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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>100 January 6 Political Prisoners Launch Historic $50 Billion Class Action Lawsuit Against Weaponised DOJ
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2024/12/january-6-political-prisoners-launch-historic-50-billion/
491
The blatantly illegal destruction of all records of January 6th events and testimonies by the committee made it abundantly clear that they had a lot to fear from the truth coming out. Embedded FBI/CIA agents previously denied. And hidden video records which freed Jacob Chansley as having clearly committed no crime as he was under police escort the entire time and led a prayer for congressmen in the chamber.
Plus the role of Liz Chaney in the committee and the prior actions of Nancy Pelosi who was in charge of security in deliberately creating the situation of conflict in the first place. The subsequent mass incarceration of people who were little more than tourists in effect was appalling and unprecedented in modern times. Many were freed since because roughly half the charges were found to be invalid, interfering with the business of Congress, which was simply not true.
And of course the role of the Democrat party members and leaders including Pelosi and others in creating the whole situation. Notwithstanding the fact that voters had real reason to doubt the legality of the election with widespread reporting of what seemed to be fraud. The extremely partisan January 6th committee had all the aspects of fairness of the Spanish Inquisition.
661
“Notwithstanding the fact that voters had real reason to doubt the legality of the election with widespread reporting of what seemed to be fraud. ”
Have you any of the”voters’real reasons to doubt the legality”?
125
Yes. Many. More importantly the people who marched on the Capitol to protest without a single weapon had every reason to believe they had been cheated. There were hundreds of complaints. And you cannot have insurrection without armed people. In a time of ‘largely peaceful’ ultra violent BLM and AntiFA protests’ it was only a double tour of duty veteran woman who was killed in the Congress at point blank range by a police officer. She was on her knees. No policemen were harmed. And what were the FBI/CIA undercover people doing in the crowd? Who brought the pipe bombs conveniently found?
But the Republicans moved on. Cheating is accepted as widespread in the US. And in this last election 200,000 Republican volunteer lawyers and scrutineers kept the elections clean. Every attempt to have unsigned ballots, anonymous voters, illegal aliens, vote harvesting and a thousand other frauds were litigated and observed and prevented. Only in California did it continue with bomb threats emptying buildings. And weeks of counting.
While Donald Trump in 2020 achieved the highest vote in American history, Biden beat it, which is beyond explanation without cheating.
This time in 2024 the Democrat vote was down an amazing 5 million! Explain that without fraud, especially when the Democrats spent an extraordinary $2.5Billion getting out the vote.
And the gates of the Congress were opened on the orders of Nancy Pelosi. She stopped the deployment of the National Guard who were ready to move. It was a trap. She has yet to answer for her decisions. Or even be questioned.
390
I followed the 2020 election closely. Trump was up 13 points in Pensylvania after the ‘walk-ins’. Scrutineers were sent home at 1:00am as counting was stopped. Next day, after a technical hitch which supposedly held up counting of mail-in votes, suddenly Trump was only 1 point ahead. Make up your own mind.
230
In Maricopa County in Arizona (I think) at midnight the graphs of the vote counting showed Trump pulling ahead of Biden on the steady graph curves. At about 2:00am Biden”s graph shoots upwards in an almost vertical line and then, when “official” counting began again in the morning, Biden’s graph stayed just ahead of Trump’s to the end of counting. Statistically impossible.
200
Ian,
I have kept my notes, made as the 2020 counts came in. All was poised for a small Trump win, but then there was a pause of routines, after which Trump was behind in several key States.
I have looked at numbers and trends and patterns for a large part of my life. This event falls in a category I had not seen before, namely “Then a miracle happens.” It was blatant, it was disgusting. Maybe, though, it gave Trump a 4 year break to ponder and plan the most effective ways to change evil ways.
I cannot believe people who deny that Trump is a patient, clever and dedicated person. Geoff S
60
Another ‘win from behind’.
In the Georgia Senate election in 2020, the Republican (David Perdue) won the first vote but failed to get a majority. In the run-off, Perdue was 115,000 votes with 92% counted. Suddenly, with 94% of the vote counted, he was less than 1000 votes ahead. Perdue subsequently lost handing the Senate to the Dems with the KH deciding vote. Mmmm!
10
The Democrat claim was that the late surge in Biden votes was a natural effect of Democrat voters using postal votes more than Republicans. So I watched the 2022 mid-terms carefully – and there was no late Democrat surge. None. Then I looked back at the 2020 election and the Democrats had been really heavily urging their supporters to use postal votes, which I think they did not do in the 2024 election or in the 2022 mid-terms. There was also no late Democrat surge in 2024. My interpretation is that the Democrats were planning to cheat via “postal” votes in 2020, and their call for postal voting was for cover. The various “enquiries” into the 2020 election seemed to be mostly an avoidance of actual enquiry. I would like to see a full and proper enquiry next year, but things are now so bad that there are more important issues.
70
And in bankrupt Victoria, Australia, one way of reducing the massive debt run up in the ‘big build’ is to undo the Victorian government order against the export of brown coal. Coal is one of Australia’s two major exports. And when compressed, brown coal has the same thermal energy content as briquettes as black coal. It is irrational for Saudi Arabia,Syria, Iraq, Kuwait, Iran, USA, Venezuela, Russia and more to be able to profit massively from energy output but coal is to be kept in the ground in Victoria and searching for gas is also banned. As is picking up sticks for firewood.
The very idea that Victoria alone is supposed to reduce world CO2 output by self impoverishment is absurd. In 2006 the Brumby government stopped a $400Million sale of brown coal to India. Because as “The Age” reported, the removal of water made the brown coal ‘blacker’. An incoming Conservative government should enable coal sales which would quickly restore the budget and enable the removal of the new and onerous Land and Covid taxes.
Across Australia, carbon hating is killing our society, impoverishing us and making no difference at all to CO2. Federally the 35% CO2 tax to be buried in all our purchases, another example of how illegally hidden Government theft is crippling our economy and doubling energy costs and travel and shipping costs.
670
But for the avowed Communists who run our country Anthony Albanese (Trotsky), Adam Bandt (Lenin) and China agent and Foreign Minister Penny Wong it’s business as usual, wrecking the joint and attacking Israel and pushing anti Semitism as government policy. No criticism of China is tolerated by Wong. They do not want us using our own coal. We must use the income to buy Chinese windmills and solar panels and thousands of transmission towers. Obviously. Even if they crumple in a strong wind.
568
One thing is certain. There is no connection between CO2 emissions and total CO2. Even total CO2 ’emissions’ have just reached 1% of what is already in the atmosphere which is itself 2% of what is in the ocean, so 0.02%. Inconsequential, as can be seen from the straight line.
Henry’s Law gives two reasons atmospheric CO2 goes up. Firstly if sea temperature goes up, as seen in Maona Loa summer and winter oscillations. Secondly if the concentration of CO2 in the upper ocean goes up, something which is pushed as effect, not cause. And absurdly called acidification when no ocean is acid. The oceans are all alkali, the same pH as very fresh drinking water from concrete pipes, apart from the salt content. Deceit and outright lies.
440
It’s bizarre isn’t it?
Selling coal to other smarter countries to produce cheap steel and electricity just so we can continue to destroy our electrical grid and replace it with a fundamentally defective, inefficient and expensive weather-dependent system. Plus we also sell gas at world’s cheapest prices on a bizarre 30 year contract, still running, with no provision for inflation or market price. https://www.smh.com.au/opinion/how-australia-blew-its-future-gas-supplies-20170928-gyqg0f.html
There’s a very good reason the world rapidly abandoned wind power (and animal and human) after 1712 when Newcomen developed the first commercially viable steam engine. James Watt improved the engine even further in 1764 to make it more fuel efficient.
Now stupid countries like Australia are regressing several centuries to before that. Other countries are industrialising and progressing out of the Third World while Australia is deindustrialising and becoming Third World, an exporter of rocks, food (until the Government finally destroys all the farmers) and “education” of fee paying foreign students who come here to be “educated” to get university degrees where “academics” are told that they’re not allowed to fail such students, even when the educational content has been totally dumbed-down.
At what point should politicians responsible for this be charged with treason?
610
There’s a very good reason the world rapidly abandoned wind power (and animal and human) after 1712
Europe: The Fall of the Holy Renewable Empire
Solar and wind power production falls drastically during unfavorable weather conditions. It happens, in fact, every year. This condition, however, now has far-reaching economic and environmental repercussions, revealing the flaws in an energy policy based on intermittent renewable energies.
Why does Germany, while having one of the highest carbon footprints, now consume the most expensive electricity in Europe? How did the country lose its energy autonomy?
For the last fifteen years, Germany invested massively in solar and wind energy, while sabotaging its own nuclear power stations. By 2023, renewable energies accounted for 55% of electricity production in the country. In 2022, it was only 48%.
The main contribution to renewable energy has comes from wind power, at 31% of total production, followed by solar power at 12%, biomass at 8%, and other renewable sources such as hydroelectricity for the remaining 3.4%. In 2024, renewable energy accounted for almost 60% of German electricity production in the first half of the year. This production level, however, is smoothed out over a given period and does not reflect moments of crisis such as the “Dunkelflaute.”
Dunkelflaute
Renewable policies would be bearable if they were based on a sustainable energy source — indifferent to the weather — such as nuclear power. In 2011, however, in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, Germany abruptly decided to phase out nuclear power, and gradually shut down fully operational plants. This decision reduced the country’s capacity to produce stable, predictable electricity and instead made heating, cooling and so on cruelly vulnerable to fluctuations in renewable energy sources. In short, when there is neither wind nor sun in Germany, the lights go out.
The phase-out of nuclear power has left Germany incapable of being self-sufficient in energy, especially during Dunkelflaute. The country imports electricity on a massive scale from France, Denmark and Poland, and has to use coal and lignite to produce electricity. Germany’s massive imports of electricity also lead to colossal increases in electricity prices for its neighbors.
But this is “for the planet”, right? Not even close.
Despite its commitment to so-called green energies, Germany still has a high carbon footprint due to its increased reliance on coal and lignite to make up for energy shortfalls.
190
Energy Policy Is Key to Peace and Prosperity
Since the dawn of the industrial age, nations have required an ample supply of affordable and dependable energy in order to thrive in the modern world. In the 19th and 20th centuries, many wars were fought over access to vast oil, coal, and natural gas deposits.
Unlike many European powers of the recent past, the United States has been blessed with an abundance of coal, oil, and natural gas deposits.
During World War II, when the United States was dubbed the arsenal of democracy, American industry produced prodigious amounts of planes, tanks, weapons, and other war materiel thanks to the massive amount of coal, oil, and natural gas in places like Texas and West Virginia.
Most Americans have probably never heard of the Big Inch or Little Big Inch pipelines. Both were built during the Second World War to bring Texas crude oil to the Northeast for refining because it was too risky to transport the oil by ship up the East Coast due to the threat of German U-boats. Without these pipelines and the enormous amount of oil pumped during the war, perhaps the United States would not have been able to tip the scales in favor of the Allies.
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s American energy dominance plan produced abundant and affordable energy for the American people.
The price of gasoline plummeted, as did the cost of electricity. Moreover, under Trump, the United States became a net exporter of oil for the first time in 75 years.
Tragically, President Biden has gone in the complete opposite direction, which has cost the average U.S. household more than $2,500 in direct energy costs.
Meanwhile, Biden has put America back into the Paris Agreement, subsidized EVs, and spent tens of billions of taxpayer dollars on absurd climate change programs.
With Trump back in the White House and climate realism replacing climate alarmism, Americans should have high hopes for the years ahead.
220
I asked Adam Bandt after his talk as he was looking to get a seat on the Melbourne City council, why his views were straight communism. His answer was shocking “we tell them what they want to hear and when we get power, we do what we want”. This he learned from his PhD on communism on the Victorian waterfront and Lenin in the military Putsch in St. Petersburg. It was before Comrade Bandt discovered the Greens were his natural home. He does not believe a word about birds and bees and trees. It’s all about power.
250
Ask the people of Broken Hill how”Renewables”performed.They have Solar panels,windmills and battery back-up which was found to be useless when they lost 7 transmission towers during a recent storm.They were with-out electricity for 24 days until they got some DIESEL generators.
150
Someone here was arguing the outage was all about the towers. Once the towers were isolated you need to operate as an island. With the installations they had, they could not do that.
00
Another possible use for Victoria’s brown coal is to generate hydrogen. There is/was a pilot plant in Gippsland that shipped some to Japan but no further comments in the media. Headed by a former Chief Scientist.
Or they could use that brown coal to make other chemicals such as methane which could be used to overcome the shortage caused by refusing to use the known offshore reserves.
Why we could make diesel which has uses such as running generators when renewables fail.
152
Hydrogen from coal involves the production of CO2 as a by-product which then has to be sequested forever according to the false hypothesis that CO2 is destroying the planet.
The Gippsland hydrogen cluster is promoted here:
https://www.committeeforgippsland.com.au/gippsland-hydrogen-cluster
The Victoriastan “carbon” (sic) capture and storage project is CarbonNet, here:
https://djsir.vic.gov.au/carbonnet
Japan has withdrawn support for the hydrogen fantasy, no surprise there. They know its a stupid idea. That’s all the more reason to believe Australia will continue with it. Being a stupid idea is a prerequisite for Australian “green” projects.
230
One can only hope that some sanity returns to Australian politics.
There are some signs that DEI is losing out to more classical ideas.
e.g. https://youtu.be/EY0uHVBedTU
100
Nope. Lignite (brown coal) has an extremely high water content, in some deposits including Loy Yang up to 40%. Lignite is also very low rank coal, and typically contains high non-carbon (mineral ash) content, again in some deposits up to 35% … under the older definition of coal from the Joint Coal Board, material with such high moisture and “ash” content may not even be classified as coal, but rather carbonaceous shale or some such. The lignite power generators at Loy Yang and Yallourn are specifically designed and engineered for the characteristics of those individual deposits. Deliberately symbiotic.
Lignite with high moisture and ash contents have no direct export market. Rather the smelted alumina is the indirect export. This worked (no longer, political interference) because the La Trobe Valley lignite deposits are enormous in thickness and volume and sub-cropped extremely close to the surface for many, many km.
Briquettes of lignite are saleable at low, low prices if the initial mined material has been dewatered as far as economically feasible. This does not remove the low rank, high ash content though, so the SE (specific energy) is still way below much higher ranking thermal black coals.
131
India was quite happy to buy Victoriastan lignite at one stage but the $1.5 billion deal was cancelled by the Government.
150
Incidentally, Batchelor is another example of a simpleton given a professional job making multi-billion dollar decisions. His only job prior to politics was a trade union official for the Furnishing Trades Union.
180
Sure, lignite is usually around 60-66% water as in places like Germany and Gippsland. This is used to argue that Brown coal is the ‘dirtiest’ fuel by the metric of least energy per ton, which is deceit. You cannot count the water.
And I did compare the thermal capacity of black coal and dry compressed brown coal and they were very close.
Energy value (net wet) 5.8 to 11.5 MJ/kg
Energy value (gross dry) 25 to 29 MJ/kg
and Bituminous coals are the most common fuel in the power sector. Their colour is black or black with layers of glossy and dull black. Their heating values range from 24.423 to 32.564 KJ/Kg. They have a carbon content of 69% to 86%
Apart from ash, its chemically all the same stuff. Rare jet black anthracite is higher at 35 MJ/kg.
However a joint venture between a Bacchus Marsh company and Monash university had developed a way to remove the water, by compression. So you do not lose energy in removing the water by evaporation.
Yes, brown coal is not usable as coking coal in demand by China for making high quality low impurity steel, but competitive with all thermal black coals as from Indonesia who have grown to equal our exports in tonnage. Our NSW black coal is particularly clean.
130
I used to buy very nice brown coal based briquettes at Buunings. They were from Germany and were a very handy and long burning option if we got caught short with firewood. I would be very happy to buy a Latrobe Valley version.
70
There used to be self service bins around Melbourne for briquettes. There is still one on High Street, Kew. Without briquettes of course. I read that it is now a coffee shop!
Here’s the first train load of Yallourn briquettes in 1925. We have gone backwards. Here’s one from Y2K
Victoria could earn many billions a year from export of briquettes. Which we can use to buy more windmills. And please the Green NIMBYs.
50
As you would understand, Australia has an abundance of minerals and energy and should be today a far more prosperous and wealthy nation, but our wealth potential has been undermined (pun intended) by politicians who lean to the left as in centre-left to far-left, the latter now dominate Labor.
During the late 1990s a small group of senior executives in a manufacturing business looked into income tax and goods & service tax and unrealised natural assets. For example Treasurer Costello was criticised for selling gold bar reserves for a profit, Labor said the profit would have been higher if the sale had been deferred, and that was true, but what if that market rise had stalled? Costello responded that Australia is one of the few nations with known to be enormous reserves of gold and silver and did not need a substantial gold bar reserve.
Right now natural gas import terminals have been constructed, importing gas would like importing coal to Newcastle.
Our calculations and assumptions indicated that well managed natural resources, including the large potential agricultural irrigation farming from Kununurra WA across NT and NQ, an area the size of Western Europe, proposed by the Abbott Coalition Government in the 2013 election campaign based on CSIRO and other studies of the area and potential, including dams on the “wild rivers”, and other potential for wealth creation for the nation and nation building, there would be no need for income tax and other taxes could be reviewed.
80
A change to the Victorian constitution to allow fracking would have a beneficial effect on their economy too. What on Earth were people thinking when they put a clause about fracking into the state constitution??? Does any other country or state have a clause as absurd as that? I searched for “weirdest constitution clauses” and found “The Five Oddest Clauses in the US Constitution” – not even close.
30
In Vicdanistan, the people don’t get to vote on the constitution, the government members do.
What is dropped in one year can be ejected the next, without any public comment.
20
People seem surprised that US electric power needs are projected to rise. They rose steadily for the 50 years 1950-2000 and likely before that:
https://www.statista.com/statistics/188521/total-us-electricity-net-generation/
Then they mysteriously leveled off for reasons I have never seen explained. Now it looks like that rising is resuming which I think is great news. Of course we once again need increasing reliable generating capacity. Fine by me.
311
I think the main driver of increased consumption will be AI and cloud computing which use enormous amounts of power which is why Big Tech is entering into contracts with nuclear and coal electricity providers. You can’t run AI and the cloud on expensive, random wind, solar and Unicorn flatulence power.
I doubt whether electric cars will increase market share under TRUMP, they will probably decrease and be seen as an expensive mistake or toys for rich people.
As industry returns to America under TRUMP, that will also cause an increase in power consumption.
230
5G as it proliferates is another increased energy sink vs 4G
80
5G is more efficient than 4G in terms of the amount of data delivered per kWh but increased consumption is due to more overall data being delivered than with 4G.
I expect this will be particularly so in Australia where people will abandon the politician-designed NBN network (wired) in favour of superior 5G connectivity at home.
https://www.viavisolutions.com/en-us/resources/learning-center/what-5g-energy-consumption
31
More fundamentally you also have to magnify that by the need for more towers and also that you dont retire 4G. All incremental.
10
The Data-Center Boom Eats Up a Lot of Land. Atlanta Says It’s Gone Too Far.
Artificial intelligence race fuels a rush for big computing facilities that provide plenty of power
Space to store and process data for everything people stream, scroll and swipe online is still in short supply.
An artificial intelligence race among the world’s largest tech companies—the so-called “hyperscalers”—is driving a land rush for ever-larger computing facilities with plentiful power.
Meta, Alphabet’s Google, Microsoft and Elon Musk’s X all operate Atlanta area data centers, or are planning new ones. X secured a $10 million local tax break for an expansion this year.
By 2028, the Atlanta metro’s data-center inventory will grow to a power load of more than 4,000 megawatts, more than 30 times the metro’s data center load in 2012, according to real-estate data firm Green Street.
Georgia Power, the top utility company in that state, said this month that the power requests of potential economic development projects, which are predominantly data centers, could total 36,500 megawatts by the mid-2030s. Today, the utility has a total capacity of 21,500 megawatts, generated and purchased. The utility plans to publish a report with more details on how it will meet future demand in January.
“There isn’t a single utility provider out there that isn’t being overburdened by requests,” said Guarino, the Green Street analyst.
80
Reminds me a lot of the build up to 2000 when they were investing heavily into Internet links, routers, firewalls, web servers … for that huge Internet boom that was just around the corner.
Then Dot-Com bust hit, followed by major wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, long arguments over browser standards, and very slowly services started showing up online.
Same will probably happen with this AI data centre build-out … they will use about a quarter of it for what was originally intended and then figure out other uses for the remainder. I would not be throwing money into data centre companies right now.
https://www.google.com/finance/quote/NXT:ASX?window=5Y
The revenue goes up, but they don’t make any Nett Income and they don’t pay dividends, and price to book is about 2.5 … I don’t see a compelling argument that you can make money on what is essentially a utility by somehow growing it to a critical point where it suddenly becomes profitable.
50
Go long squash courts and roller skating rinks.
In ancient times we used to play dangeous form of high speed royal tennis with squash rackets and a superball in empty large scale equipment rooms. All fun and games till the flouros get hit.
20
It really isn’t surprising that energy consumption is rising, even omitting the rise of crypto mining, AI, etc.
Not so long ago, we humans would use our muscles to do most of the work around the house. Today though, despite so many people apparently clamouring for lower emissions, pretty much all the housework is performed by powered devices. Virtually nobody washes dishes by hand – it all goes into the dishwasher. My memories of cutting grass as a boy at home was shoving a simple cylinder mower around the lawn, now they’re all petrol or electric. We used to ‘sweep’ the floors with brooms – now everybody uses electric vacuums. Even sweepers are powered. Done the washing? Into the tumble dryer it goes! When I watched TV as a child, we watched the one and only TV we had, in the lounge. Now we have three around the house, on top of three computers.
I don’t even yank the garage door up myself; a motor takes care of that, and while I’m waiting for the door to rise I’m being recorded by our CCTV system. Three different cameras have picked me up by the time I get to the front door. Mixing dough? Out comes the big red mixer. Chopping onions? Whhzzzzzzz goes the chopper-upper. After coffee, I’ll get the battery-operated leaf blower out. It takes the same rechargeable batteries as the mower, tree lopper, hedge trimmer, impact drill and car vacuum.
It seems the more we’re told to use less energy, the more we’re encouraged to use. Oh and all that muscle power we refuse to use at home? We’ll burn that at the expensive gym in town, and drive there.
141
Into the tumble dryer it goes!
We have a 1972 Hoover Tumble Dryer, that is maybe used once in every 2-3 Years.
Originally Hills Hoist in Back Yard finally broken by kids swinging on it, now all clothes, sheets, blankets etc, dried by Sun & Wind on external Clothes Lines.
90
Aha! Toss your clean clothes into it when they come off the line and give it quarter of an hour on cold.. Report back any differences.
I’ve had my eye out for an old tumble dryer that still runs, I want to know if tumbling them gives them a different texture, and if it removes more cat fur and lint. It seems they all hit the dump years ago.
70
Then toss in two or three 65 inch TVs, an a/c in each room, a zillion downlights, a pool, and then the KW burner of them all, an EV, we are becoming energy hogs.
50
About 1980 the ‘service economy’ was growing while goods-producing firms became more efficient or left.
https://fredblog.stlouisfed.org/2018/08/the-rise-of-the-service-economy/
Example: the Cincinnati Milling Machine Company became the US’s largest machine tool builder but became defunct in 1970. The company splintered with parts going to India.
20
The replacement of incandescent lighting with fluorescent and LED lighting had direct and indirect electricity savings. The demand for liqhting hasn’t changed, but the amount of electricity required to satisfy that demand has dropped 10-fold when those technologies are used. I also think that other electronic devices got more efficient, but their proliferation probably offset any such gains. Serious gains have also been made in air conditioning and refrigeration efficiency.
10
Total conversion to LED lighting knocked 25% off my home power consumption a few years ago.
00
“We face very serious problems with agriculture organized at the gigantic scale, utilizing multi-million-dollar machines (usually mortgaged), giant loans to put in crops, huge “inputs” of chemicals and fertilizers.
That is probably coming to an end, too, despite the current techno-narcissistic fantasies of Agribiz.
We’re probably going to need more human beings working directly on farms, smaller farms, with fewer giant machines, less borrowed money for putting in crops, and fewer chemical inputs.
Which is to say, we’re probably going to see a larger percentage of the population at work growing our food than has been the case for a long time.
I suppose it’s hard to grok our society becoming reorganized so differently, of reviving ways of living and working together that are consistent with human nature, proven over time, but considered out-of-date now.”
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/world-order-dangerously-flux
123
Sorry . The link didn’t post :-
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/world-order-dangerously-flux
30
LOL
20
Property in my district recently sold for just over $15000 / acre, nearly $40,000,000. for the block. Got me wondering who could possibly afford to get into agriculture any more.
While this block is “flats” and all tractorable, it’s still grazing country. So even if you could turn off one cow /acre (highly unlikely even with supplementary feeding as its never been stocked at this rate in my lifetime) at $1500 / head it would take 10 years to recover the cost without any additional inputs. So take into account interest rates, shire rates, bad years, low cattle prices, fires, floods and drought you could never recover the purchase price. So, who has bought this place? Dunno but certainly not a local lad trying to get into agricultural. One would have to suspect international money without any return on investment being required.
220
Maybe to install a wind subsidy plantation?
90
Probably just somebody’s “lifestyle property”
30
Probably just somebody’s “lifestyle property”
At $40million I can think of a lot of alternative lifestyles…..
Someone want to offer $15000/acre for my 100 acres or so?
40
Chump change for some people really , especially if you can feign primary producer status. You dont have to have the money just be able to service the finance.
A well off friend takes that approach to his Porsches and Mornington Peninsula property. He’s not buying them hes finacing a “lifestyle” Works for him.
30
Most likely scenario. I know a pit street farmer who sold his land near Crookwell (I think) for 28 mill. Moved to Avalon.
20
I’ll keep an eye out for the Tesla going down the drive way.
30
Hmmm. My parents were family farmers – genuine ones, not just did it a few years, quite big for the time and highly respected – and they never employed anyone. Couldn’t afford to. Farming is now a bigger operation, and farmers employ people, like me. You spend money to make money, if you dont you go broke. We would spend about $20k per month on fertiliser. These figures spook people, but it’s profitable.
Biggest problem around here is the existence of small 30 acre properties everywhere, too small for profitable agriculture, so owners have their low quality mongrel cows mowing the grass basically, not productive ag and economy. My boss leases more than several of these properties to do real ag, top export quality beef and milk. A bull costs about $40k, he has several of them.
The lifestyle money that comes into the area, makes land prices skyrocket and unviable for ag purchases. Having said that he just paid a lot of money for about 15 acres next to his farm. It has a house on it so he will rent that out, only way it was viable (and he was fearful of new greeny neighbour potential).
In summary, my point is, ag is not what it seems to the outsider. Big money machinery and inputs isnt the end of the world, and not necessarily a bad thing. This idea of returning to a Massey Ferguson 135, pitch forks and people in the field of smaller ag is a bit of a green fantasy that doesn’t stack up in reality. (Even though we are still a small farm enterprise in relative terms, but much bigger than my prents were)
90
“cows mowing the grass basically, not productive ag and economy.”
Yeah those bison were absolutely useless – created nothing but fertile topsoil.
Big inputs have not worked well in NZ recently with 15% inflation in fuel , fertiliser and freight costs.
Maybe OZ really is the lucky country.
But I doubt it.
The end of cheap diesel might be a big problem.
00
JC II posted this on Friday. It is worth reposting.
This is very good. I don’t know if it was made by RFK Jr or not. Very short, about one minute.
https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_sorqrcttbg1aqchyb.mp4
I disagree with two statements in the video. 1) I disagree with the removal of fluoride in water. 2) I don’t agree that Teflon cooking ware is harmful.
Other than that, it represents a wonderful world with people eating a healthy diet of mostly animal protein and few carbs (and certainly no insects as the Left promote for non-Elites).
It’s all part of the TRUMP Revolution. America is about to enter the wonderful next phase of its Civilisation, having cast away Leftism and electing TRUMP. Hopefully the rest of the West will follow, but for most of Europe, they are too far gone. Australia might be too far gone also.
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“I disagree with two statements in the video. 1) I disagree with the removal of fluoride in water. 2) I don’t agree that Teflon cooking ware is harmful.”
Hmmm.. Your body runs on iodine and chlorine, I would expect some changes if you have fluorine interfering with that mechanism.
Fluoride in water is just another mass-medication, and debunked by the drop in dental caries in places that don’t fluoridate.
Teflon is a chemical the human race never evolved with, like the plastics and aluminium salts, and you can be sure no-one is going to spend large fortunes testing any of those for ill effects. I wouldn’t want to bet on them not interfering with cellular processes, they’d likely bind permanently to some enzyme as they replace something we need.
There may be more of us, richer and living longer than ever before, but we are also sicker than we’ve ever been. So many things to blame…
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The anti-Fluoride group often quotes USA “excessive” water fluoridation levels saying they’re way above safe levels, but don’t mention that they’re naturally occurring, NOT added Fluoride.
Studies will say there’s no evidence that fluoridation is harmful.
Of course multiple factors may be at play when considering health outcomes and health strategies. eg the autism and vaxx debate.
Is there an actual increase in autism or is it that we now have instantaneous transmission of information globally and superior processing technology making the figures look worse.
Glyphosate was released at the same time as autism rates started climbing. Glyphosate in the food?
How about we compare unfluoridated vs fluoridated countries, like Japan?
Oh look at that!
https://fluoridealert.org/studies/caries01/
“During the past 40 years dental caries has been declining in the US, as well as in most other developed nations of the world… The decline in dental caries has occurred both in fluoride and in fluoride-deficient communities, lending further credence to the notion that modes other than water fluoridation, especially dentrifices, have made a major contribution.”
Healthy food? Lack of tooth rotting sugar?
Maybe they brush longer or use mouthwashes.
Teflon? Jury’s out but as per always, err on the side of caution.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/are-nonstick-pans-toxic
I’d be more more concerned over the health risks from burnt offerings.
ie cook your food at lower temperatures.
If your food’s charred or your kitchen is full of smoke it’s time to cook at much lower temperatures.😁
50
I wouldn’t even bother with the teflon frypan debate when a far superior product is a wrought iron fry pan from Solidteknics. These things are awesome. Solidteknics.com.au and will last a lifetime, probably 3.
I don’t care about the health debate. Those non-stick teflon things are non-stick for about 2 months, then they’re high stick.
70
“If your food’s charred or your kitchen is full of smoke it’s time to …find another wife..”
Grilled/fried food tastes so much better! We have evolved to seek it out I reckon, there’s no queue for boiled zucchini!
70
With teflon cookware you have a choice and many other options, but you have a choice.
With Fluoride/Fluorine in the water, you have no choice, government mandated mass vaccination. It’s for our teeth health they say, it works by contacting your teeth, how much in a mouthful of water actually contacts your teeth? (safe and effective)
You cook, wash your clothes, car and water your plants for your teeth health?
Your gastric system is Hydrochloric acid, Fluorine and HCL form Hydrofluoric acid, this extremely nasty acid will migrate to your bones and consume the calcium. The amount added to government water sources is small but over your lifetime, lots of small equals?
This is a medication based on studies funded from the mining companies, who had warehouses full of this toxic material and were unable to dispose of it due to it’s toxicity, unable to sell it other than for rat poison and unable to store it in steel drums for any length of time as it ate the steel. A saying I learnt in the industry is “dilution is the solution to pollution” . This is the fluoride addition to your water.
You want your wonder medication, you have options, you can buy this poison over the counter and add it to your own water for your own consumption, you have that option. As a side you can even bump off a few rats.
The condition of other people’s teeth is no business of yours!
There must be choice, with all medications, not mandates.
140
Not hard to buy bottled water for drinking. I did for years when I lived out west and the tap water smelled like rotten eggs.
40
Yep paying twice for the one product, millionaire in the making.
I worked in Winton for a bit, had to air the joint out after a shower, stunk.
40
Where have all the resident Lefties gone?
They have been silent.
They must be on summer vacation. It seems they only mostly post when they’re at work in their Government (public “service”) jobs.
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Very obvious, eh.
Part of the productivity decline.
50
Have to remember to give them a few “get back to work” responses come January.
60
By what mechanism can Australia reduce electricity prices back to how they were before fake conservative Howard initiated the destruction of our electricity grid and how soon can this happen?
It seems subsidy-harvesting contracts are too heavily embedded for this to happen any time soon.
Even if the contracts were cancelled, there would be huge taxpayer-funded compensation payable to the subsidy harvesters so what might be saved on electricity bills will be taken by higher taxes.
150
The fear of cancelled contracts is misplaced. The only real repercussion is the change in view of Sovereign risk and the impact on future investment.
But as all the ‘Clean’ energy contracts are ripoff, where people get paid by the consumer without their knowledge, it is all illegal anyway. Cancel all the Clean Energy laws and let people howl about all the free money lost. ‘Investment’ would stop overnight.
Why should people who own windmills be paid twice? Let them argue it in a court. Once for the fact of generation and then at the retail price which is itself doubled because of the ripoff. Twice as much as coal electricity. There is no logical or legal basis for it.
As for home solar, half the cost was paid by the people who do not have home solar. They can pay that back first.
270
And for coal, dig baby dig. Frack and frack, also illegal. Exploit that vast Queesnland shale. All the Gippsland free ethane. All the brown coal.
There would be so much money we would be Saudi Arabia. And we could afford a decent defence force. Plus a few nuclear power stations. And a lot of HELE coal power stations.
Yes, filthy money from dirty, dirty carbon dioxide. The same stuff output by every living thing. And a bigger threat than nuclear war? Unbelievable rubbish.
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And Daniel Andrews cancelled multi billion dollar contracts so he could support his Chinese and Union friends. The money has flowed to China like a river.
Who cared about laws mandating Australian steel? What has been done about it? Nothing. Liberals need to grow a pair.
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” Liberals need to grow a pair.”
NEVER going to happen! Uniparty rules… A distraction for the peasants to make them believe they have a choice.
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The defenestration of extremely woke Liberal leader John Persutto in Victoria is a great start. Hat tip to the amazing Moira Deeming he tried to utterly destroy, as the judge agreed.
Replaced by an ex policeman who owns a bakery. Perfect. Someone who has had to make his own living and been exposed to life outside parliament.
What puzzled me is not just the Uniparty idea, but the fact that Persutto was not interested in winning the Premiership. It’s as if he didn’t want to win.
One way to ensure your team wins every time is to make sure they are not challenged by the opposition.
Which is odd as Victorians are wild about massive State debts, Soaring electricity prices, booming Land Tax, COVID tax, rents, potholes, collapsing services, soaring interest costs of debts and parliamentarians and councillors paying themselves more and more to cover inflation they have created. Labor party Tax and Spend is totally out of control at every level. And Persutto was making himself unelectable?
What has been built for $200 Billion is not worth having. While what Victorians wanted, like the East West Link was abandoned by Daniel Andrews at a cost of many billions. It would have been long finished. We have an unfinished train line to nowhere. And a ‘tunnel’ under a creek which is many kilometers of above ground flyovers. Why? It all seems complete waste, even when it opens.
Meanwhile the public service employment in Canberra and around Australia has absolutely boomed. Endless QANGOS like Clean Energy. As Argentinian President Javier Milei correctly says, this is the danger in all democracies, a booming socialist public service which was the death of Argentina. He has already fired half of them and the place is booming. Inflation has nearly stopped and they have a positive balance of trade at last.
But John Persutto may as well have been Andrews’ lackey. Or China’s. How else could he afford to fight using QCs and lose millions and not care?
No Conservatives could vote for a man who called Moira Deeming a NAZI and held that women did not exist. On $400,000 a year, why fight for the premiership?
Otherwise why didn’t he back down long ago? That would have cost nothing. I don’t buy this story that he was terrified of Daniel Andrews who is long gone. He had a reason to fight to the death to remove Deeming. Or make himself and his team unelectable. Victoria is key to Labor. And Federal Labor is key to China’s success.
260
A good discussion about the probably criminal Pandemic.
An epidemiologist science type guy.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/Tc1mQZZcpAjq
Excess death data show zero pattern evidence of infectious respiratory outbreak.
Definitively indicate all excess mortality the result of ‘public health’ actions.
Don’t know who to believe.
Fairly confident who not believe … the official government ‘public health’ narrative and version of events.
250
Melania Trump is sueing “The View” hosts over things they said about her son Barron, 18 years old. The View is basically the viewpoint of Far Left Elites of America.
Unlike President Trump, Barron is NOT fair game as he is not a political player. And even Donald has successfully sued for malicious lies told about him even though the standards for defamation that apply to politicians or other public officials are much higher under US law than for civilians.
Video: https://youtu.be/VSwFARpoUZQ
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As Trump demonstrated with a $15Million win against Stephanopolous at ABC, you cannot tell repeated lies with malice. You can call him Hitler. Fine. Everyone gets called Hitler. Liar and fraud too. You can have a very negative view of his character, his friends, his veracity and his motives and even his morals. These are all subjective. And related to the nasty business of politics.
But the crime of rape was absolutely decided in a New York court room, so the host knew it was a lie. And repeated it four times, even when immediately contradicted. Public figures are fair game for exaggeration and very negative opinion, but known lies with malice and repeated simply to destroy someone’s character is defamation. And the subject is not the business of politics.
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In Pierre Kory’s book The War on Ivermectin: The Medicine that Saved Millions and Could Have Ended the Pandemic there is a chapter titled:
Big Harma
(referring to Big Pharma).
Just sayin’.
140
Great book- read it at least 2 years ago. Couldn’t believe the antics that big pharma blob got up to in order to discredit IVM. The fact that they contracted sabotage trials to discredit IVM was remarkable. But a strategy often been used in the past. You still get people quoting those trials saying IVM had no efficacy vs COVID. They do a lazy Google search and those trials feature in the sources of info.
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An interesting summary of the failure of German energy policy. Its interesting to see what they think is a “staggering” MWh cost. The AEMO says hold my beer!
You can bet Bowen will learn nothing from their real world experience.
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/europe-fall-holy-renewable-empire
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It’s odd that Germany shut down nuclear after the tsunami which hit Fukishima. Not a common event in Germany. It was just an excuse for the Greens.
180
The excuse was ‘earthquake and tsunami’, both hard to find in Germany, dirty tricks galore.
80
Like most things Green , it doesn’t have to make sense. Really it’s a great example of Thomas Sowell’s quip about the left “replacing what works, with what look good.
80
Norway is considering cutting power line connections with Germany because they are realising that Germany’s intermittent power generation is a net negative for the country. It enables Germany to export their high electricity prices.
South Australia burdens Victoria in the same way. If Victoria disconnected from South Australia then the cost of electricity in South Australia would skyrocket while the cost in Victoria at retail level would fall a little.
The only reason that SA can get such high penetration of intermittent generation is because it relies on Victoria to be their big battery without any benefit of price arbitrage..
First job for Victoria’s new Premier is to disconnect from South Australia or for Victoria to be properly compensated for the services supplied.
South Australian wind and solar generators have been robbing Victorian electricity consumers for most of this century.
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On this topic, it is likely that the Victorian Premier could waive the need for electricity retailers in Victoria to act as bagmen for the consumer theft (RET) established by the Howard Federal government. I believe States have retained the right to legislate in the electricity retail arena.
The current “national” law was established through the South Australian legislature as the coast jurisdiction. I do not know how the other States signed on to this arrangement.
https://www.legislation.sa.gov.au/__legislation/lz/c/a/national%20energy%20retail%20law%20(south%20australia)%20act%202011/2024.03.06/2011.6.auth.pdf
Recall how the States controlled their borders during Covid days. Look at how Tasmania limits import of biomatter. There is still fruit bins at the Victorian/SA border and in the airports.
The new Premier should call in the owners of the coal generators in Victoria; ask them how much they will charge for power if scheduled 100% of the time then set this in motion. Shut down all other generation that interferes with their 100% output. Wind and solar should only be used to reduce the demand on gas plants. Remove the semi-scheduled category and treat wind and solar higher marginal cost than coal, any CCGT and hydroid there is excess water. Wind and solar can only serve the load not served by coal working at 100% of available generation..
It will take bold moves to undo the current mess and get back to a rational source of generation.
I wonder how much money the coal generators spend on gaming the wholesale marketing system to maximise their profits.
The cost of intermittency has been underestimated by orders of magnitude.
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“I wonder how much money the coal generators spend on gaming the wholesale marketing system to maximise their profits.”
Any power company that owns a power station can game the system by shutting down a unit for ‘urgent repairs’, it could be a boiler tube problem or tube fouling or any number of reasons, pull 600MW out of the system on a high demand day and watch the prices skyrocket, they then run the remaining units 100% and laugh all the way to the bank.
Remember what happened when Callide failed spectacularly, what did prices do.
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Huh!
Why bother!
On a typical ‘high demand’ day, a 600MW Unit would be ‘earning’ around $200,000+ an hour.
Why turn it off?
When wind generation fails, as it often does, they’re making a fortune.
There’s NO REASON for coal fired power to game the system.
When you have individual wind turbines of around 3MW, and total wind plant Nameplate of even 300MW, if every one of them is operational, they’re still at the whim of the wind.
They just can’t compete with, say, Bayswater, four Units of 660MW, so 2640 times whatever the prevailing price ($/MWH) is for electricity.
There’s no point tuning off that ‘tap’ at all.
Tony.
20
Let’s accept that no one destroyed Callide 4 to game the system. What else have you that coal operators game the system?
The problem is that if they try do so they will shoot themselves in the foot. Once the boilers are up to pressure coal produces at a few cents/kWh. If they pull a swifty and trip a generator the boilers are still hot the steam is still being generated so they must vent that steam and stop the coal feed to the boiler.
All they have achieved is a cold boiler that will take hours to reheat and the heat cycle shortens the life of the kiln.
10
FWIW – one way of doing it
“Shot Down?”
https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/shot-down/
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Brilliant! What a story!
20
Good yarn.
In WWII a fighter pilot was allowed to paint the US stars & stripes on his P51 along with enemy flags after shooting down a DC3.
He married a nurse on board.
https://youtu.be/fzSWryvm90U
10
I hope it didn’t look as if I was trying to one-up you Ian, I just have never outgrown my Boy’s Own infatuation with fighter pilots. I did join the RAAF twice. 😀
20
Pfizer’s Novel Climate Change Vaccine:
https://www.theburningplatform.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GfuMjOFW0AA6xIQ.jpg
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A bit suspicious that the COVID vaxx WAS the first round of the Climate vaxx.
Boosters and mandates for disease Xs to follow.
Might watch for the next gen of birthing persons to reach birthing person age and begin birthing persons … or not.
(We’re so sorry … it was a scary Pandemic … we had NO IDEA that this ‘side effect’ … a logic pretzel, there are only effects … would ever happen … but think about the ‘side benefit’ … there’s less anthros.)
Billy the G and his gang are really really worried about Climate and population … it’s anthropogenic you know
And really really focused on mandated vaxxes. (“How dare you question us Anti-Science Heretic!”)
All the way to the bank at Black Rock Gulch.
30
Contemptible fools?
https://www.axios.com/2024/12/27/elon-musk-contemptible-fools-maga-doge
Everyone’s favourite saviours and 2025. Interesting times.😎
00
Musk was right, as discussed yesterday- people in the West don’t work as hard as immigrants, and expect a lot more money for the work they hardly do. That all counts as a Union success…
10
Meanwhile in Russia: They pretend to pay us and we pretend to work.
Australian miners are good hard working men which is just as well, mining keeps the country and my state Qld, solvent.
30
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”
JC2 – “Ha ha. Yeah, right.” 😁
30
In ‘Nam it was estimated a qtr mill bullets were fired for every hit. I don’t recall the definition of a hit.
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Sunday freebie: Death by Food Pyramid : How Shoddy Science, Sketchy Politics and Shady Special Interests Have Ruined Our Health
The phrase Death by Food Pyramid isn’t shock-value sensationalism, but the tragic consequence of simply doing what we have been told to do by our own government—and giant food profiteers—in pursuit of health. In Death by Food Pyramid, Denise Minger exposes the forces that overrode common sense and solid science to launch a pyramid phenomenon that bled far beyond US borders to taint the eating habits of the entire developed world. Denise explores how generations of flawed pyramids and plates endure as part of the national consciousness, and how the ‘one size fits all’ diet mentality these icons convey pushes us deeper into the throes of obesity and disease.
https://ufile.io/7t7nfmds
Like I said 20 years ago, the food pyramid is wrong and if anything needs to be inverted.
The “war on (dietary) fat” started in the USA in 1977 and people have been getting fatter and sicker since.
Just like today, keep the lie simple for the mindless masses.
“Dietary fat = body fat and illness”. LIE.
“CO2 = global warming and doom”. LIE.
Here we are today…
Now, when do we ban Dihydrogen monoxide?
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When I clicked on the link with my Android phone and went to the 1MB/s download there was a scam message saying virus detected and a flashing background and it was hard to escape from the page. Danger Will Robinson!
10
After that experience I scanned my phone as follows. (Not sure if this is 100% thorough.)
From Goolag:
I selected to Scan Apps which only took a few seconds.
00
Works fine on Android for me, it’s a site I’ve used for ages.
I’d say you don’t have ad and popup blockers or enabled them in your browser, and such “virus detected” popups are just marketing ads, and a lot of sites have them.
Do you have any AV on your phone?
Switch to Vivaldi. 😉
00
I have known the food pyramid to be [sort of] inverted for 20+ years. I could only have reached this conclusion because knowledgable people told me so. Why have these researchers been ignored until RFK Jr. comes to the fore?
It looks to me that there has been a corporate shrug of the shoulders implying that Americans have such bad eating habits it’s pointless trying to correct them but that ignores the fact that people DO listen and adjust. All of the bad or pointless dietary habits are a direct result of obeying edicts from on high.
The wars against salt, lard, butter, eggs, meat, cheese, coconut oil etc were not a popular uprising, they are all the direct result of faulty research promoted in the popular press.
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Cooking Oils Used By Millions Linked To Cancer In Second Study In A Week
These findings are not just scientific footnotes—they are alarms ringing in households globally, where seed oils like sunflower, soybean, and canola are staples in daily cooking. As scientists dive deeper into the health consequences of these oils, they’re uncovering a hidden cost to convenience and affordability.
In two groundbreaking studies released just days apart, researchers have spotlighted a concerning link between widely used cooking oils and cancer risks, specifically pointing to tumor growth in the colon and other organs. These studies raise critical questions about the health implications of seed oils, a staple in kitchens worldwide.
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/cooking-oils-used-millions-linked-cancer-second-study-week
Seed oils = BAD! 😁
30
FWIW – more reading for “ElBowen”
“Europe: The Fall Of The Holy Renewable Empire”
https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/europe-fall-holy-renewable-empire
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Thats a popular link today 🙂
20
I just discovered that Goolag Gemini AI assistant has automatically installed itself on my Android phone without my permission.
80
The only way to fill those data centers, gather everything, everywhere… I have enough trouble blocking the popups that tell me my anti-virus can be updated, or I can enter an email for notifications on a website, or sign-up for an extra 10% discount… The web will be unusable in a decade.
80
You’re not having a good run are you!
Tip for Android users:
Disable “Google wi-fi provisioner” from Settings/Apps if your internet is slow on wifi.😎
30
Putin near as damnit apologises for Azerbaijani jet shooting.
Will any Russian apologists follow suit and admit error? Was it you KP? It’s hard to search and my memory is failing.
24
Agreed. but it’s still very odd, apologizing for something but not admitting it? There’s a message in there. He will wear the blame but effectively is claiming only indirect responsibility. All manner of strange weapons are being used in the war in Ukraine.
So a rogue operator or an ally perhaps but for whom Putin does no have direct control. And the agent did damage to the aircraft but left it largely intact except for some critical control surfaces? That could be a small suicide drone, a consequence of Ukraine’s use of long range weapons as approved by Biden and the UK like Storm Shadow? I wonder if the aircraft was approaching over war torn Chechnya or the ongoing war in Armenia with Azerbijian? I thought it was a strange choice to have COP29 in Baku quite apart from being the original home of the world oil industry.
And why wasn’t there any reported communication from the pilot or copilot? Or was there?
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Whose law is to not attribute to malice that which can simply be explained by incompetence? The Russians have shot down their own fighters which should have IFF. Oh! Let’s not forget the Yanks blue on blue incident during the week. That could have had four aircrew dead so the aircrews were professional even if some on the ship weren’t.
As a Ukrainian attack was being carried out there was a lot of jamming including GPS, hence no tracking data for much of the flight.
12
what a weird question, why would anyone here have to say anything. Do you seriously think the other side is without flaw somehow? or did the US never shoot down that Iranian airliner for no apparent reason all those years ago. Skirting a poorly defined warzone is a perilous business both for commercial aircraft or getting friendly fired by you own side as we saw recently.
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When I was in the Army we were told that if on operations, if you didn’t know who a group was then we weren’t allowed to shoot. On the other hand the Yanks if they didn’t know who a group were, they would open fire. First time I heard the term friendly fire was with the Yanks in Vietnam.:-)
10
There is a series on Youtube – I’ve seen some numbered up to 17 (not that Ive seen them all).
For a little light entertainment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WRDwCep25k Volume 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1u_S1ANsrA Volume 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lUrH4Sbgh8 Volume 11
20
Perhaps the best example ATM is Germany.
10
Our silly Prime Minister is now claiming the natural disasters are “becoming more frequent and intense”.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/anthony-albanese-flanks-natural-disasters-becoming-more-frequent-and-intense/news-story/c7dcbdc8ecb752b0ad8907a81138990e
“We live in a country which has harsh conditions. It has always had fires, it has always had these extreme weather events, but the truth is they are becoming more frequent and more intense and that has been something that I have (seen) as Prime Minister for two and a half years and I have been to natural disasters and extreme weather events in every single state and territory of the country and that says something about this frequency.”
30
the truth is that visits and pronouncement by the PM are becoming more frequent and more intense and that has something to do with the coming election (and Labor being behind).
Will he next promise us $274 cheaper electricity?
100
Just Albo mouthing the narrative.
50
Yes, but the disaster of Alice Springs and the aboriginal communities could not be further from his mind. And that’s a disaster for which he is personally responsible through inaction. “The Voice” had nothing to do with the plight of aborigines. So who is getting the $42Bn a year to improve lives for aborigines?
As for Tanya Plibersek and her blue banded bee, it is all mumbo jumbo anti mining, agriculture and development. Unless it is for Chinese windmills and solar panels and transmission lines, in which case environmental restrictions are totally ignored.
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Customer data from 800,000 electric cars and owners exposed online
Volkswagen’s automotive software company, Cariad, exposed data collected from around 800,000 electric cars. The info could be linked to drivers’ names and reveal precise vehicle locations.
Terabytes of Volkswagen customer details in Amazon cloud storage remained unprotected for months, allowing anyone with little technical knowledge to track drivers’ movement or gather personal information.
The exposed databases include details for VW, Seat, Audi, and Skoda vehicles, with geo-location data for some of them being as precise as a few centimeters.
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/customer-data-from-800-000-electric-cars-and-owners-exposed-online/
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That’s gotta be intentional. US security agencies would have been slurping that data as fast as they could.
Plausible deniability all round, but .gov gets what they really want.
40
If the science is settled then it’s time to stop all their funding isn’t it?
80
Climate Change is not science. It is fraud. Climate Scientology run by Climatebaggers. Not a jot of truth.
50
SHOCKING CAR TAX HIKE to Target ‘Hated’ Working Class
In a total change to everything that we’ve been told before first comes in the form of a new tax on electric vehicles. Previously, fully electric vehicles were exempt from road tax due to their zero-emissions status. but now, in a 180 degree u-turn, the government are treating electric cars exactly the same as every other car and taxing them in the same way.
Electric Vehicle owners will have to pay £195 road tax every 12 months after the first year of ownership, the same as the average 2ltr petrol engined car.
First-year tax rates for vehicles emitting between 1-50g/km of CO2 are one of the steepest changes. Charges for these vehicles will dramatically rise from £10 to £110 (1000% increase)
Petrol and Diesel cars. All internal combustion engined cars are going to be taxed more, with many owners set to see yearly road tax of £735 ($1,500 AUD).
https://www.visionnews.online/post/shocking-car-tax-hike-to-target-hated-working-class
Well, I did say to get out of the UK while you can.😉
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gifting Farage an easy vote winner
60
That which can’t continue indefinitely won’t. Of course EV owners have to pay their way.
31
And an application for an offshore wind system in South Australia has been axed – the supplier withdrawing. First of many I’m guessing.
70
And hoping.
70
The whole Green robbery of STCs, LGCs, Carbon Credits could come crashing down with Donald Trump leading the way. It’s all illegal, hidden robbery. Especially the new 35% CO2 tax, which will applied to ALL goods as it will hit manufacturing, transport, steel, glass, refining, shipping and flying. This will all be marked up and passed onto the consumer and passed off as inflation, not government mandated robbery.
60
One small problem: All these scams have contracts with years to run. We really are in a mess of our own making.
How much longer for the 42c FIT on home solar to expire?
10
Victorian Liberals have a new leader. The opposition portfolios are now held by men. Although I have forever championed best person for the job and have applauded both women and men performing well, I think that there is a reality that prominent women politicians in Victoria just now are at the core of woke and woolly wobbly thinking, some being translated into policy by present State Government. These women are not the best person for the job. The job will be to reverse a number of feminist policies, then to support nuclear electricity.
The new opposition leader might not have a broad enough base of experience. He seems to have done a small business stint with a Baker’s delight branch, but time will reveal if this is enough. Geoff S
50
He has public service training, ethics, legal training and what it takes to invest in his own business. You have to make a lot of judgments as a policeman and you learn how to deal with bureaucracy too. And a small business owner has more accounting experience than the usual Federal Treasurer from Keating to Crean to Swan to Chalmers. Most of the treasurers could not do their own tax return.
John Persutto was something quite different. An opportunist who has never had a job. His behaviour was that he wasn’t going to make life too tough for Jacinta Allen. His attacks had all the strength of a soggy lettuce leaf or a wet tram ticket, as we used to say.
As Jeff Kennett wrote, it could be a landslide against Labor Victoria, but who would have voted Liberal with a man in charge who did not believe biological women existed?
I have a real suspicion that John Persutto was playing for the other team, possibly China. Like Daniel Andrews. Nothing else explains his behaviour when even an idiot would have apologized, especially after he lost the case. And he could have settled for $100K, which is why he is paying millions in costs, which is unusual. Now he is pretending nothing happened. There must be more to this story.
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If the Liberal ex-premiers Baillieu and Kennett decide against paying the three million dollar costs for which ex-leader Pesutto is liable then bankruptcy and disqualification from parliament will ensue; mother of four Mrs Deeming must be chuckling.
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If Persutto declares bankruptcy is Ms Deeming saddled with the legal costs?
It seems impossible with such a low bar but Persutto gives politicians a bad name.
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If ever I stop getting red thumbs it will indicate that I have accepted the group think here. ‘Tis uplifting knowing I am at least a little towards the edge of the herd.
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His lawyers would have thought of that. The verdict could hardly be a surprise.
And while his base parliamentary salary has dropped from $409K to $200K, he can still pay off the debt. If he declared bankruptcy, likely he could not sit in parliament. And likely his retirement pension is based on the highest level reached, so that is secure.
Also I have had his story wrong when I called him inexperienced. Has has a Law/Commerce degree from Melbourne. And at 52 he has been a practicing lawyer for at least 15 years including at Phillips Fox. He has bounced around and even worked for the Institute of Public Affairs!
I just cannot believe his appalling behaviour in the Moira Deeming affair. It is completely inexplicable and he must have known the severe consequences of refusing to settle and the massive costs involved. His behaviour also has clearly been deemed malicious by the judge.
It just does not make sense to try to destroy the career of Moira Deeming and not take the ultra cheap and simple route of a public apology.
I could not see the Victorian Liberal party as being Conservative in any way while he led it. Many people could not vote for his extreme Woke views.
His former employers at the IPA would agree. There has to be more to his behaviour. The least that could be said is that he may not be a very good lawyer. He picked an odd hill to die on.
The new leadership may well succeed now that he is a backbencher. We will see if he survives in the party for reelection.
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And Persutto’s incompetence as leader of the Opposition is comparable to that of barrister Sir Keir Starmer, who shows real and surprising signs of complete incompetence now as accidental UK Prime Minister. He cannot put a foot right on any subject.
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I try to limit my use “educated idiot” but the phenomenon has long been accepted under the guise of The absent minded professor.
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FWIW
“The Virtue That Enables All Others: A Conversation with Ayaan Hirsi Ali”
https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/the-virtue-that-enables-all-others-a-conversation-with-ayaan-hirsi-ali/
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2024/12/29/today-in-islam-153/
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And Australia, the random energy ‘superpower’.
How do you export random electricity? What are Alabanese/Bowen vaping?
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No one has ever explained what “We will be a renewable energy super-power” means.
Is it as good as being an “Australian rules football super-power”?
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https://hartuk.substack.com/cp/153751482 Shame on ignorant parents who allow greedy, corrupt politicians and ignorant doctors to decide the health of their kids!
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So Jimmy Carter has passed. RIP Jimmy, althpugh not a legend in the Presidential stakes he did seem to be a decent, well intentioned bloke.
I’m glad he lived long enough to see Biden take over the title (by a country mile) of “The Worst President Evah!”
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