Open Thread – Thurs 11 July 2024


The friends around the table, St. Jacut, Edouard Vuillard, early 1900s

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Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 11, 2024 9:34 pm

Just watching a doco about John McEnroe.
He got in the shit for not attending the official dinner after winning Wimbledon …
“What am I gonna do? Cut loose with a bunch of my friends and have a epic party? Or sit with a bunch of stuffed shirts all night, and dance with Martina Navratilova at the end? What do you think?”
Laff out loud.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
July 11, 2024 9:36 pm

JC,
Weird how you know there is such a show when I have no idea what show you are talking about.
You must be the closet ABC fan
But yes 30 Rock was a great show with great script writing.

“gardening show on the ABC with the bearded Greek dude. Wonders never cease”

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 11, 2024 9:38 pm

We’ve just come back from running the gauntlet of protestors against nuclear energy, where police were there to ensure no trouble. lol, this was in Vaucluse electorate, at a Liberal Party function in Double Bay, organised by the Vaucluse Branch, drawing in lots of other Branches. The drawcard was a solid discussion on nuclear energy, speakers were David Gillespie MP, Fed Member for Lyne, Deputy Chair on the Standing Cttee for Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Water, and Hon Keith Pitt, MP, Fed Member for Hinkler, Deputy Chair of the Parliamentary Ctte of Public Works and Infrastructure. It was moderated by Barrister Peter King, no love lost between him and Turnbull, lol from past times.

The two drawcards were both excellent speakers and so were the questions from the 200 or so people of the audience. Coverage of issues was in depth and informative for an educated crowd. Did you know that a selling point for nuclear is that the hydrogen displaced can help power desalination plants? All useful stuff to know. The focus was then on how to consolidate this message for the electors in short and pithy info bites.

It was recognised by all that nuclear is a long game which can be won if given time – a recognition that Albo may run very soon before the head of steam can be gain, as per the Voice and the No vote, was also there.

I am reinvigorated to consider supporting the Libs now in all of this. Getting behind them on the booths and maybe even joining. The theme is to Save Australia. I am sick of feeling depressed politically and think we should all get more active.

JC
JC
July 11, 2024 9:47 pm

Rooster

Wifey watches the ABC and I think he used to be on before the news. No kidding, I would have placed a bet you’d be a viewer and frankly I believe I would win the bet no matter what you say.

My old dentist used to be in the Rockefeller building. Lloyd Feinberg. He was around 60 at the time and I found out he married a 35 year old and had a kid. Second marriage and he had grown up kids then too.

Last edited 4 months ago by JC
Pete of Perth
Pete of Perth
July 11, 2024 10:34 pm

USS Salem’s main battery. Video from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWH_jb7YVUU 1955

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
July 11, 2024 10:50 pm
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 11, 2024 11:22 pm

I see Fork Corners is about to run a four part series on the existential threat to the world caused by Donald Trump.

Apparently, single handedly, by his own dicta, with no possible control or moderation, as POTUS he will turn the US into a sea of petty vengeance, unleash his base desires and corruption like a latter-day Claudius, and destabilise every relationship that makes Amurka great and the world safe.

Which raises the obvious question: if a POTUS has these extraordinary personal powers at his exclusive command – and no agency or constitutional provision has any moderating power or influence over affairs of state – how are things proceeding under the current shuffling zombie?

The one that the good and great are presently trying to stake down, shoot with silver bullets, and bury.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
July 11, 2024 11:23 pm

The blogs resident idiot is craving attention and betting on something impossible to prove either way.

“No kidding, I would have placed a bet you’d be a viewer and frankly I believe I would win the bet no matter what you say”.

KevinM
KevinM
July 11, 2024 11:26 pm

Now this is a beautiful hunk of petrified wood.

I only have two questions, where is the rest of the tree and how the heck did they cut it down so perfectly all that time ago?

Screenshot-2024-07-11-232319
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 11, 2024 11:28 pm

Did you know that a selling point for nuclear is that the hydrogen displaced can help power desalination plants?

No.

The focus was then on how to consolidate this message for the electors in short and pithy info bites.

Good Lord.

Indolent
Indolent
July 11, 2024 11:29 pm
Indolent
Indolent
July 11, 2024 11:33 pm

@robinmonotti

STUDIES TO SHOW VACCINES ARE SAFE DO NOT EXIST!

?“Studies to show vaccines are safe do not exist. But in making that admission, they conveniently fail to admit that for decades they lied, gaslit, defrauded (and I don’t use that word lightly) the public by claiming that vaccines are probably the most thoroughly safety tested products on the planet and that people should rest assured, no stone on vaccine safety was left unturned.

Thus, in their article just published, they pretend they never lied about vaccine safety. They pretend they are now just pointing out vaccine safety has never really been conducted, as if that was not known to them before.”

KevinM
KevinM
July 11, 2024 11:34 pm

KevinM
July 11, 2024 11:26 pm

Now this is a beautiful hunk of petrified wood.

Seems to be real according to people who visited the park, but the picture is greatly enhanced in colour.

Never trust the net! Not completely anyway.

Indolent
Indolent
July 11, 2024 11:35 pm
Steve trickler
Steve trickler
July 11, 2024 11:46 pm

Always cool watching people react to Cash. The fact that his owner, Stevo, can just drop his leash in a crowd and not have to worry is also a spinner.

A true gentle giant.

—-

Woof Bark Growl:

Cash 2.0 Great Dane meeting new people in Santa Monica 123

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqdj9cRGe-o

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
July 12, 2024 12:08 am

Dr. F, re the desalination spin-off as a result of nuclear power use, note my reply comment, put here now for clarification about the Libs meeting tonite because who reads ‘reply’:

This was the only issue presented that I hadn’t heard before nor had good knowledge about, which is why I nominated it here. It wasn’t, obviously, the only part of the message, in fact it wasn’t really part of what needed to be got across to voters, which was much more meaty stuff about costs, base load needs, employment to be created etc. The room was full of engineers too. Good discussion, rather like we had with Mater when we met him for lunch in Bendigo a while back.

These guys tonight were serious about winning the election on this issue and we need to get behind them imho. Don’t look for perfect, look for saving the furniture of Australia’s future. I’ll be working to fight the Liberal wets and convince them of net zero folly and renewable scams, by either joining the local branch (considering it) or at least offering to hand out on election days.

Salvatore - Iron Publican
July 12, 2024 12:15 am

…and frankly I believe I would win the bet no matter what you say.

Winning bets is not your strongpoint, dude.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
July 12, 2024 12:16 am

Both have now been banned from the joint.

—-

Woof Bark Growl:

Great Dane and a horse inside a shopping mall (4k)

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

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
July 12, 2024 12:58 am

Audio kicks in @2:37.

This petrified wood is not hundreds of millions of years old. Certain scriptures may have some merit. Most on the planet are oblivious to this info. I’ve got no qualms in telling mainstream geoligists / academics to take a hike and f-off.

This not doubt, will be controversial.

So be it.

—-

Hangman1128:

Biblical Tree Remains, Cedar Heights

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5z8QPacX7M

KevinM
KevinM
July 12, 2024 1:18 am

This bridge is certainly not 220 M years old but still in good nick and in use.

As I keep saying, they knew how to build to last.

Screenshot-2024-07-12-011512
KevinM
KevinM
July 12, 2024 1:46 am

How times, fashions and what we perceive as beauty change.
She is lovely, IMO.

Probably not a cute owl or a buxom girl but still lovely.

Miss America 1924

450261029_122125314026311355_8672613220815446120_n
Steve trickler
Steve trickler
July 12, 2024 2:10 am

Pertinent song for the history of the WORLD!

I am of the firm belief that history books ( not all ) are garbage.

Advanced poeple were here before Cook arrived. The abo’s remained stone age useless. Tartarians were floating around and doing remarkable stuff.

Fleetwood Mac – Little Lies (Official Music Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCGD9dT12C0

m0nty
m0nty
July 12, 2024 3:58 am

Reform UK has sacked its deputy leader Ben Habib. They took his money already, no need to keep him around.

Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:00 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 4:12 am
Beertruk
July 12, 2024 5:50 am

Today’s Tele:

YOU CAN’T SAY THAT, AUSTRALIA’S NOT A FREE COUNTRY NOW

TOBY – YOUNG
12 Jul 2024
 
During my two-week speaking tour of Australia, I’ve been shocked at the parlous state of free speech Down Under.

In Britain, I founded the Free Speech Union 4½ years ago because I was convinced that this essential freedom was in greater peril than at any time since the Second World War. Since then, of course, things have got worse by an order of magnitude, with the global pandemic, Black Lives Matter, the Covid vaccines, trans rights and the war in Gaza all contributing to a febrile atmosphere in which more and more people are anxious about getting into trouble for saying the wrong thing.

As recently as 25 years ago, when someone heard an unfashionable opinion that challenged the prevailing orthodoxy they would shrug their shoulders and say, “It’s a free country”. Nowadays, too many people reach for their pitch forks and try to cancel the heretic.

I had hoped that Australia would have more robust antibodies to the woke mind virus, but it turns out that free speech is in equally poor health.

I met an academic in Melbourne – Andrew Timming – who lost his job as a professor at RMIT after daring to challenge a tweet by Greta Thunberg. I had a drink with a politician – Moira Deeming – who was branded a Nazi and expelled from the Liberal Party for speaking at an “anti-trans rally”. In reality, she was standing up for gender-confused children who she doesn’t think should have irreversible medical treatment.

And on Sunday, I had lunch with Celine Baumgarten, the latest victim of Julie Inman Grant. The eSafety commissioner strong-armed Twitter to remove a video Celine had made drawing attention to the creation of a “Queer Club” at a Melbourne primary school.

But the really worrying thing is not that free speech is on life support in Australia. It’s that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is about to switch off the heart-and-lung machine.

Last year, the federal government published the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combating Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill, aka the anti-misinformation bill. This would empower the e-Karen to force social media companies to remove “misinformation”, which, in case you don’t know, is code for any opinion a liberal disagrees with.

To get a sense of what viewpoints would be verboten if this new law gets through, you only have to listen to the losers of the Voice referendum. As far as they’re concerned, they weren’t defeated because they failed to set out what a Yes vote would mean and make a convincing case for it.

No, they lost because the other side got away with spreading “misinformation”. Albanese has also said he wants to toughen up Australia’s “hate speech” laws, making it a criminal offence to say something “hateful” about a person’s “transgender identity”. You can bet your bottom dollar that would include “misgendering” a trans person on Twitter – referring to them by their actual sex rather than the sex they imagine themselves to be.

Needless to say, both proposals are supported by Peter Dutton, the so-called Opposition Leader. If these laws are passed, Australia will fall to the bottom of the free speech league table in the Anglosphere – lower, even, than Canada. Luckily, a group of concerned citizens have formed the Free Speech Union of Australia, the group that’s hosting my trip.

Please sign up at freespeechunion.au/membership.html. Seventy-five years ago, good men and women in the English-speaking world risked their lives to defend our freedoms. It now falls to us to take up the same fight.

Toby Young is director of the Free Speech Union

Mallee Miss
Mallee Miss
July 12, 2024 5:52 am

With great excitement I opened my electricity bill yesterday, eager to see taxpayer largesse reflected by a $75 rebate as facilitated by Mr Albanese. To my distress there was no visible sign any sort of rebate had been applied. Meter was read after the beginning of the new financial year and bill was received in the new financial year. A few calls will be made to Red Energy and to some Ministers’ offices for an explanation.

calli
calli
July 12, 2024 5:56 am

Tom, the Garrison toon doesn’t hotlink on my device. I’ve done a screenshot for Cat’s viewing pleasure. It’s rather funny.

GrrrGraphics-–-Official-Ben-Garrison-Cartoons
calli
calli
July 12, 2024 6:08 am

As recently as 25 years ago, when someone heard an unfashionable opinion that challenged the prevailing orthodoxy they would shrug their shoulders and say, “It’s a free country”. Nowadays, too many people reach for their pitch forks and try to cancel the heretic.

A few days ago, I commented on how impossible it is to argue a case with the Deep Woke, all you do is go round in circles. It’s a game to them. If there is the slimmest chance of piercing a hole in the armour of idiocy, the name calling starts.

You’re a “this” or a “that”. No holds barred, no existing relationship respected.

Young is onto something here. The only possible response to “you can’t say that”, is “It’s a free country. I’ll say and think what I want”.

On the surface, it sounds like a childish retort. But in reality it encapsulates everything a free person holds dear. And it reinforces your determination not to be a Wokerati’s victim.

calli
calli
July 12, 2024 6:35 am

A thumbs down isn’t an argument, ‘cheeks.

Use your words.

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 6:36 am

Our resident Nazi, when not obsessed with Kellie-Jay Keen, is now obsessed with Reform UK.

Our Nazi is a complete weirdo.

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 6:44 am

On the surface, it sounds like a childish retort. But in reality it encapsulates everything a free person holds dear. And it reinforces your determination not to be a Wokerati’s victim.

Nothing churlish about, and as I’ve said many times here on these pages, the days, the weeks and the years of being timid and polite are over.

Too many on the right, having incurred the wrath of the puritanical Wokerati, have then desperately prostrated themselves, kowtowed, bent over and apologised for offended the ‘Wokerati’. It’s time to stop.

Beertruk
July 12, 2024 6:55 am

Today’s Tele (too many facts and too much common sense to highlight):

COAL, HARD TRUTH IS THE WORLD NEEDS FOSSIL FUEL

MATT – CANAVAN
12 Jul 2024

Remember all of that kerfuffle about the Adani mine? Led by Bob Brown, hundreds drove petrol cars to Queensland in protest, some glued themselves to city streets and then Labor Party leader, Bill Shorten, said that he “did not support it.”

It is now up and running and quietly producing 10 million tonnes of coal.
While we were distracted by the slick Stop Adani campaign, Asian nations increased their coal mining by an amount equal to 100 Adanis in just two years.

This incredible surge in coal mining has gone almost unreported in Australia. The remarkable figures were confirmed two weeks ago in the release of the well respected Statistical Review of World Energy. These figures show that China’s coal mining has grown by 584 million tonnes per year (that is 58 Adanis) in just two years. India has added 199 million tonnes a year (20 Adanis), Indonesia 161 million tonnes (16 Adanis) and Mongolia 50 million tonnes (5 Adanis). To put these figures in context, Australia’s TOTAL annual coal mining output is 450 million tonnes.

All these countries “signed” up to net zero emissions targets just before they let coal mining output skyrocket.

So given this apparent climate catastrophe, why aren’t the activists glueing themselves to the gates of the Chinese embassy or calling for a boycott of Bali? Could it be that the well funded climate campaigns are more about changing our government than changing the world’s climate?

We are constantly fed the mantra that unless Australia makes big cuts to its carbon emissions that we will be an international pariah. How does that make any sense when the biggest nations in the world (China, India and Indonesia account for almost 40 per cent of the world’s population) are mining coal like it is the new black?

Australia’s mining industry employs over a million people. These jobs reflect the investments that were made in mines many years ago.

But all of these mines, and therefore these jobs, have limited lifespans, usually only around 30 years. We will not run out of coal or other resources but we will run out of mines if we do not continue to attract investment in new mines. There are early warning signs that we are not getting sufficient investment.

Australia’s terms of trade have been at record highs since Russia invaded Ukraine. The peak has even been higher than that achieved during the famed mining boom of the 2000s. That boom peaked in 2012 when Australia attracted a whopping $115bn of investment in mining. Over the past year, with even higher commodity prices, Australia attracted just $45bn in mining investment.
 
This $70bn investment gap is a “green tax” weighing down the Australian economy and threatening our future prosperity. The deficit is almost all explained by the weakness in fossil fuel investment despite the high prices of coal, oil and gas. Back in 2012, we attracted $60bn in investment in coal, oil and gas. Over the past year, with Labor-Green governments at state and federal levels discouraging investment in fossil fuels, we have attracted just $6bn.

The climate activists respond, once they have unglued themselves from the fixtures of parliament, that this is all fine because we can make money in the future from “green minerals” like lithium, nickel and rare earths.

The problem is that fossil fuels made Australia $237bn last year, more than half of our mining exports.

Lithium and nickel amounted to just 10 per cent of that amount, and rare earths are too small to even be separately reported. There is massive demand for our fossil fuel exports. We should not trade a given and proven wealth creator for a “maybe” source of revenue sometime in the future. Despite all the hype, we do not export any commercial quantities of hydrogen. And, now even more proven exports like nickel face an uncertain future.

Indonesia has increased coal mining to power new nickel refineries. Despite having inferior ores to Australia, Indonesia now undercuts us on price in nickel markets thanks to its cheap coal power. Australia’s nickel industry instead foolishly sought to power its production through green energy. Already 1000 WA nickel jobs have been lost and many more are at risk.

The new Indonesian President plans to expand their nickel strategy to bauxite aluminium and copper, threatening jobs in eastern Australia too.

Maybe we could organise for Bob Brown to lead a naval convoy to Sumatra in protest at Indonesia’s penchant for building new coal mines. Unfortunately, the Indonesian navy would probably turn back their boats quicker than Tony Abbott.

Instead it makes much more sense for Australia to wake up to what is really happening in the world. To keep the thousands of good paying jobs we have here in Brisbane and the rest of the country, we need to mine the resources that we have and that our customers want.

Matt Canavan is LNP Senator for Queensland
 
 
 
       

The Bungonia Bee
The Bungonia Bee
July 12, 2024 7:01 am

The cheapest power should be coal.

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 7:04 am

By the way, it’s now over nine months since October 7.

There are still over 100 Jews held hostage by Gazan Nazis, men, women and children. Not one of these Jews has been visited by the IRC. The so called ‘human rights’ organisations such as Amnesty are not bothered by Jewish hostages.

Jews don’t matter.

But here’s an unpalatable thought, what happens after nine months? Israeli officials are now concerned that that many of the young women, kidnapped, raped and kept as sexual slaves, are about to give birth.

The template is there, the founder of Islam, Mo the Maniacal Monster, took great pleasure in raping Jewish women and taking them captive to keep as sex slaves.

Last edited 4 months ago by Cassie of Sydney
The Bungonia Bee
The Bungonia Bee
July 12, 2024 7:04 am

ABC takes TDS to full retard level.
Defund them now! Oh, wait. Neither side of politics has the balls to do that – and only one side would want to, since the ABC is the voice of the Green Left, and Labor is their hostage.

Last edited 4 months ago by The Bungonia Bee
Beertruk
July 12, 2024 7:31 am

The E Karen: Julie ‘Inman’ Grant

One letter away from ‘iman.’

Coincidence?

I think not.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
July 12, 2024 7:33 am

Not before time.

‘Bringing the party into disrepute’: NSW Liberals call for Malcolm Turnbull to be expelled from the party (11 Jul)

Senior NSW Liberals are pushing for Malcolm Turnbull to be expelled from the party after the former prime minister attacked Peter Dutton as a “thug” who is not suited to lead the nation.

Several Liberal Party members, including branch presidents and members of the NSW state executive, have emailed party bosses calling for the former party leader to be kicked out.

I doubt it will happen, but what with the Murdoch interview there seems to be something going on. I wonder if the Libs’ve paid Turnbull’s loan back yet?

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 7:36 am

Our Nazi’s fetishes are a tad strange. He’s now obsessed with Reform and Farage, particularly Farage. Could there be a little homoeroticism there? Yet in the wash up after last week’s UK General Election, four Islamists won seats, a concerning development, and you’d think that the Nazi would be concerned about that development, or at least interested in why Islamists have been elected to the UK parliament but alas no, we are yet to hear a whisper from him about this very concerning development. But then again, we shouldn’t be surprised by this silence, Nazis always like other Nazis.

But the election of the four Islamist Nazis, on a ‘Gaza’ platform, is concerning. It’s far more worrying, troubling and disturbing that Farage and Reform winning constituencies. And even more disturbing is that yesterday a campaigner for one of these Islamist Nazis has been charged with terrorism offences.

LOL, except it ain’t funny!

And what sayeth our Nazi? Any condemnation of the Islamists? Does he profess any interest in how and why the Islamists are now using the political system? No, no, far more salacious for him is some bickering in Reform. I see Farage overnight has terminated Ben Habib. And why not? Farage wants the party to grow, not stagnate.

Go Nigel.

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 7:40 am

I hear it spruiked that Malcolm Turnbull is trashing his ‘legacy’…..but here’s the thing, Turnbull has no legacy.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 12, 2024 7:48 am

Dr Faustus
 July 11, 2024 11:22 pm

I see Fork Corners is about to run a four part series on the existential threat to the world caused by Donald Trump.

The Clark County effect could be in play if this gets our.

Apparently, single handedly, by his own dicta, with no possible control or moderation, as POTUS he will turn the US into a sea of petty vengeance,

So what we have seen so far isn’t petty vengeance?

unleash his base desires and corruption like a latter-day Claudius, and destabilise every relationship that makes Amurka great and the world safe.

I hear these theories from time to time … President for life, WW3 and WW4, imprison his enemies, yada yada … but no-one can adequately explain why he is leaving his megalomaniac tendencies until his second term.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
July 12, 2024 7:57 am

Like him or loathe him, Rupert Murdoch is completely lucid and sharp at 93 while Joe Biden is a dribbling mess at 81.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
July 12, 2024 8:03 am

Turnbull.
You mean Malcolm Ex.

Sleepy Joe just introduced Zelensky as Putin at the NATO summit.…ooh boy!

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 8:03 am

I hear it spruiked that Malcolm Turnbull is trashing his ‘legacy’…..but here’s the thing, Turnbull has no legacy.

Any word on Florence?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
July 12, 2024 8:07 am

Sniffy Joe bidet has been a dribbling mess all his life. A fantasist extraordinaire.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
July 12, 2024 8:07 am

I’ll be tuning into SkyNews at 08:30am to watch Dementia Joe unravel (again) at his press conference.

Bet he won’t take questions. Staffers will be sweating that he follows instructions per the teleprompter.

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 8:08 am

The only possible response to “you can’t say that”, is “It’s a free country. I’ll say and think what I want”.

It’s a relatively free country.

We don’t have a Bill of Rights that enshrines free speech.

What you can and can’t say is ultimately determined by the High Court.

JC
JC
July 12, 2024 8:11 am

Is there anything gayer, more homosexual than a dude downticking comments on a blog?

shatterzzz
July 12, 2024 8:12 am

Being an avid book reader/buyer I made the mistake of reading this “our” ABC “analysis” of the collapse of Oz book giant BOOKTOPIA ..
what a load of rubbish! .. 473 excuses for it’s demise but never a hint of what is, probably, the main cause …… Oz Postal, bloody, prices .. FFS!
When your running an online book selling business and 98% of your sales involve posting out to the buyer and it reaches the point when the additional postage costs are greater than the purchase price of the book(s) one day it is all going to come home to roost …… it did .. FFS!

I’m including the link, it’s your time to waste …….. .. LOL!

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-12/what-booktopia-collapse-says-about-australian-publishing/104087636

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 12, 2024 8:12 am

Roger
 July 12, 2024 8:03 am

I hear it spruiked that Malcolm Turnbull is trashing his ‘legacy’…..but here’s the thing, Turnbull has no legacy.

Any word on Florence?

His legacy is an expensive boring machine which is bogged down under it’s own weight?
Sounds about right.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 12, 2024 8:14 am

Farmer Gez
 July 12, 2024 8:03 am

Turnbull.

You mean Malcolm Ex.

Sleepy Joe just introduced Zelensky as Putin at the NATO summit.…ooh boy!

Did he really?
I mean, it has hard to sift reality from parody now when it comes to Dementia Joe.

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 8:16 am

By deserting authority elites invite anarchy

Henry Ergas The Australian 11 July, 2024

According to Mark Scott, the vice-chancellor of the University of Sydney, his agreement with the Muslim Students Association is “the greatest gift I could give to our Jewish students and staff”. That statement is not just offensive; it confirms that Scott has no understanding of his role and responsibilities. At the heart of the agreement Scott vaunts is a deal in which the Muslim Students Association ended its near two-month-long protest in return for a suite of measures, including a seat at a working group to review the university’s defence and security investments. Hailed by the protesters as a victory that foreshadows further triumphs, Scott has sought to justify it as bestowing on Jewish staff and students the “gift” of order and security.

But ensuring safety and good order is hardly a “gift”, much less a reflection of Scott’s personal benevolence: it is the university’s duty. And in fulfilling that duty, the university is not just meeting the legitimate expectations of Jewish staff and students; it is respecting its obligations towards all the members of the university community, regardless of their race, creed or religion.

Nor is any of that new. Had Scott even the slightest inkling of the history of universities, he would know that assuring the “tranquilitas scholarum”, the peace of the university, was already identified as the uppermost responsibility of academic leadership in the very first university regulations.

Enacted by Robert of Courson in 1215, the rules of the recently established University of Paris emphasised the intimate link between the “tranquilitas scholarum” and the university’s ability to advance the “amor sciendi” – the love of teaching and learning – that was its uppermost function. Repeatedly confirmed by universities worldwide in the centuries that followed, that responsibility of the academic leadership has never been questioned, no matter how difficult it has, at times, been to implement.

Yet Scott’s statement is not only at odds with the legacy on which his university was built. It is also unspeakably naive. Having caved in once, what will Scott do when the Muslim students – or, more accurately, those who claim to speak on their behalf – demand, as they are sure to do, that the working group severs the university’s links with Israel? In his efforts to buy peace, Scott has merely laid the bases for the next war.

That is unsurprising. What Scott gave up was not this concession or that. It was the university leadership’s authority – that is, its right to determine the conditions under which teaching and learning occur, on issues that range from the use of the university’s open spaces to its relations with other institutions. By capitulating to the MSA’s threats, he replaced legitimate authority with a bargaining process in which might – and outright fanaticism – made right.

Unfortunately, Scott is not alone. The devaluation of authority is the most salient feature of the current period, affecting every aspect of our social and political life. And its consequences are anything but anodyne.

No one understood that better than Hannah Arendt, who witnessed the breakdown of authority both in interwar Germany and in the student revolt of the 1960s.

Authority, she stressed, is neither force nor coercion: it is the attribution by society of the right to take decisions in situations of profound, potentially unbridgeable, disagreement. It does not, as is often thought, rely on consensus about the decisions that must be made; rather, it is the way societies cope with – and hence can endure – its absence.

As a result, the collapse of authority does not eliminate power: it brings it to the fore, by inviting the contending groups to exercise as much power as they can muster in attempting to impose the outcome they seek. When authority fades, Thomas Hobbes’ “society of warlords” takes its place. Having refused to defer to authority, we end, like Scott, by submitting to naked coercion. The damage, however, goes even further. “Wherever true authority (has) existed”, wrote Arendt, “it has been joined with responsibility”.

“If we remove authority from political and public life”, it is scarcely likely “to mean that from now on an equal responsibility is to be required of everyone”. Rather, it means “the claims of the world and the requirements of order are being repudiated; all responsibility is being rejected, the responsibility for giving orders no less than for obeying them”. As every decision becomes a tawdry bargain between feuding warlords, no one is clearly accountable for the outcomes.

Yet authority is hard to establish and easy to lose. It does not require us to agree on individual decisions. But we do need to agree on who is entitled to take decisions, and how. Securing that agreement is no simple task, especially in societies that no longer have a common framework of substantive moral beliefs – although it is precisely those societies that most require the institutional capacity to peacefully resolve fundamental disputes.

It could only be achieved, Arendt argued, if there was a measure of respect for a society’s founding values and achievements: a willingness “to be tied back, obligated, to the enormous, almost superhuman and hence always legendary effort to lay the foundations, to build the cornerstone, to found for eternity”. That respect does not impede change; “rooted in the past, while looking to the future”, it provides an anchor that keeps the foundations in place as the building itself is constantly reshaped.

John Hirst would have concurred. An acceptance of impersonal authority was, he suggested, a deeply ingrained Australian trait, which had helped this country navigate crises that could have torn it apart. Born out of the Enlightenment’s faith in rules, it had been confirmed and entrenched by the sheer magnitude of the Australian achievement.

There was, for sure, endless disagreement about “what we do”. But there was also, however laconically expressed, a recognition of the enduring, time-tested value of “how we do things around here”.

It is that recognition that has now disappeared. The Muslim Students Association has no respect whatsoever for “how we do things around here”, any more than has Senator Fatima Payman. As for the Greens, it is impossible to identify an aspect of the Australian achievement that they don’t denigrate and despise.

But that is not the worst of it. The real problem is that the governing elites themselves have lost their commitment to the legitimacy of inherited authority. Having forgotten how to compromise without being compromised, they are no longer capable of distinguishing the bartering of interests from the jettisoning of principles.

That, in a nutshell, is the essence of Mark Scott. Behind the pretensions of beneficence – his kindness to the Jews, whose bewildering lack of gratitude (but what else can one expect?) causes him “disappointment and frustration” – lies an intellectual abyss. To that malady, there are no easy remedies. Reconsidering whether he is the right person to lead Australia’s oldest, and once most prestigious, university might be a sensible place to start.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
July 12, 2024 8:16 am

Just announced on SkyNews that the press conference has been delayed.

Probably for a nappy change.

damon
damon
July 12, 2024 8:16 am

We’ve just come back from running the gauntlet of protestors against nuclear energy”

You’re living in the wrong suburb. I live in central Brisbane, and have never seen, let alone encountered, a protestor.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 8:23 am

Indolent

 July 11, 2024 11:35 pm

Joe Biden Has Always Been a Liar

Exactly. Biden was laughed out of presidential primaries in the 80s for plagiarising speeches from a British politician. How the times have deteriorated that he was first acceptable as a vice president and then as a president? He perfectly illustrates our cultural decline, today nothing is real, everything is AI, the defective kind.

shatterzzz
July 12, 2024 8:25 am

Starmer has just Ok-ed the supply of cruise missiles to Ukraine to use on Russian targets …
A “peace in our time” gesture … FFS!

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 8:28 am

I took this out of nested replies about Malcolm Turnbull’s legacy:

Crossie

 July 12, 2024 8:18 am

 Reply to  Cassie of Sydney

Here are two of his legacies we are still struggling against, Julie Inman-Grant, the e-Karen and Florence, the machine stuck in a tunnel under the Snowy Mountains, both still wreaking havoc and costing us enormous amounts of money.

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 8:28 am

It was recognised by all that nuclear is a long game which can be won if given time…

Time…and control of the senate.

Without that they’ll never get the nuclear power ban overturned.

The ban that was imposed by a Liberal Prime Minister.

Still, in the meantime it gives the impression that intellectual life has been breathed into the political corpse of the Liberal Party.

Good luck!

Last edited 4 months ago by Roger
Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
July 12, 2024 8:29 am

Latest Australians are Fat Dags ad-
Late middle age parents- white, overweight, undergroomed- is standing on a beach, or sitting in a car, doing toddler stuff with their they/them kid- dusky skinned, achingly hip. They are doing things like having an icecream at the beach, being driven to a party etc- ie all well and truly pre-coming-of-age stuff for a family. No sign of a second parent tho, tellingly. The parent makes a hammy show of battling with their inner monologue before turning to their kid and saying “If you’re queer, then I’m cool with it“- kid is like totally “huh? Ermergerd, yeah cool whatevs.”
Tagline is “Awkward talks have awesome outcomes” or somesuch, the Pinnacle Foundation. QANGO grooming gang with tax free status.
I’m filing this alongside the tearing down of statues, Infinity Migration and the mass re-naming of every place- when visitors ask
“how did your country became such a burning portaloo logjam?” I’ll answer
“Slowly at first, and then all at once.”

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 12, 2024 8:34 am

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/07/hypocrisy-watch.html

Unkind souls suggest a broomstick as being a more apt mode of travel.

132andBush
132andBush
July 12, 2024 8:35 am

Despite having inferior ores to Australia, Indonesia now undercuts us on price in nickel markets thanks to its cheap coal power. Australia’s nickel industry instead foolishly sought to power its production through green energy. Already 1000 WA nickel jobs have been lost and many more are at risk.

Someone linked to the article yesterday as to why BHP was suspending nickle ops in WA. Two reasons given and one was a huge increase in costs of running the mines and Kalgoorlie smelter, which is basically referring to power costs. It means they have no hope of absorbing decreasing nickle prices.

This country is administered by complete fckwits who are disproportionately influenced by greens, the most disgusting form of politician on the planet.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
July 12, 2024 8:37 am

Shazzzzzza there’s another angle to the Booktopia demise, something to do with a change to their tax administration obligations v international fulfillment shippers like Amazon… I’ll have to find it later, off to work the noo

Vagabond
Vagabond
July 12, 2024 8:40 am

The editorial in this week’s Spectator confirms the comments from Cassie and others about Elbow’s new “Special envoy”:

The Albanese government this week appointed Jillian Segal AO as its Special Envoy to Combat anti-Semitism. That’s where the good news begins and that’s where it ends. Sadly, it is unlikely that Ms Segal will achieve a great deal in her new role, which has been compromised, probably fatally, from the start.
Were the first words uttered by Ms Segal at the Sydney Jewish Museum an acknowledgment of the huge surge in anti-Semitism on these shores from 9 October onwards being relentlessly fuelled by Islamists across Australia? Were her first words a condemnation of the large number of so-called prestigious universities that have happily allowed anti-Semitic protests on an almost daily basis for months on end? Were her first words to condemn the unctuous Vice-Chancellor of Sydney University for striking a deal with a group of pro-Palestinian protesters with alleged links to organisations like Hizb ut-Tahrir?
Were Ms Segal’s first words a stern rebuke to the Albanese government for fuelling ant-Semitism since the day it came to office with a series of policy and diplomatic actions that played into the hands of those whose fervent dream is the destruction of the Jewish state? Actions that included changing the designation of certain parts of Judea and Samaria (along with Gaza and the Golan Heights) from ‘disputed territories’ to ‘occupied territories’; reversing recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; voting against Israel in various UN resolutions; reinstating the funding of Unrwa despite clear evidence of that vile organisation’s role in teaching anti-Semitic tropes; and dressing down Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon, saying Australia would not support Israel if it retaliates to Hezbollah’s lethal aggression.
Were Ms Segal’s first words to castigate the Albanese government for its well-observed lack of moral leadership in responding firmly and in a principled fashion to the surge in anti-Semitism across Australian cities since 7 October?
Were Ms Segal’s first words to call for the immediate arrest and, if possible, deportation of any individual inciting hatred of Jews from the pulpits of Australian mosques? Or the immediate arrest and, if possible, deportation of those individuals who shouted ‘Gas the Jews!’ on the steps of the Sydney Opera House on 9 October? Or indeed, were her first word to admonish the New South Wales Police for attempting to downplay that event with their risible ‘It wasn’t “Gas the Jews!” it was “Where’s the Jews?”’ press conference.
No. Jillian Segal AO’s first words as Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat anti-Semitism were a virtue-signalling ‘acknowledgment of country’. Standing inside the Sydney Jewish Museum, a place sacred to the memory of six million Jews murdered in the greatest bout of anti-Semitism ever, Ms Segal was forced through convention or choice to pay lip service to an abstract concept honouring unknown individuals who died primarily of natural causes some two centuries ago somewhere within the vicinity of that building.
Worse, in doing so she gave succour to the very forces currently stoking the flames of anti-Semitism she is supposed to be suppressing. Let us be blunt. Aboriginal activism is not driven by the majority of Aborigines or part-Aborigines leading everyday Aussie lives, or even those living imperfect lives in remote communities; it has been largely driven since the 1970s by left-wing academics and neo-Marxist activists peddling their pernicious anti-colonialism myths. Inherent and indivisible from the concept of ‘acknowledgment of country’ and the even more objectionable ‘welcome to country’ is the notion, and acceptance of the notion, that non-Aboriginal people are at best guests in this country, at worst unwanted interlopers or invaders, with no sovereign rights. Unsurprisingly, and as we warned in these pages, those promoting the fake ‘First Nations’ extremist ideology are the same people promoting the pro-Palestinian cause and for the very same fraudulent reasons; the idea that the Arabs are the rightful owners of ‘Palestine’ and the Jews are the interlopers. Ms Segal cannot be ignorant of the close links between the anti-Semites of the pro-Palestinian cause and extreme First Nations activists. Indeed, the entwined flags of both causes have now become de riguer at the ‘rallies’ of either.
The sorry conclusion is that Ms Segal appears to put the conventions and platitudes of the progressive woke left ahead of the urgent need to do a ruthlessly single-minded job: to root out and punish anti-Semitism. Ms Segal will sadly be treading water if she is not prepared to publicly name and shame those bodies and individuals fomenting anti-Semitism.
On top of which, when further harassment and intimidation of Jews occurs, Labor will simply point to Ms Segal to absolve themselves of any responsibility.
No doubt to shore up the votes of those anti-Semites currently proliferating within Muslim and/or leftist enclaves, Mr Albanese also announced a ‘Special Envoy for Islamophobia’ will soon be appointed.
At that point, the press conference went from unsettling to grotesque. Regardless of the seriousness or otherwise of Islamophobia in other countries, it is not an issue anywhere near on a par with anti-Semitism in Australia. Anti-Semitism, or Jew hatred, is the hatred of individuals to the point where they deserve to die; an irrational hatred which led to the greatest ever crime against humanity, the Holocaust. ‘Islamophobia’, such as it exists as a genuine ‘phobia’, is best described (by Melanie Phillips) as ‘any criticism of Islam’. In other words, one is hatred and persecution of individuals because of their Jewishness, the other is fear of an authoritarian and ideological religion. Putting anti-Semitism on the same moral platform as Islamophobia gives the latter a significance it does not warrant and trivialises the former.
We wish Ms Segal every success in her new role. She’ll need it.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
July 12, 2024 8:42 am

Instead it makes much more sense for Australia to wake up to what is really happening in the world behave like a proper country again. To keep the thousands of good paying jobs we have here in Brisbane and the rest of the country make our own stuff, with our own stuff, under our own steam, we need to mine the resources that we have and that our customers want and use them to M.O.O.S.A.- Make Our Own Stuff Again.

Zatara
Zatara
July 12, 2024 8:53 am

Another Joe Biden Comedy show is supposed to be happening right now but the time keeps getting pushed back. He may have overslept his nap.

This is to be his first face to face press conference in perhaps 2 years and you can smell the desperation sweat from here.

132andBush
132andBush
July 12, 2024 8:56 am

Sleepy Joe just introduced Zelensky as Putin at the NATO summit.…ooh boy!

Lets face it, it could’ve been Cornpop, so given Putin is a real person things are probably looking up a bit for Joe.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 12, 2024 8:56 am

Female Royal Australian Navy engineer from Sydney is dux of nuclear training course in Britain in first AUKUS deploymentJacquelin Magnay
8 hours ago.
Updated 3 hours ago

65 comments
Sydney submariner Lieutenant Isabella is the first woman from the Royal Australian Navy to graduate under the billion dollar AUKUS program and has been seconded to the newest “hunter killer” British Astute class submarine.
Lieut. Isabella – no last names allowed for security purposes – is an engineer previously attached to a Collins class sub but has spent the past 18 months completing Royal Navy training courses including seven months in nuclear reactors at Gosport.
She emerged as dux of the Nuclear Reactor course, and was the only woman of 17, and one of three Australians to finish the challenging studies.
Lt-Cdr James, 33, was second behind Lieut. Isabella and will now join the HMS Agamemnon, which is nearing completion in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and will begin sea trials soon. The other Australian, weapons engineer Lieut. Steve finished in the top five, ensuring a lofty standard for other Australians beginning the annual intake to live up to.

Eventually many hundreds of Australian submariners will be similarly trained in preparation for the delivery of the AUKUS submarines in the 2040s.
On Tuesday Lieut. Isabella was appointed to her new boat, the HMS Anson at Faslane in Scotland where she will be part of the marine engineering department and with another ongoing qualification, will become a manoeuvring supervisor to run the watch and look after the sub’s reactor plant.
“So there is responsibility,’’ she told The Australian, adding “I am excited to be back on a boat, operating a plan to get a boat through maintenance. It’s definitely very different from being on a Collins boat, but I love it.” She noted, however, she was still adjusting to Scottish accents, and the rest of the crew, who have been highly welcoming, have laughed with her about getting lost on the 227m long boat.

Oh come on
Oh come on
July 12, 2024 9:04 am

I’m young Gen-X age and I have never expected to inherit a penny from any of my relatives. I probably will, but it has not factored into my long-term decision-making in the slightest – I presume I will have to earn or generate every dollar required for me and mine to live and thrive on an ongoing basis.

My oldies are well-superannuated and when they retired were probably worth a couple million, maybe less maybe more. They worked hard to get what they have. They’ve been retired almost 10 years now. They now travel and eat out a lot. They’ll probably have eaten into their nest egg, which is what it is there for. Good for them – I want them to go and enjoy their lives for as long as they can. And if this means they take their dying breaths spending their last dollar, I’m absolutely fine with that. It is what I want for them.

So I will preface the following with a statement of the obvious that there are many individual Boomers such as my oldies, who, collectively, make up a sizeable portion of the Boomer generation, and are the opposite of parasites.

However, as a generation, in the aggregate, Boomers have burnt through the wealth of their parents and are running up enormous debts that their grandchildren will spend most of their lives servicing. The Boomers have taken out far more than they paid in, and they have another decade or so before their generation passes and now they are living their most expensive years, so they aren’t done taking out yet. Not even close to being done.

It’s important to look at what the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are actually inheriting in the aggregate from this most self-indulgent of generations. When you do so, there is something deeply offensive about Boomers insouciantly and proudly yapping about how they are spending their children’s inheritance. It’s just gross. No generation before has carried on like this. And the next three or four generations at minimum will not be able to carry on like this because they’re saddled with Boomer debt.

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 9:08 am

Sadly, it is unlikely that Ms Segal will achieve a great deal in her new role…

A cynic would aver that she was never intended to.

The position exists merely so the Albanese government can say “We’re listening…” while doing little or nothing because no seats in parliament are at stake.

The Islamophobia envoy, however…

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 9:13 am

Jillian Segal AO’s first words as Australia’s Special Envoy to Combat anti-Semitism were a virtue-signalling ‘acknowledgment of country’. Standing inside the Sydney Jewish Museum, a place sacred to the memory of six million Jews murdered in the greatest bout of anti-Semitism ever, Ms Segal was forced through convention or choice to pay lip service to an abstract concept honouring unknown individuals who died primarily of natural causes some two centuries ago 

And with that one gesture she has delegated the plight of Jews, historically and particularly today, to below that of unsubstantiated aboriginal claims.

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 9:17 am

Jillian Segal AO

People like Segal remind me of Chaim Rumkowski.
She will be a useful tool for Sleazy and his comrades.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 9:19 am

Inherent and indivisible from the concept of ‘acknowledgment of country’ and the even more objectionable ‘welcome to country’ is the notion, and acceptance of the notion, that non-Aboriginal people are at best guests in this country, at worst unwanted interlopers or invaders, with no sovereign rights. 

And this is why the Voice failed, it made 60% of us feel as second class citizen. Our elites are so removed from us and it seems any fellow feeling that they couldn’t imagine how their proposal would be viewed by the majority, how it would be perceived as insulting and hurtful.

Vicki
Vicki
July 12, 2024 9:21 am

Well, I have only heard a cursory version on TV of this – because we are concurrently watching the Biden fiasco – but – wait for this-

Australian Federal Police & ASIO have revealed that the new Espionage legislation is being brought into force (so to speak!) as a woman who is Russian national has been arrested for attempting to reveal national data to Russia. But the details!!! She is a Russian born national who emigrated to Oz in 2015 and a couple of years later got a job in the ADF in a security department!! Was there no security check ??????

We are dumb creatures. Burgess seems to be relishing the fact that they discovered it!!! Crikey!! It should not have been that easy for national security to be compromised!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 12, 2024 9:22 am

Comment, from the Oz. Go, the Netherlands!

Judy

2 hours ago
Its time for the electorate to have a say about immigration policies. Our leadership has not been getting this right. One need only evidence the problems being encountered in Europe in respect of migration. We are following Europe’s problems. The Netherlands’ new coalition govt has adopted new measures that Australia should consider eg 1.The indefinite asylum permit will be abolished, and requirements for the temporary residence permit will be tightened. 2.Asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected are to be deported as often as possible, including through forced measures. 3. Automatic family reunification will no longer be possible and 4. eThere will be an xtension of the standard naturalisation period to 10 years, regardless of the type of residence permit;

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 9:25 am

Ms Segal will sadly be treading water if she is not prepared to publicly name and shame those bodies and individuals fomenting anti-Semitism.

On top of which, when further harassment and intimidation of Jews occurs, Labor will simply point to Ms Segal to absolve themselves of any responsibility.

I wonder if Segal is aware that she has been selected by Albo to be his fall-guy (fall-girl, fall-person?) and how long will she be able to resist questions from all sides?

Zatara
Zatara
July 12, 2024 9:25 am

It’s now over an hour past the time Biden was originally scheduled to appear at the potemkin press conference. Carried on 3-4 major US networks no less and who knows how many international ones.

But no Joe.

Dems are now seriously sweating bullets imagining Kamala as their candidate. Ah the joys of having to eat your DEI political gestures.

cohenite
July 12, 2024 9:26 am

Re: Tom’s toons; some great ones about the old pervert and the demorat’s dilemma; perhaps the best:

374660_image.jpg (720×544) (creators.com)

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 9:26 am

From The Oz…
US President Joe Biden mistakenly introduced Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky as his Russian foe Vladimir Putin at a NATO summit in a blunder just moments before his first press conference in eight months that could decide the fate of his reelection bid.

It’s akin to watching a train wreck in slow motion, after four years of gaslighting, lies, deceit, deception, dishonesty, disinformation, distortion, falsehoods and fibs, the wheels are falling off.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
July 12, 2024 9:26 am

Yarragrad is at it again.

Melbourne’s Yarra City Council demands residents switch to plant-based diets to stop climate change (11 Jul, via Tony Heller)

A city council has pushed its residents to become vegetarian as part of its plan to bring its suburbs back from ‘the precipice of climate and ecological collapse’.

Melbourne’s Yarra City Council, responsible for big inner-city suburbs such as Richmond, Collingwood and Fitzroy, unanimously voted to pass its 81-page Climate Emergency Plan on Tuesday night. …

‘For Council, consideration of the climate emergency must be embedded into all decision making, so our assets, services, operations, and policies actively reduce emissions,’ it stated. … The plan also shared the council’s commitment ‘to its formal relationship with the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung’ – the local Indigenous people – by ’embedding Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung knowledge and practices in the ways that we care for Country’.

To move forward we need to look backwards. Around the country, Traditional Owner knowledge and practices are being adopted to inform and improve land management and promote sustainability … 

Arse first into the new green age! Anyone want to mention to them that the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung weren’t vegetarians and burned down Gaia’s holy forests regularly?

Oh come on
Oh come on
July 12, 2024 9:28 am

I thought Biden introduced President Putin.

Vicki
Vicki
July 12, 2024 9:30 am

It’s important to look at what the children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are actually inheriting in the aggregate from this most self-indulgent of generations. When you do so, there is something deeply offensive about Boomers insouciantly and proudly yapping about how they are spending their children’s inheritance. 

Yesterday I outlined how my husband and I are bequeathing a sizable estate to my estate to my daughter and grandchildren. I realise not all boomers will be able to do this – but I caution the above poster about his assumptions. Just about all our friends are likewise leaving considerable to their offspring. They have not inherited this wealth themselves, but have worked hard and sacrificed much in its acquisition.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 12, 2024 9:30 am
Zippster
Zippster
July 12, 2024 9:31 am
Zatara
Zatara
July 12, 2024 9:33 am

Almost 4 years in office and the moron still thinks Ukraine is in NATO.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 12, 2024 9:34 am

Apparently Biden is so sharp and on top of his game that he was able to pick up and correct his calling Zelenskyy ’President Putin’ all by himself. No prompting.

NATO has never been in better hands.

Eat dirt, Orange Man.

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 9:35 am

The drugs appear to be working this time.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 9:37 am

She is a Russian born national who emigrated to Oz in 2015 and a couple of years later got a job in the ADF in a security department!! Was there no security check ?????? 

We are dumb creatures. Burgess seems to be relishing the fact that they discovered it!!! Crikey!! It should not have been that easy for national security to be compromised!

Obviously she did not attend any pro-Kelly-Jay Keen rallies so she must be dinky-di. ASIO are so good at demonstrating how their Keystone Kops skills are keeping us safe.

Oh come on
Oh come on
July 12, 2024 9:37 am

Two Russian-born Australian citizens have been accused of obtaining Australian Defence Force material to share with Russian authorities.

Australian Federal Police arrested a 40-year-old woman, who is an ADF army private, and a 62-year-old man at their home in Brisbane in Everton Park yesterday morning.

The married couple have been charged with one count each of preparing for an espionage offence, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years’ imprisonment.

It is the first time an espionage offence has been laid since foreign interference laws were introduced in 2018.

The pair are due to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court today, where police will allege the woman undertook undeclared travel to Russia while on long-term leave from the ADF, where she allegedly instructed her husband on how to log into her work account and access material to send to her.

In terms of access to sensitive state information, these two don’t exactly sound like the Petrovs. What kind of intelligence is a 40yo Army private on long term leave going to have access to?

There has got to be more to this story. A lot more. If there isn’t, this sounds like a lame Australian attempt to ape the Yanks in their anti-Russia hysteria.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
July 12, 2024 9:38 am

Hahaha -Dementia just referred to Vice President Harris as vice President Trump.

O, lordy me!

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 12, 2024 9:40 am

The US president says that to those who thought that Nato’s time had passed, Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was a “rude awakening” and resulted in “some of the oldest and deepest fears in Europe” roaring back to life.

“Once again, a murderous madman was on the march,” Biden said.

Biden notes that his predecessor, Donald Trump, “made it clear he has no commitment to Nato” and that he has “already told Putin ‘do whatever the hell you want’.”

So, not a wartime President.
Like Dependable Joe.

Oh come on
Oh come on
July 12, 2024 9:40 am

Yesterday I outlined how my husband and I are bequeathing a sizable estate to my estate to my daughter and grandchildren. I realise not all boomers will be able to do this – but I caution the above poster about his assumptions. Just about all our friends are likewise leaving considerable to their offspring. They have not inherited this wealth themselves, but have worked hard and sacrificed much in its acquisition.

Did you not read the first half of my post? Do you not understand what ‘aggregate’ means?

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 12, 2024 9:40 am

However, as a generation, in the aggregate, Boomers have burnt through the wealth of their parents and are running up enormous debts that their grandchildren will spend most of their lives servicing. The Boomers have taken out far more than they paid in

Any actual statistics to support this?
“Boomers burnt through the wealth of their parents”.
You do realise that the parents of Boomers were of the Depression/WW2 era, right? Most had bugger all wealth for anyone to burn through.
What debts are they running up?
Any numbers supporting that?
As for “taking out”, of course they are. Most are retired and consuming their savings. So fkn what?

Last edited 4 months ago by Sancho Panzer
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 12, 2024 9:43 am

Biden is now taking questions from reporters.

He is asked if he has concerns about vice-president Kamala Harris’ ability to beat Donald Trump if she were at the top of the ticket.

Biden says he “wouldn’t have picked vice-president Trump to be vice-president if I didn’t think she was not qualified to be president.”

Apparently he didn’t pick up this misstatement himself.

So a 50% batting average.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
July 12, 2024 9:46 am

Trump is the Vice President.
Real time freak show.

cohenite
July 12, 2024 9:49 am

The old pervert just referred to vice president Trump.

Biden is like a giant, decomposed, desicated vulture around the scrawny neck of the demorats.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 9:49 am

Biden is sneering at Trump for playing golf while he does many events where as many as a thousand people show up. He will have to do a lot more of them to equal a Trump event where a hundred thousand people show up.

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 9:50 am

What kind of intelligence is a 40yo Army private on long term leave going to have access to?

If they’re working in a sensitive area, you might be surprised.

Bradley Manning was a private.

amortiser
amortiser
July 12, 2024 9:50 am

Biden picked up a piece of paper and said it was a list of reporters to call on for questions lol

This is all scripted.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 9:51 am

Biden shouldn’t smile, it becomes an evil, lop-sided grin. Scary stuff.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 9:52 am

So Macron is happy to have Biden as president of the US? I bet he is, it makes him look so much better in comparison to Biden.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 9:56 am

Ooh, the Europeans don’t want Trump. But of course, they will have to pull their weight again.

What’s even worse, according to Biden, Europeans think Trump is authoritarian. That’s rich coming from people who are persecuting their political opponents (Biden, Macron, UK) and about to ban a whole opposition party (Germany).

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 9:58 am

America doesn’t need Saturday Night Live, it has Joe Biden Live.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 12, 2024 10:00 am

Mr President; is it fair that everybody wants to know exactly how great are you?

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 10:01 am

It would be a good idea if Biden referred to the CCP leader as President Xi rather than just She. I can see so many memes that could be made out of this.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
July 12, 2024 10:02 am

Biden is sneering at Trump for playing golf

Obama must be wincing at this.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 10:04 am

I don’t see much difference between the ill-fated debate and this press conference. Less anger but I suppose he is keeping that to close the show.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 12, 2024 10:05 am

Biden is asked if he is reconsidering lifting the restrictions placed on Ukraine on the use of American weapons in targets in Russian territory.

He says he is following the advice “of my commander in chief, my chiefs of staff of the military as well as our secretary of defense and our intelligence people” to determine what is a “logical thing to do” on a day to day basis.

Who is his “commander in chief”?

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 10:07 am

Biden doesn’t have a good reason to talk to Putin right now? So he thinks he is better than Kennedy and every other US president during the latter Soviet era.

He also doesn’t think Putin has an upper hand? So why isn’t Ukraine winning then?

Yet mid sentence he changes tack and says he will talk to Putin should he ring. Yep, Big Boy response for the whole world to see.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 10:11 am

Oh my God, he just said he has been dealing with Israel during and since Golda Mier’s time. As what? Where? Are there any pictures? Is this another one of his “memories”?

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 10:19 am

There you go, Biden is saving democracy from the Supreme Court and Trump.

Pogria
Pogria
July 12, 2024 10:21 am

The meds are wearing off. haw.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
July 12, 2024 10:21 am

If you don’t play ball as the US media then access is denied. Ratings and careers are beholden to Being There.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 10:25 am

We are now at the point where Biden does his sinister whisper. This is a a confirmation that what you have just heard is a lie. It’s just creepy. Now followed by a whole heap of lies being spewed out.

Apparently he is doing really well in the polls. And there he goes again with the stage whispers.

Last edited 4 months ago by Crossie
Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 10:26 am

Geez, Putin and Xi must be having a good laugh today.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
July 12, 2024 10:27 am

Steve Inman:

Just some of the many reasons why I love animals.
https://rumble.com/v56bjc1-just-some-of-the-many-reasons-why-i-love-animals..html

Black Ball
Black Ball
July 12, 2024 10:30 am

Up yours peasants, I have a, er, signature project to build! Herald Sun:

The debt-ridden Allan government has hit the brakes on maintaining Victoria’s crumbling road network with new data showing road resurfacing works have dropped to their lowest levels in more than five years.

With hundreds of regional and metropolitan roads added to the state’s ballooning “roads in poor condition register” and subjected to restrictions because of their poor state, the government last year spent just $37.6m on resurfacing the road network.

It compared to $201.4m the previous year – 435 per cent more than current levels.

Data released to the parliament’s Public Accounts and Estimates Committee showed spending across metropolitan Melbourne has plummeted in recent years, from an average of $82m between 2018 and 2022 to $33m in recent years.

The significant drop in funding comes as the government works to rein in debt with latest forecasts projecting net debt to hit a staggering $188bn by 2027-28.

The government has been accused of stripping funding from its core responsibilities including health amid demands that the state’s hospitals significantly reduce their operating costs.

Concerns about road surface issues have been longstanding and last financial year contributed to at least 1158 claims received by the Department of Transport and Planning for property damage.

It can also be revealed the savage funding cuts came despite direct lobbying to government calling for a commitment to road resurfacing in July last year.

Correspondence sent to Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Melissa Horne, seen by the Herald Sun, warned that “if we don’t continue to reseal our surfaced road network accommodate the service life of the bitumen our road network begins to decline at an accelerating rate.”

“A declining road network rapidly results in the formation of potholes due to a lack of waterproofing leading to more expense base pavement repairs and reconstruction,” it said.

“Our rural main road and highway network has quickly become one that resembles a patchwork quilt with short-term quick fixes becoming the norm.”

As at March 480 regional roads were currently subjected to speed limit reductions or driver warnings due to their poor state.

They include large stretches of road at Bullangarook, in central Victoria, and in Longford, in eastern Victoria, which have been reduced from 100km to 60kmh.

A further 61 metropolitan sites were also under restricted use, totalling almost 840km of the total road network.

Shadow Minister for Roads and Road Safety, Danny O’Brien, said the latest data showed why a government survey had revealed 91 per cent of roads were in poor or very poor condition.

“What’s worse is that this dramatic reduction in road resurfacing and resealing work will lead to worse roads in the coming years,” he said.

“Resealing protects the road network against water penetration that causes potholes and damaged roads.

“By not doing this essential preventive maintenance, Jacinta Allan and Melissa Horne are creating a maintenance time bomb that will explode on Victorians in coming years.”

RACV’s Head of Policy, James Williams, called on both the federal and the Victorian state governments to invest in regional road maintenance and upgrades, with safety as a priority.

“RACV knows the impact that safe roads can have on preventing and minimising car crashes,” he said.

“The Victorian state government collects information relating to the quality of Victoria’s roads, which includes road damage and AusRAP star safety ratings.

“However, more transparency is required on the quality of roads and where road funding is allocated, and RACV supports the Australia Automobile Association in calling on government to publicly release this data.”

A government spokesman blamed “repeated flooding and above-average rainfall” for causing unprecedented damage to the road network.

“We needed to pause resurfacing and focus on rebuilding and strengthening damaged roads, now this work is complete resurfacing levels will significantly increase during the upcoming maintenance season,” she said.

Comes with a couple of pics one of the Birchip-Rainbow road and the other down near Longford. I’m sure Farmer Gez has been on it. Rural Africans would laugh at the quality, or lack thereof.
So you can get pinged for using the mobile when you are stationary, where does the fine go? Or when you are 5km/h over the speed limit? Certainly not to our roads. It’s a disgrace.
How many deaths can be attributed to the road quality?

Black Ball
Black Ball
July 12, 2024 10:32 am

Birchip-Rainbow road

3ae2461f8968ecb2d043279d007a9f15
Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 10:32 am

What did I get out of Biden’s press conference? He loves European leaders and hates Israel. He also thinks that even so he is more popular in Israel than in the US. This level of delusion is scary.

Black Ball
Black Ball
July 12, 2024 10:33 am

Longford

52b2b8ed57f207774e0ea6f4cf0c1303
Black Ball
Black Ball
July 12, 2024 10:50 am

Reading the commentary here, Biden must have one hell of a cold eh monty?

Zatara
Zatara
July 12, 2024 10:57 am

Well, the propaganda machine is definitely in a tizzy after the Biden potemkin presser.

If they stayed in character and tossed him softballs all night he would remain the Dem candidate for president, and lose. If they did their jobs and eviscerated him then he would drop out, and the Dems would still lose.

What is a party propaganda hack to do?

With a heck of a lot of help Biden probably did well enough tonight to stay alive, and handed the party a massive headache.

Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 11:00 am

Having stolen the 2020 election and installed Joe Biden ass their puppet, the Obama people running the White House like to think of themselves as the smartest people in the room.

But all their ventriloquism can’t save them now as Biden’s dementia accelerates with the whole world looking on.

We are truly witnessing scenes we never thought we’d see.

Rosie
Rosie
July 12, 2024 11:00 am

A few side streets around mine, including no through roads have been resurfaces recently, why were they prioritised over country roads.
Nice little earners for all those traffic control companies too.

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 11:11 am

With a heck of a lot of help Biden probably did well enough tonight to stay alive, and handed the party a massive headache.

I agree.

eric hinton
eric hinton
July 12, 2024 11:12 am

Fancy that. Aggregate and gregarious share a common root

Tom
Tom
July 12, 2024 11:14 am

Swimming in debt, the Victorian state Labor government will be comfortably re-elected in November 2026 because the LNP opposition has bought the Kool Aid that the fastest way back to power is to imagine you are the leftwing rabble currently in charge.

Sir Henry Bolte is turning in his grave.

Rosie
Rosie
July 12, 2024 11:17 am

“I don’t buy books online anymore unless free/reasonable post”
Does this imply that booksellers can somehow wangle auspost or other services to give them ‘free’ post?
Afaik internationals still have a ridiculous advantage over domestic thanks to the Universal Postal Unions’s outmoded model which forces Australian domestic Postal service users to subsidise international services.
Domestic parcel post rates went up again on 1 July, $10.95 for under 500g, business customers can get a bit better, depending on the distance, but free post is a fiction.

Rosie
Rosie
July 12, 2024 11:24 am

And of course a woe is me writer’s article at the ABC.
The marker for wanky Australian ‘literary’ fiction has always been vanishingly small.
At least Liane Moriarty writes books that ordinary people want to read.
Same with the bestselling books on the stand at the airport and in Big W etc.
Most people aren’t going to risk spending $30 on a trade paperback by some unknown.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-12/what-booktopia-collapse-says-about-australian-publishing/104087636

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 11:31 am

I know booksellers that offer free postage for orders over $99.

These days, that can be just two hardbacks.

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 11:32 am

The marker for wanky Australian ‘literary’ fiction has always been vanishingly small.

That’s why the Arts Council grants are so generous.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 12, 2024 11:34 am

After Biden shuffles away from the Presser of Soft Balls, Democrats are ecstatic that Joe Is Baack, Baby:

David Axelrod, (Obama’s election strategist):

If what he said at the end of his presser is true, it sounds like Biden’s team has not been very candid with him about what the data is showing: the age issue is a huge and potentially insurmountable concern and his odds of victory are very, very slim.

Jim Himes (D) House Intelligence Cttee:

Joe Biden’s record of public service is unrivaled. His accomplishments are immense. His legacy as a great president is secure.

He must not risk that legacy, those accomplishments and American democracy to soldier on in the face of the horrors promised by Donald Trump.

Translation: No really, we didn’t far cup picking this dude in 2019. But not again, Shirley…

Somewhere in Beijing, Eternal Golden Emperor Xi smiles.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
July 12, 2024 11:35 am

With a heck of a lot of help Biden probably did well enough tonight to stay alive, and handed the party a massive headache.

Particularly if the entirely hypothetical files exist.

Unless there’s a very large Sword of Damocles hanging by a thread over the Dem grandees it is hard to explain why they don’t just primary him out asap.

They are trying to soft-soap persuade him to stand down, using every handle they can think of, from Rob Reiner to the NYT to George Clooney. Nothing is working.

Maybe Jill is playing “mutually assured destruction”. Buy popcorn.

Rosie
Rosie
July 12, 2024 11:35 am

“Boomers have burnt through the wealth of their parents and are running up enormous debts that their grandchildren will spend most of their lives servicing”
What?
You mean health services, age pensions, aged care or something else?
Ndis now accounts for 18.9% of federal government expenditure, there’s your running up enormous debts.

Frank
Frank
July 12, 2024 11:39 am

In terms of the Turnball legacy, the twisty mercury filled lightbulb was not bad. Much loved by everyone, enough to make you want to crush them up and post the dust back to him, en masse.

Rosie
Rosie
July 12, 2024 11:41 am

I think when people realise how small the print runs for Australian published books are they should not be surprised how expensive locally printed books are in comparison to say the US.

And yes Australian literary fiction is propped up by grants, writers in residence, library royalties, awards and other props that encourage mediocrity.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
July 12, 2024 11:42 am

8.31am

WA campaigners block access to Woodside’s Burrup Hub siteA West Australian school student and a teacher have blocked the only entry to Woodside’s Burrup Hub this morning, by chaining themselves to concrete barrels inside an SUV and boat parked across the road.
Police were called to the scene around 4am, where 17-year-old Emma and Petrina Harley, who has previously blockaded Burrup Road, were blocking the entry to the mining giant’s biggest site.

Emma said she was taking part because the project was “destroying” her future.
“The government is currently considering plans to extend the Burrup Hub out until 2070 and approve Browse, the largest gas field in Australia,” she said.
“Our systems are responsible for climate destruction and ecological collapse, and direct action is the only way to adequately respond to the crisis we are facing.”
Harley said their action was “a safe, sensible, proportionate response to an emergency unfolding at Woodside’s Burrup Hub.”
Pilbara police have said the road was not blocked fully, and they were directing traffic around the protestors throughout the morning. It is unclear whether any charges have been laid.

Don’t West Aussie coppers have teargas and truncheons any more?

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 11:43 am

The immigration minister, Andrew Giles, had released one murderer and one person convicted of “attempt or solicit murder” into community detention even before the high court ruled that indefinite immigration detention was unlawful.

The 25 people released into community detention before the NZYQ decision included: three people convicted of offences in the category “domestic violence, stalking or breach of domestic violence order”; six people convicted of offences in the category “intentional or reckless injury or assault occasioning actual bodily harm”; and three convicted of “armed robbery, aggravated burglary, robbery or burglary”.

The Guardian

Giles has to go.

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 11:50 am

I am saddened by Booktopia’s demise. I started using Booktopia during lockdown. I liked them.

Hear this, I will never buy from Amazon.

I will go back to buying from Dymocks, Abbeys and the bookshop in Melbourne Andrew Bolt recommends…..Robinsons bookshop.

I had some orders with Booktopia that remain undelivered. I suppose I will now be out of pocket.

Roger
Roger
July 12, 2024 11:59 am

I am saddened by Booktopia’s demise. I started using Booktopia during lockdown. 

I understand that during lockdown Booktopia was selling more books in Australia than Amazon and they reinvested the profits in the company. They employed nearly 300 hundred people, 100 of whom had already been retrenched as a cost saving measure as the company’s fortunes turned.

Last edited 4 months ago by Roger
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 12, 2024 12:02 pm

Amidst the reminiscing about the national glory that was Turnbull, we have all overlooked an early indicator of his great greatness: UteGate and Godwin Grech.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
July 12, 2024 12:03 pm

Apropos of nothing, I will mention that the studio that produced Sound of Freedom might have another winner in the form of Sound of Hope: The Story of Possum Trot about how a Texas church managed to find adopted homes for 77 problem children.

The audience reviews show most of the scores are 9/10 or 10/10, with maybe two 8/10. That is a self-selected sample and would be of those people invested in the topic.

The IMDB score is 7.5 and is likely meant to reflect what the ‘wider community’ would think, which would be calculated according to some convolute formula incorporating metrics like audience reaction, professional reviewers reaction, production value, plot, etc. and reducing all those things into a single number really suggests the number is not too useful. All that work and at best you might, might, make sense of it as “1 is shit, 10 perfect, 5 OK, and 7.5 pretty good.”

That is why I always look to the audience reviews first.

Cassie of Sydney
July 12, 2024 12:08 pm

By the way, when I ordered books through Booktopia, I had no problem paying the postage fees.

Crossie
Crossie
July 12, 2024 12:11 pm

“By not doing this essential preventive maintenance, Jacinta Allan and Melissa Horne are creating a maintenance time bomb that will explode on Victorians in coming years.”

RACV’s Head of Policy, James Williams, called on both the federal and the Victorian state governments to invest in regional road maintenance and upgrades, with safety as a priority.

What a surprise? Now that they have squandered all their funds Victorian govenment want federal assistance. What they really mean is that they want other states to now pick up the tab. I object on the principle that since I don’t have any voting rights in Victoria they can’t have my money.

Miltonf
Miltonf
July 12, 2024 12:23 pm

Melissa Horne is the daughter of an alp pollimuppet from Newcastle. Said pollimuppet was a teacha. The political class. What absolute mediocre trash.

johanna
johanna
July 12, 2024 12:37 pm

The marker for wanky Australian ‘literary’ fiction has always been vanishingly small.

Indeed, and without taxpayer funded grants, it would never have been published at all.

I’m a voracious reader, have been all of my literate life. ‘Literary fiction’ (aka my personal neuroses/experiences presented as though they are interesting to anyone but my analyst) rarely makes it to the reading list.

Thing is, good literary fiction is very. very difficult to achieve. Doris Lessing, William Faulkner, that Ford chap from America – a few others. The rest of it is self-indulgent crap, unreadable and unsellable.

Miltonf
Miltonf
July 12, 2024 12:44 pm

Remember Kelly Hoare? Another pollimuppet dynasty from Newcastle

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
July 12, 2024 12:47 pm

The usual urban fools tearing their clothes over 60 odd kangaroos shot near Bendigo. The other 6 million should cover the loss in an hour or so.
A farmer from Pigeon Ponds in the Western District on radio doing his nut over the roos breeding up in pine plantations and then invading his property to eat out the little stock feed he has this year.
“Oh let’s dig tunnels in Melbourne” says our lady Premier.

132andBush
132andBush
July 12, 2024 12:49 pm

What a surprise? Now that they have squandered all their funds Victorian govenment want federal assistance. What they really mean is that they want other states to now pick up the tab. I object on the principle that since I don’t have any voting rights in Victoria they can’t have my money.

Officially making Victoria Australia’s third mendicant state.

Pogria
Pogria
July 12, 2024 1:07 pm

Here’s some fun for Cats and Kittehs.
The first recorded example of the “hold my beer”, meme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Xtobk09VQ&t=1s

132andBush
132andBush
July 12, 2024 1:10 pm

A government spokesman blamed “repeated flooding and above-average rainfall” for causing unprecedented damage to the road network.

What?!
The same government spokesman (good grief!!) who would have been busily telling us a few years ago that we can expect less rain and floods or even semi permanent drought. And therefor we need windmills and solar farms.
That government?!

Rosie:

A few side streets around mine, including no through roads have been resurfaces recently, why were they prioritised over country roads.

Nice little earners for all those traffic control companies too.

Indeed.

It’s my contention that road condition decline can in part be traced back to the proliferation of “traffic control”. That is to say the total spend on roads has been pretty constant but less goes into building the actual road, so things like sub-grade compaction/depth and pavement thickness are sacrificed.

A lot of this could be by-passed in rural areas by simply closing a stretch of road completely and giving the earthmovers free reign to get the job done as quickly as possible. Efficiency gains would be enormous.

132andBush
132andBush
July 12, 2024 1:12 pm

Sorry,
Unquote fail ^

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
July 12, 2024 1:19 pm

Christians who say killing babies is wrong are terrorists.

Outrageous: Biden’s Defense Department Labels Pro-Life Organizations as “Terrorist Organizations” During Anti-Terrorism Briefing (11 Jul)

The Biden regime’s Defense Department has taken an unprecedented step by categorizing pro-life organizations as “terrorist organizations” during an anti-terrorism briefing held at Fort Liberty’s Directorate of Emergency Services, formerly known as Fort Bragg, on Wednesday. This deeply concerning slide from an anti-terrorism brief was first exposed by citizen journalist Sam Shoemate, or @samour, on X.

Maybe they should read and consider Isaiah 5:20.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
July 12, 2024 1:21 pm

If Sicktoria was a council they’d be under administration.

johanna
johanna
July 12, 2024 1:21 pm

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-12/culturl-fishing-native-title-defence-court-rules-onus-to-prove/104071494

The onus of proof for ‘native title rights’ has just been reversed in NSW:

The burden of proof has been reversed in a long-running legal battle between First Nations people and the NSW government over cultural fishing rights. 
The New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal (CCA) ruled on Monday that the legal burden of proof should be on the prosecuting authority to negate the applicant’s claim to native title, in a stated case judgement.
Native title barrister John Waters SC said the state’s CCA was the highest court to have considered the matter and said it set a “compelling legal precedent”.
“That’s something of a breakthrough, and an important and practical one,” he said.
Since the Commonwealth Native Title Act was passed 30 years ago, native title holders have been exempt from state laws that restrict their ability to exercise their traditional rights to hunt, fish, and gather.
But Mr Waters said the onus had always been on native title holders to prove their connection to country during legal proceedings.

What a joke, Aborigines claiming traditional rights have been taking lots of abalone on the NSW coast for years and selling them on. A couple of cases have come to court, wet lettuce leaf territory.

Now, it seems that even the judiciary are cowed: if only we could bring back Roddy Meagher from the dead.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
July 12, 2024 1:34 pm

On Lieutenant Isabella, dux of the RN nuclear propulsion course.

Firstly, nuclear engineering is next level on many fronts, so she will be both super smart, tough, and practical. Brilliant result.

Secondly, hopefully, she has no relatives, or extended family in China. Because the Ministry of State Security will be working overtime on her bio.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
July 12, 2024 1:38 pm
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 12, 2024 1:39 pm

Farmer Gez
 July 12, 2024 10:21 am

If you don’t play ball as the US media then access is denied. Ratings and careers are beholden to Being There.

I see what you did there.
Being There.
Crossed my mind the other day.
Mr Gardener was far more capable than this dribbling moron, though.

Anders
Anders
July 12, 2024 1:41 pm

Biden notes that his predecessor, Donald Trump, “made it clear he has no commitment to Nato” and that he has “already told Putin ‘do whatever the hell you want’.”

Lol, and the left called Trump a liar after the debates. Trump as President wanted Europe to contribute more to NATO and contribute more to their own defence instead of mooching off the US. If they’d done that Europe would be in a much better position to assist Ukraine.

Arky
July 12, 2024 1:44 pm

Biden admits the US has fallen behind in the ability to produce new weapon systems.
Admits needs industrial base in order to catch up.
A long way from:
”Listen man, the Chinese are no match for us. We’re the USA, man”.
Great. Now can we ditch the net zero crap, the turning education systems into ideological workshops and the massive regulatory and welfare burdens on productivity?

Bruce in WA
July 12, 2024 1:50 pm

Joseph, Joe, Joey, bubula, maaaate … we don’t need you to prove yourself anymore, man!

From Biden’s latest presser:

Biden yells about guns

The President has fired up with a sudden outburst about gun control.

“More children are killed by a bullet than any other cause of death!” he yelled.

“The United States of America! What the hell are we doing? What are we doing?”

Pretty terrible, I agree. Lets just go to the referee:

The leading cause of death for children in the USA is unintentional injuries, often referred to as accidents. This category includes motor vehicle crashes, drowning, falls, poisoning, and other preventable incidents. Motor vehicle accidents are particularly significant within this category. (ChatGPT)

Well, then. How about being a bit more definite?

As of the latest data, the top 10 causes of death in children in the USA typically include:

Unintentional injuries: Includes motor vehicle accidents, drowning, falls, poisoning, and burns.

Congenital anomalies (birth defects): Structural or functional abnormalities present at birth.

Homicide: Death caused by intentional harm from another person.

Cancer: Various types of cancer, with leukemia being particularly common in children.

Suicide: Self-inflicted harm leading to death.

Heart disease: Includes congenital heart defects and other heart conditions.

Chronic lower respiratory diseases: Conditions such as asthma and chronic bronchitis.

Influenza and pneumonia: Severe respiratory infections.

Cerebrovascular diseases: Includes stroke and other conditions affecting blood flow to the brain.

Septicemia: Severe infection leading to systemic inflammation and organ failure.

(Chat GPT)

And not one person queried his statement.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 12, 2024 2:09 pm

Rosie
 July 12, 2024 11:35 am

“Boomers have burnt through the wealth of their parents and are running up enormous debts that their grandchildren will spend most of their lives servicing”

What?

You mean health services, age pensions, aged care or something else?

Ndis now accounts for 18.9% of federal government expenditure, there’s your running up enormous debts.

Let’s not forget child care … sorry, “early childhood education”.
If we look at where the big chunks of Federal government spend are going, and which are growing exponentially Boomers are not the Great Debt Accumulaters.
At a Victorian state level Boomers are being taxed to fund a grandiose rail project most will never live to ride on.
I think we just had an outbreak of fact-free boomer bashing, that’s all.

Arky
July 12, 2024 2:16 pm

If we look at where the big chunks of Federal government spend are going, and which are growing exponentially Boomers are not the Great Debt Accumulaters.

Horseshit.

https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview201920/SocialSecurityWelfare

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
July 12, 2024 2:17 pm

Dr Faustus
 July 12, 2024 12:02 pm

Amidst the reminiscing about the national glory that was Turnbull, we have all overlooked an early indicator of his great greatness: UteGate and Godwin Grech.

This is why I love this place.
Long forgotten f-ck ups floating to the surface like turds in a swimming pool.
My memory of that one is the feeling that Trumble may well have had Goose Swanstein on toast, but he couldn’t resist the overreach of trying to loop Rudd into it with the resultant face-full of free range organic eggs for Maocolm.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
July 12, 2024 2:22 pm

Biden yells about guns

The President has fired up with a sudden outburst about gun control.

“More children are killed by a bullet than any other cause of death!” he yelled.

Would this be the same Biden that insists Trump told so many lies in the debate?

In that interview with the lamentable Stephanopoulos he said Trump told “28 lies”.

That, of course, was a lie.

Last edited 4 months ago by Mother Lode
Arky
July 12, 2024 2:26 pm

Horseshit.

Having said that, the NDIS is an ocean of rorts.

H B Bear
H B Bear
July 12, 2024 2:56 pm
Beertruk
July 12, 2024 2:58 pm

Senator Malcom Roberts kicks Senator Gallagher’s arse until her nose bleeds on the newly appointed GG and the obscene pay rise:

Part Transcript:

8:16 General Hurley was paid $495,000

8:19 General Hurley is in receipt of

8:24 a military pension as a result of his

8:26 lifetime of military service Sam moson

8:26 is not entitled to a military pension

8:28 for her lifetime of service to the

8:30 culture wars

Linky:

Government Miscalculates Governor General’s Salary

Truly eyewatering pay increase and pension for every year of her life after the end of her 5 year term compared to all the other previous Governor Generals.

Last edited 4 months ago by Beertruk
Mother Lode
Mother Lode
July 12, 2024 3:15 pm

In terms of the Turnball legacy, the twisty mercury filled lightbulb was not bad. Much loved by everyone, enough to make you want to crush them up and post the dust back to him, en masse.

Not the dust. The contents.

Narcissists are often styled as fickle, volatile, and unpredictable, but I should love to make him mercurial.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
July 12, 2024 3:19 pm

Our letter in support of peace negotiations in Ukraine was published in the Financial Times today. 

Good luck with that elite wonk peoples.

The negotiations are:

Ukraine to Russia: leave.
Russia to Ukraine: surrender.

There’s been no move in these relative positions since Feb 2022.

And the battlefield is stalemated.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
July 12, 2024 3:20 pm

The skippy spy catchers have nabbed Boris and Natasha.
A not so subtle agent of Sino influence recently had his photo taken in Canberra with his celestial besties.
Mao Tse Dan remains at large.

Arky
July 12, 2024 3:24 pm

Washington should start talks with Moscow on a new security pact which would safeguard the legitimate security interests of both Ukraine and Russia. 

That’s silly or dishonest.
There is no indication anywhere, that anyone can show, that Putin’s Russia wants a pact that gives Ukraine security. On the contrary, Putin’s invasion and everything he has said subsequently shows he wants to dismember the Ukraine and ensure any future government of Ukraine is actively pro – Russian.

JC
JC
July 12, 2024 3:55 pm

Jeez Louisa.

@MiraSorvino

I used to be so grateful having been born female in this country at the time I was-feeling it was the best time/place to be a woman in history, despite ongoing inequality & vulnerability. Now that advantage is eroding-seeing men discussing taking away our right to vote, & other fundamental rights

A victim replies

Slayer of Memes reposted

@ReadeAlexandra

You know I exist and that Biden raped me.I was a young staffer @MiraSorvino when Joe Biden sexually assaulted me. I tried to come forward, and elites like you with a large platform silenced me and destroyed my reputation. How dare you discuss religion. You are complicit with rape. Unless you speak to me about my experience and hold Joe Biden accountable, and unless you truly care about people regardless of politics, you are complicit and protecting a rapist. God help your soul.

Last edited 4 months ago by JC
Steve trickler
Steve trickler
July 12, 2024 4:05 pm

Classics!

The ending of this clip hits you hard.

Emotional to say the least bacause you know what happend to the bloke before his mate tells you.


The Avalanches:

The Avalanches – Since I Left You

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpqm-05R2Jk

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