Open Thread – Thurs 19 Dec 2024


Gare Saint Lazare, Claude Monet, 1877

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John H.
John H.
December 19, 2024 12:03 am
Entropy
Entropy
December 19, 2024 12:46 am

New thread

Marsden plagiarised 1984’s Red Dawn when writing Tomorrow When the War Began (1993).
Although instead of American exceptionalism and Russians, it was full of expressing self fears and doubts.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 19, 2024 12:52 am

Fujairah, pre Straits of Hormuz

Fujairah is one of the seven Emirate territories who went into coalition in the 70’s to develop together, sharing their oil wealth, mainly produced at Abu Dhabi inside the Arabian/Persian Gulf, but with Fujairah just outside these Straits and connected to other Emirate producers by pipelines giving clear passage always. As we docked we see miles of oil storage tanks, over 900 in all, down the coast from the expansive docks, each as big as an old gasworks cylinder of yore. With Rotterdam and Singapore, this is one of the three major oils storage depots in the world trade system.  Security is tight with lots of faffing on facial inspections and passports. You can see how they don’t want terrorism here, and this is a theme reflected in the culture of Islam here now.

Since the 70’s this oil wealth sharing has transformed Fujairah from a small mud and gypsum hut village society holding power in anciently built forts to a total welfare state for all citizens from cradle to the grave. As in Oman and other Gulf States, the monarchical Sheik rules as absolute (not a Sultan) and you know for sure your are in Arabia, as the men wear the garment which so attracted Lawrence of Arabia. Important sheiks have head rings holding their flowing scarves on. 

A proud people proud of their history, as the museum we visited here showed. Sydney University has been active in archaeological excavations in this area showing settlement back to the Neolithic and early bronze age. The museum also showed a middle class living room circa early 1970, with technologies in phone, wind-up gramophone, valve TV, dating from 1900 to the 70’s, with life lived mainly on cushions on the carpeted floors of mud-built dwellings.
All that has now gone, considered museum worthy. Today, Ikea reigns. A modern city has arisen, not a perfumed paradise as found in Muscat, where there is no high rise, but a small city of commerce with some highrise up to 20 floors. 

We drove to an example of the old mud-built town and its fort, where life was still lived until that 70’s, when the middle class moved into small breeze brick homes with an airconditioner in the wall. Since those days, every citizen gets free land and a free house – splendid public housing in a major scheme named after the founding Sheik of the Emirate groups. Citizens now ive in grand mansion-style home of two or three stories, with an easy mortgage or no mortgage. Many become landlords to ‘guest’ workers and live off these proceeds and other investments. No tax until very recently. Guest workers can never become citizens and must pay their own way. One can see here the beginnings of trouble unless carefully managed, an elite group lording it over the poor incomers who do all of the work. 

Fortunately, the type of Islam practiced is called ‘moderate’. Controlled would be a more appropriate word, says Hairy to me as we both gasp when told that the ruling coalition for the whole group of Emirates decides every week exactly what the topic is to be in the mosques that Friday. Imans who don’t comply get fired and not rehired. And just recently, Friday prayers have been cancelled. Cope and pray as you can, the people are told. This year the whole of the Emirates moved to follow the European and world-wide weekend of closure on Saturday and Sunday, no longer observing Friday and Saturday as a ‘week-end’. By decree again, English is now the common language and the language of all education.

At another stop, Old Bithna Oasis town, the transition was photographable. Old 60’s houses empty in the foreground being demolished, the founding Sheik’s expensive new housing program providing mansions in the near background, each of them with individual architecture, for the citizens. Further back is an old mud fort on the hill signalling the past; meanwhile, running through the valley and dominating it are the truly huge pylons and undersupports for a pan-Emirates rail system tunnelling through mountains, which will take some pressure off the roads and form a basis for further trade movements and tourism and of course economic integration. 

All seven Emerati leaders work together, their pictures are everywhere, and cooperation is the mantra. They are proud that Israeli tourists are now returning in good numbers, and proud too of the House of Abraham, a group compound containing a Christian Church, a Jewish Synagogue, and an Islamic Mosque; this opened fairly recently by Pope Francis himself and a recent assault on a Jewish Rabbi has been condemned and the miscreant severely punished. Wish Albo could follow this exampling. 

Our tour guide, interestingly not a local but an Indian flown in from Dubai, told us that no one picks fights in the Emirates territories; and that demonstrating is not allowed. Keep it to yourself, people are told. Tolerance and trade and growth are where people’s attention is directed.

A visit to a Friday market, very large and busy, showed us how people shop for food, most of which is flown in from elsewhere, and Hairy and I spent a productive time looking in the garden centre there to see how they were pruning their olive, fruiting figs and pomegranate trees, photographing results for application to our orchard garden at home. This centre provides greenery for the new housing, most of which was being built on land reclaimed from the small dumpy mountains and hills that this territory is composed of in the valleys and foothills of the snaggle-tooths that dominate the vista. They simply blow up the mountains and make a quality building sand for sale from them, and they bulldoze the smaller hills into flat lands. Like the Israeli’s, they take every opportunity to utilise what they have.  Needs must is the mantra there. For energy, they are going gang-busters to be mostly nuclear by 2027, meanwhile gas is king, and wind and solar are considered nowhere, non-existent, a joke.

It is easy to see how in such a development-oriented culture Donald Trump was in his deal-making element, and I expect further good things to emerge in the Middle East from what we were told was a most closely-watched election. Would you want Iran (whom they hate) to develop a nuclear weapon? Hairy rhetorically asked me. No. I’m with them, I say. Good on them. Not a perfect society but by gee, it does have a lot going for it in current contexts. 

We quickly sped through the only ‘dry’ Emirate, a small one, to visit a dagoba-styled domed mosque built, says Syd Uni, circa 1450. The guide pointed out a resort, cheaper than Dubai by far because it was dry, ‘and much frequented by Russians’. Hmm, says Hairy. I expect they brought plenty of their own clear ‘bottled water’ with them. 

Another point of interest near the port was that they are having a major equestrian event in a purpose built built arena where they also do horse racing. Emirati are horse crazy, the guide says. They even have a most beautiful horse competition. In Dubai, camels too.

I am waiting for a new fred, but it hasn’t come yet. Meanwhile we are speeding past about a hundred vessels waiting for their turn to traverse the Straits. We’re apparently booked in already.
  

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
December 19, 2024 1:36 am

I don’t know what I’m meant to think about these boobooks sitting in the jacaranda. They don’t appear to be feeding- there’s plenty of frogs croaking in the landscape- they’re just sitting, chirping with the occasional cartoonish hooot!
If they’re reflecting on the background population of rats and mice around the house, fair enough. They might even know something I don’t about baby possums.
I’m a little bit tempted to start feeding them, Bruce style. But I like geckoes too much. That might be it, the geckoes are all over the place these summer nights.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
December 19, 2024 1:36 am

Lizzie, thanks for travel-blogging.

Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:00 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 4:11 am
DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
December 19, 2024 4:48 am

Thanks Tom.

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 19, 2024 5:23 am

In But Of Course news, Hun:

Indigenous cultural conservation claims have been targeted at 30 mining and pipeline projects but just two renewables proposals since 2012, an investigation reveals.

A full list of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act applications during that time also shows many individual resources developments have been hit with multiple objections.

And, according to the records obtained by this masthead using freedom of information (FOI) laws, some complaints are withdrawn only to be strategically reactivated at a later date.

In total there have been more than 40 applications against proposals to extract gold, coal and other deposits; there has been one opposing wind turbines and one protesting a solar farm.

Shadow Environment Minister Jonathon Duniam said: “It is curious that these claims are heavily distorted towards stopping mining projects whereas renewables projects like wind farms and solar projects, that take up swathes of space, are mostly untouched.”

The resources industry argues the heritage protection system has been hijacked and no longer works properly – for Indigenous Australians or project proponents.

Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) CEO Warren Pearce said the Albanese government was “changing the way” heritage protection decisions were made.

“It’s sending a shockwave through the mining industry and also investors,” Mr Pearce said.

Certainty had “gone out the window” since Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek made a heritage protection declaration in August against Regis Resources’ $5 billion McPhillamys gold project near Orange in NSW, he said.

The project had state and federal approval but was sent back to the drawing board because Ms Plibersek found a proposed tailings dam would damage an area of cultural importance in the blue-banded bee dreaming story.

The Orange Local Aboriginal Land Council and NSW Aboriginal Land Council did not support the heritage protection application, made by a single Wiradjuri elder.

Mr Pearce said the McPhillamys decision “really surprised people because they (Regis) had done everything they were supposed to”.

Regis has said it will take up to 10 years to identify and gain approval for an alternative tailings site. The company has filed proceedings in the Federal Court seeking a ruling that Ms Plibersek’s order was “legally invalid”. It wants the decision redetermined by a different minister.

Minerals Council of Australia CEO Tania Constable said that through the McPhillamys decision, the federal government had undermined investor confidence.

“Heritage protection laws have increasingly been weaponised by activist groups, often funded by taxpayers, to delay or block mining projects,” she said.

“This is not what these laws were designed for.”

Among the applications covered in the FOI document release was one by the Environmental Defenders Office “on behalf of” six elders against a Santos gas pipeline slated to run to the west of the Tiwi Islands.

The application was withdrawn in February this year, in a move Ms Plibersek’s office said was not related to the dismissal – in a scathing judgment a month earlier – of a Federal Court case brought by the EDO on behalf of Tiwi elders over the pipeline.

While few heritage protection applications end up being granted, Mr Pearce said nearly all take more than a year to resolve.

Some resource project proponents are still waiting for decisions on applications lodged in 2021.

Funding can fall over during the wait, Mr Pearce claimed.

The government argued that a pending application did not delay or stop work.

Ms Plibersek’s spokeswoman also said the rate of new heritage protection applications “has halved under Labor”.

The documents released under FOI show that between 2012 and the middle of this year, there was one application against a renewables proposal – a failed bid to stop a Tasmanian wind project.

However, in July, Queensland’s Bigambul Native Title Aboriginal Corporation applied to protect an area near Goondiwindi from construction of the Gunsynd solar farm.

The existence of the application is being made public for the first time today.

This masthead repeatedly attempted to contact the corporation and the owners of the Gunsynd project, Singapore’s Metis Energy. Further detail of the application was requested from Ms Plibersek’s office but nothing was provided.

Comment on the trend within heritage applications was sought from the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance.

Housing developments and government infrastructure projects are also the target of applications, but not in the same volume as resources projects.

So there you have it. Apparently the monuments to Gaia have no effect whatsoever on songlines and Crocodile Man or whatever else.
But if it’s the blue banded bee, on advice of some crazy cat lady, which elders of the area had never heard of, then it’s all over for the resource sector.
Audit every Aboriginal organisation and see what they got and from whom. Shut them down during the process and if any funds are from activist groups, Rabz the joint.
Intent on destroying Australia these bastards.

shatterzzz
December 19, 2024 6:39 am

It’s taken a few dayz but, eventually, someone with a bit of media “clout” has come out about the “joke” conviction of Ezra Mam who was found GUILTY of being a Broncos “fitba” player, which, all but, exonerated him from all his other offences …..
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/nrl/article-14204861/Oatlands-crash-victims-mother-claims-Ezra-Mams-unnacceptable-sanction-traumatised-calls-NRL-come-heavy-21-year-old-Broncos-star.html

Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 7:17 am

Last February, Peta Credlin attempted to broker a ceasefire between the leftwing Victorian SFL leader John Pesutto and ousted conservative MP Moira Deeming.

Deeming had offered to settle her defamation case against Pesutto for $100,000 but he refused. This month, a judge found Pesutto had defamed Deeming and ordered him to pay her $300,000.

The SFLs meet tomorrow to discuss Pesutto’s leadership and Deeming’s reinstatement to the party and Credlin, in her weekly Paywallian column, has come out swinging:

Plainly, Pesutto and his allies have decided that someone like Deeming is an embarrassment because she won’t give up her determination to preserve women’s safe spaces. Even though she continues to be a member of the wider party and has widespread support among the Liberal base. If the Victorian Liberal Party won’t stand up for women’s rights, then frankly it has no right to call itself Liberal.

Pesutto is attempting to take credit for the SFLs’ improving poll figures but the decaying Allen-Andrews state Labor regime is so on the nose with voters that Blind Freddy could win the next state election.

For the sake of the federal Libs, the infighting needs to stop. It’s difficult to see Pesutto’s leadership surviving.

shatterzzz
December 19, 2024 7:20 am

Not quite the “olde dayz” of postal delivery ..
“Thru wind & snow the mail must go” ..
it’s a looong way from Sydney to Fairfield if your a parcel .. LOL!

Post
Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
December 19, 2024 7:41 am

Islamic cleric Wissam Haddad fronts court as Jewish community’s milestone case begins

Lawyers representing Australia’s peak Jewish body have said their case against Sydney cleric Wissam Haddad would seek to ensure the “safety and dignity” of the community as a potentially groundbreaking legal case kicked off. 

It comes as Mr Haddad, also known as Abu Ousayd, recently took to social media to dismiss allegations he had ties to the al-­Muhajiroun terrorist network, and its high-profile leaders Omar Bakri and Anjem Choudary, despite recent correspondence with them.

On Wednesday, Mr Haddad fronted Sydney’s Federal Court with his solicitor, Elias Tabchouri, who said his client would be “defending the matter” but they “remained committed to concil­iation” with the applicants, two of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry’s leaders.

Judge Angus Stewart – who recently ruled that One Nation leader Pauline Hanson racially vilified senator Mehreen Faruqi – said “upon quick reading” the imputations alleged by the lawsuit were “damning” and provisionally listing a four-day hearing from June 10.

The Australian has covered since 2023 Mr Haddad’s sermons at his Al Madina Dawah centre in Sydney’s southwest and how the ECAJ had filed vilification complaints at the country’s human rights body.

When mediation at the Australian Human Rights Commission failed, the ECAJ’s deputy president, Robert Goot, and co-chief executive, Peter Wertheim, filed court proceedings against Mr Haddad and the centre.

They allege a slew of sermons given by Mr Haddad or hosted by the centre, which were posted online, racially vilified their community under Section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act.

Among other things, Mr Haddad, or speakers at his Al Madina Dawah Centre, have allegedly called Jewish people “descendants of pigs and monkeys”, recited parables about their killing, described them as “treacherous ­people” with their “hands” in media and business, encouraged jihad, and urged people to “spit” on Israel so Israelis “would drown”.

In most cases, he has claimed he was referring to or reciting ­Islamic scripture.

Wee, it’s a start at least. I really hope that they have a strong case against this creep and take him down.

Rosie
Rosie
December 19, 2024 7:45 am
mem
mem
December 19, 2024 7:47 am

I’ve heard about “Drop Bears” but have never understood what the reference related to. Perhaps this: https://www.breitbart.com/2nd-amendment/2024/12/18/hunter-dies-when-bear-falls-tree-after-being-shot-lands-him/

Gabor
Gabor
December 19, 2024 8:13 am

Mak Siccar
December 19, 2024 7:41 am

Islamic cleric Wissam Haddad

In most cases, he has claimed he was referring to or reciting ­Islamic scripture.

So, if it’s in the Koran it’s fine, no worries.

What other books can we quote from to justify prejudice and rape, murder, taking hostages?

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 8:25 am

Gorgeous picture!

This is on top of all the pork barrelling in the bill. They are absolutely determined to hobble Trump.

@amuse

CR BS: On the heels of the report that the DOJ obtained the emails of Schiff and Swalwell proving they leaked classified documents to the media, Congress has inserted language into the continuing resolution allowing it to quash any subpoena @Kash_Patel or @PamBondi might issue for ‘House Data’. This would make any investigation into the J6 Committee all but impossible. It would cripple any investigation into Schiff and Swalwell.

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 8:25 am
Zippster
Zippster
December 19, 2024 8:27 am

The Feminisation of Academia, Explained By Behavioural Scientists Bo Winegard and Cory Clark

**Summary:** The video discusses the feminization of academia, outlining the significant changes in gender representation within this institution and the impact these changes are having on academic culture, priorities, and the norms within higher education. It highlights historical trends, current statistics regarding women’s representation in academia, and the differences in academic goals and priorities between genders. The discussion concludes that as women become more prevalent within academia, shifts in focus towards social justice and emotional well-being may occur, potentially affecting the freedom of inquiry and traditional academic values. — **Key Points by Section:** 1. **Introduction to Sex Differences in Human Behavior:** – Overview of human sex differences and their prevalence across cultures. – The changing sex ratio in important institutions, notably academia. 2. **Historical Context: Academia as a Male-Dominated Institution:** – Academia was traditionally male-led with women’s access to education limited. – Significant shifts in sex ratios in higher education over recent decades. 3. **Overview of Women’s Representation in Academia:** – Women received less than 10% of doctoral degrees in the 1970s; today, they earn the majority. – Female representation among faculty has also increased, reaching 50.7%. 4. **Statistics on Doctoral Degrees by Gender:** – Comparative statistics show a steady increase in women earning doctoral degrees. – Predictive trends indicate continued growth of female representation in academia. 5. **Discussion on the Impact of Gender on Academic Goals and Contributions:** – Men and women perceive the aims of higher education differently. – This divergence influences emerging trends in academia. 6. **Evidence of Differing Academic Priorities by Gender:** – Surveys reveal consistent differences in preferences and priorities between genders. – Men often prioritize academic freedom, while women emphasize social justice and emotional well-being. 7. **Survey Findings on Free Speech and Academic Values:** – Various surveys indicate a gender divide on issues like free speech, speaker rights, and academic priorities. – Men generally show more support for free speech, while women lean towards protective measures. 8. **Summary of Men’s vs. Women’s Academic Preferences:** – Gender differences emerge in research focus, with men favoring empirical inquiry and women more inclined towards societal impact. – The increasing female presence may shape future research directions and academic focus. — Overall, the video presents a nuanced examination of the implications arising from the increasing feminization of academia, highlighting both the contributions of women and the evolving priorities that may redefine academic culture.

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 8:27 am
Rabz
December 19, 2024 8:27 am

Crudlin attempted to broker a ceasefire between the extreme leftwing Disasterstan SFL leader Giuseppe Prosciutto and ousted conservative MP Moira Deeming

For goodness’ sake, why? Let him swing. Which thankfully, is exactly what’s transpired and Prosciutto’s political career (if it could be dignified with such a term) is now toast.

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 8:28 am
mem
mem
December 19, 2024 8:30 am

Speaking of laffs this is brilliant https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/12/brilliant-1.html

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 8:30 am

Of course, with a bit of common sense, you might even come to the conclusion that it wasn’t always frozen there!

46,000-Year-Old Bird Found With Feathers And Talons Intact In The Siberian Permafrost

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 8:31 am

As I said, they are doing everything possible to block Trump.

Biden EPA Approves Waiver For California’s 2035 Gas-Powered Vehicle Ban

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 8:33 am

@VivekGRamaswamy

I wanted to read the full 1,500+ page bill & speak with key leaders before forming an opinion. Having done that, here’s my view: it’s full of excessive spending, special interest giveaways & pork barrel politics. If Congress wants to get serious about government efficiency, they should VOTE NO.

Keeping the government open until March 14 will cost ~$380BN by itself, but the true cost of this omnibus CR is far greater due to new spending. Renewing the Farm Bill for an extra year: ~$130BN. Disaster relief: $100BN. Stimulus for farmers: $10BN. The Francis Scott Key Bridge replacement: $8BN. The proposal adds at least 65 cents of new spending for every dollar of continued discretionary spending.

The legislation will end up hurting many of the people it purports to help. Debt-fueled spending sprees may “feel good” today, but it’s like showering cocaine on an addict: it’s not compassion, it’s cruelty. Farmers will see more land sold to foreign buyers when taxes inevitably rise to meet our obligations. Our children will be saddled with crippling debt. Interest payments will be the largest item in our national budget.

Congress has known about this deadline since they created it in late September. There’s no reason why this couldn’t have gone through the standard process, instead of being rushed to a vote right before Congressmen want to go home for the holidays. The urgency is 100% manufactured & designed to avoid serious public debate.  

The bill could have easily been under 20 pages. Instead, there are dozens of unrelated policy items crammed into the 1,547 pages of this bill. There’s no legitimate reason for them to be voted on as a package deal by a lame-duck Congress. 72 pages worth of “Pandemic Preparedness and Response” policy; renewal of the much-criticized “Global Engagement Center,” a key player in the federal censorship state; 17 different pieces of Commerce legislation; paving the way for a new football stadium in D.C.; a pay raise for Congressmen & Senators and making them eligible for Federal Employee Health Benefits. It’s indefensible to ram these measures through at the last second without debate.

We’re grateful for DOGE’s warm reception on Capitol Hill. Nearly everyone agrees we need a smaller & more streamlined federal government, but actions speak louder than words. This is an early test. The bill should fail.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 19, 2024 8:35 am

Beware of electric boots.

PHOTOS: Minnesota Man Severely Burned When Heated Insoles from China Explode in Boot (17 Dec)

A man from Trimont, Minnesota, was severely injured when his rechargeable heated insoles exploded inside his boot.

Mikaela Morris shared images online Friday of her husband Tyler’s injured foot and is urging people not to buy rechargeable heated apparel products, KENS 5 reported on Monday.

Mikaela said the insoles were not turned on when the incident happened and she rushed him to an emergency room for medical attention. Doctors later contacted the burn center at Hennepin County Medical Center (HCMC) regarding the case.

Tyler bought the insoles from Amazon in 2023 for outside activities. The insoles were sold by a China-based company known as iHeat.

You have to hand it to the Chinese, they are an innovative bunch. But unfortunately they do also like to cut corners. So don’t give any of your relos an electric willy warmer for Christmas, unless you don’t like them.

Kel
Kel
December 19, 2024 8:37 am

Here we go again:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/gov-newsom-declares-emergency-in-california-after-cdc-confirms-severe-case-of-bird-flu-in-louisiana/ar-AA1w76P0

Decisive action is needed. Mask those birds and and lock them down.

Before 2019 we had bird flu, swine fever (flu) and mammalian flu. Each had their own seperate DNA. Then in 2019 H1N5 appeared with DNA that had gene sequences of all 3. Amazing what can be done with CRISPER what.

Black Ball
Black Ball
December 19, 2024 8:41 am

FMD. Look at this idiot. Sydney Morning Herald:

Australian Olympic breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn is demanding $10,000 in legal fees from the owner of a small Sydney comedy club that had planned to stage a show called Raygun the Musical.

The musical, written by comedian Stephanie Broadbridge and slated for December 7, was canned at the last minute after promoter Anthony Skinner was hit with a legal letter claiming the show infringed Gunn’s intellectual property.

Now it has been revealed that Gunn’s lawyers, Glebe-based 17 Degrees, are demanding at least $10,000 from Skinner in legal fees. He offered $500, which the law firm has “completely rejected”. All proceeds from the show were to go to a women’s shelter.

The letter (below) demanding the five-figure sum was accompanied by an email from 17 Degrees lawyer Samantha Ludemann, who signed off the message, “Warm regards, Samantha”.

The letter claims Gunn’s intellectual property includes her “story, personal history, Olympic videos and choreography”.

In an earlier message, Gunn’s lawyers said the dancer’s much-derided routine was “the culmination of over 10 years of training”.

“You will recognise this Olympic-level choreography is a complex sequence of moves and techniques of which our client is the creator and author,” it continued.

Judges at this year’s Paris Olympics awarded 37-year-old Gunn’s routine zero points.

Skinner said he was furious when he received the bill for $10,000.

“When they sent that $10,000 letter, I was like, ‘You’re f—ing joking’,” he said. “I’m thinking about studying law myself now!

“The average person has no idea about any of this stuff. It seems that they’re just sort of using that to their advantage and trying to get people to crumble. I think they think my comedy business is more successful than it is.”

Skinner said if he was forced to pay $10,000, it would come close to sending his business to the wall.

He will now wait to see what Gunn’s next move might be but, meanwhile, he wanted the issue publicised.

“People should know that this sort of bullshit’s going on – trying to take 10 grand out of a business whose whole purpose is just to support comedians.”

He added that any offers of legal assistance would be welcome.

“If anyone wants to help that would be great. Legal stuff’s not really our forte. We just make people laugh.”

Meanwhile, it appears Gunn’s claims may not rest on particularly solid legal ground. In an article first published in The Conversation and later in the Law Society Journal this week, authors Sarah Hook, Marie Hadley and Vicki Huang said it was unlikely Gunn would be “able to enforce intellectual property over her name, her persona, and her dance moves”.

“In Australia, there is no right of publicity, meaning a person’s likeness and name are open for others to use, adapt and parody,” they continue. “Broadbridge can call a character in her musical Raygun.”

However, the authors also point out that even legal threats that are not well-founded may be enough to stop artists like Broadbridge from taking risks.

On Friday, Gunn took to social media to defend closing down the show.

“People assumed that we had developed it, that we had approved it,” she said. “And it damaged many relationships, both personal and professional. That is why my management and legal team had to work so quickly to shut the musical down.

“It was really unfortunate that the show had to be cancelled so close to the launch. I know the artist would have put a lot of work into it, and that really sucks.”

Gunn also addressed the controversy that arose from her trademarking the kangaroo pose.

“In terms of the kangaroo dance, I did not trademark it or claim any trademark ownership of the kangaroo dance, and it in no way mimics Aboriginal dance,” she said.

“It was instead inspired by the Australian Olympic mascot, BK, the boxing kangaroo, and I wanted to represent and celebrate that spirit.

“I know that this misinformation about the kangaroo dance has upset many members of the Indigenous community, and I am sorry for that. I’m really sorry that it hasn’t been corrected sooner. I have the utmost respect for Indigenous Australians.”

“They also said I wasn’t allowed to do the dance because she owns the kangaroo dance,” she said. “That one did puzzle me. I mean, that’s the Olympic-level dance, how would I possibly be able to do that without any formal breakdancing training?”

Comment has been sought from Gunn.

I’m speechless. I’m without speech.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 19, 2024 8:56 am

Turkey is a big turkey.

Erdogan: ‘Turkey is bigger than Turkey, we can’t limit ourselves’ (18 Dec)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that it is his country’s destiny to expand its borders, particularly into Syria.

Speaking at the Scientific and Technological Research Council (TÜBITAK) and Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) Awards Ceremony at the Bestepe National Congress and Culture Center, the President stated: “Every incident that has occurred in our region, especially in Syria, recently reminds us of this fact; Turkey is bigger than Turkey. As a nation, we cannot limit our horizon to 782,000 square kilometers.”

According to him, “Just as a person cannot escape his destiny, Turkey and the Turkish nation cannot escape or hide from their destiny. 

Lebensraum! He’s certainly not hiding his ambitions, even if it sounds rather 1938ish.

Last edited 3 days ago by Bruce of Newcastle
bons
bons
December 19, 2024 8:56 am

We urgently require laws that prevent catwalk dollies from entering Parliament.

It is obvious that Wong and Bowen have leveraged their exceptional good looks to gain positions of power.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 8:56 am

mem
 December 19, 2024 7:47 am

I’ve heard about “Drop Bears” but have never understood what the reference related to. 

There are plenty of videos on Facebook which illustrate the consequences of a lack of awareness of gravity.
Admittedly most involve the felling of trees near houses, vehicles and power lines and don’t feature bears.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
December 19, 2024 9:00 am

“They also said I wasn’t allowed to do the dance because she owns the kangaroo dance,” she said. “That one did puzzle me. I mean, that’s the Olympic-level dance, how would I possibly be able to do that without any formal breakdancing training?”

GOOOOLD! Pity it was half-hidden because the article was a bit contorted, that’s international-level trolling, there.

Rabz
December 19, 2024 9:06 am

“You will recognise this Olympic-level choreography is a complex sequence of moves and techniques of which our client is the creator and author”

Judges at this year’s Paris Olympics awarded 37-year-old Gunn’s routine zero points.

Utterly delusional failures. Of which this country is blessed with an Olympic-level oversupply.

Trigger warning: Infuriating incompetent buck toothed jug eared imbecile.

bons
bons
December 19, 2024 9:13 am

I have wtitten to my, rather good, local member asking why attacking Labor’s blatent antisemitism is not a daily headline action for the SFL.

You have to conclude that the isolated SFL strategists have no understanding of the level of embarrassed outrage in the community over Wong claiming that her racist vitroil is Australian policy.

One letter is of course meaningless, but hopefully there are thousands of others.

It would require courage, but attacking the Liars sellout to the ragpeople would be an election winner. They did it over power, now do it over Jew hate. A double bonus would be watching the ABC racists discrediting themselves (more).

Roger
Roger
December 19, 2024 9:16 am

Nails him:

Chalmers refuses to take foot off the spending accelerator

David Pearl, The Australian, 19th December, 2024

Jim Chalmers had a golden opportunity on Wednesday to bring fiscal policy to bear in the fight against inflation, taking pressure off interest rates. Instead his mid-year economic and fiscal outlook only reinforced the reality that his foot was on the spending accelerator. In the months since the budget was handed down in May, the government’s policy decisions have cost the budget $19.1bn across the forward estimates (offset by only $1.7bn in savings measures).

Higher-than-expected pension, childcare, aged care and other program costs – which the government made no effort to offset – have added a further $4.2bn to this total. As a result, forecast cumulative deficits across the forward estimates have increased by $21.7bn to total $144bn.

While this year’s expected deficit is slightly lower, it’s downhill from there with larger shortfalls to come. If off-budget spending is included – remember the HELP debt giveaway – the picture looks worse: a $90bn increase in red ink, leaving us with cumulative headline deficits amounting to $233bn in the coming four years.

With underlying inflation still well above target in our supply-constrained economy, federal spending will grow by 5.7 per cent in real terms this year, adding fuel to the inflationary fire.

Although the Treasurer conceded on Wednesday that there had been “slippage” in the government’s fiscal position, he pointed to his two surpluses as evidence of progress in “cleaning up” the budget. They are no such thing. The surpluses were the result of our high post-pandemic inflation (and the bracket creep it fuelled), a commodity price boom and high immigration, which boosted revenues well beyond what Treasury expected in its 2022 pre-election economic and fiscal outlook.

Although Chalmers did not spend this windfall (hence the surpluses), he did not have the discipline or foresight to apply any restraint on spending at this time. I cannot think of a single brave spending decision he has made and had to defend. Indeed, he did the opposite, ramping spending up by more than 2 per cent of GDP across the past two years.

When the windfall inevitably receded, we were financially exposed. This is why we have a sizeable structural deficit and no relief in sight. When pressed on the government’s additional spending, Chalmers again invoked the spectre of a “slash and burn austerity budget” that he believes would be “diabolical for an economy barely growing as it is”. This is a misreading of our economic situation.

Chalmers and his advisers appear to believe we inhabit a world of excess productive capacity where government pump-priming saves the day, instead of the supply constrained, full-employment economy we have where public spending is putting pressure on inflation. If he really wanted inflation to come down and help the RBA, he would have used MYEFO to slow the pace of government spending and called on the states and territories to do the same. This would be measured action to address the primary evil our economy faces. It would be responsible economic management.

But with a Treasurer seemingly unable or unwilling to show leadership, the two arms of macroeconomic policy – monetary and fiscal – continue to work at cross purposes, and the government’s energy and industrial relations policies make things only worse.

When assessing the MYEFO, we should not get too carried away by the detailed figures it contains. They represent variations from the budget’s projections, in part because of changes in economic parameters and as a result of government decisions. Yes, it’s unfortunate that future deficits will be somewhat larger, but let’s not forget the government’s 10-year fiscal projections – with its heroic spending and taxation assumptions, most egregiously on NDIS cost growth and heavier tax burdens for middle-income Australians – are pure fantasy.

MYEFOs are intended to hold governments to account for their fiscal targets. But Chalmers has dropped any ambition to balance the budget, having been spooked by Wayne Swan’s failure to deliver a surplus despite announcing four of them in 2012. There is little sign Chalmers is getting sound advice from his Treasury secretary, Steven Kennedy, at this critical time.

In March 2007, Treasury secretary Ken Henry told us in an all-staff address (subsequently leaked) to be vigilant about bad government policies in the lead-up to an election. He rubbished Howard government claims that in a full-employment economy public spending created jobs, pointing out that they only destroyed jobs in other industries. Someone needs to tell Chalmers.

I have written before about the eerie parallels between the Whitlam and Albanese governments. Chalmers reminds me of Jim Cairns, a fellow dreamer and would-be philosopher who refused to apply the brakes to public spending. He would be better served taking a leaf out of Bill Hayden’s book. Hayden became treasurer in June 1975, months before the Whitlam government was dismissed, yet had the courage to deliver a budget the country sorely needed. In one stroke he demolished the Keynesian dogma that had captured the Labor Party in the post-World War II era.

“We are no longer operating in that simple Keynesian world in which some reduction in unemployment could, apparently, always be purchased at the cost of some more inflation,” he said in his budget speech, adding: “Today, it is inflation itself which is the central policy problem.”

Hayden rejected passing the inflation-fighting buck to the RBA, accepting that Canberra needed to take the lead with a budget focused on “consolidation and restraint rather than further expansion of the public sector”. While his efforts were too late to save the Whitlam government, he emerged with his reputation intact, later becoming leader of the federal parliamentary party.

Chalmers undoubtedly has the leadership baton in his knapsack but doesn’t seem to understand that it must be earned by actions rather than words; leadership rather than commentary.

David Pearl is a former Treasury assistant secretary.

Eyrie
Eyrie
December 19, 2024 9:18 am

Utterly delusional failures

Rabz, you left out Bowen and Albanese.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 9:39 am

Jug-ear’s budget is an application for Luigi’s job.

Last edited 3 days ago by Sancho Panzer
Roger
Roger
December 19, 2024 9:39 am

I have written to my, rather good, local member asking why attacking Labor’s blatent antisemitism is not a daily headline action for the SFL.

They would then face the question, “What do you intend to do about it when in power?”

That would mean, at the federal level, reviewing immigration from Muslim majority countries where antisemitism is a pillar of cultural identity and amending citizenship laws to allow the revoking of naturalisation where there has been a failure to assimilate as evidenced by engaging in antisemitic rhetoric or actions.

Would the Gliberals be up to that?

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
December 19, 2024 9:40 am

“Hume link”- connecting a medieval power source to a rapidly impoverished population- will cost $121M per kilometer.

mem
mem
December 19, 2024 9:42 am

From google search.
“A drop bear is a fictional, predatory marsupial that is said to live in the Australian outback and drop onto people from trees: “

?Ah, another word for a Greenie.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 19, 2024 9:46 am

Early morning coffee on the verandah, and reading “The Whole Truth, and the problem with truth telling” – the submission by Australian Research House to the Yoorook Truth and Justice Commission.

Quite powerful reading – I’ll bet it doesn’t get a mention in the final report.

Does the concept of the “Stolen Generations ” apply to the children – about 30% – who, in tribal life – were killed at birth, and some were then eaten? The “inter-generational trauma” caused by that practice? (Volume 3, Page 71.)

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
December 19, 2024 9:58 am

Just spotted on MS News. Latho is appealing his negative ruling – Last paragraph. Good:

https://www.9news.com.au/national/latham-fights-for-right-to-repeat-disgusting-mp-claim/1ab30946-9dad-4f2a-a317-0076af9c5dba

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 10:05 am

Tom, quoting Peta Credlin above:-

If the Victorian Liberal Party won’t stand up for women’s rights, then frankly it has no right to call itself Liberal.

Mmmyes.
Many politicians are unprincipled, but few combine this with the level of political ineptitude we see in Prosciutto.
All he had to do was say, “Moira supports women’s rights to play sport against their own gender and to be comfortable in change rooms and toilets, and I fully support her on this. Yes, I know Andrews will try to pull a diversionary stunt … “look over there – Nazis!” … but where does he stand on this? Is he OK with biological women having to give up sport because they are forced to play against 6’6″ X-men?”.
The SFL’s complain that they don’t get media coverage.
Well, do what the Orange Man does. Use the media to talk directly to the voters. Had he thrown down that challenge to Andrews it would have been on high rotation on the MSM as “abhorrent, transphobic and outmoded”. But a yuuuge proportion of voters would agree with him.
FMD, this is the perfect wedge issue to use against the Liars. They have totally bought into the trannie push, but a lot of traditional Liars voting feminists are not comfortable with it.

Pesutto is attempting to take credit for the SFLs’ improving poll figures but the decaying Allen-Andrews state Labor regime is so on the nose with voters that Blind Freddy could win the next state election.

Sorry, Tom.
Not “Blind Freddy”.
It’s “Drover’s Dog”.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 19, 2024 10:06 am

Trouble at mill.

ABC’s secret masterplan revealed as staff speak from inside the national broadcaster (18 Dec)

A masterplan to reinvent the ABC has been tossed out the window as turmoil bubbles inside the national broadcaster amid a string of high-profile departures and decisions that one on-air host has compared to a “midlife crisis”.

Current and former staff members have spoken anonymously to news.com.au about the taskforce that was formed to overhaul the radio division of the network and halt the haemorrhaging of listeners.

“The ABC has an uncanny ability to take a really good idea and f**k it up,” one staffer said.

Under Latimer and Fitzpatrick, listenership has been turbulent throughout the year. ABC Radio Sydney’s audience share dipped to its lowest level since records began – hitting 5.1 per cent in the first survey of the year, down from 5.4 per cent, before bouncing back by the third survey, according to GfK, the research company that measures audience. In Melbourne, the year’s third survey delivered a blow for the station, which also dipped to its lowest-ever audience share.

One former staffer in the radio division said unstable audience figures indicated the network’s need for modernisation in order to serve Australians who paid more than $1.1 billion in tax to fund the broadcaster over the last financial year.

“If you’re only delivering 1000 or 2000 listeners, it’s a terrible return on investment,” they said.

People aren’t listening because they don’t like it anymore. But it’s important to evolve slowly to keep people happy.”

The irony is that all the other radio stations are supported by advertising not taxpayers. Yet despite that free kick the ABC can’t get more than about 5% of listeners.

It does seem to be defaulting to elderly Greens as the only people who listen to ABC radio. The kids aren’t interested since they have a phone in their pocket and access to a world full of streaming channels.

Roger
Roger
December 19, 2024 10:08 am

Jug-ear’s budget is an application for Luigi’s job.

And Wong’s Israel policy is bolstering her resume for a post-career UN position.

Even in his own cabinet Albanese has no authority.

cohenite
December 19, 2024 10:19 am

Slimy prick pesutto has to go. Credlin nails the mongrel, and the libs: key phrase: gutless liberals:

Principled or craven? Pesutto’s howlers leave little choice for Libs
Peta Credlin The Australian December 19, 2024

Imagine this. The chairman of a big bank impugns the integrity of a female director, she’s booted off the board but wins big in court after he’s found guilty of defamation. In what universe would the chairman survive calls from shareholders and regulators to apologise, make amends and, in all likelihood, resign? What if a conservative male politician told lies about a Labor woman, inflicting enormous reputational damage and, when his claims were finally found to be false, still refused to apologise?

The uproar from the #MeToo movement would be nuclear. But when the man is Victorian Liberal leader and moderate John Pesutto, and the woman is his conservative colleague Moira Deeming, there’s not a scintilla of contrition from Pesutto and dead silence from an outrage industry that’s otherwise on a hair trigger.

The Pesutto-Deeming case matters, not only as a modern morality play but also as an inflection point for a party at war with itself and a broken state desperate for change. It could all come to a head on Friday, in a special Liberal partyroom meeting called to discuss the case and its outcome – the same day as there’s an 11am Federal Court hearing that’s likely to rule Pesutto is liable for a multi-million-dollar costs order.

Already, donors have been approached to bail out Pesutto, with most unwilling to fund a loser’s case and focused instead on supporting the looming federal campaign. Which means if he can’t pay the millions and is bankrupted, Pesutto will be left ineligible to sit in the parliament.
Whatever way it goes, it’s clear this self-inflicted wound is a long way from being healed. If only Pesutto had accepted Deeming’s offer to settle this case for $100,000 plus minimal costs back in February, as letters between lawyers now show.

Instead, he has a verdict against him – and $300,000 in damages plus costs – that calls into question not only his character and judgment but also, as a lawyer, his professional acumen.

Last week judge David O’Callaghan found the Victorian Opposition Leader’s evidence had been “untruthful” and “evasive”. He found Pesutto had never regarded Deeming as an extremist or extremist sympathiser. And he found the real reason Pesutto wanted her out of the partyroom was a fear that premier Daniel Andrews would weaponise the fact the women’s rights rally attended by Deeming had been gatecrashed by neo-Nazis, as if anyone is responsible for those who gatecrash their event. This was yet another case of gutless Victorian Liberals unable to stand up to Andrews.

Is it any wonder the state is a basket case when there effectively has been no opposition to the worst government in its history? Whether it’s lockdowns, catastrophic debt, corruption, rampant union power, crime or culture wars, even a treaty with Indigenous Victorians, the Liberals have gone missing. It seems the only blow they can land is against one of their own, which a judge has now ruled fictitious and against the law.

In these circumstances, what decent leader wouldn’t apologise and move to repair the damage? Instead, in a delusional press conference, Pesutto insisted there was no need to apologise and Deeming should remain excluded from the partyroom. Worse still, he insisted the adverse judgment against him was in the past and that every Liberal supporter should rally around to make him premier.

Fat chance. Frontbencher Sam Groth has already resigned. Five of Pesutto’s colleagues, including another frontbencher, Richard Riordan, have petitioned Friday’s partyroom meeting to discuss the Deeming matter with a view to having her restored.

Then there’s the costs order that even Pesutto’s supporters think could run to $3m. Plus there has been a complaint to the Legal Services Commission about potentially unethical conduct in the earlier settlement of a defamation claim against Pesutto by Deeming’s two rally co-organisers.

Earlier this week, Victorian Liberal Party president Phil Davis emailed all 10,000 Victorian Liberal Party members advising that he’d cautioned Pesutto to settle the case before it went to court. I know he did this because I met with him personally, along with Deeming, to try to broker a deal that Pesutto then rejected. In his email, Davis reassured members that no Liberal Party funds had or would be used to pay for anything associated with this case.

If anything, Davis’s email has left the party rank and file even more exasperated that Pesutto’s stubbornness has ignited another round of infighting when Victorians desperately want a bad government held to account. Right now, the base knows any poll improvement is down to the manifest failures by Labor rather than a positive vote for the Liberals, who are still to release any major policies. They are applying pressure on Davis, as the party’s most senior official, to issue the apology to Deeming that Pesutto is not man enough to make.

The Deeming case has not only crystallised doubts about Pesutto’s trustworthiness and character, it has highlighted the ongoing polarisation of the party into antagonistic moderate and conservative camps. Pesutto, who – before his self-harm over Deeming – was arguably the person most capable of leading the party, is plainly in the former camp and tends to see all issues through the lens of his leafy, inner-urban Hawthorn seat, which he holds by only a handful of votes. Deeming, the former schoolteacher and western suburbs local government councillor, is firmly in the conservative camp.

Going into Friday’s meeting, should it come to a vote on Deeming’s re-admission or on Pesutto’s leadership, the numbers are thought to be locked at 14-all. But there are two conservatives whom Pesutto has promoted, upper house deputy Evan Mulholland and Treasury spokesman Brad Rowswell, who could shift given the likely scale of the costs order. We’ll see on Friday if being principled or craven will win out.

While the party’s electoral support is increasingly from outer-metropolitan voters, the party’s leadership is still concentrated in the established inner suburbs that can afford “luxury beliefs”.

This is a problem in every state and mirrors Labor’s difficulties reconciling its old working-class base with the green activists who dominate its branches. It doesn’t help that the Victorian Libs have been in opposition for more than 25 years, except for one term in power, and have lost the self-belief needed to win and the work ethic necessary to make it happen.

The way the Deeming judgment plays out matters because a state party campaigning against a government that lacks integrity must have integrity itself. It’s hard to hold against Labor the politicisation of the police and public service, the selective weaponisation of anti-corruption processes, the debasement of the judiciary, and Labor’s association with the corrupt and thuggish CFMEU, if the alternative government has flagrantly ignored a judge’s verdict about its leader’s conduct.

As well, ongoing internal uproar about the treatment of Deeming threatens to prejudice Peter Dutton’s chances of winning majority government in 2025. Given federal Labor’s woes, the seats of Aston, Dunkley, Chisholm, Corangamite and McEwen are well within reach if Dutton is to gain the 18 seats he needs – but not if booth workers and donors are on strike out of sympathy with Deeming. Plainly, Pesutto and his allies have decided that someone like Deeming is an embarrassment because she won’t give up her determination to preserve women’s safe spaces. Even though she continues to be a member of the wider party and has widespread support among the Liberal base. If the Victorian Liberal Party won’t stand up for women’s rights, then frankly it has no right to call itself Liberal.

P
P
December 19, 2024 10:20 am

King Charles III attends event at Catholic Church remembering Christians in Middle East
CRUX – Dec 18, 2024

King Charles III meets with people at the Catholic Church of The Immaculate Conception in London, England, Dec. 17, 2024.

The service in the Jesuit church reflected on the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Mosul and the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq by ISIS. It comes just after the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad’s by rebel forces associated with Islamist groups.

Charles is a longtime supporter of Christians in the Middle East and has often drawn attention to the suffering they often suffer. While still the Prince of Wales, he spoke at a historic service at Westminster Abbey in 2018 to celebrate the contribution of Christians in the Middle East.

Arky
December 19, 2024 10:42 am

Going on the principle that there are no stupid questions, only stupid people, I have a question:
FOMC indicates to people the idea that there will be less rate cuts next year.
Consequently:
Therefore the share market goes down- understandable.
Bond prices, TLT go down- understandable.
Bond yields therefore go up- understandable.
What I don’t get is why the US dollar goes up.
I can understand there is a relationship between the share market and the dollar, and that they might move opposite, a cheaper dollar makes US shares more attractive to foreign investors, maybe and vice versa.
But if both bond prices and the US market are moving down, where is the demand for the dollar coming from?

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
December 19, 2024 10:47 am

Wodger:

 If off-budget spending is included 

I honestly don’t understand this. How can spending be off budget?
It’s been said before, but I still don’t understand how it can possibly be done.
It’s like me saying to the nonexistent missus, don’t worry about the the new Ferrari in the driveway, it’s off budget.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 19, 2024 10:49 am
Vagabond
Vagabond
December 19, 2024 10:54 am

Going into Friday’s meeting, should it come to a vote on Deeming’s re-admission or on Pesutto’s leadership, the numbers are thought to be locked at 14-all. 

There’s your problem right there. The fact that there are still 14 SFLs in parliament who can’t see the folly of supporting Pesutto speaks volumes about the hopeless state of the so-called party.

We’re stuffed!

Bill From the Bush
Bill From the Bush
December 19, 2024 10:56 am

The “commander” of the kiwi ship that sunk is to face a military trial
Is this an attempt to whitewash the incident?

Roger
Roger
December 19, 2024 11:03 am

It’s like me saying to the nonexistent missus, don’t worry about the the new Ferrari in the driveway, it’s off budget.

You tell her not to worry as it’s an investment not an expense.

The accountant will take more convincing however.

Roger
Roger
December 19, 2024 11:06 am

Incidentally, that’s a legitimate criticism of Mr. Dutton’s proposed nuclear plants.

They’ll be “off-budget” too, like that Ferrari.

Arky
December 19, 2024 11:33 am

Roger

 December 19, 2024 11:06 am

Incidentally, that’s a legitimate criticism of Mr. Dutton’s proposed nuclear plants.

They’ll be “off-budget” too, like that Ferrari

I’m shifting on nuclear after watching how the plants in Ukraine and Russia and even the old Chernobyl site were held hostage.
When there are perfectly good technologies like gas and coal with abundant and proved supplies, I’m not sure nuclear is a great alternative.
Sure it’s better than these bloody green scam bullshit generators.
However, the motive seems to be “Oh well, we don’t want to fight the climate orthodoxy, so let’s cave to it and go with nukes”.
Climate change is garbage.
There is NO reason to change our technologies in order to “save” the planet.
Given that I believe the main driver of the climate scam and the green movement is the desire to destroy Western industries, you have to assume any technology that works to supply base load power will be viciously opposed.
So find your f*cking balls and put some more coal and gas online, and communist proof the power supply by putting a mandate to ensure supply and pricing into the constitution.

Last edited 3 days ago by Arky
Cassie of Sydney
December 19, 2024 11:43 am

“There is a line north of the Netzarim axis known as the ‘line of corpses,’ and the residents of Gaza are fully aware of its meaning. In this area, Palestinians are indiscriminately shot, and their bodies are left to be devoured by dogs.”

The commander added: “We have classified the Netzarim axis as a killing zone, where anyone entering it is immediately shot. There is also a race and competition among military units to kill as many Palestinians as possible.
We kill civilians near Netzarim and then execute them under the pretext that they were armed.”

He continued: “The orders are clear: anyone crossing the boundary at Netzarim must receive a bullet to the head. We are instructed to send pictures of the corpses, and we have sent photos of 200 killed individuals, only 10 of whom were confirmed to be from Hamxs.”

What a crock of shit. I have one word to describe the above bilge from ‘Suppressed News’ (a nauseating site of unbridled Jew hatred) and that word is…’bullshit’. The above ridiculous bilge is no different to the medieval blood libel that Jews murdered Christian children and used their blood to make matza.

Tintarella di Luna
Tintarella di Luna
December 19, 2024 11:46 am

What a crock of shit.

Yep

Last edited 3 days ago by Tintarella di Luna
Roger
Roger
December 19, 2024 11:47 am

A perusal of Suppressed News’s content doesn’t inspire confidence in their objectivity, to put it mildly.

As to the Haaretz report, I would expect the Israeli government to investigate the allegations.

Last edited 3 days ago by Roger
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 19, 2024 12:02 pm

AIs are demented.

Leading AI chatbots show dementia-like cognitive decline in tests, raising questions about their future in medicine (MedXpress, 18 Dec)

Almost all leading large language models or “chatbots” show signs of mild cognitive impairment in tests widely used to spot early signs of dementia, finds a study in the Christmas issue of the BMJ.

Just what we all wanted: handing our civilization to mad computers.

Roger
Roger
December 19, 2024 12:05 pm

There is NO reason to change our technologies in order to “save” the planet.

The Gliberal’s shift on Net Zero was prompted by looming threats of sanctions and punitive tariffs by the EU & Biden’s US.

So, yes, our idiotic power debate is still being driven by domestic and international political factors rather than engineering and cost factors, despite the international ground having shifted since with the election of Trump and the weakening of the EU.

Last edited 3 days ago by Roger
Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 19, 2024 12:12 pm

One for Catholic Cats who like singing.

Lost score from Scotland revives sound of music and voices from centuries past (Phys.org)

A fragment of “lost” music found in the pages of Scotland’s first full-length printed book is providing clues to what music sounded like five centuries ago.

Scholars from Edinburgh College of Art and KU Leuven in Belgium have been investigating the origins of the musical score—which contains only 55 notes—to cast new light on music from pre-Reformation Scotland in the early sixteenth-century.

Researchers say the tantalizing discovery is a rare example of music from Scottish religious institutions 500 years ago, and is the only piece which survives from the northeast of Scotland from this period. The findings are published in the journal Music & Letters.

Despite the musical score having no text, title or attribution, researchers have identified it as a unique musical harmonization of Cultor Dei, a night-time hymn sung during the season of Lent.

I never really learned musical notation but from the look of the score I suspect Cat musos could easily play it, despite it being over 500 years old.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 12:15 pm

Going into Friday’s meeting, should it come to a vote on Deeming’s re-admission or on Pesutto’s leadership

It is the same thing.

P
P
December 19, 2024 12:37 pm

Charles is a longtime supporter of Christians in the Middle East and has often drawn attention to the suffering they often suffer.

Bullshit.
He’s a muslim sympathiser and Jew hater.
He can get stuffed.

The Times of Israel – 6 May 2023:

The Royal Family’s 800-year relationship with Britain’s Jews, in 7 historical tidbits

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
December 19, 2024 12:57 pm

But it’s important to evolve slowly to keep people happy.”
Er- one, there’s no “people” in the first place, that’s the whole problem-
two, every other media company tries its darndest to evolve as quickly as possible, bringing in and/or poaching presenters, bringing in new formats and programs, and dumping the people and things which have no traction.
Rabz doctrine. Afuera! Sheesh, how long has it been?

Peter Greagg
Peter Greagg
December 19, 2024 12:58 pm

Winston Smith
 December 19, 2024 12:31 pm

 Reply to  H B Bear
That’s right – the NBN was ‘off Budget’ too, wasn’t it?
So how’s that ‘investment’ going?

Considering it is probably cheaper to subcontract out everything to Elon?

I’m glad you asked.

Earlier this year, the NBN had to write-off $30 billion as its expenses far exceed its revenue, despite its near monopoly status.

It was “allowed” off-Budget treatment as it was argued by Rudd and company it would make a profit. Well it didn’t and doesn’t.

So the budget outcome in the year the Rudd government announced the NBN, should be made worse by that $30 billion.

Rabz
December 19, 2024 1:03 pm

In the long term, the ever more shrill predictions will unravel

Gerbil worming has been around for over 36 years. It was a preposterous crock o’ shite back then and it’s an even bigger one now.

I’m opposed to Dr Mutton’s insane nookular plans for several reasons, mainly being they are unnecessary – we have an almost limitless supply of coal and gas and secondly, no nookular plant of the type proposed by Dr Mutton will ever be built in this country in any of our lifetimes – in the meantime, the mad headlong rush to year zero will continue unabated.

The most important factor to remember, as it is central to the mass debate on electrickery supply sources, is that the greenfilth year zero agenda is about any electrickery supply ceasing to exist – let alone whether it is reliable or affordable or gaia friendly.

It ain’t about going greenfilth, it’s about going without.

There will be no affordable, reliable electrickery for the peons. This is the ultimate inevitable outcome of the year zero gerbil worming agenda.

In other words, even if enough people wake up to this (and that’s a mighty big if), course correction is well nigh impossible.

Last edited 3 days ago by Rabz
mizaris
mizaris
December 19, 2024 1:03 pm

Cute owl…

Not me, the photographer…

“After nearly an hour of watching this snowy owl perched on a rural fence, I managed to capture this adorable expression—and if you look closely, you’ll also spot her murder mittens (thanks to a fellow birder for the term).
Shot with a long lens and enhanced with Lightroom and Topaz AI to clean up the soft focus and flat light. Totally worth every second of the wait.
December 2024, northeast of YYC.”

https://wonderae.com/20-extraordinary-birds-so-beautiful-you-wont-believe-they-exist/

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Last edited 3 days ago by mizaris
Carmichael
Carmichael
December 19, 2024 1:09 pm

The letter claims Gunn’s intellectual property includes her “story, personal history, Olympic videos and choreography”.

She’d make a perfect Teals candidate.

Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
December 19, 2024 1:14 pm

Give me a couple of minutes and I’ll post the Mocker’s latest.

Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
December 19, 2024 1:24 pm

Enjoy, all Cats and Kittehs.

The Mocker’s 2025 predictions: Peter FitzSimons, Tony Armstrong and PM Peter Dutton

The Mocker offers his 2025 predictions: Albo gives the Solomon Islands an NRL team, Wayne Swan appoints Tim Pallas as Cbus exec and Tony Burke publishes an biography titled: ‘Australia’s First Palestinian MP’.

January

Cbus chair and former treasurer Wayne Swan apologises following revelations of profligate spending of members’ money and an independent review by Deloitte which found the board of the superannuation giant failed to assess whether expenditure was in the best financial interests of members. 

“We have heard, we have listened, and we will act to stamp out our wanton and reckless spending,” says Swan. 

“To that effect I am delighted to announce former Victorian treasurer Tim Pallas will be our new chair of the audit and finance committee.”

February

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announces he will give the Solomon Islands government $700 million to field a rugby league team in the NRL. 

“This is not one-sided by any means,” he says. 

“Prime Minister Jeremiah Manele is very grateful for my government’s generosity, and in return he has given me his personal assurance that the Chinese submarine base intended for Honiara will only be used for peaceful purposes.” 

March

Opening the Prime Minister’s Spelling Bee competition, Education Minister Jason Clare repeatedly refers to what he calls “the fluidity of words”. 

“Some words are archaic, some words describe behaviour that doesn’t exist, some words are value-laden, and sometimes the same word means completely different things to different people,” he says.  

“But enough of that and let’s begin with the first question for our contestants. How do you spell antisemitism?” 

April

Former foreign minister and NSW premier Bob Carr angrily denies rumours his appointment as ambassador is a controversial choice or that it will prove detrimental to relations between Australia and China. 

“For goodness sake, I am well-connected with many high-level officials in that capital and know the country very well,” he tells journalists. 

“As Beijing’s representative in Canberra, I will ensure a mutually beneficial and harmonious relationship between our two countries.”  

 

May

Hosted by Tony Armstrong, the docu-series ‘End Game’, a story about finding “global solutions” to combating racism in Australia sport, debuts on ABC. 

“On the way to the studio tonight I was thinking as I drove here in my brand-new blokey ute what it would be like if racism vanished from sport overnight, and I was so excited at the thought I yelled out OH WHAT A FEELING,” says Armstrong. 

“I mean racism is terrible and sometimes I hate this country for it, but every time I fly overseas I realise I STILL CALL AUSTRALIA HOME. 

We just need to get the right tools to fix this problem. And ideally you should buy those tools at a trusted business where LOWEST PRICES ARE JUST THE BEGINNING.” 

June

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek rejects criticism she has been stonewalling an application by MMG to build a new tailings storage to extend beyond 2030 the life of the 88-year-old zinc, copper and lead mine in Rosebery, Tasmania. 

“I will make a decision when I have the information as to what effect this mine will have on the Tasmanian tiger,” she says. 

July

South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol acquitted at his impeachment trial after he, his defence and police chiefs, and his entire cabinet testify they cannot remember who gave the short-lived order to impose martial law in December. 

A beaming Yoon emerges from court to thank his supporters. 

“To quote a man after my own heart, it’s time to get on the beers,” he says. 

August

Prime Minister Peter Dutton concedes his government’s plans for building nuclear power plants will mean the compulsory acquiring of homes. 

“The good news is it’s just one residential property at this stage,” he says. 

“It’s in Western Sydney, and the owner is one Chris Bowen. 

As compensation for him, it’s our treat for a carbon-neutral home and a couple of acres in the Simpson Desert, where I might add there is an abundance of free sunshine.”

September

On the first day of his international holiday following his retirement, former prime minister Anthony Albanese is hospitalised after collapsing in shock at a Sydney Airport check-in counter. 

A Qantas spokesperson later confirms Albanese took ill after learning the round-the-world economy tickets he purchased meant he would be travelling in economy.

October

Printers for the Sydney Morning Herald go on strike after learning they have been rostered to work a 24-hour shift to produce a one-off special edition of 1,700 pages. 

“It’s bloody ridiculous, unnecessary, and a terrible business decision,” says Australian Manufacturing Workers Union delegate Jock Simmons. 

“Who in their right mind would want to read a transcript of Peter FitzSimons interviewing Peter FitzSimons?

November

The true believers gather in Canberra for an address by Gough Whitlam biographer Jenny Hocking to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the prime minister’s dismissal by Governor-General Sir John Kerr. 

“We will never forget, we will never forgive, and we will always maintain our rage,” Hocking tells the six audience members.

December

Three political biographies hit the shelves in quick succession for Christmas. 

First, ‘Overcoming Toryism – The Story of Australia’s First Public Housing PM’, by Anthony Albanese. 

Second, ‘Overcoming Homophobia – The Story of Australia’s First Openly Gay Foreign Minister’, by Penny Wong. 

Third, ‘Overcoming Racial and Religious Bigotry – The Story of Australia’s First Palestinian MP’, by Tony Burke.

That’s it for me. Enjoy your Christmas, and I’ll see you in the New Year.

Last edited 3 days ago by Mak Siccar
Kneel
Kneel
December 19, 2024 1:25 pm

“Earlier this year, the NBN had to write-off $30 billion as its expenses far exceed its revenue, despite its near monopoly status.”

Remember before NBN existed, and Telstra offered fibre to the node for $30 billion?
And they said “No – yesterdays tech”.
Then backed down and went with FTTN anyway when they realised FTTP was going to be 100 times more and they couldn’t afford it.

Yeah, that bad, right?

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 1:26 pm
John H.
John H.
December 19, 2024 1:27 pm

Bruce of Newcastle

 December 19, 2024 12:02 pm

AIs are demented.

Leading AI chatbots show dementia-like cognitive decline in tests, raising questions about their future in medicine (MedXpress, 18 Dec)

Almost all leading large language models or “chatbots” show signs of mild cognitive impairment in tests widely used to spot early signs of dementia, finds a study in the Christmas issue of the BMJ.

Just what we all wanted: handing our civilization to mad computers.

The link to the study doesn’t work, the news report has some suspicious statements, and I suspect this is another BMJ Xmas trick. For example …

“Not only are neurologists unlikely to be replaced by large language models any time soon, but our findings suggest that they may soon find themselves treating new, virtual patients—artificial intelligence models presenting with cognitive impairment.”

Neurologists treating AI? That’s an intended joke.

?

John H.
John H.
December 19, 2024 1:31 pm

Black Ball

 December 19, 2024 8:41 am

FMD. Look at this idiot. Sydney Morning Herald:

Australian Olympic breakdancer Rachael “Raygun” Gunn is demanding $10,000 in legal fees from the owner of a small Sydney comedy club that had planned to stage a show called Raygun the Musical.

I won’t click on anything to do with that woman because doing so increases her profile and media reporting about her.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 19, 2024 1:47 pm

Raised music earlier. I haven’t been listening to much lately. Now got a music show going though.

Comes from following the weird paths of the internet. In this case a volcano blog…

Poster mentions an Icelandic volcano. So I reply, as you do. Then check out the profile of the commenter…who it turns out runs a weekly music show:

The Other Rock Show

The Other Rock Show is a weekly radio broadcast featuring music with ‘other’ time signatures and adventurous song structures. Math rock, avant prog, electronica, weird pop and the undefinable, all connected by having something less ordinary going on ‘under the hood’ The ORS is broadcast every Sunday on London’s Resonance 104.4 FM

I’m listening to the December 15 show, it’s bloody good. Maybe the ABC should pick her up, they could do worse.

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 2:03 pm

One should never make predictions, particularly about the future, but I’m pretty sure Victoria will vote Labor in 2026.

Most of the business “movers and shakers” are gone, small business screwed and shut up shop. All that’s left are teat suckers.

It’s actually the reason the SFLs should put Moira in charge because whilst most are teat suckers, many I know have a “morality compass” (the sort of thing Trump appealed to). You know, working to middle class folks who, whilst most likely employed or paid something from Vic Government, still believe a man can’t be a woman etc…

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 19, 2024 2:23 pm

Meanwhile in the Territory:

Alice Springs cops in despair at court’s ‘revolving door joke’
LIAM MENDES

Alice Springs police officers are growing increasingly frustrated with the Northern Territory’s court system, which they say acts as a “revolving door” for offenders, as dozens of officers flock to the nation’s most dangerous outback city in the midst of a serious crime crisis.

It comes as six teenagers were arrested for hijacking a taxi and going for a joyride through Alice Springs, with one allegedly telling police: “If you steal the car, you get to drive the car.”

The rural city has seen a huge escalation in crime over the past month, which resulted in a two-month-old baby left with a fractured skull and a brain bleed after an alleged home invasion, and a woman allegedly raped in her sleep. The assault on the baby was allegedly carried out by two teenagers who had been collectively charged with almost 300 other ­offences and bailed 35 times.

NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy on Wednesday confirmed more than 50 Territory police officers had been deployed to Alice Springs as part of a large-scale ­operation cracking down on crime, which had resulted in 140 arrests since mid-November.

Mr Murphy said officers were seeing a “downward trend” in all types of crimes, but increased efforts would remain in Alice Springs until the end of next month.

“I had a really good meeting with the mayor, Matt Paterson, yesterday,” he said on ABC Radio.

“I’ve given him an assurance that those resources will remain focused on Alice Springs and the safety of residents and it’s reassuring that we’ve seen some ­really good positive results.”

The Australian has spoken to multiple fed up rank-and-file officers who claim the court ­system is a “joke” that does little to rehabilitate offenders.

“The court’s a joke, protection of victims honestly ranks dead last on their list of priorities,” one Alice Springs-based officer said.

Another said: “There is ­nothing more frustrating than as a cop going the extra mile to make sure you apprehend that violent offender in a timely manner so that his victims are safe, only to find that even though your next shift starts in less than eight hours, by the time you have started that shift, old mate is back out there.”

“What kind of comfort can you give to victims when that is the standard course of action?” they said.

“The justice system needs some refining, the courts need a wake-up call, they need to realise that the ‘poor bugger me’ case that is put before them doesn’t capture the abject fear of harm and death of the victim at the moment.’”

One example an officer gave was that of the sentencing of ­Gregory Reid, who was released from prison on December 12 following his arrest in April.

He pleaded guilty to arming himself with a knife and stabbing a woman in the breast, resulting in a perforated lung, stomach and spleen causing internal bleeding.

After being sentenced to three years and seven months, he was immediately released from custody on a ­suspended sentence.

Amid the increased police efforts, officers arrested six children – five boys and a girl – aged between 12 and 15 who were driving a stolen taxi around Alice Springs on Sunday night.

At one point, the taxi almost collided with a car being driven by The Australian, before driving straight through a right light.

Police claim the children ­continued to drive for hours ­“erratically” on both sides of the road.

Police used spike strips to stop the car and arrested the children.

Two children were charged, and one was dealt with under the provisions of the Youth Justice Act.

Three of the children were returned to “responsible adults”.

Oz

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 2:26 pm

“You’re gonna get so sick of winning”

ABC News Faces Backlash Over Trump Settlement, George Stephanopoulos

In a move that floored ABC News’ rank-and-file journalists inside the network and in the broader journalistic community, Disney CEO Bob Iger authorized a $15 million settlement and an additional $1 million to cover Trump’s legal fees as well as a quasi-apology on Dec. 13. According to sources, Stephanopoulos was blindsided, unaware that Disney would back down in such a public manner until a few hours before the news broke. 

?

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 2:38 pm

Are all you Cats at your Christmas functions or what?

Awfully quiet around here.

You’d think there’d be more posting if you were at your Christmas lunches… I mean, I hate work lunches as I really don’t want to socialise with people that I have no choice but to socialise with…

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 2:43 pm

Then backed down and went with FTTN anyway when they realised FTTP was going to be 100 times more and they couldn’t afford it.

As it always should have been (if Government needs to be involved at all, that is).
If you want to stream 6 HD movies simultaneously and run a server farm in your garage, pay for a 3/4″ fibre pipe yourself.
If, like me, you might have 1 streaming service running at any one time, along with sending the odd abusive email to the local Liberal member and typing slowly on a blog, then a copper twisted pair from the street will do just fine.

Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 2:46 pm

Rabz at 1.03pm:

It ain’t about going greenfilth, it’s about going without.

Correct.

The reason “renewable energy” doesn’t work is that it wasn’t designed to work. Its purpose is to destroy capitalism and the wealth it has created.

The Greenfilth aim to take us back to the 17th century before we got serious about taking ourselves out of the primordial swamp.

The Greenfilth counter revolution is a top-down attempt by the rich to stop the aspirational joining them at the top of the pile.

The bit the Filth don’t tell you is that, in order to save the planet, we have to live like 16th Century peasants in cold dark caves where our children are taught that the Industrial Revolution was just historic wrongthink.

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 2:46 pm

And is it just me or does it appear that Elbow has already gone on Xmas holidays?

Didn’t see a lot of him recently and it appears (?) he dumped yesterday’s MYEFO on Wallet Wizard and ran for the hills…???

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 2:50 pm

Even the alarmist APSI Institute is **slowly** getting it:

The energy transition that couldn’t | The Strategist

(Not entirely but good to see an author questioning the “energy transition”)

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 2:54 pm

Good read:

The truth about Ireland’s hatred for Israel – spiked

Is there a politician more sanctimonious, more smug, than Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins? His pompous scolding of Israel this week after it had the temerity to call out the anti-Israel animus of the Irish elites was a truly unedifying spectacle of false virtue and cant.

Shaking with fury, every word bitterly spat out, he said it is a ‘gross defamation and slander’ to ‘brand a people’ anti-Semitic just because they ‘criticise Benjamin Netanyahu’.

He seemed to be in the grip of a paroxysm of pique. I’ve never seen him quake and froth like this over anything else: not poverty, not homelessness, not war. Well, unless it’s a war being fought by Israel.

Ireland has fallen

Oh come on
Oh come on
December 19, 2024 3:00 pm

Understanding how AUKUS could make Perth’s southern suburbs an economic engine room

Tucked away on Perth’s southern coastline is an industrial precinct that few outside the community would have reason to visit, but which is fast emerging as the new engine room of the state.

The burgeoning shipyard at Henderson is preparing for a three-decade mission, culminating in the arrival of Australia’s own nuclear-powered submarines under the $368 billion AUKUS deal.

Cheque-carrying federal ministers have visited the site no less than three times this year, and the HMAS Stirling naval base at nearby Garden Island another two times.

Hm if I lived near Garden Island, I’d be thinking about moving. If nukes ever start flying, that’ll be one of the top 3 targets in Australia when SSNs are based there (which is going to be very soon – pretty sure I read the Yanks will be rotating some of their Virginia-class subs through there). I’m a bit surprised more people aren’t talking about this. There’s a lot of fretting over nuclear waste, though.

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 3:01 pm

Unconfirmed reports (?) Israel has shot down some oil and power plants in Yemen…

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 3:02 pm

According to sources, Stephanopoulos was blindsided, unaware that Disney would back down in such a public manner until a few hours before the news broke. 

This is what is wrong with MSM “talent”.*
Stephanopoulos clearly defamed Trump by stating on air that Trump had “been found liable for rape” in the case brought by that swivel-eyed loon E. Jean Carroll.
No such finding was made.
Trump sued on the basis that this involved “actual malice” on the part of Stephanopoulos, which is a very high bar and the one public figures need to meet in the US to succeed in defamation claims.
ABC moved for dismissal but the JURDGE allowed it to proceed. This would have been the first red flag for ABC/Disney that they might be in trouble.
The next stage is discovery, and I have no doubt Trump’s lawyers uncovered some very juicy emails and texts which were going to show bias to the point of … ker-ching … “actual malice”.
The point is, Stephanopoulos has no say in this, and nor should he.
He isn’t cutting the cheques for damages or paying the lawyers, so ABC have correctly made a decision based on legal and commercial considerations.
If he is so pissed off he could always quit.
Or offer to indemnify ABC for any additional costs or damages and run the case himself.
Otherwise STFU.

* Exhibit A – Cane Toad.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
December 19, 2024 3:09 pm

Arutz Sheva:

Missile from Yemen intercepted, Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen (19 Dec)

The IDF struck Houthi targets in Yemen early on Thursday morning.

The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement, “A short while ago, following the approval of strike plans by the Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz, IAF fighter jets, with the direction of the Intelligence Directorate and the Israeli Navy, struck military targets belonging to the Houthi terrorist regime on the western coast and in inland Yemen.”

Arab media reported that the Israeli air strikes targeted the port of Hodeidah as well as the capital Sanaa, a stronghold of the Houthi rebels. This marks the first time that Israel has conducted strikes in the Yemeni capital. The reports mentioned that, among other targets, two power stations were hit, one of which was destroyed.

Additionally, widespread power outages were reported across Sanaa.

FAFO.

Kneel
Kneel
December 19, 2024 3:12 pm

“If, like me, you might have 1 streaming service running at any one time, along with sending the odd abusive email to the local Liberal member and typing slowly on a blog, then a copper twisted pair from the street will do just fine.”

Indeed. 50M down/ 20M up is more than enough for me (for now at least).
I was <100m from the node, so had (copper) line synch at 140M.
Now on FTTP in new unit block, so no issues there either.
I previously did a speed test and saw 47M down at 7PM, then eralised I was still streaming a you-tube channel @ 720p during the test. 🙂

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 3:14 pm

Lysander

 December 19, 2024 2:38 pm

Are all you Cats at your Christmas functions or what?

Just back from lunch with a couple of Local Liberal Luminaries.
The consensus is that Prosciutto is dead man walking. If Moira Deeming isn’t accepted back into the party-room unconditionally, he will be asked to produce the legal advice which tells him the JURDGE got it wrong.
If he does not produce it, he is screwed.
If he does, he will be challenged to appeal the decision (which he won’t do).
Checkmate.
Apparently one of his faction (also a woman) likened Moira’s behaviour to a new employee in the office sticking it to the boss.
Err … wut?
Firstly, all MPs should be considered equals around the table when it comes to expressing views under the roof of the “broad church”.
And, secondly, Prosciutto is not “the boss”. He serves as leader at the pleasure of the Parliamentary party.
Something he is about to find out tomorrow I think.
If, as Peta Credlin suggests, the vote is tied 14-all, does Prosciutto cast his vote to tie and hang on?
Or does he do what he should have done as soon as the judgement came down?
That is … PISS OFF!

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 19, 2024 3:16 pm

Mum calls for ‘adult crime adult time’ after teen killer served with three-year prison termMohammad Alfares
18 minutes ago

The mother of a man stabbed to death by a teenager in Melbourne has made a desperate plea for Victoria to introduce ‘Adult Crime, Adult Time’ for youth offending after the killer of her son was sentenced to three years imprisonment.
The teen killer, 18, on Thursday was sentenced to a further 18-months imprisonment in Youth Detention after accepting a sentence to a lesser charge of manslaughter — despite showing a lack of “clear remorse”.
It’s on top of 18 months he had already served since killing Adam Bockhodt, 34, on June 3 last year.
He was a minor at the time of offending and cannot be identified in line with the Children Youth Families Act.
The juvenile pleaded guilty for the manslaughter of Mr Bockhodt after a sexual tryst with his lifelong friend, Lisette Campbell, 31, descended into chaos at her South Yarra apartment.
He sat slumped with his hands crossed at the back of the court, smiling at staff as they arrived while sporting a rattail haircut and a prison jumper. In front of him was Mr Bockhodt’s mother, Bridget Drowley, who came to court wearing a T-Shirt with her son’s face that states “Adult Crime, Adult Time for Adam” and “Catch up Victoria”.
The maximum penalty for manslaughter is 25 years for adults.

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 3:19 pm

You must remember this, when David Suzuki was challenged on Q&A by a Tasmanian Professor who is a Climate Scientist.

He gets a schooling at:

9mins, 15 seconds:

The nature of David Suzuki

And 15mins, 25 secs.

Rococo Liberal
Rococo Liberal
December 19, 2024 3:22 pm

How does a non-binary person kill someone?

They slash them

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 3:27 pm

Any Perth Cats heading south for Christmas might want to avoid this $1,040,000,000 new road:

Windscreens cracked on new Wilman Wadandi Highway in South West WA | PerthNow

New windscreens for Christmas is the cry of those who have travelled on the newly opened Wilman Wadandi Highway with reports loose rocks in the not-so-smooth road surface have smashed windscreens.

Social media lit up with complaints in the wake of the Bunbury Outer Ring Road officially opening to the public on Monday, with many saying they were shocked at the state of the new road as loose gravel flew at their cars.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 19, 2024 3:38 pm

Trevor Whittington: Why WA’s farming heritage deserves a voiceTrevor WhittingtonCountryman
Thu, 5 December 2024 8:00AM

In WA, we’ve become experts at pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into glittering museum projects that have all the warmth of a corporate conference centre.
Our most recent masterpiece? The $400 million WA Museum Boola Bardip, a stunning structure that looks more like a Silicon Valley startup hub than a shrine to history.
And now, we’re gearing up for an equally eye-watering Aboriginal Cultural Centre by the Swan River.
While celebrating culture is crucial, it’s time to ask: could we stop building temples to history and start preserving the history itself?
Across regional WA, the story couldn’t be more different.
Our farming heritage — that built the Wheatbelt and helped feed the nation — is rusting away faster than you can say “pass me the WD-40”.

Scattered across paddocks and old farm tips are the last of our old tractors, headers, and trucks — remnants of innovation that changed the face of agriculture.
These treasures aren’t just machines; they’re pieces of our collective story.
Meanwhile, our struggling community farming museums, valiantly run by local volunteers on shoestring budgets, are crying out for help.
They need funds to build sheds, protect their collections, and restore these machines to their former glory.
But instead of preserving these icons, we seem obsessed with making grand architectural statements in Perth.

Sure, the Boola Bardip looks fantastic on Instagram, but where’s the Chamberlain 40K? Where’s the iconic WD-9 International?
Visitors stroll through its polished halls, only to leave with hardly a nod to the machinery that cleared and farmed the Wheatbelt.
It’s as though we’re ashamed of our farming roots, preferring abstract exhibitions about “conceptual journeys” over celebrating the dust and grease of real history.
And then there’s the upcoming Aboriginal Cultural Centre. Its intent is vital, but you can bet more time will be spent debating the Indigenous name than funding exhibits that tell meaningful stories.
This fixation on shiny buildings reeks of cultural cringe — the belief that we need European-style museums to prove we’re sophisticated.
Meanwhile, our authentic rural heritage is being left to rot. Out in the regions, farming museums are doing extraordinary work, yet they’re losing a race against time.

This isn’t just about saving old machines. It’s about saving the stories of the people who used them.
The pre-war generation is gone. The post-war boys who cleared the land with Sherman tanks and recall the first machines drawn by horse power and not horses are dwindling fast. Soon, we’ll lose the farmers of the ’50s and ’60s, who turned one plough into two, and the innovators of the ’70s, who cobbled together the first home-made four-wheel-drive tractors.
If we don’t act now, these stories—and the machines they revolve around—will vanish. And with them, future generations will lose their connection to the grit and ingenuity that shaped this State.
The Government has committed about $250 million to the new Aboriginal Cultural Centre.
Why not allocate just 5 per cent of that to the 20 or so rural farming museums to at least find and put under cover what they have collected?

From there, the Government should match the annual cost of running this new cultural centre with a similar amount of funding to run regional museums.
These small voluntary institutions in the bush are doing the same as the Aboriginal Cultural Centre, which is to capture the culture and stories of those who lived off the land and were custodians of it. Both narratives matter, and both deserve preservation.
For a fraction of the cost of what will be spent on museums in Perth the State could have a world class museum experience in the bush.
Imagine walking into one of our retired CBH sheds not to stare at a static exhibit, but to see a tractor restored to working order, able to do a lap or two of the neighbouring paddock.
You’d hear the engine roar, smell the diesel, and feel the grit of history in the air. Even better, you could meet the people who worked these machines in the good old days.
That’s the kind of museum that people would travel interstate or overseas to see, something different — not yet another architecturally designed museum costing $250 or $400m, filled with not much at all.
Trevor Whittington is the CEO of WAFarmers.

Bruce in WA
December 19, 2024 3:47 pm

We have rellies staying with us for Christmas. Last weekend, he started to feel “off”; bit of diarrhoea, brain fog etc. Thought it was jet lag, but tested for Covid anyway (negative — twice). By Tuesday had to take him to emergency at nearest hospital: barely able to walk, weak, bad diarrhoea, almost incoherent, badly dehydrated. Admitted that evening.

Lab tests not back yet but docs convinced it’s C. diff (clostridioides difficile) in his colon/bowel as a result of a course of antibiotics he was on before arriving here. Pretty serious stuff at his age. So far, he hasn’t responded to treatment, which is, surprisingly, a course of two separate targeted antibiotics, one oral, one intravenous. Then there’s the option of poo tablets and, a last resort, surgery.

Merry Christmas …

Cassie of Sydney
December 19, 2024 4:06 pm

From earlier today…

Many politicians are unprincipled, but few combine this with the level of political ineptitude we see in Prosciutto.

All he had to do was say, “Moira supports women’s rights to play sport against their own gender and to be comfortable in change rooms and toilets, and I fully support her on this. Yes, I know Andrews will try to pull a diversionary stunt … “look over there – Nazis!” … but where does he stand on this? Is he OK with biological women having to give up sport because they are forced to play against 6’6? X-men?”.

The SFL’s complain that they don’t get media coverage.

Well, do what the Orange Man does. Use the media to talk directly to the voters. Had he thrown down that challenge to Andrews it would have been on high rotation on the MSM as “abhorrent, transphobic and outmoded”. But a yuuuge proportion of voters would agree with him.

Quite so. I still shake my head at Pesutto’s staggering imbecility and idiocy. But he’s not the only imbecile and idiot in the Victorian Liberals. I suspect there are others who must shoulder some blame, among them Guy, Kennett, Kroger, Southwick and Crozer. I reckon they egged Pesutto on. You see, they don’t like Moira, she’s a conservative woman from the wrong end of town. Remember how thin-lipped Matthew Guy dealt with Bernie Finn? They want the Victorian Liberals to be a ‘conservative free zone’.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 19, 2024 4:10 pm

Scattered across paddocks and old farm tips are the last of our old tractors, headers, and trucks — remnants of innovation that changed the face of agriculture.

These treasures aren’t just machines; they’re pieces of our collective story

Sacred sites, surely.

Last edited 2 days ago by Knuckle Dragger
Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 4:24 pm
Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 5:01 pm

Dunno how I missed this the other day (perhaps another Cat already posted it) but perhaps Rowan Dean is right and this is a one term government?

Coalition boosts primary support and retains clear two-party preferred lead for Christmas: L-NP 52% cf. ALP 48% – Roy Morgan Research

Labor’s primary down to 27%!!!!!

Rosie
Rosie
December 19, 2024 5:13 pm

I have had good Christmas news, this time for my family member a seizure is not a sign that tumours are growing again but almost certainly ‘radiation necrosis’, bad obviously but controlled by increased medication and fingers crossed, thats all.
I’m hoping this is a once off occurrence, it’s not clear from the literature.
As long as cancer isn’t spreading its good.

Cassie of Sydney
December 19, 2024 5:26 pm

No one ever asked Andrews why his former female chief of staff resigned about the time he became premier and scrubbed the experience from her resume on Linked In. There may be no story there, but no one asked either

Because the partisan far-left media, which is 90% of them, are simply not interested. A Labor or Greens politician could rape 20 women and/or murder 40 babies and still the partisan far-left media wouldn’t be interested in the story. They run cover for the left every single day, they don’t even hide their bias. They are worse than Pravda.

So what should the right do? As Sancho wrote earlier….you do what Orange Man does. 

Use the media to talk directly to the voters. Had he thrown down that challenge to Andrews it would have been on high rotation on the MSM as “abhorrent, transphobic and outmoded”. But a yuuuge proportion of voters would agree with him.

Remember, just two weeks before November 5, in the lead up to the election, Trump was accused by the Demonrats and their MSM mouthpieces of hosting a Nazi rally at Madison Square Gardens, a rally that was supposedly reminiscent of the infamous 1939 rally at MSG. The claim was ludicrous but Kamaltoe, the Demonrats and the MSM ran with it, hysterically. Trump was Adolf Hitler reincarnated. But faced with this tedious never ending Nazi hysteria, did Trump or Vance or anyone else on the right flinch? No, rather they called the left’s bluff and it is high time others on the right, in this country and elsewhere, also called the left’s bluff when it comes to the daily shit the left spruik. It’s time to ignore the lies and hysteria. It’s time to stand up and say….nup that’s not gonna work now, it’s time to say, Donald Trump is not a Nazi, J D Vance is not a Nazi, Peter Dutton is not a Nazi, Moira Deeming is not a Nazi, JK Rowling is not a Nazi, Kellie-Jay Keen is not a Nazi, I am not a Nazi and nor are most women on this planet Nazis, all we want to do is to safeguard our private spaces and sports from cocks on frocks and cheats. That’s all Pesutto had to do but rather he chose to run and hide, like some timid little mouse, from Dan and his media whores. And even worse, he doubled down on his Nazi hysteria and now he faces political and economic ruin.

Pesutto is now plotzed. And I have zero sympathy for him.

As Rosie said last week, after the defamation judgment, you can’t call conservatives ‘Nazis’. This must stop.

cohenite
December 19, 2024 5:36 pm

mizaris
 December 19, 2024 1:03 pm

Cute owl…

I do like owls and here is a video of the marvellous things:

Facebook

Carmichael
Carmichael
December 19, 2024 5:54 pm

Is there a politician more sanctimonious, more smug, than Ireland’s president, Michael D Higgins? His pompous scolding of Israel this week after it had the temerity to call out the anti-Israel animus of the Irish elites was a truly unedifying spectacle of false virtue and cant.

There is a strong vein of anti-Semitism in the Irish. As for the country’s politicians, they make our rorters and opportunists look like amateurs.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 19, 2024 6:34 pm

Women trapped by sharia: ‘I must pay my husband ransom to divorce’About 100,000 marriages in the UK are believed to fall under the authority of sharia councils, also known as courts
Dominic Kennedy
, Investigations Editor
Wednesday December 18 2024, 7.10pm GMT, The Times

After suffering an onslaught of psychological abuse from her husband and increasingly unhappy in her marriage, Aisha finally decided she wanted a divorce.
There was one problem, however: her husband refused to allow it unless she paid him a five-figure sum covering all the money he spent on her during their marriage.
She offered instead to return her rings but he demanded the money they cost, a sum of thousands of pounds she could not afford.
“I feel like I have to pay ransom to get out of my marriage,” she told The Times.
Welcome to sharia, British style.

Because an Islamic marriage allows polygamy and permits only men to divorce at will, Aisha faces being trapped forever while her husband takes on new brides. The marriage was not officially registered so Aisha has no recourse to English law.
Aisha’s wedding was among 100,000 Islamic marriages estimated to have taken place in Britain and falling under the religious authority of sharia councils, also known as courts.
An investigation by The Times into the use of sharia in Britain has also found:
• A British sharia council states that husbands may dispose of their wives instantly by saying “divorce” three times, a practice banned in many countries in the Muslim world.
• Muslims are being encouraged by another sharia council to download a mobile phone app that creates sharia-compliant wills where daughters inherit half as much as sons.
• The app, aimed at users in England and Wales, has a drop-down menu for men to specify how many wives they have, up to four.
• Women are being asked to disclose when they had their last period in order to get a divorce.
• One of the country’s most prominent sharia councils was founded by a scholar who said men should not be questioned over why they hit their wives.
Britain is seen as the western capital for sharia councils, the informal guardians of religious law over the country’s fast-growing Muslim population.
Home to the first such institution in Europe in 1982, Britain is now expanding sharia services to Muslims overseas.
The Council of Europe, which protects human rights, has expressed concern about Britain’s sharia councils — estimated to number as many as 85 — discriminating against women, and the social pressure upon Muslims to use them.

The womenAisha (not her real name), who is in her twenties, was appalled when Dewsbury’s sharia council entertained her husband’s requests for compensation before setting her free.
Since she lacked the thousands of pounds requested, her husband offered to let her pay in instalments.
“Until I’m officially divorced Islamically, I still believe that I’m married to my husband. It’s hard to comprehend that I’m having to pay this amount just for something that’s spiritual.”

Another woman who struggled to divorce is Shakilla Malik, 45, from Manchester. She told the Karma Nirvana charity she suffered 13 years of domestic violence after being forced at 16 to marry a cousin in Pakistan.
She said the Dewsbury sharia council kept her waiting nearly three years for a divorce when her husband’s brother became involved.
“He wrote a letter to them saying that what a good dad his brother is, what a good husband he’s been, what a good person he was, [that] he prays five times a day,” she said. “This had nothing to do with my brother-in-law. They shouldn’t have given him the time of day.”
The Dewsbury sharia council said: “We understand that emotions can run high and that outcomes may not always meet everyone’s expectations, but our role is to guide couples towards constructive dialogue and decisions.”
A mother in the Midlands obtained a civil divorce after a decades-long arranged marriage to a cousin she wed as a teenager during a visit to Pakistan.
“In our culture and religion, if you don’t get divorced Islamically they say you’re still married. I wanted an Islamic divorce. I went to find somebody in the community … connected to the mosque,” she said.
The go-between made an indecent proposition that she should enter into a “mut’a”, a temporary religiously sanctioned union, sometimes branded a “pleasure marriage” because it enables couples to have sex and then part.
“Apart from my husband, no man has ever touched me. I sobbed my heart out when this guy proposed this to me,” she said.
The woman, in her forties, explained how some Muslim men such as her ex-husband use religiosity to exert patriarchal control over women.
He would demand sex, citing a hadith about Muhammad requiring wives to agree to intercourse even if on a camel’s back or saddle. The saying is used by some scholars to argue that there is no concept of marital rape in Islam.
Tanya Walker, a Tehran-born academic, explained in her book Sharia Councils and Muslim Women in Britain that some women used the councils due to community pressures. One woman said “religion is not important to me”. Another believed in God but not Islam and hated Islamic religious authorities.

‘Divorce, divorce, divorce’While Muslim women in Britain struggle to obtain divorces under sharia, the same is not true for men.
The Birmingham sharia council, part of the Birmingham Mosque Trust charity, explains on its website the concept of pronouncing talaq, the Arabic word for “divorce”. When declared by a husband, it effectively means “I divorce you”.
The council states online: “Men can divorce their wives unilaterally by pronouncing talaq three times either consecutively or on three separate occasions, depending on the Islamic school of thought by which the married couple abide.”
The Times asked Birmingham sharia council why it told couples that Muslim men may divorce in this way when the practice has been banned by 23 countries with large Muslim populations. They include Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and India.

But – but – but, Islam is the most feminist of all religions…

Lysander
Lysander
December 19, 2024 6:43 pm

For cricket-lovin’ Cats, watched a great movie last night on Netflix called “83”

Very funny but a good reminder of how the Indians claimed the 83 Test World Cup, despite having never won a match previously and the Windies never having lost a match previously.

If you watch closely, you can also spot Boonie.

Tom
Tom
December 19, 2024 6:47 pm

Yet again, NSW’s useful idiot premier Chris Minns is providing cover for the radicals in the ALP pushing for the legalisation of illegal hallucinogenic drugs.

Happens every time: the popular pretty boy premier is used by the radical left to ram through permissive state abandonment of morality.

If you vote Labor, you get stuff you didn’t vote for and don’t want. Every time.

Old Lefty
Old Lefty
December 19, 2024 7:05 pm

The GayBC breathlessly announces the result of the census question on sexuality: 4.5 per cent indentify with the alphabet soup brigade:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-19/lgbti-population-abs-data/104746854

That’s about a tenth of the number of those who identify as Christian, by the way.

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 7:16 pm

Outright subversion and Mike Johnson was happy to go along with it. They are getting an earful from their constituents but it still might get through.

@sheislaurenlee

THE SPENDING BILL WOULD HAVE BLOCKED RFK JR. FROM UPDATING HHS PROTOCOL ON VACCINE INJURIES

On page 757, the bill amends the previously-passed “Prevent Pandemic Act” (42 USC 6627):

“The Secretary may not revise the Vaccine Injury Table to include a vaccine for which the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has issued a recommendation for routine use in children or pregnant women until at least one application for such vaccine has been approved.

Upon such revision of the Vaccine Injury Table, all vaccines in a vaccine category on the Vaccine Injury Table, including vaccines authorized under emergency use… shall be considered included in the Vaccine Injury Table.”

They also added: “An injury or death related to a administered at a time when the vaccine was a covered countermeasure subiect to a declaration under section 319F-3 (b) SHALL NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR COMPENSATION under the Program.”

Sneaky.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 19, 2024 7:16 pm

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/12/a-beautiful-christmas-carol-libera-carol-of-the-bells.html

Merry Christmas, and a happy and prosperous New Year to all you horrible mob.

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 7:17 pm
mizaris
mizaris
December 19, 2024 7:38 pm

Lioness series 2. Got some reeeely good stuff in it.

Cassie of Sydney
December 19, 2024 7:39 pm

I have had good Christmas news, this time for my family member a seizure is not a sign that tumours are growing again but almost certainly ‘radiation necrosis’, bad obviously but controlled by increased medication and fingers crossed, thats all.
I’m hoping this is a once off occurrence, it’s not clear from the literature.
As long as cancer isn’t spreading its good.

Am so pleased to hear, Rosie.

Knuckle Dragger
Knuckle Dragger
December 19, 2024 7:46 pm

Crikkit news:

This has the potential to be one of the shortest BBL matches ever.

After five overs, the Hobart people are 6/32.

Now scanning the movie channels to see what’s on later.

bons
bons
December 19, 2024 7:54 pm

Love Christmas. Fugg off Wong and and the Labor adolescents.

https://youtu.be/SQadcm_dwEM

H B Bear
H B Bear
December 19, 2024 8:00 pm

Perth BOM Christmas Day forecast 13-25. This might be as close to a white Christmas as it gets.

Zippster
Zippster
December 19, 2024 8:07 pm

 Elon Musk THREATENS to UNSEAT RINOS Voting for MASSIVE Spending Bill, Trump: ‘It’s DEAD’

Unseat them anyway

Roger
Roger
December 19, 2024 8:34 pm

Fatima Payman’s party calls for candidates to contest Senate seats in NSW and Victoria

Fatima Payman’s new political movement is launching a search for candidates as it sets its sights on winning Senate seats in New South Wales and Victoria at the next federal election.

The former Labor senator’s party, Australia’s Voice, will put a callout for candidates on Thursday after the Australian Electoral Commission approved its registration earlier this week.

It plans to run Senate candidates in all states, and possibly the ACT, but will focus on Victoria and NSW, where Payman’s personal brand is considered the strongest, particularly in suburbs with high Muslim populations.

The Guardian, 19 December 2024

As I’ve previously noted, the senator for WA has been spending a lot of time in VIC & NSW recently promoting Israeli boycotts, sanctions and disinvestment.

“Australia’s Voice” is sure to throw up some “interesting” candidates.

local oaf
December 19, 2024 9:02 pm

Fatima Payman’s party calls for candidates to contest Senate seats in NSW and Victoria”

Whose hand???

ScreenHunter_851-Dec.-02-08.35
Kev
Kev
December 19, 2024 9:33 pm

Michael Leunig has died at 79

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 9:38 pm

Rosie

 December 19, 2024 5:13 pm

I have had good Christmas news, this time for my family member a seizure is not a sign that tumours are growing again but almost certainly ‘radiation necrosis’, bad obviously but controlled by increased medication and fingers crossed, thats all.

I’m hoping this is a once off occurrence, it’s not clear from the literature.

As long as cancer isn’t spreading its good.

Ain’t that the truth.
Good news indeed.

JC
JC
December 19, 2024 10:00 pm

H B Bear

December 19, 2024 6:03 pm

Reply to  Cassie of Sydney

Trumps bypassing of the MSM in 2020 was a masterstroke. He made them irrelevant. They ended up reporting his tweets.

Suing them helps too, like George Steph…, the Greek dwarf.
As one of Trump’s advisors suggested, “we’re not fcking around anymore”.

The budget extension bill is also a hill to die on too. This crap has to stop.

JC
JC
December 19, 2024 10:11 pm

Another thing: I want the Liberals to lose the May election for one simple reason. If they win, it will likely be with a very marginal majority in the lower house while being hamstrung in the Senate. It would just be another Morrison-style government. Plus, I don’t like Dutton. Let Labor win, hopefully with a minority government, and let them thoroughly mess things up.
Only then, in six years’ time, will there be a chance for the Liberals to secure a majority in both houses and actually get real things done. Hopefully, Dutton will be gone by then too. This country isn’t ready for meaningful change just yet—it needs a good, hard dose of Labor before people realize it.

Look at what’s happening in Canada, where Castro Jr.’s party is polling at around 20% of the vote. In the UK, the communists are currently at 30%—if you combine the support for Reform and the Conservatives. The Right can’t just eke out a win; it has to decisively defeat the Left.

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 10:22 pm
JC
JC
December 19, 2024 10:28 pm

He’s not fcking around. They may not get through all their wish list, but they’re ( Musk and Vivek) are going to take a few scalps.

Elon Musk

Unless @DOGE ends the careers of deceitful, pork-barrel politicians, the waste and corruption will never stop. Therefore, there is no choice but to do so. I wish there was another way, but there is not.

It sounds like he’s going to fun primaries to get them out.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
December 19, 2024 10:30 pm

Indolent
December 19, 2024 10:22 pm

Scalise confirms spending deal is ‘dead’ after mass GOP revolt

The whole episode tells you everything you need to know about Mike Johnson

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 10:30 pm

Regarding the travails of the hapless Mr Prosciutto.
Yes, he was sucker punched by Chairman Dan, but he willingly walked straight into the left jab.
He was so desperate to “assert mah authitah” and purge any traditional conservatives from his party, that he jumped right into this “anti-trans” spin feet first. In his tiny brain, chucking Moira out was going to be the beginning of a wider clean-out. Hence my sarcastic reference to the “broad church” earlier.
(Insert “how it started – how it’s going” meme here).
Once she pushed back he had nowhere to go, and was egged on by some “elder statesmen” of the party (including Kennett, Naptime and, I suspect, Kroger). The next big lesson for Prosciutto is that the promises of tangible support in the form of contributing to damages and legal fees will evaporate. David Davis has already tried to hose down any suggestion that party funds will be used to pay for the litigation.
The most galling thing about this trumped up turd is he is the raging bull in his own party room when it comes to putting the boots into conservative MPs, but a mincing, limp-wristed Nancy Boy when it comes to giving Andrews or Allen a well deserved kicking.
When I said he is dead man walking, he will cling on by the fingernails, even if he has the casting vote. But he won’t make it to the next election.

JC
JC
December 19, 2024 10:37 pm

There are some serious freaking people -heavy hitters- aligned with this administration that really and truly want it to succeed. The MSM appears to have been totally side lined by these guys.

Bill Ackman

People have expressed skepticism about how DOGEcan be effective without any formal authority. I think today’s events around the spending bill provide a road map for rapid DOGE progress. There are three steps to successful DOGE execution:

Step 1 Transparency VivekGRamaswamy read the bill and summarized the contents on X

Step 2 The People Speak The people including elonmusk express their disgust with the bill calling out particularly egregious waste for color on the contents.

Step 3 The Congress Reacts Faced with a spending bill that the people don’t like with the risk of being primaried for supporting a bill filled with pork and other waste, the bill fails to garner needed support to pass.

With its first test case, DOGE shows how it is done. As DOGE identifies waste or bad regulations, it just needs to follow the three steps. Power to the people.

Quote

@VivekGRamaswamy

Real-time advice to Congress: go back to the drawing board, start with a blank slate & do this the right way. There’s still time for forgiveness.

Last edited 2 days ago by JC
Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 10:37 pm

Richard Vobes’ interview with Richard Jeffs

The transition to Stakeholder Capitalism is happening

Old Lefty
Old Lefty
December 19, 2024 10:37 pm

‘Angus Taylor’s word salad obscures the truth’ about nuclear power.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-19/nuclear-costings-household-bills/104746708

Impartial reporting from the ABC at its best.

Indolent
Indolent
December 19, 2024 10:46 pm
Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 10:47 pm

Step 1 Transparency VivekGRamaswamy read the bill and summarized the contents on X

This is the trick.
Usually the arseholes bury the pork amongst a welter of other stuff, using some euphemistic and misleading name for the spending (think “Inflation Reduction Bill” which was an inflationary cash hosing exercise) and give no time for exposure and discovery of the pork.
Each and every pork-barreller will now live in fear that their irresponsibility will be selected for exposure and … goodbye career.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 10:52 pm

Step 1 Transparency VivekGRamaswamy read the bill and summarized the contents on X

And, following on from the points raised earlier, bypassed the MSM.
No opportunity for chummy advisors working hand-in-glove with lazy and sympathetic j’isms at the NYT/WaPo/MSNBC to spin it.

Old Lefty
Old Lefty
December 19, 2024 10:54 pm

This is what passes for a representative of the poor downtrodden workers in Sir Keir’s ‘Labour’ Party:

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp3zqen209go

JC
JC
December 19, 2024 10:55 pm

And, following on from the points raised earlier, bypassed the MSM.

No opportunity for chummy advisors working hand-in-glove with lazy and sympathetic j’isms at the NYT/WaPo/MSNBC to spin it.

Isn’t great to watch. These dudes are also rich as fck enough to hire their own advisors to read these bills and offer counters.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
December 19, 2024 11:00 pm

Stunning, the effect of daylight. A massive victory. From a nothing more than a few twitter posts.

JC
JC
December 19, 2024 11:06 pm

No kidding, some of these critters in Congress are just criminals and ought to be swapping places with the J6’ers.

Elon Musk
Outrageous!

JUST IN: The 1,547 page CR would allow for Congress to BLOCK an investigation into the January 6th committee. As a Jan 6th Prisoner, I find it appalling that they put me in solitary confinement, & now they are trying to give themselves immunity for their own J6 crimes.

Top Ender
Top Ender
December 19, 2024 11:15 pm

Michael Leunig: Controversial Australian cartoonist dies aged 79 following brutal sacking from The Age after 55-year tenure
Daily Mail

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 11:17 pm

Isn’t great to watch. These dudes are also rich as fck enough to hire their own advisors to read these bills and offer counters.

As the tide turns, don’t discount that some of the tip-offs about where to look for “hidden meanings” might come from deep-throaters among Congressional staffers.
As for the rich-listers applying their resources to the problem, why do you think they are so keen to overturn Musk-rat’s compensation package?
They are deathly afraid that he might become an obverse Uncle George, funding campaigns all over.

Bruce in WA
December 19, 2024 11:25 pm

Wow, almost Christmas already.

Love this from two ex-pat Aussie brothers now in the USA.

A slightly different take, but still powerful.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 19, 2024 11:25 pm

We are still over a month away from inauguration day, and Trump is running the show already.
Where’s Sleepy Joe and Kamal-toe?

Bruce in WA
December 19, 2024 11:39 pm

Just before I go …

THIS is how you do a Christmas carol!!

Helen
Helen
December 19, 2024 11:44 pm

“When the heart
Is cut or cracked or broken
Do not clutch it
Let the wound lie open
Let the wind
From the good old sea blow in
To bathe the wound with salt
And let it sting
Let a stray dog lick it
Let a bird lean in the hole and sing
A simple song like a tiny bell
And let it ring
Let it go. Let it out.
Let it all unravel.
Let it free and it can be
A path on which to travel.”
— Michael Leunig, When I Talk to You: A Cartoonist Talks to God

Vale

Gilas
Gilas
December 20, 2024 3:21 am

Seriously drab, cold and rainy day today in Northern Italy. Plans to spend it hiking in the Carnic Alps have been shelved, in favour of attempting to navigate the Byzantine regional bus timetable system, so one can get there, in the first place.
Anyone looking at the “helpful” TPL FVG website to book a day trip anywhere could be forgiven for thinking it was coded by sadists from the 1984 Ministry of Truth. It is unusable by anyone who hasn’t trialled-and-errored its way through it for several days, at least.
Asked a helpful guy at the ticket office (they are ALL men over here..) and he patiently explained some of the quirks. Details that I can’t find on the damned website. Anyway, I now know enough to make another attempt tomorrow, weather permitting.
This is in contrast to the train service, which is comprehensible and efficient. There’s a direct service from Udine to Klagenfurt, stopping at Tarvisio, not far from Monte Forno, or Dreiländereck ie, the triple border of Italy, Austria and Slovenia.
Took this trip a couple of days ago but, since fresh snowfall had covered the hills, hiking would have been too dangerous without crampons.
So I walked South instead, to Cave del Predil, on a good, wet road which, like many Friulan roads, lacked a decent shoulder. Narrow edges alternating between steel barriers and sloping, snow-covered ground. One quickly learnt how to avoid cars whizzing past at 80-ish kph. Also changing sides, to avoid being in the driver’s direct line of sight to the low, Southern Sun.
Fortunately, almost all motorists are used to this and take a wide berth to such hapless pedestrians.
Cave del Predil is a town that, until 1918, was a Habsburg possession, built around the Raibl Mine, mining Europe’s largest lead-zinc deposit since the first millennium AD, until 1991, when it became a mining museum, showcasing the brilliant mechanical technologies used, as early as the 1800s.
Today, the remaining structures and external rail tracks hug the picturesque Monte Re, to the West of the village. To power the mine, the stream that arose from Lago del Predil (a close, up-stream lake) was dammed to produce hydro-electricity in 1890, this was later extended to the village inhabitants. Cave was one of the first towns in Europe that were powered by this energy source.
The village is guarded to the East by the impressive Cinque Punte (Five Points) Massif which, like Monte Re, are worthwhile summiting hikes, with 360-degree views of the highest peaks in the Julian Alps.
The whole area is a hiker’s paradise, with well established tracks to all the highest mountains (Jôf di Montasio, Monte Canin and Mangart being the pre-eminent ones), but not in the snow, without crampons and alone..
People with a centre-right political outlook tend not to have a death wish, after all..

Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:01 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:10 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:11 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:12 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:13 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:14 am
Tom
Tom
December 20, 2024 4:14 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
December 20, 2024 4:54 am

TikTok has a lot of stories this morning that Justin Trudeau has a current or former boyfriend who is going to go public.

feelthebern
feelthebern
December 20, 2024 5:25 am
feelthebern
feelthebern
December 20, 2024 5:32 am

Games Workshop, owner of Warhammer, will join the FTSE100 index this month.
All hail Nurgle.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
December 20, 2024 5:45 am

Hi Cats, we are currently sailing out of Abu Dhabi, having had an eight hour trip to some far reaches of Arabia with the highlight a trip to a camel market where Hairy photographed me kissing (sort of) a charming lady camel. We’re headed for Dubai where we will immediately take a flight on British Airways to Healthrow and the cold, dark days of London.

Will write more about the land of camels when in London.

We liked the Emirates and Hairy is mumbling about coming back and driving around some more, for that is very easy to do and very safe.

KevinM
KevinM
December 20, 2024 5:47 am

Interesting, what is the meaning of this symbol?
And why is it on pope’s robe.

pope
Bungonia bee
Bungonia bee
December 20, 2024 6:27 am

The film “13 Days” is about the Cuban Missile crisis and goes into a lot of detail about how JFK handled it. I’m not sure about the veracity of all those details, but the thrust of the narrative is clear. He resisted all attempts to bomb or invade, went that extra mile to reach a peaceful conclusion.
But now we see the “peaceful” DJT held in contempt for trying to reach good results by negotiation rather than war. Hollywood needs to recalibrate back a ways and find Trump as virtuous as they found JFK in that movie.

Bungonia bee
Bungonia bee
December 20, 2024 6:30 am

This week’s Health Check on the BBC World Service jumps the shark by alleging that an increase in upper atmosphere turbulence, leading to some injuries to passengers on planes, is caused by (drumroll) global warming! And it will get a lot worse!

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
December 20, 2024 6:30 am

Nurgle is gay.

Bungonia bee
Bungonia bee
December 20, 2024 6:37 am

Mark Knight was attacked for a beautiful cartoon about Williams tennis tantrum, but his work continues to go from strength to brilliance. That Pallas in Wonderland is superb.
Thanks for the daily group, and for your comments as well, Tom.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
December 20, 2024 6:50 am

As I recall Bungonia Bee, JFK lifted the red phone and told Khrushchev the US would not put up with Soviet missiles 90 miles off Continental US. Contrast this with the conniptions of the West when the Pute said a similar thing about Ukeland.

Last edited 2 days ago by GreyRanga
Indolent
Indolent
December 20, 2024 7:33 am

@catturd2

Don’t let Mike Johnson and RINO Republicans lie to you … they have the gavel.

They could write a short bill today with a clean 3-month CR, only adding hurricane relief, zero pork, and no raise.

Then if Democrats vote against it, they can honestly say they voted against hurricane relief victims.

It’s that freaking simple.

They don’t want to because they’re used to getting themselves, their lobbyists, and their donors filthy rich off the backs of hardworking Americans.

ENOUGH !!!

Indolent
Indolent
December 20, 2024 7:41 am

That’s the hook they’re trying to hang their 1500 page pork bill on – tuppence to hurricane victims, who they totally ignored for months.

@catturd2

The people in Congress who sent over 200 billion to Ukraine and spent even more on illegals this year alone suddenly cares about the hurricane victims and farmers.

Zippster
Zippster
December 20, 2024 7:46 am

How FEMINISTS Change Consent To R*pe, And You’ll Never Know | Pearl Daily

ummary: In the video “How FEMINISTS Change Consent To R*pe, And You’ll Never Know,” Pearl discusses her views on the evolving definitions of consent and sexual assault, particularly as influenced by feminist ideologies. Pearl claims that the legal definitions of rape and sexual assault have been broadened, leading to a higher incidence of accusations and potentially false claims. She presents statistics indicating a significant percentage of false allegations and discusses various ways in which behaviors are being criminalized under new definitions. Pearl expresses a belief that the expansion of these definitions may lead to misunderstandings about consent and the serious nature of actual sexual violations. ### Key Points: #### Introduction: – 61% of rape accusations are claimed to be false according to a sheriff’s department. – 56% of false allegations arise as alibis for consensual sex. #### Changing Definitions: – Contrast between old and new definitions of rape; broadening the criteria allows for more accusations. – The legal definitions are now more inclusive, covering various forms of penetration without consent. #### Consent: – Discussion on the ambiguous nature of consent, particularly in situations where women initially say “no” and later claim violation. – Emphasis on the problematic aspects of consent definitions as they relate to alcohol and changing opinions. #### Coercion and Abuse: – Definitions of coercion and how they have been interpreted legally. – Broadened definitions of abuse include emotional, psychological, and financial forms. – Discusses the change in perception of emotional abuse and its implications for men. #### Cultural Impact: – Critique of women being able to label experiences as sexual assault based on feelings rather than clear consent. – Introduction of figures and theories from feminist perspectives which argue for a broad interpretation of sexual violation. #### Convincing Others: – Suggests that feminists encourage women to label their experiences as assault, which can lead to internal conflict about whether or not a violation occurred. – Presentation of anecdotes illustrating how women second-guess their traumatic experiences. #### Legal Considerations: – Discussion on various legal systems handling sexual assault cases differently (e.g., Family Court vs. Criminal Court). – The effect of institutional educational videos that may push women toward claiming they were violated without clear consent definitions. #### Conclusion: – Pearl expresses concern over the societal implication that emotional and psychological distress can be deemed as valid grounds for labeling actions as assault. – Calls attention to the importance of resources for those grappling with experiences that could be interpreted as sexual assault, urging victims to speak up and seek help.

Zippster
Zippster
December 20, 2024 7:47 am

Elon Musk’s Single Tweet Just Showed Republicans How Much Power He Really Has

 Summary In a recent segment of “The Rubin Report,” Dave Rubin discusses the significant impact of a tweet by Elon Musk, which is creating turmoil within the House regarding a government spending bill. Musk’s tweet warns lawmakers that voting in favor of the bill could result in them losing their offices in two years. Rubin explains how Musk’s influence exemplifies the power social media holds in contemporary politics, particularly in shaping legislative decisions. He also critiques the process by which large spending bills are pushed through Congress without sufficient public scrutiny, emphasizing the dysfunction within government. #

Indolent
Indolent
December 20, 2024 7:48 am

I must say I always found Johnson to have a very smarmy face. He looked really odd (embarrassed actually) at recent events with Trump and Vance, etc.

@bennyjohnson

READ THIS: This is the smoking gun.

Speaker Mike Johnson colluded with Democrat leaders to sabotage Trump & RFK Jr. in their fight to hold vaccine manufacturers accountable

This poison pill would have KILLED all possibilities of big pharma reform

Complete betrayal of voters

Last edited 2 days ago by Indolent
Indolent
Indolent
December 20, 2024 7:55 am

He doesn’t look a bit like him but if you close your eyes it really could be Trump. He’s got the voice and style down perfectly.

@catturd2

Shawn does the best Trump impression and it’s not even close.

Indolent
Indolent
December 20, 2024 8:01 am

@GrrrGraphics

House Speaker Mike Johnson Trims America’s Christmas Tree
New Ben Garrison Cartoon

“Congress Wants More Pork With Plenty of Bells and Whistles”

Once again and as usual, the Democrats in Congress along with the traitorous Speaker Mike Johnson want to rush out and pass an outrageous spending bill—right before Christmas. The ‘Continuing Resolution Bill’ to fund the government until March 28th, 2025 provides a tree full of Christmas gifts for members of Congress and ‘coal’ for American citizens.

In fact, Congress seems to have utter contempt for taxpayers. They actually want to fund bioweapons labs to bring about ‘gain of function’ in order to bring about another health disaster. A lot of money was made from Covid and the criminals that brought it about want more—always more….

  1. PRS framework ‘In the “problem, reaction, solution” framework, the process typically starts with the identification or creation of a problem.…

  2. we continue to buy pre- landfill from a global slave based dictatorship of pathological arseholes, while our fellow citizens either…

  3. An extremely smelly tomcat being dragged by his tail towards a bath. Which will be administered by Moira. Please lady…

  4. This has the makings of an imminent and very public and self-inflicted stake-burning. And all the snakes who stood by Pesutto voting…

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