Europe’s popular right on the rise — replacing fake conservatives — threaten Climate Gravy-train

Europe was always the leader and main driver of the climate-scare-machine.

The salad days are over.

Bloomberg calls non-left parties “populist” which is code for popular-but-we-don’t-like-them (and-nor-should-you).

They say this trend is the rise of “right wing” but as the jellyfish conservatives became the center left, the voters looked for politicians with a spine instead. And the push back against climate change is very much a core target of many of these parties. In the previous term, 86% of the EU parliament voted for climate policies, the next term it was 75%. The term coming it is predicted it will shrink again to 71%.  h/t GWPF

Popular right,"populist", rise of politics, graph.

Almost all these parties think Climate Change is an elitist tax grab (or something like that). Adelphi 2019

As so democracy threatens “the consensus” and the Bloomberg team see no irony…

 Europe’s Populist Right Threatens to Erode Climate Consensus

 William Wilkes, Bloomberg,

 Europe’s consensus in favor of curbing greenhouse gas emissions is weakening due to rising support for right-wing populists, many of whom cast doubt over whether people bear the responsibility for climate change.

When voters elect the wrong people to do what they want and the politicians do it, thats “pandering”:

The researchers wrote that the populist wave poses “the danger that centrist parties will pander to climate-skeptic priorities or nationalist rhetoric, and shift from progressive to reactionary positions.”

There are already signs that the right-wing wave has blunted attempts to introduce environmentally-friendly policies, with Germany’s coal commission delaying the country’s exit from burning the dirtiest fossil fuel. That’s in part due to concerns about job losses in the Lausitz region of Saxony, where the AfD is catching up to more established parties ahead of September elections.

Support for right-wing populists looks set to surge in May’s European elections…

And in Week 15 of the Yellow Vest protest, another 46,600 people took the streets, again.

Tell me again how everyone wants climate action.

10 out of 10 based on 68 ratings

135 comments to Europe’s popular right on the rise — replacing fake conservatives — threaten Climate Gravy-train

  • #
    Yonniestone

    The left have perhaps overlooked a key hurdle in their plans, revolutions can come in both directions.

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    • #
      Latus Dextro

      A New Conservative Age Is Rising! — Dr Steve Turley

      Since 2016 and the election of POTUS DJT, predicted by Dr Steve Turley, the emerging wave of retraditonalisation and a reassertion of the three great civic securities of borders, economy, and culture have swept Europe and is sweeping the World. Reclaiming culture, customs, national identity, economies and border security is the inevitable rejection of homogenising, faceless sameness manifest in secular globalism with its NPC order, totalitarian socialist bureaucracy, propaganda media and fake news, leftist education and secular values.

      National populism is a push back against globalism and it spans the partisan political divide. The ideology of globalism has been peddled by the political middle ground, the soft Left socialist democrats of the last 40 years. It is being rejected by both right and left populism.

      Both populist nationalist ‘right’ and the ‘left’ share the same goal of border security and an understanding of what is referred to as ‘welfare chauvanism’, namely that finite social welfare resources will rapidly deplete under the onslaught of unfettered economic migration, a major unsustainable economic threat that may lead to the collapse of the welfare system. The prediction is that the upcoming European elections in May will lead to a huge turning point in Brussels. The direction of the EU will change dramatically as the globalists will no longer hold the majority.

      Growlingly, the World is rejecting the ideology of globalism and its appendages – trans-national corporatists, climatism, educational homogenisation, secular ‘human rights’, and a line up of UN Trojan horses. Daily, the list grows, of European countries moving away from this toxic ideology. Thee key things motivated Brexiit – sovereignty, border security and jobs. The BBC et al. like to omit that.

      The proxy rejection of globalism may also be witnessed in the 20 countries that refused to sign the UN Global Migration Compact – Australia did not sign. At the same time, it is important to remember that the rejection of globalism is not a rejection of ‘globalisation’, the fruits of which we can all enjoy and benefit from. The free association of independent sovereign nations based on respect and liberty for the purposes of prosperity and the sharing of ideas is infinitely preferable to the faceless, grey, unrepresentative bureaucratic totalitarianism promoted by the EU, the UN and the DEMS with their new leader AOC, who will lead them as they continue to be mindlessly cheered by media sycophants and tools of school kids, into electoral oblivion.

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      • #
        Dennis

        The Australian Government did not sign UN Global Migration Compact but the ALP has not ruled out signing it if elected to government this year.

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      • #
        Bill in Oz

        The EV parliament is based in Strassbourg not Brussels. The eEU elections will indeed be a turning point though.

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        • #
          Latus Dextro

          Bill in Oz, I think Brussels gets the cake and eats it.

          From Brussels To Strasbourg: The European Parliament’s Traveling Circus

          The European Parliament’s main base is in Brussels, where the majority of its work takes place in committees and political group meetings. But the EU treaty stipulates that one plenary session per month has to take place in Strasbourg. Additionally, the parliament’s secretariat is located in Luxembourg.

          The farce of the EU travelling circus
          It is perhaps the most outlandish of the European Union’s excesses; a £130 million travelling circus that once a month sees the European Parliament decamp from Belgium to France.

          EU institutions:

          —European Parliament – based in Brussels, Luxembourg and Strasbourg (France)
          —Council of the EU – based in Brussels
          —European Commission – based in Brussels (Belgium) and Luxembourg. The Commission is the largest employer among the EU institutions
          —Court of Justice of the European Union – based in Luxembourg
          —Court of Auditors – based in Luxembourg
          —European Economic and Social Committee – based in Brussels
          —Committee of the Regions – based in Brussels
          —European Ombudsman – based in Strasbourg
          —European Data Protection Supervisor – based in Brussels.

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      • #
        max

        The Difference Between Good Globalism and Bad Globalism

        “Globalism” and “globalization,” are terms that suffer from a lack of any precise definition. The terms are used freely by a wide variety of commentators to mean both good and bad things — many of which are opposites of each other.

        Historically, Globalism Is the Ideology of Peace and Freedom
        It is not a coincidence that one of the nineteenth century’s most effective proponents of liberalism was Richard Cobden, who fought tirelessly against both trade barriers and against aggressive foreign policy.

        Cobden’s program, instead, was one of peace and free trade, which was then rightly regarded as a program of internationalism.

        Peace, free trade, and nonintervention — these ideas, Cobden believed, were not simply the ideological commitments of one particular party, but rather the necessary ingredients for the progress and flourishing of civilization.

        Political Globalism vs. Economic Globalism 
        If we wish to end this confusion, though, we need to separate political globalism from economic globalism. 
        When we do this, we find that economic globalism is a force for enormous good in the world, but political globalism is primarily a tool for increasing the power of states. 
        Economic globalism brings wealth. Political globalism brings poverty. 
        Economic globalism is about getting government out the way. It’s about laissez-faire, being hands, off, and promoting the freedom to innovate, trade, and associate freely with others. 
        Political globalism, on the other hand, is about control, rules, central planning, and coercion. 
        https://mises.org/wire/difference-between-good-globalism-and-bad-globalism

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        • #
          Latus Dextro

          Thanks Max.
          Once ‘-ism’ is attached to something, a red flag is usefully raised, climatism being illustrative. A distinction between economic and political globalism seems moot given that in 2006 the EU was seen as moving toward becoming a borderless regional economic cooperation unit (Regional Economic Cooperation, Gough & Venkataramany (2006) Int. Business & Economics Research Jour).
          It is revealing to look back, and see the ‘economic imperative of the Common Market and European Economic Community segue into ideologically propelled supranational bureaucratic monstrosity that is the EU.

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          • #
            Carbon500

            Latus Dextro: ‘realism’ is however a better word than (ugh) ‘climatism’ or any number of other ‘isms’!

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      • #
        WXcycles

        … and secular values. …

        You can just get stuffed about the slam on “secular values“, what on earth do you think is going to happen?

        Do you imagine everyone will adopt pet ‘religious values’ again instead?

        Frankly, I’d rather convert to being a Mormon (and that isn’t happening) than to ever adopt such archaic and absurd ‘religious-values’ once again or to support some prudish PSEUDO-‘Conservative’ re-religioning of society, in any way, shape or form.

        I will support a human right for any person to chose to reject and never adopt any religion or any set of ‘religious-values’ (i.e. freedom of religion). And I would support the banning of all active religious/ideological lobbying or conversion and general interference within a free society.

        I emphatically reject this obvious Stalking-Horse of lies being put that being a real ‘Conservative’ involves religiosity or adopting religious-values, or that it in any way implies exclusion of “secular-values”.

        Being Conservative implies no such thing. It never has and never will. It’s just another wedge being implanted by of ideologues who are looking to control a form of posturing ‘conservatism’, via the fakery of a ‘political-conservatism’.

        It’s baloney.

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    • #

      I think Europe’s ‘Basket of deplorables’ has had enough of the elite taking over every aspect of their lives and in doing so making their lives utterly miserable.

      Like ‘elite’ everywhere, they have no comprehension, or concern for that matter, of how lesser beings actually live and the struggles they face.

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      • #
        Another Ian

        bemused

        “the elite taking over every aspect of their lives and in doing so making their lives utterly miserable. ”

        Brings to mind the suggested slogan for FAA that I saw the other day –

        “We’re not happy till you’re not happy”

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      • #
        Mark D.

        Like ‘elite’ everywhere, they have no comprehension, or concern for that matter, of how lesser beings actually live and the struggles they face.

        The trouble starts when someone tries to draw the line at the first “lesser”. After that the elite have to try and muster an army.

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    • #
      a happy little debunker

      One complete revolution leaves you back where you started!

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  • #
    pattoh

    Given the way policy appears be made & introduced here in Australia; it seems like the Parliament is a cross between & kindergarten, fashion runway & an advertising/ brainwashing/ propaganda factory.

    Clearly the real source of policy direction has very little to do with the will of the majority of the people.
    I guess the grandstanding in the media is a dog & pony show to “Champion” memes * & “make firm commitments” to get over the line & keep the Parliamentary Super Growing.

    However as a net debtor nation, anything that is done come at the cost of OS borrowings.

    As always – those who hold the gold make the rules.

    Have a bit of a squint at who has big blocks of the Big 4 Banks.

    *Memes that make profits for our lenders & their mates

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  • #

    In the UK, UKIP has collapsed following the decision to leave the EU. Nigel Farage has just formed a new party, which is worth watching as both the Conservatives and Labour are about the sell out commitments to respect the Referendum result and leave the EU on 29th March. Theresa May will allow a vote on whether to delay Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn now backs a second Referendum.

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    • #
      glen Michel

      Can it happen here-in Australia? Yeah…….Naaahhh.

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    • #
      beowulf

      I thought Farage only started the Brexit Party because he got his panties in a knot when Batten brought Tommy Robinson under the UKIP umbrella, which Farage considered a step too far to the right. My understanding is that UKIP was almost bankrupt until Gerard Batten took the helm, since when it has surged ahead again. Farage seems to have thrown his toys out of the cot as a result.

      Maybe I’ve got it wrong from the other side of the world, but I do keep up with the latest via Breitbart and credible YouTube commentators like Jeff Taylor etc. and it certainly looks like all Farage will achieve is to split the Brexit vote in a first-past-the-post system, which is surely self-defeating.
      https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCE3181Md63Eg7uTybf6HgNw/videos

      Farage has become wishy washy on some aspects of Brexit too, for instance the last utterance I heard from him was that he reckoned Britain should still pay the £39 billion blackmail to the EU under a No Deal scenario despite the fact there was zero legal requirement to do so under Maastricht (or whichever treaty is applicable). I hope he has changed his mind since then.

      The biggest mistake and the greatest expression of naiveté of the leading Brexiteers was that they took their eyes off the ball immediately the referendum was won. Blind Freddy could see that the deep Remainers were not going to lie down and take it without a whimper. I know Boris was knifed in the back by Gove, hence you ended up with Theresa the Appeaser in charge by default, but his performance has been fault-ridden all along. Reece-Mogg is the only one that has kept up effective pressure, and good on him. The Moggster is a very clever and honest fellow, but has the charisma of a blancmange. He’s the only Brexiteer I know of who wore a monocle from the age of 12. His Etonian upbringing doesn’t help to give him a man of the common folk image. He never gets animated when he really needs to be a firebrand to press the case of the people for the people.

      I just hope that if a WTO Brexit happens on the 29th — fingers crossed — that the Brexiteers keep their eye on the ball this time and several eyes on the senior public servants and others who will do their damnedest to make it fail and appear bad so they can say . . . we told you so.

      There really needs to be a huge clean out in government and the upper public service and it will take a strong PM to do it.

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    • #
      Latus Dextro

      It’s been a tortured process hasn’t it!

      The biggest mistake and the greatest expression of naiveté of the leading Brexiteers was that they took their eyes off the ball immediately the referendum was won.

      The non-binding referendum was a political and social contract between the government and the people. It was not a legal contract. It gained greater strength when the 2017 general election confirmed the result.

      How the 2017 general election determined the fate of Brexit | 5 Dec 2018 | The Independent

      If voters agreed with the prime minister that the 2017 general election was about Brexit, then – given that her vision of Britain’s future relationship with the EU was widely regarded as representing a “hard” Brexit (prioritising control of immigration over continued membership of the EU single market) – we might expect her party to have advanced more strongly in places where the previous year a relatively high proportion had voted to leave the EU.

      Our analysis suggests this is precisely what happened. The higher the estimated vote for Leave in 2016, the more the Conservative vote increased, while support for the party actually fell back on average in places where Leave failed to secure at least 45 per cent of the vote.

      For example, although working-class voters had traditionally been the bedrock of Labour support, they had also been more likely to vote Leave and to vote for Ukip. Thus, thanks to its gains among such voters, at this election Conservative support increased by as much as 9.4 points in seats where more than 13 per cent are engaged in a routine manual occupation, compared with just 1.3 points where fewer than 10 per cent have a routine job.

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    • #
      Robert Christopher

      UKIP has been recently shunned by the MSM, for obvious reasons.
      Farage left UKIP in a financial mess, after supporting the previous leader (who was a catastrophe) but the party is back to being a going concern with many publically elected officials, a new interim leader, and rising membership.

      The Brexit Party was started by Catherine Blaiklock, a former former UKIP Economics Spokesman, but it hasn’t yet started accepting members, though interest can be registered on their web site.
      They are a fledgling party, holding no publicly elected positions, though they appear to be targeting the Tory Party, particularly the MPs. Farage was always more of a Tory Brexiter than a Labour Brexiter, unlike the majority of UKIP, which has had most success in the Labour strongholds in the North of England.

      PM Theresa May is creating complete confusion, creating a ministry to leave the EU and then bypassing it, using unelected people to take control
      of negotiations (who have no idea how to negotiate) and allowing cabinet ministers to work against the party manifesto!

      Their only success is kicking the can down the road. Most UKIP members would like to focus on what will happen after Brexit, like repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act, but we are stuck with fighting old battles, repeatedly, with little MSM exposure.

      40

      • #
        beowulf

        Farage in one of his recent interviews claimed the new Brexit Party was getting 10,000 members per day. Maybe he meant 10,000 hits, but even that sounds sus.

        It is said that May wants to stick around long enough to leave a legacy and be remembered. I think she has already achieved that outcome, though not in the way she had hoped.

        50

  • #
    alwaysBskeptical

    However, the lunatics are still in charge. There is talk of adding chemicals to the atmosphere to cool the planet, and someone in Switzerland wanting to use huge extractors to remove Co2 from the air.
    Have you heard that there are plans to connect the GRID from NSW to SA ?
    Snowy 2 going ahead, huge expense for little giain, much cheaper and quicker to build HELE power stations.

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    • #
      yarpos

      Depends what you are trying to achieve. You appear to mistakenly think we should stop wasting time, money and intellect playing with CO2 levels and just produce the most cost effective stable power available. On the other hand when you are “saving the plant” the is no end to the number of expensive , convoluted, rent seeking and usually ineffective schemes that can be initiated.

      The are convinced there is a Baba Yaga is coming to get them unless they twiddle the giant CO2 knob (or at least pretend they are) and no price is too high pay. Especially if others pay it.

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    • #
      Robert Swan

      Agree with most of what you say, but the geoengineers don’t worry me. Happy for them to talk and hypothesise about it all they want. It’s the people who are acting today on supposed human-caused climate change that are doing the real damage.

      If CO2 really were really a problem, I’d favour geoengineering solutions over emission reduction. If your bicycle is going too fast, brakes slow you down better than easing up on the pedals.

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    • #
      george

      Watched that on ABC.
      https://www.abc.net.au/foreign/climate-hackers/10850542

      Carbon scrubbers costing US$600 per tonne of CO2.
      Then they pump it to the local greenhouse so the crops grow better.
      Their target is a quarter of a million machines by 2025.
      They are huge big machines with fans and piping, full of steel.

      Where does the money come from for this crazy stuff ?

      100

      • #
        Maptram

        Further questions?

        Where are the scrubbers made?
        How much CO2 is added to the atmosphere in the manufacture, transport and operation?

        50

    • #
      dadgervais

      CCS is probably not as “simple (/sarc)” as it seems. Since the oceans contain about 49 times as much CO2 as the atmosphere, by Henry’s Law, we would have to remove an amount equal to 50 parts per million in the atmosphere to achieve an actual reduction of 1 part per million. i.e. We need to remove the amount that would out-gas as the atmospheric concentration was reduced. To get from 400ppm back to 360ppm, we would have to sequester an amount almost equal to 5 times the CO2 currently in the atmosphere. Big job anyone?

      00

  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    I’ve spent nearly an hour trying to figure out who, what, where for this bit of research. William Wilkes & Bloomberg are just the mouth.
    [Funding is a question, and likely Mike Bloomberg is part of that.]

    the report’s authors are Stella Schaller and Alexander Carius (a Managing Director). Click on ‘Partners’ in the link below

    https://www.adelphi.de/en

    adelphi – Berlin based (?) {Our staff of more than 200 }is a leading independent think tank and public policy consultancy on climate, environment and development. Our mission is to improve global governance . . .
    Note: bold is mine JFH

    See this page also:
    https://www.localclimateaction.org/who-we/adelphi

    “V-LED” ==> Vertical Integration and Learning for Low-Emission Development in Africa and Southeast Asia — Stimulating Urban Climate Action

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    • #
      John F. Hultquist

      I meant to add that I have no more time for this today. This is the first I’ve heard of this (large and well funded) Think Tank. Maybe the GWPF, see link in Jo’s text above, can produce a profile of Adelphi.

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      • #
        Greg in NZ

        John, “Our mission is to improve global governance . . .” therefore, my layman’s theoretical equation – pandering if you will – for today: CA + CA = GG, or, Concocted Alarmism + Climate Action = Gobull Governance [CA² = G²]. I often jest with woke/believer friends by referring to CACA Change [pronounced: kaka] which can mean a) a native parrot b) the colour green or c) that stinky stuff that comes out the rear end, also known as number twos, aka bovine excrement. The triple irony is always lost on them, and talking of –

        https://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/383449/cyclone-pola-to-pass-near-tonga

        Tropical Cyclone Pola Bearing Down On Penguin Island – It’s Worse Than Semantics Thought!

        Last week, little ex-TC Oma was shunted back up north to the tropics by our Blizzard of February (which left half-a-metre of snow on parts of the Southern Alps) and the million-dollar-models are calling for today’s southerly front to do the same with Cyclone Pola over the next 72 hours. Could this be the new normal? Summer snow blizzards trashing tropical cyclones? Movie on at eleven…

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  • #
    Phil R

    Jo,

    This might be OT, but I didn’t see any links for tips. I’m not from Australia, but have followed some of the discussions involving Bjørn Lomborg, Peter Ridd, etc., and Universities stifling free speech. I don’t know if you’re already familiar with this, but I came across this in the Quadrant today, which I found interesting based on many of your previous posts.

    https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/qed/2019/02/why-we-need-a-chicago-statement/

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    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Thanks Phil R,
      It’s great news. Pity there’s no released date for the report. And I’ve not seen it reported anywhere else??
      The first paragraph sets the tone:
      ” The Australian government has announced that an independent review of free speech on university campuses will be undertaken by the Hon Mr Robert French AC, former Chief Justice of the High Court of Australia and current chancellor of the University of Western Australia, will be reviewing existing material, including codes of conduct, enterprise agreements, policy statements and strategic plans. ”
      And Peter RIdd’s situation is specifically mentioned.
      Cheers,
      Dave B

      51

  • #

    Wilkes has just one job: to manipulate and distort.

    The media now make dissidence disappear at will, and when dissidence becomes too hard to hide they use words like “pander”, “nationalist”, “reactionary” and “populist” to minimise or dismiss.

    And it’s not just the Posh Left of Bloomberg’s demographic. It’s not just the likes of the ABC and Guardian consumers. It’s all of us who are being handled.

    The media lure conservatives with one flavour of reportage and progressives with another. Note how conservatives have been persuaded to love debt and state intrusion while the left can barely control their enthusiasm for censorship, war and police repression. All brought to us by the common enemy of mankind, hammering away at our minds through electronic boxes.

    May the media rot.

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    • #

      Every Left leaning outlet is shutting off dissenting voices at every turn. Facebook, Twitter, Google, now even Rotten Tomatoes has closed all discussion on the latest Captain Marvel movie (soon to be released) because of the push back from disgruntled fans over the star’s comments.

      The Left is using old Socialist/Communist tactics of not just pushing fake news, but preventing any news contrary to their beliefs from being aired. I truly wonder how many are really aware of what’s going on.

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    • #
      Robert Swan

      The thing is that there are different sorts of “conservatives” and some do favour protectionism, government intervention and censorship. In fact, are such people not the true conservatives? People like us who see a minimal role for government shouldn’t be called conservatives.

      The so-called left has a similar problem — how do green urban elitists and blue collar workers end up under one label?

      That said, I agree that the media are a big problem. They no longer even pretend to be the independent fourth estate, keeping the bastards honest. They are there pulling strings and collaborating as full partners in the ruling class.

      Yes. May they all rot.

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    • #
      glen Michel

      The media have always been the problem.Banality dressed up as information for a populace with scant nous and education.

      50

  • #
    dadgervais

    Slightly OT? but an arguable proposition.

    The success of science and engineering (19th and 20th century) is what lead to its current failings.

    I would suggest —

    First, the great advances resulted in increased standard of living for millions: i.e. they were very valuable in money terms.

    Second, sound science and engineering are difficult and require high intelligence and ethics: i.e. relatively few will be capable of competent practice.

    Deduction: The first (above) leads to a demand for greatly increased numbers of scientists and engineers beyond the number that the second (above) allows.

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  • #
    Francis Lacan

    In the US, the American Action Forum was quick to estimate that the Green New Deal wil cost each 600,000 dollars per household. In continental Europe, what is missing from both politicians and the people is economic awareness. Filling the land in Denmark with wind turbines has doubled the price of electricity, but nobody seems to care. I was stunned that the gilet jaunes failed to denounce the energy policy as the main culprit for their economic misery, when the movement actually started… because of an increase in fuel tax! In continental Europe everyone lives under the terror of being called a sceptic, and most populists politicians still consider it is too big a risk to take. Sadly.

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  • #
    Roy Hogue

    Tell me again how everyone wants climate action.

    Jo, I would gladly tell you but I think you know the answer better than I do.

    Now someone tell our politicians and the UN in a way they can’t ignore. And lest I leave anyone out, someone tell the die-hard tree huggers and Earth worshipers in a way they can’t ignore.

    Perhaps a massive protest a la the yellow jacket bunch but all over the world simultaneously would do it. But I suspect they could ignore even that.

    The way things are going I really expect armed conflict between factions. On the other hand, another thing Americans have forgotten or never known is our founder’s distrust in unlimited government. So who would rise up? And I confess that I don’t know.

    As Oliver Hardy would say to Stan Laurel at the end of their 2 reelers, “Well, here’s another nice kettle of fish you’ve pickled me in!”

    Jo, the real answer seems to be no one and everyone simultaneously.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Roy, those responsible deserve gaol time .. No exceptions.

      Bring on Clinate Nuremberg Trials…..

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    • #
      Dennis

      Our best weapon is how we vote, the ballot box.

      Former PM Howard, an amateur psephologist, commented in 2017/18 that the two party system was traditionally supported by around 80 per cent of voters, including swinging voters. But now the support is around 60 per cent.

      I believe that the election campaign tactic of fielding candidates as independents is a manoeuvre engineered to capture votes from voters who reject the two party system, vote for an independent not realising that they are supported by the Unions, Labor, Greens and Turnbull Party (as he referred to the Liberals when he was the leader) with union established and funded in part GetUp campaigning for those no brand independents.

      Note that real centre right Liberal MPs are the targets, possibly Nationals as well. The Turnbull Party consisted of Liberals In Name Only who referred to themselves as a faction, the Black Hand. According to various sources including the stopturnbull website his long time ambition has been to get rid of the Liberal and National parties and merge his supporters with Labor. I have no doubt that if the independent candidates succeed they will become part of a single party system governing Australia.

      In 2010 the federal election resulted in a hung parliament and Labor were forced to form an alliance minority government. In fact they had already recruited so called independents after the 2007 election when the internal polling indicated that the 2010 election would be hard for them to win. Including Messrs Windsor and Oakeshott.

      I intend to place independents last, Greens above them and Labor above Greens. Above Labor I will vote for a Coalition candidate but for primary vote I will select a minor party candidate. If another hung parliament is achieved in 2019 our message will impact strongly. I will not vote for either of the present two party system in the Senate.

      Having contacted various Liberal and National MPs to express my concern about socialism and globalism, climate change based hoax, energy crisis and other concerns and not receiving many replies, and none that did not parrot the party lines, I am not going to reward them with my vote.

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        mikewaite

        Dennis
        You say:”Our best weapon is how we vote, the ballot box”.
        How I wish that were so,and it may be in Australia, but it certainly is not so in UK.
        We had a vote on Brexit three , yes 3 , years ago. A clear result, but it will not happen.
        From the first day after the vote the BBC conspired with rich unscrupulous politicians
        and former politicians to overturn the popular result and they have succeeded.
        If that is our best weapon then we, the people, will always lose.

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          Bill in Oz

          One of the reasons for that was that Farage the UKIP leader retired after the Brexit vote.
          He thought it was won.
          Naive thinking by Farage.

          The other issue is that the minor parties ( UKIP etc ) have never been able to force electoral change in the UK away from the plurality wins voting system to a proportional or preferential voting system. Now that is dopey and undemocratic but a gift to the Labor & Conservative parties.

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          Dennis

          My point is that another hung parliament, both sides of the unofficial two party system of government unable to form government after the election, and an alliance put together to form a minority government, sends a clear message from the voters that we are not happy.

          The more alliance member MPs needed the louder the message of protest.

          A political commentator after 2010 when the Gillard led Labor alliance minority government was formed wrote that he hoped the PM was good at herding cats. Nothing worse for a government than not having absolute power.

          Add a hostile Senate and the government is weakened, with the threat of another voter backlash if the things we hate continue.

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      • #
        Destroyer D69

        Without the protection of this option we have no hope of relief from the clutches of our current or future assemblage of governments. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

        Subseries

        Politics portal

        vte

        A recall election (also called a recall referendum or representative recall) is a procedure by which, in certain polities, voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before that official’s term has ended. Recalls, which are initiated when sufficient voters sign a petition, have a history dating back to ancient Athenian democracy[1] and feature in several current constitutions. In indirect or representative democracy, people’s representatives are elected and these representatives rule for a specific period of time. However, where the facility to recall exists, should any representative come to be perceived as not properly discharging their responsibilities, then they can be called back with the written request of specific number or proportion of voters.

        20

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    Good..hammer the nails into the electoral ” coffins” of those parties who would happily enslave all humanity. They are getting off incredibly lightly….

    111

  • #
    Mark M

    Some quotes & links:

    “It’s going to trigger a civil war and me, like most other citizens, we’re all ready.”

    “They take everything from us. They steal everything from us,” said 21-year-old Laura Cordonnier.

    Far left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon explained to BFMTV the historical importance of this issue in the Gallic mindset:

    “When tax is no longer agreed to, it’s the start of revolutions in France.”

    https://apnews.com/d3033b920af449b594e66b51890b517b
    .
    We gilets jaunes (yellow vests) represent the poor of France, those they call the sans-dents (toothless), those with modest or low incomes, who are being crushed.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/24/paris-fuel-tax-protest-macron-france-poverty
    .
    One of the difficulties faced by the government in seeking to talk to protesters is that the mainly-spontaneous grassroot movement, organised through social media, has steadfastly refused to align with any political party or trade union.

    https://www.rte.ie/news/europe/2018/1130/1014424-france-protest/
    .
    German Left Party denounces “Yellow Vest” protests

    https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/12/07/yell-d07.html
    .
    “Macron talks about the end of the world,” they say, “but we are talking about the end of the month.”

    https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/austerity-has-created-indifference-towards-climate-change-1.3739330
    .

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    • #
      C. Paul Barreira

      To what extent is the “yellow vest” current anti-Semitic (see here)?

      20

      • #
        James Murphy

        The gilets jaunes are a large assortment of people, there is no real leader or universally accepted leadership team, and they have a raft of demands ranging from what would be considered far left, and far right, aside from the demands which get publicised. A lot of the French people I work with do not join in, but they do remain sympathetic, and vaguely supportive of the gilets jaunes overarching views regarding the French government.

        As far as anti-semitic sentiment in France, well, there is a theory espoused by some pundits that this comes predominately from the far left, plus the surge in immigrants of a certain religion which hasn’t changed much since the 7th century. Of course there are the inevitable and genuine far right loonies wishing it was still 1942 too…

        Sadly, one does not need to look further than Australia to see how Labor and Greens tacitly support, or at least do not hinder or condemn anti-Semitism badly disguised as anti-israeli protest. Europe is no different, it seems.

        102

  • #
    a happy little debunker

    Just don’t expect the MSM to relent or ever be held to account.

    Our own Media-Watch is only prepared to call out one side of the political argument.

    70

    • #
      george

      It was one sided.
      Media Watch only gave the SRES cost, which is only one component of the combined cost of all solar subsidies.

      30

  • #
    yarpos

    I perversely admire the liberal lefts ability to shape events with language.

    “populist” which is code for popular-but-we-don’t-like-them (and-nor-should-you) as Jo describes

    “denier” somone who argues sensibly against apparently self evident truths unsupported by facts

    “facist” someone who behaves like a screaming anitfa

    “racist” someone who isnt blind and indoctrinated and can see that humankind is made up of races

    “progressive” someone who wants the world to retreat to the middle ages

    “deplorable” somone who doesnt stand on the high moral and intellectual ground as me (admittedly this one back fired a little)

    “baseloader” someone who thinks Australia needs 18GW of power at 4AM in the morning and is concerned about how that is going to be delivered

    and on it goes

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  • #
    Peter C

    Who are the Jellyfish Liberals with No conviction, or the wrong convictions about Climate Change?

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison,
    Josh Frydenburg
    Greg Hunt
    Christopher Pyne
    Julie Bishop (retiring)

    Doubtless many more.

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    • #
      el gordo

      You may have to leave the PM off that list, according to Hannam in the SMH …

      ‘Did you notice that the Morrison government has slashed Australia’s Paris climate target in half, a detail that somehow escaped scrutiny in the …’

      60

      • #
        Peter C

        Leave the PM off? No Way.

        He has just committed another 2 Billion dollars of OUR MONEY to the climate change fund and is still going ahead with 4 Billion on Snowy 2.

        10

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    I do not understand that graph, it appears to inflate the support for the “Right Wing populists” by stacking them on top of each other. In reality, these fringe groups only represents around 3% of the population, or less than the greens.

    59

    • #
      el gordo

      They are splinter groups capable of gaining popular support, but unlikely to ever form a coalition and get into government. A lot of the angst is against immigration.

      Its history, but Hitler only won 3% of the popular vote in 1929.

      90

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        Yes, but they are by country. An Australian example would be if I took the state support for the greens and added them as in this graph, I would show around 70% support for them.

        As to the 1929,
        The recently reformed Nazi Party contested the elections after the ban on the party was lifted in 1925. However, the party received less than 3% of the vote and won just 12 seats in the Reichstag. Adolf Hitler, who had been incarcerated in Landsberg prison for his involvement in the Beer Hall Putsch until Christmas 1924, had concentrated on re-establishing himself as the leader of the Nazi Party following his release rather than on the party’s electability.

        In the next presidential election in 1932
        Paul von Hindenburg . 18,651,497
        Adolf Hitler . 11,339,446
        Daylight was third

        Source: Nohlen & Stöver

        51

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          Peter Fitzroy:

          The totals are for the European Parliament, not any country. Admittedly most voters treat the European Parliament about as seriously as do the EU commissars, i.e. toothless and unable to do anything. Their vote just expresses their dislike of the political class.
          The AfD recently won 15% of the vote in one of the ‘State’ elections and is expected to do as well, or better, in the next German Federal election. This is leading to some ‘shuffling in the ranks’ in the major parties as suddenly some politicians are claiming to be ‘on your side’ to the working class. Don’t forget that Mussolini was Europe’s best known Socialist for many years in opposition, and was rewarded with power by a switch.

          Meanwhile recent elections in Poland, Hungary, Austria and Italy (and the USA) haven’t gone in favour of the soft left. Still, you can console yourself that Bill Shorten will shortly be wrecking Australia’s economy. As this will involve spending more borrowed money I wonder whether he will stay around when the Creditors pull the rug out from under. We will have to export a lot more coal and iron ore to pay off those debts. We may even have to slash employment on the governmental payrolls.

          60

        • #
          el gordo

          The 1929 US stock market crash gave the demagogue his new converts.

          60

          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            It certainly did that in Europe, in America, it was the New Deal (Socialism by another name)

            32

            • #
              el gordo

              We have to be careful here, John Stuart Mill and John Maynard Keynes gave the US president the impetus for the New Deal.

              And of course, Adolf was also greatly influenced by Keynes.

              More economic rationalism than socialism.

              50

    • #

      The text says it is percentage of seats in the EU parliament. It is not stacking, it is highlighting the parties that comprise that %

      31

    • #
      yarpos

      the graph gives you a view of cumlative groups who do not toe the PC EU Alarmist line, it doesnt represnt the power of an individual group but gives an indication that there is a growing population of people that dont accept the current direction. More importantly they are prepared to act, which always scares our masters.

      50

  • #
    el gordo

    The centre right government in Australia is pandering to Gaia and there is nothing the voters can do about it.

    100

    • #
      dinn, rob

      el gordo
      February 25, 2019 at 9:19 am · Reply
      You must be confusing me with someone else.

      dinn, rob
      February 27, 2019 at 9:27 am · Reply
      Let me remind you then, El Gordo; See
      #10 dinn, rob
      November 11, 2018 at 10:52 am
      but of course, we knew that! https://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-to-develop-xinjiang.html
      21
      #

      el gordo 
November 11, 2018 at 11:10 am 
…. “training” and “boarding schools” where residents receive vocational, legal and language training as well as “de-extremisation education”. 
Australia needs to set up these boarding schools.
      http://joannenova.com.au/2018/11/weekend-unthreaded-235/

      20

      • #
        el gordo

        My tongue was firmly planted, a reeducation camp for intractable Gaia worshippers.

        They will be taught atmospheric science, political science, paleo climate history and economic history.

        50

      • #
        el gordo

        Donald builds a wall to keep undesirables out and Xi producers a human buffer, a police state with local informers.

        20

  • #
    PeterS

    What else does one expect from politicians these days from either side? Liars and con artists the lot of them. Enjoy the music while we can.

    60

    • #
      el gordo

      I would like to put in a good word for Angus Taylor, he is as straight as they come.

      ‘Energy Minister Angus Taylor, speaking to the media at Tumut 3 Hyrdo station in the Snowy Mountains says that forty years ago his grandfather who was the chief engineer during the construction of the original Snowy scheme, had a vision to build a “pump hydro” system that pumps water from a lower reservoir to a higher one when power costs are low to store the water as a “battery” and then can flow down again through a turbine to produce energy when needed. Snowy 2.0 has now been given the “green light” by the Morrison government.

      “This is a great day for Australia,” Mr Taylor says. (AAP

      Daily Telegraph

      40

      • #
        AndyG55

        I have no problem with Snowy 2.0 so long as it uses only renewable energies, wind and solar.

        Use only them to pump the water up to the upper reservoir, as a separate scheme.

        No grid connection to the pumps.

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        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          They have done pumped hydro since 1973.

          this from their website
          https://www.snowyhydro.com.au/our-energy/hydro/the-assets/power-stations/

          “The Snowy Mountains Scheme has one pumping station at Jindabyne and a pump storage facility at Tumut 3 Power Station.
          Jindabyne Pumping Station pumps water from Lake Jindabyne through the Jindabyne-Island Bend Tunnel to the Snowy-Geehi Tunnel at Island Bend.
          The pump facility at Tumut 3 Power Station returns water to Talbingo Reservoir.”

          54

          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Agreed, but the major purpose was for irrigation. Pumped storage relies on the right ratio of water in the upper and lower dams, hence a drought may cut the electricity storage potential drastically. And don’t forget that the Greens persuaded the Authority to flush the Snowy river every year.
            So make your choice:
            Continued irrigation or less agriculture and higher food prices.
            Less water for ecological uses.
            Continued higher prices for electricity (the Authority has already signalled that they want $40 per MWh which would be on top of the market price during surpluses).

            60

            • #

              The existing (major) pumped hydro plant at Tumut 3 is used so rarely as to be hardly noticeable.

              The people who ‘know’ realise that it’s actually a nett power consumer, and that’s something the public has no concept of, believing the spin that it’s an original generator of power, something it patently isn’t.

              After the first flush, the same will happen with this Snowy 2.0.

              It’ll just get connected to the grid and coal fired power between Midnight and 5AM will be used to pump the water back up to the upper reservoir, as it is now with Tumut 3. You can actually tell this is being done, because for one night, sometimes two, after Tumut 3 has been used, that Base Load at the 4AM point in time is higher, and by a substantial margin also.

              Tony.

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              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                A question for you TonyfromOz:
                I understood, that steam powered turbines have to spin 24/7, as their shutdown/startup procedures are very slow, and they need to maintain steam pressure. Is that correct?

                22

              • #
                crakar24

                Its a funny thing Pete just by coincedence people need elctrickery 24/7 so we are just lucky a turbine spis for the same amount of time.

                50

              • #

                I also believed that as well.

                However, after now more than ten years of watching the data, and now collating it all on a daily basis, that is not true that those start up procedures are very slow.

                Each and every day, those 48 coal fired Units range in output from low to high of between 3000MW to 4500MW, (Monday two days back now it was 4790MW) up to max and back to min output on a four hour basis, up for the morning peak, back a little, and then up even higher for the evening peak, and then back to low at 4AM.

                Shut down for maintenance usually is done across 2 hours tops, and after that maintenance is completed, from start up delivery of power to maximum output usually comes in at around three hours or so, depending on the age of the Unit, as some of the older ones might take anything up to 5 to 8 hours.

                What happens in the interim is something I cannot see.

                If the work is on anything after the furnace/boiler/pressuriser, then a much smaller amount of coal is crushed and fed into the furnace to keep it close to operating temperature, so that after the maintenance is complete, then the roll up process can begin without a major fire up of the furnace.

                If the work is on the furnace, or associated equipment, then that is relatively easy to see, as the Unit is off line for a longer period of time.

                However, in the main, those Units are only off line for maintenance for two/three days and sometimes, as with the six Supercritical Units in Queensland, that down time is sometimes only a day/day and a half, and those ones scroll back to max power output in usually only an hour and a half.

                The generator itself usually rotates very very slowly during minor maintenance as the weight if stopped could bend the shaft.

                Again, unscheduled drop offs are also easy to see, as power rolls back to zero almost immediately.

                And yes, the generator can be isolated from the driving turbine, so that turbine can be kept rotating, not usually anywhere near operating speed. They also are three stage turbines as well, so steam pressure can also be isolated from one stage to the next as well.

                Complex machinery, considering it usually operates at maximum design specs for anything up to and beyond 50 years.

                Tony.

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              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                So the generator units which are not down for maintenance and are not require to meet demand, are powered up, but idling?

                12

              • #
                Dennis

                I recall reading that a well maintained power station could continue to operate efficiently for 80 years or more before decisions need to be made about the cost effectiveness of major maintenance compared to replacement with latest technology.

                The 50 year period often quoted is an accounting period or plan for maximum return on investment for the shareholders as the plant is written down in value against taxable income to zero.

                Obviously well maintained plant with zero cost to the shareholders could remain profitable to operate.

                30

              • #

                There’s another thing that is not known, as well.

                Whilst ever a coal fired Unit is on, it is delivering its power to the grid.

                We do not have ANY rolling reserve any more, which was the case that you mention.

                The FIRST power used is always coal fired power. It does what it always does, ….. INDEPENDENT of what ANY other source does.

                ALL other units of any type at all are the ones used to add to the total when Demand (actual consumption) rises.

                That ramping up and down on a daily (hourly) basis IMMEDIATELY tells you this. If the power was not actually required, then it would not ramp up, and when demand drops, those other Units drop out of the system, and the coal fired power ramps back down.

                Those (former) rolling reserve Units were the ones which were powered up and idling along, but we don’t have them any more.

                Tony.

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              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                Thank you TonyfromOz, you have cleared up that misconception of mine. And, as a consequence, the pumped hydro can only be a boondoggle, as you pointed out in previous posts, it is a net power user, which means that we would have to run extra production , at the higher generation prices, to run those pumps.

                31

              • #

                A point in example here is that yesterday (Tuesday 26Feb) the overall average power generation from every source fell by 500MW per hour to an average of 23400MW, ranging from a low of 18800MW to a Peak of 26900MW.

                While EVERY other source of power generation fell, coal fired power rose by 830MW to an average of 17530MW per hour, from a low of 15350MW to a high of 19270MW, with a range of 3920MW from the low to the high. That was 74.91% of all consumed power on the day.

                That power IS consumed.

                Tony.

                30

              • #

                ….. which means that we would have to run extra production , at the higher generation prices, to run those pumps.

                Not so. Whilst a nett power consumer, this Snowy 2.0 is what you describe, a generator ….. of money, and that was actually mentioned yesterday at the camera op, when one of the talking heads actually said ….. “buy the power to pump the water UP the hill at $40.00, and then sell it at the Peak for $100.00, so $60.00 up.

                He can get away with saying that because no one knows what he means by it, or puts two and two together.

                Tony.

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              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                Sorry, TonyfromOz, just one more question on this topic: If I understand you correctly the coal fired generators are not always running at nameplate capacity, but are variable in their output depending on conditions?

                11

            • #
              Bill in Oz

              It was not the Greens whp ‘persuaded’ the Snowy Mountains Authority to flush the Snowy every year.It was the people of East Gippsland wher i lived at the time.

              From time immemorial there were floods down the Snowy which sparked the breeding cycle of native fish and other animals.The floods also pushed out the saline water at Marlo & Orbost where there is an extensive irrigated farming area on the Snowy River flats.

              A point of information : when the Snowy River diversion project was signed in 1946-7, the agreement between the states and the Commonwealth stated that at least 15% of normal annual flow would be allowed to go down the Snowy South to the sea. That hardly ever happened. In most years from 1965 to 2003, the amount allowed to flow down the old Snowy river bed was just !% !

              That was a violation of the Commonwealth & state Agreement,. So legally the flush as you call it, is just a restoration of what was supposed to happen under that agreement.

              The Snowy river is a wonder of nature even now after having most of it’s water taken from it.It still occasionally floods ‘big time’ when an East coast low parks itself on the SE corner of the continent and rains for days.

              40

          • #
            AndyG55

            Snowy 2.0 is meant to be a “renewables” electricity scheme

            Either it can work using just “renewables” or it can’t.

            Which you think, POC?

            92

  • #
    glen Michel

    Yeah NewsCorp and its relentless campaign against renewable energy. Paul Barry and his cohort at the ABC’s relentless campaign for renewables. The man looks and sounds like a moron.

    81

  • #
    David Brunt

    I think the EV Parliament meets in both Brussels and Strasburg, rotating on a 6 monthly basis, because they could not agree where it should be based. This costs about 500 m Euro a year I understand.

    61

    • #
      StephenP

      The French wanted Strasbourg instead of Brussels, so to appease them the EU agreed to the current farce.
      If this didn’t happen think of the poor hotels, restaurants and transport providers who would miss out. (In France)

      20

  • #
    Ruairi

    The Globalist dogma from hell,
    Backed by Leftists caused folks to rebel,
    As the populists throng,
    Many ten thousand strong,
    Now in so many lands a groundswell.

    80

  • #

    Good one, Ruairi.

    Down with evil
    gurus, Soros et al,
    May they go to hell,
    as they would create
    here on Earth for us.
    Ring out yr call to act,
    ye great liberty bell!

    40

    • #
      jack

      The political pendulm swings
      caused by
      the swell of other things
      life goes on
      dues are paid
      until it is
      new plans are laid.

      60

    • #
      jack

      Doing this
      makes me think of Shakespeare
      Who writes sonnet’s
      without any fear
      “But soft” he says
      Ah, be quiet I think
      all I can do
      is google and link

      00

  • #
    bobn

    Hi Jo
    I expect you have watched Tommy Robinson’s (a UK ‘populist’) takedown of BBC Panorama? I just watched and was impressed – the boy did good. Starts a bit slow but builds to an end that’s dramatic. What is very scarey is that though tommy put it out on Facebook and Utube they have both now blocked it, and facebook banned tommy completely (he may also still be blocked from Twetter). This shows the power of the elitist leftwing media cabal. BBC furious at being exposed so gets its MI6 handlers to talk to CIA mates to tell Facebook, utube etc to block free speech again. What else are the deep state banning? You can find Tommy’s documentary here if you missed it.

    https://www.therebel.media/tommy-robinson-pandorama-fake-news-bbc-uk-europe-documentary

    Lets pass it far and wide. It shows how the fascist left-wing elites attack the populists.

    cheers
    Bob

    90

    • #
      pat

      bobn –

      re the claim “Hope Not Hate” “steered” the Panorama program.

      more than 2 weeks into the Jussie Smollett “modern day lynching” farce, BBC broadcast the following to millions around the world on 15 & 17 February:

      AUDIO: 26:29 BBC: Heart and Soul: The Right Thing: Making friends with the KKK
      Daryl Davis collects Ku Klux Klan memorabilia – KKK robes, hoods and masks. He says they are given to him by those leaving the white supremacist organisation, after he has spent time befriending them and persuading them to change their views. Heart and Soul hears from Daryl about what drives him, his Christian faith and concerns about racial division within the church, and from Scott Shepherd, one of those he helped to leave the KKK.
      (BBC’s) Mike Wooldridge asks if Daryl is doing ‘the right thing’. His critics complain that his testifying in court in defence of violent extremists is a step too far, and that he would be better joining with others in ***calling for political change etc… https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3csy5bn

      THEN ABC Australia broadcast it on Radio National at 12.30am on Sunday 24 February, by which time:

      TWEET: NBC News: JUST IN: Chicago police:
      Smollett sent “false letter that relied on racial, homophobic and political language. When that didn’t work, Smollett paid $3,500 to stage this attack and drag Chicago’s reputation through the mud” because he was “dissatisfied” with his salary.
      21 Feb 2019

      AP: The head of the Chicago police force says that as a black man who has spent his entire life in the city and knows its racial divides, he doesn’t understand how anyone, especially a black man, could use the symbolism of a noose to make false accusations.
      21 Feb 2019

      BBC’s Heart & Soul interviewed ex-SPLC veteran, Mark Potok, and ex-BLM member (now has his own org), Kwame Rose.
      ***what are the odds Potok “steered” the BBC’s “Heart & Soul” program?

      1 Sept 2018: Daily Beast: The Curious Case of Daryl Davis, the Black Man Befriending Members of the KKK
      The intent may be fine. But it’s hard not to wonder if he isn’t fundamentally aiding and abetting the cause he claims to oppose
      by Mark Potok
      (Mark Potok is a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right and a longtime former Senior Fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center)
      In fact, I appear as a mild critic of his (Davis) in a 2016 documentary that aired on PBS, “Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America.”…
      Daryl Davis: “Many are good, hard-working people with a skewed perception of life and reality.”…
      But not very many anti-racists agree.
      In “Accidental Courtesy,” Baltimore activist ***Kwame Rose angrily tells Davis to “stop wasting your time” with white supremacists: “We do not need to give ammunition to anyone to celebrate their racist past.”…
      https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-curious-case-of-daryl-davis-the-black-man-befriending-members-of-the-kkk

      to air the above when the following had occurred just weeks earlier – with almost no MSM coverage – says everything about the BBC’s agenda:

      22 Jan: NY Post: This ‘Black Israelite’ from Brooklyn sparked the Covington controversy
      By Ben Feuerherd and Bruce Golding
      “The word of God — it sparked it all,” said the man, who identified himself as “Chief Ephraim Israel” of the House of Israel…
      Israel was caught on video verbally attacking both Native American activists and the students from Covington Catholic High School ***for more than an hour on Friday before activist Nathan Phillips appeared and began chanting and beating on a drum…
      During an interview in a Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, Israel defended the outrageous insults he hurled at the students, whom he at one point called “a bunch of f—-ts made out of incest.”…
      The House of Israel is among 233 black-nationalist hate groups identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremists active in the United States…
      A 2008 report from the SPLC said extremist Hebrew Israelites “have a long, strange list of enemies,” including white people, “fraudulent” Jews, Asians, continental Africans and gay people…

      23 Jan: Fox News: Who are the Black Hebrew Israelites, the religious group in the viral confrontation at the Lincoln Memorial?
      Additionally, Covington student Nick Sandmann, who was seen in the first video, later said in a statement that four members of the Black Hebrew Israelite movement called the students “racists, bigots, white crackers, f—-ts, and incest kids.”
      “They also taunted an African-American student from my school by telling him that we would ‘harvest his organs,'” he added…

      Wikipedia: Black Hebrew Israelites
      In late 2008, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described as black supremacist what it called “the extremist fringe of the Hebrew Israelite movement”…

      IF BBC DID A PROGRAM – AT THIS TIME – FEATURING BLACK SUPREMACISTS BEFRIENDING OR EVEN CONFRONTING WHITE SUPREMACISTS, I WOULDN’T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT.

      00

  • #
    pat

    el gordo #15.1 commented about Peter Hannam/SMH article, which quotes Malte Meinshausen “who heads the Australian-German Climate and Energy College at Melbourne University”. article doesn’t mention his Potsdam connection:

    Twitter: Malte Meinshausen, Climate scientist at the University of Melbourne and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
    https://twitter.com/meinshausen?lang=en

    24 Mar 2017: ScienceMag: A roadmap for rapid decarbonization
    Johan Rockström, Owen Gaffney, Joeri Rogelj, Malte Meinshausen, Nebojsa Nakicenovic,Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
    http://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6331/1269/tab-figures-data

    ***Meinshausen quoted in following:

    26 Feb: AFP: Global warming imperils clouds that deter hothouse Earth
    So-called stratocumulus clouds cover about 20 percent of subtropical oceans, mostly near western seaboards such as the coasts of California, Mexico and Peru.
    Paris: Marine clouds that protect us from hothouse Earth conditions by reflecting sunlight back into space could break up and vanish if CO2 in the atmosphere triples, researchers warned Monday…

    “When they disappear, Earth warms dramatically, by about eight degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) — in addition to the global warming that comes from enhanced greenhouse concentrations alone,” according to the study.
    A temperature increase of that magnitude would melt polar ice and lift sea levels tens of metres.
    The last time the planet was that hot, some 50 million years ago during the Eocene Epoch, crocodiles roamed the Arctic.
    Even half that much warming would overwhelm humanity’s capacity to adapt, scientists say…

    Even after 30 years of dire warnings about the consequences of climate change, global greenhouse gas emissions are still climbing year-on-year.
    At current rates of CO2 pollution — known as the “business as usual” scenario — “the 1200 ppm value will be crossed by 2104,” ***Malte Meinshausen, director of the Climate and Energy College at the University of Melbourne, told AFP, citing a study to be published later this year…
    https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/global-warming-imperils-clouds-deter-hothouse-earth-doc-1dt8j12

    30

  • #
    pat

    John F. Hultquist – comment #5 – started looking into Adelphi.

    from John’s links: This project is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI)
    Supported by: Federal Ministry for the Environment, Natur Conservation and Nuclear Safety
    Based on a decision of the German Bundestag

    all the usual academia suspects:

    Adelphi: who we are
    Tucker Landesman – Project Manager at adelphi
    Prior to joining adelphi, Tucker worked at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics (LSE) where researched national climate change legislation around the world. Tucker completed his doctorate at the LSE in human geography and urban studies…
    Tucker holds a BA in international affairs from The Elliott School of International Affairs of The George Washington University with thematic foci in global public health and gender studies…

    Marcus Andreas – Senior Project manager at adelphi
    Before his time with adelphi, Marcus researched “green citizenship” as a Junior Fellow for the Centre of Humanities in Utrecht, the Netherlands. At the Rachel Carson Center in Munich, Germany, he supervised the multidisciplinary “Waste in Environment and Society”, hosted the “Realizing Utopia” workshop and co-published the respective edited volume…
    Marcus Andreas completed his doctorate in social and cultural anthropology at the University of California in Berkeley and at the Los Angeles Ecovillage (both USA), amongst other places. He had previously studied Pedagogics at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich…

    Yann Robiou du Pont, Project Manager at adelphi
    His work on quantifying ‘fair’ national mitigation targets under the Paris Agreement goals has been published in Nature and other scientific journals and informs decision makers, NGOs, and public opinions…
    Before working on climate change negotiations, Yann gained research experience in oceanography (Harvard University, and University of Pierre and Marie Curie with field work in Equatorial Atlantic, the Arctic and Antarctica), hydrology (University of California, Berkeley), cosmology (University of Oxford) and sea ice rheology (McGill University)…
    Yann holds a Ph.D. Earth Science and Geography from the University of Melbourne. As part of his Ph.D., he worked at the Potsdam institute for climate impact research PIK, in Germany…
    https://www.localclimateaction.org/who-we/adelphi

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    Another Ian

    “Evidence that humans are responsible for global warming hits ‘gold standard’ certainty level”

    “Five F@##%^ sigma dude!”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/02/26/evidence-that-humans-are-responsible-for-global-warming-hits-gold-standard-certainty-level/

    “Of course it’s from good ol’ Back Alley Ben Santer, :”

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    pat

    this is the first poll to suggest the combined right have the votes:

    24 Feb: UK Express: Spanish Socialists in TURMOIL as right-wing parties ON TRACK to win snap election – poll
    RIGHT-wing parties in Spain are on track to hold a parliamentary majority in April’s snap election, a leading opinion poll has suggested.
    By Clive Hammond
    The poll shows that parties PP, Ciudadanos and Vox could gain just enough seats to control the Cortes Generales, the country’s parliament. The poll suggests the three parties will win the biggest share of the seats with around 169 to 179 being secured. According to Sigma Dos poll, which was published in newspaper El Mundo, this will be enough to get a majority from the 350 seats.

    The prime minister Pedro Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party will only gather around 110 seats, the biggest share of seats but some way of gaining power…
    A spokesperson for the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party told CNN the right-wing group’s team up has created difficulties for the party.
    The spokesperson added: “It’s an agreement between right-wing forces and the extreme right, which is being sanitised.”…
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1091548/spain-election-latest-pedro-sanchez-socialist-party-PP-Ciudadanos-Vox-parliament

    25 Feb: UK Express: Spain election: PM Sanchez fears populist SURGE at polls – ‘winds of xenophobia blowing’
    By Romina McGuinness
    Recent opinion polls suggest he (Sanchez) could be forced out of office following his call earlier this month for new elections in April, Spain’s third in less than four years…
    The tensions within the (EU) bloc are expected to reach boiling point ahead of the European Parliament elections on May 23-26, a vote which is already shaping up to be a bitter battle between progressive europhiles and anti-immigration nationalists and that could fragment the bloc’s political landscape.
    The May vote is important because it will determine who is in charge of key EU institutions, including the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm.
    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1092262/spain-election-latest-pedro-sanchez-vox-europe-populist-surge

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      pat

      22 Feb: EuroWeeklyNews: Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez floats ‘green bonds’ to help fund €47 billion climate spending
      By Joe Gerrard
      SPAIN’S Prime Minister has announced plans to spend €47 billion on tackling climate change, with some of the money set to come from new ‘green bonds’.
      Pedro Sanchez said the spending package aimed to make Spain carbon neutral by 2050. It came as part of a raft of new measures proposed to tackle climate change, but approval is unlikely due to the snap election on Sunday April 28.

      Sanchez said the proposals, which are seen as a statement of intent on policy if he wins the election, were necessary and achievable.
      “Ecological transition will be achieved with consensus and co-operation and by listening. As always, we will implement measures with the agreement of companies and workers’ representatives,” the Prime Minister said.
      Government sources said the green bonds would allow spending in renewable energy to be financed by investors. The introduction of such bonds would signal to investors that the government is committed to environmental sustainability, the sources added…

      The bonds are part of measures which officials said would generate business opportunities worth more than €200 billion during the next decade if they are passed…
      Government forecasts claimed efforts to move the economy towards green energy would increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by between €19.3 and €25.1 billion from 2021 to 2030.

      Officials said the proposals would help to reduce Spain’s dependence on imported fossil fuels to meet energy demands. Spain imports about 74 per cent of its energy, 20 percentage points above the EU average.
      https://www.euroweeklynews.com/2019/02/22/spanish-pm-pedro-sanchez-floats-green-bonds-to-help-fund-e47-billion-climate-spending/#.XHXy1-R7nIU

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      Bill in Oz

      The previous Party Popular government lost it’s majority in the cortes after the PM was charged with major corruption.

      I suspect that the key issue is that Sanchez immediately after taking power adopted an Open Borders policy to boat people coming to Spain from Morocco & Algeria.

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    TdeF

    Reactionary? If being lied to and ripped off over Global Warming is not bad enough, the left of politics want no borders, infinite amounts of everyone’s money, control of our superannuations savings to go to the Unions, to tax us double on our investments and want us to give up flying, driving cars, eating meat and heating and cooling our homes and that gender doesn’t exist except in our uneducated, unwoken minds while men dressed up as women trounce real women in sport. Meanwhile the politicians live like Princes and Princesses and we the people have to make more sacrifices. For whom?

    That’s not reactionary. That’s not populist. That’s fed up.

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    Ross

    Off topic but this is good for a laugh. The US Democrats call for an emergency committee meeting on climate change because it is so important. Then most of the Democrat members of the committee do not bother to turn up.

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/02/26/democrat-house-oversight-subcommittee-schedules-hearing-on-climate-change-democrats-dont-show-up/

    But the stupid Republican members agree to an adjournment.

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      TdeF

      As Los Angeles experiences the coldest February in 60 years, does anyone believe in Global Warming? Politicians not only do not believe, they want to be seen to believe so as not to alienate loonies who might vote for them. The more left you are, the more GLobal Warming becomes the most urgent problem in the history of mankind. That tell you about politics and nothing about the weather.

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        el gordo

        Wales is experiencing its hottest February weather ever and Australia is having a Autumn heatwave.

        ‘Tomorrow marks the last day of the season, as a severe heatwave is expected across much of South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.’ Oz

        A meandering jet stream in both hemispheres is causing the anomaly, its a global cooling signal.

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            el gordo

            Actually, I’m wearing a lukewarm hat and coat until 2021.

            Respected sources are saying a strong La Nina at that time, so I’m thinking this could bring an end to global warming because its coupled with a quiet sun.

            Temperatures should fall dramatically, but if we remain on this high plateau then we can assume CO2 has a part to play.

            Do you think this would be sufficient empirical evidence to end the debate?

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      Dennis

      Socialist Democrats know the truth, but the truth does not fit their political rhetoric.

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    pat

    Sky UK is as anti-Brexit as the Beeb/Guardian. clearly enjoying this encounter. love the “prompted many to call for an extension” bit.
    so clear where Sky stands:

    26 Feb: Sky News UK: Nigel Farage ‘wouldn’t campaign or vote’ in second Brexit referendum
    The MEP says choosing between the PM’s deal and Remain would be an “outrage” – and that he would rather go on holiday
    The MEP, who has pushed for decades to leave the EU, told the All Out Politics programme that the prime minister’s deal was “Brexit in name only”.
    “Honestly, if we are offered Brexit in name only, or Remain, why on Earth would I vote? I would go on holiday. It would be an outrage.
    “I wouldn’t campaign and I wouldn’t vote because it wouldn’t offer me Brexit.
    “Remain shouldn’t even be on the ballot paper, but if we are forced to this, it would have to be Remain or a clean Brexit,” he added.

    Labour has come out in support of a second referendum, with the party’s shadow Brexit secretary, Sir Keir Starmer, telling Sky News the choice should be between a “credible Leave option and Remain”.

    In a statement to the House of Commons, Mrs May confirmed a “meaningful vote” will be held by 12 March, but Mr Farage was dismissive of her efforts.
    “What she’s gone for is a Remainer’s Brexit.
    “It is Brexit in name only. Even in the best-case scenario, it would be six or seven years after voting Brexit that we could arrange any new trade deals with anyone else in the world.”
    He suggested that a second referendum result would be invalid if significant numbers of Leave supporters followed his lead and refused to take part.
    “You have to have a certain level of turnout for any referendum to be valid,” he said…

    The failure to secure a deal has prompted many to call for an extension to Article 50 beyond the end of March.
    But Mr Farage insisted that should not be sanctioned, as “it won’t be extended once, it will be extended again and again and again”.
    https://news.sky.com/story/nigel-farage-wouldnt-campaign-or-vote-in-second-brexit-referendum-11648823

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    pat

    for those who feel all the talk of geoengineering is just another attempt to sell a rush to non-scary “renewables”:

    26 Feb: BBC: How artificially brightened clouds could stop climate change
    by Tim Smedley
    In truth, we already know the action needed to reduce man-made climate change: a rapid reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy…

    Salter calculates that a fleet of 300 of his autonomous ships could reduce global temperatures by 1.5C. He also believes that smaller fleets could be deployed to counter-act regional extreme weather events. Hurricane seasons and El Niño, exacerbated by high sea temperatures, could be tamed by targeted cooling via marine cloud brightening…

    “One of the biggest taboos around this technology has been this fear, which is a very real fear, that interests vested in fossil fuels and other processes would benefit from the world slowing down the transition to a zero-carbon energy system,” explains Burns. Proponents of this view include Al Gore, who has described solar geoengineering as “insane” and accused the scientists involved of “hubris”…

    There are many preferable ways to reduce climate change than solar geoengineering. Planting trees – reforesting – is a proven, conservation-friendly method of taking carbon out of the atmosphere. A rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy would tackle the source of emissions. But neither are happening fast enough. Perhaps, if nothing else, even contemplating solar geoengineering may be enough to shock governments into rapid emissions reduction…

    If the world says “no” to solar geo-engineering, that “is totally fine with me”, says Burns. “Truthfully this is scary, I hope we don’t have to do it.”…
    http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190220-how-artificially-brightened-clouds-could-stop-climate-change

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    theRealUniverse

    “Europe’s consensus in favor of curbing greenhouse gas emissions…” This statement alone says what they believe. The flawed GHG theory, disproved in several papers published in the anals of physics (the contrary has NEVER been published).
    It says regardless of whether they believe in ‘climate change’ there are greenhouse gasses.

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    pat

    running scared:

    26 Feb: The Hill: Schumer: Dems will try to defund Trump panel reassessing climate change
    By Jordain Carney
    Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Tuesday that if the Trump administration moves forward with a panel reportedly intended to counter scientific consensus on climate change, Democrats will try to defund the group.
    “I’m announcing that if the Trump administration moves forward with this fake climate panel, we’ll be introducing legislation to defund it. … It is long past time for President Trump and Republican leaders to admit that climate change is real, that human activity contributes to it and Congress must take action,” Schumer said from the Senate floor…

    Schumer on Tuesday said that climate change is an “existential threat” and accused Republicans and the president of “ostrich-like” behavior.
    “This may be the most conspicuous symptom of the disease of climate denialism that has infected the Republican Party and the hard right. This is beyond willful ignorance. This is intentional deliberate sowing of disinformation about climate change policy by our own government,” Schumer said.
    https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/431579-schumer-dems-will-try-to-defund-trump-panel-reassessing-climate-change

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    pat

    this story has been updated. originally headlined “An Amtrak train with 183 passengers has been stranded in snowy Oregon since Sunday”.
    early in video, passenger says she’s been trapped 38 hours, but passengers who got on in Seattle have been trapped for 50 hours. says yesterday, it took 11 hours for them to clear 9 miles of track.

    Updated 27 Feb: CNN: Stranded Amtrak train heads north to Seattle. The trip’s almost over for all the passengers
    By Gianluca Mezzofiore, Jay Croft and Nicole Chavez; CNN’s Judson Jones, Christina Maxouris, Joe Sutton, Keith Allen and Chris Boyette contributed to this report.
    After more than 36 hours in limbo, dozens of passengers exited an Amtrak train that had been stranded in deep snow in Oregon feeling a mix of relief and frustration.
    “We really wanted for nothing except for maybe someplace comfortable to lie down and a shower,” passenger Marcia Trujillo told CNN affiliate KOIN shortly after leaving the train…

    The train — originally bound for Los Angeles — arrived Tuesday afternoon in Eugene, Oregon, with nearly 200 people aboard. It was the first time most of them had a chance to leave the train since Sunday…

    Record-setting snowfall
    While they were stalled all those hours at Oakridge, passengers could see a deserted stretch of Oregon Highway 58, closed due to snow and ice. The town of Oakridge had no electricity because of the weather, passenger Rebekah Dodson said…

    Amtrak spokesman Marc Magliari said that while none of the 183 passengers and dozen crew members were injured, “conditions further deteriorated with numerous track blockages from snow and fallen trees.”
    Amtrak Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Scot Naparstek said in a Tuesday morning statement that the company had decided leaving passengers on the train was the safest option…
    The stranded train was surrounded by feet of snow…
    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/26/us/oregon-train-passengers-stranded-trnd/index.html

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    Europeans do not factor politics into two main for-or-against variables: economic coercion versus religious coercion. These factors allow four outcomes only one of which is fully totalitarian. Instead they imagine a line from Stalin to Hitler and try to adopt a mix of policies copied from these two socialisms and arrive at what you see. You can replace Jew with Climate Denier in the thousand-word 1920 Nazi platform and arrive at pretty much today’s Germany: new and improved with Environmental Purity instead of icky racial purity.
    All that denazification accomplished was to split the 1940s NSDAP into Christian and Communist factions which have again coalesced since Reunification. Germany’s altruist collectivism is the same as it was in 1933.

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    We need to consider declining marginal returns. And we are at the stage where they have been declining for 100 years. Are we still profitable? Yes. But not by as much as we used to be. The easy stuff has been done.

    The Romans tried what we would call socialism in their collapse phase. It didn’t work. In fact it made things worse. Well, worse for the people. Better for the government.

    The reason it made things worse was high administrative costs i.e. too much government. That made the producers quit producing. The Romans made producing unprofitable.

    The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter – pdf The good stuff starts in Chapter 4.
    https://wtf.tw/ref/tainter.pdf

    https://youtu.be/GzuviYRse3E – about 3 minutes

    Camille Paglia says, like Tainter. that too much government is a bad thing
    https://spectator.us/camille-paglia-hillary-trump/

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