Open Thread – Thurs 21 Nov 2024


Pilgrimage to the Church of San Isidro, Francisco Goya, 1788

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Indolent
Indolent
November 21, 2024 9:19 pm

The TRIGGERnometry guys interview Cenk. He’s irritating but it’s still interesting.

The Dems Need a Civil War – Cenk Uygur

His pick for best candidate would be Tim Walz!!!!!

Last edited 12 days ago by Indolent
Muddy
Muddy
November 21, 2024 9:38 pm

Soviet killer of the Nazis who killed Sobibor officers with an axe – Simjon Rosenfeld.
YouTube – approx. 14 minutes. Definitely worth a watch. What a survivor (of many events).

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 21, 2024 9:58 pm

Helen Mirren, as Golda Meir.

Henry Kissinger is on the phone, attempting to dictate the terms of the surrender of the Egyptian Army, cut off in the Sinai, and in danger of dying of thirst.

Golda Meir hung up on him..

Lee
Lee
November 21, 2024 9:58 pm

Lefties losing it: Jennifer Rubin claims Republicans want to ‘kill your kids’

Total lack of awareness from a supporter of the Abortion Party.

And mind-blowing hypocrisy.

Last edited 12 days ago by Lee
Wally Dali
Wally Dali
November 21, 2024 10:02 pm

gendered violence
…and yet, infinitely more “gendered” interactions are not violent.
But there is a correlation with the culture of the assailants and victims. A 3000% stronger correlation than gender.
So can we more sensibly call attention to the epidemic of cultured violence in Australia?
…oh no, oh dear me, no, that would offend the powerful- and protected- Professors and Aunties and Ministers.

KevinM
KevinM
November 21, 2024 10:08 pm

Bruce of Newcastle
November 21, 2024 7:14 pm

Reply to  calli

I am in your antifan club, since whenever someone downticks you I uptick you.

Same for Dover. He’s our Doomlord, so if anyone downticks him I feel a need to reverse that insult.

Same here, although I can’t the point of Dover arguing, whatever he says is going to be gainsaid.

As to calli having an admirer in reverse? Who is it and why? Did she kill a china man?

Cassie of Sydney
November 21, 2024 10:32 pm

I’ve had a very long day at the hospital. My mother is being moved to palliative care. When I arrived at the hospital today I went to kiss my mother and she whispered to me she was dying. You can imagine how that made me feel. Whilst I am surrounded by a lot of love, from family and friends, it’s a distressing time and nothing diminishes the pain and nothing stops the tears. Over dinner at my nephew’s tonight I welled up with tears. Still, I am fortunate, I have wonderful family and marvellous friends, and I have to draw on the love and support of family and friends.

Sitting in my mother’s room, whilst she was sleeping, I noticed she had today’s SMH in the room. I thought that was odd because I’d organised for her to get the Australian newspaper every day, not the SMH. But Mum is no longer reading newspapers or even watching television. I don’t like the SMH and my mother doesn’t like it either. Anyway I thought, oh well, I’ll do the word puzzles. I opened the newspaper and by chance came to the letters page and I read the ‘letters’ and I was shocked at the vicious letters the paper published about Jones, particularly this this…..

‘I note the numbers at Tony Abbot’s Christmas drinks continue to decline. Firstly, Big George Pell and now Jones.. Who’s next?

I won’t write here the name of the author of the above bilge. But I was stunned at the sheer viciousness of the letter and the fact that the SMH published it along with other far more prejudicial letters about Jones. The left aren’t interested in ‘justice’, no this is cultural, it’s a Pell redux, it’s Pell Take Two.

Indolent
Indolent
November 21, 2024 10:46 pm

@ggreenwald

The Biden DOJ — not the Trump DOJ: the Biden DOJ — intensively investigated possible crimes by Matt Gaetz. After 18 months of leaking to destroy his reputation in the press, the Biden DOJ decided they couldn’t even charge him, and closed the case.

Somehow this doesn’t matter:

cohenite
November 21, 2024 10:49 pm
Arky
November 21, 2024 10:49 pm

Ellen Degenerate flees to the UK after Trump win.
Not surprising that the cock- averse should flee the world’s biggest swinging dick.

Cassie of Sydney
November 21, 2024 10:53 pm

I think Chris Kenny’s editorial tonight was superb…

Not the Australia we want’: TV host blasts antisemitic graffiti and police response

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL1TLArkEV0

Just when I thought my loathing, disdain and contempt for the NSWaffen Police couldn’t get any greater, I read and watch the NSWaffen police’s description of last night’s Jew hatred in Woollahra as an ‘isolated incident‘. Yeah….and pigs fly.

Indolent
Indolent
November 21, 2024 10:55 pm

A Trumpian Rebuke to the World Economic Forum

No doubt Schwab, Gates, Gore, Kerry, and other WEF enthusiasts see themselves as “visionaries.”  The editorial boards of many influential newspapers and the boardrooms of many influential corporations certainly hail them as such.  Don’t forget that prominent American and European businessmen once hailed Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler as “visionaries,” too.  There is no shortage of opinion pieces from the snappiest writers of the first half of the twentieth century extolling the “virtues” of the very leaders we now almost universally denounce as monstrously “totalitarian.”  When the World Economic Forum repackages the tenets of totalitarianism as a “humanitarian” form of global governance necessary for fighting “climate change,” “disinformation,” or COVID, the ideological descendants of last century’s totalitarians manage to make this century’s totalitarianism sound like philanthropy.  

Rosie
Rosie
November 21, 2024 11:03 pm

Cassie, I’m so sorry. My bil died in a beautiful palliative care facility too many years ago now, I hope your mother’s time there is as peaceful as his was.

Cassie of Sydney
November 21, 2024 11:04 pm

Of course he’s the son of a former Labor MP/Minister…..

Former Mosman deputy mayor Andrew Brown arrested for wearing anti-Israel shirt in Bondi
A man arrested at Bondi Beach for wearing an allegedly “offensive” anti-Israel shirt in residential areas with high Jewish populations can be revealed as former Mosman Council deputy mayor Andrew Brown.
Brown, who is the son of former Hawke Labor minister John Brown, has been unapologetic about his views on Israel after his arrest on November 3 and has since appeared in a TikTok video explaining that he wore the top emblazoned with the words “f**k Israel’ and ‘f**k Zionism” to “give Palestinians a voice, because they don’t have one” and that supporters have since asked to have their picture taken with him.

Brown, a former deputy mayor between 2004 and 2008, was confronted and arrested by police at the tourist beach spot for wearing the provocative top at around 12.50pm on Sunday November 3.

He has been charged with stalk/intimidate intend fear physical etc harm and two counts of behave in offensive manner in/near public place/school.

No pleas have been entered.

Mr Brown was arrested for wearing the allegedly offensive shirt.
He was initially refused bail but subsequently granted conditional bail as long as he does not enter the Eastern Suburbs area, from Paddington in the west to Bondi in the east from Bronte in the south to Watsons Bay in the north, except to visit a solicitor or attend court.

He must remain on good behaviour and not make contact with any prosecution witness.

Crowds did a double take and gathered while police questioned him on the beach promenade earlier this month.

Brown has also been seen parading in the T-shirt in Sydney’s Double Bay and Bondi accompanied by his wife, which police will allege was to offend and intimidate in the predominantly Jewish residential areas. His wife is not accused of any wrongdoing.

In a subsequent podcast entitled the dietdoctor, Brown explained his views saying, “Anti Zionism isn’t antisemitism….
“Zionism is the theft of an indigenous peoples land,” he said.

“It is the dispossession of people. The Nakba 1948. Then continued dispossession and brutalisation of people.

“You know when I wore that T-shirt a couple of times, the amount of people who came up to me and want their photograph taken with me…saying ‘good on you brother’…whatever, 10 to one.

“To anyone who may have been upset, why should I pay any attention to them anyway?

“I suffered the ignominy on the weekend, of being approached by two police officers, being handcuffed, being dragged up the beach, being dragged through Bondi.

“It was a message behind that, which is ‘do what you told don’t come down here agitating.,” he said.

“Being thrown in the back of a paddy wagon, being left in a paddy wagon for half an hour in a dark car park, and then having six hours and a police cell for wearing a t shirt, being charged, fingerprinted forcefully, DNA tested for wearing a t shirt in Australia in the 21st century, because some people took offence to it.

“I think the Palestinian people are most courageous people on the planet, and if I can give voice to them, because they’re voiceless, you know…”

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said Brown should be avoided.

“The guy has been seen swanning around Double Bay and Bondi Beach, lingering for long periods of time,” he said.

“It is peculiar for a former public official with no apparent link to Jews, their state and their national movement.

“The profanity is plainly offensive and anyone who thinks fit to behave so erratically should be avoided. I urge members of the community to give this hero a wide berth.“

Brown is due appear before Waverley Local Court on January 22, 2025.
Brown has been contacted for comment.

Indolent
Indolent
November 21, 2024 11:17 pm
Arky
November 21, 2024 11:59 pm

I might be going senile.
A memory just came flooding back, and I have to write it down.

I don’t know what made my old man allow a 15 year old Arky drive the family falcon station wagon to the St Andrew’s – St Margaret’s College annual dance.
But after picking up my mate Stu, this actually occurred.
Very exciting it was. Stu had a flask of bourbon, and just outside St Margaret’s, was the corner my brothers referred to as “squeally corner”.
The night ended there and then, as the Falcon swung like a pendulum first one way then the tother into a brick wall.
Stu’s dad was a panel beater. Who arranged to have the falc towed to his shop.
I spent the night at Stu’s house.
I remember the next morning the worst thing was that Dad didn’t say a word.
That was worse than worst bollocking imaginable.
Four decades later Stu still not so gently mocks me about stuff, but not that, we have both done worse.

Last edited 12 days ago by Arky
DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
November 22, 2024 12:22 am

I remember the next morning the worst thing was that Dad didn’t say a word.

Probably because he didn’t blame you for crashing his car, he blamed himself for being dumb enough to let you drive it.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
November 22, 2024 12:49 am

Ok, I am not going to lie. I did tear up a little with all these people coming together to help rebuild his car.

Time and cash splashed. Long clips will ensue.

Andrew Lynch, also known as Lynchy, is a renowned figure in the burnout scene. Hailing from Nhill, Australia, he is a farmer by day and a burnout legend by night. With his iconic blue 1981 Toyota Corolla he made history by winning the Burnout Masters title at Summernats with a naturally-aspirated car, a first in over 15 years. Robby and the crew take on the challenge of fixing Lynchy’s burnout machine after a devastating crash in Detroit cut his USA burn out tour short. Lynchie was forced to retire and fly home to Australia for work!

TOP SECRET Project: Fixing WORLD’S Most EPIC Car Following Devastating Crash!

Last edited 12 days ago by Steve Trickler
Steve trickler
Steve trickler
November 22, 2024 1:44 am

Part 2.

166,046 views 17 Nov 2024 ? Members first on 17 November 2024
What happens when you take a totalled car, secretly fix it, and give it back to its unsuspecting owner? In this epic video, we pulled off one of the wildest rebuild surprises ever! After this car was crashed and left for dead, we “stole” it, worked countless hours rebuilding it into something absolutely insane, and then handed it back to the owner in the most unforgettable way possible. Watch the full transformation, the surprise reaction, and the sheer power of this beast as it roars back to life.

Robby Layton:

Total Disaster to Dream Come True: We Secretly Rebuilt an Aussie Legend’s Car!

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 2:14 am

Lol

Not at all. At the most, you can say, given the assumptions you’ve made, is that decisions to purchase these lots would make no sense to you.

Unlike this level of abject certainty

The inheritence tax is simply a means of divesting families and Britons of their farms so large corporations and funds like BlackRock can roll in and buy British farms and land.

Steve trickler
Steve trickler
November 22, 2024 2:36 am
Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 4:00 am
Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 4:06 am
Steve trickler
Steve trickler
November 22, 2024 4:21 am
KevinM
KevinM
November 22, 2024 5:27 am

Believe it or not, it is true. A carpenter mocking the clergy 800 years ago and nobody noticed.

467319221_3975330136079677_5930998565577910135_n
KevinM
KevinM
November 22, 2024 5:29 am

How true.
I am telling truth today.

465910471_122167774988047117_6433415769159111660_n
KevinM
KevinM
November 22, 2024 5:36 am

Foreign legion uniforms of ages past.
Links available if interested. Help Google make more money, LOL.

sah
KevinM
KevinM
November 22, 2024 5:37 am

Is this true?
How people in Thailand wait?

thai
KevinM
KevinM
November 22, 2024 5:39 am

Tough looking guys.

cal
Winston Smith
Winston Smith
November 22, 2024 5:42 am

While the U.S. economy continues to chug along, and will perhaps gain considerable speed once Trump II takes the visible foot of government off the invisible hand of the market, Europe’s economy continues to decline in relative and absolute terms. One reason for this is the EU’s “Net-Zero” monomania. How bad is it?

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/11/the-daily-chart-de-industrializing-europe-2.php
It’s a pity Australia isn’t on the chart. It’d show just how badly the Net Zero Scam is hurting us.

Cassie of Sydney
November 22, 2024 6:33 am

Rosie
 November 21, 2024 11:03 pm

Cassie, I’m so sorry. My bil died in a beautiful palliative care facility too many years ago now, I hope your mother’s time there is as peaceful as his was.

Thank you Rosie and thank you to all the others who have offered support. And yes, Mum is in a wonderful Jewish palliative care facility where they value life above death yet where terminal conditions are treated with love, care and dignity and where Mum will have both comfort and quality of life for however long she is here.

Whilst it’s the best place for her, it’s still hard to come to terms with, I always have a lump in my throat and my eyes well up with tears at any given time.

Just further to this Jewish facility, there are now security guards walking the carpark. I know this has been said many times but the Australia of 2024 is not the country I grew up in.

Rosie
Rosie
November 22, 2024 6:39 am

Kind joyful blue sky going off over Tim McBride’s bathroom capitulation.
https://x.com/babybeginner/status/1859497529060229474?t=EaOwTUSD6fxF4jmzrLKbTw&s=19

Rosie
Rosie
November 22, 2024 6:57 am

“Earliest ‘Jesus is God’ inscription found — deemed ‘greatest discovery since the Dead Sea Scrolls’”
“This debate is now over – early Christians believed Jesus was God- case closed, Muslims, Unitarians, Ebionites, Mormons, you can all pack up – go home, and throw in the towel!”
Twitter quote.
https://x.com/btbsoco/status/1859590298743026005?t=nfffl3kkQnhx8cj8P2QOWQ&s=19
https://nypost.com/2024/11/19/science/earliest-jesus-is-god-inscription-found-deemed-greatest-discovery-since-the-dead-sea-scrolls/

Last edited 12 days ago by Rosie
Boambee John.
Boambee John.
November 22, 2024 7:00 am

A stalwart of the “modern” left.

“You know when I wore that T-shirt a couple of times, the amount of people who came up to me and want their photograph taken with me…saying ‘good on you brother’…whatever, 10 to one.

And if you believe his claim about the level of public support he has, he has a bridge to sell you.

cohenite
November 22, 2024 7:07 am
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
November 22, 2024 7:09 am

Cassie of Sydney
 November 21, 2024 10:32 pm

I’ve had a very long day at the hospital. My mother is being moved to palliative care. When I arrived at the hospital today I went to kiss my mother and she whispered to me she was dying. You can imagine how that made me feel.

Sorry to hear of your mum’s decline, Cassie.
I can’t offer much here except to be open to the moment when she might want to let it go.
It’s tough.
PS. Make sure the SMH goes to palliative care too. It’s where it belongs.

Cassie of Sydney
November 22, 2024 7:13 am

Regardless of what you think of Justice Lee’s Bruce Lehrmann judgment, last night in Sydney Lee gave this stinging speech…………

Anti-Semitism ‘an attack on my wife and children’: judge Michael LeeELLIE DUDLEY

In an extraordinary and deeply personal speech, Federal Court judge Michael Lee says the “growth and mainstreaming” of anti-Semitic behaviour stemming from the October 7, 2023 ­massacres must be tackled, and declared that any attack on the Jewish community is an “attack upon my wife and my children”.

In Justice Lee’s powerful address, delivered the night after a car was torched and buildings were vandalised with horrendous anti-Semitic slurs in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, Justice Lee said some Australians do not understand the “complex narrative” of the Middle East conflict and instead prefer “historically flawed” reports from parts of the media.

Anthony Albanese condemned the attacks in Woollahra, but Jewish leaders and former prime minister John Howard said Labor’s “inaction’ on anti-Semitism was partly to blame for the major escalation in violence.

In his speech, Justice Lee praised Western Sydney University for showing strong leadership when campuses were overrun with pro-Palestine encampments this year, but said Australian institutions were producing future leaders who have a “sense of self-righteousness” exacerbated by a “lack of a traditional Western historical education”.

Reflecting on behalf of he and wife Penny – the daughter of former NSW ombudsman and prominent Jewish lawyer David Landa – Justice Lee said he was struck by a “discomforting” reality after Hamas invaded southern Israel.

“The revelation for both of us, since October 7, is that in our different ways, and from our different perspectives, the stark and discomforting realisation that despite living our whole lives in this country, and thinking we knew it so well, we do not now recognise an aspect of it,” he said, speaking to the Jewish House Gala Dinner.

“Connected to this was the realisation that some people we thought we knew well did not understand, or did not want to understand, a more complex narrative than that presented by simplistic and historically flawed declamations on social and some other media; nor were they empathetic to the trauma the events of last year and its consequences have occasioned.

“Whether this appreciation is a result, Saul-like, of scales falling from our eyes or a profound shift in the culture might be thought, at least on one level, to be of little moment. But upon reflection it does matter because the growth and mainstreaming of anti-Semitism we have all seen emerge over the last 13 months must be tackled, but understanding how it is to be tackled requires some understanding of how we got to where we are.”

Justice Lee, a judge of the Federal Court since 2017, rose to prominence during the high profile defamation case between Bruce Lehrmann and Network 10, and has become well known for his quick wit and sharp turn of phrase. Speaking on Thursday night in a personal capacity, he told the crowd he was introduced to “the richness of the Jewish lived experience through my wife’s family”. “Twelve years ago, I gave a speech in the function room behind Temple Emmanuel. I remarked that when I was a boy learning public speaking at a Marist Brothers school, I was confident that there were a number of opening words of a speech that I would never utter,” he said.

“One form of opening words was: ‘I proudly accept your nomination for President of the United States’; another, equally unlikely, were the words I opened with on that occasion, being: ‘Welcome to my son’s bar mitzvah’.”

He said there had been a “soft revolution” in values over the past 50 years within “numerous institutions, including universities, unions, the arts, and schools”.

“In universities, it can be seen in courses focused on what is described as ‘critical legal studies’ but is most evident in the social science, history and education faculties,” he said, adding that it is “unsurprising” students “now seem to use school and university to proclaim, rather than to learn”.

His comments come after universities, including Deakin University, Melbourne University and the Australian National University, were overrun with pro-Palestine protests earlier this year, with many playing host to weeks-long encampments.

In September, University of Sydney vice-chancellor Mark Scott apologised for the “unacceptable” anti-Semitism experienced by Jewish staff, students and alumni during an eight-week campus protest.
Justice Lee said the Jewish community and “non-Jews of goodwill” must attempt to effectively communicate with a generation of people exposed to institutions that are “producing an apparently significant number of future leaders whose lack of a traditional Western historical education is matched by their sense of self-righteousness and their willingness to spout slogans”.

“This is a worrying combination, further exacerbated by ­access to a balkanised ‘legacy’ media and social media, resulting in preconceived notions being re-enforced by the like-minded,” he said, adding “good leadership” at universities can have an impact when it comes to “institutional decay and the diminished intellectual rigour of many courses”.

“I am on the board of an institute within the Western Sydney University,” he said. “In contrast to other universities, and despite having the largest Muslim population of any university in Australia, I was pleased to see it had had no encampments, and the leadership of the university spoke out promptly and firmly against anti-Semitic speech.”

Justice Lee concluded his ­address by echoing the words of his wife’s late grandfather, former NSW housing minister Abe Landa, when speaking to the NSW Legislative Assembly in 1946. “‘I shall treat any attack on the Jews as an attack upon my wife and my children’,” he said. “Although, unlike Abe, I cannot say I spring from your faith, over the sweep of almost 80 years, I can say I feel exactly the same way.”

Kol hakavod Justice Lee.

Bungonia Bee
Bungonia Bee
November 22, 2024 7:15 am

Ah, the old “sexual misbehaviour”, an evergreen smear. I remember they tried to stop the appointment of Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court. It failed, and none other than Laura Ingraham became his clerk for a while before going into show biz. They tried it against Kavanagh, and it failed. They tried it against Trump. Now they’ve tried it against Gaetz and achieved a success. From what I’ve read it’s only seriously alleged that Gaetz paid for sex from ladies who did it for money. Even so, there has been no prosecution from a trigger-happy DOJ. Sky News turns to Michael Ware for comment!
P.S. They are trying it on Pete Hegseth as well.

Last edited 12 days ago by Bungonia Bee
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
November 22, 2024 7:20 am

Update for The Great Predictionator, m0nster:-
Kamal-toe trails by 2.6 m votes.
The votes remaining outstanding in California total 1.3 million.
It’s an uphill battle from here.

Rosie
Rosie
November 22, 2024 7:20 am

Gaetz has pulled out.
Too much baggage?
Statement here.

https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1859653829685543315?t=mpYvNHzqxZAj-9jQo2FLXQ&s=19

Last edited 12 days ago by Rosie
Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
November 22, 2024 7:21 am

A good read from a former Treasury Official. One of the few ‘sound’ ones that I have known.

David Pearl
The Future Fund is now captive to Jim’s pet projects

As if any further confirmation was required, Jim Chalmers has now proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s a serious liability for the Albanese government.
Not content with presiding over an economy that has virtually ground to a halt, with living standards falling, productivity flatlining and an inflation rate among the highest in the developed world, the Treasurer is now deepening his assault on the integrity of our key economic institutions.
He has weakened the Reserve Bank’s traditional inflation-fighting focus and directed the Productivity Commission to focus more on green ideology. And he has now turned his attention to the $230bn Future Fund, which was set up by former treasurer Peter Costello to meet the federal government’s mammoth, unfunded public sector superannuation liabilities.
As we know, Chalmers and Finance Minister Katy Gallagher have announced that the Future Fund’s mandate will be changed to require it to consider “national priorities” when making its investment decisions. If you think that sounds ominous, you are right.
This is a marked change to the Fund’s initial riding instructions, which focused on obtaining the best available commercial return and did not privilege particular sectors. Chalmers’ pet priorities are to increase the supply of residential housing, support the net-zero energy transition and fund local infrastructure projects to improve economic resilience and security. He insists this will not compromise the Future Fund’s focus on maximising commercial returns.
https://content.api.news/v3/images/bin/78e45c8dcedbf129982bbf393ab78645
Katy Gallagher

Yet we have just witnessed the re-election of Donald Trump, who campaigned strongly against net-zero climate austerity and will pull that country – the world’s largest economy, let’s remember – out of the Paris Agreement. It’s dead.
Let’s not also forget the Albanese government has bet the house on wind and solar to get us to net zero: energy sources that apart from being inherently unreliable and expensive, require massive subsidies from the taxpayer to be commercially viable.
Residential housing, meanwhile, is a sector tied in state and local government red tape, with the threat of investment-killing capital gains and negative gearing tax hikes looming over it – from none other than Chalmers himself.
And in the area of infrastructure, the reference to “economic reliance and security” is well-known code for projects that do not stack up on commercial grounds.
As Judith Sloan pointed out on Thursday, if investments in these sectors were financially attractive propositions, the Fund would already be putting money into them.
If a David Murray or a Peter Costello-like figure were chairing the Fund, perhaps its commercial integrity could, despite Chalmers’ political directives, be salvaged. But Greg Combet, a career unionist, ultimate Labor insider and climate utopian, is at the helm.

If his appointment was a blow to the Fund’s credibility, Chalmers’ latest fiddling will do further damage. No longer will the Fund be seen by counterparties as a first-rate, commercially focused operation. Every investment decision it makes, even if perfectly justified, will be second-guessed by the market. It will have a political shadow hanging over it.

And now that it’s integrity has been breached, we can look forward to further Labor hobbyhorses to be added to the Fund’s investment wish list.
Why not the care economy or local manufacturing? Why not union-favoured construction projects? Every industry association in the country will be knocking on Chalmers’ door to get their sector a mention. His naivety is staggering.
The Fund decision, while deeply flawed, is not at all surprising for this Treasurer to make.
It reflects his basic misunderstanding of the nature of capitalism. When he invokes this term, he has in mind politicians directing private capital into favoured projects, not markets allocating resources to their highest-value uses, as directed by millions of consumers’ price signals.
Adam Smith first articulated the miracle and genius of the latter, which protected individual freedoms while achieving both social cohesion and growing prosperity – and all without a central directing political Leviathan.
A succession of leaders of failed, interventionist states has demonstrated the economic folly of the former. Crony capitalism is not progressive or enlightened or sophisticated, as Chalmers believes, but the oldest governance cancer there is.
At a deeper level, Chalmers’ Future Fund gambit is evidence of his inability to face the reality of trade-offs, which – when you think about it – is a basic requirement for competent economic leaders.
If you insist on equality of outcomes, you cannot have equality of opportunity. If you insist on running an economy with an overheated labour market, such as ours, you cannot have stable prices. And if you mandate expensive wind and solar power, you cannot lower power prices.

Those who tell the public they can have their cake and eat it are either dishonest or blind ideologues, whether of the left or the right. They may succeed in this deception for a while, but the public soon find them out. If Chalmers was betting his own money on his pet sectors, he would at least pay the price if they failed.

If the Future Fund fails, it is not only taxpayers that will suffer, but every person in Australia who depends on the government safety net – whether the Age Pension, the NDIS, aged-care support, unemployment benefits or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
The Future Fund is an insurance policy for these millions of Australians. A financial resource that, if managed wisely and prudently, could fund the coming tsunami of public sector superannuation liabilities with no need to made calls on our annual budget – with no need to cut into their entitlements.
Without the Fund or something like it in place, these liabilities will have to be funded by higher taxes, lower welfare payments or higher debt, pushing the cost on to future generations.
This is the position that Greece found itself in after the global financial crisis. We are not close to that country’s predicament, but Chalmers’ weakening of the Future Fund is a small step in that direction.
When Labor has taken the economic high ground and looked out for working Australians, it has always enjoyed political success. When it has surrendered to ideology and forgotten its traditional base, it has suffered.
A good Labor treasurer should be the economic conscience of the government they serve. A Chris Minns or Peter Malinauskas, if in Canberra, might fit the bill.
Jim Chalmers, for all his boasting and ambition, is not that man.
David Pearl is a former Treasury assistant secretary.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
November 22, 2024 7:21 am

Matt Gaetz has announced that he is withdrawing from his nomination for Attorney General.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/breaking-gaetz-withdraws-attorney-general-consideration/

I had excellent meetings with Senators yesterday. I appreciate their thoughtful feedback – and the incredible support of so many. While the momentum was strong, it is clear that my confirmation was unfairly becoming a distraction to the critical work of the Trump/Vance…

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
November 22, 2024 7:29 am

And, in Renewable Energy Superpower news …

Mainland Australia’s last wind tower manufacturer will be forced to mothball its plant in a major embarrassment for the ­Albanese government after cheap imports using heavy-polluting Chinese steel have destroyed the local industry and cast a shadow over Labor’s domestic renewables policy.

Keppel Prince has blasted the federal and Victorian governments after a long-running lack of certainty and failure to deal with heavily subsidised Asian steel imports forced the Portland-based manufacturer to close its wind tower manufacturing facility, once one of the nation’s biggest.

Hmmm.
So “heavily polluting” steel from Chinah is cheapah?
Why is that?

Cassie of Sydney
November 22, 2024 7:31 am

The latest Please Explain…..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoyO5tD9D4s

Superb. Part 2 is next week.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 22, 2024 7:35 am

John Hinderaker:

Gaetz Is Out | Power Line (21 Nov)

I think the truth is simpler. Gaetz’s announcement comes a day after he met with Republican senators on Capitol Hill. I think they told him that he wasn’t going to be confirmed.

I think the other aspect is Thune’s promise to allow recess appointments (see Branco’s toon this morning). It’s plausible that Thune could’ve threatened Trump et al that he will renege if Gaetz remains the AG nominee. Trump being a dealmaker would accept such a deal in order to get the rest of his team through. Then of course he’ll deservedly reward Gaetz later.

I have zero evidence for this, but Hinderaker’s theory would fit with it.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
November 22, 2024 7:38 am

I have zero evidence for this …

Well, you’ve come to the right place.

Farmer Gez
Farmer Gez
November 22, 2024 7:40 am

Emergency phone Apps not working in CFA trucks. No coverage when parked in depots and in poor signal areas.
The heads of emergency services in Melb are telling the brigades that the scrapping of the 3G network has been effectively replaced by 4-5G.
The signal on my phone has lost a lot of zip since the 3G was closed down. Never had a problem in buildings until now. I had nearly all bars before but now it’s two outside and drops to one or SOS in the house. All progress is not progress.

Rosie
Rosie
November 22, 2024 7:45 am

Gaetz had for real baggage, he’s appears to be a Prince Andrew type sleaze. I’m sure he’ll have a role but perhaps not so public facing.

cohenite
November 22, 2024 7:47 am

In other news, after obuma intervention:

Jussie Smollett Hate Crime Hoax Conviction Overturned by Illinois Supreme Court

Which begs the question: which one does Mike now give it to: Juicey or obuma. They’re both so pretty.

caveman
caveman
November 22, 2024 7:52 am

Charmers using the Future Fund to prop up the industry super funds that have invested heavily into renewables ,the govts ponzi scheme. This must be the beginning of his new economic modelling “values based capitalism” by govt for Oz.

lotocoti
lotocoti
November 22, 2024 8:06 am

A small snippet of good news from Airstrip One.

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 8:06 am

cohenite

November 22, 2024 7:47 am

In other news, after obuma intervention:

Jussie Smollett Hate Crime Hoax Conviction Overturned by Illinois Supreme Court

That’s interesting. So, the two Nigerians who were allegedly paid to stage the hoax—wouldn’t they theoretically be guilty of a hate crime? If Smollett is innocent, then doesn’t that make them guilty instead?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 22, 2024 8:07 am

Bad Penny strikes again.

‘Shameful’: Ex-Israeli minister denied visa (Paywallian)

Former Israeli government minister Ayelet Shaked has been denied a visa to come to Australia on character grounds in a fresh blow to the Albanese government’s ties with the Jewish state.

Ludicrous and petty. Ms Shaked is a fine lady and a righty. It’s like rejecting a visa for Tony Abbott on character grounds.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
November 22, 2024 8:12 am

…on character grounds.
Like Djokovic. And Lauren Southern.
From here, it’s a mark of honour to have the rabid pinko lefty commie Lizard People disapprove of your convictions. Although it’s a remarkably immature look from that nasty Wong chap.

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 8:13 am

There’s no spinoff in the real sense—it’s essentially a liquidation of MSNBC because they’re losing money and are disgusting in every way. Even for a leftist organization like NBC, MSNBC was too much to stomach.

MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow will reportedly take a $5 million pay cut as the cable television network’s ratings continue to dwindle.

The news came as Comcast, NBC’s parent company, announced it would split NBC News and MSNBC in its quest to create a new spinoff company with several NBC channels.

MSNBC will not survive now as the parent company won’t be supporting it.

P
P
November 22, 2024 8:14 am

Russia fired experimental ballistic missile at Ukraine, Putin says

KYIV, Nov 21 (Reuters) –

Russia fired a hypersonic intermediate-range ballistic missile at the city of Dnipro on Thursday in response to the U.S. and UK allowing Kyiv to strike Russian territory with advanced Western weapons, in a further escalation of the 33-month-old war.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
November 22, 2024 8:17 am

long-running lack of certainty
…read, less than gold-plated can’t fail forever security from other people’s munni
and failure to deal with heavily subsidised Asian steel imports
like they haven’t had more kickbacks than the Kulin racetrack starting pen

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 8:21 am

You go girls.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy float ending remote work for federal employees and ‘large-scale firings’

The idea could affect over 1 million federal workers who are eligible for remote work.

Incoming Trump administration advisers Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday floated ending remote work for federal workers, calling the practice a “privilege” left over from the pandemic. 

The two tech industry figures raised the idea in an opinion piece published online in The Wall Street Journal, saying it would be a straightforward means for shrinking the federal workforce. 

“Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” the two men wrote. 

That could affect more than 1 million federal workers. About 1.1 million federal civilian employees, or 46% of civilian personnel, are eligible for some amount of telework, according to an August report from the Office of Management and Budget. About 228,000 employees, or 10% of personnel, are in remote positions with no expectation that they work in-person on any regular or recurring basis, the report said. 

The Biden administration ordered federal agencies in 2023 to “substantially increase meaningful in-person work,” but it also left some flexibility in place, citing operational costs like office space, the need to recruit “top talent” and other factors. 

Musk and Ramaswamy are co-heads of what President-elect Donald Trump has called a Department of Government Efficiency, although their roles are advisory and it won’t be an official department unless Congress passes a law creating it. The acronym, DOGE, is a reference to an internet meme and cryptocurrency that Musk has promoted for years.

Indolent
Indolent
November 22, 2024 8:25 am

And the Liberals are “all in”. What was that ending in Animal Farm? They looked at the people and they looked at the pigs and they couldn’t tell the difference? We’re there.
They’re Coming for Your Privacy—and They’re Doing It Fast

Jock
Jock
November 22, 2024 8:27 am

Are there ICC arrest warrants for Putin and the Russian defence minister? Syrian “president ” Bahar Assad and all his government? Xi and the CCP for slavery?
I’m not up to date so just wondering.

Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 8:34 am

About 1.1 million federal civilian employees, or 46% of civilian personnel, are eligible for some amount of telework, according to an August report from the Office of Management and Budget. About 228,000 employees, or 10% of personnel, are in remote positions with no expectation that they work in-person on any regular or recurring basis, the report said. 

This is officially low-hanging fruit.

If you’re not prepared to come to your public service office five days a week — as you were until four years ago — you’re fired.

The civil service is the same the world over: it’s mostly a make-work scheme for unemployable paper-shufflers and the taxpayers footing the bill have no say in the matter.

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 8:40 am

This is when you begin to realize you’re a vassal state and you’d better mind your manners when the newbies take over.

Mike Lee

@BasedMikeLee

I look forward to hearings with British MPs, who will be asked to explain their censorship and threats against American citizens, including

@elonmusk

@visegrad24

·

After British MPs announce that Musk will be summoned to the UK Parliament to testify about X’s role in spreading disinformation about August riots, Musk says British MPs “will be summoned to the USA to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens”.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 22, 2024 8:47 am

I am amused that a Broadway show about a televangelist which was produced by two gay guys has bombed like a Bikini Atoll detonation.

‘Disaster’: Elton John’s epic $38m flop (21 Nov)

“Tammy Faye” has fallen harder than, well, Tammy Faye.

Elton John’s dreadful new Broadway musical about 1970s and ‘80s televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker posted its closing notice Tuesday — just five days after it opened at the Palace Theatre.

“Tammy Faye” was reportedly capitalised at $25 million ($38m AUD), and will lose every penny. …

With music by John, lyrics by Jake Shears of the Scissor Sisters and a book by James Graham (“Ink”), “Tammy Faye” stars Katie Brayben as the title TV talker, Christian Borle as her husband Jim Bakker and Michael Cerveris as Jerry Falwell.

In a one-star review last Thursday, I called the musical “amateurish with lots of dead air and little focus.”

The Bakkers were fairly notorious TV evangelists, so lefties wouldn’t bother turning up. And Elton and Jake are gay guys, so righties probably wouldn’t turn up. As well as all that it sounds like the songs weren’t very good either.

Indolent
Indolent
November 22, 2024 8:54 am

I’m quoting the full letter from George Christensen because this really is beyond outrageous. They don’t need to bother with the MAD act when they have this. Something which can be interpreted any which way they like.

They’re Coming for Your Privacy—and They’re Doing It Fast
Nation First analyses the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 and finds it to be a tool for undermining your privacy.
Dear friend,
We all know social media can be dangerous for kids. It’s a world filled with predators, bullies, and content that can mess with their minds and emotions. Parents are right to demand action. You and I both know something needs to change.
But the Australian Government’s “solution” to this problem isn’t the way. That “solution”—the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024—is a rushed, reckless piece of legislation that puts your privacy—and the privacy of every Australian—at serious risk. This isn’t just about kids anymore. It’s about you, me, and the government sticking its nose into every part of our online lives.

Find out how you can fight back at the end of this article!

The Social Media Minimum Age Bill 2024 requires platforms to collect private data, like IDs or even biometric scans, creating massive risks of breaches and misuse.An unelected bureaucrat—the eSafety Commissioner—is given sweeping powers to interpret and enforce vague rules with no proper oversight.The Bill’s vague definition of “reasonable steps” leaves platforms free to adopt invasive measures, like requiring ID uploads or facial recognition, with no clear limits on how far they can go.This legislation undermines online anonymity, linking real-world identities to social media accounts and threatening free expression and privacy.The government is rushing this Bill with just a 5-day inquiry and 24 hours for public submissions, leaving no time for proper scrutiny or debate.Go to the bottom of this article to find out how you can take urgent action.Have you heard about how fast they’re moving on this? The government is ramming the Bill through Parliament. They’ve given Australians less than 24 hours to make public submissions to an also rushed Senate inquiry—barely enough time to read the thing, let alone understand it. Why the rush? What are they trying to hide?
What does the Bill mean for you?
Let me tell you what this Bill does. It forces social media platforms to prove that users are 16 or older by implementing “age assurance” systems. That might sound harmless, but have you thought about what “age assurance” actually means? It means collecting your private information—your ID, maybe even your face through biometric scanning—and storing it online.
The Bill requires platforms to take “reasonable steps” to enforce the age limit. But what’s reasonable? That’s entirely up to one unelected bureaucrat: the eSafety CommissionerThis is the same person who once suggested that freedom of speech needs to be “recalibrated” for the sake of safety. That should send a shiver down your spine.

The Bill itself makes it clear: the eSafety Commissioner gets to decide what’s reasonable. They get to write the rules without oversight. Section 27(1)(qa) of the Bill gives them the power to set guidelines, and the Bill’s accompanying explanatory memorandum even says these guidelines “are not legislative instruments,” meaning Parliament doesn’t get a say. How is this democratic? How is this safe?
The major concern I have about the Bill is that your privacy will be undermined.
Now, you might be thinking: “But surely there are privacy protections, right?” Wrong. The Bill claims platforms can only use your personal information for age verification, but can you really trust that? Do you trust these platforms, or the corporate bureaucrats behind them, to destroy your data when they say they will?
And what happens if there’s a data breach? Think about it: your child’s ID, your face, or your private details in the hands of hackers or even foreign governments. Section 63F of the Bill outlines the so-called privacy safeguards, but we all know how easily these promises can be broken.
This Bill doesn’t just target kids. It affects you. Every Australian will feel this if these systems are rolled out. It’s not just about whether your kid can make a TikTok account—it’s about whether you’re comfortable handing over your identity to Big Tech and Big Government.

Last edited 11 days ago by Indolent
lotocoti
lotocoti
November 22, 2024 8:54 am

Perhaps the ABC has more than one FranK elly.

Kel
Kel
November 22, 2024 8:55 am

Latest from President Putin

https://x.com/Zlatti_71

Indolent
Indolent
November 22, 2024 8:58 am
JC
JC
November 22, 2024 9:00 am

Missed this back in late Oct, but it’s still topical.

21%

Russia’s central bank on Friday raised its key interest rate by 200 basis points to 21%, citing consumer price increases considerably above its forecast and warning of ongoing high inflation risks in the medium term. The key rate was taken up by 100 basis points to 19% in September.

Buying a home or apartment in Russia? Just hang on there,Sergey

MOSCOW, Nov. 15 — Russia’s largest bank Sberbank announced on Friday an increase in basic mortgage rates by 3.5 percentage points, bringing the minimum rate to 28.1 percent.

Sberbank said that starting Friday, its basic mortgage rates will rise due to an increase in the central bank’s key rate and the rising cost of government bonds.

The minimum interest rate for primary market mortgages on Sberbank’s Domclick platform will now be 28.4 percent, while the rate for secondary market mortgages will be set at 28.1 percent. ?

Konstantin’s looking for a business loan.
Moscow Times.

Russia Faces a Wave of Bankruptcies as Borrowing Costs Skyrocket

Russian businesses are bracing themselves for a financial crunch that could put many of them out of business. The Central Bank’s interest rate has reached a crushing 21%, with expectations for a further hike in December, and over the last two years, companies have built up significant commercial debt with floating-rate interest payments.

Indolent
Indolent
November 22, 2024 9:06 am

@WarlordDilley

Democrats are the weirdest people ever.

Republicans were forced off of social media due to having their voices censored and removed.

Democrats left social media because there was too much free speech.

What a bunch of retards.

Eyrie
Eyrie
November 22, 2024 9:07 am

After British MPs announce that Musk will be summoned to the UK Parliament

LOL! Them and whose Army exactly?

Spinning Mouse
Spinning Mouse
November 22, 2024 9:14 am

Others may have mentioned, but saw on tele last night the Victorian govt announcing a treat with aboriginal groups. To make the state “fairer for all”.

All about equality of outcome, forget equality of opportunity. The same crap which was just rejected in the US election.

Is there not an undercurrent of anger from Victorians about this? I would have thought 80% would say this is nonsense.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 22, 2024 9:14 am

Seasons are racist.

Joyless ‘Scientists’ Want to Police the Language on Your Invitations (20 Nov)

An op-ed in the journal Nature came out in October, but it just came to my attention this week. Two climate scientists (which should clue you in on their leanings) from Australia, Melissa Hart and Negin Nazarian, wrote that using the season in your event invitations isn’t “inclusive.” …

It gets even better because Hart and Nazarian offer suggestions on how to remedy this problem that nobody has. Of course, they do.

“Avoid naming seasons for events or communication,” they write. “This might not be an issue when inviting researchers from a single country, but it’s crucial if you’re trying to attract an international audience.” Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m assuming that this “international audience” is made up of grown-ups rather than preschoolers.

“Provide specific dates and months,” they continue. “Even saying ‘summer (Northern Hemisphere)’ implies the Euro-American-centric approach. The simple use of a month instead removes any confusion.”

They haven’t seemed to’ve worked it out that names of months mostly come from the extremely colonial-imperialist Roman Empire. But it’s fun that we here in Australia overachieve so much in producing this dribble.

Zippster
Zippster
November 22, 2024 9:23 am

Russian ICBM strike video

look at the speed of these things

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 9:30 am

Can someone explain what the big deal is about Russia using ICBMs tipped with conventional warheads in the ongoing war? Why is this considered an escalation, as some have suggested? It might be a bit more ‘explodey’ than other types of missiles, but couldn’t the Russians achieve the same result with smaller missiles in greater numbers? Honestly, I don’t see why this is such a big deal.

Makka
Makka
November 22, 2024 9:37 am

Remember Jill Dando- murdered walking down the street ?

Look down thread for the BBC cover up…

https://x.com/baejoseph/status/1859536213679464809

Then there’s this..

Who Killed Jill Dando? Lawyer calls for review of murder case as 25th anniversary approaches

A new line of inquiry has come up with a Serbian hitman, Milorad Ulemek, already in prison for two other killings

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/who-killed-jill-dando-real-story-b1106508.html

m0nty
m0nty
November 22, 2024 9:38 am

Matt Gaetz didn’t even last a full Scaramucci. Low energy, sad.

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 22, 2024 9:43 am

Monty, begone you foul turd

m0nty
m0nty
November 22, 2024 9:46 am

Can someone explain what the big deal is about Russia using ICBMs tipped with conventional warheads in the ongoing war? 

It is a minor escalation from nuclear sabre rattling to actually throwing a sabre, albeit one without actual nukes. It is intended as a threat that Russia is able to deliver nukes fairly easily.

Which everyone knew anyway, so it will make no difference really. Just something for Putin to order and feel like he is accomplishing something other than destroying the current generation of young Russian men.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 22, 2024 9:47 am

Comment, from the Oz.

Jesse

2 hours ago
Would love to hear from a constitutional expert about this- how would it even be legally possible for Australia to have a treaty with its own citizens? It seems an obvious absurdity.

If every Aboriginal person born in this country is an Australian citizen by birth, then how does any government, state or federal, have a treaty with only some of its citizens and not others? And how does one determine which side of the treaty they fall on in the case of mixed racial heritage?

I suspect any treaties entered into would be ultimately null and void.

Rabz
November 22, 2024 9:48 am

Turdeaux: ‘Gerbil Worming’ agenda more important than feeding kiddies that weren’t aborted

These f*ckwits are utterly insane – from the piece above comes these li’l gems, perfectly crafted for those existing in this age of unprecedented global collectivist stupidity:

the WEF recently called for governments around the world to ban members of the public from growing their own food at home, arguing the “carbon footprint” of home-grown food is “destroying the planet.”

But wait, that’s not all, folks!

the United Nations last year called for members of the general public to live in mud huts in order to meet the goals of the “Year Zero” agenda

For how much longer can this sort of insanity exist in plain sight before the global peasantry rises up and gifts these evil barking mad hypocritical lunatics a starring role in the long overdue and very righteous implementation of HOP Time™?

Trigger Warning: Hideously ugly collectivist crackpots

Last edited 11 days ago by Rabz
Black Ball
Black Ball
November 22, 2024 9:48 am

Ayatollah next? Extraordinary, Courier Mail:

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defence minister, as well as Hamas’s military chief Mohammed Deif.

The unprecedented move drew a furious reaction from Mr Netanyahu, who denounced it as anti-Semitic.

“Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions and accusations made against it,” he said.

I won’t go the whole article, lest your blood pressure kills you.
If there are a more evil pack of arseholes than the ICC, you would be hard pressed to find.
FMD

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 9:49 am

m0nty

November 22, 2024 9:38 am

Matt Gaetz didn’t even last a full Scaramucci. Low energy, sad.

Gaetz is likely to be causing lots of trouble in the senate, so I wouldn’t be too uppity if I were you. And his replacement nominee will carry the same ideological DNA.

Settle down and eat a donut fatboy as this giddiness is really weird.

Indolent
Indolent
November 22, 2024 9:52 am

Dr. John Campbell

Stroke

Indolent
Indolent
November 22, 2024 9:53 am
m0nty
m0nty
November 22, 2024 9:55 am

I mean, I suppose it’s good that the Trump administration can’t hold the line on elevating an actual rock spider to AG. Obviously, Q put his foot down. Bad look and all that.

Sexual assault on adult women, though, that is still fine. Hegseth may last a full Scaramucci.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
November 22, 2024 9:57 am

JC
 November 22, 2024 8:21 am

You go girls.

Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy float ending remote work for federal employees and ‘large-scale firings’

The idea could affect over 1 million federal workers who are eligible for remote work.

There is another aspect to work-from-home which can present a problem for the DC Swamp as well.
If you can work from home in DC, it isn’t a stretch to imagine that job being performed by someone working from home in Moonshine, West Virginia.

Cassie of Sydney
November 22, 2024 9:57 am

Matt Gaetz didn’t even last a full Scaramucci. Low energy, sad.

The Nazi appears. Crikey, where has he been these last two weeks?

By the way, two of our Nazi’s bonza predictions….

Biden can govern

Harris will win Iowa

Oh and another doozy, that after counting all the ballots in California, Harris will end up winning the popular vote over Trump. LOL How’s that working out, Nazi?

Can someone remind me…..just who is ‘low energy and sad’?

Miltonf
Miltonf
November 22, 2024 9:58 am

ICC- we found out years later that little John and Dolly signed us up to it. To think I once trusted those creeps.

Roger
Roger
November 22, 2024 10:00 am

If the Future Fund fails, it is not only taxpayers that will suffer, but every person in Australia who depends on the government safety net – whether the Age Pension, the NDIS, aged-care support, unemployment benefits or the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Those on low incomes will subsidise the comfortable, in this case retired public servants and politicians who’ve spent decades on the public teat offering little of value in return.

It started with the renewables subsidies. It’s the new Australian way.

Last edited 11 days ago by Roger
JC
JC
November 22, 2024 10:03 am

And people here chided earlier for noting the lacuna in centre-right political thought regarding oligarchy.

Trying to grab a hair follicle while drowning isn’t exactly the lifeline you’d hope for. According to the link, the meeting was about lowering regulatory hurdles in fund management and business operations, not about an $11 trillion fund eyeing a 200-acre lot in rural Britain.
So, let me get this straight: any meeting now supports your broken theory that major funds are lining up to snatch Grandpa’s small farm when he kicks the bucket? Sure, let’s roll with that and move on.
Oh, and yes, Fink is definitely an arsehole.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
November 22, 2024 10:04 am

@elonmusk
@visegrad24
·

After British MPs announce that Musk will be summoned to the UK Parliament to testify about X’s role in spreading disinformation about August riots, Musk says British MPs “will be summoned to the USA to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens”.

Always escalate.
Always.

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 10:05 am

There is another aspect to work-from-home which can present a problem for the DC Swamp as well.

If you can work from home in DC, it isn’t a stretch to imagine that job being performed by someone working from home in Moonshine, West Virginia.

LOL, I’d hazard to guess those two would be thinking along these lines.

Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 10:07 am

If you can work from home in DC, it isn’t a stretch to imagine that job being performed by someone working from home in Moonshine, West Virginia.

It would be absolutely magnificent if Elon and Vivek figured out how to subcontract the clerical work of the Swamp to the folks in Moonshine WV. The inspiration would quickly spread to the private economy.

The only problem it would create would be the fallout from a national unemployment rate of 0%.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
November 22, 2024 10:09 am

The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 is a brief document.

However to obtain definitions of terms and to understand how it actually works and what the legal implications are, a reader needs to reference five other, complicated, pieces of related legislation touched by the Bill:

  1. Online Safety Act 2021
  2. Privacy Act 1988
  3. Legislation Act 2003
  4. Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014
  5. Age Discrimination Act 2004

Not a quick or easy job.

Yet we the public (or, more accurately, appropriately qualified lawtradepersons) get one (1) day to make submissions [Bill introduced to Parliament 21/11/24, closing date for submissions 22/11/24, with the Inquiry due to start on 26/11/24 – ie next Tuesday].

The Powers That Be of Canbra recognise this absurdly and insultingly short timeframe, and offer this helpful request:

The closing date for submissions is 22 November 2024. Due to the short timeframe of this inquiry, the committee would appreciate submissions being limited to 1-2 pages.

I could easily be wrong, but I think this may be a record depth to the utter contempt with which government holds the governed in Australia.

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 10:10 am

The only problem it would create would be the fallout from a national unemployment rate of 0%.


Trump showed them what to do, Tom. Anyone should be able to learn how to flip burgers and cook french fries.

Cassie of Sydney
November 22, 2024 10:12 am

Always escalate.
Always.

+10000000000000000000000000000%

I see that BIbi has come out swinging this morning too, calling the ICC ‘anti-Semitic’, which it is. Bibi ain’t begging, pleading and cowering in the corner.

Vicki
Vicki
November 22, 2024 10:13 am

Last night heard Mathew Levitt speak on Iran at the Sydney Institute. Very very impressive scholar. He has a book coming out which I recommend. Can’t recall title but no doubt on the internet. He reckons they mean business and have operatives throughout the western world.

Roger
Roger
November 22, 2024 10:13 am

When I arrived at the hospital today I went to kiss my mother and she whispered to me she was dying.

No words I can offer will ease the pain, Cassie, but it’s good that your mother has come to this realisation. And she’s blessed to be in that particular facility at this time. What a wonderful example of charity the Jewish community provides for us at a time when many Christian institutions have lost touch with their calling.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
November 22, 2024 10:14 am

Oh, and TikTok’s regulator, the CCP, will almost certainly comply with the provisions of the Privacy Act (for fear of the 30,000 penalty units) and make sure that the personal data handed over by Team Handsome Boy is secure.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
November 22, 2024 10:16 am

Question for computer types.

This age verification for social media, doesn’t affect me I’m not on anything.

However a mates mrs is Thai, currently very indignant about giving details to Facebook if she has to but like a lot of Thais she runs under a false name, false age, false city of residence & has no profile apart from name so would run afoul anyway. She has it for messenger so they can face time overseas.

If she were to move her profile residence from here to Thailand, would that be a work around? Or would there be some geolocation type firewall?

I’m curious as well, as I suspect a lot will just do that and I’d imagine the Government would have already thought of that course of action, mitigating it somehow.

Pogria
Pogria
November 22, 2024 10:18 am

Hey Cats and Kittehs. For a couple or three years now, most here, have been using “colesworth”, to describe our moribund supermarkets.

It has become Australia’s “Word of the Year”. lol

Whoever coined it, give yourself a pat. 😀

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 10:18 am

Vicki

November 22, 2024 10:13 am

Last night heard Mathew Levitt speak on Iran at the Sydney Institute.

Can you give us a summary of what he had to say.

Roger
Roger
November 22, 2024 10:23 am

Grievance treaties don’t heal injustice, they create it

Henry Ergas, The Australian, 22nd November, 2024

As New Zealand tears itself apart over the legacy of Waitangi, the fate of that treaty and of the American Indian treaties in North America contains many lessons for Australia. Treaties are, of course, hardly a recent development, any more than is their use for territorial expansion. Centuries ago, Cicero listed them in On Duties (De Officiis) as one of the major ways in which territory could be legitimately acquired. But even then, they were far from uncontentious, with Polybius exemplifying their shortcomings by the treaties between Rome and Carthage, whose ambiguities stoked the very wars they were intended to avoid.

Nonetheless, the deeply ingrained legalism of medieval and early modern Europe helped place treaties at the heart of relations between princes. Moreover, the Reformation heightened their importance during the Age of Exploration, as it swept away the papal bulls that had previously served to legitimate overseas conquests.

That period, which broadly went from the 16th century to the end of the 18th century, saw a fundamental transformation in the status of treaties. At its outset, the distinction between treaties and contracts was extremely blurred. Made in the name of their signatories, treaties could be entered into by subordinates, such as feudal lords, as well as by monarchs.

That changed, however, with the emergence of what became the modern state, and of the concept of sovereignty with it.

Just as in republican Rome a treaty required Senate approval, so, beginning with Henry V’s treaty with Sigismund in 1413, treaties increasingly invoked the authority of the nation, bestowed not solely by the monarch but through ratification by parliaments or estates. Hugo Grotius, writing in 1625, could therefore define a treaty as “a contract of sovereigns”, excluding agreements reached by or with sub-national entities.

Additionally, and importantly, the production of compilations of treaties – starting with Jacques Bernard’s Compendium in 1700 – encouraged their standardisation, aided by the acceptance of French as the lingua franca of diplomacy. As European diplomats came to share a conceptual framework, the groundwork was laid for the proliferation of interstate treaties in the 19th century.

Unfortunately, the factors that facilitated treaty-making within the West were irrelevant to relations between European colonisers and indigenous peoples. Grotius had authoritatively stated that “the right of making alliances is common to all men”; but that did nothing to ensure the colonial treaties were understood by those who signed them – or that their translations reflected a common appreciation of the treaties’ implications.

Nor was their continuing legal significance apparent, all the more so as the chieftains invariably abdicated any claim to sovereignty, undermining the treaties’ standing.

It is therefore unsurprising that John Marshall, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, could, in the landmark case of Cherokee Nation v Georgia (1831), call them an anomaly, “marked by peculiar distinctions which exist nowhere else”. While accepting that the Cherokees were “a distinct political society”, he found that they were, in legal terms, no more than “a domestic dependent nation”, whose treaties were “completely under the sovereignty and dominion of the United States”.

Chief Justice James Pendergast of New Zealand echoed that view when he ruled in 1877 that “the pact known as the ‘Treaty of Waitangi’ must be regarded as a simple nullity”.

And Labour prime minister Michael Savage confirmed it in 1939, stating that despite frequent references to the treaty as New Zealand’s Magna Carta, “the Treaty of Waitangi creates no rights cognisable in a court of law”. But in this area, like many others, the 1960s turned the world upside down. Indigenous activism exploded; so did judicial activism; and left-leaning governments followed suit.

In 1966, a powerful dissent by Justice (later Chief Justice) John Cartwright of the Supreme Court of Canada heralded the change, not only by breathing new life into old treaties but also by completely ignoring the traditional rules, set down in international law, of treaty interpretation.

Central to this new approach was the rediscovery of Sir Edward Coke’s concept of “the Honour of the Crown”, which the great Elizabethan jurist had articulated in 1613. Almost entirely forgotten since then, it imposed on the Crown the highest standard of conduct, as assessed by the court, even if the conduct it prescribed went well beyond what was convenient, required by law or reasonably likely in the circumstances.

Gradually establishing itself after Cartwright’s 1966 dissent as the dominant normative standard in Canadian Indian treaty cases, the “Honour of the Crown” entered the Waitangi Treaty’s interpretation as judge-made law in 1987. But it was only some years after the Treaty of Waitangi Act of 1985, which empowered the until then largely toothless Waitangi Tribunal to investigate claims dating back to 1840, that the consequences of imposing a much higher standard on the Crown’s relation to indigenous people than on its relation to other citizens became fully apparent.

As historian Ruth Ross had noted in 1972, only so much burden could be borne by a treaty that was “hastily drawn up, ambiguous and contradictory in content, chaotic in its execution”. But the Tribunal was imbued with its mission of correcting historical wrongs.

It therefore decided to hold the Crown to the highest conceivable standard of conduct and – showing scant regard for causation – considered it solely responsible for the result of any shortcomings from that standard. It also determined that in defining the ideal conduct, the many ambiguities and inconsistencies in the Treaty were to be resolved to the claimants’ benefit, thus breaching the longstanding doctrine that treaties should be interpreted neutrally as between the parties.

And when the documentary evidence (typically amounting to many metres of shelf space) didn’t suit the resulting narrative, it felt free to dismiss it, as in Muriwhenua Land (1997), for “presenting only a European point of view”. Those “self-serving” European explanations were, it said, to be replaced by a “Maori world-view”, which the Tribunal implausibly assumed had remained unchanged for centuries.

Finally, having thus proven that bad history, like bad currency, drives out good, it would construct, as the basis for determining the compensation that was due, a shining past-that-could-have-been-had-the-government-acted-properly, in a fiction rightly derided by historian Bill Oliver as a “retrospective utopia”.

However, the greatest harm the Treaty has caused does not lie in the sweeping rights and taxpayers’ funds handed over to claimants. It lies in the sacralisation of a backward-looking culture of grievance. As Winston Peters, who opposed the initial legislation, warned years ago, such a system was a recipe not for progress but for creating “a bitter and divided nation with separate systems for Maori and non-Maori” – as it plainly has.

Yet despite that experience, the Albanese government, trapped in an idea-clot, remains committed to negotiating a treaty. That treaty, Megan Davis tells us, must be “about reparations for past injustices”. Should it come to pass, the real injustice will be to Australia’s future, which surely deserves better.

alwaysright
alwaysright
November 22, 2024 10:28 am

If every Aboriginal person born in this country is an Australian citizen by birth, then how does any government, state or federal, have a treaty with only some of its citizens and not others? 

Hmm. Are non-citizens eligible for unemployment benefits and other Commonwealth support?

Does signing a treaty invalidate an individuals citizenship?

JC
JC
November 22, 2024 10:36 am

Just out

BREAKING: President-elect Trump has nominated former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to be the next Attorney General of the United States.

Know nothing about her, but she’s an okay looker.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
November 22, 2024 10:39 am

Scratch one carpark.

mem
mem
November 22, 2024 10:44 am

So in Victoria the Allen Labor government is raiding the State’s Emergency relief and disaster Fund and in Canberra the Albanese Labor government is about to raid Australia’s Future Fund. What is it about the penchant for Labor stealing our future!

Arky
November 22, 2024 10:46 am

Hmm. Are non-citizens eligible for unemployment benefits and other Commonwealth support?

Does signing a treaty invalidate an individuals citizenship?

Worse: if they can sign treaties with Australian governments, haven’t you just laid a basis for them to negotiate treaties with overseas governments?
What’s to stop them signing a treaty giving away parts of Australia or some of their rights to the CCP?

Top Ender
Top Ender
November 22, 2024 10:49 am

Just popped up on Facebook:

Tickets are ON SALE NOW for An Evening with Bob Geldof: Songs and Stories from an Extraordinary Life!

Can’t he be blocked at the port of arrival?

bons
bons
November 22, 2024 10:51 am

“Punchable face” is a terrible term that should never be used.

However.

Bowen. McConnel. Wong.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
November 22, 2024 10:54 am

…the Albanese government, trapped in an idea-clot

Henry Ergas certainly has a way with words.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
November 22, 2024 10:59 am

Elon Musk:

After British MPs announce that Musk will be summoned to the UK Parliament to testify about X’s role in spreading disinformation about August riots, Musk says British MPs “will be summoned to the USA to explain their censorship and threats to American citizens”.

?

There is little that appears more pathetic than a broken arse pensioner claiming that he once ruled the world, but Starmer and his crew of Marxist Stooges are beating it hands down.

Top Ender
Top Ender
November 22, 2024 10:59 am

Available now for parts. Any parts? Stage sweeping? Tea boy? Sorry – tea person!

Jussie Smollett has conviction over ‘hoax hate attack’ overturned

An actor accused of hiring two men to stage a racially motivated attack on him has had his conviction for lying about the incident overturned.

The Illinois Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Jussie Smollett, who starred in the drama series Empire, was treated unfairly because prosecutors broke an agreement not to charge him.

“Today we resolve a question about the state’s responsibility to honour the agreements it makes with defendants,” wrote Justice Elizabeth Rochford.

“We address whether a dismissal of a case … allows the state to bring a second prosecution when the dismissal was entered as part of an agreement with the defendant and the defendant has performed his part of the bargain. We hold that a second prosecution under these circumstances is a due process violation, and we therefore reverse defendant’s conviction.”

Smollett, who is gay, claimed in 2019 that he was attacked in Chicago by two men who shouted racist and homophobic abuse at him, and left him with a noose around his neck. The men, Smollett said, shouted pro-Trump slogans and told him he was in “Maga country”.

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, the model Naomi Campbell and the actor Kerry Washington were among those who leapt to Smollett’s defence and condemned the “attack”.

Yet a court was told that he had paid two brothers, whom he met on the set of the TV show, a total of dollars 3,500 to carry out the attack.

Prosecutors alleged that he staged the attack because he was unhappy with the studio’s response to hate mail he received.

Smollett, 42, insists he is innocent and did not stage the hoax, despite the brothers giving detailed interviews describing the arrangement.

Smollett was sentenced to 150 days in jail, 30 months of probation, and ordered to pay more than dollars 130,000 in restitution. He served six days of that sentence in 2021, but was released pending appeal.

In 2019, Kim Foxx, the state lawyer for Cook County, agreed to drop the charges if Smollett paid dollars 10,000 and did community service. But that agreement was rescinded and a special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.

The latest ruling cited the overturning of Bill Cosby’s conviction on sexual assault charges after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that his prosecution had broken a previous agreement not to charge him.

“It cannot be gainsaid that society holds a strong interest in the prosecution of crimes,” the Illinois justices wrote.

“It is also true that no such interest, however important, ever can eclipse society’s interest in ensuring that the constitutional rights of the people are vindicated. Society’s interest in prosecution does not displace the remedy due to constitutionally aggrieved persons.”

The Times

bons
bons
November 22, 2024 10:59 am

Oh, and

Barry and Rudd.

Miltonf
Miltonf
November 22, 2024 11:01 am

The trouble with socialism is you eventually run out of other people’s money. Allen and Andrews have.

Top Ender
Top Ender
November 22, 2024 11:06 am

Bill Shorten’s valedictory speech reveals what he was really on about. Along with negative gearing, we all need to get onto:

….climate change, defence and foreign policy reform, constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, treaties and the equal treatment of women.

Strange…the comments in the Oz don’t seem to like him:

Brian

Committed to principles; just the wrong ones.

BrianK

Thanks for the total mess that you have made of NDIS . And the billions of costs that could have built very many hospitals and schools

John

Well done I say, made many people in business of care Millions. Thank fully you got back $1 billion sadly though as usual with Labor you blew the original budget by over 100%. I guess you and the rest of the Labor crew mean the best but sadly in my opinion you keep getting wrong. And hopefully you’ll be moved on.

Midnight spoiler

“There should be no dividing line any longer in this parliament between those who are pro or anti-­employer, those who are pro or anti-union. We no longer have to make that false choice. We can work together. The nation needs this,” he said.
This from the man who pitted Australian against Australian in his class warfare rhetoric in a vain attempt to win power.

Goldfinger

There was a referendum and the people said no. Yet we have people in government who refuse to accept the peoples word and are still pushing their own agenda. What ever happened to democracy and looking after the interests of the Australian people?

Jimmy

Bill the people read it alright and could see the beginning of the end for Australia and look what you have delivered us. Labor with their Leaders have proved over a long period of time they are economic vandals, no political nous and do not work in the best interests for the majority of Australians. You were a failure, even Albanese worse and now they heading to anoint their next leader Chalmers who has proven in every way that he is incapable of leading a prosperous and developing country and in fact is anti Australian.

Ross

The treaty boondoggle to divide Australia has been decided. We said NO. Our unrepresentative political class now plans to legislate what we overwhelmingly rejected.

David

Typical. Shorten comes up with a hairbrained scheme the NDIS which is crippling our finances & then leaves when he realises he cant fix what is broken. 

Sam

Bill will be remembered as the man who lost the unlosable election because of 1 issue, Franking Credits. And still Labor hasn’t learnt the lesson that Super is our money, not the Governments plaything.

jeff

Shorten has let the cat out of the bag as to the agenda of a re-elected labor party. Albo will not be happy.

Go there and join in if you can. Bill deserves it.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 22, 2024 11:12 am

From the Oz.

James

2 hours ago
Former prime minister John Howard has repeatedly pointed out that treaties recognised by international law can only take place between sovereign nations. That means very clearly that the Australian government cannot enter into a treaty recognised by international law with a designated group of its own citizens. Does Bill Shorten fail to understand this?

Miltonf
Miltonf
November 22, 2024 11:14 am

Shorten will be a good fit at the ‘university” of canbra. In what way do taxpayers benefit from the ‘university” of canbra?

Rabz
November 22, 2024 11:20 am

The teats peanuthead/waffles turnbuckle 2016 feral erection result fittingly revealed the electorate’s opinion on the staggering mediocrity of both imbeciles.

Still no mention of the fact Teats has been porking a bimbo for the last two years who was CEO of an NDIS provider while he was NDIS minister.

Corruption we much? Of course not – this is Venoztraliastan, peons!

bons
bons
November 22, 2024 11:27 am

Here we go.

How will Wong and Albanese react to the ICC warrant.

Having just stolen the Nation’s savings, spitting in out faces by pursuing Bibi wouldn’t trouble them in the slightest.

IT IS NEVER SAFE TO VOTE LABOR.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
November 22, 2024 11:36 am

On UK farms.
Missed the discussion yesterday. Some perhaps useful insights into Starmer’s raid on the UK farming industry:

Nearly half of the UK’s ~200,000 registered farms are sub 20 hectares (~50 acres). The vast majority of these will be deeply uneconomic from a business perspective – mainly lifestyle, high-risk specialists, horse growing, and desperate hard-scrabble subsistence farming.

The other 100,000 farms cover around 15 million hectares – so an average of 150 hectares (~370 acres). These make a modest financial return – although farm returns have been thrashed in 2023/24.

Despite the above, quality UK farmland is (or perhaps more accurately, has been) an attractive investment asset class, offering portfolio investors capital growth and a non-depleting asset – albeit with a low yield.

As at UK Summer 2024, there is significant investment interest (particularly in England) and historically high supply of agricultural land coming onto the market has not crushed land prices.

This is the market segment that Starmer/Reeves are targeting.
The productive, value-adding bit.

As Labour does.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
November 22, 2024 11:52 am

In 2019, Kim Foxx, the state lawyer for Cook County, agreed to drop the charges if Smollett paid dollars 10,000 and did community service. But that agreement was rescinded and a special prosecutor later charged him again, leading to his trial and conviction.

The latest ruling cited the overturning of Bill Cosby’s conviction on sexual assault charges after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court concluded that his prosecution had broken a previous agreement not to charge him.

So, guilty as charged.

But a victory anyway for the foresighted Mz Foxx:

Kim Foxx says she permanently changed the prosecutor’s office

During her eight years in office, she approved hundreds of exonerations, helped legalize marijuana and successfully pushed to abolish cash bail.

Foxx also faced near-constant criticism for her so-called progressive approach. She did not seek re-election to a third term.

Legal toilet.

Gabor
Gabor
November 22, 2024 11:57 am

Rockdoctor
November 22, 2024 10:16 am

Question for computer types.

Not a nerd myself but my daughter is.
She tells me there are ways to avoid detection or more exactly make it very hard to track down, but normal people have no access to it as they don’t know about it.
You IP address can be very easily tracked even if using VPN, don’t rely on it to being anonymous.

Makka
Makka
November 22, 2024 12:01 pm

Great to see the MSNBC grubs in a panic over Trump’s new AG pick- Bondi.

“She’s competent!”

@CollinRugg

JUST IN: MSNBC guest melts down over Trump picking Pam Bondi as the next Attorney General, says they should “fear” her because she’s competent.

Liberal political scientist Jason Johnson said Bondi is an “effective pick” who is “worse” than Matt Gaetz.

“We should all fear [her] because she’s competent. We may not agree with her ideologically, but she actually knows how to do this job.”

“Pam Bondi knows what she’s doing. She knows what she’s doing about immigration.”

“She is a dangerous and effective pick, and that’s frankly worse than what we would have got with Matt Gaetz.”

https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1859747796661739802

Makka
Makka
November 22, 2024 12:06 pm

Chat GPT’s answer to how to protect online privacy (fwiw);

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) protects your online privacy by creating a secure, encrypted connection between your device and the internet. Here’s how it works:

1. Encrypts Your Internet Traffic

A VPN encrypts the data you send and receive online. This encryption prevents others (like hackers, internet service providers (ISPs), or government surveillance agencies) from reading your data. Even if intercepted, the data would appear as gibberish without the encryption key.

2. Hides Your IP Address

When you connect to a VPN, your internet traffic is routed through a VPN server. This masks your real IP address, replacing it with the VPN server’s address. This makes it difficult for websites, advertisers, or trackers to pinpoint your physical location or link online activity to you.

3. Prevents ISP Tracking

Without a VPN, your ISP can see the websites you visit, the apps you use, and other online activities. A VPN encrypts your traffic, so your ISP can only see that you’re connected to a VPN server but not what you’re doing online.

4. Secures Public Wi-Fi Connections

Public Wi-Fi networks are often unsecured, making them a prime target for hackers to intercept data. A VPN encrypts your connection, making it safe to use public Wi-Fi without exposing sensitive information like login credentials or credit card numbers.

5. Bypasses Geo-Restrictions and Censorship

A VPN lets you access content restricted by geography (like streaming services) or bypass internet censorship in restrictive regions by connecting to servers in other locations.

6. Reduces Online Tracking

Advertisers and trackers often use your IP address and browsing habits to serve targeted ads. A VPN reduces this tracking by anonymizing your internet activity and IP address.

Important Notes:

VPN Providers: Choose a trustworthy VPN provider, as they handle your internet traffic. Ensure they have a strict no-logs policy and strong encryption standards.

Not Full Anonymity: A VPN enhances privacy but doesn’t guarantee total anonymity. Complement it with other tools like ad-blockers and privacy-focused browsers.

By acting as a secure middleman, a VPN protects your privacy and ensures a safer online experience.

Makka
Makka
November 22, 2024 12:17 pm

China has it’s demographic problems and of course it’s tyrant CCP overlords.

But just look at what Chinese kindergarten kids get up to in outdoor activities;

https://x.com/WallStreetMav/status/1859761038905966844

Are we missing something? While our kids are subjected to woke abo shyte , rainbow deviant culture and attending trannie reading time?

Kneel
Kneel
November 22, 2024 12:27 pm

“Words are no longer enough – it’s time for action. 
“We stand with the Jewish community and call for immediate measures to protect and uphold the rights and safety of all citizens.”

+infinity.

Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 12:29 pm

“Pam Bondi knows what she’s doing. She knows what she’s doing about immigration.”

“She is a dangerous and effective pick, and that’s frankly worse than what we would have got with Matt Gaetz.”

I laughed out loud when I heard this from a useful black idiot on MSNBC.

Smart chicks like Pam Bondi frighten the hell out of the Dems because they’re competent whereas all the liberal chicks are as dumb as dogshit and hopelessly inept.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 22, 2024 12:35 pm

Reading any treaty with the Indigenous – my Nanna told me I had had an indigenous great – great grandfather. Where do I register?

Gilas
Gilas
November 22, 2024 12:45 pm

Just received an email from the Free Speech Union, about the Social Media Minimum Age Bill.If passed, this Bill will force all social media platforms to require personal information to confirm DOB, before allowing use of the platform.
..And we all know how this information will be kept, and used.
Thoughtfully, and as we have come to expect from the putrid, totalitarian kunts in parliament, the submissions period is ONE (1) day ie. until COB today!

Yes.. even Hitler wouldn’t have been this brazen, before September 1939.

A template for submissions can be found here All Cats are encouraged to act. I did.

Makka
Makka
November 22, 2024 12:48 pm
Eyrie
Eyrie
November 22, 2024 12:55 pm

Anyone else having trouble viewing in line replies?

m0nty
m0nty
November 22, 2024 12:55 pm

Ah yes, Pam Bondi, famous for asking Trump for an illegal bribe to kill the Trump Foundation fraud investigation, duly paid and rewarded.

It isn’t required to be a known criminal to be nominated for the Trump cabinet, but it sure helps.

Top Ender
Top Ender
November 22, 2024 1:46 pm

Back online eh? Was getting “database error” there for some time.

Nelson_Kidd-Players
Nelson_Kidd-Players
November 22, 2024 1:50 pm

Is that new? Seven is televising the cricket on two of their channels (not unusual) but I’ve of them is in Hindi rather than English. Sign of the times, I guess.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
November 22, 2024 1:52 pm

CBS Sets Up Fake, Unofficial “Pool” and Creates Firestorm After Claiming 2 Ambulances Spotted Leaving Mar-a-Lago – Trump Camp Responds with FIRE

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/11/cbs-sets-up-fake-unofficial-pool-creates-firestorm/

“Per pool, 2 ambulances and several vans that appeared full of Secret Service have left Mar-a-Lago in the last few minutes,” Andrew Feinberg, a reporter for The Independent said on X citing CBS News.

“This is according to a note from the CBS tv pool crew near Palm Beach,” he said.

Tom
Tom
November 22, 2024 1:53 pm

Fresh from November 5’s arse-kicking, the parrot has all this week’s DNC talking points ready to go! The troll is determined to make sure Australians don’t vote the wrong way in the 2028 presidential election.

Does anyone remember how Trump went in Iowa? Haha.

Gilas
Gilas
November 22, 2024 2:05 pm

Indolent
November 22, 2024 12:16 pm

Reply to  Gabor
Exactly so. I use a VPN but Amazon has no problem recognising me when I visit the site, no login needed.

Quite.
That’s because they use the network card’s MAC (medium access control address) to identify you.

This is almost unique to each card and can be found, through the Window$ command prompt by typing “ipconfig /all” and looking at the “Physical Address” result of the network card you’re using, usually either Ethernet adapter or Wireless LAN

The MAC address can be changed through the Window$ registry, but it will need to be changed regularly to ATTEMPT to maintain anonimity.

VPNs promise but don’t deliver. If one wants true anonimity, stay off the internet.

Vicki
Vicki
November 22, 2024 2:08 pm

Vicki

November 22, 2024 10:13 am

Last night heard Mathew Levitt speak on Iran at the Sydney Institute.

Can you give us a summary of what he had to say.

Gosh no, JC! I didn’t take notes & he delivered one of the densely factual talks I have heard at the Institute. His talk ranged across the implication of Iran in the Oct 6 attacks to a very broad history of Iran’s ideological expansion in the ME. The guy is a living encyclopaedia on Iran.

However, you can (I think) hear the speech on the Sydney Institute website. I don’t think you have to be a member to do that.

I just asked a weak question on whether Islamic State, and also the assassination of Suleimani, slowed them down.

Vicki
Vicki
November 22, 2024 2:11 pm

JC, I note that there is a subscription to the Sydney Institute Podcasts, but that some seem to be available freely. I can’t see that Levitt’s talk is yet available.

Makka
Makka
November 22, 2024 2:13 pm

” Welcome to country “- in Baku. From woke brainwashed overpaid children.

https://x.com/craigkellyXXX/status/1859337168344478001

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
November 22, 2024 2:16 pm

Wow Sundance over at Conservative Treehouse not happy with Pam as AG:

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2024/11/21/pam-bondi/#more-266531

More here on his twitter feed, deep state or compromised?

https://nitter.poast.org/TheLastRefuge2

cohenite
November 22, 2024 2:27 pm

Ah yes, Pam Bondi, famous for asking Trump for an illegal bribe to kill the Trump Foundation fraud investigation, duly paid and rewarded.
It isn’t required to be a known criminal to be nominated for the Trump cabinet, but it sure helps.

Dickless lying again. Back to the milko’s kidlets dickless.

Vicki
Vicki
November 22, 2024 2:28 pm

Further for those interested in the work of Matthew Levitt:

Matthew Levitt is the Fromer-Wexler Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of its Jeanette and Eli Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. From 2005 to early 2007, he served as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. In that capacity, he served both as a senior official within the department’s terrorism and financial intelligence branch and as deputy chief of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis, one of sixteen U.S. intelligence agencies coordinated under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Dr. Levitt has served as an expert witness in several criminal and civil cases, lectured on international terrorism on behalf of the Departments of State, Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security, consulted for various U.S. government agencies and private industry, and testified before the Senate and House on matters relating to international terrorism. He is the author of several books and monographs and is the host of the podcast series, Breaking Hezbollah’s Golden Rule. He created and maintains interactive maps of Hezbollah’s international activities and of Iran’s external operations.

Lysander
Lysander
November 22, 2024 2:45 pm

I made the radio news yesterday!!! Imagine, a five-minute interview for a 10 second sound bite…

(Everyone has their 15 minutes of fame I guess) 😛

Zippster
Zippster
November 22, 2024 2:54 pm

….climate change, defence and foreign policy reform, constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians, treaties and the equal treatment of women.

cause we all know that women are just men with inverted or lopped off dicks…

Zippster
Zippster
November 22, 2024 2:56 pm

Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is reportedly discussing his potential exit from his position, with negotiations focusing on obtaining immunity from future legal investigations. These discussions are occurring amidst speculation and public debate over his tenure, particularly with regards to actions taken by the Department of Homeland Security under his leadership.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
November 22, 2024 3:09 pm

Binyamin Netanyahu faces the prospect of arrest if he travels to the UK after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his detention for war crimes in Gaza.

https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/11/outrage-at-the-icc.php
He should go to Britain, just to force the bastard Starmer to make good on his threat to arrest him. Make them live up to their political stunts and cop the consequences.
Then have another Entebbe raid.

Rabz
November 22, 2024 3:14 pm

mayorkarse, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is reportedly discussing his potential exit from his position, with negotiations focusing on obtaining immunity from future legal investigations

Yeah, no. Open and shut case.

Charge: Treason
Verdict: Guilty
Penalty: Execution

Boambee John.
Boambee John.
November 22, 2024 3:16 pm

Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is reportedly discussing his potential exit from his position, with negotiations focusing on obtaining immunity from future legal investigations.

Because the principal thing an honest public official leaving office needs is “immunity from future legal investigations”.

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 22, 2024 3:20 pm

Mayorkas admitting fault finally, after many Congress hearings saying he was in the right by admitting many millions of undocumented immigrants.
HOP time indeed Master Rabz.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
November 22, 2024 3:22 pm

The International Criminal Court are nearly as bad as the International Cricket Council, both are ICC and a waste of oxygen.

Makka
Makka
November 22, 2024 3:25 pm

Alejandro Mayorkas, the Secretary of Homeland Security, is reportedly discussing his potential exit from his position, with negotiations focusing on obtaining immunity from future legal investigations.

Many families with loved one’s murdered by illegal immigrants and living in sanctuary cities would love to see this POS in the dock on charges. Charges which should be drafted and ready to enact on Day 1.

Last edited 11 days ago by Makka
P
P
November 22, 2024 3:27 pm
Lysander
Lysander
November 22, 2024 3:27 pm

I see the Aussies are giving India curry!

(Does any other Cat find it hard to support the Aussies given knobheads Cummins and Allajwah)?

Indolent
Indolent
November 22, 2024 3:28 pm
Indolent
Indolent
November 22, 2024 3:30 pm
Miltonf
Miltonf
November 22, 2024 3:38 pm

I have no wish to visit Britain ever again. Grateful to my forebears for emigrating and Grateful I saw it in the late 80s when it was still rather nice in spots.

Black Ball
Black Ball
November 22, 2024 3:39 pm

Does any other Cat find it hard to support the Aussies given knobheads Cummins and Allajwah

Yes. My love for cricket took a dent when Smith and Warner continued after a short suspension.
Cummins had a book out recently, I will try and find an excerpt but it was sop, and Khawaja is the laziest cricketer since Inzamam Ul Haq. Incidentally both Pakistani.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
November 22, 2024 3:47 pm

Because the principal thing an honest public official leaving office needs is “immunity from future legal investigations”.

Seems not so long ago the Dims were fulminating against the idea of a President (well, one President really – Trump) having immunity for actions undertaken while in office.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
November 22, 2024 3:50 pm

5 comments til the page turn

Lysander
Lysander
November 22, 2024 3:52 pm

4

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
November 22, 2024 3:52 pm

I am thinking Poena Cullei. The only issue are what animals to put into the sack with him before tossing it in a river.

A snake is a must have, I think. Some rats. A vulture.

And a member of Ms-13. I did say animals.

Lysander
Lysander
November 22, 2024 3:57 pm

So, TheirABC have a “make a donation” page on their homepage now for those suffering cost of living:

ABC WA Gives – ABC Gives

Perhaps they could give some of their annual $1,400,000,000?

Lysander
Lysander
November 22, 2024 4:12 pm

1?

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
November 22, 2024 4:30 pm

Sydney student banned from year 12 formal for wearing Palestinian scarfBy Kate AubussonNovember 22, 2024 — 4.12pm

Listen to this article
6 min
A Sydney teenager has filed a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission after he was banned from attending his coming school formal because he wore a scarf with the keffiyeh pattern to his graduation ceremony.
In an incident that comes amid heightened community tension over the war in Gaza, the year 12 student said he was humiliated and distraught after several staff members at Condell Park High School demanded that he remove the traditional black-and-white patterned scarf that symbolises his Palestinian heritage at the ceremony held in the school hall.

This was despite the south-western Sydney school’s longstanding custom of encouraging students to wear garments and accessories of cultural significance. Photographs from the September event show other students wearing other cultural artefacts, including feathered cloaks and garlands, over their graduation gowns.
The war in Gaza has triggered deep ruptures within local institutions, including schools, universities, the Sydney Theatre Company and Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, sustained protests in major cities and disturbing acts of vandalism.
It also follows concerns that public schools could expose themselves to legal risk if they instituted bans on Palestinian students or staff from wearing keffiyehs after the Education Department advised them to maintain neutrality on Israel and Gaza.
The teenager, who requested not to be identified, said staff members accused him of making a political statement and prevented him from posing with friends and a senior staff member for a group photograph while he wore his scarf.

Look at ME!!! Look at ME!!!

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