Or as the Brits say: Slag tags.
Open Thread – Weekend 15 April 2023
- Open Thread – Thurs 14 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Remembrance Day 2024
- The Sweetest Victory
- Open Thread – Weekend 9 November 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 7 Nov 2024
Ben Garrison.
Gary Varvel.
Hilarious. Ta Matey. 🙂
Tom Stiglich.
So air doesn’t act as a natural insulator?
Haha. Well done.
That was my reaction, Sancho but didn’t have the words.
The disregard for consistency puts people off from getting involved.
Getting all outraged at indoctrination then championing pre teen boys screaming abuse outside clinics or thinking it cute some kid is parroting religious and political dogma is hypercritical.
I don’t want any lines above or below because we know it’s a green Ponzi scheme for investors.
Great.
Now the VFF and everyone involved will be folded like a sheet of paper.
When was the last time VFF successfully fended of in totality any Government or other bullshit?
They fail because they think everyone is like them, when they aren’t.
You’re dealing with a bunch of lying, cheating grifters and their slack jawed government accomplices. Start acting like it!
Sancho.
My statement about arcing to ground is based on a statement by an electrical engineer, working for the state government, who addressed a town meeting about the power line proposal.
He was a very nice bloke and nobody attacked him because he was just giving us the facts from his forty years of experience.
Steve Trickler:
The clue – should you need one – is in the first line. But it’s a clue only. The people who own shares would certainly lose money if they didn’t get paid, but the chances of the grid going down are only about 1% per year.*
So they aren’t really concerned.
* The numbers have been plucked at random from Winstons arse and shouldn’t be relied on if you are a betting man. Or woman. Or personage with a tote bag. Or one of the millions who would perish if they didn’t get their daily fix of bullshit from the idiot box.
Bears doing bear things. Want to hang around with bears? Take a leaf from Liz, make sure they are called Paddington.
Bongino on the security breach. His point is that the secrets revealed show biden and his bastard swamp have lied about Ukraine, have yank soldiers participating, are covering his corrupt links with Ukraine and generally putting the world on a war footing for his and the military complex’s benefit. And the media’s sole concern is with the leaker. There simply is not enough rope for these creatures.
I think that is right. We have given them a good run. If they will not frame their obsessions in terms of pure energy efficiency, they have to be simply neutralized. Dismissal, ostracism, ridiculing. This kind of thing.
You’re up against crony capitalism writ large.
sometimes
depends
there’s quite a bit more to it than that
and to very large degree it has not much to do with insulation
Is there any other kind of capitalism in Australia?
A great opening to the show, albeit, depressing.
————
Steven Crowder:
BIG WIN: WHY BUD LIGHT IS IMPLODING! | Louder with Crowder | Louder with Crowder
If you were able to convince the government to install underground, they will require you to maintain the easement above where the cable is buried.
Cable heat stress over time can often lead to insulation breakdown (over 10-20+ years in XLPE cables) which eventually leads to a fault when the core arcs out to the earth screen.
What would you say when the supply authority comes out and digs up a pit 5x15m long and 4m deep in the middle of your field to access and repair said fault?
Very feminine scrotum though. Does he have a bussy?
The VFF is only a lobby group and obviously can’t stop a government determined on a project.
The live sheep trade has survived for decades because of VFF/NFF action.
Laws on trespass by animal activists in VIC were a direct result of determined behind the scenes work by the VFF.
Upgrading the severely degraded rail freight system is another example. Loaded trains were down to 30km/h on bad section.
Duplication of the rail lines into ports for efficient product movement was also a VFF initiative, backed by the rail operators of course.
I’ve been in the mix and know that early intervention with government has curtailed or stopped some very I’ll advised policies. Yelling about that to the media doesn’t help.
Zulu Kilo Two Alphasays:
April 15, 2023 at 11:08 am
Talking to my neighbour about grandchildren. His daughter is a kindy teacher. 9 out of 10 kids aged 5 can’t count.
The headmaster of the local High school here, is on record at being surprised at the number of children who graduate from Primary school, almost illiterate.
They didn’t “graduate” from primary school, they were passed through it.
Sparkies say design is pretty important. You can have too much insulation in the wrong spot and get dangerous step voltages.
johanna,
case in point – read the whole article
April 14, 2023
A shocking video of a baby born on a San Francisco street highlights the city’s collapse.
These are the people who fill the streets and subways, leaving behind excrement, urine puddles, and drug paraphernalia, and who, along with the pro-shoplifters who plague San Francisco, even managed to drive away Whole Foods. They are broken people, and San Francisco is a broken society for incentivizing their presence there, rather than instituting a carrot-and-stick program of arrests and true treatment alternatives. However, with a giant homeless budget, the real money in San Francisco is in keeping the street people on the street.
Nothing more perfectly illustrates how broken San Francisco is than footage of a drug-addicted homeless woman giving birth on the streets of San Francisco, near the Tenderloin:
If the video doesn’t show well (and we have problems with Instagram embeds), you can see it here. The description says, “Woman gives birth on the street after smoking crack all afternoon according to the witness who filmed the video.”
That video is so horrible, it’s hard to believe it’s true. However, a local news outlet has verified that what’s shown in the video actually happened.
rickw
Back to basics, the reason for these additional transmission lines is null and void.
This is the key point. Once again, we are arguing on their ground, not pointing out that the proposal does not help with the (non-existent) problem.
Now for some Good News for Today
Is ice cream the new health food?
Plasmamortar.
As I said, narrow easement for cables could run down back roads as do other buried cables.
We’re told by engineers that following roads is easier with cables.
In similar vein:
Net Zero dead in the water as G7 may delay coal phase out – & India plans new coal boom (14 Apr)
“US, Japan, and the EU have reservations about a proposal by the UK to set a firm 2030 deadline to end unabated coal-fired power generation.
Group of Seven nations are butting heads over the timeline for phasing out coal-fired power ahead of next weekend’s summit of top energy and environmental ministers.
…
While Japan, the U.S. and EU indicated reservations, Germany offered alternative language that would have emphasized the goal of phasing out domestic unabated coal power generation “ideally by 2030” or “in the 2030s.” Japan, which hosts the G7 this year, has proposed reaffirming the commitment in last year’s G-7 leaders’ statement “to achieving a fully or predominantly decarbonized power sector by 2035.”
That last para is fun because the lefty coalition German government actually restarted a coal mine recently and paused shutting down coal plants. Which didn’t stop them closing their last three nuke plants. And they also backflipped on the EV rules to allow methanol (oops, “e-fuel” they call it, which sounds greener) once the German car companies told them the entire car sector was going to die horribly.
Pity that Albo’s lot are so behind the vibe, I’d love to see them squirming through backflips-with-pike like the Europeans are currently doing.
He was a very nice bloke and nobody attacked him because he was just giving us the facts from his forty years of experience.
See? Already cutting slack because “nice bloke”.
He didn’t get sent to the meeting by accident. You understand that?
He’s an engineer so with 30 minutes of back of the envelope calculations and a bit of commonsense he would know that the entire thing is absolute bullshit.
Get some mongrel in you and go after these bloody grifters, ask them the tough questions. Go the Elon approach, ask the fundamentals, how much electricity does this heap of shit produce at night or on a cloudy day, what percentage of Victoria’s electricity will this produce on a good day.
These c’nts are intent on carving up the countryside for f’ck all benefit.
Observing Jacinta in tears as a consequence of ABC hate casting, was too much. Uniquely awful.
You have no choice now Dutton. Get into them.
I’ll volunteer with a placard if you need a crowd.
Seeing a remarkable woman reduced to this state of desperation and frustration is infuriating. Angry much!
And in addition, for the future of the Party’s sake, make her the shadow minister yesterday.
PS. And sack Photios’s whores.
Gez, it’s hard enough to stomach the lines running through your property and damaging its value…the worst of it is the uselessness of it all. It’s for a stupid windfarm. That in itself is enough to have any sentient creature hopping mad.
Yes.
And the economics of undergrounding short run HV in, say, Singapore is way different to running a 750 km transmission network across the Australian countryside.
(Yes, I am continuing to embarrass myself, Titsoff.
Or maybe I should defer to the resident expert on all things trans … transgender, transmission, trans fats).
While it may seem they are admitting American action on the ground, what they are really doing is whitewashing American action on the ground.
Bears doing bear things. Want to hang around with bears?
The hiker munching Euro Bear reportedly wears pants…
Looks like Net Zero is all for wind farms. Good to know.
You’re creating an interesting personality profile for yourself.
Can you link to it?
Cheers
Biden is the most amoral president in US history
The president pretends to be Catholic but clearly does not live by Catholic tenets. He supports abortion up until the moment of birth. This past week, he sent a cease-and-desist letter to the priests who have been ministering to Catholic patients at Walter Reed Hospital. He intends to contract outside persons to provide Catholic ministry. While V.P., he supported the persecution of the Little Sisters of the Poor for refusing to provide abortion services to their employees. In short, he is about as Catholic and Christian as Nancy Pelosi, another faux Catholic, a classic elitist who has nothing but contempt for actual Catholics, actual Christians.
There are years of evidence, including from Biden’s own daughter’s diary, that Biden is a pedophile or at least has pedophilic tendencies. He cannot keep his hands off young female children; he fondles and sniffs them. Tara Reade’s account of his molestation of her years ago is credible. The man is pond scum.
Biden is a dim bulb, and the people who engineered his installation as president surely knew that.
Whoever his handlers are, they committed many serious crimes, many breaches of the Constitution, to rig the election, secure in the knowledge that “they,” whoever they are, would be running the show. They surely knew that Biden is a schlump, an empty suit, a man without a moral core — a man they could manipulate, and manipulate him they certainly have.
There is more than enough proof that Biden is indebted to China; his family has been fabulously enriched by the CCP’s purchase of his servility. He is indebted to Ukraine as well but is repaying that nation’s generosity by using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder in his misguided proxy war against Putin.
Biden will go down in history as the most corrupt, the most nationally and globally disastrous, and the dumbest president in American history.
If we are to prevail as a constitutional republic, the American people had better wake up and fight for everything they cherish — family, freedom, and basic human and civil rights — or it will all be gone in the blink of an eye.
It began with Obama, and that crowd is determined to carry out its plan to transform America. It’s been remarkably successful to the detriment of us all.
So that is correct then.
#stillhammered
#stayoffthepiss
#twopotscreamer
Children should be entering primary out of infants with the ability to write a short story that flows, with good spelling and minimal errors and even paragraphs.
How do they learn the science and social sciences curriculum without this? Stage 2 and 3 usually entails a lot of hands on learning and excursions to places of industry and historical interest. How are we going to teach kids to code if they’re not literate?
Anyway.
The technical arguments as stated by some is playing on they’re arena and would bog us down in detail.
We’re raising broad brush stroke tech arguments to add pressure while the main drive will be farmers refusal to allow access and the environmental impacts of renewables.
The haste of these proposals in a major weak point with the proponents. They do not have the background data ready to go.
The decision to build will be made mid May after we only found out about it four weeks ago. It’s slap dash to say the least.
Um…lightning.
Sancho – It’s a balancing act between HV and ionization of the atmosphere. Get dust and stuff, even fried birds, and you can transfer an ignition source to the dry stubble below the transmission lines.
PG&E in California were bankrupted because of fires their lines caused. Then the phoenixed company started to black out whole chunks of their grid when weather was risky for fire initiation. Millions of Californians have had days of blackouts all because of fire risk from the HVAC transmission lines.
That’s a logical risk management response, and the government has accepted it rather than be forced to take the company over and wear the liability themselves. Helps them that the Republican bits of California are the areas that get hit with the black outs of course. Dems will be Dems.
bespokesays:
April 15, 2023 at 11:57 am
Are you OK with teachers peddling “little secrets from parents”?
That was my reaction, Sancho but didn’t have the words.
The disregard for consistency puts people off from getting involved.
Getting all outraged at indoctrination then championing pre teen boys screaming abuse outside clinics or thinking it cute some kid is parroting religious and political dogma is hypercritical.
It’s hard to be sure, but I read the original article as a not too subtle dig at the teachers who keep information about kids transitioning from their parents. I have little doubt that those supporting the “little secrets’ about transitioning would be appalled at “little secrets” about Christianity.
Also, if we’re arguing on the grounds of whether or not it’s necessary anyway, you won’t gain any ground.
I say this because climate change is effectively a religion, it’s followers have the same devotion to their cause as the Muslims to to Allah.
You cannot use a rational argument to convince someone that their religion is wrong or ridiculous.
This is because it’s part of their identity, without it they are lost.
The building of these towers and Renewables is similar to the building of Mosques, Churches and Pyramids.
Right.
Is air a better insulator than earth?
I for one support the taxidermy industry, exotic meat industry and TCM market.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sankebetsu_brown_bear_incident
Speaking of grifters…
CSIRO scientist says batteries will never be able to store enough energy to keep the grid functioning at night once fossil fuels are out of the system.
He’s receiving funding to explore concentrated solar thermal (CST) as an alternative.
Apparently it’s very expensive both to build and maintain.
Too cheap to metre.
Or, given a ‘Covid Marshall’ tabbard …. first screening test for suitability as death camp guards.
Don’t worry Rick, I’ve got plenty of mongrel in me but I’ve also had years of experience in putting the cases to government.
Steve Bracks had to tell John Brumby and me to both settle down after a hot confrontation in Spring Street.
My wife always tells me off for getting too cranky and worked up over issues. I’m going into this with a very cold blooded approach.
Our “society” is fake and gay.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/04/a_tale_of_two_whistleblowers.html
The Mood of America today From the Comments
– I swear, these articles at AT deliver more depressing news than I think I’m equipped to handle.
And what’s worse, I realize that for the most part these authors are truthful — But the worst is knowing that things are going in a downward trajectory more rapidly than even Trump could fix, IF he was successful in ‘24…
– So true but what’s even more depressing is watching local or national news. Or reading the NYT or WaPo. Just remarkable the extent of depravity. The left have become quite literally a cult of lemmings encouraging the destruction of their grandchildren’s future.
– As a Patriotic American I am appalled by the leaks of classified information. But, that said, I am even more appalled by the conduct it reveals. Many of us know the character of our current leadership, but see it ignored, or more specifically denied by their fellow travelers. We are being vindicated when these leaks occur, though no one in the media or government seems willing to admit it.
I am starting to think that history will show our real heroes to be people like Snowden, Assange, Teixeira….
– How can someone be a traitor against a government that is, itself a criminal, traitorous enterprise?
They areconcerned about the sabotage attempts on various sub-stations. This has been happening for quite a while. Militia groups implicated.
Accelerationist groups are implicated. Illinois effing Nazis.
Farmer Gezsays:
April 15, 2023 at 12:28 pm
Anyway.
The technical arguments as stated by some is playing on they’re arena and would bog us down in detail.
We’re raising broad brush stroke tech arguments to add pressure while the main drive will be farmers refusal to allow access and the environmental impacts of renewables.
Here’s a nice slogan for you: “Lock the Gate”. The anti-gas crusaders who also use it will choke on their macrobiotic muesli bars.
Check if it has already been trademarked, if not, hop in quickly.
These days , too many parents have sub-contracted their kids early up bringing out to child care. It’s habitual. So there is no reason to think the same parents won’t adopt a similar position with their child’s education. Let’s not have high expectations of reading, writing and numeracy.
As we know, those same kids are being stuffed with the Socialist woke green curriculum from an early age so we can expect them to mature into fully fledged leftists as graduates from Green Left finishing schools (aka High School). I’m not seeing any winning here for conservative values, especially when our CONservative party is simply a lighter shade of red. We are most definitely on a downward spiral.
The headmaster of the local High school here, is on record at being surprised at the number of children who graduate from Primary school, almost illiterate.
If Australia has a system that doesn’t ensure a minimum standard is achieved each year, and just promotes kids up through school due to their age – then the country can have as much of that as it wants.
The parallels between the the fall of Rome and the west are striking:
Expensive foreign wars
Debasement of the currency
Moral decay and perversion
Welfare programs (the ‘Dole’ was literally a free grain handout in Rome)
Bread and circuses to distract the people (MKR, footy, etc)
God!
I’d be happy if they were only drilling gas holes.
Some, including a few of the Founding Fathers, would aver that the United States was set on the road to ruin when Hamilton was made Secretary of the Treasury.
(And no, I haven’t seen the musical.)
Just to look at the cost of transmission fires, here’s how PG&E died.
Former PG&E executives agree to $117-million settlement over California wildfires (29 Sep)
“Former executives with utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric have reached a $117-million settlement agreement in connection with the 2017 North Bay fires and the 2018 Camp fire, officials said.
…
PG&E filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after it announced a $13.5-billion settlement with fire victims and their families. The PG&E Fire Victim Trust was created after the agreement under the utility company’s Chapter 11 reorganization plan.”
So not only the company had to fork out twenty billion Aussie but their executives were personally up for another 200 millon Aussie themselves.
Sort of focuses the mind. Maybe Gez should hand out printed hardcopies of the story to…interested parties.
Don’t worry Rick, I’ve got plenty of mongrel in me but I’ve also had years of experience in putting the cases to government.
Good!
Another technical aspect to look at is assignment of remediation costs. My understanding is that the owners of the solar plant near Wangaratta are able to simply walk away after 20 years which is a disgrace. Aside from the cost of physical demolition, I would guess that there would be heavy metal contamination courtesy of CCP solar panels and transformer oil.
Can’t read or write English yet there’s a move to introduce Punjabi into the curriculum.
If he can’t handle the news then how about all the young people? There was a report released earlier this week which claimed disturbingly very high rates of anxiety in teenagers(USA, Canada). So high it might be a good idea to invest in counselling service companies. Not a blip, through the roof rates of anxiety and depression.
Why by surprised by that when everywhere catastrophism is preached? We’re all doomed I tells yaas! Build your shelter, stock up on everything because tomorrow is the beginning of the end. In times like this we need the wisdom of Popper:
Daily Mail.
Margaret Thatcher just called in, bespoke.
The afterlife is one long eternal nineteenth hole for Denis, apparently.
But she did ask: “Will you tell me who, and where and when?”
Saw that story elsewhere and laughed. Ivanpah has been a disaster. They could never get the hot salt thing to work. The only thing they were actually good at was at being a gigantic death ray for birds. insects were attracted to the light and birds were then attracted to the insects. The plant guys called the latter “streamers”, since they instantly exploded into a ball of fire trailing smoke when they passed through the focal length of the mirrors.
‘Streamers’: Birds Fried in Midair by Solar Plant, Feds Say (2014)
The results were so appalling even the MSM, like the above NBC story, reported on it.
And making it difficult for parents that don’t, Makka.
‘Conservative’ governments are fully supportive of placing kids in the system from birth.
Credential worshipping autocrats.
It’d be a whole lot more preferrable to having pylons marching across the ranch.
Preferrable to the nth degree.
It’s an awful long piece to have to scroll through.
I managed to open it through Google. Type in “Greg Craven” then from the drop down box click on “Greg Craven The Voice” and then click the appropriate article. Don’t open in a new tab.
Comments are the most interesting.
I am not a responsible or a reasonable man. I am a conservative constitutional lawyer. My opinions are like easily provoked German shepherds, released daily to savage my opponents.
But occasionally, just occasionally, I can change my mind. Not because I am ever wrong but because circumstances have failed to accommodate themselves to my wishes.
I have changed my mind on my position in the upcoming referendum on the Indigenous voice.
I was in the room when it was devised a decade ago and have always publicly supported the concept. But as I watched the Albanese government push it in problematic directions, I faltered. I decided to stand aside during the referendum. I would vote for it but not campaign.
It is never easy to change course, particularly when your arguments – obviously – are right. But it has been apparent for some time that I was not going to get my way. Reality has muscled up to me.
The position in Australian constitutional politics now is that you are either for the voice or against it. I am for it.
This means I cannot stand smugly by and watch it lose. Until the alteration bill is passed by the parliament, I will continue to politely urge my concerns and push for sensible changes.
But come the referendum, I will campaign for the voice with all my heart and whatever remains of my brain.
For me, the moral logic of the voice flows deeply from my Catholic faith. All people are given life by a loving God, who demands they be able to live it to the fullest. It is clear to me that Indigenous people never have had that right, and still do not have it.
It also is clear that a constitutional voice will deliver vast symbolic recognition of their equal citizenship in our common-wealth, is calculated to facilitate expression of their vital concerns, and through that resolution of those concerns. The moral payload is inescapable.
It is no coincidence that so many conservative supporters of the voice come from explicitly Christian or Jewish traditions.
There will be cynics who say religious morality should play no part in policy or constitutional design. These usually are the same people who praise the Judeo-Christian ethic as the foundation of the common law and Western civilisation.
There also will be those huffily affronted that they are accused of being immoral. They are not. I act on my precepts, and others act on theirs. This is conversation, not condescension.
So by reference to my basic moral perception, people like me are bound to compromise. We must accept a certain degree of constitutional disappointment in return for the achievement of a great constitutional goal.
Some conservatives will haughtily declaim that compromise is inexcusable in constitutional design. They usually cite as examples our own revered founding fathers. Rot.
Our constitutional progenitors were compromisers to a man. Some believed in the states but did not want responsible government. Others detested the states but adored responsible government. Our Constitution embodies both, and is one huge monument to constitutional compromise. Vive le compromis! But my position is not all ethics. I have been horrified by the recent performance of the Coalition around the voice.
Peter Dutton is a decent, intelligent man. I believe he came to this debate with a mind as open as his political situation permitted. But he has been mastered by his circumstances, preconceptions and his colleagues.
The timing of the Coalition’s declaration on the voice made zero sense. It obviously was a jerky reaction to the Aston by-election loss, an attempt to look tough.
But one is not tough by looking tough. Being tough actually means refusing to be mastered by transitory adversity. In two months, no one will remember Aston except Antony Green.
Yet some people will very clearly remember Dutton’s attempted throttling of the voice. These will include millions of millennials already deeply sceptical of the Coalition. Oppositions do not win elections by assuring the votes of people who already vote for them, but by persuading others.
The other remembering bloc will be the teals. They are always on the lookout for a new stick with which to belabour the Coalition. Nothing could serve better in Zali Steggall-land – or any precarious middle-class Liberal seat – than a voice assassination.
Again on the issue of timing, why would the Coalition declare its outright rejection immediately before the joint select committee into the bill begins its hearings? Dutton had rightly declared those hearings to be vital to the proper consideration of the voice.
In terms of due process, the Coalition now is in much the same boat as a government that hatched the voice without public exposure or design. What are Coalition members to make of their role on a committee already dismissed by their own leader?
The oppositions’s stance on a conscience vote has been just as dismal. There is endless discussion over what is or is not a “conscience” or a “free vote”, and when it should be accorded. So let’s just call this a “morality vote”.
Why would a party of liberal-conservatives seek to coerce the moral conscience of any of its members? How is this consistent with the notion of freedom on which their political philosophy stands?
Worse in practice, this desertion of liberal principle caught only one person, former frontbencher Julian Leeser. But oh, what a person. His principled, dignified resignation without recrimination hangs like a judgment over his fellow Liberals, not a desertion.
It bookended the departure of former Indigenous affairs minister Ken Wyatt. If Leeser was unbroken, the blameless Wyatt was broken-hearted. After decades of seeking Aboriginal empowerment, his situation was not pitiful but pitiable.
Mind you, it is a tribute to the ghastliness of some government members that they tried to weaponise Leeser’s departure as weakness in the face of parliamentary biffo from Albanese. The weak do not defy the might of their party, or walk away from a frontbench position on principle.
The entire political approach of the Coalition to its referendum argumentation has been inspiringly clueless. I do have a small personal axe to grind here. Across the spectrum, Coalition MPs have selectively cannibalised my own criticisms of the referendum wording, without any admission that I have on every possible occasion stated I still supported the voice.
I do ponder with some small amusement what they will do now that I actively campaign for the voice. I sincerely hope to be cancelled. But the worst of the Coalition’s performance has been its comprehensive abandonment of conservative philosophy and practice over the voice.
As Edmund Burke, Alfred Deakin and Robert Menzies all so aptly demonstrated, conservatives are not reactionaries. They are not wreckers. They are not right-wing nut jobs.
Their role is to test, refine and pace change, not instinctively oppose it. They will force good change to prove itself, and weakly thought-out change to be improved.
Bad change they will oppose, but always in a way that even if it succeeds, it is better than it could have been. The Liberals and Nationals have abandoned this approach. Their outright rejection has dealt them out of the voice debate. They have ensured that whatever gets up at referendum will be subject to no moderating conservative influence.
This has been a massive problem throughout the formulation of the voice. In seeking to influence the Albanese government, constitutional conservatives had nothing to offer. The Coalition proffered not even the lowest card.
For this multitude of reasons, I would expect to be working with a wide group of conservatives – including members of parliament – who would bring a true conservative perspective in favour of the voice. I would expect all of us to work closely with Indigenous leaders and other strong supporters of the voice.
Of course, as a matter of practicality, a hostile Coalition now has to offer its own competing model. It seems to have gone to the constitutional op shop and bought a remaindered copy of Warren Mundine’s Recognise a Better Way.
This is not so much a model as an extended complaint. Its main point is that it does not like the voice, for all the usual reasons. There are only four operative parts to its portfolio.
The first is establishing some focused parliamentary committees, which is fair enough.
The second is the hope that the situation of Indigenous people will somehow improve if we do not have the voice but do talk a lot about communities, practicality and improvement on the ground. It is like believing that reciting some hippie mantra will lead to personal perfection.
The third limb of the Mundine proposal is singular. He wants Indigenous recognition in the Constitution’s preamble.
Apparently he also is open to any number of other preambular recognitions, starting with migrants and possibly ending with Skyhooks.
Assuming the Coalition adopts this position, it will foster about the only constitutional option more conducive to its professed fears than the Albanese voice.
Preambles are the lymph glands of a Constitution. In the hands of an activist High Court, their vague terms can pump wilful misconstruction into any section of the Constitution. Just ask American constitutional scholars. So exactly what preamble recognition of Aboriginal people are we talking about, and in what words? What fulsome recitals will we have about migrants? Who else will get a guernsey, what will it all mean and what will the courts make of it?
No wonder Tony Abbott joined me during the 1999 Constitutional Convention on the republic to oppose a fulsome preamble. And now supports one.
The fourth limb of the love-child of Mundine and Dutton is the only one that can run, though admittedly in circles.
This is the proposition that no effective change can be achieved without empowered groups on the ground. True. But without an overarching national body to feed into, this is a house with foundations but no roof.
Mind you, Anthony Albanese has a national voice with no developed regional structure, so he presents a dwelling with a roof without foundations. Only Leeser has a detailed model for a national voice based on regional bodies, producing a house with foundations, roof and walls, and maybe windows.
There is a final raft of reasons that should prompt support of the voice by true conservatives. There remains a good chance of improving it, the role of conservatives throughout the ages. After all, the Prime Minister constantly says he is open to changing the words.
This opportunity is very clear in the vexed issue of executive power. Of course, no one should naively suppose that the government – with the exception of Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus – might be moved by actual constitutional principle. But expedience is a different thing. The current wording will impose many, many restrictions on the executive government. Into the foreseeable future, the challenge for Albanese is that he is the executive government.
The Prime Minister already has shown some nervousness here, declaiming that decisions such as those of the Reserve Bank on interest rates certainly would not draw representations from the voice, that entirely general laws would not be caught, that the voice would not attach to cabinet decisions and would not itself have an extensive staff.
But Indigenous leaders – as is their right – have strongly expressed contrary views. There is a clear gap between Indigenous suppliers and the government consumer.
As a matter of sensible self-interest, Albanese might be up for a mild tweak here. It is unlikely he would go for Leeser’s total elimination of representations to executive government, though that would solve all his issues with a single swish.
He might, however, ponder a very few extra explicatory words, as once proposed by his own Attorney-General. Surely, supporters of the voice would not desert it for a handful of syllables.
Albanese also might be wondering about the scope of the voice, given his worries about general laws without any express Indigenous focus. Perhaps a strategic side shuffle to laws having a special application to Indigenous people might be in order.
Again, probably not. But if Albanese were thinking of any small modification, he has the perfect opportunity in the joint select committee considering the constitutional alteration bill. That committee is controlled by the government but with a sizeable Coalition minority, so the opportunity for a deal is there.
Regardless, there is still a very substantial responsibility for Coalition committee members. They have the last remaining opportunity to act as true conservatives, improving the imperfect, restraining the just plain wrong.
They should strive to produce specific, refining options that just possibly might interest the government, and move the Coalition to some small, belated, positive action.
There is another, perhaps more plausible forum for a conservative contribution to voice design.
Assuming the referendum is passed – hardly a safe bet – there will need to be a raft of implementing legislation. This will be the pointy end for the government. This is where practical executive restriction begins.
Indigenous leaders have made strong demands of process and substance. Some want detailed legislation drafted by Indigenous-only constitutional conventions. They have views on methods, terms and duration of voice appointments.
This is where conservatives can make a real contribution if the government is sensible enough to let them. Paradoxically, it is pro-voice conservative organisations that have done the most thinking on the structures and operations of the voice, as opposed to constitutional underpinnings. This includes my own outfit, Uphold and Recognise.
There are some interesting ideas that could offer design balance to a thoughtful executive. In terms of process, would it not be better for general outlines – rather than instructions – to be endorsed by conventions at least partly open to all Australians? Should parliamentary committees be extensively involved? As to focus, should the voice have mandated priorities reflecting Closing the Gap imperatives, rather than potentially concentrating on generalities? Should it be required to always pursue positive, on-the-ground improvement, rather than theoretical advantage?
Structurally, should the voice have long terms or short? Could it be that members serve only a single term, in the interest both of limiting capture and widening participation? How can modern learning on structural design help?
All of these are questions the government needs to be thinking about now, rather than after the passage of a successful referendum. Conservatives of goodwill and expertise could offer much.
But here, like my religious nemesis Luther, I myself stand. I will argue, campaign and if necessary bleed for the voice, as I sadly did for our failed republic. I can do no other.
You’re with me Roger.
Won’t be seeing Hamilton and Brokeback Mountain either.
My wife dared me to watch it with her on a long flight. She watched and I read a book with a glass of spirits.
In fairness to Abbott, this was under way but Turnbull squashed it when he became PM – I could be wrong but it’s what I recall.
What I found most interesting, Bruce, was his concession on batteries, even if it was made in the interest of pushing his research.
Greg Craven provides columns of emotive fluff and proves he’s a thinker without practical experience.
As a landholder I’m sure The Voice will morph via the HC to resemble the Mabo land claim fest but far far worse.
All matters dealing with flora, fauna, land and water are all naturally in the remit of the Voice.
Craven is a sophistical fool but the rest of us can see the train coming,
The 21-year-old man accused of the stabbing murder of a young paramedic in Campbelltown is currently in hospital and suffers from serious mental health issues.
Jordan Fineanganofo was on Friday night charged with murder, after he allegedly stabbed paramedic Steven Tougher to death in the back of an ambulance early on Friday morning.
Fineanganofo was tased at the scene and arrested before he was taken to hospital for mental health treatment.
He did not appear before Parramatta Bail Court on Saturday, with his lawyer Javid Faiz telling the court his client was not applying for release.
Outside court Mr Faiz said Fineanganofo, despite his condition, was aware of the serious crime he was accused of.
“I’ve explained the offences and he is fully aware of the gravity,” Mr Faiz said.
“Police are currently at his bedside due to his mental health issues.”
Fineanganofo lives with his parents in southwest Sydney. No one was at the court to support him on Saturday.
Daily Tele
It’s funny with the wife away for a few weeks how the Caveman diet just occurs without thought.
Are women killing us?
I’ll have to go and shop today.
The supply of Kooka’s Country cookies is getting low.
Indeed. This is why demographics will win out as always, in the end. The breeding ground for growing Socialist/Green influence here is within our own schools and it’s horrendously woke curriculum. Until that changes I can’t see any limitations to leftist growth on the horizon. The LNP is no longer a Conservative Party so no alternative to woke leftism is on offer.
In technical terms; we’re rooted.
Gez
A bit over ten years ago. there was a proposal to build a new transmission line, IIRC from the Hunter to the north coast. The usual suspects came to the fray, not just screeching “gold plating”, but also making a lot of environmental claims. It might be worth your while to research the arguments they used, particularly the environmental ones. Chuck them back in the collective faces of the leftard so-called environmental movement.
They are already recognised as much as citizens as I am.
My “vital concerns” never seem to be addressed, regardless of any “moral payload” (whatever that is).
Oh. That’s nice. The implication is that you’re not a proper Christian or Jew if you aren’t supportive.
Comment, on the Oz.
Yep. Rainbow Spirits in every creek and Bulas in every hill.
At least secret women’s business is out of it, since the left have discovered their inner misogynist.
You’re a fighter farmer g. Good on you.
People who know of my interest in American history invariable ask me if I’ve seen it.
I know they’re justy trying to make conversation, so I usually reply, “No, but I’ve read the book (Ron Chernow).”
If they persist, I say I don’t like musicals at the best of times and I can’t stand rap.
That usually sees a change of topic. 😀
Yep Boambee.
The environmental argument is a good one.
The country is studded with stands of remnant vegetation that is at far more risk than the big native forests of the eastern ranges.
They will clear fell three hundred kms to save the world from doom.
Paging Bob Brown. I’ve read he’s not much in favour of the destruction of habitat caused by green energy projects.
I’ve seen the bloke at meetings but I’ve never met him.
Ron Chernow’s biography of U.S. Grant made good reading.
once had the dubious pleasure of witnessing that exact occurrence
poor bird doing what it always and landed in the wire
i dunno it was country and probs 11 or 22 kV
flashed between phases
bird was left hanging upside down from the line it landed on
the air of was full of ionized stuff, feathers and other ex-avian matter
a few millis later and it flashed to earth as well
not the sort of thing you see every day
transmogrify
transitive verb : to change or alter greatly and often with grotesque or humorous effect
intransitive verb: to become transmogrified
Epic trolling by Carpe Donktum
Apologies if linked earlier
Which tractor to use in a protest?
It’s a choice of size versus speed.
There could be a “Biodiversity must be retained” type argument there, to slip into the shotgun mix of reasons to oppose the transmission line.
Hamilton was woke even before woke really got its jackboots on.
Hillary Clinton: ‘I Cry Every Time’ I See ‘Hamilton’ (2016)
Barack and Michelle Obama Celebrate ‘Hamilton’ At The Tony Awards (2016)
‘Hamilton’ Creator Lin-Manuel Miranda Raps with Obama at the White House (2016)
If you want to learn American history buy a book. Preferably one at least 60 years old.
Gez:
You might find this a useful general resource re. underground transmission lines.
Be cautious if you plan to cite the PG&E debacle. Most of the 2017/18 Californian wildfires were caused by maintenance and design failures on the distribution system, not HV transmission lines. The issues are not the same.
I just see the Voice as bringing on a never ending legal dogfight that will make governing this country impossible. As was said on the old thread, it’s all about compensation, reparations and revenge.
See the dispute that’s going on here, in the Wild West at the moment. A proposal to develop a fertilizer plant, in the North West, using natural gas, vs a demand that the traditional songlines must be preserved.
NULAND: UKRAINE IS A VASSAL STATE OF AMERICAN NEOCONS
https://twitter.com/The_Real_Fly/status/1647047233680883713
Yes, very good. His biography of Washington is in my to read pile.
I imagine his sales have increased significantly as a result of the musical.
Shelby Foote maintained that Ken Burns’s civil war doco made him a millionaire.
Farmer Gezsays:
April 15, 2023 at 1:29 pm
Yep Boambee.
The environmental argument is a good one.
The country is studded with stands of remnant vegetation that is at far more risk than the big native forests of the eastern ranges.
They will clear fell three hundred kms to save the world from doom.
Paging Bob Brown. I’ve read he’s not much in favour of the destruction of habitat caused by green energy projects.
I’ve seen the bloke at meetings but I’ve never met him.
Note also that the easements will have to be cleared before every bushfire season (see also California), there will be no “environment” in them except low grass, itself mown regularly in summer.
Check the example of the easement in the Brindabellas in the 2003 bushfires. A NSW State Forester was sacked for clearing it, but on the day it provided an essential firebreak. Had it not been cleared ….
Thanks Faustus.
PS, ensure that the costs of clearing the easement regularly are the responsibility of the transmission line operator. then offer to contract to do the job at an exorbitant rate.
Whichever tractor is best able to pull a loaded slurry spreader to the protest. 😉
BJ at 12:39.
Precisely.
Decide the grounds upon which you want to fight, and come up with a short slogan (“Piss Off AusNet” is not it), an elevator brief and a 250-300 word “letter to the editor” expanded version.
If you are choosing to push underground HV, go with “It’s the right thing to do”, rather than “It would be cheaper”.
You’ll get killed on the cost argument.
Do not project as “anti renewballs”.
well, there you go, I’ve actually witnessed that too.
I may, or may not, have worked on the odd CSP plant in the distant past
don’t just take Ed Case’s word for it … I’m telling you for real, Flamers are a thing
You are right Makka.
Damn. Black pilled again.
I read my way through Shelby Foote’s epic trilogy, while waiting for Mme Zulu to be treated for the dreaded cancer…
Hm. I was looking at a place recently. Online, it seemed too good to be true – probably $250k less than it ought to have been. And it wasn’t selling. I did a drive by and it was hard up next to a power substation with 2x33kva transformers and 1x132kva transformer. It had a massive thick heavy brick wall around it (which towered over the property for sale and ran along one side of the place) which was topped with a curved outwards facing spiky metal grille of the kind you might see on a prison wall, only facing inwards (for obvious reasons – people aren’t usually trying to break into prisons).
Anyway, worth it? I decided no. There are potential health issues (I know these are debated but I have young children, would rather not risk it), fire hazard (low but still there), living next to that bloody monstrous wall (I know, to mitigate the fire hazard) that makes the place look like a concentration camp, the noise from the transformers that apparently can be variable…and ultimately the difficulty in selling if needed. If it won’t shift in this market at what is already a very hefty discount, the discount clearly isn’t hefty enough.
Am I wrong about any of the above? Anyone have experience of living next to or near a power substation?
“A proposal to develop a fertilizer plant, in the North West, using natural gas, vs a demand that the traditional handouts must be preserved”
The chief absurdity of the proposed north western transmission line is the waste of under-utilised lines in the west of the state and the soon to be de-powered Latrobe Valley system.
Off shoring turbines would produce twice the output from each unit and could be hooked straight into the existing grid with only short lines.
The electrical engineer at our meeting pointed this out to us. I think he was trying to give us good information to counter the inland renewable schemes.
It makes no sense to put wind in northern Vic. Most of our Autumn and early winter are breathless with either frost or fog.
Well done!
Bruce Catton’s two major trilogies, Army of the Potomac & Centennial History of the Civil War are good companions for Foote’s. Like Foote he’s a lively narrator.
By his own words, Greg Craven is not any kind of the conservative he pretends to be. As you’d expect of anyone who works in academia, he’s a weak little man who craves respect from the political left that he’ll never get. Like Blot and Abbott.
And so, on the big issues, he will always be a white ant.
He’ll bleed for the voice and he can do no other? Please, what a phony. Easy to make promises that you know you’ll never be asked to keep.
I scored a copy of Lloyd Lewis’s book “Captain Sam Grant. ” Bruce Catton went on to complete the trilogy with “Grant Takes Command” and “Grant Moves South.”
that that Tower of Power CST video that is in BoN’s link shows an elevator going up the tower
presumably it’s only used for ‘expendable’ maintenance type punters
from the sun you usually get something less than about 1kW per m.sq
now multiply that number by the number heliostats reflecting it up your jacksie while you’re going up that elevator
now imagine what happens when the heliostat positioning algorithm goes bung
Comment, on the Oz.
Michael
5 HOURS AGO
Greg, firstly, your advocacy for a Constitutional Voice seems based on it being an advisory body on a limited range of specifically indigenous issues. But that’s not what sneaky, sneaky Albanese and his indigenous advisory group have come up with. Theirs is a megaphone Voice that can make representations to anyone in government on anything, forever. And secondly, your advocacy does not acknowledge that the Constitutional voice is part of a bigger agenda outlined in the Uluru Statement from the Heart about sovereignty, representation (the voice), “truth telling” and a treaty. Can you not see that the core of the Voice’s work will be advising on a treaty, its terms and acceptability, and its ongoing implementation and the enforcement of its terms, in perpetuity?
No, Zulu, the country will be quite governable under the Voice.
By Labor and the Greens, but no one else.
The urban indigenous people who will be the Voice reps are all Labor and Greens voters.
So the Labor and Green agenda will be waved through.
Greg Craven is the new ‘Little Aussie bleeder’
What a massive tosser. The only thing running out of this bloke is crap.
Craven talking like it’s 1920s Weimar Germany. Wow, George, you’re publicly siding with the vast bulk of elite opinion. So brave. What a courageous stance you’re taking here. I can see why you’re drawing the Martin Luther analogy – it’s incredibly apt.
By God’s anointed – how silly of me to forget!
MT – As an ornithophile anti-CST guy it was amusing for me to explore the installation in the post-apocalypse game Fallout 3 New Vegas. In that game it has a secret purpose as a weapon, which makes sense since it’s so useless for producing, like, actual electricity. You have to past through all the fire breathing giant mutant ants to get to it though… 😀
Helios One (2010)
We’ve arrived at the chocolate factory on Phillip Island and it’s very busy. Your cake and light meals are delivered by a robot, or Kettybot.
Forrest Caves and fishing awaits later today before penguins. Might even have a squizz at the GP track
That’s right; I don’t have them though.
Might get to them one day 😀
Good. He was awesome in it, and his trilogy is fine reading.
I’m sad that Burns has allowed leftiness to go to his head lately.
Hope the weather’s kind, BB!
They certainly are not.
The Kilmore Black Saturday fire was caused by a break in a SWER line I think (it was distribution in any case, not transmission). A break in a very long span which a good engineer would have considered the impact of high winds. And it isn’t just brute wind strength breaking the line. It’s all about the vibe.
I did some work for a power company before then and I remember a designer* pointing out a long single wire distribution span running from the top of a hill right down into a valley, proudly saying “I designed that!”. At the time I thought no more of it than that it was an odd thing to take pride in. Only after Black Saturday did I think there might have been some stupid “one-up-manship” among designers* trying to get the longest span.
…
* Usually promoted lineys or failed solderers. Not ‘designers’ as is generally understood, and certainly not engineers.
They will clear fell three hundred kms to save the world from doom.
They’ll still clear fell 300 kms to put in your underground cable.
Sounds vaguely familiar. The only bleeding he’ll do is from his gums via a surfeit of yapping.
I will argue, campaign and if neces
Steady on, Greg.
I thought it was supposed to unite us…not lead to blood on the streets.
A dirty beat up Case 4210 is more intimidating then some girls man JD regardless of size.
Comment, on the Oz
Eric
6 HOURS AGO
Democracy, the Fairest System of Government in the World, Took nearly 1000 years to perfect and the fight for it Cost the lives of many, many, brave souls.
The Divine Right of Kings would still exist without the English Barons who made King John Sign and Adhere to the Magna Carta.
Without Oliver Cromwell standing against King Charles 1, who was constantly grasping for More Power, the Divine Right of Kings would have again been re-instated in England.
Oliver Cromwell was an Outstanding Englishman and a Hero of mine.
I thank Him for the Parliamentary Democracy, all Australians Equally enjoy today!
Without a Doubt the ‘voice,’ Will Destroy Australian Equality and Democracy.
The UN strongly advises Against putting special Race provisions in any Constitution as this is Completely Contrary to Human Rights and the very precious Equality of Us All.
Vote NO to keep All Australians Equal!
The UN strongly advises Against putting special Race provisions in any Constitution as this is Completely Contrary to Human Rights and the very precious Equality of Us All.
The UN?
The U.N. are on board the Yes train.
Vote NO to keep All Australians Equal!
You’re trolling now.
Does anyone seriously believe Aborigines are equal in Australia?
At a farmers market this morning Monique Ryan and a few of her subjects wearing spiffy vote yes t shirts.All clumped together and pretending to shop causing a bloody nuisance.
Gez.
They would have to do detailed studies on the soils and environment. That involves access, unsure about Vic but SA, NSW & Qld all have strong laws in place for CCA’s (Conduct & compensation agreements). Trust me I’ve been on the end of some bullshit CCA’s that hindered our activities in the way intended (To keep us off as long as they could). Does Vic have a land court too? Seen plenty of projects stalled there till the price was right.
Biosecurity & everyone getting a EU standard organic rating is another I have seen used. That one was quite cleaver.
Lock the gate in the Liverpool Plains have been quite successful. Study their tactics.
As said above the environment is a good one, use their laws against them. My suburb is about to get a solar farm built near it, 100ha of panels on 300ha of land but I know they bought 800ha. IMO the 100ha is the foot in the door for more. So far there has been zero consultation with the residents which I pointed out to Nick Dametto’s office is against the law, they however have consulted among themselves, I found the EPBC referral. Sloppy work to say the best and a connected ALP go to consultancy here in Townsville.
We have a bird called the Black Throated Finch that could become an issue, it held up the Live Cattle yards at Roseneath and some housing at Oak Velley just out on the Flinders Hwy towards Charters Towers because greenies rabble roused about it. Also was attempted to be used against Adani’s Carmichael Project. If they go ahead with this farm I will be suggesting to those who object we use the same to frustrate them.
As above too when they do win in the end then stipulate only local companies maintain the easements at an inflated cost.
See the dispute that’s going on here, in the Wild West at the moment. A proposal to develop a fertilizer plant, in the North West, using natural gas, vs a demand that the traditional songlines must be preserved.
Hey! What an idea. Can’t bring the damn overhead transmissions through my place (or, for that matter, coal steam gas explorations) since we’ve got the remains of a Bora Ring on a back hill. Still, could be a double-edged sword these days!
By the way, if anyone uses Vera’s Formulations Vitamins and Supplements [was Dr. Vera’s],
the dreaded Therapeutics Goods Agency told them to cease trading on August 31, 2023.
No product can be sold after that date.
coal SEAM gas….
Forget Farmer Gez and his phony Tractor Rebellion,
Miami is where it’s really happening.
Some rich fool had been conned into paying $300,000 fo’
a Banana Duct Taped to a Wall, then some random off the street walks into the gallery and eats the Banana.
See here!
Ed Casesays:
April 15, 2023 at 2:36 pm
They will clear fell three hundred kms to save the world from doom.
They’ll still clear fell 300 kms to put in your underground cable.
But the area cleared will be nowhere near as wide, Grandpa Ed.
IIRC concentrated solar was an utter failure at Barstow California. Why is CSIRO throwing money at it?
Birds burned down in flight, pilots, temporarily blinded, use of gas to heat the molten salt etc etc etc.
Grandpa Ed Simpson
Does anyone seriously believe Aborigines are equal in Australia?
Does anyone seriously believe that the inVoice will make Aborigines any more equal in Australia than they already have the opportunity to be?
oh come on, you might be interested in Red Symons’ son’s battle with an aggressive brain cancer which claimed his life in 2018 at the age of 26.
His parents (now separated, I believe) must have been through a hell of ‘if only’ and ‘what if’. At the time he was just a baby they were living in a rented property. Only later did they discover that the adjoining property was an electricity substation and on the other side of the wall of the baby’s bedroom was a room full of electrical equipment – large transformers etc. The baby’s cot next to the wall must have been within range of the radiation for hours, days, weeks at a time.
Hence the generous discount on the property you saw.
Look, stupid,
there’ll need to be Haul Roads to access the excavation, there’ll be areas cleared to dump spoil, areas cleared for site sheds and amenities every few kilometres, and the Works Zone itself will be far wider than the excavation
alone.
300 kms will be clearfelled either way, laying cable will be way more labor intensive.
The objectives of indigenous sovereignty and reparations for bogus historical offences should be seen as the opposite of “completing the nation”. Those conservative political identities who have long supported the Voice, such as Julian Leeser and Greg Craven, have based their stance on wishful thinking. As any realistic conservative could tell them, a victory for Yes in the forthcoming constitutional referendum is guaranteed to divide the nation. The goodwill of the majority of our population towards Aboriginal people, clearly in evidence since the previous referendum in 1967, will be lost in a swamp of unjustifiable political and moral dogmas that the Voice will institutionalise. The unintended consequences can only end in sorrow.
Keith Windschuttle – 13th April 2023
Sancho, You realise it’s a pisstake designed to get exactly that reaction from the gay community?
Utilities are routinely saddled with the costs of bushfires. Either insured losses or already built into power prices. US market may vary.
On Civil War books .. for a very good, one volume, overall view of both sides ..
THE CIVIL WAR by William C Davis
and for coverage of the Confederate generals .. LEE & HIS GENERALS by Captain William P Snow .. written in 1867 whilst the War was still fresh in his mind ..
Fiction-wise .. Gray Victory by Robert Skimin
Andersonville by MacInlay Kantor ..
and, of course .. The Guns of the South by Harry Turtledove ..
Sancho Panzer:
These idiots are also trying to, or are actively introducing wolves. To ‘balance the environment’.
The fire hazard from high voltage is greatly increased by the location.
The proposal starts its path just west of the of Pyrenees range and then travels north up along the edge of the St.Arnaud Range national park (Kara Kara).
The nightmare scenario for the CFA as long as I can remember is a fast running grass fire drive by hot northerlies running down this area and a SW wind change driving a big fire front into the hills and over the top of St.Arnaud town. Avoca would also be in the mix if the fire started South enough. The line is a risk and the easement a path for fire spread even if the line has no part in the initial fire.
The water bombers are banned from near the line and easement and the CFA would have to call the the operators to get permission to enter any easement. Due to the risk of using water and hoses under these lines it is classed as a ‘no go’ zone in government orders.
We are then faced with fighting a much bigger fire as we would have to wait between the line and the forest to fight the fire. How would you fancy trying to protect a town with the forest at your back and a power line no go zone to the front? Remember that in heavy smoke these lines can arc to the ground.
Nothing about this proposal is well considered or researched.
Gez
Nothing about this proposal is well considered or researched.
Let me fix that for you.
“Nothing about renewables is well considered or researched.”
All this talk about inground/above ground cables has re-awakened memories of working on the natural gas pipeline way back in the late 1960s .. I was surveyor’s assistant (fancy title for the bloke that holds the pole) on the run from Liverpool to Wagga Wagga .. Yank mob, Williams Bros had the overall contract and being the only “big” player in the pipe laying game back then made oodles .. wages were 3 x average weekly plus away from home allowances and o/t unlimited ..
Getting in early with this one.
Ramaswamy for POTUS 2036.
https://mobile.twitter.com/VivekGRamaswamy
Anybody with a Canberra Times login able to read this nostalgic article pining for the “good times” of the covid lockdown era by Jenna Price?
Is the callous indifference it is sure to contain, toward the ordinary Aussie, worth obtaining a copy?
bespoke,
She was in tears on Credelin last night.
Credelin was a touch shocked and was reduced to repeating “I know, I know” over and over.
It was outrageous to see a national leader reduced to such a state by the $$%@$ ABC scum.
The trigger was ABC assertions that she could not justify claims of child sexual violance. Putrid people who must be destroyed.
Plasmamortar:
It is a cult. The Climate Change Movement is a cult.
They believe their own bullshit. Their narrative of happy coexistence between tribes and clans over limited resources goes against everything we know about human nature and nature in general.
Aboriginal place names typically involves a losing clan that has rivals get the chocolates which are naming rights for places. These clans often coexist in the same towns, which explains much of the arson that occurs. City whitefellas are as ignorant as the Pacific is wide.
Thank you Bons, bringing up last night’s Credlin right now.
Plague rats + fleas.
Preferably carrying an antibiotic-resistant, gain of function strain of Y.pestis.
No, don’t thank me.
Cheers bons.
Only after Black Saturday did I think there might have been some stupid “one-up-manship” among designers* trying to get the longest span.
…
* Usually promoted lineys or failed solderers. Not ‘designers’ as is generally understood, and certainly not engineers.
You should see the transmission lines in Guam. You can throw a rock from one pole to the next, and the poles are so big you can’t get your arms around them. Typhoons.
Farmer Gez says: April 15, 2023 at 3:42 pm
That they could arc that far is… surprising. De-energising these large lines is not an option?
Surely they would be de-energised as soon as any arc was detected anyway?
The firefront orientation would be both ways, the directions you describe would happen 2nd and the reverse directions would be the first. You’d want to douse the trees as the fire reaches the edge of the easement to prevent embers from crossing into and over the line/easement.
In the case of the easement itself being the path of the fastest moving fire front it is a mixed bag. You have a relatively simple task of stopping it early within the narrow easement, but then the trickier task of stepping on 1000 embers from the grassfire as they try to spot ahead of initial containment – with no tree line to act as natural nets for the embers.
Tell 1000 kiddies on pushbikes with a 750mL bottle each that they can “fight climate change” by patrolling the easement for embers. Job done.
These idiots are also trying to, or are actively introducing wolves. To ‘balance the environment’.
There’s a study on that, the wolves and the deer on the island. Balance never achieved. “Mother Nature” always hunts.
Speaking of Ken Burns, his doco on the life of Muhammad Ali has been running on NITV (Ch 34) on Sunday nights for the last two weeks.
Much of it about the Nation of Islam and its influence and good coverage of the title bouts. Tomorrow night looks at the period from 1974.
I think SBS is running it as well but in shorter episodes.
Lathe of the week!
Such a beautiful thing and she’s French! (I have one of her little sisters, a 525)
https://www.grays.com/lot/0011-3025021/mechanical-workshops/cazenueve-hb725-gap-bed-lathe?spr=true
An interesting addition to Civil War reading for me was ‘Little Phil and His Troopers’ by Frank A Burr, 1888.
To my surprise, it is quite concise and avoids the flowery loquaciousness that makes so many histories of that era hard work.
The military history was informative, but for me the most interesting was the manner in which he tore into the whole ‘Lost Cause’ Confederate myth making. According to him, the myth of these honourable Southern gentlemen (notably Lee) being riven by conscience when deciding to support their ‘homeland’ was just that, a myth.
He claims that Jefferson Davis, when Secretary for War, placed Southern officers in important posts, discriminated against Northern officers, and stacked Southern armouries.
The ‘fix was in’ well before Sumter.
It is on Kindle.
Calli:
I got about 3 paragraphs into his bullshit before I realised it was just a passive aggressive load of shit, disguised as concern for Aboriginals – concern that the Aboriginal people don’t share with each other.
scroll…..
I remember a day at work and a good chap played a Tupac clip which sampled the piano.
Me: That is Bruce Hornsby playing.
X: Tupac was the originator!
Me: Bruce, sunshine.
He did some digging and confirmed it in between his twitter addiction.
True story.
The Way It Is
“Three police officers have been hospitalised after they were allegedly assaulted by a teenage girl while responding to reports of a brawl.”
Certainly don’t make Coppers like they used to. snork.
Yep. It’s proof that academics should shut up about everything except, possibly, their specialty.
Basically, it could have been written by Chat GPT; it does lots of moral posturing and has no connection with reality.
Stand (or fall if necessary)?
This Vivek guy’s got some nice policy ideas. eg
Pretty gutsy to claim he’ll beat Trump at his own game. I expect his role this time around will be mainly to inject sensible reform ideas into the debate and to push other candidates (primarily T-man) to copy some of his ideas so that there is less splitting of the Reps vote.
MATHEMATICS TEACHES US HOW TO THINK
by Kenneth J. Howell
4 . 13 . 23
Why study mathematics? The question demands a choice. Either we study mathematics for pragmatic reasons alone, or we do so to foster higher human goods. If we continue to see mathematics in merely utilitarian terms, we will continue to be enmeshed in the debate around the woke teaching of mathematics. Teaching mathematics for utilitarian reasons alone can never escape the trap of cultural relevance. Studied for its truth value, mathematics can confer many more benefits. Understanding mathematics as a human endeavor will entail all the utilitarian reasons, but it will also foster the human intellect in a greater way and aid in the development of the virtues. Intellects trained in this humane way will be the antidote to wokeism or any other defective philosophy.
Link:
Mathematics teaches us how to think
“Three police officers have been hospitalised after they were allegedly assaulted by a teenage girl while responding to reports of a brawl.”
If they can cop a flogging off a 16 year old girl, they should think more carefully about assaulting the general public, how might that end when they’ve had enough?
Boambee John:
You will find that road verges are rarely heavily forested.
Mmmyes we have come to the penguins where we are greeted to a book, Welcome To Country by ‘Aunty’ Joy Murphy.
Wasn’t she the lady who was rebuffed by the Rat Eared Wonder and is a Wauthorong (spelling?) Elder, which is the area down Geelong? Which is a long way from Phillip Island?
calli.
Walk as much as you can before the flight, lovely lady. I am trying to get my mum to do the same.
BoN, the machines we worked with had about 120 x 1.2 m.sq par-spherical specialty built mirrors all focused together like a dish into 600x600mm PV receiving hole at the correct focal length.
we used to make the mirrors in the factory and mused about the possibility of redesign so that we could operate an array of adjustable mirrors as a focused energy weapon.
like a Command & Conquer prism tower
a single good mirror with a nice tight focus could set fire to a wooden pallet at the focal length within seconds … like a magnifying glass to an ant, the reflected image of the sun was about 120mm across
talked about getting the dish to track the moon as well, just for fun.
never did manage that
Time a 5 click walk.
He and Tim Scott are pretty obviously fighting to be veep candidate choice. Scott is good too.
Republican Sen. Tim Scott launches 2024 presidential exploratory committee (13 Apr)
Notice how Dickhead Dan have replaced the Vicco flag with the 1971 Marxist flag. Nothing to do with Aboriginal advancement- all about undermining the foundations of the Australian nation. Plus a good bit of in-your-face to regular citizens. I believe that pathetic excuse of a Premier in NSW has done or had planned to do the same.
Sorry I meant to begin with- ‘while driving across the Westgate’
Good you’re enjoying ‘the Island’ BB. Phillip Island and Hill End are two places I keep going back too.
Peoples – have we all relaxed our iron grip on our wallets now that Dim Chambers* has declared there will not be any new taxes in his next fudge it?
As inevitable as the sun rising in the morning, labore will increase taxes, while spraying around OPM like inebriated naval numpties.
Of that we can be sure, to be sure to be sure …
*Trigger warning: Jug eared collectivist imbecile (BIRM)
City whitefellas are as ignorant as the Pacific is wide.
And it is a great pity.
We could have avoided much of the disastrous decisions that have been made, if modern Oz knew more about actual indigenous culture. Instead, we have succumbed to the contemporary moral failure of trite, emotional guilt trips.
But worse, that very ignorance promises to disadvantage many many Aborigines at the lower end of the food chain. This group will not see any of the good times and power entitlements of the ”big fellas”if the Voice permanently puts the latter in an unassailable position of power.
I thought the ‘Dr’, the Wayne Swan BA (hons!) apparatchik, had already raised taxes- $126k earners can’t claim a rebate any more ?
Milt – jug ears has claimed there won’t be any “surprise tax increases” in the May fudge it – which of course, means there will be.
Re the beaten cops, we can’t even take the description ‘teenage girl’ at face value anymore…
Courier Mail headline below shows how low the media has fallen. The “neighbour” lives 100km away ! One of the Sex Pistols.
“Meghan and Harry’s celebrity neighbour tells them to ‘f*** off and shut up’ in blunt interview”.
Grant Beaumont passed away on April 9. He was 97.
Grant was father to the Beaumont children. Almost 60 years since they disappeared. To have lived so long is testament to the strength of this man. I won’t link, even the youngest here would have heard of the Beaumont Children.
Vale Grant, you can sleep now.
Almost swear Snowcone has joined the great unwashed to have a looksee.
He’s already said he’s not renewing the low income tax offset. That is a tax rise targeted right at the wukkas – his own supposed base. Of course wukkas aren’t the base of the Labor party anymore, that is now the uni edumacated drone demographic.
Some smug commentators say ‘we get the politicians we deserve’. Not so- political office is only open to the political class or those with connections to the political class. Ask Donald Trump or Pauline Hanson.
Must admit though that I’m pretty gob smacked that the Kean rubbish got reelected. I’d also add that Mark Latham is a career politician which is a very bad start but from what I’ve seen of him, he shows that there are some good ones.
In any normal world that would mean the “headmaster” resigned* before being jobsacked in disgrace.
I don’t make lightly the claim that the maoist yoof we’re being blessed with are the most ignorant illiterate innumerate anti-scientific ahistorical imbeciles to have existed in human history.
It’s all deliberate. The UN: “The more educated a person is, the more resources they will consume”.
*And then ritually disembowelled themself
not necessarily
An Automatic Circuit Recloser (ACR)
Pogria the disappearance of those children still chills me when I think about it.
A federal minister has borne witness to the Territory’s violence after a woman was allegedly stabbed near a luxury hotel in Darwin.
Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said she and her staff tried to save the woman who sought refuge at the Doubleetree Hilton on Friday evening.
Ms Burney released a statement saying she comforted the dying woman’s family, while her office staff joined hotel staff in aiding the victim before paramedics arrived.
The woman was died a day before 300 Territorians gathered for an anti-crime rally on Saturday.
The alleged violence fuelled tensions at Saturday’s anti-crime protest.
The Chief Minister and Opposition Leader have both spoken about the woman’s death.
The Doubleetree Hilton night-duty manager said he assisted the woman as she bled heavily following the alleged attack on the Esplanade.
The NT News has been told the woman ran into the ground-floor foyer of the hotel about 6pm on Friday.
The hotel staffer stayed with the woman until paramedics arrived. Police closed part of The Esplanade after the alleged stabbing.
It is believed the victim was 51 and the arrested male was her partner, believed to be aged 56. The NT News has also spoken to the woman’s brother who attended the scene with friends on Saturday morning. The man said the woman, who was about 50, had been in Dawrin since last year to visit her son, who is in jail. He said he learnt of the stabbing several hours after the incident when he returned to The Esplanade after being in the city.
NT Police said the woman was taken to Royal Darwin Hospital with life-threatening injuries soon after the stabbing but died a short time later.
“A man was arrested at the scene and remains in custody,” police said. “A crime scene has been declared, and a section of the Esplanade remains closed while police investigate.”
A photo believed to be taken from a nearby high-rise hotel shows several police vehicles along the Esplanade and police tape across the road.
On Saturday morning, Grand Touring buses were queued in front of The Esplanade waiting to take passengers to The Waterfront for breakfast. Last night passengers had been dropped off at the hotel’s Mitchell Street entrance.
Just hours before the incident, deputy chief minister Nicole Manison had addressed more than 100 guests and foreign dignitaries at a Minerals Club event at the Doubletree Hilton ballroom.
Police are also investigating an unrelated incident in which a person suffered non-fatal injuries after a stabbing near Casuarina Square.
It is understood the incident took place not far from the bus terminal close to the Woolworths escalator.
Both incidents happened on the eve of a protest rally against violent crime to be held at Parliament House at 4pm Saturday.
NT News
and … Energy Let Trough
I don’t make lightly the claim that the maoist yoof we’re being blessed with are the most ignorant illiterate innumerate anti-scientific ahistorical imbeciles to have existed in human history.
I have been contemplating the difficultly of arguing with ignorant illiterate innumerate anti-scientific ahistorical imbeciles.
You can’t win an argument with munty for example, he’s just to f’cking stupid.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/president-trump-announces-plan-when-back-in-white-house-to-fire-radical-leftist-prosecutors-destroying-america/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailypm&utm_content=2023-04-14
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2023/04/washington-state-passes-bill-allowing-government-to-take-away-minor-from-parents-if-they-refuse-to-agree-to-gender-transition-surgery/
This is undoubtedly a very stupid question, but anyway…
Why is the discussion on power lines always between over- and under-ground? Why, I guess, is “on ground” not an option… suitably encased, of course.
The inescapable moral payload depends on your belief that:
1) A race preference inclusion in the Constitution is a “vast symbolic recognition of their equal citizenship;
2) The Voice has sufficient agency to articulate the concerns and achieve “resolution of those concerns” – and that that is a desirable and necessary addition to Australia’s system of governance.
If you don’t believe these things, really believe them, the ‘payload’ struggles to overcome gravity.
Amen.
Although I may have been to harsh on them – they can recite all 57.6666667 genders by rote before launching into a moth frothing tirade about “the rain that never falls will never fill our dams and river systems ever again, we tells ya!”
And then seeking the company of their NDIS funded* comfort donkey.
*At only $200,000pa it’s a bargain, Cats.
Notice how the journalist reporting that story left it to the fourth paragraph to report that the victim died and it was a murder?
99% of Australian journalists don’t think or vote like normal people. They are the enemies of the people.
How much $ will each Abo freeloader get for ‘reparations’?
Mark – Farmer Gez is in the process of being raped by a wind turbine company.
Can’t be above because of the fire hazard and too low (his tractor is like three stories tall). Can’t be on the ground because of tilling. Hence underground, deep enough to avoid the machinery. But that costs munni.
I suppose you could run HVAC along easements. But it’d be perilous. One car accident could cause quite a lot of fun, including crispy fried car passengers.
One of the things the climate bedwetters screech about is bird deaths. They point out that HVAC lines kill lots of birds, but they weirdly never seem to twig that a distributed generation system needs more HVAC lines therefore kills more birds. Plus of course the wind turbine toll too.
99% of Australian journalists don’t think or vote like normal people. They are the enemies of the people.
Agree. One of their tricks is to manufacture ‘victim groups’ or ‘problems’ that we must be concerned about. It’s unfortunately that after 25 years of the internet (imo it really kicked off with Windows97), the legacy meja still has such pull.
Notice how the j’ismist lying about that story left it to the fourth paragraph to report that the victim died and it was a murder?
No, Tom, because I don’t (willingly or otherwise) consume anything purveyed by the braindead lamestream meeja – and when I have the misfortune to accidentally do so I immediately assume they’re lying.
Again.