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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It is Wednesday after 4 days of Easter holidays, soon the be ANZAC day, another ‘long weekend. Easy to knock off from Easter Friday 18th April to the end of Anzac weekend, 28th April for 10 days.
My wife took Ill with an ambulance to hospital at 4.30 am on Sat 19th. Still there, still waiting for adequate medical care, fighting a system where the few staff at the hospital laugh at their holidaying mates for missing out on overtime. Their idea of serious talk is to say that there is not enough money to fund Victoria’s health costs anyhow, so the afflicted have to lower their expectations these days. Those medical staff who are at work spend much time on filling in voluminous paperwork instead of observing patients, some joking about it being in English using too many big and technical words that they do not understand.
What an unholy mess. Geoff S
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Sorry to hear about your good lady wife.
I do hope she recovers quickly and totally.
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All the best, hope Mrs S is on getting good care now.
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What a horrible experience for you both. I hope things have much improved now. Best wishes.
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Hope the course of the stay eventually turns positive.
My son is presently locumming in Tasmania. He is at Burnie hospital and on 10 consecutive days because they are down on staff over Easter. But he said Burnie is better staffed than most second teir hospitals he has locummed at. He views regional Queensland as having the worst senior medical staff. Lots of immigrants doing country time before they get a city job.
It is unlikely he will be back in Victoria because they were now paying below average and locum positions have been cut.
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First professorship for “Gender Justice in Applied Mathematics” – with 450,000 euros in state funding
The link leads to a German text you easily may translate as I did.
I don’t provide no further comments, you know, criticize Gouvernement in Germany…
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Germany’s decline is accelerating. However Germany still has a positive current account. By contrast UK has been running a negative current account for a long time.
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The usual anti-Trump forces are doing their usual bloviating,
and would certainly crash the US economy if they could —
anything to “get Trump”
But the tariffs which are exceedingly modest, looking at the actual collections vs. the size of the economy,
have ripped the band-aide off the point unspoken for 50 years.
The US market consumes a lot, has been among the least protectionist in the world, and as a consequence has
absorbed some damage.
It’s not real good to have your entire pharma supply chain, and much of your high tech supply chain, in a China that is increasingly bellicose.
It’s not cool that virtually anyone can sell cars in the US, and US cars are seldom accepted elsewhere — there isn’t a developed country in the
world where a Corvette, or Ford 150 dealer wouldn’t make money if allowed in on the same terms we allow mfrs. to sell here.
The US farmer is the most productive in the world (A major sources of our productivity) but can’t sell not many markets.
It’s probably not good for the “world’s policeman” not to have steel and shipbuilding capabilities — didn’t see anyone else rushing to take down the Houties.
The tariffs have suddenly opened the door to discussions. The “pause” sets a deadline. You can’t move that fast, wail the ensconced parasitic munchkins.
Bovine Excrement! Nations have been “talking” about these issues for 50 years, Diplomatic jabberwocky being the best way in the world to avoid, you know, actual action.
Git Er Bone! We’ll all prosper. Oz is well on the way to being a resource colony of China. Join the fight please. Oz used to make
stuff too. Probably could again. Making stuff that one can sell produces money, some of which is actually distributed to the workers.
More tha letting a certain nation steal your assets.
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US cars are made in vast quantities in Europe by US firms but they have been adapted to European taste and roads so there is little scope for the US to export vehicles direct to the continent..
Few here would want the original rather brash over large cars
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How much does a Ram pick up truck cost in Australia? It was a six figure amount. After that could you afford the petrol? There was and might still be a company importing them and converting to Right hand drive.
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I got a Chysler300C as a rental car in Europe once ( a station wagon no less) it was pitched at an upgrade. What a disaster whenever I left the motorway. Probably a fine thing in the land of wide roads and 100acre car parks, but in Europe, not so much.
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Well said Richard. It is incredible to face a situation where we are pretty much a service economy supplying nations like China with the raw materials to make what we, in turn, buy back. It has placed us, long term, in a very precarious security situation – both in terms of supply of essential goods and in terms of threat of attack and survival.
High wages, industrial unrest and a huge market overseas led to an eventual de-industrialisation. It may prove our undoing. Re-industrialisation, anyone?
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Ah, hold my beer!
Trump puts 3,500% tariff on asian solar!
https://x.com/wmhuo168/status/1914649547776684181
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Solar (& wind) adds significantly to the grid costs.
Not only do you need base power – for when the sun doesn’t shine (& wind blow) – these ‘traditional fuel’ sources, by design , need to operate 24/7/365.
Paying twice as much for grid scale power (via the merging of these 2 systems) should come at a premium and these Solar Tariffs seeks to redress that.
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Of course … if you are wealthy enough (Point Piper rich) you are free to install all the solar you want – but in the US (as Australia) it is an industry that been subsidized by everyone’s tax dollars (rich or poor) – giving an additional reason to Tariff solar sales, to recoup public monies.
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For those that didn’t read my posts on Monday, here’s the graph of Oz manufacturing since 1975:
https://imgbox.com/HptgEWrF
So, if anyone thinks that voting changes anything…
Or that all the ads by whatever party promising jobs, manufacturing and bright futures are real, but only if you vote for them..
Show them this graph.
They ALL had their chance.
Ex car salesmen, real-estate agents and other no-skills wallies going into politics CAN’T bring back the old days.
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You are dead right JC!! Govts can’t create wealth, so they can’t create jobs. Any job they pay for is a loss to the taxpayers!
“Oz used to make stuff too. Probably could again.” Not a chance!! Laughable really… You need the wages of China to compete, and the capital to automate if you can find a market as big as theirs! ..and just to make sure it will never happen in OZ, you will need to completely get rid of the Unions, AND the legislation governing hiring and firing in business!!
When we have clever people who can invent things, have people with money to invest in them, have a workforce who will work for a fraction of your roadworks lollipops at $120K a year, have an economic system where you can hire and fire at will and a market overseas to sell into… then maybe Aussie can make stuff again.
I doubt its going to happen, we will go to war first and collapse the current system completely, and from the ashes some common sense may arise. Get rid of the Welfare State, slash the size of Canberra to just representing Aussie internationally, bring back self-responsibility, charities, neighbours and families, and let people struggle again.
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And here in Australia we have this, advocating “protection” for oldies.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2025-04-23/covid-vaccination-rates-aged-care-residents-older-people-winter/105200596
I’ll stick with my D, C, zinc and quercetin thanks.
Cheers,
Dave B
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They must be trying to kill them with the vax.
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Political censorship rears its ugly head yet again:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/04/french-great-replacement-philosopher-renaud-camus-banned-entering/
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And to think this has occurred in the homeland of Disraeli.
“I utterly disagree with what you are saying, but will fight to the death for your right to say it.”
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red edward,
Disraeli? That quote is usually attributed to Voltaire. Apparently not him, either.
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Copied from Quora Digest.
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Perhaps seeking payment by the hour is a better option.
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Currently, game over by 30…
If you see a picture of a 30yo with a great smile, it’s AI. The genetic(?) frown kicks in around 25 by the looks of it. 😎😉
Get a dog instead!
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“Get a dog instead!”
Sex with dogs is not quite legal yet… Anything else goes it seems.
..and life does seem to give that frown, rare to see a happy smiling woman these days. Must be a by-product of womans lib.
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FWIW
An elaboration on “uncompleted nothings from yesterday”.
An early morning conversation
She – “And what are you going to do today”
He – “Aw probably nothing”
She – “But you did that yesterday”
He – “But I didn’t get it finished”
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FWIW
An interesting look at the history of Pope Francis and the covid “vaccination”
https://open.substack.com/pub/coffeeandcovid/p/memento-mori-tuesday-april-22-2025?
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FWIW – grim reader for the morning
“The Risk Of This Ending In Blood”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=253173
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Re influence of Drone Warfare from Ukraine/Russia War
Look at the Vehicle loading onto the Globemaster in the following article
Trump Administration Starts Pulling Hundreds of Troops from Syria
PS Welcome back Jo!
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The vehicle you refer to has cage armour or a “cope cage” built around it which is designed to disrupt, damage or pre-detonate anti-armour weapons like RPG’s or IED’s, mainly from more primitive enemies.
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The cope cage will be the latest fashion in any war from now on, just look at Ukraine. Drones will only get cheaper and more complex, and as a weapon they are far more powerful than any other way of following what an enemy is doing and destroying them.
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https://warrenross.substack.com/p/katoomba-the-us-state-department
In April 2000, members of a Washington think tank brought together around 150 economists, scientists, investors, and professional conservationists from four continents to a series of workshops at Taronga Zoo. A select 50 then took a bus trip to Katoomba for an intensive two day workshop. Their plan was to use financial investment to fund large conservation programs. Or it may have been the other way around?
For years people have argued that you can’t put a price on nature. This group was going to prove that old dictum wrong. Not only can you put a price on it, that price can be quite high. Their work has continued and they have made allies of some very powerful people.
Seems they liked our name and have been running events all round the world while using it. In October last year, after 25 years, they made a return visit.
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Latest case of TDS from Their ABC Australia.
I just heard on the radio ABC-RN 621kHz in Melbournistan around 8am EST the absurd claim that Donald TRUMP had “invited himself” to the Pope’s funeral.
As if he wouldn’t be invited, he is the world’s major world leader.
Just more lies and Far Left propaganda from your billion dollar +++ per year ABC.
Even PM Albo was invited but is sending the Governor General instead. I think Albo would be an embarrassment at anyone’s funeral, good he’s not going.
The last VIP funeral I went to was Sir Zelman Cowen. PM Gillard was there, as well as Howard, Fraser, Hawke, Tony Abbott and many other dignitaries. Gillard came across as a bogan*, even at a funeral and would have been an equal embarrassment as Albo.
For overseas friends, bogan is Australian slang:
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Many thanks for listening to their ABC so others don’t have to.
Above and beyond the call of duty!
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Yes, it is definitely painful. I can only tolerate it for short periods whilst driving, and only sometimes.
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Road noise is preferable (IMO)
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FWIW
“Did You Hear About the Terrible Thing Ivanka Trump Did?”
https://pjmedia.com/sarah-anderson/2025/04/22/did-you-hear-about-the-terrible-thing-ivanka-trump-did-n4939143
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https://www.shiftedparadigms.org/p/an-exciting-project-on-disinformation
In a recent post on social media, the Australian epidemiologist and global biosecurity guru, Raina MacIntyre posted about an “exciting project on sentiment and disinformation in the health/epidemic domain” at the University of New South Wales’s Kirby Institute
The $499,932 of taxpayer funds awarded to MacIntyre and her team will be used to create AI that can identify public health disinformation and its effect on communities.
“Disinformation, or ‘fake news’, is a significant challenge in today’s public health field, and unfortunately is a consequence of living in a highly connected world,” says Professor MacIntyre. “It affects community sentiment, which in turn can affect vaccination rates and uptake of other health interventions. AI-driven solutions will help detect and combat disinformation as more threats emerge, and will provide early warnings of negative community sentiment, which can inform health promotion and public health messaging to communities.”4 [emphasis added]
As though the pandemic’s negative community sentiment was irrational and fuelled by disinformation rather than being the rational response to being locked down, mandated, threatened, marginalised, silenced: now ignored.
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Let she who is without sin cast the first stone.
And her crusade may well founder on the rocks when common and garden chatbots can identify the errors of her propaganda. Even without government grants.
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That could be money well spent, if all made to keep to the agreed rules. Rules are to be worked out by Parliament, however unrepresentative it is, but approved by referendum.
Current problem with Truth is not that number of truths is equal to number of people. Nearly always issues are black & white, but 80 years of “liberalism” made them very mirky and often reversed the original meaning – starting from UN which is not united and hardly half of members are nations, down to local notions of public ownership, racial and gender equality, etc.., etc.., Freedom Of Speech indeed !
The AI algorithm should be very simple to start with – no direct lies. Something, like $600B for 7 nuclear power stations or “First Nations” would take a millisecond to disprove.
Of course public figures and “influencers” will try and continue but that a) will require much more skill, time and effort and b) the quantity will drop.
Next generation will see if AI is doing a reasonable job where humans failed.
Might reward AI with the next task.
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“Rules are to be worked out by Parliament, however unrepresentative it is, but approved by referendum.”
that would fit in very well with- ” living in a highly connected world,” so I’m sure EVERYONE would be right behind having Parliament formulate a law and then people vote on it, yes or no.
Your civic duty this week is to spend an hour on the Govt website voting for laws, and the completely transparent listing of which way you voted is published. Hence anyone can add up the votes if they want to.
“Might reward AI with the next task.”.. Yep! Disband Parliament, fire all the snivel service and put AI in charge!
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Engineers solve problems people don’t know they have in ways they cannot understand.
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To the opportunist, “that was refreshing. What are you guys talking about?” 😉
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It’s amazing that Australia has so many stupid people that there are political parties to cater to them, Labor, Greens and Teals!
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I think you may have missed quite a few political parties there David.
My wife and I did our civic duty yesterday.
The senate ballot paper was chockers with hopeful grifters on the lookout for stupid people.
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With all his shortcomings I like Malcolm Roberts, though I was told individual’s voice, even few of us together, are irrelevant in the current setup.
However, having more Engineers in the Senate, is good by itself and more possible.
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Careful there!
From his time as a shire councillor an uncle’s description of a road engineer was
“The result of a very expensive education in running water uphill”
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So… you drew a box, wrote “Any party with a clue” next to it, and ticked it?
Australia is changing the national flag to a CONDOM, because it more accurately reflects the government’s political stance.
A condom allows for inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pr!cks, and gives you a sense of security whilst you’re actually being screwed!!
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“The senate ballot paper was chockers with hopeful grifters on the lookout for stupid people.”
from the top to the bottom there would be no-one on there for any other reason!
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Oh for a party starting with B.
Then we could lump them together as LGBT…
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Why progress was so slow, for so long (and the super-exponential logarithmic growth now)
For tens of thousands of years, people toiled, starved, suffered, and died until we finally achieved modern economic growth.
Why? Why was progress so slow, for so long? Did it have to be? What caused it to finally accelerate in the modern era? And were the last few centuries a fluke, a lucky windfall of progress, after which we should expect a regression to the mean of slow growth? Or were they part of a trend that we can expect to continue?
The constant growth rate of an exponential curve is generated by a system where the mechanism of growth is invariant with scale. A classic example is a biological population (in the absence of resource constraints): the mechanism of growth is the reproductive faculty of the individual organism. Each female gives birth to a certain number of offspring, which does not depend on the size of the population. Similarly, a savings account grows exponentially if each dollar invested earns a constant rate of return, regardless of the size of the account.
The nature of such self-reinforcing feedback loops is that they are very hard to get going, because you start from a low level of capability—but as they speed up, they gain almost unstoppable momentum. Envision a massive flywheel, gathering energy from the turns of a small engine. Due to the inertia of the wheel, each turn of the engine makes only a small impact on its speed; at first not much seems to be happening at all. But the compounding investment of energy into the wheel eventually accelerates it to enormous velocity.
https://www.freethink.com/the-material-world/techno-humanist-manifesto-chapter-6
…and as I’ve said about AGI, it’s not decades away, it’s imminent, and this is why.
Turn over control to AI and it’s game over in the blink of an eye.
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“Turn over control to AI and it’s game over in the blink of an eye.”
Would we ever be that lucky!! Game over for Govt!! Disband Parliament, fire the snivel service and let AI work out what to do!
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FWIW
“Shock message for Earth Day: Mother Earth loves Trump’s energy policies! – Earth admits: ‘Trump has improved the state of my health’ ”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/04/22/shock-message-for-earth-day-mother-earth-loves-trumps-energy-policies-earth-admits-trump-has-improved-the-state-of-my-health/
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FWIW
“The Truth About University Overhead Costs”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/04/22/the-truth-about-university-overhead-costs/
And – this seems to fit too
“Elon is doing applied political science. He had a hypothesis, and then he bet on it. And in being correct, we are learning empirically: The Professional Managerial Class has perfected a system of moral blackmail through which they convert third world suffering into personal wealth and status. “
More at
https://x.com/jmrphy/status/1887225944647094594
Via https://instapundit.com/715794/#disqus_thread
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With Jo having to pay extra ongoing to solve the site disruption issues, it seems Easter is a good time to send some “chocolate” her way via the Tip Jar (top right).
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FWIW
“How Junk Food Took Hold In The US And What RFK Jr. Is Doing About It”
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/how-junk-food-took-hold-us-and-what-rfk-jr-doing-about-it
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Thanks Jo
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FWIW – grim reader for the morning
USA
“The Risk Of This Ending In Blood”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=253173
UK
“Thinking the Unthinkable
Policing, civil war and ‘urbicide’ ”
https://dominicadler.substack.com/p/thinking-the-unthinkable
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Quite a dark read, sounds like an Empire crumbling
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FWIW – how well we did
On the chart here
https://x.com/RichardDias_CFA/status/1914692713536168437
Via https://www.smalldeadanimals.com/2025/04/22/race-to-the-bottom-2/#comments
for comments
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Trump’s tariffs are obviously hitting China hard because the prices of Chinese manufactured goods in AUDs is down considerably in the past month.
If you have been looking at stuff to buy directly from China, now is the time. It will probably flow through in vehicle prices soon enough. So if you think the price of Chines cars is already low, give it a few months.
THe risk is you could buy a car from a maker who does not exist in 10 years:
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3301947/chinas-new-energy-sector-faces-elimination-contest-amid-price-war-crackdown
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I kept getting blocked and seeing a message forbidden on this server?
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As we all did Dennis, check a day or two back. Hopefully fixed now.
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https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/local-news/somerset-island-become-electric-bus-10115936
The planning application seeks permission for 64 floor mounted electric charges, four steel gantries to house electric chargers at an elevated level, and three new electricity substations.
Three new substations for 64 bus chargers – seems excessive?
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That would be expected. An Australian bus organisation purchased some electric buses, but apparently doesn’t have sufficient power to charge them. So they have setup “temporary” diesel-powered chargers.
A group of new Melbourne apartments were looking at fitting EV chargers for each apartment, but found out that the distribution power lines were inadequate, the local substation was inadequate, etc. So quietly dropped the idea…
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Covid … or an opioid crises? Those are some steep prescribing graphs.
https://www.shiftedparadigms.org/p/sedation-not-salvation-part-3
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Our local war-monger is busy slagging off Trump and demonising Russia in the SMH, as usual.
“What’s the only thing worse than having a murderous dictator invade your country? If you’re Ukraine, it’s having Donald Trump offer to broker a peace agreement…One of the two parties.. agreed to a ceasefire as demanded by Trump. That was Ukraine. So the party making it “very difficult”, insisting on impossible conditions, is Vladimir Putin’s Russia. ”
Talk about CIA propaganda! Putin laid out what his conditions for a ceasefire were before Trump mentioned it, so everyone knew how to write the document, its just that the West didn’t want to! The Pentagon thought they were negotiating with another Grenada and everyone would do what they told them to, but at least we can see that if America is negotiating the peace agreement, they are admitting they are at war with Russia.
Then paragraphs about how terrible Trump is, virtually Putin’s brother, “Trump never intended to do anything other than gratify Putin. His special envoy, Steve Witkoff, has been glaringly in thrall to Moscow and barely bothering to hide it.” …and ends up with his advice to the PM-
“create a new network of non-US powers prepared to fight for collective security. Candidates include Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Canada, the UK and most European nations. India is a potential future recruit. That collective fight includes urgent further contributions to Ukraine’s struggle for survival. Because if Putin wins, we in the remaining countries of the free world lose.”
Get in there and go to war!! Crush Russia!! Win the Great Game and make Queen Victoria happy!!
He’d take a shotgun to the white dove of peace!
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/trump-s-peacemaker-charade-has-failed-ukraine-and-the-west-will-pay-a-price-20250421-p5lt4k.html
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FWIW
Z-man has been shopping –
“SITREP 4/22/25: Ukraine Begs 30% of Bundeswehr Stock to Survive”
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-42225-ukraine-begs-30-of-bundeswehr
Think the SMH bloke will donate?
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FWIW
Instapudit lead in
“OH, BUT REE, REE, REE, YOU’RE NOT A HORSE: NEW STUDY: Ivermectin Shows Striking Anticancer Potential and Remarkable Safety.”
“NEW STUDY – Ivermectin Shows Striking Anticancer Potential and Remarkable Safety”
https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/new-study-ivermectin-shows-striking
https://instapundit.com/715970/#disqus_thread
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