WA gun buyback: ‘Jaw-dropping’ new photos show massive scale, as window for payback closesThe West Australian
Mon, 5 August 2024 2:00AM

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Dylan Caporn

Owners of about 70,000 soon-to-be-illegal firearms in WA were warned their window to be reimbursed was closing, as the Government revealed the “jaw-dropping” success of the gun buyback so far.
New photos, to be released on Monday by the State Government, show the massive stockpile of 10,000 firearms set to be destroyed — representing half of the total handed in.
The buyback was introduced ahead of new laws passed by Parliament in June.
Of 19,430 guns removed from the community, almost 13,000 were rifles, while more than 1800 handguns and nearly 5000 shotguns were handed in.
“There are still around 70,000 guns in the community that could become illegal when changes come into effect. This is the last chance for gun owners to get paid by the State Government for their gun,” Police Minister Paul Papalia said.
“If you aren’t a primary producer, part of a firearms club or don’t personally know the owner of the property who has issued your written authority, you should seriously consider participating in the buyback.”
With less than a month until the Government’s $63 million buyback ends, Mr Papalia used the images to illustrate the program’s success. More than $8.3 million has been paid out to firearm owners, with the program closing on August 31.
“Being aware of how many guns have been removed from the community is one thing but to physically see what impact the buyback is having gives you a whole new appreciation,” Mr Papalia said.
“To know this is just half of the total number handed in so far is jaw-dropping. Under our new firearm laws, owning a gun will cost more, regulations will be far more robust and requirements for things like storage, health checks and training will more onerous.”

Popcorn time, indeed!
Anthony Albanese’s Makarrata retreat ‘a broken promise’: Pat AndersonPaige Taylor
11 hours ago

Anthony Albanese has been ­accused of breaking a clear election promise by one of his closest Indigenous allies after he ruled out a Makarrata commission for treaty and truth telling.
Despite a number of Indigenous leaders backing his push to ­refocus ­Aboriginal policy on economic development, the Prime Minister now faces fresh divisions with pro-voice campaigners over his decision to dump the Makarrata process.
Uluru Dialogue co-chair Pat Anderson on Sunday night condemned the Prime Minister’s comments as confusing. She also criticised Mr Albanese’s repeated comments on Sunday that his past references to “Makarrata” were in relation to the Yolngu word for “coming together”, and not the truth-telling body outlined in the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
“Is he rolling back on the Labor election commitment to the Makarrata commission?” Ms Anderson said. “We understand that a constitutional voice didn’t get up, but the Australian people didn’t vote on truth or treaty.
https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/c68a10d466ae7d22f5da61861e573f3a
Pat Anderson. Picture NewsWire / Aaron Francis
“Makarrata is not a vague vibe or a series of casual conversations.
“The Makarrata called for in the Uluru Statement is a bricks-and-mortar body and it was a clear election promise.”
Ms Anderson’s comments came after Mr Albanese, speaking at the Garma Festival in ­Arnhem Land, on Saturday set out a vision for Indigenous affairs rooted in his Future Made in Australia and climate change agendas. Ben Wyatt, a former West Australian treasurer and now board member of Rio Tinto and Woodside Energy, has worked with Yawaru leader Peter Yu on the proposal for a comprehensive economic development policy taken up by Labor.
Mr Wyatt, a Yamat man, told The Australian the development of a national Indigenous economic empowerment policy framework “has long been a missing opportunity in Australia”, and economic participation would now be a more significant part of “Aboriginal empowerment”.
“Corporate Australia, particularly the mining industry, has long been intricately engaged with Indigenous communities on a shared approach to development,” Mr Wyatt said. “What has been missing is comprehensive support that only governments can bring to the table; fiscal measures, capacity building, and institutional assistance to help make this happen. And, with innovation in social policy likely to be contentious in light of the referendum result, economic participation should be a non-contentious area of policy space and will, therefore, become a much more significant leg of the Aboriginal empowerment platform.

After a few days at the Garma Festival, Albo reveals he couldn’t really care about black fellas. Depending on the audience, he says what he needs to. Wonder if he consulted the Aboriginal Minister:

Anthony Albanese has broken another election promise after walking back plans to create a body to oversee future “truth-telling” and “treaty” agreements, in a move condemned as a “heartbreaking” breach of faith with Indigenous Australians.

The Prime Minister has revealed Labor does not intend to create a Makarrata Commission and attempted to suggest it was never under consideration despite previously allocating $5.8 million in the federal budget to explore its establishment.

The Coalition has accused Mr Albanese of “talking out both sides of his mouth” questioning how the government could fund something it now denies backing, while the Greens demanded the PM clarify his support for a Commission in line with Labor’s 2022 election commitment.

Mr Albanese on Sunday suggested his support for “Makarrata” – a word from the Yolgnu people in East Arnhem Land meaning “coming together after struggle” – only related to ongoing engagement and consultation with Indigenous Australians rather than establishing a specific new body.

But the 2017 Uluru Statement from the Heart, which Mr Albanese pledged to implement “in full” on election night two years ago, explicitly called for the creation of a Makarrata Commission to “supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history”.

Greens First Nations spokeswoman Senator Dorinda Cox has unleashed on the PM, telling News Corp she was “disgusted” by Mr Albanese’s “deceit” and accusing him of “whitewashing and watering down” the concept of Makarrata.

“He has lied to the Australian public by saying that he would implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full,” she said.

“We can’t trust this Prime Minister with First Nations justice after his display.”

Ms Cox said Mr Albanese’s backflip was “heartbreaking” for Indigenous Australians who had “accepted” the referendum result, but had hoped Makarrata could separately progress reforms and justice.

“The PM’s trying to rebadge this as ‘we’re still doing it business as usual’, no you’ve walked away from an election commitment,” Ms Cox said.

Uluru Dialogue co-chair Pat Anderson, a key architect of the statement, said Mr Albanese’s comments were “confusing”.

“Is he rolling back on the Labor election commitment to the Makaratta Commission?,” she said.

Ms Anderson said she understood the Voice referendum failed, but Australians “didn’t vote on truth or treaty”.

“Makarrata is not a vague vibe or a series of casual conversations,” she said.

“The Makarrata called for in the Uluru Statement is a bricks and mortar body and it was a clear election promise.”

Opposition leader Peter Dutton said Mr Albanese “can’t be trusted” on Indigenous policy given how much his meaning changed depending on where he was speaking.

“He goes up to Garma and tells people that there’s going to be a whole panacea and a whole rollout of new policy,” Mr Dutton said.

“He comes to Canberra or comes to WA and tells people there’s nothing to see.”

Mr Albanese said Makarrata was about “coming together of people through engagement,” but when later asked directly if he was “redefining” his commitment, he answered: “no”.

But the PM’s declaration sent shockwaves among Indigenous leaders, who have privately hit out at Mr Albanese’s attempt to redefine “Makarrata” with one source describing it as “gaslighting the nation” about the clear asks of the Uluru Statement.

“There is no ambiguity in that statement,” another supporter of Uluru said.

Former Yes23 campaign director Dean Parkin said Labor’s election commitment was to implement the Uluru Statement in “full,” and while the PM’s commitment to hold a referendum had been “carried through” the task of establishing Makarrata remained “outstanding”.

“What the Uluru Statement was very clear about is that Makarrata is about a commission, a body that would be set up,” he told ABC.

What a ghastly arsehole Albo is.
But those names in the article. The normal Joe Blackfella couldn’t really give two phucks about all this rubbish. They have work and food to put on the table and to keep a roof over the head.
Makin and Anderson have never worked and consider this a trough at which to sup considerable amounts of taxpayer dime. They don’t care about anything else except unearned prestige and their bank balance.
Pricks one and all.

Few in the ALP or the Greens have any affinity with the rural and regional people to whom they owe their incomes.

The above should read:

“No one in the ALP or greens have any affinity with the rural and regional people to whom they owe their incomes.”

Few in the LNP have any affinity with the rural and regional people to whom they owe their incomes

From eugyppius: a plague chronicle, 4 August 2024 (edited)

The past four years have been a very amazing time in Germany – a time in which I’ve learned many new and exciting things about my country.

For example, I’ve learned that the state can use emergency provisions to literally house-arrest its entire population indefinitely.

I’ve learned that our politicians can forbid protests on the slightest pretence, that they can conduct a public hate campaign against millions of their own citizens who refuse to comply with nonsense hygienic measures, and then after the hysteria has passed, use the towering indifference of a complicit media to impose an enduring regime of near-absolute silence upon their misdeeds.

I’ve learned that domestic intelligence agencies can unilaterally repurpose elements of the DDR criminal code to make comparing these authoritarian policies to the tactics of communist regimes a political offence.

I’ve learned that deriding the Greens, calling self-described socialist politicians socialists, opposing mass migration, denouncing trans ideology, and even criticising state media can make you politically suspect and subject you to surveillance from the Federal Protectors of the Constitution.

I’ve learned that the Interior Ministry and its enforcers can pursue those who “mock the state” as they would organised criminal gangs, that they can ban entire newspapers overnight and without a scintilla of due process, and that state politicians can ignore their statutory obligations to neutrality in the exercise of their office and call for nationwide regime-sponsored protests against their political opposition.

Almost every day is a learning experience in this, the best and most democratic Germany of all time. Rarely does a week pass that I don’t learn something entirely new. Today, I learned that the German police in Baden-Württemberg can use an obscure aspect of their statutory authority to ban individuals from entire municipal districts. All they need to do is claim these individuals have the potential to commit a criminal offence. They don’t need to have a good reason; they can just show up at your pub or your apartment and demand that you leave. This is an incredible power, as it would seem to vitiate entirely and at the very least whatever it is that remains of our rights to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of association and freedom of movement (Articles 5, 8, 9 and 11 of our Basic Law).

From the German Press Agency, via Welt:

‘The police have stopped a reading by the right-wing extremist author Martin Sellner in the municipality of Neulingen in Baden-Württemberg – and prohibited his presence in the town. This was to prevent criminal offences, according to a statement from the Pforzheim police headquarters …

In consultation with the municipality of Neulingen, a temporary ban was issued for the area of the municipality on the legal basis of the Baden-Württemberg Police Act …

The ban was issued in the evening immediately after the private meeting began. Sellner then left the event and complied with the order, it was said. Some of the other participants remained.

According to the police, the law allows the local police authority responsible to issue a temporary ban on a person’s presence if there are facts that justify the assumption that this person will commit or contribute to the commission of a criminal offence …’

Sellner was the head of the far-right Identitarian movement in Austria. He recently visited German cities to read from his book “Remigration.” When right-wing extremists use the term “remigration,” they usually mean that a large number of people of foreign origin should leave the country – even under duress.

Sellner has been a target of political hysteria in Germany since the false scandal surrounding his talk in Potsdam in January – a scandal that was likely stirred up with the assistance of domestic intelligence, for the purpose of smearing Alternative für Deutschland as dangerous right-wing extremists ahead of the European elections. Authorities in Potsdam previously tried to ban Sellner from entering Germany for a period of three years, but their order was reversed by the Potsdam administrative court, and so now our hysterical schoolmarms are trying out different methods to forbid the speech that so terrifies them.

I reviewed the subject of Sellner’s talk – his book on Remigration – back in March. It contains nothing that is remotely illegal, but because mass migration has become one of the most sacred political doctrines of the Federal Republic, the schoolmarmocracy are determined to suppress his critique anyway. Of course, they’re too stupid to see that their hysteria serves merely to drive more attention to Sellner’s political programme, and that at this point they’re basically running a guerilla marketing campaign for his book.

That’s little comfort if you take the longer view. The state [is] developing legal tactics in the course of this false controversy that I fear they’ll begin to deploy far more widely against their critics.

You new word for the day, Cats: schoolmarmocracy.

My 3 choices for the best word salads by cackles:

2/8/24 KAMALA — “This is just an extraordinary testament to the importance of having a president who understands the power of diplomacy and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy.”

22/3/2022 Kamala Harris: “The significance of the passage of time, right? The significance of the passage of time. So when you think about it, there is great significance to the passage of time … and there’s such great significance to the passage of time…”

21/9/2022 Kamala Harris: “We invested an additional $12 billion into community banks, because we know community banks are in the community, and understand the needs and desires of that community as well as the talent and capacity of community.”

In one of my many “feeds” in my emails, I received this assessment from the USA of the Trump phenomenon & where events may go in the US. I think it is remarkably prescient. I will also post the full assessment in a reference.

Enter Trump. As Michael Moore said, Trump was the biggest FU the voters ever sent to DC. He talked about the issues that these working and middle class voters had been screaming about for a decade. He mocked the political correctness that so irritated them. He was and is, unabashedly patriotic and unashamed of it. Both parties hated his guts and it felt good to piss them off. They liked his policies even if they did not like the man. Trump’s policies always polled 5 points or more popular than the man.

And THIS is the biggest mistake both parties have made with Trump. They think Trump is a cult of personality called MAGA. He is not. What he is is the only vessel available for a movement that detests both parties and their policies. He talked about fair trade that benefited them and not Wall Street and how China was a great threat when most of DC, Silicon Valley and Wall Street loved them for being a potential market and source of cheap labor and refused to see that we were empowering an authoritarian regime with money and advanced manufacturing and technology IP. He was against more wars that their sons and daughters would have to fight and was about making deals and not being the world’s policeman. In short, he said screw Obama’s “manufacturing is never coming back”, Hillary’s threat to kill coal jobs, the Bill Krystal and Mitch McConnel desire for more wars, and made it ok for people to just speak their minds without having to feel guilt tripped for slipping on some elite sensitivity. He told them that they were ok and valuable and not unseen or unheard, that flyover country and it’s values are really the heart of America. He was flat out unafraid which they respected and wish they could be.

Trump poured in to fill that vacuum the democrats had created.The aftermath of Trump’s election. Imagine you are one of those working class, blue collar, voters that just sent that FU to DC. Now imagine that when that FU, in the form of Trump, shows up and the entire DC establishment you hate, the media that you do not trust, turns around and sets up a “Resistance” to undermine everything you sent him there for? What you hear is that the establishment and its media support are not gonna listen even now, that they are telling you to get back in your place and they have to power to make that happen. Now imagine you are those same people, and all the elites and the big media pundits are calling you racist, Nazi, ignorant losers in the game of life, and that MAGA and those who support it must be destroyed. What would your reaction to that be? Rage? Fear? What that did was link those voters to Trump on a near permanent basis, his enemies were now theirs as well. When the media come flat out and say what was assumed but never said, confirmed for everyone, that the rules of standard journalism did not apply anymore and that all that mattered was getting rid of Trump and his followers, what would your reaction be? Contempt and disgust and complete distrust?

Trump destroyed the republican establishment of the Mitt Romney, vulture capitalists, and the Mitch McConnel neoconservatives and bible thumpers. (Think he ever thought he would be booed at a republican convention?) He brought into the party voters that neither of those men would ever consider worthwhile. He brought the working class, he brought more minorities and he promoted more women. He turned his back on the traditional republican donor class, the Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable class. His life was made easier by the fact that those entities had turned to the democrats and alienated the traditional, Ted Cuz, Marco Rubio types. Both of those latter two have made clear statements while Trump was out of office that the future of the party is multi-racial and working class/middle class. They have surrendered the monied interests to the democrats because they know that the democrats will give the money guys what they want and be aligned with them culturally. Note too how the party is far less attentive to the religious right. Just as Bill Clinton and Obama did with the working class, they are asking themselves where else are they gonna go? The democrats?

But another factor at play is that the republicans are turning over generations faster than the democrats. GenX and Millenials are stepping up. Yes, they are still conservative but these generations care a LOT less about things like gay marriage or abortion, they are less traditional and more pragmatic. They have grown up in a multi-racial/multi-cultural world and are comfortable with it. Multi-racial marriage and gay marriage are normal to them. This generation of republicans has seen the effects of globalization and unchecked corporate influence and distrust both. The Bush generation republicans are dead.

Apart from Harris herself, most of the democratic leaders are old, very old, and their views and the battles they want to fight are the battles of the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s, not the issues of today.So, where does that leave us? Well, the parties have been going through a realignment for most of the last 30 yrs. Its been a long process. But as things stand today the democrats are the party of big money and elite luxury positions. They are the party of the Martha’s Vinyard set, the Malibu set, the Zuckerburg and Beezos set. The party of hedge fund bundlers and social justice warriors that are not much more than useful idiots to the monied guys and foot soldiers for the party and the children of the professional class. The SJWs are the moral cover for the monied interests running the party. Have the democrats done ONE thing in the last 30 yrs that was a real threat to the economic interests of Wall Street or Silicon Valley? No. Are they likely to? No. Lina Kahn maybe? But the donors are pushing Harris to get rid of her. Sure, they will TALK about it, but it is all just gaslighting. It was not the democratic voters that got Biden to step down, it was the money drying up in a donor revolt. The party is run by the donors and the donors are not going to countenance any real action that threatens their interests. They will toss the SJW’s overboard in a heartbeat if it impacts their bottom line. We have seen that already with ESG policies and now DEI. 

The republicans are further along in their transformation. They are now a national populist party more than a conservative one in the traditional sense. Social issues are less important to them. Apart from what I have previously said about this, you have to include the impact of Roe being overturned. The republicans were the dog that caught the car with that one and they have figured that out. Sure, Roe is gone but they fast found out that a lot of republican women who previously could count on it being there and so could ignore that part of the party platform came out of the woods and said “not so fast”. Politicians like to win and if supporting the elimination of abortions is gonna cost them votes they are gonna step away. That too is gonna be a process that runs state by state but it will be settled there and that is where the battles are gonna be for as long as they last. But do not be surprised if the republicans propose a national bill that would not ban abortions but would actually set a floor for when states can ban them. It would surprise me not at all to see them propose a national minimum of 10 weeks unquestioned and then for the life and health of the mother or incest which would align almost perfectly with where the American people are according to the polling. They would leave the rest to the states. They are also a party less interested in undercutting the social safety net. That is partly political pragmatism and partly a result of the new generations coming up who have seen the economy change so much in their lifetimes and who no longer trust big business. They do not trust the government much either for that matter but ya gotta go somewhere. They are a lot less interested in policing the world and are much more willing to be pragmatic about living in a multipolar world, they are not interested in changing the rest of the world, just preserving the corner of it that is the US. This is a party now more interested in coexisting with hostile powers and autocrats than engaging in wars with them or in regime change. The exception to that might be Iran.

The election? Well, despite the makeover the media is trying to do with Harris and despite Trump’s regular ability to offend, I am putting my money on the Orange Man to win. Rich people can afford to vote on luxury beliefs and on being “inspired”, working people have to be pragmatic and vote their economic interests, they have to be transactional voters. At the end of the day, the first 3 yrs of the Trump presidency were some of the best for working Americans in years. There were no new wars. The border was secure. NAFTA was renegotiated and the Abraham Accords were signed. China was exposed for the creature it really is and tariffs and technology transfer restrictions put in place. Trump was right on NATO not pulling it weight and to question whether it makes sense as it is constructed today. He was right about European dependency on Russian energy. He was right to call BS on the Paris accords, not because the idea of the accords was off but because of the unfair burden it put on the US. He was right about the source of the Covid virus. Yep, he got a bunch wrong too, but on the stuff that matters today he kinda nailed it.

The Biden years have been a disaster. From Covid school shutdowns, to the shifting policies and information on the vaccines and the virus itself, to masking, shutting down the economy, to stupid things like 6’ social distancing. Inflation is out of control due to the excessive money printing. (Yes, the republican house owns that too). That inflation then pushed the fed to jack up rates. From the looks of todays employment data, the downward revisions to previous months data, and things like McDonald’s earnings and the number of low and middle income people at risk of defaulting on car loans among others, it looks like we may already be entering a recession. What is scary is that we may well be looking at deflation instead of just disinflation and deflation will wipe out 401k’s and home values and push cars deeper underwater and the same for homes purchased at the high prices of the last few years with higher rates.

Meaning? Repossessions and foreclosures that will be snapped up for rentals by companies like Berkshire Hathaway that is sitting on $200 billion in cash. It is just now August. This recession could be well underway in the public mind by November. The b***h is that we have no room in the budget to go all Keynesian to fight that recession. Two other stats that I think will matter? More Americans believe Biden and the democrats are a greater threat to democracy than Trump. A huge majority of the population thinks the country is on the wrong track. 

Wow, I did not set out to write and essay. Hope I did not waste your time or mine! Just did a brain dump. Sorry.
“Daniel P”

They’ve just raised the national Terrorist Threat Level from ‘possible’ to ‘probable’. Great days ahead.

No specific threat, just…”The advice that we have received is that more Australians are embracing a more diverse range of extreme ideologies,” Mr Albanese said.

A cynic might aver that this is nothing but Albanese attempting to burnish his “I’m keeping you safe” credentials before an early election is called.

Question:
What happens to me super once WW3 starts?
What is a thermonuclear proof investment?
Will unemployment rise or fall should a billion or so people be instantaneously vaporised?
What about bond yields?

We are in Sydney and my husband’s barber has reported that his customers are panicking about the sell-offs on the stock exchange………

I read this morning that some people are inferring that if Shapiro is chosen as the VP, it’s indicative that the Demons intend to steal Pennsylvania because Shapiro would know what’s going on in the undergrowth and is well versed in who those stealers are and their tactics. Pennsylvania is Trump’s road to victory, which is why I’m pretty down on the result in November.

But here’s the BS; wiki and other shit sources lists the Wieambilla Shootings in 2022 as Christian. Clearly they were not.

QLD police officially determined it was “Christian terrorism.”

Never let an opportunity pass.

This is the best summation of islam and ironically it comes from a leftie, liars member and unionist Mitchell Goff:

We like to think of Islamism as being a construction of order, with a hierarchy that mirrors our own, and with a capacity to arrive at some negotiated position if it comes into conflict. But the moment we do that we miscategorise what it is that Islamism actually is. It is a radically different moral framework for confronting the world, one that comprises of allies and enemies, one in which the achievement of Paradise is most assuredly brought about through the physical destruction of the enemy. It is not without order or form, but it is not an order or form that is grounded in the ethic of individual worth as we understand it. It has no Pope, and so cannot move monolithically. Theological evolution is no simple task and it is often the case that a local imam’s idiosyncratically moderate interpretation of Islam has little relevance outside of his local community. Even then, moving the religion itself requires leaving a significant amount of theology at the door, or radically re-understanding it in a way that has simply not occurred for the most part of history. 

Terror attacks that we uselessly describe as “lone wolf” attacks require us to suspend everything we intrinsically understand about ideologies of this nature. They no more need people to spread than they do organisations. A terrorist doesn’t need to be a member of ISIS for us to understand that the ideology motivating him is the same ideology motivating ISIS. There may not be some traceable master-servant relationship, but there is, of course, a theological one. People looking for evidence of communication between a militant and a warlord seem to be barking up the wrong tree. How many more times does this have to happen before we stop providing excuses they’re not asking for or rationalisations that don’t fit the pattern? There is a method in these attacks that is replicated across time and space. The notion that they bear no relationship either to each other or to a broader ideology is simply wrong. Jihadist terror is a war tactic pulled out of an ideology of death. Jihadists understand how to manipulate our institutions because they understand our moral code and know that we don’t really have a strong ideological framework to repel bad ideas because, quite understandably, we’ve come to view traditionalist ideology or more specifically religion as the root of evil. As we constructed liberalism we failed to construct walls around it that enabled it to defend itself from illiberal ideologies like communism, fascism and (Islam).