There’s a publication discovered from the archives of the 70’s by Jimmy Jones and his Democrats.

“Civilisations die from suicide,”

And a more modern song recently released, and promoted by the FBI, “Hang Donald Trump” by Joe Biden.

Dan.

We are the fools for allowing ourselves to be ruled by these awful people; we keep on voting for them.

"As the West careers down the road to serfdom, driven by ever more reckless governments, the opportunity for a U-turn becomes more difficult. Indeed, liberal, free-market democracies, which are relatively new and unique in history, may well become a fleeting experiment in the evolution of human affairs". (Dr. Maurice Newman, AC)

"What a parcel of rogues in a nation."
Burns

"There is nothing new under the sun.
Ecclesiastes

I realised with a shock the scale of the problem the day after the masking mandates were lifted. Went to Bunnings. At first I thought the mandates had not been lifted - all still wearing masks. Then I saw one, then two, people not wearing masks. Then I saw the sole staff member who was not wearing a mask.

And then it hit me. A plague of brainwashed morons drive the nation. Can't think for themselves, and will believe literally anything the television tells them. I knew it was bad, but didn't realise it was this bad.

It was obvious that the whole covid schtick didn't add up from very early on in the narrative - just like global warming, dishonestly renamed climate change, as if the climate never changed before. Only a brainwashed moron could believe it.

But what I realised is that the morons are at least 90 percent of the population.

This is why democracy was not a thing in the past. The ancients knew what it was. They just reasoned - rightly - that it would result in the predominance of the stupidest, leading inevitably to tyranny which is exactly what has happened.

Ruled by fools? Perhaps. But by backroom power brokers doing dirty deals in the dead of night? Most definitely! We should have nuclear power as MSR thorium as the best most reliable, safest and cheapest power now available! See LFTR in five minutes.

Until we have the aircar we will need roads! And those same roads can replace eyesore poles, wires and transmission lines.

What we need is cling wrap thin graphene undelays under roads. Graphene is 200 times stronger than steel and is a super conductor that will help reduce the 75% transmission and distribution losses. As will micro grids and locally placed, SMRs. The latter placed in underground bunkers for safety reasons.

Losses the mug consumer pays for along with the price gouged profiteering by tax avoiding profit repatriating by foreign nationals. On the topic of nuclear, China is trying it on to prevent Australia acquiring nuclear subs on the grounds we don't have a nuclear industry.

My thoughts are and without question, nuclear subs would styme their intentions to take over this country! Can't see any other viable or cogent reason!
Alan B.

Cumberland. Only 30% of the people understand economics and only 30% understand politics. The other 40% understand neither and it's that 40% who decide elections! Go figure.
Alan B.

We've got freedom in this country. The freedom to
choose who governs us. And if they don't perform
we can vote them out. We're a country doing
remarkably well compared to many others. We've got
a newly elected government - that should be given
a chance to do its job and keep its promises.
Those who don't do their job get kicked out - as
the results of the last election showed.

I like what Winston Churchill once said:

"The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing
of blessings, the inherent virtue of socialism is the
equal sharing of miseries."

I'll take the former over the latter. You can make your
own choice.

Foxy - and your point is?

Hi Cody,

We should count our blessings.
We actually are not ruled by fools.
Our voters are not stupid.

Hi Foxy - thank you for the clarification.

Regards

Cody

So what's new?

"Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil." [Jeremiah 13:23]

"Ruled by fools" - well neither the wise nor the productive want to rule over others:

"One day the trees went out to anoint a king for themselves. They said to the olive tree, ‘Be our king.’
But the olive tree answered, ‘Should I give up my oil, by which both gods and humans are honored, to hold sway over the trees?’
Next, the trees said to the fig tree, ‘Come and be our king.’
But the fig tree replied, ‘Should I give up my fruit, so good and sweet, to hold sway over the trees?’
Then the trees said to the vine, ‘Come and be our king.’
But the vine answered, ‘Should I give up my wine, which cheers both gods and humans, to hold sway over the trees?’
Finally all the trees said to the thornbush, ‘Come and be our king.’
The thornbush said to the trees, ‘If you really want to anoint me king over you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, then let fire come out of the thornbush and consume the cedars of Lebanon!’" [Judges 9:8-15]
(and note that thornbushes produce no shade!)

I just read an article suggesting that Orwell's "1984" has changed from a warning into a 'how-to' guide for the people the plebs keep voting for.

'1984' and 'Animal Farm' should be compulsory reading for all Australian students. The 21st century has been truly frightening so far.

Those who rule may look like fools, but as this idiotic article shows, they're nowhere near as foolish as Viv Forbes!

I can debunk it if anyone would like, but I think most on this board would be too bigoted for that or anything to change their views, and it's probably obvious to the rest.

______________________________________________________________________________

Cumberland,
There are good reasons for wearing masks other than being required to. Helping limit the spread of covid is no less worthwhile when it's voluntary!

______________________________________________________________________________

Alan B.,
Why do you consider understanding economics and understanding politics to be mutually exclusive?

Graphene's superconducting ability occurs only in unusual conditions (very high pressure as well as low temperature IIRC) so is irrelevant for electricity transmission.

Only 30% of the people understand economics
Alan B,
And, judging by the evidence before us, none of them understand managing !

"Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grand-children are once more slaves". (D.H. Lawrence)

*… Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grand-children are once more slaves". (D.H. Lawrence)…*

Good work ttbn, but more simply, it’s a war between the ideology of “Realism V the ideology of “liberalism”.

Realists have a view, ( correctly to my eye), of the urgent need to reform and refocus the importance of the Nation State.
States have lost their independence through liberal innovations IE the UN as the biggest offender.

It’s a reason I don’t vote. The State has lost its legitimacy, usurped by giant global corporations.

To be realistic, as an insignificant citizen of a failed State system, I demand the citizens compromise of voting for the dominance of the most powerful global corporations, and having a say in the direction of corporate social responsibility, since under liberal ideological dominance, our freedoms are going fast!

Dan.

Dear Aidan, please provide the debunking.

Dear Cody,

It is indeed timely that you have recommended the writings of Eric Blair one of the last century's most notable socialists.

"For some years past I have managed to make the capitalist class pay me several pounds a week for writing books against capitalism. But I do not delude myself that this state of affairs is going to last forever ... the only régime which, in the long run, will dare to permit freedom of speech is a Socialist régime. If Fascism triumphs I am finished as a writer—that is to say, finished in my only effective capacity. That of itself would be a sufficient reason for joining a Socialist party."

Dear SteeleRedux,

The point of your post escapes me, can you expand on it?

Regards

Cody

Viv, you are a well-informed realist. This piece should be re-posted in national media.

Dear Cody,

Was there a point? I felt I was agreeing with you. Eric Blair should be compulsory reading in schools including his other works such as The Lion and the Unicorn: Socialism and the English Genius and the earlier The Road to Wigan Pier.

"Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it."

Dear SteeleRedux

OK, thanks for making that clear. Digital communication sometimes baffles me; I am guilty of misreading others.

Regards

Cody

Viv Forbes is correct, we are ruled by stupid people.
They proved that when they blew up those power stations because it
was demanded by their ideology.
None of them had the simple though, "Perhaps we Should Mothball them. Just in case".
The British and Germans were not stupid, they mothballed their power
stations both nuclear and coal.
Now they are armpit deep in the green smelly stuff, they are getting them out of mothballs.
Our Stupid ones are running around just making noises like;
"She'll be right mate"
"Don't you worry Labour/Greens are here to save you" etc etc

IT IS THE SUN STUPID !

OK, Cody. Sorry about the delay - I've been having a few wifi problems lately.

For a start, the direct cost of the politicians, by Vic's own figures, come to less than half a billion, so there's no justification for the comment "a billion here, plus a billion there..."

And more generally, complaining about the size of the government misses the point. Government should be effective and efficient. Those who advocate small government tend to assume that limiting its budget will force it to spend only on what gives it the best bang for the buck, increasing efficiency. But what actually happens is false economies are made; efficiency declines, competence is lost and the government becomes less effective but no less wasteful.

The reference to "chasing impossible green dreams" shows a severe lack of engineering knowledge on Viv's part. Though the task is big, it's far from impossible. Meanwhile it's the fossil fuel lobby (and their lackeys like Viv) who dream of climate lockdowns; they fail to notice that green technology is capable of doing the job.

Nuclear power's a costly option. Banning it was a bad move but that's irrelevant now; it's totally uneconomic in Australia as renewables can do the job far more cheaply. Coal fired power stations are proving very unreliable, but Viv refers to them as "reliables" because that fits his narrative far better than the truth.

(tbc)

Getting to 100% renewables poses some technical problems, but the solutions are now apparent, Not much can be sensibly said against them, so Viv resorts to belittling them with cartoons! Also he claims that the grid is "struggling to meet current demands" but in my state at least, it struggled far more before it had any solar or wind power in it - and the more solar and wind power are added, the less it will struggle. The challenge is timeshifting the power from when it's most abundant to when demand is highest. Pumped hydro (pushing water uphill) is an old solution but a reliable one, in use around the world for over a century and in Australia more than half that time. More recently, giant batteries have proven reliable and are always ready when we need them. And once EVs are in widespread use, there'll be plenty of distributed spare battery capacity that the owners can use to make a bit of money timeshiftimg electricity. The fact that EVs are currently subsidised to encourage their uptake is of little relevance: it's a short term measure; in the long term they'll be taxed not subsidised.

But hydrogen production promises to be the most significant solution, as hydrogen is very useful stuff! It can be used to make sponge iron, slashing the amount of coal required for steelmaking. It can be used to make ammonia more efficiently than natural gas can. It can substitute for natural gas in many other industrial processes. And there's plenty of export demand. It means there can always be demand for more electricity, which makes more generation infrastructure economically viable. And there's always the option of reversing the process to produce more electricity when it's needed. Sure, there's a net loss of energy (just like every other process on this planet) but there's a gain of value.

The cartoon likening the simple electrochemistry of hydrogen production to witchcraft reminds me of this corollary to Clarke's third law: http://freefall.purrsia.com/ff300/fv00255.htm

(tbc)

Early experimental US wind turbines could accurately be described as "bird slicers" but modern wind turbines are designed to avoid bird strike. Wind turbines and solar panels don't take up much space and tend to be compatible with other land use. But his point isn't totally without merit, as there are some exceptions, and Queensland in particular has inadequate environmental restrictions on what's built.

Viv then rails against green strawmen, then apparently changes the focus of his attack to the National Cabinet (a sensible attempt to harmonise state laws and responses to events when a Federal takeover is not considered warranted) and the veto he assumes the Voice will have (despite neither those proposing it nor the politicians wanting it to have any veto powers at all). It's as wide of the mark as his subsequent attempt to blame "green dreamers" for the problems caused by European reliance on Russian fossil fuels. It all just goes to show how ridiculously out of touch he is.

______________________________________________________________

Bazz,
When measurements of incoming solar radiation don't show an increase,
BLAMING THE SUN IS STUPID!

Not a sound answer Aidan,
Shows you do not understand what is going on.
It is quite likely the sun is at peak.

It is possible to get an idea of how many more wind and solar systems
are needed by dividing the demand by the wind and solar.
At this moment solar is zero and wind is 8%. 100% load / 8% supply.
So 12.5 times the current number of wind turbines is needed to keep
the lights on.
Of course they all have to be in just right place.
The cost of batteries would be enormous to make up that sort of
difference.

Bazz,
>Not a sound answer Aidan,
Far sounder than anything you've written!

>Shows you do not understand what is going on.
You say that, but fail to point out anything actually wrong with what I said... which indicates it's far likelier you don't understand what's going on.
Do you even understand how CO2 absorbs and reemits infrared?
If so, what makes you think the 50% increase in CO2 concentration in the atmosphere isn't to blame for the rise in temperature?

>It is quite likely the sun is at peak.
Maybe, but if the sun's at it's peak, why isn't the warming slowing markedly?

>It is possible to get an idea of how many more wind and solar systems
>are needed by dividing the demand by the wind and solar.
Unless you subtract hydro capacity first, it will be a pretty poor idea.

>At this moment solar is zero and wind is 8%. 100% load / 8% supply.
What exactly is it you're claiming the load is 100% of?

>So 12.5 times the current number of wind turbines is needed to keep
>the lights on.
A reasonable starting point which engineers should be able to improve on.

>Of course they all have to be in just right place.
Like all infrastructure, putting it somewhere other than where it'a meant to be will adversely affect its effectiveness!

>The cost of batteries would be enormous to make up that sort of difference.
Firstly, exactly what sort of difference are you referring to?
Secondly, fossil fuel costs are enormous. So are nuclear costs. So don't dismiss batteries just because they have the kind of costs that are par for the course!

Hello Aidan

Thank you very much for the explanation; I appreciate your time spent writing it.

Regards

Cody

Aiden, the sun being near maximum is not the whole story.
It is the occurrence of sunspots and the expulsion of matter that
passes earth and so upsets the earth's magnetic field resulting in
cosmic rays causing more of less clouds.
This why the cycle has a long period of 600 to 1000 years.

My calculation of 100%/8% was a instantaneous reading.
The load at the time does not matter.
It was an amount x and and 100% of x /8% = 12.5 the number of the
windturbines operating at that time that would be needed to keep the
lights on.
Right now wind & solar is 15% of the load.
So 100%/15% would mean 6.66 times the number of W&S is needed to keep
the lights on.
Forget about batteries, everyone that talks about them ignores the
problem of recharging them. You cannot charge them from the grid,
it is busy keeping everything else going.
They have to be big enough to carry the demand all night till the next morning.
If you are lucky to have a sunny and windy day.
You might have to have additional wind and solar next morning to get
them recharged before the next night.
That means close to duplication of wind & solar as you have to
generate a full nights demand including the peak period.
All that depends on the next day being sunny and windy.
Oh yes, you do not know where the wind will be so you have to have
multiple recharging sites.
And you think 100% x 100% wind & solar is possible at reasonable cost!