Weekend Unthreaded

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140 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

  • #
    Jim Barker

    from the treehouse.

    I thought this comment over at BB today was quite cute…..

    I was thinking; If Liberals don’t believe in biological gender then why did they march for women’s rights?

    I was thinking; If women do the same job for less money, why do companies hire men to do the same job for more money?

    I was thinking; Since only 11 million people have Obama-Care, how will 24 million people die if it is repealed? Will an additional 13 million people be randomly shot?

    I was thinking; We should stop calling them all ‘Entitlements’. Welfare, Food Stamps, WIC, ad nausea are not Entitlements. They are taxpayer-funded handouts and shouldn’t be called Entitlements at all. But, Social Security and Veterans Benefits are Entitlements because the people receiving them are entitled to them. They were earned and paid for by the recipients.

    I was thinking; If you rob a bank in a Sanctuary City, is it illegal or is it just an Undocumented Withdrawal?

    I was thinking; After the London ‘Lone Wolf’ terrorist attack, government officials arrested at least eight other ‘Lone Wolves’ who had conspired with the original ‘Lone Wolf’ in planning the ‘Lone Wolf’ attack. Why do they tell us even though all involved are [snip 18C], you can be assured that the ‘Lone Wolf’ attack has nothing at all to do with [snip 18C], just like the other 1,000-plus ‘Lone Wolf’ attacks by [snip 18C], are completely unassociated with [snip 18C]?

    I was thinking; Why is each ISIS attack now a reaction to Trump policies, but all ISIS attacks during Obama’s term were due to Climate Change and a plea for jobs?

    I was thinking; If Muslims want to run away from a Muslim country, does that mean they are Islamophobic?

    I was thinking; If Democrats don’t want foreigners involved in our elections, why do they think it’s all right for illegals to vote?

    I was thinking; Is the DNC is mad at Russia because it ‘thinks’ they are trying to manipulate our elections, or because Russia is exposing that the DNC is manipulating our elections?

    I was thinking; How did the Russians get Debbie Wasserman Schultz and the DNC to steal the Primary from Bernie Sanders? How did Russia get Donna Brazile to leak debate questions to Hillary Clinton in advance of the debates?
    I was thinking; Why is it that Democrats think Super delegates are fine, but they have a problem with the Electoral College?

    I was thinking; If Donald Trump deleted all of his emails, wiped his server with Bleachbit and destroyed all of his phones with a hammer, would the Mainstream Media suddenly lose all interest in the story and declare him innocent?

    I was thinking; If Hillary’s speeches cost $250,000 an hour, how come no one shows up to her free speeches?

    I was thinking; If you don’t want the FBI involved in elections, don’t nominate someone who’s being investigated by the FBI.


    [snip 18C] We have no free speech in Australia. Commenters please “respect” that and make sure you don’t offend any ethnic group. The truth is no defense. 😐 -Jo]

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      [snip 18C] We have no free speech in Australia. Commenters please “respect” that and make sure you don’t offend any ethnic group. The truth is no defense. 😐 -Jo]

      If you think that might be an exaggeration, you’d better speak with Lauren Southern or watch this:

      https://youtu.be/LqY4Z1fTrMc

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      • #
        TdeF

        As the QUT students established, they could fight and win against ridiculous claims of offence, an extortion industy setup up by the Australian Human Right Commission where anyone could get $5,000 cash for taking offence. If you have a group, even $30,000. Last year the HRC had income of $350,000 from such actions. There is no real law against plain speaking but there is death by lawyer, as everyone found out. It is cheaper to pay.

        From Jo’s perspective, she does not want and should not be embroiled in racial issues on a science blog, so please be careful to steer away from offensive statements of any kind. Public figures like politicians factor it into their lives but everything is litigious these days, fully supported by a very left Federal government. Do not impugn anyone’s character.

        After all, our English legal tradition does not even have a Rights based legal system, like the US. So the HRC is absurd and free speech is embedded in our traditions and allows you to offend people at any time, but in English law they have the redress of defamation and slander and libel and costs and you never get your costs back.

        So keep it nice. Some subjects are taboo. For example you can say Catholic or Jewish or Buddhist or Tao or Hindu or Mormon or Methodist or Sikh or Greek Orthodox or Coptic but you cannot say m*slim, or I*slam. The one I found amusing this year was that I could not mention the metal ars*nic. Life!

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      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Keeping it nice for you TdeF. And, anybody else who is interested. Belatedly.

        Here’s the follow-up:

        https://youtu.be/7TizniY5ULw

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  • #
    TdeF

    Turnbull, as expected, did not win a seat from Labor. Worse, the LNP vote turn against him in Queensland. There is every expectation that he will lead “Turnbull’s Liberals” to a massive defeat even against Bill Shorten. For Australians, it is a choice between Labor and extreme Labor which is not as bad as very extreme Labor. All are against coal, cheap power and strong borders. Except that Turnbull did not want to jettison the only policies which worked, Abbott’s policies. Even the independent in South Australia trounced both parties.

    So what now for the fake Liberal party, $1.75Million in debt to Turnbull? The McCormack foundation refusing to fund a socialist Liberal party and a PM who is only popular with the opposition?

    Will any of the Black Hand even contest the next election? There is still time to bring in their emissions intensity fine system to punish manufacturers for using electricity. There is still time to force everyone to buy carbon credits. Still time to half build a $12Billion pumped hydro system no one wants, a system justified only by a massive ego and our money.

    Or will they go back to the only Liberal who has made sense, Tony Abbott? That alone would turn Queensland around, preserve the borders and may address the problem of more than 250,000 migrants flooding into Australia each year.

    As Donald Trump has just demonstrated, uncontrolled mass migration is not the only way to build GDP. He is proving right on North Korea, Syria, Russia, Europe, UK and trade. I hope we can say goodbye to Turnbull and his secret Black Hand cabal in the winner’s circle. We have paid enough for their fake Liberal policies.

    At the very least, Abbott would immediately walk away from Paris. I would hope he would repeal the appalling Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2001, as I asked him to do three weeks ago. Hazelwood could start immediately. Liddell would be saved. The river of money would stop and the Climate Change junket would end, the greatest fr*ud in the history of this country.

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      I hope Tony Abbott reads this post of yours TdeF. He’ll get confirmation of how strong the numbers are for him and his policies (34 for: 2 against – as I type).

      Maybe muddleheaded Malcolm should be sent a copy.

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      • #
        Dennis

        I trust that he and the other good guys are onto the latest negotiations at the UN involving our Minister for DFAT regarding sovereignty and borders being watered down.

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    • #
      Serp

      How will Daniel Andrews’s resolve to obliterate coal fit this scenario TdeF?

      I see Victorian Labor sticking to its renewables policy irrespective of the RET being annulled (which is the key to Lily d’Ambrosio’s downward pressure on prices if only she was allowed to know it).

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    • #
      Phillthegeek

      Definitely, bring back Tony with Dutton as DPM. you know it makes sense. 🙂

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      • #
        el gordo

        After the next election, according to the punters, Dutton will be Opposition leader, while Tony remains on the backbench and is joined by Turnbull.

        The DPM job usually goes to the Nats.

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  • #
    Graeme No.3

    Chris Kenny in The W.E. Australian has a great article about our politicians disconnection with the public.
    IN PART

    It is the age of disengagement. When you slam on the car brakes to spare the life of that pedestrian who has stepped on the road, blissfully and dangerously unaware, with their eyes fixed on a smartphone and their hearing blocked by headphones, you are witnessing a metaphor for a global malaise.
    Caught up in introspection, fashion and superficiality, our business, political, academic and media leaders have taken their minds off what really matters and are sleepwalking into strife. We see it in education outcomes, business performance, economic trends and public debate — and we will see it in today’s by-election results.
    The debate over the next few weeks will focus on the micro-political consequences of the by-elections: who won, who lost, what it means for the leadership prospects of Bill Shorten and Malcolm Turnbull, and the timing and result of the general election. But the real story is that so many voters are disenchanted by both major parties. This disdain is reflected in the fact that the Liberals are not even bothering to run in the Fremantle or Perth by-elections, that Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie is expected to win in Mayo and that minor party preferences will decide who wins in the swing seats of Longman and Braddon.
    Mainstream voters are restless and frustrated. The reason is obvious: we are not being listened to; we are being taken for mugs.

    Well, the Liberal vote in the Longman by-election dropped to 26%. Sure Labor got an increase but expected in a 2 horse race (even if regrettably only the horses rear ends were running). In Mayo where it has been a 2 horse race from the start the Liberals couldn’t get 36% and that in what was 10 years ago their safest seat in Australia. Could this be something to do with their current direction?

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    • #
      Reed Coray

      Graeme: When you wrote: “But the real story is that so many voters are disenchanted by both major parties.” you were describing the pre-Trump American populace, and especially the Republican party (Trump’s party), to a “T.” We’ve had Republican American Presidents and Republican party control of both legislative houses who, before they were elected, promised to implement all kinds of conservative policies, but after being elected acted like democrat party lite. I’m not sure which country, Australia or the US, has been faced with this phoniness for the longer period of time; but it did get us Donald Trump. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for Australia and hope Abbott or some other Donald Trump look-alike can surface and slow down, if not stop, Australia’s march to socialism.

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  • #
    Graeme No.3

    And in the comments one by Michael which should be read, but won’t be, in Canberra.

    This is not about Turnbull or Shorten. They are both on the nose.

    It is about people who have not had a wage rise for years sitting in congested traffic while the number of immigrants on permanent and temporary visas is still high despite recent window dressing.

    It is about over-crowded schools and hospitals. It is about expensive housing and the perception (which accords with reality) that the so called budgetary benefits of immigration are premised on a property Ponzi scheme that has seen housing become unaffordable in our largest cities and overseas students dragging down wages that could and should be earned (at decent rates) by our own kids to help them through their studies.

    It is about the perception that LNP is rudderless and unable to understand the issues of ordinary Australians – unfortunately MT’s background and air of superiority and arrogance only reinforces his lack of empathy for everyday struggles and there is some truth to the fact that he has never shed his banker/lawyer persona – as much as I decry the tall poppy syndrome, it is hard for someone like Malcolm to do that from his balcony at Point Piper.

    Of course people are also angered that Malcolm has not done anything to improve the NBN fiasco which he partly inherited but for which he must be held accountable. He was supposedly our IT genius who was going to turn Australia into an innovation nation. Of course that never happened, instead he oversaw high rise buildings Australians hate – nothing innovative about that.

    People are concerned about energy prices and about the increasing power of big business.

    Shorten will be the last straw for an economy already struggling with the downturn in property and impending retail carnage.

    But our current Government deserves what it gets.

    And by the way, Abbott is not the answer. It seems clear that whatever systems the major parties have in place to attract the best and brightest are failing. It will not happen overnight, but we need energetic young leaders with fresh ideas and vision into politics although it is a tough ask. If Australia were a corporation, we the shareholders would have fired all these “executives” long ago.

    The people realise that we are facing an emergency. Wages are stalled, our cities are becoming uncomfortable and expensive places for most people to live, and we have no strategic plan to evolve as a nation to where we need to be to compete internationally.

    Do our leaders not understand that people do not believe that corporate tax will help them tomorrow or next year when their household budgets are bursting at the seams now?

    Do the politicians similarly not understand that well intentioned infrastructure projects just remind people of the way our cities are changing for her worse? Are these projects just another form of Ponzi scheme – build more roads to convey more immigrants to grow the GDP and so on forever more?

    Seems we never learn.

    Anyway MT is clearly toast but again, it is not about him. Or Abbott. Or Shorten. It is about desperation among Australians at all levels.

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    • #
      TdeF

      So if Abbott is not the answer (for reasons not said), who is? Or is that just an imponderable?

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      • #
        TdeF

        Do we really have time to wait for your ‘energetic young leaders’ with their presumably wonderful as yet unknown solutions?

        A practical solution please in time for the next Federal election as close as August next year?
        Perhaps a rich banker like Macron or a political dynasty like Trudeau? Or someone like Sadiq Khan just for a change?

        Personally I would prefer a proven leader who is across all the problems and one of the few who has consistently railed against socialism masquerading as environmentalism. Someone with real experience in actually operating a government, or is youth and enthusiasm enough?

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        • #
          TdeF

          It’s also a funny thing about Donald Trump, hated by the media, hated by Hollywood, hated by Turnbull and his Progressive friends like Bishop, he’s 72. Never in all the vitriol has anyone said he was too old for the job.

          In the last ten years of Australian Federal government, we have only had two good years. Who stopped the boats, killed the mining tax, killed the carbon tax and would have pulled out of Paris with Trump.

          I prefer a known quantity, a qualified leader to a dream of someone even better in the distant future. Apart from and end to the Paris Agreement and the RET, the real concern is the $500Billion in National debt plus $80 Billion in Queensland alone, debt we did not have until Rudd/Gillard/Turnbull.

          Every day Abbott is announcing his policies. I agree with every one. So do most people. Can we have our leader back? Or is there someone even better? I doubt it.

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            el gordo

            At the moment its unlikely that Abbott will be drafted by the Party to take the helm, because the black hand is too powerful’

            “Sure, I guess it’s unusual for a Former Prime Minister to come back, you could really only come back if you were drafted by your party.

            “But let’s just see how things work out.”

            Tony Abbott 2GB July 2018

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          Roy Hogue

          I keep hearing how the young people will be our salvation. Of course they won’t be that at all. Without the life experience of their elders they will drive us into the ground at nearly the speed of light as they try more and more of their utopian free lunch schemes.

          I’ve watched Donald Trump in action now for more than a year and I keep asking myself this one question. Who else on the leadership horizon could so masterfully get done what Trump has already done? Paul Ryan, Speaker of the House of Representatives likes to be seen as so wise and all knowing, not to mention John McCain in the senate. But these two never showed me an ounce of the determination and the ability to accomplish what Trump has done. Never. McCain was actually dong more harm than good by intent.

          We need more such men and/or women as Donald Trump. I don’t care which, male or female. But I don’t see them. Where are they? Only this magnificently successful business man turned unlikely presidential candidate has done the wonders he’s done in a year and a half. Perhaps success in life’s more mundane and ordinary pursuits like building a profitable business enterprise is the same skill that politicians need, not speechmaking. But instead we get words, blaming fingers and nothing but trouble.

          If I have a choice between a 70 year old candidate and a 25 or 30 year old and other things look even close to equal, I’ll take the 70 year old. Knowing your anatomy from a hole in the ground is everything. And I won’t mind if he twitters constantly saying things I probably wouldn’t say. I just look at what they actually do. The reasoning is as old as the Bible, “Good fruit, good tree. Bad fruit, bad tree.” As you do, so you are.

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          • #
            Reed Coray

            Amen!

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            Roy Hogue said:
            “I’ve watched Donald Trump in action now
            for more than a year and I keep asking myself
            this one question. Who else on the leadership
            horizon could so masterfully get done
            what Trump has already done?’

            In my opinion, coming from Michigan, USA,
            Trump has not done that much — far less than
            his fans give him credit for (I’m excluding
            beating Shrillary Clinton — a world class
            liar who accomplished little as Secty. of State)

            Real economic growth
            averaged +2.7% under Trump
            since O’Bummer’s last quarter (4Q 2016).

            That’s better than O’Bummer had
            after the “Bush Recession” ended (+2.2%)
            but his 2.2% was awful.

            The tax cut was easy, because it buys votes
            — the economic stimulus from a tax cut
            funded by more deficit spending is small,
            and short lived, because the interest expenses
            on the new debt lasts forever —
            more borrowing is needed
            after cutting government tax revenues.

            Trump got rid of some last minute O’Bummer regulations
            that didn’t get Congressional Review Act approval,
            but we are still stuck with far too many regulations,
            including the BIG ONE — CO2 is still considered
            to be pollution.

            Trump’s best policy was ‘get rid of two old regulations
            to get one new regulation’ — a brilliant idea.

            With North Korea — I think they conned Trump just like
            they conned Bill Clinton in the 1990s and like Iran
            conned O’Bummer more recently — both nations moved
            their nuclear programs underground. G. W. Bush
            spent six years “negotiating” with North Korea
            while they built their nuclear weapon arsenal.
            Can’t trust North Korea for a minute.

            The launch of a trade war with China is what
            I worry most about — a trade war is the worst
            possible economic event. Trump’s belief that
            China has too many trade barriers and steals
            intellectual property is correct — but reducing that
            trade deficit is very tough … especially when
            so many of the exports coming to the US
            from China are American brand goods !

            The jury is still out on Trump’s efforts
            to reduce trade deficits — I’ll give him
            credit when credit is due — I’m not fooled
            by his frequent exaggerations about how successful
            he has been — that’s just salesman BS
            — I judge by actual results.

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              Roy Hogue

              You are absolutely correct to look at results. I don’t fool myself that it’s all taken care of, not by a long ways. But he’s begun a march down a road no other president has ever undertaken. And in the meantime, like I said, I don’t care what he says, only what he does. And to me he’s playing high stakes poker with the world and intends to win. That’s a first in my memory. He’s done much that is more important than how things look in MIchigan — North Korea is no longer shooting missiles across all its neighbors territory, just for one example.

              And there’s one good thing under way. The stock market is healthier than it has been for a long time. Don’t be fooled by the ups and downs. Look at the long trend. I think it will be up for quite a while. And whether anyone believes it or not, a healthy stock market is good for everyone, even if it means you get nothing more than to keep your job that might otherwise disappear from under you.

              There’s a long way to go but if we’re to get to the the end of the road we have to start. Trump has started. He has such opposition as I’ve never seen before. And yet he doesn’t give in. I say that’s a good sign.

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              • #
                Kinky Keith

                It’s good to hear some comment about the U.S. situation because it helps expand our thinking about the choices we have to make.

                KK

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              • #
                yarpos

                People can have views about methods and style, but in terms of getting sh1t done he slready makes the Obama years look like wasted time.

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              • #

                Thank for the reply, Mr. Hogue:
                .
                “And to me he’s playing high stakes poker with the world and intends to win.”
                .
                My comment:
                Sometimes you lose in poker,
                even to a lessor player !
                .
                .
                .
                “North Korea is no longer shooting missiles across all its neighbors territory, just for one example.”
                .
                My comment:
                NK tested their missiles already, and most of them worked. They accidentally blew up an underground (atomic bomb?) test site, making it unusable for future tests, then plowed it under making the world think they were destroying a perfectly usable test site. As usual, we still can’t trust NK.
                .
                .
                “The stock market is healthier than it has been for a long time. Don’t be fooled by the ups and downs. Look at the long trend.”
                .
                My comment:
                That’s nice, but little market progress this year, and valuations are still very high — also, the correlation between stock market averages and overall consumer spending is near zero.
                .
                I think the markets are overvalued
                and due for a correction — I moved to 85%
                cash this year.
                .
                .
                “Trump has started. He has such opposition as I’ve never seen before. And yet he doesn’t give in. I say that’s a good sign.”
                .
                My comment:
                I have no idea where Trump gets the energy, at his age, to do so much, sleep so little, and fight back with everyone who attacks him. As usual, I hope every US president is successful, since I live here!

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            • #
              TdeF

              The big news just announced is that the growth in GDP, the primary measure of economic activity has now reached an amazing 4.1%!

              The political orthodoxy was that you could only achieve this was with mass migration for a massive pool of cheap labour. So the Never Trumpers and the Democrats and the business types have all pushed for mass migration regardless of the costs.

              This is the absolutely amazing result of Trumps’ time. There is also the move by Saudi away from Wahabism, to allow women to drive, to rein in corruption.

              There is the reestablishment with Russia of the status quo in Libya. Better the dictator you know than the wholesale destruction of Obama’s Arab Spring which had the Middle East in flames from Libya to Turkey and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and more. Many armed by the US. All stopped.

              As for US war dead being returned from North Korea, surely that is a good sign. That has been 60 years in the making. Sure disarmament of North Korea and Iran is years away, but it is now conceivable. Rapproachment with Russia is once again being considered as practical and necessary for world peace. All sensible.

              Meanwhile Hollywood approves any attack on Trump, but they are actors aren’t they, rich self important entertainers who think they are the characters they invent and portray. No, they are actors and opportunists of the worst sort. Good looking though. That helps. As for Schwarzenegger, it’s been seventy years since we had such problems with an Austrian who knew everything.

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              TdeF

              The big news just announced is that the growth in GDP, the primary measure of economic activity has now reached an amazing 4.1%!

              The political orthodoxy was that you could only achieve this was with mass migration for a massive pool of cheap labour. So the Never Trumpers and the Democrats and the business types have all pushed for mass migration regardless of the costs.

              This is the absolutely amazing result of Trumps’ time. There is also the move by Saudi away from Wahabism, to allow women to drive, to rein in corruption.

              There is the reestablishment with Russia of the status quo in Libya. Better the dictator you know than the wholesale destruction of Obama’s Arab Spring which had the Middle East in flames from Libya to Turkey and the rise of the Musl*m Brotherhood, ISIS and more. Many armed by the US. All stopped.

              As for US war dead being returned from North Korea, surely that is a good sign. That has been 60 years in the making. Sure disarmament of North Korea and Iran is years away, but it is now conceivable. Rapproachment with Russia is once again being considered as practical and necessary for world peace. All sensible.

              Meanwhile Hollywood approves any attack on Trump, but they are actors aren’t they, rich self important entertainers who think they are the characters they invent and portray. No, they are actors and opportunists of the worst sort. Good looking though. That helps. As for Schwarzenegger, it’s been seventy years since we had such problems with an Austrian who knew everything.

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            PeterS

            As we vote so we are. Going by the polls and the bi-elections the people prefer more socialism (bad fruit) not less. Crash and burn here we come. I suppose it’s now the only way people will wake up.

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            C. Paul Barreira

            What became of Dennis Jensen, Ph.D. (in physics), of W.A.—and former M.H.R.?

            Sorry, but it’s all “Argentina, here we come”. For the major parties and the public the only economic and energy policy is a suicide note.

            Mayo’s by-election was all about “gimme, gimme”, nothing else.

            Had any candidate ever read the Constitution? None seemed to know anything about the nature of federal responsibility as defined therein. Given that one of the candidates was a direct descendent of one of the creators of the Commonwealth of Australia the behaviour was an unmitigated disgrace. Her party, in fact, was thoroughly disgusting.

            The whole campaign was an abomination. The outlook is utterly hopeless. Hence the reference to Argentina, a country which, somewhat over a century ago, was comparable with Oz before it entered decline. That decline is now our own. South Australia has its own minister for enervation (they call it Energy but we know better).

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              Graeme#4

              Dennis Jensen was rolled by his own party, since they believed that he didn’t do that much. I think they were correct.

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                el gordo

                I think they rolled him because of his heresy.

                ‘Dr Jensen and Mr Back supported a motion at the federal Liberal council meeting last month, which called for a parliamentary inquiry to examine the evidence of climate change before the Government signs up to post 2020 emissions targets.’

                ABC 2015

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                Sceptical Sam

                That’s the one El Gordo. Right on.

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            Yonniestone

            + 1000 Roy, only thing is we have vegetables in parliament that have taken root at the bottom of the barrel…..a few too many fruits too.

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            GreatAuntJanet

            Does anybody think Dick Smith might step up to be our Donald Trump? Just a Sunday wonder…

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              Yonniestone

              Dick Smith is too much invested in himself to settle on any solid policy making, don’t get me wrong I think he’s been a savvy businessman and icon for many but will jump from one camp to the other to further his interests not the nations.

              We need someone who has a good business head but above all a genuine uncompromising love for Australia in what it was and can be.

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                Chad

                Dick Smith is too invested in himself to settle on any solid policy making, …….
                …….We need someone who has a good business head but above all a genuine uncompromising love for Australia in what it was and can be.

                Oddly, those descriptios sound to me to perfectly fit both Dick Smith and Trump (love for the US obviously )
                Few US business men have shown as much passion for their country as Dick Smith.

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                Yonniestone

                Smith, together with two others, offered to financially assist Australian Greens leader Bob Brown to satisfy a A$240,000 costs order after Brown lost an anti-logging case he brought against Forestry Tasmania.[107] A failure to pay would have resulted in Brown having to declare bankruptcy, and therefore lose his seat in the Senate.

                In 2011 Dick Smith expressed support for action on climate change, including the introduction of a carbon tax, and criticized the response to actor Cate Blanchett speaking out on the matter. He stated that “in their editorials [News Limited journalists] say they accept that human-induced climate change is a real danger … yet their news pages and opinion pieces are full of endless attacks on politicians and others who support putting a price on carbon.”[109] In 2013, Smith released a documentary, Ten Bucks a Litre, profiling Australia’s current energy sources and future options. Narrated by Smith and featuring him at spectacular mining and power generation locations across the country and abroad, the documentary called for urgent action to replace fossil fuels with renewables and that nuclear would be the only solution if energy consumption did not go down.

                Smart enough to figure out the financial damage Australia would suffer from supporting such rubbish endevours or happy to prop up self proclaimed experts and the Clinton Foundation coffers to be seen as caring for the planet at that time?

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              Sceptical Sam

              Goodness me Great Aunty Janet!

              The last thing Australia needs is yet another green tinged narcissist.

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            Ted O'Brien.

            Roy, Trump was not a career politician.

            About those young people. There’s an amorphous sort of word they use which hasn’t yet made sense to me, postmodern. I define it as 36, the age when people who have had an unsound upbringing get to understand how the world works. It’s wonderful what a wife, a mortgage and a few kids can do for a man’s thinking.

            In recent times many young people are putting these things back ten or fifteen years, and many of those who don’t are getting busted. That makes recovery difficult.

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          GD

          Someone with real experience in actually operating a government

          We need Tony Abbott ASAP. That would give the young conservative guns like Andrew Hastie and Craig Kelly time to prepare for the next onslaught against the socialist/green blob.

          Unfortunately, the odds of Tony Abbott reclaiming the leadership are slim. Equally slim are the odds of him leaving the Libs to join Cory Bernardi or Mark Latham.

          I fear that Tony Abbott will wither and die in the Liberal Party.

          I hope beyond all hope that I am wrong.

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            TdeF

            It’s an odd thing, but if Tony Abbott was convinced he could never be leader again, he would not be there. He is playing all his cards and the timing is perfect. If you want policies on immigration, energy, taxation he is in the paper with clear directions. He is not baiting or disrupting the Turnbull government. He has not voted against his own government, crossed the floor against his own leader as Turnbull did. He has not been disloyal as a mere backbencher to a man who was utterly disloyal as a Minister in the Abbott government. No, Tony is playing a straight bat. He is the only alternative and an excellent one.

            Like Trump, he can deal with the press and thanks to Trump, we recognize the fake news generated by Turnbull’s ABC. Biting an onion, winking on radio, awarding a knighthood at the request of the palace for a 90th birthday and daring to wear speedos to save lives in the surf and sweating and dirty in a hot heavy uniform when fighting fires in his fire truck. Showing off apparently. In reality putting his life on the line for others as perhaps only Andrew Hastie has done. He is an exemplary Australian who is ridiculed even for being Catholic. Tony is the only choice when Malcolm spits the dummy in an election he cannot win. Tony’s only failing, if it is a failing, was in trusting his ministers, people who now demand his obedience and they call loyalty.

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              Dennis

              As the crusade of relentless negativity continues against Tony Abbott it is worth considering that it commenced during 2009.

              When Opposition Leader Turnbull was worried that too many Liberal MPs were unhappy with him as their leader and his Black Hand faction comrades recruited Labor’s GetUp to get Abbott, attempt character assassination to discourage Liberal MPs from voting for him to replace Turnbull.

              The real Tony Abbott is not the ABC.MSM figure of ridicule and fun target they present.

              But it is obvious why the leftists fear him, isn’t it.

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              Ted O'Brien.

              Tony Abbott doesn’t have to be leader to have a voice in the parliament. If he leaves he has no voice.

              As for the speedos. This is not just a mockery of Tony Abbott. It is a mockery of our volunteer services. You see, to a Marxist, volunteers are scab labour. Even when engaged in emergency activities, or in leisure activities.

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                Dennis

                During January 2014 following the election of the Abbott led Coalition to form government PM Abbott attended major bush fires on the far south coast of NSW, he drove a fire appliance truck from his local brigade with crew to the emergency location.

                Media photographed him sitting in uniform behind the steering wheel of the truck and later reported that the new PM was there for a photo opportunity. No mention of his volunteering and training experience of many years past, and giving up his Christmas Holiday time to do public service.

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        Graeme No.3

        TdeF:

        Abbott won’t get back with the current lot in the Liberal Party in Canberra. The reason is probably known since the time of the ancient Greeks. “Those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad .

        (yes, I know it wasn’t Euripides but some such idea surely circulated then).

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          OriginalSteve

          I fear for Australia.

          From my Biblical worldview, turning your back on God as a nation by endorsing such things as SSM etc, you are on the clock at that point. Ancient Israel was invaded and its people dragged off into slavery for many years until they came to their senses and repented and turned back to God.

          Clearly, I don’t want anything to happen to Australia, however God is God and is unchanging, and Biblical precedent exists, so…

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        glen Michel

        It is difficult for Abbott to make a return as he was always coming from a low baseline in popularity.We need a demagogic-type figure making the right sounds.That is what it takes:a catalyst who can inspire people.Abbott is like the curates egg in my view. We will have to be patient on this.

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        el gordo

        Over at Sportsbet they have Turnbull way out in front to be Liberal leader, as we go into the next election, while in the bunch further back Dutton, Bishop and Abbott are neck and neck.

        I see Dutton as heir apparent and Abbott with a Ministry of his choosing.

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      PeterS

      Graeme No.3, it’s always has been and always will be about the voters. The vast majority won’t think before they vote. If they really wanted to send a clear message they don’t like either major party the course of action is obvious – don’t vote 1 for either. The people have the choice to take that course of action but clearly not enough dislike the two parties that badly. Things will need to get much worse before they change their voting habits. It now looks like a crash and burn scenario under Shorten is the only thing that will do it.

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        glen Michel

        A lack of awareness by the people;it has always been the case that the greater majority have no interest in governance or policies,unless it affects their own.The job of MSM is to keep the people there, the stupid leading the ignorant.A society based on mutual disdain.

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          PeterS

          All true except that when people complain about the state of affairs they blame everything and everyone except those who have the power and the right to make the necessary changes – the people. It’s ironic that some say things would be better if we had more direct democracy yet fail to realise that would make little or no difference, or could even make things worse. In some respects direct democracy is little different from mob rule. So regardless of the type of democracy in place the real issue is that far too many people do not take seriously the alternative choices available because they are too busy, too lazy or just don’t give a damn about doing their own research. Instead as you alluded to they prefer to listen to the MSM and trust them far too much too often to guide them. One might as well trust the politicians in the first place, and many of course do. If we as a people can’t be bothered to set aside our prejudices and biases, and then to do our own research in as objective way as possible then inevitably the nation crashes and burns one way or another, often through internal conflict and social disorder.

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      Ted O'Brien.

      About your property Ponzi. This isn’t the first.

      The primary objective of the Marxists in the ALP, and that includes the leaders, so the ALP as a whole, is to destroy the capitalist system. To destroy all private capital.

      During the 1980s Hawke’s usurious interest rates busted a swathe of young people pursuing the Australian dream of owning their own home. This destroyed their savings/capital and broke many marriages, I recall 11 of 14 young couples who purchased at the one time in a Minchinbury subdivision.

      This had the secondary effect of convincing many people that the capitalist system was bad, even evil.

      What we are seeing now is another program to achieve the same results. And a majority of the Liberals won’t admit it.

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    Reed Coray

    The other day I submitted a comment on this blog discussing why I take exceptions to the phrase “CO2 is a heat-trapping gas” and its use to convince the general public that mankind’s burning of fossil fuels is changing the climate by adding CO2 gas to the earth’s atmosphere. In that post I mentioned an interchange of comments I was having with Fallacy Man on his blog The Logic Of Science. That interchange helped me focus my thoughts, which resulted in my describing a situation that, I believe, makes my point. On 27 July 2018 I posted my thoughts as a comment on Fallacy Man’s Blog. With a few word-editing exceptions, below in italics is that comment.

    Take two identical thermos bottles, “A” and “B.” Into the cavity where liquids are normally placed, insert into each thermos bottle: (1) identical amounts of coffee, and (2) an identical battery/resistor circuit that gives off heat. In the dead of winter, take both thermos bottles to a frozen lake in Michigan. In the ice covering the lake, drill two identical holes close to one another. Lower thermos bottle “A” into one hole, and lower thermos bottle “B” into the other hole such that both thermos bottles are at the same depth. Monitor the temperature of the coffee in each thermos bottle. The temperature of the coffee in both thermos bottles will initially decrease because the cold surrounding water will drain heat from the thermos bottles. At some time, however, the coffee temperatures will cease changing with time—i.e., stabilize at some value T1. Since up to now everything is identical, the stabilized temperature T1 of the coffee in thermos bottle “A” will be the same as the stabilized temperature T1 of the coffee in thermos bottle “B.” Since (a) there is the same mass of coffee in each thermos bottle and (b) the stabilized coffee temperatures are the same, it’s reasonable to believe that the coffee in thermos bottle “A” has stored (or trapped if you like that word better) the same amount of heat as the coffee in thermos bottle “B.”

    Now do whatever it takes to bring some CO2 gas to the temperature T1. Once the CO2 gas has reached temperature T1, inject the CO2 gas into the vacuum space of thermos bottle “A.” [Note: The vacuum space of thermos bottle “A” is not the cavity in thermos bottle “A” where the coffee and battery/resistor circuit reside; but rather is the space that surrounds the cavity holding the coffee/battery-resistor circuit.] Monitor the temperature of the coffee in thermos bottle “A”—i.e., the thermos bottle with CO2 gas. The temperature of the coffee in thermos bottle “A” will probably change. After the temperature of the coffee in thermos bottle “A” has ceased changing with time, note its temperature—call that temperature T2. At this point step back and reflect on the following question: “Is it more correct to say (1) some heat has been released from the coffee in thermos bottle “A,” or (2) some heat has been added to the coffee in thermos bottle “A?” If the former, then it’s not out of bounds to claim “CO2” has resulted in a release of energy stored in the coffee, and as such CO2 can be characterized as a heat-releasing gas. If the latter, then it’s not out of bounds to claim “CO2” has resulted in an increase of energy stored in the coffee, and as such CO2 can be characterized as a heat-trapping gas.

    Which answer you give to the question will obviously depend upon whether T2 is greater than T1, or T2 is less than T1. If T2 is greater than T1, then the coffee in thermos bottle “A” (the CO2 thermos bottle) now contains more heat than the coffee in thermos bottle “B.” For the case that T2 is greater than T1, if I had to pick one of the two characterizations of CO2: (1) CO2 is a heat-releasing gas or (2) CO2 is a heat-trapping gas, I’d have reservations, but I’d go with the latter and say CO2 is a heat-trapping gas. However, if T2 is less than T1, then if I had to pick one of the two characterizations, again I’d have reservations, but this time I’d go with the latter and say CO2 is a heat-releasing gas. So for this situation, the choice of which characterization is the more accurate: (1) CO2 is a heat-releasing gas, or (2) CO2 is a heat-trapping gas depends solely on whether T2 is less than T1 or T2 is greater than T1.

    Now I haven’t done this experiment; but noting that CO2 will thermally conduct heat away from the hotter coffee to the colder lake Michigan water, my money is on T2 being less than T1. Maybe in all those studies you [Fallacy Man] allude to, one or more of them have performed this experiment. If so, please send me the documentation–I’d really like to read it.

    If (a) I’m correct that T2 is less than T1, and (b) someone chooses as the more accurate characterization of CO2 the statement “CO2 is a heat-trapping gas,” then that someone is somewhat akin to the professor in the old professor/fiddle/ant joke. You know, the one where a professor likes to play the fiddle. One day while he’s playing the fiddle, he looks down at the floor and sees a bunch of ants milling around. He notices that one and only one ant isn’t just milling around, he’s hopping all over the place—in a way that you might call “dancing.” This interests the professor, so he stops playing his fiddle to get a closer look. As soon as he stops playing his fiddle, the ant stops dancing. Puzzled, the professor starts again playing his fiddle–at which time the ant immediately starts dancing. Now the professor is really intrigued. He starts and stops playing his fiddle many times. Each and every time the professor stops playing his fiddle, the ant stops dancing. Each and every time the professor starts playing his fiddle, the ant starts dancing. Now he knows he’s really onto something. He decides to perform an experiment on the ant. The professor picks the ant up, pulls off the ant’s middle two legs, puts the ant back on the floor, and starts playing his fiddle. The ant immediately starts hopping around—not as effectively as before, but it’s obvious the ant is dancing. The professor picks the ant up, pulls off the ant’s back two legs, puts the ant back on the floor, and starts playing his fiddle. The ant stumbles around. You really couldn’t call what the ant is doing as “dancing;” but it’s clear the ant is trying to dance. Finally, the professor picks the ant up, pulls off the ant’s front two legs, puts the ant back on the floor, and starts playing his fiddle. The ant just lies there like a rock. “Aha! the professor declares. When you remove all six legs from an ant, the ant goes deaf.”

    Now it’s true that as electromagnetic radiation in sub-bands of the IR band passes through CO2 gas, some of the energy in the radiation will be absorbed by the gas. It’s also undoubtedly true that situations exist where the insertion of CO2 gas into a system will result in higher temperatures for at least parts of the system. If it is for either of these reasons that someone, especially a scientist, chooses to use the phrase “CO2 is a heat-trapping gas,” then although the phrase is fraught with misleading connotations, at least there is some justification for its use. However, (a) if a scientist is aware that situations exist where the presence of CO2 gas lowers system temperature, and (b) if the sole (or even primary) reason he uses the phrase “CO2 is a heat-trapping gas” is to advance the agenda of convincing the general public that the burning of fossil fuels is warming the earth and thereby causing climate change, then like the professor selling hearing aids to legless ants, I say shame on him. If I’m correct that in the experiment I described above the temperature, T2, of the coffee in the CO2 thermos bottle is less than the temperature, T1, of the coffee in the vacuum (non-CO2) thermos bottle, then independent of the reason the phrase “CO2 is a heat-trapping gas” is used, a proof that because CO2 is labelled a “heat-trapping gas” the presence of CO2 will increase temperatures cannot exist.

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      TdeF

      Reed, apart from your science, you write “mankind’s burning of fossil fuels is .. adding CO2 gas to the earth’s atmosphere”

      Do you believe this? If so, why? Is it self evident?

      I asked this yesterday and the best answer was coincidence, either two things going up at the same time (CO2 and temperature) or two things going down at the same time, maybe (C12/C13 ratio). Neither of course are proofs of anything.

      Consider also that if the extra CO2 is not man made, whether it traps additional heat is quite irrelevant. We do not control CO2 levels which are entirely natural until proven otherwise.

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        Graeme No.3

        A CO2 molecule in the atmosphere at sea level TRAPS radiation for 0.5 milliseconds, then re-radiates it. In the meantime the molecule is hit about a thousand times by other molecules and loses that energy by kinetic (collision) transfer. That is one way that the (non radiation absorbing) 99.96% of other gas molecules are warmed. Unless you think that IR energy is only confined to those molecules that can absorb (or radiate) and the rest are much cooler.

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          Reed Coray

          Graeme, No I don’t think IR energy is confined to the molecules that can absorb (and radiate) in sub-bands of the IR band. Like you, I believe once the energy is absorbed by atmospheric CO2 and other IR-sub-band absorbing gases, the energy is rapidly transferred to the non-IR-sub-band absorbing gases and takes the form of heat. For a constant source of IR radiation, I believe all gases in proximity of one another will be at the same temperature.

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        Reed Coray

        TdeF, I believe “mankind’s burning of fossil fuels is .. adding CO2 gas to the earth’s atmosphere” because one product of most combustion reactions is CO2. Thus, when something is burned, CO2 is added to the surroundings. I’m not saying that fossil fuel burning is the only or even the major reason CO2 is being added to the environment. On that question I have no strong opinions, but I lean towards your point that no one has proven that fossil fuel is “the reason” for the measured upturn in atmospheric CO2. And I agree with you when you say, “Consider also that if the extra CO2 is not man made, whether it traps additional heat is quite irrelevant.” I keep hammering on the claim that CO2 is a “heat-trapping gas” because that’s a concept that directly relates to my education and for which I know something about. I know much less about the question “What is the major source of the increase in atmospheric CO2?”

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          TdeF

          Reed, this is my subject. As I have written many times, you can date the CO2 with C14 and determine exactly how much is ancient fossil CO2 and how much is modern. The ancient is under 2%. That should end it.

          To answer your implied question about how the CO2 levels are set, the answer is equilibrium with the vast oceans. We also know this for a proveable fact again with C14.

          The whole scam depends on the unproven idea that we are filling the air with CO2 from fossil fuels when 98% of all CO2 is dissolved in the vast oceans which cover 3/4 of the planet to a depth of 2 miles. It is in equilibrium. Again, known facts. Heat the surface slightly and you have all your answers. The simple, obvious answer. The CO2 increase is perfectly natural and nothing to do with cars, boats or planes or even ww1 or ww2.

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            Reed Coray

            Tdef, The whole scam depends upon a lot of things. I appreciate your comments, and I’m thankful that you and the many others (e.g. TonyfromOz and his knowledge of how electrical grids work) who attack the scam from a position reflective of your (their) knowledge. I’m just one of many on this blog doing what I can to help.

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          TdeF

          Reed, yes burning any carbon fuel releases CO2. So does breathing, refining metals, making bread, wine, beer. The question is what happens to the CO2. Does it hang around as people would have us believe, or does it get absorbed by the oceans. The proveable answer is the second. The oceans act as a giant vacuum cleaner, removing excess CO2 very quickly.

          The IPCC know this and agree with it. However without any evidence at all, various writers say that CO2 hangs around for 80 years (Half life) or even forever, thousands of years. Neither of these are true. If they admitted it all goes into the oceans quickly, the IPCC would all have to fire themselves.

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      Reed Coray

      About 20 minutes ago I accessed the thread on Fallacy Man’s blog where Fallacy Man and I were debating this issue–see
      https://thelogicofscience.com/2018/07/19/6-major-problems-with-a-flat-earth/.
      After responding to my most recent comment, Fallacy Man wrote “Please consider this thread closed.” He may, like me, simply be tiring of the discuss; but then again just maybe ………………

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        Reed Coray

        Just before “closing the thread to comments,” Fallacy Man wrote:

        That experiment makes no sense. First, the temperature isn’t going to stabilize (T1) until the coffee in both containers is frozen solid. Second, I don’t see why injecting CO2 that is at the same temperature as everything else in the system would change anything. If the temperature is already the same for every part of the system, then the heat has already been fully dispersed and nothing should happen.

        I can’t respond on Fallacy Man’s blog because he has closed it to comments. My response would have been: “You (Fallacy Man) make a valid point; but you didn’t carry it far enough. Using your thought process, the coffee temperature won’t stabilize when both containers are frozen solid. The coffee temperature will only stabilize when the entire universe is at a single temperature. So your criticism of my comment applies to your own comment. I admit I didn’t explicitly say so, but I thought it was clear that the stabilized temperature T1 I refer to in the experiment corresponds to the coffee temperature after cooling but while the battery/resistor circuits are still outputting heat at a constant rate. That temperature won’t be the “frozen solid” temperature. That you can’t see why the injection of CO2 into the thermos bottle at the temperature of the coffee will change things, is to assume that the rate of heat loss in thermos bottle “A” won’t be affected by the CO2. If this is your position and your position is correct, then for the experiment I described CO2 doesn’t release heat; but by the same token, CO2 doesn’t trap heat either. If the former means CO2 isn’t a “heat-releasing gas,” the latter means CO2 isn’t a “heat-trapping gas.”

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          Graeme No.3

          Reed:

          I think your experiment is a little elaborate. With the gas you are introducing heat loss by conduction and circulation as well.
          I would start with 3 thermos flasks in a water bath, which could be water with crushed ice if you wanted a constant temperature.
          No need for an internal heat input; the claim is that CO2 traps heat from leaving making the atmosphere warmer than it would otherwise be.
          The first flask would be the control – the radiation loss only.
          The second should have CO2 introduced into the ‘vacuum’ space.
          The third might have argon introduced into the ‘vacuum’ space. (Argon is monoatomic and accordingly to AGW non radiating. It is also present in the atmosphere at over 20 times the amount of CO2).

          Start with 3 flasks containing warm/hot liquid – all at the same temperature with a temperature probe in each. The first will cool at the slowest rate, and I would expect the other two to cool faster, but at the same rate. What do you expect?

          NOTE: Argon is sold for stopping expensive wine ‘going off’ once opened. I don’t know what it costs as I can’t afford those expensive wines that need the treatment – besides I have my own way of avoiding half bottles spoiling.

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            StephenP

            Why not actually do the experiment. After all Galileo showed that objects fall at the same rate in his experiment at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, disproving Aristotle’s dogma that objects fall at a rate proportional to their weight.
            (An experiment we did at physics class used a feather and a paper clip of the same weight placed in a tube with the air evacuated, i.e in a vacuum, fell at the same rate. Only the effect of air resistance caused the feather to fall more slowly in open air.)

            http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Iew2_RqjOw

            An experiment is worth any amount of conjecture, as long as it is set up properly.

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              Fred Streeter

              In a B&W movie viewed decades ago, a Science teacher requested his class to disprove the hypothesis that the feather fell more slowly because Fairies liked feathers and supported them so that they would land gently.

              One student scrunged the feather into a ball, whereupon it fell quickly. The teacher said this was because the crushed feather was no longer attractive to the Fairies.

              So, the student had a feather fall in a vacuum, again it fell quickly. The teacher attributed this to the Fairies being unable to survive in a vacuum.

              Great way to stimulate independent thought.

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            Reed Coray

            This comment is in response to both Graeme No.3 and StephenP.

            First, my response to Stephen. We (myself but primarily Peter C, who is a frequent commenter on this blog), did perform an experiment similar to that suggested by Graeme. The results of that experiment were reported as a comment on Joanne’s blog–see http://joannenova.com.au/2015/03/weekend-unloaded/#comments. The referenced comment contains two “dropbox” references to files that give a more complete description of the experiment. When I “clicked” on each of those references to see if they were still working, a dropbox window came up, but it did not open the corresponding file. The window indicated the file couldn’t be viewed, but it could be downloaded. To see if the download worked, I clicked on the download button. My computer went into a “spinning mode”–you know where the little circle at the top of the screen starts spinning and never stops. I’m not sure if this is the fault of dropbox or the fault of all the blankety-blank advertisements that seem to pop up on out of nowhere. There have been times when these advertisements have prevented me from opening my E-mail; and all internet activity had to be shut down before I could open my Email. However, if either of you is sufficiently interested in the dropbox files and you can’t get them directly from the referenced URLs, let me know and I’ll try to figure out a way to get them to you.

            Second, my response to Graeme. The experiment Peter C performed was similar to the one you suggest. In lieu of a “control flask” he first measured the cooling rate using a vacuum thermos bottle. He then broke the vacuum on that bottle and filled the former vacuum space with first CO2 and then with air. People have suggested that the experiment Peter C performed didn’t represent the earth/earth-atmosphere system in the sense that (a) the earth/earth-atmosphere system has a constant heat source (the sun) and (b) our experiment did not. Essentially they argued that Peter’s experiment measured “cooling rate” not energy-rate-equilibrium (ERE) temperature (an energy-rate-equilibrium temperature is the temperature of an object with a constant-rate heat source after all temperature changes have ceased with time), and as such although the two phenomena (cooling rate, ERE temperature) may be related, they weren’t the same thing. They have a valid point; and that point is why in this series of comments I describe an experiment that does have a constant-rate heat source and does measure ERE temperature.

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              StephenP

              Thanks Reed Coray, have got the dropbox download. There is a lot to read and will have a closer look tomorrow.

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    TdeF

    I also suspect that Abbott Derangement Syndrome is as much a factor in Australia as Trump Derangement Syndrome in the US. He is the one man feared by Labor and the Greens, the one man they know would stop them taking over. The one who fought them to a standstill last time.

    Mention Abbott and you get an irrational backlash. We all know why? It was all the ABC and Gillard to do to organize the criminal assault on Abbott at the f*ke ceremony Australia day at the Glass House next to the 40th anniversary of the *boriginal embassy. They failed to hurt Abbott. I remain amazed that not one person was on criminal charges for that and only one staff member of the Prime Minister’s staff fled the country.

    So we have our own deplorables, hated by the elites and Canberra and the ABC. We also have a leader of the deplorables in Pauline Hanson and a real conservative leader in Abbott. Otherwise we are looking to a takeover by Shorten and the Greens in 2019. So solutions please, not generalizations. Otherwise we are all just whinging about the absurdity and ripoff of Climate Change and f*ke data to go with f*ke science and very f*ke politicians. If Abbott made it back, he is not f*ke.

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      Dennis

      Opinion polls ignored, and noting that Turnbull used them against Opposition Leader Nelson when he managed to replace him as opposition leader in 2008, during 2009 the Liberal Party MPs drafted Abbott to replace Turnbull by a small margin of votes in the party room, obviously the majority were concerned about Turnbull’s lack of judgement and leadership.

      During 2010 Opposition Leader Abbott led the Coalition to effectively defeat Labor at the federal election and forced PM Gillard to form an alliance minority government, despite the comfortable win Rudd Labor enjoyed in 2007.

      In September 2013 the Abbott led Coalition defeated Rudd Labor in a landslide victory.

      Despite those opinion polls and the Turnbull Black Hand faction relentless negativity against Abbott from 2009 onwards.

      In September 2015 Turnbull became Prime Minister.

      At the 2016 federal election the many electorate seats gained in 2013 were lost and the government remained in power because of a single seat gain by the National Party.

      In my opinion there are several new policies and new leader could present to voters and win the 2019 federal election in a landslide victory.

      Exit Paris Agreement, abolish RET and fix electricity pricing, cut immigration and only allow migrants to settle here who have the qualifications needed to find work and who are most likely to assimilate, and more.

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      Phillthegeek

      TDef, have you ever considered that you may be going a bit OT on the Abbott Lurrrrve?? Its a bit creepy.

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    Ruairi

    Australians without panels still must pay,
    To subsidize the Green electron way.

    Left last in line who need electrification,
    Would likely be some African poor nation.

    Aware Australian voters could detect,
    The Green alarmists they could then reject.

    It’s no surprise that sinister means left,
    When politicians leave the grid bereft.

    The M.S.M. being mostly Left of late,
    Would take the warmist viewpoint in debate.

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    TdeF

    The other political development worth a comment is the increasingly and even extremely anti Semitic nature of the Labor party and the communists and Greens.

    Jeremy Corby in the UK is quite an open anti semite. Here the Universities and the Greens are openly anti Israel with their boycotts. Recently our only Jewish MP, Michael Danby representing the Jewish area of Caulfield and Melbourne’s largest Jewish community has been forced to resign his seat, pressured out by Shorten and friends. The ABC has been amazingly biased reporting Israel’s recent response to the hundreds of rockets fired at Israel but not the fact of the rockets.

    So while conservatives are attacked as Fascists and Alt right, the NAZI party was the National Socialist workers party of Germany. We are also seeing that any attempt by a conservative to speak is met with open violence and the police under Labor Premier Daniel Andrews blame and bill the speakers, not the perpetrators. Unions can shut down the whole city and the Premier does nothing. If a conservative speaks, they are billed for policing Union thugs and violent extremists.

    We saw this in London where the people against Donald Trump were given permission to march and raise their baby Trump balloon. The people supporting Donald Trump were refused the right to march at all.

    I worry that the continuing attacks on our society, our British way of life, our British values, our immigration system are part of a master plan to destroy Australia. Shutting down our electricity, our manufacturing and our businesses are simply part of that plan. Climate Change itself is a mask for a much more sinister development and fits the pattern of disruption of Western democracies world wide.

    There is much more to all this than the myth that man made CO2 is dangerously heating the planet. We are being robbed by our own government and the money sent overseas. We are being bankrupted by $80Billion dollars a year in borrowings. Soon we will not own our country. This is being directed by the UN/EU and friends. Our faux PM knows all about it.

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      Dennis

      He most certainly does know all about and when he was still a high school student, before he graduated from Sydney University as a Bachelor of Laws, he wrote in his GPS School magazine that his future would involved the Fabian Society inevitability of gradualness to achieve his goals.

      After attending university he was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship.

      His chosen best career friends mostly came from the socialism side of politics, preferred party for political career purposes the ALP.

      To read the history and timeline exposes a determined new world order supporter, as he put it, a globalist.

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      Fred Streeter

      Anti-Semetic?

      Anti-Zionist would be more correct.

      (Otherwise all but one of my Jewish colleagues – an Israeli – would have been Anti-Semites, somewhat illogical.)

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    Another Ian

    A couple of Trump’s

    “30 Hours at Trump-Speed…”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/07/25/30-hours-at-trump-speed/

    And, on trade and agriculture

    “President Trump Confronts Multinational Big-AG, Proposes Bridge Subsidy To Break Up Controlled Markets and Exploitative Contract Farming…”

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      Andrew McRae

      If I substitute one word in that intro, it still sounds plausible but sounds like the sort of thing conservatives would typically oppose.

      President Obama Confronts Multinational Big-AG, Proposes Bridge Subsidy To Break Up Controlled Markets and Exploitative Contract Farming…
      President Obama is disrupting decades of multinational financial interests who use the U.S. as a host for their ideological endeavors.

      The rest I don’t need to change at all.

      … big multinational corporate agriculture (BIG AG). Big AG is not supporting local farmers. Big AG does not support “free and fair markets.” Big AG supports the interests of multinational corporations and multinational financial interests.
      …The road to a “service-driven economy” is paved with a great disparity between financial classes. The wealth gap is directly related to the inability of the middle-class to thrive.
      … The exact same exfiltration and exploitation has been happening, with increased speed, over the past 15-20 years with “CONSUMABLE GOODS“, ie food.

      Was that lifted from the pages of the Green Left Weekly or from Conservative Tree House? You can hardly tell. How anybody can describe Trump’s personage as conservative or his policies as right wing is simply beyond me.

      10

  • #
    GrahamP

    TdeF,

    In the previous topic about Spain you said “Then we also know that the shape of the decay curve means the biosphere is irrelevant in the absorption of CO2. It’s all controlled by the oceans and thus wholly and solely by ocean temperature.”

    Isn’t the increased CO2 in the atmosphere greening the planet and increasing crop yields?

    If so how can the biosphere be irrelevant?

    Graham

    41

    • #
      TdeF

      It is irrelevant in the sense that it is by far a smaller player in stabilizing CO2 levels. We know this from the Bern diagram compared to the real decay of CO2 after the bomb tests.

      All the models show the oceans, plants, concrete, respiration, fossil fuel combustion, smelting, plant decay, plant growth contributing at different rates and different amounts. This is the very elaborate and famous “Bern” model which was orthodoxy until recently. In fact the data from the collapse of C14 after 1965 shows a single sink, far, far bigger than any other. This can only be the oceans as the C14 vanishes completely and C14 cannot vanish. It is exchanged rapidly with modern CO2 in the oceans. It shows the biosphere is near irrelevant as a playing a part in setting CO2 levels.

      The way the IPCC gets around this very inconvenient fact is to talk it down with made up science. They argue without evidence that CO2 in the ocean under great pressure is liquid and washes around with the deep currents which take thousands of years to mix with the surface. Of course we cannot simulate this in the laboratory, so it is just convenient conjecture. It is also completely wrong, as demonstrated unequivocally by the bomb test curve which shows CO2 levels of C14 quickly returning to normal and smashing the Bern model of biosphere driven CO2 levels.

      In terms of the equilibrium value of CO2 in the air, the level is set by the oceans and the oceans alone and in fact by ocean surface temperature. It is enjoyed by the plants which never see more than 2% of what is really available. If the oceans heat up, we will have jungles in Libya. Again.

      It is also odd that clearly the most fecund period of life on earth, the Jurassic for example, is held to by so hot, so wet and life so profilic that man could not survive? Why? It sounds great. Jungles in Antarctica. Sure, we might have to move but we have done that for millenia. What’s wrong with warm steamy weather, more beaches, more food and tropical climates? The Greens somehow seem to think Siberia is an ideal climate for humans.

      60

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        TdeF

        As proof that mankind was not designed for cold weather, as Dr Patrick Moore wrote in his book, a naked human would die of hypothermia at 20C. We have adapted, but where people live North of the Tropic of Cancer, 60% from 22 North and upwards, without clothes, heating and shelter, none would survive the winter. We have adapted our environment, especially Europe and North America which were under a kilometer of ice just 10,000 years ago. The Greens want everything to stay as it is, forever. The certainty is that it will not.

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      • #
        GrahamP

        Thanks, that makes sense to me. However the bare statement seemed to be open to miss-interpretation hence the question.

        The alarmists have made demonising just one part of the great carbon cycle into easily distributed propaganda, so best not give them any more ammunition.

        Graham

        40

      • #

        TdeF,
        I get the feeling that you may misunderstand my post (the one to which you link). It was pointing out that the bomb test is more a representation of the typical time a molecule would remain in the atmosphere (the residence time) which is much shorter than the timescale over which an enhancement in concentration would recover (the adjustment time). Given that C14 has a short half-life, if you dump lots of C14 into the atmosphere, when one of these molecules is taken up by one of the natural sinks, it will probably be replaced by a molecule that is not C14 (C12, or C13). Therefore the bomb test tells us something about how long an individual molecule will remain in the atmosphere (years), but doesn’t tell us much about how long it would take for an enhancement in atmospheric CO2 to decay (centuries to millenia).

        It’s also true that the oceans are the biggest carbon sink. However, they are limited by the Revelle factor, which is about 10. This tells us that the fractional change in inorganic carbon in the ocean will be 10 times smaller than the fractional change in atmospheric CO2. So, if we increase the amount of carbon in the oceans by 10%, this will lead to a change in atmospheric concentration by 100% (a doubling). This is the equilibrium change, which would take centuries to occur. After this, atmospheric CO2 is drawn down by weathering, which is expected to take around 100000 years. So, our emissions are likely to lead to an enhancement in atmospheric CO2 which will last (unless we find a way to draw it down ourselves) for about 100000 years.

        11

  • #
    Mark M

    If only our farmers could get quality climate reports instead of the 97% ‘science’ carbon (sic) induced hysteria of today …

    Dateline: 26 July 2018

    Farmer Robert Lee: “Unlike the Nationals, I have no trouble accepting the scientific argument that human activity is warming the planet and changing the climate.

    In the past two years, we have experienced heat waves in October and November, nights in June hot enough to sleep without a sheet, and
    record frosts.”

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nationals-must-accept-and-adapt-to-climate-change-20180720-p4zspc.html

    Whoa! Wait. What?

    Record frosts?

    CSIRO, 1 September, 2009: Temperatures are likely to increase in Australia at a rate comparable to the global mean.

    The number of very hot days per year are projected to increase across Australia, particularly in the sub-tropical and tropical regions, and the number of frosts are likely to decrease.

    The most likely changes are an increase in the number of hot days and nights (with some minor regional exceptions), or in days exceeding various threshold temperatures, and decreases in the number of cold days, particularly including frosts.

    Further reading:

    CSIRO, Climate Change in Australia, Technical Report, 2007.

    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group I Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis, Chapter 3, Observations: surface and atmospheric climate change.

    Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group II Contribution to the Fourth Assessment Report, Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability, Chapter 19, Assessing key vulnerabilities and the risk from climate change, Table 19.1 and p. 795.

    https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Browse_by_Topic/ClimateChangeold/theClimate/temperatures

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    • #
      el gordo

      Good sleuthing.

      The frosts have been caused by the blocking highs, which presents warm days and freezing nights in the Austral winter. It feels like a regional cooling signal but I lack enough data to prove it.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      The comments are interesting and disturbing, when someone goes on about the real perils of climate change and “isms” you don’t know if its a parody or not.

      Not one mention of Susan J. Crockford though, https://polarbearscience.com/

      40

  • #
    David Maddison

    As usual the Left’s war against the plastic drinking straw, like their war against free plastic shopping bags and cheap electricity is based on junk science and junk facts.

    https://reason.com/reasontv/2018/07/17/plastic-straw-myths

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    • #
      David Maddison

      The Left call these an “unnecessary convenience”. Well our whole culture and technology is based on making things convenient. The only necessities are food, water and basic shelter which I guess is where they want us to be – cave men.

      42

    • #

      The argument about a ‘few cents’ (or just a cup of coffee) here and there is a common argument many people use to justify cost increases. I’ve pointed out a number of times that these cents soon add up and become dollars but, unfortunately, this is the usual Leftist approach economics and sadly that of many millenials.

      61

    • #
      beowulf

      Plastic straw update from SF.

      If you’re going to San Francisco, be sure to wear . . . a gas mask. Apparently the streets of the city “are flooded with the excrement of the homeless”. The city has even issued a “public defecation map” to help tourists steer clear of piles of poop. Added to the festering mix are drug needles and garbage.

      To combat the city’s filth problem SF has just banned plastic straws. Phew that’s a relief. They have their priorities right. Those deadly plastic straws again.

      https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2018/07/if_youre_going_to_san_franciscothink_again.html

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    • #
      Gee Aye

      David… you been diving lately and done a count of plastic objects?

      44

    • #
      Fred Streeter

      As a ‘conservative’ shopper, I have always taken a couple of shopping bags with me, pre-free-bag era, free-bag era and now post-free-bag era.

      There was never any need to introduce ‘free’ plastic shopping bags. Waste of good petroleum.

      10

    • #
      Fred Streeter

      As a ‘conservative’ shopper, I have always taken a couple of shopping bags with me, pre-free-bag era, free-bag era and now post-free-bag era.

      There was never any need to introduce ‘free’ plastic shopping bags. Waste of good petroleum.

      10

    • #
      Ve2

      Strange thing about the ban on single use plastic bags is that I can go to Woolworths and buy 3.6 litres of water contained in 6 plastic bottles with 6 plastic lids contained in a cardboard box wrapped in shrink wrapped plastic but can’t have a plastic bag to carry it in.

      50

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        yarpos

        so when faced with complex problem you dont do anything, rather than tackle those bits you can?

        00

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    Yonniestone

    For Original Steve.

    Weather prediction 27/07 Rain, snow if wind N or NE. Observed Ballarat both BOM and personal: Clear, Wind N – NNE 12.8C @ 1:30 pm. Rain 0.4 mm early morning.

    If snow occurs in this area/altitude wind/weather will be from S – SW temps 0-4C, a virtual arctic blast from the south.

    20

  • #
    Robert Swan

    I tuned into ABC RN at lunchtime on Wednesday. They were very keen to tell us about the possibility of opting out of the e-health record system. They were still at it on the evening TV News. Seemed like they were rallying the troops to opt out. Did anybody else notice?

    Puzzled me, because I’d have thought the ABC would be ideologically in favour of the large, complex, bureaucratic and expensive approach. I suspect ABC management worked that out too and have spiked the story. Haven’t heard a peep about it since Wednesday.

    I opted out ages ago. I’ll re-enlist when they grow a brain and work out that the correct place for the bulk of my records is on a chip on my Medicare card, not some centralised server farm.

    80

    • #
      Gee Aye

      I noticed that they were reporting that people were opting out.

      22

      • #
        Gee Aye

        Robert… you confuse opinion and news. The ABC reported what politicians and various groups were saying about a topical issue (ie the option to opt out is current). The fact that they reported something doesn’t mean they are taking a view, unlike some news services.

        23

        • #
          Robert Swan

          This division between “opinion” and “news” isn’t clear to me. What is “topical” is a matter of opinion isn’t it? The ABC often runs a “story” on their evening news which is just a promotion of something that will be broadcast later (often on 7.30 or 4-Corners). That’s factual and topical, I suppose, but that they’ll once again be publishing some activist video on 4-Corners is hardly newsworthy.

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          • #

            norman swan on radio national this morning advocating opting in. Actually made the point that nothing about the system has changed in 6 years except the opting aspect and that you can control what is on your record once in anyway. His main point was this is a lot of fuss about nothing.

            00

            • #
              Robert Swan

              You are shifting goalposts here. First you say it was fearless and objective reporting of the facts, now you say it was a storm in a teacup (and presumably shouldn’t have been reported at all). I was just mildly surprised that ABC seemed to be pushing against their usual big-state direction. Perhaps the chance to embarrass the Libs on the eve of the big byelection was an inducement. Dunno.

              Anyhow, I’ve been listening to Norman Swan’s show for decades. Best science the ABC does (by a country mile). But where Norman has wonderful medical knowledge, I think I know more about computer systems. And if I’m not to be trusted, the experience of the UK’s centralised patient record system might give an idea of the sort of thing I’m concerned about.

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              • #

                I never said fearless. Reporting facts is easy. Commentary that regards reporting of news as taking sides is what I consider goal post shifting.

                I was also backing up the additional fact that reporting on this continued beyond Wednesday and was not completely squeezed out by the by election distraction.

                It is great you are concerned about the medical records system and great that the msm have picked up that people have issues with it.

                00

    • #
      Gee Aye

      and also they have covered it since Wednesday. You “not hearing a peep” is irrelevant. Maybe check if your person view is correct before posting.

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    GreatAuntJanet

    This article puts a deft finger on the reasons the US administrative system needed Trump.
    In Australia, we need someone to deal with and improve our own system, which does not seem to be working for us.

    20

    • #
      Yonniestone

      The ex Victorian Attorney General Rob Hulls engaged in similar activities in 2007 From this 2007 link ‘He has appointed 110 of the 214 judges and magistrates — a staggering 51 per cent.’

      And people wonder how soft sentencing or preferential legal treatment came to pass in our legal system, let me spell it out, THEY HAVE NO RESPECT FOR YOU!

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    Dennis

    22nd November, 2006 – Turnbull releases a report that effectively rules out building new dams, even predicting some will be completely dry by 2008 due to so-called “anthropogenic global warming”. The report cites the “Wentworth Group” as an authoritative source, even though the group was founded and funded by the radical green World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

    Further, Turnbull again says people must pay far higher prices for water so that the necessary capital can be raised to construct expensive desalination plants and recycling facilities, which aren’t dependent on so-called ”anthropogenic global warming”.48

    Turnbull also pushes household water rationing with tradability, yet another regulation that would push up the cost of water.49

    100

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    pat

    it’s relentless, folks. the only solution? withdraw from Paris for starters:

    27 Jul: CNBC: John Harwood: The cost of Donald Trump’s mission to put America first and abandon the liberal world order
    •Since taking office, Trump has shaken one international structure after the other in his mission to put “America First” and abandon the liberal world order.
    •The Trans-Pacific Partnership, Paris climate accord and NAFTA are just a few of the agreements he has either withdrawn from or questioned their legitimacy.
    •Both Democrat and Republican officials are pushing back, worried that undercutting traditional alliances will harm the economy and make America less safe.
    The British Parliament is now investigating covert Russian attempts to assist the 2016 Brexit campaign to split the United Kingdom from the European Union.
    The U.S. intelligence community concluded that Russia also meddled in America’s 2016 campaign to help elect Trump as president…

    He abandoned the global Paris accord aimed at curbing climate change…

    Kori Schake, a former national security aide to President George W. Bush who now helps run the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London: “This is the first time that a president of the United States did not appear to believe in the liberal order.”…

    But the global order was under strain even before Trump’s presidency. Now, some fear it has already been damaged too much.
    “Things will not be OK,” conservative foreign policy expert Robert Kagan wrote recently in The Washington Post. “The world crisis is upon us.”
    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/26/donald-trump-disrupted-the-liberal-world-order.html

    followed by:

    25 Jul: CNBC:‘A storm is brewing’ in the US economy, says economist Diane Swonk
    •Even if there isn’t a full-blown trade war, the uncertainty surrounding tariffs can hurt the U.S. economy, says economist Diane Swonk.
    •“If we are to continue to have this uncertainty then you have over time a corrosive effect that builds up in 2019 with less investment,” she says.
    by Michelle Fox
    In fact, Swonk believes Brexit provides a cautionary tale.
    While the U.K. has yet to officially break from the European Union, the threat alone over the last two years has produced higher inflation, slower growth and reduced investment and confidence, she said…

    20

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    pat

    not impressed by NatGeo’s admission re polar bear story because it’s ***MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:

    27 Jul: Fox News: Photographer behind viral image of starving polar bear raises questions about climate change narrative
    by Paulina Dedaj
    The narrative behind the viral photo of a polar bear starving, reportedly thanks to climate change, has been called into question by the National Geographic photographer who took it in the first place…

    Mittermeier goes on to say that it was the language put out by the publication that led to the message being misconstrued.
    “The first line of the National Geographic video said, ‘This is what climate change looks like’ — with ‘climate change’ then highlighted in the brand’s distinctive yellow. In retrospect, National Geographic went too far with the caption.”

    ***She estimated that 2.5 billion people saw the footage: “It became the most viewed video on National Geographic’s website — ever,” she said…
    From there, social media and news outlets erupted over the message that was being portrayed…

    The photographer says that her image became another example of “environmentalist exaggeration,” but added that her intentions were “clear” and that if she had the opportunity to share “a scene like this one” again, she would.
    http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/07/27/photographer-behind-viral-image-starving-polar-bear-raises-questions-about-climate-change-narrative.html

    30

  • #
    Robber

    I will only vote for someone who promises:
    – To make Australia competitive again
    – Lower electricity prices by stopping “renewable energy” targets/ “emission” reductions
    – Less crime by locking up repeat offenders, not releasing them on bail
    – To reduce immigration to manageable levels to save our cities

    100

  • #
    el gordo

    ‘Ninety-eight per cent of NSW and around two-thirds of Queensland is in drought or drought-affected, with pastures turned to rubble and the cost of freight and feed skyrocketing.

    “I’m sick of this damn drought,” Bev Hicks said.

    “People in the city need to look at what’s going on and understand that if you’ve got constant drought, the price of food will go up and you’ll lose your country towns.”

    Weatherzone

    60

    • #
      Dennis

      I have recently returned from an 8 week road trip travelling through NSW, VIC, SA, NT, WA & QLD and the vey dry conditions in places made me feel very sorry for the hard working people on the land, and their stock.

      40

      • #
        Gee Aye

        I know some people who’ve worked the same property near Broken Hill for 34 years and they say this is the worst they’ve had in terms of responses like buying in stock feed and water and selling off heads. Not as sustained as the drought that ended 6-7 years ago but very intense and disruptive.

        51

      • #
        Bushkid

        Also for those of us whose business and income depends on the disposable income of those on the land, Dennis. As a sole operator of a small business providing services to land-owners as well as town folk, I know only too well that I survive on the money that people think they can afford to spend over and above necessities. When it comes to a choice between buying in more hay for stock or paying me for my services, I know (and understand) that the money will go on the hay first.

        Every rural and regional business is in the same situation. There is no guaranteed government income here.

        20

    • #
      PeterS

      When was the last time a significant dam was built? Yet our population keeps growing at a rapid rate. I can imagine some idiot will eventually come out and say we will need to build much bigger desal plants. Yet Australia is not short of water – we have plenty – we just don’t capture and store it. The next con trick will be to power those desal plants with solar and wind farms. This country is a joke.

      81

      • #
        el gordo

        The agrarian socialists are not happy and its no joke.

        We need to drought proof the MDB with clever infrastructure, like a freshwater pipe from the Ord River to Bourke. Cultivating land along the way, a terra forming process.

        31

      • #
        Gee Aye

        irrelevent to mitigating this drought for most agricultural areas hit.

        53

        • #
          el gordo

          Yeah, they will always been at the mercy of nature and vagaries of the market.

          On second thought a pipe from the Ord to Bourke would be very expensive, but the excess water from the Clarence River could be diverted to the Darling.

          20

      • #
        yarpos

        “The next con trick will be to power those desal plants with solar and wind farms.” That was a selling point from day one on the Vic plant.

        40

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    john

    Huge wildfire in Canada started at windfarm. Who pays?

    https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4765333

    Article has video of several huge waterbombers one behind the other scooping up water to fight the flames.

    40

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    john

    Flying in a Bombardier 415…

    https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x34v621

    Disclosure: I am a former fire chief and forest fire warden.

    30

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    pat

    the Carr fire in California. for nearly a week, there have been reports a vehicle/trailer might have sparked the fire. something about a tyre blew out and the vehicle drove over dry grass, causing sparks or whatever:

    23 Jul Updated 26 Jul: Redding Record: UPDATE: Cause determined for Whiskeytown’s Carr Fire; now at 3,126 acres, 15% contained
    by Jim Schultz and Alayna Shulman
    Update: 11:45 a.m.
    “Mechanical failure of vehicle” was listed Tuesday morning as the cause of the Carr Fire that’s burning at Whiskeytown National Recreation Area.
    Details on exactly how the vehicle’s mechanical failure caused the blaze Monday afternoon were not immediately available.
    Whiskeytown interpretive ranger Matt Switzer said a trailer may have played a part in sparking the fire…
    https://www.redding.com/story/news/local/2018/07/23/fire-reported-near-whiskeytown-lakes-carr-powerhouse/822470002/

    PIC: 24 Jul: Facebook: KRCR TV: CARR FIRE UPDATE: According to Cal Fire, investigators are investigating this trailer with a flat tire as being the possible cause of the Carr Fire 50 comments:
    50 replies:
    Pete Flynn Looks like wheel bearings went bad. Looks at the heat on the center of the rim…ETC
    https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FKRCR7%2Fposts%2F1840273472694252&width=500

    however, Reuters results show this cause:

    One dead as raging California wildfire spreads near city
    Reuters-27 Jul. 2018
    Fire officials said the mechanical failure of a vehicle sparked the …

    but it has been removed at the actual link:

    27 Jul: Reuters: California fire ‘tornado’ kills two firefighters, thousands flee
    by Alexandria Sage; Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Tea Kvetenadze in New York, Makini Brice in Washington and Andrew Hay in New Mexico; Writing by Scott Malone and Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Tarrant, James Dalgleish & Shri Navaratnam
    A fast-growing northern California wildfire killed a second firefighter on Friday after high winds drove it into the city of Redding, prompting mass evacuations, destroying 500 structures and threatening thousands of other dwellings and businesses, officials said…
    The fire had scorched 48,300 acres (19,500 hectares) by Friday and was just 3 percent contained as ground crews, helicopters and airplanes battled the flames for a fifth day…

    Wildfires have blackened an estimated 4.15 million acres (1.68 million hectares) in the United States this year. That was well above average for the same period over the past 10 years but down from 5.27 million acres (2.13 million hectares) in the first seven months of 2017, NIFC reported…

    Cal Fire said the Cranston Fire, about 110 miles (177 km) east of Los Angeles had blackened 12,300 acres and was 16 percent contained…
    A 32-year-old man was charged with setting the Cranston fire, along with eight other blazes, and faces a potential life sentence if convicted of the charges.
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-wildfires/one-dead-as-raging-california-wildfire-spreads-near-city-idUSKBN1KH0GW

    it’s the same elsewhere:

    Two dead as raging California wildfire spreads near city – AOL Weather
    REDDING, Calif., July 27 (Reuters) – At least two firefighters have died …. ***Fire officials said the failure of a vehicle sparked the blaze …

    now omits the “vehicle” story, while “temperatures” are being brought up as stoking the fire:

    27 Jul: AOL: Reuters: Fred Greaves: California ‘Tasmanian devil’ fire kills 2 firefighters, thousands flee
    (Additional reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Milwaukee, Tea Kvetenadze in New York and Makini Brice in Washington, Writing by Scott Malone and Steve Gorman; Editing by Bill Tarrant and James Dalgleish)
    Cooler weather, higher humidity and calmer winds that normally prevailed after the sun sets could once be counted on to help tamp down flames, but McLean said extreme winds are happening with greater frequency after dark…

    ***CalFire spokesman Scott Kenney said triple-digit temperatures not only help stoke the fires, but slow down crews battling them…
    https://www.aol.com/article/weather/2018/07/27/california-tasmanian-devil-fire-kills-2-firefighters-thousands-flee/23490884/

    anything to give the impression CAGW is causing the fires, presumably.

    30

    • #
      john

      Improper woodland/forest management compounded with land/homeowners not clearing dead combustible materials and associated government environmental protections/restrictions and improper development are the MAIN cause of wildfires.

      Lightning, careless campers, faulty mechanical exhaust systems, electrical equipment failures and the occasional arsonist are just a bonus.

      Wind turbines IMHPO seem to be the more dangerous of all due to their attractiveness to lightning and numerous failures and difficulty of first responders to adequately deal with associated fire issues.

      20

  • #
    Ian George

    Hi Jo,
    Just heard on my local news that Moree had its highest July temp on record – 26.7C. Totally wrong as July 28th, 1958 was 27.8C. However checked the ‘raw’ data against ACORN and found that the CDO July temps for 1958 have been adjusted down on the ACORN record (for every day). Now 27.8C is now 27.0C.
    ACORN
    http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/acorn/sat/data/acorn.sat.maxT.053115.daily.txt
    CDO
    http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_nccObsCode=122&p_stn_num=053027&p_c=-562445323&p_startYear=1958

    Who do you alert to find out why the huge changes (up to 1C)?

    70

    • #
      el gordo

      Jennifer Marohasy needs to be alerted and a post might follow.

      Lowering the past to raise the future is criminal and I demand a Royal Commission.

      30

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    el gordo

    ‘A survey earlier this year by researchers at the University of Michigan and Cornell University found that those who said they were “highly concerned” about global warming were the least likely to take individual action. Skeptics were more likely to do the things the alarmist demand: recycle, use public transportation and so forth.’

    GWPF

    10

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  • #
    el gordo

    New evidence proves Pine Island melt caused by subglacial volcanic activity.

    https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=295861&org=OPP&from=news

    00

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    el gordo

    Who Knew?

    ‘Group think seems to prevent many journalists from realising they are wrong about renewable energy and power prices.’ Oz

    Anger at cost of regional airfares

    ‘The crippling airfares charged for regional services have left townships bitter about Australia’s major airlines.’ Oz

    00

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    Graeme#4

    The Group think article from Chris Mitchell, The Oz editor, was hard-hitting. Good to see these articles now appearing regularly. Also Tony Abbott’s comments in The Oz today were bang on target – another good article. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that the general public has got the message yet.

    00