By Jo Nova
Spare a moment to celebrate the outstanding bravery of Elon Musk, and how much he risked to play a key role in this historic election. It was all or nothing…
In the end, it was a semi-professional Diablo 4 gamer who proved the Great Game-Changer pic.twitter.com/AVKKQGKtzl
— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) November 6, 2024
The Australian Government wants to stop people talking on X and on this blog
The same day America votes to be the Land of the Free — Australia is passing laws to fine and imprison people from saying something the government disagrees with. Soon we will not be allowed to point out side effects and risks of “public health” measures, nor say anything that damages faith in our bankers. 100% of vaccines are 100% good and central banks are not insolvent!
The deceptive Australian Labor Party snuck through the Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation Bill 2024 (MAD Bill) under the pandemonium of the US Election day news. Perhaps they were just embarrassed their billion dollar ABC news is such an abject failure at stamping out *misinformation* because no one watches it anymore. Or maybe they hid the Misinformation Bill because they knew Australians would not like being treated like babies who can’t figure out the truth for themselves. The Albanese government went out of its way to introduce a special standing order to get around the normal parliamentary process. It will be in the Senate on Monday next week!
If citizens say something the government deems to be misinformation, huge fines will apply to social media, blogs and forums. Instead of having the implicit right to criticize the government we will need to “prove” our comments were scientific, religious or satirical in a court of law. How many lawyers do you have?
Ultimately, only the rich will be allowed to speak, and forums like X — the citizens news service, will have to guess what is considered misinformation this week. For more details on this see Tony Nikolic’s post at Maryanne Demasi’s blog.
He quotes John F Kennedy and Franklin D Roosevelt:
When the government becomes the sole arbiter of truth, it opens the door to corruption and tyranny. When citizens are too afraid to speak out, the government with its cheerleading bureaucracy and corporate sector can operate without accountability, leading to an erosion of trust in institutions.
SIGN the PETITION TO OPPOSE THE BILL
It is no coincidence the cowardly Australian Labor Party is also writing up legislation to pretend to save children under 16 from bullying on social media by banning them completely. It is, of course, just an excuse to force X, and Facebook et al to require ID checks on every single user — how else will they prove the users are over 16?
The Labor Party don’t want anonymous critics or whistleblowers. The protests have just begun.
This is brilliant! @JAGtalks via Craig Kelly
SNEAKY, GREASY, ALBANESE.
The song for all patriotic Australian’s watching their rights and free speech being taken from them. pic.twitter.com/L8u6tWuzmU— JAG Talks (@JAGtalks) November 7, 2024
Comment of the day :
Elon is such a dumbass. He spent $44 billion on Twitter and all he got was control of all 3 branches of the federal government.
— Whole Mars Catalog (@WholeMarsBlog) November 6, 2024
h/t to David Maddison, Panda, The IPA — the Institute of Public Affairs.
In Australia, saying something the government disagrees with is better known as ‘Telling the Truth’.
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For a Government that continually gets things wrong how can it claim to be the arbiter of truth. ACMA is the biggest worry for it seems to have the authority to haul people before it. Recall the AHRC and the control freaks who ran it. The opposition must reject this and seek to annul it in government. For God’s sake Dutton get your act together.
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“For God’s sake Dutton get your act together.”
Bwahahaha..!! As if!! He supports it completely! I’ve never heard that nobody say anything worthwhile, you could swap him and Albosleazy and not know the difference.
Its not the people, its the system that’s broken!
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That’s a bit pessimistic. What people are forgetting is the ALP/Greens have tried to bring in a mis and dis bill before when Gillard was PM. Their attempt is described here:
https://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=13900
That attempt to introduce insidious media controls was ultimately resisted and defeated by the LNP. It’s true that both Howard and Abbott failed Australia in respect of 18C (and look what happened to poor Pauline Hanson recently) but at least they knocked the first attempt at a mis and dis bill. This time they will have to repeal an existing bill. But the existence of this bill just before an election may make it hard. After all political speech in Australia is free and protected by the constitution (see LibertyWorks Inc v Commonwealth of Australia [2021] HCA 18 ). But to prove it supersedes the reach of this bill would require a long court battle which may mean before the election political commentary is stifled.
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The BIGGEST purveyors of misinformation and disinformation
in Australia are OUR Grubbnmnts.
Solidly backed up by the Bureaucrats.
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To the Aus Govt. GFY
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We don’t need Elon, we need Keanu at this stage. 😆
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Well it is said, ” The pen is mighter than the sword.” Elon has the pen. I am not a tech person, yet could starlink beam unrestricted information and get payment, say bitcoin, undetected?
Not a Bitcoin fan, yet if that was possible it has real value. Could someone post “misinformation” under the heading of “Can you belive someone said this…” we must do something about such speech.
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LOLas they have NFI.
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Sneaking in, if the legislation contained measures Labor believed would gain them support they would be bragging about it.
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The ambivalence is palpable. Mr Musk’s autistic aversion to falsehoods and confabulation. Contrasting the fact that he is harvesting the “Green Deal” bigly. He is a 5th dan Troll along with Mr Trump.
The timing of the bill whilst attention was diverted is a tell. The MSM operation paperclip is defunct, they have capitulated. The boot stomping on the face for eternity is about to descend.
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Apparently ICE engines will likely not work on Mars….
Some self interest on the part of Mr. Musk?
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Why won’t Australian Voters pay attention to things that really matter?
MSM is part of the problem for sure but there are other sources of information if people will only look.
I have made many attempts to introduce my friends to the JoNova blog but I think they only glanced at it once or twice and then went back to reading The Age and watching the ABC!!
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Most Aussies do not want to think (or know how to) for themselves.
They like to lead an oblivious life believing what politicians tell them and conforming to them.
I do not understand why ordinary Australians think that politicians (selected by their political parties, not by us) are qualified or smart enough to run a country and make decisions for all of us. Especially as parliament uses a simple majority to pass broad social issues that affect 100% of us, but maybe only 50.1% agree with – so the other 49.9% must follow, that is not a clear majority. Social issues should require at least 55/45 but 60/40 is better. For financial issues, a simple majority is probably acceptable, but not for social issues.
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A lot of Australians do not want anything to do with politics or politicians. Which is why we had to introduce compulsory voting as the vote had dropped to 16% in WA. Now they get instant opinions from their only news sources.
However the writers of our Constitution made it very difficult for politicians and their enablers to seize power by making fundamental changes very difficult. Thus the fake Voice which was never about aboriginals, as if that is not clear now. Albanese could not care less about aboriginals.
What is redressing the balance is the internet, where you can get news without being filtered through very biased leftist journalists.
And then you get the doctor class who do not have time. Or worse still are surrounded by Union workers and live in fear of the Fairwork people, so they cannot offend their litigious staff.
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I would still contend that legislation like the disinformation/misinformation bill should be carried by more than a parliamentary simple majority as it affects the social fabric of Australia. So a simple majority where maybe 49.95% of the politicians or public disagree/oppose does not represent consensus.
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We do have a House of Review (Senate).
And we do have regular elections.
Maybe we just have to try harder.
Don’t bring in 4 year terms. 3 is often too long.
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My son is a biased leftist journalist – but I am working on him – given he now owns more property than I do, and my grandson is a biased Greenie who believes everything the far left tells him – although he is highly intelligent – our Christmas arguments are legendary!
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University used to teach how to think for yourself. Using the facts and sources you can trust.
Now they teach what to think. It is a major reason white educated males in the US prefer the Democrats. This due to a takeover of the Universities by the left since the 1970s French riots.
Even in Monash Engineering, Melbourne, you have to sign a document acknowledging alleged aboriginal rights just to graduate. It is nothing to do with engineering but an absolute requirement of the administrators. Science people are far harder to convince. They want facts. All good scientists are skeptics. That’s the nature of science. You want proof.
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The mainstream (legacy) media itself wants censorship, see my documentation of this here:
https://quadrant.org.au/news-opinions/free-speech/shame-on-them-hacks-against-free-speech/
BTW Mac users: site is inoperable on Safari but OK on other Mac browsers. It appears to be inoperable on some Windows browsers but not others.This is due to denial of service attacks and some other issues.
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There’s no doubt we now live in a world of inversion. There was once a time when the Australian Labor Party represented the little bloke (or woman). That they understood the only way to stand up to big money, big corporate was to unionise and to have some safety in numbers. Part of that “movement” was the belief in things like freedom of speech or the ability to say things against governments and corporate interests. Because the voice of the people and their opinions needed to be heard. But similar to the US democrats the ALP have done a complete 180 and now, if anything, seemed to be more aligned with big corporate and big government. To hell with the little bloke/woman, what would they know and who cares about little things like human rights anyway- as Dan Andrews said, they are overemphasised. So here we have the ALP politicians with their supposed union background all out to reduce citizens freedom of speech abilities. There’s something really sus about this whole MAD legislation, mainly because it appears bi-partisan as the LNP were the original architects of the moves. (Paul Fletcher. LNP Communications Minister). Is this a situation where the bureaucracy are forcing the politicians into this legislation after the COVID bollocks?
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“. But similar to the US democrats the ALP have done a complete 180 and now, if anything, seemed to be more aligned with big corporate and big government. ”
..and looking through the window, the Animals couldn’t tell the pigs from the farmers..” We’ve come a long way to catch up to Orwell, but we have!
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Done that blog rip yet Jo?
For posterity and future reading.
Maybe that offshore hosting?
Oh well…
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We did one months ago, but what mine ended up as, was a mass of code, I haven’t investigated how to translate.
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Perhaps we communicate using the approved Newspeak doublethink then subtly add /s
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How did I get here… all I did was follow a wascally wabbit… I know nussink.
Praise Authority! Love Subservience!
Hail Albotrough!
/snoop
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Satire is exempt. Here and everywhere we need a facility to state “Everything I say is satire” on our profile. Failing that, can the ‘s’ in /s mean satire, or do we have to create a new symbol. Perhaps #s?
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How’s about s#it
or will that offend non-binary its?
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But what if they don’t find the joke funny Mike?
The process is the punishment. The onus will now be on the speaker to prove their speech was satire or science. The legal fees will bankrupt people who are not triple-digit billionaires, how many people will just stay silent? How many bloggers and social media platforms will censure themselves and their writers “just in case”?
Even Elon Musk had to give in to some of the Brazilian demands in order to keep X running there.
But if the US Government were to say they might hold back on the nuclear subs, watch how fast our government leaps to protect free speech.
This is a global battle for free speech.
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Don’t panic.
”
I am deaf, but think I heard something like this in the last fortnight:
Question: “What about the gender bending?”
Trump “You don’t let it!”
That sounds to me like the leadership that can do it! The leadership we need.
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The ALP will learn 3 lessons very soon:-
Don’t mess with real Australians.
Don’t mess with Israel & don’t mess with Trump!
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Pauline Hanson may be liable for $900,000 of Faruqi’s legal costs because Faruqi claimed Hanson said racist comments against her, which of course she didn’t.
The process is indeed the punishment.
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Of course this bill will go through the HoR.
But the Senate ? Any intelligent head counts been reliably leaked ?
How about that silly Pocock from the ACT ? I find him quite scary in his ability to act with rank stupidity.
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Trump has healthy view of free speech.
“This will send shockwaves through all of big tech and the intelligence agencies”
general summary: Govt should need a valid Court Order, in every instance, to interfere with free speech online or offline, not an arbitrary assumed authority.
https://x.com/LibertyLockPod/status/1854949449518514593
The People need a Digital Bill of Rights.
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I would like to invert his somewhat. The BS the Government pulls on us should be able to be traced directly back to the person that dreamed it up. We are being kontrolled by faceless beaurocrazies that refuse to take any responsibility for their behaviour. That is an ID law that I could support.
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It’s the party leaders that I see as the primary vhillains
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For a Government that continually gets things wrong how can it claim to be the arbiter of truth. ACMA is the biggest worry for it seems to have the authority to haul people before it. Recall the AHRC and the control freaks who ran it. The opposition must reject this and seek to annul it in government. For God’s sake Dutton get your act together.
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I have signed the Petition. God help us!
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21089 when I signed just now.
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Barring those actions, the next LNP government could simply disband ACMA entirely, much like Labor did to the ABCC. Remove the “police” and suddenly the legislation becomes irrelevant!
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And then, there are the “anti-coercion” laws.
VERY specifically, these do NOT apply to the “government or any of its “agencies”.
Par for the course.
I have contended for some time that the “fundamental precept” of the preesumption of innocwnce is DEAD ans buried.
The core “principles” of the Napoleonic Code arrived with a vengeance DECADES ago.
Basically, Basically framed:
“You must be guilty.
You would not have been investigated / arrested / charged / convicted otherwise.
The state is supreme..
Ayn Rand had some words to say about this in “Atlas Shrugged”:
“Did you really think we want those laws observed?” said Dr. Ferris. “We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against… We’re after power and we mean it… There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.”
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Should this become law, will the dumb protesters be jailed for disagreeing with Government policy on numerous issues?
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” will the dumb protesters be jailed for disagreeing with Government policy on numerous issues?”
Certainly! If they’re not useful to the Govt’s current argument.
Those protesting for the Govt line are exercising Australian’s right to free speech, those protesting against the Govt’s line are terrorists and should be jailed.
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Please also pay attention to the Trojan Horse of the Bill to prevent children under 16 from using social media.
Few argue with that in principle, but that is not its true purpose.
Its purpose is to compel full identification of ALL social media users – to eliminate privacy, and generate lists of dissenting voices.
The only way of enforcing this proposed law is to compel full identification of all social media users, for each and every account, thus tracking your opinions, comments, and then coming after you for non compliance.
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My thoughts exactly! How else can they police it?
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I disagree with the ban on under 16s. Not only is it a transparent tool to force adults to use ID, but it’s so much better if children can be be taught how to cope with social media, and parents can be be given tools to help them. There must be a better way than a total ban.
If parents are paying for the phone, they have every right to say “I need to check the settings”.
They make sure the registered age is appropriate, so porn and some other sites are blocked, they skim the emails, the messages, they talk about the risks.
We need to teach children what bullying is, and how to stand up against it, but the government is afraid to raise a generation that can see that most Woke programs are just bullying in disguise.
You climate denier, you election denier, you horrible anti-vaxxer…
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“but it’s so much better if children can be be taught how to cope with social media, ”
Jo, that deserves a gazillion green thumbs! That is all there is to all of society’s shit about ‘saaafety’. If you bring your children up to be exposed to everything and teach them how to discriminate, you have taught a man to fish. Protecting them, banning them, hiding them away is just giving them fish. …probably that’s what happened the 80% useless members of society who always vote for Greens, Teals, whatevers who push for social support and ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ whiners!
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You have to wonder if the whole ‘call for public submissions’ sideshow isn’t just part of compiling their naughty list
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You do understand that government agencies can do that already?
The only individuals being protected by fake accounts are the multitude of trolls that already exist. Which begs the question of: why do people use fake accounts? Mainly to hide their identity from other users of social media.
By the way, it is not just social media that the government has access to. It includes all telecommunications services, all email providers, all cloud providers, etc. yet with all that power, they still can’t stop crime.
11
So what they will do is
Encourage platforms that do not require robust id telegram comes to mind
encrypting everything will become standard
TOR LOKINET and VPN’s will become standard practice
Decentralized social media protocols like Nostr will become the norm
hosting blogs offshore will be come standard
Kids will become very internet savvy
This will backfire
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HB (and Brenda),
You raise an interesting point – how are they going to police it ? There will soon be ways found to circumvent ID checks and the young will be leading the charge . My kids are internet savy and there are plenty of hackers in that demographic – It will become a game . Spoofing for fun and amusement…..
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The pendulum is swinging in the opposite direction now . As the MSM is starting to realise that its irrelevant it will have to change or go under . The internet has changed the media landscape and the truth can leak out and get heard by a growing audience – this blog is an example . Its growing popularity along with podcasts allow for all views to be explored . The government by trying to censor what we can look at contains the assumption that we are cretins who cannot think for ourselves .
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The ‘tell’ in this legislation is that politicians and their approved news outlets are excluded from being held to account for their utterings.
What is good for the goose should be good for the gander.
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The ABC is guilty of misinformation and disinformation on climate change, but if we focus on the Bill’s six categories of harm, aunty has no case to answer.
election interference;
harming public health, including preventative health measures;
vilification of individuals or groups with certain characteristics;
intentionally physically injuring an individual;
imminent damage to critical infrastructure or disruption to emergency services; and
imminent harm to the Australian economy.
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The ABC is guilty of public harm through negligence.
I could list 1,000 stories the ABC don’t mention which would have saved lives through preventative health measures.
Vitamin D, Fish oil, ivermectin, hcq, iota carageenan spray, povidone iodine, saline rinses, zinc, K2, and on and on.
Let’s log the ratio of Vit D promotion to pharmaceutical advertisements on the ABC.
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“Let’s log the ratio of Vit D promotion to pharmaceutical advertisements on the ABC.”
Oh dar God!! I was sitting int he third Doctor’s waiting room with the sick and the fearful, and the TV ran continuous medical stories, apparently it was “Breakfast” or something . Just advertising for the medical-engineering industries, with a few techno-gadgets thrown in. It was RUBBISH! It should have been random interviews with Aussies on the street talking about the censorship bill, but no..
That Dr was a waste of space too, I was in his office before he decided I needed two appointments and a page full of blood tests before he could certify me fit to drive! What a corrupt cartel the medical industry is! It exists to wring the last dollar out of sick and dying people, I have no time for it at all!
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The point is we can’t get them on the sin of omission, on health matters or climate change, because the ABC has the backing of scientific authorities.
There is hope the Trump administration will open up a can of worms and the MSM have no choice but report it.
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Joe Rogan with 47 million views meant Donald Trump did not have to pander to journalists to reach 47 million voters.
Melania Trump with America’s best seller meant she did not have to pander to book reviewers.
Donald Trump’s success with voters meant they ignored the main stream media which universally pilloried Trump.
And Donald Trumps’ success was against a major prejudice where most women, half the population, would really like to see a woman President. Who wouldn’t?
Except one like Margaret Thatcher, Golda Meir, Angela Merkel, Indira Gandhi. Even very qualified but deplorable Hillary Clinton.
Not a dropkick opportunist like Kamala Harris who has no children, was given all jobs without being qualified, married at 50 presumably to get into Federal politics in 2016. Not black, not Indian, not European and with neither parent born in America. A woman who does not acknowledge her own living father, she is entirely the wrong model for women anywhere. And in all her time as VP and Candidate, did not and likely could not answer a single question!
The legacy press are now history. And Hollywood. AI will take all their jobs. And AI Harrison Ford will live forever. He may even run for the senate. Of the Alliance.
Of course the Marxists have to control the internet. It’s their only hope to suppress the truth.
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Our very own Anthony Albanese is following President Lula of Brazil in his attempt to control the internet. But Australia does not have any satellites. Elon Musk’s Starlink has 6,426 satellites. We were about to launch one for our own defence, but decided to pump water uphill instead. It shows Australians do not have the smartest politicians in the world.
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And great news.. “Senate Republicans must choose a new leader to take over from Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY). That election is set for November 13 and will include newly elected senators.” The end of an era of Chinese interference in the Senate.
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TdeF, lord help us. Prejudice? Please don’t insult women and claim we are petty sexists.
Women evolved to spot the alpha male, and the alpha male evolved to impress women.
The same tools mean most women can tell a real female leader from a fake one.
I pity the poor naive girls who’ve been raised in the liberal bubble.
I don’t pity the toxic females and clinger males who created that bubble to increase their own status and wealth.
PS: Fantastic news about McConnell. Thank you.
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Ann Coulter made an assertion that surprised me.
She claimed that if only men’s votes had been counted, there would not have been a Democrat President since World War 2.
I checked with ChatGPT, and then Google, and it turns out that her claim is true.
Does that refute your comment, Jo? I wouldn’t think so. But it does establish that the situation is nuanced.
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Every job in the law courts could be done by AI. It might even make the law accessible to ordinary citizens.
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A re-branding is called for.
JoNova’s Blog becomes . . .
JoNova’s Satirical Musings + Friends [JNSMF]
More inventive names are shirley possible. 😉
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Shirley not!
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So I become The Babylon Bee downunder, but what happens to all your comments?
What happens to all the twitter “likes” and quotes? Do you suppose you will be fined $10,000 or sent to jail for retweeting a pro-Trump, or anti-vax message? Isn’t that exactly what this is? For you are spreading misinformation…
Maybe I need to ask for a $100,000 bond from every commenter before they can comment freely?
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Might be time to go on Substack, Jo. Widen your audience and earn some decent $’s.
30
If I am censored, Substack will be censored too. I don’t see how that helps?
And yes, I do need the financial assistance, but I won’t put up a wall, and I sadly, no longer read some great writers on Substack who did.
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Interestingly the Government has exempted itself from this censorship law.
As the main purveyor of misinformation, they will continue to do propagate it
I documented large amounts of Australian Government misinformation in my submission against the bill. See https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/acma2023-31735-david-s-maddison.pdf
The only place you truly have to worry about as a source of disinformation is the Australian Government itself.
And don’t forget this was a Uniparty law.
It was first introduced by the fake conservative Liberal Party, as was the e Safety Kommissar.
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At least the UK has Nigel Farage. A classic conservative with 25% of the vote, but only two members of parliament.
The Australian Liberal party is extreme left, in the wake of Malcolm Turnbull. Who has still not accounted for the $444 Million he took to ‘save’ the Great Barrier Reef. It’s never mentioned, just swept up in the great black hole of handouts. Where did it go? The biggest bank robbery in history. And no one asks.
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David, did the government exempt itself in this version? I don’t think they did (it was too blatant last time). But they have plenty of other weapons to censor their own employees and agencies, so they are already under government control, as are the Media houses which already answer to ACMA.
This law is designed to capture all the independent citizen journalists who are not under the thumb of the government or some billionaire already.
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That brings back memories of the “Great Train Robbery”!
Trumble.
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Elon Musk.
Please save us.
Perhaps you can provide us with an uncensored free speech feed of X and other information from your Starlink satellites with some sort of anonymous payment facility?
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X is working almost like an uncensored outlet already via “Community notes”. It’s not 100% because you get stooges authoring, but it seems then those stooges are very quickly found out. The beauty of community notes is that they remain with the original contentious post. X almost doesn’t need censors, because it has become self regulating. Musk is a really clever cookie and obviously has smart people working for him.
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And yet.
My X account has suddenly stopped receiving notifications. None from commentators I’m following, many of whom are on the right.
I’ve been shadow banned on one platform, and suppressed on another, without notification or right to appeal in either case. I personally comment as truthfully as I can and am generally polite. Yet I’m not afraid to decry falsehoods from others, citing evidence, and I think that’s what’s caused my banning in those cases.
Now my interaction seems to be suppressed on X, which is a third platform. I’ve checked settings, and I’m confident the issue is on X’s end.
Is it a rogue employee suppressing unauthorised speech? Has their Algorithm decided I’m a bot? Or decided that the people I follow are bots? Or is it merely a change in the algorithm?
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“Rogue employee”.
When Joh Bjelke-Petersen declared his intention to run for every seat in the federal parliament the polls instantly gave him a third of the vote. This was phenomenal.
In the pandemonium that ensued I saw the line drop out at least twice when the morning TV programs switched to Joh. We didn’t get to hear from Joh.
Somewhere in the system, my guess was Telecom, somebody with access had pulled the plug.
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Why can’t censored information just be fed to the Left?
After all, they’re the ones who are terrified of other peoples’ free speech.
Let the thinking community read as they please and make up their own minds.
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Sums it up:
https://imgbox.com/xhJxgONk
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another pic (found at TKMaxx checkout)
the blue and white caption (next to Albo’s opinion of himself) is interesting
https://imgbox.com/mUYTTLqR
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President Trump, please save thinking Australians.
Please allow educated, productive, financially independent Australians come to your country as political refugees and we will help Make America Great Again.
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Uh huh..
Unfortunately we need to save ourselves just like the USA did and that starts with political parties not there for the power, prestige, or personal agendas, but ones that have the expertise, competence and true desire to do what’s right, not be NWO puppets, and to say it YET again, there’s no such party anywhere to be seen.
The majority of the USA woke up in time, but here 80% are watching cooking and home reno shows, oblivious.
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That’s the problem John Connor. Very high numbers of NWO ,UN , WEF supporters infest most conservative parties. They need to be be weeded out from any position of influence or power & most importantly from any security / intelligence portfolios. They are a threat to western democracies. Look around the western democracies and they’re easily spotted.
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…and in breaking news, Albo has announced the recommended age tests for social media, comprising 2 questions.
1. What is a CD?
2. What is Napster?
😆😆
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Poor old Trump only made a lousy 100 + million $ yesterday while his super wealthy mate Elon increased his wealth by another 15 thousand million $.
I only wish our Jo Nova could get a small part of 1% of their increase to help her run her blog.
Andrew Bolt gets Ross Greenwood to help him explain the new increase to their shares.
https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/andrew-bolt/donald-trump-and-elon-musk-won-a-fortune-with-election-victory/video/3286ad454832d67ae6a32536fa007385
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Breaking News
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60
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If Mark Morano is correct COP 29 could become a giant Wake as the liars and con merchants meet to try to influence and demand that the few, remaining lefty loonies like Albo and B O Bowen etc waste many more billions of $ on their BS so called CC emergency.
Trump will not show up and hopefully many more countries will start to wake up and quickly build more base-load energy?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2024/11/06/trump-wins-u-s-presidency-net-zero-un-climate-pacts-green-new-deal-inflation-reduction-act-face-ruin/
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The substance of the matter is not in the COPs, nor even the windmills and solar panels.
The substance is in the dollars invested.
In the face of Trump’s declaration that the global warming scam must be terminated nobody, not even our Bowen, will dare put another dollar into investment in “Renewables”.
The “true” science is on Trump’s side, so his declaration is not refutable. New investment will stop immediately.
There will be gnashing of teeth as investors count their losses, real and imaginary. They should send their bills to Al Gore.
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An idea for X’s merch store: Desk sign with inspiring Latin mottos such as: nil turcias carborundum
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tu cogitas omnia
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This is the type of government action that forces “The Men Who Want to Be Left Alone” ever nearer to their “point of no return”
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Looks like Albosleazy and his team will be taking an early shower! Take to an election Albo!
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Very likely Albo will be one term, and good riddance if that happens … sadly the Liberals are every bit behind this as well.
The Australian people don’t tend to go to far outside the box when it comes to sticking with the two major parties. Those parties are very cosy keeping the upstarts out … in politics and in media.
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The comments by programmers and tech people on Hacker News are mainly supportive.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42071310
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” a family member was being exposed to intense and violent content over Facebook. There was no block, ignore, or report feature on the content exposed. ”
LOl!! Waaaah! I was exposed to violence on Facebook, and when I went back to that page I was exposed again, and when I checked it a 17th time I was exposed some more..
“Spaceship B people, please step right this way! Those completely incapable of handling daily, normal life and looking after themselves, please form a line..”
I’d say the criminals in the Tech industry have already planned how to implement the censorship laws in the most expensive, complicated way and have already bought the politicians responsible.
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The largest bet on the US election was Elon’s. He pledged his life, fortune and sacred honour. Somewhere, the Founders smile.
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I forgot to add, we are all the winners. Thank you, Elon.
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I can assure you it’s not as easy as you suggest – social media specifically targets children with material that is addictive. Its known harmful effects include eating disorders, anxiety, depression, etc. Social media essentially acts as an “amplifier” of whatever young people are feeling so at a sensitive time in their lives it can be extremely harmful. What’s more, kids are smart, especially with tech, and can easily circumvent any restrictions. This is coming from first-hand experience. I’m no fan of prohibition however I can see no other way.
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I do have first hand experience too. Not to discount the different experiences. But there is another way.
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So far today I have been in Melbourne, Bangkok and Kathmandu.
My missives will be sporadic. There are no decent roaming plans in Nepal, I will have to depend on WiFi when available.
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Send us a postcard.
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Comments from the United Australia Party.
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WELL I Dunno! ( or I’ll be darned) Australia is passing laws to fine and imprison people from saying something the government disagrees with… WHAT IS the government? a force of nature ? I mean , it’s the same the world over,So we call it ” Being a part of the civilised world” Is it a Natural phenomenon that we can’t do anything about it. If the wind Blows, if it Rains or snows we put on clothes accordingly. Too hot in the kitchen, we leave, House on fire – we put fire out. So what is this with “Government” Nothing “Democratic” about what they’re doing, LET THEM BUMP THEIR GUMS ( knock their teeth out if you like ) Yes if Sites “brought down” like Power stations, not much you can do…. BUT BUT WHY did the Operators ALLOW the closure of power stations, Steel works, etc. Where is the rule of Common sense and Ethics in all this? MPs and Civil Service should / MUST be held accountable. Do we need a parallel government. Like the Donald , can we afford to wait 4 or 5 years for change – that is at least 10& of our working life, and a greater %% of the life cycle expectancy of business projects. Time on earth is short, life is but a sigh
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Government is a collection of criminal gangs that have taken over a country in order to loot the population and maintain their grip with violence or threats thereof.
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I’m far from an activist. But this government censorship really gets up my nose.
I will march in the streets and be one hell of a nuisance to these dictatorial politicians.
Will be hanging out here and looking for opportunities to make my voice heard.
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Shouldn’t it be the Opposition who does that? Where are they?
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I have submitted two protests re this Bill & attended a protest in Hyde Park Sydney. But it will be to no avail as this Bill will pass into law.
The on,y remaining hope is that a new LNP government will repeal it. But they didn’t repeal 18C re vilification which also threatened free speech.
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Tried to post the link for the petition on Facebook. Twice Facebook deleted it.
It doesn’t meet their ‘community standards’.
This shows exactly why the bill must be defeated.
So I posted on Facebook that the petition exists but Facebook won’t let them see it.
They are going all out to silence us.
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A lot of parents of early-teens would be interested in hearing your suggestions – if there’s “another way” maybe you could explain it?
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And isn’t it amazing we haven’t — as a nation — even really discussed the other options before banning all access and forcing every adult to submit ID online with all the harm that brings to a free society. So here’s a mix of approaches that that I have seen work. For starters…
1. No smart phone until high school. Desk top computer managed at home for younger ones is an intro to games and forums. The only forums that are OK are ones with known players, real people at school.
2. Parents set the rules from the start. Phones can be dangerous. The grownups are paying for the phone, therefore they need random and open access to help young people learn, even including eyeballing emails/sms etc. Explain how any stranger may be a dog.
3. Raise them explaining why namecalling and bullying will be something they will have to learn to deal with, including as an adult. It’s not a kid thing. It’s a human thing. Teach them how to spot it, how to deal with bullies, to be the one who stands up against them if they can, but to pick their battles, and to forge alliances with others, defend the weak, and to ask for adult help. It takes a special kind of bravery to be the one against many, and that’s only going to be appropriate for some kids. Others need to work in groups.
4. Find a strong, smart spiritual group preferably of a long-established and peaceful, wise flavour that works for you — especially for vulnerable kids age 5 -12. This may involve driving some distance to EG Sunday School/ youth group / services in suburbs where there are families and friendships of a similar minded caliber. The kids then make friends and get advice from others a year or two older. This may not be your thing, but I’ve seen it fill gaps in a magic way, especially for low self-esteem kids. A social network of good families is a powerful help.
So this is all very well if the kids are young enough and you have the time to invest. If they are already 14 and rebelling, it’s so much harder. I hear you. The most valuable thing, no matter what, is to keep the door open. So they can talk about their mistakes and fears, or confused friends — without judgement and punishment. It’s like confession at catholic churches I guess, people who screw up can ask forgiveness and find a constructive path. Channel Jordan Peterson, just ask a question and let the kids talk themselves into a solution.
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And another point Jo,
My son runs a mechanic shop with 8 auto mechanics.
Also 2 apprentices and takes school trade classes for 5 students a year from grade 10.
He does his roster via email and Facebook.
Plus, all his workers are worried that they have to provide ID to continue to use social media.
It’s becoming a nightmare for people.
Kids today buy stuff off Facebook marketplace.
Whole sections of Australian business will be impacted.
Do I have to prove to Twitter I am nearly 70 years old.
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From my experience, some of what you’ve suggested can work with primary-school aged children (points 1 and 2). In practice, point 3 won’t work for the majority, especially if the bullying is coming from older age groups. Most kids aren’t going to have the “special kind of bravery” that you refer to.
However, the crux of the issue is “If they are already 14 and rebelling, it’s so much harder. I hear you.” Firstly, I’d say that rebelling can start earlier (around 12) and that it’s a natural part of teenage growth. But the real problem is that social media is designed to be addictive and in combination with the way the algorithms work, can lead kids to very dark places at a time when they are extremely vulnerable and lack the skills, experience or self-awareness to handle what they’re being exposed to, in particular things like self-harm and eating disorders.
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Life is full of addictive things. We need to teach self control. Some drugs are so dangerous they should be banned, but as adults we’re all going to have to learn how to deal with phones, and it should be up to parents.
The price of banning social media for all kids means all commenters and whistleblowers age 16 – 110 will have to supply ID. People who criticize their employers, or the government or China will know that when hackers steal the data, they will be exposed. When the social credit scores begin, mandatory ID makes dissent impossible. No one will be able to retweet or like something “hot” either, so great thoughts will disappear like a drop of rain in a desert.
That is a truly awful price for any society to pay.
We save a few children but take a big step closer to gulags and thought control.
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
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I think you’re going to find that most parents of early-teens are prepared to pay this price because it’s their children who are being exposed to the harm. And while I mentioned self-harm and eating disorders, we all know that there are other more harmful activities that social media enables and amplifies – for example adults masquerading as children…
In this case I think that people will have to do what you suggest children should do i.e. “pick their battles, and to forge alliances with others, defend the weak” and exhibit “a special kind of bravery to be the one against many”.
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There is no “picking battles” and forging alliances once the CCP, or our totalitarian governments have your ID and know that you are a critic and they can’t be criticized. Your social credit score will mean you and your children won’t get a house loan, or won’t get cheap interest rates, or won’t get a job because you “liked” a post on facebook once. Suicide rates will rocket as people are isolated and thoughts are banned.
How many children did we kill because no one could criticize the untested vaccines? We don’t know because the government didn’t even do the study. The word you are looking for is “negligent” or “reckless”.
We will condemn our children to a soviet world where they must obey the absurd dictats without complaint.
What a ghastly thing to inflict on our children.
If parents are prepared to pay the price it’s only because their government funded indoctrination meant they never read Gulag Archipelago or 1984. And the Labor Party has hidden this policy like cowards so critics didn’t debate it in public. They are so sure the Australian parents you speak of will like this that they ran this through parliament quietly on the US election day.
There are so many better ways to keep children safe and we have barely even started talking about them and already Mr “dry liberal” has given up. Do you want to keep writing here anonymously Mr XXX?
Are you brave enough to name yourself now? Or will you stay anonymous while telling us how anonymity is “a small price to pay”?
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Can you provide some evidence for this claim?
No, it’s because the problem they’re facing is real and immediate – the “house is burning down in front of their eyes” so quick action needs to be taken.
The bill was announced in early-September and has been widely publicised and discussed across all forms of media.
More like exhausted all other options, including those you’ve suggested which did not work.
And why do you assume that I’m a “Mr”?
Now you’re resorting to a classic ad-hom (“you’re not brave enough”) – you’re better than that. I’m trying to explain to those interested the reasons why parents support this bill. If we disagree, that’s fine.
Yes, but not because I fear government surveillance. There are many reasons to prefer anonymity online e.g. avoiding scrapers/hackers/scammers trying to build profiles, etc. I enjoy your blog, but I certainly don’t agree with your position on all issues. In this case, I thought that you might enjoy a contribution that’s likely to be different to most of the other comments you receive, and one that comes from direct, first-hand experience. But I suppose it just depends on whether you want this blog to be a mouthpiece for your own views or a place where ideas are discussed. If it’s the latter, then it’s the ideas that matter, not who’s saying them.
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I’m sorry if your house is burning down (and I mean that sincerely). I understand why you are desperate. I have seen a life and family ruined because an industry of paid psy-op creatures reach out to children through their phones.
However these knee-jerk policies threaten all our children, and every adult too. The cost-benefit equation is like playing with nuclear bombs. If your child is not coping with social media, some parents choose to turn it off, move house, move school, move to a country where social media is banned (doesn’t sound appealing does it?). Some parents planned ahead and joined a church. As Albanese explains it, the whole point of these dangerous laws is just so parents of at risk kids don’t have to be mean and say “no”. Are we putting the whole nation’s freedom at risk, so some parents can farm out their responsibility to the rest of us at great cost?
My point about anonymity is not an ad hom. It’s the core issue when we are discussing a bill about anonymity and privacy. I allow everyone to speak with no demand that they identify themselves. Would you still speak up if you had to give me your name, birthdate and drivers license? It was a genuine question. I hoped you might appreciate the hypocrisy of using the same privacy-guarantee that you want to take away from me and my children.
The government could say it recommends parents ban social media under 16, and leave it up to parents to enforce it. They could wheel out doctors to say the mental health risks are real. That would be a safe option. They could insist that social media platforms ask the age of children, but not mandate it with fines and prison.
As it is, kids will get around the new laws by leaning on parents for their ID, or their phone, or a VPN (will they ban VPN’s too?). But whistleblowers and honest adults of Australia will lose the right to speak, and all of us will enter digital databases that the CCP / mafia will hack. How would you feel if your personal family situation and comments were leaked online so your health insurance company, or employer could “buy that list”.?
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