Joseph’s Dream, Rembrandt, 1645
It was the very first announcement made over the PA system on our last cruise ship, before we even left…
Open Thread – Tue 29 Nov 2022
“You know, the revolutionary tyrants of recent world history, men such as Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot and so…
Local Councils have been revved up to get the Voice done at that level.
Par for the course for the ABC, Old Lefty – Richard Fidler, Leigh Sales, Annabel Crabb have all been granted…
Went to Nandos for lunch yesterday and F…me if they didn’t have a sticker next to the door handle “”Nandos…
I’m not going if M0nty is.
Exit interview tips with Dot.
The opening statement:
I am born in a rank which recognises no superior but God, to whom alone I am responsible for my actions; but they are so pure and honourable that I voluntarily and cheerfully render an account of them to the whole world.
Stress not. Monty’s still cowering under his basement bed, wrapped in plastic and shot full of a weird substance.
Anyway.
Been working on a dating profile.
Hobbies: Banter.
Interests: Warhammer dolls.
Sexual orientation: Super-straight.
Gender: Trans-trans cis male.
Beliefs: See Richard I quote above.
I am only there to argue and red pill chicks so it should get some traction.
So the Liars are going to censure that useless POS scummo. Not protecting him in the slightest but what he did was not illegal. What he did was abrogate his responsibilities to the Australian public for 2 years but that is also not illegal. The SFLosers should either laugh all the way through the speech from Luigi or all walk out. Get some theatrics back into politics, they’ve got nothing else.
Razey if munty goes its time for his head down the dunny. It’ll remind him of school. It would be worthwhile for me to go if munty was. He’d probably think it was going to be like Malmo and not show.
Dot your profile sounds pretty good, do you wanna go out?
Malmo, and some parts of Bendigo, have much in common.
I am sure your account incel420 will do very well.
Was bound to happen one day tho i didn’t expect it in my lifetime! .. now it’s official .. 2 English cities Birmingham & Leicester have ethnics outnumbering the home born white folk ……. FFS!
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/11/29/birmingham-and-leicester-become-minority-majority-cities-as-native-population-falls-below-75-per-cent/
“So the Liars are going to censure that useless POS scummo. Not protecting him in the slightest but what he did was not illegal. What he did was abrogate his responsibilities to the Australian public for 2 years but that is also not illegal. The SFLosers should either laugh all the way through the speech from Luigi or all walk out. Get some theatrics back into politics, they’ve got nothing else.”
Yep. Agree. Overnight C.L. has posted on his a blog a superb piece about this “censure” and I would urge everyone to read it. However, I shed no tears for Scott Morrison, given his history of dumping on his own.
Whilst Labor plays politics superbly, the Liberals continue to be inept. Perhaps next time a Labor MP or leftist luminary is accused of rape the Liberals won’t be so respectful, timid and mute. I won’t hold my breath though.
calli thank you for taking the time — your garden sounds a delight – good on you calli
GrayRanga @7:19, first there are no principled Libs in Canberra to do a walkout. Dutton would rather swallow cane toads than upset the cool kids whom he wishes to join.
Second, no matter if ScoMo’s actions were not illegal, they were unprincipled.
Third, why would anyone in Canberra stand up for ScoMo when he never stood up for even his colleagues. The man is an ethical vacuum.
I knew the Richard I quote would get unwanted attention from David Starkey.
Shatterzzz – Daniel Greenfield now has a blogpost up on it.
How Christians Became a Minority in the UK and How It’ll Happen Here (29 Nov)
“In the UK, only 3% of 18-24 year olds identify as Anglicans, and only 5% as Catholics, among 25-34 year olds, 5% identify as Anglicans and 9% as Catholics. 64% of 18-24 year olds say that they have no religion, as do 57% of 25-34 year olds, and 60% of 35-44 year olds.
3%. Think about that.
These numbers may be a bit outdated, but they haven’t gotten any better. And America is catching up.
What you’re seeing is the result of cultural programming that has all but eliminated Judeo-Christian religiosity as a source of values and identity among the young and replaced it with pop culture and politics.”
You can see how the green-progressive religion is capturing the young people. They have a spiritual emptiness inside of them that wants something to fill it, which the Left is doing.
Added to profile:
Champion gambler. The competition is literally scared away from taking bets. They try deflection, but it isn’t very effective!
Hot girls are basically Pokémon trainers, right?
Does anyone realise that if China descends into chaos there will be no goods to buy in the short term including medicines? Do we have a plan B? Does anyone in the world have a plan B? Is this why the whole world will turn away while the CCP absolutely monsters its people?
Show me potato salad!
You make it sound like a global cargo cult, Crossie. Which it is.
Yes global cargo cult is a good description.
They’ve done so up until now. No reason to think it’ll change.
It’s the same reason they’ll turn a blind eye to the slavery currently providing the materials for their ‘energy transition’. They are not principled, rational people.
After what they proved capable of doing during Covid, I’d go so far as to say that a portion of them would accept human sacrifices to save Gaia, as long as it was the right type of people. It’s quite clear they were happy to sacrifice people in the ‘war’ against Covid. My father was one who was killed by the response, but, ironically, he believed in the lockdowns and wanted to forcibly vaccinate resisters. The Nazi fuck is now where he deserves to be. Live by the sword, die by the sword.
My pleasure, Tinta. They’re all really hard to kill. If you plant some, make sure you take off the dead flowers before they produce seed. Otherwise they’ll be everywhere.
You can take them down by hedge clippers if you’re pressed for time. Like pruning roses with a chainsaw, it looks more brutal than it really is.
Look that’s all fine, as long as you don’t attribute your quote.
That way, and when asked about it you can proto-hipster the chicks and say ‘You wouldn’t have heard of him’.
They would just ask Richard the first…what?
Yes KD, but then they’ll attribute it to Robert Smith, Morrissey, Killing Joke or the Stone Roses.
They would if they had any taste, that is.
New novella set in a dystopian Australian desert where natural gas is a scarce resource…
Manuel Utz III
Beyond Bradley Murdoch
The Road Ranger
Psycho psychiatrist news.
Claim: Psychiatrists Can Spur Climate Action by Flying Balloons Around the Planet (28 Nov)
” “My experience as a psychiatrist is that you have to speak the language of the people you want to convince. . . I had to tell them something that would wake them up.”
…
I’ve got to admit, there is something catchy about the vision of psychiatrists riding balloons around the planet shouting to everyone to wake up about climate change. I thought of making a wisecrack about cutting back on participation in psychotropic drug trials, but I believe the real culprit is CNN. The author admitted CNN was on in the background when inspiration struck. Think about the psychological damage watching and listening to CNN all day might cause.”
Woke psychiatrist wakes up wokely to wicked warming and wants to wake everyone else up? The Dunning-Kruger is strong with this guy. Given the hysterical 24/7 coverage of global warming for at least the last decade there literally can be no one who hasn’t heard about it by now.
Well we already sacrifice about a quarter of our unborn don’t we?
Chuck me down for the giddy up Mater. Bendigo?
Quality stuff. Guaranteed to spark conversation, one way or another. Implied recklessness, luck, and a faint ‘living on the edge’ flavour.
Ed Casesays:
November 30, 2022 at 5:58 am
How silly would you hafta be to allow Jacinta Price to be a Spokesman for your position.
She looks like she’s never missed 6 square meals a day in her life and her support amongst Aborigines in the NT is so weak that she nearly lost the CLP Senate Seat.
Not sure about now, but when I saw Pearson in a restaurant in Canberra in the early 1990s, he was effectively spherical.
Presented, for your viewing pleasure.
Team Sneed presents:
Cuckold Simulator
https://youtu.be/MSrbWDnEuI4
Project Veritas
@Project_Veritas
BREAKING: 9 Month Investigation Into
@HHSGov
Whistleblower Child Trafficking Evidence Reveals ‘Sponsor’ of 16 Year Old Unaccompanied Migrant Would “Pimp” Her to Men to Repay $10,000+ “Debt” for Getting Across Border
HHS Whistleblower: “We don’t get sued by [child] traffickers.”
Benny Johnson
@bennyjohnson
Remember when @rickygervais hurled absolute truth nukes from space at Apple’s woke CEO to his face two years ago?
The single most savage and honest takedown of Apple’s woke gatekeeping.
With ivory handles, I believe. A gift from Hannibal who was unable to join them personally because he was at Lepanto where there was a trade dispute involving oranges.
And what a stirring speech:
Should have been:
Bakery products.
Catturd ™
@catturd2
These aren’t real reporters – they’re highly paid propagandists for the Democrat party. The truth now only comes from citizen journalists. All main stream news is lying garbage.
Talking about ATSIC doesn’t register with most people, it was so long ago.
Richard Cranium thinks that corruption a long time ago is OK.
Hey, Richard, which “First Nation” are you a “Proud” member of? The Corruptocrats?
capturing the perfect moment
smell the media fear
Ahahaaa.
Fat chicks. The whole thing looks like the Money for Nothing clip.
I may have to amend my characterisation of Dot as an incel. It appears to be intentional at this point.
Trudeau: “Everyone in China should be allowed to protest. We will continue to ensure that China knows we will stand for human rights and with people who are expressing themselves.”
https://twitter.com/ClownWorld_/status/1597665433313718274
The Genetic Mechanism by which the COVID mRNA Jabs cause the Intravascular Growths seen in the ‘Died Suddenly’ Documentary
That White House mophead has amnesia. I clearly recall social media being used to incite violence during the Antifa and BLM rioting.
Possibly a “different kind of violence” though.
It achieved its aim. A new régime that brooks no opposition.
Matersays:
November 30, 2022 at 7:07 am
I’m not going if M0nty is.
Stress not. Monty’s still cowering under his basement bed, wrapped in plastic and shot full of a weird substance.
He’s not “cowering under his basement bed”, he’s shivering on fear as he checks under it for Nazis every night, before jumping into bed and pulling the blankets over his head. Because Mummy told him that if you pull the blankets over your head the Nasty Boogey Man can’t hurt you.’
He doesn’t know that Nasties are found only in garages, not in basements.
monty uses congestive heart failure.
It isn’t very effective!
monty cries out in pain as he thrashes around on the ground.
monty is defeated!
105 Countries are Exploring CBDCs and 11 Have Already Launched Them
China Taps Governor Gretchen Whitmer To Lead Lockdown Enforcement.
Based on current form and over the past 45 minutes, that will be on continuous loop for the rest of the day.
“A number of replicas have been made for the IMSAI 8080 and PDP11 recently, I think the IBM 360 may take longer to get the same treatment.”
I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a QEMU configuration for all those already.
TUCKER CARLSON: Shanghai is the largest prison camp in human history
White House COVID Doc: The Way to ‘Move on’ From COVID Is Endless Boosters
Medvedev: NATO could become legitimate target over Ukraine aid
If they want something, they just take it.
Green Gone Wild: Dutch Government Demands ‘Compulsory Purchase’ of 3,000 Farms to Comply With EU Environmental Rules
Only your protective ‘gub-mint’ can be FTX.
Apple emerges as a villain in China, shutting down iPhone apps that help protestors
The Left’s Obsession With Destroying Trump & Kanye West, Has Them Laser Focused On West’s Interview With A Podcaster Following His Meeting With Trump: Here’s What Is Happening
My dating profile handle is Ash_69_Ketchum_420 if you must know.
How about a city get together , well Melbourne not necessarily in Craps Town ? I have access to a retaurant BYo or Buy here after 6,30 all the oldies in bed, No DIDS of course allowed , the multiple personality ones that is .
I’d definitely make the trip…again.
A bonfire out the bush used to be good.
Have to agree Crossie, that’s why I said theatrics, they’ve got nothing else.
St. Andrew the Apostle
St. Andrew was one of Jesus’ closest disciples, but many people know little about him. The feast of St. Andrew is Nov. 30.
Here are 11 things
Groogs is very persuasive. Gotta get up pretty early to get anything past him.
bring the LOLs this morning with their vox pop
“ … and I’m a Labour voter.”
“ (surprised) Are you!”
In the Pokémon world, Monty is a level 100 Magikarp that only knows splash.
He cannot learn new moves, nor evolve.
Looks like Perf might get its hottest November night on record. Looks like 24.9oC and rising. I’m sure ALPBC “News” will tell us.
I’m sure it’s for their own good.
China Doubles Down on ‘Zero Covid,’ Orders Police to Hunt Down Protesters
More than a third of babies were delivered by C-section in England last year — the highest level in a decade.
Rising levels of obesity in society and women choosing to give birth later in life are behind the rise.
The rise comes in the wake of multiple damming reports into poor maternity care in England.
One damning report identified an obsession with so-called ‘natural’ or ‘normal’ births among medics had contributed to the unnecessary death and injury of hundreds of babies and mothers.
This how Epstein became rich. Cross out tax planning advice and replace it with extortion.
Black is worth 10 bills
And the prospect of Elbow making up with Xi was greeted with rapture by our press.
chyna is propped up with ‘wall street’ money.
OldOzziesays:
November 30, 2022 at 9:25 am
GreyRangasays:
November 30, 2022 at 8:56 am
Never go to a Japanese restaurant with more than 12 tables. The less the better.
Sushi Izakaya Waka
155 Pittwater Rd, Manly, AU 2095
Known locally as Waka – Fits the bill – is around 12 tables – great takeaway as well
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g552103-d6607244-Reviews-Sushi_Waka-Manly_Greater_Sydney_New_South_Wales.html
another
Ryo’s Noodles
125 Falcon St, Crows Nest, AU 2065
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g552091-d1223573-Reviews-Ryo_s_Noodles-Crows_Nest_North_Sydney_Greater_Sydney_New_South_Wales.html
Nuclear fall-out clothes dipping. They are also known to hang around outside laundromats and wait for a woman to leave her clothes unattended so they can pinch it, then go home and dress up in her style for a sexual hit.
https://twitter.com/DonaldJTrumpJr/status/1597433640111439872
“Wot is going on?”
It’s a security thing – a zipper can be opened fairly easily without using the standard handle, and things added/removed from your luggage.
So move to “hard” outside, and “clips”/”clamps” to hold it shut and it’s much more secure.
Christine Anderson
@AndersonAfDMdEP
First the western ‘world leaders’ stayed silent for weeks, probably hoping the (Chinese) gov would get it under control.
Now that they can’t ignore it anymore, they’re starting to lecture (China) about freedom, freedom of expression and the right to assembly!
DESPICABLE BIGOTS!
I usually take a pretty laissez faire approach to comments at Teh Paywallian. In the last couple of days I had 2 anti tranny comments rejected despite both having been approved and getting a few likes. Has this happened to anyone else?
New World Odor™
@hugh_mankind
Dr Masanori Fukushima, Professor Emeritus at Kyoto University, warns about vax harms to the Ministry of Health:
“You are ignoring science! It’s a disaster. You spend billions on the vaccine & force people to inject it…due to the vax, natural immunity has been suppressed”
Memo to Pat Cummins. If you have to do a media conference to the effect you are not a wanker, you might just be.
Kyle Becker
@kylenabecker
Now, that Twitter ended ‘Covid misinformation’ policies, let’s review the Experts™ misinformation:
1. 15 days to slow the spread
2. Masks work
3. Lockdowns work
4. Natural immunity is a myth
5. mRNA shots are vaccines
6. Covid shots stop transmission
7. ‘100% safe & effective’
Re climate “experts” unable to explain changes in ice levels at the poles.
Have they ever considered the positioning of the Sun and the Earths tilt on its axis, its wobble and its elliptical orbit? Nor do they treat the Sun as a star, which is in constant flux due to irregular build-up of gases and resultant sunspots. Because to do so would mean they would have to admit the significant role of the Sun. All the models are built on the assumption that the Sun’s energy output is a constant because they are incapable of measuring it! And of course this is convenient because they can concentrate on proving CO2 is the biggest determinant. They use a method which is common in economics modelling called Ceteris Paribus. So just like economic modelling it fails to capture the complexity of changing parameters and therefore is pretty well a useless method of prediction.
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/11/28/dramatic-recovery-in-global-sea-ice-confounds-the-net-zero-catastrophists/
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/ceterisparibus.asp
They wants it, they all wants it, preciousss.
Watch: Fauci Again Defends Chinese Lockdowns (30 Nov)
It really is eyeopening to see how completely off the planet nutso these people are.
Plan B is decoupling, nearshoring etc..
Foreigners are still leaving China in droves thanks to the lockdown policies which means Western firms have no option but to scale back and start to look for alternative locations.
Whatever happens domestically, China is not going back to pre-covid normality.
When you can’t attack someone because they’re black and only racists criticise black people, say they’re being exploited.
Jacinta Price is being exploited by mysterious right wing extremists.
Kanye is being exploited by the Jews.
Leftists everywhere now do this.
I always thought being touted as the first captain with a university education might bode ill.
Covid Zero is a problem in China because it was our policy 12 months ago (broadly speaking).
Heaven forbid that a black person might exercise their own moral agency instead of dutifully playing their part in the prog-left narrative.
Going out on a bit of a limb here, but anyway…
Every day we are bombarded by Killer Vaccine porn, running the gamut from the credible through the tenuous and to the outlandish. (Seriously people, quality over quantity please).
But even all that seems to me to be missing the bigger point.
If your objection to the heavily coerced Coof vaccines is the harm they can cause that makes it sound like there would be little to no objection if they were as safe as any other vaccine. And what objection could there be if a vaccine was demonstrated to have zero side effects and no contraindications?
The merits (or deleterious deficiencies) of the vaccines is merely a point of a bigger argument, that being that we were being forced against our will. The state was holding our families, jobs, even religious services hostage to compel our compliance.
The danger of this attitude extends far beyond medical coercion. The attitude of the government, the MSM, the talking heads, the activists can and will be brought to bear on any aspect of our lives as they see fit – made worse be the fact they will not consider themselves bound by any of the restriction they would impose. And worse still that so many people accepted the need for lockdowns and medical procedures because they were told to.
The vaccines can certainly highlight the danger of so glib an attitude to our freedoms, but the argument for our freedoms is far greater than the vaccines. Even if the vaccines were otherwise harmless we should still not be required to explain why we choose not to take them.
If we say ‘no’, that should be the end of it, and there can no rebuttal from the tyrannical shits that can prevail against that brief, monosyllabic, but stubborn and deafening word.
Met Jacinta pre Covid when she wasn’t the favourite by conservatives. They didn’t help her get in first time around . You need air transport to visit all the communities outback . Sbe has not changed .
Black’s Ties Matter!
Mem – Arctic sea ice correlates closely with the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (ie. the AMO).
Of course the AMO is cyclic on a ~60 year period. So we’ve only seen the rising phase of it for thirty years, because satellites to measure sea ice* weren’t available before that. Consequently Arctic sea ice will expand again as the down phase of the AMO commences.
The climateers have been trying to edit the 60 year cycle out of their datasets because it caused nearly half the warming last century – because they chose to start their data in 1906, which is right at the bottom of the cycle. And 2005, then end of the ‘official century’ was right at the top of the next cycle.
If they admitted all this it would halve the effect of CO2, which means they’d prove it is harmless. Then they’d all lose their jobs because government wouldn’t fund them anymore.
(* There is some early satellite data for 1972-1979 which shows the correlation also held during the last bit of the last down phase, but the climateers have truncated it off the official datasets. Funny that.)
Mater – I’m sorry to hear that. I didn’t realise there were commenters here as furious as I am about being screwed over by their family members. I take some small satisfaction that every passing day makes it more obvious to them (not that they’ll ever admit it) that I was correct and they were wrong, wrong, wrong (again).
My sister recently tried to contact me about my brother who’d somehow managed to fall out of bed and had broken his back. Needless to say I didn’t get back to her and I won’t be expressing any sympathy for that deadshit brother of mine in this life or the next.
I am not a Christian and have never pretended to be, so they will never be forgiven.
+88 upticks
Amen.
When your own children refuse to go to your funeral (reduced in numbers as it was by Covid restrictions), it’s a reasonable indication that you might have been wrong on a few points.
bloody garage ‘nasti’.
I’ll join you on that limb, Mother Lode.
Screeching about a single aspect of the bigger picture of repression is counterproductive. You will always get others who argue against the claimed effects, but worse still the fearporn bandwagoners.
And now we have our PM “investigated”, not because he presided over the worst attack on freedom this country has seen (apart from its first settlers put in chains), but because he took on more responsibility that he should and hurt the incoming government’s feelz.
Jorge – Kanye is bipolar, and the way he’s behaving at the moment sounds like he’s off his medications. Often happens, since my impression it fuzzes up their brains. But bipolar people who stop taking their prescription can get quite wild and difficult. Trump hinted at this a couple days ago.
This is just my hypothesis, but something happened that set Kanye off fairly recently. Stopping taking his medication would be a logical explanation.
Indeed. “My body, my choice”, except when it isn’t in both instances – as decreed by bat flu hitlerists.
The hypocrisy is off the scale.
“There are plans afoot to charge households which feed in to the grid in order to recoup some of the infrastructure costs.”
Oh – so same as rainwater tanks, then?
As in: “It’s the environmentally and socially responsible thing to do, so here’s a one-off $1,000 subsidy to encourage you to do it. As a bonus, you’ll save money on your bills – it’s win-win!”
Then, some time later: “Oh, you have that? Well, you have to pay us $100 annually from now on to keep it.”
Mater
That’s your dad you’re talking about. He may have made mistakes (in your opinion) but he’s still you father and it sounds as though he’s passed away.
Giving birth is horrible and painful, even for young women who still have a bit of flexibility. And the mechanical process damages you in ways that only become apparent for many later in life.
If C-sections are now safer than “natural” childbirth, then I’m all for it. I did something I would never have normally done with my daughter in law and her second pregnancy – I told her to seriously look at having a C-section. The agony and results of her first delivery were disgraceful…how they let that poor girl labour away for so many hours in that state was a despicable act of extreme cruelty. It took her months to recover.
As for the fatties delivering babies…their muscle tone is already so compromised by all the fat they’re carrying and lack of exercise. The horror is having to cut through all the layers to find the poor baby.
The grid is the grid. Either you are attached to it and pay for it or you are not. ( I’m pretty sure you can’t be disconnected from it if is available but have never looked into it.). Ditto EVs and defacto road taxes paid via fuel taxes.
JC,
He was and he did, but that doesn’t give him a pass.
His strongly held (and loudly expressed) opinions in his last year and a half was complete contrary to that which all of his many children dedicated and risked their lives for.
His behaviour as a father and husband was questionable before Covid, but, like many, his true colours shined bright when the pan
demic struck.He is worthy of scorn, and not much else. If you can’t picture a situation where you might think likewise of a father, you are not using your imagination.
Thank you Father JC. – Do you sniff hair?
That’s very sad, Mater.
You can build on it though. Be the best type of father you can be to your own children.
First I’ve heard of that.
A bonfire out the bush!
Exactly. Government overreaches everywhere to be seen to be “doing something “. This was unprecedented and should never have occurred.
Yes, Calli, I do.
His sons use his example of what not to do.
Whenever we are in a quandary as to what to do as fathers, we imagine what he’d do…and do the opposite!
That’s the path I took, with the grace of God.
At least my father asked for forgiveness before the end.
There’s only one father who’s perfect.
they use it as a pure power play to rub your face in it
Excess deaths, mixed news, lack of data
Dr. John Campbell
The Beloved was brought up in an emotionally repressed, distant, hard household. Probably the product of two successive generations of being at the pointy end of war and depression.
It would be easy to run true to type, but not him especially with me at his elbow to give him a nudge. Watching him a few weeks ago surrounded by children, in-laws and grandchildren clamouring to get closest…he’s King of the Kids.
Sometimes it’s important to have an Annoying Other.
Timcast IRL – Ye, Fuentes, Milo Join To Discuss Trump Dinner And Ye24
Many years ago, Linda made the arrogant claim that Queensland people were ‘uncomfortable seeing saris in the street’. A scornful and resentful way of damning all as prejudiced.
Lovely clothes, unpleasant person.
What would she know about Queenslanders?
My father did the opposite.
Told me I was the biggest disappointment of his life, and told me he’d never forgive my mother for dying young and lumping him with the responsibility for children that he never really wanted.
A thorough prick.
Should not all Australian politicians be dosed with lithium?
Joe Biden: ‘Nobody Knows the Effects’ of Multi-Trillion Spending Agenda that Is ‘Just Coming into Play’
Yes they do, and so do I. Hyperinflation.
Mater
I, personally, would love to sit at a camp fire with you.
Get over it.
Your ‘father’ sounds like a dead xunt.
But you have always come across as a true gentleman.
We only take carry-on. The laundry does present some problem but is worthwhile. Ever since a trip to NZ with the luggage arriving on the second last day did it for us. Hope to be going to Italy for 3 months next year. That may be a bit of a stretch for carry-on though. Wife’s friend has a villa near Rome.
Parliament censures SloMo for being hopeless control freak.
Rest of Australia *yawn*.
Should not all Australian politicians be dosed with lithium?
The ballistic coefficient of lithium wouldn’t be very good.
Don’t misunderstand me, I’m well over it, after nearly 50 years. He rarely enters my thoughts.
As for being a disappointment, I guess that’s a matter of opinion and differs depending of your point of view, but from my perspective, I prove him wrong everyday.
Fathers’ role and the role of both men and women has changed dramatically over my lifetime (currently around 50 years). Some men dealt with that better than others. Most people do their best but are subject to human frailties. You don’t get your time over. And always best to leave other families to deal with their own issues. Your own typically provides enough to be getting on with.
And that is what all future generations are supposed to strive for but modern ‘edumacation’ has gone backward.
Well Louise Mulligan really cops it from these lawyers:
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2022/11/act-bar-assn-on-louise-milligan-insensitive-polemical-deeply-offensive-distressing.html
I went to a funeral of a father of a guy in my wider friends circle but whom I do not know well. He was a prominent orthopaedic surgeon who had practiced for years at one of Perfs old major hospitals (now closed). The subtle theme of the various speeches was he was a great surgeon, a pretty ordinary father and a not particularly good husband. The was very much the story of the day.
My old man was under the thumb. Only saw a different person whenever she wasn’t around which wasn’t very often. I never really knew him. He may as well not been there. Couldn’t tell you when he died, no idea. The Scots have a lot to answer for. Mater we don’t live our lives for our children and I certainly don’t want my children to be like me. I think they are doing pretty well.
Format fail…apologies.
Well said.
I remember making exactly this argument (and others) in the Cabinet Office when the NSW government was about to mandate certain vaccinations for children to be able to attend childcare and school. This was in the early 1990s.
My then boss looked at me as though I was mad. It was a black mark on my career.
I hasten to add that I am very much pro vaccinations which are proven and guard against awful diseases. But, we are talking serious mission creep here.
Pb!
unforgivable
LOL
Well…you’re no disappointment to us, Mater.
It was probably stupid projection and pride. At least you won’t miss him.
The George Costanza method!
The leader of the Federal opposition has presented a bill in Parliament:
Australian schools are ‘brainwashing our kids’: Senator Pauline Hanson defends her anti-indoctrination bill (30 Nov)
“One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson has accused Australian schools of indoctrinating kids with marxism and recruiting them as warriors for climate change and social justice. … Senator Hanson re-introduced her bill last week, after it failed to progress during the last term of parliament. The bill attempts to ensure schools “provide a balanced presentation of opposing views on political, historical and scientific issues.” “
I of course mean the real leader of the opposition not the guy who is called that. The usual suspects are getting quite excited as you might expect. Sky News has included in the story a tweet from Green Sen. Penny Allman-Payne in which I counted 8 verifiable lies, and several misdirections. Which is pretty impressive for a single tweet.
Bruce of N
Sky News has included in the story a tweet from Green Sen. Penny Allman-Payne in which I counted 8 verifiable lies, and several misdirections. Which is pretty impressive for a single tweet.
Why do I suspect that Green Sen. Penny Allman-Payne would be a pain to all men?
Hallelujah Mother Lode.
Coerced medicine is rape no matter what.
If that medicine is harmful then the rape becomes rape and murder/attempted murder.
Prominent Collingwood supporter “Joffa” bucks the trend (no pun intended) and pleads guilty to child sex abuse. Thomastown car thieves distance themselves.
Maybe they should do something different then.
Two thirds of Australian authors are women – our new research finds they earn just $18,200 from their writing (The Monologue, 29 Nov, via Phys.org)
“We found the average annual income authors derive from practising as an author is $18,200. That’s an increase from $15,100 seven years ago (adjusted for inflation). But it’s a modest increase from a low base: it represents growth of less than 3% per annum over seven years.
Book writing is a profession dominated by women, who make up two thirds of all Australian authors. More than 80% of authors have attended university and almost half have completed a postgraduate degree – a high level of education that is not matched by high income.”
Aaand I think we’ve found an answer. Weird that no one wants to buy and read lefty books.
I sat beside and held the hand of my Father as he died.
And cried.
Most people have a book in them. And that is where it should stay … as they say.
Music fans, despair. Apple music (which is a reasonably good indicator) shows a forgettable bit of pap as their Number 1. Justin Beiber and an Australian who modestly calls himself The Kid Laroi.
There is a clip of this apparent appeal to 13 year old girls (maybe – who else would care) at the link.
It’s dreadful. Is this what happens when kids are systematically terrified of the End of the World because SUVs and electricity?
Just arrived from the mailman: Buzz Aldrin’s Magnificent Desolation.
A hero in many senses of the word.
LOL
More Mills & Boon.
NFA,
you are a fortunate man.
Bless.
I would have liked to be paid to play golf. Unfortunately it is hard and I was not particularly good at it. I blame the patriarchy. Which has its problems.
Another one from The Monologue. Hmm, I wonder who the author is?
Yes, the Chinese protests are about politics and freedom. But they are also about what COVID might do if it is let loose now (29 Nov, via Phys.org)
Ah that’s who it is! Anyone know if the CCP has one of those secret police stations in Hobart? Asking for a friend.
Tell them they can have Tasmania if it stops the GST equalisation.
I can’t comment on that article. But
Hair shirt weaving doesn’t earn you big bucks either. Doesn’t mean they deserve any money for what they produce.
Why America Doesn’t Have Enough EV Charging Stations
Gas stations spar with utility companies, rural areas predict years of losses on chargers, spotty equipment threatens reliability: The U.S. EV charging network is a mess.
One of the biggest roadblocks to the mass adoption of electric vehicles is the troubled business model for the commercial chargers that power them.
The government is pouring billions of dollars into developing a national highway charging network. But businesses aren’t sure how they will make money, and the nascent industry looks messy.
Utility companies and gas stations are at war with each other over who will own and operate EV chargers. Rural states say some charging stations could operate at a loss for a decade or more. New companies that provide charging gear and services are contending with the equipment’s spotty reliability.
The network’s build-out has a chicken-or-egg quality: EV advocates say many drivers will only be comfortable purchasing vehicles if rapid charging is as easy as using a pump at a gas station. Yet businesses interested in offering charging say they can’t make money until more EVs are on the road.
Around 1% of U.S. drivers own EVs, but wait lists are growing and auto makers including General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. are expecting EV sales to keep rising. To overcome “range anxiety”—the fear that EV drivers will run out of power while traveling long distances—industry experts say the U.S. needs plentiful fast chargers. Fast charging can take 20 minutes to an hour depending on the vehicle.
There are more than 145,000 places to refuel a gas-powered vehicle. So far, the U.S. has 11,600 points where any EV can charge quickly, according to the research group Atlas Public Policy.
EV market leader Tesla Inc. built a private U.S. network of nearly 16,000 fast chargers for its own drivers starting in 2012, and its popular Superchargers have become a marketing tool for selling cars. Most other auto makers are relying on the government and private companies. In some cases, they are investing alongside charging companies.
The Biden administration and Congress want to speed the transition to electricity-as-fuel. This year’s climate and tax law, known as the Inflation Reduction Act, offers expanded federal tax credits to persuade more businesses to add chargers. Budget estimators expect around $1.7 billion in tax credits for chargers or other alternative-fuel equipment to be claimed over a 10-year period. States also are set to distribute $7.5 billion over several years from last year’s infrastructure law to increase the availability of chargers.
Tension has erupted between businesses such as gas stations, convenience stores and truck stops and utility companies over who gets to sell electricity to drivers and who foots the bill for the costly infrastructure to do so.
Many monopoly utilities want to own and operate chargers, extending electricity sales into a new market. They have a competitive edge because, with the approval of state utility regulators, they can pass on the cost of infrastructure and power to all rate payers, as they do for wires or new power generation.
In Minneapolis, Channing Smith, who owns a gas station and convenience mart called The Corner Store, said a utility proposal threatens to squeeze out charging competition. Xcel Energy has asked regulators to let it build, own and operate 730 fast-charging sites by 2026—about 45% of Minnesota’s’ projected fast-charging market. The $193 million cost would be paid for by its rate payers.
“For them to take taxpayer money to create a network removes the private sector completely,” Mr. Smith said. He said he would like to install fast chargers, but not if he has to compete directly against the company selling him electricity.
Xcel says a dearth of public chargers is hindering EV adoption in Minnesota, which has just 55 or so non-Tesla locations for fast charging, according to government data. “We have not seen the market fill in key gaps regarding necessary public charging,” Xcel told regulators in August.
Lacey Nygard, an Xcel spokeswoman, said the company would support retailers or communities whether they wanted to own or simply host chargers on their property.
Tim Echols, an EV advocate and a Republican who serves on Georgia’s utility commission, said utilities will have to own and operate some equipment. “If it’s going to be in an area that’s never going to make money, then who else is going to put it there?” Mr. Echols asked.
In the past year, utilities have been approved or have pending requests to spend more than $1.4 billion on charging, according to Atlas Public Policy.
Another point of contention comes in how utilities charge businesses for electricity. The highest 15-minute period of power consumption each month makes up a large chunk of commercial billing. Because an EV charging session requires a surge of power, gas station owners say their monthly bills are spiking unpredictably, by hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
Shameek Konar, chief executive of Pilot Co., which has more than 800 truck stops and travel centers across North America, said he understands the need for such fees, which pay for upgrades to electric infrastructure. But Pilot expects chargers to draw twice as much power as the rest of a truck stop. He said he thinks high fees should be phased in, and that state or federal officials should help set common rates with the patchwork of America’s nearly 3,000 utilities.
Pilot and GM plan to add fast-chargers at 500 of the travel center company’s Pilot and Flying J locations starting next year.
“We’re going to have to work with 300 utilities to come up with rate structures,” Mr. Konar estimated.
America’s vast network of gasoline stations had a century to mature.
At the turn of the 20th century, gas was sold on the shelf in hardware and grocery stores, and later from above-ground tanks from which a worker might fill a bucket to pour into a car’s tank with a funnel, said Matt Anderson, curator of transportation at the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation in Dearborn, Mich.
End Part 1
I think you mean “doused in”.
Don’t worry, the fact checkers are all over it desperately trying to say it’s not true. Clearly they’ve never been anywhere near any leach pit.
Part 2
Pumps that would be familiar to today’s drivers arrived around 1915, but were mostly available at mom-and-pop shops. It wasn’t until national chains and multinational oil companies entered the business as automobile ownership increased, establishing gasoline brands such as Texaco and Conoco, that stations spread across the country.
In 1920, the U.S. had 15,000 gas stations, according to John Lienhard, emeritus professor of mechanical engineering and history at the University of Houston. By 1930, when there were 23 million automobiles on the road, the number of stations had topped 100,000.
The EV charging industry, including billing fights, patchy reliability and lack of service in rural areas, has parallels in telecommunications and the installation of wires, fiber optic cables and cellphone towers across the U.S., said Rob Frieden, emeritus professor of telecommunications and law at Penn State University.
“When you’re dealing with infrastructure, you’ve got very high fixed costs that have to be sunk in terms of investment before the first dollar of revenue accrues,” Mr. Frieden said. “This stuff is expensive and it involves real estate, retrofitting real estate and interfaces with the electrical grid.”
Government infrastructure spending was essential to the rapid adoption of internet use and cellphones and smartphones, Mr. Frieden said. It helped largely eliminate problems such as spotty cell coverage and roaming charges in a matter of about six years. In 2000, roughly 1% of Americans had home broadband, but by 2010 more than 60% did, according to the Pew Research Center.
Still, getting faster internet to rural homes remains a challenge. As of last year, 79% of suburban homes had fast internet service compared with 72% of rural homes, according to Pew.
Many rural power providers are wondering who, if anyone, will want to build and operate chargers along their most remote roadways.
Wisconsin’s Dairyland Power Cooperative told the Biden administration in August that sparsely used chargers in the northern part of the state would likely “operate at a loss for years” and that rural areas need flexibility in planning.
Maine officials said the operation of some sites may need government subsidies because they won’t turn a profit for a decade. Wyoming estimates that no rural charging station built to the requirements the federal government expects—four chargers placed every 50 miles along highways—would be profitable until the 2040s.
Stations will “likely struggle to be economically viable in population centers in the state, let alone in extremely rural areas,” said Luke Reiner, Wyoming’s transportation director.
In Utah, the number of Garkane Energy Co-Op Inc.’s 15,000 members who own EVs can be counted on “fingers and toes,” said Chief Executive Dan McClendon.
The company wants tourists at national parks such as the Grand Canyon to be able to charge to help its economy, Mr. McClendon said. But fast-charging sessions in some areas could equal the amount of power being used by residents, creating challenges to balance power demand and supply, he said.
Remote spots also face hurdles to keep equipment running. When chargers break, service technicians could have a three-hour drive from Las Vegas, Mr. McClendon said.
The Biden administration will require that equipment receiving public funds is working and available for use at least 97% of the time. Studies indicate an uphill climb for the non-Tesla charging industry to comply.
Equipment is often on the fritz. Communications can break down between the car and the charger, the charger and the company operating the charging network, and with payment systems. On occasion, a wasp crawls into the gear and builds a nest. Vandals can strike, sticking gum in the credit card readers and bashing the machines.
A J.D. Power driver study released in August found that one out of every five owners don’t ultimately charge when they try to do so. A 2022 study led by the University of California, Berkeley tested all 657 public EV fast chargers in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and found more than a quarter didn’t work.
“We need to do better as an industry making sure that every time you walk up to a charger, it works,” said Jonathan Levy, chief commercial officer at charging network EVgo Inc.
The risk for car makers is that early adopters will tolerate inconvenience, but the mass market won’t.
“I’ll drive to the next charger if it’s not working because I’m committed to the technology,” said Spencer Reeder, Audi of America’s director of government affairs and sustainability. “There’s going to be missteps, these are early days. We understand that. But I think we can’t afford too many.”
It’s been Eighty years since Casablanca was released.
Sigh…
Agree and thank you Pogria.
I wish my father was a surgeon, bastard or otherwise.
Imagine being the greatest disappointment to a foundry worker. Kinda hurts the pride at little.
Part 2
Pumps that would be familiar to today’s drivers arrived around 1915, but were mostly available at mom-and-pop shops. It wasn’t until national chains and multinational oil companies entered the business as automobile ownership increased, establishing gasoline brands such as Texaco and Conoco, that stations spread across the country.
Memories of filling up on road trip to Bourke 1962, when dirt rodd Dubbo to Bourke, from Petrol Pump like this
Maybe they should write stuff of quality that people are interested in, like our own TE. I hope you earn more than that TE but I get the idea you want the story told more than the remuneration. My wonderful Aunt, who is 100 in 2 months is a wonderful storyteller of her life. She loves to tell the one about living in a brothel when her and my uncle were just married. They were too innocent to realise what was going on.
Are they written in Chinglish like other manuals?
Transgender Women Now Issued ‘New Vagina Manuals’ Following Affirmative Surgery (29 Nov)
““Transgender women” who get medically castrated are now apparently provisioned “new vagina manuals” upon discharge by the surgeons who operated on them in the same way that a manufacturer provides an owner’s manual for a new piece of technological equipment. In this way, the transgenders are one step closer to becoming more machine than man.”
I have no idea the veracity, but it comes from this tweet, which has a nice photo of a happy new vagina owner with its manual.
(Btw: SFW, in case you feel apprehensive, although the pic does make me appreciate Cohenite’s owls a lot more.)
And here we have it.
The “black swan” of renew-balls – except its entirely predictable and will occur over and over again.
https://twitter.com/JavierBlas/status/1597256858460618754
“Foreigners are still leaving China in droves thanks to the lockdown policies which means Western firms have no option but to scale back and start to look for alternative locations. “
That, and their own housing bubble, where they sold “investments” to create those “ghost cities”, and people can’t afford to pay back the loans because there are no tenants or income from them. Of course, they are worth probably 5% of what they paid for them, especially if the bubble has burst and they all want to sell at the same time… This will be the US “sub-prime” disaster x 1,000.
Together this may cause Chy-na to implode – hopefully they won’t use Taiwan or some other war as a distraction, but I’m not convinced they (Xi and Co) can (literally) survive if they don’t have such a distraction.
I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it. Private school gives you a bit of look into the lives of the rich and famous. More than a few are pretty disfunctional.
Kiss Au good by if that happens. A silver lining might be that people are too poor to give shit about Woke nonsense.
The ‘smart’ ones would not know to come inside out of the rain because they are not meteorologists.
But they will eat the bugs!
Tim Cook Says He’s Ready To Pull Twitter From App Store Once President Xi Gives The Order
Mole – I have no idea how they’re keeping the lights on. Wind down from 16.4 to 0.4 GW and solar is down from 14 GW to 1.3 GW.
Why Solar Power is Useless in Winter (29 Nov)
“Today, when there has been very little wind power, how much has solar power provided? … today all of the solar farms up and down the country have worked at just 1.6% of their capacity. A chocolate teapot would be more useful.”
Yep.
Cannabis For Pain Relief? Review of 20 Studies Provides Sobering Results
29 November 2022
By FILIP GEDIN, THE CONVERSATION
Cannabis is one of the most widely used drugs in the world. While there are only a few countries where cannabis is legal for recreational use, many more countries have legalized the use of cannabis for medical reasons.
Reducing pain is one of the most common reasons people report using medical cannabis. According to a US national survey, 17 percent of respondents who had reported using cannabis in the past year had been prescribed medical cannabis.
When it comes to self-medication, the numbers are even higher – with estimates that between 17-30 percent of adults in North America, Europe and Australia reporting they use it to manage pain.
Although cannabis (and cannabis-derived products, such as CBD) may be widely used for reducing pain, how effective it really is in doing this is still unclear. This is what our recent systematic review and meta-analysis sought to uncover.
Our study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, suggests cannabis is no better at relieving pain than a placebo.
To conduct our study, we looked at the results of randomized controlled trials in which cannabis was compared with a placebo for the treatment of clinical pain. We specifically included studies that compared the change in pain intensity before and after treatment. In total, we looked at 20 studies involving almost 1,500 people altogether.
The studies we included looked at a variety of different pain conditions (such as neuropathic pain, which is caused by damage to the nerves, and multiple sclerosis) and types of cannabis products – including THC, CBD and synthetic cannabis (such as nabilone). These treatments were administered in a variety of ways, including via pill, spray, oil and smoked.
The majority of the study’s participants were female (62 percent) and aged between 33 and 62. Most of the studies were conducted in the US, UK or Canada – though we also included studies from Brazil, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Israel, the Czech Republic and Spain.
Our meta-analysis showed that pain was rated as being significantly less intense after treatment with a placebo, with a moderate to large effect depending on each person. Our team also observed no significant difference between cannabis and a placebo for reducing pain.
This corroborates the results of a 2021 meta-analysis. In fact, this 2021 meta-analysis also found that higher-quality studies with better blinding procedures (where both participants and researchers are unaware of who is receiving the active substance) actually had higher placebo responses.
This suggests that some placebo-controlled cannabis trials fail to ensure correct blinding, which may have led to an overestimation of the effectiveness of medical cannabis.
Our study also revealed many participants can distinguish between a placebo and active cannabis, despite having the same odor, taste and appearance. If they are aware that they are receiving or not receiving cannabinoids, they are more likely to provide a biased assessment of the effectiveness of the intervention. So to ensure researchers are observing the actual effect of cannabis, participants can’t know what they receive.
Celebrities Cut Ties With Balenciaga After MyPillow Spotted In Photo Shoot
Why Honda Shifters Are So Good, An Anthropological and Technical Exploration?
Everyone loves Honda shifters. We did some digging to find out why.
Heh. She married a Queenslander.
However, that in no way invalidates your point.
Why should they be comfortable seeing saris in the street?
It is Qld, not Calcutta.
Gray Connolly @GrayConnolly · Nov 30, 2020
As November ends, traditionally, a month for remembering those who have passed, I now, finally, publish, “A Grief Endured”. I hope my own account helps anyone who struggles with their loss and their grief. It is, always, okay to not be okay. GC
A Grief Endured
24 min read
Live and let live?
Be that as it may, if my observations ring true, it’s rare to see an Indian woman wearing a sari on the street unless she’s of the older generation. The young ones favour jeans and t-shirts.
And Linda Burney is clearly a major Karen with a racial chip on her shoulder to boot, which is odd as she never met her indigenous family until well into her twenties.
There Once Was A Prez on Nantucket, and Each of His Cars, a Fire Struck It
The news item here can be summed up in a limerick:
There once was a prez on Nantucket,
and he couldn’t get ‘round in a bucket.
He rented some cars,
and drove under the stars,
until each one, a car fire struck it.
Okay, so I ain’t Shakespeare. But this really happened. As Fox News reported more prosaically Tuesday, “President Biden’s rented Secret Service vehicles burst into flames in a parking lot Monday, just one day after he left his Nantucket vacation.” Yes, they really called him, whimsically enough, “President Biden,” not the more accurate “Alleged President Biden” or “Ostensible President Biden.”
But other than that, Fox is deadly serious: all five of the cars that the Secret Service used to allow President Let Them Eat Cake to joyride around Nantucket on yet another one of his endless vacations caught fire. What the heck is going on here? That’s the one element of this bizarre story is conspicuously missing from Fox’s report.
Old Joe, Fox continues, “spent Thanksgiving on the ritzy Massachusetts island with his family last week. The Secret Service rented five vehicles from Hertz to carry the president and his family, and all five of them caught fire in the parking lot, according to footage first obtained by the Nantucket Current.” The Current itself adds that the cars “had been returned to Hertz less than 24 hours before the fire broke out.”
Why did the cars catch fire? “The cause of the blaze remains under investigation,” says the Current, “but one of the vehicles — a Ford Expedition — was under a safety recall by the manufacturer due to a faulty battery junction box that has caused fires. While it had been scheduled for service under the recall, sources said, it had not been repaired.” Well, all right, that could be it right there, but only one of the cars that was burnt to a crisp was a Ford Expedition: the others were a Chevy Suburban, Ford Explorer, Infiniti QX80, and a Jeep Gladiator. Did they all have a faulty battery junction box?
This whole ScoMo storm in a teacup is such a perfect encapsulation of the Liberal Party. What did he do? Well, he weirdly and secretly appointed himself shadow minister over a bunch of portfolios without even telling his own ministers, did absolutely nothing in these roles (bar the blocking of some mining exploration gig that no one had ever heard of), let someone else give up the game, completely botched any defence he might have put up to account for his actions, thus allowing the inevitable lefty media beat-up to brand him as some kind of totalitarian dictator.
Like…if he was going to be branded a totalitarian dictator anyway, perhaps he could have shown some balls and taken extraordinary action during the period when state premiers were genuinely behaving like totalitarian dictators?
Of course not! We’re talking about the Liberal Party here. The purported ‘hard right’ party that governs as a bunch of soft leftists when in power.
The Libs will never get it. They’re going to be labelled as ‘arch conservatives’ even if they put up a prog loser like Trumble as leader. You’d think they might do something to actually earn the label they’re going to have to wear anyway, but nope!
Shit. Look at IR stuff. The Libs for the most part won’t touch it. It’s pretty much always a Labor government that picks a fight with a union (or the union movement) and wins. The Libs always fold. Always.
Why Labor’s gas price cap will just blow up the energy future
Energy is an essential service for households, but the case is less compelling to intervene on gas prices for manufacturers without unintended consequences.
John Kehoe – Economics editor
The federal government is preparing to impose some form of price cap on gas and electricity producers.
Understandably, the government wants to protect households from surging energy prices. Energy is an essential service.
Low-income people should not have to face what mining billionaire Gina Rinehart says is a grim “heat or eat” choice.
But the case is less compelling to intervene on market-determined gas prices for industrial and commercial users such as manufacturers.
Well-managed manufacturers are coping with the surging international energy prices by locking in long-term gas supply contracts to ride out the fluctuations in the short-term spot price.
Brickworks this week announced it had signed a new 11-year gas supply deal with Santos effective from 2025 at a higher price but still enabling the brick manufacturer to be profitable.
Incitec Pivot, a manufacturer of explosives, fertilisers and industrial chemicals, reported a $1.01 billion profit last financial year, up from $149 million in 2020-21.
Competitor Orica’s net profit after tax jumped 52 per cent to $317 million.
Some manufacturers with secure supply at lower contracted prices are selling gas molecules back into pipeline because it’s more profitable.
The manufacturers who are struggling the most with high gas prices are predominantly fringe players who have risked buying gas on the spot market, instead of locking in longer-term supply.
In banking-like terms, they have taken out a variable rate loan and not hedged the risk through a fixed rate loan. Now that interest rates have shot up, they want to revert to a cheaper government-dictated fixed loan.
Admittedly, some smaller industrial users do not have the buying power to directly negotiate with gas producers, and have to accept higher retail prices.
Globally, most industrial businesses are facing a sharp rise in energy costs.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ ambition for any energy market intervention to be “temporary” looks shaky.
Hence, many of the foreign manufacturers Australian firms compete with are also battling higher energy input costs.
Before intervening in the energy market, a thorough and independent analysis is required.
What energy prices are sustainable for industrial users?
What proportion of their overall input costs is energy?
Can manufacturers pass on the higher energy input costs to customers?
Are their global competitors also paying higher energy costs and passing on the costs?
Are these competitive businesses that are worth protecting?
The current high global energy prices are likely to persist for some years.
The war in Ukraine shows no sign of ending and the international sanctions on Russia are likely to remain in place for years. A geopolitical risk premium on oil, gas and coal will continue.
Moreover, the energy transition to renewables is undermining new investment in fossil fuels.
Deterring investment
Usually, when energy prices are high, energy producers dig deeper for more coal and extract more gas.
The additional energy supply lowers prices.
Hence, the famous adage: “The best cure for high prices, is high prices”.
But the net zero emissions push, activism against gas projects and the influx of intermittent renewables to the energy system are deterring investment in fossil fuels.
Victoria banned onshore gas extraction for a decade and NSW has been on a deliberate “go-slow” on approving the Narrabri coal seam gas project.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has a point when she says her state has done the heavy lifting on providing energy.
Despite the significant increase in renewable investment, green energy is not yet being produced at the pace or reliability required to replace the decommissioning of coal-fired power and depreciation of existing energy assets.
Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe, who supports the energy transition, has acknowledged as much.
“It is difficult to make predictions here, but it’s probable that the global capital stock that is used to produce energy will come under recurring pressure in the years ahead,” Lowe said last week.
“If so, we could expect higher and more volatile energy prices during the transition to a more renewables-based energy supply.”
Hence, it is likely that elevated energy prices will persist for years.
That makes Treasurer Jim Chalmers’ ambition for any energy market intervention to be “temporary” look shaky.
Even if the initial intervention is put in place for, say, six or 12 months, there will be continual pressure for the price cap to be extended indefinitely.
A rent-seeking culture will inevitably develop to press Canberra to roll over the price caps.
Government ministers will face repeated lobbying from manufacturers and manufacturing unions.
Ongoing government interventions will add to uncertainty and deter investment by gas producers – both in existing and potential new gas fields.
Extra supply that could alleviate high prices will be put at risk.
That could ultimately lead to higher prices in the long term.
Some won’t survive
Interventions will also reduce the incentive for industrial gas users to lock in long-term supply contracts, hedge via swap contracts and purchase excess gas to place in storage.
Moreover, in a high-inflation, full-employment economy, it is crucial that scarce resources flow to their most productive use.
Some manufacturers won’t survive the structurally higher prices.
But with a 48-year low unemployment rate of 3.4 per cent, manufacturing workers who lose their jobs have a better-than-usual prospect of securing new employment.
Governments can assist in this structural adjustment by helping to reskill manufacturing workers for the future economy.
Manufacturing represents a relatively modest 6.4 per cent of jobs, less than half the 15 per cent of the early 1990s.
The government has a responsibility to ensure households can afford to keep the power on.
But intervening to keep sub-economic businesses afloat could create a new set of problems.
If the government believes gas producers are making super profits, taxing the returns appropriately for the community may be a better approach than market interventions causing unintended consequences.
What is the Liberal Party of Australia?
Awesome headline. I did though look into a different version of this story earlier. Turns out the Ford Explorer has a recall order on it issued 4 days ago, and what is happening is that during the Covid stuff Ford had to get some circuit boards from a different supplier. These are what are initiating the fires. Apparently this is primarily affecting rental agencies who have the 2021 model, which I gather hasn’t gone out to the rest of the market so much. Eighteen of them have gone up in flames so far. Ford has advised that unrepaired Explorers should be parked away from other vehicles, and that was the problem here – all five were parked together.
Re Buzz Aldrin, from what I’ve read he isn’t a particularly nice bloke. There’s no photos of Armstrong on the moon, Aldrin wouldn’t take one of him, all the pics on the moon are of Aldrin by Armstrong. He seems to have had a grudge against Armstrong because Aldrin thought he should’ve been first out.
Maybe TE will have a different view.
The Libs for the most part won’t touch it. It’s pretty much always a Labor government that picks a fight with a union (or the union movement) and wins. The Libs always fold. Always.
and
Victoria banned onshore gas extraction for a decade and NSW has been on a deliberate “go-slow” on approving the Narrabri coal seam gas project.
and
Communism
Memo to Pat Cummins. If you have to do a media conference to the effect you are not a wanker, you might just be.
At least with Steve Waugh it was always about the cricket.
Lefty magazine editor gets her tyres deflated by stinkies: isn’t happy.
Climate Activists Deflate 900 SUV Tires — Including on a People Editor’s Car: ‘There Has to Be a Better Way’
People, by Abigail Adams (29 Nov)
“Climate change activists in eight countries claim they deflated tires on more than 900 SUVs in what they call their “largest-ever night of action against SUVs.” … PEOPLE Food Editor Ana Calderone’s car was among those hit in N.Y.C. Calderone says she noticed the front left tire on her Jeep Cherokee had been deflated after spotting a flyer on her windshield on Tuesday morning. … “ATTENTION – your gas guzzler kills,” reads the flyer. “We have deflated one or more of your tires. You’ll be angry, but don’t take it personally.” “
I checked out Mz Abigail’s twitter feed. Yep, just as I thought. Fun when the Left eats itself.
NFA, the only way to get support for onshore gas and other mineral exploration and development is to get rid of the stupid idea that the Gov owns everything in the ground on your property. If you owned land, why the hell would you want some mob wandering around, digging a mine etc and you get zero for it? If had a US system where the property owner gets a royalty stream from mining then they would be begging for exploration and development.
The gov will hate it but it’s the only sure and short term way to get mining done.
That deserves more than a thumbs up.
Add in one “heh” too.
But as the Liberal Party Vice President said to Rowan Dean last night “Give Dutton time”.
James Allen scoffed at that advice very quickly.
Trent “I have a cunning plan m’lord” Zimmerframe anal-ises the vic election results and declares trying to outflank labor from the left a winning strategy.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/30/victorian-election-lessons-for-liberals-climate-action-wins-votes-and-candidate-vetting-is-crucial
This wasn’t repeated and, instead, on a key issue for voters in those same seats, the Liberals went to an election with a progressive and strong approach to climate change. This included a commitment to legislating a 50% emissions reduction target for 2030, support for hydrogen, upgrades to transmission lines connecting western Victorian renewable energy into the system and support for solar panels and battery storage.
In all of this, the Victorian Nationals were willing partners and their state leader, Peter Walsh, went so far as to publicly disavow the approach of some of his federal colleagues.
This was a game-changer on an issue that motivated many voters at the last federal election to support teal independents who wanted more ambition from their government and, ipso facto, the Liberal party. Of course, it was not the only issue but a primary one on the policy front.
…
Good climate policies are a vote-winner, not a loser. Not only did it help save some Liberal seats but for MPs most strongly associated with arguing their case it helped deliver positive swings including in the electorates of Malvern, Caulfield, Brighton and Sandringham.
…
As we saw, a single candidate with potentially extreme views can disrupt a campaign. As the NSW Liberal party finalises its own selections, it must be vigilant in this regard as there is little tolerance for candidates with views on the fringes in a modern major political party. Let them run for One Nation or some other more appropriate home.
Oh they will Trent-boy, they will.
So apart from losing to a premier that ordered people shot with rubber bullets at an otherwise peaceful protest tell us again how you will get back in government you obese buffoon.
The Australian Cricket Team needs to sacked for bringing the game into disrepute with all the Woke ‘taking the knee’ nonsense.
sfw
totally agree with you BUT the bastards have a ‘ye ol english law’ that says the ‘gubmint’ can take your property whenever they want!
You actually do own nothing.
NFA, I had this argument with someone from the IPA or a similar thinktank once. He said “but we can’t change that, it’s the way it’s always been”. Surely they are the very people who should be thinking about these things and how to get them done.
Brush with immortality for ex-PM Abbott
AAP
So said Tony Abbott at the unveiling of the ex-prime minister’s portrait by former newspaper cartoonist Johannes Leak at Parliament House in Canberra.
I have just endured the diesel motorised sound of a fire department truck called out to my building and deploying its cherry picker to…aid a magpie which had snared one of its legs somehow near the top of a tall bamboo plant (seriously, like 5 storeys tall) such that was dangling helplessly upside down.
First thing I thought was “We tax payers are paying to save magpies? At any given moment there are at least half a dozen in that bamboo and those adjacent to it!”
But then I wondered if this sort of thing is occasionally done as a real life training exercise? They get called out somewhere, have to set up while observing safety rules, and operate the machinery. Could as easily have been someone trapped in a burning apartment on the 6th floor which, happily, does not occur frequently enough to make training redundant. And where else are they going to practice.
The magpies have been becoming more brazen of late. Sitting in my living room they will often do that silly exaggerated walk right up to my open sliding door, look in, and hop up – giving me only moments to leap up and scare them off. But the other day one just flew in and landed on the carpet inside the door.
We have all heard that funnel web spiders have been mating with huntsman spiders to produce oddly aggressive offspring scared of the rain. I think magpies may have been mating with progressive to produce entitled feathered sticky beaks who think I have to look after them while they shit on the carpet.
Explains a lot.
NFA
We are actually worse than the UK.
https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=59e9e62b-1720-40ae-922e-1d5ae4ce618f
In the United Kingdom, the ownership of oil, gas, gold and silver is held by the Crown Estate. Exploitation of these resources is overseen and run by the Crown Estate. The ownership and licensing of unworked coal and coal mines in the United Kingdom is managed by the Coal Authority. All other minerals are within private ownership.
“with progressives…”
Speaking of owning land, I wish someone would come and take my Blackberries.
Not really, I have just spent an hour and a half on a glorious sunny afternoon spraying Blackberries and other assorted weeds.
It is actually quite therapeutic walking along with a spray pack and pretending you are the Bug from Men in Black and the pest control guy is (insert name here), any Australian politician.
LOL sfw
The way it’s always been is why we are in the shit now.
The entire Victorian State could power and surcharge Australia IF the restrictive communist rules and regulations were eliminated.
Don’t if others here have followed James Delingpole over the years, he’s been a great critic of modern environmental and other madness. I still listen to his podcast but he is slowly but surely descending into madness. He now believes that the world is and has long been controlled by a group of shadowy people mainly located in Switzerland, he stops short of anti Semitism but may as well be explicit. He believes that virtually all wars and problems over the past 2000 (at least) years have been conducted by these people. WW1 and 2 were a psyops as was the moon landings etc, he said he doubts that the people in control are even truly human. All world leaders don’t make their own decisions but just take orders from this ruling class.
I just think that we live in a world where bad ideas have taken hold and things are bad but may get better. In James’s world view, we’re in thrall to evil omnipotent overlords and it has always been so. I predict he will either end up living on the streets or in a psyc hospital someday, It’s a pity, I wish him a swift recovery, but he is rapidly going downhill.