I think the punters are stirring, getting ansty. Normally letting politics of either persuasion slide by as we just get…
Open Thread – Mon 12 Feb 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 3 Oct 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 30 Sept 2024
- War, War or Jaw, Jaw? It depends.
- Open Thread – Weekend 28 Sept 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 26 Sept 2024
How quickly the pose of determined rectitude melted into that of a political streetwalker.
operation ‘Grim Beeper’
Operation ‘Grim Beeper’, brilliant planning and execution.
Great stuff from the past. Visuals and audio are great. —— F r. David – Words Don’t Come Easy
I am enjoying the fact that after years of people on the right saying Joe Biden is an addlepated gibbering aphasic dotard, only just now are the left – those masters of nuance, within the web of whose minds every single miniscule detail is captured for later assimilation, whose genius discernment and prognostication cannot be challenged – are only just now catching up to the rubes they dismiss as a reflex.
NOW they are talking about whether Dementia Joe might not be fit to be President.
Every time a normie is right they see it as blind luck – and to be credited to luck rather than the normie’s intelligence.
But when they are wrong they are wrong in a smart way, and glibly toss out an excuse as to why they were misled as being a symptom of being smart.
For all of their conceit about being right about things, more important than ‘right’ is that they be ‘smart’. It is in fact a very immature and personal impulse to cover a profound insecurity from which they are forever fearful of being found out. They are hardly at all perturbed by being wrong but will not be able to sleep if they are revealed to be stupid, sublimating their embarrassment into hatred for who caught them.
Best way to avoid it all is to keep step with the other ‘smart’ people, moving, acting, thinking as a herd.
Imagine trying to enforce that stupid law if Ukraine totally capitulates.
“You’re not giving money to Putin, you Putin puppet!”
I hope they really don’t fall for this right-wing nonsense until around October 2024.
TOP!
Top Of Page. There must be a name for that. A sort of homology where a word exhibits the characteristic it describes – like ‘short’ (a short word) or ‘polysyllabic’ (a word of more than one syllable), as opposed to ‘long’ and ‘monosyllabic’.
Mother Lode
A couple of aphorisms for you
The public servants mantra: worse than being wrong is being the only person who is wrong.
And to understand academics: Academics are very clever at being very stupid.
Ditto. I have heard the White House is pushing back on the narrative. Dr Jill will be holding white-knuckled onto her position.
Whatever the Dem’s plan was to hold onto the Presidency I do not think they are in total control of the agenda. Trump’s legal troubles have made him more popular and look increasingly shaky. Even the New York case of sexual assault has convinced people only that in NY the justice system is hopelessly politicised.
Thanks, Rafiki.
Both pretty much indisputable.
Seems the 251 green dreamtime is getting a bit expensive ..!
Grifter’s gotta grift … LOL!
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/bruce-pascoe-s-charity-has-almost-burnt-through-all-its-donations/ar-BB1i8Zki?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=b111b863c43548839c7d6e584393b6b5&ei=60
Poor old gaia is still trying to do summer, eveni though it’s a decade or so since southern Vicco had a summer’s day of 40C or more.
So the media activists — that is, everyone who graduates from J-school, for whom climate hysteria is their compulsory subject — are getting hysterical about Melbourne’s forecast of 37C today.
I’m down on the Surf Coast, which always gets a cooling sea breeze, but the only game in town is guessing how wrong the agitators will be today. Considering the major component of any BoM forecast these days is apocalyptic hope, I’m tipping hot dusty old Melbourne will be lucky to get to 33C — barely enough to keep BoM’s hellish fantasy about the earth’s climate alive.
The latest Ukraine “aid” bill, with a poison pill.
Rand Paul
@RandPaul
Republicans need to be aware that this bill, supported by Mitch McConnell and almost all of Senate GOP leadership, sets in motion the next hyper-partisan Trump impeachment (before he’s even elected!)
I Meme Therefore I Am
@ImMeme0
Unfortunately, the list is growing with these nutjobs!
I know who the traitors are, and they’re not Donald Trump or Tucker Carlson.
Mitch McConnell and Senate RINOs Help Pass Ukraine Funding Package that Includes Language for Automatic Impeachment if Trump Terminates Funding for Ukraine War!
Uh oh
Another troon shoots up a mega church.
Calm down Indolent
It’s unenforceable, unconstitutional nonsense.
Trump isn’t against helping Ukraine.
He’s against the European NATO partners not pulling their weight and the stubbornness of Putin & Zelensky to negotiate at all.
The evenings should ban posts of words until Tom’s cartoon time.
Only ticks allowed. The trash posted after 6pm does not deserve a platform.
How green was my valley.
I was was reading up on Israel’s (Raphael systems’) ‘Trophy’ anti-missile/RPG defences yesterday and learnt all about Explosively formed penetrators.
Seems one of those set up with many projectiles (MEFP) might do the trick with drones.
Bit like a reloadable claymore.
I suppose we must wait until Karine Jean-Pierre (pron: Cringin’ Pierre) faces the press and says it is very sad that those praying persons in a church who prayed, praying, in a church…the loss of those people in a church praying for this administration is a loss.
Female to male trans. Couldn’t handle the T!
Testosterone: THE HORMONE OF THE GODS!!!
Tom
TheirABC is getting in on the act:
BTW, does anyone else get the irrits when TheirABC uses the ‘here’s what you need to know’ phrase? It’s condescending and totalitarian.
It is not up to the woke kiddiewinks at TheirABC (or anyone else) to tell readers what they need to know. The Western notions of scientific inquiry, differences of opinion and independent thought seem to have completely passed them by.
‘My Word is My Bond’
Yeah, right.
Judith Sloan, The Spectator
‘Only the truly gullible believed all that guff that Albo spouted before the election about restoring integrity to government. You know the sort of rubbish messages like ‘My word is my bond’, ‘We promise to be a transparent government’, or ‘You can believe in our commitments’.
Of course, we have heard it all before. Recall Julia Gillard banging on about sunlight being the best disinfectant for good government. She pledged unequivocally not to introduce a carbon tax by a government she might lead. (Didn’t you just love the Labor apologists declaring that she hadn’t really said that, that it was qualified, that it was taken out of context? None of these assertions was true, but I guess it was worth a try.)
It’s absolutely clear that Albo and his side-kick Jimbo never had any intention of implementing the Stage 3 tax cuts. As John Roskam of the IPA notes, Albo wasn’t even apologetic when announcing the ditching of Stage 3 and offering up alternative tax cuts that would potentially hoover up many more votes for Labor.
The very idea that the rich should pay a little bit less under Stage 3, even though they pretty much pay all the tax, never sat well with a political economics graduate whose hero remains rabid, left-winger Professor Ted Wheelwright.
As for the Treasurer, I actually now think of Jimbo simply as a grasping, ambitious politician; he can’t be taken seriously as an economic policy maker. He is being supported in his endeavours by the increasingly politicised Treasury which churns out confected analysis to back up whatever Jimbo decides.
Notwithstanding over one hundred assurances on the part of Albo and Jimbo that the Stage 3 tax cuts would be implemented in full, it was clearly the case that the pair always intended to ‘redesign’ the cuts, the verb preferred by Treasury.
The word is that Jimbo had wanted to move earlier, perhaps as part of last year’s Budget. But it was the Dunkley polling that really put the wind up Albo and convinced him to break his solemn pledge – pause for laughter here.’
Part 2
‘Looking through the ‘independent’ analysis undertaken by Treasury – independent, my arse – to back up the redesign, it is obvious that several months of work had gone into assessing the effects of the reworked tax cuts relative to the legislated ones.
There are two important points that need to be made about this piece of work by Treasury. The first is that normative statements about what is fairer and what is less fair are territory that public servants should not traverse. It’s OK to outline the distributional impact of changes on different income deciles, but it’s up to politicians to interpret the findings.
The second point is that Treasury’s short paper includes what economists call ‘behavioural responses’. It has always been the practice – and I stress always – of Treasury to refuse to include these second-round effects based on people changing their behaviour.
Policy A costs a certain number of dollars – generally measured in billions of dollars these days – assuming that all things stay the same. If there are changes in behaviour because of Policy A – and that is often why Policy A has been introduced in the first place – this will only be accounted for down the track.
In the case of the redesigned tax cuts, however, the Treasury took the politically inspired decision to include the assumed labour supply response, emphasising in particular the impact of the drop in the tax rate from 19 per cent to 16 per cent for those earning between $18,201 and $45,000. These taxpyers are assumed to work more hours or take up new positions because of the lower tax rate, particularly secondary wage earners in households.
It’s very convenient to include this analysis because the potential for the redesigned tax cuts to be inflationary can be offset by this predicted supply effect.
So how will all this play out? Do people really care that Albo broke his promise to retain the Stage 3 tax cuts if they are going to see more money in their take-home pay as a result? Are lots of voters happy with the ‘soak the rich’ messaging of the government?
The obvious point that needs to be made is that if you don’t pay much tax, it’s not possible to grant you much of a tax cut. That’s a fact. Taxpayers who earn between $18,201 and $45,000 make up 30 per cent of all taxpayers but contribute just over 3 per cent of total income tax revenue. (By contrast, those earning above the top tax bracket make up around 4 per cent of all taxpayers and contribute over 35 per cent of all income tax revenue.)
So those low-income earners who are going to jump at the chance to work longer hours or take a new position could see maybe an extra 15 bucks in their weekly pay packet. Better than a kick in the guts, but not life-altering.
For those with mortgages, the more life-altering outcome would be to see interest rates come down. But bear in mind here, there are not going to be 13 cuts to the cash rate, matching the 13 increases to the cash rate that have occurred since 2022. A more normal cash rate is likely to be in the 3s.
It’s why a sustained drop in inflation is so important. The government is taking a risk in its actions that could potentially lead to a delay in the cash rate being cut. The same could be said of the profligate state governments. In all likelihood, the Reserve Bank will not move until it is convinced that inflation is heading towards its target range of two to three per cent per annum and will stay there.
Of course, a drop in inflation doesn’t mean that prices will go back to where they were before this largely government-induced bout of inflation started up. Grumpy voters will just have to suck up the higher prices for the many necessities of life – it’s one reason why it’s so important to avoid inflationary outbreaks in the first place.
If Albo were prepared to break his word on the Stage 3 tax cuts, it raises the issue of why we would believe anything he says. The government has no plan to alter negative gearing – sure. The government has no plan to ditch cash refunds for franking credits – sure. The government has no plan to alter the tax arrangements of trusts – sure. The list goes on.
It’s a case of watch this space and don’t believe anything a politician says. It reminds me of that old joke: When do you know politicians are lying? When their lips are moving.’
Catastrophic fire danger rating for the Wimmera and Mallee today.
Extreme is not what it used to be.
The doom predicting, panic merchants in our emergency services need to turn the knob to eleventy as a KPI.
A catastrophic outlook is a direct path hit from a Cat 4 cyclone, monster tornado or an imminent dam breach but not the chance of a fire occurring in countryside that has enjoyed abundant rain for the last two months.
The fuel load hasn’t cured sufficiently and there is no long period of elevated heat to kick off extreme temperatures. It’s only predicted to be in the mid to high thirties with Mildura likely to reach forty.
We have become Stockholm Syndrome captives of the climate change doom cult and their evangelists.
And speaking of Dimbo Chalmers, as reported yesterday via figures from the ABS & RBA, he has just presided over the steepest fall in real wages since 1982, picking up where Josh “I believe in small government” left off but adding to the downward momentum.
The horror. The unprecedented horror.
…Josh “I believe in small government” Frydenberg…that is.
The mayor of London is doing more to overturn climate silliness than anyone else.
Civil Disobedience: Activists Block ‘Every Single’ Climate Spy Camera in London Borough (12 Feb)
If there is one way to get the peasants to revolt it’s going around with masked thugs beating people up. Way to go mate, you’re discrediting the green fascists very successfully.
Disclose.tv
@disclosetv
NEW – Covid vaccine injured man to UK PM: “We’re silenced.”
Now THAT’S a Wall: Egypt Shows Biden How to Secure a Border
“The Great Reset” Is Here: Follow the Money. “Insane Lockdown” of the Global Economy, “The Green Agenda”
There is not a single amusing thing about the personal attacks that this dementing woman has launched against me over the years. If Dover cared to block my name from her comments I would be grateful as it would fix a lot. I never initiate any attacks so it wouldn’t affect me at all.
Is it any wonder that my husband finds this site a disgrace when Johanna has in the past had free rein here to firstly, doxx him, and then insult me, until Sinc had enough and put a stop to it by placing her in moderation. There is a deep history of her attacks here. Currently, my husband thinks she is an absolute disgrace, historically absent, and believes that the site responses after her anti-Semitic spray were insufficient. Unusually, he did read through that whole terrible thread. He knows and admires Tinta, btw. He is currently reading Beevoir on Russia in 1917-21 and is still blanching at the further history of pogroms against the Jews that arose there.
A smiley now from a Jew-baiting Johanna simply just won’t cut it. This entitled woman owes an apology to Cassie for her anti-Semitic Jew-baiting behaviour last Friday. I will never, ever, let her forget that until she apologises.
Nor is my husband any sort of ‘beta’, which is just another of her slurring memes.
AND block posts from 8:42am
We drove through Mildura on a January day some 25 years ago and stopped for lunch. It must have been nudging 45C. Nobody mentioned global warming.
Tristan Leavitt
@tristanleavitt
“Many of the top-secret and classified documents [recovered from Joe Biden] concerned Ukraine during the time frame when Hunter Biden acted as an intermediary between Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, and the vice president.“
An essential part of the new totalitarianism is the enforced belief that the internet was never invented and that the ABC, for example, is the only official source of information.
It’s not just the ABC — all media pretend they’re the only source of accurate information and pile against to anyone setting out to break stories — like Tucker Carlson.
Sharri Markson’s Tucker Carlson pile-on last week was pure professional jealousy.
Markson wrote a frigging book about officialdom’s attempt to cover up the origins of Kung Flu and had roadblocks put in her way at every turn.
Silly girl.
I hope she has reflected on her decision to attempt to smear Carlson using US security sources — before the Putin interview was even published.
Sadly, Markson, a Jew, is just another lefty who has been forced to question her tribal allegiance as a result of Australia’s avalanche of anti-semitism.
Like all lefties, she was forced to confront the left’s no-prisoners tribalism only after it affected her personally.
The traditional morning Hatfield/McCoy artillery exchange commences.
Poor old gaia is still trying to do summer, eveni though it’s a decade or so since southern Vicco had a summer’s day of 40C or more.
Summer’s almost run its race .. every weekend since early November I’ve cut the grass .. last Saturday morning it hadn’t grown enuf to warrant its weekly haircut .. sure sign Autumn is coming ………..
Some readers may remember a kerfuffle in the US when country singer Luke Combs had a big hit with a song called Fast Car, originally written and recorded by black artist Tracy Chapman decades earlier.
The wokerati went into meltdown. Combs had ‘culturally appropriated’ the song, he was ‘exploiting’ Chapman’s work, it was just like white artists using the work of old blues artists, he was ripping off a ‘woman of colour’ bla bla bla.
Chapman issued a statement clarifying that Combs had approached her seeking permission to record the song, it was granted, and she was receiving royalties. Not only that, her original version (which is magnificent) leapt up in the charts. There have been estimates that she earned around $500k all up, but who knows. The point is, it was a nice little earner, nothing underhand happened, good news all round. Except that none of the whiners and critics ever retracted a word. Surprise, surprise, surprise, as Gomer Pyle used to say.
I just learned via American Thinker that Chapman (who retired from performing 20 years ago) and Combs performed a duet of the song at the Grammys. There only seem to be short partial clips available, but it was superb – each sang their part in their own style, and the backing music was similarly adapted. The Grammys audience, unaccustomed to hearing genuine musicianship, went nuts.
Chapman is a reminder that talent alone is not enough to succeed in any field of human endeavour. She has enough to be a superstar. That voice! Those lyrics! The guitar!
But, apparently she is shy and does not want her private life to be exposed to all and sundry. The world of showbiz is not for her.
It’s not just about talent – character, circumstances and luck have to coincide. Always worth remembering that our heroes are not stand-alone icons.
Tucker Carlson on US-Russia After Putin Interview | Ukraine War | World Government Summit
This is the full Tucker interview in Dubai.
LIVE: Tucker Carlson, Takes Part in World Government Summit at What’s Next for Storytelling?
Like anyone else, Calli currently it seems, I am free to enter or depart this site at will at my own choosing. I regret if I was harsh to Calli when others deserved it far more, so I apologize for singling her out. Having Jewish relatives, as I do, and she does, I guess I thought she might be more condemnatory of that vile outrage at 7.04 Friday on this site. In the context of that appalling early morning spray, a response as a ‘genial bystander’ just didn’t cut it for me as a response, but Calli was probably a poor choice for my ire.
In and out, that’s the nature of this site and I will avail myself of that feature when I feel the site is too sour to be enjoyable. And I am often busy, so absense is not necessarily saying any more than that. Johanna certainly absents herself often for days or even weeks after one of her major sprays of hatred towards me and then walzes back in with an airy and inappropriate insoucience. One of my doubts about enjoying this site is that one never knows when at any time the site’s dominatrix will discend to create havoc and ill-will here, mostly against me but also against more than several others. So I leave for a while. If too many people think that, then the site dissolves.
Hatfield / McCoy.
Definite uptick.
Or an alternative would be Groundhog Day.
Yep, Hatfield/McCoy.
+1000 thumbs up.
Bourne1879 Avatar
Bourne1879
Feb 13, 2024 9:19 AM
Don’t you dare mentioning that evil, hateful word!
Honestly, only Dover can say how many visitors come each session and how many do comment.
Missing a couple surely will not cause the blog’s demise, will it?
Get a grip people, whoever you are.
The world does not revolve around you no matter how much you wish it would.
@Indolent
Feb 13, 2024 8:54 AM
I never pretended to be particularly clever. Infact I am a lazy bugger as well.
Full props !! To you. I had found most of the information you laid out for us from other sources but you hit us up with all the hot takes.
I thank you most kindly for having done that mileage.
~tips me lid…
The posters on this site have many deficiencies.
The ability to invent creative nick-names to circumvent such restrictions is not one of them.
FFS, for a site which claims to be “free-wheelin’ libertarian” there is an awful lot of demands to prevent commenters speaking each others names.
Just scroll.
Lizzie in a nutshell.
Any chance you will put that to the test?
Thought not. 🙂
Campbells Vs. The MacDonalds
Douglases Vs. The Stewarts
The warring clans (especially the Chieftans) fail to realize that they mess up the blog for everyone else.
I will refrain from pointing out how childishly stupid they appear.
STFU children!
or
Carers, please block the patients access.
Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling – keep that mouse a’scrolling……
Nonsense. You are being part of the problem generating a meme of endless conflict, none of it initiated by me, although correctional responses have definitely been necessary. If Johanna would just apologise to Cassie and leave me alone, then none of this would be necessary. Even if she doesn’t apologise, she can live with what that means, and I won’t comment further on this matter unless she does. I have said what I consider necessary. I don’t want to continue it and be drawn back in here when I have other things on my mind right now.
Rawbyte!
No scrutiny of Labor’s workplace laws
David Marin-Guzman, Patrick Durkin and Euan Black
The Albanese government failed to consult its top productivity adviser over the effect of controversial workplace laws, including the right to disconnect, which businesses from Airtasker to Woodside warn unnecessarily complicate how people work.
The Productivity Commission’s absence and the lack of a regulatory impact statement about the right to disconnect changes add to fears the laws, including almost 100 amendments, were rushed through parliament.
Labor’s third tranche of workplace changes in 14 months officially passed parliament on Monday, as the Coalition vowed to roll back the newly created right for employees to disconnect and other measures.
Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry chief executive Andrew McKellar warned the bill was “a pretty unambiguous assault on the scope of independent contracting” and that the right to disconnect showed that “common sense has left the room”.
“It’s absolutely the dance of the sugar plum fairies [the right to disconnect]. I mean common sense has left the room at this point,” The Australian Financial Review’s Workforce Summit. “If we can’t do that through a sensible discussion between employer and employee, then really I think all hope is lost.”
He said he was disappointed but not surprised the Productivity Commission was not consulted on the latest workplace laws despite ACCI pushing the government to do so last year.
“We said this is a perfectly good issue that should be right within the remit of the Productivity Commission. That’s what it’s there for. It’s a government agency that has precisely this function.”
The Albanese government conducted an impact statement on the Closing Loopholes No 2 Bill, with government changes, but not for the crossbench’s slew of amendments or the Greens’ right to disconnect, which were only made public less than 24 hours before they passed the Senate.
Disconnect rules ‘seem crazy’
While Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke consulted business and unions extensively over the IR laws, including before the bill was drafted, businesses complain the right to disconnect was not subject to any public scrutiny.
That right will allow workers to ignore bosses’ and clients’ emails, calls and messages after hours, where reasonable, and seek orders against employers to enforce the right.
In the flurry of amendments moved last week, the government failed to pass a last-minute change to remove criminal penalties for breaching the orders and will be forced to bring the measure as a separate bill this week.
Airtasker founder Tim Fung said that common sense needed to prevail around the right to disconnect.
“The principles are more important than the rules,” he told the Summit.
“It seems crazy to say, at 5.01[pm], don’t ever contact me on Slack, but you can SMS me, but three times a week, and only for these kinds of issues. It’s just gonna get more and more complex than a commonsense kind of discussion.”
In response to questions about the changes, the chairman of the Productivity Commission Danielle Wood revealed it was never consulted over the changes, and it was a matter for the government what work it directed to the commission.
“We have to be asked by the government to weigh in on a particular topic [and our] silence is just we haven’t been asked,” Ms Wood told the Summit.
“IR is an important lever. Flexibility does matter for productivity and the capacity for businesses to expand and invest and move resources around while recognising minimum standards are important,” she said.
“If we are going to move away from flexibility, there needs to be a very strong policy rationale for doing so. We haven’t been asked to look at the specific new [IR] changes.”
Challenges across time zones
In 2022, unions attacked the Productivity Commission after it warned that Labor’s multi-employer bargaining laws – passed later that year – could lead to more strikes, cascading wage pressures, reduced productivity and increased prices.
Woodside’s human resources head, Julie Fallon, warned a right to disconnect could cause challenges for companies working across multiple time zones – although she welcomed the decision not to impose fines on employers for contacting employees outside normal working hours.
“If sending someone emails out of their working hours isn’t allowed, then that would be a real challenge,” Ms Fallon said.
“Given that we are a global organisation, with times that span between Houston and Perth, there are literally no working hour overlaps.
“[So] I’m really glad that, as I understand it, what went through [parliament] will enable [people] to send an email, or more importantly, one of my people in Houston can send an email to someone in Perth, and they’re not going to get a fine for it.”
‘Narrative pushed by unions’
Mr McKellar said the bill’s casual conversion, conditions for gig workers and sham contracting laws came from a sustained union campaign to create an impression there were a lot of insecure jobs and underpaid jobs.
“That’s why areas like casual employment were under attack; independent contracting, under attack; owner-drivers in the road transport sector, under attack,” he said.
“This all comes from a narrative that was pushed very heavily by the union movement in the lead up prior to the 2022 federal election.”
But Minister for Skills and Training Brendan O’Connor told the Summit that the government’s broad package of industrial relations reforms was intended to close loopholes that had allowed some businesses to avoid complying with minimum employment standards.
“Most businesses and employers do very much the right thing by their workforce, and most of them are connected to awards and enterprise agreements,” Mr O’Connor said.
“But, of course, in some ways because of the disruption of technology, because we now sell labour over a platform, for a variety of reasons, there has been a capacity to subvert employment standards in this country for some workers, and in many respects that legislation is addressing that problem.”
UberEats managing director Bec Nyst, who had modelled up to 85 per cent price rises for deliveries if Labor’s original gig laws passed, said Mr Burke’s changes in response to consultation had been “really positive” and had moved away from recreating something close to employment.
“The act now regulates gig workers as independent contractors working flexibly … and we think that’s a real step forward, and we think will make for a sustainable industry,” she said.
“But I will say … until we see the exact content of that [Fair Work Commission minimum standards] order, it remains to be seen the exact impact.”
Another man’s life and career destroyed by “believe all women”.
Rawbyte!
Haha
Ya think?
It’s the kind of ‘apology’ that is issued when it is claimed that somebody ‘misspoke.’ It’s bullshit, fueled by the realisation that calling calli, and then everybody else here except her and Cassie ‘cowards’ was a massive blunder. A blunder that came from a sense of superiority and righteousness.
Keep digging, Lizzie. The ‘scholar in me’ (wow!) surely insists that you do no less. 🙂
Victoria the biggest winner from stamp duty bracket creep
Campbell Kwan – Commercial property reporter
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan says she will not budge and consider introducing stamp duty reforms despite new findings that the state’s home buyers are being hit hardest by a form of property tax bracket creep.
The proportion of Melbourne home buyers paying Victoria’s highest rates of stamp duty has risen from 6 per cent to 43 per cent since the introduction of the current stamp duty schedule in 2008, according to real estate insights firm PropTrack research.
“In terms of applying [stamp duty changes] to the residential sector, that is not before the government through this budget process,” Ms Allan said on Monday.
The state government was instead focused on expanding housing supply as a fix to the housing affordability crisis, she said.
The findings are the latest piece of evidence against a tax that economists and property experts say holds back the economy and acts as a barrier to home-buying.
The Victorian government has been the biggest beneficiary nationally of bracket creep as the state’s stamp duty as a percentage of sale price on a Melbourne median-priced home had risen to become the highest nationally, more than doubling from 2 per cent to 5.4 per cent since the 1980s, PropTrack senior economist Angus Moore said.
“Victoria is the highest-taxing jurisdiction for stamp duty,” he said.
South Australia’s capital came next. Stamp duty as a percentage of sale price on a median-priced home in Adelaide doubled from 2.5 per cent to 4.6 per cent during that same period.
Stamp duty for Sydney’s median-priced homes increased at a slightly slower rate, from 2 per cent to 4 per cent, partly because the then Coalition government in NSW indexed stamp duty brackets to inflation in 2019.
Victoria was the worst offender, as its highest “non-premium” stamp duty bracket has remained at $960,000 since its introduction in 2018 despite Melbourne housing prices growing by over 450 per cent in the past 30 years.
If the Victorian government had indexed its stamp duty schedule to housing price growth, which would increase the top bracket threshold from $960,000 to $2.02 million, the proportion of home buyers paying the top stamp duty rate would have only increased by 1 percentage point since 2008, Mr Moore said.
“If stamp duty is indexed to house prices, there isn’t that bracket creep,” he said. “The reason that we’ve seen the bracket creep in Melbourne, as well as other cities, is that it hasn’t kept pace with house prices.
That’s potentially thousands less in savings required to buy a home.”
State governments over-reliant on stamp duty
But indexing would still not fix how stamp duty impeded Australians from moving homes, changing jobs and having children, e61 Institute research manager Nick Garvin said.
“Stamp duty is one of the very few things that almost all economists agree on, which is that it’s a highly inefficient tax,” he said. “So if you put forward the prospect of reform to any typical economist, they tend to say, ‘Don’t worry about adjusting for bracket creep, just replace it with something else altogether’.”
State governments were unlikely to make stamp duty reforms due to their heavily reliance on its revenue to meet budget commitments, Mr Garvin said.
In 2021-22, stamp duty accounted for 29 per cent of Victoria’s total revenue, according to Australian Bureau of Statistics data.
Stamp duty accounted for about 30 per cent of the NSW government’s total revenue in the same period.
When broadening government revenue to all three levels of government, stamp duty still represented about 5.5 per cent of revenue, making Australia the second most reliant country on stamp duty among Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development countries.
Stamp duty accounts for 1.6 per cent of total government revenue, on average, across OECD countries.
“Australia is really unusual in how heavily we rely on stamp duty. Stamp duties account for such an enormous share of state government revenue, which makes it challenging to reform,” Mr Moore said.
Florence is going veewy veewy slowly…
Better days ahead for Florence after a very dark year (12 Feb)
My arithmetic is that 241 metres in two months is a blazingly fast 4 metres per day. Perhaps they could get in some Hamas guys, they seem remarkably quick tunnellers.
QED
Scroll wheel RSI.
I want a million dollars and aeroplane waiting for me on the tarmac.
Once again, I invite people to apply some scholarship to this.
Plenty summer these parts.
Thirty-sumthin days, twenty-sumthin nights. Been that way long as I kin remember, since Grand Final.
You eastern states types want some summer? Git yerself over to Californ-W-A. We is drownin’ in it.
Moral cowardice is always moral cowardice. Calling it out is not ‘mispeaking’ although applying it more to one than to some others is worth apologising about.
Real cowardice is doubling down and not apologising for outright ahistorical anti-Semitism.
Interesting MRI last night – as always deserted and seemingly late night pros like myself – shorts, no belt, velcro pockets, short sleve tops buttons, no metal, boat shoes – so, no need to change clothes & put on blue gown – into slab wearing clothes and shoes
Usual Lady not there but Young Italian MRI Operator who also did Canula for Contrast in last 10 mins
Best I have ever had done – left Resident Doctors way behind
Rather than back of hand, in usual Blood Test crook of arm – did not feel a thing
Good Day ahead – Son just rang and will pick me, and take me and his Ute for a run to Palm Beach Boathouse for Brunch, after me having dropped off youngest Grandson at School & Wife at Tennis
What did she day?
Tucker Carlson is one of the few on MSM that interviewed her on his program when her book came out.
Ugh. say not day.
I live in “houso” .. not only no a/c installed but no batts in the roof either just hot/cold air between the tiles and chipboard ceilings .. nor do I own a car ..
I bought a portable A/C .. it’s what you do instead of expecting everyone else to foot your bills .. subsidized rent & a roof over your head & still whinge-ing .. FFS!
https://www.msn.com/en-au/health/other/disability-pensioner-in-queensland-social-housing-without-air-conditioning-fears-a-fatal-heatwave/ar-BB1ibjcR?ocid=hpmsn&cvid=e0ffd8c213de4686912e2abc3527dd06&ei=13
Ponds Institute doesn’t like people choosing a car they want.
‘This can’t go on’: Calls to crack down on Australians buying huge cars (13 Feb)
I hope Dr Denniss doesn’t get run over by a big SUV while he’s trundling around in his tiny electric car. That would be terrible.
Fixed, O’boreman, you pompous twat.
His (Sofronoff’s) report found that while investigating the alleged rape of Brittany Hoggins, the police “performed their duties in absolute good faith”
Yet with zero evidence of any rape of Hoggins, there was still a court case. If Dumbgeld wasn’t such an irredeemable imbecile, he’d have shut his big stupid gob and slunk ignominiously off into well deserved obscurity, grateful that he wasn’t subject to any further censure, including legal action.
The decision of the ACT clown council to allow him to resign and not sack him was disgraceful enough.
Sure, that’s easy. Every European country, large or small, are kneeling to Islam, even though control of the government apparatus is held by the natives, and that includes military and police. We’re not seeing much bravery and intestinal fortitude there.
JC
Feb 13, 2024 10:02 AM
Once again, I invite people to apply some scholarship to this.
Sure, that’s easy.
Every European country, large or small, are kneeling to Islam, even though control of the government apparatus is held by the natives, and that includes military and police. We’re not seeing much bravery and intestinal fortitude there.
The real reason for Labour’s Rochdale muddle over Islamists
For his unscrupulousness Azhar Ali deserved to be disowned, but if George Galloway wins extremists will be overjoyed
CHARLES MOORE
Azhar Ali, the Labour candidate in this month’s Rochdale by-election, has apologised for remarks he made at a private local Labour meeting last autumn.
He now describes his own words as “deeply offensive, ignorant, and false”. He had said that, before the October 7 Hamas massacres, Israel “deliberately took the security off”, so that the massacres would give them “the green light to do whatever they bloody want” in Gaza. At first Labour kept him in post, now it has suspended him.
Why the initial hesitance? After all, Mr Ali was repeating a particularly repulsive current conspiracy theory, a re-confection of the old lie that Jews cunningly engineer their own persecution. People who say such things should not be a candidate for any respectable political party.
Labour faced two dilemmas, however. One, already reported, is that nominations are now closed, so Mr Ali’s name cannot be removed from the ballot paper. The party therefore wanted to make the best of a bad job and stave off victory by the extreme anti-Zionist and Workers Party of Britain candidate, George Galloway.
The other dilemma, unreported, helps explain why Louise Ellman, the brave Jewish ex-MP who returned to Labour after Jeremy Corbyn departed, stood by Mr Ali. It is because he does in fact, have a long-standing record of opposition to Islamist extremism, including supporting her against attacks.
The fact he said what he did is not proof that Mr Ali has joined the lunatic fringe. It is, unfortunately, evidence that in Rochdale Labour politics, it is not a fringe at all. By speaking as he did, he must have seen those anti-Semitic elements as powerful and wanted to advance his candidacy by placating them.
For this unscrupulousness, he deserves to be thrown out.
But it is also true that, if Galloway wins as a result, Rochdale’s all too numerous Islamist sympathisers will be overjoyed.
My thoughts exactly!
+1000
NOW they are talking about whether Dementia Joe might not be fit to be President.
https://imgflip.com/i/8flspj
Ah wanna applah sum scullaship, but ah ain’t got any larnin’.
A straightforward response isn’t bias. You asserted that Russia’s lower life expectancy might be due to corruption. Did you provide any evidence for this? No. I merely pointed out that this trend substantially reversed and improved under Putin’s leadership. Why did this occur? Well, it probably involved improvements in socio-economic conditions.
Yesterday was the Karens in WA state government banning ham and cheese sangas, today it’s the multihyphenated nannies in South Australia.
South Australia introduces new limits on iconic fairy bread at schools (13 Feb)
Banning hot chips is a dog act. And no soft drunks, that’s terrible! Kids will have to bring their own booze from home. Go to Maccas kids, and give the canteen the flick.
For an excellent summary of current vaccine uptake and why people no longer taking them check out Rebekah Barnett Substack.
She is the best journalist by far on Covid / Vax issues.
“The act now regulates gig workers as independent contractors working flexibly … and we think that’s a real step forward, and we think will make for a sustainable industry,” she said.
I still don’t get how an “independent” contractor can expect the same conditions as an employee .. Independent means your your own boss yet here we now have IR laws that make employees, financially, responsible for contractors sick leave, holiday, super & guaranteeing an hourly rate whether an hour is worked or not ..
End result, I’m supposing, is lotza ‘gig” economy jerbs disappearing plus the consumer paying higher costs for the “gig” service resulting in a lot less customers ……. loss, loss alround ………!
I don’t think it does ackchually.
F$%& off carnt.
Tell me what I can and cannot put in my kid’s/nephew’s lunch box?
WE pay for that school with OUR TAXES, you giant goat fellatin’ porcupine fondlin’ porpoise fuchers.
WE WILL DECIDE what food our kids eat, you lewd lascivious lyin’ llama lecherin’ losers.
In fact:
Please take all of my past, present and emerging soyience juice vaxxes and boosters. All at once. Then see if you grow wings and can fly by jumping off Mt Warning like a failed paraglider.
@Sancho Panzer
Feb 13, 2024 9:28 AM
“The ability to invent creative nick-names to circumvent …”
Then why might it be so much of a problem to use the name you parents gave you ?
When you shake a Man’s hand do you identify yourself with the name of some internet cartoon character ? Well you might .. Back in the early days of the Internet every one used thier real names … why wouldn’t we? Real Life is where we press the Flesh … or dont ..
If folks stop using their real names on the internet it just become a masque ball, a disaster of dehumanization , a place of prosperity for liars , bastards and blow hards that have never had to endure the Life Crisis of a Manly Handshake ..
I think I made that observation just before the entire computer mechanism didnt implode ….. 1999 … tick tick tick
HTH
Your kid CAN have a man in a skirt with no underwear and a massive hairy fat cock read them a story.
You kid WILL NOT eat fairy bread.
Fark off carnt ^$^&^*()(!!!! Fugg %#^%&)_!!! [BLEEEEEEEEP!]
Before the golden era of libertarian governance, there needs to be a brief interim period of vindictive and unpleasant nationalist governance.
An American goes into the Rolls Royce showroom.
Say buddy – how fast does this vee-hicle go?
Sir, this is the Rolls Silver Shadow – top speed 130mph.
I drive a Cadillac – she’ll do 140 without breaking a sweat. What’s the cube on this old lady?
On the Silver Shadow, sir? 6750cc.
Well, my Caddy is 8194cc. How about the legroom?
Around 33 inches on the Shadow, sir.
More like 42 inches on my Caddy. Seems like 3–0 to the USA.
No doubt, sir.
And hey, look, this doesn’t even have windscreen wipers!
(On the Silver Shadow, the wipers were hidden under a panel which retracted when you activated the wipers).
If sir would look here, on the dashboard, at that button with the raindrop logo?
Yup, I see it.
When you press that button, it stops raining.
Dot, any site that tolerates libertarians like you and JC ends up being labelled by the left establishment as “libertarian” in the same way anyone who opposes the left establishment must surely be a “conservative”.
The new left ruling class has the intellect of three-year-old girls who believe in fairy tales so everything must be dumbed down so they can understand it.
It was initiated by your unforgivable comment about me and mouldy dildoes. Don’t try to rewrite history, although we all know that it is your modus operandi.
Before and after that, you rabbited on and on about your personal life, and it was all lies, which, strangely enough, made you look good.
Sounds like the ‘deal’ Hamas is offering. Capitulate, and we’ll see.
I’m watching The Mouse That Roared on GEM just now. Much better value that reading the self obsessed ramblings of ‘the scholar in me.’ 😉
Why I am a “hate-filled conservative Nazi bigot”, apparently!
Kamala to WSJ yesterday, “I’m ready to serve.”
Just for Dot.
https://imgflip.com/i/8flyi1
You’ve finally outed yourself. I know who you are. We are coming!
Roger
Feb 13, 2024 10:40 AM
NOW they are talking about whether Dementia Joe might not be fit to be President.
If that happens, I think the next presidential candidates will reconsider their VPs.
Sigh!
@Dot
Feb 13, 2024 10:34 AM
i am mindful of the remarks that you made on my opinions.. Caustic much? I never came back with any confrontational repostes , certainly not the ones you are complaining about . But “fair play to you” .. you seem to be leveling out.
BTC at 76,632 AUD.
The proof is in the pudding.
Federal Court is live. Cane toad in the box.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8Rz-WcT6WU
moozleys are the most stupid offensive irredeemable inbred imbeciles to have existed in human history. They’re even more infuriating and inexcusable than collectivists, FFS.
Speaking of, wonderful to see that feeble ol’ marxist moron (BIRM) george galloway is still blighting this planet. I’d thought he was long dead. Unfortunately not, it seems.
@Dot
Feb 13, 2024 10:34 AM
You came across as opinionated and far more forthright than your perspective can sustain … But havent we all ? Once or twice
The best thing about being Wrong is the hope that one might be challenged by individuals with better knowledge… Hey you might still be wrong but at least you are better informed?
Peace
Someone should ask Willie Brown for a comment on that.
Kamala “Ready to Serve” Except on the Border (Daniel Greenfield, 12 Feb)
She has an interesting variety of rat cunning. When Joe assigned her to the border job, knowing it was a hospital pass, she vanished for a month. But she loves stuff like addressing NASA events and suchlike, where she puts out amazing word salads. A very strange lady.
Luke Combs Fast Car
I like a lot the new gen Country singers. Morgan Wallen packs out stadiums. You haven’t heard of him because right wing/redneck/trump voters are his audience.
@Bruce of Newcastle
“Rat cunning? ‘
Most of the rats I ever kept as friends and pets would be far less cunning and far more pragmatic…
The American Evangelical Christians (OK I am a Christian ) but this mob are terrifying.
Something about Booooomsday and Armagendon or some such … If that were going to have come down Jesus would have told me .
Concern trolling as a sockpuppet over false insinuations regarding narcissism (actually a form of gaslighting too).
What a sad existence.
More like Septimus than Bird, but Septimus isn’t smart enough to keep three sockpuppets on the go.
Lisa Wilkinson gorne. Warned over speech by Ch10 lawyers.
Interesting reading:
If possible, join or help organize a group for presenting employee problems to the management. See that the procedures adopted are as inconvenient as possible for the management, involving the presence of a large number of employees at each presentation, entailing more than one meeting for each grievance, bringing up problems which are largely imaginary, and so on.
From an old OSS sabotage manual from the CIA, link is now dead.
…and. here. We. GO!!!
LOL ken oath.
Thanks for the reminder JMH
Rooster, if you’re always giving the site owner lessons on how to use complex math models to provide you a safe space for low quality commentary, the least you could do is learn how to use the freaking link and quote boxes, you doofus. It’s been close to a decade now. Learn the basics.
BTC at 76,632 AUD
I might have to ask my son for a loan. He might be doing quite well out of that price.
Until the next roller coaster dip.
Take a number.
BTFD, phaggoats!
@ Dot ..
If Nothing else I am not any sock puppet ..
My pleasure, Barking Toad.
A certified hood classic, gents.
The Real Reason Models Keep Going To Dubai
Oh, it’s dark. Buckets of camel jizz, women agreeing to molest 13-year-old oil princes and being shat on by the sheikhs.
It is only a subset of evangelicals. Many evangelicals over there and here don’t succumb to the crazies of creationism and the prosperity gospel; although those themes are far bigger over there than here. I find it concerting that a recent Gallup Poll suggested very high numbers embracing creationism. Believe it or not I have a faint whiff of favour for intelligent design, which exists independently of creationism. I don’t regard evolution as a scientific theory but I believe evolution happened. It’s complicated, I’m not going to discuss that.
Notice how JC and Sancho are trying to point out how difficult it might be to sin bin people. The same two who clearly are happy the downticking function removed. Their concern for the smooth running of the blog is admirable.
If Dover can prevent unwanted blog members and remove them then I am pretty sure he can block somebody posting for a few days. Since JC is here morning through to late night that would be quite the deterrent.
Imagine how much less aggravation there would be if JC could not respond to Rotten and Sal and they could not respond to him.
Same could apply between Johanna and Lizzie.
Just throwing it out there whilst knowing JCs interests outweighs us mere mortals.
“lessons on how to use complex math models”
How primed for war is China?
Four risk signals:
1. The territorial disputes and other issues China is contesting are becoming less susceptible to compromise or peaceful resolution than they once were, making foreign policy a zero-sum game.
2. The military balance in Asia is shifting in ways that could make Beijing perilously optimistic about the outcome of war.
3. As China’s short-term military prospects improve, its long-term strategic and economic outlook is darkening—a combination that has often made revisionist powers more violent in the past.
4. Xi has turned China into a personalist dictatorship of the sort especially prone to disastrous miscalculations and costly wars.
Excerpted from an article in Foreign Policy magazine.
So all of you folks have your views… but will you adhere to them so robustly that you will put you real names to them ? If they are real views and you are real people where is the disconnect?
You hold out your hand to make a contract with a man…. so what are you but some fluttering shadow that can piss on about Politics … well you know the rest
Lambie goes off.
‘Absolutely nuts’: Jacqui Lambie blasts Labor following revelations about the Australian Defence Force’s troop and weaponry shortages (Sky, 13 Feb)
As mentioned there’s an article in the Tele today. I didn’t look at it as it was paywalled, but I doubt it says much we Cats don’t know. And as Lambie says the brass throw guys like BRS under buses, adopt the most stupid woke rubbish, then wonder why no one is joining up.
Also, China is stockpiling food and fuel.
Up to page 4 and the site is struggling. Very slow loading.
@john H.
Feb 13, 2024 11:29 AM
Why thank you kindly … and I might believe you are right or i might believe you are wrong and in this midst of all this controversy ..
I have a lot of Geology .. rocks dont forget .. but they just sit there …. In the Final Analysis .. hey just sit there and millions of year later … well not that they know .. humans make all sorts of contentions … But beven Right or Wrong it is missin the point .. Peace Brother
American Evangelicalism is a very broad church (from doctrinally conservative Presbyterians, Anglicans & Lutherans to TV preachers), so broad that it has long been mooted whether the term Evangelical now has any usefulness as a descriptor.
The proof is in the pudding.
Not so you failed Scholar. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
The phrase “the proof of the pudding is in the eating” means that the quality, efficacy, etc., of something can only be shown by putting it to its intended use1. The phrase originated as a reference to the fact that it was difficult to judge if the pudding was properly cooked until it was actually being eaten2. The word “proof” means test, i.e. procedure designed to establish the quality, efficacy, etc., of something1. The phrase is widely attributed to Cervantes in Don Quixote.
Best to assume Defence is run by a cabal of our enemies.
(h/t Robert Conquest)
Even if it isn’t literally so, that’s effectively what we’re up against.
The shiny bums who run the ADF aren’t soldiers, but government bureaucrats as prone to woke mirages as the rest of the public service and corporate Australia.
The only thing they all have in common is where they were “educated” — universities, where Marxist groupthink reigns supreme.
The corporates who run Australian business are so dumb they don’t understand the woke rubbish they’re being fed has a single purpose: to destroy the free market and replace it with a fascist system where socialist governments direct the economy and corporates do as they’re told.
About 15 minutes ago on MacroBusiness I glimpsed the introduction to an article(paywalled) arguing China is slipping into a deflationary spiral.
The USA and Russia are primed for war. Hasn’t worked out too well for them.
Xi is evil but not stupid and probably knows enough history to recognize that starting a war when the country is facing so many internal challenges is a big threat to his leadership. He is there because everyone else accepts his leadership. That can rapidly change.
Getting a lecture from a copypasta, good times, good times. I’m sure there’s something in that for all of us.
If only the dribbling copypasta moron understood the pun about “Proof of Work”.
She is dead wrong. Recruitment problems have existed for decades, Perun argues it existed even prior to WW2.
American Evangelicalism is a very broad church (from doctrinally conservative Presbyterians, Anglicans & Lutherans to TV preachers), so broad that it has long been mooted whether the term Evangelical now has any usefulness as a descriptor.
So much so that the Evangelical Lutheran Church is predominantly liberal theologically and the Lutheran Missouri Synod is Evangelical.
I think it was Francis Schaeffer who thought evangelical as a description had little meaning. He preferred Bible believing. Evan that description can be manipulated.
@john H.
Feb 13, 2024 11:29 AM
sorry to be a bit inchoerent .. i love rocks .. I understand rocks .. If Evolution ..or creatures just became the way they turned out to be .. it happened ..well best to look at the mirical that it did and rejoice that it happened.
Wanna know what ? We will never know why .. I prefer it like that..
If breath testing (0.08 alcohol) was required to access the blog.
Many many of our frequent posters would no longer post. Day or night.
*W.C. Fields does not approve of this post.
Good lord, and the rest. That was an exasperated comment made by me many years ago telling you to eff right off after years, even then, of harassment and attempted doxing, and now, years later, you ‘explain’ your never-ending extraordinary bile and constant harping at me, and now the disgracefuly anti-Semitic spray against Cassie – on what? on that? And still you say my life is not as I speak of it; you invent memes. As Cassie mildly said, battered as she was by your Jew-baiting spray on Friday, there is something seriously wrong with you, Johanna, you are a disgrace. She also said your comment belongs in the gutter. Not wrong. All of your vicious sprays belong there.
I don’t want to restrict anyone’s right to speak on this site, but by the heavens and good angels, I certainly will call out Johanna’s ongoing nonsense and request that people know the truth of it and ignore it.
No doubt there will be more of it while I am away.
Apologise to Cassie.
John – When I joined the AAR back then, the services were admired despite the rumble in the jungle just having finished (plus all the bra burning protests and whatnot). Now they aren’t. If I had the same decision today I certainly would not join up. The persecution of guys like BRS and Hastie makes it very plain that you can be thrown to the wolves for the slightest political advantage. Then add in all the revolting wokery and I am really not at all surprised how recruitment is in the cellar.
Not only here of course, the same applies in every country infected by woke.
Ohh! So you meant tomorrow!
Damn. Just when I thought I had more evidence of God’s existence.
If only Tsar Nicholas II had considered this before he mobilised Russia’s troops.
😀
I went through Kapooka in 1988. 12 weeks of old school badass military induction. Training, equipment, weaponry and mindset was exact same from Vietnam days. Early days brutal and clinging on. Then you start getting into it. Then near the end you were so physically and mentally fit. Hit me with your best shot Mofo!
I can’t see how you can turn a civvy dweeb into a soldier without that experience.
Yet that is what has been happening. 7 week recruits. Male and female in the same training platoons. We aren’t producing soldiers.
Dot
Feb 13, 2024 11:49 AM
Not a lecture at all. Just a statement of fact. You do like facts don’t you?
If you want to know what a church believes, read their confession of faith.
If you want to know what a church really believes, attend a service.
😀
There’s no notice this or that, rooster. It’s quite simple to sin bin people.
I’ve maintained I had zero problem with ticking. The problem was that low quality commenters like yourself were cheating the process. No form of cheating should be tolerated. Find a safe space and stay there. And learn the most basic functions before you’re offering advice mathematical models. Asshat.
There’s no notice this or that, rooster. It’s quite simple to sin bin people.
I’ve maintained I had zero problem with ticking. The problem was that low quality commenters like yourself were cheating the process. No form of cheating should be tolerated. Find a safe space and stay there. And learn the most basic functions before you’re offering advice on mathematical models. Asshat.
When the Fox, Miller Urey experiments were published so many argued the results were very persuasive for abiogenesis(origin of life). I thought that argument was a steaming pile of shite. While I respect the work of many working in the field I sometimes think they might be better off devoting their talents to problems that can be solved. Keep it as a “night science”, something to play with, an inevitable curiosity, but the available information is so scant developing proof is nigh impossible.
Don’t apologise about being incoherent. There are occasions when I enjoy being incoherent, especially when communicating with people who don’t know I’m being incoherent. Some aholes deserve my deliberate incoherency.
Sadly for me, this woman is a feature not a bug.
I don’t want to have to respond to her bile, but any spirited person would do so if they were hounded by it incessantly for years. But it does get totally wearying. If I come here and comment normally I can definitely count on it that sometime she’ll land a spray of abuse and invective on me. I have tried ignoring it but she prods till the level of lies and abuse really does require a rebuttal.
She gets off on that so unfortunately so do some here. The ‘Johanna and Lizzie’ pairing here is a part of that.
I cannot come in here and comment normally.
With features like Johanna, I do ask whether I need this site at all.
Oh, one thing though. Apologise to Cassie, you entitled anti-Semite.
Yes. Sinclair sin-binned Johanna.
I doubt if she’d get away with …
no. I won’t say it, but I do think it.
I need more emojis.
I heard Indig minister Linda Burney on the radio this morning, discusssing jobs for the dole program to replace another jobs for the dole, but it will be called something else because Liberals. Something like 15 hours work a week for money thing. Can;t see that being popular, doesn’t leave much time in the week for doing bugger all!
Whatever, another event in our moocher’s paradise
Why I mention this is because Linda doesn’t sound well at all, or have I only just noticed?
Is there something wrong with her?
(besides being a moocher queen)
Time consuming, would require constant moderation. DB and Adderall would become synonymous.
Of more relevance to your argument, Putin-Ukraine. Putin likes history and made one of the most stupid political decisions in this century. What a dumbass.
OK No more internet for you today Dot.
That being said, there’s a good argument to be made that Nicholas II kicked off the epochal disaster that was WWI with his general mobilisation order, after which events took on a life of their own.
Perhaps best left to Catallaxy After Dark.
Patience, Roger.
Our Doverlord is threatening to reintroduce blog interaction next weekend.
After the first few days, nobody bothers to turn up.
Some of us ARE using our real names.
I’m using not only my real name, but also my real occupation.
Oh really? From Warty Fartstrong.
Aristotle Onassis died in 1975 and his estate was gifted to a hospital, a charitable board and his one remaining child (daughter), a “nominal” amount was given to Jacquie Kennedy Onassis.
From a rather silly book, “The Plot to Seize Russia”:
Mmmm. Truthy.
Remember what Michael Malice said about the MSM: they use facts, but they don’t tell the truth.
Remember this from another site pumping the dysgenic fraudster up:
In 1973 he started to publish commodity price forecasts as a hobby and from 1983 it became paying due to its great success.
This is from a court case summary:
https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F3/12/401/528082/
There are claims stockpiles of weapons and munitions are so low, Australia wouldn’t last for more than one week of conflict.
Best to assume Defence is run by a cabal of our enemies.
(h/t Robert Conquest)
Even if it isn’t literally so, that’s effectively what we’re up against.
Absolutely, Roger.
I assume from some of the comments, that many have read Greg Sheridan’s blast in the Oz today. I continue to be shaken by the facts coming out about the state of Australia’s defence. It starts to put all our petty disputes with family and acquaintances – &, I might add, the disputes on this blog – into perspective.
And yet…we keep dribbling along in our daily obsession with property prices and Taylor Swift.
“What Trump said was stupid.”
You don’t understand the man, that’s the problem.
He’s a New Yorker from Queens.
And he’s “transactional”.
They say his supporters take him seriously but not literally, while his detractors take him literally but not seriously.
As a NYer, everything is either “the best ever” or “the worst ever”, there is no middle ground.
Being transactional, he will put you down while you compete with him, but then instantly change to supporting you when the competition stops – eg, Vivek Ramaswamy most recently, but also Putin and even Xi.
As he said in “The Art of the Deal” he’ll take an extreme position, then bargain down to something reasonable that he really wants, so that the other party can say they “won” concessions from him.
As per MAGA, he sees himself as an American first and foremost, and his job as President to put America first – that is what I would hope every national leader would do (put their own countries interests first).
Once he makes a deal, he’ll stick to it – including any punishments for you if you break the deal (eg the Taliban in Afghanistan).
All this is – or should be by now – well known.
I suggest you go back and refresh yourself on everything he’s said and done and you’ll find it all makes sense when you take into account the above descriptions/explanations.
The only reason I’m in and out of here at the moment, AlsoWrong, apparently ruining your day and that of others missing their ticking (I miss upticks too), is specifically to counter Johanna’s self-serving excuse-making about her general bile and anti-Semitic attacks and to seek an apology to Cassie. You may note I’m not making any attempt to join in other sorts of commentary. I think the point has now been made against the self-serving entitlement and dissembling she displays up above, which arrived exactly as anticipated.
As I said, there will be more of it, but I won’t be here to rebutt it.
Useful though to come in here until now to put the NO case for anti-Semitism.
Apologise to Cassie.
Calling 100% BS on that. Platinum trading for a swiss bank at that time would be done on LME. Any US trading would be done on NYMEX at that time not CFTC.
Why anyone would have to ‘prove’ assets held is also a mystery. Assuming the bank took platinum stocks as collateral it would be stored at an LME-registered warehouse with daily/weekly reports on stocks levels.
Pure BS.
Dot
Feb 13, 2024 12:27 PM
And off you go like a headless chicken at a complete tangent. Just because you got the phrase wrong.
Pathetic.
I wouldn’t say that. I would say he guessed wrong in light of poor advice. Very much like von Plehve in 1904, or the Argies in 1982. Or a certain Mr Hussein in 1990. Similar political equations for all these plus Xi and Taiwan.
Intelligence failures happen. Unfortunately even the hitherto extremely efficient and laudable Israeli intelligence community also dropped the ball last October.
We’ll see if Xi does go for it. The problem with building an vast military is you tend then to feel like you should use it for something.
Gentle suggestion to take a break and do something nice IRL.
Its obvious this site and it’s “wrongs” as you view them is an obsession – the attachment to which causes suffering in your mind and nowhere else.
The Albanese Government – coping with the real issues.
Roger – I thought you were referring to the Russo-Japanese War.
I don’t blame Nicholas one bit for WW1. Russia had a defensive pact with Serbia. No one ever abrogated such treaties in those days, it was diplomatically unthinkable, so once the Austrians declared war Tsar Nicholas had zero choice but to uphold the treaty. Then all the other treaties kicked in like a line of dominos. Blame the Austrians perhaps (although they were understandably incandescent they had some ambit claims in the Balkans) and a certain idiot called Gavrilo Princip if you want to blame anyone. It was he who tipped over the first domino.
Yes, but I used a turn of phrase to make a pun, and didn’t use a whole phrase (because it would sound as awkward as recycling jokes from Are You Being Served 50 years after the fact).
That level of autistic pedantry is more important.
Aristotle Onassis actually bought the casino in Monaco in the early 1950s, which is basically like a small bank.
Why he’d need a coin and stamp collector (and amateur chartist) to manage his commodity portfolio when he owned over 300 commercial ships (plus the casino and houses all over the world) is quite mind boggling.
You are not helping the situation, young man.
I’m planning a post on one of those films in a couple of weeks time.
There was no treaty, Bruce, although the two had cordial relations in the interests of pan-Slavism. Russia had previously declined to intervene on Serbia’s behalf in the Bosnian Crisis.
And Vicki – noted.
No, blame Austria.
Morgan Wallen – Whiskey Glasses
Back in June or July myself and a mate from work tried to get tickets for Morgan Wallen and HARDY. Sold out. Rod Laver Arena.
There are a lot more of us than the woke tyrannists think.
The Prime Minister says his government will work to get Makarrata and truth-telling “right”,
Lol. He can’t even get his own Truth Telling’ right. ‘My Word is My Bond’. ‘Open and Transparent Guv’ment. ‘Yeah, right. We can all see right through that one.
Taxing the middle class out of existence:
Income tax payable increased by 23.4% in the year to SEPT 2023 (last quarter figures not yet available).
In the same period, gross household income increased by just 7.5%.
– CBA analysis.
You don’t understand the man, that’s the problem.
He’s a New Yorker from Queens.
And he’s “transactional”.
They say his supporters take him seriously but not literally, while his detractors take him literally but not seriously.
As a NYer, everything is either “the best ever” or “the worst ever”, there is no middle ground.
Being transactional, he will put you down while you compete with him, but then instantly change to supporting you when the competition stops – eg, Vivek Ramaswamy most recently, but also Putin and even Xi.
As he said in “The Art of the Deal” he’ll take an extreme position, then bargain down to something reasonable that he really wants, so that the other party can say they “won” concessions from him.
As per MAGA, he sees himself as an American first and foremost, and his job as President to put America first – that is what I would hope every national leader would do (put their own countries interests first).
Once he makes a deal, he’ll stick to it – including any punishments for you if you break the deal (eg the Taliban in Afghanistan).
Kneel – that is one of the most thoughtful assessments of Trump that I have read. Yes – “transactional’ – absolutely.
You may note I’m not making any attempt to join in other sorts of commentary.
Email me!
Dot
Feb 13, 2024 12:47 PM
More BS from a very prickly Dotty Dot of Dottiness today. Trouble at Mill?
??? – speaking in riddles for the kool-aid drinkers? I guess someone like that sounds pretty impressive those lacking practical experience.
Which makes this more than a little interesting:
900 Rounds of 5.56×45 Ammo by Australian Defense Industries in Ammo Can – 62gr FMJ F1
A friend in the US bought 2 cans of that last year as the price was right. They have to have sold thousands of cans by now and they are still on sale.
I noticed Greg Sheridan making a real dufus observation on Sky today. It went along the lines of “in the USA they have the choice between two awful candidates this year”.
The Australian Defence Force is finding it difficult to keep recruitment happening.
Would this possibly be because:
(i)Feminisation
(ii)Wokeyness
Or (iii) the most reprehensible treatement of VC winner Ben Roberts-Smith?
Extract from Harry Richardson’s latest newsletter – on “Albo the Trot”.
Leon Trotsky (1879-1940) was a Russian revolutionary whose interpretation of communism formed the ideology called ‘Trotskyism’. Like all forms of communism, it breeds division within society and hatred towards successful people and those who aspire to be successful.
As former House of Representatives Speaker Bronwyn Bishop AO always refers to him, Albanese is a ‘Trot’ from way back. He may pretend otherwise – or that he has changed – but that’s clearly not the case.
His constant flow of lies is just one indicator of this. He has lied over superannuation, power bills, interest rates, the Voice (multiple times), and most recently over tax cuts.
Trotskyism teaches that lying is totally acceptable if it serves to support the goals identified in the Communist Manifesto developed by Marx and Engels.
And Albanese and his comrades in the ALP-Greens are following that exact same principle – lying is okay if it leads to the achievement of their socialist goals.
Given his track record, the only real surprise is how well he has concealed his real intentions. He is only now showing what he is all about. And lies and deception fit well with his true character and political leanings.
While he has pretended so far during his term as Prime Minister that he is a centre-left politicians with no grand vision of a socialist future for Australia, his personal history suggests otherwise.
An article by David Hughes, Executive Director of the Menzies Research Centre, paints a very clear picture of where Albanese is trying to lead us. It reads as follows:
“What philosophical approach is driving our government’s agenda? As a younger politician, Anthony Albanese was less guarded and offered insight into his personal outlook when he said:
“I think that, in general, the general free-market approach to economic policy decision-making needs to be turned around and I think that the parliamentary Left have a role in changing that.”
Around this time, Albanese had been one of the leading campaigners against the economic reforms of the Hawke and Keating Governments. His opposition to free markets, privatisation and deregulation defined his politics. And he wasn’t afraid to criticise his own leaders publicly:
“Someone like Keating can put himself up as a possible Labor PM, but he is more comfortable mixing with millionaires and business executives than he is with working-class people.”
This philosophical outlook put him at the far-left fringe of the Labor Party and on the wrong side of history. Albanese’s political philosophy was best described by one of his own ministerial colleagues, Andrew Leigh:
“The early 1980s saw the formation of an alternative power grouping. Led by Anthony Albanese, who was at the time shifting his focus from student politics to internal ALP politics, members of this grouping were soon to align themselves with the hard left.
“In general, this group was more concerned than the soft left with international issues, and maintained closer links with broader left-wing groups, such as the Communist Party of Australia.’’
These values have stayed with him. More recently, as a Shadow Minister, Albanese proclaimed, “I’m opposed to the privatisation of any public asset, including land.”
With all of this in mind, it should come as no surprise that the Albanese Government is, step-by-step, transforming Australia to a higher taxing, more regulated economy with a bigger government.
The majority of Albanese’s political career has been focused on pulling his party further to the left. And now, in this final phase of his political career he finds himself as leader. Given his own path he must be more than sympathetic with the new breed of far-left dissenters in the labour movement.
This is why he is also now deliberately leaving the door open to additional taxes on negative gearing, capital gains and family trusts.
For Albanese, increasing taxes on aspirational and well-off Australians is a way to focus the debate on rich versus poor in an attempt to provoke division. We see this too with Labor’s industrial relations changes which are an attempt to stoke division between bosses and workers.
You don’t set up Special Services and then expect them to behave like boy scouts.
A well-dressed guy drives onto a construction site in his BMW. Walks into the foreman’s office, shows his Union card, asks for job as a labourer. Foreman signs him on, asks him, ‘Why d’you wanna work here? You’re obviously not desperate for money.” Guy says, “I’m a gambler. For instance – I’ll bet you a thousand dollars that a week from now, you’ll have a hernia – one of your balls’ll drop as far as your knees.” Foreman – super-fit, never a day’s illness in his life – says, “You’re on!” and they shake on the bet. A week later, foreman walks up to the bloke, says, “Where’s my thousand bucks?” Bloke says, “Drop your pants – I want proof in front of witnesses before I pay.” Foreman drops his strides in the middle of the work crew; guy gets his trowel, checks the foreman’s balls haven’t dropped, pays the foreman $1,000. Foreman pockets his money – easiest grand he’s ever made; asks the bloke, “Why did ya bet on something you knew you were gonna lose on?” Guy looks around and says, “Well, I bet every one of these 30 blokes here, a thousand bucks that I’d have your balls on a trowel by the end of the week!”
You don’t let people like Hekmatulluh walk away after shooting our army guys.
thank you Alamak!
Don’t expect army guys to sign on and be commanded by dufus generals in red high heels.
“Dufus”?
Long winded, massive, bolded excerpt?
That’s a paddlin’.
Oooh. Very close to a bolded multiple reposting.
Roger – Serbia and Montenegro are widely reported to be allies of Russia at that time. The Balkan League was instituted by Russia, and backed by her, then fell apart in the second Balkan War.
You may be right that there was never an elephant stamped treaty document, but a treaty alliance it most certainly was regarded to be. Plus politically Russian public opinion would not stand for their brothers in Serbia being thrown to the winds. Tsar Nicholas had exactly zero room to move on the mobilization question.
There’s a good question whether Germany could’ve broken the chain of mobilizations, but they too had their own diplomatic inertia in keeping to treaties, plus the Schlieffen Plan that the generals were itching to try out.
One of the other interesting things is once all this got going, and everything then clagged up immovably in trench warfare, no one seemed to be able to cut their losses and negotiate an armistice in say early 1915, when it was already obvious that nothing was going anywhere. Treaty obligations had all been paid by then, there would’ve been nothing in formal agreement terms to prevent a diplomatic solution. That’s got a real relevance to the Ukraine-Russia War, since it has also stalemated.
Other examples are the Iran-Iraq War and the Eritrea-Ethiopia War. For some reason, pride perhaps, it seems really hard to get out of this sort of mess once it has bogged down.
Just like Islam and the Koran.
Snap Vicki – was just in the process of copying/pasting that to post.
Mainly the comment by Andrew Leigh.
Old Trots never die. They just hide in plain sight.
Alan (spit) vooking(spit) Bond(spit.) When that thieving prick kicked the bucket, some dimwits suggested he be given a State funeral…
Anyone how can sell back the government a piece of paper it supplied for $300 million is not without talent.
Number 3 certainly hasn’t helped but given this is a fairly long-standing problem and exists across the anglosphere I’d say the primary reasons are cultural – both defence culture & the wider culture (which defence culture always reflects to some degree).
I note the UK defence secretary is meeting with military chiefs this week to have it out with them over wokeness. It’s to his advantage that he’s a former Scots Guardsman.
Serbia and Montengro have always been Russia fans. They use the Cyrillic alphabet. Old neighbours of mine Serbians. Helped with so much shit over the time and still there to help. Old missus and daughter are still there. They are still helping. Great people and right wing as fck
Bungonia Bee
Feb 13, 2024 1:21 PM
“You don’t set up Special Services and then expect them to behave like boy scouts. ”
Indeed not I would hope that they would perform as Military Men knowing that the “proffesion of arms ” might require that they intervene in the Life of another human being with the express intention of ending that Life.
The Military Men I have known are not snivelling Boy Scouts just hoping to be a bit naughtier …
The were Men with souls and a horrible job to do..
To them it was a last resort and as Brave warriors they hoped the mattter could have been concluded peacefully … But it wasnt and some people that werent them had to die.
It weighed on their vision of their own mortality … as it would to any Human being …
I wont have Australian Soldiers slagged on ..
Just stop, FFS.
Was there ever a more crooked, ignorant, and evil-intentioned president in US history?
During the Super Bowl, this crooked dickhead appreared in an advertisement that spread misinformation about how “shrinkinflation” had caused packaged and wrapped goods to shrink in size. Without a doubt, it’s the most saddest most pathetic thing a president has ever done. He couldn’t do an interview because he’s too far gone.
There are strong suggestions his dementia requires him to be 25th’ed out of the White House. No, it’s not the best course of action. He’s dying in front of us right now, and I want to offer him the opportunity to pass away in front of the camera so that we may watch him possibly breathe his last.
He is the primary perpetrator of the Ukraine crisis.
He ran his campaign in a basement while peddling every single hoax and malignant idea against his opponent. He’s put opposition in jail and continues to cause havoc with every single policy he’s pushing.
I want this corrupt pos to die in front of us.
The Australian Defence Force is finding it difficult to keep recruitment happening. Would this possibly be because: (i)Feminisation (ii)Wokeyness Or (iii) the most reprehensible treatement of VC winner Ben Roberts-Smith?
I resigned in 2021 after 20 years of service and 7 OS deployments, my reasons?
1) The realisation, after becoming a 2nd class unvaxxed citizen, that my government an 90% of my fellow citizens were prepared to do that to me – Australia had changed and I was no longer a part of it
2) The realisation that war is (largely) about profits for weapons makers, not freedom etc.
From the Channel 10/Saint Lisa case.
McCallum issues channel 10 & Lisa a warning, you are bordering on contempt.
Drumgold emails channel 10 (via his junior) under no circumstances will my office pursue you for contempt.
I wonder if Drumgold gave those documents to the board of enquiry that found him to be a moron.
Lying is a prerequisite for preselection.
Vlad the shirtless has his own real and emagind paranoia to deal with, Roger.
Not good for friend or foe.
Excellent JC @ 01:55pm.
Totally agree with you.