Haven’t skied in Aus since.

How’s the skiing in Telluride in August?

You got it wrong Winston, krudd was the pork chop.

The only Duane’s that are any good are Duane Eddy and Duane Allman. Both guitarists. The rest, dropkicks.

Fair Shake, I do it on a shoestring, I live a 40 min drive from Falls, early bird epic pass (over65) plus early bird (over 65) car pass, $1k all up. Take my time driving up to save fuel and tyres, take a coffee and put on an audiobook or podcast and get there for first lift, I’m normally getting weary by midday so in the car, back home and do some work around the place. Usually ski 60 to 80 days a season but this year not so much. Plenty of snow but lots of days with poor visibility or rain and snow. I’m very much a fair weather skier in my old age.

Just got the latest electricity bill, it’s always big in winter but just staggering this time, it’s for four weeks, cost $389.78 most of that $257.06 is for off peak hot water. I’m putting in an LPG instantaneous system next week, looking forward to much lower bills. Until the gov bans LGP that is.
That bill is for four weeks.

Peak315.20 kWh 31.900 c/kWh 11 Jul 202210 Aug 2022 31 $100.55
Off Peak 1,416.28 kWh 18.150 c/kWh11 Jul 202210 Aug 2022 31 $257.06
Supply Charge 31 days110.000 c/day 11 Jul 202210 Aug 2022 31 $34.10
Solar CreditRetail Feed-In Tariff (GST Excl)28.78 kWh-6.700 c/kWh11 Jul 202210 Aug 202231-$1.93
Total New Electricity Charges (Including GST)$389.78 GST$35.61

When you look at the great stinking pile of grifters and crooks that is the Kennedy clan, he is at the top.

Thats a pretty big call.
I take it you are restricting yourself to living Kennedys and not dead ones?

Breaking: Brian Stelter Finally Gets the Boot, CNN Cancels Notoriously Unreliable ‘Reliable Sources’.

One fat man of paralysing stupidity gone, one more to go.

Four-time Hawthorn premiership coach Alistair Clarkson is the new coach of North Melbourne

Clarkson is a four-time premiership coach because of the almost unprecedented confluence of a) cattle at the time, and b) effective management by the Mayblooms*’ board.

Being the King of Arden Street at present is like handing a bloke a broomstick and saying ‘Over there is a 7×5 trailer full of wet sand. Shovel it out using this stick. You have twenty minutes’.

*Hawthorn’s original name.

re electricity prices (rounded):
from end September: Off Peak 17 to 19.6 c/kwh
Peak 34 to 40.8
Supply 104 to 130 c/Day

Total cost has risen over 15 years by a factor of 2.5.
A twin element HWS was replaced by Instantaneous LPG so the relative increase is higher than 2.5.

I now question *everything*, including the great bulk of the vaccination programme, which, as I noted yesterday, has spread into the companion and large animal industry as well.

The biggest problem I see is the desire of the pharma companies to switch entirely to mRNA vaccines. That is bad news for the same reason that the mRNA covid vaccines are bad news: they cause virus coat proteins and carbohydrates to be expressed on healthy cells, especially lining blood vessels and the heart. So you have the immune system attacking healthy cells causing inflammation. Which leads to the myocarditis issue and the clotting issue. Those problems are going to happen with all injected mRNA vaccines, to greater or lesser extent.

You don’t get that so much with free floating vaccine particles, such as killed-virus ones. Thus conventional vaccines like fluvax and tetanus vaccine are much safer.

Novovax is a bit of a special case since it is a free floating vaccine particle but one which supports the spike protein. Unfortunately the spike protein itself is bad news, and there’ve been official warnings of Novavax side effects similar to the mRNA vaccines, presumably for that reason. But the Novavax model is a good one, since other virus surface groups do not cause the biochemical harm the covid spike does.

Unfortunately I see the whole vaccination industry becoming on the nose with the public because of the huge and seemingly fanatical drive towards the mRNA model. The side effects are going to kill all faith in vaccines in general.

Already I’m concerned about getting fluvax anymore, after about 2 decades of getting it each year. That’s because the pharma companies are pushing hard to convert to mRNA fluvax, and away from the egg-cultured vaccine. How do you explain to a pharmacist or a GP that you want the latter not the former? They will get angry at you since you are implying you don’t trust them.

How many stupid policies can they introduce?

Unless the policy is, at one step removed, to induce poverty as a curb on consumption.

In a coup for the electric vehicle industry and mostly European premium manufacturers such as VW, BMW and Mercedes, Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen will on Friday declare that “now is the time to have an orderly and sensible discussion” about the idea

Good luck with that.

‘No one’ in Australia wants to buy electrical vehicles (Sky News, 19 Aug)

No one in Australia wants to buy electric vehicles, says Sky News host Caleb Bond.

Mr Bond said Australia is a very big country. “A lot of people want to drive long distances,” he said. “Electric vehicles are simply not built to do that.”

He’s right. Plus electricity is ludicrously expensive, no one wants to spend a vast amount for fast chargers at home, the street-level power infrastructure isn’t there, and owners don’t want to be time limited on charging because of grid overload issues. And the wretched things are a lot more expensive that conventional cars and are going to stay that way for many many years to come because of materials limitations like lithium and rare earths supply bottlenecks. The fire hazard is a cherry on top.

Already there seems to be a general regard that Priuses are uncool and sanctimonious, driven by Greens. That’s going to hit even harder with EVs.

However I think Chris Bowen should announce that all Comcars will hitherto be electric. He can do this right now. Lead by example!

Why Are We in Ukraine?

A steep bill comes due for decades of democracy promotion.

On March 24, a month after Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders, the Biden White House summoned America’s partners (as its allies are now called) to a civilizational crusade. The administration proclaimed its commitment to those affected by Russia’s recent invasion—“especially vulnerable populations such as women, children, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTQI+) persons, and persons with disabilities.” At noon that same day, Secretary of State Antony Blinken tweeted about the “massive, unprecedented consequences” American sanctions were wreaking on Russia, and claimed Russia’s economic “collapse” was imminent.

Anyone who watched the first Trump impeachment in 2019 will know that U.S. Ukraine policy—and the personnel carrying it out—did not change, in its essence, between the Obama and Trump administrations. Through steady deliveries of weaponry and military know-how, the failed state of 2014, defended by a ramshackle collection of hooligans and oligarch-sponsored militias, was transformed by 2021 into the third-largest army in Europe, fully interoperable with that of the United States. Ukraine, with a quarter-million men under arms, was outmanned only by Turkey and Russia. The real caesura came not with Trump’s arrival but with his departure. In the first weeks of 2021, Joe Biden committed his administration to a considerably more aggressive Ukraine policy. Last November 10, Blinken signed a “strategic partnership” that not only reasserted the Bush Administration’s commitment to admit Ukraine into NATO, but also reopened contested sovereignty questions, including that of strategically vital, culturally Russian Crimea.

The Mearsheimer account culminates with an implicit question: What did you think Russia would do?

For more than a century, the United States has entered world conflicts as a tertius gaudens. After two adversaries have bled and exhausted each other, big advantages can be won with a relatively small expenditure of blood and treasure. In this case, the U.S. is making the entirety of its contribution to the Ukrainian war effort in treasure, none of it so far in blood. On top of the armament and training provided over the past eight years, it has provided Ukraine with $50 billion worth of advanced weaponry in the last six months. Since the beginning of the war, the United States has also provided targeting information for drone strikes on Russian generals and missile attacks on Russian ships.

What is new and reckless about these American sanctions is the threat they pose not to Russia but to the United States. The Biden Administration has been abusing—and thus undermining—the American position as custodian of the global economy.

The measures against Russia, though, are of unprecedented scope. Both President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken have declared their willingness to seize those hundreds of billions in order to “rebuild Ukraine.” The United States has for a long time lived off the “exorbitant privilege” of its reserve currency and its role as the global regulator of first resort. Neither will survive for long if the United States manages the world’s assets in a non-fiduciary way.

The people who make U.S. Ukraine policy were apparently incapable of thinking things through to this point. Rather than beg its way back into the U.S.-led global financial order, the Russians are trying to build a new one with new partners. They have a chance of pulling it off. In a speech at a June economic forum in St. Petersburg, Putin complained that the roughly $10 trillion that any trading country must hold in dollar and Euro currency reserves is being devalued at 8% a year by U.S. inflation. “Moreover,” he said, “they can be confiscated or stolen any time if the United States dislikes something in the policy of the states involved.” Putin called for a replacement for the SWIFT system. “The development of a convenient and independent payment infrastructure in national currencies is a solid and predictable basis for deepening international cooperation,” he said. Until recently such an appeal would have fallen on deaf ears. This time it did not.

Power and Influence

In part, the great story we see playing out is the fulfillment of a prediction that people have been making for a generation: power and influence are shifting away from the United States and Europe, and toward Asia.

The Italian writer Marco D’Eramo reported that, after a March 18 phone call between Biden and Xi Jinping, one Chinese anchorman joked that Biden’s message had been: “Can you help me fight your friend so that I can concentrate on fighting you later?”

The attempt to isolate Russia from the American world system has had a striking unintended consequence—the possible founding of an alternative world system that would draw power away from the existing one.

We are displaying an outright genius for identifying our most dangerous military adversary and solving its most pressing strategic challenge.

Firstly, we aren’t specifically debating if the child in utero is a person so I can’t be begging the question anymore than you can be for assuming the child isn’t. Secondly, I already said yesterday that all that matters is that the child in utero is an individuated human being, and so far as I’m concerned, whether a human being is a ‘person’ is neither here nor there. And, thirdly, I’m not opposed to the use of the term fetus so long as it is understood to refer to an individuated human being at a particular stage of development. However, I will resist rhetorical attempts that use the term in order to dehumanise the child.

We are always debating if the child in utero is a person. That’s the whole point of the argument. If it is a person then abortion is murder, full stop, the conservatives are steering the ship. If it is in some grey area between blastocyst and person, then there’s an ongoing argument to be had about the line where you say that abortion is wrong – a Roe-style compromise – and the left is in control of that backed by a large majority of the people.

Australia won’t be ‘dumping ground’ for clunkers: Bowen

Bowen challenges electric vehicle ‘naysayers’

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has vowed to stop Australia becoming more of a “dumping ground” for high-polluting cars other countries won’t take as he hits back at electric vehicle “naysayers”.

“It means that consumers aren’t getting the choice available internationally and as the world moves to more efficient and cleaner cars, we risk becoming even more of a dumping ground for older technology which can’t be sold in other markets.”

Hmm – So much for Made in Japan

Mazda to reduce dependence on Chinese parts as sales stall

Between April and June, deliveries of new Mazda vehicles in Australia dropped by almost 40 per cent, with Chinese parts suppliers given the blame.

Japanese car maker Mazda says it plans to reduce its reliance on Chinese components, after blaming vehicle manufacturing delays on widespread parts shortages.

Takeshi Mukai, a senior director at Mazda, says the company will be seeking manufacturing diversification outside of China when it negotiates future contracts with parts suppliers, as well as requesting higher inventory stocks within Japan to help offset supply disruption

Toyota Pus, hardly ever see one now.

Sam Harris is so rational he supports a senile old man in charge of nuclear weapons.

Only a science denier and charlatan who doubts the self absorbed, self loving “sceptic movement” (and a movement it truly is) would question the IQ of a personage making such a choice.

Dotsays:
August 19, 2022 at 10:33 am
Sam Harris is so rational he supports a senile old man in charge of nuclear weapons.

Sam Harris clarifies that clip where he says he wouldn’t have cared if Hunter Biden had children’s bodies in his basement

Neuroscientist, author, and podcaster Sam Harris made the rounds on Twitter Thursday in the form of a video clip in which he admitted that suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story was a “left-wing conspiracy” but it didn’t matter because of the danger Donald Trump brought to the presidency.

Here it is in case you missed it:

…at a function organised by the EV lobby in Canberra on Friday, which will include three teal independents, billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes, and the head of VW Australia, Mr Bowen will argue that introducing penalties on the sale of traditional internal combustion engines will “address the cost-of-living impacts of inefficient cars

As Mussolini said, fascism is best described as a marriage between the corporation and the state….

Problem is, so much of life is about trust; almost everything is built on some sort of trust.

I learned in the MEAO that there are 2 basic styles of communication, based upon whether the society, and its institutions, are trustworthy or corrupt.

(at the time), The West and its institutions was generally regarded as trustworthy by its citizens, hence conversations were more direct and focussed on ‘getting down to business’, whereas our Middle Eastern colleagues knew their societies to be corrupt (and treated the West the same – it seems they were right). As a result, they focussed on establishing trust first, and could not get down to business until this was done.

As a result, the Westerners regarded the Middle Easterners as evasive and non commital, and they regarded us as rude and overly direct.

I now question *everything*, including the great bulk of the vaccination programme, which, as I noted yesterday, has spread into the companion and large animal industry as well.

Once you realise they have been lying to you about one thing, you realise they have been lying to you about everything… fiat currency, inflation, taxation, statins, the food pyramid, diversity, multiculturalism, immigration, democracy itself.

Cooked duk.

I’ve already told you that for a large portion of the anti-abortion movement the argument doesn’t hinge on the human being being a person. It is enough that they are are human being. If you want to argue that personhood is determinative then you need to articulate what it is about personhood that confers dignity to the human being such that it only then becomes a subject deserving of the protection of the law. You also need to identify when personhood arises in the human being and given my knowledge of persoonhood arguments you are going to struggle not only limiting abortion to the first or second trimester but to the months after birth.

What do you think is the difference between a person and a human being?

I hate to quote him, but this does tie into my belief the US is exporting its inflation because they have this odd belief “theres nowhere else to go”.

In a speech at a June economic forum in St. Petersburg, Putin complained that the roughly $10 trillion that any trading country must hold in dollar and Euro currency reserves is being devalued at 8% a year by U.S. inflation.

Thats not the only cause, nation states also devalue their own currencies over time, but the 10% leap by the US mucks up their own orderly money printing.

Teal ‘convert’ Nomi Kaltmann straddles political crossroads ahead of Victorian election

The independent teal candidate in a crucial seat in the Victorian election ran for a series of Labor Party office-holder positions in February, sparking a backlash from the major parties over her loyalties.

Ms Kaltmann, 30, said the leaking of the form was designed to discredit her in the race to win the marginal Liberal seat, which is crucial to the Coalition having any chance of forming government in its own right.

Time to let a thousand flowers bloom.

I hope you’re wrong on that. Wasn’t it just a pretext to allow critics of the regime to relax enough to out themselves, after which they got necked.

Oliver’s Twist, Policymakers Legislating Against the People – It’s Not About Going Green, It’s About Going Without
August 18, 2022 | Sundance

Last Saturday’s weekly monologue by Neil Oliver was a tremendous hit, helping to awaken millions of people from multiple nations about the true intent of this new governing system as promoted by policymakers on behalf of corporate interests [SEE HERE].

Earlier today (UK time) GBNews host Mark Steyn had Mr Oliver appear in studio to expand the conversation. What results from Steyn and Oliver is a brilliant segment outlining the nature of this new governing system. A system structured on the standard that disconnected policymakers are legislating to the needs of corporations.

Video prompted at 13:45 (segment approx. 8 mins)

The food pyramid produced munty’s

The kids call them Soyjaks these days, they sweat pure oestrogen. Not as valuable as adrenochrome but still worth putting them into battery farms for it.

Snap P

There is no precedent for nations’ collectively and intentionally trying to reduce economic activity.

Other than Pol Pot.
That didn’t end well either.

sfw says:
August 19, 2022 at 8:52 am

Just got the latest electricity bill, it’s always big in winter but just staggering this time, it’s for four weeks, cost $389.78 most of that $257.06 is for off peak hot water. I’m putting in an LPG instantaneous system next week, looking forward to much lower bills. Until the gov bans LGP that is.
That bill is for four weeks.

Peak315.20 kWh 31.900 c/kWh 11 Jul 202210 Aug 2022 31 $100.55
Off Peak 1,416.28 kWh 18.150 c/kWh11 Jul 202210 Aug 2022 31 $257.06

Something does not add up, this means 47.2 kWh a day, unless you are heating a pool or using the hot water for heating.

Mr Panzer at 10.07:

You can be sceptical about Kung Flu vaxxes without going the full RFK.

You can be absolutely hostile towards mandated Kung Flu vaxxes without going the full RFK, or any of his comrades on that particular ‘it will turn your blood to sludge’ and/or 8 to 38 months until you all die, and those who survive will wish you were dead’ bandwagons.

Or, for that matter, joining that up with the Sovereign Citizen/tunnel child enslaving red shoe-wearing lizard overlords.

This is a recurring theme. These peanuts both hijacked and destroyed righteous protest movements against mandatory unproven covid vaccinations, and the life/business/soul destroying lockdowns that accompanied them.

Blockquote fail.

Gah.

Interesting that Neil Oliver and Katie Hopkins have both started talking about “rationing”.

Hopkins was on about leisure time and holidays, but it’s going to spread a lot wider than that before it’s done. The energy rationing will be the big change – holidays and even certain foods are not deal breakers. Freezing in your home is.

I’ll be in Scotland in October. Definitely packing some extra thermals.

Dover

you are going to struggle not only limiting abortion to the first or second trimester but to the months after birth.

A concept (post-birth abortion) that is, and has been for some time, the subject of “discussion” among “ethicists”. It was always to be the next step after abortion to full-term.

Monty may choose to look into personhood in terms of id quod and id quo, not that I understand it, although he might. This may give pause to temporarily avoid the ultimately revealed truth, Thou Shalt Not Kill.

No, no, Monty, you are raising the importance of personhood here, not me. You can either answer the questions asked or simply admit you have no idea.

The question of when a person is a person is a matter for philosophy. There is no definitive answer. Even such an august tome as the Bible didn’t lay it out in plain language.

What I do know is (a) that declaring personhood for a cell at the moment of fertilisation is pretty dumb, and (b) the state dictating terms to a mother leads to bad outcomes for the mother.

Top level coaching is basically getting dickheads to play together. By the the time the dickheads have got to the top level the coach doesn’t teach them new skills apart from what goes on in their heads and that ain’t a lot. Usually its all they can do. Look at Paul Green taking the Cowboys to a GF win. An average team plus JT. They played together well. Didn’t matter how well JT played if the rest of them hadn’t lifted. They didn’t give up. Bellamy for the Storm started off with no names and got them to play together and not give up. I don’t like team sports unless I see a team that doesn’t give up. All the fancy stuff doesn’t make up for not doing the basics right.

The name Trent might have something to do with it. Bit like Duane. Sports club hierarchy is always full of woulda shoulda coulda types but never did. I experienced that at the Brumbies. Its like having that twat Vlandies in charge of the NRL. Might be able to read a balance sheet but does nothing to get fans involved. Better off having ex players. Kids need to see their sporting heroes involved and as for talking heads commentating, don’t get me started. Trouble is, games have become business.

Ergo, it should be ad hominem in the singular and ad homines in the plural ?

Right on the Latin, but remember that ad hominem is an aphorism, meaning ‘towards the man’, i.e. arguing against a man’s personna rather than his argumentation standards. Aphorisms can apply that singular examplar mode towards multiple people. The only changed I’ve seen used for modern tastes is to change it to ‘ad femina’ when it is a woman, but that is not strictly necessary, for the ‘man’ is a generic universal (a usage which feminists can’t stand).

Bruce of Newcastle says:
August 19, 2022 at 9:43 am

…
The biggest problem I see is the desire of the pharma companies to switch entirely to mRNA vaccines.
…

I can see a quantum shift in acceptable side effects for vaccines.
Previously no vaccine would be approved if myocarditis was a side effect. The situation now is that the forced vaccination of billions of people with side effects up to and including death was accepted (and mostly welcomed) by the general population.

So future vaccines will be measured against the side effects of the Covid19 mRNA vaccine, rather than the much more stringent previous standard.

The driver seems to be that mRNA vaccines are much more patentable. Traditional vaccine IP is largely in the manufacturing process. mRNA coding along with algorithmically generated mRNA variants can be protected wholesale and is much more difficult to circumvent. Hence more valuable to the patent holders, many of whom work in the CDC.

You might have a point if you had a substantial body of work you could point to where you criticise our overlords re Covid.
You don’t.

Actually, I do.

You (and a small number of others) just focused on the extremely well-deserved ridicule.

Dot, lady on the gruinaid lady pages has a query for you.

As a single almost 36-year-old woman with a successful career*, I feel like the pandemic has robbed me of two prime years of my dating life and has fast-tracked me to the red region of my biological clock.** The pressure I feel to do something about this deadline is massive, but for the first time in my life, I have no idea how to make up my mind. Do I continue to focus on myself, or prioritise dating, or resort to egg freezing?***

I have seen firsthand what a burden it is to have a child with an incompetent man***** and I would rather be alone and happy than with a man who makes my life harder.****** There is so much I would like to do with my life before “sacrificing” it for children, but by the time I get all that done, I’ll have no eggs left!******* I also don’t want to be a parent who resents their child for limiting their life – I want to fully devote myself. How do I begin to work out my next steps?

* But somehow havent spawned, tick tock, tick tock…
** Im sorry i thought you said 36, not 26….
*** Sounds a lot like “prioritizing myself” has led you to here, empty egg carton.
**** Bloody men
***** Your lady friends chose them.
****** You see any signal that she sees a relationship as a partnership, or is she giving off the “zero sum game/divorce/you pay for 18+ years vibe”?
******* Are you going to cure cancer? If the answer is no then WTF do you think you are sacrificing exactly?

I suggest this lady not breed. I suggest any wan wooing it do so on a strictly temporary basis and treat her like a bit of used chewing gum so her choice becomes much easier.

The driver seems to be that mRNA vaccines are much more patentable.

Lower manufacturing costs too. The idea being once you know the coding RNA you can effectively program the nucleic acid sequence into your line and out pops the vaccine. No capital costs for changing equipment between different vaccine batches, just change one computer file.

I do see a use for mRNA therapies, but not for injected vaccines. Cancer treatment especially. Possibly patch and spray delivered vaccines since the cells affected aren’t likely to cause life threatening problems if there’s a dangerous immunological response.

The abortion issue is not really about ways of responding with the force of violence to threat or injustice. Rather the abortion issue has become analogous to the sacrificing of human life at the altar of superior interests.
(And I say this without in any way being condemnation of women who have had abortions – no doubt they made difficult decisions. The question remains as that of the transcendental nature of human dignity.)

condemnatory