JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
Jo appreciates your support to help her keep doing what she does. This blog is funded by donations. Thanks!
Follow Jo's Tweets To report "lost" comments or defamatory and offensive remarks, email the moderators at: support.jonova AT proton.me
Statistics
Many of us often view decarbonization and Net Zero as a communistic ideology.
But hasn’t it actually functioned as naked crony capitalism?
Gin up fear in the public, and squeeze.
And viola, a whole new class of billionaires.
The real genius this time, is convincing the youth and artistic educated classes that feeding the financial elite their most favored delicacy, OPM (Other People’s Money), is an act of revolution.
260
When you consider the role of the British Empire in the exploitation of anything and everything to further its capitalistic aims , then it all makes perfect sense.
Communists are the useful idiots.
Nobody believes that the British are not full-on crony capitalists, or worse.
https://totheroot.substack.com/p/how-the-british-invented-communism
60
If you follow this story you will understand why the ANZAC forces were perfidiously sacrificed in the Dardanelles caper at Gallipolli.
An ANZAC victory would have resulted in Russia having control of the seaway in accordance with the agreement between Russia and England.
The ANZACs were sent there to fail, depriving Russia of the prize.
Had Russia conducted the assault , there would likely have been no failure to defeat the Turks.
Perfidious Albion made sure that did not happen.
74
Dump the troops in the worst place to get a foothold, blame it on tidal drift.
60
I believe that where the British landed, a squad of men advanced one mile inland, found no opposition, didn’t know what to do, so they wandered back to the beach.
In the meantime the Turks got organized. So the Frontline was at the beach instead of one mile inland. Doomed to fail at that point.
The failure at Gallipoli, the blame for it, was dumped on Churchill.
50
It was a success from the Brit point of view.
If the ANZACs had not been sent in then Russia , which was advancing quickly, would have arrived and captured the Dardanelles, and per the prior agreement it would have given Russia the exit to the Mediterranean.
The British Empire sacrificed the ANZACS to prevent that outcome.
All’s fair in Love and War ,right?
This was a family squabble, although they were on the same side militarily.
51
Part of the deal with the Russians was to allow the British control of the Persian oil fields
10
Be it known that the Anglo French landings to the east resulted in far higher casualties. The ANZAC mob got the more hillier country.
20
Crony capitalism is a building block of communism. Some of the richest people on earth are Russians and Chinese.
50
It is explicit that “some are more equal than others”.
The problem is always exceptionalism /elitism.
10
‘Crony capitalism is a building block of communism.’
Russia and China became crony capitalists, with inbuilt corruption, when they dropped the communist facade.
13
That’s like saying Russia and China are cakes not flour, egg and water.
10
The communists didn’t invent the idea, but cronyism is a natural extension of the one party state.
30
UN is always on the lookout for income to keep them in the style they have become accustomed to. Only the best of everything will do.
The Climate Change™ scam is running out of puff although there are billions unaccounted for. The tax on international shipping was DoA due to the Trump administration. The current push is for taxing oil companies.
The never thought the USA would pull their membership funding. So that has them in financial strife. The UN is facing financial collapse and has 20% of staff on the chopping block. Guteras is said to had an income of $75M in the last year. Not sure how that was achieved or if the source is credible.
90
20% of staff on the chopping block?…Good!
Only 80% to go.
120
Fascism is basically socialism with out sourcing to a bunch of crony capitalists.
So the reality is lazy socialists do outsourcing and being numerically light end up having to strip cash from the hapless poor.
110
One of the biggest and most successful lies of the modern Left immediately post WW2 and since is that they identified the evil ideology of National Socialism with the “far right”. This allowed them to dissociate their own evil communist-based ideology from all the other brands of socialism. The particular socialist ideology of National Socialism that the Allies just fought a war against with 70-85 million total deaths, both sides, civilian and military, was considered just too evil, even among the low standards of the Left and it wasn’t beneficial for them to be associated with that brand of socialism which they were and still are seeking to introduce (and have been substantially successful).
There are numerous brands of socialism – communism, Stalinism, Leninism, Marxism, Trotskyism, Maoism, anarchism, Hoxhaism, Titoism, Fabianism, Anarcho-syndicalism and Jucheism (North Korea), National Socialism etc. and they all mostly hate each other.
National Socialism has its origins in Italian Fascism but with added genocidal and racial elements.
The compulsory state corporatism is what we now have in the West to a significant degree, also known as “public-private” partnerships. Corporations only survive if they do what the Government instructs and they are rewarded with taxpayer subsidies etc..
Also see:
Journal of Libertarian Studies, Volume 25, No. 1 (2021), How and Why Fascism and (National Socialism) Became the “Right”,
Allen Gindler
And:
Dinesh D’Souza, The Big Lie: Exposing the (National Socialist) Roots of the American Left.
And:
Official Australian Guidelines for Public-Private Partnerships, otherwise known as the compulsory state corporatism of the Fascists are at:
https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/infrastructure-transport-vehicles/infrastructure-investment-project-delivery/national-guidelines-infrastructure-project-delivery
And:
https://www.finance.gov.au/about-us/glossary/pgpa/term-public-private-partnerships
160
Cronyism first emerged in the Phillipines, but its said that the communist North Vietnamese took advantage during their war with the West.
At first everyone assumed that it was an Asian phenomenon.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism
02
FWIW – happenings in AI –
Start here
“I told you that we’re riding a supersonic AI inflection point. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal ran a market-crushing story headlined, “Trillion-Dollar Tech Wipeout Ensnares All Stocks in AI’s Path.” It was one of the biggest tech selloffs in history. Once again, the media is missing the gist. So once again, I’ll try to explain what’s happening in English.”
Much more at
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/champions-thursday-february-5-2026?
And other things
30
DDG has quite a good AI assistant. I often now phrase searches as a question so the AI assistant gives an answer without further prompting. I have asked it for stuff I could not find easily and it came back fast with the numbers I wanted. I asked for its source to check and it was accurate from NCEI but stuff that would take me days to find in normal searches.
DDG has modest annual revenue of $38,5M but some of that has to be going into AI. The AI asistant has improved the search engine quite a bit from my perspective. So it is value adding.
The Nvidia boss said they have an order backlog of $500bn in January. I have not yet paid directly for an AI service but I am thinking about getting something that I can use to remember my research so I can effectively train it.
So the market valuation may go up and down but AI is not going away and is not a technology fad. Nvidia is now the most precious company on Earth. It has already made six board members billionaires and 27,000 employees are millionaires.
40
Still, double check the DDG search assist.
I asked about skiers that might replace Lindsey Vonn and instead of skiers it named a skater and a snowboarder.
20
I like DDG search assist for simple stuff. I get the actual answer instead of a list of sites where the specific answer is buried SOMEWHERE. Great for factual and historical stuff. Moral/political stuff – no so much.
Elsewhere AI feeds on itself. YT feeds me a lot of vids on the Aus SAS in ‘Nam where the SAS is glorified and the blundering Yanks disparaged. If I were to think that hearing something 20 times makes it true I would believe it, I don’t. Each AI production elaborates on those that went before, like a fantastic game of Chinese whispers. I watch for entertainment, late, when the house is asleep.
20
FWIW
“CO2 Border Tariff? Don’t Even Think About It, DOE!”
“This effort by some in Congress is a similar example of taking bad policy emanating from Europe–in this case, the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism–and imposing it on American citizens.…”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/05/co2-border-tariff-dont-even-think-about-it-doe/
“Elbow’s” next trick?
50
JCII,
Yesterday I took your #17 comment as response to very long #16 about Ukrainians not able/willing to fight.
If they are not related I apologise.
10
FWIW
One of the “other things” in today’s Coffee and Covid newsletter (link in # 3) is the scalp of another democrat “big cheese” via the latest Epstein files release.
And looks like bigger news might be coming – this at Alexander Mercouris
“Starmer Caught Up Epstein Scandal About To Fall; Russia Plans Kiev Odessa Offensives; UAE Standstill”
https://rumble.com/v75cbta-starmer-caught-up-epstein-scandal-about-to-fall-russia-plans-kiev-odessa-of.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a
(I haven’t watched it yet)
50
More here
“British PM Starmer Faces Labour Rebellion and Calls for Resignation – Admits He Knew Mandelson Kept Close to Epstein After His Conviction, and Nominated Him US Ambassador Anyway”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/02/british-pm-starmer-faces-labour-rebellion-calls-resignation/
40
And
“Keir Starmer’s Epstein Nightmare: The Stink That Won’t Wash Off”
https://pjmedia.com/david-manney/2026/02/04/keir-starmers-epstein-nightmare-the-stink-that-wont-wash-off-n4949133
60
Sarah Ferguson is also embroiled in the latest Epstein dump.
Gates’ wife is damning of Bill and his association with Epstein. It is now clear why she split.
60
And the upper crust” of Norway
20
France sentences North African nurse and serial sex offender to four years for slew of sexual assaults on elderly nursing home residents
The case has become a grim symbol of what can only be described accurately as the human cost of decades of unchecked mass migration of people from cultures alien to the Western world, little to no oversight, and ideological blindness.
https://www.yourdestinationnow.com/2026/02/france-sentences-north-african-nurse.html
Sexually assaulting geriatrics?
That’s not how assimilation is supposed to work.
40
Antics inspired by the doings of Jimmy Savile.
20
More likely, the “sand-pirate, with a nod to latecomer Sa’ vile.
00
This is my submission to the draft ISP 2026.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18yCqbbN59DZdavmNGB1negCaj359XdfC/view?usp=sharing
I doubt it will change anything unless One Nation can be influential in the next government but it will be on the record like my submissions to the Finkel inquiry and the first ISP where I forecast what is now unfolding.
I would appreciate feedback before I submit. My language is a little more colourful than what is normally seen in technical submissions but I did that to make it a little more entertaining to read. It is as about as brief as I could be and cover the topics I wanted to cover.
30
First of all well done on a very well researched and written submission.
My only suggestion as a former advocate is to start by sharpening the mind of the reader. If I understand you correctly you might like to have the words “My submission is to require all bidders to offer firm generation” close to the start.
It’s the old rule of three advocacy method. First tell them what you are going to tell them. Then tell them. And finish by telling them what you have just told them.
90
Thought the same. A one-para “executive summary” up front may be worthwhile.
20
I would have thought some discussion of gas as an alternative to coal would have been included. But I realise that gas cannot be considered in the east until states start developing their own gas supplies. Still, is it worth mentioning?
From a doc writing viewpoint, I would separate the GWh figures from the units with a non-breaking space to improve readability.
20
Also I found the Discussion section a bit heavy-going, with many different trains of thought quickly following each other. Perhaps separate the discussion topics with sub-headings? And as Forrest says, finish with a “Tell ‘em what you have told them” Summary.
20
I’ll echo the sentiments that this is a very strong submission. For what it’s worth my advice would be to remove the inflammatory stuff; bird mincers and even the mention of Trump in the final paragraph. While I agree with you and understand the frustration, allowing yourself those indulgences will simply lead to an immediate dismissal of your otherwise very persuasive arguments.
50
This is updated version:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18yCqbbN59DZdavmNGB1negCaj359XdfC/view?usp=sharing
It now ends with one of Jo’s favourite observations about the weather fixers..
20
Looking good Rick. However, I believe that some longer sentences could benefit by adding commas at the natural pause points, or splitting into shorter sentences. Hopefully, should give folks some pause for thought.
00
Very good Rick. Way better than anything I could come up with.
All it needs now is to be read by somebody with influence and an open mind.
10
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark. The real tragedy is when adults are afraid of the light.
60
It’s only 9:00am as I type and already some heavy stuff is on people’s minds here on Jo’s blog.
It just might be that the great pretending of the current era is about to peak like Dutch Tulip Mania.
I’m just off down the garden to talk to the cows over the back fence. I’ll let everybody know if they share any wisdom.
50
That’ll be an udder waste of time. 😆
30
Nice one JC.
Turns out they had very little to say. Perhaps that was their wisdom.
30
“it is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to talk and remove all doubt”.
Attributed variously to Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain.
Probably as old as the hills.
30
‘No moos is good moos’.
10
It’s a good thing that your cows weren’t leftists, like the ones in this clip…
20
‘Cows’ with udders, but referred to as ‘he’. Up with the times?
It’s very funny anyway.
00
My dog might be a democrat
00
My dog might be a democrat
Sorry ’bout that.
00
“Management brain” is such a fascinating condition. 😁
10
AI generated clip for the day.
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_t9tvh8ppqq1a8kiik.mp4
60
Fascinating for an old fan of surrealism such as myself.
10
That was excellent JC.
I just heard a yarn that 3I/Atlas briefly activated something beneath the Great Pyramid, picked up by three independent monitors, a three and a half second electromagnetic pulse.
Obviously, this is open to speculation.
00
I’m wondering if surrealism wasn’t a reaction to the scientific age.
Prior, I think people lived in near surreal state of awareness, witches, dragons, spirits in the woods.
Then came photos and airplanes.
A shared reality arose and an era of limited superstition became dominant.
Now a photo or film is not verification.
And UAP fill the skies and authorities (US Congress) tell us they maybe inter-dimensional.
Perhaps a return to the surrealism of the old pre-science human condition?
Repeating myself, but Pandemic is the historical marker.
The turning of the Age of Science.
Science, almost in an instant, turned from a promise of human liberation into a threat of totalitarian oppression.
The second stage of the anti-intellectual and anti-human crusade nearly entirely created and implemented by the UNIPCC.
You can see the wheels spinning in Brussels, Davos, and London, in their pointy little heads as they thrash around trying to organize stage three.
00
Industry super funds are losing members and assets under management:
https://www.professionalplanner.com.au/2026/02/industry-funds-coming-pressure-from-adviser-platforms/
Woke will ruin any business.
41
New Chinese weapon.
10
Would need to work better than their aircraft and carriers.
20
Chinesium, portable, 20GW satellite shooter.
Conical radiation pattern, atmospheric absorption…
Totally plausible.
The Kessler Syndrome is already at the tipping point, no CCP help needed.
00
“The TPG1000Cs is only four meters (13 feet) long and it weighs only five tons,”
“Long March 9 to have a maximum payload capacity of 150,000 kg to low Earth orbit (LEO) and 54,000 kg to trans-lunar injection.”
They won’t use it from the ground, there will be no atmospheric absorption, and I expect they will make it into a coherent beam so its a laser, not a cone.
00
FWIW
“A BRILLIANT take on cows, methane, and climate”
“Every once in awhile, the climate chaos noise gets condensed into something simple. Reduced to fact in the crucible of truth. This post on X was one of those moments:”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/02/05/a-brilliant-take-on-cows-methane-and-climate/
For Forest Gardner at #10.1.1
The cows could have told you this but presumed that you all ready knew it?
20
I checked before answering: Buffaloes are ruminants. There would have been more of then before settlement than there are cattle today
30
What a goose. Read bison.
10
H
Buffaloes are also ruminants.
And think of the stability to that cycle generated by all the sacred cattle in India
10
It was a poorly written post. I was referring to the Nth America plains but I neglected to mention that. 🙁
The rumen is a mini fermentation vat spewing methane constantly.
20
How much of that methane produced by the anerobes is instantly gobbled up by facultative aerobes and turned into CO2?
I expect its about 100%, there’s energy left in that methane molecule that someone can use. More methane mean more methanotrophs, just like more CO2 means more green leafs…
00
Ask me something about vacuum tubes or magnetrons and I’ll try to answer.
00
WRT this – think about any methane producing animal population that is on a continuing increase at the moment.
Only one that comes to mind is humans.
And they mightn’t be either given current population prediction revisions
00
Nearly half of Japanese won’t get vaxxed in a future pandemic
The study by eight University of Tokyo researchers was published last week on the medRxiv preprint server. A total of 28,000 participants ages 15-84 took part in the survey, conducted between December 2024 and January 2025.
The survey’s results showed that 53.1 percent of respondents said they would be willing to get vaccinated in a future pandemic with a similar case fatality rate to that of COVID-19. Only 14.9 percent of those who said they did not receive a COVID-19 vaccine said they would be willing to get vaccinated in the next pandemic.
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/nearly-half-of-japanese-surveyed-said-wont-get-vaccinated-future-pandemic/
Well, that’ll be a winter of hospitalisation and death for the unvaxxed won’t it. Just like Covid. Not.
50
Is it not best practice NOT to vaccinate during a pandemic?
When was that changed?
Let me guess – at the same time as the definition of a vaccine was changed to mean something that did NOT provide immunity.
20
ST Star Fleet Academy (SFA)episode 5 is out.
DS9’s Benjamin Sisco brings back memories…
Trot out the old fan faves to help prop SFA up.
Silo S3’s still 6 months away. Groan.
00
S.F.A. How appropriate.
10
Fanny Adams ?
00
Giving away your age farmerbraun?
00
My Dad used to speak of Sweet Fanny Adams. I never met her.
20
Remember that location of things mysteriously missing as being
“Up in Annie’s room behind the clock”?
00
Victor Davis Hanson returns and explains his illness.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IauIvQaKSI
00
Washington Post Sacks 14 out of 19 Climate Reporters!
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/02/fired-washington-post-reporters-protest-outside-papers-offices/
My comment is: Why do they still have 5 Climate Reporters? Surely one would be enough.
40
This reminds me of a comment by Einstein re surely one would be enough!
10
Lived in DC for 15 years.
Read the WP liked like a holiness preacher reads the Bible.
Then came my born again awareness of the AGW scam.
The WP climate reporting was so bad.
I’m telling you, AGW is the mind virus that infected and neutered the entire intellectual hierarchy.
The evolution of the new pecking order is not going to be pretty.
00
Total sackings 300, I read.
00
On the looming SA elections.
‘As of the latest SA polls, Labor is ahead by a country mile and then some — a 66% to 34% lead with a first-choice primary vote of 47%. But what if One Nation (ONP) in SA displaces the Liberals from the opposition pews to the cross-bench?’ (Quadrant)
01
FWIW
Looks like “Slowly then suddenly” might not only be in a book!
“Time’s up for Keir Starmer. Mandelson-Epstein ROCKS UK establishment”
https://rumble.com/v75dbuc-times-up-for-keir-starmer.-mandelson-epstein-rocks-uk-establishment.html?e9s=src_v1_ucp_a
00
Listen to the end for their prediction on the “fate of “Dear Peter””
00
BTW, here on the US Mid-Atlantic East coast, I am experiencing the harshest winter of my seven decades.
We had about 6 to 8 inches of snow, followed immediately by freezing sleet type accumulation.
So we have half a foot of powder covered by about 5 to 6 inches of hard ice.
Now add two weeks of hard freezing temps with no relief in sight.
The surface areas are like a dry river bed covered with grapefruit size hard ice rocks.
Snow removal can only be done with a pointed shovel.
And of course, the great educated intellects amongst whom I live, consider a harsh winter verification of the science of ‘Climate Change’.
‘Cause prior to our evil release of carbon demons from the depths of the Earth, it was Camelot.
20