Wednesday Open Thread

PS: Strangely, accidentally the site started asking people for registrations. Perhaps the cat stood on the wrong key?

It may become necessary one day, but I would let readers know. Apologies. Things hopefully are back to normal…

9.6 out of 10 based on 14 ratings

61 comments to Wednesday Open Thread

  • #
    John Hultquist

    The web is a wonderful thing, and often mysterious.

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    Honk R Smith

    Question for Jonova readers.
    Who is the most investigated living person on the planet … without ever being convicted?
    Or for that matter convicted.

    My vote is the guy that was impeached twice.
    He is also undergoing a televised investigative informercial, without defense, funded with endless taxpayer dollars.
    Still no tomato.

    Also, nominate a public person in any domain of politics and … well anything, that could withstand that amount of scrutiny.
    If only we could take a look Jeffery E’s party list.

    I therefore postulate DJT to be the most proven honest person in public life.
    Peer reviewed science.

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    • #
      Broadie

      Ahh Grasshopper you miss the point.

      A wave is powerful, yet the sands of a beach absorb its energy.

      There is a simple strategy in play.

      Capture the institutions.
      Regulate everything.
      Use fear to create an army of righteous zealots.
      Unleash them on your enemies.

      Donald Trump, his Family and his supporters will be having to deal with parking fines, tax audits, failure to renew discharge permits, Health and Safety Audits etc.

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      KP

      I’d put Julian Assange up there too, they must know every detail of his life.

      There’s nothing worse than a Govt with too much money to spend!

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      Apart from being the most investigated man on earth he is the most lied about.

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      • #
        Hanrahan

        OK. Let’s see.

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          And I don’t have a cat. 😀

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          Oh. I forgot to give “Thanks for your interest”.

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        • #
          Hanrahan

          The rest of you will be unaware of the exchange between admin and I so I’ll summarise: I was asked to log in with PIN but never having done so before I needed to reset said PIN. The return email went into the junk folder which I forget exists so I had trouble. Once found, I managed to log in but posts couldn’t get past the gatekeeper so on AD’s suggestion I shut down my browser and cleared the cache. Eureka! All’s well.

          I go weeks without shutting down my ‘puter so maybe that’s not a good idea. The old adage “shut down and restart” should be remembered when having these issues.

          Thanks admin.

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  • #

    My take on a powerful study.
    US temperature readings are junk, negating climate science

    By David Wojick

    https://www.cfact.org/2022/08/02/us-temperature-readings-are-junk-negating-climate-science/

    The beginning: “Anthony Watts has done it again. He and his intrepid brigade of field workers have done what the super rich US Global Change Research Program cannot seem to do, or does not want to do. They actually went out to see how well the Federal thermometers met the required performance standards.

    The thermometers fail, in fact they fail miserably. Thus their readings showing rapid warming are pure junk. Much follows from this. The whole $2.6 billion a year USGCRP is trying to explain something that does not exist. Science is only as good as its data and the temperature data is very bad.

    The issue is local heat contamination. Not the famous urban heat island contamination; that error goes on top of what Watts and Co found. We are talking about visible sources of heat contamination, many just a few feet from the contaminated thermometer.

    The report has a great many pictures of these contaminated thermometers, which would be hilarious if it were not so serious. Okay it is still funny, as in “You call this junk scientific instrumentation?”. See https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/publications/2022_Surface_Station_Report.pdf

    There has always been this puzzle as to why the surface statistics show a lot more warming than the satellites do? Heat contamination looks like the answer. This should be a major research question, but the Feds ignore it because they like the erroneous extra warming. It supports their alarmist agenda.”

    Lots more in the article. Climate science has been junked!

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    • #
      TdeF

      It was fascinating now that the hottest day in English history has not been recorded at Heathrow. Of course.

      Total size of Heathrow Airport: 1,227 hectares, about 3,030 acres.
      Daily number of flights, 1,300.

      And then the airconditioners for
      Terminal 2 – 40,000 square metres
      Terminal 3 – 98,962 square metres
      Terminal 4 – 105,481 square metres
      Terminal 5 – 353,020 square metres

      All pumping energy in and heat out, heaters.

      You have to think this site is unlikely to be the coolest place in the UK. But they managed to get just over 40C and that was Climate Change proven.

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    Pelosi Visits Taiwan –

    From Martin Armstrong –

    “Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan on Tuesday night despite warnings from both Washing and Beijing. The nature of her trip was so secretive that it was not on her official itinerary. Now, the true nature of her visit is coming to light. “We take this trip at a time when the world faces a choice between autocracy and democracy,” Pelosi said. “We cannot stand by as the CCP proceeds to threaten Taiwan — and democracy itself,” Pelosi said in a statement. “Our congressional delegation’s visit should be seen as an unequivocal statement that America stands with Taiwan, our democratic partner, as it defends itself and its freedom.”

    From Me –

    What an absolute hypocrite when she helps to preside over the US Autocracy. The USA is no longer a Democratic Nation.

    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/politics/pelosi-visits-taiwan/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS

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      TdeF

      It is very strange. As deliberately provocative as it was unexpected and still unexplained. One explanation is that she is retiring and does not want to see the Congress swamped by a ‘red wave’ of Republicans in the November election and the hated Trump back in 2024.

      The war in Ukraine is just not working for the Democrats and is undermining the whole fake Climate Change, BLM, Trans, AntiFA agenda, BBB story. Nothing is working as expected. And her husband is at least DUI and in the news cycle. A war with China or the serious threat of war with China may be her last roll of the dice and she is past caring what it costs everyone else if the US is suddenly on a war footing is reluctant to change anything. Who ordered this trip is the question, or it could have been a personal initiative to change the focus.

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    • #
      BartenderUK

      Well, that’s the pantomime horse with two rear ends.

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  • #

    “PS: Strangely, accidentally the site started asking people for registrations. Perhaps the cat stood on the wrong key?

    It may become necessary one day, but I would let readers know. Apologies. Things hopefully are back to normal.”

    I registered with no problems and think that it is a good idea. I spent a couple of minutes before posting my comment above looking for the ‘sign on’ icon…….It wasn’t there……LOL

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    • #
      Hanrahan

      It happened to me too. I have not been able to post since so would be surprised if this passes the gatekeeper.

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  • #
    BartenderUK

    Spectacular wind turbine fire sends clouds of black smoke across the city of Hull, United Kingdom.

    https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/spectacular-wind-turbine-fire-sends-clouds-of-black-smoke-across-city/ar-AA10fRt1?li=BBoPWjQ

    Yep, and there’s not a polling station on earth to vote these clowns out.

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    • #

      Ah Clough Road industrial. The fumes would be fighting for attention on that side of the Hull river.

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    • #
      Gary S

      Just imagine that occurring on a hot summer’s day here in Victoria with a Northerly wind to whip up a firestorm.

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      • #
        yarpos

        Just a numbers game , its a certainty to happen in due course. Fires are a feature of the technology wherever its deployed in numbers. The growing need for more batteries for so called “firming” adds another dimension.

        Its sort of ironic that after improving the safety of grid poles and wires infrastructure following major bushfires , they now sprinkle little fire starters all over the countryside in one of the most bushfire prone countries on Earth. I’m sure it will be fine and the government has it well in hand.

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  • #
    Honk R Smith

    Another query.
    Correlation is not causation until definitively proven since correlations are common in nature.
    Mike’s Nature trick corrected the 1970’s cooling to fix the correlation of increased co2 and warming.
    And that settled that.
    So .. .
    roughly 60% of folk that tested positive for the presence of SARSCOV2, experienced no symptoms … of anything.
    Of the the remaining 40%, a large % experienced mild symptoms, symptoms which absolutely positively could have no other cause.
    Because we know suggestion has no power.
    So, the correlation between viral infection and illness is scientifically proven?
    I guess I have no head for science.

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    • #
      Honk R Smith

      Just a note,
      oft broadcasted PSAs during the early months the pandemic in my part of world, featuring a person from JHU School of Public Health, proclaimed 80% of the infected would never know.

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      The Rhine, Loire, Seine ran dry in 1000 AD and again in 1303 & 1304.
      The famous Apostelwein of 1727 was supposedly produced when the Rhine ran dry. The wine actually comes from 12 barrels of wines in vintages of 1683, 1717, and 1727 blended. I haven’t been able to confirm the claim of the Rhine drying up in those years. 1683 was recorded as a wet summer in England, and 1727 as a warm dry one.
      “During the first half of the last century (referring to 1800’s) periods of low water on the Rhine were distinctly more pronounced. Discharges were lower, and low flow periods lasted longer than in the past 50 years. The perception that low water occurs more often than in the past is not correct.”
      Also low water in 1893 and 2015 and in 2018 https://nypost.com/2018/08/09/river-rhine-dries-up-during-european-heat-wave/

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  • #
    Liberator

    What effect does pulling/removing energy, be it solar(solar farms) or wind (wind farms) from out of the environment?

    Has any study ever been done?

    Surely they must have an impact somewhere? Do these renewable sources of energy have an impact on our environment (other than bird chopping, insect killing, waste, infra sound etc..) that is yet to be discovered?

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  • #
    KP

    Whew! Thankyou Jo, I had a terrible night thinking this was the start of the digital ID for the Australian web.

    It came on the same night “The Vineyard of the Saker” demanded registrations too, Andrei citing too many bots and trolls. I look at his site for views on the Russian war.

    Registration then confiscation… I’m sure it will come,the State can’t abide disagreement!

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  • #
    another ian

    “FEE Stories- Hannah Arendt’s Chilling Thesis on Evil”

    http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2022/08/03/everyday-eichmanns/#comments

    In comments

    “This reminds me of an old parlour game called “Who goes Naz*?” by Dorothy Thompson in Harper’s 1941. She goes through the room and discusses various people and their character. It’s an interesting read, if you have the time. I think a few people in Canada will recognize Young Mr. D. Anyway here’s a quote from Thompson from near the beginning:”

    https://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/

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  • #
    KP

    Ah, the irony..

    SMH have an article about how bad Telegram is as right-wing radicals use it to communicate. The article is full of pictures of flags and men with tattoos, yet strangely omits the widespread identical photos from the Ukraine.

    I figure these guys are just getting ready to go and help the Ukies, at least over there their religion is recognised and celebrated. Our friendly Ukrainian Nazis are good, our nasty local Nazis are bad.

    https://www.smh.com.au/national/inside-australia-s-terrorgram-how-neo-nazism-spreads-in-our-cities-20220726-p5b4t5.html

    …(and I’m sure this one will be ‘awaiting ………’ too!)

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Ukraine claims it needs $750 billion more to ‘Build Back Better’

    Kiev economics school assessment is funded by USAID.

    A new US-funded report out of Kiev assesses $108.3 billion in economic damages for Ukraine, but requests a 7x replenishment of $750 billion so that the country can “Build Back Better.”

    As of August 1, 2022, the new update from the Ukrainian institution assesses $108.3 billion in economic damages from the war, roughly the equivalent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2020.

    The study says Ukraine will need a bare minimum of $185 billion, almost twice the amount in damages, in order to repair the nation, citing what they refer to as the “Build Back Better principle.” The slogan was popularized by The World Economic Forum, and is used by governments to refer to their plans to impose digital tyranny and accomplish ESG-compliant objectives.

    Ukraine is seeking the “modernization of assets that have not suffered damage and destruction,” the report adds That request will mark up the economic aid request to the tune of $750 billion dollars.

    At the end of the report, we find that the robust damages assessment is not an independent effort. In fact, it is funded by the U.S. taxpayer, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

    The “assessment” is just the latest document that advances the continuing global campaign to solicit funds for the rebuilding, reconstruction, and “modernization” of Ukraine, despite the fact that the war is ongoing. There has been a concerted effort in the D.C. lobbying and military contracting space to score massive funds for the “reconstruction” effort.

    Meanwhile in D.C., Congress is beginning to whip the votes for a new funding round for Ukraine, yet very few lawmakers having any idea where the first $40 billion ended up.

    On Monday, the White House authorized an additional $550 million in weaponry for Kiev.

    41

    • #
      Kalm Keith

      Evil on Steroids.

      President Wvlod doesn’t give a rats for those of his countrymen now dead, maimed and ruined.

      Love the deep khaki tee shirt.

      63

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Electric Inferno: Jaguar I-Pace Car Catches on Fire While Charging, Burns to Bare Metal

    An electric Jaguar I-Pace vehicle caught on fire and burned to ash in Florida, but the vehicle wasn’t in a car wreck like many notorious Tesla fires — it was simply charging in the owner’s garage.

    The electric car is the fourth known I-Pace battery fire that seemingly started on its own — a concerning amount of fires, given that there are so few of these vehicles on the road — according to a report by Electrek.

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Meanwhile

    And this is just a bike battery. Just imagine a Tesla going up in a built up area.

    Two Dead in NYCHA Housing Blaze Ignited by Exploding E-bike Battery, Officials Say

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    OldOzzie

    John Cleese’s War on Wokeism

    Now 82, Cleese—who studied law at Cambridge—has recently set his sights on political correctness and wokeism, which he says are the enemy not only of humor but of creative thinking in all areas of human activity.

    He appeared at FreedomFest, the annual July gathering of libertarians in Las Vegas, to discuss creativity, the subject of his 2020 “short and cheerful guide.” After giving a talk on the attitudes and habits he believes are necessary for creativity to 2,500 attendees, Reason’s Nick Gillespie interviewed Cleese about the importance of freedom of thought and expression for a flourishing society.

    Cambridge-law “My Favourite Joke about Lawyers, is the US Postal Service a few years ago issued a commemorative series of stamps commemorating Famous American Lawyers, but they had to withdraw it within a couple of weeks because people couldn’t figure out which side of the Stamp to spit on”

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    OldOzzie

    Poll: Most Voters Think Democrats Ran Economy ‘Straight Into the Ground’

    A majority of likely voters believe Democrats are responsible for plunging the United States into a recession, a Rasmussen Reports poll released on Wednesday found.

    Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said in late July that “Democrats inherited an economy that was primed for an historic comeback, and promptly ran it straight into the ground.” Out of 1,000 likely voters surveyed between July 28-31, 59 percent say they agree with McConnell’s statement and 35 percent disagree. The margin of sampling error is ± 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.

    “As might be expected, 85 percent of Republicans at least somewhat agree that Democrats “ran [the economy] straight into the ground,” as do a majority (57 percent) of unaffiliated voters. However, even 38% of Democratic voters agree with the quote from McConnell, including 23% who Strongly Agree,” according to the poll report.

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    SteveR

    Can anybody please point me in the direction of information /graphs that shoe Canberra is not powered by 100% renables?

    20

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Sounding the Alarm on Biden Admin’s Politicized DOJ

    FBI, Director Christopher Wray are in for a rude wake-up call over Hunter Biden investigation

    By Miranda Devine

    Grassley sounds alarm

    Grassley laid out the allegations last week in a letter to Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland.

    In August 2020, FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten “opened an assessment which was used by a FBI Headquarters team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease. Based on allegations, verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation,” Grassley wrote.

    Biden son’s fed aid?

    There are hints of possible collaboration with the feds on Hunter Biden’s laptop, in his contacts and calendar entries. Twelve entries in his contacts are labeled “FBI” or “Federal Bureau of Investigation” or “Special agent,” some of which contain phone numbers but no names for two FBI offices in Pennsylvania, in Newtown Square and Fort Washington.

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    OldOzzie

    SF Sen. Scott Wiener Demands Monkeypox State of Emergency, but Defends Weekend Kink/Fetish Street Festival

    Wiener was silent on nearly two years of school closures for California’s 6 million school kids

    20

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    OldOzzie

    How helpful is Snowy2.0?

    Rafe Champion

    Snowy2.0 is a pumped hydro scheme to store electric power for use during wind droughts. It is a massive project, costed near 2 billion when it was first announced by PM Turnbull. That was upgraded to 4 billion with power expected by 2024 but now the cost is approaching 8 billion with power expected in 2028, all going well.

    Modelling by the Energy Realists of Australia shows that the scheme will not perform anywhere near the expectations that were aroused. A summary of this work has circulated as Briefing Note 22.7. This will be reproduced below because it is not yet available on our website.

    In brief – the problem with Snowy2.0

    The scheme depends on input from a fleet of wind turbines that is almost as large as the installed capacity of windpower in the NEM at the present time. These additional windfarms will cost in the order of $14bn, not counting the transmission lines.

    The scheme does not deliver a continuous flow of power because there is a pumping phase when water is moved from the lower reservoir to the upper level and a generation phase when the water runs down through the turbines.

    During the generation phase a flow of 2000MW is expected, much the same as Liddell power station when it was new. However the flow is not continuous and so the output does not match a conventional power station of the same capacity (at full flow.)

    This means that the wind turbines and the pumped hydro facility combined do not fully replace a single 2000MW (2GW) of coal power.

    To replace the 20+ GW of coal capacity in the NEM a substantial number of schemes on the scale of Snowy2.0 will be required and no other suitable sites are available.

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    • #
      OldOzzie

      And what happens with Snowy2 when the Droughts come, as they always do

      I love a sunburnt country,
      A land of sweeping plains,
      Of ragged mountain ranges,
      Of droughts and flooding rains.

      There is no evidence available that can clearly state whether Dorothea started writing the poem, ‘My Country’, in Australia or England. She began to sketch out the poem earlier than 1904, with the final draft being completed in 1908.

      Written after the Federation Drought

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    • #
      Graeme No.3

      Snowy2 is supposed to provide enough for 2 hours for the AEMO grid, but the transmission lines out cannot operate at that full rate, so it is a supplementary source (and I saw a comment that it would take 9 days IF the top lake was full and the bottom empty to discharge). The problem is that it would at least 8 days of excess renewables to pump the top lake full again

      40

      • #
        yarpos

        “Snowy2 is supposed to provide enough for 2 hours for the AEMO grid” given the state of the project I am guessing this is probably about as accurate (and optimistic ) as they get. Yeah! we can deliver that; whatever it means.

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      Hanrahan

      Snowy2 will never be recharged using renewables, there will never be any excess generation from them.

      With the Roaring 40s blowing a gale ATM, wind is still only generating 25% of load so it will ALWAYS be recharged by thermal generation. There is a plus side to that, of course, it will give coal plants a steady demand so they will be more able to operate as designed ie run flat out 24/7. They will be able to flatten the duck curve a little.

      And also: Nuclear only works if is working, too capital intensive for peaking, so it will provide a market for nuclear should we ever get off our bums and build one.

      20

      • #
        yarpos

        arent many wind turbines in the 40 latitudes really, buy yeah its just the usual magical thinking that the ducks will line up on the day, repeatedly.

        00

  • #
    OldOzzie

    Top Ender says:
    August 4, 2022 at 11:17 am
    Two letters in today’s Oz sum up a lot of feeling towards “the voice” etc…

    No more tolerance for those activists who spurn our offers of goodwill and support

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    “I Don’t Feel The Pain Of Inflation Anymore” Says Wealthy SF Fed Chair From Ivory Tower

    San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly, who makes $422,900 per year – and scrambled out of dozens of investments last year shortly before the Fed finalized strict new limits on policymakers’ portfolios – just had her ‘Nancy Pelosi Ice Cream” moment, dropping a sidewalk-spattering t@rd from her ivory tower on the average struggling American.

    During an interview with Reuters broadcast live on Twitter spaces, Daly said: “I don’t feel the pain of inflation anymore. I see prices rising but I have enough – I sometimes balk at the price of things, but I don’t find myself in a space where I have to make trade offs because I have enough, and many Americans have enough.”

    Now, with all that said, describe what you think the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco would be like.

    According to splashpad.org, if you answered a former high school dropout, an enthusiastic texter, someone with a flair for dressing hip, a lesbian podcaster, and a neighbor of the Grand Lake Theater, you’d be right…

    Her background is in the study of economic equality, and she wants to make it clear that her success story should not be an exception, but the rule.

    ‘Economic Equality’ for you, but not for me?

    10

  • #
    OldOzzie

    10 Promising Signs That The Insidious Mind-Control-Matrix The Elite Have Created Is Starting To Crumble

    In order for any society to function effectively, there must be a high level of trust.

    Unfortunately for the elite, we simply do not trust them anymore.

    . Trust in our politicians has fallen to an all-time low.

    . Trust in the media has fallen to an all-time low.

    . Trust in our corporations has fallen to an all-time low.

    . Trust in our health care system has fallen to an all-time low.

    . Trust in our education system has fallen to an all-time low.

    . Trust in the tech industry has fallen to an all-time low.

    We no longer are buying into the cr@p that they keep shoveling our way.

    And that is a really, really good thing.

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      yarpos

      He had another with that Lydia Thorpe striking a pose with her foot against the wall “how about taking your dirty shoe of our wall!”

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  • #
    OldOzzie

    Greenies sp@win’ – Great Barrier Reef study shows greatest coral cover on record

    Thursday, 04 August 2022

    The northern and central Great Barrier Reef have recorded their highest amount of coral cover since the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) began monitoring 36 years ago.

    Great news for people who care about the reef.

    Cr@p news for Greenie propagandists who selfishly use the reef to advance their political cause.

    https://www.aims.gov.au/information-centre/news-and-stories/highest-coral-cover-central-northern-reef-36-years

    10