It’s December

joe6pack Uncategorized

It’s December which is my favorite time of year.images-6

Be prepared for some sudden changes and different looks

left-vs-right

Everyone needs to have a deep breath and relax after this not so very great year.

218263-take-a-deep-breath

 

So buckle up and get ready for The PUBS Christmas Month.

Starting with.

571 thoughts on “It’s December”

  1. https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/facebook-brockspace

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/coverup-culture-rife-in-corporate-australia-inquiry-20161205-gt4oti.html

    http://www.canberratimes.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/i-want-a-party-thats-going-to-perform-rod-culleton-suggests-he-will-quit-one-nation-20161206-gt5bnr.html

    http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-supreme-court-racial-gerrmander-20161205-story.html

  9. It’s time to revive some good Aussie slang.

    Lower than shark shit – an excellent description of the Fizza government and all who support its actions.

  10. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/nationals-office-damaged-in-byelection-brouhaha/news-story/de4211cdd484e02404fd9e8e43ce9e1b

    Nationals’ office damaged in by-election brouhaha
    The Australian 12:00AM December 6, 2016
    SAMANTHA HUTCHINSON
    Reporter Sydney

    Three Nationals members, ­including a staffer and the chair of the NSW Young Nationals, have forked out for repair costs and have been offered counselling after an emotionally charged rampage through the party’s ­Orange campaign office last month.

    NSW Young Nationals chair Jess Price-Purnell, state community engagement officer Alana Black and Anna O’Brien, a staffer for NSW MP Bronnie ­Taylor, have stumped up about $400 in office repairs after celebrations went awry on the evening of the November 12 Orange state by-election.

    NSW Nationals state director Nathan Quigley confirmed the office had been damaged in the aftermath of the party’s disastrous vote — in which the ­Nationals suffered a 35 per cent primary vote swing — and that three party members had admitted responsibility for damage ­including a hole in the wall.

    “They were junior staff members who had worked their guts for what was a pretty disappointing outcome,” Mr Quigley said. “The damage has been paid for (by the women) and counselling has been made available.”

    Senior Nationals members were left fuming at the party’s state council on Friday after learning of the incident.

    While the women have been offered counselling, no formal ­action had been taken as yet.

    Coffs Harbour MP Andrew Fraser condemned their behaviour at the council meeting on Friday, saying it did not represent the principles of the party he had joined.

    Mr Quigley told The Australian an internal investigation was under way, but the party was more concerned about the women’s welfare.

    The damage was done at the end of the hard-fought campaign for the seat of Orange, which the Nationals lost to Shooters, Fishers and Farmers candidate Philip Donato by just 50 votes, after a countback.

    The Nationals had controlled the central-western NSW seat since the end of World War II and had an advantage of more than 21 per cent from the last state election. But hardline Coalition government policies, including a greyhound racing ban and forced council amalgamations, dissolved the party’s support in a matter of months. The loss prompted party leader and deputy premier Troy Grant to ­resign, but reverberations continue and some MPs are calling for senior Nationals who did not oppose the greyhound ban to be dumped in a cabinet reshuffle now likely in February.

    Mr Quigley said the choices of John Barilaro as leader and Niall Blair as deputy were a strong footing for recovering Orange at the 2019 state election.

    The three women have been prominent in the Nationals for more than five years. None responded to requests for comment.

  11. http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/gunner-government-reaches-100-day-milestone/news-story/229f13b242723cdbfa55204bfe6a4f72 (paywalled, but worth googling the URL & reading the whole thing. Its a fair summation of the new NT govt so far – doesn’t feel like a 100 days yet, but it is)

    Gunner Government reaches 100 day milestone
    HAYLEY SORENSEN, Political Reporter, NT News
    December 2, 2016 6:59pm

    THERE have been no disasters in Michael Gunner’s first 100 days as the Northern Territory’s Chief Minister.

    There haven’t been any big victories either, but after four years of constant chaos and scandal, the fact Mr Gunner has kept his vow to provide a boring government seems like something to crow about.

  12. For teh pub cats a cat meets a NZ native cricket, the Weta, what Peter Jackson named his studios after.

    That Weta’s cuzzie , the Wetapunga, can grow huge. Heaviest known insect.


    In this weird and wonderful interconnected world a Czechoslovakian band have called themselves Wetapunga. Song , according to Google translate is “Dust from our bodies”.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqG3O2UZLII

  14. Good morning Dawn Patrollers

    Michael Gordon puts meaning into what “business as usual” really means for this government.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/yes-malcolm-turnbull-its-business-as-usual-disunity-illdiscipline-and-undermining-20161206-gt4una.html
    This from Adele Ferguson gives a good insight into modern defamation cases.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/nabs-former-star-graeme-cowpers-demise-now-complete-20161206-gt4va5.html
    There’s no question now as to who are pulling the strings of the government!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/backbench-forces-josh-frydenberg-into-humiliating-climate-policy-backdown-20161206-gt5f50.html
    The housing bubble is still inflating.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/property/housing-markets-to-remain-strong-but-the-bubble-is-inflating-20161206-gt4ucn.html
    Ross Gittins looks into the mirror to tells us how he got to be a “pathological optimist”.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/ross-gittins-why-im-a-pathological-optimist-despite-my-job-20161205-gt4qqh.html
    Kevin Rudd has penned an article in which he says Labor will be strangled by factions if it does not embrace reform.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/its-time-for-a-new-labor-reform-movement-20161206-gt4toi.html
    This SMH editorial says we’ve waited far too long for media reform.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/weve-waited-too-long-for-media-law-reform-20161129-gt00o4.html
    And there goes the banking tribunal!
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/turnbull-government-ditches-plans-for-new-banking-tribunal-20161206-gt4w1s.html
    Peter Martin on the expectation of a negative GDP growth for the September quarter.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/september-quarter-national-accounts-experts-think-gdp-went-backwards-20161206-gt5bwn.html
    What next for Culleton?
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/i-want-a-party-thats-going-to-perform-rod-culleton-suggests-he-will-quit-one-nation-20161206-gt5bnr.html

  15. Section 2 . . .

    Bill Shorten says “no” to the Adani loan. Google.
    /business/bill-shorten-says-no-to-adani-coal-loan-20161206-gt55au
    Michael Pascoe on the rorting real estate agents.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/in-a-property-sellers-market-why-are-vendors-being-contract-mugs-20161206-gt51c8.html
    Nice type!
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/savas-guven-the-ceo-with-doublelife-charged-with-intimidation-20161206-gt51fc.html
    The church wouldn’t do this. Surely not!
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/dec/06/catholic-church-denies-link-to-pregnancy-centre-accused-of-covert-anti-abortion-agenda
    Michelle Grattan on Hanson’s opinion that Culleton has a “swollen head”.
    https://theconversation.com/hanson-thinks-culleton-has-swollen-head-69987
    Stephen Colbert skewers Trump’s choice for Defense Secretary.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2016/12/06/stephen-colbert-skewers-donald-trumps-defense-secretary-pick/?utm_hp_ref=au-homepage
    I got one of these this morning! Nice way to start the day.
    http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/retirement/2016/12/06/pension-cut-letter/
    The CA Royal Commission issues its report into the Scouting movement and tells it that it has more work to do.
    http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/scouts-has-more-work-to-do-on-child-safety-says-royal-commission-20161205-gt4pii.html

  18. Re-post;

    Come Saturday Morning..; A Reminisce.
    Saturday mornings were a special moment for us youth in our little group. This was in the days of our mid-teens, too young to go to the pubs but old enough to have a motorcycle licence. All of us, to a lad, were apprentices…most of us were in the building industry a couple in the Auto industry. Our take-home pay was such that we had to make our own fun..fortunately, petrol was at such a low price (relative) we could go tear-arseing through the hills playing at boy-racers..like our heros on the Isle of Man TT. Circut.
    We would meet at a certain cross-road and take off into our favourite “runs”. If it was a short run, we would go through Coromandel Valley / Clarendon…if it was an all-day affair, it would be the Murray Bridge run..on what is now the “old road”..through Mt Barker, Nairne, Kanmantoo / Callington. With long strait stretches where you could unwind the bikes to see how fast they would go. On the winding roads, we’d make a single file, snaking through the corners on what was understood as ; “The Right Line”..after a short film of the era that featured a racing bike on Brands Hatch, with the camera fixed to the front axle and it took you through the “line” most suited to the fastest speed in the corners…I believe the bike was a Manx Norton…I remember the throaty big-piston sound that they had….a thrilling ride ..then!
    Sometimes , on those long straight lengths of road we would ride side by side and exchange chatter, my Japanese two-stroke a higher pitch than Ron Parker’s BSA..or Russel Hanby’s Triumph…those British bikes had a certain smell of hot oil and a distinctive hum of chain driven gears…those Brits loved chains!…But I loved that smell of burning oil…it also was prevalent on the old steam trains..a smell of steam and oil would sometimes shisssh out from the front drive of the train as you walked past…shishhhwhoosh!..and there was that smell.
    This idyll went on for several years in my youth..work was there, a sense of permanence was there..routine was in place and the reward of the weekend to relax permeated through the whole of society..Mums and dads were at home, doing things in the garden or the house..dinner, boring as it sometimes was, was always there..kids were climbing trees or running over paddocks and we teens were going to the beach or the pictures watching banal American “teen-flicks” with Annette Funnicello, Gidget, Eric Von Zipper and a host of rhinestone cowboys and other ghastly indoctrination pieces..we were being shown “the good life”..like when television came along and we got “My Three Sons” or “Leave It To Beaver”..”Father Knows Best” ..then those series of “Crime doesn’t pay” gumshoe-detective genre.I believe was in the mix also. One is inclined now, with the wisdom of age, to ask ; “What were the adults thinking!!?”
    But now, we do know just what “they” were thinking.
    They were showing us “The Contract”..An unwritten agreement that “all this” could be yours if you stick to the line and the terms of the contract and just do as you are directed. It was the age of wall to wall Conservative Liberal Governments…Federal, State, Local..one great big broad church of conservatism with a capital “C”. The endless long-weekend with work aplenty, radio, tv, the flicks, sun, surf and an endless horizon that seemed as if it could have gone on forever….an endless ;”Come Saturday Morning”..and it wasn’t us workers who broke the contract.
    I wrote on this moment of awakening…two pieces..here on the blog.; “Epiphany” and “The Day Bomfino Went Crazy”.
    I was apprenticed to a builder who held a major contract with the then Housing Trust, and he ran one of those old family business’s..a Latvian whom I now suspect of being a collaborator in the 2nd. WW. I worked in the joinery / machine shop..I was in my third year of the apprenticeship and I was keen to extend my carpentry knowledge with a stint on the job with roofing and wall structures. I asked if I could leave the joinery shop and go on the job.
    I was told ; no, as there was only sub-contractors on the job, not company employees.
    I then asked if I could be assigned with one of these subbies so I could learn more about carpentry..I was told no..and that was the end of it. ..I was to stay in the shop.
    I then started to wonder how this system worked..Why were there so many apprentices in proportion to tradie joiners?…Were these “joiners” really tradesmen or just bench-hands? I soon worked out that not only were the workers there not tradesmen, but that there were more apprentices as that was the cheapest labour…and when I queried both the “apprenticeship commission” and my union on the situation, I was told to shut-up and not to make trouble.
    So there it was..; the perfect fool’s paradise..; The factory filled with cheap labour churning out a product for a conservative govt’ being run by a conservative opportunist with the permission of conservative govt’ authority overseen by a conservative / Rw.union..as long as the status quo was maintained..all would be sweet..; Work would come in, wages would go out, “The Real McCoys” (with Walter Brennan) or “Rawhide” (with Ward Bond and Clint Eastwood) would keep repeating and every weekend would be another ; “Come Saturday Morning”.
    But the bastards got greedy..they got away with the shit wages and conditions for so long, they saw it as their priveledge..so that when the workers did finally get some unions with balls and did kick up about it, they got heavy..and then the shit really hit the fan!..It was called Vietnam and protest songs and freedom!
    The rest, as they say is history….I say it is time to make a little more “history”.

  19. Sorry, but I’ not going to ruin my morning by reading Krudd’s ‘Look at me’ whining.

    Doesn’t he have anther job now? Something to do with dunnies in third world countries? Whatever it is he can stick to it and stop emailing in rubbish from his desk in his New York mansion.

  20. Pauline Hanson – something the MSM have conveniently forgotten.

    Before the election Hanson told her candidates they were free to vote as they wished rather than follow party direction. Malcolm Roberts said this alleged ‘freedom’ convinced him about Hanson..

    http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2016/08/04/new-one-nation-senator-takes-aim-racial-discrimination-laws/

    Hanson, as well as the MSM, seems to have forgotten that idea. She wants to kick Culleton out of her party. She doesn’t mention the financial mess Culleton is in, she just says he is undisciplined, not a team player. She objects to him voting as he wishes, she wants him to obey her orders. So Hanson lied to her prospective candidates to get them on board, then changed the rules once her team had their bums on those red leather seats. How very Liberal Party!

    Roberts said “his allegiance was to the Queensland people, not Ms Hanson.” He used Hanson to get into the Senate. There’s a whole new drama just waiting to happen.

  21. How about putting in prison politicians who rort the system?

    Australia’s peak community services body has described the government’s repeated threats to jail welfare recipients as appalling, while reports emerge of flaws with a new automated system designed to detect overpayments.

    The government has ramped up the rhetoric on welfare debt this week, warning that its new automated compliance system would allow it to easily and quickly detect overpayments.

    Human services minister Alan Tudge appeared on A Current Affair on Monday and threatened to jail those who owed Centrelink money.

    “We’ll find you, we’ll track you down and you will have to repay those debts and you may end up in prison,” he said.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/07/acoss-criticises-governments-appalling-jail-threats-to-welfare-recipients

  22. Katharine going Josh and Fizza big time

    What an extraordinary capitulation.

    Just 24 hours of controversy from entirely predictable quarters and a carefully calibrated process to try to engineer a truce in Australia’s utterly wretched climate politics has been all but abandoned by its architects.

    Josh Frydenberg has gone in the space of 24 hours from saying quite clearly the government would consider an emissions intensity trading scheme for the electricity sector to trying to pretend he said no such thing.

    The retreat is, frankly, unseemly.

    Actually, the retreat is more than unseemly, it’s pathetic – and the consequences of it stretch far beyond yet another apparent failure to do what needs to be done to ensure our economy makes an orderly transition to the carbon-constrained world that the Turnbull government willingly accepted when it signed Australia up to the Paris international climate agreement this time 12 months ago.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/07/what-an-extraordinary-gutless-capitulation-by-josh-frydenberg

    • They’d have to come from Asia as they’re relatively better qualified than others, according to some study. But then the Asians are brown and mostly muslims. Simon can’t have it all.

    • That is very insulting to Australian teachers struggling to do their best in drastically underfunded public schools,

  27. So much for finishing the year with symbolic wins on ABCC etc… most people haven’t quite switched off for Christmas parties yet, so this debacle will be what most people remember when the political year kick off in Feb-March

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/dec/07/australia-malcolm-turnbull-rules-out-carbon-tax-or-emissions-trading?CMP=soc_568

    Prime minister says Josh Frydenberg has to explain himself in wake of climate change policy backdown

    …But Brandis doesn’t have to explain his actions!!!

    and the comments on Murphy’s article are worth a look, I like this one, especially as narcissist extraordinaire kruddy has also forced himself into today’s newscycle..

    https://discussion.theguardian.com/comment-permalink/88967868

    • “Most people” won’t even be aware of any of that. Taking an interest in politics is not on the agenda for most Australians.

  28. Lying fraud – I’m so sick of lies, so sick of Turnbull treating us all like idiots with goldfish memories.

    Turnbull 2010

    “We have to put a price on carbon. We can do it via a carbon tax if you like.”

    The same year he said Australia “cannot cost-effectively achieve a substantial cut in emissions without putting a price on carbon”

    Turnbull yesterday –
    “In terms of carbon policy, I have never supported a carbon tax”

    Just as well there are some journalists willing to remind us of the truth.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-ive-never-supported-a-carbon-tax-20161205-gt4p22.html

  32. Labor took these policies for education to the voters last election.

    http://www.laborsplanforeducation.com.au/labors_plan

    http://www.alp.org.au/futuresmartuniversities

    In contrast this is what the Liberal Party offered.
    https://www.liberal.org.au/our-plan/putting-students-first

    Quite a contrast.

    And now Birmingham has the hide to tell us our teachers are not up to scratch and should be replaced by imported teachers.

    This is just more teacher bashing, conveniently timed to coincide with NSW teachers about to deal with an unsatisfactory pay offer with possible strike action.
    http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/school-strike-teachers-stop-work-to-vote-on-new-offer-by-department-of-education/news-story/14ab87c13f5fa9daa11bbb25b457e283

    • Leonetwo, this is not an unsatisfactory offer, in fact it is quite acceptable given the 2.5% cap on annual Public Service wage increases as inflation is runnning at an annual rate considerably below that. There are also no changes to working conditions( usually help up for bargaining by the government as a trade-off for wage increases)
      The news.com article paints the Broadcast Meeting as a Strike, when it isn’t . It is part of our award that we gather as a Federation to review the offer from the Government. I will be convening one of these meeting tomorrow morning and view the process as one of the benefits of being in one of the last truely democratic workers unions still functioning in this country.

  38. The legs of an ancient queen:

    A pair of legs on display in Turin’s Egyptian Museum likely belonged to Ancient Egyptian Queen Nefertari, according to a new archaeological study.
    The legs had been kept in the museum for decades after being found in Nefertari’s tomb – but this study is the first to scientifically assess whether they actually belonged to the ancient queen.

    http://www.thelocal.it/20161206/queen-nefertari-mummy-found-in-northern-italy

  39. http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11762173

    At least ten people are dead after a strong undersea earthquake rocked Indonesia’s province of Aceh, according to the head of the civil protection agency.

    The quake also caused buildings to collapse in a district near the epicentre.

    The US Geological Survey says the shallow 6.4-magnitude earthquake that struck at 5:03am local time yesterday was centred about 10 kilometres north of Reuleut in northern Aceh, at a depth of 17.2 kilometres.

    Indonesia’s Climate, Meteorology and Geophysics Agency says the quake has no potential to trigger a tsunami.

    not a mention anywhere in Fairfax or GA….

  41. CA

    It got a passing mention on 24 but at that point no causalities reported and no tsunami risk so I guess the story was written off.

  42. A petition to save Kevin Rudd’s career

    It’s time for real action.

    While Kevin Rudd rails at his now-traditional targets — Malcolm Turnbull, Bill Shorten, factions, unions, the party that once made him leader — in an op-ed for Fairfax, we think it’s incumbent on all those who care for the former prime minister to see his latest missive for what it really is: a cry for help from a man stricken with the debilitating disorder known as Limelight Deprivation Syndrome. And here at Crikey we’ve seen too many good men and women succumb to this affliction. We say “enough is enough” — so we’ve launched a change.org petition calling on the federal government to invest in research into LDS and its treatment to combat this scourge. We’re calling on Malcolm Turnbull to finally take REAL ACTION on a REAL ILLNESS. We hope you will support this important cause — for Kevin’s sake, and for ALL our sakes

    https://www.crikey.com.au/2016/12/07/petition-to-save-kevin-rudds-career/

    Petitioning Commonwealth of Australia
    Help Treat Kevin Rudd’s Limelight Deprivation Syndrome
    https://www.change.org/p/commonwealth-of-australia-help-kevin-rudd-s-limelight-deprivation-syndrome

  46. BK

    It’s like a bizarre re-enactment of ‘Animal ‘Farm’.

    Somehow it seemed as though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves any richer–except, of course, for the pigs and the dogs. Perhaps this was partly because there were so many pigs and so many dogs. It was not that these creatures did not work, after their fashion. There was, as Squealer was never tired of explaining, endless work in the supervision and organisation of the farm. Much of this work was of a kind that the other animals were too ignorant to understand. For example, Squealer told them that the pigs had to expend enormous labours every day upon mysterious things called “files,” “reports,” “minutes,” and “memoranda.” These were large sheets of paper which had to be closely covered with writing, and as soon as they were so covered, they were burnt in the furnace. This was of the highest importance for the welfare of the farm, Squealer said. But still, neither pigs nor dogs produced any food by their own labour; and there were very many of them, and their appetites were always good

    https://www.marxists.org/subject/art/literature/children/texts/orwell/animal-farm/ch10.htm

  50. I was born in Melbourne. I would have grown up there except for those beaches. My surf-loving father missed his beloved Cronulla beach so after his discharge from the RAAF we moved back to Sydney and ended up living at Cronulla. When I eventually saw Melbourne’s beaches at age 12 I understood.

    Dad never liked Bondi, neither did I.

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