Sunday Open Thread

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150 comments to Sunday Open Thread

  • #
    Rafe Champion

    Is there a scientifically literate journalist in Australia?

    Would people like to say who is their most or least favourite commentator?

    Perry Williams in The Australian gets my vote, his salary should be paid by the RE industry.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Rafe:
      Agreed. A real cut & paste merchant.

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    • #
      yarpos

      I would settle for curious and numerate.

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    • #
      RickWill

      Is there a scientifically literate journalist in Australia?

      Not that I am aware of.

      Peta Credlin appears to be one able to put brain in gear before passing comment or asking a question. My wife enjoyed the searching questions that Credlin put to Dan during some of the covid updates. I generally had better things to do than listen to Dan Andrews but he sometimes got a little flustered and that was entertaining.
      https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/peta-credlin-grills-daniel-andrews-on-missing-hotel-quarantine-phone-records/video/4098999c0da0faab608021efb796467b
      Peta Credlin has a law degree so not a solid scientific base. On the other hand, the electricity market is primarily designed by lawyers and economists or those with arts degrees so scientific literacy is not a prerequisite.

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    • #
      Rick

      Most journo’s barely have a grasp of the English language, let alone being literate. I heard one the other day talking about a place in India called Dell-hee, (Delhi).
      Another one while discussing middle eastern events couldn’t even pronounce the name of Muammar Qaddafi. Examples of ignorance of this kind are legion. (They probably don’t even know what that means!)
      I reserve a level of contempt for journo’s that rivals my feelings about lawyers, child molesters and politicians.

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      • #
        mc

        I reserve a level of contempt for journo’s that rivals my feelings about lawyers, child molesters and politicians.

        So journalists, who are supposedly in the business of providing the public with accurate, unbiased information on what’s happening in society tell lies.
        Lawyers who are supposed to be looking out for your interests are draining away your finances.

        But don’t forget doctors who are required first and foremost to do no harm;
        From Wikipedia:

        If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.

        These quaint old fashioned ideas are redundant now. If you present to a doctor in this country now with symptoms related to covid 19 vaccines, that doctor is at risk of losing his/her licence to practice if he/she were to make a finding at odds with the “vaccines are safe” messaging and is therefore incentivised to not uphold the Hippocratic oath in such cases.

        This is not a situation doctors have brought upon themselves as they have been threatened by higher powers in the system but it makes no difference in practice. It’s irrelevant whether a compromised ability to diagnose a medical issue is on the shoulders of the doctor or the regulatory authorities, either way it amounts to the same thing, i.e., whenever a doctor tells you your symptoms are not related to covid 19 vaccines that doctor cannot be trusted to be acting in your best interests.

        This is not an attack on doctors it is a simple statement of fact.
        The doctor may in fact be acting in good faith, trying to practice medicine with ethical integrity but because the doctor is at least partially hamstrung in what he can say you can’t possibly know whether the advice you are getting is sound or not.
        Sad as it is, the medical profession has fallen a long way down the totem pole.

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    • #
      Graeme#4

      Graham Lloyd seems to be quite good. Agree with you on Perry Williams – absolutely hopeless.

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    • #
      Neville

      Rafe Andrew Bolt is the most careful journalist and always supports his claims with proper data and evidence, also Terry McCrann, Rowan Dean, etc.
      But no so called scientist has a chance to BS Andrew Bolt because he’s on top of all the data on every issue.
      He embarrassed Flannery, the ABC’s Robyn Williams and Will Steffen of the Climate Council had to admit that Bolt was correct when he last interviewed him.

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    • #
      Matthew

      Two years ago I cancelled my subscription to the Australian,but before that I had some respect for Chris Kenny (not Mark Kenny). Unfortunately I haven’t seen any of his pieces since then.

      50

    • #
      Saighdear

      Surely, there is at least one:The one and ONLY ” Oor Joanne ” – otherwise why do you think I come here to read stuff.

      80

  • #
    John Connor II

    After Debasing Unvaxxed, Fauci in New Article Finally Admits Herd Immunity Does “Not Apply to Covid-19”

    After continuously debasing the unvaccinated as though they somehow were the obstruction to achieving herd immunity, US top infectious disease officer, Dr. Fauci has co-authored an article in which he admitted that the current vaccines with their ‘breakthrough’ characteristics, could not provide herd immunity.

    https://newsrescue.com/after-debasing-unvaxxed-fauci-in-new-article-finally-admits-herd-immunity-does-not-apply-to-covid-19/

    What now Australian govt and “experts”? Your lord has spoken.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Antibiotic-resistant SUPERBUGS found in imported SHRIMP sold at Canadian supermarkets

    India’s overuse of antibiotics plays a role in shrimp superbugs
    The testing conducted by Rubin found that shrimp from India had the highest percentage of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Of the nine shrimp products with superbugs he tested – five came from India, two from China, one from Vietnam and one from Thailand. Canada imports about 700 million Canadian dollars ($555 million) worth of shrimp each year; imports from India comprise the lion’s share, with 15 million kilograms (33 million pounds) in 2018 alone.

    https://www.superbugs.news/2022-04-15-antibiotic-resistant-superbugs-found-in-imported-shrimps.html

    Of course shrimp is exported worldwide, not just Canada…
    Healthy gut microbiomes are going extinct faster than the Dodo.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      In India, antibiotics are sold by the individual pill, not a proper multi-pill course so pathogenic bacteria are never eliminated and resistance breeds. A bit like non-sterilising covid vaccines.

      Plus, in India, antibiotics are taken as a “cure” for all ailments, whether of bacterial origin or not.

      Surprisingly, India may have the answer to antibiotic resistance. Despite the filthy water of the Ganges, full of human corpses and raw sewerage people don’t seem to get sick from bathing in it or drinking in it.

      It’s thought that’s because it’s full of bacteriophages. These were in fact used to treat infections in certain places before antibiotics were invented. Research is minimal due to Big Pharma interests in antibiotics and the possible non-patentability of phage therapies.

      You can assume any successful phage therapy would be banned in Australia by the coalition of the Left and Big Pharma.

      https://phage.directory/capsid/phage-patentability

      However, the patentability of phage therapies has been called into question. Several patents in the same category as phages have actually failed to hold up in court. This suggests that even if companies can find ways to successfully file phage patents, these patents may end up being worthless.

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      • #
        John Connor II

        Unfortunately India, as I posted previously, is having massive outbreaks of diarrhea etc due to contaminated water.
        It’s amazing they survive at all given the broad contamination issues they have.

        Having suffered bad Diverticulitis for 2 months even a 3 week course of antibiotics left a lot be to be desired, so a single pill is just ridiculous.

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      • #
        PeterPetrum

        I have worked in India many times over the last 20 years. No matter how careful I was in my choice of eating places and food I always contracted a stomach infection, sometimes a serious one, on every trip. Luckily, the hotels I stayed at had access to doctors who would attend within a couple of hours, proscribe suitable medication, which a member of the hotel staff would purchase on my behalf, and I would be back on my feet in a reasonable time frame. But infection was a constant hazard, even in the best of hotels.

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        • #
          JB

          I got a case of Montezuma’s revenge in Mexico once. I had taken some cayenne pepper capsules with me and a small container of salt. When you have severe diarrheal illness, they pump saline into you. But, I think it’s important to get it into the stomach. I was ingesting maybe 1/4 of a teaspoon at a time and taking the cayenne capsules, as well. Not sure how often. But, I got over it pretty quickly.

          I think I read a while back that a good remedy for cholera is a combination of the glucose that’s in rice, as well as salt. I always thought afterwards that Kozy Shack rice pudding (which I happen to love) mixed with salt might be an excellent remedy for that kind of illness.

          50

          • #
            JB

            Another simple home remedy I’ve discovered: My intestinal tract was off, oddly, for about 2 months straight, early in 2020. Until I came home one afternoon with a bottle of sweet red vermouth. One glass on the rocks that evening is what I credit with finally returning me to normal. If vermouth is the real deal, it’s made from the wormwood plant, which is a very powerful plant.

            I occasionally use Lillet or Dubonnet, too, for stomach issues, both of which have quinine in them.

            Most GI issues are a result of your gut microbiome getting out of whack. Usually it’s just a matter of knocking one bug back and building up others.

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        • #
          another ian

          Peter

          I once heard a speil on the lot of an agricultural consultant in India. Started fairly roughly and got worse.

          00

  • #
    Robber

    Why oh Why, despite all our Covid vaccinations, does Australia rank #6 in the world for most daily new cases, behind France, Sth Korea, Italy, Japan and Germany per Worldometer?
    The only good news, we rank #146 in deaths/million.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      As Donald Trump said, “the more you test, the more you’ll find”.

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    • #
      Simon Thompson.

      Even worse, calculate cases/100 000 population and rank that Robber!

      50

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Infections delayed are not infections avoided. Sooner or later the vast majority will have been exposed. Here it is happening later.

      Be thankful that the explosion happened with the Big O [sorry Roy] and not Delta.

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      • #
        RickWill

        Be thankful that the explosion happened with the Big O [sorry Roy] and not Delta.

        If you lived in Melbourne, you would know that there was a significant cost in terms of loss of liberty to avoid delta. Nothing to do with being thankful. It was a hard won victory over an invisible enemy.

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    • #

      Because these tests give false positive results. You may have the virus, the flu or a cold………………

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      • #

        unlikely. There are colds and flus in other nations. The tests are OK when done by honest players.

        Here there is probably less natural immunity and vaccines are wearing off.

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    • #
      RickWill

      The only good news, we rank #146 in deaths/million.

      From a public health perspective, that is ALL that matters – well excess deaths more than simply Covid related deaths. Australia is one of a small number of countries with negative excess deaths over the past two years.

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      • #
        Rick

        That’s right. 18,400 FEWER deaths than the 11 year average – and therefore NOT a pandemic!
        Therefore NO need for draconian mandates and lockdowns.

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      • #
        Mark Allinson

        “Australia is one of a small number of countries with negative excess deaths over the past two years.”

        I have a feeling that this is changing, and fast:

        “Australian hospitals are overwhelmed with double and triple vaccinated heart attack, stroke, and blood clot patients, and ambulances there are the busiest ever in history.”

        Who cares what the lying stats say – ask your friends and neighbours about it.

        https://gab.com/BeachMilk/posts/108130253243900418

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    • #
      Kim

      Confirmed Cases (daily) going down significantly.

      10

  • #
    John Connor II

    Father launches billboard campaign to tell the world his son was killed by the Pfizer vaccine

    Ernesto Ramirez Jr. was one of hundreds of children who took the jab early on. Sadly, however, unlike others, he did not survive and five days after the shot, according to his father, Ernesto dropped dead.
    “A typical heart for a boy this age would be less than 250 grams,” said Dr. Peter McCullough, a Dallas physician featured in Hecker’s video. “In this case it was more than 500 grams.”

    https://thefreethoughtproject.com/father-launches-billboard-campaign-to-tell-the-world-his-son-was-killed-by-the-pfizer-vaccine/

    Maybe Pfizer ads should have Queen’s “Another one bites the dust” as background music.

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Report: Rare Vulvar Ulcers in Adolescent Girls After 2nd Injection

    This case suggests that vulvar aphthous ulcers might be associated with COVID-19 vaccination through a yet undetermined mechanism that requires further investigation…

    https://headlineusa.com/report-rare-vulvar-ulcers-in-adolescent-girls-after-2nd-injection/

    The list grows by the day.
    So many “rare” events. I wonder what could be a common factor? 😆

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Australia on alert after new Omicron XE Covid variant found in NSW

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/15/australia-on-alert-after-new-omicron-xe-covid-variant-found-in-nsw

    Here we go again..
    C’mon Australia – keep up! China already has the XL variant.😉

    80

  • #
    John Connor II

    Topic update:

    WHO monitors rise in cases of hepatitis in children across UK

    The World Health Organization (WHO) is monitoring growing cases of hepatitis in children across the UK after six had to undergo liver transplants.

    The medical watchdog was told about 10 cases of severe acute hepatitis in children in Scotland on 5 April. Three days later, it was notified of a further 74 cases in the rest of the UK. More cases are likely to be reported in the coming days.

    https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/apr/15/who-monitors-rise-in-cases-of-hepatitis-in-children-across-uk

    All these “rare” events…all on tight timeframes…worldwide…
    Naah..just coincidence.
    Note to MSM – blame it on too much junk food (which became more unhealthy in the past 2 years) 😉

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    • #
      David Maddison

      I’m sure it has nothing to do with the “safest, most thoroughly tested and most effective vaccine in history”…

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      • #
        Simon Thompson.

        Safest? No
        Thoroughly tested? Hell No. Animal testing was wisely not carried out (previous mRNA was fatal in animal testing)
        Effective? I recently calculated -250 000% efficacy based on first 3 months of summer 20-21 vs 21-22.

        Really have to rewrite dictionary definitions to get that slogan to fly.

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      • #
        ozfred

        What does effective actually mean in this context?

        30

        • #
          Simon Thompson

          Well given the experimental design abolished the control group, we have to look at the time series of Summer 20-21 with unjabbed pop 1058 cases (Ohh the Horror!) in 3 months of the Ozzie Horror. cf JAbJab 80% Summer 21-22 2999424 cases which is 2835 x so I am being more specific to say the JabJab has -283 500 % efficacy.
          If the JabJab had the requisite 50% efficacy Cases would have been <529. Now compare 529 with 2999424. So every political Kommissar that bleats "Effective" is lying by 3-4 orders of magnitude. Now that is one helluva a lie that would bring a lump to Goebbel's throat for sure!

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  • #
  • #
    David Maddison

    What’s the difference between “Sunday Open Thread” and “Sunday Unthreaded”?

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  • #
    John Connor II

    Australia’s smart cities revealed – a roadmap for the whole world

    Maria Zeee reveals the plan for the City of Newcastle to not only be the testing ground for Australia’s Smart Cities, but the model for the whole world. She takes us through the various projects and government grants around Australia, and delves deeper into Smart Cities, the Metaverse, and citizen surveillance

    https://seemorerocks.is/australias-smart-cities-revealed-a-roadmap-for-the-whole-world/

    The remaining unwashed herded into giant totalitarian mega-cities…a dozen dystopian-future films spring to mind.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Is this a rebranded UN/globalist/Leftist/Soros “Strong Cities Network”?

      https://strongcitiesnetwork.org/en/

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    • #
      yarpos

      After what the world has seen of Australia over the last year or so , I doubt there will be much clamouring to emulate anything from here.

      Nice media hype though.

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    • #
      Bruce

      Is this the Newcastle that is subject to earthquakes causing soil liquefaction?

      50

    • #
      el+gordo

      The main plank of the smart cities plan is decentralisation, this from Infrastructure.gov.

      ‘High quality, rapid transport between cities is also critical to strengthening metropolitan and regional centres.

      ‘Regional transport links, such as fast rail, increase both access to jobs and access to the labour force. Fast rail between centres provides people with a greater range of options for where they live and work.

      ‘It allows people and businesses to take advantage of the amenity and affordability of regions and smaller cities, while reducing the pressure on larger metropolitan centres.

      ‘It also creates incentives to establish businesses and create jobs in smaller centres by offering fast, convenient access to markets and services of larger cities when required.’

      40

    • #

      Whatever happened to the Multi Function Polis? Just another load of BS that pops up around General Election time…………..Super fast trains anyone?

      20

    • #
      Ian Hill

      Any culture study of Newcastle will need to include young Normie who got to sit next to the window and was top of his class in English!

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    • #
      ivan

      Sounds like someone wants to get the ball rolling for the UN Agenda 21 and Agenda 30. Not the best thing to happen.

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    • #
      b.nice

      There are not that many “smart” people in Newcastle..

      A whole heap of virtue-seeking muppets, though. !

      10

    • #
      b.nice

      Novacastrians LUV there cars… REAL cars. Anyone that EV charge point will be used by even the tiniest percentage of the population, is fooling themselves. !

      10

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Name of the new covid variant: Anothercon.

    40

  • #
    Grogery

    We’re up at Trinity Beach in far North Queensland for the long weekend.

    I went for a bit of a jog this morning to explore different streets and paths like I normally do. Basically to Kewarra Beach and back.

    I saw heaps of kids (and have all weekend) on battery powered scooters doing their own exploring.

    The weather has been quite overcast with some rain this weekend and it occurred to me that these scooters are no different than EV’s in the sense that they need to be charged using conventional grid power (fossil fuels).

    Many posters at this blog have observed that hypocrisy in the past – that in order to save the planet, we are told to use EV’s and battery powered “everything” – but of-course we still need reliable power to charge them.

    It struck me a bit this morning (in a hypothetical sense) as I visualised a bunch of disappointed kids standing in line at a (solar/wind) charging station with no power to charge these scooters.

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    • #
      Grogery

      Sorry, I was being ushered out the door to attend a picnic.

      I suppose I should have added:

      If people were (rightly) forced to use “renewables” to charge these battery powered vehicles that we are being told to use in order to save the planet.

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      • #
        MP

        We have two hydro dams, two wind farms and two more on the way, running out of trees trying to save the planet.
        If you want to get out of the rain you could head to Mareeba, 364 sunny days a year.
        Things to do when you get there, turn around and go back!

        Inot hot springs is a geothermal natural spa about two hours inland and south of Cairns, rains one day less a year than Mareeba.

        50

    • #
      RickWill

      but of-course we still need reliable power to charge them.

      Actually battery powered stuff is something that can do quite well on sometime power. The grid batteries often charge when they are paid to take the power. Sunday 1338 and three States on the NEM have negative wholesale price.

      If I had a grid connected solar system where I was not getting 66c/kWh exported, I would make certain I charged any large battery when the sun was shining. At 1300 on NEM, pumped hydro taking in 34MW and batteries taking in 6.4MW. Both being paid to sink power rather than supply it.

      It does require thinking ahead. But most kids would get the concept of charging batteries in their e-scooter when the sun was shining. Maybe smart schools will set up charging points for e-scooters powered by their rooftop solar panels! If you had only electric storage hot water you could set that up on a solar switch. I know a few people who only run their pool pump when the sun is shining.

      Intermittent generation will come to dominate the NEM so loads able to get by on the lunch time peak will be well placed for low cost power. Aluminium smelters were encourage two generations ago to provided steady base load for the coal fired power stations and got power at marginal cost of generation – next to nothing. That requirement is no longer consistent with current mix of generators. Loads that can respond to generation are now what is needed.

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  • #
    Neville

    In the meantime donkey Joe Biden shakes hand with fresh air or is it the ghost of corn pop?
    And silly Nancy Pelosi is also totally clueless most of the time. Gawwwdd help the USA.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_59agcnLAj4

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  • #
    Dennis

    It has been pointed out by a number of older professional journalists including the late Larry Pickering who was a senior Canberra Press Gallery member for many years and Piers Akerman of the Daily Telegraph that journalism standards have in a majority of examples failed to achieve a high standard of professionalism, and the primary reason is the schools of journalism with left leaning lecturers. Next is the lack of senior professionals and willingness of the young journalists to seek their advice. The rule used to be to report the news and leave editorialising to editors.

    The point is misinformation and left leaning bias or partisan media not seeking facts and presenting facts to enable their audience to decide, like the facts about wind and solar, electric vehicles and much more. Political parties have changed from Cabinet Ministers each having a Press Secretary each to establishing Media Units which are staffed with journalists and other skilled people who effectively manipulate media, even handing out media releases in a format acceptable to editors to save journalists having to spend time producing their own articles.

    I recommend the book by journalist Paul Sheehan: The Electronic Whorehouse.

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    • #
      MP

      What are Scotties 2030 and 2050 ambitions please Dennis and how do they differ from Albo’s.

      “The point is misinformation and left leaning bias or partisan media not seeking facts and presenting facts to enable their audience to decide, like the facts about wind and solar, electric vehicles and much more. Political parties have changed from Cabinet Ministers each having a Press Secretary each to establishing Media Units which are staffed with journalists and other skilled people who effectively manipulate media, even handing out media releases in a format acceptable to editors to save journalists having to spend time producing their own articles”
      Liberal party right there.

      40

      • #
        Dennis

        MP maybe the history will be of interest: The first media unit was established by the NSW Wran Labor Government after 1976 and the next was after Premier Neville Wran QC recommended it to the Federal Hawke Labor Government after it was formed in 1983.

        The Media Management system was expanded by the Federal Rudd Labor Government and Gillard Labor Government, and research of media reports covering the substantial expenditure of taxpayer’s monies to fund what are obviously party political propaganda units are available on line.

        The expenses involved in employing hundreds of people, journalists, psychologists, marketing people, pollsters and other spin doctors. Management of media includes monitoring television, radio and newspapers, any source where reports might be considered unfavourable to the party and policies are recorded, analysed and responded to with whatever it takes, groups of voters are recruited (focus groups) to answer questions to enable the spin doctors to better understand how to respond.

        From a press secretary to a cast of hundreds funded by we the taxpayers.

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        • #
          MP

          How did you confuse 2030 and 2050 with 1976 and 1983?
          Rudd expanded, the Libs did not deflate. Talking about expansion, what is Scotty from the trading posts net worth now, and what was it 4 years ago?

          I don’t need the media, I judge on what they have done not what they say they will, I got nothing for your man except for years of passing the buck and blaming others.

          Who’s job is it to uphold our constitution Dennis.

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          • #
            Dennis

            The Governor General of Australia, our permanent Head of State.

            Remember that Governor General Is John Kerr did uphold the Constitution when he required the Whitlam Union Labor Government to stand down and enter caretaker role and then call a double dissolution election. Prime Minister Whitlam declined and Opposition Leader Fraser later accepted the role and calling the required by constitutional law election to let we the people determine the outcome. We dismissed the Whitlam Government in a landslide defeat.

            Ambitions for 2030 and 2050? I understand that first and foremost is to support the free enterprise system (capitalism the left call it) and private sector businesses to continue to achieve economic prosperity for Australians. I understand that with the external trade and defence pressures building they are part of the ambitions as you referred to them, in short keeping Australia’s primary wealth sources of international trade performing well and protecting against trading partners who seek to use trade agreement terms and conditions illegally as threats intended to control a trading partner. There are too many I can think of to post here meaningfully.

            Maybe your meaning is about climate hoax?

            Well, at COP 26 the Prime Minister refused to ban coal mining and pointed out that coal is one of the major exports for Australia and in demand around the world because renewable, so called unreliable energy sources, cannot replace power stations and coal provides the most cost effective fuel. He also refused to increase Australia’s already signed and ratified Paris Agreement emissions reduction target for 2030, or to bring the date back to 2025 as UN sources demanded. They conveniently ignored that Australia exceeded the Kyoto Japan targets and was one of the few signatory nations that did, and that Australia remains on track to achieve the Paris target, which is probably why the UN wanted to raise the target. And finally, net zero emissions by 2050: The UN is not happy, the Prime Minister representing the Cabinet of Ministers refused to commit and sign an agreement. Australia has “an aspirational goal” based on development of new technology and without damaging the economy which are both sensible goals and without giving the UN more ammunition to attack Australia with, like threats to declare the Great Barrier Reef to be in trouble and probably deter tourists from visiting Australia, a threat to the economy.

            Mindless union funded donation recipient the Greens and close friends Union Labor would close coal mines down and impose many other forms of economic vandalism that would impact adversely on national prosperity, and revenue needed for defence and many other needs.

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            • #
              MP

              56 minutes of drivel. Australia’s 2050 goals. You do realise 2050 comes after 2030, to get to one you have to go through the other.
              GBR, if it were declared endangered they would swamp us in the rush. Why doesn’t slomo just get an independent mob, or go look at the reef himself, at the reefs we are told are dead. Call them out, no Dumbo’s solution throw money at them.

              How’s his bank account looking, bet there is more then a 45% growth to his personal economy based on 2019 numbers, not based on 2021 like he spruiks with his current BS.

              “Mindless union funded donation recipient the Greens and close friends Union Labor would close coal mines down and impose many other forms of economic vandalism that would impact adversely on national prosperity, and revenue needed for defence and many other needs.”

              Labs will shutdown coal, El Slomo shut down the country.

              Libs, $444 million to the GBR foundation, $1 billion to who knows who. where is the fire donations money the red cross absconded, seems they have been given another $110 million to keep the rest of the loot company. Funny now the cash is out, silence, be a lot of books sold when his memoirs are released after his term ends in a couple of weeks.
              Last election didn’t smirko say he would recover the Turnbull slush fund $444 million?

              2030 zero coal is zero coal, does not matter which dick is on the toilet.

              John Kerr, I care not about who last upheld the constitution. Its Dic#heads job how come you just can’t say that. What is his bank account growth rate since he blindsided the people.

              Answer the questions instead of deflecting. Is that you Scotty.

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              • #
                Dennis

                You had already given away your political bias, the term “Smirko” confirmed it.

                00

              • #
                MP

                Yep I am biased, against all career politicians. Smirko is only one of the many names I call that trash, did you miss them in the comment.

                My bias, you are literally a liberal stooge, continually trying to point out how shiny you’ve polished that t#rd.

                Answer the questions, I read his net wealth increased $20 million over the term or his leadership, 4 years during a pandemic?
                I am not saying its true as I have not verified it, same as I can’t say its not true, but going by the character of that individual (should be lack of) I am leaning toward the latter.
                Mandates Dennis, apartheid, segregation based on the status of an AP, our constitutional Rights. Not me or mine you have to worry about we’re small fish, its the one’s mandated to keep their jobs, homes, families, visit their elderly folk, go to the hospital, they are your real concern and add on the Vaxx injured.
                There are many millions of us, we all vote and we do not forget.

                Who’s job is it to uphold the constitution!

                Who are the Lib/Nat’s preferencing?

                00

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          • #
            Gerry

            “I don’t need the media, I judge on what they have done not what they say they will….” How do you do that ? How do you find out what they have done?

            10

  • #
    Furiously+Curious

    A strikingly similar weather system hit E Cape SA around 10/1/22 that hit N NSW 6 weeks later. Floods killed 300 people. And they have just had a second dose, as we did.
    “In short, as alluded to earlier, a cut-off low in the upper reaches of the troposphere is currently moving seawards, off the eastern coast of South Africa. Cut-off lows are associated with widespread instability in the atmosphere, which can promote periods of prolonged rainfall, as witnessed over many of the interior provinces of South Africa at the weekend. For KwaZulu-Natal however, the effect of the cut-off low system has been markedly enhanced by the presence of sustained low-level maritime air which has been fed in from the southern Indian ocean, thus driving the system to produce more rainfall,” SAWC said in the release.

    https://watchers.news/2022/04/14/more-than-300-people-killed-after-catastrophic-floods-and-landslides-hit-durban-kwazulu-natal-south-africa/

    The southern hemisphere has been banded by Antarctic lows, and mid latitude highs, for quite a time. Does anyone want to try to tie this to CO2 and global warming? Well I guess the formula, ‘Climate Change’, does it very clearly!
    Here is Ventusky’s map from today showing this setup pretty clearly. The lows in the pacific only get down to 1004 and 7. But that’s all it takes, if you have moist air being fed into them.
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/149157242@N05/52010040560/in/dateposted-public/

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      Maybe something to do with the South Pacific (Tonga) undersea Volcanic eruption with the ash cloud slowly travelling west over northern Australia and the Indian Ocean now reaching southern Africa………………..

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    David Maddison

    Nothing to see here…

    A 40% increase in working age deaths (18-64) according to US insurance companies, compared to pre-covid.

    I’m sure there’s a perfectly innocent explanation unrelated to compulsory covid vaccination.

    US video.

    https://youtu.be/G__wIceF_hw

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    John Connor II


    COVID-19 Linked To Alzheimer’s-Like Brain Changes, Study Suggests

    Brain inflammation, stroke, chronic headache, disturbed consciousness, cognitive impairment, and “brain fog” (an all-encompassing phrase to describe a condition that usually manifests as slow thinking, memory lapses, and difficulty concentrating) can all result after infection with the virus known as SARS-CoV-2.

    .. and then the vaxxes..

    Seneff said. “Overwhelmingly, the events that show neurological issues are following COVID-19 vaccines. I honestly don’t know why people aren’t absolutely shocked by these numbers. Compared to the other vaccines, these vaccines seem tremendously dangerous.”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/covid-19-linked-alzheimers-brain-changes-study-suggests

    On the subject of Alzheimer’s I saw a brilliant video a month ago on the topic covering beta-amyloid plaques and how Alzheimer’s and plaques aren’t what you think they are.
    Worthy of an entire thread by itself though.

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      Peter Fitzroy

      love seagull science

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      Ronin

      That reef is beautiful.

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      paul courtney

      Mr. gordo: In a related story, here in the states a prof at Shawnee State U. had his reputation restored, and money too, after being disciplined for refusing to call a boy “miss”.
      Related how? Yeah, a stretch, but Prof Ridd the reef guy got in trouble with the U for disagreeing and saying so. Cook U had to find a rule that was broken, and “dissent” didn’t qualify. As I recall, the U settled on “creating hostile environment” and made it stick. So using wrong pronoun was found by Shawnee State to break the same “effectively creating hostile environment” prohibition.
      My conclusion? James Cook U and Shawnee State U Human Resources Admins attended the same seminar on “How to Quash the Crank Right Wing Faculty Member” for university administrators global division.

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    Dennis

    It’s been covered here in past years but I noticed an ABC article recently claiming that we could greatly assist in reducing emissions by choosing to drive an electric vehicle?

    No acknowledgement that most electricity generated for the Eastern side of Australia world’s largest electricity grid comes from coal fired power stations, gas and diesel generators, and less from hydro power stations and the least from wind and solar installations and essential expensive back up. And therefore most of the electricity that EV would be recharged from produces more emissions than a modern efficient internal combustion engine, diesel or petrol.

    The ABC does not acknowledge the retail price factor, that even based on the smallest and therefore most affordable EV, a China made MG, the retail price plus on road costs and recharging cables and sockets to suit the different home and commercial power points is $41,900 as compared to the same MG ICEV for $20,990 plus. A $21,000 premium on price for the EV would pay for a lot of fuel and servicing costs before the buyer reached break even point and began to save money on operating costs. And that ignores the being planned EV road use tax to replace fuel excise as more EV are registered. But I don’t think governments are in a hurray yet given the very slow sales rate for EV.

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    Dennis

    Please read this interesting article about coral reefs, and note that Australia has not committed, not signed up to net zero emissions!!!

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/04/16/leonard-lims-exquisite-photography-of-john-brewer-reef/

    The misinformation, propaganda, spread by too many journalists here, even some of the journalists that I consider to not be leftists, is appalling. The reference to net zero in this article is factual.

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    Rafe Champion

    The main problem with EVs is that they use electricity.
    That problem will become more obvious when we have less coal-fired capacity.
    In the meantime, some of the other problems,

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    I want to show you something here, you know, how altruistically benevolent people are bringing batteries and pumped hydro power to the people to umm, ‘LOWER’ the cost of electricity.

    Now I could direct you to the site, and run through the procedure on how to access the costs involved here, but again, it’s simpler to show the one image and explain it, and for the purposes of making it easier to understand I have coloured in and circled the relevant areas involved.

    Okay then, here’s the link to the image I have constructed.

    This is the whole of electrical power totals for the calendar year 2021 just gone, and I circled that year at top right.

    All the Hydro ‘stuff’ is in blue, and all the battery ‘stuff’ is in red.

    Pumped hydro first, and here look at the bottom left blue circle indicated for pumps and the upper circle Hydro, as the pumps are what are used to pump the water back to the ‘top of the hill’ so it can run back down the hill through the turbines. Note that to do this, the power consumed is 731GWH across that whole year, you know, the same amount of power consumed by (around) 112,000 average homes. Okay now, across to the blue circle at lower right, and that’s what they pay for the power they consume. That then relates to the money they get back for the generated power when the water runs back through the turbines and power is generated, and that is the upper blue circle. Here, while this is the is the average price they get for hydro power every single MWH of it all across the whole year, and not just the pumped hydro. While that is the average, the time they actually sell that pumped hydro is at Peak power time, where they get way, way, more than that 24 hour, 365 day average for all hydro.

    Okay now, the Battery part of the story, all here shown in red, charging at the lower numbers and discharging, consuming that power, at the upper numbers, and here, these are the actual numbers for that upper number because this is all there is for ALL batteries, not pumped hydro as just a tiny part of ALL hydro.

    Note that they charge the battery for a cost of $28.35/MWH and sell the stored power (AT PEAK POWER TIME ONLY) for ….. $134.75/MWH, so here we have a yearly ‘take’ for batteries of $13.62 Million.

    So, there’s no altruism involved here at all. Their sole reason for operation is just to make money. ….. I mean, 0.06% of all the consumed power, it’s not that it’s an actual contributor towards alleviating any critical need for electrical power eh. It’s just there to make money, buy the charging power for as low as possible, and sell it for as much as you can get.

    Oh, and last thing here, note how much power was consumed to CHARGE the batteries, 160GWH, the lower number. Now note how much power was delivered to the grid, 128GWH, the upper number. That means that the battery is ‘working’ at an operating loss of20%, or to use the analogy of homes supplied, that’s just less than 5,000 homes.

    NEVER allow yourself to be conned that these are actual contributors to power consumption. They’re just there to make money for the operators.

    Tony.
    PostScript – The probable amount for selling that pumped hydro would be close to that for the sale of the battery power, so again, here we have a ‘feasible take from the sale of just that pumped hydro power of (around) ….. $125 Million.

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      Oh, and here, note that when it comes to those batteries, they get almost the highest price for their power for almost the lowest amount of delivered power.

      And Batteries are supposed to ….. LOWER the cost of electricity.

      Yeah! Right! Sure they will!

      Tony.

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        Ronin

        If these muppets are making money by arbitrage from batteries, there’s no way power will be any cheaper to us plebs.

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        Nezysquared

        I wait with bated breath the response from RickWill…

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        PeterS

        Not sure how many times it has to be said. It’s not about the climate. It’s about globalists who desire to change completely the way governments in the West will control the populous. What style of regime is yet to be determined but we can be certain it won’t be nice and friendly. That’s just one of several fronts they have engineered, with perhaps more to come to achieve their goal. Can we stop it? Yes we can if we as a nation wanted to stop it strongly enough. We shall see after the federal elections if that is actually the case. It may be our last opportunity.

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        Tel

        A storage system can never lower the average cost, but most electricity users don’t pay the average cost.

        The storage system will lower the peak cost, which is happening in the late afternoon to evening at the time of highest demand, especially on hot days when a lot of air conditioners are running. That’s often the most significant cost seen by households, because no one wants to wake up at 3AM and go around running the dishwasher, doing the laundry, vacuuming the house, etc. Although there are people who actually do that to save a buck these days.

        I don’t understand why anyone gets grumpy over arbitrage … consider that storage of anything is a useful service, so if you want a tin of beans at short notice, the neighbourhood shop has gone to the trouble of keeping those on the shelf for your benefit. Why shouldn’t the shop make a profit there? Without the shop you would not get the tin of beans, or else you would need to buy in bulk and store them yourself … which remains an option, if you want to do that.

        Storage of electricity is genuinely difficult to do, and providing electricity at short notice is a beneficial service during those peak times when there’s high demand and limited supply. I can’t see the issue with people making money providing this service.

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      David Maddison

      Great post, Tony.

      As you point out, the sole purpose of batteries of either the Turnbull Snowy Hydro 2 kind or the electrochemical kind is power price arbitrage.

      And now they are pushing the nonsense of a “virtual power station” whereby domestic batteries, subsidised by taxpayer money are also used for arbitrage. Would those figures show up in your data sources?

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      David Maddison

      There must be some engineers in government circles or elsewhere that understand what you wrote Tony but tragically, they remain silent. As with doctors speaking out about covid mismanagement, they are afraid of losing their jobs.

      And there are no scientifically or engineeringly literate journalists who will even ask the question, or care, except for a few like Andrew Bolt or Alan Jones.

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      PeterPetrum

      Once again, Tony, you have delivered a clear, concise and eloquent exposé on the fraud of “storage systems”. Neither of them deliver additional power; both of them deliver additional casts at the expense of power users.

      It is beyond belief that our leaders continue to allow this to happen to our grid. They must be getting advice on this but are ignoring it. When it all collapses it will be too late.

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      Tony,
      I am far from being a supporter of batteries ( but i do advocated pumped hydro )..and i agree that they are harvestin money from the market fluctuations,….however i think you are ignoring a few things.
      1).. the batteries main (and only practical ) function is to supply FCAS functions, and they make more money from that than arbitrage. That may actually be a worthwhile service in the current state of RE intermittent generation .
      2) .. without the storage capacity ,(batteries or PH ). input for Peaking support, the cost of power at those times would likely be even higher ?…. so, there is a case to support the statement that they help reduce the cost of peak power.
      3) storage also absorbs surplus generation… midday solar, overnight coal or wind, etc, which would otherwise be “lost” , at a cost to the market,…and allows a more efficient operation of the large generation plants, ..again reducing costs to some extent. I do not believe batteries are capeable of significant input for that, but large capacity , multi GWh PH, certainly is..
      Fundamentally, a buffer storage improves the efficiency of most continuously operating systems.

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        Graeme#4

        While batteries may provide a very small amount of buffer storage, in no way could they be considered a long-term viable backup solution for grid energy.

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    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    The latest Covid variant: Anothercon!

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    Ronin

    I’ve always maintained that we should not be tieing up all that lithium for batteries, we’ll need it for all the crazy people.

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    PeterS

    Self explanatory after watching the video. Nothing we didn’t know already, at least those of us who are awake, which I think is on the increase but still in the minority.
    Media Admits It is Their “Job” To Control What People Think

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    Honk R Smith

    I’m glad SHAEF didn’t have computer modeling in 1944.
    Following ‘the science’ might have nixed Overlord.
    There’d be no France.
    Then again, maybe there would be no Putin.
    But possibly an eventually peaceful one world order.
    You know, a reset.
    The Germans would have done some stylish and efficient Building Back Better.
    We could still have Bushido.

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    another ian

    “Jack’s Magic Coffee Shop
    April 17, 2022 | sundance | 110 Comments”

    “The only way Twitter, with 217 million users, could exist as a viable platform is if they had access to tech systems of incredible scale and performance, and those systems were essentially free or very cheap. The only entity that could possibly provide that level of capacity and scale is the United States Government – combined with a bottomless bank account. A public-private partnership.

    If my hunch is correct, Elon Musk is poised to expose the well-kept secret that most social media platforms are operating on U.S. government tech infrastructure and indirect subsidy. Let that sink in.

    The U.S. technology system, the assembled massive system of connected databases and server networks, is the operating infrastructure that offsets the cost of Twitter to run their own servers and database. The backbone of Twitter is the United States government.”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/04/17/jacks-magic-coffee-shop/

    Suggests Musk has clicked to this

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      Ronin

      Jeff Bezos buys Washington Post = good, Elon Musk wants to buy Twitter = heaps bad. LOL

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      another ian

      “It looks as if the “Deep State” is involved now

      The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is going to investigate Musk

      The Deep State wants to be able to censor any totally open platforms to suppress any other political positions”

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    Dave

    Yep agree,

    Professor Terry Hughes has a great imitation of a sea gull!

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    Ronin

    Albo booed off stage at Byron Bluesfest.
    Albo says I’ll own up to my mistakes, that’s what leaders do, looks like we’ll be hearing lots more from you Albo.
    Another day another gaffe, Albo only shuts his mouth to change feet.

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    another ian

    On Covid

    “There’s An Off Ramp – But It Has A Price*”

    “The Israel data has told us both what pharma did, what they probably knew, but also how to get out of the box.

    And yes, there’s a way out of the box.

    A reminder: The spike protein that is part of Covid-19, and which all the current vaccines instruct your body to produce is, by itself, pathogenic. This was first published as a pre-print, it came out before we went on a wild jabbing spree, the original study that set off the alarm bells came in September of 2020 and when the study work was done it was dismissed by many as being “not peer reviewed” (who remember, endorsed a whole bunch of other bull**** such as masks, denial of early treatments and so on.)

    Well, that excuse is gone now. Two articles, both now published, and which I originally discussed as pre-prints before we mass-jabbed people are now out in public and published form here and here.”

    More at

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=243442

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      Forrest Gardener

      Does Novavax cause the body to produce the spike protein?

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        Lucky

        No, it contains an amount of the spike protein but gives no instruction to the body to produce more.
        That market-ticker ref may be correct for the US at that date only.

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    OldOzzie

    Something Is Rotten In The State Of Shanghai’s Latest COVID Lockdowns

    Make no doubt about it, there’s something seriously disturbing about the state of the recent Covid lockdowns taking place in Shanghai. Even for China.

    The actions China has taken to implement this round of lockdowns have been dystopian and Orwellian, to say the least.

    For example, according to the NY Times:

    . all international flights to and from Shanghai have been halted

    . many roads to the city’s two airports have also been closed

    . the government performed P.C.R. tests on 25.67 million people

    . the government has not allowed residents to go to grocery stores

    the government has put together tens of thousands of cots in two convention centers as quarantine centers – but they don’t have showering facilities

    China is also, once again, sealing people in their homes. Videos on social media “show trapped residents howling and screaming from inside high-rise buildings at night,” The Independent wrote this week.

    There are a innumerable disturbing things about the dystopian way this alleged outbreak is being handled, but none more pressing is the question of why it is being handled the way it is.

    t felt like, heading into the spring, the world was over the idea of Covid. Mask mandates and vaccine mandates were being lifted, businesses were starting to recover and we were heading into the warmth of summer with the attitude that we now knew the risks of Covid and that it was time for every person to take care of themselves.

    So, why such a drastic overreaction by China? Why continue the country’s completely irrational and inane “Covid Zero” policy at this point?

    It’s simply doesn’t make any sense – even for China. In fact, the country’s extremely dramatic and overzealous response feels so abnormal that it made me wonder yesterday whether China was simply using it as a tool for a state sponsored power grab that it had long planned.

    I also wondered if the drastic measures – similar to the measures we saw at the beginning of Covid from China – were a sign that the country knows something about the virus that the rest of the world still doesn’t.

    But a third wild idea popped into my head yesterday afternoon that I wanted to also bring up.

    What if China is purposely shutting down its country to wreak havoc on the global supply chain even further and to exert its power over the quality of lives of the western world?

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      Annie

      What if it is being done to give the West ‘permission’ to brutalise people again by useless, heartless lockdowns?

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      OldOzzie

      Opinion Niall Ferguson

      China’s ‘Zero Covid’ Has Become Xi’s Nemesis

      Beijing oversold its surveillance-based system of disease control and underestimated the shape-shifting virus. The result is an economic mess — though probably not a political crisis.

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      Lucky

      Lockdowns are not a medical measure having no effect on virus spreading. They are a political signal. They are a symptom of too much narrowly held power.

      This suggest that the Shanghai lockdowns are connected with a power struggle. One side is strong in Shanghai.

      .. ..made me wonder yesterday whether China was simply using it as a tool for a state sponsored power grab that it had long planned.

      Above quote from the article agrees with my suggestion.

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    OldOzzie

    LET’S DO IT FOR CIVILIANS, TOO: Pentagon to build nuclear microreactors to power far-flung bases.

    Pentagon to build nuclear microreactors to power far-flung bases

    Pentagon officials recently announced that the Defense Department will build a nuclear microreactor that can be flown to an austere site by a C-17 cargo plane and set up to power a military base.

    A statement released Wednesday by the Pentagon’s Strategic Capabilities Office announced the construction and testing decision that followed the office’s Environmental Impact Statement work for “Project Pele.”

    The project’s Program Manager, Dr. Jeff Waksman, told Military Times that the office expects to choose one of two designs submitted by BWXT Advanced Technologies, LLC, out of Lynchburg, Virginia, and X-energy, LLC, out of Greenbelt, Maryland, in the coming weeks.

    In the fiscal year 2020, the Pentagon budgeted $63 million for the project, followed by another $70 million in fiscal 2021. Project Pele reports have hailed the fourth-generation nuclear reactor as a “pathfinder” for commercial adoption of the technology.

    The moniker “Pele” refers not to the famous Brazilian soccer player but instead is a nod to the Hawaiian deity Pele, the g@ddess of fire and volcanos and mythological creator of the Hawaiian islands. But of course, there has to be an acronym and for this project it is Portable Energy for Lasting Effects.

    The plans call for a 40-ton reactor that can fit in three-to-four 20-foot shipping containers and, once set up, provide 1 to 5 Mega Watts of power on full power operation for up to three years before refueling.

    The microreactor will ultimately join a newer type of nuclear fuel being used in the program at the Idaho National Laboratory. Testing and experimentation will occur in 2024, with demonstrations anticipated by 2025, Waksman said.

    Members of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists also told Army Times in 2019 that they had major concerns that the Army’s own reporting on the design concept showed such a microreactor would “not be expected to survive a direct kinetic attack.”

    Waksman responded to that concern with a twofold answer to Army Times this week, saying that the microreactor will be used for austere locations, some of which were identified in the original 2018 Army G-4 report, “Study on the Use of Mobile Nuclear Power Plants for Ground Operations.”

    Those include places such as Fort Greely, Alaska, and Lajes Field, Azores.

    Second, Waksman said that both the newer designed reactor, a “high-temperature gas reactor,” and its fuel source, known as high-assay low enriched uranium tristructural isotropic fuel, provide more safety measures than older generation reactors and fuel.

    Long & Interesting Read

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      KP

      “Pentagon to build nuclear microreactors to power far-flung bases”

      Their 800+ military bases they have in every country around the world are generally mis-labelled “Embassies”. I can see this is a nice way of cutting themselves free from local power generation for times of emergency, but I do wonder if they will tell the local Govts that they are fitting one.

      I hope their new fuel has a short half-life and can be put out if there’s a fire!

      I have a feeling no-one in the Aussie Govt gets told what is happening in Darwin, they just get told what to say and what to do.

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        Hanrahan

        I have a feeling no-one in the Aussie Govt gets told what is happening in Darwin, they just get told what to say and what to do.

        And your feelings matter to me?

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    OldOzzie

    TGIF: Shades of Gray in the Russia-Ukraine War

    If you’re looking for morality tales — clashes between the clearly good and the clearly bad — I suggest you look elsewhere than to the geopolitical theater. There we find only conflicts between shades of darker gray.

    This seems to have been the case throughout history. Empires and would-be empires vied with rival empires and would-be empires for territory, resources, taxpayers, and soldiers. No surprise: governments will be governments, and that’s not good. This is not to say the shades of gray did not differ at all, perhaps even significantly on occasion, but the objective was always, first and foremost, booty and control of people. The interests of commoners were rarely if ever the cause.

    We see this in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Let’s be clear: Vladimir Putin and his Russian government freely chose to send military forces across the border into Ukraine. Their military personnel complied. They ultimately are responsible for their choices and therefore the death, injury, and mayhem that is taking place. (I make an exception for proven false-flag operations on the Ukrainian side, should any come to light.)

    Now that the issue of primary culpability is out of the way, we can go on to talk about contributory culpability. I hope I’ve left little room for anyone to argue assigning contributory culpability to others is intended to let the Russian government personnel off the hook.

    What sort of culpability do I have in mind? It’s on the order of setting a trap and loading it with bait in order to lure a target. Russia had to choose to step into it, but those who set the trap did not have to do what they did. Hence, they contributed to a terrible situation.

    Many experts analysts have long pointed out that the U.S. government at least since the late 1990s has knowingly been provoking Russia by expanding NATO up to the country’s western border, incorporating most of the allies and some of the republics of the late Soviet Union. For years the U.S. government and other NATO officials have talked publicly about inviting the former republics Ukraine and Georgia to join. Everyone knew that Ukraine was an especially sensitive matter because it had long been a buffer between Russia and states to the west, Poland in particular. The Soviet Union had been invaded three times in the 20th century, twice by Germany and once by Poland, both NATO members since the demise of the USSR.

    The warnings against NATO’s march eastward were too many to count and came from people as diverse as Henry Kissinger and Noam Chomsky, Soviet-rollback guru Paul Nitze and Soviet-containment architect George Kennan. The current director of the CIA, William J. Burns, warned in 2008, when he was George W. Bush’s ambassador to Russia, that no Russian leader — conservative or liberal — would ever stand for the admission of Ukraine and Georgia into NATO. Burns’s leaked memo was written shortly after publicly NATO declared that it welcomed applications for membership from those states.

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      KP

      ” Let’s be clear: Vladimir Putin and his Russian government freely chose to send military forces across the border into Ukraine. ‘

      Should they have ignored the planned invasion of the Donbass by the Ukrainians? The orders for it to occur in March have been found in captured Ukrainian bases around Donetsk, it is why Russia had to move when it did.

      But you’re right, overall this is just the latest plan of America’s to break Russia as a world power. They intend to split it up in small countries that America controls, just like Europe, and then rape it for the resources as they have done for 100years in the Middle East.

      America will be equally happy if Ukraine wins or loses, its just another pawn they pushed across the board. Zelensky is not allowed to negotiate peace if he wants to stay alive, the poor fool can’t see he won’t be allowed to live either way, he knows too much.

      The level of propaganda is amazing, if you only read/watch Western news you end up with no idea at all of what is happening. The internet has given us a marvellous view of what people on the ground are filming on their phones and putting up on a whole range of social media sites. Twitter has never been so busy censoring views they don’t like!

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        OldOzzie

        Moreover, as Jacques Baud, an intelligence expert who has worked for NATO, the UN, and Swiss strategic intelligence writes:

        On [March 24, 2021], Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree for the recapture of the Crimea, and began to deploy his forces to the south of the country. At the same time, several NATO exercises were conducted between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, accompanied by a significant increase in reconnaissance flights along the Russian border. Russia then conducted several exercises to test the operational readiness of its troops and to show that it was following the evolution of the situation. [Aaron Mate’s video interview with Baud is here.]

        Baud also writes, “In violation of the Minsk Agreements, the Ukraine was conducting air operations in Donbass using drones, including at least one strike against a fuel depot in Donetsk in October 2021. The American press noted this, but not the Europeans; and no one condemned these violations.”

        It begins to look as though Zelensky has cavalierly used the Ukrainian people for his own ends: instead of seeking peace, he sought or was willing to risk war with Russia, assuming the U.S. government and other NATO states would back him up with perhaps more than arms shipments. He still demands a NATO no-fly zone, which would all but assure a new world war and perhaps an all-out nuclear war. So he also shares in the responsibility.

        As usual, there’s blame aplenty to go around.

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        another ian

        Not much different to Pointman’s assessment

        https://youtu.be/i0VQk6B2_Lg

        Apart from this bit

        “What Col. Macgregor states toward the end rings very true to the practical events being discussed.

        The most dangerous time will be when the Russians are close to achieving their objective in Eastern Ukraine, and the western media will be faced with having to reconcile the difference between the propaganda they have been selling to western citizens and the actual truth on the ground. That’s when the western alliance is likely to do something drastic.”

        https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/04/17/col-douglas-macgregor-discusses-current-status-of-conflict-in-ukraine/

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    OldOzzie

    Doolittle Raid 18 April 1942

    Conceived in January 1942 in the wake of the devastating Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, the “joint Army-Navy bombing project” was to bomb Japanese industrial centers, to inflict both “material and psychological” damage upon the enemy. Planners hoped that the former would include the destruction of specific targets “with ensuing confusion and retardation of production.” Those who planned the attacks on the Japanese homeland hoped to induce the enemy to recall “combat equipment from other theaters for home defense,” and incite a “fear complex in Japan.” Additionally, it was hoped that the prosecution of the raid would improve the United States’ relationships with its allies and receive a “favorable reaction [on the part] of the American people.”

    Originally, the concept called for the use of U.S. Army Air Force bombers to be launched from, and recovered by, an aircraft carrier. Research disclosed the North American B-25 Mitchell to be “best suited to the purpose,” the Martin B-26 Marauder possessing unsuitable handling characteristics and the Douglas B-23 Dragon having too great a wingspan to be comfortably operated from a carrier deck. Tests off the aircraft carrier Hornet (CV-8) off Norfolk, and ashore at Norfolk soon proved that while a B-25 could take off with comparative ease, “landing back on again would be extremely difficult.”

    The attack planners decided upon a carrier transporting the B-25s to a point east of Tokyo, whereupon she would launch one pathfinder to proceed ahead and drop incendiaries to blaze a trail for the other bombers that would follow. The planes would then proceed to either the east coast of China or to Vladivostok in the Soviet Union. However, Soviet reluctance to allow the use of Vladivostok as a terminus and the Stalin regime’s unwillingness to provoke Japan compelled the selection of Chinese landing sites.

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    Mark Allinson

    How long before we see that same level of increase in death and disease in our almost totally vaxxed population?

    “At the roundtable, Renz stated that the registered diagnoses for neurological issues increased 10 times from a five-year average of 82,000 to 863,000 in 2021. There were also increases in registered diagnoses in 2021 for the following medical conditions:

    Hypertension – 2,181% increase
    Disease of the Nervous System – 1,048% increase
    Multiple Sclerosis – 680% increase
    Breast Cancer – 487% increase
    Female Infertility – 472% increase
    Testicular Cancer – 369% increase

    Renz went on to inform Senator Johnson that some DMED data showing registered diagnoses of myocarditis had been removed from the database.”

    https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2022/04/covid_vax_mandates_are_wreaking_havoc_in_the_military.html

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    OldOzzie

    Bill gates buying farmland and wants to ban meat: crickets and not the eating kind.

    Elon buying twitter and supports free speech: he’s a super-villain.

    An Alternate way for Elon Musk

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    Hanrahan

    Gold breaks A$2,700 and nears US$2,000.

    Got gold yet?

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      OldOzzie

      Fears of recession are everywhere — except at the clueless White House

      By Post Editorial Board

      With prices soaring, labor shortages, the Ukraine war raging, supply-chains snarled and interest rates now set to rise, fears of a looming recession are everywhere. Except, of course, at the White House — which is in utter denial.

      Just as it was over inflation.

      “‘Inflation shock’ worsening, ‘rates shock’ just beginning, ‘recession shock’ coming,” blared Bank of America chief investment strategist Michael Hartnett in a note to clients.

      “We anticipate that a more aggressive tightening of monetary policy will push the economy into a recession,” warns Deutsche Bank’s economists.

      “The overheating of the labor market has raised the risk of recession meaningfully,” declares Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius.

      “Recession in the next couple of years is clearly more likely than not,” warns Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers — whose prescient alarms on inflation a year ago went unheeded by Team Biden.

      One development prompting jitters: Yields on short-term debt have been inching past longer-term debt, signaling investors’ lack of confidence in the economy down the road.

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    OldOzzie

    Inside the FBI’s infiltration and entrapment of a Michigan militia crew

    By James Bovard

    When the arrests were announced in October 2020, a top Justice Department attorney proclaimed that the case showed that “our state and federal governments are working together to keep us all safe.” But the case actually illustrated how the Supreme Court and federal judges have entitled federal agencies to create the crimes they claim to thwart.

    If prosecutors can find any inkling of a defendant’s disposition to the crime, then the person is guilty, no matter how outrageous or abusive the government agents’ behavior. Justice William Brennan dissented, warning that the decision could empower law enforcement agents to “round up and jail all ‘predisposed’ individuals.”

    What else are they up to?

    The Times reported in January that the Michigan case was “one of the most significant recent domestic terrorism cases, a test of Washington’s commitment . . . to pursue far-right groups who seek to kindle a violent, anti-government insurgency.” FBI chief Christopher Wray told Congress last year that the FBI has 2,000 ongoing domestic terrorism investigations.

    How many additional crimes or conspiracies is the FBI fomenting at this moment? Will Americans ever learn what role, if any, the FBI had in goading forward some of those arrested in the Jan. 6 Capitol clash? And what about Team Biden’s efforts to continually expand the definition of dangerous extremist to sanctify its power?

    Who entitled the FBI to entrap anyone whose ideas they disapprove? Will the Michigan debacle derail Biden’s campaign to portray government critics as dangerous extremists who must be hounded and suppressed?

    After the arrests were announced in 2020, Whitmer denounced Trump: “When our leaders meet with, encourage, and or fraternize with domestic terrorists, they legitimize their actions. They are complicit.” But what about politicians who make no effort to control the law enforcement agencies they unleash to punish innocent Americans?

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    el+gordo

    Old diplomats take out the big stick.

    ‘Australia’s future prosperity and national security will depend on lifting its game on climate action. Over 100 former Australian ambassadors, high commissioners, trade commissioners, diplomats and development specialists issued a climate-focused foreign policy in December 2021, calling on the government to take immediate, ambitious steps to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to restore Australia’s international standing on this issue.’ (Canberra Times)

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      Dave in the States

      That’s exactly not what has happened to N. America and Western Europe. “Upping the game on climate action” results in less prosperity and less security.

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    Ronin

    After you, China, India and the USA

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    Broadie

    Really starting to lose control of the Narrative in NSW Health

    Of the 11 people aged under 65 years who died with COVID-19, five were unvaccinated, four had received two
    doses and two had received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. Eight had significant underlying health
    conditions that increase the risk of severe disease from COVID-19. Of the three who did not have significant
    underlying health conditions, none had received three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine

    I will help with the message.

    ‘Three of the otherwise healthy people under 65 who died did not receive all three doses of vaccine. One or two vaccinations were enough.’

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