Midweek Unthreaded

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292 comments to Midweek Unthreaded

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      John Watt

      Election 2019 delivered the “pause for reflection” opportunity that Oz had to have. Time to rekindle the Evans/Nicol/Devine push to get some reality into the role of CO2 in climate behaviour. The reality is that renewables and EV’s offer cost –effective solutions in a couple of situations (e.g.feeding energy to edge- of- grid locations and short cross city car trips respectively). However the extreme scenarios proposed during the 2019 election campaign emphasize the need for calm, factual scrutiny of the role of CO2.

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      Adaminaby Angler

      Translation: more dead birds for Warringah.

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        Dennis

        Zali says she has a mandate for climate action and will be talking to the government every day.

        Somebody please explain to her that an “Independent” does not have a seat in the government joint party meeting room, they are outsiders.

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          Dennis

          GetUp are the first two words from the first Communist Anthem “The Internationale” by Pier de Geyter Lille. “GetUp Not Arise”.

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          Bodge it an scarpa

          Zali’s ego was inflated by Getup, and now harbours delusions of grandeur. How much of a majority does Morrison need before he need not give her the time of day ?

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            Sceptical Sam

            A majority of one would do the job. That’s 76.

            A majority of four would be perfect. The golden number, 79. One to cover for the speaker, two to cover for by-election losses and still have a majority of one.

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          PeterS

          Also the electorate has is losing touch with reality, same as lot of others in the Sydney and Melbourne CBD. The cancer is spreading but hopefully not any farther. Abbott would have been better off in another electorate closer to the real people he clearly represents and not the fakes like so many so called progressives of the left and right in some rich suburbs who many only are concerned about which coffee shop to visit than about the real science on climate.

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      Bodge it an scarpa

      What is the current state of play re the majority government ? I understood that Steggel’s planned reign of terror was made null and void a couple of days ago !

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        PeterS

        Yes she is null and void. Empty in the head too.

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          Bodge it an scarpa

          Unfortunately that empty headed waste of space will cost taxpayers around $600,000 for doing sweet FA over the next 3 years, or is she in for 6 ?

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            yarpos

            She’s in the Reps, so a 3 year seat warmer as is all the crossbench barring rank stupidity in the LNP camp , now at 77 with the final seat still a possibility.

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      yarpos

      Gehius! I signed up

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    Another Ian

    “The Peculiar Blindness of Experts”

    https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/how-to-predict-the-future/588040/

    (Via Tip of the Spear)

    Also a link to “worst predictions”

    Years ago I recall a comment that people in a field of endeavour were the worst predictors in that field and sifi people were likely to be closer

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    el gordo

    A positive Indian Ocean Dipole is definitely on the cards.

    https://www.ospo.noaa.gov/data/sst/anomaly/2019/anomnight.5.9.2019.gif

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    Sambar

    News report warning people not to swim fish or crab in the Swan river in Perth due to a toxic algal bloom . This bloom was was caused by low rainfall, phosphate fertilizer run off up stream and climate change. Thats it. Statement of fact apparently. Not the slightest suggestion of any other possible causes or references to past blooms that have always occurred.
    I reckon it was climate change that stopped me winning tattslotto last Saturday.

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      beowulf

      In the mid-90s there was a big hoo-haa about an algal bloom in a major dam near Orange NSW. Farmers and their fertilizers instantly got the blame.

      Orange sits in the middle of a basalt belt with the old Canoblas volcano just down the road. As many here would know, basalt soils are not prone to erosion or dispersion in water — unlike our widespread sodic soils — but a scientific study found that there was enough phosphorus in the natural leachate from basalt soil to cause the algal bloom. Basalt was the cause, not super phosphate.

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      Another Ian

      Also at WUWT today

      “Global warming, the “universal boogeyman” of our times, is causing dog depression.”

      “The Book That NOAA Should Have Published: Extremes and Averages in Contiguous U.S. Climate”

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        Another Ian

        AND

        “The Guardian: Only “Radical” Climate Action Will Save Us from a Bleak Future of Watching Game of Thrones Reruns”

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    Ross

    Alan Jones let slip on his show last night that Arthur Sinodinos has said publicly that in the spirit of bi-partisanship the new Government show enact some of Labor’s policies !!!

    Peta Credlin said “Did he?” and nearly fell off her chair. Jones just nodded his head, eyes rolling.

    Sonodinos must be totally stupid or is under a very powerful thumb.

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      Ross

      Forgot to add. On the same Jones show he interviewed Barnaby Joyce –an amazing display of passion, commitment and straight talking.
      He has obviously got over his “troubles” from last year and is ready to take the fight to Canberra over water and coal.

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      glen Michel

      I believe Sinodinos was Howard’s Chief of Staff(adviser). I saw the segment and was stunned. Something strange about that.

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        Another Ian

        IIRC he was until he wasn’t

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          Another Ian

          “On 19 March 2014, Sinodinos stood aside from his role as Assistant Treasurer prior to giving evidence as a witness before New South Wales’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC). During the enquiry Sinodinos advised he was unaware of a $74,000 donation made to the Liberal Party by Australian Water Holdings, despite being Deputy Chairman on a $200,000 salary. At the time of the payment Sinodinos was also Treasurer of the Liberal Party.[19] He formally resigned on 19 December 2014 as Assistant Treasurer and was succeeded as Assistant Treasurer by Josh Frydenberg.[20][21]”

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Sinodinos#Political_career

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      ColA

      Ross, I watched Jones last night, I thought he was spot on about why the left Lab/Greens AND the poles AND Aunty and the rest of MSM got the election so wrong = they are completely out of touch with the quiet Australian battler, we are not stupid, we do listen, if we talk they ignore us so then we just VOTE!!

      Bloody Aunty sits there in a funeral dirge, blaming everyone and everything except themselves and their BIAS, I wonder if Ita will get an ass kick and start kicking her leftard reporters asses?? (I know, but ass seems a better fit!)

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        RickWill

        Dingbatisis infects 10% of the Australian population but the inner city areas have a severe infestation. Melbourne is the worst with over 50% of the inner city dwellers suffering, by their own admission. And therein is the problem with the ABC; they live and breathe the same air as other dingbats and have been severely infected. There is little hope.

        All these dingbats need to get out in the suburbs and country areas so they can breathe fresh air and come to understand how productive society works.

        Labor has a serious infection of the disease but it is heartening to know that, at their historical roots, there are people still able to fend for themselves and abhor dingbats who would destroy their jobs. The Democrats in the USA, and particularly Washington, have very high infection rate of dingbatisis.

        Recent election results in the USA, UK and Australia should be remedial outcomes for dingbataisis but delusion is at the heart of the disease so it next to impossible to remedy the disease. The only known cure is some form of shock treatment like getting hands dirty in some physical activity.

        Dingbatisis is commonly associated with alcoholism but in the inner city areas it is now associated with excessive coffee consumption and smashed avo although alcohol still contributes to the disease.

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    toorightmate

    The Germans say “Gutten Morgen”.

    The ABC now says “Gutted, morbid”.

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    el gordo

    In a previous thread we were discussing the veracity of ice cores, according to Law Dome, CO2 hasn’t been this high in 3 million years.

    So I’ve been looking for other proxies, such as deep ocean sediment cores.

    https://eos.org/research-spotlights/southern-hemisphere-sediments-show-surprising-pliocene-cyclicity

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      Enjoy Peter Fitzroy in Moderation

      It is interesting that within the biosphere CO2 levels have been remarkably stable. It almost suggests that there is a lower bound which can not be breached. While the major feedback regulation would be the oceans, the biosphere itself must also be playing it’s part

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        el gordo

        ‘…CO2 levels have been remarkably stable.’

        That is debatable, I would like to see a graph from ocean cores showing a jump in CO2 during the MWP and RWP.

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        TdeF

        The C14 decay in the Atom Bomb curve of the sudden doubling of C14 in 1965 shows only a single decay, a straight line one a log graph, which proves it unequivocally. In a single indisputable piece of evidence, this global massive experiment disproves the entire Bern diagram and proves there is one overwhelming and fast buffer for all CO2 in the atmosphere. There is only one candidate.

        Also the C14 vanishes completely from the biosphere and with a half life of 5400 years it cannot vanish except into a huge reservoir of relatively new CO2. The only way that happen is that it exchanges with the 98% of all CO2 in the ocean. If the C14 went into the biosphere, the plants would decay in time and it would return to the air. That hasn’t happened. The C14 tagged CO2 is gone forever. Where? Everything fits perfectly. The oceans are massively active, not passive as the IPCC would have you believe.

        So the real conclusion is that CO2 is in rapid equilibrium with the vast oceans given the scale of the operation, covering 3/4 of the world’s surface.

        Humans being humans like to think they dominate the planet and even control the amount of gas in the air, the temperature of the planet, just to name two examples of outrageous arrogance. Consider that we only discovered agriculture 10,000 years ago and fossil fuels 200 years ago along with steel. Consider the Romans had iron only and used Olive oil for lighting. The British used whale oil, which devastated the world whale populations.

        As Sir Edmund Hillary climbed the world’s highest mountain only in 1953 and fearless adventurers reached both poles in the early 20th century we ants should be more humble, but somehow putting a man on the moon made us Masters of the Universe with an arrogance to match. We now control the world’s climates, apparently. That’s an absurd proposition. Antarctica alone is twice the size of Australia and we know so little.

        So CO2 levels are set by equilibrium, not by our tiny part of the world, a thin sparse layer of humanity, vastly outnumbered by animals, birds and plants. In fact our breathing out of CO2 from 7 billion humans is probably larger than all the fossil fuel we burn.

        We do not have to look into the distant past to understand CO2 levels. All life on earth came from the oceans and we are tied to photosynthesis and CO2 and water as what we are. Carbon life forms.

        It takes a peculiar type of arrogance to see CO2 as our enemy. We are 92% made from it. Plants 99%.

        As for stable CO2 levels, has anyone ever wondered why there are gigantic oceans of rotted plant matter and coal from the Jurassic period. There will be no coal and oil from our era. CO2 must have been amazing in the Jurassic. No wonder the animals were humongous, there was so much food. We are the lucky beneficiaries of the 150 million years the dinosaurs ruled the earth in what must have been a massive jungle from Antarctica to Australia to Africa to America, absolutely teeming with life, not the deserts we know today. We are CO2 poor in a climate which has just recovered from an ice age as recently as 12,000 years ago.

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          TdeF

          And the Greens want to keep it that way. It is coal which stopped the deforestation of Europe. It was oil which gave us transport and mobility. It was coal which gave us steel, creating the coke which allowed the removal of carbon from pig iron as CO2. It was the rediscovery of concrete with the output of CO2 which built our world, our roads, our runways, our buildings and bridges.

          The Greens want to put us back in the stone age, where everyone was happy. What utter rubbish. Without modern steel, what would we do for food, scalpels, even syringes? Without coal, how would we make steel?

          That is why Di Natalie’s comment that he is happy to keep Whyalla open as long as we do not generate CO2 not only shows appalling arrogance and ignorance surprising in a GP, it is also completely impossible. Here was I thinking a GP had to at least be expert in chemistry. The essential reaction in the smelting of all metals from oxides is the removal of oxygen by carbon, forming harmless CO2. Then the rich middle class Greens are all about virtue signalling posturing and ignore the facts.

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          Bodge it an scarpa

          Hope you don’t mind that I have copied this comment for future posting on Facebook, TD. I will need to edit out some of the initial text in the interest of context however.

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          Enjoy Peter Fitzroy in Moderation

          Yes, that is the point I’m trying to make. However, I’m talking about the biosphere in total (which includes phytoplankton on up), of which as you correctly point out, human contributions are only significant later.

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          theRealUniverse

          Have you been checking Ed Berry’s work ? Basically human input of CO2 make no difference to the levels.

          Yep the Greens, Agenda 21/30 want us to return to the dark ages, pre oil and coal. Hydrocarbon fuel is the main target but hidden in the ‘agenda’, climate is the hobgoblin to scare us out of using them.

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            TdeF

            Ed Berry is on exactly the same page. He is talking real proveable demonstrable and incontrovertible science, not this made up stuff.

            It is nuts that Professor Tim Flannery expressed expert opinions on technology such as nuclear power and ‘hot rocks’ (‘the technology is straightforward’) when he has no hard science and did his first degree in English at LaTrobe University when it was just huts in the bush. He cost the government at least $93,000,000 when the hot rocks project went belly up. Of course all the many directors were on $400,000pa and went back to their day jobs. It was a licence to print money, at our expense.

            Then he was made ‘Climate Commissioner’ with absolutely no expertise in meteorology or all the many dependent subjects of physics, chemistry, mathematics computer modelling, instrumentation simply because he pushed the man made Global Warming barrow for the Labor/Green party. None of his ‘Climate Commissioners’ was a meteorologist when we are paying for 500 professional meteorologists in the BOM. Why?

            Even Dr. Cook excluded meteorologists entirely from his 97% of scientsts say story. That is just absurd. Their story is ‘what would a meteorologist know about the climate. All they know about is the weather’. I thought one was just a summary of the other.

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        Hanrahan

        There is surely a lower level, I suspect around 300 ppm where plants go into CO2 starvation and die. At that point when there is no more vegitation absorbing CO2 it will increase again.

        I exaggerate to make a point. CO2 could never drop so low, equilibrium would be met sooner. But even at that point there would be world wide famine and die off . The CO2 “problem” would then be solved.

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          TdeF

          Dr Patrick Moore, one of the founders of Greenpeace, states that this is around 220ppm and that we were dangerously close to a tipping point where there was a mass die off. That at least would buffer CO2 levels as vegetation and thus all life on earth above the oceans died but ultimately would not stop the surface world being turned into a desert.

          We could also to some extent expect selective adaption to lower CO2 levels and allow some organisms to survive, preserving their genetic information but life in the oceans would continue as they would be stuffed with CO2 as currently and the whole evolution of plants and animals from oceans to land would have to start again. Consider that seals, walruses, whales, manatees and dolphins are creatures with legs who made it back into the oceans, preserving mammals with their larger brains.

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            theRealUniverse

            The joke is even if the so called emissions hypothetically, went down to virtually nothing (impossible) then the CO2 would still be the same.

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              TdeF

              Exactly. CO2 was there before we invented the engine and the level set somehow. It is not random and it is absurd to think we now control it or the CO2 is entirely controlled by our ‘biosphere’. There’s a whole world of planet wide chemistry out there which has nothing to do with (human) life on earth.

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            Hanrahan

            I assume it was Moore who alerted me to this but I forgot his figures.

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      el gordo

      Taking it a little further, this from earth scientist Jesse Farmer at Princeton.

      ‘Prior to one million years ago, Earth’s ice ages were weaker – neither getting as cold nor building up as much ice as they did in the last million years. And the ice ages were more closely timed, occurring about every 40,000 years. Around one million years ago, ice ages became stronger and started lasting longer, reoccurring every 100,000 years right up until today.

      ‘This marked shift in ice age strength and periodicity occurred in the middle of the Pleistocene epoch, which is the geological epoch that encompasses most of Earth’s last 2.6 million years. The exact point at which the ice ages became more severe during the Pleistocene epoch is so important in my field that it has its own name: the “mid-Pleistocene transition,” or MPT for short.’

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      theRealUniverse

      Theres a problem with the whole icecore sample and so called proxy.

      “Just a few facts about the formation of the glaciers illustrate the problems. Glacier ice forms as precipitation fall above the snow line and accumulates in layers most of which survives the summer melt. These layers build up and change from snow, through firn (granular snow) then meld into layers of ice under the weight and pressure of overlying layers (Figure 1). This process of converting snow to ice takes years and varies depending on a variety of factors but especially temperature. The question is which year does the final bubble represent. How does it remain isolated and insulated from contamination in a very wet, dirty, and constantly changing situation? The answer is it doesn’t, and there is no way of saying that any layer at any level represents a particular year or even a span of years. As I recall Koerner told me that a core sample of eight meters was required at the bottom of Antarctic ice to yield enough sample for a single reading. The problem is at those depths, eight meters of ice represents 10,000 years of compression. How is that useful for climate when a single sample for the entire period of the Holocene Optimum.”

      https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/01/20/what-do-the-ice-core-bubbles-really-tell-us/

      I wouldnt read to many tea leaves into ice core samples.

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    TedM

    South Australia is “cooking with gas” again. At 0650 WA Std time wind production of power was zero. Lookee here.
    https://reneweconomy.com.au/nem-watch/

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      theRealUniverse

      Wind is like a little fart in those graphs. Coal and gas win by far.

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      Another Ian

      Must have known I was fixing a windmill today so was absent when I wanted to make sure the pump was fixed.

      But it did forget to blow like hell when I wanted to disconnect and reconnect the pump rod.

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    theRealUniverse

    principia-scientific.org is back.
    Also this is worthwhile gasresources.net (The origin of natural petroleum). Hows your chemistry?

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    pat

    FakeNewsMSM loves this:

    21 May: CNN: Sea levels may rise much faster than previously predicted, swamping coastal cities such as Shanghai study finds
    by Sareena Dayaram; CNN’s Julia Hollingsworth contributed to this story.
    Global sea levels could rise more than two meters (6.6 feet) by the end of this century if emissions continue unchecked, swamping major cities such as New York and Shanghai and displacing up to 187 million people, a new study warns.
    The study, which was released Monday, says sea levels may rise much faster than previously estimated due to the accelerating melting of ice sheets in both Greenland and Antarctica…

    “It really is pretty grim,” lead author Jonathan Bamber, a Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Bristol told CNN. “Two meters is not a good scenario.”…
    The study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences.
    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/05/21/health/climate-change-sea-levels-scn-intl/index.html

    Sea level rise could hit 2 metres by 2100 – much worse than feared
    New Scientist-20 May 2019

    Millions of People Should Prepare to be Displaced by Potential 6.5 Foot Sea Level Rise, Experts say
    The Weather Channel-5 hours ago

    Oceans could swell nearly SEVEN FEET by 2100 and wipe out the homes of almost 200 million people
    In-Depth-Daily Mail-20 May 2019

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      theRealUniverse

      “It really is pretty grim,” lead author Jonathan Bamber, a Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Bristol ”
      Professor of what? Geography? He should actually talk to real geophysicists that actually know what he says is totally impossible.

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      Another Ian


      In- Out-of-Depth-Daily Mail-20 May 2019

      There – fixed

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      TdeF

      Even if this were true, the average depth of Holland today is 5.5metres under sea level. Much of London and New York and the subway systems of so many countries are already well under sea level. We would cope without having to rebuild cities. In fact many of the world’s coastal cities are growing in base height, Rome being 15 metres above the ground in Roman times and other cities rising quickly into the air even when starting at a habour. Consider also that the reason New Orleans was so devasted by Katrina was that a lot was built well under sea level but the area experienced a 1 metre drop in land level that very year, the greatest subsidence in the world. They were just unlucky. Nothing to do with Global Warming.

      As an amazing fact, the Thames tide varies 7 metres in a single day. We would cope, even if this was true which is unlikely alarmist rubbish.

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        TdeF

        I would also check the average height of the US states above sea level. The very lowest are Delaware, Florida, Louisiana at 20, 30, 30 metres above sea level. Around the Great Lakes is 600 metres above sea level and Colorado at 2000 metres. No problem.

        The biggest area of humanity at risk is in overcrowded Bangladesh at the mouth of the Ganges and Bramaputra rivers half the country under 0.5Metres above sea level. Still walls and barriers could be built if necessary but it has not proven necessary in the last 31 years since man made rapid sea rise was announced. Another 70 years should not see a change.

        Nice scare story though for the people of Bangladesh. Like the IPCC where 400 million people were going to die of thirst by 2035 in India as the glaciers vanished. It turned out to have no evidence whatsoever and was eventually blamed on a typographical error and should have been 2350. So much for peer review.

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          TdeF

          Quite apart from the fact that if all the glaciers vanished, it would not make any difference to the amount of rain and snow which is really the question. Glaciers do nothing much except to act as dams, something forbidden by the Greens.

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            theRealUniverse

            Glaciers are fed by the precipitation above the source, which of course is seasonal. Too much is read into the retreats, many are doing both advancing and some retreating.
            When Cook sailed past the South Is, he could see the Franz and Fox (glaciers) flowing into the sea, maybe it’ll happen again.

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          Another Ian

          Re Denver.

          Years ago a pilot asked me how high it was.

          I explained that it was known as teh Mile High City.

          Response was “So in the club and not even off the ground”

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            joseph

            They’ve just had more snow in Denver. And they’re starting up the ski lifts in Aspen again because they’ve had so much snow!

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    pat

    this is behind paywall, a little more at the link below:

    21 May: Catallaxy Files: Monday Forum: May 21, 2019
    COMMENT:
    Top Ender #3022214, posted on May 22, 2019 at 8:15 am
    Anti-coal activist given special treatment on job
    (The Australian-9 hours ago)
    The anti-coal activist appointed as the top policy adviser to the Queensland Department of Envir­onment — now holding up the proposed Adani mine — was given special treatment by the Palaszczuk government in applying for the newly created position.
    Former Queensland Conserv­ation Council head Tim Seelig, a long-time ally of Deputy Premier Jackie Trad, missed the cut-off date for applications last year and later sent his CV directly to the chair of the vetting panel, which then selected him over more than 50 other hopefuls.

    Dr Seelig’s appointment as principal adviser (strategic policy) to director-general Jamie Merrick last July was made just weeks before the Palaszczuk government announced a massive boost to annual funding for the council he ran until joining the Department of Environment.
    Documents obtained by The Australian under right-to-inform­ation laws shed new light on the controversial appointment…
    http://catallaxyfiles.com/2019/05/21/monday-forum-may-21-2019/comment-page-3/

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    pat

    21 May: Breitbart: Democratic Disconnect: While British Voters Flock to ‘No Deal’ Brexit Party, PM May Offers Second Referendum
    by Oliver JJ Lane
    Making her pitch to Parliament Tuesday afternoon to pass her thrice-rejected Withdrawal Agreement when it is put before the house for a fourth time next month, embattled British Prime Minister offered a second referendum as a bribe to buy votes from her political colleagues.
    Among ardent remainers who do not intend to see the results of the first Brexit referendum honoured, a second vote is the preferred method of choice to overturn the original decision and see Brexit cancelled for good. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has been calling for a second referendum to cancel the first since 2016…

    British voters were told their decision in the 2016 referendum, whichever way they voted, would be final and enacted by the government…
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/05/21/brexit-betrayal-may-opens-door-to-second-referendum/

    19 May: Bloomberg: Polarized Europe Heads Into Vote With Merkel Slapping Populists
    By John Follain and Patrick Donahue; With assistance by Sergio Di Pasquale, and Gordana Filipovic
    Voters in 28 EU countries are making their choice this week
    German leader says nationalists want to destroy Europe
    German Chancellor Angela Merkel said European voters face a choice between liberal values and destructive nationalism, setting out the stakes this week for an increasingly polarized and fragile continent.

    With a multi-day election to the European Union’s parliament concluding on May 26, centrist leaders like Merkel are campaigning against anti-EU parties from the U.K. to Poland that could win enough seats to disrupt the bloc’s policy making…
    “There are populist currents that in many areas disdain these values, that want to destroy our European values.”…

    Antagonists of Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron gathered in Milan, where Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini led a rally of 12 nationalist parties from across Europe…
    The picture isn’t uniform. In Germany, which has the most seats in the European Parliament, polls suggest the pro-European Green party is headed for gains…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-19/polarized-europe-faces-elections-after-merkel-slap-at-populists?srnd=premium-europe

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      yarpos

      Looks like they will keep having referendums until they get the answer they want.

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      OriginalSteve

      Lets put this in perspective –

      if this had happened in Henry The 8s time, any PM who had pulled this stunt would have spent a short time in the Tower,

      then….

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      Kinky Keith

      The wrong assumption that we made about our western democracies is that they were unbreakable.

      They are broken, and even our latest reprieve may not lift the shackles of the burden we carry in the name of Global Warming Mythology.

      Scomo, I believe, promised a reduction in electricity costs of 25%.

      I’m sure it was just a simple oversight because he should have said; “to 25% of current rates”.

      Why are we still paying for this sham?

      We still have work to do!

      KK

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    Greg in NZ

    Colorado: “Aspen ski area has announced it will re-open for the US Memorial Day long holiday weekend at the end of the month… Breckenridge and Arapahoe Basin are yet to end their 2018-19 ski seasons… California, where four ski areas are still open, there’s a heavy snowstorm dumping down at present [17 May] forecasts suggest as much as 60cm (two feet) may fall by Sunday”.

    https://www.snow-forecast.com/whiteroom/late-may-in-the-usa-aspen-to-re-open-and-heavy-snowfall-hits-california/

    Meanwhile down in these parts: “More than 11,500 people logged onto the Immigration New Zealand website and its information site New Zealand Now on Sunday, compared to fewer than 2500 the previous Sunday. Google analytics also showed a spike in Australians searching the words ‘moving to New Zealand’, particularly those from Queensland“. My bold.

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/389673/australian-election-surge-in-nz-immigration-website-searches

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again 🙂 “Noooooooooooo!!!”

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      Another Ian

      Repay for the comment about “the IQ of both countries”

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      Greg in NZ

      https://www.snow-forecast.com/resorts/Carstensz-Pyramid/6day/top

      Continental Australia – and the equatorial island of New Guinea’s – highest mountain, Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya) 4,884m or 16,024′: “A heavy fall of snow, heaviest during Fri afternoon” with non-stop snow falling all week; max 2˚C, min -1˚C, wind chill -4˚C. Welcome to the tropics!

      #1 – these forecasts are modelled so give-or-take a big bagful of salt
      #2 – there is no ‘resort’ on the Pyramid yet the way things are going, by 2100 or 2525, there could may possibly might be one
      #3 – beware of hobgoblins!

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      Hanrahan

      Reminds me of “Piggy” Muldoon’s quip about the steady stream of kiwis crossing the ditch: Raises the IQ of both countries.

      Well if our snowflakes reverse the trend I think the same holds true in reverse. We, at least, will be ridding ourselves of some weak of mind. Jacinta will welcome them.

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      yarpos

      I wouldnt mind moving to NZ either, but only because i like the place and i expect sanity will return eventually.

      40

  • #
    pat

    22 May: AFR: Reuters: Former Tesla bull says stock could plummet to $US10
    by Tanvi Mehta and Vibhuti Sharma
    Shares of Tesla edged down, heading for their fifth straight session of losses, and bonds weakened, after Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas outlined his worst case scenario…
    Jonas forecast the shares could be worth $US10 to $US391, with a price target of $US230, a wide range that underscores the ***confusion and risks about Tesla’s future…
    The company’s stock, which has almost halved in value since last August, was down another 3 per cent at $US199…
    https://www.afr.com/markets/equity-markets/tesla-seen-at-us10-in-worst-case-call-20190522-p51pu8

    21 May: CNBC: AP: Tesla lowers prices on Models S and X amid stock slump
    Tesla has reduced the prices of its two most expensive models, raising concerns about fading interest in its cars and whether the company can generate enough cash to pay all the bills.
    On Monday, Tesla cut US$3,000 from the price of the Model S sedan and US$2,000 from the Model X SUV.
    The decreases offset price increases from a month ago when Tesla offered longer battery range and added a new drive system and suspension.
    With the price cuts, the Model S now starts at US$71,250 while the X starts at US$71,950. Both prices don’t include federal and state tax credits…
    The company last week raised the price of its top-selling Model 3 by US$400, pushing the base price to US$35,400…
    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/05/21/tesla-lowers-prices-on-models-s-and-x-amid-stock-slump.html

    40

  • #
    pat

    21 May: AFR: BHP raises electric vehicle forecasts
    by Peter Ker
    BHP has raised its expectations for electric vehicle sales and market penetration, but warns the electrification of the transport sector will proceed only as fast as the development of charging infrastructure…
    BHP now believes electric vehicles will comprise at least 7 per cent of the world’s light-vehicle fleet in 2035, up from a minimum of 5 per cent…

    But for BHP’s bull case forecasts to be achieved, governments would need to enforce all publicly stated targets for phasing out petroleum-fuelled cars, while investing significantly in infrastructure to charge the batteries in electric vehicles…
    https://www.afr.com/business/energy/bhp-raises-electric-vehicle-forecasts-20190521-p51ph6

    May 2019: IRENA: Innovation Outlook: Smart charging for electric vehicles
    Electric vehicles (EVs) hold the key to unleash synergies between clean transport and low-carbon electricity. Just as future transport must be increasingly electrified, future power systems must make maximum use of variable renewable energy sources. Smart charging for EVs minimises their load impact and unlocks the flexibility to use more solar and wind power…
    See the Summary for Policy Makers (LINK) or the full report (LINK).
    https://irena.org/publications/2019/May/Innovation-Outlook-Smart-Charging

    21 May: SierraClub: Do Electric Cars Pose a Risk for Radiation?
    Experts agree: There is no unhealthy radiation exposure from EVs.
    By Bob Schildgen
    Various authorities ranging from bioengineers to Consumer Reports affirm that there is no risk of unhealthy radiation exposure from electric vehicles. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers studied radiation near an electric vehicle’s floor and found only 20 percent of the limit recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection. The only precautions I have found are that people with implanted devices such as cardioverter-defibrillators should avoid getting too close to the motors or battery packs of electric vehicles when they are generating a lot of power…
    https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/do-electric-cars-pose-risk-for-radiation

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      yarpos

      I read the smart charging article, classic rainbows and unicorns stuff. Its like me saying it would be good if i could fly, we will arrange that soon.

      20

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      Graeme No.3

      BHP has a big interest in copper production. Whatever the source of electricity for EV cars it will have to go through copper and into copper inside the cars.

      20

    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      BHP is speaking its book.

      The management is delusional.

      No wonder RIO is at $100 and BHP can’t get above $40.

      10

  • #
    David Wojick

    I have just launched my Climate Change Debate Education project:

    http://ccdedu.blogspot.com

    Beginning by posting just under 200 videos by Happer, Michaels, Spencer and Lindzen, arranged by length, because length is crucial to educational use. At the long end there are a number of good debate videos. The short (1-10 minute) videos are good for what I call gate breaking, where a skeptical student sends them to their classmates in the face of a gatekeeping alarmist teacher. See the About page for more on this.

    Ultimately I hope to have a searchable, 1000 skeptical video database online, plus a lot of one page text gate breakers that I will soon publish some examples of.

    This has been two years in the works but we finally have liftoff. Spread the word.

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      Curious George

      David, very nice, but .. I can read much faster than watch a video. Transcripts would be a great improvement.

      10

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Good work!

      20

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      It’s great that you’ve done this, apparently countering the output of the World Warming Society with similarly formatted material that will appeal to the troops.

      Eventually, and hopefully soon, we need government to confront the simple undeniable scientific truth behind the claim.

      The truth is that atmospheric CO2 doesn’t “control” atmospheric temperature: end of story. There is no mechanism by which this can occur.

      Once confronted with this frightening truth, our governments should be asked to justify their actions and if that isn’t done they should be replaced and lose all superannuation entitlements.

      Money is being made in large amounts by people manipulating politicians into continuing the renewables energy schemes.
      This rorting must be exposed and shut down.

      The main point is this: there is no mechanism, and even if there was, human origin CO2 is quantitatively irrelevant after consideration of Natural origin CO2 and atmospheric water vapour is done.

      The basic physics is clear but big bags of money are stacked up to hide the truth.

      KK

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        theRealUniverse

        I think the money involved in the climate scam, and renewable scam, must be mind boggling. Its a juggernaut that seems unstoppable. If the voters can be made to realise they have been had may help slow things. Can only hope.

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        • #
          Kinky Keith

          Every Australian household is paying an EXTRA $1,000 a year over and above what should be the cost of electricity.

          Our “democracy” has been undercut with great skill by the New Supra National Elites to the point that even now we aren’t sure that our new Prime Minister has the will, inclination or capacity to end it all and do the right thing by Australia.

          Think of our children’s future: they will have to pay for the removal and recycling of the dysfunctional wind and solar plants in a decade. The operating companies, after being stripped, will go to the wall and leave the mess for the dupes to clean up.

          Remember that idle windmill farm with 14,000 still there rotting.

          KK

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      sophocles

      Good on you David. One idea I can suggest:
      – you could maintain a list of links to, and the names/titles of, major scientific papers. I realize this could be three major jobs: establishing the list, vetting suggested links/papers and maintaining it.

      That’s the down side, but the upside is that it could turn into a major resource. The (more reliable) members of this blog and maybe other blogs, could assist with the vetting and supply of links. The list could be started from those given here — without the few singularly inappropriate ones.

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    David Maddison

    Leftists wear a Guy Fawkes mask during their cowardly attacks. How appropriate that they use this terrorist as their role model.

    31

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Yes and we know what happened to Guy Fawks. after he was caught, into the Tower and ..

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  • #
    pat

    two amusing pieces:

    22 May: ABC Rural: Peony Project succeeds in getting cool-climate flowers to bloom in subtropics by mimicking cold winters
    QLD Country Hour By Jennifer Nichols
    A Queensland scientist has proven her sceptics wrong by getting perfumed peonies to flower year on year in the subtropics…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2019-05-22/peonies-bloom-in-subtropics-in-trial-mimicking-cold-winters/11087462

    22 May: NBC: Reuters: Self-driving trucks begin mail delivery test for U.S. Postal Service
    TuSimple said its self-driving trucks will begin hauling mail between Phoenix and Dallas to see how the technology might improve delivery times and costs…
    ***A safety driver will sit behind the wheel to intervene if necessary and an engineer will ride in the passenger seat…
    https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/self-driving-trucks-begin-mail-delivery-test-u-s-postal-n1008456

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      Greg in NZ

      Pat, listened to this last night on the radio, Robots on the road – how close is our driverless future?

      https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-48334449

      After the first fatal accident last year during trials, “An investigation found that the safety driver had been watching a video on her phone at the moment of impact”. D’oh! Sounds like all too many human drivers I see on the road now. As Jim Morrison and The Doors belted out: Keep yer eyes on the road and yer hands upon the wheel! Safe driving, one and all.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    Sea level data ALTERED by scientists to create false impression of rising oceans

    PARTIAL QUOTE:

    A scientific paper published by a team of Australian researchers has revealed a startling find: Scientists at the Permanent Service for Mean Sea Level (PSMSL) have been “adjusting” historical data regarding tide levels in the Indian Ocean. Their “highly questionable” activities have depicted rapidly rising seas — but the truth is that there is no reason to be alarmed at all. Scientists have found that sea levels are stable — and have been for the entirety of the 20th century.

    To put it simply, these PSMSL “scientists” have been arbitrarily changing their data in order to create the illusion of a problem that doesn’t actually exist.

    According to the Australian research team, sea levels in the Indian ocean have remained stable for decades. Dr. Albert Parker and Dr. Clifford Ollier recently published their astounding research in the journal Earth Systems and Environment; their extensive research gives an in-depth look at how this massive deception was undertaken.

    PSMSL “realigned” stable sea level trends

    As the researchers report, there are multiple lines of evidence that show sea levels in the Indian Ocean are completely stable. Further, the scientific duo explains that the data-adjusters at PSMSL were taking “misaligned or incomplete” sea level data (which showed no rise in sea levels, or even decreasing sea levels) and “realigning” them.

    As Parker and Ollier contend, “It is always highly questionable to shift data collected in the far past without any proven new supporting material.” But what makes the PSMSL’s data shifts even more questionable is the fact that older datasets were adjusted to look lower while all newer sets of sea level data were re-configured to appear higher. When these arbitrary adjustments are taken together, it creates the appearance of a significant and concerning rise in sea levels — one that is entirely artificial.

    https://www.newstarget.com/2019-02-18-sea-level-data-altered-by-scientists-to-create-false-impression-of-rising-oceans.html

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      theRealUniverse

      Same thing as they did with the land temperature data. Nils-Morner has debunked ALL the sea level rise scares and hes the greatest authority on it. Remarks that the continents are tilting and some places they sink so the ‘level’ appears to go up. Dont let facts get in the way of scare mongering. How many coastal real estate agents/cooperations have made a fortune or imagine they can on this.

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      • #
        TdeF

        It makes such alleged scientists look like criminals.

        However all this make believe flies in the face of the obvious. Anyone can visit the beach of their youth, the port and find piers and building and even rocks which have been there for a hundred years. I doubt anyone can find any observable difference in sea level.
        Surely if it was rising metres per century, it would be obvious by now? As for ABC science guru Robyn Williams agreeing to 100 metres in 100 years, we would certainly notice a metre a year.

        After 31 years of man made Global Warming and rapid sea rise, this is starting to test the credulity of the public. The average punter knows this is rubbish and who decides someone is a ‘scientist’ as in ‘scientists say’ or ‘researchers say’.

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          Graeme No.3

          TdeF:

          There is an old ( Baroque?) castle in southern Sweden that was built in the sea (so attackers face a big moat). It is now possible to walk there. Due to isostatic rebound. Unfortunately I lost the reference and Google is no help.

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          • #
            TdeF

            Yes, Sweden is rising after the ice age faster than the oceans. So Stockholm (wood fortress) had to be moved as the port had dried up. Isostatic rebound as you say. Even so, the Baltic is nearly land locked and far closer to fresh water. It is how the famous Vasa (wooden galleon) in Stockholm survived as the wood worms could not survive non salty water.

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            • #
              TdeF

              Also I would heartily recommend a Baltic cruise. The trip through the Swedish archipelago is fantastic, endless islands and deep channels on the way to Stockholm. Land either side for at least 60km at a tennis ball distance. And the Queen Victoria is 90,000 tons!

              I stayed up as the Queen Victoria made her way to Stockholm. There is no way any navy could attack Stockholm. Threatened by sea rises? Not at all.

              Think also that all the snows of Colorado and Germany and Sweden and Siberia melt each summer and no one drowns in their beds in the coastal cities. How does that work exactly? How can million of square miles of snow melt and the seas do not rise?

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              TdeF

              I love that this was red thumbed, as are all my comments. Obviously I have offended wood worms, ship borers who have access to the internet and frustrated at the low salt levels of the Baltic.

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Then theres the problem of where the excess water will come from? Only 2 major land locked ice sheets on the planet, Greenland and Antarctica. Water freezes out of the air when it passes over Antarctica to replenish the ice as its always well below zero over most of the continent. It doesnt really snow there. So all that ice aint goin anywhere fast. Of course the alarmists report a few bergs breaking away, natural processes, nothing with any air temperature, and call it a great melting.

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      • #
        TdeF

        When you consider a continent the size of North America covered to 3.5Km in solid water, an iceberg on the edge is hardly significant. Antarctica is growing in the middle, where it never gets above -25C.

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    • #
      yarpos

      The Adjustocene rolls on relentlessly.

      10

  • #
    pat

    hilarious:

    22 May: ABC Life: It’s OK to slip up when trying to reduce your carbon footprint
    ABC Life
    By Rebecca Huntley
    (Overheard in Australia is a regular ABC Life column where social researcher and author Rebecca Huntley goes a little deeper on the things we’re talking and thinking about)
    I woke up a few weeks ago, opened up the internet to be greeted by this immortal headline on my home page.
    “Emma Thompson the first-class hypocrite! Actress is pictured dining on champagne and beef in GBP 18,000 personal booth on carbon-spewing BA plane jetting to New York days after lecturing us all to stop flying.”
    I checked the source. Ah, that ‘journal of record’, The Daily Mail. UK…

    I could point out here that the actress has encouraged people to fly less and eat less red meat, rather than us all become flightless vegans but, frankly, that seems like a waste of energy at this point…READ ON
    https://www.abc.net.au/life/reducing-carbon-footprint-is-difficult-but-we-shouldnt-give-up/11129828

    AUDIO: 3min2sec: 21 May: ABC The World Today: Millennial disaffection with politics compounded by election result
    By Rachel Mealey on The World Today
    There’s speculation that many young Australians may have been disillusioned when the weekend poll dubbed the ‘climate change election’ failed to deliver change.
    Now an extensive survey by Deloittes shows that millennials and Generation Z lost faith in politics long ago…
    And the survey found that this cohort doesn’t trust political leaders to solve the world’s problems.
    Guest: David Brown, lead partner, Global Workforce Transformation, Brisbane youth
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/failed-climate-election-reinforces-youth-political-ennui/11133990

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    • #
      Peter C

      Now an extensive survey by Deloittes shows that millennials and Gene Z lost faith in politics long ago

      Voter turnout at the Federal election last weekend was just under 80%. Maybe it was those disallusioned millenials who did not bother to vote. If so we were saved by their disaffection.

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  • #
    pat

    who will stop this 24/7 CAGW propaganda at theirABC?

    AUDIO: 22 May: ABC Breakfast: Blue-winged parrot facing extinction
    Ten years ago, it was officially listed as not in danger, with a global conservation status of “least concern”.
    In the years since, its numbers have crashed by an estimated 40 per cent in Tasmania and conservationists are warning climate change could drive it to extinction along Australia’s Great Dividing Range over the next 60 years.
    Guest: Sean Dooley, Editor, Australian Birdlife
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/blue-winged-parrot-facing-extinction/11136690

    22 May: ABC: Australian artworks on climate change to feature in international exhibition
    ABC Mid North Coast By Emma Siossian
    Global warming is a big concept that can be hard to grasp, and it is easy to glaze over when confronted with a raft of scientific statistics about temperatures and predicted sea level rises.
    Art, however, is a medium that is often more likely to engage people on an emotional level and international art exhibitions are increasingly focussing on environmental themes and climate change.
    One of the latest is an art-science exhibition called ‘Equilibrium’, which will be held in Venice, Italy, in June.
    It is been organised by Berlin-based curator, Mary Patricia Warming, and will feature the work of 18 international artists or groups, including two from Australia…

    One of them is Beric Henderson, an artist who grew up in Sydney and is now based in Port Macquarie, on the New South Wales mid-north coast.
    Mr Henderson’s involvement has been supported by a grant from the Regional Arts Fund NSW…
    “My background was as a research scientist for almost 30 years — that’s why there is often a strong science element in the work I produce.”…
    The other Australian group invited to take part in the Venice exhibition is called ‘Skunk Control’, a team of university engineers and scientists based at Victoria University, in Melbourne…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-22/how-art-can-highlight-climate-change/11115518

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  • #
    el gordo

    There is talk that Abbott will be going to the Vatican.

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    • #
      el gordo

      …. to preach heresy and turn the christian world upside down.

      22

    • #
      Hanrahan

      You’re behind the time. I’ve already spread the word that I’m it and have my bags packed.

      20

      • #
        el gordo

        Funny that, my dad would say ‘are your bags packed?’ It meant you’re a clean skin and will go straight to heaven if you accidentally fall under a bus.

        This would be a dream come true for Tony and I can see him talking with high Vatican officials, explaining that the Pope got it wrong on climate change.

        30

  • #
    Tides of Mudgee

    During the Pacific Islands Forum recently, when the implication was made that the Morrison Government could be doing more to pull its weight concerning “climate change”, considering many of the islands proximity to either the eastern edge of the Indo-Australian Plate or the Western edge of the Pacific Plate the seismic activity could be helping to sink or raise these islands thereby appearing to raise or lower the sea level.

    According to Earthquake Track, this is how many earthquakes have been recorded in or near these islands in the last 365 days as at 21st May stating the highest magnitude.

    Tonga – 127 – highest 6.4
    Fiji – 280 – highest 8.2
    Samoa – 53 – highest 5.8
    Vanuatu – 147 – highest 7.5
    Solomons – 82 – highest 6.6
    New Zealand – 47 – highest 6.1
    Australia – 12 – highest 5.8 Carnarvon W.A.

    Just sayin’
    ToM

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    pat

    Youtube: 36min32sec: 21 May: The Mark Steyn Show with George Papadopoulos, part two
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sl40tJBfZN4

    for those who missed Part One:

    Youtube: 51min54sec: 14 May: The Mark Steyn Show with George Papadopoulos, part one
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggNWpNZJjNg

    21 May: The Hill: Christopher Steele’s nugget of fool’s gold was easily disproven — but FBI didn’t blink an eye
    By John Solomon
    https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/444884-christopher-steeles-nugget-of-fools-gold-was-easily-disproven-but-fbi

    20 May: Conserative Treehouse: Doug Collins Releases Transcripts of Nine Former DOJ and FBI Officials…
    by sundance
    I hope everyone is ready to do some reading.
    Moments ago Judiciary Committee ranking member Doug Collins released the transcripts of nine key figures from the House investigation into DOJ and FBI political activity.
    The transcript release includes testimony from:
    ◾Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe – pdf Link Here
    ◾Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch – pdf Link Here
    ◾James Comey former chief-of-staff James Rybicki – pdf Link Here
    ◾Former FBI lawyer, Office of Legal Counsel, Trisha Beth Anderson – pdf Link Here
    ◾Deputy Asst. Attorney General (DOJ-NSD), George Toscas – pdf Link Here
    ◾FBI Deputy Asst. Director, Jonathan Moffa – pdf Link Here
    ◾Former FBI Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch, John Giaclone – pdf Link Here
    ◾FBI Unit Chief, Office of Legal Counsel, Sally Moyer – pdf Link Here
    ◾FBI New York Field Office, Assistant Director in Charge, William F. Sweeney Jr. – pdf Link Here

    This could be overwhelming. So we will post two transcripts per day for full review starting below with the transcript of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe…TRANSCRIPT
    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2019/05/20/doug-collins-releases-transcripts-of-nine-former-doj-and-fbi-officials/

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    • #
      pat

      VIDEO: 4min39sec: 21 May: Fox News: (Florida congressman Matt) Gaetz says ‘most compelling’ evidence in the Trump-Russia probe could be days away
      By Victor Garcia; Fox News’ Liam Quinn contributed to this report
      “There was western intelligence sent to spy on Papadopoulos and there’s a recording and transcript of the conversation. And there, Papadopoulos denies any illegal conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia. So, they had evidence presumably that was against Papadopoulos and for him. What they will wont be able to defend is that they never presented that evidence to the FISA court.”…
      https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-gaetz-on-the-russia-probes-secret-fbi-transcripts

      full video:

      VIDEO: 15min54sec: 9 May: Youtube: Sky News: Andrew Bolt: Downer accused of ‘acting suspiciously’ by former Trump advisor
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygckFL8m2Ws

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    pat

    22 May: AP: Wet spring delays California crops, snow elsewhere in West
    California growers are frustrated by an unusually wet spring that has delayed the planting of some crops like rice and damaged others including strawberries and wine grapes…
    Colorado and Wyoming got an unusually late dump of snow this week. Meanwhile temperatures in Phoenix have dropped 15 degrees below normal…READ ON
    https://news.yahoo.com/unusually-wet-spring-delays-california-crops-damages-others-211429523.html

    21 May: Farm Futures: Record slow planting puts 2019 crop at risk
    Corn production faces uphill odds unless rest of the growing season is perfect.
    by Bryce Knorr
    A cold, wet spring that caused record slow corn planting has the 2019 crop squarely behind the 8-ball. To recover lost potential, production must run the table with near-perfect conditions the rest of the growing season. Otherwise, a smaller crop could wipe out much of the surplus USDA forecasts for the coming year…

    USDA reported only 49% of the crop planted as of Sunday, a key metric for corn traders, who like to see 85% of fields in by the end of the 20th week of the year…
    https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-futures-market-commentary/record-slow-planting-puts-2019-crop-risk?NL=FP-004_NEW&Issue=FP-004_NEW_20190521_FP-004_NEW_752&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG02000002235386&utm_campaign=38830&utm_medium=email&elq2=0ae

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  • #

    Hmm!

    The Senate vote in Queensland looks interesting.

    The race here is for the fifth and sixth spot.

    LNP, Labor and LNP are sure. Then it’s Greens, Malcolm Roberts (One Nation) and LNP.

    There’s still only 57% of the vote counted for this Senate race in Qld, so there’s still 43% of the vote to be counted, and that’s 1.4 Million of those Senate sheets still to be counted.

    Now while Larissa Waters of the Greens is third, there’s only 5000 votes between her and Malcolm Roberts.

    They need to count all the Primaries before distribution of preferences.

    If Roberts can inch ahead of Waters on those primaries, Waters might be in a spot of bother.

    Preferences might favour the Majors, LNP and Labor, so as preferences are then distributed, that LNP currently in position 6 will climb up the list, and if elected, he will then pass down his remainder to where the LNP directs its preferences. And now, with preferences being in play, that second Labor person comes into play

    So now there are only two spots available.

    The remaining LNP votes will not favour Waters or Labor, so MAY (very cautious may there) favour Roberts, well more than Waters anyway, so that could get him across the line.

    Then the race could be between Labor and Waters for that final spot.

    And then, because preferences favour the Majors, so now, the Labor second place person comes into play, and if he inches ahead of Waters, she’s in more bother. Either way that last spot will go to either Labor or Waters, depending on who finishes higher.

    I watched the last election in the Senate count, and there was a full and long page at the website of distribution of preferences, and the results after each distribution of the next lowest place person was just so interesting, as positions changed by large margins.

    It will be something well worth keeping an eye on.

    Either way, the whole Senate showed perhaps as good a result, if not better than the House race, for the Coalition.

    They’ll have more Senators and less on the cross bench to negotiate with.

    Keep in mind here that this Senate result is for six years now, so that extra the Coalition won at this election carries across for six more years now.

    Tony.

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    Zane

    This Gupta fellow who took over the Whyalla steelworks seems to have overindulged in the climate koolaid, or perhaps he is just angling for a government handout. He is constantly rabbiting about the transition away from coal to renewables. He needs to learn some basic science and maybe take a refresher in energy economics. Or shut up totally.

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    • #

      Gupta promptly bought the Tahmoor NSW coal mine from Glencore. The green religion makes sinful industries cheaper and Sanjeev has the green folding stuff to snap up assets which are “unwanted” (ie crippled by Big Green). He won’t be running Whyalla on fairy-dust but he is a world expert in preaching fairy-dust while squeezing every concession and subsidy he can find. He is in the business of burning coal so others don’t. Some people get torn to shreds for eating a raw onion or glancing at a watch. Others can do no wrong. Sanjeev could burn down Parliament house to roast marshmallows and the media would find it cute. Call it Polanski syndrome.

      If you ever needed proof that the climate scare has nothing to do with conservation or CO2, just look at the careers of Ross Garnaut, Tom Steyer and Sanjeev Gupta.

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    Zane

    Climate emergency, huh? The renewable rent seekers just will not step off their gravy train. What climate emergency? There is no climate emergency. What there is is a bunch of greedy vested interests.

    40

  • #
    Graeme#4

    The QLD premier has just performed a spectacular backflip on Adami, racing off to Mackay and claiming that she is “…fed up with the processes…” So the black-throated finches or emissions weren’t important then.

    60

    • #
      RickWill

      If the federal result for Queensland was repeated in a State election, Labor result would be worse than the decimation of Anna Bligh’s government. Pluck-a-chook has a lot to fix and not much more than a year to get the show going.

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    • #
      theRealUniverse

      ‘The QLD premier has just performed a spectacular backflip on Adami’
      She looks scared pooless, going on her expression on TV the other night, running for cover.

      71

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        My guess is she was waiting to kill Adani if Labor had won. Would have given her the green light.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      Elections have consequences.

      From the Townsville Bulletin.

      A REVOLT is under way in North and Central Queensland, as regional Labor MPs unite against senior leadership, demanding the Adani project issue is resolved immediately.

      The MPs’ call to action comes months after significant lobbying from businesses and community stakeholders.

      Thuringowa MP Aaron Harper and Townsville MP Scott Stewart confirmed they were part of a block of Labor MPs pressuring Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and her deputy Jackie Trad.

      It comes after a watershed moment for State Labor, following the disastrous rejection of the party at the federal election.

      “Regional members have united and sent a clear message to our senior leadership, that we need the Adani issue resolved as quickly as possible, to get back on to (the message of) delivering infrastructure,” Mr Harper said.

      “That narrative of Adani should have never been the narrative for the federal election – it hurt regional Queensland no doubt.”

      Mr Harper acknowledged that Adani needed to acquire the necessary environmental approvals but said: “I want it done, I want it approved.”

      Mr Stewart said MPs had been meeting and talking with ministers, the Premier and Ms Trad, but their voices had been “well and truly” heard in the aftermath of the election. “The Premier has heard well and truly the voice of her regional members, including myself, that we need to just get this decision made on Adani,” he said.

      The shift in rhetoric is notable after the refusal of Mr Harper, Mr Stewart and Mundingburra MP Coralee O’Rourke to sign a pledge by Townsville Enterprise calling on them to support the immediate opening of the Galilee Basin.

      From the article quoted:

      But Adani CEO Lucas Dow believes it is ‘nothing more than a delaying tactic’.

      Until now, Ms Palaszczuk has refused to intervene in her government’s moves to delay the project up to five years.In fact, she and Deputy Premier Jackie Trad have refused to answer Adani’s written requests to meet over state government forced delays on the proposed mine.

      **********************

      BTW a grass finch does not need a special environment. Find a grassy paddock with a creek and make sure water is on tap 24/7 and put up a cat-proof fence and they will thrive.

      50

  • #
    RickWill

    Both Bass and Macquarie are now favouring the LNP so total of 78 seats looks likely for the LNP.

    70

  • #
    pat

    21 May: Breitbart: Spygate: Obama Admin Cut Situation Room’s Video Feed During Meetings on Russia Investigation
    by Aaron Klein
    Comments made by Attorney General William Barr about extraordinary arrangements regarding the original handling of the Russia investigation may take on more significance in light of a previous report showing a high and unusual degree of compartmentalization in the Obama-era intelligence community’s initial intel set up of the Russia probe…

    The compartmentalization may help to explain why it was only Brennan’s CIA, Comey’s FBI and the NSA that penned the January 6, 2017 U.S. Intelligence Community report alleging Russian interference in the presidential race. Numerous news media reports originally falsely claimed the report was authored by all 17 U.S. intelligence agencies…READ ALL
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/05/21/spygate-obama-admin-cut-situation-rooms-video-feed-during-meetings-on-russia-investigation/

    30

  • #
    pat

    21 May: Washington Times: ‘Unprecedented power’: William Barr blasts federal judges over nationwide injunctions
    By Jeff Mordock
    Attorney General William P. Barr on Tuesday railed against federal courts issuing nationwide injunctions blocking President Trump from implementing his policies, saying they wield “unprecedented power.”

    In a speech before the American Law Institute, Mr. Barr said such injunctions block politicians of all stripes from enacting the voters’ will.
    “One judge can, in effect, cancel the policy with the stroke of the pen,” he said. “No official in the United States government can exercise that kind of nationwide power, with the sole exception of the president. And the Constitution subjects him to nationwide election, among other constitutional checks, as a prerequisite to wielding that power.”
    Mr. Barr pointed the finger squarely at the American Law Institute for contributing to the problem…

    Since Mr. Trump took office, federal courts have issued 37 nationwide injunctions against his policies, Mr. Barr said. During President Obama’s first two years, the courts issued two injunctions and only 27 were issued during the 20th century, according to Justice Department data…READ ON
    https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2019/may/21/william-barr-rips-federal-judges-over-nationwide-i/

    of course, the judges are mostly nominated by Obama and the FakeNewsMSM (including our own) rarely mentions that, or criticises judicial activism:

    20 May: Breitbart: Judge Rules Trump Cannot Block House Dem Subpoena of Financial Records
    by Joshua Caplan
    Mehta, a U.S. District judge, was nominated to his position by President Barack Obama…
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/05/20/judge-rules-trump-cannot-block-house-subpoena-of-financial-records/

    20

  • #
    pat

    great show today: Solomon, Doug Collins, Dershowitz, Sara Carter, Papadopoulos, Mark Levin, etc:

    Youtube: 43min53sec: Sean Hannity 5/21/19
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTBxd9d9ATY

    22 May: The Hill: Most Americans support inquiry into FBI decisions to monitor former Trump campaign officials: poll
    In a new Hill-HarrisX survey, a majority of registered voters said they support a new Department of Justice inquiry into whether official procedures were followed when the FBI began examining allegations of connections between Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and Russia.
    Sixty-two percent of respondents to the May 17-18 survey said they support Attorney General William Barr’s decision to name a U.S. attorney to determine whether law enforcement officers had obeyed regulations governing surveillance of U.S. citizens while 38 percent said they opposed the new inquiry.
    The poll found broad agreement across age groups in favor of the probe led by Connecticut-based U.S. attorney John H. Durham with more than 58 percent of voters under 35, between 35 and 49, between 50 and 64, and older than 64 saying that they supported it…

    meanwhile, this is what gets published at the mighty WaPo!

    20 May: WaPo: It’s time to hold voters accountable for their choices
    By Matthew A. Sears
    Government accountability is an idea that draws bipartisan support: calls for more transparency and oversight of politicians and bureaucracies go over well with voters. But what about oversight of the people who put them in office? Democracies give power to the people — does anyone hold the people responsible for this power?
    Not really, and that has long been a problem. Since its beginning in ancient Greece, democracy has faced a crisis of legitimacy when the people have not been held accountable for their exercise of sovereignty, allowing elites to dismiss democracy as mob rule. Today, defending our democracy begins with taking responsibility for votes cast at the ballot box each year…

    previous piece by the writer:

    Jan 2018: WaPo: Why ‘social justice warriors’ are the true defenders of free speech and open debate
    Critics misunderstand what makes for the best debates — and the best educated students.
    By Matthew A. Sears
    (Matthew A. Sears is an associate professor of classics and ancient history at the University of New Brunswick)
    In fact, in important ways the social justice approach — which emphasizes the dynamics of power and oppression — that many fear has taken over the humanities and social sciences at its best is actually an improvement over the “disinterested pursuit of truth” and more in line with the Socratic method. In fact, rather than constituting an attack on knowledge, the social justice lens reflects new ideas generated by academic disciplines and experts within them, and generally encourages expanding our knowledge and opening up subjects to new perspectives, much like Socrates advocated…

    it’s worth taking a little look at this Associate Professor:

    Twitter: Matthew A. Sears, Classics professor and writer
    https://twitter.com/matthewasears?lang=en

    30

  • #
    George4

    Anthony Albanese will reportedly be elected unopposed as Opposition Leader

    Mr Albanese is a powerbroker in the party’s left faction.

    Good, I hope a leftie leader will mean even less chance of winning in the future.

    100

    • #
      theRealUniverse

      Looks like Wong is hanging around like a bad smell too ((. Cant stand her.

      71

      • #
        George4

        Another left winger as their senate leader.
        She is on ABC TV all the time, regularly on Q&A.

        20

      • #
        Bodge it an scarpa

        Wendy Pong.

        21

      • #
        PeterS

        Can’t stand her either but I hope she stays on as she will continue to help the ALP lose another election or two. I just wished the ALP had more like her. It would be like pouring a whole bottle of full strength Roundup on a tree stump. It will die.

        70

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          You do hear this constant whining noise… a little like a damaged differential under full load….

          51

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Yes and Bowens press conference just before is a lesson in BS and spin but I got the impression that even though he had the numbers and was the better man for the job he would step down and hand the reigns to the second best .

      50

      • #
        George4

        I get the impression that Albanese slurs his words and has a slight facial tic.
        Nothing against him as a person, but not sure he could ever be a good prime minister and Australia’s leader.
        Bowen seems like a more presentable personality.

        31

        • #
          Serp

          Dumb and Dumber. I can’t decide which of the two dills is the more contemptible but you can rest assured Labor is facing a long time in the wilderness if led by either. Don’t tell them though…

          40

        • #
          el gordo

          George these a factional matters and the Party under Albo means they can have a strong green/left agenda. Albanese is an AGW zealot so we should expect lots of fireworks when the government announces new Hele coal fired power stations underwritten by Angus Taylor.

          All we want is a debate.

          20

        • #
          yarpos

          Perceptions are funny. I dont see any of that with Albanese and think Bowen comes across as pompous and always talking down to people.

          30

          • #
            el gordo

            Albo was always the people’s choice amongst the caffe latte set, which explains why the left faction is duding Chalmers.

            ‘Jim Chalmers, the rising star threatening to derail Anthony Albanese’s rise to the Labor leadership, has been warned to back down or face a massive backlash.’ SMH

            10

    • #
      el gordo

      This should produce a robust question time, democracy has been reinvigorated.

      40

  • #
    pat

    AUDIO: Lucas Dow 3min15sec: 22 May: 2GB: Chris Smith: QLD Premier admits Labor let people down in delaying Adani coal mine
    The Premier of Queensland has admitted Labor has let people down by continuously delaying the approval of the Adani coal mine.
    The surprising announcement comes after Labor’s shock loss in the federal election.
    Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has now requested Adani Australia CEO Lucas Dow and the independent regulator sit down with the Coordinator General tomorrow to provide a definitive time frame for the Adani project’s approval by Friday.
    She has also announced she’s asked the Director-General of the Department of Environment to refer the recruitment process that appointed of Dr Tim Seelig to the Public Service Commission.

    Adani Australia CEO Lucas Dow says he’s cautiously optimistic about the announcement.
    “If we haven’t got the approvals in the next couple of weeks I’d have to say that today’s announcement by the Premier will be nothing more than a delaying tactic and a media stunt.”
    https://www.2gb.com/qld-premier-admits-labor-let-people-down-in-delaying-adani-coal-mine/

    AUDIO: 8min04sec: 22 May: 2GB: Ray Hadley: Adani CEO calls for inquiry into anti-coal policy advisor
    Dr Seelig has previously stated he doesn’t think any new coal mines should be built due to climate change.
    Adani Australia CEO Lucas Dow says it’s clear his appointment has breached official processes.
    “All we’ve ever asked for is a fair go and I just don’t know how we could possibly get a fair go with people like that stuck within the bureaucracy…

    In an astonishing announcement from Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, she has apologised and acknowledged Labor had let people down by delaying the project’s approval.
    She’s now requested Lucas Dow and the independent regulator sit down with the co-ordinator general tomorrow to provide a definitive time frame for the Adani project’s approval by Friday.
    She has also announced she’s asked the Director-General of the Department of Environment to refer the recruitment process that appointed of Dr Tim Seelig to the Public Service Commission.
    Ray Hadley says the announcements can only be a result of Labor’s disappointing federal election result…
    https://www.2gb.com/adani-ceo-calls-for-inquiry-into-anti-coal-policy-advisor/

    50

  • #
    robert rosicka

    Overheard a bit of the Conversation hour with John Fein and nearly fainted , about 11.30am I heard him say that people from the left and the right need to be able to look at evidence that supports a particular cause without jumping up and down and stamping their feet with there hands over their ears .
    Some people are just ideological driven and blind to any concept that disagrees with theirs .
    Also bagged out socialism .

    60

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Its called 5 years olds….

      tantrums…nah nah nah…I cant hear you…..

      Usually ignoring them fixes that. Other methods we used as old-school ( but effective ) parents, also works well….

      30

  • #
    Analitik

    After this election, I think the government should fund a conservatives support campaign with the slogan

    It’s OK to be conservative

    80

  • #
    PeterS

    The battle of the leadership of the ALP has turned into a farce. I hope they swallow their own analysis of the election loss that they didn’t explain their polices as good as they wanted. Good. Next time when they explain their policies “better” they will lose even more seats. Excellent.

    80

  • #
  • #

    Post election, Schadenfreude, don
    it like an ol’ coat that keeps on
    keeping on. Fight ’em on the beaches,
    and in the leftist medja, fight ’em
    in the corridors of power, don yer
    gilets jaunes like serfs and tramp the
    streets, git yer-selves heard above
    the guru herd of brain sheep,” Co2
    is our friend and so is free speech!”

    50

    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Indeed,

      CO2 is more than our “friend”, it’s the gas of life.

      It’s the essential and indispensable core of our being.

      KK

      51

  • #

    Edit: ‘brain-washed’ sheep.
    Serfs! No wonder we’re,well,
    ‘serfs’
    🙁

    20

  • #
    Hanrahan

    I’m listening to Richo “interviewing” Albo. Someone has to do it. Full of motherhood statements and pleas to the faithful. I have not heard a hint of policy change beyond “We will do a postmortem”.

    Wanna bet they will follow the dems and double down?

    61

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Albo although popular is a radical hard lefty and labor will make a huge mistake if he is anointed as their supreme leader .
      Tonight he said he still wants real action on climate change so he has learned nothing and when asked his opinion of Adani he refused to give it .

      30

    • #
      yarpos

      “Wanna bet they will follow the dems and double down?”

      I really hope so. In their arrogance they will assume they are of course correct, and we just need to be educated.

      30

  • #
    EternalOptimist

    Stunning NEWS –
    I had an electrician doing some rewiring, I showed him an interesting phenomenon. When I flicked a switch, the lights came on, flicked it again, they went off.
    What’s so puzzling ? he asked.
    I don’t see the role that carbon plays in this ?
    That’s because it has no role. It’s a circuit closing then opening

    that’s the last time I hire a ****** denier

    60

  • #
    Wes George

    Dewey Defeats Truman!

    20

  • #
    Turtle of WA

    Jo, the leader of the LNP (opposition) in QLD was on Bolt tonight. She was talking about kids getting a balanced education on climate change, free from activism. When she wins the next election.

    Un-bloody-believable. There is hope yet.

    You and David should offer to provide curriculum advice!

    70

    • #
      Hanrahan

      She didn’t “speak of it” she was asked about it and gave a motherhood answer.

      I’m a Queenslander and didn’t recognise her and don’t know her name. Houston, we have a problem.

      51

      • #
        pat

        first I’ve ever seen her too. Deb Frecklington. sorry, but I thought she was hopeless.

        she said Tim Seelig had been INSTILLED into the Environment Dept, when she should have said INSTALLED.

        didn’t really answer the questions.

        surely the Liberals could have found someone better.

        50

      • #
        robert rosicka

        No idea of who the leader of the opposition is in Victoriastan and not sure we have one .

        30

      • #
        WXcycles

        Same, never seen her before, but I did like her remarks and general attitude.

        60

        • #
          el gordo

          A quick google indicates Deb is not fit for the job, she believes CO2 causes global warming.

          50

          • #
            Bodge it an scarpa

            So do a few liberal Senators that retained their seats, and so do one or two Skye News Right Wing commentators such as Chris Kenny and Paul Murray occasionally mention that climate change is real, but Australia’s effort to mitigate the effect will make no difference.

            20

  • #
    pat

    21 May: Washington Examiner: EPA pursues new cost-benefit analysis for regulation that critics fear will undermine climate rules
    by John Siciliano
    Administrator Andrew Wheeler released the May 13 memo (LINK) outlining the overhaul on Tuesday, after it was leaked (LINK BLOOMBERG)…
    The top goal of the action is to ensure the agency balances benefits and costs, Wheeler said, and that one is not considered more than another.

    Environmentalists decried the memo as a threat to efforts to curb climate change on the grounds that it would undermine the need for new regulations.
    But industry groups praised the memo as a salutary transparency measure.
    “For too long, EPA rule-makings have been plagued by problematic and nontransparent assumptions that contribute to confusing and misleading cost-benefit information,” said Christopher Guith, president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute.

    The memo calls for a more transparent and robust process that will “enhance public understanding” of the scientific methods EPA uses to reach its decisions, Guith said…
    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/energy/epa-pursues-new-cost-benefit-analysis-for-regulation-that-critics-fear-will-undermine-climate-rules

    22 May: Bloomberg: EPA Plans to Rewrite Costs and Benefits of Anti-Pollution Rules
    By Jennifer A Dlouhy; With assistance by Amena Saiyid
    The Trump administration is planning to write new rules for how it weighs the human costs and benefits of environmental regulations, a move that could make it harder for future presidents to stiffen limits on pollution and combat climate change…
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-21/epa-plans-to-rewrite-costs-and-benefits-of-anti-pollution-rules

    10

  • #
    WXcycles

    Pluckachook reckons she can get the Adani mine final approval in about 2 weeks.

    The obvious thing stemming from this is that she could have done that in any two-week period during the past several years, and decided she’d rather not. Always trotting out the extreme Lefties within her hard-Left party. Always an excuse, for what she could have already done.

    This stagnant Plucka and her misguided leadership and political opportunism has been holding-up all along. But now she’s a champ! Why? Merely because she’s scared now?

    Stephen Conroy said tonight, “more power to her”!

    No Stephen, definitely not that.

    50

  • #
    pat

    Bolt mentioned to Rowan Dean how Greenpeace were basically calling for a revolution following the election. he showed what they’d written, but I have only found what I saw on it, in a tweet-storm on 18 May, with a few, including funny, replies once you reach the end of the following.

    note: ***If our government won’t declare a climate emergency, we’ll declare an uprising!

    18 May: TWEETS: Greenpeace Aus Pac, What now? We organise. Join the fight

    30

    • #
      pat

      so-called prof left Common Dreams has the Greenpeace tweets, plus a lot more. no surprise they choose to excerpt Andrea Germanos/Reuters’ reference to PM Morrison’s religion:

      20 May: CommonDreams: ‘The Fight Is Not Over,’ Say Groups, as Coal Lover Wins Re-Election in Australia
      “If the climate-wreckers in the coalition think we’re going to go away quietly, they’ve got another thing coming.”
      by Andrea Germanos
      Climate activists in Australia called for escalated pressure after the surprise re-election of conservative Prime Minister Scott Morrison over the weekend
      “The fight is not over,” said (LINK) Greenpeace Australia.

      Calling the results “horrifying,” NYU professor Kate Crawford said on Twitter: “We’re on the brink of climate catastrophe. Australia is one of the top carbon emitters per capita in the world. The new leader has no climate change policy, and walked into parliament waving a chunk of coal. Not even kidding.”

      As Reuters reported,
      Battered by extended droughts, damaging floods, and more bushfires, Australian voters had been expected to hand a mandate to the Labor party to pursue its ambitious targets for renewable energy and carbon emissions cuts.
      Instead, they rejected the opposition’s plans for tax reform and climate action, re-electing a Liberal-led center-right coalition headed by Morrison, a devout Pentecostal churchgoer who thanked fellow worshippers for his win at a Sydney church early on Sunday…

      Morrison’s win drew praise from extractive industries, perhaps unsurprisingly due to his status as a “coal-cuddler.”…READ ON FOR 350.ORG ETC
      https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/05/20/fight-not-over-say-groups-coal-lover-wins-re-election-australia

      20

      • #
        pat

        first line should have been “prog left” not “prof left” tho ironically the latter could refer to CAGW leftist academics!

        20

        • #
          yarpos

          I see it as the professional left, many of them have made a livelihood of posturing and taking other peoples money.

          20

    • #
      pat

      don’t know why the Greenpeace twitter storm didn’t post:

      18 May: TWEETS: Greenpeace Aus Pac, What now? We organise. Join the fight All content authorised by Dom Rowe, Greenpeace Australia Pacific, Sydney:
      This is not a tweet we thought we’d have to make.
      We’re looking into the eyes of our friends, families and colleagues and seeing them all searching for answers, but only able to ask the same questions:
      How? Why? Where do we go from here?…

      This result flies in the face of all Australians who’ve fought for our climate. For pristine oceans, for clean air, for the thousands of young Australians scared for what their future holds. We demanded they declare an emergency, and they shook a lump of coal in our faces…

      So it’s right now, more than ever, that we want to tell you this:
      This fight is not over, and none of us are going anywhere.

      Tonight we learned something profound, something that changes the ballgame. It will require every one of us to stand up in a way we’ve never before. The system is broken. And as long our politics are shackled to the coal industry and vested interest, we’ll never fix it.

      It’s time to change the game. It’s time to be disruptive. It’s time to take the power back.
      If our government won’t declare a climate emergency, we’ll declare an uprising.

      Now is not the time to leave. Now is the time to hold each other close, to pick each other up, and to stand up and fight.
      If the climate-wreckers in the Coalition think we’re going to go away quietly, they’ve got another thing coming.

      If Scott Morrison thinks he’s won the war on coal, he’s got another thing coming.
      If anyone thinks the fight for our planet is over, they’ve got another thing coming.

      We’ll be fighting back. Harder than we ever have before.
      Now a new fight begins.

      Join the fight: LINK ACT – GREENPEACE – TIME TO ORGANISE – VOLUNTEER
      18 May 2019
      https://twitter.com/GreenpeaceAP/status/1129718767578112000

      30

      • #
        theRealUniverse

        If Scott Morrison thinks he’s won the war on coal, he’s got another thing coming.
        If anyone thinks the fight for our planet is over they are going to make us into an ECO FASCIST DIKTATORSHIP, they’ve got another thing coming.

        31

  • #
    Richard Ilfeld

    Winning is fun. Let’s expand the playbook.
    1. Human caused warming, at a catastrophic level, is a hoax.
    Convinced a few.
    2. Green policies are costly debacles that hurt everyone economically, the poor and ordinary folks more than the elites.
    A winner so far.

    Next step. Think through what the greens are saying. They can control the weather in the future. No more storms. No more droughts.
    No more extreme winters and excessive summers.
    We’ve got the thoughtful scientific types converted.
    We’ve got the practical life management types converted.
    Move on to ridicule to get the next tranche. (Yes that’s what liberals do. It’s in the Alinsky playbook. But it’s appropriate, especially if done in a way that does not paint the subject as a personification of evil.)

    At question time …..missing from most political campaigns for obvious reasons……
    When will we see an end to severe hurricanes? DO you know how many there were last year? The year before?
    When will we see an end to drought. How bad was it last year? 10 years ago?

    mumble mumble mumble … talking point talking point talking point…..

    But candidate, you’ve made a lot of very specific predictions in the past. The number of years until bad things happen.
    Surely you’ve kept track and can promise us specific results?

    The simple change is, it is a lot harder to play defense on these issues than offense. The Climate Change folks have been in attack mode for years. What data there was they provided, & falsified if necessary.

    The new data is everyone’s electric bill, and, for some, the understanding that if the industry they work in is going away their job is likely to go away. This is the sea change.

    The public is more likely now to take a close look at certain inconvenient truths, such as the unsuitability of our surface station network, or the actual historical pattern of severe storms, or the increase in crop yields around the world.

    It will take a long time to put this one to bed. It may have to die the death of a thousand cuts. Every apartment building whose service (and substation) won’t support enough charging stations for more than a few residents to have electric cars. Drip drip. Every windmill that ages out of functionality (as is beginning) and has a cost for removal or replacement as well as a service history). drip drip. Every grid disrupted by a surplus of solar/wind and the outages that occur. drip drip.

    But we have a couple of generations brainwashed to believe in the ultimate good will of the climate mongers, and whose politically correct responses to everything contain the ritual hatred of fossil fuels. These are not thoughtful responses, yet they guide behavior for many still.

    Like ‘Socialism’, in most forms, the renewable grid has not worked well anywhere it has been tried. But like socialism, it is likely a failed idea that simply won’t go away.

    Like socialism, there are some uses for alternative energy that make sense. Prosperous capitalist societies have a few areas where a little socialism is useful, and possible a few where it is used and failing but tolerated for historic reasons. IN the same way there will be a place for all forms of energy, most economically sensible or socially useful, some not.

    But today’s problem is still beating this green thing back down to its proper level, far away from the notion that green policy should be the presumptive driver of everything.

    “So you want us to put you back into office to control the weather, do you?”

    90

    • #
      RickWill

      A useful step is to recognise the false promise implied in the word “renewable” when describing intermittent wind and solar generators.

      Wind and solar generators of current technology, combined with energy storage of current technology, are unrenewable. They depend entirely on fossil fuels for their production, transport and installation. A power supply system dependent on the current technology is not able to produce enough energy over its lifetime to enable its renewal while supporting modern society needed to manufacture the component parts.

      50

  • #
    pat

    nothing makes me angrier than the attempt to raid pensions/Superannuation in the name of CAGW. note two ***Caroline Lucas references below:

    22 May: UK Times: Pensions should be harnessed to fight the climate emergency
    by ***Guy Opperman
    We have all watched Blue Planet, heard from campaigners of all ages, signed up to recycling and support efforts to limit CO2, and yet almost everyone agrees we are still facing a “climate emergency”.
    And, here in Britain, we see thousands of key workers without housing, those earning an average wage struggling with debt as they try to meet their rent and millennials being referred to as “generation rent”.

    I admit that the picture painted above is unlikely to spark joy given the extensive government efforts going into fixing these issues. However, I have a new proposal that will help to tackle both these problematic birds with one stone: pensions.
    ***Our pensions industry has the ability to address climate change and to build more housing. And it is uniquely placed to do so given that it has…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/pensions-should-be-green-and-ethical-to-encourage-the-young-to-save-r7pdfrsn2

    ***Wikipedia: Guy Thomas Opperman is a British Conservative Party politician, who was first elected at the 2010 general election as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hexham…Opperman is a member of the Advisory Board of the High Pay Centre and has co-authored an essay with Green Party MP ***Caroline Lucas and TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady entitled “Better Business: Moral Matters”.

    22 May: Energy Voice: ‘Stop’ MP pension oil and gas investment, Sir Ed Davey says
    by Energy Reporter
    The financial crash will look like a “picnic” if the “carbon bubble” bursts, a former energy secretary has warned, as he called for the MPs’ pension fund to stop investing in fossil fuels.
    Sir Ed Davey said the Parliamentary Pension Fund should set an example in a programme of “decarbonising capitalism” and warned that the value of traditional oil and gas firms could collapse as the economy moves to cleaner forms of energy…
    More than a third of sitting MPs have called for the Parliamentary Pension fund to review its holdings and commit to phase out fossil fuel investments, in a campaign led by Green MP ***Caroline Lucas with cross-party backing.

    Sir Ed told the Press Association it was time for “radical” action, adding: “We do have an emergency and that requires funds to move quickly.”
    Pension funds were part of the problem because they invest heavily in supposedly safe blue chip companies.
    While that might result in a substantial pension pot, people “won’t have a decent place to retire in because climate change will have happened”…

    Brighton Pavilion MP Ms Lucas said it was “morally unacceptable” for MPs to contribute to climate change-driven disasters by investing parts of the £700 million fund in fossil fuel companies…
    “The climate emergency demands that all pension funds divest from fossil fuels and invest in positive solutions to the climate crisis.”
    Sir Ed will lead a debate in Parliament on the issue on Wednesday
    https://www.energyvoice.com/otherenergy/199820/stop-mp-pension-oil-and-gas-investment-sir-ed-davey-says/

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      David Wojick

      I see the absurd “climate emergency” and ” climate crisis” has taken hold in the greenheads. It would be interesting to ask such people just what form this imminent catastrophe is supposed to take and ask for an authoritative reference. The IPCC says no such thing. That is the confusion.

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    pat

    22 May: GreenpeaceUnearthed: Air pollution around Beijing rebounds as coal consumption rises by 13%
    by Lauri Myllyvirta
    The 6 provinces around Beijing burn about 1,200 million tonnes of coal, 30% of the national total and more than the EU and the U.S. put together. The increase from winter 2017-18 to 2018-19, about 60 million tonnes, is more than Poland’s total consumption over the same period…

    The next step is long-term planning away from coal and heavy industry…
    https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2019/05/22/air-pollution-china-beijing-coal-2018/?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter

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    Another Ian

    And if you’re not confused yet

    “Stanford Researchers: Save the climate by turning methane into carbon dioxide!!!”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/05/22/stanford-researchers-save-the-climate-by-turning-methane-into-carbon-dioxide/

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    Another Ian

    The latest from Chiefio’s “voyage of exploration”

    “GHCN v3.3 vs. v4 Anomaly Graphs – Africa”

    https://chiefio.wordpress.com/2019/05/22/ghcn-v3-3-vs-v4-anomaly-graphs-africa/

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    PeterS

    Good morning all. Boy I feel so happy the ALP were smacked. I only wished we didn’t have a semi-optional preferential voting system and instead used the first past the post system most other democracies employ. If we had the latter the LNP would now have some 87 seats instead of some 76-78, which would be a better reflection of the public opinion on the two major parties. Too many people don’t know the real impact of presences within their own electorate as it can vary from one electorate to another. In effect some voters waste their preferences and they end up with the wrong major party. First past the post IMHO is better. I know there are some advantages to preferential based system but I feel in practice they are more than negated by other issues.

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      PeterS

      presences = preferences

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      FarmerDoug2

      Optional preference the way to go.

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        PeterS

        In theory yes but not in practice.

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        PeterS

        Expanded: I agree fully optional preferential is the best but only in theory. It gives those who understand how it works to apply preferences while others can vote for just one candidate to turn their vote to a first past the post. However, most will not understand unless a very large and expensive education campaign is conducted to make sure most voters are not confused. So it would be better just to keep it first past the post and keep it simple. I like simple.

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      AndyG55

      “first past the post system most other democracies employ”

      Except then Labor and the Greens would be forced into a coalition, making Labor’s policies far worse than they are now.

      The Greens already have way too much power considering they represent a whacked-out deep-red small minority

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        Another Ian

        IIRC first past the post didn’t do much for the opinion that was UKIP at the last UK election

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          beowulf

          True, but in order for a preferential system to work in their favour they would need other like-minded parties to swap preferences with. Since they were standing there all alone surrounded by a sea of anti-Brexit parties it still wouldn’t have worked. Labour or the Tories or SNP etc would have still won each seat.

          UKIP’s numbers would only have counted if they had a quota system like our senate, where they could pool their numbers and where overall numbers count, not numbers per seat — not that our senate is anything to crow about with its state gerrymandering where Jackie Lambie represents 43,890 people and a NSW senator represents 663,000.

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        PeterS

        I doubt it. The Greens are poison for the ALP. It would not surprise me one day to see the ALP disconnect from the Greens. They need to do that if they ever want to move back to the centre. Otherwise forget it. The Greens cancer will kill the ALP eventually.

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        PeterS

        Can you imagine the LNP forming an alliance with the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party of Greece who happen to have a presence here in Australia? It would kill the LNP. The far left Greens are hurting the ALP and will get worse over time if the stay as allies. Witness what happened in Queensland.

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          Hanrahan

          Labor can’t divorce the greens, they really would fit into a Tarago without their preferences.

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      Hanrahan

      Without preference voting we would be like the states – Two parties and no chance of a third becoming part of the political scene.

      For better or worse we have a greens member and had one Xenophon party and Hanson threatens to get one in the lower house. These minor parties can keep the bustards honest. A rigid duopoly is only marginally better than tyranny. In the US most of the pollies are part if the same crime family. Elections merely determine who gets the lion’s share. YUK.

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    Another Ian

    “We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars”

    “Following RO/RO fire, Grimaldi Group seeks new controls on cargo units ”

    https://www.assafinaonline.com/maritime-news/top-news/following-ro-ro-fire,-grimaldi-group-seeks-new-controls-on-cargo-units

    Via http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2019/05/22/we-dont-need-no-flaming-sparky-cars-27/

    And comments there

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    Another Ian

    “We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Mirrors”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2019/05/22/we-dont-need-no-stinking-giant-mirrors-8/

    Not a good day for “new technology” at SDA!

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    PeterS

    I laughed at this comment made by one listener on 2GB today. The ALP should elect Turnbull as their new leader. LOL

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    joseph

    “Many of the things that I’m going to say today would be slanderous if they were not true. And if they’re not true then Merck should sue me. But Merck won’t do that and they won’t do it because in the United States truth is an absolute defense to slander. And second of all Merck knows that if they sue me, I’m going to immediately file a discovery request, and many, many, more documents are going to emerge that illustrate even more fraud by this company on the American public and the people all over the world”.

    Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

    https://nexusnewsfeed.com/article/human-rights/rfk-jr-gardasil-the-science-video-and-other-facts

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    RickWill

    Here is a petition many here should be inclined to support:
    https://www.change.org/p/zali-steggall-wind-farms-for-warringah

    Zali Steggall and the people of Warringah need to show leadership on immediate climate change ACTION. The proposal: wind turbines are to be placed along the foreshore, taking advantage of the sea breezes. Let’s lead the way by example, for everyone who voted against climate action. Sign and spread the petition Australians! Let’s do it for the children!

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    Travis T. Jones

    There is nothing funny about climate change … unless you’re laughing at the believers …

    Comedy Unleashed on Greta Thunberg

    via: https://cliscep.com/2019/05/22/thunberg-fun/

    “At last. The first sign that we might be at the beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning, or something. H/t Guido Fawkes.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZH-1liT9NM

    Check the comments for full video version.

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    Enjoy Peter Fitzroy in Moderation

    “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”
    only two stages to go

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    pat

    haven’t heard a word about the collapse on MSM, yet it’s a perfect opportunity, post-election, to highlight how CAGW policies are contributing to the deindustrialisation of the West, & what Australia could have expected to accelerate under Labor’s climate policies:

    22 May: SpectatorUK: The EU’s role in the demise of British Steel
    by Ross Clark
    (author “How to Label a Goat: the silly Rules and Regulations that are strangling Britain and The Great Before, a novel which satirised the pessimism of the green movement – Wikipedia)
    How ironic that British Steel goes into administration on the day before the European elections, putting 4,200 jobs at risk in a leave-voting constituency. And how utterly fatuous to blame Britain’s vote to leave the EU for the failure of the Scunthorpe plant…
    If anything, the fall in the pound since 2016 should have helped British Steel, making its exports to the rest of the EU cheaper. But that has not been enough to counter the mass of cheap steel that is coming out of China…

    The final trigger for British Steel’s collapse into administration, however, was not low steel prices but arguably a demand from the EU for £120 million worth of payments under its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) – which is supposed to provide an incentive for heavy polluters to cut their carbon emissions…READ ALL
    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/05/the-eus-role-in-the-demise-of-british-steel/

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      PeterS

      I am almost convinced now that the tide has turned in public opinion. The CAGW issue is a dying horse and the longer the left keep flogging it the worse it will get for them and the horse. This will be especially so when the world suffers the nest financial crisis. After that point any party still supporting action on climate change will risk annihilation.

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        pat

        PeterS – not at theirABC.

        a patronising Trevor Chappell, whose power bills (and everything else) are paid for by the Australian taxpayer, asks what are Australians willing to give up for the sake of CAGW/pollution.

        from 2hr12min40sec to 2hr54min46sec:

        Chappell begins by pretending the segement is about pollution. says, even if you don’t believe in CAGW like 80 per cent of Australians blah blah.
        Chappell: Guest is Verity Morgan-Schmidt, CEO, Australian Farmers for Climate Change. Verity: correction, Trevor. it’s Australian Farmers for Climate ACTION, not Climate CHANGE.

        AUDIO: 23 May: ABC Overnights: with Trevor Chappell
        Do Australians really care about climate change and to what extent are we prepared to change our lifestyle?
        https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/overnights/overnights/11121972

        Morgan-Schmidt is hard on the ears.
        her org FCA includes:
        Anna Rose, Strategic Projects, an Innovation Fellow with one of Australia’s major philanthropic funds, the Myer Foundation. Anna previously co-founded the Australian Youth Climate Coalition…
        Anna is author of Madlands: A Journey to Change the Mind of a Climate Sceptic, and co-starred in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s documentary I Can Change Your Mind on Climate Change…

        LinkedIn: Verity Morgan-Schmidt
        Education:
        Murdoch University
        Master of Arts in Sustainability, Sustainable Development
        2013 – 2016
        Murdoch University
        Post Graduate Diploma, Policy Studies- Sustainable Development
        2012 – 2013
        Edith Cowan University
        BA, Politics & Government / Global Studies
        2006 – 2011
        Certifications:
        Critical Thinking in Global Challenges, Coursera
        March 2013 – Present

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          theRealUniverse

          I wouldnt waste my precious life and time on listening to drivel like that.

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            pat

            not really recommending you do.

            however, one early, almost 5-minute call, was intriguing & seemed set up, incl the responses from Chappell and Morgan-Schmidt.

            at 2hr23min50 from Peter: in 2000, crossed the North-west passage in the Canadian Arctic in mid-winter, travelled 13,000kms, took 130 days. the whole way saw glaciers in retreat etc; came back to Australia, is a teacher, so started teaching kids about CAGW. put solar panels on his house, wanted A/C, so put in lithium-ion battery pack – $11,000 – no subsidies – 11Kw he can use each day. worked on local govt projects incl coastal councils on how to adapt to sea level rise, storm surges etc.
            ***ALSO WORKED AT NASA FOR A WHILE, IN THE ? SCIENCES LAB NASA GODDARD. WE ARE GOING TO SEE A VERY BIG IMPACT OVER THE NEXT TEN YEARS. HAVE TO ACT URGENTLY. etc.

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          pat

          Morgan-Schmidt now lives at Cooroy, Qld, according to LinkedIn. self-describes on Twitter page as:
          Verity Morgan-Schmidt, CEO Farmers for Climate Action. Sandgroper lost in QLD

          ABC had plenty of time for Morgan-Schmidt prior to the election too:

          2 Mar: ABC: The future of farming in the era of climate change
          ABC Central West By Micaela Hambrett
          Seemingly relentless climate-related headlines paint a picture of an agricultural industry under siege.
          •A seven year drought concluding in a once-in-40 year flood
          •Bushfires in a normally moist Tasmanian wilderness
          •Mass fish deaths and a river system in peril
          •The entire state of New South Wales is currently in drought…

          Conversations around climate change have been held back by controversy and politics, stymieing meaningful policy change for people in farming communities.
          It’s something Farmers for Climate Action (FCA) chief executive Verity Morgan Schmidt is tackling…
          “We find there’s a lot of reluctance at a federal level to actually base policy on science, and that means, as farmers and rural communities, that you are making decisions within a policy framework that isn’t actually the best informed, and that’s deeply concerning,” she said…
          “If you don’t take into account the speed at which our climate is changing, if you don’t take into account, for example, shifting inflows into the Murry-Darling Basin or rainfall zones shifting south, it’s very hard to build a sustainable farm operation because you are operating on a policy framework that is at best outdated.”…
          https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-03-02/the-future-of-farming-in-the-era-of-climate-change/10852926

          quite the media darling:

          24 Apr: BBC: Australia drought: The ‘unlikely’ group calling for climate action
          Australia has just experienced its hottest summer and a succession of extreme weather events – making climate policy a key issue in May’s national election. Now one traditionally improbable group is increasingly calling for action: farmers. Gary Nunn reports from Sydney.
          “Who better than capitalist conservative farmers to push the government on climate change?” asks Verity Morgan-Schmidt, who grew up on a farm and now heads lobby group Farmers for Climate Action.

          It’s an issue that has rapidly shifted opinions in recent years and according to cattle producer Will Graham, farmers are emerging as somewhat unlikely campaigners in this space…
          Ms Morgan-Schmidt says farmers regularly report shifting rain patterns, more extreme fires and increased drought severity…

          Ms Morgan-Schmidt says the taboo in regional Australia of climate change belief is breaking down, because “farmers see climate change policy going backwards, while our industry is at the forefront of the impacts”…

          Ms Welsh says climate change policy is highest on her priority list at the upcoming election – she’s switching parties on this issue…
          Ms Welsh says climate change policy is highest on her priority list at the upcoming election – she’s switching parties on this issue.
          https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-47890319

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        WXcycles

        Beware the echo-chamber effect Peter, it ain’t over.

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          Serp

          Yeah, these people are an ineradicable pestilence with inexhaustible reserves of zeal who sorely need an extended spell in a re-education camp; it’s on the cards that they’ll soon be perpetrating atrocities a la Unabomber in the name of their crazed spurious beliefs.

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    Trying to get update on vote in Macquarie on Google is like getting blood from a stone. But finally got this. ABC Guardian do not wish to tell. UPDATE Thursday 8am: With 87.5 per cent of the vote now counted, Liberal candidate Sarah Richards has marginally increased her lead over incumbent Susan Templeman to nearly 200 votes.

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    Greebo

    Like him or loathe him, Nigel can sure do ‘off the cuff’. Where’s our version?

    Wow. Just wow.

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      Greebo

      Been watching the HOC live broadcast. Mrs May seems doomed. Well, she has seemed that way for some time now, but with the EU elections happening today, with Farage’s party looking unstoppable ( yeah, I know, but look at Trump ), I predict May’s premiership to be done at long last. However, Johnson voted for her latest “deal”. Who else is there? Serious question, I want to learn more about the UK’s politics, especially now.

      Annie?

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      Kinky Keith

      Terrific.

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    Hanrahan

    I didn’t know that plants need silica and that crops and turf need fertilising with it. It may be a wetting agent, not sure.

    https://www.agripower.com.au/

    Agripower has a large silica deposit at Greenvale near the old nickel mine and they plan to re-lay the railway line to Yabula where Palmer’s nickel refinery is sited.

    Question: How close to the existing gas electricity power plant would their processing facility need to be to buy power outside the AEMO and did that bitcoin mine get built in the Hunter that was going to buy power direct?

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      Graeme No.3

      The benefits are two fold. Silica is a minor ingredient for most plants but especially for grasses.
      Amorphous silica can hold some water so less drains away (usually a minor benefit) and less other nutrients drain away.

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      Hanrahan

      I thought I knew a little about the topic but this is new to me.

      Agrisilica alleviates the detrimental effects of stresses through a range of mechanisms including ;

      1. Physical deposition of silica in the leaf and root cell walls thereby:
      • Protecting the plant from diseases, which would otherwise penetrate the cell wall e.g. fungal and mould diseases.
      • Protecting the plant from the effects of sucking and chewing insects. e.g. aphids and thrips.
      • Counteracting the effects of drought and high temperature by reducing water loss through transpiration.
      • Increasing the rate of photosynthesis by enabling more erect leaves to capture more sunlight.

      2. Improved uptake and utilisation of nutrients e.g. phosphorous, nitrogen and potassium.

      3. Reduced uptake of sodium and heavy metals e.g. aluminium.

      4. Stimulation of the plant immune system in response to diseases.

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    Labor’s crash was a hoot. Now, as the laughter dies down, I’m asking myself how much has changed with the Coalition.

    Someone has been popping into this site to pun about “coal” and “Coalition”, like that’s a bad thing. In fact, when I voted Nats for the reps last weekend all I was voting for was coal. Like that’s a good thing, punster! Now, we just need it to be true.

    No matter how glibly one talks of “service economy”, “smart economy” or “market economy”, this country needs to be the world’s leading coal economy because coal is our trump resource. The rest follows on.

    With coal used to our maximum advantage, we are something. Without, we are the easy prey of green carpetbaggers, green banksters, green crony capitalists and the watermelon politicians who serve their interests. As we’ve seen already! Do you agree, Mr Frydenberg?

    Coal is not for clever guys like Sanjeev Gupta and Tom Steyer who turn it into money for themselves while preaching energy beggary for others.

    Coal is for exports, but coal is also for Australia’s inhabitants, its industries, its facilities. “Centre for Excellence” has become a creepy term, but it should apply to what we become through our coal. Extending and modernising domestic power generation based on coal will be the test of any government and of our own resolve to resist globalism (which is actually Trotskyism in a suit).

    Don’t get me wrong. I had a great laugh last weekend, topped up by the exit of Phelps, whose malevolent moosh confronted me all over Wentworth when I visited family in Sydney earlier this month. Yes, I laughed.

    But I’m not cheering yet.

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      Hanrahan

      You have every right to be sceptical.

      Last weekend’s vote just means we stayed in the frying pan, we didn’t jump into the fire. Build Hells Gate dam and Stage II of Burdekin Falls Dam [with hydro at both] and a hele power plant and I’ll believe the heat in the pan is reducing.

      I’m getting my greatest laugh outa Plucka-chook who has suddenly found religion. She has just announced another major project, expansion of a silica mine near Greenvale. Why now Premier?

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      Greebo

      Couldn’t agree more. Mu hope is that now Morrison has the clear air of being PM in his own right, and the Black Hand mob are all but gone he may just be e true Liberal. His Cabinet choices will be interesting. Pity that TA is unavailable. I hope Barnaby is forgiven.

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      Kinky Keith

      That’s the elephant, the libls only got in for one reason.

      Laba is worse.

      Now, as you infer, we have to straighten out the incumbents.

      KK

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    I don’t know if you’ve already seen this – The Aussie Revolt Against Social Justice.

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      One big mistake: “Refugee status would be automatically granted to those whose stated sexual preference was illegal in their home country with or without evidence of actual sexual activity or actual persecution.”

      This is a criticism of a Labor policy of listening harder to LGBT applicants from backward countries. It suggests that the government should ask for ‘evidence’ of gay sex.

      10