Monday Forum: May 21, 2018

Posted on 9:00 am, May 21, 2018 by Sinclair Davidson

This entry was posted in Open Forum. Bookmark the permalink.

1,783 Responses to Monday Forum: May 21, 2018

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DrBeauGan

#2716235, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:40 pm

m0nty
#2716210, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:21 pm
stodgy unthinking old farts

Sinc should sell Cat-branded Che shirts, he would do a roaring trade with you anarchists.

Thing is, m0nts, the word conservative means different things to different people. To those who followed every fool fad as it came along, it meant stodgy old fart, i.e. someone who didn’t follow every fool fad. The assumption being, that if you weren’t committed to the latest fad, it was because you were committed to an older, now unfashionable one. And what could be a surer sign of mental degeneracy than being the slave of an unfashionable orthodoxy?

The trouble for this point of view is that fashions change. There isn’t much sadder than a largely bald bloke with a ponytail wearing a Che Guevara tee- shirt.

You are mostly wrong about Çats being that sort of conservative. Most of us are sceptical of fashion or other people’s tee-shirts as a basis for forming political opinions. It has worked for you so far, but not well.
Serena at the Pub

#2716236, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:42 pm

Apparently to be a real Cat, you have to be an atheist with tatts and piercings. What else, do you have to be a past master at Wheel Of Goon and wear a denim jacket and jeans/skirt combo?

I don’t even know what any of that means.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716237, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:42 pm

Apparently to be a real Cat, you have to be an atheist with tatts and piercings. What else, do you have to be a past master at Wheel Of Goon and wear a denim jacket and jeans/skirt combo?

No no no Monty.
You misunderstand me.
Atheism, tattoos, and piercings are all rampant degeneracy unless you are a sailor, soldier, stripper, lesbian, vegan, or a porn star.

And there is nothing wrong with Goon qualifications and double denim.
Percy Popinjay

#2716239, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:44 pm

wear a denim jacket and jeans

AKA the Canadian Tuxedo.
Roger

#2716240, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:45 pm

Very dubious class of high school students, why are they here?

From their families’ perspective they’re here to gain entry to an Australian university, after which they’ll apply for PR.

From our governments’ (plural, because this is happening all over Australia) perspective they’re here because we (i.e. our governments) benefits from having full fee paying students.

Who do you think benefits most, long term?

I expect the next step will be opening our hospitals to full fee paying foreign nationals, which could be a welcome source of income for cash strapped state governments.
Mater

#2716241, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:45 pm

Mark A
#2715798, posted on May 20, 2018 at 10:36 pm

We discussed it yesterday, ad nauseum, I may add.
Some anti beard sticklers-for-rules decided it was an insult to the uniform in some bizarre way.
Many pointed out the bearded King George V in uniform among many other bearded uniformed soldiers.
I’d hate serving with such military bureaucrats. They made an awful fuss about it, disappointed in some, as I held them in some regard previously.

Mark,
Firstly, I sport a beard. As a civilian, I’ll not not shave it off for anyone. I can hardly be classed as some kind of Pogonophobic.
I’ve also sported a beard in uniform…when there was an operational advantage in doing so (sun protection, protection against frostbite, enhanced camouflage, cultural acceptance, etc).
I rarely enforced the accepted wisdom that soldiers should shave in the field, as I saw it as a noisy waste of time and water. Additionally, and despite what the manuals say, I never saw it as a necessity to maintain morale.
All that said, I never wore it with ceremonial dress because there was no need and the dress manual said you can’t. Much like the dress manual says where your medals sit, how long your hair should be, what spacing is required between your pips, etc. This is the military discipline, inculcated in barracks, which allows you to be flexible in the field, without the risk of your guys going ‘native’. It is an Officers job to enforce this. To do so, he must also be beyond reproach in adhering to it.
Harry was an Officer and he is also a Royal, an elite beacon of propriety within the Commonwealth Military Forces . That fact has bestowed on him the privilege of being able to wear his uniform despite non longer officially serving. Given that we all swore allegiance to the Queen, the very least her Grandson could do is wear it according to Standing Orders (unless there was a valid reason, other than vanity). If some rules can be ignored, especially at the highest level, why not others?
There are many areas where Officers can seek and receive concessions from the stringent and tough military standards (some bad officers even do). However, to do so is to forever lose hard won respect, credibility and authority. Not just for ones self, but for the Officer Corps as a whole. Soldiers think little enough of Officers already!
What has Harry’s actions done for the standing of the Royals? One needs only read about the earlier brouhaha to see that it is a real issue within military circles.
Harry had a choice. I just believe he made the wrong one.
Don’t like all the (preordained) prerequisites around the wearing of a ceremonial uniform? Don’t wear it!
Mater

#2716242, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:46 pm

P.S. I still have a lot of time for you and your comments.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716243, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:49 pm

Harry was an Officer and he is also a Royal, an elite beacon of propriety within the Commonwealth Military Forces .

Yes but Mater he looked much more dashing in the Nazi uniform.
Admit it.
DrBeauGan

#2716245, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:55 pm

Atheism, tattoos, and piercings are all rampant degeneracy unless you are a sailor, soldier, stripper, lesbian, vegan, or a porn star.

You have just cheered m0nty up enormously, stimpo. He is now congratulating himself on not being an atheist and having hardly any tatts or piercings. Also, on not being a sailor, soldier, stripper, vegan or porn star.

Solid middle class, in fact.
Tom

#2716246, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:55 pm

A glimmer of light pierces the darkness of Monty’s Lefty existence.

No it hasn’t, Delta. Leftoid zombies are even more fanatical about taqiyya that moozleys.
notafan

#2716247, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:55 pm

Roger

yes but these are kids who are not the slightest bit interested in studying, who are spending much of their class time sleeping. because they are out all night.

I suppose all that is required for university entrance is an attendance record these days
OldOzzie

#2716248, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:55 pm

PoliticsNow: Josh Frydenberg, Tony Abbott clash on AGL’s Liddell power plant decision

Energy Minister Josh Frydneberg says Tony Abbott’s plan to acquire the Liddell Power Station was against Liberal values.

Greg Brown

Liddell acquisition plan against Liberal values: Frydenberg

Energy Minster Josh Frydneberg says Tony Abbott’s proposal to compulsorily acquire the Liddell Power Station was against Liberal values as he effectively concedes the government was not prepared to take stronger action to keep the ageing coal-fired power station open.

Mr Frydneberg has now called on AGL to ensure it finances its alternative gas and renewables plan to make up for the shortfall Liddell’s closure would force, arguing his attempt to facilitate a sale of Liddell was only ever subject to commercial arrangements.

“The Prime Minister and I have been consistent, it is not Liberal values to compulsory acquire assets such as this, we have always said he wanted it to be a commercial negotiation between the parties,” Mr Frydneberg said.

Energy Minster Josh Frydneberg says Tony Abbott’s proposal to compulsorily acquire the Liddell Power Station was against Liberal values as he effectively concedes the government was not prepared to take stronger action to keep the ageing coal-fired power station open.

Mr Frydneberg has now called on AGL to ensure it finances its alternative gas and renewables plan to make up for the shortfall Liddell’s closure would force, arguing his attempt to facilitate a sale of Liddell was only ever subject to commercial arrangements.

“The Prime Minister and I have been consistent, it is not Liberal values to compulsory acquire assets such as this, we have always said he wanted it to be a commercial negotiation between the parties,” Mr Frydneberg said

“We have made it very clear that we wanted AGL to consider this approach by Alinta … we always said it was going to be a commercial negotiation between the parties.

“(The AGL board) has said they are not proceeding with it. This is disappointing, even the fact that AGL did not feel fit to invite Alinta in to do due diligence to see if it would change its offer is disappointing but that was always going to be a commercial decision.”

When asked if there was any further action the government would take to try and keep Liddell open, Mr Frydenberg said: “One thing I can give you a guarantee on is we will not allow any shortfall in the domestic energy market”.

He said AGL was acting in self interest in not selling the plant to Alinta as the company was attempting to keep power prices high.

Stupid Lord Waflles and Lady Lucy (Grattan) of Wentworth Turdbull and “Loser” Energy Minster Josh Frydneberg move Liberals Forward to losing next Federal Election – supported by Gladys” in NSW – there isn’t Toll Road I won’t touch where I would tdouble the cost both ways to screw NSW Taxpayers, meanwhile I will waste $2 Billion tearing down working Stadiums to rebuild

instead of using the $2Billion to buy back and get rid of Tolls
nemkat

#2716249, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:57 pm

“The arrival of fake thought and fake scholarship in our universities should not be attributed to any explicit desire to deceive. It has come about through the complicit opening of territory to the propagation of nonsense. Nonsense of this kind is a bid to be accepted”

Roger Scruton
Sounds like gibberish to me.
Mater

#2716250, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:57 pm

Yes but Mater he looked much more dashing in the Nazi uniform.
Admit it.

Such irreverence, in an informal setting, endeared him to most military types.
Myrddin Seren

#2716251, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:58 pm

Stimps

That Rod Bower Twitter Thread is a F$cking Goldmine:

Indeed – always scroll down Twitter feeds for more context, if any, on a lead post.

I noted a photo downthread of the Loons standing at the front of the chapel yelling at people with a megaphone and filming the congregation.

I don’t care if it is Rod Bower, George Pell or Moses himself – I don’t like these guys entering the chapel and disrupting the proceedings. As much as I don’t like Antifa-fan-zirs&zhes entering lecture rooms and ‘no-platforming’ speakers they want silenced.
Roger

#2716252, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:58 pm

I suppose all that is required for university entrance is an attendance record these days

Academic standards have dropped considerably.
calli

#2716253, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:00 pm

Yes but Mater he looked much more dashing in the Nazi uniform.

He beat his Missus in the “taking the royal family in a new direction” stakes.

His great-great-uncle excepted, of course.
OldOzzie

#2716254, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:00 pm

Motorists slugged $5 toll on new Western Harbour tunnel

SYDNEY drivers will be hit with a toll of up to $5 for a one- way trip on the second tunnel under the harbour.

The Western Harbour Tunnel will also be twin-tolled — toll collecting facilities on both of its separated roads — raising the prospect that motorists could be forced to pay driving in either direction.

Tolls on the Harbour Bridge and Sydney Harbour Tunnel would also likely increase to match pricing on the new tunnel. Plans are also being considered to slug motorists in both directions on the Eastern Distributor and the bridge and tunnel.

NSW Opposition leader Luke Foley said taxpayers deserve more transparency about future tolls. “Before the last election this government maintained that by selling the state’s electricity assets for billions of dollars the funds would be available to pay for all the road and rail infrastructure that was planned,” he said.

“Is there no end to the schemes this government will consider to make a quick buck?

“The fact it isn’t the best economic outcome for the state or taxpayers clearly doesn’t matter to them.”

The Macquarie document was prepared for the upcoming sale of WestConnex. It also states the new CBD bypass “will require some level of subsidy from the harbour tunnel to justify the expense”.

WestConnex Minister Stuart Ayres recently said the government would “look to equalise any travel along the same corridor”.

Toll growth has outstripped wage growth by 9 per cent in the past four years, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, and by 2023, Sydney will be the world’s most tolled city. The Western Harbour Tunnel, a 7km motorway connecting to WestConnex at Rozelle and crossing under the harbour between Birchgrove and Waverton, will cut commute times.

THE COMMENTS SUM IT ALL UP

– If the poles and wires were sold to build infrastructure, as we were told, why is this government selling the new infrastructure built by the money from the poles and wires?

Why didn’t the government just borrow the money in the first place?

This government has condemned the motorists of Sydney to outrageous tolls for the next 40 to 50 years.

Will they now raise the tolls on the bridge and harbour tunnel to catch those who don’t use the new tunnel?

They have already said that they will place tolls on the old M5 tunnel, equal to that of the new tunnel. Just to force people to use the new tunnel.
How will the roads be if motorists ignore both tunnels? Motorists from Campbelltown will have to fork out an extra $13 a day to use the M5 tunnels when the new one is opened. Based on 5 days a week and 48 weeks a year, I have allowed for 4 weeks annual leave, the total yearly extra cost will be over $3,000. But they will give you free rego worth between $500 to $800 per year.

Well done Gladys.

– If it wasn’t sold they would not need to make profits by ripping the people of NSW

– Packing people in like sardines, is not working, people have to move around somehow, the rail system is okay but its seriously lacking in a lot of ways, unreliability is the main fault, The answer is simple, stop the mass immigration until the City catches up with the infrastructure for the people it already has living there, putting in toll roads is not feasible, as the average person has a limit on their spendable cash, making people go a round about way, clogging up even more roads, the State Government should just bite the bullet and buy back all the toll roads, make them free to travel on, and let them be used to their maximum benefit, they would be amazed at what it would do for traffic flow in and around the City,
Myrddin Seren

#2716255, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:01 pm

Yes but Mater he looked much more dashing in the Nazi uniform.

Your obsession with Hugo Boss is worrisome.
stackja

#2716256, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:04 pm

AGL profit making from ruinables. Get rid of ruinables.
Myrddin Seren

#2716257, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:05 pm

Frydneberg

?

Spellwrecker wrecks the Oz.
Roger

#2716258, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:05 pm

AGL profit making from ruinables. Get rid of ruinables.

Frydenberg: “Getting rid of ruinables is not Liberal values” [sic].
calli

#2716259, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:06 pm

Just shows you how much the demographic of Sydney’s north has changed when tolls become an election issue.
stackja

#2716260, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:09 pm

Government borrowing supposedly bad. Private tolls supposedly good. Governments once could fund responsibly. How much Gough?
H B Bear

#2716261, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:09 pm

Frydenberg wouldn’t know Lieboral values if they were jammed up his clacker.

Be gone Lieborals. Just go.
Shy Ted

#2716262, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:09 pm

“The Prime Minister and I have been consistent, it is not Liberal values to compulsory acquire assets such as this, we have always said he wanted it to be a commercial negotiation between the parties,” Mr Frydenberg said. “Whereas Snowy 2 pumping water uphill is a deadset beaut idea, can’t fail, rolled gold, free and clean.”
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716263, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:10 pm

You have just cheered m0nty up enormously, stimpo. He is now congratulating himself on not being an atheist and having hardly any tatts or piercings. Also, on not being a sailor, soldier, stripper, vegan or porn star.
Solid middle class, in fact.

Yes but he IS a lesbian so it all evens out in the end.
OldOzzie

#2716264, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:10 pm

Stopping Robert Mueller to protect us all

With this report on the way and congressional investigators beginning to zero in on the lack of hard, verified evidence for starting the Trump probe, current and former intelligence and Justice Department officials are dumping everything they can think of to save their reputations.

But it is backfiring. They started by telling the story of Alexander Downer, an Australian diplomat, as having remembered a bar conversation with George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign. But how did the FBI know they should talk to him? That’s left out of their narrative. Downer’s signature appears on a $25 million contribution to the Clinton Foundation. You don’t need much imagination to figure that he was close with Clinton Foundation operatives who relayed information to the State Department, which then called the FBI to complete the loop. This wasn’t intelligence. It was likely opposition research from the start

Perhaps the murkiest event in the timeline is Rod Rosenstein’s appointment of a special counsel after he personally recommended Comey’s firing in blistering terms. With Attorney General Jeff Sessions shoved out of the way, Rosenstein and Mueller then ignored their own conflicts and took charge anyway. Rosenstein is a fact witness, and Mueller is a friend of Comey, disqualifying them both.

Flush with 16 prosecutors, including a former lawyer for the Clinton Foundation, and an undisclosed budget, the Mueller investigation has been a scorched-earth effort to investigate the entirety of the Trump campaign, Trump business dealings, the entire administration and now, if it was not Russia, maybe it’s some other country.

This process must now be stopped, preferably long before a vote in the Senate. Rather than a fair, limited and impartial investigation, the Mueller investigation became a partisan, open-ended inquisition that, by its precedent, is a threat to all those who ever want to participate in a national campaign or an administration again.

Its prosecutions have all been principally to pressure witnesses with unrelated charges and threats to family, or just for a public relations effect, like the indictment of Russian internet trolls. Unfortunately, just like the Doomsday Machine in “Dr. Strangelove” that was supposed to save the world but instead destroys it, the Mueller investigation comes with no “off” switch: You can’t fire Mueller. He needs to be defeated, like Ken Starr, the independent counsel who investigated President Clinton.

For The Hill – an amzzing article – worth full read
DrBeauGan

#2716265, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:12 pm

m0nty
#2716220, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:27 pm
Nick, that means I am middle class, plenty of us are lefties.

Much like Prince Charles and the younger members of the royal family, then?
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716266, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:12 pm

Your obsession with Hugo Boss is worrisome.

I actually stopped wearing Hugo, even though his aesthetics always appealed to me, because I was worried I would turn into a Nazi.
True story.
m0nty

#2716267, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:13 pm

“You’re so normal, you’re a lesbian” is an interesting insult on a supposed conservative board.
OldOzzie

#2716268, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:14 pm

Meghan Markle’s pot farmer nephew, 25, gets caught with a KNIFE ‘for his protection’ at London club hours after the royal wedding and blames TRUMP for saying capital was like a ‘war zone’
Roger

#2716269, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:14 pm

Just shows you how much the demographic of Sydney’s north has changed when tolls become an election issue.

Cost of living in Sydney is rising inexorably (32nd most expensive city in the world and climbing every year).

What they need is more migrants.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716270, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:15 pm

I don’t care if it is Rod Bower, George Pell or Moses himself – I don’t like these guys entering the chapel and disrupting the proceedings.

That’s a bit racist.
So it’s OK for Jesus to trash the J$ws temple on a manic anti-shekel whim but no one else?
Infidel Tiger 2.0 (Premium Content Subscribers Only)

#2716271, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:16 pm

Road tolls = Immigration tax.
nemkat

#2716272, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:17 pm

Frydenberg wouldn’t know Lieboral values if they were jammed up his clacker.
Be gone Lieborals. Just go.

Righto, H B Bear.
Let’s say you own some property somewhere, but you’ve got no plans to do anything with it. Tony Abbott comes along with an offer to buy it, on behalf of one of his mates.
You still don’t want to sell.
The Government compulsorily acquires your property, and gives it to Abbott’s mate.

Is that the sort of policy you favor?
Some History

#2716274, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:20 pm

He has a “tattoo” on his suburb-cruiser bike (still with trainer wheels) – “Hell on Wheels”.

Here’s the latest model of the “attack”, “terrorize your neighbours”, bicycle.

https://imgur.com/gosNtUw
stackja

#2716275, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:20 pm

Sydney Harbour Bridge paid by toll. Other bridges free. Sydney too many cars. Why is business so centralized?
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716276, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:21 pm

“You’re so normal, you’re a lesbian” is an interesting insult on a supposed conservative board.

No, what’s interesting is that you think being called a lesbian is an insult.
Why is that Monty?
Geriatric Mayfly

#2716278, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:28 pm

n the box at the banking Rc is a rather bewildered pensioner witness who keeps calling Counsel ‘Luv.’ I daresay her evidence when extracted, will shame some shark or another. Keep going and let ’em have it Luv.
egg_

#2716279, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:28 pm

Energy Minster Josh Frydneberg says Tony Abbott’s proposal to compulsorily acquire the Liddell Power Station was against Liberal values

What about Snowy 2.0, tard?
Some History

#2716280, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:30 pm

I actually stopped wearing Hugo Boss…

Now you have an alternative.

https://imgur.com/CYx2nJt
egg_

#2716281, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:31 pm

Is that the sort of policy you favor?

Even tarded ruinables rely on fossil fuel baseload, tard.
Cheapest option available.
Geriatric Mayfly

#2716282, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:31 pm

Westpac is in the gun. But this witness is very vague, and Counsel is struggling to keep her on track.
OldOzzie

#2716283, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:32 pm

Canada’s Debt Spiral: Does Justin Trudeau Live In An Alternative Reality?

“Justin Trudeau is the only prime minister in the last 120 years who has increased the federal per-person debt burden without a world war or recession to justify it.”
Snoopy

#2716285, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:33 pm

“You’re so normal, you’re a lesbian” is an interesting insult on a supposed conservative board.

Quite so. Stimpy is incorrect. You’re gender variant.
C.L.

#2716286, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:33 pm

Does Justin Trudeau Live In An Alternative Reality?

Yes.
Next question.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716288, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:34 pm

Also Monty you are getting sidetracked from the issues that really matter.
When will Mueller bring the pain?
What’s the f$cking holdup?
egg_

#2716289, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:34 pm

Meghan Markle’s pot farmer nephew, 25, gets caught with a KNIFE ‘for his protection’ at London club hours after the royal wedding and blames TRUMP for saying capital was like a ‘war zone’

Told yez the Markledashains would keep us entertained.
DrBeauGan

#2716291, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:34 pm

You are making huge progress, m0nty. Once you give up on TDS and a wish to side with antifa and punch anyone who disagrees with you on the grounds they are a Nazi, we’ll be polite and friendly.

And stop making lesbian jokes.
stackja

#2716293, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:35 pm

Why doesn’t government close all non-ruinables? People want blackouts? Give them blackouts.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716294, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:35 pm

gender variant.

This descriptor is vastly superior to gender fluid in every way.
I love it.
OldOzzie

#2716295, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:35 pm

How The FBI And CIA Restarted The Cold War To Protect Themselves

On December 29, 2016, the Obama Administration – with three weeks remaining in its term – issued harsh sanctions against Russia over supposed election interference. Two compounds in the United States were closed and 35 Russian diplomats were ordered to leave the country.

In the two years that have elapsed since, it has been learned that the “intelligence” that formed the basis for the sanctions was beyond dubious.

A single unverified “dossier” compiled by an ex-British spy with no discernable connections to Russia was shopped to FISA judges and the media as something real.

The dossier was opposition research by the Hillary Clinton campaign, a fact that was not disclosed and actively hidden by off-the-book transactions through the law firm Perkins Coie.

As a dog that chases its tail, the fake dossier was being used to cause the investigation which itself lent credibility to the notion of Russian interference.

The FBI and CIA thumbed the eye of an armed nuclear state based on false intelligence. Why?

The answer is now obvious: to cover up their own election year shenanigans they thought would remain forever hidden in the inevitable Hillary Clinton victory.
C.L.

#2716296, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:35 pm

The Australian:

Spare a thought for Eugenie
VALENTINE LOW
Princess Eugenie will marry Jack Brooksbank in October. But let’s be honest, how do you follow the nuptials of Harry and Meghan?

Easy. Don’t be dickheads like they were.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716297, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:37 pm

John O. Brennan
@JohnBrennan
“Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero, (106-43 BC)
stackja

#2716298, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:37 pm

Since leftists don’t believe in the Bible. They believe in other genders.
nemkat

#2716299, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:38 pm

Cheapest option available.

So, in your brave new world, if someone owns property, and you don’t think it’s being exploited sufficiently, you’ll confiscate it and give it to one of your mates.

Sounds like Naboth’s vineyard, and the enlightened policies of Bela Kun.
OldOzzie

#2716300, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:38 pm

Trump Erupts In Angry Tweetstorm: “When Does This Witch Hunt STOP”, Slams Hillary, Podesta
egg_

#2716302, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:39 pm

You are making huge progress, m0nty.

Temporarily dazed by a truckload of rakes?
Nick

#2716303, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:39 pm

Just shows you how much the demographic of Sydney’s north has changed when tolls become an election issue.

Inner ring suburbs are Green constituencies that:
1. Favour Open Borders
2. Ban any medium or high density construction in their areas that might add to the supply of housing
3. See any new infrastructure built to cope with point 1 as being their taxes used to transport those in outer suburbs into their midst.

Rinse and repeat.
None

#2716304, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:39 pm

That’s a bit racist.
So it’s OK for Jesus to trash the J$ws temple on a manic anti-shekel whim but no one else?

Jesus was a Jew you demented banana and his father owns the joint. Curry is a heretic and you could tell that from his first sentence where he referred to God The Liberator. Christian’s worship god the father son and holy spirit. God is Trinity which is why we say God is love and not that love is a god which is the Heresy that he was preaching. Anyone who denies the trinity is not a Christian because Trinity and incarnation are the two distinctive beliefs of Christianity.
m0nty

#2716305, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:41 pm

Stimpani, Mueller will bring the pain when he is good and ready.
None

#2716307, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:42 pm

That’s a bit racist.
So it’s OK for Jesus to trash the J$ws temple on a manic anti-shekel whim but no one else?

Jesus was a J– you demented banana, and his father owned the joint. Curry is a heretic and you could tell that from his first sentence where he referred to God The Liberator. Christian’s worship God the father son and holy spirit. God is Trinity which is why Christians say God is love and not that love is a god which is the heresy that Curry was preaching. Anyone who denies the trinity is not a Christian because Trinity and incarnation are the two distinctive beliefs of Christianity.
egg_

#2716308, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:42 pm

Cheapest option available.

A (former) State Govt asset that’s being exploited by an (overseas) rent seeker, ENRON style.
max

#2716309, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:44 pm

At least Mrs Markle had the sense not to say anything. Her pained smile was enough: ‘ This is insane. What am I doing here ? Can’t wait to get home.’

Meghan’s destitute father in Mexico will be glad to hear of her commitment to social justice.

It’s in our families that most of our good intentions founder.
egg_

#2716310, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:44 pm

Since leftists don’t believe in the Bible. They believe in other genders.

Their moral compass now points to Sodom and Gomorrah.
Des Deskperson

#2716311, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:44 pm

I just saw the ACT government’s rainbow pro-SSM public bus – which, six mother after the vote, will presumably still trundle around the burbs in that livery until due for a repaint – on a school bus run.

I thought it was a bit off.

It was near the Islamic school.
notafan

#2716313, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:45 pm

Could it be that the idea of a colour hierarchy originated in islam(as a way to justify keeping other muslims as slaves)?
stackja

#2716314, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:45 pm

CL Royal weddings are Royal weddings.
Dr Faustus

#2716315, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:45 pm

When asked if there was any further action the government would take to try and keep Liddell open, Mr Frydenberg said: “One thing I can give you a guarantee on is we will not allow any shortfall in the domestic energy market”.

A free tip.
When you have no control over the energy market, no Plan B, and the major players are pulling your pants down in public – try not to give guarantees you don’t understand and can’t possibly deliver.

No, don’t thank me…
nemkat

#2716316, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:46 pm

A (former) State Govt asset that’s being exploited by an (overseas) rent seeker, ENRON style.

So, assets bought off the State Government aren’t really yours if Tony Abbott reckons his mates ought to have those assets?
Bruce of Newcastle

#2716317, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:46 pm

Since leftists don’t believe in the Bible. They believe in other genders.

And astrology.

At CSICOP: Why millennials and liberals turn to astrology

One of the most noteworthy aspects of belief in astrology is that it is more often embraced by liberals, which places it in the company of the anti-GMO and anti-vaccination movements (Vyse 2015). A 2009 Pew Research Center study found that people who described themselves as liberal were almost twice as likely to say they believe in astrology than self-described conservatives

Nature abhors a vacuum.
egg_

#2716319, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:50 pm

“One thing I can give you a guarantee on is we will not allow any shortfall in the domestic energy market”.

Because: ‘demand management’ voluntary blackouts?
Infidel Tiger 2.0 (Premium Content Subscribers Only)

#2716320, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:53 pm

Cate McGregor has gone further insane:

https://twitter.com/RealMarkLatham/status/998004487687094272
Mother Lode

#2716321, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:54 pm

Trump Erupts In Angry Tweetstorm: “When Does This Witch Hunt STOP”, Slams Hillary, Podesta

I note the story from the NYT.

They probably felt they had a bombshell. While there is no evidence of impropriety, there must be some reason they are called the ‘Golf States’.

I expect the busiest person who works at the NYT is a smooth ‘fixer’ type, unflappable and cool, with an advanced Cert IV in Rodent Husbandry, who is able to hatch distraction squirrels onto the NYT pages all day every day – covering up the flurry of nonsense and fake news stories they print as their product.

He’d be able to write his own cheque, for Gawd’s sake.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716322, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:56 pm

Jesus was a J– you demented banana, and his father owned the joint.

Joseph did not.
It would have been in the Bible if he owned a Temple I’m sure of it.
stackja

#2716323, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:59 pm

ML NYT getting Slimmer?
egg_

#2716324, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:04 pm

A (former) State Govt asset that’s being exploited by an (overseas) rent seeker, ENRON style.

Put a carbon tax on natural gas, including pipeline pressurisation systems, etc.
Jo Smyth

#2716325, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:04 pm

Apparently since Pres.Trump pulled out of the Iran deal, there have been numerous uprisings in Iran by emboldened Iranians who consider Trump has their back. All media coverage has been blocked and the only news getting out is by cell phone. What is the outcome likely to be and why the news blackout ?
C.L.

#2716327, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:05 pm

How The FBI And CIA Restarted The Cold War To Protect Themselves

Very good way of looking at it.
DrBeauGan

#2716328, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:05 pm

Stimpson J. Cat
#2716322, posted on May 21, 2018 at 2:56 pm
Jesus was a J– you demented banana, and his father owned the joint.

Joseph did not.
It would have been in the Bible if he owned a Temple I’m sure of it.

Are you sure you’re not an atheist, demented banana stimpy?
OldOzzie

#2716329, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:05 pm

I really do hate to click on PVO, but I had to read thsi one

Peter van Onselen: Why the Coalition may look to Tony Abbott and Barnaby Joyce for leadership

Listening to former PM Tony Abbott and former Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce thunder their combined disapproval at AGL’s decision to reject Alinta’s $250m offer to buy the Liddell power station may be a test run for opposition.

If the polls don’t change and Malcolm Turnbull loses the next election, there is a reasonable chance that the Coalition goes back to the future – electing Abbott and Joyce to lead their respective parties from opposition.

It’s not as far fetched as it might sound. Both men want to rebuild their political careers. Neither is hankering to do something else with their lives. Neither of them are planning their retirement anytime soon. They are a model of the modern ageing Australia – willing to work beyond the traditional retirement age of 65.

And let’s face it, the pair of them did their best work when last in opposition: Pouring scorn on a Labor government. Neither mastered government but they certainly know how to master the attacks necessary from opposition to be politically successful.

The only real barrier to their accession in opposition is whether or not their parties want to go back to the future after a defeat rather than embrace generational renewal. That will in part be dictated by who’s left after an electoral route.

If Bill Shorten is as unpopular as the polls suggests, it wouldn’t be hard for a pair like Abbott and Joyce to pick away at that unpopularity by running negative attacks. It’s become the way of modern politics for oppositions to do that: started by Abbott, mastered more recently by Shorten. And Abbott’s own unpopularity wouldn’t be the drag on the vote it otherwise would risk being squaring off against PM Shorten.

It’s food for thought, just try not to choke on it.
stackja

#2716330, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:06 pm

BON – stars influence people shows ignorance. Leftists are funny.
OldOzzie

#2716334, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:12 pm

Coalition needs a big sales job to highlight Labor’s wrongs – Chris Mitchell

Fairness is all the go at the ABC, especially in the wake of the federal budget on May 8 and the opposition’s reply two nights later.

Sabra Lane pushed the fairness line on ABC Radio’s AM on Thursday, May 10, citing research from KPMG and the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling showing that despite the government’s proposed tax cuts for low to middle-income workers of $530 a year. Its plan to flatten the tax system seven years from now eventually would confer more benefits on higher-income earners.

Picking up the theme on ABC TV’s Insiders the Sunday after the budget, new 7.30 political editor Laura Tingle specifically said “the big underlying issue is supposed to be about fairness and inequality” after host Barrie Cassidy had interviewed Scott Morrison.

Malcolm Turnbull explained a few facts of tax life to Lane, who was exercised by the analysis showing that under the proposed flat tax rate of 32.5 per cent from $41,000 to $200,000, the savings would be greatest for the highest earners. “Someone earning $200,000 will pay 12½ times more income tax than someone on $41,000,” the Prime Minister said.

Even though notionally on the same marginal rate, under the proposed changes the average tax paid by someone on $200,000 would be $60,007, a 30 per cent rate overall. Someone on $41,000 would pay $4767, an average rate of 11.6 per cent. So still very progressive, and remember the intersection of benefits with the tax system allows half of all Australian households to pay no net tax at all.

As the Treasurer has been saying, the top 10 per cent of earners pay the vast bulk of income tax, even after their capital gains and negative gearing concessions.

Fairfax Media, Guardian Australia and the ABC concentrated on the unfairness angle for days. The Sydney Morning Herald’s political editor, Peter Hartcher, was the exception, arguing in his paper and on the ABC’s The Drum that the government should have used its revenue windfall to pay down the deficit, an unusual line at Fairfax, whose commentators normally see little wrong in deficits.

Neither Fairfax nor the ABC has been comfortable with market-based economic reforms going right back to Paul Keating’s days as treasurer in the 1980s. They loved him as PM for his big picture on Asia, the republic and reconciliation but have long argued voters are more interested in government services than tax cuts.

Traditionally, the News Corp papers, especially the tabloids, have championed Keating’s idea of using growth to float all boats, cutting taxes — personal and business — and trying to foster aspiration. Their position is based not only on the successes of the Keating, Hawke and Howard reform era but on a calculation such reform best serves the interests of their outer suburban readers.

The truth, as Deloitte Access Economics managing partner Chris Richardson said on 7.30 on May 10, is that neither budget offered much new spending. The Coalition gave away only about half its revenue windfall in tax cuts and did none of the heavy lifting on spending cuts, trimming only $404 million over five years.

Labor bettered the government’s proposed tax cuts but kept most of its powder dry, remembering it has a $200 billion war chest to play with because it is winding back concessions to self-funded retirees, company tax cuts, capital gains tax concessions and limiting access to negative gearing for property investors.

As usual, this government stumbled in its sales job. The seven-year “hitch” on its wind-back of bracket creep and an arcane 23.9 per cent ceiling on tax as a proportion of the economy are too blunt to cut through. But it had the right idea: the next election will be between Labor hellbent on the biggest tax grab in our history and a government focused on business and personal income tax reform to lift jobs and growth.

No doubt Tingle on Insiders, Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy and political commentator George Megalogenis were right to be sceptical about plans for tax reform three terms hence. They are also right to doubt the government’s words when it insists it will not split its reform package, saying tax refunds in July next year cannot be separated from rate changes in 2024. History suggests pragmatism in dealing with a recalcitrant Senate will put paid to that idea.

But too many let Bill Shorten get away with a porky almost as big as his citizenship lie: remember him saying we in the Labor Party have better processes to detect dual citizens? Every few minutes in his speech he repeated the big lie that Labor could outdo the government’s tax cuts because it was not giving $80bn to its top-end-of-town mates and rewarding rorting bankers. The Australian’s editor-at-large, Paul Kelly, nailed it last Saturday week in this paper, pointing out the tax cut for companies with turnover of more than $1bn was not scheduled to start phasing in until 2023-24 before hitting 25 per cent in 2026-27. By then, the banks the Opposition Leader kept attacking would have paid an extra $16bn in tax under the government’s bank levy introduced last year.

Shorten was getting away with claiming his savings on big corporate tax cuts that would not start for another five years were paying for personal tax cuts across the next four years. On the ABC’s 7.30 after Shorten’s reply, Tingle repeated the Labor line that it was able to deliver $5.8bn of tax cuts because it was hitting the big end of town. Well, no, actually.

Shorten does, however, plan to repeal tax cuts to companies with turnover from $2m to $50m. How will the 1.4 million workers at those companies feel about that?

The government should be shouting this from the rooftops every day but you would be lucky to find a voter who has grasped these points.

The “progressive” media is allowing Shorten and opposition Treasury spokesman Chris Bowen to walk away from 34 years of Labor-initiated bipartisan consensus for micro-economic reform to boost productivity, tax reform and growth without any real scrutiny because they believe he has the next election won.

This is far from certain. Australians are a sceptical bunch, especially the aspirational tradies and incorporated small businesses of the outer suburbs of our capital cities. As former Labor senator and now electoral demographer John Black said in this paper last Saturday week, it feels a lot like 2001, when many thought John Howard was certain to lose to Kim Beazley.

Howard’s battlers and Kevin Rudd’s working families are more honest than those who claim they would prefer better government services to tax cuts. Many will buy Morrison’s line that they know better than governments what’s best for their money.

They will hate the waste and rorting they are hearing about in the National Disability Insurance Scheme. They know about the failure of $18bn a year in extra Gonski funds to lift education outcomes. They won’t like penalising self-funded retirees because they hope never to need the Age Pension themselves. Most of all, they hate soaring power prices and won’t want a bar of Shorten’s 45 per cent renewable energy target.

Yet whether the Coalition can put together a negative campaign against a giant increase in the size of government is an open question.
Leigh Lowe

#2716335, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:12 pm

Mater

#2716250, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:57 pm

Yes but Mater he looked much more dashing in the Nazi uniform.
Admit it.

Such irreverence, in an informal setting, endeared him to most military types.

Yes.
I am not sure that anyone thought he was going to hook up a 4″ gas main to the basement at Kensington Palace and start rounding up the householders of Golders Green.
C.L.

#2716336, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:12 pm

That zerohedge article on the spying scandal is a must read.
Simple, concise, irrefutable. Breathtaking.
cohenite

#2716337, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:14 pm

Energy Minster Josh Frydneberg says Tony Abbott’s proposal to compulsorily acquire the Liddell Power Station was against Liberal values as he effectively concedes the government was not prepared to take stronger action to keep the ageing coal-fired power station open.

That’s cute; these were the bastards along with the alp who gave Liddell away.

Essential Services Act 1988 No 41

4 Essential services
(1) For the purposes of this Act, a service is an essential service if it consists of any of
the following:
(a) the production, supply or distribution of any form of energy, power or fuel or
of energy, power or fuel resources,

8 Proclamation concerning an essential service
(1) Whenever it appears to the Governor that from any cause the provision of an essential
service is, or is likely, for any period:
(a) to cease, or
(b) to be interrupted or reduced, or
(c) to be provided in a manner that does not or is not likely to meet the reasonable
requirements of the community, or
(d) otherwise to be rendered insufficient for the reasonable requirements of the
community,
the Governor may, by proclamation published on the NSW legislation website,
declare that the essential service is one in respect of which regulations may be made
under section 9.

frydenfucker has stated that if agl close Liddell

dispatchable energy

( I bet the idiot doesn’t know what that means) will not meet demand. So, all we need is some political will. Hahaha.
stackja

#2716338, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:14 pm

OO – PVO generation change to what? Do young voters want chaos? Their choice. MT/BS? Or someone else. At the moment only TA is the one.
egg_

#2716340, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:15 pm

If Bill Shorten is as unpopular as the polls suggests, it wouldn’t be hard for a pair like Abbott and Joyce to pick away at that unpopularity by running negative attacks.

Whereas Lord Waffleworth couldn’t land a blow and will likely slink off to a puffed up secondment.
lotocoti

#2716341, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:15 pm

Sigh.
It is perfectly acceptable for H to sport a full beard, provided he is, like KGV, a Naval officer.
It should also be remembered that only spivs, hucksters and homosexuals wear moustaches.
Leigh Lowe

#2716342, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:16 pm

m0nty

#2716222, posted on May 21, 2018 at 1:28 pm

Stimpy, my body is a temple.

You mean it’s like a temple in terms of size?
Demented Banana

#2716343, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:18 pm

Don’t confuse me with Dover Beech. I am Stimpson’s sock puppet.
egg_

#2716344, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:20 pm

Do young voters want chaos? Their choice. MT/BS? Or someone else. At the moment only TA is the one.

Plus Barndoor is a bit younger, with a young partner and bub, which may aid the appeal.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716345, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:21 pm

Look we should be talking about real issues affecting real people, like the growing T-Pose epidemic.
Things are wild out there in the world right now.
cohenite

#2716348, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:22 pm

That zerohedge article on the spying scandal is a must read.
Simple, concise, irrefutable. Breathtaking.

It is good. But it does not refer to several things such as the fact the FISA court was lied to repeatedly by Rosenstein and comey even though both had admitted before and during the FISA process that the dossier was bullshit. That to me represents contempt, a criminal offence.
OldOzzie

#2716349, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:23 pm

The FBI Informant Who Wasn’t Spying
A secret source insinuated himself with Trump campaign officials. Ho hum.

WSJ Editotial Board

Well, what do you know. The Federal Bureau of Investigation really did task an “informant” to insinuate himself with Trump campaign advisers in 2016. Our Kimberley Strassel reported this two weeks ago without disclosing a name.

We now have all but official confirmation thanks to “current and former government officials” who contributed to apologias last week in the New York Times and Washington Post. And please don’t call the informant a “spy.” A headline on one of the Times’ stories says the “F.B.I. Used Informant to Investigate Russia Ties to Campaign, Not to Spy, as Trump Claims.”

We’ll let readers parse that casuistic distinction, which is part of a campaign by the FBI and Justice Department to justify their refusal to turn over to the House Intelligence Committee documents related to the informant. Justice and the FBI claim this Capitol Hill oversight would blow the cover of this non-spy and even endanger his life. Yet these same stories have disclosed so many specific details about the informant whom we dare not call a spy that you can discover the name of the likeliest suspect in a single Google search.

We now know, for example, that the informant is “an American academic who teaches in Britain” who “served in previous Republican administrations.” He has worked as a “longtime U.S. intelligence source” for the FBI and the CIA.

The stories provide the names of the three Trump campaign officials who the informant sought to court— Carter Page, Sam Clovis and George Papadopoulos —as well as specific dates and details of the encounters. He met with Mr. Page at a symposium at a “British university” in “mid-July,” and stayed in touch with him for more than year. He met with Mr. Clovis at a “hotel café in Crystal City,” Virginia, on “either Aug. 31 or Sept. 1.”

The informant didn’t previously know the three men but offered to help with the campaign. He also threw money at Mr. Papadopoulos, and the stories even report the exact language of the message the informant sent to Mr. Papadopoulos offering him a $3,000 honorarium to write a research paper and a paid trip to London. Media accounts differ about whether the informant asked the three men what they knew about Russia. But this sure sounds like a classic attempt to make friends for intelligence-gathering purposes.

This ought to disturb anyone who wants law enforcement and U.S. intelligence services to stay out of partisan politics. We can’t recall a similar case, even in the J. Edgar Hoover days, when the FBI decided it needed to snoop on a presidential campaign. Devin Nunes, the House Intelligence Chairman, is seeking documents to learn exactly what happened, what triggered this FBI action, and how it was justified. This is precisely the kind of oversight that Congress should provide to assure Americans that their government isn’t spying illegally.

Yet now the same people who lionized Edward Snowden for stealing secrets about metadata—which collected phone numbers, not names—claim the FBI informant is no big deal. James Clapper, Barack Obama’s Director of National Intelligence, claims it was even a “good thing” that the FBI was monitoring the campaign for Russian influence.

Forgive us if we don’t trust Mr. Clapper, who leaked details related to the notorious Steele dossier to the press, as a proper judge of such snooping. Would he and the press corps be so blasé if the FBI under George W. Bush had sought to insinuate sources with Obama supporters like Rev. Jeremiah Wright or radical Bill Ayers during the 2008 campaign?

Incredibly, Democrats and their media friends are painting Mr. Nunes as the villain for daring even to ask about all this. Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is making the rounds warning that “the first thing any new” committee member “learns is the critical importance of protecting sources and methods.”

Sure, but as far as we know Mr. Nunes hasn’t disclosed the source’s name—certainly not to us—even as anonymous Justice officials all but paint a neon path of details to the informant’s door. Justice and the FBI have disclosed more to their media Boswells than they have to the people’s representatives in Congress.

As is his habit, President Trump belly-flopped into this debate over the weekend with demands that Justice investigate whether his campaign was spied on. Justice officials quickly asked the Inspector General to investigate, and this will polarize the political debate even further.

But the stakes here go beyond Mr. Trump’s political future. The public deserves to know who tasked the informant to seek out Trump campaign officials, what his orders were, what the justification was for doing so, and who was aware of it. Was the knowledge limited to the FBI, or did it run into the Obama White House?

As important, what are the standards for the future? Could a Trump FBI task agents to look into the foreign ties of advisers to the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign in 2020? Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein need to clear the air by sharing what they and the FBI know with the House. This is bigger than blowing a source whose identity Justice leakers have already blown. This is about public trust in the FBI and Justice.

Appeared in the May 21, 2018, print edition as ‘The Informant Who Wasn’t Spying.’
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716350, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:26 pm

I’m taking a break.
I try to have a serious conversation and Monty just continually bombards me with ad-hominid attacks.
Just outrageous.
Leigh Lowe

#2716351, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:27 pm

On a somewhat related note, I think I am coming around to the position of wanting to maintain the English monarch as head of state. I don’t trust the Australian political system not to bugger up a transition to a republic. The symbolism is not great for an independent country, but I think I value stability over signalling on this one.

Monty .. call Sinc.
You’ve been hacked by someone with common-sense.
This is the thing.
The convention of the Monarch holding reserve powers which will never be applied with a tacit undertaking to stay the fuck out of the political process is one of the strengths of the current system.
Sorry, but Ms Markle, by marrying Royal, has forfeited any right to butt into politics for that very reason.
But the airhead sees herself as some sort of hybrid of the US First Lady and the teenage Queen Victoria at coronation, fighting da misogynists who didn’t want a gal on the throne.
She could fuck this up big time.
OldOzzie

#2716353, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:28 pm

Britain Discovers Shale Energy
At long last the Tories move to exploit their natural gas reserves. </strong>

By The WSJ Editorial Board
May 20, 2018 6:11 p.m. ET

Britain’s Tory government announced last week that “shale gas development is of national importance” and could “deliver substantial economic benefits,” which counts as intellectual and political progress. Perhaps there’s hope that Britain will finally tap this would-be economic windfall.

Two ministers, Greg Clark and James Brokenshire, submitted plans to Parliament to speed approvals for hydraulic fracturing, and none too soon. Britain was a net exporter of natural gas as recently as 2003, but its North Sea reserves are running out. The country now imports 53% of its gas, and the government estimates that on current trends Britain will import 72% of its gas by 2030.

r. Clark wants to reverse this by reducing the regulatory burden on drilling exploratory wells, fulfilling a Tory campaign promise. British shale gas developer Cuadrilla noted Thursday it was allowed to drill and test only four exploratory wells in Lancashire over a three-year period due to regulatory delays. At this rate Britain will depend on Vladimir Putin for gas before the country taps its vast energy supplies.

Local governing councils also delay fracking projects amid lobbying by anti-fossil fuels groups, which freaked out at Mr. Clark’s anodyne statement Thursday. The government proposes to bribe these local politicians with a £1.6 million “shale support fund” over the next two years, but the Tories will also have to win the political debate against Greenpeace and other antidevelopment groups.

They could point to Germany’s growing reliance on coal after putting too much faith and money in wind and solar power. Natural gas reduces carbon emissions as an alternative to coal, as the U.S. has shown.

The Tory government will create a new regulator to oversee the three existing regulators that currently oversee fracking (the Environment Agency, the Health and Safety Executive and the Oil and Gas Authority), because there’s nothing like more government to solve the problem of too much government. In an economy growing at the speed of stall, racking up a 0.1% expansion in the first quarter, Britain can’t afford to delay the shale revolution any longer.
H B Bear

#2716355, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:29 pm

Malcolm can be very unladylike at times. Quite the potty mouth.
Mother Lode

#2716356, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:29 pm

ML NYT getting Slimmer?

I always had the impression that Fauxfacts papers wanted to be the ‘NYT of the Antipodes’.

I believe they are getting their wish.
OldOzzie

#2716357, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:30 pm

WSJ – The Truth About Hamas and Israel
Dozens of Palestinians died to further the terror group’s lies—and the Western media ate it up.

Sami Abu Zuhri is the spokesman for the extremist group Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization funded by Iran. Hamas controls Gaza and has killed innocent Israeli, American, Brazilian, Kenyan, British, French and Chinese civilians. As chief intelligence officer of the Israel Defense Forces’ Gaza division from 2012-14, I came to know Mr. Abu Zuhri and other Hamas spokesmen from a distance. Their modus operandi is simple: Lie. Their lies support the stated goal of Hamas: the delegitimization and destruction of Israel.

For weeks the international media has reported on violence on the border between Gaza and Israel. Hamas has continued to lie to the world, which is why their rare acknowledgments of truth are especially revealing. Hamas spokesmen raced to the press last week to lament the death of innocent civilians. But a senior Hamas leader, Salah Bardawil, said in a May 16 interview with a Palestinian TV station: “In the last round of confrontations, if 62 people were martyred, 50 of them were Hamas.”

Hamas itself has confirmed that 80% of those killed in their violent riots last Monday were members of a terrorist group, not innocent civilians. Several more of the fatalities were claimed by Palestinian Islamic Jihad. On May 13, Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a co-founder of Hamas, said in an interview with Al Jazeera: “When we talk about ‘peaceful resistance,’ we are deceiving the public.” You can trust Hamas only when they admit to their lies.

The Hamas spokesmen orchestrated a well-funded terrorist propaganda operation. Behind the theatrics was a plan that threatened Israel’s border and civilians. Hamas provided free transportation from throughout the Gaza Strip to the border for innocent civilians, including women and children. Hamas hired them as extras, paying $14 a person or $100 a family for attendance—and $500 if they managed to get injured. Hamas forced all of their commanders and operatives to go to the border dressed as civilians, each serving as a director of an area—as if to direct their own stage of the operation.

The audience was the international media. Hamas gave anyone with a video camera front-row access to the show and free Wi-Fi. The IDF had precise intelligence that the violent riots were masking a plan of mass infiltration into Israel in order to carry out a massacre against Israeli civilians. Hamas called it a “peaceful protest,” and much of the world simply fell for it.

The idea that this was a peaceful protest is the biggest lie of all, because the basic tenets required for a protest in a democracy like the U.S. or Israel do not exist in Gaza. Under Hamas’s control, there is no freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, no freedom of religion, no freedom of the press. There can be no such thing as a peaceful protest in Gaza, only gatherings organized, sanctioned and funded by Hamas. Calling this a protest isn’t fake news, just fake.

In multiple assaults on the border this spring, Hamas has used machine guns, Molotov cocktails, airborne improvised explosive devices and grenades. Hundreds of Gazans have tried to blow up or tear down the fence between Gaza and Israel, with the intention of infiltrating our sovereign territory and reaching innocent Israelis who live minutes from the border.

On April 6 the Hamas political leader, Yahya Sinwar, stated: “We will take down the border [with Israel] and we will tear their hearts from their bodies.” On Facebook Hamas posted maps for their operatives showing the quickest routes from the border with Israel to Israelis’ homes, schools, and day-care centers near the border. Does that sound like a peaceful protest to you?

Facing the dangers posed by cowardly terrorists who disguise themselves as civilians, IDF soldiers acted with courage and restraint, following strict rules of engagement to ensure minimum civilian injury and loss of life while still protecting the border. As part of Hamas’s propaganda operation, hundreds of Gazans were injured last week and several dozen died, most of whom were Hamas operatives. None of this violence had to occur, but it was the violence that Hamas instigated and orchestrated so that the headlines and pictures would reinforce the lies that the Hamas spokesmen had planned.

Hamas can lie—to the world, to Palestinians and to their own commanders and operatives—but I am proud that the IDF will never lie or use Israeli civilians or soldiers as pawns. Some of Israel’s greatest friends might have preferred that we had looked better in the media this past week, but between vanity and truth, the IDF always chooses truth. It is that morality that sustains the IDF. The uniformed professional soldiers of the IDF may not photograph well compared with terrorists disguised as civilians—but we are honest about what we are and what we say. As the IDF spokesman, if I cannot source and cite material, I will not allow it to be published. I will not release any statement if the facts are in doubt.

Some in the media helped Hamas by publishing its lies rather than the facts. Hamas achieved negative media coverage about Israel after their first violent riot, on March 30, the first day of this propaganda operation. Hamas could have then claimed a propaganda victory, stopped the violence, and prevented many deaths. But for Hamas, lies are more important than lives.

If in order to win the international propaganda war I need to lie like Hamas, then I prefer to tell the truth and lose. The IDF will win where it matters—protecting our civilians in the face of terror. The soldiers of the IDF won this week by keeping Israeli families safe and by stopping Hamas from accomplishing its stated goals.

Even more than the lying, the true difference between Mr. Abu Zuhri and me is that he goes to sleep every night wishing for the destruction of my country and the death of my children. I go to sleep at night hoping for a better life for his children as well as mine. And that’s the truth.

Brig. Gen. Manelis is the spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces.
DrBeauGan

#2716359, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:32 pm

Still in moderation as demented banana. This is BORING.
Dr Faustus

#2716360, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:33 pm

The only real barrier to their accession in opposition is whether or not their parties want to go back to the future after a defeat rather than embrace generational renewal. That will in part be dictated by who’s left after an electoral route.

[That damn spell-checker. An electoral root, surely.]

Not sure about Liberal renewal – or back to Abbott/Joyce. Assuming that the electoral root/rout/route sinks all boats equally, the leading elements of the existing leadership of the Turnbull Hallelujah Coalition will still be in place after the Shorten tsunami, because safe seat margins.

Turnbull will slink off; but Bishop, Pyne, Morrison, Frydenberg, and Hunt will still be there, as well as the Senate ministers, Cormann, Payne, Fifield, and Scullion.

Hard to seen hope n’ change happening until these good folk get the message and fuck off.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716362, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:35 pm

Are you sure you’re not an atheist, demented banana stimpy?

Yes I am certain I’m not an Atheist.

Atheism is a gateway drug to Communism.

Everyone knows this.
John Constantine

#2716363, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:35 pm

If the owners of a coal fired plant want to shut it down, all they have to do is slash the maintainance and run it until it stops.

Or occupational health and safety condemn it as unsafe.

Comrades.
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

#2716364, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:37 pm

Purely coincidence, I ‘m sure, but Prince Harry married Megan on the anniversary of the day that his royal ancestor, Henry VIII, had Queen Ann Boleyn beheaded….
Mother Lode

#2716365, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:38 pm

If the polls don’t change and Malcolm Turnbull loses the next election, there is a reasonable chance that the Coalition goes back to the future – electing Abbott and Joyce to lead their respective parties from opposition.

If they are going to wait until that fathead loses the next election then Abbott should tell them to go fuck themselves. (There is probably a new-coined gender for that, and the Libs would be all updating their facebook pages if they heard Zuckerberg had added to the menagerie-matings he offers on Fakebook.)

He scuppered KRudd and Gillard, and has picked the Libs up more than once and led them to a victory they frankly didn’t deserve.

The Libs are like alcoholics waking up brimming with remorse for their excesses, the damage they have done and the friendships dashed in their inebriate state, imploring forgiveness and one last chance.

I think Abbott underestimates how much of an appetite there is to hear about the utter sliminess and perfidy of the Liberals.
DrBeauGan

#2716366, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:39 pm

Atheism is a gateway drug to Communism.

Not for me, stimps. I’m too old fashioned. For me it was a gateway drug to Adam Smith and JS mill.
egg_

#2716367, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:40 pm

“One thing I can give you a guarantee on is we will not allow any shortfall in the domestic energy market”.

Who does Fraudenburger, the UN spiv, think he’s fooling?
DrBeauGan

#2716368, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:41 pm

I think Abbott underestimates how much of an appetite there is to hear about the utter sliminess and perfidy of the Liberals.

He probably knows but figures that if he ever gets back in, he’ll have to work with them again.
calli

#2716370, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:42 pm

Look we should be talking about real issues affecting real people, like the growing T-Pose epidemic.

Safer than Planking.
OldOzzie

#2716371, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:42 pm

The thing that fascinated me in China recently was no Credit Cards – Jack Ma Alipay and Tencent WeChat on mobiles have completely by passed Credit Card Comapnies

WSJ- Want to Invest in Jack Ma? Avoid Alibaba’s Rivals
Ant Financial’s fundraising comes with strings: Chinese firms like Tencent are off-limits

HONG KONG—Global investors looking to buy stakes in China’s most valuable private technology company are being forced to pick a side in the nation’s biggest business rivalry.

Ant Financial Services Group, a financial-technology juggernaut controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, is preparing to close a $10 billion private fundraising round that would value the Hangzhou-based company at $150 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. As part of the deal, investors putting money into Ant have to agree not to invest in or raise their stakes in companies controlled by major rivals such as social-media giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY -0.81% and online retailer JD.com Inc., JD -0.70% the people said.

Such severe investment restrictions are rare, investors and lawyers say, because investors are normally the ones who set conditions for companies before ponying up cash.

Ant’s ability to dictate its investment terms shows how the company and its affiliate Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA -0.52% wield significant market power. It also reflects high demand for Ant’s shares: Some investors who wanted to take part were rebuffed because they weren’t offering enough money or had backed Tencent-linked companies, according to people familiar with the matter.

Ant, which was originally carved out from Alibaba in 2011, owns a mobile and online payments network called Alipay that is used by more than half a billion people in China for everyday purchases and handles financial transactions on Alibaba’s e-commerce websites. Ant also makes loans to individuals and companies, sells insurance and investment products and has other financial businesses. It generated $2 billion in pretax profit last year. Tencent, which owns popular Chinese social-messaging app WeChat and a fast-growing payments network tied to it, has been eating away at Alipay’s market share.

The company’s latest capital raise is its third in four years, and the first to include investors outside of China. Some market participants expect Ant to launch an initial public offering as soon as early next year on exchanges in mainland China and Hong Kong.

If Alibaba’s 2014 IPO and postlisting performance are any guide, Ant’s IPO could be one of the largest in history. Alibaba’s shares have more than doubled since their public trading debut. Alibaba earlier this year said it would take a one-third stake in Ant in a transaction expected to close in the year’s second half.

Investors participating in Ant’s latest fundraising include private-equity firms Warburg Pincus and Carlyle Group LP, Singapore state investment company Temasek Holdings and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, according to people familiar with the matter.

Investment firm Tiger Global Management LLC dropped out of the fundraising because it found the terms unacceptable, according to people familiar with the matter.

Besides Tencent and JD.com, new investors in Ant will be restricted from putting money into Meituan-Dianping , a large Chinese online-services and food-reviews platform that may go public later this year, and e-commerce company Pinduoduo, according to people familiar with the matter. The companies are all fast-growing rivals to Alibaba, which owns shopping and auction websites, sells cloud-computing services and operates a food-delivery platform, and has stakes in scores of other companies and businesses.

An Ant spokesman declined to comment. “For a company that claims not to worry about us, they sure spend an awful lot of time worrying about us,” said a spokesman for JD.com, referring to the restrictions Ant is imposing on investors.

A few hot startups in past years have used similar tactics to prevent potential investors from funding their rivals. In 2015, Uber Technologies Inc. and its U.S. rival Lyft Inc. required potential investors to agree not to invest in competitors for a period—before seeing financial data on the companies during their fundraising efforts.

In China, such edicts aren’t unprecedented: A few years ago, prospective investors had to choose between providing funding for Uber’s China business and the company’s Chinese rival, now known as Didi Chuxing Technology Co. , according to people familiar with the matter. Didi later bought Uber’s China operations. To be sure, the scope of that restriction was narrower because it involved just two direct rivals.

Alibaba’s main rival Tencent has also imposed some restrictions on startups in which it has taken stakes. Some companies that accepted cash from Tencent have agreed in deal documents not to take money from or enter into strategic partnerships with Alibaba, The Wall Street Journal has reported.

A spokeswoman for Tencent said the company “has not imposed any blanket restrictions for the investors of our investee companies. We think such kinds of blanket restrictions are not fair to private companies and hurt investors.”

In Ant’s latest capital raise, investors that have already funded Tencent-backed startups have to abide by terms that preclude them from increasing their stakes in those firms, a person familiar with the matter said. They may be able to invest more money to maintain their percentage shareholding if the companies undertake new rounds of fundraising.

When it comes to Meituan-Dianping, however, investors won’t be allowed to provide more money to the lifestyle-services platform, according to a person familiar with the matter, because of the companies’ fierce rivalry. Alibaba once held a stake in Meituan-Dianping—now China’s largest online provider of movie ticketing, restaurant booking and other consumer services—and sold it in 2016, leading to Tencent’s becoming one of Meituan-Dianping’s main financial backers.

In private fundraisings, investment agreements signed by investors can contain so-called noncompete covenants. If investors breach those covenants, Ant could try to get an injunction to prevent them from putting money into Ant’s rivals, or sue them for damages, according to people familiar with such agreements.

Investment banks hoping to win potentially lucrative business from Ant or Alibaba have also had to minimize dealings with their rivals. For example, China International Capital Corp. originally had a spot arranging Meituan-Dianping’s coming IPO, according to people familiar with the matter. But because CICC is also working on Alibaba’s secondary listing in mainland China, Meituan-Dianping instead tapped Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the people said.
zyconoclast

#2716372, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:42 pm

Liddell acquisition plan against Liberal values: Frydenberg,/i>

But $10B on Snowy 2.0 is Liberal values.*

*I know the real purpose of this is to control water flows.
Shy Ted

#2716373, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:42 pm

Meghan Markle’s pot farmer nephew, 25, gets caught with a KNIFE ‘for his protection’ at London club hours after the royal wedding and blames TRUMP for saying capital was like a ‘war zone’

Keep up cousin Markle. Knives are so yesterday. Sulphuric acid is the new defence accessory now in London.
DrBeauGan

#2716379, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:47 pm

Meghan Markle’s pot farmer nephew, 25, gets caught with a KNIFE ‘for his protection’ at London club hours after the royal wedding and blames TRUMP for saying capital was like a ‘war zone’

Just the sort of people to join the royal fambly.
zyconoclast

#2716380, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:47 pm

Meghan Markle’s pot farmer nephew, 25, gets caught with a KNIFE ‘for his protection’ at London club hours after the royal wedding and blames TRUMP for saying capital was like a ‘war zone’

Tyler Dooley (above) is a legal pot farmer from Oregon. He was not invited to the royal wedding but flew to London and was busted with a knife by club bouncers hours after the ceremony

How did he get the knife past cutoms?
Did he go in the Jihad/Sikh no need to declare you knife line?
egg_

#2716381, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:48 pm

Meghan Markle’s pot farmer nephew, 25, gets caught with a KNIFE ‘for his protection’ at London club hours after the royal wedding and blames TRUMP for saying capital was like a ‘war zone’

That’s yer problem, right there.
candy

#2716383, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:49 pm

Meghan Markle’s pot farmer nephew, 25, gets caught with a KNIFE ‘for his protection’ at London club hours after the royal wedding and blames TRUMP for saying capital was like a ‘war zone’

Family can be so embarrassing.
zyconoclast

#2716384, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:50 pm

Who does Fraudenburger, the UN spiv, think he’s fooling?

The electorate in relation to Section 44 of the Constitution.
calli

#2716387, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:52 pm

On Facebook Hamas posted maps for their operatives showing the quickest routes from the border with Israel to Israelis’ homes, schools, and day-care centers near the border.

Despicable.

I had an argument with an idiot on the trip, asserting that Israel should give back the West Bank. If she had had her wish a year ago, we wouldn’t be touring there. But there was no reasoning with her, she was stuck in her false world.
nemkat

#2716388, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:55 pm

Alinta want Liddell for the same reason AGL won’t sell.
It’s worth more shut down.
We now know it’s worth more than $250 Mil. shut down to AGL.
Some people still think Tony Abbott is fair dinkum.
His disastrous 2 years as P.M. should disabuse everyone of that notion.
DrBeauGan

#2716389, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:55 pm

I had an argument with an idiot on the trip, asserting that Israel should give back the West Bank. If she had had her wish a year ago, we wouldn’t be touring there. But there was no reasoning with her, she was stuck in her false world.

I guess that’s one of the downsides of foreign travel, Calli.
OldOzzie

#2716390, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:55 pm

WSJ – FAA Moved Slower Than Usual on Engine Warning Ahead of Southwest Fatality
Lag between industry alert, inspection mandate underscores challenge of identifying serious hazards in era of unprecedented safety

Investigators have yet to issue their final report on a Southwest Airlines Co flight last month that ended in an emergency landing and a passenger’s death. But one thing is clear: Despite a warning about a suspect engine part nearly two years earlier, investigators didn’t mandate enhanced inspections for an unusually long time and acted only after the high-profile fatality.

Questions about the time it took regulators to mandate more comprehensive inspections—and whether an alternate response would have made a difference in uncovering what emerged as the greatest danger—remain unanswered.

More than any commercial aviation accident in recent years, circumstances surrounding last month’s events have spurred industry officials, regulators and independent experts to reassess the best way to identify, rank and combat risks in an industry where safety statistics have become so exemplary.

In the April accident, serious metal fatigue caused a single, fast-moving engine-fan blade to break into pieces at roughly 32,000 feet. The violent rupture ended up spewing remnants of the front engine cover into the plane’s wing and body, killing a passenger who was partly sucked out a window that had been destroyed by the debris.

A similar but nonfatal accident in August 2016 drew industry attention to the potential for blades in the engines to crack, after the engine maker quickly notified regulators and some airlines that it was working on stepped-up inspection procedures. Roughly seven months later, the engine maker began recommending ultrasound inspections, rather than just visual checks, for certain fan blades based on the number of flights in service.

Several months after the manufacturer’s initial recommendation, the Federal Aviation Administration proposed similar stepped-up checks. But the FAA was still weeks away from making those checks mandatory when last month’s fatal accident occurred. After that, some airlines accelerated voluntary inspections almost immediately, and the FAA quickly mandated comprehensive inspections, which are now under way.

That roughly 20-month interval from the August 2016 accident was more than twice as long as the average time lag between the industry’s first steps to raise concerns about serious engine malfunctions or defective parts to the FAA, and publication of final FAA inspection or replacement mandates to resolve the problems, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of federal safety documents.

A review of more than 100 engine-related safety rules—officially called airworthiness directives—since the beginning of 2015 indicates that on average final federal regulatory action occurred roughly nine months after the release of nonbinding industry safety bulletins. Nearly one-third of the FAA directives were published within five months of the bulletins. The FAA sometimes acts within days in rare emergency actions, instances not included in the analysis. The data covered engines installed on airliners, turboprops, private planes and helicopters, including internal parts and electronic controls.

An FAA spokesman earlier this month said there is no typical timeline for airworthiness directives, saying they are prioritized according to “the complexity of the issue, a risk assessment based on the likelihood of occurrence and the severity of the outcome.” He said other variables include costs along with “the number and type of comments we receive, how long it takes to respond to the comments and whether we make changes to the original proposal.” On Friday, the FAA said the agency concurred with the engine maker’s “proposed inspections and compliance time.”

The manufacturer, CFM International, a joint venture between General Electric Co. and France’s Safran SA, has said results from airline inspections around the world haven’t revealed anything warranting changes to the enhanced-inspection plans adopted after the deadly accident in April.

Anatomy of an Engine Failure

An engine fan blade came loose on Southwest flight 1380 causing the engine to fail and forcing an emergency landing.

CFM56-7B Engine

Engine Fan Blade

Came off and apparently hit the cowling, or outer cover of the engine. Blades can come off due to maintenance lapses, metal fatigue, defects or other reasons.

The cowling

Broke off and parts scattered

Southwest has said that before the accident, it complied fully with all FAA maintenance rules including repetitive visual tests relying on a dye to highlight surface cracks. Afterward, it rushed to conduct ultrasound inspections of all engines on its more than 700 planes.

It isn’t clear whether the accident would have been prevented, or the damage reduced, if the FAA had acted sooner on an initial inspection proposal it was weighing before the accident. The FAA has said the initial proposal itself didn’t focus on what later turned out to be the biggest potential hazard.

The proposal, issued in August 2017, wouldn’t have applied immediately to the plane involved in last month’s fatal accident, because it mandated ultrasound inspections based on the date of the last visual inspection of blades rather than the number of flights they had been in service. The most hazardous cracks can’t be detected visually, and the Southwest engine had been visually inspected fairly recently.

Some safety experts say the FAA’s timetable was understandable. For one, with an exemplary record stretching over two decades and more than 300 million flight hours, the engines had been considered among the industry’s safest and most reliable. Engine models with far fewer hours have experienced significantly more serious failures.

So far, emergency inspections prompted by last month’s engine breakup identified roughly a dozen suspect parts out of tens of thousands checked so far, though none appeared to pose an imminent flight hazard, according to people familiar with the details.

After examining more than 77,000 fan blades on CFM International engines that power Boeing Co. 737 jetliners world-wide, industry and federal experts said they haven’t found an exact recurrence of the April event.

The isolated parts that have been removed from engines as a result of the inspections are undergoing additional testing, according to Southwest Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly and other people with knowledge of the process. The focus, they said, is on checking seemingly benign coating imperfections, or to differentiate between damage caused by external sources such as rocks or other objects sucked in during takeoffs or landings and internal defects in the metal parts themselves.

Overall, more than 330,000 individual blades are estimated to be covered by U.S. and European inspection mandates, with most-used parts required to be checked first.

As they have after other airline fatalities, some critics blasted the FAA. Unprecedented low accident rates (this was the first fatality on a U.S. passenger airline since 2009) “have lulled us into complacency,” said Robert Clifford, a veteran plaintiff’s attorney who has litigated numerous major airline crashes. “We need to re-energize and reinvigorate inspection procedures.”

Agency supporters often credit nonpunitive collection of pilot incident reports, combined with close cooperation between airlines and regulators, for making engines increasingly safe.

“The true safety story of the last few decades has been the reliability of modern engines,” according to Kenneth Quinn, a lawyer and former senior regulator who has represented a number of engine manufacturers over the years.

Sometimes because of staffing constraints, inspectors rely on the airlines to rank hazards, says Al Diehl, a former military and commercial accident investigator. “Inspectors often act like coaches rather than cops,” says Mr. Diehl. It is likely, he said, that for FAA officials, the engine hazards “simply didn’t rise to the level requiring emergency action.”

Limited budget and staffing require regulators to concentrate on the greatest perceived safety threats, says consultant Bill Voss, a former international air-safety official. FAA managers “can’t focus on everything” as a priority, he said, “and still deal with the most important risks.”
Leigh Lowe

#2716393, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:01 pm

Meghan Markle’s pot farmer nephew, 25, gets caught with a KNIFE ‘for his protection’ at London club hours after the royal wedding and blames TRUMP for saying capital was like a ‘war zone’

And so it begins.
OldOzzie

#2716394, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:02 pm

Will the Mullahs’ Regime See Its 40th Anniversary?
DrBeauGan

#2716395, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:02 pm

Stimpson J. Cat
#2716362, posted on May 21, 2018 at 3:35 pm
Are you sure you’re not an atheist, demented banana stimpy?

Yes I am certain I’m not an Atheist.

Atheism is a gateway drug to Communism.

Everyone knows this.

Being a good catholic hasn’t saved m0nty from communism, stimps. It’s just changed what he calls it.
Makka

#2716398, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:04 pm

“I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes — and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.

Comey, Lynch et al , being sent to the Tower to confess to Sessions.

Does anyone really think that Trump doesn’t already have the evidence on them? That all those FBI and DOJ sackings, “retirements” and suspensions on the job were not accompanied by statements, evidence and confessions? Will Comey be sufficiently steadfast and loyal to the Kenyan to take the heat for him? Will Lynch take one for the Clinton Team?

This is just the start.
Dr Faustus

#2716399, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:05 pm

But the airhead sees herself as some sort of hybrid of the US First Lady and the teenage Queen Victoria at coronation, fighting da misogynists who didn’t want a gal on the throne.
She could fuck this up big time.

Princess Merkel may well fuck up, but it will probably have sweet tweet impact on the Monarchy.

During HM’s reign, the British public have comfortably digested Princess Margaret shagging an androgynous landscape gardner, Anne telling Fog Phillips to fackorf, Chas the tampon, Di rooting entire sporting teams and ending up as dead as Dodi alFayed, Fergie with her tits out having her toes sucked, Andrew consorting with a p3adophile, and Edward turning out with the IQ of a pot plant.
The Brits will love a loud, pushy Yank actress.

It might be a problem if the entire Cambridge household go down in a plane crash, but until then she (and, in due season, Prince Trayvon/Princess N-Dasha) are well removed from the Reserve Powers.
Makka

#2716400, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:06 pm

On Facebook Hamas posted maps for their operatives showing the quickest routes from the border with Israel to Israelis’ homes, schools, and day-care centers near the border

Clearly Facebook doesn’t consider this “hate speech”.
OldOzzie

#2716401, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:06 pm

What Obama and his political Choom Gang did is far worse than Watergate
DrBeauGan

#2716403, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:07 pm

Makka
#2716398, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:04 pm
“I hereby demand, and will do so officially tomorrow, that the Department of Justice look into whether or not the FBI/DOJ infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes — and if any such demands or requests were made by people within the Obama Administration!” Mr Trump wrote on Twitter.

Comey, Lynch et al , being sent to the Tower to confess to Sessions.

Does anyone really think that Trump doesn’t already have the evidence on them? That all those FBI and DOJ sackings, “retirements” and suspensions on the job were not accompanied by statements, evidence and confessions? Will Comey be sufficiently steadfast and loyal to the Kenyan to take the heat for him? Will Lynch take one for the Clinton Team?

This is just the start.

I hope so.

And you never know, this might be a way to turn m0nty into someone sane, like stimpy.
notafan

#2716406, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:09 pm

I don’t see how.

Arguing with idiots can happen anywhere, anytime.
DrBeauGan

#2716407, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:12 pm

Arguing with idiots can happen anywhere, anytime.

True, Notafan. But if they are part of your trip, it’s harder to be free of them.
Makka

#2716408, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:14 pm

And you never know, this might be a way to turn m0nty into someone sane, like stimpy.

mUnty isn’t insane. He’s a fkn idiot. Like all rank and file leftscum.
Leigh Lowe

#2716409, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:16 pm

What has Harry’s actions done for the standing of the Royals? One needs only read about the earlier brouhaha to see that it is a real issue within military circles.
Harry had a choice. I just believe he made the wrong one.

Shorter version.
She’s got him by the short, curly gingers.
I await their visit here for the Invictus Games.
Odds-on she’ll start spouting about the barrier reef or sheep on cruise ships or summink.
And, maybe not this time around, but I can see the Invictus Games eventually turning into a PC diversidee festa … Exhibit A – the fat lezzo who led the Anzac Day march this year quacking on about her “war wounds” (ie dodgy knees from ingesting too many pies).
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716410, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:19 pm

Being a good catholic hasn’t saved m0nty from communism, stimps. It’s just changed what he calls it.

Look, even Monty wouldn’t call himself a good Catholic.
A good Lesbian, sure.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716411, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:22 pm

Arguing with idiots can happen anywhere, anytime.

It’s why I hate mirrors.
There is always some f$cking crazy loon staring back at me looking to start a fight.
DrBeauGan

#2716412, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:23 pm

mUnty isn’t insane. He’s a fkn idiot. Like all rank and file leftscum.

😁 You don’t think he’s got a bit of the divine spark, then? Like MS13?

Perhaps you’re right. M0nty would probably vote for Pelosi given half a chance.
Leigh Lowe

#2716413, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:23 pm

During HM’s reign, the British public have comfortably digested Princess Margaret shagging an androgynous landscape gardner, Anne telling Fog Phillips to fackorf, Chas the tampon, Di rooting entire sporting teams and ending up as dead as Dodi alFayed, Fergie with her tits out having her toes sucked, Andrew consorting with a p3adophile, and Edward turning out with the IQ of a pot plant.

For all those many and varied peccadilloes, none of them was stupid enough to fuck up the fine balance between the monarchy and parliamentary government by sticking their beaks into contentious political issues of the day.
That will cause untold damage if she goes there (and is egged on by a MSM bent on taking down another institution)

It might be a problem if the entire Cambridge household go down in a plane crash, but until then she (and, in due season, Prince Trayvon/Princess N-Dasha) are well removed from the Reserve Powers.

That is true, but the Duke and Duchess of Kardashia are close enough to cause some aggro, particularly if the press insist on running with her every utterance.
Dr Faustus

#2716414, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:24 pm

Does anyone really think that Trump doesn’t already have the evidence on them? That all those FBI and DOJ sackings, “retirements” and suspensions on the job were not accompanied by statements, evidence and confessions?

No better time than now to commit a major Federal crime in the US.
The entire resources of the FBI/DoJ/CIA/ONA will be applied to sanitising and rearranging the paperwork in advance of any inquiry.

‘Counterfeiting and racketeering, you say? We’ll be right back to you about that in 2025.’
calli

#2716415, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:26 pm

We also had a retired ex-ABC, ALP j’list on the trip. He was quite interesting and very much worth talking to, even though our ideas were poles apart. Being old school, he was able to put up some decent arguments, but where Israel was concerned, the blinkers were well and truly on.

And Trumpetty, Trump, Trump, Trump of course.

So the conversation was turned to safer waters, one of which was opinion posing as news, which made his blood boil too.
DrBeauGan

#2716417, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:26 pm

Look, even Monty wouldn’t call himself a good Catholic.
A good Lesbian, sure.

You’re right of course. Lesbianity is a religion. And m0nty’s practically a bishop in it.
nemkat

#2716419, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:28 pm

Concerning that fat idiot Craig Laundy is talking about deregistering the CFMMEU.
Their members are the only people in the Private Sector enjoying any Wage Growth, but Laundy thinks it would be an electoral winner to go Union Bashing.
OneWorldGovernment

#2716420, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:31 pm

I can’t wait to see all the communist christians march on the white house to take back “Christ” from that evil Trump on May 24 2018.
DrBeauGan

#2716421, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:34 pm

calli
#2716415, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:26 pm
We also had a retired ex-ABC, ALP j’list on the trip. He was quite interesting and very much worth talking to, even though our ideas were poles apart. Being old school, he was able to put up some decent arguments, but where Israel was concerned, the blinkers were well and truly on.

And Trumpetty, Trump, Trump, Trump of course.

So the conversation was turned to safer waters, one of which was opinion posing as news, which made his blood boil too.

I quite like arguing with people I don’t agree with. I expect you’ve noticed. And I disagree with Makka, there are intelligent lefties. Although I agree with him that m0nty isn’t one of them.
Ƶĩppʯ (ȊꞪꞨV)

#2716422, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:34 pm

The answer is now obvious: to cover up their own election year shenanigans they thought would remain forever hidden in the inevitable Hillary Clinton victory.

All roads lead to the obamamama
OneWorldGovernment

#2716424, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:34 pm

What Obama and his political Choom Gang did is far worse than Watergate

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/may/20/barack-obama-and-his-political-choom-gang/
Makka

#2716426, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:38 pm

And I disagree with Makka, there are intelligent lefties.

Maybe you should read what I wrote and not what you interpret. I said he is rank and file leftscum. They are the idiots being herded around by their cunning traitorous elites, who are a lot sharper having risen like turds to float at the top of the sewer.
DrBeauGan

#2716427, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:39 pm

So the conversation was turned to safer waters, one of which was opinion posing as news, which made his blood boil too.

You are handicapped in arguing with lefties, Calli. You suffer from good manners.
DrBeauGan

#2716430, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:41 pm

Maybe you should read what I wrote and not what you interpret. I said he is rank and file leftscum. They are the idiots being herded around by their cunning traitorous elites, who are a lot sharper having risen like turds to float at the top of the sewer.

Fair enough. I have no problems with that. Good characterisation.
Nick

#2716431, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:44 pm

Odds-on she’ll start spouting about the barrier reef or sheep on cruise ships or summink.

Abbos Leigh, Abbos. I’ll bet money either she or a descendent from some Yugoslavian tribe will feel a special ‘connection’ to her, duskiness and all.
Snoopy

#2716432, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:46 pm

The FBI never bothered to test the computers for a hack. That task was left to CrowdStrike, a private contractor whose CTO and co-founder, Dmitri Alperovitch, is a Russian ex-patriot and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, a think tank with an anti-Russian agenda.

The Atlantic Council is funded by Ukrainian billionaire Victor Pinchuk, a $10 million donor to the Clinton Foundation. The fix was in. CrowdStrike dutifully reported that the Russians were behind the hack.

Unsurprisingly, Google is a major investor in CrowdStrike. That’s the Google that fights the good fight against ‘fake news’ and manipulates its search engine results in favour of ‘progressive’ causes and organisations.
DrBeauGan

#2716433, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:46 pm

Fair enough. I have no problems with that. Good characterisation.

Although there is the Steven Fry sort of leftie as well. He’s not much of a manipulator, and quite bright in an academic way. His problem isn’t lack of brainpower, it’s that he’s a moral squish.
calli

#2716434, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:48 pm

When does the Jerry Harvey Tax kick in? I thought it was June 30. One on-line seller appears to be collecting GST already.
calli

#2716435, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:48 pm

I delight in misspelling his name.
BrettW

#2716436, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:49 pm

The only reason the CFMEU members are getting good wage growth is because they extort it from other businesses both major and small.
stackja

#2716441, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:57 pm

Man who called Ohio cops about pig following him was suspected of being drunk

Ohio cops say they believed a man who called 911 to report a pig was following him home was drunk — but he turned out to be sober.

Police responded to the man’s call, thinking he was drunk and walking home from a bar, at 5:26 a.m. Saturday, according to the North Ridgeville Police Department.

An officer managed to get a hold of the pig, placed it in his cruiser and took it to a dog kennel in the station, police said.

Police said the pig was returned to its owner later in the day.
calli

#2716442, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:58 pm

The retired journo recommended a couple of books on Afghanistan – Goodbye Kabhul, Lamb and Return of a King, Dalrymple plus a chapter from Churchill’s memoirs. Any Cats read them?
nemkat

#2716443, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:58 pm

The only reason the CFMEU members are getting good wage growth is because they extort it from other businesses both major and small.

So what.
Even if that were true, it’s a State Government issue, and nothing to lose a Federal Election over, which is what will happen if they start a Union Bashing Campaign.

Turnbull went to the people in 2016 on reining in Union excesses.
2 years later, nothing has happened. Do you think voters will be fooled a second time?
Makka

#2716445, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:00 pm

Do you think voters will be fooled a second time?

Don’t be such an idiot. Voters are fooled ALL the time.
Leigh Lowe

#2716446, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:02 pm

Does anyone really think that Trump doesn’t already have the evidence on them? That all those FBI and DOJ sackings, “retirements” and suspensions on the job were not accompanied by statements, evidence and confessions? Will Comey be sufficiently steadfast and loyal to the Kenyan to take the heat for him? Will Lynch take one for the Clinton Team?

Of course.
So far we assume that all the leaking was in one direction for one purpose.
It would be naïve to assume that there aren’t one or two within the ranks who are leaking to the White House about what went on, motivated either by a sense of propriety or simply jail avoidance.
That is what Mueller is all about – keeping the lid on the powder keg and frightening off defectors.
nemkat

#2716449, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:04 pm

BrettW
#2716436
The only reason the CFMEU members are getting good wage growth is because they extort it from other businesses both major and small.
The major businesses are up to their necks in corruption. If they’ve got a problem, ring the cops.
As for small businesses working with large businesses and the CFMMEU, there’s the needy, and there’s the greedy.
If you’re greedy, hang around with pigs, and get bitten, how is that something the Federal Government should look into?
nemkat

#2716451, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:07 pm

Don’t be such an idiot. Voters are fooled ALL the time.

You mean you’re fooled all the time.
No surprises there, Makka.
OldOzzie

#2716452, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:07 pm

calli
#2716442, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:58 pm

The retired journo recommended a couple of books on Afghanistan – Goodbye Kabhul, Lamb and Return of a King, Dalrymple plus a chapter from Churchill’s memoirs. Any Cats read them?

Calli – Another Good Read

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (Kodansha Globe) Paperback – May 15, 1994
by Peter Hopkirk
DrBeauGan

#2716453, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:07 pm

calli
#2716442, posted on May 21, 2018 at 4:58 pm
The retired journo recommended a couple of books on Afghanistan – Goodbye Kabhul, Lamb and Return of a King, Dalrymple plus a chapter from Churchill’s memoirs. Any Cats read them?

I’ve read some of Churchill’s memoirs, long ago, and something old on Afghanistan, but nothing recent, Calli. It has always seemed to me a good place to stay away from. I’m not impressed by tribal societies generally. I much prefer civilisation.
Bruce of Newcastle

#2716454, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:08 pm

Goodbye Kabhul, Lamb and Return of a King, Dalrymple

I was wondering if that would be Theodore Dalrymple but alas he is William Dalrymple who is a Grauniad writer. I haven’t read either, but I’d be wary of any Grauniadian writing about colonial British Empire stuff.

Farewell Kabul by Christina Lamb looks to be autobiographical of her years in Afghanistan.

Neither wiki inspires me to a purchase.
OldOzzie

#2716456, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:15 pm

John Kerry Spits In Trump’s Face — We Will Not Go ‘America First’
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

#2716458, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:16 pm

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (Kodansha Globe) Paperback – May 15, 1994
by Peter Hopkirk

Highly recommended, indeed.
calli

#2716459, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:18 pm

He’s a boilerplate leftie, Bruce, so I’m not surprised. I’m cautious about spending hardearned on books that last half a chapter before being tossed. I might see if the library has copies. #cheapskate
None

#2716460, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:18 pm

So did the judge in Pell’s direction hearing grant a super injunction effectively not allowing any reporting of any aspect of his trials and not allowing the public to see the absolute corruption of the Victorian Police, Victorian DPP, the Victorian Judiciary, a couple of journalists and the abject fraudulent and petty accusations made by questionable accusers and their “supporters”?
stackja

#2716461, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:19 pm

Movie Kim 1950 featured the great game.
Snoopy

#2716463, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:20 pm

Breaking news
Almost 200 people who arrived in Australia for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games have since applied for protection visas

Who knew that over indulged members of elite Commonwealth Games sporting teams would be in such fear of their lives?
Makka

#2716464, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:20 pm

It would be naïve to assume that there aren’t one or two within the ranks who are leaking to the White House about what went on,

Here’s somewhat of a list of DOJ/FBI personnel changes of late. One or two? I think there’s a good deal more than that who will and are spilling their guts ie “cooperating” to avoid the Gitmo Hilton.;

James Baker – FIRED not resigned.
Mike Kortan, FBI Assistant Director for Public Affairs – FIRED
Josh Campbell, Special Assistant to James Comey – FIRED
David Laufman, Chief of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section NAT SEC – – FIRED
John Carlin, Assistant Attorney General – Head of DOJ’s National Security Division – FIRED
Sally Yates, Deputy Attorney General & Acting Attorney General – FIRED
Mary McCord, Acting Assistant Attorney General – Acting Head of DOJ’s National Security Division – FIRED
Bruce Ohr, Associate Deputy Attorney General – Demoted 2x
Rachel Brand, Associate Attorney General – No. 3 official behind Deputy AG Rosenstein – FIRED
Jim Rybicki, chief of staff and senior counselor – FIRED.
Andrew McCabe, deputy director – FIRED.
James Comey, director – FIRED.
Bill Priestap, Head of Counterintelligence and Strzok’s boss – power removed
Peter Strzok, Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence – power removed
Lisa Page, attorney with the FBI’s Office of the General Counsel – cooperating witness?
Leigh Lowe

#2716465, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:22 pm

Breaking news
Almost 200 people who arrived in Australia for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games have since applied for protection visas

Scots fleeing Nicola?
Makka

#2716467, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:25 pm

You mean you’re fooled all the time.
No surprises there, Makka.

No, I meant what I said; you’re an idiot.

What makes you think I cast a valid vote, numbnuts.
DrBeauGan

#2716468, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:26 pm

You don’t have to go to Afghanistan to see the mind-numbing awfulness of tribal culture. Any lefty group on any university campus will do. See the feminist hordes with their strange and disgusting ways, the Marxists and the post-modernists with their insane gobbledygook.

A revelation of the hells of tribalism.
Leigh Lowe

#2716469, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:26 pm

Here’s somewhat of a list of DOJ/FBI personnel changes of late. One or two? I think there’s a good deal more than that who will and are spilling their guts ie “cooperating” to avoid the Gitmo Hilton.;

I am not so much referring to those who have ben dragged out by the heels and given a statement to save their own arse.
I am sure there must be some within the DoJ/FBI who must have been suppressing a vomit reflex every day between 2008 and 2016 as the likes of Comey, Baker and Strzok strutted around talking up there liberal connections, and bragging about dismembering another Tea Party member.
cohenite

#2716470, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:27 pm

Alinta want Liddell for the same reason AGL won’t sell.
It’s worth more shut down.
We now know it’s worth more than $250 Mil. shut down to AGL.
Some people still think Tony Abbott is fair dinkum.
His disastrous 2 years as P.M. should disabuse everyone of that notion.

Right, so a recently revamped coal power station which can produce electricity for 2.7c kWh is no good. It is worth more to agl because they will collect more government subsidies for renewables which produce NO effective grid electricity at any price.
Shy Ted

#2716471, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:28 pm

Almost 200 people who arrived in Australia for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games have since applied for protection visas
Almost 200 people need to be arrested, deported and banned from ever entering the country again having lied about the purpose of their visit. And anyone involved in providing refuge to them after having disappeared need to join them in their sithole country of origin.
Makka

#2716472, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:31 pm

I am sure there must be some within the DoJ/FBI who must have been suppressing a vomit reflex

For sure and those people are needed to continue their work. But it takes time to identify the good guys and gals then take action of a legal nature to weed out the rotten apples. It’s going on as well at CIA, state and Fed judiciary and NSA etc. These are epic changes not just of people but also of culture within each bureaucracy.
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

#2716473, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:31 pm

Almost 200 people need to be arrested, deported and banned from ever entering the country again having lied about the purpose of their visit. And anyone involved in providing refuge to them after having disappeared need to join them in their sithole country of origin.

Hear, hear!
Bruce of Newcastle

#2716474, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:33 pm

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia

OldOzzie – That one sounds like fun. I’ve been reading late Tsarist Russia (Lieven, Stone) and not long ago read Fleming on the Lhasa expedition. All Cat recommendations!

And here it is! I love Kindles. Pity that Bezos is such a lefty.
Infidel Tiger 2.0 (Premium Content Subscribers Only)

#2716475, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:34 pm

Breaking news
Almost 200 people who arrived in Australia for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games have since applied for protection visas

Don’t they know this is a racist hellhole?
DrBeauGan

#2716477, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:36 pm

Here’s somewhat of a list of DOJ/FBI personnel changes of late. One or two? I think there’s a good deal more than that who will and are spilling their guts ie “cooperating” to avoid the Gitmo Hilton.;

In a just world, most of them wouldn’t be fired, they’d be executed for treason.
OldOzzie

#2716478, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:36 pm

calli
#2716459, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:18 pm

He’s a boilerplate leftie, Bruce, so I’m not surprised. I’m cautious about spending hardearned on books that last half a chapter before being tossed. I might see if the library has copies. #cheapskate

As a Cheapskate try free trial ePub

READS The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia PDF Epub by Peter Hopkirk

Read The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia online by Peter Hopkirk in PDF EPub Kindle and download other book formats.

Same for you

Bruce of Newcastle
#2716474, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:33 pm

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia

OldOzzie – That one sounds like fun. I’ve been reading late Tsarist Russia (Lieven, Stone) and not long ago read Fleming on the Lhasa expedition. All Cat recommendations!

And here it is! I love Kindles. Pity that Bezos is such a lefty.
egg_

#2716479, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:37 pm

Odds-on she’ll start spouting about the barrier reef or sheep on cruise ships or summink.

Abbos Leigh, Abbos. I’ll bet money either she or a descendent from some Yugoslavian tribe will feel a special ‘connection’ to her, duskiness and all.

Our biracial fauxborigines will be clamouring for attention, just like Pastor Curry-Up?
calli

#2716480, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:39 pm

Lol. More cheapskates! Thanks guys.
egg_

#2716481, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:40 pm

Van Wrongselen on Teh Dumb.
H B Bear

#2716482, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:42 pm

Idiocy squared.
egg_

#2716483, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:43 pm

Sheep shippers on the menu at Teh Dumb.
Makka

#2716484, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:45 pm

In a just world, most of them wouldn’t be fired, they’d be executed for treason.

There has to be a strategy in play. This not a random perp walk at the DOJ/FBI etc. While draining the swamp of the minions, Trump is going after the big fish by first scaring the life out of their soldiers and getting them to sing.

In a just world , we will see sentencing of Comey, Holder, Clapper, Brennan, Killary and the Kenyan. To get there, those below them must be sufficiently turned and the judicial process safe against derailment.
egg_

#2716485, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:46 pm

Justifying Pastor Curry’s speech.
Mark A

#2716486, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:46 pm

Bruce of Newcastle
#2716474, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:33 pm

And here it is! I love Kindles. Pity that Bezos is such a lefty.

I buy only from KOBO lately, the only credit card fraud I suffered originated from the other one.
(nobody else had my details ergo…)
Shy Ted

#2716487, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:46 pm

I do hope Princess Marxle’ idea of social justice is a $700,000 electric Aston Martin for everyone. Only I’ll have the V8. Because the V12 would be ostentatious.
DrBeauGan

#2716488, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:47 pm

egg_
#2716481, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:40 pm
Van Wrongselen on Teh Dumb.

You’re a fine and noble fellow, Egg, for exposing yourself to this crap for our sakes. I hope it doesn’t rot your mind.
Makka

#2716489, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:47 pm

In a just world , we will see sentencing of Comey, Holder, Clapper, Brennan, Killary and the Kenyan. +Lynch.
egg_

#2716490, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:48 pm

Curry wasn’t awkward, it was the audience’s fault!
OldOzzie

#2716491, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:49 pm

Bruce of Newcastle

you can bypass Bezoe

Book Depository has it for A$17.25 A$24.98
You save A$7.73
Free delivery worldwide

The Great Game

4.3 (4,618 ratings by Goodreads)
Paperback English
By (author) Peter Hopkirk

For nearly a century the two most powerful nations on earth, Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia, fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy struggle called it ‘The Great Game’, a phrase immortalized by Kipling. When play first began the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart. By the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India. This classic book tells the story of the Great Game through the exploits of the young officers, both British and Russian, who risked their lives playing it. Disguised as holy men or native horse-traders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence and sought the allegiance of powerful khans. Some never returned. The violent repercussions of the Great Game are still convulsing Central Asia today.
Leigh Lowe

#2716492, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:50 pm

For sure and those people are needed to continue their work. But it takes time to identify the good guys and gals then take action of a legal nature to weed out the rotten apples. It’s going on as well at CIA, state and Fed judiciary and NSA etc. These are epic changes not just of people but also of culture within each bureaucracy.

Have you noticed that even the worst of the worst on the left have given up on the line that “attacking Comey, Strzok et al is damaging morale and jeopardizing the good work of those in the field.”
Even they can see that horse is laying down in the back straight with it’s eyes rolled back in it’s head and it’s tongue hanging out.
egg_

#2716493, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:51 pm

Playing the race card over Curry – Warren Mundine says it was more the preaching style, not Curry’s colour, that was at odds. with the audience.
Leftoid PC virtue signalling bulldust, as usual – projection.
Chris

#2716496, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:51 pm

Purely coincidence, I ‘m sure, but Prince Harry married Megan on the anniversary of the day that his royal ancestor, Henry VIII, had Queen Ann Boleyn beheaded….

I suspect that the King’s Majesty, Henry By the Grace of God King England, Ireland and Partial Bits of France For a While would be graciously pleased to learn he has a living descendant.
Our forebears had to make do with descendants of Dutch and German kings.
JC

#2716497, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:51 pm

and Rosenstein. I really don’t like him much. Huma as well.

The one I want most is Brennan. He annoys me the most. After that, Comey.

On second thoughts Comey first for being a sanctimonious turd.

On third thoughts I really can’t decide. Have them all up on the same charges including Seth Rich’s murder.
DrBeauGan

#2716498, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:52 pm

Curry wasn’t awkward, it was the audience’s fault!

I watched him for several minutes. He was an embarrassment to anyone with half a brain. Hell, he was an embarrassment to the royal family.
Geriatric Mayfly

#2716499, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:52 pm

Return of a King, Dalrymple

An instructive and ‘entertaining’ read, full of political ebb and flow between the Muslims and the British, with the Indians on the fringes. With corpses piling up as various incidents unfold, and the Khyber Pass central to all comings and goings, it has a touch of boys’ own about it, which stirs the heart of those who hanker for the days of God, Queen and Country.
H B Bear

#2716500, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:53 pm

you can bypass Bezoe

Nope. Amazon own Book Depository. And Abebooks too I think.
egg_

#2716501, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:54 pm

Princess Marxle

That’s a keeper.

Princess Narxle?
JC

#2716502, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:54 pm

It’s funny how someone tweeted Brennan that he seemed awfully quiet of late .. after the new revelations… and then a few hours later he tweeted something about Trump.

It was like… who me, quiet? I’ll show you!
Mark A

#2716503, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:54 pm

OldOzzie
#2716478, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:36 pm

Sorry but no credit card number will I give, to sign up for a ‘free’ account.
Chris

#2716504, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:55 pm

I am sure there must be some within the DoJ/FBI who must have been suppressing a vomit reflex

But their first instinct and org culture is to protect the organisation, not serve the People under the Constitution.
Those fucks who ran Fast and Furious should be first against the wall.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716505, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:55 pm

As a Cheapskate try free trial ePub

gro.msilibom
OldOzzie

#2716506, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:55 pm

H B Bear
#2716500, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:53 pm

you can bypass Bezos

Nope. Amazon own Book Depository. And Abebooks too I think.

Bummer – but I still find Book Depository Good to buy from
Makka

#2716507, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:56 pm

and Rosenstein. I really don’t like him much.

I really don’t know about Rosenstein. I can’t see how he can be still in place UNLESS it’s with Trump’s blessing. Which to me means that of course there’s a lot more going on than we are allowed to see or understand at the moment. The release of the IG report should shed more light on that situation.
Pete of Perth

#2716508, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:56 pm

In other news.

Unemployed London Man Marries Successful Hollywood Actress

In a fairytale love story that has captured hearts across the world, a retired army officer from England has married a popular American actress in a glamorous ceremony watched by millions.

Jobless, and with few career prospects, the 33 year-old London man said he met the high-profile celebrity through an acquaintance and was swept off his feet.

In a story that reads more like a movie script, the unlikely couple hit it off, with the young man introduced to the actress’s friends and family.

“It’s every boy’s dream,” he said, adding that he will not have to worry about work ever again.
DrBeauGan

#2716509, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:56 pm

egg_
#2716493, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:51 pm
Playing the race card over Curry – Warren Mundine says it was more the preaching style, not Curry’s colour, that was at odds. with the audience.
Leftoid PC virtue signalling bulldust, as usual – projection.

I don’t give a damn about curry’s skin colour. What annoys me is his insulting cultural assumptions that we can’t think and it’s only the feelz that matter.
Bruce of Newcastle

#2716510, posted on May 21, 2018 at 5:57 pm

OldOzzie – It was A$13.99 at Amazon so I bought it. Hours of interesting reading for the price of a decent lunch!

Mark A – I’ve had that problem once but it appeared to be from a magazine subscription renewal. The bank didn’t charge me anything, gave me a new card and all has been well since then. I keep the limit low though.
JC

#2716511, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:01 pm

OldOzzie – It was A$13.99 at Amazon so I bought it. Hours of interesting reading for the price of a decent lunch!

Bruce,

WTF do you get a “decent lunch” for A$13.99

I can see you worked for a large corp, by putting A in front of the dollar sign. 🙂
egg_

#2716512, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:01 pm

In a story that reads more like a movie script…

Hmmm…
m0nty

#2716513, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:03 pm

I see the likes of Makka and JC are fully on board the #QAnon bandwagon. As predicted by me weeks ago.

Shine on, you crazy diamonds.
egg_

#2716514, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:04 pm

ABC24: massive Telstra 3G/4G outage today, Telstra getting ‘all their techs on it’.
457s strike again? (NOT a yolk).
Leo G

#2716515, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:05 pm

Top Democrat deems claims Trump campaign was spied on ‘nonsense’
Democratic Party Congressman for Hollywood Adam Schiff argues that the claim by the president, that there is a political spy embedded in the Trump campaign, is just another way of saying that there is not a political spy embedded in the Trump campaign.
“This is part of a string of meritless allegations from the beginning,” said the meretricious Mr. Schiff.
John Constantine

#2716516, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:06 pm

The New Great Game for central Asia is between caliph erdogans brother Nations Ottomania and China’s infrastructure budget.
Bruce of Newcastle

#2716517, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:06 pm

Return of a King, Dalrymple

An instructive and ‘entertaining’ read, full of political ebb and flow between the Muslims and the British, with the Indians on the fringes.

GM – From a modern historian who is a regular Guardian writer I fear a cross between Bandanna Man and the black armband view of British colonialism. Rather high risk. Although I’d be happy to be disabused by a Cat who has read it.

For the Poms in Afghanistan you can get Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King” free from Gutenberg. I remember when my mum took us to see the movie: Michael Caine and Sean Connery in pith helmets!
DrBeauGan

#2716518, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:06 pm

m0nty
#2716513, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:03 pm
I see the likes of Makka and JC are fully on board the #QAnon bandwagon. As predicted by me weeks ago.

Shine on, you crazy diamonds.

In due course, we shall all find out which is closer to the truth, m0nts, you or them. If it should be you, I’m willing to change my mind. How about you?
egg_

#2716519, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:06 pm

What annoys me is his insulting cultural assumptions that we can’t think…

Many an academic thinks the rest of us were dropped on our heads.
Shy Ted

#2716520, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:08 pm

On Rev Curry’ advice I’ve been practising what he preaches, the love thing, all day at work. Got my face slapped several times, kicked in the nuts once and HR want to see me tomorrow. Hallelujah!
DrBeauGan

#2716522, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:11 pm

Many an academic thinks the rest of us were dropped on our heads.

True. But not all. Almost all those in arts faculties perhaps.
calli

#2716524, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:13 pm

WTF do you get a “decent lunch” for A$13.99

Chez calli, you’d get smoked salmon with cream cheese and capers, chef’s salad with extra bocconcini and a nice bit of parmesan toast. For two.

Told youse I was a cheapskate.
Makka

#2716525, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:15 pm

That’s a very sick looking squirrel there,mUnty. Is that all you have?
Ƶĩppʯ (ȊꞪꞨV)

#2716526, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:15 pm

Democratic Party Congressman for Hollywood Adam Schifft argues that the claim by the president, that there is a political spy embedded in the Trump campaign, is just another way of saying that there is not a political spy embedded in the Trump campaign.

fixing
Mark A

#2716527, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:15 pm

Bruce of Newcastle
#2716517, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:06 pm
Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King”

Meeting on the level and parting on the square, as brothers in Masonry.
‘t was not a bad movie either.
Top Ender

#2716528, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:15 pm

So…are we better off with someone like Elizabeth II presumably having the trust of the armed forces so as to remove a government which is either corrupt or refusing to go,

OR

a new Republic with Kylie as President, having been voted in by the population, OR a new Republic with Bill Shorten as President, having been installed by Prime Minister Plibersek as a reward for having stepped sideways to give her the job. With Bandanna Man grinning gormlessly from behind Bill as his Special Advisor.
calli

#2716529, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:15 pm

I’ve read the Kipling. On the bookshelf with his other delights. If Mayfly says it’s interesting, I’ll have a look. Nothing wrong with another POV provided it’s well written.
egg_

#2716530, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:15 pm

Calls for international dark sky reserve in Central Australia
Bruce of Newcastle

#2716531, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:23 pm

JC – Sangas from a deli in Subi or basement Collins St or some place on Hay St. Taken back to desk and munched on over spreadsheets and computer models. I had a liking for the Han’s Cafés in Perth – yummy, cheap and fast, but don’t ever order red soup for lunch unless you are wearing a raincoat.
Stimpson J. Cat

#2716533, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:24 pm

#QAnon bandwagon

It’s not a bandwagon Monty.
It’s a caboose.
Hitched to the Trump Train.

Toot Toot!!!!
Armadillo

#2716534, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:25 pm

“This is part of a string of meritless allegations from the beginning,” said the meretricious Mr. Schiff.

Ouch.
Eyrie

#2716535, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:28 pm

Dark sky reservation – meh. As long as they don’t mind the Powerline constellation when we finally get around to the Satellite Power System.
Ƶĩppʯ (ȊꞪꞨV)

#2716537, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:33 pm

In a just world, most of them wouldn’t be fired, they’d be executed for treason.

Since the left love equality of cultures, what would the romans have done if they were trump.

Purge and execute.
Ƶĩppʯ (ȊꞪꞨV)

#2716538, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:35 pm

That’s a very sick looking squirrel there,mUnty. Is that all you have?

gaffer tape your squirrel before you jolly it monstie
Snoopy

#2716539, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:36 pm

Dutto has referred to Islamic State slavers as barbaric animals. Is there a Twitter storm?
egg_

#2716540, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:38 pm

With Bandanna Man grinning gormlessly from behind Bill as his Special Advisor.

Backed up by Cate McGregor.
Atoms for Peace

#2716541, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:38 pm

We have a dark sky reserve. SA on blackout days.
Snoopy

#2716542, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:41 pm

Prue Lewarne on SBS is outraged by Trump seeking an investigation into Obama’s spying on the Trump campaign.
OldOzzie

#2716543, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:44 pm

egg_
#2716530, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:15 pm

Calls for international dark sky reserve in Central Australia

Middle of Canning Stock Route not bad – or Rig Road, Simpson Desert end of November – not a lot of traffic

Getting to Maralinga on the Bucket List

Renting as usual from Travel Car Centre just down the road – (4 times so far- 4.5L V8 Troopy Diesel) rather than “Dress up Barbie doll – 1994 Series 80 Toyota Landcruiser – 4.5l Petrol EFi – keep for Victorian High Country and NSW Trips
notafan

#2716544, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:45 pm

200 applied for asylum and 50 on the lam
Atoms for Peace

#2716545, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:45 pm

My new insult for anyone who hijacks a meeting. Are you Episcopalian?
Bruce of Newcastle

#2716546, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:48 pm

Dark sky reservation

This was an interesting finding I saw the other day:

Team makes breakthrough in understanding rare lightning-triggered gamma-rays

In the western Utah desert, the Telescope Array sprawls across an area the size of New York City, waiting for cosmic rays. The facility detects the high-energy particles that collide with Earth’s atmosphere constantly; the cosmic rays trigger the 500-plus sensors once every few minutes.
…
“What’s really cool is that the Telescope Array was not designed to detect these,” said lead author Rasha Abbasi, researcher at the High-Energy Astrophysics Institute and the Department of Physics & Astronomy at the U. “We are 100 times bigger than other experiments, and our detector response time is much faster. All of these factors give us the ability that we weren’t aware of—we can look at lightning in a way that nobody else can.”
…
“It was BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM. Like, four or five triggers of the detectors occurring within a millisecond. Much faster than could be expected by cosmic rays,” said John Belz, professor of physics at the U and principal investigator of the National Science Foundation-funded Telescope Array Lightning Project. “We realized eventually that all of these strange events occurred when the weather was bad. So, we looked at the National Lightning Detection Network and, low and behold, there would be a lightning strike, and within a millisecond we would get a burst of triggers.”

There you go – every time there’s a lightning storm you are likely being blasted by gamma rays, and no one knew this until they stumbled upon it recently.
cohenite

#2716548, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:52 pm

There you go – every time there’s a lightning storm you are likely being blasted by gamma rays, and no one knew this until they stumbled upon it recently.

Good, I’d really like to turn into the Hulk.
JC

#2716549, posted on May 21, 2018 at 6:55 pm

Good, I’d really like to turn into the Hulk.

‘course you would.