Open Thread – Mon 16 Sept 2024


Roman Landscape, Arnold Böcklin, 1852

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132andBush
132andBush
September 18, 2024 1:21 pm

Arky

September 18, 2024 12:22 pm

The rate of suicide amongst Australia’s rural men is significantly higher than rural women, urban men or urban women. There are many explanations for this phenomenon including higher levels of social isolation, lower socio-economic circumstances and ready access to firearms.

The bloke ending himself with a firearm likely only takes himself out.

I have known both types.

The individual who used his car had been suicidal for some time and had been planning on a head on with another car.

He was very excited one day telling us he “Almost did it”. With a huge grin on his face. Relating how the other car had kids in the back.

We didn’t take it seriously at the time.

He killed himself a few months later in a, luckily, one vehicle crash.

How many of the head on crashes you see with the engine of one car a hundred metres down the road from the disintegrated vehicle are due to some selfish prick deciding that a combined speed of 200+ Kph is the most exciting way to leave the planet remains unknown.

The next sentence after the firearms one:

Another factor is the challenge of climate transformation for farmers. In recent times rural areas of Australia have been subject to intense climate change events including a significant drought that has lingered on for over a decade.

You can just tell this was a grant hoovering exercise.

Salvatore - Iron Publican
September 18, 2024 1:23 pm

You don’t kill an ideology by killing the people who believe in it.

Killing ’em all actually worked with the Tamil Tigers.

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 1:23 pm

Manufactured in Europe, possibly, or maybe somewhere else, delivered via Iran.
Looks like Iran’s anti mullah dissidents have far more influence than the ayatollahs could imagine.
Was there handwringing over the 12 Druze children murdered by indiscriminate Hezbollah rockets* (or any Israelis killed by them in the last 11 months) or is condemnation only for the minuscule number of people inadvertently affected by the very, very targeted operation against Hezbollah.
Hezbollah contracted for these pagers, the odds of innocent civilians carrying them are slim to none.
*more likely rueing the fact that Iron Dome prevented a far higher level of casualties.
As for ‘kill one fanatic and another 10 will spring up in their place’.
They’ll run out eventually.

dopey
dopey
September 18, 2024 1:25 pm

Beirut TAB…phone betting is currently unavailable.

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 1:28 pm

Nasrallah reckons he has 100,000 terrorists in Lebanon.
Perhaps not quite as enthusiastic today as yesterday.
People ought to be congratulating Israel on taking out so many terrorists without significant collateral damage or damage to the infrastructure on which ordinary Lebanese rely.

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 1:34 pm

The Cathars were always destined to die out. They didn’t believe in reproduction.
A bit like the Shakers.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4883611/#:~:text=The%20Cathar%20vision%20of%20the,initiated%20by%20Pope%20Innocent%20III).

Last edited 15 days ago by Rosie
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
September 18, 2024 1:35 pm

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi blames Israel for ‘sickening’ Lebanon explosions, justifies Melbourne protestsJoseph Olbrycht-PalmerNewsWire
Wed, 18 September 2024 10:35AM

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi has blamed Israel for a series of explosions that killed at least nine and injured thousands more across Lebanon, even though details of the attacks are still murky.
In a social media post on Wednesday morning, Senator Faruqi, an outspoken critic of the Israeli government, did not name Israel directly but said the attacks were “exactly the type of sickening warfare” that sparked last week’s violent pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Melbourne.
“The horrific pagers attack that has killed nine people, including a young child, and left thousands wounded across Lebanon is exactly the type of sickening warfare people in Naarm Melbourne were protesting against,” she said.
“The perpetrators must be held to account.”

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
September 18, 2024 1:38 pm

one more

pager
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
September 18, 2024 1:40 pm

The targeted explosions are believed to be have been triggered remotely by a small amount of explosive, about 50 grams,

As I said above, if it was implanted explosives it’s very likely the manufacturer was involved since we are talking about thousands of units or someone in the supply chain.

It certainly seems to be explosives; so called ‘exploding’ lithium batteries don’t go off with that sort of velocity.

Again, without technicalities that might disturb the ASIO kiddy, the charge would have been way less than 50g.

The external volume of the Apollo pager is ~5x7x3, so ~100cc – and unless built differently to the similar one on my desk, probably doesn’t have the necessary ~30cc of empty internal space to fill with bang.

Plus the market video doesn’t show the fairly hefty explosion one might expect.

Less than 1g of this sort of stuff would take your fingers off; a few grams in close contact would make a horrible mess. So, potentially a ‘custom’ battery slipped in the device (the battery is the biggest single part).

Which still leaves the issue of how someone was able to intercept, open packaging, insert, couple up, and repackage thousands of devices.

You can see why Apollo of Taiwan are currently having a brown trouser moment.

Lysander
Lysander
September 18, 2024 1:53 pm

There is also chatter (but unlikely we’ll know until they make a movie about it in forty years) that the devices weren’t meant to be used just yet, but Mossad may have gotten info that Hisbollocks were getting shaky.

Which reminds me:

“Mr. Nixon, how would you describe your testicles?”

Nixon responds:

“They’re soft, and they’re very shallow, and they make me uncomfortable.”

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
September 18, 2024 2:06 pm

My latest patent.
A selfie stick for pagers.
Extra long.

Lysander
Lysander
September 18, 2024 2:21 pm

Anyone know the release date for the movie on Reagan???

Google is bloody useless!!!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
September 18, 2024 2:35 pm

Michael Smith.

1735099 said…
State terrorism.

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 2:57 pm

“In unrelated news, the American University of Beirut Medical Center replaced the pagers of their doctors and staff 2 weeks ago”.
Doesn’t that make it more likely that they would have been affected than anything else?
Unless you assume that they were previously using Gold Apollo units recently purchased by Hezbollah and then replaced in within a couple of months.

Cassie of Sydney
September 18, 2024 2:59 pm

1735099 said…
State terrorism.

Jew haters always side with other Jew haters.

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 3:00 pm

“the blasts came from pagers belonging to “employees in various Hezbollah units and institutions.”
“Hezbollah says it has handed out pagers to members, many of whom stopped using cellphones out of fear that Israel could use them to track and monitor them.”
If Hezbollah says they handed out the affected pagers to members why should we disbelieve them?

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/hezbollah-pagers-expolsion-lebanon-handheld-devices-rcna171457

Oh come on
Oh come on
September 18, 2024 3:01 pm

Victorian Labor must be loving this Liberal Party circular firing squad. Fancy it: both sides of this bun fight are white-knighting for two groups of constituents, most of whom will never vote for them. But they will seize upon any pretext, no matter how flimsy, to brand them as crypto Nazis.

Cassie of Sydney
September 18, 2024 3:06 pm

By the way, in a nested comment above, Numbers has accused me of engaging in ‘perseveration’.

He really is a strange person.

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
September 18, 2024 3:14 pm

OOOH! take another little bit of my (insert body part here) now baby!
You know you’ve got it, if it makes you feel good.

Didn’t Hezbollah promise retribution on a daily basis for years, even without provocation?

local oaf
September 18, 2024 3:26 pm

Pager memes are exploding as we speak!

460323041_373405265828393_7512314184757211648_n
local oaf
September 18, 2024 3:26 pm

Another

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JC
JC
September 18, 2024 3:26 pm

It’s still hard to get over the funny of the pager plot. This has to be the most jaw-dropping intel operation we’ve seen in our lifetime.
Hezbollah, worried the Israelis might hack their cell phones, switched to pagers instead. The result? 6,000 testicles blown up. What a perfectly executed operation. But how do you run a terror group when your communication system blows up… literally and you’re worried phones will be hacked?

Curious though. I wonder if getting your nuts blown off would cause the same pain as getting hit in the nuts?

Last edited 15 days ago by JC
local oaf
September 18, 2024 3:27 pm

Last one, for now…

460363847_122154978296263010_2649827398104696424_n
JC
JC
September 18, 2024 3:34 pm

pagers seem to be in fairly common use in Lebanon if staff use them as a part of their duties.

The Hez genius trust banned the use of phones and ordered the now, ball-less, to use pagers.

Bad decision. Those 3,000 who lost their appendages must now be going nuts. 🙂

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
September 18, 2024 3:37 pm

Anyone know how the ones blinded happened to have their faces at the groin level of the ones who had the pagers?
Asking for a fiend.

JC
JC
September 18, 2024 3:38 pm

The prophet must have had some advice in the Holy “Karen” for those unfortunates who lost their nuts. I wonder what it was? Can you then get someone else to bone the wives?

Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 3:41 pm

@DC_Draino

Regime media is desperately trying to get Trump’s would-be assassin turned over to the FBI so they can clean up his mess and make sure he doesn’t spill the beans

DeSantis knows their plan

And he’s pursuing actual justice

caveman
caveman
September 18, 2024 3:46 pm

.

Screenshot_20240918_153322_Chrome
Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 3:48 pm
Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 3:50 pm
Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 3:52 pm
Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 3:54 pm
Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 3:54 pm

The memo at the American hospital specifically said their pagers’ use was restricted to emergency code teams.
And yes sure the 5000 units purchased by Hezbollah for more senior members of their terrorist organisation in February 2024 were going to be sold on to random non Hezbollah persons who needed to be on the Hezbollah channels for reasons.
“Ahmed you didn’t turn up for duty at the rocket launch site this morning. Some bloke called Jihad turned up instead” . “So sorry General, I sold my pager on Facebook market place, the money was just too good”.

It’s perfectly possible though people on the American Hospital emergency code teams could have had both a hospital pager and a Hezbollah pager, as these aren’t mutually exclusive occupations.

Last edited 15 days ago by Rosie
Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 4:02 pm

I’m positing that the Hezbollah purchase of 5000 golden apolo units in February had nothing to do with the American university rolling out new pagers for their emergency staff in August.
I’m even willing to bet that a number of other organisations in Lebanon replaced their pager systems in 2024.
Just like Hezbollah did in February.
Pagers are still widely used in hospitals and emergency services around the world, including Australia for obvious reasons, apparently they operate on dedicated frequencies, possibly Hezbollah has a dedicated frequency too.
Could it be that that was how the explosions were triggered?

JC
JC
September 18, 2024 4:03 pm

In unrelated news, the American University of Beirut Medical Center replaced the pagers of their doctors and staff 2 weeks ago.

In related news, why on earth would hospital staff need secure comms? Were they worried the Israelis would find out someone came into ER for apicoectomy

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 4:05 pm
Cassie of Sydney
September 18, 2024 4:14 pm

Candace asking the big brain questions.

She’s a bird brain, but such a comparison is unfair to birds.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 18, 2024 4:27 pm

FFS the transport infrastructure in this country is stuffed. 2 cancellations and we’re all about to be stuffed on to the last two flights for the evening.

Two thirds flights delayed and the place isn’t even busy. Next week school hols down south, watch for the meltdown of the system.

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 4:37 pm

“Still, the argument made was that they may have replaced their pagers to flush any that might have found their way into their system in the last four of five months.”
I’d prefer some evidence over mere speculation.
In any case if the pagers were detonated by sending out a message on the Hezbollah frequency (which you would have to presume even Hezbollah would turn off their frequency before selling their pagers to potential Mossad agents), no innocent civilian holders of Hezbollah assets would have been killed or injured (excepting of course people who were too close when the pagers held by terrorists were detonated)
Even Hezbollah aren’t saying they allowed their assets to be handed on to innocent civilians, just their ardent supporters in the West are making that claim.
Not to mention it’s big news in Iran, though in the Iran Press it was claimed the old pagers were collected ten days ago for repairs.
https://iranpress.com/10-days-ago–pagers-of-american-hospital-doctors-were-collected

Eyrie
Eyrie
September 18, 2024 4:45 pm

Rockdoctor, the airlines operate their turbofans at the lowest thrust levels they can use safely. Calculate Density altitude, aircraft weight, runway length and you get power setting required. Long runway, they use all of it.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
September 18, 2024 4:49 pm

JC – we have marginally disagreed on minor matters on the odd occasion but here I have to totally agree.

It’s still hard to get over the funny of the pager plot. This has to be the most jaw-dropping intel operation we’ve seen in our lifetime.

Little effing terrorists from age 8 to 80 are still standing in their bog markets micturitioning in their knock-off jeans looking at their letter box mummies saying, WTF was that!

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 4:49 pm

Alpha Pager (AL-A28) – GOLD APOLLO

Alpha Pager (AL-A28) features AES encrypted transmission to ensure data security. The device has an”
Looks like the Web site of the manufacturer has closed down but here is some information.

https://www.trtworld.com/middle-east/ap-900-this-what-we-know-about-one-of-the-pagers-that-exploded-in-lebanon-18209359

Lysander
Lysander
September 18, 2024 5:01 pm

Not to mention it’s big news in Iran, though in the Iran Press it was claimed

the old pagers were collected ten days ago for repairs.

Something similar to what I’d read from an “intelligence account” on X. The Israelis didn’t want to use that system just yet but had to due to repairs on some pagers in Lebanon finding strange things inside… But that’s mere speculation…

Cassie of Sydney
September 18, 2024 5:16 pm

On Sunday at my Jewish women’s study group, a young woman asked a question. This young woman is in her early 20s, she’s studying at university. She’s joined the study group in order to learn more about Judaism. During the time we meet we discuss many things, the state of the Jewish world, Jewish history, mainly biblical Jewish history, the mitzvot (commandments), particularly those commandments obligatory for women such as family purity, kashrut and so on. Our teacher is a ‘Rebbetzin’, which means she’s the wife of a rabbi, and she is very learned herself. Our group is supposed to last only one hour and a half but we’re still listening and asking question and debating for a long time afterwards.

It’s a difficult time being Jewish, and particularly for young Jewish men and women at universities. I think many of them are profoundly disturbed by what ensued on October 7 and since then.

So, what was this young woman’s question?

The Rebbetzin spoke at length about the ten commandments. She went through them one by one and then she arrived at the sixth commandment, that commandment being….‘thou shalt not murder’. She spoke in Hebrew, and in Hebrew the word is very specific, the commandment reads “thou shalt not murder“. It does not say ‘thou shalt not kill‘, it is quite specific. We are allowed to kill in self-defence, and the actions overnight in Beirut with the exploding Hezbollah bums and balls ARE self-defence, and it is imperative for us to slay our enemies before they slay us. But the young woman was confused by all of this and she asked ‘what about the innocent Palestinians who are dying in Gaza‘?

Whilst many of the women murmured audibly, the very composed Rebbetzin did not. She responded to the young woman’s question by saying to her ‘that’s a great question’, and then the Rebbetzin answered her by saying that the killing of one’s enemies is obligatory so that innocent lives can be saved but sadly sometimes innocents die. The IDF in Gaza does not deliberately target civilians unlike the invaders of October 7 (who went out of their way to target civilians by raping, murdering and kidnapping). The IDF go out of their way to protect civilians but as the Rebbetzin explained to the young woman, the terrorists in Gaza hide in hospitals, in schools, in kindergartens and in homes.

Here’s a fact, any mass invasion by Hezbollah of Israel would make what happened on October 7 look insignificant. Israel is acting in self-defence, it is trying to prevent any future mass slaughter of Jews. There will be no repeat of what happened on October 7.

I shed no tears for those now dead or crippled in Beirut, they want me and every last Jew on the planet dead. Hezbollah, like Hamas, is demonic. However we Jews don’t and won’t celebrate the deaths of our enemies, however much they deserved it. Unlike our enemies, we don’t revel in death, we rejoice in life.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
September 18, 2024 5:22 pm

Veterans up for payout over abuse in the ADFTess IkonomouAAP
Wed, 18 September 2024 1:31AM

A group of defence force personnel and veterans might receive a combined multi-million dollar payout for the abuse they experienced during their service in the Australian Defence Force.
The Defence Force Ombudsman is reviewing past decisions made on recommendations for the abuse reparation scheme after Federal Court action was launched against it.
More than 50 cases out of 169 previous assessments to date have been overturned, with a fresh suggestion to Defence for compensation.
Individuals could be paid up to a maximum of $50,000 under the scheme.
A spokesperson for the ombudsman said the final decision of whether to make a reparation payment lay with Defence.
Army veteran Mindy Mackay said her experience of sexual harassment and assault in Jordan while she was studying with the Australian Defence Force School of Languages in 2008, was downplayed by the military.
She also was harassed by her superiors for supporting a fellow soldier in their sexual assault case which went to trial in a civilian court.
Ms Mackay is part of a group of people who have been recommended for a payment after her previous application was rejected.
“I felt disposable and worthless,” she said.
“I gaslit myself and thought maybe it wasn’t that bad, after all, maybe I was imagining it to be worse than it actually was.”
Ms Mackay said receiving the letter was an acknowledgement of the trauma she had experienced.
“I read it and just felt huge relief, it was the validation I was seeking when I made the complaint,” she said.
“But I’m just worried about all the people who were failed.”
In a letter to Ms Mackay, the ombudsman said it may not have adequately considered the psychological impact of the abuse beforehand.
The Defence Reparation Scheme was open to reports from December 2016 until June 2022, with final lodgement of completed applications accepted until June 2023.
The majority of reports received by the ombudsman are from veterans, with 80 per cent of people coming forward with complaints of abuse no longer serving in the ADF.
The Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide which handed down its final report last week, recommended the federal government set up an independent inquiry into sexual violence in the military.
Speaking ahead of its release, chair Nick Kaldas said he was disappointed the ombudsman didn’t get it right the first time.

Frank
Frank
September 18, 2024 5:24 pm

The ability to send SMS messages to all phones in a given area always seemed like an obvious way to trigger IEDs. It would be a satsifying explanation for the frequent Pally workplace accidents if it’s possible.

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 5:26 pm

“Many of the affected pagers were from a new shipment that the group received in recent days, people familiar with the matter said. A Hezbollah official said many fighters had such devices, adding that some people felt the pagers heat up and disposed of them before they burst”.
From WSJ.
Makes more sense than pagers that have been floating around since February and the Iranian story about the American University even more fanciful.

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 5:29 pm

Community noted but they’ll go ahead with the Motorola boycott anyhow.
https://x.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1836083424702194070?t=ku0x69JbHDR4psxNtLXTlQ&s=19

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
September 18, 2024 5:32 pm

Cassie – You might like Naomi Wolf’s intensely personal story which she posted this week, since she’s a Jewish lady also.

The Thing I Feared Most to Write (17 Sep)

She’s been on a long arc from the left to the right. Brave lady.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
September 18, 2024 5:36 pm

Indigenous jury plan an insult to justiceShould a jury be stacked to represent racial groups, women, and the indigent – but not the disabled, the sick or the neurologically diverse? Who chooses? Should some groups not be represented, and if so, why?
comment image
Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist

Anyone able to link to this article? My computer is playing stupid games!

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 5:37 pm

I don’t know Dover, you seem to think that innocent civilians may have inadvertently gotten hold of Hezbollah Gold Apollo pagers and that the American Hospital was warned* and decided to replace their pagers to prevent their staff being innocently blown up.
The American Hospital can’t be the only US affiliated institution using pagers in Lebanon and it does sound just a little bit like Iranian disinformation.
*despite the operational risk that would represent and despite the US claiming zero knowledge of the attack.

Arky
September 18, 2024 5:43 pm

Spartan women were famous in ancient Greece for seemingly having more freedom than women elsewhere in the Greek world. To contemporaries outside of Sparta, Spartan women had a reputation for promiscuity and controlling their husbands. Spartan women could legally own and inherit property, and they were usually better educated than their Athenian counterparts. 

Where are the Spartans now? Eh?
They dead.

Last edited 15 days ago by Arky
cohenite
September 18, 2024 5:48 pm

This shit hole is stuffed. Watching kenny interview some energy expert after that commie scum and leader of the filth was demanding we end all gas and coal energy. The expert, matt rennie of rennie advisory was praised by kenny as not being a denier and knowing the transition to renewables had to be measured and would require some years of backing up by gas. All of this garbage was in the context of the climate crisis.

There is no climate crisis, the climate today is as good as it gets and if humans were causing it we should keep doing what we’re doing. But of course we not causing it. Humans can only cause transexuals, cannibalism, eating of dogs and a few other ephemeral bits of crap.

I know there are grifters making a fortune out of alarmism and commies like the filth using alarmism to push their vile ideology. But I reckon the majority of folks who support alarmism and renewables really believe in it.

We are fuked.

Arky
September 18, 2024 5:48 pm

Unlike many other civilizations, women were able to become many things in phoenicia. Notably, they could be priests and merchants.

Relative to many other ancient societies, pheonician women had great legal freedom. they could choose to divorce their husband, sue others and pass down their fortune and property to family.

Where are the Phoenicians now?
They dead.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 18, 2024 5:49 pm

Zulu, courtesy red roo Wi-Fi

Indigenous jury plan an insult to justiceIf you’re waiting for sensible analysis from law societies and bar associations about recent suggestions that Indigenous defendants should be heard by a jury that includes some – and possibly half – Indigenous members, take a seat in a very crowded waiting room.

Or read on, and we’ll do it. In a speech late last month former Queensland Supreme Court judge Roslyn Atkinson echoed findings of a 2023 report by the Australasian ­Institute of Judicial Administration to overhaul who sits on juries.

It’s sensible to encourage more Indigenous people to sit on juries. In fact, we ought to find better ways to encourage all Australians to do so, because currently it’s easier to find someone who has escaped jury duty than someone who has taken on that onerous civic responsibility, often at great cost to themselves.

What’s not sensible is Atkinson’s implied endorsement of AIJA’s suggestion that jury selection be altered to “affirmatively include First Nations jurors”. AIJA researchers focus on a model called “juries de meditate linguae” – where a minority defendant is granted the right to be tried by a jury comprising half of people from that same minority. The report notes that this model originally entitled Jews in medieval England to special mixed juries, made up of half Jews and Gentiles

Part 1

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 18, 2024 5:54 pm

Indigenous Leader Warren Mundine says he feels “sorry” for academics.

While justice in the United Kingdom has progressed from this Middle Ages model of special rights for certain minorities, these legal researchers under the auspices of senior Australian judges want to go backwards.

They draw comparisons with how women were once excluded from juries, so why not advance the jury system some more by including Indigenous people? Hold on a second while I find my trucker’s licence to drive through the hole in this argument.
It was, of course, wrong to deny women – and Indigenous people – the right to be jurors. But we don’t currently exclude Indigenous people from sitting on juries. Moreover, there is a fundamental difference between, on the one hand, encouraging universal participation on juries and, on the other hand, mandating quotas for one group, in this case Indigenous people.
The suggestion that justice won’t be done, or be seen to be done, for an Indigenous defendant unless a jury includes some (unspecified) number of Indigenous jurors is impractical and offensive.

Impractical because it may be hard or even impossible to ensure the right number of people with the right racial characteristics are available for every single trial at every single venue, or even most of them.

Offensive because it suggests that a jury without the correct racial makeup won’t make the right decision. In other words, the real gripe with the current model is with the decisions by current juries.

If AIJA has the imprimatur of the nation’s judges, we should be very concerned. The output from this body reads like a Greens manifesto. Last year AIJA proposed juryless trials for sex offences – presumably to increase convictions. Its suggestion that we mandate Indigenous jury members for Indigenous defendants appears to come from a place of wanting fewer convictions

Part 2

Top Ender
Top Ender
September 18, 2024 5:55 pm

Andrew Bolt: Deeply concerning group think in Victoria, the state of law and disorder

With claims of a police cover-up involving Dan Andrews, it’s clear that things are far too clubby in Victoria between Labor, the police and elements of the judiciary — and the group-think under an authoritarian government is deeply concerning.

Something stinks in Victoria, and claims of a police cover-up of a car accident involving former Labor premier Daniel Andrews just adds to the stench.

Yes, it’s been too clubby between Labor, the police and – in my opinion – elements of the judiciary.

This goes beyond the latest evidence – the bombshell report by Ray Shuey, a former police assistant commissioner for traffic, who has cast more doubt on Andrews’ claims about that accident in 2013, when his wife, who he says was driving, hit 15-year-old cyclist Ryan Meuleman and put him in hospital.

But let’s start with that.

Andrews publicly claimed the accident was the boy’s fault, saying his wife had just turned into a small beachside street when Meuleman came down a path from the right “travelling at speed and hit our car at a perfect right angle very heavily”.

To underline it: “I want to make it clear – the cyclist hit our vehicle”.

Police bought it, almost instantly. Within hours they closed the case without even breath-testing Andrews or his wife.

But the evidence, gradually uncovered by the Herald Sun’s Michael Warner, seems to contradict Andrews’ story.

First, pictures of the damage to his car show a smashed windscreen. It seems the cyclist hadn’t T-boned the car, but been T-boned himself.

That now seems the conclusion of the late Ray Shuey, who was asked by the Meuleman family to investigate the accident as they prepared legal action against their son’s former lawyers, a Labor-linked law firm which had advised Ryan not to sue Andrews and his wife but settle for $80,000 from the Transport Accident Commission.

Shuey said other things didn’t add up. Why did Andrews’ wife give her maiden name to police, keeping the Andrews name out of it? Why was the police investigation so hasty?

Shuey suggested the accident was most likely caused by a fast-moving car cutting the corner, smashing into Ryan on the wrong side of street just 27m from the intersection, and not stopping for another 19m.

Shuey’s suspicions of an “overt cover-up to avoid implicating a political figure” have now been backed for former chief commissioner Kel Glare, who said he agreed with “every word”.

Glare said the botched police investigation couldn’t be explained by laziness or incompetence, given “every step that was required by the Victoria Police in their instructions was ignored, not followed”.

He was astonished that a police car racing to the accident was told to stand down by an officer who was actually further away, and who took six-and-a-half minutes before they got into their own car.

“There was a concerted effort to ensure there was no accountability for the collision,” Glare told me.

In response, Andrews dismissed the claims as “appalling conspiracy theories”, and insisted “we did nothing wrong”.

But as I said, this is just one example of what strikes me as an unhealthy Club Victoria.

On Tuesday, the Labor government appointed its latest judge, promoting Director of Public Prosecutions Kerri Judd.

Excuse me?

It was Judd who last year rejected the request of former High Court judge Geoffrey Nettle to prosecute police who’d unlawfully had a lawyer, Nicola Gobbo, snitch on her own clients.

More astonishingly, it was Judd who prosecuted the clearly innocent Cardinal George Pell, even appearing before the High Court to insist it dismiss Pell’s appeal against his conviction for supposedly abusing two teenage boys at once in an open sacristy straight after Mass, even though one of the boys denied any assault.

Pell was so obviously innocent that the High Court judges, after embarrassing Judd, ruled seven to nil to free him. As I’d demonstrated, neither Pell nor his accuser could have been at the scene of the crime at the only time the room wasn’t busy.

Yet Andrews, a vicious and public Pell critic, wouldn’t accept his courts had jailed – and kept jailed – an innocent man for more than 400 days. He tweeted: “To these brave victim-survivors – we see you. We hear you.”

And here is Judd, now a judge herself.

Judd isn’t the only official behind the Pell miscarriage of justice who’s since been promoted by Labor. Shane Patton, who oversaw the police investigation, was later made chief commissioner, even though all 26 charges against Pell failed.

The charges were such nonsense that I wonder about the brains or agenda of police who believed them. Pell was even accused of raping a screaming boy in a crowded cinema, somehow without anyone noticing.

I’m not claiming there’s a conspiracy of the powerful in Victoria. But it seems to me there’s a go-along culture or group-think under an authoritarian Labor government, and that is deeply concerning.

Herald-Sun

Arky
September 18, 2024 5:58 pm

In few medieval societies have women exercised as much political power as in Byzantium. That the theocratic empire should be more ‘modern’ in one respect than democratic Greece or republican Rome should be taken as a warning against judging past societies by our own standards.

Where they now?
They dead.

cohenite
September 18, 2024 6:00 pm

A ray of hope:

‘You are wasting your time’: NT Chief Minister blasts anti-gas protesters (msn.com)

But the rest of the LNP needs, apart from a few exceptions, a collective stick of dynamite up their arses.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 18, 2024 6:12 pm

If so, where are the empirical studies linking correctness of jury decisions with the racial makeup of jury members? That would be important news. Without rigorous evidence in support, AIJA’s attack on the current jury system is misguided, or worse.

There is a significant risk that even proposing these changes will encourage Indigenous defendants, who include violent men who maim and kill Indigenous women, to regard themselves, without any evidence, as victims of an oppressive justice system because the makeup of the jury didn’t match their race.

Uncovering other flaws is child’s play. Does this new jury structure imply some test of racial purity? If so, what percentage of Indigenous blood is enough to be fair to an Indigenous defendant?

At a wider level, the proposal to mandate racially composed juries is an example of the now ubiquitous – and completely bogus – notion that people of one background won’t sufficiently understand or treat fairly people from different backgrounds. This proposal is little more than a form of special pleading for your favourite minority.

Given that nobody can sensibly suggest a jury can reflect all groups in line with their percentage in society, some selection is required. How is that to be done? And for whom? If we ensure that groups A and B are included to reflect their numbers in society, or something close to it, but not groups C, D, E through to Z, is that an admission that only groups A and B will be fairly treated?

Part 3

Lysander
Lysander
September 18, 2024 6:13 pm

Oh well, see you online tomorra Cats.

I hope to awake to the news of splody keffiyehs!

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 18, 2024 6:15 pm

Should a jury be stacked to represent racial groups, women, and the indigent – but not the disabled, the sick or the neurologically diverse? Who chooses? Should some groups not be represented, and if so, why?
Indeed, the one attribute ignored by the legal activists behind the “representation theory” is good old-fashioned merit. Otherwise known as good judgment and sound intellect. Perhaps fans of representation theory think people in this group have been so historically overrepresented they need to be culled from juries.

Representation theory is a variant of two modern fads – critical race theory and diversity, equity and inclusion. Both emanate from the US and while openly contested in that country, we in Australia have been woefully slow to ask even basic questions.

Critical race theory holds that every aspect of society can only be understood through the lens of race, and more particularly racial oppression. Ergo we must reshape society from top to bottom to eliminate that oppression in ways demanded by the victims because who are the oppressors to judge their demands. This theory pollutes modern discourse to the point where so called “colour-blindness” – the notion we treat people according to their inherent merits rather than their race – is regarded as itself opprrssive.

Last part coming.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 18, 2024 6:16 pm

View more related videos
CRT wilts under the most cursory analysis because victim and oppressor labels don’t fit neatly to blacks or whites, respectively. Human nature is more nuanced than that, and laws and policies that ignore this glorious complexity do a disservice to all people, regardless of skin colour.
Diversity, equity and inclusion is also in retreat across America – on university campuses and within corporations. The US Supreme Court delivered the official rebuke in a 2023 judgment, informing the DEI-rich university sector that affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina breached the US constitution. The asserted rationales for discrimination by these universities – “training future leaders in the public and private sectors” and “producing new knowledge stemming from diverse outlooks” – sounded lovely. But the court found they were not “sufficiently coherent for purposes of strict scrutiny”.

In other words, bah humbug to a DEI policy that is divisive and easily debunked by common sense. Mandating certain numbers of Indigenous people on a jury falls into the same category.

While most Australians said no at last year’s voice referendum to special legal rights for some groups, some legal elites just won’t give up.

Ends

Sorry bigger than I thought.

Miltonf
Miltonf
September 18, 2024 6:18 pm

Thanks for posting Bolt’s article TE. Show’s the Murdoch press isn’t all bad. The whole thing just stinks and their attitude to the boy is beneath despicable. Most pollimuppetts are spectacularly unlikable but Andrews is a stand out.

Last edited 15 days ago by Miltonf
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
September 18, 2024 6:21 pm

Zulu, courtesy red roo Wi-Fi

Thank you, Rockdoctor.

Roger
Roger
September 18, 2024 6:28 pm

A ray of hope

Indeed.

The lady impresses.

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 6:30 pm

I think he meant Iranian ambassador.

bons
bons
September 18, 2024 6:37 pm

Sheridan – We have to accept that the ABC just made a mistake!!!

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
September 18, 2024 6:40 pm

In unrelated news, the American University of Beirut Medical Center replaced the pagers of their doctors and staff 2 weeks ago.

It could, in fact, be “unrelated news”.
The only connection might be that someone was awake to the possibility of pagers being tracked and didn’t want to be confused with Hez-Ball-less.
Or maybe they just decided to ditch outmoded pager technology for mobiles.

Top Ender
Top Ender
September 18, 2024 6:42 pm

Meanwhile in the modern UK:

For some 10 million pupils it is back-to-school month. But for a growing minority the lazy days of the summer holidays are set to continue.

In the glass-fronted wellbeing centre at an all-girls state secondary school in a wealthy Midlands suburb, no expense has been spared to create a relaxed, calming ­atmosphere. The walls are painted in mood-enhancing shades.

Pupils lounge on sofas with plush cushions, snacks and drinks on hand. Nothing as exhausting as school work is going on. The teenagers are listening to music on their headphones or scrolling through mobile phones, chatting and laughing.

They say they are suffering mental health problems such as anxiety and depression.

‘A girl has only to mention she’s feeling a little anxious and staff send them to the ­wellbeing centre,’ Joanna, a middle-aged teacher at the school, explains. ‘I am ­horrified at the speed with which they pull pupils out of lessons.’

At lunchtime, the staff take trays of food from the canteen to them ‘so they don’t even engage with ­queuing up and getting lunch’.

Daily Mail

mareeS
mareeS
September 18, 2024 6:43 pm

When I was a member of the AJA (Australian Journalists Assoc) before it became part of the Clowns and Jugglers (MEAA, Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance) we had an Ethics Committee. Any member could refer an ethics issue and have it adjudicated.
The Ethics Committee comprised members of high standing and reputation in the profession. If it still existed, the ABC and many of its of its charlatans would be destroyed reputationally.
It was quite fearsome in its power to enforce integrity. I had recourse to it on one occasion.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
September 18, 2024 6:46 pm

Sancho – it’s looking like Mossad were in a use-it-or-lose-it equation.

Report: Israel was left with no choice but to activate explosive beepers (18 Sep)

Israel only intended on detonating the Hezbollah terrorists’ pagers if war were to break out, but decided to execute the plan early due to suspicions by some of the terrorists, Al Monitor reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, two Hezbollah terrorists suspected that something was wrong with the devices leading Israel to quickly decide not to wait for a war.

The result: bouncing Hezbie balls all over Lebanon.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
September 18, 2024 6:59 pm

On the pager bombs I love it.

Despite hubris from some quarters even news kiddies spouting Hezbie propaganda casualty stats. Not much sympathy in news comments.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
September 18, 2024 6:59 pm

Whistleblower news, and following on from a current theme (the Hun):

A retired police officer who says his unit was called away from the scene of the Daniel and Catherine Andrews car crash described the alleged move as an “irregular and significant departure from standard operating procedure”.

Apparently and allegedly, this entire thing deviated so far from what should have happened – from start to finish – that it drove straight into the Sun.

Scott Hanley, a former leading senior constable at Rosebud police station, said his patrol car was en route to the Blairgowrie smash “with lights and sirens”

So far so good…

when a senior constable from Rye “jumped the call” on January 7, 2013.

Insert phone calls from the car’s occupants to others, who may or may not have been Chiefs of Staff and former jack brass. Also insert other phone calls from that CoS – perhaps – to on-duty jack bosses who told said CoS to piss off, and then almost certainly a call to someone that CoS knows, and who just happens to be on duty at Rye.

Mr Hanley has spoken after a bombshell review by former assistant commissioner Raymond Shuey revealed another unit took over the job despite being further away

Very unusual indeed, apparently, and particularly so given the young bloke on the bike was seriously injured. Most unusual. Almost unheard of, it might be said.

It comes as lawyers for the Meulemans zero in on the role played by Mr Andrews’ former chief of staff, current Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Brett Curran, in the aftermath of the smash

Whoopsie. Current Cheefa Po-Lice Shane Patton, despite being involved in other Andrews-related festivity (notably the Red Shirts thingo), may have to sharpen the axe to save himself.

In his statement regarding the day of the crash, Mr Hanley says: “As protocol required, we were to proceed to the scene promptly, secure it, render what assistance we could to the injured party and wait for the ambulance.

“Further to this we were to investigate the crash, gather evidence, take statements etc in line with the Victorian police manual. I remember thinking that it was unusual for (name redacted) to take the job. I was by far the most experienced and senior officer of either the two units.

More importantly, he was the closest to a prang where serious injury was involved.

Dr (Ray, retired cop Assistant Commissioner) Shuey’s review found the replacement Rye unit then took another “six and a half minutes to leave” their station.

This would be six and a half minutes of receiving instructions from her betters, via phone. Mr Hanley:

“The crash was widely reported in the press on Wednesday 16 January. The incident then became the subject of intra police discussions, in particular, the fact that the alleged driver was not breath tested.”

Possibly (apparently and allegedly) the biggest no no ever. Involved in a prang and you get put on the bag, it is said.

Victoria Police said it would not be reopening its probe. “Victoria Police conducted a thorough investigation into this matter, as did IBAC,” a spokesperson said.

Ryan’s lawyer James Catlin said: “How can they close an investigation before taking a statement from the victim?”

This is possibly the most damning thing about the entire shitfest.

It’s not going away, Dan. Spread those cheeks and bend over the bonnet of that ute over there.

Roger
Roger
September 18, 2024 7:15 pm

The Greens are unphased by Albanese’s dangling double dissolution threat.

Hanson-Young wondering why the PM is so bullish on the housing Bill.

Green in-house polling must be very positive.

The chickens are coming home to roost for Labor, who must face the possibility of never forming a majority government again after abandoning mainstream voters in favour of sectional interests that have little resonance in the seats where elections are won or lost.

Last edited 15 days ago by Roger
Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 7:20 pm

Apparently the Iranian ambassador was blinded which is not quite ‘superficial’.
https://x.com/GLNoronha/status/1836213464614007065?t=e5Lppl5exi8g768hLQvchQ&s=19

JC
JC
September 18, 2024 7:28 pm

An assignment to Lebanon for Iranian ‘diplomats’ is more like an obituary than a career posting. Career ending. It’s where careers are buried.

Top Ender
Top Ender
September 18, 2024 7:37 pm

It’s not going away, Dan. 

Indeed. Justice Enfield, who is now mere Marcus might have something to say:

Marcus Richard Einfeld (born 22 September 1938) is an Australian former judge of the Federal Court of Australia and was the inaugural president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission. He was convicted of perjury and perverting the course of justice and served two years in prison.

Geoff Clark has nothing to do in his cell. Give him a call. The ABC enlightens:

How Operation Omega brought down former ATSIC head Geoff Clark

Certain people in Victoria might be pondering how little top cover Desperate Dan now provides, and when is the right time to speak up.

Pogria
Pogria
September 18, 2024 7:52 pm
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
September 18, 2024 8:03 pm
Pogria
Pogria
September 18, 2024 8:21 pm

Groan, why the effing hell does SKY drag that bloody awful Gnome, Richardson, onto the show.
How many favours does Sky owe to be blowing so many limp dicks?

Pogria
Pogria
September 18, 2024 8:33 pm

Any Cats or Kittehs that have a Netflix account, could you take one for the Team and watch an episode of the Aus version of “The Office”?
It should be launched very soon and it comes equipped with all the bells and whistles of DEI.
The Ricky Gervais character is a female, natch.
I am surprised it isn’t a Tranny but, maybe they were hoping for at least two viewers.

I have never heard of the “comedienne”, Felicity Ward, but scuttlebutt has named her character the “Raygun”, of Aus comedy and, that it is NOT too late to cancel the show.

I know it’s a big ask but, you Cats are tough. :D.

Pogria
Pogria
September 18, 2024 8:36 pm

Calli’s Red Pen afficionado is branching out.
I feel like I’ve been granted membership of an exclusive club. 😀

calli
calli
September 18, 2024 8:43 pm

Can’t be exclusive if I’m in it.

Miltonf
Miltonf
September 18, 2024 8:45 pm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vhhTvcLoRw

Simple Minds – Belfast Child- wow

Pogria
Pogria
September 18, 2024 9:03 pm
Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 9:09 pm
Bourne1879
Bourne1879
September 18, 2024 9:15 pm

Heston Russell made an interesting comment on Sharri Markson’s show.
He said the camera footage was kept in the Defence archives.
Makes you wonder what other footage might be in or missing from the archives.

Bourne1879
Bourne1879
September 18, 2024 9:18 pm

Meanwhile P Diddy Coombs might be in a spot of bother with the judge rejecting an offer of $50m bail.
Like some of Epstein’s mates some of Diddy’s party friends might be concerned about what might have been recorded.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
September 18, 2024 9:34 pm

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/09/what-have-we-become.html

Just 27% of Australians aged 18 to 24 would defend their country….

Salvatore - Iron Publican
September 18, 2024 9:51 pm

Only Boomers still use pagers.

The one liners keep coming.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
September 18, 2024 10:06 pm

Just 27% of Australians aged 18 to 24 would defend their country….

Why would you take a chance of being shot to keep albo in his job?

Rosie
Rosie
September 18, 2024 10:07 pm

‘Malicious social media outlets’
Oh dear.
“At a crucial time when AUBMC physicians, nurses, and staff have been fully mobilized to deal with the aftermath of today’s injuries, several malicious social media outlets have started spreading rumors and conspiracy theories about the types of communications systems AUB has in place, attempting to link AUB to this tragic event. The university categorically denies these baseless allegations.
Following are the facts. Our paging system infrastructure was upgraded in April 2024. The Go-Live for switching to the new system took place on August 29, 2024. The scope of this upgrade was to enhance emergency and code communication, as several devices and systems had become obsolete.
The American University of Beirut Medical Center has received over 160 seriously injured individuals over the last three hours, with more to come.
Our full focus must be on saving lives and caring for the wounded to the best of our ability. Rather than waste time spreading baseless rumors, we urge all to rally to support AUBMC and the heroic but overwhelmed medical system in Lebanon.”

https://x.com/AUBMC_Official/status/1836093048801104379?t=rd-9ghSY8aruZALl23MCQw&s=19

Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 10:12 pm
Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 10:13 pm
Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 10:15 pm
Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 10:16 pm

@Travis_4_Trump

JUST IN: Springfield, OH mayor Rob Rue says it would be a strain on city resources for Donald Trump or JD Vance to visit, and ask them to stay out.

Apparently, Trump visiting for one night is a strain, but he and no problem accepting 20,000 migrants into a city with 60,000 residents.

The woke politicians are a joke. Why does anyone vote for them?

Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 10:22 pm

@newstart_2024

Horrifying…
Dr. William Makis: “We are seeing teenage girls or girls in their 20s presenting with stage 4 breast cancer and they have no family history and they’ve been COVID vaccinated because they needed to take the shots to continue attending university or college…We have never seen so many young women presenting with stage 4 cancers and the only thing that they have in common is there’s no genetic anomalies, there’s no family history, they all were forced to take the COVID-19 vaccines or they took them willingly, but they’ve had the shots. That is the only commonality. Same thing with colon cancer, young people presenting in their 20s and 30s. We have never seen so many stage 4 presentations of colon cancer in young people. Again, the only thing they have in common is that they’ve taken COVID-19 vaccines since the vaccines rolled out in 2021.
So we have a completely different pattern of cancers that are presenting . They grow extremely rapidly, they metastasize very quickly and they’re resistant, in many cases they are completely resistant to conventional chemotherapy or radiation therapy. That is also something that we haven’t seen before.”

Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 10:25 pm

@stopvaccinating

You know why the hospital isn’t treating her? Because hospitals don’t acknowledge vaccine injury, therefore:

1) They have zero clue how to treat it, and

2) Treating it would be admission of guilt.

Let’s hope the family wins a multimillion lawsuit!

Save #alexislorenze

Indolent
Indolent
September 18, 2024 10:28 pm

@MikeBenzCyber

NATO military intelligence became obsessed with stopping funny online memes that seeded support for populist right-wing political parties in Europe.

The Integrity Initiative leaks had required reading material for new NATO cluster cell recruits to defeat funny online memes

Arky
September 18, 2024 11:29 pm

Anna Kasparian:

There is no such thing as a leftist friend. They will backstab you. They will turn on you. It’s a cult.

JC
JC
September 19, 2024 12:44 am

Another day, another assassination attempt. At this rate, it will be Vance running against KamalToe.

@DC_Draino

·

3m

Police have found explosives in a parked car near Trump’s rally in New York City A K9 dog found it on this morning’s sweep before the event Thousands of people are already in the area This is the 3rd assassination attempt against Trump in 2 months

Salvatore - Iron Publican
September 19, 2024 12:45 am

Speaking of explosives;
Developing story; Cops have just discovered that a car parked near to a Trump rally in New York state has explosives inside.

Salvatore - Iron Publican
September 19, 2024 12:46 am

Snap!

Salvatore - Iron Publican
September 19, 2024 12:48 am

This one may have been targeted at Trump supporters. There’d be nothing like blowing a couple of dozen rally attendees to bits.

JC
JC
September 19, 2024 12:53 am

dover0beach

September 19, 2024 12:42 am

It appears that more explosions are occurring the following day in Lebanon. If this were limited to Hez. I’d have expected all operatives to have dumped their pagers yesterday. Some serious ambiguities/ gaps in the pager story now.

It appears how eggsactly?

JC
JC
September 19, 2024 12:58 am

This? This doesn’t make it ambiguous.

Second wave of explosions across Lebanon target Hezbollah walkie-talkies

William Christou

Explosions targeting walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah have gone off in multiple cities across Lebanon, with initial reports of an unknown number of casualties.

A source in Hezbollah confirmed that walkie-talkies used by the group were targeted in the attack. A senior security source said that the explosions were “small in size”, similar to yesterday’s attacks.

The wide-ranging attack occurred just a day after more than 2,800 were injured and 12 killed by exploding pagers all over Lebanon. Both Hezbollah and the Lebanese government blamed Israel for the attack, with the former promising a “fair punishment” for the explosion.

Pictures showed broken and singed communication devices amid scenes of destruction. The Guardian saw multiple pictures of an ICOM IC-V82 two-way radio that had seemingly exploded.

In a video, a member of Hezbollah in the southern suburb of Beirut is taking part in a funeral for fighters killed yesterday when a blast occurs somewhere on his body, knocking him to the ground and sending the crowd around him running.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for either of the two days’ attacks, but reporting suggests the country managed to place explosives in thousands of pagers bought by Hezbollah.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
September 19, 2024 7:20 am

Knuckle Dragger at 6:59 last evening.
The whole shit show of the cover up of Andrews running over the kid on the bike is something to behold.
From the bloke inserting himself into the investigation (after maybe being instructed from on high), through the no breath test (never, ever happens)*, no statements, allowing the Hunchback to drive a clearly unroadworthy car (also evidence) away from the scene to the subsequent “nothing to see here” statements which continue to this day.
The most staggering thing about this corruption is that it was so deep-seated back then, not when Hunchback had been Premier for ten years, but when he was opposition leader and wouldn’t have been identifiable by more than 50% of Plod.
And that it continues long after he has retired.

* I sincerely hope this goes to Court and Plod in the box is forced to answer as to how many accidents where someone was hospitalised was the driver (or all possible drivers if they are being cagey about who was driving) not breath tested or blood tested. The answer will be zero.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
September 19, 2024 7:24 am

Rosie
 September 18, 2024 7:20 pm

Apparently the Iranian ambassador was blinded which is not quite ‘superficial’.

https://x.com/GLNoronha/status/1836213464614007065?t=e5Lppl5exi8g768hLQvchQ&s=19

Enquiring minds would be wanting to know why the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon was in possession of a Hez-ball-less pager.

Roger
Roger
September 19, 2024 7:30 am

Imo, Coory is far too kind in his assessment of Howard:

The final nail in the Liberal broad church?

Damian Coory, The Spectator (Aust ed.) 18 September, 2024

Weakness on the misinformation and disinformation bill could prove fatal ‘The father of the nation…’ That’s how former Deputy Prime Minster John Anderson described his former boss, John Howard, during a podcast interview last year. Mr Howard these days certainly carries the presence of the elder statesman. The stability of his time as Prime Minister reminds us of a different – and better – Australia. The days before Rudd-Gillard-Rudd and Tony Abbott-Turnbull-Scott Morrison made the nation’s top job a precarious short-term reign.

But Howard himself coined a term that could be the ultimate demise of the Liberal Party: ‘a broad church’.

‘We should never, as members of the Liberal Party of Australia, lose sight of the fact that we are the trustees of two great political traditions. We are, of course, the custodian of the classical liberal tradition within our society, Australian Liberals should revere the contribution of John Stuart Mill to political thought,’ Howard opined, during a 2005 speech.

‘We are also the custodians of the conservative tradition in our community. And if you look at the history of the Liberal Party it is at its best when it balances and blends those two traditions.’

I wonder if John Howard envisaged at the time how his broad church would look two decades later?

In marketing, there’s a different philosophical approach: if you try to be all things to all people, you’ll soon be nothing to nobody. The double negative being grammatically and logically incorrect, but (as marketers prefer) the alliteration is nice and you get the point.

Another core tenet of marketing is differentiation. People don’t make purchase decisions based on a rational analysis of all the pros and cons of a certain product versus a competitor. They make decisions on a few memorable points that instil a positive emotional response. They then post-rationalise their purchase later.

Most importantly, faced with a new product option, consumers tend not to change unless there is a compelling ‘reason’ to do so. The risk of change is usually seen as not worth taking unless there’s a potential for significant reward.

All of this, I believe, explains the failure of the Liberal-National coalition to win any of the last federal or mainland state elections it’s faced. And it points to the Queensland LNP facing a more difficult path to victory next month than should be necessary (and probable minority government) given the contempt in which a majority of Queenslanders hold the incumbent Labor crew.

Howard was a stable and solid Prime Minister worthy of fond reflection, but he betrayed the core values of the party at least twice. The introduction of one of the greatest administrative burdens ever to be placed upon small business in this land – the curse of GST and BAS – was a bureaucratic manoeuvre worthy of Mao. And the failure to introduce a pro-family policy of permitting a household to split its combined income for tax calculation purposes – something he himself had championed for many years – was a capitulation to the left’s long march to destroy the nuclear family as the basic unit of our community.

Is John Howard’s broad church sustainable? I don’t think so.

The Australia of 2024 is different. There is a sharper divide in political ideology and a geographic shift has occurred too.

This could work in the Coalition’s favour, but it will require burning down the broad church and a decisive move from a market-responding stance to a market-shifting approach.

Geography now maps political ideology fairly nicely. Forget the inner-city mentality. It’s a lost cause and worthy of ignoring. Focus 100 per cent on rural, regional, and suburban Australia. Grow the pie from the outside-in and you’ll not only win votes, but the culture too.

The rapid rise and fall of Scott Morrison should have been a clear lesson. The fearful trepidation surrounding every policy position as strategists nervously consulted the ‘market research’ at every turn, is a path to destruction.

At some point you have to lead. You have to sell an idea to the market.

To quote someone who had a tiny bit of success in his lifetime selling products nobody realised they needed, Apple founder Steve Jobs: ‘It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.’

Every so often an opportunity comes along to really lead. To seize a modestly popular position and expand upon it.

Such an opportunity landed in the laps of the federal Coalition this past week and was met with the lacklustre response of a church that may indeed be too broad.

The Other Side (my weekly online video show alternative to the ABC’s left wing cultural bias) has a modest 27,000 followers on X. It is unusual for any of our tweets to receive more than a few dozen likes or re-tweets.

But every now and again something hits a public nerve and generates a huge unexpected response. And this one shocked me. A post on Friday about the government’s hideous Frankenstein reincarnation of the dud Misinformation Bill garnered 77,000 views, 1,300 retweets, and 4,100 likes in a matter of hours.

Even among a right-wing-leaning sample on an atypically politically engaged platform like X, that’s a response that should alert any politician to a golden opportunity.

What was even more telling was the nature of the response. I had rhetorically posed the question, ‘So… Where is Peter Dutton and [the Liberal Party] on all this?’ I never anticipated the veracity of the response. A significant proportion of the comments were more critical of the Opposition for not doing the job of opposing, than of the government.

‘The lack of a true opposition party in this country is completely astounding. The Australian people must reject this bill at all costs,’ wrote one.

‘This bill is now so toxic it will destroy every politician that doesn’t come out and totally condemn it… That any politician thinks it’s okay to gag the majority of the population is utterly contemptuous,’ one particularly articulate commenter noted. ‘That they also think it’s okay to exempt themselves and their mates is utterly despicable. The outrage at this is palpable. Any party which makes this a fundamental part of its platform will win the election.’

‘There are many of us who have addressed [Dutton] directly asking for a clear statement in response to this bill. It’s reminiscent of the eSafety Commissioner saga. He waits and then delivers a response. It’ll be interesting, given his support of Covid vaccines, Digital ID, eSafety Commissioner, and his 16-year-old threshold for SM accounts,’ laments another.

This is a skewed sample as the market research boffins would say. True. But the quantity and quality of this reaction to a tweet from a modest independent news commentary channel, is a red flag. It’s also a flashing green light of opportunity.

The ‘moderate’ Liberal Shadow Minster for Communication, David Coleman, is astoundingly – but sadly not surprisingly – busily looking this gift horse in the mouth.

Elon Musk accused the Australian government of being ‘fascists’ with these new laws that threaten to fine global companies 5 per cent of their global revenue for breaches of what ACMA deems to be a failure to properly police ‘misinformation’.

Coleman, with all the leadership and force of a wet blanket wrapped in a lettuce leaf, told Sky News Australia he would not use the same words Musk did.

Why not?

He said merely that ‘there are a lot of problems with this bill’ and that the government was being ‘contemptuous of free speech’. Shadow Cabinet needed to carefully review the details before commenting further, his advisor told me, as he turned down an interview spot on my show (the audience isn’t small).

How about a blanket in-principle condemnation of this ghastly piece of legislation that is not worthy of any kind of consideration, but only immediate relegation to the garbage bin of bad left-wing authoritarian ideas?

The conclusions more right-leaning classical liberal and libertarian Australians can draw from all of this are stark: either this opposition is full of politically strategic fools or they actually like and want this bill to proceed. Either is a troubling concern.

‘It’s possible to imagine the ex-copper Dutton is in furious agreement with the moderates on this one,’ a former senior party figure told me this week.

Oh dear. We may now have the worst ‘broad church’ of all in play. The authoritarian bureaucratic Liberal Party left locked in a joyous embrace with the party’s conservative authoritarians.

If someone doesn’t burst this bubble of groupthink soon, the quiet Australians who see these draconian laws for what they truly are – an abomination in a modern liberal democracy – will remain tragically unrepresented by an Opposition incapable of opposing even the most obviously bad laws.

And for the Coalition many more years of opposition or, at best, minority government, awaits.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
September 19, 2024 6:22 pm

So there was a third attempt on Trump?

*Puts on Progressive clown cap*

You know who else survived multiple assassination attempts?

HITLER!

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

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

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