Random News Stories

[Jezza]

Great to see Musk purchase Twitter, and lefties going into meltdown as a result.

It's become a cesspit in the last few years.

[Skids]

Very proud of my brother in-law Jesse taking out the WA cop of the year a few months ago.
He's worked in plenty of different roles in his 26 years in the force and is a genuine, good bloke. He's working back in Perth now and it's great to have him home.... even though he drinks way too much Emu Export and continually gives me a hard time about drinking "lollie water"

https://www.watoday.com.au/national/wes ... 59gjd.html

[stui magpie]

Well done him, sounds like a great bloke but Emu Export? Seriously?That is horrible shit.

[Skids]

Well done him, sounds like a great bloke but Emu Export? Seriously?That is horrible shit.

It is horrible... well it was last time I drank it, about 5 years ago.

Back in the 80's it was actually a good drop. Brewed at the old Swan Brewery on the Swan River, with an alcohol content of 5%. Mind you, there weren't many options back then.
I worked part time in a liquor store when I was 15, yep, selling grog and smokes... imagine that today, it'd be the lead story on the 6 o'clock whine.

Throwing cartons of steel cans around (gee, we punctured a few when the aluminium ones came out! The box is about 5kg lighter), there was;Emu export and Bitter, Swan Premium, Hannans Lager & Stout and the worst mid strength ever produced, Swan Gold.

We did have one fridge that had a few cans of; Fosters, VB and maybe West End, that was it.

[pietillidie]

This is interesting. Certainly its plausibility is increasing. In one fell swoop it would it would incentivise reform home and away, given all the tyrants, lobbies and parasites it funds.

One also suspects its growing realism is at least partly behind Putin's violent tantrum. Even tyrannies like Saudi Arabia have seen the writing on the wall with their efforts to develop new lines of revenue. Once the tipping point is reached, their power vanishes overnight.

Also, it's the best way for the US to use its rise in production. Some environmental cost now, but massive returns as that threshold nears and the entire investment ecosystem flips.

If you look at these transitions historically, they tend to happen far more quickly than even optimists anticipate. The collusion exception for oil has been there so long it's easy to forget that it is indeed still an exception to law. There is nothing rational whatsoever about it as a market entity, so when the tide finally turns the fury in applying the law will be swift.

It's possible this has been planned for some time now, anyhow, while Saudi Arabia recently snubbing US calls for easing, much like Putin's tantrum, has only infuriated. My guess is that they've calculated it's all over red rover and they might as well grab what they can now.

For more than two decades, Congress has been considering a bill that would allow the Justice Department to sue OPEC members for violating antitrust law by colluding to control the supply and price of oil.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/03/opin ... -opec.html

[pietillidie]

The thing that always astonishes me is how easy it is to con people into feverishly campaigning for something either (a) miles over their head, (b) they have never really been interested in, or (c) that is clearly of high risk to their own interest if they're wrong.

The Tory scramble to replace Johnson is a great case in point. Truss and Sunak are falling over themselves to triple down on Brexit, even though its cost and detriment is more obvious than ever before. The stronger the evidence, the stronger the denial, as the hole is dug ever deeper.

But my favourite example of free foot soldiering to one's own detriment has to be the pages and pages and hours and hours of amateur global warming denial from people with zero interest in science, let alone climatology. You'd think the minimal position would be disinterest or a mild scepticism or irritation. But no, it was a fevered taking up of arms.

We really are just idiotic apes who can be provoked into anything, making us easy game for narcissists, psychopaths and grifters.

Thirty years ago, a bold plan was cooked up to spread doubt and persuade the public that climate change was not a problem. The little-known meeting - between some of America's biggest industrial players and a PR genius - forged a devastatingly successful strategy that endured for years, and the consequences of which are all around us.

On an early autumn day in 1992, E Bruce Harrison, a man widely acknowledged as the father of environmental PR, stood up in a room full of business leaders and delivered a pitch like no other.

At stake was a contract worth half a million dollars a year - about £850,000 in today's money. The prospective client, the Global Climate Coalition (GCC) - which represented the oil, coal, auto, utilities, steel, and rail industries - was looking for a communications partner to change the narrative on climate change.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-62225696

[Skids]

Just reading in the George Floyd thread about the recent wrongful detention of a black man reminded me of an incident that happened to me in the 80's.

I was a third year apprentice, doing some fabrication work in the workshop one morning. I see my supervisor heading towards me with 2 guys in suits, obviously detectives.
They questioned me as to my whereabouts the night before, I was at home.
They had found a screwdriver, with my name engraved on the handle at a break and enter scene, a suspect was seen running away who 'fitted my description'.
I wasn't arrested, but they requested I accompany them to my residence. Escorted out of my workplace, into a cop car and driven home.
They searched my wardrobe, looking for a red/black flanno shirt... luckily I didn't have one and my then girlfriend confirmed I was at home all night.

Somebody had stolen my screwdriver and then used it in the robbery. It was a very strange experience to say the least, I wonder what would of happened had there been a red/black flanno in my wardrobe.

[David]

Great to see Musk purchase Twitter, and lefties going into meltdown as a result.

It's become a cesspit in the last few years.

Looks like the left (and, in particular, those expressing scepticism that the deal would ever get through) got the last laugh on that one:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/u ... -lawsuits/

[lazzadesilva]

Just reading in the George Floyd thread about the recent wrongful detention of a black man reminded me of an incident that happened to me in the 80's.

I was a third year apprentice, doing some fabrication work in the workshop one morning. I see my supervisor heading towards me with 2 guys in suits, obviously detectives.
They questioned me as to my whereabouts the night before, I was at home.
They had found a screwdriver, with my name engraved on the handle at a break and enter scene, a suspect was seen running away who 'fitted my description'.
I wasn't arrested, but they requested I accompany them to my residence. Escorted out of my workplace, into a cop car and driven home.
They searched my wardrobe, looking for a red/black flanno shirt... luckily I didn't have one and my then girlfriend confirmed I was at home all night.

Somebody had stolen my screwdriver and then used it in the robbery. It was a very strange experience to say the least, I wonder what would of happened had there been a red/black flanno in my wardrobe.

It would have been the same as if you had a the screwdriver

[Jezza]

Looks like the left (and, in particular, those expressing scepticism that the deal would ever get through) got the last laugh on that one:

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/u ... -lawsuits/

Indeed.

[pietillidie]

Slimy Sunak may have just had his Romney 47% moment:

https://mobile.twitter.com/NewStatesman ... 3045673987

What a repulsive scum bag of the classical conservative variety, glorying in taking from the poor and needy. All Truss needs to do is stand next to the tool and pretend she supports Brexit and she'll win.

(And you don't say something like that to people who won't appreciate it, just in case anyone is tempted to think that the similarly slimy elite might really be more pleasant than they're credited).

Meanwhile, drab dimwit Keir Starmer fails to declare a list of financial interests on time. Not the worst of offences, but way to add dumb and detached to thoroughly boring.

[pietillidie]

[pietillidie]

On Musk and Twitter, this and the comments in relation to US law look to be a decent read:

https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/busin ... again.html

[pietillidie]

Small mercies. Bloomberg on Albanese's Climate Change Bill:

Australia’s First Climate Law Since 2011 Seals Green Comeback https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... since-2011

[David]