Jerry_Atrick

It was a targeted jibe amongst friends..

I know a lot play Aussie rules, Rugby and Gaelic Footy, but I didn't think one needed to be smart to play those sports 😉

There are plenty of cases to be heard without frvilous ones.. and contrinbuting to legal aid just means more people get to bring more expensive cases... Anyway, judges are salaried, so they get the same whether they are in court or not.. They usually make their money while they are barristers. When I lived in San Francisco, I teased a lawyer who was doing her California bar exam, citing she wanted to become a judge... My response was, "with the money attorneys make, what... are you not a good lawyer?" I wasn't prepared for the tirade that came...

Teh vid I posted is how it started... I am not a big fan of Mr Bean type stuff - get's old very quick, but the Johnny English films were really funny - at least to my immature sense of humour.

They really should have a law for continually vexatious litigants such as Chump and Palmer (is he called that because of what he often wraps around with his palm?).. If there is more than a small number of frivilous claims broght to court within a certain period of time you have to pay: The courts costs and the costs of secondary administration (lists maintenance, paying the salaries of support staff, rent, etc). The cost of your advesaries, including their time in court and the opportunity cost of their time had they directed it to somethng more productive. The costs of the delays to other litigants beihnd you... cvost of them not having their cases heard and cleared up - i.e. the cost that was incured for the situation they were brining to court to be remedied for the time of the delay you caused. Because you're abusing the court system which is already expensivee and not easily available to the masses, a substantial contribution to a legal aid fund to make law more accessible to everyone. In addition, the their lawyers can't evidence that they clearly recommended to their client that the case was not winnable (or highly likely to lose) with a clear recommendation not to proceed, then they should also be liable to paying the same amount as awared agains the frivilous plaintiff/claimant for being in dereliction of their duty. Remember, I am talking frivilous and no chance of winning; i.e. initimidation, not a case that has even a 10% chance of winning - sometimes they have to be contested to clraify the law. Suddenly, the courts may not be so clogged.

How many are there?

It is the opening scene of a Johnny English film where every agent of "MI-7" are gathered at a wedding, and Johnny English is guarding them.. and a bomb gets through and they all die. (except for Johnny English and his partner).

I intend to ride on them 🙂

Apologies if it came out as if I was taking it personally... OK.. onto something else.. Hmmm.. I thought I wrote about an experience I had a week and a bit ago in Gripes - I must have got bored of writing it. Anyway, back story is, the previous week I was parked in my normal subriban street in SW London newar the train station I take to work. It is free parking. I was parked perfectly legally and made sure I was away from the driveay so that if the house owner wanted to drive out, they didn't need to stick half their car onto the road before they could see anyone coming. I got into my car on the Wedneday night, at around 9:30 and proceeded to drive home. At this time of the year, the nights are closing in, but I have no idea why - I had a feeling someone planted screws on the road in front of my tyre. So, with my phone light, I checked, and nothing was there. So, I drove off down the motorway at around 80mph most of the way and was home a little after midnight. Straight into bed, awoke the next morning to a request to get bread and milk. I went outside and noticed the tyres picked up a screw - on the tread by right on the corner of the firewall. F! I thoiught. Then I noticed it had miraculously picked up a screw in the middle of the sidewall, perfectly perpendicular to the sidewall. And I checked the other tyres - and yep.. same thing. I was pretty p155ed off, filmed the lot to make a report to police and drove to the local Kwiik-Fit. They didn't have my tyres in stock and so I ordered them for fitting today, and paid a bit extra for insurance to cover accidental and malicious damage. Well, most clours, there's a silver lining. While I was waiting in the shop for the tyres to be fitted, one of the fitting techs came to the waiting area holding a 3" or so bolt.. It was the rear driveshaft retaining bolt and apparently it was hanging on by a thread - literally. It could have been quite a costly expeience - more than the tyres and insurance - if the scrote hadn't maliciously damaged my tyres and got me to change them! So, while I will still report it to the police, I sort of thank him or her for doing it. Second cause for celebration (sorry - don't know the French version - cause celebre?).. I have decided that, while the reno is still almost going, I will get a decent second hand commuting motorbike and commute to London - just when the seasons are going the wroin g way, of course. I have decided on a Honda NC750x as they seem to be the bees knees for boring commuters - robust, reliable, low centre of gravity, most of the kit you need, a storage area where the tank should be and the tank below the seat (may become a bum-warmer 😉) Well, I have some decent apparel that doesn't fit me anymore, and I need to get a new helmet (lid) and boots. So, today, I had not much to do as the test ride I was going to do fell through, so I went to a couple of dealers to see what they had. Well, I went to this dealer: https://www.ridersmotorcycles.com/. They used to only do Harletys and some other yank tank brand - new and second hand. Now they also do Ducati new and have a smattering of other manufacturers second hand. They had a NC750X there, but naked and I want a hybrid (adventure) set up. But I dat on it anyway, and it fit nicely. BTW, while I can't say I was ever a Harley fan, I did like the look of those Indians. Anyway, I went to the mezzanine level to look at apparel and lids, and to my amazement, they had Shoei neotech helmets, which they would never have previosuly stocked. These are my fave flip front lids and they fit me like a glove. I have had older models and I was pleasantly surprised they now come with an integrated sun visor! And I have been lookng at these online for some time, but to my amazement, this specialist and allegedly forbiddingly expensive shop had them £40 cheaper than I have seen anywhere else - and when I say £40 cheaper, I mean than the ones that are coloured the way no one likes them. They had a fantastic metallic red one, but, despite being called big-headed (and pig-headed), I am a small, and they only had a medium. Not to worry.. put it on order at that price, saved mysef some doh and helped out a local bricks and mortar business. Happy daze!

I agree.. it is a terrible addiction... my point was a good number of people do it on a weekly basis with virtually no hope of winning, yet they aren't addicted and it doesn't destroy lives. What we could do as a society to help those is the issue - as it is with all the other addictions that destroy lives

Indeed... as it is with alchies and others with, sadly, addictive personalities or in desperate situations. I know many who bet every week on a virtual impossibility - the lotto - and yet most don't fall prey to gambling. For me this is a challenge - last year I got a healthy return and started pushing the edge of stats and paid. Even though I invested £50, I see it as a loss of £350, which was it's peak value. This year I thought I would wait and get more stats measured before predicting, and it paid off.. But I am not doing this out of a financial imperative.. my partner and I would still gave gone out for dinner.. just not to the same restaurant

I wasn't going to roll my annual £50 to wager on Aussie rules this year, but a clearly mispriced game at about round 15 say the Hawks the favourites against the Lions. I didn't bet on it, but if I has, I would have doubled my money and sun. So I thought let's get in on the act. As per last year, had some good weeks and some bad ones. Last week had £90 in the account. Brisbane we're the underdogs again, but after watching them and Geelongnplsy last week against Collingwood and Hawthorn respectively, I couldn't help think the bet was misprinted, so I put 80 on the Lions and left 10 in the account for in play betting... which I didt get to use. Finished this season with a 350% gain at over £200.. Oddly, it means u now have earned more than list, too, by about £150 or so.. Better than bank interest!!! Taking partner out for a bite

Chump has ordered a meeting of all the top military brass in one place: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/hegseth-calls-rare-meeting-large-number-generals-admirals/story?id=125935650 Interesting reading on how they are "optimising" the command structure. Better hope security is better than this:

Wowsers. Russia is getting bolshy (if that's how it is spelled): https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-ukraine-us-fighter-jets-alaska-nato-airspace-trump-putin-live-b2834059.html Maybe they are betting on Chump's incompetence and fledgling dictatorship have already weakened military command with his firing of top brass and quite a few have left, and they are shrinking he number further. I wonder if they have installed Shoighu as their chief adviser? Tactical decoy to allow China to focus in Taiwan?

Are you going to criticise Sco Mo for taking more domestiic and international flights than Albo over the same period? And Abbot also taking more flights over the same period? Or do you avoid that because the ALP don't resort to childish slurs, or because they are from the LP... ? Of course you're free to criticise; but, if you are going to say something, even if it is a criticism that itself deserves criticism, well, expect to be criticised for it. Also, I recall Albo having to travel a lot in the first year to repair the damage done by Chump wannabes of ScoMo et al. So basically tracing the same steps as ScoMo, except with less flights! Yet, ScoMo was doing all of that travel on his own initiative. And I think, given the current volatility in the world at the moment, are you saying our head of state should not try and influence affairs for the better of both the world and Australia.. or maybe he should cower to name calling by, frankly, what looks like a bunch of rank amatuers - and so being adjudged in the polls?

Another myth propgagated nby Skey News et al.. Amazing how if someone puts a catchy degenerative term in front of someone's name, they believe it - or take it hook line and sinker, without doing a modium of research on their own. Here is a look at it. Disable javascript to read it if you want. I daren't put an ABC report for its claimed bias: https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/airbus-albo-take-that-bait-and-you-ve-been-played-like-a-trout-20231101-p5egud.html

Yeah - noticed the property prices took a dip

That is completely nuts. Most ASX listed companies (and most large companies period) pay out between 30% and 50% of net profit as dividend. This is to allow profits to be reinvested into the business for growthand a buffer against bad times.. But you know, that investment in the case of Ausgrid would be to modernise it to, amongst other things, oh I dunno, handle electrcitity generated from other sources such as, oh, I dunno, wind and solar; or modernise distribution models for batteries, etc.. you know, stuff that allows investors a decent return, but smooths the transistion rather than the big cost that everyone is claiming it will be. At leeast only 17% of the profits is going overseas with the NSW government the main beneficiary of 40-off percent ownership. The loss of jobs is a furphy.. to maintain a renewable system will require as many if not more jobs, and hthe benefit is it will spread it more evenly across the regions as by definition, renwble generation will have to be more distributed, and it has to be maintained. I have spent quite some time in the nuclear generation industry and the amount of people needed to run a nuclear plant isn't what it used to be. Bring in SMRs - and the maintenance is a whole lot less. No one is going in every day and touchign the reactor.. it is the usual stuff like turbines, pumps, etc that are being maintained. That is the same for a coal or nuclear plant. Control systems are far better when they were, and telemetry is deployed a lot more than it was. A lot of the extrra people requied to run a nuclear plant over a coal plant are the helath and safety personnel and much higher levels of security (there is a separate nuclear power police force or something like that in the UK, and they are virtually anti-terrorist units). Yes, they are the same - EPRs. Sizewell was already running late before the first pour of concrete. Hinkley point is years and billions behind (check out the vid I posted in proud parents - daughter was in it for putting the dome pn reactor 2). Bith are subssidised and guaranteed by the govnermnet - socilaise the losses and guarantee the profits. In addition, there are minimum price guarantees per mw/h. Hinkley point was guaranteed at £92 per mw/h indexed from 2012. AI tells me the average spot for wholesale electricity was about £50 per mw/hr.. That is a f$cking big difference - so much for cheap power. Sizewell has similar guarantees.. So, the government has entered a huge contract for difference.. with the exception it fdoesn't pay out for the government. So much for efficient electricity. BTW, all this meddling is not exactly free market and in other coutries, we woudl call it communism. If you want to get jobs going in Aus, supoort a new indiustry manufacturing reneables technology and sell it (or at least use it locally),. Individually renewables is internmittent, but we are not just placing it in one spot in all of Australia, are we?

There's a Chinese takeaway here that only does cash. No competition in the village, and while they aren't that good, they do a thriving business. However, I feel it has more to do with how much they put through the til rather than the costs of eftpos (they just call it cashless here). There is a farm shop that put in a minimum amount for eftpos transactions - £5; I think. This is illegal under EU law, but as we are no longer in the EU, they can apply it now. And there is a fish and chip shop that prefer to take cash, but will take cards willingly and don't have a minimum fee. Most banks are getting around the cash thing by contracting the post office to handle it on their behalf as well as provide customer facing services that may still be required. We are also undergoing branch closures and new e-banks are always starting up at the moment., The UK banking industry is much bigger than Australia's, but on a rate of return basis, Australian big banks are close to the top of the pack for margins and rate of proftibility - especially their retail and commercial francihses (I think thei investment or coorporate/institutional arms have taken a hit lately, but have to check). Here, there is no direct charge to the consumer for any transactions on your personal bank accounts. Most small businesses also have no charges, except if they exceed a number of times per month physically depositing or withdrawing cash at a counter (there are electronic versions of the old night night deposit boxes they can use for free - and ATMs owned by the banks are also free at use across the network, only some specialist ATM operators charge). You could, although I am not sure now, withdraw small amounts from a supermarket or other major retailer without charge and without having to purchase anything, but I think it was voluntary as they had refused me once when their cash draw was looking thin and were worried they couldn't service their customer. I have been into a branch only a few times this year - once to deposit cash given to me to buy something for my son's birthday; and once to withdraw a significant amount of cash for a scaffolder.. enough said. Mostly, bank transfers pay tradies (even when enough is said). The £30 in my wallet is about 6 weeks old, after dispensing the previous £30 in Chinese takeway.. which I don't get that often as they really aren't that great (in our opinion).

I don't feel sorry for the farmers. Often, they are quite cunning operators, especially on the commodities markets. They knew what they were voting for and what was promised. They also knew he didn't have the leash of another potential term, so he was likely to let rip. They must have thought they were going to somehow be exempted from his shenanigans, but I can't see how. Also, how exactly were the purported problems disaffecting farmers (and I will admit, true illegal immigration is one, of which refugees are not illegal until their case has been resolved)? The illegal immigration meant they could get willing workers and a fraction of the cost of unwilling workers. The so called repatriation of industries would take an eon, so tariffs as a stick, without a carrot approach could only go one way and increase their input prices. The removal of whatever health care the poorer workers could access to keep them healthy was taken away and precluding those getting sick from working; making people go without food because they don't earn enough doesn't exactly lead to either a healthy or motivated work force. I am not even sure he was used his tariff windfall to really support the farmers because, unless he is able to override the constitution absolutely, he cannot be elected a third time (although there is spealk the constitution means no more than 2 consecutive terms) and his dismantling of the democratic institutions, of which I have to admit, seem to be falling easier than they should, may help him not need the support. So, if anything, the farmers got exactly what they voted for.. and they would have known it was coming unless they thought somehow they could be separated out. Don't feel for them at all - except those that voted Democrats or someone else.. even abstaining was a nod that they would rather see Chump in than elect a democrat and wait for someone better in the Republican party to come along. And I normally defend one's right not to vote.. but when things were getting extreme, they really had to stand up to defend their interests.. which they didn't. On another note, Jimmy Kimmel is back on the air after a massive consumer backlash on Disney businesses. Here is the Youtube clip. It is a very sobering clip, with even a nod to Ted Cruz: Hopefully there will be a sense in Republicans that Chump is losing it and they revert to some sense of normality.

When they pick up the phone and greet you with, "Melbourne Morgue - Spare Parts - Can I lend you a hand?", get very worried.

Sadly, with technology, there are just fewer people coming through the door. In theory, there is nothing you can do in th branch that you can't do online anymore - providing you have the tech. Want to deposit a cheque - your phone or webcam photographs it and it is deposited. Want to open a new account at a new bank - online identity verification technology is very good these days; want to take out a loan, or open a business account, transfer money, etc etc.. Your bank knows everything about you that they need to, and can do it.. and because of standardisation through the open banking standards, the bank will check your online transfer to make sure the account numbers and names and BSB codes all match.. Probably less mistakes than made in the branch.. Although I understand Aussie banks are behind the fraud detection curve mainly because they don't have to cough up like they do in other countries if they could have reasonably prevented it. If something is out of the ordinary, internet chat (first a bot and then a real person), or phone can sort it out. Everything is presented to the bot and person in real time. The only thing you can't do online is bank in cash. But, I guess there isn't the demand for it that there was. When I moved back to Aus in about 2003 after living here for 6 years, I got my first banking job. I laughed aloud at two anachronisms; first they were still issuing passbook accounts... Second, they were charging feed to retail clients..

who bluddy well said once the kids are out you don't cop the lurgy from the school yard. Daughter came home this weekend all flued up.. and now we all have it! Buggah!

Whereabouts is the church (I am assuming she told you where it was)?

I think Chump lite is a little harsh... One of the issues Labor has is that the press is generally hostile towards it.. If he takes policies against the interests of those that pay the media for their advertising, those whose interests are being challenged will instruct their media fellas that no play, no pay. And, people still believe everythign they read, or allow it to feed their confirmation bias, and votes are lost. The other issue is the electorate will likely punish any sitting party that makes it more expensive in the short term, even if prices will eventuall drop and the economy becomes competitive again. Of course, that is assuming prices will lower.. Leaving markets to private enterprise where there is a monopoly or concentration of large players often means the market doesn't enter price wars because of this thing called collective pretoction of interests.. in this case to preserve margins.