The PUB’s 12th Christmas Anniversary

Kirsdarke Featured Posts,

This year marks The PUB’s 12th anniversary on its opening.

Started in Christmas 2012, we still seem to be paddling along with content and discussion here in 2024.

A lot has changed in the world since then, for better or worse. But we do appreciate that this place is still around and gets actively posted on with comments.

Here’s an Open Thread to send off this eventful year. And with a Federal election due next year, looks like it’ll be a major one for Australia.

687 thoughts on “The PUB’s 12th Christmas Anniversary”

  6. Could be another kind of election soon, here is a preview…

    https://www.politico.eu/article/pope-francis-illness-vatican-power-papal-succession/

    Pope Francis’ centralization of power leaves rivals struggling to scheme

    Speculation over the pope’s potential successor is grinding into fifth gear even as Francis still lives, but cardinals are more divided than ever.

    Matt Kean fights back against Ted O’Brien’s attempts to silence him and the Coalition’s threats to castrate the CCA – again. But where is his support?

    — Renew Economy (@reneweconomy.com.au) 2025-02-26T05:15:19.146Z

    End of an #ausvotes era.Fascinating read, plus this admission: "today in making the decision to retire, I feel like an aging footballer."antonygreen.com.au/why-ive-deci…

    — Karen Jane Barlow (@kjbar.bsky.social) 2025-02-25T21:13:58.930Z

    Pete Evans is back on Facebook and Instagram after being banned for sharing COVID-19 misinformation. Meta knows, but isn't booting him off, @CameronWilson.bsky.social reports.

    — Crikey (@crikey.com.au) 2025-02-25T03:27:50.457Z

  7. There has been an almost daily supply of bad look headlines for Herr Kartoffelkopf in Fairfax recently .Either the Herr Kartoffelkopf has done something unforgivable to a Fairfax big wig or someone in the Liberal party is angling to get his job.

    ————————————————————–

    The Duttons’ empty trust fund could have cut their tax bill. Here’s how it worked

    Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has revealed his family’s trust holds no assets after being used for years in property transactions.

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-says-his-trust-fund-has-nothing-in-it-any-more-20250226-p5lf7i.html

  9. This is heartening from the USA, grassroots Town Hall meetings are getting very hostile toward Republicans already.

  12. The ABC stuffed up big time

    https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2025/feb/27/antoinette-lattouf-vs-abc-unlawful-termination-hearing-live-updates-closing-arguments-ntwnfb?utm_term=67bfb922627ec749927e94c57f6493d4&utm_campaign=GuardianTodayAUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTAU_email

    Now, I wonder who the complaints could have been …

    Fagir said it was clear Lattouf was not dismissed for her work, but because of views she had previously expressed regarding the war in Gaza.

    He said she was sacked within 48 hours of the campaign against her, stating:

    There is an extensive discussion about Ms Lattouf’s removal that has absolutely nothing to do with her work, absolutely nothing to do with anything she did during her employment at the ABC.

    They knew next to nothing about her work, they knew nothing about her background, several of them say they didn’t know who she was.

    All they knew was that she had expressed views of a certain kind.

  20. Fiona K has an excellent suggestion for ‘repurposing’ the empty space left by the intended entry from Australia.

  21. Ah yes , the toxic legacy of the most destructive PM and Treasurer we’ve ever had. The same pricks who pissed 2 mining booms up against the wall. sadly Jericho about the only journo reminding people of the duo’s malignant legacy. ‘MegaGeorge’ called it out loud and early back in the day. But of course for every Greg and George there were eleventy dozen media lizards telling everyone about how wonderful the economic management of The Rodent and Hammock Dweller was.

    It’s time we asked: what is the cost not just to the budget, but to society, when the richest are helped to get richer?
    Greg Jericho

    From 1970 to when Dutton entered parliament in 2001, property prices across Australia rose just 1.3 times faster than housing income. Since then they have risen 2.3 times faster. This .is, of course, not an accident.

    In September 1999 the Howard government changed the way capital gains (ie the profit you make on an investment) was taxed – giving those who sold the asset after more than a year a 50% discount on their tax.

    Make a $2m profit? Great you only pay tax on $1m.

    It turned the housing market into a casino with the added benefit of making negative gearing work because it made it easier to make up for the “losses” you incurred while negative gearing.

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2025/feb/27/its-time-we-asked-what-is-the-cost-not-just-to-the-budget-but-to-society-when-the-richest-are-helped-to-get-richer

  24. The emperor’s new clothes

    As broadcast by CNN, a reporter can be heard asking Trump if he would be discussing Aukus with Keir Starmer. Trump responded:

    What does that mean?

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/feb/28/australia-news-live-creative-australia-adrian-collette-greens-election-cost-of-living-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-ntwnfb?filterKeyEvents=false&page=with%3Ablock-67c0c7478f08f021a67bec63#block-67c0c7478f08f021a67bec63

  28. Dave Milner from The Shot.

    https://theshot.net.au/uncategorized/nazi-oligarchs-have-seized-treasury-control-of-an-authoritarian-white-house-and-everyone-seems-kinda-chill-about-it/

    For the task at hand – journaling the truth of the world as I perceive it – it is unhelpful just how hyperbolic reality sounds when described accurately. This is the news, not a Paul Verhoeven film, not Wolfenstein, but the distinction grows more meaningless by the day.

    In just a single month, Donald Trump has casually threatened war with Canada, Mexico, Denmark, most of Europe indirectly, threatened peace with Russia, and is salivating like a Batman villain over Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and Gaza’s beachfront real estate. Not only are the rules of international power different now, the global anti-fascist opposition hasn’t even learnt to speak the language they’re being written in. The liberal centre does not understand this moment as yet, and is largely capitulating, because it was an integral part of heralding its arrival: the truth of the claim ‘socialism or barbarism’ should be fairly self-evident by now. Welcome to barbarism.  

  29. Ah the MSM, who else ya gonna call for an ‘expert’ opinion on the economy 😆 😆 😆

    Minority government would be ‘terrible’ for the economy, warns Gerry Harvey

  35. “The last use of live fire by a non-allied nation off the coast of Sydney was by Imperial Japanese Navy mini-submarines in 1942.”

    With the Yellow Peril scare bubbling along on our meeja it can’t be too long before they start recycling some old faves.

  37. Headline I read on youtube that made me laugh about the events in the White House today:

    “Zelenskyy attacked by Russian prostitutes in Oval Office”

  41. I’ve taken a liking to Vaush lately. He does have a bit of a temper sometimes in his streams, but with proper videos like this, he’s got a decent Radio voice.

  44. People are rightly concerned about the misuse of AI when it come to the news but it can give a more accurate account of what happened 🙂

    a coupe of versions

    https://www.instagram.com/geonewsdottv/reel/DGqadExKfYl/

    https://x.com/jacksonhinklle/status/1895590655205986642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1895590655205986642%7Ctwgr%5E98fc7bb987436479769baa5b301898f35650485a%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hindustantimes.com%2Fworld-news%2Fus-news%2Foval-office-showdown-ai-video-shows-trump-vance-and-zelensky-in-wild-brawl-101740782999241.html

  46. The New South Wales Council for Civil Liberties (NSWCCL) has written to Universities Australia (UA) expressing concerns regarding the adoption of a new definition of antisemitism by its 36 member universities.

    In a letter to UA chair, professor David Lloyd, the body warned the definition conflated “legitimate criticism of the State of Israel with antisemitism”, urging UA to reconsider the definition so it did not “inadvertently suppress legitimate political and academic discourse”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/mar/03/australia-news-live-politics-election-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-cyclone-alfred-updates-oscars-ceremony-david-mcbride-appeal-act-supreme-court-ntwnfb#top-of-blog

    It’s all the rage these days.

  47. OMG, Chrissy Pyne will be blacklisted by the Rupertariat for sure. Such a disappointing lack of “Asiatic hordes” .

    Mind you it is an interesting move by the (mainly US) arms industry. They have had their shills and tame journos out screaming “The Chinese are Coming” and the need to spend another $Eleventy billion more on ‘defence’. But ol Prissy Pynes shilling for his ‘defence industry’ clients has taken a different tack to sell us the notion we have to piss hundreds of $Billions more up against the wall. Relax, no biggie, just piss an extra $Eleventy billion up against the was and it’s no wucking furries.

    Many Australians seem to have missed a salient fact – our own navy conducts navigation operations and live firing exercises in the South China Sea.

    Christopher Pyne

    Consultant and former minister

    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/why-chinese-warships-off-the-coast-were-no-bad-thing-for-australia-20250302-p5lg9v.html

  49. TLBD

    Nice timing. I saw your post straight after I just finished reading Gittins’ article and man was it good to read someone say out loud what has been the case for a bloody long time. Slack arse management.

    It’s remarkable the way the nation’s economists have stayed silent while vested interests such as the (Big) Business Council have sought to use this problem to press the government for favours that would make them more profitable without having to try any harder.

    Until now, and except for former top econocrat Dr Michael Keating, no economist has pointed out how far the politicking over productivity has strayed from Economics 101. To hear the rent-seekers talk, you’d think that one of the main things governments are responsible for is producing and distributing productivity.

    Nonsense. Because the private sector produces the great majority of the economy’s goods and services, it’s overwhelmingly the job of businesses – big and small – to gradually increase the productivity of their activities. So, when productivity’s lagging, the first place you look is in businesses’ backyard.

    https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/the-real-truth-on-productivity-the-bosses-aren-t-trying-hard-enough-20250302-p5lg7c.html?js-chunk-not-found-refresh=true

  50. The SMH right into First World Problems today. This is so important it top lhs of the front page. Sooo Sydney I suppose.

    Families pay a median price of $3.3 million to live in Killara. Now, many of them won’t get their kids into Killara High

    27 minutes ago

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