Open Thread – Thurs 18 April 2024


The Crusaders’ entry into Constantinople, 12th April 1204, Eugene Delacroix, 1840

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JC
JC
April 18, 2024 12:18 am

Carried over from the old fred.

Current natural gas prices in Australia

Southern short-term domestic gas prices in April were also higher compared to those in March averaging $12.88/GJ ($10.12/GJ) in Adelaide, $12.22/GJ ($9.57/GJ) in Sydney and $11.24/GJ ($9.27/GJ) in Victoria.

GJ and BTU are roughly at the same value for this comparison.
(1 BTU equals 1.05 GJ)
US natural gas is currently trading US$1.67 BTU (Henry Hub terminal.
Australia in US terms (~A$12 X .6425) x 1.05 = $US8.10
We’re 3.85 times above the US and we’re the third largest exporter in the world. Go figure. This is a freaking crime.

Tom
Tom
April 18, 2024 2:37 am

Oh noooes! PVO defects from the Paywallian:

Proven newsbreaker and respected commentator Peter van Onselen has joined Daily Mail Australia as its new political editor. 

In his new role, Dr van Onselen will break exclusives and provide both political and social commentary.

The Paywallian readership is relieved it will no longer have to wade through PVO’s weekly leftwing hand-wringing. BTW, this tells you much about the Daily Mail‘s politics.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
April 18, 2024 2:39 am

Good to see a lady run amok @5:36. That Chevy@16:31… nice. A lot of nice cars at this event.

Rockynats Pro Class Burnout Qualifying – Round One

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJbNlWV8NWU

Tom
Tom
April 18, 2024 4:00 am
Tom
Tom
April 18, 2024 4:00 am
Tom
Tom
April 18, 2024 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
April 18, 2024 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
April 18, 2024 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
April 18, 2024 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
April 18, 2024 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
April 18, 2024 4:05 am
DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
April 18, 2024 4:12 am

Thanks Tom. The US justice system is a disgrace. Only ramirez doesn’t seem to see it.

will
will
April 18, 2024 4:13 am

It appears that Ch 10 escaped the Lions Den only to go back for their hat and their cloak:

Federal Court judge Michael Lee requests copies of comments made outside court by Ten lawyer Justin Quill

Federal Court judge Michael Lee has requested copies of comments made by Ten’s lawyer Justin Quill outside court shortly after the highly-anticipated judgment was handed down in the defamation trial on Monday.

Justice Lee has written to law firm Thomson Geer – where Mr Quill is a partner – and requested a full transcript of the comments he made to a waiting press pack following the conclusion of the trial between former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann against Network Ten and TV host Lisa Wilkinson.

n the correspondence Justice Lee also requested a copy of an article written by Mr Quill that was published in News Corp’s newspapers including the Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph on Tuesday, titled: ‘Defence fails, but publishing story was reasonable’.

The letter from Mr Lee states: “It’s been drawn to his honour’s attention that a public statement has been made on behalf of the first respondent (Network Ten), and various public statements have been made by a solicitor (Mr Quill) for the first respondent to the media.” Justice Lee also said an article had been published by the solicitor (Mr Quill) and he has requested copies of the comments and article in advance to the costs hearing that will be held on May 1.

Mr Quill spoke publicly outside the Sydney court on Monday and it was televised live after Justice Lee found Mr Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in 2019.

Defamation action was taken by Mr Lehrmann after Ten’s show, The Project, aired an exclusive sit-down interview led by Wilkinson with Ms Higgins in 2021. Mr Quill gave a 10-minute address to the media on Monday and said the result was a “resounding win for Channel 10”.

will
will
April 18, 2024 4:18 am

Dilbert

435300562_10161252485334127_758231954201750428_n
will
will
April 18, 2024 4:25 am

Even more on “Days of their Lives” from The Australian:

False cover-up allegations destroyed my reputation, says Linda Reynolds

Linda Reynolds has spoken out for the first time since the Federal Court comprehensively debunked suggestions she and her office had engaged in a cover-up of Brittany Higgins’ rape.

The WA Liberal senator, who was the defence minister at the time her staffer Ms Higgins was raped by colleague Bruce Lehrmann in the minister’s parliamentary office, said the findings handed down by Justice Michael Lee during his verdict in Mr Lehrmann’s defamation had finally “set the record straight”.

“For three years I have endured intense public scrutiny, vilification, vile trolling and have been demonised as the villain in a story of a political cover-up I have always known to be untrue. Fiona Brown and I have lost our careers, had our reputations destroyed and have had our health seriously and irreparably compromised,” Senator Reynolds said.

“The decision of his Honour Justice Lee has finally set the record straight with respect to the conduct of Ms Brown and myself and the demonstrably false narrative that has dominated headlines and ruined lives and careers. To say I am pleased with the findings in relation to Ms Brown, myself and the cover-up that never was, would be an understatement.”

Beyond Justice Lee’s key finding that, on the balance of probabilities, Mr Lehrmann had in fact raped Ms Higgins, the judgment was notable for demolishing the notion that Senator Reynolds and her chief of staff at the time, Ms Brown, had tried to cover up the incident.

The so-called “cover-up narrative” was at the centre of the Network Ten reports that prompted Mr Lehrmann’s unsuccessful defamation action. Senator Reynolds was subsequently demoted from the defence portfolio, and she recently announced that she would retire from politics at the next election.

Senator Reynolds is currently suing Ms Higgins and her fiance, David Sharaz, for defamation in the Western Australian Supreme Court. That matter is scheduled to go to trial later this year, with the senator vowing to push on with the claim. Senator Reynolds said she did not wish to make any further comment at this time given her ongoing defamation proceedings against the pair.

“I note as a matter of law that the findings by Justice Lee are not binding on Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz in respect of their defences to my actions in the Supreme Court of WA. I therefore remain committed to fully vindicating my reputation,” she said.

In his judgment, Justice Lee slammed the cover-up allegation pushed by Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz as “objectively short on facts, but long on speculation and internal inconsistencies”.

“Trying to particularise it during the evidence was like trying to grab a column of smoke,” Justice Lee wrote.

He found that there was no evidence that anyone was suggesting to Ms Higgins for her not to proceed in any way contrary to her own judgment as to what was best for her, let alone pressuring or threatening her to do so.

will
will
April 18, 2024 5:15 am

a civilisation in decline:

GLYjcxHa8AEz9SY
Black Ball
Black Ball
April 18, 2024 6:40 am

Good Lord, the real villains have been identified:

NSW Police have made their first arrest following the riots that erupted after a prominent bishop was stabbed while giving a sermon at a church in southwestern Sydney.

Footage of the arrest shows specialist tactical police with Strike Force Dribbs storming the home of a teenager in suburban Sydney on Wednesday afternoon, taking him into custody for the alleged offences of rioting, affray and damaging police vehicles.

“Police search warrant, open the door,” the officers yell before entering the home on Powers Rd in Doonside about 5.40pm.

I won’t trouble you with the rest of the article.
So imams can use inflammatory remarks that urge young people to go kill infidels but there can be no retaliation. Just supposed to take it lying down.

feelthebern
feelthebern
April 18, 2024 6:42 am

The cannibals of PNG have been defamed.
Justice now.

feelthebern
feelthebern
April 18, 2024 6:44 am
The Bungonia Bee
The Bungonia Bee
April 18, 2024 7:02 am

How foolish of the US, China and France to have nuclear power! Our politicians have wisely avoided this big mistake./sarc

Indolent
Indolent
April 18, 2024 7:15 am
Bespoke
Bespoke
April 18, 2024 7:16 am

COURT OVERRULES ATTEMPTED SHUTDOWN OF BRUSSELS CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE FOLLOWING LEGAL CHALLENGE

https://gript.ie/court-overrules-attempted-shutdown-of-brussels-conservative-conference-following-legal-challenge/

Indolent
Indolent
April 18, 2024 7:20 am

James O’Keefe
@JamesOKeefeIII

BREAKING: O’Keefe Media Uncovers who is really running the White House. Undercover cameras catch Special Advisor @SBAgov call former @facebook Board Member @WHCOS @ZientsJeff27574 “the second most powerful person in Washington” where “whatever this guy says, it’s what the President says.” Asked by OMG’s American Swiper Citizen Journalist “is Jeff [Zeints] more powerful than Kamala,” Robinson confirms “Yeah.” @VP@KamalaHarris. Robinson also states that @BarackObama and HillaryClinton are still involved behind the scenes at the White House.

Tyler Robinson, Special Advisor to the Chief of Staff of Administrator @SBAIsabel Guzman, details how @WhiteHouse directs @SBAIsabel

 Guzman to campaign for @POTUS so constantly that “[Guzman] is the most traveled member of the cabinet. Like pretty much every week.” Under the guise of talking to small business owners, Guzman travels across the country to help elect Democrats – especially swing state Democrats like @SenatorTester: “The White House was like, yes, go. Invite Senator Tester. Don’t invite the other Senator because he’s a Republican. And don’t invite the two members of Congress because they’re Republicans.” Such actions may be considered potential violations of the Hatch Act, which restricts federal employees from taking an active part in partisan political management and forbids them from campaigning for or against candidates.

Robinson says Guzman acts “as a spokesperson for Biden” as “…we try to visit with a member of Congress if they’re a Democrat…Just because then we can help them get re-elected as well.” @US_OSC @JudicialWatch

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
April 18, 2024 7:32 am

Important News:

A Sydney Muslim ‘leader’ on the picture wireless said the now-digitally-challenged young man who stabbed the priest was not radicalised, as some have claimed.

Recently, you see, this chap bought a drum kit.

What a relief.

Bobtheboozer
Bobtheboozer
April 18, 2024 7:32 am

From das alter fredde:
Doc Faustus: My other concern on this same vein is that according to the Higgins/Lee model, Lehrmann was apparently prepared to take the extraordinary risk of leaving Brinny on the scene like a discarded condom.
Perhaps, but he might also have had a gutful of young women assuming they can drink like fish and then crash, assuming their drunken, vomiting behaviour is OK.
Frankly, I got fed up with drunks of both sexes wandering into A&E and thinking they could punch on, vomit, and generally behave like arseholes and it was OK.
It’s not, and after a while you just walk away from them and let them cop the price of their stupid attitude.

lotocoti
lotocoti
April 18, 2024 7:37 am

was not radicalised…

So he was colouring inside the lines.

Crossie
Crossie
April 18, 2024 7:59 am

Knuckle Dragger

 April 18, 2024 7:32 am

Important News:

A Sydney Muslim ‘leader’ on the picture wireless said the now-digitally-challenged young man who stabbed the priest was not radicalised, as some have claimed.

Recently, you see, this chap bought a drum kit.

What a relief.

You see, he was just in the process of filming promotional material for his musical work when he stabbed the bishop. He is simply an aspiring artist.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
April 18, 2024 8:01 am

Recently, you see, this chap bought a drum kit.

What a relief.

So Ringo Starr is not a terrorist then?
Because drums?

Last edited 6 months ago by Sancho Panzer
Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
April 18, 2024 8:08 am

German Chancellor Scholz paid a visit to China two days ago.
He landed at an industrial hub called Chongqing, a small town of only 30 million people.

He had with him several CEO’s, (Siemens, Mercedes etc), and the reception after he landed was noteworthy.
So, who greeted the Caeser of Germany?

President Xi? No.
China’s Foreign Affairs Minister? No.
Any other minister? No.
He was greeted by the DEPUTY Mayor!!!!!
That is “gold”, right there.

He went to tell Xi that he had to stop supporting Russia, blah, blah, blah!
Xi told him to f*%k off, giving him a four point plan on how to bring peace in Ukraine.

“What’s the difference between an ally and a proxy? Ask ‘elensky!”

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
April 18, 2024 8:10 am

China advises Australia not to bring a Cold War attitude to a Hot War.

Bespoke
Bespoke
April 18, 2024 8:29 am
Pro-Palestine protestors gripe over imaginary places and grievances and now apparently they lie about so called 'chemical weapons from the IDF' used against them at Columbia. This claim is is both so outrageous and so dumb, it is hard to believe it was ever believed.

https://twitchy.com/justmindy/2024/04/17/alleged-idf-chemical-weapon-columbia-really-fart-spray-amazon-n2395220

Rabz
April 18, 2024 8:31 am

Leak’s latest is an instant classic.

The clueless bovine look on Hoggins’ face is absolutely hilarious.

Hoggins-Shiraz-Galaga
Last edited 6 months ago by Rabz
Muddy
Muddy
April 18, 2024 8:37 am

Re the violence from a certain demographic, every time the controversial media look the other way, they send the message: ‘You too can do this, become a local hero, but not be legally held responsible.’

Enablers.
Knowing enablers.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 8:42 am

From the Hun.
Higgins to keep $2.445m compensation payment despite judge finding basis for claim was ‘untrue’Rape victim Brittany Higgins will keep the $2.445 million compensation payment she received from the government despite Justice Michael Lee finding that the basis for her claim, that there had been a political cover up of her assault, was “untrue.”

shatterzzz
April 18, 2024 8:50 am

The mussos win .. again ..! .. noticed the Oz media has trotted out it’s favourite go-too musso apologist, quacktician Jamal Rifi .. once he’s let loose you know islam is the victim sooooo “mooove along, pleeeze, nuttin’ to see ‘ere” ……..!

Last edited 6 months ago by shatterzzz
lotocoti
lotocoti
April 18, 2024 8:51 am

Feckin’ Oirish.
Old and busted: The Old Plantation.
The new hotness: The New Plantation.

BobtheBoozer
BobtheBoozer
April 18, 2024 8:52 am

 Senate KILLS Articles of Impeachment Against Open Borders Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Breaking 227 Years of Congressional History

As The Washington Post reported, the Senate at Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) urging voted to dismiss both articles of impeachment against Mayorkas, who has presided over the worst border crisis in America history.

Democrats voted along party lines on the first article of impeachment which charges Mayorkas with “willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law,” finding the charge unconstitutional. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (RINO-Alaska) voted present.

So much for having control of the Senate by the Republicans. They need to get a Purge going.

Rabz
April 18, 2024 8:53 am

What happened to the away goals rule in the Champions League? Man City should have gone through 3-1, but for some reason that rule appears to have been discarded.

Black Ball
Black Ball
April 18, 2024 8:53 am

Andrew Bolt:

Anthony Albanese on Wednesday reminded us he’s still a socialist, and – worse – one who can’t remember past disasters. He threw hundreds of millions of dollars on two more green businesses he reckons are real goers.

And watch out. There’s billions more in handouts to come under the Future Made in Australia Act the Prime Minister promised last week.

Amazingly, Albanese thinks he can do business better than a businessman, even though his only business experience is working nine months for the Commonwealth Bank when he was 18.

So he’s announced he’ll pass this new act to invest in winners which real business bosses apparently won’t invest in themselves – or not without Albanese filling their pockets with our cash and guarantees.

Hurry, hurry, he shilled, or we’ll miss out: “In this time of transformative opportunity, our government will not be an observer … We will be a participant, a partner, an investor … We need to invest at scale.”

Uh, oh. In what, pray, must this government “invest” our money? At scale?

Well, mostly green energy – wind, solar, yet-to-be-proven green hydrogen, and (as on Wednesday) batteries, which by sheer coincidence happen to be exactly the items Albanese badly needs to replace the coal-fired power he’s driving out of business in his global warming crusade, leaving us dangerously short of electricity.

By an even greater coincidence, they’re also the “winners” many investors have gone cold on. Investment in big renewable energy plummeted from $6.5 billion in 2022 to $1.5 billion last year.

Now, there are obvious problems with governments thinking they know best which businesses to back. As you see with Albanese, they can’t separate the business from the politics.

No wonder current and past Productivity Commission bosses are screaming: “Watch out!”

Danielle Wood, the new Labor-appointed head, warns schemes like this tend to spray money on businesses unlikely to survive on their own: “It diverts resources – that’s workers and capital – away from other parts of the economy where they might generate high-value uses.”

Her predecessor, Michael Brennan, agrees: “Most times the investment fails.” Has Albanese not noticed?

I did even as a young reporter in 1989, when the Hawke Government gave the Kodak factory in Melbourne $36 million to stop it closing.

Kodak got that dosh not because it was a great business. No, it was because Kodak had no fewer than 18 unions, and there was no way a Labor government would brush off that many bruvvers.

Yet Kodak eventually collapsed anyway. Wages were too high, union rules too sclerotic and foreign competition too cheap – plus the digital camera had just been invented. If only the government had invested in that instead.

It was the same story with the hundreds of millions thrown at the union-dominated and rorted car industry. It, too, still died.

Nothing has changed. It’s the same game now with renewable energy projects.

Governments will invest in almost anything that says “green” on the box. Again, it’s not about business. It’s about ideology and the votes of the young.

Just two weeks ago, Albanese announced he’d spend another $1 billion to help Australian businesses make our own solar panels. Yet we’ve just learned the world already makes twice as many solar panels than it can use, most as cheap as chips from China.

Good luck competing with that.

Or see the other government-backed green schemes that have already hit the wall.

Here’s a few: a tidal wave generator in Broome, promised $80 million; a geothermal power plant promoted by Tim Flannery in Innamincka, promised $90 million; geothermal plants in Thargomindah and Winton, promised $7.5 million; a wave generator that sank in South Australia, promised $4 million; another $5 million wave generator that got wrecked off Port Kembla; a Western Australian wave generation project that collapsed, despite $28 million in grants.

Then there’s the Snowy 2.0 pumped-hydro scheme which Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said would cost us just $2 billion, but may end 10 times that.

Of course, we must build more stuff here, but the fix is not for Albanese to do it himself. His job is to get out of the way.

He should cut taxes, cut power prices, cut red tape, cut green tape, cut union restrictions, and so make it easier for people with real business talent to make our future, risking their own money, which always concentrates the mind.

Get out of the way of an Australian Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg, and trust the market, because socialism sucks. See how often it’s failed already.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
April 18, 2024 8:55 am

Higgins to keep $2.445m compensation payment 

Question asked:

‘Payout or pay-off?’: Questions over Brittany Higgins’ compensation – Peta Credlin (Sky News, 17 Apr)

shatterzzz
April 18, 2024 8:57 am

Higgins to keep $2.445m compensation payment

Life is sooo unfair! .. after all, to suffer such, publically aired, indignities on the ministerial couch and have Justice Lee, fly-on-the-wall, eyeballing proceedings deserves more than a paltry $2.4 million ..
C’mon Luigi up the bounty .. ya knoze ya wants too …….!

BobtheBoozer
BobtheBoozer
April 18, 2024 8:57 am

 DC National Guard Whistleblowers Reveal PENTAGON Under Direction of Mark Milley REFUSED to Deploy Guard Until After 5 PM – And Liz Cheney’s Committee Never Called Them to Testify

Four members of the National Guard testified on Wednesday that ey were ready to be deployed on January 6 but THE PENTAGON held them back!

This directly brings General Milley’s actions into question!

Rabz
April 18, 2024 9:00 am

$5 million wave generator that got wrecked off Port Kembla

Science!

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 9:06 am

Danielle Wood, the new Labor-appointed head, warns schemes like this tend to spray money on businesses unlikely to survive on their own: “It diverts resources – that’s workers and capital – away from other parts of the economy where they might generate high-value uses.”

I note she was swiftly corrected & put in her place by…Wayne Swan.

shatterzzz
April 18, 2024 9:10 am

Can’t believe that the Qenos plastics mob going into receivership isn’t making a splash in the media .. not only are 100s of jobs going but this company is the largest recycler of used plastics into plastic resin in Oz . Once they close shop there will be no significant plastic resin production left in Oz and it’ll have to be imported …. so prices will sky rocket ……

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 9:12 am

Recently, you see, this chap bought a drum kit.

There’ll be a place for him in the prison band then.

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 9:15 am

Proven newsbreaker and respected commentator Peter van Onselen has joined Daily Mail Australia as its new political editor. 

It’s a step up from Channel 10, where he once held the same position.

I suppose.

Last edited 6 months ago by Roger
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
April 18, 2024 9:18 am

Retired WA Supreme Court judge Kenneth Martin KC said Justice Lee’s findings meant the commonwealth could make a claim for damages against Ms Higgins, and try to retrieve compensation money. “How does she keep the $2.445m settlement amount, which was paid on the basis not of whether she was raped or not, but in terms of the so-called oppressive or bullying or inappropriate conduct that she was exposed to in the aftermath of the incident?” he said. “The deed, which went into evidence, says that Ms Higgins warrants the truth of all these facts as the basis for the payment of that settlement amount. If those facts are false, which the judge has found some of them were, then the basis for the payment is undermined.”

Pigs might fly.

The only realistic payoff is this remaining a running sore for Albanese and The Mean Girls.

Rabz
April 18, 2024 9:20 am

not only are 100s of jobs going but this company is the largest recycler of used plastics into plastic resin in Oz

The cheapest form of electrickery works its magic, again.

Science!

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 9:22 am

Can’t believe that the Qenos plastics mob going into receivership isn’t making a splash in the media .. 

The wrong sort of Made in Australia, apparently.

Vicki
Vicki
April 18, 2024 9:23 am

This, from Jim Rickards on Ukraine:

NATO’s Preparing for Trump by Trying to ‘Trump Proof’ the Ukraine War
Russia is winning the War in Ukraine decisively. After winning the battle of Avdiivka, Russia rolled west and captured the towns of Tonen’ke, Orlivka, and Berdychi. Ukrainian casualties were estimated at 30,000 in the month of March and 100,000 since the start of the year. Those are comparable to the bloodiest battles in US history including Iwo Jima, Okinawa, D-Day, and Antietam.
Every ‘wonder weapon’ provided to Ukraine has failed completely. These weapons include HIMARS precision-guided artillery, Patriot anti-missile batteries, Storm Shadow cruise missiles, Leopard tanks, Challenger tanks, Abrams tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. They have all been destroyed by Russian hypersonic missiles, Russian land mines, drones, artillery, or helicopters, or they have been electronically jammed by Russian technology.
The Russian Zircon hypersonic cruise missile and the Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missile cannot be stopped by US anti-missile batteries. Instead of suing for peace, NATO, the US and Ukraine are dreaming up new ways to keep the war going.
They are afraid that Trump will win the election next November and try to stop the war. As a response, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is trying to ‘Trump proof’ the war. He’s planning a $100 billion, five-year war fund to keep giving support to Ukraine even if Trump wins. He’s also planning to move critical weapons supplies from US control to NATO control so NATO can keep supplying the weapons to Ukraine in a Trump administration.
Ukraine has suffered about 500,000 dead since the war began over two years ago. I guess Stoltenberg wants even more blood on his hands and so do others. Trump should announce today that if he wins (which appears likely), he will immediately withdraw from NATO unless these permanent war measures are stopped in their tracks. That might be what it takes to prevent the war and the slaughter from going on for years to come.

Zippster
Zippster
April 18, 2024 9:28 am

Ralph Schöllhammer | The Cultural Dimension of the War on Energy | NatCon Brussels 2

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 9:29 am

Current natural gas prices in Australia

We’re 3.85 times above the US and we’re the third largest exporter in the world. Go figure. This is a freaking crime.

A crime perpetrated by our socialist government with its price cap (which happens to be $12 a gigajoule, coincidentally now the average price across the market!) put in place after discussions with its cronies in the production cartel.

Last edited 6 months ago by Roger
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
April 18, 2024 9:40 am

Human nature in action.

Australian supermarket axes self-serve checkouts (17 Aug)

A Brisbane supermarket has decided to axe its self-serve checkouts forever due to one very sad reason.

IGA Greenslopes will shut down the modern mechanism for good in favour of good old fashioned manned checkouts.

The controversial change has reportedly been implemented in response to a massive spike in shoplifting, according to a sign in the store. …

Speaking to ABC Radio Brisbane, QUT retail expert Gary Mortimer explained that shoplifting in Australia was costing retailers about $9 billion each year.

Bit harder to get past the beady eye of a checkout chick.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 9:40 am

Rabz
April 18, 2024 9:20 am

not only are 100s of jobs going but this company is the largest recycler of used plastics into plastic resin in Oz

The cheapest form of electrickery works its magic, again.
Science!

She Blinded me with Science –

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V83JR2IoI8k

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
April 18, 2024 9:44 am

BB I can’t watch Dolt. Thanks for that, I never realised AnAl worked in a bank for 9 months at age 18. Guess that gives him the qualifications to run the country into the ground, but even that he couldn’t get right. Instead of being a Banker he’s a Wanker.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 9:44 am

comment image

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
April 18, 2024 9:45 am

It has taken a bit more effort than I think they expected it would take, but they are finally on the verge of completely killing Dr Who.

The mindset of the production will permeate the whole of the cast and crew – look at the way previous doctors talked about their time.

Look at the current one.

Morsie
Morsie
April 18, 2024 9:48 am

Van Onselen has recently been writing a good deal of sense.It would appear he has been partially redpilled

Rabz
April 18, 2024 9:50 am

Bit late now, you staggeringly incompetent ivory tower dwelling idiot:

Former Productivity Commission boss Gary Banks has conceded the organisation got it wrong when it recommended the creation of the NDIS and warned that labore’s proposed overhaul will do little to reduce the program’s explosive budget trajectory

The Australian Government Actuary predicts more than 1 million people will be on the NDIS by 2032, despite initial estimates (i.e. by the Productivity Commission in its 2011 report recommending the creation of the NDIS) it would service just 400,000 people at maturity

At current growth rates, I predict it will hit 1,000,000 “participants” by mid 2028 (but more likely far earlier).

But wait, there’s more!

About 12% of boys aged five to seven are on the NDIS

No one could have predicted this, either:

Major reforms are needed to limit eligibility to those with profound disability. That is now a tall order politically, with even minor steps causing a ruckus (i.e. the squawking is audible in space).

This budget killing monster now costs taxpayers more than medicare.

What a joke. Except there’s nothing remotely funny about it.

Quotes above (largely) lifted from a piece in the AFR.

Last edited 6 months ago by Rabz
Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 9:55 am

Mother Lode
April 18, 2024 9:45 am

It has taken a bit more effort than I think they expected it would take, but they are finally on the verge of completely killing Dr Who.

Dr. Who is not a Man or a Woman or a Trans or can be identified as anything else (such as a cat/horse/spider).

Dr. Who is a Time Lord…..………………………………..

Top Ender
Top Ender
April 18, 2024 9:57 am

As per my post the other day from Melbourne, where there were around 50 police for a protest featuring 300 screaming Pallies:

Police have hit out at disruptive protest action plaguing Victoria, revealing it has forced them to pull at least 10,000 shifts from usual duties that should have been used to combat serious and violent crime.

Victoria Police CBD Commander Mark Galliott said an average of 21 protests had been staged in the city each week, taking police away from vital duties in their suburbs or regional towns to be on standby for any action.

He said the 10,000 shifts would have gone “a long way” in protecting the community and the force was forking out tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to respond to each major rally.

Herald-Sun

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 10:01 am

China coughs, Queensland gets a cold:

State government debt to increase by nearly $200bn over the next four years as metallurgical coal prices plummet.

“As a government we will be working hard in the coming months leading up to the state budget to ensure Queensland’s debt is as low as possible,” said Treasurer Cameron Dick.

Hence no new Olympic stadium.

He’s one of Australia’s new political caste, btw – his brother is Speaker in the HR in Canberra.

Last edited 6 months ago by Roger
BobtheBoozer
BobtheBoozer
April 18, 2024 10:04 am

Yesterday I had a moan about AoEII and how buggy it was.
So I just logged off here and opened up the file to run another game.
It crashed.
But even now that I’ve closed the game and exited Steam, it continues every 5 seconds to tell me via popup that there is no internet connection and there is a Cloud Error.
Pathetic coding. Pathetic merchandising of substandard and buggy code.
I must find their FB page to give them a serve.
🙂

rosie
rosie
April 18, 2024 10:05 am

“There’ll be a place for him in the prison band then.”
Surely it’ll be a restorative justice sit down in the presence of a respected elder?

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
April 18, 2024 10:10 am

Former Productivity Commission boss Gary Banks has conceded the organisation got it wrong when it recommended the creation of the NDIS

Did I miss the bit about him and his department being declared outlaw, every man’s hand against them and people assisting them subject to the same penalty?
Deprived of house and hearth, banished to the hinterlands, their families euthanized for organ harvesting.

Because a clusterf*CK that big deserves a decent return serve.
Add in every pollie who helped birth it as well.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 10:11 am

Boy, 10, takes his own life in state care – as his heartbroken mum says: ‘We can never have our little boy back’
I don’t know much about these issues – where does a ten year old get the concept of suicide?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
April 18, 2024 10:11 am

Dr. Who is not a Man or a Woman or a Trans or can be identified as anything else (such as a cat/horse/spider).

I meant killing ‘Dr Who’ the show.

feelthebern
feelthebern
April 18, 2024 10:12 am

The Oz reporting that the Miles government is looking at “regulating” the media reporting of youth crime in QLD.
How long before even speaking about youth crime in QLD is viewed as a fringe conspiracy theory by the corporate media?

Jock
Jock
April 18, 2024 10:14 am

Just for clarity, Elbow worked at the CBA before it was privatised completely in 1996. Technically he was (laughably) a public servant. Must have been a good errand boy.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 10:14 am

Rabz
April 18, 2024 9:50 am

Bit late now, you staggeringly incompetent ivory tower dwelling idiot:

And the NDIS is NOT an Insurance Scheme. A true Insurance Scheme is funded.

This Scheme is a ‘Robbing Peter to pay Paul’ Scheme. The long suffering Australian Taxpayer is the Peter.

A typical Feral Guv’ment ‘Fit Up’ or ‘Fark Up’.

Thanks for nuffink’ LayBore. Goodbye ‘Horse Trailer’ (formerly known as Australia).

Black Ball
Black Ball
April 18, 2024 10:21 am

Stephanie Bennett in the Courier Mail:

“Nothing has been done” – with those four words, Senator Bridget McKenzie summed up the feelings of a state that has been promised so much but seen so little delivered since it proudly won its bid to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Over nine hours of hearings, a federal inquiry found little evidence that Brisbane is on the right track.

What we did hear was concerning evidence into the actions of Premier Steven Miles – who went behind the back of his independent venues reviewer Graham Quirk.

Mr Quirk agreed to the Premier’s request to take on the role on the proviso that he be independent. Instead, he told the inquiry he was left blindsided when his recommendation for a stadium at Victoria Park was rejected on the same day it went public.

We also learned that state bureaucrats were ordered two weeks before the review was released to look into the Premier’s preferred venue – the old QEII Stadium at Nathan (that Mr Quirk’s review explicitly recommended against).

Oh, and not one of the senior bureaucrats who gave evidence yesterday could say who it was that directed the department to go behind the Quirk review’s back – only that they secretly were – despite that happening just last month.

What is now clearer than ever was that the Quirk review was nothing more than a political ploy – that you paid for – to dump the Gabba, which then backfired when Mr Quirk delivered an independent option which the politicians decided was unpalatable.

We also learned that the Gabba rebuild was never more than a thought bubble concocted from former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Not one person giving evidence had anything good to say about it, a plan so heavily spruiked by then deputy premier Miles.

Enter another former premier, Campbell Newman. He told the inquiry the stadium should be at Boondall.

Senator McKenzie: “Another day, another stadium option it seems in Bris Vegas.”

Get the feeling that Brisbane will let go of the Games. Sort of what happens when you are the only bidder.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 10:24 am

Pigs might fly.

The only realistic payoff is this remaining a running sore for Albanese and The Mean Girls.

If not already a ‘thingy’ for the NACC to investigate then this ‘thingy’ needs to be put forward and put onto the ‘List’ asap.

https://www.ag.gov.au/integrity/national-anti-corruption-commission/what-nacc

Rabz
April 18, 2024 10:29 am

Add in every pollie who helped birth it as well

Here are the most prominent:

Teats Peanuthead
The Lying Slapper
Macklin
The Yabbottbeast
Della Bosca

Last edited 6 months ago by Rabz
Lysander
Lysander
April 18, 2024 10:34 am

I’d like to do a video compilation but I don’t know how to do it. Particularly of every single Muesli I’ve ever seen on an interview panel, YouTube and the like on 7 October. Their response is always (just like Wassim Dourea from Lateline a few years ago on ISIS):

“You can’t look at (insert terror event/ISIS/Oct 7) in a vacuum” or “you need to look at X event in the context of…”

It’s ridiculous how many people let them off on this line… Piers Morgan I’m looking at you!

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 10:35 am

Hurry, hurry, he shilled, or we’ll miss out: “In this time of transformative opportunity, our government will not be an observer … We will be a participant, a partner, an investor … We need to invest at scale.”

Uh, oh. In what, pray, must this government “invest” our money? At scale?

Can’t wait for those juicy dividends from the Long Suffering Australian Taxpayer ‘Investments’ get to be realised…………LOL.

Maybe I’ll use my ‘dividends’ to buy a $2 coffee which will be a $10 coffee by the time the “Investment” at scale eventually pays ‘orf……………..Even more LOL.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 10:41 am

Rabz
April 18, 2024 8:53 am

What happened to the away goals rule in the Champions League? Man City should have gone through 3-1, but for some reason that rule appears to have been discarded.

Well, because of BREXIT and English Football Clubs doing so well, the rules have been changed to help those Continental European Clubs. Never mind the British/Commonwealth help in 2 World Wars.

And Liverspots (Liverpool) look stuffed as well. Can they even get an away goal?

cohenite
April 18, 2024 10:45 am

Bespoke
 April 18, 2024 7:16 am

COURT OVERRULES ATTEMPTED SHUTDOWN OF BRUSSELS CONSERVATIVE CONFERENCE FOLLOWING LEGAL CHALLENGE

https://gript.ie/court-overrules-attempted-shutdown-of-brussels-conservative-conference-following-legal-challenge/

Excellent. But that article doesn’t mention the name of the commie bastard mayor who did this. Some background to this dog:

Brussels Mayor that tried to force NatCon shut down hosted ex-paramilitary Iranian mayor | Politics | News | Express.co.uk

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
April 18, 2024 10:49 am

Current natural gas prices in Australia

We’re 3.85 times above the US and we’re the third largest exporter in the world. Go figure. This is a freaking crime.

On the east coast, the bulk of the marginal gas production and about 90% of gas reserves is CSG.

Without running a petroleum engineering masterclass, GSG is comparatively expensive to produce. Wells and infrastructure are cheaper than conventional and offshore production but the nature of coal as a source/reservoir means you need many, many more of them.

Then, there is the constant stream of workovers and complex reservoir management done by comparatively lots of uncompetitively expensive people over huge areas of development.

Then, unlike most conventional and shale gas, CSG is almost all methane and does not come with co-produced condensate and gas liquids as a separate revenue stream. Thus the processed gas carries the full tote cost of production: in Queensland currently running at an average of A$6/GJ to $8/GJ++.

Then, producers are obliged to commit to provide continuous development capital to produce marginal reserves – while simultaneously faced with lawfare, green tape, shifting-sand regulations, and an ever changing royalty system.

So, yes, freaking obviously criminal.
Nick McKim endorses that.

cohenite
April 18, 2024 10:54 am

MTG and the other firebrand’s attempt to get rid of the current GOP House speaker is analysed by Bongino. His conclusion is the shenanigans will lead to a few more GOP resignations giving a house majority to the demorats who will then pass their insurrection act banning Trump from running. It’ll pass the senate and by the time SCOTOS looks at it the pervert will be back in office:

Is Speaker Hakeem Jeffries Going To Happen? (Ep. 2231) – 04/17/2024 (rumble.com)

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
April 18, 2024 11:00 am

Haha, this court decision is awesome fun!

Federal Court Overturns West Virginia Law Protecting Women’s Sports from Male Intrusion (17 Apr)

A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a West Virginia law that prohibits male athletes from competing in women’s sports in the state, arguing that it violates Title IX, the federal law barring sex-based discrimination in schools. In a 2-1 ruling, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed transgender-identifying males to participate on women’s sports teams in the state. This was one of several pending lawsuits addressing the issue of male participation in women’s sports, with both sides laying claim to Title IX to support their cases. 

So by a 2-1 decision not only have they overturned state law on trannies in women’s sports they’ve also legally allowed all men to enter women’s events under the Title IX law if they want to, at least in schools and universities. And they don’t even have to wear a skirt to do so, just quote this appeals court decision. It’s going to be epic for the popcorn market.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
April 18, 2024 11:02 am

Get the feeling that Brisbane will let go of the Games. Sort of what happens when you are the only bidder.

Draws you back to the Athens Olympics.
My, how we laughed…

johanna
johanna
April 18, 2024 11:04 am

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 10:11 am

Boy, 10, takes his own life in state care – as his heartbroken mum says: ‘We can never have our little boy back’
I don’t know much about these issues – where does a ten year old get the concept of suicide?

The headline at TheirABC ‘in State care’ is misleading. This poor child was taken away from his obviously hopeless parents a couple of years ago and has been living with relatives, which is the politically correct and mandated way to ‘rescue’ indigenous children from terrible homes.

He was in fact in the care of relatives, not the State, who may not have been much of an improvement on his original situation.

The story is just another dishonest attempt to blame whitey for the miserable circumstances Aboriginal children find themselves in when Kulcha is more important than the welfare of the child.

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 11:10 am

Predictable…

Pakistani security guard injured in Westfield Bondi attack demands Australian residency and a fast track to citizenship and Albanese “grants” it.

There’ll soon be a queue of chancers trying it on, going to the press and citing past good deeds as a warrant for special treatment.

So much for lex, rex; Albanese apparently believes he has the prerogative to dispense such favours on a whim.

Last edited 6 months ago by Roger
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
April 18, 2024 11:39 am

Vladimir Putin doesn’t like Victorian pollies.

Former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews added to Kremlin’s list of Australians banned from entering Russia (Sky News, 18 Apr)

Former Victorian former premier Daniel Andrews has been added to the list of Australians who are prohibited from entering Russia.

Mr Andrews was named as one of the 235 Australians sanctioned on Wednesday by the Kremlin over an “anti-Russian course” in Canberra. 

Other high profile Victorian political figures that have been banned indefinitely include Opposition Leader John Pesutto, Deputy Premier Ben Carroll and Treasurer Tim Pallas.

Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell, Labor MP Paul Mercurio and former Liberal member and independent Moira Deeming were among the dozens of former and current MPs named on the new list.

Would it be too much to ask him to invade and annex the whole state? Please?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
April 18, 2024 11:45 am

Jock, Rent is not spelt errand

cohenite
April 18, 2024 11:51 am

Muslims to the Moon:

New NASA Mars Crew Has a Muslim, No White People | Frontpage Mag

Some cosmic bullshit:

In July 2010, NASA chief Charles Bolden, an Obama appointee, told Al Jazeera that his boss had given him three priorities… none of them involving space exploration. The foremost priority for the agency once tasked with sending a man to the moon was “to reach out to the Muslim world… to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.”

Muzzies didn’t even invent the burqa which is their main contribution to the modern world. In terms of their contribution to the sciences they rank with 3rd nations.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
April 18, 2024 12:04 pm

Apparently there were 1,200 Pakistani security guards at Westfield Bondi Junction during the stabbings.
And four Iranian bi-sexuals.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 12:07 pm

Reading Grantley Kieza’s biography of Sister Vivian Bullwinkel – was the sole survivor of the massacre of a group of nurses on Banka Island in 1942, was the first woman honored with a statue at the Australian War Memorial and was a key driver of Operation Babylift, the mass rescue of Vietnamese orphans, as the North Vietnamese Army closed in on Saigon, in 1975. Good reading!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 12:16 pm

Federal Politics Indigenous Australians

breaking

“Ten-year-old’s tragic suicide demands ‘deep reflection’, Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney says”
Words fail me….

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
April 18, 2024 12:18 pm

Space kiwis.

NASA to hoist its sail: Solar sail mission gets ready for launch (Phys.org, 17 Apr)

A NASA mission testing a new way of navigating our solar system is ready to hoist its sail into space—not to catch the wind, but the propulsive power of sunlight. The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System is targeting launch on Tuesday, April 23 (Wednesday, April 24 in New Zealand) aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the company’s Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand.

Kiwis are of course excellent sailors, drawing upon Maori experience. It will be nice if they can sail the winds of space as adeptly they did the Pacific Ocean.

feelthebern
feelthebern
April 18, 2024 12:23 pm

Last night I finished the liquorice I put in the back of the cupboard a couple of months back.
I ate too much.
Liquorice is very good.
Until it’s very bad.

cohenite
April 18, 2024 12:24 pm

“Ten-year-old’s tragic suicide demands ‘deep reflection’, Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney says”
Words fail me….

When words fail nuking should start. Birney should be nuked

Speedbox
April 18, 2024 12:25 pm

Black Ball
 April 18, 2024 10:21 am
Stephanie Bennett in the Courier Mail:

“Nothing has been done” – with those four words, Senator Bridget McKenzie summed up the feelings of a state that has been promised so much but seen so little delivered since it proudly won its bid to host the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

It is the standing joke in my (professional) part of the world. From Procurement Specialists to Contract Managers to Project Managers to engineering firms, everyone is bemused at the singular lack of action. No build contracts have gone to the market for quotation which is hardly surprising because no engineering specs have been created – because nobody has gone to the market asking for quotes to create those specs. Of course, not a single sod of earth has been turned.

Now, we hear that nothing of any substance is likely to happen until after the State election meaning another 6 months lost. I am aware that there have been assorted ‘meetings’ among the government’s most senior public servants, but they aren’t the ones doing the actual work.

One thing is clear however – every person I talk to is salivating at the prospect of further delays. When the gun is finally fired and it is clear that Qld is at least 2 years late from commencing the build program, everybody from procurement through to the building contractor and the builder’s labourer is forecasting windfall income. It won’t matter what your role is and whether that is expressed as hourly rates or per job, everyone is looking to make a killing because time is sooo short.

Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
April 18, 2024 12:27 pm

For discerning Kittehs and Cats. Enjoy.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/solar-sovereignty-only-if-were-powering-the-ferris-wheel-at-luna-park/news-story/cceda7dc98d2157bc1244310df0b315f

Solar sovereignty? Only if we’re powering the ferris wheel at Luna Park

Business owners of Australia, please listen carefully to these people who have never held a full-time job in private enterprise.

By THE MOCKER

If Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is to be believed, renewables are the cheapest and most efficient form of energy. So cheap and efficient is this industry that it requires billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies to, well, renew itself. 
But as Albanese constantly reminds us, Labor is transforming the country into a renewable energy superpower. And as he announced last week, his government will ensure we have sovereign solar capability. How good is this that?
That would be an extraordinary achievement and even more ambitious than Albanese’s promise to achieve 82 per cent renewable energy by 2030. The latter alone requires installing, in addition to 40 wind turbines per month, 22,000 solar panels a day. Currently Australia is home to one solar panel manufacturer. Suffice to say we could achieve sovereign solar capability if our energy needs were limited to keeping the Ferris wheel turning at Sydney’s Luna Park, at least during the day.
But make no mistake: Albanese’s proposed Future Made in Australia Act will realise his vision. To quote from his announcement, it is simply a matter of “turbocharging our engagement”, “surfing the opportunities of the next wave”, drawing “together the threads from across the economy and around our nation” and “catalysing new investment”. Sounds feasible and well thought out, I’m sure you’ll agree. 
Albanese epitomises the careerist politician, but nonetheless his entrepreneurial sagacity is extraordinary. This is all the more remarkable considering his experience in business consists of working at the Commonwealth Bank as a teenager, and we can only assume his position there was not that of teller but instead economic policy adviser. 
Under his prime ministership, business has thrived. You need only ask any of the 130,000 workers employed in the last 12 months to service the needs of the uncapped and ballooning $42 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme. 
Standing alongside Albanese is a bevy of ministers who have never held a full-time job in private enterprise yet have big plans for business. Take Finance Minister Katy Gallagher, for example. In March she spoke of her plans for using the federal government’s annual $70 billion procurement budget to “encourage” companies to meet gender equality targets and close the gender pay gap. “We are using our purchasing power to leverage other outcomes that we want to see across government,” said Gallagher.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen went straight from university into politics but proved early in his political career that he too was a tonic for business. He was responsible for border security as immigration minister during the Gillard government years, much to the delight of people-smugglers. Mind you, the fortune they made thanks to his ineptitude is small potatoes compared to what Bowen represents to the likes of Atlassian/AGL billionaire and renewables evangelist Mike Cannon-Brookes. 
As for what these massive hand-outs of taxpayer dosh will cause to be manufactured, I’m tipping electoral disquiet followed by record debt. It says much about Albanese’s thought bubble that prominent left-wing economists are urging caution. Last week Productivity Commission chair and former Grattan Institute CEO Danielle Wood warned Albanese’s scheme lacked an exit strategy and could “take jobs and capital investments from elsewhere in the economy where they could generate higher value”. 
But according to ALP national president, former treasurer, and eternal surplus-seeker Wayne Swan, she “is completely out of touch with the international reality”. Coming from him, that vindicated Wood on the spot. And given his track record with reality and self-regard, Swan will likely proclaim next that 100 per cent renewable energy can be realised by strategically placing a giant solar panel to capture the radiance emanating from his posterior. 
If anyone is out of touch with international reality, it is those who believe this scheme will allow us to compete long-term against China, which produces 80 per cent of the world’s solar panels. As Reuters reported last week, the country’s annual production capacity for finished solar modules last year was 861GW. It is a pet project for Premier Li Qiang, who in March ordered the ramping-up of renewable technology production. No wonder market experts believe that the China-driven global oversupply of solar panels will last for years. 
But Albanese believes he has an answer to this. The relative costs of labour in production, he told Sky News last week, had fallen thanks to technology. Presumably it has too for European manufacturers of solar panels, but that has not saved them from either shutting up shop or having to relocate to the US. And conveniently, Albanese does not mention that the production of solar panels requires a tremendous amount of energy. How are Australian manufacturers supposed to compete when our electricity prices are among the highest in the world? 
And not for the first time, the Prime Minister and Treasurer Jim Chalmers are sending mixed messages. Writing yesterday in this masthead, the Treasurer stressed that Future Made in Australia was about government incentivising the private sector, not usurping it. Really? Just last week Albanese, at the launch, told journalists that his government “will not be an observer or a spectator” in this experiment. Rather, he said, “we will be a participant, a partner, an investor and enabler”. 
It was not long ago that another Labor government decided that billions in subsidies and green technology were the answer to galvanising manufacturing. In 2009, then service economy minister Craig Emerson introduced the draft bill for the new Automotive Transformation Scheme (ATS), which complemented the government’s $6.2 billion A New Car Plan for a Greener Future program.
The ATS, said Emerson, would “enable the industry to adapt to the challenges presented by changing consumer preferences and climate change.” It would provide billions in funding for the car industry over a decade, he said, adding that funding would taper to zero by 2020. 
This would “reinvigorate the automotive industry so that it can go on contributing to Australia’s prosperity for decades to come,” said Emerson. By the end of 2017, the Australian car manufacturing industry was kaput. Fortunately for Emerson, his post-ministerial career as an economics consultant has thrived. 
My final observation of the Future Made in Australia Act is that tortured syntax does not make for a good title. It leaves itself open to a moniker and an irreverent one at that. ‘The Fubar Act’ perhaps? The acronym stands for two sayings, one of which you will no doubt be familiar. The other? Forever Underwriting Bloody Albo’s Recklessness.

Makka
Makka
April 18, 2024 12:30 pm

Liquorice is very good.

Until it’s very bad.

Top quality licorice sends Mrs M’s blood pressure through the roof.

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 12:36 pm

“Ten-year-old’s tragic suicide demands ‘deep reflection’, Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney says”

After some reflection, I’d suggest kinship care needs a review.

Crossie
Crossie
April 18, 2024 12:36 pm

Get the feeling that Brisbane will let go of the Games. Sort of what happens when you are the only bidder.

Holding the Games in a different city every time is rather wasteful as it has been established that the cost of putting on the Games is greater than any gains from tourism. The best option is to locate them permanently in Greece and everyone contributes a certain amount to the upkeep and renovations etc.

Makka
Makka
April 18, 2024 12:37 pm

This is pitiful;

Mario Nawfal

BIDEN TELL’S ISRAEL NOT TO ATTACK ISRAEL…

https://twitter.com/MarioNawfal/status/1780757367618940973

Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
April 18, 2024 12:40 pm

FYI.

My post of THE MOCKER’S article is presently in moderation and will hopefully appear soon.

Makka
Makka
April 18, 2024 12:55 pm
Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 1:09 pm

The best option is to locate [the Olympic Games] permanently in Greece and everyone contributes a certain amount to the upkeep and renovations etc.

The IOC makes billions through TV rights; let them foot the bill.

Last edited 6 months ago by Roger
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
April 18, 2024 1:14 pm

In terms of their contribution to the sciences they rank with 3rd nations.

The Wikipedia entry on the subject ends with an illuminating analysis:

In a more general sense, the positive achievement of Islamic science was simply to flourish, for centuries, in a wide range of institutions from observatories to libraries, madrasas to hospitals and courts, both at the height of the Islamic golden age and for some centuries afterwards. It did not lead to a scientific revolution like that in Early modern Europe, but such external comparisons are probably to be rejected as imposing “chronologically and culturally alien standards” on a successful medieval culture.

In other words, ‘eventually smothered by a medieval culture’.

Rabz
April 18, 2024 1:23 pm

When too much licorice is barely enough – the Curb your Enthusiasm episode featuring the red Bavarian licorice is instructive.

johanna
johanna
April 18, 2024 1:44 pm

I see that the definition of ‘in State care’ has joined the definition of ‘in custody’ as meaning that the individual concerned has had some sort of contact with government at some point. It’s an outrageous perversion of the language.

A child living with relatives, as required by law, is not ‘in State care.’ The child is in the care of the relatives.

A person being pursued by police after allegedly committing a criminal act is not ‘in custody’ – quite the opposite. The police are trying to get the person into custody.

Respect for the English language among the so-called educated elite is a rare thing these days.

Still, when they can reverse people’s biological sex without a blush, anything is possible.

Pogria
Pogria
April 18, 2024 1:48 pm

I have found the perfect theme song that is representative of our Plod Service.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEtAmeR9p7U

johanna
johanna
April 18, 2024 1:56 pm

Mmm – liquorice. The Dutch salty kind, not that sugary, mushy travesty which is to liquorice what Corio is to whisky.

Coles stock dubbelzout (the best) and other kinds from time to time, and I always stock up.

With proper liquorice, it’s just not possible to eat much at one time. It’s very intense in flavour, plus it’s hard, so that you have to dissolve it in your mouth, which takes 10 minutes or so.

Very good for times when the mouth tastes less than minty fresh.

If Corio gives you a shocking hangover – what did you expect?

🙂

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
April 18, 2024 2:02 pm

I see that the definition of ‘in State care’ has joined the definition of ‘in custody’ as meaning that the individual concerned has had some sort of contact with government at some point. It’s an outrageous perversion of the language.

My favourite is when police arrest someone for one egregious crime or other (or both, actually) and this person is described as ‘assisting the police in their inquiry’.

You can see that the once villainous little turds are already reforming into useful members of society.

Gilas
Gilas
April 18, 2024 2:04 pm

Feelthebern April 18, 2024 12:23 pm

Last night I finished the liquorice I put in the back of the cupboard a couple of months back.
I ate too much.
Liquorice is very good.
Until it’s very bad.

Did the porcelain withstand the assault?

rosie
rosie
April 18, 2024 2:13 pm

“”He [Lee] was forced to say that what happened was an example of non-advertant (sic) recklessness. Now that is a difficult finding to make when you don’t believe the complainant … so it’s difficult to see that that won’t go unchallenged on an appeal.”:

https://twitter.com/jeremy_gans/status/1780081320364036520?t=L4w5Vys5ff74V6-tre6BKA&s=19

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
April 18, 2024 2:14 pm

Dunsy Pub Carpark Sales are up to eleven, plus one dinghy.
Outside of school holidays or a long weekend, too- that’s a slam-dunk sign that we’re already in recession.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
April 18, 2024 2:16 pm

I assume everyone has heard about Trump holding a spontaneous rally in front of a bodega in Harlem. New York is pretty deep blue, and while obviously not uniformly blue the Democrats have bungled the economy, law and order, and immigration so badly, and so persistently pushed the idea that Trump is the opposite, it looks like at least people in Harlem have taken the hint – and are supporting the opposite.

This does not offer much of a chance for vicarious gloating so Monty will likely not turn up. But now that I have mentioned him, he might feel honour spleen bound.

Last edited 6 months ago by Mother Lode
rosie
rosie
April 18, 2024 2:21 pm

Giles was correct the other day. Lerhamm has always maintained there was no intercourse, when he could not have known if some evidence of intercourse may have been preserved, even if it were a single hair.
It’s possible that Higgins has convinced herself something that didn’t happen did happen to give her evidence on that subject a ring of truth.
Despite thinking that Lee is better placed than anyone except Higgins and Lerhamm to discern the truth, Higgins repeated and very consequential lies should have put this in the impossible to know category.
Ad Sancho pointed out Lerhamm is also his own worst enemy.
He can be a cad without being a rapist.

Vicki
Vicki
April 18, 2024 2:23 pm

And the NDIS is NOT an Insurance Scheme. A true Insurance Scheme is funded.

But this is the way that the damn scheme was sold by Labor to the electorate in 2013. It was so damn nebulous.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
April 18, 2024 2:27 pm

Was Lehrmann a cad? Or even a common or garden try-it-on lad?
I find it illuminating that despite spending years in root-rat-over-run Canberra, and on the eeeevil side of the political aisle to boot, there was no other damsels coming forward to say that he’d pumped them full of drinks or put a hand on a knee inside an Uber. In court or on the panel shows.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 2:28 pm

“This does not offer much of a chance for vicarious gloating so Monty will likely not turn up.”

MontyPox Virus can never turn up. A turn up is at the bottom of a Man’s trousers. Unless you meant to say a turnip?

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
April 18, 2024 2:28 pm

Ad Sancho pointed out…

REPORT THIS AD

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 2:36 pm

updated

Lidia Thorpe says Anthony Albanese, Linda Burney should be ‘deeply ashamed’ by Indigenous boy’s suicideKatina Curtis, Hannah Cross and Caitlyn RintoulThe West Australian
Thu, 18 April 2024 8:08AM

Lidia Thorpe has accused Anthony Albanese and Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney of failing to protect children after the death of a 10-year-old boy in state care.
The Indigenous independent senator called on the Government to urgently implement the remaining recommendations from the 1997 Bringing Them Home report that point to the need for a national approach to child protection.
“Minister Burney and the Prime Minister are failing to protect First Nations children. They should be deeply ashamed of the news of this young boy’s death,” Senator Thorpe said.
The 10-year-old Indigenous boy, who had been living with relatives approved by authorities, died on Friday night, The Nightly revealed overnight.

His parents, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said they had been working towards reunification with their child after officials removed four of their six children about three years ago.
Ms Burney said the death was “shocking, heartbreaking and demands deep reflection”.
“My heart goes out to the family and community in WA that has lost a son so young,” she said via social media outlet X on Thursday morning.
She is expecting to be briefed by the WA Government about the case.

Senator Thorpe said the recommendations from the stolen generation inquiry had sat on the shelves of many Indigenous affairs ministers and clearly pointed to the need for federal leadership.
“Today kids learn about the stolen generation in school, but what they’re not taught is that these policies never ended. The removal of First Nations children is an ongoing genocidal project being perpetrated through government policy every day,” she said.
“The Closing the Gap report showed that Labor are subjecting a whole new stolen generation of children to the trauma of removal.
“We know what Burney and Albanese will say – they’ll throw up their hands and say this is a state responsibility. But this is a national atrocity that is unfolding in every state; they need to show some leadership.”

Speaking of nuking…

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 2:45 pm

Rabz
April 18, 2024 1:23 pm

When too much licorice is barely enough – the Curb your Enthusiasm episode featuring the red Bavarian licorice is instructive.

Well done Bayern Munich as you beat La Arse, Norf’ Landan’ licorice.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 2:55 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 2:36 pm

updated
Lidia Thorpe says Anthony Albanese, Linda Burney should be ‘deeply ashamed’ by Indigenous boy’s suicideKatina Curtis, Hannah Cross and Caitlyn RintoulThe West Australian
Thu, 18 April 2024 8:08AM

So should every Abo’ Alleged ‘Leader. You Thorpe included. Where did the $40 Billion a year go? FFS.

The long suffering Australian Taxpayer wants to know.

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
April 18, 2024 2:58 pm

So what’s the higher rate-
Aboriginal youth suicide in “state care”, or
Aboriginal youth suicide On Country?

johanna
johanna
April 18, 2024 3:06 pm

Complaints about the NDIS being a Byzantine bureaucracy are not surprising – it was set up that way.

But in terms of expectations, it may be time to trim down the burden being borne by taxpayers:

He has complex mental health needs, epilepsy, and diabetes, and has been in and out of share homes over the years.
His best option now is to live in a private rental in Creswick, near Ballarat, with seven support workers caring for him in shifts.

‘Complex mental health needs’ is code for that he is an adult male who can go radio rental.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-18/ndis-users-frustration-builds-over-payment-delays/103573780

How many people requiring seven support workers full time can we afford to pay for? How do we know that this is the best/only way of helping them? Maybe institutional care is a better option.

The NDIS has, predictably, become a nightmare of runaway costs, massive bureaucracy, mission creep and fraud. In budgetary terms, it is possibly the worst decision this century. Truly evil, for anyone who cared about the future of this country.

It has generated an expectation that everyone like the chap in the article is entitled to hand and foot, seven day a week personal service via taxpayers for life. It has also generated expectations that normal boys, who are rumbuctuous and start behind girls academically, are in need of medication and therapy.

Not to mention the fraud, the bogus ‘therapies’, the suggestion that hookers are a human right and so on.

If only Peter Walsh could be brought back to sort it out!

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 3:07 pm

Wally Dali
April 18, 2024 2:58 pm

So what’s the higher rate-
Aboriginal youth suicide in “state care”, or
Aboriginal youth suicide On Country?

Either way, ‘They” will blame ‘Whitey”. FFS.

Eyrie
Eyrie
April 18, 2024 3:15 pm

Kiwis are of course excellent sailors, drawing upon Maori experience. It will be nice if they can sail the winds of space as adeptly they did the Pacific Ocean.

Here you go, BoN:

Ships and sails proper for the heavenly air should be fashioned. Then there will also be people, who do not shrink from the dreary vastness of space.
~ Johannes Kepler, born this day in 1571.

H B Bear
H B Bear
April 18, 2024 3:16 pm

Lydia Thorpe could give Nick Xenophon a run for grandstanding.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 3:32 pm

Eyrie
April 18, 2024 3:15 pm

Kiwis are of course excellent sailors, drawing upon Maori experience. It will be nice if they can sail the winds of space as adeptly they did the Pacific Ocean.

And Captain Cook would well agree. Not being a kiwi though. Only three times around the known World. Those English. Such Explorers.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
April 18, 2024 3:45 pm

It is a little early (by some people’s prudish reckonings) but with the rain happening now I think I shall call it a day and stand outside with a scotch.

So nice that summer is over and rain does not mean suffocating humidity.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 3:51 pm

The Crusaders’ entry into Constantinople, 12th April 1204, Eugene Delacroix, 1840

So they knew the exact date. Before the Gregorian Calendar in 1582. LOL. What a load of bollocks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregorian_calendar

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 3:55 pm

Russia Set to Outpace All Advanced Economies – Sanctions FAILED

Sanctions and the removal of Russia from SWIFT have not deterred the Russian economy. A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that Russia’s economy will grow more in the next year than any other advanced economy.

The IMF believes Russia’s economy will grow by 3.2% in 2024, in comparison, the US is expected to grow by 2.7% while Europe’s top economy, Germany, is expected to grow by a mere 0.2%. Cutting off Europe from Russian energy backfired in a major way. Foreign investments have been pouring into Russia from the rest of the world, which is eager to join the rank of “advanced nation.”

https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/world-trade/russia-set-to-outpace-all-advanced-economies-sanctions-failed/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

Last edited 6 months ago by Johnny Rotten
Vicki
Vicki
April 18, 2024 3:58 pm

Sorry to return regularly to the Covid catastrophe, but I am still agog at the relationship between the Chinese virus researchers at Wuhan & the most resourced virus researchers in the USA.

This is from US Senator Rand:

Senator Rand Paul shared on Twitter e-mail correspondence between EcoHealth Alliance President, Peter Daszak, and senior NIAID official, David Morens, dated April 26, 2020. 

The subject is NIAID’s decision to terminate its grant to EcoHealth (Award Number: R01AI110964) titled UNDERSTANDING THE RISK OF BAT CORONAVIRUS EMERGENCE—a grant that provided funding to EcoHealth every year between 2014-2020. 

The e-mail does not explicitly state why NIAID decided to terminate this grant in April 2020, and the official reason given by Morens is vague gibberish about EcoHealth’s work “not aligning” with NIAID’s objectives following the emergence of SARS-CoV-2. An especially notable passage from Daszak’s e-mail is the following:

comment image

Note the following extraordinary facts:
1). A “novel” coronavirus that is infectious to humans emerges in Wuhan, China near a BSL laboratory in which American biotechnology is being used to perform GoF work on bat SARS-CoVs in order to make them infectious to the human respiratory tract, as set forth in a NIAID grant to EcoHealth Alliance titled UNDERSTANDING THE RISK OF BAT CORONAVIRUS EMERGENCE. 

2). Following the emergence of a virus in Wuhan derived from a bat coronavirus, NIAID decides to terminate the grant it has been funding since 2014. 

3). Grant recipient, Peter Daszak, tells his NIAID buddy that “we have 15,000 samples in freezers in Wuhan and could do the full genomes of 700+ CoVs we’ve identified if we don’t cut this thread. 

4). Daszak says he will communicate henceforth with Morens via personal G-mail instead of through his NIAID government e-mail. 
The subtext of the e-mail exchange is that both EcoHealth Alliance and NIAID are in trouble. Morens explicitly states that Tony “is involved in some sort of damage control…”. By terminating the grant, NIAID is signaling to Daszak that the circumstances compel a severing of ties. Daszak replies by referring to the 15,000 samples that EcoHealth Alliance has in freezers in Wuhan and the work they could do on these samples if official relations are maintained with its research partner, the Key Laboratory of Special Pathogens, Wuhan Institute of Virology. 

Here Daszak seems to be letting Morens know that if NIAID terminates the grant, it will lose access to this biological capital that EcoHealth has stored in the Wuhan lab. To me, this raises a fascinating question: Is it possible that the guys at NIAID who approved the grant to EcoHealth did not fully understand the extent of what EcoHealth was doing with its colleagues at the WIV?

Implied in Daszak’s statement is that it’s too late for NIAID to withdrawal its approval of the EcoHealth-WIV collaboration—i.e., it’s better to maintain the working relationship instead of severing it. 

Reviewing this e-mail exchange reminded me of the most perplexing question of this entire story: Why did a U.S. government agency knowingly and willingly approve and endorse the sharing of American biotechnology with a Chinese laboratory known to be operating under the control of the Chinese government and military? 

All of the bellicose talk about possible war with China—using kinetic weaponry—over a dispute about Taiwan seems strangely inconsistent with a U.S. federal agency approving of U.S. scientists providing the WIV with biotechnology that could applied to developing bioweapons of potentially vast strategic value. 

Vicki
Vicki
April 18, 2024 4:00 pm

Sorry – my previous post was an extract from Senator Rand’s X post. I should have quoted it in italics.

Mea culpa.

johanna
johanna
April 18, 2024 4:01 pm

Magnificent doco today on NITV – hope it’s repeated somewhere.

It’s called In Search of Greatness.

It’s about what makes a sporting and other superstar, and deals with it in a serious way.

The main interviews are with Canadian ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky, NFL legend Jerry Rice, and Pele. There are also snippets about English soccer players, Serena Williams, Michael Jordan, Roger Federer, John McEnroe and others. They mention Jimi Hendrix playing The Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock.

It’s fascinating.

One thing the superstars have in common is a singleminded and fanatical devotion to detail. Mind you, when some of them say they remember every move in every game, yikes!

What was interesting is the ability to anticipate, especially in team games. Jerry Rice said that things seemed to slow down a bit before his big moves. I don’t know about AFL, but do remember Rugby League players who had an uncanny ability to read the field on the run. Billy Smith, Johnny Raper, Laurie Daley, to name a few. They managed to be in the right place at the right time like magic, and to forsee the right way to zigzag and run.

There was discussion about the need to thoroughly learn the basics – quite right – but it’s what happens later that matters. Also about coaches, plus and minus, from the likes of Pele and Wayne G.

One of the best things I’ve seen in ages,

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 4:02 pm

If only Peter Walsh could be brought back to sort it out!

Even though LayBore, he was a most Brilliant Finance Minister.

Vicki
Vicki
April 18, 2024 4:06 pm

It surely tells you a lot about the state of integrity & culpability in the most powerful country in the western world when a well respected Senator can accuse prominent government organisations and their operators of a malfeasance that has been globally catastrophic – and nothing happens. At least yet!

It is hard to believe that events have to to this in our lifetime.

damon
damon
April 18, 2024 4:09 pm

Wouldn’t it be nice if Australia forgot about being a ‘superpower’ and concentrated on supplying plentiful, cheap energy to its populaton?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 4:12 pm

Roger Cook backs expediting inquest into death of 10yo Aboriginal boy in care of Department of Communities
Josh ZimmermanThe West Australian
Thu, 18 April 2024 12:24PM

Premier Roger Cook would support expediting a coronial inquest into the suicide of a 10-year-old Aboriginal boy who died in the care of the Department of Communities.
The child took his own life last Friday, about three years after he had been removed from his parents and while he was living with other relatives.
Mr Cook said the “disturbing” and “tragic” case had shocked the State and that “now we are left with the task of getting answers”.
“Getting answers for the family, getting answers to make sure that we are doing everything we can to keep young children safe,” he said.

“Safe in circumstances where they cannot be made safe with their direct family but safe when they go into foster care or other forms of care to ensure that we look after their wellbeing.”

The death of a child in State care automatically triggers a coronial inquest.
An inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the suicide of Cleveland Dodd — a 16-year-old who fatally self-harmed in Unit 18 in 2023 — was fast-tracked and commenced in April 2024, just six months after he died.
Mr Cook said he hoped the 10-year-old boy’s family “gets answers — and answers as soon as possible”.
“The matters before the coronial court are indeed for the court to decide,” he said.
“If they decide to expedite this particular case, well that would obviously be welcomed.”
While declining to comment on the specifics of the case, Mr Cook said the boy’s removal from his parents had occurred in line with Communities strict policies.
“In relation to children who are taken into care, they always do so with the Aboriginal child placement principles,” the Premier said.
“Which is about ensuring that, if at all possible, that child goes into the care of another member of the extended family or another member of their Aboriginal community, or someone who is culturally aligned.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
April 18, 2024 4:43 pm

In a more general sense, the positive achievement of Islamic science was simply to flourish, for centuries, in a wide range of institutions from observatories to libraries, madrasas to hospitals and courts, both at the height of the Islamic golden age and for some centuries afterwards.

What put a stop to the Arabic golden age was fundamentalist Islam. See the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam for what Arabic culture was like when there lots of competing sects, none dominant.

Johnny Rotten
Johnny Rotten
April 18, 2024 4:48 pm

dover0beach
April 18, 2024 4:11 pm

So they knew the exact date. Before the Gregorian Calendar in 1582. LOL. What a load of bollocks.

\
Were there no exact dates with the Julian calander?

Yes, But not with our dates. Just like Christmas.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 4:50 pm

“Inside the Lindt Cafe Siege”

Jorge (the partner of one of the hostages) was beginning to sharply question the lack of police action and getting increasingly testy responses.”Why don’t you go in there and shoot him?” Jorge asked.”This is not the movies and we are not in America” a senior officer told him, brusquely. (Page 222.)

bons
bons
April 18, 2024 5:03 pm

I went to the QLD Ballet today. An excellent production, truely spectacular.

Except —— except for the imposed ‘wisdom of the welders’ inane babble which was three times its normal infuriating length. At its conclusion we were directed to acknowledge the enormous contribution made by the Welders to our cultural landscape (details not provided, and the names of the welders we were required to venerate were witheld).

My tongue is sore from having been bitten so hard.

The extreme length of the embarrassing diatribe is probably repayment for the enormous funds that The Chook has shovelled into the QLD Labor Propaganda Ballet Company. The bogan Chook being well known for being all into kultcha an all.

Oh shit, I just saw a flash vision of The Chook in a tutu.

These clowns are well beyond parody. Labor as cultural icons. As Brigid McKenzie says, “they are bozos”.

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 5:12 pm

How unlike Senator Thorpe to politicise the death of a child before the facts are even known. She’s usually so measured in her commentary.

Alamak!
April 18, 2024 5:18 pm

Kiwis are of course excellent sailors, drawing upon Maori experience

Kiwis draw upon lived experience of sailing the often challenging seas around UnZed, plus the history of sailing handed down from English forebears.

The Maori nautical ‘experience’ has not been a useful thing since about 300+ years ago when Von Tasman and Cook dropped by in their fine state of the art nautical craft.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
April 18, 2024 5:18 pm

This goes for over an hour. This is for those that have’t seen it.

Repeat.

Al White: The Story of a Marine Grunt in the First Battle of Khe Sanh (April 1967)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWJ5yxuvTMw

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
April 18, 2024 5:21 pm

There was commentary earlier about the Mohammad al Fingerchop where an Imam had said that he had not been radicalised.

Reminded of this little rhyme from William Cowper:

Mycilla dyes her locks, ’tis said

But ’tis a foul aspersion.

She buys them black, they therefore need

No subsequent immersion.

Perhaps the Imam was saying he came pre-radicalised.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
April 18, 2024 5:21 pm

This is for those that have’t seen it.

I left out the N.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
April 18, 2024 5:26 pm

Despite thinking that Lee is better placed than anyone except Higgins and Lerhamm to discern the truth, Higgins repeated and very consequential lies should have put this in the impossible to know category.

And it still is firmly in the ‘impossible to know category’. Lee doesn’t ‘know’, either; but he was specifically asked by Lehrmann to judge whether his (Lehrmann’s) truth was more probable than Higgins’ truth published via Ch10. Because that’s what Brucie’s claim (and millions of lawyer bucks) turned on.

Lehrmann’s version of events varied between going to PH to drink whiskey, fetching his house keys, and doing some sort of urgent/not urgent work – during which he apparently forgot entirely about the woman who he had shortly before been a-snogging’ and a-groping’ with at a late night bar and who accompanied him into the Ministerial suite, and then pushed off home.

Lee tells us that he thought, nah, all things considered, less probable than the other proposition – seemingly largely on the basis that Higgins’ own lying didn’t hit its straps until she met Sharaz.

Which is the process he was presumably expected to follow by all concerned.

Vicki
Vicki
April 18, 2024 5:27 pm

Maybe because I have just had an afternoon red on verandah at farm – but I am sh—y because few except Indolent are really concerned about demanding the truth about the Covid iniquities that have blighted out democracy.

We need to be reminded that there are many in the western world that are determined to reveal the facts of this disaster. And here is an example – more power to them:

https://www.vaersaware.com

Bruce
Bruce
April 18, 2024 5:29 pm

KD:

Technically, the Imam is correct.

The stabby sociopaths are NOT “radicalized”.

They are adhering “literally” to the doctrine of the Sand Pirate, as clearly and multiply detailed in their little book.

“Radical” muslims are those who eschew such behavior and are regularly hunted down and murdered by the more “devout”.

The toxic LSM, scabrous frauds in Wankerdemia and treasonous pollie-muppets are almost entirely responsible for the current “misrepresentation”.

Hence the GOVERNMENT push to criminalize ANYTHING it declares to be “misinformation”.

Last edited 6 months ago by Bruce
Muddy
Muddy
April 18, 2024 5:35 pm

There’s a substantial dose of sorcery within the recreated Australian Aboriginal kultcha, all of which revolves around the entity known as The Whyteman. It is a powerful, malevolent and soulless being that can, depending upon its whim, choose to kill quickly, or infect not just an individual, but every clan and country member that person has contact with over centuries. But it can be tricked, and endless wealth is the gift of those who can control it over time.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 5:43 pm

“Inside the Lindt Cafe Siege.”

(At the inquest) tempers flared only very rarely. Tori’s (the murdered hostage) mother Rosie, was enraged on one occasion to hear the late night forward commander Victor, justify, yet again, the delayed storming of the cafe by observing that Monis “had the same rights as anyone else.” “You are an absolute disgrace” she shouted across the courtroom, before storming out, in tears. (Page 251.)

Top Ender
Top Ender
April 18, 2024 5:45 pm

The driverless truck that wasn’t….

A driverless truck trial on Melbourne’s busiest freight routes appears to have been canned less than 24 hours after it was announced.

The six-month trial by Transurban has been halted amid concerns there was no public consultation and the move would leave freight routes in chaos.

The Transport Workers Union issued an emergency message to its members on Thursday afternoon announcing “the proposed driverless trucks trial tonight on the Monash Freeway has been cancelled”.

“Sneaky tactics, and lacking any community input, Transurban maliciously chose to squeeze this trial through in bad faith.”

Branch Secretary Mem Suleyman said: “Our freeways and roads are an important source of ensuring transportation is moved safely by professional drivers.

“We are a long way away from this type of untested technology and it doesn’t belong in Victoria particularly when they haven’t got it right in other parts of the world.”

“We welcome the decision this afternoon and overnight through the reopening of the Monash Freeway, Victorians will wake up to their petrol, groceries, medical supplies, freight and other essential supplies.”

The Herald Sun revealed the six-month trial by Transurban would put to the test a pair of autopilot trucks which rely on smart road technology to navigate their own dedicated lanes travelling at night between 10pm and 5am.

Sources told the Herald Sun that industry, the public and Victorian government MPs were not consulted on the trial, which would have significant impact on freight for the state.

Transurban and the State Government have been contacted for comment.

The six-month trial was due to launch Thursday.

The first heavy duty vehicle was due to be tested along the M1 from the West Gate Fwy through to the Monash, including CityLink, before a second is added at a later date.

Each truck was set to travel at night between 10pm and 5am to avoid heavy congestion and will carry a specialist driver and engineer on board.

A pilot vehicle was also set to accompany the trucks during the initial stages.

Testing was due to operate between the Victoria International Container Terminal at the Port of Melbourne and Salta’s Nexus Dandenong South Industrial Estate.

A similar trial was undertaken by Transurban in late 2022 which ran for just three weeks.

It was the first time an automated truck – designed to operate without driver input – was tested in real traffic on a public freeway in Australia.

Autonomous driving software firm, Plus, signed on as a partner for the latest trial last August to help develop the technology, which can see traffic conditions up to 1km ahead.

cohenite
April 18, 2024 5:47 pm

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
 April 18, 2024 4:50 pm

“Inside the Lindt Cafe Siege”
Jorge (the partner of one of the hostages) was beginning to sharply question the lack of police action and getting increasingly testy responses.”Why don’t you go in there and shoot him?” Jorge asked.”This is not the movies and we are not in America” a senior officer told him, brusquely. (Page 222.)

As soon as the muslim went into the Lindt Cafe, Lindt is my favourite chocolate, the wallopers set up Operation Hammerhead which had a purpose of controlling islamophobia. And this:

The police commander who held off ordering tactical officers to storm the Lindt cafe until after hostage Tori Johnson was killed has told an inquest gunman Man Haron Monis “had the same rights as anyone else”, prompting the victim’s mother to charge out of the courtroom, calling the officer “an absolute disgrace”.

14 Oct 2016 – Because terrorists have rights … | Catallaxy Files – Trove (nla.gov.au)

Warwick
Warwick
April 18, 2024 5:50 pm

Dr Faustus, with all due respect to you and the noted “Come Conjurer” Judge Lee, I think its completely preposterous to suggest Brittany only started telling fibs when influenced by Sharaz. In the very early stages she said she had for a medical examination within 48hrs and it was a complete lie. The dress was under her bed for 6 months and she couldn’t bare to even think of it. But within a week or so had washed it and wore it out. It was her favourite dress after all! She presents as a completely amoral fabulist to me. Perhaps Lehrmann is one as well, but as the saying goes, you are telling the story love! You better get the facts straight! The Project show was completely reckless and disgraceful.

Admittedly, the Judge did say Brittany’s behaviour after the incident was to be expected. All completely normal apparently.

Indolent
Indolent
April 18, 2024 6:04 pm

Dr. John Campbell interview with Marc Girardot.

Vaccine Harm

rosie
rosie
April 18, 2024 6:06 pm
JC
JC
April 18, 2024 6:09 pm

Wow

In recent decades rapidly improving health care has driven a baby boom in sub-Saharan Africa, putting pressure on schools and health services. Fertility rates are tumbling elsewhere, including in China and India, which account for more than a third of the global population. By the turn of the century, the share of the world’s babies born in sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to reach 55%, from 30% in 2021. And people will be living longer. The continent’s population is thus set to double by 2050.

Economist

It’s likely to be linear, so it’s an iffy prediction. Even up to a decade ago, carried on from the Population Time Bomb in the 70s, we were told the world was heading for a massive overpopulation crisis. And now, not so much.

rosie
rosie
April 18, 2024 6:09 pm
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
April 18, 2024 6:12 pm

Dr Faustus, with all due respect to you and the noted “Come Conjurer” Judge Lee, I think its completely preposterous to suggest Brittany only started telling fibs when influenced by Sharaz.

Warwick: It would indeed be preposterous.

Which is why I carefully paraphrased Lee as saying: “seemingly largely on the basis that Higgins’ own lying didn’t hit its straps until she met Sharaz.

Crossie
Crossie
April 18, 2024 6:16 pm

The 10-year-old Indigenous boy, who had been living with relatives approved by authorities, died on Friday night, The Nightly revealed overnight.

His parents, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said they had been working towards reunification with their child after officials removed four of their six children about three years ago.

I don’t suppose it occurred to Lidia Thorpe that the child may have committed suicide rather than be handed back to his parents.

Last edited 6 months ago by Crossie
Steve trickler
Steve trickler
April 18, 2024 6:20 pm

Greta Thumberg needs a steel cap boot to the head. After that, I’ll punch her dad out.

God she is ugly. A genatic freak.

Muddy
Muddy
April 18, 2024 6:33 pm

From JC’s Economist quote above:

In recent decades rapidly improving health care has driven a baby boom in sub-Saharan Africa, putting pressure on schools and health services.

All demanding access to cheap electrickery.
What happens if that cannot be provided?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 6:34 pm

“Inside the Lindt Cafe Siege.”

“Immediately after the siege, some commentators had mounted an argument that the attacker was mentally unstable, and not a “true” terrorist at all. Among those espousing that view was the longtime Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore, who on the first anniversary of the siege told the A.B.C. “It wasn’t a terrorist event. I didn’t want our multicultural, harmonious society to be divided.” (Page 265.)

JC
JC
April 18, 2024 6:42 pm

More wows

The chart linked to below shows the Fed began to expand its balance sheet in early’ish 2020. Balance sheet expansion means QE, which in turn means the Fed buys bonds and tips out money into the system. That’s QE (quantitative easing).

The balance sheet went from just a tiny bit over US$4 trillion in early 2020 to US$9 trillion in early 2022. A few months later quantitative tightening began and the balance sheet is now around US$7.4 trillion, They’re not stopping

QT is the reason why the US and other developed countries didn’t move into hyper inflation mode with QE. Markets believe the central banks would begin to stop or reverse the monetary expansion.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WALCL

Roger
Roger
April 18, 2024 6:45 pm

I don’t suppose it occurred to Lidia Thorpe that the child may have committed suicide rather than be handed back to his parents.

Whatever the truth is – that is for the coroner to determine as far as he or she can – we can be sure Thorpe will not be interested in it unless it furthers her political agenda, to which end she has already been happy to dehumanise the poor child by reducing him to a mere cipher whose only purpose is to be a vehicle for her especially ugly version of racial politics. Far from being an anti-politician, Thorpe is a politician sine qua non.

Last edited 6 months ago by Roger
Steve trickler
Steve trickler
April 18, 2024 6:45 pm

Thunberg ….

Butt ugly piece of sh*t. Yuck. Some stupid bastard will stick his d*ck in her.

Crossie
Crossie
April 18, 2024 6:49 pm

Saw on the news that Hugh Grant had a win in his own lawsuit against a newspaper. Pictured with him were two women, I thought they might be his daughters so I checked Wikipedia and was shocked to find out that he has five kids, all born in the previous decade to two or three women, not clear how many. He has been a busy boy in his fifties.

Muddy
Muddy
April 18, 2024 7:00 pm

I stumbled onto a Daily Mail article (via someone’s link) claiming that just-released Palestinians had been tortured by Israel. This includes one who was supposedly penetrated with a hot metal rod. By some miracle, his intestines were not ruptured, which can lead to death apparently. One photo of alleged torture features damage to a man’s wrist, which looks like barely a first layer graze (I’ve done more damage while shaving).

The problem with these type of claims is that by the time ‘fact-checking’ is done on them, the spotlight has moved on, and for all but a comparative minority who can think for themselves, this is MORE evidence of Israeli atrocities. The pressure builds, and facts matter little when amorphous ‘public opinion’ controls the decision-making.

[EDIT: Obviously the link didn’t work. It’s for the best though. Think of your health].

Last edited 6 months ago by Muddy
JC
JC
April 18, 2024 7:18 pm

FMD, he’s a freaking demented moron. He just can’t help himself.

WATCH: Joe Biden says Uncle Bosey was shot down over New Guinea and eaten by cannibals This guy is cooked

amortiser
amortiser
April 18, 2024 7:22 pm

In the very early stages she said she had for a medical examination within 48hrs and it was a complete lie.”

If I remember correctly this is what she told her boyfriend, Dillaway.

This was in the context of checking for an STD. She was still in a relationship with Dillaway. If she had truly been raped it was almost evil to tell Dillaway she was having a medical check and then not doing so.

That is a very significant lie right there and it is central to what happened.

The police asked her to provide specific things including the dress she was wearing as it might provide physical evidence of an assault. Instead of handing it over for testing she sloughed them off then washed it. This was within weeks of the alleged assault because she wore it to a campaign function in Perth with Reynolds.

Is this what Lee concluded to be understandable behaviour from someone who has been raped?

These were contemporaneous lies. Lehrmann, on the other hand, was trying to recall 2 years after the fact matters that occurred on a boozy night at the bar which he probably indulged in most Friday nights.

Appealable? Probably. Will most likely not happen as he has no money left after this.

cohenite
April 18, 2024 7:24 pm

Thorpe is a politician sine qua non.

That’s a bit fancy Rog; she’s a nasty, black bitch, with a screw loose but a lot of rat cunning.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 7:27 pm

Darwin kids attempt carjacking of nurse with knife

  • exclusive

By liam mendes

  • Reporter
  • 6:31PM April 18, 2024

A terrified nurse says she feared she would be killed when a group of youths – some aged just 11 – tried to carjack her at knifepoint in Darwin on Wednesday.
Anu Chapagain told The Australian she felt “betrayed” after a group of four male youths attempted to steal her car at 6:40pm, with one coming within a metre of her with a knife after a rock was pelted at her window.
“I’m really scared, I feel like (I’m having) a heart attack, after that I spin my head, I nearly fall down,” she said.
The frightening attack comes just days after a youth curfew in Alice Springs expired, sparked by the declaration of an “emergency situation” in the town following continued violence and rioting and has prompted calls for a renewed, Territory-wide curfew on “problem youths”.

Woman confronted by knife-wielding boy in DarwinA woman has been left shaken after a boy demanded she give her car over.
Ms Chapagain, a personal care assistant at Darwin Hospital who moved from Nepal to Darwin in 2009, said she would have collapsed in the aftermath of the attack if it weren’t for two friends by her side. “I was thinking … what if they kill me, how is my family going to survive,” she said.
“I always help them, and I’m always helping the community and I’m working in a hospital, lots of Indigenous people are there, I’m caring for them in the hospital.
“I’m betrayed, this is too much” she said.
“My children, my family, my community, all Darwin people are not safe.”
In confronting video footage of the incident, Ms Chapagain can be seen fleeing her car as a youth runs up to her pointing a knife and yelling “Give me your car, give me your car, right now, right now”.
After failing to start the car due to the absence of the wireless key, which Ms Chapagain had on her, the offenders fled the scene only to allegedly carjack a taxi several hours later around 10.30pm.

Indolent
Indolent
April 18, 2024 7:28 pm
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
April 18, 2024 7:32 pm

feelthebern
 April 18, 2024 12:23 pm

Last night I finished the liquorice I put in the back of the cupboard a couple of months back.

I ate too much.

Liquorice is very good.

Until it’s very bad.

I think might be three months. It was more like Australia Day when you stashed that.
From memory it was in a container in the cupboard behind the vinegar & Uncle Bens rice?

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
April 18, 2024 7:45 pm

Labor’s defence equipment purchases should arrive just in time for us to be declared a renegade province by China./sarc

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
April 18, 2024 7:45 pm

johanna
 April 18, 2024 1:44 pm

I see that the definition of ‘in State care’ has joined the definition of ‘in custody’ as meaning that the individual concerned has had some sort of contact with government at some point. It’s an outrageous perversion of the language.

This little trick of new-speak has been around for a while.
It seems solely aimed at inflating the “deaths in custody” statistics.
“In custody” includes being in jail, under arrest in a divvy van and … get this … running to evade arrest, being out on bail, serving a community corrections order or being on unsupervised parole.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
April 18, 2024 7:54 pm

rosie
 April 18, 2024 2:13 pm

“”He [Lee] was forced to say that what happened was an example of non-advertant (sic) recklessness. Now that is a difficult finding to make when you don’t believe the complainant … so it’s difficult to see that that won’t go unchallenged on an appeal.”:

https://twitter.com/jeremy_gans/status/1780081320364036520?t=L4w5Vys5ff74V6-tre6BKA&s=19

That was the point I made yesterday.
Lee’s less than complimentary assessment of Britnah’s credibility was confined to the post-Shiraz period.
My question is, if she could be induced to tell the most egregious lies by Shiraz, how can you conclude she wouldn’t have been prone to embellishments after being exposed to the (ahem) star-power of Sam Maiden and Cane Toad?

Top Ender
Top Ender
April 18, 2024 8:14 pm

Anu Chapagain told The Australian she felt “betrayed” after a group of four male youths attempted to steal her car at 6:40pm

Hardly surprising.

Same youth are told continuously that everything bad is down to whitey, and they are on never-ceded land which belongs to them. So take what you like, and you’ll still be blameless.

Bruce in WA
April 18, 2024 8:27 pm

Couple in NZ killed, apparently by a ram on their farm near Auckland. The newspaper report was open to comments. All I wrote was “Violence of the lambs”.

My comment never made it into print and ALL comments have now been removed and the comments box taken down.

Pfft!

PeterM
PeterM
April 18, 2024 8:38 pm

Woke controls everything:https: //notthebee.com/article/wokies-are-in-control-of-even-the-smallest-of-small-town-america-and-jesse-kelly-is-here-to-tell-you-how-to-defeat-them

Liberty quote: “But in many places, the left will fight back with everything and use your sense of fairness against you. Just remember that they themselves have none and aren’t hampered by any morality, either.”

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
April 18, 2024 9:34 pm

Wakeley church attack: Terrorism charge for boy, 16, who allegedly stabbed bishopNatalie WolfeThe Nightly
Thu, 18 April 2024 7:09PM

Bishop Emmanuel was allegedly attacked in a stabbing frenzy in Wakeley Sydney. Credit: Unknown/X formerly Twitter

The 16-year-old boy who allegedly attacked a bishop in a Sydney church is facing life in prison after police charged him with committing a terrorist act.

Life, in tronk, should teach the little P.O.S. reverence and respect for Kuffar law…

slackster
slackster
April 18, 2024 9:51 pm

Some great footage of Russia’s new drone jammer tank

https://files.catbox.moe/odo1ng.mp4

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
April 18, 2024 9:52 pm

Life, in tronk, should teach the little P.O.S. reverence and respect for Kuffar law…

I doubt it. More likely he’ll develop a strong preference for Shariah.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
April 18, 2024 9:58 pm

I doubt it. More likely he’ll develop a strong preference for Shariah.

And I’d bet he’ll be back on the streets before he’s out of his twenties.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
April 18, 2024 10:16 pm

Rough as guts. Being a witness on the beach would rattle you.

BondiRescue

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

Oh come on
Oh come on
April 18, 2024 10:41 pm

Another doozy from Their ABC:

(Let’s pause here to reflect on two things: Firstly, in what feels like an increasingly nationalistic world, whoever would have predicted that a French citizen would be described as someone embodying the Anzac spirit? Secondly, you can only imagine the reaction from Albanese’s critics if he’d said a Frenchman embodied the Anzac spirit. But we digress.)

(Let’s pause here to reflect on two things: Firstly, this ABC hack’s knowledge of history is so embarrassingly deficient that he doesn’t appear to know that, to a very significant extent, the Anzac spirit was birthed in France, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with her armies against the Krauts. Secondly, the purported ‘political editor’ of the ABC is as clueless when it comes to the Australian electorate as he is with regard to history, given the majority of the Australian electorate would fairly be described as “Albanese’s critics”. But let’s just confine the analysis to the coalition-aligned segment of the population. Virtually no one would care if Albanese said a Frenchman embodied the Anzac spirit…if they actually did embody the Anzac spirit. But we digress.)

Last edited 6 months ago by Oh come on
Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
April 18, 2024 10:55 pm

Good get, OCO. Also, more Frenchies than Australians went into the sandbanks at Gallipoli, and that was meant to be the Birth Of ANZAC Spirit something something something.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
April 18, 2024 10:55 pm

Thanks again, legal system terrified into paralysis after being systematically attacked by handpatters (the Hun):

A boy who allegedly crashed a stolen car into a young family in Berwick while joy-riding with mates despite being on eight sets of bail has been handed bail again.

Eight. Sets. Of. Bail.

It’s been revealed that the boy accused of T-boning a car with a mum and two kids inside had been released from custody just 20 hours before the April 9 crash on charges of car theft and leading a police pursuit.

And:

The court heard that before the horror crash that was caught on CCTV, the boy was bailed by a magistrate about 20 hours earlier.

Also:

The magistrate told the boy she was giving him “one last chance” and granted him bail due to his young age and the availability of support.

This would be the support he ran off from less than an hour after being dropped off there, resulting in the abovementioned T-boning of a mother and two nine year old girls.

“If you leave here and do what you did last time, knock off a car … you’ll be back in (youth detention),” the magistrate said.

Police had opposed bail, but Youth Justice supported it.

They don’t get it – or they do get it and ignore one of the basic issues around being admitted to bail is the likelihood of committing further offences while on bail.

Whoever drafted the Youth Justice Acts that plague each and every State and Territory in this wide brown land ought to be hung, shot, buried in a pit, dug up again and be ripped apart by dogs.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
April 18, 2024 11:12 pm

“knock off a car”
Silly, silly bint with the jive talkin’. Why the hell would an offender have any fear of someone who is in thrall to the chav subculture?

Tom
Tom
April 19, 2024 4:00 am
Tom
Tom
April 19, 2024 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
April 19, 2024 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
April 19, 2024 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
April 19, 2024 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
April 19, 2024 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
April 19, 2024 4:05 am
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