Open Thread – Mon 18 March 2024


Autumn Gold, John Atkinson Grimshaw, late 1800s

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Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:19 am

Another scoop on Sharri Markson’s Sky News show last night:

Albanese government removes ASIO and ASIS heads from National Security Committee of Cabinet

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 19, 2024 4:20 am

Thanks Tom. Putin wins a One Horse Race – Lol.

Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 4:53 am

Albanese government removes ASIO and ASIS heads from National Security Committee of Cabinet

It turns out the secretary of Elbow’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, former Melbourne University academic Glyn Davis, is a stooge for the Chinese Communist Party who helped Victorian premier Dan Andrews line up his Belt and Road deal with the CCP.

So Elbow’s top public servant shuts security chiefs out of Cabinet’s National Security Committee while helping silence anti-CCP sentiment inside the government as our activist foreign minister Penny Wong climbs into bed with Hamas by reinstating Australian funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency UNRWA whose staff participated in the mass slaughter of Jews last October.

Our federal government is more leftwing than the Whitlam regime.

Dot
Dot
March 19, 2024 6:20 am

TYSON TO PAUL

”I WILL HURT YOU”

Don’t say he hasn’t been warned.

Tyson is one of the greatest boxers and indeed martial artists of all time.

https://youtu.be/KaV8HiWKyug?feature=shared

Baba
Baba
March 19, 2024 6:34 am

Why should public servants be members of a cabinet committee?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 6:49 am

Albanese government removes ASIO and ASIS heads from National Security Committee of Cabinet

I thought the following bit was pretty interesting:

Mr Davis’ department announced a review last month into whether to cut funding to think-tanks.

This would include the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which receives funding from both Australia the United States.

Shutting down ASPI, a frequent China critic, was on China’s list of 14 demands issued under the Coalition Government.

The implication is that Albo, Wong and Davis are working their way through a list of demands from China, who are offering the quid pro quo of dropping tariffs on wine and unembargoing other stuff, like coal.

So maybe the ASIO and ASIS thing was another line item crossed off.

Given our vulnerable position defense-wise it sounds like the elites in this country are edging away from the US and towards China. Perhaps they think placating the dragon will work.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 7:09 am

Sky News may need to get in some security:

Extinction Rebellion target GB News as offices covered in paint (18 Mar)

The front of GB News’s offices have been doused in paint by furious protestors who accuse the broadcaster of being an “extremist organisation”. It has demanded an “end to their torrent of climate lies and disinformation”.

A string of protesters have also encircled the entrance holding placards depicting the faces of GB News presenters including Nigel Farage, Jacob Rees Mogg, Richard Tice, Lee Anderson, and station owner Paul Marshall. Beneath each of them is written the word ‘Extremist’.

Bit rich XR labeling people extremist. Since our stinkies are just as stinky as Pommy stinkies I suspect the local lot will have a go at similar media offices here, especially since they all coordinate with each other.

shatterzzz
March 19, 2024 7:29 am

Big day today .. all the tests, scans dun and the results in so this afternoon I’ll find out whether I’m in for my 3rd round with the big C .. not a relapse but a totally different version if it’s there .. I feel great no pains or even feeling unwell or anything else so slightly concerned but not panicking .. hopefully, just my age (76) that prompts the C checks before the, obvious, “enlarged prostate” symptoms ….
Anywayz lotza things crossed and, as Doris sang, “what will be will be ……..”

Baba
Baba
March 19, 2024 7:41 am

ASPI, an ‘independent’ think tank funded by the US and Australian governments is frequently critical of China?

Well tickle my arse with a feather.

shatterzzz
March 19, 2024 7:54 am

Can’t quite get why several of the cartoonists (Leake included) are over-dripping their brushes on the Russian election .. Given the state of USA politics I’m more inclined to believe the Ruskies voting system is, probably, a sight cleaner than the Yank version …..
Tho, the bar isn’t set too high given that these dayz most 3rd world voting set-ups look cleaner than the USA production …

Eyrie
Eyrie
March 19, 2024 7:57 am

With the voter fraud in the US elections, the cartoons about the vote for Putin are hypocritical and unfunny. Big miss, Leak and Knight.

Zafiro
Zafiro
March 19, 2024 8:05 am

With the voter fraud in the US elections, the cartoons about the vote for Putin are hypocritical and unfunny. Big miss, Leak and Knight.

Quite so. Would they prefer the globalist scum who are destroying/have destroyed the West to be running Russia? Ultimately they are both in the employ of Mudrock.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 8:08 am

Epic tale of woe, and fascinating too.

Unhappy Tesla Owner! (18 Mar)

KevinM
KevinM
March 19, 2024 8:14 am

Eyrie
March 19, 2024 7:57 am

With the voter fraud in the US elections, the cartoons about the vote for Putin are hypocritical and unfunny. Big miss, Leak and Knight.

+1

will
will
March 19, 2024 8:17 am

.

432683924_7672469842803677_921032510435862960_n
rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 8:35 am

Good luck with your results shatterzzz

Black Ball
Black Ball
March 19, 2024 8:39 am

4th in 2 years. Rightio. Daily Telegraph:

Police, politicians and senior bureaucrats are at loggerheads over the apparent appointment of a former TV producer to the role of beleaguered NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb’s fourth spin doctor in two years.

Former police officer and NSW MLC Rod Roberts told 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Tuesday his phone “lit up like a Christmas tree” after news broke of Steve Jackson’s appointment.

“I was getting phone calls from people I know in the media, senior police officers, all questioning this decision,” he said.

Fordham told listeners there was now a “blame-game going on about who appointed this man (Jackson) and whether he was actually appointed”.

“The bloke she has picked has raised a few eyebrows, people at NSW Police headquarters are wondering if he is even going to make it through the door on day one, I don’t think he is going to.

“I am hearing the commissioner is nervous, and it is my belief this morning that Karen Webb will change her mind… and be on the lookout for yet another spin doctor.”

On Monday, The Daily Telegraph reported the NSW Police Commissioner began the process of hiring a new spin doctor days after she was repeatedly criticised for her poor public performances and media handling of an alleged double murder.

The Telegraph has been told senior NSW Government officials, acting on behalf of Commissioner Webb, were approaching people for the role of NSW Police Director of Public Affairs around February 29, while Liz Deegan was in the job and unaware.

The timing marked the end of a shocking week for the Commissioner who was questioned why it took her three days to address the public after Constable Beau Lamarre-Condon was charged with murdering Sydney couple Jesse Baird and Luke Davies inside a Paddington terrace on February 19.

After a fiery press conference on Monday 26, Commissioner Webb went on to make repeated gaffes in multiple media interviews that week, including the now infamous Taylor Swift quote “haters gonna hate” in reference to her critics.

Liz Deegan, the media chief at time, was said to be ‘blindsided’ when she was sacked last Monday.

By then, it’s understood former television producer Steve Jackson had been interviewed for the role multiple times, and all but signed his contract.

NSW Police sources confirmed yesterday that Jackson, 43, will begin as Director of Media after Easter.

He will be the fourth spin doctor under Commissioner Webb in two years, following on from Grant Williams, Alex Hodgkinson and Ms Deegan.

Jackson resigned last week as supervising producer at Seven’s flagship program.

Prior to Seven, he has held roles of NSW editor at The Australian, chief-of-staff at Nine’s 60 Minutes and various senior roles at The Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph.

NSW Police did not respond to questions about why the position was not advertised.

So looks like this bloke was lined up before Keegan got the Khyber Pass.
Can have all the advisors in the world but how about just do your job Ms Webb?

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
March 19, 2024 8:39 am

Sharri can smell the influence peddlers inside the tent.
Belt and Road through the back door from the Allan government in Vic through the autocratic pushing of mostly Chinese corporate interests colonising the land with renewables.
Chalmers supposedly inconsequential drop tariff reforms included Chinese solar and turbine blades. The benefits to the average consumer were tiny and it didn’t rate a big announcement but then again, we weren’t the audience.
MSM are tone deaf to the big game being played by senior bureaucrats and corporate bosses. AEMO stinks of influence.

Indolent
Indolent
March 19, 2024 8:41 am

The Strategy of Atrocity in the Gaza War

Hamas is perhaps the first regime in recorded history to fight a war designed to maximize casualties among their own population.

Failing to swiftly destroy Hamas and directly punish Hamas’s backers in Iran and Qatar will teach sympathizers in other parts of the Muslim world that strategies of atrocity should be added to the playbook of regimes challenging U.S. allies around the world. Even worse would be for Hamas to actually achieve a strategic victory and gain a Palestinian statehood; such an outcome would ensure that atrocity becomes a standard and widely used strategy for at least a generation to come.

Indolent
Indolent
March 19, 2024 8:49 am
Indolent
Indolent
March 19, 2024 8:56 am
Megan
Megan
March 19, 2024 9:01 am

Sending you much sympathy, Mark, on the loss of your Mum. I second Rosie’s choice of Psalm 23 for your OT reading. I’m sure, whatever your choice, you’ll do her proud.

Zafiro
Zafiro
March 19, 2024 9:03 am
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 9:05 am

Great to see such openness on display from a government agency.

CDC Finally Releases 148 Page Study on Myocarditis Following COVID Vaccine – And EVERY SINGLE WORD is Redacted! (17 Mar)

The CDC “released” a 148 page study on myocarditis after COVID-19 “vaccination” and every single page is completely redacted. This must be a new record.

Mushrooming by the elites is becoming an artform.

Makka
Makka
March 19, 2024 9:12 am

It turns out the secretary of Elbow’s Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, former Melbourne University academic Glyn Davis, is a stooge for the Chinese Communist Party who helped Victorian premier Dan Andrews line up his Belt and Road deal with the CCP

And as Roy Bland said decades ago in Tinker Tailor;

“As a good socialist, I’m going where the money is; as a good capitalist, I’m sticking with the revolution, because if you can’t beat it, spy on it! Don’t look like that, George. It’s the name of the game these days. You scratch my conscience, I’ll drive your Jag, right?”

m0nty
m0nty
March 19, 2024 9:15 am

I see Trump has gone begging to thirty different companies to cover his bond, and none of them want a bar of him.

Looks like he’ll have to sell one of his properties, LOL.

Arky
March 19, 2024 9:15 am

Here at Arky Labs we noticed our competitor’s AS (Artificial Stupidity) systems lacked the warmth and humanity of real human interactions.
So we added a layer to our neural network model to mimic the hormonal fluctuations of regular actual human persons. And the ability for you to pair ARKYGPTLGBGT++ with your devices. Whether it’s your car, your robot girlfriend or your fridge, you can now enjoy authentic artificial interactions with all the objects in and around the home.
Sid was bored with the same old predictable responses from his robot: “Once I paired Nancy with ARKYGPTLGBGT++ it was a whole new experience. She ditched the sad, predictably positive and responsive behaviour. Instead she sat on the couch drinking UDL cans and texting her new friends. Later that night she came into the bedroom and tried to stab me. It was just like a real relationship”.

Last edited 7 months ago by Arky
cohenite
March 19, 2024 9:18 am

Indolent
 March 19, 2024 8:52 am

JUST IN: US Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson Just Defended The US Government Violating the 1st Amendment During Arguments in Case Sen Rand Paul Calls “the most consequential free speech case in U.S. history”

So many black kunts: this commie cow, letitia, fany, cackles and the completely grotesque creatures in the demorats like maxine waters.

Makka
Makka
March 19, 2024 9:21 am

JUST IN: US Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson Just Defended The US Government Violating the 1st Amendment

It seems Brown (the DEI appointment on SCOTUS) is most concerned that the US Constitution limits the Govts right to censor public discourse in the media. Yes, she is quoted as saying that in arguments.

Similar to Australia where these leftwing swine will soon have similar powers. For our own good of course.

cohenite
March 19, 2024 9:21 am

Salwan Momika is an Iraqi asylum seeker living in Sweden.
 
He is known for his strong anti-Islam stance.
 
The Swedish government wants to deport him to Iraq for burning the Quran, which will be a certain death sentence for him.
 
Urban Scoop has launched an urgent petition to pressure the Swedish government into dropping its campaign to deport Salwan

Pity we don’t have genuine asylum seekers lie this guy. Here’s the petition.

cohenite
March 19, 2024 9:22 am

Fuk! Petition

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 19, 2024 9:29 am

Commercial Bank of Ethiopia glitch lets customers withdraw millions
Good Luck with trying to get the money back – Lol –

“Ethiopia’s biggest commercial bank is scrambling to recoup large sums of money withdrawn by customers after a “systems glitch”.

The customers discovered early on Saturday that they could take out more cash than they had in their accounts at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE).

More than $40m (£31m) was withdrawn or transferred to other banks, local media reported.

It took several hours for the institution to freeze transactions.”

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-68599027

Black Ball
Black Ball
March 19, 2024 9:32 am

The grinning idiot being an idiot. Courier Mail:

Steven Miles will spend billions of dollars upgrading the dilapidated Queensland Sport and Athletic Centre despite an independent review emphatically declaring it a waste of money.

The Premier said cabinet had endorsed spending $1.6bn to upgrade QSAC at Nathan, defying a $450,000 taxpayer-funded review he asked former Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk to lead.

Mr Quirk’s review indicated it would provide no “significant legacy benefit” to the region and should not be used for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Instead, Mr Miles pledged to bulldoze ahead to spend billions of dollars to upgrade the grandstands and facilities for athletics at QSAC and use the spare $1bn to upgrade Suncorp Stadium and the Gabba.

The details of what upgrades both stadiums would receive is not yet known

The premier – fresh from a brutal by-election bruising in Ipswich West – was on Monday grilled about why he ignored Mr Quirk’s recommendation to build a new $3.4bn stadium at Victoria Park and instead deliver QSAC upgrades.

“I thought it was a plan where we can have more certainty about its costs, where we can utilise our existing facilities and where we don’t displace any sports from the government,” he said.

“Queenslanders are struggling with housing and other costs.

“I cannot justify to them spending $3.4bn on a new stadium.

“I had heard from Queenslanders that $2.7bn at the Gabba was too much so I know that for Queenslanders $3.4bn at Victoria Park will be too much – so I’m ruling that out.”

Mr Quirk’s review clearly warned upgrading QSAC “does not represent value for money” and said it should not be used as a venue in the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It’s understood Mr Quirk’s recommendation for a new 55,000-seat stadium at Victoria Park surprised the government, but the idea was almost immediately dismissed.

Mr Quirk on Monday doubled down on the opportunity for Brisbane to develop a world-class stadium at Victoria Park and said splashing cash on QSAC would be a waste of money.

“As far as the QSAC site is concerned, again, we just don’t see, after spending around $1.5bn, any significant legacy benefit to the people of Queensland,” he said.

“There is great opportunity for additional events with a higher level of stadium which has got great facilities, top level facilities for people that would go there and enjoy it.”

Mr Miles also revealed the state government had already started looking for alternatives before Mr Quirk’s $450,000 review had been completed.

“We’ve been working on this plan in recent weeks,” he said.

“I asked when it was clear the direction the panel was taking it, I indicated to our public servants that we needed another option.

“We were aware that panel would consider those two options and I asked for more detail to be done on option two, because I knew that it was going to be very, very hard to accept a brand new $3.4bn stadium without any of that planning work effectively starting from scratch.”

High-performance athletes training at QSAC for future summer and winter Olympics and championships will be displaced due to the upgrade, but Mr Miles said that would be considered.

“Will have to determine how long the upgrade will take and then look at the options for them for that period,” he said.

“It’s possible that the staging of the warm up track and the athletics track can still allow for it to be used throughout but we need to do that work.”

It is the second time Mr Miles has ignored independent advice about how to progress planning for Brisbane’s 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

In November he spruiked advice which labelled a demolition and rebuild of the Gabba as “best value for money”, only to soften his position after becoming Premier exactly three weeks later.

Newly re-elected Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said he would meet with Mr Miles about the plan and the government’s proposed Independent Delivery Authority for Olympics infrastructure.

The state government has endorsed Mr Quirk’s proposal to relocate Brisbane Arena north of its planned site over the Roma Street railway station, which would have likely cost $4bn.

Federal Greens MP for Brisbane, Stephen Bates, welcomed the premier scrapping the Victoria Park stadium proposal but still held concerns about the effect the arena would have on the council’s compost facilities.

“It’s disappointing that building Brisbane Arena is going to come at the expense of Roma Street Parklands and Brisbane City Council’s composting and recycling facility,” he said.

“Upgrading our existing sports facilities and delivering more community venues delivers the best value for money and the best Olympics legacy for Queensland.”

ASM Global Asia Pacific executive chairman Harvey Lister welcomed Mr Quirk’s recommendation to proceed with the Brisbane Arena.

“The alternate location to the northern precinct of Roma Street Parklands was a very workable solution, given concerns about construction timelines and costs for building on the over-rail site,” he said.

How long before Miles does an Andrews and pulls the plug?

Roger
Roger
March 19, 2024 9:38 am

World’s largest solar panel manufacturer to cut workforce by 30%.

Chinese company Longi’s revenue collapsed by 44% last year while its share price is down 70% from 2021.

The Guardian cites an ongoing trend of energy companies switching from renewables to higher margin oil and gas projects as a factor in the company’s decline.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 19, 2024 9:54 am

BoN, the “unhappy Tesla driver”, is just like the majority of people doing just about anything. Only look at the positives. There are not many new mousetraps around. The left have perfected this approach by insisting 100% of an unproven idea instead of 5-10% improvement of an old idea. This is why people get caught up in scams. The internet is full of perpetual motion machines and sentient computers. I’m very rarely disappointed by looking at the downside of every shiny new thing that comes along. Some things are already as good as they get, e.g. mousetraps. I’ve been relatively successful by taking nibbles instead of a whole mouthful. There are very few J Robert Oppenheimer and Elon Reeve Musk that can see past the downside of a massive problem. What these two have achieved in a short space of time is incredible. I grew up with parents afraid to do anything. Always warned not to get out of the box. I suppose that’s why I’m a sceptic. I’m more a product of my relatives. My niece asked me recently why I’m not like my sister or parents. I said, “lucky”.

Makka
Makka
March 19, 2024 9:59 am

The Guardian cites an ongoing trend of energy companies switching from renewables to higher margin oil and gas projects as a factor in the company’s decline.

And that is with Billion$ in subsidies and tax breaks from retarded/corrupt Govts helping them out. Our hard earned pissed up against the wall on unreliable scam projects.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
March 19, 2024 10:00 am

Yep the Leak is a bit weak. Plus, Herge got there a hundred years ago in Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.

Bolshevik_elections_in_Tintin
Roger
Roger
March 19, 2024 10:09 am

The Guardian cites an ongoing trend of energy companies switching from renewables to higher margin oil and gas projects as a factor in the company’s decline.

Chris Bowen is increasingly looking like a reverse King Canute, assuring Australians he can command the tides of world markets.

Roger
Roger
March 19, 2024 10:25 am

With the voter fraud in the US elections, the cartoons about the vote for Putin are hypocritical and unfunny. Big miss, Leak and Knight.

The interesting thing about democracy in modern times: it resonates so much with ordinary people – even Russians, who’ve never really experienced it in their history – that even when it’s being subverted the subverters have to pretend they’re democrats lest they lose legitimacy.

Bear Necessities
Bear Necessities
March 19, 2024 10:26 am

Why do we need to spend billions on Olympic games infrastructure? We can do a cut price games with existing infrastructure. No one remembers stadiums etc after the games have gone.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 10:30 am

Mem – The comment box is now at the top not the bottom.

When you post a comment it first stays at the top, but when you refresh it goes to the bottom.

Bit of a work in progress so far. The commenting seems to work more like Disqus, if you are used to that.

You don’t need to login to comment, but I think you need to register if you want to do upticks. I haven’t tried that yet.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 10:46 am

Heinlein keeps coming true, in this case the Moon Is A Harsh Mistress.

China Working on Giant Rail Gun to Shoot Astronauts Into Space (16 Mar, via instapundit)

Chinese scientists are working on a giant electromagnetic launch track to launch a massive 50-ton spaceplane — longer than a Boeing 737 — into orbit.

As the South China Morning Post reports, the “giant rail gun” system is designed to accelerate a hypersonic aircraft to speeds of up to Mach 1.6. Once it reaches the end of the track, its engine then accelerates it to the edge of space at seven times the speed of sound.

If actually built, it could greatly cut down on the amount of fuel such a craft would need to get to space, allowing it to carry bigger payloads — and save a considerable amount of money as well.

So far the Chinese haven’t managed to get anywhere near what Elon does with reusable rockets. But they’re trying, and they seem to be more inclined to try risky stuff that other nations are. The innovation race is fun to watch.

Roger
Roger
March 19, 2024 10:52 am

Mr Quirk’s review indicated it would provide no “significant legacy benefit” to the region and should not be used for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Quirk’s review seems to have been entirely uninformed of the Olympic Committee’s current advice that the games should utilise existing infrastructure to keep costs manageable, lest no city/country in future be willing to take them on.

Top man.

Top Ender
Top Ender
March 19, 2024 11:09 am
Tom
Tom
March 19, 2024 11:19 am

Sleazy rich pricks who pretend to be the worker’s friend news:

A first term Labor MP representing a key western Sydney marginal seat has snapped up a $12million mansion named ‘La Palma’ with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean, adding to his impressive property portfolio.

Andrew Charlton, MP for the western Sydney seat of Parramatta, recently purchased the four-bedroom Palm Beach prestige property, located some 50km from the seat he represents, as an investment property. 

It is Dr Charlton and his barrister wife Phoebe Arcus’s second mansion purchase since he bought a $16.1million mansion, Fintry, at Bellevue Hill in Sydney’s east, in November 2020. 

Dr Charlton – whose party touts itself as representative of the working class – also owns a terrace in plush Woollahra, also in the city’s east. He now lives in a $2million penthouse apartment in Parramatta, in his new parliamentary seat out west.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
March 19, 2024 11:29 am

Via Gateway Pundit and good work of Libs of TikTok.

Seems Planet Fitness think it is a good idea to allow men in ladies changing room.

Cancellations and 7% drop in share price so far.

When will they learn better to cater to the majority than very small minority.

Rabz
March 19, 2024 11:34 am

Grate – health insurance premium has gone up 8.5% from next month.

Thanks, dickheads!

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
March 19, 2024 11:39 am

A first term Labor MP representing a key western Sydney marginal seat has snapped up a $12million mansion named ‘La Palma’ 

The Right: If you make an effort you can provide for yourself. You may not become rich, you may not make as much money as some others, but it will be yours, and yours in a way no government benefit or gift could ever be.

The Left: You deserve what rich people have. Vote for me and I will get it. I promise I won’t use my power and position to enrich myself. That is what those awful rich people do,

Last edited 7 months ago by Mother Lode
Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
March 19, 2024 11:39 am

“Failing to swiftly destroy Hamas and directly punish Hamas’s backers in Iran and Qatar will teach sympathizers in other parts of the Muslim world that strategies of atrocity should be added to the playbook of regimes challenging U.S. allies around the world.”

Does anyone think that destroying Hamas, is even possible?
Or, more to the point, is that unachievable action even the goal?
No, is the answer to both.

The aim of the Israeli PM, Benjamin Pfizer, is to keep his sorry arse out of gaol.
Much like St Volodymyr the Pure, he is prepared to sacrifice his entire population, to achieve his goal.

Israel has never been weaker, in comparison to its neighbours, than it is now.
The catastrophe, (for both parties), that is occurring in Gaza, will be nothing, compared to what will happen, if Pfizer directs an attack against Lebanon, which, looks more and more likely.
Back in Dec/Jan, Israel evacuated more than 30,000 inhabitants of Northern Israel. Clearly, because Israel is so strong, ……, right?

If Lebanon is attacked, Israel will be on its own, because those US Carriers will be either withdrawn, or, more likely sunk. The loss of significant Israeli territory is not merely possible, but likely.

This is clearly a disastrous scenario, for Israel. Perhaps it is time to look for the best outcome for Israel, not the PM.

shatterzzz
March 19, 2024 11:43 am

Nothing like a confidence booster before , possible, life/death consultation with a specialist .. Phoned me 15 minutes ago, to say, “We haven’t got your MRI results yet” .. answered by my, “The imagining people msg-ed me on Friday afternoon to say they had forwarded the results to you” ……… FFS!

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 11:44 am

Crap science report of the day.

Magpies under siege from climate and man-made noise (Phys.org, 18 Mar)

The combined impact of climate change and human-generated noise are proving double trouble for wild urban-dwelling bird species, changing their behavior in ways that could threaten their survival.

That’s the finding of a new study from The University of Western Australia published in the journal Animal Behaviour, which looked at how hotter temperatures and loud man-made noises, such as those from airplanes, impacted West Australian magpies, both individually and when they co-occurred.

Magpies are thriving. Indeed more warmth is a good thing for them since they can start their season earlier, thereby avoiding cuckoos. And magpies in urban areas are as well fed as can be, especially in my suburb.

Ah well, the UWA PhD student will probably get an immediate lectureship and rise to professor even before you can say “climate crap”.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 19, 2024 11:49 am

TE, sad indictment of the ADF which comes as no surprise to Cats. In peacetime they’re already a failure. Coupled with failed Brereton Report, years in the making, the Brass should be fired. Me thinks if the Brass have not been in a life endangering situation they have no idea, hence the gazing into the past for indiscretions not in line with pleasant company at dinner parties. Angry shots tend to focus the mind. Am I correct to say is Cosgrove the last to be put in a dangerous situation?

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
March 19, 2024 11:56 am

Went to a Masked Owl Crisis fillum the other night. There was a posse of Black Cockatoo Crisis shirts in the lobby. I might get ahead of the market and print off some ASMR/Hot Flush Maggie Crisis hoodies for the autumn apocalypse.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 12:01 pm

Does anyone think that destroying Hamas, is even possible?

You can destroy its infrastructure. Fill its tunnels, and demolish every school and hospital used as weapons storage depots, launch sites and food dumps.

You can kill its leaders, both within Gaza and without, as well as anyone publicly identifying themselves with it.

You can make it so unpalatable for any existing or prospective member that any incentive for being anywhere near Hamas is gonski.

You can also send a message to any potential group looking to fill that vacuum that it would be a less than stellar idea.

So yes. Yes Hamas can be destroyed.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 19, 2024 12:01 pm

Roger

 March 19, 2024 10:09 am

The Guardian cites an ongoing trend of energy companies switching from renewables to higher margin oil and gas projects as a factor in the company’s decline.

Chris Bowen is increasingly looking like a reverse King Canute, assuring Australians he can command the tides of world markets.

Well, he certainly seems to be some kind of a Canute.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 19, 2024 12:06 pm

Tom

 March 19, 2024 11:19 am

Sleazy rich pricks who pretend to be the worker’s friend news:

A first term Labor MP representing a key western Sydney marginal seat has snapped up a $12million mansion named ‘La Palma’ with sweeping views of the Pacific Ocean, adding to his impressive property portfolio.

Andrew Charlton, MP for the western Sydney seat of Parramatta, recently purchased the four-bedroom Palm Beach prestige property, located some 50km from the seat he represents, as an investment property. 

It is Dr Charlton and his barrister wife Phoebe Arcus’s second mansion purchase since he bought a $16.1million mansion, Fintry, at Bellevue Hill in Sydney’s east, in November 2020. 

Dr Charlton – whose party touts itself as representative of the working class – also owns a terrace in plush Woollahra, also in the city’s east. He now lives in a $2million penthouse apartment in Parramatta, in his new parliamentary seat out west.

He and his ‘umble missus have spent $30 million on three residences, true representatives of the wukkas! mUnturd supports this kind of socialism.

cohenite
March 19, 2024 12:12 pm

Does anyone think that destroying Hamas, is even possible?
Or, more to the point, is that unachievable action even the goal?
No, is the answer to both.

Then what should Israel do.

feelthebern
feelthebern
March 19, 2024 12:16 pm

I continue to watch bits of the Channel 9, Dr Al Muderis defamation case.
A few observations.
The whole system needs an over haul when it comes to any orthopaedic surgery.
There needs to be stricter criteria before you qualify for tax payer funded work.
And unless you can demonstrate a decent support network (family, friends, community) there is little chance of adhering to the ongoing re-hab after you get out of the surgical re-hab units.

It’s a congo line of people with depression (from well before their surgeries) who end up riddled with infections.

If Al Muderis didn’t come across as such an arrogant fellow, Channel 9 would not have run the story IMHO.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
March 19, 2024 12:19 pm

Does anyone think that destroying Hamas, is even possible?

ISIS was here to stay a couple of short years ago.
Couldn’t be defeated by orthodox means apparently.

Kneel
Kneel
March 19, 2024 12:24 pm

Oops, this is buried in someones reply, so reposting:

AI is going to take all your jobs:

https://youtu.be/Sq1QZB5baNw

Supposed to be real, and I believe it.
Fascinating.
Amazing.
Scary.

Roger
Roger
March 19, 2024 12:33 pm

ABS wage index Q4 23 shows public sector salaries surged while only 16% of private sector jobs saw a modest increase of 4.4% on average.

It’s now a two tier workforce.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
March 19, 2024 12:40 pm

Oops, this is buried in someones reply, so reposting

This is why I am not using the reply function. I refresh and go to the bottom to see what comments are new. I am not going to go back over the whole thread to expand replies and then check if anything is…unfamiliar?

That is just me though.

Perhaps.

Last edited 7 months ago by Mother Lode
Zafiro
Zafiro
March 19, 2024 12:42 pm

How long before Miles does an Andrews and pulls the plug?

Yes, knock it on the head. Olympics are a WOFTAM and a bloated joke*

Will probably be replaced by the Hunger Games by then anyway.

https://www.paris2024.org/en/sport/breaking/

*breaking as in break dancing FFS. Rabz doctrine required

Last edited 7 months ago by Zafiro
Makka
Makka
March 19, 2024 1:02 pm

Does anyone think that destroying Hamas, is even possible?

The objective of this exercise is to demonstrate so much death of Hamas operatives and violent destruction of Hamas’ supporting infrastructure so as to deter future aspirants. So while destroying Hamas may indeed not be possible, it will most certainly dramatically reduce Hamas to somewhat of a rump rabble.

I fail to see why Israel should be prevented from doing just that, given the horrors Hamas visited on innocent people , including babies, on Oct 7th last. In fact this retribution is thoroughly deserved.

Baba
Baba
March 19, 2024 1:07 pm

Who was Genrikh Yagoda and why isn’t he as infamous as Hitler or Eichmann?

kneel
kneel
March 19, 2024 1:15 pm

“In fact this retribution is thoroughly deserved.”
I fail to see why we do not support it to the hilt, yet apparently support the Ukes.

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
March 19, 2024 1:16 pm

Looks like he’ll have to sell one of his properties, LOL.
Any normally sensible blog that has Monty on it has sold out.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
March 19, 2024 1:33 pm

Re the article about “The Government is not your Daddy.”
Government is like the strange man at the pub who promises you great drugs. When you take them, he goes through your handbag, helps himself to your girlie bits, blows your credit card limit, and then blames you for getting pregnant because you weren’t on the pill.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 19, 2024 1:48 pm

Off the top of my headhe was once head of NKVD one of Stalins henchmen. Succeeded by Beria. Either that or he was in Star Wars. Will check on Wiki.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 19, 2024 1:50 pm

I see I was wrong about Beria.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 1:52 pm

Looks like he’ll have to sell one of his properties, LOL.

I suspect he’s angling to have the corrupt legal system order confiscation of his properties, especially Trump Tower.

That will utterly destroy New York City, the real estate rats will be fleeing down the anchor ropes at great pace.

‘Escape From New York,’ Starring Donald Trump… and Every Other Developer (18 Mar)

Then the appellate court will overturn the judgement, reinstate his properties and award costs and actual and punitive damages to Trump.

It’ll be entertaining to see the gnashing of teeth from the usual suspects!

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 2:00 pm

AI is going to take all your jobs

It’s certainly going to turn Hollywood into a landscape of AIs and melting snowflakes.

Report: Laid-off Hollywood Executives Panic as Jobs Vanish — ‘This Is a Full-Scale Depression’ (18 Mar)

Golly that’s just so terrible! Maybe woke snowflake peoples you should’ve made movies that people actually wanted to watch rather than shove endless qwerty propaganda down everyone’s throats.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
March 19, 2024 2:02 pm

Upthread Top Ender linked to the excellent piece in Quadrant Online by Professor Michael Evans about ADF education of officers.

This paragraph sums it up for me:

There is a popular saying among military educators that “chalk dust must support gun smoke”. One of the reasons for the poor state of Australian professional military education is that external academic providers allowed chalk dust to eclipse gun smoke. There is a constant, unresolved philosophical tension between academic imperatives and enhancing military effectiveness. 

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 19, 2024 2:02 pm

comment image?fit=700%2C700

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 19, 2024 2:04 pm

Knuckles, I think it important for the destruction of Hamas is for the IDF to eliminate the foot soldiers as well as the leadership. The foot soldiers need to know they are targets, not just the top dogs. Advertise the fact. As we saw they were quite willing to surrender. Anyone identified in the massacre needs to be killed. The supporters that send money need two taps as well. I’m sure Mossad has the ability to identify them. Support terrorism and you’re a target. Benny Wonk comes to mind.

Black Ball
Black Ball
March 19, 2024 2:08 pm

Australia’s answer to Harry and Sparkles:

Candice and David Warner never forget.

The star-studded couple remain embedded in the spotlight even after David’s Test career came to an end at this year’s Sydney Test.

The left-handed opener found himself at the centre of criticism constantly throughout his career and as the trolls piled up, Candice, 39, wasn’t going to let them just slink away into the shadows.

The former ironwoman read and heard every crude word delivered to her husband over the years and kept a list of those who had gone after the Aussie opener.

“There was always that level of someone wanting him to fail,” she said on the Backstage With ?Cooper and Matty Johns podcast.

“David didn’t care so much about what was written about him, but I did and I still do because I’m so protective of him.

“I’ve got a little list of all the people that have said some really horrible things and there’s been times where I can’t bite my tongue.

“It was just a massive pile-on because it was easy and you could get a headline.”

The couple appeared on the podcast together where they gave a glimpse into their family life ever since David walked away from the Test arena.

But it was Candice’s revelation that she keeps David on an allowance that captured the attention of listeners.

“I’m pretty conservative, but David definitely is the spender,” she said.

“David has an allowance. It’s a healthy allowance so don’t think I’ve got him by the balls and he can’t enjoy his life.

David chimed in as he joked: “I’ve had a decline once, I’ve had it once, and I said, ‘have I been paid?’”

The star cricketer however revealed one major downside to the arrangement.

“‘If I try to surprise Candice and buy her a present I can’t because she’ll see the transaction come up!” he said.

Candice found herself in the thick of a heated debate on Monday morning as she came to the defence of Latrell Mitchell and his expletive-laden interview following South’s 28-18 loss to the Broncos.

“Listen to these names. Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, Patrick Mahomes,” she said on Triple M.

“These are just a couple of athletes, they have all sworn.

“Do our opinions of those incredible high achieving athletes change (because they swear)? Or is it because it’s Latrell Mitchell.”

Candice asked co-host Richard Freedman: “What would you like Latrell Mitchell to do. What is going to make you happy?

“Your saying you’d like him to be more of a role model?”

Freedman replied: “No, it’s because Latrell Mitchell swore repeatedly on air, when he knew he was on air, and then said ‘I don’t care’ and didn’t apologise for it.

“I think it’s highly inappropriate.”

According to News Corp, the NRL and South Sydney will not be taking any action and no breach of contract notice will be sent.

Wowee. Airheads doesn’t come close to describing these imbeciles. I foresee a book coming from Warner, except it will need to be written for him because he is about as bright as a wet sack of sawdust.

johanna
johanna
March 19, 2024 2:11 pm

TheirABC’s ‘experts’ proved to be idiots – again.

He says according to recent CSIRO research, the flies can also be blown more than 300km a day.

“That is normal,” he says.
Dr Evans says it is too cold for the flies in the southern half of the continent in winter.

“Flies can’t survive below 15 degrees.”

Dr (for a Doctor he is – h/t Gerald) should get out of the aircon and into the fresh air now and then.

Bushflies, and other flies, certainly can survive below 15C. Take it from someone who lives and has lived for decades in the Canberra region.

Bushflies do drop off quite quickly as it gets colder, but other types of flies around here even survive frosts. They do eventually disappear in the depths of winter.

TheirABC’s Rolodex of ‘experts’ contains as many duds as the Victorian Parliamentary Liberal Party.

PS – I still can’t vote up or down, because evil WordPress won’t accept my email address. It’s an encrypted one. The same thing happened when I tried to register for the SBS online service. Not acceptable – now, why would that be?

They’re harvesting your data, make no mistake.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
March 19, 2024 2:13 pm

Candice asked co-host Richard Freedman: “What would you like Latrell Mitchell to do. What is going to make you happy?
Your saying you’d like him to be more of a role model?”
ROFL! Sometimes the AI is bang on point.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 2:20 pm

Candice and David Warner never forget.

Australia won’t forget about you pair of dunderheads, either.

Black Ball
Black Ball
March 19, 2024 2:25 pm

Test

Black Ball
Black Ball
March 19, 2024 2:44 pm

Mike O’Connor in the Courier Mail:

Those fluttering sounds you can hear are the political pigeons of the state government coming home to roost.

There was never a plan to stage the Olympics that no other city in the world was interested in holding. Into this void stepped then Premier Palaszczuk, driven by ego and the deeply flawed presumption that it would be politically popular.

When the confected cheering and gasps of surprise at the announcement our bid had been successful subsided, everyone went home and carried on as before.

There was no strategy. The Games? No worries, mate. They’re years away.

Premier Steven Miles in now wedged firmly between a rock and a very hard place for behind all the uproar about his rejection of some aspects of Graham Quirk’s report lies the unpalatable truth that the government never had a mandate to pursue the Games and that a sizable majority of Queenslanders simply do not want them.

Miles has copped a caning for ruling out a stadium in Victoria Park but it was the right decision.

It’s a park. A green oasis. It’s one of the lungs of the city. Would New Yorkers tolerate the construction of a sporting stadium in Central Park? You know the answer.

Developers have been casting longing glances at Victoria Park for decades but the Brisbane City Council knew that to succumb to their whispered entreaties to despoil it would be political suicide.

Come the Games and suddenly it’s seen as acceptable to send in the trucks and bulldozers as a motley collection of former politicians, entrepreneurs, architects, butchers, bakers and candlestick makers tell us what to do with our city and where to do it.

Legacy has become the most over-used word in the lexicon. We are constantly told that we need a legacy. Legacy for whom? For politicians, for the developers and business people who stand to profit from these projects when the circus that is the Games leaves town?

We need to step back and take a breath and be wary of those who would use the Games as a cover to override the regulations which are designed to give us a certain quality of life.

Former Labor state politician Kate Jones, who hasn’t been elected by anyone to anything but who has plenty to say, warned us in a speech last week that to stage the Olympic Games “we’re going to have some difficult decisions to make,” adding that we shouldn’t “politically protect” some suburbs and that there had to be “bravery” in political decision-making.

There are laws and regulations which are designed to stop big business and big government trashing citizens’ quality of life so they can do whatever they like such as flattening parklands to build sporting stadiums.

These restrictive planning regimes are well named because they restrict people from destroying our lifestyles but in so doing restrict governments from giving the nod to big corporations to make lots of money at our expense.

You would think that the protection of suburbs that Jones referenced and by inference, people’s property rights and quality of life would surely be a good thing but it seems they are an irritation when seen in the context of the Games and should be cast aside.

When you hear people talking about difficult decisions, bravery and those bothersome restrictive planning regulations that stop people who know what’s best for us having their way, you know that the bulldozers are coming in the name of the greater good.

No one has ever counted the number of sins that have been committed in the name of the greater good because there are just too many of them.

Those people who have the good fortune to live outside the urban sprawl are also hearing about those cursed restrictive planning regimes, the ones that stop companies building a wind farm outside their kitchen windows.

The Victorian government is considering changes to planning laws that will block appeals to the Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal, forcing objectors to take the matter to the Supreme Court which it knows will be prohibitively expensive.

In NSW renewable energy developers are pressuring the government to reduce the buffer zone between giant wind farms and nearby communities in the name of the holy grail of net zero.

Let’s have bravery by all means, the sort needed to stand up and say that when it comes to development for the Games or for anything else, people come first.

Indolent
Indolent
March 19, 2024 2:54 pm

Andrew Lawrence

Out of his mind…

Indolent
Indolent
March 19, 2024 2:55 pm
rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 3:02 pm

US Navy getting that Gun Smoke experience.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 19, 2024 3:04 pm

Blackout Bowen being interviewed this morning on Breakfast TV –

Warning, warning. This is a very difficult video to watch – An ‘R’ Rating at least –

Do you believe him?

https://youtu.be/MqrswdotqFE

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
March 19, 2024 3:08 pm

“Candace and David Warner never forget”. What David Warner never forgets apart from being cheating midget houso ranga is SBW banging Candace in a pub dunny. Candace never forgets that night also.

Zafiro
Zafiro
March 19, 2024 3:09 pm

Indolent
 March 19, 2024 2:54 pm

Andrew Lawrence
Out of his mind…

https://youtu.be/DqPiUOvs2X8?t=123

BLiar hasn’t aged well. A real Epstein Island vibe there.

Top Ender
Top Ender
March 19, 2024 3:35 pm

Probably a first for a court-room?
Male museum visitor lodges legal battle against Mona over its women-only ‘ladies’ lounge’

Mona could be ordered to close down its opulent, emerald-curtained “ladies lounge” following a discrimination battle waged by an interstate museum visitor.

New South Wales resident Jason Lau has lodged a complaint with Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Commissioner after he paid $35 for a ticket to Mona, but was excluded from the artwork designed by Mona’s “first lady” Kirsha Kaechele.

The stoush was played out in the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Tuesday, with Ms Kaechele speaking passionately about why she felt a women-only ladies’ lounge that excluded men was an essential statement in the male-dominated art world.

She was accompanied by about 25 women, mainly dressed in blue power suits, glasses and pearl necklaces, who synchronised their movements in the hearing room – leaning back, leaning forward, holding onto their spectacle frames as one.

As the hearing concluded, the women formed a type of conga line and left the building while performing a synchronised dance step to the music of Robert Palmer’s Simply Irresistible.

Mr Lau represented himself via video link during the hearing, which was presided over by tribunal deputy president Richard Grueber.

He said that during his trip to Mona, he had been “quite surprised” to be refused access to the ladies lounge “on the basis I was male”.

“Any lay person would expect that if you buy a ticket, you would expect the provision of goods and services in line with the law,” he said.

Mr Lau also argued that men weren’t told they weren’t permitted entry to the lounge until after the ticket was purchased.

He has sought relief by Mona either removing the lounge, ceasing the exclusion of men, or creating a two-tiered ticketing system.

Mona’s lawyer Catherine Scott said to stop men being excluded from the artwork would change the very nature of the work, and also said Mona couldn’t change the ticketing system.

She argued the ladies’ lounge was covered by section 26 of Tasmania’s Anti-Discrimination Act, which allows for discrimination in any program, plan or arrangement designed to promote equal opportunity for a group of people who are disadvantaged, or have a special need due to a particular attribute.

Ms Kaechele was called to the witness stand to give evidence about how and why she created the ladies’ lounge, giving a vivid description of the creative process.

“An artwork – my experience is they tend to emerge. They’re not borne out of a particular moment. They’re part of an emergent process that I’m completely enthralled by as an artist and have a sense of awe for,” she said.

“I feel that I’m a vessel and the artwork builds itself. I like to call it ‘God is the curator’, to irritate my atheist friends, but it really feels like this artwork is coming through me.”

Ms Kaechele said women were traditionally excluded from places of power, and that she designed the ladies’ lounge in response to Mona having an imbalance of works by male and female artists.

“This presented the opportunity to make a statement and make a place for the gathering of women, for the very special thing that happens when women come together – and I mean anyone who identities as a woman, you don’t have to be born a woman,” she said.

“It excludes men, and I would be lying if I were to say I didn’t find it titillating.

“I think women have a moment of excitement and glee. It’s naughty. But why can we have a sense of humour about it? It’s because as women, we don’t hold the power.”

In her closing submissions, Ms Scott said if the lounge was a club where entry was charged, “we wouldn’t be here today because clubs have an exemption” under discrimination laws.

She said the ladies’ lounge came about from Mona realising it had a lack of art by women.

“It’s potentially a really powerful piece, a really powerful medium,” she said.

“It also responds to the historical exclusion of women from spaces.”

Ms Scott also said Mr Leu did in fact experience the artwork of the ladies’ lounge, which was one of the “clever” aspects of the artwork in responding to female disadvantage.

“Mr Lau did get to experience the artwork, which was his exclusion,” she said.

“Part of the experience is being denied something that is desired.”

Mr Grueber will hand down his decision at a date to be determined.

johanna
johanna
March 19, 2024 3:48 pm

Free speech lives!

WordPress won’t accept my registration, and Dover won’t accept my comments.

This version of the blog sucks big time, for the reasons mentioned in my unpublished comment above.

Ask Anthony Watts about the battles he had with WP regarding his huge and successful blog, including concerns about security, flexibility and independence. In the end, he ditched them, but it cost a lot of time and money.

I didn’t want to ‘register’ with WP, but after some consideration I tried to. Like SBS, TheirABC and other dataharvesters, they refused my email address because it is from an encrypted site.

What more do you need to know?

cohenite
March 19, 2024 3:48 pm

Ms Scott also said Mr Leu did in fact experience the artwork of the ladies’ lounge, which was one of the “clever” aspects of the artwork in responding to female disadvantage.

“Mr Lau did get to experience the artwork, which was his exclusion,” she said.
“Part of the experience is being denied something that is desired.”

So, it’s like being married.

JC
JC
March 19, 2024 3:55 pm

Hey Cronkite,

if the story is true that Trump is unable to secure a bond, and the fat ugly slug begins to seize assets, could this lead to ineligibility as a result of potential bankruptcy proceedings?

cohenite
March 19, 2024 3:59 pm

if the story is true that Trump is unable to secure a bond, and the fat ugly slug begins to seize assets, could this lead to ineligibility as a result of potential bankruptcy proceedings?

That’s the plan

JC
JC
March 19, 2024 4:07 pm

And the fat ugly slug taunts him everyday by posting the daily accrued interest. These people are truly evil. Unreal.

Top Ender
Top Ender
March 19, 2024 4:11 pm

Should have added, MONA is worthy of a yearly award as being the silliest and most pretentious art gallery/museum in the country.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
March 19, 2024 4:13 pm

Flying to Sydney from Melburnistan this morning we were put in a holding pattern somewhere Sth West of Syd-a-nee. The view out the aircraft window was appalling. Ferkin bird choppers in clusters all around. We were a fair way up and they dominated the landscape. Those things were almost as big a Bowens ego.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
March 19, 2024 4:17 pm

Speaking to an auto industry colleague. Tells me their brands representative attempted to give Clown Bowen a report on the impact of his beloved NVES due to come in next year. Herr Ministers Response ‘don’t give that to me!’, ‘i dont intend to read it’ ‘yes we knew the price of your vehicles would go up by thousand of $. That is the point!’

what a drop kick.

Brislurker
Brislurker
March 19, 2024 4:19 pm

It just got very interesting in Florida with Judge Cannon just issuing her latest decision. Finally President Trump has a win.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mar-lago-judge-stark-ruling-022208652.html

Last edited 7 months ago by Brislurker
H B Bear
H B Bear
March 19, 2024 4:31 pm

Kate spotted in public. Isn’t she supposed to be dead? Clearly Liz isn’t in charge anymore.

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 19, 2024 4:37 pm

Candice and David Warner never forget.

The star-studded couple remain embedded in the spotlight even after David’s Test career came to an end at this year’s Sydney Test.

Candice certainly was star studded. Then she married David Warner.

Zafiro
Zafiro
March 19, 2024 4:46 pm

Candice certainly was star studded. Then she married David Warner.

She knows what she is doing. Controls his finances. Probably pegs him.

Add Beta to cheat, houso and ranga.

Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
March 19, 2024 4:47 pm

One can only hope the tsunami reaches our shores! Regrettably, it means clogging our courts and more $ for the lawyerly scum.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/world/tsunami-of-indigenous-identity-fraud-cases-heading-to-courts-warns-bc-judge-5608191?ea_src=au-frontpage&ea_med=undefined-title-1

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
March 19, 2024 4:49 pm

The latest MONA schadenboner actually looks like a lot of fun. As long as the clowns don’t get handed any taxpayer munni, I say, play on.
…I’m still not visiting tho. Confirms that the whole circus is about as weighty as a gossip mag.

JC
JC
March 19, 2024 4:50 pm

dover0beach

March 19, 2024 4:32 pm

Reply to  Crossie

They are ‘shooting back’. They aren’t simply defending, they are also attacking. but it isn’t making a difference.

Your own link says the tootsies’ arsenal is being degraded. How is that not making a difference?

Last edited 7 months ago by JC
feelthebern
feelthebern
March 19, 2024 4:58 pm

A day out at MONA is fun. The catamaran, the outdoor bbq thingy, you might be lucky enough to see a band.
Plus some decent art. Also some shit art. But name a gallery where that isn’t the case.

Vicki
Vicki
March 19, 2024 4:58 pm

Wow – there are some weeks you want to forget.

We get our mail redirected to farm & just arrived after city sojourn to be greeted by all that is going crazy in this country.

The worst was a fine for a parking offence in QLD – now, we havnt been in QLD in a few years & our Landcruiser has not been stolen or borrowed. The fine was for a number plate that was NOT ours, yet a call to the QLD department which sent the fine would not budge & said the photo was of a Landcruiser! Australia is becoming a joke! Trouble is – it’s not funny.

The next envelope was from Meat & Livestock Aust. seeking our re-registration through the most convoluted digital process you could devise . At this time, I doubt if I can navigate it!

This is a country going backwards in a hurry.

feelthebern
feelthebern
March 19, 2024 5:01 pm

Last Oct, a kilo of blueberries was 18 bucks at Costco.
A month ago, 24 bucks.
Today, 32 bucks.
Dunno what’s going on there.
I’d supposed to be happy I’m a shareholder.

Dunny Brush
Dunny Brush
March 19, 2024 5:10 pm

In I’m-already-voting -for-you-so-you-don’t-have-to-convince-me news: Trump is apparently open to deporting Harold Windsor.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
March 19, 2024 5:14 pm

Democrats Are Dancing in the Streets Over Bankrupting Trump & Family
comment image

You had better get the HELL out of NYC and not do business with ANY company in New York City, for the courts are no longer reliable. The novel action against Trump is that they claimed your house is worth one million for a loan even though the bank independently values it at $800k and lends you $500k. Despite you paying back the loan and the banks even testifying that they did not rely on that number, the NY court arbitrarily called that FRAUD. There is ABSOLUTELY no company that cannot now be utterly destroyed in NYC using this theory. They could even target individuals they do not like and take their homes as well.

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/rule-of-law/democrats-are-dancing-in-the-streets-over-bankrupting-trump-family/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

Harlequin Decline
March 19, 2024 5:17 pm

So I’m heading back to Sydney on Sunday and have organised a 3 week rental commencing Monday due to renovations that are meant to be in progress on my property. For this rental I have had to pay the full amount in advance.

With 24 hours notice I receive an email saying the rental has been cancelled due to ‘maintenance issues’, no further details , no alternative offered , nothing other than a refund of just what I have paid.

It seems odd that I have to pay the full amount in advance but the other party can cancel without penalty 24 hours before occupation. I’m considering my options but if anyone has any similar experience I would be interested in their views.

Simon Morgan
Simon Morgan
March 19, 2024 5:21 pm

The Dumbocrats have jumped for joy on many, many occasions, only to be bested again by the Don.

I’m pretty sure this will be the next notch on his belt.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
March 19, 2024 5:31 pm

Never even ‘eard of ;im…..

A Marvel actor has reportedly been “officially offered” the role of James Bond.
British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been formally offered the chance to take over from current Bond star Daniel Craig, according to The Sun.

Arky
March 19, 2024 5:32 pm

I’m pretty sure their plan for Trump is to get him in prison or jail long enough to murder him.

mareeS
mareeS
March 19, 2024 5:32 pm

I can do comments and upticks, but I’m not sure how I managed it. The site always just says “You are logged in as mareeS.” I think I ticked the “remember me” box when I first did the log-in when it all changed the other day.

Crossie
Crossie
March 19, 2024 5:36 pm

Simon Morgan

 March 19, 2024 5:21 pm

The Dumbocrats have jumped for joy on many, many occasions, only to be bested again by the Don.

I’m pretty sure this will be the next notch on his belt.

The utter Democrat fools in NY think that nobody is paying attention to what they are doing. Not only are all Republicans taking note of what would happen to them in NY if they displeased the fascists but the whole business world is looking and thinking if they need to set up in US they will go to Florida. I expect NYC to become a regional centre in the near future.

Bruce in WA
March 19, 2024 5:38 pm

Testing …

Crossie
Crossie
March 19, 2024 5:42 pm

Barking Toad

 March 19, 2024 5:31 pm

Never even ‘eard of ;im…..

A Marvel actor has reportedly been “officially offered” the role of James Bond.

British actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been formally offered the chance to take over from current Bond star Daniel Craig, according to The Sun.

I never heard of him either but he looks pretty and might grow into the role, as long as they don’t make him gay.

feelthebern
feelthebern
March 19, 2024 5:51 pm

Aaron Taylor-Johnson has been in a bunch of good movies.
Dunno if he’s good enough to be Bond though.

Delta A
Delta A
March 19, 2024 5:52 pm

Just glanced at the top left corner of The Cat.

Howdy, Dover. 🙂

Delta A
Delta A
March 19, 2024 5:55 pm

Ooh! And add a few more deltas to my gravatar and I look just like Simon Morgan.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
March 19, 2024 5:56 pm

Despite you paying back the loan and the banks even testifying that they did not rely on that number, the NY court arbitrarily called that FRAUD

Well Marty would know.

Last edited 7 months ago by Sancho Panzer
rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 6:19 pm
Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 6:23 pm

Entitled self-absorbed greenie scrote news (the Hun):

Two serial climate protesters who blocked the West Gate Bridge — delaying 16 emergency responses — have been handed extra jail time after a bid to have their sentences slashed backfired.

Extinction Rebellion protesters Deanna “Violet” Coco, 33, and her partner Bradley Homewood, 51, were jailed for three weeks after they used a truck to block three city-bound lanes of the bridge during morning peak hour on March 5.

The pair at the County Court on Tuesday argued they should be released on community sentences, but Judge David Sexton instead ordered they serve two months behind bars.

Two months. Should have been two years, but ‘green shoots’ (fnarrr). The judge (David Sexton):

“Whilst you may have been well intentioned or motivated having regard to your strongly held beliefs regarding the impacts of climate change, the methodology you each employed to make your points causing a significant risk and disruption to the lives of others.

“Your sustained obstruction of emergency workers was not appropriate and must be denounced.

And:

The court earlier heard 16 emergency calls, including three ambulances, were delayed as a result of the nearly 2½ hour-long protest.

Among those affected was Tarneit mother Roshni Lad who was forced to give birth on the side of the Western Ring Road after she and her husband were unable to reach the hospital.

Yep. Should have been two years. The Greens’ elected representatives:

Character references from state Greens MP Gabrielle de Vietri and former federal Greens leader Bob Brown were submitted on the pair’s behalf.

Judge Sexton said Ms de Vietri’s description of the protest causing “some inconvenience to commuters” was a “spectacular understatement”.

Homewood, who had been in custody since his arrest, had already served two weeks of his sentence.

Coco had served ten days after she was freed on bail last week but was taken back into custody after the hearing.

Huzzah!

feelthebern
feelthebern
March 19, 2024 6:24 pm

Back on the Al Muderis defamation case.
A couple of patients were operated on, had a reduced amount of time in the post surgery re-hab because of COVID before they were sent home to re-hab themselves (physio when they could get it).
I am shocked surgeries were performed during the COVID years where proper re-hab could not be done.
The surgeries in these instances should never have been performed.

feelthebern
feelthebern
March 19, 2024 6:29 pm

According to the case so far, approximately 10% of all orthopaedic surgeries need additional surgeries.
These are the surgeries that are expected to be one & done.
Not the ones where multiple ones are planned.

Delta A
Delta A
March 19, 2024 6:32 pm

Finally, a judge in touch with the everyday Aussie.

Thanks, KD, for posting such excellent news for all us fiesty old (lady) conservatives.

miltonf
miltonf
March 19, 2024 6:37 pm

So the old brown turd puncher condones that act of political terrorism on the Westgate Bridge.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
March 19, 2024 6:39 pm

Hey a question from a colleague whose wife is returning to work after a 10 year break.

His Mrs was in Sunsuper but it has been swallowed up. He’s wondering who they should go with now, apparently all the industry funds have absolutely horrible reviews. Heaps of retail funds but they are less sure there, he’s with MLC but reckons their fees structure isn’t real transparent.

Which is the best of the worse with the union funds, he’s looking at Australiansuper or Hostplus.

miltonf
miltonf
March 19, 2024 6:39 pm

Brown of the earliest meja anti heroes.

Top Ender
Top Ender
March 19, 2024 6:53 pm

Sort of unbelievable, but then again:

Like so many newly-retired boomers, my parents seem to have developed a full-on travel bug. And with every taken-on-a-whim excursion to Provence, every luxury jaunt to Thailand, New York or Costa Rica, I’m afraid to say I grow ever more resentful.

It is not a pleasant thing to admit, but the fact is their dream holidays are draining my inheritance.

As an impecunious 34-year-old millennial in an impossibly expensive property market, I am relying on, at some stage, a handout from them. But all I can see is my money receding into the distance on a long-haul trip to Bali.

With many of my friends in a similar position, and the cost of living crisis still at full throttle, the question troubling us over the generational divide is this. Who is being selfish? Us for wanting them to save their money so we can one day have it? Or them, for splurging it all so freely on themselves?

At the start of their travel spree, about five years ago, I loved the bravery and ambition of it. Growing up, we usually went to Devon or Cornwall once a year. But when there was just the two of them (my younger sister and I have long since flown the nest), they could afford to globe trot. For a bit.

Well, good for them, I thought. Let them, in their late 60s, have a couple of lovely holidays, before settling into a cosy retirement at home.
?
The problem was it didn’t stop at just one or two. It didn’t even stop at three or four.

More whingeing at the Daily Mail

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 6:59 pm

It is not a pleasant thing to admit, but the fact is their dream holidays are draining my inheritance.

As an impecunious 34-year-old millennial in an impossibly expensive property market, I am relying on, at some stage, a handout from them. But all I can see is my money receding into the distance on a long-haul trip to Bali.

Is that you twostix?

Harlequin Decline
March 19, 2024 7:06 pm

Whilst overnighting in Canberra I met a retired public servant who I was at University with.

Fifteen years ago he was hard over left wing, ABC devotee, Green, women’s rights, frontier wars, hated Abbott……the whole catastrophe.

In a believe it or not event he has now been orange pilled, not quite red but most of the way there.

Over 3 hours and 2 bottles of sake he treated me to a lament that should have bought tears to my eyes had I not burst out laughing.

He is surrounded by woke women in the wokest suburb in Australia and mixes with academia.

He cannot get more than one sentence into a discussion without being called a racist and shouted down. He he thinks Albo is the worst PM we have ever had, he thinks Keating was totally overrated, he wants an immediate halt to immigration, believes the Ozrot started with Hawke and China is not to be trusted. Neededless to say this is 180 degrees opposed to the feelings of those around him.

He was absolutely scathing about the Universities who he says are totally enamoured with China.

The poor bastard says he only knows 2 more or less normal people, both in Sydney and I appear to be one of them.

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
March 19, 2024 7:15 pm

Rockdoctor
 March 19, 2024 6:39 pm

Hey a question from a colleague whose wife is returning to work after a 10 year break.
His Mrs was in Sunsuper but it has been swallowed up. He’s wondering who they should go with now, apparently all the industry funds have absolutely horrible reviews. Heaps of retail funds but they are less sure there, he’s with MLC but reckons their fees structure isn’t real transparent.

Which is the best of the worse with the union funds, he’s looking at Australiansuper or Hostplus.

Not sure I have mastered the new format.

I suggest opening an account with Vanguard. There are many options, and low fees.

And best of all, it doesn’t make contributions to the unions or the ALP.

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
March 19, 2024 7:16 pm

Block quote fail.

Top Ender
Top Ender
March 19, 2024 7:22 pm

Oregon shows the world how drug decriminalisation does not work

By MELANIE PHILLIPS
THE TIMES

For many years, Oregon has been the American poster child of drug decriminalisation. In 1973 it became the first state in the country to decriminalise cannabis. In 2020, it was the first state to decriminalise small amounts of hard drugs such as heroin, fentanyl and cocaine. It did this through the Drug Addiction Treatment and Recovery Act, which was passed by a referendum.

The aim was to shift drug use from a criminal justice issue to a public health one. Decriminalisation meant that while prohibited drugs remained illegal, criminal charges were abandoned. This was predicted to reduce the number of drug addicts in prison and increase the number receiving treatment.

Elsewhere around the world, this liberal orthodoxy has made powerful inroads. While most governments have held the line against decriminalisation, they have also changed the focus to “harm reduction”, which aims not to stop drug-taking but to use public health measures to manage it better.

Liberal orthodoxy holds that the problem isn’t illicit drugs but the laws that criminalise them. And Oregon has been cited as proof.
Now, though, Oregon is rethinking, at least in part. Last week its Senate voted to make possession of small amounts of hard drugs a misdemeanour punishable by up to six months in jail or 18 months’ probation.

This is because the public has turned against the 2020 law. Few addicts are actually seeking voluntary treatment programs.

Instead, public drug use has become rampant, with all its resulting squalor. People are openly using fentanyl, said to be hundreds of times more potent than heroin, on the streets.

From 2022 to 2023, fentanyl overdose deaths rocketed by an estimated 42 per cent. Two months ago Portland, Oregon’s largest city, declared a state of emergency over a public health and safety crisis driven by fentanyl use.

A drug counsellor and former drug user there has said many people struggling with addiction will not seek treatment without criminal justice intervention. Well, there’s a surprise. It would seem that there might be a point to the rule of law after all.

Oregon’s 2020 Act was inspired by Portugal, which in 2001 decriminalised personal possession of all drugs and was widely hailed as the template for focusing on public health rather than a law-based “abstinence” policy.

Portugal, however, is now also experiencing buyer’s remorse. The number of adults using illicit drugs increased to 12.8 per cent in 2022, up from 7.8 per cent in 2001. The number of people seeking help has fallen dramatically, while the number openly abusing drugs on the streets has risen exponentially. Police say this also helps account for a huge rise in crime.

Joao Goulao, the head of Portugal’s national institute on drug use and the architect of decriminalisation, admitted in December: “What we have today no longer serves as an example to anyone.” Rather than fault the policy, however, he blamed a lack of funding.

A more likely explanation is provided by Keith Humphreys, a former senior drug policy adviser in the Obama administration and a professor of psychiatry at Stanford University. When law enforcement first backs away from illicit drug use, he said, it takes time for users to stop behaving as if the police are still lurking.

“Then word gets out that there’s an open market, limits to penalties, and you start drawing in more drug users. Then you’ve got a more stable drug culture and, frankly, it doesn’t look as good any more.”

Other places are also beginning to roll back their liberal drug policies. Amsterdam, famous for its “pot cafes”, last year banned smoking cannabis in public places. In Norway, a Portugal-style plan to decriminalise drugs collapsed in 2021 and the country opted instead for a more piecemeal approach.

Two years after the Washington state legislature decriminalised hard drugs, Bellingham city council voted last year to make open drug use an arrestable crime; the fentanyl overdoses of a five-year-old and two teenagers was the last straw.

It may be, though, that Oregon still hasn’t got the most important point. When it voted for decriminalisation, it did so because it had a serious problem, with one in 11 then addicted to drugs. It did not, however, spot a link between that and the decriminalisation of cannabis 17 years previously.

On the contrary, it viewed cannabis as a cash cow. While convictions for drug use were expensive, noted the 2020 Act, Oregon now received more than $150m in annual cannabis tax revenue, a bounty that was expected to grow by more than $30m annually.

Even now, there’s still no move to recriminalise cannabis and other “soft” drugs in Oregon. But the evidence suggests soft drugs cannot be separated from hard ones. It’s not simply because cannabis is a gateway to the hard stuff or that it does terrible things to the brain and behaviour. More fundamentally, it is because tackling drug abuse requires consistent signalling.

The message needs to be that all narcotics are illegal because they are all dangerous. Differential polices between “hard” and “soft” muddle that message, which then gets lost altogether.

In The Netherlands, the bastion of lenient drug policies, the mayor of Amsterdam has warned that the growth of a vast, professional and violent drugs trade risks turning the country into a narco-state.

Coincidence? You’d have to be smoking something to believe that.

THE TIMES

Oz

Roger
Roger
March 19, 2024 7:33 pm

His Mrs was in Sunsuper but it has been swallowed up.

I heard that Sunsuper’s successor just took a massive hit on the NYC property market.

(Not financial advice.)

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
March 19, 2024 7:37 pm

It’s not simply because cannabis is a gateway to the hard stuff or that it does terrible things to the brain and behaviour. More fundamentally, it is because tackling drug abuse requires consistent signalling.

Smoking pot has been sanctified by green progressivism as a holy ritual since Woodstock. Good luck weaning them off of it.

Delta A
Delta A
March 19, 2024 7:39 pm

Curious.

Simon Morgan, does Salem mean anything to you?

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
March 19, 2024 7:50 pm

Cheers Peter & Roger will pass on.

Rabz
March 19, 2024 7:55 pm

Smoking pot has been sanctified by green progressivism as a holy ritual since Woodstock. Good luck weaning them off of it.

Not to mention good ol’ Rastafarians. Legend has it Viv Richards used to partake in some ‘erb before going out to face Lillee and Thommo back in the day.

Delta A
Delta A
March 19, 2024 7:58 pm

Sorry Simon, I don’t mean witch hunt Salem. I mean today, joyful Salem.

cohenite
March 19, 2024 8:02 pm

Honestly, look at this evil, vicious kunt:

Clementine-Ford-ugly-face
Mother Lode
Mother Lode
March 19, 2024 8:04 pm

Smoking pot has been sanctified by green progressivism as a holy ritual since Woodstock. Good luck weaning them off of it.

I always thought dope’s illicitness was part of the appeal for young people. When effectively legalised the forbidden thrill had to move to the next drug.

Ecstasy is a common enough drug but I don’t think it is what people go to for a shared experience with a few friends.

If marijuana becomes socially acceptable, and people are able to smoke it with the same casualness as they drink grog, does heroin begin to possess an allure?

I really don’t claim to know. It is way outside my experience.

JC
JC
March 19, 2024 8:05 pm

cohenite

March 19, 2024 8:02 pm

Honestly, look at this evil, vicious kunt:

No!

Old Lefty
Old Lefty
March 19, 2024 8:07 pm

The ABC worrying about economic mismanagement in Victoriastan?

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-19/breakthrough-victoria-bad-investments-no-transparency/103605338

Am I hallucinating?

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 19, 2024 8:14 pm

cohenite

March 19, 2024 8:02 pm

Honestly, look at this evil, vicious kunt:

Who (or what) is she?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
March 19, 2024 8:17 pm

Who (or what) is she?

Clemmie Ford, isn’t it?

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 8:20 pm

A little old but note the opening comment about poor irrigation system maintenance.
Here in the middle of France there is a little flooding.
The pretty town I’m staying in, Sens is on the River Yonne, the houses on the river bank have high stone walls, for good reason.
There is a little island in the river and this is where I’m having coffee , in a little bar near the medieval church of St Maurice which looks to be locked up, unfortunately.
Hopefully the Cathedral on the other side of the river is open.
The broom? is in full bloom and pink petals drift from the trees as kind snow.
The trip here on the regional train between Lyon and Paris Bercy was uneventful, though I was taken astray by Google again navigating from the station. The host hadnt put the correct address on the listing, (so much for ‘get directions’) but only in a later message. Fortunately rescued by a kind lady in a Mercedes who drove me back to my accommodation which I’d left behind in the gravel dust I was dragging my suitcase through on the road to nowhere. I told her my sad pickpocket story and she offered to buy me food.
I’m mentioning because there is still a great deal of good in France.
I feel I’m bumbling due to loss of confidence, time to get a fresh grip.
Returning to Part Dieu where I had been so disoriented on Thursday night reminded me I should avoid night arrivals to new places. Everything was obvious in daylight and of course there were lots more normal people about.
Inside Part Dieu the station staff were supervising people buying tickets from the vending machines. No opportunities for scum.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/03/01/state-of-emergency-declared-in-sicily-due-to-drought

H B Bear
H B Bear
March 19, 2024 8:22 pm

Whatever Victoriastan loses on private equity will be a rounding error in the scheme of things.

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 8:22 pm

Marijuana is everywhere in Europe. Even in my local bar in Malta you could buy little vials of some sort of liquid hash hit and it was pretty cheap.

Roger
Roger
March 19, 2024 8:25 pm

The ABC worrying about economic mismanagement in Victoriastan?

The Victorian government engaging in venture capitalism with tax payer funds.

What could possibly go wrong?

cohenite
March 19, 2024 8:28 pm

I talked to an otherwise reasonable DJ about the Trump’s bloodbath bullshit. He had previously had on a seriously TDS dickhead who had said Trump’s bloodbath comment about the chunks dumping cars they were building in Mexico if he wasn’t elected was conclusive evidence Trump was Hitler reincarnated.

After I had refuted this the DJ turned to Jan 6 and how this was conclusive evidence about Trump being a dictator. It didn’t matter what evidence I presented to refute the Jan 6 narrative the DJ could not be persuaded.

TDS is weird. For me it is conclusive proof that the person suffering from it is fundamentally a leftie and should be nuked.

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 8:31 pm

Sounds to me that at least some of the orthopaedic surgery decisions were made in the best interests of the medical practitioners, not the patient, prospects of a good long term outcome should have been the primary consideration not the success of the surgery itself.
I had a couple of family members who had unavoidable lifesaving major surgery during covid.
Nightmares.

Roger
Roger
March 19, 2024 8:33 pm

The Victorian government engaging in venture capitalism with tax payer funds.

What could possibly go wrong?

And the dude running it is on $500k p.a. + perks regardless of performance.

Of course he is! Talent like that doesn’t come cheap.

Roger
Roger
March 19, 2024 8:40 pm

I had a couple of family members who had unavoidable lifesaving major surgery during covid.

Nightmares.

No. 2 son lost about 25% functionality in one leg due to delayed diagnosis and surgery for an aggressive tumour during covid lockdowns.

The prognosis could worsen over time.

shatterzzz
March 19, 2024 9:00 pm

Applying for the NSW plod commish jerb very shortly …… LOL!
https://twitter.com/i/status/1769763153590554649

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
March 19, 2024 9:04 pm

240313_CTUP_COVIDCommitteeReport_Doc.pdf (committeetounleashprosperity.com) #8 – The real batflu hospital death tragedy was underutilization.
Add that to the obvious knobbling of the usual health supply.
Dancing nurses in empty wards on TikTok is the meme which haunts the scamdemic.

hzhousewife
hzhousewife
March 19, 2024 9:31 pm

surgery decisions were made in the best interests of the medical practitioners, not the patient,

Caesarians anyone?

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 9:37 pm

Sens Cathedral is superb.
Enormous, with a wonderful ambulatory featuring stained glass windows from the early 13th century, for which the claim is made that they rival those of Chartres or Bourges.
I am sitting in from of the one dedicated to St Thomas à Becket, underneath the window there is also a statue of him, from the house in Sens where he lived.
The story here.
https://www.lyonne.fr/sens-89100/loisirs/il-y-a-850-ans-thomas-becket-se-refugiait-a-sens_12085359/

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 9:48 pm

Caesareans might sometimes be a convenience, sometimes for doctors and sometimes at the insistence of mothers.
I had four Caesareans, all very necessary, without going into any details.
You can wonder why so many women in Egypt opt for caesareans, or not.
https://www.who.int/news/item/16-06-2021-caesarean-section-rates-continue-to-rise-amid-growing-inequalities-in-access

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 9:56 pm

Oh there is an extraordinary 18 metre rose window depicting the Last Judgement.
Tartarian Catholics.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 10:10 pm

A stroke of luck. Goodfellas is on Focks.

One of the great moments in cinematic history, from Billy Batts:

Now go home and get your fkin shinebox…

JC
JC
March 19, 2024 10:12 pm

If only fridges weren’t invented. Look how many jobs disappeared.

In 1928, an Ice Man in Houston, Texas, pictured delivering a 25-pound ice block. Selling ice was a big business during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Ice was taken from ponds and rivers and transported worldwide by train or boat. It was then distributed locally by ice wagons. Frederic Tudor, the “Ice King,” started the ice trade in 1806. He began by shipping ice from New England to his rich customers in the Caribbean. As the years went by, he started shipping ice to Cuba, the southern U.S., and eventually to places as far as India, Australia, China, and South America. The ice trade was a big employer at its peak, with 90,000 workers and 25,000 horses in the U.S. alone. The demand for ice increased during World War 1, but once the war was over, the trade declined due to new refrigeration systems. By the 1930s, more households had modern fridges; by the 1950s, they were almost everywhere in the U.S. and Europe.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GI_LkmOboAAv3T6?format=jpg&name=900×900

Last edited 7 months ago by JC
thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
March 19, 2024 10:17 pm

Update on friend who was assaulted
He’s on an absolute high believe it or not, buzzing after pulverising one of the turds as the rest hit him 5 times with the axe and 3 times in the head with a hammer.
8 to one and they ran dragging their unconcious buddy behind them.
At the hospital after pissing blood and getting assessed ” what’s your pain level”

Zero
He would have made an excellent berserker.

He’s really going to feel it once the adrenaline wears off.
Police response was quick and apparently 2 charges so far.
Be nice if the media wouldn’t put pictures of his house on the news though.

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 10:21 pm
Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 10:22 pm

He’s on an absolute high believe it or not, buzzing after pulverising one of the turds as the rest hit him 5 times with the axe and 3 times in the head with a hammer

Outstanding.

It is truly amazing how much you can run on adrenaline.

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 10:30 pm

Imagine the mental poverty that thought it was a good idea to tear down the house occupied by Thomas à Becket?

Baba
Baba
March 19, 2024 10:38 pm

Who was Genrikh Yagoda and why isn’t he as infamous as Hitler or Eichmann?

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 10:46 pm

Another obvious really thing about climateers and the msm.
Bad news stories about droughts get wide coverage but when the good rain comes.
Zip.
In early February Barcelona was apparently down to 16% in its reservoirs yet people need to use less water because there will be more heavy rain
https://www.barcelona.cat/emergenciaclimatica/en/taking-care-water

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 10:54 pm

Who was Genrikh Yagoda and why isn’t he as infamous as Hitler or Eichmann?

Here we go:

rosie
rosie
March 19, 2024 11:00 pm

Why are you reposting that comment Baba?

Baba
Baba
March 19, 2024 11:05 pm

What’s your problem, Rosie?

Black Ball
Black Ball
March 19, 2024 11:06 pm

Herald Sun:

For former hostage Moran Stella Yanai, she is still in the grips of Hamas.

For 54 days, the Israeli jewellery designer lived in constant fear as she was shifted between dark and decaying houses, starved and threatened into silence.

While she counted the days inside captivity, a video of her begging Hamas terrorists not to kill her would circulate around the world, prompting her family, including her Israeli-Australian brother-in-law, Underbelly star Dan Mor, to plead for her release.

In an exclusive interview with the Herald Sun, Ms Yanai – the first former Hamas hostage to travel to Australia since October 7 – said she couldn’t shake the thoughts of being back in captivity.

“I’m still there,” she said.

“I’m still processing the fact that I was there.”

On October 6 last year, Ms Yanai, 40, looked proudly across the necklaces and bracelets she had laid neatly across her floor.

She had spent days and nights designing and assembling in preparation for her jewellery store at the Supernova music festival in southern Israel.

Venturing into the Negev desert that afternoon, Ms Yanai set up shop and watched as people streamed on to the dance floor.

She sipped tea alongside other shop owners through the night as they listened to music thump across the sand, and stared at a golden sunrise as morning came that reminded her of a recent trip to Thailand.

But at 6.29am the calm was quickly shattered when Ms Yanai spotted two missiles shooting into the sky.

Within hours, 360 festival-goers would be slaughtered. Young women would be raped and mutilated, and their naked bodies would be dragged through Gaza.

And Ms Yanai, who had broken her leg during hopeless hours spent attempting escape the vast desert, would be captured by 10 Hamas terrorists.

“They pulled me out from the tree, and they start to drag me towards Gaza,” she said.

“I know that me entering into Gaza as a civilian, I will probably be lynched.”

Ms Yanai said she was then forced on to one man’s lap as they all packed into a Jeep.

“They were so happy that we’re celebrating in the car. I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to see anything,” she said.

“By the time that we entered Gaza, one of the Hamas told me to open my eyes and to see.

“Think of me as a bull coming into Gaza, into the arena.”

Ms Yanai said they began beating her in the car as they drove through crowds of civilians cheering.

“Then the car stops and that’s a nightmare,” she said.

“I felt somebody trying to pull my leg and I felt the pipe hitting my knee.”

Ms Yanai was briefly taken to a nearby hospital where a doctor wrapped her broken leg in plaster before she was taken to her captors first hiding place.

“It was like a family house but without the family,” she said.

“It looked like a living room.”

The house would be the first of seven, and the captors who watched her day and night would be just four of many.

It would become her mission to protect the blonde, green-eyed 18-year-old girl sitting across from her whose family and friends had been murdered just hours earlier.

“You keep thinking every minute that now they’re going to kill you, now you are going to be raped,” she said.

Permission was required for every move, food and water was scarce most days and crying was never allowed.

“If you don’t stop that, I will kill you, he would say,” she said.

“You have to whisper, you’re not allowed to speak out loud.”

At one point during a card game with another hostage, Ms Yanai said one of the terrorists had a pointed a gun at her and threatened to “put a bullet in my head”.

“I would just think: Will it end like this so that I’m like an object on the floor?” she said.

To ensure the neighbours didn’t cast suspicions, Ms Yanai said her captors called her Sarra and dressed her in disguises.

“The girl had a hijab because she’s light skinned, bright eyes,” she said.

“But I look a bit Arab … and I know a little bit of Arabic.

“They made me look like a grandmother in a wheelchair, and if somebody’s coming to me that I need to play it like I can’t talk.”

Ms Yanai said she believes she was able to survive because she was able to “manipulate” her captors.

“You had to do it because you need food and you need water and you need medicine,” she said.

Ms Yanai said as she moved house to house as bombs rained down on Gaza she made sure to tell each captor she had enjoyed her time with them.

“Thank you, I would say,” she said.

“When I moved onto the next house, he would ask me: who was the better house and I would say, of course in your first house.

“You cannot leave Gaza if you have a bad story”.

Ms Yanai was one of nine people freed on day 54.

A tear rolls down her face as she recalls hearing the voices of her siblings and parents.

“That’s the moment you pictured every day inside captivity, that’s the only thing that helps you survive,” she said.

But Ms Yanai said until all of the hostages are freed, her mind would be trapped in Gaza.

Today, 134 people, including 19 young girls remain in captivity.

Ms Yanai asked Australians to not give up hope that they would be returned alive.

“Don’t think that they’re dead, or they’re broken or their life has ended, or they will never recover,” she said.

“Think about them as strong, like me.”

This is one of the more uplifting things you will read. Real courage, real resilience. I’m sure the ABC and Teh Project will be falling over themselves to get an interview with this remarkable woman. Peace be upon you Ms Yanai.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 11:10 pm

Who was Genrikh Yagoda

I am fairly confident he was the bloke who invented Post-It notes.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 11:12 pm

Who was Genrikh Yagoda

Creator of the Hills Hoist.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 11:13 pm

Who was Genrikh Yagoda

National CWA Secretary, 1954 – 1979.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 11:14 pm

Who was Genrikh Yagoda

The purple Teletubby.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
March 19, 2024 11:40 pm

Very amusing Knuckles
Puts hands on hips and laughs Taras Bulba style.

KevinM
KevinM
March 19, 2024 11:42 pm

Knuckle Dragger
March 19, 2024 11:14 pm

Who was Genrikh Yagoda

His first name was actually Henrik, but for some strange reason, although the Russian language has the letter “H” they substitute it to “G” in some cases.
Why? Who knows?

rosie
rosie
March 20, 2024 12:06 am

Garden lovers should put Sens in the springtime on their to do list, behind the cathedral is the most beautiful formal garden with conical trees guarding the corners of the mini hedged flower beds full of tulips, hyacinths pansies and alyssum.

Boambee John
Boambee John
March 20, 2024 8:15 am

Baba

 March 19, 2024 10:38 pm

Who was Genrikh Yagoda and why isn’t he as infamous as Hitler or Eichmann?

A communist murderer, communists always get a free pass for their crimes.

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