Open Thread – Thurs 16 Jan 2025


Idyll, Arnold Böcklin, 1866

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Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 16, 2025 2:26 am

First?

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 16, 2025 2:39 am

Just started watching an old movie on Amazon Prime – :
“Cast A Giant Shadow”..
.
Some big names – Douglas, Wayne, Sinatra, Heston….in no particular order.

Americans helping Israel build an army to defend themselves against the Arabs.

Maybe the Donald will rebuild that resolve.

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 16, 2025 2:48 am

And Yul Bryner

Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 4:02 am
Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 4:03 am
Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 4:04 am
Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 4:05 am
Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 4:06 am
Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 4:07 am
Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 4:08 am
Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 4:09 am
Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 4:10 am
DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
January 16, 2025 4:21 am

Thanx, Tom.

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 16, 2025 4:47 am

Have a look at this bloke. Andrew Bolt:

It’s bad enough that Leftist activists – warmists, “anti-Zionists”, transgender extremists – are justifying violence to get their way. Worse is that a political party now wants to put into the Senate one who says even murdering opponents isn’t all bad.

Jordan van den Lamb is a former public servant who’s been picked as a Senate candidate by the Victorian Socialist Party, which lists the Victorian Trades Hall Council as its address.

Many will know him. He has 200,000 followers on TikTok and 76,000 more on Instagram, railing against capitalism, bosses, landlords and Israel.

But he’s now posted a video inspired by the murder in New York of an insurance company boss, shot in the back of the head, allegedly by Luigi Mangione.

This alleged execution has excited many Leftists. Forbes magazine even declared: “Luigi Mangione Has Become A Social Media Folk Hero.”

And van den Lamb in his video declared this alleged murder did good, even if he didn’t recommend it: “Unfortunately Luigi didn’t stop the flow of capitalism but he did stop one CEO and I think that’s on the whole a good thing.

“I don’t think what he did was entirely bad. I think he helped move the discussion regarding class consciousness.”

Be clear. When van den Lamb says he opposes individuals murdering capitalists it isn’t just because murder is bad. It’s that individuals doing this won’t destroy Australia’s capitalism and its government.

“If we oppose individual acts of terrorism it is not because of any moral indignation, because of the value of human life …

“It’s because it is simply not enough. We cannot destroy capitalism, we cannot overthrow capitalism, simply by killing a few CEOs … We cannot defeat a government by killing a minister. There needs to be a massive struggle to defeat a government.”

So to people who might think of murdering capitalists, van den Lamb has a tip for what they should do instead: “I would encourage them to join a group that is organised … join the Palestinian protest.”

Some Australians posting responses to his video disagree. One writes: “In the absence of revolution, smoking a CEO is completely acceptable.”

I’ve said before the Palestinian cause is just the latest front for Leftists who hate democracy and the West. No wonder Palestinian protests include so much vandalism, threats, abuse and hate-speech.

Even so, why have the Victorian Socialists not reprimanded van den Lamb? Why does Victoria’s Trades Hall Council host such a party?

Be careful what you wish for you noodle armed tosser.
Now this is monty’s type of bloke!

41ca0e533cc4d5faf508a5f740e203a0
Last edited 29 days ago by Black Ball
Rohan
Rohan
January 16, 2025 7:37 am
Reply to  Black Ball

That pencil necked geek wouldn’t last 2 minutes in a pub fight, let alone a revolution.

Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 10:14 am
Reply to  Rohan

Always the same – weedy communists dream of revolution, when they and their mates will have total power.
Always the same – in the turmoil of a revolution the real hard men appear and all the Jacobs are taken to the cellar or driven to a nice secluded bit of scrub.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 7:39 am
Reply to  Black Ball

Mutley would bend over for him.

Aaron
Aaron
January 16, 2025 11:41 am
Reply to  Black Ball

Should turn up bullet riddled.

FAFO.

Perfidious Albino
Perfidious Albino
January 16, 2025 1:43 pm
Reply to  Black Ball

Incitement much? Zero consequences for him these days though.

Miltonf
Miltonf
January 16, 2025 5:04 am

Lord, another lefty seffer. Another effing lawyer too.

KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 5:06 am

On a lighter note, a very wise spousal advise by Jolliffe.

473091485_1159101076215697_2135603064560511802_n
Miltonf
Miltonf
January 16, 2025 5:07 am

So many of these causes du jour are simply an emotional outlet for messed up people. Remember when they were in a frenzy about Tamils in Sri Lanka?

Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 10:18 am
Reply to  Miltonf

….and in Biloela.

KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 5:11 am

Picture of W Davidson on one of their bike.
Now you know what he looked like, I’m sure many of you were dying to know.

Walter-Davidson-posing-on-his-1907-Harley-Davidson-motorcycle
Perplexed of Brisbane
Perplexed of Brisbane
January 16, 2025 6:51 am
Reply to  KevinM

So what did Harley bring to the table?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 7:41 am

How to make a crap bike worse.

KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 11:05 am

Money?

Bruce in WA
January 16, 2025 11:13 am
Reply to  KevinM

Did you know that 85% of all Harleys ever made are still on the road?

The rest made it home.

(BinWA … affirmed BMW owner!)

Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 11:29 am
Reply to  Bruce in WA

Dad always rode as a young man, never interested in cars.
He got sick of oil leaks and British engineering and bought a BMW – this would have been about 1956-57 at a guess.
I recall riding up the dirt road in front of our place- I was maybe 3 or 4, and sitting in front of Dad, on the tank/in his lap- and watching potholes approach and thinking
” This will be a big bump”
and the BMW rode over them pretty smoothly.
Young as I was I noticed the difference.

Bruce
Bruce
January 16, 2025 3:51 pm
Reply to  Bruce in WA

An interesting H D twist.

Early HDs were a little pedestrian, with the odd standout like the “peashooter” models. The basic 1926 model had some grunt and it became popular on racing circuits, especially when fitted with an after-market multi-valve head. I have seen one of these ex-“speedway” machines here in slightly-soggy S E Queensland.

The “big” V-twin idea seemed to have financial merit as a general service platform, but H d needed to retool entirely to get up and running, > At the time a couple of agents for a small Japanese consortium found out about movements in Milwaukee and paid up for the complete Peashooter production kit. That little bike and several variants thereof, kick-started,(so to speak) the serious Japanese motorbike industry, which subsequently supplied thousands of these machines to the Japanese Army, then beginning to get seriously rampaging around Asia.

KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 5:14 am

Move over Danube, look at the Congo river running at quiet times.
Imagine it flooding

kong
KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 5:17 am

What Adelaide looked like in 1865, they had churches even then.

Adelaide-looked-like-this-from-the-town-hall-tower-in-1865
Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 10:24 am
Reply to  KevinM

to think, 30 years before there was absolutely nothing there.
Can’t compare with the 20, no 40 no 60,000 years of rich, vibrant hunter gatherer no farming culture there before, however.

KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 11:11 am
Reply to  KevinM

In case people wondering, no, it’s not an aerial photograph.
It was taken from the tower of the town hall.

Enyaw
Enyaw
January 16, 2025 5:37 pm
Reply to  KevinM

WELL, Then, St Francis Xavier’s RC Cathedral is facing Sou/East, and it truly faces Nth/West, and where is the Sth/East cnr of Queen Victoria Square?

Bruce
Bruce
January 16, 2025 3:53 pm
Reply to  KevinM

The “City of Churches”: All now turned into trendy boutiques and restaurants.

KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 5:21 am

A true chess genius.

————–

In 1964, American chess prodigy Bobby Fischer demonstrated his unparalleled skill by playing 50 opponents simultaneously in a remarkable exhibition.

At just 21 years old, Fischer took on a mix of grandmasters, club players, and amateurs in a display of sheer intellectual dominance. The event, held at the Manhattan Chess Club, saw Fischer roaming the room, making moves with exceptional speed and precision while keeping track of all the games at once.

His ability to play multiple games without a single error was a testament to his extraordinary memory and deep understanding of chess. By the end of the marathon session, Fischer had won 47 of the games, drawing 3, a result that left a lasting impression on the chess world.

This exhibition solidified Fischer’s reputation as one of the greatest chess minds of all time, and foreshadowed his eventual rise to the World Chess Championship in 1972.

472431778_122129045456552736_3883672221882978568_n
KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 5:26 am

A tight leash?
Don’t I know it, sadly I am mostly home anyway.

472615347_1331956441119199_3421329070393969472_n
vr
vr
January 16, 2025 6:18 am

From the Journal

Marica Zellers and a friend zigzagged around the outskirts of Altadena last Thursday, looking for an opening that would allow her to evade barricades and check on her house. “The police were guarding every single street,” she said.

Then Zellers got a tip from a friend: The parking structure of the Super King Market offered an entry point that bypassed the roadblocks.

When Zellers arrived, she saw that her house on West Mariposa Street was rubble. She hunted for her safe, which was intact. After she and her friend managed to pry it open, she said, they had to jump back. “The safe was burning inside because it was holding all the heat,” she said.

Her house was gone, she said, and so was everything in her safe: birth records, property records, sports memorabilia, family history documents and $40,000 worth of Treasury bonds.

If banks started offering safe deposit boxes again, they could be making bank (pun intended).

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 7:45 am
Reply to  vr

Too much effort, not enough financial return.
I looked at it to store some bullion.
Too easy for government to just waltz up with a court order …and it’s gone.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 12:24 pm
Reply to  Winston Smith

gold does just fine if you bury it

Bungonia bee
Bungonia bee
January 16, 2025 6:28 am

Given how well Trump did across the board, why is the majority so slim in Congress?

KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 6:42 am
Reply to  Bungonia bee

Insurance policy from the undecideds, may be the death knell of the Trump regime. I hope not.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 16, 2025 7:09 am
Reply to  Bungonia bee

We know the Dems stole at least four reps seats in California. I suspect more elsewhere in states like Arizona. In both places they went on counting and counting and counting for weeks after the election and hey presto four narrowly flipped seats to the Democrats against the run of play. Weird how that happens.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 7:43 am
Reply to  Bungonia bee

Cheating.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 16, 2025 11:46 am
Reply to  Bungonia bee

DemonRat vote fiddling in California (no voter ID for a start) Chicago and NY?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 16, 2025 6:53 am

Labor making the same mistake as Newsom.

Labor rejects health insurance hikes as Private Healthcare Australia claims soaring medical costs necessitate increases (Sky News, 15 Jan)

Labor has rejected proposed premium increases from private health insurers and ordered them to resubmit “more reasonable” prices, as the Albanese government keeps one eye on cost of living pressures ahead of the next federal election.

The next set of premium increases will take effect from April 1 this year and the government has called on insurers to submit applications for Health Minister Mark Butler to review.

But in December the Minister was largely unsatisfied with the companies’ initial increase proposals and demanded they all resubmit prices that were “more in the interests of their members”.

Mr Butler on Wednesday revealed that he was once again unhappy with the proposed price hikes and has turned back to the private health insurers for premiums that he felt were appropriate.

“Last year premiums went up about three per cent and the cost to insurers has gone up about eight per cent,” Mr Harris said.

“Insurers can’t do that forever.

So he’s twice knocked back their proposed increase for this year. And they can’t recover their costs, after an inadequate rise last year.

Well we know what happens next – just like in California.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 12:25 pm

Labor making the same mistake as Newsom.

In neither case was it a mistake

132andBush
132andBush
January 16, 2025 7:08 am

Be careful what you wish for you noodle armed tosser.

Now this is monty’s type of bloke!

It’s uncanny how they all seem to resemble Marx in some way.

Sick looking, envious, lazy, with an air of smug superiority.

He is the stereotype of the human responsible for more misery and death on this planet than all others put together.

KevinM
KevinM
January 16, 2025 7:24 am
Reply to  132andBush

I thought he looks more like Trotsky?

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 16, 2025 7:55 am
Reply to  KevinM

I can’t quite get it.
Put an icepick in the back of his head and let’s see if that helps.

Last edited 28 days ago by Sancho Panzer
Bespoke
Bespoke
January 16, 2025 7:28 am
Reply to  132andBush

Sick looking, envious, lazy, with an air of smug superiority.

Chickenhawk anarchist.

Rosie
Rosie
January 16, 2025 7:26 am

I was reading about a mother and son who saved their home. Her husband had purchased a pump system and they had a pool so they twice sprayed their roof with chlorinated water.
What surprised me was that they had a roof made of wooden shingles.

It seems like a lot of people in LA had a it couldn’t really happen mentality.
Someone posted a photo of a mid century timber home surrounded by trees.
It’s gone.
As for small portable valuables.
Aren’t they the things you take with you?
Did the safe company advertise the safe as completely fire proof or was it just anti theft?
If I were a multi millionaire living in LA I’d have on site water storage, a fire management system and a house not built of timber.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 7:48 am
Reply to  Rosie

Rosie my in-laws had the national home of the year. Cedar shakes for the roof.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 8:45 am
Reply to  Rosie

They’ve also had it drummed into them the fear of earthquake from the San Andreas fault line which is not a real problem in LA. There’s no chance of subduction either but we are talking about California where they believe the next lie readily. Too much exposure to Hollywood.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 12:50 pm
Reply to  Rosie

If I were a multi millionaire living in LA I’d have on site water storage, a fire management system and a house not built of timber.

A large number of these houses already had onsite water storage in the form of pools, so an external home protection sprinkler system should have been a possibility. They seem to have a ‘leave it to the experts’ mentality there, re-inforced by the mandatory evac orders … likely the PoPo would try and move you out anyway/.

BTW, the risk of loss of your house in a bushfire is 10X if its unattended,

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 7:33 am

Wally Dalí:  January 15, 2025 11:46 pm
 Reply to  Winston Smith

Sheesh Winston that’s got Total Recall vibes about it. Cheap holiday memory implant???

Yes – still remember it quite vividly.
People who are in a short term psychotic state quite often retain memories of what they did – they may refuse to acknowledge it, but they remember.
I never forgot that in my entire career when it was impressed on us during our training. “The mad may be mad now, but they do get better, and they remember.”

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 7:53 am
Reply to  Winston Smith

I remember, knew I was ok when I said to my wife, I know its not real but just humour me and check the car is not in the backyard, which is an impossibility.

Cassie of Sydney
January 16, 2025 7:50 am

Hamas and its allies still hold 94 of the 251 hostages taken from Israel, including at least 34 of whom are dead, according to the Israeli government.

As to what state the living are in, we will wait and see. I don’t believe a word Hamas says.

Oh, and now there is a ceasefire in place, will we now see an end to the weekly Jew hating festivals in our CBDs, Jew hating rallies that have gone on for 15 months, sanctioned by our Waffen police forces?

I guess our own Nazi will now be at a loose end.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 12:52 pm

A ‘ceasefire’ doesn’t end the war or solve the problem… if anything it perpetuates it – reference the North v South Korea imbroglio … their 3 year attempt at resolving that was suspended in 1953… and the problem still festers.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 7:53 am

Hessen Interior Minister announces measures to combat “unfiltered opinions” on social media, state media expert calls for the regulation of internet memes, and other insanity from the Federal Republic

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/hessen-interior-minister-announces?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-restack-comment&r=1easrn&triedRedirect=true

Today we have the Vice President of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution declaring that criticism of public media is a “danger to democracy.” That matters; this man is among the top political enforcers and domestic intelligence chiefs in the country. 

Crossie
Crossie
January 16, 2025 8:04 am
Reply to  Winston Smith

We are watching in real time the replay of 1930s yet some people are still mystified how it all happened.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 8:24 am
Reply to  Crossie

I wanted to say that but was concerned I’d be called an “Extremist Conspiracy Theorist”.
🙂

Bruce
Bruce
January 16, 2025 4:13 pm
Reply to  Crossie

Regarding nazi Germany;Some may wonder where people like the SS and Gestapo (and Abwehr) came from.

The answer is that they were ALWAYS ‘there”, they just needed the right “moment”.

See also the regimes of Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, etc., ad nauseum.

Look around you, folks

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 8:34 am
Reply to  Winston Smith

Another Blockhead that checks the content of his own crap.

Last edited 28 days ago by GreyRanga
cohenite
January 16, 2025 8:06 am

Biden is truly a grub for the ages, refusing to acknowledge Trump’s role in any ceasefire:

Biden says Americans will be among hostages released amid Israel-Hamas cease-fire

And biden and his fellow grubs will lay traps for Trump in any ceasefire agreement for the release of the hostages:

The Hamas Surrender Deal Sets Up Trump to Fail | Frontpage Mag

And this is the real problem for Trump: back stabbing faux conservatives like this sanctimonious piece of shit:

Traitor Mike Pence is Trying to Block Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s Appointment. Here’s Why…

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 8:09 am

last night I finished the third book in a series by FX Holden. Female anti hero, flying futuristic aircraft against Chinese etc in the year 2038. Very well written, good character development and the technical stuff in line with advancements seeable today.
If you have a youngster that you want to get reading, this author is good for both sexes.
But what I wanted to get off my chest was that I finished reading it at 2200, and an email timed at 2215 arrived in my account trying to sell me the next book in the series. Which I already had bought.
This tells me two things:

  1. the bastards are watching me and,
  2. The bastards are stupid.

This is a deadly combination.
🙂

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 16, 2025 8:30 am
Reply to  Winston Smith

Certainly #2.

Watch: Amazon Uses Huge Diesel Generator To Charge Electric Delivery Van Fleet (16 Jan)

Hypocritical virtue signalling on a grand scale!

cohenite
January 16, 2025 8:16 am

Great painting: a ranga!

And as noted the true enemy:

Jordan van den Lamb is a former public servant who’s been picked as a Senate candidate by the Victorian Socialist Party, which lists the Victorian Trades Hall Council as its address.

You can’t reason with these bastards. I reckon they’re like a viral measure of how decadent a society is: they enjoy every benefit of a Western democracy while implacably trying to destroy it.

Bespoke
Bespoke
January 16, 2025 8:29 am

Critical legal studies (CLS), which developed in the 1970s, teaches that laws enshrine biases against marginalized groups and thus preserve the status quo. CLS scholars also criticize formalism, which they see as overly focused on analyzing the logic of doctrines, principles, and texts without considering broader social and political implications. From their perspective, the law is simply the codification of the cultural and political preferences of those in power.

Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 10:30 am
Reply to  Bespoke

Some truth there – look at the invention of native title out of nothing.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 16, 2025 11:52 am
Reply to  Bespoke

As demonstrated by law “reforms” in recent decades. They are too stupid to realise that they have written the arguments against their own “theory”.

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
January 16, 2025 8:34 am

I see the new Secretary of NATO Inc. is again telling EU countries to cut back on Social spending and Health, so they can spend more on NATO Inc. Nice.
In other (really bad) news for the EU, Ivan launched a very large missile attack on Ukraine, after the US yet again attempted to strike Russia, with sub par Atacams.
This time, the gas storage facilities in Lvov were targeted.
As if Al Capone telling “St Volodymyr the pure” to halt gas transit to the EU, was not bad enough, now the reserves are targeted.
Still a lot of cold weather to endure in Europe.
This won’t help.

Luckily, Al Capone is happy to sell the EU LNG, at 5 times the price of Russian gas.
Phew!

Indolent
Indolent
January 16, 2025 8:38 am

@katierosemiller

Mike Pence fired me when my daughter was two months old, because @StephenM was employed by President Trump and refused to quit when he asked. Mike Pence doesn’t practice what he preaches when it comes to family values, he only does it when it’s politically expedient. The American People clearly don’t care a single iota what Mike Pence has to say – he resoundingly lost to President Trump. Our country has moved on and it’s time he does too. He’s nothing but a footnote of American history.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 8:56 am
Reply to  Indolent

I judge people by what they do or don’t do, not what they say or don’t say unless of course they call out lying or as its known today, misinformation and disinformation depending who’s saying it. This is but one reason I’d never vote Labor again. It’s over 40 years since the last time.

Indolent
Indolent
January 16, 2025 8:39 am

@AveryWarwick

I interviewed a Los Angeles firefighter with 20+ years of service. The truths I found are harrowing.

@GavinNewsom ordered the removal of @elonmusk from the command post, and ordered the Cal Fire firefighters to return all donated startlinks.

The firefighters ran out of water in the palisades.

The fire department was not consulted on the draining of the palisades reservoir.

There were insufficient hydrants in the palisades..too far apart, and the incorrect diameter for sufficient water flow.

“We could have saved more homes if we had more water”

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 12:56 pm
Reply to  Indolent

@GavinNewsom ordered the removal of @elonmusk from the command post, and ordered the Cal Fire firefighters to return all donated startlinks.

And if I recall, big Clive donated enough Hydroxychloroquine to the people of Australia to short circuit the ‘pandemic’ … so the govt had customs seize and destroy it .

You can NEVER hate these people enough.

Indolent
Indolent
January 16, 2025 8:40 am

@johnrich

Notice all the Dem Senators, no matter which Trump nominees they interrogate, ALWAYS bring up @Kash_Patel . They’re most afraid of him, because they know he’ll end and expose all the nefarious activity that’s been going on for the past 4 years, and many of them are implicated.

Jock
Jock
January 16, 2025 9:50 am
Reply to  Indolent

That happens when your name rhymes with toilet

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
January 16, 2025 8:48 am

From the Hun….

An alleged arsonist who suffered “catastrophic” injuries may die in hospital after he set himself alight while trying to torch a Prahran smoke shop on Wednesday morning.

I laughed until I stopped

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 10:04 am
Reply to  Barking Toad

I lolled out loud.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 12:57 pm
Reply to  Barking Toad

this happens repeatedly… when will they learn they need a less volatile accelerant than pure petrol?

Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 6:51 pm
Reply to  flyingduk

Exactly – case in Adelaide 10-15 years ago when a serous explosion destroyed a struggling shop in the CBD in the small hours.
Shopkeepers car located not far away but no sign of the owner. Families frantic, according to the media.
A couple of days later, as site cleanup started, workers lifted the brick back wall that had collapsed in one piece, near enough. You guessed it – there was the missing shopkeeper and his petrol can, close to the back door.

As the learned Duk points out, get the fuel/air ratio just right and combustion takes place awfully quickly.

Bill P
Bill P
January 16, 2025 8:28 pm
Reply to  flyingduk

Hopefully they do not learn

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 10:09 am
Reply to  Indolent

So the Paedophile Support Group hasn’t disbanded?
What all Paedophiles forget is that their victims grow up to be adults who REMEMBER their abusers.
I hope the abusers – if still alive – live in a state of fear of the ‘knock on the door’ by blokes in uniforms.

Bill From the Bush
Bill From the Bush
January 16, 2025 10:22 am
Reply to  Winston Smith

I would prefer that the abusers and their enablers live in fear of the door being kicked in by family members of the victims

Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 10:34 am
Reply to  Winston Smith

or, much much worse- a knock on the door by a group of blokes not in uniforms.

Rohan
Rohan
January 16, 2025 12:42 pm
Reply to  Foxbody

Armed with dull, rusty knives.

OLd Lefty
OLd Lefty
January 16, 2025 7:01 pm
Reply to  Winston Smith

But many of them were well connected. They were a pet cause of the left in the 70s – as in Australia with ‘our’ ABC and Richard Neville. Dorothy Hewett etc. A few people still influential in the Starmer government – Harriet Harman formerly of the Council for Civil Liberties for one – have had to make token public apologies.

Remember when the left pretended to be about civil liberties?

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 16, 2025 11:59 am
Reply to  Indolent

About time.

Though I suspect that the names of leftards on the list might not get many mentions.

Indolent
Indolent
January 16, 2025 8:55 am

Illegal alien (dare I say terrorist) trying to start a fire in LA.
Would-Be Arsonist Runs Into the Wrong Celeb, Ends Up in Cuffs Moments Later

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 8:56 am

 US Marine and Former Police Officer Alfredo Luna Has Jan. 6 Related Case *DISMISSED* After FBI Raided His Home Over “Pre-Crime Indicators” – And Left His 2-Month-Old Baby in House Alone for an Hour!

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/victory-us-marine-former-police-officer-alfredo-luna/

The justification for the initial FBI SWAT raid?

“Pre-crime indicators” and a tweet used to obtain a search warrant by utilizing red flag gun laws.

We’re going to need a lot more helicopters.

Kel
Kel
January 16, 2025 9:10 am

Shifty getting the AI treatment.

https://x.com/PapiTrumpo/status/1879617043974275336

?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 9:52 am
Reply to  Kel

The look on his face at the end is priceless.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 10:18 am
Reply to  Kel

Straight out of the Rules For Radicals playbook:

  1. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. There is no defense. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.”
  2. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”

They’re actually #5 and #6, but the auto formatting sucks.

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 16, 2025 9:19 am

Is it still damp and without power in NSW?

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 16, 2025 9:32 am

“Pre-crime indicators”

An updated and slightly extended version of Thoughtcrime.

Once upon a time, 1984 was widely considered an apocryphal warning of socialist excess.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 12:59 pm
Reply to  Dr Faustus

“Pre-crime indicators”

ie, you are doing something that might hurt someone in the future … a bit like ‘speeding’

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 16, 2025 9:41 am

[tap tap] [ blows raspberry] Is this thing working?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 9:48 am

Rereading the Second Oldest Profession by Phillip Knightley. I’d forgotten, but after reading the Introduction there’s hardly reason to read the rest. It is scathing of Intelligence services. Our own garage nasties being an invention of ASIO, then lo and behold they appear with the help of plod and including senior plod son in Victoria. Amazing how they disappear as quickly as they arrive without plod knowing where. A lot like muzzies calling for the death of Jews and then can’t be found.

Cassie of Sydney
January 16, 2025 9:49 am

From the Australian Jewish Association…

FIRST STAGE: 33 hostages, approx 1000 terrorists

Hamas and assorted jihadists are celebrating, claiming victory.

Schedule for the release of the hostages in the first phase –

On the first day, three hostages,
On the 7th day, four hostages,
On the 14th, three hostages,
On the 21st, three hostages.
On the 28th, three more hostages will be released,
On the 35th day, three hostages
Last week – 14 hostages.

This is what Israel will do to recover the living and the dead. We Jews across the world will only celebrate the living and mourn the dead when we see both the living and the dead handed over.

Given what has ensued since October 7 2023, both in Israel and across the world, particularly here in Oz where I happen to live, I struggle at times to keep my composure in the face of the staggering evil that now runs amok across the West. Even this morning, sitting on an over-crowded bus trying to get into the office, an increasingly hard thing to do since NSW has a venal and mediocre Labor government, and so the state is now paralysed with industrial action from a greedy union, I struggled to stop myself crying on the bus when reading about what Israel is about to do.

I know this though, the infected scab that is western progressive leftism has been ripped off and the bleeding sore that is leftist Jew hatred is now clear to see. The left support violence, rape and murder of their political opponents….that’s the reality. Never forget that. It is good to see Julian Leeser and the Liberals ramp up the political reality..

Jewish Liberal MP Julian Leeser has campaigned in Adam Bandt’s electorate of Melbourne and called on Anthony Albanese to preference the Greens, who he says are “Hamas rape deniers”, last at the federal election, saying it is a “real test of whether Labor is doing all they can on anti-­Semitism”.

Correct. The Greens are a Nazi Party, and those stupid affluent Australians who vote Greens are no different to those Germans who voted for the Nazi Party in 1933.

While he would not commit to personally reaching out to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to renew Israeli-Australian relations after a difficult 18 months, Mr Albanese said Hamas were the enemy of both Palestinians and Israelis.

I think it is very clear that if the Jew hating slug from Grayndler and his Jew hating comrades are re-elected then life for Australian Jews will only get more difficult….and more dangerous.

Last edited 28 days ago by Cassie of Sydney
Eyrie
Eyrie
January 16, 2025 9:54 am

For everybody.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 9:58 am

Saw Sheridan on Credlin last night. Does he have any self-awareness, calling himself a conservative. He said he personally likes Luigi and suggested Bibi is weak over the hostage negotiations. Conservative…..fingers down throat. Another lefty with to say so makes it up.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 10:26 am
Reply to  GreyRanga

with nothing to say

Crossie
Crossie
January 16, 2025 10:02 am

While he would not commit to personally reaching out to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to renew Israeli-Australian relations after a difficult 18 months, Mr Albanese said Hamas were the enemy of both Palestinians and Israelis.

What else did Albo not say? He did not say that Hamas is also the enemy of Australia, least of all the Labor Party.

Crossie
Crossie
January 16, 2025 9:57 am

Indolent

 January 16, 2025 8:40 am

@johnrich

Notice all the Dem Senators, no matter which Trump nominees they interrogate, ALWAYS bring up @Kash_Patel . They’re most afraid of him, because they know he’ll end and expose all the nefarious activity that’s been going on for the past 4 years, and many of them are implicated.

The most damaging to the entire congress would be the release of details of the fund that pays off people, usually staffers, who accuse DC politicians of sexual harassment. I don’t know who has control of that fund, it might be the Speaker.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 16, 2025 12:04 pm
Reply to  Crossie

One of Creepy Joe’s staffers accused him of sexual harassment.

It was covered up, of course. Don’t know if she got a payment.

Roger
Roger
January 16, 2025 9:58 am

Nick Cater on the subversive intent lurking in the Green’s Truth and Justice Commission, which a minority Albanese government would foist upon us:

‘The mystery of how diverse collections of individuals conceive of themselves as a nation was the subject of an influential lecture by the historian and philosopher Ernest Renan in March 1882 at the Sorbonne. Renan’s lecture was a response to essentialist and deterministic views of nationhood, particularly the racial and linguistic theories that were gaining prominence in Europe. He rejected the idea that race determines a nation, arguing that racial purity is a myth due to centuries of migration and intermixing.

While a shared language can contribute to a sense of unity, Renan argued that it is not a definitive criterion for nationhood, citing Switzerland as an example. Nor was it a matter of geography, for while natural frontiers might play a role, they could not define a nation on their own. In Renan’s terms, nationhood is based on shared values, culture, and a common will, rather than ethnicity or ancestry.

It is “un plébiscite de tous les jours”, a daily plebiscite requiring continuing collective will and consent. It draws legitimacy from shared memories and a collective desire to build a future together. Its bonds are psychological and emotional rather than biological.

Forging a nation is only possible with l’oubli, the ability to forget. L’oubli, said Renan, “is an essential factor to forming a nation”. Historical investigations are bound to bring acts of violence to light, since unity is always achieved brutally, even when it has beneficial consequences.

The union of France du Nord and France du Midi, the coming together of those who spoke the langue d’oïl and the langue d’oc, was preceded by extermination and a reign of terror that lasted for nearly a century. Yet, in barely a generation, they had come to think of themselves first and foremost as French. They did so, says Renan, by discovering many things in common while forgetting other things.

Renan’s conception of nationhood stands in contrast with the new racial essentialism of critical race theory with its overbearing narrative of historical injustice.’

RTWT at Quadrant Online.

Last edited 28 days ago by Roger
Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 10:25 am
Reply to  Roger

In Renan’s terms, nationhood is based on shared values, culture, and a common will, rather than ethnicity or ancestry.

Obviously – culture not colour.
But the Left and its followers and apologists are determined to conflate one for the other. Often for no reason other than to score a talking point.

Roger
Roger
January 16, 2025 10:40 am
Reply to  Winston Smith

The foundations of Australia were built by the English, Scottish and Irish, three peoples who had plenty of historical reasons not to get along together. Post-WWII migration from continental Europe subsequently built on that but with the same ethos – what united Australians was citizenship, not race or ethnicity.

The race essentialism Cater highlights is an attempt by the prog-left to unravel the fabric of our nation.

(In the original mix of 19th C. settlers we should not forget the contribution of ethnic minorities such as Germans, Welsh, Chinese, Lebanese (Christians), Danes (in QLD) & Jews. But the “Anglo-Celtic” strain forged in the era of settlement was pre-eminent.)

Last edited 28 days ago by Roger
flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 1:02 pm
Reply to  Roger

what united Australians was citizenship, not race or ethnicity

what united Australia was *culture* … culture is a shared set of beliefs about how life works … liberty, freedom, hard work etc – basically the (glances furtively around) good old ‘white anglo saxon protestant work ethic – yes I know a lot were catholics.. the point stands

This is why multi-culturalism fails – you dont have shared beliefs about how things work

OLd Lefty
OLd Lefty
January 16, 2025 7:08 pm
Reply to  Roger

‘Anglo-Celtic’ (a favourite putdown for multiculturalists, by the way) conceals a very fractious history to say the least. If an Irishman ever says to you ‘The Curse of Cromwell be upon you’, you can take it that he doesn’t like you.

Yet the blending can take interesting directions. Whe Pope Francis restricted the Traditional Latin Mass, the diocesan website where I live was deluged with cheering and gloating comments by baby boomers with names like Casey and O’Brien who insisted that only English – the language of their forebears’ heretic conquerors and dispossessors – was good enough for them.

Rabz
January 16, 2025 7:46 pm
Reply to  Roger

No mention of Italianos, Squire?!

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 10:54 am
Reply to  Roger

Everywhere I’ve been I have found more in common than not but as soon as Islam is introduced into the equation, nothing. Never been to Turkey but all the friends that have find it great but wonder how the muzzies have taken power from the sectarian state.

Roger
Roger
January 16, 2025 11:48 am
Reply to  GreyRanga

Demographics & an inept, divided opposition.

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 1:03 pm
Reply to  GreyRanga

 wonder how the muzzies have taken power from the sectarian state

just look at Britain… its happening in real time

Last edited 28 days ago by flyingduk
Cassie of Sydney
January 16, 2025 10:01 am

Saw Sheridan on Credlin last night.

Greg Sheridan is a dribbling f*ckwit.

Pogria
Pogria
January 16, 2025 12:22 pm

With a bad dye-job.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 2:36 pm

I’ve never understood why people thought he was a great supporter of the right – even when he started with The Australian, he was a wishy washy apologist for the Left.
I think he thought he was a ‘peacemaker’ – one who straddled the fence and saw himself as a conduit of understanding between the two camps.
I can’t stand that sort – their positions are made because they don’t have a valid moral or intellectual underpinning – their position on matters is defined solely by being a midpoint, with all the ambiguities that arise from that posture.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 16, 2025 10:15 am

Rosie earlier:-

If I were a multi millionaire living in LA I’d have on site water storage, a fire management system and a house not built of timber.

The trouble is, I would guess that putting in your own fire management system would be a nightmare in Newsom’s California.
Firstly, I imagine that installing a sprinkler system along the roof ridge-line would be a no-no.
Because it ruins the aesthetic.
So you would have to be there to do it manually.
And the storage of fuel.
Yes, I know. The amount of diesel/petrol required to pump out a pool would be tiny, but there are rules about fuel storage (BTW, I could put a monster battery on the fence line, four feet from my neighbour’s house and that would be just fine).
And what chemicals are in the water you propose to pump out of the pool and will end up in the ‘vironment?
Bzzzt. Can’t do that.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 16, 2025 10:27 am
Reply to  Sancho Panzer

The poorest of the All-In pod Jason Calacanis used to live in Brentwood.
He had a place worth a few mill & it had wooden shingles.
His story has changed a few times but he’s discussed the lengths he had to go to replace the roof.

He moved to Texas last year. And he’s a Vote Blue no matter who kind of person.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 16, 2025 12:08 pm
Reply to  feelthebern

They flee the system that makes their lives a misery, then vote for the same system in their new location.

Proof that leftards are mental pygmies, incapable of independent thought.

Bruce
Bruce
January 16, 2025 4:32 pm
Reply to  Boambee John

Incompetence or deliberate malice?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 10:37 am
Reply to  Sancho Panzer

My mates spray system went under the roof capping with the nozzles drilled and tapped through it. Could be done with a tile roof as well.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 16, 2025 10:40 am
Reply to  Sancho Panzer

The American love of freedom generally stops short of the peculiar phenomenon of homeowners associations.

Bruce
Bruce
January 16, 2025 4:36 pm
Reply to  H B Bear

The catch is that NOWHERE on this planet is there any thought of the concept of “Freedom FROM Association”.

If you are NOT free to NOT “join”, you are NOT FREE.

zimlurog
zimlurog
January 16, 2025 11:43 am
Reply to  Sancho Panzer

This will be the issue when Californians try to re-build. There will be so many hoops to jump through to get Building Approvals thanks to their Green idiocy, it could take a hundred years to re-build the joint.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 2:38 pm
Reply to  Sancho Panzer

Virtue signalling with Democrats has a price.
In this case, the price was nearly all your belongings, and sometimes your life.

mareeS
mareeS
January 16, 2025 5:27 pm
Reply to  Sancho Panzer

California is earthquake-central. Light flexible building materials only, no heavy masonry. Utterly combustible.

Wally Dali
Wally Dali
January 16, 2025 10:26 am

Amateur opinions please-
Airbourne plant fertilizer is creeping up, let’s just say post-Holocene ice age maximums.
So, Australia will have more plant growth, as we can already see via satellite.
Seeing as mucho of the south is covered by a man-made fire dependent Eucalyptus etc sclerophyll forest,
will we see more bigger and badder bushfires as a matter of course?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 10:33 am
Reply to  Wally Dali

When is the second oldest culture going to take responsibility for destroying the ecology of the flora of Australia by by burning and replacing it with eucalyptus. An environmental nightmare. What about the megafauna too.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 16, 2025 11:21 am
Reply to  GreyRanga

Burning the place for tens of thousands of years didn’t do it any favours.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 16, 2025 11:23 am
Reply to  H B Bear

Compare equivalent latitudes in either Africa or South America.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 2:57 pm
Reply to  GreyRanga

I want a pet Muttaburrasaurus
It could take me for walks.
No one would cut you off in traffic.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 2:43 pm
Reply to  Wally Dali

Bring on 500ppmCO2!
Bring on the woodchippers!
Bring back the Yew, The Maple, The Redwoods.
All the trees that were here before the Aboriginals burnt them down.

Bruce
Bruce
January 16, 2025 4:51 pm
Reply to  Winston Smith

See also:

Antarctic Beech. Nothofagus moorei The northern-most stand in Australia is a tiny bit of forest in the south of Lamington National Park. and the nearby Springbrook NP, also in SE Queensland. Some also near Barrington Tops to the south.

There are also remnants on the west coast of South America. They are probably doomed, as they have not flowered in living memory/

As the Australian Plate drifted North, away from the Gondwanaland “mas, near current Antarctica, the “climate” steadily changed. Whether the effect was greater in the trees directly or on the pollinating insects??

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 16, 2025 10:30 am

Thanks for posting the time line regarding phase one of the deal Cassie.
So does this just buy Hamas time for a month?
Or does it depend on phase two when the details are agreed on?

Indolent
Indolent
January 16, 2025 10:38 am

@WallStreetApes

WOW The Pentagon official James O’Keefe just exposed was working to sabotage Donald Trump WAS A SPECIAL AGENT WITH THE FBI AND WORKED FOR HILLARY CLINTON AT THE STATE DEPT

It ALWAYS comes back to the same corrupt people, nothing ever changes

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 16, 2025 10:39 am

Listening to some stuff from Oaktree Capital.
The average age of a first home buyer in the US is now 38.
No idea what the state by state breakdown of that is.

Indolent
Indolent
January 16, 2025 10:45 am

During Pam Bondi’s hearing.

@BreannaMorello

LIAR

Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) says it’s “misinformation” to claim the federal government has used FISA to spy on Americans.

Shortly after making this false claim, Senator Mike Lee debunked Cornyn during the hearing.

Why is @JohnCornyn trying to protect the intel community?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 10:56 am
Reply to  Indolent

They have a lot on him?

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 16, 2025 12:11 pm
Reply to  Indolent

They have photos? Man, sheep, Wellington boot?

Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 6:59 pm
Reply to  Boambee John

Hey – he is a Texan , it would not have been like that!
Man, sheep, cowboy boots, maybe?

Indolent
Indolent
January 16, 2025 10:50 am
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
January 16, 2025 10:54 am

Nick Cater on the subversive intent lurking in the Green’s Truth and Justice Commission, which a minority Albanese government would foist upon us:

O/T – Archbishop Desmond TuTu had to threaten to resign before the South African Truth and Justice Comission would consider the sexual abuse of female A.N.C. members, in the camps across the border…

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 10:58 am

Truth and Justice, but only truth and justice that we want to hear about, the rest of you can eff off.

johanna
johanna
January 16, 2025 10:58 am

Been watching a ‘reality’ show on SBS about London’s Paddington Station and the rail network more generally.

It is like (pardon the pun) watching a slow moving train wreck.

In today’s episode, they are building a new railway bridge. They proudly tell us it took eight years of planning.

Eight years for a single bridge! Then, when they come to build it, the equipment gets stuck in the mud and the bridge itself is in danger of cracking.

Compare this with the efficient design and building that we see on shows of the Mighty genre.

The rail network has so many possible points of failure (many due to design deficiencies) that it is a miracle that it works at all.

But, like the NHS, they are proud of it, because … ?

I honestly don’t know.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 11:33 am
Reply to  johanna

You can guarantee there were no old blokes involved in the design, all previous studies were ignored, previous failures ignored. When I was a kid a bypass motorway was built on the hill opposite. Nobody listened to the old blokes that talked about the watercourses, previous studies suggesting nothing be built, similar problems with the railway. We watched one rainy night as it slid into the valley. One only has to look at the state of our roads due mainly by poor drainage.

Entropy
Entropy
January 16, 2025 3:00 pm
Reply to  johanna

UK is a sad, pathetic geriatric making everyone bored shitless by its constant rememberences its glorious Victorian days. Just like Joe Biden.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 16, 2025 11:01 am

Pam Bondi is 59 years old.
After twitter alerted me to this, I had to look it up to confirm.
MAHA.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 11:35 am
Reply to  feelthebern

Scrubs up ok.

Nelson_Kidd-Players
Nelson_Kidd-Players
January 16, 2025 11:01 am

How many ‘r’s in ‘strawberry’? AI struggles:

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/how-many-r-s-in-the-word-berry-cSob.fQTStqBLQw9HCOXUg

How does the British experience of TV licencing compare with Australia’s? AI shines:

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/did-australia-have-a-televisio-FSbHT00iSyCgP2tP.6S2.A

So. I guess we are left with “Trust but Verify”. How many people do the verification?

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/are-people-too-trusting-of-ai-_IfmdSJwSBqjwTRZVqz9sQ

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 16, 2025 11:20 am

Given most of the stuff the MSM tells us is fake news turns out to be true I had to laugh at this one:

New AI tool detects fake news with 99% accuracy (TechXplore, 15 Jan)

Diogenes
Diogenes
January 16, 2025 1:44 pm

I was asking Chatgpt to do me a worksheet comparing 2 aircraft in the QAM collection. I had to go out and double check that we weren’t hiding a 787 on the premises.

Roger
Roger
January 16, 2025 11:02 am

Mr Albanese said Hamas were the enemy of both Palestinians and Israelis.

Polling repeatedly shows the average Gazan disagrees with him re Hamas.

I suspect support for Hamas runs high in certain western Sydney enclaves as well.

If the Labor Party can’t extract itself from this nexus with the Muslim vote that it has cultivated over decades it is going to see its support from other quarters of the electorate which are not so enamoured of Islam melt away.

Obviously, Albanese is not smart enough to realise that.

Last edited 28 days ago by Roger
H B Bear
H B Bear
January 16, 2025 11:37 am
Reply to  Roger

Polling repeatedly shows the average Gazan disagrees with him re Hamas.

aka the “moderate” Mohammadean

Eddystone
Eddystone
January 16, 2025 11:05 am
Cassie of Sydney
January 16, 2025 11:13 am

Israel still doesn’t know how many of the 33 hostages meant to be released in the first stage of the deal are dead, but believes the majority are still alive, Israeli officials said. This means Israel can’t yet say how many Palestinian prisoners will be released because Hamas is asking for more to be released in exchange for living than dead hostages, the officials added.

Israel is dealing with evil.

Gaza should be raised to the ground.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 16, 2025 11:23 am

Hypothetical.
Week two, deal falls over.
Biden : I ended the conflict & this is now on Trump.
Legacy media & DNC pile on.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 16, 2025 12:33 pm
Reply to  feelthebern

I was actually about to respond to your previous comment about the timetable with something similar.
This whole thing could be done in days or hours, not weeks.
The rag-heads will start with the rockets about day 3-4.
Any attempt to inspect “aid shipments” will be met with screams of “Jews starving the children” and a sad face in a Gaza hospital dying because “Jews stopped his medication”.
They will publish pictures of the hostages “which can’t now be released this week because Jews breached ceasefire”.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 11:37 am

Razed.

Cassie of Sydney
January 16, 2025 11:44 am
Reply to  GreyRanga

Correct, apologies.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
January 16, 2025 7:13 pm

Razed.

Roger
Roger
January 16, 2025 11:24 am

In today’s episode, they are building a new railway bridge. They proudly tell us it took eight years of planning.

Eight years for a single bridge! Then, when they come to build it, the equipment gets stuck in the mud and the bridge itself is in danger of cracking.

This is something I think about from time to time.

Western societies are becoming ever more complex. Part of the response to this is an increasingly intrusive state imposing regulations that attempt to manage the complexity but only add unnecessary layers to it.

While this has been happening we’ve been dumbing down education to the extent that, reportedly, many high school graduates are functionally illiterate and those who make it into university are not prepared for rigorous study, so standards are dropped.

Throw DEI and mass low skilled immigration into the mix and we may reach the point where we have a knowledge deficit such that we just don’t know how to make things work effectively anymore.

California could well be the dystopic future of all of us.

Meantime, how’s Florence going?

Last edited 28 days ago by Roger
Barry
Barry
January 16, 2025 11:28 am
Reply to  Roger

The movie Idiocracy is a prophecy. Ignore it at our peril.

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 16, 2025 11:38 am
Reply to  Barry

Barry Johnson is right!

No one in Ostraya knows how to make newcleer elektrik stuff.

Pogria
Pogria
January 16, 2025 12:31 pm
Reply to  alwaysright

It’s got what plants need.

Arky
January 16, 2025 12:02 pm
Reply to  Roger

Happens to every urbanised civilisation.
Babylon.
Sodom.
Rome.
Chinese dynasties.
The systems become ever more complex, but efficient, no one has an overview of all the inputs, no one can survive outside the system, the system no longer needs craftsmen or simple farmers, instead relies on mass slave labour, mills and machinery that convert such into masses of products. It depends on feeding and entertaining a resentful, dangerous urban mass. The barbarian hordes external to the system are increasingly seen by the elites as the answer to the puzzle of how to balance out their own underemployed masses, politically and within the military. Religious observance falls or changes allegiance, politicians become even more murderous and consumed by the requirements to hold and retain power at any cost.

Last edited 28 days ago by Arky
Arky
January 16, 2025 12:15 pm
Reply to  Arky

There is also the way in which aristocratic courts create the courtesan class.
Whose entire existence depends on not offending the ruler.
Effeminate if not eunuchs, expert at infighting, politics and sycophancy. So apart from the mob that each of the two classes have no understanding of the other.
The political machines of our times have produced a eunuch class.

Last edited 28 days ago by Arky
Roger
Roger
January 16, 2025 12:25 pm
Reply to  Arky

You mean to say The Jetsons got it all wrong then?

😀

Arky
January 16, 2025 12:35 pm
Reply to  Roger

All human progress is the progress in the understanding of the properties of materials.
Everything else that is stupidly seen as progress is different forms of organisation, and has always been done before, using whatever understanding the people of the time had of material properties.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 16, 2025 12:40 pm
Reply to  Arky

Sometimes it works though. Justinian did a lot of good for the Eastern Roman Empire. His lady was an actual courtesan and one of his best generals was a eunuch. But yeah end stage bureaucracy is called Byzantine for good reason.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 16, 2025 12:34 pm
Reply to  Roger

Ha, ha, yes.
I don’t think people from the Land of the Bogged Excavator can throw stones at Bwitish Wail.

Diogenes
Diogenes
January 16, 2025 1:52 pm
Reply to  Roger

I was watching a doco series on the building of the Sydney Metro. The amount of crap that is buried where people don’t know where it is within a metre is amazing. Then the delays because they uncover( boat/skeleton/ foundations) and the archeologists are called on are legion.

Several years ago one of my brother in law’s found a buried high voltage cable 100m away from where it was recorded as being located.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 16, 2025 3:26 pm
Reply to  Diogenes

London has the same issues but going back to the Romans.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 16, 2025 11:31 am

Dr Faustus

 January 16, 2025 9:32 am

“Pre-crime indicators”

An updated and slightly extended version of Thoughtcrime.

Presumably the disciples of Luigi the Healthcare Avenger, who are calling for systematic executions of CEOs across the US, are having the doors kicked in by the FBI?
No?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 12:04 pm
Reply to  Sancho Panzer

My gast is flabbered.

Barry
Barry
January 16, 2025 11:35 am

Western Anglophone Capitalism provides such a tremendous surplus of cash, which governments then gear up 10:1 with inflation, that there is no incentive any more for efficiency.

The skill level of your workforce is immaterial, just keep throwing brown engineers at the problem, and like the apocryphal million monkeys typing at the keyboard, the problem will be solved.

Unfortunately, brown engineers need to be constrained by ever tightening guidelines developed by the remaining white male engineers, otherwise mayhem ensues.

And here we are.

Last edited 28 days ago by Barry
Cassie of Sydney
January 16, 2025 11:50 am

Statehood should only be gifted to a people who believe in the creation and erection of a civic, open and tolerant society, not a a society where the rape, murder and kidnapping of Jewish men, women and children are celebrated.

The Nazi Palestinians are not fit for statehood, not now, not ever. There already is a Palestinian state and that state is called Jordan. The raison d’etre of Palestine and Palestinians aka ‘Palestiniasm’ is the destruction of Israel and Jews.

Any ‘Palestinian’ state will be a continuation of Hitler’s dream, the annihilation of the planet’s Jews.

A Palestinian state will be a Nazi state.

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 16, 2025 11:54 am

Im not sure if it was old footage or not but I saw some fellow in the English Parliament giving a speech on how marriage to first cousins should no longer be illegal.
It was on twitter.
Nice country you had there once.

johanna
johanna
January 16, 2025 12:15 pm
Reply to  feelthebern

The English have been marrying their first cousins forever. Propinquity, usually.

But, they don’t make it a practice to keep the family together.

First cousin marriage now and then is not a problem. First cousin marriage systematically over generations is.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 3:18 pm
Reply to  johanna

A small correction, Johanna:
“First cousin marriage now and then is not a problem. First cousin marriage systematically over generations without culling the defectives is.”

alwaysright
alwaysright
January 16, 2025 11:55 am

The skill level of your workforce is immaterial…

Barry is so right.
Best example is IT. Just keep throwing numbers at it.

If one ship can cross the Atlantic in one day shirley 6 ships can do it in 4 hours!

feelthebern
feelthebern
January 16, 2025 11:56 am

When will the next batch of pardons come?
There’s some huge football games this Sat & Sun in the US.
Maybe Saturday night their time.
Can’t really leave it to Sunday in case Biden has a bad day.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 16, 2025 12:11 pm

Thier ABccess shifting seamlessly from “Israel is baaaad” to “Hamas has won”, and Israel must now become (and this was the exact words of the egg-spurt they chose to platform) a Pariah state.

There is no difference between glassing the joint and fighting a terrorist group holding hostages anymore – the glassing them it should be next time.

RABZ, harvest organs.

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 3:21 pm

Napalm the joint. Bulldoze the rubble into the sea. It will make a good pier.
Sorry/not really sorry, but Israel has been left with no alternative.
Harsh?
Sometimes harsh measures are required.

Anders
Anders
January 16, 2025 12:13 pm

Terrible, just terrible, yet another casualty of the LA fires – Truly a devastating loss of exquisite treasures:

A trove of nearly 200 artworks by Hunter Biden has been destroyed — one of the casualties of the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles, The Post has learned.

The controversial art had been in storage near the Pacific Palisades home of Hunter’s Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris and is valued at “millions of dollars,” a source close to the Biden family said.

Arky
January 16, 2025 12:21 pm
Reply to  Anders

and is valued at “millions of dollars,”

For insurance purposes.
In reality, completely worthless.
But those auction sales to sycophants established price (not value).

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 16, 2025 12:32 pm
Reply to  Arky

Any insurance company stupid enough to insure Hunter’s rubbish deserves to have to pay up.

And if they weren’t insured that wasn’t really a loss for the owner, since what he was actually buying wasn’t the art (if you can call it that).

flyingduk
flyingduk
January 16, 2025 1:08 pm
Reply to  Anders

Insurance job?

Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 3:00 pm
Reply to  flyingduk

… but Hunter, the wildfire didn’t reach the street where your art was stored!

Oh yes it did….

Winston Smith
Winston Smith
January 16, 2025 3:23 pm
Reply to  flyingduk

That was my first thought!
🙂

Tom
Tom
January 16, 2025 12:26 pm

And so the puppet president POTUS 46 delivers his farewell address to the nation in which he claims credit for the Gaza ceasefire secured by threats to Hamas by POTUS 45, who’s now the incoming POTUS47.

Not even the DNC true believers believe the party lies being delivered today by their puppet president who cheated his way into the White House in 2020 with 81 million votes – more than any president in history after the party banned him from campaigning.

Kneel
Kneel
January 16, 2025 12:29 pm

From OOT:
““If there has been any harm caused that is absolutely reprehensible and the Australian government will take the strongest action possible,” Mr Albanese said.”

“Do what we say or else!”
“Or else what?”
“Or else we’ll send you a very nasty letter saying how upset with you we are!”

HT: Team America – World Police.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 16, 2025 12:37 pm

Eddystone

 January 16, 2025 11:05 am

The Babylon Bee

“Meet the LAFD’s First Paraplegic Firefighter”

Ladders are just so ablist.
And patriarchal.

Kel
Kel
January 16, 2025 12:43 pm

https://www.9news.com.au/national/federal-cabinet-reshuffle-prime-minister-albanese-announces-four-promotions-ahead-of-election/5876ed8b-1b80-4d3c-b03c-92414e1a8637

Absolutely hilarious. Albatross will have a Muslim making sure too many Muslims don’t get pinged for NDIS fraud. Nothing to see here as she’s just assisting, not, not not responsible.

And Katey Gallagher understudies Wong’s leadership and ideological style. Let the bullying begin.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 16, 2025 12:48 pm
Reply to  Kel

It was fun to see the ones who’ve done all the real damage to the country unreshuffled: Bowen, Wong, Plibs and Chalmers.

Nor screechy mouthpieces Watt and Ayers who often spout hilarious rubbish on Sky News.

Miltonf
Miltonf
January 16, 2025 12:49 pm

Gallagher is the very model of a canbra abomination.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 12:56 pm
Reply to  Miltonf

Hideous woman.

Boambee John
Boambee John
January 16, 2025 1:16 pm
Reply to  Miltonf

A fitting successor to the useless Roz (Whiteboard) Kelly.

Miltonf
Miltonf
January 16, 2025 2:18 pm
Reply to  Boambee John

Too right

Foxbody
Foxbody
January 16, 2025 3:03 pm
Reply to  Boambee John

…but much, much nastier.

H B Bear
H B Bear
January 16, 2025 3:29 pm
Reply to  Miltonf

Worst of the worst. Hopefully the Brittany Blob gets at some point.

Roger
Roger
January 16, 2025 12:51 pm

Albanese’s reshuffle is about evenly balancing the sexes in his cabinet.

Expect this to be a line of attack against Dutton.

They haven’t much else to work with, after all.

Last edited 28 days ago by Roger
GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 12:59 pm
Reply to  Roger

How do they tell which is which. Benny could become Penny again before smoko. Charmers could grow some.

Black Ball
Black Ball
January 16, 2025 12:58 pm

Chuckle. Daily Telegraph amuses me:

A recently returned member of the Bali Nine has been arrested over an alleged car theft that occurred almost two decades ago and just weeks before his fateful drug smuggling mission out of Indonesia.

Matthew James Norman touched back down in Australia a free man on December 20, after enduring 19 years behind bars for trying to smuggle 334g of heroin out of the country in a suitcase in 2005.

While serving his time inside the ruthless Kerobokan Prison in Bali – and at one point narrowly avoiding the death penalty – an arrest warrant for a car theft back in Sydney was surely low on the list of his concerns.

However Norman’s past caught up with him this week when he discovered NSW Police had not forgotten about it.

Norman, who was 18 when he attempted to smuggle drugs into Bali but is now 38, handed himself into officers at Waverley Police Station on Monday for allegedly being the passenger in a car stolen by Bali Nine counterpart Renae Lawrence from Gosford about 4am on March 26, 2005.

Police allege Norman and Lawrence stole a white Ford Laser hatchback and drove for 45 minutes, avoiding two attempts of Highway Patrol officers to use road spikes, before a third attempt brought them to a stop.

The pair allegedly then tried to flee on foot, only to be caught a short time later.

Norman had initially faced court back over the car theft in 2005, charged with the single offence of take with conveyance, but after being granted bail he left the country on his drug smuggling mission out of Indonesia.

Norman was briefly put back behind bars this week by NSW Police when they refused him bail on Monday, but just hours later he faced court and Magistrate Stephen Barlow released him back into the community.

The youngest member of the Bali Nine will remain on bail until at least his next court date on February 25.

As they say in the bookies ring, the boy’s got form.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 16, 2025 1:01 pm

From the Santa Monica Post.
Breaking …
LAFD STRUGGLES TO CONTROL LATEST OUTBREAK
The Los Angeles Fire Department reports difficulty controlling the latest fire outbreak – dubbed Chinos 01 – which started last Sunday.
The blaze initially erupted in Governor Newsom’s pants when he told a resident “I’ve got the President on the phone right now”. Subsequent enquiries reveal that this was during the daily 22 hour Presidential nap, so it would not have been possible for the Governor to be speaking with the President. The blaze flared up again when the Governor insisted that there were no empty reservoirs, whilst standing less than 500 yards from an empty reservoir. The fire has been totally uncontrollable since the Governor said “This is not the time to play the blame game. But you know this is all Donald Trump’s fault.”
The LAFD have not been able to attend the fire because of concerns that the fireman’s pole in the fire station is a phallic symbol of the patriarchy. It is hoped that installation of a more feminist friendly “fireperson’s water-slide” will resolve the issue. Discussions continue about the proper gender and racial composition of the crew to be assigned to the Newsom pants fire.

Last edited 28 days ago by Sancho Panzer
Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 16, 2025 1:01 pm

Having been out of the Australian loop, I hadn’t realised that Meta will continue with AAP/RMIT ‘fact checking’ in Australia for the foreseeable.

Obviously that’s perfectly understandable given our infantilised public discourse and the hysterical spastics who depend on it. But it certainly clarifies the extent to which Zuckerberg is a mealymouthed political windsock.

thefrollickingmole
thefrollickingmole
January 16, 2025 2:52 pm
Reply to  Dr Faustus

Rat intercourse you say?

rat
LB2
LB2
January 16, 2025 3:14 pm

Could be…

f60bfbd3-36d9-4445-939e-ebc84fddbcb8
Rosie
Rosie
January 16, 2025 1:06 pm

I did read another account of a brain surgeon who with some assistance saved all the houses in his Malibu cul de sac. He’d replaced his home’s wooden tiles with concrete, bought a bunch of fire fighting gear and was pumping sea water iirc. He said he’d also put out a fire on the porch of the ocean front house in Malibu that famously survived.
There is another story running about how important fire safety work, replacing wooden electricity poles across the mountains with steel, widening fire access roads etc was halted because a hiker noticed the workers had trampled some endangered weed.
Needless to say the weeds are all burnt up now.
Wondering if the busybody’s house survived.
Will be interesting to see if building permits are streamlined.
I recall Warrandyte etc getting lots more regs re fire safety post Black Saturday
You’d think climate changy people wouldn’t need to be told.

bons
bons
January 16, 2025 1:11 pm

There are some truely wierd ‘congress critters’ coming out of Texas if late.

Has Turnbull emigrated?

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 16, 2025 1:11 pm

Truly a devastating loss of exquisite treasures:

A trove of nearly 200 artworks by Hunter Biden has been destroyed

Cheer up. Not a permanent loss; Hunter could replace all 200 in a weekend on the glass barbie.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 16, 2025 1:18 pm
Reply to  Dr Faustus

My dealer* tells me that original Bunters aren’t selling as well as they used to.
God, the art market is fickle.

* Art dealer.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 2:02 pm
Reply to  Sancho Panzer

His name isn’t Plibberserk by some chance?

Bazinga
Bazinga
January 17, 2025 8:25 am
Reply to  Dr Faustus

World biggest insurance scam?

Roger
Roger
January 16, 2025 1:12 pm

You’d think climate changy people wouldn’t need to be told.

The climate obsession is just disguised misanthropy.

Rosie
Rosie
January 16, 2025 1:13 pm

Twitter is going nuts over the hostage deal.
Hamas are emerging from their hidey holes amongst the civilian population to celebrate (always with young teens as shields)
Everyone looks clean and well nourished.
Most people on the other side seem very unhappy about it.
A few people like Richard Kemp have the sense to say you aren’t privy to what went on.
Hamas have been stalling negotiations for over a year.
People seem to think Trump thought he could say some words and Hamas would capitulate.
I didn’t, but there will be a post 20 January plan, whatever happens.
It’s a horrible situation. 23 living to come out, and 10 dead.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
January 16, 2025 1:34 pm

but there will be a post 20 January plan, whatever happens.

It’s a horrible situation. 23 living to come out, and 10 dead.

Irrespective of whatever ‘peace plan’ emerges, if history is any guide, you would expect a steady stream, over the next 10 years or so and all around the world, of Hamas apparatchiks, hostage holders, and enablers dying violently in unexpected and deniable circumstances.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 2:10 pm
Reply to  Dr Faustus

Castration without anaesthesia first. Put up on youtube with the live action of being fed to hungry pigs.

PeterM
PeterM
January 16, 2025 2:48 pm
Reply to  Dr Faustus

For efficiency you might be able to combine the castration and being eaten by pigs into a single process. Good for the environment

Rosie
Rosie
January 16, 2025 1:59 pm
Reply to  dover0beach

Well well what?

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 2:11 pm
Reply to  dover0beach

3 holes in the ground.

Sancho Panzer
Sancho Panzer
January 16, 2025 1:45 pm

From yesterday.
But still true today.

feelthebern

 January 15, 2025 7:53 pm

If others were more accurate and balanced in their assessment, why pick this dickhead to link to?

My current view that this and the million other people tweeting about a deal don’t really know.

They are just taking a punt on a deal being down by Trump and they are guessing everything in between.

So if/when a deal gets down, they can say “see, called it”.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
January 16, 2025 1:52 pm

Deal may still collapse:

Hamas attempts to make last minute changes to hostage deal, PMO says (JPost, 16 Jan)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a conference call with the negotiating team in Doha, who reported on last-minute attempts by Hamas to back out of the hostage agreement, the Prime Minister’s Office announced in a statement on Thursday.

“Contrary to an explicit clause that gives Israel veto power over the release of mass murderers who are symbols of terror, Hamas demands to dictate the identity of these terrorists,” the statement said. 

If Hamas want to back out all they have to do is require release of Marwan Barghouti. Israel has consistently said that is not going to happen, nor will they pull out of the Philadephi Corridor – another thing Hamas keeps demanding.

GreyRanga
GreyRanga
January 16, 2025 2:14 pm

Agree to all the hamarse demands, get the hostages back, then glass gaza. Eff the scum.

Cassie of Sydney
January 16, 2025 2:00 pm

Everyone looks clean and well nourished.

But…but….wasn’t there supposed to be famine and genocide in Gaza? You know, like what was done to Jews in the death camps of World War II?

My God, the lies stupid people in the West have swallowed since October 7.

The only famine and genocide in Gaza was being done to the Jews held hostage.

I feel sick. Will Yarden Bibas’ body be returned in the cage he was held hostage in?

Hear this….

Those who speak against Israel support Hitler’s goals and Nazism.

The end.

johanna
johanna
January 16, 2025 2:08 pm

No wonder Shorten wants to get out of the NDIS:

“He was only 29 kilos — that doesn’t happen overnight,” Detective Inspector Shepherd said.

Detective Inspector Shepherd said it would have been a confronting experience for the emergency personnel called to the property in August 2023 by a family member who reported Mr Oar’s death.

“When you see something like this – serious malnourishment – it would have been difficult,” Detective Inspector Shepherd said.
He said police were appealing for information from Burdekin residents, medical practitioners or tradespeople who may have seen Mr Oar or visited his home.

Police have confirmed that Mr Oar received National Disability Insurance Scheme funding for health support and services.

Part of his entitlements included external care and some providers have spoken to detectives.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-16/police-investigate-death-queensland-man-down-syndrome/104823682

How does a man allegedly in the care of the NDIS get down to 29 kilos?

Poor chap, and his family must be upset and angry.

Although, if there were family around, they would have noticed.

Pogria
Pogria
January 16, 2025 2:45 pm