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
Group planned to attack White House UFC event using snipers and explosive drones. Thwarted by mum.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cqx10xlje1lo
10
My skepticism has now morphed into full blown cynicism.
I do not believe the official story.
There are some very bad people out there pretending to be good people.
11
If only Trump were a fascist King, he could throw people who baselessly claim he is covering up for ‘the Epstein class’ in the dungeon and put an end to such dangerous rhetoric (like German politicians do). Or he could crush freedom of speech on the internet and demand digital ID for all users, preventing loons from halfway across the country from cooking up plans together (like Australia does and soon the UK will do). Or he could ban opposition politicians from participating in elections (like Romania, France, Ukraine do) or from participating in the legislative process after being duly elected (Germany again).
Fortunately, Trump is neither a fascist nor a King, and will do none of those things. American voters and media and opposition politicians will remain free to talk all the crap they want about him and inspire homicidal loons like the guys who planned this failed mass murder plot, with no fear of repercussions.
I find it positively hilarious that the place that nearly every western technocratic politician/bureaucrat/academic claims is run by a fascist dictator, is one of the only places left in the world where they can state their idiotic opinions as much as they like and as loudly as they like without any concern of facing consequences.
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Er … the woman who was taken into custody for co-writing in a student magazine an opinion piece that displeased the authorities.
(surname=Ozturk).
How did she get on?
13
Rümeysa Öztürk was in the United States on a student visa. Student visas are not a right, they are a priviledge. The Trump administration felt she violated the terms of her student visa and revoked it. As a result, they took her into custody in order to deport her back to Turkey. She chose to fight her deportation and therefore was detained. A year later, she self-deported.
https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2026-04-17/rumeysa-ozturk-says-she-has-settled-with-us-government-and-will-return-to-turkey
She wasn’t imprisoned for speech. Prisoners can’t up and leave the country in order to escape detention. Her visa was revoked and she chose detention and fighting the revocation through the legal process rather than leaving immediately. In the end, she got her degree (win for her) and left (win for America). Everyone should be happy with the outcome, if not the process.
60
I should also add that Öztürk was in the USA for 13 years getting a PHD that typically takes 4-6 years. She spent most of her time agitating and leading protests and writing OpEds about how America sucks and Israel is evil. Student Visas aren’t eternal. If you show up to someone’s house and talk crap about them non-stop, don’t be surprised when they show you the door.
The Trump administration made a point of cracking down on ‘professional students’ from other countries who never seemed to graduate but just hung around college campuses stirring poop. Öztürk was one of those, so they tried to give her the heave-ho, but as is often a case, a bunch of activist lower-court judges blocked and stymied their efforts. Almost every one of the judges who has done that has eventually been reversed by higher courts, but cases take years to work their way up to a higher court. I am confident that if appeals are pursued, all the lower court judges who ruled in her favor will be reversed. But with her back in Turkey, the cases will probably get dropped (unless she pursues them).
60
There was a woman by that name who was an illegal alien. Same one?
How did she get on? She self-deported.
Has it been determined that “rights” guaranteed US citizens applies to everyone regardless of nationality?
00
LOL.
I’ll take ” things that never happened ” for $100, thanks Alex.
Sniping is a thing only in the minds of the ignorant.
An OWA drone on a 20km fibre optic line is a thing of security nightmare though…
00
Feels-like temperature in Western Australia.
https://i.ibb.co/8DTMvPNM/ventusky-feel-20260616t1900-28s128e.jpg
00
Yep. Quite chilly now in Perth. Have to run the air con for an hour in the morning to heat the place up.
00
Strong high pressure is causing a whiplash effect.
https://www.bom.gov.au/fwo/IDY65100.pdf
This phenomenon is relatively new and I wonder if its a global cooling signal?
00
Russian battleship fires near OAP couple in yacht. Probably a bit annoyed that the UK seized one of their tankers the other day. Some Russian mouth pieces have suggested tankers will now be rigged with explosives to be detonated in event of seizure.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20yzm84r7lo
20
>Probably a bit annoyed that the UK seized one of their tankers the other day.
Undoubtedly, although:
“British officials do not view the incident as being linked to Sunday’s operation”
– (from the BBC article)
10
Is the south-eastern corner of the Royal Moat still called the English Channel, or does Their Starmer refer to it as the Freedom Highway?
I’m surprised Mini Macron hasn’t renamed it the Emmanuel Sea, and for goodness sake don’t mention the Vikings!
10
I mentioned them once but I think I got away with it.
Sorry, but I think the world has gone mad. Present company excepted of course.
30
don’t mention the Vikings!
Three Viking boats plundering their way up the English coast. After each successful raid they moved on to their next target with the captains of 2 of the boats noting that they were having to wait longer and longer for the 3rd boat to arrive. Arriving at their 5th target, and after having waited for 5 hours for the last boat to arrive, the chief of the raiders stood up to confirm the attack strategy and allocate the role of each crew. Just as he was about to speak a collective shout went up from the third boat “Please, not raping again”.
[An unmentionable Viking joke]
00
Possible provocation by the Russian Frigate (Admiral Grigorivich) , but what were the Kelsey’s doing? Defending Britain?
A 2 degree change of course is not discernible. 20 degrees or more would be required just to be noticed. And it seems they were closing on the Russian warship when they had been warned to keep well away.
30
>Possible provocation by the Russian Frigate
Possible provocation by the UK, (referring to the seizure of the Russian shadow fleet tanker Smyrtos in the Channel on Sunday).
“The MoD said the operation happened in international waters as it was more than 12 nautical miles from the UK coast.” Source
Hijacking an international cargo ship in international waters is illegal and is usually called piracy.
30
‘… is usually called piracy.’
Sir Francis Drake was a pirate and the Queen honoured him.
This time around its a Western-led operation to bring the Ukraine war to a close.
00
No, pure coincidence, naturally.
00
The usual climate warnings are appearing as warmer conditions prevail during June, no snow disaster apparently, so what does the BoM website indicate –
“Australia’s snow season is notoriously fickle. Some years bring deep cover lasting for nearly six months (such as in 1964). Others barely cover the grass for a few weeks (such as in 2006).
The difference between a good season and a bad one may be a single weather event, such as the so-called Snowmageddon in 2014, which dropped around a metre of snow in less than a week.
The high variability of the snow season means the Bureau of Meteorology doesn’t currently produce a seasonal outlook for snow (as we do for temperature and rainfall). However, we know that the same climate drivers that affect Australia’s weather also influence our snowfall.”
“
00
What is the UN agenda this time regarding Great Barrier Reef Queensland?
More blackmail threat to tourism to influence governments?
https://www.news.com.au/technology/environment/sustainability/cigarettes-to-children-report-finds-400000-dump-trucks-of-mud-dumped-in-great-barrier-reef/news-story/2137225274470828b86006b57a179d05
00
““The Reef is being buried in mud and the cause is well understood,” he said.”
I saw no evidence of that at all in the photographs. Surely if there was a ounce of truth in their allegation it wouldn’t be hard to photograph the buried part of the reef.
I’m sure some senior politician has a relative who can solve this problem for a quick half a million dollars…
10
There must be a way to extract the muddy water before it reaches the sea.
00
Found this.
‘Muddy or cloudy waters occur as a result of negatively charged colloidal clay particles repelling each other so that they do not settle out and remain suspended in the water column. Introduction of positively charged electrolytes partially neutralizes the electrical field around the colloids and particles coagulate to form a “floc”, which settles on the lake floor. This process is termed “flocculation”.
00
FWIW
Re “Analysing the Iranian Deal”
“But first, two themes ran like vines through yesterday’s comments. First, some readers, apparently unaware where my “lucky presidents” reference came from, pushed back (gently). Less gently, other readers said they already feel gypped by the “bad” Iran deal— even before the terms are public. Let’s tackle both, especially the second one, because gypped is exactly how corporate media wants you to feel. I tried to squash that narrative yesterday, but it’s taken root like mutant crabgrass. Let’s pluck it out.
More at
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/doge-this-tuesday-june-16-2026-c?
00
Unsurprisingly, Their ABC is having a go at pulling Trump’s pants down with an ‘analysis’ based on Tehran’s version of the as yet unseen MOU.
What is in Donald Trump’s Iran deal and what does Tehran hope to gain?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-06-17/donald-trump-iran-deal-points-circulated-by-tehran/106799598
Central amongst the ABC’s hot take is that Israel is the thorn in the side of Iran and peace in the Middle East generally:
And even after this most recent deal was announced, Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon.
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz said: “The IDF will remain in the security zones in Lebanon, Syria and Gaza indefinitely … despite all the existing and future pressures.”
Analysts believe Israel’s action in Lebanon is one of the main stumbling blocks to any regional peace deal.
As opposed to the actions of Iran’s proxy, Hezbollah, in continuing its terrorist attacks on Israel.
Unfortunately the Monsters of Tehran have weaponised Trump’s unwise claim that “If I tell him [Netanyahu] to do something, he does it.“ to create international pressure and optionality on the MOU process. Our National Broadcaster neatly reflects the success of the IRGC strategy in galvanising haters of the US and Israel to support its position.
Subscription model sounds like a plan.
10
FWIW – “word for word” coming
“WATCH: Trump Says He’ll Hold a Press Conference to Read Entire Text of Memorandum of Understanding With Iran “Word-by-Word” ”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/06/watch-trump-says-hell-hold-press-conference-read/
00
Half of voters believe ONP ready for government. Another 33% believe will be ready in 2 years:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rhify_AGHA
So 83% see the possibility of a ONP government.
ONP still on top overall and bigger margin of 4% over Labor while LNP gain somewhat. With conservative preferences, ONP could be in government.
FIRE THE LIAR target now up to $4.6M.
https://donate.onenation.org.au/fire-the-liar
The ONP advertisements already getting a lot of free exposure.
20
it’s interesting that ON is picking up so many people who are interested in voting for them , yet the greens and teals are not gaining anything to boost their percentage. you wonder why? only the inner city elites have any interest in those parties, and the real Aussies are rejecting them hands down.
00
ONP cannot form a government until they have won another 70+ seats in the lower house.
Even the most devout believer must think the chances of that happening are unrealistic !
00
Talking of ON. Pauline is doing the National Press Club at 12:30 today. Might have to break my rule and watch the damn ABC. 🙁
10
ON on Fire
The latest ON advertisement coming from the Fire the Liar campaign is a real call to arms. It hits all the main targets head on.
Featuring the red haired lady herself!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yxG3FSM-1Y
00
FWIW
“The Real Competition Behind the U.S Coal Revival”
“Those conversations have stayed with me because China and India were already asking a different question.
While much of the West debated which fuels should be phased out, they concentrated on securing the affordable, reliable energy needed to grow their economies and strengthen their competitive position.
They understood something simple. Energy security is national security, and affordable energy underpins competitiveness.
Looking back, it should not surprise anyone that the U.S. is now investing heavily in coal. The real question is what took so long?”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/16/the-real-competition-behind-the-u-s-coal-revival/
10
FWIW
“FALSE ADVERTISING IS A CRIME-UNLESS YOU’RE A POLITIAN
Your local fish and chip shop is held to a higher standard than Parliament.”
https://harryr.substack.com/p/false-advertising-is-a-crime-unless
10
And
“A misuse of AI that I hadn’t foreseen”
“We know artificial intelligence (AI) can be a very useful tool for good. Sadly, it can be used for evil as well.
Police have launched a criminal investigation into an officer accused of using artificial intelligence (AI) systems to “create evidential material in a number of cases”.
The Derbyshire Police officer has been removed from front-line duties, pending the outcome of the investigation, the force said.”
More at
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2026/06/a-misuse-of-ai-that-i-hadnt-foreseen.html
00
GB News Presenter Patrick Christys reacts to the Independent R@*e Gang Inquiry Report spearheaded by Rupert Lowe
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3_-JylAVOw
How anyone who had knowledge that these atrocities were occuring and did not stand up and fight for these young girls defies imagination. It’s absolutely sickening.
All those in authority who did absolutely sweet FA should be prosecuted.
Whether they be social workers, teachers, police, council reps, politicians, etc.
Will they be prosecuted though?
Rarely if ever does justice catch up with those that were in a position of power to prevent such atrocities but failed to do so because they “didn’t want to rock the boat” or more nefarious reasons.
00
For your viewing pleasure:
Konstantine Kissin Kuts Loose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StY2AeN4EPo
00
Would people please stop using AI to poke fun at Keir Starmer
https://youtu.be/0VOqqX0lpRw?si=JycVFvUCjEimRMsy
Meanwhile in neo-Africa, Rupert Lowe releases 200 page report on grooming gangs.
https://youtu.be/mtDbQ-zWkcU?si=JpbsljnDfjmrD-RQ
Now mention child abuse in the corridors of power that’s been going on for decades, well before the Epstein files…
00
The 200 page report, for those interested:
static1.squarespace.com/static/6810978a41bbc42489eafa81/t/6a314bb1151e511944bd4421/1781615537601/The%20Rape%20Gang%20Inquiry%20Report.pdf
00
FWIW
“Elbow et al” will likely trot this out in support of more immigration –
“What the Yale Budget Lab Got Wrong About Immigration and Productivity”
“The Yale Budget Lab, in particular, has been a hotbed of negative assessments of Trump’s policies. It sees the One Big Beautiful Bill as worsening the federal deficit, raising interest rates, and slowing growth. It predicted large increases in consumer prices from the tariffs. Not everything the Yale Budget Lab produces is explicitly anti-Trump, but nothing it produces could be reasonably interpreted as an endorsement of a Trump policy.
So you will not be surprised to hear that the Yale Budget Lab’s new report on the Trump administration’s immigration reforms finds that they “will make America less dynamic and productive for decades to come.” The headline on the lab’s site is even blunter: “Lower Immigration Means Lower Productivity Growth.” ”
https://hotair.com/headlines/2026/06/17/what-the-yale-budget-lab-got-wrong-about-immigration-and-productivity-n3815985
00
FWIW
My landline “Who Called” memory bank set records yesterday –
Two 11-digit numbers, one 12-digit number and one 13-digit number.
No, I didn’t try calling back.
Any idea of where those might be coming from?
00
https://www.reverseaustralia.com/
https://www.aucaller.com/
https://www.numberlookup.com.au/
https://chatgpt.com/g/g-68fb30424aec8191ad4ae2ff390c15d5-reverse-phone-lookup-australia
00
Meanwhile in Melbourne, the food bank lines look different these days
https://www.noticer.news/food-bank-line-foreigners-southbank-melbourne/
In China, there are what are known as “grab hags”, elderly locals who stuff their bags full with free stuff at every opportunity, and have no care for others.
Not the Australian way.
00
Wildlife finalist 2026: polar bear mother and cubs sleeping on mud
https://imgbox.com/ug9QihL5
Photographer Christopher Paetkau captured a polar bear mother and her three cubs sleeping on muddy ground instead of Arctic ice, a heartbreaking image that was shortlisted for the 2026 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Nuveen People’s Choice Award.
Shot at Canada’s Hudson Bay when the seasonal ice wasn’t present…
00