Birthdays: May 18, the lead singer from my favorite Australian socialist band of all time; May 19, one of the great Australian musical exports of all time, so good she had a dessert created in her name; a guy who honored Australia’s origins; the lead singer from another solid Australian band; a soldier who won the highest military honor (and whose bio includes a little nugget of interest for Rhywun); and a politician who was a major player in Australia’s only true constitutional crisis and who had some solid ideas on American military adventurism; May 22, a woman who had some legitimate gripes; May 23, a damn good tennis player; May 26, a pretty good cricketer; May 27: an original dambuster who survived WWII; another decent tennis player who gave us a new tradition; Trump’s Antipodean sister; a solid rugby player; Australia’s original Taylor Swift; and a damn good boxer.
This week in Antipodean history:
- 1976, May 19: gold ownership (re-)legalized in Australia
- 2008, May 25: Scott Dixon becomes first Australian to win Indy 500
- 2018, May 24: world’s longest cat-proof fence completed
- 2024, May 20: world’s most expensive bird feather sold at New Zealand auction
Crises in the Southern Hemisphere (and, sorry most of it is – hilariously – political):
- Since the Australian Labour Party won the federal election in such decisive fashion, the real fight is now between the party’s factions. I couldn’t figure out how many there are, but they get to decide who gets into the cabinet. One outcome of this was that a dumped cabinet minister referred to a fellow party member as a “factional assassin” and more (you have to read the link to get all the dirt).
- As I noted a couple of weeks back, the leader of the opposition Liberals lost his seat. The Libs decided that their main principle was winning elections so chose a new leader who is to the left (keeping in mind that Liberals in Australia are – ostensibly – conservative).
- The conservative coalition split this week after almost eighty years.
- Let the sports-based
grifturban renewal begin. - Tragedy averted
- Someone calls out the retirement fund math
- New Zealand parliamentarian drops the c-word in parliament.
A music triple-header: one from the woman who inspired a dessert; one from birthday boy #2’s band; and one from birthday boy #1. Although his original band generally eschewed radio airtime, the original version was one of their two major chart hits (didn’t link to the band’s official youtube clip because of the stupid age sign-in rules).
Post creator declaration: 30-minute rule waived today.
¡uǝʌɐɹ ᴉH
Cute.
Tips cap to Sean.
🥳
I’m designing a honeycomb insert to hold 45 ACP in a box. The numbers are awkward.
For a fuller explaination – the less expensive training ammo comes loose in a box, so I figured I’d 3D print some stackable trays to make it easier to keep them organized for when I’m reloading magazines. Rather than an easy to design grid, I decided I’d pack them in closer and went with a honeycomb.
Funny. I take my boxed ammo and dump it into a bag, for ease of loading magazines.
😱
No, no, no,no,nono…
They must be neat and orderly, or I spend too much time fishing for the next round.
*UCS chops a gloved hand into his other gloved hand*
Ve must have ordur!
Yep, that’s why they make ordure handling gloves, to make ammo handling pleasant.
Australian socialist band?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzRO5qYbuNo
(Cover by a more intelligent entity)
Redgum’s members were politically well to the left of Midnight Oil’s.
Steve Smith spotted in Michigan
It was just a Michigan local gone hunting, probably for wimmins’
Scott Dixon becomes first Australian to win Indy 500
Dixon’s from New Zealand. Will Power is Australian. Not that there’s a difference.
The world’s longest cat-proof fence has been built in central Australia to help create a “feral-free area” for local wildlife.
Wait, wot?
But is the cat-proof fence kangaroo proof?
I’ve tried a lot of exotic meat, but I cant eat kangaroo.
It makes me jumpy.
Tres Cool:
One week, I’m going to go crazy at the exotic meat stand at the West Side Market.
When I was a kid, kangaroo meat was something people ate in the outback or on a dare. Now you can buy it in the local grocery stores.
I had kangaroo tikka masala at my first dinner in Australia. It was in 2012.
Let’s be clear about what NZ Super is: it’s not a savings account you’ve paid into throughout your working life. It’s welfare – a transfer from current taxpayers to those over 65. NZ Super cost $21.6 billion in the June 2024 year, making it our single largest welfare expense.
Now tell Americans about Social Security.
Oh, that’s simple.
(you have to read the link to get all the dirt).
Haha, nice try.
Now tell Americans about Social Security.
Don’t use the P-word.
Too late, already been done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoH7n2RDS_M
From the dedthred: Ran across this today: https://www.insidehook.com/internet/please-dont-refer-women-females
The fact that “women” is a noun and “female” is an adjective was enough to convince me — don’t ruin it by making those other arguments.
Look, if I can noun a verb, and verb a noun, I can noun an adjective.
Neph is a Smurf.
Easy for some words in Japanese.
Takai = tall
Takasa = large height
Merriam-Webster lists definition #2 of 2 for “female” as a noun. Of course, do we still consider M-W a definitive (heh!) source?
That’s pretty crazy.
Trump Admin Blocks Harvard From Enrolling International Students, Requires Current Foreign Students To Transfer ‘Or Lose Legal Status’
FAFO.
I used to be an international student at Harvard. I look at it from that POV. It’s a complete disaster if you have to go to a different school in the middle of a program. Plus, all the incoming students have already made arrangements to come to Harvard. It’s too late for them to go to a different school.
I’m sure some judge in Hawaii will block it.
Sean, it’s Massachusetts. I’m sure they can venue shop to somebody local.
It just makes it more absurd. I like my way better.
It sucks, but after everything FedGov does to use Fedbux to impose its desires on universities (eg. getting rid of due process in sexual assault accusations), hearing the left whine and shriek about this one makes me want to shake them and yell, “Now do you see why we didn’t want government to have this power?”
The dividing line between something like USAID and Harvard has been getting blurry of late. It would be smart of Harvard to erase that line and show it’s not just another welfare recipient of US taxpayers and thus not subject to this kind of regulation.
Not much pity here for an organization hellbent on destroying what I value until it at least tries to stop sticking its hand in my wallet.
That’s because they want the government to have that power. They just don’t think Trump,should be allowed to use it.
The school administers the program from my understanding. Basically they do FedGov’s work in lieu of having FedGov doing the work.
From a theoretical standpoint if you have an institution that isn’t following the rules or refuses to follow them it would make sense to withdraw that authority from the institution.
As I have federal regulator overseer I’m not suggesting that it is deserved or isn’t vindictive.
I have zero sympathy for academia. I dont care what they whine about, fuck them.
As for the money I will stand by my assertion that if it has to have govt money to survive it is a bad idea. Good ideas stand on their own supported by a free market.
Israeli students will suffer too. Still no sympathy?
Seems like it would be doing Israeli students a favor.
grizzly: Having that very conversation with the wife now. Not about Israeli students but about the Catholic/charter school problem. What about kids whose parents cant afford to send their kids to private Catholic schools?
Me: “Government money is poison. As long as a school takes govt money the marxist fucks in government are going to dictate or relentlessly try to dictate what that school must teach. There is no way around it. The only ways to deal with those types are to shoot them or take their money away. People wont quit electing them and I dont think anyone wants to go down the ‘shoot them’ road. The only reasonable way out is to operate schools completely beyond their control.”
I have great sympathy for the students, but the blame falls squarely on Harvard, as they allow racist policies to proliferate at taxpayers expense. Either knock off the racism, or stop sucking at the public teat.
Holding the students hostage is a great way to keep shit like this going, as it plays to a sympathetic audience.
Meaningless antipodean trivia: there are three New Zealanders and an Australian in the field for the Indianapolis Five Fucking Hunnert.
“The Libs decided that their main principle was winning elections”
There’s no end of Republicans who act the same way. “We can’t do anything! Doing things is controversial! Doing something might cost us the midterms!”
Why anyone should vote for somebody whose sole priority is winning elections, for the sole purpose of winning the next election, I have no idea.
It feels good when your team wins, and it means the other team didn’t win and thus aren’t able to do their things.
My (coloured) ex is Kylie, from South Africa. She’s the second child and her dad got the ‘right’ to name this daughter, as the first-born was named by mom. Straight-up, Lady was openly named after Minogue, whom the father, and the rest of the straight-male world, had a lusty Thing for. (If they were even aware of Minogue. Pretty much my-Kylie’s parents version of the playful, agreed-upon Would Cheat With exemption with the misses.)
Minogue and Van Damme had a thing goin’. That… would be an athletic fuck-session. (Why do I think not very good? Huh.) I wanna be an Olympian. Purely for the opportunity to hone my pommel-horsin’… I wasn’t a bad gymnast, actually, as a yute. Competed in state and regionals; Colin actually competed in the junior Olympics, or perhaps the qualifying competition. We were in Florida and during one of the events we saw a space shuttle launch in the horizon. That was dope on all levels. Mid 90s, I wanna say ’96.
While the Commonwealth restrictions have been removed there is still legislation in some States dealing with gold. Essentially legislation in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia requires gold buyers or gold smelters in those States to hold a State licence.
It’s licenses all the way down.
Oi! You got a loisence for that loisence?
Which is tragically hilarious since anyone in the US can buy directly from the Perth Mint which is run by the Western Australian state government: https://www.perthmint.com/
Oops, maybe I can’t.
I bought directly from the Perth Mint but that was in person.
OT, but germane to glibby fans of Scott Adams – I saw this on the ‘Donald Trump for President’ FB page. I gotta legit say. Classy. The classiest. Apparently they go back a long ways, as perhaps more than casual acquaintances, so I’ve heard:
“JUST IN: President Trump has called Scott Adams to check in after Adams announced his prostate cancer diagnosis, and likely passing away within months.
Trump left a voicemail when he declined it – “this is your favorite president.”
He described the moment he realized it was Trump calling ❤️:
“I thought, ah, better check that voicemail and see if that was anything I need to deal with. And the first sentence in the transcription, because you know, the phone gives you the text version of the voicemail as well, the first sentence is, ‘this is your favorite president.'”
“And I thought to myself – no, did I just send the most important person in the world to voicemail? And it turns out that I had. It was Trump.”
“And he was just calling to check in. Now he left a semi-lengthy little voicemail, just saying he was checking on me, he heard about my health situation. And then he says, you can call me back on this number.”
“Now, obviously, I don’t call him back, right? Because that would just be ridiculous. It just was a nice thing for him to say, because he called me. You could call me back on this number. So I didn’t call him back on that number, because I thought I’d, you know, it’s not like he’s sitting at the Resolute Desk waiting for my call.”
“Hours go by, it’s the afternoon, same day, it’s the afternoon, and all of sudden another call comes through, also from Florida. And I thought to myself, no fucking way.”
“There’s no way he’s calling me again. And I answer it, and it’s Trump. And apparently he’d heard my situation and he had lots of questions.”
“I won’t get into the details of our conversation because that would be inappropriate. But he was just checking on me. And he had, you know, he wanted to make sure that I was getting everything I needed. And that was it.”
“At the end, he strangest thing happened at the end. At the end of the call, you know, when he found out, you know, the situation was kind of dire. I was still checking out some things that might help. He said, if you need anything, I’ll make it happen. And he meant it.”
This doesn’t really surprise me. In fact, it fits right in with what I know of Trump’s personality.
Another Adams observation: Trump is the ultimate showman. Everything you see in public is “the show”. One on one, you see the real person, and every story I heard (even Bill Maher says this) is that Trump is really personable, pays close attention, and asks a ton of questions.
Scott told that story on his livestream today. It gave me a smile.
And yes, they do go back a bit. During the first term, he visited Trump at the White House.
My favorite current band from Australia is the Teskey Brothers.
If you reincarnated Stax Records in Melbourne, and brought Otis Redding back as a long haired white guy, you end up with Teskey Brothers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86DAAATkTUA
My current favorite is Roland S. Howard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAEW5z1YuPU
Here’s my favorite live performance of theirs on youtube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBAs3TGIz7M
“a soldier who won the highest military honor”
Harry Morant?
I am cooking and glancing here,.,…did I miss it? Has the Aussie tax on unrealized gains come up?
I half want them to do it.
Australian music…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdKudHq5xBc
🍿
https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/u-s-considers-withdrawing-thousands-of-troops-from-south-korea-725a6514?st=9QEGGH&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Jesus Tapdancing Christ.
From a synth forum (on that cesspool known as Reddit):
The first comment? “This is so amazing!”
I love my hobby but hate near everyone else who does it. From your average socialist nitwit to your climate doomers, Hamas sympathizers, and climate doomsdayers, this whole scene is fucking rife with absolute idiots.
Whole video is interesting if you are into old analog electronics, but this made me LOL. A man of many talents.
https://youtu.be/EaWjzvzZ6WY?si=wvry_kZ4wrlWqEI9&t=2159
I’m sorry, I couldn’t finish, my eyes rolled out of their sockets before the end of the first paragraph. I’ll have to set them back in place.
See, the thing is that everything mentioned there – rising seas, increasing storms, ocean waves…whatever – all of that is nonsense. None of it is happening except in their models. In the real world the numbers say otherwise. None of that is happening. Everything is perfectly consistent with the patterns we have seen since we have been keeping records. This is objectively verifiable. Does anyone bother to look at the real world models?
Making an emotional appeal by composing theme music then working backwards to fabricate numbers….OFFS, never mind. Ok, they are not exactly doing that…they are using numbers fabricated to support a false narrative and then composing theme music. That is my understanding.
So… hours of silence because none of that shit is actually happening?
*missed it by that much*
STEVE SMITH SHOW YOU SWELL PHYSICS!
THEN YOU MAKE PRETTY NOISES WHEN STEVE SMITH RIP INTO YOUR EURORACK!
How dare you?
California Attorney General Rob Bonta says this use of the CRA is unlawful, and that California will challenge it in court. “The weaponization of the Congressional Review Act to attack California’s waivers is just another part of the continuous, partisan campaign against California’s efforts to protect the public and the planet from harmful pollution,” Bonta wrote in a statement.
——-
California has used this ability to push the auto industry toward zero-emission vehicles for many years, both to protect human health and to reduce the transportation industry’s contributions to climate change.
,/em>
They’re saving the planet. That’s more important tan a bunch of esoteric procedural quibbling.
Not unless they wink China, India, and Africa out of existence, they’re not. Dumbasses.
The first comment? “This is so amazing!”
I agree, but probably not for the same reasons.
In the first Trump administration, the EPA withdrew a waiver that allowed California to set vehicle standards. A legal battle ensued. Some carmakers sided with the White House and others with Sacramento in the fight over whether that was legal. But the battle became moot after the Biden administration reinstated the waiver.
Since then, California’s mandates have become more aggressive, requiring a rapid acceleration in electric vehicle production, starting with 35% of new sales within the state in model year 2026 and reaching 100% of new sales by 2035.
Critics have called that goal unrealistic, given that currently EVs make up about a quarter of new car sales in California, and about 10% of sales nationally. Supporters say that the rules are flexible enough to make them more achievable than they seem.
Dream big, America. Don’t let physics get in the way of politics.
The electric car scam is going to collapse.
And California is making it happen even faster.
For the same reason, the rest of the country should give New York thanks for showing how rapidly the climate scam is going to collapse. It will be a valuable lesson.
“Once in every man’s life he trips over the truth. The majority of them stand back up, dust themselves off and continue on as if nothing happened.” – Clemens?
@NotAdahn from dedthred:
😂😂😂 She’s 22, he’s 29. I, having a fondness for May-December romances, don’t have a problem with it.
Seven year difference gets smaller with time.
If they are happy, you cannot ask for much more.
At least not if you have realist expectations.
I think it was the Hon. Elijah Mohammed that said the ideal age for a woman is 1/2 the man’s age +7.
Occurs to me, how long before the left tries to sever naziism from antisemitism – separate their big boogyman from what they are going all out on themselves now.
We’re not antisemites! We just think that all Jews should be murdered!
Ugh. I am off to bed. I will have to watch the movie early morning.