JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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I think Australia’s dumbed-down masses should be given exactly what they voted for.
Shut down the coal, gas and diesel power plants immediately as per the plans of those “genius” power systems “engineers” Albo and Blackout Bowen.
670
What a terrible era in which idiots govern the blind.
William Shakespeare
470
Agreed, but that quote is not from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to which it is usually misattributed but a paraphrase of King Lear.
But from Julius Caesar we do have:
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Good work. Lear was positively sane compared to our leaders.
180
When they rewrite the Shakespeare classics you may find it in that version. Although the words/terms will be changed to ensure that they don’t cause offense to any minority group nor religion, especially those with reading difficulties. Maybe just re-release as a movie or two.
I’m thinking the plays will get a lot shorter. In the future, keeping an earlier version in your home library could soon become an offence with real jail time.
How long before that comes into play? Remember when the human rights woman said that discussions around the dinner table could be an issue, (or words to that effect).
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I remember that. I thought someone in Australia said that, maybe the e Safety Kommisar but can find no reference.
It was however said in Scotland.
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Gillian Triggs, who was sad that we could say anything we wanted around the kitchen table!
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Ta for the reminder.
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/triggs-sadly-you-can-say-what-you-like-around-the-kitchen-table-at-home/news-story/42803d09808e428f090fd6827a22e39d
I think she’d prefer we never spoke out of line, (as determined by those who cannot be questioned).
120
Irony loves company it seems:
Gillian Triggs, the dedicated caring figure who worked well on the global stage and never took work values home with her. Well qualified in law she took on the mantle of human rights becoming president of Australian human rights commission in 2012.
In 2014 she launched her opus the National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention to “investigate the ways in which life in immigration detention affects the health, well-being and development of children” which when published in November of that year bore the title “The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention”.
Victoria Trigg, the child born profoundly disabled (Edwards syndrome a rare chromosomal abnormality) in 1987 and fostered out as, already with two toddlers, the time and effort required to care for her was too much. A published personal interview some years later attributed Gillian as saying that one of the attending doctors told her Victoria’s condition was such that she probably wouldn’t last more than a few days and so “they” could just put her in a corner and let the process run its course.
According to the same interview a couple offered to care for Victoria and she went on to live a further 21 years dying around 2008. The power of love.
130
Thanks for the reminder about Triggs and her daughter.
51
HRC Gillian Triggs as I remember.
20
I hope she compared the life of immigrant children in detention with the life they would have had in Bangladeshi slums, not in Australia.
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I have a full set of Shakespeare’s plays, bound in leather, printed in the early 1800’s, I think. Handed down to my father by his father from his grandfather before. They may even go back a further generation.
I had to fight tooth and nail to get them from my siblings in Scotland when Dad died. My sister wanted to put them in their holiday house for “visitors” to read! As if!
Perhaps I will need to hide them from the thought police?
120
Put them in a holiday house for visitors to read….
And then they went missing. Tell that to dear old GG Grand Dad. Well done on saving them. Fingers crossed we’ll be safe from the thought police, if not, I’ll be in there with you and a whole lot of others who comment here.
Imagine a thought police court house. There’d be no need to swear to tell the truth, ‘they’d’ know already. Then again, they couldn’t write it down, it may offend.
120
It’s no different to the UK and most of Europe. Spain for example. You cannot expect ignorant self serving politicians to lead. They are too surprised to have the job. A single blackout is an electoral disaster. As for running the business which is Australia, they do not have a clue. Neither side does.
But the success of Donald Trump, Elon Musk and friends is spectacular. There is nothing like someone who does not need or even want the job or the luxury retirement. Like Winston Churchill. But these are very rare people. And J.D. Vance and Nigel Farage and Vivek Ramaswamy stand out as high performers with a mission to fix what is broken. And that’s a lot.
Possibly the biggest problem is with the enclaves of privileged public servants in Washington, Canberra, Whitehall who write endless laws that politicians do not understand and slowly bring power and money to themselves. The endless punitive carbon laws are generally not understood even by those who pass them into power. Or the aboriginal laws. It’s all virtue signalling.
What Australia needs is the dismantling of all such laws and departments. I note that the most damaging of them, the original Renewable Energy(Electricity) Act of 2001 did not even use the words carbon or tax once. But it has ripped a hundred billion dollars from the pockets of ordinary Australians to pay for windmills and solar panels owned by others who profit from the unwitting gift. That was the start of public service activism, wrecking the joint. The 35% Safeguard Mechanism milking of carbon dioxide into Green gift certificates is just outrageous theft.
But I doubt Albanese or Bowen have any idea what they are doing. They cannot believe their luck.
831
Back in the eighties, there was a saying in Victoria that 3 electricity blackouts in a term meant electoral defeat at the next election. This was a period fraught with many strikes in persuit of shorter working hours, especially in NSW.
200
By the late Nineties, the “wisdom” was:
Q. How do you get into small business in Victoria?
A. Start with a big business.
But now, we witness the strange alliance of the corporate statists with the bolshvists.
“Poor fellow, my country” indeed.
351
“But now, we witness the strange alliance of the corporate statists with the bolshvists”.
That makes them both Fascists.
70
I have a friend from South Africa who came across to Australia to live with her husband. He tried to set up a silversmith job for himself in Victoria. He said the regulations were too burdensome to complete. He and his wife have gone back to South Africa.
120
Gerry,
In Australia, to streamline our banking, we are closing a low use a/c in the name of my wife to our existing joint a/c. Direct deposits are the only activity in the low use, being 2 deposits each a year from two govt pension type depts.
The first dept has a form to change accounts. It is 14 pages in three parts being Eligibility, Personal Details and Medical, the latter requiring our GP to report.
Talk about overkill? Geoff S
100
Yes Geoff, financial institutions are getting way, way too big for their britches.
Now, to withdraw a decent amount of your own money, they want notice and reasons.
I always tell them I am going to a casino to blow it.
60
” There is nothing like someone who does not need or even want the job or the luxury retirement. ”
Yes, good to see you agree democracy is a terrible form of Govt. Politicians shouldn’t exist, and our Govt should be picked like a jury.
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Hello TdeF. I enjoy your commentary and read it all. You have explained how this milking of funds to be used for financing renewable works previously. Could you please send a copy of what you have written previously on this subject. Thanks Brian
20
Not easily. There are just so many comments. It started when I wondered how much the Government of South Australia had spent on all those windmills, so I looked that the State Budget. Not a cent. And then I wondered why and how people would spend so much on wild speculation. Which is how I found all those windmills were funded by us, not even the Federal government. Plus the solar panels. Except no one knew then and even now few do. The Safeguard Mechanism was started last year at 5%, this year 10%, next year 15%, then 20%, 25%.. 35%. On every big company except the public service, taxation department, insurance companies, banks. Just everyone else. Again no one knows about it. And the cash disappears into electronic carbon indulgences. It’s all in black and white in the many Acts since 2001. Endless rivers of cash.
I hoped someone like the IPA might investigate. The list of other gifts of government are also endless. And all the regulations and penalties, say on gas appliances, fixing gas appliances, compliance costs. The Carbon industry is huge and it’s all hidden. The one area they stay away from is petrol for your car, but everything else is loaded with carbon capture dollars.
What it needs is a forensic accountant. And there is all that off budget stuff like $12Billion for Snowy II. An idea ignored in 1950 because it wasn’t worth it. All those desalination plants bought with loaned fixed interest cash from the French, probably $100billion by now and most of then never used.
Australia should be rich like Saudi Arabia by now, but we are kept poor and our cash goes to buying Chinese windmills, Chinese steel and Chinese electric cars. In the major works in Victoria which have bankrupted the state, the steel was supposed to be 70% Australian. I have read that they have ignored the laws and it is only 30%. We are being robbed by our own governments and the cash is flowing to China.
So it really need a proper job of summation. For a country which still thinks we have no Carbon Taxes, we have the world’s highest level of legislated theft buried in your bills. And no oversight into where the rivers of cash go.
This will of course still continue under Albanese and Bowen and Jacinta Allen. Their bosses are in China. And no one is saving the planet. That’s just a Chicken Little/Henny Penny story, the sky is falling. No one would fall for that. Surely?
240
It must be possible to utterly refute Labor’s claim that LNP’s seven nuclear sites would cost $600 Billion. With so many countries committing to nuclear, the costs of the Korean, French, US, UK and other systems ought to be readily available. A site called WNN Daily frequently publishes information on progress with nuclear programs world-wide. Perhaps Dick Smith or young Will at Nuclear For Australia could generate some research on this. Cheers!
80
TdeF,
Add smart meters for domestic electricity, that were made by governments to appear to be compulsory for every home. Try finding how many $$$ they were bought for by the installer, try finding how many $$$ the home owner was charged, the how many $$$ were paid for the comms infrastructure to make them all work.
Then try to find out how many $$$ can be truly stated as the resulting benefit to the Australian economy.
TdeF, please keep up your investigations. Geoff S
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Thanks for that outline TdeF, really great.
For decades now at state and local government level we have been forced to include huge amounts of Chinese origin junk in new home construction to “save da planet”. Aluminium awnings to reflect damaging sunrays; large water tanks for rainwater harvesting (the internal pumps fail after about two years), and household water heaters/storage which MUST have a dopey woke heat pump incorporated to suck heat out of the air and push it into the water. Lasts about two years.
Someone is messing with us, gee I wonder who: Sun Tzu was their chief advisor.
We are not governed locally.
KK
70
Keith, mind how you go.
00
Democracy?
‘Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…’
Winston S Churchill, 11 November 1947
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“A single blackout is an electoral disaster.”.
Nope.
“… nuclear reactors had to be shut down due to safety concerns when the grid went out, which led Mr Sanchez [Spain’s PM] to claim that “more than a solution, these plants have been a problem”.”. Senor Sanchez will have no electoral disaster if he can set up the investigations as per Yes Minister, and will actually use the grid failure to close nuclear power stations.
I find it really difficult to believe that a leader in a democratic country can (a) willingly drive his country into poverty in order to stay in power, and (b) get away with it. But the evidence is very clearly pointing that way.
Not just Spain. Australia appears to be on the same path. There is, however, a glimmer of hope: Anthony Albanese lied his way to power (again) and might (again) not do what he said he would do.
Not much of a glimmer, admittedly, but what else have we got.
50
Shut down the coal, gas and diesel power plants immediately as per the plans of those “genius” power systems “engineers” Albo and Blackout Bowen.
The Australian Editorial – Power failure proves again that all roads lead to gas
Like a blast from the past, the last-minute intrusion by former UN climate chief Christiana Figueres into Australia’s domestic affairs was a reminder that old habits die hard.
Spouting the usual nonsense, without any evidence, that Cyclone Alfred, which struck Brisbane in March, was connected to climate change, Ms Figueres was tone-deaf to the more recent developments that matter. The danger in Ms Figueres’s intervention is the succour it gives to those still seeking to sabotage our industrial capacity and standard of living.
This week’s electricity system failure in Spain and other parts of Europe proves the point.
Comments by Alcoa, which owns the Portland aluminium smelter, Victoria’s biggest electricity user, bring the message home. In regard to the Spanish blackout, Alcoa said if power authorities could not quickly understand what had happened and the solution, the company would have to reconsider its operations there.
On Thursday in 2024 AEMO had to intervene in the market 1800 times to direct gas, hydro and coal-fired generators to synchronise to the grid to provide critical system stability.
This is up from six manual interventions to maintain a secure grid in 2016 and 321 interventions in 2020. These interventions are the only way AEMO’s control room operators can manage periods when large volumes of unused power are flowing into the main grid from rooftop solar systems and other inverter-based resources. As coal-fired plants retire, AEMO says 22 large synchronous machines will be needed to keep the grid stable and secure. Even still, Mr Westerman says, “flexible gas-powered generation will remain the ultimate backstop in a high-renewable power system”. And for gas to play its “critical role” as a backstop for reliability, there must also be enough gas in our domestic networks to meet demand.
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06:43 PM ET 02/10/2015
Economic Systems: The alarmists keep telling us their concern about global warming is all about man’s stewardship of the environment. But we know that’s not true. A United Nations official has now confirmed this.
At a news conference last week in Brussels, Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change, admitted that the goal of environmental activists is not to save the world from ecological calamity but to destroy capitalism.
“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution,” she said.
Referring to a new international treaty environmentalists hope will be adopted at the Paris climate change conference later this year, she added: “This is probably the most difficult task we have ever given ourselves, which is to intentionally transform the economic development model for the first time in human history.”
The only economic model in the last 150 years that has ever worked at all is capitalism. The evidence is prima facie: From a feudal order that lasted a thousand years, produced zero growth and kept workdays long and lifespans short, the countries that have embraced free-market capitalism have enjoyed a system in which output has increased 70-fold, work days have been halved and lifespans doubled.
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This Christina Figueres?
“This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution”.
Christina Figueres, Executive secretary of U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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I agree with your sentiments about the ‘dumbed down masses’. During election campaigns we network and have meetings on voting strategies. As a result word gets around and we find we get asked for voting advice by others who have never bothered to understand the system or tune in to the campaign. I think most voters are apathetic. They rely on how to vote cards to make their choice easy. It’s like copying someone elses homework because you haven’t been paying attention in class. Many of these voters become terminally dumb. They’re happy swallowing the comforting lies of certain pettifogging politicians and the propaganda of the fourth estate. Some of the dumbed down masses will only wake up when it’s too late to do anything to save themselves from going the way of the rest of the doomed herd. Unfortunately, the dumbed down masses become a drag on those of us who strive to use our electoral system intelligently to facilitate gains to our prosperity and freedom.
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Cliffs…. Lemings.
00
Been there, saw that,
The worse – the better.
The quicker that happen – the less people will be hurt.
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That’s what I said, and I agree.
It’s only a matter of time before we “do a Spain” anyway and we can still revert easily.
But it won’t happen will it.
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I suspect for “winners” it will be easier to accept return to a Coal-based country than to a Nuclear one.
You can see that Gas was not so evil lately as it was for couple of previous years
Which is good for Australia in a medium turn.
50
A grid failure is all but locked in and he’ll eventually need to explain why he deliberately destroyed the grid, because he can’t say he wasn’t warned. The Aluminium smelters will be the first casualties. When the pots freeze it’s game over and no one would reattempt to rebuild the plants in an environment where system blacks are an expected outcome. Ironically, those aluminium workers up in the Hunter just voted Albo back in and in doing so they sped up the termination of their own employment. The only question is when this happens and that will probably be after August 2027 when Eraring closes and removes its 2GW spinning capacity.
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Serge,
Why should these workers continue to work at any job, now a big part of Labor’s election win was the promise of more free stuff and handouts.
Not many pleas for votes mentioned that there are no handouts possible in a country that is broke because of the failure of jobs that add to national income, such as those creating manufactured goods sold overseas for a profit.
(Sorry, I was not going to use that filthy word “profit”).
Geoff S
50
I know off budget Albanese is giving $20Bn of our money to the Clean Energy Finance people. He never runs out of cash to throw away on carbon dioxide. I would love to see their figures for 35% tax on airline CO2 as fuel is the major cost. Or Australia’s biggest trucking companies like Toll. Or all the mines and smelters. Even sewage like MMBW. A tax on farts at last. Unbelievable. And Peter Dutton said nothing.
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Australians should be proud. They have now voted for Net Zero IQ politicians.
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H. L. Mencken:
‘Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.’
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Is there another type?
50
I don’t know anyone that voted for Greens, Labor or Teals (or worse) but I make a conscious choice not to associate with Leftists.
However, if I ever do meet someone who is suffering due to the Net Zero IQ politicians they voted for, I will have zero sympathy for them.
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2 out of 3 people did not vote for Albanese and friends. In principle we have a least worst government.
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” I make a conscious choice not to associate with Leftists.”
For a long time they have all avoided knowing me!
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Perhaps time to resurrect the bumper sticker “I didn’t vote for them”.
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Really? 50% of the population and you don’t know any of them.
You need to get out of your echo chamber. Then you can stop calling them dumb when you actually know some clever people who have a different opinion.
Well, they could probably benefit from some fresh ideas. Why not associate with everyone and help them get out of their possible echo chambers too.
.
The problem with avoiding the “other side” is they also think non-leftists are stupid because they don’t know them. We’ll never get anything done or have proper conversations.
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“Well, they could probably benefit from some fresh ideas.”.
Been there, done that. Still do. The chance of helping them see a fresh idea is between 0% and 0.0%. The only objective in such discussions is to get the message to third parties listening to the conversation.
30
There are some hard core rusted on leftists, and then there are some who vote Labor who can handle hearing information that might be contrary.
If there was no point in talking to 50% of the population then we would never change government.
20
I think the next task for productive, thinking Australians is work out how to survive the next years and possibly even a decade or more of Labor rule.
It’s not obvious to me how personal hard-earned and saved for wealth and assets can be preserved, apart from physical gold which is not safe or practical to keep. Or leave the country (in which case they’ll tax you when you leave).
Certainly, death taxes and assets taxes are on the way, starting with taxes on unrealised capital gains on superannuation (retirement) funds. Oh, they renamed death duties by the woke name of “inheritance tax”.
And of course there’ll be more lifestyle taxes such as on energy and “luxuries” for the objective of lowering the standard of living of non-Elites.
All the products of your hard work and savings are up for a grab by the socialist Government (except those of the Elites).
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14676567/Anthony-Albanese-super-capital-gains-tax.html
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Labor’s gift of OPM for household batteries will help reduce the cost of living for many home owners.
Reducing household energy cost to the electricity connection fee is now an economic option for many households. Victoria has also subsidised removal of gas.
So the pragmatic approach to protect wealth is to reduce cost of living. For homeowners, that is the cost of food and energy. For food, shop at ALDI first – it is consistently lower price and better value than the other two. “Fresh” produce from the big two requires a new definition for “fresh”. Our local Sunday market has competitive prices to supermarkets but the food is fresh in the common meaning of the word and lasts weeks rather than days.
The general view is that all currencies with lose value against the USD under Trump but speculating on foreign currency can be a big loser. Term deposit rates are still attractive and are keeping pace with real inflation. China needs foreign income so Chinese made stuff is now coming into Australia at cost price. That is deflationary for manufactured goods. The Trump tariffs and energy policies are also lowering fuel prices around the world -deflationary – unleaded near me today 165.9/litre, diesel 173.9/litre.
So protecting wealth, as always, is taking the pragmatic path under the cards dealt. Some people actually move to another country to lower cost of living and live well but at lower cost.
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Only one in 40 home solar owners have added a battery, and judging from the comments in The Australian on this subject, the thinking remainder are not planning to do so, having quickly realised that they wouldn’t recover the capital outlay during the battery’s short life.
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I bought a battery as a hedge against steeper power prices in the future- at current prices I do not “Profit” from my modest $3500 system, but being basically self sufficient with very little grid import reassures me. BTW has anyone noticed the dollar devalue against gold? Did Albo get up and tell the punters the Gold price in AUD was $2640 an ounce when he was elected? It is now $5057 an ounce. Thing is, Gold hasn’t changed at all, but the AUD has devalued to just over half its value. Really nothing to write to Padre in Italy about!
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It’s frightening.
And why didn’t the Liberals say anything about it?
But don’t worry.
Albo will keep handing out heaps of “free stuff”.
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Absolutely, all the rodents with snapped necks that wanted free cheese.
100
The Labor gift and reduced FITs will accelerate the uptake of batteries. There were 75,000 batteries installed in 2024. There will be more installed in 2025. It is big business.
Australia will benefit from the USA-China trade war. Batteries will come into Australia at cost price.
If you are getting a battery make certain it is LiFePo4 technology and install on an external wall with weather protection.
I expect household batteries will soon outpace grid scale batteries as we have seen with household solar outpacing both grid wind and grid solar.
The battery rebate amounts to $2.8bn. That should result in around 7.5GWh of additional household storage on top of the current 1GWh. At 2hr discharge rate, that can do a huge amount of evening load levelling.
12
” that can do a huge amount of evening load levelling.”
Is that a subtle term for “The Govt will drain your battery when it wants to..”?
Why would Communists want some plebs to have power from their batteries when those without are suffering a blackout? That’s not fair… The car you just charged during the day would be a target too.
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OPM?
50
Other People’s Money I presume
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Rick,
(delete first 2 words) Labor’s gift, replace as seen here: The taxpayers’ gift of OPM for household batteries ….
Geoff S
(Strikeouts in Word 365 do not copy into this blog host format).
10
‘The new legislation to tax unrealised gains on super rather than the capital gains tax practice of only taxing something once it’s been sold would be revolutionary.’
It might work, certainly popular with the lower classes, but it will depend on the makeup of the Senate.
To sell the idea they would need to have a project in mind, like funding the construction of a very fast train network to alleviate the housing problem. It would dove tail nicely with those who work from home a good part of the week.
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“It might work, ”
Nope, its just typical of kids and adults without willpower… We want it now!! Not in the future!!
All they’re doing is stealing the taxes from Govts in the future, those who would have collected capital gains tax on it. Of course the first Govt to introduce it will make billions, while those later ones will lose out as people work around it.
In the end, why would anyone try to better themselves, you would have to carry more than the one person in three on your shoulders, as you do now, so its easier to either go to a better country or just slouch back and enjoy the vodka in a grubby Govt-mandated level of lifestyle!
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Part IV of the Banking Act was suspended from operation in 1976, by Peter Costello.
It can be invoked at any time by the GG.
Parliament does not need to be involved.
Goodbye to any gold holdings…..
11
costello was not in parliamt in 1976. fraser was PM and i cant remember the name of the treasurer. assume you mean 1997?
40
I recall Jim Cairns, sitting in his not very new overcoat on box at Camberwell Sunday Market, selling Oil In Troubled Waters.
There was a little crowd around him, some came just to shake his hand – there were no selfies at that time…
20
George Christensen analysis (extract from Nation First email).
442
Constantly bombarded with Labor ads but can’t recall seeing more than a few Liberal ones.
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DM,
Of the Coalition survivors, does anyone have a list of those who are true Conservatives aware of its foundations and those who are Labor-Lite or mere unprincipled centralists?
My personal comprehension of the few months before the election was handicapped because I could not sort them into goodies and baddies.
In the months ahead, with leadership, shadow cabinets and more to emerge, are we facing a revival of Conservatism within the Opposition, or will there be a dominance of nothingness?
30
The Liberal Party, eroded from within,suffered from lack of commitment to its early belief in liberty of the individual,
significance of free speech and importance of equal rule of law for all. Too much of history has been control of society
by authoritarian tyrants.
Pericles’ Greek democracy, the 18th century Scottish Enlightenment and the American Great Generation hammering out the American
Constitution, are rare and significant highlights in that long and gloomy narrative recorded as human history.
30
It looks like the Greens “dear leader” Bandt has lost his seat of Melbournistan.
His replacement will however be only a slightly less bad Labor member.
https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/HouseDivisionPage-31496-228.htm
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One tiny piece of good news.
310
Has Blackout Bowen lost?
21
No.
They love him.
They should be rewarded by being the first to go on 100% “renewables” with no coal, gas or diesel backups.
https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/HouseDivisionPage-31496-315.htm
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Fantastic. No one deserves to lose more. Maybe the Greens can get back to being green, not communists?
130
Hopefully this pushes Labor rightward
50
Perhaps they can restrain Mr Wong from publicly wishing an end to Israel and Jews. I know Labor is a slave to the CCP, but what Chinese Communists have against Jewish people is unknown. It was the same in WWII in China with the Japanese who automatically adopted the anti Jewish values of Germany.
121
After his chortling about Peter Dutton’s loss of his seat, this would be pure karma! It would be great to see this Bandtywaist’s Bandtyhose in a knot!
40
The Media over here are saying that the OZ opposition ran a very poor campaign and started making mistakes when they were leading back in February, whilst that of the governing party ran a pretty good-if uninspiring- one.
150
Correct.
A child age 6 years could have run a better Campaign.
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Tonyb, read David Maddison at No. 5 above and you’ll see why. It is inconceivable that even politicians can be so stupid and mind-numbingly foolish, it’s throwing the baby out with the bathwater and shooting yourself in the foot and stabbing yourself in the back and making an own goal all at the same time. Duh duh and duh. ToM
161
Duh duh Dutton
11
A bit harsh on the Libs – they were overtaken by the tariffquake whose epicentre was at the White House.
It was a 9 on the wrecker scale and the tsunami that followed selectively wiped out conservatives on both sides of the Pacific.
The reverse hockey stick on the linked graphs below says it all…
https://www.pollbludger.net/fed2025/bludgertrack/
48
Rowjay,
The alarm was not an effect of the tariffs though. American tariffs on Australian beef (say) would tend to increase its availability in Australia and *lower* beef prices here. Not all that alarming, is it? But did you ever see it reported along those lines?
The tariffquake was a matter of propaganda.
As far as the weekend’s result goes, I thought JoNovians were more or less prepared for it, so am a bit surprised at the gnashing of teeth here.
Dutton and Albanese are about equally dismal in my opinion. As Jo pointed out in one of her posts, Trump should still be in the White House when our next federal election is due. If Trump’s policies have made America great again in that time, maybe we will have a more interesting option than Dutton next time.
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I was being diplomatic to the bloggers here.
The not-so-diplomatic assessment:
https://www.nbcnews.com/world/asia/canada-trump-drag-conservatives-another-election-australia-rcna203325
The “the center of the center” voters were spooked.
12
Rowjay, being white-anted from within certainly didn’t help. ToM
111
Agreed – never does, although Dutton tried hard to remain on his course.
Australia’s voting demographic has changed drastically – the baby-boomers are now becoming fossilised and now the centre-right has to somehow connect to the young voters. Either that or wait for the internal Labor power struggle to re-emerge.
20
Lost good friends during first Trump’s term because they hated him with passion.
Yesterday a friend from US stopped talking to me because I called Trump a traitor.
25
George Christiansen may be right about this. He blames “faceless men” in the NSW branch of the Liberal party but does not name any names.
The Liberal party and hence the country is in big trouble.
242
He refers to the so-called “moderates” and Photios faction. The “moderates”, despite the name, are the far Left of the party, essentially Labor infiltrators.
251
Sounds like Malcolm Turnbull was active. Will he now be trying to get the Lib leadership again?
160
I would have just said Gutless Peter !
00
There is some evidence that the long sought after Planet 9 has been found.
Obviously, further evidence and confirmation is required.
https://youtu.be/SLi4KuE9IAE
And another question, when it swoops closer to the sun, does it have any influence on climate such as Ice Ages? It’s orbital period will be thousands or tens of thousands of years.
80
It’s time to fire up the JW telescope. It could do some good peering out there and telling us all that Goofy has now been found.
I’m sure that’s the name of the new planet. At least until it gets demoted to something else.
20
House of commons bans most charging of EV’s. Perhaps that will be extended to other closed parking areas…..and tunnels…..and bridges……and ferries?..and apartment blocks…
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2025/05/03/parliament-ev-chargers-to-be-removed-for-safety-reasons/#comments
150
They are probably terrified of an event reminiscent of the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.
110
That plot, (by some Guy), was focused on just the parliament.
Nett zero is much wider reaching. I’d compare the two, Guy’s fireworks to the Tsar Bomba.
Some people wouldn’t care less about the earlier attempted effort but most would raise alarm about the latter. Strange the people didn’t get to vote on this.
70
The Politics of EVs Have Changed
Thirty-five Democrats joined the GOP to repeal California’s EV mandate.
By The WSJ Editorial Board May 4, 2025
The times they are a changin’, especially on progressive climate dogma.
On Thursday the House voted in strong bipartisan fashion to overturn the EV mandate the Biden Administration let California impose on the rest of America.
The vote was 246-164 for a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to repeal the waiver that the Environmental Protection Agency granted California for its EV mandate. The waiver provision was written to let California address smog. But Sacramento Democrats lobbied the Biden EPA to let it apply to carbon emissions.
The mandate is ludicrously impossible to meet. It says zero-emissions vehicles would have to account for 43% of an auto maker’s sales by 2027 in California and the dozen other states that have signed up for its rules. It rises to 68% by 2030.
Major car makers other than Tesla are nowhere near those sales targets. It also amounts to another case of California’s regulatory imperialism on the rest of the U.S. since car makers would have to adjust their assembly lines to meet the Golden State’s standards.
The House vote is especially striking because of the 35 Democratic ayes. That included three of six Democrats from Michigan, three of five from Ohio, four of 12 from Texas, and even two from the High Climate Church of California (Luis Correa and George Whitesides). Let’s hope they’re not excommunicated by Pope Gavin (Newsom) I.
The vote underscores that one salutary effect of the 2024 election is the introduction of at least some economic realism into the climate policy debate.
120
“The House vote is especially striking because of the 35 Democratic ayes.”
..and THAT’S how much they believe in what they vote for! Typical scum, watch the Pres and follow his lead, even if it means reversing course instantly. When the Boss changes, their minds do too!
“Oh, I USED to believe that, but I”m not too arrogant to change my mind..”
30
Australia is still behind the point on the curve that Britain has reached. Britain is in a state of collapse thanks to the (Extreme) Left (Labour) and Fake-Right (Tories).. Everything has gone bust. The Labour party lied to the people to steal their vote, now the people have realised that they’ve been had. The by-elections of three days ago have given Farage a massive vote of confidence taking a massive vote away from both parties. If an election had to be held today Farage would become the prime minister of Britain. Let Australia’s Labour run its course and commit suicide like the US Democrats are doing with 27% approval rating.
250
“Everything has gone bust. The Labour party lied to the people to steal their vote.”. Gosh that sounds familiar. Lies like “I didn’t fall off the stage that you all just saw on the news” and the biggun last election “$275 reduction in power bills” that have risen upwards of $1000 in the meantime. There have been endless lies for his entire Prime Ministership. If he were Pinocchio his nose would stretch from Sydney to Perth. And they voted again for another 3 years of this madness. What does it take for people to WAKE UP? ToM
260
I gather that the originating model is –
“I deny that I kicked down stairs.
I was kicked at the top of the stairs and fell down of my own accord”
50
The international (fake news) media has banned news about Farage’s massive victory. I’m expecting a police ‘investigation’ on him, ending up like Marie le Pen, in prison. They tried it on an Italian minister for impeding the landing of illegal migrants. We have Gulags now in Europe. Christians have been imprisoned, critics of Hamas supporters accused of hate speech, etc etc etc. Down the cliff, we go.
220
Which demographic voted for Labor?
Was it a preponderance of the young, stupid and indoctrinated freshly out of the communist indoctrination centres once known as “schools” and “universities”?
190
Did see somewhere that this was the first election where the Boomers were not the biggest demographic.
We were not the greatest generation, that was our parents, but we continued their work. Our children were too coddled and “given” too much without effort, they are what I call the entitled generation, nor sure if they are the XY or Z generation.
190
Imagine the bleating if Labor introduces an inheritance tax just as they line up for theirs.
170
If Australia ever gets another conservative government they must defund Their ABC.
It no longer serves any useful purpose but just provides one sided Far Left political propaganda.
It’s does not represent the views of all taxpayers who fund it.
341
The problem with reigning in their ABC is that the response will be that any cut in funding to their ABC will result in the immediate demise of peppa pig or the bananas in pyjamas. And the ability to hide behind that spin gives so much political cover that attempts at reform are stymied.
A public policy worthy of advocacy is efficient government. Not necessarily starting with their ABC but systematically eliminate the deliberate waste of taxes and borrowings which is the life blood of advocacy groups and associated hangers on. Find some low hanging fruit first. And really go to town highlighting that waste.
It is a message which is self-spinning in favour of reason. It has the added benefit of driving the bad guys nuts trying to unspin the spin.
That is potentially the greatest lesson from Trump’s first 100 days in the US.
121
Does Peppa Pig do the morning news bulletin or the evening news?
I think I know where they put the bananas.
60
FG, my 22 yo daughter said to me yesterday that “Trump” had gotten rid of Sesame Street……..due to his defunding NPR / CBS……..just like your e.g. above. That’s all that was reported and that’s all she got from her plastic brain (Iphone). Defund the ABC / NPR/ CBS etc….If the shows are worthwhile they will be picked up by other carriers wouldn’t they ???
70
The great thing about Sesame Street is the timelessness of the production. They can run repeats and nobody will notice.
80
And the SBS. Who needs multicultural media in the internet age?
And the CSIRO. Who do what exactly?
And the BOM. It’s all computerized. And they refuse to digitize the inherited records prior to 1909, possibly the best in the world.
and the endless climate departments. Politicians controlling and taxing the weather. It’s a dream.
211
I get better results from
https://www.ventusky.com/
https://www.windy.com/?-37.816,144.967,5
https://www.yr.no/en/map/wind/2-2147714/Australia/New%20South%20Wales/Sydney
40
I use the Norwegian site.
https://www.yr.no/en/forecast/daily-table/2-2158177/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/Melbourne
10
With the mandate given to the socialists, they will no doubt open up the floodgates to violent, uneducated, misogynistic, anti-Western Third World immigrants, all future Labor voters, all to be placed in critical Labor electorates. All to ensure Labor is in power forever.
This is what the Democrats tried to do in America but they had TRUMP to stop them.
We have nobody.
290
“all future Labor voters,”
..until they start their own parties!
110
Cometh the hour cometh the man.
Perhaps this was not yet the time.
And as Midnight Oil once sang I hope you are not beaten yet. Not yet!
40
Good words….bad frontman PG….famously….”once we get in we will just change the rules to suit” or words to that effect…
30
What is the “logic” of someone who votes for Labor?
Is it all the “free stuff”, the destruction of Western society and its values, or what is their motivation?
190
As I once thought of my children’s choice in partners, there is no accounting for taste.
Gosh I’m full of it this morning.
80
Free stuff is compelling. It is the way a democracy can be separated from free market. It becomes less messy and more easily managed.
Australia is able to ride its mineral wealth feeding Chinese manufacturing. A strong China, Korea and Japan guarantees Australia’s income.
Australia is likely the only country that can get close to NetZero if you do not count the carbon used to produce its imports. Australia is back to running current account deficits, which eventually catches up like it has in the UK. But Australia’s position is now better than the UK. UK has run out of castles and department stores to sell to Arabs. Australia still has mountains of iron ore, rich bauxite deposits and the best met coal in the world along with a most of natural gas.
100
NDIS needs to be fraud-proofed
Almost 12 years after the launch of the National Disability Insurance Scheme in July 2013, its public administration and guardrails against fraud and inefficiency need a thorough overhaul, regardless of Saturday’s election result.
The failures and misdeeds of an NDIS provider company, Cocoon SDA Care, co-founded by a former bankrupt, Zaffar Khan, have potentially harmed some of the scheme’s most vulnerable clients as well as company staff and the public purse.
National crime correspondent David Murray reports that Cocoon SDA Care, which operates in all states, left a South Australian man with disabilities confined to his home after charging the taxpayer-funded scheme $50,000 for care services that were never provided, according to whistleblowers. Cocoon also was claiming payments from the NDIS for providing one-on-one care for the man when he had a housemate also under care, and for times when he was in the care of another provider.
The company then stalled on repaying the money. It continued operating while failing to keep up with superannuation payments to staff since at least last year. Workers also complain that they are owed wages and entitlements.
Amid allegations of misuse of taxpayer funding and a taskforce of several agencies, launched 2½ years ago to investigate fraudulent abuse of the NDIS in general, the business has been rushing to get clients to switch over to new companies with ties to Mr Khan and his associates, insiders have told The Australian.
Several points in this costly mess need to be addressed.
First, how was a company co-founded by Mr Khan, who previously went bankrupt after the failure of his Ideal Cabs business that he says trained the unemployed to drive taxis, engaged to provide NDIS services? Second, why were several red flags surrounding him ignored?
A key questions that should be asked is: in engaging the company as a service provider, what due diligence did the NDIS undertake, and did it act on it? Cracking down on fraud was a major part of the Albanese government’s strategy to limit the growth in costs of the NDIS to 8 per cent a year.
In March, the budget papers showed the NDIS would cost $48.5bn this financial year. It is forecast to cost $52.3bn in 2025-26, rising to $63.4bn by 2028-29.
80
“NDIS needs to be fraud-proofed”
Lol! oxymoron.. Its a Govt dept, it will be thoroughly rorted from both inside and out, and no-one will care! Its all other people’s money, free to grab when you can.
Would it exist in a Capitalist State, and would the same level of car cost the same if it was all charity-based. Read about Air Force One and Boeing if you want the answer to any Govt Dept and its service providers…
40
Climate change fear? Nuclear fear?
30
How close is Australia to a Spanish-style grid failure?
140
May depend on which grid you are connected to. WA doesn’t have very much large-scale solar, relying instead on home solar during the day, supported by plenty of cheap gas. The state Labor govt may destroy this delicate balance by closing WA’s coal power stations, but so far they remain open and doing a great job. As to your “National” grid, who knows what will happen, but blackouts surely must start once a few coal power stations are closed.
110
Have a look at your midday electrical supply. Household supply is going to be the undoing in WA. At least a large single supplier could be told to turn off or reduce output. Not possible for the roof tops.
WA may be the first guinea pig over the line and into a black start. There ain’t no extension lead from France to help there.
91
Is the concern with the high amount of renewables in daily use? Yes, home solar provides around half the power during the day, and at night gas and coal take over. So far so good. Ok, so renewables use is high at 50-55%%, but nothing like Spain or SA.
10
The battery gift will help stave off collapse if there are enough done in time. The test will be around November this year. Household batteries will improve the duck curve by increasing daytime demand and reducing evening peaks.
The threat is poor availability of coal units. These are now down to the bone with little margin for any serious unit failures. That test will come in late June and probably every June for the next few years.
61
Is the battery of use if you don’t have panels, e g. could you purchase cheaper off peak power to charge the batteries?
20
Without solar panels you would be limited to buying power at the lowest supply rate, say 20c/kWHr. Solar is effectively zero cost, (ignoring the obvious costs), that would shorten any payback period. Peak power may be as high as 50c/kWHr
But if you have a small battery, say 10kWHr, then at best you would save $5 per day. With a battery plus installation running around $10k, that should pay back in 2000 days. Or around 7 years. If you only manage to drain your battery down by half each evening, then the payback will be 14 years.
And note, I’ve ignored the opportunity cost of that $10k.
If you were buying power instead of solar, then your payback goes up by 1.67x, (50c/30c). I’d say that this alone would kill off any idea of using without solar.
And of course, after the battery dies you’ll need to capitalise the whole package again. Not to mention any electrical call outs or annual service/maintenance fees.
50
And the moment you add the Opportunity Cost, easily one third extra, then the cost blows out to a point where it’s not economic to purchase a battery.
10
All the grid scale batteries just operate on price arbitrage and they also get good income from the 5 second FRAS market.
Price arbitrage from peak to off-peak is around 15c/kWh based on this data for Victorai:
https://wattever.com.au/cheapest-electricity-rates-melbourne-vic/
The government, using OPM, is paying 30% of the barratry installation so that might make it economic in your circumstances.
You need to check the price arbitrage in your area. The smallest battery that attracts the rebate is 5kWh. Start with that and see where you go. It will have a cost to you of around $3,500 after rebate. Even if you are a heavy user through the peak period, your best saving is going to be 75c/day. So payback is 13 years. You then have to consider what else $3500 could get.
If you do not have heat pump hotwater then it is probably better value. It can be set to run through off-peak times. There is State government gifts for that. If you are still using ahas for heating then you can get rid off gas with State government paying around 50% of the cost.
Standard battery s=sytems shutdown upon grid loss but you can get switching at extra cost to keep the lights on when the grid is down. A battery makes quite a good UPS. So it has that as an added benefit.
I am a pragmatists rather than sycophant. I know all these government gifts are bad for the country but I do not hesitate to put my hand out in the same way as I try to minimise taxes.
51
TWEET from Rand Paul.
Time for justice.
270
TRUMP to build new ball room at White House and he’s paying for it out of his own pocket.
171
What a breath of fresh air that man is in the political world.
The first person, in my lifetime, in political life that has not tried/worked to enrich him/herself in the job.
The same could be said for Elon Musk, and Vivek Ramaswamy, both very successful in the private sector, now donating their time and effort to MAGA.
Salute those men! And they think Australia is the “lucky” country. Well we just ran out of luck!
370
Only Trump and Melania would want a ballroom. Grand homes always had a ballroom. And European women love to dance. But only Trump would need the ballroom.
60
Double entendre noted TdeF
80
The seat of Goldstein in Victoriastan is extremely close (95 votes difference at this moment).
https://tallyroom.aec.gov.au/HouseDivisionPage-31496-214.htm
Zoe Daniel (Teal Party, fake independent) vs Tim Wilson (Liberal).
It’s likely however that postal votes will favour Tim Wilson.
190
On a personal level my mother lived in Goldstein.
As a life long liberal voter I could never understand her disdain for Tim Wilson. That was until we moved into the area to look after her in the last few years of her life and I met Tim Wilson at the polling booth on election day. His mother was with him spruiking for votes.
At the same time there was a quiet suffocating self censorship among voters waiting to do their civic duty. In a nutshell the teals were just so nice. They were very well organized with an all elderly female team who were arranged in concentric circles around the polling booth. None of them sought your vote. They just smiled and said hello like your grandmother would.
In my mind I imagined I had stumbled upon a geriatric version of the Hitler Youth. And at the same time there was an intangible something I found repulsive about Tim Wilson.
The atmosphere in Fisher is completely different. And I live in a small town which inexplicably to me was one of the few booths which voted majority Labor.
And now I’ll just join Rip Van Winkle and wait for my opportunity to do something which will make a difference. If that ever happens.
170
There is a genuine dislike for Tim Wilson in the area. They are not homophobic. They just don’t like him.
70
“Approximately 2,000 postal votes will also be counted in most electoral divisions on election night.
This has been done previously at by-elections but is a first for this federal election. It provides a trendline for postal votes that analysts can use to assist in predicting results.
The majority of postal vote counting commences in the days following a federal election. The AEC can receive completed postal vote packs up until 13 days after election day.”
Of the 7,000 postal votes so far counted, Wilson gets 58% and Daniels 21%. 3:1.
So with a lead of only 95 votes, Zoe Daniels is likely to lose. It would take only another 500 postal votes.
60
from what I saw and heard from him when last in Parliament……..he is very unlikable.
10
I know a lot of people will disagree, but that’s why I still think it’s important to essentially vote for your local member based on their credentials. That you’re not just voting for Albanese/Dutton etc (unless you reside in their electorates). Because the local candidate still represents the party and if a dud, good chance the party they represent are too.
30
Agreed. If we took a vote on it I reckon about 99% of the thinking population would be with you.
20
How do The Teals get away with claiming to be independents when they are clearly an organisation with the same branding plus they have the same far Left ideology and vote with Greens nearly all the time.
By claiming to be independent they are exempt from the disclosure and other rules governing political parties.
Who funds them anyway? They are presumably funded by a billionaire Elite subsidy harvester.
210
There are some very astute people out there. The teals appear to have been very well advised.
And I don’t mean that as any sort of praise. The teals and their advisers deserve damnation.
160
It is interesting to go to Climate 200 website and see Who’s Who.
Apart from the person who established it there are former politicians from both sides and notably a former Liberal Prime Minister and a former Liberal Opposition Leader.
Look also at Smart Energy Council.
In The Bulletin Magazine 2006 journalist Max Walsh wrote about what he described as “a corporate-style takeover” of the ALP by the Unions, union executives given safe Labor seats in State and Federal. In short, he wrote that the primary objective was to control the governments of Australia.
It is of course well known that Unions are now big business operators and shareholders, Superannuation Guarantee Levy was a very useful Labor Government creation.
A former Liberal PM had similar ambitions for a one government Australia consisting of an alliance of parties, left leaning of course so there is the beginning of internal problems and executive interference.
The Inevitability Of Gradualness is a Fabian Society of Marxists saying.
60
Just checked them out Dennis. A place where losers go to live…..John Hewson pretty good example and wouldn’t you know it Juliar’s best mates Oakshott and Windsor are there too. I wondered where they wandered off to after having their rear ends handed back to them….Barry Jones should have stuck to Pick-a -Box. What an absolute rabble……dinner parties with this lot would be next level !!!
00
It’s all completely above board and nothing to do with money
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-30/simon-holmes-court-fuels-independent-mps-who-say-he-has-no-sway/105210256
70
Love it. There’s nothing like comedy delivered with a straight face.
What happened? The front fell off!
30
Haha, they will be even more lost and confused if it turns out that there are no Greens in the lower house. Who can they follow then? Think for themselves LOL or take instructions from Simon Says?
100
Yesterday I went to the Lake Goldsmith Steam Rally. Whether by accident or design, the whole site is surrounded by windmills. The windmills are horrible and have destroyed a tranquil rural landscape.
You can see the permanent Steam Rally site here. This picture might predate the windmills.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/bPvwTQDRHFo3SAu79
The surrounding wind farm is owned by the Chicomms and one of Australia’s largest wind subsidy-harvesting operations with 149 windmills and claimed nameplate of 521MW, a meaningless number, obviously.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockyard_Hill_Wind_Farm?wprov=sfla1
Rally website:
https://www.lakegoldsmithsteamrally.org.au/
I was also told that when they installed the subsidy harvesting devices, they altered drainage and made the site more prone to flooding. But an “engineer” signed off on the new drainage arrangements and the Rally organisers can’t afford to litigate.
140
Nearly all farmers who have these monstrosities on their farm will have stories of altered paddock drainage. Wrecked fences, gates left open, etc etc. But mostly they will comment on the arrogance of the wind turbine companies and their personnel. The attitude is ” … we’re paying these farmers truckloads of money to site these turbines. Bugger their complaints”
100
“we’re paying these farmers truckloads of money to site these turbines. ”
..and they are! I thought mines were mad to pay several times the value of a farm to take over the land, but renewables are looking at sixteen times the value for a substation area.
40
I don’t know if anyone done this, but I would like to congratulate Spain on achieving net zero. It might have only been for a few hours but they did it. Obviously it has taken fanatical determination to beat other countries to run on mostly “renewable” power. Even though the power company gave notice that Spain would go net zero, the people were still court by surprise. Which country will be next?
151
Actually they achieved absolute zero. There would have been many quiet, even totally silent celebrations.
110
It wpuld be interesting to see what generation mix they are running now vs pre blackout
20
FWIW
“The Indoor Plumbing Test
what can AI enable you to do that you couldn’t already do by other means?”
The most important invention – the I-phone or plumbing?
https://freddiedeboer.substack.com/p/the-shitting-in-the-yard-test
Via https://instapundit.com/718019/#disqus_thread
10
101
With 3 in the Family with multi country Husband & Wife, I remembered Lew Kuan Yew’s thoughts on this problem, as reading many comments in The Australian on the Election, that were saying “We need to learn Mandarin”.
Lee Kuan Yew on Mandarin Learning
Lee Kuan Yew, the founding father of modern Singapore, often discussed the challenges of learning Mandarin Chinese compared to English. He highlighted the complexity of the Chinese writing system, which consists of over 8,000 characters, in contrast to the simplicity of the English alphabet, which has only 26 letters.
Lee emphasized that the primary difficulty in learning Mandarin is not the language itself, especially for speakers of other Sinitic languages, but rather the Chinese characters as its near-exclusive script. He believed that the complexity of the characters posed a significant barrier to learning and retention, making it more challenging for students to master the language compared to English, which has a simpler and more straightforward writing system.
Even Mao Zedong, the leader of the People’s Republic of China, recognized the challenges posed by the Chinese character set. Mao considered the possibility of reforming the writing system, potentially adopting a phonetic script to make it easier to learn and use. This reflects a broader recognition of the practical difficulties associated with the traditional Chinese writing system.
Lee Kuan Yew’s insights into the challenges of learning Mandarin highlight the importance of early exposure and consistent practice in mastering the language. He advocated for methods such as writing and delivering speeches, listening to Mandarin recordings, and using technological tools to aid in learning. These strategies can help overcome the inherent complexities of the Chinese language and make it more accessible to learners.
This in turn led me to his SPEECH BY MINISTER MENTOR LEE KUAN YEW AT THE PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE ON THE REPORT OF THE CHINESE LANGUAGE CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY REVIEW COMMITTEE ON THURSDAY, 25 NOVEMBER 2004 which I have sent to all my Family
Incredible Man, able to cover many languages including Latin
90
All children have to learn English but they also have to learn a second language of either Mandarin, Malay or Tamil according to their officially registered ethnicity.
20
FWIW
“Putting The Alarmist Spin On The Earth’s Rotation”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/04/putting-the-alarmist-spin-on-the-earths-rotation/
3/5th of 5/8ths of – – –
20
And
“Wrong, The Hill, Climate Driven Corn Insurance Cost Projections Mislead the Public”
“It’s astonishing that The Hill would publish such an article based on shaky, unverified models without at least checking real-world data trends on agricultural productivity and extreme weather. For over four decades, U.S. farmers have thrived even as temperatures have modestly risen. This editorial exemplifies the poor research and blind acceptance of climate alarmism that too often passes for journalism today. Instead of challenging dubious claims, The Hill parrots them, spreading fear and misinformation to the public.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/05/04/wrong-the-hill-climate-driven-corn-insurance-cost-projections-mislead-the-public/
50
“People are screaming about how the proposed budget cuts to NASA are going to cripple US science … but given the fact that NASA megabrains have time to jerk around making calculations and claims about things that are far too small to even measure tells me that there’s plenty of NASA fat to cut.”
They are putting up excellent reasons to cut even deeper! Lets hand NASA over to SpaceX and see how it goes… For a start the profit incentive would be quite foreign to most people working there, and having to work a full day for 5 days a week might be a real surprise. The need for a clear indication of work achieved would horrify them too!
40
What surprised me was Dutton’s nuclear stance.
With so much coal in Australia, our biggest export, he could have stood on bringing back coal. Even high efficiency power plants which would lower CO2 since 83% of our power is still coal. And stretch coal further.
Plus lowering the cost of electricity dramatically, something Albanese lied about last time.
Ending the carbon taxes, especially the 35% tax on every big company which actually does something for Australians. Like every airline.
Most Australians would have backed him.
No political party is backing coal. But it’s what the people want. Everywhere. Cheap, reliable power. And after 37 years of End of the UN man made World Global Warming, you could laugh the Global Warming pushers off the stage. The UN gave us the Wuhan Flu. And we don’t need their carbon ripoffs. The world’s biggest countries, 95% of the planet does not have carbon taxes.
212
The Coalition did say that if elected they would lift the restrictions on mining and drilling, emphasis on more gas and coal supplies and generating electricity at more affordable pricing.
They wanted to open mining and use the minerals and energy for new revenue as well.
40
Well, they said that very quietly!
30
No surprise – he was well advised as nuclear is the long term alternative to power generation and this nation needs to get into the act or risk becoming more of a technological backwater than we are now. Coal is a transition to nuclear – burn the brown stuff in Victoria as it has no export value, and export the black stuff while we can.
The smart thing to do would be to offer scholarships to anyone willing to study nuclear physics and smarten up the nation. That and drone technology. The Brits used the lessons learnt from the Supermarine Schneiders racing planes in the design of the spitfire, so why not encourage the same home-grown skills for drone racing.
51
“burn the brown stuff in Victoria as it has no export value”
That’s not right. Brown coal is almost exactly the same calorific content as black coal. However you have to squeeze the water out first as it is 66% water.
Around 2006 a consortium with a company in Melton and Monash University had an order for $400Million of coal and The Age had a campaign to stop it. They said the process of removing the water made it ‘blacker’. Which it did. Who needs science when you have journalists?
So John Brumby banned the sale. And all future sales. In fact we are not allowed use it ourselves, except for those few power stations which are running Victoria. And Daniel Andrews tripled the Royalty on coal when Hazelwood was considering its options. And they closed a perfectly good power station which was running at 98% efficiency in its last month of operations.
And gas exploration has been banned, despite evidence of vast reserves of ready to use ethane. Even picking up sticks in the forest for a fire is outlawed.
Brown coal is incredibly valuable, as much as black coal. But like Indonesian coal, it is for heating and power only, thermal coal. Our black coal is low on impurities and metallurgical coal, which China needs.
Worthless? No. We Victorians could export our brown coal tomorrow for billions a year. Or sell electricity to the rest of Australia. Instead we are building gas terminals to import our own WA gas via Singapore? Only a government would be so wilfully stupid.
110
Peat in Ireland is also very useful. It is 80% water. But underneath dried wood, peat, brown coal, black coal it is all the same stuff. You just have to take the water and dirt out. Old plant matter. All living things are made from CO2, or hydrated CO2 called carbohydrate. It powers our world, all movement. All living things breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. We are now all declared pollution. And brown coal is alleged to be the ‘most evil’ coal. There are lies, damn lies and climate science.
110
Dan Tehan is on our side and hopefully will become the new Opposition Leader.
A split in the Uniparty would create exciting politics.
33
Dan Tehan could prove an interesting leader of the Liberal Party. One chore, apart from developing genuine policies regarding energy (nothing equals it in significance), will be developing relations with other right-wingers in order to develop a single presence on the ballot paper. At present this, as it has been for some time, is a mess. And the Nationals? Follow the same path.
Buyers’s remorse will set in among the electorate in the electorate over the next six months and deepen greatly by the end of 2026. For the Coalition it means hard work to which, for quite some time, they have seemed allergic.
Generational theft is a principle of the present and recent past that must be defeated and with real vigour. Accept that the Right in Australia has no friends in media and act accordingly. Forget Sussan Ley’s ‘humility’; get angry and do the work.
51
“Dan Tehan could prove an interesting leader of the Liberal Party. ”
There’s not one word about individual freedom on his website.. He does point out the Coalition gave away some important environmental lands to the UN, and restored the Ararat Memorial Fountain…
Not a big-picture sort of guy.
20
Not charismatic enough, I agree, the other candidates are woeful uniparty stalwarts.
22
What surprised me most about the nuclear question was an utter failure to get their ducks in a row before announcing it.
Where were the line of costings from experts to roll out in the face of the inevitable $600B scare campaign?
They went from having some sort of a worthwhile idea to being like deer in the headlights.
40
How to respond to ‘May the fourth be with you.’4th/5th May – Take 5
Labor day QLD – May Day NT
On Star Wars Day, which is celebrated on May 4th, fans often greet each other with the phrase “May the fourth be with you.”
50
I always tease the Star wars fans by saying I’m not into Star Trek.😁
70
And tomorrow is becoming “the revenge of the fifth”. Not as funny but the joke goes on.
30
It’s been weeks since I’ve seen Gee Aye around here. Seem to have been absent or a lot or quieter. I wondered if the Trump win had dampened their enthusiasm and wondered if this election result might bring them back to say “Hi”.
Anyway, hope things are going ok and the absence is a choice.
60
PRESIDENT Trump, has ripped the funding from groups that in turn fund these troublemakers.
Could that be an option?
70
Dunno. I’m always grateful for small mercies. Like the absence of a toothache.
40
Obi-Wan Kenobi comments to Luke Skywalker upon seeing Australian Parliament House.
https://youtu.be/Xcb4_QwP6fE
20
It appears that too many voters here ignored the warning signs, cost of living crisis developing since 2022 when Albanese Labor first formed government has worsened, warnings from the Reserve Bank of Australia and others elsewhere such as International Monetary Fund have been warning about government excessive spending but the Labor election campaign has added substantial new spending plans for 2025-2026. Australia’s credit rating of AAA is under threat as of past few weeks announcement. Per Capita Recession have been underway for the longest period ever in Australia and full blown recession avoided just by record high immigration intake but this has added to the housing availability and pricing crisis and government services backlogs.
In 2022 Labor claimed there was a $1 trillion debt, but that was not accurate, the debt was below $900 billion and $1 trillion was Forward Estimate. Labor have since passed $1 trillion and heading right now to $1.2 trillion in the near future. And that is the 2025/26 Budget estimate and, no budgets in surplus again for a decade ahead.
Labor produced a budget surplus in 2022 and only 5 months after forming government, very clever accounting known as creative accounting and useful for bragging rights and establishing credentials for the next election. It was helped by the recovering economy and including $14 billion of tax revenue not expected when the Coalition Budget for 2022/23 was announced in March 2022. Labor have even transferred the sovereign fund accounting – Future Fund – to Federal Budget for accounting for the first time since it was created in 2006.
I expect a rough time ahead for Australians and don’t accept excuses that international pressures caused a recession here when it happens, as Labor tried when they gave us the worst recession for 60 years starting from 1990.
90
Dennis, also, from now on the ALP cannot blame the LNP anymore. In their second term any fault now lies with them. That excuse is now obsolete, no blame game. But having said that, Vic Labor still managed to blame the LNP in this state even in their 2 and now 3rd terms. Hell, sometimes they even blame Jeff Kennett from the 1990’s. Ye gad.
80
China builds a robot with a human brain organoid
Chinese scientists grew a cerebral organoid — a mini brain made from human stem cells — and connected it to a robot.
Not just for show: the brainlet controls physical movement, dodges obstacles, grabs objects, and even shows signs of synaptic plasticity — meaning it can learn and adapt based on experience.
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1919082093998399897
China has built its own Silicon valley
Shanghai basically made a whole neighborhood just for AI, and now 400 startups have moved in like it’s the Silicon Valley of the future.
They’ve got everything: robot brains, self-driving tech, even an “AI computing power supermarket” where developers shop for digital muscle.
https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/1918928581251506649
China steps up the pace in the AI race
Huawei is pulling no punches in its race to manufacture a new generation of processors. Huawei has collaborated with SMIC – China’s largest semiconductor foundry – to apply Deep Ultraviolet Lithography (DUV) on what was previously only possible on EUV (Extreme Ultra-Violet technology). Once again, Huawei and SMIC defied the proverbial American “experts” with creative engineering solutions.
Huang is convinced that “no AI should be able to learn without a human in the loop” – even as he admitted, two years ago, that “reasoning capability is two or three years out”. Translation: according to Huang AI will start thinking for itself within the next few months.
Even as Nvidia prepares to invest billions of dollars to build AI supercomputers in Texas, the Chinese essentially are not losing any sleep on “thinking AI”: their focus is extremely practical, to conquer not only the Chinese market but also the supply chains of most of Eurasia.
https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/escobar-china-steps-its-game-global-ai-race
No longer in the realms of scifi, and not decades away as the “experts” said…
AI already outperforms humans in all but multi-disciplinary tasks.
Now they’re designing cyborgs, which I said was the only way to go.
AI is advancing so fast it’s now possible to run AI on a high end laptop or smartphone, and I mean the server not just a client!
Massive reduction in size and power needs are here.
Consciousness – where a blend of biology, physics and philosophy meet to argue who’s right, will happen. It’s just a matter of time and not much if it. Cupla years max.😎
60
No doubt the cells for the organoid were unethically sourced.
50
John Connor II,
You keep saying this sort of thing and I’ve urged you a couple of times to be more sceptical about the AI hype. Upthread, another ian linked to this article, which calls it for what it is. I enjoyed reading it. Might be good for your perspective too.
I’ll stop nagging you now. Will continue to enjoy your amusing items. Your AI stuff: I can avert my eyes.
20
I’m old enough to remember when Japan was going to dominate the computing world.
Turned out they were great at copying and even refining ideas a bit. Not so good on the new ideas front.
Now it is China’s turn. They are great at stealing IP and coercing foreigners to train the locals as a condition of business in China. But I’m not convinced they have had an original idea since gunpowder.
la plus ca change la plus c’est la meme chose.
50
Excellent!! Can I order a few million of those mini-brains to supplement the voters’ current ones, and are then any XXX-size for our politicians?
40
Australian politics is so bad that it actually seems like a good thing that a Labor commie wins a seat rather than a Green or a Teal…
90
Funnily enough the ALP might now have a personnel problem. That is, with additional people elected there’s too many of them and maybe not enough jobs to keep them all occupied. Plus, maybe Albanese would like to replace a few old ministers with some new blood. Always causes ructions – idle hands etc. Whereas the now smaller, leaner LNP should theoretically be more efficient. Wishful thinking?
51
Get with it, every political party knows you just invent new Ministerships, add on a stack of useless Assistant-Ministers to soak up the really useless and you’re done!
NZ became experts at it under those queer women they put in charge.
30
When you have to confirm who is holding third place in order to determine who will win the race then the whole race is a farce.
30
Apart from the importation of vast numbers of Third World immigrants as perpetual Labor voters, I wonder if an additional supply of perpetual Labor voters also comes from the vastly increased numbers of State and Federal public serpents?
50
Is the pope a catholic?
40
When there is no pope (like now while he’s dead) people might consider the alternate “Do bears sh!t in the woods”. Lol.
00
I am certain there are sane people in Federal Labour Party.
But !
Will they be able to hold against the onslaught of the Labor Left intoxicated by victory ? At least in their own eyes they were correct in any argument and others were wrong.
Penny Wong just said ordinary Aussies could stick their opinions in….
Our prime minister is ready to be a President, according to the Constitution he should not involve into arguments.
40
I believe the really extreme people are in the communist Greens. Yes, Albanese is a Trot. But Bandt is dangerous and Lenin is his hero. The Greens attract this type of ‘whatever it takes’ politician. Money and power. Not a single conservative or conservation cell in Bandt.
100
“I am certain there are sane people in Federal Labour Party.”
I see no reason for there to be, or any evidence of that! Possibly your upbringing gave you a different view of politics and a varied view of ‘sane’, but don’t expect anything good to come out of that mob.
40
Saturday’s result has delivered a second stage of labor to their party faithful. In contrast LNP faithful are stuck in the third stage of labor and there, unless the grass roots demand the placenta is fully dealt with, is where they will remain come the next election. MSM comment about the prospects of Albo “governing” (read throwing money at) until 2030ish are being made.
There is already comment from different representatives of the LNP saying the reason why they are holding the placenta and not the baby is because they are not centre left enough (read even more of a uniparty).
Watching the Always Biased Comment election program on Saturday night I heard the same style of ignorant self-righteous claims that the LNP party machine is correct, and its supporters are wrong, as I heard from LNP party officialdom during a wrap-up discussion to a CPAC conference a couple of years ago. The exact same claims that “WE” (the inner party sycophants) know what is best, while you the plebs just have to stick with us, i.e. don’t vote for smaller parties, and our way will deliver the power of government back to “WE” the career politicians/advisers were being signalled.
This 2025 election result will get buried with the 2022 one and none of the lessons that should have been learned from either will be heeded. Stop trying to outperform the current majorette and instead ask the people what music they want played and everyone will march on to greater things.
“There go my people. I must find out where they are going so I can lead them”. Alexandre Auguste Ledru-Rollin 1807-1874 attrib.
70
Listening I am right now to 3AW call back and agreeing – every people deserve their governors.
Both the show anchor and callers say that LNP lost because they moved to much to the Right .
Swinging voters, indeed !
21
Ah… That will distort your view of insane. You should take therapy and try to give up this addiction to dangerous views Vlad. Go and read “Atlas Shrugged” as an antidote!
40
They are probably correct. The Overton Window in Oz is firmly left at the moment, as many of our young people havent yet enjoyed the fruits of an overconfident Labor Govt in full cry. The coming years will be instructive.
20
Brave man Vladimir. Listening to their ABC so others don’t have to.
Above and beyond the call of duty.
81
Why Skynet needs an OFF switch.
Examples from China.
https://youtube.com/shorts/ujACmkjdaZE
https://youtu.be/cOdyn_EBtfs
10
FWIW
“This Financial Times Headline Proves Mainstream Media’s Total Disconnect From Real People…”
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/financial-times-headline-proves-mainstream-medias-total-disconnect-real-people
10
FWIW
“Călin Georgescu’s Replacement in Romania, George Simion Wins First Round of Voting in Critical Battle Against EU Intelligence Apparatus
May 4, 2025 | Sundance | 43 Comments”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/05/04/calin-georgescus-replacement-in-romania-george-simion-wins-first-round-of-voting-in-critical-battle-against-eu-intelligence-apparatus/
20
FWIW
“How to Win the PR War on Tariffs”
Q: Why do we need tariffs?
A: Because Americans deserve great jobs.
Jobs, jobs, jobs.
Keep circling back to jobs and we’ll win this thing.”
https://pjmedia.com/scott-pinsker/2025/05/04/how-to-win-the-pr-war-on-tariffs-n4939485
10
‘Sweet justice’: Ian Plimer on the election downfall of the Greens
2 minute video
10
Why do taxpayers fund a five square mile laser death ray that kills 6000 birds a year?
It’s supposed to generate clean energy using 100% solar power but it can only generate half the design capacity, so instead it has to run on gas.
It’s supposed to generate power for 30 years but it’s being decommissioned 15 years early.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZjBAR3XpHaI
50
FWIW
“Mark Carney could tear Canada apart”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/05/04/mark-carney-could-tear-canada-apart/
10
FWIW
“Breathtaking Remarks from Dem Leaders Reveal Precisely Why Party Is in the Wilderness”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/05/breathtaking-remarks-from-dem-leaders-reveal-precisely-why-party-is-in-the-wilderness/
Nod sagely and don’t say anything
10
History of some wind turbines
https://stopthesethings.com/2017/03/13/born-lucky-stars-align-perfectly-for-pms-son-with-mammoth-bet-on-wind-power-outfit-infigen/
00