Weekend Unthreaded

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87 comments to Weekend Unthreaded

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    Redux from 1st December 2020 – Will America simply refuse to be ruled by Biden’s puppeteers?

    “From some things that occurred this past week, I though giving this article a fresh airing might be a good prelude to another piece I’m working on. Have a happy Easter everyone.”

    Read more at – https://thepointman.wordpress.com/2021/04/03/redux-from-1st-december-2020-will-america-simply-refuse-to-be-ruled-by-bidens-puppeteers/

    Pointman

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      Sceptical Sam

      It’s starting, Pointman.

      The boycott of those lefty, virtue-seeking, woke, companies such as Coke, Delta Airlines, Gillette is underway. More is yet to come. Name them. Boycott them. Make them bleed.

      The hip pocket nerve is the most sensitive nerve in the body corporate.

      If they toady up to the limp-wristed woke brigade make them feel the pain.

      Keep going Pointman.

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        another ian

        The message has been there for a while that conservative political parties don’t gain votes from the green side by going even further left. And they pee off their former supporters by doing it.

        Seems big business smart folk might have missed that message.

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        Yarpos

        I havent purchased a Gillete product or a P&G product for that matter since their genius advert. No great loss and it got me back on to old school double edges blades.

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          Sceptical Sam

          Well done Yarpos.

          Very effective.

          Calls for a boycott of Gillette and Procter & Gamble in 2019, following its attack ads on men, resulted in its Gillette shaving business taking an US$8.0 billion write-down in value.

          Of course P&G and Gillette said the write down was unrelated to the boycott.

          They would wouldn’t they – to misquote a famous young lady.

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        Tilba Tilba

        If they toady up to the limp-wristed woke brigade make them feel the pain.

        I’m not sure you need to be a card-carrying member of “the limp-wristed woke brigade” in order to object to the Georgia Jim Crow voter suppression laws. Georgia Republicans looked on in horror as firstly the state voted for President Biden, and then returned two Democrat Senators. This was unacceptable, and hence these laws.

        I think MLB did the correct thing to move the All Star Game, and even though Delta and Coca Cola were pretty late to the party, as least they’re now there.

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          Yarpos

          Voter suppression laws? How laughable. Funny how lefties want to tell everyone else how to live yet, when confronted with a few basic rules that may keep them honest, they fly into faux outrage and fits of hyperbole.

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          Harves

          Are you against the voting laws of New York and Delaware which are stricter than Georgia’s? Or are you just on the bandwagon again?

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            Tilba Tilba

            One of the most egregious provisions of the new Georgia electoral law is that capacity for state legislative officials to take over (and overthrow) the election results in any or all the counties. Therefore corrupt (or wildly partisan) Republicans at the state legislature level can overturn the will of the people in heavily Democratic counties.

            It is a shameless scandal, and such provisions don’t exist in Delaware and New York.

            And outside of that, most of the provisions are just egregious pointless obstacles to safe, comfortable, and convenient voting. In almost every democracy in the world, various electoral commissions and agencies have a charter to ensure a fair system, encourage voting, and to make it easy to do. Georgia is doing the total opposite, not because of voting fraud, but because of Democrat victories.

            The laws are “anti-democratic” in every sense of the word.

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              Harves

              Please do quote the exact part of the legislation that allows this. Or are you just making stuff up … again. I know how you don’t like other posters simply quoting newspapers so I’m sure you’ve read the actual legislation.

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                Tilba Tilba

                Washington Post:

                The new law removes the secretary of state from serving as chair of the State Board of Elections, giving the legislature the authority to appoint a majority of the members, and authorizes the state board to suspend local election officials…. Separately, the new power to suspend county election boards could give state officials unprecedented influence over all manner of election decisions, including the acceptance and rejection of mail ballots, early-voting hours, poll-worker hiring and the number of polling locations, critics say.

                Up until last week, the GOP-led state legislature had very little to do with the administration of Georgia elections. The new law dramatically shuffles the deck when it comes to power.

                Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), who famously did the right thing in the face of unjust (and potentially illegal) pressure, has been largely stripped of his authority over state elections.

                Georgia Republicans can pull all these tricks, but they could well backfire too … Georgia voters might not tolerate all this election system rigging and come out in force. Time will tell.

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          Richard Jenkins

          Do you believe the senate seats weren’t stolen?
          How was the cheating addressed?

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            Tilba Tilba

            Do you believe the senate seats weren’t stolen?

            I don’t know … and my beliefs are hardly relevant anyway.

            We do know that Georgia state & county election officials (many Republicans) certified the senate and general election results as kosher, and no court case was successful in overturning that determination.

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              Hanrahan

              Looking at Recent Comments, half are yours. I hope you buy some chocolates to help keep the site going.

              Disagreeing with every one should not mean you get a fee ride.

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              Richard Jenkins

              I did not know that Georgia was Jewish, “kosher”.
              I do know that dead people vote there. People live on vacant land. Rolls are needing audit.
              There is no way Georgia won legitimately.
              Which court had the evidence presented and considered rather than cowardly avoid the obvious facts.
              Was the Presidential election legal as in rules changed by the legislaters?

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                Sceptical Sam

                A good question Richard.

                However, it is not the question that Tilba Tilba and the rest of his anti-democratic comrades want you to ask. They’d stop you if they could. Just as well Fakebook doesn’t have control over this blog.

                The American justice system has some very real soul-searching to undertake, if democracy is to mean anything to the American people in the future.

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                Tilba Tilba

                I agree that rolls should be up-to-date and accurate … the fact that they are not, is NOT the fault of the Democratic Party in red states.

                Other democracies with one thousandth the resources of the US can maintain accurate rolls and run fair elections. America cannot because it is a corrupted process. The foxes are guarding the henhouse indeed.

                But anyone who claims the Dems are crooked but the Repubs are not is dissembling.

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                Richard Jenkins

                Tiba,
                i agree with you.
                There is no excuse for rolls not being kept current.
                Trump wanted action on roll audits.
                Many Republicans are corrupt.
                Finton listed many counties in 2017.
                The worst was San Diego with 40% of elligible people on the roll.
                RINOs lack integrity. Romney must embarass the Mormons. I think he is a MINO.

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                Richard Jenkins

                Whoops, sorry San Diego was 140%.

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  • #
    Richard Ilfeld

    WHen First I heard that there had been a tragic incident at the US capitol, where an officer was killed, I waited for the immediate follow-on ties to gun control, Trump voters. insurrection, and white supremecy. When, within a few minutes of the story breaking there were no such reports, I could surmise the race and political leanings of the unfortunate perp; such is the state of our news media.
    The “local” paper in Atlanta Georgia can totally mis-report the facts about a new Georgia law, the President of the US can jump on it, and Major League Baseball can instantly react by moving its all-start game; 48 hours of woke breast-beating by the usual suspects followed. No one saw the brief correction, I guess, that the paper got the story wrong.

    “The Atlanta Journal-Constitution issued a major correction after falsely reporting the new Georgia election law would limit voting hours, a gaffe that mirrors misinformation that has been repeatedly spread by President Biden.”

    “A previous version of this story said the new law would limit voting hours. On Election Day in Georgia, polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and if you are in line by 7 p.m., you are allowed to cast your ballot. Nothing in the new law changes those rules,” the correction said.”

    It sure is easy to report the “news” you need to make your point, if you can simply make the stories up!

    “Dead Corals” and “disenfranchised voters” have more in common that one might think.

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      Kevin kilty

      I have become quite exasperated with some of my family who developed a strong habit over a lifetime of listening to the U.S. mainstream media, NBC, ABC, CBS, etc. I have tried to coax them into alternative sources of news, including going to look at raw data at the WHO, Johns Hopkins, and other reliable outlets for trends on COVID-19. Time and again this proves to them the media tell lies ’round the clock and are functionally equivalent to TASS. A year of proving lies, and trying to get them to actively participate in learning the truth, and I am stunned that they still reflexively drift back to NBC and get themselves spun up. Every. Darned. Night.

      Until the media face some real punishment for repeatedly misreporting the news, bald-faced lying in fact, nothing will change because Americans are habituated to the status quo. The Manhattan Contrarian recently posed the question about whether it is time to revisit Sullivan vs. New York Times, which has shielded the news media from being sued for running provably false stories (as long as there is no actual malice), and he pointed out the potential unintended consequences of doing such.

      Life is hard, is all I can say.

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        Tilba Tilba

        Time and again this proves to them the media tell lies ’round the clock and are functionally equivalent to TASS. A year of proving lies, and trying to get them to actively participate in learning the truth, and I am stunned that they still reflexively drift back to NBC and get themselves spun up. Every. Darned. Night.

        I don’t believe it’s quite that bad, and in fact I find mainstream commercial news program list just as much – if not more – towards the right as the left. Yes, their coverage can be shallow, cursory, lazy, and following the pack, but they do not “lie” in any meaningful way.

        Apart from anything else, they are commercial businesses, and they need to maximise their audience, so in general they are going to steer down the centre. If they started every night with an “agenda” such as Corona Hoax or Global Warming Myths or whatever, they would lose eyeballs pretty quickly.

        The major networks can be really frustrating in the way they deliver news as entertainment and ice cream, but it’s not all a left issue – some people find them very conservative.

        They’re very rarely pro-consumer or pro-labor in a dispute, for example – big business are their paying advertisers.

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        James

        Well I have got some friends to. Ow say that watch CBS news so the know what they are supposed to think! They say “let’s put the fake news on!”

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    CHRIS

    With regard to “dead corals”, I note that a report from the Australian Science Academy (??) says that up to 99% of the Great Barrier Reef will be gone within 10 years, due to CAGW. Peter Ridd must have steam coming out of his ears right now.

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    Dave in the States

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/03/epas-totalitarian-assault-on-america/

    Now we see what the ends are (the totalitarian state) that justified the means (the stolen election).

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      Dave in the States

      Another means that justifies the same end, is the climate scam.

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      Yonniestone.

      Elements of a totalitarian state have been with us for decades, as a long time opponent of daylight savings time I’ve yet to hear any real benefits or reasons why its imposed upon the population, people just blindly accept it and the propaganda that endorses it with a few irate about my dissent for state laws, sound familiar today?

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        Tilba Tilba

        The European Union is ending uniform / compulsory Daylight Saving Time this October … member nations will choose to stay permanently on summer or standard time then.

        I dislike it greatly – Australia is too hot in summer and too close to the Equator to warrant it. And Tasmania has long enough summer days anyway. Thank goodness it ended this morning!

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          Harves

          “Australia is too hot in summer and too close to the Equator to warrant it.”
          You do realise that the closer you are to the equator the more daylight saving is warranted; eg Tasmania has more daylight hours in summer than Brisbane does.
          And changing the clocks won’t change how hot it is.
          I now understand the thinking behind some of your strange leftist ideas.

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            Tilba Tilba

            I now understand the thinking behind some of your strange leftist ideas.

            Okay Mr Harves … looks like I have to spell it out for you. Why do you think WA, NT, and Qld reject DST?

            It is because of the blindingly obvious – it is too hot in summer, and it is too close to the Equator to make it useful or desirable. I think it also applies to NSW, ACT, and Victoria, but some sort of majority in those places find it nice.

            Daylight saving would seem only to be desirable in places where summer afternoon maxima are very moderate indeed. But why Northern Europe and Northern North America need it – is a question I can’t answer.

            Bac here in Victoria, I do not want “them” to take a nice cool hour in the morning and add it to the end of the day when it is stinking hot. I operate mostly by the sun and not the clock, and as a retiree I am not bound by working hours. But even when I did work long and hard, at the end of the day I wanted sunset as soon as possible, not an extra hour of hot glary sunshine.

            I lived and worked in Perth for a couple of years … it has long hot bright sunny summers already – it would have been awful to have yet another hour of that added on at the end of the day.

            Ten years in the tropics were interesting – sunsets at about 6:30 pm every night of the year, and they were short and sharp. No point to daylight saving whatsoever.

            Of course a lot of this is subjective, and I don’t expect you to agree with me – but my logic and reasons are legitimate, and your attempted insults just resulted in rather an embarrassing face-plant. Lesson learnt?

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              Harves

              It has nothing to do with temperature. It’s so people can enjoy the outdoors after getting home from work. It is also environmentally responsible as less energy is needed at peak consumption time (dinner time) – because it is not dark.
              Brisbane is ridiculous in summer. It’s light at 4:30 am and dark by 7pm.
              But at least our curtains don’t fade, eh?

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            Hanrahan

            You do realise that the closer you are to the equator the more daylight saving is warranted;

            I don’t realise that. DS works when you have a long twilight which allows 9 holes after work. There is very little twilight in the tropics.

            And changing the clocks won’t change how hot it is.

            It changes how hot it is at evening meal time and how light it is when putting kids to bed at night. January sunset is at 7:30 in Mt Isa EST. How would you like to be eating and getting the kids to bed in 40 deg heat, the sun having JUST set?
            Qld has trialed DST and it received a resounding thumbs down.

            BTW I have none of TT’s leftist ideas.

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              Harves

              Seriously. You think places that have long twilights need more, and other places need less ‘evening’ sunlight? Seriously, that’s your argument?

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                Tilba Tilba

                In the tropics it was too hot to do anything but find an air conditioned pub with DS. Townsville and Cairns are already half a time zone west of Brisbane. Mt Isa, a full time zone west.

                This is reasonably rare – but Hanrahan and I are in furious agreement!

                Living in Darwin wasn’t too bad, with the 30-minute time-zone shift. Sunrise and sunset dinner move around much at all. It was interesting going to Kununurra – just over the NT-WA border, south of Darwin. More-or-less a similar longitude (two degrees diff), but 1.5 hours behind in time.

                By mid-afternoon is starts getting dark, and it feels like dinner time, or at least happy hour!

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              Harves

              Seriously. You think places that have long twilights need more, and other places need less ‘evening’ sunlight? Seriously, that’s your argument?

              I lived in Qld when we trialed daylight saving and you could knock off early on a Friday afternoon and fit in 18 holes.

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                Hanrahan

                There is a lot more to Qld than Brisbane. I am sure office workers in Bris would love DS, but the vote went against them.

                In the tropics it was too hot to do anything but find an air conditioned pub with DS. Townsville and Cairns are already half a time zone west of Brisbane. Mt Isa, a full time zone west.

                When do you get off telling others what is good for them?

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  • #
    RicDre

    [Pete] Buttigieg [US Secretary of Transportation] CAUGHT Faking Green Lifestyle, Rides Bike to Work After Car Drops Him Off Near Destination

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/03/buttigieg-caught-faking-green-lifestyle-rides-bike-to-work-after-car-drops-him-off-near-destination/

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      Tilba Tilba

      Looks like rather a beat-up to me. How far from work does he live? He might only wish to ride a fairly short way, rather than the whole way. Doesn’t look like he’s trying to conceal the transfer. He’s not going to ride a long way – he’s still in his suit.

      A beat-up is my best guess.

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    RicDre

    California year 2020 blackouts caused solely by reliance on mandated unreliable renewable energy

    Guest essay by Larry Hamlin

    It’s been 15 years since 2006 where California’s AB 32 Global Warming Solutions Act (never let it be said that California politicians are lacking in grandiose overstatement) was adopted so the state could allegedly lead the world in “fighting climate change” by reducing the state‘s GHG emissions to 1990 levels by year 2020.

    The California mandate to impose more renewables has significantly increased costs to the state’s electricity consumers that hurt lower income residents creating an increased energy poverty class of consumers.

    Even though the present level of renewables in California is only about 32% of its electricity market renewables have created electric system reliability failures as occurred in the summer of 2020 where state dictated lower amounts of dispatchable and reliable fossil power plants resulted in rolling blackouts (shown below) that left more than 800,000 homes, hospitals, emergency rooms, fire departments, police departments, sheriff departments, grocery stores and many other businesses without power for many hours.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/02/california-year-2020-blackouts-caused-solely-by-reliance-on-mandated-unreliable-renewable-energy/

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    RicDre

    Study: Global Warming Restricting Agricultural Productivity

    Guest essay by Eric Worrall

    Ariel Ortiz-Bobea, an economist at Cornell University, claims all the CO2 and global warming we have added to the atmosphere is harming plant growth and agricultural yields, and we are only keeping up because of better farm practices. But how does Ariel explain the global greening of wilderness regions observed by NASA?

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/02/study-global-warming-restricting-agricultural-productivity/

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    RicDre

    Environmental Justice campaign to replace New York City peaking power plants

    by Roger Caiazza

    Environmental justice organizations are currently a major driver of environmental regulation in New York. A new report “The Fossil Fuel End Game, A frontline vision to retire New York City’s peaker plants by 2030” illustrates the campaign strategy they are using to shut down peaking power plants in New York City. Unfortunately their claims are based more on emotion than fact.

    https://judithcurry.com/2021/04/02/environmental-justice-campaign-to-replace-new-york-city-peaking-power-plants/

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      David Wojick

      Includes a good exposition of “environmental justice” in the comments (okay some of the comments are mine).

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    RicDre

    Inside the Church of Climate

    Reposted from The American Institute for Economic Research

    Robert L. Bradley Jr. – April 2, 2021

    At an environmental forum, Julian Simon once asked: “How many people here believe that the earth is increasingly polluted and that our natural resources are being exhausted?”

    After a roomful of hands shot up, Simon then asked: “Is there any evidence that could dissuade you?” Encountering silence, he followed up: “Is there any evidence I could give you—anything at all—that would lead you to reconsider these assumptions?”

    After more silence, Simon answered: “Well, excuse me. I’m not dressed for church.”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/04/03/inside-the-church-of-climate/

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    Peter C

    Global Temperature below the Line
    https://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_March_2021_v6.jpg

    The UAH global temperature dropped below the 0C baseline for the month of March 2021.
    That is not as impressive as it first sounds, since the baseline has recently been shifted upwards by about 0.2C.
    None the less the global temperature has been trending downward over the past 12 months.
    A new pause is being established.

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      RickWill

      How can there be a pause when temperature has not changed within the measurement error for the last 40 years. If there is a pause, it is due to gradually running out of opportunities to adjust some anomaly that climate scammers promote. Give them time and they will come up with more reasons to make adjustments.

      The NOAA/NCEP temperature data that combines global satellite with moored buoys shows no trend in the Nino34 region over the last 40 years:
      https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNhCQ8JK1w3s8nVsGD
      The range in annual average temperature is about 3 degrees but the trend is zero over all that time.

      Now same challenge as yesterday as we are now into April, what was the global average temperature in April last year and what was it in April 1980?

      I also note that the tropical warm pools in the Indian and Pacific oceans are still regulating to 30C:
      https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/ocean/surface/currents/overlay=sea_surface_temp/orthographic=-263.91,-10.53,376/loc=148.808,-4.113
      Atlantic Ocean still a tad short of 30C but it will get back up there by June – I hope. If it does not make 30C then that is a bad sign for Europe.

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        Peter C

        How can there be a pause when temperature has not changed within the measurement error for the last 40 years.

        Good point.

        I don’t know what the measurement error for UAH global temperature might be, nor how it might be calculated.

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          Hanrahan

          I don’t know what the measurement error for UAH global temperature might be, nor how it might be calculated.

          I, a non-scientist, would ask a simpler question: How is global average temperature measured with vast tracts of the Southern H sparsely populated and unmeasured.

          Is the Northern H one vast heat island with any [potential] measured increase being “localised” to the north but not reflected in the south?

          Before hitting “Post” I did a quick search, remember that LIFE is exothermic:

          Expert Answers

          GREG JACKSON, M.A.
          CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
          Just under 90 percent of the world’s population lives in the northern hemisphere.

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    Hanrahan

    There is no help for the brain-washed. My lay-about son is positive that Mat Gaetz is a paedo, why? Because he has been accused of it. On a scale 1 to 10 inappropriate dealings with a 17 yr old [IF the story is true] does not rank as high as kiddie-fiddling.

    He is also positive that the Hunter lap-top from hell is a beat up because no sane person would do what he did. I think there is general agreement that no sane person would do as he has done. Doesn’t mean he didn’t do it.

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      Tilba Tilba

      A lot of people believe the Dems stole the election because they were accused of it. A lot of people believe certain persons and groups were ringleaders in storming the US Capitol because they were accused of it.

      But I agree that Matt Gaetz has the right to the presumption of innocence. Although he certainly did himself no favours appearing on Tucker Carlson. The cut-off point between statutory rape and genuine paedo, is a fine one … and it depends a lot on the age and sleaze-quotient of the accused.

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      Deano

      The witch hunt scene in ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ should be shown to our youth as part of their education. The logic with which they determine guilt is no sillier than the arguments I’ve heard put forward by some media commentators.

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    Peter Fitzroy

    To follow on to all the Chinese influence stories, Honi soit has been forced to pull a story critical of Chinese leaning acadminics in the engineering department.

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      Tilba Tilba

      I returned to my old Architecture Faculty at the University of Sydney last year … the entire student body (and a lot of the staff) were Chinese. What used to be a wonderful education for some of Sydney’s brightest kids (whatever your family income) has now just become a huge overseas degree factory.

      It’s a money-making racket. And very sad.

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    David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

    I can’t remember where I got this from, or when, but it’s fascinating for both content and style, a short history of life expectancy v wealth.
    4 minutes.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo
    Enjoy.
    Dave B

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      Hanrahan

      I am about to have another birthday and thinking about so many of my friends who haven’t made it this far I looked up life expectancy. They predict that children born today will live as long as I have but I have exceeded expectations for when I was born by ten years.

      What did surprise me is that Australia’s life expectancy is a few years more than that of the USA and that theirs is dipping. We can contemplate why but it does show that money only works so long. The US would spend more on health and education than any other nation but with poor results. That is a reflection on their politicians who, to an outside observer, are terrible.

      Is the West hitting equilibrium where the diseases of affluence balance the improvements in treatment?

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        David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

        G’day H,
        Good questions. But Rosling did say his average wage figure was only a rough estimate of wealth.
        And I reckon Australia has a better chance of a good health outcome, just because of our climate, changing or not. Warm and sunny by comparison with the US.
        Cheers
        Dave B

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          Hanrahan

          Australia’s health system is excellent, but have you noticed that since Gough, who sent us down this path to Utopia, our nation’s economic health has blown.

          You can only spend a dollar once and that applies to government.

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            Tilba Tilba

            … have you noticed that since Gough, who sent us down this path to Utopia, our nation’s economic health has blown.

            I recall during 1974 Australia changed. It wasn’t caused by Gough Whitlam (or even Rex Connor or the rather mad Jim Cairns). There was an oil price shock, and without being too dramatic about it, I don’t think the country has ever got its mojo back since that date.

            I was living in Cairns at the time, and the entire vibe changed.

            I think all Western countries suffered, and I think it’s going to happen again in the soonish decades, with energy becoming more expensive than society can afford to pay and still function the same.

            It’s one of the issues with the Joe Biden infrastructure plan … are they going to pour billions into a whole lot of stuff that is wrong? But the weight of previous investment will probably prevail … trillions have been invested in suburbia and the automobile – it is very very hard to not want to keep the whole circus going!

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              Hanrahan

              The oil price shock was temporary, Gough’s remaking of Australia has never been reversed. Our public service is the highest paid in the world. Gough did that deliberately.

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                Tilba Tilba

                The oil shock itself was temporary, but its impact was long-term. Unemployment went from tiny (in some regions too small to measure) to 5% and more, and has never gone back.

                “Our public service is the highest paid in the world. Gough did that deliberately.”

                Our top public servants are very well paid, but I don’t think an average ASO5 or EL1 are better paid than equivalents overseas. But I have no data handy.

                Whatever the shortcomings of the economics brains trust of the Whitlam Government, all the wonderful things he did to drag the country into a modern 20th Century can never be taken away from him. The era to 1972 were the dark ages by comparison.

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                Hanrahan

                And then the ungrateful Australians voted him out. Not enough socialists it appears.

                How is it there are no socialist countries where life is so good that you would rather be there than live under the oppressive liberals here?

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                Tilba Tilba

                And then the ungrateful Australians voted him out. Not enough socialists it appears.

                Nah – the NSA, CIA, and Buckingham Palace nobbled him … sacked them (over Pine Gap) and then rigged the election. Mate of mine saw the pre-filled ballots coming out of a dodgy printery in Harris Street Ultimo.

                See – I can run tinfoil stuff with the best of them 🙂

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                Tilba Tilba

                How is it there are no socialist countries where life is so good that you would rather be there than live under the oppressive liberals here?

                Bear in mind I am a Chardonnay Socialist, comrade! But sure – there are a number of countries I could live in because I like their leftie, welfare net, greenie, style of life. Scandinavia, other bits of Europe, and so on.

                But culturally I would have a drama – New Zealand is close (but still very different). Canada isn’t bad, but the Aussie weather is hard to beat. So here we remain.

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                Tilba Tilba

                … you would rather be there than live under the oppressive liberals here?

                It’s funny you should say that. In the 50 years to 2021, the Coalition has been in power for 32, and Labor for just 18. But all the really interesting, exciting, reforming things have occurred in the Labor 18.

                There is something weird about conservative governments – like the dog that catches the car, they don’t quite know what to do with power. Fraser, Howard, Abbott, Turnbull, and now Morrison … we’re talking dishwater here compared to the other guys (and one girl)!

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                Hanrahan

                You’re busier than a one armed paper hanger in a gale refuting EVERYTHING others say on this blog. Get some sunlight and some of that sun vitamin.

                Permanent negativity and hatred is not good for your soul. You may be happier at HotCopper where you would have the support of many other crazies.

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              • #
                Tilba Tilba

                Permanent negativity and hatred is not good for your soul.

                Haha – an old trope indeed. Whenever the right get called out for their often-crazy views they call it “hate” – it’s like a reflex. I find most of the hate, anger, and intolerance resides on the conservative side of the fence, comrade.

                The left / centre-left are a bunch of hippies by comparison, frolicking in the sunny uplands.

                I’ll determine by myself how much sunshine I absorb, and which forums I choose to bring colour and movement to.

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        Kalm Keith

        When my wife and I visited Hawaii a long time back we were amazed at the serving sizes in public restaurants.

        Little wonder that diabetes and eating disorders reign supreme in that affluent country.

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      • #
        sophocles

        Hanrahan:

        HIPY PAPY BTHETHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY

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        Tilba Tilba

        What did surprise me is that Australia’s life expectancy is a few years more than that of the USA and that theirs is dipping.

        Might also be a function of the huge poor cohort in the US, that we simply do not have, dragging their averages down. Maybe the life expectancy of the top 25% of incomes are not much different to Australia’s. But yes – their dietary habits are quite a shock, coming from Australia. We’re no hippie vegetarian commune, but tend eat to eat far better, I reckon.

        I think being warmer (or at least never very cold) helps Australian stats too, as suggested elsewhere.

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          Are the poor the ones killing themselves with fentanyl and crack in their hundreds of thousands?

          AFAIK those drugs are expensive.

          Hunter Biden has said that he was smoking [?] crack every qtr hour so cut the crap that only the poor are dying. Obesity and its fellow traveller type 2 diabetes is not a disease of the poor. It is cheaper to eat well out of the supermarket than badly out of Maccas. Is laziness the cause or effect of poverty?

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    OriginalSteve

    Florida bans globalist “Your papers please” vaccine passports outright.

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2021/04/03/ron-desantis-eo-on-vaccine-passport-n2587355

    “The executive order reiterates DeSantis’s position that while the state seeks to ensure every Floridian who wants a Covid vaccine can get one, it will never be mandated or required by law. Furthermore, vaccination records are private, and the notion of a vaccine passport not only infringes on that privacy but also diminishes an individual’s freedom, he said.

    ““[R]equiring so-called COVID-19 vaccine passports for taking part in everyday life — such as attending a sporting event, patronizing a restaurant, or going to a movie theater — would create two classes of citizens based on vaccination,” the governor added.

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    • #
      Tilba Tilba

      It seems to me that all manner of businesses relying on crowds would welcome a vaccine pass. If the whole crowd has a pass, then you can (presumably) have far more people packed in. Without a vax check, then social distancing and masks might still need to be in play. Same for transport, tours, etc.

      What am I missing here? Or is Rick DeSantis putting ideology ahead of common sense?

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Yes.
        You are missing.
        Please come back.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        is Rick DeSantis putting ideology ahead of common sense?

        Has it crossed your leftist brain that he might be following the constitution?

        N@zis insisted on “Papers please” and your ilk called Trump a n@zi. Think about it.

        BTW Why are people flocking to Florida if life there is so dangerous?

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    Deano

    In Perth it’s been a warm Easter. One media report claimed that if today’s predicted temperature of 35 was reached it would make it the HOTTEST EASTER SUNDAY IN…….IN……….12 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!

    It got to 31.2 and it’s early April in Perth.

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      It’s early April on the East coast too. 😀

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      • #
        Tilba Tilba

        Early April down here in Essendon as well 🙂

        We had a warm Easter too 30° 29° 28° 21° … something like that.

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        • #
          Deano

          I’m starting to believe Perth is in the same general time reference as Essendon and the East coast of Australia.

          P.S. The mighty Bombers dismantled the Saints with awesome skill and determination on Saturday. YAY!

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    • #
      Harves

      We are having a typical wet Easter in Brisbane. To drum up fear last night at 6pm news outlets were predicting “Dangerous weather that could cause life-threatening flash flooding is about to make landfall as a subtropical low edges closer to southeast Queensland.
      The first area to experience heavy rain should be the popular coastal city of Hervey Bay, which could be lashed with as much as 250mm in a short period”

      Fortunately, since that report, nowhere on the coast has had more than 5-10mm (not even doomed Hervey Bay) and now they are forecasting about 10-20mm today. Whew, our lives are saved again.

      It’s so lucky that these clowns can predict the weather 80 years into the future because they can’t get the next few hours anywhere near right.

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  • #
    el gordo

    Friendly Competition

    ‘Australia is in a race against time to secure millions of COVID-19 jabs for the Pacific or risk a Chinese vaccine diplomacy victory.’ Oz

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  • #
    CHRIS

    **Looks out the window…wonders if he needs an umbrella for the day**. Really, who cares about weather conditions? The Bureau of Misinformation couldn’t predict the weather for the next 10 minutes, so why worry????

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