JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
There has been a “marked cooling trend” across the North Atlantic in recent decades (Ryu and Kang, 2025).
New Study: The North Atlantic Has Not Been Cooperating with the Global Warming Narrative
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/07/19/new-study-the-north-atlantic-has-not-been-cooperating-with-the-global-warming-narrative/
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This is the title of the paper referenced by whatsupwiththat, who took it from No tricks Zone, “ Decadal swing in NAO variability and summertime heat extremes in South Korea over recent decades”. Both WUWT and NTZ, cherry-pick the data, and come to a conclusion which is not supported by the original author
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So what. They are just taking a leaf out of the climate catastrophe play book. Mother Nature doesn’t play by the same rules, so they make stuff up. NOAA’s historical climate graph conveniently starts when Krakatoa drops average temperature by 0.6 c, but they omit this little fact. They then ignore the temperature data at the start of the 20th century supplied by researchers at the time such as Dove, Forbes, Ferrel, von Beshold, von Hann etc, etc. von Hann clearly showed that the average temperature in 1908 was 14.4c and not 13.7 c. NASA deliberately and openly cools the 1930’s ‘cos they did not fit the narrative. The IPCC didn’t like the data supplied by the Acrim satellites measuring total solar irradiance, so got the PMOD labs to make up complete lies about instrument faults and then published that. They also didn’t like the data from the Ceres satellites, so multiplied the incoming shortwave radiation and outgoing long wave radiation values by -1. That sorted it out. If the science is settled, why do the powers that be have to deliberately tells lies and manipulate data to fit the story. They then tell more lies in a desperate attempt to cover up their malfeasance when they are found out. If indeed whatsupwiththat and No tricks Zone have made a mistake, it is probably genuine unlike the deliberately manipulated b*llocks from the IPCC, NASA and NOAA
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You prove my point
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Ha Ha Ha. Comedian. You really must be totally delusional if you consider this proves anything other than NASA, NOAA and the IPCC lie through their a**eholes, just like you.
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Regardless of that paper, the NAO is a major player in European weather.
There are teleconnections with other oceanic oscillations, like the PDO.
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And the IOD, and the ENSO, and the…
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There is an ambiguous complex relationship with the NAO/ENSO combo.
El Nino is usually accompanied by a negative NAO, while La Nina produces more positive NAO.
The NAO response to Central Pacific ENSO are mainly linear, while nonlinear NAO responses dominate for the Eastern Pacific.
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Here we see the great climate shift of 1976, when the PDO turned positive, there was a teleconnection to the NAO.
https://chaac.meteo.plus/en/climate/nao-index-monthly.png
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With respect to Ryu and Kang it is authors. In the introduction of their paper they write:
Although NAO variability remains incompletely understood, it has been attributed to several factors: anthropogenic change, stratospheric forcing and tropical forcing.
The paper seems to place more emphasis on the latter two forces and how the former “may” or “potentially” affect them.
This quote is from Ryu and Kang in the second paragraph of Conclusions:
“While South Korean heatwaves are strongly associated with the positive phase of the NAO on an interannual timescale, the suppressed heatwave activity between 1995 and 2012 coincides with a decadal-scale downward trend in the NAO, which weakened interannual variability.”
I don’t see how you can say NTZ and WUWT came to a conclusion that is not supported by the original author (sic).
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Yesterday’s Australian has a report about BHP suffering a cost blowout (about $2.5 billion) on its potash project in Saskatchewan (about 130km east of Saskatoon). It notes that temperatures there regularly fall to minus 40℃ in winter, but the past winter was especially tough and marked by high winds.
Even the locals concede last winter was one of the worst in years.
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We once went to Saskatoon then Uranium City in June, discovering that even their Saskatchewan summers were freezing. Geoff S
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Had to design equipment for buses that sat outside near Toronto, down to minus 30C, then had to start reliably in 15 mins. Was a change from designing power supplies that to reliably charge sealed batteries outside in 45 degrees…
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Nor the South Atlantic. With the end of the De Vries cycle and the AMO/PDO a sharp drop in temperatures was predicted about this time, at least in Europe. But freezing weather is not newsworthy. Only heat records. Even if they are usually found near airports.
The other aspect of records, not averages, is that with a hundred times as many measurement points, the extremes must increase because the chance of finding an extreme is massively increased. This being interpreted as more ‘extreme’ weather and therefore Climate Change which as Global Warming or record cold or record heat, whichever fits.
I am still laughing at the UK having three heat waves in four weeks. An utterly risible idea in hot temperate countries like Australia or for the 40% of humans who live in the tropics. Or in the desert where you get a heat wave every day.
It’s whatever pushes the idea that the sky is falling unless you pay the UN.
The genuine Greens, few in number, are starting to complain that the massive Green taxes are not going to change anything. Take the $42Billion tax grab by the UN on ships using bunker oil. What else are they going to use? Rubber bands? You may as well tax aircraft for flying. It’s not like there are a lot of alternatives so it’s just about the money. The UN is absolutely useless, 80,000 people looking to live off the hard work of others and they have been running this scam for nearly 40 years.
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And with Australia’s 35% tax applying to all Australian airlines, flying will be massively taxed in Australia.
You wonder how the overseas flights will be taxed. As fuel is the major operational cost, forcing aircraft from ultra safe four engines to a riskier two, you have to wonder how much airfares will go up as we approach 35%. Of course anyone who can afford to fly is clearly rich or a plutocrat and needs to be punished. Abusers all. Odd then that Greens have the highest flights per person of any social group. I hope they enjoy double air fares.
It will be fun too as the taxation people start to push foreign airlines to pay the 35% tax on refuelling. It may even mean the end of QANTAS for international flights if Labor play their cards right, so QANTAS can be owned overseas and then shut down to avoid the tax which applies only to Australian companies.
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You can also expect many more stops in places like Noumea or Fiji or even Auckland, so international flights can refuel overseas. But the most likely scenario is the closure of QANTAS, which will be a sad day for Albanese and Bowen and Wong, the people out to wreck Australia to save the planet. Or perhaps just reform as overseas companies, based in Indonesia or Malaysia or Singapore or even Fiji, so the taxes don’t apply. And politicians don’t worry about domestic flights. They are either publicly funded or with their gold passes. So why worry?
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TdeF,
It is now looking like the Air India crash was caused by onboard computer failure. Nothing that the pilots could do could help, there was not enough altitude.
It is unknown whether this fault is confined to the Dreamliner, or to many Boeing aircraft, or to all modern aircraft.
One of my sons has today described a floating point software elementary programming error in the 787 software.
It does not affect me because my legs are too worn out for aircraft passenger seats.
But, look out for software problems as more automobiles get to use it to control cars. Other drivers will have a higher probability of hitting you.
Geoff S
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That would be appallingly bad design for the fuel cutoff to be able to be effected by software only without confirmation of switch position. I know many systems are fly by wire and so many on an aircraft are critical, but the fuel OFF would be the most incredibly dangerous without physical confirmation of some sort, or warning in the cockpit or a check on airspeed or anything else. What happened to quadruple redundancy?
Software, like mechanical systems, must have elaborate checks and short of all power in the aircraft going off, unlikely. You need to be able to turn fuel off in the case of an engine fire. But both off at once is never required especially during takeoff. Of all the glitches to have on takeoff, this would be the worst conceivable. Even mechanically it should be impossible to accidentally change the settings, using lift and detents on each independently. I
On the other hand it is important for National airlines to protect their image. The suicide of the Egypt Air pilot was so obvious and yet the result was a null finding. The same with two Malaysian airlines jets. The one over Ukraine and the one which was dumped in the Southern Ocean, even though they found the pilot’s prepared route on his simulator at home. This is damage control from Air India and even at the National level politically.
You can blame anything on a software error, but I don’t believe it. It’s deflection. Is there a switch for ‘Wings drop off’ too?
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I wonder if COP attendees in private jets will be exempt from the 35% tax?
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That’s a cost the airlines by law have to pay in Australia. As with all these hidden carbon taxes, it is not what you the customer will have to pay. Governments are hiding all the carbon taxes and making sure the victims say nothing. It’s theft, not taxation.
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The great beauty of a carbon tax ( in the eyes of the ruling classes) is that it is effectively an ‘everything’ tax.
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Every Prediction made by the Climate Alarmists has never come true.
At least they are consistent. Tiresome as well.
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They are consistently wrong.
https://notrickszone.com/2025/07/19/west-arctic-nw-passage-see-3rd-highest-sea-ice-extent-in-over-2-decades/
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The true costs of Subsidised wind farms revealed in High court case
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14919977/truth-Britain-taxpayer-cash-soaked-wind-farm-industry.html
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The most outrageous parts of that story, which should enrage citizens, is firstly the windfarm in question received 600 objections from locals in the planning phase which, given its location, would probably mean EVERYBODY in the neighbourhood. Even the local council rejected the application, only to be overruled by the Scottish government. So much for ‘government FOR the people’, eh?
Secondly, as we her know, the case exposed the fact that the company operating this monstrosity, which blights what would normally have been considered ‘protected space’, made more money when the wind DIDN’T blow than when it was. Under these terms, the thing will NEVER make a profit on the sale of its electricity – a classic example of ‘subsidy harvesting’.
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The EDIT function is busted again.
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It comes and goes. Back for me today, so it’s my turn…
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No, it looks like it’s gone again…
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Just worked for me at Post Number 22.
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Make no mistake…
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Staggering amounts of money are involved. It says that the subsidies (from poor to rich) are 40% of consumer electricity bills.
Plus it again demonstrates thst any amount of environmental destruction is OK as long as the subsidy-harvesting project pretends to “save the planet”.
And they tell the usual lies:
If they really did power 106,000 homes why are those homes still connected to the grid? The reality is that they power zero homes and contribute about one third of that amount to the grid in the form of useless, expensive, unreliable electricity. The ONLY thing windmill and solar plantations do well is to harvest subsidies for the Elites.
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Long and thoughtful article
“It strikes me that the World Economic Forum is, in effect, attempting to complete the old ‘Volk’ movement’s agenda of re-establishing ‘the respective positions of lord and peasant’, perhaps not in terms of a literal ‘rural nobility’, but certainly in essence a ‘neo-feudalism’.
In essence there have been important inflection points through history which changed society-the sixties were certainly one, it seems the current era is another.
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-world-economic-forum-and-the-volk-movement/
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The National Socialists adopted many ideas of Völkisch movement.
Few realise that the New Left have also adopted many ideas from the Old Left such as the National Socialists. Among them “green energy” and veganism/vegetarianism.
They even use much of the same propaganda. In the 1930’s they wrote:
Notice the similarity with contemporary Leftist propaganda? The only difference is not using coal to make hydrocarbon fuels, rather they want to use the “green hydrogen” to make dangerous transport fuels like hydrogen and ammonia. The National Socialists actually had a more practical idea than the International Socialists.
ALSO SEE
AND
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Hence the term:
“Eco-nazis”.
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Considerable resistance is building up to a Digital i.d.
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/07/18/from-vaccine-passports-in-2021-to-britcard-in-2025-why-we-need-a-digital-bill-of-rights/
The Government wants one for obvious reasons of control. Younger people are so used to exposing the entirety of their formerly private lives on the internet they don’t see what the fuss is about. Those older and I would argue wiser, are increasingly concerned at the increasing ability of the state and corporations to track us, of which the digital i.d/health id/digital passport etc are the obvious conclusions.
Whatever the philosophical arguments, nothing is more certain than that vast amounts of personal data will be hacked and peoples whole identity stolen. You will become a non person if that happens, in true 1984 style.
What a very complex world we are weaving for ourselves.
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Over the last few weeks I have mentioned the proposed WHO regulations which have now passed. Barely mentioned by the Lamestream Media, if at all.
Here is the latest from Dr John Campbell on the new Orwellian WHO regulations which nearly all countries including Australia agreed to. It will give them even more draconian powers via our governments.
The WHO regulations have provided for unprecedented, dictatorial powers which governments like Australia’s will love to implement. The mismanagement of covid in Australia proved how far they are prepared to go but the WHO regulstions go far further than that, including “vaccine passports” and many other measures.
The only countries that didn’t agree which will be free of them will be USA (not a WHO member), Iran, Netherlands Israel, Slovakia, Italy and New Zealand. (Not certain about NZ.)
This is a very serious development and of great concern due to the way globalist, governments like Australia’s will be eager to implement the dictatorial anti-democratic powers provided under the regulations. Especially now that Australia has no effective opposition party and is a virtual One Party State.
Video: https://youtu.be/bHrK8LjqqZ8
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Since we can’t post pictures you’ll have to visualise this meme.
Two people, one on the left is a sickly looking, mask-wearing, multi-covid-vaxxed covid vaccine true-believer. On the right is a clean-cut, healthy-looking conservative, thinking person.
In conversation about the covid “vaccine” the one on the left (also no doubt of The Left) says “I want peer-reviewed articles and at least ten sources.”.
The one on the right says “Why, you got jabbed in a parking lot by a stranger with a drug you know nothing about just to get a free donut.”
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My experience is most people that pontificate about ‘following The Science’, seldom read any science.
Sometimes they even go so far as to think only scientists should read science.
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I should add, reading science helps one understand how stunningly unintelligible a lot of science is.
And that it could not be followed with a seeing-eye dog.
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Honk,
As a scientist, I read the science (or what is made available).
There has been a recent unacceptable change caused by belief being allowed to intrude, then censorship to allow belief instead of replicable measurement.
It is wrecking the value of science. Climate change research is leading the decline.
Geoff S
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Add “consensus” and pal review into the newspaper reports and you guarantee garbage and distortion.
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Whew!
I thought some real scientist was going to yell at me about the ‘unintelligible’ and ‘seeing-eye dog’ part.
Thanks.
I shall bask in the glow of validation for the rest of my day.
Sunday is just getting started here on the proper half of the world.
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Interesting experiment in the “speed” of electricity.
https://youtu.be/2Vrhk5OjBP8
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At least he used a transmission medium that wouldn’t significantly impact the propagation delay.
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Here is a 14 min video about a number of the world’s most primitive tribes.
https://youtu.be/B9vW2URfdEQ
Not the way I’d like to live. But each to their own.
They all have different lifestyles and beliefs but one thing they all have on common is that they live a “Net Zero” lifestyle.
Access to energy does make a difference.
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Australia has a new deadly creature and it’s not a politician or senior public serpent.
It’s a newly categorised funnel web spider, Hadronyche simonfearni from Tasmania.
https://youtu.be/cBs165U4vqI
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In the Tasmania election Labor did badly but Liberals did not win a majority.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-19/tasmania-election-2025-live-updates/105532526
Apparently it was fundamentally an election about the really, really important issue involving panem et circenses, bread and circuses for the masses as Juvenal would have called it.
The issue was whether to build an AFL football stadium as requested by the AFL as a condition of Tasmania having its own AFL team.
https://australiainstitute.org.au/post/whether-for-or-against-the-stadium-tasmanians-overwhelmingly-feel-dudded-by-the-afl-poll/
You’d think there were more important things to be concerned about given the massive debt of Australia’s local, state and federal governments and a declining standard of living for all Australians.
Are people really unable to understand that “the Government” doesn’t actually have any money apart from it takes from you or borrows which has to be repaid by you?
Australia’s total government debt, federal, state and local now $2.125 trillion.
http://australiandebtclock.com.au/
Enjoy!
I guess the situation we now find ourselves in Australia really is like the last days of the Roman Empire with massive overspending, moral decay and a huge bureaucratic class or The Blob.
The size and complexity of the Empire’s civil service meant it was expensive and inflexible and had significant corruption* (similiarly look at Victorian Government projects or who politicians go to work for after politics or the Australian public “service” state and federal in general).
Heavy taxation was also needed to support the large bureaucracy/civil service/Blob.
That pretty well sums up Australia today and many Western countries with the only countries trying to do something about it being TRUMP’s United States or Argentina under Millei.
* https://www.researchgate.net/publication/387883909_Legacies_of_ancient_Rome_and_their_impacts_on_Western_civilization_a_dialectic_perspective
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Rome ran out of money when they stopped conquering other nations.
The answer is obvious, you need to invade China And take all their money. Allow at least a week to finish the job.
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“And take all their money.”
THAT is why Govts gave up gold and printed fiat currency! Worthless bits of paper that are only useful inside their country… There’s no loot for the invaders to take home!
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Then in a couple of hours you’re hungry for more.
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“Money” isn’t an asset and can’t be captured, it is an IOU.
What “stores of wealth” does China have that the US envies? In centuries past rubber, spices, gold, tea, coffee and later, oil mattered but only one of them still does today and the juice wouldn’t be worth the squeeze. They could not even enslave the populace.
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So true David. I find it hard to understand how an election had a football stadium front and centre as a bargaining chip by either Party. One could assume everything else in Tasmania was just peachey….no out of control debt, no ambulance ramping, health system running like a swiss watch…etc, etc.
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..a perfect example of why democracy is a failure as a system for picking a Govt!
How easily the sheeple are confused by the halves of the Uniparty picking a worthless item to argue over, while agreeing on the things that would really make a difference to voters lives.. stopping CO2 emissions, banning coal, driving EVs, tax and debt, spying on citizens, handing the health system over to WHO…
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While not winning a clear majority, the liberals have individually trounced all the other parties, Labour believes it can cobble together a government in combination with the greens and independents, once again democracy NOT at work.
Very clearly the majority of voters do not want Labour, Greens and Independents in power, screw them, they will get what they are given.
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Labor’s Dean Winter has promised no deal with the greens. So it is quite likely. But maybe the Libs can do a deal with the greens, not power-sharing but dropping the stadium in return for guaranteed supply. Now that would be a win-win for the people
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I’m with you on that David.
Most households live within a budget. Sure we have debt. We buy a car, buy a house etc. and then we pay off that debt. We don’t keep borrowing to live up to a certain lifestyle.
It peeves me off that our governments are seemingly incapable of doing the same.
The older I am the more disenchanted I get with the whole political process.
All parties want to buy votes by offering goodies and free stuff. The cost of this “free stuff” exceeds the governments income. I am sure that some voters don’t understand or don’t care that this debt is a burden that will take decades to pay. It’s crazy.
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“The older I am the more disenchanted I get with the whole political process.”
Ah, but that used to happen at a far younger age! Since we have started keeping our offspring as ‘children’ past their early teens, then into their late teens, then into their early 20s, it means they haven’t had a job and its subsequent responsibility until they were in their late 20s. NOW that is gone too, children of 30 are living at home and have no idea of how the world works, and soon those of 40 will be inheriting enough money such that they don’t need to worry about how much the Govt borrows.
Combine that with the growing multitudes on welfare, the giant service economy, and the numbers actually producing wealth are getting very small. THEY are the only ones paying taxes, and they don’t have a voice.
If we went to work at 13years old, by 25 we would be more than capable of running our own lives and handling finances, so we would be disenchanted with the whole political process by the time we were 30, young enough to do something about it!
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Do billions sound much more than millions?
Do trillions?
Call then thousands of millions? And millions of millions!!
It may help some folk visualise our debts.
Maybe.
Auto
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Sparta! 😁
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From a June 29, 1989, Associated Press dispatch:
Now that most of the Western World have trashed their economies over this faulty prediction, do we get our money back?
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He has spent his life with his snout in the trough, from the UN to boards of various Leftist propaganda units and is president of ‘Friends of the UN’. Did political science, then international law, then a PhD in international relations, a waste of oxygen if ever there was one.
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Most Stupidest Predictions. Flim Flammery, Full List. Tim Flannery. Former Climate Commissioner, Professorial fellow at Melbourne University. Australian of the Year 2007.
Climate and floods: Flannery is no expert, but neither are the experts
How is it that Tim Flannery could have got it so spectacularly wrong?
The most obvious factor could well be Flannery’s lack of background in a climate science. He is an academic, however his background is mammalogy – he studied the evolution of mammals.
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There have been proposals to build a spaceraft to chase and catch up with the interstellar object Oumuamua.
https://youtu.be/u4tzK89ZfmA
I guess these are the sort of projects we would have the luxury of doing if Western countries weren’t being parasitically drained by the anthropogenic global warming scam.
Such projects would be interesting but not affordable now, not even by the United States who no longer subscribes to the scam but has massive debts to pay off.
Just another one of the numerous ways the scam is stopping so many areas of economic activity and scientific enquiry.
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>…if Western countries weren’t being parasitically drained by the anthropogenic global warming scam.
plus the parasitic pharmaceutical scam
plus the parasitic endless war scam
etc…
Gotta keep the public purse in debt and keep the populace needing to turn up for work each day.
How else could the elites afford their yachts and jets, their bevies of young attendants, their larks tongues in aspic and their gold plated bidets.
Eric Weinstein Recounts Meeting Jeffrey Epstein
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Better to build something to intercept 3I/ATLAS, the latest, and 3rd confirmed interstellar visitor, as it will have its closest approach to the sun in October before it continues on its merry way.
The problem is that it is really, really fast, about 61km/second, compared to solar-system bound objects at around 15km/second (more or less), with some Oort Cloud objects approaching 40km/second.
It would not be difficult to build a few space probes with a suitable suite of instruments, and have them ready to launch at short notice. NASA have shown what can be done with off-the-shelf electronics in the Mars helicopter – Ingenuity, so it could be done relatively cheaply if there was a will to do so..
The newly operational Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile completes a full-sky survey every 3 days and will do (is already doing) an amazing job at detecting moving objects, so I expect we will see an increase in interstellar visitor detections too.
We all like to complain about the direction of humanity at times, but there are still some amazing things being done.
https://rubinobservatory.org
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Further to Friday’s article about west Africa’s sea level rise (or lowering):
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/567301/birthplace-of-the-nation-threatened-by-climate-change
Yawn… young part-Maori chap named Corey teamed-up with NIWA Geoscience to study an already well-studied gravel/sand rivermouth, which sits atop a major fault line, on the edge of Cloudy Bay at the southern entrance to Cook Strait.
Not only does the Wairau River carry huge amounts of gravel (and water when in flood) down from the Southern Alps, the Strait is renowned for wild weather, big seas, and massive tidal flows every day: numerous studies have discovered all sorts of changes to the coastline and the river mouth over the ages, earthquakes notwithstanding.
Now, in 2025, “modelling shows [by] 2130 approximately 75 percent of the site could be at risk” due to a “one meter sea level rise” [sic].
No need for floods, storm surges (tsunami?), nor earthquakes to rearrange this temporary outlet – if humanity doesn’t take action in the next 105 years, the Attack Of The Meter may inundate this swampy coastal lagoon: a thermometer? speedometer? hygrometer? possibly an altimeter?
The French are losers (the All Blacks trounced them 3:0) yet a metre is a yard is 3 feet and a meter is a tool which measures that which needs to be measured. Science or sorcery?
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Is it Lake Waikarmoana Greg. That beautiful river valley that one day in the relatively recent past, suddenly became a very large lake that is also very deep. Who gave permission for that bloody earthquake, Maybe it was a heavy footed rendition of the haka that caused half a mountain to, well, slide down hill and voila, landscape changed. Just like that, river valley to lake and probably HUGE volumes of carbon dioxide belching into the atmosphere from a bit of volcanic activity at the same time.
One good thing about geology, it never changes, evah, until it does!
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FWIW
“The Corruption of Scientific Journals Continues Apace”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/07/19/the-corruption-of-scientific-journals-continues-apace-n3804929
Forget that “Letter to Nature”
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FWIW
“MACHINE-LEARNING/AI FOR THE DEAD SEA SCROLLS: When researchers at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands combined radio-carbon dating with Machine Learning/AI approaches to textual script analysis, they found strong evidence that the Dead Sea Scrolls are older than previously thought, according to Patterns of Evidence’s Lora Gilb.”
And links
https://instapundit.com/732955/#disqus_thread
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FWIW
“So… It’s A Buyers Market?”
“Armstrong Economics- The Stripper Index
The creators of this unconventional gauge believe that June’s data indicates signs of trouble ahead, with all sex worker-related metrics declining. They found that escort pricing across the UK has declined, and Google searches for “escort” are notably down. Sadly, there is an increase in new hires in the industry as well.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/uncategorized/the-stripper-index/
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/07/19/so-its-a-buyers-market/
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No, the economy is booming, but all those vacinees with their plummeting sex drive are having an effect!
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A most…revealing….survey…
(Sorry, I’ll see myself out…)
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So, umm, speaking of China, can any of you tell me what a Labubu is?
And this could be construed as a ….. ‘more fool you Tony’ moment.
Then let me tell you then. (here’s a page of images for you to get the idea.)
My 26 year old granddaughter is hooked. She lives in Rockhampton, where there are no Pop Mart outlets which sell them, so on a recent holiday spent with me, we went to a few shops where you can get hold of them, well, technically, as they are always completely sold out.
Ignorant old me sat outside the store, while she went in and shopped. I was curious as to why no one seemed to be walking past the shop, all walking up, and going inside, with the occasional person leaving with their Pop Mart shopping bag. I wanted to see what the attraction was and did venture into the shop, only to find it was ‘packed to the gills’ with shoppers.
They are plush toys, and along with these unobtainable Labubus, they also have many other toy figurines as well.
They are all sold in what is termed as blind boxes, a really clever marketing ploy, as you have no idea what you are getting until you actually open the box, after purchasing of course. It sorta seems like gambling really.
So, my granddaughter went back to Rocky with some of the other toys from the shop, and had to settle for the fake ones, the lafufus, sold in other stores as knock offs, and even they do a roaring trade, and being such a lucrative thing, those fakes are absolutely everywhere.
So, ever the nice guy Poppy, I thought I’d try and obtain some for my beloved granddaughter, (birthday approaching in three weeks) almost a seemingly impossible thing, as there are none to be had, and even online there is an immense risk, buying from sources that might not be, well, as reputable as they make out.
So, I asked, and was told to ring the store on Monday, and they have an idea of what is coming in on the Tuesday morning. Did that, told that some were indeed coming in, but be early, as there is a queue.
So, I arrived at the doors of the Westfield Mt Gravatt store at, umm, 5AM. there were already 20 people there. The shopping centre doors opened at 5.30, and they ran, seriously ….. ran the 250 metres to the store, which had set up a cordoned off area out the front of the store and also employed 2 security people to oversee the crowd. Nothing new there, as this happens two mornings each week, and has been doing just that since the store opened last September.
My running days are long over, so I walked to the queue, and luckily there were only 25 or so people in front of me.
And we waited there from 5.30 till the store opened at 9AM. Four trolley loads of boxes of stock rolled up between 8.30 and 9AM, ushered inside.
One of the staff came outside, and walked the length of the queue handing out numbered tickets.
Once open, they called you in, five people at a time, and you then queued inside the shop in small groups until called to the checkout counter. Each customer was limited to two boxes of Labubus with six blind boxes in each of the large boxes. I got my two boxes, and was back in my car, heading home at 10AM.
As I walked away, that queue out front was still almost a hundred metres long, and as always people miss out, hence the need to get there early, two mornings a week for the last ten Months.
The store sells out of them fast, and I can guess a lot of the stores in that shopping centre would love to make, umm, $20,000 (conservatively) inside the first hour of opening, like Pop Mart.
OK, stage set then.
Where does China fit in?
Umm, they own Pop Mart and all the toys are made there. Overall, a very clever marketing ploy which has succeeded beyond even the wildest imagination. The Company is now valued at $AUD60 BILLION, and reported a 350% increase in profits in the last 6 Months. The designers of each of the many different figurines are wildly rich, and the Labubu designer is reputedly a Billionaire, with a nett worth of $22 Billion.
The ABC has a number of links, I have only found recently, and the following is an 8 minute video, explaining this ‘craze’ I guess, one which shows NO sign whatsoever of easing up.
Labubu video
The whole thing was a real eye opener.
Needless to say, my granddaughter is stoked to the max that I went out of my way to do this for her.
Whilst I was waiting in the queue for those four hours, I was speaking with one of the women, an avid collector, and she told me that the ones we were waiting for on that day, (Series Two) were (while still desirable) not quite as desirable as the other two series, hence the queue had a lot less people in it.
And other than phoning the day prior, and then waiting in the queue at 5AM, there is ….. ZERO way you can get your hands on one of them.
Awww, they’re just so damned cute! And only $195 for a box of six blind boxes ….. so now you get some sort of idea of how much money is involved in all of this, umm, all going back to China, dare I say.
Tony.
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A bizarre tale, Tony. I have not heard of the craze – but it demonstrates the power of creating a market for the almost unobtainable. A product of “affluenza”? I suspect so. But maybe it is similar to the desire that tribal people once had for useful, but rare very hard rocks for stone axes. I’m guessing here. But many of our curious predictions are based on our very primitive selves.
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I have some tulip bulbs to sell them!
..and some $12000 bottles of Japanese whisky that are probably undrinkable, but no-one will ever know as they never get opened. The West still has a lot of money to convert into assets and storing that wealth is extremely difficult these days.
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Thanks Tony, an interesting read and the video was an interesting watch. Seems the “fad” is afflicting not kids but young adults. Madness. Seems to be repeat of the old beanie babies fad, the only difference being they were not blind boxes. People were collecting as a speculative investment – to retire on. I asked my 30 yr old daughter, about these things, says they are stupid and ugly. She does like to collect but has not been bitten and infected by this bug, she likes to see whats she’s buying, she buys for her collection (Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Coraline, etc) not because she’s caught up in the latest fad, but a genuine collector.
40
“Pet Rocks” recycled?
30
Ian,
Here is a tip for early 20s girl market.
I am reminded of it by the name “Hot Rocks”
Change the product from Labubus to models of “Hot *ocks”, *C what I mean?
Find out how grown up they really are. And lower the voting age to 12.
Geoff S
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I think there is a comment below … something about ‘the End Times’.
00
I was chatting to the lady selling toys at the Cheddar Boot Sale. She told me she makes more money from her lucky dip than she does from any of the toys sold ‘openly’.
She said there is one kid that always puts at least £10 at a £1 a time through her lucky dip when he comes to the boot sale. He must have opened every toy she sells through the lucky dip by now, and know that the toys sold openly are the same (and that the toys she is selling openly which go into the lucky dip all sell for a pound or less), but he still keeps coming back.
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Barack Obama Now Squarely in Russiagate Crosshairs
New disclosures from a Tulsi Gabbard-led working group point directly to the top, as the legacy of “Hope and Change” begins a plunge to the ocean floor
Jul 20, 2025
‘Betrayal Of Every American’ – Barack Obama Now Squarely In Russiagate Crosshairs
In the wake of reports released by fellow Hawaiian and former Democrat Tulsi Gabbard, he also has a new problem.
It once seemed a lock that Obama would be remembered as the winsome hero of Shepard Fairey’s portrait, but Gabbard’s documents place him at the center of an unprecedented act of political sabotage, committed in his last Oval Office days as a humiliated lame-duck in the winter of 2016-2017.
The new Director of National Intelligence is targeting Obama’s legacy and maybe even his freedom, detailing a “treasonous conspiracy committed by officials at the highest level of our government,” announcing that everyone involved “must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, has declassified documents revealing “overwhelming evidence” showing how then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would become the years-long Trump-Russia collusion investigation after President Trump won the 2016 election.
Via @DNIGabbard:
Americans will finally learn the truth about how in 2016, intelligence was politicized and weaponized by the most powerful people in the Obama Administration to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump, subverting the will of the American people and undermining our democratic republic.
Here’s how:
For months preceding the 2016 election, the Intelligence Community shared a consensus view: Russia lacked the intent and capability to hack U.S. elections.
But weeks after President Trump’s historic 2016 victory defeating Hillary Clinton, everything changed.
On Dec 8, 2016, IC officials prepared an assessment for the President’s Daily Brief, finding that Russia “did not impact recent U.S. election results” by conducting cyber attacks on infrastructure.
Before it could reach the President, it was abruptly pulled “based on new guidance.” This key intelligence assessment was never published.
The next day, top national security officials including FBI Dir James Comey, CIA Dir John Brennan and DNI James Clapper gathered at the Obama White House to discuss Russia.
Obama directed the IC to create a new intelligence assessment that detailed Russian election meddling, even though it would contradict multiple intelligence assessments released over the previous several months.
Obama officials immediately leaned on their allies in the media to advance their falsehoods.
Anonymous IC sources leaked classified information to the Washington Post and others that Russia had intervened to hack the election in Trump’s favor.
On January 6, 2017, just days before President Trump took office, DNI Clapper unveiled the Obama-directed politicized assessment, a gross weaponization of intelligence that laid the groundwork for a years-long coup intended to subvert President Trump’s entire presidency.
According to whistleblower emails shared with us today, we know Clapper and Brennan used the baseless discredited Steele Dossier as a source to push this false narrative in the intelligence assessment.
These documents detail a treasonous conspiracy by officials at the highest levels of the Obama White House to subvert the will of the American people and try to usurp the President from fulfilling his mandate.
This betrayal concerns every American.
The integrity of our democratic republic demands that every person involved be investigated and brought to justice to prevent this from ever happening again.
200
More conspiracy theories coming true!
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Russia-North Korea alliance spearheads brutal new world order, says expert
War offers Kim a mercenary business model
The alliance between invasive Russia and ultra-militarist North Korea is spearheading a brutal new world order that a weakened West is unprepared for, a leading expert says.
“North Korea is the only country able and willing to produce ammunition for Russia and is the only country which can essentially send their troops to the front line,” Andrei Lankov said. “North Koreans proved good soldiers, and I think this is only the beginning: They are likely to be very good once they learn more about the technologies of modern war.”
Mr. Lankov, who was born in Russia, studied at Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung University in the Soviet days and now watches the state from his professorial perch at Seoul’s Kookmin University, where he is followed by both English- and Russian-speaking audiences.
Per South Korean intelligence, North Korea has sent Russia as many as 12 million artillery shells. Consensus estimates of troops deployed are from 12,000 to 13,000.
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“a leading expert ”
Uh-huh… Lots of those behind global warming I’m told.. The country involved in the most wars last century, with the biggest war budget in the world, is neither of those two, it is the USA. Funnily enough, that’s the country declaring these two to be enemies!
“War offers Kim a mercenary business model”
America has used it for decades! Put more of your country’s budget into war machinery than you do for welfare, and you will find a war to use it in! Then sell the weapons to everyone else you can find, declaring anyone who doesn’t buy off you to be ‘enemies of mankind’..
30
All hail to the Industrial/Military Complex. The light that powers imperialist democracy. ..Our Father who art in heaven….
10
“The world that is seemingly emerging is very similar to the 1700s, a period when pretty much all alliances were marriages of convenience,” Mr. Lankov said. “Ideology played zero role.”
Before democracy and economic rationalism emerged it was a free for all.
12
FWIW
“Which Are The “Stranded Assets” Now?”
“How quickly things change. It was only two years ago, in 2023, that I was writing posts compiling long lists of quotes from climate activists warning that all assets used for production of coal, oil and gas were about to become obsolete and “stranded.” After all, wind and solar were (supposedly) cheaper and cleaner for generating electricity, which could then power anything and everything. Therefore anyone stupid enough to make further investments in producing fossil fuels would lose everything. Here is one such post from June 2023, and another from February 2023.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/07/19/which-are-the-stranded-assets-now/
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LOL. And what are BP, Royal Dutch Shell and others now doing? Going back to their core businesses thats what.
60
It’s not only Starmer in Once Great Britain who has given 16 year old children the vote, the Liberals in Canada are pushing for it as well as Green Labor in Australia.
It’s a way to permanently entrench the Commie vote using young and indoctrinated children.
130
Going to lower the age for a gun licence too?? If not, why not,they are apparently adults..
50
But remember not responsible enough at 16 for social media!
100
Yeah., there is no coherence about age limits.
Auto
10
John Stone 1929-2025 has recently passed away. As Rowan Dean writes –
“John Stone was a major figure in Australian conservative politics, who rose to become head of Treasury and then a Nationals Senator for Queensland. As John Howard has noted, John Stone was one of the most gifted and talented of Canberra’s top public servants, unsurpassable in his economic knowledge and advice”.
This is what John Stone wrote in 2021 –
“Carbon dioxide is a colourless, odourless, non-toxic gas constituting 0.04 per cent (four one-thousandths) of the world’s atmosphere. How can any sane person really believe that reducing its minuscule presence even by (say) a quarter could make the slightest difference to the world’s temperature? As George Orwell said, only an intellectual could believe such stuff; no ordinary person would be so stupid.
Equally fundamental is the fact – which ought to be game, set and match for our farmers and their parliamentary representatives – that CO2 is plant food. Every high school botany student knows that CO2 is a vital ingredient in the natural photosynthetic process that underlies all vegetation growth. It is that process, indeed, that millions of years ago, when the world was much warmer than today, and plants flourished accordingly, led to the laying down of the world’s coal, oil and natural gas deposits whose burning today is returning a small portion of their ‘embedded CO2’ to our atmosphere (and oceans)”.
Does Australia have a Public Servant, Senior or otherwise, that thinks like this?
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“Does Australia have a Public Servant, Senior or otherwise, that thinks like this?”
They would soon be got rid of if they did!
110
I emailed the following to Jo on 11 July and got no reply. Still think it is worth bringing to wider attention.
– – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Possibly good news on the QoVAX front. You may recall that this rather unique study was shutdown and the specimens were on the chopping block. In March this year a petition which only got 6870 signatures demanded an explanation.
As of yesterday the minister for Health has responded to the petitioners:
The next challenge will be granting any scientists access to the specimens and data and funding more research. Surely this data can address lingering questions about the actual effect of the jabs on the body.
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Gubmint officialdom is so behind.
With the Internet of Babel, the truth is now easily hidden in plain sight.
It’s a dumb waste of effort to declare intention of destroying data and then declaring to rescue it.
Of course, if not for wasting effort, vast swaths of officialdom would be unemployed.
This blog exist as result of major truth officially hidden in plain sight.
30
Jaguar to cut 500 management jobs as sales plunge 97.5 percent after disastrous woke rebrand
Jaguar Land Rover’s woke rebrand has backfired spectacularly, and sadly, its employees are now paying the price.
After recently announcing a staggering 97.5 percent drop in global sales, the company is now look to slash 500 management level jobs less than a year after they launched a major woke rebrand of the company.
https://news.sky.com/story/jaguar-land-rover-to-cut-hundreds-of-uk-jobs-13397818
500 more Golgafrinchams.
90
Their Bud Light moment.
The sort of people who might want to buy a Jaguar, EV or not, are not likely to identify with the rainbow circus freaks in their advert.
110
Saudi Arabia’s mega smart city ‘The Line’ is in financial trouble, again
Saudi Arabia is considering job cuts at its mega-project NEOM due to cost pressures. One of NEOM’s projects is ‘The Line’, a smart city that originally planned to imprison 1.5 million souls within its walls but, due to unsustainable and escalating costs, is now aiming for 300,000 “residents” by 2030.
In October 2024, we published an article about ‘The Line’ project. At the time, there were rumours that it had been scaled back from 105 miles (170 kilometres) to 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometres). And a recently aired documentary revealed that more than 21,000 workers had died in just eight years since the project was launched.
https://expose-news.com/2025/07/18/mega-smart-city-the-line-is-in-financial-trouble-again/
Teething troubles in totalitarian world?
Aaawww…
50
It was never, ever going to be what Crown Prince MBS said it would be… but who would dare argue with this guy, when dissent is rewarded with a visit from a hit-squad or worse.
The construction works can be seen via google maps – as a big…err…. line in the sand…..
20
FWIW
More of where that “cheap and reliable” gets you
“Electricity Bills Projected to Jump 20% in Coming Months for These 13 States”
“In 2024, prices jumped a whopping 800% at PJM Interconnection, a “traffic controller” part of the grid that provides service in 13 states as well as D.C. For context, PJM operates the largest power grid in the U.S., with around 67 million customers—that’s more than 20% of the American population.”
More at
https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/07/19/electricity-bills-projected-to-jump-20-in-coming-months-for-these-13-states-n3804936
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About four-in-ten U.S. adults believe humanity is ‘living in the end times’
Periods of catastrophe and anxiety, such as the coronavirus pandemic, have historically led some people to anticipate that the destruction of the world as we know it – the “end times” – is near. This thinking often has a religious component that draws on sacred scripture. In Christianity, for example, these beliefs include expectations that Jesus will return to Earth after or amid a time of great turmoil.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/12/08/about-four-in-ten-u-s-adults-believe-humanity-is-living-in-the-end-times/
Look at the questions. Global boiling – proof of end times.
Covid – proof of end times.
It’s always the end times when there are converts and money to make.
Keep the ponzi scheme going until AI takes over.
51
What percentages of Shias in Iran are waiting for the Mahdi?
40
President Donald J. Trump signs GENIUS Act into law
Today, President Donald J. Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, a historic piece of legislation that will pave the way for the United States to lead the global digital currency revolution.
The GENIUS Act prioritizes consumer protection, strengthens the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status, and bolsters our national security.
The GENIUS Act will make America the undisputed leader in digital assets, bringing massive investment and innovation to our country.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/07/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-signs-genius-act-into-law/
😎
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FWIW
“European Farmers Are Sharpening the Pitchfork Tines Again”
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2025/07/18/european-farmers-are-sharpening-the-pitchfork-tines-again-n3804913
40
An interesting apparent about face from Ukraine’s Zelensky: not many days ago he was saying a very loud “NO” to any talks, today they’re essential:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-07-20/ukraine-russia-ceasefire-talks-drone-attacks/105552164
A bit of hurry up from the Russians seems to have changed his mind, although he still seems to be seeking a ceasefire, something they have repeatedly rejected as they don’t trust the Ukrainians.
40
FWIW – reading the wind?
“Out of Options, West Again Floats Flushing Zelensky?”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/out-of-options-west-again-floats
00
“Lastly, Trump showcased his risible cluelessness—or narcissism, depending on your point of view—by again claiming he will “quickly” destroy the BRICS if they ever pose a threat, and that the BRICS nations are so terrified of Trump they are “virtually afraid to meet”: ”
Shame, we all had such high hopes for him when he was elected! Delusional narcissist..
02
Final Minutes of Economic Reform Roundtable, led by Labor Treasurer Jim Chalmers, August 19 to 21, 2025, in Canberra
Knights of the Round Table Monty Python
We’re Knights of the Round Table
We dance whene’er we’re able
We do routines and chorus scenes
With footwork impeccable
We dine well here in Camelot
We eat ham and jam and spam a lot
We’re Knights of the Round Table
Our shows are formidable
But many times, we’re given rhymes
That are quite unsingable
We’re Opera mad in Camelot
We sing from the diaphragm a looooooot
In war we’re tough and able
Quite indefatigable
Between our quests we sequin vests
And impersonate Clark Gable
It’s a busy life in Camelot
I have to push the pram a lot
70
FWIW – some things on reading in here
“Federal Workers Are Being Held Accountable For The First Time, And They’re Not Handling It Well”
And maybe not the optimum time to write a book
https://thefederalist.com/2025/07/18/federal-workers-are-being-held-accountable-for-the-first-time-and-theyre-not-handling-it-well/
Now if you had a look at Canberra – – ?
40
That seems like a most cruel and unusual punishment.
20
FWIW
“Destitution Fair
A week of riding US buses”
https://walkingtheworld.substack.com/p/destitution-fair-a-week-of-riding
00
And
“The Biden Admin Stole Your Data to Rig Elections and Censor Speech”
“Jason Chaffetz has delivered a devastating exposé that should terrify every American who values his or her constitutional rights. Writing in the New York Post, the former House Oversight Committee chairman pulls back the curtain on what may be the most comprehensive assault on American democracy we’ve witnessed in our lifetime—and it’s happening with our own tax dollars.”
More at
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/07/19/the-biden-admin-stole-your-data-to-rig-elections-and-censor-speech-n4941911
30
FWIW
“Source of Climate Change Discovered”
https://patriotpost.us/memes/119192-source-of-climate-change-discovered-2025-07-19
And
https://patriotpost.us/memes/119195-uks-war-against-patriots-2025-07-19
50
FWIW
“Overseas Retirement – A New Reality”
https://newcatallaxy.blog/2025/07/20/overseas-retirement-a-new-reality/
10
FWIW
“Eh! Gawd!”
“Mad Miliband: “The future of [nuclear] fusion energy starts now” ”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/07/20/mad-miliband-the-future-of-nuclear-fusion-energy-starts-now/
10
And
“Up Is Down, And Renewables Are Cheaper–It’s Jackanory Time at the BBC”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/07/19/up-is-down-and-renewables-are-cheaper-its-jackanory-time-at-the-bbc/
21