Interesting stuff
The stats are interesting VJ re people who do AST1 and then get caught in avalanches, they're over represented because they think they've got enough knowledge to then go out and attack the terrain.
Route finding error here, climing up a loaded slope that could slide, very lucky.
Also re Tassie, check out these guys!! Epic!
Go Donald !!!
Long ,but interesting , analysis of modern geopolitics.
Thanks for sharing Blowin. It is very interesting and topical.
What do you reckon about the call that Trump should throw down the deadline to vacate the contested SCS reefs ? ........scary.
Sounds like sooner or later some shit is going to happen in the South China Sea. The destroyers playing chicken incident close call example. My thoughts are that any reaction to these transgressions should have happened closer ,in time ,to the act complained of eg, before they had completed the build.
And then there’s this .....
A Chinese billionaire spilling his guts on the realities of the world. It’s hard to understand his Chinglish accent and the subtitles are very handy , but the revelations are astounding.
No knowledge of the financial world required.
Haven't watched the china billionaire vid. but certainly will... most interesting...
Speaking of china, and labor (I just threw that in - a lame segue way...but anyway...)
How's the little china/labor scandal unfolding at icac...
I'm devastated scat-mo is our PM, but I honestly hate to think what may have unfolded over the next 3 years had labor got in....
oz dodged a bullet I reckon.... (the parallels! .....again...)
Yes its only state labor (atm) but the way dastyari is talking there's loads still to come...
endemic you might say
skypan - the betoota advocate have been running stories on the china - labor thing for the past week or so. quality journalism. essential reading
Explain to me how this isn’t colonialism.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-31/foreign-investor-plan-to-create-r...
well they are just going to move in and quietly take over ........surely this cant happen?....can it?
Explain to me how this isn’t colonialism.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-31/foreign-investor-plan-to-create-r...
You've been around long enough to know it's only colonialism when its white keyunts that are doing it...
colonialism may be a stretch in this instance ....but it's most certainly colonialism that the chinese are doing throughout SE asia..
...without a single word of criticism from the usual vehement critics of all things colonialism...
"well they are just going to move in and quietly take over ........surely this cant happen?....can it?"
It sure looks this way...
I would've said you're a raving lunatic sinophobe with this statement not much more than five years ago...
but now, its happening before our very eyes...
One would expect the least capitalist pig party, of our two major parties, to have something to say about such things...
You know, the selling off of public assetts and resources to the highest bidder, with no regard at all for the impacts on the people.
And also, the colonisation process, both here and afar. But no, not a word...
I don't know whether it's their soft spot for the ccp, or the rivers of cash that are flowing, but labor are seriously failing in the most fundamental of ways in our two party system....
icac might supply a clue or two...
What concerns me, is how many private shopping bags of cash have changed hands? Well away from the dull narrow spotlight of the icac investigations...
Looking at some of the woeful recent decisions and aquisitions that have been made - decisions clearly not in australias's long term interest - one can only assume the river's been a flowimg strong...
I’ve never heard of anything like it. An entire offshoot to a city with a single foreign culture recreated in full.
Chinese school , Chinese shops. Chinese people. It’s fucking nuts.
Built by Chinese . Staffed by Chinese. Owned by Chinese.
You can’t even call it immigrating to Australia as they’re just building the start of a New China. No different whatsoever from the English settlement at Sydney Cove in 1788.
"Chinese school , Chinese shops. Chinese people. It’s fucking nuts.
Built by Chinese . Staffed by Chinese. Owned by Chinese.
You can’t even call it immigrating to Australia as they’re just building the start of a New China. No different whatsoever from the English settlement at Sydney Cove in 1788."
And the normal critics of such abhorrent ways are steely silent.
suspiciously steely silent...
Link didnt work, here it is again https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-31/foreign-investor-plan-to-create-r...
Only Chinese could get away with it, if any other country proposed it, it would turn into a slum and most cases one of violence be it American, Russian, Middle eastern, African.
But Chinese i bet would create another Singapore, a crowded place, but one some how of beauty that works like a well oiled machine.
...while I'm china bashing...
I cannot believe the audacity and general 'no eyed deer-ness' of the person who wrote this...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/...
Expecting bi-lingual chinese lecturers, translators, chinese content etc etc. for the chinese students in australian universities
What about all the other nationalities?
Can an indonesian student expect indonesian language lecturers and content?
for their measely contribution to their course - a contribution that goes nowhere near covering the true cost of their course - should a saudi student expect content presented in arabic??
It appears so for this little guardian guardian angel...
As per usual at the guardian, the only sense is written in the comments...
"PeterinSD's public profile | Identity | The Guardian
I went to France to study EU law for a term. I certainly did not expect the classes to be taught, nor the discussion groups, to be in anything but the French language. Be prepared for class, be it in your native country or abroad. If the class will be in Swahili guess what I'll be studying before I go.
This pining is no different than the caricature of the British colonial shouting at the Indian peasant, "Don't you people speak English!"
Take the money and run: how Australian universities let down their Chinese students | Yang Tian"
Syppo, you're clearly failing to, umm, humanise Chinese students in the public discourse.
"Syppo, you're clearly failing to, umm, humanise Chinese students in the public discourse."
Nice little pick up there andym...
the new code from the ip bridgade
I have no issue with the chinese people or students making the most our generous enabling. I do have an issue with oz politicians selling out our futures for a pittance in dark money
I also have issue with them facillitating a rogue corrupt dictatorship...
no 'dehumanising'. just blunt truth in the age of bullshit
To be honest, when I see all the usual terms like dehumanising, inclusiveness and
"casual xenophobia" I almost have a chuckle as it's too close to satire.
But it's no joke for people like my girlfriend who as a university academic has to deal with foreign students who turn up with zero English skills and have clearly bullshitted on their applications.
The students get pushed through though because there's too much money at stake, and KPIs and contract gigs for academics mean that the pressure is very real if you want your contract renewed in a few month's time.
The rort goes both ways.
George: The Chinese have done it my friend . The Chinese have done it.
Jerry: Done what?
George: Discovered a cure for baldness.
"To be honest, when I see all the usual terms like dehumanising, inclusiveness and
"casual xenophobia" I almost have a chuckle as it's too close to satire."
I think there's a lot of people who just have to chuckle....
...not much else you can do really...
they're just rattling on, with the same old outdated shit. constantly changing the terms of reference, and nothing else, only changing when they realise more people are chuckling than listening...
how about a new idea here and there?
a new plan perhaps?
nah, no chance, too many people, waded in way too deep - they won't let it go...
they've just invested too much into it
Interesting little ip session on q and a this week. the ip crowd came of looking a miserable second best ...from my bias perspective anyway.
If you wanted a shining exanple of how off with the fairies, how non academic, and how generally meaningless and irrelevant the accepted ip doctrine has become - that frizzy haired chick on q and a was it. She couldn't even get one coherent idea out of her head...
and it would appear, she's one of the smarter ones... well versed you'd imagine...
the black dude did alright, but even he was looking out of his depth, at the abc of all places!
"...has to deal with foreign students who turn up with zero English skills and have clearly bullshitted on their applications.
The students get pushed through though because there's too much money at stake, and KPIs and contract gigs for academics mean that the pressure is very real if you want your contract renewed in a few month's time.
The rort goes both ways."
While some will argue vehemently otherwise...
This is actually what pisses me off the most about the chinese student thing. It has taken once great universities and turned them into an absolute laughing stock
It seems only the uni's and their hubris filled chancellors are yet to realise
the whole system has been corrupted, top to bottom, left to right. and there's a whole heap of academics and uni staff who are just biting their tongues to hold their tenuous positions
tragic...
once again, it's neoliberalism. The initial privatisation. The marketing, the ungraceful (shameful) advertising, the opening up to the highest bidder - regardless of character, the selling of public assets, solely profit driven education, the visa selling, the citizenship selling, the lecturers selling their souls to maintain their shitty casual position amongst the competition.
all neoliberalism... all privatisation...
and the gumbys at the labor party won't call it out, because it's their all in free for all party even more than the its liberal's it would seem...
https://www.watoday.com.au/environment/weather/sydney-to-suck-more-water...
You’ve got to wonder when it’ll dawn on them that an extra 500,000 people in Sydney each year ain’t the smartest idea.
Probably when it stops being profitable for the big end of town.
Congratulations residents of Shoalhaven , you now get to further subsidise the Sydney growth Ponzi with your drinking water and water bills . Of course Shoalhaven water bills will now rise in order to quell demand.
Here is another one of interest Blowin,
Southern Forest Irrigation Scheme have a proposed 165 hectare dam on the Donnelly River, SW WA. This comes in the wake of the avocado boom which has taken over the whole SW and Southern parts of WA.
Locals opposed have been putting up banners on their properties against the project only to be issued with 'unauthorised development (signage)' notices from the Manjimup council.
The whole thing smells of corruption and we all know how well that worked out for the Murray/Darling.
If you've ever been to this magic part of the world people, get on board, Don't Dam the Donnelly!!!
https://www.facebook.com/Dont-Dam-the-Donnelly-2433157650245852/
Holy shit , that’s friggin ridiculous.
First I’ve heard of it. The Donnelly is beautiful. I’d like to think it’ll never get up but.....
Coalition as far as the eye can see
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/06/democracy-overboar...
Witness the peak of indulgence and waste of the modern age .....the swimming pool precariously constructed above the most inviting body of water imaginable.
I studied in Indonesia 20 yrs ago on Commonwealth Grant , UGM and UNPAR , both provided English tutors , no big deal .
Interesting stuff on our road to an American style future...(one example of many)
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/ensuring-inte...
How good is Australia?!
The Ashes Scorecard
Last Oz Conservative Govt ( 66 -Quit / Dumped ) Re-elected ?
Current UK Conservative Govt ( 85 -Quit / Dumped )
Current US Conservative Govt ( 318 -Quit / Dumped )
That's 469 free world leaders got themselves sacked during last term elections!
Neo Liberals say if morons keep voting for them they have no choice but to resign.
Stop laughing! It's not funny, even Boris's brother just walked out...(rock bottom!)
Conservative Political climate change is overheating the planet...she's breaking up!
Who needs enemies! [ S.O.S ]
Well , everyone was told that diversity is our strength and any reluctance to avoid massive importation of foreign cultures was racist throwback thinking.
Then ....”Organised factions of Chinese international students are dominating elections at all Australia’s major universities, beating the established political parties at the same time as national authorities warn about foreign influence.”
Now we have Chinese dominance at the cradle of Australian politics- the university political landscape.
We are also seeing CCP agents democratically brought to parliamentary power by electorates consisting of majority volumes of immigrants with questionable allegiances.
It’s a stated operational method of the CCP to infiltrate foreign powers and their democracies through planned migration tactics . Simply load the nation within its sights with the weight of demographics so that in time democracy can be used against the people of the nation.
Democracy in a multicultural society easily becomes a racial head count when victim to a predatory expansionist foreign power .
Immigration into Australia needs to be curtailed and quotas placed on country of origin in order to maintain our sovereignty.
Well said Blowin!
Why , thank you.
@Blowin, and not an expletive in sight! Good job. Gladys Liu anyone?
Here! Here! freespirited Blowin...Asian students number over 50% @ CBD Unis.
ChinaTown Dragon has a taste for leafy inner city Greens.
Lib'z Rich Kidz Spring Rolls in Dastyari Dipping Sauce.Yum! Yum!
The balance of power in federal parliament rests with a probable foreign agent .
And you know that the ALP will go easy on the government because it too has been captured by the CCP.
Australian politics needs a root and branch reformation.
How can direct democracy ever be worse than the corrupt, ignorant and treasonous rabble currently in charge ?
Some form of direct democracy would be a huge step forward for Australia e.g. compulsory, popular or citizen initiated referenda.
A couple of cantons in Switzerland have forms of direct democracy where citizens have a lot more power than in a representative democracy.
But Australian has a deeply compromised representative democracy, an entrenched two party corporatocracy.
We're a country where crony capitalism takes precedence over individuals, communities, the environment, the future.
Just when you think we’ve found bottom in the degradation of Australian society in pursuit of a corrupt dollar , there’s this :
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/scomos-mates-mate-and-the-billion-dollar-...
And here is the well written companion piece describing just how this morality free grubbiness has been been allowed to flourish in plain sight :
“It is not the existence of the extreme carpetbagging, rent seeking and ‘slave owner’ mentality of the LNP Right that we need to berate. They will always be among us and suffer from an ideological pathology that cannot be cured. They’d privatise and sell their own mothers if they stood still long enough to untie the apron strings.
Instead, it is the insipid and gormless Left that is truly deserving of contempt. Led into the nihilistic wasteland of neoliberalism by Hawke/Keating, successive ALP leaders promise that the next electoral waterhole is out there – somewhere – as their life blood dries out in the sun and increasingly witless “leaders” stay the course muttering nonsense and having deluded visions that affirm their purity.
The ALP seem to be conducting an ideological beauty contest in the desert with The Greens when the water ran out long ago, cell phone reception with the electorate was lost miles back and the ‘Indians’ just appeared on the horizon.
You don’t need to be a political diagnostician to notice that smell of death on Albo.
I can no longer be bothered with the Australian Left. They are on a political Sandakan death march with no one but themselves as tormentors as they ask “Are we there yet?” through cracked lips. But they left the Australian people behind 30 years ago and are victims of political climate change. Pissing in each other’s pockets is not the sort of precipitation that will save them.
It is only by shutting down mass immigration and beginning to restructure an economy befitting of what the Australian people want and need that they can be saved. But that’s too hard for a political movement that has spent too long in the neoliberal sun without a compass.“
So you’re feeling old these days , huh ? Bit slower getting to your feet ? Spare 5 minutes to listen to a 94 year old who went off to war at 15 years of age. Some extremely valuable insight on our current predicament regarding the appeasement of vociferous Chinese student factions determined to overwhelm formative political institutions in Australia through weight of numbers.
Up early this morning blowin?
Always awake early, maybe not always out of bed early.
Got the monk thing going on at present. Healthy living. Early to bed , early to rise.
I find it’s a great way to stimulate the bodies nervous system by infuriating oneself with the morning news . Then just as I’m about to going into a thermonuclear whinge , the birds will start their predawn chatter and the first rays of daylight, accompanied by its attendant hope, begin to filter into the world .
A green tea , a bowl of fresh fruit ( with coconut yoghurt) , feed the birds whilst assessing the wind conditions and before you know it I’m becalmed and ready to TAKE IT ON.
Couldn't agree more Blowin, it's the classic neoliberal ploy of privatising elements which could potentially be politically unpalatable at some stage and so de-politicising them - "sorry, decisions for immigration are not up to the government, there's nothing we can do".
Ruthless yet brilliant and almost impossible to reverse, and all the while they continue to profit massively at the expense of the rest of us with little chance of being held to account.
The Right should be loathed, but at the same time the Left should be both pitied and despised for their spineless stupidity and their ability to be led by the nose at every stage, as they back themselves into an ideological corner with their self-censoring group think, and give proof to all of Orwell's fears.
Fascist movements build their base not from the politically active but the politically inactive, and it seems clear that we're heading towards a type of economic fascism that people are barely even aware exists.
Totally agree Blowin with your 5:14am post. The left and right are 2 sides of the same peso, and like Andy said "We're a country where crony capitalism takes precedence over individuals, communities, the environment, the future."
The political landscape is like a tunnel that has no light at the end of it and "Pissing in each other’s pockets is not the sort of precipitation that will save them."
Unfortunately I find it difficult to see any solution apart from an entirely new system, a major third party, or a group of Independents to balance the power of the 2 majors.
How good is Australia?!
PS, Is this you Blowin?
The proposed sale of the government's visa processing function is an abomination, similar to the sale of the NSW LPI (titles office). Agree with Thursdays and above posts.
Does the sale (privatisation) of visa processing hand over the 'right to decide entry' to a private entity, or just the administration of a regulatory process that determines the right to decide?
I cannot imagine the Privatised entity making decisions about who or who cannot enter the country however it is removing the admin to place more open to abuse and lack of accountability.
I cannot imagine the Privatised entity making decisions about who or who cannot enter the country however it is removing the admin to place more open to abuse and lack of accountability.
Have it cunts