Tommofork posted:http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-01/lambie-threatened-with-beheading/6271732 mum i didn't want to eat that whole carton of tim tams, i swear i didn't, but i had to! jeff from plunkett street told me if i didn't eat every last tim tam then he was going to throw rocks at rex. what else could i do! oh and also i finished off the crunchy nut and what was left of the easter chocolate. anyway i'm late for soccer practise cya
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Mar 1, 2015 01:23
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Fwiw you guys shouldn't joke about Australia sinking into the ocean because natural disasters DO happen and they are terrible things that cause a lot of death and suffering and it is inevitably disproportionately the lower classes that suffer most and longest
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Mar 1, 2015 09:25
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PaletteSwappedNinja posted:I'm poor and I want to die. Suicide is a bastion of the wealthy patriarchy. Class traitors will be first against the wall
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Mar 1, 2015 09:46
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Dear Auspol I have just enrolled myself in a blank cheque of righteous causes, with which I can attack or defend myself against anybody at will. Please be advised that any criticism of the poster Sulla-Marius 88 will be taken as an attack on [fill as needed] and anybody caught posting in this thread will be screened for noncompliance of the [TBD] agenda Please don't thank me for my selfless civil service - I do it for the betterment of the thread
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Mar 1, 2015 09:53
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Truly those last seven posts will be remembered as the all-too-brief Howard-esque golden years of auspol, sandwiched on either side by the labor mess that is my own shitposting
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Mar 1, 2015 10:25
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Mar 1, 2015 11:41
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As far as I can tell, it's looking like the title for "most beheadings and beheading-related threats" in Australia is currently held by whrite-wing christian extremists. It's like one of those social media history lecture anecdotes where the final sentence reveals that the victim was really a homosexual afghan mule racer and the real racist is you
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Mar 1, 2015 12:40
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Urcher posted:Last month's highlights: What's happened here?
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Mar 1, 2015 13:12
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e: This isn't the thread i thought it was
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Mar 1, 2015 19:04
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I find it funny that even after the current government grabbed power on the back of a policy-less campaign, and in a polling environment so utterly hostile to Abbott and the LNP, that Labor is still so inept as to release oppositional policies when the next election is so far away and there is no talk of a DD - current poll results affect the PM not the party in power. How the hell is Shorten so ineffectual that he is releasing policies now, even after he has seen the power of baseless attack dog opposition and tried to emulate the LNP in every other way he could? What a joke
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Mar 1, 2015 23:26
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I'm not saying its good to run a campaign without policies or they should continue trying to con the Aussie public, but Shorten's evil is just so bland and ineffectual. He is trying his hardest to play grown up villains but he just can't quite figure out how to keep from tripping on his cape
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Mar 1, 2015 23:38
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cpaf posted:I think it's a pretty good direction personally. The Libs put an unpopular and unfair budget to a senate that resoundingly rejected it and they've spent the entire time since wringing their hands and shrugging, as if the "economic situation they were elected to fix" is no longer their problem. Labor throws up a policy popular with mostly everyone, punishing multinational tax evasion, and the government is left with the choice of either passing it and giving the appearance that they're unable to devise their own policy, or rejecting it and reinforcing the growing realisation amongst voters that the budget is pushing an agenda and not built upon the desperate necessity they originally alleged. That's true. I guess I'm just so skeptical of the potential for reform or intelligent decisions (even cynical campaign decisions) that I'm hesitant to attribute calculated strategy to Labour when shortsighted incompetence would suffice. If it is a strategic move, it would also coincide well with distracting from Labor's complicity in the imprisonment, rape, and torture of thousands of children.
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Mar 1, 2015 23:51
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We have brought these giants of industry to their knees as justice for their many cri- well, part of the settlement is that they aren't admitting to any crimes, and we are actually waiving any claim to pursue compensation for any acts of theirs past or future, but just take a look at this cheque for one HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARYDOOS and tell me daddy didn't bring home the bacon! Now just let me take it down to the track, I got a tip from my mate and there's no way this dog can lose. I'll triple it easy and that'll go halfway to paying your first semester of uni
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Mar 2, 2015 00:27
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Doctor Spaceman posted:Apple had 9B of profit so there's "only" potentially 3B of tax revenue there. Its not just Apple doing it, but the question is finding the right balance between pursuing our taxation rights and having them decide its cheaper to not operate here at all. Which is hard to imagine given how much money there is to make off the Aussie market. Its not that they can't afford the taxes, there is just no incentive to pay them and they can lobby to keep not paying them
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Mar 2, 2015 00:51
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Speaking of Abbott and his potential misunderstanding of the Indonesian President, hasn't Abbott done that before? I'm still waking up but I'm getting weird deja vu - something about a politician being super incompetent and not understanding the finer parts of diplospeak where there is a common tongue of pleasant ambiguities that disguise the veiled threats or refusals beneath, and then an overeager and inexperienced politician takes the words at face value and pulls an excited press conference to announce that the US is sympathetic to our cause and will do whatever they can to help!!! Which then triggers a massive facepalm and later retraction. I swear it was a LNP member but I could also be conflating it with a movie or something E: maybe I'm confusing it with that famous "5pm friday there were no Aussie contractors for subs and 9am Monday there were!!" phone call but that wasn't misunderstanding diplospeak so much as Abbott carefully lying to the guy using language that doesn't commit him legally to the conveyed promise Sulla Faex fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Mar 2, 2015 |
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Mar 2, 2015 09:01
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PaletteSwappedNinja posted:I'm pretty sure he announced Indonesia's cooperation in towing back refugee boats or something, only for the Indonesian government to say "lol no" and leak the transcript of the meeting where they told Bishop that they weren't gonna tow, buy or sink any boats and that Abbott was wasting his time. Oh yeah, I think that's it. Isn't it wonderful when you misremember a PM's fuckups as pure incompetence and then it turns out they were just lying... Incompetently
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Mar 2, 2015 09:13
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I can see why he wouldn't bother meeting the union representatives after Jan 2014, he needs to wait for mandatory data retention to pass and be implemented, then his buddies at the AFP et al. can do a bit of snooping and scrape together some blackmail material. No point wasting time on 'negotiations' when you're in the game to destroy unions utterly
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Mar 2, 2015 09:34
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I don't know how super worried they'd be about treading on ATO's toes given their overall approach to government so far. So long as they keep the businesses happy, the reality of the economy and the budget doesn't seem to matter to them. They haven't gotten rid of Hockey and they're not backing down where ideology conflicts with economic management - they're still just looking for a different way to sell the same old poo poo. Howard gutted Australia like a squealing pig and we'd put him on the $100 note if we could.
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Mar 2, 2015 10:06
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Breetai posted:A rookie mistake. How do you expect any of the plethora of curvy goonettes who will no doubt be in attendance to swoon over your manly musk if you don't let it accumulate? WTB dinner for 1 curvy g(.)(.)n3tte meet me at org gates e: Please consider me spiritually in attendance at the adelaide goonmeet. Every half an hour everybody trail off into an awkward silence as though a fat guy wearing a breaking bad t-shirt and smelling of slightly spoiled milk had made some weird joke that nobody understands and then giggled at it for far longer than any normal person would Sulla Faex fucked around with this message at 10:14 on Mar 2, 2015 |
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Mar 2, 2015 10:08
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First dog is one of those funny things where people used to post it heaps and unironically like it because it was hugely dense and it made them feel clever for reading it, and then it gained popularity and the mainstream political enthusiasts got a hold of it so now it's apparently long-winded and inept when in reality it was always terrible, much like my posting
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Mar 2, 2015 10:16
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Cartoon posted:Agreed, but the sheer volume of sqwark coming from the Treasury building would be hard to ignore and it would get the attention of all sorts of inconvenient outsiders like the reserve bank board. Yeah. The funny thing is that they'll push it beyond where there's even the possibility to save face by backing down, then they'll back down anyway if they can't force it through. Then we'll just have to chalk it up to another one of the utterly batshit insane crazy-dictator policies that they've tried to push through in their hate-filled collective dementia. I think the libs have spent so long (not even 2 full terms though..) in opposition that they've determined to just do a smash-and-grab on everything they can now that they've taken power. And if through some crazy fluke they're still here after the next election, they'll.. well, they won't pick up the pieces so much as take it as a mandate to continue with the rampage. Huh. I guess there's no way out but murder. Breetai posted:"as though"? Okay - as though one more were there. Trapezium Dave posted:The alternative they might latch onto would be someone like Morrison with full-on nationalistic headstomping, which scares me in part because I'm afraid it could feasibly work. Abbott is already in full on der Untergang mode in his bunker, if he gets a casus belli then we're hosed. There's nothing that peaceful secularist democracies love more than illegal war against some non-white non-christians to watch on the tv and say "well it's about time somebody did something, good on 'em"
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Mar 2, 2015 10:32
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Seagull posted:actually it's all bad, though your metaphor still stands actually you're the brandis to my wong. sorry bud
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Mar 2, 2015 11:16
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Zetsubou-san posted:top result for "penny wong's greatest hits" Accidentally scrolled down to the comments quote:Fear not fellow citizens. The US is now collecting so much data that they have not the people to read & listen through it all As a result they are actually missing important plots like 911,Oklahhoma bombing and boston bombing.
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Mar 2, 2015 11:46
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ewe2 posted:Yeah they can't contemplate giving Turnbull another go. He's horrible anyway, and it would be an unstable situation because they would make him beholden to them and sooner or later they'd shaft him again when they felt safer. And this is why Morrison is being watched because the base LOVE him and that's the right faction of the rightwing faction you mentioned, and the danger with him is that when he feels safe he's an utter arsehole. He's only being nice now because he needs a win or two and he doesn't intend to stay in Social Services longer than he has to. I don't think anybody is infuriated, it's a good way to get everybody on the same bandwagon and light-hearted. If we don't have common enemies to rail against we'll turn against each other. First dog and idiots like it are just easy targets for the bubbling rage that festers on every page
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Mar 2, 2015 12:34
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Nick Cater has a point. Who among you poors can say truthfully that you haven't lopped off a limb or drunk draino just because you know that some honest aussie taxpayer like me will have to foot the bill for it? Or, for the long-suffering moral crusaders among us (i.e. those scraping by on a mere $300k a year) - I ask you, how many times have you tried driving your merc to your yacht on the weekend only to find that the criminally-underfunded federal highways have been blockaded yet again by just another weekend self-mutilation rally?
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Mar 3, 2015 10:20
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If only there were a service that let you pay a few bucks extra to have Tony Abbott call up the post office and say "if you deliver those packages you're fucken dead, mate". We'd order our anime boxsets and get them delivered the very same day without fail
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Mar 3, 2015 10:59
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Pope is obviously cribbing my A-grade posts for inspiration 
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Mar 3, 2015 12:16
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freebooter posted:I have a politically aware English lefty friend who is coming to Australia and doesn't really know anything about it, and has asked for reading recommendation to get an overview of history/politics etc. What's a good longread that sums up the entire bizarre and disgusting asylum seeker debacle, for the benefit of somebody who hasn't done the obstacle course of smoke and mirrors for the past fifteen years? Like, every now and then I wonder what it must look like to somebody who arrives from overseas, to find Australia frothing at the mouth at a tiny group of political refugees. Virtually anything good that I can think of having read comes from the understanding that you've already been schooled in the propaganda, I want something for fresh eyes. http://www.bookdepository.com/Killing-History-Keith-Windschuttle/9781893554122
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Mar 3, 2015 12:22
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Gorilla Salad posted:I had no idea what a stobie pole was, and when I saw this post did a search for "stobie pole crash" The Greens Are Tearing Families Apart
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Mar 3, 2015 13:09
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Ethnics is such a good dog whistle. I had a real dog whistle like that once but the cops made me get rid of it because people's windows kept shattering
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Mar 3, 2015 13:47
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dance my puppets, dance!! *giggles like an overweight 12 year old making his space troopers kiss*
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Mar 3, 2015 14:22
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Sludge Tank posted:I don't know how justified I am in being super sceptical of the housing market, taking into consideration my employment prospects. Australians go loving bonkers over houses, it's a religion for them and logic doesn't enter into it - especially baby boomers but also the newer generation because they've been raised on the propaganda that Les Affaires was talking about. People keep telling you to invest in houses and it's safe as houses and buy a house early because renting is for suckers and blah blah and you'll notice that these are all like four word slogans that can be easily repeated by people who don't know what they're talking about. Ask your mum what sort of mortgage you can expect to get on your current non-salary (it won't be a good one) and what'll happen if you go a few months or more without being able to scrape together the mortgage payment. I mean I don't know poo poo about houses but off the top of my head I'd be writing a pros and cons table with the following kind of outline: PROS: You're living the aussie dream You now nominally own something (although truly the bank owns it until you make your last payment) that has financial value - e.g. if it does increase in 'value' then the gains are yours, and you can get a second mortgage later on depending on circumstances, etc, which means you have the potential to obtain further capital for wise (or unwise) investments Your house is your own property which means if you want to paint it bright pink or re-do the driveway or the garden you only need to ask the local council and your bank account, you don't need to go through the landlord and ask if he'd be okay with some modifications. Increased value from renovations also belong to you whereas as a renter you can't take your beautiful garden with you when you leave CONS: Huge loving mortgage which you may or may not be able to pay - it's money out of your pocket every month that you only get back in one potential future where you sell the house at a profit ten or thirty years down the track. Your standard of living will drop as you no longer have as much cash to spend - get ready for a lot of nights at home and no holidays for a while You're responsible for everything. Absolutely everything. You'll get home owners insurance etc, which is even more money out of pocket, but if there are any issues with the house it's your responsibility (financial and legal and emotional) to fix it You're tied to the house. It owns you more than you own it. You're tying yourself and your opportunities down to that very specific geographical location. What if the unimaginable happens and the free market doesn't ascend from heaven on a gold-plated segway to hand you a magic "house appreciates in value; collect all the dollars" token? You're paying a shitload of money for something that you can't get rid of and, more than that, won't want to get rid of because you're chasing your losses and still waiting for the market to turn around and realise its mistake. For houses to be a good investment you have to sell it at some point, and the final sale price has to surpass: Agent fees Initial stamp duty etc Total mortgage payments including interest Council rates garbage collection etc over that period Inflation (avg ~3% from memory, looks like it ranges 1-3% according to this graph i just found. say it averages 3% over the length of the ownership. e.g. if you aren't getting at least 3% payrise every year on your job, you're not even earning the same amount - you're earning less. now apply that to your house) Cost of any renovations Cost of maintenance and repairs during the life of the house (all the way from replacing lightbulbs to showers to damp to redoing the roof every 10 years - anything a renter wouldn't normally be hit for) The loss of potential revenue from other, more profitable investments that you were unable to pursue because all your (non-existent) capital was tied up in property. E.g. if you'd invested in bitcoins or computer spaceships you could have been an internet billionaire but instead all your money goes to your leaky house and ramen noodles Now compare that to the cost of renting over the same period, which is not 'wasted money' as people often put it - you still have to pay to live somewhere regardless. And that final amount that's left to you needs to be weighted for+against the hassle (or joy) of owning your own property.. Being entirely responsible for it if it turns out to be a bit of a lemon (or even just as it ages), relaxing in your back yard and saying "how's the tranquility" again and again until everybody throws their empty tinnies at you, and then the final nightmare of having to sell a goddamn house and deal with inspections and auctions and scummy real estate agents (mother loving real estate agents). And also the awareness that you're tied into it.. somebody offers you your dream job in melbourne or sydney or london or tokyo and you can't take it because you have a house that you can't afford to sell yet. You have three kids instead of two and suddenly you need to either build a giant extension or sell the house while a renter would have just waited 6 months and then moved. Or you go rural because it's cheaper to buy property and then the local supermarket goes under and you have to drive forty minutes to buy milk instead of ten - sounds crazy but when you talk about owning property you have to think in terms of decades, not years. And what if you actually get a way better (or worse) job than you expected - as a renter you have the flexibility to upgrade or downgrade your lifestyle according to your income. As a homeowner you could be a rich guy in a two dollar crapshack, or a penniless bum selling plasma to stop the bank from foreclosing because he thought bad things only happen to other people. If it's a financial decision, you need to decide whether that final payoff (balanced against the risk of it not paying off) is worth waiting X years and going to all that effort. Compare that to renting, keeping your opportunities open, and using your money elsewhere to build your financial position. You might decide that you'd much rather invest in your own quality of life over those 15-20 years and say okay, at the end of it I won't have a house to show for it, but I did get to travel the world and work less hours, pick jobs for the love of it rather than the money, spend more quality time with my kids, and upgrade my lifestyle as my financial position improves. There's probably more but that is such a huge incoherent mess of a post that I'm going to leave it at that. At the very least, someone buying a house has to account for all of those variables and still have property ownership make more sense, AND answer the question of "does it make more sense to buy now rather than keep my options open and buy a little later?" Sulla Faex fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 17:36
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Another thing to worry about with home owners and seeking their advice is that they tend to overstate the how important it is to them that they own their house. You can't ask someone "was it a good idea?" because there's a cognitive bias at play that discourages them from analysing it impartially. They're too emotionally invested in the answer being 'yes'. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endowment_effect The more money you sink into something, the more you value it, even if the base utility of the product doesn't change. So somebody who has spent $200k on a $100k car will be far happier with it than someone who spent $100k on the same car. So if you talk to homeowners they tend to proselytize as well, like religious people insecure in their faith. Owning a home must be a wonderful, amazing thing, and you need to believe it too, because I have a $1.4 million mortgage and I haven't had a holiday in three and a half years so it's all gotta be worth something. So when you're talking to homeowners, take their advice with a grain of salt - double check the numbers, and think about it critically. They're emotionally invested in a biased answer. e: I'm not saying that buying a house is by definition a stupid idea or that all homeowners will lie to you when they say it was a good decision for them. But there is a crazy amount of propaganda and cultural slant that encourages buying homes even when it is a ridiculous bloody idea, and entirely unnecessary, for the vast majority of people. What's wrong with renting? You get a nicer place for your money and when poo poo breaks you just call your landlord. If there's a problem or the neighbours are poo poo or you get a better job elsewhere or you have one kid too many, you just up and leave and all you pay for is the cost of moving. There's a cultural/social disdain for renting and renters and I don't understand it. You trade stability for mobility and security. I'd say that's a decent deal unless you're absolutely positive on not needing mobility or security. Sulla Faex fucked around with this message at 22:48 on Mar 3, 2015 |
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Mar 3, 2015 22:40
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markgreyam posted:See also: having children. Having children hasn't been a financially sound investment since farms mechanised and we got infant mortality down to non-horrifying levels. But having children is one of those "life's purpose" type things, whereas owning a house is hopefully a bit different. Yes, there's a cognitive bias element to both, but nobody tries to argue that kids are going to make you money. It's just something you have to decide whether you want to do or not. But people who scoff at the bible will happily yell at you that houses are a great investment and you're a sucker for renting, even as they hemorrhage out the last few cents of their paycheque on an investment that won't ever pay off until they get a divorce and kick the kids out.
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Mar 3, 2015 23:49
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I guess i was talking more in the context of the Sydney / Melbourne housing bubble rather than one of the most geographically isolated cities on the planet Like if you live in a small american country town recently devastated by the GFC probably your housing prospects are better than someone who is looking for a place not too far from their social/professional epicentre of milsons point Anyway like whoever said the point is not that there is never a good reason to buy a house but that you should never listen to baby boomers or people telling you to buy a house as though they are magic money making machines and financial skepticism is blasphemy against the great Australian dream
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Mar 4, 2015 00:54
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This isn't directly related to housing chat but more to the philosophy behind it. I find it quite funny how short-sighted people can be when it comes to investments. They rail against the government for regulating industries to stop them from exploiting vulnerabilities, and then if/when they find a gap in the fence and sneak through, they do so with the full expectation that the government will help protect them from the fall-out if it all comes undone. Capitalists are all for stripping protections and gassing undeveloped countries with free market poison but then they act shocked and betrayed when a bunch of impoverished locals pay the maid to let them in through the compound gate and put a knife to everyone there. Where was the police force that I insisted be dismantled because they were stopping me from committing crimes? Oh noooo
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Mar 4, 2015 10:55
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For the record I'm not specifically advising anybody here to murder the wealthy and seize their estates, however if you have the capacity then the free market essentially demands it
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Mar 4, 2015 11:08
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unless it's just about to skyrocket
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Mar 4, 2015 11:55
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you forget that we have a liberal government so the economy is finally back on track. we all about to get rich
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Mar 4, 2015 11:55
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Jumpingmanjim posted:E: I know house price chat shits people to tears, but look at what's happening in Europe, A crash can happen here and it will affect all of us, regardless of whether we own real estate or not. I'd love to buy a parcel of land in Spain or Italy somewhere as a holiday house and become just another rich tourist driving the locals even further into destitution and hopelessness but I'm so flat broke that by the time I have enough money for the deposit the market will have rebounded and we'll be living on the moon regardless
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Mar 4, 2015 12:00
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