In Victoria they can now ‘Battin’ down the hatches and let the games begin. Let us hope there is no…
In Victoria they can now ‘Battin’ down the hatches and let the games begin. Let us hope there is no…
Irish GDP figure would be BS. Plenty of “GDP” would be little more than revenue booked to a PO Box…
The difference is staggering actually.It is. I wonder why companies offshored whole industries to China if Americans are almost five…
Balmain won the Grand Final.
I fund my travel from my still operating business, my nest egg is for my children. I guess I’ll only…
Merry Christmas to all
Merry Christmas from the podium!
Merry Christmas all!
In the spirit of the season I extend my best wishes to all, but in particular to those I have argued with over the years.
So to J.C, Sancho, Dot, Dover, and many more, as well as various lovely Lady Cats, all the very best and God bless you.
Merry Christmas to all at NewCat. Thanks especially to Dover for the worl he puts in to provide us with a forum that educates, amuses, pontificates, and frustrates…all at once and separately.
I’ve been a somewhat subdued commentator here this year for a variety of reasons, some physical, some mental some familial, some professional but primarily driven by a hitherto unknown craving for silence. My own and others.
I’m always here for the much appreciated Tom’s ‘toons and I find moments of the day to keep up with the thread commentary.
And finally, my house smells amazing after making the 4 ingredient fruit cake in the slow cooker recommended here a few weeks ago. I forget who mentioned it but my family and I salute you!
May all your bon-bons pop properly tomorrow, and your paper hats last the distance!
About to depart on a Santa run. Surprises visit with a piece of Christmas Cake & a nip of Drambuie to various lone nightwatchmen working tonight, mostly at state government buildings.
(schools are a regular vandalism target) – the Education Dept is paying for 84 hours per week of security presence at every state school in town over the holidays.
Buon Natale e Felice Anno Nuovo..
a tutti i gatti e gatte!
And many thanks to Dover for hosting the only blog with reprobate posters who have an average IQ > 120 and a BS detector that’s off the scale.
May it, and we, long prosper.
Just back from Midnight Mass. Everyone was in such a festive mood that it took ages to say good night to everyone I knew there.
Wishing a Merry Christmas to all poster, commenters, lurkers and uptickers.
Back without losing any reindeer.
Numbers of people in the sleigh exceeded the number of santa hats by one.
I lost the “santa hat lottery” & had to wear antlers on my head.
Cake & Drambuie was well received by the security guards. They’re all former truckies, salt of the earth.
They’ve had a few “customers” tonight, about three incursions into one school – apparently this makes it a “quiet” night, with “nothing happening”
When reversing the sleigh into the shed just now, engaged in some very non-Christmassy cussing out, cursing the hide of whoever decided to mandate those convex side mirrors on the left hand door of motor vehicles.
No idea what the dipstick was thinking, reversing was a precision art form, until that act of convex bastardry removed all perspective from the view of the passenger side.
Merry Christmas to all and sundry and best wishes for a Happy New Year.
Thanks Dover for putting up with us and thanks Tom for the ‘toons.
Now for a day on the drink to thank Christ and then get ready to fix the hangover and watch the first ball bowled on Boxing Day then watch the yachts head South.
Johannes Leak 2024 classic.
Mark Knight’s 2024.
Peter Broelman.
Brett Lethbridge.
Michael Ramirez.
Matt Margolis.
Tom Stiglich.
Gary Varvel.
Ben Garrison.
Merry Christmas everyone.
No words needed.
Karma.
Jolliffe.
Christmas and Hanukkah greetings to one and all.
Any Cats/Kittehs in the bushfire zone, stay safe.
May everyone have a day of pleasure, with plenty of good food and drink!
Good ole times.
To all the saints and sinners, believers and unbelievers, a very happy Christmas.
Summer weather is a cummin in, and the combination of useless leftist politicians and complicit media means we are still headed for the heatberg of blackouts.
The coalition should grow a spine and say it’s nuclear or rebuilt coal, perhaps both. They have to ditch the alarmist witch and start to say that CO2 is not the problem that all the others have succeeded in convincing the lumpenproletariat that it is.
Merry Christmas!!
I hope you all have a happy, safe and healthy festive season.
Have a fantastic Christmas folks.
Christmas Truce of World War I — Joyeux Noel [2005 film]
Merry Christmas everyone.
Merry Christmas to all, and thanks to Dover for maintaining this excellent blog!
Happy Christmas Dover, Cats, Kittehs and Lurkers!
The tree is blazing with lights, all activated by modern magic…I’m in a “smart home” where a voice command turns stuff on and off. Scared the tripe out of me when everything suddenly activated.
It’s a doubly special day for my family, being the first day of Hanukkah too, so wishing Jewish friends here the compliments of the season.
Went to carols at my grandsons’ church last night and belted out all the old favourites with the (very talented) church band.
Now that the children are older, there is no great rush to unwrap gifts…we can be a bit more refeened as we sip our morning coffee and they watch the last of Home Alone 2.
Beautiful painting for the thread.
….
I spoke too soon…the children are now buzzing around like blowies!
Merry Christmas to all Cats and Kittehs.
Pogria it’s important to note the origins of Festivus, here’s Frank Costanza to remind us.
Tim Blair in yesterday’s Tele:
HERE’S TO A HOPEFULLY WOKELESS NEW YEAR
TIM BLAIR
24 Dec 2024
As we get older, New Year’s celebrations become unavoidably routine and procedural.
(Except for anyone trying to celebrate the New Year in Sydney, where we are subject to the charmingly unpredictable and dictatorial whims of our friendly Rail, Train and Bus Union. But that’s another story.)
What should make this New Year’s period particularly wonderful, however, almost like the New Year’s parties of our childhoods, is the enchanting background music.
Listen carefully, and you can hear it above the canned supermarket Christmas songs that every summer must drive dozens of Woolworths and Coles employees to acts of self-harm.
That enchanting background music is the sound of wokeness crashing into reality. It’s the sound of wokeness being smashed to tiny pieces upon jagged rocks. It’s the sound of wokeness getting so wrung out that even Taylor Swift’s finest lip-synching engineers couldn’t wrestle it back into tune.
There’s also the sound of glee as woke is taken down. “It’s in our interest to promote the trope that woke is over,” writes British-American journalist Lionel Shriver in an appropriately joyful Spiked essay.
“That woke has been vanquished. That woke is totally yesterday, hopelessly stale and played out … that woke is unhip. Which it always has been, but some people are slow.”
All true. “Sane people,” Shriver summarises, “do seem to have gained the upper hand right now.” Also true, and one significant reason why may be found in her choice of adjective.
Woke is falling because it is insane and therefore unable to work within a real world with real people, real biology and real economic and societal pressures.
People trying to straight-line their lives have become exhausted by all the woke speed bumps and chicanes: ticking pronoun boxes, tolerating eternal Welcome to Country observances, agreeing that blokes can get pregnant, believing soccer is real and so on.
That stuff is expensive. We put up with woke when we could afford it, both in terms of money and time.
But luxury belief systems always have a use-by date.
US actor and filmmaker Justine Bateman – male readers, especially, will remember her as Mallory in the ’80s sitcom Family Ties – suffered under wokeness. Being a freethinker in the conformist entertainment realm, suffering was unavoidable.
“I’m glad that mob mentality momentum is over, because the last eight years, and most acutely the last four, were unbearable,” Bateman told conservative interviewer Megyn Kelly in a recent podcast.
“I never want to go through anything like that again in my life,” Bateman continued. “I’m 58, and it was absolutely awful. To say that people can’t ask questions, can’t say what they think, or can’t request research on something – it was just like the revenge of the hall monitors.
“It was the Debbie Downers, the party poopers.”
Sadly, some of the planet’s most aggressive Debbie Downers were and are active in Australia. Even prior to Covid, we were a global Karen capital.
One fascinating characteristic common to Karens and other practitioners of woke: their displays of distress are almost always fake.
I upset some proto-Karens back in 2014 by running a poll to name our peak feminist frightbats. Or at least they claimed to be upset, wailing about me calling them “Australia’s left-wing ladies’ auxiliary” and other harmless terms.
Then followed a several-day online, print and television campaign to run me out of town. But it was all bogus. They weren’t genuinely perturbed. They just wanted me sacked.
To prove this, I ran exactly the same poll one year later. Knowing that an identical outrage fakery festival would only be a waste of time, my frightbats this time fell silent.
An immensely more serious example of pretend wokeness was committed by Western university students. You’ll remember how uni students a few years ago claimed to be so delicate and easily offended that they needed “safe spaces” and other precautionary bubble treatments.
Well, what a load of crap that was. As soon as October 7 happened, when hundreds of kids their own age were raped, butchered, kidnapped and tortured by subhuman monsters, our precious little uni children emerged from their safe spaces to express support for – the monsters.
Woke began to die at the same time it rejoiced in death. We now await history’s verdict. “Will this era’s edges blur, until in retrospect ‘cancel culture’ is remembered as rather cute?” asks Shriver.
“Or will the reign of woke instead take its place alongside Mao’s Cultural Revolution, Stalin’s show trials, and Pol Pot’s killing fields, as a lower-fatality example of a whole society losing its collective mind?”
The second example, hopefully. A culture of lies deserves the truth. Please enjoy a sweet Christmas and a beautiful New Year.
That was brilliant trolling. A lot of fun was had.
I wish Tim would run another one.
Ps: Or another version.
Many thanks and merry Christmas, Dover. I just love the blog you have created, an oasis of sanity in the political hellscape of Australia. Long live Dover Cat!
I’m off to Christmas lunch at my sister’s place with her tribe — she and her hubby have bought a unit on the Bellarine Peninsula and it’s the first time since they married they’ve lived where the rest of the family are.
Needless to say, I love my sis and now I get to have a weekly brekky meet-up at beaut little eatery down by the beach for the first time in my adult life.
I hope all Cats and Kitteys have a great day talking and laughing about anything but politics.
My attire for today, but alas, like Golden Boy, he is on his last couple of wash cycles. “We had some good times…”
Happiness and peace to all Have a great day
https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2024/12/24/pope-francis-denounces-machine-gunning-of-children-in-gaza/
Cranky Frankie is evil and also not very bright methinks. Nasty piece of work.
Merry Xmas all you far right cabin dwellers.
The brush turkey has enticed a few ladies to the mound under the lemon tree, it’ll be 30 here in Sin City and all is well.
Barking Toad
December 23, 2024 9:00 am
In the Oz paywalled…
Can anyone post the article? Would be appreciated.
n the midst of an already bitter legal battle, Brittany Higgins’ personal lawyer, Leon Zwier, lobbed a grenade at Lisa Wilkinson – the woman fighting to prove his client was a rape victim.
It is fairly lengthy, but I can post it if you are still interested.
On a happier note, Merry Christmas to all. Lovely morning down here.
Joyous Christmas one and all. Hopefully with your family. Be indulgent, Heaven approves.
A day we must fight to preserve against the barbarians and their treasonous agents.
My Kent based daughter says that everything is normal on the surface but there is a certain wariness mixed with what she described as an emerging “that’s enough” movement especially as it relates to coppers banging on the door to harass you about tweets.
Don’t “Happy Holidays” me commie scum. It is Christmas.
Phew! What was in those Santa drinks?
Enjoy, we deserve it.
A very Happy Christmas to all and their families.
Wishing you all a peaceful, happy and blessed day. Merry Christmas everyone!
Happy, happy Christmas to all Cats and Kittehs. Thanks for the continual flow of news, gossip, stoushes and entertainment. Looking forward to more of the same in 2025.
Special thanks to Tom for his toons, Blackball for his daily news service, JC for financial reports and tips and of course, Dover for making it all possible.
There’s a dead skunk in the middle of the road… and it’s stinking to high heaven.
Last Monday was a very hot day here and a possum decided to cark it under my deck
By this Monday it had started to smell pretty badly
I was able to remove a timber panel and some pavers and remove the poor thing
Crisis averted
Merry Xmas ..!
Merry Christmas to all !
Wow! Nothing like this in Perth.
The Ruskies go all out with Christmas.
Stunning scenes. Have a look.
Moscow Christmas Streets and Markets 2024 / A Magical Evening Walk
Merry Christmas cats!
Watching the Adelaide Christmas pageant on channel 9. Replayed from 53 days ago!
On a scale of 1 to 10 measuring Adelaidism this has to be 11. Up there with hyphenated surnames and serial murders.
Merry Christmas to all and many thanks to Dover for providing this haven of sanity. The sleeping giant seems to be stirring.
What did they say just a few months ago? He was sharp as a tack?
@DefiyantlyFree
Biden only held 9 cabinet meetings in 4 years and during those meeting members of his cabinet had to submit written questions in advance so he could write out the answers in advance.
@StephenMoore
Another half-million jobs reported under Biden turn out to be phantom!
The Philly Fed’s recent findings reveal that Q2 job growth was actually negative, with all reported gains set for revision in 2025. This follows an alarming downward revision of 800,000 jobs from last year.
Stay tuned for January’s nonfarm payrolls—more adjustments on the way!
@TTuberville
Like this demon.
We now know who’s behind the ‘blanket pardon’ push to save Cheney, Fauci, and others…
Quiet Xmas .. Day with the Gosford grandees(4) on Saturday and the Melbourne ones(3) staying hme this year & the eldest one is all grown up now & working ……But ..it’s still a …
I also went to midnight mass, very blessed to have a musical priest, a fine singer and organist who played for the pre mass carols.
I said to my son we are especially lucky to have ‘cathedral quality’ music in such a small parish in addition to the organ, three violins, a viola? and a very fine choir mostly male with a soprano soloist.
A wonderful way to start Christmastide.
Merry Christmas, cats. Lets Dance!
@MikeBenzCyber
Biden, China, and Comprised Foreign Policy
Merry Christmas to all, including the silent readers and lurkers. Once again, a special thanks dover, for this special space.
@TheChiefNerd
Colbert cuts off Claire Danes before she spills the tea about the intelligence community “allying itself” with the legacy media during Trump’s first term
Watch until the end…
@AutismCapital
Today we learned USAID spent $20M on a Sesame Street puppet show in Iraq.
One of my favourite Christmas jingles.
Comments are interesting, apparently the video was made 6 decades after the release of the song.
Still magnificent
Woo hoo!
Wordle in two.
Have a great Christmas, Hanukkah to all. 2025
is going to be an amazing year I think. Already the Orange oaf is claiming the Panama Canal and Greenland. Greenland, I don’t think he’s kidding.
PETA doesn’t like Christmas.
PETA Goes for the Gross When It Comes to Santa Claus (23 Dec)
And they wonder why ordinary people hate vegans so much.
Merrys and Happys and Joys and delights to one and all.
Hoping next year trumps all!!!
Merry Xmas to all and a big thank you to blog master Dover. A special shout out to all the rural people, farmers and firefighters working in the heat which we are told is on its way.
Nothing artificial about the intelligence and wisdom quotient here. Also combined with a big dollop of compassion. Which is why, dare I say, humans will always trump machines.(Gosh I like that word trump).
A perfect morning here in Melbourne’s north east. My garden is a riot of colour. Bougainvillea, oleander, jacaranda, roses and more. Inside, the aroma of bacon cooking for the much demanded potato salad, using seeded French mustard, egg mayonnaise, red onion and bacon bits mixed into cooked, unpeeled and halved baby potatoes. I make a huge bowl of it that lasts through festivities and complements left-over turkey and ham and goes well with steamed asparagus. It also travels well.
Santa has obviously given the young fella over the back a soccer ball for Xmas. He is now kicking it off our back fence. I’ll give it 15 minutes before a polite cease and desist text to mum and dad. It will loosen the nails and besides the noise and vibration is intrusive. Life in the burbs.
Waiting for family to arrive. Sitting with husband on terrace of our Sydney house in company with the tame water dragons who can smell the turkey cooking. Couldn’t ask for a more serene and beautiful Christmas morning.
Reminiscing about my solo trip to Israel for Christmas in the mid1980s. The trip which was undertaken hoping for an ‘epiphany’ in respect to beliefs. Husband and daughter happy to stay at home – & why not, they had some fantastic outings – including the purchase of a car for her when mum was not around!
Will always recall the gentle reminders from “on high” that you can’t obtain an epiphany on demand. Recall how I arrived at the Garden of Gethsemane to see a small chapel on the hill with the quotation from the gospel engraved “Not my will, but Thine”. I got it.
Also recall thinking that God has a sense of humour as, after scooping some water out of the Jordan River, I noticed a few days later that a stupid wart on my right hand, which I had for years, had disappeared!
What an experience that was in the Holy Land. Moments such as coming over the rise in the tourist bus approaching Jerusalem…and there it was…the city of David. I can feel the lump in my throat now. Seeing the sea of Galilee…..the dry hills where Jesus may have walked during his 40 days in the desert….and so many other moments that I shall never forget.
In my heart…Israel is the most sacred place on this earth.
Oily Palestinian news.
Palestinians sue oil giant BP for supplying Israel during Gaza war (24 Dec)
Well since BP have been green and woke for a long time I don’t really care who wins this one. But it’s a pretty ludicrous lawsuit.
Bougainvillea, oleander, jacaranda
I would have thought Melbourne would be too cold for them- apparently not
Weird old Christmas.
Feel sorry for the families who have relatives still held hostage by the literal demons Hamas.
Also feel sorry for the families of the victims whose murderers Biden commuted their death sentences.
How are they going this Christmas.
Say what you want about Biden, but he’s first president to commute the sentence of a real life cannibal.
The good news is that these guys will now be moved off death row.
I don’t reckon the cannibal will last long considering who his victim was.
Rare naval battle.
Historic operation: IDF ship cmdr. speaks about attack on Syrian Navy (JPost, 24 Dec)
Nicely done IDF navy peoples. I’m not sure about the ranks – a Lt Col in command of a ship who’s top boss is a Vice Admiral? Doesn’t matter I suppose, whatever the details the IDF sank an entire navy in an afternoon.
LOL.
That time of year where Crash Craddock names his international Test side of the year.
1/ Ben Duckett (ENG)
2/ Yashasvi Jaiswal (IND)
3/ Joe Root (ENG)
4/ Kamindu Mendis (SL)
5/ Harry Brook (ENG)
6/ Travis Head (AUS)
7/ Rishabh Pant (IND)
8/ Mitchell Santner (NZ)
9/ Jasprit Bumrah (IND)
10/ Matt Henry (NZ)
11/ Shamar Joseph (WI)
Lord, but we are in trouble.
The most horrific crimes of the century occurred in the past few months and the media shrugged, the cops jail people for expressing their disbelief, grief and outrage, and politicians BAN discussion.
In Australia, in scenes never witnessed in our history, primative pigs rampage through our suburbs threatening fellow citizens and attacking places of worship. And the Government……..blames the victims.
This is not going to last. Real society has not lost its moral compass. We are horrified by the killing of three beautiful toddlers and the impossible to comprehend burning to death of a beautiful young woman.
As usual the self serving establishment are unable to read the mood of the populace. Bashing the people is no longer going to work. 2025 will see the revolt. The question that will define the level of violance will be how the morally corrupted police respond.
The US has Trump, the UK Robinson, Australia …….? Molan possibly?
If the patriots have need of a hobbling old fart to carry water to the barricades, just call me. Like most, I have had enough.
Avi and Moira in Victoria. Unlike formerly great Britain. neither are in jail.
Top folk running CentreLink .. Transferred my fortnightly OAP into my account this morning (Xmas Day) .. Would have been more use yesterday ..LOL!
Be grateful for it and to the taxpayers who pay for it
derangement syndrome as symptom of paradigm shift
Merry Christmas everyone
I promise to insert more quality links in my posts next year.
The pork is grunting in the oven.
The veggies are waiting their turn.
Trife, ham and collie cheese on the way.
Mum and the nephews coming round for Chrissy lunch.
Should be a jolly day
I don’t.
Something about God giving man free will after eating the fruit of knowledge from the tree of good and evil?
The US has Trump, the UK Robinson, Australia …….? Molan possibly?
Sadly, it’s slim pickings here in Oz. Whilst we have some good right of centre commentators, particularly on Sky and writing for News Corp, commentators such as Kenny, Molan, Panahi, Dean, Macpherson, Albrechtsen, Markson etc, and whilst we have the likes of Pauline and a few others in parliament, I don’t think there’s much hope here in Oz. And Pauline’s party is a never ending shambles.
As JC wrote a few days ago, on an old thread, things are going to have to get a lot worse here in this country before it starts to get better.
We have no one here who can compare to Trump, Milei, Vance, DeSantis, Poilievre, Farage, Ben Habib and others. These men are not afraid to put it out there, be it about Islam, immigration, transgender crapola and so on.
Only a few days ago, President Donald Trump said that he was determined to ‘end this transgender lunacy‘. Can you imagine anyone in the Liberal or National parties brave enough to stand up and say that? They’re all wimps, cowards, quislings.
Actually, on second thoughts, we do have someone who has stood up to the left. Her name is Moira Deeming. This country needs more Moira Deemings.
Hanukkah Sameach and Merry Christmas.
Apparently Poor Candace has no sense of humour.
Yes and Moira is a Victorian Liberal (or soon to be again)! As has been said earlier, Moira has Trumped them- making old phonies like Kroger expose themselves
I believe the turning point in the fightback against Marxist Identity Politics in Australia was the defeat of the Voice. The spiteful mediocrities are punishing us for that too so we have to fight back even harder.
The Lib elites may not have a single spine between them but they are weathervanes.
Therefore if these brave men succeed I think the Liberal Party will sort of follow along, timidly. Which is better than nothing.
Still puke making when I think of the songs of hate the meja was playing (Midnight Oil-Barker-Lawyer-North Shore-Garret and Goanna) that would somehow make us hate our country and vote ‘yes’.
and of course, we have Sandra Bourke and Jacinta Price from Advance. Quiet achievers.
I think Advance Australia was a better name than just Advance but that’s just a quibble.
Danger Dan Reviews:
The last Christmas message he will ever make. Anthony Albanese
Nelson_Kidd-Players
December 25, 2024 8:17 am
Barking Toad
December 25, 2024 8:18 am
Here you go Lads (as I said, lengthy):
Astounding act of Brittany Higgins’ Mr Fix-It lawyer Leon Zwier
In the midst of an already bitter legal battle, Brittany Higgins’ personal lawyer, Leon Zwier, lobbed a grenade at Lisa Wilkinson – the woman fighting to prove his client was a rape victim.
Janet Albrechtsen and Stephen Rice
9:30PMFebruary 23, 2024.
Updated 11:00AMFebruary 24, 2024
Last week was the three-year anniversary of Lisa Wilkinson’s interview with Brittany Higgins on The Project.
Don’t break open the champagne. There may come a time when we can draw a line, with a mix of celebration and relief that there are no more gobsmacking revelations.
But it hasn’t arrived yet.
This saga, which started five years ago with Higgins’ allegations of rape and political cover-up, reached a crescendo of legal madness last week.
When Network Ten baulked at paying Wilkinson’s legal bills after she decided she needed her own lawyers, the public got to see, as Justice Michael Lee wrote in a judgment released this week, “how the sausage was made”.
It wasn’t pretty.
Wilkinson’s claim against her estranged employer produced thousands of pages of previously secret documents. But when Lee delivered his verdict in favour of The Project host, he singled out one email in particular: an extraordinary demand by Higgins’ personal lawyer, Leon Zwier.
Higgins would help the defence in Bruce Lehrmann’s defamation case, Zwier suggested, only if the TV star dumped her high-profile silk, Sue Chrysanthou SC.
The possibility of losing the most crucial witness in the case left many of the participants – on all sides of this three-cornered contest – gobsmacked.
Wilkinson, who believed Higgins was her friend, called it “the weaponisation of an alleged rape victim”.
In the midst of an already bitter behind-the-scenes battle between the main protagonists, Zwier had lobbed a grenade at the woman fighting to prove his client was a rape victim.
There was a short pause in the defamation proceedings when champagne did flow. It was Friday December 22 last year.
The month-long trial had drawn to a close. Justice Lee invited all barristers, solicitors and his associates into his chamber that evening for a glass of bubbles. It was, by all reports, a chirpy gathering. No one talked about the case, needless to say.
The one lawyer missing was Zwier. Higgins’ lawyer wasn’t invited given his client was a witness, not a party, in the legal proceeding.
But Zwier has been central to this salacious saga at many junctures.
Team Brittany
When Bruce Lehrmann’s rape trial began in October 2022, even seasoned aficionados of the saga were puzzled by the appearance of a bespectacled, neatly tailored man who marched alongside Higgins in front of the cameras.
The rest of Team Brittany they recognised: Higgins’ partner, David Sharaz; her best friend and former Katy Gallagher staffer Emma Webster; and support person and ACT Victims of Crime Commissioner Heidi Yates.
Where had Zwier come from?
The 66-year-old Melbourne lawyer is certainly a star in commercial legal circles. He has acted for Indigenous families in the Hawthorn AFL club racism scandal, cricketer Steve Smith, comedian Steve Vizard, and politicians Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten.
Last year, he was sent to London by Dan Andrews to negotiate a payout with the 2026 Commonwealth Games organisers after the then premier reneged on a deal to hold the Games in Melbourne, a move likely to cost the Victorian taxpayer close to $400m.
A 2017 profile in this newspaper described Zwier as the man the big names turn to when, as one client put it, “the shit hits the fan”.
In the Higgins case, it appears there has been some blowback.
The restructuring and insolvency specialist didn’t have any obvious background in representing sexual assault complainants.
As it happens, Zwier had been involved in a case with uncanny similarities to the Higgins affair. But in October 2022, the court watchers were more intrigued by what had become of Higgins’ previous legal team, high-profile silk Sue Chrysanthou SC and defamation specialist Rebekah Giles.
Chrysanthou and Giles had been acting pro bono for Higgins in the period after The Project first aired her claims, until mid-2021. Political commentator Peter van Onselen, then a regular host on the Network Ten show, had introduced Higgins to the lawyers.
While the extent of their work retainer with Higgins is unknown, the Sydney power duo had given Higgins advice in her dealings with the ABC’s Four Corners, secured a payout from Liberal minister Linda Reynolds over her “lying cow” gibe and a settlement over comments by a radio shock jock in Adelaide. They’d also acted for Higgins during her tense discussions with Scott Morrison over her claims of a political cover-up by Liberal ministers.
It’s still unclear how Zwier came to be acting for Higgins. Zwier, Chrysanthou and Giles all declined to be interviewed.
Sources suggest that, in retrospect, it was likely a “bullet dodged”. Given how the Higgins saga unfolded, Higgins and Sharaz may not have been “the right fit for Giles or Chrysanthou”, with one describing Sharaz’s management of Higgins as akin to a “pageant mum”.
The trial ends
It’s clear Higgins was grateful for Zwier’s support during the rape trial. When it was aborted after 12 days of evidence because of juror misconduct, Higgins walked outside and gave a speech in which she thanked Zwier “who I have stolen from his family for a really long time”.
But it was the rest of her speech, highly prejudicial to any future trial, that appalled many lawyers.
Higgins claimed the criminal justice system had “long failed to deliver outcomes to victims of sexual assault”, wrongly asserted that Lehrmann had not been forced to surrender his mobile phone, and stated that he had not been held accountable for “his actions”.
Lehrmann’s defence barrister, Steve Whybrow SC, referred the speech to police for effectively stating that his client was guilty, but no action was taken. Lehrmann was never convicted and maintains his innocence.
Zwier did not respond to questions from The Weekend Australian about whether he had prior knowledge of the speech.
Yates told the Sofronoff inquiry she hadn’t spoken to Higgins about the wisdom of giving the speech because she was aware that Higgins and Zwier “had been working on the matter of that statement which we – for some time, and even that Mr Zwier, I understood, had some engagement with (ACT DPP Shane) Drumgold about the fact that Ms Higgins was intending to do a statement”.
During the defamation trial, Whybrow told Lee he wanted to put the proposition to Higgins that she was “doing everything she could to make sure there would not be another trial” but after an exchange with the judge agreed to approach the issue differently.
A few weeks after the mistrial, Drumgold announced he was abandoning a second trial out of concern for Higgins’ mental health, saying he had received reports from two independent medical experts that her life was at serious risk.
The criminal case against Lehrmann was dead but so was any chance of him being exonerated of the crime.
Drumgold administered the coup de grace by declaring in his speech he still believed there was “a reasonable prospect of conviction”, a statement slammed by Board of Inquiry head Walter Sofronoff KC as “improper … and a failure of his duty as DPP”.
If Lehrmann wanted his day in court, he’d have to bring a case for defamation, in a civil court where any truth defence argued by his accusers attracts a lower standard of proof.
The psychiatrists’ reports that brought about this dramatic conclusion to the criminal case were never tendered in court, and the doctors were never identified.
The mystery may have remained just that until a secretly recorded conversation in a Sydney bar raised a tantalising possibility: was at least one of the “medical reports” written by Leon Zwier?
The bombshell tape
The plush lobby bar of Sydney’s Park Hyatt Hotel isn’t the best place to have a private conversation, even on a relatively quiet Monday night.
But that’s where Zwier, Sharaz and Webster ended up at 9.30pm on December 4 last year, after a day in which Higgins testified in the defamation case Lehrmann had now brought against Ten and Wilkinson.
Higgins was in the middle of cross-examination and therefore barred from speaking to her lawyer – or anyone else – about her evidence. She wasn’t at the bar, but somebody at a nearby table recognised the group.
That wasn’t surprising. The trio had once again been marching into court with Higgins in front of the cameras, and were the lead story on every TV bulletin and newspaper front page in the country. The curious neighbour at the bar reached for their phone and hit record.
“She’s terrified she’ll go to prison,” Sharaz can be heard telling Zwier on the tape, initially revealed by Sky News.
“She’s not going to go to prison,” Zwier assures him.
The pair discuss how Higgins should field questions while in the witness box.
The week before, Whybrow had indicated he would pursue Higgins over whether she intentionally made a speech on the courthouse steps after Lehrmann’s criminal trial was aborted, to botch any potential retrial.
Lee had taken the weekend to determine if he would allow it.
In the audio, Zwier can be heard saying: “If she’s asked, did you get legal advice about that, ‘yes’. What was the advice? She should say, ‘privilege’.
“You know, ‘your honour, I am told by my lawyer I don’t have to discuss legal advice’ – that’s what she should say.”
The Weekend Australian is not suggesting Zwier intended his comments to be passed on to Higgins, nor that his comments were passed on to Higgins, and there is no evidence that Sharaz or Webster gave her any subsequent instruction. Nonetheless, some in the legal community were shocked at news of the conversation.
When the recording initially surfaced, Zwier told Sky News: “All my private conversations with David Sharaz and Emma Webster were on the common understanding that Brittany was under cross-examination and no one was to talk with her about the substance of her evidence or the manner in which she was giving it.”
But the most remarkable part of the conversation wasn’t about what evidence Higgins might give. It was about what Zwier boasted of having done on her behalf.
Zwier tells the group that he, not a doctor, drafted the medical report that detailed her anxiety and suicide attempt which was used by Drumgold to abort the rape case against Lehrmann.
After opening his laptop at the bar, he read aloud the medical report, according to the Sky account tendered.
“Yeah I gave him the draft, I wrote it,” Zwier said.
“Let me brief you,” he said, before reading a statement from doctors that he received on October 9.
Lee granted a request by Lehrmann’s legal team to issue a subpoena to Sky News for the recording. But at the end of the week, with time running out, Whybrow told Lee the quality of the recording wasn’t good enough for it to be tendered in evidence or for him to “make any applications in this proceeding”.
However, Lee left the door open for the tape to be further interrogated in the future.
“The question is what, if anything, occurs in relation to (the tape),” he said.
“But that’s not a matter relevant to the determination of the facts in these proceedings.”
In a brief statement to The Weekend Australian, Zwier said: “I act on clients’ instructions. The lawyer-client relationship is protected by legal professional privilege. Two medical reports were provided to the ACT Director of Public Prosecutions before he discontinued the criminal proceeding. They were written by qualified medical practitioners.
“I do not use unlawfully obtained and unverified recordings of private conversations.”
Zwier declined to answer a specific question: if he didn’t draft the medical report, why did he tell Sharaz he had?
Mr Fix-It
Property mogul Rino Grollo named a difficult, twisting ski run at Mount Buller the “Zwier Zig Zag”, apparently in tribute to his favourite lawyer’s habit of confounding his opponents with sharp turns. Zwier helped Rino and Bruno Grollo defeat tax fraud charges brought by the ATO.
The lawyer’s admirers call him Mr Fix-it – the best insolvency practitioner in the country. His detractors call him overconfident. Two-faced. A bully. Labels he has previously rejected.
Well before the Lehrmann defamation trial kicked off, Zwier wanted Chrysanthou removed as Wilkinson’s barrister. She is a boisterous, sometimes abrasive and forceful advocate for her clients. She had won a number of defamation cases against The Project. Zwier wasn’t the only lawyer who didn’t like her but he clearly had an issue with the Sydney silk.
He told Ten’s lawyers Higgins – the most crucial witness in the case, but not a party to it – had instructed him not to assist Chrysanthou in defending the action and would help only if Wilkinson used the same lawyers as the network.
In an email to Ten’s lawyers, made public when documents were released by the Federal Court last week, Zwier said he was not prepared to work with Chrysanthou “under any circumstances”.
“And the more Brittany is required to deal with differing lawyers, the worse it is for her to manage the civil trial process to the detriment of those defending Lehrmann’s civil claims,” Zwier wrote.
“If Lisa Wilkinson subsequently elects to retain the same lawyers as Ten, then the process will be smoother, more orderly and manageable.”
Ten didn’t waste Zwier’s extraordinary email. Network boss Bev McGarvey sent it directly to Wilkinson. Legal protocol should have meant that an email sent to Ten’s lawyers be sent to Wilkinson’s lawyers. Instead, McGarvie cut Chrysanthou out of the loop, telling Wilkinson that it was confidential.
Why was Ten desperate to get one of Sydney’s most high-profile and successful defamation lawyers out of the picture?
Their senior in-house lawyer Tasha Smithies, who was forced last week to defend legal advice about Wilkinson’s Logies speech that derailed and delayed a criminal trial, told the Federal Court it was because Chrysanthou had acted against The Project, she acted mostly for plaintiffs and didn’t have “deep experience” acting for mass media groups.
Moreover, Chrysanthou had once “cross-examined a junior lawyer at Network Ten … to an extreme and unnecessary extent”.
Smithies didn’t mention the name of the legal bunfight where Chrysanthou had allegedly cross-examined a Ten lawyer so fiercely.
Could it have been in Hafertepen v Network Ten?
The Silicon Balls case
In 2018 The Project ran a story called Justice for Jack. Dylan Hafertepen, an American, claimed that the program suggested he was responsible for the death of his lover, Jack Chapman, by inducing him to inject silicone into his testicles.
Ten settled, but bizarrely hid the agreed clarification statement at the very bottom of the website’s “Terms of Use” page. The case went back to court.
Sources have told The Weekend Australian that the young Network Ten lawyer Smithies mentioned in her affidavit to Lee was Myles Farley.
In what became known as the Silicon Balls case, Justice Anna Katzmann slammed Farley, describing him as “not credible” and an “unsatisfactory witness,” following Chrysanthou’s cross-examination.
Worse, Katzmann slammed Ten as acting in “ bad faith”.
Little wonder Smithies didn’t mention the name of the case in her affidavit.
She and Network Ten were already copping enough flack in the Federal Court in front of Lee.
The trove of documents released by the court last week reveal Wilkinson was horrified by Zwier’s claim to be acting on instructions from Higgins and accused Ten of engaging in the “weaponisation of an alleged rape victim”.
Zwier’s astonishing demand was questioned by eminent silk Bret Walker SC and leading defamation lawyer Patrick George, from whom Wilkinson had sought advice, at Ten’s direction, on the network’s refusal to pay her legal costs.
“This stipulation is at the least unwise made by a witness and offered in return for the witness’s assistance in the proceedings,” the lawyers said.
Lawyers who have spoken to The Weekend Australian used stronger language to describe Zwier’s intervention.
When Lee learnt of the demands during Wilkinson’s cross-claim against Ten to pay her legal costs, he was scathing of the strategy.
“Network Ten were maintaining that it was appropriate (Wilkinson) not have counsel of her choice because a lawyer for one of the witnesses was saying ‘well, I’m not going to co-operate with her’,” Lee said.
The judge observed that if a witness had said that to him when he was a solicitor, he would have served a subpoena on them the next day and told them: “How dare you say who can represent my client?
“I mean, it’s quite extraordinary,” Lee added.
“What, (Higgins) is going to turn up at court and say, ‘I want to set aside the subpoena to give evidence because I don’t like that person at that end of the bar table’?”
The Weekend Australian understands that within Arnold Bloch Leibler – a rather dour and blue ribbon Melbourne law firm – not everyone is happy with Zwier’s involvement in the national scandal.
Bad blood
Why did Zwier tell Ten’s lawyer, in that unusual March 2023 email, that he would not “under any circumstances” work with Chrysanthou?
The Melbourne corporate recovery services lawyer had never appeared in court opposite the Sydney defamation lawyer.
But the two high-profile lawyers did cross swords in the Geoffrey Rush defamation trial.
Zwier wasn’t acting for any party to those legal proceedings between Rush and The Daily Telegraph. Instead, as in the Lehrmann case, Zwier represented the main witness, in this case actor Eryn Jean Norvill, who made claims that Rush had acted inappropriately during a Sydney Theatre Company production of King Lear in 2015.
On a Friday evening, around 8pm, just days before Norvill was due to enter the witness box, Zwier initiated an unusual discussion. Hooked into that phone call, at Zwier’s request, was a court mediator and Rush’s legal team, solicitor Nicholas Pullen and his barrister, Chrysanthou.
The Daily Telegraph – the party being sued – was not invited.
Zwier said that he acted for Norvill and for a second witness Yael Stone.
In an affidavit filed three days later with the court, Pullen recounted that Zwier said Stone would go public – the trial was under way – with claims about Rush if the matter was not dealt with “privately”. Zwier mentioned that “an option might be to mediate a process”.
Zwier’s intervention was raised in court the following week. When the judge learned that the lawyers for News (which owns both this newspaper and The Daily Telegraph) were not parties to a conversation about a mediation initiated by Zwier, Justice Michael Wigney remarked: “Well, there you go. I’m glad I put ‘mediation’ in inverted commas”.
Others close to the case described Zwier’s intervention as a “farce”. Zwier, after all, was not acting for a party to the proceedings so his role in any possible mediation was baffling to say the least.
Was Zwier intervening with a suggestion of a private mediation to bring the high-profile trial to an end before his client, Norvill, gave evidence?
Norvill’s credibility was critical given The Daily Telegraph ran a truth defence, similar to Ten and Wilkinson’s defence in the Lehrmann matter.
Devastation
Mr Fix-it didn’t fix it for Norvill.
The following day, Pullen told the registrar “that Mr Rush doesn’t want to engage any further with Mr Zwier”.
One senior person close to the Rush case said when they learned that Zwier was acting for Norvill, they assumed it would be good for News, helping a central witness work in tandem with News’s truth defence.
That didn’t happen. Zwier, they say, came between Norvill and News. Zwier’s role was, of course, to act in the best interests of his client, not News’s.
But the result of the case was patently devastating for Norvill with the judge awarding Rush $2.9m and describing Norvill as “prone to exaggeration and embellishment”.
The Weekend Australian asked Zwier why, almost five years later, as lawyer for Higgins, the main witness in the Lehrmann defamation suit, he was not prepared to work with Chrysanthou. We got no answer. Was it, as some sources have suggested, a bruised ego from the Rush matter?
Did the usually canny lawyer expect that March 2023 email would not become public – bundled up with Network Ten’s legal dirty laundry and under normal circumstances protected by legal professional privilege – during the cross-claim just over a week ago?
Zwier declined to say whether he had ever previously refused to work with a lawyer acting for another party.
Lee, who told the parties last week he “had not been idle” since Christmas, planned to deliver his decision in the defamation case next month. But after the cascade of enlightening documents from Wilkinson’s cross-claim against Ten – which now form part of the main evidence, thanks to Ten’s own goal – judgment is not expected until early April.
Whether Zwier’s bid to eject Chrysanthou figures in Lee’s verdict remains to be seen.
Four months after that incendiary email to Ten’s lawyers, Zwier was interviewed by legal magazine, Justinian. The Melbourne lawyer was asked to describe his greatest weakness.
“I bear long-term grudges. Next question,” Zwier replied.
Hopefully I have formatted it properly.
For those interested, an interesting (eye opening for me) thread on latest robotics and AI. Amazing visuals,
https://x.com/minchoi/status/1871603961700253769
Keep it simples & quick.
Merry Christmas all.
Lunch is nearly done bar pesky roast beef. Also the Boags are going down nicely for someone who only drinks mid strength these days.
Enjoy especially if you have family, we got our youngsters around.
See you on flip side or for drunken blogging later tonight.
On our morning walk ( Great Ocean Rd ) this morning we spotted a pod of dolphins . I’ve been coming down here for years and never seen one !
Merry Christmas to all Cats and Cute Owls
Allegedly alleged bad behaviour. Just get the feeling that it may be a little blown out of proportion. Daily Telegraph:
Farrugia could well have responded “if you don’t like it here far cough back to wherever you came from” then receive summons to appear in court for defamation.
NSW Plod seem determined to get her, how about the weekly shit on Sydney’s streets that Cassie describes?
Sadly, I’m waiting for the Traditional Muslim Killathon, and while I hope it doesn’t eventuate, I doubt it will give this Christmas a miss.
They sense the prey is weakening – and it is.
Here you go Lads (as I said, lengthy):
Thank you.
Reposted for excellence:
A pageant mum.
Perfect.
Mr Blubbersack eh? Any relation to a well-known Ferral pollimuppett? Why yes!
And, the Christmas Special for All Creatures Great and Small has dropped.
Yes, it’s not the same as the original series but still….
the ‘well respected’ ‘doctor’ in waiting is par for the course in that sort of article.
and a PhD candidate at Western Sydney University
I presume we’re meant to be impressed
Yes miltonf I am sure his doctorate is on the musings of Yasser Arafat and how he got a Nobel Peace Prize despite being the ultimate terrorist.
The whole hiya ejucashun sector has been a sick joke for decades imo. Where it’s got worse is the infection of the hard sciences by Marxism.
and a PhD candidate at Western Sydney University
A permanent student funded by HECS and now forgiven any debt by the Sleaze. Contributing nothing to society.
When Trump builds the wall, he needs to get in some Egyptian consultants. This is how they keep Pali’s out;
https://x.com/MarkWRowley/status/1871120444813963431
EV Mandates vs. Freedom | Mark P. Mills
Merry Christmas everyone who follows this wonderful blog. Hope you all have lovely day.
Thank you Dover for taking up the mantle and keeping “The Cat” alive.
We have no one here who can compare to Trump, Milei, Vance, DeSantis…”
We have YOU Cassie, and others here, who are not afraid to speak up, publicly, loudly, when faced with evil.
YOU who publicly, loudly, faced down evil just days ago – “Am Ysrael Chai”!!!!!
YOU are an absolute heroine to me.
New Wallace and Gromit is also out, although it doesn’t screen on the Beeb until 6:10pm Pommy time tonight.
Fuming Wallace & Gromit fans issue same complaint about new release (24 Dec)
BBC were cute and remastered for Blueray the previous shows in 4k using an AI…which sounds like it got um, a little creative.
Suspect 2025 will see Marty getting stuck into Our Brittany’s trust like a 3yo on Christmas morning.
Peter Dutton blasts Labor and international community on Christmas DayMohammad Alfares
4 minutes ago
16 Comments
Peter Dutton has warned the “sheer magnitude” of the nation’s anti-Semitism crisis threatens to overshadow Hanukkah, as he accused the Albanese government and international community of the “shameful” treatment of Israel for 14 months.
Referencing the October 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, Mr Dutton denounced what he described as a “sordid moral inversion” by the International Criminal Court, accusing it of unfairly targeting Israeli leaders while ignoring acts of terrorism.
His message comes amid rising concerns about anti-Semitism both domestically and abroad, and just weeks after a Melbourne synagogue was firebombed and one of Sydney’s biggest Jewish suburbs was attacked by anti-Jewish vandals.
“This Hanukkah, there is much that will weigh heavily on the minds of Jewish people in Israel, around the world, and here in Australia,” Mr Dutton said.
“There’s the plight of the hostages who remain in Hamas’s captivity.
“There’s the chilling reality that in Israel’s hours of need since 7 October 2023, some of its allies have shamefully behaved more like adversaries and demanded standards of Israel which they would never expect of themselves in similar circumstances.
“And there’s the sordid moral inversion of the International Criminal Court that has criminalised Israeli leaders for taking the fight to those terrorists responsible for the greatest loss of Jewish life on a single day since the Holocaust – terrorists who will never rest until the Jewish state is exterminated.”
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
December 25, 2024 3:02 pm
Awaiting for approval
Peter Dutton blasts Labor and international community on Christmas DayMohammad Alfares
4 minutes ago
Helen
December 25, 2024 9:11 am
Merry Christmas, cats. Lets Dance!
——
Rita Hayworth & Fred Astaire dance to Led Zeppelin
Nice to see Prof van Wrongselen make a cameo in the Brittany saga. I wonder who will play him in the mini series. Someone from Home and Away?
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1093897148512860
Simons cat.
The editing would take a vast amount of work. It’s not something you can do overnight.
Kudos.
‘Dancing On The Ceiling’ – An Old School Mash Up
Enjoying an extended post-prandial languor.
Back porch, Dalmore in a glass with one of those big ice cubes.
Well it is warm.
Well, survived Christmas lunch despite bad start of daughter complaining why she had to come through the garden and front door (both decorated for Christmas), rather than through the garage.
Lovely to see the grandchildren developing into charming, responsible adults excited about their lives. Otherwise, daughter reined in her historical complaints and only their dog derailed proceedings by disappearing into the wilderness of the local suburb. The Spitz is paranoid about loud noises, and we think she jumped the fence when we exploded the bon-bons at the Christmas table!
Son-in-law’s mother was amazing, given that her adopted daughter had been found deceased only a week ago. She enjoyed the champagne and excellent reds we plied her with. Amazing lady.
So, all in all, a successful Christmas. Son-in-law’s beautifully prepared leg of ham was magnificent. Our free range turkey was good, but I misjudged timing and it was a bit overcooked. Fourth Village pudding stunning. Ate far too much, as usual at Christmas feasts.
Sydney weather was at its finest – mild with a soft breeze. Hope all Cats had a beautiful day.
No auto-tune here.
‘Silly Love Songs’ (from ‘Rockshow’) – Paul McCartney And Wings
And at 82 he’s not slowing down at all.
Beatles legend Paul McCartney announces new solo album (22 Dec)
Knowing Mr McCartney it’ll be very potable. Strength to your arm Sir!
The kids in the choir are cool.
Cry Little Sister – Remastered
THE FEMALE MANIPULATION MATRIX (official video)
Summary: In “THE FEMALE MANIPULATION MATRIX,” Casey Zander discusses the differences between attractive women and feminine women, emphasizing how the latter can manipulate men due to their perceived innocence and appeal. He outlines a matrix that categorizes women based on their attractiveness and femininity, explaining the implications of each category for men’s dating experiences. Zander argues that many men fail to recognize the manipulative nature of feminine women, particularly those who appear demure and caring but may ultimately cause emotional harm. ### Key Points: 1. **Introduction to the Matrix**: – Zander presents the concept of the “Female Manipulation Matrix” after spending four days preparing it. – He indicates his insights come from over 10 years of dating experience. 2. **Difference Between Hotness and Femininity**: – Hot women attract attention but do not necessarily possess femininity. – Feminine women can manipulate men by creating an illusion of innocence and vulnerability. 3. **Understanding Manipulation**: – Men often lower their guard around feminine women, making them susceptible to emotional manipulation. – This dynamic can lead men to develop strong feelings, believing they have a unique connection. 4. **Matrix Explanation**: – The matrix categorizes women on two axes: attractiveness (hotness) and femininity. – A woman who is both hot and feminine presents the highest risk for men’s emotional well-being. 5. **Three Main Categories**: – **Five and Five**: Average attractiveness and femininity; likely reciprocates interest and behaves more genuinely. – **Seven and Seven**: Attractive and feminine; more hypergamous, looks for high-status men. – **Ten and Ten**: Extremely attractive and feminine; presents a façade of loyalty, but very manipulative. 6. **Danger Zones**: – The “danger zone” involves highly attractive and feminine women who are covertly manipulative and may withdraw affection after obtaining emotional investment. 7. **Outliers**: – **Nine or Ten Hot, Two Feminine**: Attractive but masculine; not likely to foster deep emotional connections. – **Four to Six Hot, Ten Plus Feminine**: May be nurturing but could incite feelings of inadequacy about attractiveness. 8. **Key Takeaways**: – Women’s physical attractiveness can serve as bait, while their femininity draws men in emotionally. – Femininity is described as an illusion that can lead to heartbreak. – Men should position themselves as high-value individuals to maintain respect in relationships. 9. **Cautionary Advice**: – Zander stresses that loving a woman leads to her disinterest; thus, men should guard their emotional investments. – He compares women’s manipulation to a “rattlesnake in a golden retriever costume,” warning men of the inherent risks. 10. **Conclusion**: – The video encourages men to be aware of female nature and manipulation tactics, advocating for a mindset of self-value and caution in relationship dynamics.
Grumpy old uncle achievement unlocked!!!
Nephew is a political little animal and tried the ” coal is subsidised” line…
I did a quick google – $70 a ton is the current gerbil danegeld for burning a ton of Satan’s winnits.
I pointed out that the ” subsidies” are just enough to keep the lights on because all the profit is taxed away.
I haven’t been listening to music lately, but this one is special.
Happy Christmas!
The Pogues – Fairytale Of New York (1987)
Must be a lot of pollen around, my eyes seem to be watering. Vale Kirsty Anna MacColl and Shane Patrick Lysaght MacGowan, she gone from the planet 24 years ago and he just over a year past.
Joyeux Noël to each and every Cat.
In Grenoble with my baby sis and her Frogue family after a week of brilliant skiing on a heavy early season snow dump that 20 years ago was apparently ’never going to happen again’.
The family meal and presents last night, per Frog tradition, followed by Mass. As Marc Cohen’s lyrics go: ‘Are you a Christian child? Ma’am I am tonight’.
This morning; visitations.
Summary In a recent video, Bryan Lunduke discusses the Wikimedia Foundation’s financial practices based on their 2024 annual report. He highlights that the foundation spent $31 million on “racial equity” programs, which is ten times the amount allocated for hosting Wikipedia. Lunduke critiques the transparency and allocation of funds, expressing skepticism about the need for public donations when the foundation has significant assets and revenue. The discussion includes the foundation’s focus on equity and inclusivity initiatives as a priority over essential operational expenses
Tracy was a hell of a thing.
Trivia quiz: which brit film used the music that features in the Britbox ad?
Home at last! A marvellous day with all the family – backyard cricket, swimming, eating and mucking around.
The Buche de Noel was a hit with the kids. Decorated with Aldi figurines and Dollar Shop trees! The adults went for the delicious Messina strawberry trifle with brandy custard on account of our supreme sophistication.
Why are we short of skilled trades? What are they teaching at TAFE these days? Are they and the so-called universities funneling all the young people into the Faculty of Inconsequential Studies?
The CFR from the Pfizer trial show the vaccines make you 14x more likely to die from COVID
Hope everyone has had a great Christmas.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc7mYlmocYw
More on Blairgowrie
I’m pumped. Remains the best gee up song of all time.
Something sweet and cute for a change.
Dog Meets Farm Puppies For The First Time
In case anyone is interested. She started out being pretty sure what she believed in. It was only when she started to obfuscate that she suddenly couldn’t get a coherent sentence out.
The Fall of Kamala Harris
Anyway, “Sliante” and a Merry Christmas to all on the Cat.
Santa Claus brought some damnfine single malt, and a couple of interesting looking books, so my Christmas was a good one.
A Happy (belated) Christmas, cats! 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyTa6Wad4m0
Electric Pandas – Big Girls (Official Video)- also 40 years ago
Just managed to get rid of the last of the outlaws after lunch!
Merry Christmas to … you lot.
Ambrosia – Biggest Part of Me
Some yacht rock for boxing day.
A belated Merry Christmas and happy Hannukah to all.
Merry Christmas and a healthy next year to all writers on the blog
From a constant reader and infrequent commentator!
Going to bed at 2am and getting up at 7 to prepare turkey wasn’t such a good idea, crashed and burned at 6.30 when I got home, now staying up for a bit to reset the body clock.
Turkey, roast vegetables and loads of nice salads followed a couple of hours later by Christmas pudding. Master Four loves turkey, cranberry jelly and Christmas pudding. Then out on the lawn throwing balls for two visting dogs to fetch. Fear of dogs gone in the blink of an eye.
Miss Two preferred to dine on cheese, crackers and cashews. Followed by entertaining the crowd doing a human jack in the box routine improvising with a huge Christmas gift bag.
Here I am!
A Merry Christmas and Hannukah to all on the Cat on this most memorable day of the year. It is still Christmas morning here in the UK as Hairy’s brother prepares his famous turkey meal. Last night we enjoyed his famous whole poached salmon, for which he has a special ‘poaching kettle’. Very British, as is all here at Christmas in the land where The Times is still taken with gentility over breakfast.
We came in just in time for the salmon after driving back to Richmond in London, having attended the always very moving “Nine Lessons and Carols” service at Kings College Chapel in Cambridge. Two thousand voices raised to the praise of the Christ Child under those soaring columns spreading out like papyrus over the vault in a fine filigree intimating heaven. The Chapel was started by Richard the Third and finished by Henry the Eighth, echoing the one at Eton College. The singing and music were sublime. On the way in as ticket holders a group of uninvited people were singing carols, but all under waving Palestinian flags. Long Live Israel, I said loudly as we walked by, and Hairy said it in even more stentorian tones. Superannuated Cambridge University public sector human resources idiots, he called them.
We’d stayed with my archaeologist friend in Saffron Walden for the night prior so that we could get to the Kings College Porter’s Lodge early to collect our tickets, as if not collected they would be distributed to a waiting list. That meant we had a day to spend in Cambridge, wandering around Hairy’s old haunts reminiscing, for I was also there for a week’s stay at Churchill College as a visiting pair of post-graduate scholars with my first husband in the early 70’s. Much has changed with mass tourism but some things still remain, such as the Eagle pub, where Watson and Crick lunched daily and where they first announced, in Crick’s words, that they had uncovered’ the secret of life’ was in a double-helix of DNA. Watson upbraided Crick for that view, claiming it was immodest and hence rather un-British. We sat at their table. Redolent. They discovered a process, not the meaning behind it, observes Hairy, for the meaning behind it was more suitably dealt with in the ceremony we were about to attend. Also redolent was the airmen’s part of the pub, where Second World War airmen had left graffiti on the walls, including a naked lady drawn in lipstick. With this bravado, they’d gone off to fly over Germany and many did not return.
I’ve had a wonderful day. Had Christmas lunch with family I love so much. Children, dogs, noise, adult company as well and an excellent lunch, on top of a beautiful sunny and warm day.
The happiness today was welcome far more than usual. The two days before have been so awful. It is so much better when good comes after dreadful, than vice versa.
On Monday, I discovered the local foxes had learned to climb fences. When I went out to lock up for the evening, there’d been a massacre. The unusual thing was, it happened in daytime, late afternoon. Most here know how much I love my chooks, turkeys, ducks and geese. I collected the dead and put them in the shed to dispose of the next day, yesterday. After a long, hard day, in the afternoon, I had a crashing fall. Bugger. Anyway, many bruises, but not much harm, thank God.
All that behind me after such a joyful day today. Including the knowledge that, over the last week I had been given invitations from three local families to spend today with them if I had been going to be on my own. Will be having lunch tomorrow with one of them. So many good people here.
The icing on my cake of a day came a while ago when I was sent pix of a family enjoying the pudding I had made for them. I mentioned the puddings a couple of days ago.
A great Christmas. Very happy to read that pretty much all Cats have had a rewarding Christmas. God Bless.
he’s actually a hands-off owner who never tells staff what to write about
Correct.
Thanks, Lizzie, for your wonderful travelogues.
Seconded.
Meme
@MarioNawfal
TRUMP WIN: STATE DEPT’S $61M ‘DISINFORMATION’ OFFICE GETS AXED
The State Department’s controversial Global Engagement Center will close its doors tonight after Republicans stripped its funding from the spending bill.
Critics say the 120-person agency used its $61M budget to blacklist conservative voices.
Sen. Schmitt blasted the GEC as a:
“massive censorship machine designed to suppress narratives that question establishment thinking.”
The agency’s defenders claim it fought Russian and Chinese propaganda.
The shutdown marks an early victory for Trump’s anti-censorship agenda before he even takes office.
I’m punishing the single malt, watching a howling lovely Scot lass , singing “Loch Lomond” on you tube..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb8AGuD2uOI
Said Scots lassie, singing “Loch Lomond.”
Happy Christmas, Cats!
We had a wonderful day at our place with fine weather in our backyard 100m from the beach, frangipanis and aggies and geraniums in full flower, a light sea breeze tempering the 28deg forecast max, my sisters, our husbands, our children and their partners and children and fine food contributed by all.
Absolute satisfaction, we are ready for 2025.
On and on she goes. Just back in from my 6th strike team in 8 days and tomorrow looks like the worst. There are many km of uncontrolled E edge, and a Westerly change with up to 100km/h winds forecast. If this thing doesnt get out into the grasslands and head for Moyston/Ararat/Willaura we can count ourselves lucky.
Back out at 7am tommo.
Might have to re-jig some Boxing Day family stuff if the Aussies bat first. Not sure dropping McSweeney and now throwing young Konstas under the Bumrah bus is achieving anything.
I’d have let McSweeney play out the series, let Konstas play Big Bash and then some more Shield when it resumes. Re-assess before the Sri Lanka tour in February.
Getting a vibe that Andrew McDonald and George Bailey are idiots.
Flyingduk @10:42pm…
Keep safe cobber.
CFA on the front line, underfunded because the corrupt Labor government bowed to the union movement that wanted to control and force union membership on the volunteers.
Another legacy of that vile Andrews.prick..
Johannes Leak. Brilliant.
Mark Knight.
Peter Broelman.
Brett Lethbridge.
Patrick Blower.
Michael Ramirez.
Chip Bok.
Gary Varvel.
Gary Varvel. Brilliant.
Thanx Tom.
If Konstas gets a gig to open the batting that useless fat prick Khawaja should take the strike not even if the kid with bravado wants to do it.
The fat muslim has already sacrificed McSweeney by letting him take the strike.when he should have shouldered the responsibility as the senior batsman.
Boonie would never had exposed a kid to the first over.
Princeton University has a sexual studies course and will offer erotic dance classes, as well as some on pornography and prostitution.
I think I hear the Frankfurt School professors applauding from their graves.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/12/princeton-universitys-gender-sexuality-studies-offer-classes-erotic/
Good morning all and I echo Gilas Buon Natale and Felice Nuovo Anno — Belated though these wishes might be they as warm and sincere as if timely.
A very quiet Christmas for us older son with the littlies is up in Queensland so it was lunch at a Club in the City with our darling big boy and his supporter — it was a delight, food excellent, we all received a small gift, though big boy won’t have use for the lovely pen mum will. Big boy was a model of good behaviour and his supporter was well known to us and like family.
God blessed us with magnificent burning blue cloudless sky, not too hot just perfect Christmas Day weather. Home at 3:00pm and a long snooze.
Warmest wishes to all gatti e gattine and may we all thrive in the coming 2025.
Want to tell you all about my Nelly Kelly passionfruit vine – it’s been so laden with fruit now ripening each day where I collect at least 20 per day – one trunk, a very long vine of at least 40 metres, I’ve been very busy making passionfruit curd, which then allows me to make pavlova and meringue with the leftover egg whites. I am no baker but I can now practice on the delicate chemical art of making meringue.
Yesterday after our Christmas lunch I harvested 40!!! — it must be the perfect spot for Nelly –some, like calli, have green thumbs; I, unfortunately have the five fingers of death, yet I’m blessed with this magnificent vine. and its abundant fruit.
I thank God and Mother Nature for the bounty.
Christmas is killing the planet.
Bah, Humbug! Left-Wing Guardian Delivers Christmas Day Carbon Scold (25 Dec)
What would we be without such prim scolding from the Grauiad?
An interesting Christmas here, we had three Germans visit and they were all from the former East Germany. They were all in their mid thirties so didn’t have much direct experience of communism . They spoke of the Stasi ( state police) and the fact that there were spies everywhere . All of their parents had files which they could now view if they wanted to . Most didn’t want to know because they didn’t want to know who was actually spying on them. It may have been a relative, neighbour or work colleague, often coerced into spying for some past misdemeanour.
In other words every conversation was potentially being listened to and reported to the Stasi.
We took a poll and decided that the spy at the table ( if there was one ) was Ben the Kiwi
“This carnival of consumption has a cost: not just to our wallets and our waistlines, but also to the climate.”
Stupid commos don’t understand how the economy works. Festivals such as Xmas stimulate economic activity which produces profit which pays for labour, pays taxes and keeps the economy running.
I wonder if the Guardian folk deny themselves family get togethers, gifts and eating nice meals on special occasions.
I wonder if the Guardian folk deny themselves family get togethers, gifts and eating nice meals on special occasions.
I doubt that, Guardian folk and their ilk are the very essence of hypocrisy.
@GadSaad
Look how “racist” the United States is!
@WallStreetMav
What is your answer to them ???
I still don’t know why the Dems were so happy about the funding bill that was passed. I haven’t seen any breakdown of what was in it.
Rep. Thomas Massie Asks Followers to Weigh in on January 3 House Speaker Election in X Poll – Results are BRUTAL for Mike Johnson
The Eugenicist-in-Chief.
Bill Gates goes full totalitarian: Insists AI could censor ‘threats’ from ‘vaccine hesitancy’
Growing indications that the Azerbaijan Airlines flight that crashed today was hit by air defense fire
Houthis Attack Israel on Christmas; Second Missile in Two Nights
Election-Eve Coverup: Biden & the Art of Concealing Evidence
Peter Dutton
Leader of the Opposition – Chanukah Message
‘Low-life scumbags’ steal essential aircraft firefighting tools from Ballarat Airport as the Grampians prepare for firesHeartless thieves have targeted essential firefighting equipment in Ballarat as emergency services brace for a huge day of battling extreme weather.
From the Hun. Words fail me, they honestly do.
Oh well.
Shit happens.
Left over ham anyone?
The Lotus Eaters
The Year of the Squirrel
To quote Bertrand Russell from memory, ‘much that presents itself as idealism is a disguised hatred of humanity and a desire for power.’
Meanwhile…
What lefty activists get off on is exercising the power they imagine they have to command behaviour modification in the unwashed masses.
They don’t do leading by example.
In fact, they have never had such power over others, but the unwashed masses get to tell them to get stuffed only once every election cycle.
The fact they’re still projecting such power lust after the November US election simply tells us how politically deaf and dumb they are.
Meanwhile, the “Guardian folk” are about to get their arses kicked — again — in the 2025 Australian federal election, which will be a landslide rejection of Chris Bowen’s loony anti-capitalist Third World climate agenda.
These are the equal winners of the annual family Chrissy joke or story competition.
One dreadful day not long ago, it began to loose time. It no longer went, ‘Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock’ but that had now changed to only, ‘Tick Tick Tick Tick’.
I was advised to take it to a very old German watchmaker in the district who was the only person with enough skills to get the clock running right again. He asked the story. I told him that for so many decades it had sat there keeping perfect time with its, ‘Tick Tock Tick Tock Tick Tock’. But now sadly it was loosing time with just its, ‘Tick Tick Tick Tick’ .
The old German put on his monocle, approached the face of the clock with a wild look in his eyes and calmly said, “Ve haff vays ofmaking you Tock”.
2.Dunkelflaute is a German term for a period of low wind and sunshine, which affects renewable energy generation and grid stability. In the renewable energy sector, a dunkelflaute (German:[?d??k?l?fla?t?] ?, lit.?’dark doldrums’ or ‘dark wind lull’, plural dunkelflauten)[1] is a period of time in which little or no energy can be generated with wind and solar power, because there is neither wind nor sunlight.[2][3][4] In meteorology, this is known as anticyclonic gloom.[5]
Survivors lunch today….
Tom I hope you’re right.
Further to Indolent @ 8:55 looking like the shoot down of the E190 over Grozny likely has some truth.
A Swiss blogger & pilot:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQEghJ8UVWk
Early morning coffee on the verandah, and reading “The Whole Truth and the Problem With Truth Telling.” Australian Research House – a submission to the Yoorook Comission in Victoria.
“The contemporary and imported Canadian description of First Nations People is a tenuous but deliberate play on the word “Nations.” Given Treaty can only be signed between Nations, this play pretends a government can make a treaty with a tribe, or tribes, because they are nations.”.Page 49.
Good reading – check it out.
Australia wins the toss and decides to bat.
Impossible.
Russians are infallible.
It was the Gettysburg.
Obviously.
Israel’s war with Hamas has resulted in some cutting-edge, astonishing medical advancements
Santa Barbie.
How to avoid being on the naughty list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7p9GqisgfY