Open Thread – Mon 3 June 2024


The Angels’ Kitchen, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, 1646

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Nelson_Kidd-Players
June 4, 2024 9:16 pm

Test.

meme_taxes
Rosie
Rosie
June 4, 2024 9:31 pm

Oh you mean the nests. I try to avoid them. Not always.

Zippster
Zippster
June 4, 2024 9:36 pm
Zippster
Zippster
June 4, 2024 9:40 pm
John H.
John H.
June 4, 2024 9:53 pm

billie

 June 4, 2024 8:51 pm

 Reply to  Crossie

They don’t want to pursue it because of the exposure and how stupid Labor and the public service would look.

Have you seen the South Park episode where James Cameron goes looking for how low the bar has been set for popular culture? He must descend to the deepest oceans to find how low that bar has been set.

Our perception of politics generally and the public service specifically has descended to like depths.

They are persuing it, prosecutions are in play and currently there are hundreds of compliance investigations.

damon
damon
June 4, 2024 9:59 pm

I hope the embryo cartoonist hasn’t given up his day job.

pete of perth
pete of perth
June 4, 2024 10:07 pm

Just watched a doco on the box about the Antonov cargo plane. Main service centre was in Kiev Ukraine. Missed when the doco was made but seemed within the last decade. Interesting cockpit, not too many flashy displays. Old school.

Indolent
Indolent
June 4, 2024 10:34 pm
Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
June 4, 2024 10:38 pm

Raising awareness about male perinatal depression… by illustrating two beaming bummers, in bed, with a baby which came from… somewhere. This isn’t just stupidity, this is active sabotage of all our once-sensible society once held dear.

dadses
Indolent
Indolent
June 4, 2024 10:38 pm
m0nty
m0nty
June 4, 2024 11:16 pm

So Bruce, you have a doctorate in science and specialise in data analysis, i.e. secondary research. So have you never done primary science? Sounds that way to me from what you have said.

If you are not a primary scientist, you are not worth a penny next to the career of Fauci.

John H.
John H.
June 4, 2024 11:29 pm

m0nty

 June 4, 2024 11:16 pm

So Bruce, you have a doctorate in science and specialise in data analysis, i.e. secondary research. So have you never done primary science? Sounds that way to me from what you have said.

If you are not a primary scientist, you are not worth a penny next to the career of Fauci.

Data analysis is at the heart of science and doctors receive bugger all training in data analysis and statistics. As a relative who is a medical specialist said to me: medical research teams should have a statistical expert on the team. If you want evidence of that have a look at how often meta-analyses(eg. Cochrane reviews) reject studies from the analysis because of statistical and methodological limitations.

calli
calli
June 5, 2024 12:15 am

Hard to believe, Dover.

Bruce’s analysis of mask wearing and its efficacy back in 2020 was convincing to me. The nail in the coffin was the edict – wear mask while standing, take off mask when sitting and eating.

It was so dumb, so amateurish, so cruel, it smacked of the sorts of things torturers do to their victims. They know it’s false, you know it’s false, but they can and will exert their power over those they despise.

It exposed the true nature of both “experts” and their heavies.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
June 5, 2024 12:55 am

Pandemic – obviously garbage
Border closures – obviously megalomanic, unconstitutional, and breached by the powerful
Closing airports, train stations and schools for “deep cleaning” because the batflu could survive for fourteen days on stainless steel- obviously idiotic
On again, off again schools- heartless
Monstering visitors to aged care facilities- petty tyranny
Closing doctors’ consultancies- madness
Keeping hospitals empty of patients for TikTok rehearsals- stunningly idiotic
Cancelling elective surgeries- chaos on crack
Policing fresh air and excercise- bizarre. And cruel
Outlawing hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin- alarm bells, Satan at large
Threatening the livelihoods of dissenting doctors- corruption
Saturation of coercion for the Clot Shot- outright evil
…”face masks” seem like yesterday’s jam in the shadow of all that arseholery. But I did clock it pretty quick as a gauge of complicity.

KevinM
KevinM
June 5, 2024 2:36 am

How true.

447773769_7935278239899787_8549648100045705160_n
calli
calli
June 5, 2024 2:56 am

Heh. I’m the short cheeky one on the end. I swear I had a shirt like that in cheesecloth. 🙂

Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:12 am
Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:13 am
Tom
Tom
June 5, 2024 4:14 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
June 5, 2024 4:29 am

As a relative who is a medical specialist said to me: medical research teams should have a statistical expert on the team. 

Last year on the All-In podcast, when investment in AI start ups went parabolic, Friedberg & Chamath pulled back the curtain on one their criteria for cutting a cheque for biotech or life sciences businesses.
Companies looking for capital had to be able to plug in one of the AI businesses Friedberg/Chamath had seeded/built into their data sets.
It helped shape their investment decisions on who they continued to fund & who they pulled the pin on.
This was their process since 2020 well before AI was making headlines in the mainstream financial media.

feelthebern
feelthebern
June 5, 2024 5:22 am

The Oz continues its coverage of the PsiQuantum “investment”.
It should be noted that the recent Australian & Queensland taxpayers investment has been the catalyst for some existing investors to “de-risk” their PsiQuantum exposure.
There are currently live transactions where parties are looking at partial sell-downs at the 2021 valuation of $US3bill.

What’s going to be difficult for the VC backers of PsiQuantum if these secondary transactions take place is do they value it at the 2021 $US3bill or the 2024 Australian taxpayer valuation which to date no one has been brave enough to put in writing.

calli
calli
June 5, 2024 5:29 am

On our terrace in Cordoba an hour before sunset. The tree that rustled so seductively in the evening breeze last night is Alianthus altissima, the Tree of Heaven. It’s also considered a weed here in Europe.

The swallows are scribing their arabesques in the limpid pre-sunset skies. Far above, two vapour trails mark the passage of other wanderers.

Across the rooftops, so close I can almost touch it, the bell tower of San Pablo, my favourite saint (if that is possible).

Spain is starting to become a quayside, and I am on a ship bound elsewhere. We slowly, inexorably drift apart. Next stop Madrid for a couple of nights and then off to the eternal city.

feelthebern
feelthebern
June 5, 2024 5:34 am

If Albo & Husic were serious about quantum computing & not making risky bets with taxpayer money, they could have committed money to another fund under the Future Fund’s umbrella.
Aside from the Future Fund itself they manage five other funds.
The Future Fund would have then outsourced the management to parties who know what they’re doing.
A billion commitment could have made dozens of quantum computing investments.
Instead of being the bunnies propping up the valuation of just one company which didn’t need the capital, they could have done something which might have uncovered some real gems.

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
June 5, 2024 5:42 am

True to form, the BBC is pleased that conservative Narendra Modi has had a bit of a setback in the huge Indian elections – some 645 million voters.
His party will still be the major component of any resulting coalition, but the Beeb is salivating to various degrees in their formation of questions.
“Will you be looking for a new leader”?
“Will he have to change his leadership style”?

It’s standard operating procedure for them whenever there’s a conservative leader in any country.

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
June 5, 2024 5:47 am

Gary Varvel – nice work – Lest We Forget.

calli
calli
June 5, 2024 5:50 am

Bee, the Beeb has been dribbling for days about the “rise of fascism” in Italy and trying to link it to Meloni.

Amazing – a woman they don’t like. Like Thatcher.

These creatures need to look in a mirror.

Megan
Megan
June 5, 2024 5:52 am

Your intrepid travellers have moved onto Bologna where we are out in the suburbs staying with friends. It is a welcome respite from the pressures of touristing since we arrived in Italy. The welcome from the extended family has been phenomenal.

We are right underneath the flight path from Bologna airport. As in, less than a minute after lift off they are roaring at 2000m directly over the house. I actually don’t mind it, they are flying all over Europe, to Morocco, Casablanca, Algiers, Amsterdam, Sardinia, Greece and sundry holiday destinations and it is where we will fly out to Palermo at the end of the week. It’s erratic, we had a couple of silent days, when the wind was obviously not favourable to take off in our direction, and there’s also a curfew so we are not being disturbed at night.

This is a new development, it’s ten years since we were here last and it was still a quiet outpost on almost the very boundary of the Commune de Bologna. Now it’s full of multi level apartments, a new main road has been constructed and the village feel, whilst not totally disappeared, has definitely been impacted. The country aspect is certainly no more. The local church though, sits, tucked away from the noise, surrounded by Linden trees that are in full bloom. Their scent hangs in the air, making it really feel and smell like Old Europe.

This was a traditionally working class neighbourhood, and the houses were built in the Mussolini era, primarily for the railway workers engaged in building and maintaining the stations and lines. They have survived well, extended and updated, and have a slightly alpine feel about them with full wooden shutters on the windows and doors. This means the rooms at night are totally dark… think cave… which I, for one, certainly appreciate.

We braved the autobus into Bologna city this morning. The city is no longer the delight it has been in the past. A bit more faded, less serene and picturesque.

Crowded with hordes of tourist groups battling for space, the facades of its loveliest landmarks criss-crossed by the visual clutter of wires that will support the new electric buses and a mostly unasked for and unwanted (from what I can gather) tram system due to be operational in 2027*. Aggressive beggars, a strong police and military presence on the streets, a Ceasefire Now sign hanging from the balcony on the Municipio building where Benito made speeches to the populace.

It all added up to a real sense of disappointment for me. The gorgeous church of St Petronius was worth a visit but was not enough to save the day.

The home cooked food has been a joy, and tonight’s bottle of red, labelled Vino del Cazzo, provided a fitting conclusion to our day.

*Hah! This is Italy. The new Theatre Complex boasting an opening in February 2024, is still shrouded in fencing and gawk sheets with a massive crane looming over it all. 

MatrixTransform
June 5, 2024 6:23 am

It exposed the true nature of both “experts” and their heavies.

yep

and it’s mUnty’s wet-dream

Zatara
Zatara
June 5, 2024 6:28 am

Sen Joni Ernst caught hot-mike:

“Bottom line, never trust a man whose uncle was eaten by cannibals.”

Words to live by.

Digger
Digger
June 5, 2024 6:41 am

So Bruce, you have a doctorate in science and specialise in data analysis, i.e. secondary research. So have you never done primary science?
Sounds that way to me from what you have said.

If you are not a primary scientist, you are not worth a penny next to the career of Fauci.

Only a dead set, absolute, brain dead ,no-load moron would make such a statement. To support that lying, conniving, corrupt, money sucking murdering slime bag, Fauci is tantamount to supporting Hitler, Pol Pot, Mao, Stalin. But then again, birds of a feather flock together.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
June 5, 2024 6:45 am

Classics.

—-

Arthur • Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do) • Christopher Cross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2quQ7A-vDiw

Cassie of Sydney
June 5, 2024 6:50 am

What is it with the Nazi left and violence? I suppose it makes sense, after all, these leftist progressive Nazis are big bumboy/fanboys of Hamas and its violent tactics, tactics which include rape, decapitation, corpse burnings, necrophilia, slaughter and a bit of kidnapping on the side so that Jewish females, particularly young attractive Jewish females, are kept as sex slaves for perpetuity!

Overnight, in the UK, Nigel Farage, not for the first time, has again been physically assaulted, having had a a milkshake thrown at him after his campaign launch in Essex. Could have been acid.

Ho hum.

I suppose our resident Nazi bumboy/fanboy, who just loves it when his ideological opponents are physically roughed up, punched and raped, will find this latest Farage assault amusing.

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 6:57 am

Pro-Palestine protests targeting MPs’ electorate offices ‘have no place in a democracy’, Albanese says

The Guardian

Funny how they get so upset when they’re the targets.

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 7:06 am

Overnight, in the UK, Nigel Farage, not for the first time, has again been physically assaulted, having had a milkshake thrown at him after his campaign launch in Essex.

One photographer managed to capture the woman’s face before she slipped away in the commotion, smug look and all.

She’s a Labour supporter with a…er, high social media profile.

Over to you, Essex police.

Last edited 3 months ago by Roger
Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
June 5, 2024 7:10 am

Government directing the shitshow laser beam at who can and can’t join the Army now.

‘Anyone from any country’; went to:

‘Anyone from some countries’; which drifted to:

‘Some people from some countries’; and then, because apparently we have memories of goldfish:

‘What I said just now was exactly what I said before’.

Triumphant. I have no doubt Matt Keogh, the minister responsible for that carousel of diarrhoea went to bed last night thinking he’d crushed it.

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 7:14 am

Housing Australia spends $30m on consultants, executive salaries without building a single home

Simon Benson The Australian June 4, 2024

Did Albo borrow the blueprint from Ardern?

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 7:19 am

Security agencies now warning the government that Islamist extremists have infiltrated the pro-Pali demos according to The Speccie.

Well, duh.

Still…they’re just “letting off steam”, eh Mike?

Cassie of Sydney
June 5, 2024 7:24 am

So, the Maldives are going to ban ALL Israelis from entering the country…….LOL….open borders except for Jews.

MatrixTransform
June 5, 2024 7:25 am

What is it with the Nazi left and violence?

simple
in their heads, their ideas aren’t gibberish at all
they consider themselves enlightened

and when you say ‘no’ to their schemes
you need to be er … nudged into compliance

stop struggling

it’s for your own good

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 7:25 am

Speaking of which…

The Mannheim Muslim assailant Suleiman Attaee “arrived in Germany in 2013 as an unaccompanied minor. His application for asylum was rejected a year later, but he was not deported because of the poor security situation in Afghanistan.”

eugyppius@substack

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
June 5, 2024 7:39 am

Who to believe? Headlines vary regarding top Japanese car companies and their plans for further development of petrol and diesel engines. “Nissan to stop further development” reads one, while over at Toyota they say they are working on new lighter petrol engines, and that they don’t expect the EV share of market to be greater than 30% any time soon.
Nissan has a brilliant V6, used in quite a few models – which makes sense – and has powered some racy ones like the 350Z and Skyline 370GT. The latter suffers from the “make it look tougher” syndrome! The earlier 350GT looks better. Not as snazzy as the 350Z, but very nice anyway.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
June 5, 2024 7:40 am

Wally, which one was the Dad? The one with the man boobs so he could chest feed the poor little blighter. What a life for a child brought up with a warped view of the world. Didn’t happen when I was a kid, how did we get here? I’ll give you an idea. We were too bloody nice to not call out all those fruitloops with crazy ideas. I’d come from a relatively small city where we knew who most of the crazies were, they stood out and there weren’t many. When I lived in Sydney there were groups of them, couldn’t believe it. I suppose it was a time when drugs were becoming readily available, powders not just marijuana. Thats another one that pissed me off, seeing users as some sort of victim. Ready made excuse for “I can do anything and I’m not responsible”. If government could tax drugs they’d be all for it. I’ve never met anyone who got hooked on free drugs supplied by dealers. Yes, they might give the first dose free but thats only so you don’t go elsewhere. Get caught drink driving hurting someone and you’re likely to be in pokey with Big Bubba as a cellmate. Do the same thing with drugs and you’re more likely to be in a drug diversion program cause its not your fault. And now we’re surrounded by mutleys. Once upon a time you paid money at a fairground to see freaks, now they’ve got your wallet helping themselves and saying they’re normal.

Diogenes
Diogenes
June 5, 2024 7:46 am

Triumphant. I have no doubt Matt Keogh, the minister responsible for that carousel of diarrhoea went to bed last night thinking he’d crushed it.

Gob was well and truly smacked when a reporter asked if Chinese nationals with Aussie PR would be able to join the ADF.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
June 5, 2024 7:48 am

Roger its hard to see islamists when you’re struggling to find garages full of nazis. Presented with both he’d say they aren’t the ones we’re looking for.

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
June 5, 2024 7:52 am

Army recruiting?
They wonder why there’s a shortfall after the shameful treatment of Ben Roberts-Smith and the Red Shoes General?

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
June 5, 2024 7:56 am

Nigel Farage is taking a leaf out of Trump’s playbook and making the most of the free publicity the milky bint helped serve up. Once again the left goes low.

Last edited 3 months ago by Bungonia Bee
John H.
John H.
June 5, 2024 8:01 am

Roger

 June 5, 2024 7:14 am

Housing Australia spends $30m on consultants, executive salaries without building a single home

Simon Benson The Australian June 4, 2024

Did Albo borrow the blueprint from Ardern?

The blueprint was from the coalition which slashed the public servant and started hiring external consultants. Should have been an accountant … .

132andBush
132andBush
June 5, 2024 8:01 am

carousel of diarrhoea

“Mummy, Daddy, the Shitshow’s in town, can we go? Pleeeeeese?

I wanna ride on the Carousel of Diarrhoea.”

Vicki
Vicki
June 5, 2024 8:02 am

Australian Spectator has a current article supporting the release of Julian Assange. Can’t recall if The Cat has debated this issue.

Zippster
Zippster
June 5, 2024 8:21 am
Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 8:21 am

The blueprint was from the coalition which slashed the public servant and started hiring external consultants.

Probably because they couldn’t get competent, independent advice from the APS.

That being said, the use of consultants needs independent oversight.

lotocoti
lotocoti
June 5, 2024 8:23 am

…fears Moscow is plotting major war with Europe.

You’re not supposed to notice Ivan’s current slow grind
and ask “How many decades from now?”

Zippster
Zippster
June 5, 2024 8:25 am
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 5, 2024 8:27 am

Nigel Farage hit with milkshake as he launches election campaign for pro-Brexit seat

  • By AFP
  • AFP
  • Updated 8:12AM June 5, 2024, First published at 8:02AM June 5, 2024
  • 10 Comments

Nigel Farage’s election campaign got off to a sticky start after he was doused with a banana milkshake in the English seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea.
Some in the crowds shouted: “We love you!” while others called out: “Main man!” and “Go on, Nigel!” as the leader of the Reform party threw himself back into the political fray.
But by the end of his visit, not everyone had been won over. As he left a pub, a young woman threw a banana milkshake over his smart navy blue suit and purple tie.

Asked why she had thrown the milkshake, which appeared to be from McDonalds, the 25-year-old woman, who has been arrested for assault, told reporters; “I just felt like it.”
Mr Farage said the attack was “quite frightening,” before taking advantage of an obvious reference to the song Milkshake by Kelis.
“My milkshake brings all the people to the rally,” he told journalists while standing in front of Reform UK’s battle bus holding up a McDonald’s banana milkshake.

Until the milkshake incident, Mr Farage, 60, had up until then got largely a hero’s welcome in the Brexit stronghold, which he hopes to represent in the UK parliament for the anti-immigration Reform UK party.
As he strode towards the town’s pier, a large crowd including dog walkers, young mothers with children and people on mobility scooters, trailed behind, eager to hear what he had to say.
Mr Farage was in full campaign mode, a day after he dealt a blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his beleaguered Conservative Party by announcing he will stand in the July 4 election.
“Nothing works any more, does it?” Mr Farage told the gathering of at least 500 people to murmurs of approval, adding that he wanted people to feel free to be “proud to be British”.
“What we need to do is reactivate a people’s army against the establishment,” he added, casting himself once again as the outlier and the man to shake up British politics, particularly on immigration.

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 8:31 am

Watch out, wave of retrenchments coming

Robert Gottliebsen The Australian June 4, 2024

Sadly, but not surprisingly, a vast number of small enterprises are set to fail under the relentless pressure of higher costs that can’t be passed in. The latest wage rise is just another blow. But there is an even more serious problem for the nation. Solvent large and small enterprises around Australia are in a state a shock. Businesses where solvency is not an issue are stepping back and trying to work out what happens next because nobody really knows what the Albanese’s policies combined with the effect of state, deficits will do to the national economy.

As they see it, we are facing an unprecedented, serious socialist intervention covering the way they manage their business and hire their staff. It’s a new era of business for Australia — akin to the 1950s-1970s era but without tariffs.

Yesterday, I described how BHP is waiting a couple of years before committing to massive South Australian investment. But that long term “wait and see strategy does not apply to day trading of Australian businesses. They will watch the impact of the government’s “sugar hit” led by wages rises, tax cuts, power subsidies etc to see if it’s possible to pass their cost rises on in prices. By August, they will know.

In the crises of 1975 and 1989 many large companies were imperilled by too much debt. This time, the bulk of large and medium-sized ASX companies are not at debt risk. It is their employees that are at risk. And many of those employees can now sense the danger and that is impacting their previously abundant spending.

The cost rises continue to hit business covering areas like the energy, rent, insurance, land tax (in some states) or government charges. Many enterprises are trying to work out an enterprise agreement, but now learn from my commentaries and other sources that the industrial relations legislation directs them away from enterprise agreements into industry agreements. That means higher costs and less productivity.

Then there are all the other nasties in the industrial relations legislation yet to impact, including higher transport costs and the total mess of casual labour. At the same time, enterprises with more than 15 employees must send their “union representatives” way from their workplace to be trained in how to share with management control of the business.

These are revolutionary socialist blows coming at a time of economic turmoil where an increasing number of business customers are suffering. The Federal government forged on with its socialist experiment via the industrial relations legislation in the full knowledge that what they were doing was undertaking unprecedented actions at the time of a Reserve Bank squeeze on the economy. Albanese was either oblivious of the dangers or did not care. He had one chance to deliver for ALP financiers, unions, and took it.

Meanwhile, the numbers under rent and mortgage stress are increasing as it spreads into what were affluent areas. In Victoria, the tax attack on holiday homes and landlords is relentless and the number of unsold holiday homes grows. The number of investment properties decline.

In this calm before the storm, companies are realising they have three choices – lower profits; increase prices to maintain margins or become more productive through retrenchment our better organisational structures. If it is to be the third choice, then the impending IR legislation means action must be swift. Telstra showed the way.

Accordingly, given there is increased nervousness now about lifting prices, the period of sitting back and waiting and see what happens will not last long. Boards will require management to act. My guess is that on August 26 when the industrial relations act comes into operation will make August the month when companies that can’t lift prices will stop sitting back and watching and will take action. There will be a wave of retrenchments of some magnitude.

Banks warn us that if unemployment gets to five per cent (it’s currently around 4.1 per cent) then we will see falling property prices and a much deeper crisis. That would leave the way open for an interest-rate cut later this year.

But as I have pointed out many times our interest rates are significantly lower than the US and other developed countries, so if we are not careful our dollar will be the subject of a market raid if we cut interest rates too far. This week, we are seeing Japan’s central bank supporting the yen because traders have been hitting the currency. Australia is a much better target.

In case you had any doubts that Albanese, Burke & Chalmers are putting the economy into reverse gear.

Last edited 3 months ago by Roger
Boambee John
Boambee John
June 5, 2024 8:40 am

I see that the gutless worm mUnturd waited until late in the evening to slander Bruce of Newcastle. Typical of his efforts lately, appear late at night, perform drive by slander, and ignore any responses.

Gabor
Gabor
June 5, 2024 8:41 am

Zippster
June 5, 2024 7:52 am

NATO plan to get US troops to the front line to fight RUSSIA: Alliance prepares for rapid deployment of American soldiers amid fears Moscow is plotting major war with Europe

these ppl are insane

Came across this link, You can look at it both ways, Russia is preparing to invade Europe, a totally insane idea that has no merit whatsoever, or they are preparing to defend themselves with all the saber rattling from the west going on.

As always I have no idea who is right.

I had to use a VPN to access the site FB prevented me with the warning “Russia state-controlled media” which is strange as the site and article is on FB.

Strange.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 5, 2024 8:45 am

Aussie D-Day hero Richard Pirrie to be honoured on memorial
By jacquelin magnay

  • Europe Correspondent
  • 6:09AM June 5, 2024
  • 5 Comments

The first Australian to die on D-Day, which coincided with his 24th birthday, was Royal Australian Navy sub lieutenant Richard Pirrie, from Melbourne.
On Wednesday in Portsmouth, south England, Pirrie is to honoured, along with 12 other allied WWII veterans, whose names will be added to the special Normandy memorial wall to acknowledge the close ties between allied nations forged during that extraordinary land invasion which began the liberation of France and the end of WWII.
Eight decades ago this week, on June 6 1944, Pirrie commanded a spotter boat, called Landing Craft Support (m) 7 off Juno beach in Normandy and was in position as the massive invasion began on June 6 to identify and message back to the naval gunners on HMS Invicta of the German positions.
Fellow officer Lieutenant Eric Langford later remarked that because of Pirrie’s intelligence “on our portion of the beach not one of our troops failed to get safely ashore’’.
But Pirrie, who had played football for Hawthorn in the VFL, then struck a floating mine around the same time as being fired upon by sniper fire. His death deeply impacted his parents, Isobel and Richard and his five siblings Kevin, Andy, Peter, Jake and Jim, and a small memorial to him was reverentially displayed on his parent’s mantelpiece for the rest of their lives.

Indolent
Indolent
June 5, 2024 8:50 am
Indolent
Indolent
June 5, 2024 8:57 am

Interesting.

@austerrewyatt1

4 days before Hillary Clinton was to be indicted in the Whitewater scandal the documents pertaining to the case were destroyed.

In the Oklahoma City Bombing.

Who was the DA placed in charge of the investigation?

Merrick Garland.

Gabor
Gabor
June 5, 2024 8:59 am

Sorry Dover but something is really askew with this site.Every time I refresh I get to a post a saw last time a couple of hours ago, nothing to do with me or my comments.
Any chance you could look at this problem?

John H.
John H.
June 5, 2024 9:04 am

Roger

 June 5, 2024 8:21 am

The blueprint was from the coalition which slashed the public servant and started hiring external consultants.

Probably because they couldn’t get competent, independent advice from the APS.

That being said, the use of consultants needs independent oversight.

It was driven by the neoliberal small government agenda. Even if the PS people were outstanding ideology would have triumphed over utility.

Indolent
Indolent
June 5, 2024 9:05 am

I don’t think Jeff bought it for profit.

@LivePDDave1

JUST IN: The Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post is staring down a catastrophic collapse, with Publisher and CEO William Lewis admitting a jaw-dropping 50% nosedive in readership and staggering financial losses that soared over $70 million in 2023 alone. Such dire straits serve as cold, hard proof of the self-inflicted wounds resulting from the newspaper’s unapologetic stance as a propaganda outlet for Democrats.

“We are losing large amounts of money,” Lewis disclosed in a recent meeting with Washington Post staffers, pulling the curtain back on the extent of the damage. “Your audience has halved in recent years. People are not reading your stuff. I can’t sugarcoat it anymore.”

Determined to stop the bleeding, Lewis put forth a desperate restructuring of the newsroom into three divisions (reporting, opinion and service/social), hoping against hope to salvage what remains by somehow boosting reader engagement. But these are mere band-aids on the gaping wound inflicted by years of alienating a significant portion of the American populace through its editorial choices.

This stark scenario underscores not merely a financial or readership crisis but a profound credibility crisis. The Washington Post, by doubling down on a path that many Americans perceive as rife with bias, has alienated itself from half the country. The current predicament isn’t just a failure of adaptation to the digital media landscape; it’s a stark manifestation of the consequences when a media institution loses sight of journalistic balance, tilting so far in one direction that it topples over.

Zippster
Zippster
June 5, 2024 9:09 am
Indolent
Indolent
June 5, 2024 9:15 am
Indolent
Indolent
June 5, 2024 9:16 am

Dr. John Campbell

Proof

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 9:19 am

It was driven by the neoliberal small government agenda. Even if the PS people were outstanding ideology would have triumphed over utility.

The APS is like the ABC.

Largely redundant but difficult to get rid of.

John H.
John H.
June 5, 2024 9:22 am

Roger

 June 5, 2024 9:19 am

It was driven by the neoliberal small government agenda. Even if the PS people were outstanding ideology would have triumphed over utility.

The APS is like the ABC.

Largely redundant but difficult to get rid of.

The Tories are being smashed because they slashed services, privatized as much as possible, went for Brexit, and now Britain is a mess.

A government without a PS is a rent seeker’s wet dream. Pwc, the job agencies, and NDIS plan managers being prominent examples.

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 9:31 am

A government without a PS is a rent seeker’s wet dream. 

That assumes the PS is competent and independent.

Our PS is like a 5th column.

Defence is a good example.

Indolent
Indolent
June 5, 2024 9:32 am

They’re setting up the next steal.

@JackPosobiec

BREAKING: GARLAND TO LAUNCH ‘ELECTION THREAT TASK FORCE’ TO GO AFTER ANYONE QUESTIONING ELECTION INTEGRITY IN 2024

HE WILL CREATE FBI ATTACK TEAMS TO TARGET ANYONE ATTEMPTING TO VERIFY OUR ELECTION PROCESS

Cassie of Sydney
June 5, 2024 9:32 am

The civil service in the UK was slashed during the Thatcher years, an era that ended in 1989, over a generation ago. During the Blair/Brown years, beginning in 1997, the civil service was enlarged and politicised, and various ‘quangos’ were set up during those years. However successive Conservative governments since 2010 have done little to nothing to shrink the UK civil service and either wind back or abolish the quangos. There’s been no ‘conservative’ Thatcher in power since 2010.

It is the same here, statutory government organisations like the sinister AHRC should be abolished, not shrunk, not fiddled with, but terminated.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 5, 2024 9:35 am

So, the Maldives are going to ban ALL Israelis from entering the country…….LOL

Someone with a brain has just told the Maldives government what will inevitably happen…which is about two billion Israel supporters won’t now be going on holiday in the Maldives.

Leading airline: Maldives to permit Israelis entry (4 Jun)

Following an announcement by President of the Maldives Mohamed Muizzu banning Israelis from entering the country, one of the world’s largest airlines has said that the country canceled its ban on the entry of Israeli tourists, Israel Hayom reported.

According to the report, the airline has now instructed changed its instruction to its branches and employees, saying that Israelis will now be able to fly to and from the Maldives, as well as enter the country.

The airline’s announcement indicates that it is no longer under instruction to bar Israelis from boarding flights to the island country.

And all those Israel supporters are the kinds of people who have money.

cohenite
June 5, 2024 9:36 am

If you are not a primary scientist, you are not worth a penny next to the career of Fauci.

Dickless puts paid to every climate modeller and the whole stinking edifice of alarmism. Well done dickless.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 5, 2024 9:38 am

Special bonus story:

Panic in Majorca as island suddenly realises no British tourists isn’t such a good idea (4 Jun)

A shocking new survey has revealed that the recent eruption of anti-tourism protests across Majorca is putting Brits off visiting the Spanish Island. 

According to local news outlet the Majorca Daily Bulletin, roughly 44 percent of people will now think twice before holidaying in Majorca. 

Oopsy! Worse than having too many tourists spending money on your island is having no tourists spending money on your island…

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 9:40 am

Israelis will now be able to fly to and from the Maldives, as well as enter the country.

Why would they want to?

m0nty
m0nty
June 5, 2024 9:44 am

Bruce, I trust that you are highly competent in your role as spreadsheet jockey, some might go so far as to say that you Excel. Others may treat it as a supplementary role only fit for those who can count 1-2-3, while the real scientists fiddle about with beakers and microscopes, but you rev that Lotus up to eleven!

Where I have a problem is that you think you know better than Fauci. You aren’t fit to shine his boots, scientifically speaking. Pipe down, Poindexter.

John H.
John H.
June 5, 2024 9:50 am

Roger

 June 5, 2024 9:31 am

A government without a PS is a rent seeker’s wet dream. 

That assumes the PS is competent and independent.

Our PS is like a 5th column.

Defence is a good example.

A government without a PS is going to be captured by interest groups. The PS is not optimal but the alternatives will have their own agendas and controlling interests. Imagine the conflicts of interest. Don’t have too, even recent examples highlight the potential problems. Increase profits by creating vocational courses paid for by the government and where the unemployed are sent by the agencies which own the entities providing the courses. Want some tax secrets? B2 Spirit stealth bomber, 2 billion each. A US admiral recently argued that for every $25 the US spends on defense China obtains the equivalent for $1. A US senator recently held up a small bag of washers, $90,000.

Zippster
Zippster
June 5, 2024 9:54 am
Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
June 5, 2024 10:01 am

Sky News Daytime is running an extended piece about badly injured kids in Gaza.
A bit of historical context is, as usual, missing from the report.
For quite a while after Israel handed Gaza over to the Palis, there was regular access to Israel. People had jobs, or needed to go to some specialist hospital. That freedom was abused by the Palis firing rockets indiscriminately, not once, not twice, but often. So bad have been the abuses by Palis that Israel has had to go into Gaza several times, not just this time.
Then there’s the wall dividing Israel from Palestinian territories in the West Bank, some 700 kilometres of it. Why? Because Palis were coming into Israel and doing suicide bombings of shops, restaurants and buses.
Has Gaza always been an Outdoor Prison? No, before it became an armed camp there was plenty of scope for movement. It still has a seafront, and escape has always been possible.
Have Palis indoctrinated young children to hate jews, and dressed them up like Jihadi Warriors in Hamas Green? Yes.
But now, after Hamas/Gaza declared war on Israel in a more shocking manner than ever before, we are supposed to feel bad because people young and old are being injured or killed?
Lesson, which will never be articulated by western media or learnt by terrorists: don’t declare war and then whinge about the consequences.

Zippster
Zippster
June 5, 2024 10:04 am

The employment stats in Australia are 14.3m employed.

Anyone want to guess how many people work in the public service?

for a bonus prize what is the total public sector wage bill?

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
June 5, 2024 10:05 am

Monty is not competent in anything, and certainly not to sit in judgement of Bruce. Monty should not be indulged here at all, he is pond scum.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 5, 2024 10:09 am

while the real scientists fiddle about with beakers and microscopes

ROFL. Monty you have just again proven how ignorant, uninformed and unintelligent you are, since in many years of accessing the Cat blogs you have somehow not noticed primary R&D science is what I do. And always have done from before graduation right through to retirement. I am not an administrator like Fauci, that’s shinybum work dealing with wretched HSEC rubbish and filling out endless forms.

Maybe you need to do that mental competence test they give old people, since you certainly have a very poor memory.

And you certainly do not understand science, particularly not commercial sector science, since in the private sector you have to actually demonstrate the value of a research project before you get any money from a company. Which means financial estimation. You also have to model it so that it is shown to be compatible with existing systems, or you won’t get an ok to proceed. Then to see if the lab program worked you have to analyse the data, and present it to management.

Love to see you in a lab. I am very good at it, and extremely experienced. Hundreds of lab projects. Then there’re all the pilot plants I’ve built and run. Dozens of various sizes. You have to do that to scale up stuff to a commercially practical level. And you wear overalls for that. In fact I can’t recall wearing a suit and tie ever for work. Ok tie a few times when I was unsure of the customers’ approach to doing things.

Can we talk about climate science again now? I love taking you to the woodshed on that topic, you are so ignorant. After a few years of trying I was amused when you shut up about it completely. Numbers did also. It was most entertaining.

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
June 5, 2024 10:11 am

I think Obama was on the right track when he advised the British to get out of the Maldives.
He was actually trying to make hay around the Falklands, but, you know, a stopped clock is right twice a day etc

Cassie of Sydney
June 5, 2024 10:15 am

There have been NO mass government privatisations in the UK since 2010, when the Tories came to power after 13 years in opposition. The privatisation of large chunks of British rail (and other services) occurred under Thatcher and Major. Blair and Brown didn’t renationalise British Rail.

British Rail is now collapsing but so is the NHS, and the NHS has always been government owned, it was never nationalised, even Thatcher was too scared to touch it. I suspect the problems with British Rail, the NHS and other services are various, but one of the biggest has been mass migration.

KevinM
KevinM
June 5, 2024 10:18 am

And imagine, there were a few here, who thought m0nty was a genuine, intelligent man with ideological convictions, but he proved to be a nasty vicious imbecile after all.
Teaches you a lesson.

H B Bear
H B Bear
June 5, 2024 10:22 am

Will Albo survive the winter killing season? You suspect this is about as late as da bruvvas can leave it given the election timing. Giles appears finished and a Cabinet reshuffle must be odds on after this session of Parliament finishes. The lack of any viable contender is possibly the only thing saving Albo.

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
June 5, 2024 10:24 am

The NDIS was a feelgood proposal back in the RGR days. Labor and the largely complicit media used it to try and entrap Tony Abbott before the 2013 election. They dared him to say he wouldn’t fund it, and as a bonus, that he would reduce funding for the ABC. Abbott said he wouldn’t do those things, knowing that he’d be pilloried by the media if he didn’t fall into line.
I thought at the time he should have been a bit more weazle-wordy and said something like he “supported both but funding would be a matter for budgetary considerations every year”.
We all knew the NDIS was going to be rorted. It has taken a while but the inevitable has happened, and now has had to be recognised by all the usual suspects. Some in Labor have even tried the reflexive “but the coalition had years to fix this”. Don’t make me laugh. Even without that particular Albatross around their necks, the coalition got done over at the last election.

Last edited 3 months ago by Bungonia Bee
Vicki
Vicki
June 5, 2024 10:24 am

The fall of Fauci. Covid-19 is officially exposed as a US Govt project. A virus engineered by US scientists using a bio lab in China for cover. The biggest crime against humanity killed more victims than the Nazi holocaust against the Jews. Demand Justice.

Yep. For a long time I couldn’t work out why they would collude with Chinese scientists and IN China. I finally realised it was because gain-of-function research into vaccines was banned in the USA – actually, under the Obama regime. This was a way of getting around the ban by ambitious and avaricious pharma scientists – &, some speculate, by the defence establishment. Have often wondered why they didn’t use the biolabs in Ukraine. I guess they thought the Ruskies would spill the beans.

Last edited 3 months ago by Vicki
m0nty
m0nty
June 5, 2024 10:27 am

Bruce claiming to wear overalls every day yet be a cross between Thomas Edison and Doctor Fronkenshteen, LOL. Who do you work for, Starfleet?

I would believe your Yahoo Serious routine more if you didn’t babble on constantly with hot takes that any real scientist would laugh at. In particular, you are never going to win a battle of credentialism against Anthony Fauci.

shatterzzz
June 5, 2024 10:38 am

No wonder I’ve avoided the NSW health system for a decade .. For several months I’ve been getting a “home nurse” visit 10 minutes/once a month to change my catheter inserted during a hospital stay, in lieu of an operation. ..
Anywayz, this week the “home’ folk got onto me cos, apparently, they need a quack signature to do what they have been doing, home visiting, or else it stops ..
So, makes an appointment to see quack (one thing I have learnt over the past 6 months everyone .. but .. everyone I go near, medically, wants my Medicare Card regardless of how trivial even the slightest contact* involved.
So today I get a text reminder from the quack’s about the “signature” appointment and the final line …. MASKS ARE COMPULSORY …..
Does this BAT FLU nonsense ever end …… FFS!

*Biopsy last month .. 2 anaesthetists & 4 doctors accessed my Medicare card as well as the hospital (twice) …… all for a 3 hours visit ..!

Boambee John
Boambee John
June 5, 2024 10:40 am

John H at 0950

Unfortunately, the public servants and staff of statutory bodies have all been captured by interest groups, and it is much harder to reverse this than cancelling contracts.

See as grotesque examples the BoM, CSIRO, multiple environmental protection departments, the Yartz Council, Their ABC and innumerable others.

shatterzzz
June 5, 2024 10:52 am

 A US admiral recently argued that for every $25 the US spends on defense China obtains the equivalent for $1. A US senator recently held up a small bag of washers, $90,000.

I get a catheter change from “home nursing” once a month and one of the items, catheter retention bandage, really needs changing more often but they never seem to have any spares to leave.. soo down to the chemist and .. duuuh! .. $10 each .. soo F*** ’em I improvised .. checks EBay and the same bandage, same brand is 20 for $A20 inc postage ….. bought a pack …
Not a bad little mark-up for the chemist …..

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
June 5, 2024 10:52 am

Two very interesting stories over the last few days.

First, there are reports, (not verified yet), that USS Eisenhower, (US Aircraft Carrier), was hit by Houti missiles.
It has entered a Saudi Port, but its Captain said “these claims are “fake news”.
We shall wait events.

Second.
If I asked you, how much the BOM computers cost to upgrade, what would you say?
Answer – A $Billion, ….., yes, with a B!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_H9fRqpXB8

If rational thought ever again occupied the Treasury benches, (spoiler alert, it won’t happen), $2Billion could be saved by making the ABC a subscription service and by abolishing the BOM.

A $Billion for computers to “misforecast” weather, even up here in the tropics, where it should be very easy to get it right, seems like a complete waste of taxpayers dosh to me.
The utter contempt this BOM authoritarian in the video has, for anyone who dares ask questions, regarding the results of this “no longer fit for purpose” burgeoning bureaucracy, exposes the empire building nature of the BOM.

John H.
John H.
June 5, 2024 10:59 am

m0nty

 June 5, 2024 10:27 am

Bruce claiming to wear overalls every day yet be a cross between Thomas Edison and Doctor Fronkenshteen, LOL. Who do you work for, Starfleet?

I would believe your Yahoo Serious routine more if you didn’t babble on constantly with hot takes that any real scientist would laugh at. In particular, you are never going to win a battle of credentialism against Anthony Fauci.

Fair enough, they insult you at every opportunity so I can appreciate why you respond like above. There are people here who delight in insulting me. I’ve made it perfectly obvious I’m not politically aligned with them and disagree on some points so of course that happens. That’s what some political junkies do. Don’t care. My heuristic is if people have a history of insulting me I try to avoid reading their comments.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 5, 2024 11:05 am

Who do you work for, Starfleet?

Funny, but Starfleet is a government organization. I never wore a red shirt. On the other hand Monty I have directly mentioned on Cat blogs who I had worked for several times, most Cats know. You seem not to’ve noticed that either. My jerb title was Principal Scientist. There, I’ve said it. Retired now.

In the lab it was also easier to just use overalls than lab coats since the various pilot plants were out the back. I wore out a lot of lab coats over the years as well.

 to win a battle of credentialism against Anthony Fauci

That is absolutely hilarious! Credentialism? That is exactly what is wrong with science these days. And a lot of other fields, like journalism. And exactly the problem with Fauci. He can’t argue science and medical technology (nor can you btw), he was taken to the cleaners by politicians in the hearings this week. They ran rings around him. He’s a shinybum. An administrator.

But the fun thing is my credentials are impeccable, and I use that to get the foot in the door. Then I present the project proposal, with support data and analysis. The company then decides whether to do it or not. You’d wince at how much other peoples’ money I’ve spent over the years, almost all from shareholders at least, not taxpayers. A reasonable number of wins, but the odds are not high for such projects, about 5%ish through to construction. On the other hand the science is published and out there, and I know it gets used based on what companies are doing.

One fun datum for you Monty is my degree credentials are almost identical to a certain exceedingly senior climate guy. Be fun to debate him since I think I could take him, easily. He’s another shinybum. May’ve retired by now.

(Apology Cats for this stuff, Monty needs a bit of pruning.)

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
June 5, 2024 11:06 am

The wrongology master is doing an amazing job of getting everything upside down yet again. It’s impressive in it’s way.

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
June 5, 2024 11:19 am

What, Papuan Paleomammology?
Bruce, I’m so dissappointed.

Salvatore - Iron Publican
June 5, 2024 11:30 am

Indolent  June 5, 2024 9:14 am

California ‘clean energy’ company set to bulldoze more than 3,500 Joshua trees, so coastal homes can go ‘carbon neutral’

The link says they’re clearing 2,300 acres of Joshua tree country in the Mojave Desert in California, for a solar farm.

In the name of ‘green’ 2,300 acres of endangered trees will be cleared.
?
Under the California Endangered Species Act, it is illegal to disturb, move, replant, remove or kill the species.

Three years ago the state of California fined a householder $24,000 for clearing 36 Joshua trees on a couple of acres.

Zatara
Zatara
June 5, 2024 11:36 am

Remember that laptop of Hunter Biden’s that “51 senior intelligence experts” said “has all the hallmarks of a Russian information operation”?

Surprise! The FBI just went on record confirming it was legitimate. It is now government exhibit #16 at Biden’s trial on gun charges.

How embarrassing for those who used to religiously reference those 51 crooks in their attempts at argument from authority.

Zippster
Zippster
June 5, 2024 11:38 am

The employment stats in Australia are 14.3m employed.

Anyone want to guess how many people work in the public service?

for a bonus prize what is the total public sector wage bill?

The correct answer is 2.4m!!!! two million four hundred thousand “public servants” in this small nation!!!!!!! This excludes the legions of ppl working indirectly for the government.

The wage bill for which is $253 billion

Personal income revenue is by coincidence about $253 billion.

shatterzzz
June 5, 2024 11:44 am

Where do these folk get their ideas from ..? .. 75 storey housing to improve availability & low cost rental .. FFS ..
How long would it take to build an “Empire State” sized tower and what sort of developer is gonna make any of the units “affordable” .. This sort of size would have to be state-of-the-art perfection ..
and that won’t come cheap …….!
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-05/greens-oppose-woolloongabba-priority-development-area-plan/103932628

m0nty
m0nty
June 5, 2024 11:57 am

This is what I am talking about Bruce. You smite about how awesome your record is, how you have an impeccable 5% chance of success on your record (?!)… and then you say dumb shit like how Gym, Marge and the other GOP clowns supposedly wiped the floor with Fauci on the Hill.

The key exchange came when one of the reps hinted darkly yet again about emails that supposedly incriminated Fauci. Years later, they have never been produced. Fauci openly called her out on it. Response from the reps: nothing. Because they have nothing.

If you are impressed by that circus, it calls into question any credentials you might claim. You are a credulous fool.

Lysander
Lysander
June 5, 2024 12:03 pm

Some chatter on Fox that the Demonrats are trying to have DJT’s secret service detail not attend jail with him

shatterzzz
June 5, 2024 12:03 pm

Foreigners will soon be able to join the Australian Defence Force under a fast-track to citizenship in a bid boost the military’s size.

They (as in us) are already advertising in South Korea newspapers for recruits …..
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/06/australian-embassy-in-korea-website-promoting-direct-recruitment-into-the-adf-for-korean-citizens.html

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 5, 2024 12:03 pm

Wow, the Chippendale Madrassa is the 18th best in the world. How about that!

MIT named as number one university in the world as three Australian institutions earn top 20 spots in QS World University Ranking (Sky News, 5 Jun)

Embarrassed that I attended that place. Meanwhile spot the trend:

The Daily Chart: Ideology and the College Enrollment Crash | Power Line (4 Jun)

comment image

m0nty
m0nty
June 5, 2024 12:06 pm

The global success rate for commercial science R& D is about 10%, by the by, so Bruce admitting to half of that across his career is hardly a boast.

Lysander
Lysander
June 5, 2024 12:07 pm

Sorry Dover but something is really askew with this site

Gabor, I had the same issue. When you arrive at The Cat homepage, scroll down to click on the forum link, don’t click on the latest comment links on the right as every time you refresh your page, it’ll take you back to that comment link you clicked on when arriving at the homepage.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
June 5, 2024 12:09 pm

Defence officials under fire on lack of recruitsBen Packham

Senior Defence officials have come under fire in a Senate estimates hearing over their failure to expand the size of the ADF while presiding over a 30 per cent increase in senior commander numbers.
Greens Senator David Shoebridge asked: “Is our defence strategy to frighten off our adversaries with gold braid? We’re going to glint them to death?”
The Chief of the Defence Force Angus Campbell told the Senate that the ADF was set to achieve just 57 per cent of its recruiting and retention target this year, but he was confident there would be “clear momentum” in tackling the problem by December.
Senator Shoebridge pointed out that Defence officials had expressed confidence every year that the situation would turn around, but the size of the force remained stuck at just over 58,000.
He zeroed in on Defence Secretary Greg Moriarty, who took up his role seven years ago.
“Why should this parliament have confidence in you being able to achieve the target this year when history shows that every year you have been secretary, you have failed to meet your targets and indeed, the ADF has shrunk?” Senator Shoebridge said.
But he said Mr Moriarty had achieved “in certain categories” – presiding over an increase in the number of one star and above officers from 189 to 254.
Mr Moriarty replied: “Officers do serious work”
Defence officials were also tackled over the confusion in ministerial ranks over the government’s new policy to admit foreigners to the ADF.
Defence Minister Richard Marles slapped down junior colleague Matt Keogh on Tuesday after the Defence Personnel Minister declared all foreign residents would soon be able to apply to join the Australian Defence Force.
Mr Marles clarified that New Zealand citizens living in Australia would be able to serve in the ADF from July 1, with the eligibility extended from January 1 to Americans, British and Canadian applicants, and later to Pacific Islander recruits.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 5, 2024 12:23 pm

All technological projects have a 5% chance to commercialization Monty. If you knew anything you’d know that. The rule of thumb we had was of 20 projects 15 are washes, three are break even, one is profitable and the other one is Microsoft. The trouble is you never know which is the spectacular one until you try all twenty of them.

The Republicans got Fauci to admit that (a) masks don’t work (b) the 6′ rule was produced from out of his arse (c) he funded the Wuhan lab and (d) Covid leaked from it.

Backflips with quadruple pikes are fairly definitive. I can’t recall if he got pinged on the mRNA “vaccines” or on ivermectin and HCQ. Which is sad since I’never ever seen a hexuple backflip with pike.

But keep on burning incense to the holy St Fauci in your cellar shine if it makes you feel good. He can join that nice Mr Lysenko when he’s dead.

Cassie of Sydney
June 5, 2024 12:26 pm

Fauci’s malfeasance goes back to a time long before the Covid scamdemic, all the way back to the 1980s….to the AIDS pandemic.

Boambee John
Boambee John
June 5, 2024 12:27 pm

Fascinating to watch the fat fascist fool munturd not just doubling down on stupid, but tripling down.

The hole he is digging will soon reach a virology lab in Wuhan.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
June 5, 2024 12:32 pm

JohnH, nobody can insult mutley, he represents everything said about him if not actually but in support of the same. Weak physically, mentally and morally. An oxygen thief at the very least. Bad enough in contact with adults but to be in contact with the milko’s kids is too much.

Last edited 3 months ago by GreyRanga
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
June 5, 2024 12:38 pm

I find it rather amusing that someone who flunked first year Economics … yes, failed Eco 101 (is that even possible?) … is running a critique of the academic qualifications of others.

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 12:38 pm

With yoga instructors and dog whisperers being prioritised over carpenters and bricklayers, one has to ask:

What is the role of the union movement in shaping our immigration mix?

And the public servants in accommodating their agenda?

Last edited 3 months ago by Roger
Bourne1879
Bourne1879
June 5, 2024 12:39 pm

Very interesting article at Quadrant.

After Covid: Now it’s the Lawyers’ Turn.

Concerns the judge in the Covid Dr Fidge vaccine GMO case not recusing herself and revealing her previous big pharma cases. She said a Dr who had vaccinated himself and his family and patients had no “standing” to be heard.

Moves on to have Parliament to investigate and Chief Justice been briefed about the judge involved.

Basically if the vaccines are Genetically modifying then need a licence. No such licence approved so therefore illegal and should be stopped.

Cassie of Sydney
June 5, 2024 12:41 pm

Back in the 1980s, when journalism was still an honourable profession, many investigative journalists and gay activists called out Fauci’s atrocious handling of the AIDS epidemic.

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 12:46 pm

Speaking to the girl behind the counter at the shops today about the weather (naturally).

She said she doesn’t have a heater and won’t be buying one because she can’t afford the electricity.

Australia 2024: an energy resource rich country where domestic heating is a luxury many can’t afford. Brought to you by politicians of both parties.

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
June 5, 2024 12:47 pm

In news from the “Home of the Free”, (no, not Ukraine, but the US of A), ex US Marine Intel Officer, Scott Ritter, was denied access to his flight to St Petersburg, to attend the annual “International Economic Summit”, held there annually.

In addition, his passport was confiscated by State Dept “Officials”, obviously, to spread peace and democracy, as well as free speech.

If Ritter was heading to the Farce Conference, no sorry, Peace Conference, in Switzerland in a couple of weeks, I’m sure he would have had no such problems.
Even Joe-‘we must show our commitment to Ukraine’-Biden, is NOT going to that.
Instead, he is sending the future leader of the free world, Kamala te-he Harris instead, because, he has a “fund raiser” to attend in California.

Xi is not going, Modi is not going and of course, this peace conference to end the war in Ukraine, didn’t even extend an invitation to one of the combatants. (How this works, is anyone’s guess, but I’m betting it doesn’t!)

No doubt St Volodymyr the Pure will extend his “hurling abuse” to all and sundry, to this event.
Should be a hoot!

Roger
Roger
June 5, 2024 12:49 pm

Already talk of defections to Reform from the Tory MPs.

And possible defections to Labour on the basis of Keir Starmer’s promise that his government will be a “broad church” with a place for Red Tories.

I wonder what the Trots will make of that?

Last edited 3 months ago by Roger
Zippster
Zippster
June 5, 2024 12:50 pm

the NDIS is a hyper woke bureaucracy. The industry attracts two types of ppl, the woke and the sharks. The sharks are inevitable as they can smell free money, lots and lots of free money with few strings attached aside from proving you are woke and can maintain a set of registers and woke policies and pass a woke audit every few years to show you are keeping your registers up to date and can recite your woke policies.

NDIS is setup to be parallel to the real world in every respect complete with gov attempt at creating market signals from meaningless data.

The “participants” don’t see any of the money it is all sponged up by the industry.

Now I understand how the homeless industrial complex in california can have so many billions thrown at it and the problem gets exponentially worst.

As far as NDIS I have never seen anything like it.

Salvatore - Iron Publican
June 5, 2024 12:52 pm

Anyone want to guess how many people work in the public service?

About 5% of them.

johanna
johanna
June 5, 2024 12:58 pm

Censorship Commissar Inman-Grant in humiliating backdown:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-05/esafety-elon-musk-x-church-stabbing-videos-court-case/103937152

A legal battle to have graphic footage of a church stabbing in Sydney removed from Elon Musk’s social media platform X will be abandoned by the eSafety commissioner.
Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant confirmed the Federal Court case would be abandoned, after several blows in court and an attempt to temporarily force the footage to be hidden expiring.
“After weighing multiple considerations, including litigation across multiple cases, I have considered this option likely to achieve the most positive outcome for the online safety of all Australians, especially children,” Ms Inman-Grant said.
“Our sole goal and focus in issuing our removal notice was to prevent this extremely violent footage from going viral, potentially inciting further violence and inflicting more harm on the Australian community and I stand by my investigators and the decisions eSafety made.”

Yeah, right. In other words, she got her ass kicked. 🙂

Oh, and someone mentioned the BBC potraying Modi’s election win as a setback. Surprise, surprise, TheirABC is running exactly the same line. Spooky, huh?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 5, 2024 1:08 pm

“Elon Musk is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.”

– Tiger, Tiger by Alfred Bester (oops I might’ve included a typo)

SpaceX lands FAA license for next Starship megarocket launch on June 6 (4 Jun)

SpaceX’s next Starship megarocket officially has a license to fly. 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Tuesday (June 4) issued a launch license to SpaceX for its Starship Flight 4 test mission, which is currently scheduled to lift off no earlier than Thursday, June 6, from the company’s Starbase facility near Boca Chica Beach in South Texas. 

“The FAA has approved a license authorization for SpaceX Starship Flight 4,” FAA officials wrote in a statement. “SpaceX met all safety and other licensing requirements for this test flight.”

Fly well little birdie.

Titus Groates
Titus Groates
June 5, 2024 1:19 pm

You are a credulous fool.

The old preacher’s/politician’s adage:

“Argument weak, shout louder.”

132andBush
132andBush
June 5, 2024 1:21 pm

Where I have a problem is that you think you know better than Fauci. You aren’t fit to shine his boots, scientifically speaking. Pipe down, Poindexter.

Seeing as you and your lot are constantly on your knees licking said boots, there’s no need for a shine.

Figures
Figures
June 5, 2024 1:26 pm

Security agencies now warning the government that Islamist extremists have infiltrated the pro-Pali demos according to The Speccie.

Well, duh.

Still…they’re just “letting off steam”, eh Mike?

Yes. They’re called the Greens Party. How they’re allowed to exist is beyond me.

132andBush
132andBush
June 5, 2024 1:31 pm

KevinM
 June 5, 2024 10:18 am

And imagine, there were a few here, who thought m0nty was a genuine, intelligent man with ideological convictions, but he proved to be a nasty vicious imbecile after all.

Teaches you a lesson.

Exactly.
Monty is, was and always will be the monstrous manifestation of a society in which far too many people have not had to do it hard. And, no, I don’t give a fat rats about any health issues, everyone has them.

m0nty
m0nty
June 5, 2024 1:33 pm

The Republicans got Fauci to admit that (a) masks don’t work (b) the 6? rule was produced from out of his arse (c) he funded the Wuhan lab and (d) Covid leaked from it.

None of that is true, Bruce. For a supposed data analysis expert, your reading comprehension skills are very poor.

Bruce: 95% of my career was a failure
Also Bruce: I demand masks, distancing and vaccines prevent all disease at 100% efficacy

I call you a moron because you say moronic things like this, regardless of the letters after your name.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
June 5, 2024 1:34 pm

I think Fauci should be cannonised.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
June 5, 2024 1:37 pm

Just to be clear, M0nty wants to canonise Fauci. I want to cannonise him.

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
June 5, 2024 1:47 pm

Roger, I don’t know what’s more cruel- that chick’s power bills, or you not picking up her obvious come-on line

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
June 5, 2024 1:49 pm

regardless of the letters after your name

Signed:

mUnter FbE Js LoOPM

Failed basic Economics
Journalism student
Living off Other People’s Money

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
June 5, 2024 1:49 pm

Roger at 12:46:-

Australia 2024: an energy resource rich country where domestic heating is a luxury many can’t afford. Brought to you by politicians of both parties.

And yet, Top Men in Gummint will be simultaneously assuring us that our standard of living is trending inexorably upward.
Of course, their measure of standard of living will neatly chop off the first couple of layers of Maslow’s hierarchy, and point to things like “cultural enrichment brought by immigrants”. (*)
The fact that pensioners have to huddle together in public libraries because they can’t afford heating at home will be held up as “enhancing community connection and reducing social isolation”.

* This measure is already in play. The much trumpeted “Most Livable City” metric uses “% of population born overseas” as a positive measure. No distinction is made between highly skilled Swiss tradesmen and tall machete-wielding chaps in singlets.

132andBush
132andBush
June 5, 2024 1:52 pm

As Cohenite alluded to upthread.
Monty is asking questions and doubting BoN’s qualifications to opine on Fauci, fair enough.
Yet he and his lot are more than happy to follow the preaching about climate doom from a bloke whose main claim to fame is a more than passing knowledge of long extinct giant wombats.

Astounding.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
June 5, 2024 2:01 pm

dover0beach
 June 5, 2024 1:21 pm

And what do we find now, Starmer going harder re migration than the Tories have ever done.

By harder I mean pledging to curtail immigration. Labour flanking Tories from the right.

And winning back the seats lost to the Torries in 2019, and for the same policy reasons voters turfed Corbyn back then.
The frustrating thing is that the very issues which caused traditional Labour voters to dump Corbyn should be core Conservative values. The opportunity to capture a new core constituency has been killed by the London based “progressive Torries”.

Salvatore - Iron Publican
June 5, 2024 2:01 pm

Foreigners will soon be able to join the Australian Defence Force under a fast-track to citizenship in a bid boost the military’s size.

They (as in us) are already advertising in South Korea newspapers for recruits …..

Blokes who’ve completed their Korean national service.
Having your capital city within artillery range of evil communists may focus the mind.
There’s not a whole lot of “The Army gives me lots of time to be with my kids” or “.. now that standards are lowered more weaklings & crybabies are capable of completing the obstacle course”

The Korean army doesn’t do “feelings”, concentrating instead on ‘military preparedness’, ‘military skills’ & stuff like that.

References are available. Viet Cong & NVA are both able to write excellent testimonials for anybody who may be enquiring about the military skills of the South Koreans.

Gilas
Gilas
June 5, 2024 2:10 pm

KevinM
June 5, 2024 10:18 am

And imagine, there were a few here, who thought m0nty was a genuine, intelligent man with ideological convictions, but he proved to be a nasty vicious imbecile after all.

I still remember the good wishes that many here (not me!) sent him, after he claimed to be sick…
A perfect example of the most lethal problem with non-leftards: go hard and ruthlessly criticise each other while waiting to board the tumbrils.

Lysander
Lysander
June 5, 2024 2:11 pm

The Korean army doesn’t do “feelings”, concentrating instead on ‘military preparedness’, ‘military skills’ & stuff like that.

Imagine that!!!

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
June 5, 2024 2:18 pm

So we have 1 public serpent for every 9 people. Thats a lot of hand holding. My wife went contracting for the PS, now gets paid 50% more and same conditions plus extras to do a lesser job than before because they don’t have staff that actually know what to do. Previously they’d fight tooth and nail to protect their fiefdoms but a contractor is no threat. So will do what is required. Managing people to do nothing of consequence or relevance is easy, all the meetings held about nothing is like an episode out of Seinfeld. The ones that know get on with the job, the others have more meetings and claim to be leading or part of the team that got the job done. Un effin believable. I refused to go to any PS social gatherings, my stomach couldn’t take it anymore.

Last edited 3 months ago by GreyRanga
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 5, 2024 2:37 pm

There was a BMJ article published yesterday

Here you go Dover:

Covid vaccines may have helped fuel rise in excess deaths (4 Jun)

They warned that side effects linked to the Covid vaccine have included ischaemic stroke, acute coronary syndrome and brain haemorrhage, cardiovascular diseases, coagulation, haemorrhages, gastrointestinal events and blood clotting.

German researchers have pointed out that the onset of excess mortality in early 2021 in the country coincided with the rollout of vaccines, which the team said “warranted further investigation”.

It’s a write up of that paper in the UK Tele, which Yahoo has helpfully evaded the paywall for. Cats know all this of course since we’ve been discussing it for a long time. But nice to see it appear in the MSM.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
June 5, 2024 2:39 pm

There was a BMJ article published yesterday:

Dr. John Campbell had a video dated yesterday on the paper and an article in the British Telegraph. Linked to by someone here with the word ‘Proof’ .

Chris
Chris
June 5, 2024 2:40 pm

A $Billion for computers to “misforecast” weather, even up here in the tropics, where it should be very easy to get it right, seems like a complete waste of taxpayers dosh to me.

I know the BOM get some things wrong, but my experience is that weather forecasting these days is incredibly good. Rain forecasting is a ‘best-guess’ sure, and longer-term forecasting swamped in warmening rhetoric, but apart from that the wind and cloud cover and temperature forecasting is outflamingstanding.
Just the weather radar alone is incredible.
Cyclone forecasting is over-detailed so people can sometimes be too sure it will not come their way, but updates are constant.
The harm saved in actions based on good forecasts – eg concrete pours, or picnics…
Nah really, BOM are worth it. If they didn’t parrot fashionable lies they would be great.
Worth it.
Definitely.

Lysander
Lysander
June 5, 2024 2:40 pm

Biden signs executive order drastically tightening border (nbcnews.com)

WASHINGTON — Facing mounting political pressure over the migrant influx at the southern border, President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed an executive order that will temporarily shut down asylum requests once the average number of daily encounters tops 2,500 between official ports of entry, according to a senior administration official.

Shouldn’t the headline be: Biden Adopts Trump Policy

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
June 5, 2024 2:42 pm

Indolent put it up. He does some great links.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
June 5, 2024 2:43 pm

Well, well, well.
From their ABC.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.abc.net.au/article/103927298.
It seems the Victorian Education Department was shuffling pedos around to avoid detection and continue offending as late as the 1990’s.
I await an earnest exposé by Seven Nilligan … “who knew what and when did they know it?”. Labor Ministers from the Cain-Kirner era will obviously be in the gun.
How could they not have known?

Zippster
Zippster
June 5, 2024 2:43 pm
shatterzzz
June 5, 2024 2:57 pm

So being a “greenie” is useful when being found guilty .. “No gaol for you your green” …..
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-05/home-detention-sentence-for-mclaren-vale-crash-driver/103936666

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
June 5, 2024 3:08 pm

One for Monty that I took just now, just for him.

P6050004
johanna
johanna
June 5, 2024 3:28 pm

Note that Bruce’s PhD is in hard sciency stuff, not ‘interrogating the intersection of yoga, body image and genderfluidity.’

I know who Bruce is (from the early days of climate blogging when things were more relaxed) and Monty is on a hiding to nothing in questioning his bona fides.

Vicki
Vicki
June 5, 2024 3:33 pm

Another awful job at farm. Husband had to do it. Wombats have terrible mange at the moment in the valley. We have been into town for the day & come back to find an adult wombat right at our garden gate. All hunched up & covered in mange. A picture of misery. It is almost as is he has come up to ask us to finish it for him. Knew that we were there when we approached, but hardly moved. Husband has gone out to put him out of his misery.

Zippster
Zippster
June 5, 2024 3:47 pm
Eyrie
Eyrie
June 5, 2024 3:55 pm

“Elon Musk is my name
And Terra is my nation.
Deep space is my dwelling place,
The stars my destination.”

Nice one BoN

For the folks at Boca Chica this awesome anthem:

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

Truly turning cold refined steel into the dreams of spaceflight.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
June 5, 2024 4:10 pm

We often hear now that there are more women at university than men.

I would be curious to see a breakdown by discipline. Men vs women in sciences, including engineering, for example. (I actually know quite a few female engineers but they are mostly Chinese and Indian and they really are that good.)

I suspect the drippy-wet ‘Sciences’, like gender and race studies, and the muck that comprises HR departments, are ridiculously numerous because:

  1. They are cheap – resource light, comprising mostly recent books the students pay for and grotesquely accoutred, dim-witted professors flatulently blasting opinions-as-science from the same diseased colon.
  2. An especially gullible class of applicant.
  3. Political cred for showing they care and permitting no end of insertion of themselves into social issues.

Me dear old Dad used to work (part time) in the sallowed halls of academe (business, not that he thought it needed to be a university subject, but that was where they taught it), and he was progressively more and more disappointed at how far the university lowered standards and ignored academic propriety to keep that delicious, sweet foreign dollars coming in.

Like a government printing dollars which then diminishes the value of the dollars earned by the people, the universities have printed degrees that have diminished the value of those held by those who earned them.

local oaf
June 5, 2024 4:12 pm

Monty’s credentials

447674813_122151591086156477_8454592045676529869_n
feelthebern
feelthebern
June 5, 2024 4:14 pm

This needs appealing, and the Judge needs some reeducating on his duties.

The perp has appealed his conviction.
Hopefully his lawyer has told him that this means his sentence can be changed too if he doesn’t succeed.

johanna
johanna
June 5, 2024 4:18 pm

https://www.steynonline.com/14350/pier-review

Mark Steyn on the embarrassng Pier to Nowhere:

Officials with the US Central Command first brought up the option of building a temporary pier off the coast of Gaza in late October, the senior administration official told CNN. The risks however were deemed too great at the time, with unpredictable winter weather and heavy fighting in Gaza.

The pier also didn’t have a great track record operating in choppy seas.

During a major military exercise in Australia last year, US soldiers had to wait for a “narrow window” of opportunity to deploy the pier because of heavy seas. They had similar problems during a training exercise off the coast of Virginia in 2016.

It’s also been more than a decade since the military last used this kind of floating pier, known as a Joint Logistics Over-the-Shore, or JLOTS, in a real operation, when it delivered humanitarian aid to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake.

“This is something that we haven’t done in a really long time,” a defense official told CNN.

I have talked many times about the Dieppe Raid and the consequent invention of Mulberry harbours. Amid Thursday’s eightieth-anniversary observances, spare a thought for how D-Day would have gone with these guys in charge:

‘Liberating Europe is something that we haven’t done in a really long time,’ a defense official told CNN.

The US military seem to be screwing up publicly again and again. Between political interference and the infiltration of the Pronoun Police and their allies, trivial things like competence and morale are being driven into the ground.

Not comforting for their allies.

Trump must win to save them and us.

feelthebern
feelthebern
June 5, 2024 4:24 pm

I’ve been a tad busy but have listened to bits & pieces of the oral submissions in the Al Muderis v Channel 9 case.

Lehrmann v Channel has been raised a few times over the past week for both Al Muderis & Channel 9.

I couldn’t make head or tail of what Sue C was saying on behalf of Al Muderis re the Lehrmann case, too smart for me.

Dr Collins for Channel 9 referenced the Lehrmann case with the finding that someone could be less than truthful in parts of their evidence but that should not take away how truthful they are in what he viewed as the “important” evidence.

Also, both sides went out of their way to say how BRS defamation case ruling could not be applied to the Al Muderis case.

Considering how both cases are being appealed, I would have thought it would have been best to avoid both.

feelthebern
feelthebern
June 5, 2024 4:26 pm

cohenite, there’s a fb/insta page called “Japan Muscle Girl Bar”.
I’ll leave you alone as you book the next available flight.

Lysander
Lysander
June 5, 2024 4:31 pm

So texting on Signal that you’re planning to attack Jews is not sufficient evidence?

Judge grants bail to alleged teen terrorist, branding case ‘thin’ in bruising ruling for AFP – ABC News

(Apologies to CL as was first posted on the Latiners’ Catallaxy)

Lysander
Lysander
June 5, 2024 4:35 pm

It seems the Victorian Education Department was shuffling pedos around to avoid detection and continue offending as late as the 1990’s.

I await an earnest exposé by Seven Nilligan … “who knew what and when did they know it?”. Labor Ministers from the Cain-Kirner era will obviously be in the gun.

How could they not have known?

Sancho, it seems (?) the crimes and moving about were between 1993 and 1996?

If so, they’ll be onto Kennett like sh!t on flies.

JC
JC
June 5, 2024 5:03 pm

Charlie Kirk is pushing for JD Vance as the VP pick.

Kirk is right, Vance is super smart and well credentialed.

  1. I think the punters are stirring, getting ansty. Normally letting politics of either persuasion slide by as we just get…

  2. Great stuff from the past. Visuals and audio are great. —— F r. David – Words Don’t Come Easy

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