Friday

8.7 out of 10 based on 18 ratings

156 comments to Friday

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      David Maddison

      Very disturbing news, although not unexpected and just an extension of what they’re already doing.

      I wish as part of a “truth in advertising” policy or something similar Goolag searches contained a large warning that the search results you get are not honest ones but the ones Goolag wants you to see.

      Sadly, I think most people think Goolag search results are honest and fair representations of what they were looking for, not what Goolag wants you to see.

      Of course the results they want you to see will be biased toward anti-American, anti-Western, anti-Trump, anti-Judeo-Christian morality, pro-anthropogenic-global-warming, pro-official-narrative-on-covid etc..

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        pcourtney

        Mr. M: Here in USA, we made cigarette smokers read warning labels like you suggest for google. Over long time, it worked to reduce smoking, not very effective (compared to high tax). What you suggest will happen if the permanent US gov’t (the ones who tell Biden which ice cream to eat) decides that Google needs to be taken down a peg or two. Then we may find out who really runs the show.

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        It must be over five years ago, I blocked Google from searching my site (Scottish Sceptic). I invited others to do the same … I think I am still the only site that blocks google searches.

        The problem isn’t Google … it is the people who huff and puff about their appalling behaviour but continue to use google.

        If no sceptic site had been visible on Google … no sceptic would use Google, every sceptic would start using a better search engine, and very soon anyone who wanted to see the whole web would stop using Google.

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      James Murphy

      That’s depressing, but expected.

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        KP

        Yes, anyone who uses Google for anything except shopping and Youtube for anything except cat videos deserves the life they will get!

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          Geoff Sherrington

          KP,
          The useful option is to not use social media at all. I rejected it from the start and can detect no disadvantage. Much more freedom to think without avalanches of ignorance from the dogmatists who follow each other. Geoff S

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    Floating wind farm off north Devon refuses to revise its plan which it is said will cause enormous damage to this renowned beach due to the cabling and sub station required

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9e2yg5jk1do

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    Student at a Prague university shoots dead at least 15 fellow students

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12890203/Multiple-people-dead-injured-Prague-shooting.html

    Police say it is not a part of ‘international terrorism’

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      James Murphy

      The great speed at which the authorities definitively claim it is not linked to terrorism, but don’t seem to know anything else about it, really makes me think the opposite – at least until evidence comes to light.

      Much like articles that go to great pains to avoid mentioning details about people who have committed various crimes, the less they communicate, the more likely it is going to be someone with a background, lifestyle or characteristic that is now considered “sacred”.

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        David Maddison

        Yes.

        In general, the immediate pronouncement that “it wasn’t terrorism” without knowing anything else tells us everything we need to know about what it was and who did it.

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        Muzza

        Seems a similar line to ‘we don’t know what is causing all the excess deaths post-vaccination, however can categorically state what isn’t the cause’. Another snow job we the minions are expected to swallow without question.

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    • #

      As I have no access to “X”, only to a direct link to a tweet, I could read both tweets embedded in that linked article.
      But searching with google and DuckDuckGo “Lauterbach Impfung X” I only find advices for vaccination before Christmas, will say only pro vaccination links.

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      James Murphy

      I was happy to discover that another colleague has not subjugated themselves to Wuhan Flu vaccines. Just 1 more person unafraid to go against the “consensus” when the little alarm bells jingle in one’s brain.

      Of other interest in the same conversation as above, but from someone else, is that in Ukraine after the vaccine was made available (as “voluntary” in nature as any other country) a certificate was able to be had for a pretty low price – more expensive than a real one. Seems it was extremely popular, for some reason that I can’t quite put my finger on…

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        Fran

        Our GP (small community practitioner) recently tentatively opened the can of worms, telling me there had been a lot of deaths one the island. He asked about estimates of vaccine mortality! On the next appointment I gave him a copy of the 2017 review on ivermectin. I will later point him to Denis Rancourt’s and Ed Dowd’s analyses of all cause mortality. Softly softly catchee monkey.

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      John Hultquist

      Cost to mail a letter in the USA is now 66¢.
      The year I was hatched the cost was 3¢.

      Insofar as I can tell, the climate (as opposed to “The Climate™) has not morphed into the danger zone, even though I have contributed much Carbon Dioxide since that long-ago event.

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    David Maddison

    I went to see a comedy show last night at The Comic’s Lounge in Melbournistan and the act opened with a former African-American who had become an Australian citizen and who was also the MC for the evening.

    He displayed a very deep hatred of the United States and Trump which I found appalling and quite unnecessary for his comedy routine.

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      skepticynic

      displayed a very deep hatred (etc)

      It’s all the fashion nowadays.
      Which shows how much the hearts and minds of the avant garde are being loaded up subconsciously by those we consider our political adversaries.

      And yet these are the same woke trendies who condemn “hate-speech”.

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      Steve of Cornubia

      I hope you walked out. Better still, get a few like-minded mates together and go along to his next show with protest placards.

      Fight fire with fire.

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    David Maddison

    Notice that ever since the beginning of the plandemic Western countries have all become essentially cashless?

    The Elites love it and it means all transactions can be fully traced, tracked and controlled and any specific person can be unpersoned by Big Brother for thought crimes or other activities not in accord with the Official Narrative at the press of a button.

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      John Michelmore

      Westpac and BankSA currently advertising they are open for cash transactions in SA. More than a few businesses now offering discount for cash transactions.
      A cashless society cannot cope with energy outages, floods, fire, war, EMPs ;and it all come back to cashless cannot be used without unbreakable electronic communications.
      Keep using and carrying cash in multiple denominations, so when the SHTF you don’t pay $50 for a loaf of bread.

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    Ireneusz Palmowski

    This year the polar vortex will move over Siberia and Europe.
    https://i.ibb.co/2Ph6cmg/gfs-z50-nh-f240.png

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      Adellad

      Showing my ignorance (or poor memory) I had imagined the poles to be permanent high-pressure zones owing to the Earth’s thermal balance – air rising at the Equator, falling at about 30 degrees, then the sub-polar low-pressure zones then the polar highs. This map shows a massive low over the N Pole. Does this ever happen in the Antarctic?

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    tonyb

    New Electric car from Russia.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1848093/vladimir-putin-ugliest-electric-car

    I am sure this elegant new car will have a horde of buyers beating their path to the makers door.

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      David Maddison

      The Soviet Lada is back!

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        skepticynic

        The Lada Niva performed very well, looked good, and after forty years in its original form is still selling well in the UK.
        The Avtotor is an ugly duckling doomed to failure.

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          Bruce

          And the long line of GAZ 4 x 4 “Land Rover equivalents” may be a bit “agricultural”, but they seem to be fairly robust, if not as rust-resistant as a Land-rover. Example dating back to the mid 1940s can be seen negotiating horrible “roads” all over the world.

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            Graeme#4

            The Landrover of the 60s had a poor reputation in Australia, most due I think to broken rear axles. The mining companies rapidly switched to Toyota Landcruisers and never went back.

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              Dennis

              Same during the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme Project.

              Land Rover UK, Joe Lucas Electrics – Prince Of Darkness.

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                beowulf

                Precisely Dennis

                My father was in charge of the Thiess workshop at the Snowy in the very early years. Among other heavy equipment, he had a fleet of about 15 Land Rovers to maintain. They were rubbish. He developed a life-long loathing of Land Rovers. At any one time about half the fleet was either under repair or awaiting repair, but still having to be used.

                They had constant rear leaf spring collapses. He said you could always tell a Land Rover because it would be the vehicle crabbing along with its back axle out of alignment due to suspension collapse.

                They had fuel leaks all over the place and their flimsy fuel tanks were VERY easily punctured by sharp rocks on the construction tracks. Not a good feature in a heavy construction site vehicle.

                All of this led to Thiess quickly abandoning Rovers and importing (I believe) the first Toyota Land Cruisers into Oz in about 1950/51 to bring reliability to their 4WD fleet.

                On top of that the Land Rover engines were notoriously under-powered well into the 1970s Series 2 and 3 Rovers, when conversions became so common that there were off-the-shelf conversion kits available to drop a Holden engine into a Rover.

                I cannot fathom why the Australian Army has persisted with Rovers when private enterprise dumped them many decades ago.

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              The miners break stuff because they dont own it, the company does.
              Land Rovers may have its faults, but it was one of the primary vehicles to open up the outback of Australia.
              Len Beadel used a Series one as the scout car for many of the outback roads we all use.. The Gunbarrell Highway, Tanami Track , Great central Rd , etc.
              And the Leyland Brothers went coast ot coast , top to bottom, and everywhere in between, before anyone else dared to try…all in a Series one.

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              another ian

              I had it explained that those axle shafts were designed as the weak point in the drive line. As it was a fully floating rear axle there were no major dramas in changing in the field.

              I met a bloke who had been on land capability surveys in Somalia in the late 1970’s. Their fleet was a Landrover, a Landcruiser and a Piper Cub.

              The Landrover needed spares regularly so you carried these.

              The Landcruiser didn’t, so, as he described it, “the day it did it bloody near killed us”

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                Geoff Sherrington

                We had a fleet of about 50 Toyota Land Cruisers for our mineral exploration in the 1970s and 1 Land Rover.
                We used the latter for undersea mining at King Island Scheelite, because its smaller engine vibrated less in the delicate unstable rock environment. Then one day a geo came back to the cuddy where he had parked the Land Rover, to find it thinner because the ceiling had dropped on it. He was pretty shook up.
                An early problem with Toyotas was fire after a good rainfall season west of Tennant Creek. Spinnifex gathered under the chassis next to the tail pipe and burned. Early models had plastic fuel lines here and there, so burning was quick and fierce. Melted windscreens look like toffee. We told Geos to always travel in pairs of vehicles in such remote places.
                Geoff S

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          Steve of Cornubia

          Lada’s generally are great things in their own way. I often toy with the idea of buying classic Lada, but I want a Vaz 2101 variant rather than the Niva, because I very nearly bought a new 1500 back in the early 80s. I’ve liked them ever since. They are susceptible to metal worm though.

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        Stephen

        The pictured car is a “test mule” with some panels and trim from a Lada Vesta. So your comment is apt. Production car would look completely different.

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      KP

      Obviously mine-proof, can carry 9 fully-equipped soldiers and has drones in the slide-out side drawers.

      Putin is taking the piss out of all the EV fanboys in the West, he has no timed for electric cars and no reason to want them.

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    David Maddison

    In response to the commies removing Trump from the ballot in Colorado, Republicans are threatening to do the same thing to the White House resident in their states.

    https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-threaten-take-joe-biden-off-ballot-trump-colorado-1854067

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      Honk R Smith

      Hate to say, can’t see a path out.
      If DJT somehow returns, the Virtue Elite will unleash their George Floyd Rainbow Battalions of Diversity and Inclusion in a fiery but peaceful display across the nation, and possibly the Western World.

      SCOTUS may remember the protests outside their homes, and the tepid protective response by LE, and choose to dance with the ones what brung ’em, for comfortable DC society self preservation.
      Dred Scot II.

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      Adellad

      I would rather they did not indulge in tit-for-tat nonsense like this – which shall surely get thrown out by the SCOTUS?

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    David Maddison

    Quoted from elsewhere:

    “Trust the science” is one of the most unscientific statements one can make.

    Questioning science is how you do science.

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    David Maddison

    Conservatives should never complain they don’t understand the Left.

    We have their instruction manual, Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty Four”.

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    Yarpos

    On Nov 2 our youngest daughter (36) sadly joined the ranks of those that died suddenly, passing away in her sleep.

    The Coroner called yesterday to say they are finally finishing investigations and have found no discernable cause. They advised that across AU and NZ this happens to about 170 people per year. Appears to be an established syndrome that predates the current wave of excess deaths. Some research is happening in the UK apparently.

    Losing a child is truly one of lifes crap experiences and this Christmas/NY will be a quiet one for us. She leaves a big hole in our lives.

    All the best for the season to Jo’s commentariat (dont forget to buy chocolates) see you in 2024

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “We Don’t Need No Flaming Sparky Cars”

    “Continuing the U.S. decline of the brand, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that approximately half of all Buick dealership in the U.S. have opted to take a buyout from GM, as opposed to spending millions in retooling, restructuring and retraining their staff to accommodate the EV influx.

    Most of the EV’s shoved onto the dealer lots sit idle without customers to purchase them.”

    https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/12/21/we-dont-need-no-flaming-sparky-cars-151/

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      David Maddison

      Another self-destructive, woke company.

      The next thing they’ll be demanding is taxpayer subsidies, and no doubt the White House resident will oblige them.

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        Dave in the States

        It won’t be the first time. Remember the 2009 bailout? I do and I remember Obama firing the leadership of a private company. Fascism anyone? How about communism? BHO essentially turned over the assets to unions, stiffing people who had investments in GM. Oh yeah, just this year the unions got a 40% increase. I hope they go broke. I hope the crash and burn is incendiary.
        I have no sympathy for GM what so ever.

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      CO2 Lover

      US data confirms that after 5 years EVs have lost 50% of their resale value compared to onlly 35% for Pick-Up trucks like the popullar Ford F150.

      After 5 years there is stilll some battery warranty left.

      What will the resale value of an EV be after 8 or 10 years compares to ICE cars and pick-up trucks when a used EV buyer may need a new battery pack?

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        CO2 Lover
        December 22, 2023 at 7:37 am · Reply
        US data confirms that after 5 years EVs have lost 50% of their resale value compared to onlly 35% for Pick-Up trucks like the popullar Ford F150.

        I dont know where your quote is from, but it should be nno surprise since a 5 year old EV ….( must be a Tesla, or a Leaf, since not many other EV 5 years ago !)…would be effectively a “gen1” in a rapidly changing technology market.
        The F150 depreciation is a furfy, as it is the most popular vehicle in the US.
        If you look at the depreciation on cars like the Audi, BMWs, etc , you can expect to see 50+% over 5 years.
        A classic case of picking the data to suit your argument. !

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        As the idiocy starts depleting the second hand market … and anyone with any sense starts buying second hand vehicles that work, rather than battery vehicles that don’t, and as I began realising that Battery vehicles are far heavier, and so destroy the mechanical parts quicker, and that the batteries become a serious liability, I realised that they we won’t be buying a second hand vehicle as we have always done. So, we’ve now done some seriously expensive repairs to our current vehicles as we are going to have to keep them indefinitely.

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      Hanrahan

      rather than investing potentially millions into retooling and prepping dealers to service and sell EVs.

      This cost has a lot to do with it when sales are problematic.

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      Graeme#4

      The related article says that a consumer group reports that EVs have 80% more problems than ICEs.

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      Dennis

      I am waiting to see the reaction of EV owners in Australia who want to keep their vehicle for the average ten years, and their reaction when trade-in quotes are declined with suggestions to talk to a scrap merchant.

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    another ian

    More on

    “The Theater of Trump”

    “This is a stunt folks. Go ahead and scream in rage if you wish, but it is both a stunt and a dangerous one because it invites retaliation. Federal elections are run by the States and thus if Colorado can ignore the Constitution so could Texas, Florida or even every GOP-held state and force Biden off the ballot. Indeed they could argue that in addition to immigration and corruption issues the mandates from the Biden Administration were solicitations to and commission of manslaughter, that such was a deliberate act taken to compromise the government and overthrow same, resulting in a dictatorial outcome and this too meets the standard for insurrection. Poof — off the ballot he goes despite never being arrested, tried and convicted of anything.

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=250349

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      Hanrahan

      We in Oz need a good, strong US. The piracy in the Red Sea is emblematic of a dysfunctional USA. The world got complacent with the US being world policeman keeping the sea lanes open and now can’t handle it on its own. Australia, last of the big spenders is sending 11 armchair admirals. Why not a row boat?

      But the Biden admin is worse than incompetent, it is lawless. As you say they invite retaliation but if a new GOP admin retaliated in kind, pulling every dirty trick they had pulled on them the country would become ungovernable. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

      But worst of all, at least a third of the US is cheering this bad governance and behaviour. Better chaos than Trump order.

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        Dennis

        I watched a repeat on Sky last night about Defence and the building military personnel and assets numbers in Northern Australia, and the strategic position that offers the US Military as well as helping to defend Australia.

        AUKUS partnership has increased the future use of ADF Bases here by the US and rotation of assets around Asia Pacific Region.

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    Warmer sea surface temperatures are associated with coral growth, not decline.

    According to a new study, coral growth was slow during the ~1°C colder Little Ice Age (LIA), but grew rapidly as sea surface temperatures (SSTs) warmed after 1850. Warmth is associated with coral growth, whereas colder SSTs are linked to growth rate decline.

    “The average growth rate of four colonies living in the LIA is 0.87 ± 0.11 cm/yr, which is significantly (t-test, p < 0.0001) lower than the colonies in the 20th century [1.23 ± 0.22 cm/yr].”

    “The observed low average growth rates during the LIA can be explained by the ~1°C lower temperature.

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      David Maddison

      Life loves warmth.

      Climate alarmists seem to think life prefers cold. A bizarre and irrational idea.

      There is a good reason why civilisation thrived during the Minoan, Egyptian, Roman and Medieval warm periods.

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “IF YOU WANT TO DESTROY MULTICULTURALISM – JUST INVITE ISLAM INTO YOUR COUNTRY”

    https://richardsonpost.com/davidtruman/34130/uncontrolled-immigration-to-the-west/

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    Philip

    8:43am Summer, King Island 100% diesel

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “EU: THROWS AWAY 215 million covid vaccines
    Looks like there was quite the surplus of mRNA shots
    PETER IMANUELSEN”

    Anyone know what the tally in Oz is?

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    another ian

    FWIW – horror stories for the morning –

    1. ” If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a vaccine. The UK Daily Mail ran a curtly-headlined story yesterday which seemed to acknowledge how ridiculous this is getting: “Now scientists develop a vaccine to lower CHOLESTEROL.” ”

    “There’s a new gold rush, except this one comes in a needle and rhymes with “Maxine.” The covid shots opened up a brand-new frontier in pharmaceuticals: the genetic engineering of viruses to prompt an immune response targeting virtually anything doctors don’t like. You’ve already heard of the ‘cancer vaccines.’ But why limit ourselves to targeting diseases? Healthy but unwanted tissues can be included in there too.

    For example, you won’t need testosterone suppressors; just engineer a virus with a bit of testosterone in it and let the immune system do its job. How about a fat vaccine? A vaccine that targets headaches? Eye floaters? Unwanted back hair? Underarm sweat? You name it! They can now make a “vaccine” for it, no problem. It’s a CRISPR for everyone! Vaccines for healthy human proteins.

    What could go wrong?”

    2. ” Entertainment Weekly ran a story Tuesday headlined, “Celine Dion has ‘lost control over her muscles’ amid battle with stiff-person syndrome, says sister.” The Canadian pop mega-star, 55, announced a year ago she’d suddenly and unexpectedly been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, an ultra-rare, perfectly horrible neurological autoimmune disease with a deadly prognosis.”

    [SNIP Too long for copyright.]

    Via Covid and Coffee

    https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/clustered-thursday-december-21-2023?r=1vxw0k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

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    Bruce

    Hooray for Paliwood; apparently.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6s6YKlTpfw

    Those familiar with arms and ammo and “video production” will get it.

    The LSM and the “concerned” will willingly and enthusiastically lap up the propaganda and recirculate it ad nauseum. As intended.

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    RickWill

    Convective instability is THE vital process in Earth’s atmosphere. All the water that was recently dumped on FNQ was due to convective instability. Convective potential is essential to spinning up convective storms. Under the right conditions, these storms become self-sustaining and will carry on for days to weeks as Japser has done. But convective potential is the vital ingredient.

    The tallest convective towers operate above ocean warm pools that regulate the surface temperature to 30C. The top of atmosphere solar intensity over warm pools is above 420W/m^2. Once the input reaches that level, it takes about a month for the atmosphere above to achieve some degree of equilibrium with the surface. It never reaches equilibrium because there is cyclic instability.

    Radiosondes are used to identify the convective instability. The launch sites are usually located in the vicinity of airports so pilots have an idea of the convective potential. Over the past few days, the convective potential has been building over Darwin. This link shows the radiosondes for yesterday over Darwin:
    http://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/aviation/IDS65024/IDS65024.94120.png

    The red lines are for 8pm last night. The two lines are environmental temperature and the dew point temperature.

    So a question – how is the dew point temperature actually measured and what does that measurement mean in terms of atmospheric water content? Two days ago, the total precipitable water shown top right on the image was 62.2mm. Today it is shown at 53.4mm. There has been sporadic rain around Darwin in the last couple of days with some falls as high as 15mm but most of Darwin shows no rainfall.

    The other question regarding the dew point temperature – Why is it such a jagged line with large excursions.

    I have been monitoring Darwin this month as the monsoon should be established there within a week or so.

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      Greg in NZ

      Apart from Darwin (warm & wet) and Perth (warm & dry) all other major cities are looking NOT warm and NOT droughty, similar to over here: very mild and very moist… yet experts trained in MNT (Mike’s Nature Trick) will homogenise their chosen numbers and voila! HOTTEST EVAH since the last time.

      Happy summer solstice one ‘n’ all – Shirley it can only get better…

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        Adellad

        Adelaide had one day >40 (Nov 10) and the children on mainstream media were squeaking “El Nino” as though they had a clue about the words they were saying. Since then we’ve had about 140mm in the city gauge – a lot for our often-arid climate at this time of year – and max. temps as scary as 15.9 in December! So yes, we seem to be in for the 4th cool/cold summer in succession. I think much of southern Australia (even SE WA) is the same to date.

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    another ian

    Mods – please replace/delete #23 as I got caught with a “feature” of copying from Covid and Coffee – this is what I intended

    FWIW – horror stories for the morning –

    1. ” If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a vaccine. The UK Daily Mail ran a curtly-headlined story yesterday which seemed to acknowledge how ridiculous this is getting: “Now scientists develop a vaccine to lower CHOLESTEROL.” ”

    “There’s a new gold rush, except this one comes in a needle and rhymes with “Maxine.” The covid shots opened up a brand-new frontier in pharmaceuticals: the genetic engineering of viruses to prompt an immune response targeting virtually anything doctors don’t like. You’ve already heard of the ‘cancer vaccines.’ But why limit ourselves to targeting diseases? Healthy but unwanted tissues can be included in there too.

    For example, you won’t need testosterone suppressors; just engineer a virus with a bit of testosterone in it and let the immune system do its job. How about a fat vaccine? A vaccine that targets headaches? Eye floaters? Unwanted back hair? Underarm sweat? You name it! They can now make a “vaccine” for it, no problem. It’s a CRISPR for everyone! Vaccines for healthy human proteins.

    What could go wrong?”

    2. ” Entertainment Weekly ran a story Tuesday headlined, “Celine Dion has ‘lost control over her muscles’ amid battle with stiff-person syndrome, says sister.” The Canadian pop mega-star, 55, announced a year ago she’d suddenly and unexpectedly been diagnosed with stiff-person syndrome, an ultra-rare, perfectly horrible neurological autoimmune disease with a deadly prognosis.”

    But

    “But is that true? Is there really no evidence? One year ago in the December 9th C&C I offered the following evidence: first, Pfizer oddly included Stiff Person Syndrome as one of the known “post-authorization adverse event reports” in its regulatory documents:”

    And more.

    3. “Brownstone’s Jeffrey Tucker penned a short but thought-provoking counter-revolutionary piece yesterday titled, “This Silence Is Not Golden.” ”

    ”Mr. Tucker marveled at how the Establishment seems to be sweeping the pandemic’s totalitarian excesses — and all the resulting casualties — right down the memory hole:

    Hardly anyone can be found today who defends what happened, except perhaps in the most sheepish terms, and nearly always with the obviously false proviso that “We just didn’t know then what we know now.” That seems like a shabby excuse for what’s resulted. These days – again, mostly in private conversations – hardly any apocalyptic prediction seems beyond the realm of plausibility.
    The public silence over this entire subject is beyond bizarre. There are political conventions happening all over the country. They are attended by thousands. Everyone is rallying about and for something. But the Covid response hardly comes up. When it does, it is quick and perfunctory conversation and quickly dropped.
    Hardly any revelations about Big Tech censorship, excess deaths, contaminated shots, misused funds, or corruption of public officials and academics get media attention at all. To many of us, what is happening and what is revealed daily amounts to a parade of scandals, except that the national media doesn’t care in the slightest.

    Mr. Tucker was frustrated by the bizarre media silence, but I take it to be evidence of progress. He said hardly anyone defends the pandemic response anymore except by arguing ignorance. He’s frustrated that they aren’t calling for heads on pikes yet, and I get that. But look how far things have come, how the Overton window has shifted.

    Basically, at this point, the government’s pandemic response is now literally indefensible. Nobody’s seriously defending it. That’s progress.

    Also, Mr. Tucker meant to say that the steady drumbeat of new revelations hardly gets any attention at all from corporate media. The breaking news gets plenty of attention here at Coffee & Covid and at other aligned independent media — like Brownstone. But we take his point — there’s a tacit omertà among the establishment types; an all-new “move-on-dot-org” conspiracy of like-minded actors implicitly agreeing to shepherd the bruised population along toward some shiny new distraction.

    Still, Mr. Tucker is on the right trail and his article is worth a read.”

    Via Covid and Coffee

    https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/clustered-thursday-december-21-2023?r=1vxw0k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

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    John Connor II

    Tech tips Friday.

    1. If you have problems selecting text to copy from substacks and others (typically you select everything), start from the bottom of the text you want and select upwards instead of downwards.

    2. It’s difficult to finely position the playing point on videos if you drag your finger along the timeline slider.
    Instead, hold the tip of your finger on the slider and roll your finger to the side.

    3. To save Twitter (X) videoclips, you can use savetwitter.net, savetweetvid.com or twsaver.com

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      another ian

      JCII

      I had worked that out. But it seems if you wave the pointer one blank space beyond the exact end of the bit that you want you get everything to the top.

      Which you might not see if the start of what you want is right at the top of your window.

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    John Connor II

    Go To Great Britain, Get Stabbed

    Modern Britain is so rife with knife crime, that special medical boxes containing kits to deal with stab wounds are now being installed around city centers.

    This is apparently ‘progress’.

    https://twitter.com/MailOnline/status/1737603173588599060

    Tip: if you’re facing a knife attack try not to tense up as the injury will be more damaging. Being stabbed on the left side is better, if you have a choice. Serrated blades will make the wound a lot harder to seal.
    Wrap a wound in plastic (eg clingfilm) rather than cloth.

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    John Connor II

    China shatters low-temperature records with over 20 stations reporting all-time December lows, signaling persistent extreme weather.

    Oh wait, let me get this straight, China is one of the biggest global polluters and CO2 emitters and they’re having a problem with extreme cold? Kind of rules out the whole global warming thing, doesn’t it?

    The national weather office said in a social media post that more than 20 stations posted all-time December lows in the early hours of Thursday.

    They included Hohhot, capital of the northern Inner Mongolia region, where a reading of -29.1 degrees Celsius (-20.4 Fahrenheit) broke a nearly 70-year record.

    Authorities have issued an alert for low temperatures across a vast area of northern, eastern and southeastern China.

    The brutal cold follows a summer of record-smashing heat and devastating floods across the country’s north.

    https://citizenwatchreport.com/china-shatters-low-temperature-records-with-over-20-stations-reporting-all-time-december-lows-signaling-persistent-extreme-weather/

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    David Maddison

    How exciting.

    A new covid variant.

    This must mean that this is the pre-release trial version of the eagerly awaited US Presidential variant.

    https://www.9news.com.au/health/world-news-who-announces-a-new-covid19-variant-of-interest/77ff1185-609d-4c7c-88d4-87034350992f

    A new COVID-19 strain known as JN.1 has been declared a “variant of interest” by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

    Previously grouped under its ‘parent’ variant, BA.2.86, WHO has classified JN.1 as a separate strain because of its rapidly increasing spread.

    WHO said that JN.1 poses a low risk to global public health but warned the variant could escalate with winter in the Northern Hemisphere, leading to respiratory infections in many countries.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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      Ross

      .. and makes all the current vaccines virtually useless. Which some might argue they already were anyway.

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      John Connor II

      Coincidentally I just finished this:

      Geert Vanden Bossche’s recent warning regading emerging COVID sub-variant JN.1

      “Short-sighted scientists and so-called ‘experts’ who stubbornly assert that the fulminant spread of the JN.1 variant
      poses no imminent threat to Covid-19 vaccinees (vaccinated) will soon receive a shocking lesson; C-19 mass vaccination program transformed this natural pandemic into an immune escape pandemic..”
      ‘In their incredibly naive belief that through technology, they can control biology, technocrats have been seduced into pursuing sophisticated technologies without fully understanding their biological impact. Their C-19 mass vaccination program not only transformed this natural pandemic into an immune escape pandemic but also into what must now be referred to as the largest and most dangerous gain-of-function experiment ever conducted in the history of biology—one that mankind has unleashed on its very own species….’

      It’s impossible to convey the intricacies of my analysis through e-mail, but I must emphasize the impending emergence of yet another, but spectacularly different SARS-CoV-2 (SC-2) variant that I strongly predict to cause highly virulent vaccine breakthrough infections (VBTIs) in highly COVID-19 (C-19) vaccinated populations.

      https://palexander.substack.com/p/geert-vanden-bossches-recent-warning

      Disease-X is the one that these #$%%@&* idiots are making indirectly via the Fakevax!!!
      Mankind is FORCING the evolution of a super virus.
      You want to know how the predicted population decimation was going to happen? Now you do.

      I was having a good day until this, having finally resolved a nightmarish pc .NET issue that’s taken up 3 weeks of my time with tech support in analysis and 10 seconds to fix.

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        David Maddison

        I think YouTube is censoring and/or shadow banning Geert’s channel so he must be telling the truth.

        You can see an interview with him by Dr Philip McMillan at:

        https://www.youtube.com/live/EoMH2R0vVxM

        It’s extraordinary that there are pimply-faced, purple or green-haired “graduates” in BS far-Left subjects like “gender studies” that are working for companies like Goolag and Farcebook who are censoring some of the world’s leading scientific experts.

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    Dennis

    There has been much discussion about the US Navy request for an RAN warship to join a combined allies patrol of the Red Sea area, noting that the RAN has participated in these exercises for decades past from time to time.

    Some speculate that the RAN does not have the capabilities but recently one warship was on patrol and was stopped by a fishing net entanglement in the propellers so obviously that ship was capable of patrolling far from Australia.

    The fact is that most and if not all by now RAN ships are equipped with the computer guided Phalanx anti-missile, anti-drone, anti-aircraft, anti-small ships system and many have been for years, with upgrading to the latest system now underway. So drone attacks can be dealt with. Also other systems including …

    “Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ships HMAS Sydney and HMAS Perth have linked up with the Royal Canadian Navy, Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, Republic of Korea Navy and the United States Navy for Exercise Pacific Vanguard 2022.

    Combining off the tropical island of Guam, the nations engaged in an integrated air and missile defence exercise.

    RAN destroyer HMAS Sydney’s contribution included the successful firing of a Harpoon surface-to-surface missile at a land target.

    HMAS Perth also tested its capability, with the frigate engaging an airborne target with an Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile.”.

    My research also discovered that the smaller patrol boats, already in service and the new replacement fleet being built, are to be equipped with additional weapons systems that have been evaluated for the past several years. These small ships are designed for coastal and not too distant patrolling deployments and better weapons systems aboard would make them very useful for defence purposes.

    At present the RAN operates three Air Warfare Destroyers, eight Frigates with nine new ones being built, six submarines with three nuclear submarines followed by several new generation design nuclear submarines now being designed. There are various other ships including the two largest helicopter carriers and other duties.

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    Bruce

    A “political’ quote:

    “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies”.

    Groucho Marx

    So, how is Oz REALLY traveling?

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    Ross

    Don’t know how many cricket fans are on this blog- but, XMAS day in Victoria (Melbourne) likely to piddle down with rain. Boxing Day, I’m predicting possibly not a ball bowled.

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    Steve of Cornubia

    I officially, though reluctantly, joined the ranks of the ‘feeble old’ today, at least by my reckoning. You see, though I am ashamed to admit it, for most of my life a saw hearing aids (when not worn by children or the obviously young) as a badge of infirmity. It’s payback time.

    My hearing was damaged significantly back in the early 80s, when I spent four days stationed on the exit of Coppice Corner (very fast) at the Donington Park racetrack, as a Fire Marshal at a European F2 championship meeting. Back in’t olden days, F2 cars were unsilenced screamers and I was standing within a few feet of them as they accelerated out of the corner. I could hear little in my left ear for an hour or so at the end of each day and, ever since, have suffered hearing loss on that side. Since then, age has added to the problem, to the point where I was giving family members the irrits. Eh? What? Pardon?

    However, recent months attending doctors’ visits and hospital consults with my wife, who is being treated for ovarian cancer, has turned an inconvenience into a very real problem. Given her emotional state, it is necessary for me to understand and record everything the specialists say. Also, I have to hear what is said by her bedside in a noisy hospital. I am missing important details.

    So off I went to be tested, and this confirmed my hearing loss. It is mostly confined to the higher frequencies and this ‘hides’ the sounds of consonants, making speech hard for me. Hearing aids MAY help.

    So to get to the point of this post, it turns out that hearing aids are outrageously expensive little things. They cost WAY more than I anticipated. Thousands of dollars for anything that actually works and will last for more than a few months. Research led me to Costco of all places. Who would have thought? A tray of chilli beans, a doormat, 5kg of rice and a pair of hearing aids please …

    If my research is correct, the $2K I have paid is around half what they would have cost elsewhere; the audiologist was thorough and used no quick sell tactics or pressure. The aids are discreet, tuneable to the frequencies required, easily adjusted via an app, are rechargeable and made by a reputable manufacturer (Philips).

    Keeping up with the conversations at the hospital is an absolute must, but the bucket list we’re putting together, which includes another trip to NZ, will be pricelessly enhanced if I can hear the Skylarks again. I will be 12yo again, lying in a flower meadow back in 1960s England. I haven’t been able to hear songbirds or cicadas for some time.

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      Jay Jade

      Hi Steve. I hope they work for you. I recently bought a new pair from SpecSavers at Capalaba. These are my third pair and best by far. To buy the same pair elsewhere would have been twice as expensive. Even at the high end of the market not all brands are equal. Neither are the audiologists. Try before you buy. Ask for Stef. Happy hearing.

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        Steve of Cornubia

        The Costco deal provides a six-month ‘trial’ period, during which I can exchange the aids for other types. I think there was also a shorter, but still generous, ‘money back’ guarantee if I decide hearing aids aren’t for me.

        I will attend a fitting two weeks from now, which involves physical fitment and advice, but also ‘tuning’ to my preference and needs. I can go back for retuning at any time or have the devices adjusted remotely. I can also tweak them myself via an app.

        Now that I have committed to having hearing aids, I’m starting to look forward to getting them.

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    another ian

    “One Flu Out Of The Wuhan Nest”

    “Daily Mail;

    A newly-uncovered trove of documents detailing plans to create a Covid-like virus in China months before the pandemic make the ‘lab leak almost certain’, experts say.

    The records – obtained now by FOIA requests – lay out a plan to ‘engineer spike proteins’ to infect human cells that would then be ‘inserted into SARS-Covid backbones’ at the infamous Wuhan virology lab from December 2018.”

    More and link at

    https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2023/12/21/one-flu-out-of-the-wuhan-nest-107/

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    Steve of Cornubia

    Think the mandating of EVs to save the planet is madness? He has a relatively small ( but growing) number of subscribers but I reckon he’s worth watching:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he3vNyaURbU

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    John Connor II

    New Tesla Cars Fall Apart. The Company Says Drivers Are to Blame

    An alarming report published by Reuters on Wednesday details how the electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla has shirked responsibility for the failures of parts it knew to be defective, including suspension and steering systems. The investigation comes shortly after a recall of 2 million Teslas to add safety guardrails to the cars’ Autopilot features — whose capabilities CEO Elon Musk tends to grossly exaggerate — as well as a study showing that Tesla drivers had the highest accident rate among all auto brands over the past year.

    Reuters journalists reviewed thousands of Tesla documents revealing how the company tracked design flaws but routinely made customers pay substantial out-of-pocket fees to repair those very issues. Tens of thousands of drivers, the outlet reported, have experienced steering and suspension problems in newer cars due to these faulty parts. In one incident, a 2023 Tesla Model Y carrying a driver along with his wife and young daughter blew its right-front suspension because of a slow turn. The owner had bought the car the day before.

    https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tesla-cars-fall-apart-company-225004239.html

    Buy a Subaru instead! 😎

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      KP

      “Buy a Subaru instead! ”

      What? The motors and gearboxes last more than a couple of years now?? …and that regeneration system on the diesels certainly sidelined a lot of them.

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        Steve of Cornubia

        Scooby Doo is one of those manufacturers where reliability and longevity varies significantly across its range and across model years. Some models/years are very prone to problems, others seem pretty bullet proof.

        When choosing cars I use a simple rule, rather like a risk analysis. The ideal car (for me) would be both reliable AND cheap to fix, such as Toyota. Next best is ‘pick one’, i.e. it could be less reliable so long as it’s cheap to maintain, or more expensive to maintain but very reliable (i.e. Lexus).

        Some marques are out of the question, being both unreliable AND expensive to fix, such as modern Mercedes and things like Maserati, Fiat, etc.

        Things got tricky when different marques ‘amalgamated’, for example Nissan and Renault. Nissan were always pretty reliable but Renaults weren’t, so it’s perhaps necessary to know how many Renault parts are in your Nissan these days.

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    Interesting piece in what was called ‘Scientific American’, about converting CO2 to a powder which can then store energy, and be used to power a house (or, presumably, a civilisation!).
    Link –

    https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/scientist-discover-how-to-convert-co2-into-powder-that-can-be-stored-for-decades/

    To my seaman’s eye, there appears to be something missing.
    CO2 is a component of exhaust gas.
    After combustion, and liberation of energy.
    How much energy needs to go in to the (magic, inert, they say) powder? Amd how much will be derived?
    So what is the loss, as a percentage?
    No figure – or even suggestions – given.
    And cost – missing.

    And the little (simplified, yes) diagram seems to sshow a house sitting on a tank of this magic powder. Enough, if it detonates, to propel the prime realty to Peoria … possibly.
    Maybe not a fast selling idea?

    And, anyway, CO2 is plant food – a Good Thing in a world with 8,080 million mouths to feed!

    Doubtless those whose education in chemistry extended after year nine will be able to examine this far better than I can.

    Auto

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      KP

      Interesting-

      “Sodium formate, HCOONa, is the sodium salt of formic acid, HCOOH. It usually appears as a white deliquescent powder.”

      So, take CO2 and force a couple of hydrogens onto it, which as you say, takes a lot of energy, more than you will ever get back. It will involve some very expensive metal catalysts and some very exotic chemical compounds to catalyse the reaction. That gives you formic acid, which you neutralise with sodium hydroxide to get sodium formate, which is deliquescent and pulls water out of the air to make itself into a liquid that is a strong alkali. So it won’t stay as a powder unless kept completely dry.

      I reckon it will be just like the whole solar scam, the actual costs from walking into the desert with a shovel will never be calculated, so the costs of the reagents will be glossed over. It will all last exactly as long as the Govt subsidies for it!

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    KP

    Govt propaganda showing we are not just dangerous violent people who don’t believe them, but we are all nutts as well…

    “The Australian Federal Police have revealed they’re targeting sovereign citizen groups who pose a risk of violence, while experts on anti-government extremists warn the threat must be balanced with the sensitive handling of mental health. Sovereign citizens generally believe every human is born “free”, the government is illegitimate or corrupt, and they do not have to follow laws unless they sign a contract.

    Acting Assistant Commissioner of the AFP’s Counter Terrorism and Special Investigations Command, Stephen Nutt, told the Herald the movement has recently been seen to “co-opt or overlap with patriot movements, conspiracy theories, anti-authoritarian and ethno-nationalist perspectives and the far-right”.

    “Lately, they’ve shifted their focus away from anti-vax (sentiment) towards the referendum and how the Voice was apparently a backdoor for the UN (United Nations) to come in and steal Australian land,” ”

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/moving-towards-violence-authorities-alert-to-radicalised-sovereign-citizens-20231116-p5ekh0.html

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      Steve of Cornubia

      They’re searching for groups they can call ‘domestic terrorists’ and which they will undoubtedly also label ‘far right’. Then, just like the Biden administration, they will allege that the biggest threat of terrorism actually comes from white, right wing groups, not those lovely I5lamists.

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        Honk R Smith

        But, not only do we have the threat of ‘far right science denying colonizing Supremacist’ here in America …

        we are being visited by aliens … and just in time to save ‘Our Democracy’.

        Are you getting aliens in Oz.?
        Prolly not.
        USA No. 1.

        (Hey, suddenly the great Computer Spirit has made it difficult to copy and share links, just in time for the election cycle … any one else having an issue, or is it just my tech illiteracy?)

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          Honk R Smith

          The US MSM appears to be promoting a story of a UAP following Air Force One.
          Complete with video.
          The fighter escort seems not to mind, so maybe we’re already friends.
          Unable to share link.

          I blame Voyager.
          Putting directions on that thing was a bad move.

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    another ian

    The weather gods opinion on EV mandates?

    “Talk about terrible timing. Fox News ran an article yesterday with the intentionally hilarious headline, “Maine forced to delay vote on EV mandate amid widespread power outages.” The sub-headline piled on: “’A storm like yesterday’s would render 80% of cars useless is, to say the least, ill-advised,’ Democratic Rep Golden says.” ”

    More at

    https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/not-croquet-friday-december-22-2023?r=1vxw0k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

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    another ian

    Covid news –

    “Bombshell Study on Vaccine ‘Ribosomal Frameshifting’: Dr. Paul Marik | ATL:NOW”

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/bombshell-study-on-vaccine-ribosomal-frameshifting-dr-paul-marik-atlnow-5548921

    And

    Some latest on the covid scene –

    ” It’s been a while since we got to watch a good variant horror movie. But now, according to people on our side, this could be finally it, the depopulation event. Let’s review the evidence and figure out: how concerned should we be?”

    “”Pirola Junior is, of course, being called “even more infectious” than the nineteen previous “super infectious” covid variants. They say — and I am not making this up — Pirola Junior is four hundred times more infectious than the original Wuhan strain. Apparently infection ability is potentially infinite; there’s no upper limit. In other words, it can now infect you through a concrete wall using bluetooth.”

    “I don’t know whether “1 in 24” sounds like a lot or not, but applying mathematics (and the calculator on my phone) that is about four percent. Most people have mild symptoms. Hospitalizations are increasing but remain below last year’s December peak. And, here in the U.S., apparently we’re just now getting around to throwing out all the leftover PPE from the last pandemic panic. From Bloomberg, Wednesday:”

    More at

    https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/not-croquet-friday-december-22-2023?r=1vxw0k&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email

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    Reader

    Greta Thunberg slams COP28 climate deal and Israel, waves Palestinian flag
    https://www.jpost.com/environment-and-climate-change/article-778402

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    As there is no Saturday, I post it still in “Friday”

    TALY: Former Minister of Health denounced for conspiracy to murder via DeathVaxx

    Editor’s Note: News is recirculating about the police investigation into the Former Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza and associate for having knowingly promoted the DeathVaxx while they were aware of its lethal effects.

    However, the truth is, that when the news broke about this, it was after the Public Prosecutor had already asked the court to archive the accusation — that is, to close it as not worthy of consideration. See more below.

    Vigilant Fox: Italian Health Minister Under Investigation for Murder for Concealing COVID-19 Vaccine Deaths

    This article originally appeared on VigilantNews.com and was republished with permission.

    “He knew the shots were killing people and gave orders to local health authorities to conceal deaths and serious side effects.”

    “Former Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza is under investigation for homicide after emails reveal that from the very start of the vaccinations, he knew the shots were killing people and gave orders to local health authorities to conceal deaths and serious side effects in order to reassure Italian citizens of their safety and to not jeopardize the vaccination campaign,” reported InfoWars contributor Greg Reese in viral X post shared by Alex Jones.

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    Reader

    They Justified Hamas Terrorism. Now Biden Is Letting Them Dole Out Taxpayer Dollars.

    Climate Justice Alliance, tapped to distribute $50 mil in federal funds, has backed the ‘Palestinian freedom struggle’

    https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/they-justified-hamas-terrorism-now-biden-is-letting-them-dole-out-taxpayer-dollars/

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    Steve of Cornubia

    I saw this line in a Daily Mail article, talking about the current problems in the Middle East:

    “And Trump is well placed to defeat Biden in a rerun of the 2020 contest, especially if you look at his polling leads in key swing states.”

    I recall that Trump led all the polls last time around, too. He also drew huge crowds to his campaign rallies while Biden hid in his basement. Visible support for Trump in American yards and on bumper stickers demonstrated strong support among voters and, when voting commenced, he soon left Biden behind until suddenly …

    Perhaps the Swamp is a bit concerned about pulling such a stunt again and that’s why the lawfare has ramped up. So far though, they have failed to land a knockout punch. So I wonder, if Trump actually makes it to the election, how will they ensure a win? Just how far are they prepared to go?

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    Ireneusz Palmowski

    Thunderstorms in Australia.
    https://i.ibb.co/B6pkFkM/archive-9-image.png

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