Open Forum: January 9, 2021

Posted on 12:01 am, January 9, 2021 by Sinclair Davidson
This entry was posted in Open Forum. Bookmark the permalink.

4,006 Responses to Open Forum: January 9, 2021

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  3. Rockdoctor
    #3715995, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:02 am

    meh 2 already lurking…

  4. Rockdoctor
    #3715996, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:05 am

    Bugger, green ribbon instead…

  6. Gavin R Putland
    #3716001, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:14 am

    And now for something completely different.  On the Greek Orthodox calendar, the day just ended was the feast day of St George of Hozeva, whose entry in the Synaxarion says:

    Saint George lived about the beginning of the ninth century in Palestine, in a certain monastery called Hozeva, which lies in a great ravine between Jerusalem and Jericho. …

  7. Gab
    #3716005, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:22 am

    Well, the dogs of war have been unleashed. Happy 2021.

  8. Top Ender
    #3716016, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:38 am

    Border farce proves the national cabinet is a joke

    JANET ALBRECHTSEN

    The performance of the premiers and the Prime Minister have ensured that — just a week into 2021 — many of us are feeling like it’s going to be Groundhog Year.

    It is terrific news that Scott Morrison and his Health Minister, Greg Hunt, have responded to pressure, agreeing to roll out the Pfizer vaccine to vulnerable Australians earlier. But why the political games of delay and obfus­cation? Until their timeline announcement on Thursday, Morrison and Hunt had given us no reason to explain why the timetable could not be expedited once the vaccine was approved by the Therapeutic Drugs Administration. Their silence left us in the dark, needlessly.

    It was even more baffling to watch the Prime Minister try to deflect attention from his delayed timetable by claiming that our close ally, Britain, started administering vaccines without conducting basic batch tests.

    During his press conference to announce a February start date, Morrison failed to explain why circumstances had changed from a week ago when he said that anything earlier than a March rollout would be “dangerous”. The only explanation from Morrison and Hunt — that they want to under-promise and over-deliver — is simply a political strategy that suits them. It is not a sound policy framework that put the interests of Australians first.

    Sadly, a more rapid vaccine rollout won’t change the continuing hysteria, confusion, cruelty and incompetence of some premiers over state borders. Right now, thousands of Australians are locked out of their own states, unable to return without an exemption. Bureaucracies that have had months to get systems in place to allow people to get home in the case of border closures have failed to keep up.

    Put this in context. As of Friday, there were four new cases of community transmission in NSW, one in Queensland and zero new cases in Victoria and elsewhere. That’s zero new community cases in six out of the eight states and territories.

    Premiers Daniel Andrews, Steven Marshall, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mark McGowan should hang their heads in shame. The mishandling of state borders, not COVID-19, is a national crisis.

    And instead of the constant self-congratulation from Morrison and Hunt about their own ­performance, they ought to be working harder to help end the border fiasco. When the Morrison government squibbed its responsibility to bring home tens of thousands of Australians stranded overseas, it set a precedent for premiers to lock out Australians from their own states.

    It is true that Morrison cannot force state leaders to do anything. But federalism has always relied on federal leadership to drive co-operation among the states and territories to serve the national ­interest.

    Here is a tiny snapshot of heartache caused by their poor political leadership. On December 31, South Australian Premier Steven Marshall announced a hard border closure with NSW due to a minor breakout of COVID in the Premier State. That same day, a pregnant Adelaide woman and her partner, who had been holidaying on the NSW south coast, packed up their belongings and started their 15-hour journey home via the shortest route through Victoria. Police turned them away at the Victorian checkpoint. They were forced to bypass Victoria and take a 150km road from Wentworth in the far southwest corner of NSW to Renmark in SA, most of it unsealed.

    A punctured tyre. A miscarriage under a eucalyptus tree in a gully. Police at the SA checkpoint interested only in checking where in NSW the couple had been.

    This is Australia in 2021.

    In Victoria, the Andrews government announced that no one from NSW would be allowed to enter the state from January 2. Yet a Sydney couple who flew into Melbourne the day before with a travel permit (they own a business in Melbourne) were forced into hotel quarantine. They were not given the option of getting on a flight home. They were released on Friday, after seven days of wrongful detention.

    Last weekend, the Andrews government told Victorians to race back to Victoria if they were holidaying in NSW and Queensland to avoid the Victorian border closing on them too. No rest stops overnight with the family. Take a toilet break, get a drink, then keep driving. Acting Premier Jacinta Allen said Victorians were warned that this could happen.

    In other words, Victorians can no longer enter their own state, unless they have an exemption or are essential workers. As of Friday, there were 4000 applications for exemptions waiting to being processed, with only 579 approved. If Victorians were warned to plan for border closures, then so were Victorian bureaucrats. So why the ­bureaucratic hold-up?

    Closing borders and locking down people may have made sense early on — but 10 months later, it is a sign of failure, not success. Western Australia locked itself away from most of the country for nine months and continues to hit the panic button when there is a handful of cases in another state. The Premier said he would not be holidaying in any other part of Australia over the Christmas-new year break. Is he oblivious to the fact that millions of Australians simply want to be reunited with their families?

    Marshall locked down his entire state, even banning people from exercising for an hour, within hours of a few COVID-19 cases arising in one part of Adelaide. Marshall’s actions were a national embarrassment, and a telling contrast to NSW Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian, who has managed the pandemic with far more proportionate policy and common sense.

    Queensland has played political border wars with NSW, preventing people from regional border towns in NSW from using a hospital just across the border. Palaszczuk said: “People living in NSW, they have NSW hospitals; in Queensland, we have Queensland hospitals — for our people.”

    Her wicked parochialism ignores the fact that Australian ­taxpayers across the country contributed almost $5bn to Queensland hospitals last financial year. On Friday morning, Palaszczuk locked down greater Brisbane for three days after recording a single case of the new UK strain. The Premier said: “Think of it as a long weekend at home.” Too bad if you rely on a weekend job to pay the bills. Then all the states and territories declared Brisbane a hotspot and imposed travel restrictions.

    There is an irrefutable and central truth that explains the border mayhem of 2020, and why it will continue in 2021. The premiers who have inflicted the most confusion and pain on their people and whipped up the greatest amount of hysteria have little faith in their state’s ability to manage effective testing and contact-­tracing systems to deal with the smallest outbreaks. That raises the real prospect of more border mayhem in response to more sporadic cases of a virus that will linger long after a vaccine has been rolled out.

    The chaos around borders is a stark reminder that Morrison’s big idea of a national cabinet for dealing with COVID-19 was the biggest policy fizzer of 2020. And nothing has changed in 2021. Despite Australians being stranded outside their own states, national cabinet was not due to meet for another month. And there are no plans to discuss state borders.

    Morrison is good with symbolism, like wearing an Australian flag on his mask. But his national cabinet risks being remembered as a lightweight operation that dealt only with the no-brainer issues. Like Friday’s “urgent” meeting where national cabinet agreed on measures to deal with the more contagious strain of coronavirus.

    To be sure, securing common agreement about borders is a more difficult issue. It’s also true that Queensland voters have indicated that they don’t mind being subjugated by a parochial Premier who plays politics with the border.

    The same will likely happen in WA at the state election in March. It is a sobering reminder of two ­realities: first, we get the government we deserve; and secondly, a poor opposition makes it much easier for a lousy government to get re-elected.

    That said, wasn’t the point of national cabinet to work out the sticky issues among states and territories rather than just convening a get-together for the cameras to rubber stamp the easy decisions?

    Scientists have been working day and night to come up with lifesaving vaccines, yet bureaucrats and politicians cannot work out a sensible national definition of a hotspot, nor agree to common rules around border closures. Pick a number, any number, say 40, 50 or 60 live community cases that trigger a border closure so that Australians can get on with their lives with greater certainty.

    Sadly, national cabinet may become a showcase for Morrison’s governing skills where he is slated as more middle management than leader. And don’t the premiers know it.

    Oz

  11. Dave in Marybrook
    #3716021, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:44 am

    Good article, TE
    I am going to miss Albrechtsen now that I’m not buying the Oz no more.

  12. Struth
    #3716023, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:45 am

    Is it just me or have others noticed the bullshit ramping up to eleventy the minute they were sure Trump was gone.
    In Less then 24 hours Brisbane is in complete Lock down (it will go longer than three days), everyone in masks, they’ve found the black death in the sewerage in my area (sorry I had a hard night) so we expect to be pushed back into our cells from the exercise yard (no one is free) The NT has closed it’s borders, Sco Mo assures us we’ll all be tagged, er, vaccinated, soon, so they can control everything we do digitally, and he has stuck the flight crews in masks so when landing, the pilot can ask the co pilot, “thid you poo tha wheelths doon”, through a muffling mask of obedience.
    The media has gone into a new propaganda fear campaign, as this covid has a cockney accent and likes pork pies.
    The Indian Cricket team wants to just get outa here, claiming you bloody white peeple arrre all insane, while wobbling their heads disapprovingly.
    They’re spot on the money.
    And this while Trump is actually still in office.
    God help the world after the inauguration of the first Alzheimer’s President and Chinese agent of the USA.
    At least I have the satisfaction in knowing the useless idiots of the left will now really get to reap what they have sown.

    The tone of both Palaschook and Sco mo are more unapologetic, they’re just barking orders now, like it or lump it.

  13. Leigh Lowe
    #3716024, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:56 am

    The Indian Cricket team wants to just get outa here, claiming you bloody white peeple arrre all insane, while wobbling their heads disapprovingly

    Jeez.
    Cricket tragic!

  14. Gab
    #3716026, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:10 am

    Better get used to a permanent pandemic, sheeples.

  15. ArthurB
    #3716028, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:13 am

    First!!! First time evah.

  16. Salvatore, Social Distance Martyr
    #3716029, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:20 am

    Wow, I’m first… first time!

  17. BrettW
    #3716031, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:23 am

    Excellent article by Janet A.

  18. Salvatore, Social Distance Martyr
    #3716033, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:24 am

    Is it just me or have others noticed the bullshit ramping up to eleventy the minute they were sure Trump was gone.

    It is not just you.

  19. twostix
    #3716034, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:24 am

    It’s going to get absolutely savage once the “vaccines” rollout, people refuse to get them and they start imprisoning suburbs with zero notice while blaming “anti-vaxxers” for ‘outbreaks’.

    It’s honest to god going to get ugly, judging from the north korean style gushing compliance I saw today. The state will be absolutely vicious, at least some people will be forcefully vaccinated and the mob will bay for blood of anyone who simply says slow down.

    On the flip side, the motorway was jam packed with people fleeing the impeding “lockdown” so either there’s a massive hypocrisy at work, or there’s a pretty solid swathe of the population who think it’s bullshit and are ready to go at a moments notice.

  20. Knuckle Dragger
    #3716037, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:35 am

    JD,

    That was ten trilionty times better than that vomitous cover Shannon Pass-The-Orchy-Bottle Noll scrabbled together from bits of his own excreta.

    Bravo, sir.

  21. Knuckle Dragger
    #3716039, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:39 am

    ‘there’s a pretty solid swathe of the population who think it’s bullshit and are ready to go at a moments notice.’

    An ad hoc straw poll of Vicco people I know and speak to indicates that no small amount of them are ready to pack and leave, never to return. Selling up, closing businesses, the lot.

    Dunno if Queensland’s the top of the list any more. Years back it was the go-to because durries were cheap.

  22. Salvatore, Social Distance Martyr
    #3716042, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:50 am

    Dunno if Queensland’s the top of the list any more. Years back it was the go-to because durries were cheap.

    Well, Joh always did say “People don’t come here just for the sunshine” 😊

  23. JD
    #3716043, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:51 am

    Knuckle Dragger
    #3716037, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:35 am

    Agree KD. But Shannon is symptomatic of all the bloody groupies out there. It is all about it isn’t fair and what about me, whether First Nations, LGBTs, the unmentionable religous group, unions, single mums, Premiers, Tassie Senators, kookas and magpies in New Castle.. what about me… Really, the sound of Australia going down the gurgler. Shannon fits the bill. OK, maybe not the birdies in New Castle 🙂

  24. jupes
    #3716044, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:51 am

    From the article posted by TE above:

    It is not a sound policy framework that put the interests of Australians first.

    There is hardly any policy that puts the interests of Australians first. Climate change, energy, immigration, defence, health … you name it.

    They are governing ruling for the elites and special interests.

  25. Salvatore, Social Distance Martyr
    #3716045, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:56 am

    Shannon Noll offered to punch Wil Anderson in the head.
    (exact wording was to the effect that he’d shut Anderson’s big mouth for him)

    Thus Shannon Noll gets cut a helluva lot of slack for other things.

  26. Winston Smith
    #3716047, posted on January 9, 2021 at 2:04 am

    Gab:

    Well, the dogs of war have been unleashed. Happy 2021.

    “All warfare is based on deception. Therefore, when capable, feign incapacity; when active, inactivity. When near, make it appear that you are far away; when far away, that you are to lure him; feign disorder and strike him. When he concentrates, prepare against him; where he is strong, avoid him. Anger his general and confuse him. Pretend inferiority and encourage his arrogance.”

    President Trump appears weak and defeated.
    Pelosi and Biden appear to be strong and in control.
    One thing I’ve noticed about President Trump is that he is a student of Sun Tzu.
    He is not dead, he is resting – probably pining for the fjords…
    Never give up, never give in.

  44. Simple Simon
    #3716072, posted on January 9, 2021 at 5:24 am

    Top Ender
    #3716016, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:38 am

    JANET ALBRECHTSEN
    It is terrific news that Scott Morrison and his Health Minister, Greg Hunt, have responded to pressure, agreeing to roll out the Pfizer vaccine to vulnerable Australians earlier.

    Janet Albrechtsen’s criticism of the border closures is fair and reasonable, but her lauding as ‘terrific news’ the Government’s caving into ‘pressure’ to ‘roll out’ the Pfizer vaccine earlier is not. Rather, it shows the intellectual mess we have been driven into by hysteria over this coronavirus, hysteria whipped up and continuing to be whipped up by irresponsible media.

    Even back in March when the media were telling us that Italy was an apocalyptic hellscape of incomprehensible death it was reported by the Istituto Superiore di Sanita (ISS), the leading technical-scientific body of the Italian National Health Service, that:

    the median age of death was 80.5 years* (note: Italy’s average life expectancy at birth in 2015 (i.e., for babies born in 2015 and not 80 years ago, when life expectancy was much lower) was 82.6†), and

    48.5% of those dying had three or more pre-existing pathologies*.

    As has been known for a long time now, about 80% of people who test positive will have no symptoms (i.e., in any other illness would not be considered ‘sick’), and about another 15% will have only mild symptoms such as those associated with at most a heavy cold (the sniffles, etc.), leaving only about 5% who will suffer serious illness. This does not support the idea of mass vaccination of the entire population. Even more so when we consider that those aged less than 50 have virtually nothing to worry about unless they have pre-existing pathologies that render them vulnerable to this particular virus.

    And before anyone wails about asymptomatic transmission, please read and digest
    Cao, S., Gan, Y., Wang, C. et al. Post-lockdown SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid screening in nearly ten million residents of Wuhan, China. Nat Commun 11, 5917 (2020), which found no positive tests among close contacts of asymptomatic cases in what was basically a total population sample (9,899,828, or 92.9% of the population of Wuhan). I repeat, no (none, nought, nil) cases of transmission among even close contacts of asymptomatic ‘cases’. Follow the science, as they say.

    Vaccines are being hyped up, even by Ms Albrechtsen, even though for most people they are quite unnecessary, of dubious efficacy (even their manufacturers have admitted this publicly), highly experimental in method (mRNA modification) and of unknown safety (having had the normal testing time reduced).

    The government giving in to ‘pressure’ on this is not terrific news; quite the opposite.

    *ISS report: Report sulle caratteristiche dei pazienti deceduti positivi a COVID-19 in Italia Il presente report è basato sui dati aggiornati al 17 Marzo 2020
    †Average life expectancy in Italy:
    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-at-birth-oecd?country=~ITA
    which uses OECD figures.)

  45. Simple Simon
    #3716073, posted on January 9, 2021 at 5:28 am

    @John Bayley #3714044, January 7, 2021 at 8:56 pm

    Many thanks, John. Your help is greatly appreciated.
    You must be happy if you got into BTC at $10 and it is now $48K!

  46. egg_
    #3716075, posted on January 9, 2021 at 5:34 am

    Janet Albrechtsen’s criticism of the border closures is fair and reasonable, but her lauding as ‘terrific news’ the Government’s caving into ‘pressure’ to ‘roll out’ the Pfizer vaccine earlier is not. Rather, it shows the intellectual mess we have been driven into by hysteria over this coronavirus, hysteria whipped up and continuing to be whipped up by irresponsible media.

    Wymminses standing on chairs looking foe a “magic bullet”?

  47. bespoke
    #3716076, posted on January 9, 2021 at 5:36 am

    notafan
    #3715539, posted on January 8, 2021 at 7:40 pm
    Family should stay off social media.

    Its not an essential part of mourning a loved one.

    Verry good advice cheers.
    At the begging of the darkest of months I made it clear to all this would not be a heathy thing to do. Fortunately I had friends who were on social media with the courage to worn me of any slipping.

  48. egg_
    #3716078, posted on January 9, 2021 at 5:39 am

    Here’s 5 criteria:

    8th Dan
    #3406240, posted on April 11, 2020 at 6:38 pm
    Sure … happy to play.

    1. w.a.n.a.k.a
    2. f.r.o.s.t.b.i.t.e
    3. d.i.d.n.’.t.s.e.r.v.e.a.n.y.w.h.e.r.e
    4. d.o.d.g.e.d.d.e.p.l.o.y.m.e.n.t.
    5. c.o.w.a.r.d

    /Cate

  51. Mark A
    #3716082, posted on January 9, 2021 at 6:08 am

    Something a bit lighter,

    A rich Arab walks into a bar and is about to order a drink when he sees a guy close by wearing a Jewish cap, a prayer shawl/tzitzis
    and traditional locks of hair.

    He doesn’t have to be an Einstein to know that this guy is Jewish.
    So, he shouts over to the bartender so loudly that everyone can hear, “Drinks for everyone in here, bartender, but not for the Jew over there.”
    Soon after the drinks have been handed out, the Jew gives him a big smile, waves at him, then says,

    “Thank you!” in an equally loud voice.

    This infuriates the Arab.
    He once again loudly orders drinks for everyone except the Jew.
    As before, this does not seem to bother the Jewish guy. He continues to smile, and again yells, “Thank you!”

    The Arab asks the bartender, “What the hell is the matter with that Jew? I’ve ordered two rounds of drinks for everyone in the bar but him,
    and all the silly bugger does is smile and thank me. Is he nuts?”

    “Nope,” replies the bartender. “He owns the place.”

  52. Mark A
    #3716083, posted on January 9, 2021 at 6:19 am

    Oh bugger my joke contained the forbidden words, never mind it was lame enough.😥😮😪

  53. Petros
    #3716087, posted on January 9, 2021 at 6:45 am

    If they impeach Trump will he be able to present the evidence of election fraud then?

  54. feelthebern
    #3716090, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:01 am

    Glenn Greenwald killing it on twitter overnight.

  55. miltonf
    #3716091, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:04 am

    Great post Simple Simon. thanks!

  56. 132andBush
    #3716092, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:05 am

    @ Simple Simon
    Janet Albrechtsen’s criticism of the border closures is fair and reasonable, but her lauding as ‘terrific news’ the Government’s caving into ‘pressure’ to ‘roll out’ the Pfizer vaccine earlier is not. Rather, it shows the intellectual mess we have been driven into by hysteria over this coronavirus, hysteria whipped up and continuing to be whipped up by irresponsible media.

    100%

    This has always been driven by the FMIC. (Holy crap, if nothing else will rot your brain try breakfast TV).

    The people in our society who aspire to leadership, who crawl over the carcasses of political foes and friends alike and get to power have had no greater opportunity to lead than in the last 11 months.

    But what have we had?

    A barren wasteland of virtue signalling and arse covering.

  57. Mark M
    #3716093, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:08 am

    Norwegian Nursing Home Patients Dead After Receiving First Dose Of Pfizer COVID Vaccine

    “We have to assess whether the vaccine is the cause of death, or if it is a coincidence that it happened soon after vaccination,” Medical Director Steiner Madsen said in a statement to the press.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/norwegian-nursing-home-patients-dead-after-receiving-first-dose-pfizer-covid-vaccine

    COVID-19 vaccines may not work as well against South African variant, experts worry

    https://www.livescience.com/south-africa-variant-coronavirus-vaccines.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=dlvr.it

    qld government bans taking HCQ as a preventitive measure for covid-19 and imposes a $1334 fine and 6 months jail

    You are not allowed to take hydroxychloroquine as a preventative measure for COVID-19.

    https://www.qld.gov.au/health/conditions/health-alerts/coronavirus-covid-19/current-status/public-health-directions/prescribing,-dispensing-or-supply-of-hydroxychloroquine-direction

  58. 132andBush
    #3716098, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:27 am

    Any money the “NEW MUTANT STRAIN”!!! (TM) is even less deadly than the non deadly one we already have.

  59. Top Ender
    #3716099, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:35 am

    Police leave NT beat in droves
    JUDITH AISTHORPE

    TWENTY-FIVE cops have left the NT Police Force since October 1 and the NT Police Association is warning more will leave unless morale and leave entitlements are addressed.

    NTPA president Paul McCue said morale was low due to the challenging times officers had faced as well as leave entitlements being restricted because of COVID-19 demands.

    “Morale has definitely taken a hit, made worse given the limited leave and time off they have been able to access since the onset of COVID-19,” Mr McCue said.

    “The uncertainty on when members can take leave is also having a negative impact, with officers not knowing what leave they will be able to access at this time for the year ahead.”

    Mr McCue said eyebrows had been raised at the decision for Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker to take weeks of leave, while cops on the ground had not had that luxury.

    “Officers have made significant comment to our office regarding the length of time Mr Chalker has taken off, particularly given the many officers who had their leave cancelled or reduced significantly,” he said. “It has certainly raised many eyebrows given the impact reduced leave has had on our frontline.”

    Acting Commissioner Michael Murphy thanked officers for their hard work over the past year.

    “Our police officers are a highly committed workforce who have been asked to take on new tasks such as serving at border control points at numerous remote locations across the Territory where no infrastructure existed,” he said.

    “And they’ve had leave cancelled or delayed to ensure we have the resources available for the continued protection of Territorians.

    “Nearly all other jurisdictions are currently recruiting and it’s a competitive market for law enforcement recruits.”

    He said the force’s recruitment program “planned to maintain a force that will serve and protect all Territorians into the future” with constable squads to graduate in March and April.

    Mr McCue said the addition of the new recruits would not be felt for months.

    He also flagged concerns around the loss of experience as older cops left the force.

    “It is not just the numbers leaving, it is the experience on the ground which is having an effect. This must be a concern for government,” he said.

    NT News print edition

  60. Mark M
    #3716101, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:37 am

    The World Economic Forum has released its Elitist Davos Agenda:

    “The Davos Agenda will also mark the launch of the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset Initiative and begin the preparation of the Special Annual Meeting in the spring.
    Each day will focus on one of the five domains of the Great Reset Initiative:”

    https://www.weforum.org/events/the-davos-agenda-2021/about

    2017: Donald Trump’s inauguration: what they had to say at Davos

    Meg Whitman, CEO of Hewlett Packard Enterprise:

    “The election didn’t go the way I wanted, but we have got to give our new president the benefit of the doubt.”

    John Kerry, US Secretary of State under President Obama:

    “I don’t believe Trump will reverse my achievements.

    Take Iran: I bet you that our friends and allies will get together and that Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain will say, you know what, this is a good deal, we’re going to keep it.”

    https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/01/donald-trumps-inauguration-what-they-had-to-say-at-davos/

  61. 1735099
    #3716102, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:38 am

    Great cartoons today.
    Chip Bok nails it, but Branco should have put Trump behind the tree.
    He bailed in the opposite direction after telling his acolytes that he would march with them to the capitol.

  62. Anne
    #3716103, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:41 am

    Like Romney a few days ago, Lindsey Graham being harassed at the airport. Police either arresting him or escorting him to the exit. 🤷🏼‍♀️

    What’s with these politicians flying commercial?

    https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1347617772281466880?s=21

    There will come a time when they won’t be able to walk down the street.
    – Q

  63. Steve trickler
    #3716106, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:47 am

    Short Film. 17:40 ( :



  64. Top Ender
    #3716107, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:48 am

    Alleged bombing organiser released
    FINN MCHUGH

    THE alleged mastermind of the Bali bombings has been released from jail in Indonesia after completing a terror-related sentence.

    Notorious cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, 82, was considered the spiritual leader of Jemaah Islamiah (JI), the South-East Asian Islamist group behind the Bali bombings.

    Indonesian authorities confirmed earlier this week the preacher would be released “in accordance with the expiration date and the end of his term”.

    In October 2002, a suicide bomber detonated inside the Paddy’s Bar nightclub in Kuta, a tourist hot spot in Bali, before a car bomb exploded across the road seconds later.

    The co-ordinated blasts killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, and injured more than 200 others.

    Several JI militants were convicted over the bombings, including three that were executed in 2008.

    In 2011, Bashir was acquitted of involvement in the attack but found guilty of supporting a jihadi training camp in Aceh.

    He was sentenced to 15 years in jail that was reduced to nine years on appeal.

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Bashir’s release would be “very distressing” for victims of the attack.

    “It’s hard, and it’s gutwrenching, having spent time with the families of those victims, of that terrible bombing,” he told reporters on Friday.

    “I still remember that day very vividly, like I’m sure many Australians do.”

    Mr Morrison said the sentences were ultimately a matter for Indonesia.

    “They have been released consistent with the Indonesian justice system. That doesn’t make it any easier for any Australian to accept that those who are responsible for the murder of Australians would now be free,” he said.

    NT News print edition

  65. Mark M
    #3716109, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:58 am

    Oh noes … it’s the worst apocalypse. Ever.

    “President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team says the Trump administration has done more damage than anticipated to the government’s ability to address [doomsday global warming].

    Agency reviews have found greater budget cuts, staff losses and elimination of climate programs than initially thought”

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biden-climate-team-says-it-underestimated-trumps-damage/

  66. Des Deskperson
    #3716110, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:58 am

    ‘Shannon Noll offered to punch Wil Anderson in the head.’

    More precisely, he challenged Anderson to a boxing match because Anderson – smug ABC mate who always seems to be wearing the slimy and sweaty sheen of someone who has just vomited – insulted his family.

    Anderson folded.

  67. Top Ender
    #3716111, posted on January 9, 2021 at 7:59 am

    So the government locks down Brisbane, which forces people with possible bat-flu to spread it further through Queensland?

    Deadline sparks race to quit city
    DARREN CARTWRIGHT

    Southeast Queensland’s major motorways were at a standstill on Friday with fears Greater Brisbane residents were fleeing the city to avoid a three-day lockdown.

    There were traffic snarls along the Bruce Highway between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast and south on the M1 to the Gold Coast.

    Head of Nine Traffic Network Olympia Kwitowski said the roads were unusually clogged for a Friday in early January when school holidays were still in full swing.

    She said the traffic was extremely heavy over a 40km stretch of the Bruce Highway northbound.

    “It’s busier than Christmas, especially Boxing Day when people hit the road,” she said.

    “It’s not normally this heavy for this time of year or this time of day.

    “You don’t normally see that much traffic on the Bruce Highway until about 4pm and it’s only just after 2.30pm.”

    Health Minister Yvette D’Ath slammed residents for the mass exodus following a lockdown that starts at 6pm on Friday and ends 6pm on Monday.

    Residents in Brisbane, Ipswich, Logan, Moreton Bay and Redlands council areas will be confined to their homes for 72 hours. They will only be permitted to leave home to attend work, shop for essentials, seek medical help, provide essential care or exercise.

    The drastic measures have been brought in to stop the spread of a highly contagious strain of COVID-19 from Britain that has been contracted by a cleaner at a hotel used to quarantine international travellers.

    “It would be completely irresponsible for people to be jumping in their cars to get out of Greater Brisbane,” Ms D’Ath said.

    “Do they want to be responsible for potentially spreading this deadly new strain when they know that staying at home can save lives?”

    An RACQ representative said there were reports on Friday that traffic was moving about 40km/h along the Bruce Highway where the speed limit in sections reached 110km/h.

    “There have been significant delays on the Bruce Highway between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast for motorists heading northbound,” he said.

    “Some members told us they were either stopped for part of the journey or only doing speeds of just 40km/h.

    “We suspect a lot of people who would normally travel to the coast for the weekend have decided to leave earlier due to the impending lockdown, which has also been compounded by the wet weather and a number of crashes between Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.

    “The congestion started before midday, which is much earlier than we would normally expect to see on a Friday, even in wet weather conditions.”

    NCA NEWSWIRE

  68. Top Ender
    #3716114, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:03 am

    Desperate drivers dicing with death in the dirt

    RACHEL BAXENDALE

    Mungerannie publican Phil Gregorke says his message to Victorians attempting to take the outback route home from Queensland via the Birdsville Track is pretty simple: “All they’ve got to do is read the big bloody sign at either end of the track and do what it bloody says. It says 4WD only. Don’t come down here in a bloody 2WD.”

    Mr Gregorke has owned the famous Mungerannie Hotel — which stands on the edge of the Sturt Stony, Tirari, Simpson and Strzelecki deserts, 210km north of Marree and 320km south of Birdsville on the Birdsville Track — for almost 14 years.

    In summer, when the mercury can rise to more than 50C, it’s rare to have more than one or two visitors pass through in a week.

    But in the past week, Mr Gregorke says he’s had an average of 10 visitors a day, most of whom have had Victorian number plates, courtesy of the Andrews government’s decision to close Victoria’s border with NSW on New Year’s Day.

    “It’s not the Birdsville Track anymore — it’s become the Queensland Highway,” Mr Gregorke says.

    While Victorians are able to apply for exemptions to travel through NSW from Queensland, Victoria’s Department of Health and Human Services has been processing applications so slowly — with just 579 exemptions granted from more than 4000 applications submitted as of Friday — that many have decided to take the long way home.

    At almost 4000km and more than 46 hours non-stop, the arduous journey from Brisbane to Melbourne via Mungerannie is more than double that of the most direct route through NSW, which takes about 18½ hours to drive the less than 1700km — all of which is on nice, smooth sealed roads.

    It should also not be attempted without sufficient preparation and adequate supplies of food and water, given the 517km of barren, remote, unsealed road between Birdsville in Queensland and Marree in South Australia.

    “We’ve seen all kinds of things the past few days,” Mr Gregorke told The Weekend Australian.

    “Little tiny BMWs, Audis without spare tyres, a tiny little Fiat Bambino, and people travelling without water.

    “I am actually now the owner of a 2WD Corolla. He did the tyre, had a flat battery, and got stuck here for three days.

    “I took him up to his car to get some more clothes and he realised what he was going to have to drive through, so he offered me his car in exchange for a trip to Adelaide, which I did.”

    Asked whether he was worried someone could die as a result of travelling unprepared through the outback, Mr Gregorke says simply: “Definitely.”

    Shaking his head, he adds: “Two days ago, I got a kid out here with a temperature gun and the ground temperature was 65C. If you’re stuck out here without water, you won’t last long.”

    Birdsville’s only police constable, Stephan Pursell, shares Mr Gregorke’s safety concerns.

    “There’s nothing wrong with the extra business and the guys out here have done a great job to accommodate everybody, but we really do worry that someone will die from being stranded out here and unprepared,” he said.

    “Out here it can be 40 degrees one day and flash-flooding the next with people getting bogged.”

    South Australian Outback Communities Authority director Mark Sutton, himself a former policeman in Leigh Creek, south of Marree, said he was afraid of a repeat of the circumstances that led to the December 1998 death of Austrian tourist Caroline Grossmueller, who the Coroner found died from heat exposure after the campervan she and her boyfriend were travelling in became bogged near Lake Eyre.

    “If you’re going to travel in the outback, you need to do your due diligence. Remember, other people are going to have to come and rescue you if you don’t,” he said.

    ‘The ground temperature was 65C. If you’re stuck here without water, you won’t last long’
    PUBLICAN PHIL GREGORKE

    Oz print edition

  69. Anne
    #3716116, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:06 am

    Trump interview. Possible mid 90s.

    Someday maybe I’d like to lose everything for a period of time to find out who’s loyal and who’s not loyal.
    – Donald Trump

    https://twitter.com/brittrepublican/status/1347223744985530368?s=21

  70. Crossie
    #3716118, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:10 am

    This has always been driven by the FMIC. (Holy crap, if nothing else will rot your brain try breakfast TV).

    I haven’t watched breakfast TV since the Rudd/Hockey duo starred on Sunrise.

  71. miltonf
    #3716120, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:15 am

    Breakfast TV is a great way to get your day off to a bad start. Repulsive smug airheads. Mental vomit.

  72. Geriatric Mayfly
    #3716123, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:20 am

    These nutters need more than emotional support. A few rounds of electroconvulsive therapy would not go astray.

    Delta Air Lines and JetBlue are the latest major carriers to cut the leash and ban emotional support animals (ESAs) on flights.”Delta’s updated policy follows a nearly 85% increase in animal incidents since 2016, including urination, defecation and biting,”
    The subject of emotional support and service animals on airplanes was a major travel news topic of 2018, after an emotional support peacock named Dexter and his owner were denied boarding on a United Airlines flight. Months later, a French bulldog died in the high skies after being placed into an overhead bin by a United flight attendant for the duration of the trip. From there, emotional support cats, squirrels and hamsters continued to make headlines and create debate.

  73. calli
    #3716126, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:20 am

    Someday maybe I’d like to lose everything for a period of time to find out who’s loyal and who’s not loyal.
    – Donald Trump

    And he told his son, “Now we find out who our friends are”, back in 2016.

    Thin on the ground, it would appear. And those who are friends are politically powerless.

  74. Johno
    #3716127, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:21 am

    T.E. You were asking about solar power. I put mine on in 2018, it paid for itself within 18 months. Definitely worth it.

  75. Leo G
    #3716136, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:26 am

    Any money the “NEW MUTANT STRAIN”!!! (TM) is even less deadly than the non deadly one we already have.

    The NSW Chief Health Officer implies that NSW PCR tests now include specific tests for the South African BL351 variant of the virus and claims that:-

    Lab studies of the variant indicate that the mutation changes the component of the virus that the immune system responds to, which could mean that antibodies are less effective against it.

    Hokum, of course. Natural immunity developed by any person could involve an antibody specific to any of tens of thousands of site combinations on the “surface” of the folded virus. There is no one antibody site, unless he is referring to the site used by a particular vaccine.

  76. Farmer Gez
    #3716142, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:29 am

    Trump’s rhetoric was overblown but his policies were sensible and incisive.
    Biden is vaguely quiet and will introduce radical conceptual policy.

    Always worry about the quiet ones, they’re truly nuts.

    Just wait folks until the anti Trump voters realise what they’ve done.

  77. Top Ender
    #3716143, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:31 am

    Alternative header: Fully Woke drama not worth seeing…

    Wartime story sabotaged by preposterous plot
    David Stratton

    SUMMERLAND (PG)

    National release

    As an octogenarian raised in southern England during World War II I found Summerland, the directorial debut of Jennifer Swale, a British playwright and theatre director, infuriatingly unconvincing. The film unfolds in flashback as, in 1975, cranky writer Alice Lamb (Penelope Wilton), who lives in a lovely little house near the White Cliffs on the southern coast, behaves badly to some local kids and recalls, in an extended flashback, her youth in (about) 1941, when she lived in the same house, worked on the same manual typewriter, but is now portrayed by Gemma Arterton. She’s writing something about Fata Morgana, or Morgan La Fay, and the pagan Summerland, which seems to be a castle in the sky. The locals think she’s a witch; she’s certainly unfriendly. This younger Alice likes to stroll on the beach beneath her house, which she would have found extremely difficult during the war given that beaches on that part of England’s southern coast were mined and fenced off with barbed wire, as I know from experience. She also likes to drive a car around the place and thinks nothing of popping down to London (which is still being subjected to German bombing). Really? Has Swale (who also wrote the screenplay) never heard of petrol rationing? Not only did you need coupons to buy petrol but it was hard to come by for ordinary Brits during the war. Perhaps if you had some official capacity an exception could have been made, but there is no mention of this here. Alice’s local shop is stocked with fruit, chocolate, American cigarettes and other items that you just didn’t see in shops, especially small village shops, during the war.

    Does all this matter? I think it does. It could be put down to sloppy research, but this sort of factual impossibility undermines the reality of the drama, and once you start asking questions about where Alice acquired her petrol you also start to question the likelihood of her taking in a dark-skinned London kid named Frank (Lucas Bond) whose dad is in the RAF and whose mum is not around. During all of this, Alice’s memory delves even further back in time, to 1926, when she fell in love with Vera (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), a woman she has been pining for ever since.

    Arterton and Mbatha-Raw are very fine actresses but even they can’t overcome the preposterousness of Swale’s plot, the coincidences and the contrivances. Tom Courtenay crops up as the headmaster of the local school, but he can’t add much to a rather foolish affair. The child actors — Bond and Dixie Egerickx who plays a schoolfriend — are the most convincing elements of this woefully unconvincing romantic drama.

  78. Top Ender
    #3716145, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:32 am

    Johno, what was the company you used?

  80. MarcH
    #3716155, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:38 am

    Mt Warning Summit walk. Some questions for the Minister to mull over…

    Has NPWS deliberately neglected essential and routine maintenance at this wonderful National Park to run them down and provide an excuse to close it to placate activists who seek to ban the summit walk?

    Has NPWS policy and management of the park been unduly influenced by the political views of its employees?

    https://righttoclimb.blogspot.com/2021/01/chain-and-post-removed-at-mount-warning.html

  81. Struth
    #3716165, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:44 am

    An ad hoc straw poll of Vicco people I know and speak to indicates that no small amount of them are ready to pack and leave, never to return. Selling up, closing businesses, the lot.

    There’s nowhere to run to.
    You can’t leave the country.

  82. Mark M
    #3716168, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:45 am

    Don’t panic, Dick. I’ll answer your question …

    Who should pick up the tab for the costs of [global warming] in north Queensland?
    by Richard Denniss

    “While there’s no right answer to those questions, there is a wrong person to ask: namely, an economist.

    As we heat the planet, the risk to property of cyclones and hurricanes continue to increase.
    Likewise, as sea levels rise with our coal exports, the risks of storm surges and coastal erosion destroying beachfront property rise as well.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/06/who-should-pick-up-the-tab-for-the-costs-of-climate-change-in-north-queensland

    Pro tip: If 8 inches of sea level rise over 180 years is flooding your tv room, your living too close to the beach.

    Coal barons must pay for flood damage, says Bob Brown

    “GREENS leader Bob Brown has pinned the blame for the Queensland floods on the coal industry.
    He says the sector’s contribution to global warming is responsible for the extreme weather conditions causing the floods.”

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/in-depth/queensland-floods/coal-barons-must-pay-for-flood-damage-says-bob-brown/news-story/0d65c32669660981413a8250c20bff31

    Bob’s not an economist, Dick.

  83. Struth
    #3716169, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:46 am

    Get this.
    Brisbane people have been told they must wear their masks of obedience alone in their cars.
    When it gets to this stage, obedience is being an accomplice to the destruction of our nation.

  85. Johno
    #3716174, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:50 am

    TE, When you get solar you only have two choices, go with the solar division of the main electricity companys, or go with the independents. the electricity companys will charge about twice as much as everyone else but they will be there in 10 years time. However everyone uses the same material. The best of the independents are the the Indian companys. Solar Boost is the latest iteration of these and they are at least half the price of the others. When I say they all use the same material I mean it is all sourced in China, Solar Boost will probably not be around in two years time.

    I have installed solar on 4 different properties in the last three years, I had a problem with the inverter on one of them and the Indian company replaced it, no hassles.
    The electricity coys will sell on quality and warranty. They will say their panels are German Design, however they are all made in China. With most electrical installs a fault becomes evident quite quickly, and the Indians will fix it.
    I am quite happy to use them again if I have to do another house. Usually half the price.
    The first mob were Euro Solar, which disappeared and Solar Boost then took over.

  86. Ƶĩppʯ (ȊꞪꞨV)
    #3716176, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:50 am

    leftism=facism

  87. Mark M
    #3716177, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:50 am

    @ Johno
    #3716127, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:21 am

    The best part about having solar panels is knowing people who can’t afford them are paying for yours.

    But, can’t blame folk for taking free money if the government offers it.

    Electricity provider authorised to switch off rooftop solar in SA in emergencies – aug 2020

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-27/authorities-power-to-switch-off-south-australia-solar-panels/12602684

    South Australia’s light fantastic: Solar powers the entire state
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/science/environment/2020/10/25/solar-powers-south-australia/

  88. duncanm
    #3716179, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:51 am

    MarcH

    – thanks for that – kudos to you for following this up.

    I’m get the impression NPWS’s attitude to the public is generally negative. They’d prefer it if we just all went away.

    I think part of their problem is the Carr legacy – dumped with a whole lot of (ex) state forests to manage, with few extra resources.

    The attitude, facilities, and ticket-pricing of using National Parks versus State Forests in NSW is the definitive signal for me.

  89. duncanm
    #3716181, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:53 am

    Mark M

    As we heat the planet, the risk to property of cyclones and hurricanes continue to increase.

    they may as well just lie.. no journalist will bother to look up the data and call them on it.

  91. Johno
    #3716185, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:55 am

    Mark M, All the stupid Governments of this country went with renewables which has pushed the price of electricity up from 6 cents a KWH to 30 cents a KWH. I could sit here and let these lunatics pick my pocket or I can take the initiative, install panels and get back to a realistic price. I will not be victimised by lunatics.

  92. Mark M
    #3716186, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:58 am

    If you *wanted* to spread Covid19 you would create a huge panic like this in Queensland and force everyone into a bottleneck to get food before a hard lockdown.

    Coronavirus Australia live: Three-day lockdown for Brisbane
    https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/coronavirus-australia-live-nsw-and-victoria-issue-new-venue-alerts/live-coverage/fc3e0857ebc6f6a1d13616ae276b810d

    No logic in this decision at all.

  95. Top Ender
    #3716190, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:02 am

    Thanks Johno.

    Installed panels on our Darwin house and now have no electricity bills. Can’t recall the company and now in Hobart for a while. Will check out Solar Boost.

    Mark M…The best part about having solar panels is knowing people who can’t afford them are paying for yours. Yes, it’s a crazy system.

    If there wasn’t a grid to “store” your power in the whole rooftop concept would fall in a heap.

  97. Amortiser
    #3716194, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:05 am

    Johno
    #3716127, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:21 am
    T.E. You were asking about solar power. I put mine on in 2018, it paid for itself within 18 months. Definitely worth it.

    You got the $4000 subsidy?

    I constantly get calls from solar firms touting this $4000 subsidy. I ask them where the money for the subsidy comes from. From the government is the reply. I repeat the question and so it goes.

  98. Mark M
    #3716196, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:06 am

    All good Johno.

    It would be crazy not to.

    When ever you see the words renewable energy, subsidy, government and ‘save the planet’ in the same sentence, check your wallet, you’re being diddled.

    My mistake. You know that.

  99. Leigh Lowe
    #3716198, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:07 am

    The Citizens Uprising north of the Tweed River.
    How goes it?

  100. MarcH
    #3716199, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:07 am

    duncanm thanks for the comment and couldn’t agree more. There are a few Parks in NSW that would be of National significance. The rest have some nice places but would be better managed as State Parks with open gates.
    Resources are a major issue in properly maintaining them and entry costs need to rise, or hey how about privatise them in some way. I was really impressed with the Angel Landing Walk in Utah. Compare this with what we have in Oz.

  101. Knuckle Dragger
    #3716200, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:07 am

    Length warning. Rant warning. TE’s post:

    ‘TWENTY-FIVE cops have left the NT Police Force since October 1 and the NT Police Association is warning more will leave unless morale and leave entitlements are addressed.’

    Well, yes. Mostly leaving for other jurisdictions, particularly Tasmania (for reasons I will not speculate on) and others where their hierarchy have yet to demonstrate they will support a murder charge against you if you shoot someone who’s already stabbed you and almost severed an artery near your shoulder, and is making every effort to do it again and finish the job.

    There’s 1500 cops in the NT. 25 in one three month hit is significant. It’s comparable to 450 leaving VicJack Inc or NSW where there’s 15,000+.

    ‘Mr McCue said eyebrows had been raised at the decision for Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker to take weeks of leave, while cops on the ground had not had that luxury.’

    Politely put. The Chief Minister, Michael Gunner stood in a presser in mid-December telling everyone in the NT to stay home for Christmas, then fucked off interstate to see his in-laws. Chalker, whose family is buried deep in NT Government circles went from an Assistant Commissioner to the insanely-paid head of the gummint’s housing department for three years before returning as the big cheese.

    The same government gave him both jobs (his father was also an Assistant Commissioner) and Chalker returned the favour in his very first week as Commish by supporting a moida charge against Constable Zachary Rolfe to deflect away from the very public and very expensive failings of Gunners’ government.

    Chalker imposed a ten per cent leave cap on his people and cancelled all leave. People were interstate on long service leave, which was cancelled. They were recalled, and then quarantined for a fortnight which they had to pay for ($2500 for one person, $5K for a family) before going back to work to enforce not Parliament-made law, but the edicts of unelected fat-kid-lunchbox specialists.

    Chalker broadcast a December message of thanks to his troops for their sacrifice, then fucked off interstate for six weeks.

    Inspirational. There comes a point where the overtime money (if it’s paid at all) isn’t worth it.

    There appears to be a view in the ivory tower that nobody else can see what these people are doing. If there’s comedy value anywhere here, this is it. And this is why people are leaving.

  102. Warwick
    #3716202, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:10 am

    duncanm
    #3716179, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:51 am
    MarcH

    – thanks for that – kudos to you for following this up.

    I’m get the impression NPWS’s attitude to the public is generally negative. They’d prefer it if we just all went away.

    Duncanm, I used to do a lot of camping up north of Hawks Nest on the coast. There was a dirt road that ran from Seals Rocks down to Hawks Nest. 1995 you could drive a 2wd down it. Heaps of camping spots tucked in to the beach side and the other side. Very popular. Great spots. Quite wild. The NP closed the road — it must be allowed to return to its native state!! We spot to a parks ‘ranger” at this time and she said the damage done would take decades to recover…. About a year later you couldn’t see any evidence of man every having been there. As is always the case. Seemed needlessly vexatious to me. Anyways, it was a terrific spot. Not long after an extremely hot fire sweep thru and made it look like a lunar landscape………

  103. Atoms for Peace
    #3716206, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:11 am

    So, did anyone in the Qld Gov not forsee the stampede out of the lockdown regions? All the good burghers who bailed are now being advised that they have to abide by the directives no matter where they are. Good luck with that

  104. Makka
    #3716212, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:27 am

    What a coincidence. Just as the world’s economy begins to see the end of covid terror on the horizon, new more contagious strains spring up to re-charge Govt panic and energise media uber hype. Weird timing, huh?

  105. Frank
    #3716213, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:27 am

    There will come a time when they won’t be able to walk down the street.
    – Q

    They do seem to despise the lumpen proletariat, barely concealed though it may be. Perhaps the best resort is to remove access to the world outside of security details and green rooms. Seems a fair trade to me. Imagine having to make do with television types as your social set.

  107. Siltstone
    #3716215, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:30 am

    8:38
    Has NPWS deliberately neglected essential and routine maintenance at this wonderful [Mount Warning] National Park to run them down and provide an excuse to close it to placate activists who seek to ban the summit walk?

    Climbers are considered feral animals by park authorities . Exterminate! Exterminate!
    Meanwhile they let the parks become infested with weeds and overgrowth bushfire time bombs.

  108. Rockdoctor
    #3716216, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:30 am

    My second major is in Enviro Science. I remember the terms conservationist who was someone who would be happy for people exploring the parks and active management of the weeds/vermin and control of native animal populations. That was the prevailing view when I was a grad. Preservationist was seen as an extreme position, it is basically a lock up the gate and throw away the key approach. It wasn’t liked because we humans have already affected the environment due to the above introductions and in the end the weeds/vermin would win out so it was our responsibility to manage that. Looks like the preservationists rule the roost now and that would be convenient for the bureaucrats as it involves less money.

    If you want evidence of the disastrous policy you only have to look at last years bushfires. RFS boys have told me in some places woody weeds like lantana added to the intensity of the fires.

  109. Anne
    #3716219, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:35 am

    Anybody else just go down in the Twitter purge? 😡

  110. rickw
    #3716220, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:35 am

    Brisbane people have been told they must wear their masks of obedience alone in their cars.
    When it gets to this stage, obedience is being an accomplice to the destruction of our nation.

    I’m practicing my German for the coming road blocks:

    Heil Hitler!
    Hier sind meine Papiere!
    Ich hoffe du fängst diesen dreckigen Abschaum, der sie für frei hält!
    Haben Sie einen guten Tag!

  111. gafa
    #3716221, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:35 am

    On the flip side, the motorway was jam packed with people fleeing the impeding “lockdown”

    Possibly taking this new ‘highly contagious strain’ that they could theoretically already have been exposed to with them to spread around wherever they run to.
    Surely the pollies and beauries wouldn’t want that to happen, or would they?
    It’s all horse manure.

  113. bespoke
    #3716223, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:38 am

    Can’t get solar unless I reroof rewire and replace the meter and box.

  114. Knuckle Dragger
    #3716227, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:40 am

    ‘I’m practicing my German for the coming road blocks:

    ‘Heil Hitler!
    Hier sind meine Papiere!
    Ich hoffe du fängst diesen dreckigen Abschaum, der sie für frei hält!
    Haben Sie einen guten Tag!’

    Watch out for the Nazi traffic control paddles.

    Ed, as the subject matter expert here – if you could provide some additional detail on this critical issue it would be appreciated.

  115. rickw
    #3716231, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:42 am

    New Mutant Strains Forever!

    This is the Great Reset. The traitors will never allow things to return to normal. Endless overblown scares. New mutations and events whenever to public start to realise the last one was BS.

    When the people finally and fully awake, they will be to fatigued and poor to do anything. They will graciously and happily accept the slightest walk back of the insane rules.

  116. Eyrie
    #3716233, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:44 am

    bespoke, if you have a very old place bringing wiring, meter and circuit breakers up to current standard isn’t a
    bad idea. What’s wrong with your roof?

  117. Knuckle Dragger
    #3716234, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:46 am

    ‘Endless overblown scares. New mutations and events whenever to public start to realise the last one was BS.’

    Yup. The current ‘UK strain’ is a bit beige though. The next few need to be a bit more exotic, I do believe.

    The Moroccan strain.
    The Kazakhstan strain.
    The Lichtenstein strain.
    The Unicorn strain.

  118. Struth
    #3716235, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:47 am

    What a coincidence. Just as the world’s economy begins to see the end of covid terror on the horizon, new more contagious strains spring up to re-charge Govt panic and energise media uber hype. Weird timing, huh?

    What, you mean straight after they were sure Trump was gone?
    I thought once Trump was gone this would all be called off?!
    I thought once the Queensland election was done the Qld border seizure and all would be finished and life would return to normal!

  119. gafa
    #3716236, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:47 am

    Remember seeing the occasional news clip of a lucky North/South Korea family partitioned by the strict draconian border finally getting a rare chance to see each other for the first time after years of forced separation…little did I know!

  120. bespoke
    #3716237, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:47 am

    Rusting, Eyrie and the electrical stuff $$. Checked safe but old.

  121. Cassie of Sydney
    #3716239, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:49 am

    Please watch….this was one done a few hours ago…

  122. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
    #3716247, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:54 am

    Giving voice to a long journeyEditorial

    12:00AM January 9, 2021
    12 Comments

    It has been a long journey from the High Court’s Mabo decision in June 1992 that gave rise to native title for Indigenous Australians and rendered terra nullius a legal fiction. The release on Saturday of an interim report on an Indigenous voice to give the nation’s 800,000 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a stronger input to government on issues that affect them is a further important step. The interim report is the result of a formal 12-month process in which 52 members across three co-design groups have worked through options for what an Indigenous voice might look like, and how it might operate.

    Significant aspects for debate have been the scope of issues to be considered, and how a voice can be truly inclusive of all viewpoints from a diverse community. Writing in The Weekend Australian today, Marcia Langton and Tom Calma, co-chairs of the Indigenous voice senior advisory group, say the Indigenous voice would be made up of local and regional voices and a national voice. Local and regional voices would be designed and led by communities. This is recognition that a top-down policy approach has a poor record of serving Indigenous people on the ground.

    The Morrison government has been supportive of the voice initiative to allow the interests of Indigenous Australians to be better represented and their concerns made clear. The voice working group essentially is a continuation of work that draws from the realities asserted in the Mabo decision that Australia was not a land free of human occupation at the time of European settlement. In 2007, John Howard had symbolic recognition of Indigenous Australians in a constitutional preamble as a policy. Julia Gillard established a formal, mandated process led by the commonwealth that continued for 10 years. And in 2017, Indigenous leaders who participated in the Referendum Council’s work on constitutional recognition rejected symbolic change, including a preamble. Instead, they called for a constitutionally enshrined First Nations voice along with a Makarrata, or treaty to “supervise a process of agreement-making between governments and First Nations and truth-telling about our history”.

    While the concept of constitutional change, including a treaty, has been fraught, the merits of a greater dialogue and co-operation have been welcomed across the political spectrum. In his Closing the Gap speech on February 12 last year, Scott Morrison encouraged the development of an Indigenous voice: “We support the process of co-design of the voice because, if we are going to change the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the ground, we need their buy-in on the matters and policies that affect them.”

    Releasing the interim report, Indigenous Australians Minister Ken Wyatt said the proposals presented to government would provide a mechanism for Indigenous Australians in communities around the country to have a direct say on matters to improve their lives.

    The interim report calls for feedback from all Australians during the next four months. Whether the Indigenous voice will be expressed through an existing federal department or directly to parliament has been left open. Architects of the proposal say the distinction between a voice to parliament and a voice to government becomes irrelevant when you consider the long road from policy thought bubble to approved and implemented policy.

    A key challenge will be to avoid the pitfalls of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission experiment that foundered on issues of corruption and conflict of interest. These pitfalls have been recognised with a consensus that the national voice should not have any Australian government program delivery functions. The national voice will provide advice to the Australian parliament and government on laws, policies and programs. It will be consulted only on matters related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Professor Langton and Professor Calma say only by having the opportunity to share in responsibility can Indigenous Australians be empowered to realise their full social, economic and spiritual potential.

    At first brush, the interim report provides a useful framework against which the significant issues can be judged. Establishing a robust process through which all Indigenous voices can participate and be heard is a key challenge.

    The experience of Mabo and lessons learned from ATSIC show that, properly considered, an Indigenous voice is a journey well worth taking.

  123. Dot
    #3716254, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:58 am

    Baiting gunner…

    EPIC
    TULSI IS Q
    SHE WILL RUN IN 2024

  124. gafa
    #3716257, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:59 am

    VicPol is ramping up recruitment, because why?
    The ads say join Vicpol now for “equal pay and generous leave”, yeah ok right.

  125. Anne
    #3716258, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:59 am

    Every QAnon, Christian, Patriot, Trump supporting account I followed is gone, including mine.

    Has anybody else here been suspended?

  126. MatrixTransform
    #3716259, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:01 am

    You can’t leave the country.

    you can hide, but you can’t run

  127. MatrixTransform
    #3716266, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:05 am

    The best part about having solar panels is knowing people who can’t afford them are paying for yours.

    I felt bad for minute or 2
    but I got over it.

    I got electrocity bill the other day. $14

  128. Dot
    #3716268, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:05 am

    Brisbane people have been told they must wear their masks of obedience alone in their cars.

    Get the fuck out of here.

    What happened to “CHAD QUEENSLAND, REAL AUSSIES”?

  129. Dot
    #3716271, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:07 am

    I have to wonder how often you could get away with “trespassing” in a national park.

    If the gates are locked and you get around them, well…who is looking for you?

  130. Sinclair Davidson
    #3716272, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:07 am

    Has anybody else here been suspended?

    No. Still there. 😁

  131. Struth
    #3716274, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:08 am

    Even though I mean every word I posted here on facebook, I am learning that wearing your heart on your sleeve, loving everybody, (virtue signalling) while still getting the message out, allows people to like the comment.
    This comment , filled with emotion, sniff……., is getting liked by shitloads of different people, when usually the gruff approach only gets my truckie/diesel mechanic mates and a few from tourism game enough to like my comments………..sniff…………….

    When you ….sniff….oppose tyranny because you love everyone, how can they ……sniff……take offense?

    Some of my friends may wonder why I never bought into this shit. It is not because I am a conspiracy theorist, it is just that through my travels and work and especially the convoy of no confidence, and personal friendships with some, throughout life I have found the corporate media to be nothing but liars and spivs. They lie about what they report and they lie through not reporting. We are living in a country with older generations who come from more trusting times and cannot bring themselves to discount all they hear from the media, which nowadays especially, people should do. They should neither trust a thing they hear from government or the media. From the self admitted communists running Journalism in the universities to the fact that no one gets anywhere in the media, (not just journalists) without showing their left wing cred, you are actually dealing with 24/7 Pravda. Turn off the television and covid disappears. No one is dying of it around you. Old people die with flus that have magically disappeared this year, and overall deaths globally haven’t increased and are in normal fluctuation range. Fear is what socialists and tyrants have always used to grap power, as the weak minded give away their freedoms for safety, and end up in a much worse predicament in doing so. History shows us this clearly. This is a globalist coup d’etat complete with the usual fear propaganda after our institutions have been marched through for the last 60 odd years. Many of my friends I thought had lost their minds to fear and hysteria, have now worked out this is bullshit, and their sanity has returned. I am forever grateful to have them back. They were lost to it. …Socialism/ Chinese style communism, UN globalist socialist agenda, blah blah, whatever you think is going on, you are sane if you now have worked out it is wrong, very wrong, and we are in deep shit , and even though it’s not pleasant to be a realist, I’m so glad to have you back, you know who you are. Thank god some of the people I love have regained their sanity. It means a great deal, because after all, have a look at yourselves, I’m friends with you for your minds, not your bloody looks.

  132. Dave in Marybrook
    #3716277, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:08 am

    F#ck, that editorial is mogadon on the page.
    The concluding sentence- and note the capital i- ” an Indigenous voice is a journey” tells you all you need to know. Unicorn fart stuff, with James Murdoch’s newly woke Oz pushing all their chips in, looking to the crowd for likes while the grievance industry rake it in… and they’ll stay at the trough long after the deep state shut down the free press.

  133. Frank
    #3716279, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:09 am

    The ads say join Vicpol now for “equal pay and generous leave”, yeah ok right.

    Looking for the Karenstasi.

  134. MatrixTransform
    #3716281, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:11 am

    Anybody else just go down in the Twitter purge?

    What’s Twitter?

  135. Figures
    #3716283, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:12 am

    How dumb can Albrechtsen be?

    Either the TGA vaccine approval process is valid or it isn’t.

    If it is then the PM or Health Minister cannot possibly know if, let alone when, a vaccine will be approved.

    If it isn’t then we need to cut the TGA budget by 100 per cent and all future drugs and vaccines can just unilaterally be approved or disapproved by the PM.

  136. Dot
    #3716285, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:12 am

    twostix
    #3716034, posted on January 9, 2021 at 1:24 am

    It’s going to get absolutely savage once the “vaccines” rollout, people refuse to get them and they start imprisoning suburbs with zero notice while blaming “anti-vaxxers” for ‘outbreaks’.

    I will just bribe my doctor to sign off.

    Or I will find someone else willing to be bribed.

    *I give you $200 to look the other way and I try to inject myself*

    *Whoops, I slipped and spilt the vaccine everywhere*

    *Right into the mass of surgical wipes in the bin*

  137. rickw
    #3716288, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:15 am

    Yup. The current ‘UK strain’ is a bit beige though. The next few need to be a bit more exotic, I do believe.

    The Moroccan strain.
    The Kazakhstan strain.
    The Lichtenstein strain.
    The Unicorn strain.

    We should run a book on the next strain! They just started with the Bangers and Mash strain. What will be our next exotic destination?!

  138. JC
    #3716290, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:16 am

    Interesting stuff.

    Repressive Tolerance in Action
    Recent Coverage Captures The Philosophy of Herbert Marcuse

    The events of January 6th captivated the attention of the nation and the globe. I will not discuss them here right now. If, as Zhou Enlai allegedly claimed, it is “too early to say” the full impact of the French Revolution; then it is far to soon to know the impact of January 6th.

    This has not, of course, stopped the political pundits of Left and Right from telling us what they think. Perhaps the most consistent narrative that has emerged is one of right-wing outrage at the left-wing media coverage.

    Across the social media landscape, right-wing pundits and populists are furious at the “hypocrisy” of the Left praising last summer’s #BLM “protests” while condemning this week’s DC “insurrection.”

    But the Left is not being hypocritical when it condemns the Americans who stormed the Capitol Building. It is following its stated doctrine. Repressive tolerance is that doctrine, and it was developed by Herbert Marcuse in a famous article of the same name. I have twice broached the doctrine of repressive tolerance, once in Why Don’t Leftists Condemn the Violence and once in Total and Limited War and Politics. The reaction to January 6th suggests I should discuss the doctrine again.

    For a detailed exposition of repressive tolerance, I refer you to my earlier articles. Here, let’s just summarize the doctrine of repressive tolerance in plain English:

    Tolerance is only to be extended to truth.
    Leftism is objectively true, and anything other than leftism is not.
    Therefore tolerance is only to be extended to leftism.
    Anyone who disagrees with this has been indoctrinated. To the extent that the majority of people disagree, that means the majority of people are indoctrinated.
    Since most people are indoctrinated, leftists must break the indoctrination so that they can grasp the truth of leftism.
    To break the indoctrination, leftists must promote left-wing thought and suppress right-wing thought.
    Promoting left-wing thought is accomplished by changing “established universes of meaning” and actively presenting “information slanted in the opposite direction,” e.g. by political correctness and propaganda.
    Suppressing right-wing thought is accomplished by withdrawing the freedom of speech, press, and assembly for anyone who disagrees with leftists on race, gender, religion, armament, public services, social security, or healthcare, e.g. deplatforming us entirely.
    If necessary to withdraw these freedoms, leftists must operate at such scale that the actions cease to be non-violent and become revolutionary violence.
    Leftists who use revolutionary violence are not to be condemned by any leftists.
    In brief, the doctrine holds that left-wing speech, assembly and even violence must be praised and promoted; while right-wing speech, assembly, and especially violence must be condemned, suppressed, and punished.

    And that doctrine is being implemented 24/7/365 in the aftermath of January 6th.

    Left-Wing Revolutionary Violence is Good; Right-Wing Reactionary Violence is Bad

    Herbert Marcuse says:

    “There is a difference between revolutionary and reactionary violence, between violence practiced by the oppressed and by the oppressors… If [revolutionaries] use violence, they do not start a new chain of violence but try to break an established one… [N]o third person, and least of all the educator and intellectual, has the right to preach them abstention.”

    Sally Kohn, German Lopez, and the rest of the mainstream media all practice what Marcuse preaches:

    Violent left-wing protests are justified revolutions because of the past history of oppression. Violent right-wing protests are unjustified reactions to peaceful change.

    The causes of left-wing riots must be addressed, because those causes are just. The causes of right-wing riots are unjust, so the rioters should all be locked up. This is repressive tolerance in action.

    Slanting Information to the Left is Good; Slanting Information to the Right is Bad

    Herbert Marcus says:

    It is necessary to break the established universe of meaning in order to enable man to find out what is true and false… The people are indoctrinated by the conditions under which they live and think… To enable them to become autonomous, to find by themselves what is true and what is false… they would have to be freed from the prevailing indoctrination. But this means that the trend would have to be reversed: they would have to get information slanted in the opposite direction.

    To help people escape their right-wing brainwashing, we must slant the information to the left. CNN dutifully has enacted this doctrine:

    The doctrine of repressive tolerance justifies a different reaction to the facts of left-wing versus right-wing violence – but it also justifies actually slanting the information that the people receive about those facts. It’s necessary to lie a little bit in order to help them see the larger truth.

    Conservative Thought is Such an Extreme Danger that its Expression Must Be Banned

    Herbert Marcuse says:

    [E]xtreme suspension of the right of free speech and free assembly is… justified only if the whole of society is in extreme danger. I maintain that our society is in such an emergency situation, and that it has become the normal state of affairs.

    Here we see Mark Zuckerberg practicing repressive tolerance:

    Zuckerberg (or his social media guru) has clearly read and understood Marcuse. He practically paraphrases him: “Extreme suspension of the right of free speech is justified only if the whole of society is in extreme danger…” Because of Trump, “our society is in such an emergency situation.”

    Repressive Tolerance Didn’t Start & Won’t End With Trump

    If you’re reading this, you’re probably right-of-center. But perhaps you feel safe from repressive tolerance because your view are so, well, gosh-darn tolerable. You obviously don’t advocate right-wing violence. You’re not a racist or misogynist or homophobe or bigot. You just want America to have a healthy free market, a strong military, fair trade, low taxes, equality of opportunity, and protection of every citizen’s constitutional rights. You’re just a mainstream, moderate, right-of-center conservative!

    Do not fool yourself into believing that because you are a moderate, you are safe from the doctrine of repressive tolerance. Herbert Marcuse explains that the plan is:

    withdrawal of tolerance from regressive movements before they can become active; intolerance even toward thought, opinion, and word, and finally, intolerance… toward the self-styled conservatives…

    [Tactics] would include the withdrawal of toleration of speech and assembly from groups and movements which promote aggressive policies, armament, chauvinism, discrimination on the grounds of race and religion, or which oppose the extension of public services, social security, medical care, etc.

    Anyone who opposes any extension of public service, social security, or medical care, or who supports freedom of religion, is to be completely and utterly deplatformed. No freedom of speech, no freedom of assembly, no communication in word, print, or image.

    This is the plan; this has always been the plan; all that has been lacking were the means to effectuate the plan. Those means are now at hand. If the President of the United States can be silenced, anyone can be.

    And what happens if conservatives resist having their voices suppressed and repressed? Well that’s a problem that requires a solution. And as Herbert Marcuse explains:

    [The solution] may require apparently undemocratic means…

    I will leave it to the reader to ponder what sort of “undemocratic means” might be justified to solve the problem of conservative thought, opinion, word, action, or being.

    For now, let us put to the rest this notion of Leftist “hypocrisy.” When the Left condemns the violence in DC and praises the violence in #BLM rallies, the Left isn’t being hypocritical. It’s being authentic to its values.

    And when the Left openly says that their values require that they silence those who disagree by whatever means are necessary — and when the means to do so are now readily available — you ignore those values at your peril.

    Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe

  139. Anne
    #3716291, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:17 am

    Apple has just given Parler an altimatum: Start censoring content or be scrubbed from the App Store. 😡

  140. duncanm
    #3716293, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:17 am

    Dot
    #3716271, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:07 am

    I have to wonder how often you could get away with “trespassing” in a national park.

    exactly.

    I ignore most of them. If confronted, I came in the other way, where there wasn’t any signs.

  141. Struth
    #3716295, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:20 am

    What happened to “CHAD QUEENSLAND, REAL AUSSIES”?

    I’ve said they have been told to, I didn’t say they were doing it.
    But I am sure some are.
    I was and still am dirty on Victorians for complying to Tyranny.
    And said so.
    When Queenslanders did it also, I also was dirty with them, and still are.
    I’m generally dirty on all Australians complying,and now it’s just a matter of time before they’ll pull the mask stunt here in this area, and I will not obey, so we’ll see how that goes.
    We have never had the lockdowns here, well, we have , but I didn’t obey and because I’m not in a city, I never got pulled up about it.
    I’m sure it’s coming.
    I don’t have a Q whatever app on my phone and will refuse to get one.
    Other than that, the insanity of fear has left the cat, which is great, and with many of my friends, as things get worse, so I am uplifted just to have sanity back.
    The crowding of shops and the exodus to areas like this by Brisbane-ites mean now people are reacting not in fear of a virus, but in response to tyranny.
    Times are changing, and with every idiocy and lunacy from government more are waking up, and having many of my friends back is a very great thing.
    It’s getting close to be able to come up with ideas to fight this without being shouted down.

  142. Anne
    #3716296, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:20 am

    Has anybody else here been suspended?

    No. Still there. 😁

    Where’s Tailgunner?

    He’s probably the only other one who’s at risk.

  143. will
    #3716298, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:21 am

    calli
    #3716126, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:20 am
    Someday maybe I’d like to lose everything for a period of time to find out who’s loyal and who’s not loyal.
    – Donald Trump

    And he told his son, “Now we find out who our friends are”, back in 2016.

    Thin on the ground, it would appear. And those who are friends are politically powerless

    Donald has certainly shown who the lying hate filled bigots are, and there are an awful lot of them.

  144. MatrixTransform
    #3716300, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:23 am

    Twitter Purge;

    Suddenly there was faint popping sound that reverberated around the world at near the speed of light.
    It was like the farts of a few million sparrows were lit with a Bic

  145. Knuckle Dragger
    #3716301, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:23 am

    The Kipper strain.

  146. will
    #3716305, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:26 am

    Farmer Gez
    #3716142, posted on January 9, 2021 at 8:29 am
    Trump’s rhetoric was overblown but his policies were sensible and incisive.
    Biden is vaguely quiet and will introduce radical conceptual policy.

    The Democrats talk openly of transforming America. Very Stalinist.

  147. Dave in Marybrook
    #3716306, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:26 am

    JC that’s goooood. Very very good.

  148. Top Ender
    #3716307, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:27 am

    The Oz editorial:

    The experience of Mabo and lessons learned from ATSIC show that, properly considered, an Indigenous voice is a journey well worth taking.

    Much better would have been:

    The experience of Mabo and lessons learned from ATSIC show that, properly considered, an Indigenous voice is a journey well worth abandoning.

  149. wivenhoe
    #3716308, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:27 am

    What will be our next exotic destination?!

    The Supermarket Strain?
    The Bunnings strain?

  151. Dot
    #3716314, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:30 am

    I don’t have a Q whatever app on my phone and will refuse to get one.

    It’s already there, like it or not.

  153. Dot
    #3716321, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:37 am

    Bold of twitter to assume it can be profitable with such sweeping bans and incentivising of alternatives.

  154. Cassie of Sydney
    #3716325, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:39 am

    “Dot
    #3716321, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:37 am
    Bold of twitter to assume it can be profitable with such sweeping bans and incentivising of alternatives.”

    They’re already going after the alternatives to try and shut them down.

  155. rickw
    #3716328, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:40 am

    Has anybody else here been suspended?

    I got suspended within 24 hours of getting an account! 😁

  156. Struth
    #3716330, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:40 am

    It’s already there, like it or not.

    Not on my old phone, I doubt.
    And what is it I hear about people having to hold their phones up to get a green light to go and have a coffee with people in Hervey bay?

    As I said above, Family and some friends have returned, and the greatest mind to have back I feel is my father’s.
    He was lost to this at the start, being old people watching MSM news, but soon woke up.
    He was talking to a friend of his who said, you may as well get the app, (which my father refuses to do) as google tracks you anyway….
    My old man, knowing nothing about this technology said, This is government, totally different, Google don’t make laws people with guns enforce.

  158. Dot
    #3716336, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:41 am

    They’re already going after the alternatives to try and shut them down.

    Ah yeah, that Reuters hit piece.

  159. MatrixTransform
    #3716337, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:42 am

    Bold of twitter to assume it can be profitable …

    subsidies?

  160. Entropy
    #3716338, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:42 am

    Q: what is the difference between the US Capitol and Mordor?

    A: One does not simply walk into Mordor.

  161. Struth
    #3716339, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:42 am

    There is no where to run physically, or to run on the web.
    Now I know the first part of that statement is true, but is the second?

  162. Dot
    #3716341, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:42 am

    Dr Martin Goldbergstein analyses the media manipulating reality.

    How Hollywood Manipulates Reality

  163. Sinclair Davidson
    #3716343, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:43 am

    Anne – Apple product. That’s your first mistake.

  164. Struth
    #3716346, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:44 am

    The Chinese use WeChat to get around their government, or used to I heard.

  165. calli
    #3716347, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:45 am

    He was talking to a friend of his who said, you may as well get the app, (which my father refuses to do) as google tracks you anyway….

    That’s exactly what my children told me.

    Good luck with that, Google. Enjoy tracking my kitchen bench.

    The Beloved and I were discussing alternatives this morning. Looks like many…many hospitable coffees chez calli. Just like the olden times. And no earwigging devices to listen in either.

  166. Peter Greagg
    #3716355, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:49 am

    Anne
    #3716258, posted on January 9, 2021 at 9:59 am
    Every QAnon, Christian, Patriot, Trump supporting account I followed is gone, including mine.

    Has anybody else here been suspended?

    No, but I am not on Big Tech.
    We need a new thread for the Presidential Election (the old one is dead), because there are still a few acts to be completed.
    I remember a few days ago seeing on Twitter a list of things that were going to happen.
    Eg, Red 1, Trump “loses” the Election.
    Red 2, …
    Red 3 Twitter (and all big tech) purge Trump and his supporters.
    I can’t remember the rest and of course it has gone.

    I want to see Trump strike down the Republic’s enemies in rightous anger.
    Tail Gunner, Arma get in here now.

  167. rickw
    #3716356, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:49 am

    Free lathes!

    Two very nice gentlemen donated not one but two of their late fathers lathes to Corowa Tractor Club. Plus they threw in some tools and motoring collectables.

    The lathe on plywood sheet method once again easily and safely delivered one of the 800kg beasts. Should make a YouTube video so that people stop tipping them over and hurting themselves!

    The big one was a straight out copy of a 1920’s Colchester Master made by Purcell in Sydney. Only thing different was one handle and the fact that it didn’t have Colchester or Master cast into it. Almost certainly not a licensed product!

  168. duncanm
    #3716358, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:51 am

    Dot
    #3716336, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:41 am

    They’re already going after the alternatives to try and shut them down.

    Ah yeah, that Reuters hit piece.

    have a look on gab where the CEO posits how they were set up to be the fall guys for the storming of the capitol.

  169. areff
    #3716362, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:52 am

    Has anybody else here been suspended?

    Yep. Hardly ever post on Twitter, using the account mostly to monitor what other people were saying. Went to check Andy Ngo yesterday and was confronted with the news that I’d been suspended for “hate speech” over a mild joke.

    As to Parler, have given up trying to open an account, as their CAPTCHA feature blocks any and every attempt. Fine way to build an audience, I don’t think.

  170. Winston Smith
    #3716363, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:52 am

    Knuckle Dragger:

    Politely put. The Chief Minister, Michael Gunner stood in a presser in mid-December telling everyone in the NT to stay home for Christmas, then fucked off interstate to see his in-laws. Chalker, whose family is buried deep in NT Government circles went from an Assistant Commissioner to the insanely-paid head of the gummint’s housing department for three years before returning as the big cheese.

    The Elite Ruling Caste shows its face again.
    (I’m starting to use the word ‘caste’ as it denotes the people ruling us as being similar to the Brahman Caste in India.)
    Why?
    Because it’s so accurate – a caste of people who contribute stuff all, keep everyone else in thrall to their political power, and who are even more entrenched into the body politic than a tick with its head buried in its poor bloody victims neck, and who will eventually kill the host due to its demands.

  171. H B Bear
    #3716365, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:56 am

    Caste is completely appropriate. You know who is the new untouchables.

  172. JC
    #3716367, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:57 am

    Bold of twitter to assume it can be profitable with such sweeping bans and incentivising of alternatives.

    They’re not making that assumption at all, Dot. The Tech Bloc’s intention is to shut everything else down. See the threat Apple is making towards Parlor. There appears to be some serious co-ordination going on between the big guys in the Tech Bloc.

  173. Dot
    #3716368, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:58 am

    Conspiracy! Theory!

    If most people looked into the more sane conspiracy theories (no reptilians, adenochrome or kids in tunnels), we’d all be better off.

  174. Johno
    #3716375, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:02 am

    Amortizer I think my subsidy was $6000 I have a 10 KWH system.

    The way this works is every time coal produces a KWH of power they have to purchase an indulgence from Gaia’s keepers i.e. renewable energy. When I put my system up I accumulated a shed load of RECs (renewable energy certificates) dirty coal have to purchase these RECs. There is a market which only moves in either direction a little bit. So when my system went up some coal fired power station purchased my RECs and Gaia was saved from the pit. The Government did not put their hand in their own pocket. Of course the power station has to recoup this cost and the pensioner pays.

  175. Tom
    #3716377, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:02 am

    Tulsi Gabbard is an otherwise non-existent voice of reason in the Democratic Party and has no future there for the foreseeable future.

    There is no chance she will even be allowed to run for president under the party’s banner.

    The Democratic Party has proved that it can rig the electoral system with epic vote fraud in presidential elections (November 2020) and other elections (Georgia Senate runoff, January 2021), which removes the need for voters or public approval.

    The liberal legal system didn’t and won’t intervene because this season’s anti-democratic corruption has advanced the liberal tribal cause.

    The Democratic Party’s solution to Gabbard’s pricking of the party’s conscience will be (with Silicon Valley’s help) to ban her from any platform she can use to advance her cause.

    The fascist one-party future has arrived for the disunited states of America and, because most journalists around the world see themselves as the propaganda enforcers of this new communist world order, it will take years for the true state of the USA to become apparent to people in what we used to call the West.

  176. candy
    #3716380, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:04 am

    Won’t banning Trump and other conservative/right wing figures take away their business case in the main?

  177. Leon L
    #3716384, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:05 am

    JC
    Your post #3716290 at 10:16 is excellent.
    The illiterates won’t understand it.
    The road ahead will be different for all.

  178. bespoke
    #3716386, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:05 am

    rickw
    #3716356, posted on January 9, 2021 at 10:49 am
    The lathe on plywood sheet method once again easily and safely delivered one of the 800kg beasts.

    Spotted something like that at a Woomera auction years ago it was huge and went for $500.

  179. Struth
    #3716387, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:05 am

    The quickening now Trump has gone is having an effect.
    Just had another phone call from a friend/acquaintance that must have regained their sanity and wanted to unload on someone.
    or just willing to speak up.
    Read my Facebook post.
    Thank god.

    In my physical world, not speaking about catallaxy at all, I have been surrounded by insanity, and admit it has been very hard to take.
    We all have, I know.
    As much as the reality is disgusting, I know I am now not surrounded by insanity completely, even when I know a time will come when I will see everyone around me, (while there is still affordable fuel), driving around with masks on, I can be assured there will be others I can speak to that will now see all this as insanity, in my real world here.
    It is a massive relief.

  180. Anne
    #3716388, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:05 am

    We need a new thread for the Presidential Election (the old one is dead), because there are still a few acts to be completed.

    I agree Peter, the storm has just hit. The big stuff is coming in the next few days.

    Sinc, get on it.

    I want to see Trump strike down the Republic’s enemies in rightous anger.
    Tail Gunner, Arma get in here now.

    Those enemies have already been vanquished of course but it’s thrilling watching the movie play out. 🍿 🍿🍿

  181. MatrixTransform
    #3716391, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:06 am

    The Chinese use WeChat to get around their government

    we housed enough Chinese students over the years.
    I saw that the Chineses use we chat for everything including payments
    the only thing you won’t hear from a Chinese National is political speech.
    never
    not ever
    especially on WeChat

  182. JMH
    #3716392, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:06 am

    areff: As to Parler, have given up trying to open an account, as their CAPTCHA feature blocks any and every attempt. Fine way to build an audience, I don’t think.

    Yep. Just happened to me minutes ago . Not bothering a third time!

  184. Leo G
    #3716394, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:06 am

    …was confronted with the news that I’d been suspended for “hate speech” over a mild joke.

    The publisher hates you for your hated joke.

  186. Dot
    #3716397, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:07 am

    Tulsi will run as the populist candidate in 2024.

  187. Bruce of Newcastle
    #3716399, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:08 am

    their CAPTCHA feature blocks any and every attempt.

    Areff – That’s a setting in Brave somewhere I think. Had it happen to me yesterday – tried to login to Disqus on the desktop and got the merry-go-round, but on laptop it was OK.

    Try clicking on the Brave Shield on the RHS of the url field and select allow all trackers and ads.

  188. cuckoo
    #3716401, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:09 am

    Currently a crop of new posters around town encouraging recruits in the Army Reserve. Of the two posters I’ve seen so far, one shows a young man in camo fatigues and wearing a mask, cleaning up the site of a bushfire. The other shows a young woman in camo fatigues nursing a possum in a blanket. No, I’m not making this up.

  189. Ƶĩppʯ (ȊꞪꞨV)
    #3716406, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:12 am

    Has anybody else here been suspended?

    no, but I don’t post or follow much of anyone. mind you this is my 3rd account, so they have succeeded in shutting me up on the platforms

  190. Bruce of Newcastle
    #3716407, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:12 am

    Haha good joke Dot.

    The left has gone full fascist with jackboots and everything. The right loathe lefties with an incandescent full 210Po-grade hatred. She’d be like Spike Milligan in Life of Brian.

  191. Peter Greagg
    #3716408, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:12 am

    P
    #3716396, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:07 am
    Big Tech Purge Continues, Facebook Bans Walk Away Movement, Reddit Bans Pro-Trump Group, Twitter Purge Ongoing, Biden Labels Trump Supporters “Domestic Terrorists”

    Thanks P.
    As Sundance says “Extreme control efforts are a reaction to extreme fear. If the left-wing political elements who control most social media platforms were not fearful they would not be taking such aggressive action. ”

    I still have hope.

  192. Dot
    #3716409, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:12 am

    The army exists to kill or capture our external enemies and to capture and possess land the enemy also claims or needs for their military goals.

    Now we have…an aid agency and animal hospital.

    Cool.

    I’m sure Xi is shitting himself!

  193. JC
    #3716410, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:12 am

    Dot
    #3716397, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:07 am

    Tulsi will run as the populist candidate in 2024.

    For which party? She won’t get a look in with the Demonrats.

  194. Helen
    #3716412, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:14 am

    Just listening to warroom and closing breaking news was Parler has been given 24 hours to clean up their content (get rid of conservative) or be de-platformed by apple.

  195. Dot
    #3716413, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:14 am

    Chill guys, I’m baiting Gunner.

    MTWABA

    (Make Tulsi Wear A Bikini Again)

    Big if true!

    She’s becoming a groyper. She will form the new party to take over the remains of the GOP.

  196. Struth
    #3716414, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:16 am

    When quoting the habits of your enemy as noted in the pages of history, or quoting the pages they write with their own hand, you are considered a conspiracy theorist, the word considered is the actual lie.

  197. Knuckle Dragger
    #3716416, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:17 am

    Hypothetically, and apropos of absolutely nothing – if:

    You’re a yapping handbag dog and a monumental pain the arse to everyone around you; and
    You come to believe you’re untouchable; and
    You flaunt certain habits; and
    You maybe perhaps bad mouth a darling of the industry you work in; and
    If you do it all in front of people who may or may not have a vested interest in observing your downfall, some results are predictable. The Hun:

    ‘A top Channel 7 crime reporter is set to plead guilty to a drug possession charge later this month after he was allegedly busted with two bags of cocaine on the night of the network’s Christmas drinks.

    ‘Peter Fegan, who has previously been linked romantically to Sunrise star Samantha Armytage, was arrested by NSW Police about 11.30pm on December 11, a short distance from Seven’s Martin Place studios on Macquarie St in the Sydney CBD.

    ‘The 38-year-old police reporter was believed to have attended Seven’s newsroom Christmas drinks earlier in the night and was allegedly en route to another venue when he was approached by police. It’s understood he was alone at the time.’

    Aaaaahaha.

  198. Tom
    #3716419, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:19 am

    Tulsi will run as the populist candidate in 2024.

    Noone will vote for her without major party backing. And, now that the GOP establishment has excommunicated Trump, neither major party represents voters in middle America.

    There is no place for democracy in the Third World DNC/Silicon Valley version of north America.

  199. Ƶĩppʯ (ȊꞪꞨV)
    #3716420, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:19 am

    Just listening to warroom and closing breaking news was Parler has been given 24 hours to clean up their content (get rid of conservative) or be de-platformed by apple.

    the fag in charge will smash you with his handbag

  200. Dot
    #3716421, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:19 am

    Historians lied about the Romanov girls being roped by the Bolshie guards, they say it didn’t happen, witnesses heard different girls screaming throughout the night before.

    Patriarchal, toxic masculinity and capitalism would have stopped that.

    Communism is about molesting and murdering the daughters of rich men.

    Was Dick Neville a commie?

  201. Struth
    #3716424, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:20 am

    Tulsi will run as the populist candidate in 2024.

    You wanna make a bet on there even being elections held by then, Dot?
    non fraudulent so it matters?

  202. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
    #3716430, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:21 am

    No, I’m not making this up.

    “My Army gives me all the time I want with my children.”

  203. gafa
    #3716434, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:22 am

    Currently a crop of new posters around town encouraging recruits in the Army Reserve.
    No, I’m not making this up.

    Yep, the ads I’ve seen show Reservists cuddling Koalas and handing out water bottles, pathetic.
    Time to defund the Army Reserve and instead fund the Scouts and Guides.

  204. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
    #3716436, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:23 am

    F#ck, that editorial is mogadon on the page.

    An appropriately yawning metaphor for a lot of what we are going to be seeing. Just stop reading it, that tends to be my response; simply for emotional sanity’s sake. Also, thanks for the excellent outline above of how Marcuse Thought has played out for the past fifty years.

    Where to now? I’m wondering if a lot of us have the life-span left to live to see it get any better. But we can leave a record of how it once was and prepare a roadmap of how to fight to get it back for those generations to come who will turn Marcuse around and start untruthing the left. For that will happen, due to the strength still found in families and in natural communities of common sense reasserting in the political sphere. The world through worse than this before.

  205. Anne
    #3716443, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:24 am

    Trump joins Gab.

    Gab goes down.

    🍿🍿🍿

    Just a reminder that every one who has come up against Trump has ended up with his face in the dirt.

    Enjoy the show.

    https://media.tenor.com/images/afe5a5a41fcaf7560b0bf4efaf7f0191/tenor.gif

  206. bespoke
    #3716444, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:24 am

    Helen
    #3716412, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:14 am
    Just listening to warroom and closing breaking news was Parler has been given 24 hours to clean up their content (get rid of conservative) or be de-platformed by apple.

    As predicted by many the ‘build you own app” was just fantasy if you don’t have unobstructed access to all of the chain.

  207. Leigh Lowe
    #3716445, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:24 am

    ‘A top Channel 7 crime reporter is set to plead guilty to a drug possession charge later this month after he was allegedly busted with two bags of cocaine on the night of the network’s Christmas drinks.

    Gee, what a coincidence.
    A bit like Ray Hadlee’s copper son being subject to a stop and search, being just one of the 500,000 people in Sydney with a bag of coke in his pocket
    No doubt someone got a little sick of his pieces to camera about “the scourge of drugs” and “scum drug dealers”.

  208. Al
    #3716446, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:24 am

    It’s not just you Struth.

    A headline in the SMH today which should make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up:

    New virus variants underline need for strong public health measures

  209. Helen
    #3716448, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:25 am

    Michelle Obumma speaks and twatter acts. President trump removed.

  210. Struth
    #3716456, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:26 am

    Don’t forget the old ways of communicating, which I’m sure the youthful, social media drooling left have.
    May need it one day.
    The old ways.

  212. gafa
    #3716460, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:28 am

    I could sit here and let these lunatics pick my pocket or I can take the initiative, install panels and get back to a realistic price.

    Some would say people doing this are just hypocritical sellouts who are part of the growing problem not the solution, not me of course, I’m happy to fund solar subsidy apologists.

  213. Helen
    #3716466, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:29 am

    Gab built their own platform. May be the last bastion.

  214. Helen
    #3716470, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:30 am

    I think Gab would struggle with 80 million people trying to join

  215. bespoke
    #3716473, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:32 am

    Gab built their own platform. May be the last bastion.

    Until ISP’s block them, Helen.

  216. Leigh Lowe
    #3716474, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:33 am

    Struth

    #3716456, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:26 am

    Don’t forget the old ways of communicating …
    .
    .

    -.– — ..- / – …. .. -. -.- ..–..

  217. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
    #3716477, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:35 am

    The world has been through worse than this before.

    And, I should add, rebuilt shattered cities and homes and families.
    The climate and virus madness will ease. The gender-bending will fade away.
    Women will rediscover having babies with men not the State.
    Social media could well die of its own irrelevance as people lose interest.
    Movies will stop being so woke when they see that people don’t watch them.
    All of this is possible. Meanwhile, tend your garden.

  218. Dot
    #3716478, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:35 am

    bespoke
    #3716444, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:24 am

    Helen
    #3716412, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:14 am
    Just listening to warroom and closing breaking news was Parler has been given 24 hours to clean up their content (get rid of conservative) or be de-platformed by apple.

    As predicted by many the ‘build you own app” was just fantasy if you don’t have unobstructed access to all of the chain.

    Not only that, you need to be unbeholden to the payment processors.

    This is not the end. Stop thinking statically. Competition is dynamic. This is the same false basis that anti trust and competition law is based on. Marshallian thinking. Good, but not great.

    BTC can avoid payment processors. So we need innovation.

    All we need is Android to be replaced. Why would Samsung and HMD give a shit about the Left Coast?

    Apple phones are made a China, which is a giant cluebat.

  219. Frank
    #3716479, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:35 am

    Peter Fegan, no idea who he is. Google image search of his name informs me of what an ugly mf he is. No loss. Care factor zero. Purchase soap on a rope.

  220. Frank
    #3716481, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:37 am

    With respect to the Apple bans, would Steve Jobs have been on board with all that if he was still around?

  223. Gab
    #3716487, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:38 am

    The new administration: “Those who support Donald Trump should no longer be allowed to publish books or use the Internet or fly on airplanes.” (Expect a lot more businesses to close down for those who will not toe the new communist/socialist line. – Gab)

    Within minutes of Trump supporters breaching the U.S. Capitol building Wednesday, virtually every powerful person in the country erupted in rage at the president.

    Business leaders demanded that Trump be removed from office immediately under the 25th Amendment. Members of Congress clamored to impeach him, and at least one Democrat suggested that anyone in Congress who supported his claims of election fraud must be expelled. Meanwhile, the media set about denouncing Trump as a terrorist and a murderer, etc.

    Notice a theme? The reaction was all about Donald Trump. The people in charge of every institution in American life spend all day talking about Donald Trump. You may not have noticed, because that’s not very different from any other day over the past five-and-a-half years since he announced his candidacy.

    It has been all about Donald Trump all of the time. And the effect on us has been noticeable. We’ve gone from being this big, sprawling country with an enormous span of concerns and interests to a kind of sweaty, airless chat room of 330 million people, all of whom are simultaneously focused with monomaniacal intensity on a single man. That is not healthy, no matter how you feel about Trump.

    Is any president worth all of this time and attention? All politicians come with a shelf life. In Trump’s case, the expiration date arrives in 13 days.

    Just for a moment, let’s think about what life will be like next month. Two weeks from Thursday, Donald Trump will no longer be in control of our nuclear arsenal. He will not have command of federal agencies or even, most likely, his own Twitter account.

    The rest of us, and this is key, will still be here. We’ve got nowhere to go. So what is life going to be like for us on Jan. 20? Not many people seem to be thinking about that, up to and including the people we pay to think about it. Donald Trump thinks almost exclusively about Donald Trump, but so does almost every single Democrat and Republican in the Congress. [NB] Who’s got your concerns top of mind? Who wakes up in the middle of the night worried about your family? As far as we can tell, no one.

    That’s the main thing we need to change. It won’t be easy, but the themes are pretty clear. Here are the basics: The point of the Republican Party is not to protect the personal reputations of its leaders, but its voters. In practice, that means protecting the Bill of Rights, the bedrock promises of American life. Without them, you wouldn’t want to live here. Those freedoms are incalculably more important than any single politician.

    Donald Trump could become immortal and win the next 40 presidential elections and his daughter the next 40 after that. But if America becomes a place where you have to violate your own conscience in order to hold a job, you’re not allowed to protect your family from mob violence and your children can’t afford to get married and raise your grandchildren because employers don’t like their skin color, then what’s the point of all of it? There is none. No one wants to live in a place like that or should have to, no matter who the president is.

    We should be very concerned about all of this right now. Wednesday’s riot is already being used as a pretext for an unprecedented crackdown on civil liberties. Just in the last several hours, we have heard people in positions of power demand that those who support Donald Trump should no longer be allowed to publish books or use the Internet or fly on airplanes. Driving cars, holding jobs and staying in hotels will certainly be next and we’re barely exaggerating. [This is really going to happen, folks. Start making plans.]

    To justify these mind-bending, terrifyingly un-American demands, they are, as usual, relying on lies and hysteria. What happened Wednesday wasn’t simply a political protest getting out of hand after the president recklessly encouraged it (Which is, you know, what actually happened). Instead, they’re calling it domestic terrorism and, needless to say, White supremacy.

    Why are they doing that? Simple. They know that if they keep saying it, history will record it as true. They understand the power of language, and that’s why they try to control it. They know that words have consequences. This is scary, and the party that should be stepping in to stop it, to push back, to tell the truth in the face of lies and to protect its voters from this deception and the destruction that inevitably comes next, does nothing. Often, in fact, they join in.

    With bodyguards like this, tens of millions of Americans have no chance. They’re about to be crushed by the ascendant left, the people who say, “Well, I don’t think they should be allowed to fly on airplanes.” [You know that that’s where this is going, don’t you.]

    Why is no one defending them? The main problem, and this really is the main problem on the right, is that the people who run the Republican Party don’t really like their own voters. They especially don’t want the voters that Trump brought. Trump brought a noticeably downscale element to the party’s ranks, and this horrifies them.

    Many Republicans in Washington now despise the people they’re supposed to represent and protect. In fact, it’s not just Republican leaders who feel this way, but our entire leadership class. You rarely hear it spoken out loud, but it’s the truth.

    A very specific form of internal loathing is at the core of the reaction to Donald Trump. Nothing is more repulsive to socially anxious White professionals than working class people who look like them. The proles are their single greatest fear. They remind them of where they may have come from or where they could be going if things turn south.

    So if you want to understand the hatred — not just disagreement, but gut-level loathing and fear of Trump in, say, New York or Washington or Los Angeles — you’ve got to understand that first. It’s not really Trump, it’s his voters. The new money class despises them. [People who have power don’t want to give it up. Inevitably, when power is only will and not informed with charity, that’s where the death camps start.]

    Trump didn’t despise them, and that really was his secret. In the end, Donald Trump did not judge his own voters. Trump ate McDonald’s and his voters were very grateful for it. You’d be grateful for it, too, if everyone else hated you.

    Thirteen days from now, tens of millions of these voters will not have Donald Trump to protect them. They won’t have anyone. And unless the Republican Party decides to wake up and push back against the lies and acknowledge the purpose of those lies, which is an unprecedented crackdown on the way you live, you have no chance, either.

    This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson’s opening commentary on the Jan. 7, 2021 edition of “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

  224. Bruce of Newcastle
    #3716490, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:38 am

    A top Channel 7 crime reporter is set to plead guilty to a drug possession charge

    Leftism is a helluva drug.

  225. Dot
    #3716494, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:39 am

    Brave, TOR, BTC

    All Brave needs to do is become developed into an OS that can be flashed onto a currently Android compatible phone. Hell, even onto a PC as a Windows stand in.

    Or even a fucking AAPL. I have lingering respect for AAPL despite being made in China because they refuse to give the FBI and other deep state cretins a warrantless backdoor into your phone.

  226. Winston Smith
    #3716500, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:41 am

    Tom:

    Tulsi will run as the populist candidate in 2024.

    If she does, she won’t get anywhere – she’ll be seen as a fence sitter.
    If there’s a third force in world politics, she may have a place. If not, Tulsi won’t get a look in because tainted.

  227. Helen
    #3716504, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:41 am

    Apparently you dont have to get the apps in the stores, you can do something called side load them.

    That must be why Bannon has been saying txt warroom 888111 to download their app.

  228. Dot
    #3716505, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:43 am

    Tom:

    Tulsi will run as the populist candidate in 2024.

    Weird take Tom but okay, you’ve been around the traps.

  229. Leigh Lowe
    #3716507, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:44 am

    Frank

    #3716479, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:35 am

    Peter Fegan, no idea who he is. Google image search of his name informs me of what an ugly mf he is. No loss. Care factor zero. Purchase soap on a rope.

    Unless he had a back-pack full of coke, I very much doubt he is going to jail.

  230. MatrixTransform
    #3716508, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:44 am

    Meanwhile, tend your garden.

    the wisdom of nannas.

    I was just removing scale insects form my patio lime
    used a stick as I have no oil left.
    the ants hated it

    might BBQ later today

  231. Frank
    #3716512, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:46 am

    Leigh Lowe
    #3716507, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:44 am

    You’re right but a girl can dream can’t she.

  232. Leigh Lowe
    #3716514, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:46 am

    I was just removing scale insects form my patio lime.

    There is a kitchen gadget for that.
    The brulee flame thrower.

  234. Winston Smith
    #3716518, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:48 am

    Bruce O’Newk:
    Bloody freeloader cockatoos.
    I have a bird feeder out front which attracts the Red Wing Parrots. Unfortunately, it also attracts the bloody free loader cockatoos.
    I tried connecting up a cow shocker to the feeder and it just burnt out the cow shocker.
    Any suggestions?

  236. Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
    #3716527, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:52 am

    Tulsi will run as the populist candidate in 2024.

    If she does, she won’t get anywhere – she’ll be seen as a fence sitter.

    Far too early to comment on 2024 yet. We have to see how the next year plays out first.
    Seatbelts on.

  237. Struth
    #3716529, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:52 am

    Meanwhile, ladies, tend your garden.

    FIFY.
    Some of us have responsibilities we’ve been putting off for too long.

  238. P
    #3716533, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:54 am

    Kyle Becker Retweeted
    Nikki Haley
    @NikkiHaley
    ·
    56m
    Silencing people, not to mention the President of the US, is what happens in China not our country. #Unbelievable

  239. Knuckle Dragger
    #3716536, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:55 am

    Requirements for gardening men:

    1. Roundup

    The End.

  240. lotocoti
    #3716537, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:55 am

    Meanwhile, tend your garden.

    I would if I could work out how to prune 3′ off a Bougainvillea without ending up looking like Jim Caviezel in The Passion.

  241. bespoke
    #3716541, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:56 am

    This is not the end. Stop thinking statically.

    Just pointing the hurdles Dot, please cut back on your sugar intake.

  242. Dot
    #3716544, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:57 am

    Interesting to see if the Patriot Party movement has any legs.

    Trump
    Scott Baio
    …Tulsi?

  243. Winston Smith
    #3716549, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:59 am

    Gab:

    The new administration: “Those who support Donald Trump should no longer be allowed to publish books or use the Internet or fly on airplanes.” (Expect a lot more businesses to close down for those who will not toe the new communist/socialist line. – Gab)

    Well said Gab.
    The New Brahman Caste is flexing its muscles.

  244. Farmer Gez
    #3716553, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:00 pm

    Waiting for the Democrats to jump the shark.

    Power in both houses but not SCOTUS. Can’t have pesky judges upholding individual freedoms when there’s windmills in need of tilting.

    The shark will be an attempt to get any Trump appointees dismissed.
    Start revving the motorbike Fonzie.

  246. lotocoti
    #3716556, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:02 pm

    So how come Henry Winkler didn’t get suspended for advocating the Mussolini Solution?

  247. Farmer Gez
    #3716557, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:02 pm

    Knuckle Dragger
    #3716536, posted on January 9, 2021 at 11:55 am
    Requirements for gardening men:

    1. Roundup

    The End.

    Put Dicamba in the brew and you’ll bare it out nicely for the cement pour.

  248. Bruce of Newcastle
    #3716558, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:03 pm

    Winston – Sorry, nope. I have the same problem with eastern rozellas, they are shy and the other birds are too much for them. Especially rainbow lorikeets like this photobomber.

    The only way to deter cockies is to frighten them with the hose or something, but then you frighten all the others too.

    Hand feeding is better than a feeder because you can choose which you feed – the cockies then tend to wander off since they aren’t receiving anything. But getting the others friendly enough to take food from the hand is not easy, and takes long persistence. My sister has had king parrots sit on her hand by starting with a bird table, but I can never get them to come near. Again they get scared off by all the other birds.

  249. wivenhoe
    #3716567, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:10 pm

    I would if I could work out how to prune 3′ off a Bougainvillea without ending up looking like Jim Caviezel in The Passion.

    You are starting from the wrong end.

  250. lotocoti
    #3716569, posted on January 9, 2021 at 12:10 pm

    If they purge James Woods, Jack’s security detail is going to have to expand the security bubble out beyond Lapua Magnum range.

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