Play Nice Random Chat Thread IV

[ferball]

The only winner out of that was foxnews.. that fact we’re all watching it live and discussing it here in OZ is pretty amazing.

I'm flabbergasted to be honest. Unless it was for the car crash effect...

 

[andana]

Good grief this Debate.
Wat a train wreck

“a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck”.

 

[andana]

About the only way I can get books is from ones left by tourists at hotels. Since covid no tourists so no books. Went for a ride up the mountains and found a book at a guesthouse.

Wayne Carey, The Truth Hurts.
Not a great read.
The most interesting thing was him saying he couldn't get used to the crows game plan of mucking around with the ball in the midfield.
At North the plan was to bomb it forward so players would be one on one.

Nick Larkey this

 

[Hojuman]

Geez, Californians and close by getting a sad dose of Black Saturday and many other aussie summers.
Devastating.

 

[andana]

Mark Robert Coutelas, who was famously the face of the Solo Man television ads in the 1980s, has been arrested in Cambodia and charged with drug offences.



The arrest is the latest in a series of events marking a huge change of fortunes for the onetime Sydneysider who made his name in commercials

Coutelas looked worse for wear in a picture released by the Cambodian police force:




The 57-year-old was reportedly arrested at a guesthouse by military police and charged with the unlawful keeping, transporting and trafficking of narcotics.

Coutelas is currently in Preah Sihanouk provincial prison.

 

[Gasometer]

About the only way I can get books is from ones left by tourists at hotels. Since covid no tourists so no books. Went for a ride up the mountains and found a book at a guesthouse.

Wayne Carey, The Truth Hurts.
Not a great read.
The most interesting thing was him saying he couldn't get used to the crows game plan of mucking around with the ball in the midfield.
At North the plan was to bomb it forward so players would be one on one.

Nick Larkey this

Maybe that’s the copy that was stolen from my joint....

 

[Gasometer]

Geez, Californians and close by getting a sad dose of Black Saturday and many other aussie summers.
Devastating.

“Miss management”

I think he has the idea that it all should be cleared with ashphalt.

But then again there was the idea of having a Town and a Forest outside like some quaint little Bavarian town.

 

[Val Keating]

I’m disappointed one of them didn’t fall asleep. Can only imagine what substances they had intravenously before the debate.

 

[Val Keating]

Dems should have went with Sanders or Harris. They'd wipe the floor with this fat fu**.

Man the Democrats were more afraid of Sanders winning the primary then they are of another Trump presidency. The DNC would rather remain in control of the party then they would have control of the the country. Shit, they own the house under Trump...nothing happens without Nancy and her crew ticking it off. They’re happy that Trump gets to be the the badman while they keep funnelling money up.

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

Man the Democrats were more afraid of Sanders winning the primary then they are of another Trump presidency. The DNC would rather remain in control of the party then they would have control of the the country. sh*t, they own the house under Trump...nothing happens without Nancy and her crew ticking it off. They’re happy that Trump gets to be the the badman while they keep funnelling money up.

Every now and then, Trump trips over the truth he didn't even mean to.

When he said (Im paraphrasing) I just capitalised on the tax laws the Dems have supported, Bernie would have been nodding ever so silently.

 

[ferball]

Geez, Californians and close by getting a sad dose of Black Saturday and many other aussie summers.
Devastating.

The fires last year, which were starting to really kick off by now and started in July, burned 46mil acres. I think the Cali ones are now at 3.6 million.

Tho every year it seems California loses at least a million acres lately.

It's crazy the scale of shit burning these days. Welcome to the Pyrocene.

 

[Val Keating]

Every now and then, Trump trips over the truth he didn't even mean to.

When he said (Im paraphrasing) I just capitalised on the tax laws the Dems have supported, Bernie would have been nodding ever so silently.

Bernie is a hypocrite imo. He didn’t even show up to vote, let alone try to block the biggest funnelling up of money in history this year. Bernie is a company man. He fell in line like the rest of them and let them **** him. Completely lost respect for him for that. If he wanted to be president he should’ve fought for it. Instead he let them **** him...again.

I don’t like any of them. They should’ve buried Trump with a decent candidate but they didn’t want to have someone they don’t own. Bloody politicians are the worst

 

[Val Keating]

Can someone please get something not behind paywall for this article

Abandoned Rio Tinto Mine Is Blamed for Poisoned Bougainville Rivers (Published 2020)

Residents of the Papua New Guinea region have accused the mining giant of environmental and human rights violations and asked for an investigation.

www.nytimes.com

 

[LuvtheKangas]

Can someone please get something not behind paywall for this article

Abandoned Rio Tinto Mine Is Blamed for Poisoned Bougainville Rivers (Published 2020)

Residents of the Papua New Guinea region have accused the mining giant of environmental and human rights violations and asked for an investigation.

www.nytimes.com

I just clicked on it and the whole article came up:


Abandoned Rio Tinto Mine Is Blamed for Poisoned Bougainville Rivers
Residents of the Papua New Guinea region have accused the mining giant of environmental and human rights violations and asked for an investigation.

An abandoned Rio Tinto mine in the Bougainville region of Papua New Guinea has caused flooding as well as pollution, according to the Human Rights Law Center, which released this photo from last year. Credit...Human Rights Law Center, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Livia Albeck-Ripka
Sept. 30, 2020, 2:24 a.m. ET


DARWIN, Australia — The mining giant Rio Tinto has been accused of environmental and human rights violations in a complaint that says an abandoned mine is leaking waste and poisoning rivers on the island of Bougainville.
The claim, signed by 156 residents of the autonomous region in Papua New Guinea, is seeking an investigation by the Australian government into what it calls Rio Tinto’s failure to clean up millions of tons of waste at the former Panguna copper and gold mine.
It said the waste was making the island’s drinking water unsafe and causing health problems, including skin conditions and upper respiratory and gastrointestinal illness, particularly in children. The mine’s abandoned piles of tailings have also caused rivers to flood, destroying sacred sites.
“We live with the impacts of Panguna every day,” Theonila Roka Matbob, a traditional landowner from Makosi Village and a member of the Bougainville Parliament, said in a statement released by the Human Rights Law Center, which lodged the claim.

“Our rivers are poisoned with copper, our homes get filled with dust from the tailings mounds, our kids get sick from the pollution,” Ms. Matbob added. “These are not problems we can fix with our bare hands. We urgently need Rio Tinto to do what’s right and deal with the disaster they have left behind.”
The rights group filed the claim with the Australian National Contact Point, a nonjudiciary body that has the power to investigate complaints made against Australian companies operating overseas.

The mining industry has dominated Papua New Guinea’s economy for decades, with companies extracting minerals including gold, copper, silver and nickel. Panguna was among the largest copper mines in the world, but it was closed in 1989, after protests by workers escalated into a brutal civil conflict.
In 2000, residents of Bougainville filed suit against Rio Tinto in U.S. federal court, arguing that the company had mistreated Black workers, had been complicit in war crimes and had damaged the environment. But the case was dismissed in 2013.
Rio Tinto also recently suffered scalding public criticism in Australia over its stewardship of the environment. Three executives, including the chief executive, were forced to step down this month over its destruction of prehistoric rock shelters in the Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, which are sacred to two Aboriginal groups.

The move was a turning point for a company that had long operated without consequence, Indigenous rights activists said, and it marked a milestone in Australia’s resources history.
The complaint over the poisoning of Bougainville’s rivers also calls on Rio Tinto to re-engage with residents to address the abandoned site. The company ran the mine for 45 years and divested it in 2016, leaving thousands of people who live downstream in the Jaba-Kawerong River valley to deal with the consequences.
“The communities are living in a highly unstable dangerous environment,” said Keren Adams, the legal director of the Human Rights Law Center.

“We live with the impacts of Panguna every day,” said Theonila Roka Matbob, a member of the Bougainville Parliament, pictured at the closed Panguna mine pit last year.Credit...Human Rights Law Center, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A large number of nearby communities, Ms. Adams added, “don’t have access to safe, clean nearby water sources.” She said Rio Tinto desperately needed to conduct a risk assessment, and to contribute substantially to an independent fund to assist in the cleanup and managing of ongoing health problems in the community.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Rio Tinto said it was “aware of the deterioration of mining infrastructure at the site and surrounding areas, and claims of resulting adverse environmental and social, including human rights, impacts.”
The company said it was ready to have discussions with the communities that had filed the complaint, along with their representatives.

Ms. Adams, the lawyer, said that while she was encouraged by Rio Tinto’s statement, there was still a long way to go before the vast and sometimes fatal problems caused by mining’s legacy on the island could be addressed.
“We’ll have to wait and see what meaningful action they propose,” she said.

 

[Val Keating]

I just clicked on it and the whole article came up:


Abandoned Rio Tinto Mine Is Blamed for Poisoned Bougainville Rivers
Residents of the Papua New Guinea region have accused the mining giant of environmental and human rights violations and asked for an investigation.

An abandoned Rio Tinto mine in the Bougainville region of Papua New Guinea has caused flooding as well as pollution, according to the Human Rights Law Center, which released this photo from last year. Credit...Human Rights Law Center, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Livia Albeck-Ripka
Sept. 30, 2020, 2:24 a.m. ET


DARWIN, Australia — The mining giant Rio Tinto has been accused of environmental and human rights violations in a complaint that says an abandoned mine is leaking waste and poisoning rivers on the island of Bougainville.
The claim, signed by 156 residents of the autonomous region in Papua New Guinea, is seeking an investigation by the Australian government into what it calls Rio Tinto’s failure to clean up millions of tons of waste at the former Panguna copper and gold mine.
It said the waste was making the island’s drinking water unsafe and causing health problems, including skin conditions and upper respiratory and gastrointestinal illness, particularly in children. The mine’s abandoned piles of tailings have also caused rivers to flood, destroying sacred sites.
“We live with the impacts of Panguna every day,” Theonila Roka Matbob, a traditional landowner from Makosi Village and a member of the Bougainville Parliament, said in a statement released by the Human Rights Law Center, which lodged the claim.

“Our rivers are poisoned with copper, our homes get filled with dust from the tailings mounds, our kids get sick from the pollution,” Ms. Matbob added. “These are not problems we can fix with our bare hands. We urgently need Rio Tinto to do what’s right and deal with the disaster they have left behind.”
The rights group filed the claim with the Australian National Contact Point, a nonjudiciary body that has the power to investigate complaints made against Australian companies operating overseas.

The mining industry has dominated Papua New Guinea’s economy for decades, with companies extracting minerals including gold, copper, silver and nickel. Panguna was among the largest copper mines in the world, but it was closed in 1989, after protests by workers escalated into a brutal civil conflict.
In 2000, residents of Bougainville filed suit against Rio Tinto in U.S. federal court, arguing that the company had mistreated Black workers, had been complicit in war crimes and had damaged the environment. But the case was dismissed in 2013.
Rio Tinto also recently suffered scalding public criticism in Australia over its stewardship of the environment. Three executives, including the chief executive, were forced to step down this month over its destruction of prehistoric rock shelters in the Juukan Gorge in Western Australia, which are sacred to two Aboriginal groups.

The move was a turning point for a company that had long operated without consequence, Indigenous rights activists said, and it marked a milestone in Australia’s resources history.
The complaint over the poisoning of Bougainville’s rivers also calls on Rio Tinto to re-engage with residents to address the abandoned site. The company ran the mine for 45 years and divested it in 2016, leaving thousands of people who live downstream in the Jaba-Kawerong River valley to deal with the consequences.
“The communities are living in a highly unstable dangerous environment,” said Keren Adams, the legal director of the Human Rights Law Center.

“We live with the impacts of Panguna every day,” said Theonila Roka Matbob, a member of the Bougainville Parliament, pictured at the closed Panguna mine pit last year.Credit...Human Rights Law Center, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
A large number of nearby communities, Ms. Adams added, “don’t have access to safe, clean nearby water sources.” She said Rio Tinto desperately needed to conduct a risk assessment, and to contribute substantially to an independent fund to assist in the cleanup and managing of ongoing health problems in the community.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Rio Tinto said it was “aware of the deterioration of mining infrastructure at the site and surrounding areas, and claims of resulting adverse environmental and social, including human rights, impacts.”
The company said it was ready to have discussions with the communities that had filed the complaint, along with their representatives.

Ms. Adams, the lawyer, said that while she was encouraged by Rio Tinto’s statement, there was still a long way to go before the vast and sometimes fatal problems caused by mining’s legacy on the island could be addressed.
“We’ll have to wait and see what meaningful action they propose,” she said.

Thanks mate. Pretty ordinary. Go there, take what they want and leave the locals to clean up the mess. These mega companies rort small and development nations with impunity.

 

[LuvtheKangas]

Thanks mate. Pretty ordinary. Go there, take what they want and leave the locals to clean up the mess. These mega companies rort small and development nations with impunity.

I'd cut them a bit of slack by noting that the world was a different place in the 1980s and environmental issues were not considered material.

Unfortunately, Rio have carried the 1980s attitude all the way to the present day. The cynical destruction of the irreplaceable Juukan Gorge caves is just the latest example. The good thing is that the world has changed and the result is that the CEO and others have been made to pay. I suggest that was a big shock to them, because they apparently just assumed they could just manage a bit of negative publicity and everyone would soon forget. Ooops.

 

[Ry009]

Feel truly sorry for the Yanks, the presidential race has essentially become this:

 

[goalieboy82]

for my 5800 post (and a plane that is near and dear to me)

 

[goalieboy82]

RIP to Helen Reddy:

 

[goalieboy82]

RIP to Helen Reddy:

plus:

 

[Val Keating]

It’s wrong but so right

 

[Mr_Nyah]

The man is an international treasure.

 

[Swallow_Wood]

Love this shit.

 

[see see]

 

[Scallop Industry Thug]

The campaigner will get a lot more compassion than he's shown anyone else.