The ScoMo-Bad filter: It doesn’t matter what he does, if it’s Scott Morrison, its bad

The bully media are carefully editing every bit of news through the ScoMo-Bad filter

Nothing he does is going to be well received by the ABC and cohort of Big-Government-freeloaders or artsy journo’s who want to run the country from the shouty sidelines.

We hope he can rise above, because there is no pleasing them, and to try is to fail. It is to play right into their hands.

LThe media is the problem. Magnifing Glass.ike Trump, he has to make an asset out of the overt and ridiculous bias. Mock it, and make fun of it. Preempt their criticisms, beat them at their game by informing the people of how each decision will be received and by using every method of communication outside the mainstream media that he can. Trump does live venues and uses twitter. ScoMo has to find his own path.

When criticized for advertising during the crisis, just point out that Australians are scared right now, justifiably. A message of massive and unprecedented action by the government helps to calm and reassure the people. Many in the media amplify the fear. His advertising is the calm hand of government countering the 24/7 reality-TV-show-frenzy.

Scott Morrison letting the feral media get to him, like it did to Tony Abbott

by Martyn Iles on Michael Smith news

Scott Morrison is finding himself in the same position as Tony Abbott.

Big sections of the media want him gone, and it’s ugly.

Nothing he does will be good enough. Every step, every word, every act, will be ridiculed, contemptible, broadcast in the most critical light, and the anti-ScoMo narrative will build steam, relentlessly.

He visits fire-ravaged communities, he’s a shameless self-promoter. He stays away, he’s a useless leader.

He gets accused of doing nothing, so he puts out a social media video explaining what the government is doing, and he’s derided globally as tone-deaf and inensitive for “advertising.”

He goes on a holiday with his family which he cuts short, so he’s done the worst thing imaginable. Meanwhile, the QLD Premier is on a cruise and the NSW Emergency Services Minister is in Europe — not a peep about them.

If Australia were wiped off the face of the earth for 100 years, not a jot of difference would be made to the climate, but he has blood on his hands because his climate change policies of the past 12 months aren’t radical enough. …

Tony Abbott had the same problem, until they finally finished him. He wound up stumbling over every single word that came out of his mouth, such were his efforts to guard against their misrepresentation and abuse.

I’ve noticed ScoMo is struggling with his words at times, and that’s new. He’s filtering, second-guessing, adapting. …

Sadly in this kind of conversation apologies are worthless. The rules of civility are gone — a huge loss. There is no salvation, no moving forward or learning. All apologies are a weapon to be used against those who caved in to the bullies. They feed the bullies, and get repeated as a reminder that someone admitted some fault. No human is perfect but self-interested commentators will demand their enemies are, while ignoring the same flaws in “friends”. More than anything, the dependent-left are hoping, willing, salivating at the thought of a ScoMo fail. They want to magnify any flaw or failure into on unforgivable error that can be hung like a ball and chain. Right now they desperately need this to distract the public from the epic pathetic failure of the left with their God-like desire to control and protect the environment which has worked out so catastrophically.

They also need to distract from the pagan nonsense that is The Labor Party and Green policy. Australia needs two strong parties and at the moment one is pretending that fires will be controlled with a carbon tax, tofu for dinner and a solar panel on every roof. It’s witchcraft and voodoo based on Fake Science, and innumerate bumper-sticker simplicity. The Global Dumbness hides in a hole guarded by the billion dollar bullies who shout distract and hand-wave at irrelevant misdemeanors hoping to draw attention away from the gaping well of stupid that modern politics is based on.

We must turn their uncivil conversation tactics back on them. Not feed them. Never give them an inch.

No man alone can beat the billion dollar bullies

ScoMo needs support, like Tony Abbott did and didn’t get enough of. And to that end, any commentators who read this, or others and want to share and spread ideas, please do, but please also, share the sources, give the credit. Respect copyright and original content, and play your part in supporting the network that fights for freedom and one-law-for-all, and real science. We can only do this together. Some cut n paste blogs and commentators put themselves above the team. We need the network.

Martin Ayles heads the Australian Christian LobbyMichael Smith runs a great blog. This tip and much else, thanks to David Evans.

——————————————————————————-

UPDATE: The good men get eaten by the machine

Abbott, for his human failings, is a good man. There are plenty of bad men in politics. Let’s take the good ones and help them be great.

 


How many ABC reporters wear this gear, and never ever use it?

Fake News. Fake journalists. Fake debate.

UPDATE #2: — some holidays are more equal than others

Peta Credlin, Adelaide Advertiser:

Scott Morrison is on a hiding to nothing when it comes to bushfires. Because he’s not theological about climate change, he can never please the green left.

It doesn’t matter that there have been bigger storms, worse droughts, more destructive floods, and even hotter fires in the past because memories are short and we’re always preoccupied with today’s drama. Because he fully subscribes to the climate cult and because he smartly sought help from the military almost as soon as the fires made it to Victoria, Premier Daniel Andrews has largely escaped criticism – even though he too was on holiday until Monday night and just three years ago, he tried to emasculate the Country Fire Authority and its volunteer firefighter base to please his union mates.

[The NSW] emergency services minister, David Elliott, the one politician who actually has the job of getting us through this calamity, has been on holidays in Europe. Now that he has returned, he should be sacked for deserting his post; he has lost all credibility with fire volunteers, and the community.

Adapted from a Glasses Photo by Mohamed MAZOUZ on Unsplash

9.4 out of 10 based on 101 ratings

391 comments to The ScoMo-Bad filter: It doesn’t matter what he does, if it’s Scott Morrison, its bad

  • #
    Yonniestone

    Sorry Jo I appreciate your optimism but I believe PM Morrison is unworkable, for someone who pulled the ‘lump of coal in parliament’ stunt then ends up refusing to pull out of the nation destroying Paris Agreement because of expert Australian biased climate advice its not confidence inspiring stuff for the average Aussie with a faint idea somethings not right.

    I just see the current set up as a giant Kabuki show where the paying audience have a large vested interest in how long it can run for, and its not worth the price of admission.

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    • #
      Dave

      If it works for the crown, its pro the agenda. Simple as that.

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      • #

        Unworkable? No way. Any good man is going to fall into their trap if we don’t help. No man is perfect. Holding out for the ideal hero is a recipe for failure.

        The left turn their flaws into heroes and Gods, which becomes their downfull. We don’t want to do that, but nor do we throw stones at the guys on the front line.

        The #NeverTrump movement helped Hillary (and where are they now?). Pick your sides carefully and work with what you’ve got.

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        • #
          Bill In Oz

          Jo ScoMo has a simle way of ending this crap by the media
          BAN all the journo’s who dod this sh#t
          From any press conference or press briefing
          By all the government.
          Seems drastic I hear people say.
          Yes but these journos are scumbags after a Kill
          They are not media people doing a professional job

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          • #
            hatband

            Trump tried banning Jim Acosta.
            The ban lasted about 15
            minutes.

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            • #
              Bill In Oz

              So what ? USA is not Australia.
              Jeff Kennet did it in Victoria in the early 1990’s
              It worked.

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              • #
                hatband

                Kennett was a disaster for Victoria.

                Among other things, he banned using rain water tanks in Municipal areas.
                After a few years of that, everyone forgot about Cain and Kirner.

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              • #
                Bill In Oz

                Labor was a disaster for Victoria
                Kennet was the alternative
                he got the boot at the right time in 1998.
                But his ban on the ABC was wonderful.
                It worked.
                They scowled and frothed at the mouth
                But they learned the lesson
                Do not F#ck around with Kennet.
                He bites.
                Morrison when Abbot was PM did not need to bite.
                Now he is PM he needs to learn how to bite

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              • #
                yarpos

                Seriously? a disaster and all you can come up with is city water tanks ( i had one in the city so that seems imaginary also)

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            • #
              john

              And there’s hardly been a press briefing since for which all the media can thank Jim Acosta. And they do.

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            • #
              GD

              Kennett was a disaster for Victoria.

              Hatband, wouldn’t you be more at home at the Conversation or the Guardian?

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              • #
                Geoff

                The Vic ALP ran out of money. Kennett had to go cap in hand to get money from Paul Keating to run the trains and buses. Mobil had frozen the state’s account becauuse of non payment. Keating told him (Victoria) to GO TO HELL. Kennett immediately borrowed against the furniture. A large part of the furniture was sold to pay off Victoria’s debts and strangle militant unions. Kennett made the mistake of not worrying about the country vote. He trusted the National Party. A BIG mistake.

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        • #
          Another Ian

          Jo

          I would recommend that people read Sharyl Attkisson’s “The Smear” to get an inside look at this.

          “No man alone can beat the billion dollar bullies”

          You’ll find that was the case until Trump.

          And you’ll marvel at what he has achieved in spite of the smear league.

          So it can be done, though mare allies wouldn’t go astray.

          And Morrison better get braver.

          381

        • #
          Peter C

          Thanks Jo,

          I agree.

          I wrote to Scott Morrison recently, asking him to get us out of the Paris Accord.

          I got a reply, signed by him personally. He said our government would keep our current Climate Commitments.

          I was disappointed by that, at the time. However it then turned out that Australia requested CARBON CREDITS from the Kyoto agreement at the Madrid COP25. That contributed to the fiasco of COP25.
          Hooray!

          So ScoMo is trying to steer a middle course. I am not sure that it will work for him. I would like to see a bit more push back myself. It may soon come to that. He may have to choose between Extinction Rebellion and JoNova Skeptics. Maybe there is No Middle Path.

          370

          • #
            Analitik

            Scott Morrison (I hate the Turnbullism of ScoMo) has to deal with the political of an unstable minority Senate (Jackie Lambie, anyone?) plus Turnbull hangovers (eg Joh Frydenberg) in the House of Representatives. While we all wish he could do more, there are very real limits to his authority, even as with Trump.

            Imagine the furor if he sent you a letter agreeing that the Paris Accord was garbage and Australia should walk away and then (inevitably) a faceless staffer/bureaucrat leaked to the press. I believe Angus Taylor is in a similar bind, having to publicly support the laughable and unrealistic notion of carbon emission reductions and increasing the adoption of renewables.

            That the Prime Minister is refusing to fall in line with the MSM push to attribute the intensity and extent of the bushfires on Climate Change is a solid sign that he is not just another of the centrists that have betrayed conservative Australia.

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            • #
              el gordo

              They have decided to remain small targets, by dropping the subsidies for renewables without mentioning climate change and Taylor going to the IPCC gab fest carrying a bag stuffed with Kyoto credits.

              Morrison and crew are with us and they need our intellectual support.

              50

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            I am starting to come to the realisation that Leftism has an underlying foolish idealism , or deliberate meanness to it.

            Not all left wing people are bad, but the leaders of the leftist packs certainly are really like hyenas in human form.

            To be honest I dont like usung such harsh comparisons, but thier behaviour makes me uneasy and to be blunt the stench of the ugliness and evil of communism also seems to swirl around them.

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          • #
            New Chum

            Peter C the problem for Australia exiting the Paris Accord is that the UN may then apply sanctions on Australian trade then who would support us? America has the advantage because of its size and there are countries in Europe and the Middle East that are dependant on America for security.

            10

        • #
          george1st:)

          Indeed , climate change is possibly the biggest vote winner or loser in Aussie atm
          Scomo is toeing the line but not sure where he really stands .
          Until the populous can be educated enough to realise the consequences of action or inaction and make up their own minds they will continue to be be influenced by the msm into perpetual pessimism and unsurety.
          The reality of historical climate changes in the Earths evolvement needs to promoted more rabidly .
          Fight fire with fire .
          Atm they are winning the campaign with the Fear of what may or maybe happen.
          We need to be able to tell the people , yes this will happen , it has happened before and will happen again , or no this is highly unlikely . Present the facts and get the MNSM to present them .

          50

          • #
            FarmerDoug2

            “Present the facts and get the MSM to present them.”
            And therein lies the problem.
            Doug

            110

          • #
            Bobl

            The government does need to call out the nonsense, the idea that windmills solar panels and EVs do anything positive when we actually need is levy banks, sea walls, infill (piles of dirt) fuel reduction, cyclone shelters, 200m clearance of brush around habitable structures, selective logging, more dams and redirection of tropical rainfall into the dry subtropical band (Hadley cells being what they are), coal/nuke power for managing heat/cold and pumping water around (as well as underpinning what’s left of our industry). These things actually work and they work whether the weather becomes hot or cold, wet or dry, man made or natural. Windmills , solar and EVs could only possibly work if the theory is true and as bad as the IPCC says (wrong on both counts) if they actually saved CO2 (which they don’t) and if they weren’t useless as energy or transportation which they are.

            How about we just switch to doing what matters to managing weather risk, who cares if it’s natural or not.

            30

        • #
        • #
          Geoff

          The choice is simple. Treblinka (certain death via the ALP) or the Russian Front (many deaths but many survivors and final victory under the LNP). I vote for the Russian Front NOT because I think its a good choice. Its the only choice. Until someone who knows what they are doing shows up we will continue to grow our country by inflation of assets (money printing) without wage increases and digging without value adding.

          Cheap water and energy are the stuff of wealth. We treat both with disdain not because we have none but because we are rich. Only rich people can be foolish.

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        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          In late January 2015 I drove 200 km to Penrith, caught the train and ferry to Manly to hand deliver a letter to Tony Abbott”s very Spartan office, pleading with him to mount a defence against the personal vilification that was being inflicted on him. He did’nt. The result is what we have seen since.

          Twice they got rid of Tony Abbott, because he gave them free space to do it. Scott Morrison must not allow them free space to do it again.

          This is a long story, going back to the 2007 election. In the run up to the election the “usual suspects” (I call them the Pommie Commies) in the ALP were keeping a low profile, because they could see that Kevin Rudd was winning the election for them single handed. But, even before the election, I could see that as far as they were concerned, Kevin Rudd’s use by date would be the day after the election.

          His extraordinary popularity put the brakes on their plan, but they did dump him ASAP.

          The day that Tony Abbott became leader of the Liberals, the ALP leadership adopted the policy of forget policy, just bag the man and make him unelectable. They mounted and maintained a campaign of personal vilification of Tony Abbott. He ignored it, making me wonder if he was even aware of it.

          In 2010 they failed. In 2013 they failed abysmally, but a quirky protest vote gave Clive Palmer the balance of power in the senate. From the far side of the world Al Gore spotted the opportunity in this, and somehow persuaded Clive Palmer to thwart Tony Abbott’s landslide mandate. I would like to see a Royal Commission into the dealings between Al Gore and Clive Palmer.

          Then they blamed Tony Abbott for not implementing his mandate, and again he let them get away with it. That is the rock we are perishing on.

          Scott Morrison must not let them get away with it this time. Lay the boot in!

          211

        • #
          Betty Luks

          Jo,

          Your words “Australia needs two strong parties….” concerns me. I would say “Australia needs men and women who are loyal to their constituents and their nation and their POLICIES AND ACTIONS line up with their stated BELIEFS (philosophy)!”

          The Liberals once stated:
          “We believe that national financial and economic power and policy are not to be designed to control men’s lives but to create a climate in which men may be enabled to work out their own salvation in their own way.”

          Can Australians say the financial and economic power – and POLICIES of the Liberals over the last 50 years – has enabled them to work out their own salvation in their own way?

          I can remember Democrat Meg Lees warning Australians not to believe what politicians SAY but check out how they VOTE on the Bills before Parliament. After all “actions speak louder than words!”

          We are being ‘herded’ into the new world pyramidal (dis) order daily. A quick summing up of the radical changes to this once great land of the free would convince most people of that FACT.

          History is continuous – not episodic – and the Liberals should be judged on their ACTIONS not on what Scott Morrison now SAYS – hesitatingly or not.

          I would like to believe he is genuine but am not convinced. SHOULD the PM decide he truly wants to SERVE his people (‘he who would be greatest must be the SERVANT of all’) then he could start by insisting his party implement that 1949 policy/belief and allow Australians to work out their own salvation in their own way.

          Start by setting in motion the wheels to repeal specific draconian legislation the Liberals themselves enacted – the list is lengthy.

          70

        • #
          Roy Hogue

          Jo,

          Leaders are like trees. Forgive me for falling back on a biblical metaphor but the tree and the leader are judged the same way. Good fruit, good tree and you keep it. Bad fruit, bad tree and you toss it out.

          Seeing the picture of Tony Abbott actually helping to fight the fire, even if he’s not very capable and would need help, tells me all I would ever need to know about Tony Abbott.

          He may not be perfect but he does a lot more than talk a good fight, he puts up a good fight.

          I don’t live in Australia and I try not to comment on Aussie politics. But I can’t help noticing what that picture tells about the man, Tony Abbott.
          .

          10

          • #
            Ted O'Brien.

            Roy, Tony Abbott is also a fitness freak. I think it was during the time he was Prime Minister that he finished in the middle of the field in a big triathlon. An astonishing feat! And in supposedly sport mad Australia they mocked him for not being at work, and nobody rose to his defence. How sick is my country?

            When it comes to fighting bushfires, there would be few if any who could match him. He has the training. He has the experience. He has the physique.

            20

    • #

      Morrison has to take a leaf out of Trump’s book and start acting like someone with conviction and a backbone. Everyone on the Left is fighting as dirty as they can get, and Morrison needs to start doing the same. Australia has always looked up to fighters, those who don’t give up, and there are far more of those Australians about than the noisy Left.

      531

      • #
        GD

        Everyone on the Left is fighting as dirty as they can get, and Morrison needs to start doing the same.

        Just as Tony Abbott should have done. Appeasement is never an option.

        230

    • #
      Environment Skeptic

      He should have taken some dried out weeds into the parliamentary combustion chamber, a botanist, and a fire-fighter to help explain the significance of them.

      161

    • #
  • #
    George4

    He got my sympathy vote when he was unfairly abused by those feral greenies at Cobargo, who were probably p!ssed off their weed crop was burnt out.

    604

    • #
      Environment Skeptic

      Exactly it’s the weeds George4

      I have even had trouble pointing out here that introduced weeds are australias biggest inflamable problem and unfortunately, they are extremely fast growing and usually dry out in summer. Australia’s plant profile was once much slower growing and so a fire now and then would keep the fuel in check.

      Fast forward to today and fuel loads mainly of dry feral weeds in the bush are an instant fire hazard.

      183

      • #
        peter

        Exactly Enviro Skeptic. For many years it has been a well known serious problem that lantana and blackberry bush, amongst others, have taken over the ground level in bushland. On farmland you are obliged to spray them but in bushland and National parks they run riot growing thick and up to 2 metres high. When they dry out in summer they will burn like petrol.

        150

      • #
        Graeme Bird

        I suspect you are dead right. I can seldom find anything I disagree with you about. But tell me this: Isn’t the dominance of weeds, or invasive species, really about soil loss and degradation. So from a public policy point of view, should we end up enriching soil, won’t it be easy to give ourselves the plant species mix more amenable to our needs and those of our native fauna?

        11

        • #
          Environment Skeptic

          Ok Graeme, lets only take roadside vegetation, as our needs are many and so i might focus on roadside vegetation in this instance….

          The main citeria is the growth rate. For example, remnant Australian native vegetation found along the roadsides in the thin belt of vegetation between a roadside, and a fence is typically not farmed and livestock cannot graze there. These roadside areas still sometimes contain very beautiful remnant original inhabitants of Australian native plants that are of specific provenance to that location with little to no weed species. These are a kind of snapshot of what Au once looked like more or less.

          Ultra tragically, more and more often, another extremely noxious fire amplifying weed amongst lantana and blackberry is taking over the roadsides of our great continent called garden variety lawn grass/Kikuyu. By virtue of its incredible growth rate, Kikuyu can easily grow over the top of many species of native plants and deprives them of sun eventually killing them. This is greatly exacerbated/accelerated when the slasher/mowers slash the roadside to keep it down in such a way that the lawn grass shoots are attached to the slasher and transported to other areas where there was previously only remnant native vegetation with no lawn grass. Usually a good mix of native species along roadsides does not need mowing ever, however if it is slashed too often, it is easily infiltrated by the Kikuyu lawn grass. And thus the vicious, highly pernicious practice cycle of having to mow/slash at least twice a year…..so now roadside vegetation needs vastly more frequent slashing/control and to add insult to injury, cows are poisoned by Kikuyu too. And of course Kikuyu is an extreme fire hazard when out of mowing control.

          If this fire weed Kikuyu grew any faster on our roadside, cars and even trucks would disappear under it while going out for a sunday drive for example.

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          • #
            Environment Skeptic

            For example, i may as well add that after the fire at a coal mine in Morwell Victoria recently, that was accelerated by juvenile plantations of gums that took the fire there, it was a red alert to slash the remnant roadside Australian vegetation and now, going by other roadside vegetation i have observed over the years, this last remnant will be all but gone and filled in with the horrible homogeneous shade of brown and green that Kikuyu is. Why would any one come to Australia to see Kikuyu out of control on the roadside from a tour bus window? amongst other criteria.

            It puts all its energy into foliage (fuel) unlike most Australian native species in general, and very, very little into its root system.

            Conversely Xanthorrhoea minor grass tree for example puts a lot of energy into growing underground. It’s root system and entire trunk is underground sending it down further and further only leaving its foliage at the ground level.

            https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xanthorrhoea_minor

            41

          • #
            Geoff Sherrington

            ES,
            So much good might have been done if money spent on global warming research, like large climate models on large computers, had been spent instead on ways to control kikuyu, lantana, etc?
            Did you know that blackberry was introduced here by a former boss of the Royal Melbourne Botanic Garden, Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller? An early example, maybe, of science by authority, believe the experts stuff? Geoff S

            50

            • #
              Environment Skeptic

              Research into Kikuyu indeed. We need psychological research too…And now, mentally scarred, and triggered by the sight of lawn and consequently i have a kind of Kikuyu, ‘post traumatic stress disorder’🙁 No i did not know it was the Mueller himself who was responsible for its introduction…then why he did not introduce a thorn-less variety escapes me.

              30

          • #
            Richard

            microlena stiopedes green in drought and winter . a native treasure extremely underdeveloped

            21

            • #
              Environment Skeptic

              It was the favourite of my bush regeneration instructor. She was an unpaid voluteer and passionate about her stand of green, drought proof microlena as i am of mine. I must start collecting and germinating the seeds. Once established, weeds find it difficult to infiltrate.

              20

            • #
              Environment Skeptic

              Australia needs more green thumbs to do it haha 🙂

              10

        • #
          Chris

          No , that is only part of the problem. Nature abhors a vacuum and bare soil is a vacuum. The removal of understory plants by the introduction of sheep, cattle and RABBITS , along with too much fire has opened up the bare soil to the opportunistic introduced plants, whose seeds can be blown from kilometres away or carried on car tyres. Bacterial and viral diseases are also a concern. Phytophera , ( dieback) can very quickly kill a forest and a dead forest is a fire bomb waiting to go off. The introduction of Phytophera is one of the reasons why forests get locked up. In WA under the reign of Charles Court, farmers had to clear their land or lose it. The clearing method was simple , two bulldozers with chains between them dragged everything into a massive pile. There was nothing but bare earth for kilometres left behind.
          This shameful legislation has been studiously forgotten. Land management in Australia is a complex and multifaceted problem and it’s certainly not a one model fits all ecosystems.

          11

    • #
      Ross

      Yes George4, all our sympathies are with poor Scott, in what must be very difficult times for him. Maybe, not as tough as what the poor fire victims you just insulted have been through,, but tough just the same. Stay strong,Tiger.

      52

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        I saw a clip of our PM on T.V. not showing much awareness when he confronted a resident of that location, offered his hand, and when there was no response, invaded her, grabbed her hand and shook it.

        Obviously for the cameras.

        Perhaps the girl felt like a bit of coal? I thought that her reaction was very restrained and that maybe she would have been justified in slapping his face.

        I liked Yonnies comment at #1 and also Jo’s response following.

        Morrison needs to “act now” and insist that state governments clear flammable material from roads, forest access ways, farms and residential areas.

        Dan the man, who wanted all these “veggies” might be the first target to go for. He wants the Australian taxpayers to restore the state of Victoria: so he can see it happen all over again.

        Businesses, farms, homes and communities wiped out and it wasn’t global warming Scott.

        Two hundred deaths.

        200 deaths.

        200 Too Many.

        KK

        41

        • #
          Yonniestone

          Thanks KK, I think the time for treading carefully is over considering what we’re up against, a lot of people are wetting their pants over Trumps actions with Iran, what they have forgotten is this is the only thing certain cultures respect in relation to their own preservation.

          The same confronting behaviour needs to be applied to the left in this country, MSM, politicians, councils, activists one and all, the support from majority Australia will be the same as the Abbott and Morrison election result and then some, the smug left always underestimate the average Aussie’s dislike for smarta$$es.

          60

    • #
      Zil

      Those “feral greenies” are humans like you and me who have just endured a terrifyingly destructive fire. They deserve our support and understanding. This crisis requires us all to join together to help. Shame on those who would seek to reduce this to a partisan issue. Let us please forget ideology and focus on solving the massive problem that we all, collectively face. Please drop the politics. It is sickening.

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      • #

        The left made this a partisan issue.

        We don’t attack the greens who were foul mouthed and rude to the PM in a moment of frustration.

        But any media outlet promoting it, and all the social media repeats that endorse it are fair game. Is that the kind of national debate we should have?

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      • #
        Bobl

        Sorry but those feral greenies that stopped hazard reduction efforts in the winter or supported efforts to restrict clearing around habitable structures to under 200m deserve none of our sympathies and should go to gaol for their crimes against humanity. Feral greenies that did not interfere with hazard reduction or private property fire safety do deserve the same respect.

        This is not a political issue, it’s a criminal negligence issue and the crime is the deaths of innocent people, firefighters and animals. As well as the mass destruction of farmers crops. These feral greenies, especially the ones infesting local councils are the real climate criminals.

        As much as you want to wave away their responsibility, the buck stops with those that legislated this disaster. And it WAS legislated.

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        • #
          Kalm Keith

          Good one!

          30

        • #
          Richard

          it is proven to be manslaghter and to hear daniel andrews call it the new normal exposes ignorance. build dams, clear undergrowth, maintain fire tracks, respect cfa & duty of care is a legal requirement. we need reliable electricity with fewer powerlines. the east west link saves us all money as transport costs affect what we pay for all goods and many it is not just about the great easten car park. when irrsponsility becomes manslauhter it is far more serious than just losing the next election. also consider deaths of those who could not afford power.

          40

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        The fact that this disgusting outcome was seen, known and publicised long in advance carries with it the burden of responsibility for those who made and endorsed decisions contrary to best practice.

        There should be no safety in numbers as Dan and ClimatFireChiefs and others might wish for.

        This catastrophe went against all history and reasoning.

        KK

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      • #
        el gordo

        ‘Let us please forget ideology and focus on solving the massive problem that we all, collectively face.’

        We don’t have a problem, the end of the world is not upon us because of a harmless trace gas. Here you see in this biased story how Craig Kelly rides above it, a man of heroic proportions.

        https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-07/craig-kelly-denies-climate-change-linked-to-bushfires/11846604

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  • #
    Ian1946

    He should take a leaf out of Donald’s book. Call out the fake news, challenge the ALP/Greens to provide proof of AGW. Defund the ABC and exclude 7, 9 and 10 from any press conference. I am sure he wo uld benefit by capturing the sensible centre of Australia, make sure the inner city suburbs implement demand management before the real people in the suburbs and regional areas have their power cut.

    /rant

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    • #
      Deano

      Remember the media’s big “Your Right to Know” campaign from about 4 months ago? I was amused by the number of people asking “Right to know what? A load of propaganda and biased junk?” It blew up in their face and they went quiet about it very quickly once they realised just how respected they really are.

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  • #
    stephen mueller

    there is a real push on in this country for a socialist type Government.

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    • #
      James Poulos

      There is also a real majority of conservative voters in the electorate.

      211

      • #
        John

        More and more people are being hoodwinked by the climate cult though.

        130

        • #
          Richard Jenkins

          No they’re not John. When the census was done at the end of the century (1999) we skeptics were less than 2%. John Dally, “Still Waiting for Greenhouse?” was a fairly lonely website. Although, schools and media indoctrinate deceitfully there are many more people who are thinking and all the false predictions expose stupidity for people who think. John Howard had Dally address the Liberal and National Party members from both the house and senate and they could not dispute Dally’s evidence. Turnbull was not yet elected. It would be great for Scott Morrison to do the same with Jo, Jennifer and Peter Ridd addressing all the members. Perhaps the Turnbullites would see some light. I think an accurate poll would suggest that now 50% have reservations. I raise issues in conversation and refer people to failed AGW predictions and Jo Nova. They are usually typically apathetic but become aware that they should seek truth and dislike the lies fed by media and academics.

          30

          • #
            John

            Maybe you’re right. I’m just noticing more and more acquaintances taking about the need to “end coal”.

            10

    • #
      James Poulos

      … and regardless of the fake media attempts to hide the real issues – too many people have all been hurt in one catastrophe by the environmental policies they continue to exploit for shock value.

      I note that the Extinction Rebellion and other Green, Leftwing protest groups are particularly conspicuous by their absence of late because they don’t have the strength of the convictions they are paid to promote for their masters controlling the 24 hour news cycle.

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    • #
      el gordo

      This desire for a cultural Marxist society is media hype, nobody has the stomach to give up private property.

      We have to bring the ABC back to the centre and purge the newsroom of green left scum. When that finally happens our world will change for the better, but how to bring it about?

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    robert rosicka

    Just listening to a 15 minute interrogation of Josh Frydenberg by RAF Epstein on ABC radio so they are sharing the green leftist love .
    I’m still thinking that Cobargo mob were given a tip off by that ABC journalist and I’m positive they are anti everything protestors , I’m trying to get some photos of logging protesters to see if any of the faces match .
    Scomo needs to either grow a pair or elevate Craig Kelly to the position of climate change Minister but the second option will take the heat of I reckon .

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    • #
      Bill In Oz

      Craig Kelly in the Government
      Would be a huge improvement.
      He has the guts to put the idiots in their place

      270

      • #
        truth

        Not only did Scott Morrison exclude Craig Kelly from Cabinet but he banned him from putting the reality case on Q&A and replaced him with a CAGW true believer.

        He’s deliberately trying to silence the case against a totally weather-dependent intermittent electricity system.

        HE didn’t have to appoint an almost all-Photios cabinet first and second times…promoting the Turnbull loyalists…deliberately disrespecting Tony Abbott, who’s the only reason LNP are in government now at all.

        Morrison’s case and Abbott’s are not comparable.

        Morrison was absolutely seminal to the coup that brought down new PM Tony Abbott and destroyed Australia-he delivered the Photios rabidly CAGW faction to Turnbull.

        Morrison has torn other people down before..Abbott hasn’t-he won the Opposition leader job in a free vote on merit ..then won the 2013 election in a landslide.

        Morrison damaged Abbott as a backbencher implying he had no right to speak on issues when it absolutely was his right and many others were doing so.

        Morrison did nothing to help Abbott in Warringah.

        The only way Morrison can rehabilitate himself IMO is to do what Trump did …take a stand on sovereignty and tell EU/UN Australia intends to have baseload power that’s affordable like every other 1st world country….that we’ll work to make coal cleaner than solar panels and wind turbines that emit infinitely more potent GHGases than CO2…that generate massive carcinogenic toxic waste…and will never be reliable without huge subsidy and expensive props.

        But I don’t believe Morrison will do that because he’s in the Photios camp that includes Gore and Naomi Klein.

        Tony Abbott has been right on CAGW and absolutely everything and has the guts to put his head in the mouth of the bear for Australia’s sake.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Its interesting to see how aggressive the media climate Pavlovs attack dogs are getting….

          Sticks and stones and all that….childish name calling by Left…who cares?

          https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/you-are-a-climate-denier-craig-kelly-in-car-crash-british-tv-interview-over-bushfire-crisis-20200107-p53pd9.html

          “London: Liberal MP Craig Kelly has defended Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s handling of the bushfire crisis during a television interview in Britain that descended into chaos after the hosts savaged the self-proclaimed climate sceptic.

          “The backbencher was called a “disgrace” and told to “wake up” during the combative encounter that threatens to undermine Morrison’s efforts to reassure Australians that his government accepts the link between climate change and extreme weather events.

          “However Kelly popped up on ITV’s top-rating Good Morning Britain program on Monday for an interview that quickly turned south under questioning from provocative conservative co-host Piers Morgan.

          “”You are facing now one of the greatest crises you have ever faced, and there is you Mr Kelly, with respect, a senior politician who still doesn’t think this has anything to do with a heating up planet,” Morgan said.

          “”Basically nothing to see here, nothing to worry about, as virtually your entire country is eviscerated by fires.”

          “Kelly shot back: “This is a terrible disaster, this is one of our nation’s worst natural disasters, and in the past when we have these in our nation we all sat back and did what we could to fix it up, rather than people getting out there and scoring political points and that is what’s happening now.”

          “Nodding in agreement as he was introduced to viewers as a climate sceptic, Kelly argued the fire crisis was caused by high fuel loads and the drought.

          “He also claimed there was “simply no” long-term trend to back up the widespread conclusions of scientists and other experts that the Australian climate was warming.
          “To try to make out as some politicians have to hijack this debate, exploit this tragedy and push their ideological barrow, that somehow or another the Australian government could have done something by reducing its carbon emissions that would have reduced these bushfires is just complete nonsense,” Kelly said.

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            truth

            Good on you Craig Kelly…you’re an Australian hero…putting yourself on the line for truth-telling.

            People like Piers Morgan and other TV talking heads seem to think this issue is just a display opportunity for them …so it would be good to see them on display …themselves questioned on the core issues instead of allowing them to destroy whole countries for their own ratings out in Extinction Rebellion world.

            Considering the massive power they wield they…and people like Scott Morrison too… should be required to answer questions on the specifics like….

            ..how can we believe that scientists who declare consensus in order to shut down questioning before the science is even done…are at all interested in the truth…

            …how can such scientists be seen to have any respect at all for real science wherein hypotheses must be tested again and again…with other scientists given free access to raw data…algorithms and methods used.

            …How can scientists who demand their hypothesis be used to rejig the whole world …destroying countries and lives…who shut down the science..freezing out sceptical scientists who want to test their hypotheses …who shut those scientists out before the research on the issue is even done…eg before any cloud research is done…enormously important because whether cloud feedback is positive or negative and under what conditions is a core issue in the warming of the atmosphere…how can we not conclude that those militant hypothesists have something to hide.

            How can the impression that the high priests have something to hide not be reinforced when they declare their set-in-concrete consensus before the temperature of 70% of earth …ie the vast oceans…could not be reliably measured…only somewhat so in 2005.

            …how could they declare the CO2 molecule we all breathe out 24/7…and in the time frame in question there are 7 billion more of us than before to do that…that that molecule …a trace gas in the atmosphere…that that molecule is almost entirely to blame for the small warming there is…more powerful than all the powerful interacting oscillations …than orbital shifts …ocean upwellings…solar effects on much of the rest of the earth system…with earth’s sensitivity to a doubling of CO2 unknown…how can we be expected to accept that enormous research wasn’t required on that before consensus….science closed…was declared.

            …why should the population being impacted believe temperature readings announced…. when here and in the US a huge number of the weather stations are non-compliant with their own specifications…and BoM and NOAA feel no need to explain…no need also to explain the ‘adjustments’ that turn ‘no warming’ in the raw data into ‘unprecedented catastrophic warming’ in published data for MSM propagandists to spruik…and much of the earth’s surface never measured in the past anyway?

            …why does the preaching Piers Morgan believe that his country should burn like there’s no tomorrow megatons of biomass shipped across the Atlantic…with all the uncounted CO2 emissions involved …more than from coal plants…while he and his cohort demand Australia be the sacrificial goat for their hypothesis that must not be questioned…must dutifully commit suicide as a 1st world nation…the only modern nation required to be totally dependent on a 100% weather-dependent intermittent electricity system forever…while his country and all others have the luxury and security of baseload electricity forever??

            30

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    robert rosicka

    The other thing I’ve noticed about Scomo is yes he is saying climate change is happening (nobody really denies the climate does change) but it’s the reference to “natural ” tradgedy of the bushfire and Australia is committed to Paris .
    We would rather he get out of the agreement but given the hostile media it seems he is walking a fine line between the skeptics and the alarmists .

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    • #
      el gordo

      You can see his dilemma, there are so many rabid brainwashed people out there and he is deliberately saying that its climate change. Head of the Nationals is saying the same as part of a strategy, its natural climate change but the idjits are none the wiser. Move along, nothing to see here.

      Morrison is a steady hand, the renewable industry is collapsing and he did nothing, except take away subsidies. Angus Taylor was good value at the recent COP fest, creating a breakaway movement which scuttled the gathering.

      The government thinks like us, but they obviously cannot say anything, so they’ll just continue to play a long quiet game.

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      • #
        Bill In Oz

        Littleproud is an absolute dill
        With little to be proud of.
        Even his own National Party people know that.
        Move him to something innocuous here he he can do little arm

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      • #
        WXcycles

        Which is a problem as ultimately we can’t rely on them. I’d be much happier with a minority Lib/Nat govt which needs One Nation to pass anything.

        70

        • #
          el gordo

          Our democracy seems to be working, the cross benchers in the Senate hold the balance of power.

          11

          • #
            WXcycles

            And if they’re there for the money, perks and a rampant pay-to-play culture?

            30

            • #
              el gordo

              Democracy is inhabited by unqualified career politicians, its the nature of the beast.

              They may come to the parliament with high ideals, but eventually corrupted by the party system.

              10

    • #
      truth

      Exposing all the lies and telling the truth about every aspect of this issue is Morrison’s only recourse IMO…it’s the only recourse ever …but this time it’s existential for Australia.

      The ratification of the Paris Agreement should be annulled forthwith because it wasn’t legitimate in the first place …and it’s based on lies .

      An agreement based on lies renders itself null and void.

      Turnbull had no legitimate moral authority to make such a momentous decision that will cripple Australia for the foreseeable future after he came within a whisker of losing the 2016 election.

      The Australian people rejected him but he did it anyway because for the LEFT…whether GreenLabor Left or Liberal WetLeft…the Australian people don’t count…their vote is for ditching…their opinion unwanted…sneered at…over-ridden by international diktat.

      That was set in concrete in 2015.

      31

  • #

    As I have told my Federal Member, pandering to the Greens and the Left does nothing. They will NEVER vote for the LNP, just forget about them.

    The big mistake I see it is that Scomo is trying the “do nothing” approach on climate change. He is actually doing something but only what the govt has to to follow Paris. But in reality there is only one way to win here.

    Call out the junk science, BOM manipulation, graphs which only start at 1979 and go hard on the need for science to guide us rather than ideology. This is the only way you will win properly.

    Call an official enquiry and get Judith Curry, Tony Heller, Willie Soon, Peter Ridd and others to put forward their real science and we quickly see the paltriness of the “Co2 based climate change” case. Force the ABC to broadcast it unedited and in full to stop the left from cutting comments to misrepresent them, or to try to avoid covering it.

    The screams from the ABC and Greens will be endless but many people will take note and my view is that from then on the Man Made Climate Change crap will be finished worldwide.

    But Scomo will not do that, and in the end we will have to do it the hard way. The smelters will close, the coal stations will steadily be shut down. Power prices and blackouts will skyrocket and people will then notice that really nothing has happened to the weather at all, but they are out of work, struggling to pay that enormous power bill or having to buy expensive generators for their business to secure continuous power. At that stage there will be a huge backlash and people will refer to the “Climate Change Craze” alongside the Dutch Tulip Mania as examples of historical mass hysteria.

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  • #
    nb

    Here is part of a post at a mathematics website, in relation to ScoMo!
    Many, many people are disgusted by your person. They are disgusted because you’re a sanctimonious, unprincipled, greasy huckstering halfwit who deserves to fry in Hell if only for the sheer loathsome meaninglessness of your government. Fuck you, fuck the mining lizardmen and Murdoch gargoyles who cover for you, and fuck all the dumb fucks who allowed themselves to be conned into voting for you.
    It used to be like this during Fraser’s government, I suppose because of the Whitlam debacle. As much as Howard and Abbott got a lot of flack, I don’t think the dial was up quite so high.

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    • #
      Graeme Bird

      Thats what you get if you have enough pencils and paper and one of these really great calculators. Supposing he hasn’t divided by zero and got his operators mixed up. There is only one verdict that we can accept. The mathematics is giving Morrison the thumbs down. The science has spoken.

      18

    • #
      Ian Hilliar

      sounds like average ALPBC reporting…..

      71

    • #
      hatband

      Scotty is on his last legs and

      once the fires get into those native tree lined post 1970 suburbs

      he’ll be gone, and

      the Coalition too.

      Peter Dutton would’ve done a lot better as P.M., in my opinion

      but we’ll never know now.

      612

    • #
      john

      A taxpayer funded website, no doubt.

      11

    • #
      Andrew McRae

      Heard of another example written by Chris Graham at New Matilda.
      https://web.archive.org/web/20200105132502/https://newmatilda.com/2020/01/05/morrison-touts-for-lib-party-donations-on-govts-bushfire-response-ad/

      The facts:
      • The donation link was part of the banner at the top of the Liberals web site alongside the logo and popup menu for the whole web site, and therefore appears on all pages regardless of the content of the page, and so is unrelated to it. I don’t need to view the Liberals web site to know this because the screenshot chosen by New Matilda shows this is true. The Internet Archive snapshot from July shows the Donate button was present at the top of all pages, even policy pages about matters where no disaster is occurring such as Border Security.
      • The disaster response video posted on Twitter by ScoMo shows the Prime Minister and actions carried out by public servants and volunteers. It contains no references to the Liberal party until the final screen, which is legally required to disclose the party and authorising member for the message.
      • The posted video has an audio track that could be fairly described as upbeat music.

      What ScoMo’s detractors claimed:
      • That ScoMo had used the bushfires to canvass donations for the Liberal Party
      • That ScoMo had posted an advertisement for the Liberal Party during the crisis.
      • That the video had “cheesy elevator music”.

      These responses range between the unkind but subjective all the way up to outright objective lies. It’s a recurring theme.

      In fairness, ScoMo’s appearance at Cobargo was a dumpster fire of bad PR, which he should have been able to predict from the fact the PM is not responsible for the problem nor the solution. That’s even aside from the weeks of scuttlebutt from his partisan opponents poisoning the town against him.

      11

    • #
      truth

      A crescendo NB…but the swelling canker that led to it began with the LEFT’s [including Liberal LEFT] unwillingness to accept the democratic landslide election result in 2013 and the LW journalists’ legitimization of that….and orchestration of their own ‘remedy’.

      There’s no interest whatsoever in whether or not what they support is true in that diatribe…and that’s emblematic of the whole mass hysteria mob.

      This venom was unleashed in justification of the 2015 coup that was so obviously supported by almost all Australian journalists…. the brutal vulture watch on Tony Abbott as he struggled with the insolent ultimatum of six months to get his act together…the death watch joyfully IMO conducted by SkyDaytime journalists…evident daily in their triumphal interviews with master plotters like Sinodinos…who now
      …in a hideous slap in the eye to conservatives and all decent Australians…has been appointed by Morrison to be our representative in the US.

      It’s impossible to see this rabid genie going back in the bottle anytime soon.

      31

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    • #
      william x

      Wow our leftists do swear a lot. Why are they so vindictive, nasty and hateful?

      It is just not Scomo receiving hate. It is anyone whom they class as a dissenter.

      I have been subjected in public and online to the worst absolute bile, hate, harassment and d@ath threats. Why is that?.. Is it because I asked questions about their statements, their ideology and their inability to supply proof?

      Why can they not debate without hate?

      They only need to answer my questions, inform me, enlighten me, treat me with respect and they may win me to their cause.

      It is that simple.

      I find it crazy that the woke:

      Are so concerned about human rights.
      Yet they are not concerned about mine.

      Are so concerned about inclusiveness.
      Yet I am excluded by them.

      Are so concerned about racism.
      Yet because of my skin colour, they call me a white supremacist, racist.

      Are so concerned about their free speech, but will shutdown my right to have that freedom.

      Assume that I am a misogynist, because I identify as male.
      Assume I cause domestic violence, because I identify as male.

      Are so concerned about human life.
      Yet they give me d@ath threats.

      and so on.

      They fight for social equality .. and treat me as a social leper outcast.

      Thank you Woke Ones, for showing me whom you really are…

      The antitheses of anything you promote.

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      • #
        Annie

        Well said william x. Exactly what we have experienced.

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        • #
          Bill In Oz

          What I experience !
          And very time it happens
          I block the abusive bastards.
          They are full on ideological cultists
          So they will never change their views.
          Then they have no target to shoot at
          End of story !

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      • #
        John

        Wokeness in a nutshell.

        100

      • #
        WXcycles

        Religions detest skeptics.

        100

      • #
        Deano

        I have been bullied (like physically attacked) by lefties in a workplace back in the 80’s when I said I thought Maggie Thatcher was probably a good thing for Britain. My work was sabotaged, my keys were hidden and I found cigarette butts in my lunch. This is how the left run debates. By the way – I’m now in a much better job and that place closed down many years ago due to ‘inefficiencies’. Typical eh?

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        • #
          WXcycles

          When young I was physically threatened by a bunch of Union thugs because I voted against going on Strike, for less hours worked, but for the same money. Their leader said he was a communist, and supported the communist leaders of the Australian Railways Workers Union at that time. Joh Bjelke-Petersen refused to give into those scumbags so we were threatened into going on strike. All of us lost 5 weeks pay over it, and I was left trying to make up loan repayments for months after it. Shortly after that I changed to the Transport Workers Union (being in a Union was mandatory then) so that I would not have to go out on strike again if the ARWU went on strike. I told everyone else to do the same. Some of them did, but most just went along with the ARWU clown still. However, I directly warned the union thugs that the police would be involved if they ever used aggression, fear and threat tactics on anyone again. And they didn’t after that.

          I learned early that the hard left feels entitled to hijack the society and economy (I was still a Labor voter at that time), so they can squeeze more vig from all other taxpayer’s wallets for basically doing nothing. They would readily pursue aggression and thuggery to get their gains and treated you like a genuine enemy if you disagreed with them, in any way.

          But we also had a State Premier back then who took them on, and impoverished them all for no reward then began the process to sell off most of QLD Rail (which was losing $362 mill a year at the time of the strike). That was the last time the ARWU tried that trick. He took on the union thugs at the Collinsville power station after that too.

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      • #
        OriginalSteve

        “Why are they so vindictive, nasty and hateful?”

        Think about what the Communists did to the Russian Tsar when the Bolsheviks took over Russia….butchered the whole family.

        Leopard…spots…..

        40

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      It’s motto is
      So Much crap, so little time ”
      Most of it’s posts are political with no account of who runs it !
      And that’s a mathematics blog site
      BALLS !

      40

    • #
      Peter C

      Thanks nb,

      That site reference is very revealing about the mentality of marty, who says he writes it.

      40

    • #
      FijiDave

      I see you’re trying, nb, but you’re pharting against thunder trying to talk sense to such nasty and arrogant people. They are the quintessential vile Leftist ACGW mongerers that were the catalyst for my becoming a skeptic. In fact, I see them as the reason the world is in such turmoil.

      Stay away from them or you may catch something toxic.

      20

  • #
    Graeme Bird

    I think they hate Scott Morrison because he’s a Christian. When I started investigating modern science sacred cows I was a hard-core atheist and atheism is still where my instincts lie. But what I have found out since then, had I been a primitive animist ….. with a superior updated physics and cosmology there is certainly a lot out there that could constitute a vindication of animism.

    Anyway on another note, someone at Catallaxy advised me that the CO2 levels will not go above 500 parts per million. But his defence of this notion amounted to quoting an alleged law. COULD BE. Our planet has a lot of ocean now and he could be right. COULD BE. But I was not satisfied. So I say we should be putting in planning now, as if we were to be topping out at 700 parts per million. Lets set up policy as if we were at 700 parts per million. I’m choosing 700 ppm because thats where the levels SHOULD BE. We should bring back the garden of eden. The God of Genesis evicted us from the garden of Eden. But nowhere did he say we could not make our own magical garden anew. And really compared to HIS works our efforts are puny and fleeting. The rain lands on your roof and you have to apply a new coat of paint. The rain lands on your permaculture farm and it can only get better on its own.

    So clearly if we have CO2 levels at 700 parts per million we need more methodologies than merely pre-emptive burning to control fuel levels. If we rely on burning alone that means we are breathing in smoke all of autumn and every winter, every year, forever. Thats not good. So we need land hydration, planned grazing, burning, setting up a new demand for firewood. We need wood scavenging all year long. We need to be able to throw the wood in with the coal. We need to get our act together in so many ways.

    On the right-wing of politics there is the one best method fallacy going on. Thats absolutely understandable because there is the urgent need to increase burning. The burning is the best thing right now. But looking forward we need a suite of remedies. Because the last thing we want to do is forego a planet with 700 parts per million of CO2. We want our new Garden Of Eden. But we have to live with the conditions that would make our Garden Of Eden possible.

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    • #
      Graeme Bird

      TWO DOWNVOTES? For shame. You people have no social graces. Where is your idealism? Your systems thinking? Or do we have team-Einstein cultists lurking in our midst?

      We deserve a robust natural world. And all the nano-technology benefits it can provide us. One of the lamest false Gods of the modern era is a complete nutball called Ray Kurzweil. He has sold people on the idea of nano-technology broken free from the carbon atom. The carbon atom with its four bonds. But in the real world biology is not only the lowest maintenance nano-technology we have. Its the lowest maintenance technology we are ever going to have. He’s a metal guru, as T-Rex sang about. And in that context try and imagine a herd of metal gnu’s carrying out the function that a real giant herd of gnu’s do in Africa right now. If you had metal gnu’s trying to pull that off you’d have to have a team of watch-makers in the field repairing these machines every six minutes.

      Permaculture is an arrangement of the lowest maintenance nano-technology we are ever going to have. And thats a Garden Of Eden done right. The future aint what it used to be. You need an whole different set of mental memes in your head. For example space travel isn’t going ahead unless we take the farm with us. That just a fact. So its a different way of thinking.

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

      26

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        It’s now 4, none of them from me.

        As for the CO2 level there was some talk a few years ago that burning all our known coal & oil reserves would only increase the level to 600 p.p.m. Since then more coal and oil (and natural gas) has been found.
        Increasing CO2 levels result in natural adjustments, increasing vegetation (even agreed to by NASA) which results in reduced albedo, more animals etc. Permaculture is more suited to lower population areas.

        The fundamental problem is the belief that CO2 has never varied above 285 p.p.m. in the past million years. It then becomes easy (by ignoring 97% of the evidence) to construct a case blaming CO2 for causing warming (it does, as I have pointed out 820 p.p.m. would cause a theoretical warming of 0.07-0.08℃).
        Have a look at the Vostok graphs and wonder how a low level of CO2 caused such warming. Especially the Eemian (one of its names) where there is ample evidence of higher temperatures; sea levels 6 metres higher due to ice melt, lion, giraffe, elephant and hippo fossils in England etc. Polar bears and humans survived.
        It looks to me that the CO2 levels reported in ice cores are artificial and don’t reflect what the real level was then.

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        • #
          Graeme Bird

          How do I calculate where the CO2 is likely to top out at? I’ve heard it won’t go beyond 500 because of some partial pressure law. You seem to be saying that it will only go as high as 600 ppm. But so far I’ve not seen people try to calculate these things. It amounts to rumour unless someone has tried some calculations with overt assumptions.

          The fundamental problem is the belief that CO2 has never varied above 285 p.p.m. in the past million years.

          Yeah thats all lies. Based on the ice proxy. You see this in cosmology as well where you have all this garish nonsense deduced by the misuse of a single proxy (red shift). Sure with a bunch of feeble excuses tacked on after the fact. You need three proxies minimum for a reconstruction. You might have to test 40 before you find the right three.

          00

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      “I think they hate Scott Morrison because he’s a Christian.”

      There is some truth to that.

      In the moral free void of “the end justifies the means” Leftism, Christianity would be viewed as public enemy No. 1, which is why I postulate that getting the SSM “yes” vote across the line was so critical, as it was used to undermine society’s Christian-Judeo roots, to remake it in an un-christian/demonic image. This undermining is central to how Communists work – their main avenue of attack is to undermine societies institutions that stand as a bulwark against the inherent evil of communism.

      These are just my views of course, I have observed a systemic attack on all moral absolutes within society – the climate change fiasco is nothing more than booting the Christian church from its previous central moral role ( to a lot of people ) and replacing it with an ugly nhilistic belief system.

      This also accounts for the unrelenting ferocity of the pack-of-hyenas MSM attack on Morrison – not only is he a right wing PM, but of they can take him down it also trashes his Christian roots. Its the last bit which is the Godless Lefts’ main prize.

      20

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    Simon

    What’s pagan about the Labour and Green parties?
    Is paganism bad? Is ScoMo good because he is a Christian?

    416

    • #
      Graeme Bird

      “Is ScoMo good because he is a Christian?” Its possible. Some forms of Christianity might be a way of sectioning ones spiritual and not fully rational beliefs off to a private realm. For the late evenings and mid-mornings Sunday.

      What is interesting about the dumb left is that they have religious beliefs where scientific enquiry is supposed to be. I take you to be a dumb leftist. And if I ask you for evidence for your global warming beliefs you cannot deliver. Well thats kind of strange isn’t it? Faith-based beliefs intruding where it ought to be only about methodology? Thats kind of FUNNY?

      It could be that if you joined the Orthodox Church and accepted Jesus as your saviour, and got seven kinds of stupid about it …….. It could be that you might actually then go on to accept, that evidence is the arbiter in science. And realise that you don’t have any. COULD BE. Never know until you try Simon. But in the meantime it could be healthy for you to accept that you don’t have any evidence for global CO2 net warming. I tried and I couldn’t find it. And you haven’t even tried.

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        Environment Skeptic

        Thanks Graeme and Simon. Some interesting thoughts. I check global weather many times daily and i cannot find proof of AGW. The idea of an ‘urban heat island effect’ does however seem to have some substance/merit to it.

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        • #
          Graeme Bird

          Even if we see what we think to be a scintilla of CO2 warming it may not actually be from the CO2. There are other potential sources if indeed we can find some warming. What I think we can see is a slight REDUCTION in the severity of extreme weather events and extreme heat. Despite all the talk of heat records I think we can see the top shaved off the hottest days. I don’t know for sure. Because its hard to get good data. If there is a heating signal I have an alternative hypothesis. But its not that important. Its just important to note that if we see a tiny heat signal we cannot automatically claim its due to CO2.

          If the data turns out that the extremes are less extreme. But the average shows a tiny bit of warming on top of what the sun would produce … that would take some explaining. We see the downward strength in the trend of the most nasty cyclones. We ought to try and explain this.

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          • #
            Environment Skeptic

            In my own personal local observations based in the Latrobe Valley Victoria, though they may not be super exact, i see a complete absence of day in, day out hot days and hot nights for weeks at a time. I can remember weeks of oppressive heat in earlier times in my area, and then since 2017 circa, off the top of my head, we can barely get two days comprised of a hot day followed by a hot night. Furthermore, the hot part of the day is only a few hours in the afternoon, and then a cool to cold evening. Today was cold in the Latrobe Valley. Had to wear a beanie and a jacket this morning, mind you, this is summer.

            90

            • #
              OriginalSteve

              My experience talking to tradies who have been around for a while, they havent mentioned things getting hotter.

              A mate who lives in NSW Riverina area mentioned when everyone in Canberra was running round freaking out when it got 43C, said it got to 47C at his place as it was cooling off…..

              I think when you live in an ivory tower, anything outside your little bit of aircon controlled paradise feels hot….

              30

        • #

          Skeptic
          Tony Heller did some graphs recently of actual AU temperatures, not homogenised but the actual ones. (cannot find them unfortunately so no link)

          What got me was the high prevalence of a rising minimum temps. (the maxs were actually falling in many cases over a long term graph). This is a classic Urban Heat Island signature.

          I believe that much of the supposed rising temps in AU are actually UHT effects. What happens is that the BOM then homogenise all the surrounding areas with the temps from the UHT and hey presto warming!

          Homogenisation needs to be banned. We need to look at actual temperatures and use averages of actual temperatures to tell us the true story…

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          • #
            Graeme Bird

            Yeah I am amazed at that. Rising minimums …. I THINK but am unsure …. but also the edge taken off the hottest days. Now if thats indicative it needs some explaining. And the explaining must be done in the context of CO2 agnosticism.

            33

            • #
              Environment Skeptic

              Yep, being amazed is pretty good 🙂 Pretty close to being a sense of wonder i suppose.

              Laughing out aloud. “CO2 agnosticism”

              20

            • #
              Bobl

              Explaining is easy… water. As the temp rises the water evaporated rises faster because the energy gap to reach the point of evaporation (100C) is smaller. The climate becomes more tropical… think about what happens as you move from the poles to the equator.

              Part of the mess of climate models is that they say warming will raise specific humidity but not relative humidity. Nonsense, warming causes both SH and RH to rise increasing cooling effects, increasing rainfall and the Max decreases, mins increase due to cloud cover increases just like in the tropics.

              What happens in warmer climes is all there in front of you, in terms of polar to tropical climate.

              50

          • #
            Environment Skeptic

            Yes i look forward to Tony Hellers unique style of incorporating old news paper articles and historical records. I believe i have seen the Tony Heller presentation you mention.

            Agreed! and thanks.

            40

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘What’s pagan about the Labour and Green parties?’

      Correct, AGW is a Christian cult movement, millennialism and the end of the world.

      ‘Is paganism bad?’

      Christianity is based on pagan foundations, so it depends on your perspective.

      ‘Is ScoMo good because he is a Christian?’

      No.

      37

      • #
        Another Ian

        Wasn’t about ScoMo but try

        “Holy Willie’s Prayer”

        10

      • #
        hatband

        Scotty’s religion isn’t Christianity, it’s 2 steps below a New Guinea Cargo Cult.

        At least New Guinea Tribesmen can say they didn’t know ant better.

        What’s Scotty’s excuse?

        57

        • #
          yarpos

          Scomo derangement syndrome seems dtrong in some.

          I enjoyed how they snarked about sending more ADF resources and GASP! he didnt tell the RFS Chief directly but told NSW leadership so their chain of command could work. Perfect half pike with twist by the media to make positive a negative.

          00

      • #
        TedM

        Cr*p el gordo. No link whatsoever.

        40

        • #
          el gordo

          ‘Millenarianism (also millenarism), from Latin mīllēnārius “containing a thousand”, is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming fundamental transformation of society, after which “all things will be changed”. Millenarianism exists in various cultures and religions worldwide, with various interpretations of what constitutes a transformation.

          ‘These movements believe in radical changes to society after a major cataclysm or transformative event and are not necessarily linked to millennialist movements in Christianity and Zoroastrianism.

          ‘Millenarianist movements can be secular (not espousing a particular religion) or religious in nature.’

          wiki

          13

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Christianity doesnt hinge on a 1000 year belief. Its a tiny component and not that important anyway.

            Its based on Jesus and his teachings.

            40

            • #
              el gordo

              There are plenty of examples littered throughout history, Millenarianism was big around the time of the English Revolution. Looking further back to the Medieval Warm Period, all those churches were built to thank god for our survival from apocalypse.

              12

      • #
        PeterS

        AGW is a Christian cult movement, millennialism and the end of the world.

        That’s total BS. Climate change scientists who are so fond of the CAGW crap all mostly atheists. Does that mean all atheists are plotting with the globalists? Of course not.

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        • #
          el gordo

          This AGW movement first arose in the Christian west and the heathen Chinese pay lip service as they build new coal fired power stations.

          An imbedded cultural meme has brought us to this point, its an apocalypse.

          05

          • #
            PeterS

            True Christians do not follow false religions and politics, such as CAGW. They know it’s all BS. Those who proclaim to be Christians and follow such false beliefs are anything but. As for the so called Christian West, there are probably now more Christians in China than in the West and certainly far more Christians in Russia (Eastern Orthodox) so calling it “Christian West” is misleading.

            20

      • #
        PeterS

        Christianity is based on pagan foundations, so it depends on your perspective.

        More BS. Christianity is based on the teachings of Jesus Christ who happens to be the Son of God of the Bible. One can refuse to accept that but to say His followers are pagan is about the most stupid statement I’ve seen lately.

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        • #
          el gordo

          Take the time to read a little history, Christianity adopted their special days and for a long time paganism continued to hold sway over the people.

          27

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Ah be careful…..the roman church may have adapted some pagan things, but its not generally regarded as Christian, its more pile of pagan beliefs wrapped in a thin veneer of christianity to mak eit look christian. I recall reading an Alchemist who considered the roman mass as such perfect witchcraft/majick, it couldnt be improved upon. Not the sort of endorsement you want.

            Things like Christmas are Dec 25, the roman saturnalia ran to Dec 23. The Dec 25 date is also based on a jewish tradition on calculating a prophets date of conception based on dates of death.

            Once you get into the biblical archeology scholarship side of things, it gets interesting.

            40

            • #
              el gordo

              Good point, I’ll have a closer look in preparation for the open thread.

              11

            • #
              PeterS

              Yes this is a very interesting topic and I’ve studied in depth for many years. In a nutshell there is no perfect church here on earth and all teach false doctrines, some worse than others.

              10

      • #
        AndyG55

        Greens and Labor are “heathen” rather than “pagan”

        Hence simple simon is attracted to them.

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        • #
          PeterS

          In fact so many posters have called the Greens watermelons so your observation is correct. Communists are neither pagan nor Christian that’s for sure.

          50

          • #
            OriginalSteve

            Nhilists more like IMHO….

            I recall reading about an ex-South African army officer who became a christian pastor. He got captured by communists in an african state ( I forget which one ) and tortured.

            The one group he feared the most was communists, as in his opinion, they had a special kind of cruelty that was uniquely awful.

            Smoke…fire?

            30

            • #
              PeterS

              Correct. I was going to say they are more nihilist in approach but I thought it was better not to because not many know the meaning of that word, along with others words that describe a variety of alternative beliefs.

              10

    • #
      Graeme Bird

      I’m kind of fond of paganism. But paganism does tend to lend itself towards human sacrifice. We always see this tendency to human sacrifice popping out here and there. Like with the opposition to Just War ideology. The idea that we defeat soldiers in the field by murdering their little sisters at home. Irrational anti-warrior ideology posing as the ultimate street cred.

      Or with the comfortable urban classes, who buy into erroneous “global warming” pseudo-science. Either safe corporate bigshots, high paid public servants, or even members of protected professional guilds. Such people seem more than happy, to sacrifice the rest of us to their pagan religious beliefs. They don’t care about the worker or the pensioner, out there where the real wind blows.

      57

      • #
        sophocles

        One of the world’s greatest scientists, a renowned philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, Hypatia of Alexandria, was a pagan. She was murdered by Christians.

        Draw your own conclusions.

        45

        • #
          Graeme Bird

          That was a vicious murder. Ugly stuff.

          47

          • #
            sophocles

            In those days, politics was forever.

            11

            • #
              Graeme Bird

              It could be that back then Christianity was a dynastically driven cult. So that the atrocious treatment of Hypatia, and her body after her murder, was really a dynastic result, rather than something particularly insidious within Christian philosophy of the time. Anyway my memory of the incident and timing of it grows dim. I’d need to review the situation before I made any more excuses.

              15

        • #
          TedM

          Conclusion: Not all people who call themselves Christians are.

          151

          • #
            PeterS

            Correct, including those who kill other Christians.

            70

            • #
              Graeme Bird

              When we think about the era of Christianity as being peculiar in its ability to apply the scientific method, its not really the early years I don’t think. Its more a post Aquinas, Post Black Death, More along with the De Cusa era or at least the era of expensive labour that followed the Black Death.

              Its just this idea that its God’s Creation, Gods creation is that “other book” as it were, and we are going to be bloody happy and exalted in whatever it is we find in that other book. There is also the saviour’s idea of forgiving the children for the sins of the fathers. Which kind of translates to the idea that its not the end of the world if we have been working out of an inferior paradigm, as long as you did your best, its okay to have sinned by supporting the old stuff.

              What I cannot stand now is people who are atheists or kind of messiah-deprived thinking that they are NOT happy with what they find from Gods nature, and instead want to change it with their pencil and calculator. Also if you are an atheist, or otherwise a messiah-short, you tend to make heroes out of people that in sober reality are not that great.

              If you want to make a cult hero out of scientists, why Newton, Darwin and Einstein? You could at least make him a New Zealander!!!!!!! I used to take piano-lessons with Mrs Elliot. Mr Elliot was a nephew of Sir Ernest Rutherford. So forget about these other CLOWNS for awhile, and lets get some demi-Gods a bit closer to home.

              The Newton thing was always a gyp on Liebniz. His work needs serious overhaul. Its creeking of old age. Whereas I think some version of Darwinism will ultimately prevail the core version is already dead. And we see that in reality his achievement was more a supreme effort in rhetoric, rather than any hard core exemplar of the scientific method. And of course if you are talking about Einstein, as any great scientist, you are just being silly.

              510

              • #
                OriginalSteve

                Newton was known more for his theology works than his science, which I find interesting, and also proof that science and faith can co-exist.

                Darwin at the time he wrote his theory of evolution I believe was trying to reconcile the death of his daughter, so this may have coloured his views of the world?

                40

              • #
                el gordo

                ‘Whereas I think some version of Darwinism will ultimately prevail the core version is already dead.’

                You may need to flesh that out a bit more, I was under the impression that its the ruling paradigm. I don’t have a problem with intelligent design, leaving out reference to a deity.

                14

              • #
                OriginalSteve

                “I don’t have a problem with intelligent design, leaving out reference to a deity.”

                Thats a contradiction in terms…..

                70

              • #
                el gordo

                We are in a carbon based universe and not the only intelligent life form.

                12

              • #
                PeterS

                We are in a carbon based universe and not the only intelligent life form.

                Really? How do you know? Thus far the SETI project has shown no evidence of intelligent life in the Universe outside of earth. It ought to have found some by now if the Universe has even a small scattering of it.

                40

              • #
                el gordo

                There is a strong mathematical possibility that we are not alone, but this is way off topic.

                Jo gets a hat tip from Worrall.

                https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/01/06/british-tv-personalities-savage-aussie-politician-over-climate-action-bushfires/

                12

              • #
                PeterS

                There is a strong mathematical possibility that we are not alone, but this is way off topic.

                The scientific evidence says otherwise and yes it’s way off topic. It would make for an interesting discussion elswhere.

                20

              • #
                Graeme Bird

                Well el gordo at the beginning of the century I was saying that their may be some Lemarkian effects. And in in fact there would have to be. Because if any organism had developed the capacity to pass on inherited traits, no matter how weak, that would lend it such an advantage that this ability would become general. Well you know I was put down as a communist and all that. But in the background epigenetics was being fleshed out. Thats a complete deviation from hard-core natural selection.

                Secondarily there has to be more going than only natural selection. Because thats no way to increase information. And mutations combined with natural selection amounts to hoping you can write more software in the context of degrading software. Its not a winner or at least no with major large animals. One cannot help thinking that the new information must be being gained from the smaller life. And in fact we have already conceded as much since the mitochondria are now thought to have come from some sort of bacteria that has entered a co-operative arrangement with a completely different branch of life. So thats the defeat of the core model right there.

                Then, and now I am on far more confident ground; the foolishness of trying to combine a pretty good biological model with a ridiculous cosmology. That doesn’t really give evolution enough time to move. This idea that evolution is a one planet young universe affair. The mainstream is always comparing their creation myth with biblical creation myths. That makes their young universe look respectably older. But 13.7 billion years is just a sparkle in a young girls eye.

                00

          • #
            hatband

            What’s the story with Hypatia? Was she corrupting the young?

            A society can’t survive treason from within.

            That’s why they had atavistic punishments for heretics in the past.

            10

            • #
              Graeme Bird

              Nothing like that. It wasn’t any repeat of Socrates. She was a good girl. Someone must have had it in for her and got the mob going against her. From memory I think they went so far as to rip the meat from her bones. Could have been a false flag of course. But its just a very ugly story.

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            • #
              mikewaite

              Hatband, for an answer to your question, please read “The darkening Age: Christian destruction of the Clasical world” by Catherine Nixey. It chronicles the destruction of classical learning,art,temples, and people, including Hypatia, by the zealots of the early Christian church.
              The link:
              https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/08/books/review/catherine-nixey-darkening-age.html
              is to a review in the NY times
              These Zealots , very similar to the XR fanatics, destroyed libraries at Alexander and elsewhere and are partially responsible for only 1% of classical literature making it through to us. Hypatia was flayed alive by a frenzied mob of young illiterates who were obsessed by dogma, sponsored by Church leaders wo would not accept any deviation from their dogma.
              Morrison is being metaphorically flayed alive because he has not so far shown the required degree of absolute subservience to the dogma of AGW.

              35

              • #
                hatband

                Here you go:

                Sensible criticism of Catherine Nixey’s travesty of a book:

                Averil Cameron, professor emerita of Late Antique and Byzantine History at the

                University of Oxford, points out that Nixey is promoting some outdated teachings

                and finds Nixey’s book without nuance and counter-arguments, and states that

                Nixey’s readers would never know that there are academic works that contradict

                her narrative if they only get their information from her.[9] On twitter Cameron

                called Nixey’s book ”a travesty”.[10]

                00

              • #
                hatband

                Here you go:

                Sensible criticism of Catherine Nixey’s travesty of a book:

                Averil Cameron, professor emerita of Late Antique and Byzantine History at the

                University of Oxford, points out that Nixey is promoting some outdated teachings

                and finds Nixey’s book without nuance and counter-arguments, and states that

                Nixey’s readers would never know that there are academic works that contradict

                her narrative if they only get their information from her.[9] On twitter Cameron

                called Nixey’s book ”a travesty”.[10]

                10

        • #
          PeterS

          Lots of Christians were murdered too by other Christians, Muslims, pagans, etc. The only conclusion one can come to is humans of all types can and do treat other humans very badly at times.

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        • #

          Hypatia has been the subject of fiction and speculation. She was certainly murdered by a savage Christian mob, likely in old age, but she had also been friend and collaborator to Christians, including higher-ups who preferred her moderate Neoplatonism to more extreme forms. She was widely admired by Christians and pagans across the Empire; her death was due mainly to politics in the most political of towns and many Christians were disgusted by the murder. Religion came into it, but it was a power struggle which killed her. The shock and subsequent lack of justice meant that the gap between Neoplatonists and Christians widened after her death.

          Because a bit of Neoplatonism made its way into Christian theology the virgin Hypatia was even regarded as a sort-of Christian before being seen as a martyr to science by the Enlightenment. More lately she has been the hero of atheists and feminists, and she has been suitably de-aged and undressed by authors and by Hollywood. Her political ally, Orestes, is now supposed to have been the lifelong virgin’s lover.

          As for the Library, Hypatia’s brilliant father was the last known director of some such institution, but after Julius Caesar’s ship-burning (fuel loads again!), the Zenobia war, Diocletian’s sack there wasn’t a single great library to burn in 391 AD, though there was certainly authorised vandalism of the Serapeum. Much survived, since there was considerable and deliberate waste of manuscripts by Arab invaders in 640 AD, though many of those could have been newer works.

          The main and most likely culprit was a JC…but it was Julius C.

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  • #
    el gordo

    I got David Speers wrong, the man is a disgrace to the profession.

    ‘Nor is there much sign among Coalition MPs of any clamour to dramatically shift position on climate change, despite the reality of its devastating impact.

    ‘It’s one thing to express “deep regret” if anyone was offended by the Hawaiian holiday.

    ‘It’s entirely another to concede the Coalition has badly mishandled the whole climate debate for the past decade. There’s no sign the Prime Minister is about to do that.’

    ABC

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    • #
      Bill In Oz

      David Speers ?
      Just another Australian Brainwashing Corporation nonentity
      Pushing out the bullsh#t as per contract with the ABC

      181

    • #
      PeterS

      What did you expect? He make ABC admit they got it all wrong and admit CAGW is a scam and a hoax? LOL.

      60

    • #
      WXcycles

      He knows how his bread gets buttered.

      90

      • #
        el gordo

        Why did he take a huge drop in pay to return to the ABC?

        I assumed his brief was to bring the ABC back to the centre, but he may simply be an AGW zealot, along with Ita. So I got this totally wrong.

        We still have the Murdocracy on our side and I’m hopeful that new player Catalano will surprise everyone.

        00

  • #

    Morrison has to watch his back, front, top, bottom and sides.

    A leadership and reputation can be dismantled very quickly when there is an unholy alliance like that between Murdoch and and the ABC in 2015. Australian readers were as convinced as 7.30 Report viewers of the rightness of the operation which installed the inarticulate, oafish and electorally poisonous Turnbull. Bronnie took a chopper ride, Malcolm took a train! Malcolm is a socially liberal business man who does hard-headed deals! He’s into agility and stuff! There wasn’t a dry leg in that Leigh Sales interview, while most of the Murdoch crew were stoked they at last had someone they could run into while browsing the RM Williams at Bowral or shopping for Le Creuset in Woollahra.

    Abbott was certainly responsible for much of his downfall, but the real problem was that he would never have done those “deals” which our “business man” did. I’m talking about oiler subs for next century to compensate France for Russian contract cancellations. I’m talking about the farcical Uphill Snowy and the hundreds of millions to a pop-up green foundation with board members outnumbering staff. And then there was all the stuff he would have tried on if he hadn’t been total electoral poison. He was a globster’s wet dream but couldn’t fool a starving pigeon.

    If ScoMo can work toward the revival of DOMESTIC coal (important distinction to be made) and keep our war commitments light I’ll forgive him most of the rest. Being polite to foreign powers while often saying no would be good. (Presently we insult but say yes.)

    He has to stay alive politically and…well, he has to stay alive. He has a vote or two in him, which helps. If he sells out, he won’t sell us out as fast and hard as the others. If we can’t be Australia, we can at least not be Dastyaria.

    161

    • #
      hatband

      Coal is on the way out, but those soon to be valueless coal deposits aren’t going anywhere, and will be quietly snaffled for a song.

      Pasture raised cattle and sheep are the real target, once they’re gone it’s Game Over.

      511

      • #
        Analitik

        Coal will suddenly come back into fashion when wholesale electricity prices spike even more frequently and the retail pricing reflects it. The inner suburban, greentards have overplayed their hand by assigning all the blame for the intensity and extent of the bushfires on Climate Change and the pushback by the rural folk on the disastrous reduction in back burning is strong enough that the MSM has had to acknowledge it.

        The tide turns slowly but it turns

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        • #
          hatband

          Have some compassion for the Greentards, they’re just Useful Idiots too.

          02

        • #
          John

          My worry is that people won’t twig to it even when it becomes dire. Already the spin is starting that power shortages are due to:

          -Climate change (eg bushfires caused by climate change)
          -Lack of renewables (they’re cheaper and more resilient don’t ya know?)
          -Persistence with coal (it so so expensive and unreliable)

          I suspect our power supplies could fail entirely, with every coal plant shut down, and they would still wouldn’t join the dots.

          110

          • #
            PeterS

            -too much reliance on coal (incompatible with renewables). Yes I heard that comment made a couple of times. Unbelievably stupid.

            120

            • #
              Graeme No.3

              PeterS,
              renewables (without storage) ARE INCOMPATIBLE with coal. It is only that a coal based system has some flexibility that allows renewables to look good. But too much renewables leads to dependence on burning natural gas and diesel (ask SA the blackout State).

              40

              • #
                OriginalSteve

                Its classic divide and conquer – coal is energy independence, solar panels are society remade into the renewables “image”

                Much harder to kill of a coal station that control individual solar panels….

                10

              • #
                PeterS

                True. I was referring to the beliefs by some who say we should not build more coal fired power stations because THEY are incompatible with renewables.

                20

      • #
        WXcycles

        Coal is on the way out …

        Not according to the abundant facts Tony presents within every unthreaded post.

        140

      • #
        John

        Coal isn’t on the way out. But Australia enjoying the benefits of it may well be.

        120

      • #

        Hold on a minute here.

        coal is on the way out

        Imagine if you will an Australian political Leader (either Federal or in any of the States) who immediately had the courage of his convictions and shut down coal fired power ….. and got the hoped for desired result. The political result would be that he would end up being elected for life. There would be no point even bothering to nominate to oppose that party the Leader led. The Leader took the stand of his belief in Climate Change caused by CO2 emissions and closed down the biggest of those emitters, coal fired power, and the World was better for it.

        Has that (ever) happened? Anywhere?

        No!

        You see, they know, (hand on heart) that there’s no way known on Earth that they can even consider closing them down.

        They will just say, and keep on saying, whatever they want to say, whatever they think the public wants to hear.

        They know they can say all of that and get away with it, because no one actually checks, and while that’s laziness, you can’t blame them. They don’t know where to look, and even if they stumbled across those facts, they are so technical that they wouldn’t have the first idea what they were looking at in the first place, and then they wouldn’t dare report it because it goes against the meme, and in this day age would result in the loss of their job, and ridicule unimaginable.

        So, no one looks, no one finds, no one reports, no one tells and no one says.

        Everybody just gets away with it clean, all the way to the top, and they just keep spouting what they always do.

        Consider this.

        Since Hazelwood closed down, nothing else has closed in the way of coal fired power. Power generated from those remaining coal fired plants is the same ….. as before Hazelwood closed, in fact a little higher, so they are getting more power from less coal fired plants.

        Coal fired power still lumbers along at 70% of supply, with hardly a dent being made in that.

        Overall total power consumption (despite technological advances in every facet of electricity consumption) is actually rising on a year to year basis, and this year it rose by One TeraWattHour ….. One TeraWatthour, a half of a percent, and while that 1TWH might sound minute, an average home consumes 20KWH a day, and that 1TWH is actually 1,000,000,000 KWH, so that’s ONE BILLION KiloWattHours, the rise just this last year (January to December)

        However, coal is on the way out, eh! Each coal fired plant is quietly doing Upgrades and long term Overhauls to extend the life of their plants ….. to EXTEND the life of the plant. Even decrepit, ancient (and rumour has it soon to be closed) old Liddell is delivering more power than it has been for years, quite often with all four Units running. The fact that it’s now derated to 425MW of it’s original designed 500MW means they are looking after it to stretch it out. Do you seriously think that if coal had no future, these Companies would be spending the fortunes involved in upgrades, if they knew cold they were going to lose it because their plant was going to be closed.

        No, IF (and that’s a bl00dy huge IF) coal fired power actually COULD be shut down, don’t you think a politician would have jumped on it so fast you wouldn’t see him in slowmo.

        Trust me on this. Coal fired power has a very long future ahead of it.

        Tony.

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        • #
          AndyG55

          As for coal exports,

          One only has to look at the new coal loader in Newcastle and the new Hexham holding yards.

          Why would they spend that sort of money is coal was “on the way out” !

          50

        • #
          Peter C

          No, IF (and that’s a bl00dy huge IF) coal fired power actually COULD be shut down, don’t you think a politician would have jumped on it so fast you wouldn’t see him in slowmo.

          Jay Wetherill comes to mind.

          He blew up South Australia’s coal fired Power Station. Then he lost the next election.

          10

      • #
        yarpos

        Really? when then?

        Where does the 18GW at 4 am come from ?

        Note infigen share price vs Whitehaven over last 5 years

        00

    • #
      sophocles

      If you don’t want another Turnbull, then guard ScoMo.

      152

      • #
        PeterS

        How do you know he isn’t Turnbull 2.0? I have my suspicions. Time will tell whether I’m right or wrong.

        62

        • #
          sophocles

          I don’t, but for the moment he gets my `benefit of the doubt.’

          40

          • #
            PeterS

            Yes he is better than the alternative short term but unless Morrison grows a backbone, stops focusing on reducing our emissions and starts promoting base load power the end result will be the same.

            31

    • #
      TedM

      Presume that by the “Murdoch Crew” you mean Nikki Savva.

      50

      • #
        • #
          hatband

          Murdoch pays the hacks, and if they don’t perform, he sacks them.

          So Savva and PVO must be performing to his satisfaction.

          10

      • #

        No, Ted. I mean most of them, Bolt being a notable exception. Savva was obviously the most hostile to Abbott, but there was general optimism about the coup. When I visited Sydney around that time the Fox-Sky-Australian side of my family seemed as keen as the ABC-Guardian side.

        Turnbull would never have got even to the bottom rungs of politics without relentless corporate boosting and lots of money for Wenty that may or may not have been personal. At least that other Murdoch stable star, Paul Keating, could finish a sentence. Malcolm is probably still trying to ramble to the end of something he started to say four years ago. It’s a credit to Rupert that he was able to get some lipstick on to that pig.

        I have other thoughts on plutocrat greenies like Turnbull and Garnaut but I can’t express them here.

        130

  • #
    Ross

    I too believe Tony Abbott is essentially a good man. Unfortunately he was hopeless as a leader, either of his own party, or the country. This we know. We didn’t die wondering.
    Morrison? Oh dear, it hasn’t exactly his finest hour (week). Perhaps the powers of prayer? Couldn’t hurt at this point. But be careful, Facebook proved to be a false idol.

    313

    • #

      Ross plays the classic Concern Troll. He who calls us climate deniers…

      Fake. Fake. Fake.

      300

      • #
        Ross

        I don’t understand your response at all, Jo. “Concern Troll?” Sorry, what? “Fake. Fake. Fake.” Again, what are you talking about?
        But good to see where your concerns are during this crisis; Scott Morrison’s public image!
        Probably not your finest hour either, Jo, hmmm?

        16

        • #

          What am I talking about: Your last 200 comments of ignorant scorn, venom and not answering the question. Fake concern then. Fake bafflement now.

          Re: Finest hours. A quarter of a million visitors in one month. The government talking about fuel loads. Cartoonists mocking the climate change voo doo.

          Looks good to me.

          140

        • #
          AndyG55

          Poor Ross,

          Everything you type is deeply based on “FAKE”.

          The whole AGW meme is based on “FAKE”.

          You can’t even provide basic real evidence for the most simple meme of the AGW religion that you have been conned into.

          ie, warming by atmospheric CO2

          Only thing not “FAKE” is the lack of intelligence in your continued empty, gormless posts.

          That is totally REAL.

          32

    • #
      AndyG55

      “This we know. We didn’t die wondering.”

      If given a chance, he would have been one of the best leaders the country ever had, that was why the ABC and the far-left gutter-dwellers had to get rid of him with FAKE reports and sliming.

      He was undermined by the leftist Turnbull and his suckophants from the word go.

      112

    • #
      el gordo

      Abbott knew that climate change science was crap, so they had to silence him and put a puppet in his place. The coup which ousted Malcolm saw greatness thrust upon Morrison and he is handling the situation very well.

      Ross do you believe that the world as we know it, is coming to an end?

      51

  • #
    John

    The ABC has historically been good for bushfire coverage, but I’ve been shocked at the extent of the anti SCOMO coverage, particularly on ABC24. They just keep banging on about it. Scomo bad. Scomo bad. Oh and another thing, Scomo is really bad.

    220

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      The regional ABC staff
      know the score
      They have to live with the people
      In the regions
      For example Gippsland
      But the Big city offices ?
      they are all Greenist dedicated propaganda outlets

      160

      • #
        John

        Yes the ideological bias is so blatant. But like most left wing people they don’t accept it’s bias. It’s THE TRUTH.

        80

    • #
      yarpos

      ABC coverage of bushfires is now 20% useful and 80% propaganda and emotive BS.

      00

  • #
    a happy little debunker

    The difference between Scomo and Abbott are vast.

    The ABC and The Guardian have only recently started with their attacks on Scomo.

    Whilst the ABC started properly attacking Abbott in 2001 – when he was made ‘Minister for Employment, Workplace Relations and Small Business’ replacing another vile enemy of Labor ‘workplace relations’ Peter Reith.

    91

    • #
      Analitik

      Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

      10

      • #
        a happy little debunker

        Scomo has been given a seriously easy ride – up til now.

        Whilst implementing ‘Sovereign borders’ he escaped much of the opprobrium dished out to Phillip Ruddock.
        As Treasurer he escaped the scrutiny and insane partisan media gotchas experienced by Joe Hockey.

        This has left him somewhat less guarded to the machinations of the MSM.

        Lessons he is learning HARD now (no matter how undeserved).

        61

  • #
    David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

    Did I miss something from the media?
    I don’t recall any forecast from the omniscient ABC, or its Fact Check back in early November, that the fires running then were in fire bomb areas of National Parks. That those fire bombs were just across narrow roads, called highways up there, from other similarly managed fire bombs. Or that if the fires jumped that highway into the next they’d run to the coast??
    That they’d be unstoppable. Even by aircraft?
    Did they mention that ALL the big fires ran through NPs or other government controlled lands?
    The firies did.
    And the several commissions of inquiry came close a few years back.
    Did the SMH, with its specialist environment editor?
    Or did those magnificent media moguls cover it up?
    Cheers
    Dave B

    190

  • #
    jack

    With the patience of Fabius Maximus, the slow but inevitable tide of progressive(isum) creeps forward.
    It has placed us on the long down hill march of individual responsibility to state responsibility.
    With that we exchange freedoms for safety, rights for demands, reason for faith.
    The main stream media and social media ensures everyone is in step.
    :
    Recent events are almost classic Hegelian dialectic:
    Create the problem: Allow unprecedented fuel loads to build. Creating the inevitable inferno.
    Propagate Anti Thesis: It was caused by Global Warming (Climate Change)(Bette Midler, Jennifer Aniston, et al.)
    Solution: Global Statism.
    Publicly burn at the stake anyone who does not comply. (Morrison et al.)

    251

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      The Marxist dialectic process in operation !
      WOW !

      40

    • #
      PeterS

      It appears to be heading that way. Morrison might be our last hope to turn things around but so far it doesn’t look good. At least we have America on our side but for how long? If we ever lose that support we might as well start learning a Chinese language.

      50

      • #
        jack

        The hounds are baying at the door,
        Our walls of reason are crumbling,
        Were is our deus ex machina?

        40

        • #
          PeterS

          Where is our deus ex machina?

          It appears one doesn’t exists here in Australia. The closest we have is Trump. We could hope to become another sate of the US but I suspect even that won’t be enough since the US is now falling apart with an internal war brewing thanks to the Democrats and MSM.

          10

    • #
      John

      What I don’t understand is why everyone is falling for it hook line and sinker? All these otherwise rational people blindly following.

      What has happened to our collective psyche? Do people really believe it?

      90

      • #
        jack

        John
        Your questions are in the realms of epistemology.
        Possibly the true battle ground of modern philosophy.
        If someone believes something, be a child and keep asking Why? and see how deep it goes.
        You may find we are not that rational.

        30

      • #
        PeterS

        The answer is simple. Once a nation moves away from God, relativism becomes the “order” of the day, moral decay rises and some form of socialism or communism takes over.

        41

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Correct. Removing God from public life allows relativism to rule.

          At Hitler found, once you can harness public emotion, all forms of evil were possible.

          70

          • #
            PeterS

            Too bad very few learn from history. Anyway, it will be fixed by you know who in the end. There is no other way. All human solutions have failed and will continue to fail.

            20

          • #
            yarpos

            Yes society made much more sense when we listened to kiddie fiddlers in robes.

            00

    • #
      WXcycles

      Jennifer Aniston would be fine, if she had a mute button.

      30

  • #
    BGi

    Anyone notice that since the ScoMo on SmoKo holiday thing, the esteemed Mr Dutton has been keeping a very low profile hasn’t he?? The PM probably didn’t win a lot of friends over how hast the tried to throw Gladys under the bus either? 🙂 But that Godless wretch is no loss.

    Now that the PM has rolled over on Climate Change, basically denied the Coalitions previously strong previous position on that, he has abrogated his right to be PM, and worst, pissed all over Gods grace in sending us the election win in May. He should slink off in shame and let the country be ruled by someone worthy. Tony the Genuine Firefighter comes to mind.

    51

  • #
    steamed

    Send him a short quiet personal note of thanks and encouragement.
    I think little gestures like that can really help.
    When I’ve thanked politicians before – like Sr Rennick, for bringing up the BOM’s data massage in the Senate – I often get a note back.
    A little Thank You goes a Long Way.
    It gives a person a fresh injection of self-confidence and energy.
    Thanks for posting this Jo, I had been thinking of writing my thanks to Scomo for a little while, and I finally did it after reading your post.

    110

  • #
  • #
    PeterS

    Yes Morrison is far to weak. He is letting the MSM and others walk all over him. Unlike Trump, Morrison does nothing to retaliate. He needs to take some lessons from Trump. In fact he should get Trump over here to work on a plan of attack. However, it’s not likely Morrison will change. In fact more and more of his ministers are sprouting the usual climate change crap. I feel all is lost. Someone please explain to me I’m wrong.

    111

    • #
      Analitik

      Morrison’s position is not comparable to Trump as POTUS. He is more akin to Newt Gingrich (or Nancy Pelosi) as Speaker of the House and has a far more delicate political balance to strike. Tony Abbot’s dumping shows the fate of those who are too direct in Australian politics.

      20

      • #
        PeterS

        Yes they are far apart in many aspects but if Morrison only knew how much the left here hate him he would get all the help he can muster from Trump to fight them.

        70

  • #
    TedM

    Peta Credlin and Martyn Iles are both right on the money. Get a backbone Scott, serve it up to the bath-plugs. Like the bullies they are they will cringe, snivel and throw hissy fits if you serve it up to them. Then the public will see them for what they are, vacuous windbags.

    160

  • #
    Kim

    I’ve been listening to the coverage on 2GB the last few days, listening to all the massive hurt caused by the “greenies” and “the climate change lot”. There has been a lot of understanding and support for the PM by the real people – the people that actually matter. It’s been explained – the people understand – bush fires are state and local council responsibility, not federal responsibility. The federal government acts on request and it has been doing that. In recent days it’s gone further and been proactive. Stop complaining, stop winging. “nothing’s perfect, always getting better” – that’s what’s happening and that’s the way that it should go.

    The lefties with their microaggressions, their safe spaces, their virtue signalling, their spoilt little brat attitude – they don’t have a clue of the massive gut wrenching hurt that they cause. And people are starting to realise that in bucket loads.

    The community spirit in Australia has been massive. All the effort and sacrifice – volunteer and professional. The massive amounts of donations and support. This is the real Australia, not the guttersnipes.

    270

    • #
      TedM

      “the people that actually matter” I like that Kim.That is what matters.

      100

    • #
      Analitik

      Exactly. Rural Australians understand the consequences of allowing fuel loads to build indefinitely and the MSM is being forced to acknowledge this. The younger generations (and recent treechangers) may not have believed their elders until these recent fires but it’s obvious now – even in the most ferocious blazes, it is the undergrowth that has been incinerated and larger trees still remain, even if their foliage has been burnt away (and often it has not).

      Slowly, ever so slowly, the truth is being reported

      160

      • #
        PeterS

        I do see a window of opportunity for Morrison there. He could pull all stops and turn things around by making such statements about fuel loads and scoffing at the climate change idea. I suspect though he will chicken out and not budge from his two-faced view on climate change and simply focus on the fuel load problem. I suppose half a good result is better than nothing.

        80

        • #
          Analitik

          He has been doing this. Maybe not outright scoffing at the notion of Climate Change as the base cause of the blazes but he has stressed the need for more fuel reduction and ignored the calls for Climate Change action in his recent interviews and press releases. The signs are good and the mood shift of the electorate will be encouraging for him. Let’s hope Angus Taylor follows Morrison’s lead and the likes of Julie Bishop (dug out by the MSM from retirement) and Josh Frydenberg are ignored.

          60

  • #
    Salome

    ScoMo is copping it for his original sin–winning the election. The shrill classes have been waiting for a situation where he’s damned whether he does or doesn’t, and here it is. Unfortunately, it gets picked up on social media and runs riot. He should be ‘showing leadership’. Well, I’d sort of agree–leadership of calling out the climate change fraud for what it is–but at the moment he’s probably the best of all possible PMs and we need to stick behind him, aware that there are plenty of far worse alternatives out there.

    90

    • #
      Deano

      Exactly. This current campaign against Morrison looks very similar to the anti-Trump program in the U.S. media. They’ve got nothing so they just invent outrages.

      80

    • #
      yarpos

      Mmmm the bushfires certainly seem to me letting the media release some Scomo frustration pent up after that stupid election went off script.

      00

  • #
    PeterS

    Interesting explanations why we are having the large fires recently:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrckA1PFtkg

    30

  • #
    Turtle

    Pure Alinsky. Personalise it, freeze it. Point and shriek. Morrison = Denier = Bushfires and repeat.

    70

  • #
    Deano

    This is one the best columns from Jo I’ve read. I don’t know what is happening to my country. Australians usually discard their differences in a crisis and band together. This is the first time I can remember witnessing a disaster being used to divide people and push a political agenda. The feeding frenzy around Morrison promoted by the traditional media is disgusting and without shame. It’s the first time I’ve seen a PM turn up at the scene of a fire to try comforting people and copping abuse. He hasn’t handled this perfectly for sure, but some of the criticism is plain ridiculous – His shirt was too white, He traveled there in a nice new BMW, He didn’t instantly throw money at anyone asking for it.

    And thanks for pointing out Abbott was busy fighting fires – something the ABC would avoid reporting I’m sure!

    161

  • #
    Graeme Bird

    Substantial rain where I am right now. Southern Highlands. Looks like the crisis might be over for now if the rain is widespread.

    70

  • #
    Henry

    Has anybody else read these articles about all the people charged with starting the brush fires? It is critical to get the word out.

    https://summit.news/2020/01/06/nearly-200-people-arrested-across-australia-for-deliberately-starting-bushfires/

    Henry

    50

    • #
      Deplorable Lord Kek

      would be interesting to know their political affiliations.

      40

    • #
      Bill In Oz

      The two big fires in the Adelaide Hills
      Happened because trees fell on power lines !
      SA Power Networks might be in bulk trouble
      For not ensuring that it’s power lines are safe from falling trees.
      And local councils with Greenist bias against clearing trees under power lines
      May have the same problem

      100

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Bill,
        SA Power Networks have had contractors lopping trees near power lines all year around Lobethal, Woodside etc. Didn’t help.
        The Adelaide Hills Council may have done some clearing although I’ve seen very, very little evidence of that.

        Yes, the electricity was cut off, and mostly for safety reasons. That it was restored fairly quickly over a wide area suggests that any tree damage has been exaggerated.

        30

        • #
          Bill In Oz

          Graeme the Cudlee Creek fire of December 20th
          Was started by a tree branch falling on power lines.
          So too was the fire at Kersbrook last Friday night.

          I know ‘Active 8’ do tree pruning under lines in the Hills
          But clearly nothing was done to prevent trees in these two places.
          And yes I know there is an issue as to who is/was responsible
          For these particular power lines.
          t may be private property owners or SA Power Networks

          10

  • #

    You guys have a model how this done with Trump. Might even have a second one with BoJo. Some would point to Netanyahu as a third. I think persuasion skills are incredibly important.

    Trump’s response has been to double, triple down on a turn to the right rather than meet those who would destroy him in the middle. Has it worked? My dime, says yes but I am biased. Won’t know for sure until Nov.

    Sounds like your guys are trying the Bush – Romney – McCain path, which got them all destroyed by the media and the political left. Tough to work with those who hate you and want to destroy everything you believe in.

    Good luck, guys. Sooner or later you will put people into office who will go after the other side with chain saws rather than handshakes. Once that bit flip happens, you will be well on your way to at least joining the fight on an equal basis. It will be tough, but I can’t think of anyone better situated to fight it. Cheers –

    90

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    It’s always someone else’ s fault. What a pathetic defence. Even Piers Morgan has jumped your ship.

    324

    • #
      AndyG55

      Yet you want to blame anyone else except those really responsible.

      You have shot yourself in the foot yet again, pee-brain.

      I’m surprised you have any toes left. !

      162

      • #
        Ross

        As do you Andy. Bit of a mess all round.

        13

        • #
          AndyG55

          You still have no evidence do you little ross.

          Nothing but an empty AGW vassal.

          41

        • #
          AndyG55

          No, we know what is responsible for the intensity of these fires.

          Nothing to do with atmospheric CO2

          All to do with large build-up of fuel-load in neglected National Parks and State Forests.

          Drought is all to do with natural climate variability, only a few years ago Australia had well above average annual rainfall.

          It is very sad that people like you just regurgitate AGW mantra crap when you obviously have never bothered to get a fuller understanding of the WEATHER systems behind the current drought.

          Just mimic what your AGW masters tell you.

          You don’t ever need to use your own brain, or get a proper education that way.

          Worship Greta, a nil-educated 16 year old with deep-seated personal issues.

          About your standard.

          60

    • #
      el gordo

      ‘What a pathetic defence.’

      Strongly disagree, our media on AGW is overwhelmingly united in the belief that global warming is a real threat and anyone with a different view will be vilified. Do you believe we have reached a catastrophic tipping point, requiring the immediate closure of our coal fired power stations?

      The manufacturing of troof is not new, aunty is the propaganda wing of the klimatariat and extremely powerful. Which is why I regularly read China Daily for a breath of fresh air.

      70

    • #
      beowulf

      “It’s always someone else’ s fault,” sez the Fitz.

      Peter Fitzroy
      January 5, 2020 at 1:25 am · Reply
      Instead of blaming bogy men, why not face the facts . . .
      So man up and take responsibility for thee [sic] fires which you have played a major part [in].

      You were saying????

      51

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Pure Soviet style agit-prop, Patricia.

      Tsk Tsk.

      20

  • #
    graham dunton

    The ScoMo-Bad filter,is yet eclipses by, the Labor- totally blind filter.
    But, is there a choice between the two filters available?

    01

    • #
      PeterS

      There are many filters. All we can hope for now is Morrison to remove the filter over the ABC to expose it for what it really is; a leftist propaganda machine of massive proportions attacking the government with great force and ironically paid for and supported by the government.

      20

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Like Garfield sitting on a fence singing under a full moon, you make yourself a bigger target.

    Look out for that flying shoe from the left & wet sock from the right.

    00

  • #
    Salome

    It’s livestock day on the ABC today. Apparently lots of cattle have perished in the fires in the high country. Are these the same cattle that are barred from grazing in the forests, where they could’ve helped to keep the fuel load down?

    100

  • #
    Dennis

    NASA confirms their own conspiracy theory, BoM style data doctoring;

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xMc1o2tUBds&feature=emb_title

    30

    • #
      RickWill

      Craig Kelly is one MP who needs strong support. I have posted his response to me following an email supporting his views but do it again below to encourage others to do likewise so he know he is widely appreciated for challenging the new religion:

      Thanks Rick,

      The lessons from history teach us appeasement never works.

      If we stay silent and don’t argue the facts – for fear of upsetting those that will never vote for us – we will get slaughtered at the election, and it will make coming back even harder.

      Thanks for sending this.

      Regards,
      Craig

      This is a lesson ScoMo needs to learn – you cannot please everyone. A leader needs to have conviction and courage.

      70

  • #
  • #
    mem

    Craig Kelly is a shining light compared to the rest of the jelly backs.I’m on team Kelly’s side.
    https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/breaking-news/liberal-mp-slammed-on-uk-television/news-story/1df7e13d556b84c6cdc6cc23dbc36de3

    150

    • #
      John

      I’m a bit perplexed over that interview. Piers Morgan generally rants against the “woke left”, it’s his thing, yet his language here is straight from the woke left playbook. He’s parroting the same script as Jennifer Aniston. What gives?

      20

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      And the “ex FireChiefs” are the very people who stood back for thirty years and watched the fuel build for this firestorm!

      They are now fully paid up members of the Climate Club and looking foward to their next meeting at COP6.

      KK

      90

    • #
      robert rosicka

      Just watched a bit of this Q and A style ambush on Kelly and he seemed to go alright but was constantly interrupted and berated by the hostile green press who didn’t want to hear what he was saying and didn’t give him much of a chance to get his point across .
      But overall well done to Craig Kelly .

      80

    • #
      PeterS

      Craig Kelly should be let loose by Morrison to tell the whole truth about the CAGW scam and hoax.

      40

      • #
        Serp

        It was his insubordination through a resolute insistence upon seeing the full NEG legislation that provoked the political dilettante Turnbull’s petulant seppuku; my guess is that setting him loose amounts to a frolic no leader would hazard.

        00

  • #
    mem

    According to this article Scott Morrison is holding his ground regarding lefty demands for increasing climate commitments. This is good news.
    Australia won’t give money to Green Climate Fund, says PM https://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/10/08/australia-wont-give-money-green-climate-fund-says-pm/

    70

  • #
    George McFly......I'm your density

    Jo, having grown up listening to and watching the ABC since the sixties I completely stopped watching or listening about 7-8 years ago because of their nauseating green-left bias.

    Occasionally I watch the weather report on the 7pm news where I have never heard Jenny Woodward mention the climate hysteria.

    100

    • #
      John

      I still watch but agree the ideological bias has accelerated over the past decade.

      50

    • #
      yarpos

      Thats funny we have done the same, just watch the last 5 or 10 minutes for the weather now.

      The so called news became a joke , in VIC at least, with each identity group having to score an item and then just maybe you could find out whats happening in the world. Just a waste of time.

      10

  • #
    WXcycles

    Meh, BOM have done it once again, called another tropical-storm a freaking “cyclone” (TC Blake).

    This is the BOM classification for Cat-1:
    10-minute sustained wind of a BOM Cat-1
    34–47 knots (39–54 mph; 63–87 km/h)

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_cyclone_scales

    And note within that link that every other region and country on Earth calls a BOM ‘Cat-1 Tropical cyclone’, a mere Tropical Storm system.

    But if you want to constantly fan a “Weather-Infinity-Crisis™” first you must rig the temp data, then bias the wind-speed and storm-scale classifications.

    From the current BOM warning: “Intensity: Category 1, sustained winds near the centre of 65 kilometres per hour with wind gusts to 95 kilometres per hour.”

    Yeah, in your dreams BOM, take a look at the current radar-loop. This imaginary ‘cyclone’ is on the coast right over the town of Broome now, and there’s almost nothing there. Hardly even any rain banding! It’s pitiful:

    http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDR171.loop.shtml#skip

    Here are the observations from the eastern ‘eyewall’, currently situated directly over the Broome sensors:
    http://www.bom.gov.au/products/IDW60801/IDW60801.94203.shtml

    Current winds (07/05:30am local) Wind speed= 37 km/h, Max gust = 54 km/h. It’s not even near tropical storm strength, sorry BOM Cat-1 ‘cyclone’ speed.

    No professionalism or even basic honesty to be seen there.

    What a shameless joke BOM has become! If they had tried to pull this sort of corrupt stunt during the early 1980s there would have been a public outrage and a parliamentary inquiry, the people responsible for such a farce sacked forthwith. But ScoMo and Co., will do nothing whatsoever about this, as his and prior lazy Federal Govts., have all ‘normalized’ this via winked-at the gross corruption and incompetence of BOM’s cyclone forecasting and official warnings.

    In the ‘too-hard bin’ again, ScoMo? Canberra?

    130

    • #
      el gordo

      Morrison could have a reshuffle and replace Susan Ley with Craig Kelly, then we’ll get our audit at least.

      80

    • #
      Travis T. Jones

      The data BoM publishes no longer matches the records in digitised newspapers on trove.

      100

      • #
        John

        I wonder with the advance of technology and automation if things will decay so much that the old
        digitised records get “updated” to match the modern “correct” values.

        20

      • #
        yarpos

        Well then clearly the false archive needs to be deleted

        00

    • #
      John

      Are they increasing the number of cyclones? Is it definitely a change in how they assess them?

      10

      • #
        Travis T. Jones

        Perhaps the BoM have worked through their “several theories” and TC Blake is the new climate and new “basic physics”

        2017: “This year, on the other hand, the low numbers have blindsided them.
        Dr Andrew Watkins the manager of climate prediction services at the bureau, said scientists are, at present, trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.

        They have a few theories, Dr Watkins said, and are presently crunching the data to get to the bottom of it.
        “There are several theories and at the moment the data is pouring in from satellites and everywhere,” he said.

        But he said “basic physics” governed that climate change global warming would increase the intensity of cyclones in the future.

        It does not, however, explain this season’s anomaly.

        “Being perfectly honest, climate change global warming is a factor in most of our climate science these days but in terms of tropical cyclones you couldn’t put this season down to climate change global warming,” he said.

        http://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/cyclone-blanche-is-latest-to-cross-land-in-second-consecutive-quiet-season-in-australian-history/news-story/220bd07cbd24d1db32cfd2175d3ec2ac

        Update 1-6-18: New CAS paper on global tropical cyclones:
        Since 1997 “there have been 14 below avg years & only 6 above avg years… Evidence that these warmer temperatures, along with warmer oceans, have increased the frequency & intensity of TCs remains to be seen.”

        https://www.casact.org/pubs/forum/18spforumv2/05_Collins.pdf

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      WXcycles

      Currently a raging maelstrom of 56 km/h! Will anyone survive this?

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    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    The Marxist ABC should target Al Gore. He invented global warming and climate change.

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    pat

    6 Jan: SMH: Legal action taken against 183 people this bushfire season
    By Sally Rawsthorne
    NSW Police have taken legal action against 183 people so far this bushfire season, including charging 24 people with deliberately lighting bushfires.
    Since November, police have also taken legal action against 53 people for failing to comply with a total fire ban and against 47 people for discarding a lighted cigarette or match on land.
    Legal action ranges from cautioning to laying criminal charges, police said on Monday…

    Among the 24 charged with the deliberate lighting of fires was 19-year-old RFS volunteer Blake William Banner, who was arrested in relation to seven different fires in the Bega Valley…
    Strike Force Toronto – made up of specialist investigators from the Financial Crimes Squad’s Arson Unit – is also investigating a fire at Georges Hall in Sydney’s south-west over the weekend, which they say was deliberately lit.
    Detectives are also investigating a fire they believe was deliberately lit at Jindabyne on Friday.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw-fires-legal-action-taken-against-183-people-this-bushfire-season-20200106-p53p97.html

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    Ross

    “Dan Andrew largely escapes criticism for being on holidays.” A whopping ONE HOUR, out of Melbourne. Aloha.

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    RickWill

    Morrison needs to lead. That requires mapping a course based on knowledge. There is nothing that he could do about reducing Australian consumption of fossil fuel that will alter global atmospheric CO2 within the next 1000 years.

    He needs to bang heads at the State level so these weak minded premiers get back to basics – reliable, low cost water supply, reliable, low cost power supply, reliable, low cost transport infrastructure, reliable, low cost waste water treatment. Encourage the Premiers to bang heads at council level so they get back to basics of providing reliable garbage collection, serviceable local roads and community amenities. Eliminate all the “climate emergency’ crap that is being trotted out endlessly as the reason for their failure in providing services and ever rising cost of services.

    Privatise the BoM and ABC. These nutters need to learn how to make a living without leaching.

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      ianl

      Not a hope, Rick.

      As said earlier, the gun held to the back of our heads has long been fired. The bullet is now exiting the barrel.

      Twelve months or so from now, “no substantive debate in public” activists, materially aided by the MSM, will have destroyed sufficient of our culture and infrastructure to prevent its’ usefulness. That is the aim.

      Some people will not understand this. Collateral damage …

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    pat

    behind paywall:

    5 Jan: Financial Times: Offshore forecast fears blow through European wind farms
    Danish energy group Orsted believes wind production forecasts across the industry may be too high…
    https://www.ft.com/content/6a38e0e4-0f79-11ea-a7e6-62bf4f9e548a

    Ed Clowes’ Telegraph piece is also behind paywall:

    6 Jan: GWPF: UK Telegraph: Wind Farm Giant Ørsted Cuts Jobs After Discovering Wind Is Less Effective Than Thought
    The largest offshore wind farm developer in the world has laid off around 15 people from its business, and is currently weighing further cuts, as the company warns that wind might not be quite as effective as previously thought.
    Orsted made its UK managing director redundant at the beginning of December, in addition to two other senior executives, including Thyge Boserup, senior vice president of global development.
    The Telegraph can reveal that Orsted is shifting its focus towards its corporate customers, resulting in the redundancies of around 15 employees in its Danish and German offices, as the wind farm operator mulls further cuts to its UK and Sweden offices…

    In October, Orsted’s share price fell by more than 7pc when it warned that its wind farms were producing less power than expected.
    ***The company blamed this dip in production on the fact that wind turbines block each others wind, thereby decreasing its efficiency…LINK
    https://www.thegwpf.com/wind-farm-giant-orsted-cuts-jobs-after-discovering-wind-is-less-effective-than-thought/

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    pat

    follow-up to Orsted/offshore wind worries comment, which is in moderation.

    6 Jan: BusinessGreen: World risks shortage of materials for EVs and wind turbines without agreements for green supply chains, experts warn
    Academics at the University of Sussex predict shortages of crucial materials such as cobalt and lithium without international agreements and more reuse and recycling
    Global production of batteries, solar panels, electric cars and wind turbines could stutter without more action to shore up the supply of vital rare minerals and metals, a team of international experts warned last week.

    Without more reuse and recycling of rare materials such as lithium, cadmium, cobalt and copper, and international agreements to safeguard their supply around the world, the world could face a global shortage of these crucial green materials, they argue…
    But according to the researchers, who also launched a paper on the topic on Friday, global supplies of these materials are often concentrated in a single country or heavily monopolised by one country, often politically unstable…READ ALL
    https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3084857/world-risks-shortage-of-materials-for-evs-and-wind-turbines-without-agreements-for-green-supply-chains-experts-warn

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      Environment Skeptic

      I suspect that unfettered prioritized access to these will be for military and law enforcement products in the future.

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    Environment Skeptic

    Interesting earth directed solar storm expected. My pet theory is that every time these occur, we get vastly increased rainfall…

    Lets wait and see for a few days to see if this happens or over the coming week. I expect it is sure fire in my limited experience.

    “An Earth-Directed Solar Storm & A Holy Grail | Space Weather News 01.06.2020”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKqDr7GKcxQ

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    pat

    solar/wind cabal not happy:

    6 Jan: UK Independendent: Greece and Israel agree deal to build world’s longest underwater gas pipeline despite pledge to cut fossil fuels
    ‘If we’re going to meet Paris targets … gas has to remain relatively flat in demand, then post-2030 has to decline rapidly,’ says expert
    by Jane Dalton
    The new €6bn (£5.1bn) underwater pipeline, which would be the world’s longest, is forecast to meet about 10 per cent of Europe’s gas needs by 2025.
    Italy will be the largest single purchaser of the Israeli gas, but several other European countries also stand to benefit…

    The EastMed line, which would run for 1,900km (1,180 miles) from Israeli and Cypriot gas fields via Greece to Italy, is expected to carry up to 20 billion cubic metres of gas a year…
    …Europe’s gas demands are rising, and the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies estimates that demand will outstrip liquefied natural gas supply within three years…READ ON
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/gas-pipeline-israel-europe-eu-italy-fossil-fuel-eastmed-underwater-a9271466.html

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    pat

    the in-fighting continues:

    5 Jan: UK Telegraph:Extinction Rebellion activists embroiled in row over whether flying is ever acceptable
    By Robert Mendick, Chief Reporter and Molly Blackall
    One of the group’s founders has branded flying a “no-no” for any “vaguely moral person in this society” while some of Extinction Rebellion’s highest profile celebrity supporters have caused deep concern by continuing to take flights for trivial reasons.

    Roger Hallam went on to compare flying to eating meat. “It’s just a physical fact that it’s beyond bad,” he said in a podcast with Flight Free UK, which encourages people to take a pledge to stop flying…He has called the planned expansion of the airport a “a crime against humanity”.

    Another section of the direct action group, which has caused widespread chaos in a series of protests across the UK, is demanding the Government introduces rationing for flights. Other Extinction rebellion protesters have even suggested scrapping all airfares but allowing one return flight per person every two years.

    Meanwhile Their demands have put the group at loggerheads with some of their most promiment celebrity supporters, who signed a letter in the autumn acknowledging their hypcorisy in living “high carbon lives” while supporting Extinction Rebellion (XR) and praising the group for its “courage”…

    The Telegraph understands that senior members of XR are uneasy with the backing of celebrities who have carried on with their jet-set lifestyle while offering to pay a small fee to offset their carbon footprint. XR activists are deeply uncomfortable with carbon offsetting. But they also accept that for most people it is impractical to expect them to take a boat long distances…

    Some senior leaders are fearful of alienating the wider public by demanding a widespread ban on air travel.
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/05/extinction-rebellion-activists-embroiled-row-whether-flying/

    fake poll:

    5 Jan: Guardian: Britons reach Africans’ annual carbon emissions in just two weeks
    Research for Oxfam shows inequality between footprints of people in UK and in countries including Rwanda, Ethiopia and Malawi
    by Robin McKie
    The average British person will have emitted more carbon dioxide in the first two weeks of this year than a citizen of any one of seven African nations does in an entire year.
    This is the key finding of an Oxfam project, published on Sunday, which discovered that someone in the UK will take just five days to emit the same carbon as someone in Rwanda does in a year.
    And by next Sunday, 12 January, the average Briton’s emissions will have overtaken the annual per capita emissions of a further six African countries: Madagascar, Malawi, Ethiopia, Uganda, Guinea and Burkina Faso…

    However, the encouraging thing is the willingness of the British public to take action.”
    This view is supported by the results of a YouGov poll, carried out for Oxfam and also published on Sunday. It shows that 61% of people in Britain want the government to do more to address the climate emergency. Most respondents also say they would be willing to act to reduce their own carbon footprints…
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/05/britain-annual-carbon-emissions-overtake-africa-two-weeks-oxfam

    5 Jan: Guardian: In 2020, the UK must seize the chance to lead the world on the climate emergency
    by Danny Sriskandarajah (chief executive, Oxfam GB)
    Wealthy nations have pledged to provide $100bn (£89bn) in climate finance every year by 2020. The UK should use its position as host of this year’s climate talks to push other countries to follow its lead in helping to reach this target and beyond while ensuring that funding doesn’t come from cuts to medicines, schools and other overseas aid commitments…
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/05/in-2020-uk-must-seize-chance-to-lead-world-on-climate-emergency

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    pat

    behind paywall:

    5 Jan: UK Times: John Collingridge: Sort out the shambles that is our energy sector
    It was soon lost in the fog of Brexit, but the power cut last August that left thousands of people stranded on trains, more than 1m people (HOUSEHOLDS) without electricity and a hospital shut down was a story of our times.

    The cause of the blackouts was the simultaneous failure of two power generators: a gas-fired plant near Cambridge and an offshore wind farm in the North Sea. Last week, their owners agreed to pay £4.5m each for their role in the blackout. But more telling was the increasingly fragmented and fragile power system that the incident exposed.

    National Grid, the FTSE 100 transmission giant, is responsible for balancing the UK’s power needs through its role as system operator. When the power stations disconnected from the…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/john-collingridge-sort-out-the-shambles-that-is-our-energy-sector-8zn6nmkfm

    further excerpts found on no2nuclearpower UK blog:

    While simultaneous power station shutdowns might be a stroke of bad luck, that incident exposed the lack of resilience and planning in the UK’s power system — and that will begin to bite very soon…
    Those big power stations were dirty but they were also reliable, and played a crucial role in stabilising the grid and balancing its frequency. If we’re vulnerable now, what about when the nuclear power stations close in the course of the next decade or so? Recently, Japan’s nuclear giants Toshiba and Hitachi have both walked away from building new ones. In place of these big power stations, a fragmented and hugely complex patchwork has evolved — one in which the owners of back-up diesel generators and batteries are paid handsomely to provide tiny slivers of energy in an emergency, and subsea cables suck power from the Continent…

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    pat

    6 Jan: SmartEnergyUK: Three UK energy firms to pay £10.5 million over 2019 blackout
    UK regulator Ofgem’s investigation into the blackout on Friday 9 August 2019 found that the combined loss of two large generators, as well as the smaller loss of generation at a local level, together triggered the subsequent disconnection, loss of power and disruption to more than one million consumers.

    Ofgem has concluded that two large power stations, Hornsea One Ltd (co-owned by Orsted) and Little Barford (operated by RWE) did not remain connected after the lightning strike. They have agreed to make a voluntary payment of £4.5 million each into Ofgem’s redress fund.

    Ofgem found that local network operators disconnected and reconnected consumers in response to the loss of power as expected. However, UK Power Networks began reconnecting customers without being asked to by the ESO, which could have potentially jeopardised recovery of the system…

    Ofgem has also made recommendations to ensure the UK continues to have one of the world’s most reliable electricity systems in the world, particularly as more small scale generation is connected to the system…READ ALL
    https://www.smart-energy.com/industry-sectors/business-finance-regulation/three-uk-energy-firms-to-pay-10-5-million-over-2019-blackout/

    read all:

    5 Jan: Paul Homewood: The Role of Distributed Generation in the UK Blackout of 9 August 2019
    John Constable has taken a closer look at the final reports into last summer’s blackouts.
    Hidden away is the critical role played by embedded generation, typically wind and solar farms.
    John’s post is pretty technical, but the take home message is that the loss of this embedded generation was much greater than originally thought, and probably played the major role in the blackouts. As the share of such unreliable renewable generation rises, so the instability of the grid will increase…LINK GWPF & REPORT
    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/01/05/the-role-of-distributed-generation-in-the-uk-blackout-of-9-august-2019/

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    pat

    behind paywall:

    5 Jan: UK Times: Green parties: Austrian environmentalists ride wave of popularity to join ruling coalition
    As the movement’s backing grows, it has formed a coalition with conservatives in a model watched closely in Berlin
    by Peter Conradi
    Austria’s left-leaning Greens formally agreed yesterday to join a coalition led by the conservative People’s Party, in a sign of the growing influence of environmental parties in Europe in response to fears of climate change.

    Sebastian Kurz, 33, is due to be sworn in on Tuesday as the world’s youngest elected leader, for a second time, after first becoming chancellor in December 2017 at the head of a controversial coalition with the far-right Freedom Party. That government collapsed in May, after the emergence of footage shot in a sting operation at a luxury villa in Ibiza. It showed the party’s head, Heinz-Christian Strache, the vice-chancellor, apparently offering government contracts to a woman posing as a Russian oligarch’s niece in return for political donations…
    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/greens-ride-european-popularity-wave-to-help-run-austria-hbzjvtj6r

    further excerpts found at no2nuclearpower blog in UK:

    Many more radical members of the Greens were unhappy, however, with a coalition described by the Austrian media as considerably more turquoise, the colour of the People’s Party, than green. Although they have been rewarded with a rise in tax on flights, a cut in the cost of public transport and a pledge to make Austria carbon neutral by 2040, the Greens will have to support Kurz’s tax-cutting economic agenda and conservative social policies, partly carried over from the previous conservative-far right coalition. Greens made gains in May’s elections to the European parliament, and are at present in coalitions in Finland, Sweden, Lithuania and Luxembourg — though, in all four cases, they rule alongside Social Democrats and other left-of-centre parties rather than conservatives, as will be the case in Austria. The Greens are already in government in 12 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments — in seven of them alongside the CDU. They lead the government of just one: the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg.

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    pat

    5 Jan: Guardian: Austria’s Greens vote to enter government with People’s party
    Untested left-right alliance may prove template for future coalition in Germany
    by Associated Press in Berlin
    Werner Kogler, the leader of the Greens, had urged delegates to put aside concerns about entering a coalition with Kurz’s conservatives and recognise the opportunity to make progress on issues such as cutting child poverty, increasing government transparency and combating climate change. He noted that months of negotiations with the People’s party had already produced a plan for a 2021 tax reform that emphasises environmental protection.
    “Big, fat, stinking diesel SUVs are going to get more expensive,” Kogler told the party meeting in Salzburg, citing the current wildfires in Australia as an example of natural disasters fuelled by climate change…

    The election became necessary after the collapse of Kurz’s previous coalition government with the Freedom party following the release of a video showing its then-leader, Heinz-Christian Strache, offering favours to a purported Russian investor (NO FURTHER DETAIL)…

    Kobler will become vice-chancellor and his fellow Green party member Leonore Gewessler will lead a new “super ministry” overseeing environment, energy and infrastructure. The 42-year-old was previously the political head of the environmental campaign group Global 2000.

    The Greens will also send the first Austrian of immigrant background into government. Alma Zadic, whose family fled to Austria from Bosnia when she was ten years old, will take the justice portfolio.
    The interim foreign minister, Alexander Schallenberg, will remain in post. Although not formally a member of the People’s party he has close ties to Kurz.
    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/04/austria-greens-vote-to-enter-government-with-peoples-party

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    pat

    behind paywall:

    5 Jan: Financial Times: Motorway services fear grid not ready for electric cars
    Britain’s electricity network is “not fit for purpose” and is stifling the rollout of electric vehicle chargers along key trunk roads in the UK, say motorway services operators.Electric vehicles currently account for only about 2 per cent of sales in the UK, but a steep rise is expected during the next two years as carmakers strive to meet new stringent CO2 targets and as the country gears up to hit its target of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

    Motorway service areas are preparing to increase their charging provisions to meet the jump in demand. But Simon Turl, chairman of operator RoadChef, said his company’s attempts to add charging services have been held up by distribution network operators (DNOs), which own local electricity grids and demand millions of pounds and waits of up to three years, to install new power lines…
    https://www.ft.com/content/594345dc-20d0-11ea-b8a1-584213ee7b2b

    let’s all walk:

    5 Jan: Guardian: Environmentally friendly electric cars: the pedestrian’s enemy?
    Walkers are paying a hidden price for the green revolution, say critics, with cables across pavements and inaudible engines
    by Anna Tims
    Inaudible engines and obstructive charging systems are putting people with disabilities or pushchairs at risk, according to road safety campaigners who say that pedestrians are paying a hidden price for the green revolution…

    Living Streets’ Kathryn Shaw is adamant we should be focusing on other ways to get around. “Electric vehicles do not solve congestion or all our air-quality problems – the suggestion they do is incredibly misleading,” she says. “Fundamentally, we need to change the way we travel. The new government needs to prioritise active travel to tackle unacceptable road danger, climate change, toxic levels of air pollution and the health crisis due to sedentary lifestyles. “Our towns and cities should be places where walking is the natural choice for local, every-day journeys and blocking up pavements with EV charging points and cables flies in the face of that.”…
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/05/electric-cars-environment-hazards-pedestrians

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      Motorway service areas are preparing to increase their charging provisions to meet the jump in demand. But Simon Turl, chairman of operator RoadChef, said his company’s attempts to add charging services have been held up by distribution network operators (DNOs), which own local electricity grids and demand millions of pounds and waits of up to three years, to install new power lines…

      Oh dear!

      Fancy that it actually costs money and time to install all the infrastructure.

      Who would have thought, eh?

      Tony.

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      • #
        AndyG55

        And they seem to expect everyone else to cough up that money.

        They want the gold-plated supply infrastructure, they should pay for it,

        … and pass the cost on to the consumer.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          No no no…solar panels and batteries on every house will save us….

          A work colleague got caught down the south coast in the fires. He had 2 cars a diesel and an EV. He only just managed to get home. Of course the power went off didn’t it
          the diesel was fine, the EV….yeah still reckon EVs are a stupid idea that just needs to be put out of its misery…..

          I think the fires thing gave him a scare too – for once he was forced to face what happens in a grid down situation, and how useless an EV truly is in those situations.
          At least you can run a diesel on waste cooking oil or make your own biofuel….electrickery…not so much….
          And the CAGW mob want everyone to run EVs, which basically locks us down to whether they deem we shoudl be allowed to have power, and in effect how far we can go.
          EVs are not much more than a way of restricting peoples movements but making it look cool.
          Smartphones – mass data gathering, but looks cool ( and $1000 bucks for what is in effect a free linux distro….what a rip off… )

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    pat

    lots more silliness in this WaPo piece (read all if u want more of their propaganda), but nothing beats how the writer begins with 5-yr-old Kallan not knowing everything about CAGW, (wheras at 15, she’s apparently a WaPo climate expert?) … and then there’s the ***final sentence!

    3 Jan: UK Independent: Climate change: We can’t afford another ‘decade of disappointment’, activists warn
    ‘This decade that we’re going into now will be the most important of our lives’, says coordinator of Fridays for Future
    by Sarah Kaplan (Washington Post)
    At the start of the last decade, Kallan Benson was 5 years old, her favourite story was “The Secret Garden,” and Earth was in the midst of its warmest year on record…
    Kallan had heard about climate change (her mother is an environmental scientist), but she didn’t know world leaders had just signed an agreement calling it “one of the greatest challenges of our time.” She cared about Earth, but she trusted adults to protect it.
    She doesn’t feel that way anymore…

    The 2010s were a “decade of disappointment,” said Kallan, now 15 and a national coordinator for the youth climate organisation Fridays for Future. If the world is to stave off further disasters, the next decade must be one of unprecedented climate action, she said.
    “This decade that we’re going into now will be the most important of our lives,” Kallan said. “We’re kind of running out of options. And we’re running out of time.”…
    Until the global climate outlook changes, Kallan can’t envision doing anything but activism…

    ***Finally, Kallan sighed. “I really can’t predict the future,” she said. “There’s so many ways this decade could go.” THE END
    https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change-decade-record-temperature-fridays-for-future-environment-crisis-a9267601.html

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    Lewis P Buckingham

    The ABC this morning showed a scandalous clip of one of our ministers being yelled at by a talking head and told off as being a denier because he pointed out that Australian rainfall was not changing.
    There ‘argument’ was that we are not doing enough about climate change like they are and if we dont fix climate change then the fires will continue.
    The BBC does not let anyone talk sense in this debate, they are just yelled at.
    One of my staff just came back from bike trip up the Putty road, through New England to the Qld gold coast.
    Burned bridges, dead and injured animals along the roads, devastation.
    We just can’t let the BBC tell us what to do.They just don’t have any clue.
    All these fires originated in National Parks.We have just begun to find out the cause of droughts and stable highs over continental Australia.
    The Indian Ocean Dipole has just shifted so maybe this is the ‘end of the beginning’.
    We could spend billions on electric cars and ‘green energy’ and end up with more fires anyway.
    The answer is adaptation and forest management.
    This needs a strong economy.
    Sane heads, commitment.
    As an afterthought, the South Coast of NSW and even Bungonia to Marulan have had outages.
    A Tesla 3 with a lithium battery would be a bomb in more ways than one.
    Can’t get out as no recharge, can’t stay or risk driving in hot conditions as A/C will die and at a touch of flame, this vehicle could burn.Battery can’t operate in extreme heat.
    Not good for Australian conditions.

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      Bill In Oz

      The British have been indoctrinated for far longer.
      And it’s time we Australian to go st#ff themselves
      If they even try to tell us how to look after this country.
      As for the Australian Brainwashing Corporation
      It is infested with climate change cultists
      With no capacity to think beyond the
      Climate Change scam script.
      Sack the bastards !

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    • #
      Dennis

      Lithium ion = exothermic reaction, explosion.

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    pat

    lengthy yarn – read all:

    PICS: 5 Jan: UK Telegraph: Fraudster on the run from eight-year jail term taunts victims with Instagram account of his lavish lifestyle
    By Hayley Dixon
    A fraudster jailed for eight years for targeting the elderly in a £2.4m scam is being allowed to live the high life on the run in Dubai as he taunts his victims on social media, The Telegraph can reveal.
    Sami Raja has been posting pictures of himself travelling the world in five star hotels and designer clothes.
    Whilst the authorities know where he is, they have not yet attempted to bring him back to Britain to serve his jail term…

    Raja was sentenced in January last year (2019) to 8 years behind bars for his part in mis-selling ***carbon credits to 130 victims and using the profits to buy luxury items including a £33,000 Aston Martin and a £4,000 Rolex…

    Dennis Smith, 89, invested more than a quarter of a million pounds with various schemes with a cold callers.
    His first investment was in a wind farm and he dealt with Raja over the phone on a regular basis as he convinced him to invest £75,000 in the project…
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/04/fraudster-run-8-year-jail-term-taunts-victims-instagram-account/

    can find this being reported elsewhere:

    18 Dec 2019: Carbon Pulse: Five UK carbon fraudsters ordered to repay £20.6 mln or face more jail time
    Five men sentenced to a combined 43 years in prison for investment fraud related to the reforestation carbon market have been ordered to repay £20.6 million or face an additional 37 years in jail…

    can’t find this anywhere else, either:

    6 Jan: CarbonPulse: Central European voluntary offset vendor accused of selling retired carbon credits
    A Central European voluntary carbon offset vendor has been accused of reselling previously retired credits and of listing some units on its online registry without authorisation…

    war is good for the EU ETS:

    6 Jan: Carbon Pulse: EU Market: EUAs retreat 3% as oil-led gains peter out, auctions loom
    EU carbon slipped back towards €24 on Monday as observers played down the prospects of a war in the Middle East, while analysts expected this week’s resumption of EUA auctions to weigh on prices…

    6 Jan: Carbon Pulse: SK Market: Prices shed a fifth amid bearish fundamentals, intervention rumours
    South Korean carbon prices have dropped nearly 20% over the past two weeks amid rumours of government intervention, with market participants saying the decrease has come against bearish market fundamentals…

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    Zane

    Top materials research scientists from DuPont Labs will be visiting Victoria shortly in an endeavour to discover the secrets behind Premier Daniel Andrews incredible political non-stick coating that repels and deflects all dirt, messes, and fallout from any crisis whatsoever. ” Whatever it is, we need it ” one US scientist was heard to say. ” This is like Teflon® x 1000. It could have amazing applications for the next generation space program and for military uses in future battle zones. I just hope the Chinese don’t beat us to it. ” :).

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    Deplorable Lord Kek

    twatter is going feral at Craig Kelly for calling the itv weather girl a weather girl.

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    • #
      AndyG55

      Tobin is meteorologist ….

      … currently working as a weather girl. !

      What does that tell you. 😉

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        Deplorable Lord Kek

        It gets better.

        We are not allowed to even question her opinion (oops, I mean “experience and knowledge”):

        marco petagna@Petagna

        Having worked with the lovely @Lauratobin1 for many years i can also confirm that her experience and knowledge in the meteorological field speaks for itself and should never require explanation or justification

        marco petagna: Media Advisor & Senior Operational Meteorologist with UK Met Office.

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    Something a Federal government may be able to do quickly…

    One thing we dread up here on the midcoast is the message “the fire has crossed the highway”. It occurs to me that all Federal roads could be used as major firebreaks. Obviously this is already the case to an extent but there is still a lot of landscaping and “sympathetic” retention of fauna for the sake of tourism, noise-reduction etc. What might be best is no landscaping, no sympathetic or sentimental anything. If people want to see bush they can park at the many rest areas (an excellent idea and good use of public money), get closer to bush there and maybe walk down some trails into forest.

    Living where and how I do, I’m obviously a love of the bush and never want to be very far from it. Which is why I’m not as sentimental as some urban types who like scenery on or through a screen. I’d be more than happy to see less foliage and plenty of rest stops and even dams all along major roads. Burn offs could be concentrated along these routes so the breaks are even wider. Who knows? It may be possible to give grazing or firewood rights in exchange for maintenance.

    Make highways less picturesque. If you love the bush, you’ll find it. It finds me!

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  • #
    pat

    just turned to Sky Australia from the tennis for a couple of minutes and got:

    Sky’s Andrew Clennell on –

    a) Govt to extend life of Liddell. could cost $300m. Fed Govt might provide money.

    b) Angus Taylor to announce around the end of the month a deal between Fed and NSW Govts on RE. lots more poles and wires to be built all over NSW; plus interconnectors to Vic and SA. farmers could then work with RE companies on huge RE projects. reason? because Taylor wants to work with State Govts to fight climate change and develop RE.

    back to the tennis.

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    • #
      beowulf

      Taylor is a sell-out and he’s getting his orders from above — that would be from Two-Bob-Each-Way Morrison. They’ll give us a dribble of coal power to shut us up and simultaneously force a ton of renewables down our throats. Morrison is a waste of space. A nothing man. Always was.

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Thanks.

        20

        • #
          Kalm Keith

          The giveaway where our PM sits can be judged by the many new “renewables” projects that have been started on his watch.

          It’s like watching a horror movie:

          MorriBull saves the planet.

          Electricity prices can be ” slashed” according to our pm if you go to a web site and ………

          Totally insulting.

          We need change. Morrison has had long enough and we need real leadership now. He isn’t the answer.

          KK

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          • #
            hatband

            Any suggestions for a new leader?

            10

            • #
              PeterS

              Yes, Trump.

              10

            • #
              beowulf

              No unfortunately. I don’t think there’s anyone decent on the horizon in the LNP. I think the party machine sorts the wheat from the chaff and then keeps the chaff.

              Sarah Hanson-Young springs to mind as a potential great leader, but only when I’m delirious.

              00

    • #
      WXcycles

      Here was I thinking the power grid had been privatized.

      10

  • #
    WXcycles

    I’m writing this because all day I’ve kept hearing people say on TV that Saturday is going to be the next bad fire day. In fact I just heard the Deputy PM saying it on Sky. This is wrong information.

    The next bad fire day is going to be on FRIDAY. There will be gusty winds on Friday afternoon and well into the early hours of Saturday morning. Here’s the Noon Friday forecast on the current ECMWF run:

    https://i.ibb.co/mvZ64K6/Friday-10th-Jan-2020-Screenshot-2020-01-07-Windy-as-forecasted-5.png

    If people are still in front of fires on Friday mid-morning they’re not getting out. Saturday will be a much cooler in VIC and NSW, as almost all of the heat and winds will have been pushed into southern QLD by then.

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    • #
      Ross

      I just saw part of the Sky interview of the Deputy PM. The interviewer trying very hard to get the Dep PM to say it was all to do with climate change. To his credit he ignored the questions and said the priorities was to help affected communities etc. I hope his response is the official/agreed Government stance.

      20

  • #
    pat

    29 Dec: Daily Mail: ‘How is this allowed to happen?’ Chinese company is given the green light to run a water mining operation in drought-ravaged Queensland – while desperate residents are forced to take 90-second showers
    •Chinese company granted go-ahead to run commercial water extraction facility
    •Decision comes despite nearby residents suffering through severe drought
    •Those in Stanthorpe about 40km away just weeks from running out of water
    •Residents living near the site in southern Queensland have hit out at decision
    •Those in Stanthorpe and nearby Warwick limited to just 80 litres of water daily
    By Charlie Coë
    A Chinese company has been granted the go-ahead to run a commercial water extraction facility in a drought-ravaged region in country Australia despite nearby residents being limited to just 80 litres of water each a day.
    Those living in Queensland’s Southern Downs are under critical water restrictions – with the town of Stanthorpe just weeks away from running out of drinking water.

    But last week the Southern Downs Regional Council approved the development of the mining operation about 40km away at Cherrabah on the border with New South Wales.
    Those living near the site set to be mined by Joyful View, which is owned by two Chinese investors, hit out at the council decision given the region’s dwindling supplies…
    The company plan to transport the water to a Gold Coast bottling plant, according to council documents…
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7831877/Chinese-company-allowed-water-drought-ravaged-Queensland.html

    28 Dec: Guardian: hinese company approved to run water mining operation in drought-stricken Queensland
    A Chinese-owned company has been granted approval to run a ***96m litre a year commercial water mining operation in severely drought-hit southern Queensland, where locals are on water rations and communities at imminent risk of running dry…
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/dec/28/chinese-company-approved-to-run-water-mining-operation-in-drought-stricken-queensland

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    • #
      Graeme Bird

      Yes I agree Pat, in the general sense of selling strategic assets to the Chinese communists. They could at least be our own communists. We have both Chinese and communists here. We don’t need to be selling off assets to foreigners and calling it free enterprise.

      00

  • #
    Bill In Oz

    Premier Daniel Andrews & CFA boss Warrington
    Are now in damage control
    After Victoria burned over the weekend
    Fuel reduction burns are “no silver bullet”
    But they’ve got no brass or gold or silver bullets that work at all !
    Utter Garbage from a Labor political appointee to the CFA
    And the people in the burned out areas will just give his the “piss off “

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  • #
    pat

    TWEET: Sky News Australia
    The government has moved to distance itself from rogue backbencher @CraigKellyMP, with senior Coalition ministers dismissing his climate change comments as a “sideshow”.
    6 Jan 2020
    https://twitter.com/SkyNewsAust/status/1214426437995778048

    VIDEO: 7 Jan: SkyNewsAustralia: Craig Kelly dismissed as a sideshow following disaster UK TV appearance
    Mr Kelly, who strongly denies the link between climate change and extreme weather conditions, caused major headaches for his party on Tuesday after he made his views known during an appearance on British television.
    Emergency Services Minister David Littleproud dismissed the Liberal backbenchers’ comments as a “sideshow”. “He doesn’t represent the views of the government,” Mr Littleproud told reporters on Tuesday.
    https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6120221363001

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    • #
      WXcycles

      Craig Kelly dismissed as a sideshow following disaster UK TV appearance

      They were going to do that no matter what he said.

      30

  • #

    Wide ranging land management by ‘Green’ local councils via covet Agenda 21 policies. – Taking control over state forests and private land holdings through UN directives from above and afar.

    http://www.galileomovement.com.au/docs/gw/AG21_EndTheDeceptionRev.pdf

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    • #
      jack

      A great document Serf,
      especially as it pertains to Australia.
      There is a link in the doc that made me smile.
      OBSERVATIONS ON POLITICIANS

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      • #

        ‘N there’s a quote in that link, jack, that made me smile.)

        “It is truly a triumph of rhetoric over reality when people can believe that going into politics is ‘public service,’ but that producing food, shelter, transportation, or medical care is not.” — Thomas Sowell

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        • #
          jack

          Very good.
          This one paints a great picture.
          “This country has come to feel the same when congress is in session as when a baby gets hold of a hammer.”—Will Rogers
          But on to more serious things.
          On reading that Doc.
          By-passing Fed & State, control of local councils appears to be the end game.
          The back door approach, and it’s working!

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  • #
    pat

    VIDEO: 7 Jan: SkyNewsAustralia: Taylor ‘actively canvassing’ ways to keep Liddell open for longer
    Energy Minister Angus Taylor is “actively canvassing” ways to keep the Liddell Power plant open past its 2023 closure date, Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell can exclusively reveal…
    Mr Taylor is overseeing a Commonwealth-led taskforce designed to examine the consequences of Liddell’s impending closure. Mr Clennell told Sky News the energy minister is looking to keep the plant open to 2026…
    https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6120242374001

    TWEET: Andrew Clennell, Sky News
    About to break some news on Sky News Australia
    2h ago

    reply: Stephen Mayne/Crikey founder, contributor
    Angus Taylor wants to keep Liddell open for another 3 years but is being resisted by AGL and @GladysB – brilliant timing Angus. The country is burning, climate change inaction is toxic and the Energy Minister is focused on extending the life of a coal fired clunker. Tone deaf!
    2h ago

    reply: Simon Holmes A Court
    .@aglenergy has already agreed to shift back the closure of 3 of liddell’s 4 units a few months, coincidentally

    10

  • #
    pat

    6 Jan: AFR: Power grid close shave revives transmission debate
    by Angela Macdonald-Smith
    Saturday’s power supply crisis due to bushfires (LINK) has again exposed the frailty of the national electricity grid and sparked a debate among power market players as to whether more transmission or more local generation not reliant on transmission is the answer.
    Snowy Hydro chief executive Paul Broad said the loss of the link between Victoria and NSW on the weekend underscored the need for a more interconnected system for the grid that would reduce the reliance on individual elements in the transmission grid.

    TransGrid chief executive Paul Italiano pointed out heading into Saturday that NSW would only likely weather the Saturday crisis without blackouts because its interconnection to Queensland in the north was not also under threat.
    But some renewable energy advocates are arguing for more local wind and solar generation sited close to demand centres, including solar panels, to reduce overall dependence on the transmission system.
    And some saw Saturday’s crisis, where forced rolling blackouts were only narrowly averted as evidence of the need for strategic reserves of generation, as favoured by the Australian Energy Market Operator.

    “There is no doubt in my mind we have an extremely fragile power system not least on account of the exercise of market power by the vertically integrated coal generators,” said Bruce Mountain, associate professor at Victoria University’s Victoria Energy Policy Centre, who found in an analysis earlier this year that coal power generators profited from the closure of the Hazelwood power station in 2017…

    Saturday’s spike in NSW wholesale prices up to the maximum $14,700 a megawatt-hour after the loss of the connection between Victoria and NSW will now be examined by the Australian Energy Regulator.
    The AER, which reports on any surge in wholesale prices beyond $5000/MWh said it would examine five trading intervals when that occurred between 4pm and 6pm, including two that reached the market limit. Another incident will be examined in Victoria where the spot price reached $6442/MWh on December 30…
    https://www.afr.com/companies/energy/power-grid-close-shave-revives-transmission-debate-20200106-p53p58

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  • #
    pat

    7 Jan: Canberra Times: EPA advises caution with hazards like asbestos in Batlow and other bushfire affected zones
    by Jessica McLaughlin
    Asbestos was not the only potential hazard in a fire zone, according to Mr Beanman.
    “Houses, sheds and other buildings that have been burnt in a bushfire can leave potential health and safety hazards in the remaining rubble and ash,” he said.

    “Hazardous household materials that may be present after a bushfire include asbestos, chemicals (including household, cleaning, garden and farm chemicals), ash and dust (including ash from burnt treated timbers) ***solar panels and damaged gas bottles…

    The EPA outlined a list of aspects to consider and precautions to take when reentering a bushfire affected property:
    •Do not enter your property until you are advised that it is safe
    •Electrical hazards could be present, including live power lines or active ***solar panels…
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6568825/asbestos-concerns-raised-for-batlow-after-old-buildings-burnt/?cs=14231

    CleanEnergyCouncil: Natural disasters and emergencies
    Some Australian households with solar systems are located in areas under threat from bushfires, floods and cyclones. These are usually in regional and rural areas, but can be in metro areas where isolated fires, floods and cyclones are possible…

    Fire, flood and cyclone emergency situations
    If you have solar panels on your roof and are faced with an emergency fire, flood or cyclone situation, there are only two things you need to remember:
    2: Upon returning to your house, do not attempt to turn your solar power system back on. Contact your Clean Energy Council-accredited installer to have your system recommissioned. If your installer is not available, contact a licensed electrician who can check your system to ensure it is safe…

    If your solar panels have suffered fire, flood or cyclone damage, attempting to turn them back on (including operating any switches) could result in a lethal electric shock. An accredited installer needs to check that your system is safe…

    Even if the network supply is turned off, solar systems and associated wiring may still be live; systems will continue to produce voltage during the day…
    https://www.cleanenergycouncil.org.au/consumers/natural-disasters-and-emergencies

    7 Jan: SBS: ‘It’s like the apocalypse lifted:’ Cat returns home after a week lost in bushfires
    When a family returned home after their community in Bega Valley was devastated by fires, they thought they’d lost their pet cat to the blaze. But then an Angel appeared.
    By Velvet Winter
    After getting the family, their four horses and two dogs to safety at a nearby showgrounds, Ben and Brett made the decision to go back to the property to try and fight for their home.
    However, police stopped told the pair that the road back into their property was now on fire…

    After several hours of hand wringing and pacing, Ben and Brett travelled back to their property through backroads…
    “We had put up solar power Christmas lights on the shed for the holidays. There was no electricity but these Christmas lights were still running cause of the ***solar panels on the house.”….
    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/it-s-like-the-apocalypse-lifted-cat-returns-home-after-a-week-lost-in-bushfires

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  • #
    pat

    Liz Storer segment begins half-way through the video:

    VIDEO: 31 Dec: Sky News: ‘Radical left’ and their ‘Greeny army’ continue to get in the way of controlled burning: Storer
    The bushfire crisis has gripped the nation and as a result brought attention to the topic of controlled burning, which Advance Australia Director Liz Storer says is another issue “the radical left” and their “greeny army” have “taken away from us”.
    Ms Storer told Sky News if you “reduce the fire’s fuel, you’re going to reduce the fire” but the issue has been neglected as those on the left “scream their lounges out” whenever it is raised. “Every time we want to do back burning we get yelled at,” she said.
    https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6118946540001

    VIDEO: 7 Jan: 9News: Meteorologist hits back with long resume after Craig Kelly calls her an ‘ignorant weather girl’
    by Luke Cooper, Nick Pearson
    The member for Hughes denied embarrassing the Coalition with two interviews on British television, which made international news overnight.
    Mr Kelly first told the BBC on Saturday that Australian scientists have disproved any link between climate change and extreme weather conditions such as drought in causing fires.
    “There is no link, the facts that cause the fires are the drought and the drying of the environment,” he said.
    “On this, climate scientists down here have been very clear and they have said there is no link between drought and climate change.”

    Instead, Mr Kelly attributed Australia’s current bushfire situation to a lack of hazard reduction burning and claimed a push towards renewable energy would not have prevented the crisis.
    “People here in Australia understand – if they look at the evidence and look at the signs – there is nothing that we can do here in Australia by sending billions more off to China to buy solar panels to replace our coal fire electricity generators,” he said.
    “That is not going to change the weather here in Australia one iota and is not going to stop one bushfire.
    “What we are seeing down here – the major problem that we have – has been a lack of what we call hazard reduction burning, which is the practice that the Aboriginals of Australia practiced for tens of thousands of years where they ensured they went through the native Australian bush and they burnt it during the cooler times.”…

    Liberal Senator Hollie Hughes, who is also from NSW, had strong words for Mr Kelly’s remarks and the comments from his supporters.
    “It’s disgusting and not representative of the people in my party or who we represent,” she tweeted.
    “People who make violent or misogynistic comments such as those should be reported.”…

    Mr Morrison has come under heavy criticism both at home and even abroad for his response to the bushfire crisis…
    https://www.9news.com.au/national/australia-bushfires-craig-kelly-scott-morrison-piers-morgan-good-morning-britain/ed8dbdc8-30d0-4547-bd60-d7d15e4da61f

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    • #
      hatband

      Piers Morgan is a joke. So is Craig Kelly.

      Even a Wombat could tell you that the cause of the fires is Arsonists, yet neither

      Kelly, Scotty, Token Loudmouths Barnaby Joyce, Bob Katter, Pauline Hanson, nor Jacqui Lambie have

      uttered a peep about the ”A” word.

      Hanson has been very quiet.

      Perhaps she’s on that Cruise with Anna Paddlepop too.

      13

  • #
    WXcycles

    I said on election night that if Scott Morrison has any brains he’ll nail the ABC immediately. Except he just let them off the hook. Piker.

    50

  • #
    pat

    ITV’s Laura Tobin:

    Wikipedia: ***Laura Tobin worked for the BBC before moving to the ITV Breakfast programme Daybreak in 2012…
    On graduation from University in 2003, she joined the Met Office. On completing her training, she was assigned in October 2004 to the Cardiff Weather Centre, where she gained experience of broadcasting on BBC Radio Wales…
    Tobin joined the team of BBC Weather Centre forecasters at the end of 2007, eventually regularly appearing on the BBC News channel, BBC World News, BBC Radio 5 Live, and the on-demand interactive services of BBC Red Button found on digital terrestrial and digital satellite TV. She also regularly presented the weather for the BBC News at One on the BBC…
    Tobin holds the Guinness World Record for filling and folding 11 pancakes in 60 seconds…

    9 Jan: Daily Mail: Piers Morgan UNLEASHES on Scott Morrison over Australia’s bushfire crisis and tennis legend Pat Cash accuses the PM of having his ‘head in the sand’ in extraordinary clash on live TV
    •Piers Morgan has criticised Scott Morrison for his handling of the bushfire crisis
    •He was joined by tennis legend Pat Cash who said PM ‘buried his head in sand’
    •GMB presenter ***Laura Tobin branded an Australian MP a ‘climate change denier’
    •The weather presenter interrupted a debate about the Australian bushfires
    •The MP claimed the fires were caused by droughts and poor forest management
    By Brittany Chain and Rod Ardehali
    After cutting Mr Kelly off, the broadcast crossed back to Australian tennis legend Pat Cash, who accused the prime minister of ‘burying his head in the sand’ regarding the crisis.
    ‘His head is in the sand. I’ve been watching this happen. The flooding and disasters are just the start. It could take something huge America for people to realise,’ he said.
    Cash, who won Wimbledon in 1987, slammed Mr Morrison and blamed the catastrophic damage on his ‘very, very, slow reaction’, and failure to appeal to global leaders for ‘much-needed’ aid.
    He said: ‘The fires are unprecedented and there’s no denying the climate change – lives are being lost. No one hasn’t been touched.
    ‘So much of this is because of a very, very slow reaction to the PM who didn’t listen to 20 fire chiefs warning six months ago exactly what is happening now – and sure enough, it has happened.’

    Cash said the PM failed Australian firefighters, who have been risking their lives for more than two months to get on top of the blazes.
    ‘He’s [Mr Morrison] failed the firefighters. He was warned there weren’t enough gas masks, they’re in there ill-equipped and the PM hasn’t gone on the phone to Donald Trump,’ Mr Cash said.
    ‘Where are these Hercules planes that dwarf what we have that can drop tonnes of water?’
    Morgan assured him that he would tweet to the US president later in the day to call for help.
    ***So far, New Zealand and Canada have both deployed firefighters to Australia to help contain the blazes…
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7856377/Piers-Morgan-Pat-Cash-criticise-Scott-Morrison-handling-bushfire-crisis.html

    ***2 Jan: ABC: US firefighters arrive to help with Victorian bushfire disaster
    A contingent of 39 firefighters from North America has landed in Melbourne to help fight the East Gippsland blazes…

    7 Jan: SMH: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson offer Australia support
    The US leader called Mr Morrison on Tuesday to offer his support to Australia and all the bushfire-affected communities, and the prime minister thanked him for the support the US has already provided in the form of firefighters…
    New Zealand has already sent firefighters to help fight the Australian fires, along with Canada and the United States…

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    • #
      hatband

      They must be desperate if the best talent they’ve got is the Day Before Yesterday’s Man,

      Pat Cash.

      No one under 30 would have the faintest idea who he was.

      10

  • #
    R.B.

    I can’t find the transcript but Michael Rowland was about to interview someone from the Climate Commission about the bushfires (instead of an arson psychiatrist). He said something like are these bushfires a disaster for the gov..err…environment.

    20

  • #
    pat

    a gift for theirABC. FakeNews WaPo & NYT cited:

    AUDIO: 10m11s: ABC Breakfast: ‘Arson is not caused by climate change’: Craig Kelly
    with Cathy Van Extel
    On RN Breakfast this week we’ve spoken about the global reaction to Australia’s bushfire emergency and our Government’s climate change policies, which has prompted scathing critiques in publications such as the Washington Post and New York Times.
    The issue exploded on UK morning television yesterday when Liberal MP Craig Kelly was invited to defend the Government’s handling of the disaster and its stance on climate change.
    Craig Kelly joins RN Breakfast to discuss his appearance on Good Morning Britain with hosts Piers Morgan and Laura Tobin and his defense of the Government’s response to the bushfire crisis.
    https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/breakfast/arson-is-not-caused-by-climate-change-craig-kelly/11846674

    7 Jan: ABC: Craig Kelly and Piers Morgan in tense Good Morning Britain exchange over bushfires and climate change
    By political reporter Stephanie Dalzell
    The Bureau of Meteorology has said climate change is influencing the frequency and severity of dangerous bushfire conditions in Australia and other regions of the world.
    Morgan blasted the Liberal backbencher on air, telling him to “wake up”.
    “Climate change and global warming are real, and Australia right now is showing the entire world just how devastating it is,” Morgan said.
    “For senior politicians in Australia to still pretend there’s no connection is absolutely disgraceful.”…

    Mr Kelly backed his decision to appear on the UK program in an interview with Radio National Breakfast host Tom Tilley…
    Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese said his reaction to Mr Kelly’s comments that were aired in the UK was “one of despair”.
    “Despair, not just that Craig Kelly has those views and continues to advocate them — not just here in Australia, but globally, and be seen to be representing the Australian Government’s position — but the knowledge that he’s one of the people who has held back action,” he said.
    “He’s one of the people who has stopped action on climate change domestically, which has led us to be in a position whereby we’re actually, as well, arguing for less action internationally, rather than more.”
    As fires burn across the country, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been under pressure to develop a stronger climate change policy…

    At a press conference in Canberra, Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud said Mr Kelly’s views were not representative of the Government’s position.
    “Quite frankly, I’ve got better things to do than worry about what a backbencher goes and says on national TV,” Mr Littleproud said.
    “There’s peoples’ lives I’m trying to rebuild, there’s 26 Australians who have lost their lives, I couldn’t give a rats what he said, it’s irrelevant.”…
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-07/craig-kelly-denies-climate-change-linked-to-bushfires/11846604

    AUDIO: 3m47s: 7 Jan: ABC The World Today: Climate change and bushfires: Craig Kelly doubles down on denial
    By Stephanie Borys
    Australia’s bushfire crisis is being watched across the world, and some commentators are highly critical of the Federal Government’s policies on climate change.
    One Liberal backbencher has been on TV in the UK defending the Government’s handling of the crisis.
    But his interview appears to have caused more harm than good.
    Featured:
    Craig Kelly, Liberal backbencher
    Piers Morgan, British breakfast television host
    Laura Tobin, British broadcast meteorologist
    Scott Morrison, Prime Minister
    Anthony Albanese, Opposition Leader
    Tom Tilley, presenter, RN Breakfast, ABC
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/worldtoday/climate-change-and-bushfires:-craig-kelly-doubles-down-on-denial/11847210

    AUDIO: 4m6s: 7 Jan: ABC AM: ‘Get your head out of the sand’: Craig Kelly slammed on British TV
    By Stephanie Borys
    The link between climate change and the horrendous bushfire season has been denied by a Government MP in a fiery television interview.
    Backbencher Craig Kelly appeared on a British breakfast TV show, where he was called a “disgrace” and told to “wake up”.
    https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/am/get-your-head-out-of-the-sand:-craig-kelly-slammed-on-british-tv/11846622

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    pat

    7 Jan: Australian: Bushfires: Firebugs fuelling crisis as arson arrest toll hits 183
    exclusive
    By David Ross and Imogen Reid
    Melbourne University associate professor Janet Stanley said arsonists were typically young males, aged 12 to 24, or older men in their 60s.
    “There is no one profile, but generally they seem to have a background of disadvantage, a traumatic upbringing and often have endured neglect and abuse as a child,” Professor Stanley said. “They are often kids not succeeding in school, or they have left school early and are unemployed. The boundaries between accidentally and purposefully are unclear because many arsonists don’t plan on causing the catastrophe that occurs. Often there is not an intention to cause chaos and the penalties for accidentally lighting a fire are far less than purposefully lighting a fire.”

    Swinburne University professor James Ogloff said about 50 per cent of bushfires were lit by firebugs and impending fire seasons excited them. “They’re interested in seeing fire, interested in setting fire and quite often the information around how fires burn and accelerate excites them,” the director of the Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science said…
    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/bushfires-firebugs-fuelling-crisis-asarson-arresttollhits183/news-story/52536dc9ca9bb87b7c76d36ed1acf53f

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    pat

    followup re Prof Janet Stanley, referenced in The Australian’s “firebugs” article – comment in moderation:

    18 Nov: The Conversation: Humans light 85% of bushfires, and we do virtually nothing to stop it
    by Janet Stanley, Associate professor/Principal Research Fellow, Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute, University of Melbourne
    But official fires are just the tip of the iceberg: the actual number of bushfires in Australia is thought to be about five times that recorded. Virtually none of these unrecorded fires are investigated…

    Media attention on a fire’s cause is generally scant and the public rarely hears much beyond initial charges being laid.
    A staggeringly low apprehension and conviction rate for offenders – less than 1% – is a further barrier to public awareness of the problem. Conviction rarely leads to a substantial punishment…READ ALL
    http://theconversation.com/humans-light-85-of-bushfires-and-we-do-virtually-nothing-to-stop-it-126941

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    PeterW

    I spent today at a fire, my brother working as a volunteer in the local RFS Office. Between us, we saw both ends of the Federal response.

    The Army arrived in the small, badly-affected community in and around which we have been working for the last week. Four polite young men, without fanfare, simply there to listen to the needs of the people and decide what their Service had to offer. Very low-profile. Very diplomatic.

    Morro himself called in at the Office. Again, no fuss, fanfare, media or hype. Minimal disturbance for very busy and stressed people, just interest and concern.

    Worth far more than any of his critics.

    70