Sunday Open Thread

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171 comments to Sunday Open Thread

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      Broadie

      Great Map El+Gordo.

      My comment would be that the East Australian Current picks up some heat from inside the Great Barrier Reef below the Whitsundays. There does appear to be an area of heat around the world at the latitude of the West Tasman Sea with significant heat (up wellings ?) around NZ and a significant heating off the east coast of Africa that appears to be the source of the warm water across the bottom of the Indian Ocean, Australia and the Pacific.

      My first lesson in Ocean currents when racing north along the coast south of Fraser Island was to tack when your feet felt the warm water of the East Australian Current.

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      Simon

      You’re looking at SST anomaly, which indicates that the EAC is more powerful that usual. It doesn’t explain why the western Pacific Ocean is warmer, which is largely the La Niña influence. What I thought was interesting was the lower than normal SST roughly following the track of Cyclone Gabrielle, it presumably shifted a lot of heat elsewhere.

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        Old Goat

        Simon,
        The heat is being sent upwards by convection in the cyclone . Evaporative cooling is also having an effect . This behaviour and the overall water cycle has effects which most climate models ignore .

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        Broadie

        the lower than normal SST roughly following the track of Cyclone Gabrielle

        If for instance you followed an egg beater across the ocean, would the surface of the ocean cool?

        I am thinking increased surface area like in an evaporative cooler.

        This may be why in the absence of the predicted increase in frequency and intensity of egg beaters in the Coral Sea due to Anthropogenic Global Warming, there may have been a period of coral bleaching.

        All in a hot and copper sky,
        The bloody Sun, at noon,
        Right up above the mast did stand,
        No bigger than the Moon.

        Day after day, day after day,
        We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
        As idle as a painted ship
        Upon a painted ocean.

        Water, water, every where,
        And all the boards did shrink;
        Water, water, every where,
        Nor any drop to drink.

        The ‘Ancient Mariner’ rings true when you experience those windless days in the tropical oceans.

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    RossP

    An interesting, detailed analysis of the Australian data related to Covid. Leave it up to you draw your own conclusions. Some of the comments are worth reading as well.

    https://markusmutscheller.substack.com/p/hard-raw-data-there-never-was-a-covid?utm_source=direct&r=15ip6f&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&fbclid=IwAR1Z9hZhwvQNgZAWpK8hsuF-Q4dpFkIDAUcTrbPwx-Yva4Dx9CGLTL6bKgY

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    yarpos

    Coming home from a lunch with the good lady wife at a distant pub today and came across an unusual road kill sight.   Laying in the middle of the road was the rather fresh carcass of half a kangaroo,  the bottom half to precise.    No sign of the top half.   I suspect it may be lodged in the grill of a logging truck that frequent the area (perhaps with a rather surprised look on its face)

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      Annie

      Yerrk! I daresay the ‘roo won’t be the only one with a surprised face. Maybe the truck driver will also have one if the top half is still stuck on the grill when he stops. Maybe there were a few more surprised faces on drivers coming in the opposite direction. Oh dear.

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      Lawrie

      There is a wonderful bush poem about a slow galah that ended up stuck to the front of a tour bus and he tells the tale of his travels. http://www.ozebushpoet.com.au/galah.html . His poem about the cattle dog who now lives in town is also worth a listen.

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    John Connor II

    Saudi Arabia imprisons nearly 50 tribesmen for rejecting Neom-related displacement

    Saudi Arabia has imprisoned at least 47 tribesmen of the Howeitat tribe in the northwest of the country for their resistance against displacement aimed at developing the Neom megacity, a human rights group says.

    Human rights organization Alqst released a report on Thursday titled “The Dark Side of Neom,” providing details about those who have been detained or disappeared for voicing protest to the $500-billion project as well as related human rights abuses.

    Based on the report, 15 members of the tribe have received sentences between 15 and 50 years and five others have been sentenced to death. No information about the fate of 19 other detainees is available, it said, adding that eight others have been released.

    The sentences have been reportedly extended in mid-2022 amid Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s efforts to rehabilitate ties with the international community following the murder of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

    Abdulilah al-Howeiti and his relative Abdullah Dukhail al-Howeiti, members of the Howeitat tribe in northern Saudi Arabia, were each handed a 50-year prison term and 50-year travel ban for supporting their family’s refusal to be forcibly evicted from their homes in the Tabuk province.

    https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2023/02/17/698364/saudi-arabia-arrests-47-for-resisting-displacement-neom

    Saudi Arabia is worse than the USA.

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      Old Goat

      John,
      This is the media finally catching up with the Saudis – You ditch the petrodollar and we set the media on you . If that doesn’t work we will arm your enemies and tell them where to find you . Expect “Regime Change*” in the near future .

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    John Connor II

    Australia: Victoria reports 1st Murray Valley encephalitis virus infection since 1974

    The Victoria Department of Health reported a case of Murray Valley encephalitis (MVE) virus infection in a a woman in her sixties who died in early February.

    The case spent time in Buloke Shire and Swan Hill during her acquisition period and likely became infected in early January 2023. This marks the first human case of MVE in Victoria since the last outbreak in 1974.

    The risk of mosquito-borne diseases such as Japanese encephalitis (JE), MVE and West Nile (Kunjin) virus infections are high this summer, particularly in northern Victoria where viruses are being detected in mosquitoes. The risk of human cases in the coming weeks is very high.

    Taking measures to avoid mosquito bites is critical to protect against infections.

    Symptoms may include fever, headache, nausea, vomiting and muscle aches, although most infected people do not have symptoms. In serious cases, people can develop meningitis or encephalitis which can be fatal.

    Peru: Health Ministry prepares declaration of health emergency due to dengue outbreak in 13 regions

    Given the significant increase in cases and deaths from dengue, the Ministry of Health (Minsa) will declare a health emergency due to an outbreak in 13 regions and 59 districts of the country, which are affected by the presence of the Aedes aegypti mosquito that transmits the disease.

    It should be noted that, so far this year, 11,585 cases and 16 deaths from dengue have been reported in the country. In 2022, on this same date, 6,741 cases were reported, which means a considerable increase, according to figures from the National Center for Epidemiology, Prevention, and Disease Control (CDC Peru ).

    Well, I did say Dengue would go crazy, and it has, although it’s no real risk in the western world.
    Where’s Gatesy when you need him…

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      David Maddison

      When are they going to rename Murray Valley Encephalitis?

      We can’t say Wuhan Flu because it’s not woke to name a virus after it’s place of origin so why is it OK for MVE?

      If Leftists now think it’s “racist” to refer to C19 by its place of origin how about these diseases and viruses in addition to MVE named after Australian places?

      Ross River fever.
      Hendra virus.
      Bairnsdale ulcer.
      Barmah Forest virus.

      Etc..

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    John Connor II

    Hard raw data: There never was a Covid Pandemic in Australia in 2020

    But the injections caused an iatrogenic pandemic in 2021/2022

    This new analysis of raw, official, unmanipulated data from The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) confirms what many of us, who trust our own eyes and ears, have been suspecting for years: There never was a Covid pandemic in 2020. Let’s be clear: There was a virus that was making people sick and killing some people, but not more so than in any previous years. The author makes a good case that the narrative of Covid virus pandemic was based on unsuitable PCR tests. The author, Wilson Sy, uses the Bradford Hill analysis in his 25-page long paper, titled: Australian COVID-19 pandemic: A Bradford Hill analysis of iatrogenic excess mortality Wilson Sy is an analyst with 62 publications.

    And there is more: The author argues convincingly that the actual Covid injections caused an iatrogenic pandemic in Australia in 2021 and 2022. Iatrogenic means caused by medical examination or treatment. If this work holds up to scrutiny, it looks like this is convincing evidence that the state of Australia is directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of its citizens by manipulating, coercing, or mandating them to take unsafe, deadly Covid injections. This is another confirmation of whatSteve Kirsch has been saying for a long time now.

    It uncovers lies, disinformation, and misrepresentations by the government and mainstream media. This caused many people to die. And many more people will die if this analysis is not taken seriously and repeated in many more countries. The author concluded:

    This study has introduced a […] methodology, which should be used by other countries, […], to replicate and investigate the likely iatrogenic origins of their own pandemics. Billions of lives in the world are at stake from the potential findings of the research.

    Australian official mortality data show no clear evidence of significant excess deaths in 2020, implying from an older WHO definition that there was no COVID-19 pandemic.

    WHO changed the pandemic’s old definition, making it much easier to declare one.

    Seasonality analysis suggests that COVID-19 deaths in 2020 were likely misclassifications of influenza and pneumonia deaths.

    https://markusmutscheller.substack.com/p/hard-raw-data-there-never-was-a-covid

    Study:
    https://www.researchgate.net/publication/368426122_Australian_COVID-19_pandemic_A_Bradford_Hill_analysis_of_iatrogenic_excess_mortality

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      John, Obviously there was no pandemic in Australia in 2020 because there was almost no virus here.

      Australia closed its borders in 2020. Analyzing excess deaths that year starts and ends with border control, and any other inference about 2020 is irrelevant.

      Death rates per million in countries that let the virus “run free” (eg UK: 3011, USA: 3412) ended up being four times higher than nations which closed their borders in 2020-21 (Australia: 739, Japan: 570, South Korea: 660, Taiwan: 731 and NZ: 784). Deaths in Sweden (2,310) were 3 times higher than Australia. And this is cumulative deaths per million across all three years of the pandemic.

      It’s a shame when excess deaths related to the vaccine, which is so important, get mixed up in fairly bad studies.

      Herd immunity to the original bad variants isn’t worth a lot anyhow now that the virus has mutated. Getting herd immunity to Omicron seemingly costs so little. Though we don’t know the five and ten year costs of allowing a potential-bioweapon to spread.

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      • #
        John Connor II

        get mixed up in fairly bad studies.

        We’re clearly reading (interpreting) both the article and study differently, so for the purpose of “enlightenment” perhaps you’d care to detail specifics that you see as erroneous?

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          Peter C

          Jo is saying that the death stats are correct, ie there was no increase in excess deaths in 2020 but she ascribes a different cause, ie lockdowns and border controls.
          The excess deaths occurred 5 months after the vaccine program got underway. However that also corresponded with opening up the lockdowns and also our international borders.

          There was more to the paper than that. A particular issue was autopsy evidence of vaccine injury. Unfortunately I have not seen any Australian path data.
          I read the paper but I may have to look at it again in the light of Jo’s criticism.

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          Did you read my reply? This “There Never Was A Covid Pandemic in 2020” is just meaningless. That was the subhead…

          If people want to analyze the vaccine response (and that’s a task worth doing) better to be disciplined, and not dilute the message with confounded and irrelevant aspects. Anyone trained in microbiology will rule out his work at the first line and that’s a shame. They won’t even read para 1.

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            Still Interested

            Both are correct.
            There never was a pandemic in Australia.
            And when injections coincided with border opening,nobody can tell the difference.

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            • #

              Not so. The injections didn’t coincide with open borders here. That’s what makes Australia so scientifically useful to estimate the side effects of the vaccines.

              And different states had different timing. In WA we had no virus at all, but lots of vaccine in Q3/4 of 2021. WA is the ultimate control group. No one can blame Covid for excess death and disease in WA in 2021. There is no confounding factor.

              WA is also one of the rare states where nearly everyone got their doses before the virus spread, so no one had natural immunity before vaccination. Perhaps that reduced vaccine side effects? I don’t know. But I’d like to see that data.

              Even in NSW and Vic when the virus spread in Q3/4 it was still extremely limited (due to draconian restrictions). The vaccine rollout started in July 2021, but 98.8% of all Australia’s virus infections occurred after Jan 1 2022. So for six months, even in Vic / NSW the number of cases was still very small compared to what came next in 2022.

              Look, perhaps if he edited the headline and opening page it would reach more people. But the closed borders and zero Covid are the single dominant variable in 2020 and 2021. The effect is so strong and obvious we don’t need a Bradford Hill analysis, or any statistical test, just look at the data I cited in #6.1. He needs to take that into account.

              I would also drop all the PCR mentions. The lack of influenza is due to the Ro being a mere 1.4. It’s textbook stuff. Any restriction that slows an Ro of 6 will stop influenza by default. Which I explained back in May 2020.

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                farmerbraun

                Does not the definition of closed borders depend entirely on when the virus was already extant?
                I think it is perfectly clear that NZ( and Australia) “closed’ their borders months after the virus arrived , from late 2019, and into early 2020.

                So any arguments based on “closed” borders are moot, are they not?
                The virus was already here.
                And as we all know the virus continued to arrive after the borders were “closed”.
                Which does suggest that “closing” borders does not prevent the virus continuing to arrive and spread, particularly amongst groups confined in close proximity, i.e. “locked down”.

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                Kalm Keith

                Farmer, which virus.

                From the paper.

                ” the only criteria to call an infection “Covid” came from unfit PCR tests. In reality, most of these infections were actually normal annual influenza and pneumonia, mislabelled as “Covid”.

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                Gee Aye

                “Unfit” was an unsupported and oft (too oft) debunked claim. I have one of the many sets of primers primers now and have done the test and it is as robust as any I’ve done before. Do you think it would be a good undergrad medical technology practical? It is easy to get safe DNA (not RNA) to dope a mock sample so they have a positive result to look at.

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                Kalm Keith

                Gosh Yes,

                Are you positive about that.

                Did you just say that there’s a “substitute” which the “test” would respond to.

                Isn’t that confirming the lack of specificity being implied by “unfit”.

                Could the common cold or flu achieve or trigger the response.

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                Gee Aye

                Isn’t that confirming the lack of specificity

                It is highly specific.

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                farmerbraun

                @Kalm Keith

                That’s the general area; your comment was directed at the potential for an outbreak of fascism a la Victoriastan.

                When did Bill in Oz fall silent?
                He certainly was vociferous back then.
                I was interested in his conjecture (?) that ivomec would sort any covid in farm animals. LOL

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                farmerbraun: the definition of closed borders means borders that people can’t cross without quarantine.

                Far being “moot” — borders in a pandemic were the greatest success for health, freedom, and the economy, and strangely most conservatives seem to support Tedros of the WHO and the globalists? I mean, the left really hope the Right don’t realize.

                Compare Australia to the UK in May 2020 — where 67 million people were restricted to houses but borders were not closed and 10,000 people a day were allowed to fly in constantly reseeding the virus. Australia got to zero Covid in weeks after the first outbreak, but the UK would never get there.

                As for Covid in 2019? Where is the evidence it was widely established anywhere outside China? (Are you relying on PCR tests you won’t accept in other situations?) And don’t forget, the early Wu-Flu was a cluster spreader, so only 1 person in 10 was a superspreader, and the rest infected no one. Even if one or two people brought that early version in, odds were it wouldn’t spread. A dead end. This virus had to knock at the door quite a few times before it seeded on fertile ground and got a foot hold. All we had to do was Stop The Flights.

                The virus did not continue to arrive in our cities after borders were closed. WA went 20 months with no cases. The virus only arrived when quarantine was incompetent or run by Labor Union hacks who did diversity training. A $50 Hazmat suit in NSW in June 2021 could have saved all of Australia and NZ from torrid lockdowns, deaths, economic destruction and forced vaccination.

                Australia was doing mass testing and barely finding one positive in 2000 – 5000 tests. There were no “invisible mass waves” of virus here. And for those who still doubt PCR tests I guess I need to do full posts on what DNA is, how the two strands bind, how incredibly specific that is, and how we can control the conditions to use it as an assay. It is old chemistry now.

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                farmerbraun

                “(Are you relying on PCR tests you won’t accept in other situations?) ”

                I think you may be talking to somebody else Jo: I’ve never expressed a view. I never got a test of any sort.
                But there was no widespread testing in 2019 and early 2020 when the planes and cruise ships were rolling in with no quarantine (which proved to be leaky anyway).

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                Farmerbraun, perhaps I was mixing you up with someone else. My apologies.

                I’m still wondering what evidence there was that Covid arrived in Australia in 2019?

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                farmerbraun

                “what evidence there was that Covid arrived in Australia in 2019?”

                There cannot ever be any I think, if people didn’t know they had it , or presumed it was just a cold, or it wasn’t highly infectious as alleged, or nobody bothered to test for it.
                More interesting I think to wonder how it could not be there , given its early manifestation in Wuhan , and the arrivals from China for 4-5 months.

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              • #

                If Covid came here and spread in 2019 there would have been evidence.

                Covid — especially the early variant — had very distinctive symptoms. It wasn’t just “the flu”. In Australia with our world best testing across all of 2020 — with thousands of negative tests to find each positive case — we had a 3% death rate. About 1 in every 33 people who tested positive ended up dying. So we missed some cases, but not that many. The blood oxygen levels in Covid were shocking low — So low they re-wrote the rule book. We didn’t know people could have levels so low and still be alive and sitting in a chair.

                The 3% death rate was, of course, made worse by ventilators and ICU care mistakenly thinking the disease was “like the flu”. Only when we realized it was more a vascular disease did we reduce those deaths. My point is that we would have noticed Covid in 2019. The ground-glass lungs on x-rays also were suggestive.

                The D-Dimer levels were also very high. The disease cycled through waves, usually being worse in week 2, people would be more likely to need hospitalization on day 8. The hospitalization rate was in the order of 1 in 10 I think. no western medical system could survive the first wave of a disease with such a high hospitalization rate. Irrelevant of the death rate, the ICU beds per capita would be swamped in 12 weeks (as I calculated in Feb 2020). It was obvious lockdowns were coming from the hospitalization rate. That’s how I could calculate the timing.

                If there were waves of early Covid in 2019, we would have noticed. If there was one odd non-infectious case in Dec 2019, we would have missed it, but since we know it didn’t spread, it also didn’t matter, and shutting the flights off in Feb 2020 would have saved us entirely from the whole first lockdown.

                So there would have been evidence of a mysterious pnumonia if Covid came and spread. There would have been x-rays, inexplicable deaths, people who tested negative for the flu, signs of hospital ICU overload, and on the branched Nextstrain evolution sequence of genetic testing we also would post hoc have seen multiple entry points where the branches start.

                None of that happened.

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          Memoryvault

          We’re clearly reading (interpreting) both the article and study differently

          Careful, John. Jo is never wrong.
          Even when she is.

          [Grumpy again MV? – If I’m wrong, explain it. Pretend we’re discussing microbiology OK? — Jo]

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            Memoryvault

            Not gumpy at all, Jo.

            Just recalling an email exchange between us way back when all this was new – around the time The Great Barrington Declaration first surfaced.

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              Old Goat

              MV,
              So many red flags in the whole process . Conspiracy theories abound and as recommended by Jo I read “the real Anthony Fauci” and I was amazed and horrified . Jo is qualified and that makes her opinions usually correct . Have at it – being wrong is more educational than being right . Being right – nobody notices…

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        Honk R Smith

        I live in America.
        (We still have Free Speech for maybe a couple more years.)

        The TV said there was lots of virus here.
        In fact it made hyper ventilated declarations of the alarming number of “cases” constantly.
        I live in a major East coast city.
        There is a goodly population of homeless and drug addicted zombieing down the street just blocks from my home.
        They follow cigarette smokers to pick up the discarded stubbies for a few hits.
        (And we know cigarette smokers meticulously follow ‘public health’ recommendations.)
        I noticed no drop off in homeless drug addicts or car break-ins and petty thefts.
        No drop-off in sidewalk schizophrenic episodic yelling at invisible tormentors.

        Funny, in the greatest ‘pandemic’ since 1347, I personally know no one in my state that died. I know of two people that died elsewhere, both over age 85. One mid 90s.
        The National Guard tent Hospital set up at the sports stadium during the ‘pandemic’ was unused.
        I do know several that allegedly were positive for ‘it’, experiencing a bad flu.
        Many more positive for ‘it’ that never had symptoms.
        I think I had ‘it’ and was down for about 3 days.
        Not as bad as my pre-pandemic flu. (And I wasn’t on Medicare then.)
        I never took a ‘test’ ’cause I read science for entertainment and I know who Kary Mullis was.
        (I know … the TV said it was dangerous and anti-social for me to educate myself without the proper credentials to educate myself, but then again, I am anti-social.)
        Too bad Kary wasn’t around for the Great Pandemic.
        Total coincidence that he died youngish just before the role out.

        I fantasize about the Pythons still being around and doing a bit, something like “Bring out Your Dead 2020” with
        some poor citizen declaring “I’m not dead” and a ‘public health’ official immediately cudgels the poor sod in the head declaring ‘you are now’.

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      Kalm Keith

      It’s extremely doubtful that there was ever any “unmanipulated” data used anywhere in relation to the CV19 Pandemic.

      Comparing the loaded death rates available from the New York retirement homes fiasco with other sparsely populated rural areas is obviously nuts, but to then justify Australian lockups by referencing the New York data is not being honest.

      In my hometown, small business entrepreneurs were smashed viciously by the government lockydown, Jobbykeeper, jobbymaker farce with uncounted “iatrogenic” consequences which I suspect would have been worse than the dreaded CV19.

      I have had several people tell me that they had CV19: few symptoms were described but they knew that they had had it because they’d “tested positive”.

      More to the point, there has been an incontrovertible VaXXine damage avalanche involving young and old that seems to have been excluded from the CV19 “data”.

      There’s a big difference between putting boundaries around a state, i.e. WA, and locking people in their homes and high rise towers as was the case in VIC and NSW.

      Getting “raw” data is impossible when there are so many different factors to consider.

      What’s been done to Australian society over the last three years has been mindblowing.

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        Kalm Keith

        Once again.
        I apologise profusely for having been immoderate.

        [Both rescued from the dreaded autofilter KK .]AD

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          “It’s extremely doubtful that there was ever any “unmanipulated” data “

          Sigh. While the corruption goes right to the top and is shocking, there are literally hundreds of thousands of ordinary good people generating data, doing pathology tests, being doctors and patients and researchers. Check Nextstrain. Look at electronmicrographs. D-Dimer tests, Antigen tests, chest x-rays, blood oxygen readings, literally a billion data points etc etc etc

          As I keep saying, it’s a lot easier to create a real virus in a lab than to fake a whole pandemic.

          How is it that the same people who call the Vaccine spike a toxic deadly poison, also say the same spike on a virus “is just a cold”?

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        Honk R Smith

        “What’s been done to Australian society over the last three years has been mindblowing.”

        One of the primary skills of the propagandists is deflection.
        Was there an historically deadly contagion surging through the population?
        Doubtful, otherwise the homeless, and working class that for the most part continued to work, would have borne the brunt.
        (We know the working class folk, especially non POC with legacy genitalia, don’t count in policy discussions except to serve as scapegoats.)
        It is clear governments and ‘health’ officials purposely exaggerated, omitted, and misled.
        Known as lying to the un-credentialed.

        Horse de-wormer
        Counting terminally ill and EMS DOAs as COVID deaths
        Pandemic of the unvaccinated
        Asymptomatic transmission
        Asymptomatic positive tests as ‘cases’ of the illness
        The organized silencing of qualified medical and scientific critics of public policy
        The restriction of anti-body tests and previous infection to avoid vax mandates
        Government bounties for test outcomes and specific treatments
        The complete lack of interest by the public health establishment in early treatment
        California literally passed a law forbidding doctors from having private discussions with their patients
        (Just the short list)

        These are not indications of an actual public health threat necessitating response.
        These are indications of psychological manipulation.
        To argue the validity of the contagion is deflection.

        The ‘done to’ political and cultural disaster is the true substance of this event.
        There is great danger that future generations will be able to understand or even discuss this history.

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          Kalm Keith

          Honk,
          in that description there is so much to work with, and, as you say, there’s more!

          Compared with the Climate Change and CO2 story it is wide open to the average Joe and therefore presents a real and present danger to all the manipulators.

          People don’t understand the Climate carp because it involves so many core issues of atomic physics, thermodynamics and atmospheric physics, but when a healthy friend or relative is struck down with heart/lung trouble two weeks after the VaXXine, they will start to think for themselves.

          The climate thing has forced us into slavery but the CV19 drama has killed, maimed and injured too many.

          Then, think of the women who lost a growing dream during pregnancy. Evil doesn’t describe it.

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        farmerbraun

        ” the last three years has been mindblowing.”

        That’s funny.
        I well remember in early 2020, when you and I were arguing , fruitlessly , against the proposed “covid response” , you saying that you could foresee where all of that was leading . . “but we’re not going there”.

        Well here we are . Been there , done that , never again.

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    RickWill

    The Q4 2022 AEMO report was released about a month ago and has some interesting snippets.

    Cooler than average temperature resulted in reduced demand – averaged 19,431MW in the NEM. So cooling Australia in a warming world. I have for some time pointed out that the BoM will have to homogenise harder than their NH counterparts to keep Australia warming.

    Wholesale price averaged $93/MW, a record high for Q4.

    Lowest operational demand ever recorded occurred at 11am on 11,892MW on Sunday 6 Nov. The demand destruction is killing the economics of coal plants. South Australia set a new record of 91% of demand met by Internittents for a brief period with lowest ever operational demand of 100MW.

    WA is struggling to maintain stability due to low demand and high volatility in generation due to clouds. They have implemented a new security protocol termed Minimum Demand Threshold that currently requires Emergency Solar Management. SA has demonstrated that you do not need direct control of the inverter to do that. Just allow voltage to rise in substations with high PV connections. WA are still requiring all new PV systems to have ESM capability.

    Rooftop PVs gained the greatest increase in market share from 11.1% to 12.9%. Grid solar up from 5.7% to 7.2%. Wind from 11.5% to 12.7%. Black coal dropped from 44.2% to 40.5%. Brown coal dropped from 15.4% to 14.8%. Gas down from 4.4% to 4%.

    Although the wind share increased, it was due to more capacity. The utilisation of potential generation for grid W&S were both down to 90%. Capacity factors decline as more generation is added.

    Distributed PV peaked at 34% of total demand on 28 Oct. At that time intermittents were providing 68% of demand.

    SA islanded for a few days due to line failure. During that time, they had to curtail up to 410MW of potential intermittent generation to keep stable. That included raising street voltage to force shut down of distributed PV that doesn’t have direct control. This shows how dependent they are on the big battery named Victoria to get their high penetration of intermittents.

    Battery revenue was $43M for the quarter. The bulk of their income from FCAS. They now provided the lion’s share of the FCAS market.

    The Australian power grids are firmly locked into a high cost regime. The lowest cost option for household electricity of making your own is fast approaching. Large volumes of rooftop into the grid is creating a nightmare for operators. South Australia has demonstrated their ability to force rooftops out of the supply mix. Without more storage, adding intermittent capacity has even more negative value. Owners of rooftop PVs will need to make a decision household storage because it will not be Snowy 2.

    The TBM named Florence has caused massive ground subsidence with a hole estimated at 50 to 70m deep. This will likely add more time to the current 2027 finish date. I wonder how many Prime Ministers this project will see out?

    April will be interesting times if Liddell is shut down. It could be a rough winter for the NEM. If Liddell goes and drastic measures are needed to keep lights on, I suspect Bowen will not have his job by the end of the year.

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      robert rosicka

      While I haven’t been watching the widget from the AEMO lately but with the rise in temps you can certainly see that shuffle of electrons between states is starting to get complicated . Met with relatives from Gippsland yesterday and they are all talking about putting in batteries now that prices are skyrocketing.

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      • #
        RickWill

        My attractive FIT ends next year. So I will be considering whether a larger battery can give me a payback in the time I am likely to be in this house.

        People who have a 10 year time horizon with 6kW of solar panels as sunk investment should get a return on battery investment. I see little prospect for grid prices to fall. Liddell closure may hit hard. Closing in April allows little time to adjust generation ahead of winter. A couple of failures in aged generators could create dire conditions.

        A couple of power outages or rotating demand management would incentivise people like your relatives to go for batteries.

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        • #
          robert rosicka

          Other problem with batteries is during a blackout your solar gets automatically cut off so you only have what’s in the batteries until power is restored , or so I’ve heard which is why some are opting to put batteries and solar behind the meter so they island themselves from the grid .

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          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Fairly expensive as it would require a ‘controller’ to make sure you don’t overload the battery esp. by too fast a charging rate. Also there is the option of an isolating switch (from the grid) with a generator. Possibly we will soon see that removed as diesel gets hard to get.
            I do notice that here in the Adelaide Hills some people have laid in quite large supplies of wood already.
            And on NoTricksZone Pierre has received his new costs notice (he has been on a fixed prices 2 year contract)
            Electricity up 87% to 63.4¢ a kWh.
            Gas up 162% to 23¢ a kWh equivalent.
            Fortunately he has PVsolar (not much use in winter in northern Germany when energy demand goes up) and a wood combustion heater/stove with a supply of wood. Not believing the BS and thinking ahead helps!
            But the rise in electricity costs has made prices, especially food, go up. Others will be struggling and getting disgruntled with the government and the EU.

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            • #
              robert rosicka

              Does add to the price yes but victron make some really good gear these days , I use their regulators for my caravan and car solar setups . Charging in the caravan lithium setup is controlled via a BMS and to a small extent by the victron regulator, both monitor temps and SOC and adjust available solar to suit charging requirements.

              30

              • #
                RickWill

                I have had reasonably reliable Chinese solar chargers and one Chinese inverter that has been going more than 10 years. I played around with two other Chinese inverters that both failed.

                I have one 800VA Victron inverter that I bought on special. It has a real transformer inside not the tiny high frequency units used in the low cost Chinese inverters.

                I like Victron components.

                If I upgrade my battery I will be using a commercially available system rather than making my own. My original large format LiFePO4 cells are still going strong after more than a decade.

                Most Australian households are close to having solar/battery the lowest cost option. A key to minimising cost is to align the panels to maximise input in the low solar period – in Melbourne that is May.

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    • #
      Chad

      Rooftop PVs gained the greatest increase in market share from 11.1% to 12.9%.

      Whilst i fully believe RT solar did increase significantly,….i find it intreguing that they can report an accurate figure on a metric that they have no way of measuring. At best they are simply wild estimates !

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      • #
        RickWill

        At best they are simply wild estimates !

        They have a good idea from sunny days to dull days what solar contributes. The midday demand destruction is an obvious indicator. The simple fact that the latest minimum demand now occurs around the middle of the day is also a good indicator.

        The demand in the SA network dropped to 100MW when they were islanded. And they were curtailing both grid and distributed intermittents to keep the system stable.

        The fact that clouds are now a key issue for WA is also indicative of the contribution of rooftop solar. Clouds are causing very large rates of change in demand that are taking the system closer to instability.

        The impacts of distributed solar are quite obvious. They have to be making good forecasts because the stability of the grid is dependent on them getting close to the mark and being prepared to take stabilising action.

        Most rooftop solar comes in between 10am and 2pm. To get a 2% gain on average requires a much larger increase over the hours that rooftops actually produce. That makes it more obvious. It is already close to saturation.

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        • #
          yarpos

          People underestimate how close an informed and educated estimate can be be. Usually its good enough for practical purposes.

          10

        • #
          Chad

          RickWill
          February 19, 2023 at 11:01 pm · Reply
          At best they are simply wild estimates !

          They have a good idea from sunny days to dull days what solar contributes.

          Sure, i understand the situation, ….
          ….but as i said, they have NO WAY of MEASURING the RT contribution to total consumption… just “ a good idea” ( = wild estimate ?).
          So i wont accept a calculation to accuracy of 0.1%
          They would be lucky to get within +- 10%
          Their RT data curve is so perfectly smooth mathmatically generated, that it is obviously just a guess based on an estimated peak.
          http://nemlog.com.au/gen/region/sa/

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    John Connor II

    Screen-time warning: Toddlers given tablets, phones to play with can suffer lasting brain damage

    SINGAPORE — Sitting toddlers down in front of a screen all day can do lasting damage to their brains, a new study warns. Scientists in Singapore add that the harm to screen-watching infants persists into late childhood, even beyond the age of eight.

    Kids dealing with these deficits found it difficult to stay alert, control impulses and emotions, sustain attention, follow multi-step instructions, and complete difficult tasks, according to the team from the Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences (SICS). These executive functioning deficits correlated with long screen times as an infant, increasing the number of “low-frequency” waves in the brain. Each skill is essential for learning and school performance.

    Viewing screens can overwhelm a child’s mind
    Researchers revealed excessive screen times is one environmental activity that can interfere with developing executive function. Toddlers struggle to process information on a two-dimensional screen because they are bombarded with a stream of fast-paced movements, blinking lights, and scene changes. A lot of cognitive resources are needed to make sense of what they’re watching. As an infant, the brain becomes “overwhelmed” and unable to leave enough mental tools to develop cognitive skills such as executive function.

    Brains grow rapidly from the time a child is born until early childhood, but the part of the brain behind executive functioning (the prefrontal cortex) takes longer to form. Delayed prefrontal development means executive function skills can be shaped right up until someone enters higher education. However, it also makes executive functioning skills highly vulnerable to environmental influences over a period of time.

    https://studyfinds.org/infants-screen-time-brain-damage/

    No real surprises there.
    Add significant eye strain and damage as a result of always looking at close objects, wrist and elbow pain and nerve impingement, a global epidemic of cervical neck pain from looking down at phones, and big pharma has a bright future. 😎

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    b.nice

    hmm.. New study indicates that, just like the Arctic, the Antarctic had less sea ice in the period 7000-500 years ago than there is now.

    https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2023/02/18/elephant-seal-remains-show-antarctic-sea-was-warmer-in-the-mid-to-late-holocene/

    The Little Ice Age was a period of debilitating cold.

    Too much sea ice in the Arctic drove species away, it appears the same thing happened in the Antarctic.

    And we know from Icelandic sea ice charts that the Arctic sea ice in 1979 was similar to the extreme highs of the LIA.

    And it still hasn’t dropped back down anywhere near the Holocene mean.

    We live in a period of minor, highly beneficial warming, out of the coldest period in 10,000 years.

    Be very thankful for that warming !

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    yarpos

    A few time a year I frequent a couple of Pick a Part car yards in Melbourne to source bits and pieces for my older club cars. They are quite well set up with large multi acre sites housing hundreds of cars being cannibalized for parts large and small, anything from a complete engine to a door handle (prices are cheap as chips BTW). After a period (either time or when popular ones just become bare shells) they migrate to a metal recycling plant at the rear of the facility. Its a great example of resource reuse. That’s why I found this interesting: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/02/is_there_a_looming_trash_crisis.html

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    • #
      another ian

      Chiefio is having a saga with a Benz ML 320 CDI with “backbone electrical control system. Which has “front brain”, “mid brain” and “rear brain”.

      And a tale of woes with fault diagnosis which might have been replacing turbo etc to the tune of about $9000 and turned out to be a missing gasket on a tail light that let water into the “rear brain” and wrecked it – twice. And now a mysterious problem with trailer brake lights as yet undiagnosed.

      He also notes the limited life of electrolytic capacitors and the likely quality of any replacements down the line. With a vow to touch nothing Mercedes post about early 2000’s and to hold on to his 1980’s vintage diesel.

      As John Cardogan might say – “Good old Three Prong”

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        No idea they had a car yard in Oz that did that Yarpos must look into it I thought it was a Yank thing .
        Another Ian I love that car guys wit .

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        • #
          yarpos

          Your nearest is probably Pick a Part at Campbellfield. You have to trust to luck as to what’s on the cars, the website will show you what’s there but the detail of how much of each car is gone is only known when you get there. It work for me as I go with a list for my old cars and my daughters Subaru so I usually score something. I’ve taken a Subaru plastic bumper, a rear muffler, and lots of little BMW trim items, fasteners, sensors etc. The bill is usually tens of dollars not hundreds. I also scored a unicorn rear plastic side panel for an old 2 door RAV4 a friend owns 🙂 and of course some days you drive down and get nada but its an interesting hunt.

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          another ian

          RR

          You realise that the real purpose of wind turbines is subliminal advertising for “Three Prong”?

          I could (maybe) be convinced that it is not so

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        • #
          Chad

          RR ..You need to get out more !
          Car “breakers.” “ dismantlers” , “recyclers”. “Scrappers”, or whatever you want to call them are around many places.. West Sydney has several, some with On Line /postal service !
          Anyone with older vehicles knows where to go !

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        another ian

        I have to wonder how long this “electronic backbone” has been in German cars.

        In 1990 there was a huge flood which totally sank the local pharmacist’s weeks old $A100,000 + BMW.

        Flood assessors told him that they would rebuild it “good as new”. Till they discovered that there were 7 computers in it that would cost $A 57,000.

        He got a new one.

        Sounds like “front brains”, “mid brains” and “rear brains” plus a few on the side?

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        • #
          yarpos

          Not just German cars buy any stretch. All modern cars are based on a network with multiple control modules attached. At a minimum there is usually a dash module, a power distribution module, engine management, and transmission management if auto. The diagnostic complexity is way beyond most home mechanics hence the arrival of the “parts cannon” term where people just throw in parts and hope.

          Youtube channels Diagnose Dan and Pine Hollow Diagnostics are an insight into how skilled the modern “mechanic” has to be

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      Chad

      20
      #
      yarpos
      February 19, 2023 at 3:45 pm ·..
      …… That’s why I found this interesting: https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/02/is_there_a_looming_trash_crisis.htm

      There is no oubt modern cars are getting more difficult, complex, and hence expensive to repair., much of the problem is the change in tecnology skills required.
      There are people who will just buy the latest bicycle, ride it a few months , then change it when they change their lycragear,..or when the first puncture happens….more money than skills !
      Likewise Ebikes and EVs…they are all perfectly repairable if you have the skills and knowledge.
      Most conventional bike shops and car service centers do not have those skills, but many new businesses are sprouting up to fill the void , right down to component remanufacturing, batter pack dismantleing and rebuild etc.

      10

      • #
        yarpos

        mmmm the guy that used to run the LPG business that converted my Hilux now has a battery repair/replace business he runs with a couple of young Elect Engs.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Thanks for that info about “Pick a Part” yarpos.

      I wasn’t aware they still existed. I don’t hear ads for them any more. Will check them out.

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    • #
      Annie

      There was a Volvo version; very useful for doing up an old Volvo we bought for our daughter. Unfortunately, her GSD puppy chewed up the perfectly good upholstery inside the vehicle.

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    • #
      Geoff Sherrington

      Yarpos,
      My VS Statesman 1998 is being steadily improved. I live near Doncaster, Melbourne. Do you have inside tips on the best yard to visit for items as diverse as ABS controller, boot decoration and replacement bumpers in correct colour, that sort of thing? Just had an engine rebuild at 250,000, the 3.8 l V6 supercharged is a fun engine, not like the V8s I have had, variable velocity for near constant noise. I’d go bonkers with a low noise electric. Geoff S

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      • #
        yarpos

        Just my opinion Geoff but it sounds like unicorn hunting really. The chances of one turning up at a wreckers and you finding out in time seem very slim (even setting aside correct colour). It is possible to put in alerts for arrival of particular car models at Pick a Part and there are sites where you can put in requests for particular parts that go out to wreckers nationally. Another possibility is a cheap parts car to cannibalize (not always practical)

        I’d be surprised if your ABS parts arent just generic parts that were on every Commodore of that era, as well as Statesman. I’d compare part numbers for that one.

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    John Connor II

    Sunday wokeness: a 2023 fashion show walk

    https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1627109002675978243/

    I don’t have a barf emoji…

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    John Connor II

    Vaccine Safety Analysis Finds Alarming Data: 84% Increased Chance of Heart Attacks in Young Men

    The Florida Department of Health conducted a self-control case series, looking at the risk of mortality following the COVID shots. And what they found was that there is an 84% increase in the relative incidence of heart-related death in males 18 to 39 within 28 days after the shots.

    Consequently,
    @FLSurgeonGen
    Dr. Joseph Ladapo now actively recommends against the shots for men between the ages of 18 and 39 and anyone under the age of 18.

    “Finally, a state that is making decisions based on medical science, not political science.”

    https://twitter.com/VigilantFox/status/1627000896767811589

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    robert rosicka

    Hilarious from the BOM I don’t know if I should laugh or cry and what first grader wrote this report but it contains nil science but heaps of misinformation and as for the ocean heating up and oceans becoming more acidic wtf.

    http://www.bom.gov.au/state-of-the-climate/?fbclid=IwAR0Does_h8z88vvTnwKaHQxZgL3zrfdPh6bwXZ9nz0FtGcF6w9ZGy1ricDc

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    • #
      another ian

      You mean that the BOM is as desperate as Ukraine and press ganging teenagers?

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    • #
      Lewis P Buckingham

      Is the report referenced?
      Just looking , curious to see that sea level rise is accelerating, as no one else seems to think it is.

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      b.nice

      1. Using Acorn URBAN MAL-ADJUSTED temperatures…. reality is different .. and it was warmer before 1910

      2. BS… How did they measure sea temp around Australia in 1900.. values are just a fabrication.

      3-6. Australian Rainfall anomaly. https://i.ibb.co/znyqxpW/Australian-rainfall.jpg

      7. Fire area in Australia has been decreasing.

      Decrease in tropical cyclones.. that is a good thing, isn’t it !

      Snow depth.. Dumper season 2 years in a row.

      No way ocean pH and temperature around Australia could have been measured accurately in 1900, pH.. not even now.. based on supposition and/or models…

      Sea level at Fort Denison…. a “scary” 1mm/year.. no acceleration

      The whole report is just the spewed regurgitation of all the lies and misinformation promulgated by the AGW brigade.

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      • #
        robert rosicka

        We are all doomed b.nice , both the BOM and CSIRO wouldn’t lie or taint their findings just to get the trough filled with with more research funding . Face it if we don’t start eating bugs the planet gets it .

        Sarc of course

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    DD

    It just NEVER ends, does it?
    (publication names withheld)
    First, in November I renewed my digital subscription to the country’s second-most-widely-read conservative publication, only to find that I am now receiving the hard-copy magazine as well. This is wasting the publisher’s scarce resources but my email advices to them asking that they not send the printed magazine have not been acknowledged.
    Come forward to January and we find that the publisher of the country’s most-widely-read conservative magazine has ‘updated their software’, and now I am unable to link my existing subscription to my account. It was working fine until the software ‘update’, but now I hit their paywall when I try to read articles. It’s been like that for the best part of a month.
    But wait, there’s more!
    A few days ago there were changes in the layout of the web pages of the US’s pre-eminent conservative news website. Which one? The one that is not afraid to talk about stolen elections and that encourages you to support them with a subscription, in return for which they will remove ads from their pages. And what do you think happened? That’s right, since the change I have been unable to log in to their website.

    Is anyone else having problems with their subscriptions? The support people at one of the publications tell me that lots of people are having problems.

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  • #
    TdeF

    In the last few days apparently Melbourne for an instant reached 40.1C and that it was the highest temperature in 3 years. So Melbourne at 37 South has fleetingly matched the UK with 40.1C at Heathrow last year at 50North. Sydney too has cracked 30C at 34 South. And in mid summer, that is effectively 30-22 or 18 South, well in the tropics and still cool. So the solar intensity could not be higher and the days are much longer, but the weather is so much colder than historically.

    So with all this Global Warming, Australia is not only much colder than the Northern Hemisphere, it is far colder than it has ever been. I remember one January twenty years ago where only two days were under 30C and now it is two days over 30C. It was a beach day every day. And decades before that when the bitumen would shift under your feet. No longer.

    Summers have been hardly worthy of the name while the papers warn of the dangers of a single warm day. While we are now experiencing the firstly mildly warm patch of summer of the last decade and I would hardly call it a heat wave by Australian standards, we still have a legal ban on fracking, gas exploration and the government is racing to wipe out coal power as in the UK. And our communist state government is promising to bring back State government control of all electricty, to lower the price of course.

    Everything the governments do is supposed to be lowering the price of electricity. To prevent Global Warming. Amazing how both are transparently not true and the media is not howling at lies so ridiculous no one believes them.

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      TdeF

      And a point TonyfromOz makes repeatedly about the availability of wind power being no more than 30%, the point he does not make is that you cannot fix the power shortage by adding more windmills. That is not a power system and the argument and hope that a wind drought is a regional thing, it has proven across the world not to be true.

      The same with solar of course. You could increase solar x100 times and it still is dark every single night of the year. So no matter how much wind capacity we install, all the windmills fail at the same time, which is most of the time at 70%. Solar by definition is at least 50%, a point which everyone overlooks.

      And the official solution? More windmills and more solar panels! Plus tens of billions to pump water uphill, which is a bit of a joke for most of Australia. Don’t worry though, Elon Musk will save us.

      South Australia is already saved with a $100 Million battery which lasts a few minutes at most. Which is why the South Australian government itself is now powered by fail safe diesel generators. We can live without food and manufacturing, hospitals and traffic lights, refrigerators and freezers and petrol pumps but we cannot survive without fully Woke government.

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        TdeF

        And unbelievably, there is the absurdly named Clean Energy Regulator. Whose entire purpose to wipe out coal, oil, gas, diesel electricity by enforcing the theft of billions every year from your electricity bills to be handed gratis to owners of windmills and solar panels, so doubling the price of electricity and making wind and solar the preferred supplier in every case and so kill off all other power suppliers who receive half the income for the same amount of electricity.

        Never fear, more windmills and solar panels will fix the problem. Maybe we can import billions in wood pellets to replace coal as in the UK? They might output the same or higher CO2, but it is government approved CO2.

        And we will end up as in South Australia quietly paying the remaining coal and gas electricity generators fortunes to stay open as by law they cannot make a profit but the government cannot afford to have them shut down. Meanwhile we are told the Albanese government will lower prices by banning new coal mines and reducing profitability of existing ones.

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          TdeF

          Now if only the government can shut down coal mining, steel manufacture concrete manufacture and all agriculture and get Australians to eat all the termites, we can get those prices down and have a proper third world but Green government. Like tropical Haiti perhaps.

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          • #
            Kalm Keith

            It’s been a neck and neck race over the last three years to see which fairytale can score the most; the renuinables industrial complex or the WHOrganism VaXXine mandators.

            Either way, your tax contributions are most important.

            Doesn’t that make you feeel impotent?

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            • #
              TdeF

              Yes, but the government is not using tax. Officially there is no Carbon Tax. Tax goes into general revenue and is accountable in the budget. So check for windmills and solar panels in any government budget. They are missing. But every government gets the cash from your electricity bills.

              The Australian government is stealing. Yes, Governments can tax. They can fine. And they have to report on their activity, but they cannot legally force you to pay their friends for nothing. And that has been running at up to $6Billion a year for two decades. That government ordered theft has been illegal since 1215 under Magna Carta.

              And even worse, the ‘investors’ who buy these things with your money can get massive depreciation tax deductions, more free money from the Australian taxpayer. It’s an illegal rort which makes the mafia seem benign.

              This needs to be challenged in the High Court of Australia. And this endless theft is the real cause of high electricity prices and drives the flight from using coal, as intended. While coal exports are the reason the budget is heading for surplus. The lack of a carbon tax is a huge lie itself based on the Global Warming lie, the Barrier Reef is dying lie, the seas are rising lie and cattle and termites and fertilizer are killing us lies. Meanwhile the concentration of all electrical power in Canberra continues while Australian politicians pretend not to know it exists at all. Not their responsibility!

              So what is the Clean Energy Regulator?. “The Clean Energy Regulator is a Government body responsible for accelerating carbon abatement for Australia. What do you think that means? NO coal, No oil, No gas, No petrol, No diesel and no farming and no Manufacturing for Australia. Did you know we had such a department?

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                Memoryvault

                Spot on, TdeF.

                Legislatively it started under John Howard’s Liberal/National coalition govt in 2007, and has continued unabated under EVERY govt and Prime Minister since.

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                TdeF

                Thanks. The almost unknown Renewable Energy(Electricity) Act 2000 was under John Howard. It has been fiddled in 2011 but it is as if it does not exist.

                This ripoff was so successful and so well hidden from the public that it was copied in the UK. But its dual purposes were to similutaneously wipe out fossil fuels while funding windmills by enforced and hidden payments outside the Federal budget and without taxation so both sides could claim loudly that there would be no Carbon Tax in a government I lead. To do this the Green public servants in Canberra invented utterly worthless Government administered electronic ‘certificates’ so there is no physical evidence of the ripoff. There should be a world class award for such skulduggery by public servants.

                And to my amazement, economists are still recommending a carbon tax despite the clear statement of activity.

                The dread word CARBON is used only once. Otherwise it is all about ‘certificates’ and free market and administration. Underneath it is endless theft and a river of money, our money. Administered by government departments but outside government budgets. Utter corruption of the public service, people paid to make our lives harder and to punish the poorest sections of our society. I do not know how they sleep at night as public servants.

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              • #
                Kalm Keith

                An appropriate label TdeF, endless theft.

                It makes Trumble’s redirection of 7.4 tonnes of gold to his wife look almost innocent by comparison.

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  • #
    JB

    I’d like to know how many Aussies are gung-ho for WWIII? Perhaps Jo can do a poll.

    The head of the IMF has already declared the Ukraine conflict to be a global war. The UN Secretary General has declared that the world is marching “eyes wide open” towards it. Russian expert Gilbert Doctorow believes we are all standing in “the antechamber.”

    How many Aussies think that that Kolomoisky-mentored, penis-waving, human Tasmanian Devil Zelensky, who does nothing but scream “Gimme weapons! Gimme weapons! Gimme weapons! Gimme weapons! Gimme weapons! Gimme weapons! …” should be supported “for as long as it takes”? How many Aussies believe that Putin invaded unprovoked? How many Aussies will be happy to drink the U.S. Kool-Aid, once again?

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      RickWill

      It appears China is going to back Russia. So Ukraine will be the killing fields for a time until something goes awry and the war fronts expand.

      Finland is currently considering NATO alliance. That would be another red rag to Putin. Same for Sweden.

      Increasing energy costs due to demonising fossil fuels will be one catalyst for continuing conflict. It is incentive for China to align with Russia.

      It is interesting times. So far on the other side of the world to Australia but Australia relies so heavily on China. China’s trade enables Australian governments of all shades to be incredibly wasteful and yet still maintain a high standard of living.

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        Memoryvault

        Increasing energy costs due to demonising fossil fuels will be one catalyst for continuing conflict.

        Sorry Rick but you have it all wrong.

        Rising energy costs AND inflation AND higher interest rates have all been caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. I know this to be a fact because Adam Bandt of the Greens was just on the radio news explaining it. So it must be true.

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        • #
          TdeF

          Dr. Adam Bandt is openly a communist which was his PhD thesis and a great admirer of Lenin, especially his path to absolute power. It’s power by whatever means. Bandt was struggling until he discovered the Greens. And he fitted right in. Plus the new Russia, despite what the Germans, French, British and Americans say, is not the old communist Russia and is hated by real communists like Bandt. And the Western communists are forcing the two giant nuclear powers, China and Russia into the same camp. So who would defend Russia from a Chinese invasion?

          Where is the UN? MIA fighting Climate Change and slavery and fertilizer?

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      • #
        Kalm Keith

        Rick, “wasteful”?

        Nothing is wasted. Politicians have deep pockets and re-election funds to maintain.

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      el+gordo

      ‘How many Aussies believe that Putin invaded unprovoked?’

      Most of them.

      We should quit the American Alliance because they blew up Nordstream, which is an act of international terrorism.

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        another ian

        Check the comments here

        https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2023/02/war.html

        and you may be suprised at what Aussies believe

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          el+gordo

          They are hardly representative of what Australians believe, only around 5% have any confidence in Putin.

          ‘The unprovoked, unjustified and brutal invasion of Ukraine by its nuclear-armed neighbour Russia, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council, represents a remarkable discontinuity in international affairs — possibly the greatest since the Second World War.’ (Low Institute Poll 2022)

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        Chad

        #
        el+gordo
        February 20, 2023 at 5:58 am · Reply
        ‘How many Aussies believe that Putin invaded unprovoked?’

        Most of them.

        We should quit the American Alliance because they blew up Nordstream, which is an act of international terrorism

        ? That doesnt follow ?
        Anyone supporting action against Putin, should support all sanctions against Russia. ..from all countries.
        Shutting down Nordstream was a key sanction on Russian income , hence weakening them economically and militarily.
        Sanctions are NOT international Terrorism.

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        • #
          el+gordo

          Nordstream wasn’t even turned on, but the Americans blew it up anyway. In my book that is adventurism.

          Commercial sanctions are fine, but of course ultimately it could lead to a hot war.

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            Chad

            el+gordo
            February 20, 2023 at 8:06 am · Reply
            Nordstream wasn’t even turned on, but the Americans blew it up anyway. In my book that is adventurism.

            Nordstream 1 certainly was operating….hence the huge amounts of gas seen escaping after the explosion.
            Shutting down a prime income stream is definitely a sanction..a big one.
            USA is part of NATO who are pledged to defent Ucraine.

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              el+gordo

              ‘The Nord Stream 2 pipeline never brought natural gas to Europe because Germany prevented the flows from ever starting just before Russia launched military action in Ukraine.’ (Aljazeera)

              The gas in the pipe was for pressure testing purposes.

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              • #
                Chad

                Both lines were blown up !
                Previously, the USA had “forced” Germany not to approve NS2 for use !

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              • #
                el+gordo

                Moscow and Beijing want the UN to investigate the explosion and find the guilty party.

                Then maybe the western media will take it seriously.

                ‘The spokesperson noted that just after the explosions took place, US and some other Western media coverage was rife with one-sided speculation about who the perpetrator was. But when the latest detailed investigative report by Hersh came out, those media outlets that always claimed to be free, professional and fair, fell into a collective loss for words.’ (Global Times)

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              KP

              “USA is part of NATO who are pledged to defent Ucraine.”

              NATO pledged to defend Ukraine? No they’re not! Ukraine is not part of NATO, it was set up solely to use against Russia, the Yanks hoping to weaken Russia enough to be able to tackle China and ‘win’.

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            Graeme No.3

            And since the USA through (Victoria Nuland and Joe Biden) stated that Nordstream would be destroyed before Russia invaded, it would seem a matter of policy.

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        • #
          Memoryvault

          Sanctions are NOT international Terrorism.

          Blowing stuff up is “sanctions” now?
          What next? ICBMs are “airborne diplomacy”?

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            Chad

            Memoryvault
            February 20, 2023 at 8:21 am

            Blowing stuff up is “sanctions” now?
            What next? ICBMs are “airborne diplomacy”?

            Unless you didnt understand what MAD is, Nuclear weapons have always been a “diplomatic” way of preventing wars.
            “Sanctions” are non lethal actions to contain conflict.
            ( and yes, i do know many innocent people may suffer as a result of sanctions !)

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              Memoryvault

              “Sanctions” are non lethal actions to contain conflict.

              No, Chad.
              Sanctions are a non violent way of expressing displeasure.
              There is nothing nonviolent about blowing stuff up.
              When I got half my face blown off I can assure you it was pretty violent.

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              KP

              Sanctions have always been a way to make your enemy stronger, more self-sufficient, and more united against you!

              The Yanks are a bit slow when it comes to realising things like that..

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      Lawrie

      Having served for 28 years mainly in the Armoured Corps I would advise against war anywhere at any time. It is very dangerous even before the enemy gets involved. I would enjoin those here to watch a very interesting video where the interviewee explains in much detail the collapse of China as a country and the rise of a few city states. He thinks China will be finished by 2030 and gives reasons for his conclusion. Well worth a watch. Some good news for the West not so good for Europe.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uS4Vw6cuW4M

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      el+gordo

      ‘How many Aussies will be happy to drink the U.S. Kool-Aid, once again?’

      Australians support for democratic institutions has sky rocketed since the start of the war.

      Ukraine will have to sue for peace or risk universal conflagration, give them the Donbas region to end the war.

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      Leo G

      How many Aussies believe that Putin invaded unprovoked?

      “The war didn’t start in February last year. The war started in 2014. … NATO has been training the Ukrainian military since 2014, NATO partners have been supplying the Ukrainian armed forces with the necessary weapons and training since 2014” — Jens Stoltenberg, the Norwegian politician who has been serving as secretary general of NATO since 2014.

      The 2008 Russo-Georgian War was prompted by the US and NATO offering an alliance with Georgia which involved a NATO naval base in the Black Sea. The US then shifted its focus to Ukraine.

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  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Once again.
    I apologise profusely for having been immoderate.

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  • #
    Kalm Keith

    Why?

    [Everyone hates the autofilter KK but you keep apologising to it , I think it likes you !]AD

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    another ian

    By the lead items here there must be yet another CAGW conference coming up?

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/

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  • #
    another ian

    I never heard this bit on Carter’s EO on civilian nuclear fuel in

    “On Jimmy Carter”

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=248140

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    • #
      Chad

      Well, it woulld seem it was well hidden in the public records.
      Looks like the anti Nuclear power rot started long before the greens were assembled.

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  • #
    el+gordo

    A white elephant.

    ‘Six years of bungled billions; time to cut losses on Snowy 2.0.

    ‘The ‘nation-building’ pumped-hydro battery is setting many unenviable records and fast becoming one of Australia’s most spectacular infrastructure debacles.’ (Oz)

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    another ian

    “Sanctions Fail: Just 8.5 Per Cent of Western Companies Have Actually Left Russia”

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/02/19/sanctions-fail-just-8-5-per-cent-of-western-companies-have-actually-left-russia/

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      another ian

      Chiefio’s addition to that –

      “Yeah. And those that “left” often did so with deals that ‘sell’ to a local with things like “right to buy back”.

      Didn’t I post a Baklykov video about Macdonalds? One where he points out (while eating in essentially Macdonalds…) that the “deal” was to sell it and all the supplier contracts to a Russian (who just happened to be their existing General Manager for Russia…) with a right to repurchase it for 10 years. Menu dropped the “Mac” in front of names, but otherwise was the same.”

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  • #
    Neville

    AGAIN more problems with the Biden donkey’s EXISTENTIAL CC THREAT for Humans etc.
    Since 1990 our poorest continent Africa has increased their population by 822 million people and much higher life expectancy and food availability, more urban living etc.
    And 96% of all Malarial deaths occur in Africa and kids under 5 are the highest number and yet most improvement is also found in Africa.
    AGAIN THINK about the latest DATA.

    https://ourworldindata.org/malaria

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    Neville

    Here’s more proof of the thriving + improvement for poor Africans since 1950 to 2023.

    In 1950 population 227 million, life expectancy just 36 years.

    In 1970 pop 365 million and life exp 46 years.

    In 1990 pop 638 million and life exp 52 yrs.

    In 2023 pop 1460 million and life exp 64 years.

    Note that Africa’s pop has more than doubled or extra 822 + million since Dr Hansen’s scary climate speech in Washington DC in 1988.
    So where’s Biden’s etc EXISTENTIAL THREAT for Humans? Anyone have any ideas?

    https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/AFR/africa/population

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    • #
      David Maddison

      I expect their life expectancy will now start to drop as they are denied access to cheap, reliable energy such as coal and gas, since the UN and World Bank will not find such projects.

      Also, the Left are now at war against what they call “nitrogen” (sic) meaning nitrogenous fertilisers so their food supply will also start to diminish as well.

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        Neville

        David I’m sure you’re correct about the problems we all face, certainly in Australia, Africa and recently the Netherlands etc.
        But poor Africa has never enjoyed our earlier access to cheap, reliable BASE-LOAD energy and yet their population has still boomed since 1950.
        My argument is that the global climate has been very BENIGN and SAFER over the last century and even better since Dr Hansen’s silly 1988 DC speech.
        And the linked data and recent human thriving certainly supports those arguments.

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    Lawrie

    Late to the party again I would draw your attention to an article in the Oz today which dissects the disaster that is Snowy 2. Not sure if you can open this but try.

    https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/six-years-of-bungled-billions-time-to-cut-losses-on-snowy-20/news-story/d486f6656e8978e7b2a2110c90f88325

    Not $2 billion but up to $20 billion. Not 4 years but 12. Not a generator but an inefficient battery. Record six: inducing the NSW government to grant exemptions from environmental legislation, slow boring machines; 200 metres per year.

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      el+gordo

      Those boring machines would have been more effective tunnelled under the sandstone curtain west of Sydney. Opening up the west is better value than a big battery.

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        Leo G

        Those boring machines would have been more effective tunnelled under the sandstone curtain west of Sydney

        Sydney’s planners have been preoccupied with tunnelling to create a replacement passenger rail system, when the main botteneck in that system- the City Railway was the result of a design error which reduced the maximum service frequency by 80%- an error which could have been corrected at much lower cost than the recent projects.

        However Sydney does need an extensive network of new tunnels. It needs a new system for moving freight within the urban areas to eliminate the heaviest axle-load vehicles from the city’s motorways and main roads and thereby reduce the construction, maintenance and environmental costs of the surface network.

        The concept of a separate freight network with autonomous vehicles is not new- a concept plan was prepared for Frankfurt decades ago. More recently, recognition in developed countries of the growing shortfall of skilled drivers has intensified interest.

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      Ross

      Yep, again Jo well ahead of the curve with a similar story days ago. If you read the comments to that article, mostly everyone dumping on Malcolm Turnbull.

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    Neville

    AGAIN Australian population in 1990 was about 17.1 million and today about 26 million.
    BUT poor Africa increased their population by 34 million in just the last year.
    Their 2022 pop was 1426 million and 2023 population now 1460 million.
    So what’s so terrible about Biden’s clueless EXISTENTIAL THREAT since 1990? And why was Dr Hansen and his dopey pupil Gore etc so wrong about their climate data over the last 35 years?
    In fact Humans have thrived more over this period than at any time in the last 200,000 years.
    AGAIN just look up the DATA.

    https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/AFR/africa/population

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    Honk R Smith

    Just a thought on combatting disinformation.
    Perhaps we could reestablish the tradition that all government and academic communication be in Latin.
    The politicians and the academics would not have to learn Latin, AI could do the translating.
    We just forbid the hoi polloi access to the translator.
    (We’re not teaching them math, not teaching Latin should be easy.)
    Pre-Reformation glory could be reborn.
    The mystic of the aristocracy restored.
    The Medieval Warm Period.
    Good times.

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    another ian

    Economic wunderkindings?

    FWIW

    “Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari Admits Goal is to Shrink Economy to Meet Decreased Energy Supplies
    February 19, 2023 | Sundance | 48 Comments”

    https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/02/19/minneapolis-fed-president-neel-kashkari-admits-goal-is-to-shrink-economy-to-meet-decreased-energy-supplies/

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    Kalm Keith

    I apologise and apologize to the screening device, but I think it was because I tried to post in the top 10.

    Both forms used in case the AI screening is from the U.S.

    [Who knows exactly how it works KK ? But you’re the only one that’s nice to it so maybe give it some tough love and ignore it .]AD

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      another ian

      KK

      Seems to work about as well if you use the idea that if you ignore it it might go away.

      Usually seems to – thanks to the mods

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    liberator

    Here is an “”awesome”” movie coming up on Apple TV.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYmuR3GH0sg
    I’d watched about 30 secs of the trailer before giving in – so much BS
    Wonder why it went to Apple and not the cinema? Was it made for Apple, or made for the cinema and then the reviews came in saying how much crap it was so Apple bought it?

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    liberator

    oops I see its a TV series, not a movie…

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    another ian

    “Col. Douglas MacGregor Interview on war in Ukraine. Update15 February 2023”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DS9kIouZiY

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    Geoff Sherrington

    Yarpos,
    My VS Statesman 1998 is being steadily improved. I live near Doncaster, Melbourne. Do you have inside tips on the best yard to visit for items as diverse as ABS controller, boot decoration and replacement bumpers in correct colour, that sort of thing? Just had an engine rebuild at 250,000, the 3.8 l V6 supercharged is a fun engine, not like the V8s I have had, variable velocity for near constant noise. I’d go bonkers with a low noise electric. Geoff S

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