Open Thread – Fri 23 Feb 2024


The Isle of the Dead, Arnold Böcklin, 1883

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Speedbox
February 23, 2024 12:31 pm

Steve trickler
Feb 23, 2024 11:43 AM
A sh*t day yesterday.

Holy smoke Steve. That, and the motorcycle incident – a sh*t day indeed.

Tom
Tom
February 23, 2024 12:32 pm

So, am chuffed! And very glad that, unlike theirABC, someone is in charge at WA Museum!!!

Well done, Lysander.

Crossie
Crossie
February 23, 2024 12:38 pm

Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL) is doing a green lithium project in Germany. They are currently undergoing due diligence, credit approval process and legal agreement for 500m euro ($825m) via the European Investment Bank which is the lending arm of the European Union (EU) and one of the largest climate finance providers.

Climate finance providers? You could easily assume that if you want rain you just pay for it and the same again for sunshine or wind.

Germans still have too much money to throw around.

Crossie
Crossie
February 23, 2024 12:40 pm

Pogria
Feb 23, 2024 11:37 AM
“At least the rabbits won’t eat them when they die and are not discovered for months.”

Crossie,
you may want to re-think that! ?

Ooh, you are awful but I like you.

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 12:41 pm

Tom
Feb 23, 2024 10:17 AM

Of the many things wrong with the tax system, close to the top would be an over reliance an income taxes.

Don’t give them ideas, Humphrey.
25% GST, anyone?
PS: both the SFLs and the Liars will do whatever it takes to make government bigger. That means higher taxes — direct or indirect. Take your pick.

Is there a measure that shows just how much taxes are raised + loans that have to be paid back by government from taxes in the future divided by the population of Australia?
I’m not an economist so I can’t tell. I assume that at some point it becomes a really weird number or ratio or percentage.
A primer into basic stuff would be helpful, but not too technical.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 23, 2024 12:41 pm

I’m amused that BHP’s proposed desal plant in Spencer’s Gulf, which used to be the evillest thing in the known universe (according to greenies), is now a glorious hymn of praise to Gaia.

‘Substantial’: SA desalination plant to generate $5 billion for local economy (Sky News, 23 Feb)

South Australia is one step closer to becoming a renewable energy superpower as the money is now secured.

BHP is among the businesses backing the state’s northern water project, which is estimated to pump over $5 billion into the local economy.

“That would represent probably the most substantial piece of economic infrastructure investment in our state’s history,” South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas said.

“South Australia is home to 70 per cent of the nation’s copper.

“We know that copper production and consumption around the world is set to grow substantially as we continue to decarbonise industry.

“In order to be able to produce copper, you need a lot of water, which means if we want BHP and others to produce a lot more copper, we need to get them a lot of water.”

This come to Jesus moment regarding Olympic Dam is more than amusing. Labor in South Venestralia seems to gone off the nuclear reservation. Paging a Mr Bowen!

Crossie
Crossie
February 23, 2024 12:43 pm

Oops, Portia, forgot to include the clip that goes with my comment.

Ooh, you are awful but I like you.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 23, 2024 12:58 pm

Dot, the Reddit IPO has dropped.
Commentary below.

Reddit dropped its IPO prospectus Thursday, laying out what we already reported: decent sales growth (21%) and narrowing losses in 2023, with still a solid cash burn ($84 million last year). It also showed Reddit’s hopes and dreams, in the form of a $193 million stock grant package for CEO Steve Huffman. That’s chunky—a larger estimated grant size than Airbnb’s Brian Chesky, Coinbase’s Brian Armstrong or Dropbox’s Drew Houston got at IPO, even though their companies were bigger.

Huffman will have to steadily increase the company’s market capitalization from $5 billion to $25 billion over the next several years to amass much of the grant, so it’s no sure thing. But it’s clear the board wants to reward Huffman, who co-founded the company 19 years ago before leaving and coming back when it was trying to become a real business. Reddit’s largest shareholder, Condé Nast owner Advance Publications, also agreed to cede its voting rights to Huffman, elevating his voting power from 3.5% to 37%.
Plenty of questions remain for investors to pick through over the coming months: A lot of Reddit’s user growth is coming from less valuable logged-out users—those who haven’t signed up for an account—arriving via Google searches. Is that a sustainable way to grow? The company showed off a deal with an artificial intelligence company to license its data, giving it an extra $64 million of revenue this coming year, it estimates. That’s likely to represent only a single-digit revenue boost. Is there really more of that pot of money to come?
But Reddit may have lucked out that the IPO door closed just as it was preparing to go public a few years ago. That allowed it to get itself in better financial shape while it was still private, out of the glare of public investors. The company even showed a profit in the fourth quarter last year, if you squint a bit and exclude interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation expenses.
All up, Reddit and Huffman will be hoping the market overlooks the company’s flaws and gives a beloved, rebellious internet forum a chance to prove it can make shareholders rich.

Dot
Dot
February 23, 2024 12:59 pm

Is there a measure that shows just how much taxes are raised + loans that have to be paid back by government from taxes in the future divided by the population of Australia?

State level finances are clunky. You need to go to the PDFs that are published weekly. The South Australian one is difficult to find.

I looked about a year ago and we were at 63% gross debt to GDP.

What matters is if the debt to GDP ratio multiplied by the debt rate is exceeds real growth.

It can get so large and depress GDP to the point where is runaway debt.

What do you do at 400% debt to GDP and debt is 7.5%? You’re spending 30% of GDP on paying down government debt.

Crossie
Crossie
February 23, 2024 1:01 pm

Portia = Pogria. I give up.

Dot
Dot
February 23, 2024 1:03 pm

The company even showed a profit in the fourth quarter last year, if you squint a bit and exclude interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization and stock-based compensation expenses.

In other words, bullshit.

Lysander
Lysander
February 23, 2024 1:03 pm

I missed a few weeks’ chatter on here…

Did the towndickers stop the votes?

Alamak!
Alamak!
February 23, 2024 1:04 pm

The company showed off a deal with an artificial intelligence company to license its data, giving it an extra $64 million of revenue this coming year, it estimates. That’s likely to represent only a single-digit revenue boost. Is there really more of that pot of money to come?

Reddit sold its content to an AI company. Chances are that the AI company will use that content better than Reddit has until now or ever will. Reddit is worth nothing excepot for one or two more content sales in the 10-20M range. Same applies to Stack Overflow content & future.

Alamak!
Alamak!
February 23, 2024 1:07 pm

I missed a few weeks’ chatter on here…

Did the towndickers stop the votes?

some tendentious eructations seen here over downticks & upticks. temporary pause in the eternal tick wars until DB shares a new set of weapons-grade reviewing to all parties. watch this space!

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 23, 2024 1:07 pm

Consumption taxes, value added taxes….all noise.
.1 Just keep taxing income less.
.2 More efficient use of taxpayer money (ie cancel the subs deal for starters & cap taxpayer funded pensions of public servants).
.3 Increase taxes on assets.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 23, 2024 1:08 pm

Reddit has a value.
I have zero idea what it is or how to unlock it.

Alamak!
Alamak!
February 23, 2024 1:10 pm

Reddit has a value.
I have zero idea what it is or how to unlock it.

there is a good clue for Reddit actual value in the second sentence you wrote.

Lysander
Lysander
February 23, 2024 1:13 pm

some tendentious eructations seen here over downticks & upticks. temporary pause in the eternal tick wars until DB shares a new set of weapons-grade reviewing to all parties. watch this space!

Ah, ok. Upticks are good cos you can like a comment without having to respond. Even a downtick every now and then is good. But the towndickers who “frequent” those vacant spaces, like the ghouls they are, were getting a bit ridick.

Bespoke
Bespoke
February 23, 2024 1:20 pm

I can’t shake the feeling a lot of this drop is a consequence of the Ukraine war, with people realizing being the site of a proxy war between two great powers isn’t something pleasant to aim for…

And/or the need for the youth to seek jobs in the mainland.

Alamak!
Alamak!
February 23, 2024 1:27 pm

Ah, ok. Upticks are good cos you can like a comment without having to respond. Even a downtick every now and then is good. But the towndickers who “frequent” those vacant spaces, like the ghouls they are, were getting a bit ridick.

yeah, exactly.

socialist /green solution – downticks are heavy on the environment and should be allowed under quota system with Chief Downticks Officer and team assigning based on race/gender/special factors.

free market solution – allow downticks to be traded at marginal cost, readers should be aware of the possibility of downticks flooding the market. caveat reader!

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
February 23, 2024 1:34 pm

Lysander, it’s nice that you received a letter… but the unsaid truth is that the entire staff, program, stock, work culture, and raisin debt of the WA Museum Baardip Boodja Truth Telling On Country has been wholly captured by the Gramscians.
I’d even chalk the CEO up as a Fabian.

Bespoke
Bespoke
February 23, 2024 1:34 pm

People forget having only upticks created just as much confected drama.

Lysander
Lysander
February 23, 2024 1:37 pm

Indeed Wally, I’ll concede that but still gladly accept that I got a taxpayer lefty love-in cancelled.

The fact that the CEO worked for the infamous University of East Anglia (“Climategate”) speaks volumes.

Kneel
Kneel
February 23, 2024 1:39 pm

“There could be scope for a 5 – 10% income tax with a 100k TFT.”

20% with a TFT of 75% of AWE (indexed annually or bi-annually), no deductions.

This is a “progressive” tax system, because:
at 75% of AWE you pay no tax – none.
at 100% of AWE, you pay effective rate of 5%
at 200% of AWE, you pay effective rate of 12%
at 1,000% of AWE, you pay effective rate of 20%
(all give or take a bit on the percentages side)

Best of all, if you are a blue collar slob, you know exactly how much extra tax you will be paying, regardless of how many hours overtime you do – at worst, you will get 80% of the money.

For business, exactly the same BUT your deductions are allowed – present evidence of goods/services provided by any entity that pays tax in Australia (pay slip, tax invoice etc), you do NOT pay ANY tax on that amount. This means: spend money in the local economy, don’t pay tax on it because it is providing local jobs and local demand.

Replace the existing tax system with that and watch the economy start growing, wages rising, downward pressure on prices (ie, more competition), industries return etc etc.

Lysander
Lysander
February 23, 2024 1:41 pm

People forget having only upticks created just as much confected drama.

<

Verily, I must assert my dissent in a resplendent and magniloquent fashion, for I cannot in good conscience align my beliefs with your own, as the murmurings of my soul doth profess a discordant melody in opposition to the symphony of your opinion. **shrieks in agony**

Curtains close.

Lysander
Lysander
February 23, 2024 1:41 pm

(that was an attempt a confected drama. apologies to all operas)

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
February 23, 2024 1:44 pm

The bloke is a jet. I haven’t watched a film in a long time that has freaked me the f*ck out. This entire Backroom series is crazy. Check it out.

I spent a day with BACKROOMS CREATOR KANE PIXELS

Speedbox
February 23, 2024 1:44 pm

dover0beach
Feb 23, 2024 12:40 PM
Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
I can’t shake the feeling a lot of this drop is a consequence of the Ukraine war, with people realizing being the site of a proxy war between two great powers isn’t something pleasant to aim for…

Indeed. Even the dimmest bulb (in any country) should be able to discern that the US and her allies often have only modest interest in the country where the fighting will actually take place. That country is merely a pawn in a far bigger geo-political issue.

The people of Taiwan must have noted the property destruction and loss of life in Ukraine and it wouldn’t fill me with comfort (if I was living in Taiwan) that the USA will ride to my rescue in a confrontation with China.

Bespoke
Bespoke
February 23, 2024 1:46 pm

(that was an attempt a confected drama. apologies to all operas)

Funny though.

Bruce
Bruce
February 23, 2024 1:47 pm

Actual music from REAL musicians!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMyITAxbe30

Alamak!
Alamak!
February 23, 2024 1:47 pm

Verily, I must assert my dissent in a resplendent and magniloquent fashion, for I cannot in good conscience align my beliefs with your own, as the murmurings of my soul doth profess a discordant melody in opposition to the symphony of your opinion. **shrieks in agony**

Curtains close.

in opera its considered an impressive exit to fall off a mountain.

Dot
Dot
February 23, 2024 1:53 pm

No no mole.

No need for indexation.

For every 1% of inflation, 10 RBA staff are invited to a special summer retreat in rural Sweden with its own bluffs, sacred groves and legal hallucinogens, with a one way ticket.

Indolent
Indolent
February 23, 2024 1:53 pm

Strictly for animal lovers. there are some very cute vids on Youtube but this one’s hard to beat.

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 2:06 pm

Steve trickler

Feb 23, 2024 11:43 AM
I just woke up and looked in the mirror. Face swollen, black eye and fractured eye socket and damaged wrist.

Same here at Julia Creek from a drug focked dickhead stationhand. Prick king hit me several times in the left eye – what he didn’t know is the eye socket in the lower aspect is in reality a blow out panel that will fracture before pressures in the eye from a sudden blow rise enough to cause damage to the internal structure of said eyeball.
(That’s how it was explained to me.)
The human body has some marvellous defence mechanisms!

Beertruk
February 23, 2024 2:09 pm

Winston Smith
Feb 23, 2024 11:15 AM

Sadly at the stage where it is ‘stop the world…I want to get off.’

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 2:10 pm

Eyrie

Feb 23, 2024 11:52 AM
Retired couple we know at Warwick airfield have Starlink as the Testra data network isn’t good there. I set it up when it arrived. Dead easy. They are very, very happy with it.

I got a set – even after 2 weeks, it wouldn’t work. Frigging useless.
It’s now sitting in a box in the garage gathering dust.
$200+ per month?
Sod off.

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 2:26 pm

Kneel:
My opinion is that a tradie who can buy a ute that costs $80K and can trade it in after 3 years to do a job that a $40k ute can do for 10 years, shows the system is responding to the wrong signals and need a bloody big overhaul.

Johnny rotten
February 23, 2024 2:27 pm

Well done Indolent at 1.55 pm.

Happy Friday.

Indolent
Indolent
February 23, 2024 2:32 pm

So, in effect there are still mandates, but it’s O.K. because there’s no national mandate. It’s just do as you please, and never mind the consequences to others.

What COVID ‘Vaccine’ Mandates?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 23, 2024 2:32 pm

in opera its considered an impressive exit to fall off a mountain.

My cousin did that. He died in a Cuban hospital. I met him a couple times. Larger than life character.

Pogria
Pogria
February 23, 2024 2:35 pm

Crossie, I don’t mind being called Portia. Quite a lovely old fashioned name.

I knew what you meant. 😀

More Evil Rabbits. Soon, the bikkie won’t be enough. The child’s throat will be too tempting. aaarrrgh!

mem
mem
February 23, 2024 2:37 pm

Lysander
Feb 23, 2024 11:57 AM
Cats will remember that I posted a link to WA Museum holding a “Rise of the Far Right” Panel series, featuring a whole range of Leftards, LBGXYZ Nazis, feminists and leftard academics. Of course, I complained and asked when they were going to hold a series on the Far Left, panelled only by conservatives?

So was very delighted to awake this AM with a letter from the Museum CEO saying he wasn’t sorry they hold 100’s of events per year but he conceded this event had escaped his view. He agreed that the “perception of bias” in this series “was high and, even, unacceptable.”

Finally, he advised me that he’s scrapped the series and “put in new measures to ensure staff are aware of the obligation to have a plurality of voices at such events.”

So, am chuffed! And very glad that, unlike their ABC, someone is in charge at WA Museum!!! ?

I doff my hat to you Lysander. As they say, silence is consent. Too many of us, myself included, mumble to ourselves whilst we should be taking it to them like you.

Eyrie
Eyrie
February 23, 2024 2:39 pm

Winston,

1. You did mount the router indoors and connect to a known good power point. Nearly 50 years in electronics taught me to check the power supplies first.
2. The antenna part needs to see the sky.

Once all this is done you install the Starlink app on your PC and run it. It should find the signal from the router.
Let us know.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 2:41 pm

and fractured eye socket and

I had a piece of floating bone from a fractured left eye socket, which I received while conducting some business in the early 90s. Had it for about ten years – I could push it about with a finger in moments where I was bored or being pensive.

On reflection, I supposed it could have eventually travelled into the ticker or brain and killed me, but it didn’t. So there’s that.

Johnny rotten
February 23, 2024 2:42 pm

This Blog does not need Up Thumbs or Down Thumbs. That only get manipulated by the Blog Wreckers.

alwaysright
alwaysright
February 23, 2024 2:43 pm

Actual music from REAL musicians!

and drummers

Pogria
Pogria
February 23, 2024 2:46 pm

Bent copper used his work pistol to kill the two blokes. Then takes it back to the station and places it in safe.
This story is really fooked. The bent copper had to have been a DEI hire. In the last two days, his work description has gone from “general duties”, to “Specialist Police Unit.”

Small wonder our Police “Force”, has become like a scene from Cabaret.

Pogria
Pogria
February 23, 2024 2:48 pm

On reflection, I supposed it could have eventually travelled into the ticker or brain and killed me, but it didn’t. So there’s that.

KD,
how do you know it hasn’t?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 23, 2024 2:48 pm

Steve, I’ll my a joke at yoour expense. True, mate of mine got hit by a van, hacd lots of plastic surgery to his face. When we saw him again al we said was why didn’t they make you better looking. Even he laughed. Hope you get better quickly.

Lysander
Lysander
February 23, 2024 2:49 pm

Thanks Mem!

(Imaginary uptick ticked) 🙂

Pogria
Pogria
February 23, 2024 2:49 pm

Lysander,
what mem said, plus 1,000.

Indolent
Indolent
February 23, 2024 2:51 pm
GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 23, 2024 2:52 pm

Just arrived back in the country, had to sit near Swiftys. 5 teeny girls with mum and dad. Dad did not look excited.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 2:57 pm

It gets better. Surely there’s a SBS mini-series in this (the Tele):

NSW Police will charge officer Beau Lamarre with two counts of murder over the disapparance of former TV reporter Jesse Baird and his current partner Luke Davies.

They will allege the constable, who handed himself in to Bondi Police Station on Friday morning, used his police glock to kill the pair.

That would be Glock, with a capital G.

Police allege that after using his police-issued glock gun,

‘glock gun’. Oh my lord. There are four imbeciles with their names to this piece.

Lamarre checked the weapon back into a gun safe at a suburban police station, where it was found by homicide squad detectives.

It would appear he’d taken it out of the station for the purpose. That does seem to rule out ‘mental ‘elf’ and ‘crime of passion’ defences.

Police allege that after Constable Lamarre drove the white van near the Paddington home, he then drove it to a house in the Newcastle suburb of Lambton, where it was cleared out.

The sources said police allege the Lambton house belonged to an ex-cop, but it is not known if the person at the house helped with cleaning the van.

Oh ho ho ho. Glorious. This will be some sort of homo keys-in-the-fruit-bowl pineapple-sign-on-the-door arrangement.

Prior to his current relationship, Mr Baird dated celebrity blogger turned policeman Constable Lamarre

‘dated’. PHRASING.

Lamarre, by the way, and being a slightly scrawny chinless type, has the appearance of a C grade Andrew Tate.

Bespoke
Bespoke
February 23, 2024 2:58 pm

what mem said, plus 1,000.

Settle young lady.
It’s not a competition.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 2:58 pm

KD,
how do you know it hasn’t?

Because I am still alive.

Lysander
Lysander
February 23, 2024 3:01 pm

Thanks also Pogria.
Unlike many public serpents, the ones that “last longer” in their 5-year tenures (or are moved into other 5-year tenures/extensions) are those that know that electoral “wipe outs” of Oppositions are often reversed* in a relatively short time.

Back in the day, when I worked for the “throne of power,” I had the pleasure of calling at least one Chair of a Government Commission to inform them that their services were no longer required. I also helped have one DG’s tenure cut short. Sadly, this represented about 0.5% of the entire WA senior exec service.

*Sicktoria being the exception to the rule.

Lysander
Lysander
February 23, 2024 3:04 pm

Settle young lady.
It’s not a competition.

Bespoke, I’m a 10,000 times more humble than you think.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 23, 2024 3:05 pm

It would appear he’d taken it out of the station for the purpose.

Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 23, 2024 3:07 pm

Expect a press council complaint about using the picture of the shooter cop (alleged shooter cop) in his NSW plod uniform in the mardi gras parade.

Pogria
Pogria
February 23, 2024 3:09 pm

KD,
it’s all in the delivery. 😀

Pogria
Pogria
February 23, 2024 3:11 pm

Bespoke,
you’re not the boss of me!
I’ll take the “young Lady”, though.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 23, 2024 3:11 pm

You’re an idiot bern, taxes on assets I’ve paid for on post tax income. The joy of owning something that I have to keep paying for. Obviously you own nothing classed as an asset. You’re as bad as Luigi.

Pogria
Pogria
February 23, 2024 3:12 pm

Lysander,
it’s a shame we can’t put a giant Karcher through the Pubic Serpents.

Dunny Brush
Dunny Brush
February 23, 2024 3:14 pm

Handsom boy is attending a private Katy Perry concert at the Pratt’s mansion in Studley Park on the weekend. Wonder if his son is going and will use his Qantas Chairman’s Lounge pass. Fighting Tories. That’s what he does.

Bespoke
Bespoke
February 23, 2024 3:15 pm

you’re not the boss of me!

I’ll allow you to keep thinking that.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 23, 2024 3:17 pm

Homo relationship breakdown every bit as toxic as hetero ones, if not more. BIL picked up a 60 foot Maritimo out of one. Even got a free carton because the two pooves couldn’t bear to look at it to clear it out. I think it was moved on at a profit, possibly the only person ever to have made money owning a boat.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 23, 2024 3:18 pm

A NSW Police officer who once dated missing television presenter Jesse Baird is being sought over the disappearance of the former Channel 10 personality and Mr Baird’s Qantas flight attendant boyfriend.

It was reported yesterday that the junior Plodster was the son of a senior NSW Lady-Plod.
No reference to this in subsequent reports.
No doubt Plod Media has been pulling strings to play this down.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 23, 2024 3:20 pm

Sure the shooter wasn’t Hedley Lamarr, I can just see Harvey Korman doing it.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 23, 2024 3:20 pm

Starlink is offering rural Aussies a money back if not satisfied

Interested to hear from anyone with experience with Starling – does it allow your phone to be used all over the world, or is it satellite to modem in the home based? Or what?

(Travelling quite a bit around the world these days and getting sick of Optus non-global roaming)

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 23, 2024 3:21 pm

Fighting Tories. That’s what he does.

Might be a bit awkward if he runs into Peanut Head. Might struggle to find a Tory there.

Lysander
Lysander
February 23, 2024 3:23 pm

it’s a shame we can’t put a giant Karcher through the Pubic Serpents.

+1

Have a great afternoon and weekend Cats. Believe it or not, I have a date with The Enemy this afternoon (not about to dox myself but let’s just say a “{non-judicial} person of the Crown”) about a particular project problem…

Old Lefty
Old Lefty
February 23, 2024 3:23 pm

Will we see loud fence ribbons outside this school in Ballarat?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-23/ballarat-high-teacher-damien-woods-jailed-sex-abuse/103502476

Of course not! It’s the wrong sort of school.

Alamak!
Alamak!
February 23, 2024 3:25 pm

Handsom boy is attending a private Katy Perry concert at the Pratt’s mansion in Studley Park on the weekend. Wonder if his son is going and will use his Qantas Chairman’s Lounge pass. Fighting Tories. That’s what he does.

He’d rather be attending the Swifty show in sequins. One day truth will out …

Dot
Dot
February 23, 2024 3:29 pm

The Isle of the Dead, Arnold Böcklin, 1883

Great to see Warhammer lore being explored by this august blog of record.

Johnny rotten
February 23, 2024 3:29 pm

So Neanderthal Man, how many shirt lifters will be around once the Hamas refugees get here after being given their express approval visas by Tennis Elbow?

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 23, 2024 3:29 pm

That was Starlink, not Starling. Clarice Starling was not asked her opinion.

Eyrie
Eyrie
February 23, 2024 3:29 pm

Interested to hear from anyone with experience with Starling – does it allow your phone to be used all over the world, or is it satellite to modem in the home based? Or what?

No. It is home based internet for remote areas. Which in Australia aren’t all that remote. You can pay a little extra to have it on your mobile home while moving around. Popular with grey Nomads.
They are working on cellphone to satellite and are in fact testing it.
All I know who have it are happy except Winston.

Salvatore, Iron Publican
February 23, 2024 3:30 pm

Johnny rotten Feb 23, 2024 2:42 PM
This Blog does not need Up Thumbs or Down Thumbs. That only get manipulated by the Blog Wreckers.

If the past few weeks on this site have established one thing, it is that nobody else cares what either Jughead or Archie think.

Speedbox
February 23, 2024 3:34 pm

The junior plod is also being referred to as a “TV star”. Star? Minor level personality who seems best known for taking selfies with celebrities. Used his service weapon? Who’s a smart boy then? Left a bullet casing at the scene. Who’s a smart boy? Dumped lots of the victim’s bloodied clothes and other items such as a wallet and very expensive watch in one industrial rubbish bin. Who’s a smart boy? Had a relationship with one of the victims and has a logged history (by one victim and friends) of stalking the victims. Who’s a smart boy?

There’s more, but you get the drift. He might as well have waited for the cops to turn up. And won’t he be popular when he gets to Long Bay. Homosexual AND ex-police.

Johnny rotten
February 23, 2024 3:36 pm

Kneel at 1.33 m

Too many paras. Please report to Mrs Stench Pantyhose for your breeches.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
February 23, 2024 3:36 pm

Regarding the cop and his Glock.

It is my understanding he is uniformed cop and his gun was stored in a safe locker at police station. He had obviously returned it after the crime.

Can somebody explain to me how he can just go to station and take out his gun when not on duty. Would he be only one who has access to the locker and would there be a record each time took out and returned? What is to stop cop taking it home after knock off duty ?

They found a shell at crime scene. Is there a system of checking officers have their gun and complete number of rounds? How often?

Either way seems like he was not very good at evidence and the general rule that you don’t leave your shell at the scene. Clearly not watched many cop shows.

Don’t think he was ever going to make Detective.

Makka
Makka
February 23, 2024 3:37 pm

I see SBS lionizing the Islamophobe, Navalniy. I wonder how that sits with their Arab audience?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 23, 2024 3:38 pm

Waiting for my bus at Sydney airport. Whoever said Asian ladies don’t have good bums I beg to differ. A Korean Airlines crew just walked past. Mmmmmm. And that wasn’t the blokes.

feelthebern
feelthebern
February 23, 2024 3:41 pm

It was reported yesterday that the junior Plodster was the son of a senior NSW Lady-Plod.

Wow.
Just wow.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 23, 2024 3:43 pm

I’m sure there will be lots of questions (and very few public answers) around NSW service revolvers practices and procedures.

Johnny rotten
February 23, 2024 3:44 pm

Feelthebern at 12.58 pm

Nice try but linking paras does not absolve you of tule 303. Go straight to Jail and bo not pass GO or collect the 200 South Pacific Pesos.

Crossie
Crossie
February 23, 2024 3:44 pm

Pogria
Feb 23, 2024 3:12 PM
Lysander,
it’s a shame we can’t put a giant Karcher through the Pubic Serpents.

I’ve got just the thing. My late husband’s Karcher is so powerful it strips the stencilling from concrete.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 23, 2024 3:45 pm

Cheers Eyrie!

Alamak!
Alamak!
February 23, 2024 3:45 pm

My cousin did that. He died in a Cuban hospital. I met him a couple times. Larger than life character.

Brunhilde of Newcastle? A large person falling off a mountain to finally die in Cuban hospital sounds like a decent operatic plot.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
February 23, 2024 3:46 pm

Winston Smith
Feb 23, 2024 2:06 PM

I dropped both of them and I hope both have a nice few nights in hospital. The camera at the the station will vindicate me. I was tempted too kick both in head. I’d probably in jail.

They hit me first.

Vicki
Vicki
February 23, 2024 3:49 pm

Interested to hear from anyone with experience with Starling – does it allow your phone to be used all over the world, or is it satellite to modem in the home based? Or what?

We don’t use Starlink ( our area is considered “remote”). We use Activ-8, & have been generally happy with it. The only reservation about Starlink I have heard – is that if you DO have a problem, it is not easy to contact Starlink for help.

Speedbox
February 23, 2024 3:49 pm

Bourne1879
Feb 23, 2024 3:36 PM
Regarding the cop and his Glock.
They found a shell at crime scene. Is there a system of checking officers have their gun and complete number of rounds? How often?

Many years ago I heard that the police test fire every weapon and retain the expended bullet and casing. Those details are entered into a database so, if required, they can match the discharged bullet and casing.

Ex police Cats may know whether that information is accurate but is what I was told years ago.

cohenite
February 23, 2024 3:53 pm

NSW Police will charge officer Beau Lamarre with two counts of murder over the disapparance of former TV reporter Jesse Baird and his current partner Luke Davies.

Ah pooftas: can’t live with them, can’t live without them.

In other woke news:

FBI Investigating Illinois Democrat Mayor Tiffany Henyard for Abuse of Power After She Shut Down Businesses That Don’t Donate to Her

What is about black leftie skanks in power: fani, letitia, cackles, this thing.

Johnny rotten
February 23, 2024 3:54 pm

Seems strange without a Cassia or a Calli around.

Speedbox
February 23, 2024 3:54 pm

clarification: test fire every police service weapon (not every weapon generally).

Vicki
Vicki
February 23, 2024 3:55 pm

Just been contacted by a well known insurance company & told that, because their documentation has been found (by whom???) to be “not as clear as it could have been, we are ….wait for it….getting a refund of over one hundred dollars!

Has the ACCC been scrutinising insurance companies?

Well, well….

cohenite
February 23, 2024 3:58 pm

He’d rather be attending the Swifty show in sequins. One day truth will out …

So, you’re saying when rub and tug went to the brothel it was a gay one?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 23, 2024 4:02 pm

A large person falling off a mountain

Alamak – I can’t say more as he was pretty well known. Nice guy for a lefty.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 23, 2024 4:04 pm

Timing is everything…..

‘Fantastic celebration’: PM Anthony Albanese lauds launch of Qtopia, Australia’s first queer history museum

The opening of Qtopia — Australia’s first LGBTQIA+ museum — is a mark of how far society has come, says Anthony Albanese as it opens its doors at the old Darlinghurst Police Station.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese can tell a joke.

The Labor leader had people in stitches of laughter as he regaled the audience at the launch of Qtopia Sydney with tales of his early days as an ally of the queer community.

The centre has is on the site of the old Darlinghurst Police Station, where protesters in 1978 were locked up for being part of what then became known as the first Mardi Gras.

“The fact that it is in the old Darlinghurst Police Station at (community advocate and the late ACON President) Chris Gration’s farewell I sang a song that we learnt at that time in the early 1980s, it was to Edelweiss, it was called Anal-weiss,” Mr Albanese said.

“I won’t see a mass stampede by singing it here for you, but it began with, ‘Anal-weiss, it’s not nice, Darlinghurst cops will get you’. And that was in the early 1980s that we learnt that song.”

Daily Tele

Bill From The Bush
Bill From The Bush
February 23, 2024 4:06 pm

We have starlink at home in the northern goldfields as well as a mobile unit in the Pilbara. No problems at all setting up and using. Support, if needed, is all email based.
Came up as “Stinky” when first set up and needed to change wifi id.
Roaming unit runs off 12 volt if needed. Wifi calling on phones means no excuses for not calling in on schedule.
Previously had Helstra conection in the goldfields and it was slow most of the time, even slower early evening when everyone was on line.
Setup is a plug and play thing for the hardware and the rest is done via the app on the phone.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 23, 2024 4:07 pm

Old Lefty at 3:23.
From the link …

Woods’s defence argued he was of “otherwise good character” and his offending came at a time when his marriage was breaking down and funding cuts had been made to his performing arts department.

Oh, right.
Abused the student because funding cuts.
Well, that is totally understandable.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 4:09 pm

Can somebody explain to me how he can just go to station and take out his gun when not on duty. Would he be only one who has access to the locker and would there be a record each time took out and returned?

I think – according to what I may have heard – it depends on where you are. Some States you had to check out your shooter (on duty, of course) with a bloke in charge of all the gear, and then check it back in at knock off.

Apparently some places now have individual safes in larger armouries for them, and if you have swipe card access to the station you could – in theory – come in on your day off or something, go into the armoury and take it out.

You’d be discovered afterwards during the audit process, though, but the horse would have bolted well and truly.

This is probably a better system, but in limited defence of the jacks not all of them are sufficiently stupid and/or Radio Rental to stalk their gay lovers then kill them and their current squeezes before driving them to Newcastle to an ex-cop’s house.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
February 23, 2024 4:12 pm

We really need to get Kyle and Jackie O to get PM to sing Anal Weiss on air.

To not sing it would be a slur on the gay community.

Dot
Dot
February 23, 2024 4:15 pm

To not sing it would be a slur on the gay community.

“Prove you’re not a homophobe by sleeping with three twinks”

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 4:15 pm

Speedbox:

Many years ago I heard that the police test fire every weapon and retain the expended bullet and casing. Those details are entered into a database so, if required, they can match the discharged bullet and casing.

It’s the individual characteristics of the firearm that leave identifiable marks on shell casings and expended rounds. If they test fired every pistol and then kept the round and casing they’d need (for example in NSW) to keep 20,000 of each, AND then they would have to search through each one IF they suspected a jack was involved in moida by rat-tat-tat.

If there was that suspicion, all they’d need to do would be to seize said shooter and then test-fire it and compare weapon, expended round and – if necessary – casing.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 4:17 pm

It was reported yesterday that the junior Plodster was the son of a senior NSW Lady-Plod

Once again, sub-par recruiting for the wrong reasons.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 4:20 pm

There’s more. Apparently he’s a hyphen as well (the Courier-Mail):

The police officer charged with murdering former TV reporter Jesse Baird and his partner Luke Davies inside a Paddington home this week has appeared in court for the first time.

Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon, 29, sat quietly in the dock of Waverley Local Court on Friday afternoon, just hours after handing himself in at Bondi Police Station.

Lamarre-Condon. Probably from Adelaide then.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
February 23, 2024 4:20 pm

KD,
Would the armoury be manned (or personed as the case may be !) ? I presume there is other equipment stored in armouries that should need signing out in case of various emergencies.

It is obvious that a major part of this inquiry will involve the access to guns by police and the security and supervision and checking.

This case reveals a serious systematic problem.

However you can understand there are more important issues like the latest diversity equity and inclusion briefings and policy papers plus Mardi Gras planning. Got to get your priorities right if going to get ahead in modern policing.

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 4:21 pm

Eyrie:
Eyrie
Feb 23, 2024 2:39 PM

Winston,

1. You did mount the router indoors and connect to a known good power point. Nearly 50 years in electronics taught me to check the power supplies first.
2. The antenna part needs to see the sky.
Once all this is done you install the Starlink app on your PC and run it. It should find the signal from the router.
Let us know.

Yep, did all that. The problem was that there was no way I could install to computer – an iPad was necessary. I don’t have an iPad and getting one or similar was going to cost an extra $60 per month for something I had no use for, and the extra cost made the entire process exorbitantly expensive.
Not a problem – they didn’t charge me for the dish and router and the NBN setup I have is acceptable – mostly.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
February 23, 2024 4:24 pm

Once they found the shell it was only a matter of time before they got him. Never mind all the stalking clues.

Speedbox
February 23, 2024 4:26 pm

Knuckle Dragger
Feb 23, 2024 4:15 PM

Yeah, fair enough. Your methodology makes more sense. As I mentioned, only what I heard.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 4:27 pm

It was reported yesterday that the junior Plodster was the son of a senior NSW Lady-Plod

I am NOT saying this person is one and the same.

However – there is an Alyce Condon, who is a ‘Finance Manager’ for NSW Plod, and who is not a copper but part of the civilian infrastructure.

And who lives in Newcastle.

Baba
Baba
February 23, 2024 4:29 pm

Beau Lamarre-Condom?

Honestly, what chance did he have of a normal life?

local oaf
February 23, 2024 4:34 pm

Lamarre-Condon. Probably from Adelaide then.

Happened in Sydney.

What happens in Sydney, stays in Sydney. Nothin to do with us good folks here in Adelaide!

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 4:36 pm

Would the armoury be manned (or personed as the case may be !) ? I presume there is other equipment stored in armouries that should need signing out in case of various emergencies.

As mentioned, I think it depends on where you are. Yes there is probably other stuff in there like rifles and ballistic vests and what-have-you.

This case reveals a serious systematic problem.

Also as mentioned, these things are incredibly rare. If (for example) you have a station with 150 jacks on the roster, working three road units for day, arvo and night shifts over a 24 hour period – that’s nine units plus maybe a Sergeant for each shift.

So, twelve people go into armouries each day, grab their stuff and put it back. At that station. Maybe more if there are other units in that building.

That’s 24 in-and-outs. Per day. 168 per week. Over 8,700 times per year, at one station alone.

It’s like a truck driver going into the yard on his day off, grabbing a set of keys and deliberately driving a B-double into an orphanage. The fault’s with the nuffer, not the system.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 23, 2024 4:49 pm

Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon, 29,

I hope that the final letter of his name is not a typo for an adjacent letter in the alphabet (and on the keyboard).

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
February 23, 2024 4:49 pm

Why are our cops carrying sidearm on an average tuesday anyhoo?
Oh that’s right, the Claremont Serial Killer was at large 25 years ago, i forgot about that.
Carry on carrying, then, Constable Care.

Boambee John
Boambee John
February 23, 2024 4:50 pm

Baba

Snap!

Alamak!
Alamak!
February 23, 2024 4:52 pm

A large person falling off a mountain

Alamak – I can’t say more as he was pretty well known. Nice guy for a lefty.

BON> discretion is a good thing for these kind of scenarios.

Pogria
Pogria
February 23, 2024 5:04 pm

Regarding Starlink, I have mentioned here before how happy I am with the service. It is only three pieces, Dish, mini dish for wifi in the house and cable. Four pieces for me as my old computer doesn’t have wifi capability, so needed a plug in.

It took me ten minutes to set it up and begin surfing. There is no need for technical help as the only things that can go wrong are if one of the 3 or 4 pieces break. Then, you order another piece. I have been using it for over a year now and have never had a problem. Of course, if the power goes, so does the link. I did have it mounted on my roof so I didn’t trip over it in the yard.

The added bonus with Starlink, it strengthens your mobile signal. Because I live in a hundred year old stone-walled cottage, I couldn’t make or receive calls everywhere in the house. With Starlink, no problem. Also, when I have had tradies, visitors here with mobiles other than Telstra, they could not make or receive calls. Now, no problem.

I love Starlink. Am so looking forward to when they get the phone system going.

Makka
Makka
February 23, 2024 5:05 pm

The left want the kids.

Wall Street Apes
@WallStreetApes
Colorado Representative Scott Bottoms Confirms That People Are Buying 1-5 Year Old Children For Sex

He Says “Almost all the time, they get off on probation after buying a child and rayping a little child.”

Democrats voted a 100%. That they did not wanna put these p3dophiles in jail. They defended the p3dophiles.

https://twitter.com/WallStreetApes/status/1760508516685812037

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
February 23, 2024 5:09 pm

Pogria Avatar
Pogria
Feb 23, 2024 5:04 PM

Regarding Starlink, I have mentioned here before how happy I am with the service.

I use Starlink on the boat, if i head offshore it works without problems, i am talking over 100nm offshore with a good signal, i can run the navigation suite with no issues on battery or an aft wind generator.

The man is a genius

Good choice Pogria.

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
February 23, 2024 5:13 pm

Pogria Avatar
Pogria
Feb 23, 2024 5:04 PM

Regarding Starlink, I have mentioned here before how happy I am with the service.

That is a horror show, i hope those people die in pain and alone, expect no mercy.

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
February 23, 2024 5:14 pm

well that was a cut & paste fvkup

Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum
February 23, 2024 5:14 pm

I hate my laptop

Baba
Baba
February 23, 2024 5:16 pm

This aged well.

Sydney’s first queer museum Qtopia opens at site of police brutality

Yes, that’s the link text on ABC Just In.

Bespoke
Bespoke
February 23, 2024 5:19 pm

I hate my laptop

And it hates you, Carpe.

Bespoke
Bespoke
February 23, 2024 5:24 pm

I’m liking the new chilled atmosphere. The sandwich ladies are a bit slow though. Lift ya game!

John H.
John H.
February 23, 2024 5:32 pm

dover0beach
Feb 23, 2024 12:40 PM
Arnaud Bertrand
@RnaudBertrand
I can’t shake the feeling a lot of this drop is a consequence of the Ukraine war, with people realizing being the site of a proxy war between two great powers isn’t something pleasant to aim for…

If you can’t shake a feeling and are compelled to draw conclusions from that feeling you have failed to engage your analytic faculties.

John H.
John H.
February 23, 2024 5:33 pm

Baba
Feb 23, 2024 5:16 PM
This aged well.

Sydney’s first queer museum Qtopia opens at site of police brutality

Yes, that’s the link text on ABC Just In.

It should start with public toilet cubicle walls with holes at the appropriate height.

cohenite
February 23, 2024 5:35 pm

Alyce Condon

Beau Lamarre-Condon

Brother and sister?

Bespoke
Bespoke
February 23, 2024 5:42 pm

and came up with all kinds of reasons, including that these buyers are victims themselves.

This garbage enableism paints all victoms as potential perpetrators.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 23, 2024 5:44 pm

“I won’t see a mass stampede by singing it here for you, but it began with, ‘Anal-weiss, it’s not nice, Darlinghurst cops will get you’. And that was in the early 1980s that we learnt that song.”

It is an ‘anal vice‘ you preposterous collapsing vortex of undergrad bolshevism, plastic surgery, cosmetic orthodontics, and progressive buzzwords.

I will bet that there is a part of his brain actually dedicated to storing and spewing out said buzzwords. He is an ‘ally’ now, is he? Sheesh!

Pogria
Pogria
February 23, 2024 5:44 pm

Carpe,
snork!

The previous owner of my place had NBN, and she had no end of trouble. I tried to go with NBN, they said yeah, you’re good to go, just plug in. Three months later, and many many, “we’ll have a technician out there next week, I gave up and ordered Starlink.
The package arrived three days later and I connected that afternoon.

Bespoke,
the trannys took over the tea cart.

shatterzzz
February 23, 2024 5:47 pm

If you watched Al Pacino as Tony Montana in SCARFACE then you’ll enjoy this Netflix mini series .. GRISELDA his female equivalent .. based on the true story of Griselda Blanco and her ambition to be to queen of the Miami drug trade … 10/10
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15837600/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_2_nm_6_q_griselda

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 23, 2024 5:48 pm

local oaf
Feb 23, 2024 4:34 PM

Lamarre-Condon. Probably from Adelaide then.

Happened in Sydney.

What happens in Sydney, stays in Sydney. Nothin to do with us good folks here in Adelaide!

The hyphens who aren’t quite gay enough are sent to Sydney or Canbra.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 23, 2024 5:48 pm

It should start with public toilet cubicle walls with holes at the appropriate height.

Some of these interactive museums are a bit much.

H B Bear
H B Bear
February 23, 2024 5:50 pm

Adelaide pooftas get chucked in the Torrens. Why break with tradition?

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 5:52 pm

Some here may remember my efforts to get a copy of Windows Office and the resultant efforts to install it.
The people who presented themselves as German, but were HQ’d in Thailand have refunded my money.
Today a receipt for a mobile phone – an Apple iPhone15 pro has appeared in my emails. Cost $649.99 + Shipping $20.00
They aren’t going to send me a phone – no no no. They’re going to authorise a shipper to send me one.
Aren’t they nice?
Here’s the problem. I haven’t ordered one, I have no idea who these idiots are but they have my account details of the refund from WinandOffice.
I am now on the interminable phone line to the Commonwealth to sort it out. I suspect it’s just a pay on bill scam, but I’m over these dickheads.
39 minutes on hold at Commonwealth Security. The line has dropped out.
Perhaps the Productivity Commission can total up the time wasted by people waiting on line?

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 23, 2024 5:54 pm

Cohenite at 5:35.
From the SMH link.

He followed in the footsteps of his mother, Coleen, when he joined the NSW Police.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 23, 2024 5:55 pm

Has Albo got himself into a Tay-tay concert?

In my shoulders, hands, and scrunched eyes I can already feel the cringe of him trying to pull off a little dance, desperate to show that he is not just an old fogey, and he ‘gets it’ with the kids.

Trump does little dances too, also awkward, but he does them because he is the star of the show. And it drives progressives nuts, which would not be his motivation but makes for a pretty sweet sort of bonus.

Johnny rotten
February 23, 2024 5:55 pm

Despite at 5.19 pm

You need a better laptop. My laptop dancer is so Farking hot. Yeah Baby as Austin powers would say !!!!!!!

Johnny rotten
February 23, 2024 5:57 pm

Despoke I mean. Silly auto text.

Top Ender
Top Ender
February 23, 2024 6:00 pm

Does this mean no police float in the Mardi Gras parade?

Johnny rotten
February 23, 2024 6:00 pm

Nice cooling rain in the Sydney CBD right now.

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 6:02 pm

Bourne1879

Feb 23, 2024 3:36 PM
Either way seems like he was not very good at evidence and the general rule that you don’t leave your shell at the scene. Clearly not watched many cop shows.
Don’t think he was ever going to make Detective.

I’d bet he was in line for the next Detective job going – guess who his mummy is?

Black Ball
Black Ball
February 23, 2024 6:02 pm

Vikki Campion:

The latest casualty in the pro-Voice CEO graveyard is Woolworths’ retiring boss Brad Banducci — but he cannot allow himself to be single-handedly used as a scapegoat in cost of living investigations.

It could be entertaining for some to blame the person born in South Africa who lauded his Italian heritage, who learnt at the Boston School of Economics, who funnelled $1.5 million of shareholders coin into the Yes case that most Australians didn’t support and tried to cancel Australia Day in a marketing ploy to avoid heat over price-gouging, as the sole reason why farmers are getting ripped off, workers weren’t appropriately paid, and consumers are getting shafted.

But this is beyond the remit of just Brad.

It would be unsurprising for him to take the Alan Joyce Monopoly Get-Out-Of-Inquiries-Free card and disappear to another country given he was at the helm of Woolworths, which has 90 per cent saturation in some areas and market concentration everywhere else, for eight years on a reported $7 million a year.

You don’t have to be Pythagorus to work out where the $1 billion half-yearly profit Woolworths announced this week, indicating a doubling of the $1 billion annual profit they announced last August, is coming from.

While it’s trendy to worry about overseas sweatshops, farmer’s groups such as the Horticulture Council warn that “the circumstances and conditions under which many growers find themselves supplying supermarkets could just as easily be framed as a modern slavery risk”.

Shocking submissions to upcoming supermarket inquiries reveal only the most compliant farmers to the whims of supermarket giants survive, while anyone who dares to speak out or use the avenues of complaint regarding unfair practices doesn’t feature in future purchasing agreements.

Senators should know they won’t get a full and frank confession from farmers when the system has a grip on their throats – it will be left to groups like NSW Farmers to reveal stand-over tactics of supermarket buyers threatening to boycott farms forever if they did not accept the price offered, even when it is below the cost of production.

It’s disgraceful that it’s only now that the cost of living is so bad that the people who were in power for nine years have suddenly had an epiphany in opposition and woken up to long-term abuse of those who turn sun, soil, water and back-breaking labour into nutrition.

With vain hopes of the prospect of a future career on a well-paid board, the Coalition gushed their support of big business as always morally correct.

Labor’s motivation was pecuniary as well. Agriculture Minister Murray Watt quickly defended supermarkets when a boycott was suggested. Labor needed no reminder of where the millions of dollars of the Shop Distributors Alliance union fees ends up.

The big supermarkets make convoluted, labyrinthine arguments of why they can squeeze the last drop of sweat from the farmer and the last cent out of the pensioner’s purse.

A simple explanation of why the banana farmer gets $1.50 a kilo from them, yet you pay $5 a kilo would enlighten us all.

Why not declare each week the price they paid to the farmer, the costs the supermarket wore, including refrigeration and fuel, and the price charged to the customer?

No one has a problem with shops making a dollar, but we take issue with exploitation.

Shoppers can easily avoid fast-fashion made in foreign sweatshops, but navigating the fruit and vegetable aisle, where Aussie farmers are punished, is hard to avoid unless they put the whole family on meagre rations.

Banducci told Margin Call at an inner Sydney cafe that it was “about the people”. What people? The board people and the shareholders?

If a skerrick of that is true, he can absolve himself by exposing the very practices he was part of that earned him an estimated $24 million golden handshake.

If he is a man of his word, his next first-class flight will be a return trip. Unless, like other pro-Voice ex-CEO’s, Australia was merely another stamp on his passport.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 23, 2024 6:03 pm

Does this mean no police float in the Mardi Gras parade?

A Glock in a frock?

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 6:07 pm

Despite

and

Despoke

and

My laptop dancer is so Farking hot

Crushing it, fake Pom. Absolutely crushing it.

Baba
Baba
February 23, 2024 6:07 pm

Sorry.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 23, 2024 6:08 pm

He followed in the footsteps of his mother, Coleen, when he joined the NSW Police.

High heeled footsteps, I suspect.

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 6:10 pm

Bourne1879
Feb 23, 2024 3:36 PM

Many years ago I heard that the police test fire every weapon and retain the expended bullet and casing. Those details are entered into a database so, if required, they can match the discharged bullet and casing.

A few quick passes with a heavy duty brass brush on a drill will get rid of any matching scratches on the shot fired out of the glock gun if he did that before he shot his bottom buddy. Of course, failing to retrieve his brass was amateurish, untidy, and destructive to his story.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
February 23, 2024 6:15 pm

Either way seems like he was not very good at evidence and the general rule that you don’t leave your shell at the scene. Clearly not watched many cop shows.

I wonder if the argument will be unveiled at trial that his obvious indifference to such concerns can only be symptomatic of some psychotic break and he cannot be held responsible for his actions.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 6:15 pm

Normal programming has resumed in the crikkit.

Straya are 6/122 after 11 overs against UnZud.

Indolent
Indolent
February 23, 2024 6:16 pm
Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 6:21 pm

Knuckle Dragger:
Most small town – 1 cop Stations just have a 4 or 8 gun cabinet.
A couple I’ve seen just had multiple weapons put in any way they’d fit, ammo the same. Or just left in the boot of the Divvy Van. 🙂

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 6:23 pm

the general rule that you don’t leave your shell at the scene

Yes.

Another general rule is you don’t shoot two people in the same house (after having arguments with them so loud the neighbours can hear it) with either .40 calibre or 9mm rounds, leaving blood in such quantities that it seeps through floorboards before loading the bodies into a distinctive white van and driving it to your sister’s house, and then returning the shooter – which you shouldn’t have accessed, being on ‘sick leave’ – to the police station armoury where you most assuredly will be captured on CCTV.

The closest most stupid murderer I can think of is that Wales-Smith chap (I think) who killed his parents in their garage, then washed the blood off in the driveway in full view of the neighbours before loading them into a trailer he rented with his own credit card and then getting bogged after half-burying them because it was too hard digging a hole big enough,

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 23, 2024 6:27 pm

The flight attendant, the TV presenter and the police officer.
3/5 of The Village People.

Rosie
Rosie
February 23, 2024 6:30 pm

Cefalu.
Not seen much yet. The coastline train trip was, as always here, spectacular, was met at the station by Mrs Host, who speaks only Italian and German, so far as I know, then met at home by English speaking son who put my suitcase in their motorised hoist to lift it up to their second floor balcony. They must have installed it for sending up groceries etc, daughter was up top driving it.
It’s a modern enough four storey block but no lift but nice wide well lit stairs.
I’m in what I’m guessing is a granny flat in a common private entry area with their own apartment. Son took the opportunity to practice his English with me, with some discussion about the English word towel which he now pronounces with an Australian accent. He also demonstrated via his phone that the mosiac of Christ in the cathedral in Cefalu is more beautiful than the one in Monreale. I agreed, of course. Also told me all three cathedrals Monreale, Palermo and Cefalu were unesco world heritage listed and as visiting unesco world heritage listed sites is always on my to do list, I was pleased to know.
Outside again I explored stage right with a dropped pin map taking me on a peculiar circuitous route across wasteland to the gourmet supermarket.
Europe has a dazzling array of supermarket chains, this one is called ‘Deco’ mood lit it was a bit upmarket.
I was miffed the self service checkout automatically added 1c for a plastic bag for my bananas, even though I’d stuck the price sticker on the skin but shall get over it, eventually.
The old town is to the left, I shall wander around this morning.
The famous ‘Rocca’ is dauntingly high. I can only see a stone fence and a citadel so it doesn’t look the original inhabitants lived up there.
This morning should reveal how climbable it is, maybe after a fortifying coffee, hoping, maybe, cefaluians prefer their lifts out of doors.

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 6:30 pm

Carpe Jugulum
Feb 23, 2024 5:13 PM
Pogria Avatar
Pogria
Feb 23, 2024 5:04 PM

Regarding Starlink, I have mentioned here before how happy I am with the service.

That is a horror show, i hope those people die in pain and alone, expect no mercy.

For a moment, I thought you were supporting my efforts of failing to install Starlink.
Disappointment ++.

duncanm
duncanm
February 23, 2024 6:31 pm

So DEI has worked out well, with a mentally unstable pouvre knocking a could of people off

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 23, 2024 6:35 pm

Don’t worry Thancho they’ll have been through the rest of them.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
February 23, 2024 6:36 pm

Aren’t they nice?
Here’s the problem. I haven’t ordered one

Winston – It’s irritating. I got one from myGov yesterday that looked imperious. So I logged onto myGov and sure enough I’d forgotten to do a couple of pink forms. I zeroed them out and submitted them since I’m not bothering doing any work these days.

Then checked back at the email…sure enough, it was a scam email. I never click on links anyway but it was pretty neat and convincing. Lots of less alert people would be taken in by such emails I think.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
February 23, 2024 6:36 pm

Glock in a frock. Ha

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 6:51 pm

Good Lord.
The mob across the street have just pulled up. They’ve gone into house and left the new dog in the vehicle – windows are down a bit and the engine still running so assumption is that the aircon is on.
The vehicle is rocking as the dog jumps around the inside of the car. So far I haven’t seen it but it’s started barking. I thought it was yelping. But it’s not. It’s barking.
No. It’s squeaking.
Just stuck its head through the gap of the window, and now it’s squeaking as it dangles from it’s neck.
Perhaps I should go and help?
No, I shouldn’t be a busy body.
Ten minutes later and the rat is still squeaking. Just not as loudly.
I should film this for Utube.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
February 23, 2024 6:51 pm

Wales-King KD.
And you forget the bit where he wrapped the bodies in the distinctive kids plastic swimming pool.
And didn’t get the sedative dosage nearly right.
My mail at the time was that a couple of Homicide detectives were convinced that he had been set up, because they couldn’t believe that anyone would leave a trail like that.
Premeditated … yes.
Planned … no.

Roger
Roger
February 23, 2024 6:53 pm

Watchdog Consumers
Rowan Dean, The Spectator

Part I

The news that Brad Banducci is stepping down as CEO of supermarket giant Woolworths is to be warmly welcomed. This decision follows what has been described as a ‘shocker’ of a ‘train wreck’ interview he gave to the ABC Four Corners program this week. In reality, there was nothing particularly shocking about the interview other than it highlighted yet another business leader behaving in a manner typical of so many of today’s elites: thin-skinned, sneering and arrogant.

When confronted with criticism of the dominant duopoly of Coles and Woolies, Mr Banducci – or ‘Brad’ as he preferred to be known to his staff, a one-word name akin to ‘Elvis’ or ‘Madonna’ – dismissed critic Rod Sims for being ‘retired’ before having a hissy fit, playing the victim, asking for his snide put-down to be deleted from the interview and then storming out, only to be persuaded by his PR team to return and continue the interview like some spoiled child.

A genuinely shocking interview would have been one in which a CEO of Woolworths or Coles owned up to their poor treatment of suppliers, low-quality grocery products in a country blessed with quality farming land, outrageous pricing structures and treating consumers like sheep as we are forced into increasingly onerous methods of paying. The typical supermarket these days is largely staffed not by helpful, friendly and efficient checkout chicks but by automated tills patrolled by one or two officious types herding ever-lengthening and disgruntled queues of customers into self-serving payment pens. For all the phony advertising campaigns about friendly supermarket staff, it is clear that the future we are being ‘nudged’ towards is one of fully automated stores devoid of staff where we pay for the privilege of doing all the work ourselves. No thanks.

Indolent
Indolent
February 23, 2024 6:53 pm

Her real title should be Commissioner for Censorship. But it’s all for your safety, of course. Infuriating.

Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Goes to Davos

Roger
Roger
February 23, 2024 6:54 pm

Part II

Indeed, the Amazon stores of Britain are literally staffless, and rely entirely on digital identification linked to bank accounts. The customer enters the locked store by being scanned, takes whatever products they want and the total is deducted from the individual’s bank account. These innovations have been predominantly driven due to the out-of-control shoplifting plaguing many modern cities; itself driven by leftist anti-law-and-order policies and high immigration. Although this high-tech approach may appeal to lazy inner-city wokesters and Millennials, it doesn’t take an episode of Black Mirror to imagine how dangerous this dystopian world will surely become. To be sure, if this is what consumers really want, then let them have it. But what is clear from repeated visits to our supermarkets and other retail giants is that we are increasingly being coerced or tricked into adopting this digital/surveillance model, more for their bottom line than for our convenience. Facial recognition technology is now used by many large retailers.

Meanwhile, in the fake world of ESG economics, driven by monolithic hedge funds such as BlackRock and Vanguard, companies artificially inflate their share value by pandering to leftist ‘social justice’ causes rather than through the old-fashioned idea of keeping the customer satisfied. Thus, building brand value nowadays is done by running ads supporting the Voice, gay marriage or climate change instead of attempting to build a brand by offering loyal customers better service and/or better products.

It is most likely that the fiasco for which South African ‘Brad’ will always be remembered – cancelling Australia Day at Woolies – was driven by blindly adhering to the ‘Reconciliation Action Plan’ that Woolworths and most Australian corporations have naively signed up to, rather than the slippery argument posited at the time about market forces. (Supermarkets discontinue unprofitable lines and products all the time, normally without any fanfare at all. To make a public announcement about Australia Day merchandise being discontinued due to poor sales was clearly virtue-signalling of the most dim-witted kind).

As with Alan Joyce before him, and no doubt many more to come, ‘Brad’ is a victim of his own hubris. In the end, customers get fed up with being treated like mugs and vent their displeasure in the only way they can – by shopping elsewhere. In what has become known as the ‘Bud Light’ or ‘go woke, go broke’ phenomenon, consumers are now reacting to the patronising left-wing political preaching of corporations which does not align with their own values. This is to be encouraged. Whether it’s the aisles and aisles of LGBTQ rubbish filling up crowded racks during ‘Pride’ week or month, the pushing of ‘sustainable’ products for which their is no natural demand (plant-based meat, anyone? Nope) or the endlessly irritating intrusion of identity politics into everyday life (‘We acknowledge the traditional owners of this airport terminal/reclaimed runway/office building/shopping mall/cinema chain, etc, etc.) consumers must use the only means at their disposal to say when enough is enough. Go somewhere else.

Good riddance, Brad. Good riddance, Alan. And let woke corporate Australia be warned: consumers are watching and if you don’t change your tune rapidly, you will be next.

Indolent
Indolent
February 23, 2024 6:56 pm

Andrew Lawrence excoriating parliamentarians for pandering to Islamists.

It ends now.

Winston Smith
February 23, 2024 6:57 pm

The Dangling Rat Story Continues:
It’s now 32 minutes and the rat is suspiciously quiet. The ‘parents’ have finally left the ‘ouse, giggling over something.
Giggles turn to shouts of dismay, as mum sees the rat dangling from the passenger window.
Car drives off.
Well that’s the entertainment for Friday over. I wish I could have slipped a camera into the car but that would have meant winding the window down, and incidentally allowing the rat to breathe.
Also breaking and entering.

Dunny Brush
Dunny Brush
February 23, 2024 6:58 pm

Knuckledragger: Wales-King. Disappointing Matthew the hairdresser also hired the trailer from the nearest servo. And bought the rope on his credit card. And didn’t give his mother and step father enough sleeping pills in the soup to finish them off.

Dunny Brush
Dunny Brush
February 23, 2024 7:00 pm

Sorry Sancho – missed your update. I know a few people involved in Wales-King thing who reckon nobody was surprised he killed his mother.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 7:00 pm

Wales-King.

Yes.

Indolent
Indolent
February 23, 2024 7:32 pm
Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
February 23, 2024 7:33 pm

C’mon hamsters!

You can do it!

Vicki
Vicki
February 23, 2024 7:34 pm

Good riddance, Brad. Good riddance, Alan. And let woke corporate Australia be warned: consumers are watching and if you don’t change your tune rapidly, you will be next.

Agreed Roger. But the trouble is that these guys depart with zillions.

Morsie
Morsie
February 23, 2024 7:35 pm

India up to their old tricks,first day pitch spinning keeping low becoming unplayable.

Damon
Damon
February 23, 2024 7:41 pm

“in opera its considered an impressive exit to fall off a mountain”

Finland did an impressive Tosca.

Roger
Roger
February 23, 2024 7:54 pm

Agreed Roger. But the trouble is that these guys depart with zillions.

Not much we can do about that unless we’re WW shareholders, Vicki.

That was Rowan Dean, btw (in case you missed the first part).

John H.
John H.
February 23, 2024 7:56 pm

dover0beach
Feb 23, 2024 5:45 PM
If you can’t shake a feeling and are compelled to draw conclusions from that feeling you have failed to engage your analytic faculties.

He’s clearly drawing a conclusion given certain facts.

His failure is to not use that feeling to look at possible reasons why Taiwanese have changed their minds. That can be done by asking them for those reasons. He should at least have the decency to postulate other possibilities. For example, the increasingly aggressive behavior of China with more invasions of Taiwan airspace and more challenging of freedom of navigation in the SCS. He is guessing, engaging in mind reading. Relying on a poll to justify mind reading is bias, not analysis.

John H.
John H.
February 23, 2024 7:57 pm

Knuckle Dragger
Feb 23, 2024 7:33 PM
C’mon hamsters!

You can do it!

It is becoming tedious, I’m tired of always having to do the Ctrl AC trick.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
February 23, 2024 7:58 pm

The closest most stupid murderer I can think of is that Wales-Smith chap (I think) who killed his parents in their garage,

Sounds like the old joke about the bloke who murdered both parents, then begged the Court for mercy, on the grounds that he was an orphan.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
February 23, 2024 8:27 pm

Cooking, cleaning, maybe some basic chem, physical fitness and sensible scheduling- I’d die of embarrassment if my kids killed me and I’d never taught them the basics of body disposal.

  1. Haha. The new lead story at Paywallian.com: China tells other world leaders: be like AlbaneseBeijing has nominated Anthony Albanese as…

  2. Still stuck on the 45. Yeah, people sometimes get stuck on facts. That appears to be a real problem, yeah?…

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