What is wrong with these people? Cooking steak, chicken, fish, scollops, squid etc is effin easy.

Unbelievable! Spare me the under pressure BS.

For the record, I’ve never seen these shows before.

——

Hell’s Kitchen:

Every Time Chef Ramsay Kicks A Chef Out Of The Kitchen In Season 10 | Hell’s Kitchen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghKzylo26v8

Former PM Paul Keating on why the west has reached ‘cultural exhaustion’Paul Keating takes us through his personal collection of art and antiquity – and explains why he believes the West has reached a point of ‘cultural exhaustion’. The former prime minister has never done an interview quite like this one.

Troy Bramston
8 hours ago.
Updated 8 hours ago

The Weekend Australian Magazine
72 comments

Paul Keating is seated on a chair in the middle of his office in Potts Point, Sydney. It is not just any chair. It is from the Palace of the Tuileries in Paris, in the period when Napoleon Bonaparte was First Consul of France. His arms rest on carved wooden griffons with lion heads and he relaxes into a soft cushion of horsehair. Keating ­purchased the chair last year, and had it crated and sent to Australia. (The French Government’s Mobilier National, ­attached to the Ministry of ­Culture, had an ­option to acquire the chair but didn’t exercise it). When I arrived at the ­office with ­photographer Nick Cubbin, the chair was ­already in place, isolated from everything else, set against a red-walled backdrop. It is a striking example of French neoclassicism, which draws on ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian design, and expresses a philosophy of human progress with a moral and an aesthetic order, and the quest for innate beauty. Louis-André-Gabriel Bouchet painted a seven-year-old boy standing next to the chair that was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1810. That painting sold at Christie’s for $US181,250 in 2022.
“Art is not a peripheral thing; beauty is central to human uplift and achievement,” Keating later tells The Weekend Australian Magazine in an interview unlike any the former prime minister has done before. “The Directoire and to a greater extent the Consulat are the periods of consolidation of the French Revolution – the event that changed all civil life going forward. The lives we all lead today, our liberty and equality, come from that time, that moment. This has always anchored my interest in the ­period. Otherwise, you would have been subservient to some monarch ‘appointed by God’ and by a Church which serviced God by collaborating with the monarch. Had you been an ­ordinary person, your life would have been wickedly subordinate, the next thing to being a non-person.”
Keating has always had an eye and ear for the sensual grandeur to be found in music, objets d’art, painting, clothing, cars, architecture and decoration. These finer things have an ­inherent power that speak to his soul, fuel his passions and energise his still vigorously outspoken approach to politics and public policy. To the often dreary world of politics, he brought style and polish, and a touch of braggadocio, with his double-breasted Zegna suits, love of Gustav Mahler’s romantic compositions and Late Baroque-inspired signature with its swirling ornamentation made with a Montblanc fountain pen.
https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/217a74b02dce0187a3bb65754cec6726
Paul Keating’s swirling signature.
His world-renowned collection, focused on the avant-garde era of revolutionary France (1795-1804), is not merely an assemblage of “trinkets” but a manifestation of a philosophy. They illuminate his inner life.
“I’m definitely an aesthete,” Keating says. “That’s my whole thing. I’ve been an aesthete since I was a boy.” It shaped his conception of “big picture” style leadership and the attendant dreams of audacious statecraft. Leadership, he often says, is founded on imagination and must be matched with courage. “You must have the imagination,” he insists. “Imagination is everything.” To envision a better future, you need a nourishment of the mind. “Where does the spiritual uplift come from?” Keating asks. “Well, I think it comes from the inner life … you need the bubbling cauldron. Without the ­bubbling cauldron, you can never get the rise. Without the rise, you just do ordinary stuff. But then who wants to do ordinary stuff?”
To many, Keating was always a man of contradictions: the globe-shaping statesman and the take-no-prisoners political street-fighter. But they are not contradictory; they are inexorably linked. The task of the reformer is to combine imagination with indignation. It demands political battle. “What others would call the warrior statesman,” Keating explains. “Most of these people in history, whether it’s Alexander the Great or whoever were in the business of blood and gore, you know? And in politics, I was in the blood and gore business, fundamentally. But with big ideas always running it.” Winning debates in parliament, putting the blowtorch to opponents in interviews and slashing attacks on the campaign trail – it was about establishing political hegemony and ­policy authority. “Why do you throw Liberals around like rag dolls?” he asks. “Apart from the fun of it, the importance of it is for the betterment of the economy and society.”
To visit Keating’s office is to step into his sanctum. It gives full expression to his inner life that we discuss at length over four hours on a grey wintry day, as dark clouds gather in the distance and the conversation is punctuated by loud thunderclaps. His residence is what he describes as a “museum home”. To be welcomed here is an even rarer privilege as you navigate between an extraordinary array of antique furnishings, artworks and rare objects resting on pedestals, set within walls and backlit to perfection, over several floors. The office is where Keating works and sees visitors. Prime ministers, premiers, ministers, ambassadors, community and business leaders have all sat around the table to wrestle with ­issues, as a knight would in Camelot. It is made in tropical mahogany; a reproduction in the classic English Regency style from about 1805.

The working class can kiss my arze – I’ve gort the bosses job at last!

Mavis gets out the kneepads and goes one on one with Paul Keating in Teh Weekend Paywallian. Not recommended for those not comfortable with man love.

RFK just lit a match and torched the Kamal Toe.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. suspended his independent presidential campaign on Friday and endorsed former President Donald Trump. The two are expected to appear together at a rally in battleground state Arizona where immigration is a key issue for voters.

Man tests positive for monkeypox, HIV and COVID-19 after returning home from a five-day holiday in Spain

An Italian man has simultaneously tested positive for monkeypox, HIV and COVID-19 after returning home from a holiday, according to a paper published in the Journal of Infection.

The 36-year-old reported having intercourse with men without a condom during a five-day Spanish holiday from June 16 to 20.

Hungary wants to send migrants to Brussels

Weren’t the backup pump generators located on the same level as the reactor. Design failure.

Only if the seawall fails, which it did but well beyond the design values.
Yes, the emergency stuff could have been placed higher or had backups or just been put inside a steel cylinder with a snorkel.
Aviation is full of things which were later fairly obvious that nobody thought of at the time.
Blaming design failure is like having a 3.5 G ultimate load aircraft (that’s where the wings fall off airliners) and complaining that the wings fell off at 5 G.

I’m enjoying tonight because I just spent a week in hospital with a condition so painful that I had two dissociative events. Others may run off to a psych for advice about the same but I enjoyed the experience. This was a horror week for me and only a fortnight after burying a brother and hearing my friend with Stage IV cancer is not responding to therapy.

I have only just read that this morning. I am very, very sorry to hear of your illness and pain, John H.

I sincerely wish you all the best for recovery.

I know a bloke who knew Bush and joined the dots. Thanks for the support Bush.

No worries, Gez.
JM called me this morning to fill me in on the presser itself. VERY scripted by the sounds.
As you say, comrade Jacinta made an absolute clown of herself with her statement about helping farmers combat “climate change” by tying up valuable farming ground with these monstrosities and the associated chances of fire and environmental contamination.

Her statement is so indicative of how this has become a religion for so many.
A religion that brooks zero scrutiny or dissent.

Kommie Kamala reinvents herself as champion of the middle class:

Get serious: Kamala Harris takes middle road

Cameron Stewart, Adam Creighton The Australian 23 August, 2024

Kamala Harris has used the ­biggest speech of her career to portray herself as a candidate of unity and hope, promising a “new way forward” for the divided US while framing Donald Trump as “an ­unserious man”.

In an electric acceptance speech laced with optimism and patriotism at the Democratic ­National Convention in Chicago, the party’s 59-year-old candidate vowed to be a president for all Americans, accusing her Republican rival ­ of being a dangerous relic of the past.

“With this election, our nation has a precious, fleeting opportunity to move past the bitterness, cynicism, and divisive battles of the past – a chance to chart a new way forward, not as members of any one party or faction, but as Americans,” Ms Harris told 20,000 cheering Democrats and a massive audience across the country.

“I will be a president who unites us around our highest aspirations. A president who leads – and listens, who is realistic, practical, and has common sense. And always fights for the American people. From the courthouse to the White House, that has been my life’s work.”

Ms Harris was speaking one month and one day after she ­replaced Joe Biden as the Democrat candidate, during which time she has energised the party and taken a narrow lead over her ­Republican opponent in the polls.

Ms Harris said America needed to look to the future and warned of the potential dangers of putting 78-year-old Mr Trump back in the White House.

“We are right now in a fight for America’s future. This election is not only the most important of our lives, it is one of the most important in the life of our nation,’ she said.

“The consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious … Consider the power he will have – especially after the United States Supreme Court just ruled he would be immune from criminal prosecution.”

She accused Mr Trump of ­creating chaos and calamity.

“Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails. We are not going back,” Ms Harris said, as the crowd echoed the chant in what has become a central campaign ­slogan.

Mr Trump hit back on his Truth Social platform in a series of posts, saying Ms Harris and Mr Biden had squandered their years in office. “She’s done nothing for 3½ years but talk, and that’s what she’s doing tonight, she’s complaining about everything but doing nothing!” Mr Trump wrote.

Ms Harris also portrayed her opponent as an enemy of middle-class working Americans, saying he would end the Affordable Care Act and gut Medicare and social security while giving tax breaks to the wealthy. By contrast, she would “create jobs, grow the economy and lower the cost of (living)” and pass a middle-class tax cut.

“We will end America’s housing shortage and protect social security and Medicare,” she said, in a bid to help the middle class.

“The middle class is where I come from,” she said.

Ms Harris, who has faced pressure from the left wing of the Democratic Party to pare back US support for Israel, pledged to ­“always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself” against terror groups such as Hamas as she called for an immediate ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.

“At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the last 10 months is devastating, so many innocent lives lost, desperate hungry people fleeing for safety, over and over,” she said. ‘The scale of suffering is heartbreaking.”

Ms Harris promised to ensure Palestinian people had rights to “dignity, security, freedom and self-determination”.

She vowed to support America’s ongoing global presence, saying she would be a staunch supporter of Ukraine and NATO and would always promote democracy abroad, mocking Mr Trump’s alleged infatuation with autocrats.

“As commander-in-chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world, and I will fulfil our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families and I will always honour and never disparage their service and their sacrifice,” she said.

In a speech designed to introduce herself to the more than one in three Americans who say they don’t know what she stands for, Ms Harris spoke of being brought up by her late immigrant Indian mother Shymala Harris, who raised her in Canada.

“America, the path that led me here in recent weeks was no doubt unexpected. But I’m no stranger to unlikely journeys. My mother was 19 when she crossed the world alone, travelling from India to California with an unshakeable dream to be the scientist who would cure breast cancer.

She said her mother taught her ‘never to complain about injustice, “but do something about it”.

Ms Harris spoke of how she was inspired to become a prosecutor when her friend Wanda confided that she had been sexually abused by her stepfather.

She spoke of how as a prosecutor she stood up for women and children against predators who abused them and for the rights of workers, veterans and seniors who were being exploited.

Ms Harris used her speech to focus on abortion rights, attacking Mr Trump for his pride at picking Supreme Court judges who overturned Roe v Wade, claiming he would work to effectively ban abortion across the country, a claim Mr Trump has denied. “He is not done: he and his allies would limit access to birth control. and enact nationwide abortion bans with or without congress …. they are out of their minds,” she said.

She promised that as president she would sign legislation to protect abortion rights.

Ms Harris, who has been ­criticised for her role in allowing ­millions of undocumented immigrants to flood over the border, vowed to be tough on border ­security, saying she would seek to pass the bipartisan border security bill that congress ultimately rejected at Mr Trump’s urging this year.

Mr Harris’s speech crowned a four-day convention that underlined how the party had embraced her candidacy after the withdrawal of 81-year-old Mr Biden.

Almost every senior Democrat figure including the Obamas and the Clintons spoke in Chicago, giving strong endorsements of Ms Harris and launching fierce attacks on Mr Trump and his record.

The convention is likely to prolong Ms Harris’ political honeymoon, which has seen her campaign go from strength to strength, having started as the underdog just a month ago. It caps off a stunning ascent for the former Senator from California who dropped out of the Democratic Party’s 2020 primaries before they began before serving an unremarkable term as Vice-­President.

Ms Harris’s elevation to the top of the Democrat ticket has halved Mr Trump’s lead in strongly Republican Texas, the second largest US state by population, according to a poll published earlier in the day. Mr Trump commanded 50 per cent support in the state compared with Ms Harris’s 45 per cent, half the lead the Republican enjoyed when Mr Biden was the candidate. The poll reflected ­others that showed Ms Harris’s national lead over Trump had risen steadily to 47-44, according to the latest average compiled by FiveThirtyEight.

In an electric acceptance speech…

I believe ‘electric’ was the word that went out from the DNC to the media.

And they dare to call Trump unserious.

Gina Rinehart digs in for war vets
Article by Joe Spagnolo courtesy of the West Australian.
Gina Rinehart has partnered with the Australian Air Force Association and RSLWA to provide much-needed accommodation for WA war veterans. Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting has bought a property and paid for the refurbishments of an apartment complex in South Perth, which is expected to house nearly 20 war veterans.
RAAFA will manage the nine, two-bedroom apartments and RSLWA will direct tenants to the complex. The property, which will be known as Sir Valston Hancock House – after a former leader of the Royal Australian Air Force and uncle of Mrs Rinehart – is expected to be ready to accept residents in the first half of next year. RAAFA chief executive Michelle Fyfe said about 300 veterans returned to civilian life each year and while most did not need help finding accommodation, “this new targeted program will ensure there is somewhere to turn for those who do”.
“We’re all too aware of the pressures many West Australians are facing to secure accommodation amid the ongoing housing crisis, and veterans – particularly those moving out of Defence back into community life – are no exception,” she said.
“Across Australia nearly 6000 current and former ADF personnel – or 5.3 per cent of our veteran community – are facing difficulty securing accommodation, which is a rate nearly three times higher than the broader population.

Roger
 August 24, 2024 9:55 am

To visit Keating’s office is to step into his sanctum. It gives full expression to his inner life that we discuss at length over four hours

His sanctum is paid for by the taxpayer, btw.

The good news is that some of it is paid for by Chinese taxpayers.

WA Government faces Slater and Gordon class action over “substandard,” Aboriginal public housing

Comments have suddenly gone down the “memory hole..”

Psychic crocodile predicts Labor to win election
A psychic crocodile known as ‘Speckles’ has given his prediction on the winner of this year’s Northern Territory election.

Using his 37-years of political wisdom, one of the NT’s largest reptiles was asked to choose between party leaders Eva Lawler and Lia Finocchiaro – incentivised by meat chops dangling from each candidate’s corflute.

The 700kg, 5-metre saltwater crocodile predicted Labor would win the general election in a snap poll at Crocodylus Park.

Speckles has previously foretold an election, correctly picking Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to win at the last federal election.

Ferguson Valley, WA: Anger after 800-year-old tree beloved by tourists is cut down in minutes: ‘Gutted’

• The felling of a beloved Perth tree sparked outcry
• Devastated politician called for culprits to be punished

Daily Mail. Surprise, surprise, it was sacred to the local mob…

Poisons in the Pages? New Research Shows Victorian-Era Books Could Poison Readers

What we all know.

Rand Paul Wants Answers From TSA About Alleged Surveillance Abuses