Firstly I must say Australian mainstream media is an absolute cancer. I see these reporters at these events and they have zero interest in reporting what is going on, everything has to be some sort of narrative. I guess they just don't have souls, any journo's on here care to talk me through how they sleep at night?

Despite the misreporting however the event was a massive success.

We had in excess of 500 people attend with thankfully minimal representation of the ''alt-right' crowd,these groups were advised they would not be welcome..glad they didn't show because a skinny 5'8" bloke in a high vis like myself might have struggled to kick out 6'4" steroid abusers.

The ferals had their counter protest of maybe 100-150, bravely protesting against nazism, facism, the kkk, homophobia, rape, transphobia, mysogyny, immigration control, pollution..eating meat, drinking milk (excluding soy). Just kinda sad for them that we weren't actually rallying for any of those ideals.

Some protesters managed to sneak in and bravely pulled out a megaphone with a siren on it in order to drown out one of our speakers talking about her experience living in an domestic violence shelter with her 3 children. They were evicted with a bit of a scuffle.

There was also another siren in a chilly bin that went off, again bravely drowning out a young man speaking about his experience of being sexually abused and his multiple suicide attempts.

Any neutral walking past would have immediately seen who the good guys were and who the deranged lunatics were but thankfully aussie mainstream media can do the thinking for the folk at home by labelling it an 'Anti-feminist march' (SBS) or the MC as 'Extreme right campaigner' (Channel 9)

Anyway a bit of a rant but it was really successful, huge turnout had some amazing conversations with the public. So many don't know that 40 Australian men commit suicide every week and when I explained these stats to most folk they fully understood what we were about and couldn't believe the protesters. Had some chats with Mens rights campaigners nearly in tears finally seeing public support for something they have been fighting and being demonised for for nearly 20 years.

The best news however of the whole day was a call from 'Dads In Distress' the charity we were raising money for. They had been inundated with calls from men who had been watching the march live on youtube and for the first time felt some hope in their lives about the situations they were in. Many were suicidal and reaching out for the first time because of what we were doing.

This is outstanding. CNN correspondent during a radio interview accuses the host of 'white privilege'...only problem for this deranged leftist is unbeknown to her, he is actually black.

One thing that also bugged me..and surely it's been mentioned is what happened to our must win attitude? That penalty with what was in 10 mins to go to bring the gap to 7, I saw going for that kick as an admission that we were happy settling for a draw. It should have been smashed to the corner and had everything thrown at the try line, sure we may have blown it and lost by 10 overall but at least we we'd have the right attitude and wouldn't die wondering.

@Baron-Silas-Greenback said in The Folau Factor:

@Paekakboyz said in The Folau Factor:

I think they are screwed. But with his devotion to god and being able to share his message I wonder if Foal-ow has thought much about the ripple effect for RA in terms of staff and financial impact. He says this isn't about money, but if his court action cripples RA that's a massive cost (literally) to all involved in the sport. I get that from his perspective that's a non issue as it's about expressing his beliefs. But far out this will impact a big number of folks as it works its way towards a messy conclusion.

Fair point... but maybe QANTAS and ARU could have had similar thoughts....

Seems a lot of the current orthadoxy is based more on emotion than rationalism. The sooner organisations realise that the cultish 8% of twitter users (and the media who amplify it) that drive online discourse are not actually representative of normal every-day folk the better.

The worst part of that night in Cardiff was depressingly getting back to my accommodation only to discover my lucky All Blacks boxers were on inside-out. Sorry team.

So a few comments from a dairy farmer:

*So many variables. Canterbury and Wairarapa are drier soil types. River flow is less so higher chance of pollutants to build up.

In Taranaki however we started a fencing and riparian scheme voluntarily in 1995 - most farmers brought into it and over 97 percent fenced and over 90 ish planted. Canterbury and Wairarapa are further behind.

Stocking rates is also a concern (Cows per hectare) - Taranaki is 2-2.5 cow per hectare and Canterbury is 2.5-3.5. Also Higher input farms in Canterbury and Wairarapa - reliant on brought in feeds etc to maintain higher stock rates. Also depends on where waterways are etc - Most farmland in taranaki is off the mountain shorter stretch then to the sea - less chance of pollutants to build up. Wairarapa is from lake Wairarapa which is fed further up by rivers that have thousands of hectares of farmland and towns cities polluting. Canterbury Has the most pristine water coming from the alps but it meanders slowly so sedimentation happens quicker which will catch nitrates etc. Way more to go into and way more science needed to solve the issues.*

Well I also blame Laurel. She knows she has a massive unfair advantage and is cheating other girls out of their hard earned dreams. The gentlemanly (sue me) thing to do would be not compete and maybe go into coaching or something.

Hi all,

As anyone who browses the politics forums are aware I'm starting to get a little active on scene in Melbourne, and as anyone who knows me can attest I'm pretty passionate on the field of men's issues and don't have a lot of time for groups that go out of their way to demonise men or shut down the few support avenues for men that are currently out there.

A young political commentator here in Melbourne 'Sydney Watson' has made a call for a 'March for Men' in response to a number of recent attacks on men and boys in Australian media. Me and a few friends have been asked to assist.

The idea of the march is to remind the men in our lives that their issues matter too and that masculinity is not something to be ashamed of. Demonising a whole gender does nothing for society and we need to recognise that both men and women face unique challenges and we are better dealing with these issues standing together.

I know this is Australian based and doesn't impact many of you but as decent blokes yourselves I think most would agree that this message is a very important one for society as a whole and any support we can get either through liking our page, sharing the event through social media, helping support financially through our go-fund-me or even if you are in the area and would like to attend or volunteer would be greatly appreciated.

We have 5 speakers organised to speak on Men's issues for the rally and have also have proudly partnered with the 600,000 strong online Men's support group 'Blokes Advice' (If you are not a member, or want to know more about them please PM me).

Cheers,

Event page:
https://www.facebook.com/marchformenaus/

Event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/420967508398069/

Sydney's promotional video:

Some context on the attacks in the media:

Bearing:

@booboo said in Plans for Saturday:

@Rembrandt said in Plans for Saturday:

I was going to do a quiet one at home but I happened to be at a Irish bar midweek which was all decked out for the WC so I've now booked a table there. Risky move for sure if results don't go my way (or even if they do...), I'll be the only kiwi rest of the group being an international assortment of friends, not really rugby fans but coming along for a gander anyway.

Wear Black.

Definitely, going to Trudeau it up big time

@dogmeat said in Coronavirus - Overall:

On Dec 28th China released the entire genome sequencing of the virus to the global scientific community. That is not a cover-up. This apparently is what led to a test being developed so quickly (except in the States because they didn't trust the Chinese and so developed their own test and got it wrong). It's also a large part of why there are clinical trials already 4 mths after the first cases.

I struggle to marry that up with their communications with the WHO two weeks later who then spent a hell of a lot of time misinforming the world that the real issue was stigma and that closing borders was not the answer. The USA is 100% correct in not trusting anything out of this authoritarian regime and its extremely concerning other nations and organisations do take them at their word.

To add insult to injury China's test kits sold to Spain have proven to be only 30% effective, the only thing worse than no tests is faulty test kits.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/27/coronavirus-test-kits-withdrawn-spain-poor-accuracy-rate

Had a work colleague yesterday saying she was planning to visit her folks this weekend but her siblings were trying to convince her not to. The poor lass had stopped watching the news because it was too depressing. I imagine there are probably a few in that camp.

Good that growth figures seem to be improving. Would be better if more folk were getting on board the isolate train.

https://www.bay939.com.au/news/local-news/116110-epidemic-of-stupidity-at-local-beach

@shark Holy hell! I admire your perseverance and look forward to your summary of the final season when it hits.

@chimoaus said in Coronavirus - Overall:

USA records over 17,000 in 24 hours, that is staggering.

Seems to be about standard for this thing across the world so far, 20-25% growth per day which is why I just can't believe China's figures also being a large country with a high population, even with potentially draconian measures introduced. That number of course could be more reflective of available test-kits more so than new infections, too early to say.

Will be interesting to see figures in the next week on countries that have implemented lockdown measures, you'd think NZ should be about leading the charge there as I think we've taken the most extreme measures at an early stage.

@dogmeat said in Coronavirus - Overall:

NZ hasn't got everything right by a long way, but at least, in the main, the messaging has been very clear and has therefore gained public acceptance.

A fawning media certainly helps here (and to be clear I strongly support them being fawning in a time of crisis). The US acted far quicker than most countries and Trump was lampooned for it, now he's being lampooned for not going quick enough. Media calls it a Chinese virus in Jan and Feb, he calls it a Chinese virus and that makes him a racist. He talks about the promising benefits of an anti-malarial medication and some morons drink fish cleaner and mainstream media runs it as Trump encourages drinking poison. Its pretty transparent as to what is going on and perhaps consequently he is right now at an all-time high approval rating.

Time will tell as to which leaders have handled this constantly moving unprecedented situation best in the long term but I don't think anyone could now say with a straight face that the early travel bans against Europe and China didn't save a lot of lives.

What an age we live in.

Communications minister Paul Fletcher may have successfully convinced the likes of Google and Netflix to limit the impact of their high definition streams on the Australian network but now he may face a new challenge: swelling demand for one of the world's top adult sites in the light of its new worldwide freemium promotion and a captive home-bound audience.

I'd heard plenty of rumours and seen selective vids and pics but I didn't think it was actually real. I wonder how much more might be uncovered?

https://www.smh.com.au/national/second-developer-flies-82-tonnes-of-medical-supplies-to-china-20200326-p54e8n.html

Is it possible , despite what we've been told, that access to masks could be playing a significant role in the difference between the growth rates in Singapore/China/Taiwan/Japan and that of the rest of the world?

@Bovidae said in What are you listening to, right now................:

@MajorRage said in What are you listening to, right now................:

Had Nice Boys from GnR Lies come up on a play list today.

It's unbelievable to think that the singer of that song is the same person who I saw live in Singapore a couple of years ago. Completely different sound.

Speaking of which. It's a Rose Tattoo song for those that don't know. I'd hate to hear Axl aged 72, if he is still alive.

I randomly met a member of Rose Tattoo a few months back in a supermarket in Melbourne. Got into a chat about eggs of all things, he was a rural truck driver and said that it would shock the public to know the reality of the whole 'free range' eggs situation here. Said it was common practice just to label them that regardless of what situation the chickens were in. Anyway he didn't look like any of these in the video here, looked like a stereotypical image of a truckdriver..so either he was an ex member or I might very well have just been talking to a madman...

@mariner4life said in Coronavirus - Overall:

@Rembrandt said in Coronavirus - Overall:

@Hooroo said in Coronavirus - Overall:

After we all get through this, knocking on wood I wonder what forever changes will remain?
I imagine that international travel will never be the same. (Proof of health, tracing and all that) I also how millennials (and others for that matter) will effect change in the way they think, it's not war time but it is a restriction of freedoms most have never seen before.

Well I think we're probably back to 2 genders now rather than 67, hoping that lasts for a bit

would you fuck up about that stuff? you keep saying this shit! no one cares!

Look mate, I understand your stressed as balls like the rest of the world. I'm stressed to all hell and venting like everyone else, things are fucked, like proper fucked that most still don't really get it and sometimes having a rant or a blast on here helps just a bit. If what I write really gets to you that much then just block my posts I'm sure one of the mods here would be happy to help you. If you're just trying to get a rise out of me with these petty shots which up to now I've just ignored then great, good for you, hope it makes your life that little bit more bearable when you start harvesting those likes. If that's not enough and you want me gone great, you're a popular guy here, have a chat to a mod and I'm sure something can be organised. Up to you mate but I'm not going to give you any more time.