Thursday Open Thread

8.8 out of 10 based on 12 ratings

244 comments to Thursday Open Thread

  • #
    Hanrahan

    Quiet in here.

    70

  • #
  • #
    TIP

    Have any sitting governments been defeated at subsequent election having introduced the “covid responses”?

    NO in New Zealand, Canada, France.

    130

    • #
      el+gordo

      Australia might be different, the female Inderpendents are a forced to be reckoned with and we may have to endure a minority government.

      122

      • #
        GlenM

        We’re getting low grade material in parliament. Too many “look at me!” types and I’m not only referring to young girls. The other issue is the regional rural divide with the metropolitan enclaves. We are getting a lot of politically motivated people moving from cities to our region and they come with strange ideas. I’m getting to the point where I don’t want to be governed at all. I’m over so-called parliamentary democracy. It doesn’t work.

        362

        • #
          Hanrahan

          We’re getting low grade material in parliament.

          We get what we deserve. We passively stand by when good people are shafted. We automatically believe everything bad said about them.

          Tony Abbott was the best PM IMHO but we just let their ABC destroy him, joining the lynch mob when he recommended Charles’ knighthood.

          261

          • #
            Strop

            I think it was Prince Philip’s knighthood. It was an odd nomination and Abbott did deserve a bit of stick for it.
            Of all the people that could have been nominated, had the Prince really given greater service to Australia than other candidates?

            57

            • #
              Hanrahan

              How many boat people are you going to take in under your roof?

              It’s really a binary election: Sovereign Borders or back to Rudd/Gillard days.

              71

              • #
                Strop

                What!
                How does thinking it’s odd that Abbott nominated Prince Philip mean that I support Labor or don’t support the current border policy?

                It’s incredible some reactions to a differing opinion on this blog and how that sets minds racing about what other things we might disagree on. That I must be some kind of communist socialist trans BLM loving Abbott knifing Neo-Marxist Biden Harris loving Turnbull kissing Rudd muncher.

                Tell me about all of the great service Prince Philip gave Australia and I’ll reconsider whether he was more deserving than others, or deserving at all.

                FWIW – I wouldn’t vote for the Labor Greens even with a gun put to my head. But the fact that I share a lot of ideals with Abbott and voted for him, don’t support Aus becoming a republic and always vote on the right, doesn’t mean that I’m such an Abbott fan boy that I immediately have to agree with every thought he has and can’t judge for myself whether Prince Philip is a deserving choice for a Knighthood.

                130

              • #
                Mantaray Yunupingu

                Strop. Knighthoods usually go to those men (the chicks become Dames) with long histories of community service, leadership etc.

                As you already know, Phil (born 1921) was a naval officer…”Philip was appointed as a midshipman in January 1940. He spent four months on the battleship HMS Ramillies, protecting convoys of the Australian Expeditionary Force in the Indian Ocean…..Among other engagements, he was involved in the Battle of Crete (along with Commonwealth forces from Australia and New Zealand) and was mentioned in dispatches for his service during the Battle of Cape Matapan, in which he controlled the battleship’s searchlights. He was also awarded the Greek War Cross”. Matapan: “under Admiral Sir Henry Pridham-Wippell, consisted of the British light cruisers HMS Ajax, Gloucester, and Orion, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Perth, and HMAS Vendetta’

                OK, so now that you are aware of Greek Phil’s long long association with Oz, we won’t dwell on it further…

                Young blokes often know ZERO about history, which is entirely normal as footy and beer are probably more their go, eh? Maybe you previously had only heard of Phil as founder of the Duke of Edinborough programme with a million young Aussie graduates…and all the stuff since the 50s, so now that your eyes have been opened do try to STAY awake!

                BTW: It’s also entirely normal for Labor stooges to HATE Phil. Labor Union mates were the ones sabotaging the very ships Phil was risking his bacon to protect in WWII, were they not?

                [ Wee edit – LVA]

                61

              • #
                Strop

                Hi Mantaray. Thanks for offering the very brief bio of Prince Philip but I’m quite familiar with his story. Including all the truly interesting and more remarkable bits before 1950.

                20

            • #
              b.nice

              ” Abbott nominated Prince Philip”

              As requested by the Queen !

              30

            • #
              Stuart

              “palace” asked him to nominate the Duke, whats he gunna do say no to the Queen??

              10

              • #

                It’s permitted and no one would know for 20 years.

                11

              • #
                Strop

                Greg Sheridan started the rumour the Queen asked Abbott to do so. I think as a favour to his friend to try and excuse Abbott for the decision. If she did ask for it to happen, of course he could say no. She’s not going to sack him. As the head of state for Australia she could have done it without the PM’s recommendation.

                Prince Philip was already an England Knight before they married and the Queen ultimately chose to elevate him to the highest category of Knight.
                She also refused to Knight Mick Jagger. 🙂
                Regardless of recommendations, it’s her choice.

                20

              • #
                b.nice

                “It’s permitted…..”

                Precisely, but still the far-left used it to hit Tony Abbott over the head with it.

                For just doing as the palace requested.

                Don’t try to hide behind that, it makes your arguments look even weaker than usual.

                00

          • #
            James

            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG0WcjGHkEw
            Lord Monckton predicted Abbott’s demise about a year before he got booted.

            70

            • #
              Hanrahan

              Monckton forecast Australian and Canadian governments being toppled by the green blob. He was right.

              How is Christopher BTW? Haven’t heard from him in a while.

              40

          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Mantaray:
            He was involved in combat at Crete, in fact the ship was sinking when he left it (and he wasn’t the first officer off). And, as far as I know, he spent some time on convoy protection duties, not glamorous and probably boring. Certainly he was in Sydney at some time during the war, possibly on leave. He also served with the RN after the war and was reputed to be a possible future First Lord but had to abandon ambition to be the Consort.
            In my humble opinion the British have only had 2 good consorts, Phillip and albert.

            30

        • #
          John Watt

          Have we reached the point where technology will facilitate all voters who choose to vote being able to do so electronically thus removing the need for the bitchy ,disjointed discourse that passes for politics in our representative democracy? We use it for banking and buying so why not for indicating our support of otherwise for policy decisions…true democracy…avoiding the red team/blue team rubbish that prevents us getting the best outcome for the nation because some factional red/blue bozo disagrees.

          26

          • #

            We have not reached the point where I would trust any form of electronic voting.

            Give me a paper trail or nothing…

            450

            • #
              Hanrahan

              Can you give that 10 greens for me Jo?

              100

            • #
              Honk R Smith

              What’s paper grandma? 🙂

              The way things are going, soon the kids may be asking ‘what is electricity?’

              Cuneiform … the only historically proven method for sustainable record keeping.

              160

            • #
              KP

              It would have every IP address recorded, or even every device’s MAC address recorded. Now doubt they would issue a secret password for every voter for voting purposes.

              I’d back it, mainly to give us everyday control over what happens to us. It would bring transparency too, no arguments about “We can’t tell you what’s in it, its for security reasons..” Put the law up and let Australians vote on it.

              The people in Parliament just become facilitators who put ideas up for us to vote on. A bit like Switzerland but more-so.

              40

            • #
              TIP

              I also think pre polling and postal voting should be extremely restricted…..a necessity not a luxury.

              In person, public place with observers, a private cubicle, printed ballot with pencil/pen.

              130

            • #
              John Watt

              Jo, I see your point but the current party populist-driven method has most parties forced to agree to net zero by ??. How do we get out of this mess?

              40

          • #
            yarpos

            the voting part is simple, the hard part is auditability and trust

            30

      • #
        Dennis

        They are effectively members of a minor party organised and supported by Climate200, investors in so called renewables and other climate hoax crony capitalism wealth creation schemes.

        Just days ago their candidate for the electorate of Wentworth was another who has admitted to having a substantial income from those areas of investment, so obviously gaining as much influence in parliaments is an important tactic for them. But noting they only target Liberal and Labor MPs, so just as obviously they view Labor as friendly supporters of their agendas.

        112

    • #
      • #
        R.B.

        Labor won by scaring old people with Ambulance ramping, sole point of their advertising, and using social media to portray Marshall as a murderer for opening borders just before the election. We went from almost zero cases to thousands a day.

        You don’t have a good rebuttal

        60

        • #

          huh?

          Q: Have any sitting governments been defeated at subsequent election having introduced the “covid responses”?
          A: South Australia

          you deny this?

          11

          • #
            Graeme No.3

            Good Point Gee Aye.

            The visuals of the (then) Premier acting as background while the Police Commissioner and Cheaf Health Officer dictated whatever plan would apply for the next 2 days wasn’t a vote winner.
            Marshall looked weak, acted weak and got dumped as weak.

            11

          • #
            R.B.

            Huh???

            I don’t think that GNo3 even appreciates how much of scare campaign there was on reopening the borders just before the election, and winding back restrictions. I witnessed the literal frothing at the mouth believer convinced that Marshall was a murderer. It undid the covid response he should have expected to ride to a win.

            You fail to understand that the result would have been different if he had kept the borders shut. There would have been much gnashing of the teeth from businesses but it’s the old people’s votes that he lost.

            00

            • #

              NO idea what you are on about. I gave a correct answer to the question and you go into detail about how the election was won and lost. There have been about 100 elections since the start of the year so you can now go and analyse those results too. Have fun!

              00

    • #
      Mark Allinson

      “Have any sitting governments been defeated at subsequent election having introduced the “covid responses”?

      NO in New Zealand, Canada, France.”

      So, either people love living under a totalitarian regime or voting is over.

      140

    • #
      Hanrahan

      Putting your citizens under house arrest is a privilege reserved strictly for leftist governments.

      110

  • #
    R.B.

    Adelaide has predicted maxim u m temperature today. The forecast on the News last emphasised how it’s a whole 6 degree above average for April. It’s actually a little over 1 degree above the highest monthly average of 26.7°C in 1923, and 4 below the hottest day for early May set in 1921 (West Terrace which is missing data from 1979 till 5 years ago). It’s just the usual not very average day.

    100

    • #

      Yes, average weather is rare. Calling it “normal” is a hoax.

      121

      • #
        b.nice

        “Normal’ weather and climate are highly variable.

        Nothing has change at all about this in the last millions of years.

        80

      • #
        Saighdear

        Well said! and how original……’ why didn’t I think of that one before’ Yes indeed – People die now who never used to die .

        50

      • #
        Hanrahan

        David, I’ve thought about it and an “average” month is an impossibility. You just can’t do it.

        My son is working near Newman so I keep an eye on the weather there. That’s not far from Marble Bar, our hottest town, and it was 22 deg when he started work today.

        Will anyone shout out WEATHER IS LOCAL!!

        80

  • #
    Strop

    Regarding freedom of speech and Twitter.

    This article points out that governments ultimately decide what can or can’t be said.


    On Free Speech in Canada, Trudeau Decides, Not Musk, Regardless of Twitter Buyout

    https://m.theepochtimes.com/on-free-speech-in-canada-trudeau-decides-not-musk-regardless-of-twitter-buyout_4431582.html?utm_source=ref_share&utm_campaign=copy&rs=SHRDCZND&

    90

  • #
    OldOzzie

    NT Police continue to suppress details of Wadeye violence, issue press release after NT Independent questions

    In the release, NT Police continued its suppression of details of violence and destruction in the town, saying there was “significant damage to property, including extensive damage to 37 residences”.

    Sources have told the NT Independent there is “absolute mayhem” in the community, with a health staff member speared through the leg, police officers injured, and police being ordered not to leave the compound. Crossbows and other high powered weapons are also now being used by locals.

    One source said of the houses burnt, 10 were newly built.

    Territory Families and Urban Housing minister Kate Worden did respond to the NT News saying the burning of the houses was “extremely disappointing”.

    “Not just for us as the asset managers but also for the community,” Ms Worden said.

    “It’s really devastating for the families that are in those homes.”

    150

    • #
      GlenM

      I used to work at Wadeye fixing houses and replacing glass. Real problems there and it goes back a long way. Internecine warfare carries on also. Port Keats Pepperminati and Nauiyu Daly River.

      140

      • #
        GlenM

        That said I generally got on well with the locals some who really enlightened me on many things. Still very animist culturally and as a fair headed white fella I had to keep my head down at times, particularly after a death where people blame happening at a spiritual level that is very arcane.

        150

      • #
        Geoff Sherrington

        GlenM,
        When I visited Port Keats mission in 1959, it was a peaceful place where missionaries appeared to be doing a good job of civil decency.
        That was 60 years ago. What has gone wrong? What single item, if you can pinpoint one, was the main cause of change? Geoff S

        60

  • #
    OldOzzie

    The west has created an empire of lies presupposing the destruction of Russia

    Nikolay Patrushev, Secretary of the Russian Security Council, in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta, spoke about the tasks of the Russian special operation and the role of the United States in supporting neo-n@zis. And also – about the near future of Europe, the Russian gold and foreign exchange reserves and sanctions. And also about what changes await our country in the near future.

    Nikolay Platonovich, today, perhaps, the term “Cold War II” no longer seems an exaggeration. The Americans do not hesitate to declare that they won the confrontation with the USSR and that now they will also win. How do you assess these views?

    Nikolay Patrushev: Tragic scenarios of global crises, both in past years and today, are being imposed by Washington in its quest to consolidate its hegemony, resisting the collapse of the unipolar world. The United States is doing everything to ensure that other centres of the multipolar world do not even dare to raise their heads, and our country not only dared, but publicly declared that it will not play by the imposed rules. They tried to force Russia to give up its sovereignty, identity, culture, and independent foreign and domestic policy. We have no right to agree with this approach.

    In an attempt to suppress Russia, the Americans, using their proteges in Kiev, decided to create an antipode of our country, cynically choosing Ukraine for this, trying to divide essentially a single nation. Having failed to find any positive basis for attracting Ukrainians to its side, long before the 2014 coup d’etat, Washington instilled in Ukrainians the exclusivity of their nation and hatred of everything Russian. However, history teaches that hatred can never become a reliable factor of national unity. If there is anything that unites the peoples living in Ukraine today, it is only the fear of the atrocities of nationalist battalions. Therefore, the result of the policy of the West and the Kiev regime controlled by it can only be the disintegration of Ukraine into several states.

    Long and Interesting Read

    110

    • #
      OldOzzie

      US meeting with arms manufacturers to replenish stocks depleted by Ukraine proxy-war on Russia

      The U.S. has been sending its Stingers to Ukrainian forces battling Russia.

      It will be years before Raytheon Technologies can build new Stinger shoulder-fired missiles due to a dwindling supply of weapons parts, the company’s CEO said Tuesday.

      The U.S. has shipped Stingers to Ukraine’s military, which has used them to shoot down Russian aircraft. But there’s only a finite supply as Raytheon has not made Stinger missiles for the U.S. military in nearly two decades.

      “We’re going to have to go out and redesign some of the electronics in the missile and the seeker head,” Raytheon Technologies CEO Greg Hayes told investment analysts Tuesday during the company’s quarterly earnings call. “That’s going to take us a little bit of time.”

      The company has “a very limited stock of material for Stinger production,” Hayes said, as it’s currently building a missile for a sole international customer.

      60

    • #
      GlenM

      A perspective that will get zero traction in the western hemisphere. One may lazily ask, what does the rest of the world think. Come to that National Front Française won a big slab of votes recently and most have an antipathy to the US and its intrusion into European politics, especially Ukraine. One big pile-on and duplicity and grand geopolitical hypocrisy. Anyway just my view.

      50

    • #
      another ian

      I wonder if the “smartest people in the West (/s)” will finally connect the dots?

      “Kremlin’s mouthpieces on Russian state television openly discussing ‘probability’ of nuclear war with The West”

      https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2022/04/kremlins-mouthpieces-on-russian-state-television-openly-discussing-probability-of-nuclear-war-with-t.html

      40

  • #
    OldOzzie

    A DOCTOR SPEAKS – WHY I AM REFUSING THE COVID-19 VACCINATION

    For the past year, many have inquired as to the reasons why I have declined vaccination for COVID-19 despite the massive effort by the Singapore government to promote the vaccines, to the extent of providing them free of charge, first to healthcare workers and then to the public.

    Recently, these efforts have resulted in a totalitarian vaccination mandate and the permission for employers to terminate unvaccinated employees without any liability, and the restriction of movement of the unvaccinated in public spaces.

    Further, the haste in which these vaccines have been created, and the adverse reactions that they are causing give great cause for concerns as to whether the medical benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the risks of contracting the virus itself. This is particularly so in the demographic of the young and healthy adults, of which I am included.

    As a Christian and a medical doctor who serves in the public healthcare sector, I cannot comply with the government’s unjust and unscientific demands. Given these circumstances as well as the nuance required in understanding my decisions, I have decided to attempt to explain my decision in this brief essay.

    230

  • #
    OldOzzie

    BBC News Online, 26 March 2022

    We have amended an article on the BBC News online site in Bristol about endometriosis to make it clearer to the audience how the condition affects women. The article was updated to remove an inaccuracy where we described symptoms as causes. Also, specifically, the word ‘people’ was replaced with the word ‘women’, and we removed the phrase “who are assigned female at birth”.

    130

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Oklahoma GOP Governor Sign Nation’s First Law Banning Non-Binary Birth Certificates

      “People are free to believe whatever they want about their identity, but science has determined people are either biologically male or female at birth.”

      “We want clarity and truth on official state documents. Information should be based on established medical fact and not an ever-changing social dialogue,”

      220

      • #
        Klem

        Many people believe gender and biological sex are the same thing, they are not. Gender is effectively meaningless, you can call yourself whatever gender you want and can change it from day to day, thats why they say gender is fluid. Biological sex is defined by ones genitalia and xx or xy chromosomes, it is not fluid.

        I am a biological male but my gender is whatever I feel like calling myself. I think I’m a Spruce tree today.

        Gender is a joke.

        80

    • #
      Deano

      Squabbling over correct pro-nouns and being tormented by someone assuming a man is in fact a man, is something only wealthy countries can afford. It’s a hobby of the idle bored.

      70

  • #
    OldOzzie

    La Marseillaise, sung by Mireille Mathieu. American English subtitles.

    Reading subtitles, sums up Ukraine today

    Performance at the foot of the Eiffel Tower in 1989 for its 100th anniversary. Mireille Mathieu sings La Marseillaise, the French national anthem. According to reports at the time, “Mathieu sang the anthem of France so grandly and shrewdly that tears welled up across the country, many patriotic citizens even needed medical treatment.” Ten years later, she was awarded the Medal of the French Legion of Honor.

    90

  • #
    OldOzzie

    WolfmanOz at the Movies #18

    Thought wolfmanoz summary of “Some Like it Hot” excellent – previewing in 1959 where Society is today – summed up by the 1 minute video – Some Like It Hot (1959) – Nobody’s perfect [HD] with the final taking off his wig. and saying “I’m a Man” – response – “Nobody’s Perfect”

    And to top it all off the film has one of the best endings/last line in movie history as Jerry/Daphne has been wooed by the much-married and ageing mama’s boy Osgood Fielding III.

    Billy Wilder was asked about making another film with Monroe:

    “I have discussed this with my doctor and my psychiatrist and they tell me I’m too old and too rich to go through this again.”

    But he also admitted:

    “My Aunt Minnie would always be punctual and never hold up production, but who would pay to see my Aunt Minnie ?”

    90

  • #
    OldOzzie

    ParaPactum, the protection device for eminent people.

    In the form of an umbrella, but in fact a true weapon of protection. Approved and embraced by the French Presidential Protection Unit (Groupe de Sécurité de la Présidence de la République – GSPR), the ParaPactum has no equivalent elsewhere in the world. Multidirectional protection, instant opening and fully operational, it has been recognised as a protection device for eminent people.

    Made in France

    Macron pelted with tomatoes in working-class suburb while on unity tour

    London: French President Emmanuel Macron was pelted with tomatoes during a surprise visit to a working-class suburb north of Paris just days after he pledged to work harder to unify the fractured nation following his re-election.

    The 44-year-old’s security detail was forced to deploy a special protective umbrella to protect him from the flying fruit, with bodyguards shouting “projectile!” as they tried to shield the leader.

    The special Kevlar umbrella, known as the paraPactum, can withstand attacks with knives, dogs and hold back crowds. It is also waterproof and its makers insist it will not crumple in a headwind of more than 150km/h.

    It was bought by the president’s special protection forces under Nicolas Sarkozy, costing around €10,000 ($14,700) and comes in a secure black briefcase. The material has been tested to withstand acid attacks.

    60

  • #
    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      In loco parentis is the relevant legal principle. It translates to in place of a parent NOT they’re yours.

      There is a huge legal difference.

      100

  • #
    David Maddison

    This short video illustrates the tragedy imposed by the Leftist anti-energy lobby on Africans by denying them access to cheap and clean coal and gas electrical energy and gas for cooking.

    They have to use dangerously polluting wood and dung stoves for cooking.

    Part of the solution proposed in this video is a more efficient stove design but it still uses wood resulting in deforestation.

    What Africans need is access to electricity from coal and gas for cooking or gas flame for cooking but these are deemed “bad for the environment” and the World Bank won’t lend them funds for proper coal and gas power stations (but will lend for useless wind and solar).

    Africans don’t care for virtue signaling. All they want is cheap, reliable power 24/7 as provided by coal and gas, and properly engineered hydro.

    https://youtu.be/aELeIVRqdDM

    150

    • #
      Dave

      The Green CAGW believers want all of Africa to cook with these

      Some references are suggesting the last thing they want is to cook and boil water at midday?

      Some Coal Power Plants would be best.

      But UN, IPCC, WHO, ALP, Greens etc say that is a NO NO!

      70

    • #
      Ronin

      Hardly progressed beyond the stoneage.

      70

    • #
      Fran

      A pregnant friend panicked about fetal damage from the faint smell of cigarette smoke. She heats her home with wood, but that smoke has a warm nostalgic odour.

      40

      • #
        b.nice

        “A pregnant friend panicked about fetal damage”.

        Did she get covid vaxxed while pregnant? That could be far more of an issue. !

        20

  • #
    hillbilly33

    This week SBS aired a classic example of how earnest committed young people can be brainwashed and misled into dangerous activism to promote a deeply flawed unscientific theory, Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming, which has developed a cult-like following of “believers”.

    The story featured on one of the leaders, Ina Libak, a survivor of the horrific mass shootings on the island hosting a youth conference several years ago.

    Nearing the end of my long life, I can only weep (and feel helpless) about what is being done to the minds of so many of our children, arguably the world’s most precious resource.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers%27_Youth_League_(Norway)

    110

  • #
    Custer Van Cleef

    It turns out the British ONS did put some effort into looking at the effect of personal health, on survival rates, after receiving one dose, two doses, or none, of the “novel injections”.
    But it was just in this one bulletin, from December 2021 — sort of halfhearted — and they stopped after that, maybe they didn’t like what they were finding.

    See figure 4: Breakdown of 18-39 year old, Non-COVID deaths into (a) Good Health, (b) Poor Health, and (c) Poorer Health. **

    Look at the Poor Health members: most of the year, the Unjabbed in this group, are doing better than the one-or-two-dose people. April stands out: the Unjabbed death rate = 162, versus the One Dose people at 414 deaths (per 100k person-years).
    What about the people in Good Health? They were doing a lot better in April too: only 17 versus 29 deaths/100k.

    So the question is: if they can access this data, through what they call the Public Health Data Asset — about 40 million Brits, as I recall — why haven’t they added to this analysis, in subsequent bulletins? which just contain hints that health is relevant, e.g.:

    (1) “… there may be other differences between the groups, particularly underlying health, which affect the mortality rates … … there are other factors such as the health status of individuals…” — But YOU have the data, what does it tell us!!!
    (2) “More information on this can be found in our previous release.” — But that’s out of date now, DO SOME NEW CHARTS!!!

    Unfortunately the more I look, the more I believe the ONS to be a Government propaganda outfit — not independent, not dispassionate.

    ** If your browser chops off some charts, you may need to right click on them, to open the frame in a new window.
    Also, under Figures 3 and 4, you can download the linked .xlsx file, and do your own charts.

    70

    • #
      Custer Van Cleef

      Just to clarify: I was comparing the death rates of Unjabbed people in the “Good Health” group, versus One-dose vaccinated people, from the same group.
      So that’s where 17 versus 29 came from.

      40

  • #
    • #
      Dennis

      More to the point that they are both managed and controlled by the Union Movement (“faceless men”), reports reveal that VicGov is captive via unionist department employees and heads of department who enable the Andrew’s Labor State Government to manage as they see fit. Coupled to effectively controlling both Houses of Parliament, Upper House or Legislative Council by doing favours for minor party and independent members in return for them supporting the Government, as highlighted by the Emergency Powers legislation now no longer needing parliamentary approval, the Premier can impose Emergency powers anytime he chooses.

      Consider: WA, SA, VIC, ACT, QLD & NT now all in the hands of Labor Governments.

      82

  • #
    hillbilly33

    This week SBS aired a classic example of how earnest committed young people can be brainwashed and misled into dangerous activism to promote a deeply flawed unscientific theory, Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming, which has developed a cult-like following of “believers”.

    The story featured on one of the leaders, Ina Libak, a survivor of the horrific mass shootings on the island hosting a youth conference several years ago.

    Nearing the end of my long life, I can only weep (and feel helpless) about what is being done to the minds of so many of our children, arguably the world’s most precious resource.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Workers%27_Youth_League_(Norway)

    Please update. Jo: The above was rejected because it said it appeared I had made the comment before. At my age, I don’t dispute that could happen, but I have no memory of it. Therefore, would you kindly direct me to where that alleged comment appeared?

    50

  • #
    • #
      KP

      Very good! In the last picture the girl is obviously an education graduate who holds the pen for the man who writes on the board as a mathematics graduate, as explained by an earlier graph…

      I’m afraid too many of those statistics are not allowed in current reality, be they factual or not.

      40

  • #
    John Connor II

    Edible Crickets: Nutritional Benefits, Safety, and Preparation Tips

    Edible crickets are taking the world by storm. To establish food security and slash malnutrition worldwide, edible crickets are explored to achieve such.

    In some cases, most edible cricket sources have a higher content source in comparison to pork, roasted goat, and chicken. This protein richness is great for growth and development.

    https://thebugagenda.com/edible-crickets/

    Fancy your critters a bit more spicy?
    Mango…cotton candy…lasagne..

    https://www.kickerscrickets.com/

    When ze food runz out you vill eat zem and like zem 😈

    Wonder how well they’re doing in the UK where they’ve been sold for 2 years+ now?

    70

  • #
    hillbilly33

    Apologies Jo! Comment is at 13! I have stayed alive for nearly 89 years, partly through looking before I leapt! This time I obviously leapt before I looked! The bright side is it proves another good common adage. One is never too old to learn!

    Cheers to all fellow posters. H/B

    190

  • #
    OldOzzie

    The terrible unintended consequences of the Biden presidency (unless they were intended)

    From the moment Donald Trump rode down that escalator, the American left began its campaign to destroy the man and prevent him from being elected. Leftists’ efforts included falsifying a fraudulent banking scheme, wiretapping his phones, and the fabrication of the Russia hoax. Despite all their devious and illegal plans, to their horror, Trump won the election, so they doubled down, determined to drive him from office.

    For nearly three years, with the aid of the FBI, the DOJ, and the CIA, they sought to make absolutely certain he could not be re-elected. The Clintons, the Obamas, and their activist worker bees in and out of Congress worked tirelessly to destroy Donald Trump. For four years, Marc Elias traveled state to state to get election laws changed to facilitate the cheating they planned. Nancy Pelosi let the cat out of the bag when she said, “I feel very confident that Joe Biden will be elected president on Tuesday. Whatever the end count is on the election that occurs on Tuesday, he will be elected, on January 20th he will be inaugurated President

    She knew the fix was in. David Bossie’s film Rigged lays out how Mark Zuckerberg funneled at least $400 million into numerous states for the drop boxes that, as Dinesh D’Souza’s film 2000 Mules will show, were used to submit false ballots by the thousands.

    Thanks to investigative journalists Peter Schweizer and Miranda Devine, we know that Biden and his son Hunter are congenitally corrupt and virtually owned by the Communist Party of China. They also used Ukr@ine as a financial playground, as did the Clintons.

    Donald Trump was the best president in modern American history. If he were still in office, if the election had not been fraudulent, we would still be energy independent. He would have ended the lockdowns and the mask and vaccine mandates, and the economy would have begun recovering much sooner. The southern border would be secure. There would be no war between Russia and Ukr@ine.

    When Obama came to office, he liked to think he was elected to manage our decline. It was Obama who weaponized the FBI, the CIA and the DOJ. Obama hated America; he set back race relations at least fifty years.

    Can all this damage done be chalked up to stupidity and incompetence, or is it by design? Is the Biden administration being run by his handlers in China and the arms dealers here who need war to line their pockets?

    Does anyone know?

    200

  • #
    John Connor II

    Now Japan and Canada probe mystery hepatitis in children as global outbreak spreads – bringing countries with cases to 14

    Suspected cases of the mysterious hepatitis sweeping the world have now been detected in children in Japan and Canada.

    Canada’s Public Health Agency yesterday revealed it was ‘aware of reports of severe acute hepatitis of unknown origin’ in the country.

    And Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare announced that a patient under the age of 16 was hospitalised with hepatitis on April 21.

    Officials did not reveal their age, sex or location — but said they tested negative for adenovirus, believed to be the culprit of the global outbreak, and Covid.

    The patient meets the working definition for a ‘probable case’ of the hepatitis cases already confirmed in countries like the UK, US and Spain officials said.

    Nearly 200 children have been sickened by the condition across the world in up to 14 countries since last October. One has died and 17 have needed liver transplants.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10758593/Now-Japan-Canada-probe-mystery-hepatitis-children-global-outbreak-spreads.html

    Mysterious child hepatitis outbreak creeps closer to Australia – here’s what to watch for and how to avoid catching it

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10761269/Mysterious-global-HEPATITIS-outbreak-creeps-closer-Australia-heres-watch-for.html

    Interesting..not the vaxx for once. 😉
    However when I looked closer…well isn’t that interesting…
    If my theory is right, Oz is safe for now.
    I’ll track carefully but it’s not appropriate to elaborate at this time. 😉

    80

  • #
    John Connor II

    Libs of Tiktok?

    Try Wong Wei too (#WongWeiOfficial) 😅

    Sample:

    https://i0.wp.com/clownuniverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/5A031A3E-A2C0-4AFC-BA0F-ABF47586794A.jpeg

    While we’re at it – Twitter after Elon:

    https://i0.wp.com/clownuniverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/C994A08C-51AC-4A02-A834-27DD449A1DE3.jpeg

    https://i0.wp.com/clownuniverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/72D51083-7D71-4499-9A20-64E77FFD37E7.png

    Will Twitter be a real free speech platform now or will Elon’s time in Schwab’s YGL programme paint a different picture?

    51

  • #
    Dennis

    Just read in the Sydney Daily Telegraph newspaper that Opposition Labor spokeswoman Kristina Keneally told a group of refugee activists who aim to weaken Australia’s border protection policies she would “welcome an approach – to end offshore processing” if the ALP gets into power.

    An update sent to Labor for Refugees (L4R) members in March 2021, after the ALP held a virtual Conference, reported Kristina stated that until Labor forms government nothing will change.

    ….. I add: and it appears nothing has changed for KK and Labor since they abandoned the Howard Government’s very successful Pacific Solution of deterrents including offshore detention, meaning offshore processing of asylum claims and denying access to Australia’s legal system and legal aid for more appeals after the offshore application for asylum was lost and the one appeal allowed under UN HCR rules.

    112

    • #
      Dennis

      I wonder how many Australians realised that the media reports of “refugees” being detained in a Melbourne CBD Hotel were people from the Naru Detention Centre, Offshore Processing Centre, illegal immigrants who had sought asylum but their applications were rejected after examination, and then they lost their appeal against the rejection?

      They came to Australia using the Medivac legislation put forward by Dr Phelps, now former Independent MP for Wentworth electorate in Sydney, and supported by Labor and others. The legislation was always a trick to provide a path for failed asylum seekers to enter Australia and apply for asylum again, and then with support from refugee advocates use the court system and legal aid here to fight against deportation.

      That legislation was later repealed in Parliament, but those people are still here today at taxpayer’s expense.

      102

    • #
      Ronin

      Labor want the reffos here and they’ll try it on again by hook or by crook.

      50

  • #
    John Connor II

    Israel’s Top Chocolate Maker Knew About Salmonella Outbreak a Week Before Major Recall

    Strauss found salmonella in raw chocolate used for some of the company’s products on the eve of Passover and notified the Israeli Health Ministry, but waited almost a week before alerting the public.

    Earlier this month, Israel joined the recall of Kinder Surprise chocolate eggs issued by the British Food Standards Agency out of a fear they were also contaminated with salmonella.

    https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/israel-s-top-chocolate-maker-recalls-popular-brands-over-salmonella-outbreak-1.10760873

    Knew about it a week in advance eh 😉

    40

  • #
    Custer Van Cleef

    Here’s some British data for anyone interested in the link between non-COVID mortality, the Vaccines, and Underlying Health status.

    Figure 4 will interest people in the 18-39 age group.

    20

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Is Kamala Harris Sicker With COVID Than the White House Will Admit?

    Alleged Vice President Kamala Harris is taking a medication indicated only for high-risk COVID-19 sufferers, according to one source.

    Dr. Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins professor of medicine, says he’s “surprised to learn” that Harris is taking Paxlovid, “a drug reserved for high-risk patients.”

    He notes that Harris is “asymptomatic, healthy, and quadruple vaccinated.

    Paxlovid is a brand-new oral antiviral drug developed by Pfizer to treat COVID-19. It received emergency FDA approval in December. A just-published explainer piece from Yale says patients must take the drug “within five days of developing symptoms.”

    80

    • #
      David Maddison

      If she wants to get better there are plenty of people that know what to do, but no treatment not promoted by Big Pharma is regarded as acceptable by the Left.

      110

    • #
      b.nice

      Could this be a ploy to get rid of Harris, before they depose Biden for senility?

      Who would be next in line, or could they appoint some un-elected Kenyan in her place?

      80

      • #
        KP

        Quite likely b.nice, they have realised she will never make a President, which shows a level of maturity that I never thought the Left would find. She ticks all the right boxes, female, black, good-looking, young… but even then they have had to admit she would be a disaster in power.

        50

      • #
        yarpos

        The speaker, Pelosi , is next in line. Loaded with great choices aint they?

        20

  • #
    John Connor II

    US Asks Germany to Hold Off on Russian Energy Sanctions Until Midterm Elections

    Reports are circling that the Biden Administration has begged Germany to hold off on banning Russian oil until after the midterm elections. The Democrats are so desperate to win amid their record-low popularity that they are openly asking other nations to alter major policies at the expense of the people. Biden has banned Russian energy imports, but the EU, which is more reliant on Russian energy, must wait.

    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/markets-by-sector/energy/us-asks-germany-to-hold-off-on-russian-energy-sanctions-until-midterm-elections/

    Politicians first, population second.

    90

  • #
    John Connor II

    Chinese woman (Shanghai/Beijing) jumps to her death due to starving

    This is the Chinese epidemic curve today of infections and cases as of today and you see what happens when you deny your population inching closer to population level herd immunity, you have a base population that is now full of ‘susceptibles’ and the death curve will follow just based on a numbers game

    https://palexander.substack.com/p/chinese-woman-shanghaibeijing-jumps

    You could drone-fly crickets into apartments. They don’t weigh much.
    A bit short of crickets (or locusts) are we China?

    71

  • #
    John Connor II

    Mitochondria Double as Tiny Lenses in the Eye
    Mitochondrial bundles in the retina may improve how efficiently your eye captures light.

    WIRED
    SUBSCRIBE
    Backchannel
    Business
    Culture
    Gear
    Ideas
    Science
    Security
    Podcasts
    Video
    Artificial Intelligence
    Climate
    Games
    Newsletters
    Magazine
    Events
    Wired Insider
    Coupons
    YASEMIN SAPLAKOGLUSCIENCEAPR 24, 2022 8:00 AM
    Mitochondria Double as Tiny Lenses in the Eye
    Mitochondrial bundles in the retina may improve how efficiently your eye captures light.
    Mitochondria
    Mitochondrial bundles (yellow) inside the photoreceptor cones of ground squirrels play an unexpected role in focusing diffuse light (shining upward from the bottom) more tightly (blue beams). This optical behavior may improve vision by making the capture of the light by pigments in the cones more efficient.PHOTOGRAPH: JOHN BALL/NATIONAL EYE INSTITUTE/RETINAL NEUROPHYSIOLOGY SECTION
    A MOSQUITO WATCHES you through a lattice of microscopic lenses. You stare back, fly swatter in hand, closely tracking the bloodsucker with your humble single-lens eyes. But it turns out that the way you see each other—and the world—may have more in common than you might think.

    A study published last month in Science Advances found that inside mammalian eyes, mitochondria, the organelles that power cells, may serve a second role as microscopic lenses, helping to focus light on the photoreceptor pigments that convert the light into neural signals for the brain to interpret. The findings, which draw a striking parallel between mammalian eyes and the compound eyes of insects and other arthropods, suggest that our own eyes have hidden levels of optical complexity, and that evolution has found new uses for very old parts of our cellular anatomy.

    https://www.wired.com/story/mitochondria-double-as-tiny-lenses-in-the-eye/

    40

  • #
    John Connor II

    Ohio doctors could soon be required to promote ivermectin to treat COVID-19

    COLUMBUS, Ohio — A new bill proposed by House Republicans would require boards of health to “promote and increase distribution” of drugs, such as ivermectin, to combat COVID-19. Health professionals who don’t do this would be penalized.

    Ron Ferguson, a Republican from Wintersville, cosponsored House Bill 631, the COVID-19 Health Care Professional-Patient Relationship Protection Act. The bill’s primary sponsor, Kris Jordan, a Republican from Ostrander, did not respond to comment.

    The four main drugs that the bill includes are ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and budesonide.

    https://www.news5cleveland.com/news/politics/ohio-politics/ohio-doctors-could-soon-be-required-to-promote-ivermectin-to-treat-covid-19

    Well…it’s a bit late now isn’t it…

    170

    • #
      b.nice

      Big question is, how well will these drug counter the adverse effects of the Covid vaxxines !

      60

    • #
      Forrest Gardener

      Interesting.

      The proven existence of an effective treatment would invalidate the emergency authorization for the injections.

      And that would trigger a very big boom indeed!

      80

  • #
    Catherine

    ‘In the early 1950’s, the Dayak people of Borneo suffered a malarial outbreak.
    The World Health Organisation (WHO) had a solution: to spray large amounts of DDT to kill the
    mosquitoes that carried the malaria. The mosquitoes died; the malaria declined; so far so
    good.

    But there were unexpected side effects.

    Amongst the first was that the roofs of the people’s houses began to fall down on their heads. It seemed that the DDT had also killed a parasitic wasp which had previously controlled thatch-eating caterpillars.

    Worse,the DDT-poisoned insects were eaten by geckoes,which were eaten by cats.

    The cats started to die, the rats flourished,
    and the people were threatened by outbreaks of typhus and plague.

    To cope with these problems, which it had itself created,
    the WHO was obliged to parachute 14000 live cats into Borneo. Operation Cat Drop, now almost
    forgotten at the WHO, is a graphic illustration of the interconnectedness of life, and of
    the fact that the root of problems often stems from their purported solutions.’

    (Quoted in Rachel Wynberg and Christine Jardine, Biotechnology and Biodiversity:
    Key Policy Issues for South Africa, 2000)

    150

    • #
      David Maddison

      It sounds like an excellent example of “trophic cascade”.

      The correct way to apply the DDT would be to spray the walls of dwellings as is done today where DDT has been re-allowed.

      90

    • #
      Fran

      Growing up in India, all our walls were sprayed with DDT. I was told that this was why the few kittens I had did not survive. 2 were killed by village dogs, 1 got distemper, but the myth persisted.

      50

  • #
    Catherine

    ???

    Dr Tess Lawrie:
    ‘The WHO is proposing a global pandemic agreement that would give it undemocratic rights over every participating nation and its citizens.
    Put simply, in the event of a ‘pandemic’, the WHO’s constitution would replace every country’s constitution. Whether your country’s elected government would agree or not, the WHO could impose lockdowns, testing regimes, enforce medical interventions, dictate all public health practice, and much more.

    Over the course of this pandemic, the WHO has withheld safe and established older medicines, ignored the experiences of frontline doctors, disregarded evidence from low, middle and high-income countries, and taken no heed of the values and preferences of people affected by their recommendations.

    The WHO launched a ‘public participation process’ and invited video and written submissions. . They just gave five days for the world’s citizens to have their voices heard.

    Now,
    according to the WHO, the next round of written and video public participation in the pandemic treaty will take place on 16-17 June.

    Please also be aware of the proposed amendments to the International Health Regulations, to be voted on this May at the World Health Assembly. Like the pandemic treaty, this is another move to seize greater powers and override the sovereign laws of individual nations.’

    150

    • #
    • #
      KP

      Of course! I’m sure the Australian Govt have signed us up for it already!

      Once you’re in power the objective changes dramatically, you have to aim for the best outcome for when you’re not in power. A cushy sinecure in a UN Dept seems to be the common ploy, just toady up to everything some UN bureaucrat wants and get yourself a place on a committee! No longer are the desires of your country important, you sell them out as you have the whole of mankind to consider! Be a BIGGER politician.

      50

  • #
    John Connor II

    Scientists New Battery Breakthrough SHOCKS The Entire Car Industry

    Chinese company invents EV battery that can charge in around 5 minutes and doesn’t need cooling.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=ewNAqZVhhwI

    21

    • #
      Dennis

      Still the recommended regular recharging to 80 per cent to extend battery service life, but of course battery storage will continue to deteriorate as recharged and age impact.

      So theoretical range for longer distance driving is limited to an 80 per cent charge level and a controlled discharge point depending on model of 20 per cent or 10 per cent of maximum capacity and therefore usable range before other variable factors depleting energy is somewhere around 60-70 per cent capacity, plus regenerative braking input when applicable.

      Obviously EV remains best suited for city and town travel at lower speeds as highway speeds use a lot more energy.

      And even when recharging time is shorter the price of EV compared to the same car or vehicle with an internal combustion engine costs a substantial amount less than EV, and that represents a lot of liquid fuel and servicing costs before an EV buyer breaks even and begins to save on running costs. If the EV is kept long enough and the battery does not reach replacement time.

      82

    • #
      Hanrahan

      They stated clearly that they were charging at 900kW. Allow for small losses that’s 1 mega Watt supply.

      I’ve covered this often before so will just say: Think about the village idiot handling that power.

      In case you think 1MW is a trifling amount here is 1MW generator. Note the price.

      https://www.larsonelectronics.com/product/148722/1-megawatt-container-trailer-mount-diesel-generator-480v-3ph-1-250-gal-fuel-capacity

      Hey! I applaud technology and these will be great for a wide range of applications.

      50

    • #
      David Maddison

      Let’s wait for independent tests to establish if the claims of true.

      There is no shortage of hype in the battery and “renewables” industries.

      120

    • #
      Ronin

      Yeah, I’ve got a cheap bridge for sale.

      50

      • #
        MP

        I am still after a bridge, could I get the measurements and what is cheap?

        The last one I bought has yet to arrive, probably COVID delays. Although I could end up with two bridges, its alright, I know this idiot down the road who will buy anything.

        90

    • #

      Ahh, these Youtube “robo videos” do provide entertainment…
      The giant leap forward with 10C charge rates…..was in use 10+ years ago !..Just not practical due to the high power capacity charging infrastructure needed..1000 kW power connectors and cables are very dangerous !
      But did you notice the “giant leap backwards” …for the other key metrics..
      350 Wh/ ltr.. IE about double the size of any comparable current cell !
      160 Wh/kg….50% LESS than current state of the art EV cells..so 50% heavier for equivalent capacity !!
      Why am i not “shocked” ?

      80

    • #
      Curious George

      Has the video been peer reviewed?

      30

  • #
    STJOHNOFGRAFTON

    Have the many promises of good outcomes from voting changed much over the years? Here’s Mark Twain’s sentiments: “If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it”.

    80

  • #
    John Connor II

    Pfizer Recalls Another Blood Pressure Medication

    The pharmaceutical company Pfizer has voluntary recalled a blood pressure medication for the second time in a month.
    Pfizer is recalling five lots of blood pressure medicine Accupril because of elevated levels of a nitrosamine, Nnitroso-quinapril, the company said in a news release posted Friday on the FDA website.
    Nitrosamines are found in water and foods, including grilled meats and dairy products, but impurities may increase a person’s cancer risk over long periods of time, Pfizer said.

    https://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/news/20220425/pfizer-recalls-another-blood-pressure-medication

    Now recall what you know you NEED to recall!!!!!!

    70

  • #
    John Connor II

    The viral delusion Part 2 – Monkey business: Polio and Measles and how it all began

    https://www.medicdebate.org/node/2867

    I posted the link to part 1 previously…

    30

  • #
    Robber

    Staying for a few days in Port Fairy, and the big MacArthur windfarm of 420 MW has been delivering 0.00 MW since April 9, while Portland 150 MW has been delivering about 40 MW, while the 240 MW Ararat “windfarm” has been delivering about 40 MW, peak 160 MW, low zero. Yes. more windmills will deliver, not.

    100

  • #
    MP

    I have listened to Smirko Morrison for the last two nights whining about a hung parliament and the prevailing chaos.

    We have them worried:)

    Malcolm Roberts on the hung parliament, (2 mins) not the right type of hanging but it will do for starters.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1HGfELnnlY

    71

    • #
      PeterS

      A hung parliament might not save our nation but it’s certainly worth a try.

      51

      • #
        Dennis

        Have you forgotten the 2010 Federal Election hung parliament, Gillard Union controlled Labor formed alliances with the Greens, two “independents” who had already been recruited by PM Rudd after the 2007 Federal Election victory but resulting in too many “marginal seats” for Labor’s comfort indicating that by 2010 they could have problems winning government again, and others.

        Sections of the media suggested that controlling the alliance would require PM Gillard to have skills for herding cats.

        And Australia ended up with what was often described as “chaotic, dysfunctional and incompetent” Federal Government. So bad that the Union controllers decided to return Rudd to the leadership before facing the 2013 Federal Election which Labor lost in a landslide defeat to the Abbott led Coalition.

        None of us can vote for Scott Morrison MP unless we live in his electorate, regardless of name calling, or apparent ignorance about how a government functions and why it is so important for the nation and we the people that democratic process continues. Consider the bad behaviour being exposed in Victoria and Queensland State Governments where Union Labor have been in control for a long time and have placed friends (unionists) in high places where they behave like puppets giving the government whatever they want. As in the news again now.

        “We have them worried” suggests a not well informed opinion.

        44

        • #
          PeterS

          Don’t forget a hung parliament can be good, bad or ugly. It all depends on the minor parties and independents who hold the balance of power. That’s why it might or might not work, but at least it’s worth a try. Otherwise, we all might as well give up and sit back watching our governments become more and more tyrannical. Is that what we really want? Some actually do, and that’s another problem. In the end we always get the government we deserve, even in a broken democracy.

          31

        • #
          MP

          I can indirectly vote that smirking twitt out by not voting any of his party in, going to be lonely at the bottom.
          If you can lift your head above the desk, can you ask that tosser how he increased his wealth to $59 million from $20 million in his term as head of traitors inc?
          How did he vote for diesel subs, against recommendations and a few years latter dump that deal as a bad plan at the cost of $5 billion after telling us it would ONLY cost $400 million. He dumped the Deal for French helicopters after voting for them against military advice and how much did that cost us?
          Why are we supplying money and arms to a conflict that does not involve us, is not in our interest and makes us part of the problem our own proxy war.

          Why has he not removed the emergency powers for a pandemic that never existed, allowed segregation through mandates. Labor has the unions, Smirko has the corporations as stake holders, which is worse?
          Moronson on the TV the other night stated he committed to the 2050 zero goals at Glasgow, though you continually spruik he did not commit at Glasgow, this makes you a liar.

          According to you If I don’t vote Libs I’m voting labor, if I don’t vote for Libs or Labs I’m voting Labor, one screwed up head there Dennis.

          I am voting for my Rights, that’s it, dysfunctional government, bring it on!

          Lying is all the government has in their arsenal, that and banging more zero’s at the end of our public debt. The whole political spectrum is corrupt, time for a political enema.
          “How government functions” theft and corruption, removing our rights, why would anyone vote for more of the same. I understand fully how this corrupt mob and their stakeholders function, the last two years have shown that. Federal law is above state law, this all can be stopped with the swishing of a pen, its happening because that DOG allows it and promotes it, Traitor.

          Morrison government the most corrupt in history.
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUg9CAbFH3o

          [wee edit = LVA]

          32

    • #
      b.nice

      Malcolm Roberts is a fine, upstanding, intelligent Australian…

      Also highly pragmatic and rational.

      Far above the average politician !

      130

    • #
      Hanrahan

      MP, you keep slagging the libs. I will continue to remind you that Tony Abbott is the only PM that STOPPED THE BLUDDY BOATS dead in their tracks.

      It is clear that your labor will open the doors to people smugglers. They have no agreed policy except they will not continue Operation Sovereign Borders.

      81

  • #
    • #
      b.nice

      The 1981 period contains some of the highest Arctic sea ice years since the LIA (1979 being about the highest)

      Not a sensible period to base and “average” on.

      Arctic sea ice is actually above the 15 year average and far higher than it has been for most of the last 10,000 years.

      100

      • #
        el+gordo

        As we are reaching the end of the Holocene it makes sense, but how to prove that there was less sea ice during the Holocene Thermal Max (9,000 – 6,000 BP).

        Its also known as the Holocene Temperature Conundrum because not much has been done on it.

        This recent paper says the greening of the world made temps warmer by a degree, sounds a bit dodgy.

        https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abj6535

        20

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          el gordo:
          The Holocene Climate Optimum (to give it its original name) was undoubtedly warmer than present, but it doesn’t fit the computer models and like the Roman Warm period and the Medieval Warm period has been ignored.
          Generally it ran from 9,000 to 3,000 years ago, with cold times around 8,200 and 5,000 years ago (something the mdels cannot explain either). We know from the Tassili frescos that early settlers left that there were giraffes, elephants and hippos (along with plentiful bovines) in the Sahara. That indicated lots of green vegetation and for hippos permant water holes.
          Equally parts of the Middle East were settled for agriculture (Jericho & other places in the Levant) where it wouldn’t be a choice these days. And there was intensive agriculture in Mesopotamia and the Indus Valley (Harrapa). All this indicates wetter weather (warmer climate means more evaporation).
          And that paper in the link is trying to reconcile the computer models with reality. Good luck with that!

          40

          • #
            el+gordo

            The dingo was introduced into Australia around 3,500 years BP, after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation.

            The Holocene Climate Optimum was warmer and wetter than now, but what caused the precipitous drop in temperature 8,200 BP?

            00

            • #
              Graeme No.3

              Don’t know, but it wasn’t a change in CO2.
              There have been claims that it was a re-run of the Younger Dryas which has been claimed to have been caused by a huge volume of melt water flooding into the ocean and disrupting the Gulf Stream. Others blame the Younger Dryas on volcanoes or asteroids.
              That there were sudden floods shows up in the badlands of Washington State and on the McKenzie river in Canada. Whether this was enough to drop Northern Hemisphere temperature for 2,000 years I cannot say. But the abrupt recovery of temperature in Greenland sort of rules out any orbital effect.

              10

        • #
          b.nice

          “but how to prove that there was less sea ice during the Holocene Thermal Max ”

          There are a lot of bio-proxies from all around the Arctic basin. They all say the same thing.

          Fit together with GISP and Grip data as well as other glacial terminus data.

          There was undoubtedly considerably less Arctic sea ice, often bascally none, for much of the first 80-90% of the Holocene.

          Only after the temperature had drop down through the RWP then cooler MWP then finally dropping to the LIA, did sea ice reach the levels that were seen in the late 1970’s.

          30

  • #
    Honk R Smith

    “Space … the final frontier, these are the voy … ”

    (real space, inter-planetary, not the high earth atmosphere like the International Not Really in Space Station).

    As an imprinted, Apollo/Star Trek kid, it has been a disappointing half century+.
    But I finally figured it out.

    Humans traveling to other planets would be Colonialist.
    There are likely pure and harmonious indigenous cultures out there that we have no right to interfere with.
    Also, we would cause Anthropogenic Warming to the pure cold void of space.
    Who knows the damage already being inflicted by Voyager.
    Until we can produce generations of Non-binary BIPOCs, cleansed of Patriarchal triggering tendencies, we must be confined to our remote rock.
    No macho starship captains and no hot mini-skirted communications officers can be permitted.
    Nature’s only known mistake must be corrected first.
    A vaccine perhaps?
    Fortunately, there are now those among us able to make better judgements than Birthing Person Nature.

    70

    • #
      KP

      ..and then we get enslaved by the macho definitely male carbon-burning aliens who take no prisoners and act like Russians on Stolichnaya..

      40

  • #
    Dennis

    After watching The Bolt Report last night on Sky News I have been very worried and disturbed by what Andrew Bolt revealed, legislation already prepared by “independent” MP for Warringah Zali Steggall that has the support of the Greens and the other Climate200 related candidates for election to Federal Parliament.

    Bolt obtained a copy of the Bill and has read it from start to finish and is also concerned about its content. In brief, establishing a new Climate Commissioner with powers to instruct the Minister for Environment and other Cabinet Ministers, in other words the Government, on climate change issues. You will no doubt remember that Tim Flannery was taxpayer funded in a Climate Office and defunded by the Abbott led Coalition Government.

    I had wondered how, if Labor were forced into an alliance minority government again as they were after the 2010 Federal Election, the “Teal Independents” and Greens comrades, and like minded Labor far left faction MPs, would be able to convince the majority Labor Government MPs to impose carbon tax on coal mines and gas, coal and gas power stations etc., and increase the transition to renewable energy wind, solar, essential back up and new transmission lines to improve renewable energy transmission, achieve net zero emissions much earlier than 2050, increase Paris Agreement emissions target and bring back the date from 2030 to 2025 and much more economic vandalism.

    The answer, according to Andrew Bolt’s research is the proposed legislation giving a Climate Commissioner absolute power to instruct the Federal Government. How that would be applied to State Governments is another question that Bolt did not cover. But I assume that with WA, SA, VIC, ACT, QLD & NT already in Labor hands therein lies the answer.

    I recommend that you do your own research, check out the Bolt Report at Sky News on this subject.

    92

  • #
    Dennis

    The Bolt Report podcast at this link, Thursday night not yet listed am Friday 29 April;

    https://www.skynews.com.au/listen/the-bolt-report-podcast

    52

  • #
    Dennis

    Daily Telegraph this morning;

    “Sky News host Andrew Bolt says climate independents are “conning you” in regards to Zali Steggall’s proposed climate change bill, that would introduce a target of 60 per cent reduction in emissions on 2005 levels by 2030.

    “I’ve read every word of the Steggall plan, and there is not one single line in there about how this 60 per cent cut is actually going to be done. How you’ll be taxed, whether petrol cars will be banned, what farmers are going to have to do … if coal will be banned, there is nothing – there is not a single word,” he said.

    “But this bill is worse than being absolutely clueless about how to actually cut our emissions.

    “What this bill actually does … is kill debate, cripple democracy and give an unelected climate commission amazing powers to force global warming policies, that we don’t yet know, onto us.””

    81

  • #
    Dennis

    By the way, can anyone believe that if Australia has the misfortune to end up with a Labor led alliance minority government after the election, influenced by far left Labor MPs, far left Greens and fellow traveller “Teal Independent” Climate200 party MPs that One Nation and/or United Australia Party would have any influence, and considering that both minor parties are opposed to the climate hoax agendas?

    82

  • #
    farmerbraun

    NZ has announced that it will be cracking down , following China’s lead, on those not wearing masks , or using mask exemptions , positing the arrival of a variant that is both more infectious and more dangerous.
    More compliance please people ; it’s for your own good you know. LOL.
    These bar -stewards are absolutely transparent.

    50

  • #
  • #
    another ian

    “A Mostly Wind- & Solar-Powered US Economy Is A Dangerous Fantasy”

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/mostly-wind-solar-powered-us-economy-dangerous-fantasy

    40

    • #
      Graeme#4

      Apparently Ken Gregory’s calculations showed that to reliably backup wind and solar, 30 days of energy storage would be required. I’m assuming that Australia, due to its increased sunlight, would get by with a bit less.

      11

  • #
    el+gordo

    ‘Wentworth incumbent Dave Sharma labelled fossil fuels a “necessary evil”.

    ‘The Wentworth MP’s comments were unearthed as the Coalition faces a fresh internal struggle over climate action, pulling the topic back into the spotlight.’ (Oz)

    30

  • #
    another ian

    “Covid news”

    “It Doesn’t Work, And Is Now PROVED”

    https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=245741

    30

  • #
    OldOzzie

    YEP, THAT’S BIDEN’S STAGFLATION THAT JUST ARRIVED

    That 1.4 percent contraction in the economy in the first quarter of 2022 represents the first statistical evidence that we’re entering a period of roaring inflation and stagnate growth.

    “The trade deficit ballooned massively, due to mushrooming imports. American exports fell by 9.6 percent, while imports went up by 17.7 percent. Economists had predicted a 1 percent economic growth rate, rather than the decline in the economy that actually occurred,” reports Liberty Unyielding’s Hans Bader.

    And the cause is clear, according to Bader, who says “the economy is being held back by Biden administration policies that discourage work, reward idleness, and make it harder for companies to attract employees. Biden enacted policies that reduced the size of America’s private-sector workforce and made America less economically competitive.”

    40

  • #
    MP

    One Nations latest cartoon. These things are getting better.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iN5-RgDlyc

    41

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Coal has lots of staying power

    There’s a huge gap between the persistence of coal consumption and rapid moves away from the most carbon-heavy fuel needed to keep global climate goals viable.

    Driving the news: Fresh data and reporting offer a window into long-term trends, but also recent changes spurred by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

    The big picture: Global coal-fired power rebounded last year to record levels amid high natural gas prices and economic revival from the pandemic, per the International Energy Agency and data-tracking green group Ember.

    And now the crisis in Europe is pushing in the same direction, even as EU leaders hope to speed their clean energy transition.

    “Russia’s invasion…turbocharged the coal market, setting off a domino effect that’s leaving power producers scrambling for supply and pushing prices to record levels,” Bloomberg reports.

    It notes higher coal-fired power use in China — the world’s biggest consumer — and other large users including the U.S., India, the European Union, and elsewhere in Asia.

    AP reports China is “promoting coal-fired power as the ruling Communist Party tries to revive a sluggish economy.”

    Zoom in: The group Global Energy Monitor (GEM) this week published its latest data on coal-fired power plant development and shutdowns.

    . 2021 saw another 18.2 gigawatts (GW) of capacity added to the world’s operating coal plant fleet of roughly 2,100 GW, while shut-downs slowed.
    . Another 176 GW of capacity is under construction, per the report from GEM, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, the climate think tank E3G and other groups.
    . China is driving new plant development. But the report also notes some developed nations plan to operate plants “far beyond the deadlines required by climate science.”

    Threat level: None of this meshes with holding global warming below potentially catastrophic levels.”New investments in coal-fired electricity without [carbon capture and storage] are inconsistent with limiting warming to 2°C or 1.5°C,” UN-convened scientists said in a major report this month.

    31

  • #
  • #
    OldOzzie

    CDC Releases Figures on the Total Number of Americans Who Contracted COVID

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a rough count of how many Americans have contracted COVID so far. The most deadly and vicious pandemic, according to liberals and mask N@zis, has infected 60 percent of the US population. That also means we’re all dead too. Not really, but after months of liberal COVID hysterics—you’d think the Andromeda Strain had struck the country. Wear 10 masks at a time, stay inside, stay 1456 feet apart, and get 45600 shots. Also, if you’re bank account holds a particular balance, the virus won’t infect you. We’ve seen that with the multiple rich, fat cat Democrats who have been caught maskless eating out with their liberal friends. With regards to children, 75 percent have contracted the virus. Yet, we’re still pushing vaccination as a national security priority.

    Look, I’ve been vaccinated and boosted, but the CDC’s own figures show that the horse has long left the barn here regarding preventing infection. Also, the shot doesn’t do that. If you want it, take it. If not, go about your business. This is America; you can roll the dice (via People):

    40

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Biden blasted for policing free speech with ‘dystopian’ disinformation bureau

    Oh, (Big) Brother!

    President Biden came under fire Thursday for the creation of a “dystopian” disinformation bureau created under his Homeland Security department, which critics are blasting as just a way for the government to police free speech online.

    Conservatives slammed the Department of Homeland Security’s Orwellian new “Disinformation Governance Board” – with some suggesting the timing is convenient given Elon Musk vowed to make Twitter a free speech haven after his $44 billion takeover of the social media platform notorious for selectively censoring right-leaning points of view.

    Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley called the new board a “disgrace” that was designed to “monitor all Americans’ speech.”

    In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Hawley said he initially thought Wednesday’s announcement was “satire.”

    “Surely, no American administration would ever use the power of government to sit in judgement on the First Amendment speech of its own citizens. Sadly, I was mistaken,” Hawley wrote.

    “Rather than protecting our border or the American homeland, you have chosen to make policing Americans’ speech your priority.”

    21

  • #
    Neville

    More on our loony western so called leaders rushing us headlong towards the precipice while over half of the world’s population are trying to increase the use of RELIABLE BASE-LOAD energy ASAP.
    Hopefully the actions of that crazy Russian despot will start to wake up some of these so called leaders to some degree, but I’ll believe it when I see it. China 1.4 bn, India 1.39 bn, Pakistan 0.23 bn, Africa 1.4 bn = about 4.4 billion.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/04/28/more-polarization-africa-asia-investing-hundreds-of-billions-in-hydrocarbon-infrastructure-out-of-necessity-the-west-arranges-deck-chairs-on-the-titanic/

    31

  • #
    OldOzzie

    White House NSA Organizes Security Summit With 50 Nation Peers to Discuss Future of the Internet

    What could possibly go wrong when the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, organizes a “minister level launch of the Declaration for the Future of the Internet.” Put more succinctly, that would be 50 nation intelligence ministers getting together to decide what they will permit on the internet.

    Apparently, a collective partner rule book is forthcoming. Big Tech will be given specific instructions on how to comply.

    The global rulebook on how to handle, define and eliminate ‘disinformation’, ‘misinformation’ and ‘malinformation’ on the world-wide internet.

    Sounds like satire, but it’s totally legit.

    21

  • #
    Neville

    According to the USA Georgia based CDC the 2021 to 2022 NH Flu season was very mild and few cases and deaths in the last 12 months. Here’s a quote and the link. Hopefully this means we shouldn’t have a severe Flu season in the SH between now and October 2022? Who knows?

    BTW this report was compiled on March 14 and then fact checked by 30/3/2022.

    https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/insights-northern-hemispheres-flu-season-2022

    “There were very few influenza infections reported during the 2021-2022 season.

    Among the 3,636 children and adults enrolled at the seven study sites during October 4, 2021–February 12, 2022, a total of 194 (5%) received a positive test result for influenza A virus infection, and none received a positive test result for influenza B virus infection.

    From a real-world perspective, this data indicates there were not enough flu cases actually to evaluate influenza vaccine effectiveness this season.

    Previously, Lisa Grohskopf with the CDC’s Influenza Division confirmed this assumption on March 4, 2022, when she presented:

    The lowest influenza positivity (5%) was observed over the past ten seasons among Flu VE Network participants with respiratory illness,
    The numbers of influenza-positive participants were insufficient to estimate age group-specific VE or compare the effectiveness of different influenza vaccine products against the predominant A(H3N2) virus.

    Predicting the future flu viruses impacts the composition of influenza vaccines produced each season”.

    40

  • #
    Dennis

    Border Force has started advertising in various languages to deter people smuggling again, the spokesman reported in newspapers today did name anybody but alluded to the Labor MP KK news released this week advising refugee advocates that if Labor forms government the borders will reopen again.

    How many times does Labor Greens Climate200 need to be told that Operation Sovereign Borders works based on multiple deterrent factors, and despite stopping the boast the risk of another wave of arrivals remains. General, now Senator Jim Molan recently commented that his contacts in Indonesia estimate over 14,000 Afghanistan citizens left behind when Operation Sovereign Borders commenced are waiting anxiously for Labor to open the borders again.

    42

  • #
    Neville

    Here’s Biden’s hairy legs video + kids rubbing their hands on his legs + he loves kids sitting on his lap etc.
    And I agree with the comments made after the end of Biden’s yapping.
    All of this happened before the clueless voters cast their ballots. Again unbelievable but true.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DbE2SmV2bs

    41

  • #
    OldOzzie

    JONATHAN TURLEY – Res ipsa loquitur – The thing itself speaks

    Garland Stonewalls Questions about a Special Counsel Despite New Evidence Tied to President Biden

    Attorney General Merrick Garland continued to refuse to address questions over his refusal to appoint a Special Counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation despite new evidence tying President Joe Biden to the controversial business deals. The New York Post is reporting that President Biden agreed to cover more than $800,000 in bills of Hunter, including legal fees tied to the foreign deals. While President Biden’s denial of knowledge of Hunter’s deals has been repeatedly contradicted (including by Hunter himself), White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki declared that President Biden stands by his denials. However, she declined to explain new information showing that a key business partner in these deals visited the White House over a dozen times, including at least one meeting with then Vice President Biden.

    The New York Post shows that on Jan. 17, 2019, Hunter Biden’s then-personal assistant, Katie Dodge told accountant Linda Shapero that Joe Biden was covering the legal costs. The email states “I spoke with Hunter today regarding his bills. It is my understanding that Hunt’s dad will cover these bills in the short-term as Hunter transitions in his career.”

    What may be even more damaging is the the new disclosure that Hunter Biden’s business partner, Eric Schwerin, made at least 19 visits to the White House and other official locations between 2009 and 2015. Schwerin was the president of Rosemont Seneca, one of the key firms involved in the alleged influence peddling schemes.

    We have previously discussed the various references to the President in these emails. Indeed, it is impossible to look into these allegations of influence peddling without repeatedly running into references to the President.

    Given this mounting evidence, the position of Attorney General Garland has gone from dubious to ridiculous in evading the issue of a special counsel appointment. He continues to refuse to acknowledge these conflicts with the President. In a hearing yesterday, Garland again refused to address the issue, even discussing what it would take to warrant the appointment of a special counsel. There is no reason why he cannot answer such legal questions without getting into the evidence produced in Delaware.

    21

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Michael Sussmann Evidentiary Hearing: The Transcript

      And – more info on the investigation into Rodney Joffe

      Yesterday, April 27, there was a pre-trial hearing in the Michael Sussmann case relating to various evidentiary issues. For the uninitiated, Sussmann a former Perkins Coie partner, and former attorney for the DNC/Clinton Campaign (and Rodney Joffe), has been charged by Special Counsel John Durham with providing false statements to then-FBI General Counsel James Baker in the fall of 2016. Here is more background on his indictment.

      We have the full transcript of yesterday’s hearing (link at the bottom).

      Here are some of the most notable disclosures:

      The Special Counsel’s “ongoing investigation” into Rodney Joff

      21

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Why Russia’s economy is holding on, despite sanctions

    With oil exports strong in April, Russian President Vladimir Putin manages to avoid economic ruin while hammering Ukraine.

    Despite predictions of doom for the heavily sanctioned Russian economy, nearly two months into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine his country’s oil exports to Europe and nations such as India and Turkey have actually risen, and its financial sector has so far avoided a serious liquidity crisis.

    Sanctions may work in the long run, experts say, but for now many of the same countries that are sanctioning Russia are still seriously undercutting their efforts by buying energy from it – in some cases in even larger amounts during April than in March.

    “Putin is continuing to make at least a billion dollars a day selling oil and gas, and the lion’s share is from Europe,” says Edward Fishman, a former Europe specialist at the US State Department. “Individual European countries are sending military assistance to Ukraine but it’s dwarfed by payments they’re making to Russia for oil and gas.”

    Despite Western restrictions on Russia’s financial sector, oil exports are up to 3.6 million barrels a day in April, compared with 3.3 million barrels a day the month before, says Matt Smith of Kpler, a firm that tracks oil cargo ships. “The big takeaway is that Russian crude oil exports are actually higher so far this month than they were last month,” Smith says. “It’s surprising.”

    – ‘Record pace’ for Russian oil shipments
    – Gas continues to flow
    – Economic crisis

    In a recent interview with Der Spiegel, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suggested that Berlin couldn’t afford to cut off Russian supplies anytime soon, saying an embargo on Russian gas not only wouldn’t end the Ukraine war but could lead to “a dramatic economic crisis, the loss of millions of jobs and of factories that would never open again”.

    He added: “This would have major consequences for our country, for all of Europe, and it would also severely affect the financing of Ukraine’s reconstruction. As such, it is my responsibility to say: we cannot allow that to happen.”

    – Contracting economy
    – Divided international response
    – Economic distress in the West

    As JPMorgan analyst Natasha Kaneva said this week, eliminating Russian oil is going to cause every bit of the economic pain that Germany and other EU nations fear, possibly driving up prices by about 65 per cent from about $US110 to $US185 a barrel.

    That could be devastating to economies such as Germany’s, which gets 25 per cent of its oil and 40 per cent of its gas from Russia. Not surprisingly, Berlin has led the fence-sitting over the energy issue.

    – Long-term isolation

    30

    • #
      OldOzzie

      EU admits Russia sanctions don’t work

      Warsaw urges Brussels to “correct” the situation with new penalties

      Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki on Wednesday noted Russia’s success in resisting Western sanctions, expressing his regrets about the fact.

      “So far, we see that Russia, unfortunately, is coping well with the sanctions,” he told reporters, adding that in order to “correct” the situation, Warsaw would work on developing new penalties.

      Moscow has confirmed the failure of the plans by ‘unfriendly’ nations to “strangle Russia economically.”

      “Step by step, using all sorts of pretexts, sometimes just without any pretexts, they introduced new restrictions,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, adding that Moscow successfully warded off the sanctions strike, withstood it, and did not crumble.

      10

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Mounting U.S. Debt and Misguided Foreign Policy Risk a Dollar Doomsday

    The U.S. dollar is getting perilously close to losing its status as the world’s reserve currency, and there is less room than ever for error on the international stage. Blunders in U.S. foreign policy are likely to have more harmful effects on both our allies and our enemies than in the past given the sorry record of the Biden administration. Should the U.S. dollar be knocked out of its position as the reserve currency, hell would break lose across global markets.

    With recent memories of Biden’s humiliating and bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, there is less confidence in the reliability of the United States from our allies, and far less respect and fear of the United States from our enemies. It’s self-evident that the powers behind Biden favor prolonging the Russia-Ukraine war, rather than promoting an expedient end to hostilities, because the ongoing conflict dominates U.S. media and diverts Americans’ attention away from disastrous domestic policies and breaking high-stakes scandals and prosecutions of Democrats and their deep state operatives.

    The blame for the Russian-Ukraine war lies with both Russia and the United States and NATO countries. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 and Ukraine gained its independence and agreed to dismantle the nuclear arsenal that the USSR had deployed there in the Cold War years, it was understood that Ukraine would remain a neutral country, and that was formalized in the Budapest Agreement of 1994.

    Ukrainian instability over the last eight years has had three major causes:

    30

    • #
      KP

      Friday- They’re going to print another $30BILLION to give to Zelenskie to spend, I posted the little article about the enormous increase in luxury cars going into Ukraine yesterday.. Meanwhile US punk band ‘Dropkick Murphys’ are selling Azov-printed T-shirts to raise money for Ukraine.. Really?? A cake stall compared to $30billion?

      Romania/Ukraine are going to invade the little bit of pro-Russia called Transnistria West of Odessa. Russia will be expected to respond, they have troops there guarding Europe’s largest ammunition store. Poland are looking to send ‘Peace-Keepers’ to Ukraine to take over from the National Guard, freeing them up to go to the front lines. They’re hoping something in there will count as an attack on NATO. America, Canada, France, Germany Bulgaria, Romania & others advised their citizens to leave Moldova & Transnistria today.

      Representatives of the office of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, together with their families, received British citizenship. He should not be able to hold that as President of Ukraine, but who cares about details when you are on the cover of Time Magazine. How did he get a wealth of $850million anyway?? So he’ll be filming his patriotic speeches in a London studio with a blue backdrop now.

      11

  • #
    yarpos

    Been a few mentions of Putins health now. Some videos show him awkwardly holding a table edge while seated and and others showing hand te

    20

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Matt Kean won’t wait for Canberra

    As his federal Coalition colleagues threaten to splinter over the path to net zero emissions, NSW Liberal Treasurer and Energy Minister Matt Kean is clear: the state is going there anyway, and consumers will benefit.

    It’s a view that has brought friction with Canberra, and which threatens to drive a bigger wedge into the fracturing National Electricity Market.

    Kean goes so far as to assert that for NSW’s journey in the energy transition, it makes little difference which party wins the May 21 election.

    “From our perspective it doesn’t matter who’s in government, because we’ve got very clear plans and policies here in New South Wales that are in the interests of New South Wales taxpayers, and the families and businesses that operate here,” he says.

    “We’ll work with whoever sits in the federal parliament to make sure we get the best outcome for the public.”

    “This is not just a play for our environment, this is a major strategic economic play to underwrite the future prosperity of our state and our nation,” he says.

    Preparing for reality

    “Today, half of the world’s wealth is being created in jurisdictions that have committed to net zero, so those markets that have previously underwritten our state’s prosperity are changing, and we want to make sure we’re well-placed to take advantage of those global megatrends in a way that will create jobs, drive investment into New South Wales and underwrite prosperity like the state’s never seen before.”

    On coal power in NSW, Kean has been sanguine about the early closure of Origin Energy’s huge Eraring generator on the Central Coast, in contrast to his sharply critical federal colleague Angus Taylor, who voiced “bitter disappointment” and blasted Kean as “delusional” in his plan to rely heavily on a 700 MW battery to replace it.

    ‘We have a plan’

    Raising pulses across the sector, however, is the surge in wholesale power prices this year, which has worsened since late March as AGL Energy went ahead with the long-scheduled closure of the first of four units at its Liddell coal station in the Hunter Valley, just as Victorian generation was disrupted by technical problems.

    ‘We can’t sit and wait’

    But it’s coming at the cost of the National Electricity Market, which is struggling with proposed reforms and with the impact of the rapidly changing energy mix on the grid.

    Kean says he “believes in” the NEM but acknowledges “it’s certainly very hard” to make it work as the states push forward faster on the transition.

    He is more ebullient about the future for green hydrogen, and for other technologies such as green steel that should set up the state and its major industries for the future. NSW’s work in that area is being advised by a Net Zero Emissions and Clean Economy Board, announced in December and chaired by former Energy Security Board chair Kerry Schott.

    11

    • #
      OldOzzie

      Electricity bills on the rise in Queensland, NSW

      Power users in Queensland and NSW are staring down the barrel of sharply higher wholesale electricity prices than their neighbours in the south will pay after retail prices are reset mid-year.

      The latest quarterly report from the country’s energy market operator shows that a lack of transmission meant the big states that are more dependent on black coal power were unable to take advantage of cheaper power from renewable sources in the south.

      This means power users in those states are facing higher electricity bills because black coal prices have soared amid a global energy crunch, a scenario which threatens to add to rising inflation and stoke concern about cost-of-living struggles.

      The extent to which the mid-year price increases for retail and small business customers reflect the huge spike in wholesale prices in Queensland and NSW will depend partly on the level of hedging each retailer has in place. Very large power users whose prices more closely follow the wholesale market may already be paying more.

      Labor’s Rewiring the Nation policy centres on a $20 billion low-cost loan scheme, which it estimates would unlock $58 billion of private co-financing in assets to help deliver net zero emissions by 2050.

      Increasing transmission lines would bring soaring amounts of renewable energy generation onto the country’s National Electricity Market, most likely reducing wholesale prices. But customers would endure the costs of building the infrastructure through taxes and components of their bills.

      10

      • #
        Dennis

        I heard a discussion on electricity prices as drove to Canberra this morning, Angus Taylor pointed out that the wholesale price for electricity fluctuates up and down regularly but consumer price has actually come down in recent years following the Federal Government interventions including amending company laws to force greater competition between electricity suppliers.

        42

    • #
      yarpos

      I’m with Matt. NSW should go hard and go first and show the way to renewable nirvana.

      I mean the ACT sits in the middle of the NSW grid and its already “100% renewable” What could possibly go wrong??

      60

      • #
        Dennis

        The ACT Council, sorry ACT Government claims that the ACT is 100% renewable energy supply and ignore the connection to the NSW electricity grid and that most of the electricity is not from wind or solar.

        The deception is based on ACT Government investment of taxpayer’s monies into private sector wind and solar electricity supply businesses and not necessarily based in the ACT.

        53

    • #
      Dennis

      LINO left Matt Green is a mouthpiece for the renewable energy investment lobby and concerned about the Federal Government interventions that include the end of the RET and subsidies by 2030 leaving not enough time now for new investment in wind and/or solar installations, company law amendments to force greater retail pricing competition and others.

      Climate200 and backers, as they did for the 2019 Federal Election, want to get rid of the Liberal-National Coalition Federal Government and as Andrew Bolt has discovered and is publishing and commenting about the renewable lobby of climate change fanatics want to force net zero and many others onto we the people by giving a Commissioner the power to dictate to Cabinet Ministers on climate related matters.

      63

  • #
    OldOzzie

    AFTER THE PANDEMIC, IS FAMINE NEXT?

    Daniel Andrews was asked today about all the Victorian teachers who suddenly found themselves out of work because they haven’t taken their third dose of poison. This is how he reacted:

    “I’m just about sick and tired of this constant negativity when it comes to schools….”

    Nobody normal responds like that. Only psychopaths do that. The kind of psychopath who would introduce an innocuous sounding bill to parliament which is designed to destroy any crops people try to grow in their backyard during a period of food shortages. This was seen on the internet:

    Andrews government will be coming after agriculture next. The Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022 has had it’s second reading in parliament. Biosecurity being the stated reason for changes. Increased enforcement powers, searching of property and persons without warrant, Increased fines, what was $1800 now $10.000 for providing false or misleading info. Landholder consent no longer required for Authorised Officers to take samples, stock (animals), documents. Authorised Officers no longer required to present identification. Heavy penalties for obstructing entry to the property. Sounds like they are getting their ducks lined up, ready to be deployed to shut down farms.

    Sounds crazy right? It’s true, it’s all true. Here are just a few examples from The Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill 2022,

    Explanatory Memorandum:

    – Authorised Officers no longer required to present identification:
    – Heavy penalties for obstructing entry to the property:
    – Increased fines, what was $1800 now $10.000 for providing false or misleading info:

    Most concerning, they are putting in place laws which would allow them to charge you the money it cost them to destroy your own food supply:

    You can also view the entire bill here.

    This bill from Andrews however is extremely suspicious. It should be viewed in the context of the express intention of some of the world’s most powerful billionaires and international institutions to convert the world’s meat and dairy industry to derive its protein from plants, synthetic material and bugs.

    71

    • #
      another ian

      O.O.

      Spread that

      20

    • #
      b.nice

      “– Authorised Officers no longer required to present identification:”

      Police have to show ID…but…

      … any loonie eco-wacko can have access just by saying he is an agricultural officer.

      This will not end well !!

      60

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Absolutely Undemocratic.

      As one of our recently “passed” contributors from the U.S. used to say;

      “the government’s authority to control me ends at my front gate”.

      Did Victorians really vote this guy in?

      50

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Why RBA may wait until June

    The more time the RBA gives households to adjust to higher rates, the more time wages growth has to offset the impact of the reduced purchasing power.

    The smartest Reserve Bank of Australia watchers I know think the bank will either raise rates by 15 basis points in May or go 40 basis points in June. Both are torn on the probabilities, with the historically more accurate of the two leaning slightly towards June. Rates will rise, it is now just a timing question.

    Ahead of its June meeting, the RBA will receive two significant data releases on wages and labour costs, which will furnish important new insights on the sustainability of the current inflation pulse.

    The RBA will receive the first-quarter wage price index in mid-May and then the GDP measures of wages and labour unit costs immediately before its June meeting. With this in mind, Lowe explicitly referenced the need to wait multiple “months” for the arrival of this data in his statement after the April meeting: “Over coming months, important additional evidence will be available to the board on both inflation and the evolution of labour costs,” Lowe advised. “The board will assess this and other incoming information as its sets policy to support full employment in Australia and inflation outcomes consistent with the target.”

    The RBA has received one tranche of data (the inflation results) but nothing yet on wages or labour costs. And while the core inflation data was strong, it was not necessarily black and white.

    The RBA’s preferred measure, the trimmed mean, printed at 1.4 per cent in the March quarter, besting consensus expectations of a 1.2 per cent outcome. Yet another significant metric, the weighted median, was weaker at only 1 per cent, underperforming consensus.

    Recent inflation prints have clearly been boosted by supply-side factors, government policy changes and, more generally, increases in the cost of imported items. As Goldman Sachs noted, domestic market services inflation, which correlates more with wages, was relatively benign, rising only 0.5 per cent in the quarter and 2.5 per cent over the past 12 months.

    Already on the up

    A final piece of this puzzle is that actual real-world interest rates have already begun climbing sharply. Three-year fixed-rate borrowing costs have increased enormously from less than 2 per cent only 12 months ago to 4.5 per cent.

    House price falls will accelerate as the RBA raises rates. And banks will continue to pass on their own independent hikes – as they have done with fixed-rate loans recently and will not hesitate to do with their variable rate products as profits are pressed.

    Housing market

    To be clear, the RBA has no desire to aggressively jack up rates only to push the economy into recession. For the first time in a decade, it has sighted decent inflation and wage growth, and its entire mission is focused on ensuring that prices and incomes expand sustainably.

    The RBA also knows that with the household debt-to-income ratio at record highs, Australians have never been more sensitive to rate changes. It has historically got housing market reactions to its policy changes horribly wrong (being consistently surprised on the upside and downside).

    There is little chance of the RBA raising rates aggressively if house prices are falling sharply. The RBA will further account for the banks’ independent rate hikes when setting its cash rate: the more the banks do, the less the RBA will do.

    10

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Having rewatched Zulu (1964) Full Movie – English last night

    Fascinating to read

    Rorke’s Drift – Private Hitch’s Story
    by Richard Rhys Jones

    Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded for the defence of Rorke’s Drift in the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, the most VCs for any action in the history of the British Army. Private Frederick Hitch was one of the 11 defenders rewarded for his bravery. Richard Rhys Jones’ account of the engagement is told in the form of a memoir by Private Hitch…

    30

  • #
    Chris

    Facebook and Tic tok have pulled Pauline Hanson’s Friday cartoon. This week the storyline was Anthony and Penny discussing voter fraud.

    61

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Chronic shortages of a few items now will evolve into chronic shortages of hundreds of products later in 2022

    The next time you go to the pet store don’t be surprised to see some empty shelves.

    Many pet stores are facing a shortage on canned pet food.
    Right now, there just aren’t enough cheap sources of chicken and turkey due to the bird flu pandemic, there is an ongoing shortage of aluminum, and there is a shortage of factory workers.

    So the canned pet food shortage is not likely to be fixed any time soon.

    Another shortage that is going to affect much of the country as we head into the summer months is the growing chlorine shortage.

    I find it ironic that the nationwide chlorine shortage could be extended thanks to the nationwide construction material shortage.

    But at least we can be glad that things are not as bad here as they are in Europe.

    Over there, widespread rationing of certain products has already begun. For example, it was just announced that Tesco is now limiting each customer to three bottles of cooking oil…

    When U.S. Senator Roger Marshall was recently asked about this, he openly admitted that a “worldwide famine” is definitely going to happen…

    Prior to 2022, can you ever remember a time when a sitting member of the U.S. Senate publicly warned us that a “worldwide famine” was coming?

    Meanwhile in Australia

    Construction chaos as tradies go broke dealing with the soaring cost of building materials – amid warning that Australia could run out of timber in EIGHT weeks

    40

    • #
      Dennis

      My son is quoting late 2023 starts for new building projects.

      Materials are a procurement nightmare but so is finding skilled and unskilled people to fill the many vacancies in building and construction.

      82

  • #
    OldOzzie

    ‘An oasis in the desert’: Why the NDIS is a mess

    It’s touted as a world-leading reform but exploding costs and limited evidence it is achieving key employment and early intervention goals, raises questions about the sustainability of the NDIS.

    Tom Burton
    Government editor

    The one thing that advocates and critics of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) have in common is they agree it is a mess. A mess awaiting whichever major party wins government on May 21.

    It was probably always going to be a difficult transition to establish a national support program for the half a million people in Australia with significant disabilities.

    Before the scheme won historic bi-partisan support in 2013, disabled people and their carers faced a system the Productivity Commission had described in 2011 as “underfunded, unfair, fragmented, and inefficient”.

    The system was heavily reliant on informal care by families. Multiple programs were spread across federal, state and local governments and community groups, which the Commission said gave people with a disability “little choice and no certainty of access to appropriate supports”.

    Noting that most families and individuals could not adequately prepare for the risk and financial impact of significant disability, all major political parties accepted the Commission’s core recommendation that the costs of lifetime care are so substantial that the risks and costs needed to be pooled into a national insurance scheme.

    Intense lobbying from the politically powerful disability sector saw bipartisan support emerge for a universal scheme of uncapped, individually designed support plans, based on what is considered “reasonable and necessary” needs.

    Despite the scheme being open-ended and demand driven, both major parties endorsed the Productivity Commission’s “bottom line finding” that the “benefits of the NDIS would significantly exceed the additional costs of the scheme”.

    The Commission said these benefits arose from many sources: “wellbeing gains to people with disabilities and informal carers; efficiency gains in the disability sector; savings to other government services; increased participation, and the resulting fiscal gains.”

    “The NDIS would only have to produce an annual gain of $3800 per participant to meet a cost-benefit test,“the Commission predicted in its landmark 2011 report.

    “Given the scope of the benefits, that test would be passed easily.”

    The National Disability Insurance Scheme was born, co-funded by federal and state governments with an estimated gross cost of $22 billion a year, covering 481,000 people once fully operational and adjusted for population growth. The size of the scheme was based on a 2009 Australian Bureau of Statistics analysis of the number of people with significant disabilities.

    The Commission concluded the net cost when fully matured in 2050 would be a modest $4.4 billion.

    Over 10pc of all federal payments

    Things have not turned out as predicted.

    There are now over 500,000 in the scheme, but with the latest NDIS actuarial forecast for the scheme predicting there will be around 860,000 participants by 2030. The scheme currently is costing $31 billion but with the NDIS now predicting the scheme to rise to an eye-watering $59.3 billion per annum by the end of the decade.

    Coupled with disability pension, financial support for carers and payments to the states, federal assistance to people with disabilities is predicted to be $68 billion this coming budget year, more than 10 per cent of all federal payments.

    The oasis in the desert

    “What was envisaged was that the last person to get into the NDIS would only get a little bit more than the first person that misses out. This would have been equitable and also provided a stable foundation for the NDIS.”

    “Who wouldn’t fight to get in? Which parent with a child who is experiencing developmental delay or has some autistic tendencies, who wouldn’t try and get their kid in?

    “What you see … is that if you get in, the chances are you’ll get something like $15,000, but if you miss out, you get nothing.

    “One is in the oasis and the other, desert.”

    ‘A big bus full of money’

    Disability lottery

    Of the half a million participants, Bonyhady said nearly 290,000 are receiving benefits for the first time.

    “So that tells you a lot about how underfunded and how much of a lottery, the pre-NDIS system was. So, the need for the scheme is indisputable.”

    Early intervention not working

    A key premise of the NDIS is that early intervention and investment would lead to a reduction in a participants future disability need for support.

    But Taylor Fry found there is no data to show this is occurring.

    Work participation stalled

    But for older people in the scheme, participation has gone backwards with the percentage in work for participants aged 25 and over having decreased for most durations in the program by 1 to 3 percentage points.

    Anger as NDIS begins to cut

    The strident push back from the voluble sector saw the government drop the idea, leaving relations between the sector and the National Disability Insurance Agency (the operators of the scheme) at a low.

    Quasi-market failure

    “One of the things that’s really missing from the NDIS currently is that lack of transparent, clear quality indicators that people can use to determine who’s good and who’s not.”

    Children a key driver of costs

    It is the surging costs of support for children that is the key driver of the costs of the insurance scheme up.

    Two thirds of the new costs from the predicted 60,000 new annual entrants are coming from children with autism or developmental delays, according to the annual sustainability report produced by the scheme actuary.

    20

    • #
      MP

      Do you think being un-vaxxed should be classed as a disability, you are unable to work due to a medical condition, it appears this condition will be permanent.
      Just thinking.

      60

  • #
    Dennis

    Remember the Office of Climate Change, the Tim Flannery NGO that the Abbott Coalition Federal Government defunded?

    I wonder who Climate200 and the Teal shirted Independent Party have in mind to become the all powerful Climate Commissioner that Andrew Bolt reported based on the Steggal legislation proposed by her and the others to dictate to Cabinet Ministers on climate matters, ignoring we the people and our elected representatives by appointing an unelected bureaucrat to make decisions?

    41

  • #
    MP

    You called me a parrot?

    Denis want a cracker.

    21

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Poland Pushing the World toward World War III

    QUESTION: I don’t get it, Poland won’t pay for gas in rubles, when I buy something from the US I have to pay in US dollars not Canadian, so what am I missing?

    ANSWER:

    Politics! Minister of Climate and Environment, Anna Moskwa clearly has zero comprehension of geopolitics. She has come out and said that the European Union should penalize countries that use roubles to pay for Russian gas. In response to Moscow’s decision to cut off supplies to Poland and Bulgaria over their refusal to do so. Moskwa has come out and said: “Poland holds necessary gas reserves and sources of supply which protect our security because for years we have been becoming effectively independent of Russia. Our storage facilities are full at 76%. Polish households will not run short of gas.” This is what she said during a press conference held on April 26th, 2022 at the Ministry of Climate and Environment.

    The absurdity of her statements is beyond belief. To think that refusing to buy Russian energy will bring Putin to his knees pleading for mercy is just absurd.

    She makes no criticism of Ukraine and its notorious corruption of the fact that it is being reported that Zelensky has stashed over $800 million in offshore accounts while demanding $7 billion per month in aid. Even the IMF cut off Ukraine because it is so corrupt. You cannot do business in Ukraine – period! There is NOTHING that Zelensky says which can be verified independently and he will say whatever to keep the money pouring in.

    40

    • #
      PeterS

      Most of us don’t want a war with Russia but PM Morrison, Biden and other Western leaders do. So sad.

      30

  • #
    MP

    March for life, Saturday Brisbane. http://www.marchforlife.com.au/images/2022_March_for_Life_Cherish_Life.pdf

    We are very much looking forward to seeing you tomorrow at the March for Life Brisbane!
    Saturday 30 April, at 3pm outside Queensland Parliament House. For more details click here.
    Speakers include:
    Senator Matt Canavan, a registered Cherish Life member of Cherish Life Queensland who is going to table a Bill in the Australian Parliament to prohibit the Medicare rebate for abortion for sex-selective purposes.
    Senator Amanda Stoker, Assistant Attorney-General, Assistant Minister for Women & Industrial Relations, and Queensland senator for the Liberal National Party.
    Senator Malcolm Roberts, Queensland senator for Pauline Hansen’s One Nation Party who was instrumental in the party’s national-first Pro-Life Policy
    George Christensen (tentative, Mr Christensen will be coming from another event and hopes to arrive in time to speak), who was the architect of the first national pro-life Bill in a generation, namely the Human Rights (Babies Born Alive Protection) Bill.
    Martyn Iles, the Managing Director of the ACL.
    It’s going to be a great day for life.

    40

  • #