Sunday

8.3 out of 10 based on 24 ratings

197 comments to Sunday

  • #
    John Hultquist

    Pope Francis said that U. S. voters face the choice between “the lesser evil” in the presidential election. “Both are anti-life — both the one who throws out migrants and the one who kills babies — both of them are against life.”
    Me not having a good grasp of “the bible” asks, can someone quote a passage that speaks to the throwing out of migrants?

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      yarpos

      I doubt there’s much if you are literal but there is lots of stuff along the be kind, good samaritan , do unto others line. All hearsay on my part.

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      • #
        Dave in the States

        Promoting fentanyl trafficking, killing hundreds of thousands of teens and young adults, is anti-life.

        Promoting human trafficking, including sex trafficking of minors, and human slavery, is not kindness.

        Giving poor people the false idea that if they come illegally that they will be well cared for and there will be no consequences in perpetuity, is not kindness

        Those people are being cynically used as pawns in a political power game. That’s not kindness.

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      • #
        Annie

        St. Paul was rather of the opinion that ‘if a man will not work, neither should he eat’. That takes care of the spongers and suchlike and is different from those who are in genuine need.

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    • #
      KP

      “Pope Francis said that U. S. voters face the choice between “the lesser evil” in the presidential election.”

      Another foreigner interfering with American elections! He should be banned or whatever this week’s word is!

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    • #
      Tel

      How many refugees is the Vatican City taking in this year?

      Has the Vatican Bank finally decided to give all it’s money to charity?

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    • #
      Ronin

      I’d go for the one that throws out illegal immigrants.

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    • #
      Gary S

      This pope is a dullard and climate change bedwetter.

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      Steve of Cornubia

      Pope Francis has no credibility when it lecturing ordinary people about caring for “migrants”, and even less with regard to illegal immigrants. When he houses a few thousand of them in Vatican City, only THEN I might listen to him.

      Lead from the front, mate.

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    • #
      DOC

      The Pope got it wrong anyway. Trump is all about accepting immigrants coming in fully vetted, and tossing out those millions who have come across unvetted, come from anywhere including from countries antipathetic to USA. Can’t say the latter is immoral especially with risks and crimes that have come with it. How the illegals will be located in many cases is anybody’s guess.
      There is the biblical quote from Jesus ‘Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God those that are God’s.’
      I think the Pope has overstepped this quotation by a long way. He forgets he is a mere mortal like the rest of us when he speaks on matters such as national elections, especially in democratic nations. Catholicism is not a democracy. If he wishes to make such statements of his opinions he might consider national elections in places such as Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina and Brazil.
      How he, in the position and religion he represents, equilibrates Harris’ novel ideas on abortion up to term, and ideological marxist policies with those of Trump is far beyond my ken and understanding of what Catholicism is all about.

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  • #
    skeptikal

    Looks like the Chinese are waking up to the risks of EVs.

    They flare out in a jet of flame with vicious intensity. They explode as if packed full of toxic dynamite. And when lithium-ion batteries burn, nothing can extinguish them.

    This is why Chinese hotels and property managers have begun to ban all electric vehicles – scooters, e-bikes, family cars or commercial vans – from their undercroft car parks.

    China bans electric vehicles from underground carparks

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  • #
    tonyb

    The Eden project in Cornwall is a word famous garden venue in Cornwall.

    However they appear to be looking to attract different sorts of people with this exciting event.

    https://zeta.ecommzone.com/lz/eplive/103V6H/ce8Yp-YrerCwDbI6lWcAEXM31Wi-DZjH7IA6EQAxAzo1/home.html?g4id=1&utm_source=arts-solus-13%2f09&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Main-marketing&utm_term=Join-us-for-a-migration-and-climate-justice-event-on-21-September&utm_content=Text-1

    When into the link press “See what’s planned.” Shall I put commentators on this blog down for 20 tickets and I am sure Jo can organise the flight and hotel package.

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  • #
    tonyb

    Following on from the various heat records claimed in Europe and the UK for what has generally been a pretty poor summer, various people have been looking closely at the siting of instruments. Many are in junk status category 4 and 5 venues

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/09/13/more-horror-pictures-emerge-showing-locations-of-met-office-extreme-record-temperatures/

    2 years ago I debunked a so called record at Cambridge Botanical gardens, now highly compromised by urban sprawl, nearby buildings and air handlers and solar panels on adjacent roofs.

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  • #
    tonyb

    We are off to Switzerland in a few days time, this time using trains on arrival rather than hiring a car . New ones drive me mad with their constant nannying and beeping.

    We will be visiting the Alpine pastures and hope to catch up with one of the Charming events where cows are moved from their mountain pastures down into the Valley

    https://www.myswitzerland.com/en-ch/experiences/summer-autumn/autumn/cattle-descent-from-alpine-pastures/

    The only trouble is that there has been a huge amount of early snow the last week, so hope the cows managed to take shelter. We are expecting that it will warm up again, it can still be very warm at height in the Autumn.

    https://planetski.eu/2024/09/12/more-autumn-snow-set-to-fall-in-the-alps/

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    • #
      David Maddison

      rather than hiring a car . New ones drive me mad with their constant nannying and beeping.

      I agree.

      I would like to see a modern car but without all the crazy stuff, maybe an early 1990’s type car thst had certain modern features but not others. E.g.:

      Electronic engine management with a fallback mode so the engine still runs if the computer fails.

      Airbags for all passengers.

      ABS brakes and automatic braking if too close to object ahead.

      Stability control.

      Adaptive cruise control.

      Ability for a home mechanic to repair.

      A few other features but not the crazy stuff.

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      • #
        Ted1

        Son has a Toyota CH-R. I am impressed. It might soon become a classic, because the new model doesn’t have its most impressive feature. A very small motor. 1.2 litre with a turbocharger. The car is 100 kg heavier than the Corolla.

        Plenty of power to drive. It has radar to keep your distance from the vehicle ahead, which is good for that but sometimes puts the brakes on when it shouldn’t. Like when there is a car in a turnoff lane on a curve. You can be cruising at 100 km/h and when that car is in line ahead on go the brakes.

        Same son has a Triumph motor bike with w 2.5 litre motor. I expect it uses more fuel than the car.

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        • #
          OldOzzie

          Son has Toyota Yaris GR Rallye, which is superb going from his Apartment in Milan through the Swiss Alps to his house in Zuoz (19 Mins to St Moritz), and as it is registered in Graubunden, his Number Plate starts with GR.

          A Real Pocket Rocket, and my wife said, when sitting in back, which she normally hates – “very stable ride”

          And the adaptive crusie control on a manual is amazing.

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      • #
        Tonyb

        With all this constant nannying on braking, distances, keeping to the centre of the road, reversing, sizes of gaps etc it is difficult to see how new drivers can acquire any skills and experience because the electronics are doing the thinking for them.

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        • #
          KP

          ..its difficult to see how the Highwaymen are having blitzes because the road toll is up. Are theses machine drivers not as good as humans from last year??

          Electronic engine management with a fallback mode so the engine still runs if the computer fails.

          Airbags for all passengers.

          Ability for a home mechanic to repair.

          I’d go for those, the rest just interfere with your driving and likely causes their own accidents. My car only has the ability (and demand) for a home mechanic to repair.

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        • #
          Philip

          I have to say, good, because too many people are very bad drivers.

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        • #
          Gary S

          Just bought a Toyota Workmate cab chassis with wind up windows. Love low tech.

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        • #
          DOC

          With the lane-keeping feature I’m wondering how much wear it is doing on my tyres. The constant beeps drive me nuts.

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      • #
        John Connor II

        Here ya go DM.

        The latest $4M Bugatti without all the silly offset screens and bling.

        https://youtu.be/hFy3RQAn41g?si=lDH5CHJEqvnld18g

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      • #
        John Connor II

        Electronic engine management with a fallback mode so the engine still runs if the computer fails.

        All modern cars have a limp-home mode, so you can still drive but with reduced performance and a mass of systems disabled.

        I had a late Forester a few years ago and it suddenly turned on the CEL, disabled ABS and traction control one morning.
        “WTF?” said I.
        The cause was a faulty fuel filler cap, nothing to do with ABS or TC, but that’s how cars work now – disable all the systems for safety, and can be caused by the simplest thing.

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        • #
          Ted1

          No harm disabling the ABS. I would expect that a full audit would find they cause more accidents than they prevent.

          Should be called PTB. Part Time Braking.

          Under slippery conditions they are hair raising. Not much better than no brakes.

          They are an early example of Wokeness.

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    • #
      John Hultquist

      — transhumance —

      If you miss the real event, try a video.

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    • #
      Steve of Cornubia

      “We are off to Switzerland in a few days time …”

      The sound of cowbells emanating out of the early evening fog will forever be my fondest memory of Switzerland. When we first arrived at our chalet, near Klosters, I thought the constant noise would drive me mad; now I wish I had a recording to once again send me off into blissful sleep.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    They really are eating pet cats and dogs and animals from public parks, just as Trump said. It’s documented by police reports.

    https://youtu.be/uzFZDRIvfzM

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    • #
      David Maddison

      More on pet eating and crime in Springfield, Ohio, by Matt Walsh.

      https://youtu.be/u4UflQiYjVs

      Presumably this is the “diversity” that the Left want.

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      • #
        Tonyb

        This pet eating sounds more like a second hand rumour rather than reality

        https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13850009/erika-lee-haitian-migrants-eat-pet-cats-dogs-rumor-trump-ohio.html

        As regards eating ducks, geese etc, that is more likely to be correct.

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        • #
          Philip

          Ah, no. Eating a cat or dog is nothing to these people, they still practice Voodoo, if not eat, they will kill and torture. I’ve been checking out a few chat groups on Youtube from Springfield Ohio and it sounds real to me.

          Westerners love their pets, so they find it difficult to believe someone could do such a thing. But they do not have the same values as us. It is unique to westerners, particularly British, to love pets.

          Even in Australia, I would never live next door to a Muslim Arab and leave a dog in the yard as you go to work. These people have zero respect for animals, they think they are dirty and are repulsed by them. Sad and nasty to say I know, but it’s true.

          In the 90s, I was a young Aussie from the country, living in the city with a ute and dog type person. I had a red kelpie who was the friendliest most well-behaved intelligent animal I have ever seen, completely non-threatening, had a permanent smile on her face.

          I’d walk her everywhere with no lead all over the city, my voice was her lead, 100% effective, she would mostly be glued to my heel. I was shocked by Asian people who would recoil in absolute horror as you approached on the footpath. She won’t hurt you I’d say, even give a display of her obedience and friendliness for them. But they would never reply, just hold their breath and freeze, cling to the fence, or give a wide birth and move on. It was a shock to a friendly naive Aussie like me, I just couldn’t understand it.

          Different cultures, and people behave according to their culture, not rationality or our culture and our more compassionate inclusive attitude to animals.

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          • #
            Ted1

            That’s one part of the story that people don’t understand.

            The terror of dogs comes from fear of rabies. WE don’t have rabies unless you get bitten by a bat.

            AS for eating “pets”, that comes from being really hungry. “We” don’t realise how lucky we are to have never been really hungry.

            I remember it must be about 50 years ago some Vietnamese migrants in Sydney’s southern suburbs were gaoled for eating a dog. This demonstrated the ignorance of the magistrate and the whole court process.

            Perhaps it was somebody else’s dog, but even so that was draconian.

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          • #
            DOC

            ‘Different cultures, and people behave according to their culture, not rationality or our culture and our more compassionate inclusive attitude to animals.’

            Agreed. Westerners around the world get a shock at the different lifestyles of some immigrant groups. No doubt when food could be almost impossible to find every few years one in such parlous circumstances would eat anything to survive. If the circumstances are repetitive it is easily understandable that anything on 4 legs would be regarded as tucker, and eventually in relatively normal times pets could become expendable.

            We of the West have had a relatively luxurious lifestyle since the Depression and WW2. No food shortage and always something available from government, charities or other people to keep us alive. Unfortunately IMO, our luxury is what has weakened us, leading us down the path to increasing political control. That’s the point the Democrats have against Trump; he is their nemesis after 50 years of slowly creeping marxist controls.

            We have forgotten what difficult extremes are like. We’ve lost the ability to confront difficulties and don’t know what is needed to confront them. Strength of character, having to fight for existence and fight together in war. We potter along minding our own business, depend on governments to keep the good times running without considering what power we hand over to them. So far we haven’t had to eat our pets!

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      • #
        KP

        “Let them eat pets: Why we shouldn’t laugh too hard at Trump’s prejudice-

        There is only one problem with the collective trauma-response, valid though it is, to make fun of Trump’s absurd claim: it shrouds how fundamentally racist and terrifying it was. On the global stage, Trump is promulgating the falsehood that one group of migrants is so savage and uncivilised that it eats pet animals. It is simple vilification, and another rhetorical attempt to dehumanise black and brown immigrants…The Nazis famously compared the Jews of Europe to disease-carrying rats. They also deported Jews en masse, which is what Trump plans to do with the undocumented immigrants who prop up the US economy.”

        Today’s hit piece against Trump in the SMH… All so childish and predictable.

        oops, has the word Nazi in, so bound to get put aside for the moderators!

        [Yes, it was. – LVA]

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      • #
        John Connor II

        Apparently all the rainbow squad identifying as cats and dogs has now dropped to zero in Ohio.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      President Biden condemns Donald Trump’s ‘attack’ on Haitian Americans after former president doubles down on pet eating claim

      President Biden has cautioned that the Haitian population in America is “under attack”, chastising former president Trump over his accusations that Haitians were eating people’s pets.

      From the Comments

      – The TikTok clips and memes are helping convey the Trump message now, Democrats are horrified how this moment has flipped and blown up in their face.

      – More disinformation from the Democrats and mainstream media. They’re getting as nervous as a cat in Springfield.

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        Feds, city to crack down on animal sacrifices in NYC’s Jamaica Bay after dog-carcass with snapped neck, wounded pigs found

        City and federal parks authorities are beefing up resources near Jamaica Bay in Queens following The Post’s expose last week of surging animal sacrifices in the area.

        The National Parks Service promised to install a pair of mobile lights by the Addabbo Bridge in the federally-managed Spring Creek Park to ward off people torturing and killing animals under the cover of darkness, Councilwoman Joann Ariola (R-Queens) announced.

        NPS spokeswoman Daphne Yun said the agency would also provide additional parks police patrol in the area, where animal rescuers said at least eight animals were found dead or maimed since late July.

        These have included five wounded pigs, a near-dead baby rat stuffed in a bag with chicken bones, and a dog carcass with its neck snapped.

        The city’s Parks Department also pledged to increase overnight patrols in Sunset Cove Park, Broad Channel, where gruesome animal remains also have been found, Ariola’s office said.

        From the Comments

        – Someone should tell Catatonic Joe. He was so outraged and bowing to all these people who shouldn’t be here when Trump brought this up at the debate. Disney character David Manure claimed ‘there’s no evidence of this happening’. Maybe Joe will get out of his stare…it may take days…when he realizes it’s happening.

        This admin has such struggles dealing with the truth.

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      • #
        DOC

        ‘They’re getting as nervous as a cat in Springfield.’ Love the turn of phrase OE.

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    • #
      RickWill

      Whether the pet eating is widespread or a beat up, Trump has hit a deep vein of resentment toward Biden and Harris. Immigration could well topple the economy as the #1 issue for the 2024 election:
      https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/PP_2024.9.9_harris-trump_2-03.png

      Much of the economic issues can be sheeted to immigration. The main driver of economic problems is energy policy. If you incentivise waste then you are going to lose productivity. Subsidising grid wind and solar guarantees economic decline.

      There will be some red faced fact checkers. Harris’s response to Trump when talking about eating pets is reminiscent of the smarmy dismissal of the German’s when Trump gave his UN address.

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      • #
        Ronin

        If Australia shared a border with a third world country, you can bet Albo would be letting them stream over the border too.

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        • #
          Steve of Cornubia

          Absolutely, and so would our pretend conservative party. I keep saying that, if France was just 42kms from Darwin, we too would have the very same ‘immigrant’ problem that the UK has.

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      • #
        Ronin

        “reminiscent of the smarmy dismissal of the German’s when Trump gave his UN address.”

        Trump was proved correct on that one too.

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    • #
      Graham Richards

      This happened in South Africa:-

      The small town of Benoni, 40 km seat of Johannesburg. We had a public recreation area themed for kids called the Bunny Park. Furry little creatures brought the kids much pleasure & amusement as they could see the bunnies living living, playing, eating.
      Not for long….within a few weeks of their “ independence “ in 1994 there wasn’t a bunny left.
      All had disappeared, no doubt onto some hastily organised BBQ.

      Rhodesia on attaining their independence & becoming the new “ free “ state of Zimbabwe had the indigenous folk start what became the eradication of the Wankie Game Reserve.
      Didn’t take too long and anything edible on 2 or 4 legs was slaughtered & devoured.
      Rhino elephant were slaughtered for their horns / tusks.

      So President Trump is spot on with the behaviour of the “ guests “ the Democrats warmly welcome to the USA.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      The Left Is Powerless in Stopping the Haitians Eating Pets Story…And It’s Amazing to Watch

      I don’t know whether to laugh or cry, though in this instance, it’s not a statement regarding some appalling examples of liberal media bias. For the Ohio Haitians ‘eating the pets’ story, it’s pure entertainment, maybe a touch of schadenfreude: the liberal media is being tortured in their attempt to neutralize the story.

      Contrary to the establishment press, this story hasn’t been debunked. There’s no way within 48-72 hours that authorities can verify dogs and cats are not being eaten by the tens of thousands of Haitians in Springfield, Ohio.

      As for the local birdlife, geese and ducks are being eaten, with police reports to corroborate the allegations. Even a fact check done by local media on that story’s angle hasn’t negated it. If anything, it might have shined a light that this problem has expanded.

      I’m talking about the viral picture of the migrant holding a dead goose—that was not in Springfield but nearby Columbus.

      The inability of the media to suffocate this story alluded to the industry’s appalling lack of trust. No one believes them, no matter how hard they try.

      It only seems to further entrench people’s belief that Haitian migrants are running wild in Springfield.

      Even when liberals try to mock Donald Trump for mentioning it in ABC News’ debate, it’s become a MAGA anthem.

      The songs are gold, only adding to the media’s inability to stamp out this story, which shines a direct light on Biden’s failed immigration policy.

      In this initiative, Kamala Harris was appointed border czar.

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  • #
    Honk R Smith

    Imagine if you will … a football game.
    Half the fans want team A to win.
    Half want team B.

    Team A has the League owners, the referees, the announcers, the TV producers, and score keepers on their side.
    Team A also has the telephone company and the police force on their side, which can provide team A eavesdropping on teams B’s game plans.
    The police have also conveniently arrested some of team B’s best players.

    Remember, the League, that is supposed to keep things fair, likes team A.

    Place your bets.

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    • #
      James Murphy

      Team A also seem to have better control of the scoreboard than Team B…

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      • #
        Dave in the States

        That’s right. If Team B happens to be in the lead, they can freeze the score keeping and turn it back on later with Team A having magically gained the lead.

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        • #
          Vladimir

          Just keep in mind the latest Australian federal election.
          There was no need to fiddle with the score keepers, everything was decided by the (sorry to say it….) female mob in the streets.

          Just got a smack on my because she always reads what I write over my shoulder !

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      Earl

      And without knowing the final score it is fair to say that win or lose one team will graciously shake the oppositions hands and acknowledge their play in after game speeches. One team will blame the referee while some of their fans boo and throw drink bottles before damaging cars with the opposition team flags in the car park on the way out. Some of them may even start throwing other things and lighting fires – but mostly peacefully of course.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      AFL Finals Week Two AS IT HAPPENED: They won’t recover’: Fears Giants will be permanently scarred after coughing up 44-point lead;

      Giants need to work through mental barrier

      GWS have led for 93 per cent of their last two matches, and ended up losing both.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Amazing video from a counter-scammer.

    https://youtube.com/shorts/XRUrU6jpaLY

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  • #
    Honk R Smith

    Imagine if you will … an Empire.
    The Empire is attacked, never mind why, and in reaction creates a very powerful secretive intelligence structure of at least 17 separate departments.
    These 17 departments also have obscure subgroups, and the subgroups are barely even aware of each because … secrecy.

    Add unlimited budgets.
    Which are also secret and unaudited because secrets.

    Even the King can’t oversee the structure because he/she/they just showed yesterday and may only be King for 4 years.

    Wait 20 years.
    Result?

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  • #
    David Maddison

    How cartoon songs were made back in the day.

    https://www.facebook.com/share/r/qGo8DdJFW8irGgZg/

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  • #
    David Maddison

    The penalties for phone scammers should be severe but unfortunately they seem beyond the reach of the law as they are usually from other countries.

    Since the scammers often ruin people’s lives, the lives of the scammers should be ruined as well, including life imprisonment if they can be caught and extradited from their country of origin.

    Telcos seem to be unwilling or unable to block their calls.

    Law enforcement does little or nothing.

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      Sambar

      “Law enforcement does little or nothing.”

      There is no “enforcement” after all it’s a police “service” where offenders are called “clients”. We have instances where court cases are delayed because the “client” in prison refused to attend. How the hell has it come to this? Was at the footy at the MCG a while back and watched 5 police officers “negotiating” with a belligerent couple, trying to get them to leave. Whatever happened to taking control of a situation and resolving it.
      Whole groups of people that I have never given my phone number or email address to can contact me unsolicited. (think politicians at election times for starters) Do the telco’s know where every scam comes from, of course they do, can they track them back? Of course they can. Do we have international agreements with other countries? Yup. Nothing is ever done because there is always something else at “play” We, the people, are just the tiny disposable pawns in some faceless game that we will never be allowed to truely participate in.

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      • #
        KP

        If the scammers voiced an opinion against a Govt policy they would be in jail instantly!

        Police are there to serve the Govt and make sure the peasants don’t cause trouble for the elites, the rest is taking statements then throwing them in the bin.

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      a happy little debunker

      Not so long ago (6 months or so) I received an unsolicited phone call from someone purporting to be from Centrelink.
      .
      I answered the phone (as I usually do) “you have reached the debunker household, how can I help?”
      The person explained that she was with Centrelink and wanted to talk about issues with a benefit.
      I asked what issues?
      She declined to explain due to ‘privacy concerns’ and demanded my identify.
      Alert to potential scammers – I responded that she had in fact called me and that I would only confirm or deny my identity if she could tell me who she was calling.
      She declined citing further ‘privacy concerns’ and reiterated her demand for my identity.
      I then explained that would not be forthcoming, due to the unsolicited nature of the phone call.
      She told me that she would log the phone call recipient as ‘non-responsive’ … in what amounted to a threat (if genuine) – I accepted that threat/warning.

      Immediately after the phone call I hightailed it the 20 minute drive to my nearest Centrelink office to report the potential phone scammer.
      It turns out the call was genuine and we scheduled a call for a specific time the next day.

      The point being is that if governments can’t get the processes they use to ensure communications integrity – what chance do they have to keep you safe from such abuses?

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        wal1957

        I had a similar situation when I finally paid off the mortgage.
        The branch manager of my local bank rang to congratulate me and to speak about some of the bank services I should look into.
        She said something along the lines of…
        “Sir, I just need to confirm who you are. To do that I’ll need your bank details”. etc.

        There ensued a mexican standoff.
        To this day I have no idea if the call was genuine.

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        • #
          Penguinite

          You are not alone! Just last week we received what appeared to be a legitimate email from Woolworths asking us to complete a survey the reward for doing so was the ability to buy some Tupperware for just the cost of postage. We even had to ring a number to obtain a pass key to confirm our Everyday Saver persona. Needless to say it was all fake and Woolies didn’t know anything??? We were alerted to the scam on receipt of a confirmation email from “Wool Worth”. Up until that point everything looked kosha. So far the cost has only been the disruption caused by the cancellation of credit cards.

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          • #
            wal1957

            I never click a link in an email.
            Correction. I used to do it years ago, (silly me), but haven’t for a number of years now.
            I might miss out on some genuine offers but it’s not worth the risk.

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      • #
        RickWill

        I have often asked why someone needs to know full particulars before they will perform simple requests. I had a standoff with AusGrid a few years ago over my meter reading not being available on their web site. I gave them the meter number and said I would like to have the fault rectified. They wanted to know my fiull name, my address and my birth date before they would help me. I said I was simply reporting a system fault and they needed no more than my meter number. The problem remained for about a year.

        Very two months I pay my Lumo gas account by transferring excess from my electricity account. The Indian call centre they use used tio require a whole lot of personal detail. I simply refused and told them to phone me to verify it was my account. It ended fun a temporary stand-off and the first contact called his manager and agreed to do the transfer using my account numkbner and name. It was not like I was taking money from them. The transfer should be something that can be done on-line but Lumo have not advanced to that yet.

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        Stanley

        Several years ago I was able to get a part pension until my wife attained some magical age which meant we failed the means test. I was over paid about $60. So after the Centrelink letter arrived I was phoned by an anonymous public serpent who wanted to know my name, DOB, address, perhaps blood group and football team. Having divulged all even though she rang me on my smartphone, I dared to ask her name. She said she did not need to and refused my request. She wanted to know how I was going to repay the debt. I said that the debt was trivial and “didn’t the government have bigger fish to fry”? I then hung up. Several weeks later I received a letter that said my debt was waived!

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        • #
          Earl

          Years back when the kids were at school and Kevin Rudd promised all kids would get a computer I got a pay increase. I dutifully wrote to centrelink advising my pay was increasing and sat back waiting for my kids to get their computers since with a decrease in child allowance I was effectively subsidizing them.

          Some 4-5 months later I got a letter which told me I had been over paid for child support. It went on to state that although I had written to them advising of my changed circumstances my letter had not been processed so could I sort out the $500 owing. They got the $500 back but the kids never saw the computers.

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    another ian

    FWIW – more noticing

    “Australia’s Wild, Draconian New Speech Law Targeting ‘Misinformation’ ”

    “Australia and New Zealand are, with the possible exception of Canada, the furthest down the totalitarian rabbit hole of all Western nations.

    I have no idea what made these people so docile in the face of brutal government overreach, but I assume it has to have something to do with the relative peace and security on the continent over the years.”

    More at

    https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2024-09-14/australias-wild-draconian-new-free-speech-law-targeting-misinformation

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      KP

      “I have no idea what made these people so docile in the face of brutal government overreach, ”

      Fluoride in the water! That cringe factor of believing themselves lesser than the Home countries so they try harder all the time.. Countries too young to have had revolutions with politicians hanging from lamp posts and royal heads in the basket, so not enough cynicism about their rulers. …Also, real suckers for Govt propaganda while everyone else from France to Africa know that their rulers are grasping crooks who use repression at the drop of a hat.

      The new world countries are like the children of the family, the oldest being the teenager that is America.

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      This proposed Law is even trying to cover ‘opinion(s) which I find outrageous. Opinions are opinions and there are even humble opinions. Opinions cannot be considered as misinformation IMHO.

      I can just see it now though. An ‘eggspurt’ opinion is accepted but a non-experts opinion isn’t. A Government’s opinion is OK but a voter’s opinion is not OK.

      Absolute Tosh.

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      KP

      Well, who wants to colour the background of this page and subsequent ones according to whether or not Jo’s team think a comment will be allowed in a month or two??

      A red background for ‘not allowed’ and a green one for .. for… I dunno, I can’t see any of our comments being allowed!

      Does anyone have a plan for somewhere that we can meet up after this website gets taken down, banned, stolen, de-listed..

      30

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      el+gordo

      “Misinformation,” per the legislation, includes content “likely to cause or contribute to serious harm,” a term that includes questioning Public Health orthodoxy and, of course, vaguely defined “racism,” among other -isms verboten by Social Justice.’

      Nothing in the legislation to suggest overreach, just building on legal structures already in place.

      03

  • #
    another ian

    FWIW – keeping score

    “The Biden Harris Hoaxacracy List”

    https://americandebunk.com/

    And others

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    David Maddison

    Clover Moore was again elected Mayor of Sydney.

    The pretend conservative Liberals didn’t bother running for local government elections. They handed the whole show over to the commies.

    https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/sydney-mayor-clover-more-claims-unprecedented-sixth-term-as-chaotic-local-elections-end-with-wash-of-informal-votes/news-story/4da543d1a51526a376e119579d407e9f

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Climate debate: Reasons for optimism”

    “The fact that so many people, including doctors such as Robert Malone, are now pushing back against the climate scam is a *very* positive development.

    After discovering so many massive, high-profile lies in recent years, large numbers of people are asking themselves “What else are they lying about?”, and the answer is “just about everything”.

    Elites tried for the Great Reset but they got a Great Awakening.”

    More at

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/09/14/climate-debate-reasons-for-optimism/

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Between the optimist and the pessimist, the difference is droll. The optimist sees the doughnut; the pessimist the hole!

    Oscar Wilde

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    David Maddison

    The glass is neither half empty nor half full. It is twice as large as it needs to be.

    Anonymous

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    David Maddison

    A lot of people become pessimists from financing optimists.

    Anonymous

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    YYY Guy

    Michael Smith has a little article about Independent MP Russell Broadbent and his opposition to the DIs/Misinfo bill. I wasn’t sure who he was so did a Brave AI search. The second comment is very odd.
    In case it doesn’t show –

    Maybe ignorant ideologues like Russell Broadbent MP should stop spewing so much misinformed garbage and there wouldn’t be the need for controls like this.

    Disappears when you follow the link.

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      KP

      Its most interesting! Like someone working for Brave hacked the search results that show, but have no influence on the actual web page.

      ..and it takes a lot of inside knowledge to get that to the top 5 of a websearch. All those ardent Socialists working in the tech industry.

      Doesn’t appear in a Startpage search, although his official by-line is so cringy..

      “I am a vocal advocate for a just and compassionate society with a focus on: a fair and sustainable NDIS, care and dignity for our elders and their carers.”

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    OldOzzie

    Why do The Greens even bother turning up to Australian Parliaments?

    Is there no foreign cause they won’t put ahead of Australia?

    Was privileged to be with the Chilean community in Sydney today. Together we commemorated 51 years from the appalling US and Australian backed coup that toppled the democratically elected Allende government.

    Solidarity, justice and democracy – values that unite us 💪🗳️🇨🇱 pic.twitter.com/cqWEKo8ueQ
    — David Shoebridge (@DavidShoebridge) September 14, 2024

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      Vladimir

      I have honestly sad recollection of a former colleague at that time – he was a small Chilean communist official, who went through horrible times running until he and his family reached our town. Miserable life they had despite the assistance from our local authorities, and being disliked by other guys at our plant because of that.., useful idiots – I already knew that term.
      He could not say a word in Russian and I, at times, shared my sandwiches with him, trying to get into his head because I was preparing to run in the opposite direction and my mum was quoting official lines to me about hungry families in the West, scavenging rubbish bins…, so I sat against him at our cantina and imagined the reversed situation.

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        el+gordo

        At the time I came into contact with a Chilean woman who had been tortured and raped by the dictators minions. It was one of those proxy wars, the US eliminating socialists here and there.

        With Donald at the helm these acts of adventurism, setting up puppet states, will be a thing of the past.

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    OldOzzie

    Swift endorsement turns more voters from Harris than it attracts: poll

    It might not be such a “Love Story” after all.

    Taylor Swift’s endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, may turn more voters away than it attracts.

    A new post-debate poll from YouGov released Saturday found that 8% of voters said the pop superstar’s nod is either “somewhat” or “much more likely” to convince them to cast their ballot for the Democrat.

    But a whopping 20% said they are “somewhat” or “much less likely” to vote for former President Donald Trump’s opponent now that Swift has spoken.

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      OldOzzie

      Kamala Harris’ ‘word salad’ softball interview with ABC affiliate was proof VP is ‘disconnected from everyday Americans’: critics

      Kamala Harris served up another huge helping of “word salad” during her softball interview with an ABC affiliate – dodging questions and saying little of substance during her first solo media sitdown since becoming the Democratic presidential nominee, critics told The Post Saturday.

      “When a reporter asks about inflation and she responds by talking about [neighbors’] lawns, I’d say she is disconnected from everyday Americans,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn) said.

      “But worse, is that she has no plan to fix it because she’s the one who broke it.”

      Harris went off on a series of cringe-worthy rants during her nearly 11-minute Friday interview with anchor Brian Taff of Philadelphia-based Action News 6, including after Taff’s initial question on how she’d bring prices down in the U.S.

      “Well, I’ll start with this: I grew up as a middle-class kid. My mother raised my sister and me. She worked very hard,” said Harris, before moving on to greener pastures — but not the economy.

      “I grew up in a neighborhood of folks who were very proud of their lawn. You know? And, um, and I was raised to believe and to know that all people deserve dignity,” the vice president added.

      She never said how she’d tackle inflation.

      Harris’ answers are “perfect example[s] of why her handlers are concerned about her doing interviews,” said Republican political consultant Rob Ryan.

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        OldOzzie

        Kamala Harris Gives Bizarre “word salad” Interview Highlighting Why Campaign Director Brian Fallon Tries to Keep Her Hidden

        September 14, 2024 – Sundance

        From the Comments

        – She’s so hideous she has to sneak up to a glass of water just to get a drink.

        – They had to tie a pork chop around her neck to get the dog to vote for her. Twice.

        Especially after he heard about Springfield.

        – But she can suck a tennis ball out of a tailpipe.

        – Give me a participation trophy please. I made it through her first 45 seconds before heading for the exit!

        – But she’ll get 100 million votes!

        – Check out how Presidential her footwear is…she truly is classless.
        Come on, you could have at least worn Jack Purcell’s and shown a little class.

        – Before I read the article and comments, I’ll say her tennis shoes are stoopid.

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        OldOzzie

        Kamala Harris Steals Credit for Trump Executive Order Eliminating College Degree Requirements for Federal Jobs

        Kamala Harris has stolen another idea from President Trump, declaring that as President, she will “get rid of the unnecessary degree requirement for federal jobs.”

        “For far too long, our nation has encouraged one path to success: a four-year college degree,” Harris said on X. “As president, I will get rid of the unnecessary degree requirement for federal jobs.”

        The latest idea from Kamala Harris should show all of America how dishonest and incompetent she is.

        It can be recalled that on June 26, 2020, President Trump signed an executive order alongside his daughter, Ivanka, directing the Office of Personnel Management to “replace degree-based hiring with skills- and competency-based hiring.”

        Watch below via @BehizyTweets on X:

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          OldOzzie

          VP Harris proposes jobs policy Trump previously signed as an executive order

          Vice President Kamala Harris made another policy proposal already put forth by former President Donald Trump, the measure was an executive order he signed as president.

          Ms. Harris announced on Friday during a campaign stop in Pennsylvania that she would cut college degree requirements for certain federal jobs if elected president.

          “As president, I will get rid of the unnecessary degree requirements for federal jobs to increase jobs for folks without a four-year degree,” Ms. Harris said during her speech in Wilkes-Barre.

          The Trump campaign’s Trump War Room X account posted a clip of Ms. Harris’ remarks and responded, “Hey can I borrow your homework?

          I’ll just change a few things so nobody notices.”

          The Washington Times has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.

          On June 26, 2020, Mr. Trump signed an executive order addressing this issue.

          The order at the time directed the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to revise qualifications for jobs with the U.S. government within half a year.

          According to the order, the federal agency could suggest a minimum educational requirement “only when a minimum educational qualification is legally required to perform the duties of the position in the state or locality where those duties are to be performed.”

          The order was a recommendation from the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board, co-chaired by his daughter Ivanka Trump, which was created in 2018 and was put together to find ways to improve job training.

          “This will ensure that we’re able to hire based on talent and expand our universe to qualified candidates and ensure a more equitable hiring process,” Ms. Trump said when her father signed the order.

          “The federal government will no longer be narrowly focused on where you went to school, but the skills and talents that you bring to the job.”

          States across the country followed suit including Pennsylvania, Maryland, Colorado and Utah.

          This is not the first Trump policy Ms. Harris has promised she would push if elected.

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        OldOzzie

        NEW: ABC News Caught Grossly Deceptively Editing Kamala Harris’ Disastrous Solo Interview

        As RedState reported, Kamala Harris’ first solo interview since wresting the nomination away from Joe Biden did not go well. The vice president seemed ill-prepared, rambling on about things unrelated to the questions being presented by ABC News reporter Brian Taff

        One particularly egregious example occurred when she was asked to give just two specific things she’d do to bring down costs for Americans. What followed was a mind-numbing word salad in which she spent nearly a quarter of the interview (which was only 10 minutes long) rambling about being “middle class.”

        TAFF: Talk about bringing down prices and making life more affordable for people. What are one or two specific things you have in mind for that?

        HARRIS: Well, I’ll start with this. I grew up a middle-class kid. My mother raised my sister and me. She worked very hard. She was able to finally save up enough money to buy our first house when I was a teenager. I grew up in a community of hardworking people. You know, construction workers and nurses and teachers. I try to explain to some people who might not have had the same experience, but a lot of people will relate to this.

        You know, I grew up in a neighborhood of people who were really proud of their lawn, you know, and I was raised to believe and to know that all people deserve dignity and that we as Americans have a beautiful character. You know, we have ambitions and aspirations and dreams, but not everyone necessarily has access to the resources that can help them fuel those dreams and ambitions. So, when I talk about building an opportunity economy, it is very much with the mind of investing in the ambitions and aspirations and the incredible work ethic of the American people and creating opportunity for people, for example, to start a small business.

        The above exchange can be seen online by going directly to ABC 6’s website. Guess who didn’t see it? That would be the network’s television audience.

        According to Tom Elliott, who runs Grabien, a media service that archives news coverage, ABC 6 and Taff made an astonishingly dishonest edit to the interview before playing it on the nightly news.

        Specifically, the above word salad was completely cut out of the interview, and instead, a later portion was spliced in.

        In the recording of the live broadcast, you can hear Taff ask the question posed in the above excerpt, yet the answer Harris is shown giving was not her actual answer in the interview.

        Here is the comparison between the actual interview and what ABC 6 put on air.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      WATCH: “Screw You Taylor Swift!”

      Megyn Kelly DESTROYS Taylor Swift for Endorsing Tim Walz’s State Custody of Minors and Child S@x Change Procedures

      20

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    OldOzzie

    Major Escalation – NATO Threatening to Launch Long-Range Missiles into Russia from Ukraine – Vladimir Putin Responds

    September 14, 2024 – Sundance

    I’m going to drop a series of short video segments highlighting how the Biden administration is coaxing NATO allies into a position of war against Russia using an escalation within the proxy state of Ukraine. This is not getting nearly enough attention.

    Ukraine (Zelensky), Canada (Trudeau), the U.K. (Starmer) and the United States (Biden) are currently discussing the shipment of Storm Shadow missiles from the U.K that have the ability to reach deep into Russia. Zelensky has been asking for them; however, the current conversation amid the NATO partnership essentially boils down to whether the missiles should be deployed to Ukraine or not.

    When Vladimir Putin was asked about the long-range missile deployment and potential for strikes deep into Russia, the Russian Federation President spoke clearly about what was at stake.

    Putin noted that Ukraine does not currently have long range missiles, nor do they have anything remotely close to the targeting system needed to use them.

    Therefore, as the Russian president noted, if such missiles are launched and strike Russia they are coming directly from NATO. President Putin said Russia will respond accordingly. WATCH (the translation is accurate):

    As of this moment in late Saturday (9/14/24), British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is heading home from a meeting with Joe Biden without any agreement on the deployment of the missiles. The threat seemingly remains, as a threat to deploy them.

    Biden and Starmer have started walking things back AFTER Vladimir Putin made his remarks.

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      • #
        el+gordo

        He is an outlier and of no consequence.

        ‘Braun holds anti-American, anti-Protestant, and anti-LGBT views, aligning himself with Traditionalist Catholicism and Polish nationalism. While in the Sejm, his activities have been characterised by a series of antisemitic incidents and pro-Russian stances, including referring to Polish Jews as “the enemies of Poland” and participants “in the Satanic cult”. (wiki)

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      el+gordo

      Nobody is walking things back, there are American parts inside the French and UK missiles, so in an election year its a bit iffy.

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      OldOzzie

      US can’t hide from nuclear war – Moscow

      Such a conflict won’t have winners or losers, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has said

      Washington will be unable to hide from a nuclear conflict if it starts across the ocean, Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov has said.

      Fears of a potential escalation between Russia and NATO over Ukraine have been intensifying in recent days, as Western powers reportedly mull the possibility of allowing Kiev to conduct missile strikes deep in Russian territory.

      Speaking with Rossiya 24 channel on Friday, Ambassador Antonov said that he is surprised at the “illusion” that “if there is a conflict, it will not spread to the territory of the United States of America.”

      “I am constantly trying to convey to them one thesis that the Americans will not be able to sit it out behind the waters of this ocean. This war will affect everyone, so we constantly say – do not play with this rhetoric,” Antonov stated.

      He also mentioned that while Western countries accuse Russia of “sabre-rattling,” the US wants to investigate the consequences a nuclear strike would have for Eastern Europe.

      Antonov was apparently referring to a study ordered by the US Defense Department to simulate the impact of a nuclear conflict on global agriculture.

      According to a solicitation notice posted on a government procurement platform, the study will focus on regions “beyond Eastern Europe and Western Russia,” which in the simulation is the epicenter of the hypothetical nuclear attack.

      On Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that removing restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western weapons would directly involve the US and its allies in the conflict with Russia and would be met with an appropriate response.

      Russia’s envoy to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia, later reiterated that granting Kiev permission to use Western-supplied long-range weapons would constitute direct involvement in the conflict by NATO.

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        OldOzzie

        French officials fear WWIII – Le Monde

        Paris is reportedly concerned about the prospects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict escalating into a global war

        Members of the French government are concerned about the Ukraine conflict spiraling out of control and are now exercising “great discretion,” Le Monde reported on Saturday, citing diplomatic sources.

        Fears of the confrontation escalating into a direct collision between Moscow and the NATO bloc have skyrocketed over the past few days, as the US and its allies reportedly consider authorizing Kiev to conduct strikes deep in Russian territory using Western weaponry.

        While France has announced “no official position” on the matter, unnamed diplomats in private conversations admitted to the French daily that Paris has been concerned about potential escalation and has been trying to avoid it.

        “We must do everything possible to avoid World War III,” an unnamed official told the newspaper.

        “One cannot simply dismiss the hypothesis that the Russians could expand the scale of their military operations,” the official added, referring to the warnings voiced by top Russian officials, including Russian President Vladimir Putin.

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          OldOzzie

          The West is ensuring Kiev’s demise on purpose

          By allowing Ukraine to hit Russia with their missiles, NATO members would be enacting a cruel sacrifice to wind down the war

          By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany working at Koç University, Istanbul, on Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory

          The predictable and predicted is happening again. Despite the coyly teasing dance of seven veils performed by, mostly, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to those who ignored the noise and focused on the signal, it’s always been clear that Washington and London would decide to – officially and openly – allow and help Ukraine to use their missiles for attacks even deeper into Russia than before.

          And of course, it’s been obvious to Moscow as well, as Dmitry Peskov, President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, made clear as early as September 11.

          That the West is escalating is no surprise. It has a well-established pattern of continually ratcheting-up the stakes in its proxy war – including (but not restricted to) the supply of intelligence, mercenaries, ‘advisors’, various tanks, armored vehicles, missile systems, and recently F-16 fighter planes. Now it’s time to fully unleash Storm Shadow and then, if perhaps a little later, long-range ATACMS missiles.

          The real reason why the restrictions on the use of Western missiles are coming off at this point in the war is that Kiev is even more desperate than usual. With Russia first containing Kiev’s Kursk Kamikaze incursion and now launching devastating counter-attacks, the Ukrainian operation has turned into the bloody waste it was destined to be, while Moscow’s forces are accelerating their advances elsewhere, as even the stalwartly pro-Kiev New York Times is admitting.

          Not that adding deeper missile strikes will save the Zelensky regime from defeat and probably collapse. For one thing, Ukraine does not have a large supply of these weapons, and given Western politics and lack of production capacities, it never will. Kiev may get lucky and do some limited damage, but – as with earlier silver bullets – the missiles cannot change the course of the war. Russian countermeasures will greatly blunt their impact in any case. But the Zelensky regime has a habit of clinging to one straw after the other. And, in addition, Zelensky’s team is pursuing its usual double strategy of seeking spectacular attacks that can feed propaganda at home and abroad, as well as perhaps finally escalate the war into an open regional, that is European, or even global conflict. For that apocalyptic escalation is Kiev’s last – if insane and suicidal – chance of staving off defeat.

          The risk of things getting out of hand beyond Ukraine is obvious. For those too slow to grasp them, Putin has just spelled out the essence of the issue. Since Ukraine can only target and launch these missiles with indispensable Western, that is, NATO assistance, their use will mean that NATO is at war with Russia.

          Some things need explaining in the West nowadays: If you shoot at a country or take part in shooting at it, you enter into direct armed conflict with it. Period.

          Peskov’s statement also raises another issue that Kiev should be very worried about, if the Zelensky regime were rational, which it is not.

          Let’s recall one simple fact: Ukraine’s Western supporters are friends from hell.

          Behind their rhetoric of “values” and “as long as it takes,” their policy toward Ukraine has been to exploit it as a proxy war pawn for their own misconceived geopolitical purposes. Now these same lethal ‘friends’ are graciously permitting Kiev to use their missiles to strike deeper into Russia. Yet if one thing about the Russian response is predictable, then that is that its first target will be Ukraine. Whatever Moscow may or may not decide to do about its Western de facto enemies, it will hit its Ukrainian direct opponent first.

          Yet that would be a simplistic interpretation because firstly, Western geopolitics is more Machiavellian than that and secondly, it is obvious that Kiev will not improve but only further worsen its negotiating position and as a matter of fact, its position as such. Here is a more realistic hypothesis: Ukraine’s friends from hell will quietly welcome Ukraine being battered even worse by a retaliating Russia because that, in turn, will make Kiev more flexible when it comes to negotiations. And both the US and its UK sidekick, as well as the West in general would find it easier to wind down the war if they could point to Kiev throwing in the towel first: “Look,” they’ll tell us, “we’ve always said we’d help Ukraine to the end, but now they themselves want an end.” Ukraine sold out once more but with, for the naive, “agency” galore.

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            el+gordo

            ‘ … the West is escalating …’

            That is a lie, nothing has been agreed upon.

            Zelensky is a good actor, he is playing Churchill and intends to win, otherwise its the gulag. It doesn’t matter if the US pulls out of NATO, its just another European war.

            Ukraine can fight this war with one arm tied behind its back, but a lot of people will needlessly die. That is why the Crimea bridge has to come down, it is strategic and symbolic, the war would be over in a few days.

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            Old Goat

            Ozzie,
            Everyone has “forgotten” what happened in all of the wars the US has been involved in recently . Deep state money laundering operation paid for by the US taxpayers . Ukraine will suffer the same fate as Afghanistan .Homeland and the three letter agencies are into it up to their ears . The weird thing is all the corruption is openly displayed and virtually nobody can do anything – plenty of talk but no actions . The debt monster will get them eventually….

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              OldOzzie

              Consider also that in the process of ending this war, as former Indian foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal has pointed out, the West is almost certain to face a deeply humiliating climb-down.

              This won’t be a mere crushing defeat for it, but a fundamental moral self-destruction too. Because Russia will impose a solution based on the peace agreement almost reached in Istanbul in the spring of 2022, plus additional territorial losses for Ukraine.

              But then the West’s sabotaging of that agreement – just admitted once more, this time by Victoria Nuland – and everything that it and Kiev have done since then will be revealed as one huge, wasteful fiasco. A fiasco within, as it were, the fiasco of the policy of turning Ukraine into a proxy of NATO expansion and then war against Russia.

              This would be akin to what happened toward the end of another enormous US proxy cluster-mess, the Vietnam War.

              The Paris Peace Accords of 1973 did not actually end that conflict.

              That happened later when Washington’s proxy South Vietnam was overrun and abolished in 1975.

              But the Paris agreement served as an exit for the defeated US.

              The bloody irony was, of course, that a very similar deal had been available already in 1969.

              As historian Paul Thomas Chamberlin has correctly underlined, everyone who died between then and 1973 – that is, 20,000 Americans, hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, and quite a few Cambodians – died not only for the general insanity of US overreach but for strictly nothing at all, an empirically measurable zero between what could have been settled in 1969 and was only signed in 1973.

              One day, the distance between the Istanbul peace option of spring 2022 and whatever agreement finally ends the Ukraine War will look very similar.

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                Old Goat

                Ozzie,
                The Russians will not allow any of the oblasts that voted to join the Russian federation to be part of what’s left of Ukraine . How far they will go after that is achieved is under consideration by Russian leadership and will depend on the final outcome of political events . I just hope that they/we don’t end up using nukes as that’s an existential threat for everyone.

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                el+gordo

                RT is being paid by the FSB to influence Western thinking, you’re wasting your time and quite clearly on the wrong side of history.

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            KP

            This bit- I found it late last night and put it up.

            ““advanced missiles and weapons systems are often run by proprietary software that requires special keys, programs, equipment, etc., to input the coordinates into them which cannot be done by the Ukrainians themselves, because giving them such digital ‘keys’ could compromise the entire system even in the home NATO countries in case of future conflict. ”

            So NATO need official Govt ‘boots on the ground’ attacking Russian cities, they wouldn’t give top-secret missile codes to civilians or ex-military advisors.. Does Putin press the button? How about he-

            ” The most obvious immediate Russian response would likely be to arm the Houthis with advanced anti-ship missiles which would straightaway endanger the entire US fleet. ”

            ..and the world changes the moment the Houthis sink an American aircraft carrier with Russian missiles, the ones designed to be “Carrier Killers”

            It can still get worse, and we will all be worse off, just to help the Americans rule the world.

            https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/zelenskys-last-hail-mary-gets-off

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              el+gordo

              The missiles coming from Iran will be tracked and destroyed at the appropriate time.

              The Houthis won’t try that on, but they are good at sinking cargo ships.

              We are the deputy sheriff in the South Pacific, the Alliance is strong in this part of the world. However, NATO might go through a difficult patch.

              The Baltic states want to send their soldiers to Ukraine, it doesn’t trigger Article 5. They are well trained and need to be battle hardened, do you think this will start WW3?

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          Ronin

          Better crank up the white flag factory again.

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      OldOzzie

      Time magazine (https://t.me/dimsmirnov175/79390) simulated a nuclear war between Russia and the United States – it is useful for everyone to remember that this is not a joke:

      ✔️ “What would happen if a full-scale nuclear war between Russia and the United States began? When one side of the conflict launched nuclear missiles, the other would detect them and strike back before they hit their targets.

      ✔️ An American submarine would launch ballistic missiles from western Norway. They would reach Russia in about 10 minutes. And Russian missiles from northern Canada would hit the United States a few minutes later.

      ✔️ The very first strikes – high-frequency electromagnetic pulses – would fry electronics and power systems, the electromagnetic pulse would be tens of thousands of volts per meter. The next strikes would hit command and control points, as well as underground missile silos.

      ✔️ Land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles will arrive in half an hour. The targets will be megacities. Each strike will create a fireball – hot as the sun’s crust. Behind it will appear a mushroom-shaped radioactive cloud. These powerful explosions will incinerate the people around, and everything will be engulfed in flames. The expansion of the fireball will cause a blast wave that will damage buildings, destroying nearby ones.

      ✔️ Britain and France have nuclear arsenals, and according to Article 5 of the NATO charter, they are obliged to defend the United States. Therefore, Russia strikes them too. Firestorms engulf many cities. Black carbon emissions from nuclear firestorms lead to a nuclear winter.

      [SNIP]
      https://time.com/6290977/nuclear-war-impact-essay/

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    OldOzzie

    Hopefully – Yes

    Porn Star Stormy Daniels Says There is a ‘Strong Possibility’ Trump Will Try Her For Treason

    Daniels did not expand on how Trump intends prosecute her and on what specific laws he will accuse her of having violated.

    Despite her complaints and cries for attention, Daniels (whose real name is Stephanie Clifford) has been cashing in on the fame she has generated from her alleged relationship with Donald Trump.

    Back in May, it emerged that Daniels had raised almost $1 million through a GoFundMe campaign intended to help her move her a safe house and repaying the legal fees incurred during Trump’s criminal trial.

    Meanwhile, Daniels still owes Trump himself $600,000 in legal fees after a judge ordered her to cough up the money for filing a frivolous lawsuit against him.

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    OldOzzie

    Vance brings grandparents into child care debate, angers big government crowd

    GOP vice presidential nominee angers big government crowd

    Sen. JD Vance — the scourge of “childless cat ladies” — has done it again. The Ohio Republican offended liberal sensibilities by suggesting an answer to the child care clamor that doesn’t involve more government.

    Former President Donald Trump’s running mate said that in some cases, grandparents might help care for the children of working parents.

    The response was blistering.

    The word “idiot” was used often in headlines.

    The fool! Doesn’t he know that more government is the only serious solution to any problem?

    Progressives want to alleviate the high cost of institutional child care with subsidies — which will, in turn, drive up the high cost of institutional child care.

    In return for subsidies, progressives will demand tighter licensing requirements, including diversity, equity and inclusion training. Do preschoolers have preferred pronouns?

    The average couple with two children pay 30% of their combined wages for child care. That’s exorbitant, Democrats complain. It’s better to let taxpayers pick up the tab, including parents who don’t outsource care of their children.

    Mr. Vance is consistent. In 2021, he declared, “Universal child care is a massive subsidy to the lifestyle preferences of the affluent over the preferences of the middle and working class.”

    It’s like forcing a convenience store clerk to pay off the student loans of a lawyer.

    President Biden wants to spend $225 billion on child care subsidies. Vice President Kamala Harris says the cost to parents should be capped at $10 a day.

    Mr. Biden thinks no cost is too high to keep both parents working and paying taxes to keep their children in child care. “When a parent drops out of the workforce — even temporarily — there are lifetime consequences,” the president warns.

    There are also consequences that come from warehousing children with strangers at 1, 2 or 3 years of age. Studies show children confined to child care generally have increased levels of anxiety and aggressive behavior. Anything that weakens the maternal bond is detrimental.

    In a moment reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s “It takes a village to raise a child,” in April, Mr. Biden proclaimed: ”There is no such thing as someone else’s child. Our nation’s children are all our children.”

    So we’re all to blame for how Hunter Biden turned out?

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      OldOzzie

      ‘Frasier’ star Kelsey Grammer slams Trump-hating Hollywood liberals, endorses GOP candidate

      Actor Kelsey Grammer, best known for his roles in the sitcoms “Cheers” and “Frasier,” endorsed Republican Senate Candidate Curtis Bashaw in his race to replace disgraced former Sen. Bob Menendez in New Jersey, saying he was fed up with “bankrupt elites in my town” who were disappointed the assassin didn’t kill former President Donald Trump.

      Mr. Grammer made a plea for support for Mr. Bashaw in a fundraising email, writing that he has been “a known conservative in Hollywood throughout my career. It wasn’t always easy, but the latest from the bankrupt elites in my town really got to me.”

      “After President Trump was shot, the only echo reverberating through my so-called ‘community’ was a regret that the assassin failed to kill him,” he said.

      “Weeks later, on a zoom call: White Dudes for Kamala. In a masterpiece of intolerance, in a breathtakingly short period of time, we learned what they are all about: Hatred and Racism. Pathetic.”

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    OldOzzie

    The Slowest Selling Car in America Right Now Is…

    And, right now, your best bet is to choose a Stellantis (parent company of Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Fiat, and Maserati) vehicle as they make up half of the top-ten slowest selling vehicles according to CarEdge.

    But which Stellantis vehicle is languishing at dealers the most right now?

    Well, it turns out to be the newest addition to the Dodge lineup: the Hornet compact crossover.

    Even with its appealing starting price of $42,530, dealers just can’t get them off their lots quickly enough. According to CarEdge dealer inventory data, the Market Day Supply—or the number of days it would take to sell all the models available based on its current sales rate of the Dodge Hornet is up to 428 days. Dodge apparently has 14,596 Hornets on dealer lots, but has only moved 1,536 in the last 45 days.

    Mercedes-Benz and its EQB is the third worst with a 427-day supply (3,546 on lots and only 373 sold in the past 45 days).

    If you’re curious on what the fastest sellers are, the top three spots are from Toyota: the Highlander at 23 days, RAV4 at 30, and Camry at 31 days worth of inventory. Of the fastest list overall, Toyota and Lexus take six of the top-ten fastest sellers. The Honda Civic comes in at the fourth fastest with a 34-day supply. Surprisingly, a Stellantis pr

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    another ian

    California to the lead again!

    “California Gas Stoves to Come With Health Warning Labels”

    https://hotair.com/jazz-shaw/2024/09/14/california-gas-stoves-to-come-with-health-warning-labels-n3794494

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      Stanley

      Especially if you leave your head in the oven door with the gas turned on. Won’t be long before gas BBQs are out-lawed.

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        Graeme No.3

        Reminds me of the story in England where a chap decided to end it all. He closed off any ventilation in the house and opened the gas full on with the pilot lights off. He ignored or didn’t realise that natural gas isn’t poisonous.
        He sat down on his sofa and waited for a painless death, but after about an hour decided to not suicide after all.
        He turned off the gas, went back to the sofa and decided to light a cigar.
        The resulting explosion demolished the house.

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    another ian

    FWIW!

    “LEAK: Secret Service Agents Assigned to Trump Butler Rally Never Directed Local Police to Guard Roof Used by Thomas Crooks”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/trump-assassination-attempt-leak-secret-service-agents-never/

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    Greg in NZ

    BBC wax lyrical with their latest reincarnation of the Triple-C alliteration: Cascading Climate Consequences. Sumpfink™️ about oceans being too hot for whales.

    I was mortified seeing breeding ground after breeding ground turning red”, said PhD candidate Hannah von Hammerstein from the Uni of Hawai’i.

    Despite having a name fit for a B-grade horror movie starlet, her quote refers not to some Icelandic nor Japanese cultural slaughter of our cetaceous cousins, but model simulations of rising SST due to [trace gas].

    *If I turn ziss knob up to eleven ya, zee vorld turns red. Boom, zee oceans are on fire! Boiled whale: PANIC!

    *example of Sumpfink – scraping the bottom of a barrel and thinking the sludge represents the whole. I’m old enough to remember when science fiction was at least believable. RIP.

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      another ian

      So – a keen observer eh?

      Went by the ever more vivid colours used to present temperature rather than the numbers on the axes?

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        Greg in NZ

        Forget the ‘red under the bed’ – the imaginary red scare now oozes out of computer screens and televisions and phones. Who needs numbers or axes when it’s RED!

        Meanwhile another ORANGE Heavy Snow Warning has been issued for parts of the South Island with WHITE snow down to 200m and possible BLACK ice on the roads amongst the GREEN paddocks which are often BROWN when flooded.

        Climate Diversity™️ naturally.

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          OldOzzie

          RED!

          Meanwhile another ORANGE Heavy Snow Warning has been issued for parts of the South Island with WHITE snow down to 200m and possible BLACK ice on the roads amongst the GREEN paddocks which are often BROWN when flooded.

          Totally Irrelevant to a Badly Colourblind Person – as I have previously stated, until someone mentioned red and green thumbs on posts, I did not realise they were coloured – and also why I do Bold on Link, is because I cannot tell the difference between black & non bolded higlighted link

          Wonder what the World really looks like?

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      another ian

      Re “Triple C alliteration”

      In WW2 Oz had the “Civil Constructional Corps”

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Constructional_Corps

      That wasn’t such a howling success and was often known as “Curtain’s Cunning “plural of Clarkson’s worst word in the world””

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    Ronin

    Better check their instruments, that is if they even use any.

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    John Connor II

    Sunday funnies

    A good uselesstube channel for jokes is Mike and Joelle, a NZ couple, but I won’t hold that against them.

    A tad naughty and not pc.

    https://www.youtube.com/@mikeandjoelle./videos

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    John Connor II

    All airports will be ordered to close, eating beef and lamb will be made illegal, major restrictions will be placed on farming, and construction of new buildings will not be permitted.

    All airports must be closed and the consumption of meat and dairy products among the general public must be completely banned in order to comply with the globalist “Net Zero” agenda, according to a disturbing government report.

    The report was produced by Oxford University and Imperial College London for the UK government.

    Experts at the prestigious colleges are advising government officials on the drastic steps that must be taken to meet the “Net Zero” targets set by the United Nations (UN) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).

    https://slaynews.com/news/government-report-calls-all-airports-closed-comply-net-zero/

    Yeah, that’ll happen…

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    John Connor II

    Kuwait prepares to halt services for unregistered fingerprint biometrics

    Those in Kuwait failing to meet the deadlines for biometric registration will face suspension of government services. The Central Bank of Kuwait is also planning to implement phased restrictions on the bank accounts of individuals who do not comply with the biometric registration requirements.

    The deadline for biometric registration for citizens is September 30, while for expatriates, it is December 30. Approximately 175,000 citizens and 800,000 expats still need to complete the procedure. Around 2.6 million people have undergone the fingerprinting process, including 1.86 million expatriates and 800,000 Kuwaiti citizens, according to the Arab Times.

    The Central Bank of Kuwait has directed banks to implement restrictions in four stages; an alert phase, suspension of electronic channels, suspension of bank cards, and full account freeze.

    Customers who fail to meet the fingerprinting deadline will have all electronic banking channels disabled by September 30. All bank cards will be blocked by October 31, and a full account freeze will be enforced by December 1

    https://timeskuwait.com/banks-ready-for-biometric-fingerprint-deadline-account-restrictions-loom/

    Opt-in becomes mandatory.

    Any non-WEF puppet political party in Oz yet?
    No? Guess what’s coming then.

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    Here we had ‘Climate Change’ a couple of years ago. It was screamed exhaustedly; ‘the climate has changed’. It rained, a lot. Since then ……..
    Since then the climate changed again, and gave us a ‘mild winter’. (a term that has definitely slipped from favour.) But really, is it just that ‘weather’ is actually extinct, or has it just been cancelled? Weather has always changed, but give me one temperate region that is now tropical, or even polar that is now temperate? WEATHER RULES! Looks like I just found my next t shirt.

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    Dennis

    Recently I watched a documentary of places around Australia and descriptions of how climate change over millions of years has created what we have today. One area was the Daintree rainforest near Cairns Queensland part of just 3 per cent of rainforest area left in Australia, but a long time ago rainforest covered the entire country.

    Documentaries like that really do make a mockery of the UN based climate hoax politics.

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    John Connor II

    Sunday feel good post

    A street musician joined by a 3yo girl.
    Let kids be kids!

    https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_sjp9f0gauk1z23obp.mp4

    Awesome!

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    OldOzzie

    The Australian Editorial

    Greens’ incitement has no place in democratic politics

    After decades as a protest party on the political fringes, the Greens have degenerated to embracing thuggery, inciting violent law-breaking and tolerating attacks on police and police horses.

    Summed up by Johannes Leak cartoon – https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary

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    OldOzzie

    New analysis claims 193 per cent increase in victims of assault, sexual offences and robbery under Queensland’s Labor government
    Analysis of crime statistics by the Queensland opposition claims to show a massive increase in victims of assault, sexual offences and robbery since 2015, cementing the state’s reputation as the nation’s “crime capital.”

    Max Melzer Sky News Digital Reporter

    The number of victims for physical crimes increased from 28,369 to 83,276 over the past nine years, the analysis found.

    In a statement, shadow police and community safety minister Dan Purdie blamed the state government’s “weaker laws” for the shock increase, as he vowed to ensure there would be fewer victims should the Liberal and National Party win the next election.

    “Queensland is the crime capital of the country because of Labor’s watered-down laws,” he claimed.

    “There are more victims of crime in Queensland than New South Wales and Victoria.

    “The LNP is committed to ensuring there would be fewer victims of crime in Queensland under a future Crisafulli LNP government and we have a plan to do it. Labor’s weaker laws created the Queensland Youth Crime Crisis and only the LNP will restore safety where you live.”

    With less than a month until Queenslanders head to the ballot, tackling crime is shaping to be one of the deciding factors in October.

    Polling suggests the election could be a disaster for Premier Steven Miles, with Resolve Strategic polling showing Labor’s primary vote as low as 23 per cent, as voters express frustration with the soaring cost of living, crime rates and housing shortages.

    However, analysts say Labor’s hold on Brisbane, 34 of its 42 seats are held by the party, and preference boosts from Greens voters in other areas could prevent the LNP from winning a majority.

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      OldOzzie

      Victoria Under Labor – More than 20 people arrested in major four-day Victoria Police operation targeting car thefts in Melbourne’s north-west

      A major police operation targeting car theft has resulted in more than 20 people being arrested in Melbourne’s north-west, with one dramatic incident seeing two individuals arrested after driving an allegedly stolen vehicle while sparks shot off the punctured rear tyre.

      Patrick Hannaford Sky News Digital Reporter

      A major operation by Victoria Police has resulted in the arrest of more than 20 people and the recovery of five stolen vehicles, with alleged car thieves, burglars and dangerous drivers among those caught.

      Sparked by an increase in car thefts in the area, Operation Sneak involved police scanning vehicles to detect stolen cars and motorbikes, and arresting individuals wanted on outstanding warrants.

      One dramatic incident saw two individuals arrested at Melbourne Airport just hours after they had allegedly stolen a white sports car from an address in Richmond.

      Victoria Police Air Wing observed the vehicle – a white Toyota sedan – allegedly travelling at speeds of up to 170km/h on the Tullamarine Freeway.

      Police attempted to disable the vehicle by deploying stop sticks at the intersection of Bulla Road and Balmoral Avenue. However, the vehicle continued on at low speeds, with footage showing sparks off the punctured rear passenger tyre.

      The vehicle eventually came to a stop at Melbourne Airport, where police arrested a male driver and his female passenger.

      The alleged driver, a 29-year-old male from no fixed address, was charged with drug driving, theft of motor vehicle, reckless conduct endangering life, dangerous driving, unlicenced driving, fail to stop and fail to answer bail. He was remanded in custody to appear at court at a later date.

      The alleged passenger, a 24-year-old female from Broadmeadows, was charged with theft of motor vehicle. She was bailed to appear at court at a later date.

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      Hanrahan

      Bands grew from the pub culture. That is dead.

      I remember pubs being so busy patrons took their drinks onto the footpath to find room. The late night license on Friday/Saturday and the Sunday session [Qld] meant the venues had to provide entertainment. Why provide entertainment when the pokies and races not only are free, they are a profit centre.

      Don McLean misread how music would die. This from someone who was captivated by Elvis and Heartbreak Hotel when it was released 78 yrs ago.

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