Did Joe Biden just copy Bill Shorten’s “winning” Climate formula?

Good news for Donald Trump. Overconfidence meant Bill Shorten lost the unloseable election in Australia last year.  Joe Biden is following in his footsteps — spending $2T on a war against cheap energy in a bid for nicer weather that no one believes will happen in their lifetime.

He doesn’t have to do this:

Biden gambles on placing climate change at the heart of the US energy policy

Derek Brower, Financial Times

… Joe Biden — armed with a commanding lead in the polls ahead of November’s US presidential election — now promises a root-and-branch overhaul of the American energy system that will put climate change at its heart and which one worried industry adviser describes as “a Tet offensive” on the fossil fuels industry. The plan, which will be aired again at the Democratic party convention this week, earmarks $2tn in spending over the next four years to use climate policy to drag the economy out of its pandemic-era recession.

In Australia they called it “a climate election” and the people voted “No”. The result was surprise and a bitter disappointment to left leaning commentariat.  US polls on climate change showed only a few days ago that the voters rank climate second to last. More windmills will not save the US economy from a rogue virus. Either Biden hasn’t done his research or he is overconfident enough to toss in burdensome gambit policies so he can claim a “mandate” afterwards.

 

9.8 out of 10 based on 78 ratings

107 comments to Did Joe Biden just copy Bill Shorten’s “winning” Climate formula?

  • #
    Jojodogfacedboy

    Politicians tend to have a blind eye to all our products that are made from fossil fuels and need fossil fuels to operate including the jets that they use to fly from place to place. We still have no viable replacements for it and yet our politicians add restrictions and laws to try and ban it.

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    • #
      Jojodogfacedboy

      The largest user of fossil fuels is the US military, especially the Navy and they have no alternative to using it.
      So it is their own country that they need to get in line and he was already in power to do it before but did not. Him being Vice-President.

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      • #
        Chad

        Actually, isnt the US Navy one of the few high energy consumers tha DOES have an alternative to Fossil fuels…. they have their own custom Nuclear reactors !
        I guess it may be a little tricky powering a F16 or a Blackhawk from a reactor,… but the Navy wouldnt let a little detail like that stop them

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        • #
          Jojodogfacedboy

          Still need the many different oils and lubrication for all these moving parts.Different oils do different jobs. Mixed the wrong oil once and it ate the rubber on my machinery.

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          • #
            Deano

            Like the old ad went “Oils ain’t oils”. The late great John Bluthal played the gangster perfectly.

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  • #
    Pliney

    It will interesting to highlight this against the rolling blackouts in California. They can point to California screwed up power system and forecast Blackouts and Brownouts throughout the US.

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  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    If you like your car, you can keep your car …

    SEE IT: Joe Biden gets behind the wheel of a Corvette Stingray and lets it rip

    https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-joe-biden-corvette-stingray-20200805-kgr6g6fikja2pfquqk6comnzei-story.html

    Joe Biden embraces Green New Deal as he releases climate plan

    “Biden’s campaign said a potential Biden administration would pressure other nations to get rid of subsidies for fossil fuels …”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/06/04/joe-biden-embraces-green-new-deal-he-releases-climate-plan/

    >> Wearing a face mask whilst driving alone in a car is the reason we put “may contain nuts” on a packet of peanuts.

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    • #
      Graham Richards

      I’ve seen nutter’s cars in a supermarket Parking lot with cloth (rags) stuffed into the air intakes , obviously to prevent COViD from entering the car.
      Stale air with low oxygen ( possible increase in methane levels) levels is dangerous, it leads to drowsiness . Being drowsy behind the wheel can lead to serious accidents!

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    • #
      greggg

      Some people may wear a mask in the car because they do not want to be handling the mask with contaminated hands and it’s a short trip between e.g. supermarkets.

      Maybe the car had rags blocking air intakes to prevent huntsmans getting into the car? Maybe to prevent pollution getting into the cabin and affecting the drivers breathing?

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      • #
        Geoffrey Williams

        Gregg, stop making excuses, their nutters, out and out nutters !!!!
        GeoffW

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        • #
          Ian

          Not sure what you mean by “their nutters”. Who are he owners of these nutters? And the reasons postulated by greggg are entirely plausible

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  • #
    M Seward

    The guy really must be a complete dill. He just whipped a very large rug out from under the anti-Trump Republicans and put a gun to the head of the US economy at about the worst possible time to do so thanks to COVID 19. Shorten with dementia and KRudd as his carer.

    Can’t wait to see his CCP policy. Peace in our time again? Piss on our time more likely but hey, little black, brown, grey, yellow, fawn, beige and every othet non-white boy and girl will be able to dream of glory, at least until reality bites and they understand the benefits of a ‘first world’ country have eluded them and they have joined all the other shades of ‘third world’ people who take instructions from Beijing and are locked in an endless race to nowhere on the rat wheel of misfortune.

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  • #
    tom0mason

    Did Joe Biden just copy Bill Shortens “winning” Climate formula?

    Very doubtful. Creepy Joe just follows the cued-up, simple English instructions that he has been told.
    His minders have probably ensured that some parts of Bill Shortens “winning” Climate formula is quoted and copied, along with quotes (and misquotes) from Mao Zedong, UK’s Tony B-liar, LBJ, some dead Kennedys, etc., these all knitted together like wet spaghetti and worms into bumbling Joe Biden’s message to the masses.

    The Dimocrat method is to follow the mantra of ‘If at first your strategy doesn’t succeed — repeat, repeat, repeat but at each iteration plagiarize more and more!’

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    • #
      tom0mason

      Derek Brower, Financial Times

      … Joe Biden — armed with a commanding lead in the polls ahead of November’s US presidential election

      And in the previous election ‘the polls’ had Hilary Clinton in a commanding lead at the run-up to her failed bid for Presidency.

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      • #
        Bulldust

        Everyone with a couple of working brain cells knows the polls are BS. My working theory is that they are putting out the bogus polls as evidence the Dems ‘should’ win, followed by mail-in ballots, mail fraud scandals after they lose and then chaos will ensue. Just a theory, but rest assured the Dems have war-gamed such scenarios. In one reported scenario they have CA seceding and ending up in a civil war.

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        • #
          jelly34

          Ah yes,but they have forgotten about the”Armed”and VERY pi$$ed of 64 million people who are NOT going to put up with the DemocRATS and their”Lawlessness”Go to the”Conservative Tree House”and you will see what I mean.

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      • #
        beowulf

        I don’t know where they get this “commanding lead in the polls” nonsense from. Even CNN’s latest poll has Biden just 1 point ahead of Trump. If that’s the best a CNN poll can twist it, then things must be dire for Sleazy Joe.

        BTW, Biden’s tally has dropped by 10% in CNN’s own polling in the past 2 weeks — that Kamala Harris is a real vote-winner, and he still won’t come out to answer questions even from sympathetic lefty reporters. His minders clear reporters from the room once Joe delivers his tele-prompted speeches. No questions allowed. He has to lift his head above the parapet sooner or later and when he does it’s gonna get blown off. Watch how his numbers go then, and Trump is already winning in the swing states where it matters.

        The only thing that will save Joe is large scale voting fr**d, by postal votes or other means. There must be a whole lot more dead people who have qualified to vote Democrat since the last election.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Makes me wonder if the Left has decided on a physical rioting attempt at power after Trump wins, instead of political.

      Some commentators have tipped mass civil rioting and/or civil war, whether Trump wins or not. It seems the Left are doing a full marxist revolution in the US currently anyway….Biden winning or losing may be irrelevent.

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      • #
        Yonniestone

        If that scenario plays out then Americans should be very grateful to still have their 2nd amendment, after decades of strong anti-gun measures by Democrats it will be very clear when the mayhem starts why they were so fanatical about it, a Marxist styled revolution would be much easier with an unarmed population than an armed and informed one.

        They should look at Australia for what could be without the 2nd as we were conned into giving up arms so the agenda could progress easier, sometimes the liberty crushing effects of Marxism is felt slower over time until its too late, they realised rolling in with tanks and flags created a stronger enemy in the future or risked defeat.

        If it comes to open fighting all of America’s radical left will be up for a group Darwin Award.

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        • #
          OriginalSteve

          And would 100% validate why the 2nd Amendment is so important.

          The marxists in successive govts here in Australia understand this. They know full well that marxism is so abhorrent, the only way for it to exist is through bloody revolution. There is something inherently wrong when the people don’t want it, and it had to be a genocidal blood bath of the innocents to set it up.

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          • #
            Yonniestone

            Democracy was borne on the premise of fairness for all by majority rule, Marxism was borne on the premise of equality by minority rule.
            Marx himself was nothing more than a parasitic agitator that achieved nothing in life but misery for others so its easy to see what type of people his ideology attracts.
            People on a global scale NEED to learn the lessons of history to realise what they have and how to keep it before the takers destroy it all.

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            • #
              David Wojick

              Having studied Marx’s writings I have to disagree. He was the first major philosopher to see that technological progress was going to benefit the world enormously. He envisioned a workers paradise based on that progress.

              Unfortunately he thought that capitalism stood in the way because of the vast economic inequalities between the classes. And in fact we still have tech billionaires today, but we live in a paradise compared to 1848 thanks to technology, so he was half right.

              Back when I taught philosophy of technology I found a lot to like in Marx’s stuff, if you stayed away from the communism part.

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        • #
          jelly34

          The gun sales have sky rocketed since the riots started.I’m told the shops can’t keep up with the demand and that includes ammo.If and unless the DemocRATS can somehow bring in the army,it will be a very short war.

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    • #
      StephenP

      I.e. Repeat without the rinsing!

      20

  • #
    Peter C

    In Australia they called it “a climate election” and the people voted “No”. The result was surprise and a bitter disappointment to left leaning commentariat.

    That includes the editor of the the Letters to The Age/SMH. Today six letters calling for more “Climate Action”. So many letters that they are all grouped together under the headline: Time to be a leader, not a laggard on climate. And not one letter expressing a contrary view.

    I won’t accuse all readers of The Age of being ignorant Utopians on climate and renewable energy, because from my own experinence, contrary views are not published.

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  • #

    After 23 years of reading climate science as a hobby, and 6 years writing a climate science blog, I believe I am somewhat qualified to say this website has become the best climate science website in the world.

    Earlier this year I thought there were too many Covid articles here but they have proven to be well chosen and written.

    Three cheers for Jo Nova — tell her if you agree with me because this high quality is not easy to msintain.

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  • #
    nb

    It is difficult to believe this level of destruction and inevitable impoverishment could become fashionable enough to promote as a winning formula in a country such as the USA. We are navigating dangerous shoals.
    This push towards totalitarian dysfunction is truly baffling.

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  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    This, according to the LA Times, is how the deal would work
    “ The money, which would be spent over four years, would go toward energy efficiency upgrades, the construction of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations and greatly increasing the share of renewable energy from wind, solar and other technologies in America’s power sector.”

    Given the trend to renewables and away from coal and gas in the USA, you could claim that this promise will be done anyway, without any intervention by the Democrats.

    What it signals is a tidbit for the base, and possibly younger voters that green is on the agenda. Those already committed to the other side will not be swayed.

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    • #
      el gordo

      Once upon a time the Democrats stood for the workers, but no longer, the Green base is too thin and won’t get them over the line. Remember comrade, in a democracy its all about bums on seats and Biden is on a hiding to nothing.

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      • #
        Peter Fitzroy

        Yep, I agree with you here. However, no matter who wins, the trend to renewables will continue as the risk associated with coal and gas move investment to other industries

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        • #

          …..the trend to renewables will continue…..

          Wait till they find out they don’t work. Watch the buck passing then.

          Tony.

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        • #
          el gordo

          ‘ … the trend to renewables will continue …’

          There is no certainty on that, the whole concept is dependent on convincing people that CO2 is causing global warming, which stopped 20 years ago.

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          • #
            Peter Fitzroy

            Nothing about C02

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            • #
              el gordo

              No, but this caught my eye.

              ‘EIA expects a decline in nuclear generation in both 2020 and 2021, reflecting recent and upcoming retirements of nuclear generating capacity.’

              Wonder what China is doing?

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            • #
              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                yep – the USA is not building long life infrastructure. Solar and wind are short term, and limit research into better alternative

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              • #

                Solar and wind are short term, and limit research into better alternative

                You know like this:

                Advanced UltraSupercritical Coal Fired Power. HELE stage 4, four levels of technology higher than most coal fired plants here in Oz. And for every percentage higher in efficiency, there’s a more than 2% reduction in CO2 emissions, so that’s a 47.5% efficiency, so 26% LESS CO2 Emissions per MWH, and now they are closing in on 50% efficiency, and you can guess where that’s happening eh! (Hint, starts with Chi and ends with na)

                Coal fired power doesn’t look like a stranded asset to me. You sort of wonder, that if coal fired power is so on the way out, why these humungous conglomerates like these are spending billions on new technologies like these, and then finding markets for them.

                While everyone else has been conned, and lulled into a distracted complacency by this CO2 emissions thing, work has just been continuing, looking for those better alternatives, exactly as you say, way better than wind and solar.

                Oh and Peter Fitzroy, it may be worthwhile reading it all. You never know, there might just be a spelling mistake.

                Tony.

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              • #
                el gordo

                ‘Environmentalists say China is in the midst of a new coal boom, as approvals for coal energy projects have accelerated this year in response to the coronavirus outbreak

                ‘New coal-fired power projects are being driven largely by local government stimulus spending, which is falling back on old playbook of debt-heavy construction.’ SCMP

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              • #
                Peter Fitzroy

                See – heavy infrastructure spend in one country, short termism in another. Real sustainable or renewable power needs a bucketload of development, something it is not getting.

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              • #
                TedM

                “Real sustainable or renewable power needs a bucketload of development, something it is not getting.” Just where do you want the subsidies to stop PF.

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              • #
                el gordo

                Because renewables are inefficient, which is why ‘local government’ in China is choosing new coal fired power stations.

                You can see what is happening, global warming is a Chinese hoax and global cooling has begun, so there is no need for ‘bucketloads of development’ for a failed hypothesis.

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          • #
            Andrew McRae

            Eh?

            global warming, which stopped 20 years ago.

            I’ll just look at the data and call it as I see it.
            https://woodfortrees.org/plot/uah6/to:2020.5/plot/uah6/from:1978.75/to:1999.666/trend/plot/uah6/from:1999.666/to:2020.5833/trend
            The first half’s trend is 0.154°C/decade, the second half’s trend is 0.165°C/decade.
            There is no evidence of downturn or plateau yet.

            This should not particularly matter. The most successful prediction of climate the IPCC ever made was in their 3rd report, which said in chapter 14.2 “The climate system is a coupled non-linear chaotic system, and therefore the long-term prediction of future climate states is not possible. Rather the focus must be upon the prediction of the probability distribution of the system’s future possible states by the generation of ensembles of model solutions.”
            That cuts both ways, as a global cooling scenario may have 20 years of warming as a 20% probability event which turns out to actually happen. We don’t live through an ensemble of global climates, we live through only one climate history, which makes the ensemble view of things rather difficult to falsify empirically.
            Without certainty over what the alternative climate “probably would have been”, the policy of adaptation is much more feasible than the policy of control. i.e. Bob Carter was right.

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          • #
            Murray Shaw

            And huge subsidies from the Public Purse!

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      How will that stop blackouts in California? The very policies that are causing the current difficulties. Or do they believe that Global Warming will cause lower temperatures?

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    • #
      RicDre

      Even California’s Governor is starting to “Sober Up”:

      California Gov. Gavin Newsom: Time to ‘Sober Up’ About Green Energy’s Flaws

      California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the state had to “sober up” about the fact that renewable energy sources had failed to provide enough power for the state at peak demand, and needed “backup” and “insurance” from other sources.

      https://www.breitbart.com/environment/2020/08/17/california-gov-gavin-newsom-time-to-sober-up-about-green-renewable-energy-flaws/

      Also this column by John Nolte is interesting:

      Nolte: Blackouts Force Newsom to Admit Green Energy Falls Short

      “We failed to predict and plan these shortages and that’s simply unacceptable,” Newsom somehow said without bursting into flames.

      Give me a break.

      No one “failed to predict” anything.

      California has had decades to prepare for this. No one failed to predict it. They only failed to prepare for it.

      https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/17/nolte-blackouts-force-newsom-to-admit-green-energy-falls-short/

      And as Mr. Nolte says, the “failure to predict” is pure nonsense as I noted in a previous thread:

      California faces a crossroads on the path to 100% clean energy

      … The gap is getting bigger as more solar panels are installed and as gas plants shut down. The Public Utilities Commission released an analysis in June showing the state could face electricity shortfalls as soon as 2021 on hot summer evenings when use of air conditioning remains high after sundown. …

      https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2019-12-12/california-clean-energy-gas-plants

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      • #
        RicDre

        The fact that the “electricity shortfalls” started in 2020 instead of 2021 as the California Public Utilities Commission predicted proves that the risk associated with Renewable Energy is Worse Than They Thought.

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        • #
          Graeme No.3

          No, just that this summer was a bit warmer. Of course the gullible AGW believers with sing
          Global warming,
          Global warming.
          It’s a warning
          Global warming.

          Next year, if summer is cooler, then they may avoid rolling blackouts. The real problem comes when they (the gullible Greens) force the closure of Diablo Canyon nuclear plant because it emits (politically correct) polution (cheap electricity).
          That 2% less supply, the closure of one, or more, gas fired plants or the refusal of neighbouring States to supply electricity will cripple California.

          40

    • #
      Mal

      Where will they base load power from?
      None of this ” revolution ” works without cheap and reliable baseload power sources
      It won’t come from bat and bird shredders or 6 hours of sunlight rooftop solar
      Doesn’t anyone do due diligence on these proposals
      All I never see is ideology and fantasy
      And please don’t get started on battery storage, another colossal waste.

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    • #
      R.B.

      How is shifting to electric cars going to help when there is insufficient electricity from renewables to run a state?

      Trends? In the US, the past 10 years has seen energy from renewables go up by 4% of the energy consumed. This includes bio (about half) and hydro. At this trend, it will be 1.6% more in 4 years, and the linear extrapolation is far from likely without storage of wind electricity, more dams and more crops used for biofuel.

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  • #
    Konrad

    Biden’s climate policy is ill timed, and would normally lose votes, with a public no longer interested in the hoax, and California suffering blackout due to unreliables.

    But the democrats don’t intend to win on policy. Everyone can see what their policies lead to with the looting and violence in the democrat cities.

    Nor can they win on people. Biden has dementia and Harris is so unpopular she dropped out of her presidential primary.

    Even with the full support of the establishment media, they know there is no way they can win on legal votes.

    So they plan to cheat. Sure, they always cheat. Ballot harvesting, non citizens voting, voting the graveyard etc. This is why every attempt to increase election security has been so forcefully resisted by democrats. But this time they need to cheat on a far more massive scale, hence their demands for nationwide mail in voting.

    However, the problem they face is that Trump knows they plan to cheat.

    They will fight Trump to get their mail in voting, but their “victory” could well turn to ashes in their mouths. There is word of the Postmaster General registering a patent for a blockchain algorithm. He’s up to something…

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  • #
    Yonniestone

    I sincerely hope Biden follows electricity Bill’s election playbook, nothing scares the hell out of people who profit from capitalism more than an open left wing nutjob telling them how much they’re going to lose if they vote them in.

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  • #
    stevem

    I’m not sure the $2T is really a Biden Policy. It comes too closely on the heels of announcing Harris as his running mate. It could well be that the $2T was a sweetener to get the favoured running mate on board. She was fairly damning of him during the primaries and would probable have held out for her policies to be incorporated into the official set (not that she’d ever say no)
    Remember that sh’e fully on board wit the Green New Deal and wants to spend $10T!

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      The hypocrisy of politicians should be of no surprise, Harris would stand with Ted Bundy if it were to support her green ideology, then this from a recent CBS news survey,

      The CBS News survey asked, “if Joe Biden is elected President but cannot finish his term, do you think Kamala Harris would be qualified to serve as President, if necessary, or not?” Unsurprisingly, 91 percent of Democrats said yes, 85 percent of Republicans said no, but the numbers among independents might worry the Biden-Harris campaign – 45 percent of independents said “yes,” 55 percent said “no.”

      I take surveys with a very large grain of salt but if one from a lefty rag can’t show a polling bounce for Biden/Harris in the honeymoon period then hopefully America can survive.

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  • #
    TdeF

    As observed before, the Biden-Harris campaign is attracting the crazies and the extreme left of politics. Climate Change as it is being pushed does not exist. Any changes have been really trivial. World climates have been amazingly stable for the last hundred years and this is likely unusual. Seriously, a change in average temperatures of 1C in 100 years is not scary stuff. Before modern science, we would not even have noticed it. And if the BOM cared to study their inherited records prior to 1911 they would find it was probably hotter a century ago. Or maybe they have.

    The BLM and Anti-FA movements are anarchist criminals, posing as political activists. Trump has been visiting burned out, destroyed businesses in Minneapolis. No one believe this ‘largely peaceful’ protests rubbish. Or that they are protests at all. As the small black American population of 13% is responsible for 50% of all burglaries and 42% of all murders, of course career violent criminals like George Floyd get disproportionate attention from the police. And George Floyd had trouble breathing in the car long before because he had Covid 19 and uncontrollable because he had amphetamines and fentanyl in his system.

    So the Democrats are incorporating every extreme cause and assume they can harvest fringe voters, without realising that all the swinging voters are moving away, terrified by ‘mostly peaceful’ protests and defund the police. Only the thin blue line of brave police stand between the black communities and anarchy. Murder rates have doubled and tripled.

    And the good people of Southern California have had a gutful of windmills and failed solar farms and clouds over the desert. Even Greens are railing against the destruction of fragile environments and the slaughter of American eagles in the name of the environment. And no one believes in Green energy, not even extremist Green director Michael Moore.

    Besides, after 30 years of steadily rising CO2, where is this disaster? How many times can you announce that the world has only ten years. We’re on our fourth warning. Like Bill Shorten, the whole pitch lacks one essential ingredient. Any credibility.

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    • #
      TdeF

      And America had their chance before with Biden and Clinton and Obama. What good did they do? As Kanye West complained, eight years of a Black President (and Biden) and the blacks in Chicago are no better off. And the Obamas have exercised their black privilege and retired to their mansion on the beach at Martha’s Vinyard, an island community for the rich, popularized by the Kennedies and Jackie Onassis. The left are never short on hypocrisy.

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      • #
        John F. Hultquist

        exercised their black privilege and retired to their mansion

        Retired is not the concept you are looking for.
        Flaunt, perhaps.

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      I was watching a nauseating “ra ra democrats” speak from Michae….er…..Michelle obummer tonight on al the fawning leftist MSM here in Oz….it was truly pathetic to observe.

      Delusion is a funny thing…once it gets to a certain point, its a self perpetuating lunacy.

      And the strange thing is, people soak it up…crocodile tears and BS piled that high you could grow spuds in it….we live in weird times.

      A hard nosed relative recently confided in me that she wondered if the Seals of the Apocalypse were being opened one by one. I said its entirely possible.

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  • #
    TdeF

    Really Biden’s platform is that if you hate the Republicans and you hate Trump or you are black or Latinx or you fear ‘Climate Change’, you have to vote Democrat, so you have to vote for me. You have no choice. Or “you ain’t Black”. That’s some platform.

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    • #
      Yonniestone

      Yeah nothing says United States like trashing the words of a national hero that essentially gave his life to achieve the opposite of Joe’s sentiments, I guess “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!” wasn’t searched on sleepy Joe’s basement internet machine.

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  • #
    TdeF

    And in the 47 years as a professional politician since he was first elected to the US senate at age 31 in 1973, including 8 years as Vice President, what has he achieved? And what about those special deals for his son Hunter, in Ukraine and China, travelling with dad to take up unsolicited board positions for which he was unqualified? As a privileged career politician who cannot remember how many grand children he has, rambling Joe Biden (Robin Williams) has a lot in common with Bill Shorten. Neither has had a real job. And both believe Climate Change is a vote winner.

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      Yonniestone

      What you outlined above is considered a great achievement for any from that political ilk, ask them what Reagan achieved and you would get a tirade of lies, slurs and abuse as not only was he a great president but also a Democrat apostate changing sides in 1962 so in their minds Reagan=Bad while Useless career parasite=Good.

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      • #
        TdeF

        And Ronald Reagan was from the Hollywood elite, even President of the Screen actors guild and Governor of California and very anti communist. He would not recognize it today, in the hands of the fantasy makers of Hollywood and Silicon Valley, the unholy union of Marxists and Billionaires and the Twitterati.

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  • #
    Don Vickers

    Jo or anyone else who may be able to answer. In a recent post on phytoplankton you quoted 4% of all co2 emissions are man made I found a reference to it in an EPA finding however have not been able to find the source, If I use a figure I would like to be able to quote the source. P.S if Australia’s contribution is 1.3% what is 1.3% of 4% ,not a lot?

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      This Abstract of this paper: http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=298&doi=10.11648/j.ijaos.20190301.13&__s=hmojxf7tq4ji8pesfvu1
      mentions that the IPCC says that human emissions don’t exceed 5%. One of this paper’s references may assist.

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      • #
        TdeF

        And this as the leading sentence of Ed Berry’s paper “The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agrees human CO2 is only 5 percent and natural CO2 is 95 percent of the CO2 inflow into the atmosphere.

        The question is why this changes anything. After all a rapid exchange system which maintains an equilibrium should be able to absorb extra CO2 without changing the % in the atmosphere. Especially when you consider 98% of all CO2 is dissolved in the ocean.

        So it’s 1.4% of 5% of 2%. 14 ppm, parts per million of the gaseous CO2 in circulation.

        The only way any one can turn that into a disaster is to insist that equilibrium doesn’t work. In which case you would wonder how fish breathe and where they get their oxygen and what happens to their CO2. Equilibrium is the basis of every natural system. You can disturb it with 14ppm and the system does not notice.

        And the only solution is a Carbon Tax.

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  • #
    Drapetomania

    Today six letters calling for more “Climate Action”.

    Yes..by people on the grid that own a car BUT also a solar water heater.(wow)that are 100% clueless if u try and ask them questions.

    the Gummit got to do somfink

    is their airhead mantra

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    Reed Coray

    I’m not convinced Hiden Biden is as committed to AGW climate action as this thread suggests. The dumbocrat party plans to give New York dumbocrat Congressperson Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC of trillion dollar green economy fame} a whopping 60 seconds (that’s right, seconds) of convention speech time (https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/good-news/aoc-will-only-get-60-seconds-at-the-dnc/vi-BB17VGeR). If I was in attendance at the dumbocrat convention (heaven forbid), when they formally recognized her appearance at the convention I’d boo for 60 seconds, and then because her time was up demand she sit down.

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    Dennis

    Anybody interested in buying an almost at use-by date wind turbine installation?

    Approaching 20 years since the business started some of the equipment has already been taken off line, but don’t tell potential investors, after all the wind turbines will alll need replacement soon so they will be buying into a business with brand new equipment.

    The foundation shareholders are selling because they realise replacement costs would exceed the value of dividends received, and not as much as anticipated in the original prospectus because the wind didn’t blow as often as the crystal ball indicated, according to its operator.

    We also have solar installation business shares that will be available for purchase soon, and don’t forget, the fuel is free.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Dennis:

      I saw a claim once that on-shore wind turbines in the UK had an average life of 9 years, when the maintenance costs would start to eat heavily into the income. So after that time they were either “up-dated” with a larger unit, or they would continue deteriorating until about 15 years when they became useless (and possibly dangerous) so had to be demolished. To avoid that, it was common practice to shut them off at around 9 years and leave them. After all, who can tell the difference between a working turbine and one shut down?

      That was for earlier turbines, the newer ones are supposed to be longer lasting. As for off-shore turbines lasting 20 years I have strong doubts, ( but then I only had 25 years experience in formulating and testing fibreglass resins ).

      I see frequent financial news about the change in ownership of wind ‘farms’ and I always wonder why IF they are a good investment WHY are the owners selling?

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      OriginalSteve

      Do they clean the blood and feathers off the props first?

      Hygeiene is important….

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    Dennis

    Tesla Supercharger Raymond Terrace NSW (Heatherbrae) conveniently located alongside the highway, rarely more than one EV being charged at any of six stations I have observed over a couple of years since installation.

    Yesterday there was one EV recharging in the morning and another when I returned in the afternoon, I think it was a different EV in the afternoon.

    And I did see a Tesla EV driving south from further north, at a well below highway speed limit with trucks overtaking, maybe running low on energy after recharging at Port Macquarie (winery)?

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    • #
      TdeF

      I cannot imagine driving every day and wondering if I will make my destination. PTSD. Post Tesla Stress Disorder. Watch for it.

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      Murray Shaw

      Talked to a Tesla owner who had driven to Me;Bourne, and he admitted to that Tesla side effect, Range Anxiety. Think as a rural resident, it will be a long time before, if ever, they will be de-rigour.

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      • #
        TdeF

        I cannot imagine a more dreadful breakdown than a very expensive new car in the middle of nowhere looking for a power point. And knowing it will take a day to charge. A flat mobile is bad enough. A flat car is unthinkable. And it would indicate an idi*t level of 10.

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        Serge Wright

        On top of range anxiety there is heatwave travel anxiety. This is when you get grid-locked on a jammed freeway miles from the nearest town due to a major traffic accident (likely caused by a driverless car) on a 40+ degree scorching summer day and you need to keep the AC running flat out to avoid thermal expiry. In this nightmare scenario the batteries either go flat or they overheat and shut down due to lack of airflow and you witness a cascade effect of Tesla’s and their occupants all expiring en mass, causing a freeway death spiral. A similar anxiety can occur in freezing weather in places like North America, where the batteries go flat after a few hours of trying to maintain cabin temperature, upon which time all occupants freeze to death. In Australia there is also outback cloud anxiety, when you travel out into the desert and need to use a portable solar array to recharge the batteries before running out of drinking water. Others include flood anxiety when the batteries submerge and short cct in the middle of your attempted flooded causeway escape and finally domestic violence anxiety caused by all of the above if your mrs is in the passenger seat.

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        OriginalSteve

        I asked a Telsa owner recently could he drive it through a 3 foot deep river crossing with 6 bales of hay, 2 dogs and with doff locks on….

        Got this blank look….

        I said a diesel can. Been across Tom Grogging Murray crossing with full diff locks engaged and water lapping around the base of the screen with 3 ton trailer as well and the vehicle scrabbling hard to get out. Loads of fun, big V8 growling its head off. I think if you tried it in your Prius or Telsa, you might spill your latte….that and a blinding flash. At least once the fire goes out, you could use it to shore up an eroded river bank somewhere…..

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    Murray Shaw

    Think the current Black-outs (loadshedding Here), will kill off the Biden Renewables push poste-haste.

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    • #
      TdeF

      I suppose they picked mid summer to push Global Warming, much as James Hansen did in 1988, when he launched it in Congress on one of the hottest days of the year. And defeated the airconditioning with Al Gore’s help by climbing up into the roof and opening the windows. That is mens rea.

      Anyway now 32 years on, they have their tens of thousands of windmills and billions of solar panels and billions in wasted investment, LA cannot cope with the heat they had in the 1930s and 1950s and 1960s. Los Angeles had 43/110 in 1955 and 1963 and 1988. Global Warming? No. Despite how they fudge the manufactured ‘world temperature’.

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    Serge Wright

    Forget Biden, it’s obvious that Ms Harris will be the next President in the event of a Democrat victory and this RE strategy is her way of getting into office and introducing her GND. What has become evident in recent months is the ramp-up in activity by the far left green socialists, who have been searching for ways to “change the economic model”, which is code for implementing their version of socialism and cancelling capitalism and democracy forever. The main approach seems to be using COVID-19 to help orchestrate the race riots, with attempts to cancel police to maximise civil unrest. Along with CC, the general theme being preached is that the world and society are collapsing, racism is rampant and there is no social justice under capitalism.

    What is also obvious is that they know the American public would never elect Ms Harris or any extreme left wing socialist in the land of freedom and appear to have come up with the Zombie president strategy after watching Weekend at Bernies during the lockdown.

    I would like to think that the US public are not as naive as to be fooled by such a shallow attempt by the far left to get their comrade into the Oval Office, but one never knows. If Trump does hold on it will be seen as a victory for the free world, but the bigger worry is that the US seems devoid of anyone else that can fill Trump’s shoes in 4 years.

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      Graeme No.3

      Courage Serge,
      If Trump wins it will be a different USA in 2024. The Left may try to “maintain the rage” but Trump will have the upper hand. A more conservative High Court not trying to re-write the constitution, and probably a majority in the House and Senate. Sheer economics will silence many of the shrill anti-Trump main stream media outlets, as they are already losing readers hence advertisers (whatever their political preferences might be).
      If he can get the economy to recover, then the boost in income and job prospects will further increase the vote for the Republicans. The RINOs will be discredited and lacking in support within their party and will wither away.
      China is in for difficult times, the floods, swine ‘flu, agricultural food reductions and global cooling (despite their precautionary moves against this overseas) will destabilise the Communist system, and will certainly force it to face inwards rather than be adventurous beyond the borders.
      Putin may or not survive but as a realist won’t be keen on antagonising the USA. The EU faces collapse, as revived nationalism and antagonism to bureaucratic stupidity fosters more independence (without need to force/war).
      Colder weather will be disastrous for the Middle East, they are dependent on imported food stuffs esp. wheat. Military budgets & posturing won’t fill the hungry and revolutions (and their suppressions) will preoccupy their rulers, not antagonism against heavily armed and agriculturally advanced Israel.
      Trump may well go down as one of the greatest Presidents of the USA. And there will be no shortage of ambitious politicians claiming to follow his policies es. if those are so successful.

      If the Left can get Biden/Harris into the White House then the USA may well collapse into pieces. The North East and California won’t be a stable union, esp. as the latter is likely to become bankrupt. Neighbouring States could close their borders and charge higher prices for the things that California can’t provide – like electricity. It has been claimed that California has the majority of Social Security dependents, so the lack of funds from elsewhere could see more unrest, weakening any claim they might retain to importance, and may cause the northern half to secede.
      I recall the (apocryphal) old Chinese proverb “Man can ride a tiger, but his troubles begin when he wants to dismount”.

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        OriginalSteve

        I reckon if the Left continue to cause trouble with rioting, use the National Guard to round them up, no exceptions.

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    Paul Miskelly

    Peter Fitzroy,
    At #9.1.1, you said:
    “Yep, I agree with you here. However, no matter who wins, the trend to renewables will continue as the risk associated with coal and gas move investment to other industries[.]”

    Had you been preparing the report which I require from you in 2 days time, (that’s the supposed rebuttal of Anton Lang’s Part 1 recent paper, remember?), you might have begun to appreciate that the real, actual risks of continuing to use renewables are more than beginning to outweigh the returns from the financial incentives being offered to them. As the Governor of California is now learning, there is nothing that focusses the mind more wonderfully than a State-wide blackout. Particularly when that blackout has been caused directly by one’s own policies in supporting the very investment in the non-performing renewables.

    What is happening at present in California reminds me of the story told about the lesson that King Canute is reputed to have tried to teach his courtiers about the limitations of executive power, in trying to give directions to the tides. In the present situation, it would seem that California’s Governor has found that he can’t order the wind to blow, or the clouds to stop hiding the sun. And, as a result, as he hasn’t enough real, dispatchable generation to make up the demand requirement, blackouts follow.

    All the financial incentives directed towards renewables count for not a jot when it comes to issuing commands to the weather.
    How is that report coming along?

    Then at #9.1.1.2.4, you said:
    “See – heavy infrastructure spend in one country, short termism in another. Real sustainable or renewable power needs a bucketload of development, something it is not getting.”

    Are you trying to say that, in spite of the bucketloads of money being thrown at renewables in places such as California and Australia, that it is not getting any development? If so, on what are the renewables’ developers spending their extraordinarily lucrative subsidies and other incentives if it is not, “a bucketload of development”?

    Can’t have it both ways Mr. Fitzroy.
    Now, I say again: how is that report coming along?

    Paul Miskelly

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    PeterS

    Well if Biden ends up being the next POTUS then as far as I’m concerned the Americans deserve whatever they get. I personally can’t understand how a typical American would vote for him and what the Democrats stand for, which is socialism that would destroy the US. We shall see.

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      TdeF

      You have to laugh at their scientific polls with very accurate margins of error. Scientific rubbish, like Climate Change. Typically under 1,000 people are asked out of 330,000,000. How can you predict anything by asking 1/330,000th of the population. That’s 20 people per state. And 2.6 black people.

      Then only 56% of eligible adults vote, often less in different demographics. That’s why the Democrats are pinning their hope on lost postal votes. The fraud in the last election was Democrat. Every missing vote is a winner in the wrong hands. Which is what the Go fund me recount in Michigan proved with ballot box stuffing by Democrat officers. And without California, Trump easily won the popular vote. And the polls were completely wrong. As in Australia and in the UK.

      However the recent US post office patent to uniquely validate every postal vote with block chain technology may be a game changer and the demonstrators are besieging the home of the US postmaster general to stop his ‘interference’ in their vote harvesting. If vote forms sent to dead people, people who moved house, lost forms, improperly addressed forms, misplaced forms, duplicates and forms sent in error cannot be misused anonymously and people cannot vote multiple times, there will be a great gnashing of teeth.

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    Richard Ilfeld

    There is no Democratic party policy.
    There is a stitched together “platform” which is more like an ad hoc scaffold
    from junk materials, being the flotsam and jetsam of the demands of all the
    single issue components of the “coalition”.
    So constituted, there is no chance of it making sense, and it does not.
    The vast majority of Dem demands in the energy sphere will have to be forced; for, if left
    to consumer choice, consumers will run screaming in the other direction.
    That’s why we don’t have electric cars, retrofitted homes, alternative energy, and all the other wish list items;
    folks don’t volunteer to spend more to get less.
    California this week didn’t say “raise your hand if you are OK with a blackout”.

    Our problem is that the policy truths on paper don’t match the promissory lies in the commercials.
    We are trusting to the wisdom of the voters; more of a risk if they are not told the truth.

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    David Wojick

    I have seen nothing on the grand vote getting trick that Trump just played. The vast number of Covid unemployed were getting $600 a week added to the meager state funds, under the CARES Act. This ended late last month and Congress recklessly went on vacation without replenishing it. Trump found a loophole in the disaster laws and now has FEMA providing $300 plus a possible state share of another $100, all retro to the end of the CARES money. The many millions of poor people who will get this new money are well aware of where it came from, Trump.

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    David Wojick

    Should a vocal Trump supporter be called a Trumpeter?

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    David Wojick

    Biden is playing the jobs card, not the climate card. Here are some of his promises:

    “Create millions of good, union jobs rebuilding America’s crumbling infrastructure from roads and bridges to green spaces and water systems to electricity grids and universal broadband…

    Create 1 million new jobs in the American auto industry, domestic auto supply chains, and auto infrastructure, from parts to materials to electric vehicle charging stations…

    Provide every American city with 100,000 or more residents with high-quality, zero-emissions public transportation options through flexible federal investments with strong labor protections that create good, union jobs and meet the needs of these cities…”

    Millions of jobs. Also courting the unions.

    I write about this here : https://www.cfact.org/2020/07/30/bidens-false-climate-promises/.

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      Richard Ilfeld

      Joe Biden’s promises are shovel ready.

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        David Wojick

        Crap, yes, but as I point out in my article, the President cannot do any of this. The most he can do is beg Congress. Political promises are usually vague, not specific projects like this. Truly nuts! It reflects the control freaks that wrote them.

        01