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
It is all spinning too fast.
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It has already been spun since about 1988.
It may be unspinning.
Probably too late.
The unspinning will cost a great deal more than the spinning.
Most of the kids likely can’t be unspun.
They will be confused about why they have no money.
They will be spun to blame Trump.
And most of the other heterosexual people and Americans of similar complexion.
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You think they are spun now?
Wait 2.5 years for when Trump is no longer around to blame. He’s been a reality distortion field around American politics for a decade.
Democrats have no platform other that ‘Orange Man Bad’, which is hard to run on after the Orange Man rides off into the sunset. They’re going to have to completely reinvent themselves after 12 years of lazily riding on Trump’s coattails.
Meanwhile, Republican leadership is going to have a civil war once the Mango Mussolini is no longer around to bully them into submission. The Republican electorate is still widely in support of Trump’s populist approach, but there are still plenty of old-school country club Republicans in positions of power who would like nothing more than to return the party to it’s feckless pre-Trump ways. They enjoyed being invited to all the Washington DC society cocktail parties where they were treated as tame opposition while not being forced to rub elbows with the hoi polloi back home in their district to win votes.
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I don’t think it be will much of a war.
The country club will be back in charge once their miscreant formerly celebrated rebellious member is no longer there rallying the groundskeepers and support staff.
Voters don’t choose politicians, politicians choose voters.
Once the correct politicians line up the correct voters California style, they will manage to correct the Electoral College problem.
And the evil product of colleges will reign forever.
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What’s the latest on Minnesota? It all seems to have gone quiet here in Oz. Either that or I have been to busy to notice.
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Good question. The media caravan has moved on from the sensational reveals towards other colour and movement. It would be interesting to know if the grinding work of prosecutions are under way or if the Minnesota Dem machine is studiously looking away.
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Au contraire, mate. The Dems will craft a platform around ‘fixing Trump’s mess’. This will give them an imagined mandate to implement all the truly crazy and corrupt stuff that is now their brand.
Of course it’s not a given that the next president will be a Democrat, because Vance and Rubio, to mention just two, show enormous promise IMO. However, Trump’s war against Iran threatens to undo much of the good he has done, weakening Republicans’ chances. I can only hope the remaining time available to him in the White House is sufficient to restore faith. His best bet is to keep strengthening the economy and restore law and order – the domestic stuff.
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I think Vance/Rubio are going to have to rely on the stupidity of the opposition if they want to win in 2028.
It is EXTREMELY difficult for an American political party to hold the presidency after an incumbent term limits out. It’s only happened once in the last half-century (when Daddy Bush followed Reagan in 1988), and if you rule out the ones where the first guy died in office to garner some sympathy/experience for his successor (FDR-Truman, JFK-LBJ) it’s only happened once in a century.
Fortunately for Vance/Rubio, I expect the Democrats to go full-retard if they regain the House of Representatives in five months. They’re going to try and impeach Trump on a hundred different trumped-up charges and burn any chance they have of proving to the electorate that they can govern rather than waste their time pursuing a vendetta against Trump. They’ll spend the next two years flinging mud and backing every lunatic idea their activist base demands of them, making a case for why they can’t be trusted in the White House. Will that be enough to Vance/Rubio in the Oval Office? I have no idea. But it will certainly improve their chances.
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‘Will that be enough to Vance/Rubio in the Oval Office?’
Highly unlikely.
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A third attempt to impeach Donald.
https://www.impeachtrumpagain.org/impeachment
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‘Unmistakeable signal: Vance’s 2028 presidential bid.
‘The US vice-president’s new book blends spiritual autobiography with political philosophy, in a clear sign he is preparing to run for the top job.’ (Oz)
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Much the same (with Liberal Party) in Australia. Their problem is that the vote is looking like the Titanic after seeing the iceberg.
I predict that the Nationals will switch to alliance with ON. That releases votes from those who just voted Liberal out of fear of Labor.
That means the Liberals will be reduced to seats where The Greens (and Teals) are obvious.
40
Well, when the Mantle decouples from the Core, the (surface) spin will change and you’ll be able to watch the Sun rise in the North. Gives you a totally new perspective.
This is the ECDO Theory by the way, you can research it, but I’d suggest ignorance is bliss.
20
you need to see Trump as an unsustainable reset.
The great fortune for the US is, like Trump or not he is gone in 2 years.
What will not be gone is the change. Difficult concepts like male and female will largely be ununderstood again.
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FWIW
“Why Artificial Intelligence will Win the Green Energy War”
“The following contains a video which shows the complete process start to finish of vibe coding a simple game. The process takes 30 minutes.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/17/why-artificial-intelligence-will-win-the-green-energy-war/
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FWIW
“Rice, CO₂, and the Climate Story the Media Keep Missing”
“This Phys.org article “Global rice production has nearly doubled over 50 years despite climate change” reports good news that is couched in incredulity. The authors are correct to highlight this remarkable success story and the data show that humanity has become dramatically better at feeding itself over the past half century, even as atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increased and the climate modestly warmed. What the authors miss, however, is the obvious conclusion staring them in the face: rising CO₂ and warmer temperatures have likely been part of the reason for that success.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/17/rice-co%e2%82%82-and-the-climate-story-the-media-keep-missing/
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FWIW – taking the mickey on a grand scale
“WHAT PART OF HAMSTERS IS GREAT BRITAIN NOT GETTING? On Hamsters.
“On Hamsters”
“A UK cabinet minister, Rt. Hon. Liz Kendall MP, Secretary of State for the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (“DSIT”), discussed the infamous “hamster e-mail” I sent on behalf of my client 4chan on national radio today in the UK.
My father always told me, when I was growing up, “when a cabinet minister holding the technology policy brief for a G7 Member State is talking about your e-mailed jokes to an audience of millions on national broadcast media, that is the right time to explain the joke, especially if the cabinet minister didn’t get the joke.”
That explanation follows.”
More at
https://prestonbyrne.com/2026/06/16/hamsters/
They can’t overrule our first amendment. They can tell it to the hamsters.
https://instapundit.com/804308/#disqus_thread
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FWIW
A long look at
“After 20 Yrs, Al Gore’s Like ‘I Was Right, I Was Right, I WAS RIGHT!’ – ABC News, ‘Why, Yes, He Was'”
https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2026/06/17/after-20-yrs-al-gore-i-was-right-i-was-right-i-was-right-abc-news-why-yes-he-was-n3816063
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And another one
“Al Gore Hit with Major Reality Check After Making this Wild Boast About ‘Climate Change’ During Interview Touting His Infamous Propaganda Film (VIDEO)”
“X users, though, busted out the receipts showing how big a lie Gore told.
Some of the predictions by scientists and Gore that failed to come to fruition included: no more snow on Mount Kilimanjaro within a decade, Glacier National Park in Montana disappearing, dramatic sea level rise, and Arctic-free summers.”
More at
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/06/al-gore-hit-major-reality-check-after-making/
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FWIW
“We Now Know What’s Inside the Iran Agreement”
“A senior United States official on background read out the memorandum of understanding between the United States and Iran on Wednesday afternoon with reporters, including Townhall.
The MOU is expected to be signed in Switzerland on Friday at a ceremony attended by Vice President JD Vance.”
More at
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/cameron-arcand/2026/06/17/we-now-know-whats-inside-the-iran-agreement-n2677898
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I’m not happy that the agreement is between America and the ISLAMIC Republic of Iran.
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The Southerly 10 offshore bird mincer EIS is out and closes for reviews on 29th:
https://southerlyten.com.au/project/star-of-the-south/environmental-assessment/eis/
I intend to make a comment about wind stilling and the moisture sensitive Gippsland coastline. I doubt that comment will get much traction though.
Has anyone else already reviewed and made comment?
Are there any thoughts on what could be other important issues for the project.
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Thanks Rick.
I wonder if this EIS site might be somewhere I might ask for a comment on the availability of the following:
And now imagine the added costs and potential (many) Union involvement for a construction like this.
Tony.
20
A childish, petulant piece in the SMH from apparently their Senior Economics Correspondent decrying Musk and his wealth. He compares Musk to some guy in Sydney in the mid-1850s who was rich in early Australia and got a statue. The sad things start to come through with statements like-
“Musk’s approach to Twitter where he purged about 80 per cent of its staff.” ..but no mention that Thomas Mort could hire and fire within a day in 1850, and twitter ran even better with 80% of the staff fired. Now, even an economist should be able to see that!
“He was the first Australian to effectively establish a co-operative, offering a half share in his Balmain dock and engineering company (that survived almost a century) to his workers in a bid to improve labour relations.”
Didn’t he see that 4500 of Musk’s employees became millionaires because he gave them shares in his business? …and of course he blames exactly the wrong thing for the whole mess!
“But if your world is one where wages are stagnant, access to health services are diminishing, infrastructure is crap, the cost of housing means your children’s future home is so small they can’t swing a cat in their new digs plus you’ve got tech entrepreneurs promising an AI future that could swot away millions of jobs (including your own), then the bitterness is well justified.”
Sounds great, but every one of those points is a result of too much Big-Govt Socialism and not enough free-market Capitalism! Lets return to the 1850s-sized Govt intrusion in our lives and see how we all go.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/before-we-build-a-statue-of-elon-musk-let-s-consider-what-he-s-done-with-his-trillions-of-dollars-20260617-p607hk.html
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1 Ask the millionaire janitors and cafeteria ladies how those ‘stagnant wages’ are working out for them. And as far as the technical staff goes (engineers etc.) they are EXTREMELY well compensated because the demand for their services is so high. SpaceX is the envy of every other space firm out there, and they are constantly head-hunting SpaceX talent.
2. The only reason ‘access to health services’ were diminishing is because President Autopen let in 20 million illegals that overloaded the system. Access has greatly improved since Trump started encouraging them to self-deport or get deported the hard way.
3. The infrastructure in growing states like Texas is doing just fine. All those new taxpayers moving in state, and a whole lot less red tape than in coastal states, make building/maintaining infrastructure much easier.
4. The second greatest gift Elon gave his employees (after stock shares) was moving the company from California to Texas. They can actually afford nice big houses in Texas, while that was not possible in California.
5. AI panic is the Luddites all over again. Yes, AI is going to be disruptive and eliminate some jobs/industries, but every new technology that has ever emerged has created way more jobs than it destroyed. AI will be no different than the automobile (which killed the buggy industry) or kerosene lamps (which killed the whaling industry) or the electric street light (which eliminated the need for lamplighters) or the assembly line (which eliminated many craftsman jobs). You can’t stop change. AI is coming, like it or not. If it’s not Elon who builds it, it will be someone else.
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Tracks Magazine is an Australian institution born in the heyday of 1960/70s counter-culture; irreverent, rebellious, oceanic. Sadly it’s corporate-woke these days, worth only a rare visit to drool over sun-drenched tropical surf photos/vids.
I’m intrigued as to the reaction of Jo’s fellow-Aussies on this blog to the recent article below about part-indigenous lifeguards & surfers ‘reclaiming’ their position in the ocean:
https://tracksmag.com.au/saltwater-people-the-original-watermen-of-australias-coastline
Barney Currie was a ‘shark-spotter’ at Greenmount, QLD in the summer of 1948/49 and, during 2 weeks, he sighted 271 sharks patrolling the beach [ain’t nothing new]. Coincidentally, I had some Irish forebears surnamed ‘Currie’ in NSW & VIC in the 1800s – maybe Barney and I were long-lost rellies?
10
88.3% of physicians would reject chemotherapy for their own cancer treatment.
The Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) has data showing that oncologists THEMSELVES would not take chemotherapy for cancer, even though they recommend chemo and radiation as the only “approved” treatment to their patients.
https://x.com/ZakariaMDv3/status/2065835124676079899
2.1% survival rate, and pushed by doctors.
Another hypocritical oath exposed.
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Migrants lose residency rights for ‘bad behaviour’ under tough new Swedish laws
Under the new ‘good behaviour’ law, residency permits can be denied or withdrawn from future applicants as well as many current residents, including in some cases those who have already been living in Sweden for years.
Sweden’s migration minister Johan Forssell said when proposing the legislation that ‘anyone who doesn’t make the effort to do the right thing shouldn’t be able to count on staying’.
https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15906669/Migrants-lose-residency-rights-bad-behaviour-tough-new-Swedish-laws.html
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FWIW
“The UK Goes Full Dystopia As Parts of Europe (Finally) Begin to Fight the New World Goblins”
“The UK has recently been rocked by brutal, racist attacks against white people, but to the Leninian lizard person currently desquamating inside 10 Downing St, PM Keir Starmer, the problem isn’t the third-world savages slicing and dicing caucasians like they’re Waffle House hash browns; it’s Elon Musk and his pesky free-speech platform, X, that has to go.”
“As of 2027, kids under 16 will be banned from such sites as TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and X. The YouTube Kids channel will not be affected. The UK is also considering a social media curfew for youths under 18 years old — you know, so the kids can have their childhood back.”
Reader added mention that the common platforms all have parental control options
More at
https://pjmedia.com/kevindowneyjr/2026/06/17/the-uk-goes-full-dystopia-as-parts-of-europe-fight-the-good-fight-n4954031
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FWIW – the solar industry doing its thing
“Y2Kyoto: Today’s Net Zero News Brief”
“BREAKING: Massive warehouse fire erupts in Boyle Heights, California, involving solar panels and sending thick black smoke billowing across the sky. ”
https://x.com/Breaking911/status/2067380936312750178
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2026/06/17/y2kyoto-todays-net-zero-news-brief/
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Yeah but, that thick black smoke is 100% sustainable, renewable, pure clean green 🤢 poison: should make for some spectacular, doomsday scenario sunsets over Paradise Lost.
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Sorry Steve,
Kerosene didn’t kill the whaling industry, that was over-fishing which made the product too expensive. Kerosine from coal started about 1850.
https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/abraham-gesner-patents-kerosene
In 1848, Scottish chemist James Young experimented with oil discovered seeping in a coal mine as a source of lubricating oil and illuminating fuel. When the seep became exhausted, he experimented with the dry distillation of coal, Young took out a patent on his process and the resulting products in 1850, and built the first truly commercial oil-works in the world at Bathgate in 1851, using oil extracted from locally mined torbanite, shale, and bituminous coal. In 1852, he took out a United States patent for the same invention. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene#Illuminating_oil_from_coal_and_oil_shale
These patents were subsequently upheld in both countries in a series of lawsuits
As kerosene production increased, whaling declined. The American whaling fleet, which had been steadily growing for 50 years, reached its all-time peak of 199 ships in 1858. By 1860, just two years later, the fleet had dropped to 167 ships. only 105 whaling ships returned to sea in 1866, the first full year of peace, and that number dwindled until only 39 American ships set out to hunt whales in 1876.
Then the Pennsylvania oil fields increased the supply enormously.
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