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
Alabanese with his claim of ‘Australia First’ against Trump should have to answer for his outrageous, unbelievable Safeguard Mechanism 10% cash grab on fossil fuels climbing to 35% by 2030.
No country in the world has a 35% cash grab on using fossil fuels. Of course it is not on voter petrol, which would cost him an election. But it is on petrol and gas and diesel used by the biggest Australian companies. And will have to be paid by every Australian, buried in all goods and services. Not insurance companies or banks or public service, but everything we buy.
280
Just the first 44 companies of 250 to pay 35% cash for fuel or even the making of cement and steel and glass?
Wheatstone Operations WA CHEVRON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
WOR01 WA South32 Worsley Alumina Pty Ltd
Queensland Alumina Limited Refinery QLD QUEENSLAND ALUMINA LIMITED
Qantas Airways Limited National Transport Facility National Qantas Airways Limited
Moomba Plant SA Santos Limited
Liberty Primary Steel Whyalla Steelworks SA ONESTEEL MANUFACTURING PTY LIMITED
APLNG Facility QLD CONOCOPHILLIPS AUSTRALIA OPERATIONS PTY LTD
Rio Tinto Yarwun QLD RTA Yarwun Pty Ltd
Moranbah North Mine QLD ANGLO COAL (MORANBAH NORTH MANAGEMENT) PTY LIMITED
Pluto LNG WA Woodside Burrup Pty. Ltd.
Capcoal Mine QLD ANGLO COAL (CAPCOAL MANAGEMENT) PTY LIMITED
Queensland Curtis LNG Plant QLD QCLNG Operating Company Pty Ltd
FLNG WA SHELL AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
Gippsland Basin facility VIC ESSO AUSTRALIA RESOURCES PTY LTD
Curtis Island GLNG Plant QLD Santos Limited
Fisherman’s Landing QLD CEMENT AUSTRALIA (QUEENSLAND) PTY LIMITED
APN01 Appin Colliery – ICH Facility NSW ENDEAVOUR COAL PTY LIMITED
Pinjarra Alumina Refinery WA Alcoa of Australia Limited
Mandalong Mine NSW CENTENNIAL MANDALONG PTY LIMITED
Wagerup Alumina Refinery WA Alcoa of Australia Limited
YPF AMMONIA PLANT WA Yara Pilbara Fertilisers Pty Ltd
Goonyella Broadmeadow Mine QLD BM Alliance Coal Operations Pty Limited
Virgin Australia Holdings National Transport Facility National VIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED
Kwinana Alumina Refinery WA Alcoa of Australia Limited
Sino Iron Project – Cape Preston WA CITIC Pacific Mining Management Pty Ltd
Darwin LNG Plant NT Santos Limited
Kestrel Coal Pty Ltd QLD Kestrel Coal Group Pty Ltd
Tomago Aluminium Smelter NSW TOMAGO ALUMINIUM COMPANY PTY LTD
Kooragang Island NSW ORICA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD
Geelong Refinery VIC Viva Energy Refining Pty Ltd
CEM NSW Berrima NSW Boral Limited
Railton TAS CEMENT AUSTRALIA (GOLIATH) PTY LIMITED
Carborough Downs Coal Mine QLD FITZROY (CQ) PTY LTD
TAHMOOR COAL MINE NSW TAHMOOR COAL PTY LTD
Boyne Smelters Limited QLD RIO TINTO ALUMINIUM LIMITED
Pacific National Transport Facility National 87i6
Now how is this NOT going to cripple Australia compared with a trading tariff of 25%? Especially for aluminum refining which is heavily taxpayer subsidized to hide the fact that because of enormous fake electricity prices, it is unprofitable.
And all this is in cash for Gillard ‘Carbon Credits’ without knowing where the cash goes and to which countries and for what?
Who does this benefit? Not Australia or Australians.
360
And #107
Qenos Altona Manufacturing VIC QENOS PTY LTD
No problem. Already closed down. Sold off all land and 80 plants and exited the country. Scorched earth. 800 jobs lost.
Our largest chemical manufacturer for all our plastic bottles and the only actual plastics recycler in the country. There is just no point operating factories in Australia.
Not with a 35% government payment on energy for bits of worthless electronic documents, Gillard carbon credits.
390
Great news!
There’s a new startup called China that produces everything dirt cheap!
They’re so benevolent they offer factory jobs to kids and uyghurs too!
/and dirt quality
50
Absolutely TdeF – I happen to know a lot about the Qenos plant and I was amazed at the general ignorance by the public at what they did, why they did it and how they did it. An example – someone complained to me about the huge amount of natural gas that they burned and all the CO2 they therefore were putting into the atmosphere. They did not understand that the huge volume of ethane consumed was actually the raw material – firstly to transform to Ethylene and then polymerise it to Poly-ethylene – get it – it is (was) the raw material for making the plastics. there manufacturing was very efficient and also re-used a lot of heat from the process in other parts of the plant. This country is paying for a lack of understanding of the science involved in manufacturing or in pure science.
40
It seems that alumina production, (converting bauxite to aluminium oxide, ready for a smelter), is high on the list. I guess that industry is set to fold.
I recall working on an alumina plant in Gladstone, we were 30% into the construction and the owners were spooked by construction price rises and were wet to walk away. I wonder how this extra cost could be incorporated without causing plant wide closure?
I hope these industrial giants have enough money set aside to fix up those red mud dams into something that can be used by the wild life, even grasses and trees would be nice.
https://www.google.com/maps/@-23.8863176,151.266908,31625m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDMzMC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D
50
China is already producing 4 times Australia’s output of alumina. Increasing their production by another 25% to take up the slack from Australian refineries shutting down will not be problematic.
Chinese producers may be stifled by US tariffs. But US has next to no alumina production. They recycle more aluminium than they produce from bauxite.
Bauxite refining has seriously intense chemical processes and a good deal of waste. I cannot see China getting the OK to build refineries in USA. So tariffs will force up aluminium prices in the USA. Should be showing up in aluminium scrap prices.
QAL will be facing closure for sure. It will not be getting any capital approved from its Russian partners so operational risks will be creeping up. If it closes then that puts Boyne smelter into end of life mode.
Australia does not need no filthy refineries and smelters or engineers. Let China build these industrial sites and keep Australia’s pristine environment for Chinese tourism. Follow Victoria’s lead and become the global events centre. For example, rather than different countries hosting major sporting events, just have them in Australia. Olympics, both winter and summer. All the world cups including the USA finals (neutral territory). That would boost tourism.
Get rid of all those filthy smelters and the base load power demand goes away. That probably makes the “transition” possible.
We just have to do all we can to ensure China’s retirees are wealthy enough to travel. And then just keep an eye on the Chinese birth rate to make sure there are enough young people being educated in engineering to keep their industry productive and supplying Australia’s essentials.
It is worth mentioning here that China’s death rate has exceeded birth rate since 2020. I gather that means their population is declining. It is certainly raging fast. Median age increasing about 1 year every two years; now just over 40 years..
30
And a few you might recognize
141 Sewerage West VIC Melbourne Water Corporation
172 TT-Line – Victorian Operation VIC TT-Line Company Pty. Ltd. Trans Tasman Ferry
191 V/Line VIC V/Line Corporation
195 Dandenong VIC OCEANIA GLASS PTY LTD
198 InfraBuild Steel Laverton Steel Mill VIC THE AUSTRALIAN STEEL COMPANY (OPERATIONS) PTY LTD
210 Australian Gas Networks (SA) Ltd SA Australian Gas Networks Limited
222 Toll National Transport Facility National Toll Holdings Limited
Albanese could tell the Australian public how these people are going to survive? All mines, gas, glass, concrete, transport and even sewage.
This is going to ‘save the world’? No, we need to know where all these billions are going to go.
And this money does not come from ‘the biggest polluters’. It comes from all of us, our jobs and wages and everything we buy. 35% fossil fuel tax across the country without the media saying a thing.
Albanese and friends first. Australia Last. Silence from the press corps. And the politicians. Our money and jobs overseas as fast as possible leaving Australia with nothing.
310
Oceania Glass – shut down in February after 169 years in business. They had been struggling against cheaper Asian product being dumped here and could not afford 20m dollars for a new float tank. Now the only manufacturer of architectural glass in the country is gone.
Twenty million seems like peanuts in comparison to one billion frittered away on ‘quantum computing’ in California. Where is the ‘Made in Australia’ support? Maybe we should start a tariff war of our own.
180
Same with Capel Prince who made Australian windmills. The billions for solar panels and the like Albanese tosses around would have kept many companies afloat. Green hydrogen. But what he is really doing is forcing manufacturing and processing (glass, chemicals, smelting) to shut down. And he will blame Donald Trump and his tariffs. For some reason aluminium is protected, even subsidized to counter the price of electricity which makes it non viable. Too many jobs and so too many votes in the same areas aluminium refining was located, like Portland in Victoria. Albanese and friends (China) do not want Australia making anything.
80
China has tariffs on almost everything yet our dopey govt never bothered to protect our only glass factory, the one that supplied all the glass in the new parliament house,from dumping.
The smart country , NOT.
110
Yes, when the people finally snap, let’s hope the angry mob doesn’t smash any windows at parliament house.
10
Sounds like a plan to increase the GDP.
00
@ #1,#2,#3:
Albanese is an assassin.
His job is to destroy our country and our children’s futures.
Albanese is an undertaker.
His job is to bury the nation-state.
These politicians’ allegiance is not to Australia and her people, Marxists’ allegiance is international.
Say goodbye to everything our grandfathers fought for.
290
220
Oh good, let’s all play pretend.
Few that have experience in a ‘combat role’ would necessarily consider it something that feel happy about being made ‘open’ to them.
Pride in having done their duty … yes.
Pride in what that doing consisted of … often not so much.
(But now, if one is uninhibited from celebrating ‘pride’ in their sexual proclivities, excluding the more normative historically traditional orientations, why not?)
Standards tend to be reduced when losses accumulate.
Once upon a time, just about any able bodied young man would meet the ‘high standards’ that are a ‘must’… especially if ‘he’ couldn’t afford college … or wanted to avoid jail.
I’m an old guy, maybe a modern ‘combat role’ is much less utterly disgusting, terrifying, filthy, and dehumanizing than before we were causing anthropogenic Climate Change.
Something any good progressive parent should demand be ‘open’ to their children, especially the girls.
Just kidding, progressive parents know their children won’t have to do it unless they volunteer.
70
“Standards tend to be reduced when losses accumulate.”
I was amazed to find out that Peter Falk, the one eyed star of tv favourite ‘Columbo’, was in the US Army during the Korean War, although only as a mess cook.
10
Honk,
Who would have thought with the rise of drone warfare that the nerd in his mothers basement playing video games would become the most important soldier on the battlefield ? Eventually AI will replace most of the infantry as it will be impossible for them to survive in that environment . 24×7 drone and satellite surveillance means avoiding detection is now almost impossible. Death doesn’t care about politics or sexual orientation….
30
Thunderstorms forecast for April 4 in the southern US. Night thunderstorms are the most dangerous.
https://i.ibb.co/NPgTnCt/ventusky-cape-20250404t0000-31n94w.jpg
10
The good news is that Ventusky is currently predicting three depressions to bring rain to Godzone over the next fortnight.
The chooks are already onto it with with dire tales in the MSM of atmospheric rivers (a.k.a rain) to “impact” (squash?) the country.
This is the weather-event-formerly-known-as The Break.
30
Sounds like Chris Brandolino from NIWA is back on the airwaves in an attempt to stay relevant (was he ever?) or as I refer to him as Branjelina with a dash of Mom’s Apple Pie gosh darn.
If ever there was a case of foreign intervention, and/or invasion through use of fake news, he’d be up there amongst the worst examples.
NB. The 1st break (rain) is recycled & transitioned ex-troppo Alfred; the 2nd rain belt on the way is ex-troppo Dianne (she’s come a long way) and the 3rd looks like a good old stock-standard southern ocean westerly blast: that ain’t ‘change’, that’s autumn.
50
The Government and probably “Opposition” want to impose price controls on supermarkets for supposed “price gouging”.
Firstly, price controls never work.
Secondly, high prices in supermarkets, and all Australian businesses relate to:
1) High electricity prices, supermarkets use enormous amounts of electricity for refrigeration and if the electricity ever fails, all the food has to be thrown out.
2) High real estate prices and taxes brought about by Government policies which don’t allow decentralisation and are pushing a model of high density Hong Kong style living in accordance with WEF objectives of “15 Minute Cities” etc. despite Australia having about the sixth lowest population density in the world.
3) Feral unions that require much higher pay on weekends, public holidays etc. despite some people preferring to work snd shop outside of traditional core business hours.
4) High farm produce prices due to the Government’s war against the farmers through over-regulation, excessive land use controls and of course energy prices.
5) High energy prices get built into EVERYTHING including transport of goods to the supermarket and manufacture and storage of such goods plus all the other issues above apply to everyone else in the supply chain.
A free market, if it exists, delivers products at the lowest possible prices. Don’t blame “greed” when the main cause is Government, but of course, our Lamestream Media and politicians never dig that deep, just look for simplistic answers.
Etc..
300
It’s communist distraction politics, a lie, blaming high prices and inflation on the greedy supplier , not the government. In a communist world prices will be controlled. Profits will be forbidden. There will be nothing in the store but the price will be set by the government. In Germany in the 1930s it would be blamed on the Jews, the November traitors and the people told to work harder for Utopia, a free cars and holidays. Make that an electric car to save the planet too.
160
I heard wheel-barrows were all the rage back in the 1940s for Teutonic folk doing their shopping – not so much for grandiose ideals like ‘saving the planet’ but more practical day-to-day chores like feeding the family.
A loaf of bread for a barrow of bugs? History repeats AND rhymes… mark my words.
80
All of that amounts to the 40%+ markup + gst that inflates a typical SKU retail price by just under 100% from the wholesale price into store.
I actually signed terms of trade with Progressive/Woolworths for a 25% markup a couple of decades ago, but events have shown that it was one of those “Zelensky/Minsk” style agreements.
80
75 years ago Australia had a Prices Commissioner.
You couldn’t, for example, buy a decent ham sandwich because the government had fixed the price of a ham sandwich so the only way a shop could make money was build the ham sandwich cheaper.
Once price controls were abolished we went from stale and tasteless disgusting “ham” sandwiches to become a foodie’s paradise.
70
At the same time, both parties refuse to consider that Australia’s biosecurity regulations are at a significant cost to the consumer and dampen competition.
All this protection for bananas – if it were necessary, we should be the only remaining supplier of bananas in the World – all others should have been lost to disease and pestilence
00
For those that don’t know, SpaceX have launched a crew carrying mission into polar orbit, the first time astronauts have ever gone into polar orbit.
It is a fee paying trip by the Chicomm billionaire Chun Wang and three guests, including an Australian.
The mission is called Fram2.
70
Kevin Rudd? He is already insufferable. Now bipolar.
100
You use a lot more fuel to go over the poles. You’d use even more to try to orbit in the opposite direction to normal. Love to see the fuel use differences for the same elevation result.
And no, I’m not going to do the sums for you but I’ll give you a hint. If the Earth is spinning at 1000km/hr at the equator and orbital velocity is 7 km/sec, then you can see how the initial start velocity gets you a hell of a start, compared to a zero start for over the poles and a negative 1000km/hr start for the reverse direction.
And the reason I’m not doing the sums is because the launch weight is NOT the orbiting mass, you’d need to know the rate of burn and the velocity at the end of each stage to have any chance of working out the fuel load.
Come on….. some want to try the sums?
As a side thought, I wonder how much easier it is to throw a ballistic missile, (sub orbital?), from west to east, compared to east to west. One side has a real advantage in this.
60
China to US, US to Europe. ?
10
The assist from the Earth’s rotation is helpful but not as significant as I thought.
Earth rotation = 1000mph=0.3mps.
Orbital velocity (at 120 miles altitude)=17000mph=4.8mps.
So launch in an easterly direction saves about 7% in total energy.
10
Yes. I didn’t have a chance to do the calculation but I had in mind it was about 5%.
00
‘AE’ (Actual Experience) trumps ‘AI’ (Artificial Intelligence).
My recent experience in purchasing a spare part for a common make of vehicle, together with pontification over how you would buy a replacement complicated LED brake light assembly / ‘work of modern art’ for one of the many new variations of hybrid vehicles flooding the view through my windscreen has brought me to the conclusion there must be a collapse of the local spare parts distribution chain coming soon. I had the same experience in attempting to purchase a $10 switch for a dare I say it LPG Gas stove.
What I experienced was the distributor’s online databases appear to be in a poor state of maintenance and their inventories amazingly ‘out of stock’ or confused by queries for common spare parts. I concluded the wheels appear to have fallen off what is the tip of the spear for the basic ‘AI’ model. The distribution system should be able to qualify you and lead you to the best solution for your final purchase. Both Auto and appliance systems failed me.
One solution was to to go to the local distributor’s front counter. Here I found an amazing refuge for ‘AE’. These counters in a tilt slab industrial building are populated with smart experienced staff operating the computers, phones and counter interactions. They have experience and can add to the solution you seek and additionally they build relationships with their regular customers (Workshops) based on a myriad of senses.
The second solution (appliance part) was being forced to go directly to the manufacturers website. This works efficiently as long as the appliance is still supported and the manufacturer still exists. The problem is you will have to wait for the part to be delivered and this is likely to be from somewhere else in the world. I wonder how long someone with a damaged light assembly on their new hybrid vehicle is prepared to wait for a part that once upon a time was kept at the respected? Dealership.
Sorry third solution coming our way is the 3D printer and a selection of widgits maintained by 3D printer nerds all over the world. Nice solution if you break that stupid coffee cup holder on your dash that you have been quoted $300 for at the ‘Stealership’.
70
A good one I heard on a radio drive show was those steerable, self-levelling LED headlights , they can cost up to $7000 a pop.
10
That must have been April Fool’s Day. During testing, the driver would have died when the other test vehicle he was approaching drove blindly into him. Like a moths to flames!
00
You will do as we demand.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3ev924v5l2o
“Car firms fined for withholding recycling information”
Now, recycling is – overall – probably good [yeah, caveats …].
“Ten carmakers and two industry groups have been fined a combined total of nearly £78m for withholding information about vehicle recycling. BMW, Ford, Jaguar Land Rover, Peugeot Citroen, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Renault, Toyota, Vauxhall, and Volkswagen, and two trade bodies were fined by the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The carmakers and trade groups were found to have agreed to withhold information from customers regarding the amount of their cars that could actually be recycled.”
And cartels are not good.
But – when you last bought a car [any car, not necessarily a brand-new one] – did you adjust your purchase based on recyclability?
I certainly didn’t.
Auto
50
Local country wrecker has 800+ cars stacked two high, adding to them all the time, and when he runs out of room a mobile car crusher arrives. It flattens and squeezes them into an oblong a tyre high, steel, copper, aluminium, plastic and rubber, oils… and loads them onto a big semi.
He tells me they go to China, but I cannot see how anything can get recycled out of that mess unless you incinerate it in a gas furnace first, burning out the oils and plastics. I figure in reality they form a giant negative on an environmental basis, burn them out and melt the steel for recovery, or just claim some UN subsidy for recycling while burying them as landfill somewhere.
If you pull the subsidies out of recycling, the only thing you will recycle is aluminium, the rest is a loss.
100
Perhaps they are put through a shredder and magnets pull out the ferrous stuff, the rest goes who knows where.
The oils, rubber, plastic and fabrics might fuel the power station that provides the power for the operation.
At least that’s how I would do it.
There’s an idea for Australia, burn old tyres as well, with a giant scrubber on the flue gases.
10
Do whatever Singapore does :
https://changemakr.asia/a-peek-inside-singapores-latest-and-efficient-waste-to-energy-plant/
00
Car scrapping explained:
https://www.topcashforscrapcars.com.au/car-scrapping-process/
https://auto.howstuffworks.com/car-crusher4.htm
00
Really? I wonder what those technologies actually are.
10
A conveyor belt to run the product past the people sorting it?
00
When the history is written on the Climate Crisis scam, the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the Australian governments to ‘save’ the planet from the weather
with crippling taxes and outright theft and throwing money away (Clean Finance, Solar Panels, subsidies,..) would have made Australia like Saudi Arabia, one of the
richest countries in the world. Instead of one of the stupidest. If we turned it all off tomorrow and built coal and gas power plants, the stuff we export, we
could afford all the very fast trains we wanted. Put a lake in the middle of Australia and bring water from the North, making the deserts bloom.
But our governments are too busy bankrupting the place. That’s the problem when politicians have never had a real job. They couldn’t run a chook raffle. And that’s without alleging evil intent by lifelong avowed communists like Albanese and Bandt plus a Manchurian candidate like Marles. And one way or another, all our cash is going to China. And the Liberal opposition does no opposing.
190
It is already written. Set you back $42.
https://www.amazon.com.au/CLIMATE-SCAM-Fifty-Years-False/dp/B0CJXHXQQD
If you buy it, let me know what you think. I expect Trump will be a big part of the next revision; hopefully the last.
10
The Guardian no longer uses “Climate Change”. I was hopeful. But wrong..
|The British newspaper The Guardian is changing its style guidelines to no longer recommend the use of the phrases “climate change” and “global warming.”
The Guardian will instead use “climate emergency, crisis or breakdown” .
When in doubt, ramp it up. Climate Armageddon. Or as James Delingpole would have it “the four horsemen of the Ecopolypse”
20
FWIW
“Thank God Putin was less aggressive and war-minded than the Biden administration”
“If you haven’t yet read the two New York Times reports from last weekend about how deeply embroiled the US was in the Ukraine war, you really should find a way to do so. If their claims are correct, there was ample justification under the laws of war for Russia to bombard NATO bases in Europe, and target senior US and allied officers for assassination as active belligerents. It boggles the mind to realize that under President Biden – who, to be fair, may not have known just how militant his subordinates had become – the United States became literally an active co-belligerent with Ukraine in the war against Russia. There’s no other way to describe it.
The two articles (behind a paywall) are:”
More at
https://bayourenaissanceman.blogspot.com/2025/04/thank-god-putin-was-less-aggressive-and.html
90
And the true story of the people running the Ukranian government and military and police has never come out. With reason, Putin calls them Fascists/NAZIs. National Socialists. The governments of Ukraine have been rolling disasters since the country was created in 1992. And the victims, as always, are their own people who are fighting extreme poverty, tuberculosis, conscription and lethal weather while hundreds of billions go missing. The true story may never be known, like Afghanistan, the last time the US and Russia faced off in a proxy war. These wars go back to 1812, 1855, 1918, 1942 and Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Libya, Kosovo, Afghanistan and more. And wars are very profitable while there is never an accounting. Why was Hunter Biden on the board of a Ukranian gas company on a salary of a million dollars a year? Or is that never to be questioned? How is that not graft and corruption in the oval office?
110
FWIW – another look
“See, I Told You So (Again) — Ukraine”
“Oh, it was Ukraine that did all this “with a little help in the form of some ammunition and such” from the US (and others)?
Uh, no it wasn’t.
Gee, those of us saying we were actually the ones doing the planning, directing and Generalling — and they were doing the dying — were right from the start. Yet another “conspiracy theory” goes up in smoke; the NY Times brings receipts.”
Links to NYT
More at
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=253068
10
Guys, aren’t tired of piling the same Kremlin propaganda day after day?
Personal disclosure: I was born in Odessa, where maybe 1% spoke Ukrainian at home or at work, can not be sure as I never heard them.
I have got no relatives or friends left there, so it all is academic to me.
My village-born dad spoke only Ukrainian until he came to town in 1929. It was (before Stalin’s deportations) a total ethnic cocktail, since its founder José de Ribas who spoke lingua franca – Russian. Even his ethnicity is doubtful – Spanish, or Italian. Maybe – French.
Probably Greeks and Germans, then may be Italians and Jews were main minority groups but surely year after year more Russians were coming south and settling in the town. I say – Russians, because there was as much Ukrainian nation in the IXX century as there is a Californian or Queensland nation today. Everyone was a Tsar’s subject.
Unlike the West, in USSR (previously in Russian Empire) every soul must be attached to a piece of paper, which states its Ethnicity, previously – religion.
Religion, even more than mother tongue defined a man in old times, so clearly there were Muslims, Jews and Christians of all shades. For most Eastern Christians there was a single Church (Greek Orthodox) headed by Moscow Patriarch.
For 1 million people in my time, maybe 5-6 Churches conducted service in Russian, with a sprinkle of old slavonic tongue. I attended few times only. Maybe there were churches somewhere up North and West with services in Ukrainian. Maybe not. Never even heard about distinction between Russian v Ukrainian in religious sense. Today it is of course an open warfare.
A Ukrainisation push since independence was met with some unhappiness but mostly derision. My family and friends, some happens to be in academia, were forced to read their lectures in Ukrainian, that was possibly the most extreme acts of new powers. The border between two new countries existed formally but like many of their institutions mostly as the source of illicit income on both sides. People, goods and ideas moved more or less feely both ways.
From the outside I saw that more democracy meant more corruption.
As Putin’s power solidified in Russia small local crooks were brought to the heel by Moscow rulers. Structure-wise Russia today is not the same but pretty close to Brezhnev’s USSR. The Soviet Gauleiter, sent from Moscow was in charge of his Gau, same as Russian Governor. All sizeable companies owners appointed by Kremlin . The good ones promoted, the unconfident are demoted, try to still from the Boss and next morning your wife starts looking for you. The largest 20 are personal friends of Capo di tutti capi.
Ukraine was still like what Russia was under Yeltsin. My remaining friends, still spoke Russian with few more Ukrainian words, the next generation tried the moves Up, West and North with different degree of success. The Moscow influence was open and strong. So was European. There will be academic books in future, showing those gravitational forces in digitised, attached to certain events form, so the Point, the Fork will be chrystal clear.
Despite all the Ukrainian (“banderovtsi”, etc,..) and Russian (plenty off…) Nationalists beating their chests until first shot 20 Feb 2014, the situation could be resolved peacefully. Most, if not all Ukrainian generals were Moscow-educated, Ukrainian Navy chief openly took Russian side, could not be only them,.. at that moment one would think Ukraine State is finished. Fools ! And Putin is the first fool.
Self-interest (unlike socialism…) works. Local strongmen, some idealists, others with not very clean hands, saw at once what Moscow rule means for them personally and reacted accordingly.
They might still win.
10
Thanks for the history Vladimir.
The Maidan crowd looked to be mostly younger – keener on the west.
Sad about the shooting – an-ian and KP were correct – it was the ultra-right.
It took this forensic report on the Maidan snipers to convince me.
02
FWIW – some missing paperwork it seems
“The motive is clear for the New York Times to outline how the CIA is operating inside Ukraine to target the Russian Federation.
The operatives who leak to the NYT want distance between Trump and Putin. This admission of CIA involvement puts Trump in an awkward place.
The awkwardness expands, when you understand how the CIA is authorized to conduct these operations. The President, Biden, signed a “finding memo,” authorizing the CIA to conduct missile strikes into the Russian Federation.”
More at
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2025/03/31/new-york-times-publishes-explosive-investigation-article-showing-u-s-military-boots-on-ground-in-ukraine-and-cia-operation-to-target-russian-federation-with-drones-and-missiles/#more-270659
10
FWIW
More on those “Lawfare” decisions in USA
“WATCH: Sen. John Kennedy Destroys Nationwide Injunctions”
Leads to the conclusion that
“Kennedy’s questioning explained that universal injunctions lack any basis in statutory law, Supreme Court precedent, or historical common law and exposed their use as a judicial overreach that disproportionately targets President Trump’s policies.”
https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/04/01/sen-john-kennedy-destroys-nationwide-injunctions-and-its-amazing-n4938490
70
Sounds like those judges might be lucky that Washington DC is built on a swamp and doesn’t have a Tarpeian Rock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarpeian_Rock
20
An interesting story in Coffee and Covid towards the end starting with:
“Ten days ago, a new peer-reviewed jab study quietly published in the Journal of Infection titled, “Post-vaccination IgG4 and IgG2 class switch associates with increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections.” Corporate media ignored it, unsurprisingly.”
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/accountability-robots-friday-march
ToM
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Y’day I was asked to approve a covid shot for Mrs H who is in full time care. Are they ever going to learn? To their credit they accepted my “No” without argument.
The poor dear hardly weighs 50 kg so doesn’t need ANY setback, even temporary.
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The IGG4 class switch seems to be very concerning from what I have looked at (not my opinion of course but that of Drs etc), so when you catch covid your body produces IGG4 as an anti inflammatory response instead of IGG1 and IGG3 anti body response to fight the infection.
The concern they had was what happens if/when the IGG4 anti bodies decline?
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Not so fast Crakar24.
Your appeal to the authority of anonymous ‘DRs’ appears contrary to the process observed in the study quoted by the Coffee & Covid article.
They did not appear worried about the IgG4 decline as the study revealed the switch occurred after the Jab and the more shots the more stable the elevated level of the antibody became.
The actual paper leads with
Were these the Drs you quoted. If so I suggest you talk to the Senator Rennick and he may help suggest other ‘Drs’ to treat those suffering in the ADF and maybe to help you in recruiting individuals whose IgG4 activity may not have been switched on by the ‘Clot Shots’. H/T to MeAgain for that link.
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Your stupidity is beyond reproach broadie. I was not quoting from the paper referenced.
IGG4 anti bodies is considered to be an anti inflammatory what this means is the body will produce IGG4 and tag the virus or in this case the S protein (specifically the ACE2 receptor) made by your cells via vaccination.
By doing this your bodies immune system turns a blind eye to the s protein thus reducing or eliminating an inflammatory response.The concerm is what happens if this IGG4 response declines and there is in effect no immune response to the virus will the vaxxed be able to fight off an infection.
By the way the only people with this high IGG4 response are those people who have had at least two COVID shots prior to infection which would be about 97% of all Australians, you can thank the Libtards for that
01
My observation:
Say no more. You have again pretended I have said something (in writing) and then viciously attacked me over the narrative you yourself created. This is known as a Strawman argument.
Goodbye Crakars
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It used to be, even for Labor governments (to some extent), that cost was a consideration for any government program. Now, no mainstream party cares about cost. In fact, programs don’t even seem to be costed at all, politicians just seem to invent figures as though they had been calculated e.g. they’ll say “we will spend $77.3 million saving the yellow bottom swamp wallaby” but in reality no scientific case for necessity or actual costing has been calculated. They just spend, spend, spend.
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And if the UN announced that the entire story of CO2 driven Global Warming was wrong. Something which has already been done by the IPCC who have walked back all their early stories. No one would change anything because all the indoctrination is in place. Albanese, Bandt, Marles, Bowen would just keep on crucifying Australians and sending the cash to China.
It’s all so obviously wrong after 37 years but we are in the third generation of government indoctrinated Climate Change people. It’s called ‘The Science’. And it’s ‘In’. Deprogramming will take a generation but at least Donald Trump and Elon Musk have started.
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There was a time, not all that long ago, when a govt job was low paid but reasonably secure and even pencils and stationery were accounted for, now it’s open slather, department moguls are paid more than the Prime Minister.
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The change dates back to Whitlam. He made Australian public servants the highest paid in the world.
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LOL, I cant recruit APS staff because the pay is so low. I am now forced to pay a contractor to supply workers at 3 or 4 times the price. I wish people would stop making stuff up.
04
When asked why Ugandan troops marched in goosestep Idi Amin was reputed to have said “What’s good for the goose is good for Uganda.”
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FWIW –
“More Pavilions At Folkfest”
“Your Great Replacement QOTD: The fundamental challenge for every left-leaning managerial government in the West today is whether you can bring in migrant voters at a faster rate than your current voters turn against you.”
https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/04/01/more-pavilions-at-folkfest-64/
Oz gets noticed from outside – first comment there
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FWIW – a critique of the Trump policies
“Trump Has Done — And Will Do — It All”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=253075
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“Tariffs – he’ll actually do it, all of it, and we’ll become self-sufficient. No, they’re not inflationary and those who are claiming they are know they’re lying ”
So, it costs $50K to make a car in the USA, and $30K to buy a Chinese import.. People who have saved $30k go out and get a car these days. However, Trumps tariffs raise the price of a Chinese car to $50K, the Govt pocketing $20K for doing nothing. Now the people who have saved $30K don’t have a car, and the people who saved $50k are broke with a new car.
Not actually affecting the money supply, so not inflationary, but a guaranteed drop in the standard of living for everyone having to pay $50K for a car. Just like inflation right now, your money saved for buying a car will not go far enough as the prices have gone up.
..and what happens to the money the Govt pocketed? Slip $10k in their back pocket for pet projects and subsidise the purchase of $50K American-built cars?
Tariffs are never a good idea, if they were we would apply them at State borders too!
00
Major breakthrough on cholesterol.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/one-dose-experimental-drug-nearly-wipes-stealthy-cholesterol-remarkabl-rcna198014
There was a trial drug in the early 1990s hat lowered this type, but the phase 2 trial failed. Of course the phase 2 trail was by Pfizer, whose main blockbuster drug was an early statin. . . .
20
Oh? This is not the gene-editing drug now promoted by cardiologists, is it? The big question remains concerning whether cholesterol is the real culprit. Many believe that the real problem is why the wall of the artery breaks down in the first place. Cholesterol appears to be an attempt to “plug” the breakdown in the epithelium. Dr. Malcolm Kendrick has written a great deal on this topic.
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As covered b4, inflammation not cholesterol is the answer.
Further reading:
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/why-are-statins-so-dangerous
https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/p/the-great-cholesterol-scam-and-the
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Yes, John. Really like the work of the Mid Western Doctor – especially during the Covid scam.
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“The majority of evidence suggests that Lp(a) assembly occurs extracellularly, either in circulation or at the hepatocyte surface.. here are multiple studies documenting the deposition of Lp(a) in human arteries affected by atherosclerosis. .. Despite years of research, the metabolic fate of Lp(a) has proven elusive.”
Well, we don’t know where it comes from, or what it does, or where it goes, but its associated with heart disease so lets block the mRNA that makes it..What could go wrong??
Maybe its another part of the body’s response to arterial wall damage. We will only know a couple of decades after this large-scale human trial of unwitting participants raises its head high enough to be impossible to ignore.
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Are you suggesting that the scientific consensus is wrong?
How very dare you!
30
Lots could go wrong – but then again, lots could go right. Even if something goes badly wrong, we will at least have a tool to work with, understanding the function of the pathway.
Besides, there had to be multiple testing in various animal models, and then a Phase 1 trial. Furthermore, there has been no “rush” to get results. We are now up to Phase 3.
Not only does this affect heart attacks, it also affects strokes. Plus, a mutant variant of a related compound Apolipoprotein E, has a high correlation with Alzheimer’s disease. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4253862/
I’m not going to write it off at this stage because I don’t like the technology.
00
So the Victorian state government of Australia is broke. Biggest debt ratio of any Australian state. Yesterday, was chatting to one of those vendors who had set up a counter in my local shopping centre. Rep for Go Green Australia and flogging energy upgrades for your home. Part of the Victorian Energy Upgrades which means the Vic government are subsidising free upgrades if you have a gas ducted heating system or other. So, I could replace my present gas ducted heating system for FREE with a reverse cycle all electric system !! Just pay the install fee. Government is broke and giving away full house heating/ cooling systems. Explain that to me?
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Relax Ross. If you read the Kunstler article posted here yesterday, you will apprehend that April is likely to be a month of revelations – most of those infamous ” conspiracy theories ” will turn out to be unnervingly accurate.
Will the average punter even notice?
I have my doubts.
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April?
All eyes on May…
Hopefully everyone by now has noticed the year that events are converging on…
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Does “converging in years” have the same status as “consensus in science”?
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More “conspiracy theory ” that you’re just going to love :-
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/jim-quinn-prophets-nomads-fourth-turning-accelerating-towards-bloody-climax
I get the impression from all of TdeF’s writing that he has an inkling of what is going on , but seems unwilling to believe it .
Fair enough.
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They are trying to avoid the embarrassment of importing gas from Singapore. Both flavours of government in Victoria had a ban on gas development up to a year ago. The gas is in short supply now and desperately needed to firm wind and solar when it goes on strike and refuses to produce.
I have recently removed in excess of 100m of heating and cooling ducts after having a VicGov sponsored upgrade using OPM. The job does not include removing the old stuff so I did that.
The cooling side of it was put to good use in February and a few days in March. Way better than the evaporative cooler in sometimes muggy location in outer SE Melbourne.
There are still people in Victoria building new homes and installing evaporative coolers. They were not good value in my view 25 years ago and worse now that the humidity is higher.
20
TedF I/we appreciate all the work you have put in to explaining how the Albo nut zero tax will cripple Australian manufacturers but have you heard Dutton or anyone from the Liberal coalition making an election promise to rescind this very heinous tax?
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How to change the oil in your Tesla
https://youtu.be/o5YhUNX-F-M?si=vYRD7l2ojYnicx37
/1 day late…
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Has anyone done a “how to” video on changing the HV battery on an F 150?
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Love it! Sending it to my mechanic son, I’m sure that he will be impressed. But the bonnet fit on that Tesla looks like it needs some work…
00
LETS DO A WIND LITERACY PROGRAM
1. To tell people about wind droughts so they will know why wind power won’t work.
2. To show people how to check the wind power supply at breakfast and dinnertime to see almost daily that wind power won’t work.
Hint. Use the NemWatch widget, our most powerful weapon! But don’t tell RenewEconomy or they might take it down😊
https://www.nem-watch.info/widgets/reneweconomy/
3. To encourage people to ask why nobody was told about wind droughts until it was almost too late to avert disastrous power failures during nights with little or no wind.
https://www.flickerpower.com/index.php/search/categories/renewables/20-2-four-icebergs-in-the-path-of-renewables-titanic
https://rafechampion.substack.com/p/the-late-discovery-of-wind-droughts
https://open.substack.com/pub/rafechampion/p/we-have-to-talk-about-wind-droughts
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Sitting here in the Mantra close to the Sydney Domestic Terminal, and first Internet connection since Saturday morning, and seriously, I did not even miss it at all.
Just arrived two and a half hours back after four astounding days and nights on the Indian Pacific from Perth. Four off train excursions, Kalgoorlie, Cook on the Eastern Nullarbor (in the middle of the night), Seppeltsfield Winery in the Barossa, and Broken Hill, four fascinating events.
One of the World’s great train journeys really. Took a Panorama image of the train at Broken Hill. 2 Locomotives, 27 carriages, 630 metres long. It’s the ‘off season’, so they said, so that means we are 8 carriages short, and with them added, the whole length comes in at a little more than 800 metres. I think I may have found a way to show that image at my home site when the time comes for me to write that Post, and I’m thinking perhaps a week or so of concerted effort to cull the image, work on them and then write up the text for all of it. For the relatively flat journey from Perth to Adelaide, the use one Locomotive, and for the Mountains in NSW, they add the extra Locomotive at Adelaide.
While I was in Perth, I met, and had coffee with Joanne, and much to my surprise, one of our contributors here, Stanley, came and met me on the Platform in Perth as I was about to leave.
If you’re debating whether or not to shell out for the Indian Pacific, it’s just so well worth it. The food is exceptional, the company is great, and the ‘rocking and rolling’ on rails during the night is overshadowed by everything else there is to do.
This has been four weeks of perhaps the best in recent times for me, and honestly, now I understand what that term ….. ‘Bucket List’ really means. I’ve ticked off on so many of them, things I had no idea about really.
Ah, Life is good eh!
Tony.
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Many thanks for your report Tony, inspiring. It’s a great country when you get out and about in it.
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What a good idea….
LINK.
Mothers had better have them all close together before the eldest child reaches conscription age. We all know now how Russia negotiates a deal – heads I win, tails you lose.
01
FWIW
“Israel: an anti-colonial triumph
Jews had to fight the British Empire to forge the state of Israel.”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/30/israel-an-anti-colonial-triumph/
Via https://hotair.com/headlines/2025/04/01/israel-an-anti-colonial-triumph-n3801372
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We’ll be waiting for “Their ABC” to reference this I guess
10
Language warning – from Bob Moran
https://www.bobmoran.co.uk/paintings/pro-patria-original-artwork
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Hmmm!
“A soldier, a soldier I will be”
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Clean – from Bob Moran
https://www.bobmoran.co.uk/paintings/liberty-original-artwork
They just want it all for themselves…
00
Are these really separate earthquakes, or is one big quake just rumbling away gently?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbXHea99bbw
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Staying down where the tall buildings are tonight to make a first thing in the morning meeting. Sure from free to air TV for the first time in years.
There was a Labor party adverts asking why would you need nuclear power when you have solar and batteries? features fluoro tradies spruiking it up in front of residential installations. The really funny party was them expressing concern about electricity bills. Bit late to the game Albo.
No mention of high rise HVAC, trains, trams, data centres, hospitals, shopping centres, manufacturing (remember when that was a thing), the odd smelter and of course Singapore.
Yep solar and batteries, she’ll be right!
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