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Still no free lunch: 62,000 people bankrupted by Spain’s solar subsidy-industry

The Socialists in Spain offered bonanza subsidies to build solar plants. People accepted them. Too many people accepted them.

Then the Socialist-rulers realized they could not pay them all. But the solar panels had been built. The debts were all accrued. All that was left was for investors to learn the true value of surges of surplus energy at the same time of day.

Sadly people faced losing their homes, in what must have been a grueling realization.

If only Socialists could do maths, they could have seen this coming. It’s not even quantum mechanics, it’s just arithmetic.

If only investors researched their investments and remembered that if it looks too good to be true, everyone else will pile on, and supply will wildly exceed demand, especially because no one really wants extra electrons for lunch.

Teach the children. The government should not be picking winners, but if it does, buy something else.

h/t Jim Simpson

9.8 out of 10 based on 54 ratings

Clueless: 2nd richest man in Australia thinks we have a free market in energy

Mike Cannon-Brookes might be an Australian tech-billionaire who wants to buy out one of our biggest energy companies and get rid of coal, but not only does he apparently not understand electricity grids, he doesn’t even know what a free market is.

In a free market customers could choose not to buy green electrons:

FreeMarket Electricity Bill

If we had a real free market in energy, we could a tick-that-box on our plan that said “100% coal fired, cheapest available reliable electricity”. Instead, all Australians are forced to buy electricity from a hobbled patchwork grid which has been repurposed as a Global Air Conditioner.

It’s a national grid crafted through “Renewable Energy Targets”, and pure hopium. Hidden in our electricity bills, taxes, and frozen-pea packets at Coles, are multiple subsidies to help wind and solar power.  Poor Australians have paid to help put discounted solar panels on their rich neighbors roofs, and are paying for back up, storage, stabilizers, unnecessary two-billion dollar interstate transmission lines, and demand management plans.

Every windless minute at night the poor pay more for electricity than they would have — if the Agents of Weather-changing Sorcery were not allowed to romp freely through the energy market. Once upon a time the cheapest, most reliable generator won the bids to supply and set the price, every day and every hour. Then came the Renewable Energy Target which chooseth the Saintly Green Electrons and now we have a grid surging with over-and-under supply, erratic voltage surges,  $14,000 price spikes and frequency chaos. Where once massive infrastructure was tuned to run cost effectively 24 hours a day, now it starts up and shuts down, rarely running in the profitable zone, and so is forced to charge more to cover the same costs in the fewer hours it runs.

Poor Australians are paying extra for electricity so the rich can brag about how they’re saving the planet.

Billionaire environmentalist Mike Cannon-Brookes is asked if he will pay YOU for power price hikes after $20BILLION green scheme

Stephen Johnson, DailyMail

Australia’s second richest man Mike Cannon-Brookes has promised more renewable energy will make electricity cheaper – despite a warning from Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

The 42-year-old billionaire co-founder of software giant Atlassian has refuted Mr Morrison’s suggestion the early closure of coal-fired power stations would cause consumers to pay more for their power.

Presenter David Koch asked him if he would pay consumers if their bills rose.

‘We have a free market for energy prices: we have a logical plan that shows why prices would go down as we have more and more renewables in the grid.’

Just like no place on Earth. No nation ever added more unreliable renewables and got cheaper electricity.

The man reasons like a kid with a lego set and $20 billion dollars. When Minister Frydenberg points out that shutting the old coal Hazelwood plant raised prices by 85%, Cannon-Brookes insists “it will be different” because they have eight years notice (enough time to invent batteries that work?). Then forgetting that Hazelwood was replaced by newer renewables, he claims that it can’t get more expensive, because the new renewables are “new” — not like things made when man landed on the moon. The magic of “New” failed in 2017 when Hazelwood closed, and physics hasn’t changed much since then.

Give us a free market

Let Australians opt out of renewable subsidies, and opt in to buy fossil fuel power, and new coal fired plants will be built and old ones will be restored. The wholesale rates of coal fired power are just 3c per kWh — they fell for 40 years until Kevin Rudd tried to change the global climate.

Now, if Olympic Dam wanted to build its own power plant to save on electricity costs, they would not be allowed to do it. That was Audrey Zibelman’s* big fear — that prices would rise to the point that the Big Energy Customers would leave the grid entirely.

If ten million Australians set up a Co-Op to build a Big Coal Plant and pay for it themselves, the government would ban them or force them to buy chinese carbon credits to offset the free-fertilizer produced by the plant.

The only thing stopping Australians from getting cheap electricity is The Government.

We know that because when Chinese Crypto Miners did a private deal with Redbank power in NSW    —  they got 100% coal-power direct for just 8c a kilowatt hour, while the Australians running the local newsagent had to pay 28c for the same thing.  The loophole they slid through was to be within 1km of the power station with their own cables.

But that 1km rule is only a rule because a politician said so.  That can change…

h/t Great Aunt Janet, Earl, Furiously Curious, David-of-Cooyal, Dave, KP

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*Zibelman — Formerly the CEO of the Australian Energy Market Organisation (AEMO)

9.8 out of 10 based on 95 ratings

Tuesday Open Thread

9.2 out of 10 based on 13 ratings

Things are bad when even Romanians are warning you that your leader is a tyrant

Cristian Terhes of the European Parliament: “he’s exactly like a tyrant, a dictator. He’s like Ceaușescu in Romania”

If even you raise doubts, about the vaccine, you are outcasted.

What’s the difference between what he does and what happened under the inquisition? See on one side they say, we should not believe in God, and on the other they say “we should believe in science. “

Science is not about belief…

Kings and Emperors ruled by Godly decree. Today tyrants rule by “science”. And The Science says whatever they want. If the Archbishop of Science finds the wrong thing, he will be sacked until the new Archbishop gets it right.

 

In 2014 Daniel Dickin warned that Canada will become a dictatorship under Trudeau. He observed that Trudeau had no respect for democratic processes and rigged or tampered with Liberal nominations. Some candidates were mysteriously disqualified, paperwork went missing, and Trudeau ordered candidates to vote exactly the way he wanted.

Then there are those immortal moments when Trudeau admired the dictatorship in China.

h/t David, PeterS.

9.7 out of 10 based on 72 ratings

It’s just a ship full of luxury cars on fire, and no one can put out the lithium batteries

Do EV’s make good reefs?

h/t to Paul Homewood who notes The BBC didn’t mention the burning lithium battery story.

The Felicity Ace cargo ship caught fire on Wednesday last week:

German newspaper Handelsblatt reported that an internal email from Volkswagen USA stated that the ship was carrying 3,965 vehicles of the VW, Porsche, Audi and Lamborghini brands.

It’s not clear if the fire started in an EV battery but once the flames got into them, the ship was abandoned to burn.

According to a study done in 2013 by the German Federal Ministry of Transport, Building, and Urban Development, the batteries burn extremely hot and produce noxious gases.

“In the event of a lithium ion battery catching fire, it is important to note that such a fire reaches very high temperatures, produces toxic gases and is inextinguishable,” the report concluded. — The Independent

 Five days later the fire has finally run out of material to consume.

Felicity Burnt, Cargo Ship.

Now Felicity Burnt. | Reuters

Luxury cars on fire on cargo ships is a thing now

March 12th, 2019: The Grande America caught fire with 2,000 luxury cars on board and sank.

 

Thankfully, in both cases all 22 and 27 crew members were rescued.

In December 2021, UKP&I Insurance Group prophetically issued a warning  about bulk carriers and the new risks they face with EV’s.

Though  it did not specifically blame EV’s for starting these fires, it listed some recent car carrier fires:

Grande America suffered a fire in March 2018 and subsequently developed a starboard list, causing it to capsize and sink in a depth of around 4,600 metres. The resulting oil spill stretched for 10km and the ship was carrying 2,000 cars and 365 containers, of which 45 were deemed to hold hazardous substances.

Sincerity Ace caught fire in the Pacific on New Year’s Eve 2018 with more than 3,500 cars onboard.  The crew had to abandon the vessel, and whilst 16 crew were rescued, five tragically died as a result of the incident.

In June 2019, Diamond Highway had to be abandoned by its crew in the South China Sea, due to fire, whilst carrying 6,354 cars. Thankfully, all 25 crew were rescued.

Keep reading  →

9.6 out of 10 based on 57 ratings

Privacy? Dissidents get doxxed and abused but supporters of the State can hide away

The Canadian government is so loved that the people who work for it want to hide their faces and names.

What government transparency means now: The whistleblowers will be exposed

The riot squad dress like Antifa and have no name badges. And the tow trucks in Ottawa were allowed to hide their truck branding so they suffer no pushback for towing away peaceful protestors.

Not the Canada you thought you were living in…

Who are these men hanging around as the tow-trucks took the trucks in Ottawa?

It’s hard to tell from the video, but there are a lot of people in halloween costumes doing something during the day the trucks were towed away.

Are these guys the tow truck drivers?

Which trucking companies did the towing in Ottawa. Source: Yahoo

If most Canadians really did want the truckers gone surely some tow-truck drivers would be happy to help and soak up the free advertising. Or maybe all the polls are wrong?

Government critics get abuse and death threats

The team with the army, navy, jails and the billion-dollar budget is so afraid of the unarmed family men with trucks, tractors and hot-tubs that they have vowed to hunt them down “for months”. Not only that, but they will pursue anyone who gave them $20 for fuel to get there. Trudeau won’t say it, but he’s afraid of truckers, tractors and cars rolling on, and protests popping up everywhere.

If trucks just started to carry free advertising mocking Trudeau — they’d be free moving billboards across the country — like the ultimate bumper-sticker campaign. Though no one needs a slogan — cars and trucks just need to carry the Canadian flag and let it be known, that that’s the protest. He can’t ban the flag.

Some 92,000 donors who supported the peaceful protest were publicly outed by cyber hackers. The State propaganda outlet — the CBC — is being paid by taxpayers to contact critics of the government, let them know they had all their personal details,  and harass them to explain why they donated.

If ever there was an argument to end state funded media, this surely is it.

Will the cyberhacker criminals ever face justice — or is that kind of crime not a priority like tracking down people who gave a burger to a trucker?

One Cafe owner had to close her shop after death threats and abuse, and of people throwing bricks through windows

We have been called terrorists’:

Tearful Ottawa gelato shop owner whose name was released in GiveSendGo data hack describes being hounded with death threats and says she’s been forced to shut her shop

MattMcNulty, The DailyMail

    • An Ottawa gelato shop owner whose name was released in the GiveSendGo data hack after she donated to the Freedom Convoy claims she has been forced to shut her store after receiving death threats, abusive phone calls calling her a Nazi – and a sign has been hung outside her store saying ‘Tammy supports terrorists.’

      Tammy Giuliani, who owns the Stella Luna Gelato Café, spoke to Fox News‘ Jesse Watters on Thursday about the backlash she’s faced since she donated $250 to the group of Canadian truckers protesting against COVID-19 mandates.

      ‘I think never in my 56 years have I ever experienced a country so divided…  ‘You know, we have been called terrorists. For the first 60 to 36 hours, we were inundated with hatred, with threats of violence. People threatened our team on the phone, telling them, “We’re coming to get you. We’re going to throw bricks through your window. You’ll pay for this, you Nazi supporter.”‘

That’s Justin Trudeau’s communist paradise of love and worker contentment?

The Ottawa Police Chief commits to hunting down and punishing peaceful protesters for months to come.

Even if those protestors broke no law, his job is to make sure they live in fear, and the rest of Canada knows how risky it is to speak up against government rules that most people don’t want.

Once upon a time the police were there to protect shop owners from mafia style threats.

And laws are so complex now,

That one Swastika flag at the protest was mocking Trudeau for being a Nazi

Is this flag the source of all the minion haters calling the protestors terrorists and Nazi’s? Notice the flag above it says Truck Fudeau (or something like that. )

Swastika Flag and Fuck Trudeau.

The only Swastika anyone can find was warning what Trudeau’s Canada would become.

Trudeau gaslights the nation that these are neo-Nazis marching because they carry the Swastika. It’s as if Greenpeace carry banners of a burning Earth because they want to burn it.  Now, somehow, the Nazis are the ones that stand for “medical choices”? And all the misleadia just rinse and repeat the nonsense as if Nazi medical experiments never happened.

For the moment, Trudeau’s maneuver will effectively slow down protestors pointing out the similarities. If protestors are going to use the toxic Swastika symbol, they need to make sure Trudeau’s name is printed all over it — with the words “show us your papers” or a huge needle and syringe symbol. Of course, if they do that well, the media won’t show it at all.

9.9 out of 10 based on 88 ratings

Trudeau weighs up whether to stop forced injections, but decides to trample with horses

Trudeau faced a tricky choice: he could stop forcing people to get injections-they-don’t-want and the Truckers would all go home, problem solved, but he would look like a loser. Or he could trample, spray and beat them, and steal their money instead. So he did.

It’s for their health:


When journalists and old women are attacked and police bear down on protesters with the cavalry, pepper spray and batons, we would expect most Western leaders to speak out, and most serious mastheads.  Here’s the Wall Street Journal. Note the others in the coming days (or lack thereof).

Trudeau’s Destructive ‘Emergency’

The truckers protest could have been handled without abusing the law.

The Editorial Board, The Wall Street Journal

Protests aren’t emergencies, and Western leaders had better get used to handling civil disobedience firmly without traducing civil liberties. Mr. Trudeau criminalized a protest movement, deputizing financial institutions, without due process or liability, to find and freeze personal accounts of blockaders and anyone who helps them. These extraordinary measures are a needless abuse of power.

Toronto limited the problem by closing downtown roads. Blockades at crucial border crossings were allowed to drag on and cost the North American auto industry hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet when police finally acted, border blockades dispersed peacefully, no emergency powers needed. One ended with handshakes between police and protesters.

Weak responses to civil disobedience have hurt Canada for years. New gas pipelines are increasingly stymied by blockades, often by green or aboriginal activists. On Thursday men wielding axes attacked a pipeline drill site and its workers in British Columbia. That’s worse than anything the truckers have done.

Yesterday, 20 masked people, some with axes, attacked a gas drilling site in British Columbia, casing wanton destruction, risking serious injuries:

Coastal GasLink site in B.C. left with millions in damage after ‘violent attack’ by masked assailants wielding axes

RCMP are investigating what is being described as a “organized violent attack” on pipeline workers, police and equipment at a Coastal GasLink drilling site near the Morice River in northern British Columbia.

The Coastal GasLink pipeline, which will connect B.C.’s shale gas resources to LNG Canada’s export project in Kitimat, is almost 60 per cent complete.

“In one of the most concerning acts, an attempt was made to set a vehicle on fire while workers were inside,” said the company in a statement. “The attackers also wielded axes, swinging them at vehicles and through a truck’s window. Flare guns were also fired at workers.”

It’s not clear which group did this violent assault but they aren’t truckers and nobody seems to care. Will their donor’s bank accounts be frozen?

 

 

Fittingly, the US Convoy starts next week:

US Trucker Convoy Organizer to Newsmax: Thousands Expected to Join

Thousands of semitruck drivers are expected to take part in the coast-to-coast “People’s Convoy” to protest government COVID-19 mandates starting Wednesday, Feb. 23, says organizer Maureen Steele.

“We have well over 1,000 truckers. I’ve lost count right now and I know it’s going to grow,” Steele told Newsmax’sEric Bolling: The Balance.

“Our support staff is enormous. We have the Unity Project and they have hundreds of nonprofits that are under them so they literally have thousands of people helping pull this event off.

 

h/t jojodogfacedboy, Lance, bobby b, MM From Canada, many more.

9.7 out of 10 based on 90 ratings

Truckers threaten to bust up the narrative that the Socialists care for the Workers

Managing people with bullying and coercion is a brittle and fragile tool

When it starts to break, it collapses.

Adam Mill:    Why They’re So Afraid of the Truckers

Russian. Flag, Map.

In 1981, the Soviets seemed invincible. Yet their power was fragile, vulnerable to a single fissure of courage that started in Poland. That crack lengthened and spread until the entire system crumbled. It must have seemed impossible to defeat an ideology that controlled every institution—the press, the education system, the military, etc. Yet, without firing a shot, a courageous protest in Poland did just that.

In September of 1981, the Soviet Union seemed an uncrackable monolith. On its frontiers stood a NATO force that would last only a few weeks were a conventional war to break out. The Soviets could rely upon apologists in Western academia and the media to amplify their propaganda and stifle voices demanding freedom. Yet the opposition of a labor union to Soviet Communism powerfully undermined its claim to legitimacy

The Soviet Union, like modern leftism today, appropriates and exploits the struggle of ordinary people while simultaneously making things worse for them. Their soft hands and arrogance set them apart from their supposed clients in the “real world.” Their only skill is to feast upon the fruits of other people’s labor. When real labor awakens to the true parasitic nature of the Left, the whole system comes crashing down.

No wonder they’re so afraid.

Families are being torn apart

This is a revealing write up by a former CBC reporter who feels like the protests are dividing the country and is dismayed and searching for answers. What she has missed is that the divisions were there and growing for years. The peaceful flag-waving Truckers have arrived to fill the hole where healthy national pride and a sense of community had been exterminated with fashionable vanity-guilt competitions of hate and disdain.

If Trudeau orders the police to drag away the Freedom Convoy he’ll tear Canada apart 

Canada FlagTARA HENLEY (former CBC reporter) from Toronto, DailyMail

The use of the Emergencies Act has poured gasoline on what was already a raging fire.

I fear that Canadians are headed for the sort of volatile, drawn-out, intractable conflict that tears societies apart.

The act replaces the War Measures Act, last invoked by Trudeau’s father, Prime Minster Pierre Elliott Trudeau, in 1970, and it is widely known as the nuclear option. As a journalist, I have never seen a news event this polarizing. And as a citizen, I have never seen my country this divided. For the past two weeks, most conversations have revolved around the protests in the capital.

Families are being pulled apart, including the Premier of Ontario’s own. Ford said Monday at a news conference that ‘all of this has polarized us in a way that we could never have imagined.’ One of his daughters has publicly supported the protests.

This is a large part of why I left legacy media in January, working as a current affairs radio producer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. (In fact, it was our coverage of the vaccine mandates that proved a tipping point.)

She does understand there is something very unfair fueling this:

During the pandemic, Canada has become a less equal country. Billionaire wealth has increased a staggering 68 percent. Many, many people are struggling to make ends meet.

She doesn’t realize how close to the mark she is:

If one is to take the threat of the extremist far-right seriously, as I certainly do, then the Emergencies Act is the worst possible way of handling this crisis. It risks radicalizing peaceful protestors and confirming their worst fears about government.

Trudeau has indeed confirmed that the far right — who fear big Government will misuse and abuse power — are really the sensible center, who were correct all along. She fears the “extremists” but in today’s non-debate, the “far right” is anyone who just wants to be left alone.

Trudeau is so good at achieving the exact opposite of everything he supposedly wants because he relies on censorship and character assassination instead of free speech and well mannered debate. If Trudeau thinks he’s a God, thank the sycophantic media, and patsy academia.

All he had to do to be a good democratic leader was meet the people, instead of hiding amongst his status-climbing friends.  If he’d spent time with the workers in the last two years, he could have seen all this coming and averted it so easily.

On the Ottawa front-line Police send in SWAT teams to Stop the Mischief

Ottawa Police March On Freedom Convoy: It’s ‘Starting To Feel Like The Beginning Of The End’.

According to the protesters, tow trucks are stationed nearby and are believed to be waiting to clear the area of trucks.

“The tow trucks are not labeled, they’ve had their plates removed and their companies covered so they are hiding their identities from the world,” one of protesters on the livestream said.

19th February: Things are on a knife-edge unfolding. The two protest leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich have been arrested and charged with “Mischief”. All up 15 people have been arrested, and four vehicles have been removed. On the legal front  Trudeau already  faces more than one court case already.  Two agencies concerned with Civil Liberties and the Constitution have both started applications for judicial reviews. Interest is so large that both websites crashed. Meanwhile yet another Canadian province announced an end to mandates. Newfoundland and Labrador join Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec.

Police say the “media risks arrests if caught behind lines in ‘Red Zone’”. Thus, history is being made in a peaceful “emergency” and the media are banned? Where are the screams from the real journalists around the world…

They may evict the protesters but unless Trudeau ends the mandates, the protests will just find another outlet.

Marieke Walsh appears to be there watching things unfold.

Ottawa now has armed checkpoints like East Berlin did. Who is imposing more of a blockade on Ottawans, the protestors dancing in the centre or the man that fenced Parliament and added 100 checkpoints?

“The secured area includes almost 100 checkpoints that will have police presence to ensure that those seeking entry to that secure area for a unlawful reason, such as joining a protest, cannot enter the downtown core,” acting Ottawa Police Chief Steve Bell said Thursday.

But truckers are not worried.

“It’s all smoke and mirrors,” said Niagara-area trucker Harold Jonker, who drove the first truck in to the protest and plans to be the last truck to leave. “We are not doing anything wrong and they know that.”

Canada’s capital, operating under the Emergencies Act, now has ‘no go zones” similar to a police state.

The real crackdown is happening where you can’t see it — financial institutions

Tristan Hopper, National Post

One of the most far-reaching implications of the Emergencies Act is what it prescribes for the Canadian financial system. According to the government’s new Emergency Economic Measures Orderevery single bank, credit union, investment broker and insurance provider in the country has been deputized to figure out if they have a blockader as a client, and to immediately freeze their accounts if so.

Under normal circumstances, private companies arbitrarily seizing the assets of their clients is a great way to get sued. But the order makes clear that “no civil proceedings lie against an entity for complying with this Order.”

Trudeau is giving every Canadian a reason not to use the banks. What could possibly go wrong?

He has overreached so far, even the Greens are warning this could backfire:

 In a widely circulated essay for the socialist magazine Canadian Dimension, former Green Party leadership candidate Dimitri Lascaris warned that leftist support of measures to crush the truckers could end up biting them in the end. “If we Canadian leftists endorse this government’s use of emergency powers to quell this protest, we may well be dooming our prospects of successfully mounting and sustaining the far more disruptive protests that will be necessary to preserve Mother Earth,” he wrote.

But rather than anger, this protest thrives on camaraderie and goodwill:

Lyndsay Kruisselbrink, who was on her third trip to the Ottawa protest on and planned to stay until Monday, said the feeling among participants was “very calm,” adding everybody was happy with “lots of love.”

“You have to be here to know the feeling,” she said. “You just don’t want to leave. You just love the cause and all the people. It’s like your family.”

No wonder the Truckers are willing to be so brave, and stay so strong.

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Just like that: In Austria, Germany and Switzerland — most restrictions will be gone in March

The Austrian situation is the most incredible turnaround. They had one of the most brutal mandatory vaccination programs in the world only a few weeks ago and now even laws made a few weeks ago look like they will never be enacted.

With terrible timing the Austrian government only approved the draconian mandatory vaccination laws on Jan 20th, just in time for everyone to realize that the vaccines didn’t work, and Omicron wasn’t an emergency.  Strangely the all new monster mandatory vaccination rule technically still exists, but may be scrapped before it even starts. How can it be justified to let unvaccinated people into pubs and clubs where superspreading events occur but then also fine them €1000 ea month for being unvaccinated? The absurdity of it destroys itself.

So perhaps to avoid the look of a complete nearly instant backflip Austria has established a commission to decide on mandatory Covid jabs.

Just weeks after the nationwide Covid vaccine mandate was signed into law, the controversial measure is in jeopardy. Austria’s compulsory vaccination law – the first in Europe – is set to come into effect on March 16th, when “phase two” will mean police can also check vaccination certificates and report violations to the district administration authorities. The commission will make its first report the week before, on March 8th.

Germany announces end to most COVID restrictions on March 20

Feb 17th. BERLIN — Germany’s leaders on Wednesday announced plans to end most of the country’s coronavirus restrictions by March 20, a decision that coincided with moves by neighboring Austria and Switzerland to drop many of their curbs sooner.

A three-step plan was endorsed by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the country’s 16 state governors as official figures show Germany’s COVID-19 infection rate beginning to drift downward.

Switzerland lifts most Covid-19 restrictions

The Swiss government has decided to drop most coronavirus restrictions from Thursday as the record levels of infections triggered by the Omicron variant have not translated into a peak of hospitalisations.

It’s amazing how fast a psychological state can unravel.  If the mandates had real benefits, they would not evaporate so fast.

Collecting stories of the ending of mandatory restrictions helps all of us still living under them. Good news in Western Australia today — the Great Unvaccinated will now be allowed to buy beer at drive through bottleshops. They can’t visit pubs, restaurants, clubs or gyms. The pandemic has barely arrived here — hopefully, it all shall pass.

The Canadians Truckers give us all hope.

Image: Russian Flag by Aivazovsky

*HEadline edited. “Blow” changed to “bust” lest anyone think there was any violent intent.

9.7 out of 10 based on 83 ratings

Weekend Unthreaded

8.5 out of 10 based on 15 ratings

Protesters are calling for Peace and everyone to “Get to Ottawa Now”

D-Day in Ottawa

Today the ante goes up again. Trudeau has played his wildcard. He is demonizing and dehumanizing the honest good people who just want to work for their families or cross the border without getting an injection.

Is it a two faced bluff, or will people be put in jail? One the one hand, in legal fine print, Trudeau’s emergency order still allows for peaceful protest. On the other hand, everything the authorities are doing is intended to intimidate the Truckers into leaving. And they are being very intimidating.

Freedom Convoy Protesters Are About To Get Arrested En Masse

Ottawa police have been going from truck to truck, passing out flyers to Freedom Convoy protesters which demand they vacate the demonstration zone immediately or face arrest and criminal charges.

“You must leave the area now,” reads the notice. “Anyone blocking streets, or assisting others in the blocking [of] streets, are committing a criminal offence and you may be arrested,” according to the Wall Street Journal.

The government is trying to order the police to use force against Canadian citizens who are peaceful demonstrators.

 

There are rumours busloads of police are on the way. Fences are being erected around Parliament Hill. The opposition in Parliament has told Truckers they must go from some streets where they are illegally parked, but can still protest at Parliament Hill (but if Trudeau has built a fence around Parliament Hill, what room does that leave for protests?)

Trudeau has nothing left but lies and hate: “Conservative Party people can stand with people who wave Swastikas”

Apparently Trudeau  is trying to provoke violence in Canada. He needs violence to justify his “Emergency”. The liberals who believe him will feel empowered to lash out. The peaceful protesters who waved 100,000 Canadian flags will feel betrayed by the lies.

It’s all so unnecessary.

Police make have to make a difficult choice.

The Democracy Fund has issued a brief to the Parliamentarians in Canada to advise them of what their options are.  For those interested in the legal details – it can still be revoked. But will the fear of it alone serve the purpose — just like the illegal Biden vaccine mandates still got so many people vaxed, or sacked.

This Pilot Greg Hill Has A Message For ALL Canadians

He makes a very unique point about the way complacency and fear of saying the obvious can cause disaster. He is speaking especially to the police and military.

Many of you are actively and silently questioning what you are being asked to do. 

As Jorden Peterson says: It’s not safe to speak, but it is even less safe not to speak.

You stand in these hours in a unique and difficult place… we need a wall of courage.

If it disappears, follow this link to Librti.

____________________

Trudeau is so inept he may have triggered a bank run

Actions have consequences. With the announcement that banks may freeze accounts of tens of thousands of donors, is it any wonder that many people may have tried to pull out their money? Canadians are losing faith in the banking sector too…

Bank Run? Canada’s Top Banks Mysteriously Go Offline

Tyler Durden, ZeroHedge

Days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he would invoke emergency orders to crack down on demonstrators by freezing their bank accounts, five major Canadian banks went offline on Wednesday night, as customers reported their funds were unavailable, according to technology website Bleeping Computer.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), BMO (Bank of Montreal), Scotiabank, TD Bank Canada, and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) were all hit with unexplainable outages on Wednesday evening. Users began reporting issues with banks around 1600-1700 ET, Downdector data showed.

Canadian banks went down

There were countless stories of banking customers who experienced trouble accessing their funds yesterday evening. No bank explained the source of the outrage, but essential to note the outage comes, as we said above, days after Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act.

Best wishes to the people of Canada today.

h/t to Jojodogfaceboy, Another Ian, Ian, Lance, OldOzzie, bobby b, Strop, Fran. Thank you.

10 out of 10 based on 78 ratings

Dynamite: “There is almost a billion dollars a year going into the FDA Budget from the people we regulate”

Project Veritas has caught an FDA executive on hidden camera admitting that Big Pharma pay hundreds of millions to the agency that decides whether their products get approved for use. He explains that the next goal is annual “recurring” vaccines, mandated. He talked casually about the lack of good research and how the vaccines have not been as effective as they were expecting.

This kind of expose is so important for all the people who find scientific arguments difficult. Everyone understands corruption.

Christopher Cole, an FDA Executive Officer with twenty years experience:

“The drug companies, the food companies, the vaccine companies, they pay us hundreds of millions of dollars a year to hire and keep the reviewers to approve their products.”

“…if they can get every person required to get an annual vaccine, they get a recurring return of money going into their company.”

“Just from everything I’ve heard… they’re not going to Not approve this.”

“My agency overseas vaccines”. “My office clears all the emergency approvals”

Biden wants to innoculate as many people as possible So you’ll have to get an annual shot.

It hasn’t been formally announced yet, because they don’t want to rile everyone up…

It’s going to be a gradual thing. Schools are going to mandate it.


There is so much money, how could this NOT be happening?

Pfizer brought in $37bn (£27bn) last year from Covid vaccines, and is projected to make $32bn in 2022, plus another $22bn from Paxlovid — the expensive antiviral. Net profits increased by $13,000 million from 2020 to 2021. As I’ve said before, Pfizer would not be looking after its own shareholders if it did not “grease the wheels” of the approval committees — both to make their own products easy to approve, and also to use the FDA and TGA committees to ban the competition, like Ivermectin, HCQ, and small competitors like the Australian vaccine makers. The problem here is not Capitalism, it’s the power of unaudited, unaccountable committees like the FDA and the TGA. Think about how much control they have over your daily life, and how little power we, the people, have to even get honest answers and full transparency. The Pfizer data used to force this drug on our children is still hidden.

The forced annual shot is coming if we don’t stop it

FDA executive officer is caught on hidden camera admitting Biden will force an ANNUAL Covid shot that would be a ‘recurring fountain of revenue’ for drug firms

Michelle Thompson, DailyMail

‘Biden wants to inoculate as many people as possible,’ Cole said during a February 3 conversation inside a restaurant, according to footage obtained by Veritas. ‘I think it’s going to be a gradual thing. Schools are going to mandate it.

Quotes from the recording:

“I don’t completely agree with the process. They’re looking at trying to inoculate kids under five years old. … All the tests aren’t there.”

The EUA is important. The “emergency” allows a much lower standard to approve drugs:

It’s an EUA for all age groups.

The efficacy data doesn’t have to be that high.

It (just) has to do more benefit than harm.

Normal drug approve needs far longer studies and higher efficacy.

There’s always a chance for a long term effect.

It’s harder to find like pregnant women for these studies. They haven’t tested enough on pregnancy …

It has not been as effective as they’re expecting.

Do Children’s Lives Matter?

When the hidden camera was revealed to him he claimed he was tricked, it was out of context and his office was not involved in approving vaccines.

h/t MichaelSmithNews  via TedM

The standard on Emergency Use Authorizations are not that high.

 

9.6 out of 10 based on 71 ratings

Thursday Open Thread

9.6 out of 10 based on 14 ratings

Canadian Provinces rebel against Trudeau — Quebec says “No Emergency Powers Here”

Provinces of Canada

Provinces of Canada (click to enlarge)    |    by Hogweard

Thank the Truckers

Vaccine mandates have or will soon end across five Canadian provinces, and at least four of the Premiers have also dismissed Trudeau’s call to invoke Emergency powers.

This includes some of the largest provinces, and within a few weeks, as many as 30 million Canadians out of 38 million, will be free of vaccine passports within their provinces.

The newly elected opposition leader Candace Bergen calls the Emergency Act an “unprecedented slegehammer”.

Opposition leader, Candace Bergen, Canada

Candace Bergen

To give some idea of how the Truckers have transformed politics, only two weeks ago the leader of the Canadian opposition was Erin O’Toole. He was dropped on Feb 3 by a large margin with a secret ballot – 73-45. Notably, the first and worst thing that Reuters could say about the new leader Candice Bergen was that she once worn a MAGA hat. She is more conservative than the former leader.

The Premier of Quebec, which has long had a strong separatist movement, went so far as to say he’d only support the call if it didn’t apply to Quebec, and the military was not used anywhere in Canada.

Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet said he was “surprised” to find out the Prime Minister planned on invoking such serious measures and that he has “serious doubts” that Emergencies Act powers are necessary to deal with any part of the protests across the country.

He also said his party was ready to support the Liberals in this case, but only if they committed to leaving Quebec out of the new powers and avoiding deploying military members on the ground in Canada.

Canada Flag
Premiers of Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan have also said they don’t want the Emergency Act to apply in their provinces.

Lawyer Ryan Alford says the onus is on the government to show this unprecedented step is necessary:

The declaration must brought before Parliament within seven days of the invocation, and it could be revoked if the House of Commons or the Senate vote it down. “So, for up to seven days, Parliament has no ability to prevent what’s going on,” he said. — National Post

Vaccine mandates ending in five Canadian Provinces

Saskatchewan and Alberta have already removed the vaccine passports. Manitoba will also be lifting its vaccine passport requirement on March 1. Ontario (the largest province with nearly 15 million people) has announced an end to the vaccine passports). And now, wow, Quebec is dropping vaccine passports. Quebec is the second largest province with 8.6 million people. This is the most remarkably backflip. Only two weeks ago, Quebec had some of the most draconian rules on Earth. The government was considering whether to bring in a health tax on the unvaccinated but quickly dropped that after the Trucker convoy grew. Now in a complete 180 degree turn they are unwinding the mandates and even declaring that Trudeau’s Emergency ruling isn’t legitimate in their province and isn’t justified. Naturally this has absolutely nothing to do with Those Truckers.

Remember two weeks ago the unvaxxed in Quebec were not even permitted to shop in Big Box stores — but only allowed to walk through them to buy food or pharmaceuticals if they had a personal staff escort to make sure they didn’t buy unpermitted things like toasters or socks.

Quebec announces plan to drop vaccine passport by March 14

Quebec will drop its vaccine passport requirement for all public spaces by March 14, the government announced Tuesday. Health Minister Christian Dubé explained the decision at a news conference, saying the COVID-19 situation in the province has improved enough to gradually ease the measure. As of Wednesday, Quebecers will no longer need to show a vaccine passport to enter liquor and cannabis stores as well as larger retail outlets. By March 14, the passport will be phased out entirely…  – CBC NEWS

Just like that. Amazing how the science shifts. The health minister suddenly says “the vaccine passport has served our objectives”:

“We’re doing it now because it’s the right time to do it, because it’s safe for public health,” Health Minister Christian Dubé told reporters at a news conference. “There is no link to the political environment.” Nevertheless, the shift was dramatic. As late as last week, Dubé was saying there were no plans to lift the vaccine passport or mask mandate by March 14, the date by which almost all health measures are set to be dropped.

Righto. And they wonder why trust in our institutions is falling.

Coutts border blockade ends amid “hugs” with police

There are images coming out of the blockade at Coutts on the border of Alberta showing protesters singing the National Anthem and hugging the police. These may be the same police that vandalized and did significant damage to three excavators that were parked legally on private property. In any case, what’s powerful is the unity.

According to Alex van Herk, the Coutts border protest is departing. It’s not about the Emergency Act declaration but about the risk that they will now be publicly tarred as “violent” due to the arrests (hear his explanation below in the video). Last night the police came out with live rifles and arrested two people, and one arrest was done at a local house (which was not connected to the convoy at all) where police claimed they found a large cache of guns. The protestors say are leaving because they are only taking part in a peaceful protest and don’t want to be associated with any firearms.

Four people have been charged with “conspiracy to murder”. We hope they have good lawyers. It all seems incredibly convenient for the powers that be. And people are asking the false flag question.

Rebel news has more information on the charges. “The trio face a charge of conspiracy to commit murder and mischief by impeding the use of property by others and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

….

In British Columbia many restrictions are being lifted but not the vaccine mandates. (Not yet anyway). So there are signs of softening, but still battles to be won. The government of BC is described as “center-left” but the provinces that have dropped the mandates already are “centre-right”.

Warnings of a false flag event for Ottawa Protestors

Daniel Bulford is an Ex-RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officer and former Trudeau bodyguard. He has released a video hours ago warning that they have intelligence suggesting that the recent theft of 2,000 firearms in Canada may be planted in Ottawa to thwart peaceful protests by the Freedom Convoy. Bulford is asking anyone who sees suspicious activity to report it to the Ottawa police immediately, “call 911”, and is reaffirming that the protestors have no intention of doing anything violent, and do not support anything outside the legal democratic processes.

Bitchute link:www.bitchute.com/video/N75xVkQ5WPiz/

In other news:

If the idea of the Emergencies Act was that it would spook Freedom Convoy into folding up their tent, pretty much the exact opposite has happened. Existing blockades all stood their ground, as well as two new ones at border crossings in Alberta and Manitoba.

Weirdly, throughout all this Trudeau keeps sending out tweets cheering Canadian successes in the Beijing Olympics or celebrating National Flag of Canada Day. Which … doesn’t seem like the actions of a government currently staring down a deadly and/or existential crisis

Ottawa’s “progressive” police chief Peter Sloly has resigned after criticism of his handling of the Ottawa protests.

The punishment begins for donors to the protest — the Solicitor Generals communications director has lost her job after she gave $100 to the Freedom Convoy and her name was exposed in the hacking of GiveSendGo. We hope some private company will immediately offer Isabeau-Ringuette a new job where she has the freedom to donate to whatever cause she wants. People who work for the Ontario Government clearly don’t. The fear campaign is just like the Soviet Union. The money that flowed to help the Truckers showed how popular the cause was. The last thing the Empire wants is for the people to do that again. Where is the investigation of the cyber criminals?

The Daily Mail reports that most of the money donated to the truckers came from Canada. Leaked data of the donations on GiveSendGo showed Canadians raised $4.31 million for the Freedom Convoy while Americans donated $3.62 million. “

Let’s not forget that for all the fears of foreign interference, this protest is about the border rules between Canada and the US, and obviously, US citizens have a major interest in it too.

______________________________________________

UPDATE: Wow. That’s a flip!

Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario is suddenly saying this is about “freedom” and everyone is done with this.  “We also know if you have one shot or ten shots — you can still catch Covid.” “People want to be able to get back to normal”.

What poll did he see today?

 

9.9 out of 10 based on 69 ratings

Trudeau declares all Truckers, Donors and honkers are terrorists, seize their bank accounts

Extraordinary.  The Ambassador Bridge issue was solved. The protesters in Ottawa are still obeying the law, waving the Flag, and jumping in bouncy castles, and yet Trudeau has invoked the Emergency Act, and declared war, almost, against many Canadians. In a dangerous game of chicken, Trudeau has upped the ante. Instead of being remotely statesman-like, he’s trying to crush the opposition with the full force of the state.

Tucker Carlson — this is a defining moment in the history of Canada.

Justin Trudeau has declared the people dancing in the street in Ottawa are terrorists. Their bank accounts can now be seized, and anyone donating to them can have their accounts taken. The banks don’t need court orders. Truck insurance can be suspended.

Even if this is illegal (and it surely seems to be) this is the Big-State threatening everyone who dares dissent. Even if it is later tested in court, the injustice is here now. Just like the Biden illegal vaccine mandates. Justice takes time, and some crimes can not be undone.

Trudeau is collecting a list of political enemies and all their details, seizing their bank accounts.


From far away, we can write to our MP’s and demand that they speak up as voices of democracy. There is no justification for activating the Emergency Act and suspending democracy.

Will someone ask Scott Morrison and Anthony Albanese whether they would ever consider this kind of action  in Australia and under what circumstances? Pick your side of history — are you for the people or against them? Do people have the right to protest freely without punishment?

Remember the BLM supporters demanded everyone in politics declare their public support, and nothing less that “taking the knee” in subjugation was accepted. Neutrality was not an option. Silence is violence! See how it works?

If the Right worked like the Left, every politician would be declaring right now that “free speech is sacred” and “everyone has the right to protest peacefully.”

Ezra Levant explains more of the details in his Rebel News report.

 

Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet is the latest voice to object to the Trudeau government’s use of the Emergencies Act to respond to the ongoing “Freedom Convoy” protests in Ottawa and elsewhere across the nation.

Bloc Québécois, is a political party in Quebec which has 32 seats in the Canadian House of Commons (out of 338 seats).

“Let’s understand clearly that Quebec, Quebec government and us do not want this law to be implemented on the territory of Quebec. It is not legitimate, and it is useless,” he said Monday.

To put this in perspective, Canada’s Emergencies Act used to be called the War Measures Act. But instead of war — the big threat here is apparently 42 cases of “Mischief”:

As of Monday morning, the police had arrested 42 people and seized 37 vehicles, said Windsor Police. Most of those arrested were released and will return to court later to face a charge of mischief, said police spokeswoman Talya Natyshak.  — Wall St Journal / The Australian

Or rather, “alleged” mischief.

Canadian Civil Liberties Association says this doesn’t meet the threshold to declare an Emergency

@cancivlib

The federal government has not met the threshold necessary to invoke the Emergencies Act. This law creates a high and clear standard for good reason: the Act allows government to bypass ordinary democratic processes. This standard has not been met.

The Emergencies Act can only be invoked when a situation “seriously threatens the ability of the Government of Canada to preserve the sovereignty, security and territorial integrity of Canada” & when the situation “cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.”

Governments regularly deal with difficult situations, and do so using powers granted to them by democratically elected representatives. Emergency legislation should not be normalized. It threatens our democracy and our civil liberties…

The Truckers are moving the polls of Canada, and politicians around the world are shifting gear

The Truckers have won the moral victory in Canada, and some strategic victories around the world — ones they were not trying to win — but the wounded Trudeau is dangerous. In the provinces of Canada and states all around the world, leaders are watching and some are already bailing out of their own mandates so they can avoid the losing deal that Trudeau served himself up. He could have cancelled the vaccine mandates on day 2 or 3, and the Trucker Convoy would have evaporated before it arrived in Ottawa – a strange unknown moment that existed only on youtube briefly. Instead the world is watching Canada and he has grossly over-reacted.

The whole Tucker Carlson show because it *might* be different to the ABC, BBC and CBC.

And because there are things “bigger than WaterGate”.

Think about the problem of how to donate funds to democratic legal protests now. There will be protesters that need legal support now that the full force of State Lawfare is being thrown against them. How is a good citizen to help fellow citizens voice opinions they agree with?

Are we really down to buying gift voucher cards with cash at grocery stores while wearing a mask and sunnies to avoid the security cameras? Is that Trudeau’s Canada? Will an alternate economy spring up where people barter gift cards for goods?

*Edited post hoc. The post originally said “The Truckers have won” – a blandly empty line that needed a lot more explanation.

9.9 out of 10 based on 106 ratings

Tuesday Open Thread

10 out of 10 based on 7 ratings

Canadians increasingly support Truckers, Freedom. Trudeau may have to declare National Emergencies Act!

The Canadian people are becoming increasingly sympathetic to the Truckers views on the pandemic with every passing day and less impressed with Trudeau. He looks weak and out of step. As a desperate face-saving manouver — hypothetically (and pathetically) he could remove the mandates but disguise it with chest beating “action” — hoping he looks strong rather than defeated. That’s what Doug Ford, Premier of Ontario has just done. Ford announced he will end the mandates. So the Truckers won, but he will effectively punish them all the way home to make sure they don’t do it again, and it doesn’t look like they won.

In the same spiteful small spirit, even though the Ambassador Bridge is apparently reopened, Trudeau is rumoured to be ready to invoke the Emergencies Act — something designed to be used when lives are endangered, or the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Canada is threatened.

Ezra Levant says:

Pierre Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act after the FLQ terrorist group started kidnapping, murdering and putting bombs in mailboxes.

Justin Trudeau is invoking the same powers to deal with peaceful protests that he happens to hate.

But with polls shifting against him, especially among young progressive age groups, Trudeau is going to have to end mandates one way or another. And leaders all over the world are hoping he can Do It Fast, and without looking like the working class won. They’re all afraid their own deplorables will realize how powerful Truck Convoys are.

Canadian opinions are shifting fast:

To understand what a transformation there has been in just four weeks, consider the polls a month ago that were, golly, quite shocking. In mid January, as many as 67 per cent of Canadians wanted the government to impose further measures on the unvaccinated population, with nearly half (49 per cent) of the respondents blaming the unvaccinated. In another January poll, 37 per cent said it would be acceptable to deny the unvaccinated publicly-funded health care — and 27 per cent that it would be OK to go to put them in jail. How did it come to this?’

But now, “Two-thirds of Canadians believe it’s time to drop COVID-19 restrictions and begin living with the virus, according to a new poll.” And “56 per cent of Canadians say the unvaccinated should not be pressured into getting the shot.”

In an IPSOS poll, 46% now say the Truckers frustrations are legitimate and they are worthy of sympathy. Among the under 34 year olds that figure is an amazing 61%.

The ground was being pulled out from underneath Trudeau, and often by the younger demographic, his voters, who now see a faster way to get their freedom back than waiting for their fourth shot.

Ontario will stop up Vaccine Mandates on March 1:

TORONTO — Ontario is ending its vaccine certificate system on March 1, when capacity limits will lift as well, Premier Doug Ford announced Monday — although Ford said masking requirements will remain for now.

Amazingly Ontario’s top doctor has just realized “We have the level of protection we need”.

Nothing to do with the Truckers. Just a coincidence:

Ford insisted the step is not a result of pressure from anti-vaccine mandate protesters.

“Today’s announcement is not because of what’s happening in Ottawa or Windsor, but despite it,” he said.

And to prove that Trucker-protests don’t have any effect on politicians, Ford declared a State of Emergency, and threatened to fine and jail people, and sieze their cars and licenses forever.

Ford: To those of you who are still there, there will be serious consequences,… Anyone who breaks the rules under the emergency order, such as by blocking up major travel areas like 400-series highways or international border crossings, may be subject to a fine of up to $100,000 and up to a year of jail time.

Let me be clear: If you choose to use your vehicle to create chaos, you will lose that vehicle, and your licence, plain and simple,” Ford said.  And, according to the premier, these repercussions will be permanent.

So there. You’ll never work as a Truck driver ever again! As Ezra Levant points out, even murderers don’t lose their ability to earn a living “forever”.

Meanwhile the police are now reduced to sabotaging excavators “to keep the peace”

Near the Alberta border protest, three excavators were parked on private land, with permission and within view of the highway at Coutts. The RCMP asked them to move their equipment out of sight of the highway, which the drivers obligingly did. The police didn’t mention that the reason they were moved “out of sight” was so they could vandalize them without an audience.

The police say they damaged the equipment because it might have been used in the blockade.

One twitter wit wondered if people can disable police cars if they suspect they might be used “illegally” in the future.

Another asked if the police had permission from the owner or a court order duly signed by an appropriate official.

The police are supposed to stop criminal damage, not do it themselves.

Tristan Hopper says: Trucker blockades now Canada’s leading cultural export

Today’s random nation of protest is Israel:


It’s the same all over the world:

Meanwhile hackers leak names of ‘Freedom Convoy’ donors after GiveSendGo breach

The hackers clearly hate the protesters, stole their personal details and will give that information to left wing journalists and academic researchers (who also hate them):

On Monday, GiveSendGo’s website said it was “under maintenance,” hours after the site was hijacked and redirected to a page believed to be controlled by the hackers, which no longer loads. The redirected page condemned the trucker…

A short time later, nonprofit leak site Distributed Denial of Secrets said it had received 30 megabytes of donor information from GiveSendGo, including self-reported names, email addresses, ZIP codes and IP addresses.

Distributed Denial of Secrets, a site known for hosting sets of leaked data involving far-right groups, said that the data would only be provided to researchers and journalists.

It’s just another way to intimidate and threaten people who don’t obey Big-Government. Some smaller minds are already using the list to Dox coworkers as “insurrectionists” for demanding essentially what two-thirds of Canada wants. Clearly most Canadians should thank the donors. Will Big Government investigate and track the hacker-criminals?

In other news in the Information War, some are trying to blame the Freedom Convoy for an arson attempt in Ottawa. Rebel News called the police and spoke to the manager of the building and discovered that no one has any evidence that arson took place. Just so you know.

h/t Beowulf

9.8 out of 10 based on 53 ratings

Amid energy crisis, UK Government uses Regulatory Death Curse on gas industry

Lesson 4-billion-and-one in How Big Government Screws Everything Up

Cuadrilla Shale Gas.

Cuadrilla Shale Gas.

Remember Cuadrilla, the company that discovered 200 trillion cubic feet of gas in Lancashire, UK in 2011? It multiplied the entire national reserve of shale gas by 37 fold. At one point the market value was estimated to be something like £136 billion and could keep the UK “in gas” for 56 years.

It should have changed everything. But in 2022 the UK is in an energy crisis and instead of expanding those shale wells, the UK government  is sealing them up. They’re the only two viable shale gas wells in Britain, and the government wants them to pour concrete down the holes.

It’s been a long slow grind to nothing. The anti-frackers frightened the people with stories of “known carcinogens called ‘silicon dioxide’” and seismic shocks that registered 1.5 on the Richter scale. So the people of the UK gave up an industry worth £6 billion a year, and a reliable energy supply because a government department was afraid of pure sand and a class of earthquake so small it’s “rarely felt” and so common the world has “several million” of them each year.

Andrew Montford, of NetZeroWatch explains that the UK government regulated Cuadrilla out of existence:

The Spectator

The aim of the campaigners and their media allies was to destroy the industry before it took off, or at least to have it regulated into irrelevance. At first, the government held its ground, but with the media in full chorus that didn’t last for very long. After drilling operations caused a pair of microtremors (of a size somewhat smaller than a lorry rumbling past your window) the scaremongering reached a new intensity. Stories were circulated to the media that homes had been damaged. These claims were later shown to be baseless, but by then the government had had enough, and their resistance crumbled. New rules were put in place that made operators stop work if they caused even a tiny earth tremor. The so-called ‘red light’ level was set so low – far below anything detectable – it was said that if you wanted a long weekend, all you had to do was drop a spanner on the drilling pad on Thursday evening.

It’s a case of selective enforcement. No other industry has to keep seismic events to nothing; not truckers, or miners, or pop singers. Even primary school children are allowed to generate seismic shocks ten times bigger than Cuadrilla is. In 2001, one million of children jumped off chairs to create a shake of about a 3.0.

And it’s no accident. The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) was created to drive fossil fuels out of business.

…how can we explain the decision to seal the wells up? In fact, it makes sense if you take a look at the OGA’s remit. In this extraordinary document, you will find no mention of any duty to ensure that operators aren’t cutting corners. There is nothing about making sure that they deliver for consumers, nor even anything about national energy security (another issue of pressing urgency, given Mr Putin’s machinations). Instead, the role that government has given it revolves entirely around delivering Net Zero. Put bluntly, the OGA is more about closing the industry down than regulating it.

When the price cap on domestic energy bills is lifted in a few weeks’ time, there is likely to be a great deal of anger.

It’s almost like the OGA serves the enemies and competitors of the UK, and not the people. Someone is profiting from the scare campaign, and the rigged committee, but it isn’t most of the voters.

If it was “One Law For All”, the law could never have been made. Being able to make petty regulations or grant industry-licenses makes the bureaucrats the Kingmakers. Unaccountable tyrants.

 

Worth sharing


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9.9 out of 10 based on 90 ratings

Sunday Open thread

9.3 out of 10 based on 17 ratings

Trudeau is panicking: It’s the biggest human rights protest in a generation

Tucker Carlson points out how Trudeau’s overreaction reveals his impotence.

By going double or nothing, it’s so much harder for Justin Trudeau and Doug Ford (Premier of Ontario) to back down.

The biggest human rights protest in the West in a generation:

The Left used to represent the Workers

As David Evans says:

The great political realignment continues. The ruling class have coalesced — with the establishment right joining the bureaucratic left. They are all college-educated  (but not too bright, you understand), and they love well paid government jobs and government money, and being aligned to the dominant political ideology so they can name-call anyone else and dismiss them without having to actually engage with what they are saying — without having to actually think.

But they left behind most of society. We can’t all be overpaid non-productive consumers of government money.

Parasites United will never be asked to work too hard.

Here’s one Ontario Police Officer who says there are “many police officers who want nothing more to see our country returned back to the beautiful state that it was. A lot want to speak out but we can’t because we will be reprimanded…”

The crowd in Ottawa is said to be growing and massive this weekend.

Heavily Armed Officers Have Arrived at the Ambassador Bridge

Unlike the Ottawa protests, which have been impeccably well behaved, the Ambassador Bridge Protest is a higher risk, and lower moral-high-ground protest — potentially causing financial losses to others. The easy moral solution of course, is for Trudeau to end the mandates.

On Friday a Canadian Judge granted an injunction to end the Ambassador Bridge Blockade.  Premier Doug Ford, who was heard telling supporters he would end the mandates yesterday, has instead today announced to end the blockades there will be fines for “non compliance” of up to $100,000 and maybe a year in prison. This is the same Premier Ford who said his government is making these temporary emergency powers permanent in law. To help police “do what it takes to restore law and order,” adding that “we must heal the divide that is fracturing society.” That’s $100,000 dollars worth of healing for all you non-compliers.

The document, which was provided late Friday by the City of Windsor, states that anyone having notice of the order is prohibited from “impeding or blocking access to the Ambassador Bridge and indirect or direct approaching roadways and access points” for 10 days.

The injunction authorizes police or “designated agents” to remove any vehicles, personal property, equipment, structures, or other objects that impede or block access to the bridge, and approaching roadways. — CBC News

Reuters reports that the protesters were defiant. There was a very spirited vote to keep protesting. The stakes are very high. The Riot and SWAT teams have been sent in to remove the trucks.

Police descend on Ambassador Bridge protesters Saturday morning

Rebel News reporters Isabelle Rivo and David Menzies are on the scene of an intense policed stand-off between protesters blocking Windsor, Ontario’s Ambassador Bridge and dozens of heavily armed officers.

UPDATED: There are unconfirmable reports that the protesters in cars at Ambassador Bridge are leaving as police ask, one by one, due to a “huge police presence” and the threat of fines. Some are being towed away. It’s far from clear what is really happening.

At Coutts River, on the Alberta border, the protestors have formed human chains to stop police breaking up the convoy:

Your money is Their Money: donations stolen

The Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD) Bank in Ottawa has said it will give $1.4 million of the donations made for the Truckers “to the courts“. These are funds from both GoFundMe and direct donations to Truckers. And you thought your money was yours to give to whomever you wanted?

UPDATE: MM Comments at #2 that in theory this is so donors can get their money back, which is good to hear. But even if this is the case, the delay in getting funds to Truckers and the doubt created by this move will deter donors from donating and Truckers from joining the battle. It serves the Empire, and will sabotage donations and also drain them to fight legal battles.

This may not work out too well for the bank if Canadians that have funds in TD Bank decide they’d like to find another bank.

Protesters plan to fight back legally to regain the funds. They are also talking about using cryptocurrency for donations but it’s not entirely clear that they will be able to convert the crypto into cash in Canada.

When the government steals the money for legal protests it feels like we’re at a moment in history where people need to carry gold across the border to “fund the resistance”.

It could bring down Justin Trudeau

New polling shows 54% of Canadians now support the end of Covid restrictions.

The big loser in this is Trudeau —  53% think Trudeau looks weak. Only 16% would “vote for Trudeau” based on the way he has handled the Freedom Convoy.

‘This could cost him his job’: A blockaded Canada turning on Trudeau, poll finds

Tristin Hopper, National Post

‘The last time I’ve seen numbers close to this were in the final days of Brian Mulroney,’ says Maru pollster.

But make no mistake, Canada is a mess of contradictions. The same article reports that 56% of Canadians have no sympathy with the protest (despite largely agreeing with the aims of it). No  doubt the relentless media misinformation on the Truckers helps feed that paradox, though the protests on the bridges will be affecting jobs and supply lines. Astonishingly two-thirds of Canadians, according to one poll (how was that question asked?) said they would support military removal. Have they really thought about it?

We’re in an information war. If Canadians knew how careful, considerate and law abiding the protestors have been (for the most part) they might view things differently.

Ultimately, the mandates are hurting, and Trudeau faces a Parliamentary challenge:

Canada’s 3.7 million unvaccinated remain banned from air travel, rail travel and government employment, with no hint from Ottawa on when those strictures might end.

Blockades aside, Trudeau is now facing a joint House of Commons motion from the Conservative Party and the Bloc Québécois calling for an end to COVID-19 restrictions by the end of this month.

h/t David and Bill in AZ and Mantaray Yunupingu, David Maddison, Another Ian.

In Australia


Years ago I rode across that bridge every day.  Great to see a magnificent turn out today.

In France, reports of tear gas and extraordinary footage:



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9.9 out of 10 based on 67 ratings

The media hides that the Truck Protests have already started in the US

One hour away from the Ambassador Bridge inside the US, the trucks are stationary, lined up nose to tail. This was two days ago.

Remarkable what happens when real people meet real people. This is why the media never allows it.

And for the record, another Canadian drove 11 hours to meet the Truckers and found out they were wonderful people, helping the homeless and nothing like the media said. I’m so angry, he said, about the media.

Imagine how polarised the nation would be (or not) if the public broadcasters interviewed the best spokesmen on both sides of every debate? Instead they just find the views that say what the editor believes, or commit professional suicide, like this Vancouver announcer.

One Canadian DJ ended his radio career by telling his listeners the media were full of lies. “You are being fooled”.

Radio host Kid Carson leaving Z95.3 after spreading conspiracy theories on air

Carson also accused the news media of lying about the protest, and suggested they were doing so on behalf of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He did not respond to an interview request from CTV News.

In Paris, armored vehicles are coming in, in preparation for the French Convoy

Isn’t this newsworthy? SBS News in Australia told me tonight at length how one region of India was considering banning the Hijab, but they didn’t mention that the French government was preparing for the arrival of French protesters with military force.

Macron has been dealing with Yellow Vest Protests now since 2018. The last thing he wants is for the Yellow Vests to come in trucks.

French Armored Vehicle arrives

Not for negotiating.

 

RedPill the Nation.  Everyday is another chance. Friends let friends know that the media is not telling them the news…

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UPDATE: Mandates are suddenly vanishing

There are rumors the Premier of Ontario will end vaccine passports. Rebel News has a copy of a recording of him talking to supporters to forewarn them. “We’re pulling these passports. We’re going to get back to normal. I can’t get you the exact date”

Nothing to do with the Truckers of course.

Trudeau isn’t backing down yet. But Ottawa police tried to threaten the Truckers, saying:

“… they could be arrested without warning if they persist with the occupation of the city’s downtown core. Referencing the crime called “mischief to property,” the message said if the demonstrators don’t stop blocking city streets they could be arrested, charged, and have their vehicles seized and possibly forfeited.

The convoy organizer Chris Barber would have none of it:

“We replace every driver arrested with three new drivers,” he wrote. “Call just went out.

Four blue states preparing to ditch mask mandates

…New Jersey’s governor seemed to be ready to throw in the towel and stop fighting public sentiment on the issue. Well, shortly after that, the push to put an end to the mandates appeared to start spreading faster than the Omicron variant. Three more blue state governors joined Phil Murphy in saying that mandates would be coming to an end either this month or in March. Oregon, Connecticut, and Delaware jumped on the bandwagon…

In the UK, the Department of Health and Social Care wants to know what people think about revoking vaccine jab for job policies:

…the view of this government is that it is no longer proportionate to require vaccination as a condition of deployment through statute in health, care homes or other social care settings.

Open til Feb 16th.

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