 election all Biden had to do was turn up to the right lectern on the debate stage and not forget his name for voters to be satisfied that Trump had been overstating things.
But if one thing can be said with certainty after the past week, it is that Biden has not got better in the past four years.
The Democrats have been so desperate to avoid a change of candidate in an election year that they willed the 81-year-old president on, always knowing that they may be one verbal or physical trip from disaster.
That disaster has now come in the form of special counsel Robert Hur’s report into Biden’s handling of classified documents.
The report concluded that any trial would not succeed; “Mr Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory”, while reasonable doubt could be inferred from his “diminished faculties in advancing age”.
In his interview with the counsel, Biden apparently could not remember when he was vice president, forgetting when his term of office began and when it ended. He did not remember “even within several years” when his son Beau died. He also, among other things, had a “hazy” memory of the Afghanistan debate.
The report landed like a thunderclap in Washington.
And a clearly stung president did what his advisers should have advised him to absolutely not do, which was to appear before the press.
Politics aside, it was a pitiful sight.
The president was clearly hurt – who would not be – by allegations of mental decline.
He was especially wounded by the allegations that he could not remember when his son had died, immediately changing the terms of that discussion and implying that the report said he had in some way forgotten his son.
White House aides must already been on tenterhooks.
After all, in the days prior to this press conference Biden had on two separate occasions suggested that he is communicating with the dead.
Last Sunday in Nevada he said he had spoken to President Mitterand about recent events. François Mitterand died in 1996.
On Wednesday he said at a campaign fundraiser in New York that the late German chancellor Helmut Kohl had talked to him about his concerns around Trump’s behaviour at the 2020 election. Kohl died in 2017.
Biden had also appeared to forget the name of Hamas, referring to them as “the opposition” before being prompted by a member of the press.
So on Thursday night when Biden left the lectern, was called back by the media and actually returned, White House aides and any Democrat voter must have winced as one.
Clearly not on his best form, Biden was wooed into the matter of discussing the Middle East, a subject which could confound the memory of someone half Biden’s age on top mental form.
Biden proceeded to talk about his negotiations with “the president of Mexico, Sisi”. President Sisi is of course the leader of Egypt, not of Mexico.
Republicans like Senator Rand Paul leapt on the moment.
Referring to a Trump campaign promise, Paul suggested Biden announce that we’re “Gonna build a wall with Gaza and make Mexico pay for it and boy are they gonna be confused”.
Republicans have had fun with Biden for years.
But this week the spectacle became very unfunny.
It was just sad. The sort of moment when a person’s loved ones should step in and gently say something.
Instead America is stuck with a question: if this is the president, who is running the show?
If there is it will be a threshold thing, Roger. it will be over a certain threshold where their voters won’t care and in fact applaud the action.
There are lots of accusations being made – and as usual, no proof offered.
‘Farms need fruit pickers’: Former inmate backs calls to put youth offenders to work
Don’t ask the farmers if they agree, don’t mention any protection farmers and their families may be provided if one of the prats goes berserk, don’t ask the prats if they are willing to work on the farms and will behave.
Put ’em to work? If they wanted to work the current employment market provides plenty of opportunities. The reason they are stealing is to avoid work.
Music can wreck a scene in a movie:
This is absolute proof of the fact, and a chuckle.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1756399660946587757
You’re in a bubble my love.
The tax burden has been ratcheted up for a while at the State level and now it’s time to pay the piper Federally.
Well, I got hammered on that one by Dot & others. And yes, I did not consider present and future federal punitive taxation. In particular, in view of moves in broke Victoria, we may expect the breakout of wealth & inheritance taxes across Oz.
How much that may diminish overall wealth, I don’t know.
Bolton is a little unrefined to not recognise the differences between Gaza and the West Bank.
A radical change to Gaza is needed. The West Bank and other Arab powers have been disincentivised to attack Israel after Israeli retaliation in Gaza. Israel can deafeat and annex their enemies one by one.
I think pragmatism will see the majority of Arabs accede to a real peace even if they hate Israel on paper.
Our productivity is in reverse (at 2016 levels presently) as is the diversity and complexity of our economy (dropped about 35 places since 1995 by one well regarded index, now descending to moderately developed 3rd world country territory).
Conceded. The massive drop in our global education rating must also herald a decline in other areas. I guess I just find it hard to grasp that we are falling like the proverbial stone when post war growth was so strong.
@john H.
Feb 11, 2024 3:04 PM
“There’s heaps of real farms…..”
This is Bar Stool conjecture and blow hardery. Same as sending Young Aborigional Offenders “Out Bush” to be set right by Aboriginal Elders. Shows absolutely no understanding of the situation.
As to Jordan Dittloff’s qualifications to opine ?
No lie of omission there. He mentions it a little further on not that it’s relevant to the claim that the Poles collaberated with the Germans in ’38.
John H.
Feb 11, 2024 3:04 PM
It can work very well.
One of our shearers used to get a kid from juvenile detention and bring him onto the shearing team.
They all followed the same patten.
1: Surly and dressed in street fashion acting tough.
2: Useless as tits on a bull, exhausted, and realising their “toughness” wasnt real at all.
3: Start to dress in work gear as its easier, start to get useful, people stop telling them to get out of the way/do it properly etc.
4: They get moderately useful on the board, help with penning up, and finally a shearer lets them have a crack.
5: They discover the skill and graft needed to shear a sheep is magnitudes harder than it looks.
6: They are a useful accepted part of the team.
Time taken – about 2 weeks.
Unfortunately most went back to their “peers” at the end, though we did have a few decide to make a career out of it.
Not sure how well it would work in the age of mobiles etc, and unfortunately a lot of teams aren’t all that well run now.
they work like this.
if you tick, the action calls an Ajax script function that chit-chats with the server to update the count +1 or -1 and then the server returns the latest counts to your browser
this is the number you see in your browser after your tick.
a cookie is kept on your local cache after ticking and this cookie contains the updated ticks you’ve made and on which post you ticked.
the server keeps account of who ticked what
when you refresh a page the server spews out everything it knows including the ticks up or down
it may be indexed by more one because other punters may have also ticked before you ticked and when the function runs the latest value is returned to your browser
you cant really screw with the number of ticks because the server keeps its own cookie so it knows who ticked what
code injection or variable manipulation in Dev Tools doesn’t work as far as I can tell
(if it did I would certainly have up-ticked somebody with about 100,000 of them)
use a vpn, edit or delete the cookie, or clearing your cache would do it
I spent a bit of time trying to understand the mechanism because I wanted to know if it was a trivial trick or if it was a time-wasting muck-around
looks to me like a time waster and my guess is that somebody is hopping around the planet with their VPN, closing the browser session, clearing cookies on exit, locating the post and clicking again.
while you luddites are all wondering and crafting scenarios or creating great tick-farms in your minds the most likely cause in my opinion,
is somebody outside it all who is messing with your heads … rather successfully I’d say
the next most likely are the two antagonists that moan so often, and who frequently get their perpetual terrorism disliked
He has no qualifications. You are correct, he has no understanding of the problem. Nor does Kennett. It is sadly surprising that people who might have some insight into these problems don’t receive media attention.
the other thing that surprises me is that when People criticise Russia & Putin, I ask them if they have been to Russia – have not had a Yes answer yet!
Yes, Ozzie – Russia & Israel – people have opinions, but you rarely find any who have been there.
I think I have mentioned that I was in Russia in 1990, during Glasnot & Perestroika & then on to Berlin a few days after it was reunified officially. It is amazing how transition to a market economy has improved the lifestyle of Russians. Recently I saw footage of an American tourist visiting a Russian shopping mall. Virtually indistinguishable from a western mall – same brands, horrible parking lots – everything. Footage of Russians in the streets of Moscow shows a very different Moscow to the one I saw in 1990. Yet our thinking about Russia seems very set in the cold way idiom.
the other thing that surprises me is that when People criticise Russia & Putin, I ask them if they have been to Russia – have not had a Yes answer yet!
Yes, Ozzie – Russia & Israel – people have opinions, but you rarely find any who have been there.
I think I have mentioned that I was in Russia in 1990, during Glasnot & Perestroika & then on to Berlin a few days after it was reunified officially. It is amazing how transition to a market economy has improved the lifestyle of Russians. Recently I saw footage of an American tourist visiting a Russian shopping mall. Virtually indistinguishable from a western mall – same brands, horrible parking lots – everything. Footage of Russians in the streets of Moscow shows a very different Moscow to the one I saw in 1990. Yet our thinking about Russia seems very set in the cold war idiom.
Mobile phone means they are not “out bush”, but only as far away as access to their phone.
In my recent experience, the mobile phone usually undoes any progress made during the day.
Definitely right on this one.
alwaysright
Feb 11, 2024 1:42 PM
Because I am always right, I won’t argue about this,
BUT: It would seem that those who do not like ups and downs are many of the same people that attract many many downs
That was always the most interesting part of the process.
Thanks Matrix. You have explained that well. I agree with most of your conclusions also.
I recall Dover having some fun once by giving himself a swag of upticks, so it can probably be overridden at the dashboard. Having never hosted a blog, this is just surmise on my part. It in no way implicates Dover or any other trustee in any hanky panky, just that it was demonstrated right here.
Like all tools, it can turn in the hand and wound, or be used unfairly by others. It’s one of the risks you take.
@thefrollickingmole
Feb 11, 2024 3:20 PM
As to Criminal rehabilitation? It can work and in the normal course of events, it might. But isnt a panacea.
Social Workers in the Prison System will suggest such alternatives if it helps give such folks direction.
Prison will leave some blokes with a determination to never “misbehave up” ever again , and walk as far away from the edge of the cliff as possible .. and go on to become far better Citizens than most Normies.
Others are determined to be scrotes as ever, or worse.
The younguns will smile and nod and do what ever gets them through the moment . With no inherent notion that their lot in Life can improve.
But THX for your observations.
We’ll see.
Some levity on a Sunday afternoon:
Perth Radio – Daily Question Competition, to win a CD. …….
Announcer – “What category question would you like.”
Caller – “Sport please.”
Announcer – “What’s the name of the race that stops this nation?”
Caller – “Aboriginal.”
The paranoia is strong in this lot.
Piers Akerman:
Please let this be 6PR.
This Headline – actual story stuff is unhinged..
Headline.
Donald Trump says he would encourage Russia to attack Nato allies who pay too little
On Saturday, Trump claimed that during an unspecified Nato meeting he told a fellow head of state that the US under his leadership would not defend any countries who were “delinquent”.
“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well, sir, if we don’t pay, and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’” Trump said, adding “I said, ‘You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent?’”
“No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.”
Grauniad. Trump owns their brains. They’re a lot of fun, like Lovecraft stories.
@ thefrollickingmole
Feb 11, 2024 3:44 PM
An easy gambit for Trump and in line with the “bread and circuses” populist push because it will never happen. Then Trump can take credit. Russia has no motive to extend the influence beyond the Donbass , to protect the Russian speaking inhabitants who have been harrassed since 2014.
So they wont.
And Trump can say … “winning”.
I have far less respect for the Jabbering Cadaver and his crew. The Whole lot of them are cynical beyond all understanding .
From this morning on the BOM. I think it’s a wee bit disingenuous of them to palm off the hype to the media. I listened to some of it on Sky from their mouths. Why mention climate change when you are supposed to be breifing the effects of the the crisis at hand unless you wan’t to cause alarm. The young wet behind the ears staffer pushed out for Kirraly wasn’t even a meteorologist, she was a hydrologist which probably would have been handy after Jasper…
As for the rest especially intensities there needs to be improvements, paths of Tropical Storms I give them a break as Coral Sea is notoriously erratic.
Seems to be too much crying wolf lately. Downside of that will be when you get a cyclone like Larry which intensified insanely fast and cut a swathe of destruction through Innisfail down to the Cassowary Coast.
The guys we used to have round the north like Peter Byrne and his 20 yr career on ch 9 after the BOM and his straight talking over hype are sadly missed.
Brother Maynard, bring up the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch!
Ok, yes, Antioch is in western Syria, not eastern. My bad.
Trumpthulu – why choose the lesser evil?
They are unhinged, every statement is the end of the world/pits of burning corpses/cats and dogs living together.
Yet somehow that didnt happen his first term.
@Bruce of Newcastle
Feb 11, 2024 3:56 PM
So sanity is prevailing in the Pentagon? Oh Happy Day and not before time.
If this happens we might see a more fruitful order emerge.
It wont be easy mind, but it isnt easy now.
Final part of the Akerman piece:
Sounds like Shamar Joseph is a Muesli. Was watching some Youtube clips on him. One was The Project ch 10. Told Walled Ali that he doesn’t drink, when he enquired about the celebrations the night before. Then another clip on his backstory mentioned that when he moved to Georgetown to have a crack at cricket he played for Muslim Brotherhood CC or something like that.
Grew up in a jungle logging village 200km down some river in the middle of nowhere Only got telephone and internet etc in 2018.. Practiced his bowling with lemons, limes, guavas and peaches early days.
As thinking people , and so I arrogate myself to be , though never happier to be proven wrong.
The Greyzone this morning?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr2xWZ0g2iY
Penny for them ?
Oh?
Which accusations?
The Tele:
Ahahahahaaaaaa.
Superb.
People interpreting events in ways that support their historical narrative is normal and defensible. Everyone always thinks the other side does it while their side never does.
Sorry Mark, I will not engage with you due to your views on the ME.
Israel is home to God’s people. They may’ve wandered away somewhat but they are still his people, and their enemies are evil. It is a tell that the atheist Left who reject God also have recently outed themselves as haters of Jews.
We are likely to be the first Australian generation who bequeath a worse standard of living to our children and to our grandchildren in particular.
I’ve buggered that prediction .. 3 of my 4 kids are millionaires .. dad lives in “houso” .. LOL!
I’m not film-y enough to say anything sensible about the critic’s film list, but he’s missed the point in ignoring some genre-defining pieces of epic entertainment like There’s Something About Mary, The Matrix, Brazil, Inside Man, The Usual Suspects, Being John Malkovich…
And, Drag Me To Hell. I can only assume he hasn’t seen it.
he canonisation of Get Up is a bit weird. I don’t think it’ll be listed in another decade, in the same way that Radiohead’s Kid A has dropped off the top one hundred albums.
It’s good entertainment, and fresh, but it’s not profound. You can’t backload extra gravity into the Legacy Of Slavery angle, especially not when it’s obvious that the film was having a lot of fun with the dusty old concept, with a cast peppered with many… many socially mobile African-Americans, athletic scholarship students, arty photographers, police chiefs, air marshalls.
Here’s an idea.
If you are in need of an aged care support worker, you shouldn’t have an American Staffy anymore.
Condell Park dog attack victim Lynda Watson’s family, friends rally to her side as she remains in ICU
https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/condell-park-dog-attack-victim-lynda-dowells-family-friends-rally-to-her-side-as-she-remains-in-icu/news-story/9c836893dffb12add6a8767b7d937325
The 100 greatest classic films ever
Shortage of westerns in the top ranks ……. sad …!
I think it’s a bit of a ‘tell’
there were way too many occasions where the two terrorists would appear here in unison and start their normal crap which naturally attracted down-ticks quickly.
too many times, the up-ticks would later catch up and then keep pace with the downs.
every time there was a new down then magically, it would later attract an corresponding up-tick
only JC and sancho’s up/down ticks ever do the ‘pacing’ thing
been going on for months
here’s the thing with their paranoid delusions
once they’ve invented a target and an ignoble cause they can excuse themselves of normal reasonable behavior and etiquette
doesn’t matter if it is true or not
… if they decide in their tiny little minds that x, y and z are cheating the ticks then surely it’s proper that they fight fire with fire
… save the forum by acting more bird-like that Bird himself … der … its for a noble cause
… reserve the right to unleash a never ending stream of invective toward certain posters under the flimsy pretense that there’s a masquerading sock-puppet game afoot
it is all fiction
they literally just make stuff up as a pretense
The dog was put down pronto.
One can only imagine the lack of exercise that dog had received.
There are rarely bad dogs.
It’s always the inconsiderate owners.
OldOzzie
Feb 11, 2024 2:49 PM
The Author Name surprised me here!
The two-state solution is dead. Israel must achieve total victory
The fantasy of Palestinian statehood died on October 7
JOHN BOLTON
163 uptix …………!
Matrix, you’re referring to two IDs. Don’t be so sure that means it is two different people.
trans at 3:20
very long-winded and convoluted champ
let me say this
i stumbled upon a method around christmas
it involves five keystrokes from go to whoa
including the subsequent duplicate tick
if the blog is refreshing quickly it takes 15-20 seconds
no vpn, no clearing history
i will not share it now in case dover reinstates ticks and it creates more havoc
but i am sure others have discovered it too
there is a post of mine early january simply saying “test” or something similar with 10-12 upticks and downticks
all done in 3-4 minnits
Bern – I can see why staffies might be popular in Condell Park. Rosie explained it last night.
@Bruce of Newcastle
Feb 11, 2024 4:24 PM
Thank you for your kindly reply. I am not arguing a case but merely putting forth perspectives of others for consideration.
I am not asking you to engage with me. Just pointing out that this counterpoint i being put out by people that have a voice for Good or Ill. It doesnt matter what I think.
But the arguments that are emerging will carry thier own weight. Ramifications far wider than “what I might think” will go on to have changes in people’s Lives.
Respect…
A lesson for our times.
Never refuse to accept a self-appointed God Oracle as the source of all truth, otherwise you’re a blogwrecker/wankermong and need to be removed from society.
Yeah righto, big dog.
so you are saying ticks can be gamed
but only two people do it
First there was Benny Boy, now there’s
Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson, & Joe Biden – Putin (Rap Song)
word
Hey, I still getting upticks and downticks! I think I entered a different temporal reality on Saturday morning.
It’s definitely happening! ;).
Vicki
Feb 11, 2024 3:37 PM
Some levity on a Sunday afternoon:
Perth Radio – Daily Question Competition, to win a CD. …….
This is why we need TICKS .. LOL!
Hey, I’m still getting upticks and downticks! I think I entered a different temporal reality on Saturday morning.
It’s definitely happening! ;).
Yesterday I was doing some laps of Centennial Park.
It’s a great place to observe dogs & their owners.
Example one, an American pitbull, owner was a fit bird, was using two hands, ie to shorten the lead when she was passing groups of people.
Exactly how one should.
Example two, looked like an Irish terrier, owner was a soy boy, on his phone & with his kid. When people were passing him he’d put his arm up (the one he was holding the lead with) which is the dumbest way to reduce the distance a dog can get from you.
It’s like people don’t care about the quality of life that a dog has.
Forgive my corrected post. Obviously the different reality still includes crappy grammar.
forget the grammar
this parallel universe blog
does it have capital letters
Another trip up into the high country today. Mrs spotted apples growing on the side of the road. We got many kg’s of what seems hybrid granny smiths with some other variety. I thought they’d be full of fruit fly larvae. Nup not one so far.
Couldn’t help singing “we’re all going to Bonnie Doon” at one stage. Bonnie Doon pub is definitely on the cards before we leave in a few weeks. Remember someone mentioning a bakery, was that Molesworth or Yarck.
Crikey, that blog refresh was about the slowest one this year.
Time for Sancho “Comical Ali” Panzer to pop up & tell us cheerfully that now we have no more downticks the blog is reloading in only 0.0025 seconds! 😏
i think someone who could build a computer in their shed from leftover vacuum cleaner parts and model a ford bits could prolly game ticks
Trans
You’re pretending to think too hard and you’re simply not that bright.
There was never any hard thinking involved in cheating ticks otherwise you wouldn’t have been able to cheat.
Here we go, not 24 hours have passed stating he wasn’t going avoid scrapes and now the fraud is back peddling conspiracies.
It’s more likely Driller and turtlehead are the same person than JC and Sanchez. And no one would believe that, which shows what a dishonest moron he is.
Both trans and the faux publican were in on it up to their filthy necks.
Kept peddling he owned a pub for 20 years and pushing lie after lie, blowharding like an exhaust pipe on a truck. But fiddling ticks? How dare you.
not quite 0.0025 seconds
dont be silly
it is definitely quicker flicking pages
and returning from links
reload time is reasonable
slightly better approaching 1000 comments i wud say
@Bruce of Newcastle
Feb 11, 2024 4:24 PM
To elaborate. This “Tell me What You think ” who cares about My beliefs. Line or reasoning is something I would have had my sorry backside kicked out of the Lecture Hall when I was studying Journalism at Curtain Uni …
“Israel is home to God’s people. ” As you say …but we need more justification..
Had I ventured an opinion of my own.
I have been pillioried for taking this line as if I was some kind of Trojan Horse.
Ask a question and there fore i am militating on behalf of such a question ..
Never answer the question .. just pile on the interrogatuear ..
Hope this Helps Mate
so
i am one of two tick fiddlers
or maybe the only one with two ids
also me
getting on here saying its all great since ticks were flicked
u need to think this thru champ
Actionable. Be wise to call your lawyer, get billed $2,000 just to see where you stand peddling that lie.
Wouldn’t want you to lose your house. Unlike a bet, when a court orders you to pay, welching is not an option.
Oh my lordy.
Here we go again.
You imbecile. You would require several days of good data to be able to figure if the change promotes a speedier connection or not because, you don’t know over a tiny period of time if this could be the slow period we experience. And you’re just repeating trans, senior google engineer’s earlier suggestion, that it hadn’t made a difference. You two geniuses would spend an hour debating what side is left and right and still fck it up. Go clean the mold.
People wonder why j’ism standards have fallen through the floor.
This is why – apparently this is a word taught at ‘Curtain’ Uni:
If true, of course.
Perhaps they’re affiliated with Deacon uni.
Indolent
It can’t be too long now before vigilante groups start taking the law into their own hands – and threatening police who refuse to do anything about the illegal immigrant and drug issues.
Read the book Mark. Sunday is a good day for it. I like the NIV and the ESV, and also Strong’s Concordance to get a feel for the Greek and Hebrew, and to check the translations for accuracy.
Smith’s site, which I now never visit, nested comments are awful to read on a phone.
Please no.
I like the way the open forum operates as it is.
As for vaccines, I’ve had five, time them for my long trips to Europe.
Didn’t want to be as sick as JC was while travelling.
Never had covid.