This is a screenshot of what used to be the screen of my trusty Mac.  Any hints on quickest, lowest cost fixes gratefully received.

(image not used due to its misleading completeness!)

Hard to believe that I used to work in IT.   I just took a screen grab from my Mac of what I thought would be my now useless MacBook screen which has several lines through it and bleeding colours all over the place.

The screen shot came out perfectly - because tht's what the computer is sending to the screen - a normal image.   It's the screen itself that's stuffed!

There will be significant interruptions to our ser ire today while I get this as fixed as I can.

PS - this is what my screen looks like - taken from an online Mac repair forum.

Mike,
I have just listened to Andrew Lamings audio, and would like to take issue with his statement that only one person has contacted him re his HTV card.
I personally emailed him yesterday as soon as the news broke. In his favour, he replied very quickly, but with the short comment "Canberra's call mate".  Nothing further.  I would guess he is being inundated with dyed in the wool disgruntled LNP voters.
The similarity to the lemmings blindly following their leader to the precipice comes to mind.

Love your work

R

Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara found guilty of murdering Sydney student Jamie Gao

Updated about an hour ago

PHOTO: McNamara (L) and Rogerson both denied shooting Jamie Gao. (AAP: Paul Miller)

Former police detectives Roger Rogerson and Glen McNamara have been found guilty of murdering Sydney man Jamie Gao during a drug deal.

Rogerson, 75, and co-accused McNamara, 57, had pleaded not guilty to murdering Gao at a Padstow storage facility on May 20, 2014, and dumping his body in waters off Cronulla the next day.

The pair were accused of being involved in the planning and carrying out of the shooting death of 20-year-old Gao during a drug deal.

Both men denied pulling the trigger and instead pointed the blame at each other.

McNamara's defence told the trial it was Rogerson who shot and killed Gao before threatening McNamara and his family, forcing him to help dispose of the body.

Rogerson claimed the 20-year-old was killed during a struggle with McNamara and the student was dead on the floor when he entered the shed.

'No 20yo deserves to lose their life over a stupid mistake'

How two detectives were caught out

How did the two former detectives bungle their crime so badly, leaving a trail of evidence on CCTV?

Gao's family issued a statement that praised the legal system for finding "two very dangerous criminals" guilty.

"But while this is the verdict our family were hoping would be delivered, true justice can never really be served," a statement said.

"Yes, Jamie was a young man who had made some mistakes — but what young person hasn't?

"No 20-year-old deserves to lose their life over a stupid mistake.

"No matter what today's findings are or the sentence that is given, it won't change the fact that Jamie remains absent from the lives of our family — the people who love him — and we miss him every single day."

ENDS

Here's a dramatised version of Wild West Roger saying hello to Warren Lanfranchi in Chippendale one day.

"Roger, this is Warren Lanfranchi"
"Hello Warren".

"Darling, do we owe anyone money?"

Captions most welcome.

The Liberals put The Greens ahead of the conservative Australian Liberty Alliance.

Now the blackened Liberal pots are having a go at the Labor kettle for its preference deal with The Greens.

Dishonourable snakes.

Yesterday The Australian published this opinion piece written by Therapeutic Albo.

The Australian's cover line captured the essence of Albo's thesis.

And that's the achievement.  Hey Big Spender!  Nothing about wise investment, necessary investment, return on investment, spending within means, affordable investment, alternatives to government spending etc etc etc.   

The achievement was the spend and according to Albo Australian Labor is the biggest spender in the world.

The biggest of the big spending was courtesy of the beer-coaster-business-plan NBN. with its

• duplication of extant broadband networks
• decommissioning of pre-existing serviceable broadband infrastructure
• compensation payments for stranded capital assets
• civil works associated with digging trenches into every home and business premises in the country

No business plan, no return on investment and no compelling business case.   Just the spend.   Which in Therapeutic Albo Land is its own reward.

Albo himself put it like this in The Australian yesterday.

This investment took Australia from 20th among advanced economies for investment in infrastructure when we came to government, to first when we left office.

New industries also need top-class communications. They need Labor’s fibre-to-the-premises National Broadband Network.

It is absurd to pretend that a forward-looking, innovative ­nation can prosper with the Coalition’s copper-based fraudband project, which will offer half the speeds promised at twice the price.

While infrastructure and logistics seldom make front page news, this type of investment will underwrite our nation’s attempt to build new industries based on the fruits of our research and innovation.

That’s a process that needs to continue. At this time in our history, a 20 per cent reduction in public sector infrastructure investment is the last thing we need.

There’s one other critical ­element in economic diversification.

Australia’s greatest national asset is our people. To prosper in the 21st century, the Australian people need the education and skills required in the 21st century.

That’s why Labor wants to invest in needs-based education, including vocational training through a revitalised TAFE sector.

Education benefits the individual. But it also benefits our entire nation.

Anthony Albanese is opposition transport, infrastructure, cities and tourism spokesman.

This is the result of the NBN spend, from a piece I published here.  As I pointed out at the time and it's still true today - everything you have ever seen or read on Michael Smith news was published wirelessly.

THURSDAY, 15 AUGUST 2013

The NBN company has just been through Minnamurra Street, Kiama.

Right next to the NBN trenches, the electricity company replaced all the electricity poles in the street, and put in new aerial bundled electricity cables, and re-did the connections for each house in the street to connect them to the electricity.

Here's some of the aerial activity.

And this is post-remediation, post several weeks work how one of the NBN trenches looks after rain.

Next door, this driveway has looked good for years.   Do you think the owners might be having a chat with NBN Company about the colour-blindness of its contractor?

The Rudd and Conroy reckon that $37 billion will be enough to install the NBN into every one of the approx 10million premises in Australia.

Forget paying for the switches, the computers, the cables, the pits, the offices and everything else in the capital budget.   Just imagine that all of that was free.   $37 billion for 10 million premises means $3,700 per place.   And these nitwits think they can run a trench up to the wall of every house in Australia and run trenches down the nature strips for that sort of money, without delays and without remediation works.   It's not only their fibre-optic cable trenches that have rocks in them, their heads have too.

And don't forget what this is all about.   It's so some people may get faster broadband.

If I can download videos from Al Shazeera, post them to youtube and have the whole nation see them from a little wireless modem my 7 year old can operate, why is the whole street opposite us getting ripped up? How much faster can the NBN be?  

$50 billion worth

Reader M just dropped me this material from the seat of Bowman in Queensland.

Hi Michael

I received this yesterday and I was quite shocked. Because of this how to vote card I will be voting for Tony Duncan 1 and likely LNP ALP 4 and 5

Regards

M

From: Barry Bowie [mailto:[email protected]] 
Sent: Tuesday, 14 June 2016 1:57 PM
Subject: How to Vote Card 

Dear Bowman Electorate Resident 

Thank you for returning your Postal Vote Application form to my office. 

I confirm that my staff have lodged your application with the agents of the AEC (Australian Electoral Commission). 

Now that Nominations for the Election have closed (last Thursday) the AEC will be forwarding your ballot paper to you shortly to the address that you noted on the form. 

I am attaching my How to Vote Card for your convenience. 

If you have any questions please don't hesitate to phone my office on 3821 0155 so that we may assist you. 

Yours sincerely 

Andrew Laming MP 

Member for Bowman

Here's the logo on this brochure compared with the original presidential seal of Chairman Mal.

UPDATE - anyone have material from outside Queensland?

.@mpsmithnews it's because there is one party in QLD - Liberal National party, but a coalition of two elsewhere. Nothing sinister.

— Grant Vandersee (@vandersee_grant) June 14, 2016

@Mikeah44 @EndlessEcho121 @mpsmithnews @TurnbullMalcolm Zanetti put it well with his Dumb & Dumber cartoon ... pic.twitter.com/AmdQJj5QNB

— Frank Acocella (@frank8427zz9za) June 15, 2016

According to Chairman Mal, we didn't bring civilisation to Australia - we invaded.

Turnbull says I was born on an Aborigine's place.  He says my home was, is and always will be Aboriginal Land.

What's Poland Mal?  Nazi land?  How far back do you go in pretending that a country isn't what it is today, it's actually something it might have been years ago.   According to Mal, at the most distant discernible point in time a line is drawn in the sand creating immutable ownership.

Here is the entire exchange in context, including his default position of cooperation with his friend Bill "hit with the Turnbull lucky stick" Shorten.

JOURNALIST: 

Might a Turnbull Government ever oversee both constitutional recognition for the First Australians and a treaty with the First Australians and what is your response to Bill Shorten essentially supporting the possibility of both last night?

PRIME MINISTER: 

Well I was disappointed in Mr Shorten's remarks last night. For this reason, the path of constitutional change is a difficult one, as I know from my own experience. It requires bipartisan support and enormous public support. Bipartisan support is not enough to secure success. Now there is a very high degree of public support for constitutional recognition of our First Australians. There is a process going on which has bipartisan support. There is a Referendum Council that the Leader of the Opposition and I have both jointly appointed. We have been working in a very consensual, bipartisan way to achieve that. That does not guarantee success I hasten to add.

Now to introduce another element, a treaty, the terms of which is unknown, the nature of which is unknown, adds a level of uncertainty that puts at risk the constitutional recognition process. Mr Shorten should have more discipline and more focus on ensuring we maintain support for constitutional recognition rather than introducing other concepts which will, in my view, undermine the prospects of getting the very high level of public support you need for constitutional recognition of our First Australians.

JOURNALIST: 

Do you agree that the colonisation of Australia can fairly be described as an invasion?

PRIME MINISTER:

Well I think it can be fairly described as that and I’ve got no doubt – and obviously our first Australians, Aboriginal Australians describe it as an invasion. But you know, you are really talking about a historical argument, it’s really an argument about a word. The facts are very well known. This country was Aboriginal land. It was occupied by Aboriginal people for tens of thousands of years, 40,000 years. Some of the most ancient works of art are rock carvings - in the world - are here in Western Australia.

I remember ensuring they were protected on the National Heritage List when I was the Environment Minister up on the Burrup Peninsula. So this was and is and always will be Aboriginal land.

The issue is now, how do we achieve that practical reconciliation? How do we achieve that? A key part of that is constitutional recognition. The First Australians are not recognised in our Constitution as being the original inhabitants, the original custodians from time out of mind, in our Constitution. So it is deficient in that respect. That is plain. I think most Australians recognise that and understand that.

What we have however, is a complex process to achieve constitutional change. I know from my time leading the republican movement, changing the Constitution is not for the faint-hearted and is not easy. So I guess what I'm saying to you is that what we want is a practical outcome. We want to see our First Australians recognised in the Constitution in a form that speaks for and inspires our First Australians and that they can see as recognising their unique role as the First Australians and at the same time can secure the support of the majority of Australians and the majority of states, of all Australians, because that is required to affect constitutional change.

I just say that it is very important as leaders for us to focus on the goal and have the discipline to do that. See, if you want to achieve constitutional recognition of our First Australians - and we do, our Government does and I believe Mr Shorten does as well - then we should focus on that.

The issue is now, how do we achieve that practical reconciliation? How do we achieve that? A key part of that is constitutional recognition. The First Australians are not recognised in our Constitution as being the original inhabitants, the original custodians from time out of mind, in our Constitution. So it is deficient in that respect. That is plain. I think most Australians recognise that and understand that.

What we have however, is a complex process to achieve constitutional change. I know from my time leading the republican movement, changing the Constitution is not for the faint-hearted and is not easy. So I guess what I'm saying to you is that what we want is a practical outcome. We want to see our First Australians recognised in the Constitution in a form that speaks for and inspires our First Australians and that they can see as recognising their unique role as the First Australians and at the same time can secure the support of the majority of Australians and the majority of states, of all Australians, because that is required to affect constitutional change.

I just say that it is very important as leaders for us to focus on the goal and have the discipline to do that. See, if you want to achieve constitutional recognition of our First Australians - and we do, our Government does and I believe Mr Shorten does as well - then we should focus on that. We've got to be very careful about creating issues whether they come in the course of a discussion where it may be gratifying to a particular audience to indicate support for one proposal or another. We have to be very careful that you don't set hares running that undermine the real goal, which is to secure overwhelming consensus of Australians, an overwhelming majority for constitutional recognition of our first Australians.

That is our objective and it should be Mr Shorten’s objective and he should ask himself whether his remarks of last night advance that goal or perhaps put it at risk.

Ends

Barbarians.

Dutch woman held in Qatar after making rape complaint

Updated Sun at 11:11am

A 22-year-old Dutch woman is being held in Qatar on suspicion of adultery after she said she was raped while on holiday there, her lawyer and Dutch media said.

The woman said she was drugged in a hotel, and she realised she had been raped when she woke up in an unfamiliar apartment.

"She was arrested in March on suspicion of adultery, which means having sex outside marriage," lawyer Brian Lokollo told Dutch radio NOS-Radio1.

A Dutch Foreign Ministry spokeswoman confirmed the arrest but said the young woman, whom she named as Laura, has not been charged.

Daphne Kerremans added that "the enquiry is ongoing" and that Dutch authorities were in regular contact with Laura.

The woman's lawyer said the case concerned a trip his client made in March to a Qatar hotel where the consumption of alcohol is allowed.

"She went dancing but when she returned to the table after the first sip of her drink, she realised that [she had been drugged]," Mr Lokollo said.

"She felt very unwell."

The young woman remembered nothing more until the following morning when she woke up in a totally unfamiliar apartment "and realised to her great horror, that she had been raped", Mr Lokollo said.

The suspected rapist was also arrested but insisted that their night together had been consensual and the woman had even asked for money.

"She completely denies these accusations," Mr Lokollo said.

A court hearing is set to take place on Monday and the Foreign Ministry hopes a decision on whether to charge the Dutch woman will be made.

Tony Duncan is a successful businessman.

I know him.   He's a great bloke.   Committed to Australia and our values.

Tony employs people.   He's involved in international business.   He's at the cutting edge of information technology - he'd be one of Turnbull's "innovators" - if he allowed himself to speak in that trendy gibberish.

Only Turnbull doesn't want a bar of him.

The Liberals think Tony and the Australian Liberty Alliance are worse for Australia than The Greens.

Worse for Australia than Labor.

Tony Duncan is last on the Liberal Party's how to vote card.

And that stinks.   Listen to the man and tell me what you think.

Here's a link to Andrew Laming's website.

Here's his how to vote card.

And when you go to the "Our Team" link at the top of Laming's webpage - this is what you see.

I have contacted Andrew to ask for an on the record interview.   If you're in his electorate, would you please let him know that you think it's important he have a chat with me (and through me us) about this decision.

@AndrewLamingMP Andrew want to interview you about your support for The Greens and Labor over the ALA. U say when. pic.twitter.com/d5kISXQuOe

— Michael Smith News (@mpsmithnews) June 14, 2016

Here's Tony's bio from the ALA website.

Tony Duncan

Candidate for Bowman

Tony grew up in a working class suburb in Brisbane.   Tony took many part-time jobs to make ends meet and fund his studies through university, graduating with a Bachelor of Business.  He joined a small accounting firm and studied further. later progressing his career through large accounting and consulting firms.   This included working overseas for 6 years and starting his own software business.  Since 2005 his current business has grown and now employs a considerable number of people and services customers on an international basis.

Tony has never been a member of a political party before joining the ALA in 2015.  He has watched with increasing concern as successive governments of various political leanings over the last 10 years have treated the Australian people as mugs and made decisions that are not in the nation's best interests.

As a concerned father and husband, who has always subscribed to the theory that "it is no good complaining about something without being prepared to do something about it", he joined the ALA to rectify the problems that are being ignored and in some cases positively enlarged, as these problems will not go away and will need to be sorted out by future generations if action is not taken.

Tony could have ignored these issues, avoided public comment and left it to someone else to sort out.   The unfortunate truth is that if everyone thinks this way, all you will end up with is career politicians and that is what Australian currently has in abundance.  The results are all around us, whether they be:

• Record National Debt, which our children will have to repay in the form of reduced government services and lower pensions.  This is the cruellest legacy the current generation can pass onto our kids.
• Cultural suicide where the proud history and example of our previous generations in protecting each other is being ignored and actively corroded.
• Our education system being used as a plaything of the politically correct, while the basics of education are being ignored.
• Political Correctness that is strangling our ability to conduct necessary yet confronting debate on important topics for our country's future.
• Red Tape, Green Tape and more regulations that are strangling our ability to generate productive employment for our fellow Australian Citizens.
• The gulf between our political class and the Australian Citizens they claim to represent.
• The sell off of productive assets (always called "investment", because that sounds better in focus groups) to fund non-productive and unsustainable public expenditure.

Connect with Tony by writing to write to [email protected]