The Washington Post reports on the Russian Troll Farm in St Petersburg known as the Internet Research Agency (IRA):
Russian trolls used Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to inflame U.S. political debate over energy policy and climate change…
The committee’s report found that between 2015 and 2017, more than 9,000 posts and tweets dealt with U.S. energy policy produced by 4,334 Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts controlled by the Internet Research Agency.
Twitter told the committee that more than 4 percent of tweets produced by the Russians dealt with energy and climate issues.
…
Keep your eye on the numbers — 96% of their effort was not about energy and climate, and presumably we’re talking about 400 posts and tweets? Drop in the ocean…
But for those who havent read about the Russian Troll Farm known at the IRA — it’s worth catching up. I found this account from an insider, last October, interesting:
Max says that IRA staff were tasked with monitoring tens of thousands of comments on major U.S. media outlets, in order to grasp the general trends of American Internet users. Once employees got a sense of what Americans naturally discussed in comment forums and on social media, their job was to incite them further and try to “rock the boat.”
When the U.S. presidential race was just starting, the IRA supposedly conducted classes on which of the early candidates were best for Russian interests. Max says the IRA even maintained a “secret department” that sent staff to the United States for certain undisclosed tasks.
Max says the international desk had about 200 employees, each earning 50,000 rubles ($870) a month. Staff would work two days, then have two days off, before repeating the schedule. People worked 12-hour shifts, he says.
But in the last 70 years could anyone name a year when there was no Russian effort to covertly undermine US leaders or institutions via propaganda? Isn’t this business as usual, but via VPN?
The Russians were true trolls. The main agenda was polarisation, inflammation, doubt:
The trolls worked both sides of the fence on many topics. You might think (it’s obvious) that it would suit Russians very well for the West to be fooled into giving up coal and nukes and handicap themselves with sacrificial windmills and solar panels. For sure, but the bigger goal here is to foment division, dissent and distrust. In a high trust society — losing trust in our government, our election process, and our markets eats away at the things that make us great, like acid. And it becomes self fulfilling. Once enough people assume the other players are acting in an untrustworthy manner (even if they are not) the good people tend to adopt the self-serving behaviours they imagine others are adopting.
In January 2017, a report from the U.S. intelligence community said Russian president Vladimir Putin had “ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election.” The goals, the analysis revealed, were to undermine faith in U.S. democracy and harm the “potential presidency” of rival candidate Clinton.
Remembering that in Jan 2016, almost no one in the US outside of Donald Trump and Scott Adams thought Trump was going to win. So being anti-Hillary was not to be pro-Trump, it was anti-the-next-likely-POTUS. The real goal it appears, was to undermine US confidence in itself, and undermine the ability of the next leader to get things done.
Big-government fans at Grist don’t know what to make of it.
“Russian trolls shared some truly terrible climate change memes”
Terrible, I tell you! Or not…
…
This wouldn’t have been my first choice for “terror”. But it might win a primary school art contest.
This one is much better:
Grist author, Kate Yoder, totally misses the point: “And here are two anti-environmental memes that highlight the apparent beauty of tar-sands oil.”
Or maybe they highlight the ugliness of electric cars and (above) environmental activists?
But seriously, 9,000 likes and 250 comments? It’s a great tweet, but in a great nation, how much damage can it do? (Not as much as George Soros.)
The news that there are fake “activists” on both sides of the debate is far more threatening to the believers. Skeptics know why we are skeptics. Believers are following a group, so it’s much more unnerving to find that some members of the herd are there to guide the pack.
Reminds me of a movie from long ago called, “The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming.”
It was a comedy farce well worth my time to watch. But this is not a comedy and it angers me and no doubt President Trump. And I hope he’s busy figuring out how to stop it because the average denizen of the Internet can’t tell up from down about true and false.
Jo, I saved those pictures you posted with the intent of using them in email to various friends and maybe letters to the editor. If you don’t want me to do that you know my email address.
Roy
110
I watched it a week ago. Reminded me of It’a A Mad Mad Mad World.
10
But how will the Americans retaliate? With fake vodka?
20
First rule of economics. Every operator will act in his own best interests.
00
I seem to recall that the USA under Obama interfered in the elections in Libya and Syria. Also in Tunisia and Egypt but the results there were less than perfect during Obama’s “Arab Spring” campaign.
10
I offer my own article titled:
“The Russians Are Not Coming”
at the link below:
Here is one quote from
a second article that follows:
“Russian meddling was so minor
it was nothing to worry about,
until Obama’s national security team
falsely embellished some
juvenile internet trolling
into a mortal threat
to American democracy.
This trolling did not
impact the 2016 election.
Not even close!”
http://electioncircus.blogspot.com/
00
The Russians were not even the first to try it. The Brits did it in an effort to get Al Gore elected if I remember it right.
00
I really doubt these interventions had any measurable effect. While the ones highlighted here, if they did have an effect, would actually be a good thing from a climate skeptic view. However, any believer would simply dismiss it out of hand while any skeptic would see it as affirmation of their existing view. The mass of people would not even notice it. As to causing anger and dissension, rubbish, it would be even less polarising than an argument in the pub. Make no mistake, the USSR caused great havoc in the 1950s and 1960s funding, influencing and suborning British Trades Unions, Labour Politicians and Academics to start with and their covert support and encouragement of the Environmental movement, all of which has been well documented, the residual stains of which are still felt. I have no doubt it was not restricted to the UK either, or the 50s and 60s. Just as bad if indeed not worse is the USA itself. Take a look at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_Operations_(United_States) for a brief overview. And note how they do it to friends as well as enemies. As with the US military I suspect they spend more on such psyops than the rest of the world put together.
72
Not Me.
40
It would appear that the Dems are striving to bring back MaCarthyism as a way of keeping all US skeptics in line – are you now or have you ever been a climate skeptic?
90
They best be careful…. MaCarthy was an ardent anti-Communist, so many Dems are closet communists, so could wind up losing this argument….
Bringing back McCathyism for dealing with communists would actually be a good thing right now.
51
When Groupthink (aka Political Correctness) is in control, there are people willing to shape the group’s thinking. It can be done in such a way so the Groupthinker doesn’t know what happened. He simply follows what he believes the group he belongs to is said to think. No individuality, no critical thinking, no self to think with, just repeat the talking points of the moment like a mindless tape loop. It is a situation ripe for the plucking.
We did it to ourselves by believing the right, the left, and the muddled middle. Anything but using our own reason and judgement to think for ourselves. It is the Pied Piper, Tweedledee, Tweedledum, and the Red queen leading the pack with the Mad Hatter calling the cadence. The rabbit is late as usual. He might be the lucky one because he didn’t show up for the party.
101
From “Life Of Brian”:
(Crowd) “Yes, Were all individuals”
( old man ) “im not”
( crowd ) “shhhhhhh”
80
Suggestibility!!
Someone once said, we think with other peoples thoughts
A small extract From: https://thecasswiki.net/index.php?title=Evil_magician
“……So they ran away from the magician’s ranch and it was a difficult job to find them in the vast forest. Being a magician, he used magic.
He hypnotized all the sheep and suggested to them first of all that they were immortal and that no harm was being done to them when they were skinned, that, on the contrary, it would be very good for them and even pleasant; secondly he suggested that the magician was a good master who loved his flock so much that he was ready to do anything in the world for them; and in the third place he suggested to them that if anything at all were going to happen to them it was not going to happen just then, at any rate not that day, and therefore they had no need to think about it.
He then told different sheep…to some, “You are a man, you need not be afraid. It is only the sheep who are going to be killed and eaten, not you. You are a man just like I am.” Some other sheep were told, “You are a lion – only sheep are afraid. They escape, they are cowards. You are a lion; you would prefer to die than to run away. You don’t belong to these sheep.”…………………
In the book written by G I Gurdjieff. published 1950 In the book, All and Everything. An Objectively Impartial Criticism of the Life of Man
The main character has this to say, in part, and much much more 🙂 to his grandson….
“Besides this chief particularity of their common psyche, certain properties
in each of them, regardless of where they arise and exist, are completely
crystallized and become an integral part of their common presence, properties
that exist under the names of ‘egoism,’ ‘self-love,’ ‘vanity,’ ‘pride,’ ‘conceit,’
‘credulity,’ ‘suggestibility,’ and many others no less abnormal and unbecoming
to the essence of any three-brained being whatsoever.
“Of these abnormal properties the most terrible one for them is
‘suggestibility.’ ”
10
MAY I MOST vociferously DISAGREE you vile TROLL! You attempt to convert the most precious feminine virtue “CHARITY” and reverse it into uglyness! The feminine virtues always are more graceful, smooth, nurturing, peaceable, social and flexible. Please go directly to HELL; do not pass GO, do not collect $200!! 🙁
22
Proves you are not up on the latest climate science again….Take this!!
From: https://edition.cnn.com/2016/09/01/health/female-hurricanes-deadlier-than-male-hurricanes-trnd/index.html
“Female hurricanes are deadlier than male hurricanes, study says”
32
Your comment suggest strength and cleverness. May i “suggest” to you that you can put that cleverness and strength to a huge advantage Accept what especially climate science suggests We need more like you. Let me further suggest that together we can make climate science consensus even greater !!
22
And further further let me suggest that with human resources on such an elevated scale, men, women, and children each doing their part,………… we could then begin to find an answer to why female hurricanes are deadlier than male hurricanes. …..Once and for all
22
Epic wind-up, E.S. I stand in awe of a masterly piece of trolling.
00
In every species upon this planet the female with nurturing ‘sprouts’ is always more deadly, even to ‘daddy’! What do hurricanes ‘nurture’? Id°it TROLL!
01
I can remember back in the old days, it was suggested to children, and even adults, that hurricanes were the will of Thor, god of thunder. Equal opportunity for both male and female caused weather was not yet discovered by climate scientists. I agree with you Will. Clearly weather is not just “man made”..it is made by women too..
30
…Thor was an exclusively male god with an anthropogenic likeness who was anthropogenically solely responsible for weather/climate back then.
You have raised some highly interesting subject matter Will.
20
Will “the sledgehammer” Janoschka wrote:
“MAY I MOST vociferously DISAGREE you vile TROLL! ”
“Please go directly to HELL;
do not pass GO, do not collect $200!!”
.
.
Janoschka:
You ought to get your head examined
before your next post.
.
I’m sure they will find nothing,
but your flying-off-the-handle-hostility,
at nothing especially important,
is hard to believe,
— possibly the first signal
of excessive alcohol consumption.
.
You single-handedly create a
hostile environment at this website,
with your over-the-top comments
— apparently your angry attempts
to shut down everyone who
you disagree with.
.
You might as well be a leftist —
they also hate debate, and try to shut
it down with character attacks.
.
I have no idea why the website owners
allow your hostility — I guess no one
is perfect.
.
I left here for a few years because of
your hostility — I’m back now, and I’m
going to call attention to your hostility
every time I read it.
.
Your extreme anger,
in too many of your comments,
is an embarrassment,
to what should be
a civilized climate change website.
that ENCOURAGES people
to express opinions, even those
YOU don’t agree with.
.
Richard Greene
Bingham Farms, Michigan
USA
20
Not only my head but also my ass has been ‘examined’ by experts! I must call out such vile troll as “Environment Skeptic” on this Gracious Jonova website! 🙂
00
Can you please tell us ‘what if anything useful’, you have accomplished in your entire miserable lifetime? 🙁
00
Quite correct Richard, the guy is a… well I don’t want moderation.
He does however have some grip on column width and that getting it wrong wastes considerable page length.
00
the best analysis to date:
17 Feb: MoonOfAlabama: Mueller Indictment – The “Russian Influence” Is A Commercial Marketing Scheme
Yesterday the U.S. Justice Department indicted the Russian Internet Research Agency on some dubious legal grounds…
The published indictment gives support to our long held believe that there was no “Russian influence” campaign during the U.S. election. What is described and denounced as such was instead a commercial marketing scheme which ran click-bait websites to generate advertisement revenue and created online crowds around virtual persona to promote whatever its commercial customers wanted to promote. The size of the operation was tiny when compared to the hundreds of millions in campaign expenditures. It had no influence on the election outcome…READ ON
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/02/mueller-indictement-the-russian-influence-is-a-commercial-marketing-scheme.html
60
2 Mar: WUWT: Anthony Watts: Alarmists throw in the towel on poor quality surface temperature data – pitch for a new global climate reference network
From the Journal of International Climatology and the “if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” department.
To me, this feels like vindication. For years, I’ve been pointing out just how bad the U.S. and Global Surface monitoring network has been. We’ve seen stations that are or pavement, at airports collecting jet exhaust, and failing instruments reading high, and right next to the heat output of air conditioning systems…
Now, some of the very same people who have scathingly criticized my efforts and the efforts of others to bring these weaknesses to the attention of the scientific community have essentially done an about-face, and authored a paper calling for a new global climate monitoring network like the United States Climate Reference Network (USCRN) which I have endorsed as the only suitable way to measure surface temperature and extract long term temperature trends…
I applaud the effort, and I’ll get behind it. Because by doing so, it puts an end to the relevance of NASA GISS and HadCRUT, whose operators (Gavin Schmidt and Phil Jones) are some of the most biased, condescending, and outright snotty scientists the world has ever seen. They should not be gatekeepers for the data, and this will end their lock on that distinction. To Phil Jones credit, he was a co-author of this new paper. Gavin Schmidt, predictably, was not.
This is something both climate skeptics and climate alarmists should be able to get behind and promote. More on that later.
Here’s the paper: (note they reference my work in the 2011 Fall et al. paper)
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/02/alarmists-throw-in-the-towel-on-poor-quality-surface-temperature-data-pitch-for-a-new-global-climate-reference-network/
101
That Phil Jones is a co-author rather pollutes it.
21
In the tiny Welsh village there was Jones the butcher, Jones the Post, and Jones the Faker. Which Jones are you refering to?
00
Jones the pillock. The one who was the “Climate Gate Keeper” and stuffed up.
The “I do write dreadful emails, don’t I?” one, the one who couldn’t use Excel. The one who was subjected to an “enquiry” and exonerated …
That one.
00
Never underestimate the ability of dishonest humans to corrupt the recorded data no matter how gold plated the instruments and their sighting may be. Though I admire Anthony and his work and agree a better system with pristine sites for the stations is needed, and LOVE the idea that Gavin and those like him world wide would be out of the surface station loop, I will remain skeptical until I see the results, IF I’m still alive when a new USCRN global network is ever completed. Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Watts have every reason to be happy at this time. I just hope he lives to see it and the results meet his, and our, expectations. I guess I’m just jaundiced by what has come before to expect anything new to be beyond the ability of humans to corrupt it in some way shape or form.
41
Indeed! More importantly your dishonest humans cannot even define what the word “temperature” may possibly mean to anyone! THIS IS THE SCAM!
Because of the widespread use of ‘thermometers’ all us cattle are supposed to accept ‘temperature’ as something meaningful! Best that can be discovered is that instantaneous temperature of some small fixed ‘mass’ is proportional to the accumulation of “power” like horsepower within that small fixed mass as ‘sensible heat’! There is no other description! Any and all forms of mass near the surface of Earth have widely different amounts of ‘specific heat’ expressing ‘temperature’. Any agglutination (averaging, homogenizing), of individual ‘temperatures’ over space and time completely destroys any possible meaning of “temperature”, temperature trend, or temperature anomaly! You have been had by STATISTICAL BANKSTERS! ripping off your hard earned effort! 🙁
All the best, maybe!-will-
12
Schmidt and Jones aren’t scientists, just vile, snotty and arrogant.
There fixed it.
11
It’ll never be easy.
Nearly 30 years ago the BOM tried to obviate the UHI effect by installing new weather stations at airports, with the idea that they would never be “built out”.
Locally we saw firstly the former grassland around the airport planted with nearly wall to wall vineyards, and now substantial housing development, as well as industrial buildings at the airport itself.
00
As a pro-nuclear hippie in Texas in the late 1970s, I moved freely in communist circles–mainly to debate them. The similarities between religious conservatives (who wanted LSD banned because of mystical pseudoscience) and communists (who pretended to believe nuclear reactors were bad because of pseudoscience no less mystical) is striking, and hasn’t changed. The current eco-hysteria was the last gasp Soviet attempt to collapse conservative nationalsocialism before itself collapsing. The irony is that the meme–like Saberhagens Berserkers–survived the extinction of its creators. The Libertarian Party–the only one with no stake in pseudoscience–is the only one growing.
61
‘…is the only one growing.’
The Libertarian Party ‘promotes civil liberties, non-interventionism, laissez-faire capitalism and the abolition of the welfare state.’
Hmmm ….. it won’t catch on in Australia.
30
Put the bleme on meme, boys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnBmbsDan5s
00
Here in Australia we are also being manipulated, as many here regularly observe.
A highlight for me was the exposure of George Soros backed Australian GetUp organisation that was created by the Australian Workers Union senior executive Bill Shorten not long before he became a Labor candidate for election to federal parliament. The unions still donate to GetUp, and to the Australian Greens.
To put the propaganda machine into perspective: “Meanwhile, Turnbull has dinner with his ideological ally, Simon Sheikh from the leftist GetUp!, and proudly posts a photo on his social media accounts.
Would someone like Sheikh ever be in a similar friendly photo with John Howard or Tony Abbott?”
Therefore, we are caught with our major political parties on the same page, climate change hoax, new world order, etc.
You will remember that Christopher Monckton warned Australians to watch our Prime Minister Abbott’s back.
202
Socialist John Howard brought in the leftist dream of gun control….and sealed Australias fate as a failed socialist state.
Australias biggest budgetary expenditure is welfare…..kind of scary, but it does guarantee votes every election for who hand hand out the most public money.
Anyone who wants to make it big has to leave the shores of home and away….
42
“Socialist John Howard brought in the leftist dream of gun control..”? Really? You would prefer the American experience of gun violence, suicide and massacres? What position within the NRA do you hold OriginalSteve?
23
Naive Peter,
The USA has a very different history, in a country that has 3 times as many guns as people, disarming the good guys and leaving the bad guys add the only ones with weapons would be a disaster. Are you really saying that you think that the bad guys are just going to hand over their guns just because the government says so?
Like I said, naive.
52
In the USA we not only have ‘the well regulated militia’ scary because of the number of weapons\operators; but the much better trained combined armed forces with Nuke goodies! These folk will stand by and man the beer pretzel concessions as the well regulated militia destroy, not drain; then attempt to rebuild elsewhere, the totally corrupt DC US government swamp! Oh whoa are we! 🙁
01
If I’m naïve Bobl is bitter and twisted. No-one is talking of taking their guns away from them only banning certain military grade weapons. Most other nations get by quite well without the gun mania of Americans. Semi-automatics were banned before for some years with the only consequence being gun violence went down in America. Then they were made legal again and violence went up again.
00
peter
There are virtually no military grade weapons
in the US, outside of the military.
.
Almost every gun sold here,
starting before the civil war
has been semi-automatic.
Gun homicides went down 50%
after the crack-cocaine
peak violence in the early 1990s,
in spite of more guns in private hands.
.
I am not a gun person, simply because I live
in a wealthy neighborhood with a very low crime
rate.
.
But in a different economic situation I would want
the right to own a self-defense gun
to defend my home.
Every statement you made on guns in your
comment was incorrect.
.
How can there be an honest debate on guns when
fools like you make up your own facts?
.
The ban on “assault weapons” during the
Clinton administration had no effect
according to his own Justice Department.
.
Of course “assault weapons” is a propaganda
name for rifles that LOOK LIKE military weapons
but are NOT automatic weapons like military
weapons are.
.
Rifles, by the way, account for only about 3% of
gun homicides in the US.
.
So what could any logical person
expect from “banning” new sales
of a fraction of the 3% of rifles
that happen to LOOK LIKE military
rifles, while ignoring sales of almost identical
semi-automatic rifles that DO NOT LOOK LIKE
like military rifles?
00
I would ban every semi-automatic rifle, like they have for 20 years in a civilized country such as Australia. How many gun massacres have they had in Australia since Howard banned the bloody things? Sure my gun description wasn’t technically correct but the insane use they are put to in America is effectively the same. How else do you expect to reduce the insane level of gun violence in America? Why does your country have one of the highest levels of gun suicide in the world? Why are so many Americans allowed to drive around with a loaded pistol in the glove-box or even in their lap? Some states even allow (encourage) people to walk into theatres, schools, shopping malls or even churches with a loaded gun in their pocket? WTF?
What’s your solution to gun nonsense in your country? More guns? Thanks NRA. Arm the teachers? Perhaps the kids could be armed? Rifles, shotguns, grenades, rocket-launchers? Hehehe bring it on? Guns don’t kill people, bullets kill people!
“Almost every gun sold here,
starting before the civil war
has been semi-automatic.” Really???
Before the civil war they didn’t even have bullets – it was powder and shot. Or are you talking about the current civil war in schools, shopping malls and churches? Lol
“Gun homicides went down 50%
after the crack-cocaine
peak violence in the early 1990s,
in spite of more guns in private hands.” Totally irrelevant – 99% of drug violence is pistol violence and it was the rifle violence that went down after the semi-auto gun ban. Stop getting your info from the NRA.
Why are there so many gun-loving rednecks on this site? What’s wrong with sticking to climate issues?
00
“Socialist John Howard”!
But Howard doesn’t know he was a “socialist”. He never understood the flaws in his learning. (He was a lawyer).
The Howard government did more damage to Australia’s agricultural economy than the Hawke government did, and not because Hawke wasn’t trying. In their tertiary education the coalition parties were taught, just as the “socialist” parties were, how to abolish private management in industry, but were not taught that this would be the result of developing policy as instructed.
They were not intelligent enough to work this out for themselves, or even to see it happening. Policies developed under their ‘Free Market Theory” have over the last 30 years halved the number of farmers, i.e. small business capitalists engaged in farming, in Australia. Howard and his mates are too dopey to see that this has brought the Marxists half way to their goal of abolishing private management in industry.
The conclusion that you have to draw is that the Free Market Theory texts were written by Marxists.
00
“Here in Australia we are also being manipulated,”
And how! All our main news media parrot the propaganda pushed by the American media. Not a single critical voice to be heard.
20
And, of course, our gutless pollies faithfully echo every US government lie.
00
When Australian Prime Minister Whitlam was dismissed in 1975 several newspaper reports attributed American influence, and in particular the CIA, as being one of the major factors in the demise of his government.
Today, as well as the covert, we have blatant overt American influence being exerted on the Australian political landscape e.g. George Soros funding GetUp!
It is a fact that America does try to influence domestic policy around the world.
I have no doubt the Russians did try to influence the American elections. Why are Americans so surprised?
70
Gough Whitlam claimed that there was US interference in Australian politics.
Maybe, the “Age Tapes” (secret tape recording of a meeting in a hotel room of a foreign money lender’s representative and a Whitlam Labor Government Cabinet Minister seeking to borrow $ billions without consulting the Loans Council: A federal and state government group including Reserve Bank officers and others), in other words federal government attempting to go into debt illegally, which resulted when revealed in the opposition denying the government money supply by blocking the bill in the Senate leading to a Constitutional crisis and an election that the Whitlam Government lost in a landslide defeat, could have been interference as Whitlam often claimed.
The US has a base, Pine Gap, which is near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, the base is for top secret purposes but we do know that communications and intelligence gathering is part of the operation. PM Whitlam tried to gain entry by having his official vehicle drive him to the guarded gates where he demanded entry. He was told politely that permission is denied, it is US territory.
So there was tension between our Labor PM and the US, at least there was from his point of view.
40
Those were the days.
Crazy stuff.
” because nothing will save the governor general”.
KK
40
“Kerr’s cur”.
00
Have you been to your ‘Pine Gap’? Dats da best place to be from, as far away as yous can gets! Key west FL has good booze! 🙂
01
I must admit the Kuwait mina al modi port was worse Hot plus odor of crude oil mixed with Camel shit makes you curl up in a ball and cry! 🙁
01
And yet in the 40 years since there has been no leaks about the CIA “success” (if you can call installing a Malcolm a success). Previous CIA destabilisations in Iran and Chile were known about fairly soon afterwards.
30
Unfortunately, Gough’s dismissal was 5 years too late.
The left wing control of education and legal institutions was initiated by that tosser – the darling of the far left.
20
The new NZ PM appears to be following in Gough’s footsteps, I read recently that she intends to offer free university education for all.
In Australia that was the beginning of the slippery slope into socialism, and provided a breeding ground for student union activists who became well known politicians later in life and the cost to taxpayer’s for “free education” was unaffordable. Ten years later another Labor government introduced fee contribution by students. But still the taxpayers subsidise university education and the leftists claim that fees of any kind are unfair.
20
Nothing better than a PhD in basket-weaving – that’s what Gough gave us.
00
Actually, prior to Gough’s free tertiary education, there was a generous and pretty broad system of Commonwealth Scholarships giving free tuition to the ‘best’ students (and you didn’t have to be anything like straight As to be among the ‘best’) and the teaching studentships, which recruited students on merit for teaching courses that gave them a small salary, following which they were bonded for about 4 years to the government school system. I’m inclined to think that the collapse of the free tertiary education came with the expansion (first by calling everything a university, then by making more of them and making more places at them) of that sector–it wasn’t being free that was unsustainable so much as being free for all.
00
it seems like just a few days ago!
27 Feb: Deutsche Welle: DPA/AFP: Climate change pushing Antarctica’s king penguins to brink of extinction, says study
With the king penguin’s food supply being driven farther and farther away, the birds must choose between feeding and breeding. The penguin’s plight sends a warning about the future of the Antarctic’s environment.
A study published on Tuesday by the journal Nature Climate Change found that Antarctica’s king penguins must relocate or face extinction…
Under current conditions, 70 percent of today’s 1.1 million king penguin breeding pairs would have to resettle or could disappear before the end of the century, the study said…
Scientists and environmental activists are pushing for the creation of a large marine protection area in the Antarctic. Originally proposed by Germany and now backed by the European Union, the 1.8 million-square-kilometer fishing-free zone, would ban all fishing and protect species, such as penguins, leopard seals and whales.
If successful, it would be the world’s largest sanctuary by area.
The plan was rejected during the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources’ annual meeting in 2017. However, the plan will be brought up again for a vote at the organization’s meeting this year, which takes place in October.
http://www.dw.com/en/climate-change-pushing-antarcticas-king-penguins-to-brink-of-extinction-says-study/a-42751839
and now (drum roll):
3 Mar: Popular Mechanics: Secret Penguin Supercolony Discovered on Danger Islands
Crouching guano, hidden penguins.
By Andrew Moseman
Thanks to a whole lot of guano showing up in pictures from space, researchers have discovered an unknown group of 1.5 million Adélie penguins. Their study about it appears in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
Scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) wanted to get a better handle on the population of Antarctic Adélie penguins, which were believed to have been in decline over the past 40 years…
The study authors write: “Our survey reveals that the Danger Islands host 751,527 pairs of Adélie penguins, more than the rest of [Antarctic Peninsula] region combined, and include the third and fourth largest Adélie penguin colonies in the world.”…
The researchers call for the Danger Islands to be carefully studied and protected, as the area is “an important hotspot for avian abundance under projected climate change.”
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/animals/a19053965/secret-penguin-supercolony-danger-islands/
20
Yeah, the environment is telling the king penguins it’s time to move …
00
oh how giddy.
We can rejoice.
Adelies aren’t endangered now, they’ve got enough ice!
“Scientists” got that wrong. As usual.
Gardeners around the world will once again rejoice: Adelie Penguin
Pooguano is once again in plentiful supply … send the ships in.The Adelies don’t need humans to help, not if we want to keep good numbers of them. Whenever man “helps” numbers plummet. Leave ’em alone, they’re doing fine …
10
Inside Climate News: Species On The Move: As climate change impacts habitats around the world, species are on the move, trying to adapt — and survive: Adelie Penguin
Source: Scientific Reports, NASA
In 2012, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources downgraded the Adélie penguins’ status from a species of “least concern” to “near threatened.” …
Though there has been a net increase in Adélie penguins, the expectation is that as global temperatures continue to rise, that’s going to change—drastically…
By the end of the century, the Adélie penguins’ range is expected to shrink significantly, according to a recent study funded by NASA and published in the journal Scientific Reports…
By 2060, nearly a third of current Adélie colonies may be in decline due to climate change, according to the Scientific Reports study…
WWF: Adélie penguin – Antarctic birds with attitude
These feisty little penguins need our help to battle climate change.
Adopt a penguin
2 Mar: Guardian: Drone footage shows penguin ‘mega-colony’ in Antarctica – video
Huge ‘mega-colonies’ of penguins have been discovered near the Antarctic peninsula, hosting more than 1.5m birds. Researchers say it shows the area is a vital refuge from climate change and human activities and should be protected by a vast new marine wildlife reserve currently under consideration. The Adélie penguins were discovered on the Danger Islands in the Weddell Sea, on the east side of the Antarctic peninsula
https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/mar/02/drone-footage-shows-penguin-mega-colony-in-antarctica-video
30
They Klimate wallies still haven’t got it right:
How dramatic and how unobservant. Stupid.
Climate Change has NOT impacted Antarctica. At all. Maybe that’s why all the penguins are doing just fine. Man is not able to interfere and Antarctica is doing what Antarctica has always done well: making cold.
Twits.
01
2 Mar: BBC: Penguin super-colony spotted from space
By Jonathan Amos and Victoria Gill
Scientists have stumbled across a huge group of previously unknown Adélie penguins on the ***most northerly point of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Numbering more than 1.5 million birds, they were first noticed when great patches of their poo, or guano, showed up in pictures taken from space…
The researchers, who detail the discovery in the journal Scientific Reports, say it is a total surprise.
“It’s a classic case of finding something where no-one really looked! The Danger Islands are hard to reach, so people didn’t really try that hard,” team-member Dr Tom Hart from Oxford University, UK, told BBC News…
“And the sheer size of what we were looking at took our breath away,” said Dr Heather Lynch from Stony Brook University, New York.
“We thought, ‘Wow! If what we’re seeing is true, these are going to be some of the largest Adélie penguin colonies in the world, and it’s going to be well worth our while sending in an expedition to count them properly.”
But, as the name implies, the Danger Islands are notoriously difficult to reach.
***Even in the austral summer, the ocean surrounding the archipelago is filled with the kind of thick sea-ice that ships try to avoid…
The result is of major significance because it would appear the archipelago has somehow avoided the recent Adélie declines documented elsewhere on the peninsula, particularly on its western side…
Dr Hart commented: “On the West Antarctic Peninsula, Adelie and chinstrap penguins are declining pretty fast, while Gentoo penguins are increasing.
“It’s hard to know the causes. Clearly climate change and reduction in ice and krill play a part, but a decline in sea-ice also allows in shipping – fisheries in particular – which may exacerbate the problem.
“In the past we’ve looked at this on the West Antarctic Peninsula versus places like Elephant Island (further to the north). Finally getting into the Danger Islands and counting the penguins shows how robust populations are where the ice is intact.”
And Dr Lynch added: “The other point worth making is that these islands are right in the mix for a couple of marine protected areas that are being proposed…
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-43250744
20
and how does today’s announcement jibe with:
15 Mar 2017: BBC: Millions more Adélie penguins than scientists thought
Scientists from Australia, France and Japan checked out a 5,000km stretch of coastline in East Antarctica.
It was thought there were about 2.3 million penguins in the area but now after counting again scientists say it is 5.9 million.
Using this new figure they estimate there are between 14 and 16 million of these birds around the world!
Scientists say the reason they got it wrong the first time was because they didn’t look at non-breeding penguins that were out getting food…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/39280784
30
Any one with a half an ounce of integrity would be ashamed and embarrassed to make a wild CAGW claim only to have it debunked within days but unfortunately these so called scientists have no moral compass .
42
Pierre Gosselin (NoTricksZone) accidentally coin the word Nice one, Pierre – “sicnetists”.
I commented “That probably explains Climate Science, it’s the domain of sicnetists.
97% of sicnetists believe in global warming is the correct slogan.”
It seems likely that most climate sicnetists aren’t qualified scientists, but have studied Climatology or Geography. I wonder sometimes what I would do if I were in the position of some of those in their 40’s and 50’s, well paid, secure employment so long as you toe the line and dismissal and unlikely ever to get employment if you don’t.
21
No, they study environmental science which is a bit like political science. Any subject that has to add science after it, probably isn’t science.
Environmental science has an entry score here at the 56th percentile of high school graduates. That’s in the dumbest half. They don’t actually learn any physics to speak of. Most of them are activists.
10
… which is why Political Science isn’t …
00
Ah! willing western academia scammers paid by elite Soros banksters et al! Methodically reduce any public understanding to that of serfs\slaves\feedstock for the Soylent Green Machine. Quite similar to raising ‘livestock’ for ‘protein’ rather than eating ‘grass’! Whatever happened to ‘fruits’,’nuts’,’vegetables’? Boiled carrots\beets are still ‘yuck’! 🙂
01
Shock! Alien Penguins invade Antarctica! Turn ice black therefore reducing albedo.
00
Penguin shat is much more emissive than ice at most every wavelength out to 300 microns! 🙂
01
… 🙂 now is that an assumption, Will, or have you been hiding down there measuring the emissivity?
🙂
20
Not down there; but I have indeed attempted to measure angular emissivity or BDRF of solid water ice between 1 and 30 microns wavelength. That ice crap is not nearly as reflective as ‘new fallen snow’!!
I remain wondering whether to ‘scratch watch’ or ‘wind ass’ explaining my own measurements; whose numbers will never ever change! 🙂
All the best!-will-
01
OT but looks like the Americans have now admitted ground measuring temperature stations are not producing accurate ,worthwhile data .
So where does that leave our BOM ?
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/03/02/alarmists-throw-in-the-towel-on-poor-quality-surface-temperature-data-pitch-for-a-new-global-climate-reference-network/
42
Still at Penrith Lakes trying to figure out how to spin the excuse?
52
Any fish there?
00
So the CIA gives a 600 million dollar contract (just for starters – “We look forward to a successful relationship with the CIA”) to Bezos and Bezos, who gathers private data on countless humans across the globe, fronts dodgy “space” programs and hollows out mountains for clocks, also owns the Washington Post outright…
And the problem is Russian trolls reading and commenting? And I’m supposed to get informed about this in, of all places, the Washington Post, left-flavoured collaborator with Big Bro going back to the ’50s and Dulles?
People, Bolshevism didn’t die. It just put on some nicer duds and moved West.
130
Sooo the Russians where doing what just about every media outlet in the western world has been doing for decades (stirring the pot to creat more controversy and sell more copy)
Hardly suprising no one noticed. What no one has mentioned, is that Trump voters are actually more likely to be outside the internet loop.ie away from major urbane areas.
I wonder if we would have found out about this, if Hillary had won.
80
Time to polish up those late 1800’s muzzle loading cannon left over from the last “The Russians are coming” scare?
00
It is quite amazing. Clinton had about $1Bn for her campaign. Trump had about $750M.
The ‘Russians’ had a few million to spend and they somehow swung the whole thing.
Of course what people are refusing to face up to is the irrefutable fact that Putin personally manned a roadblock to prevent Clinton from ever visiting Wisconsin.
Why don’t you guys admit it?! That is what happened!!!
90
You forgot the sarc tag !
20
And just fancy the ALP putting their money on a dead horse.
40
Actually I think they were putting OUR money on it.
30
A policy continued by Julie Bishop just squeezing a few tens of millions into the Clinton hands before the Foundation shut down.
70
And recently the FBI approached Australian former ADF, former fraud squad detective and now investigative journalist, Michael Smith, to send them his substantial evidence file on Australians involved in government grants to the Clinton Foundation.
00
moderation, that fra** word trap again.
11
O/T
Oh noes…another weather “bomb”….
Must be a slow news day
http://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/harrowing-videos-show-wind-from-brutal-bomb-cyclone-blowing-planes-around-like-feathers-as-they-try-to-take-off-and-land/ar-BBJNDTn?li=AAgfYrC&ocid=iehp
20
and that’s not all.
The storms are now being named!!!!
What a childish bunch run the various weather bureaux in the western world.
10
And the Americans laboured long and hard, they interviewed and enquired, They asked and they theorised. They interrogated and indicted. They told us all, they acclaimed to the world, that they had hold of an elephant, a biggie, a monster, and it was The Russians.
… and birthed a mouse.
Is that all?
That’s the best they can come up with?
The IRA? Well boyo, Rory will be pleased. He’s famous now. Shamus, too. 🙂
But did they have to blow our cover? Damned Yankees. Can’t trust them …
The whoever-whatevers want to remove Trump because the Roos-ians interfered in their election?
For Chrissake, America.
GROW UP.
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahaha<BONK> Bonk bonk bonk
Ooh. I don’t recommend laughing your head off, it hurts …
Oh no!
hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaahahahahahahahaha<BONK> Bonk bonk bonk
Bother …
In the words of a famous? notorious? American: “I shall return“
50
Oz Stand Up
‘When Malcolm Turnbull suddenly switched from English to Mandarin to invoke a Chinese slogan — a famous saying of Mao Zedong — that “the Australian people stand up”, it clearly showed that something had gone wrong between Australia and China. The day before, December 8, Beijing had expressed shock after the Prime Minister singled out China as a focus for concern and cited “disturbing reports” about Chinese influence in Australian national affairs.’
The Australian
20
Was he signalling his puppet masters?
20
Reading between the lines he was saying Australia doesn’t appreciate Beijing hacking BoM.
11
That can’t have been at all difficult. Did the BoM even notice? Their data is not what could be called orderly,” otherwise Jo and Jen wouldn’t be kicking the BoM’s butts so often. The BoM doesn’t seem to have noticed much, so one has to wonder if the Chinese hacking could even be considered “hacking” or, for that matter, necessary. 🙂
11
‘Did the BoM even notice?’
Yeah they saw BoM as the soft underbelly to get into other departments.
10
Did they make it into others by that route?
00
el gordo,
I hate to differ, but we are now totally at the mercy of China – and have the temerity to criticise Trump’s trade policies.
If China turned the Australian resources tap off tomorrow, we would be within a perilous state within 6 months with things such as education and health services becoming non existent.
You might have noticed along your road in life that these things do not exist without money.
The bulk of that money currently comes from our business with China.
Very sad, but very true.
00
As a european I cannot blame the russians for acting proactively . Look we invaded Russia 3 times in the last 200 years and brought the people there more hardship than Stalin was able to execute .Communism is is a utopian materialistic judo-hegelian invention totally disregarding human nature and its very differential characters .
On top of the brutal character of its invaders the Russians had to endure the total paranoia of Stalin and its dire consequences . When Gorbachov stretched his hand towards the West , he was met with arrogance from the American elite . His successor Jeltzin was ridiculed mainly because of his open drunkenness at social events .
Now Mr. Putin has to deal with us and we with mr Putin . Coming from a secret service background he is a manipulator , weaponizing lying and cheating , the same way as American secret services are doing this day in day out . Maybe we should be grateful for keeping us at our toes and not letting us fall asleep .
30
Is that the Russia that from 1400 to 1980 constantly expanded its territory?
The one that annexed dozens of nations, in all directions? If Russia ha left Georgia alone, they never would have suffered Stalin.
00
Stalin was the sort, like Hitler, who inevitably floats to the top … how can you tell Georgia wouldn’t have annexed Russia?
00
“We Honestly Have No ******* Idea What We’re Doing”, Admits Leading Quantum Physicist …
“The University of Oregon professor warned that the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, could potentially wipe out the entire planet if the project is not put to a halt.
“Seriously, when myself, Higgs and Ben (Benjamin Lockspeiser CERN’s first president) first pitched the idea, we never thought it would get funding.
It was gonna cost billions for Christs sake,” he recalled.
“**** knows what the thing does – no one does.
Firing particles at each other at the speed of light can’t end well. I’m just worried we took the joke too far”.
Ending the interview, professor Goswami apologised for “spoofing” everybody over the years.
“I’m coming near the end of my days now and I just want to get this off my chest,” he said. “I just hope the world can forgive us”.
http://waterfordwhispersnews.com/2015/02/10/we-honestly-have-no-fucking-idea-what-were-doing-admits-leading-quantum-physicist/
21
The World Wide Web is no joke, no spoof nor nothing to laugh at. It was invented at CERN.
So the “joke” has succeeded with an entirely unanticipated creation. 🙂
Right.
What’s next?
00
And without CERN it wouldn’t have been created? Why not?
00
… research it, then tell us why not.
00
When it comes to a nation so infested with brainless bloody idiots that genuinely consider media personalities as potential national leaders is it any wonder those such as Russia & China can hardly stop themselves from laughing long enough to plant their dirty tricks.
20
The whole story has layers of stupidity and hypocrisy running through it.
Firstly, as Jo points out , the scale of the operation vs the entire US media/social media world.
Then we have the desperation of the Dems to try and breathe life into the whole Russians fantasy so they can sustain their “we woz robbed” mentality instead of doing something useful.
Then we have coffee spitting /you must be kidding aspect of anyone in and around the UD government pointing fingers at any other government about meddling in the affairs of other countries. Spare me.
Meanwhile the Russians help rout ISIS, develop hypersonic weapons, develop oil and gas deals with China and others. I doubt the US is as big in their mind as it once was apart from a decaying threat that is slowly pulling itself apart.
50
How come there is so much attention by the MSM on Russian influence with the US government, much of which is pure BS, yet the US government has been doing the same to other governments for decades and getting away with it? Two wrongs do not make a right (but BTW does make a left :-).
50
Remember the fake outrage by various countries after Edward Snowden revealed the US was spying on them .
20
Peter S:
My thought some time ago, about the start of the USA presidential campaign was that Hilary and cohorts were trying to induce a war with Russia, Probably fantasy on my part but I seemed to see that as a basis of Democrat foreign policy. Putin the monster, Putin the Evil etc. (and certainly no lack of evidence for those views) but no thought that Putin was doing his best for Russia with a poor holding (to use a poker analogy).
Look at what was happening
Putin was supplying gas to The Ukraine until they stopped paying for it. Then they had a revolution which deposed a (nasty, corrupt, russian leaning) elected President. Followed by the new (nasty, corrupt, unelected) lot trying to change the previous treaties and grab the Crimea (which had been Russian for a lot longer that the Ukraine had control after Kruskhchev gave it to them for their support).
So he took control of a region that would likely vote 80+% in favour of being Russian.
The EU immediately launched into hysteria mode, grappling the corrupt Ukraine to it bosom and Obama followed. The “evil’ russians cut off gas supplies WHEN the Ukraine didn’t pay for them (obvious proof that the Russians were evil? at least in the MSM).
Since then the Russians have expanded their supplies of natural gas to Europe (esp. Germany) saving them from freezing in winter.
If Putin had any inclinations in the Presidential election then it was ABC (anybody but Clinton)
But they have been rude to Greenpeace so I expect that proves Russia is evil.
20
That’s only about half the story. The other half is how the US tried to blame Russia for all the bad things that were happening around the Middle East especially Syria, when about half of it was due directly or indirectly by the US itself (eg, arming some of the extreme Islamic groups fighting in and around Syria). The point is no one, and I mean absolutely no one is innocent in all of the evil things that are happening around the world. They all have blood on their hands.
00
26 Oct 2017: NY Post: Paul Sperry: How Team Hillary played the press for fools on Russia
Hillary Clinton’s campaign didn’t just pay for the Kremlin-aided smear job on Donald Trump before the election; she continued to use the dirt after the election to frame her humiliating loss as a Russian conspiracy to steal the election.
Bitter to the core, she and her campaign aides hatched a scheme, just 24 hours after conceding the race, to spoon-feed the dirty rumors to an eager liberal media and manufacture the narrative that Russia secretly colluded with her neophyte foe to sabotage her coronation…
Exhibit A is the book “Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton’s Doomed Campaign,” by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes. In light of this week’s revelation that Hillary’s campaign funded the dirty anti-Trump “Steele” dossier, the book takes on a new significance. It reveals:
“Within 24 hours of her concession speech, [campaign chair John Podesta and manager Robby Mook] assembled her communications team at the Brooklyn headquarters to engineer the case that the election wasn’t entirely on the up-and-up. For a couple of hours, with Shake Shack containers littering the room, they went over the script they would pitch to the press and the public. Already, Russian hacking was the centerpiece of the argument.”
The plan, according to the book, was to push journalists to cover how “Russian hacking was the major unreported story of the campaign,” and it succeeded to a fare-thee-well. After the election, coverage of the Russian “collusion” story was relentless, and it helped pressure investigations and hearings on Capitol Hill and even the naming of a special counsel, which in turn has triggered virtually nonstop coverage.
A new Media Research Center study finds that, since the inauguration, major TV news networks have devoted an astonishing 1,000 minutes out of a total 5,015 minutes of Trump administration coverage discussing speculation that the Trump campaign may have colluded with Moscow in hacking Clinton campaign emails, “which means the Russia story alone has comprised almost one-fifth of all Trump news this year.” In contrast, they so far have devoted just 20 seconds to the more substantive scandal of Hillary and her husband possibly trading US uranium rights for Russian cash.
MRC analysts also found that more than a third of the networks’ Russia “scandal” coverage was based on anonymous sources who worked in the Obama administration, including Hillary’s State Department…
In March, former Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri summed up the post-election strategy in a Washington Post column comparing “Russiagate” to Watergate and encouraging the press and other Democrats to “turn the Russia story against Trump.”
“If we make plain that what Russia has done is nothing less than an attack on our republic, the public will be with us. And the more we talk about it, the more they’ll be with us,” she advised. “Polls show that voters are now concerned about the Russia story and overwhelmingly support an independent investigation.”
In short, Hillary couldn’t beat Trump with the political dirt she secretly purchased during the campaign, so she tried to cripple his presidency with help from an overwhelmingly anti-Trump media. Framing Trump as some sort of modern-day KGB plant was an easy sell, since the pro-Democrat media were also searching for a scapegoat to rationalize the crushing defeat of their shared liberal agenda at the polls.
The irony is, it may have in fact been Hillary who came closer to colluding with the Russians in smearing Trump as a Russian traitor than anything Trump did in trying to beat Hillary. The information in the dossier she bought for millions came from Russian intelligence sources, and her lawyers brokered the deal with a Kremlin-tied lobbyist. When it failed to stop Trump, the Russia paymaster turned into the Russia spinmeister.
Now we really know “What Happened.”
https://nypost.com/2017/10/26/how-team-hillary-played-the-press-for-fools-on-russia/
1 Mar: Breitbart: Tony Lee: 2018 (USA Today/Suffolk University) Poll: Immigration/Gun Control Top Issues for Voters; Russia ‘Collusion’ Dead Last
Not even 1% (.5%) of those surveyed said Russia/election meddling was the top issue even though the media keep hyping it while majorities even believed that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, will continue to do so, and President Donald Trump has not been forceful enough addressing the issue…
Impeaching Trump polls poorly as well, with just 1.4% of those surveyed saying “Oppose/ged rid of/impeach Trump” was their top issue.
The poll surveyed 1,000 registered voters from February 20-24, and its margin of error is +/- three percentage points…
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/03/01/2018-poll-immigration-gun-control-top-issues-for-voters-russia-collusion-dead-last/
30
The Russian trolls are probably no more different than the tens of thousands of foreigners who comment on American politics on American media during an election cycle or major event…. notwithstanding, that if a Russian troll makes a pertinent point then it is simply a valid argument within the general conversation, rather than “Trolling”. They are also engaged in a conversation with others as opposed to China’s complete censorship or Putin’s partial censorship and political thuggery… That will rub off on them.
The other thing about “Troll Farms” is that they have to be English speaking Russians and relatively educated to be so… Which actually makes them vulnerable to that Western conversation in favor of freedom…. So I see a future were so called Russian Trolls become activists against their own regime. 🙂
30
The closest equivalent to troll farms we have in the west are those public opinion companies in the guise of market research. I have worked for one of them after a car accident. We are not allowed to change the phone surveys in any way or the survey is null and void… X-files material in a way. To much to go into here tonight.
00
Troll farms, eh. I like the acronym: IRA. My grandparents were Irish 🙂
That might give Teresa May the heebie jeebies and MI6 some sleepless nights, but then they deserve those, anyway.
Tell me:
Why use “English Speaking Russians” when you have to pay them?
Why not use native idiots and half wits who will work free if asked nicely, “for the cause,” and “to save the planet,” or whatever schtick turns them on? Like Craig, Harry, Silly Filly, ClimateSkeptic, Julian et al?
How do you know I’m not a troll trolling the trolls?
How do I know you’re not a troller of trolls, too?
Do you know the Password?
(Oi deny everyt’ing, yer honour! Dey went dat way and It wasn’t me!)
10
Yes killing mothers for helping the wounded. Very noble, well worth supporting. Trying to overturn the will of the majority with bombings in bars and nightclubs. Heroic.
00
Your take, your word, not mine.
00
Youtube: 9mins49secs: 1 Mar: Hannity Show: Mark Levin Challenges FISA Court Judges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk0D_J5COK8
20
If I were the judge that was misled by that fake “dossier” so that I issued a warrant to violate a citizens 4th amendment rights without real justification I would have already found every single member of the FBI that signed the required sworn statement that it was legitimate confirmed intelligence/evidence in contempt of court and sent their sorry butts to jail. Thus at this time with the information available I can only assume the issuing judge(s) are corrupt. And if that turns out to be the case then the whole system needs to be scrapped.
30
The whole system can’t be replaced now because the corruption is too widespread and powerful. It would require an army of Trumps to do so. It will change only after the crash and burn scenario is complete.
00
By system I’m talking about FISA.
00
Amazing claims and pretty much nothing but silence from the Dems .
20
read all:
2 Mar: ConservativeTreehouse: sundance: Spin Machine Overdrive – New York Times Attempts To Provide Cover for McCabe Motive Outlined in Pending IG Report…
The New York Times (Matt Appuzzo & Adam Goldman) published an article yesterday citing a pending DOJ Inspector General Horowitz report that points the finger at former Asst. FBI Director Andrew McCabe for leaking information to the media.
Citing four people familiar with the IG inquiry, the motive for the New York Times is transparent. The “small group” of DOJ/FBI officials are trying to head-off the disturbing aspect to the IG outline and spin a false narrative. However, our earlier research into the text messaging of Lisa Page and Peter Strzok, in combination with the leak in question to former Wall Street Journal reporter Devlin Barrett, allows us to see through the narrative…READ ALL
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/2018/03/02/spin-machine-overdrive-new-york-times-attempts-to-provide-cover-for-mccabe-motive-outlined-in-pending-ig-report/
20
The reality is that without petroleum and gas exports Russia would be a third world nation as far as GNP/GDP goes. What do you expect from them? They will do what they can to prevent any large consumer of those products from becoming energy independent! When you get down to it THAT is all anyone needs to understand to know that the whole Trump-Russian collusion meme it total unadulterated BS! Drill baby Drill President Trump!
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rs.html
30
There is absolutely nothing the Russian trolls could have said or done that would have induced me ever to vote for Hillary (she who was supposedly named after Sir Edmund a couple of years before he climbed Everest)
30
Don’t get me started on the piano legged Hildabeast…………! I want to remain welcome here.
30
Ed Hillary scaled Everest in 1953. That Woman is 71 years ancient this year. (born 26 October 1947). Six years premature is not a couple of years!
Oh NO! She’s in Auckland talking to all the Jafa’s on May 7th. She’s in Sydney on the 11th of May. PR Blurb says:
Secretary Clinton will take audiences on a journey; What Happened & what’s next.
Book Online Now · Don’t Miss Out · Evening Event · Hillary Clinton Live
Shudder! Knowing my luck, Obama will be next!
Note:
JAFA = Just Another F… ah … Friendly Aucklander.
Maybe I should talk to the chap upstairs about another small volcano in Auckland, right under her feet—just to warm her toes, May does get rather cold—as soon as she starts talking. Auckland doesn’t do big earthquakes like Wellington and Christchurch, but it does do volcanoes… 🙂
(Average time between eruptions = c. 250yrs. Last eruption about 750 years ago)
20
Sophocles:
No volcano for 750 years despite an average time of 250 years? That is disgraceful. It shows what happens when you put the Public Service in charge of eruptions. They spend their time on PC themes such as same sex eruptions, and equal opportunity (but no sexural harrasment eruptions) and forget about standard services. The public can’t rely on an eruption arriving on time. Privatise the eruptions for cheaper and more efficient service.
P.S. Any chance of arranging one under Canberra?
10
It is disgraceful. On average, it’s well overdue. We had scares, well, very minor alarms, during the 1960s of petrol in service station underground tanks supposedly warming, but nothing came of it all. It did get a ring of seismographs installed and since then the Servants have been quiet.
Any particular spot in Canberra in mind or are you thinking big? 🙂
00
the CAGW mob will never admit they contributed to the problem:
2 Mar: BusinessGreen: James Murray: Freezing weather and gas supply fears sparks calls for UK to revamp energy efficiency efforts
In a quirk of meteorological fate, the latest report on the UK’s domestic energy efficiency from environmental think tank E3G was released this week against a backdrop of the coldest winter snap in five years. As National Grid called on industrial firms to limit gas consumption in response to fears soaring demand could lead to nationwide gas shortages, green campaigners provided a painful reminder of how the government has slashed spending on domestic energy efficiency measures that could both help people stay warm and bolster UK energy security.
The E3G report detailed how the rate of home insulation across the UK has crashed 90 per cent since 2012 and the peak years of the coalition government’s domestic energy efficiency programmes…
The report also detailed how the UK has the second worst rate of cold weather-related deaths in Europe.
“In the last five years there were an average of 32,000 excess winter deaths in the UK, with 9,700 each year estimated to be linked to living in cold homes,” E3G states. “The UK’s appalling record – on what is a preventable cold homes public health epidemic – is mostly due to the poor energy efficiency of its housing stock.”…
The latest data, coupled with the warnings from National Grid about gas supply risks, prompted fresh calls from E3G and others for the government to make energy efficiency a national infrastructure priority and fund home improvements from general taxation…
His comments were echoed by Greenpeace’s UK head of energy Hannah Martin, who warned “today’s gas crunch is more than just a blip – it’s the symptom of an underlying problem that’s been festering for years”…
“The solution is not to increase our dependence on gas, but to reduce it. Better home insulation brings the triple benefit of lower bills, lower carbon emissions and a lower risk of energy shortages. Ministers should waste no time to roll out a national programme that gives Britain the warmer homes it deserves.”…
Dr Jonathan Marshall, energy analyst at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU), similarly argued the gas supply crunch required a long term and co-ordinated response.
“Behind today’s gas deficit warning is a ‘perfect storm’ of unrelated short-term issues – ***freezing conditions, diminished Dutch gas production due to earthquake concerns, weather-related issues curbing imports from Europe, and a global LNG market in which supplies are being pulled to Asia by higher prices,” he said…
However, supporters of the fledgling UK shale gas industry drew a different lesson from this week’s gas shortages…READ ON
https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news-analysis/3027679/freezing-weather-and-gas-supply-fears-sparks-calls-for-uk-to-revamp-energy-efficiency-efforts
CarbonBrief re Financial Times article:
UK’s National Grid warns of gas shortfall due to big freeze
Supply disruptions and high demand for heating have forced National Grid to issue a warning that the UK may not have enough gas to meet demand. Households will not be affected but industrial gas users may be asked to curb their consumption in return for compensation. This is the company’s first deficit warning for eight years, the Financial Times reports.
***Experts told the Times that gas supplies could come under more pressure in the coming days, “especially if winds subside, reducing power output from wind turbines and forcing Britain to burn more gas for electricity”, the paper writes.
Ineos, which wants to frack for shale gas in the UK, said the situation highlighted the need for Britain to develop its own domestic supplies. Same-day gas prices soared 130% yesterday, the Financial Times reports. Electricity prices have also risen, because gas-fired power plants are one of Britain’s main sources of electricity supply. However, this morning National Grid withdrew its “gas deficit warning”, adding that it will continue to “monitor developments closely”…
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has anyone checked how wind energy if faring in the UK during the Beast/Emma “cold snap”?
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” Better home insulation brings the triple benefit of lower bills, lower carbon emissions and a lower risk of energy shortages. Ministers should waste no time to roll out a national programme that gives Britain the warmer homes it deserves.”…”
Makes you wonder how they do that with all the old housing stock, UK Pink Batts 2.0?, the have been doing double glazing updates for decades, insulation isnt exactly new news in the UK.
Last time I looked wind was kicking in a few GW, but its a bit academic as it could be zero tomorrow and will only help the fans in the gas heaters.
Their version of the NEM dash board is at http://www.gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
Bit more complicated than ours, with some serious interconnectors.
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oh oh I know, how about some nice cladding? oh wait ….
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includes links:
2 Mar: ClimateChangeNews: Megan Darby: Climate Weekly: Fiji fires COP23 chief diplomat
On Tuesday, Fiji’s chief climate negotiator was enthusiastically promoting the “talanoa dialogue” on twitter – a massive engagement drive to close the gap between ambition and action on tackling climate change.
On Wednesday, Nazhat Shameem Khan was abruptly fired from the role by her government, with no explanation. Her replacement, Luke Daunivalu, “has the necessary teamwork skills to maximise the chances of the talanoa dialogue succeeding,” according to a letter to CHN from the prime minister Frank Bainimarama…
Climate Home News is working on the inside story. Watch this space…
Road to Songdo
When 195 countries adopted the Paris Agreement in 2015, chair Laurent Fabius judiciously ignored Paul Oquist waving Nicaragua’s nameplate as he brought the gavel down.
After the deal was done, Oquist was allowed to register his token objection, describing the pact as a “path to failure”. He overcame those qualms to assume co-chairmanship of the Green Climate Fund board this week. You know, a key mechanism to deliver the Paris Agreement’s finance agenda.
In a miniature replay of history, Georgia’s representative abstained from the vote in protest, but Oquist was appointed all the same. How appropriate…
In brief
UN Climate Change’s funding woes have claimed their first victim: its French language news service has been axed due to budget constraints.
Rulebook battlelines
EU foreign ministers have asserted that negotiations on implementing the Paris Agreement, to be finalised in December, must create a “universal regime with rules applicable to all”.
It puts them on a collision course with emerging economies like China, who are calling for a two-tier system that gives the developing world more leeway.
Those differences were top of the agenda for an informal meeting of lead negotiators in Tokyo, Japan last week…
The deforestation Olympics?
Tokyo is due to host a much bigger event in 2020: the Olympic Games.
Campaigners were dismayed to learn the organisers got 87% of plywood for the new national stadium from at-risk southeast Asian rainforests – and could not supply any certificates to show it had been sourced sustainably…
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/03/02/climate-weekly-fiji-fires-cop23-chief-diplomat/
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24 Feb: ClimateChangeNews: Unwritten Paris rules dominate as tense year of climate diplomacy begins in Japan
By Karl Mathiesen
The informal meeting, which is co-chaired each year by Japan and Brazil, was used as an opportunity to set up talks for the year. It ran over two days, ending Friday. By far the longest session was devoted to the contentious Paris rulebook, which will dominate discussions in Katowice. These rules will set how the commitments made to the deal are measured and verified.
Differences between some negotiating teams, especially the EU and China, over issues such as transparency have to date been irresolvable…
On Thursday, Trinidad and Tobago became the 175th party to ratify the Paris deal, leaving just a couple of dozen countries yet to formally adopt the agreement…
Russia, Iran and Turkey remain notable polluters who have not ratified the deal.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/02/24/unwritten-paris-rules-dominate-tense-year-climate-diplomacy-begins-japan/
UNFCCC: 175 Parties have ratified of 197 Parties to the Convention
LIST
http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9444.php
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FakeNewsMSM reporting today is even more ridiculous, given the only sub-reddit was The_Donald and it was being censored constantly! BBC even admits that.
yet we’re to believe a few Russians or bots could influence the hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters who post there!
2 Mar: BBC Highly Cited: Reddit dragged into Russian propaganda row
Russian propagandists targeted the popular news-sharing website Reddit to influence American political debate, a US website has claimed…
Now news site the Daily Beast says it has obtained files showing a Russian troll farm was active on Reddit…
***So far, Reddit has not been included in the US Senate’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
But some reports have suggested that could soon change (LINKS TO 28 SEPT 2017 GUARDIAN STORY RE THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE IN “THE HILL”)
It says the organisation used proxy servers to mask the location of its work.
Also targeted were the Yahoo-owned blogging platform Tumblr, and the viral joke site 9gag…
As has been a pattern with Russian efforts discovered to date, there is no outright support of any particular candidate or viewpoint.
Instead it seems Russia’s aim was to provoke and divide Americans on the internet and, as a result, in the physical world too…
One particular subreddit, r/The_Donald, is arguably the most powerful and coordinated pro-Donald Trump community on the internet, endorsed by the President himself who, while campaigning, used the forum to answer questions posted by users.
Reddit has taken several steps to limit r/The_Donald’s impact, including blocking popular submissions from appearing on Reddit’s front page.
In a move he later apologised for, Reddit co-founder and chief executive Steve Huffman admitted personally editing comments posted on r/The_Donald…
As of July last year, the company (Reddit) had just 230 employees, yet it is ranked the sixth most popular website on the internet by traffic monitoring service Alexa…
http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-43255285
old news:
27 Sept 2017: The Hill: Warner sees Reddit as potential target for Russian influence
By Ali Breland
Reddit could be the next target for federal investigators exploring Russian influence over the 2016 presidential election.
A representative from Sen. Mark Warner’s (Va.) office told The Hill that Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, is interested in Reddit as a potential tool of Russian social media influence.
Warner has also spearheaded efforts to scrutinize Facebook and Twitter as potential tools for foreign interference in the election…
“[Reddit] is one of the forms(sic) that some of the coordinated information campaigns happened on,” says Samantha Bradshaw, a researcher at ***Oxford University who has studied how governments use social media to influence public opinion. Bradshaw says that she’s witnessed patterns on the site that suggest a deliberate effort to distribute false news…
Bradshaw clarified that the posts were gathered in a preliminary analysis and weren’t definitively examples of foreign influence. But the posts still illustrate how false stories originate or gain momentum on Reddit…
Reddit can also be a tool for foreign governments to test out what might or might not resonate with larger audiences, says Renee DiResta, a social media network expert…
Russian actors using Reddit to spread certain types of information also wouldn’t necessarily violate the company’s rules, as long as real people are behind the accounts disseminating the information…
Experts say any full investigation into potential foreign social media influence over elections is unlikely to stop at social media giants like Facebook, Twitter and Reddit. Instead, they say investigators should include chat and photo-sharing apps like Telegram, Snapchat and the Facebook-owned WhatsApp.
“The chat apps are definitely the next step,” Bradshaw said…
http://thehill.com/policy/technology/352584-warner-sees-reddit-as-potential-target-for-russian-influence
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did the Reddit story take a back seat while this story played itself out?
8 Feb: Daily Caller: Justin Caruso: ‘Rather Not Have Paper Trail’ — Leaked Messages Show Dem Sen Talking With Russian Oligarch’s Lobbyist
A new report indicates that Democratic Virginia Sen. Mark Warner was in contact with a lobbyist for Oleg V. Deripaska, a Russian billionaire, in order to get in contact with Christopher Steele, author of the infamous dossier that was used to surveil Carter Page.
Fox News reports Adam Waldman, a lobbyist for Deripaska, texted Warner “Chris Steele asked me to call you” on March 16, 2017.
Warner wrote back, “Will call tomorrow be careful.”
Warner also said on March 20, 2017, “Can you talk tomorrow want to get with ur English friend”
“I spoke to him yesterday,” Waldman replied.
On March 30th, 2017, Warner expressed a desire to not leave evidence of a meeting with Steele, which he wanted to be with only him.
“We want to do this right private in London don’t want to send letter yet cuz if we can’t get agreement wud rather not have paper trail,” he wrote to Waldman…
Although the Fox News article doesn’t mention Russian president Vladimir Putin, Deripaska is close with the head of state…
Warner disclosed these messages to the Senate Intelligence Committee, and the entire committee was made aware of them in October 2017, the Fox News report notes.
http://dailycaller.com/2018/02/08/steele-warner-paper-trail-russian-oligarch/
29 Sept 2017: Russia Today: Podesta emails showed Facebook colluded with Clinton, Assange reminds
As US lawmakers demand social media companies show how their platforms were allegedly used by Russia to meddle in the 2016 election, WikiLeaks co-founder tweeted emails that show Facebook executives in direct communication with one candidate’s team.
Beginning on October 7 last year, WikiLeaks published hundreds of emails from the private account of Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman John Podesta…
On Thursday, as US media were speculating about “Russian” meddling on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, Julian Assange tweeted some of the Podesta emails with a reminder that the social network’s leading lights were Clinton fans…
Some Twitter users were quick to point out the hypocrisy behind Democrats spending so much time and energy investigating all the major social media sites, desperately searching for any possible collusion between President Donald Trump and Russia, even though Facebook colluded with Clinton…
TWEET: Lisa Smith: Facebook colluded
Podesta colluded
DNC colluded
D. Brazile colluded
MSM colluded~For Hillary!
You know who didn’t collude? Trump or Russia!
https://www.rt.com/usa/404971-assange-facebook-podesta-collusion/
going back further:
2009: Harpers: Russian Oligarch Retains Advisory Firm Close to Hillary to Help Resolve Visa Ban
By Ken Silverstein
Intelligence Online reports that the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska has hired an advisory firm with close ties to Hillary Clinton to help him get a visa to enter the United States. As I’ve previously reported here, Deripaska has been barred from this country over concerns that he has ties to organized crime.
Intelligence Online says (warning: story is firewall protected) that Deripaska — who previously employed beltway lobbyists close to John McCain, including his former campaign manager Rick Davis — has retained the Endeavor Group, which, the newsletter says, “specializes in providing services to billionaire and show business personalities.”
Endeavor’s partners include Lorrie McHugh-Wytkind, formerly “Communications Director for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and Deputy Press Secretary for Media Affairs and Operations for President Bill Clinton,” and its advisers include Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior under Bill Clinton and a Hillary supporter during the Democratic presidential primaries.
Update: Adam Waldman, founder and president of the Endeavor Group, writes to say that his firm doesn’t lobby, so I’ve changed this post to reflect that. The firm’s website says, “The Endeavor Group represents a select group of entrepreneurial, high net worth individuals. The firm was founded in 2001 to provide cross-disciplinary advisory and execution services in support of the complex business and philanthropic initiatives of our clients.”
Waldman also said that Lorrie McHugh-Wytkind has been a strategic communications partner (which means consultant) to my firm on two very specific philanthropic initiatives, dealing with (i) Malaria and (ii) Neglected Tropical Diseases. She has never had any involvement, nor would she, in our work with Oleg Deripaska or any other client matters outside of these two projects. Second, Bruce Babbitt who is the Chairman of the World Wildlife Fund and serves on our informal advisory board, never has had any involvement with our client work.”
I don’t think that changes the thrust of the post or of the Intelligence Online piece, though. Deripaska did hire a firm with ties to Hillary Clinton, which can’t be a bad thing nowadays.
https://harpers.org/blog/2009/06/russian-oligarch-retains-lobby-firm-close-to-hillary-to-help-resolve-visa-ban/
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The P45 2020 campaign director is Brad Parscale who personally knows all the internet players, better than Mike Flynn personally knows all of the spooks! So nice to have sufficient wealth to hire only the very best! Who are manning the worldwide popcorn concessions; all now owned by the Donald! 🙂
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2 Mar Updated 3 Mar: Bloomberg: to Rescue as Europe Draws More Gas in Siberian Chill
By Elena Mazneva, Anna Shiryaevskaya, and Mathew Carr
Russia is sending more natural gas to Europe than ever before as a blast of Arctic air lifted demand for heat and electricity, underlining the region’s dependence on its eastern neighbor…
“Only Gazprom is capable of increasing gas supplies to European customers to maximum levels at a breakneck speed,” Alexey Miller, the chief executive officer of Gazprom, said in a response to questions. “There’s no other supplier that could cope with the task.”…
“We see the coldest end of the winter in years, and Russia is the first supplier with enough spare capacity to meet an extreme surge in demand,” said Giacomo Masato, a meteorologist at Marex Spectron…
Consumers dipped into gas storage tanks in Germany at record rates to satisfy a surge in demand, according to research from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Much of that gas originates in Russia, and Germany boosted imports from the east during the crisis…
In Britain, which is the second-biggest gas consumer in Europe after Germany, prompt delivery prices reached a record.
Shipments surged from two pipelines linking mainland Europe and the U.K. Increased supplies prompted the grid to declare the shortage had eased, and it withdrew its “deficit warning” on Friday morning…
While temperatures are expected to turn milder in much of western Europe next week, northern parts of the continent are forecast to remain colder than normal. Britain is facing snow, travel disruptions and high winds as Storm Emma followed a blast of Arctic air from Siberia…
Earlier this week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it’s “obvious” that LNG arriving on tankers in Europe will remain more costly than Russian pipeline gas for the next decade. Industry observers tend to agree.
“The whole situation will be pretty positive for Russia as the cold weather will draw down on storage levels, which are currently at five year lows,” said Christopher Haines, Head Of Oil & Gas, BMI Research. “This should lead to another year of strong gas demand from Europe.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-02/russia-to-the-rescue-as-europe-draws-more-gas-in-siberian-chill
ICEAGENOW HOMEPAGE – MULTIPLE ARTICLES, MARCH 2 LINKS INCLUDE:
Propeller-aided skiing in Spain – Video
Record snow and cold in Croatia
Nearly 2 meters (6 ft) of snow in some areas.
Parts of the Country received all time high snow. New records were set in numerous towns and settlements ranging from 1,5 meters to nearly full 2,0 meters of snow (Delnice 182 cm (6 ft) on Feb. 28th).
Although affected region is prone to high snows, this event was way out of ordinary. Army Command dispatched 1,000 soldiers with 100 pieces of clearing equipment to assist local services in clearing roads and reaching isolated settlements. It was snowy and cold for the whole past week along Adriatic coast, with snow reaching as far as Dubrovnik and outer Islands.
There were also new negative temperature records on Northern Adriatic, with port town of Rijeka setting new low temp record for the late February with only -9 C.
1 COMMENT:
Kenneth Lund: And again when you go to the actual link, they want to blame it on “a cold snap” again?
Up to 3 feet of snow for New York – Blizzard warnings for some areas
Record cold in Russia
Worst storm in 30 years in Great Britain and France
“Death toll from frost in Europe rises to 55, city of Montpellier in the south of France paralysed,”says reader. “Nothing about this in the Dutch MSM, I have to get this information from an Argentina News Medium. Snow chaos in Europe is headline news over there, but not in Europe!”
Record snowfall across much of north central Montana
Along with record cold – Not just daily records, mind you, but for the entire month.
https://www.iceagenow.info/
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somehow Russia got left out of the Bloomberg headline. should be:
“Russia to Rescue as Europe Draws More Gas in Siberian Chill”
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The Russians in Siberia caused it so it is the least they could do. There needs to be some accountability. The chill shows all the signs of being man made, and there are documented cases of Russians in Siberia.
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Funny how Russia provides both “the chill” and the relief from “the chill” while sucking vast moneys from their Western enemies! V.Putin ist almost as goot as M.Flynn! 🙂
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OT just checking on Tassie results here http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-03-03/counting-underway-in-tasmanian-election/9443530
And was asked if the pokies were an issue for me so I voted no , what a sham poll this is .
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The questions that the ABC commentators fired at Eric Abetz were disgustingly biased – probably the worst performance I have seen from the ABC to date – and that IS saying something.
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I do this stuff for free, along with thousands of other people, at funnyjunk.com.
This was the site I was perusing when I first said out loud at work “I think Trump will win”, and got laughed at. If you view the site you can adjust content blocking to remove things like comics, anime, and gaming, which I do not care for. There’s lots of political discussion, and the comments are the best part (and there is no censorship).
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Russia is hacking the US energy infrastructure…really? This is the same tired narrative, dare I say propaganda, being bandied about regarding the Democratic National Committee and almost everything else in the ‘free world’. But let’s consider a little context. The NSA has been shown to be doing this to everyone else, including its allies–the hypocrisy of the US Empire truly knows no bounds. There is a good argument to be made that the trolling is more about the exposure of the West to ‘clickbait’. Targeting ‘Russia’–as the US government and its complicit/compliant mainstream media is–as opposed to ‘entrepreneurial’ individuals (who may or may not be ‘Russian’), helps further the narrative that the Russian government is aggressive and must be reigned in–to say little about furthering the profit-seeking military-security-industrial complex of the West and global hegemonic tendencies of the US Empire. And, as far as meddling in the West’s ‘democracy’–another tired and trite narrative weaved by the Empire–my goodness, the ruling caste of oligarchs and political class of the West long ago abandoned truly representative democracy (or, at least, representative of the masses; it does a great job of representing financial/corporate/industrial interests), if we ever truly had it. The West’s media trots out this information as if it is ‘news’, it is not. It is shilling for the ruling caste and their economic interests, which is what most (all?) wars and associated actions/policies/etc. are truly all about. Or, as US Marine Corps. Major General Smedley Butler argued: War is racket!
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In the realm of free speech; people are free to say anything; and accept the consequences. Free speech is an innate right but no right is without a burden of responsibility for actions and consequences of exercising that right.
In the realm of free speech; people have the right to ignore what is being said. People cannot be forced to listen.
In the realm of free speech; people are free to argue freely about what is being said; to allow an audience to think and to make up their own minds as to the validity/veracity of what was being argued; in the reality of the audience.
Internet trolling is not new. It’s been around for decades; even before the WWW. Think e.g. Usenet. There were avenues for trolling even before the Internet; vis e.g. graffiti.
Do not dismiss trolls out of hand. It’s not unusual for troll-ish (i.e. provocative) comments to come from recognizable people. Source known or unknown, the provocation is the incitement of individuals to think; something that is abhorrent to the self-nominated guardians of true believers.
Once people begin to think for themselves; threatening a diversity of ideas. Such diversity is VERBOTEN in the politically correct bubble inhabited by establishment politics, social justice warriors, media and academic “intelligentsia”. Inhabitants of that bubble seem firmly entrenched in the idea that ordinary people are obviously incapable of thinking correctly for themselves; requiring guidance in all aspects of their lives.
Alas, not all “trolls” aim to provoke thought. Some are only in it for the attention (and “hits”). It’s up to the individual to decide how to deal with each comment/meme as they see fit. Those who think that most people are incapable o such judgement, promote “filters” and “authorities” to determine what the population is to think.
Keep in mind that the wise can learn from fools but fools cannot learn from the wise.
Sovereignty over one’s thinking must never be compromised; by coercion or “willingly”.
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Bernd.
A couple of years ago in Sydney members of the Muslim community organised a well attended rally in the city. This was a perfectly legal demonstration of their faith.
Into this rally inserted themselves a group of fanatics, much smaller in number, probably less than 2% of the total number. These Trolls, for trolls is what they were, carried placards saying: “Behead those who offend The Prophet”.
It is my firm view that the right to free speech does not extend to such incitement to commit a crime. Such incitement is a crime in itself. It is not god enough to wait for the crime to be committed before taking action against it.
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Oh dear. Tired old eyes proof reading, just when the error might not be perfectly obvious. It is not GOOD enough to wait…
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