The timing is a disaster for the UN annual junket. The Yellow Vest protest has also spread to the UK now. Politicians must be tip toeing in Katowice, Poland. The Western leaders can hardly offer prime symbolic gifts for carbon action for fear of triggering similar protests at home.
As the protests grew week after week, the “crumbs” thrown to appease the crowd only made them more resolute. The people are realizing how much power they have. The normal veneer of civility holds that the police and laws keep the peace, but the truth is that if the people feel exploited and act together, any free nation can grind to halt in days.
In hours, French President Macron is set to speak to try to defuse the anger.
Craig Rucker from CFACT took time off from the UN climate folly and walked the streets with the Gilets Jaunes. This is so interesting because he is not the usual journalist observer, and he is there, not opining from afar. He says the people have taken over the streets, but the movement is being smeared as violent, though the rioting is due to radical leftists not the core protesters of the movement. One thing is for sure, everyone with any agenda will be looking for a way to own the power in this protest.
CFACT: The Gilets Jaune are butchers, bakers and automobile makers.
Craig Rucker
After interviewing many gilets jaunes (yellow vests), and observing their demonstrations, CFACT can report that the streets belong not to the government, nor to the police, but to the men, women and children in the yellow vests. Moreover, contrary to what you may have seen in the media, in their hearts, the police are with the protestors.
The demonstrators are in fact the friends, neighbors and families of the police arrayed against them. Except in extreme cases, the police are standing aside and leaving the gilet jaunes in charge.
The gilets jaunes … are butchers, bakers and automobile makers. They are the folks who drive the trucks, farm the food, build the buildings and fix what breaks. They are France. They have had enough.
The gilets jaunes took over a large toll station on the road to Marseilles. CFACT was there. They narrowed the lanes, but allowed traffic to pass. Toll collectors and police left them completely in charge. The protestors did not allow motorists to pay the toll. They are prepared to starve leviathan.
The real Gilets Jaunes are angry that the media and government are misrepresenting them. As Craig says, Just about everyone with an agenda is trying to horn in… (read it here).
Contrast that with Adam Nossiter of The New York Times who tries (hopes) to argue that this is not a populist movement (code for right wing) saying it is a class war, not a nationalist thing. Jo Nova says, it may well be a class war rather than a climate change protest, but everybody knows which class wears the green pants. And right wing is by definition a movement against the overgrown size of government. What could be more right wing than a protest against a tax?
What both Nossiter and CFACT describe is a profound distrust of institutions.
How France’s ‘Yellow Vests’ Differ From Populist Movements Elsewhere
By Adam Nossiter, The New York Times
There’s this social distress that exists more or less everywhere,” said Marc Lazar, a specialist in Italian history at Sciences Po. “Of people who are very worried about the future, not only are they suffering, but they have profound distrust of institutions and political parties. This is what we are seeing everywhere in Europe.”
Institutions have been captured by the well-to-do bureaucrats, by corporate players, but most of all, by Big Government itself. And the major political parties have become Institutions. Almost all the key institutions have burned through their brand-names, and climate change is surely one of the show ponies for Big Government’s blazing disregard. How many esteemed organisations joined the bandwagon of The Government against The People? Of the hundreds of national and historic groups, which Scientific and Academic institution or public broadcaster stood for the people?
Adam Nossiter tries to make out that this is “like Occupy”.
What ties these uprisings together, beyond the demands, is a rejection of existing parties, unions and government institutions that are seen as incapable of channeling the depth of their grievances or of offering a bulwark against economic insecurity.
But what makes France’s revolt different is that it has not followed the usual populist playbook. It is not tethered to a political party, let alone to a right-wing one. It is not focusing on race or migration, and those issues do not appear on the Yellow Vests’ list of complaints. It is not led by a single fire-breathing leader. Nationalism is not on the agenda.
The uprising is instead mostly organic, spontaneous and self-determined. It is mostly about economic class. It is about the inability to pay the bills.
In that regard, it is more Occupy than Orban…
Except that Occupy was started by students, not workers and the key issue was inequality rather than grinding taxes. Occupy was the “99%” against the 1% of the most wealthy, but the Gilets Jaune is about the provinces against Paris. The people against The Governing Class. In the Occupy movement, fourteen times as many in the crowd identified with the US Democrats rather than Republicans. A third of the Occupy protestors had salaries over $100,000. [See Wikipedia, Protestor Demographics]. They are both leaderless uprisings against perceived unfairness, but that’s what any protest is about.
Meanwhile snowflakes at the UNFCCC are up in arms that they can’t “welcome” a scientific report:
While France burns, the petals at the climate conference are “shocked” they couldn’t even officially use the world welcome in the minutes to laud their latest pseudo-scientific gloom and doom report, issued in October. The UNFCCC commissioned that report, probably because it needed to readjust the PR memes and reissue the same-old message that there was “still time to save the world, but only just”. We Must Act Now Or Else [exclamation mark!].
COP24 fails to adopt key scientific report
Who knew, reports needed to become part of the family?
Matt McGrath, BBC:
Scientists and many delegates in Poland were shocked as the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait objected to this meeting “welcoming” the report. It was the 2015 climate conference that had commissioned the landmark study.
The report, launched in Incheon in South Korea, had an immediate impact winning praise from politicians all over the world.
Exactly. Only Big Government could get an apocalyptic report and “praise it”.
Instead they wanted to support a much more lukewarm phrase, that the conference would “take note” of the report.
Saudi Arabia had fought until the last minute in Korea to limit the conclusions of the document. Eventually they gave in. But it now seems that they have brought their objections to Poland. The dispute dragged on as huddles of negotiators met in corners of the plenary session here, trying to agree a compromise wording.
None was forthcoming.
Got to get those priorities straight eh?
Not sure what to make of any of this. But maybe….just maybe the world is actually starting to wake up to the climate change lie?!
523
The UN and the EU are having an important lesson driven home. With the French protest firing up in Belgium, and then, movinh to, of all people, the calm and practical Dutch in the Netherlands, all Europe and the UN will have no choice but to sit up and pay attention. From a small spark, doth a mighty conflagration grow.
People can be only be governed with their consent. When they retract and withdraw their consent (as Macron is learning), governments fall. Both the EU and the UN need reminding of this lesson. This lesson is an old one, and it’s also why democracies are so successful: they are forced to keep checking with the people—through regular elections and sometimes through other plebicites.
It goes back c. 4000 years to the fall of the big city states (c. 1200BCE) to the end of the Bronze Age. It is typified by the Canaanite city of Hazor (Hat-zor)where the slaves/serfs/workers, rebelled, destroying the elite’s part of the city. The people then picked up their belongings and families, and walked off into the hills of Canaan to found what later became Israel and Judea. Their lives and possessions were deliberately kept simple.
(For more background see this Nat Geo video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIweWqsmjZE, about the findings and conclusions from modern archaeology Enjoy).
It is the people who create governments to provide them with the centralized services which the people want—and are therefore prepared to pay for. It’s when governments lose sight of that little detail that they, the government, owes its existence to the governed and is the servant of the governed that trouble arises. The UN desperately wants to govern the world. But they have no idea that they need to gain and retain the consent of the people of the world.
It’s a lesson all politicians, elites and would-be rulers need reminding of regularly.
450
The UN needs to be strongly reminded they need to gain and retain the trust of those they wish to govern. From my perspective, this climate debacle is the worst method they could have chosen. Trust? Que? Are you stupid? Trust Liars?
371
The ideological UN and its many tentacled appendages spanning the breadth of society perpetrate what I refer to as a slow violence against humanity. Macron speaks of his intolerance for violence, yet tacitly ignores the very ideologically centred violence the State inexorably and unrelentingly perpetrates against its citizens under a veil of intentional doublespeak. The UN Global Migration Compact, the Trojan horse of climatism, the UNFCCC and its IPCC with its damned useless models, the thousands of “accredited” NGO’s comprising UN “civil society,” the UNEP and its ridiculous “divestment,” neo-Marxist identity politics, political correctness and cultural Marxism, the “deep State,” the treacherous MSM blinded to the Canons of Journalism, the scientivists and funding prostitutes that promote policy-based “evidence,” the tertiary and secondary lecturers and teachers, silent, silenced, and spineless, the neo-Marxist obsessed university administrations, the Con that laughably masquerades as a ‘conversation’, the absurdity of the Rainbow Cult with its fluid gender and idiotic pronouns, a disconnected, discombobulated Pope that endorses the UN “Transformational” agenda while hedging the paeds, the policies that resulted in the UK importing wood chips from Canada and the US to run Drax, the imminent collapse of the SA economy, the tens of thousands of excess deaths due to power impoverishment in the UK, and on and on it goes …
The hoi polloi are finally showing a deep resentment to their slow relentless violation, the ruination of prosperity, the deprivation of freedom, the loss of security of culture customs and traditions, immersed as they are in an increasingly borderless quagmire of those intolerants that would wish to conquer, groom, rape and murder them … and yet the MSM dismiss, decry and revile them while the BBC apparatchik, entertainer Attenborough dallies, dances, preens and pontificates at the UN Climatism Charade in Poland, strutting about virtue signalling with his all through the bleeding heart eco-placard of “end-times.”
It really is all biliously nauseating in the extreme isn’t it? /rhet
Ever stronger may the yellow shirts protest grow and flourish, throughout the World.
It is one of the most promising signs of life for a very long time of social narcosis.
There is so very, very much to address and correct.
130
The UN has demonstrated clearly it is a direct threat to democracy and peaceful enjoyment of humanity upon its own planet….
443
Perhaps the time has come, or is overdue, for a Royal Commission or its equivalent into the corruption of government, a la ours on the banks and other miscreants who have lost their way.
110
An enquiry into themselves? Which of our politicians do you see as having the chutzpah to call it?
70
Indeed. It’s not even “Noble Cause Corruption” as some would try to ameliorate it as. How can it be when even the cause is corrupted?
I remember tipping points here, tipping points there, tipping points everywhere and every one of them was imminent and urgent and there was less than ten years in which to fix them.
That was nearly twenty years ago.
What happened? It must be far too late by now.
But … Tipping Points came … and Nothing Tipped.
Even HRH Prince Charles doesn’t mention them any more.
170
Politicians and corrupt Academia suppressing true science…. Note these are the same people blaming Christianity for it.Sounds like Saul Alinsky new what he was talking about,in his book”Rules for Radicals”
60
The UN is the direct descendent of the League of Nations, who , at the apex of their power, built the Palace Des Nations on the shores of Lake Geneva, using cedar from Lebanon, Italian Marble, and riches from all over the world. At This Palace’s inaugural session, they debated the unification of European railway crossing signage…..while the Germans invaded Poland.
30
The public servants are revolting (as in disgusting, filthy, or as my dictionary offers, ‘revolting green scum’) which is why the working people are revolting (refusing to acknowledge someone or something as having authority, from Latin, revolvere, to roll back).
https://www.foto-webcam.eu/webcam/grossglockner/2018/12/10/2220
-25˚C [-13˚F] on Austria’s highest peak last night at 10.20 pm as Euro Blizzard #3 slams into the Alps. Sophocles, after 4,000 years, you’d think those who are born to rule would know a little history, eh, but sadly, non. Mort à la taxe sur le carbone!
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History? Que? This time it’s different! History won’t repeat!
Sadly, it never is different.
Sadly, History Repeats.
I’ve come to realize it’s that point about `difference’ which makes repetition inevitable: the false confidence it gives that this time it truly is different and history can’t repeat. Hindsight is 20×20 vision but it’s too late then. We don’t learn from history because we can’t. The same old, same old mistakes are made. The Ancient Greeks believed that we `travelled’ backwards through time, always able to see the past but never the future. That is an accurate but not helpful proposition.
70
The socialists don’t read history.They believe the past is irrelevant , and that the future is all that matters. The only “history” they have ever read is Karl Marx
70
Greg in NZ says:
Ha!
What is your dictionary and where did you find it? 🙂
20
My favourite is a 1946 Odhams English Dictionary – bought for $12 from a second-hand bookstore in Dunedin twenty years ago – has loads of old words, technical phrases, medical terms (including Gregory-powder… don’t try it!), even words with 6 or more syllables! But that wee gem, ‘revolting green scum’, was bog-standard Mac desktop dictionary – which, for ‘green‘, offers, pale and sickly-looking: “Are you all right?—You look absolutely green.” As for ‘scum‘, well, self-explanatory really.
.
10
Who ver would trust bloody foreigners ( even in UN caps) to govern Australia ? I never will.
In fact I think we need a referendum to change the constitution thus : “Any law or treaty or agreement which reduces or limits our Australian National sovereignty must be approved by the people via a majority vote & a majority of voters in majority of states, in a national referendum”
Let the UN and world government fanatics or Greenists, try to weasel out of that.
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“GOVERN”? I shudder every time some do-gooder poly signs a “non-binding UN resolution”. We’ve heard them before. The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
40
“We who feed you are on strike! Get with the program or get out!”
Every time it has been tried, it has worked. Will it work this time? It will if the strikers have the right ideas and stick to them. It won’t if the government tries to use force to stop the strike. You cannot force anyone to think, create, and produce beyond the digging of graves and ditches. Even that does not work all that well.
The pretense that all the lunches are free won’t work either. It is because they, who are on strike, are those who must provide the lunches. It takes freedom and the government staying out of everything except protecting individual rights for civilization to happen. Civilization cannot to continue beyond the consumption of all the accumulated capital assets. Consume the producers and no more wealth is created. The end of it all is thereby assured.
The non productive Nannie State and its captive parasites will either learn the lesson once again or the civilization they feed off will collapse. The wish that “there will always be more to take” will be shown for what it is: an empty wish for which they expect you, the still productive, to pay. They have no choice in the matter. Nor do we. Either way, the feeding frenzy WILL end! The only real question is how much will it cost to end it and who will pay for the process.
Why?
Reality is real. Governments and its captive parasites are fighting a war against reality. That is a war that cannot be won. Covering the loses with still more human sacrifice only hastens the end. This is the lesson that history is trying to teach us. Learn the lesson and a chance to thrive is open. Refuse to learn and the price is life itself.
50
Gordon:
The socialists / Marxists / statists / Dumb-o-crats
all want “free stuff” — paid for by government borrowing,
corporate taxes, taxes on the rich, or taxes
hidden from the general public in some way,
and gradually raised, so few would notice.
When the middle and lower class have to pay,
from their own wallets, and they notice that,
they can get very nasty.
Here in the US, the coverage of the riots is
unbelievably incomplete.
Three important questions
that I have, and I think others
would want to know,
have never been answered
in the many hours
of TV news that we watch
(an equal amount of
left-biased news
and right-biased news):
(1)
How much did a gallon of gasoline cost in France
before the new taxes (in US dollars and US gallons)?
(2)
How much would gasoline in France cost after
the new tax ?
(3)
Exactly what effect on the average global temperature /
climate change would increased tax revenues
from the new tax, be expected to have ?
I still don’t know the answers to these
basic questions and refuse to look them up,
wondering if they will ever be answered on
the TV news that we watch
for at least one hour a day,
every day of the week !
We HAVE seen much TV footage
of rioters rampaging
and burning cars.
My climate science blog:
http://www.elOnionBloggle.Blogspot.com
10
It doesn’t sound as though Canada’s Prime Minister is even aware of what’s happening in Paris. He supposedly remains “undeterred”.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/39210/undeterred-violent-protests-france-trudeau-set-amanda-prestigiacomo
11
SHE will always be undeterred.
10
If there is indeed a class war brewing separately from a climate change protest then the two no doubt will merge and become a major headache for the establishment in the West. Unfortunately that probably means more civil violence but then again the establishment reaps what they sow.
260
Speaking of ignoting a “war” – May seems to have sabotaged the Brexit exit – shew will have another “France” on her hands if she doesnt do what the people wanted…..
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-11/brexit-uk-pm-theresa-may-postpones-vote-on-deal/10603744
“British Prime Minister Theresa May has abruptly postponed a parliamentary vote on her Brexit deal, throwing Britain’s plan to leave the European Union into chaos after admitting that she faced a rout.
Mrs May’s move on the eve of the scheduled parliamentary vote opens up an array of possible outcomes, ranging from a disorderly Brexit with no deal to another referendum on EU membership.
Mrs May’s own position could be in jeopardy, with calls from opposition parties for her to step aside.
The PM said she still intended to put her deal to MPs. But she would first ask the EU for more “reassurances” over the main bone of contention: a “backstop” to ensure no hard border on the island of Ireland, which her critics say means Britain could end up indefinitely subject to EU rules after it leaves.
Announcing the delay, Mrs May was laughed at by some MPs when she said there was broad support for the deal and that she had listened carefully to different views over it — the result of 18 months of tortuous negotiations.
“If we went ahead and held the vote tomorrow, the deal would be rejected by a significant margin,” Mrs May told Parliament, adding that she was confident it was the right deal.”
140
Yes the “deal” turned out to be a dud and contrary to what the British voted for. Notice the EU warned there will be no re-negotiations. It means they almost succeeded in pulling a con job. See how the elite are so daring? They truly believe they can do anything they like against the wishes of the people. As we all know all the people can’t be fooled all the time. There comes a time when enough people know the game is up and that’s usually well before the elite do. The phase transition will get ugly though.
160
Her ‘deal’ is absolutely not Brexit…it would leave the UK in a far worse position than what the majority voted for when they voted Leave. She seems utterly impervious to logic or commonsense or remembering that she is actually supposed to be a servant, not a dictator.
172
I’m afraid you got it wrong. She knows very well what she tried to do. She is no fool and had no intention of being a servant to the people. She and many others of her ilk are smart and plan things very well otherwise they would not have lasted so long as she did. They will replace her with someone even smarter and more dangerous to make sure their evil plans have the best chance of succeeding.
90
Once the Elites lap dogs get thrown out on a regular basis, they will have to re-assess taking on an informed public….
Should we call her “Madame Macron”?
I recall the Poll tax riots…it might get ugly in the UK again..
70
I was being polite PeterS! I do think she knows exactly what she is doing but puts on the appearance of being impervious to everyone else’s point of view. The ‘deal’ is far worse than what the UK is stuck with atm and we voted to LEAVE that anti- democratic, autocratic, bureaucratic unelected mess. The sooner it implodes the better. Treason May has tried her best to keep us there…she is acting like a traitor.
112
Understood. I’ve researched and thought about this for a long while and I tend to believe that such people as her are smart enough to do their job well enough to accomplish as much of the agenda as possible. Once they start to fail the elite group tend to find a replacement quick smart. Sometimes one comes along who is much smarter than the elite group itself and takes over completely with tragic consequences for the people but they eventually fall too.
40
About the only thing Teresa May is doing well is providing Nigel Farage with ever more and better ammunition, which, of course he delights in exploding. Very accurately, too. She is making a real Dogs Breakfast of BrExit.
She might need replacing, and the sooner the better. Her present stance is an arrant betrayal. Trouble is, she has shown herself to be a “weak negotiator” with the Bulls of Europe.
No, I’ve changed my mind: she should be replaced and as quickly as possible. Britain voted to leave and a hard fast exit will be best.
140
Meanwhile, Boris is circling.
60
Boris has done enough circling. He needs to “grow a pair” and actually get on with it or move over and let someone else do it.
90
High time he did but be was undermined by the foolish Michael Gove.
41
Agreed. He should have put his hand up in 2017 after May’s disastrous election. I was gobsmacked when he didn’t. He may however believe he has the numbers now. But it’s time to crap or get off the pot, as our US friends so aptly put it.
20
I’m glad you added those last two sentences Sophocles…I was about to before finishing reading your comment.
21
Thank you Annie.
Britain is at the eleventh hour and it’s got to be exact, concise and non-compromising: `Forget a deal: we’re Gone!’ The EU has been playing TM like a game fish.
It might help Italy, Greece and the others to move sideways too.
30
Don’t count on Nigel Farage or Boris Johnson to save the day.They both abandoned the UK 2 years ago.It may be up to Tommy Robinson and UKIP to get them out of the EU.His”Brexit Betrayal”rally went down well with the people.And ill bet that it will only get bigger if the”BureaucRATS”in both Westminster and Brussels try to ignore it.
31
Farage is an entertainer, Johnson is a bright vacillator. Together, they can be useful propagandists. But leaders? No.
Ms May doesn’t want to leave—that’s obvious. Absolutely the last person to deal with Brussels. They know her weakness.
TM has been compared with Neville Chamberlain. Chamberlain was never that stupid.
HMGovt developed the Shadow Factories plan for the RAF rearmament in 1935 and it was approved by Stanley Baldwin (the UK PM then). It was to use the automotive industrial assembly as mass production for building military aircraft. Lord Nuffield was handed a brief to build Castle Bromwich Aircraft Assembly plant in 1937. Chamberlain went to negotiate with Herr Hitler in 1938. It the UK had gone to war with Germany in 1938 it would have lost. Chamberlain, as PM of the time, would have been briefed thoroughly. Whether or not he believed in Appeasement is irrelevant. He had to buy time for factories like Castle Bromwich to get going. Lord Nuffield was removed from setting up Castle Bromwich and the job was handed to Lord Beaverbrook. He got it going before the end of 1940. The RAF had to be careful and conserve its Spitfires as best it could during the Battle of Britain because Castle Bromwich was underway but there wasn’t a lot coming out at that time. It is known that Hitler found `Peace in our Time’ risible but it may have helped him maintain a certain lack of urgency that saved the RAF.
TM hasn’t got the necessity of Chamberlain. There are only 28 nations in the EU. The Commonwealth of Nations has nearly twice that number at 53. The UK doesn’t need the EU but the reverse is not necessarily true. When the UK goes, the EU will hurt.
40
Would the Brits be better off playing a waiting game? What May is offering is the worst of both worlds. Why not run up the white flag, keeping the powder dry, until France and Italy pull the pin? Together they can make demands.
It is two years since brexit so another two may be all it takes before they can present a united front.
10
I understand there is a deadline: March 2019.
10
As our politicians also bow to false gods and lead us to poverty and misery, their time of reckoning will come.
310
Yes, enough of the musical chairs of cooperative politicians passing government from side to side and not representing we the people who elect them;
Give your primary vote to a minor party or trustworthy independent.
270
Wrong. The preferences always find there way back to the major parties. Time to spoil the ballot so it registers your disapproval. 2,000,000 or more spoiled ballots will send a stronger message than voting for some obscure candidate that will change preferences for the price of a cup of coffee.
Short of taking to the streets we’ll never get the message across thru voting!!
163
Totally agree, if Morrison fails to do my bidding then Informal voting will be the de rigueur.
133
They only care about being in government, informal votes are ignored.
81
At the Victorian election there was a 6% Informal vote, we need to increase that to 10% to match the Greens.
40
Not in some districts of the United States.
Have they actually stopped voting in the Mid Terms yet?/sarc.
90
“They only care about being in government, informal votes are ignored.”
Not quite.
They get “electoral support” (ie, $) based on their PRIMARY vote.
Therefore, even if they get your preferences, they don’t get the cash.
But certainly you are correct in that it won’t make them CHANGE policies. An election loss MIGHT do that, but not informal votes.
60
In the US they were clearly non-English speaking voters so they are counted as dem.
20
And that, dear reader, is why Billary “won” the popular vote.
Well, she was pretty ‘informal’ as SecState. Just ask the family of J Christopher Stevens, former and late Ambassador to Libya.
00
Right, so place Labor last, Greens second last, LNP third last and other candidates above with primary vote to a minor party or trustworthy independent candidate.
Anthony Green has pointed out that the trickledown effect has rarely gone past third position.
The aim of this strategy is for a hung parliament meaning the probably major party with the most seats would hopefully need several outsiders to join an alliance minority government. And therefore, denied Senate control too, the shock of the result knocks some sense into the survivors?
The 2010 federal election resulted in a hung parliament, but hopefully 2019 will be a more difficult to manage result. Like herding Cats.
120
Denis,
To get someone’s attention quick smart, when they’ve been ignoring you for years , is to give them a sharp slap in the face. Futher talking only results in the same lies with a slightly different slant. A slap in the face or a poke in the eye will get their attention & a change of attitude in case the slap turns into something a lot more serious!
81
“The aim of this strategy is for a hung parliament…”
I was excited – then I saw you meant “hung parliament” as “no clear political party has won”, rather than “here’s the rope…”
50
Gawd: you’re a real optimist Kneel! 🙂
30
Lol. I was about to pick him up on the usage of the verb ‘to hang’, and then I realised he is correct. The Government is already dead, so ‘hung’ is correct.
10
Graham Richards:
You forget about the money given for each first preference vote. Depriving the main parties of millions of dollars will get the message to them in no uncertain terms and a message that they won’t be able to ignore.
230
Yes, $2.70 for every primary vote received paid from taxpayer’s (voters) monies.
But that is not achieved by voting informal, in fact the more voters that do that makes it easier to share and preference formal votes.
90
True, but an increase in the “informal”vote reduces the number of first preference tax payer funded windfall funds available for distribution. Less first preferences equates to a reduction in the coffers.
30
D69=Vendetta?
20
Preferencing minor parties is the best way to give the outsiders a chance with both the money and the vote.
If we want Not-the-establishment we have to help them. The big parties notice and study the votes that go to independents and cross benchers. One senate seat can hold the balance of power. That’s leverage and it happens on a much smaller vote!
Do the numbers. How many percent of the population would have to vote informal for it to lead to actual change? Even if a phenomenal 50% of the population did so, the winners would still govern. (Think Macron, only winning 25% of the original first vote). An informal vote is a blurred protest. It is so unfocused it hurts the good guys as much as the bad.
Do you really believe the Lib Dems, or Aust Conservatives, etc are as bad as the Greens?
160
I absolutely agree Jo,
A valid vote carries more weight than an informal one.
Check out all the minor parties; One Nation, Katter, DLP, Family First, Reason Party etc. They all have the -party manifesto on their web sites.
Here is the Australian Conservatives Policy on Energy:
Australians deserve the most reliable and affordable energy in the world.
With electricity generation, we are technology-agnostic but subsidy-averse.
We support nuclear power and a nuclear fuel cycle industry.
We support all forms of electricity generation and will provide them with legislative certainty and legal protection.
We do not support any renewable energy targets.
We will remove all taxpayer and cross subsidies to electricity generation.
We will require all electricity supplied to the grid to be useable – that is, predictable and consistent in output (kWhrs) and synchronous (at the required 50 Hz range).
We will allow market forces to provide the most efficient power generation available.
We will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.
What is there not to like?
The only problem with minor party preferences is that we do not know what deals have been done about order of distribution.
Therefore I encourage every voter to vote Below the Line! That is not as hard as it used to be. In the recent Victorian election only 9 names were required for a valid below the line vote.
100
‘How many percent of the population would have to vote informal for it to lead to actual change?’
At the moment its hovering around 5%, so a doubling at the next election would be good for starters. If Morrison doesn’t take the Party back to the centre right, then Canberra will be a one party state and I would expect the Informal vote to surge.
20
‘What is there not to like?’
Cory supports nuclear power and likes guns.
Bernardi on the cosy duopoly on the road to becoming a one party state.
‘The result will be further erosion of your freedoms, bigger government, higher taxes and ballooning debt. Immigration will continue unchecked, the cost of living will continue to rise and our way of life will be forever changed.’
42
What’s wrong with Nuclear power El Gordo ? I think ACP have nailed the energy debate by removing the restrictions and the subsidies with the exception of making all forms of electricity reliable and continuous.
This counts out wind and solar from the get go unless they spend Gazillions on battery’s or go the cheaper route and go coal or nuke .
40
Political commonsense should dictate Cory’s thinking, nuclear power infrastructure start-up is too expensive compared to a coal plant.
The Next Gen at Whyalla will more than likely be a coal fired power station, but that is a few years away.
20
Reclaim YOUR vote. Do not preference anyone that you refuse to be part of government.The system will “declare”your vote “informal”but this will be the only way to get the message across.Both major parties are but little more than mirror images of each other, the only defining attitude is the speed with which they will take us over the precipice.With a large enough “informal”result there will not be the option of the usual claim to an electoral win being an expression of the confidence of the electorate.The loss of the taxpayers enforced subsidy by way of the Voters Bonus Payment to Political Parties scheme would be an additional bonus.It is YOUR vote.You decide who you want in government even if this means a “None of the above please”, endorsement on the ballot paper. I believe Australia also desperately needs “Right Of Recall” legislation to provide a means of calling non performing members to explain ,under threats of possible expulsion why they are not impementing electoral promises.
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A good concept to ponder D but likely to produce the Drone Effect where through following life long allegiances, one of the major partis will gain government.
It’s difficult.
KK
30
‘…this will be the only way to get the message across.’
Not quite, they will just think you are intellectually lazy, better to scribble across the ballot papers … A pox on both your houses, CO2 does not cause global warming.
40
As any scrutineer will tell you, that stuff doesn’t get recorded.
20
Greebo if 100,000 voters scribbled those words then it would be noticed.
00
Oh but el gordo just look at all that global warming (especially affecting the NH)… https://www.ventusky.com/?p=46;4;1&l=temperature-2m&m=gfs
20
There should be an option on the ballot papers for, “none of the above”.
That should fix them!
110
Optional preferences.
40
Optional preferences was an option at the last Federal election,detailed in the Electoral Act as to what was considered a formal vote if all squares were not numbered.However the Electoral Commission website directed that ALL squares MUST be numbered to be a formal vote.When questioned on this discrepancy, the reply was that it is not necessary to fill all squares to cast a formal vote but, they were required not to state this in the directions on the AEC website.A large number of questions on this matter were asked on the site an all were given the same general reply. At the polling booth, voters were instructed that ALL squares must be numbered,in direct conflict with the provisions of the Act which clearly stated the acceptable sequence and number of preferences to be a valid vote. When this direction was disputed by myself when I went to vote,the response was denial and the emergence of two very unhappy and disturbing persons from the rear of the booth.
00
Only protesting at the ballot box is way too late. If you aren’t regularly sending messages to your local state and federal members and key ministers about the topics that matter to you, then you are missing the point of democracy.
100
They don’t give a stuff about informal votes, as long as they maintain a majority. As Kneel points out, the loss of cash from not receiving the primary vote is what hurts them most.
40
Wrong.Voting below the line stops the”Uni-Party”from harvesting your preferences.A”donkey”vote will be ignored by them.
30
Unfortunately, 2,000,000 spoiled ballot papers will not move them. They really do not care a jot.
One or the other half of the Uni-party will get their bottoms on the Treasury seats, the other half will spend the next three years shouting at them on the one hand, while making chummy deals behind the Speakers chair on the other, in the farcical theatre that is their Parliament – it certainly isn’t ours any more.
20
I doubt it, but a Labor government led by Bill shorten is sure to enjoy office for just the one term. Unreliable supplies of electricity will see to that.
182
I foresee lots of Big Batteries before anyone gets a rush of common sense to the head.
It may take several elections to hammer that in.
151
Or when the blackouts start becoming noticeable, especially if global cooling starts to bite.
170
Let’s hope for the big South Australian blackout to take place soon in order to demonstrate the ineffectual capacity of the Hornsdale Power Reserve before more money is wasted on these white elephants.
Sorry South Australia but you need to lead the way into the abyss so that the rest of us don’t get too close and can help pull you out.
80
With Tony’s help I have been taking a look at SA demand per AEMO aggregated data files to date for December that has included a couple of hot summer days.
SA max/min/mean demands for Dec have been 2575/520/1271 MW. So peak demand has been about double the average demand.
Interestingly the minimum occurred around midday, showing the growing importance of rooftop solar, although 4 am was almost as low (see Jo’s June 2018 report on the duck curve).
Adding more wind/solar does zip to meet that peak demand on hot summer evenings.
Allowing for a 90% availability factor, SA has 2900 MW of gas/diesel to meet those peak demands, plus of course that 100 MW/129 MWhr “big battery”, and the Vic power cord, although Vic is increasingly struggling to look after itself, and relies on Tassie hydro.
SA has 1900 MW nameplate of wind, or about 600 MW average delivery.
So on average, SA demand can be met with 600 MW of wind and 670 MW of gas.
But when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining, SA needs all of that gas/diesel capacity to be available on demand. What a wasted investment in wind and solar. The only savings are some incremental fuel costs. Yet still we hear the mantra “wind/solar are lowest cost”. Would anyone invest in them without the RET?
60
And just published by AEMO: The MTPASA result published on 11 December 2018 identifies a Low Reserve Conditions in Victoria in 2018-19. (i.e. this summer). Unfortunately it seems graphs are only available to participants.
50
What do you mean ‘if?’ 2024 may not be a very nice year. The last glaciation started 100,000 years ago from then. Here’s another (mathematical) forecast of doom, gloom and freeze your butt off (note: this video is not peer reviewed nor has it been published in the literature)
Mini Ice Age 2024 Maths- Its not good news – Milankovitch Cycles —easily checked, though. Run the numbers for yourself.
The science behind the Grand Solar Minimum in place of SSC 26 was someone—completely unfunded—following a personal interest. Sounds like Einstein but it’s not. The individual predicting the GSM was more than a little surprised at what fell out. The mathematics and data is readily available, so it should be easily replicable. That there has been no serious challenge so far, speaks volumes.
Here, for your viewing and edification: Herself explaining her work. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_yqIj38UmY&t=2015s )
This is one discovery where time really is running away from us … mind you, no amount of CO2 reductions will help. We may have to tolerate increases!
50
The greatest danger we have is is not in overheating, but in losing what precious energy we get from the Sun or having it reduced.
Of course the added problem of “reflection” of inbound UV from an icy surface compounds the issue.
Everything that is scientifically contrary to reality has been wrapped up and packaged as the Man Made Global Warming Mythology.
Then to add insult to injury they overtax everybody.
KK
00
Renewable Australia update: Fear of blackouts means diesel generator sales up 400%
[Hope that was the link you were looking for John?! – Jo]
50
“How many once esteemed organisations joined the bandwagon of The Government against The People?”
One might be wondering how this could happen in Paris, France, the home of the planet saving global warming treaty talks, brought to you by …
About 20% of the €170m (£122m) cost of the Paris conference will come from firms such as EDF, Engie (formerly known as GDF Suez), Air France, Renault-Nissan and BNP Paribas, the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius,said on Thursday.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/29/paris-climate-summit-sponsors-include-fossil-fuel-firms-and-big-carbon-emitters
But senior French sources insist that while they would have preferred funding from renewable energy companies, they had been impelled to take a “pragmatic choice”.
110
What? They expect generosity from the Rentier Class? How naïve.
120
Enlightening!
40
This is where the leftists eat themselves.
This is not class…ruling class…working class…elites…poor. France is relearning equality, fraternity, liberty. For me, the turning point was video of the police actually standing back and “lifting their visors”..this showed that propaganda of violent protest is not the real yellow vest movement. The fascists will be routed out by the movement itself. Macron is a dead man walking if he doesnt capitulate on his climate quest.
330
I think if the movie “V for Vendetta”,and marvel how close we are right now. If the globalists push things any further, they either have to commit genocide upon the peoples of the world to keep thier power ( amd i dont like thier chances if survival) , or they back off….
Either way, the globalists have lost this round.
People gave stood up ti them and said “No more….!”
171
Yes but in that movie the evil establishment was extreme right wing Nazi like fascists. If we are not careful the pendulum might swing too far the other way and the leftists will be replaced by another equally dangerous group. Of course we could say there is no real left versus right and just say there are competing groups of equally evil people fighting for the top job to control everyone. Makes no difference in the end. Much of the populace are too asleep to notice the battles between the competing groups and instead focus too much on the headline news and violence. Once the dust settles though the populace will know what happened and will get the biggest shock of their lives. Then the real fight begins.
100
Had a chat with a fellow who thought the ABC was centre, until I convinced him it was centre left. Then he argued that with Murdoch’s right wing media influence the ABC provides necessary balance.
So I said plainly, as a tax payer I resent paying for propaganda.
220
Good responses. His attitude is just an example of how much of the population are fooled into believing all is OK when in fact this nation is gradually and deliberately being demolished socially and economically. Oh well they will eventually find out the truth the hard way.
160
Well, the problem is that as the ABC keeps calling itself “Our ABC” its taken the population along for the ride as its slid further and further left….frog in the warm water scenario…
So unless you can provide a middle ground comparison to the far-left ABC, you will have a hard time convincing people.
80
Actually it is “our” ABC. Otherwise the LNP would have at least gone a long way to criticise it by now much like Trump has been critical of certain MSM outlets in the US, and for good reason of course. As long as nothing is done about the ABC we as taxpayers and hence the government are all supporting it to the full. Ironic too how the ABC is taxpayer supported yet we have absolutely no say as to who runs it. Sounds like a totalitarian dictatorship. It really must be sold off or shut down.
80
🙂 tricky.
30
PeterS, a question. Since when has the German National Socialist Party (NAZI) ever been right wing? They were left wing when they were formed and never changed their stance. It was Stalin that said they were right wing and that was in relation to his Communist Party at the time.
112
I have the same question, and I thank you for asking it. The NSDAP, and the DAP which followed, are described as far right due to their racist and nationalistic views, but these descriptions can just as easily be used for the far left, and describe the NAZIs in modern terms. Hitler’s policies were generally supported by people who we would describe as being of the left, as a perusal of those who openly supported eugenics will show. Not all, certainly, but the majority.
As with the Neo Nazis, and the Klan, it is better to drop the left/right moniker and merely describe tham as extreme, and foul.
90
As I said a number of times left versus right is a diversion. I only use those terms because they are widely used and accepted. Nazism as you know stands for national socialism. They hated the communists and got rid of them quick smart before they turned their attention to the Jews. National socialists and communist have a lot of similarities but they also have several major differences. If you need more details DYOR – there’s plenty of material for study. However, let’s not get bogged down in trying to make a big thing out of it. They are all bad. In reality though each political party since the dawn of time have their own unique attributes but can and do overlap to varying degrees. Placing them on a left-right spectrum can be misleading but that’s how most people see it.
30
I agree. It’s what I was trying to say in my last sentence. There’s no sense getting bogged down in labels, when most of us would have difficulty differentiating between a Kriminalkommissar and a Grand Dragon of the Klan, accent aside.
20
May I hope that it spreads to this country?
At last the little guy speaks up and finds that in numbers there is power, even the power to buck the almighty United Nations and the government of France.
240
It’s hard to known how much is spreading here. The protesting here up until now has always been about other issues that are the flavour of the year for the left. The next federal election will be a good indicator as to the sentiment of the masses. There is still some time for the discontent to flow to here provided we are not that far gone into a coma. Of course if enough of us have’t woken up by then a single term under Shorten should be enough to wake up even the dead.
110
Recent events in Victoria would seem to demonstrate otherwise.
60
I notice the truth is finally told of where the violence is coming from during the protests, this is exactly what happens here in Victoria when the left/Antifa is mobilized with backing from the various Soros backed “groups” that we’ve seen at Patriot Rallies, Politician and other Alt/Right speaking engagements.
Yet again and again the MSM purposely distorts the facts into a pre determined narrative for favour and deals from “the state”, I’ll take a polygraph and swear on my family’s life of what I witnessed but considering the severely compromised processes in this state I’ll take my chances on the street.
61
Isn’t it their job to distort the facts? Who else would do it if not the MSM?
00
Oh, I get it now. If the MSM didn’t distort the facts then the politicians would have to lie. And they’re all too honest to do that, aren’t they?
[If you would learn to proofread then I wouldn’t have to come along and fix your careless errors. MSWM isn’t anything but your mistake. Someday you won’t be commenting when I’m here looking for someone to make an example of and then you’ll be embarrassed even more than you’ll be now. It would be justice even better than this.] AZ
10
I forgot to say /sarc on
10
And now I see a nasty comment from AZ. Between them ED and AZ have had it in for me lately. And all I ever did was make a typo according to AZ.
Help Jo! The moderators are after me along with the guys with the big net.
It ain’t fair.
30
Give them time. If necessary they will learn the hard and very painful way.
20
Besides they didn’t have much of a choice although the self-destructing LNP is still the lesser of two evils IMHO. Not many people would agree apparently but I will wait and see how the federal election pans out to determine if Australians have gone completely brain dead or not.
50
Not much choice? You’re dead right there. Not surprising we ( ugh ) went with the status quo. Most people I spoke to had never heard of Guy; Kroger had only recently been involved in a bitter duel for the State presidency, and the only ad I saw for the Liberals was one bringing up Federal Labor’s ill fated home insulation scheme ( to be fair, I don’t watch television ), which really only served to focus people’s attention on the Federal issue most recent in their memories. Madness.
Andrews has a reasonable record ( for a given definition of ‘reasonable’ ) to show. The things people see, such as employment. Just don’t mention the fact that the Government employs a great deal of them, never mind where their wages are coming from. I have two family members in the PS here, both earning (?) well, both secure as long as Labor remains, and of course until the money runs out. It’s not hard to see why they would vote ALP. Victoria will need to fall off a cliff, a la Cain/Kirner before things will change here, and even then it will require our own Trump, or another Kennett, to cut through.
I’m afraid that the same malaise is upon all of Australia. For the sake of my grandkids I hope I’m wrong.
20
Yes Roy, time to get down to Bunnings and pick up a Gillett Jeune, to be prepared!
70
Assuming FaceChook doesn’t start taking down “fake news” etc on the organisers…
50
I already have mine.These”Cowardly,Lying,Do Nothing,Career Politicians”don’t seem to be getting the message.”These”Traitors”from the”Uni-Party”are too busy finalizing who’s turn it is to govern us”Plebs”They may get a shock when WE don’t vote for either of them.
10
It is becoming all the more obvious throughout the world that these climate change scammers know that they are pushing rubbish. They are increasingly being exposed as a team of elitists using this scam to amass the big bucks.
252
Socialism masquerading as environmentalism
https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/climate-change-crisis-capitalism/
131
The President of France, a former PM’s son and the Chief Scientist: Andrew Bolt Report
https://twitter.com/theboltreport/status/1072044528981274625
121
THE PARIS CLIMATE AGREEMENT IS ‘DEAD,’ DECLARES FORMER TOP UN DELEGATE
“Are you still following the dead Paris Agreement?” Al Sabban tweeted in response to former New York Times write Andrew Revkin.
“They will go from one meeting to another forever till it’s officially announced its death.
Don’t be selective when you attack the Saudi UNFCCC position. It is unfair,” Al Sabban wrote.
“Believe me. You wasting [your] time and money going to these meetings.
I am in Saudi Arabia relaxed and whenever I follow the deadlock the negotiations are facing in Poland, I start laughing,” Al Sabban tweeted in response to another reporter.
https://dailycaller.com/2018/12/10/paris-agreement-dead-un/
Thank you, President Trump.
250
10 Dec: Guardian: Australia’s silence during climate change debate ***shocks COP24 delegates
Country accused of tacitly supporting oil allies’ rejection of the latest science
by Ben Doherty in Katowice, Poland
As four of the world’s largest oil and gas producers blocked UN climate talks from “welcoming” a key scientific report on global warming, Australia’s silence during a key debate is being viewed as tacit support for the four oil allies: the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait…
Negotiators spent two and a half hours trying to hammer out a compromise without success…
Australia did not speak during the at-times heated debate, a silence noted by many countries on the floor of the conference, Dr Bill Hare, the managing director of Climate Analytics and a lead author on previous IPCC reports, told Guardian Australia.
“Australia’s silence in the face of this attack yesterday shocked many countries and is widely seen as de facto support for the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait’s refusal to welcome the IPCC report,” Hare said.
170
How funny. That spokesperson needs to look closer and learn the lesson(s) which have been and are being forced onto Australia. One has to ask the rhetorical question:
“I wonder why?” Heh!
110
… perhaps it has a lot to do with needing …”wood fired telescopes.” 🙂
80
I prefer my steam powered word processor (a typewriter, in case you missed it).
60
If you typed slower the overheating might subside?
50
electric or purely manual? Of course, the steam is all yours? 🙂
I don’t like Word Processors: they’re just typewriters with pictures … and lots of bugs. I prefer a text editor and pipe it through LaTeX if I want printing press quality (or through groff, Groff is easier for small stuff but still printing press quality.)
30
Probably couldn’t get a word in edgewise amid the babble.
70
More likely to do with the fact the ScoMo knows which way the Australian voters are leaning on this.
Why “welcome” something that’s designed to do great damage to you? Only a green left-wing looney would do that.
80
Well, delegates running around shrieking and runningin ever decreasing circles, waving their hands in the air while frothing at the mouth is not a good look…
Tell me again why on earth we’d participate in a hysterical communal self flaggellation activity?
70
… it’s all the free um intoxicants
🙂
40
Macron is starting to capitulate.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-11/macron-to-speed-up-tax-cuts-amid-yellow-vests-unrest/10603766
70
May he soon follow Napoleon’s exit path
140
The day the Duke of Wellington again stood against a despotic French ruler….and won….
80
“Capitulate” nah, I think you missed a consonant eh!
The peasants are revolting, the deplorables are disgusting & there aren’t any [naughty]corners on the the Big Round-a-Bout, but they have to come out of the Big House some time so,
LET THEM KNOW!
they chose their job.
80
Tax cuts and pay rises. Is that one political promise or two?
80
For that to happen here first we will need taxes rises to create enough pain for the masses. I’m sure Shorten will help out there.
90
Too little, too late. They’ll never trust him again.
40
True but no doubt there are many standing by to take his place. The only question is will his replacement be just as bad or worse in the current spiral to the abyss? Only time will tell. After the cycle ends and the next one begins then and only then will there be good leaders again – until the next time.
50
Given what Another Ian says @ #18, that may well be never. I wonder, does the guillotine still reside somewhere in the Bastille? If so, Macron might be well advised to burn it.
20
‘Australia did not speak during the at-times heated debate, a silence noted by many countries on the floor of the conference, Dr Bill Hare, the managing director of Climate Analytics and a lead author on previous IPCC reports, told Guardian Australia.
“Australia’s silence in the face of this attack yesterday shocked many countries and is widely seen as de facto support for the US, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Kuwait’s refusal to welcome the IPCC report,” Hare said.
Guardian
80
Yup…so they wre staying out of an argument about a pointless topic of converstion …smart I’d have said…..
When all around you are lunatics, being sane makes you look out of place….
“In a time of universal deception, speaking the truth was a revolutionary act”
– 1984
120
I would like to know if Morrison gagged them for strategic reasons?
A huge swathe of ordinary folk are oblivious to any real understanding of politics and only vote because its compulsory.
“…most men and women will grow up to love their servitude and will never dream of revolution.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
60
At a news conference [22Jan2015] in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity, but to destroy capitalism. “This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution,” she said
. Referring to a new international treaty environmentalists hope will be adopted at the Paris climate change conference later this year, she added: “This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model for the first time in human history.”
In the face of this”Revelation”why is anybody not screaming this from the tallest mountain?
20
Not Paris but
“The snow job in Poland”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/12/10/the-snow-job-in-poland/
50
The French know better than any other nation that large groups control the streets. They in turn used to be controlled by the military and cannons. Englishman Sir Robert Peel in 1829 created a novel idea, a non military police force and the policemen came to be known ‘Bobbies’. A policeman man carried no gun and peace was maintained by general agreement. The policemen were unarmed members of the community. So peace was maintained without weapons by consensus. A novel idea. Even today the English police do not carry guns. That is done by a flying squad. In Europe police were created too, Gendarmes, Polizia, Militsia but they were more likely armed.
The simple fact is that you cannot control a mob with a handgun. Then behind them you have the radicals, the extreme left (the brownshirts, blackshirts were socialists) and the opportunists, especially destitute often illiterate people from countries where violence is the norm. As I have written, Paris is a hopelessly crowded powder keg with thousands in tents on the streets of St. Denis. This is why even the giant Galleries Lafayette has the shutters down and the windows emptied and boarded up.
So to restore Paris to normal, Macron has to give in or call in the army. If he calls in the army, the streets will clear and business will stop. If he gives in, he loses all credibility at home and there is no end in sight to the concessions. People want to stop the mass migration, the UN meeting in Marrakesh this week. Macron may have to resign and leave with some dignity. France is always on the boil underneath and socialist and nationalistic and unreasonable and violence is always lurking. Uncontrolled mass migration has made it much worse and they are all tied together. The political Climate is what is changing. Probably because of CO2.
240
Incorrect, it’s “carbon pollution” so maybe the politicians are right about Carbon Dioxide being toxic?
42
” If he [Macron] calls in the army,…”
He will get an object lesson in practical politics – if he is lucky, he will keep his head.
70
Let us hope that he is not stupid enough to call in the French Foreign Legion.
20
The English police are not and never have been unarmed. Right from the start, they carried truncheons (night-sticks, billyclubs, coshes, clubs … etc) Guns were issued even in Victorian England but it was not common and seems to be only when needed, but most often to mounted police. Police have not had to escalate their defences so they haven’t seen the need to any great degree.
Rough justice can be always administered “down at the station” and probably has been to get The Message across to the bad boys ever since. Of course, every crim is always dealt with `strictly according to [the official] protocol.’
There’s Victorian Police truncheons Part 1 of maybe 2 parts. (part 2 = Police Swords.)
The English have always had the law of an absolute right of self defence. That applies to Police Officers as well as citizens.
New Zealand Police are unarmed except for a wooden truncheon, but there is ready access to firearms if necessary.
50
You know what I mean by armed. A truncheon is not a distance weapon. Nor is it usually lethal. The concept was one of mutual respect and authority, not intimidation. It works on people’s understanding that a man without a lethal weapon is one of the family, not the enemy. You have to contrast it with a man at distance with a rifle. It took courage. A rifle takes none. Courage and authority are respected by a community who want peace.
30
With respect, that’s not a good assumption.
A truncheon can easily be lethal but that depends on how it is used.
A fist used in the same way can also be lethal.
I’m used to `unarmed’ police. I’ve been around firearms for much of my life: I own a few different rifles (different types of target rifles for both in- and out-door target shooting). They include air rifles ( 3 target and 1 general purpose), a single barrel shotgun for clays, and a hunting rifle. I was a member of NZ’s Territorial Army for six years (Royal New Zealand Artillery on the big guns! What fun!) and have engaged in indoor target shooting for about 25 years and shooting clays for more. I spent 8 years as a volunteer lecturer in firearms safety with the NZ Police on the firearms licensing program.
I am not a stranger to firearms, but I reiterate: I’m used to Police who do not routinely and most definitely not openly carry firearms.
The Peelers had arms available: they had firearms (pistols mostly), clubs, and swords (Cutlasses or Hangers). They commonly used or carried only what they saw they needed to. It’s still the same although swords are generally discouraged.
The NZ Police have much the same attitude. They have firearms locked in a gun safe in their patrol vehicles, officers `on the Beat’ carry truncheons most of the time and swords and bayonets are also generally discouraged. If firearms enter or feature in a `situation’ the Police call in the Armed Offender’s Squad which is a quasi-military group of volunteers (from within the police) who are (supposedly) highly trained. It’s a very successful strategy—containing the offender which greatly reduces risk to others and shutting them down without killing. (Some few suicide.)
I spent a year in Melbourne (1990-1991). I was not used to seeing cannon strapped on Police Officers hips and discovered it to be quite disconcerting. In the time I was there, I didn’t adjust to it fully.
That apprehension didn’t stop me from trying to chat up two rather good looking female constables one evening. I was unsuccessful, of course, but they enjoyed it.
10
In Australia we understood the concept of a carbon tax and voted against it.
But it seems that we have been unable to convey to politicians or the general population that “renewable energy targets” are a tax by another name.
And the media supports the deception by continuing to report that intermittent renewables are lower cost.
Why would we need a target if electricity prices were coming down thanks to more lower cost generators coming on stream?
Check out the background behind the nonsensical federal government ads “powering forward to reduce energy costs for all Australians.”
What are they suggesting?
CALL YOUR ENERGY PROVIDER to get a better deal.
SWITCH YOUR ENERGY PROVIDER.
Reduce your energy use.
And what else are they doing?
Placing a RELIABILITY OBLIGATION on retailers.
Supporting, where necessary, the development of NEW, STABLE, LOW-COST ENERGY GENERATION PROJECTS. (That I’d like to see).
Tasked CSIRO to develop a LOW EMISSIONS TECHNOLOGY ROADMAP.
Provided funding of around $1.2 billion for low emission technologies.
Australia’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation: $200 million finance for SA’s Lincoln Gap 212 MW wind project (and a 10 MW Battery!!)
Australia’s renewable energy sector has recently passed another milestone, with new CERegulator data showing more than two million households have installed rooftop solar.
Will Australians ever rise up in protest over rising electricity costs that are hurting consumers and businesses and doing nothing to change the climate?
Where do I go to VOTE NO against these insidious carbon taxes?
211
Australia doesn’t need low emissions technology, we are only 1.3% of another minuscule fraction of the worlds Co2 .
What we need is a way of getting the message through to the brainwashed masses .
162
I pointed out that 100% renewables for our electricity supply would mean a 0.4% cut in World CO2 emissions. With an increase of 2.7% forecast for next year that means our sacrifice would run out on February 23. What virtue posturing do they suggest for the remaining 11 years?
100
We seem to be the appointed crash test dummies for this, before its rolled out in anger across the globe…..you have to fund the UN somehow…..a global govt needs a global tax…..apparently…..
100
In between time the UN calls for contributions of sovereign nation taxpayer’s monies by our governments.
Why do candidates for election to parliaments never mention this during their campaign for election, or that they intend to implement UN treaties without asking us to vote at a referendum as required by constitutional law?
80
Because they are devious….
70
“we are only 1.3% of another minuscule fraction of the worlds Co2”.
If you break this down in molecules it demonstrates how insignificant human emissions (wow, how I hate this word!) really are. Atmospheric Co2 = 0.04% (40 molecules out of every 1,000). Calculated fossil fuel Co2 = 0.03% or 0.0012% of the atmosphere (12 molecules out of every 10,000). Australia: 1.3% of 0.0012% = 0.00000156% (1.56 molecules out of every 100,000).
We have migrated to Australia 11 years ago. Our perception of Australians (in general) were something like this: smart/wise, do not just blindly believe the mainstream media, challenge the status quo, vote smart, etc. How else could this be known a s the lucky country? Our experience (bubble burst): gullible, follow fashion blindly (climate change cult, fake/gay marriage, cultural marxism), etc.), childlike believe in the ABC (MSM in general), keeping the victim industry alive (aboriginal, islam), politically uninformed (Gov signed away sovereignty in 1992 with Agenda 21 and many other “unauthorised sign ups” to the un elected socialist UN global elites). I would go so far in guessing that less than one percent of Australians have know what Agenda 21/2030 or how effective the implementation of cultural marxism has been in ALL their institutions. We have seen and lived through of all this before. Really sad to see that Australian citizens/voters are allowing all this to happen.
71
Dont worry…they will wake up when it bites them heard in the rear end….
The day one of their kids is seized by some govt agency for using an “insulting” word against some imagined protected-species “minority” at school, will be the day it kicks off….
62
Hope you’re right Steve, the deterioration of society (western civilization?) is depressing.
40
Strange, isn’t it? The people who hang their hats on such miniscule figures are very likely to be the same people who ridicule homeopathy, for relying on similar numbers.
21
Should that read 40 molecules out of every 100,000?
Or just 1 in 2,500.
20
Starting with the pollies, academics and bureaucrats.
40
Unfortunately the Main Stream Media do not report fairly and honestly but they do campaign and agitate for an agenda. They should also hold the politicians to account – but they don’t.
11
“Australia has taken over Chile as the world’s largest lithium producing nation boosted mainly by record output at two major mines, data from United States Geological Survey (USGS) shows… Chilean authorities and analysts believe the situation is only momentary”. June 2018.
http://www.mining.com/australia-takes-chile-worlds-no-1-lithium-producer/
Again… Mort à la taxe sur le carbone!
80
The RET is a true masterpiece; government sanctioned theft. It is an easy way to get the financially disadvantaged to part with their hard earned income or government handout and transfer it to more wealthy folk with superannuation in wind/solar farms as well as having their own rooftop solar.
It is easy to get millennials and politically correct to part with their money when it is wrapped up as saving the planet. Macron simply made the mistake of levying a government tax on fossil fuel. Imagine how much easier it would have been to create Fossil Fuel Reduction Certificates that were earned by buyers of electric cars and paid for by fuel stations in proportion to volume of fuel sold. That arrangement satisfies those who are financially fit and happy to use an electric car, the brain-washed millennials and the politically correct; overall well over 50% of the population so a political winner.
110
It’s also big business theft. Rudd and Turnbull tried to make it more so but failed. Still they did a good job of seeding the money making scam to last this long. The question is when will people wake up to the real game – an alliance between big business and socialist governments to control the masses and share the spoils.
60
Whyalla is mooted to become the biggest steel works in the world with Indian management and China Infrastructure Bank money. This enterprise is going to be run on renewables: sun, wind and pumped hydro.
How will Cory handle this?
Keep in mind this will be good Australian steel to build tracks for VFT and satellite cities.
31
In case you missed it and apologies to Mr Gupta, he is a British billionaire.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-10/british-billionaire-sanjeev-gupta-unveils-plans/10603208?section=business
10
Only when the Main Stream Media do their jobs correctly, and report and question instead of blindly parroting what the pollies and VIPs (Vested Interest Persons) say.
10
Yes, it’s all in the wording of the description, is it not?
Consider with toll roads, what is your position on these methods to pay:
1) toll: $5.00, admin fee $2.00, tag fee $1.00, total $8.00
2) toll: $10.00, discount for using tag $2.00, total $8.00
1) sounds like a bloody rip off with extra fees etc etc = “rip-off bastards”
2) sounds like you got a good discount for using a tag = “I saved $ ’cause i’m smart”
You paid the same amount though…. you just feel better about 2 because it includes a “discount” rather than being padded with “fees”.
Language matters.
80
The `Art of Taxation’ has been likened to the art of plucking a goose in a way which minimizes the hissing.
50
You still wind up with a dead duck.
10
Plucking live birds meant you got the feathers you wanted (usually quills for writing implements aka quills) and the bird was still alive to grow more. Bird feathers are like human hair: they grow back but only on a live bird.
10
The climate-change burdensome yoke,
Leaves those with less income soon broke,
The butcher, the baker,
The automobile maker,
All the millions of ordinary folk.
280
Writing a poem equal to Ruairi
Was a challenge articulatory
I worked on it for hours
Sprinkling it with flowers
I’ll probably be sent to purgatory
150
Highly commended, a star for you! *
51
It must surely get harder to spin a tale about Global Warming when a snowstorm creates freezing across southern USA:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/coast-coast-storm-impacts-millions-united-states-181210112359679.html
Cool weather may take the heat out of the protests in France:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/1056971/bbc-weather-forecast-europe-snow-uk-10-14-day-long-range-met-office-east-west-cold-radar
This the best growing season I have seen locally in Melbourne for a few years. Gauging on my crop of cherries, I expect cherries will be in abundant supply and prices likely to come down. Australian berry growers have achieved tremendous results this year apart from the needle scare in strawberries. The berries are neatly packaged and about as ripe as can be reliably transported. Also outstanding value and I hope the farmers are making a good return on their effort.
101
The local cherries are excellent and cheaper than last year. There is a stall that sets up regularly by the roadside here. It is very popular.
Our apple trees are loaded with baby fruit and the local sulphur-crested thugs are back, already ripping things to shreds. For the first time we have a proper crop of hazelnuts coming; time to net them if we want to see them survive to ripeness.
All of our deciduous trees are looking really good…that CO2 is doing them proud! 😉
I too hope the growers have a good return for their efforts in supplying excellent fruit.
101
We’ve just finished the big struggle to net the hazelnut tree; a big effort as it’s warm now (29C) and the branches were overgrown and tangled with a large old Gravenstein apple…phew! Summer pruning early 🙁
We also had the fun of keeping our eyes open for a large tiger snake I saw slithering across (luckily short, mown yesterday!) grass to shelter under a large grapefruit tree. Gulp! I was picking a couple of grapefruit for my OH early today…and I’d left the back door open to let cool air into the house early. I never do that normally…seeing the tiger snake reminded me not to do it again. It was only 6C at that time, with a brief drop to 5C so I thought it would be safe, silly me!
71
They come in many varieties Annie.
Two weeks ago, on my annual trek from the west to the east I stopped at the roundabout at Wallendbeen in NSW where a couple of local cherry growers were doing a roaring trade selling their cherries to the passing throng. They were selling their produce in three categories: boxes ($60), smaller boxes ($25) and 1 Kg bags ($13). There were about ten customers all waiting to be served. One fellow, taking possession of two $60 boxes, said he’d left his wallet in his car (Mercedes Benz) and he’d put the boxes in the boot and come back and pay.
They weren’t too happy when they noticed him turning off down the road to Junee. Neither were the customers – who, to a person, appeared more outraged than the the two growers.
I had to smile when the growers agreed between themselves that “he must have forgot” that he’d not paid.
Gentle and generous folk country people.
40
That’s how he got the car.
50
I have 12 fruit trees in a netted enclosure on a large suburban block. Four years ago I replaced the nylon net with chicken wire. Since then not a bird inside and no rats, snakes or possums either.
The almond tree outside the enclosure has never provided a nut suitable to eat. When the husk begins to open the sulphur crested cockatoos make an evening raid and the tree is stripped in one evening. I have seen more than 50 birds in a large neighbouring eucalyptus tree and maybe a dozen at a time get into the relatively small almond tree and gorge. I guess a tree full of ripening almonds is a fair price for the spectacle and raucous din.
Two hazelnut bushes but nothing ever produced. Two of the original four bushes died and clearly there is no cross pollination now. We buy the most delicious hazelnuts from a south Gippsland producer; expensive but creamy crunch. He sells his entire production locally in vacuum sealed bags.
The four unnetted citrus trees only suffer a little from gall wasp. In really, really dry conditions birds have spent enough time at the thick skin of a grapefruit to get to the flesh.
50
Had to give mine chainsaw surgery to prevent the parrots getting them and so far it’s worked a treat .
King Parrots are a beautiful bird but here in large numbers and now take to the ornamental pears , quite tame and used to us they will be here for months and free Christmas ornaments when you get 10 plus in one tree .
30
US, Canada, Siberia, China and soon central Europe, the Norther Hemisphere looks like it’s bailed out of much of that ‘global warming’ … https://www.ventusky.com/?p=46;4;1&l=temperature-2m&m=gfs
20
MIT has tried to explain a long cooling trend in the US midwest by blaming soy bean and corn crops. Could be – the irrigation may be allowing evaporative cooling. Then again, the correlation could be coincidence and cooling is occurring for other reasons – or not occurring in the built-up cities and suburban wastelands of the coasts.
http://news.mit.edu/2018/intensive-agriculture-influences-us-regional-summer-climate-0213 50-60 years of cooling trend. 50 – 60 years
Very little press has been given to this study, aside from the usual non-mainstream blogs.
10
https://quodverum.com/2018/12/344/france-understanding-the-gilets-jaunes-uprising.html
The Real France
Think you know the real France? Here are a few facts that may shock you:
• The French state has been bankrupt since 2004. A minister finally admitted it in 2013.
• French GDP hasn’t risen above 2% in 50 years. Yes – FIFTY. The average annual GDP growth rate between 1949-2018? 0.78%.
• In 2018, 14% of the population in France live below the poverty line (they earn less than 60% of the median income).
• Worse, more than 50% of French people have an annual income of less than €20,150 a year (about $1,900 US per month).
• The ‘official’ unemployment rate is 10% – about 3.5 million citizens (in reality, it’s much higher).
• The youth unemployment rate is 22%. Yes, you did read that right.
• Astonishing but true: the French government employs 25% of the entire French workforce…and it’s impossible to fire them.
• Because the citizens make such little money, they pay no tax. Less than 50% of French pay any income tax at all; only around 14% pay at the rate of 30%, and less than 1% pay at the rate of 45%.
• The government can’t deliver services without taxes, so it borrows money. France’s debt-GDP is now 100%.
Another revealing statistic: “structural unemployment” is now at 9 -10%. That statistic measures when it is impossible to find people who have the skills and qualifications, to fill available positions. Why? French kids aren’t being educated to participate in the workforce. So even if France has a growth spurt (it won’t), they won’t have the labor to fill the new jobs.
So how did this epic disaster happen? And if blame is to be allocated, who bears the most of it?
In other words – why are millions of French citizens on the rampage, right now?
Because there’s a real France, that few ever see.
The France of the gilets jaunes. Or as we might label them, les deplorables.
—————-
The French Ruling Class
This small group of citizens have dominated the business, banking, legal and political scenes for decades.
The ruling class comes from a small group of grandes ecoles, or elite colleges. There are only 3 or 4. The top of the top? L’Ecole d’Administration Nationale (ENA).
Emmanuel Macron’s journey is typical of the ruliing class. He completed a Master’s of Public Affairs at Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris(called “Sciences Po”), the #2 elite college, before graduating from ENA in 2004, age 27. He then worked as a senior civil servant at the Inspectorate General of Finances (The Treasury), before getting a high paid gig ad an investment banker at Rothschild & Cie Banque.
See how fast Macron worked his way into the senior civil servant position in the Treasury, before flipping into an exclusive investment bank? That is normal in France. It’s a never-ending protected cycle of patronage, promotion, favors and cronyism.
Here’s another French word: parachutage. It is normal for young ENA graduates to be “parachuted” into senior civil service positions at a very young age, some as young as 25 years of age, without even interviewing for positions.
Imagine this. You’re an American, working in a French corporation. You’re a very talented executive with 20 years experience and stellar performance reviews. Suddenly, your boss’s position becomes available. You apply.
A week later, a 26 year old is sitting in your old boss’s chair. Your new boss has been “parachuted” into the position.
This happened to one of my best friends in France, a bi-lingual MIT/Stanford graduate with 21 years of superb work experience across the world.
The French kid? A graduate of ENA.
ENA has a complete stranglehold on the French state. Only 100 students graduate every year.
by 1970, ENA’s meritocracy had become a self-replicating elite caste – and a ticket to the French ruling class. Astonishingly, every French President since de Gaulle has been an ENA graduate, excepting Georges Pompidou, who attended Sciences Po. Eight of the last ten French Prime Ministers have been enarques. All key civil service/government departments are run by enarques. How about business? 84% of the 546 top executives in France’s 40 biggest companies are graduates of a handful of elite colleges. 48% come from ENA and Sciences Po.
Get it? If you want to be part of the French ruling class, graduate from ENA or Sciences Po.
Otherwise, screw you.
Arrogance & Ignorance : A Toxic Mix
The French elites are young men and women, who have been told that they are not just the intellectual creme de la creme, but morally superior. Better human beings, than their inferiors.
These people are arrogant. But they are also ignorant. Raised in very wealthy families and cosseted in the networks those families are part of, they have no understanding of ordinary people and their real lives.
Arrogance and ignorance is a very toxic mix. Macron’s tone-deaf appeal to climate change to justify the rise in diesel taxes, as well as his outrageous suggestion that ordinary French folk must drive less, is a classic example of the problem.
What makes the gilets jaunes protests unique?
Their main gripe? Elites blaming ordinary people, for problems that the same elites have caused.
Elites never being held accountable for their incompetence. And elites never having to experience the conditions, that their failed ideas cause.
French people are sick of being held in chains by a ruling class. They are sick of being poor and unemployed.
They want a new direction, for their beloved nation.
Sound familiar?
In my opinion, despite their education, a lot of these elites aren’t too bright.
They are intelligent. They can absorb what they’re told at a very high level of complexity and then spit it out in an exam.
But they’re not smart. They lack the ability to make decisions in situations that are ambiguous, or where the outcomes are out of their control.
There’s no critical thinking skills. No skepticism, or testing what they are told is true, against their own enquiry.
As Macron proves, they lack common sense.
History demonstrates that a population will tolerate being led by an elite caste, as long as the same elite case can supply benefits to them, on an ongoing basis.
Once the ability of the elite to ‘buy’ consent starts to decline, civil unrest and disobedience is guaranteed.
But when an incompetent elite switches from depriving the deplorables of benefits, to punishing and blaming deplorables for the incompetence of elites, uncharted territory beckons.
Another lesson from history, that French elites appear to have forgotten? National identity and character doesn’t die easy. The French have always been a revolutionary culture. They still are.
Somehow, I doubt that these lessons of history were ever taught at ENA, or in any of the French elite schools.”
Via https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2018/12/04/tips-notices-december-2018/#comment-105042
Long but I’ll risk it
290
Explain why we have a long way to go before we even start to flinch let alone react like they are now doing against the elite. The way I see it though is we will catch up real fast once the next financial crisis hits. I suspect being a politician will become a very dangerous profession.
80
The next financial crisis is here but not yet acknowledged. On the one hand Frydenberg and treasury are canvassing quantitative easing (printing money to evaporate debt) and further interest rate reductions whilst the OECD is advocating Australia needs to increase its interest rates or succumb to damaging inflation; clearly something is seriously awry in the world of finance. But didn’t we already know that after the banking inquiry? It’s time to replace fining financial institutions (which only hits the share price and our superannuation) with gaoling their leaders.
102
One can’t say for sure until after the devastation. For example, there are always people predicting the next great depression every year since the last one. One thing is for sure – the next financial crisis will be a big one – much bigger than the GFC.
30
the AUD is dead.
we just dont know it yet
10
Great summary. Fully agree.
“French people are sick of being held in chains by a ruling class. They are sick of being poor and unemployed.”
Sounds like 1789 all over again. Again sparked by a revolution in America.
Je Suis Trump.
120
We know Je Suis Charlie meant nothing to Hollywood. They did not care. All virtue signalling, grandstanding, attention seeking in the face of tragedy.
We know they did not pack up and leave the country when Trump won. Rich secure and self important. Meaningless waffle.
Consider the contrast with film star Gerard Depardieu who resigned his French Nationality and left the country.
The French mean it. Like many people, the real Frenchmen admire the revolution in America under Trump, against the elites of Washington and Hollywood.
130
Ian, you could be outlining the life and times of Malcolm Turnbull! The parallels are striking.
100
CLIMATE CATCH-22 IN POLAND
Another year, another conference. After a quarter of a century of trying to find a way to justify the greatest wealth transfer in human history, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) still wants to impose a “climate reparations” regime on the world as part of its sustainability ideology; despite increasing skepticism from researchers outside the UN echo chamber about the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest alarmist report and related claims.
The IPCC requires us to accept this premise: that only its cast of thousands can unlock the secrets of “climate change”. When the IPCC Chair, Hoesung Lee went on about how many comments (42,000) its three Working Groups and various drafts received in his opening address in Korea last month, he implied that this convoluted process brings us closer to the truth. The more the gloomier. Truth in science is a tricky business. Generally, however, it depends more on a law of nature than a show of hands. Too many cooks tend to spoil the broth.
Go to: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/11/19/climate-catch-22-in-poland/
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“Consider the first impediment: finance. We are told that a great deal of money has to be deposited into the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF) as a matter of urgency, at least an annual US$100 billion from 2020.
Indeed, António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, issued an ultimatum a few weeks ago. He warned on September 30 of the “threat of runaway climate change” – whatever that is – by 2020 if nothing is done.
Someone has decided – not determined – that the bogeyman of our age is apparently “moving faster than we are”; or at least faster than dollars are moving from developed economies to the GCF.”
……………………………. Obviously the GCF climate changes when the air conditioners in their offices are switched off due to bankruptcy.
80
I wonder what would happen if we called their bluff and no country chipped in to the slush fund ?
10
I hope the whole of the EU takes note of Macrons demise. Watch this space. Frau Merkle has gone too.
90
PM May may be next.
Brexit no deal is disgraceful manipulation.
110
Interesting comments from Nigel Farrage on outsiders , I’ve read criticism of him for not being involved with Brexit after the vote but he says he begged and pleaded to have a role but May excluded him .
And the simple reason for that was May wanted to stay in the EU .
30
And OT:
Ok greenies, there is the END of the ‘fossil’ oil thing you LOVE so much. (So does BIG OIL as they LOVE the price rigging side of it) They know oil is unlimited. So is GAS. That is proved by the discovery of the same gas outside the earth!
Oil was deemed fossil at a conference in 1892!!! here is the proof.
Oil isnt ‘fossil’ fuel. Wrong theory like the RGHG theory, both BUSTED.
Swedish Scientists & Geologists: Fossil Fuel Theory Busted
More here.
https://principia-scientific.org/swedish-scientists-geologists-fossil-fuel-theory-busted/
video here
Col Fletcher Prouty explains how oil was falsely classified a “fossil fuel” in 1892 and how that deception was advanced further in the 70’s by Kissinger and Rockefeller. Prouty also explains that Nixon/Kissinger/Rockefeller were seeking a ‘world oil price’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=272&v=vdSjyvIHVLw
Fossils arent found below 16000 ft below the ground, Oil is found down to every day at 20000 – 30000 ft!!! That alone bebunks all fossil theory aside from the chemistry.
10
That put a nail in the need for electric cars. Batteries (present technologies) are very inefficient at storing large energy compared to the chemical energy in petroleum when released in an explosion as in a combustion engine.
60
Not just for cars but also for the grid. Battery technology is way too primitive to be of any effective use for such things as cars and the grid on a major scale. Perhaps that will change in time but I can’t see it happening soon. Charging time for cars is another big problem. Filling up a car with fuel takes only a few minutes. Charging a car battery takes far too long to be of any real use. Electric vehicles might have a place but not for general use and they certainly will not replace the normal car until they overcome those and other issues.
40
Issues such as that, by and large, they rely on mostly coal for their power, and they place a masive load on the grid.
50
I dont think the present grid (including coal) will stand for a total electric fleet of cars. The whole idea is nuts. SO electric B doubles? Mind boggles.
30
How about electric trains? Now they are talking about VFTs which use even more power. As Yoda would say “gone mad, have we”.
40
Electric B doubles. Half battery half cargo?
40
Truck stops, charge times and 0.0 alcohol – going to be a clash there methinks
40
Let’s go the next step and make them self driving. We’ll see who trusts Goggle Maps then.
10
Didn’t I read somewhere, here maybe, that an EV equals two, or was it three, houses on the grid? And that is just to charge them. Never mind the cost of building and then disposing of them.
10
A friend of mine regrets buying his Nissan ‘Grief’, too slow to charge.
10
Amongst other things….
10
People can leave their electric cars at home during the day so that they can charge them with the roof top solar cells.
30
And that, of course, is the major issue. Charging off the grid at home because the sun is down or going there, and charging off the grid at the office as who has solar at the office? Unless you work at Apple’s ‘spaceship’. Not much solar ( or wind ) in the CBD.
10
The Poms probably had it about right with their electric milk delivery vans
20
Coal, though, is still fossil fuel. Fossilized dead trees.
20
Over two centuries ago there was a popular revolt in France…against the elite-engineered “French” Revolution. Even now many French are unwilling to face the truth of the slaughter in the Vendée, where hundreds of thousands rose up against the Jacobin government, and where up to two hundred thousand Vendéens were killed. Some of the deaths were in battle, many were through actions which deserve the description ethnic cleansing and even the “g” word. At the peak of the savagery, the “infernal columns” were even willing to murder those on their own side, just to make sure they killed a Vendéen.
We have to see the reaction of the authorities in the context of foreign hostility and a possible English invasion, but nothing excuses the elites who had polluted French academia and power centres since the 1600s and who saw their big chance in 1789. Since the majority of Louis XIV the court itself was full of the carpetbaggers and social experimenters we would nowadays call “globalists”. While a common person might face prosecution for owning a certain text by the degenerate plutocrat, Voltaire, the old snake himself could be welcomed, celebrated – and paid! – in the trendy atmosphere of la Pompadour’s court. Henry IV had made it a crime to export grain in time want, the reptilian Voltaire thought it a hoot.
No, I’m not religious like those old duffers in the Vendée, but I know “popular” and “conservative” when I see them. While the gilets are being exploited to some extent, especially in the capital, this is not a revolt by intellectuals, globalists, lobbyists and profiteers. This is not another cheesy “colour revolution”. The very fact that it it is being under-reported is strong truth of the movement’s validity.
Any violence or manipulation is wrong, rebellion against globalism had to come. I hope it has.
Remember the Vendée and Dieu le Roy!
70
Read on the weekend that policy advisers to PM Turnbull were annoyed that he had his son involved by hookup during discussions on energy policy. This little clip shows how entwined Turnbull is in the scam:
https://vimeo.com/305417723
The clip highlights how deceptive the RET is. I wonder how many electricity consumers realise that they paid more than double the wholesale price for electricity from coal and gas generators in 2017 than for electricity produced from wind and solar generators.
If there is an ounce of fact in what Turnbull blabbers then the RET should be removed immediately as it is creating windfall gains for wind and solar proponents.
One bright spot in 2018 is that LGC prices have fallen to $62/MWh. If the RET remains at present value then the LGC price should collapse by 2021. When investors talk about certainty in the energy sector they mean that they want the RET to continue to stay ahead of the generated output so the price of LGCs do not collapse. The realisation has to hit soon that no matter the RET value there will be increasing periods of curtailment simply due to the lack of demand for excessive generation.
100
Turbull: “Renewables are Cheaper. That is how we get to much lower energy prices.”
The man is an idiot!
111
Maybe delete that commment, mods.
30
No he is an idiot Peter or you could say Id10T or idjut even .
10
I see you are still determined to make it impossible for me to send you any money
[Well I’ll bite! Maurice, how can I help? What would make it easier? – Jo]
00
CNN regains #1 position for FakeNews:
10 Dec: CNN: US undermining ‘last chance’ climate talks, experts charge
by John D. Sutter, Mark Tutton and Nick Paton Walsh; CNN’s Gül Tüysüz contributed to this report
VIDEO: 2min35sec: Myth #1 “The climate is always changing, and the earth has been hotter before
Katowice, Poland The American delegation came to promote coal.
And the kids laughed in their faces. That was the bizarre and symbolic scene that unfolded Monday at the UN COP24 climate talks at a spaceship-shaped conference center in Polish coal country…
Yet the United States held a discussion on Monday that was meant, among other things, to “showcase ways to use fossil fuels as cleanly and efficiently as possible.”
***Vic Barrett, a 19-year-old college student in Wisconsin, was among those who decided that was too much to take. She and dozens of other protestors erupted in mock laughter as Preston Wells Griffith, an official at the US Department of Energy, spoke about how fossil fuels “will continue to play a role” in the global energy picture. They temporarily stopped the US-led discussion, shouting, “shame on you!” and “keep it in the ground!” — a reference to fossil fuels that they say should be left unearthed.
“It’s so ridiculous. It’s a joke,” Barrett said of US energy policy. “We’re done listening to false solutions [like the promotion of coal] and things we know don’t work.”…
Griffith stood quietly behind a lectern during Monday’s demonstration. “All too often, we can’t have an open and honest discussion about the realities,” he said after what he termed a “disturbance” had finished…
Over the weekend, the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait stood in the way of a statement to “welcome” the dire assessment of climate science from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Those four countries wanted only to “note” the existence of the report — which may sound like a small difference but is actually light-years away in diplomatic speak, (managing director for international programs at the nonprofit Natural Resources Defense Council Jake) Schmidt said.
“It’s sort of like saying, ‘Yeah, we read it in some newspaper, and there was coverage about it, but we don’t have any formal comment on it,’ ” he said. A “welcome” is an endorsement. “To come here and not welcome it? I don’t think that’s ever happened. … It shows this group of countries is not willing to put on the table what’s necessary to address climate change.”
That is more concerning than the US energy event, he said.
“For everyone else, it was very stunning,” said Roger Sedin, a government delegate from Sweden.
Welcoming the report would be the “bare minimum,” said Naomi Ages, senior climate campaigner with Greenpeace USA. “They should be saying, ‘we’re terrified by this, and we’re being spurred into action.'”
“The United States was willing to note the report and express appreciation to the scientists who developed it, but not to welcome it, as that would denote endorsement of the report,” the US State Department spokesperson said. “As we have made clear in the IPCC and other bodies, the United States has not endorsed the findings of the report.”…
For years, if not decades, there has been solid scientific consensus around the reality that burning fossil fuels and chopping down forests creates dangerous climate change. This pollution already has contributed to 1 degree Celsius of warming. In Paris, world leaders decided to work together to limit warming to at most 2 degrees — and 1.5 degrees if at all possible…
Regardless of whether the United States “welcomes” the UN’s scientific report, the world is hearing the message that action is needed, said Elliot Diringer, vice president of the nonprofit Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.
“The report speaks for itself,” he said. “It would be good if all governments were prepared to stand behind it, but even if not, the world is hearing it.”…
The importance of this moment isn’t lost on young people, who stand to lose more as adults continue to mess up the planet, said Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old activist from Stockholm, Sweden. She was among those who disrupted the US event…
Her own story has been used as a source of inspiration. Thunberg started a school walkout campaign for climate action. At first, she was the only student who participated; now, tens of thousands are involved, she said. But at the US event on Monday, she had to force laughter.
Otherwise, she said, she may have been hit with a wave of sadness.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/10/world/climate-change-us-coal-cop24/index.html
10
what CNN omitted to explain about ***Vic Barrett:
Wisconsin Public Radio: Vic Barrett, Environmental Activist, Student
Vic Barrett is one of the 21 plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States. She’s addressed the UN on climate change, and is currently a student UW-Madison studying political science.
Wikipedia: Juliana, et al. v. United States of America, et al. is a lawsuit filed in 2015 that is being brought by 21 youth plaintiffs against the United States and several of its executive branch positions and officers…
The plaintiffs, represented by the non-profit organization Our Children’s Trust, include Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, the members of Martinez’s organization Earth Guardians, and on behalf of future generations represented by climatologist James Hansen…
The Oregon non-profit organization, Our Children’s Trust, was created by attorney Julia Olson…
The 21 youths, ranging from 8 to 19 at the time of filing, received pro bono representation from Our Children’s Trust, and had support of climatologist James Hansen, acting as a “guardian for future generations” in the case filings. (Hansen’s granddaughter Sophie Kievehan was one of the named plaintiffs.)…
On November 21, Judge Aiken reversed her position based on the comments from higher courts and granted the government’s request for an interlocutory appeal, putting the entire case on hold until the higher courts have ruled.
Some experts, such as the director of Columbia University’s climate change center, expect that any decision in favor of the plaintiffs would be reversed by the Supreme Court, which is reluctant to declare new rights and unanimously held in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut that it was not for the courts to decide appropriate levels of pollution.
Plaintiffs:
includes ***Victoria Barrett…
Future generations, represented by James Hansen.
SustainUs: ***Vic Barrett, COP24 delegate
Vic Barrett is a 19 year old, first generation Honduran-American, from New York. Vic has been learning about and fighting against the ways environmental racism and global climate justice manifest for 5 years now.
Vic is currently attending the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she is pursuing Political Science and Environmental Studies Degrees…
She has been exploring these concepts since her freshman year of high school where she worked to get climate education mandated in New York City Public Schools K-12 and also worked to get offshore wind initiatives in New York City…
Since then Vic has joined a lawsuit with 20 other young people suing the U.S. Federal Government for violating young people’s constitutional rights by developing and encouraging fossil fuel infrastructure and use, therefore contributing to the global climate crisis.
Vic traveled to COP 21 in Paris, France where she learned about the broader implications of of the United States actions on climate change and fossil fuel extraction. Following this experience she was lucky enough to visit many countries internationally speaking on youth engagement on climate change and its necessity. Vic also addressed the United Nations General Assembly to speak on youth involvement with the Sustainable Development Goals and in conjunction with the signing of the Paris Agreement.
Vic hopes to use the platforms she’s been lucky enough to access in order to spread a message of youth empowerment and intersectionality.
https://sustainus.org/people/vic-barrett/
10
“Sadness… intersectionality… James Hansen…” Ye Gads! No wonder the kids are konfused™. As per CNN’s COP24 propaganda piece – their opening line: “The American delegation came to promote coal. And the kids laughed in their faces.” Then (I thought to myself) the Americans asked the kids if they realised they were standing in the heart of Poland’s coal mining industry, and proceeded to laugh in their faces, loudly and heartily.
A few (too many) of my friends’ kids have come out of uni with a degree (of nonsense) in Enviro’n’mental Science, and are now on a self-anointed mission to slave the planet – coz, like, y’know, the planet’s on fire and thar sinetists now and they know everythink™. Bumped into one the other day and, after a friendly catchup and how’s-your-father, asked him if he still believed he was exhaling ‘carbon pollution’ with every breath…
71
“A few (too many) of my friends’ kids have come out of uni with a degree (of nonsense) in Enviro’n’mental Science,” ……
Agree….the other problem is Enviromental Degrees have now become a “dime a dozen”…
….as a result “oversupply”.. with some students I know .. “demoted” to mowing lawns!
41
I hope they are using scythes.
60
Perhaps mowing is the ultimate environmental reality.
Home at last.
40
What? Actually caring for the environment? And being paid for it?
Wow.
30
* shannon, et al. * funny you should say that – he’s now working as a ‘groundskeeper’, ie. lawnmower, on one of NZ’s wealthiest millionaire’s private golf course. Oh sweet irony of ironies… (just don’t mention the weed killer and chemicals and sprays and diesel and petrol and international guests on planes and… and…) FORE!!!!
20
ABC news story……………..
Head line:
Study shows how coral develops resilience
Back-to-back bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef has changed the physiology of surviving coral, making them more resilient, scientists say.
usual blather about models etc but simply put they have come to the realisation corals have existed for millions of years for a reason but then it all goes pear shaped again.
Final word:
“There’s no time to lose to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
They will never learn, they will never listen gove me one of those yellow vests and lets get the revolution started.
112
11 Dec: Guardian: Australia only nation to join US at pro-coal event at COP24 climate talks
Country’s stance described as ‘a slap in the face of our Pacific island neighbours’
by Ben Doherty in Katowice, Poland; Associated Press contributed to this report
PIC: Patrick Suckling (sitting on panel right), Australia’s ambassador for the environment, waits as protesters disrupt an event at the COP24 climate change summit in Katowice, Poland
Australia has reaffirmed its commitment to coal – and its unwavering support for the United States – by appearing at a US government-run event promoting the use of fossil fuels at the United Nations climate talks in Poland…
Its panel discussion was disrupted for several minutes by dozens of protesters who stood up suddenly during speeches, unfurling a banner reading “Keep it in the ground” while singing and chanting “Shame on you”…
Patrick Suckling, Australia’s ambassador for the environment, and the head of the country’s negotiating delegation at the climate talks, spoke on the panel. His nameplate bore a US flag.
“Actions speak loudly,” he said, “and as we’ve been hearing, the United States has been a powerhouse … in different approaches to energy security while seeking emissions reductions.
“Australia has a technology-neutral approach to emissions reduction. It’s important that we do so, we need to pull every lever to reduce emissions. We need to be open to innovation and new technologies providing multiple pathways for energy security and emissions reductions.”
Suckling said Australia would continue to invest in low-emissions innovations, including doubling its innovation investment by 2020. But he said carbon capture and storage – “a proven technology” – was important in any model for emissions reduction, and that the technology had broad applications across industries.
But Simon Bradshaw, Oxfam Australia’s climate change policy adviser, said it was “extremely disappointing” to see Australia line up behind the US in pushing a pro-coal ideas.
“It is a slap in the face of our Pacific island neighbours, for whom bringing an end to the fossil fuel era is matter of survival, and who are working with determination to catalyse stronger international efforts to confront the climate crisis. And it is firmly against the wishes of an overwhelming majority of Australians.”
Bradshaw said continuing to use coal was not only uneconomic, but would “be measured in more lives lost, entrenched poverty, rising global hunger, and more people displaced from their land and homes”.
He said the advice of the IPCC showed emphatically there was no space for new coal and that Australia’s position on coal was isolating it from the rest of the world…
Wells Griffith, a Trump administration adviser speaking alongside Suckling on the panel, said the US would continue extracting fossil fuels, and warned against “alarmism” about climate change.
“We strongly believe that no country should have to sacrifice their economic prosperity or energy security in pursuit of environmental sustainability,” he said…
Also at the UN climate talks in Poland, two new reports have cast Australia as a global laggard on addressing climate change.
The Climate Change Performance Index, compiled by the Climate Action Network, ranked Australia 55 out of 60 countries for its actions on climate change…
***Sweden and Morocco are the leading countries on the list, though no nation is clearly on a below-2 degrees pathway. India, ranked 11, and China, ranked 33, both improved their rankings significantly, having significantly increased their use of renewable energy…
“Australia is at the bottom of the class when it comes to climate policy performance,” said Richie Merzian, climate and energy program director at the Australia Institute…
Separately, the Climate Action Tracker has updated its assessment of Australia’s efforts, saying the country’s “climate policy has further deteriorated in the past year, as it focuses on propping up the coal industry and ditches efforts to reduce emissions”…
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/dec/11/australia-only-nation-to-join-us-at-pro-coal-event-at-cop24-climate-talks
10
…Simon Bradshaw, Oxfam Australia’s climate change policy adviser…
Basically, Who?
Oxfam’s formal role in Canberra is what?
Since when do NGOs run the country, and, call me a self centred tool, but if forced to choose between the welfare of me and my immediates and the POSSIBLE risk to people I have never met half an ocean away then my answer is going to be build your own sodding sea walls.
Australia’s system of government is based on voting, not guilt trips.
Face it, if Bradshaw formally takes his advice from the IPCC he is either gullible to an extent he may be special needs, deliberately and shamelessly pushing a bias agenda, or both.
81
I think what happened in Paris was inevitable. The ordinary people who attended the various demos were shocked by the violence used to suppress them, but also the complicity of their MSM to spin the government line. It was a real eye-opener for many of them. It’s dangerous to generalise about a nationality, but the French people are good at putting up with disasters brought on by incompetent and arrogant leadership, but there are limits and those limits have been reached.
They’re following the populist path America has taken and are suffering the same backlash from a well-entrenched elite.
First they’ve experienced the disillusionment of realising that all the main parties are pretty much the same creatures, with only the party name being different. My thoughts on that road from a few years back – https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/the-loss-of-faith-in-the-political-class/
Next comes the anger stage once the complete uselessness and animosity of the main parties to change to change – https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2016/02/25/people-are-pissed-off/
From there, one of two things can produce real political change.
First, one of the main parties is subverted and taken over against its will by a non-conformist outsider. Enter Trump. He gets the economy (ie jobs) flowing again, drops the tax burden, kicks some foreign policy ass and starts uprooting the establishment detritus from the organs of government.
The second is civil disobedience and mass growing demonstrations in the street leading to what the establishment and their media flunkies will label civil disorder, but is really a revolution. In the absence of a Trump like figure, this is the direction France is going in. https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2018/12/07/revolution/
Macron may think his EU army held the line last weekend, but pictures of ordinary people with eyes taken out, hands blown off, tear gassed, clubbed into unconsciousness have been burned into the popular consciousness of France. That won’t be forgotten. His administration is now viewed as an occupying force.
Pointman
150
And thus, like “V for Vendetta” a fairly gruesome end , initially physically for the protesters, and eventually politically for the Elites’ poodle – Macron….
31
EU attacking its own people.
https://i1.jbzdy.pl/contents/2018/12/b54a246b3870964f7496a41efe7433a4.mp4
Pointman
50
10 Dec: WGBH Public Radio Boston: Dueling U.S. Agendas As U.N. Climate Change Summit Enters Crucial Final Week
By Rebecca Hersher
PIC: Protesters disrupted a U.S. side event on the future importance of fossil fuels at the COP24 conference in Katowice, Poland, on Monday. Separately, U.S. negotiators are helping to write a rule book that will help countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“I think the administration’s posture, its threat to withdraw from the agreement, its rollback of domestic climate policies, certainly has weakened the U.S. influence in this process,” says Elliot Diringer of the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, a nonprofit environmental group in the U.S.
The administration’s position was made doubly clear on Monday, when the U.S. government hosted an event about the future importance of coal and nuclear technology.
“The reality is that countries will continue to use fossil fuels,” said event moderator Wells Griffith, the Department of Energy’s leader for international energy issues. “We’re here at the [conference] today to share our balanced approach to economic growth and environmental protection.”
“The United States is now the No. 1 combined oil and gas producer in the world,” he said. “All energy sources are important, and they will be used unapologetically.”
At one point during the event, the majority of the people in the audience started laughing in unison, and then stood to shout protests, including the chant “Keep it in the ground.”…
“The U.S. is quite active in the negotiations, especially on the transparency side,” says Yamide Dagnet, a policy analyst at the World Resources Institute think tank and an adviser to some countries at this year’s summit…
She says the U.S. has spent decades pushing for nations to be more transparent about, for example, how they measure their own greenhouse gas emissions. Such questions are the foundation for the rule book being written this week, and the U.S. is still a crucial voice in deciding what happens.
“The U.S. does remain a player. Other governments are interested in meeting with U.S. negotiators to see what they have to say,” Diringer says. “I don’t think you can write off U.S. influence in this process, but unfortunately the U.S. is no longer in a position to provide the leadership it has in the past.”
https://www.wgbh.org/news/international-news/2018/12/10/dueling-us-agendas-as-un-climate-change-summit-enters-crucial-final-week
9 Dec: WGBH Public Radio Boston: In Many Schools, ‘Climate Change Is Playing Catch-Up’
by Samantha Fields
AUDIO: Teaching clmate change in schools
Even now, though, in most schools, climate change is still just starting to make its way into classrooms, and many teachers don’t have the training or the resources they need to teach it.
On a hot, sunny day, right in the middle of August, a couple of teachers from Martha’s Vineyard sat at picnic tables in the shade at the Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge, writing down observations about different shells that have been sitting in sea water or vinegar, and then smashing them with a hammer to see how easily they break.
They were trying out a lesson Shannon Hurley has come up with for middle schoolers, on the connection between climate change and ocean acidification. Hurley runs educational programs for schools across the Vineyard, going into schools and taking classes on field trips, for the Trustees of Reservations, a nonprofit that preserves land across Massachusetts.
Last year was the first year the Trustees ran a climate change specific program, on erosion, for second graders. This is the first year they’re expanding into middle school. They’re able to do that in part because climate change is now officially in the state science standards in Massachusetts, as of 2016…
Most of what she knows about climate change she has taught herself, Hayward said, by reading articles, listening to podcasts, and watching documentaries…
That’s common, according to Pat Harcourt, who just finished up a study, funded by the National Science Foundation, looking at what works in climate change education. Most teachers, she said, “typically haven’t had specific training in climate change.”
Nationwide, more than half of teachers have had no formal education on climate change, according to a report from the National Center for Science Education. Not even a single lecture. Very few of those teachers have gone on to get professional development on the issue, just one in five…
Kate Skehill, a third grade teacher at East Falmouth Elementary School, finds herself trying to catch up all the time. Even though climate change does not explicitly appear in the third grade standards — “it’s actually spelled out that climate change knowledge and understanding is not really expected at this time,” Skehill said — she and her teaching partners in third grade have found places where they can fit it in to the things they do have to teach, like weather. It’s a huge challenge, though, for her to find resources about climate change that are on a third grade level…
“I have to take whatever the science is and sort of translate it to a third grade point of view,” Skehill said. “So if there were resources out there that already did that, that would be helpful.”
“Especially for a general educator,” Skehill said, “there’s so much to keep us up to date on, that finding time to bring in new things, even new important things, even new important really cool things, is hard to do.”…
“Our island students have a better background, in a sense, at times, because they don’t even realize that they’re learning about climate change when they are learning about climate change,” she said…
https://www.wgbh.org/news/education/2018/12/09/in-many-schools-climate-change-is-playing-catch-up
10
***a must-watch video. what an obnoxious bunch of CAGW pawns:
10 Dec: GlobalNewsCanada: Ottawa accused of undercutting climate change effort by subsidizing fossil fuels
By Jessica Vomiero; With a file from Rebecca Joseph and the Canadian Press
***VIDEO: 2min14sec: WATCH: Protesters disrupted a U.S.-sponsored event promoting fossil fuels on the sidelines of U.N. climate change talks in Katowice on Monday as they called on the government of President Donald Trump to comply to keep fossil fuels “in the ground.”.
Canada’s soft spot for the home-grown oil and gas industry is one of the obstacles preventing the country from becoming a climate leader, groups are claiming at a global climate change conference in Poland on Monday…
Environmental Defence, along with other Canadian climate groups, attended the global climate-change conference, COP24, in Poland on Monday with an agenda of calling out the federal government for letting the oil and gas industry undermine Canada’s efforts to be a climate leader…
Environmental Defence, along with Stand Earth, released a report at the conference to show that emissions from the oil and gas sector continue to rise and intensive lobbying from the industry means about 80 per cent of those emissions will be exempt from the federal carbon price.
According to the report, if oil and gas production continues to increase at current rates, it will be nearly impossible for Canada to meet its Paris Agreement targets…
https://globalnews.ca/news/4747646/canadas-oil-and-gas-sector-undercut/
20
Thanks for articulating the issues so clearly. TV news in the USA doesn’t get to the core of the demonstrations like you, and that’s why I continually read and support your blog. Thanks for what you do.
60
Speaking of support, ’tis Xmas so I must find some dollars for Jo’s tip jar.
40
“NSW plans to supercharge pumped hydro
The New South Wales government plans 24 new pumped hydro projects that would provide about half of the state’s demand for electricity on the hottest days and three times the power of Snowy 2.0.
It follows the NSW government’s launch of a pumped hydro roadmap designed to ramp up the development of new hydro storage projects and back up the rising levels of new wind and solar generation.”
https://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/nsw-plans-to-supercharge-pumped-hydro-20181211-p50lf2.html
No doubt it end up costing more than the initial estimates, and cheaper electricity will be remain pipe dream, so to speak.
50
This is part of the dispatchable cost of wind power. To provide 100% wind power, with a 30% capacity factor you need nameplate capacity of 330% of demand. Then you must add the capability to pump up to 200% of demand up the hill to store water or that power will be wasted. Then, when the wind doesn’t blow, and when peak demand is double the average demand, you must be able to run hydro generators at 200% of average demand.
To provide say 10 GW average demand, invest in 33 GW of wind generators, add pumps to move the equivalent of 20 GW up the hill and store that water for say 5 days, and then have 20 GW of water driven generators to meet peak evening demand when the wind’s not blowing. Now cost all that and convince me that the alternative of coal stations with some gas peaking is more costly. It used to cost $40-50/MWhr, now $80-100/MWhr with 12% wind/solar, 6% hydro and 50% future “renewables” will cost ….??? Tell ’em they’re dreamin’.
We are being conned big time.
80
It all sounds expensive.
I wonder if they will work efficiently during drought.
Or compromise the way the reservoirs are used now.
50
In view of the projects initiated by Mike “Macron” Baird and now Gladys since the scandal and fall of Barry, I think it’s fair to say that Grange Hermitage is indeed a very expensive wine.
How it’s done in NSW. Or rather, how it’s done to NSW…
“Would you like fries with your monorail?”
“No thanks. Nothing.”
“Okay, so just the monorail. Of course, that’s with the footy stadium, plus the monument to whatsy, and the green thingy for saving the planet…”
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
“So you’d like fries after all?”
70
Pumped Hydro – More insane ideas only an ignorant politician would approve. Totally useless.
50
It’s a nice little earner as Arfur of Minder might have said for Norway. But they are taking advantage of a broken system.
Our system is broken so pumped storage may be best of the poor choices we have in the midterm.
10
Think about it – The major beneficiary of pumped hydro is NOT renewables, they never actually have excess generation to store, it is thermal plants. They will have a more stable demand to sell into, and stability is life to them.
20
the CAGW mob behind the interruption of the US presentation at COP24. amusingly, they have kept video of their interruption of Jerry Brown’s Global Cimate Action Summit at the top of the page.
Twitter page: SustainUS, youth-led organization advancing justice and sustainability through domestic and international advocacy
“JERRY BROWN, IT’S YOUR LAST CHANCE.”
California youth interrupt @JerryBrownGov’s Global Climate Action Summit to demand he stop permitting oil and gas drilling in CA. We need climate leaders who protect our future, not Big Oil. #GCAS2018 #BrownsLastChance
14 Sept 2018
followed by:
re-tweets
TWEET: Rising Up W/ Sonali (all-women run Radio & TV show that brings progressive news coverage rooted in gender and racial justice to a wide audience) 6h ago
Watch @krispycreme000 w/ @SustainUS discuss “Youth #ClimateActivists Disrupt Trump Coal Event in Poland #COP24” by @RUWithSonali on #Vimeo https://vimeo.com/305587352?ref=tw-share … @BrownGirl_Green @ItTakesRoots @SunriseMvmt #browngirlgreen #greennewdeal #KeepItInTheGround
Climate Justice Alliance
Before and After! Protest & Walk out from the US Dirty Energy Promotion Panel @ #COP24 in Poland.
Young people & community leaders on the frontlines of extraction take more than a mic from Trump & fossil fuel companies: #CommunitiesNotCorporations
Video: https://vimeo.com/305532809
Ted Scheinman, Pacific Standard, California 12h ago
Dozens of activists at #COP24 disrupted an event hosted by the Trump admin promoting coal and natural gas; @KateWheeling reports: https://psmag.com/environment/in-katowice-protesters-disrupt-a-us-event-promoting-fossil-fuels … feat. @SustainUS @vict_barrett via @PacificStand
LINK Pacific Standard Mag
Greenpeace USA 19h ago
YES! Frontline youth & community leaders took over Trump’s fossil fuel panel at #COP24 today. We need to support communities, not corporations if we want to solve the climate crisis. #KeepItInTheGround
Friends of the Earth 19h ago ETC
Amazing action to disrupt US event on ‘clean coal’ at #COP24. Frontline youth and communities take over Trump’s fossil fuel panel and speak out and walk out for #ClimateJustice #KeepItInTheGround @SustainUS @ItTakesRoots @IENearth
TWEET: SustainUS 20h ago
“Young people are at the forefront of leading solutions to address the climate crises and we won’t back down. We won’t stop fighting.”
– Vic Barrett, 19, youth plaintiff in Juliana v. U.S. @IENearth #COP24 #KeepItInTheGround
https://twitter.com/SustainUS
THEY HAVE A SIZEABLE DELEGATION AT COP24!
SustainUS.org U.S. Youth for Justice and Sustainablity
WE TRAIN YOUNG PEOPLE TO MAKE HISTORY
SustainUS is a community of young people (18-29) that train one another in action, media, and community building skills for social change
We create media that frames important political moments…
We train, connect, and empower young leaders to engage strategically in policy fights within the following three broad areas:
1. The end of the fossil fuel era…
***(SCROLL DOWN) PIC: COP24 SustainUS delegation
https://sustainus.org/
SustainUS Chair – Kyle Gracey
Outside of SustainUS, Kyle co-founded the youth coalition at the United Nations climate change negotiations, analyzed policy for the U.S. Secretary of Transportation, served at the U.S. Treasury Department during the financial crisis, and wrote speeches for Vice President Joe Biden…and stints as a Science & Environment Consultant and Innovation Consultant at two private sector firms
His Bachelors degrees (Biochemistry & Biophysics, Ecological Economics) are from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he became a Truman Scholar. His Masters degree (Geophysical Sciences and Public Policy) is from The University of Chicago…
Oct 2010: WRAL/NBC: Two from Durham selected for White House internships
Others named to the internship program are…
Kyle Gracey. Hometown: Johnstown, PA; University of Chicago, IL.
10
10 Dec: Pacific Standard Mag: In Katowice, Protesters Disrupt a U.S. Event Promoting Fossil Fuels
For the second year in a row, climate advocates disrupted the U.S. government’s attempts to promote coal and other fossil fuels at the United Nations climate conference.
by Kate Wheeling
An event hosted by the Trump administration on Monday promoting innovation in coal and natural gas was disrupted by protests, as dozens of people turned out to rally against the United States government’s continued embrace of fossil fuels…
There was still a line of people waiting to get into the event when Wells Griffith, the principal deputy assistant secretary for international affairs at the Department of Energy, took the stage to say that “alarmism should not silence realism.”…
Citing an International Energy Agency report, which found that global energy demand will increase by more than 25 percent in the next two decades, Griffith conceded that renewable energy will play a significant role in meeting that demand. But, he continued, “the reality is countries will continue to use fossil fuels to ensure that they meet basic power, transportation, and the industrial needs of their citizens.”
“If we are serious about eradicating poverty and providing universal access to affordable and reliable energy,” he said, “it is clear that energy innovation and fossil fuels will continue to play an important role.”
Protesters chose that moment to interrupt the event’s opening remarks with uproarious laughter. “These false solutions are a joke, but the impacts to our frontline communities are not,” Aneesa Khan, the COP24 SustainUS delegation co-leader, yelled. “We hold the solutions and we know that we must keep it in the ground.” Dozens of audience members stood up and began chanting “keep it in the ground,” and unfurling a banner with the same phrase to block the panelists from view.
Vic Barrett talked about the risk that inaction on climate change puts on the country’s youth…
“My government has betrayed me,” Barrett said. “I’m actually currently suing my government. I’m suing them because they’re perpetuating the global climate crisis. I’m suing them because they are stealing the future that my immigrant mother got for me. We have urgency in our hearts, we have determination in our voices, and we will not let them fail us.”
The action concluded with the activists streaming out of the room chanting “shame on you” at the panelists.
As the doors closed behind the last of the protesters, Griffith assured the downsized crowd that, in pursuit of economic growth and energy security, the U.S. will pursue all potential energy sources, “and they will be utilized unapologetically.” The panel’s speakers talked primarily about using incentives, such as tax breaks, as opposed to government mandates, to spur innovation in natural gas, carbon capture and storage technologies, and coal.
Among those on the panel was Steven Winberg, assistant secretary for fossil energy at the Department of Energy. He said his agency is not just working to improve the “efficiency, resiliency, and competitiveness of existing coal-fired power plants,” it is also investing in the next generation of coal plants. The Department of Energy has solicited designs for “high efficiency, near-zero emissions” coal plants, according to Winberg, and plans to provide research and development funding to what it deems as promising plans. Not just for the benefit of the U.S., he said, but “perhaps more importantly, also offer opportunities for developing countries to use tomorrow’s coal technology to improve their energy security, and in many cases expand energy access to those who live without electricity.”
In addition to Winberg, the panel included Rich Powell, executive director of the ClearPath and ClearPath Action, a non-profit with a mission to “advance conservative policies that accelerate clean energy innovation,” and Patrick Suckling, the Australian ambassador.
“I can say for the U.S. the policy is not to keep it in the ground,” Griffith said of the country’s various energy reserves, “it’s to use it in a way that it is clean and efficient.”…
https://psmag.com/environment/in-katowice-protesters-disrupt-a-us-event-promoting-fossil-fuels
20
5 Dec: PacificStandardMag: Young Activists Offer Their Climate Demands at COP24: ‘We’re Fighting. Where Are You?’
by Kate Wheeling
“We demand so much more from COP24,” the group sang in unison. “We remember, we resist, we rise.”…
These activists are no longer interested in compromise, and, on Tuesday, they delivered the People’s Demands for Climate Justice, an official list of climate action demands that organizers say are endorsed by 330 organizations and hundreds of millions of people from 129 countries. Still, these fundamental concerns too often go overlooked in the negotiations at events like COP24. Phillip Brown, a COP24 delegate for the youth-led non-profit SustainUS, set the tone for the action event: “We’ve been negotiating in these halls for over 24 years,” he told the crowd, “and global leaders continue to fail us.”…
1. ‘Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground’…
4. ‘Honor Climate Finance Obligations to Developing Countries’…
5. ‘End Corporate Interference in, and Capture of, the Climate Talks’…
https://psmag.com/environment/young-activists-offer-their-climate-demands-at-cop24
SustainUS do some fund-raising, but it would be good to know what other financing they receive.
it is patently ridiculous how all these activists – who play into the UN agenda – are still attending the COPs in their thousands.
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‘Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground’… = destroy good cheap energy sources once and for all.
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Well in Whyalla we are going to build the worlds biggest battery …..yep that’s first and second place plus a 600mw solar array. We need this to run our brand new steel plant we are building, Alas if only we had a 540mw coal plant near by
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I guess that means the workers will get the night off….
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Meanginless?
Is that a meaningless typo?
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More TOTAL proof from the blogosphere that NASA-NOAA have been ‘fiddling’ the temp data –
http://icecap.us/images/uploads/Should_Global_Warming_be_our.pdf
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LOL, that graph the authorities released in 1975 is a classic.
The changes to the same period in later versions are incredible.
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I read today that the min wage in France is 1,000 E. With international trade being so pervasive the only input cost a French villager would have significantly lower than ours is local labour. That’s not good.
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From above – “I read today that the min wage in France is 1,000 E. “. Please add “per MONTH”. That’s a low wage on a developed nation.
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In case people are wondering whether Macron’s globalism is more sinister than despicable, or more despicable than sinister…
While the Common Enemy of Mankind (that’s what comes out of your TV, radio or newspaper all the time, right?) has managed to portray the gilets as a Paris affair, more than ten times the number of coppers were marshalled in the regions. This is not shown because regional gilets will seem more authentically populist than a bunch of Parisians mixed with Antifa etc while the true scale of the gilets will be evident. Also, the cops are often people’s neighbours in the regions and more likely to feel sympathy with the gilets.
The leading nationalist commentator Ploncard d’Assac (a surgeon and deep traditionalist with no time for Gaullism, commies or the Le Pen right) has said the movement is inevitably going to be subject to the usual treatment, ie infiltration, neutralisation and diversion, but that the gilets need to keep going while staying intensely wary.
Why is it so desperately important to keep going?
Notice those urban tanks on the streets of Paris? Notice the flag painted on the side of those tanks sent out against the populace?
https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/1-54.jpg?x22999
That’s why it’s desperately important!
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The EeeEeeyou.
They aren’t in France?
They’re in the EEU.
We’re in its big brother, the YouEn.
KK
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The EmEssEm aren’t going to tell you, are they?
O/T You have reminded me of Alan Moir’s priceless depiction of one of the greatest discombobulaters of all time, one Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen, where Joh was portrayed as a grass seed eating legionaire type with a standard that read EIEIO. Sorry.
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Completely O/T, but why does the “reply” feature disappear from some comments?
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Seems to happen with long threads .
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Thanks, yes, but it’s annoying to say the least. Maybe I should shut up…
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Reply to El Gordo at 3.1.1.3.7
But short term thinking should not. If Cory can get some REAL debate started around nuclear generation then more power to him. The only other bloke likely to do so is Abbott, and he is just as effectively gagged by Morrison as he was by Turnbull. He’s talking, but the Party is shouting him down, albeit more quietly these days.
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Do they still have that guillotine in Paris? Might save having a new election.
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Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away…
From the Oz ( just the headline bit ); Neil Young has threatened to withdraw from a concert unless the “fossil fuel-funding” sponsor Barclaycard is removed.
What Mr Young fails to say is that if it wasn’t for fossil fuel he wouldn’t be singing at all, because no one would be able to hear him.
Hmm, maybe there is an upside to this carbon thing after all.
I liked his music once. Maybe I’m just old, but hey, so is he.
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10 Dec: ZeroHedge: Tyler Durden: Elon Musk Tells 60 Minutes He Has No Idea How To Smoke Pot; Slams SEC: “I Do Not Respect Them”
If you didn’t understand that Elon Musk doesn’t quite “get” what being a public company is about, and how not to commit securities fraud from his funding secured tweet, the litany of lawsuits he has catalyzed or his downright insane behavior over the last year, you may be one of the few who were not shocked by his appearance on 60 Minutes Sunday night when he took to a national stage to laugh in the face of $35,000 Model 3 reservation holders and (again) belittle and insult the Securities and Exchange Commission, with whom he recently entered into a settlement with…
You can watch the entire interview and read the full transcript here (LINK)
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-10/elon-musk-tells-60-minutes-he-has-no-idea-how-smoke-pot-slams-sec-i-do-not-respect
10 Dec: Seeking Alpha: Tesla: The 60 Minutes Scare
by Bill Maurer
Summary:
•The 60 Minutes interview exposes some major red flags.
•Elon Musk has no regards for authority or consumers.
•Autopilot liability may be substantial moving forward.
In the end, I encourage everyone to watch this interview (LINK), because there are several major red flags that need to be discussed…
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4227497-tesla-60-minutes-scare
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11 Dec: Reuters: Brazil will quit U.N. migration pact, incoming minister says
Brazil will pull out of a United Nations pact on dealing with rising migration, the incoming foreign relations minister said, joining the United States and a growing number of countries in rejecting the agreement…
All 193 U.N. members except the United States agreed its wording in July, but only 164 – including representatives of Brazil’s current administration – formally ratified it at a ceremony in Marrakesh on Monday…
“The Bolsonaro government will dissociate from the Global Compact for Migration … an inappropriate instrument to deal with the problem,” Araújo wrote on Twitter late that same say.
“Immigration shouldn’t be treated as a global issue, but rather in accordance with the reality of each country.” …
Ten countries, mostly in formerly Communist Eastern Europe, have announced they are pulling of the U.N. immigration pact, and a Chilean official said over the weekend Santiago would do the same.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-migration/brazil-will-quit-u-n-migration-pact-incoming-minister-says-idUSKBN1OA19R?
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10 Dec: Nature: Increased snowfall over the Antarctic Ice Sheet mitigated twentieth-century sea-level rise
The results reveal that increased snow accumulation mitigated twentieth-century sea-level rise by ~10 mm since 1901, with rates increasing from 1.1 mm decade−1 between 1901 and 2000 to 2.5 mm decade−1 after 1979…
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0356-x
11 Dec: BBC: East Antarctica’s glaciers are stirring
By Jonathan Amos
Nasa says it has detected the first signs of significant melting in a swathe of glaciers in East Antarctica…
There is enough ice in the drainage basins in this sector of Antarctica to raise the height of the global oceans by 28m – if it were all to melt out…
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46517396
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I listened to the computer-reader on the Breitbart website reading the UN Katowice article at Breitbart. It translated “COP 24” as “24 Columbian Pesos“.
For those interested, 1 Columbian Peso is currently worth less that one cent USD (USD 0.008, to be precise). So COP 24 is worth about USD 0.192, or 20 cents.
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