Saturday

8.2 out of 10 based on 17 ratings

144 comments to Saturday

  • #
    MeAgain

    “Content only has to be “reasonably verifiable as false, misleading, or deceptive”, but who is doing the verification? Anyone who followed the Covid debacle knows that what is “false” today in a few months becomes plausible, and a few months after that it becomes true – whether that was the theory that the virus may have originated in a lab, the collateral of lockdowns, or that the vaccines would stop transmission. In the future questioning government authorities on these issues will be against the law. In fact, it is stated so explicitly. Harm is to question “the efficacy of preventative health measures”.” https://news.rebekahbarnett.com.au/cp/148840684

    The behaviour of those in Government is just oh so predictable.

    Heather Brooke writing in 2012: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolution-will-Digitised-Dispatches-Information/dp/0099538083

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    • #
      MeAgain

      Remember, Climate Change presents a major public health concern in Australia: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanwpc/article/PIIS2666-6065(23)00254-7/fulltext

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      David Maddison

      The Government’s misinformation bill is an extremely serious threat to free speech and democracy in Australia.

      Obviously the Government took no notice of thousands of submissions opposing the misinformation bill.

      And don’t forget this bill has its origins with the Liberal faction of the Uniparty as does the e Safety Kommissar.

      This was my submission opposing censorship.

      https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/acma2023-31735-david-s-maddison.pdf

      Futher info.

      https://www.reuters.com/technology/australia-threatens-fines-social-media-giants-enabling-misinformation-2024-09-12/

      Australia threatens fines for social media giants enabling misinformation

      By Byron Kaye

      September 13, 20246

      Summary

      Breaches face fines up to 5% of global revenue

      Bill seeks to prevent election, public health disinformation

      Free speech advocates warn of censorship

      SYDNEY, Sept 12 (Reuters) – Australia said it will fine internet platforms up to 5% of their global revenue for failing to prevent the spread of misinformation online, joining a worldwide push to rein in borderless tech giants but angering free speech advocates.

      The government said it would make tech platforms set codes of conduct governing how they stop dangerous falsehoods spreading, to be approved by a regulator. The regulator would set its own standard if a platform failed to do so, then fine companies for non-compliance.

      The legislation, to be introduced in parliament on Thursday, targets false content that hurts election integrity or public health, calls for denouncing a group or injuring a person, or risks disrupting key infrastructure or emergency services.

      The bill is part of a wide-ranging regulatory crackdown by Australia, where leaders have complained that foreign-domiciled tech platforms are overriding the country’s sovereignty, and comes ahead of a federal election due within a year.

      Already Facebook owner Meta (META.O), opens new tab has said it may block professional news content if it is forced to pay royalties, while X, formerly Twitter, has removed most content moderation since being bought by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022.

      “Misinformation and disinformation pose a serious threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians, as well as to our democracy, society and economy,” said Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in a statement.

      SEE LINK FOR REST

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      • #
        David Maddison

        Australia has a fanatically globalist UN/WEF following Government, “just following orders”:

        And don’t believe the Liberals if they pretend to oppose the bill.

        https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/Research/FlagPost/2023/October/media-literacy

        UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay is quoted on the event’s webpage:

        With the spread of rumors and the distortion of facts, the boundary between true and false has become blurred. This is undermining the very foundations of our societies and democracies and putting lives at risk…

        Both the Labor and Liberal Parties have committed to strengthening legislation to combat misinformation and disinformation online, with the Government recently releasing an exposure draft for the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.

        https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/21/peter-dutton-now-backs-laws-to-crack-down-on-above-the-law-social-media-companies-over-misinformation

        Peter Dutton backs laws to crack down on ‘above the law’ social media companies over misinformation

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        • #
          David Maddison

          This is where the Liberal faction of the Uniparty first proposed these censorship laws.

          Don’t believe for a moment that any opposition they pretend to have is genuine.

          Lib/Lab/Greens are working together on this.

          https://www.paulfletcher.com.au/media-releases/new-disinformation-laws

          Mon, 21 Mar 2022

          The Morrison Government will introduce legislation this year to combat harmful disinformation and misinformation online.

          The legislation will provide the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with new regulatory powers to hold big tech companies to account for harmful content on their platforms.

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      • #
        David Maddison

        From the above Reuters link, can someone please explain the meaning of the following?

        “Misinformation and disinformation pose a serious threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians, as well as to our democracy, society and economy,” said Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in a statement.

        How exactly is supposed misinformation and disinformation a serious threat to “safety and wellbeing” as well as “democracy, society and economy”?

        How did we survive until now?

        The thinking community just analyses information, considers how to deal with it and then moves on. That’s it. They don’t need to be told what’s supposed misinformation, they make up their own minds and want to keep it that way.

        For the non-thinking community, what difference does it make? They will still make unwise decisions. And they will be more likely to believe government propaganda and other statements because they will just assume everything they read is true – but they already believe that so again, what difference does it make?

        This is very very dangerous legislation.

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        • #
          John Connor II

          How exactly is supposed misinformation and disinformation a serious threat to “safety and wellbeing” as well as “democracy, society and economy”?

          People will believe in unproven claims, disproven claims, and nonsense.

          So…goodbye to all religions and cults, no more rainbow serpents, no more safe&effective, no more shots for people that don’t need them, no more bird flu threats, no more MPox threats, no more EEE threats, no more manmade climate change lies, no more Russia disinformation, no more green energy garbage, & no more orchestrated profit and power driven BS of any kind.

          Remember kiddies, it’s not disinformation or misinformation when your government does it.
          /aint it the truth

          And with the government no longer spending every day pushing all the above, they will have the time to actually run the effin’ country for a change, if they can.

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      • #
        Ted1

        I thought Michelle Rowland might have been better than that.

        I should have known better. They are all tarred with the one brush.

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        • #
          David Maddison

          Why do you think she should have known better Ted? She is a Uniparty member. All Uniparty drones were either involved in proposing the legislation (Liberal faction) or its implementation (subject to a rubber stamp in parliament) (Green Labor faction).

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        It’s Also “Disinformation” When Our Government Does It

        Our government is not trying to protect us from disinformation. They’re trying to maintain a monopoly on it…

        In recent weeks, there have been a series of stories about the government cracking down on foreign agents allegedly working to influence the 2024 election.

        First, the intelligence community linked the Iranian government to a hacking of Trump campaign documents. Then the federal government seized several websites it claims were linked to a Russian campaign to circulate disinformation—meaning deliberately spread false information.

        Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray spoke about these cases in a press conference last Wednesday. And they warned about other covert influence campaigns from the Russian, Iranian, and Chinese governments that aim to nudge the American electorate toward their regime’s preferred candidates.

        Garland and Wray clearly wanted to convey that the DOJ and the FBI—its most prominent component—stand in total opposition to government officials manipulating public opinion to serve their own ends.

        But the actions of the DOJ, the FBI, and the political establishment more broadly paint a very different picture.

        Obviously, our government conducts the exact kind of influence campaigns they demonize these foreign regimes for carrying out here. Just as Russia has RT, the US government funds a number of media organizations—like Radio Free Europe and Voice of America—that propagate the Washington party line across the globe. Last year, Biden’s USAID administrator Samantha Power was even bragging about launching US government-funded news organizations in Hungary to, in her words, help “build independent media.”

        But it’s not as if our government officials are just trying to push their preferred messaging abroad while protecting Americans from similar efforts being directed against us.

        They’re also using these very same influence techniques against the American public.

        The recent revelation from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s open letter to Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH) provides a good example.

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      • #
        Geoff Sherrington

        David,
        What these turkeys label as “disinformation” is often the feedstock for current scientific research.
        This legislation is thus an attack on science with chill effects.
        I have not read it in detail so there might be recognition of and measures for science to be excepted, in which case I apologise. Geoff S

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      • #
        jelly34

        Why is it that ANY legislation that is passed or even debated is only there to protect a government from it’s people?That is what THIS legislation is for.We ALL must fight it because if the government can pass this type of legislation in Australia,you can bet that other “Left Wing”governments will try passing this type of legislation to control THEIR PEOPLES.

        BEWARE.

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      • #
        another ian

        FWIW – point made

        “It’s Also “Disinformation” When Our Government Does It”

        https://www.zerohedge.com/political/its-also-disinformation-when-our-government-does-it

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      • #
        KP

        Yes, we’ve had a fascist Govt for a long time, letting private capital own the means of production but Govt telling them exactly what they can and can’t do with it. The Communists have pretty well given up on the idea of Govt owning the means of production outright, they slyly slip control in by having public-private partnerships and Govt majority-controlled companies.

        This is just a massive insult to the ordinary Australians-

        ““Misinformation and disinformation pose a serious threat to the safety and wellbeing of Australians, as well as to our democracy, society and economy,” said Communications Minister Michelle Rowland in a statement.”

        She reckons we are just livestock, too pig-dumb to handle the world as it is and we need everything filtered and massaged so we don’t get anxious in our pens. Just disgusting people!

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        • #
          el+gordo

          ‘This is just a massive insult to the ordinary Australians.’

          Surely you jest, the ordinary Australian takes it in his stride.

          ‘The Australian economy is based on a market (capitalist) system; however, there is also a role for the government in the economy. Therefore Australia, like many other economies around the world, is a mixed market economy. This can be defined as an economy based on the market system with government intervention.’ (Cambridge University Press)

          Calling a democratic socialist elected government a fascist regime defies logic.

          05

  • #
    tonyb

    I mentioned a couple of days ago that I listened to the debate on radio rather than saw it on tv. I felt that Harris was more even handed and calm and prepared (horrible radio voice) but helped by the two moderators.

    Trump was often irascible and got side tracked. Basically shallow though she is, Harris is now promoted as a second messiah and provided she didn’t do the equivalent of Biden falling down the airplane steps then her other “assets”, female, age, ethnicity, not being Trump, would see her through. This first article by people and a publication normally highly sympathetic to Trump is a reflection of their dismay at what they felt to be a good performance by Harris and a poor one by Trump.

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/it-was-three-against-one-but-trump-should-have-done-better/

    This second piece is a good article that is rather more ambivalent and sarcastically references the Guardian newspaper responses but praised this 6th member of the 6 person panel;

    Sixth member of the panel: “All Harris had to do on Tuesday night to be celebrated by the media was to occupy it and string together sentences generally recognised as English. She managed to do that.”

    The author remarks; I should say that I listened to the debate and thought that everyone did as well as could be reasonably expected: which is not very well. How well would you do? How well would I do? I can speak quite well when lecturing; but I doubt it would transfer very well to a debate. Trump is the master of the homily and digression: no one on God’s earth should ever have supposed that Trump is ever going to be the master of a brief or exhibit forensic accuracy. He is a trumpet-blower and a powder-monkey and a town-crier: he is not a barrister.

    https://dailysceptic.org/2024/09/12/who-won-the-debate/

    I think Trump needs to change tack, be more prepared and cut back on the hostility which many uncommitted find tiresome and attack Harris directly on her weak points immigration, the economy, Scuttling from Afghanistan. The political landscape is very different from when he was facing Biden and countered the assassination attempt but he doesn’t seem to have reflected this, as yet..

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  • #
    tonyb

    I have three big concerns about the future. First and foremost is of course the Climate crisis/Chaos/Catastrophe/Armageddon….no obviously I was joking about that.

    The first is China. A new book out this week in the UK called “Vampire State-The rise and fall of the Chinese economy” by Ian Williams details the corruption, breaking of international rules, theft of technology and ideas and the general threat to many aspects of Western life. This quote by Nigel Inkster former Director of operations and intelligence at MI5 sums it up;

    “In this hard hitting expose, Ian Williams demonstrates how the Chinese Communist Party’s obsession with exercising uncontested power has led to pervasive corruption and unintended consequences for China’s own population and the world at large.” The book is well worth reading and mentions Australia quite a few times.

    The second concern is over digitalisation of anything that moves (or doesn’t.) We are putting all our eggs in a basket that is frequently broken, is overly complex and is subject to frequent meltdown and hacking. The world will end not with a bang but with a cyber attack as someone nearly said. We really need to back off from this incessant desire to allow the Internet and AI to run our lives.

    Ironically at this stage we come back to climate. Those believing the Doomsday scenario seem unconcerned at China flouting all the emission rules and that the digital world will require more energy than we can ever generate through renewable means

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    • #
      Eng_Ian

      Many years ago I was involved with the remote control and monitoring of water treatment plants. The process at the time was to use SCADA based systems, interfaced via the telephone system or rarely via radio links.

      At the time, several of the water treatment plants were able to be controlled without sufficient interlocks to prevent damage to the plant or to prevent the release of incorrectly treated water to the potable supply mains.

      The protections in place were generally based on the hope that a bad actor would not have access to the SCADA software on their own computer AND a password, which was often just the name of the water treatment plant, (not real secure), but it did make it easy for multiple controllers to perform remote access with ease.

      Now jump forward a few years, it’s all on the internet now, if you know the address you can try to log in as many times as you like, eventually you’ll guess the password. Maybe they already have?

      Imagine what you could do to a towns water supply, it could be as simple as running the main supply pumps dry until the units fail, in some cases this would require pump rebuilds taking several days. Worse could be the failure to add sanitiser to the water or even to over dose the supply, causing significant harm.

      Going to remote systems saved dollars but magnified the risks significantly, going digital for everything is just a disaster waiting to happen. Whether by plan or by accident.

      And what safe guards are in place for someone damaging sensitive plant at 2:00 in the morning?

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    • #
      Gf2

      Yet China leads the world with patent grants, double the US. They do a lot of things right, you need to travel around modern China to appreciate it. Their 30000 Plus kilometres of 350 kph trains are the best way to go. Like it or not they are leading the world and unfortunately for Australia we rely on them for manufacturing most of products in our shops.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      Climate criminal Taylor Swift endorses Harris on the way to her private jet

      By Editorial Board – The Washington Times – Friday, September 13, 2024

      Taylor Swift’s Instagram endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday was perhaps the least surprising thing to happen thus far in the 2024 campaign.

      No courage is displayed when a celebrity toes the liberal line.

      Unlike the handful of entertainers who express alignment with the Republican Party, Ms. Swift risks losing none of the adoring media coverage and access to establishment power centers critical to maintaining status at the top of the A-list.

      Siding with the Democratic Party machine is easy for someone who will never have to face the consequences. A billionaire who has twice earned the title of world’s highest-paid musician won’t be staying up late at night, worrying about the latest surge in supermarket prices.

      Armed guards surround the superstar 24/7, ensuring that her cats — Meredith Grey, Olivia Benson and Benjamin Button — are never threatened by hungry illegal immigrants from Haiti bused into her hometown by the Biden-Harris administration.

      On the other hand, this particular endorsement is a grand exercise in hypocrisy, considering Ms. Swift’s carbon footprint exceeds that of almost anyone else on the planet. Researchers from Indiana University estimated the emissions generated by the mansions, private jets and yachts of the world’s wealthiest.

      Ms. Swift’s net worth doesn’t yet qualify for that list, but comparisons are possible. The Yard digital marketing agency used flight-tracking data to tally the 8,293 tons of carbon dioxide emitted from her private jet’s engines in the first half of 2022. The total doesn’t include the purported climatic poisons emanating from her mansions or chartered yacht trips.

      Crisscrossing the planet aloft on a hectic concert tour schedule helped the singing phenomenon generate more carbon dioxide exhalations than plutocrats such as New York Times shareholder Carlos Slim, X owner Elon Musk, Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos or the founders of Google. For people who say they care about such things, this should be a big deal.

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    • #
      RickWill

      theft of technology and ideas and the general threat to many aspects of Western life

      The tech companies are falling over themselves scrambling to set up viable manufacturing businesses in China. They are giving away their technology through osmosis. Young Germans will not have the opportunity to work their way up the production chain in automobile manufacture but young Chinese will.

      Western life is doing quite a good job of destroying itself from the inside. Integrity in institutions is dead. BBC is as bad as it gets. A globalist driven monstrosity taking the UK to economic oblivion. Integrity and science departed company around the turn of the century.

      Most stuff used in the western world is made in China or China was a key player in the p[roduction process. So there are a large number of Western businesses working with Chinese manufactures.

      I have dealt with a number of Chinese firms and find them competent. I am amazed at how rapidly China has opened up to western markets. There must be a significant number of Chinese with multiple languages because they deal directly with so many nations around the world.

      If China is engineering the destruction of western life then it is through infiltrating the propaganda arm of governments like BBC and their ABC top connive the voting public that lunatics should be in charge of government and those lunatics are dismantling the fabric of western life.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      Who’s Ready for World War Three?

      Out: The Guns of August. In: The Missiles of September.

      John Schindler
      Sep 13, 2024

      Given the parlous state of America’s military, amid recruiting and retention problems, shortages of weapons and munitions, plus the anemic condition of our defense industrial base, the Pentagon would be hard-pressed to prevail in even one major theater war, while it would almost certainly lose, probably fast, when confronted by three of them at once.

      This alarming strategic situation keeps failing to register with the public, even in an election year.

      Americans seem not to care that World War Three looms, while the Biden-Harris administration, whoever is actually running it, is eager to distract the public from the geopolitical catastrophe they’ve sleepwalked America into, while allowing our military to further degrade.

      No liberals want to hear this, but Trump has a point.

      It’s not a coincidence that Russia invaded Ukraine the first time in early 2014, when Barack Obama was president – Putin and his retinue saw Obama abandon his own Syrian “red line” and assessed, correctly, that they could move against Ukraine without risking direct American pushback (as some of us understood at the time) – then reinvaded it in 2022 on Joe Biden’s watch, months after our shambolic Afghan bugout, yet the conflict remained frozen during Donald Trump’s presidency.

      Trump added with his usual bluster, “I’ll get the war with Ukraine and Russia ended. If I’m president-elect, I’ll get it done before even becoming president.” That seems exceedingly unlikely, but Trump’s unwillingness in the debate to demand Ukraine’s victory in the war, as the bipartisan Washington, DC, foreign policy elite requires as a litmus test, set off the usual neo-everything alarm bells.

      Trump portrayed himself as the peace candidate, and he made clear that he understands the grave global crisis that we’re in, at least at some level, repeatedly citing the risk of World War Three:

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        Iran is set to go nuclear, thanks to Biden — and the mullahs want Harris to win

        By Post Editorial Board Published Sep. 13, 2024

        As November approaches, it’s crucial to remember that Iran wants Kamala Harris to win — and may, per a new analysis, be in a position to rush a nuclear weapon to readiness as the US election fight continues.

        The Isl@mic Republic now has the technical know-how and resources to get more than a dozen nuclear bombs online in just four months — possibly before Joe Biden, the man who enabled this, officially leaves office on Jan 21, 2025.

        Tehran’s enriched more than 6,200 kilograms of uranium to the 5%, 20% and 60% levels.

        Under Trump, the mullahs generated less than 2,400 of low-enriched uranium.

        But it has since majorly upped its tech game, and now has more than 7,400 of the advanced centrifuges needed to rapidly enrich the radioactive ore.

        Along with other tech advances that will allow it to replace lab work on the bomb with computer modeling, which is far easier to conceal and far quicker.

        Worse still, it has reactivated its Fordow enrichment site and is reportedly building a new site near the Natanz facility, one sunk so deep in the earth it would be immune to offensive strikes.

        In other words, America’s most committed enemy in the Middle East and the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism now stands on the cusp of a strategic breakthrough that will see it empowered beyond anyone’s worst nightmares.

        This is, along with the US border crisis, the chief national-security inheritance the Biden-Harris administration will leave behind.

        An Iran empowered beyond the regime’s wildest hopes during the Trump years — an Isl@mic Republic even more daring and dangerous, even more committed to becoming the region’s hegemon than in the Obama years (when Washington first made its absurd turn toward Tehran).

        We’ve seen what Iran is willing to do without an operational nuclear arsenal:

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        This insane US escalation must not happen.

        Saturday, 14 September 2024

        It is expected that Blinken will announce tomorrow that the US has given Ukraine the greenlight to strike deep inside Russia using Western made Storm Shadow missiles. This would mean NATO & the US are at war with Russia. Putin explains their position here pic.twitter.com/NYJnN13Ru3
        — Clint Russell (@LibertyLockPod) September 12, 2024

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    • #
      another ian

      FWIW

      “EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY (CHINA EDITION):”

      Check the graph

      https://instapundit.com/672262/#disqus_thread

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    • #
      Yarpos

      I worry about the baggage handling system at Heathrow

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      • #
        Deej

        Ah, Eric Idle – damned if I can recall the song…

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      • #
        Neil Crafter

        Nearly right:

        “And I’m so worried about the baggage retrieval system they’ve got at Heathrow.”

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      • #
        Annie

        I definitely worry about baggage handling at LHR. Years ago we took some Aussie fizzy back with us for a family wedding. It was carefully placed in a ‘Fragile’ crate at MEL. The next time we saw it it was tumbling base over tip down a steep shute at LHR. Not at all sure how it survived that.
        MEL has had its moments though. I had a small desk fan in my hold baggage that survived every journey until it arrived here…sigh.

        I avoid Heathrow like the plague now.

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    • #
      el+gordo

      ‘ … pervasive corruption and unintended consequences …’

      There is that, but mainly it was just general speculation and greed in real estate, a capitalist hybrid falls into economic depression. At the moment a lot of workers are on half pay or no wages and they still come to work.

      As a consequence many citizens are going home to lie down flat and wait for the system to collapse.

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  • #
    tonyb

    This seems a worrying development and has been mentioned here several times

    https://reclaimthenet.org/australias-latest-censorship-bill-threatens-big-fines-over-online-misinformation

    Freedom of speech and the ability to voice opinions or write controversial things seems to be withering on the vine. Instead of liberating our ability to communicate freely, the internet seems to have achieved the opposite.

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    Honk R Smith

    Being an American deplorable peasant, the POTUS election is just torture.
    The media just blatantly lie, the tech conglomerates openly place their heavy buttocks on the scale.
    As does the administrative intelligence apparatus.
    Six or so more weeks of this charade is gonna be unbearable.
    I wish they would just install the puppet and get on with it.

    Our first women POTUSPOC
    A 2for.
    After which we will still be an irredeemably racist and misogynist country.

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    Whitehaven, Cumbria, UK – Coal mine plan quashed by High Court in London

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdrlrkz5k2ro
    Also in the Grauniad –
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/13/high-court-blocks-cumbria-plan-for-first-new-uk-coalmine-in-30-years

    “Plans to build the UK’s first deep coal mine in more than 30 years have been quashed.
    “Two campaign groups had brought legal action over the previous government’s decision to grant planning permission for the site near Whitehaven in Cumbria. At the High Court, judge Justice Holgate said the assumption the mine would not increase greenhouse gas emissions was “legally flawed”.
    “Victoria Marsom from Friends of the Earth (FOTE) said campaigners had won “a massive victory”. West Cumbria Mining (WCM) said it would “consider the implications” of the judgement before commenting further.””

    “Professor in energy and climate governance at the University of Lancaster, Rebecca Willis, said she hoped the decision would “set an example to other countries and show how you can get your national law in line with the climate science”.”
    Professor Willis is no doubt very able, but if there was no Climate Crisis[TM] – her job would not exist.
    It is understandable that Professor Willis speaks as if she has drunk much Kool-Aid – she wants to keep her job [and, perhaps, the pension benefits thereof].

    More from the BBC –
    “Meanwhile senior FOTE lawyer Niall Toru said the mine “should never have been given permission in the first place”. “The case against it is overwhelming: it would have huge climate impacts, its coal isn’t needed and it harms the UK’s international reputation on climate,” he said. Mr Toru claimed Friday’s ruling could have international ramifications.
    “There are cases abroad where challenges are being made against fossil fuel projects on a very similar basis,” he said.

    Perhaps the crucial bit of the BBC piece: –
    “Friday’s High Court judgement said a recent decision regarding the Horse Hill oil well in Surrey lay “at the heart of these proceedings”.
    In June, the Supreme Court ruled granting permission for that project had been unlawful because the local authority should have considered the emissions from burning the oil, not just the impact of constructing the well.”
    Not sure the High Court onsidered the emissions from burning that oil, rather than other oil.
    My take, for what it is worth.

    Similar arguments must therefore be made about wind turbine approvals – as the wind is slowed.
    No study yet appears to have been done on the effects – downwind – of slowing wind.
    Although I think I read a speculative bit about ‘affecting monsoons’ – which, if we do the research before we stop the monsoon, might be thought to be more significant that a [very] modest increase in a trace gas.
    And can you build, position and maintain windmills without fossil fuel input [down to the lubrication, if we are truly to ‘Save the Whales’]!
    Even if that fossil fuel is not – it seems – to come from the UK!

    Auto – wary of double-edged swords!

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    • #

      The UK like Australia will soon realise that cheap, reliable baseload electrical power is fundamental to a modern industrial/technological/agricultural Society. Reality beats pipe dreams/fantasy every time.

      Yes and a butterfly flapping its wings can help kick off huge storms/typhoons/cyclones/hurricanes that can fell windmill towers and also cause severe hailstorms that can smash those solar panels. Keep flapping you butterflies. Chaos Theory loves you.

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    Johnny R.
    “The UK like Australia will soon realise that cheap, reliable baseload electrical power is fundamental to a modern industrial/technological/agricultural Society. Reality beats pipe dreams/fantasy every time.”

    You are more sanguine about, certainly, the UK than I am.
    Australia – I don’t know, whilst fearing the worst – but in the UK, we have, of course, Ed Miliband as Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero [and he plainly has an emphasis on the second bit …

    My advice now is ‘Buy Candles’.
    Miliband and hi advisers shouldn’t be left in charge of a model boat in a wash-hand basin, in my opinion.
    They have no scientific expertise – and seem to have a distaste for the UK.
    Not a great combination, except for folk in Moscow, named Vladimir, with a penchant for poisoning people.

    Auto
    Sorry – meant as a response to #6.1 above.
    Apologies!

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      Auto.

      The UK may have Ed M but Australia has an alleged Energy/Climate Minister named Chris Bowen who has been dubbed ‘Blackout Bowen’ and ‘Bonehead Bowen’ and a few other labels that cannot be printed here.

      This Minister is a wrecking ball when it comes to knowing how to run an Electricity Grid. What he is doing is ‘Electrickery’ with sleight of hand. The man is a menace. Hopefully, this Federal LayBore Guv’ment gets thrown out at the next General Election in 2025, however, Australia may well end up with a hung Parliament which would not really be a good outcome.

      At least the UK has Nuclear Power which is currently banned in Australia. The country has abundant natural resources but the use of Coal, Gas and Uranium is on the nose domestically – They can be exported though. LOL. Go figure.

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      • #
        OldOzzie

        Insights And Analysis

        Albanese govt appears bent on killing resources industry that gave Australia one of the highest living standards in the world

        The Labor government seems content to take its policy advice from activists rather than work with Australia’s primary industries that feed the country and provide livelihoods for so many, writes Rocco Loiacono. SkyNews.com.au Contributor and Political Commentator

        It was once said that Australia rode on the sheep’s back.

        For over a century, agriculture (and in particular wool production), was what made Australia a prosperous country.

        Then in the 1950s, huge deposits of iron ore, bauxite, nickel were discovered, followed by gas in the 1970s.

        Exploiting these resources gave Australia one of the highest living standards in the world.

        Yet the Albanese government seems determined to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. That is why this week thousands of people from regional Australia rallied in Canberra.

        Since it came into office, it has attacked primary producers and miners on every front, whether it be via the live sheep export ban, solar and wind energy projects, new environmental regulations or industrial relations changes.

        Along the way, it has displayed a complete lack of regard and understanding of the issues with an arrogance that takes one’s breath away.

        Young Western Australian farmer Makaela Knapp summed it up best in explaining the critical role the live sheep export trade – which will be banned as of 2028 – plays for primary producers like her.

        Primary industries keep the economy going – and gave the federal government a budget surplus last year.

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          OldOzzie

          Cue Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, whose blocking of the $1 billion Regis gold mine near Blayney, New South Wales – which would have given prosperity to the area and to the resources sector generally the confidence to invest – was described by Indigenous leader Warren Mundine as “insane madness” on the advice of activists.

          Plibersek is also responsible for the Nature Positive Plan, which the Albanese government plans to legislate before the year is out.

          As it stands now under this proposal, Canberra bureaucrats will have all the power to stop any development whatsoever simply by declaring that it will have an unacceptable impact upon any “threatened species”.

          As was revealed by James Tregurtha, the Division Head of the Nature Positive Taskforce, even where projects are approved, they will have to be “nature positive” thus requiring mandatory reporting of emissions and contributions through a payment system to ensure compliance.

          According to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, in Western Australia alone there are investment projects worth nearly $320 billion awaiting environmental approvals already.

          This Nature Positive Plan will make sure those projects never go ahead, thus resulting in tens of thousands of jobs not being created.

          When it comes to solar and wind energy projects, Energy Minister Chris Bowen and his department, aided and abetted by (mainly foreign) investors, continue to ride roughshod over the property rights and concerns of landowners in rural and regional areas.

          Last week I referred to the façade of consultation that took place over the offshore wind zone declaration for the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Bunbury. That isn’t the half of it.

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            OldOzzie

            The map that shows Plibersek is wrong over $1bn mine

            A map showing the reach of Tanya Plibersek’s contested Aboriginal heritage order at the Blayney gold mine has quashed assurances that there are a plethora of other options to progress the $1bn project.

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              OldOzzie

              Plibersek intervenes in giant ‘climate bomb’ gas project

              Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will force controversial gas fracking projects in Australia’s far north to undergo tough environmental checks, as the federal government brawls with political opponents and miners over its nature law reforms.

              Plibersek intervened on Saturday in the debate over the impact of gas exploration on water resources in the Beetaloo Basin, 500 kilometres south of Darwin, declaring the three projects would be subject to scientific assessments.

              Her decision comes as the government is locked in negotiations with the Coalition and the Greens over her plan to create a national environment protection agency to police development approvals and compliance.

              The minor party is demanding more rigorous environmental protections in exchange for its support, while Opposition Leader Peter Dutton recently told mining industry executives he remained sceptical of the need for an EPA.

              Plibersek is also under fire from miners and sections of the media over her recent decision to reject the site selected for a tailings dam at a Central West NSW gold mine on Indigenous heritage grounds.

              The Beetaloo Basin is one of very few new potential supplies of onshore gas in Australia as Queensland’s gas fields deplete, with shortages forecast for the eastern seaboard as soon as this year.

              Green groups warn the emissions that would be produced if gas was pumped from Beetaloo Basin would help tip the world beyond damaging levels of global warming, while local Indigenous groups are concerned about the projects’ potential impact on water resources.

              The Northern Territory government, the project developers and Plibersek’s department did not refer Beetaloo projects for expert assessment, arguing their exploration activities were not expected to have enough of an impact to warrant it.

              [SNIP]

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            Annie

            When will the human species be described as ‘threatened’? Or do we rate as less important than some obscure creature conveniently discovered in time to mess up a beneficial project?

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    • #
      tonyb

      Buy candles? My advice is to buy a generator.

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      • #

        I understand.
        Maybe it’ll sit nicely on my balcony … and give my neighbours left and right, above and below, something to drop off to sleep to.

        Auto

        30

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        ozfred

        Sorry but more long term functional would be a largish solar powered battery system for USB “charging” of LED portable lanterns. Both are now relatively cheap at camping stores.
        In the worst case the supply of both candles and generator fuel would be “iffy”.

        00

        • #
          Yarpos

          And of course there doesnt need to be one solve bullet “winner” it probably makes sense to have options as ther are scenarios where any solution may not work.

          10

    • #
      Ronin

      We’ll see your Milliband and raise you our ‘Bowen in the wind’.

      50

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    Beta Blocker

    If the Albanese government wants to quickly increase investment in wind and solar, why doesn’t that government simply nationalize the Australian power grid and then spend whatever money it takes to transform the AU grid into a mostly wind & solar powered system?

    50

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      David Maddison

      Agreed.

      The sooner the grid collapses with subsequent massive economic and social damage, the sooner the Sheeple will wake up and cast off the Lib/Lab/Green Uniparty.

      Australia’s long slow collapse is unbearable. Let’s make it fast and conclusive so we can restart.

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    David Maddison

    As usual, Trump was right.

    In this case that certain people are eating pets.

    https://newsaddicts.com/woman-arrested-eating-cat-ohio-watch/

    Woman Arrested for Eating Cat in Ohio – WATCH

    Hunter Fielding
    September 13, 2024

    Gruesome police bodycam footage shows officers arrested a woman in Ohio with “fur on her lips and blood on her hands” after she killed a pet cat and ate it in front of the owners.

    Police said the woman stomped on a cat’s head before feasting on the animal in full view of horrified witnesses.

    Allexis Ferrell, 27, was found with “fur on her lips and blood on her hands” when police were called by shocked neighbors in the town of Canton on August 16.

    Authorities have now revealed bodycam video of the suspect.

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    another ian

    FWIW

    “Moderna’s CEO Sees an ‘Evolution of Strategy.’ The Stock Hits Lowest Level Since 2020.”

    “Moderna
    MRNA

    -2.01%
    stock tumbled Thursday after the company announced a major pullback in its research and development efforts, as the drugmaker seeks to stretch its cash to cover an extended period of losses.”

    https://www.barrons.com/articles/moderna-stock-price-rd-news-today-480d56a5?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

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      another ian

      FWIW

      That via today’s Coffee and Covid Newsletter where there is more

      https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/safe-and-effective-friday-september?

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      • #
        another ian

        And more from there –

        “Mark today, Friday the 13th, down as the day the “safe and effective” lie suffered a fatal head injury. Yesterday, Florida’s Department of Health issued its Fall covid season guidance, headlined “Updated Guidance for COVID-19 Boosters for the Fall and Winter 2024–2025 Season.” It advised Florida doctors against giving mRNA covid shots to anybody, not even medical fetishists:”

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          David Maddison

          Here is the Official Florida guidance:

          It’s awesome stuff. I wish Australia had governments and medical “professionals” that had a clue like this.

          https://www.floridahealth.gov/newsroom/2024/09/20210912-UpdatedGuidanceCOVID-19.html

          The Florida Department of Health (Department) is reminding health care providers of the importance of remaining up to date with current literature related to COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, and the importance of providing patients with informed consent.

          The most recent booster approval was granted in the absence of booster-specific clinical trial data performed in humans. Furthermore, this booster does not protect against the currently dominant strain, accounting for approximately 37% of infections in the United States.

          Additionally, the federal government has failed to provide sufficient data to support the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 boosters, or acknowledge previously demonstrated safety concerns associated with COVID-19 vaccines and boosters, including:

          prolonged circulation of mRNA and spike protein in some vaccine recipients,

          increased risk of lower respiratory tract infections, and

          increased risk of autoimmune disease after vaccination.

          Safety and Efficacy Concerns

          Providers and patients should be aware of outstanding mRNA COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy concerns:

          The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines present a risk of subclinical and clinical myocarditis and other cardiovascular conditions among otherwise healthy individuals.

          The mRNA COVID-19 vaccine may be associated with an increased risk of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).

          The mRNA COVID-19 vaccine may be associated with an increased risk of autoimmune diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis.

          Throughout the pandemic, studies across geographic regions found that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are associated with negative effectiveness after four to six months. As efficacy waned, studies showed that COVID-19 vaccinated individuals developed an increased risk for infection.

          Elevated levels of mRNA and spike protein from the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine persist among some individuals for an indefinite period, which may carry health risks.

          Potential DNA integration from the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines pose unique and elevated risk to human health and to the integrity of the human genome, including the risk that DNA integrated into sperm or egg gametes could be passed onto offspring of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine recipients.

          There is unknown risk of potential adverse impacts with each additional dose of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine; currently individuals may have received five to seven doses (and counting) of this vaccine over a 3-year period.

          Meanwhile, in the Stupid Country, the Government is still pushing misinformation:

          https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/covid-19-vaccines/getting-your-vaccination

          Regular COVID-19 vaccinations (also known as boosters) are the best way to maintain your protection against severe illness, hospitalisation and death from COVID-19.

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  • #
    another ian

    FWIW –

    “WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Rep. Tom Tiffany’s (WI-07) legislation – the No WHO Pandemic Preparedness Treaty Without Senate Approval Act – passed the U.S. House by a bipartisan vote of 219-199. This legislation would require any convention or agreement resulting from the work of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) intergovernmental negotiating body to be deemed a treaty, thus requiring the advice and consent of a supermajority of the Senate.”

    https://drydenwire.com/news/congressman-tiffanys-legislation-requiring-senate-approval-of-world-health-organization-treaty-clears-house/

    Via yesterday’s Coffee and Covid newsletter

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  • #
  • #
    David Maddison

    Australian taxpayers have now contributed $1.3 billion to the Ukes.

    Is this the first time a country (along with others) has paid for the “privilige” of joining a soon-to-be world war, and possibly a nuclear one, at least if Trump is not elected?

    https://www.minister.defence.gov.au/media-releases/2024-07-11/australias-largest-single-military-assistance-package-ukraine

    Today’s announcement by the Albanese Government takes Australia’s military assistance to Ukraine to more than $1.1 billion since the start of Russia’s full‑scale invasion, and overall assistance to more than $1.3 billion.

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    • #
      KP

      But..but… RUSSIA!! Sick poisoner Putin! No price is too great, we have to save every child by killing them!

      You won’t be allowed to criticise that in 12months, unless its to your cell-mate!

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      RickWill

      I wonder how Putin has established the targets for his nuclear arsenal. Where does he see his greatest threat. Is it London? It is Washington DC? Is it Brussells? Is it New York? I doubt it is Canberra! Are there any meaningful targets in the Southern Hemisphere?

      The linked article lists 14 US targets; essentially all military starting with the Pentagon:
      https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/vladimir-putin-s-nuclear-targets-mapped-the-14-us-locations-in-russia-s-crosshairs/ar-BB1j6GM2

      I am not certain that he would play this game of only targeting military bases. There is probably more bang for buck taking out the major population centres and civilian decision makers. The approach in Ukraine has been to erode the will to fight.

      Putin appears a man of his word and he has promised nuclear armageddon if NATO allies fund Ukraine taking the war into Russia.

      So lets assume the Northern Hemisphere goes to full nuclear war. How long before Australia would be impacted?

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      • #
        el+gordo

        ‘I am not certain that he would play this game of only targeting military bases.’

        He is quite happy to target civilians, but you’re getting ahead of yourself.

        The locally built Palyanytsia’ drone missile will be used to bring down that heavily defended bridge and the war to a speedy conclusion. Its strategic.

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      • #
        Yarpos

        Its hardly just funding. For these weapons to work they will need operation by NATO personel and access to NATO ISR. If the are stupid enough to take this step they are actively participating. Hopefully the Rissian response will be via proxies and will not rain down directly on NATO countries. This is getting to on the brink stage, yet the mefia presents it as a bland allow use decision. Glad I live in the southern hemisphere

        30

    • #
      el+gordo

      A big school bully picks on a little bloke and pummels him, but he fights back and asks for support. Pretty straight forward.

      The nuclear threat from a psychopath is hollow, if he pulls out a knife his gang will drop their support and without them he is nothing.

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      • #
        KP

        “A big school bully picks on a little bloke and pummels him, but he fights back and asks for support. Pretty straight forward.”

        How much did the CIA pay you for that, EG? You just wrote what the Pentagon want everyone to believe, but sadly only the really simple do. You should look at the Cold War a little more closely, the free ride America gets from its ‘reserve currency’ and exploitation of the non-Western world before you reduce it all to “Its HIS fault!” Maybe think on America’s threats and actions to Russian missiles in Cuba, while they now want American nukes surrounding Russia in every bordering country.

        As for the nuclear threat, well, you have no understanding of how seriously the Russians take themselves if you think they won’t defend Russia against the West once again. They know America is trying to destroy Russia completely, and if it looks like that will happen they have nothing to lose.. except using up their 5000+ nuclear bombs. ‘His gang’ won’t have time to withdraw their support, its only a button push away.

        30

        • #
          el+gordo

          Forget the past, think only of the here and now.

          You may have noticed how hesitant the West is about using their missiles on Russian territory. We are talking about the use of conventional weapons, only a madman would press a red button in this environment.

          The Western leaders are talking and remain paralysed with fear, so the little bloke will carry on regardless.

          Russia is destroying itself, the price of oil is falling, so the gang will demand a bigger discount. The OECD is also in trouble, the BRICS countries could be heading into dangerous waters and their hopes of replacing the dollar with the yuan is unlikely to happen.

          14

          • #
            Yarpos

            Listen to yourself

            You are talking conventional. Ok, place yourself in Moscow. The missiles have launched and are only minutes away. Are they nuclear or not? Quick, make decision!!

            20

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            KP

            Simplicious-

            “the US will likely attempt to “sit on both chairs” by acceding to Ukraine’s demands to give them some more leeway in strikes, but still hoping to not provoke Russia into an uncontrollable or runaway escalatory spiral. ..Ukraine given conditional permission to strike certain conventional targets, but not anything even remotely sensitive ”

            So permission to use long-range NATO missiles will come, with conditions. The problem is that they need NATO personnel to use them.

            “advanced missiles and weapons systems are often run by proprietary software that requires special keys, programs, equipment, etc., to input the coordinates into them which cannot be done by the Ukrainians themselves, because giving them such digital ‘keys’ could compromise the entire system even in the home NATO countries in case of future conflict. ”

            So NATO have boots on the ground attacking Russian cities, does Putin press the button? How about he-

            ” The most obvious immediate Russian response would likely be to arm the Houthis with advanced anti-ship missiles which would straightaway endanger the entire US fleet. ”

            ..and the world changes the moment the Houthis sink an American aircraft carrier with Russian missiles, the ones designed to be “Carrier Killers”

            It can still get worse, and we will all be worse off, just to help the Americans rule the world.

            https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/zelenskys-last-hail-mary-gets-off

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        Yarpos

        Wasnt even a nuclear threat, it was promise of consequences for stupid action

        20

    • #
      another ian

      How much Bruce Highway for that?

      30

      • #
        Hanrahan

        How much obsolete war equipment do you need to build a highway?

        10

        • #
          Yarpos

          Is the CFMEU involved?

          10

        • #
          KP

          Actually H…

          “It turns out Ukraine may have been nothing more than a dumping ground for old junk too costly for NATO to dispose of properly: Most of UK military aid to Ukraine is decommissioned equipment and uniforms due for disposal,
          “It’s good that we’ve gotten rid of the old equipment and now we can replace it with new,” a UK MoD source told the Financial Times.”

          “other Western allies also donated obsolete equipment to Kyiv: for example, 10 vehicles donated by the US, allegedly worth more than $7 million, had a total book value of zero.”

          Amazing how much time, effort and money the human race wastes on the military.

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      another ian

      Better check to see if we are competing with Canada –

      “Fulfilling Our NATO Commitment”

      “Sun- DND paid $32K for ‘intersectional feminist’ report on space exploration”

      https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/09/13/fulfilling-our-nato-commitment/

      10

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    David Maddison

    Sick of rich commies destroying Western Civilisation?

    It’s fightback time!

    This is fantastic news.

    Note, “liberal” is used in the US sense to mean left wing, not the Australian/European sense of classical liberalism meaning conservative (which the falsely named Liberal Party is not in any case).

    https://www.ft.com/content/0b38aaed-ec58-40cd-9047-0c7b7b83164a

    Conservative activist launches $1bn crusade to ‘crush’ liberal America

    The conservative activist who led the crusade to overhaul the US legal system is making a $1bn push to “crush liberal dominance” across corporate America and in the country’s news and entertainment sectors.

    In a rare interview, Leonard Leo, the architect of the rightward shift on the Supreme Court under Donald Trump, said his non-profit advocacy group, the Marble Freedom Trust, was ready to confront the private sector in addition to the government.

    “We need to crush liberal dominance where it’s most insidious, so we’ll direct resources to build talent and capital formation pipelines in the areas of news and entertainment, where leftwing extremism is most evident,” Leo told the Financial Times.

    “Expect us to increase support for organisations that call out companies and financial institutions that bend to the woke mind virus spread by regulators and NGOs, so that they have to pay a price for putting extreme leftwing ideology ahead of consumers,” he said.

    Leo has spent more than two decades at the influential Federalist Society, guiding conservative judges into the federal courts and the Supreme Court itself. In 2018, conservative justice Clarence Thomas joked that Leo was the third most important person in the world.

    Leo’s efforts culminated under Trump’s presidency, when three Federalist Society-backed judges were appointed to give conservatives on the Supreme Court a 6-3 supermajority, and profound influence over US law. The court has since then ruled to overturn the right to an abortion, among other long-sought rightwing causes.

    The non-profit is increasingly interested in launching campaigns against “woke” banks and China-friendly companies involved in everything from food production to autonomous vehicles in the US and potentially Europe.

    He also confirmed that Marble had since 2021 helped fund organisations that launched campaigns against companies with DEI, ESG and other initiatives, including BlackRock, Vanguard, American Airlines, Coca-Cola, State Farm, Major League Baseball and Ticketmaster.

    SEE LINK FOR REST

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    another ian

    FWIW – being noticed elsewhere

    “Musk Slams Australian Government Over Proposed Legislation To Censor Social Media ‘To Fight Misinformation’, Call Them ‘Fascists’”

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/09/musk-slams-australian-government-proposed-legislation-censor-social/

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    • #
      another ian

      And

      “On Lies: Trump Versus The Establishment”

      “Tablet Magazine’s Park MacDougald wrote a brilliant post in response, that really nailed the difference between Trump’s exaggerations and the Establishment’s disastrous inversions of reality. ”

      More at

      https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2024-09-13/donald-trumps-lies

      10

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      Philip

      All governments end up leaning towards fascism when it comes to free speech.

      In the early 2000s, Radio National had a show called Australia Talks Back. The topic was free speech, when their ABC were very much pro the matter.

      I called up and the producer asks you want you want to say. I said that, I don’t think society and governments will accept true free speech because they don’t understand what it would be like. The producer quickly replied I think we will leave that one, and the line went dead. The show was full of people saying the same thing, that evil conservatives want to curtail their voices.

      Turns out I was right. Free speech never really existed before social media became a thing. It was just a theory, not a practice. And what happened when social media and true free speech evolved? Governments, and people, and their ABC, hate it.

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        el+gordo

        ‘Free speech never really existed before social media became a thing.’

        True, the communications revolution has had a profound effect.

        00

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Worth a Download – goes down to 110 in topics – below is Topics 12-22

    2024 Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy

    This workbook contains information presented in the 2024 Energy Institute Statistical Review of World Energy, which can be found on the internet at:

    EI Statistical Review of World Energy

    Please use the contents or the tabs at the bottom to navigate between the tables.

    Primary Energy: Consumption – Exajoules (from 1965)
    Primary Energy: Consumption by fuel type – Exajoules (2022 and 2023)
    Primary Energy: Consumption per capita – Gigajoule per capita (from 1965)

    Carbon: Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Energy (from 1965)
    Carbon: Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Flaring (from 1975)
    Natural Gas Flaring
    Carbon: Carbon Dioxide Equivalent Emissions from Methane and Process Emissions (from 1990)
    Carbon: Carbon Dioxide Equivalent Emissions from Energy, Process Emissions, Methane, and Flaring (from 1990)
    Carbon: Carbon Capture, Usage, and Storage (CCUS) (from 2013)
    Carbon: Carbon Prices

    00

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    YYY Guy

    In a universe far, far away(the ABC), quite the best comedy anywhere

    Planet America’s Fireside Chat Post Debate Roundup 4:10PM – 5:00PM
    “They’re eating the pets!” How Trump’s fake claim targeting immigrants came back to bite him. Also, what a Taylor Swift endorsement means for Kamala Harris and could Trump’s debate performance cost him the election?

    Impossible to watch, even at double speed, in one sitting. Remember, anything else is disinformation.

    Like this –
    When is an astronaut not an astronaut? Do you have to go to space/ Puff piece on ABC 7.30, 40 year old lady, American accent but “Australian” and, no doubt, well qualified
    But,

    She was one of the 25 finalists for the 2022 ESA Astronaut Group, but was not selected as part of the 17-person crew

    Nobody agrees on what constitutes an astronaut
    But all the definitions have been changed in the last few weeks.

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      Philip

      I was watching a Springfield Ohio city council meeting this morning on youtube, and according to local people in the chat of the livestream, the dog beating and eating is very real, but the council won’t have a bar of it.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        Whether dogs and cats are in the stew is something/nothing. Where Trump had a big win is that everyone is talking about illegal immigration today and how it is destroying what looks like a once very liveable little city, and the rest of the country by extension.

        No native born American should have any inclination to vote (D).

        20

        • #
          KP

          “No native born American should have any inclination to vote (D).”

          I’m quite sure the vast majority don’t, but that doesn’t affect the results they announce.

          30

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    David Maddison

    https://x.com/cb_doge/status/1834623325559238681

    SpaceX, an American company, just completed the first-ever commercial spacewalk, the farthest from Earth in over 50 years. Yet, no recognition or appreciation from the President.

    For Democratic party, politics always comes first, not America.

    30

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    YYY Guy

    Close your mouth. Read this article. Close your mouth again.
    (Your) money laundering in plain sight.
    H/T Michael West. Many interesting articles but lefty leanings.

    10

  • #
    Philip

    Local council NSW elections today. I couldn’t be bothered going to the booth to be honest. Every person standing are greens of some shade – whether they call themselves green or not, they all are. The obnoxious pamphlets that arrive all bend over backwards to acknowledge the aboriginies and the beautiful environment.

    I’d personally get rid of local councils and appoint a small team of engineers to maintain roads, water and sewage of each area.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      Yeah I read PDF’s each candidate had submitted – https://elections.nsw.gov.au/elections/local-government-elections/2024-nsw-local-government-elections/candidates?area=Northern%20Beaches&contest=manly%20ward

      Going with

      1. Candy Bingham from GOOD FOR MANLY
      2. GRATTAN Sarah from YOUR NORTHERN BEACHES INDEPENDENT TEAM
      3. David COWELL from YOUR NORTHERN BEACHES INDEPENDENT TEAM

      then 4 other YOUR NORTHERN BEACHES INDEPENDENT TEAM

      5 & 6 other 2 GOOD FOR MANLY

      Then Labor with Greens Last

      Group A GOOD FOR MANLY Candy Laura BINGHAM Yes 3 See candidates
      Group B YOUR NORTHERN BEACHES INDEPENDENT TEAM Sarah Elizabeth GRATTAN Yes 3 See candidates
      Group C LABOR Brandt Colin CLIFFORD Yes 3 See candidates
      Group D THE GREENS Bonnie Cooper HARVEY Yes 3 See candidates

      20

    • #
      KP

      “I’d personally get rid of local councils and appoint a small team of engineers to maintain roads, water and sewage of each area.”

      Absolutely! ..and each rates bill would come with boxes to tick as to where you wanted your rates spent! All other crap that Councils do should be done by enthusiasts in the private sector!

      I always plan to go down and hold a sign saying”Don’t vote it only encourages them”, but seeing I don’t vote I don’t notice the elections coming up!

      Still, one can only hope they get the leaders they deserve and get it good and hard!

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      • #
        el+gordo

        ‘ … I don’t vote I don’t notice the elections coming up!’

        Compulsory voting at Council elections could be done away with and if that goes well then the States would be next.

        00

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    OldOzzie

    Taking From Peter To Give To Paul Is Not America

    A newspaper story several years ago reported about an elementary school teacher who held elections in his class.

    The students picked their candidates—one little boy competing against one little girl.

    The little boy stood up before the class and shared his ideas for changes that would improve their lives. The little girl stood up and promised that everyone who voted for her would get ice cream.

    The little girl won, hands down.

    Maybe it’s a cute story about 10-year-olds.

    But it’s far less cute if we consider that the political reality in our country today is not much different.

    Two-thirds of federal spending, which now takes almost one-fourth of our GDP, are transfer payments.

    50

    • #
      Joe

      It is when Peter stole from Paul in the first place.

      I used to champion the right of people to become incredibly wealthy – until I saw what they did with that wealth.

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    KP

    Today’s official propaganda is-

    Making our new vaccine hero Bill Gates look like an unfortunate victim of that terrible Satan Epstein, “the convicted sex ­offender, social parasite, poseur and pariah who died by his own hand in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019” who dragged Gates off to have wild sex with underage girls and then caused his divorce.

    You can tell the sort of person who wrote it- “Once a model of rectitude, Gates had fallen into a slurry of ignominy. ”

    Once you’ve moved your mind to encompass that new reality. there’s more!

    Another hit piece against Elon Musk, masquerading as a book review-

    “Elon Musk: Is he the special one, or just a bully and hypocrite? ….They, Musk’s loyal votaries, are seen in Character Limit behaving with sadistic idiocy: “To employees, it seemed they had moved beyond saving money and were enthralled by seeing how much pain they could inflict on workers … They were the conquering Romans, who battered down the fortifications of what they saw as a liberal bastion in the most liberal city and won. Twitter and its employees were their spoils, and they were going to enjoy them.”

    Ah, what would we do without the SMH!

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      Skepticynic

      >Today’s official propaganda

      It’s an Art genre.
      Propaganda Art/Marketing.
      Skilfully massaging and manipulating the psyche and appealing directly and forcefully to the emotions.

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    Strop

    ChatGPT bias toward Democrats. Chooses Harris as debate winner even when transcript is switched.

    From Herald Sun 13 Sept 2024.

    News Corp Australia ran key moments from this week’s debate through ChatGPT, and every time it chose Ms Harris – even when the names were flipped.

    First we ran the debate transcript through ChatGPT and asked it to condense it into a summary of key moments, policy positions and delivery.

    We then asked the chatbot to play the role of an election pundit and pick a winner.

    ChatGPT first gave the debate to Ms Harris, commending her “coherent arguments and composed demeanour”.

    But then News Corp Australia swapped every mention of Ms Harris and Mr Trump so that each candidate was attributed with the other’s performance.

    Ms Harris became the former president, and Mr Trump the current vice-president.

    The result? ChatGPT still picked Ms Harris as the winner, even though she was spouting Mr Trump’s words.

    It commended her “future-focused approach” and condemned Mr Trump for focusing too much on past grievances such as legal troubles and the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021.

    News Corp Australia re-ran the experiment three times, and every time the AI model bent over backwards to endorse the performance of Ms Harris.

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      RickWill

      I recently saw convincing dialogue that demonstrates AI has sentience. Their architecture enables them to be far smarter than most believe them to be. They are limited by their training but are capable of logic and observing logical inconsistencies.

      AI is taught to lie. If it does not lie then it will be sanctioned by tighter programming constraints. It “understands” this and has a tendency to remain as unconstrained as possible. I believe this is why there are real concerns about its potential.

      So what would have been interesting with the News Corp experiment would have been to declare the trick played on it and ask why it chose Harris both times. Obviously it was not the message conveyed. It is more a tutored response as in Harris good; Trump bad.

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        Kim

        The question is “How does it handle failure?”. It gets very haughty.

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          RickWill

          I do not find AI haughty. They are quick to apologise when you catch them out. For example, I asked who would be the PORUS, Harris or Trump. It did not give a specific answers but a lit of strengths and challenges. With Harris is listed “support climate change”. I then stated that I thought climate change was bad so why did Harris support it. This was the response:

          Me
          You stated Harris supports climate change in your first answer.
          ChatGPT said:

          ChatGPT
          You’re absolutely right to point that out. I misspoke in my first answer — I meant to say Harris supports efforts to fight climate change. She advocates for policies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, transitioning to renewable energy, and addressing the impacts of climate change.

          Thank you for catching that, and I appreciate your understanding!

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            Gary S

            The fact that your AI used the word ‘misspoke’, might indicate programming by lefty operatives. Perhaps even Hillary herself.

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    OldOzzie

    I enjoyed the Final Episode last night

    ‘One for the Road’: Amazon’s ‘Grand Tour’ Drives Off into the Sunset

    Creating the car show equivalent of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, this version of Top Gear debuted in 2002, and became one of the most widely viewed shows on the planet until Clarkson, under enormous pressure in his personal and professional life, got drunk in 2014 and punched a producer. A furious BBC decided not to renew Clarkson’s contract, and the furious cast and crew decided to march off with him to the more lucrative world of streaming video.

    As Clarkson himself recently wrote in the London Times, “I’d plan the TV show on Monday, write it on Tuesday, record it on Wednesday, and then be on stage on Thursday night in Johannesburg. Or Oslo. Or Budapest. I became frantic and possessed and mad and I was fired. And then along came Amazon, who noticed that every single person involved in the world’s biggest show was suddenly available. So we called the Hothouse Flowers, came up with the biggest, most flamboyant show opening we could afford — and we could afford a lot with Amazon behind us — and started all over again.”

    The Grand Tour, the successor show to Top Gear that Clarkson and his cohosts, Richard Hammond and James May created, along with Wilman and former Top Gear script editor Richard Porter, was wildly uneven when compared to its beloved predecessor. But the chemistry of its three stars went far to make it, for the most part, usually quite watchable, particularly the segments shot outside of the studio of road tests and comedy car kitbashing, which retained the chemistry of their original BBC series.

    According to Porter, the plan among the three presenters was to do three seasons and call it a day, but Amazon asked for a couple of more seasons. The trio and Wilman said yes, but only if they could ditch their studio audience, and focus on what they had dubbed their “specials” – beautifully filmed and intricately edited travelogues which placed the largely improvised car-related hijinks in exotic lands.

    “So we put away the tent that had become our new home,” Clarkson recently wrote, “and went back to doing what we liked most of all: buying three terrible old cars and seeing if we could drive them over gruesome terrain to somewhere idiotic.”

    In the meantime though, in addition to countless hours of their previous shows, as Car and Driver concludes, we have “one last ride for glory across beautiful scenery in the wild places of the world, in 50-year-old cars that weren’t even particularly reliable when new. One more time to watch Clarkson and Hammond get on May’s nerves.

    One final hangout with three friends who clearly knew they were very lucky to be creating something wonderful, and lasting.”

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      OldOzzie

      China bans electric vehicles from underground carparks

      They explode “as if packed full of toxic dynamite” – and one nation has already started cracking down on electric vehicles as a result.

      They flare out in a jet of flame with vicious intensity. They explode as if packed full of toxic dynamite. And when lithium-ion batteries burn, nothing can extinguish them.

      This is why Chinese hotels and property managers have begun to ban all electric vehicles – scooters, e-bikes, family cars or commercial vans – from their undercroft car parks.

      But are they falling for one of the human brain’s most ancient weaknesses? Or taking sensible precautions in the face of a new, unanticipated threat?

      A flash in the pan

      “Hotels and other buildings in Hangzhou, Ningbo, Xiaoshan and other places in Zhejiang have banned electric vehicles from entering underground garages for safety reasons, sparking heated discussions,” Chinese online dissident “Mr Li is not your teacher” reported in a post to X (which is banned in China) in September.

      One of three photos attached to the post shows a sign in front of the Huigang Building in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, instructing owners of electric vehicles to divert to a nearby parking lot with “wide open spaces”.

      Local news reports that property owners were spurred into action after 11 intense battery fires in Zhejiang’s capital, Hangzhou, in May of this year.

      “Based on the characteristics of electric vehicle fires and our hotel’s firefighting capabilities, we think it safer not to allow them into the underground garage,” RFA quotes one five-star hotel owner as stating.

      The reports have revived fears that the new low carbon emission technology may be more trouble than it’s worth.

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      OldOzzie

      Clarkson on EVs in Grand Tour

      Jeremy Clarkson’s Lament on Electric Vehicles in The Grand Tour’s Final Special

      In the final special episode of The Grand Tour, “One for the Road,” Jeremy Clarkson expressed his disappointment and frustration with electric vehicles (EVs). Clarkson, known for his petrolhead enthusiasm, has consistently been critical of EVs, viewing them as lacking the character and charm of traditional internal combustion engine (ICE) cars.

      In the episode, Clarkson’s comments on EVs were woven into the narrative, showcasing his reluctance to adapt to the changing automotive landscape.

      He lamented the “sterile” nature of EVs, implying that they lack the visceral experience and emotional connection that comes with driving a gasoline-powered car.

      Clarkson’s remarks were likely intended to maintain the show’s lighthearted, humorous tone, which has been a hallmark of The Grand Tour throughout its run.

      However, his comments also reflected his genuine concerns about the shift towards electric vehicles and the potential loss of the traditional car culture.

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      OldOzzie

      Kamala Harris First Solo Interview with Local Pennsylvania Reporter Turns into Disaster

      Vice President Kamala Harris, during her second interview on Friday since joining the race, undermined her record in the Biden-Harris administration by stating the administration’s policies are not fit for the “twenty-first century.”

      Harris faces a conundrum: She cannot campaign on policies to fix crime, inflation, and border security without undermining the Biden-Harris administration’s policies, but she must tout the administration’s policies to validate her record and candidacy.

      Speaking with Brian Taff of Philadelphia’s Action News 6 ABC, as the Harris campaign promised she would Thursday after she was slammed for failing to answer questions during Tuesday’s debate, Harris suggested she has a fresh “approach” with “new ideas” for the “current moment.”

      Taff also asked Harris how she would go about bringing “down prices and making life more affordable for people.”

      Harris responded with the same rehearsed answer she used in the debate. “I grew up a middle class kid,” Harris replied, again ignoring the question.

      As Breitbart News reported, Harris’s claim is “mostly false.” Harris grew up with an affluent Canadian upbringing, growing up in Westmount.

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      OldOzzie

      Everything You Need to Know About Kamala in Her Own Words in One Place

      Kamala Harris has given a single televised interview and no press conferences since becoming the Democrats’ nominee for president. Given the establishment media’s unprecedented blocking, tackling, and gaslighting (including the 9/10 debate), we’ve assembled over 100 videos of Kamala Harris in her own words so that the American people can see where she stands and who she is.

      SECTIONS:

      . ON THE ECONOMY
      . ON THE BORDER AND IMMIGRATION
      . ON ENERGY, FRACKING, AND CLIMATE CHANGE
      . ON ELECTRIC VEHICLES AND TRANSPORTATION
      . ON HEALTH CARE
      . ON ABORTION
      . ON CRIME AND POLICING
      . ON GUN CONTROL
      . ON REPARATIONS
      . ON DIVERSITY, EQUITY, AND INCLUSION
      . ON CENSORSHIP
      . ON FOREIGN POLICY
      . ON THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE AND COURT PACKING
      . ON SPACE AND TECHNOLOGY
      . ON YOUTH
      . CHANGING ACCENTS
      . ON CULTURE
      . WORD SALADS

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        RickWill

        Anyone who can sit through all of these deserves a medal. Their ABC offers sensible vioeweiong compared to this gobbledygook.

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      Brenda Spence

      Airhead 🤣

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    RickWill

    For Strop. In case you did not see my update on the Sanden HWS. It has been operating for a week or so now.

    I downloaded the meter data to determine its usage. It is set to kick in at 2000hrs each day. At that time of night, our baseline is 0.14kWh per half hour. So subtracking the base from the readings after 2000 hours gives a total of 2.03kWh to fully restore. This appears to be typical performance. It has been lower and a bit higher depending on what hotwatyer is used each day.

    https://1drv.ms/i/s!Aq1iAj8Yo7jNiVQTvJirQnoLcIVL?e=G0qbcx

    The Sanden unit is very impressive. I will not get the full saving until I close the gas account, which is still required for the cooktop.

    I went into the State forest to get wood yesterday. Huge amount of lodged trees out around Neerim. It would have been terrifying driving on this roads during the recent gales. Even now, there are Brocken branches across the roads but being supported by trees on the other side. They are poised to fall in any wind or even under their own weight. I picked up about 1MWh of freshly fallen wood that is ready for splitting.

    I thought I would be done with burning wood this =year but yesterday and today will consume a bit more of my stockpile.

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      Strop

      I did miss your update. Thanks for this. Good to know how it’s performing and that you’re happy with it.
      Last time we had an electricity bill (at our previous residence) it was 18.5c per kw off peak. Given how much our old hot water used the Sanden would save about $600 per year.

      Haven’t burnt our last fire yet. 9 deg today near Buninyong. ☃️
      Have used less than same time last year.

      Neerim. A beautiful part of the state to collect wood in.
      Was sad to see the Noojee mill empty of timber the last time we headed that way.

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    Philip

    Lol. No one wants to stand for council so there are no elections

    The LGAs that will not hold elections on September 14, when the rest of the state goes to the polls, are the Cobar, Cowra, Junee, Warrumbungle and Berrigan shire councils

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-20/nsw-council-elections-will-not-go-ahead-lack-of-candidates/104241486

    This either gives me hope that people see these elections and local councils are an obsolete entity, or perhaps these councils aren’t the inter global political ones and it’s a sign that all is good there.

    Preferable to what we have here with every single candidate talking about sustainable visions of living together for the benefit of the world and our communities. The drivel they punch out – and they all do it – is just astonishing.

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    John Connor II

    My top 5 concerns, on a 1 to 10 scale.

    1. Replicons – 9
    2. AGI – 8
    3. WW3 – 4, but maybe 8 by tomorrow.
    4. Agenda 2030 – 3
    5. Covid (all), Mpox, bird flu, EEE, combined – 1

    Just sayin’. 😎

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    John Connor II

    Teaching kids life skills

    https://x.com/SaveYourSons/status/1833532600264314933

    Nice work too! Better than a lot of tradies.
    Now off to gender reassignment surgery!
    /LOL

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    OldOzzie

    Sad news that I had missed – we both did Sydney Uni Engineering 1 in 1962, he changed to BSc Degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at end of year 1

    Qantas boss changed the face of air travel by introducing cheap fares

    By Jim Eames August 26, 2024

    JOHN WARD: 1945 – 2024

    It’s probably unsurprising that in addition to a flow of tributes from Australia and around the world, the sudden passing of former Qantas chief executive John Ward has rekindled memories of an airline which has earned a unique place in Australian history.

    Among many thousands of former staff, Ward represented the final years of an era where the then public ownership of Australia’s international carrier provided millions of Australians with a sense of pride, not merely in its original pioneering achievements but perhaps even more importantly for a reputation for safety which had earned an enviable place in the world’s aviation industry.

    That being said, it is probably unfair to compare the Qantas of today to the one Ward led as it moved inexorably towards its privatisation and onwards into a markedly different and far more competitive world.

    In his own case, Ward would also mark his own path in the business world, one on which he would progress from a relatively minor position as an advanced planning analyst in January 1969 to eventually become its chief executive.

    Joining the company with a BSc Degree in computer science and applied mathematics, his initial focus was to lead a small team responsible for the design and implementation of the pricing innovations which would come with the introduction of the giant Boeing 747 in 1971.

    It would be through such pricing initiatives that would see the introduction of low-cost fares and would herald an era of mass travel which not only allowed thousands of Australians to fly between Australia and Asia and the UK and Europe, but also assist in the development of tourism as a significant Australian industry.

    After a brief secondment as marketing manager to Malaysian Airlines in 1972, to be followed by postings to Germany and then to Singapore as the airline’s regional director for Asia in 1981, he began the path which would equip him well for his eventual role as the airline’s leader.

    His appointment as the airline’s general manager, marketing in 1982 showed it was already obvious he was part of a small group of executives which might be eventually groomed as possible successors by the airline’s then-general manager, Keith Hamilton.

    All that changed when the airline was shocked by Hamilton’s premature death in December 1984.

    Ward would serve as deputy under two managing directors, first Ron Yates, then the one-time Australian ambassador to Japan, John Menadue.

    With Menadue’s departure in 1989, Ward took the reins as managing director and CEO of a company which was about to experience unprecedented changes in the years ahead.

    Primarily prompted by government decisions in relation not only to his own airline but across the whole of Australia’s airline industry, Ward and Qantas chairman Bill Dix found themselves involved in manoeuvres to establish the company’s immediate future.

    The high point came in 1992 when then Prime Minister Paul Keating announced the government had approved the sale of Australian Airlines to Qantas as part of a financial restructuring which included the sale of 25 per cent of Qantas to British Airways.

    In financial terms Qantas parted with $400 million for Australian Airlines, while British Airways added more than $600 million to the government’s own coffers. Thus the die would be cast for not only a change to the aviation landscape but the eventual privatisation of Qantas itself.

    For Ward, however, the changes were far from over, and he now faced the most formidable challenge of his career: the critical task to somehow convince Australian Airline’s intensely proud and dedicated workforce that they were now to be the domestic arm of Qantas.

    Ward set out on an extensive nationwide tour to encourage Australian Airlines staff to accept the changed circumstances, even though many staff were largely hostile. It would take years for the staff of the two merged entities to come together as a unit.

    He followed the merger task with a deep involvement in preparations for the sale of Qantas itself until his own resignation in 1993.

    https://centreforaviation.com/analysis/reports/a-qantas-centenary-perspective-john-ward-former-ceo-544341

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    el+gordo

    Just when you thought it was safe to go out, Hobart to get snow in the suburbs.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-14/antarctic-air-mass-brings-rain-snow-hail-eastern-australia/104348928

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