Rome: Thoroughly recommend the Hotel Qurinale, Via Nazionale. An echo of glory from years gone by. Comfortable, clean, central location, great staff … and a fabulous open “salon” to sit in at night and enjoy a glass of pinot grigio … or two … before bed.

Forget the tourist hotspots … Trevi Fountain (drained, being refurbed), Parthenon (charge to enter; queue about 100 metres long), Piazza Navona (being refurbed), Colosseum (they had clothing mannequins with “sale specials” in some of the lower arches! Spare me!).

Having said all that … it’s still Rome. Nowhere else in the world even vaguely like it!

The sudden concentration on abortion in the Queensland election campaign to the exclusion of everything else has all the hallmarks of Dee Madigan influence. Is she directing Labor’s campaign?

The sneering smile on Miles’ face when he pushed the abortion issue in the Sky debate with Crisafulli was truly repulsive.

@DC_Draino

SCOOP: The McDonald’s where Trump served french fries in PA has now hired armed guards to protect employees who are being threatened by angry Democrats

These people are the true threats to democracy

It gets clearer every day.

Because, of course, only one outcome is acceptable. I remember well the 2016 election when it was clear that Trump had won but they held off for hours admitting it.

Kamala Says Her ‘Team of Lawyers’ is Prepared if Trump Declares Victory Early, as Election Tabulation Could Drag On for Days, if Not Weeks

Copacabana cock-up; Holiday homes for the party elite. High-rise slums for the proles

David Flint, The Spectator (Australia), 23rd October, 2024

If Anthony Albanese is remembered for anything, it will be for ‘the Copacabana cock-up’. Having not only introduced the worst housing crisis in Australian history, and then not honouring a promise to reverse it, he splurged $4.3 million on a clifftop holiday home at New South Wales’ Copacabana, an almost $900 a night ‘Airbnb hit’. The views are ‘uninterrupted’, so at least he won’t have to look at any of Minister Bowen’s monstrous wind farms.

His chauffeurs will be able to drive on the $130 million upgraded road from his Sydney or Canberra mansions, that is when he and Minister Bowen are not using an RAAF jet each to get to the Central Coast.

Meanwhile, among the rank and file, the old Australian dream of ‘owning your own home’, or even renting one to raise a family, is now beyond the average young Australian family.

Except for the independently wealthy, such a splurge would have once also been beyond any Australian Prime Minister.

Contrast this with Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, our longest-serving Prime Minister. He could have been a very wealthy man but he gave up a brilliant career at the Bar to serve in politics at a time when politicians were not well paid. When he retired, a group of supporters bought a Melbourne home for his and Dame Pattie’s retirement. He accepted this on condition that when they died, the house would be sold and the proceeds be shared between his wife’s and daughter’s schools.

In the following years, a campaign supported by much of the commentariat emerged. This was that politicians’ pay should be significantly increased. The supporting argument was untested and simplistic: if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

This wasn’t just an amusing motto. It was the case, the whole case, and nothing but the case. But when it was adopted, what followed was not better politicians, but rather, the scourge of the career politician – people who have hardly ever had a real job.

The result is that even without taking into account the extraordinary platinum superannuation Mr Albanese will be one of the last to receive (around $300,000 a year), our Prime Minister is paid substantially more than those of most other comparable countries. As are all our politicians.

Why increasing pay for politicians can lead to a fall in quality was explained by a study of the European Parliament led by US Professor Emir Kamenica, who concluded that raising politicians’ salaries is unlikely to result in better governance, but may well accomplish the opposite.

The reason suggested is that politicians, not market forces, are responsible for setting their own salary levels. In Australia, this has been disguised by passing the decision to a class more likely than not to favour generosity.

There are two living examples which demonstrate that high salaries are not necessary for excellence in governance.

One is Donald Trump, who, in foreign affairs, defence, education, and energy, performed at a higher level than any president since Ronald Reagan. Yet he disbursed all his salary, less one dollar, to various worthy causes. The other is King Charles, who as King of Australia, is unpaid.

The point is we enjoy the services of the King and the Royal Family without paying their salaries, superannuation, or even handing out ‘jobs for the boys’.

And notwithstanding overpaying the political class and the high bureaucracy, the quality of government in Australia is significantly lower than it once was.

The rates of functional illiteracy and numeracy flowing from our education system are among the worst in the world.

Our per capita income is falling, despite our massive natural resources. With dangerous illegal immigrants released, and potential terrorists admitted, the government manifests little concern for the safety of the Australian people. We are next to defenceless.

We have an NDIS and immigration policy, both of which are out of control.

While we have all the water we need, most of it falls in the wrong places. Yet we stopped any serious scheme for a program of dam building, the Bradfield Plan, during the Hawke government.

And to repeat, the Australian dream of owning your own home is vanishing for most young Australians.

And despite being fantastically endowed with mineral wealth and energy, Australia’s electricity is among the most expensive in the world.

Western Australia apart, there is no domestic reservation of any gas, so we stupidly have to buy back our own gas from the Chinese and Japanese at top world prices.

Instead of state governments standing up to the Albanese government, they are seriously proposing that Australian families squeeze into high-rise, poorly constructed dog boxes, which will be the slums of the future.

Something like a new Canberra every two years will be dumped into Australia without the infrastructure necessary.

The result is the birth rate has fallen drastically as young Australians realise that if the Albanese and state governments prevail, they will never own a family home.

With the government identified with gross incompetence and massive waste, the Copacabana cock-up has emerged as a media disaster representing everything wrong with the government.

Finally, to those who mistakenly think that Labor is still a workers’ party, what will surely astound them is that so many Greens and Labor politicians, including Labor’s far-left leader, have joined Mao’s despised landlord class, even reaping the benefits of negative gearing and capital gains.

From a Labor man who never ceases to refer to his early housing commission life, notwithstanding that housing commission homes are sound and commodious, what is astounding is that before selling his investment unit, he stooped to evicting his long-term tenant. Surely it was possible, or even likely, that another investor could have bought it?

Few will be surprised that in the recent announcement of legislation against ‘unfair evictions’, the NSW Labor government has an exception, which I call the Albanese exception. This is for the landlord like Mr Albanese determined to ring every dollar out of a sale, even from a long-term apparently good tenant.

“Having not only introduced the worst housing crisis in Australian history, and then not honouring a promise to reverse it…”

Much as I like to see Albanese get a good kicking (metaphorically), this crisis has been a long time in the making and the Liberal Party shares much of the blame.

PINNED
HIGHLIGHT
Twomey says no constitutional grounds to stop Thorpe serving out senate term

Constitutional lawyer Anne Twomey says Lidia Thorpe‘s bizarre “hairs” affirmation is not grounds for disqualification, and it is unlikely that any legal challenge against her eligibility to sit in the Senate would succeed.
It comes as the opposition threatened legal action against Thorpe, calling into question her eligibility to participate in the proceedings of the Senate, and confirming the Coalition would seek legal advice on the matter.
Ms Twomey said the Senator’s remarks could come under scrutiny in the Senate but any High Court challenge to her status would be unlikely to succeed.
“The first thing to note is that she actually signed the Oath of Allegiance with the correct word there, heirs, not hares. So she has, it seems, made the formal written oath signed and witnessed in the Senate by signing what’s called the test roll. So on that basis, there’d be reasonable grounds for the Senate to take the view that she had made the Oath of Allegiance,” Ms Twomey said on Sky News.
Ms Twomey explained that the requirement to take the oath before taking your seat in the parliament is covered in section 42 of the constitution.
“It’s not one that leads to formal legal consequences such as disqualification.”
“So it’s an internal parliamentary matter. So it’s really a matter for the House. If the Senate decided that she had not validly made an oath, then it could exclude her from sitting. But that would be a matter for the House, not for a court.”

So not only are chicks worse than men at voting, consistently voting for the most leftist dirtbags available, they also insist on voting more.
In other words, women insist on doing more of something they are really shit at.

Another reason why sheilas should not have the vote:

Teen to fight charge of displaying Hezbollah flag

Stop downticking me chicks.
You’re damaging my self esteem.
You’re supposed to be the caring sex.

Gotta laff .. “Hideous” has joined the Luigi school of politics ..Mentioned in her excuse for denigrating King Charles …
?” I grew up in public housing”
…….!

“Maybe the Dems are trying the biggest election heist in history and steal Texas?”

Check the “Help America Vote Verification” web site (havv) – there are thousands of people apparently registering to vote in Texas every week since April, and these people have NO other ID! TX state govco says it’s not them. Hundreds/week have come back as “dead”. There is something seriously weird going on, and the Kamal-Toe campaigning in TX makes it even more sus. As you say, without TX, Trump cannot win,even if he takes PA and the all the other “swing” states.

H/T: Tim Pool

Lots o’ talk about Murdoch press. My rant…

I do not like the man. At all. But how do ya thunk he made all his money. Simples! He knows his audience. Cats can crap on about him all day long but the guy knows how to play the game.

I’ve said it a lot here, but I’ll say it again:

• Daytime Sky: Very left wing: Appeals to the daytime audience: Students, unemployed, the WFH-type, housewives, Jimmygrants;
• Night Sky: Right wing: Appeals to those who work all day, are p!ssed with the world right now, traditional, taxed;
• Herald Sun: Appeals to where the biggest subscribers are and (!) the biggest subscribers are government, who happen to be Victoria’s largest employer (still has a token conservative or two);
• The Tele: Same as the Herald Sun (with a token conservative or two plus some financial “heads”);
• Courier: Prolly **slightly** more conservative than Herald or Tele;
• Fox Daytime: Same as sky but slightly less conservative than Sky Night;
• Fox Night: Mostly “establishment” and Neocon. They support Trump… to a certain extent (but not too far).

Sure, there are many other publications/outlets, but the thing is this guy appeals to his market. The fact that it means that he stands for nothing except for money is why I don’t like the guy. But there are plenty of broke principled people (yes, I’d be the latter).

And on Covid, the same “logic” applies: Be outcast and shut down or get on the gubberment t!tties and fall in line? Further logic: Now there no gubberment t!tties on offer, some of his press are against what happened in Covid.

It’s not hard Cats… follow the money and you’ll find Rupes.

Arky

 October 24, 2024 10:57 am

You might not like it, you might hate the facts and you can call me a sexist all day long, but this problem IS NOT going away.

Chicks vote leftist, there are more chicks than men, and a greater percent of chicks vote.

And all the trends are going the wrong way.

Arky, I wouldn’t worry too much about the female vote, it will not be an issue shortly after the Muslim takeover. The only unknown is which western country will go down first. My money is on UK.

calli
 October 24, 2024 5:18 pm

It was amusing watching Allegra Spender squirming when asked about her contacts with Holmes a Court.

Unbelievable* that he has managed to avoid his little club being classified as a political party.
…
* Not really.

JC earlier:-

I find it incredible that a billionaire would be in a big dispute over $90K, but there you are. Then other women came out of the woodwork with similar stories. 

Ego.
Wouldn’t swallow his pride.
Apparently he bragged to the girlfriend before they were in dispute that he couldn’t be sued.
He’s a billionaire and he would break anyone who tried.
Not working out so well for Mr White.

“Is the Joy campaign claiming Trump is the New Hitler?”

Only on the regular MSM (Misanthropic Swamp Media).

To kids they claim Trump is Thanos.