Climate skeptics, anti EU party surges from nowhere in Dutch Elections

Like Trump, and like Brexit, journalists did not see this coming.  Centre right parties somehow expect to keep winning by adopting centre left policies.  But politics is being transformed by parties brave enough to speak against political correctness.
Dutch Parliament, photo skitterphoto

 

In the Dutch provincial elections the Forum for Democracy (FDV) Party has rocketed to 12 seats from nothing. They only launched in 2016.  The FDV campaigned against “climate change hysteria” and against immigration and for more direct democracy. The Financial Times calls them Eurosceptics.

For centre right parties there are many votes to be gained in being outspokenly skeptical of climate change — Abbott, Trump, Dean, and now “Baudet”.

Thierry Baudet, 36, heads up the FDV. The Dutch PM was and still is Mark Rutte (of the VVD supposedly a centre right party), and he has just lost control of the upper house. There are 75 seats all up, and FDV somehow looks like getting 12, the same number as the ruling VVD Party.

The “centre right” ruling party apparently now has to do deals with the Greens. Which tells us all we need to know about how not-right the centre-right is.

Far-right populists score stunning win in Dutch provincial vote

by Eline Schaart, Politico

Far-right populist newcomer Forum for Democracy stunned the Dutch political establishment after winning the most votes in provincial elections, according to a preliminary count early Thursday.

In order to achieve a working majority in the Senate, Rutte’s coalition will have to rely on the support of one or more opposition parties.

It’s unlikely that Baudet’s party will work with the government. It rejects, for example, the need for climate change policies, a major issue for the Dutch government. Last week, Baudet suddenly wavered on his long-standing support for the Netherlands leaving the EU.

Anti-immigration populists surge in fragmented Dutch elections

Jon Henley, The Guardian

In a further fragmentation of Dutch politics, the Forum for Democracy (FvD) party of Thierry Baudet, a flamboyant former academic and columnist, is on course to win 12 seats in an upper house containing a record 12 parties, none with more than 12 seats.

Accusing Rutte of ignoring voters, he said the “stupidity and arrogance” of the elites had been punished. FVD campaigned on a platform calling for more direct democracy and less immigration, and against what Baudet refers to as “climate-change hysteria”.

Analysts have said the populists’ improved performance will not easily be translated into increased clout in the upper house, since the other parties have pledged not to work with them.

h/t Thomas W

Edited: Headline was Climate skeptics, anti EU party surges from nowhere to power in Dutch Elections. I took out the words “to power” which are ambiguous. They’ve powered up the ranks and have the equal highest representation in the upper house, but that isn’t “ruling parliamentary power”. And since the other parties will try to strangle them rather than negotiate, it will be a challenge for them to stay relevant and either win outright in the next elections or break the deadlock somehow.

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183 comments to Climate skeptics, anti EU party surges from nowhere in Dutch Elections

  • #
    pattoh

    The EU may be about to get a dose of reality!

    Poor George.

    Poor Theresa.

    & I hope Emmanual enjoyed his [ let them eat cake] ski holiday.

    Gilets Jaunes!!

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  • #
    ivan

    You forgot this might be the beginning of the end for Fuhrer Frau Merkel because the green energiewende policy she pushed through.

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    • #
      Latus Dextro

      Merkel’s energiewende polices, as appalling as they are, pale into insignificance at the social chaos she precipitated from her opening of borders, policies implemented at the behest of her UN masters and their ‘secular’ globalist credo. Those same polices infect the West reaching down to Australia and New Zealand, now last in the line up of dwindling secular globalist nations, clinging to their meaninglessness, impoverishment, and deteriorating social cohesion. The Rainbow in Europe, and in Canada is in incipient collapse, as it is in the RSA, and the UK, (see Parkfield Community School in Birmingham) where local parents have prevented the implementation of the Rainbow gender “curriculum.”
      New Zealand abandoned free speech some time ago, blocked Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern from speaking, while the NZ MSM still managed to show its incompetence and reveal its ideology.
      Meanwhile, now in New Zealand, the virtue signalling capital of the Globalism, NZ Whitcoulls have banned, Jordan Peterson’s ’12 Rules for Life’.
      Time to laugh out out because we know they’re losing, and they know it too.

      NZ is in the hands of a minority Leftist globalist-centric government, a doyen of virtue-signalling. A history of recurrent centrist globalist governments and UN sycophancy, banning books, blocking free speech, embracing the UN Global Migration Compact against the will of the people, leading UN Resolution 2334, examples of the creeping fascism of unrepresentative, imposed globalist ideology.

      A question rhetorically posed and answered by an article – here – written by Patrick J. Buchanan carried in the New York Times on March 19, hints at one of many reasons for the unravelling of globalist ideology, expressed by the horror witnessed in Christchurch NZ. It’s well worth the read.

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      • #
        GD

        Meanwhile, now in New Zealand, the virtue signalling capital of the Globalism, NZ Whitcoulls have banned, Jordan Peterson’s ’12 Rules for Life’.

        At the same time, PM Jacinda Ardern dons a headscarf and demands radio stations broadcast the Islamic ‘call to prayer’.

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Isnt the NWO motto ” order from chaos”….

        And as the deliberately engineered social chaos in the West continues to escalate, they step forward with a solution to the problem they created…

        Simple , really…

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    • #
      pattoh

      can’t wait to see Guy Ver Hofstadt’s meltdown on this!

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      • #
        Bulldust

        So what you’re saying is that the meltdown is caused by Climate Change? And lobsters of course. Speaking of lobsters (nice segue) … apparently Cambridge University has rescinded a fellowship they were going to have with Jordan Peterson. Yes, that same institution which associated with Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin and many other famous, pale, stale and male characters is now running scared from JP.

        https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-47656933

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        • #
          Bulldust

          Now I think about it … Cambridge, the same place the police force came from that harassed a certain individual minding his own business with his family in a pub because they didn’t like him speaking truth to power.

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      • #
        Latus Dextro

        Well, here is one of Guy Ver Hofstadt’s meltdowns, with a little poetic licence.

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  • #
    PeterS

    It’s inevitable there will be a retaliation of far-left and SJWs by the far-right and alt-right. The question is in what form and how violent will the clashes be. Only time will tell of course.

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    • #

      The retaliation has already begun and it’s the media leading the assault. If you note, they never use the milder term ‘conservative’, but it’s always the derogative ‘the far right’ whenever it involves anyone that is opposed to Leftist views or policies. They also use any event to their advantage, no matter how despicable doing so may be, to malign conservatives. The Left realises that they are beginning to lose the battle of ideas and are becoming desperate.

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      • #
        PeterS

        The alt-right started reacting silently years ago through various YouTube and other forms of outlets. What I’m talking about are violent clashes that could lead to a civil war. That is very possible for the US in the not too distant future, and it could spill over to the rest of the West. Alternatively it could start in France where they can react just as violently as the typical American who is pushed too far too hard. I’m certainly not justifying such reactions, just being a studier of history and realistic observer of the events of today.

        I agree that certain SJWs are now seeing they could lose the war so they are raising the stakes so to speak in an attempt to put down the alt-right. They will fail miserably because the alt-right are far better organised in so many ways. It will end in tears though.

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        • #

          I fully agree with your sentiment. I just wanted to note that it’s the media that’s fueling the fires of discontent and hate by constantly attacking, disparaging and accusing conservatives of acts that had nothing to do with them. Reap what ye sow.

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          • #
            PeterS

            Indeed – concisely well said.

            The other point I like to make (not necessarily at you) is the mistake some make when they disagree with the terms used, such as “left”, “right”, “extreme-left”, “extreme-right”, etc.. They are just labels. We have to use the labels commonly used and understood by the public of the day. The label “left” could be replaced with say “orange” and “right” by “cyan”. Some people get bogged down in such matters as it only confuses people and diverts attention from the real issue, which is a clash of ideologies and world-views that will end in tears, as usual. That’s the way free-willed humans are. Then again some disagree humans have a free will. That’s another topic but all I will say to that idea is BS!

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            • #
              NB

              Far-right populist = policies that would have been broad mainstream just a few years ago. There is a reason the media use this language, and it not just as a neutral technique of identification. The declining MSM is currently a key driver of the left agenda. Why is it that the media is so left-biased?

              I remember some leftist, after a recent election loss in the early 1990s, declaring that their key stategy would be to fill the public service with their kind. (Dutschke/Gramsci, all that.) They know they can’t get their agenda implemented through the vote. Hence the drift towards authoritarianism.

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            • #
              John

              Since the end of WWII the Left has run a successful propaganda campaign to mis-label the (Socialist) Nazi and Fascist groups as Far Right. They (Nazi/Fascist) were always on the Left, to the right of communists to be sure, but never on the small government, free market Right. The Left has long had control of the language via academia and the MSM.

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        • #
          GD

          I agree that certain SJWs are now seeing they could lose the war so they are raising the stakes so to speak in an attempt to put down the alt-right.

          That in part explains di Natale’s appearance on the Bolt Report.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          The SJWs underestimate the grit of conservatives.

          If push comes to shove, dealing with rabid dogs is very straight forward.

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      • #
        ColA

        ABC Fran Kelly and the rest covering the NZ Mosque shooting repeated over and over ‘alt right terrorist’ when he actually called himself an ‘eco fascist’ concentrating on the fascist and forgetting the eco!

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        • #
          robert rosicka

          Trouble with the “Eco” tag is that then aligns this nut with the even nuttier greens as Bolt pointed out to Di Natalie .

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        • #
          Bulldust

          ColA – the shooter’s manifesto also named the government he admired the most, which is China. Then again, the manifesto was littered with garbage so that media of every stripe could find something with which to hate on the opposition by linking to selected parts of his diatribe. Ultimately that was his goal, to widen the political divide and push the West towards civil strife.

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      • #
        Latus Dextro

        The Left realises that they are beginning to lose the battle of ideas and are becoming desperate.

        The desperation is as palpable as it is visible, deranged and evil.
        The screeching climatism polemic, the ‘resistance’, the full term foetal infanticide, the impoverishing and insane Green “New Deal,” the silence over the slaughter of Christians worldwide, the constraint of free speech, the UN Global Migration Compact, and on and on the madness goes.

        To think how long the Left have been peddling their wares and they still can’t persuade and hold very many people. They fail every time. It’s in their DNA. It’s undeniable and its insane to expect a different outcome from the same mindlessly destructive, unnatural ideology.

        It’s power they want, nothing less. They are indeed getting very desperate and very close to trying to take it by force majeure.
        It’ll be refreshing in some ways to get the gloves off and end this interminable sitzkrieg.

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        • #
          robert rosicka

          Latus you’re right the greens especially are losing voters to Labor and now that the Liberals are desperately seeking the green vote (which won’t happen) and straying from their base towards leftist ideals labor will be the winner .
          Why oh why can’t Morrison see the folly of it all .

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    • #
      george1st:)

      Getup (Soros) have already stepped up attacks on Sky news and Liberal members that present a threat to them . We are at war in the trenches , but they have the artillery with blind sided msm and brain washed voters . It is like watching a slow motion train crash . You cannot stop it .

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      • #
        GD

        It is like watching a slow-motion train crash

        Meanwhile, our supposed conservative politicians stand by looking helpless.

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  • #
    Bill Treuren

    Its just about the narrative.
    Just as in the US Will Happer has initiated a more balanced narrative this will also.

    In NZ if you utter the words of skepticism that CAGW may in fact be just a low worry case of slight AGW you are suddenly cast as a Nazi or anti Semitic with the word skeptic. Very offensive.

    I now ask for an apology and if that is not forthcoming I ask if they have recovered from their period in jail for child molestation.
    do this with others listening lifts the vigor of the discussion but I think it settles their feeling of virtuous superiority.

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  • #
    TdeF

    The whole point of $1,500,000,000,000 a year to reduce CO2 is to reduce CO2. That has not happened. Plus the Dutch should have been the first to tell the world that windmills don’t work for reliable steady power. Now the place is covered with the monsters, including offshore.

    People across the world do not believe Climate Change caused the cyclone in Madagascar, the bushfires in California or the extreme cold over winter in most places, even snow in Las Vegas. Global warming is dead.

    So why should they suffer? Why should they vote for parties who just want power, parties who promise one thing and do another, parties who care about fringe voters and presume on the rest?

    Global warming is dead. Get used to it. Anyone spending our money on windmills and solar panels directly from our electricity bills is a thief.

    That’s both the Australian and UK governments where swamp creatures rule and look after their socialist friends and the ripoff bankers and the big electricity companies. They make the big internet companies look like saints. Centre right is not centre left. One believes in small government and science. The other believes in communism and total government control and the end of free speech, supported by opportunistic bankers, like Turnbull. Power any cost, starting with electrical power and always at your cost.

    Do not underestimate the importance of the Nederlands. Combined with the UK, they are the heart of Europe. The UK is more Fresian than French and since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when the world dominance of Britain was created by Dutch leadership. It will happen again. Italy and Spain and Hungary and Poland will follow. Trump is leading the way, not Teresa Chamberlain.

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    • #
      ColA

      Hey TedF, just a little correction Madagascar hasn’t had a descent cyclone in a couple of years, I guess you were thinking about Cyclone Idia in Mozambique that burst the dams? https://www.9news.com.au/2019/03/19/07/45/cyclone-idai-mozambique
      It will be interesting to watch how this new party stirs their pot!! 🙂

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      • #
        Tdef

        Thanks. Memory association.

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        • #
          TdeF

          Also separated only by the 500km of the Mozambique Channel. Still as in Australia, that is quite enough for a major storm to miss one completely. We only hear about cyclones when they hit populated areas randomly, as happened with Cyclone Tracey in 1974.

          I am puzzled by what I see as the potential redefinition of ‘hurricanes’ or ‘cyclones’ or ‘tempests’ or ‘tropical storms’ or ‘Taipan/big wind in Chinese’. Florida used to get 15 hurricanes a year, but no longer. Officially it is now only 4.

          Apparently a hurricane is now a ‘Tropical Storm’ which makes landfall on Florida itself, allowing Florida to market itself better to attract funding. So while the number of hurricanes has ‘dropped’ remarkably in the last 20 years, I have my suspicions that that is due to more cunning definitions. More marketing than science.

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    • #
      NB

      ‘The UK is more Fresian than French and since the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when the world dominance of Britain was created by Dutch leadership.’
      This is a useful observation, and I wonder if you have any books to recommend directly dealing with the subject.

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      • #
        TdeF

        Unfortunately not a single book. It is my observation.

        Old English is most closely related to Fresian as are the genetics, a relic of the major Anglo Saxon invasions.

        The structural changes in 1688 were profound with William and Mary and the introduction of at least three major economic changes. Stocks and a stock exchange for companies, bonds for funding government and a superior navy and the civil list for funding a constituional monarchy. Up till that point, England on the ocean was at the mercy of much smaller but far better funded Holland. It was the end of Kings funding wars and bankrupting themselves, so wars funding Kings.

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        • #
          TdeF

          At least in England.

          In France the funding by absolute monarch Louis XVI (1774-1792) of the US war of independence against England (1775-1783) not only created a new independent United States, but bankrupted King Louis and coupled with drought in France led directly to the French Revolution in 1789 and his execution in 1972. Climate Change? The new US government denied any debts and once again, fighting England wrecked France.

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          • #
            Another Ian

            ” and his execution in 1972.” ??

            Either a typo or “long may he rein over us”

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          • #
            PeterPetrum

            The War of Independence was fought agains the BRITISH, not the ENGLISH. The United Kingdom was formed by Union of The Crowns in 1603 (the Scottish King Edward VI took over the crown of both England and Scotland) and the Union of the Parliaments in 1707 formalised the union into one country of Great Britain.

            I will eventually get all you Jo Nova bloggers to recognise that, since 1707, England is not the UK, but only one country within it!

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    • #
      MudCrab

      Chamberlain.

      Yeah him.

      Okay, going out on a limb here, but let us consider what he actually did in history – Declared War.

      3rd September 1939.

      No ‘strong words’ or protests or threats of trade sanctions. He took his nation to war in an attempt to stop the continued aggressive expansion of another nation. Churchill, the man who later become PM, is the man who became famous as a wartime leader, but remember it was Chamberlain who stood up cast his dice and crossed the Rubicon.

      (What he did next was less impressive. Phoney War. Norwegian Campaign. Nothing to really brag about there as PM to be honest.)

      Chamberlain is remembered for his Piece of Paper that ensured ‘Peace for our time’ in 1938. Everyone now attacks him for that but it needs to be remembered that in 1938 Peace for Our Time was what everybody wanted. The Great War was still living memory. No one wanted to leap into that again. There was very strong concern about the global views of Germany but at this stage these were principles and no one wanted to go to war over principles. Remember this is the new Germany being lead by Time’s Man of the Year. They weren’t doing anything wrong, just correcting some borders to ensure the rights of the various ethic groups removed from their nations by the careless application of post Great War borders. People wanted peace and if Chamberlain hadn’t given his people peace he would have no doubt been replaced by someone who would.

      Chamberlain gave peace a chance, and then in 1939 when it became tragically clear that he was attempting to deal with someone who could not be trusted, he turned from peace and went to war.

      If Chamberlain was guilty of Appeasement then so was everyone else.

      May on the other hand? Yeah, the sooner she steps down and starts letting history drag her name through the mud the better.

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      • #
        TdeF

        It was not just the prevarication of Chamblerlain, it was the refusal to rearm.

        Many saw war coming. Particularly Rolls Royce who developed their Merlin V12 engine which went on to power most UK planes. Lancaster, Spitfire, Hurricane, Mosquitoes and even the previously underpowered American P51 Mustangs. Without this engine developed privately and secretly, there would have been no Battle of Britain to win. It would have been over in weeks as it was in Poland, Holland, France, Belgium. Plus Hitler had already been given the manufacturing resources of Czech and Slovakia for nothing and the world watched him walk into Austria and did nothing. The Molotov Ribbentrop pact allowed Hitler to ignore Russia. Chamblerlain declaring war on the invasion of Poland in 1939 was far too little, far too late.

        Chamberlain cannot be credited for making England ready for war. He did nothing with the time he bought by sacrificing democracies to the National Socialists. Churchill was the man. He presented the photographs in parliament which showed the assembly of thousands of illegal aircraft for the Luftwaffe. Everyone else was in denial. Or afraid to act. Played for pacifist fools, like Malcolm Turnbull’s great uncle George Lansbury, leader of the Labor party who met with Hitler and pronounced him a humble Christian man with no further ambitions. Rather Chamberlain and friends fought Churchill every step of the way, not Hitler. This even Chamberlain was dying of cancer at the time and was gone a year after Poland. He was too sick to fight anyone and left a world in ruins.

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      • #

        I’ve heard it said that Chamberlain made the RAF the force that it was:
        Centre right parties somehow expect to keep winning by adopting centre left policies.

        Contrary to his quasi-pacifist image, Chamberlain showed a keen interest in the technical details of the new fighters, telling the House of Commons in May 1938 about their record-breaking speeds and their advanced features, such as “engines of unprecedented efficiency” and “variable pitch airscrews”. Indeed, in his enthusiasm for the Spitfire and Hurricane, Chamberlain showed more insight than Churchill, who, as a Tory backbencher, felt that the RAF should be concentrating production on two-seater fighters with rearward-firing turrets. In 1938 Churchill explained: “The urgency for action arises from the fact that the Germans must know we have banked on the forward-shooting, plunging Spitfire, whose attack must most likely resolve itself into a pursuit which, if not instantly effective, exposes the pursuer to destruction.”

        Contradicting his reputation for parsimony, Chamberlain poured money into a succession of 13 RAF expansion programmes, while, as prime minister, he approved the construction of a series of aircraft factories, most notably the world’s largest plant at Castle Bromwich in Birmingham, which was meant to produce 1,000 Spitfires by June 1940. By 1939, rearmament was swallowing 21.4 per cent of Britain’s gross national product, a figure that reached 51.7 per cent by 1940. When Chamberlain finally declared war in September 1939, Britain’s aircraft output had overtaken that of Germany’s.

        https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/04/did-neville-chamberlain-create-conditions-raf-win-battle-britain

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        • #
          TdeF

          Well, that’s news in retrospect. It sounds good and history revisited. My point remains far too little and far too late. Europe had fallen. Churchill had exposed the fr*ud in German aircraft production and the government had reacted but there were no planes to save the British Expeditionary force at Dunkirk. It all sounds good but there were nowhere near enough fighters to defend Britain.

          In fact at the battle of Britain starting June 1940, the real difference was not numbers and they were hopelessly outnumbered, but distance, and the amazing new radar Chain Link Home and bomber command. All secret. Otherwise the promised 1,000 aircraft would not have been enough and in fact they did not arrive in time. Nor in the six months following where they were fighting just to match the attrition rate. It was a near thing.

          Besides without the private Merlin engine, British fighters would have been shot out of the skies by far superior German aircraft, as were the Poles and the Russians. With a shortage of metal they had wooden aircraft built by cabinet makers to the fast metal German aircraft, like the metal Japanese zeroes. Still the wooden airframes were amazingly good and the Irish linen easier to repair with more cloth and paint. They were still wooden crates, but fast. Carburettors instead of petrol injection. It was a very near thing.

          Even then they were losing a war of attrition until Churchill did something typically defiant. He sent three bombers to bomb Berlin. Only a few bombs made it, but that changed everything! Goering had promised that no bomb would ever fall on Berlin. No one was laughing. Hitler was so incensed he overruled everyone and bombed London instead of successfully wiping out the airfields. That saved Britain, at the cost of the Blitz. Who but Churchill would have taken the war to the enemy? You cannot negotiate from weakness.

          That is why the subservience of May to the EU swamp is so infuriating. The fifth largest economy in the world taking orders from their traditional enemies, France and Germany running the old French German empire, again. With Macron as Napoleon.

          As is now being pointed out, May has only been negotiating with EU officials. Why? If she had really intended to leave the EU, she would have been negotiating with France, Germany, Spain, Norway, Italy individually and not asking for favors and permission from the EU. It is utterly wrong and humiliating. Another Chamberlain, asking favors from the enemies of British democracy.

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            TdeF

            I also wonder if the promotion of Chamberlain to clever negotiator and silent defender is not part of the world wide attack on the heroes of Western Society. For us Captain James Cook. For the British Captain Nelson at Trafalgar and Wellington at Waterloo and Churchill. It’s hard to pull down someone like Churchill, so there seems to be an attempt to repaint his opponents as not so wrong, not so cowardly, not so lacking completely in foresight or negotiating power.

            As I wrote above, you cannot negotiate from a position of weakness. Or if you do not believe in what you are doing, more likely. At least David Cameron was dead honest, did not want Brexit and resigned. It should have been a condition for his replacement to guarantee that the people’s wish would be honored. That never looked like happening. 128 times May promised a Brexit on time, deal or no deal. Now she is the one playing for time and trying to box parliament into a bad deal, or else. What happened to a no deal is better than a bad deal? Perhaps Chamberlain was no worse, but he nearly wiped out Britain and us with him.

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          Peter C

          Thanks Jo.

          History is never quite settled.

          . But apart from the cold reality that there was little public appetite for conflict at the time of Munich, Chamberlain understood that Britain’s aerial defences were still too weak for war. Just before he left Heston airport on 29 September, he received a letter from Sir Charles Bruce-Gardener, the chairman of the Society of British Aircraft Constructors, who privately warned that “if war was declared, the equipment available for the RAF, both in types and numbers, was far below that of the German air force”.
          Munich undoubtedly bought Britain time for the RAF to modernise dramatically over the next two years. In autumn 1938 Fighter Command had just 25 squadrons, mostly made up of obsolete biplanes. By the eve of the Battle of Britain, there were 58, most of them Spitfires and Hurricanes. Denis Webb, a manager at the Supermarine company that built the Spitfire, wrote, “Chamberlain’s despised scrap of paper gave us a good return”.

          A different and likely more accurate appreciation of Chamberlain’s “piece of paper””

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          • #
            TdeF

            It all took five years. Hitler expected to be challenged when he reoccupied the Saar land in 1935, under the control of France and England up to then. That was done legally under the League of Nations. Then in 1936 Hitler reoccupied the Rhineland, Violating the Treaty of Versailles. His soldiers were under instructions to retreat from the French or British forces if challenged. No challenge came. Everyone gave Hitler what he wanted, every time.

            Then Austria. The Sudatenland. Czech and Slovakia.

            Now that is all presented as a strategic plan by Chamberlain? No one believed Hitler was building the world’s biggest air force, until Churchill presented the photographs. Then of course it was too late.

            Even Lloyd George was fooled, unless he was playing games too.

            “London, September 23, 1936

            In an interview in London, the Rt. Hon. David Lloyd George summed up the impressions which he had derived from his recent visit to Germany.

            “Germany,” he said, “does not want war, but she is afraid of an attack by Russia, and is suspicious of the Franco-Russian Pact. I have never seen a happier people than the Germans, and Hitler is one of the greatest of the many great men I have met.”

            “I am fully convinced that the German people today earnestly desire peace.”

            Only one man consistently said it was all a lie and that war with Germany was inevitable. That was not Chamberlain.

            A country needs a strong leader. I can only think people thought Theresa May was another strong leader like Margaret Thatcher. They could not have been more wrong. Worse, the Germans are talking about a European Union army along with nuclear France. Their opponents? The United States and Russia. Sound familiar?

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        Another Ian

        It is pointed out in the Haynes “Merlin Owners’ Workshop Manual” that it was Chamberlain that got started with “parallel rearmament” including increasing numbers of Hurricanes and Spitfires and engines for same via the shadow factories program. And bought an extra year for that to work in with the “Phony War”

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          TdeF

          Yes, but my point is that the engine existed. Developing an engine like this is not a matter of months but years. Ordering stuff is simple enough, providing you have something to order.

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            TdeF

            As stated, I believe that Chamberlain’s reputation is being resurrected. From what I have heard, he plotted endlessly to frustrate bring down Churchill, when he should have resigned, if only because of his terminal illness. Now he ordered stuff and increased war spending? Sure. That was his job.

            I also believe the German Royal family, the Battenburgs of Gotha Sax Coburg was hopelessly compromised. In fact many people around the world openly admired Herr Hitler and Mussolini. Few could see the evil intent. Henry Ford trained his Hitler’s people in methods of mass production.

            Even Stalin was caught out and could not believe when Barbarossa started. He ran away to his Dacha for a week and left Russia to its fate. Then he thought the Politburo were coming to arrest and shoot him, not ask him to lead.

            Not everyone was fooled, like Chamberlain. Now we are to believe Chamberlain was on top of it all. No.
            Without Churchill, England would have been lost.

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              PeterPetrum

              Ummmmm! “England” and “Britain” are not interchangeable! You forgot Scotland, Wales and N. Ireland, again! Sorry to be pedantic, but as a Scot I take exception to a ubiquitous “England” as a pseudonym for Britain or the UK.

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              • #
                Annie

                On the other hand, as an Englishwoman, I very much dislike the ugly abbreviation and description ‘Brit’.

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              • #
                Annie

                ‘Briton’…yes. ‘Brit’…no, thankyou very much.

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                TdeF

                Sure, half Scottish, half Irish I know what you mean but it has been at best an uneasy alliance with the devastating land clearances in Scotland for wool and the murderous English Corn laws in the potato famines to protect the incomes of the landed gentry while the Irish were starving. So many Scots and Irish fled. Its not surprising then that the Scottish Independence party is so popular and the DUP and that Ireland stayed neutral in the war. I have also noticed also a lot of people from Cornwall in the ancestry of Australians, especially around Penzance a poor area even today. United is a debatable word. There’s just too much history of massive conflict and conflict of interest.

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              • #
                TdeF

                And it is these major differences which Junker and friends are exploiting. Scotland would far prefer EU subsidies to English lordship and largesse. Northern Island is supposed to have a hard border with EU Ireland, along a torturous route. Plus a border in the Irish sea. There would be no Brexit left to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

                10

          • #
            Dave in the States

            An example of how long it could take to develop a sophisticated aircraft engine of that era, is the American Allison V1710. It was began, if I recall correctly, during 1932. By 1939 and millions of dollars (in 1930’s dollars) later, it still was not ready for production. When it did go into production, it suffered from a poor intake manifold design and was of inferior performance to the Merlin and the Daimler Benz V12 engines. It also serves as an example of government sponsored and tax payer funded engineering projects vs private sector development for profit.

            RR had the advantage of a head start to development of the Merlin and Griffin engines because of their experience in engineering engines for race planes. RR built the power plants and Supermarine built the airframes. The Merlin was a direct development of their earlier racing power plants developed over many years.

            20

        • #
          Another Ian

          Also brings out that the development crew of the Merlin could be described as

          “Hotrodders in business suits and bowler hats”

          40

          • #
            Steve C

            Those engines can still turn heads, too. Some years ago, the Daily Telegraph published a gloriously written article about a Meteor-engined, hand built road car, which I remember as much for the writing as for the awe-inspiring piece of machinery he was describing. If you enjoy a sense of hopeless yearning, or are very, very wealthy indeed, look at:
            https://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/classiccars/8877068/Bespoke-Bentley-that-rewrites-the-rules-of-giant-cars.html

            Happily, the page loaded for me a few minutes ago without asking me to pay, so it looks as though the Telegraph have done the decent thing and kept their formerly-free pages free. If not, try a search on the title implicit in the link, and/or complain to the editor. 😉

            00

      • #
        sophocles

        Germany started re-arming in 1935. So did Britain. Chamberlain’s job was to make time. From the start of German re-armament and Hitler’s increasing diatribes about “International Jewry” impending war was obvious. The annexation of Austria was enough. Britain needed more time and Chamberlain’s job was to get it. While Britain’s international defence treaties weren’t triggered, the shadow and remote factories like Castle Bromwich Assembly could be built (started in 1935) and start producing. It worked.

        Chamberlain wasn’t suitable as a wartime PM, and that was seen which is why he was replaced by Churchill (1940). Beaverbrook replaced Nuffield at about the same time (1940).

        00

      • #

        I reckon that Chamberlain should, instead of being described as the out-manoeuvred politician, complete with scrap of paper, instead be described as the man who gave us the vital year, the year which won the Battle of Britain.

        Did Chamberlain give in to Hitler’s promises and bluster, despite having at his disposal both his own Forces, and his Allies the French? Or did he bide his time, sacrificing Czechoslovakia to the Nazis in the process; because he knew that Britain needed breathing space to re-arm, and re-equip, and mobilise his Nation onto a War footing for the battles he divined were lying ahead? I believe that he grasped the latter, knowing the opprobrium which would descend upon his shoulders for trusting the lies and smooth words of the German dictator. I believe that he gave us that vital year, in which to ready our defences, and in doing that, saved this Nation from defeat. He may have regretted the speech he made on the 3rd of September 1939, but, being the truly honourable man that he was, knew he had no choice!

        10

        • #

          The private, (no public, correspondence record of Chamberlain and allied decision makers, 1938/39, should throw light on motives. I meself, bein’ related to the Chamberlain Clan might opt for the breathing-space option, but that don’t mean a thing. What does the primary evidence reveal?

          10

  • #
    Dave Ward

    But politics is being transformed by parties brave enough to speak against political correctness

    Even using the “Wrong” pronoun in the good ‘ole UK will have the police knocking on your door…

    Catholic mother set to be questioned by police for calling someone’s transgender daughter ‘he’ in a tweet. The officer said her tweets had ‘misgendered’ an individual by using the wrong pronoun, which could be an offence under the Malicious Communications Act

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6827459/Catholic-journalist-questioned-caution-police-misgendering-someones-daughter.html

    280

    • #
      Greg Cavanagh

      If the Police are involved in nonsense like this, they are in more trouble than they believe.
      What do you call people? It?

      261

  • #
    • #
      Graeme No.3

      So they may have 13 seats.
      17% of the Upper house vote, which won’t matter “since the other parties have pledged not to work with them”. Aren’t the other parties made up of politicians?
      13+12+12 = 37 or a majority.

      90

      • #
        ivan

        Graeme, we have to wait and see what will happen. As you say the other parties consist of politicians who, I assume, can see the writing on the wall and will put self interest first.

        90

  • #
    Jonesy

    Ha! Wouldnt it be such a laughing matter…May destroys herself, her party and her nation to stay in the EU…and the EU implodes on itself.

    321

  • #
    AndyG55

    NSW elections this weekend

    Let’s all hope that the conservative parties (no , not Labor or the Liberals) hold the balance of power in both houses.

    The Liberals need to be force AWAY from their leftist agendas, and if conservatives do make a solid showing, this might be the jolt needed to wake the Federal Liberal Party up to reality.

    Are the voting public still asleep at the wheel, or have they woken up enough to see the terrible dangers behind the Labor/Green/Socialist agenda. !!

    254

    • #
      Dennis

      I suspect that most voters are not aware of the infiltration by Turnbull and his supporters that has divided the Liberal and National parties until 2018, and that the mopping up continues as the Liberals In Name Only exit Parliament or plan to exit and not contest the 2019 Federal Election.

      And that the “terrible dangers” are Labor/Green/Socialist/Globalist/Turnbull Associates group which includes Independent brand candidates backed by the group.

      The mission to wreck the Liberal-National side has been conducted since at least 1996 when the Howard led Coalition Government was elected after 13 years of Labor.

      Foreign influence including our elected representatives in collaboration is without doubt a terrible danger resulting in the loss of sovereignty eventually.

      173

    • #
      PeterS

      I too am hoping enough votes have woken up to realise both major parties spell the end of Australia as we know it. It would be nice to see the ACP hold the balance of power at all levels of government but I’m a realist and sadly I can’t see it happening because most people are still asleep, clueless or don’t give a damn (and most of those will vote ALP/Greens). I would welcome a surprise result and wake up after either the state or federal election night to see the ACP holding the balance of power of at least one level of government.

      182

  • #

    Is the Forum for Democracy (FDV) Party really a “Far-right populists Party”, or is it reality a group of people fed up with the damage being done in Europe by ‘far-left’ parties under the leadership of Die Fuehrer Angela Merkel?

    200

    • #
      PeterS

      I would classify them as alt-right rather than far-right. The Golden Dawn Party in Greece however I would consider as far-right and they have been on the rise, and still are I think.

      80

    • #
      MudCrab

      Nicholas!

      Are you questioning the wisdom of what your media tell you?!

      The media has decided they are horrible people, therefore you need to accept they are horrible people, vote Green and continue to enjoy your reruns of Inspector Morse.

      The Media – Knowing what is Best for you, so you don’t have to.

      80

      • #
        Another Ian

        Hopefully “YES”

        I like this one

        ” Why this blog?

        Until this moment I have been forced to listen while media and politicians alike have told me “what Canadians think”. In all that time they never once asked.

        This is just the voice of an ordinary Canadian yelling back at the radio – “You don’t speak for me.” ”

        http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/

        40

  • #
    yarpos

    It would be nice to have the option to cast such a meaningful vote in OZ

    131

  • #
    Binny Pegler

    If they won they where the centre. For sometime now the left has tried to move the political bell curve to the left. By labeling everyone to the right of the peak as ‘far’ or ‘extreme’ right. The rational is that most people want to be in the middle. By calling any view past the centre point extreme, you can move everyone to the left. It worked..for awhile, but as the saying goes ‘You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you can fool all of the people all of the time’

    110

    • #
      Another Ian

      Binny

      And the usually unstated fourth of that is

      “When caught trying to fool people everything you say or have said becomes suspect”

      70

  • #
    robert rosicka

    For any political party getting your message past the mainstream leftist media without lies and vilification seems to be the tricky bit .
    Any media who don’t practice ideological socialist green thinking are under attack as was witnessed last night on the Bolt report when Di Natalie went on a rant against the evils of non communist news media .

    151

    • #
      PeterS

      The MSM is the last place for anyone to obtain the truth and facts yet has become the first place. It’s no wonder people are lead astray. People need to wake up and do their own research instead of taking the lazy approach. Democracy if armed with the correct information is a wonderful thing. Democracy armed with the wrong information is terminal.

      150

  • #
    george1st:)

    If only our Libs could be brave enough to differ from Labor Greens ,they might win some votes back .

    162

    • #
      AndyG55

      I have said many times that the Liberals cannot WIN votes from the left side of politics.

      Why they are even trying to is a question only they can answer.

      There are no votes to lose and MANY to be gained by taking more conservative,

      anti-PC (pro-freedom),

      anti-ABC(pro-balance and truth),

      anti-climate-scam (pro-reality),

      anti-renewable (pro-reliable-energy),

      anti-globalist (PRO-AUSTRALIA) stance.

      255

      • #
        philthegeek

        There are no votes to lose and MANY to be gained by taking more conservative,

        More accurate to say that they MAy pick up some primary votes from people who would ALREADY be directing their preferenc to them.

        No net gain on TPP, and possible losses in primary votes from actual moderates.

        Interesting equations to be considered. Complicated in NSW by OPV.

        74

        • #
          AndyG55

          WRONG again, phloop.

          Liberals have lost a lot of voters BECAUSE of their leftist stance.

          Going back towards more moderate rational policies and dumping the AGW crap, etc, will not lose them any votes at all, and would almost certainly pick up voters who’s current intention is a big X across the ballot paper.

          Your problem is that anything that is even slightly rational in the way of policy, you see as far-right, because EVERYTHING that isn’t from the deepest slimy green ooze, is “far-right” to you.

          73

          • #

            Phil: lets check the experimental results.

            Abbott — Axe the carbon tax — centre right = 90 seat win.

            Turnbull — Don’t mention climate change — left of centre = 76

            213

            • #
              philthegeek

              Abbott — Axe the carbon tax — centre right = 90 seat win.

              Jo, i am happy for the RW in Australia to take that as the lesson from Abbott’s win. You can all keep patting yourselves on the back for that.

              In the real world however, it just underlines how much the RW didn’t learn from the event and the preceeding RGR Wars. All plays into the Coalition and RW end of Australian politics propensity to politically self harm since then.

              Keep up the encouragment of that. You and the more out there denizens here are a usefull asset to the Left Deep State in Australia.

              🙂

              39

              • #
                AndyG55

                You, phloop, being an ultra-left mind-dead socialist grunter, would not have clue how normal people think.

                Your posts here show the rancid idiocy of the below average hard-left nutcase.

                Turnbull was never of the right or centre, he was a leftist infiltrator.

                It was not the Liberal party that followed in the leftist mentally deficit RGR meme, its was “The Turnbull Party” just another version of the slimy leftist agenda, which Turnbull epitomised and which people like you worship.

                116

              • #

                You and the more out there denizens here are a usefull asset to the Left Deep State in Australia.

                Pity it all ends after the election and you have sites like this banned eh!

                Tony.

                120

              • #
                philthegeek

                Pity it all ends after the election and you have sites like this banned eh!

                Why would i want such a useful and above all hilariously funny site like this banned? Would be well counterproductive to a leftist agenda.

                And Tony, you have to remember that neither of the upcoming election results are certs. Probabilites are very much there though, moreso for the Fed rather than NSW state. Big fear I am hearing from the Libs who actually know is that there could be a big boil-over in Victoria at the Fed election…..which would more than negate any happenings in QLD. Unusual but a live possibility.
                🙂

                There are reasons for the latest spate of rats leaving the sinking ship, and maximising their super payouts is only one of them.

                510

              • #
                philthegeek

                would not have clue how normal people think.

                AngryG…are you actually claiming to be a normal person??

                45

              • #
                el gordo

                Andy means the other half in a Westminster system.

                30

              • #

                philthegeek,

                I wonder what excuse you’ll make when your socialists of choice, the Labor Government find out their promise to close 60% of coal fired power will not and can not be done, or if you’ll believe the excuse they offer.

                Or that they cannot make their 50% renewables by 2030 promise come to fruition.

                Remember, you heard it here first at this hilariously funny site long before they will be forced to back down on both.

                And something as important as that, the supply of electrical power, is no laughing matter.

                Tony.

                160

              • #
                AndyG55

                poor phloop, you wouldn’t know what a normal person was.

                No Ghengis Khan, Karl Marx, and all your other heroes, were not normal rational people

                84

              • #
                AndyG55

                “Big fear I am hearing from the Libs who actually know is that there could be a big boil-over in Victoria at the Fed election”

                Yep, there is not room for three left wing parties.

                The liberals (in name only) in Victoria have left themselves with no place for their current leftist bent to go.

                Like Federal Liberal, they have backed themselves into a leftist culdesac

                53

              • #
                el gordo

                ‘Ten Network Holdings has relocated ownership of the No 3 television broadcaster to The Netherlands.’ Oz

                30

              • #
                Peter C

                The liberals (in name only) in Victoria have left themselves with no place for their current leftist bent to go.
                Like Federal Liberal, they have backed themselves into a leftist culdesac

                I agree with that.

                Liberals in name only.

                Those who are not socialist left should vote for Kevin Bailey AM in the Senate, (if Victorian) or other candidates (all states are represented).
                https://www.conservatives.org.au/our_team

                41

              • #
                el gordo

                ‘You and the more out there denizens here are a useful asset to the Left Deep State in Australia.’

                The green left are pseudo Marxists, or more commonly referred to as Cultural Marxists. The climate change thingy saw a merging of the majors and then Turncoat turned up.

                Eventually the ginger group emerged, bringing on a coup.

                The green left slime has swamped the education system, the MSM and political bureaucracy. This all happened on our watch and AGW was the Trojan Horse.

                Its truly Orwellian and the big lie is that CO2 causes global warming, it doesn’t.

                Talking to an astrologer friend I asked the likely victor after the Fed election? She replied that both have a brilliant career in front of them for at least seven years, “they are the same star sign.”

                42

              • #
                robert rosicka

                Philpot define normal for me please ?

                20

              • #
                AndyG55

                If phloop defines itself as “normal”, then that is something I most definitely DON’T want to be.

                The guy is loose more than a few kangaroos in the top paddock.

                A raving hard-left-facist NUTTER.

                GetUp! or more likely Antifa, are his minders.

                42

  • #
    G-Man

    Last week, Baudet suddenly wavered on his long-standing support for the Netherlands leaving the EU

    He can’t be that hot then… like the UK pollies, he’s been bought out bu Soros money.

    71

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    “Like Trump, and like Brexit, journalists did not see this coming.”

    Journalists couldn’t predict 6 o’clock at 5.30.

    210

  • #
    pat

    i’m voting for none of them:

    22 Mar: 2GB: Alan Jones show: ‘You’ve lost me’: Alan Jones confronts Deputy Premier over ‘insulting’ One Nation comments
    The Deputy Premier is urging voters to preference One Nation last at tomorrow’s election, labelling their views “extreme”.
    In an interview with the ABC, John Barilaro took a sledgehammer to the conservative party, explaining why he would never do a deal with them.

    “Their extreme views. I’ve been offended by some of the commentary. I’ve been offended by Mark Latham’s views on the world on a couple of big issues.
    “Any party that wants to campaign on fear, campaign on race or immigration numbers will never have the support of the Nationals in NSW while I lead it.”

    One the eve of the state election, Alan Jones has questioned why the Nationals Leader would insult hundreds of thousands of conservative voters.
    “Are you serious? I don’t know whether you’re trying to win or not?
    “That means, not that you’re putting One Nation last but you’re putting the Greens ahead of One Nation.
    “They don’t have rabies, they’re actually people who fight for the same sort of causes as you fight for.
    “It’s not credible and it’s not credible to the people who have supported you, and I’m one of them.”
    “I tell you what, you’ve lost me,” says Alan…
    AUDIO: 13min27sec
    https://www.2gb.com/youve-lost-me-alan-jones-confronts-deputy-premier-over-insulting-one-nation-comments/

    100

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Labor take preference from the dangerous radical green movement but have successfully managed to shame the Libs into no deals with One nation .
      One nation have matured and are closer to centre right these days and I see no good reason for the Libs to exclude them and their much needed preference votes .

      105

      • #
        philthegeek

        One nation have matured and are closer to centre right these days and I see no good reason for the Libs to exclude them and their much needed preference votes .

        Apart from the lived experience of the W.A. state election. The PHON / Coalition deal there was massivley toxic for the Coalition.

        So, i’m all for the Coalition preferencing PHON. 🙂

        35

        • #

          The WA Coalition was massively toxic to the WA coalition.

          They did a deal then did everything to denigrate and distance themselves from those voters. They offered soft wet policies, offended their own base, and had no passionate support on the ground.

          In 2014, when semi-skeptical-Abbott was PM, the premier of a state that lives off mining and energy wasn’t even brave enough to go with the federal government of the day. Barnett publicly backed Obama’s climate plans instead.

          http://joannenova.com.au/2017/03/west-australia-unskeptical-conservatives-wiped-out-in-election-no-trump-no-brexit-vote/

          143

          • #
            philthegeek

            The WA Coalition was massively toxic to the WA coalition.

            In a sense, but really Jo, you should probably stick to talking about stuff you can at least appear to know about rather than politics.

            I was on the ground campaigning that election. Have NEVER had it happen that so many of the people turning up to vote sought the ALP hTV people out, demanding to check the HTV cards to reasure themselves that PHON was right down the list. We are talking people who were declaring themselves to be Liberal voters to ALP peopl on the ground on election day.

            And, what i saw at booths i was at was the norm across the whole metro area. We were all quite taken aback by that. Speakes very poorly of with Cash/Corrman “brains trust” who organised it. Even with the full on support of the Pentecostal nutbaggers north of the river the Libs lost seats they, and the ALP, never even thought were in play. 🙂

            that said, spin it whatever way you like. 🙂

            48

          • #
            Len

            It was a sorry situation for conservatives. The gutless Libs and NP indicated the term Right Wingers was an offensive term.

            31

    • #
      Hanrahan

      I watched a little of Di Natale on Bolt last night until I could not stand any more and switched off. That man is a rabid hater who refused to answer questions.

      120

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    It is always instructive to look at where those votes for the Forum for Democracy came from. In this case, while it is a stunning win for Baudet, he appears to have taken votes from the country’s previous favourite anti-immigration leader, Geert Wilders, whose Party for Freedom (PVV) slumped. Also well supported ws the Green Left, which doubled its seats.

    If this was to occur in the NSW State election it would be good news for minor parties on both the left and the right, an outcome which would indeed produce a minority government. However, the LNP are the beneficiaries of a late surge, which, if correct, would mean the LNP would be returned for another term.

    105

    • #
    • #
      el gordo

      NSW is in a fluid state.

      ‘The NSW Coalition has surged into short-priced favouritism to win Saturday’s state election, a fortnight after being nearly 2-to-1 outsiders, following a swing against Labor leader Michael Daley.

      ‘Data acquired from betting agency Sportsbet shows how the two have fluctuated in popularity in the past six months, but by far the biggest gulf at any point in the election race has come in the past few days.’

      SMH

      70

      • #

        Michael Daley, Councillor of the Randwick City Council for South Ward for thirteen years, Deputy Mayor of Randwick for four years, now Shadow Minister for Planning and Infrastructure, Shadow Minister for Gaming and Racing. My God. It’s like Laurie Brereton had a love-child with Kristina Keneally.

        Guys, despite light rail for stadiums and race tracks, stadiums for stadium builders, and nanny laws to shoo the punters down to the gambling precinct…

        Don’t even think of voting Michael Daley. Take it from a Randwick mick. Do not do this.

        130

      • #
        philthegeek

        eg, i have some suspicions as to the validity of late movements in the betting odds in elections. Its actually something that is easy to “game”

        A party / donor lays a few significant bets down as an “investment” in the campaigning. So…a very few people can influence the betting odds where they cant influence the polling.

        And the whole “party internal polling” thing is pretty much an “i have a bridge for sale” thing. 🙂

        I reckon NSW election could go well either way with the most likely realistic outcome at the moment being Coalition minority govt.

        Whatever the result look to the Fed Coalition to be spinning like tops Sunday / Monday. 🙂

        64

        • #
          el gordo

          Premier Gladys doesn’t even have to mention the very fast train, should come home in a canter.

          50

        • #
          Peter Fitzroy

          That was my first point, the right parties cannibalise the voters on the right, as does the left

          36

          • #
            el gordo

            Its not the ‘rusted ons’ but the waverers who can change the course of an election.

            Baudet appears to have taken votes from Wilders, so yes, point taken.

            61

  • #
    Peter C

    Good to see Conservative Policies making a comeback in the Netherlands.

    Hopefully we will see something happen in our own General Election coming up in May.

    To meet our candidate for Victoria, Kevin Bailey AM, consider attending the Australian Conservatives State Conference on Saturday 30 March (Saturday Week).

    “Our founder and leader Cory Bernardi will give the keynote speech, and we have presentations from our lead Senate candidate Kevin Bailey and the high profile executive director of the IPA John Roskam and from Dr Bella d’Abera, also of the IPA.”

    Book here:
    https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?embed&eid=478705

    122

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Good to see Conservative Policies making a comeback……

      Are Canadians so far gone that they could reelect Trudeau? If I were a Canuck I’d be too embarrassed to show my face O/S.

      They don’t have to like Trump but they are committing financial suicide by showing their hostility to him so openly. They made no attempt to negotiate the replacement NAFTA in good faith until Mex/US announced a deal.

      61

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Dr Steve Turley is good to help keep up on European Politics:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH2y1X5CNDQ

    50

  • #
    pat

    22 Mar: ABC Background Briefing: Night parrot research labelled ‘fake news’ by experts after release of damning report
    Exclusive by Ann Jones, Benjamin Sveen, and David Lewis
    When John Young claimed in 2013 to have found the elusive night parrot, which had not been seen in more than a century, he became a hero among bird watchers.
    But the charismatic naturalist’s reputation is now in tatters with an independent panel of experts criticising the veracity of some of his latest research.
    It is a major embarrassment for the Australian Wildlife Conservancy (AWC), which published a number of reports based on Mr Young’s fieldwork.
    The non-profit organisation also used his controversial photographs in fundraising material to attract donations from the public…

    Mr Young’s initial discovery of the night parrot was genuine, made international headlines, and transformed him into a minor celebrity.
    As a result of his efforts, Bush Heritage bought 56,000 hectares of land where the bird was sighted in order to protect the population.
    But Mr Young’s subsequent fieldwork raised eyebrows with a handful of shrewd observers pointing out inconsistencies…

    The panel, made up of four eminent ornithologists and conservation scientists, found there was no reliable evidence to support the claim Mr Young had recorded the call of the night parrot.
    The audio only contained archival sound of the bird Mr Young was playing through a speaker in an effort to attract the creature to where he was positioned in the field.
    The feather he came across in a zebra finch nest turned out to be entirely different to the one later given to the South Australian Museum for safekeeping, the panel said.
    Even some of the eggs were deemed by a majority of the panel to be fake…

    The panel’s damning report effectively erases all confirmed sightings of the night parrot on land owned by the AWC…
    “It’s just more fake news,” said Professor Penny Olsen from the Australian National University.
    “It’s deceptive, unscientific, and downright damaging.”…
    Dr Murphy said the AWC will have to work hard to rebuild trust.
    “Without scientific integrity, we’ve got nothing,” he said.
    “Scientific integrity is the thing that underpins humanity.”…

    John Young deflects report’s criticism…
    Mr Young denies any wrongdoing but would not respond to specific questions about the controversy, dismissing them with a “no comment”.
    “I have no interest in any criticism,” he told Background Briefing…
    Federal government spending on conservation is going down…
    If the current rates of funding continue, with no further cuts, Australia’s Threatened Species Recovery Hub said 17 unique Australian birds and mammals would be forced into extinction in the next 20 years.
    For this reason and others Mr Young has vowed to continue to advocate for conservation…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-22/report-confirms-dubious-night-parrot-research/10925900

    30

    • #
      Bill in Oz

      Pat, I find this report curious.
      1 :The night parrot was thought to be extinct for over 100 years
      2: White however kept looking and finally in 2013 found individuals of the species still alive in outback Australia
      3: He kept on doing research and found more evidence of the species still existing in a remote part of SA.

      That Makes White THE EXERT ON NIGHT PARROTS.

      Now who are the other buggers ? Have they done filed research on Night Parrots ? Apparently not.

      Ummmmm >

      62

      • #
        robert rosicka

        Brilliant observation Bill , I never looked at it that way and I kept an eye out for them last trip but seen zilch .

        20

        • #
          Bill in Oz

          Night Parot : a small nocturnal budgerigar sized bird that is probably only present in relict areas of outback Australia far from human settlements or farms. And which has probably survived by avoiding human contact.

          20

  • #
    pat

    21 Mar: Bustle: Katie Couric Knows People Are Increasingly Skeptical Of Science & She Has A Fix
    By Taylor Maple
    One woman who’s made a career out of getting to the truth is tackling this issue head-on: legendary journalist Katie Couric wants to make science more accessible to even the most dubious among us…
    Couric has partnered with 3M in an effort to try and make scientific findings more digestible, a mission she hopes will combat growing skepticism. The study found that one in three people is a science skeptic…
    As one of the most recognizable, trusted faces in journalism, Couric has championed truth and knowledge for decades…

    3 Oct 2018: NY Post: news.com.au: Katie Couric says Trump era is ‘depressing and disheartening’
    By Alexandra Steigrad
    Katie Couric’s sunny disposition has started to dim in the Donald Trump era.
    The veteran TV journalist, best known as the perky co-host of NBC’s “Today,” called the state of the country “incredibly depressing and disheartening.”
    “I’ve never seen a president who seems to have as his guiding principle of leadership sowing the seeds of discourse and divisiveness. I find it really troubling and upsetting,” she offered…

    keep in mind the following is from the virulently anti-Trump Politico – which is, of course, evident in other bits of the article:

    21 Mar: Politico: How Trump is on track for a 2020 landslide
    Economic models point to a Trump blowout in 2020. But a faltering economy or giant scandal could change everything.
    By BEN WHITE and STEVEN SHEPARD
    Credit a strong U.S. economy featuring low unemployment, rising wages and low gas prices — along with the historic advantage held by incumbent presidents…
    Despite all these caveats, Trump looks surprisingly good if the old James Carville maxim coined in 1992 — “the economy, stupid” — holds true in 2020.
    “The economy is just so damn strong right now and by all historic precedent the incumbent should run away with it,” said Donald Luskin, chief investment officer of TrendMacrolytics, a research firm whose model correctly predicted Trump’s 2016 win when most opinion polls did not. “I just don’t see how the blue wall could resist all that.”…

    Yale economist Ray Fair, who pioneered this kind of modeling, also shows Trump winning by a fair margin in 2020 based on the economy and the advantage of incumbency…
    “Even if you have a mediocre but not great economy — and that’s more or less consensus for between now and the election — that has a Trump victory and by a not-trivial margin,” winning 54 percent of the popular vote to 46 for the Democrat, he said. Fair’s model also predicted a Trump win in 2016 though it missed on Trump’s share of the popular vote…
    Luskin’s current model — which looks at GDP growth, gas prices, inflation, disposable income, tax burden and payrolls — has Trump winning by a blowout margin of 294 electoral votes…

    Trump this week seized on a new CNN poll that showed more than seven in 10 Americans, or 71 percent, view the U.S. economy as “very good” or “somewhat good.” That was higher than CNN has measured at any point since a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll in Feb. 2001 found 80 percent thought the economy was that robust…
    https://www.politico.com/story/2019/03/21/trump-economy-election-1230495?cid=apn

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      pat

      should have excerpted the opening lines of the Couric/Bustle article:

      Do you have a relative who spends Thanksgiving dinner lecturing you about how climate change is a hoax? Or perhaps you have a friend who insists WebMD is more trustworthy than their doctor. Global skepticism toward science has increased in the past year, according to a study published this week by 3M, a company that specializes in scientific and technical innovation…

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    robert rosicka

    OT , what’s up with propaganda central today , the ABC have two stories about wet seasons and cyclones and not only is there no climate change the graphs and stories indicate a nothing to see here .
    This story on the 1952 wet season somehow got through the sensor.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-14/revisiting-the-1952-northern-territory-missing-wet-season/10883534

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      farmerbraun

      What? Same thing happened here.Perhaps room is needed for the new meme . . . . you know . . . the root cause of climate denialism and mass murders. To even name it would be waycist.
      The link is below Pat’s posts.

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    Ruairi

    Right means correct and means good,
    Which conserves what is just, as it should,
    Now, a new freedom tide,
    That can blossom worldwide,
    Which the Left would destroy, if it could.

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    pat

    lengthy, read all:

    20 Mar: RealClearInvestigations: Trump-Russia 2.0: Dossier-Tied Firm Pitching Journalists Daily on ‘Collusion’
    by Paul Sperry
    Key Democratic operatives and private investigators who tried to derail Donald Trump’s campaign by claiming he was a tool of the Kremlin have rebooted their operation since his election with a multimillion-dollar stealth campaign to persuade major media outlets and lawmakers that the president should be impeached.
    The effort has successfully placed a series of questionable stories alleging secret back channels and meetings between Trump associates and Russian spies, while influencing related investigations and reports from Congress.
    The operation’s nerve center is a Washington-based nonprofit called The Democracy Integrity Project, or TDIP. Among other activities, it pumps out daily “research” briefings to prominent Washington journalists, as well as congressional staffers, to keep the Russia “collusion” narrative alive.

    TDIP is led by Daniel J. Jones, a former FBI investigator, Clinton administration volunteer and top staffer to California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein. It employs the key opposition-research figures behind the salacious and unverified dossier: Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. Its financial backers include the actor/director Rob Reiner and billionaire activist George Soros.

    The project’s work has been largely shrouded in mystery. But a months-long examination by RealClearInvestigations, drawn from documents and more than a dozen interviews, found that the organization is running an elaborate media-influence operation that includes driving and shaping daily coverage of the Russia collusion theory, as well as pushing stories about Trump in the national media that attempt to tie the president or his associates to the Kremlin…

    A New York-based nonprofit linked to the family of billionaire Democratic activist ***Tom Steyer has donated $2.1 million to TDIP, according to the Daily Caller. Steyer, who has hired Fusion GPS to conduct investigations in the past, has also demanded Trump’s ouster over Russia.
    Soros and the Steyer-tied benefactor accounted for roughly a third of TDIP’s total 2017 revenues…READ ALL
    https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2019/03/11/trump-russia_20_dossier-tied_firm_sending_dc_journalists_daily_collusion_briefings.html

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    pat

    the sorry state of the MSM in the 21st century:

    21 Mar: Breitbart: NYU Journalism School Hires Fact Checker Talia Lavin, Who Falsely Claimed Disabled Vet Had ‘Nazi’ Tattoo
    by TOM CICCOTTA
    According to The Wrap, NYU’s journalism school has hired former New Yorker fact checker Talia Lavin to a position on its faculty. Lavin is scheduled to teach a course entitled “Reporting on the Far Right” to undergraduate students at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute during the upcoming fall semester.
    In June 2018, Lavin faced criticism for a tweet in which she accused disabled veteran and ICE agent Justin Gaertner of having a Nazi tattoo. In reality, the tattoo was a symbol for Gaertner’s platoon in Afghanistan. ICE demanded that Lavin apologize to Gaertner for the mistake…

    21 Mar: Washington Examiner: NYU’s Journalism school is now hiring from the gutter
    by Becket Adams
    Far be it from me to tell a university how to do its job, but it seems like an odd choice for New York University’s Journalism school to hire partisan activists to mentor would-be reporters.
    Then again, maybe that’s the point.

    Teen Vogue columnist Lauren Duca will teach at NYU’s Journalism school as a visiting scholar this coming semester. And one-time Media Matters staffer Talia Lavin, who resigned in disgrace from the New Yorker last year after she falsely accused a disabled veteran and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent of sporting a white supremacist tattoo, has also been brought on as an adjunct professor for the NYU Journalism school, according to the Wrap…
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/nyus-journalism-school-is-now-hiring-from-the-gutter

    TWEET: Jay Rosen, I teach journalism and direct the Studio 20 program at NYU, critique the press etc:
    The AP announced yesterday that is has two reporters full time on the #metoo beat ‘to ensure the movement and gender politics continue to be a coverage priority for us.’ LINK AP The three editors who wrote the memo, and the executive editor of the AP… all women.
    26 Feb 2019
    https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/1100393303785304064

    25 Mar: AP Blog: AP duo to focus on #metoo, gender politics
    by Lauren Easton, Director of Media Relations
    News leaders announced today that two AP journalists will focus on covering #metoo and gender politics through 2019.
    Here is the memo from Vice President of Global Enterprise Marjorie Miller, Deputy Managing Editor for U.S. News Noreen Gillespie and Sarah Nordgren, deputy managing editor for business, science and health, sports, entertainment and lifestyles…
    https://blog.ap.org/announcements/ap-duo-to-focus-on-metoo-gender-politics

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    pat

    a telling tale:

    20 Mar: Daily Caller: Tucker (Carlson) And PJ Media Editor (Tyler O’Neill) Discuss Racism At Southern Poverty Law Center
    by Scott Morefield
    Carlson noted Dees’ firing “under mysterious circumstances” and the irony that a group that often falsely labels others as “racist, sexist bigots” would be accused of those things itself.
    VIDEO: 3MIN32SEC
    “This group has been rotten for years,” said Carlson. “Why are people just now noticing?”…

    Dees’ firing was first reported by the Montgomery Advertiser, which included a reference to its 1994 series on racism within the organization and the co-founder’s “near singular control over the organization and its mammoth budget.”…

    (***at 2min 01sec: Tucker mentions big news orgs – like NYT, CNN, NBC – who take SPLC press releases and report them as “news” and asks can they continue to do that? also asks how can news orgs get away with pretending SPLC is a credible source of news? Tyler O’Neill: it’s the liberal bias.)
    https://dailycaller.com/2019/03/20/morris-dees-racism-splc/

    a later Montgomery Advertiser article:

    19 Mar: Montgomery Advertiser: SPLC offices to be examined by ‘gender and racial equity’ expert
    by Melissa Brown
    Days after it fired co-founder Morris Dees for undisclosed misconduct issues, the Southern Poverty Law Center hirred a Chicago-based lawyer well-versed in gender and racial equity issues to review its workplace environment and policies.

    ***Tina Tchen previously worked as chief of sttaff to then-first lady Michelle Obama and now leads a “workplace cultural compliance” practice at Buckley LLP, which examines “gender and racial equity, sexual harasment” and other diversity barriers in the workplace…
    https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2019/03/19/splc-hires-tina-tchen-review-workplace-culture-after-morris-dees-firing/3203323002/

    ***reminder Tina Tchen was in the news recently trying to get Smollett investigation moved to the FBI! wonder why?

    14 Mar: USA Today: After Michelle Obama’s former aide’s urging, prosecutor pushed for FBI to investigate Smollett
    by Aamer Madhani
    CHICAGO – After being contacted by a former senior Obama administration official, the Chicago-area’s top prosecutor last month requested that the city police turn over their investigation of an alleged attack on “Empire” actor Jussie Smollett to the FBI, according to texts and emails released by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office.

    ***Tina Tchen, who worked as former first lady Michelle Obama’s chief of staff during her time in the White House, first contacted Kim Foxx by text on Feb. 1 and said the actor’s family had “concerns” about the investigation, according to the communications. Tchen, a Chicago-based attorney, is also the co-founder of the Times Up Legal Defense Fund.
    At the time of the correspondence, Smollett was still considered by police to be the victim of an assault…

    Foxx also texted with one of Smollett’s relatives, whose name was redacted in copies of the communication released by her office…
    Foxx recused herself from the investigation before Smollett was charged…
    Foxx said in an interview with the Chicago Sun-Times that Smollett’s family was concerned that aspects of the police investigation were being leaked to media.
    “They had no doubt about the quality of the investigation, ***but believed that the FBI would have a tighter lid on the information,” Foxx told the outlet…
    Tchen did not respond to a request for comment…
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2019/03/13/jussie-smollett-former-obama-aide-asked-fbi-lead-investigation/3156693002/

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    farmerbraun

    I don’t know if Pat has already posted news of this shocking event in Godzone:-

    https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2019/03/stuff-doesnt-mention-climate-change/#more-456812

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      Bill in Oz

      Very, very interesting !
      And important in helping to understand the reasons why New Zealand and Australia get the weather we get.

      Also interesting that BOM does not bother to tell us about it.

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    theRealUniverse

    Just a comment..
    Name changes to suit the political ‘climate’.., first there was ‘Globul Warming’ (proved false), then came ‘Climate Change’ (re-branded global warming after the first FAIL), NOW theres ‘Climate Variability’, (re-branding bad weather as catastrophic ‘climate change. ALL false terms.

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      AndyG55

      “NOW there’s ‘Climate Variability’,

      Just like there has always been.

      There is NO EVIDENCE that humans have affected the global climate in any way whatsoever.

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        Bill in Oz

        In one way this is a change for the better.
        Why ? Because it marks the start of various consensus climate alarmists to back away from their own cause without losing to much face.

        Mind you none of us here need help them save face in this.

        Putting it simply : They stuffed up ! They got it wrong !

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        Dennis

        In 2015 and in 2017 …

        Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of climate change policy wasn’t just to cut CO2 emissions, but “to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution.”

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        joseph

        “There is NO EVIDENCE that humans have affected the global climate in any way whatsoever.”

        But, there is evidence to show humans have affected the weather and it can be mis-used to “prove” that we’re affecting the climate, unfortunately.

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          AndyG55

          I intentionally put the word “global” in my comment

          Humans have come nowhere even close to affecting weather at a “global” level.

          Any weather affects from humans are tiny, insignificant local issues.

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    theRealUniverse

    As for the anti EU party, hope they make progress. Looks like some are now awake..finally!

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    pat

    VIDEO: 23min11sec: 21 Mar: ConservativeTreehouse: sundance: President Trump Delivers Remarks During Free Speech Event at White House – 3:30pm Livestream…
    UPDATE: Video and Transcript Added Today, President Donald J. Trump will deliver remarks on promoting and protecting free speech on college campuses and sign an Executive Order on “Improving Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability at Colleges and Universities.”…

    From transcript:
    Under the guise of “speech codes” and “safe spaces” and “trigger warnings,” these universities have tried to restrict free thought, impose total conformity, and shut down the voices of great young Americans like those here today…
    All of that changes starting right now. We’re dealing with billions and billions and billions of dollars.(Applause.) Taxpayer dollars should not subsidize anti-First Amendment institutions. And that’s exactly what they are: anti-First Amendment. Universities that want taxpayer dollars should promote free speech, not silence free speech.(Applause.)…

    Today’s groundbreaking action is the first in a series of steps we will take to defend students’ rights. We are proudly joined by several young Americans who can speak directly about ideological intolerance on campus…
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/03/21/president-trump-delivers-remarks-during-free-speech-event-at-white-house-330pm-livestream/

    21 Mar: Fox News: Trump’s campus free speech Executive Order protects all students – it’s intellectual freedom vs social tyranny
    by David Blair
    (David Blair is the director of the Youth Leadership School at the Leadership Institute and former national director of Youth for Trump)
    The president invited more than 100 conservative students to the signing ceremony. On many campuses, conservative speech has faced unjustified and improper restrictions…
    Students at the signing ceremony have personal stories of being targeted or censored for their conservative beliefs on campus. I know their stories well.

    I have spent the past five years traveling to college campuses across the country to organize, recruit, and train conservative students. I have been spat on, shoved and threatened with violence. I was once even licked by a man claiming to have Ebola after leaving Oakland State University’s free speech zone during a Hillary Clinton speaking engagement. Seriously.
    But my experience pales in comparison to what conservative students face on a daily basis. Free speech zones, speech codes, safe spaces, repressive speech fees, aggressive administrations and outright violence have become the norm for them…

    By turning higher education into a carefully curated and comfortable echo chamber for some students, all students are being robbed of fundamental life skills. Peaceful disagreement, conflict resolution, and critical thought have been discarded, only to be replaced by trigger warnings and “hate speech designations.”…

    A recent study by the Brookings Institution shows that student opinion on the application of the First Amendment is at an all-time low. According to the poll, 51 percent of students agreed that it is acceptable to shout down a speaker on campus, and 19 percent of students consider violence an acceptable means of silencing an opposing view…READ ALL
    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trumps-campus-free-speech-executive-order-protects-all-students-its-intellectual-freedom-vs-social-tyranny

    civil liberties groups(?), FakeNewsMSM, & at least one RINO so far, don’t like it:

    21 Mar: PEN America: Executive Order on “Free Inquiry, Transparency, and Accountability” at Colleges Risks Chilling More Speech Than it Protects
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    “PEN America has extensively documented and spoken out regarding our concerns about threats to free speech on campus, most recently this week in anticipation of this Executive Order being signed. In analyzing President Trump’s Executive Order, we look not just at the formulation on the page, but at intent, context and potential effects. There is nothing wrong with the White House seeking to promote open debate on campus, or stressing that institutions that receive federal research funds comply with the law and promote freedom of thought. There are concrete steps the federal government could take, such as making funds available for campus education on the First Amendment, to advance these goals.
    “We have several serious concerns with the Order…
    https://pen.org/press-release/executive-order-campus-speech/

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    pat

    21 Mar: NYT: No Pipelines, No Service: Con Ed Cuts Off New Gas Hookups
    by Debra West
    YONKERS — Across the suburbs north of New York City, clusters of luxury towers are rising around commuter rail stations, designed to lure young workers seeking easy access to Manhattan. In all, 16,000 apartments and condominiums are in the works in more than a dozen towns, along with spaces for restaurants and shops.
    But the boom unfolding in Westchester County is under threat — not from any not-in-my-backyard opposition or a slumping real estate market.
    Instead, it is coming from something unexpected: a lack of natural gas.

    Con Edison, the region’s main utility, says its existing network of pipelines cannot satisfy an increasing demand for the fuel.
    As a result, the utility has taken the extreme step of imposing a moratorium on new gas hookups in a large swath of Westchester, including for residential buildings planned in Yonkers, White Plains and New Rochelle. The only other places in the country with similar restrictions are in Massachusetts, gas industry officials said.
    “It’s just a question of how people are going to be able to heat their homes and cook their food with the energy that’s available right now,’’ said Michael Clendenin, a spokesman for Con Ed.

    There is an ample supply of natural gas in the United States, but opposition to building or expanding interstate pipelines has caused delivery challenges in the Northeast, according to industry officials. Two counties in western Massachusetts have had a moratorium on new gas hookups since 2014.

    In Westchester, Con Ed’s moratorium, which is primarily concentrated in the southern section of the county, has set off anger and panic among developers and elected leaders who say it has left dozens of projects in limbo, creating uncertainty about housing, jobs and the area’s economic future…
    https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/nyregion/con-ed-natural-gas.html

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      pat

      20 Mar: NBC: AP: Citing climate change, U.S. judge blocks oil and gas drilling in large swath of Wyoming
      The lawsuit challenged leases issued in Wyoming, Utah and Colorado in 2015 and 2016, during President Barack Obama’s administration
      The case was brought by two advocacy groups, WildEarth Guardians and Physicians for Social Responsibility…

      21 Mar: MissoulaCurrent: Judge cites climate change in block of Wyoming oil, gas drilling
      By Britain Eakin (Courthouse News)
      Faulting the Trump administration for its failure to consider climate change late Tuesday, a federal judge temporarily blocked the auction of federal land in Wyoming for oil and gas drilling.
      U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said that, while the Bureau of Land Management had summarized potential impacts of climate change, it failed to provide the information necessary to understand the level of climate impact from oil and gas leases.

      “Given the national, cumulative nature of climate change, considering each individual drilling project in a vacuum deprives the agency and the public of the context necessary to evaluate oil and gas drilling on federal land before irretrievably committing to that drilling,” the 60-page opinion says…

      Noting that BLM might be able to substantiate its prior conclusions, Contreras declined to vacate the Wyoming leases. Instead he temporarily blocked them from moving forward and ordered the agency to redo its analysis…
      https://www.missoulacurrent.com/outdoors/2019/03/climate-change-drilling/

      22 Mar: Reuters: Environmentalists mull how to use ruling blocking Wyoming drilling leases
      by Jim Christie
      A recent ruling by a U.S. judge blocking oil and gas drilling on federal lands in Wyoming may find a role in separate legal challenges by environmental groups to the Trump administration’s push to expand oil and gas development in the Gulf of Mexico.
      “It’s definitely relevant,” Earthjustice lawyer Brettny Hardy said on Thursday, referring to the ruling issued late on Tuesday by Judge Rudolph Contreras of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

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    pat

    21 Mar: WUWT: Grauniad: “‘the end of coal’ in Asia”… Or just an illiterate Grauniad journalist?
    by David Middleton
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/21/grauniad-the-end-of-coal-in-asia-or-just-an-illiterate-grauniad-journalist/

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    TdeF

    It’s amazing how much the socialists and communists and their useful idiots still fear Abbott. More than anyone else. It tells us that on this one issue, the fake science of Climate Change, the left of politics are becoming very vulnerable.

    Anyone who takes them on will win votes across the country, so a Labor/Green government would be a 3 year disaster at best. Then without the weasels in the Black Hand, Abbott could be PM for as long as Howard.

    They call it populist, as if there is something wrong with being popular. Hillary called half of America deplorables because they disagreed with her mad socialism. It can happen here. No one believes this Climate Change fantasy, rapid sea rises, more storms and that +1C in a hundred years causes more or worse bushfires or that kangaroo or camel or cow farts are heating the planet rapidly. That’s just ludicrous and completely made up.

    All that’s needed is for Morrison to stand up to the nonsense of Global Warming, the RET and give us back the cheapest electricity in the world. He does not have to pass any new laws. Just repeal the Renewable Energy (Electricity) Act 2000. Electricity prices would halve in a week.

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      Graeme No.3

      TdeF:

      Not necessarily. As TonyfromOz points out the coal fired stations are constant and active meeting most of the demand. It is the renewables, hydro and gas that top up generation. Repealing the RET Act would stop any renewable projects in their tracks, much as in the UK where the cancellation of subsidies led to a halt in on-shore turbines being installed. ( The existing turbines that have signed agreements for subsidies are continuing operation ). The repeal might encourage new conventional generation, but that would be opposed by the Labor State Governments (and probably the SA mob too).

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        TdeF

        Top up generation? No, they are unpredictable. Hydro excluded. The problem with hydro is not enough water, but wind is unpredictable, not on demand and solar is not there at least half the time and a lot of the rest. As Tony points out, the nameplate is not the reality. Even 50% renewables would be 10%, leaving us in a total disaster situation, as is happening.

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        TdeF

        Also the RET means half what you pay in electricity goes to people for their own pockets, not to build anything. As I have pointed out with Hepburn Wind, with two windmills they receive $840,000 a year cash. Not for electricity. They have no debts. What a world when people receive $15,000 a week tax free cash for just owning a windmill. Sure beats working.

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    philthegeek

    It’s amazing how much the socialists and communists and their useful idiots still fear Abbott.

    Bring back Tony!!!! Please, please bring back Tony….and Barnaby while you are at it!! 🙂

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    Roy Hogue

    The battle is now on…at last.

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    Alex

    Americans are doing it with the Trump-et, the British are Brexiting, the French are, again, in revolution mode, The Italians have voted out the establishment, the Spanish are separating, the Danes are also moving to the right, Brazil have voted for their own Trump, and basically the ‘free’ world is now fed up with fakery, socialism, political correctness and anti-Christian values. We are on a roll and we will win because God wants it that way.

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      Bill in Oz

      Sorry mate, our fate is for us to work out for ourselves.

      No god I know is remotely interested in managing the future of humanity on Earth. 🙂

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      el gordo

      ‘… the ‘free’ world is now fed up with fakery, socialism, political correctness and anti-Christian values. We are on a roll and we will win because God wants it that way.’

      Christian values are a dubious collection of fakery invented by European writers.

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      Roy Hogue

      Alex,

      Everything you said is true and yet we have AOC being written up in Time Magazine as though she is the second coming of Jesus Christ.

      When I was her age I wish I had known how easy it is to bamboozle the world by telling people I’m going to ruin their whole civilization if they just give me carte blanche to write whatever laws I want to write and of course, vote them into law single handed in both halves of congress and then sign for the president too. Or better yet, toss the Constitution and rule by decree.

      If I had been able to do that I could be filthy rich and ruling the entire world my way right now.

      I could make a few comments about how useless the woman really is but unfortunately the people who most need to hear them don’t come within 1,000,000 miles Jo Nova’s blog.

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      Kinky Keith

      Alex,

      We might need to help God along a little bit.

      KK

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    Reasonable Skeptic

    This comment is to reply to Latus Dextro who mentioned that Canada is in pretty bad shape. As a Canadian, I feel that while the government has taken us left, we are handling the situation far better than most. There is one reason for this and it is because Canada has a merit based immigration system. This means that our immigrants for the most part integrate well and contribute to the economy so there is less inter-culture friction. As long as that continues it should be ok.

    We were fortunate to have Stephen Harper for many years as PM (I actually grew up with him in fact)and that happened when Obama was President, so we were somewhat buffered from going left when Europe and the US were riding the globalist agenda.

    Now with Trudeau’s SNC Lavalin scandal I don’t think he will get a second term and people are looking fondly back on the Harper years. God help the UK and Australia, it is getting our of hand in those Countries.

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    Meanwhile, the UK voters’ dash for freedom has been blocked by Theresa (jelly spine) May for the past 3 years and is now about to be betrayed completely unless a miracle happens by the 29th March or soon after.
    After more that 500 years of leading the world towards Parliamentary Democracy our modern idiots are now about to lead the world back into serfdom by acting contrary to the largest Peoples’ Vote ever to have taken place in the UK.

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    Behind the attack on national sovereignty is the elite-ist globalist agenda of George Soris and the Trilateral Commission. The EU is its poster child. Its policy program, Agenda 21, blueprint for global governance was instigated via the United Nations’ Brundtland Report recommendation for a new economic model and first mention of Sustainable Development. The Trilateral Commission, an elite organisation with powerful members, bankers, directors of industry, politicians, media heavies. Gro Brundtland, ex-Prime-Minister of Norway, was herself a member. The members of the Trilateral Commission want a new world order based on an economic model first advocated by a group at Columbia University during the economic depression of the 1930’s but discredited in the same decade. In the 1980’s this movement for a new world order became another phoenix arising, thanks to the efforts of the Trilateral Commission. Here’s an informative you tube overview of its history by Patrick M. Wood, financial analyst and author who has studied elite globalization policies since the 1970s when with scholar Antony Sutton, he co-authored the book, ‘Trilaterals over Washington.’ https://tragedyandhope.com/technocracy-trilaterals-tpp-an-interview-with-patrick-wood/

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    J.H.

    Nice to hear a bit of good news amid the grey desolation of Socialist politics…. I just wished Scott Morrison would just grow a spine and run a policy agenda that is truly liberal and skeptical of the Global Warming Scam, while fiscally responsible… But alas, we must live vicariously upon the successes of Trump’s America and now the Dutch’s change of political direction.

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    Edited: The Headline was Climate skeptics, anti EU party surges from nowhere to power in Dutch Elections.

    I took out the words “to power” which are ambiguous. They’ve powered up the ranks and have the equal highest representation in the upper house, but that isn’t “ruling parliamentary power”. And since the other parties will try to strangle them rather than negotiate, it will be a challenge for them to stay relevant and either win outright in the next elections or break the deadlock somehow.

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