Australia - you're standing in it

Sheepdog's picture
Sheepdog started the topic in Friday, 18 Sep 2020 at 11:51am

The "I can't believe it's not politics" thread.

Hiccups's picture
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Hiccups Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 3:25pm
soggydog wrote:

Niel Young never wrote a song this good.
https://youtu.be/0LwcvjNJTuM

I'm late to whatever party you guys might be having, but Neil never writing a song as good as Freebird is an insane take.

andy-mac's picture
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andy-mac Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 3:34pm
AlfredWallace wrote:
ashsam wrote:
AlfredWallace wrote:
ashsam wrote:

JF ,Seeds, Supa, Adam, AW, and anyone else, sorry for my antagonising posts yesterday and before, won't be going down that road again.
Life is too short to be getting peed off with people. Head pulled in lol
AS.

Ashsam. Good on you mate, man enough to cough up the phlegm. We are all fuckwits sometimes.

If I could be honest, I’d love to know more about yourself, your past and what you did for work, your interests etc, if that’s ok
Your consistent vacuum of empty content rebuttals can only go so far. Give us what you’ve got, all guns blazing. All the best and looking forward to AS Lol. , MK2.. catch ya tonight , gotta deck to finish. AW.

Still working for myself AW. 10 more years unless labor puts me out of business before they get shafted for the other party that are/will be no better lol ;)

Ashsam. I retired early , back in 2019. Still helping out surf mates kids with decks, pergolas, exposed agg concrete, anything building related really. I surf first and only work when I need money. Very casual, no stress. If there’s surf for a few days, I don’t work. I probably average 1 days work per week over a year, I’m 59 years young. Fit as a 25 year old. All the best, thanks for sharing and caring.AW

Good on you AW.
You got it sussed mate.
Hope to be in a similar situation in a few years?!

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sypkan's picture
sypkan Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 3:40pm

trust me, I know a thing or two about autism and ndis

I wasn't actually complaining about autism, though people with physical disabilities missing out, whilst what was originally not included in the initial plan is chewing up mega bucks is bloody annoying

including this ridiculous new catch all phrase 'mental health' that is the real issue... a separate issue...

and speaking of autism... if you are interested, look at the increase in
diagnosis rates over the last decade or so...

not just australia

it's become it's own self serving little cottage industry... where mis-diagnosis is rife...

fwiw, extreme autism Is a super challenging condition, for parents and all involved, and they should get appropriate supports...

funnelling billions to what was once just 'naughty kids, and the 'not so bright' is just ridiculous...

$150 an hour is real in supposedly 'remote' areas

seeds's picture
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seeds Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 3:39pm

Okay! You know best. Have a good weekend

andy-mac's picture
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andy-mac Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 3:42pm
sypkan wrote:

trust me, I know a thing or two about autism and ndis

I wasn't actually complaining about autism, though people with physical disabilities missing out whilst what was not included in the original plan chewing up bucks is bloody annoying

including this ridiculous new catch all 'mental health' is the issue... a separate issue...

and speaking of autism... if you are interested, look at the increase in
diagnosis rates over the last decade or so...

not just australia

it's become it's own self serving little cottage industry... where mis-diagnosis is rife...

fwiw, extreme autism Is a super challenging condition, for parents and all involved...

funnelling billions to what was once just 'naughty' kids, and 'not so bright' is just ridiculous...

$150 an hour is real in supposedly 'remote' areas

I work with kids and being on the spectrum is definitely increasing, or at least has seemed to.
Schools want diagnosis to get sufficient funding, and latest call is for inclusion of all kids not matter if able bodied, or any state of mental health. Already not enough funding in state system and private schools won't enrol them.

Dunno why increase?
Better diagnosis?
Evolution?
Technology?
Micro plastics?
Shit diet, no exercise?
Pollution?
Single parent families?
Who knows?

velocityjohnno's picture
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velocityjohnno Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 3:50pm
adam12 wrote:
velocityjohnno wrote:

You guys seem to be having fun, excuse the econ nerd chart:

https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2024/06/australian-industry-contracts-a...

Check out the first chart, GDP growth - it's taken out the GFC low, is on the way to the lockdown lows (with everything open), but next stop is the 1991 recession low at -2%. If it takes out that how about a bit of cosplay, the challenge will be to wear flannel for a week.

Geez VJ, I reckon they would be shitting themselves at ALP HQ.
Recession headlines spell electoral death usually, and going below 1991's minus 2%, the noise from the RW MSM is going to be deafening.
The population ponzi isn't working for them. The property ponzi has left the boomers flush and spending like drunken sailors while everyone else seems to be shutting up shop.
Albo seems to think the tax cuts and $300 power handout is going to do something, but I think rents and mortgages are so fkn expensive due to our ridiculously overpriced property market that savings are gone already and the whole thing is teetering.
Jim Chalmers is a good treasurer, maybe a great one in my opinion.
But he's not superman.
Inflation looks to be going sideways, not down. All those predictions of an interest rate drop this year have been thrown out, they are now saying 2025.
So what do you reckon VJ, you keep on top of these things, will you be wearing flannel for a week this year?

Hey Adam, loved your club story, worked in the Perth ones but never got to Kizon style levels...

I would love to be wearing flannel once more but I just don't know if it will ever be allowed to happen. Keating was quite honest and said we had to have one, and that recession was a shithouse time to try and start a career - but music was good and people were funny and hilarity developed a lot, and you could still go surfing. I reckon whoever is in power will bend any rule or stat to not declare a recession. Which is a pity, cos I'm itching to hit you guys with those dancers once I pick the nadir and there is light at the end of the tunnel. (A recession would reset prices, including RE, which so badly needs to happen it's not funny, it's choking the country and it's young to death).

What I've noticed watching the US since GFC, learning about Japan post '89, and seeing the UK in Austerity since 2010 is:

You can have a zombie economy for a very long time. The indexes can rise, 'growthe' can occur all while Main St suffers for a decade solid, or more. Whole generations of young people can not get a career start, like happened in Japan. At least today in Australia you can get work - although stats are showing this to be slowing in more applicants per position. The UK looked destitute, but it was selective. The Bentleys roared into the City at 8.45am (no 4am waking like in Oz!), London itself was busy though talking to crew at the pub on 7 quid an hour with an hours commute, or Polish and Romanian young crew showed it wasn't all roses... Take a train to the towns and bro and I observed it was dire! The 'Vice' economy is all that remains, alcohol, sex work, drugs. Get to the villages and it's beautiful - quaint pubs, the kids go to a posh country school, rugby, polo, very nice indeed. All 3 seem to coexist, and life grinds on.

So we might see that here, it might be nice regionally near the waves, it could be max squeeze trying to study in a city, the XJO will stochastically dart about and end up higher. The slowing is going on across sectors, used car prices are coming down, the covid excesses are being wrung out, it's dire in the mortgage belt around here - yet all time record high new car sales... What I'm trying to say is get ready for some international style inequality of outcomes. GDP per capita is negative for 5 quarters now, but that's not an official endorsement of flannel.

Overnight BOC and ECB have dropped rates by 0.25%, so the cycle easing has begun which is surely an admission of zombie fubar economies. Rally on! It's nuts isn't it.

Edit: there's a whole new industry of travel correspondents going to the dodgiest places, oh there are some gems in the UK at present:

old-dog's picture
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old-dog Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 3:49pm

Former swellnet handles? I may be way off, but with his boomer bashing posts I get robo, friartuck, vibes, biggest meltdown in SN history, it was classic. Surely not.

basesix's picture
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basesix Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:03pm

@VJ, your posts take me to places I wouldn't go myself, but always appreciate, and learn from.
(ha, what's with the carrot cake thing lately @seeds : )?

seeds's picture
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seeds Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 3:57pm

I’m simple but when he was having a go at Southern Paul (my name for Blue Diamond that didn’t catch on) about all his incarnations I thought he couldn’t be the same. What a carrot cake.

indo-dreaming's picture
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indo-dreaming Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:11pm
GuySmiley wrote:
Optimist wrote:

When Peter Costello was treasurer we had no debt in 2008 and 20 billion in the bank. It was called debt free day and we were the envy of the world.
Then the GFC hit and we sailed through it due to our brilliant financial position.
If we don’t waste a dollar ever again we can get back there….
….but do our current leaders have the resolve even though we have a template to follow from the past.
We will have record income into Govt coffers this year….so will we do a Peter Costello ??? or waste it all.

Factcheck: Howard and Costello did have a surpluses BUT they were primarily due to: (1) getting the benefit of the Hawke/Keating economic reform agenda; (2) being in govt during the 1st mining boom with the massive increase in taxation (Howard was the biggest taxing govt as a result); (3) selling off every public asset he could get his hands on; and (4) reducing Federal govt expenditure on nation building infrastructure to essentially zero.

Of course any discussion on the Howard/Costello years wouldn't be complete without consideration on what they did with the surpluses. Mmmm, let's start with involvement in illegal wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan where $billions were essentially pissed up against the wall while indirectly managing to kill 100,000s of innocent people and leave fertile ground for the emergence of ISIS. Domestically, these dynamic economic managers ensured the ongoing destructive structural deficits to the federal budget by handing out massive tax cuts and concessions (that's x2 gravy trains) to supernatants, 1/2 CGT, negative gearing and allowing SMSFs to borrow to speculate in housing etc.

@opti and @info blind as bats and shamelessly dishonest cunning stunts

I just grabbed a knock off beer and i nearly threw it up.

The excuses you make and how you try to twist things Labor made a mess of things and LNP cleaned the mess up, and Howard got rewarded for doing so becoming Australia's second longest prime minster.

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seeds Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:15pm
basesix wrote:

@VJ, your posts take me to places I wouldn't go myself, but always appreciate, and learn from.
(ha, what's with the carrot cake thing lately @seeds : )?

I promised not to use the real good C word. ;)

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velocityjohnno Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:18pm
adam12 wrote:
zenagain wrote:

I can't understand this obsession with limitless growth. Who thinks that the price of goods and services needs to increase week on week, year on year? It's ok, we'll give you more money to pay for it but there's no corresponding increase in the standard of living.

Help me out economists, it doesn't make sense.

I'm no economist Zen, but I've always thought, where does the growth end? It can't be limitless, we live on a finite planet. The pursuit of growth for growth's sake seems like a suicide pact to me. There used to be people who advocated for sustainable growth, that the measures of economic success should be altered.
It slipped under the radar for our billionaire controlled MSM but the UN warned yesterday that we have less than five years before the planet slips past 1.5 degrees heating.
Five years and we are fucked. Forever.
They had heat waves last week in India where the temperatures hit well over 50 degrees, they've got no water, people dropping like flies.
Alarm bells have been ringing for many years, but it's still all about growth. Unless there is growth it's a fail. Must grow the economy, never mind the climate, ignore the dire warnings about the future.
They all behave like it's still limitless.
It ain't.
A suicide pact.
Sometimes I'm glad I'm old and have got no kids

The nature of a fractional reserve fiat currency system with usury is that you have to continually expand the currency supply to repay today's loans. You have to boil the frogs just perfectly so they don't notice 'the tax one man in a million understands'.

Stu's comment - in the modern era, the gold standard of 1815-1914 kept prices stable and underwrote the largest increase in economic development yet seen, bigger than our times relative to where it started. Pax Britannica and total free trade over the seas made it global. Stable currency, plus interest (after 1815) allowed a generation to retire for the first time.

indo-dreaming's picture
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indo-dreaming Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:22pm
old-dog wrote:

Re dole bludgers, they exist. I know blokes who have gone through their whole lives sucking on the public teat, (plus working a day or two, cash in hand), and able to rent a flat, run a car, surf all week. During covid they were laughing all the way to the bank. Spend all their dough on ciggies, mull, booze and gambling etc. then they turn 67 and the Govt. rewards them with the full pension of about $1200 p/fn. Meanwhile I've worked hard, paid my taxes and made sacrifices all my god damned life to get ahead and get fuck all. The lucky country alright. Cheers.

I was on the dole for years in the 90s and it was a good life, i surfed every day often a few times a day, i traveled up and down the coast i partyed every week and even went to Indo on the dole, and there was so many others like me which made it attractive as a social thing.

But these days i think it would be totally different and way way harder I have no idea how people survive on the dole these days.

But i think that culture still exist but more in just that trailer trash type demographic where they dont work pop out kids and get shit loads of benefits, its eye opening the amount of money a single mother friend who rents gets from the government.

velocityjohnno's picture
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velocityjohnno Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:22pm

Thanks crew, further reading which includes some great monetary history:

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/977154#CommunityReviews

A VJ government will reissue hard currency (again, with all the pitfalls and benefits) just like in our constitution.

ashsam's picture
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ashsam Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:25pm

B6 deleting posts again lol
good use of your imagination not all true though
good Catch in time AW ;)

AndyM's picture
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AndyM Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:33pm

Keep punching down Indo, it's the right-wing way.
Don't worry about that 6.2 billion paid to big business.

indo-dreaming's picture
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indo-dreaming Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:40pm
Hiccups wrote:
soggydog wrote:

Niel Young never wrote a song this good.
https://youtu.be/0LwcvjNJTuM

I'm late to whatever party you guys might be having, but Neil never writing a song as good as Freebird is an insane take.

Maybe this is the first time ever ive agreed with you, but i agree.

Two 9 minute plus songs so apples to apples, i will take Neil with this classic.

BTW. Neils tanty of leaving spotify because Joe Rogan had some people on with different takes on Covid was pretty pathetic, especially when two years latter he jumped back on Spotify.

basesix's picture
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basesix Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 4:37pm
ashsam wrote:

B6 deleting posts again lol
good use of your imagination not all true though
good Catch in time AW ;)

always happy for a catch, just figure cluttering up a forum with my guff isn't needed, and anything that mentions the man, and not the ball, doesn't need to sit there.. certainly not trying to be tricky..
yer alright, ashy. very nice invitation to you by AW. (ahhh, I see @seeds..)

sypkan's picture
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sypkan Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 5:18pm

"I work with kids and being on the spectrum is definitely increasing, or at least has seemed to.
Schools want diagnosis to get sufficient funding, and latest call is for inclusion of all kids not matter if able bodied, or any state of mental health. Already not enough funding in state system and private schools won't enrol them.

Dunno why increase?
Better diagnosis?
Evolution?
Technology?
Micro plastics?
Shit diet, no exercise?
Pollution?
Single parent families?
Who knows?

all of the above

and a few more...

but more importantly, mis-diagnosis...

as I'm sure you are aware, many conditions can show autism like traits. these traits are basically developmental issues, where a child can seem to get stuck in a developmental stage - or miss it all together...

not least trauma... (of pretty much any kind) manifests very similar outcomes...

seen kids that are just a bit hyper/angry/naughty/add/poorly parented - and/or 'just a little bit thick'- (to quote one of my more un-PC lecturers) ...get dumped in the autism basket, when really, they are not at all...

the never ending quest for funding you mention - and the self serving cottage industry aspect - combined with fads and fashions, means over diagnosis is an attractive prospect...

insider tip for parents: whilst a catch all diagnosis for parents at their wits end might be attractive - along with associated supports and funds that come with it...

be wary and suspicious, a childhood diagnosis can significantly reduce certain career prospects later...

autism is quite frankly, obviously autism... the grouping of aspergers under autism in the recent DSM handbook has just compounded the problem from my perspective

sypkan's picture
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sypkan Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 5:15pm
indo-dreaming wrote:
Hiccups wrote:
soggydog wrote:

Niel Young never wrote a song this good.
https://youtu.be/0LwcvjNJTuM

I'm late to whatever party you guys might be having, but Neil never writing a song as good as Freebird is an insane take.

Maybe this is the first time ever ive agreed with you, but i agree.

Two 9 minute plus songs so apples to apples, i will take Neil with this classic.

BTW. Neils tanty of leaving spotify because Joe Rogan had some people on with different takes on Covid was pretty pathetic, especially when two years latter he jumped back on Spotify.

I wonder what his vigilante like position on the need and effectiveness of vaccines is now?

seeds's picture
seeds's picture
seeds Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 5:24pm

Apparently all Autistics? Insider tips? Be wary and suspicious?
Why are you so fucken mental?
Fuck me I hope there’s some carrot cake at the bakery tomorrow when I head down for a maggot bag and a snot block

sypkan's picture
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sypkan Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 5:32pm

read it again champ

breathe this time

adam12's picture
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adam12 Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 5:46pm

@VJ, thanks for that reply. I learn a lot from you guys. Some great minds occupy these threads.
But don't tell me used car prices are dropping again. I ended up with a stable of ten cars the last time second hand mercs were cheap(ish). It's taken me years to whittle it down to just two and the work/surfmobile. I can't help myself when I think I see a bargain, and there's no missus around to ask "WTF are you doing?". So I better stay away from the online markets for a while.
And as for Perth's Mr. Kizon, he's a "colleague" of the man who watched my back on King Street and a man whom I was introduced to when he was paying a visit over this way many years ago.
A strange and quite intimidating presence to say the least, that had the hairs on the back of my neck tingling, like all those guys used to do to me. It's all matey and friendly and jokey banter amongst all those guys when you are "socialising" but there is always this quite unnerving aspect to it, you can sense an underlying viciousness, a danger that you can't quite put your finger on until you realise you are in the presence of stone cold killers, and they can turn nasty and deadly in an instant, over nothing. You also know that a gun is always somewhere nearby. I was once in a meeting with a bunch of them and an argument broke out over whether or not I had been given the opportunity to "have my say" ( not that I really wanted one) and these two guys, mafiosi, one from a very famous mafia family in Melbourne, pulled guns on each other under the table we were sitting at. I nearly pissed my pants. It was a fucking ridiculous world I had gotten myself into back then but I was locked in, I'd signed the leases and was making a lot of money, and I was younger and stupider than I am now and thought I could pull it off. I kinda did, but when the opportunity came to get out I didn't hesitate and ran as far as I could away from the lot of them. I had a partner in one of my clubs that wasn't so lucky. Shot twice in the head in the basement carpark of a building in St. Kilda road. Another of the "Underbelly" killings. Never "solved". I knew why and who, nothing really to do with me, and the guy responsible is also dead now, natural causes, but I wasn't about to go talking about any of it back then. Probably shouldn't be talking about it here and now either. DGAF anymore.
Sometimes these days people get me talking about those days and look at me like I am making it all up, I don't really look or act like one of those guys, never did. My brother is really the only person around who knows about those times and what happened, he loves telling people the stories, which is when they look at me and go "This guy? I don't believe it".
Anyway, glad you enjoy and can relate to a few of them VJ, maybe one day we meet in the flesh and I can regale you with episodes from those days when I was a street guy mixing with the underworld. Not proud of it by any stretch, but there are some good stories in there for sure.

@ashsam, well done for owning it and trying to be a better man. Redemption is a powerful thing. We all deserve it. We all fuck up. I'm the King of Fucking Up. We all get another chance, hopefully. Hope you go well here with yours.

@basesix, a mind like a steel trap, not much gets past you, it's all recorded. You have a great way of summarising people and don't ever do one on me, ok? You probably remember things I have said here that I have forgotten myself. I don't own mirrors (well, I've got one to shave with) and don't like to look at myself too closely anymore lest I be horrified at what I see. So you can seal up the Adam12 SN file, never to be opened thanks. You've got good taste in music tough.

@AW, retired gentleman, fit as fuck in his fifties. I was that not so long ago. A warning, for some of us, the sixties is like falling off a cliff, it all starts to give, snap, hurt, get bulges that just appear, bursitis becomes your close friend. I did a rotator in my shoulder reaching for a kit kat to munch on in the middle of the night, tore a hammy trying to kick the doona off too. So what I'm saying is, beware the 60's. Bed injuries are a real thing. Gotta keep up the stretching and working out, something I've been neglecting and am suffering for. Really need to get my shit together and get moving again, I've got surfer mates who's bodies have gone to the shitter and they can't surf anymore. Nothing sadder than a lifelong surfer who can't surf anymore. Don't know how I would deal with that, sometimes think surfing is all I've got left. I can't lose it.

Fuck, that was a rambling post. Shut up Adam. I'm out.

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andy-mac Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 5:38pm
indo-dreaming wrote:
old-dog wrote:

Re dole bludgers, they exist. I know blokes who have gone through their whole lives sucking on the public teat, (plus working a day or two, cash in hand), and able to rent a flat, run a car, surf all week. During covid they were laughing all the way to the bank. Spend all their dough on ciggies, mull, booze and gambling etc. then they turn 67 and the Govt. rewards them with the full pension of about $1200 p/fn. Meanwhile I've worked hard, paid my taxes and made sacrifices all my god damned life to get ahead and get fuck all. The lucky country alright. Cheers.

I was on the dole for years in the 90s and it was a good life, i surfed every day often a few times a day, i traveled up and down the coast i partyed every week and even went to Indo on the dole, and there was so many others like me which made it attractive as a social thing.

But these days i think it would be totally different and way way harder I have no idea how people survive on the dole these days.

But i think that culture still exist but more in just that trailer trash type demographic where they dont work pop out kids and get shit loads of benefits, its eye opening the amount of money a single mother friend who rents gets from the government.

Being a good liberal supporter, I'm sure you are happy to pay it back....

seeds's picture
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seeds Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 5:38pm

I don’t have to. Already did. You have to be wrong sometimes

indo-dreaming's picture
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indo-dreaming Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 5:42pm
andy-mac wrote:
indo-dreaming wrote:
old-dog wrote:

Re dole bludgers, they exist. I know blokes who have gone through their whole lives sucking on the public teat, (plus working a day or two, cash in hand), and able to rent a flat, run a car, surf all week. During covid they were laughing all the way to the bank. Spend all their dough on ciggies, mull, booze and gambling etc. then they turn 67 and the Govt. rewards them with the full pension of about $1200 p/fn. Meanwhile I've worked hard, paid my taxes and made sacrifices all my god damned life to get ahead and get fuck all. The lucky country alright. Cheers.

I was on the dole for years in the 90s and it was a good life, i surfed every day often a few times a day, i traveled up and down the coast i partyed every week and even went to Indo on the dole, and there was so many others like me which made it attractive as a social thing.

But these days i think it would be totally different and way way harder I have no idea how people survive on the dole these days.

But i think that culture still exist but more in just that trailer trash type demographic where they dont work pop out kids and get shit loads of benefits, its eye opening the amount of money a single mother friend who rents gets from the government.

Being a good liberal supporter, I'm sure you are happy to pay it back....

Well thats what i always use to say, one day i will pay it back and i probably have now.

indo-dreaming's picture
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indo-dreaming Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 5:48pm
sypkan wrote:
indo-dreaming wrote:
Hiccups wrote:
soggydog wrote:

Niel Young never wrote a song this good.
https://youtu.be/0LwcvjNJTuM

I'm late to whatever party you guys might be having, but Neil never writing a song as good as Freebird is an insane take.

Maybe this is the first time ever ive agreed with you, but i agree.

Two 9 minute plus songs so apples to apples, i will take Neil with this classic.

BTW. Neils tanty of leaving spotify because Joe Rogan had some people on with different takes on Covid was pretty pathetic, especially when two years latter he jumped back on Spotify.

I wonder what his vigilante like position on the need and effectiveness of vaccines is now?

It would be interesting to know if his views have shifted a little, i think most of our views have shifted a little with the beauty of hindsight.

There was some pretty out there views on Joe Rogan around the time but they also came from very qualified people, they weren't just nobodies.

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old-dog Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:01pm

You don't survive on the dole alone, the crew I know work a day or two a week for 200 clams a day cash in hand, tax free as well.

ashsam's picture
ashsam's picture
ashsam Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:02pm

Had a year living on the dole myself around 19 (add this to your list B6).
Was living 40 mins west of Macksville in a shed slash house.
Had to go to Macksville to get the cheque from P.O. Box and cash it lol.
Good old days, surfing around Valla/ Nambucca area.

Paid it back in plenty.

basesix's picture
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basesix Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:07pm

ashy, there was no criticism, my fave thing about you is when you share your life experiences.
I thought it might be nice for you to know someone has been listening.
when's denmark? will it be your first time there? have you seen your kin since covid?

ashsam's picture
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ashsam Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:11pm
adam12 wrote:

@VJ, thanks for that reply. I learn a lot from you guys. Some great minds occupy these threads.
But don't tell me used car prices are dropping again. I ended up with a stable of ten cars the last time second hand mercs were cheap(ish). It's taken me years to whittle it down to just two and the work/surfmobile. I can't help myself when I think I see a bargain, and there's no missus around to ask "WTF are you doing?". So I better stay away from the online markets for a while.
And as for Perth's Mr. Kizon, he's a "colleague" of the man who watched my back on King Street and a man whom I was introduced to when he was paying a visit over this way many years ago.
A strange and quite intimidating presence to say the least, that had the hairs on the back of my neck tingling, like all those guys used to do to me. It's all matey and friendly and jokey banter amongst all those guys when you are "socialising" but there is always this quite unnerving aspect to it, you can sense an underlying viciousness, a danger that you can't quite put your finger on until you realise you are in the presence of stone cold killers, and they can turn nasty and deadly in an instant, over nothing. You also know that a gun is always somewhere nearby. I was once in a meeting with a bunch of them and an argument broke out over whether or not I had been given the opportunity to "have my say" ( not that I really wanted one) and these two guys, mafiosi, one from a very famous mafia family in Melbourne, pulled guns on each other under the table we were sitting at. I nearly pissed my pants. It was a fucking ridiculous world I had gotten myself into back then but I was locked in, I'd signed the leases and was making a lot of money, and I was younger and stupider than I am now and thought I could pull it off. I kinda did, but when the opportunity came to get out I didn't hesitate and ran as far as I could away from the lot of them. I had a partner in one of my clubs that wasn't so lucky. Shot twice in the head in the basement carpark of a building in St. Kilda road. Another of the "Underbelly" killings. Never "solved". I knew why and who, nothing really to do with me, and the guy responsible is also dead now, natural causes, but I wasn't about to go talking about any of it back then. Probably shouldn't be talking about it here and now either. DGAF anymore.
Sometimes these days people get me talking about those days and look at me like I am making it all up, I don't really look or act like one of those guys, never did. My brother is really the only person around who knows about those times and what happened, he loves telling people the stories, which is when they look at me and go "This guy? I don't believe it".
Anyway, glad you enjoy and can relate to a few of them VJ, maybe one day we meet in the flesh and I can regale you with episodes from those days when I was a street guy mixing with the underworld. Not proud of it by any stretch, but there are some good stories in there for sure.

@ashsam, well done for owning it and trying to be a better man. Redemption is a powerful thing. We all deserve it. We all fuck up. I'm the King of Fucking Up. We all get another chance, hopefully. Hope you go well here with yours.

@basesix, a mind like a steel trap, not much gets past you, it's all recorded. You have a great way of summarising people and don't ever do one on me, ok? You probably remember things I have said here that I have forgotten myself. I don't own mirrors (well, I've got one to shave with) and don't like to look at myself too closely anymore lest I be horrified at what I see. So you can seal up the Adam12 SN file, never to be opened thanks. You've got good taste in music tough.

@AW, retired gentleman, fit as fuck in his fifties. I was that not so long ago. A warning, for some of us, the sixties is like falling off a cliff, it all starts to give, snap, hurt, get bulges that just appear, bursitis becomes your close friend. I did a rotator in my shoulder reaching for a kit kat to munch on in the middle of the night, tore a hammy trying to kick the doona off too. So what I'm saying is, beware the 60's. Bed injuries are a real thing. Gotta keep up the stretching and working out, something I've been neglecting and am suffering for. Really need to get my shit together and get moving again, I've got surfer mates who's bodies have gone to the shitter and they can't surf anymore. Nothing sadder than a lifelong surfer who can't surf anymore. Don't know how I would deal with that, sometimes think surfing is all I've got left. I can't lose it.

Fuck, that was a rambling post. Shut up Adam. I'm out.

Thanks Adam, I hear you gotta keep moving, I have spent my whole life surfing as my main hobby, so not sure what I would do when I can’t any more.

velocityjohnno's picture
velocityjohnno's picture
velocityjohnno Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:23pm
adam12 wrote:

@VJ, ...

Cheers Adam, appreciated, that would be a good day with those stories. We never got near that kind of thing. The little bro was a rough nut and would, blind drunk, keep a pool table the WAFL players wanted, and keep beating them, and rubbing it in, and prevail over the table, and then when they decided to fight, would out-fight them, sending them flying and then get kicked out where I would eventually find him, unable to speak but still full of fire. Good lord the night we had in Soho when it all went out of control, probably the closest we got to gangsters etc in a foreign country where you don't know the rules and how dangerous it can be...

sypkan's picture
sypkan's picture
sypkan Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:34pm

I'm not saying I'm right seeds

just 'my perspective'

I worked with an organisation through this initial 'growth' period, and watched them celebrate this growth with glee and gusto...

more money...

and not an ounce of critical analysis

then I watched the development of ndis, from well before even it's implementation, studying next to a close friend, advocate, and parent of an autistic child

I lived and breathed this shit

but more importantly, I watched parents, insiders and advocates, often just shake their heads in disbelief in private

just conveying what I've seen and heard along the way

fwiw, the child mentioned above has come along in leaps and bounds. from being diagnosed as 'non verbal' and 'will never finish school', to now an independent and clearly intelligent man attending university... but he's still clearly autistic...

as I mentioned, some kids just get stuck in developmental stages for whatever reason... and often simply grow out of it...

and, there's often a very fine line between 'stupid' and genius...

'eccentric' and 'crazy'

as you mentioned, co-morbidities run rife through this field... ocd, add, adhd, odd, dyslexia, learning difficulties generally...

there's a genetic component

but I just think the current push to label and find common cause is totally off track

$$$ as always, seems an unhealthy driving force...

ashsam's picture
ashsam's picture
ashsam Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:28pm
basesix wrote:

ashy, there was no criticism, my fave thing about you is when you share your life experiences.
I thought it might be nice for you to know someone has been listening.
when's denmark? will it be your first time there? have you seen your kin since covid?

No worries, going Mid September for a month. First Grandchild/Girl was born a month ago.
First time there, they came back for Xmas 17 months ago.
Long way and not cheap flights lol Could be my first and last time ;) Have done a lot of Europe in my 30’s.
Didn’t go that way though.
From all reports it’s a good place to live, high taxes but they get looked after in other ways like getting paid to study.

Thanks for asking.

basesix's picture
basesix's picture
basesix Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:33pm

that's fricking epic, a month! really happy for you.
so the line 'on yer bike' might give you a giggle as you treddle around in autumn danish sunshine?
congrats on the grandy, may you have much hygge..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge

Jelly Flater's picture
Jelly Flater's picture
Jelly Flater Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:40pm

- civil ashy seems alright ;)
....he might go ok in danish bikepants ay (b6 you're a gem)

& this haha
- put this in a time capsule for future generations to understand the oh so subtle art of aging gracefully ;);)
....this is a sn fridge magnet, thank u @adam12 :

" I did a rotator in my shoulder reaching for a kit kat to munch on in the middle of the night, tore a hammy trying to kick the doona off too."

@AW, hope you're resting up after hitting the deck ;)

Jelly Flater's picture
Jelly Flater's picture
Jelly Flater Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:43pm

..... almost forgot, for the cycling playlist ;)

https://m.

ashsam's picture
ashsam's picture
ashsam Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:58pm
basesix wrote:

that's fricking epic, a month! really happy for you.
so the line 'on yer bike' might give you a giggle as you treddle around in autumn danish sunshine?
congrats on the grandy, may you have much hygge..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygge

lol thanks, looks like I will be on my bike after all ;)

Roadkill's picture
Roadkill's picture
Roadkill Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 6:58pm

Here’s wondering if Jelly will join the acknowledging past behaviour hasn’t always been the best? The level of discussion is the level we all bring.

More than happy to acknowledged, as AW has said, we can all be fuckwits at times.

basesix's picture
basesix's picture
basesix Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:02pm

@ash, the car sharing programs in europe/scando are incredible.. I'm sure you'll find one.
(https://letsgo.dk/en/)?
But in the meantime, just in case, if @JF started an 'on yer bike playlist' thread, would that be acceptable?
I'm sure we could all get some use out of it..

seeds's picture
seeds's picture
seeds Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:04pm
sypkan wrote:

I'm not saying I'm right seeds

just 'my perspective'

I worked with an organisation through this initial 'growth' period, and watched them celebrate this growth with glee and gusto...

more money...

and not an ounce of critical analysis

then I watched the development of ndis, from well before even it's implementation, studying next to a close friend, advocate, and parent of an autistic child

I lived and breathed this shit

but more importantly, I watched parents, insiders and advocates, often just shake their heads in disbelief in private

just conveying what I've seen and heard along the way

fwiw, the child mentioned above has come along in leaps and bounds. from being diagnosed as 'non verbal' and 'will never finish school', to now an independent and clearly intelligent man attending university... but he's still clearly autistic...

as I mentioned, some kids just get stuck in developmental stages for whatever reason... and often simply grow out of it...

and, there's often a very fine line between 'stupid' and genius...

'eccentric' and 'crazy'

as you mentioned, co-morbidities run rife through this field... ocd, add, adhd, odd, dyslexia, learning difficulties generally...

there's a genetic component

but I just think the current push to label and find common cause is totally off track

$$$ as always, seems an unhealthy driving force...

Well I do believe these kids you obsess on become adults one day. What happens then? Not so cute then are they? Co-morbities you say?
What a carrot cake!!

ashsam's picture
ashsam's picture
ashsam Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:06pm
basesix wrote:

@ash, the car sharing programs in europe/scando are incredible.. I'm sure you'll find one.
(https://letsgo.dk/en/)?
But in the meantime, just in case, if @JF started an 'on yer bike playlist' thread, would that be acceptable?
I'm sure we could all get some use out of it..

Yeah my son just sent me this one.

https://www.greenmobility.com/dk/en/

velocityjohnno's picture
velocityjohnno's picture
velocityjohnno Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:07pm

& for Adam, the 10 Mercs sound wonderfully ostentatious, a mate's mum had the late 70s 280 sedan, that thing was a tank. Always loved cars but have very pedestrian taste - collect the ones you want if you can, and enjoy them. Teaching my youngest manual on a 5L V8 was a colourful experience.

basesix's picture
basesix's picture
basesix Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:08pm

^ looks a bit woke @ash.. do they have one with mini thermo-nuclear reactors?

GuySmiley's picture
GuySmiley's picture
GuySmiley Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:14pm
indo-dreaming wrote:
sypkan wrote:
indo-dreaming wrote:
Hiccups wrote:
soggydog wrote:

Niel Young never wrote a song this good.
https://youtu.be/0LwcvjNJTuM

I'm late to whatever party you guys might be having, but Neil never writing a song as good as Freebird is an insane take.

Maybe this is the first time ever ive agreed with you, but i agree.

Two 9 minute plus songs so apples to apples, i will take Neil with this classic.

BTW. Neils tanty of leaving spotify because Joe Rogan had some people on with different takes on Covid was pretty pathetic, especially when two years latter he jumped back on Spotify.

I wonder what his vigilante like position on the need and effectiveness of vaccines is now?

It would be interesting to know if his views have shifted a little, i think most of our views have shifted a little with the beauty of hindsight.

There was some pretty out there views on Joe Rogan around the time but they also came from very qualified people, they weren't just nobodies.

So reckon Neil might had you in mind when he wrote this one @info

https://music.

and most certainly this one
https://m.

ashsam's picture
ashsam's picture
ashsam Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:15pm
basesix wrote:

^ looks a bit woke @ash.. do they have one with mini thermo-nuclear reactors?

Should be cheap to run, like you said he said there is heaps of them.
Never driven on the left side though lol.

Trying to swindle a short trip to Norway not sure yet.
Have a Aunty in Hornby Sweden to visit too.

ashsam's picture
ashsam's picture
ashsam Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:33pm

Meant right ;)

basesix's picture
basesix's picture
basesix Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:44pm

^ assumed you meant the steering column was on the left.. don't squeeze too much in.. remember the golden rule.. stay a min of 3 nights in one place.. you get the days to feel a place, eat, walk, rather than wasting days with logistics, timetables and lugging..

adam12's picture
adam12's picture
adam12 Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 7:48pm
velocityjohnno wrote:

& for Adam, the 10 Mercs sound wonderfully ostentatious, a mate's mum had the late 70s 280 sedan, that thing was a tank. Always loved cars but have very pedestrian taste - collect the ones you want if you can, and enjoy them. Teaching my youngest manual on a 5L V8 was a colourful experience.

Yep, think your mates mum's was probably a w116 280, they did them with carby (280S) and fuel injected (280SE), they were the early S series mercs. I had a 280SE, beautiful white one with the rare headlight grilles, sold it last year. They also put the same engines in the smaller chassis w114 mercs, I've still got one of them, a rare rust free one sitting in my shed waiting for a resto. But the "beast"or "tank" from that era is the magnificent w116 450 SEL 6.9, biggest engine MB ever put in a production car, a 6.9L V8, was the fastest car on the road for a long time. It had this one off amazing fluid suspension system in that model, smoothest drive you could imagine and plant your foot and it peeled your eyeballs back in their sockets. I had a silver one about a decade ago, my favorite ever car and have regretted selling it ever since the day I did. A guy offered me stupid money for it when I was trying to sell him another car.
Anyway, here it is, the 6.9 in all it's glory, this one is the milano brown, from the movie Ronin, check the J turn at the start of this clip...

The 6.9 was also the car used by Claude Lalouch in this famous short film from 1972, "C'etait un Rendezvous" where he strapped a camera to the bumper and took a white knuckle ride through the streets of pre dawn Paris. He dubbed a Ferrari engine over the sound track to disguise it, and to disguise the fact that it was him driving his own car. Everyone thought it was a racing car driver in a Ferrari, but Claude later told the truth, it was his car, he was driving, and I think I remember reading he had his mother in law in the back seat for the whole ride.

AlfredWallace's picture
AlfredWallace's picture
AlfredWallace Friday, 7 Jun 2024 at 8:19pm
andy-mac wrote:
AlfredWallace wrote:
ashsam wrote:
AlfredWallace wrote:
ashsam wrote:

JF ,Seeds, Supa, Adam, AW, and anyone else, sorry for my antagonising posts yesterday and before, won't be going down that road again.
Life is too short to be getting peed off with people. Head pulled in lol
AS.

Ashsam. Good on you mate, man enough to cough up the phlegm. We are all fuckwits sometimes.

If I could be honest, I’d love to know more about yourself, your past and what you did for work, your interests etc, if that’s ok
Your consistent vacuum of empty content rebuttals can only go so far. Give us what you’ve got, all guns blazing. All the best and looking forward to AS Lol. , MK2.. catch ya tonight , gotta deck to finish. AW.

Still working for myself AW. 10 more years unless labor puts me out of business before they get shafted for the other party that are/will be no better lol ;)

Ashsam. I retired early , back in 2019. Still helping out surf mates kids with decks, pergolas, exposed agg concrete, anything building related really. I surf first and only work when I need money. Very casual, no stress. If there’s surf for a few days, I don’t work. I probably average 1 days work per week over a year, I’m 59 years young. Fit as a 25 year old. All the best, thanks for sharing and caring.AW

Good on you AW.
You got it sussed mate.
Hope to be in a similar situation in a few years?!

Andy-Mac. Hi mate , all good your end and mine. I know you’ll get there soon my friend.

My most common quote is, ‘you’re a long time dead’, so whilst on this planet, make the most of it, by that I mean leisure time.

As a nation we are often criticised nationally and internationally for our lackadaisical attitude towards work, who cares, I love the Australian mantra of everybody is working towards the weekend’.

Work bloody hard and reward yourself.

I remember reading in Willian Finnegans book ‘Barbarian Days’ ( best surf read ever) that when he and a mate lucked on some jobs in Cooloongatta to earn extra coin for travelling, they remarked that Aussie’s have got it all sorted when it comes to work and leisure, William was blown away by the attitude of always looking for or getting a day off work.

I was self employed in the landscape industry for 33 years, without a lie, 1st of February to December 24th , every year of my life was run at a rapid pace, I’d literally collapse Xmas eve. I was on the tools (construction), on the drawing board (design) and all administrative work and office. Exhaustive but rewarding, physically and financially.
I’d break from Christmas Eve and back to work February 1st.
Fortunately able to do Indo trips from 2008 to this day.

You’ve definitely gotta have a lot of leisure in your life, for your own sanity. Good stuff. AW