JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
After the dramatic Republican win of Congress, the Senate and the Presidency, in the US they are still defending Kamala Harris. Apparently she lost because of the economy? But no one says she was the worst, the least competent, the most inappropriate candidate in history. With the exception of geriatric Joe who could be in a home by the end of the year and has been at the beach for 40% of his Presidency, a generous estimate based on a 40 hour week. And the real question is how many of the prosecutors and judges and attorneys General who have fought to put Trump behind bars end up there themselves.
The big day is when the balance of 1,000 people locked up for an unarmed protest on 6th January 2001 will be let out of jail for doing nothing wrong. And whether Nancy Pelosi will ever be prosecuted as the person in charge of security for her very deliberate actions in creating and exploiting the situation.
And the impact on the Climate Change hoax will be profound with China and the US competing to generate the most power and CO2.
At what point will inconsequential small states like Australia get the idea that they are on the wrong side of history and the facts.
Especially now that UN COP is hosted by the major oil suppliers because it is great for oil and gas prices, the biggest oil and gas event since OPEC was created.
On Quora it is still routine to ignore contrary evidence and accuse commentators and even researchers as being in the pay of the oil companies when ‘Big Oil’ just loves Climate Change and the only people who dare speak out are retired or otherwise financially independent.
500
“based on a 40 hour week.”
The President of the United States currently earns an annual salary of $400,000, a figure that has remained unchanged since 2001. In addition to the salary, the president receives various allowances and benefits, bringing the total compensation package to around $569,000.
You can fill out the list of perks.
Anyway, the pres ought to be active 70 to 80 hours per week.
220
The Australian PM and members of parliament are among the most incompetent in the world (with a few exceptions) and also almost the most highly paid on the world.
Also, in the US there is a law that no public serpent can get paid more than the President.
Australia has no such law.
According to Goolag AI:
Australia has an awful lot of snouts in the trough.
470
The public serpent, Anthony Fauci, was reportedly more highly compensated than the president.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/dr-anthony-fauci-paid-more-130000506.html
100
Apparently Fauci is an exception to the usual rule.
Fauci is of course retired now but the origin of his large former salary and now the biggest retirement package in US history for a government employee is as follows:
140
I wonder whether what’s left of the Biden administration will issue a blanket-type pardon for Fauci in the next two weeks.
61
Obviously, the handsome package is payment for services rendered.
70
Football pays better:
https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/football/coach
40
“Australia has an awful lot of snouts in the trough.”
Perhaps:
Australia has lot of awful snouts in the trough.
280
Little wonder they are so disconnected from reality.
130
“Also, in the US there is a law that no public serpent can get paid more than the President.
Australia has no such law.”
No wage controls unlike us plebs, it’s open slather.
120
Sadly voting out a labor government doesn’t mean you can correct during the next parliament. It was Whitlam who boosted PS wages to the highest in the world during his spending spree with the idea that private wages would need to follow.
Fifty years is a long time.
120
Donald Trump don’t take a salary!
50
“earned”, or “were paid”?
00
Harris and the Demorats didn’t win the hearts and mind of “We The People”. Albo and Labor here will suffer similar consequences come the next election
170
Green Beret Matthew Livelsberger, an expert working with remote & autonomous drones, was reported to be temporarily stationed at Fort Bragg, where Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar was also stationed.
120
“Curiouser and curiouser” – (apologies Alice)
It now appears Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar was not acting alone after all:
And why would he not make sure and just set fire to it? Why go to the trouble of setting it to ignite two hours after the crime?
70
On their way out the door, villains cynically decorating fellow architects of destruction.
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And a Presidential Citizen’s Medal to Hunter Biden’s friend, Bobby Sager. These medals should also be accompanied by an 11 year pardon, just in case.
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A Presidential Medal AND a pardon. Now THAT would be a big tell.
Maybe the bad guys realize they won’t be in a position to wreak their havoc for a while. And they know that karma can be a real bitch.
I can’t think of better explanations for some of the bizarre things those who control Biden are doing.
120
Biden is burning the place down on his way out the doos. Post election the outgoing President should not be allowed to cause this sort of destruction post a defeat.
200
>Biden is burning the place down on his way out the door
They’re supposed to be in caretaker mode.
A caretakers duties and responsibilities don’t extend to looting and trashing the joint but I’m not surprised. It seems that’s been their modus operandi for many years now.
200
Caretaker mode is well understood in Westminster style systems. Is it a thing in the USA?
Sometimes I wonder what the US Founding Fathers were smoking.
100
Know your collective nouns.
The collective nouns for goldfish are:
A troubling or glint.
60
A group of lawyers is a ‘greed’.
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A group of electricians is a ‘spark’.
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>A group of lawyers is a ‘greed’
That one I can personally vouch for
130
And a “fr@ud” of climate “scientists” (who promote and profit from the fabrication of catastrophic anthropogenic global warming).
271
A perfidy of of UNIPCC representatives
A thicket of politicians
A mendacity of WEF members
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>A thicket of politicians
Your first and third collective nouns are spot on, but the second one is new to me, I’d always understood it to be a ‘brothel’ of politicians.
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Yup, that one was not meant to be taken literally, just a play on thick as in British informal – stupid, dull, dense, insensitive. I think one of the collective nouns used most often for prostitutes is a whored 🙂
40
So a “Hoard” of Politicians ?
A “thicket” is also a term for a dense area of wooded growth …
..so a a nice “double entendre” with that one ! 👍
30
A group of bankers is a wunch.
50
A group of girls is a ‘giggle’.
10
Anyone who has ever encountered anyone with TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) will know it’s an extremely serious psychological or psychiatric condition.
If universities ever again allow academic freedom, researchers will study this condition.
One day it may even be put into the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
A book has already been written about TDS:
140
It was engineered in a lab.
Gain of Function propaganda research.
Purposely released in a wet media market.
140
On a lesser scale, Tony Abbott was the focal point of his own derangement syndrome in Australia.
My own pet theory about TDS is that cognitive dissonance is not a sufficiently strong force for learning within suffering minds.
The good (or perhaps unknowingly bad) news for sufferers is that the current presidential term will end in 4 years. Of course that fact triggers the weak minded to imagine that Trump will appoint himself president for life just like Obama wanted to.
110
The very persona of Trump challenges every notion of the world that a quasi Marxist/socialist holds. He is counter culture in today’s western societies. He is nationalistic, pro private enterprise, appreciative of western values, and holds the individual to be responsible for his actions. And to top it all, he is contemptuous of the sacred creed of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Even worse, the “privileged classes” are appalled by his “common man” touch.
All of this is why it is so rewarding to see him trample on their egos.
130
Vicki,
News media are accusing Government of causing disaster by enforcement of Diversity,Equity,Inclusion, DEI.
Three lesbian girls of Commander rank in the Navy are not performing so well, despite rapid promotion to pretty uniforms with medals. One of them commanded a Navy vessel that went aground on a reef near Samoa, then caught fire, then rolled and sank. There are lots of fascinating analyses of what these girls aspired to and what the actual outcome was.
No wonder President Trump, like any normal person, is said to be wary of DEI. Geoff S
20
If a rain storm is an atmospheric river …
is a snow storm an atmospheric avalanche?
Or an Ice Dome?
Oh wait, a Polar Vortex could have both ice and avalanche.
I’m in a Polar something or other at this very moment, but no ice or snow.
A Heat Dome sounds pretty good right about now.
This weather makes me want better climate.
I look to Science for answers to these questions, but Science just gets mad and yells at me.
230
Weather may be unpredictable and violent, but at least Science is settled…
100
I like it. Can I have it?
30
I just saw this book on Amazon but haven’t bought or read it yet. Looks interesting.
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There will be some of his Parliamentary mates that didn’t know the extent of his communistic past. Let’s see who shy’s away from confirming their support for him at the next party meeting. His leadership ambitions are sure to dissipate or they too risk being punished.
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You can add China’s bestie, Foreign Minister Mr Wong. And the avowed Leninist Dr. Adam Bandt whose PhD was on communism on the wharves in Melbourne. He greatly admires the mass murderer Lenin. Whatever it takes. The idea that he is a Greenie is laughable.
They are the first Australian leaders to hate Israel and vote against its very existence. And they encourage anti Semitism in Australia by doing nothing, excused as only seeking extremist Muslim votes, both reprehensible. Plus they have openly broken ranks with our essential defender America, even under Biden. So much for AUSUK. The conflict with Trump will be extreme, as with the UK. All leaders in both Labor parties openly hate Trump.
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“The idea that he is a Greenie is laughable.”
It’s just that the watermelons most closely suited his needs and motives.
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You covered it all, TdeF!
Sadly, many Australians are successfully deluded by titles. It happened with the old “Democrats” – who were anything but democratic in their dogma. Similarly, the “Greens” cover their Marxist beliefs under an environmental mantle. It took a while for voters to wake to the beliefs of the “Democrats”, who have now departed the political scene. I believe the same process is at work with the “Greens”.
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I remember their mantra was ‘keeping the bastards honest’, after a while it drifted to ‘keeping the bastards’.
30
https://www.gbnews.com/news/battle-of-britain-memorial-flight-risk-averse-mod
More Labour induced removal of British History. Hier Starmer and his socialist team is destroying Britain by stealth!
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That’s not stealth. But it will take time.
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>destroying Britain by stealth!
Yes. Another one. The Western democracies are infested with these grubs. “Ve are prroud to say ve haff penetrrated ze kabinets of ze vorld viz our Global Young Leaders” – Klaus Schwab
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The fall of capitalism?
People who advocate such a thing must have a different definition of the word than I do.
I always thought capitalism means the use of capital to produce more capital. And as long as the sun rises in the east people will indeed seek to use what they have to produce more.
Then I went to wikipedia and sure enough what is described there as capitalism is something political.
If only people would say what they mean. We’d all be much clearer what all the fighting is about.
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You can’t help noticing the nonsense there … the free market has failed because government can’t deliver sufficient to satisfy demand.
Hmmm … if it was a free market then government wouldn’t be delivering anything beyond the absolute basics.
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>the nonsense there
nonsense where exactly?
>the free market has failed because government can’t deliver sufficient to satisfy demand
Where did that come from? What’s it in response to?
Where was free market mentioned?
What does your phrase, government in relation to supply and demand refer to, production of goods and services?
>government can’t deliver sufficient to satisfy demand
Government delivering to satisfy demand is communism or central planning, not free market
If it’s a response to Cloward-Piven remember capitalism is not synonymous with free market. In capitalism government can still provide services and regulate commerce but not in free market capitalism, which is closer to libertarianism.
1. overload government bureaucracy – See Australia and the USA – capitalist, not free market
2. amass massive unpayable national debt – That’s a trend in Australia and the USA – capitalist but not free market
3. unfettered immigration – subject to government regulation, (lax), – in capitalist nations but not free market
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In response to this quote.
Why would anyone in a genuinely capitalist society have high expectations of government bureaucracy? Even basic demands like border security usually end up impossible for those guys.
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Agree fully, but these words are redundant, “in a capitalist society”.
In my arrogant opinion the sentence should read, ” Why would anyone i̶n̶ a̶ g̶e̶n̶u̶i̶n̶e̶l̶y̶ c̶a̶p̶i̶t̶a̶l̶i̶s̶t̶ s̶o̶c̶i̶e̶t̶y̶ have high expectations of government bureaucracy?
And the answer is they must have never had any experience at all with a government bureaucracy.
00
“Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia…
Germany is our friend, Russia is our enemy, the Battle of Britain will be re-written to reflect this. The gap between the Govt-held view in their propaganda and the views of their subjects will get wider.
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It’s interesting that it is the Americans, and Musk in particular, who are putting Starmer’s feet to the fire re the [too risky using the word] grooming gangs, a problem in England for decades.
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Don’t forget the continual efforts of Douglas Murray.
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I posted a Murray video on another forum y’day. I have been aware of Tommy Robinson’s efforts for years.
https://youtu.be/fDh85cohwms
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This letter to the editor of a printed newspaper was posted on Farcebook. No reference was provided.
(The spelling mistake was in the original text, even before I did OCR conversion.)
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Here’s a sceptical look at what is meant by “First Nations”, a Canadian term now widely used in Australia, as it pertains to Australia.
https://youtu.be/m-hwUF1hZzU
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You can’t have a sensible discussion with people who start by twisting the meaning of words.
Quite why this memory pops up I don’t know but …
When I studied law late in life one of my fellow students was a pleasant girl in her late teens who although blond haired and blue eyed was proud of her aboriginal heritage. At some stage the lecture material turned to the Mabo decision. I said something about dispossession being almost universal among aboriginal peoples around the world. She protested at me using the word aboriginal in that way.
She was stunned when I explained that aboriginal was not a term which uniquely applied to Australian Aboriginals but it was just historical fact that until terms like Koori came into fashion nobody had bothered to describe Australian Aboriginals as anything other than Australian Aboriginals or just used the term Aboriginals for short.
Thankfully the lecturer and a significant number of our fellow students confirmed my version of events. She seemed shattered by the experience. I wonder what became of the girl and what became of the term Koori.
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FWIW
“THEY’LL HAVE TO GET RID OF THE EMERITUS PROFESSORS? ‘Climate justice’ group calls on Northwestern University to become ‘fossil free campus.’
“Climate justice” is a BS phrase.”
https://instapundit.com/694052/#disqus_thread
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And
“Five years of manual labor, or working with the public in retail or food service, would do wonders for most academics.”
From
https://instapundit.com/694034/#disqus_thread
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Snowflake.
UPDATE – thank you Charlotte for this further and better insight into short-man, short-philtrum, actually short-everything Labor Blackout Bowen.
https://www.mountsinai.org/health-library/symptoms/short-philtrum
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In Once Great Britain, a “university” is issuing “trigger” warnings for the teaching of Greek mythology.
How did this country once conquer much of the known world?
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As somebody much wiser than me once said, this too shall pass.
But not of course until much damage has been inflicted.
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FWIW
“Amish Farmer Celebrates “Big Win For Food Freedom” ”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/amish-farmer-celebrates-big-win-today-food-freedom
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Interesting. It annoys me that, with very few exceptions, our cheese makers are not allowed to make cheese similar to the French methods of using unpasteurised milk that produces such wonderfully-flavoured cheeses. When in UK, I managed to track down some cheddar made with unpasteurised milk and it was a wonderful product, so unlike the very ordinary cheddars made here in Australia.
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FWIW
Questions
https://instapundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/winston_marshall_kier_starmer_george_floyd_rape_gangs_01-04_2025-575×800.jpg
Questions deemed acceptable
https://x.com/DaveAtherton20/status/1875486469525242023
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FWIW – things explained?
“It Is Always CHEAPER To Cheat”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=252621
20
All of the power systems in the net zero world are in a wind drought trap which is set slowly as coal capacity runs down and it can close suddenly on windless nights when that process passes a critical point
The root of the problem is the failure of the meteorologists to issue wind drought warnings. It was left to unofficial observers in Australia to find them over a decade ago by looking at the continuous record of windpower generated in the wind facilities attached to the grid. This information was reported on Jo Nova’s blog but the news didn’t travel.
https://newcatallaxy.blog/2023/07/11/approaching-the-tipping-point/
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But the real root of the problem is to pollute the grid with weather-dependent generation systems.
There’s a very good reason that the world rapidly abandoned wind power (and animal and human) as soon as Newcomen developed the first commercially viable steam engine in 1712, to be improved by Watt in 1765.
Now, due to the Left, we are (or have) regressing(ed) to a time before the Enlightenment, Scientific and Industrial Revolutions. At least in Australia. Most of the rest of the West under Trump’s leadership will be casting away Leftism, wokeism and the war against science and reason. It’s fanatically entrenched in Australia.
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SA is a good example this morning. Early morning demand 3 x times local generation. VIC interconnectors maxed. Mass of local wind generation becalmed and out putting out a couple hundred MW.
Not sure how Bowen thinks this will work in the long term. Perhaps he thinks there will always be an interconnector to somewhere so we can just recirculate the power or something. A bit like having an economy based on making each other cups of coffee.
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I would like Bowen’s scientific knowledge or lack thereof to be assessed by independent unbiased experts. I am talking about common types of knowledge that any grade six student would or should know, not asking him to solve the time-independent Schrödinger equation freehand or anything like that.
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DM,
Were you required, as was I, to derive the main Schrodinger equation for physics exams purposes?
Now and then mentions like this make me think I used to be a bit smart. Then old age happens. But I can still recite the Periodic Table of the elements. So can Viscount Monckton, but his version is by Tom Lehrer, as we discovered in conversation. Fascinating fellow, Monckton. Geoff S
10
Is that the same as Germany’s ‘dunkelflaute’?
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The term is now being used in the Australian press and by commentators when talking about our many wind outages.
50
I’ve not researched it, but I think that the German term refers to dark, overcast days – so wind power and solar power are both pretty modest!
But that will be no problem for those in the UK, as Mr. Miliband wants to build some Very Expensive Underwater Wires [which would be fine if the offshore windmills were chopping birds] at a current cost north of £6,000,000,000; and some pumped hydro in Scottish Hills [Scottish views neither asked nor wanted, I gather]; and possibly a fleet of flywheels . . .
Auto, saving firewood
00
The news has got out there Rafe, but unfortunately not in the leftist press. Many articles have mentioned the unreliability of wind.
Was involved in a discussion once with a gent who claimed that gas peakers would always compensate for wind dunkelflautes, as they could be online within 20 minutes. However, I found one period in Tony’s records where the wind suddenly dropped in around one hour, and I’m sure that in some cases, the wind would even drop faster. Thus to obtain energy reliability, you would have to have gas always running in the background, costing twice as much and again pushing up electricity prices.
In any case, if the govt want to achieve 82% renewables, surely there would be no spare gas to run in the background.
70
David M
As you are probably aware “Public Serpents” were/are called “fat cats” and I was one of them in the Whitlam era. As it is today, the fattest were the Arts degree mob. Many science graduates I knew ended up transferring to admin positions in nebulous Departments as pay and promotion opportunity could not be ignored. Much the same today, maybe worse.
80
Anywhere else they would work would be ‘ would you like fries with that’.
10
Biden & Make-Believe Democracy
If a large chunk of the public can be persuaded that a man who is incapable of finding the door is “sharp as a tack,” they can be made to believe a lot of other things too…
Only in the world of political make-believe we inhabit in the West would The Wall Street Journal’s account of Biden’s years-long cognitive decline, and its concealment by his officials, count as a scoop.
And only in a world in which the billionaire-owned media alone constructs and polices what counts as reality would the WSJ be able to run this story without also being expected to consider what it signifies about America’s professed democracy.
The emperor, we are now told, was naked all along. How did it take more than four years for the fearless, tenacious billionaire-owned media to notice?
he WSJ reports that even back in 2021 Biden had what his officials described as “bad days” when his mind worked so poorly he had to be kept away from senior Congresspeople and his own cabinet colleagues.
So insulated was he that he rarely met even with key figures directing White House policy, such as the secretaries of State, Defence and the Treasury.
He was able to hold only two or three cabinet meetings a year during his four-year term — a total of nine, compared to 19 by Barack Obama and 25 by Donald Trump.
His aides barely strayed from his side because they needed to whisper instructions for him to carry out the simplest of public tasks, such as where to enter and exit a room.
Concern only went mainstream when he performed catastrophically in an unscripted TV debate against Donald Trump in June, eventually having to pull out of his re-election bid and let his vice-president, Kamala Harris, take over.
Shortly afterwards, it emerged that he had been receiving regular visits to the White House from a leading neurologist and Parkinson’s expert.
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The WSJ might claim this as a scoop but the reality is obscene.
The majority of the MSM willfully ignored any and all signs of the obvious decline of Joe Biden.
In fact many in the media were still stating that Biden was “sharp as a tack” and “the best he’s ever been” in the weeks prior to the presidential debate with Trump.
The MSM has rightfully earned a vote of NO confidence by the voters.
They aren’t journalists, they’re political activists.
130
It’s easy to tell they aren’t journalists by the utter dribble they write, replete with spelling and grammatical mistakes.
00
Well i couuld agree with the “best he’s ever been” part….
….because he never has been very good, !
00
Who ruled in Biden’s name? — J. Peder Zane, RCP
New Year Offers Legacy Media a Chance for Redemption
Luckily, the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, AP, CNN, and all the rest have a chance to make amends thanks to a barnburner of a scandal – the years-long efforts to hide President Biden’s diminished capacities even as his administration pursued transformational policies.
Unpeeling this rotten onion would allow news outlets to showcase their reporting chops on a massive story they were deeply complicit in covering up. They would have to detail not only White House perfidy but their own.
Biden’s stark decline was Washington’s worst-kept secret. In September 2023, an ABC News/Washington Post poll reported that 74 % of Americans said Biden was too old to be reelected. In February of 2024, Special Counsel Robert Hur declined to recommend prosecuting Biden for illegally retaining and sharing classified documents, in part because he said it would be hard to convict a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”
Instead of pursuing this important story, most outlets performed the deceptive two-step that has defined their partisan coverage during the last decade.
Just as they peppered false Russiagate articles with brief acknowledgments that there was no real evidence showing Donald Trump conspired with Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election, their dismissals of concerns about Biden’s capacities usually included a few caveats admitting what was plain to see.
There is no greater indictment of their dishonesty than their brief bows to the truth.
Biden’s exit raised an obvious and urgent question: If he can’t run for office, how can he run the country?
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Who the Hell is Running the Country?
In name, Joe Biden is America’s 46th president. His “signature” is on official documents. He is photographed periodically, whether in the Oval Office, wandering in foreign lands, or inappropriately sniffing or nibbling young children.
But he is the president in name only.
Is Joe Biden even real?
As this tweet illustrates, his height varies. In one photo, Donald Trump and Barack Obama are the same height. In another, Obama is taller than Biden, and in another photo, Biden is taller than Trump. Like an Escher print, this optical illusion begs the question of whether there is more than one “Joe Biden.”
I doubt Barack Obama is growing or shrinking, and the universe isn’t big enough for more than one Donald Trump. So, it must be Biden who’s changing.
The Wall Street Journal, taking a break from bashing Donald Trump and his supporters, published a long-overdue piece of serious journalism, “How the White House functioned with a diminished Biden in charge.”
This article was years late, but better late than never.
60
Cardboard cutout ??
10
As Biden & Co. leave, they’re doing their best to trash the country they claimed to serve
By Post Editorial Board
President Biden and his staff are going out guns blazing — all barrels blasting away to do as much damage as possible to America before they go.
Just look at the dirty-laundry list Joe (or whoever’s actually making the decisions) has rammed through as his last days tick down.
More bans on drilling for oil and gas, even after his war on domestic energy helped cripple America strategically and inflict massive price pain at the pump and elsewhere.
Heck, he even moved to squeeze natural-gas exports.
That’s as the administration agreed to yet another inane Paris Accord climate goal to drive down US emissions by close to 70% by 2035
If any of that holds — and the White House insists drilling ban, for one, will be tough to roll back — expect yet more suffering for Joes not named Biden.
The White House also loosened visa requirements for foreign workers while inking a labor agreement with federal union that will let more than 40,000 Social Security Administration employees stay hybrid.
Plus, the clemency avalanche, starting with the blanket pardon for crooked son Hunter that Joe promised he would never give, followed by hundreds of commutations for vile bribe-takers, con artists and other sleazoids — as well as letting literal child murderers dodge the death penalty.
Don’t forget the $4.28 billion in student debt relief Biden OK’d just before Christmas (a present for the affluent paid for by the poor: classic progressivism!).
In these final days of his failed administration, he (and/or his lackeys) are only delivering more failure, showing themselves not just petty and corrupt, but filled with hate for the country they were supposed to serve.
90
It’s going to be hot in Melbournistan (Australia) today. About 38C (100.4F), down from the earlier predicted 40C+.
The BoM and Lamestream Media are doing their best to maintain the terror of global meltdown and boiling oceans.
People forget that Australia can be a hot place because nowadays they spend most of their time indoors on Farcebook or other mind-numbing activities for the feeble-minded.
Back in the day, it would have been considered a great day to go to the beach.
Now people don’t even want to do that because the Government has made them terrified of UV exposure (which is simple enough to manage if you want to).
150
Sydney Moaning Herald – Labor/Greens/TEALs Mouthpiece
Sydney set for sizzling weekend as heatwave descends on south-east
South-east Australia is facing a weekend of heatwaves, with temperatures forecast to push 40 degrees in parts of Sydney.
Following a maximum temperature of 29 degrees on Saturday, the Bureau of Meteorology forecasts temperatures in central Sydney will climb to 31 on Sunday, and again on Monday to 33.
The city’s west will be characteristically warmer, with a Monday peak of 39 degrees forecast for Penrith and Blacktown, said the weather bureau’s senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury.
“As usual, the western suburbs are looking much, much warmer, definitely looking at the high 30s, if not pushing 40 degrees for places like Penrith and Richmond on Monday,” she said.
A severe heatwave warning has been issued on the NSW South Coast, though the region will experience highs only in the high 20s and low 30s.
“They’re not, by temperature, the hottest parts of the state,” Bradbury said, “because heatwaves don’t look necessarily at how high those maximum temperatures are, but more [at] how high above average they are and over a longer period of time.”
It is a different story in Victoria, where forecasts suggest it could be the hottest weekend in a decade with highs of 37 degrees on Saturday and 38 on Sunday.
A severe heatwave warning is in place for much of the state, with temperatures expected to reach 40 degrees along the Murray River and northern Victoria.
80
It is a different story in Victoria, where forecasts suggest it could be the hottest weekend in a decade with highs of 37 degrees on Saturday and 38 on Sunday.
Melbourne 1939/1900/1908
8th January 1939 – 43.1C
10th January 1939 – 44.7C
13th January 1939 – 45.6C
1st January 1900 – 40.3C
2nd January 1900 – 40.7C
16th January 1900 – 40.3C
28th January 1900 – 41.6C
15th January 1908 – 39.9C
16th January 1908 – 42.8C
17th January 1908 – 44.2C
18th January 1908 – 40.0C
19th January 1908 – 41.1C
20th January 1908 – 42.7C
140
My simple analog thermometer shows 28 C at 10:45 am in my suburban Melbourne garden.
What a blessing! No longer going to the beach as they forbade smoking and beer drinking (I think) so the backyard is perfect.
120
Melbourne ‘heatwave’. Max temps recorded.
Fri 03/01/2025 25.4C. (-3.2C)
Sat 04/01/2025 37.4C (+11.4C)
Sun 05/01/2025 38.0C (+12.0C)
Today 06/01/25. 21.0C (prediction)
Doesn’t even meet the conditions of the BoM’s revamped heatwave definition of three consecutive days of unusually high temps.
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The climate will change within a few months, it will all be frosts and freezing then… If you don’t like the heat, just wait a little.
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As shown in previous replies, 40+ C days are not unusual for Melbourne in January.
For example, from 1856 (start of Jan observations) to 1899, multiple days only.
1858: 24th_41.1, 27th_41.5, 28th_42.1;
1860: 21st_42.7, 22nd_43.9;
1862: 13th_40.5, 14th_44.0;
1870: 12th_40.1, 23rd_41.7, 24th_41.7;
1882: 18th_40.0, 19th_43.6, 29th_40.7;
1883: 15th_40.5, 16th_40.4;
1896: 12th_40.5, 23rd_42.2;
1898: 11th_42.9, 12th_40.8, 29th_41.5.
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In the next few days I plan to update my fundamental study of heatwaves of various lengths (1, 3, 5 and 10 days) in 8 major Australian cities with lengthy records of daily temperatures. I plan to add eight “pristine” stations to give some extra insight into our urban heat island problem.
In the first version I added adjusted ACORN-SAT data but I am dropping this science fiction for the new version.
Geoff S
00
Look forward to your research, Geoff, and how the BoM class the number of heatwaves. For instance, Bourke had 17 consecutive days of +40C in Jan, 1939. Is this considered as one heatwave or five heatwaves (as three days constitute a heatwave)?
If each of the three days was interrupted by a low temp then it would be five. Does the BoM have a position on this?
Good idea dropping ACORN-SAT. Bourke had an average that month of 40.4C. This has now been adjusted to under 40.0C using ACORN-SAT.
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All the wailing and gnashing of teeth by the Demoncrats about Jimmy Carter just reinforces my belief that the best kind of politician is a dead one.
90
FWIW – Willis E explores
“Use of Artificial Intelligence in Research”
And comments
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/04/use-of-artificial-intelligence-in-research/
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Tech Surge of the SMO: AI, Drones, EW, Countermeasures, and More of the Latest Advancements
Simplicius – Jan 04, 2025
We haven’t had an update on the state of the war’s technological progression in a while and the new year brings the perfect time to do so.
One of the reasons for that is because there have been a lot of predictions on the sweeping changes said to take root on the frontline by 2025, and so it’s appropriate to discuss how close these projections have been.
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King Biden has decreed that US flags will be flown at half mast for 30 days due to Carter’s death.
This means they will be flown at half mast for TRUMP’s inauguration.
Just another way the Left are expressing their hatred of TRUMP and the Anerican people they regard as The Deplorables.
Have flags ever been flown for 30 days after the death of any other former president? It does appear to be the law but surely an exception can be made for an inauguration?
https://www.va.gov/opa/publications/celebrate/halfstaff.pdf
Biden could override the rule for the inauguration but wants to make the inauguration look like a day of mourning.
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Gov. Hochul, NY’s biggest climate-change booster, has spent $415K on private jets: ‘It’s very wasteful’
She’s taking a tough line on fossil fuels — except the ones she’s spewing.
Gov. Hochul — who recently approved a controversial law that will force oil, natural-gas and coal companies to pony up $75 billion for carbon emissions allegedly contributing to global warming — has taken at least 30 flights aboard private jets since 2021, state Board of Elections records show.
The $415,000 tab was picked up by her campaign committee, records show.
“It’s very wasteful, especially for an elected official. There is no reason why any elected official in New York should be taking a private jet. Nearly everywhere in New York or upstate has a [commercial] airport that will take you anywhere in the country. New York is one of the most well-connected places on the planet,” said a local pilot experienced in private aviation.
Hochul flew with two private-airline companies, Zephyr Jets and Apollo Jets, in the last four years. It is unclear what the destinations were, but no flight cost less than $5,000 while her most expensive was trip was billed Jan. 17 for $38,594.00, records show.
The high-flying travel flies in the face of Hochul’s public commitment to crack down on profligate use of fossil fuels.
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What’s the free speech aspect of the algorithmic ‘tweak’ announced by Elon over at X? Supposedly to promote positive posts and no slagging off institutions, people, governments…
Be nice, kiddos. I thought it must be an early April Fool, because it is so odd.
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Looks like you can insult individual MPs but not Govts. You can’t tell people not to vote either, or give them wrong information about polling. Generally, their ‘free speech’ goes about this far-
“Last year we removed millions of pieces of content and suspended just as many accounts that violated our Terms of Service, including Violent speech and Hateful conduct policy.”
Its more “we’re all going to be happy and live together and when I fk you over you’re not allowed to hate me for it” as per all Govts when talking about how they consider a subject should behave..
What did Musk say?
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from Raheem Kassam on X:
The X algorithm now penalising negativity, per Musk, is a lamentable attack on cynicism, critique, ridicule, sardonicism, sarcasm, and contempt.
It is, in essence, an attack on irony over literalism.
Most of @realDonaldTrump’s best tweets ever would today be down ranked.
… and generally, things are boiling over there.
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It’s THEIR GAY-B-C
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-05/global-politics-2025-trump-ukraine-middle-east/104760668
Opinion-shaping at its gruesome “best”. Arrogance on stilts.
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What an appalling opinion piece.
The long-suffering Aussie taxpayer pays over a billion dollars a year for that garbage.
30
I skimmed over the first few paragraphs and abandoned the rest; long reads it’s called, whew! even had I been paid I didn’t have the time free.
The R B Saye is in sore need of defunding and drivel like this only emphasises the urgency of being rid of it.
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“perhaps 2025 could be the year of kakistocracy. The term describes a government run by the state’s least suitable or competent citizens.”
Lol!! We’ve had decades of that already!! A disgusting piece of propaganda that we are forced to pay for.
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The Global Warming™ has hit the UK:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/04/uk-weather-live-snow-cold-snap/
“amber” alerts, now that is just one step below red hot.
80
Every single year the people of the UK are shocked to discover that it can snow in Winter.
By next year, they will have forgotten again.
00
Covid jab scientists develop bubonic plague vaccine amid fears of next pandemic
Scientists behind the Oxford Covid jab are developing a bubonic plague vaccine amid fears a superbug strain of the Black Death could emerge.
There is no vaccine in the UK for the plague, which has killed around 200 million people worldwide throughout history.
But the team behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus jab has now reported progress in its work on an inoculation.
Government military scientists recently called for a vaccine to be approved and manufactured in bulk quantities because plague still exists in pockets of the world and has “potential for pandemic spread”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/01/04/covid-jab-scientists-bubonic-plague-vaccine-pandemic-fears/
Bird flu scare gets a yawn from the masses so onto something bigger?
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“But the team behind the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus jab has now reported progress in its work on an inoculation.”
Ah, but to make the vaccine, you first have to make the ‘superbug strain of the Black Death ‘.
Not that we’re doing all this gain-of-function research to weaponise the diseases, gosh no!
50
I could have sworn that plague vaccine was one of the required US military inoculations in the 1960s. I wonder if the effectiveness of it has now passed?
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And the winner of the 2024 best science story goes to…
‘Immortal’ jellyfish ages backwards and only grows butthole when it needs one.
From growing and removing their buttholes, to fusing with other animals to share the burden of serious injuries, scientists are excited with a species of jellyfish which keeps defying the laws of aging.
A bizarre marine creature, named the Immortal Jellyfish – scientifically known as Turritopsis dohrnil – ages in reverse. When faced with stressful times, such as injuries of starvation, the fish can regress to a juvenile stage. Not only this, boffins have found another creature which can do the same, named the sea walnut or the warty comb jelly. Their regression is just the tip of the iceberg for these incredible animals.
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/weird-news/immortal-jellyfish-ages-backwards-only-34067579
The opposite species is of course Averagus Politicianus, which spends its entire life as a butthole. 😆
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Magic tricks exposed in 2 seconds
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_spjvxwo0Ed1z23obp.mp4
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How science commits suicide:Covid-19 mRNA Nanoparticles EMIT LIGHT SIGNALS That Communicate MAC Addresses Used For Self-Assembly Inside the Blood Vessels
As aired on the Children’s Health Defense TV network, a scientist injected Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine ingredients onto a slide and zoomed in on its actions with a microscope at 100 times magnification. You can literally see microscopic particles acting as blinking lights while they self-assemble.
The scientist explains that these microparticles or nanoparticles are called “microchips” because they emit signals known as “MAC address” phenomenon. In the background can be seen “nano and micro-robots that are communicating with each other via light signals” as they are collaborating to self-assemble into what looks like a miniature satellite.
https://lionessofjudah.substack.com/p/bombshell-covid-19-mrna-nanoparticles
How these “scientists” show their faces in public is a mystery.
The same old ludicrous-by-any-metric claims of self-assembling nanotech just won’t die.
I suspect these “scientists” are members of the flat Earth society.
DM will be LOLing.😎
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“The same old ludicrous-by-any-metric claims of self-assembling nanotech just won’t die.”
When they invent it you will look silly….
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“With most centres having some of the coolest days for January on the perihelion, it is evident that the distance to the sun has minimal effect on the temperatures of the earth, despite the planet taking in about 7-8% more of the sun’s energy during this time. The ability for the ocean to absorb and distribute heat, the tilt of the earth and its seasons, and atmospheric conditions such as cloud cover, wind and rain all have more drastic and short-term effects on our weather.”
Welp… at least they didn’t put CO2 in there!
https://www.farmonlineweather.com.au/news/earth-has-passed-its-closest-point-to-the-sun/1890248
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The True Rate of Inflation
There have been many comments recently about the true inflation rate in Australia (not the one claimed by Canberra).
As a retired couple we have kept a budget and records of our spending under many categories over many years.
Reviewing the last three years (since Labor came to government) we have now evaluated the year by year increases in expense in over 20 budget categories including:
• Groceries
• Petrol
• Medical/optical/dental
• Car service and insurance
• Dining out
• Electricity
• Home and contents insurance
The increases in total expense over those three years shows an average rate of increase of 14% per annum.
This is the true rate of inflation we are all experiencing. Thanks a lot Labor Government.
So much for the ‘official’ rate of inflation of 3.5% quoted by the politicians in Canberra!
The highest rates of increase have been in groceries, insurance, petrol, medical and dining out.
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Ken
I am similarly a bit analy retentive being an old finance type. Ours is about 10-11% but it depends what you purchase and the mix. House insurance doubled in 4 years. Car insurance not as bad. Groceries are definitely in the 10-15% per annum for last 3 years. My baseball bat is well and truly ready.
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Jock, Ken,
I have kept records since we downsized in 2006.
Things like electricity bills – let me know if you would like them to compare with your work.
I do not have insurance data because I gave it all up years ago (except when compulsory) for home, car and people. Miles ahead. I do have data on the large increase in insurance for the apartment building. Geoff S
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Is it for exactly the same basket of goods or do you make substitutions as prices go up?
I don’t keep a budget but the price of many individual items I buy, groceries and other things like tools and materials for home use, go up much faster than what you suggest, at least in my case. Plus also things I import like items purchased from overseas on Ebay, Amazon and Ali Express.
Families I know with children and private school fees tend to think the rate is 25-30% overall.
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The stupid really does burn at times
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/climate-change/crimeate-change-shock-link-between-rising-temperatures-and-rising-crime-rates/news-story/dc0d219339b5a4bd9ac179440841696a
Heat causes crime at climate timescales. Finally an explanation for Singapore being such a lawless hell hole.
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It would be difficult to imagine a trio of less-deserving living recipients of the US Medal of Freedom than George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Liz Cheney! Well done, Joe! You have diminished the value of the award for all time! Vindictiveness personnified!
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Here the Roman poet Juvenal displays his contempt for his fellow citizens who are only interested in bread and circuses, much like most Australians. The bread refers to the grain dole initiated by Roman politicians in order to purchase the votes of the poor and circuses was the gladiatorial games and chariot races.
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11 years ago, AndyG55 bet me that UAH global temperatures were on a plateau, and “we are almost certainly going to start heading down hill”. It’s now 11 years later and the latest UAH headline: “2024 Sets New Record for Warmest Year In Satellite Era”, with every single year being warmer than 2014.
Will AndyG55 and his ilk accept their predictions were wrong? Or is “Global Cooling just around the corner!”
01
Sorry to break this to you, but I think you may have done your dough.
Would you like to go for double or nothing?
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FWIW – more “jab” items
“MODERNA MIGHT NOT BE ANY BETTER THAN PFIZER: URGENT: A young child died of cardiac arrest after being jabbed during Moderna’s key Covid vaccine trial.
AND PFIZER… WELL: High school students (one of whose parents (?) works in the FDA) use FDA lab and tools to find 6-470 times the 10ng DNA FDA limit in Pfizer mRNA vaccines.”
Links at
https://instapundit.com/694260/#disqus_thread
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FWIW – while Biden is giving out gongs –
“A 25-year-old pizza delivery driver rushes into a burning house to save four children. After rescuing them, the kids inform him that another child is still inside. Without hesitation, he reenters the flames, finds the girl, and leaps out of a window with her in his arms. He then carries her to a police officer, whose bodycam captures the heroic moment.”
https://x.com/BodycamVideos_/status/1874927645248659601
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I heard on the radio that the Federal Government (Australia) spent $450,000 on “welcome to country” ceremonies over the last two years.
That’s not counting states.
Plus the Feds were probably lying anyway, it’s probably far higher.
And who is getting welcomed to what country anyway?
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… about a million immigrants to Australia in the past 18 months !
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It was also mentioned that some organisations and local councils are stopping their use of the smoking ceremony. Apparently the NRL doesn’t use them.
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FWIW
“Aussie Govt ABC: “If we want to learn to live in the Anthropocene, we must first learn how to die” ”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/04/aussie-govt-abc-if-we-want-to-learn-to-live-in-the-anthropocene-we-must-first-learn-how-to-die/
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Does it matter if wind electricity is cheap if it isn’t available during a polar vortex? That’s a divide by zero sum.
Looking at windy.com there is a massive wind drought over the mid-west/west where a deep, deep freeze is happening.
I don’t have a good US wind dashboard but I did find one
https://www.eia.gov/electricity/gridmonitor/dashboard/electric_overview/US48/US48
pass the pointer over “wind” and total generation is abt 20 MW which includes the east which is still “normal”
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FWIW
“Germany Already Rationing Energy…”Avoid Using Electric Appliances Until After 11 A.M.!”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/01/04/germany-already-rationing-energyavoid-using-electric-appliances-until-after-11-a-m/
Your practice run?
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Australia leading the world to a safer future… but I don’t think it earns us any brownie points from the public though!
“the United States have become the latest to use an AI-powered traffic camera system made by an Australian company named Acusensus….The Heads Up cameras take pictures of every vehicle that passes by them, capturing images of their license plates, as well as their front seats. AI analyzes the images and determines how likely it is that a violation occurred, assigning each one a ‘confidence level,’…The Heads Up Real Time system … sends images to nearby police officers, allowing them to stop drivers before violations occur…and they can mail out tickets to offending drivers.”
..and naturally enough, for any cash-strapped Govt, they issued “6 times more seatbelt violations and 9 times more mobile phone violations per month in the first two months of the program”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/01/pay-attention-new-surveillance-cameras-driving-breakthrough-technology/
I’m glad I’ve had over 50years of driving in relative freedom, it was the best time to be a driver.
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Not only the best time to drive, when speed limits were “advisory” but we had the best music.
Eat ya heart out millennials and gen Z.
10
One of my sons and I have both flown aircraft, but for various reasons are not licenced. We are still aviation buffs. I had use of a Cessna Citation bizjet some time back, so have some feel for speed.
Sunday,5th Jan, what did we see but an aircraft likely to be a VIP, flying below 1500 feet over Melbourne suburbs less than 5km from Tulla at a lively clip that we estimated about 400 knots. Slippery little thing is not supposed to to exceed 200 knots except in exceptional circumstances, under general aviation rules.
Were these circumstances no more exceptional than taking someone like the PM from watching the Sydney Cricket test to a meeting in Melbourne?
Is there a formal mechanism to dob in pilots who might be speeding? Hard to answer. Although Melbourne airport monitors aircraft movements, VIP craft have different ways to monitor and retain flight records.
Geoff S
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It would all be on flightradar24 but I don’t know how to get historical data.
It is always there AFTER a mishap.
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