Photos in from the London son of the Hyde Park dawn service. About 1000 attendees, mostly young, and a beautiful dawn sky. Vigilance warnings and bus loads of the Met’s finest in attendance, but no nonsense.

Thank you, Cat readers who have served.

BoN:

Videos surfaced of Bibbidi, who is clearly a man with a mustache wearing a dress and sprinkling pixie dust on children, leading many parents not to want to go to the park to subject their children to this kind of gaslighting on gender.

If someone were to be outraged as to burn down one of the Disney parks, I would buy him beer all night. (Just as long as no one was in the park to be hurt.)

Not sure why the DNC is doing this in AZ.
The GOP has fractured into three in the state.
McCain GOP.
and the American first faction has now split.
I think AZ is almost certain to be a blue state in November.

For the same reasons, I think Georgia will be a red sate in Nov.
The DNC has split and it’s hard to organise your foot soldiers when this happens.

If that’s so, and I think it is, then how is it not reflecting in national polling?

Didnt you get the meme, the election will be decided by the Swifty votes!
?

Extracted from Zulu’s earlier post re females in the ADF:

These included a higher suicide rate for female veterans…

The above quote would seem to imply that female veterans had a higher suicide rate compared to their male counterparts. That is what seems to be intimated to me.

Going back to the initial data however (not the raw data, but the infographic in the source reference), it is stated that female veterans had LOWER suicide rates than their male counterparts, but compared to female non-veterans, their suicide rate was twice as high. (Unfortunately, the raw numbers are not available here).

Given the narrative of the entire article, this statement – removed from context – could be misleading. What a surprise!

(NONE of the above should be interpreted as intending to devalue the role of women in the ADF, or of their health outcomes).

An extract from the report:

The sub-theme of having to prove themselves worthy of a military identity pervaded the interviews. This emphasizes that equality and acceptance is not automatically given to women. The emphasis was on earning the respect of others by working harder in a particular job or task to prove they were as capable as men.

A question for the Cat vets (not me): As a raw recruit, I’d imagine you had a lot to prove to everyone around you? That ‘acceptance’ was NOT automatically accorded, despite the intimation in the extract above?

(I’ve skimmed through almost the whole of the research report, and while interesting, I cannot help thinking that they were trying very hard to see things that possibly were not there. Of the interviewees, by the way, six were officers and seven had been NCOs. One was a recruit with only six months service (basic training, presumably). Twenty-one of the 22 interviews were done over the phone or via Zoom. NONE of the interviewees edited the transcripts of their interview, or provided further information).

Big fat stupid government – you know you want it up ya … ?

In The Australian, the Mocker sums up Albanese’s many failures and broken commitments in a ‘resignation letter’. The ‘letter’ ends thusly:

If I remain in this position, I have three prospects. First, I could be the first Prime Minister in nearly 100 years to lead a first-term government to defeat. Second, I could be rolled by my own party before the next election. Third, I could end up with a hung parliament next year. I’d have to share a podium with Greens leader Adam Bandt, and everyone would know who was wearing the trousers.

I cannot face any of those possibilities. Accordingly, I have formally advised the Governor-General that I will step down as Prime Minister today.

On a brighter note, this just happens to be the date I qualify for an indexed prime ministerial pension of around $400K a year. Not a bad little earner to supplement an already lucrative property portfolio.

It’s quite a list. A solid qualifier in a strong field for Worst Australian Government Evah.

However, given Dutton appears to be determined to lose the election with his Nuclear Plan for NetZero, I’m afraid history has yet to see Australia’s actual Worst Government.

The Mocker in fine form:

THE MOCKER
Anthony Albanese has over-estimated himself his whole political life

Next month marks Anthony Albanese’s second anniversary as Prime Minister. The Mocker took the liberty of writing his speech for the occasion.

Two years ago I stood before a cheering crowd at the Canterbury-Hurlstone Park RSL Club in Sydney, where I claimed victory for Labor. “I’ve been underestimated my whole life,” I triumphantly proclaimed.

That was true. But reflecting on my government’s many failings during the last two years, particularly the rising cost of living and the inability to protect this country from both external and internal threats, I’ve reluctantly reached a conclusion. And that is I’ve over-estimated myself for my whole political life.

I promised on election night that I would seek “common purpose and promote unity” and “not fear and division”. For good measure I also added: “It is what I have sought to do throughout my political life”. But the truth is I have long revelled in conflict, division, and petty sniping. That is my nature.

I have presented many faces to the public, a practice otherwise known as telling the audience what they want to hear. Two months before the 2022 election, I gave an interview to The Daily Telegraph, claiming Labor was “the party of mainstream Australia”. I made a big show of distancing myself from the Greens, saying I was pro-business and would implement economically “realistic” policies.

That was a façade. I knew it was a façade. You knew it was a façade. Only ten years before I had, as a cabinet minister in the Gillard government, tearfully lamented that the upheaval in Labor’s leadership was distracting me from my core business of class warfare.

“I like fighting Tories,” I said. “It’s what I do.”

That was one of the rare occasions the public got to see an upfront Anthony Albanese. I was a teenager when I embraced far-left politics, and I’ve never relinquished the ideology of envy and antagonism. I define myself not by what I’m for but what I’m against.

As for my love of fighting, that needs qualifying. I’m big on shrill denunciations while pointing the finger at the other side. I’ll posture for the camera and yell exhortations like “smash her”, when a member of the Opposition speaks. It’s all theatre, though. In short, I’m a piss and wind warrior.

“I won’t run and hide from responsibility,” I said in a pre-election speech. “I won’t go missing when the going gets tough.” It’s just my ticker that will go missing, I should have added. They were just a couple of the many promises and assurances I have given over the last few years, all of which were about as believable as a bedtime fairy tale.

I told the Australian public on the eve of the election: “Labor will be every bit as strong in defending Australian values against any push by China or any nation trying to undermine them”. So what did I do when a Chinese warship deliberately used its sonar to injure our naval divers? I kept that under wraps until I finished my pre-departure press conference at San Francisco, so the media couldn’t ask me if I’d raised this incident with President Xi Jinping during our APEC summit meeting.

I’m forever telling everyone that my government is “keeping Australians safe,” yet I refuse to call out the growing number of Islamic extremists in this country. I’m paralysed by the thought of losing safe Labor seats in Western Sydney. Every aspect of our foreign policy concerning the Middle East is assessed according to that narrow consideration.

My government even refused a modest request by the US to send a warship into the Red Sea as part of a global effort to protect shipping lanes from Houthi rebel attacks. Do you know who praised us for that decision? China’s state-owned media, that’s who. “It is sensible for Australia to continue distancing itself from the US”, said the Global Times. That says it all.

I know that Jews throughout the Western world, including those in Australia, increasingly fear for their safety. One reason for that here is my government offers only token support for them, because we are more worried about offending Muslim voters.

Take for example my reaction to the disgraceful protests outside the Sydney Opera House just days after the horrific atrocities of October 7. Asked at a press conference about that ugly demonstration, I resorted to false equivalence. “I’m concerned about the rise of anti-Semitism,” I said. “I’m concerned as well about Islamophobia, which has impacted in this country as well,” I added. To put that in context, many of Western Sydney’s Middle Eastern residents had only hours before taken to the streets to celebrate the biggest mass murder of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust, and there I was waving the anti-Islamophobia finger.

Just before the election I promised the business community that my party was no threat to their members. “Labor will be a friend of business,” I cooed. “You can only be a friend of the worker if you’re also a friend of business.” That was yet another case of Al-bunkum. As Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black observed in February, our industrial relations ‘reforms’ would “[take] workplaces back to the 1970s where unions brought Australia to a grinding halt” and drive up the cost of living.

I also said before the election that I would take my lead from Bob Hawke and Paul Keating if I were to become Prime Minister. Any remaining iota of pretence to that effect disappeared in April when I announced the Future Made in Australia Act, otherwise known as the new protectionism.

As for my commitment to protecting Australia’s borders, that’s also a farce. As of April, three boatloads of illegal maritime arrivals had reached the mainland. Fear not, I said, our commitment to maintaining Operation Sovereign Borders has not changed. Just like I insisted repeatedly that we would honour our promise to implement the Morrison government’s Stage 3 tax cuts. “My word is my bond,” I would say. “Our position has not changed.” And I continued these reassurances and denials right up until the moment I announced we had reneged on our commitment. So much for my election campaign launch declaration when I said: “I can promise you I’ll always tell it straight.”

I wasn’t being straight with you when I said that day that the average household power bill would fall by $275 under a Labor government. I wasn’t being straight with you when I said there would be no changes to taxes on superannuation. I wasn’t being straight with you when I told you I would commission a full inquiry into the nation’s response to the pandemic. And I wasn’t being straight with you when I insisted that the proposed Indigenous voice to parliament – which would have meant entrenching a racially based activist group in our constitution – would function merely as an “advisory body”.

As I mentioned, I said I wanted to emulate Hawke and Keating. Like them or loathe them, you knew who was running the country when they held the top job. Now commentators mention those two in conjunction with my name only to demonstrate the jarring contrast between their cabinets and mine. I’m Prime Minister in name only. ‘I’m way out of my depth’ doesn’t begin to describe it. I’m a political midget trying to straddle the Mariana Trench.

If I remain in this position, I have three prospects. First, I could be the first Prime Minister in nearly 100 years to lead a first-term government to defeat. Second, I could be rolled by my own party before the next election. Third, I could end up with a hung parliament next year. I’d have to share a podium with Greens leader Adam Bandt, and everyone would know who was wearing the trousers.

I cannot face any of those possibilities. Accordingly, I have formally advised the Governor-General that I will step down as Prime Minister today.

On a brighter note, this just happens to be the date I qualify for an indexed prime ministerial pension of around $400K a year. Not a bad little earner to supplement an already lucrative property portfolio.

You didn’t expect me to fight the Tories for free, surely?

THE MOCKER 
The Mocker amuses himself by calling out poseurs, sneering social commentators, and po-faced officials. He is deeply suspicious of those who seek increased regulation of speech and behaviour.

Oz

Several days old, but still relevant:

According to Israeli experts, Gaza is receiving far more than it needs, and the Americans know this down to the smallest details. The Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) has presented data to the Americans that 21 bakeries are operating in southern and central Gaza and another three in the north. They bake millions of pitas daily. The amount of water produced in the strip exceeds 5 gallons [19 litres] of drinking and cooking water per person per day…

[https://www.dailyalert.org/archive/2024-04/2024-04-21.html].

The Eagle has Landed, is on World Movies at 9.30. Great flick.

I have a question about our Plod efficiency.
Over the last couple of days, Plod, 400 of them to be exact, have rounded up seven or so mussie retards.

Why haven’t Plod been able to find the “Black Clad Nayzees”, that paraded their wares in Melbourne at a couple of “get togethers”, one of which included the Champion of Female Rights, Miss Kellie Jay Keen?

It shouldn’t be so bloody hard to identify them. One of them is the son of a serving, high ranking Plod. Riddle me this Cats.

I know, I know.

… nobody can explain how it is possible to decide to cut off the arm of an eight year-old girl and to let her shiver for hours bathed in her own blood until she dies if it is not motivated by a maniacal, transcendental ambition.

[Barbarians at the Gates of Israel by Fiamma Nirenstein – pdf].

Regardless of whose ‘side’ you take, I would also dry retch at the image described above if it were a Palestinian eight-year-old similarly hacked and left to die a slow, lonely death.

That such animalistic acts can be ‘justified’ and even celebrated, chops away like a machete at my faith in what I once thought was the intrinsic good in humanity.

I truly believe that the human species is devolving. Into what, and how deeply, I do not know, and am scared to think about.

Ben and Candace debate Israel

Best I can do is a cottage in the country with a good wine cellar.
I endorse this message. Run for your lives!

Didn’t you bother to read the rest of my comment, Johnny?

Two tier policing exposed, lies at the highest level while conducting an investigation in the background, fears of suppression of the crime justified, interference from both major parties over the obvious nature of the crime.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Eyeless in Gaza.
I’ve posted a link to this great article some months ago. Indeed, the article itself dates from October last year, but it is still fascinating.

To summarise: U.S. trained, equipped, and financially-supported state security forces in Lebanon assisted Hezbollocks and h@m@s in counter-intel operations which may have seriously hampered Israeli intel collection in the 12 or so months leading up to the 7 Oct massacres last year. Rather strangely, neither the U.S. sponsored Lebanese, nor U.S. sigint sources in the eastern Mediterranean, provided any hints of the pre-7 Oct planning and training in Lebanon.

“Care must be taken to not confuse his support for his religious beliefs with support for terrorism.”
It’s the same thing hunny bunny

Approximately 9, 100 rockets have been launched by h@m@s or allied terrorists from Gaza into Israel since the 7th of October, 2023 massacres.
Some of the most recent rocket launches took place within 15 metres of where civilians were sheltering.

606 Israeli soldiers have been killed during the same period.

[https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2024/04/24/hamas-places-rocket-launch-sites-near-civilian-shelters-in-gaza/].

What we don’t hear much about are the regular, individual or small-group attacks by West Bank terrorists against Israeli civilian or military personnel and infrastructure.

Iran reportedly supplies $100 million in financial and military support annually. Hamas officials praise Iran for sending “cash, equipment and [military] expertise” and long-range rockets to strike Israel.Qatar reportedly contributed more than $150 million to Hamas in 2019, $100 million in 2020, and $360 million in 2021. Qatar now funds Hamas with an estimated $120 million per year. It claims to support the Gaza government, not the terrorists.

Turkey, Malaysia, Algeria and Kuwait also provide financial, military, diplomatic, and political support to Hamas.

[https://www.fdd.org/analysis/2023/10/16/10-things-to-know-about-hamas/].

With the U.N. running and funding so many of the civil services in Gaza, it is no wonder that h@m@s has the time and resources to focus on its fantasy genocide.

Ah, one lonely downtick for my 9:21 p.m. comment.

Just one? That’s a bit weak.

Columbia Switches To Online Classes So Jewish Students Can Participate From The Attics Where They Are Hiding

https://babylonbee.com/news/columbia-switches-to-online-classes-so-jewish-students-can-participate-from-the-attics-where-they-are-hiding

I usually snigger at Babylon Bee posts.
Not this one.

Whale stranding in Dunsborough- mine wifey had a very early call from a dogwalker, buzzed down because wildlife in peril is right up her alley and the beach is literally right down the road.
I followed an hour or so later- just took a swag of towels, a loaf worth of toasties and bulk water- chaos. Cars all over the road, people pulling over and pulling out at random, screeching brakes- Telstra was doing some maintenance on mobile towers, just to add to the lack of information- all in volleys of ten or twelve as families, carrying toddlers and groodles and arms full of brand new bunnings buckets, tried to get where the action was. I drove the ute down to the horse beach to find there were bugger all cars there, worked out later because google maps didn’t show it, therefore it didn’t exist- worked out the main clog was three k up the beach, so I just set out the vittles on the tailgate and fielded the first responders as they wandered back. By that time the news was coming that the main event was basically over-run by a thousand randoms coming from of the beachside streets and doing all the wrong things, ie tipping water into blowholes and wandering amongst flailing flukes trying to get photos. Expect a few pnuemonia and pleurisy cases, it was a bit chilly at the seaside, and whale aerosol is full of all sorts of bacteria… firstborn tapped out of the ground zero maelstrom and walked back, shifting all sorts of dumped bags and towels which were getting caught by the tide which was still coming in, bless her. By then I was all through my comfort food and actually a bit fed up with talking to everyone who wanted to know Where The Whales Are. Realize now, I was in a white ute, dressed in khaki and chambray and sensible boots, so the turkeys reasonable assumed I was some sort of official.
Wife left an hour after that, very chilled. She’d been in the drink early and then when the DBCA (department of biodiversity, conservation and attractions- a ridiculous acronym with ZERO recognition- why the f*ck don’t you just call it National Parks?) figured out who she was and heard of her experience, handed her a megaphone and said “just call it as you see it”.
“Anyone who has a mobile phone in their hands, get out of the water NOW.”
“Each whale, only three people, all in front of the pectoral flukes, everyone esle, get out of the water NOW”
“If your whale is flagged as dead, get a rope on the tail, pull it out of the water NOW”
(at this stage she broke down a bit, the sight of fifty people tug-o-warring and then bizarrely cheering and backslapping was a bit much on top of the exhaustion- but, people want to help, it definitely helps a pod get back out to sea and i think it soaked up a lot of nusiance energy.)
When I left with kiddo, there were cop cars, lights and music rushing over, basically for crowd control.
Looking at the 7 o’clock news, girls commented that the footage looked like the whole thing was small, brief and tidy.
Already theories on the interweb that it’s been hushed up, because they’ve started seismic testing for the wind farm out in the bay.