Feelthebern – at a recent Sydney Institute function I raised with Richard Marles ( he was the speaker) the shocking statement of outgoing head of our defence forces Angus Campbell that “exceptionalism” has no place in our forces. Marles burbled on about the army being about “team” playing like a football game! I queried where that leaves our VCs who were nothing if not exceptional!

In Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid news:

Albanese says a change as big as the Industrial Revolution is coming — you could call it the ‘government intervention revolution’
Their David Speers

Albanese will tell the Queensland Media Club today “the game has changed” since the COVID pandemic and the arrival of heightened strategic tension. While he won’t mention China directly, the speech is all about how the world has woken up to the risk of its over-reliance on Chinese manufacturing of materials critical to the net-zero transition.

So, election stump politics.

Today’s announcement is the building block — a new law to bring everything the government is doing in this space under one umbrella. That includes existing measures including the $1 billion “Solar Sunshot” program and the $2 billion “Hydrogen Headstart” scheme.

The plan is to put all these programs (and those yet to be announced) under a new “Future Made in Australia Act”. Stand by for more incentives and dollars in next month’s federal budget.

But not everyone, however, is convinced:

Not everyone, however, is convinced it’s such a good idea for the government to be picking winners and pouring taxpayers’s money into things the market has chosen not to.

The Productivity Commission last year warned against Labor’s plans for a local battery-making industry. Last month the Commission’s new Chair, Danielle Wood, reiterated free markets should be the driver of investment priorities. “That’s going to tend to be the most efficient way to get there,” she told an Australian Financial Review Business Summit.

But Albanese has a more advanced view:

The prime minister, however, has a very different view. Australia can compete with China on making batteries, solar panels, and other green technology. We have the critical minerals, and the land mass to accommodate large-scale solar and wind farms. Importantly, the prime minister also believes the problem of labour costs is diminishing — thanks to robotics.

Top Robots.

Hamas are accusing the Israelis of acting in the spirit of “revenge ” and “murder.”

They were combatants who committed acts of war against Israel.

More details: One of Haniyeh’s sons was involved in holding Israeli hostages (10 Apr)

The real story is what Australian governments & shiny bums at the top of the defence greasy pole signed off on for 20 years.

And then hung the serviceman out to dry.

All while giving themselves many, many medals and providing almost zero transparency.

How dare you!? The ex-generals, admirals and air marshals have a god-given right to be a State Governor or at least a Senator!

“exceptionalism” has no place in our forces

I’m not joking about these fools believing in a god-given right to command or rule, by birthright.

“Exceptionalism is bad ..” but the ADF and ALP (and LNP) have a nepotism problem.

It’s basically an attack on merit and we should accept nothing else but a rock-ribbed meritocratic democratic republic.

They hate self-made men. They hate Trump and they would have hated Sharpe if he was a real person. They would have accepted a gong from Nappy but secretly plotted his downfall.

Their ill will towards our current monarchy is unprincipled. It’s entirely based on envy.

Dot

The ADFA Old Boys and Girls Society makes the former Duntroon mob look like a model of meritocracy.

Restore the former principle from the Federation era (then applied only to the Army, essentially the militia then) of service in the ranks before selection for commissioning training.

Apply it universally in the Army, with at least one year in the ranks before acceptance for officer training. For Navy a year at sea as a midshipman. For Air Force aircrew, start as NCO aircrew, with only a limited number selected for commissions, those not selected spend most of their career in flying squadrons, or as training staff at flying schools.

Peter Dutton releases another squirrel:

While no one was killed during the 9 October protests, the events at the Sydney Opera House were akin to a Port Arthur moment in terms of their social significance.

It’s like the Abbott disappointment all over again, except this time the mental disease is not autism.

Dunno about robotics as the engine of the recovery of Australian industry. That might be a red herring.

The important thing to note about what Albo is doing is that he has the signature example to work off of Biden’s reinvestment in manufacturing, which has set off a domestic boom in America. If he can replicate that here, it will set this country up for decades of growth. And maybe consign the Libs to the rubbish bin of history, since it will finally kill off Howard’s vision of Australia as a nation of shareholding conservatives.

Reposted for excellence – Roger, earlier:

Miles either lied or was lied to by public servants

And:

Steven Miles: My Part in his Downfall

by Molly the Magpie

Perfect, and accurate.

Two air compressors made of actual real gold, the metal.

Smugglers melted and spray painted $10 million in gold to look like machine parts (9 Apr, via Instapundit)

It could have been the perfect crime, had they used better spray paint.

Recently, authorities have seized over 320 lbs worth of suspected smuggled gold during a cargo freight search at Hong Kong International Airport, according to yesterday’s customs announcement. Bound for Tokyo on March 27, investigators recovered the roughly $10.7 million haul from within two actual air compressors, the bureau’s largest ever in terms of overall gold value. But these weren’t goldbond bricks or stacks of doubloons stashed deep within the machinery—they were hunks of precious metal molded into the shapes of compressor parts, then camouflaged with silver-colored spray paint. …

After examining the rotor, authorities found traces of glue at both ends of the machinery part. Using a hammer, they then tapped the part and “noticed unevenness,” indicating the metal was far more malleable than it should have been. Scraping away at an outer layer of silver paint showed flecks of gold. At that point, the whole situation was pretty clear—these were dummy parts made of precious metal. Authorities believe the air compressor scheme was an attempt to evade Japan’s precious metals tariff that would have cost smugglers around $1.07 million, were they to go through official channels.

I’m sure Tom would agree that the opening sentence of the story, as journalism, is also complete gold.

Ditto Twiggy’s magic hydrogen plant in Queensland. When the first hydrogen emerges from it it will be ridiculously expensive and uncompetitive.

Don’t you worry about “first hydrogen”.

Tucked away at the very back of the draft 2023/24 GenCost Report, the ‘Real Scientists’ at CSIRO/AEMO tell us, through gritted teeth, that magic hydrogen will still be ridiculously expensive and uneconomic in 2050. Even after renewable electrolysers fall to 10% (yes, ten pussent) of their current cost because the Twiggy/CSIRO technology curve [fig. 4.19].

The heroic projection [Appendix B9] shows 2050 hydrogen fuel priced at A$22.7/GJ (in todays dollars) – compared with natural gas at A$15.2/GJ and black coal at $3.80/GJ.

The report also shows that renewable hydrogen will be producing electricity in the same price range as nuclear – based on the projected economics of the scrapped NuScale SMR traincrash.

I expect the world is waiting with bated breath for Australia to emerge as the Green Hydrogen Superpower it shirley is.

I know what a mask-wearer makes me think about a person.

Does wearing a face mask make you seem more or less trustworthy?
by Swinburne University of Technology (Phys.org, 10 Apr)

Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology have found that the correlation between face masks and perceptions of trustworthiness may be linked to social norms rather than how they impact appearance. …

Lead by social psychologist, Dr. Julian Oldmeadow, the Swinburne study tracked perceptions of trustworthiness for masked, unmasked and covered faces over time. In total, 373 Australian participants were surveyed across 2020, 2022, or 2023. The study is published in the journal Perception.

“People tended to trust masked faces more than unmasked faces, at least during the height of the pandemic. This boost to trustworthiness has now worn off, so that faces covered with a mask now are at least no more trustworthy-looking than unmasked faces, and perhaps even somewhat less trustworthy.”

What a mask tells me is the person wearing it is a gullible ignoramus.

That was the case during the virus outbreak, based on simple science of pore size of masks, and it’s even more obvious now. I said in 2020 that you’d have as much success wearing a magic amulet as a mask with pore size 100 times larger than the virus.

The Zombie Vax and (politically) Dead Liberals.

Several weeks prior to the recent Qld Supreme Court decision that mandatory Covidiot waxing for the Qld Ambulance Service was unlawful, my employer (Qld Health – I had been stood down, without pay, for 2.5 years at that point) sent me a terse letter ordering me back to my usual place of work. While they stated no disciplinary action would be taken against me, they also emphasised that I had not been forgiven for my ‘behaviour’ and I would be watched very closely (that’s my paraphrasing).

For several reasons, I chose to resign. (Too long a story for here, now). During the separation process, I was reminded that I owed the health service $10,000+ for an ‘overpayment.’ This was for a period during which I had been directed NOT to attend work, but had not been charged with a formal disciplinary offense (refusing the zombie wax). I believe that others were also slapped with this ‘overpayment’ which served as a handy intimidation tool.

Several weeks ago, I sent an email to my local state M.P., a senior Liberal with many years of experience, and who will likely be a Minister if the Libs overthrow the Labor tumour in the next Qld state election. My email outlined (in more detail than this concise post) how senior members of my large regional health service had fabricated a charge of pay fraud (see above) against me, in order to justify suspending me WITHOUT remuneration. I explained that I could very easily and quickly disprove this allegation, but that all attempts to do so had been ignored by my (now former) employer, and they were persisting in demanding the payment of a substantial sum of money.

I received a response from this state M.P. today. If I may paraphrase: Too bad, so sad.

Despite offering a potential tool with which to question the integrity of the present government, and their handling of the health system, I was informed that I could either find a union to represent me (tried – didn’t work), or seek legal representation and fight a large state entity on my own, in court.

Let’s pause for a moment…

The only reason I have made the above information public (you’re hardly a success in life Muddy, huh?), is because I STILL, after all that has happened in the last decade, sense that some Cats pine and purr for the desiccated political corpse that is the Liberal Party.

Yes, I know there’s a difference between the various state parties and the federal, but … is there really?

Yes, I know there is no alternative party with substantial infrastructure to fight the fiends of primitivism, but the Libs HAVE the infrastructure, the resources, and what have they done with it? When have they actually FOUGHT for something?

I’m beginning to think that the attachment to the shadow of what once was (or so history tells us) is more than simple nostalgia. I fear it is a lack of self respect. Conservatives feel that they don’t DESERVE better anymore. That they should ‘be happy with the (regurgitated) crumbs.’

Yeah, but nah.
I’d rather be politically alone, and wait for … I don’t know what. But at least I’m not a political ‘settler.’ I deserve better than this cowardly, insincere, self-centred partner.

We need to wake up to the reality and acknowledge that ‘something is better than nothing.’ Because all we have now, is nothing anyway. ‘Is nothing better than nothing?’ However you look at it, that’s what we have: Nothing.

Just read the article Michael West media on culture of cover up.

The SAS Cpl referenced there who cut the hands off. Happens to be someone my ex Army mate knows. What the legal o’s left out was apparently was worse than space on the helicopter the Talib’s were massing for an attack and they had to get out fast but needed the hands for biometrics. That comes from the horses mouth. Same bloke was also shot in another contact bullet followed the boundary of his baseball cap and skull leaving a long line shaped wound over his head exiting out the back. His words lucky to be here apparently.

The other one I know of through my mate is the Commandos grenading a room with women and children in they were receiving fire from. Some chick tried prosecuting them for that and fortunately it was thrown out. Mate has been on patrol in the area it happened prior to that incident. He said the one of those places where you received passive aggressive hostility from the adults till shots rang out. His section had rocks thrown at them by kids from behind walls. His words locals were untrustworthy but again ABC entertained the story that turned out not be someone from the family but a neighbour.

Not saying bad stuff didn’t happen but would say it was probably not very common.

Albanese outlines public investment plan to compete with US Inflation Reduction Act

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese wants to funnel taxpayer-funded incentives towards advanced manufacturing and clean energy projects, as Australia tries to compete with US President Joe Biden’s massive spending plans.

Competition from an ally. Right. Uhuh.
Is this ABC-original spin or is it straight from the songsheet?

Seems to tie in with the story above about “Future Made In Australia”.

Didn’t anyone tell Albo you can’t have advanced manufacturing without reliable cheap energy? The clean is optional. The reliability isn’t.