About as bad as it could have been


“Give the people what they want, good and hard”. It’s a philosophy, I suppose, but not so good for those who didn’t want whatever it is that actually gets served up. So now Australia joins the Biden-Trudeau-Adern club of Mencken’s worst nightmare societies.

I am still a bit shell shocked from the outcome, not that I am all that surprised, so rather than say what I think, I will take a pair of comments from a previous post and then go read the papers – or at least do the crossword puzzle. First from Another Ian who quotes from JoNova.

“My daughter just finished a class in college about the alchemists. Before some of you rant about how useless this class was, it’s not It teaches us about the past and is a guide to the future. The alchemists did produce some useful discoveries. But they are most known for some of their absurd attempts to turn lead into gold and other nonsensical endeavors.

“Climate science is really the new alchemy. It is using regression analysis to figure out what level of CO2 will endanger the planet. But it makes no more sense than what the alchemists were doing. We don’t really have quality information on worldwide temperatures for past years. It’s questionable whether we have information on it for present years. We don’t know all of the variables that impact temperature. So the new alchemists are trying to predict future weather by generating computer models that are absolute garbage because they don’t take into account natural variability, urban heat zones, etc. They don’t know the variables and just fudge the numbers to get the programs to make it look like they work. But of course, how did they predict the Little Ice and the Roman Warm Period. These models can’t even accurately predict the past. And we are spending billions of dollars supporting this new alchemy and possibly trillions of dollars, endangering the health and welfare of our citizens because of this elitist nonsense.”

And then this from Bruce of Newcastle.

Unfortunately to some extent both parties are channeling the insanity of the voters. I was reflecting last night that I’ve been opposing the climate craze for nearly 15 years now, and in that time it has just gotten worse and worse. There’s still nothing much happening in the real world – no actual global warming, none of the dire prognostications. Yet this election is a choice between the totally bonkers Libs and the beyond insane Labor Party. Both are falling over themselves to destroy our country for a myth.

That’s because the voters demand this stupidity. The MSM demands it. The whole of the nation is stuck in a lemming-like race to disaster which only a literal disaster will crack the people out of.

The Covid arc illustrates this. You had guys like McGowan immensely popular for converting his entire state into a prison camp to save the people from a virus so innocuous that people often don’t know they have it. It took two years of disaster – closed businesses, lost jobs, lockdowns, vaccine injuries, masking and elderly parents dying alone for the people to suddenly, overnight, get over it. Now the pollies don’t mention the virus and it’s like it never existed.

The people haven’t yet gotten to this point on the climate scam, but they will once the pain really amps up. Which it is just starting to, particularly electricity and fuel prices. But with the elites all Believing like religious fanatics even that’s not going to be enough. Saving the world syndrome is a very powerful hubristic drug. It may take a full-on political apocalypse to stop these people saving us from an apocalypse which isn’t happening.

You know, there may have been people even during the height of the witch-burning phase of our own past history who understood it was all insane. Meanwhile, we are about to live through years of serious idiocy.

The truth of the matter is that everyone lives through “interesting times” as the Chinese like to say. It’s not a curse, it’s just the way it is.


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Roger
Roger
May 22, 2022 11:42 am

So now Australia joins the Biden-Trudeau-Adern club of Mencken’s worst nightmare societies.

Get a grip,man. Yes, things are bad, but “nightmare societies”?

We’re not a failed state, and as BoN suggests, once the economic pain of green policies really hits the standard of living the scales will fall from the eyes of all but the most delusional.

The only poll of election issues that had “cimate change” and not “cost of living” as the number one issue on people’s minds was the ABC’s Vote Compass.

Tom
Tom
May 22, 2022 12:01 pm

Turns out Uncle Sam’s new man in Canberra is an unreconstructed Trotskyist — as damaging to the local economy as the Marxist puppet in the White House.

m0nty
m0nty
May 22, 2022 12:07 pm

Yet more proof that Prof Kates is completely out of touch with reality.

Ceres
Ceres
May 22, 2022 12:24 pm

Our own Joe Biden and all the batsh#t crazy women elected. Abandon hope all ye who enter here. Helluva job for Dutton.

Wally Dalí
Wally Dalí
May 22, 2022 12:32 pm

Surely the 2007 Ruddslide was the game-changing Climate Change election? Oh, you mean the goalposts are still shirting, and there’s still billowing clouds of meat-production methane to fight through and inequal ethnic impact hurdles to surmount? Well colour me a surprised shade of teal.
Another surely- surely the Turnbull-Morrison bleedout will signal to the stoopid effin Liberals that they’ll never win by playing the Action On Climate Gender Jobs Medicare games. The Howard-Abbott victories should demonstrate that the only way to win ground with the voting public- and hold the fort- is to have extreme right policies and socially conservative personalities which the commentariat actively hate and will campaign relentlessly against for years on end.

Plasmamortar
Plasmamortar
May 22, 2022 12:33 pm

Time to buy a small generator, for anyone that hasn’t bought one already that is.
It will be the only way to keep your house running soon.

jupes
jupes
May 22, 2022 12:43 pm

The only poll of election issues that had “cimate change” and not “cost of living” as the number one issue on people’s minds was the ABC’s Vote Compass.

And yet … all those Teals and Greens were elected.

What the Liberals should do now if they want to remain viable, is to call bullshit on the climate scam. It may take a few years to reverse the brainwashing of the population, but in the meantime it would be fun pointing out facts and pulling the piss out of the morons pushing this garbage.

They won’t of course. The Liberals are now a far-left party who will choose between being a bit more sensible or going further left than the Greens on ‘climate’. However, if you start from the proposition that ‘climate change’ is an existential threat and therefore something must be done about it, then going at it half arsed isn’t going to cut it anymore with a population who have been fed this horseshit for decades. On the other hand, Zac Kirkup tried going greener than Greens at the last WA state election and ended up with only two seats.

Oh dear, what to do? They will never recover from either of those choices. Good.

Roger
Roger
May 22, 2022 12:45 pm

Our own Joe Biden and all the batsh#t crazy women elected. Abandon hope all ye who enter here. Helluva job for Dutton.

On the contrary, an Australian Opposition leader has never had such rich material to work with.

Roger
Roger
May 22, 2022 12:48 pm

And yet … all those Teals and Greens were elected.

In well to do electorates where people are generally better off than the majority.

It’s been said many times, only the rich can afford to be green.

Colonel Crispin Berka
Colonel Crispin Berka
May 22, 2022 1:00 pm

Repeating from the Fed thread…

Labor (75) currently 1 HoR seat away from being able to govern without the Greens’ help, and if swing continues for the rest of the count it could be the division of Moore (WA) they pick up next from the Gliberals.

Buuuttt… Labor may lose Lyons (in TAS!?!) to the Liberals (in TAS?!?) so who really knows if they’ll scrape through with a 100% pure BideAnt government.
Possibly a 1.3% Xi-comm government, or a 11% Holmes-a-Court government.

Lee
Lee
May 22, 2022 1:00 pm

I hope that the libs will look back on Abbott as an opposition leader….winning 90 seats and use it as a model for their time in opposition. Attack, prosecute the argument and dont give in. AND then if they win in 3 years, don’t shrink in the job.

Dot
Dot
May 22, 2022 1:01 pm

What do you mean join?

We’re already there and have been so for quite a while.

Angus Black
Angus Black
May 22, 2022 1:07 pm

Colonel,

Buuuttt… Labor may lose Lyons (in TAS!?!) to

We’ve lived through a recent ALP/Green coalition State government fairly recently, so we understand the scale of the disaster they can generate, even in a single term of government.

Be afraid, be very afraid.

vlad redux
vlad redux
May 22, 2022 1:18 pm

Interesting times and they will become progressively more interesting over the next three years.

Fleeced
Fleeced
May 22, 2022 1:22 pm

Abbott is a good strategy for winning… but bad for being in government. He fucking squibbed once in power.

Fleeced
Fleeced
May 22, 2022 1:24 pm

Worst part is, now we’ll probably have to watch Tim Wilson and Kristina Keneally do a show together on Sky. Hope not.

Rob MW
Rob MW
May 22, 2022 1:25 pm

About as bad as it could have been

My armchair point of view (rightly or wrongly):

LNP & Labor got 70% of the vote.
Greens got 10% of the vote.
Minor parties – mainly ON, UAP & LDP – got 10% of the vote.
Independents got 10% of the vote.

Assuming that Labor & LNP now chase the Green vote the most that could possibly lead to is an increase of the their collective vote, say, is 75% of the vote which leaves 25% of the vote. So in theory the majors are trying to form government with, at most, 37.5% of the total vote going either way.

To my mind, the 20% to 25% of minor party and independent disenfranchised voters now becomes important. In short and specifically, I think that the LNP chasing at most 2% of the Green vote at the expense of 20% of the outliers will mean that they are going to be opposition for a fair while, or at least until the morons figure out why 20% of the electorate voted neither for LNP or Labor. Labor, I think, is in much the same boat, because I think it nearly impossible to form a party specific majority government with only 37.5% of the vote.

Until or unless the LNP does a deep dive survey, without the usual bullshit or giving Labor policies a leg up, into why 20% of voters are pissed off, then their collective lives are going to be pretty miserable in the near term. At this point in time, I can’t understand why the LNP & Labor just don’t form one single party…………. oh wait !!

Stevem
May 22, 2022 1:35 pm

The only consolidation I can take is that both Keneally and Zimmerman are gone.
The Liberals must use Labor’s example and try to get as much publicity as possible over the next three years pointing out the folly of Labor’s policies – followed in every case with a “see, we told you so”.
The only reason Labor won was that they had undermined all the Liberal’s achievements.
Labor has already started their downward spiral by endorsing the Biloela “refugees” right to stay.

H B Bear
H B Bear
May 22, 2022 1:46 pm

I am still a bit shell shocked from the outcome …

I’m not. Morrison ran an ordinary government virtually devoid of achievements. He could not run on his record even if the Lieborals chose to do so. You can run a debt scare campaign with around $600bn of public debt on issue.

He has lost government to arguably the weakest candidate the Liars have put up in a decade.

Ed Case
Ed Case
May 22, 2022 1:52 pm

My armchair point of view (rightly or wrongly):

LNP & Labor got 70% of the vote.
65%.
Greens got 10% of the vote.
More like 14% but, yeah, but where they were a chance it was more like 35%.
Minor parties – mainly ON, UAP & LDP – got 10% of the vote.
Try 6-7%.
Independents got 10% of the vote.
Again, in the seats they won it was more like 30-35%.
Tactics couldn’t win it for Scotty this time because he had to carry so many fake Liberals plus his own duds like Deves who cost them more votes outside Warringah than she got against Steggall.

RobK
RobK
May 22, 2022 2:07 pm

With Corbyn’s mate running the show; this should be good.
A good deal of damage has already been done to water and electricity infrastructure, along with other development hurdles, over the decades with burgeoning red and green imposts .
The full benefits of centralised planning should be upon us in short order. It’s perhaps the dark-age we have to have to get over this period of that is the antithesis of the C17 enlightenment.
I think a turnaround will be in the order of decades, if not, longer.

Rob MW
Rob MW
May 22, 2022 2:08 pm

Ed Casesays:
May 22, 2022 at 1:52 pm

Probably right amigo, still not good. BTW, I forgot to add the 10% informal vote which makes the majors fighting for about 60% of the electorate (without the Greens), give or take. Notwithstanding, I appreciate you trying to be more elaborate going forward from my ‘back of the envelope’ calculations unfortunately, the overall scenario doesn’t change. Given that, and in conclusion, fuck-off if you have nothing better to do.

Pommy Al
Pommy Al
May 22, 2022 2:10 pm

Losing to an absolutely talentless prick like Albo should be the most humiliating thing that you ever did in your entire life.
2 things would’ve won the election.
Fuck off net zero and defund the abc

Ed Case
Ed Case
May 22, 2022 2:15 pm

I forgot to add the 10% informal vote which makes the majors fighting for about 60% of the electorate (without the Greens), give or take.
Informal votes don’t even add up to 1%, let alone 10%.
It’s 2022, granddad, not 1963.
Have another sherry, anyway.

Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
May 22, 2022 2:16 pm

We do live in interesting times. And those times are about to get even more interesting.
We’ve all seen a general decline for the last 20+ years, we haven’t even started to get near rock bottom yet.
However the hard times, and they will be hard, will make us stronger.
One only has to look how well Russia is now doing against the sanctions, the hatred, their exile, to know that a hardened people has a resolve that’s unbreakable.
This will help us be antifragile.

Ed Case
Ed Case
May 22, 2022 2:23 pm

2 things would’ve won the election.
Fuck off net zero and defund the abc

Is that the Talking Point ALP Central sent out today?
Doing both those things woulda lost the Nationals a lotta seats
that they’d never get back [because of Labor PorkBarreling]
and the Liberals a few more too.
Do you really think that viewers can’t work out that an ABC presenter
on $600,000/year puffing Labor mightn’t be taken seriously?

rosie
rosie
May 22, 2022 2:27 pm

Ordinary punters don’t watch the ABC.

Rob MW
Rob MW
May 22, 2022 2:34 pm

Ed Casesays:
May 22, 2022 at 2:15 pm
Informal votes don’t even add up to 1%, let alone 10%.

Yeah, you are right dipstick, currently informal is sitting 5.15% of the vote down 0.39% from the last election.

Pommy Al
Pommy Al
May 22, 2022 2:37 pm

Correct Rosie.
But they still pay for it.

Ed Case
Ed Case
May 22, 2022 2:40 pm

Ordinary punters don’t watch the ABC.

What’s an “ordinary punter” look like, Marie Antoinette?

Pommy Al
Pommy Al
May 22, 2022 2:46 pm

“Ordinary punters”
Disappointing.
Why say that?
“Elitist wanker” comes to mind being an ordinary punter.

Ed Case
Ed Case
May 22, 2022 2:47 pm

Griffith, 1.85% Informal, 76,000 counted.
Where’d’cha get 5.15% from, Granddad?

Vicki
Vicki
May 22, 2022 2:52 pm

Time to buy a small generator, for anyone that hasn’t bought one already that is.
It will be the only way to keep your house running soon.

Ahhh….but then you will need to keep up supplies of either petrol or diesel. That may not be so easy.

Roger
Roger
May 22, 2022 3:02 pm

People reliant on EVs will be in a spot of bother come the blackouts.

calli
calli
May 22, 2022 3:12 pm

You know, there may have been people even during the height of the witch-burning phase of our own past history who understood it was all insane

Funny that, Steve. My exact thought last night.

It has become a pseudo-religion, and a fundie one at that. Dare to speak out against it and, depending on who you are with, the shrieks begin. Or the dirty looks and hand clenching. You find yourself prefacing comments with, “climate change has always happened”, as if it’s a mantra to ward off the debbildebbil juju and salve the feelings of the faithful.

Not any more.

I’m now quite happy to opine that it’s a load of hokum, as decidedly as any dyed in the wool atheist.

Fair Shake
Fair Shake
May 22, 2022 3:22 pm

Bonkers and insane. But it’s everywhere.

My wife has been trying to start a baby formula company for 7 years. The obstacles put in the way by government, the Chinese, business partners, venture capitalists, Covid, supply chain, breast feeding zealots… anyway, shortly we expect a small shipment to be airlifted to the US. And these US idiots could make perfectly fine formula themselves. But hey if it makes our bank account less red then I’m a supporter.

Perhaps our philosophy should be if we hang in there long enough the insane will throw a few crumbs our way. But we know it won’t last.

Fleeced
Fleeced
May 22, 2022 3:27 pm

Hey Vicki, you can get generators that run on natural gas… though looking at Cali, when they had rolling blackouts, they were stopping gas as well. It’s almost as though it were planned. If you get one that can switch between LNG and LPG you might be a bit safer, but even then you might want alternate options.

Fleeced
Fleeced
May 22, 2022 3:29 pm

…though looking at Cali…

California, that is. Not our own calli.

Rob MW
Rob MW
May 22, 2022 3:33 pm

Ed Casesays:
May 22, 2022 at 2:47 pm
Griffith, 1.85% Informal, 76,000 counted.
Where’d’cha get 5.15% from, Granddad?

You do know how to scroll down you stupid fuckwit.

The link is the same one I posted. Fuckwits have gotta fuckwit I suppose.

billie
billie
May 22, 2022 3:39 pm

Vicki: You can run a generator on Natural Gas, the same as heats your water or is used in your furnace if you’re in the south. Look into it, you don’t have to use petrol or diesel these days.

billie
billie
May 22, 2022 3:46 pm

Climate thing

you’re not going to defeat this and it will only get worse.

our kids are indoctrinated at school their entire school lives now, same with the vegetarian thing

it’s now reached the stage that kids who went through the school/teacher indoctrination are now going back to schools as teachers

the websites that teachers use for teaching material, all have extensive teaching aids that weave climate into everything

go have a look at coolaustralia.org for yourselves

that’s where at the majority of teaching material comes from, all the teachers use it because it is all done for them

hey, as the kids say, “why would they lie?”

I don’t know how we can fight this, ask your kids what they think, look at the Friday demonstrations

it’s not cool to be sceptical of climate hysteria

Damon
Damon
May 22, 2022 4:29 pm

Climate ‘scientists’ don’t have a clue. The people who do are the engineers, who have to make things work. None of those people believe society can be run on unicorn farts.

Rockdoctor
Rockdoctor
May 22, 2022 4:38 pm

Roger, basing my assertion on the historic aversion Australians have to throwing out first term Governments even how s&*#t they are. But fully agree with the 11 cross benchers it is going to be an almighty s&%$ show the likes I have probably not witnessed in my conscious life, bearing in mind I was still hiding behind mummys knees in suburban Brisbane when Whitlam got chucked…

As for power when these idiots accelerate their power plant closure, NQ loses power every time we get hit by a cyclone or flood so my 3.8 KVa does the job to keep most stuff going like fridges & TV/computer. Guess am going to need that more often. Townsville can also kiss Hells Gate Dam goodbye as well…

Frank
Frank
May 22, 2022 4:38 pm

This will help us be antifragile.

A few summers without the help of refrigeration will probably do a bit for that too.

Those that can afford it, if you are on the same local grid as a major hospital they turn your power off last.

Plasmamortar
Plasmamortar
May 22, 2022 5:48 pm

Ahhh….but then you will need to keep up supplies of either petrol or diesel. That may not be so easy.

It’s not hard to keep 200-300 litres around.
If you run out of that, more than likely the full blown riots will have already started and you’ll have bigger problems anyway.

Plasmamortar
Plasmamortar
May 22, 2022 5:50 pm

if you are on the same local grid as a major hospital they turn your power off last.

Nah, they can still easily shut all residential down and keep essential services running. It’s why we have service fuses.

Fleeced
Fleeced
May 22, 2022 5:51 pm

From TheFacebook: ‘Unfortunately for Jackie Lambie, the overwhelmingly female composition of those new “Teal” MPs shall, irrespective of other developments, result in a parliament insufficiently well-hung for her.’

Vicki
Vicki
May 22, 2022 6:35 pm

Vicki: You can run a generator on Natural Gas, the same as heats your water or is used in your furnace if you’re in the south. Look into it, you don’t have to use petrol or diesel these days.

Thanks Billie. We will stay with petrol and diesel, as we use both on the farm. We have a 1,000l tank for diesel supplies and this is topped up by delivery company. Like everybody else, though, we will be under the threat of supply problems should the global forces intervene.

duncanm
duncanm
May 22, 2022 6:52 pm

Colonel Crispin Berkasays:
May 22, 2022 at 1:00 pm

Labor (75) currently 1 HoR seat away from being able to govern without the Greens’ help,

this would be a preferable result in my eyes. I don’t want the greens having any touch of the important levers.

Rufus T Firefly
Rufus T Firefly
May 22, 2022 6:54 pm

I watched the election broadcast, mainly on Channel 9. I needed a break occasionally from Bill Shorten.

Toward the end, our own Imelda Marcos, (Bishop, Julie) piped up with, “I hope the LNP does not lurch to the (far) right, as a result”.
This brain dead harridan doesn’t think they have gone far enough, into Trotsky Park.
Therein lies the problem for these retards. They are so fu#*ed up, they cannot even see the problem.

This is the end of the LNP. The infighting will no doubt already have begun. By the next election, they will be but a bad nightmare. Josh and KK losing their seats, where the highlights.
No great loss and the Nationals will soon be disappearing up there own, ……., relevance.

duncanm
duncanm
May 22, 2022 7:00 pm

About as bad as it could have been

I’m not sure about this.

As others have pointed out, when it starts economically hurting, people will change.

I think this result may a silver lining – rather than just losing by a hair (which would have the party telling itself that it is doing the right thing), this annihilation in the HoR may (may) cause the libs to rethink their strategy and return to their proper, conservative, roots.

The LNP has done very well in the senate – so they should be able to block the mass stupidity, while still learning a valuable lesson.

Ed Case
Ed Case
May 22, 2022 7:00 pm

By the way, was The Sage of Baltimore a Flamer?

duncanm
duncanm
May 22, 2022 7:01 pm

Those that can afford it, if you are on the same local grid as a major hospital they turn your power off last.

ha.. not if you’re one of the people who signed up to solar with a new smart meter.

Whaddya reckon the smart bits let them do?

Motelier
Motelier
May 22, 2022 7:08 pm

This result should give the true Liberals in the party, and, at a local level a chance to reflect on the damage done by Turnbull and his followers.

And this result brings me back.?

Motelier
Motelier
May 22, 2022 7:08 pm

That was supposed to be a smilie face.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
May 22, 2022 7:57 pm

Steve Kates, I too like that quote about learning from the rise and fall of alchemy.
Many years ago, as an academic, I inherited a miserable course called (and this is my pseudonym to protect my privacy) ‘The Foundations of Magic’, which had descended to the level of inviting in magical drummers (I kid you not) to enhance the ‘New Age Experience’ for students, as New Age burble was what this course was certainly intended to promote. And this in a major urban university!

I turned that course around to an historical study of witchcraft beliefs, with a brief trip over traditional anthropology and then a considered historical focus on Europe in the sixteenth century period of witchcraft accusatory craziness associated with religious fervours in a time of religious wars and destruction. My students learned to analyse how accusatory crazes around hysterical belief systems that overcame whole societies arose in many contexts of social change and how they were promulgated and then, after much human ruin, finally died out, and why. I think the course no longer exists and has given way to Marxist environmentalist ‘studies’ and the very thing my course warned against: mounting social hysteria overtaking any rational and reasoned discourse.

I am proud to say however that when offered my course was very popular with students. I hope some of them can see the same sorts of unevidenced hysterias happening again today and will seek rational understandings in empirical science not in fake modelling. Hysterias do tend to exhaust themselves, but the Climate Cult is a particularly long-running event, with its unfalsifiable hypothesis and savage proscriptions of alternative viewpoints.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
May 22, 2022 8:05 pm

Sorry, the 1600’s, i.e. the seventeenth century.

Have to watch my tendency to get caught out on that one.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
May 22, 2022 8:09 pm

Motelier, haven’t seen you here for ages, hope all is well with you and yours.

We are still poaching eggs in your recommended poacher, so I have a constant reminder of you except as now, travelling in the UK, where no airbnb place has such a cooking device. Hence, when we have eggs en voyage, I am frying them! My poaching otherwise simply disintegrates them.

Michael
Michael
May 22, 2022 8:11 pm

As for Steve’s lead comment – it could have been worse (and could still be, though it looks unlikely), if Labor had to rely on some of the whackos on the crossbench for a majority. And where are they going to go if they don’t like what Labor does – with the Libs? But then again, the Senate will be full of them.

duncanm
duncanm
May 22, 2022 8:54 pm

duncanmsays:
May 22, 2022 at 7:00 pm

The LNP has done very well in the senate – so they should be able to block the mass stupidity, while still learning a valuable lesson.

nah – I’ve completely misunderstood the numbers here https://www.abc.net.au/news/elections/federal/2022/results/senate

likely to be
LNP 17+13 = 30
ALP 11 + 14 = 25
GRN 6 + 6 = 12
ON 1
JL 2

so ALP+greens it is in the senate. We’re fucked.

HD
HD
May 22, 2022 8:56 pm

Climatology/ Meteorology were never a focus area for me. Though what is patently obvious to anyone that grew up on the land or has ever had a job managing it, is that what many of the aspiring, terndy and militant green tending types have completely missed the point of – is the land and catchment management part of the equation. Can’t miss the mark more than to blame absolutely everything that occurs on fossil fuels. Human stupidity and greed are as usual on a local and regional scale the nexus of sustainability issues and ecosystem resilience. The belief by many that environmental issues are the consequence of “poor governance” is not entirely accurate and quite misleading.

Simplest examples being what happens when it rains a whole lot on a landscape that has been entirely or mostly cleared. What happens when natural waterways and systems are dammed and piped around hundreds/ thousands of kilometres. Lands and the way they behave/respond change. Not going to get into detail about the systemic criminality inherent in establishment/operation of the Murray-Darling basin authority, water speculation/trading and the big names in politics that both previously have and continue to benefit from essentially raping the river systems and blaming the little guys. Nothing to do with big multinational corporates/ Super trust funds with a patent disregard for soil and land health (as well as other people’s countries).

Simply strikes me how simple, limited, the majority of people must be in relatively affluent areas of Sydney who voted for the number of incumbent independents/ Greens. That seem to think it is a matter of ideology and will alone to replace all fossil fuel generated electricity. That everything with a motor can be electrified and these changes will somehow undo the long history of shithouse and negligent land management.

So from now and assuming the Country goes down the energy equivalent path of wokianism, I get the impression that if desired results these inner city types does not materialise relatively immediately ( no more bushfires, storms, floods, droughts…) that what follows will be (more of) some kind of mass formation/ psychosis as per what has been observed with the faux pas management of the fake pandemic. These intellectually bereft people will likewise demand a sequence of increasingly extreme, life, economy and society changing measures to halt “climate change” same.

Wonder how long before it is announced “Defence is going green” as per similar stuff out of that sock puppet in the US?

Louis Litt
May 22, 2022 9:39 pm

HD – please explain how the water management system has affected you and the land. Your blog is fascinating.
Have a client on the Murray whose water price is effected by non users – ie city speculators.
What if water is traded by users only.
.

HD
HD
May 23, 2022 1:12 am

@Louis Litt

Well my former post was mainly concerned with the bizzare notion that apparently a lot of people have that weather events in terms of severity and effects are entirely a function of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels. Couldn’t have anything to do with longer term environmental hydrological and biogeochemical cycles influenced by the sun’s activities/interactions with the magnetosphere (warmer periods/ ice ages all that kind of thing). Whose effects on local and regional scales are not quite the same as they would be prior to dramatic changes to do with people modifying the land for agriculture and civilization things in general. As well as managing water very, very poorly.

The entry of multinationals like Olam into twenty year lease agreements with foreign superannuation funds to develop former cotton growing properties into almond plantations in NSW/ Victoria. To operate on a business model to get trees to full production in 2-3 years and then flog them for maximum production until salinity and other soil degradation issues decreases profitably of continued production. Relying entirely on chemical fertilisers rather than integrated biological farming models like Websters Walnuts Australia that look to sustainably produce indefinitely.

The first of the above type of operation factors in paying pretty much whatever price within costings for water given the high value crop. None of these almonds will be sold in Australia as there’s a much higher profit margin for the processed products in the Asian market. Prices a lot of growers of for example rice out of the market. Such as the other year with the fish kills. Plenty of growers high and medium security water entitlements were cut by the utility provider to 0- 50% during the period. You may recall all the rice was imported from Cambodia, Thailand or India.

Why problems like this- scarcity of supply(?) The assumptions of the best possible scenario for recharge and environmental flows adopted year after year from the “Yes men” as favoured by the MDBA. The yes men are out of a job when they stop telling management what they want to hear. I think you can fill in the rest given the entrenched cronyism/ corruption/ criminality. Wasn’t the former Premier with the elegant nose filmed expressing her deep concern for Menindee community and its’ reliance on river flows?

My understanding is even in a best case scenario of normal or above average rainfall, there is not going to be enough water for all those almonds still going in. Works well for speculators.

Well, for some users it makes more sense to just trade water than grow anything with it.

Winston Smith
May 23, 2022 5:08 am

Calli:

It has become a pseudo-religion, and a fundie one at that.

It is a Cult, Calli. It fits the definition exquisitely:

Cult
In modern English, a cult is a social group that is defined by its unusual religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals, or its common interest in a particular personality, object, or goal.

2dogs
2dogs
May 23, 2022 5:35 am

LNP 17+13 = 30
ALP 11 + 14 = 25
GRN 6 + 6 = 12
ON 1
JL 2

Total 70, where are the other 6?

Petros
Petros
May 23, 2022 5:41 am

Their ABC has the Liberals at 36 for the senate, ALP 26, Greens 9 and the others 5.

Figures
Figures
May 23, 2022 6:45 am

Minor parties – mainly ON, UAP & LDP – got 10% of the vote.
Try 6-7%.

Parties running against vax mandates/lockdowns got about 12%.

Twice as high as your claim and the same as the Greens.

Now, most would consider that pretty pathetic given what’s transpired but I’ve been involved in this issue for decades and Australians are one of the most brainwashed countries on the planet when it comes to vaccines.

There’s probably 5 times as many people questioning vaccines today in Australia as there were 2 years ago.

Roger
Roger
May 23, 2022 6:46 am

Now here’s a nightmare society for you:

The Oz today reports Spender’s family telling how Carla Zampatti saw women running the world.

Petros
Petros
May 23, 2022 6:46 am

Sorry I got that wrong. It looks like Libs 30, ALP 25 and Greens 12 at a minimum. The remainder are the minor parties but as the results have not been finalised we will have to wait. Only about 40 percent of the vote has been counted.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
May 23, 2022 7:23 am

Scott Johnson has picked up Steve’s blogpost at Powerline:

Feel bad story of the day | Power Line (22 May)

He links it on Steve’s blog, so Steve if you are around you may want to keep an eye on your moderation queue for new commenters.

duncanm
duncanm
May 23, 2022 7:51 am

Carla Zampatti saw women running the world.

sounds like Gazorpazorp

Vicki
Vicki
May 23, 2022 8:05 am

I am going back to the farm to some sanity . As an example , two good friends, who I thought had common sense voted inexplicably.

One voted in North Sydney electorate for an Independent who actually lives in the Blue Mountains. The other, who claims to be a solid conservative, voted in Wentworth for that tool of the magnate Holmes a Court – Spender.

I am of the opinion, after the experience of the past two years, that Australians are compliant, fearful, and intellectually lazy and easily led. They are nothing like their pioneering antecedents. It is beyond sad.

Vicki
Vicki
May 23, 2022 8:17 am

Re the wimmenzy thing:

Look, I am a female. That is who I am. I am completely comfortable with what I have achieved in life in terms of family, career etc. Yes- there have been career options that have been affected by family considerations. But that was my choice. I regret nothing. I am grateful for what life has given me.

It pains me to see what contemporary women are prepared to surrender in return for perceived “equality” with men- whatever that is & whatever it costs. Maybe this will be seen by future mankind as some inevitable trend in evolution – who knows? Younger men seem to be conceding to this inexorable passage of change.

Mak Siccar
Mak Siccar
May 23, 2022 8:21 am

Well worth the short read.

https://www.spectator.com.au/2022/05/the-rich-vote-left/

The final paragraph.

The Libs are going to have to stay committed for a year or so as the Jacinda Ardern type honeymoon kicks in. But it won’t last long. Massive inflation and hard Left populist policies will see to that. It’s not going to be pretty. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see a renewed conservative Liberal party win in 2025. That’s assuming, of course, that they opt to go down the conservative renewal path and not the ‘let’s be Labor and the Greens but just a bit slower’ one. Losing all those lefty moderates last Saturday makes my hope a lot more likely.

OldOzzie
OldOzzie
May 23, 2022 8:27 am

For a US Audience – ‘Greenslide’ in Oz Dumps Scott Morrison.

I’m queuing to vote. A middle-aged chap in a Kylea Tink tee-shirt approaches me. Do you know anything about Kylea Tink, he asks? Yes, I do, I say, she has insane climate policies. He reminds me of recent floods and bushfires. You mean like the ones we had in the nineteen thirties; I respond. Resignedly, he beats a retreat and moves on to the young couple standing behind me. More receptive ears. I wonder. How does a man of his age become completely delusional? Young things, OK. They know no better, and have been brainwashed on social media.

On reflection, judging by the overall election result, the weight of the voting population across all age groups has become delusional. A cultural degeneration, perhaps already in waiting, has been given impetus by “climate change” and Covid. Irony. Australia is one of the few countries to meet its Kyoto commitment. It has a covid death-rate one tenth that of the U.S. Unemployment has just fallen to 3.9 percent; its lowest level for fifty years. And yet…

Ms Tink, who won the seat by the way, was one of thirteen so-called “Teal” independents, opposing “moderates” (more correctly, wets), among the governing Liberal (conservative) and National (rural centre-right) parties. All in blue-ribbon inner-city seats. Backed by the son of a billionaire with interests in renewable energy, these well-heeled women, in well-heeled electorates, are climate activists. In each case their Liberal or National opponent scores more votes. But preference sharing among the Greens and Labor gets (as it stands) six of them elected. Oh, for first-past-the-post elections…

Incidentally, they and their supporters deceptively wear teal-coloured tee-shirts as a sign that they are a cross between green and Liberal blue; presumable to appeal to conservative-minded voters. In fact, they’re more aptly “watermelons.” Or a cross between green and red, which make an unattractive brown when mixed and wouldn’t do on shirts.

Unfortunately, we now have a Labor government committed to a 43 percent reduction in emissions by 2030, with up to twelve Greens and green-minded independents in the parliament who think much more ambitiously. They variously want something between sixty and seventy-five percent. Meanwhile the Liberals are tortured. Should they try to outbid the Teals next time to get those blue-ribbon seats back?

Hold on, there’s no outbidding the Teals. Should they then try for those working-class outer-suburban seats, which they’ve never won, by going back to traditional conservative values and common sense? A Trumpian strategy. Seems far fetched. There will be no path back for the Liberals, while “climate change” is the cause du jour.

Understated
Understated
May 23, 2022 8:58 am

Unfortunately to some extent both parties are channeling the insanity of the voters. I was reflecting last night that I’ve been opposing the climate craze for nearly 15 years now, and in that time it has just gotten worse and worse.
Given that the craze keeps getting worse, maybe you should stop?

Vicki
Vicki
May 23, 2022 9:25 am

Ms Tink lives in the Blue Mountains. Has a Doctorate in Egyptology. I could tell you more ,but it would start to sound like a David Williamson play.

I kid you not!

Zipster
Zipster
May 23, 2022 9:27 am

our kids are indoctrinated at school their entire school lives now, same with the vegetarian thing

an example of how it’s done. kids get a grammar assignment and the topic is global warming. there are no questions about the validity of the text, the only questions are about the grammar. so basically the text just slips under as a bunch of facts that are not questioned and become part of the background reality.

m0nty
m0nty
May 23, 2022 9:33 am

Going further to the right and expecting a win in 2025… please proceed.

Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
Zulu Kilo Two Alpha
May 23, 2022 9:42 am

Going further to the right and expecting a win in 2025… please proceed.

Get back to the basics of Government. Less middle class welfare, lower personal and corporate taxes, less red tape, public service efficiency and accountability. Id this going further to the Right?

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
May 23, 2022 10:43 am

I quite like Egyptology but I don’t think polytheism and mummified cats would help fix our electricity system.

tommbell
tommbell
May 23, 2022 10:55 am

Get back to the basics of Government. Less middle class welfare, lower personal and corporate taxes, less red tape, public service efficiency and accountability. Id this going further to the Right?

All this I agree with. But aren’t we already past the point of no return with more than 50% of the voters on the government teat to some extent?

ArthurB
ArthurB
May 23, 2022 12:47 pm

What a coincidence, our 31st Prime Minister elected with 31% of the primary vote.

I suppose that one of the few good things about the election was that Labor failed to parachute KK into a safe seat. I wonder whether the ALP will try again – a Senate vacancy, perhaps?

Some of the commenters on this site are pleased that the Libs lost, they seem to hope that a new, proper conservative party will arise phoenix-like from the ashes of defeat. It is possible, but I should point out that the Libs in WA were obliterated in the last State election, and are facing oblivion, there are only two Libs in the State lower house, and no-one knows who they are.

I have a couple of predictions:

The new government will have a very short honeymoon, once the euphoria of winning is over.

Allegretto, Kate and the rest of the Teals will learn by experience the truth of Enoch Powell’s dictum that all political careers end in tears.

I doubt very much that many of the Teals will stand again at the next election.

Kneel
Kneel
May 23, 2022 1:27 pm

“I turned that course around to an historical study of witchcraft beliefs…”

It’s a start – now obviously wound back.
I don’t know how we can turn around a great many things like climate etc, when there are no critical thinking skills being taught.
Consider the “gender pay gap”. These people are saying “if you do the same job, you should be paid the same amount”.
Bullshit.
If you create the same outcome for your employer, then in an ideal world you should be paid the same amount. You probably won’t be because of other reasons, but that should be the goal – same value-add for the person paying you, same reimbursement for your efforts.
Yet even when you ask them about if they needed, say, heart or brain surgery, if they’d want the best or just anyone and when they say the best, point out that means they can likely charge more because that is what everyone wants, they still don’t get it! They just keep rabbiting on about “fairness”, as if outcomes don’t matter.

Time to “identify” as a gay, transgender, left handed, midget albino eskimo – see, it’s all you racist, sexist bastards holding me back. The entire country is systemically racist, even though I can’t point to a single racist law, a single racist rule or regulation, or a single social advantage that accrues for being racist, it must be true otherwise I’d be a millionaire. I deserve it, after all. And since that is true, and I’m not a millionaire, it must be systemic racism. QED. And if you disagree, it’s only because you are racists. I demand you feel bad for my position and give me everything I think I deserve.

duncanm
duncanm
May 23, 2022 1:47 pm

Nobody’s girl is amusing. Do I get this right – she’s only ever been elected ONCE to her positions in government?

Won a safe state seat after a bitter factional battle, appointed to premier, then lost government and her seat in the subsequent election – heavily. Lots of right hand labor men in that government were seriously corrupt (Obeid, Tripodi, McDonald).

Parachuted into Bennelong for an election – lost.

Appointed to a federal senate seat when Dastyari resigned (ie: without being elected)

Parachuted into a very safe labour seat (fowler). I’m talking 55% primary labor vote, 65% 2pp. Lost with a 20% swing.

Is there nothing this girl can’t fuck up? What labor skeletons to the Keneally family (Ben and K) know about?

Jock
Jock
May 23, 2022 4:16 pm

Duncan. You wonder what dirt she has on her labor mates! Nobody else would get the chances she has had. Even my labor friends scratch their heads.

Fleeced
Fleeced
May 23, 2022 4:47 pm

so ALP+greens it is in the senate. We’re fucked.

Libs should just support them on all the stuff they’d likely get through anyway. Just rubber stamp everything. Well, almost everything. Deny the Greens an opportunity to bargain wherever they can.

2dogs
2dogs
May 23, 2022 6:13 pm

so ALP+greens it is in the senate. We’re fucked.

It looks like Lambie will hold the balance of power in the senate.

Remember, as the government, the ALP must now provide the president, who doesn’t get a vote.

The rest of the cross-bench is PHON and UAP.

Lambie, PHON, and UAP are all pro-nuke.

2dogs
2dogs
May 23, 2022 6:24 pm

It should also be noted that after the Teals took out all the Liberal wets, the majority of the coalition joint party room is now pro-nuke.

Maybe I’m overdosing on copium here, but I am starting to become quite ok with this result.

Fleeced
Fleeced
May 23, 2022 7:08 pm

Turnbull was predictably ranting about the result being a disaster. Though he did make the valid point that those inner city seats are important for fundraising.

That said, I’ll join you in copium 2dogs, and hope that the Libs are free to go back to being conservative.

Fiona McIntosh, who I mentioned earlier, is apparently “Centre Right” faction… whatever that means these days. She’s also attractive and is married with kids… not one of those barren inner city professionals who chose career over family. She’s managed to keep her views on climate pretty quiet, which could be a bad sign, but more likely a good one IMO.

Aspirational electorates are clearly the Libs future.

Fleeced
Fleeced
May 23, 2022 7:11 pm

Melissa. Melissa McIntosh. Not Fiona.

Dot
Dot
May 23, 2022 7:40 pm

Lambie, PHON, and UAP are all pro-nuke.

UNLEASH THE KRAKEN

LFTRs in 5 minutes – Thorium Reactors

A short video of Kirk Sorensen taking us through the benefits of Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors, a revolutionary liquid reactor that runs not on uranium, but thorium. These work and have been built before. Search for either LFTRs or Molten Salt Reactors (MSR).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK367T7h6ZY

2dogs
2dogs
May 23, 2022 7:51 pm

those inner city seats are important for fundraising

I think organising some pro-nuke $500 / plate dinners would get a few takers. Maybe split it with Jacqui/Clive/Pauline if they also attend.

Lee
Lee
May 23, 2022 7:57 pm

Turnbull was predictably ranting about the result being a disaster.

What a joke, especially as he was campaigning for “independents” against sitting Libs.

Bluey
Bluey
May 23, 2022 8:07 pm

Leesays:
May 23, 2022 at 7:57 pm
Turnbull was predictably ranting about the result being a disaster.

What a joke, especially as he was campaigning for “independents” against sitting Libs.

Like Howard he needs to STFU and disappear.

duncanm
duncanm
May 23, 2022 10:25 pm

Libs should just support them on all the stuff they’d likely get through anyway. Just rubber stamp everything. Well, almost everything. Deny the Greens an opportunity to bargain wherever they can.

That’s a good strategy. Support the nearly-fucked ALP agenda, rather than the completely fucked green-tinged version.

Ed Case
Ed Case
May 24, 2022 5:11 am

They’ve got a Mandate for the things they took to the Election, legislate NetZero, abolish the ABCC and the Voice To Parliament.
The present Senate ends in 37 days anyway, but it’s not a matter of the Coalition supporting Labor, it’s just recognising the will of the Electorate expressed on May 21..

Mantaray
Mantaray
May 24, 2022 5:55 am

Not really sure what all this hand-wringing, gnashing of teeth etc is about…..

We’ve known for yonks that a “new feudalism’ was on the way; that one day soon the aristocracy and the “better people” would be in the saddle and would shyte upon the rest. They would (now they will) indulge their perversions whilst feasting at the expense of the productive. plenty of unhidden intentions and attitudes that only teh well-heeled could countenance…

“Help us dear leaders, we can’t afford fuel” answered by “get a $60, 000 electric vehicle ya dopes”. “We cannot afford the electricity for those EVs and not for our homes neither” answered by “get ten grand of solar on the roof ya jerks”. “We cannot afford to get around to see the kiddies, nor our mates. Plus we’re all under house-arrest and not essential” answered by “sheesh, that’s what private jets, and parties on the lawn at swanky pads are for, ya morons”…..I could go on about the “lack of rentals” and the ‘unaffordability” of homes and the “unconscionable tax breaks for slumlords” etc, which impact the serfs, but when 5-houses Anthony is running the kleptocracy I’m guessing there won’t be too much action taken.

Nor will the rich girl harem working for Simon have much sympathy for the droogs.

So, while some might dream of peaceful solutions, do not be surprised that starvation eventually leads to non-peaceful solutions….which means you’ll need to acquire portable wealth which can be well-stashed. the polit-bureau will not harvest their own non-hidden riches, but they WILL come after that of the others….

A little funny….V.I Lenin is showing his mum around the new palace he lives in and says ” Now I live in exquisite luxury. All the Tsars’ wealth is mine. Now it’s gold plating, diamond encrusting etc all the way”. To which his mum replies “Sure my little boy, but what if the Communists find out?”

Bruce
Bruce
May 24, 2022 8:39 am

“As bad as it can get?

As Al Jolson famously declared:

“You ain’t seen nothin’, yet!”

:

Generators?

Once the loonies crash / subvert the petroleum industry, (what’s left of it), fuel becomes an issue.

My response is to go with a steam-powered system…..Would that make us Steam Punks?….

Lots of wood (and other combustible solids) out there, but you need to be VERY careful with maintenance lest your boiler becomes a BOMB.

Any moderately competent backyard machinist can whip up a functional, and speed-governed steam engine fairly easily. That folks were doing just this over 200 years ago, with MUCH less precise tools and metrology is a hint. It was the rise of the steam engine (and mass produced weapons and manufacturing machinery) that finally pushed the need for precise and consistent measurement systems and machine tools to the fore.

The more enterprising can go all Gucci and opt for triple expansion cylinders and a fluid-bed firebox for added efficiency. Steam turbines are even more efficient, but require a lot more precision machining and tend to be quite noisy beasts; like the “concerned citizen” types, you can hear then whining for miles.

Sandy K
Sandy K
May 24, 2022 9:39 am

Ed Case says:
May 22, 2022 at 2:47 pm
Griffith, 1.85% Informal, 76,000 counted.
Where’d’cha get 5.15% from, Granddad?

You had my support until the second line. Resorting to the lowest form of argument, ad hominem, can destroy an otherwise sound case. It would be like me referring to you as hEaD Case.

duncanm
duncanm
May 24, 2022 9:41 am

abolish the ABCC

Politics – writ large.

LNP – ABCC but no ICAC
ALP – ICAC but no ABCC

Boambee John
Boambee John
May 24, 2022 12:32 pm

Ed Casesays:
May 24, 2022 at 5:11 am
They’ve got a Mandate for the things they took to the Election, legislate NetZero, abolish the ABCC and the Voice To Parliament.

On around 31% of the Primary vote? Only a mandate as defined by the fascist left.

Kneel
Kneel
May 24, 2022 12:44 pm

“Only a mandate as defined by the fascist left.”

Umm, we were talking about that mob anyway (fascist ALP), weren’t we?

I wonder if we are (as usual) a little behind the US, and are seeing the Lefties get all their support from the rich, while Righties get all their support from the proles – it’s just taking the proles a while to figure that out and actually vote for the Righties.

Ed Case
Ed Case
May 24, 2022 4:56 pm

Fiona McIntosh, who I mentioned earlier, is apparently “Centre Right” faction… whatever that means these days.
Some ALP voting journo called her Centre Right to help obscure the fact that she’s a Liberal with liberal attitudes who easily won a Marginal Seat in the face of a savage nationwide swing.

Entropy
Entropy
May 25, 2022 1:52 pm

Boambee John says:
May 24, 2022 at 12:32 pm
Ed Casesays:
May 24, 2022 at 5:11 am
They’ve got a Mandate for the things they took to the Election, legislate NetZero, abolish the ABCC and the Voice To Parliament.

On around 31% of the Primary vote? Only a mandate as defined by the fascist left

The point is the ALP did take those to an election. The libs could agree to pass exactly what was in the election commitments, and no more.

That way the greens don’t get to give themselves relevancy, or build substantial lumps of watermelon policy into whatever gets passed.

  1. From a Daily Telegraph article about Rex Patrick. “Patrick also declared he was not being supported by Climate 200, although…

  2. Seriously, you’re peddling this argument? Like, don’t you know that Iran’s missiles have literally flown over other countries just to…

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