Grapeviney

Max Gawn told a Demon Army function tonight that Fritsch will play this weekend.

“I want to stand with the current definition of marriage. I think it has been trialled by time, by thousands of years across multiple cultures, across multiple faiths." “I see marriage as a reflection of what I have, what my parents had, what my grandparents had." “When we go there (Asia), there are judgments whether you like it or not that are made about us. There they see in how we negotiate with them whether they see us as decadent." https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2015/jul/05/barnaby-joyce-says-asia-may-see-our-embrace-of-same-sex-marriage-as-decadent

The quarter-by-quarter scores from all 12 premierships, pictures of the 10 greatest MFC marks and goals, and the names of every player who played more than 100 games for the club, along with their signatures. Usual logo stuff.

I liked the oldskool Zooper Doopers from the 80’s, which were half the size and went under the name of Kool Pops. I was the Kool Pop king. This ad explains everything.

W0o0-h0o0 !! Great comeback away from home after another sleepy, sloppy start. Spurs will need to be on guard against Juve doing the classic Italian 1-0 smash-and-grab job in the return fixture, but as you say, the away goals puts them in the box seat. With the league titles wrapped up in all the 5 major Euro leagues except Italy and maybe Spain, the remaining CL matches this round and beyond are all the more enticing, and I'll definitely be tuning into to RM v PSG tomorrow morning. Also interesting to read today that there's been a slump in broadcast revenue in EPL rights in the UK, following years of massive increases. Didn't realise that British broadcasters are only allowed to show 200 of the 380 games live, a restriction apparently aimed at maintaining high attendances at the grounds.

Spurs should have had a bagful, Macca, they botched plenty of gimmes, but Arsenal never looked threatening. In fact, they looked disinterested most of the time. Champions League returns this week, with plenty of good fixtures as highlighted in one of your earlier posts. I’m quietly confident about Spurs’ trip to Turin.

Jimmy? No-one called him that. Pretty sure it was Jimbo, or if not that, Cooky.

I haven't read the Wolff book, nut, but I came to exactly the same conclusion you did about sources / facts / quotes / opinion from reading the extract at the time of its release. There is a real art to that style of 'reportage' (if you could call it that) - creating something out of nothing and making it seem solid - but it leaves the door wide open for criticism about accuracy and truth, and also leads to questions about motive and bias. Also agree about the Broome book - a pretty good historical account.

Fascinating read here about Israel's attempts over the years to assassinate Yasir Arafat, an extract from a forthcoming book about the history of Israeli intelligence agencies and their targeted killings. What stands out is the moral tussle between senior military / intelligence / government figures, and the lengths to which some of them were prepared to go to, to get rid of the PLO leader, and how they were thwarted by others who thought the collateral damage (such as shooting down a commercial plane) was too high a price to pay. Really looking forward to the book as the article reads like a thriller and seems to be meticulously researched, with multiple sources giving their perspective on how each event unfolded.

Work? You spend 50 weeks of the year 'getting ready for the trade period' - don't know whether I'd really call that a proper job. #tradebreakerlife

I was kind of lucky, Macca - not only did they get one of their largest crowds for the season, but they were on song, too. Rooney actually put Everton ahead about 10mins in but was ruled off-side. From then on it was all Spurs and they could have finished with 6. The Barcelona game was much less of a spectacle, and while it was good to see Messi score, they never had to get out of 1st gear. I should add, the tour of the Camp Nou and the Barca museum is superb. You can go into the visiting team's rooms, walk down the race (which has an adjoining chapel!), sit on the bench and visit the press box. The trophy cabinet, obviously, is enormous, stretching the entire length of a large room. One of the best exhibits was a huge glass case with dozens (maybe hundreds) of little squares, each labelled with a highlight from Barca's history; you touch the square you want to see and it brings up a larger box that shows that particular goal, or game etc. I caught the first half of the match at Anfield, but had to leave for the airport at half-time unfortunately so missed the exciting finish. City's loss leaves the door just slightly ajar for United, but for the rest it'll be a battle for CL spots. Hammers have really turned the corner since Moyes took over, a mid-season revival along with Palace and the Cherries. It's been an interesting season in every respect except for the actual title race itself.

Some shots from the Barcelona v Levante game. The official attendance was listed as 56,000 but I reckon they fudged it, just as they do with crowds here, as the stadium seemed to be less than half full. Had amazing seats, sitting at about half-forward on level 2, which gave a great vantage point for the action. In the second half, the top row of seats in the stand opposite me took on this ethereal glow from the setting sun, and my cousin, who was sitting in the stand opposite, snapped the magnificent final shot in the series below. Seats at the Spurs - Everton game were also sensational, albeit this time at ground level, and I was within spitting distance of the Everton bench. Great atmosphere where I was (there were hundreds of Koreans sitting near me going crazy for Son, who was on fire) but not as good for viewing the match as the upper levels, where you get a better idea of space and distance etc. The thing which really struck me was how congested much of the play is, in comparison to what you see on TV, where it seems they have oodles of time and space to move the ball around. At both games I was one of the first in the ground so I could just sit there and soak up the enormity of it all!

Had to settle for a brace, but it’s hard to complain about a 4-0 thumping in front of more than 76,000. Was an unforgettable night, my seat was so good I was basically sitting on the bench, and could hear Poch and Sam Allardyce yelling out instructions. Spurs fans lament the lack of atmosphere at Wembley compared to the Lane, but coming from the much larger ‘G, it seemed intimate and the vibe all night was amazing. With Barca winning 3-0 last weekend, the whole trip has been a dream come true and I’m glad I came. Will post some pics when I get back to Oz. ⚽️⚽️⚽️

My reading of the situation here is the opposite of what others seem to think - the AFL are not going to touch this in a million years. This whole thing is being driven by the media, who know the full allegations and details and are ringing the MFC, AFL and VicPolice almost daily to see if there's any development. Unless the complainant progresses with it in Bali, nothing can or will happen, and eventually all three of of MFC, AFL and VicPolice will all be able to say "we can't do anything with it' with a clean conscience. In the meantime, for reasons of both public perception and the need to treat sexual assault allegations very seriously, it's incumbent on them to "support" the alleged victim.

Actually dc I think the napkin plan was a Coalition incarnation, rather than the Labor phase. It’s getting hard to remember which acts of absurdity belong to which party.

My post wasn’t intended to excuse Turnbull, more a case of sharing the blame around. I think it was botched from the beginning (IIRC there wasn’t even a business case on the initial scheme).

Even though it was the policy brainchild of the ALP and launched under the Rudd Government?

This really needs to be fleshed out a little more. Where is the appeal to 'families'... I mean 'hard-working families'... I mean 'hard-working Victorian families.'.. or perhaps 'hard-working Victorian mums and dads'? "As we go forward, we want hard-working Victorian families to join us on our journey as we strive to realise our core values of being a successful and sustainable club into the future." Or you could scrap all that and just borrow from Julia Gillard: "We are us!"

I’m going - and soon! Just bought premium seats at the Camp Nou for Barca v Levante on the 7th, and the same for Spurs v the Toffees 6 days later at Wembley, with a pre-game function, drinks etc. Pretty pumped, as I’ve dreamt about these stadia since I was a kid (albeit Wembley’s been totally refurbed since then, much like the ‘G). Hopefully Harry Kane can keep scoring hat-tricks for a few more weeks yet..

There isn't free speech on Demonland - all sorts of content gets moderated for all sorts of reasons. And WGAF about Sweden -what does it have to do with immigration issues here? If you want to talk about Islamic rape culture I'd be interested to see any data you have from Muslim communities here, such as in Sydney's west, where, if your argument holds true, the incidence of sexual assault should be significantly higher than in the broader community. There have been a number of very high-profile cases of sexual assault and rape here - the brutal Bilal Skaf-led gang rapes in Sydney many years ago the worst of them, where the language used during that attack was culturally degrading towards their Australian victim - but while I don't have the stats, in Melbourne I think that the biggest immigrant / crime issue is aggravated burglaries, robberies and car-jackings, the offences committed by Apex and similar gangs, who, rather ironically, came to this country courtesy of the tough-on-borders Howard Government. For the moment, the so-called tyranny of distance allows Australia to inoculate itself to a great extent against the global refugee problem. So few people make it here, relatively speaking, that we can shunt them offshore as we have without too much fuss. If we had tens of thousands of them queued up at the border it would be a much greater challenge, on many levels.

Or he might find a photographer to take a beautiful picture of the reef in all its colour and glory and then use that in an emotive campaign to claim climate change isn't impacting the reef at all, and then The Age could write a story on it, admitting in the story that the picture doesn't prove anything at all about climate change but hey, what the heck, it's a powerful image so let's run with it anyway. Because that's what the polar bear story is - propaganda masquerading as news. In days gone by, newspapers like the Age were on guard against PR stunts like this; now, they just print them, conceding in the article itself that it's a con. Pardon the pun, but the story does not bear out the headline. I understand the role that evocative and emotive symbols and imagery plays in getting a message across, highlighting an issue etc, but if it's not grounded in fact, then what's the point? It just ends up being ammunition for the other side, and gives credence to the whole phenomenon of 'fake news', undermining real stories and the public's trust in reputable media outlets and information.

The only one that comes close appeared in the Sun abut 20 years ago, when lowly Caledonian Thistle thrashed Celtic 3-1 in the Scottish Cup.

No, let's not pretend that this is some sort of contested issue. You can believe whatever you choose, I'll stick with history and fact.

You quoted him for a reason. If you disagree with it, then say so. And no-one on here said that 'all' Germans were implicated; it was you who asserted that the German military wasn't 'by and large' involved in the killing of Jews, even though they killed so often that it became routine and banal. It's OK, because there were good blacks and bad blacks, and good Asians and bad Asians, and good Arabs and bad Arabs...