Trump tells Universities – No free speech means no federal grants OK?

Trump tells Universities – No free speech means no federal grants OK?

Universities depend on Big Government, so it’s practically a law of physics that they will evolve into Big-Gov promoters unless some force stops them.

What is surprising is that most conservative governments let it happen.

Trump does the obvious but unheard of:

The Hill: Trump says he’ll sign executive order for free speech on college campuses
by Tal Axelrod

“We reject oppressive speech codes, censorship, political correctness and every other attempt by the hard left to stop people from challenging ridiculous and dangerous ideas. These ideas are dangerous,” Trump said. “Instead we believe in free speech, including online and including on campus.”

“Today I’m proud to announce that I will be very soon signing an executive order requiring colleges and universities to support free speech if they want federal research grants.”

This came to a head because a conservative activist was viciously punched at Berkley. (See the full appalling attack on youtube). “Higher” education has become Hater education.

by David Sherfinski, Washington Times

Mr. Trump made the announcement at the 2019 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) after he called up onstage Hayden Williams, a conservative activist who was assaulted while on a recent recruiting trip to the University of California, Berkeley.

“If they want our dollars and we give it to them by the billions, they [have] got to allow people like Hayden and many other great young people…to speak,” the president said.

University police recently arrested a suspect after Mr. Williams was apparently punched during the incident.

“First of all, he can take a punch…that was a hell of a hard punch,” Mr. Trump said. “Ladies and gentlemen, he took a hard punch in the face for all of us and we can never allow that to happen.”

“Here’s the good news – he is going to be a very wealthy young man,” the president said.

It was all recorded on video, see Fox news.

by Paulina Dedaj, Elizabeth Llorente
University of California-Berkeley officials on Friday arrested a suspect who allegedly assaulted a conservative activist on campus last month…

The attack sparked outrage on social media over what many critics saw as the university’s largely muted and delayed responses to the alleged assault. Officials have bristled at suggestions that the case was handled with less urgency because the complainant is conservative.

Charlie Kirk, founder and President of TPUSA, issued a statement after Greenberg’s arrest calling the evidence in this case “incontrovertible.”

“Today, we have finally learned the identity of the attacker and that the violent man has been arrested. While every America should be afforded their due process, we believe that the video evidence in this case is incontrovertible. We hope 28-year-old Zachary Greenberg is prosecuted to the full extent of the law for assault with a deadly weapon, which should be considered an act of hate. Hopefully, this dark chapter will act as a wake up call to those concerned about actual politically motivated hate crimes in America. Berkeley and all college campuses across American should be safe havens for free thought and opinions – especially for a targeted conservative minority,” his statement read.

Surely this is the template for western governments. It’s so basic. Without free speech problems get “solved” by accident or violence. It doesn’t have to be this way.

9.6 out of 10 based on 84 ratings

158 comments to Trump tells Universities – No free speech means no federal grants OK?

  • #
    jack

    Now we need the same thing to happen here in Australia.
    “I might not agree with what you say, but
    I’ll fight to my death for your right to say it”

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      • #
        jack

        Hi bemused
        If I get the gist of your question.
        Yes, free speech for everyone.
        The problem is not free speech, but the likes of ABC, NBC, CBS, are owned/controlled by a few, which seem to have ‘agendas’.
        I do expect the people of a free society to know the difference between propaganda and reality.
        And yes, an overtly optimistic expectation in a world were subjectivity is dominate over objectivity.

        60

    • #
      • #
      • #
        jack

        Hi ColA
        This is a good thing, but I really like to see a holistic approach.
        The LNP are the lesser of two weevils, but
        only just.
        They have abandoned the basic principles that once gave us a clear cut alternative.
        They are a rudderless ship tossed in a stormy sea of opinion.
        With lack of direction, reactive band aids is the strategy for policies (as will all parties these days).
        With very much regret, especially for the Australian people, I believe the best thing for the LN party is to crash and burn, and hopefully like the phoenix arise anew from the ashes.
        Sometimes a slap in the face is a good wake up call.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          I like the fact Trump is actually holding the leftists nose against the Constitution and telling them to read it…..maybe they cant…..years of leftists dumbing down education coming home to roost?

          I guess you dont need to be too smart to follow dog whistle chants and emotive Climate Change(tm) nonsense ….

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          • #
            jack

            Hi OriginalSteve
            Using the same line as above, in regards to the last US election, Trump was defiantly the lesser of two weevils.
            He is possibly a thorn in the side of the ubiquitous Globalization movement.
            He has taken a stance on issues that are normally dealt with by putting ones head in the sand.
            But IMHO, he is not the Great Savoir, the knight in shining amour wielding the sword of liberty.
            If I were to pick a politician I liked (a hard thing to do!) I would go for Ron Paul(Ex Poly).
            He once said:-

            I don’t want to be President for the things I want to do.
            I would be President for the things I don’t want to do.
            I don’t want to run your life.
            I don’t want to run the economy.
            And I don’t want to tell the rest of the world how to live.

            40

            • #
              Kinky Keith

              Jack,

              from here in Australia it seems that Trump has turned things, not only upside down, but inside out.

              “Wielding the sword” may look good but Trump seems to have actually Plunged it up to the hilt where it will give the most benefit.

              The world is in an extremely ugly place at the moment with most European democracies at a crossroads. What incentive is there to work, obey the law, and pay taxes?

              Decades of hard work, thrift and adherence to the Law are swept aside by politicians who want to sell all of that gain to buy votes from new arrivals on the make.

              Trump acknowledges the truth of modern politics where the Shortons, MalEx444s and McMorrisons will tell you exactly what you need to hear to elect them and when elected will take for themselves exactly what they always had their eye on.

              KK

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              • #
                jack

                Hi KK
                Trump has probably stalled the advance of Globalized Collectivism, which I think is great.
                Considering the level of politicians and the “world is in an extremely ugly place at the moment”, I cannot help but think that “A one eyed man is king in the land of the blind”.
                I would defiantly not put him up on a pedestal with the likes of Jefferson, Franklin or Madison.
                I would like to see Trump in the drivers seat with John Locke navigating.

                30

              • #
                Kinky Keith

                Jack, if you’re saying that Trump isn’t perfect or even a nice person I would probably have to agree with you.

                If you are saying that the average person in the street was better off under the Previous President then I would disagree.

                Trump seems to appreciate things that are important to general America where many previous Presidents might say nice things but not really care that much.

                KK

                80

              • #
                jack

                Great KK
                We are on the same page.
                I am saying “Trump isn’t perfect”.
                I do think he was the best candidate at the last election, and probably the next one.
                Possibly the best they have had in the last 56 years!
                His strong stance on important issues has turned the US around.
                Thanks for the discussion KK.

                80

  • #
    David Wojick

    This will be fascinating to watch unfold. Research grants to universities like Berkeley top $50 billion a year. There are already “equal opportunity” requirements, so we can add equal opportunity to speak. A lot of conservative speakers have been mobbed or canceled lately so this rule is a good move, if it can be done.

    370

    • #
      glen Michel

      It must be done!

      130

    • #
      ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

      The Left are gonna hate this but they brought it all on themselves. I bet in their camps right now the motto is “The beatings will continue until morale improves!”

      Looks like it’s back to discovery and learning for American schools, since free speech and ideas are the only way this can flourish. Let’s hope the rest of the world quickly follows suit. We might get this climate rubbish banged on the head quicker too.

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        Communism and Liberty cannot co-exist – its one or the other.

        You have to crush communism to get rid of it. It that means mass acking of rabid leftie professors, then so be it. Bye bye….

        131

  • #
    StephenP

    Could this end up with President Trump taking some of Berkeley’s grant money for his wall?

    260

    • #
      David Maddison

      Let’s hope so. Or build a wall around Berkeley (in addition to the US-Mexico wall).

      81

  • #
    Gerry, England

    The Great Donald leads again. That measure would be great here to snuff out the snowflakes at our universities and why not extend it to those public funded bodies that are not impartial – yes, that is the BBC among others.

    260

  • #
    Mark D.

    Donald on his way to re-election!

    270

    • #
      David Wojick

      The left is horrified to find Trump standing on the moral high ground. It certainly gives him a boost in the coming election.

      40

    • #
      Roy Hogue

      Mark,

      I no longer try to make predictions. Right now Trump’s cause is being enhanced by everything the Democrats do. But he’s limited to 2 terms. What candidate of Trump’s caliber is available to win another 8 years after trump?

      Interesting question? No.

      10

  • #

    I wish that this would happen in the UK

    240

  • #
    The Depraved and MOST Deplorable Vlad the Impaler

    This whole business of all these “snowflakes” who have to have a ‘safe space’ in case someone dares to have a differing opinion from their own, makes me want to crawl into some cave, and never come out again.

    This past Xmas, a friend bought me the mini-series, “The Pacific“, a largely factual account of several US Marines in WWII (not that other nations did not make significant and lasting contributions to the PTO; these were depictions of the writings of these Marines, after they returned to civilian life). I watch the realistic portrayals of the battles and action the Allied soldiers and sailors engaged in, and wonder, ‘what the hell happened to that spirit?’

    Just two/three generations ago, kids were storming beaches at Normandy, Tarawa, Leyte, Tunisa, and today, if I dare say that ‘global warming is a hoax’, I can be called up in front of the Dean of the School, to answer for “offending” some snowflakes’ “sensibilities”.

    “Strong, the indoctrination with this one, is.”

    The Depraved and MOST Deplorable Vlad the Impaler, a.k.a. Darth Yoda, a crashing bore and an even bigger bully, according to C.T.

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    • #

      I’m offended that these snowflakes promote policy that’s hell bent on destroying the Bill of Rights, the state, the country and/or the world, yet are so easily offended by ideas that promote the opposite.

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      • #
        raygun

        A new revolution at the ballot box, soap box, ammo box ….. would be the cure for the socialist Karl Marx and minions, sheeple and trolls.

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      • #
        raygun

        A new revolution at the ballot box, soap box, ammo box ….. would be the cure for the socialist Karl Marx and minions, sheeple and trolls.

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    • #
      raygun

      Yeah, I served with the USMC in ‘Nam as a Navy Hospital FMF Corpsman (Oct 1968-July 1969), going on S&D missions, setting up Battalion Aid stations inland, Recon, medevacs to the USS Repose (AH-16), UH-1 Crew, earning three PHs… The wife of 24 years final left after she had all she could take of my nightmares, depression and booze.
      Would I do it all over, again, knowing the out come. Probably not.

      140

  • #
    Richard Ilfeld

    When I taught at university (I know, for shame)the most serious pressure came from the athletic department trying to keep kids eligible to play. The left took advantage of the free speech offered to speak in ways that wold not have been tolerated outside the University.
    But one of the imperatives of the march to socialism is “Permitted” – “protected” – “-“preferred” – “promoted” – ooops… all of a sudden everything else is prohibited. The lefties who claim to detect a whiff of national socialism in the US President’s speech might look well to the plagarism of socialists from Lenin to Chavez in their own.

    I once gave money to my alma mater. I stopped years ago. It is time the government stopped as well. This biting of the feeding hand has gone on long enough. When the Bill of Rights is again supported, the flow may resume; this being the minimal standard to participate
    i the US experiment.

    201

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Richard,

      There has always been good and bad in society and the universities are just mirroring the new “freedom” in society.

      Even the concept of “freedom” has moved with the times and become associated with the new oppression that enslaves us all.
      Modern “freedom” incorporates the freedom to abuse others, the freedom to reject the disciplines of restraint and decency and the freedom to be a “victim”.

      But!!
      All isn’t lost as we can take heart from the Trump phenomenon , Brexit and the Yellow Vests.

      Hopefully Australia will eventually change direction.

      If you can’t think of a good starting point just listen to the ABC sponsored radio output and you may get some ideas.

      KK

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      If a dog circles around behind you enough times and nips at your heels, its time to put it down….common sense….

      60

  • #
    Yonniestone

    A Trump a Trump! my country for a Trump!

    241

  • #
    Gordon

    About F*****g time!!!

    150

  • #
    Betapug

    The never quoted section of Eisenhower’s 1961 (“military industrial complex”) farewell speech.

    “In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.”
    “Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.”

    So much for “Science”, how about the “Humanities”?
    “Progressives are vastly overrepresented in the academy. According to the most comprehensive study on faculty political leanings to date (Gross & Simmons 2014), progressives outnumber conservatives by 10:1 in the humanities and social sciences, despite the fact that conservatives outnumber liberals in the general U.S. population (and pretty much always have).”

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  • #
    Global Cooling

    No free speech means no scientific method. Stop calling these organizations of indoctrination universities if they just push teachings of the authorities to the minds of the young. Religions are based on dogma. Science is not.

    Curiosity and skeptic mind essential in science. You challenge the status quo and verify with experiments that your new hypothesis explains the observations better until some else invalidates that too.

    110

  • #
    Betapug

    That “The surest sign of an unhealthy scholarly culture is the presence of orthodoxy.” should be a “consensus” of ‘settled science” no?

    More on the lack of “Di”-versity at the “Uni”-versity. https://heterodoxacademy.org/the-problem/

    100

  • #
    PeterS

    The same should be applied here to the ABC but of course we all know it won’t happen.

    120

  • #
    raygun

    What I want to know is why the hard working Patriotic US of As tax dollars are supporting colleges/university when they have massive private/state/local $s that amount to US$$$$$s. Hell I would take up another notch and NOT “GIVE” ANY MORE TAX$s TO ANY Schools with a net value of 100M$ or more. This would disqualify most schools. It would also end a message that radical liberalism/ progressivism/socialism will NOT be tolerated. The army of Karl Marx minions occupied our Ivy League schools in the 1880s with this in mind. Old socialist (and I really mean OLD) Georgie Soros (not his birth name) and his family of trolls, minions and sheeple, along with the hopeless UN and EU commies, needs to be neutered, NOW. Regards, from an old hick boy form the family farm, that earned his way through HS and TTU without ANY school debt, retired engineer.

    101

  • #
    Steve Richards

    Perhaps President Trump can add a paragraph stating that 25% of each grant will be withheld until data is archived in a public system complete with ‘turn key code’ to reproduce the results.

    70

  • #
    graham dunton

    The link from Michael smith news yesterday
    More Trump brilliance!
    https://www.donaldjtrump.com/hrc
    Just press the go button..

    81

  • #
    robert rosicka

    OT , 8am no wind and no sun the electricity prices in vic and sa are through the roof , see what happens you blow up coal fired reliable base load power generation and swap it for something that only works sometimes .

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    • #
      Robber

      And in SA, AEMO warns: The synchronous generating units expected to be synchronised in SA from 2400 hrs 05/03/2019 to 0600 hrs 06/03/2019 in Pre-dispatch published at 0700 hrs 05/03/2019 are inadequate to maintain sufficient system strength in SA and hence a secure operating state.
      AEMO currently estimates that, in the absence of sufficient market response by 1330 hrs 05/03/2019, AEMO may need to intervene by issuing a direction requiring one or more SA synchronous generating unit(s) to operate or remain synchronised to maintain power system security in SA.

      And it looks as though SA is closed for business. On Monday, electricity demand ranged from 1300-1900 MW. Today the forecast is 1000-1300 MW.

      50

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    So, a far right recruiter gets attacked on campus, and the Donald starts raving about free speech. A woman (only a woman though) kets killed in Charlottesville, and the Donald says there was fault on both sides (paraphrasing).

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    • #
      David Wojick

      Conservative speakers being barred, or canceled, or mobbed at universities has become a common problem, widely discussed.

      170

    • #
      AndyG55

      WOW, do really DENY that the leftists went there with the soul intent of antagonism ?

      It was a Unite the Right rally, why were the leftist THUGGIES there, except to HARRASS and DISRUPT ?

      Trump was TOTALLY CORRECT.. there was blame on both sides.

      Conservative rally…. Leftists stay the **** away

      Leftist rally…. Conservatives stay the **** away.

      Conservative forum.. far leftists, take your odious presence elsewhere.

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    • #
      AndyG55

      Note, the far-right driver that caused the death will hopefully be incarcerated for a long, long time.

      I hope the sentence is just in this case as well.

      A few years at least, for aggravated assault, wouldn’t you agree, pfutz.

      ———-

      And when someone is trying to talk, don’t do the leftist THUGGIE/ANTIFA thing of yelling in their face, using megaphones etc.

      That could actually be classed as a type of assault, and makes the person doing the yelling look like a crass moron.

      There is a right to free speech, but nobody says anyone has to listen to them.

      If you don’t like the message….. Just WALK AWAY.

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        They cant…its like a mental problem…they cant stop…..

        Reminds me of that parasite that makes mice want to be eaten by cats….

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      • #
        AndyG55

        There also ought to be strong laws against impeding someone’s rightful progress.

        Antifa and other protesters thinking they have a right to order drivers around, stop them going where they want to go, directing traffic, blocking roads… NOPE.. you don’t have that right.

        Its time the police stamped that sort of thuggery out, hard.!!

        51

      • #
        Serp

        Steroid psychosis was my immediate thought.

        20

    • #
      ЯΞ√ΩLUT↑☼N

      Fitzy, maybe you forgot that after Trump’s election, people simply accused of being Trump voters were dragged from their cars and beat up and there are examples everywhere on YT. Likewise there are many Conservative scientists that had been removed and silenced simply because their views to the climate BS machine were contrary. How dare you cherry pick just one example to excuse yourself? I wouldn’t want to wake up in your brain every day, the hate must be seething. Maybe you could plug that into the grid.

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      • #
        AndyG55

        “the hate must be seething”

        That is why he is here.

        Like any GetUp/Antifa agent.. his AIM is to antagonise.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        Before Trump’s election Scott Adams had a lucrative speaking circuit but once he starting blogging about Trump without denouncing him [He never actually endorsed him either] that income stream has dried up. But in Scott’s words “I have **** you money”.

        30

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        good on you for missing the point, but then everyone has a forte. The poor little punchee was recruiting for a far right organisation, someone was offended, and reacted violently. Same as in Charlottesville, except the dead woman was on the left, and instead of a punch, she was run over.

        45

        • #
          AndyG55

          But the big difference that you seem to DENY, is that the leftist thugs were there to INTENTIONALLY DISRUPT and ANTAGONIZE.

          THEY brought their hatred with them.

          That is the leftist way.

          The guy at the university was not trying to disrupt anyone else.

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        • #
          Annie

          How do you know it was ‘far right’ Peter F? It seems to me that anyone right of far left is labelled thus and I find that offensive.

          52

          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            From the Daily Beast, which was the top of the google search for TPUSA
            CPAC 2019: Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk and Candace Owens Are the New King and Queen of the GOP Ball
            In years past, Breitbart and Fox News dominated the annual conservative confab. But this year, a notoriously far-right student organization runs the show.

            45

        • #
          AndyG55

          “was recruiting for a far right organisation”

          You are LYING through your a**e, again, POC

          The organisation in question was a centre-right Conservative training leadership organisation.

          But to you, anything even slightly to the right of MAO is “far-right” !!

          “The poor little punchee”

          Does that make the far-left Antifa activist woman who got run over, a “poor little tire-ee”

          53

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Just what is a CounterProtester?

      Is it perhaps someone who deliberately confronts, denigrates and abuses others?

      Why anyone would be so lacking in wit that they would engage in “counterprotest” against another charged up group of people is beyond me.

      Common sense says: be careful.

      KK

      60

    • #
      Hanrahan

      You seem to forget Steve Scalise, shot and nearly killed in a mass murder attempt by a Burnie Bro. There can be no doubt about who the shooter supported or what his intentions were.

      30

  • #
    pattoh

    Bettina Arndt will be pleased.

    Her Campus Campaign has not had the exposure it deserves here.

    80

  • #
    Sceptical Sam

    Donald says there was fault on both sides (paraphrasing).

    You see Fitz, the truth is hard to take when it cuts against your biases.

    So, are you saying the Antifa mob were wholly to blame?

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    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      Does free speech mean that you can say anything you want. For example, you technically have the right to yell “fire” in a cinema, but you would also be arrested and charged for doing so. Therefore there are limits to free speech, particularly around race and gender. This is not about my bias, even if you would like it to be. This is about the right to be abhorrent, but you can support it all you like.

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      • #
        Kinky Keith

        And if I could work out what that means I could explain it back to you.

        It’s obvious you found this line of thought on an AABBCC site somewhere and managed to remember it.

        Well done Roy.

        KK

        52

      • #
        PeterS

        I’ve heard one good definition of a “right to something”. A person has a right to do XYZ if there are no consequences. So a right to free thought is OK since no one can read another person’s thought but a right to free speech is not. Your example is a case in point. There should be consequences in that case as it could cause a death and as such the person yelling “fire” unnecessarily ought to be criminally charged. Yes there are and should be limits to free speech but they need to be sensible. Debates on the other hand should be as free as possible. No one has the right to stop another person expressing an opposing opinion on some subject matter. That would be like a ban on free thought, which is indeed a right.

        80

        • #
          Hanrahan

          Is there a Newton’s Law of Rights? Every right when exercised diminishes someone else’s rights.

          A topical example today is with immunisation. The individual has the right NOT to be medicated against his/her will, but the herd has the right to live without debilitating/deadly disease running amok in the community. I should have the right to walk down the street naked but I don’t have a right to frighten the children or the horses.

          60

      • #
        observa

        Therefore there are limits to free speech, particularly around race and gender

        .

        Well it’s like this. Calling fire falsely in the cinema can cause real physical injury whereas racist sexist taunts won’t so it’s a case of sticks and stones for adults. Essentially we believe common sense and manners will prevail particularly if you have goods and services to sell and don’t want to piss off some of your customer base.

        Ah but racist sexist abuse can cause hurt feelings I hear you say so we have to have laws and penalties against that. The problem with that is who decides what speech and what hurt feelings and ultimately that comes down to the perception of one omniscient Fearless Leader and the internment and slaughter of millions. It’s called a tradeoff between some hurt feelings and real physical tyranny unless you appoint me the benevolent dictator of course.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Yes but unless you give the llefties a chnace to play the victim, they cant hack it.

          I often think as kids,w hen we got bullied, it hardened us up.

          Now however, we have a nation of cowering teenagers, raised on the waking fear of creating a micro-aggression with every word they say, so they say nothing ( thus shutting down feree speech ).

          I had a discussion recently with a friend who is homosexual, and the point was finally made that up to not long ago, a lot of “gender issues” that are now pandered to in “safe spaces” all over the world, were not long ago classifed as psychiatric problems.

          Now however, we have all manner of nonsense running riot as “socially acceptable” and wonder why our kids are messed up?

          Its just calculating leftists sowing the seeds of open rebellion, no different to the Tower of Babel and Nimrod….back then, children were burnt alive in fires, sacrificed to Molech.

          You reap as you sow.

          21

        • #

          Yes, Peter F has the right, as have any of us, to say what may be abhorrent to someone else. Otherwise speech
          would be about ONLY what is safe, non argumentative or what some consensus, likely orchestrated top-down, decrees may be said. Peter’s analogy to calling fire in a crowded theatre is a false one. The legal issue here is that of inciting imminent action that can cause physical harm to others. The false analogy is one invoked by opponents of free speech but calling ‘theatre’ in a crowded fire is not the same as calling ‘fire’ in a crowded theatre.

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          • #
            AndyG55

            “Peter F has the right, as have any of us, to say what may be abhorrent to someone else.”

            And he can expect to get his abhorrence reflected back at him.

            I suspect that is what he desperately wants.

            Attention.!

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          • #
            sophocles

            beththeserf:

            Not just physical harm, but death. People are crushed when crowds panic. Crushed people can, and some do, die. The people like PFitz who choose that false analogy are very careful to never mention that little detail. It is why there are a few proscriptions on free speech, and it’s why I’m mentioning it.

            I do love your counter analogy 🙂

            21

        • #
          george1st:)

          You cannot call a spade a spade any more , even though a spade is is a spade .

          70

          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            Where I come from it’s a shovel.

            30

            • #
              Annie

              We have an English friend who doesn’t just call it a spade or a shovel; his term is ‘b****y shovel’ and he says things how they are, not how the PC would deem them to be.

              10

          • #
            sophocles

            Lord Monkton said recently that the “UN doesn’t do simple” and gave this wonderful example of a spade:

            A spade is:

            a one person operated, manually controlled, foot powered implement of simple and robust yet
            adequately efficacious ligno-metallic composition designated primarily though by no means exclusively
            for utilisation on the part of highly paid operatives deployed in the agricultural, horticultural, constructional trades or industries as the case may be, for the purposes of carrying out such excavational
            tasks or duties as may from time to time be designated by those of supervisory grades as being
            necessary, expedient, desirable, apposite or germane with regard to the ongoing futherance of the task
            or objective in hand or on the other hand underfoot.

            Lord Christopher Monckton.

            20

      • #
        AndyG55

        “This is about the right to be abhorrent”

        Yes pfutz/POC, Jo gives you that right on this forum, and you constantly abuse it.

        Think.. what is your purpose here.

        Try to be honest, at least to yourself.

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          I’m not sure Fitz abuses Jo’s hospitality. He does have the right to his opinion and by allowing them to be published here Jo demonstrates her fairness/open mindedness. There are np losers really.

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            Kinky Keith

            I think you’re a bit off the mark there.

            It might instructive to read all of Roy’s comments.

            They dictate to, contradict and ridicule others and until recently have not, let me repeat that, never, contained any relevant input, let alone sought to engage in real debate.

            That behaviour was constant and insulting to Jo and those who post here.

            The idea of free speech doesn’t cover that situation.

            It’s abuse.

            KK

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  • #
    theRealUniverse

    Well we’ll see if they put their money where there mouth is.

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  • #
    pat

    welcome back, Jo.

    jo’s Fox article mentions “Charlie Kirk, founder and President of TPUSA” Charlie is often seen in the company of Candace Owens below:

    Youtube: 15min: 1 Mar: CPAC 2019 – Candace Owens, Turning Point USA
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oExoBW7eKk

    Youtube: 20min17sec: 2 Mar: CPAC 2019 – Nigel Farage
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7CjCViVB-Y

    20

  • #
    Rod McLaughlin

    The ‘hard left’ isn’t the only threat to freedom on campus in the USA. There are several moves to suppress freedom to advocate boycotting Israel. I funny suppose president Trump opposes those.

    40

    • #
      geeaye

      how can a campus boycott a country?

      22

      • #
        Hanrahan

        They can, and do, advocate it.

        40

      • #
        Kinky Keith

        Don’t worry about it.

        It’s just “Free Speech”.

        KK

        30

      • #

        The Anti-Semitism Awareness Act includes “delegitimizing” Israel, “demonizing” Israel or holding Israel to a “double standard.” It was passed by the US Senate in 2016. It only applies to colleges and universities.

        Currently, Texas Attorney General is being sued over a Texas law that requires contractors and businesses to sign a pledge promising not to boycott Israel.

        The bipartisan Israel Anti-Boycott Act would make it illegal to boycott Israel.

        I’m not sure if you would be force-fed Sabra humus, but it’s definitely unconstitutional. Donald Trump is as utterly submissive to Israel as all US politicians, so I doubt if he would extend his defence of freedom of expression to advocating Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

        12

  • #
    pat

    Adani mine could be blocked without compensation: Mines department says
    The Australian-1 hour ago
    Queensland’s parliament could block all coalmining in the Galilee Basin … without paying compensation to the companies involved, the state’s Mines … Lucas Dow said his company would be entitled to “sizeable” compensation if … that a Greens bill to prohibit coalmining in the Galilee Basin appeared to …

    Adani coal mine public hearing: Ban bill ‘dangerous’
    Courier Mail-2 hours ago
    CONCERNS have been raised around whether compensation would need to be paid to three companies granted exploratory mining leases in the Galilee Basin if the Greens’ Bill seeking to ban thermal coal mining was successful. … “This is evidence of a government (NSW) anticipating litigation and …

    4 Mar: Brisbane Times: Greens bill to scrap mine could force compo payments, Adani warns
    By Felicity Caldwell
    The risk Queensland might need to pay compensation to miners if it scrapped all projects in the Galilee Basin must be balanced against the devastating effects of climate change, Greens MP Michael Berkman says.
    Mr Berkman has introduced a private member’s bill to ban all coal mining in the Galilee Basin, including Adani’s Carmichael mine, and rip up all existing leases, with no compensation to be paid.

    “The Queensland government is sovereign and can make decisions of this nature,” he told a committee hearing into the bill.
    “No matter how many billions of dollars these companies might want to throw around as the amount they’ve spent as compensation they should be entitled to, there is no basis to claim any future profits they might have made.
    “If the committee is concerned there is a genuine risk of some compensation being paid, let’s consider that in the context of the cost to Queensland, the cost to our communities of climate change.”

    However, Adani Mining Australia chief executive Lucas Dow said the bill would create sovereign risk for Queensland and create questions about the “investability” of Queensland…READ ALL FOR RESPONSES
    https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/politics/queensland/greens-bill-to-scrap-mine-could-force-compo-payments-adani-warns-20190304-p511k8.html

    10

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Mr Berkman has introduced a private member’s bill to ban all coal mining in the Galilee Basin, including Adani’s Carmichael mine, and rip up all existing leases, with no compensation to be paid.

      So if the State has to right to rip up leases without compensation they must also have the right to rip up FIT agreements. Go for it!!!!

      40

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Easy Fixed.

      Just make the obvious adjustment to the Liberal view of the need for employment.

      Make the receipt of social security benefits conditional on tax instalments paid during prior employment but to be limited to 18 months. Taxpayers could have an entitlement to draw down 10% of tax instalments paid in the previous 5 years.

      Then, magic, everyone will be looking for work.

      Then, everyone will want to be a coal miner.

      Coal Forever.

      50

  • #
    Dennis

    Michael Smith News comment …

    “Last week Cortez told CNN that she hopes she never has twins because she doesn’t want to be pregnant for 18 months.
    And then goes on to say she would remove the tuition fees from the”Electoral College”If that is what you call a leader,then YOU had better pack your”Crayons”and “Brain” and head on down to Venezuela.I hear that they need more”Morons”down there.And IT qualifies in spades.”

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    • #
      Kinky Keith

      That was up last week but worth repeating.

      Having twins isn’t so bad but imagine carrying triplets or quads for 37 months.

      The role of women is often underestimated but they’re entitled to more support during multiple pregnancies.

      Alexandrina is a worthy successor to Hilary.

      KK

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    • #
      Peter Fitzroy

      Do you have a reference for the twins comment?
      As to the tuition fees – she is on the record as wanting to disband the Electoral College, so another reference would be good as I could find nothing for either

      23

      • #
        geeaye

        Dennis appears all over the place with Cortez related comments. Something triggered its presence and it’s here. The “quote” is made up.

        22

      • #
        Hanrahan

        All the democrats want to change the electoral college and it looks as if it might be done without a constitutional amendment, which is how it should be done.

        28 states have agreed to tie their delegates to the party which gains the majority of votes ie California and NY will elect the president. This explains perfectly their demand for open borders and zero voter ID. The GOP will never be able to counter the millions of illegal votes being cast.

        Australians take note: Democrats are a threat to world peace. We are involved, like it or not.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        The meat in this sandwich is not whether the quotes are real or not, but the fact that they are being floated. She is already a laughing stock and that will never change. She will wear her [real] gaffs like an albatross around her neck.

        Anyone remember Dan Quail? How was his career after his stint as VP?

        30

  • #
    pat

    from yesterday’s news – will follow up:

    3 Mar: UK Express: US weather forecast: Shock maps show disruptive northeastern snowstorm
    HEAVY snow is forecast across northeastern US as a storm moves quickly in from the Central Plains bringing with it extreme cold for a large band of the US.
    By Amani Hughes
    Temperatures in the midwest were forecast to be 20 to 30 degrees below normal, with wind chills forecast to reach minus 55 in the Northern Plains…
    According to the National Weather Service, temperatures will be 20 to 48 degrees below average from the Northern Plains into the Central Plains, according to the National Weather Service…

    3 Mar: WREX13, Rockford Illinois: Harsh wind chills expected tonight
    ROCKFORD – A harsh arctic air mass has arrived and it is really making us question whether it is really winter will really be over moving out in 17 days or if it might continue… because the winter will be lingering into the start of the first work week in March and maybe some more time after…
    Sadly, the most brutal cold air moves through overnight and into Monday morning…
    We might have the chance to break one of our daily records between Monday and Tuesday. Monday will be the coldest day of this Arctic outbreak, with highs sitting close to the single digits. This could break the daily record for March 4th. We are usually in the low 40’s for early March, which means we’ll be 30+ degrees below average. Wind chills will remain at 20 degrees below zero for most of the day…

    3 Mar: Daily Inter Lake, Montana: Deep freeze settles over Flathead
    An extreme cold weather warning was issued for the Flathead Valley through 11 a.m. Monday morning, with thermometer readings expected to crash as low as 15 to 30 degrees below zero.
    “An extreme cold warning means that dangerously low temperatures are expected for a prolonged period of time,” the National Weather Service in Missoula warned. “Frostbite and hypothermia are likely if exposed to these temperatures.”
    Local power outages and broken pipes are possible…
    The arctic surge is expected to continue through Tuesday, with temperatures running about 20 degrees below average…

    3 Mar: Newsweek: How Cold Will It Get This Week? Arctic Blast Brings Record-Setting Cold, Subzero Wind Chills To Parts Of The U.S.
    By Donica Phifer
    On Sunday in Great Falls, Montana, the temperature sat at 32 below, tying the previous all-time cold record for March…
    According to USA Today, other towns broke their March all-time cold records in the chill, including Cut Bank, Montana where 33 below eclipsed the 32 below temp set back in 1960. In Havre, Montana the wind chill reached 60 below around 5 a.m…
    However, the arctic chill expanded into other parts of the country, bringing frigid temperatures approximately 30 to 50 degrees below normal to the Plains, the Ohio Valley and as far south as Houston, Texas and Montgomery, Alabama…
    The cold will persist further into the week as Chicago experiences negative windchills and highs in the single digits on Tuesday and Wednesday. In the south, cities such as Memphis and Dallas will see low temperatures in the teens and highs at least ten degrees below average…

    4 Mar: PowerlineBlog: John Hinderaker: The Folly of Solar Energy
    The late January brownout in central Minnesota (LINK), during a time of Arctic cold, showed that reliance on “green” energy can be life-threatening. Xcel Energy instructed customers to turn thermostats down to 60 degrees and refrain from using hot water. Xcel went so far as to put some customers up in hotels.
    Investigation of the brownout has been informative. The principal problem, given that Minnesota has invested massively in wind energy, was that the wind wasn’t blowing. But there was another problem, too, which came out in testimony before the state’s Public Utilities Commission by an Xcel official. My colleague Isaac Orr explains (LINK):

    During their testimony, Xcel Energy representatives stated that the company’s solar panels only produced 8 to 10 percent of their potential output because of snow cover…READ ON CHECK COMMENTS SNOW ON PANELS, ETC.
    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2019/03/the-folly-of-solar-energy.php

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    pat

    3 Mar: WUWT: Left-Wing Think Tank Withdraws Fake Extreme Weather Claims
    by Paul Homewood
    It is hard to avoid the conclusion that the IPPR paper is little more than an incompetent attempt to spin dodgy data in support of a left wing political agenda…
    As we now know, the BBC has now withdrawn claims (LINK) in their original report last month, based on the above IPPR paper, that since 2005, the number of floods across the world has increased by 15 times, extreme temperature events by 20 times, and wildfires seven-fold.
    The BBC has also added this update…READ ON
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/03/left-wing-think-tank-withdraws-fake-extreme-weather-claims/

    3 Mar: WUWT: Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW); A Tangled Web Strangling Its Creators and Proponents
    by Tim Ball
    Two recent events triggered the idea for this article. On the surface, they appear unconnected, but that is an indirect result of the original goal and methods of global warming science. We learned from Australian Dr, Jennifer Marohasy of another manipulation of the temperature record in an article titled “Data mangling: BoM’s Changes to Darwin’s Climate History are Not Logical.” The second involved the claim of final, conclusive evidence of Anthropogenic Global Warming ((AGW). The original article appeared in the journal Nature Climate Change. Because it is in this journal raises flags for me…
    The original article came from a group led by Ben Santer, a person with a long history of involvement in the AGW deception…READ ON
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/03/03/anthropogenic-global-warming-agw-a-tangled-web-strangling-its-creators-and-proponents/

    30

    • #
      el gordo

      Ross McKitrick did a critique of the Santer paper.

      https://judithcurry.com/2019/03/01/critique-of-the-new-santer-et-al-2019-paper/

      Its heavy going so I suggest you jump to comments where they speak in layman’s terms.

      30

      • #
        geeaye

        I know so heavy.

        It’s nice when a lead author of a paper takes a blog and its readers seriously enough to contribute a wholehearted response to criticism.

        24

        • #
          el gordo

          Its the new peer review, a debate on the blogosphere between Santer and McKitrick in real time.

          21

      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        Hmm – using an econometric test on temperature data to remove the anthro signal. Solid! /scarc off

        34

        • #
          el gordo

          Yeah, that is unusual, but do you agree that Santer’s AGW fingerprint is a fiction?

          What we know for sure is that the sun is the main climate driver.

          https://watertechbyrie.files.wordpress.com/2016/02/isotopes.png

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          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            No el gordo it is completely wrong. The Phillips–Perron test which she used is for stochastic processes (random walks and the like). This is fine for economic data which is assumed to be stochastic (that way you can draw the mug punters in), but Temperature data is not. It might be Basean, but since we are doing T-tests, then the base assumption is that it has a normal distribution. Those T-test prove the original hypothesis, and hence the hanky panky to change the model.

            The comment about the sun – well yes, it is the main climate driver. An analogy would be that petrol is the main driver in your car’s engine, add too much sulphur and the performance suffers (we mainly import high sulphur fuel) So although the sun is the main driver, it’s impact will be changed by other factors.

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        • #
          sophocles

          Pfitz said:

          No el gordo it is completely wrong. The Phillips–Perron test which she used is for stochastic processes (random walks and the like). This is fine for economic data which is assumed to be stochastic (that way you can draw the mug punters in), but Temperature data is not.

          Wrong. It’s not just econometric. It is valid for statistics, econometrics and signal processing. In other words, it’s for time-series analyses, testing for the null hypothesis. Temperature is a signal and is used as a time-series. It’s a valid test.

          30

  • #
    pat

    ***Johan Hedstrom, another random character ABC comes across for this story!

    4 Mar: ABC: Climate change policies major battleground in NSW election
    By state political reporter Brigid Glanville
    It’s a sticky February morning and Willoughby resident ***Johan Hedstrom is on his walk around picturesque Middle Cove on Sydney Harbour.
    He’s in Harold Reid Reserve, where the sound of birds singing and leaves crunching under foot makes it feel far from the Sydney CBD, which is only 10 kilometres away.

    But Mr Hedstrom is concerned his grandchildren may never get to experience this
    He’s so worried about climate change and the impact it’s having he’s changing his vote when NSW electors head to the polls on March 23…
    “Voting Liberal has been my default position,” he said.
    “I’m changing my vote because climate change is one of the big issues for me…

    About 20 per cent of questions submitted as part of the ABC’s “You Ask, We Answer” NSW election campaign have been about environmental issues.
    Mr Hedstrom lives in the safe liberal seat of Willoughby, held by the Premier, Gladys Berejiklian — he personally likes Ms Berejiklian but said her party could be doing more about climate change at a state level.
    “Labor are distinguishing themselves from the Coalition and they are upping the ante which is good,” he said.
    “Their initiative of 50 per cent renewable energy target by 2030, it’s setting a good target and which is more in line with what I’d like to see.”…READ ON
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-04/climate-change-policies-major-battleground-in-nsw-election/10865732

    LinkedIn: Johan Hedstrom, Consulting ***Cleantech Analyst, Sydney, Australia, Financial Services
    (from Summary)
    Since 1984 I have worked in funds management, stockbroking, independent research and now as a consultant analyst. Although most of my career has been focused on oil and gas companies, I am now only interested in ***renewable energy, or businesses that enhance energy efficiency..
    https://au.linkedin.com/in/johan-hedstrom-90098821

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    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Good detective work Pat.

      The first rule for any elected person is to line your pockets as quickly as possible. Life’s short.

      The second rule is to repay those, like Johan, who have supported you by pouring out their unbiased heart and soul to the unbiased ABC, with what makes them happy:

      More, and more, Subsidised Renewables

      KK

      30

    • #
      Hanrahan

      How can Snowy II hasten the demise of coal? Au contraire, it would be an energy sink, but by smoothing out demand it makes coal MORE viable than it is in the wild west environment that exists today.

      20

    • #

      Like Tom Steyer, he made his pile out of stuff that works and now wants to make a name (and another pile) by inflicting stuff that doesn’t work.

      Loved the bit about Mr Hedstrom walking along with birds singing and leaves crunching while concerned his grandchildren will miss out on the singing birds and crunching leaves. Will there be singing leaves and crunching birds instead? How do you stop trees and birds? Too many sticky Februaries?

      Maybe the ABC got inspiration from the closing scene of The Green Berets where the Duke faces the sunset (er, in the east) while telling some little Viet kid that “you’re what this is all about”. That’s really what the ABC has become: The Green Berets for the scarf-in-summer set.

      40

  • #
    pat

    4 Mar: ABC: How Morrison’s Snowy scheme will accelerate coal’s demise
    By business editor Ian Verrender
    Both hydro schemes are slated to be in place before the end of the next decade. Should that happen, however, it’s likely they will hasten the demise of coal fired electricity generation, an outcome that appears starkly at odds with repeated commitments to coal fired electricity generation…
    It’s a similar story with Snowy 2.0. The feasibility study in that case estimated that even after the retirement of the Liddell power station in the Hunter Valley, a further three large scale coal fired plants need to be decommissioned within the next 14 years.
    The Australian Energy Market Operator expects three coal fired plants — Vales Point, Eraring and Yallourn — to close by no later than 2032. Combined, these produce 5,410 megawatts.
    That’s not enough to make even the Tasmanian project viable and the time frame is way too distant. Put both projects together, and it all spells a pretty bleak outlook for coal…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-04/how-morrisons-snowy-scheme-will-accelerate-coals-demise/10866164

    3 Mar: AFR: More than a third of voters support meeting Australia’s Paris climate commitment
    by Tom McIlroy
    More than a third of voters support reducing carbon emissions to the levels required by the Paris climate change agreement, while one in four voters support going beyond a 27 per cent reduction by 2030, a new survey has found.
    A ***YouGov-Galaxy survey of 1027 voters last month – jointly published by the Liberal Party-aligned Menzies Research Centre and the Nationals-aligned Page Research Centre – ***found just 17 per cent of voters support pulling out of the Paris agreement…

    Support for pulling out of the Paris agreement was strongest among Coalition voters at 28 per cent, compared with 6 per cent for both Labor and Greens voters…

    ???When told the negative economic impact of emissions reductions on a range of industries “will reduce the future average Australian wage by $347 per fortnight”, ***support for meeting the existing Paris commitment grew to 45 per cent, while support for exiting the agreement rose to 21 per cent…
    https://www.afr.com/news/politics/more-than-a-third-of-voters-support-meeting-australias-paris-climate-commitment-20190303-h1bxoc

    18 Jul 2018: JoanneNova: Just like that: 48% of Australians happy to pull out of Paris (Newspoll)
    http://joannenova.com.au/2018/07/just-like-that-48-of-australians-happy-to-pull-out-of-paris/

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    • #
      Serp

      Surely “it all spells a pretty bleak outlook for coal” should have “the national interest” instead of “coal”. Quaint outmoded term I know…

      30

  • #
    pat

    3 Mar: AFR: ‘Not activism’: Industry super’s plan to ‘reshape’ business for the long term
    by Joanna Mather
    Industry superannuation funds will use their massive clout as investors to drive a post-Hayne transformation of corporate culture, “refashioning” business to focus on the long term.
    As the Business Council of Australia complains about big business “bashing”, industry super tsar Greg Combet said the fall of AMP should serve as a warning to the rest of corporate Australia about the consequences of a focus on short-term profit over customers and community.

    The former Labor minister who now chairs both Industry Super Australia and IFM Investors, which is owned by industry funds, flagged a potentially painful transition ahead for some companies, especially banks and other financial services businesses but also in energy, mining and the rest of the economy.
    “Banks and other financial services companies in particular need to think very carefully about how to refashion themselves to rebuild trust,” he said.

    Mr Combet said investors, emboldened by the findings of the banking royal commission, were preparing to exercise their voting rights and influence with governments and the public to force a focus on environmental, social and governance matters in the interests of long-term value creation…

    The super system is projected to be worth $4.2 trillion in today’s dollars by 2030. Rice Warner predicts that industry funds will control the largest stake at about 36 per cent of the market. IFM, which is owned by industry funds and manages large amounts of their money, is one of the nation’s largest equities investors…

    From ESG to business models
    “You’ll see more focus on ESG issues but also over time an interest in business models, in particular in the financial services sector,” Mr Combet said…
    Mr Combet noted Glencore’s about-face on coal production under pressure from investor action group Climate Change 100+ as an illustration of the power of collective action by investors…

    In a move it describes as unprecedented globally, IFM has determined the carbon footprint of its infrastructure portfolios and will this year publish emissions reduction targets for its Australian assets. The belief is that if listed companies are required to act on climate change risks, so too should unlisted infrastructure businesses.
    “The energy sector is an example of where long-term thinking is needed,” Mr Combet said. “We have to start making a significant transition from old coal-fired power plants to renewable energy generation and distribution.”…

    Mr Combet shrugged off concerns that industry super funds were susceptible to activist agendas, including campaigns by unions. “What I’m talking about has nothing to do with activism,” he said.
    “We want to work with Aussie business to get it on a long-term sustainable basis, not hostage to the short-term share price or six-monthly profit announcements. We as major investors want Aussie business to succeed.”…
    https://www.afr.com/personal-finance/superannuation-and-smsfs/not-activism-industry-supers-plan-to-reshape-business-for-the-long-term-20190228-h1btu5

    10

    • #
      Serp

      From asbestos hero to carbon taxing bully in government former minister Combet has graduated to being yet another spiv plying the trade of the money men; he must live in a house without mirrors.

      20

  • #
    • #
      Peter C

      Red Team or Blue Team?

      Red team is the enemy. It depends which side you are on I suppose.

      However I hope that the Red Team/Blue Team debates actually take place. The ACGW team needs to be put to the test. I expect that will shreak and rant and try not to be part of any rational discourse.

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  • #
    pat

    follow-up to comment #27. wonder about the integrity of the temp at the airport in 1989 and the 1955 temp!

    4 Mar: IndependentRecord: Record-setting temp of 29 below zero hits Helena
    by Tom Kuglin
    Yes, it was that cold.
    But Helena was hardly the only location in Montana feeling the freeze, with weather officials still catching up on cold temperatures Monday afternoon.

    The official low temperature for Helena was 29 below zero, recorded at the ***Helena Regional Airport. That beats the previous March 4 record of minus 19, which was set in 1989 and is only one degree above Helena’s all-time low for March of minus 30 set in 1955…
    Some localized temperatures dove as low as 40 below zero as the Helena Valley inversion took full effet…

    Paul Nutter, meteorologist, National Weather Sce, Great Falls: “This is an expansive area of below-average temps with a lot of places seeing temps 30 to 50 degrees below average, and we’re on the colder extent of that.”…
    MORE RECORDS SINCE 1989

    And then there’s Elk Park.
    TWEET: US National Weather Service Great Falls Montana
    12 hours ago.
    Cold temperatures continue across the region. The coldest report this morning was -46°F at Elk Park. This is likely a new all-time low for March for Montana. The previous cold temps were -45F at Glasgow in 1897 and Fort Logan in 1906. This is a bit shy of the lower 48 March record of -50F at Snake River WY in 1906. There were several stations that reported temperatures of -40F this morning. Because of the flat trace of the readings, it was apparent that this was the lowest that the sensor could report. It is likely that there were several of these locations that were in the -40 to -46F range, or even colder, but the coldest that we found this morning was the -46F at Elk Park. These are NOT wind chill temperatures…
    https://helenair.com/news/local/record-setting-temp-of-below-zero-hits-helena/article_63d52904-62ca-5107-81b4-641f66c010d0.html

    updates:

    Twitter: National Weather Service, Great Falls, Montana
    https://twitter.com/nwsgreatfalls?lang=en
    https://twitter.com/nwsgreatfalls?lang=en

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    • #
      el gordo

      Is it too early to call it a global cooling signal?

      Nothing in the IPCC dogma about meandering jet streams and blocking highs.

      42

  • #
    pat

    4 Mar: USA Today: March sadness: Freezing cold for 220 million Americans, another big storm to blast California
    by Doyle Rice; The Associated Press; Kristin Lam USA Today
    How cold? Some 189 million Americans awoke to temperatures that were at or below freezing Monday morning, weather.us meteorologist Ryan Maue said. And some 220 million will shiver with similar freezing temperatures Tuesday morning.
    “Highs on Tuesday and Wednesday are expected to be roughly 15 to 30 degrees below early March averages for most locations east of the Rocky Mountains,” the National Weather Service said.
    [snip]
    This morning in northern Maine, a small regional jet slid off a runway at Presque Island International Airport. Three passengers and the pilot suffered minor injuries.
    On Monday, dozens of record lows were set all the way from Washington state to Texas.
    The temperature bottomed out at 46 degrees below zero at Elk Park, Montana, Monday morning…

    ***Temperatures across the state in many cases were as much as 50 degrees below the early March average…

    Wind chills were also unimaginably cold across the northern Plains, dipping to almost 60 below zero in some spots.
    Maue also said that the temperatures in Texas on Monday were record cool for early March.
    The cold, though less intense, will spill toward the East Coast and Southeast on Tuesday. A few records are again possible.
    When this freakish cold spell is done, several hundred new record-low temperatures will have fallen, according to Capital Weather Gang meteorologist Ian Livingston…

    Meanwhile, in the West, yet another storm will unleash torrential rain across the state, potentially leading to more mudslides and flooding.
    Some of the heaviest rain is expected near coastal locations between San Francisco and Los Angeles, the weather service warned. “Many of these locations have received above average precipitation over the past several weeks which has left the area be more susceptible to flooding.”

    Officials in Santa Barbara County issued evacuation orders Monday afternoon anticipating rain triggering debris flows Tuesday.
    [snip]…
    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/04/cold-blast-california-storm-millions-face-freezing-temps-tuesday/3055734002/

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  • #
    pat

    4 Mar: NBC Chicago: What Temperature is Normal For March in Chicago? Not This
    A low temperature of -3 degrees was recorded at O’Hare Airport Monday
    The Chicago area saw some of the coldest March temperatures in more than a decade Monday, but how far below normal were they really?
    A low temperature of -3 degrees was recorded at O’Hare Airport Monday, the coldest March 4 temperature since 2002. It marked only the 17th subzero temperature in March on record since 1871 and tied for seventh place on that list.

    “Even more impressive, it occurred with no snow cover,” the National Weather Service tweeted, noting it was the first subzero temp for the month without snow on the ground in 76 years.
    Highs for the day were only expected to reach between 10 and 16 degrees…

    According to data, the average high temperature for the start of March is 40 degrees. By the end of March, that number climbs to 53.
    The average low for the month is 35 degrees, but for March 4, lows are typically in the upper 20s.
    How often does such cold occur in March? According to records, only 1 of every 12 Marches will see temperatures dipping below zero…
    https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/chicago-weather-average-march-temperatures-506665561.html

    4 Mar: ABC57 Indiana: Record-breaking cold likely today and tomorrow
    By Alex Countee
    With forecasted highs around 15 degrees, that would take over first place, knocking off 17 degrees set back on this date in 2002! It’s been about 17 years since we’ve had that kind of cold this late in the winter season. And even tomorrow could be cold enough to take over the 1st place spot for march 5th! A forecasted high in the upper teens is only a small improvement, but still cold enough to knock off 20 degrees set back only 4 years ago!…

    And be mindful of the feels like temperatures this morning! With those wind chills dropping down near -10 degrees, frostbite can happen in about 30 minutes.
    March is definitely off to a cold start and it may stay that way throughout the entire month…
    https://www.abc57.com/news/record-breaking-cold-likely-today-and-tomorrow-030419

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    pat

    easy-peasy:

    5 Mar: ABC: Are Australia’s emissions going up or down? It depends who you ask
    By Anna Skarbek and Anna Malos
    (Anna Skarbek is chief executive officer and Anna Malos is policy manager for ClimateWorks Australia at Monash University)
    On Insiders on Sunday, Energy Minister Angus Taylor and host Barrie Cassidy were at odds on what the latest National Greenhouse Gas Inventory shows.
    Mr Taylor argued the they were down 1.4 per cent, based on the data from the quarter to September last year (the last quarter figures have been released for).
    But, as Cassidy pointed out, the official Australian government figures show that emissions have gone up over the past year — as they have every financial year since June 2013.
    Both were right, but it’s more complex than that…

    However, one good quarter does not mean the rest of the year will be, as we all know from retail sales figures. There are seasonal factors that create fluctuations.
    For greenhouse gas emissions these include the weather itself — a mild autumn can reduce heating use or extreme drought that means farm production suffers and lowers livestock emissions…

    What Australia does matters.
    We are the 15th-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world — we are in a large group of countries in the top 20 whose emissions are each around 1-2 per cent of total emissions.
    And Australia, and our near neighbours, are at extreme risk from climate change, from rising sea levels and worsening extreme weather events…

    To stop further global warming, greenhouse gases have to be in balance between emissions and sequestration — or the ability of systems to store carbon emissions.
    The quicker the world reaches that balance, the lower the amount of warming.
    Global warming won’t stop until emissions stop rising — so we need to reach a balance point of net zero emissions ongoing…

    How we could reach net zero before 2050
    Recent studies show that Australia could be on track if current rates of renewable energy installation continue at the same pace for the next decade.
    This is possible, but need policy to keep up the pace — policy measures have driven the current uptake levels and there is currently no agreed planned national policy for renewable energy post-2020.
    ClimateWorks’ analysis last year showed Australia is not expected to make its current 2030 target without substantial new policy…

    Electricity emissions are important — they account for around a third of Australia’s emissions and clean electricity allows other sectors like transport and industry to shift from more polluting fuels. But more is needed here too.
    To reach net zero emissions, renewable electricity is a major enabler, and needs to be around 70 per cent by 2030 if Australia is to be on track for net zero by 2050 which is the ultimate Paris Agreement goal. Also, Australia needs to take action in all the other sectors that include non-electricity emissions — buildings, industry, transport and land.
    Our analysis showed that Australia has those opportunities to reduce emissions while its economy grows…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-05/are-greenhouse-emissions-going-up-or-down/10868910

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    pat

    in the opening paras theirABC goes from 30pc down to 20pc! clearly not meant to inform their solar-loving audience, for many of whom it’s probably the first time any of this has been brought to their attention.
    read the rest if you wish:

    5 Mar: ABC: Your silicon solar panels are limited to around ***30pc efficiency, but scientists are working on it
    ABC Science By science reporter Belinda Smith
    PIC: While silicon solar panels do pay for themselves energy-wise ***within a few years, they really could be better at converting light to electricity

    These days, the best silicon solar cells operate at 26.7 per cent efficiency.
    Hang on. Only 26.7 per cent? That seems pretty low, especially when you find out that’s under ideal lab conditions.
    But don’t diss the efforts of chemists and physicists — 26.7 per cent, and the tiny efficiency gains that led to it, is a big deal.

    Put simply, there’s a limit to how much of the sun’s energy can be converted to electricity by solar systems.
    In the case of your standard rooftop silicon panels, efficiency tops out at around 32 per cent.
    (And that’s a theoretical figure. Out in the real world, silicon panels are around ***20 per cent efficient.)…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-03-05/solar-power-panel-photovoltaic-limit-shockley-queisser-physics/10862544

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    pat

    4 Mar: FrontPage: Matthew Vadum: Trump Promises Executive Order Denying Funds to Anti-Free Speech Universities
    Students must be free to challenge “ridiculous and dangerous ideas,” Trump tells CPAC
    The president did not provide details about the upcoming executive order. Robby Soave of Reason reports that “an official with knowledge of the executive order confirmed … that a draft exists…
    In his animated, well-received address to CPAC that lasted more than two hours – reportedly the longest of his presidency — Trump urged Williams to file suit against his attacker and the authorities…
    That may be good advice.

    In December, UC Berkeley agreed to compensate Young America’s Foundation (YAF) and Berkeley College Republicans for trampling the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of conservative speakers and students on its campus. The Trump administration sided with campus conservatives against the school. The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest on behalf of the two groups. The department “will not stand by idly while public universities violate students’ constitutional rights,” Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand said at the time.

    When conservatives had been scheduled to speak on campus, the campus administration typically didn’t forbid their appearances. Instead, it made the speeches inconvenient to the point of impossibility, for example, forcing students to use venues a mile off campus or at times when students couldn’t attend. Berkeley also often required non-leftist groups to hand over thousands of dollars to defray security costs, a requirement not rigorously or consistently imposed on left-wing speakers or groups.

    An aggressive crackdown on non-leftist speech came after Berkeley officials—emboldened by a violent Antifa mob blocking a Feb. 1, 2017 campus appearance by firebrand Milo Yiannopoulos—decided to formalize viewpoint discrimination in the school’s policy on speakers.
    Around that time, Trump threatened to withhold federal funds from Berkeley.
    “If U.C. Berkeley does not allow free speech and practices violence on innocent people with a different point of view – NO FEDERAL FUNDS?” Trump tweeted Feb. 2, 2017.

    The speech, which was sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center (publisher of FrontPage), never happened. Police stood down and allowed left-wing students and activists to “no-platform” Yiannopoulos because they didn’t like his views. Demonstrators caused $100,000 in damage to the campus and several times as much damage to the surrounding town.
    The continuing threat of violence by Antifa at Berkeley also led to the cancelation of a planned on-campus premiere of a documentary film this writer executive-produced, America Under Siege: Antifa, during Yiannopoulos’s planned Free Speech Week at the school.

    Under the terms of the out-of-court settlement attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon reached with Berkeley, the university was to pay YAF $70,000, rescind its unconstitutional “high-profile speaker policy,” rescind its viewpoint-discriminatory security fee policy, and abolish its heckler’s veto—protesters are no longer allowed to shut down conservative expression.

    Berkeley is no longer able to impose a 3:00 p.m. curfew on conservative speech. Nor is it allowed to ban advertisements for YAF-sponsored campus lectures or relegate conservative speakers to remote or inconvenient lecture halls on campus while giving leftist speakers access to preferred locations.

    At CPAC, Trump praised the conservative activists in the audience.
    “Young Americans like you are leading the revival of American liberty sovereignty and self-determination in the face of left-wing intolerance. The anger, the unbelievable anger. I see it every day. Fortunately for you it’s mostly pointed at me. You have the courage to speak the truth. To do what is right. And to fight for what you believe and keep doing it.”
    https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/273041/trump-promises-executive-order-denying-funds-anti-matthew-vadum

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    pat

    behind paywall:

    Melissa Price links Victoria bushfires to climate change
    The Australian – 15 hours ago
    Environment Minister Melissa Price has linked a spate of environmental disasters, including this week’s bushfires in Victoria, to climate change…

    5 Mar: Xinhua: Climate change impacts Australian bushfires: environment minister
    Australian Environment Minister Melissa Price said on Tuesday there is “no doubt” that climate change is a factor in the devastating bushfires in Victoria…
    Addressing the fires, Price said Australians across the nation had suffered through its hottest summer in recorded history.
    “There’s no doubt that there are many people who have suffered over this summer. We talk about the Victorian bushfires; (in) my home state of Western Australia we’ve also got fires there,” she told (Kieran Gilbert) Sky News Australia on Tuesday morning.
    “There’s no doubt that climate change is having an impact on us. There’s no denying that.”
    http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-03/05/c_137870386.htm

    VIDEO: 6min19sec: 5 Mar: Hobart Mercury: Natural disasters are not the result of climate change: 2GB’S Chris Smith (on Credlin)
    Broadcaster Chris Smith has told Sky News that ‘it’s ludicrous’ anyone could think natural disasters are the result of climate change. Environment Minister Melissa Price told Sky News on Tuesday there was ‘no doubt climate change is having an impact on us’ after bushfires raged across Victoria and her home state of Western Australia this week. Mr Smith told Sky News host Peta Credlin ‘no wonder they kept Melissa Price’s mouth shut for so long, because they realised what she really thought’. He says the fires started by lightning strikes and improper clearing of overgrown land, and begged those who blamed climate change to ‘give us a break’.
    https://www.themercury.com.au/news/national/natural-disasters-are-not-the-result-of-climate-change-2gbs-chris-smith/video/3ca8a946f9667a35cf911ca418a9f625

    VIDEO: 1min54sec: 5 Mar: WeeklyTimesNow: Climate change is ‘impacting Australia’: (Melissa)Price
    Environment Minister Melissa Price has linked a spate of environmental disasters, including this week’s bushfires in Victoria, to climate change. Australia sweltered through the hottest summer on record, with devastating bushfires hitting towns in Victoria and Western Australia. Ms Price says the latest quarterly data shows Australia’s carbon emissions are going down after five years of increasing. She told Sky News it is necessary to reduce the impact of climate change, since she has ‘no doubt’ it is impacting Australia.
    https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/news/national/climate-change-is-impacting-australia/video/acfbd874079b3f214d0602a6e426170c

    TWEET: SkyNewsAust: 15 hours ago:
    .@ljayes asks @AngusTaylorMP whether it would be more accurate to say emissions were up over the last five years and down in the last quarter.
    ‘What’s accurate is to stop cherrypicking time periods for a gotcha question’
    SKY VIDEO: 1min14sec: (LAURA JAYES/KIERAN GILBERT WITH ANGUS TAYLOR)
    CHECK THE REPLIES
    https://twitter.com/SkyNewsAust/status/1102698610477559808

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      AndyG55

      “Environment Minister Melissa Price told Sky News on Tuesday there was ‘no doubt climate change is having an impact on us’”

      And looses even MORE votes at the next election.

      The Liberals need to WAKE UP and realise that there are NO VOTES TO BE GAINED by sucking up to this climate change idiocy, in fact, many votes to be lost

      There are MANY votes to be gained by taking a REALIST viewpoint that it is all just an anti-science SCAM.

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    pat

    5 Mar: ABC: Winery owner who ‘begged’ for fuel reduction burns loses everything in Bunyip fire
    By Damian McIver
    Andrew Clarke, the owner of the Jinks Creek Winery, was left devastated after the blaze ripped through his vineyard, cellar door, restaurant and adjoining house over the weekend.
    “I don’t have a livelihood,” he told the ABC’s Country Hour.
    “I turn 60 this year and I’ve worked on the land all my life and I really don’t think I’ve got it in me to replant my vineyard.”
    Mr Clarke is convinced the fire, which was sparked by dry lightning strikes in the Bunyip State Park last week, was exacerbated by the dense bushland that had been left to flourish behind his property.

    “I’ve been begging them [Forest Fire Management Victoria] for 20 years to burn off the state forest at the back of our place and still to this day it hasn’t happened,” he said.
    “I honestly believe the ferocity of that fire was fuelled by the trash in the bush — I think my place might not have been impacted nearly as much, it would have been much more controllable if there’d been some forest management out there.”
    Victorian Emergency Management Commissioner Andrew Crisp said it was not clear if planned burns would have helped.

    “Planned burns aren’t necessarily the panacea in relation to fires like this and you have to remember also that we’ve had record low rainfalls in many parts of the state, particularly in relation to Gippsland and these areas,” he told ABC Radio Melbourne…

    The amount of public land being burnt off has plummeted — from 185,000 hectares in 2015-16 to 65,000 hectares last year…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-05/lack-of-backburning-blamed-for-fire-losses-in-gippsland/10869018

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      pat

      behind paywall:

      Green ideology makes bushfires worse
      Daily Telegraph – 5h ago
      RENDEZVIEW: Failing to manage fuel loads is the main driver of Victoria’s latest fires, writes Miranda Devine. So why is the Morrison government falling for green propaganda blaming climate change?

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        Disgusting the green group that tied themselves to heavy machinery needed for fire breaks .

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    • #
      Kinky Keith

      After two hundred years of living on this amazing continent, all of the hard lessons learned have been thrown in the bin of ignorance.

      What shines through is the utter ruthlessness of faux Green political movement in sending so many decent trusting Australians into misery.

      There’s no mystery about this, Australians are being deliberately put in harm’s way as part of a cynical programme of manipulation.

      All the deaths by fire, all the loss of property and means of earning a living: Totally Ignored by our “leaders”.

      What’s going on?

      KK

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    pat

    4 Mar: RenewEconomy: Scientists slap down Australia government over fake climate claims
    by Sophie Vorrath
    Perhaps it was federal energy minister Angus Taylor repeatedly declaring on Sunday’s ABC Insiders program that national emissions were “coming down,” and that Australia would meet its Paris climate targets “in a canter.”
    Perhaps it was the looming federal election and a feeling that now, more than ever, our most senior politicians should be held to account for what they say about such globally significant issues as climate change.
    Perhaps it is because at the close of Australia’s hottest summer on record, Victoria is now burning through its hottest start to autumn in 30 years.

    Whatever the trigger, the nation’s leading climate and energy experts have had enough.
    A group of 28 climate scientists, academics and former heads of energy companies on Monday released a joint statement to correct the record, and remove any ambiguity on the subject:

    – Australia is NOT on track to meet its 2030 emissions reduction target;

    – Even if it was (it’s not), the target itself is woefully inadequate for what science says must be done to avert dangerous climate change…

    “It is unbelievably misleading,” said signatory and Climate Councillor Greg Bourne on ABC Radio on Monday morning. “Anyone who goes into the data sets, and they’re really quite easy to look at, with some very nice graphs, show emissions rising ever since, basically, the Abbott government came in.”…

    TWEET: Tim Baxter, Law teacher, father & climate advocate. Specialising in climate liability, offsetting & planning
    Proud to be a signatory to this statement from @climatecouncil. Between us, we have devoted 600 years to this issue.
    Last week’s announcements are not enough to get us to meet our lousy Paris Target. That target, by the way, isn’t even nearly enough to ensure a safe climate.
    4 Mar 2019

    The statement – signed by a slew of experts including ANU Professor and Climate Councillor Will Steffen, energy advisor Tim Forcey and APVI chair Renate Egan blah blah…
    Meanwhile, as The Australia Institute’s Richie Merzian explained on Sky News, the Morrison government will also be relying on “dodgy credits,” squirreled away through some tricks of accounting over a decade ago…

    But the timing is also important in terms of the election. And the federal Coalition – of all parties – should be heeding the call, as evidence mounts that voters, even Liberal and National ones, care deeply about climate.
    Even the Murdoch press can see that. An “exclusive” story by The Australian’s associate editor on Monday reports that former competitive skier Zali Steggall is set to steal the seat of Warringah from former PM Tony Abbott, from a platform of strong action on climate and renewables.

    ***The story says Steggall’s campaign has scored the backing of “wealthy investors who want immediate action on climate change” and who have a financial stake in the shift away from coal, to renewables.
    One of those backers is reported to be renewables industry veteran and founder of Solar Choice, Angus Gemmel, who announced on Facebook that he had “taken on the coal lobby” with a postcard drop in Mosman about “solar farm facts and figures.”…
    https://reneweconomy.com.au/scientists-slap-down-australia-government-over-fake-climate-claims-32429/

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    pat

    5 Mar: The West: South West summer temperatures and rainfall average
    Stuart McGuckin, South Western Times
    Bureau of Meteorology spokesman Neil Bennett said it was the warmest summer on record for the State.
    “When we look down the west coast and further through onto the south coast, it was pretty much an average summer in terms of daily temperatures,” he said.
    “A lot of that was driven by the cut-off low in January, which brought a lot of heavy rain through.
    “Bunbury’s average temperature was 28.4 degrees, which is 0.6 degrees below average.”…READ ON
    https://thewest.com.au/news/south-western-times/south-west-summer-temperatures-and-rainfall-average-ng-b881121906z

    VIDEO: 1min21sec: 5 Mar: CNN: Cold weather dips all the way to Florida
    Below average temperatures continue for the east where temperatures will be 15-30 degrees below average…
    https://edition.cnn.com/videos/weather/2019/03/05/daily-weather-forecast-cold-below-average-temperatures.cnn

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    thingadonta

    If education fails society will eventually fail.

    10