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Midweek Unthreaded
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JoNova A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).
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Statistics
The nerds have the numbers on precious metals investments on the ASX
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My son has a view that Tulsi Gabbard will be a strong democrat candidate for the 2020 or 2024 presidential elections. This lady has a lot going for her so it prompted me to do some research on here credentials with regard to Climate Change. Heaven help the US if she gets her way:
https://www.offfossilfuels.org/off-act/
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Over the weekend I commented on the rumour that Ruth Bader-Ginsberg’s cancer may have returned and that she will retire in January. It seems that one of her clerks has confirmed this. I don’t have an authoritative link for that but the two stories I’ve read do not look to be quoting the same original “leak:.
That Trump will get to nominate three justices to give SCOTUS a 6/3 constitutionalist bias, one that will last for a generation, explains the extreme, high risk game the democrats have been playing. It is their worst nightmare.
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Not to mention the hundreds of federal court judges that he has appointed!
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It will be a brave soul that puts up their hand for the next Trump SCOTUS nomination.
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So you reckon the dems will shoot themselves in the other foot now? The Kavanagh circus cost them dearly.
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Yes definitely. They will see what happened as a righteous fight lost and will have taken zero real world lessons from it. Just like Daniel Andrews learnt nothing from Weatherdills failures and is promising us a repeat performance.
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How’s this for something out of left field: POTUS nominates Merrick Garland. He is nowhere near as far left as RBG and “Kavanaugh, Garland voted together 93 percent of the time” on whatever court that was.
Wouldn’t THAT take the wind out of the dem’s sails while sounding OK to someone whose memories of the GOP are the warmongers Bush?
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The article isn’t long so I’ll reprint it in full:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/sep/5/kavanaugh-garland-voted-together-93-pct-time/
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That thought crossed my mind as well. It is something that Trump would do I think!
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I am extremely disappointed listening and watching LNP politicians both NSW and federal. They have no backbone. They are hopeless and weak giving into minority special interest groups. It’s really no wonder more and more voters are turning their backs on the LNP. If it continues they will be demolished at the next federal election and so they should be. I hope they are destroyed to allow a new party to take their place. Their only hope now for being re-elected at the federal level is for Morrison to grow a spine and act like a true leader. If he did that he would romp in. He and most of this party don’t just get it. They are leaving a vacuum with their stance on important issues. They talk the talk but don’t walk the walk. When they do talk it’s mostly doublespeak. People are getting more than tired of it – they are turning off. In other words, they are treating the public with contempt and as fools, and we all know what happens in that situation.
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You make interesting comments PeterS.
I see myself as perhaps part of the advance guard, as it is now quite some time since I decided that I have had enough of the rubbish from the coalition, and have walked away from them.
Do not put your trust in most of our politicians: They are in too much of a hurry to sell us out to pernicious ideologies from the United Nations.
A good example is the indecent haste that Turnbull and Bishop engaged in when they rushed overseas to sign the Paris agreement. Were they concerned about the so called “carbon pollution” that they spewed into the atmosphere on their overseas flight? Of course not!
Should Shorten be elected we will be seeking assistance from above because we will sure need it. I expect that Shorten will endeavour to be faster than Turnbull and Bishop.
Lets remember that all the propaganda and dictates, that is fed to us daily, is for the slavish masses to abide by. The dictates won’t apply to the propagandists.
It is time that we started constricting the snake that is the United Nations. It will only act in it’s own best interest. The United Nations is a vast, incompetent, left wing bureaucracy that is only intent on preserving it’s privileges.
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The UN is already running Australia by remote control of the Coalition. This government governs only with permission from the UN! It will be a lot faster if Labor gain power!
Paris Accord & all climate regulation, the soon to be signed UN Compact on immigration & god knows how many other agreements signed in secret by our treacherous mobs!
Don’t forget the continuing importation of 3rd world “refugees”, support of Palestine.
Any & all foreign aid paid to even enemies who hate us. It’s all down to UN policies & influence over our parliamentarians.
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Good morning Jo,
Yes Peter & John, I agree with both of you that our present PM. is not perfect!
(Peter or Tony could & would do a much better job!)
However, he’s 100% better than the member for Goldman Sachs & surgeons’ wives!!
Further, I like you think Liberal at this point are being way too much like a “Labor-lite” option!
But I also think two things are more-or-less certain to follow suit.
1. The LNP. will have to engage a huge product differentiation program between now & the next election, to ensure We don’t have “Credit Card Bill” as our PM. in 6 to 9 months time.
(And they have got some great material to work with, ie. 1.3 mil. jobs, and 1000 deaths at sea when Labor last ran(down) our borders, and $1000-$1500/qtd. power bills..etc. etc.)\
2. If the ALP. do win the next election, I am predicting there’ll be a recession inside 12 months, and a mini-revolution inside 18!!
Increasingly warm regards,
Reformed Warmist of Logan.
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How bad will things have to get in Australia before people wake up? I do not like visiting anymore. It feels like it is sliding into being a third world country.
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Australia seems ot have been nominated as the crash test dummy to see how a western population deal with being done over and whether they wake up…..
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I don’t know where you are from James, but if it is UK – well, that sounds pretty horrendous to me from here in remote Australia.
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I wonder what a mini revolution means in the Australian context? just more people grizzling over their beer?
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OR grizzling over the beer they wish they could afford.
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When I lived in Australia I brewed my own. If I had to return I would do the same, however package in kegs not bottles. I do not drink much now that I live in USA. But if I in Australia, it would drive me to drink I think!
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I agree that the bureaucracy is Leftoid in composition, but the structure overall, from the UN down, is neo Fascist.
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But it’s socialism in one form or another, isn’t it?
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Socialism with Chinese characteristics is a neo Fascist state, they have four social classes just like us. Marx would not be amused.
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The UN is neither left or right wing it is run by globalist agendas dictated by Wall St. and all the (fiat) money that flows out of it.
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I am not so sure. The UN certainly behaves like the neo fascists or the communists.
Remember, that Hitler was a National Socialist. There was nothing right wing about Hitler. The National Socialists grew from the Democratic Workers Party of Germany. Hitler even tried to do what the communists did, which was to take control of industry. Hitler had to relent as productivity sunk to such low levels, which imperilled his war effort.
There is little difference between the Neo Fascists and the Communists.
Both are responsible for the deaths of millions of people.
Both are about absolute control and the promotion of their elites at the expense of the people.
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Morrison is steering the ship towards the rocks with unerring accuracy and resolve, making sure the deck chairs are positioned just right. The man is a fool in fool’s clothing . . . as was always evident in my opinion.
No change on Paris; no change in immigration levels; the RET must not be named and shamed; more renewables; shackling Angus Taylor we can assume; no clawing back the dodgy $442 million from the reef mob; the campaign bus (that he doesn’t travel on); the Jerusalem embassy thought bubble; appointing traitorous Turnbull as our alternative PM for international events — all while Rome burns.
The SINGLE worthwhile utterance I have heard come out of Morrison’s mouth was when he called out the mozzies for their terrorism after the latest Melbourne outrage, and one might say — about bloody time. Whether that’s his politics talking or his religion talking I don’t know, but I’ll bet it isn’t his common sense talking. The man is a non-event as a leader.
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Got it there, spot on.
KK
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Don’t be fooled by Morrison’s brief moment of leadership over Melbourne, this is exactly what Turnbull did to occasionally appease the conservative base by throwing out a few crumbs of independent viewpoints that amounted to nothing just as he planned, I believe Morrison is just the caretaker stooge for Malcolm 2.0 and has been or is given a script to follow.
Even if I’m wrong there’s no remorse as these spineless traitors have done nothing to earn a scrap of respect from the people they pretend to serve, I almost considered putting Liberals first in our upcoming Victorian election purely from fear of how worse Andrews will get but considering they’ve campaigned like an extreme introvert at an orgy it only reaffirms my theory its all Kabuki and a new party is needed to remove the entire political crap stain from this country.
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If only the LNP had the same conviction and energy as the hard left as the ALP and Greens. Things would be so different and the difference between them would be so clear and unmistakable. Whether the people would then take much notice is another issue but at least we would have a clear choice between the hard left and the conservative right. Instead what we have now is the hard left versus a dog’s breakfast, and no one really likes the latter any more than the former. It’s no wonder the hard left get away with so much crap, such as CAGW. The dog’s breakfast of the LNP repels rather than attracts voters. Contrast that with what’s happening in the US. I sense though even there the hard left are still on the attack. My thinking is the hard left along with certain elements of the extreme left will unintentionally usher in a new party both here and in the US to replace the conservatives. It could be hard right. It doesn’t bold well for our future either way. I don’t need to remind anyone the scenario that might play out. Not surprisingly we never learn from history.
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In short, Australia now has a Parliamentary Cooperative of major political parties.
Without cooperation between governments and oppositions the Constitution would block UN Treaties being implemented here without referendum.
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The news of the fires in California has the proportions of the 2009 Black Saturday fires in Victoria. There are endless media throw aways about the devastating impact of Climate Change in reports on the fires.
I have an unvalidated theory that forest productivity due to increasing levels of CO2 is a growing factor contributing to the intensity and frequency of wild fires. With that in mind I did some research and found and interesting paper that discusses the current situation in Californian forests:
https://lhc.ca.gov/sites/lhc.ca.gov/files/Reports/242/Report242.pdf
There is no clear evidence in the paper that supports my theory. The astounding fact is that there were some 129 million mature dead trees in California early in 2018. It requires a mammoth effort to remove them even from the vicinity of dwellings.
An interesting factor evident in the paper is the deliberate objective since 2000 to sequester carbon in the forests. That has lead to a significant increase in the fuel loading.
So California has spent billions in the vain effort to reduce CO2 by generating electricity from intermittent generators while mismanaging their forests with the objective of them sequestering carbon – the ingredients for a disaster with non-science underpinning the misdirection of scarce resources.
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relevant also is https://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/11/causes-of-california-wildfires.html
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corrected version. [In the Paradise, CA fire area PG&E may well be facing $5 billion claims; we shall see. Gov. Brown vetoed a 2016 state legislature bill (SB 1463) aimed at the utilities to make them more responsible; Gov. Brown and PG&E claim that global warming did it. However, one can see 3 factors in the CA fire story: a) long drought, b) high winds, and c) sparks from somewhere.]
Alex Robertson, a plaintiff lawyer who has brought cases against SoCal Edison in the past, said he plans to file ‘several dozen’ lawsuits this week.
Robertson told DailyMail.com that SoCal Edison could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars for the fire.
The lawyer said a resident called 911 at 2.24pm on Thursday after she saw that high winds had brought down a power line in the same area where the Woolsey Fire began.
According to fire department officials, the fire was first reported at 2.24pm on Thursday at an old lab, formerly owned by aerospace firm Rocketdyne.
In an email to regulators SoCal Edison reported that just two minutes earlier, an electrical substation on the lab site tripped. The email said Edison was investigating the incident.
Photos taken from a news helicopter at 4.37pm showed the fire burning next to the substation, just 1,000 yards from the site of the 1959 partial nuclear meltdown at the lab.
The photos appear to show the source of the fire in a cluster of trees which the power lines passed through, just below the substation, backing up the neighbor’s account of a fire sparked from lines downed by trees in the wind.
Robertson said he also spoke to firefighters who were on the scene that day, who confirmed the blaze was started by downed power lines.
‘I spoke to firefighters who were at my neighbor’s house on Friday who are from LA County,’ said Robertson. ‘They were up at Rocketdyne when the fire first started and they confirmed to me that it was caused by a downed power line.’
Robertson also spoke to the neighbor who made the 911 call. They revealed that the same problem had caused another fire in the same place earlier this year.
‘She told me that another fire started underneath those very same power lines earlier this year during high wind conditions,’ said Robertson.
‘The local homeowners were able to put it out quickly when it was just a spot fire. So Edison was obviously on notice that this has been a problem in that area.’
Robertson said that due to California law, he only needs to prove that SoCal Edison equipment caused the fire to hold them liable for damages from the fire. Gov Jerry Brown signed a new law in September that would make it easier for utility companies to pass on some of these costs to consumers and help them avoid bankruptcy from a series of major fires in 2017.
But the law has a major gap: no damages specific to 2018 were included, so utilities face a higher bar to bill customers to cover those costs. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6384559/PG-E-SoCal-Edison-shares-plummet-amid-California-wildfires.html
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“Forest Fires in the Golden State”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/11/12/forest-fires-in-the-golden-state/
Different subject on interpretation and the ysm – unlikely you’ll hear about this on ABC et al
https://bongino.com/the-truth-about-australian-gun-control/
A friend is in a bureaucratic bunfight in which they are refusing to renew his hand gun permit. But the other hand is quite happy to issue him one for a semi-auto.
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more storms brewing your way:
https://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/11/chinauighur-news.html
and then of course the cyber battle https://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/11/cyber-wonders.html
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Updated 13 Nov: Mercury News: Camp Fire victim: PG&E told her it needed to fix sparking transmission line day before deadly blaze
PG&E, SoCal Edison roles in deadly fires investigated
By Matthias Gafni; Staff writers Karl Mondon and David DeBolt, and the Associated Press, contributed to this report.
PULGA — The day before firefighter radio transmissions revealed a malfunctioning PG&E power line may have triggered the state’s most destructive wildfire, a business owner in this tiny town near the Camp Fire’s origin said she received an email from the utility alerting her that workers had to fix a sparking problem on a nearby power line.
In the email received Wednesday, the company said they’d be coming out to work on one of their nearby towers that “were having problems with sparks,” said Betsy Ann Cowley, owner of Pulga, a former abandoned railroad town turned retreat popular with techies…
“This needs to become a class action lawsuit,” the former Oakland resident said…
The California Public Utilities Commission launched investigations Monday into California’s two largest utility companies after both PG&E and Southern California Edison Company reported that their electrical infrastructure suffered malfunctions near ground zero of two deadly blazes raging across the north and south of the state…
On Thursday, SoCal Edison issued an alert to the CPUC that a substation circuit near the origin of the Woolsey Fire in Southern California “relayed,” or sensed a disturbance on the circuit, just two minutes before Cal Fire said that devastating fire began.
“Preliminary information indicates the Woolsey Fire was reported at approximately 2:24 p.m.,” the company reported. “Our information reflects the Big Rock 16 kV circuit out of Chatsworth Substation relayed at 2:22 p.m.”…
PG&E stockholders have engaged in a massive sell-off since Friday. Trading in the utility was briefly halted Monday after shares dropped more than 37 percent, before settling at a 17 percent loss on the day. The plummeting shares marked the steepest losses since the power crisis more than a decade ago.
In Paradise, evacuees were upset with the utility.
“Seems like the responsibility is pointing toward them,” said Travis Crockett, who lost his home on Winding Way in Paradise. “Even on our street, there’s a bunch of power lines going through trees.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/12/state-regulators-investigating-pge-socal-edison-for-roles-in-deadly-camp-woolsey-fires/
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I confess to being extremely puzzled as to how ‘Climate Change’ has produced bushfires in California. No one bothers to explain how this has happened. People could talk about rainfall, temperature, wind, storms but somehow Climate Change causes bushfires and no explanation is needed. Self evident.
So we have reached the age of the non sequitur, the diametric opposite of science. Politics dictates opinion and opinion or consensus dictates science. Climate Change. Whatever the problem in the world, flood, fire, storm, wind, rain, drought, the war in Syria, the problem is Climate Change.
Plus all Climate Change is obviously Donald Trump’s fault. As President Macron indicates, the US is the enemy.
Not a nice way to say thank you publicly for all those American lives lost fighting in two French German wars but the French are probably still angry that America did not pay the bill for the war of independence from the British. Now if only they could recreate the Napoleonic empire and a Grand Armee, they could threaten America over Climate Change. Seems like a great idea. The Germans agree.
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This is also despite the fact that the United States alone has dramatically lowered CO2 output, even without the Paris accord. The move to fracking and gas has done this. However fracking, gas, dams, pipelines are all against the Green principle of doing nothing and shutting everything, so the Americans get no credit for achieving what no one else has achieved, far ahead of any Paris commitments.
So it is not a war on CO2 after all. It is a war on America waged by elites and billionaires who control Europe, the UN and the Democrat party. Once again politics and money trump logic and recognition.
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Saw this the other day
American (apparently left wing too) reply to a French ambassador on the difference between the two countries
“Americans bathe daily and buy bread weekly”
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George Soros funds radical organizations through his Open Society
Foundation with the expressed intention of weakening western nation
states like America.
In his Manifesto, ‘The open Society,Reforming Global Capitalism,’
written as he says, as a guide to action, Soros expounds guiding
principles for his vision of a global ‘open’ society that includes restrictions on individual speech and liberties, creation of a new
universal value system, attacks on western democratic constitutional
judicial systems and and against the capitalist free market.
https://beththeserf.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/50th-edition-serf-under_ground-journal/
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Saurus
He has a lot to answer for.
Perhaps one day it will all come tumbling down;
Georgie Boy
The Clinton’s
MalEx
And maybe even an answer to the greatest question imaginable: is the U.N. a branch of Golden Sacks?
KK
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The Rockefellers gifted the land the NY UN building is on, to it.
Did you know the UN is a separate nation state, like the Vatican, with its own passports and all important Diplomatic Immunity?
So the UN building in NY is in fact a soverign state, separate to the USA.
In fact, its a separate state to the rest of the planet, but we knew that….
From a Christian point of view, some consider it the most likely seat of the Anti-Christ when he rises to power….if you think about it, the Anti-Christ is prophesised to be fully in control of the planet in a crushing and ruthless one man Dictatorship, the UN likely would provide the administrative and legal and religious framework to do this. It already has set a lot of this up.
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C’mon, TdeF. No one ever has to explain religion, nor can they.
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IIRC religion seems to be losing ground so is there hope?
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Not much hope until the Soros, Clinton, Merkel, left wing media,etc scum are put away.
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Sure but when Trump accuses the Californian officials of blatant mismanagement of the forests and creating the disaster, their only response is “Climate Change”.
I suppose it just confirms the appalling abrogation of responsibility by Democrats, Greens and Hollywood. If your house burns down, it is Donald Trump’s fault and Climate Change. That anyone would offer this as an excuse is the height of irresponsibility.
We had the same in Canberra where a whole suburb burned down in a modern city because they would not allow fuel load removal by the council. You have to be concerned if you build your house in a flammable forest. This is a refusal to take responsibility for your own actions, lack of them and even idi*cy.
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Or as the Fire Chief said “Extreme Climate Change”. Much worse than the usual Climate Change. Obviously.
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Its odd how drastically and specifically this climate change affects fire behaviour in California. Oregon, Nevada, Arizona , Mexico less so. It would seem that its more likely to be what goes on in Ca than the overall climate. But thats just my perverse way of looking at things i guess.
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Morning all.
I suppose we’ve all seen that wind farm in QLD doing it’s little bit for atmospheric CO2 ?
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/wind-turbine-goes-up-in-flames-in-windy-hill-north-queensland/news-story/6b7d295ca5f2911c11e5a649f4c5986a
Could make quite a nice poster. And the smoke is real.
Cheers,
Speedy
Nice to see you around Speedy! – Jo
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Sorry speedy…
Thats behind a paywall !
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from yesterday’s Australian (edited)
Fire and emergency services rushed to the turbine at Ravenshoe’s Windy Hill, which caught ablaze at around 3pm today, to ensure it did not start a larger grass fire.
“Emergency services established an exclusion zone around the turbine to ensure no one got hurt.”
A spokesman for renewable power producer, Ratch, Simon Greenacre, said the fire started and was contained within a part of the turbine that houses its generating component. “We are not aware of any property damage or interruptions to electricity supply in the local area. ”It is the first time the turbine has had a fire since it started running 18 years ago.
Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce posted a photo of the turbine on twitter and said “this wind tower has a lot to answer on meeting its carbon emissions reduction target.”
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see pattoh at No.15
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14 Nov: Daily Mail: Powerline ‘sparks’ blamed for California wildfires: Electric company’s stocks plummet as landowner claims it was investigating fault BEFORE Camp Fire killed 42, while Malibu residents sue over ‘strong evidence’ separate failure caused Woolsey fire
•PG&E saw shares drop 48 percent in two days of trading since Camp Fire began
•SoCal Edison’s parent company’s shares dropped more than 20% since Woolsey
By Anneta Konstantinides, Ryan Parry, Josh Boswell and Associated Press
Southern California Edison reported to the CPUC that there was an outage on an electric circuit right by the area where the Woolsey Fire first began.
Just two minutes after the outage occurred on Thursday afternoon, the first reports of the fire started coming in…
The photos appear to show the source of the fire in a cluster of trees which the power lines passed through, just below the substation, backing up the neighbor’s account of a fire sparked from lines downed by trees in the wind.
Robertson said he also spoke to firefighters who were on the scene that day, who confirmed the blaze was started by downed power lines.
‘I spoke to firefighters who were at my neighbor’s house on Friday who are from LA County,’ said Robertson. ‘They were up at Rocketdyne when the fire first started and they confirmed to me that it was caused by a downed power line.’
Robertson also spoke to the neighbor who made the 911 call. They revealed that the same problem had caused another fire in the same place earlier this year.
‘She told me that another fire started underneath those very same power lines earlier this year during high wind conditions,’ said Robertson…
Shares of SoCal Edison’s parent company, Edison International, have tumbled more than 20 percent since the fire started…
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6384559/PG-E-SoCal-Edison-shares-plummet-amid-California-wildfires.html
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Been talking with a car forum buddy who lives in Tehama County just north of Paradise/Chico. Reading her description is just like VIC 2009 in Australia. Years of poor forest management, years of poor building site management and house standards, marginal electricity infrastructure, drought and catastophic weather days. All the same stuff just delete Kinglake and Marysville and insert Paradise.
Another complicating factor over there is divison of ownership and responsibility in forested areas. A lot of it is private and the rest split up over State and Federal. The finger pointing should be epic.
I dont envy them the road back. Its 10 years down the track here and there is still a lot of scarred landscape and recovering people. Marysville while rejuvenating is still only a third of its size pre fire.
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The disgusting behaviour of Green’s representatives is now getting some publicity.
Is anyone genuinely surprised with the antics of this bunch of imbeciles?
These animals purport to be the saviours of the planet. What a joke.
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grabbing pussy was he?
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Probably not into the really hard stuff that Presidents john Kennedy and Bill Clinton engaged in – another couple of whacko greenies.
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And allegedly Foley’s a bit of a bummer too.
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decades ago, probably, but people are more concerned with recent events. After all he isnt going for SCOTUS
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Some of the hard core green appear to have advocated favouring the planet over humans, so their attitude seems to be if a few humans die…oh well, so sad too bad….
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13 Nov: Breitbart: France Finance Minister: Europe Must Become an ‘Empire’ to Compete with U.S., Vows to Defy Trump’s Iran Sanctions
by Victoria Friedman
“It’s about Europe having to become a kind of empire, as China is. And how the U.S. is,” (Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire) told Germany’s Handelsblatt.
Adding that it would be a “peaceful empire,” the economics and finance minister touted the progressive government’s green credentials, saying that the European empire should “rely on ***green growth. Neither China nor the U.S., who are leaving the ***Paris Agreement on Climate Change, are on this path.”
Quizzed by the journalist on his reference to “empire,” Mr Le Maire said: “Do not get me wrong, I’m talking about a peaceful empire that’s a constitutional state.
“I use the term to raise awareness that in the world of tomorrow, it will be about power. Power will make the difference: technological power, economic, financial, monetary, cultural power will be crucial.
“Europe should no longer shy away from displaying its power and being an empire of peace,” the minister remarked…
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/11/13/france-finance-minister-europe-become-empire-compete-us-vows-defy-trumps-iran-sanctions/
Handelsblatt English version doesn’t mention “green” or “paris agreement”, but the German version does:
Handelsblatt (German version – google translation of the last 2 answers from Le Maire at end of interview)
Because it’s about Europe having to become an Art Empire, as China is. And how the US is. But a peaceful empire that relies on green growth. Neither China nor the US, who are leaving the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, are on this line…
Do not get me wrong, I’m talking about a peaceful empire that’s a constitutional state. I use the term to raise awareness that power will be in the world of tomorrow. Power will make the difference: technological power, economic, financial, monetary, cultural power will be crucial. Europe should no longer shy away from playing its power and being an empire of peace…
https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/europapolitik-frankreichs-finanzminister-macht-druck-auf-berlin-europa-muss-ein-empire-werden/23600498.html?ticket=ST-287989-qeznhalOinbWhTskeQBB-ap4
“green finance”!
12 Nov: UK Express: Macron’s GOLD RUSH: France in plot to SWIPE gold trade from London in Brexit grab
By Levi Winchester
Paris is said to have been the “most aggressive” of all the EU countries in trying to persuade banks into shifting operations after Britain leaves the bloc.
It has already won a bid to become the new home of the European Banking Authority, which will move from London after Brexit.
While banks including JPMorgan and Bank of America have already established their intent to move some business to the French capital…
French finance minister Bruno Le Maire said back in February: “It is one of our goals to make Paris the largest financial centre in Europe.
“JP Morgan, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs want to expand their French offices.
“France wants to play a key role in the important ***green finance.”…
https://www.express.co.uk/finance/city/1044215/France-news-Emmanuel-Macron-Banque-de-France-gold-price-Paris-London
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pat:
From my (very dated) experience with French banks I would think that a disaster would only be avoided by copious supplies of tax payers money.
Couldn’t happen to a “nicer” President.
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13 Nov: Fox News: Climate change could damage men’s ability to procreate, study says
By Chris Ciaccia
A new study (LINK) highlights the risks that heatwaves can alter species’ population numbers over time, resulting in drastically lower sperm counts for insects and could impact other groups for years to come. The findings were published in the journal Nature Communications.
“We know that biodiversity is suffering under climate change, but the specific causes and sensitivities are hard to pin down,” said Research group leader Prof Matt Gage in a statement (LINK). “We’ve shown in this work that sperm function is an especially sensitive trait when the environment heats up, and in a model system representing a huge amount of global biodiversity.”…
RELATED LINK: SCIENTIST: DECLINE IN FOREST INSECTS IS ‘HYPERALARMING’
Females, however, were not affected by the warmer conditions…
RELATED LINK: THIS COFFIN-SHAPED ICEBERG IS HEADED TO DIE
https://www.foxnews.com/science/climate-change-could-damage-mens-ability-to-procreate
Fox omitted any mention of UEA:
13 Nov: Phys.org: Climate change damaging male fertility
Provided by: University of East Anglia
https://phys.org/news/2018-11-climate-male-fertility.html
13 Nov: BBC: Climate change: Heatwaves ‘halve’ male insect fertility
By Helen Briggs
Kirs Sales, a co-researcher on the study, said: “Our research shows that heatwaves halve male reproductive fitness, and it was surprising how consistent the effect was.”
Other research has shown that heat can damage male reproduction in humans as well as other mammals.
Heatwaves are predicted to become more common under climate change, with consequences for human and animal health.
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-46194383
30
pat:
(1) “Our research shows that heatwaves halve male reproductive fitness, and it was surprising how consistent the effect was.”
(2) Heatwaves are predicted to become more common under climate change.
What happens if the climate goes cooler?
I see the headlines
Randy males caused by Climate Change!!!
Threat to females blamed on too much CO2 (from Champagne)!
00
12 Nov: ClimateChangeNews: Island president beats no-confidence vote, days before leading climate summit
Marshall Islands Hilda Heine narrowly defeated the motion, just days before she is due to open a virtual summit of climate-vulnerable nations
By Megan Darby
Hilda Heine, president of the Marshall Islands and a leading climate advocate, narrowly survived a vote of no confidence in parliament on Monday.
Lawmakers split 16-16 over the attempt to oust her, with one absentee, falling just one vote short of the majority her opponents needed…
It keeps president Heine in office for a virtual summit (LINK) planned by countries on the front line of climate impacts on 22 November. As convenor she is expected to launch the 24-hour call for action in the capital Majuro.
Organised by the Climate Vulnerable Forum, an informal coalition of 48 nations, it is intended to drum up support for raising ambition ahead of this year’s UN climate summit in Katowice, Poland.
Leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Canada’s Justin Trudeau, are expected to broadcast statements on social media, while expert panels discuss key issues…
In September, her government published plans to make the Marshall Island carbon neutral by 2050.
As host to the world’s second largest ship registry, the Marshall Island is leading calls to decarbonise the sector through the UN shipping regulator.
Heine has also attracted finance from international donors like the World Bank to protect the low-lying atoll nation from the threats brought by rising seas and intensifying tropical storms.
The opposition raised a number of objections to her leadership, including challenging plans to introduce a cryptocurrency as legal tender alongside the US dollar.
She hit back, calling these complaints a “smokescreen” for efforts to turn one atoll into an independent tax haven, an idea proposed by Chinese businessman Cary Yan.
Heine warned that such a move would undermine the Marshall Islands’ sovereignty and open the door to money laundering and passport scams.
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2018/11/12/island-president-beats-no-confidence-vote-days-leading-climate-summit/
Virtual Climate Summit: PARTNERS
350.org, C40 Cities, CARE International, Christian Aid, Climate Reality Project, Greenpeace, UNFCCC, World Banks, World Economic Forum, WRI, WWF, etc etc etc
http://www.virtualclimatesummit.org/partners/
00
13 Nov: UK Independent: Marshall Islands’ plan for a national cryptocurrency survives crucial vote
The International Monetary Fund has misgivings about the country’s plan for a sovereign digital currency
by Anthony Cuthbertson
President Heine faced a vote of no confidence after eight senators accused her of damaging the reputation of the country by backing of the proposed currency.
However, she survived by a single vote.
Finance Minister Brenson Wase said the Marshallese government would now move forward with plans for the sovereign cryptocurrency, according to the Nikkei Asian Review…
The government hopes to raise funds by selling half of the cryptocurrency’s initial allocation to foreign investors. The remainder will either be kept in a governmental trust fund or distributed to citizens of the Marshall Islands…
A September report from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the new cryptocurrency still faced several challenges…READ ON
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/cryptocurrency-marshall-islands-national-sovereign-bitcoin-imf-vote-a8631906.html
10
Wow! How can government be kept out of the hands of idiots? What would any of these representatives know about the management of a cryptocurrency other than what they’ve been told by its boosters through a powerpoint presentation? I daresay there’d be support for a hare-brained scheme such as this in Australia’s parliament –no shortage of idiots there.
40
Much , much too late I’m afraid. Agree though there should be IQ tests to drive, breed and become a politician. Politicians should also be subject to a 10 year work experience requirement in a non political/union or media organisation. I dont care how outraged young people may get about the work requirement but the fact is you really dont sh1t from clay until you are 30 (especially males). You just dont realise it till much later.
10
Will they?
“Looks like @Toyota is getting him a new truck.”
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/index.php/2018/11/13/looks-like-toyota-is-getting-him-a-new-truck/#comments
10
That’s why we drive Toyotas. Landcruisers. Anything but electric except the charge you get at the top of the mountain.
00
Researchers brace for dark matter ‘hurricane’
https://cosmosmagazine.com/space/researchers-brace-for-dark-matter-hurricane
Read it. You decide.
30
The only thing that is for certain is that more funding will be required to investigate further. It vital that we examine this unprecedented tipping point. It could be worse than we think.
20
one down :-
https://www.cairnspost.com.au/news/ravenshoe-wind-turbine-goes-up-in-flames/news-story/c5c8b777a5609d7b4f842270256febfd
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unattributed; no link to report:
13 Nov: ABC Rural: Deluge and Drought: Climate Council issues grim warning on looming water security crisis
The Climate Council has released a new report linking climate change with worsening droughts, including the current one, extreme weather events such as bushfires and floods, and identifying water security as a source of grave concern.
The report, Deluge and Drought: Australia’s Water Security in a Changing Climate, stated that if the effects of climate change were left unchecked the results for the agriculture sector and beyond will be devastating…
These grim figures were all related, the publicly-funded council found, to rainfall patterns thrown badly out of whack by climate change…
“Most of our [rainfall] comes from the ocean, so we are exposed to big-scale changes, and the tropics are expanding,” Professor Will Steffen, one of the report’s seven co-authors, said.
“That is the ultimate explanation for why these fronts in the Southern Ocean are now being pushed a bit further south, and so that means that we are getting less rainfall across the southern part of Australia.
“We’re getting fewer good autumn breaks than we did before, due to the warming of the Indian Ocean.”…
The authors cited the Australian Capital Territory “megafires” of 2003 (during which the world’s first-known “fire tornado” was observed) as an example of the disastrous one-two punch of climate change…
The report identified climate change as a “threat multiplier”, with myriad knock-on effects stemming from water insecurity that extended beyond the environmental and economic all the way to social disharmony, poverty, and the prospect of future waves of “climate refugees”…
Council urges immediate action
“Solutions are available.
“We need to accelerate the transition to clean, affordable and reliable renewables and storage technologies and ramp up other climate solutions in the water, transport, agriculture and other sectors.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2018-11-13/climate-change-report-and-drought-policy/10493812
Climate Council: Deluge & Drought: Water Security in a Changing Climate
DOWNLOAD THE REPORT
https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/resources/water-security-report/
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13 Nov: Breitbart: ‘The Worst Deal in History’: Brexiteers Respond to Theresa May’s ‘Slave State’ Agreement With Europe
by Oliver JJ Lane
The Prime Minister has betrayed the principles of Brexit and is subjecting the United Kingdom to political slavery at the hands of Brussels, Brexiteers have said as the details of the Prime Minister’s deal leaked to Irish media Tuesday afternoon.
Brexiteers within the Conservative party met Tuesday as the news emerged of a “technical level” agreement emerged (LINK) — apparently leaked to Irish journalists sympathetic to the European Union but not to figures within the United Kingdom — and spoke of launching a “coup” against the Prime Minister, Britain’s The Times reported (LINK) in the early hours of Wednesday morning…
Several prominent pro-Brexit figures lined up to condemn the plan, which if the leaks are representative of what has been agreed, would see most promises and red-lines promised by the Prime Minister broken or ignored…READ ON
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2018/11/13/the-worst-deal-in-history-brexiteers-respond-to-theresa-mays-slave-state-agreement-with-europe/
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Pretend for a minute that you own a power plant here in Australia. You have the choice to own either (a) Bayswater power station, a coal fired relic now 33 years old, and obviously on the way out, or (b) The Macarthur Wind Plant, the largest wind plant in Australia, one of the newest wind plants around, barely five years old.
Just the income from selling their generated electricity to the wholesalers yesterday, Bayswater netted $4.65 Million.
Just the income from selling their generated electricity to the wholesalers yesterday, Macarthur netted $38,500.
Bayswater had all four Units running, with Unit Two now back on line after some work, and that came back online around Midnight and took ten hours to run back up to maximum output, so the plant was not making their full power until around 10AM, so less money coming in. Across the whole day, Bayswater averaged 2383MW per hour, and that’s at a daily Capacity Factor (CF) of 90.2%, but from 10AM onwards, it averaged closer to 96% with a high of 2632MW. (CF = 99.6% ….. from a 33 year old four unit clunker no less)
Macarthur averaged 37MW per hour across that same 24 hours at an average CF of 8.81%
The total power delivered across the WHOLE DAY by Macarthur was delivered by Bayswater every ….. 22 MINUTES across the whole day.
You know, seriously, I would actually be a wind power supporter, if only they could make it work.
Tony.
(No, I wouldn’t!)
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“a coal fired relic now 33 years old, and obviously on the way out”
I can understand people running power stations into the ground, like Liddell. Paid nothing for it, do not want it, turned down even $250,000,000 cash for something AGL argue is worthless? That doesn’t add up.
A factory, a lot of machinery has no used by date, if everything is maintained and some things are replaced. If you budgeted 10% of income for maintenance and upgrades, can these power stations last forever?
It’s also tax deductible, which partly funds the maintenance.
So is that true? I know the owners of Hazelwood spent over $2Billion on the plant they bought for $2.5Billion on a 40 year lease. They did not sell it after 20 years because it was ‘old’. The State Government tripled the price of coal to force them to close. As you noted, they were at 98% of original design output in the month before they closed. Surely that is the real definition of ‘old’?
I also saw the gigantic rotor from Loy Yang go to Germany this year on a truck through Melbourne, so maintenance happens. So how much of the ‘lifespan’ of these power stations is real and how much is propaganda?
80
There are a few retired dragline maintenance people living in Mackay and Yeppoon who can make a 40 year old dragline operate and look better than a new machine.
Go and look at some of the boats operating on the Volga – 60 years old and you could eat your food of the engine room floor.
But all that is a bit too hard to understand for the “””normal””” people in our lazy Australian society.
30
The paddle steamers that ply Lake Geneva make intersesting as you can view the engine area. Swiss maintenance mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm 🙂
10
Imagine the pride in those people who maintain Units like this at that Bayswater plant, that all four Units when running together can still deliver 99.6% of its original specification after 35 years.
Imagine getting in a 1988 Holden, starting up the engine, and planting your foot so the engine runs at the ‘red’ line on the tacho. Now, keep it there for days and sometimes weeks on end, and do that for 33 years.
Incidentally, Bayswater ….. on its own, delivered double the power on this one day of EVERY wind plant in the Country combined.
And you wonder why I’m not a fan of wind power.
Tony.
130
Thats it, the generators still work well, based on solid engineering.
20
Yup.
The probelm we have in this country is people have very little solid science understanding. All they mostly see is power prices going up and trying to jam solar cell son thier roofs as fast as they can to avoid being nailed to the wall financially.
Most pollies are lawyers, and I doubt most lawyers know much about engineering. Lawyers are suited to the people business, but not engineering.
The problem too is that the top of the tree, the Chief Scientist appears to have signed onto the climate lie, so how do you succeed? I think pollies in this country will find out the hard way when the economy tanks.
10
MSM is massively covering and updating this story POSITIVELY, and virtually hourly.
never mind CAGW wasn’t on the mid-term elections agenda:
13 Nov: Breitbart: Ocasio-Cortez Joins Crowd of Youth Protesters at Nancy Pelosi’s Office
by Kyle Morris
Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio Cortez joined more than 200 youth activists in storming the office of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Tuesday morning in order to get her to act on climate change.
Capitol police stated 51 protesters had been arrested after unlawfully demonstrating outside Pelosi’s office in the Cannon House Office Building. Police began making arrests when the protestors refused to leave the area after a few hours of demonstration.
Ocasio-Cortez departed before arrests were made…
Pelosi embraced the protesters and said she planned on launching a special committee to focus on the climate crisis. Pelosi said in a statement:
“We are inspired by the energy and activism of the many young activists and advocates leading the way on the climate crisis, which threatens the health, economic security and futures of all our communities. I have recommended to my House Democratic colleagues that we reinstate a select committee to address the climate crisis. House Democrats ran on and won on our bold campaign for a $1 trillion investment in our infrastructure that will make our communities more resilient to the climate crisis, while creating 16 million new good-paying jobs across the country.”…
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2018/11/13/ocasio-cortez-joins-crowd-of-youth-protesters-at-nancy-pelosis-office/
14 Nov: NBC: Key ‘resistance’ group plots how newly elected reps can take on Trump — and House Democratic leaders
“Indivisible,” which organized protests around the country against the president, has written a ‘how-to’ guide for a progressive agenda in Congress.
by Benjy Sarlin
In a preview of how the emboldened grassroots wing might operate, Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., joined climate protesters in occupying Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s office on Tuesday. The two exchanged kind words on Twitter, but Ocasio-Cortez’s demands were more than symbolic: She pushed for a plan to combat climate change by 2020 drafted without input from Democrats who take donations from the fossil fuel industry…
CAPTION: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, congresswoman-elect from New York, speaks to activists with the Sunrise Movement protesting in the offices of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., on Capitol Hill on Nov. 13, 2018 (“GREEN JOBS FOR ALL” SIGNS)
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/key-resistance-group-plots-how-newly-elected-reps-can-take-n935786
what NBC omitted about Indivisible:
InfluenceWatch: The Indivisible Project (Indivisible)
Location: Portland, Oregon
Founders: Ezra Levin, Leah Greenberg
The Indivisible Project (or Indivisible) is a left-of-center 501(c)(4) tax-exempt organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., and created in late 2016 as a response to the election of President Donald Trump…
Indivisible claims to represent over 5,800 groups and has a website that has been viewed over 18 million times…
Financial Overview…
In 2017, Indivisible raised “a total of $7.5 million,” with “$2.8 million” through the 501(c)(3) and “$4.7 million” through the 501(c)(4). Over the course of 2017, Indivisible was fiscally sponsored by the Tides Foundation and the Advocacy Fund (a Tides affiliate) until it “was granted 501(c)(4) status from the IRS” during the tax year…
Of Indivisible’s 2017 revenue, 35 percent was raised through small dollar donations, and 65 percent was received through major gifts and foundation grants. Of the $7.5 million raised, $3.4 million was spent on organization expenses…
Affiliated Organizatons
Indivisible’s most prominent allies include the Democratic Socialists of America, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), MoveOn.org, Planned Parenthood, the Working Families Party, Tides Foundation, among others…
Kenneth Vogel, a reporter at the New York Times, attributed growth in Indivisible to funding from prominent liberals including “the tech entrepreneur Reid Hoffman, as well as foundations or coalitions tied to Democracy Alliance donors, including San Francisco mortgage billionaire Herbert Sandler, the New York real estate heiress Patricia Bauman and the oil heiress Leah Hunt-Hendrix.”…
Democracy Alliance
Indivisible has numerous links to the Democracy Alliance (DA), a network of high-profile, wealthy, and institutional donors on the political left…
In the past, officials with Indivisible have said that they “would ‘Gladly’ accept a check from Mr. [George] Soros or his foundation…
Leadership
Angel Padilla, Indivisible Project’s policy director, previously worked as an analyst with the National Immigration Law Center (an organization funded by grants from Soros’ Open Society Foundations) and as an immigration policy consultant at UnidosUS (formerly the National Council of La Raza)…
https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/the-indivisible-project-indivisible/
10
Caution:
Australian Republican Movement founding member, Tom Keneally, is reported in The Australian today saying that the time is not right to hold a “plebiscite” on a republic.
Bill Shorten, Labor Leader, recently said a government he leads would pursue a republic. Former PM Turnbull is head of ARM, or was. He failed to give us a SSM plebiscite and instead conducted a postal survey. The last republic vote was by referendum, as it should be according to The Constitution. Did Keneally make a mistake or was he repeating what ARM is discussing about how to fool voters and again bypass constitutional law?
The website (stopturnbull.com) reveals Turnbull’s long time ambition has been to create Republic of Australia and amend the Constitution, a badly flawed document in his opinion written by unqualified people at the time of Federation. The fact is that our Constitution actually protects the people from rogue politicians, and they hate it.
Using UN treaties to bypass constitutional law, in other words implementing treaties without referendum, which could only succeed if both sides of politics agree to ignore the law, as they are doing. So change the Constitution would be a major hidden objective.
Note too that Germany and France have leaders now calling for a European Union Republic, sovereign nations to become controlled states.
Please don’t let our politicians continue to rely on voter ignorance of our rights.
60
The russians call the EU the European Soviet……
So far Turncoat has been well named, a jackdaw happy to feast on the carcasss of democracy….
10
14 Nov: SMH: Good work damaged by minister on L plates, but here’s how to help our neighbours
By Concetta Fierravanti-Wells
(Senator Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (LIBERAL) is the former minister for international development and the Pacific)
Much is being said lately about the need to stay or leave the Paris Agreement. One of the excuses being proffered for Australia remaining is because of our Pacific neighbours.
Seven of the 10 most disaster prone countries are in our region. Adverse climatic events exacerbate existing development challenges and constrain economic growth. They affect oceans, fisheries, marine and coastal ecosystems and have the potential to affect the stability and security of the region.
Now, whether one believes that CO2 is plant food, vital for the health of the planet where the climate has been changing since the beginning of time, or whether one falls into the “Al Gore camp” living a state of nervousness because Armageddon is just over the horizon, it remains important that we deal with today’s realities and the impact of climate change.
There will be another cyclone or tsunami—this is the reality of the Pacific…
As part of our $1 billion commitment to the Paris Agreement, $300 million was allocated to the Pacific for climate and resilience building on climate change and resilience activities in Pacific Island countries, including $75 million for disaster preparedness.
We contributed another $200 million to the Green Climate Fund. As its co-chair, Australia supported Pacific projects to mitigate against adverse climatic events and resilience development such as for coastal adaptation in Tuvalu, water supply and wastewater management in Fiji, climate information services in Vanuatu; integrated flood management in Samoa; and, for the Asian Development Bank’s Pacific Renewable Energy Investment Program.
It is therefore regrettable that our good work and practical support for the Pacific has been recently damaged by an Environment Minister on “L-plates” through the unfortunate incident with former President Tong of Kiribati. It demonstrated a lack of diplomacy, understanding and respect for one of our nearest neighbours…
So instead of contributing to the Green Climate Fund or to entities such as Beijing’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (to which we also contributed $1 billion) and it’s associated Belt and Road initiatives, climate action starts at home by helping our neighbours and supporting them in the establishment of this key initiative.
As a key development partner in the Pacific, Australia should lead the way and commit to substantial capitalisation of the fund and in so doing, encourage other development partners in our region to do likewise. A good start would be to dedicate a sizeable portion from the newly announced $2 billion Australian Infrastructure Financing Facility for the Pacific with a direct grant to the capitalisation of the fund…
https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/good-work-damaged-by-minister-on-l-plates-but-here-s-how-to-help-our-neighbours-20181113-p50fpj.html
10
Another politician who is not across the subject, does not apparently know that the Pacific Islands are not at risk from ocean rising and the island politicians are most interested in the money they might extract from countries including Australia by playing the man-made global warming bu carbon dioxide emissions hoax political game.
30
14 Nov: SBS: AAP: Climate change may cause mass extinctions, new report shows
New research has found that extreme climate change risks an extinction effect that could annihilate all life on earth.
The worst-case scenario is outlined in the journal Scientific Reports and describes how organisms die out because they depend on other doomed species in a process called co-extinctions…
In their work, researchers from Italy and Australia simulated 2000 virtual earths, linking animal and plant species.
Using sophisticated modelling, they subjected the virtual earths to catastrophic events including extreme environmental change, an asteroid strike and nuclear war…
Co-author Corey Bradshaw, from Flinders University, said failing to take into account co-extinctions underestimates the loss of entire species from events like climate change by up to 10 times…
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/climate-change-may-cause-mass-extinctions-new-report-shows
13 Nov: Nature Scientific Reports: Co-extinctions annihilate planetary life during extreme environmental change
Authors: Giovanni Strona, Corey J. A. Bradshaw
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-35068-1
00
okay https://balance10.blogspot.com/2018/11/update-ca-fires-costsliability.html
00
A MUST-READ:
8 Nov: Forbes: As Renewables Drive Up Energy Prices, Voters In U.S., Asia & Europe Are Opting For Nuclear Power
by Michael Shellenberger
Voters in the U.S., Asia, and Europe are increasingly opting for nuclear power in response to rising electricity prices from the deployment of renewables like solar panels and wind turbines.
By a more than two-to-one margin (70% to 30%), voters in Arizona on Tuesday rejected a ballot initiative (proposition 127) that would have resulted in the closure of that state’s nuclear power plant and in the massive deployment of solar and wind.
In Taiwan, momentum is building for a repeal of that nation’s nuclear energy phase-out. Grassroots pro-nuclear advocacy inspired a former president to help activists gather over 300,000 signatures so voters could vote directly on the issue on November 24.
And after a coalition of grassroots groups rallied in Munich, Germany last month to protest the closure of nuclear plants, a wave of mostly positive media coverage spread across Europe, inspiring a majority of Netherlands voters, and the nation’s ruling political party, to declare support for building new nuclear reactors.
***Now, in the wake of rising public support for nuclear energy, a longstanding foe of nuclear power, the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists, has reversed its blanket opposition to the technology and declared that existing U.S. nuclear plants must stay open to protect the climate…READ ALL
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2018/11/08/as-renewables-drive-up-energy-prices-voters-in-u-s-asia-europe-are-opting-for-nuclear-power/#3e0edbda7646
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Union of Concerned Scientists: The Nuclear Power Dilemma (2018)
DOWNLOADS
https://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-power/cost-nuclear-power/retirements?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tw#.W-vGiORRfIU
10
Obviously Anthony Watts’s dog done good
10
I just did a quick search, reading only the headlines. The results:
COSTS OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS — WHAT WENT WRONG?
http://www.phyast.pitt.edu/~blc/book/chapter9.html
Some plants completed in the late 1980s have cost as much as $5 billion, 30 times what they cost 15 years earlier.
and
Between 2002 and 2008, for example, cost estimates for new nuclear plant construction rose from between $2 billion and $4 billion per unit to $9 billion per unit, according to a 2009 UCS report, while experience with new construction in Europe has seen costs continue to soar.
The Cost of Nuclear Power | Union of Concerned Scientists
https://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear-power/cost-nuclear-power
What could account for these cost increases? CAD should reduce some costs and digital control must be far cheaper than analog with moving coil meters. The only legitimate cost increase I can think of is with WHS. We no longer write off dead workers as a cost of doing business.
Snowy II has similar cost increases compared to the original when, one might assume, boring machines have become better in the half century since.
What am I missing?
10
just a guess. the plan is to grab the CAGW trillions from pension funds, etc., to pay for whichever mob wins the fight – whether nuclear, gas or “renewables”, so cost doesn’t matter.
00
They didn’t bore granite. It was all drilled and blasted using shortcut techniques that would put you in jail many times over these days. The drillers would use the remnants of any previous drill holes to start a new hole and speed things up. Unfortunately some of those holes still contained a small amount of jelly that hadn’t exploded . . . until they were hit by a drill bit, causing the rock face to explode into the drilling team. There were some terrible accidents as a result, but it was shrugged off in those days. Speed was all that mattered. Mining giant Theiss Bros got their start in mining with a Snowy contract and set a new world record for hard rock tunnelling.
My old man was in charge of their workshop at the age of 23 and developed a lifelong contempt for Land Rovers and Fiat dozers, both of which were not up to the job. It was Theiss who imported the first Toyota Land Cruisers into Oz to work on the Snowy to replace the lousy Land Rovers. The Rovers’ fuel tanks punctured very easily and their rear axle shackles used to break regularly, so that most Rovers crabbed their way around with their axles out of alignment. The little Fiat dozers that they used had crappy starter motors and spares were non-existent. At one stage my dad had 1 starter motor to start 14 dozers. It was bolted on, used, then unbolted and moved to the next dozer etc until all 14 dozers were started for the day.
20
Landrovers were also useless when driving around the middle of Australia. Used to break rear axles often, not something you want to do out there. The mining companies and others also switched to Landcruisers in the mid-60s.
20
“Useless” is a bit harsh.
Unreliable probably, but since much of Australias inner desert highways were first mapped out by Len Beadell driving his S1 Landrover through thousands of km of unmapped desert scrub for over 20 years…..”.useless” is not a desscription i would use.!
10
Ok, perhaps useless was harsh. But talking to the Carlyles, inland dingo hunters, in the 60s, they were quite scathing of the Rovers. I had a Toyota Lite Stout when out on the Nullarbor, its 8″ ground clearance was very handy.
00
The GOP has been unable to defend against voter fr@ud for 36 BLUDDY years because of a Clinton appointed judge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHO-Nvr0_mw FF to 1:30
10
I am at a loss. I can’t even come up with adequate grumbling and cussing over this, this, this inanity that has caught my eye and won’t leave.
I keep seeing articles like this https://www.nbcnews.com/mach/science/climate-change-may-be-dissolving-ocean-floor-here-s-why-ncna935261
“A study published Oct. 29 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that high levels of carbon dioxide — the heat-trapping greenhouse gas that is a key contributor to Earth’s warming climate — have made parts of the North Atlantic Ocean and the Southern Ocean so acidic that the chalky white mineral that makes up the seafloor is dissolving.”
based on this http://www.pnas.org/content/115/46/11700.short?rss=1
” The dissolution of sedimentary CaCO3 neutralizes excess CO2, thus preventing runaway acidification, and acts as a negative-feedback mechanism in regulating atmospheric CO2 levels over timescales of centuries to millennia. We report an observation-based indication and quantification of significant CaCO3 dissolution at the seafloor caused by man-made CO2. This dissolution is already occurring at various locations in the deep ocean, particularly in the northern Atlantic and near the Southern Ocean, where the bottom waters are young and rich in anthropogenic CO2.”
which, while it does specifically claim to have “seen” that the CaCO3 is dissolving Due To Man Made CO2, it does not imply that the ocean floor is being dissolved – but it does imply that it can tell the difference between “natural” and “man-made” CO at that level and scale (has enough time even passed for “man-made” CO2 to reach the ocean floor?)
30
Mary E:
I understand your frustration. Below from Wikipedia!
“The lysocline is the depth in the ocean below which the rate of dissolution of calcite increases dramatically.
Shallow marine waters are generally supersaturated in calcite, CaCO3, so as marine organisms (which often have shells made of calcite (or aragonite) die, they will tend to fall downwards without dissolving. As depth and pressure increases within the water column, the corresponding calcite saturation of seawater decreases and the shells start to dissolve. At the lysocline, the rate of dissolution increases dramatically, and the concentration of calcite decreases by up to 90%.
Below this, there exists a depth known as the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) below which the rate of supply of calcite equals the rate of dissolution, such that no calcite is deposited. This depth is the equivalent of a marine snow-line, and averages about 4,500 meters below sea level. Hence, the lysocline and CCD are not equivalent. The lysocline and compensation depth occur at greater depths in the Atlantic (5000–6000 m) than in the Pacific (4000 – 5000 m), and at greater depths in equatorial regions than in polar regions.
The depth of the CCD varies as a function of the chemical composition of the seawater and its temperature. Specifically, it is the deep waters that are undersaturated with calcium carbonate primarily because its solubility increases strongly with increasing pressure and salinity and decreasing temperature”.
From the last bit we could claim that the global temperature is cooling.
In practice the first reference is garbage; how do they know the ocean floor is dissolving? Not much evidence I suspect. I would suggest both papers have confused a small rise in the CCD with more CO2 which as you point out hasn’t had time to get down there in the last 60 years (given that the ocean turnover time is estimated between 1000 & 1900 years). The Little Ice Age was 300-750 years ago.
Then you must allow for peer pressure; the wish for approval from fellow gullible believers in AGW (very prevalent in Unis) which leads to more grants.
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Then there’s this morning’s ABC with this piece of shite … hurricanes may not have become windier but they have become wetter … and paved cities flood faster than paddocks … yes we studied it.
If this is what is now classed as “science” I’ve just made all of us Einstens.
Cheers
10
https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-11-15/climate-change-tropical-cyclone-hurricanes-severity/10489622
10
I found this interesting :
“4 Don’t compare yourself with others. Just look at your own work to see if you have done anything to be proud of. 5 You must each accept the responsibilities that are yours.”
( Gal 4:4-5 )
https://cen.acs.org/careers/employment/Jealous-peers-stop-comparing-yourself/96/i46?utm_source=NonMember&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=CEN
“Do you compare yourself with other people? When I was in graduate school, I admired the students who were a year or two ahead of me. They seemed smarter and more self-assured, and at group meetings they always had the right answers, delivered with a nonchalant cool that I desperately wanted to emulate.
In the lab, I remember admiring the fluid motions of one of the senior graduate students as he set up reactions, even the way he flicked test tubes into the glass waste bin. I realized later that he, too, had his struggles during graduate school. While I was fumbling in my hood attempting to run experiments, he was battling doubts about getting manuscripts published and navigating the swift waters of applying for postdoctoral positions or industrial jobs.
As a midcareer chemist, I haven’t stopped comparing myself with others. I’m keenly aware of which coworkers make key breakthroughs on major company projects. I don’t want to seem petty, but I am even aware of who last won the boss’s verbal praise. I wouldn’t call myself jealous, but I admit to craving more of the boss’s praise and being envious of those who are well regarded by others.
With social media, it’s hard to avoid playing the comparison game. People are unlikely to post on LinkedIn about their poor performance review or say, “Just another boring day at the lab/office!” Rather, they’ll announce their latest accomplishments: “So honored to win 2018 Employee of the Year!” along with a picture of them smiling while accepting a large piece of engraved Lucite from their senior leadership. Announcements of international conference travel and keynote addresses coupled with pictures of fine meals immediately make me scroll through my mental CV, and I can’t help but feel inadequate.
20
Steve:
Praise that comes from outside is rewarding. I was very pleased when a potential ustomer referred beck to my solving a process problem he had (he rang up long distance just after knock off time and it took over 35 minutes). Unfortunately we got no business from him.
10
I think what I like is that everyone can innovate, its just a matter of finding the right area….
00
Maine environmental group pushing wind turbines and global warming claim AGW has increased Lymes disease in Maine:
https://www.nrcm.org/maine-environmental-news/tick-threat-explodes-states-reluctance-address-climate-link-threaten-public-health/
HOWEVER….(Let them eat crow).
https://www.centralmaine.com/2018/11/14/reported-lyme-cases-show-dramatic-drop-in-maine/
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Crash and Burn
‘Banks not lending and a house price slump are putting us on the precipice of a serious downturn, senior officials are warning.’ Oz
10
A 747 Super Tanker dropping retardant on California’s Camp Fire fire
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW0XQI525UE
00