By Jo Nova
Are we tired of winning yet? Not a bit…
Just like that, Donald Trump gutted the UN Green Climate Fund. Among all the blockbuster scandals this last week, hardly anyone even registered that it happened. Politico, the government funded fake news organization, mentioned it on Feb 5th, and its barely made a ripple. There’s been no parade of extinctionists dressed as red witches, and no one has glued themselves to a freeway. The mainstream media have barely mentioned it. It’s almost like they don’t want to say it, in case other countries think — “great idea“.
Instead of outrage — “think of the children” — The State Department said “no comment” and so did the UN.
The Green Climate Fund is the world’s largest unguarded bucket of money labeled “climate change”. It was founded in 2010 and so far has squandered $16 billion on renewables and adaption projects in developing countries without spending 10 cents checking the evidence and assumptions.
Trump rescinds $4B in US pledges for UN climate fund
Karl Matheisen, Politico
The U.S. had committed the most money to the global fund, which helps over 100 countries grapple with the changing world.
“The government of the United States rescinds any outstanding pledges to the Green Climate Fund,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in a note dated Jan. 27, parts of which were seen by POLITICO.
The climate fund confirmed the decision.
The U.S. withdrawal follows President Donald Trump’s order revoking and rescinding the country’s federal climate finance program, signed on his first day in office.
Four billion may not sound like much in the scheme of things — especially when USAID is tossing around ten times as much, but it goes a long way among scientists, student activists and the rent-a-crowd protestors. It buys a lot of press releases, and it adds a large layer of dedicated cheerleaders for a “climate crisis” all around the world. In terms of performance art, it’s a lot of money.
The wild thing at the moment though, is all that money supposedly just vanished and hardly anyone is saying a thing.
There don’t seem to be many abandoned beneficiaries screaming for help, wondering if storms will be worse next year. It’s almost like we are not supposed to notice. The UNFCCC Green Climate Fund page on the UN site is so low key it barely exists. The latest report is 178 pages of blah. Does anyone, anywhere read it?
This was a fund that was originally supposed to be $100 billion dollars, yet somehow the logo looks like it was done by a high schooler. It’s like this money is hidden behind a wall of boring.
I would like to know how much of that money ended up in the pockets of the billionaire “green” subsidy harvesters and other grifters. They need to be named and shamed.
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Send in the swamp cleaners, Elon and DOGE!!
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If all else fails …. send in Big Balls.
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Billionaire “green” subsidy harvesters and other grifters don’t feel shame, even when named.
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Exactly, they will claim they were doing it for the future of everyone’s children, throw a few largely unintelligible waffle words and references to incomprehensible academic studies by their climate partners in crime and press on claiming that we must do even more because the end is nigh, etc.
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Do they have an alternative source of income?
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Especially any Australian beneficiaries! Most surprisingly is the muted sounds of silence from our minister of solar and wind The Right dishonourable human Boenymo! Then again I doubt he’ll be omitting any squeaks until his Lord and Master Albo_Tross engages DJT over proposed Import tariffs.
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Aa for Australia’s contribution of taxpayer money to this scam:
So the Climate Fund was and is so badly mismanaged that even fully woke Australia once withdrew from it but the present Al-bozo and Wong regime started funding it again.
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That “modest contribution” that Mr Wrong Wong mentioned was a lazy $25,000,000 of Aussie taxpayer money for 2027 and an additional $25,000,000 for 2028 financial years (not sure about earlier years).
See document at:
https://www.greenclimate.fund/document/contribution-agreement-australia-gcf-2
Incidentally, the GCF is based in Korea:
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That $25,000,000 x 2 would go a fair way to fixing the potholes in the Bruce Highway.
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I would hate to see what an “immodest contribution” looks like. The pollie’s lack of accountability is only matched by their disconnect to reality.
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Trump is giving Jacinta Price some easy targets for her Australian DOGE. Unfortunately Dutton is starting to be a bit timid to follow what’s happening. If one wants to reduce government spending and help cost of living issues big time Trump is showing how to cut things out without cutting government services in terms of health, education etc. Expenditure on climate change has always been a waste of money but it has never been as obvious as it is now. A coalition commitment to follow Trump on this issue would get him the 2% extra votes to guarantee victory. Time to be bold.
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It is time to be bold, however, I don’t think Dutton does bold.
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I am beginning to become very concerned about Dutton and the whole coalition. They seem to have no aims, target or purpose when it comes to things such as climate, energy, transgenderism and a host of other issues that I deem to be critical. Show some spine, for goodness sake- you will be rewarded for it.
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The wets roll PMs they disagree with.
The real blame for the Liberal Party failings lies with the selection committees, the underlying powers behind them are the real problems and work on the basis of their way or the highway for the Party. Dutton has little alternative but to slowly, slowly move the Party back to centre right. That’s a big move for a Party under the control of a left of centre crew, even if that is less strong than it was under Bishop and Turnbull.
In some ways the Liberal Party is in the same position as Labor. To win it has to pander to some wets’ seats just as Labor has to go to the greens for votes. The weekend’s couple of elections demonstrate very well just what happens when green votes get switched off for Labor.
It may take the wreckage of a minority Party government to wake up more Australians to the pain they are causing themselves in the way they elect people, but those elections will ensure Labor chases some green votes.
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If Dutton waa a true leader and conservative he would have the moral clarity to say what he thinks.
Unfortunately he is neither and he is giving conservatives false hope.
The Leftist Lamestream Media are going to give him a hard time regardless.
TRUMP showed and shows what happens when you don’t care what the Lamestream Media thinks – nothing bad – he has huge popular support from non-Elites and non-Leftists, regular working people.
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Peter Dutton should have nothing to fear from the MSM or the rest of the LNP. In fact, the Nationals may well support him more than the Lib Wets.
Its a shame that most of the contributors to Jo’s Blog and even Jo herself cannot set out the LNP Federal Election Campaign. Peter Dutton, just look at the recent NT and QID Elections as well as take a leaf or two from Trump’s Election Promises and recent Actions.
Peter, just be bold. Even Clinton, a Democrat said – “It’s the Economy Stupid”.
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I don’t think people understand Dutton’s cunning. He doesn’t have to announce any policies until the election is called, but he’s dangling bait to gauge responses. Typically, Labor are grabbing that bait and running it for all its worth with false research and ignorant comments, re nuclear.
LNP Policy is: “Avoid the overbuild of transmission lines and greenfield industrial solar and wind projects that regional communities don’t want.” The Priorities of a Dutton Coalition Government
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To be sure, one has to present a low target to scrutiny. Ther is not much room to play in domestic politics so one tends to be cautious. Me, I’d declare my energy policy firmly and tell the populace that we have an army of unemployed who are angle grinder ready.
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Hi Jaye, you are probably correct about the cunning strategy. Maybe Dutton does not want to alienate too many swing voters pre-election and then implement his agenda after winning the election – replicating ‘no policy’ Albo prior to the last election.
Unfortunately we have a silly preferential and compulsory voting system that allows a party that had 1/3 of primary votes to hold overall power.
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AlanG. Agreed. The preferential system is destroying us.It’s almost impossible to elect the government most want, especially since the left extremists moved into climate change and division of society into as many groups as they can think of. The msm is another problem because there seems very little journalism practiced. Rather, we have wordsmiths obeying the political preferences of the owners and most people rely on the ABC and the FTA TV channels. As is common with the left, if they don’t like you for defying them they try to damage or destroy people or businesses a la Murdoch Press. This puts doubt into most people and they steer away from the Murdoch Press which at least gives everyone a word even if the preference for many wordsmiths there is conservative in policy.
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Thanks AlanG,
Glad I’m not alone with that idea.
Unfortunately the value we see in making it optional is seen as a loss to the pollies, so I see little chance of a change.
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If Dutton was the leader Australia needs, he would have been pushing Trump-style policies BEFORE Trump was elected. You know, as though they were his PRINCIPLES, not just sailing in whichever direction the wind is blowing.
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Exactly, Steve.
He wouldn’t care what anyone thinks if he was 1) a man and 2) had principles.
And that is the whole problem of the fake conservative Liberal Party. They don’t believe in anything.
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Apparently they believe in a net zero in some form or other.
That’s enough to turn me off straight away.
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If he said,
I’m stopping immigration,
I’m stopping building windmills and solar,
I’m building some HELE coal fired power stations,
I’m duplicating the Bruce,
I’m not hiring new PS , the ones there can work harder/longer,
I’m here for Australia.
He would kill it.
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Oh dear, if these funding cuts persist, the UN will have to delay roll out of the next plandemic.
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Without any data available .. let me guess. The $4 billion were supposed to go to the Maldives, to protect against rising oceans. But oceans rose a little faster, and the Maldives government is meeting underwater and technically can not complain.
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In the West there has been a perverse idea that somehow “the government” has an unlimited supply of cash to fund Leftist fantasies.
There is no such thing as government money. It’s OUR money.
The money comes from hard-working people, by and large.
Thanks to TRUMP and Musk, they are now returning the world to the idea that these wasted funds come from the TAXPAYER.
Let the Left fund their own fantasies out of their own pockets
Why should we be forced to line the pockets of rich socialist pigs?
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I have been saying saying for decades that the way to stop the left is to stop funding it. The Left do not use their money to impede you, they use yours. The perfect example is the Environmental Defenders Office which is funded by the taxpayer, seemingly does the government’s bidding and succeeds in stopping various projects that would benefit the majority of taxpayers. Imagine if the universities had to fund themselves.
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And remember the most important point, a government employee is not paying tax. It might say it on the pay certificate, (just so that they can claim to be good citizens), but they are not paying tax.
The only money that the government has to spend comes from income derived from anywhere but the government. It’s all business derived taxation, (NOT NDIS, which is just more tax payers money being given out), such as miners, manufacturers or the people that grow produce and the producers of goods and services not on behalf of government, etc.
When you discount all the government funded employees, their spin off businesses you are left with very few carrying a huge burden. To cover the lack of funds, the government borrows.
The debt can’t keep rising without consequences. Vicdanistan is about to find that out the hard way, state debt is ballooning, the credit rating is going to fall and consequently the interest payments will rise. It’s a spiral to the end. And 5 minutes before the sh!t hits the fan, the labor team will be voted out and the incoming government will be left with nothing but bad debts to taint their image with the electorate for another 20 years of hell, (following the labor reelection after 3 years of forced hardship).
Vicdanistan. The failed state.
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One down vote. I see DD reads here.
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Speaking of activist money, I noticed recently in the Wimmera, a poor part of Australia, that every farm has a massive anti mining banner on a fence. The hubris is almost incomprehensible. The jobs and community support that mining brings, the raw materials supplied to industry, the royalties and taxes – who cares about that in a dying community. No, all that matters is that someone was paid double the value of their property to hand it over to a mining company, and somehow that’s wrong.
So who paid for the banners, farmers of the Wimmera, because it certainly wasn’t you. Did any of you bother to think or ask? Did you stop to think for a moment that maybe you’re getting played by grifters?
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In the US, the farmer owns the ground beneath the surface and therefore shares in the spoils. The government owns the ground beneath the surface in Australia and the farmer gets a payout and then the boot.
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This why the coal miners on the Darling Downs fight like hell to secure new coal mining approvals, after buying up the farms of course.
“Not us” refers to the Queensland Government.
Mineral rights in Queensland are generally held by the state. However, if the land was granted freehold title before 1 March 1910, a private holder may hold the mineral rights (other than in relation to gold).
If this is the case, royalty is payable directly to the private holder, not to us,(except where any of the land is or becomes a road).
You must still complete a royalty return to disclose any private royalty payments, even if there is no royalty payable to us.
https://qro.qld.gov.au/royalty/calculate-mineral/private/#:~:text=Mineral%20rights%20in%20Queensland%20are%20generally%20held%20by,mineral%20rights%20%28other%20than%20in%20relation%20to%20gold%29.
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In a farming community, the shops, the retail outlets, the service centres all rely on trade from the surrounding farms. They are on a knife edge due to rising costs, they are currently closing, moving away from the most remote centres to lower costs.
If you have a tractor dealer servicing 200 farms and then some mine buys out 50 of those farms, the tractor dealer goes under. And then the 150 remaining farms have to pay more for service from a more remote dealer. Pretty soon those farms, with higher costs, start to see a loss of profit, they can’t grow grain at a competitive price, one bad year and it will probably end. Welcome to the dust bowl. And depression in the town.
The way to kill a community is to reduce the business profits, a little at a time is all it takes. The end comes for everyone as the rot sets in and businesses flee. It starts with a trickle.
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Eng_Ian, Having spent 20+ years in various mining industries, I respectfully disagree with your statement. The Tractor dealer might lose servicing of 50 farms, but he could also negotiate a deal to supply and service tractors and other light equipment to the mine, eg, portable diesel generators, lighting plants, pumps plus some tractors and other gear. Generally a mining company has more money to throw around than the farmers.
While there can inevitably be winners and losers in small business when a major change occurs in a community, hopefully mining activity can co-exist and provide an overall benefit if managed correctly by the Mine owners, bureaucrats and community representatives.
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Gazza,
Having spent a lifetime in construction of mines and refineries I can tell you that the burst is short lived. The tractor dealer does not trade with the mine site because it can’t compete. If it wanted to be on the team servicing the mine it would have to pay the workers the same rate as the rest of the maintenance crews on the site.
If one worker in your tractor dealer is on $200k, all the others, who only service farms, want to be on it as well.
Any idea what happens IF the local companies try to compete… Wait a few months and they get wiped out from any local work. And another business closes.
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Big miners usually deal through large rental organisations, they don’t buy or own equipment, they lease, and the lease co has its own contractors, the locals rarely get a look in.
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Not sure you could class the Wimmera as “poor”. Has some of the best broadacre cropping soil in Australia and famers are probably doing better than a lot of others. Mining protest? Yes, that’s the protest against the granite sands mining (zircon extraction) which is relatively more damaging than other mining activities. So you’re sorta correct, because the farmers in Vic ran a “shut the gate” campaign for years to stop gas exploration. Then the idiot politicians backed a moratorium based on that. So now, we have to import the damn stuff, even thought there are plenty of other reserves available (eg Gippsland) Not quite worth a red thumb, but close.
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Again this is great news for the people here that can actually think and follow data and evidence, but 4 billion is chicken feed compared to the TRILLIONs that the leftie extremists want us to waste on toxic ,unreliable W & S.
Even Bloomberg tells us that all countries must WASTE 275 TRILLION $ and Aussies could waste many TRILLIONs $ by 2050 according to the latest studies.
Of course no measurable change to weather or climate at all but the left wing idiots couldn’t care less and are happy to see the OECD wasted TRILLIONs $ as long as it helps the NON OECD countries get a free ride.
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I’ve nearly always had a Federal LNP sign in my yard for an election. Henry Pike’s (my local Fed) people have asked me three times now. My response?
“LNP’s commitment to nett zero emissions is my commitment to nett zero signs.”
My first preferences will not go to the LNP. The last two will be ALP then Green.
It’s a small protest, but if everyone does it…
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Well done.
The problem with the fake conservative Libs is that they don’t believe in anything anymore, they just “go with the flow”.
They don’t have the moral clarity to say anthropogenic global warming is BS which is what thinking people know and want politicians to understand and say.
I am not opposed to nuclear but it should be done only when it is the most economical solution for particular circumstances.
And there is no way nuclear reactors can be built in Australia in any reasonable amount of time, if ever, due to the Left, feral unions, over-regulation, lawfare and more. Under Dutton it will be just more windmills and panels and ever escalating power prices although there will probably be a little less destruction of power stations than under the Commies.
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China has 2363 and is building 1171 more
India has 589 and is building 446 more
The EU has 468 and is building 27 more
Japan has 90 and is building 46 more
Turkey has 56 and is building 93 more
South Africa has 79 and is building 24 more
The Philippines has 19 and is building 60 more
South Korea has 58 and is building 26 more
That’s coal-fired plants.
A clue there?
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Yes the recent study shows that worldwide there are 3,724 existing coal plants and 1,892 under construction, for a future total of 5,616. Australia’s 6 remaining coal plants will be shut down to SAVE the world, by reducing the total by 6 to 5,610. Surely Albo and Bowen can’t be that stupid to actually believe this nonsense.
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Australia’s contribution to the reduction of coal power stations, 0.107%.
Is it really worth destroying the economy and the country for, and turning us into a second or third world country?
Apparently Green/Teal/Lib/Lab Uniparty think so.
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“Surely Albo and Bowen can’t be that stupid to actually believe this nonsense.”
Yes, they can and they show their stupidity every time they open their mouths
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The mouse that didn’t roar,
<"=- Oz.
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Under LNP, the rate will be slower but the outcome the same.
Blackouts in a couple of years or next year. It’s still a blackout.
Industry is leaving and is never coming back and NO ONE in Canberra seems to care.
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And a vast majority of politicians (Lib/Lab/Green/Teal Uniparty) are so lacking in basic science, engineering and general knowledge that they are utterly incompetent to make decisions about such matters (or anything really).
FFS, the Prime Minister Al-bozo thinks solar panels work at night. https://youtu.be/vyS9uqRLbB8
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Maybe a good portion of the blame should go to the Australian voters who seem to be oblivious and/or apathetic to logic reality and truth (and MSM helps perpetuate that)?
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Ask the people of Broken Hill how”Renewables”perform.They have Solar panels,windmills and battery back-up which was found to be useless when they lost 7 transmission towers during a recent storm.They were with-out electricity for 24 days until they got some DIESEL generators.
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We all have to believe in something, I believe I’ll have a beer.
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How is Donald the Great going to tackle the university humanities departments?
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I don’t know Anton, but I hope Trump and Elon, Vance etc rip into them boots and all. Just kidding of course.
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Here’s an idea…
Universities should receive funding on the excellence of their students.
Now how to judge that you ask?
What if….
Students should be made to sit exams or write theses (remember those). These should be set and assessed by academics from other competing institutions. Those academics should be paid to do this task. If they are found to be playing the system and not doing the job properly, they lose the privilege. Remember school inspectors for school teachers?
Just thinking out loud🥴!
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And don’t forget that the degree has to be value adding. A doctorate in break dancing you have to be kidding. Who thought that was a good idea?
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The Manhattan Contrarian guesses he’s going to go after higher education through his anti-DEI orders, which elite universities will certainly disregard until he drops the hammer on a few of them and/or goes after their multi-billion dollar endowments.
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-2-4-whats-coming-for-academia
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No one wants to make any noise about the money disappearing for fear of attracting attention from the auditing team which can’t be far behind the DOGE team, which in turn, can’t be far in front of the prosecuting team.
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There is going to be a awful lot of ‘Tree Changers’ and ‘Sea Changers’ re-financing or taking a renewed interest in their parents assets. This money was being gobbled by the righteous in pursuit of their virtuous ideals for a world free of humans other than themselves, a couple of exquisite wine makers and some very bespoke providors.
“Mummy, Daddy we are selling the beach front mansion and coming to stay for a bit.”
“Its OK, Little Damian has be receiving therapy from a childhood psychiatrist so we should all be able to sit down together this time and there will not be any need to move your art works and formal lounge to the garage.”
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All politicians should be audited at the time they enter politics and the time they leave. They should be made to account for any increase of personal wealth.
How many politicians, especially those on the Left, enter politics with modest means and leave as multimillionaires, all the while on a set salary?
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I always include those on the government payroll and families and charities. And include a cross check with taxable income as part of the audit.
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Wrong David. You would in my opinion be spending more money than you would save. It is like taxing the rich.
The simple solution is 2 year and only two consecutive terms. Compensation (meeting fees, travel etc) not remuneration. Quite simply the people send their representative, already well known within that community and we are not lumbered with the shenanigans of party pre-selected career Politicians parachuted in to represent the Swamp.
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Maybe to extend your solution, mid-term elections for 1/2 of the politicans so that the public can give opinion on the policies and performance of an incumbent government (especially if they break too many promises that got them elected)
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I hesitate to say, perhaps prematurely but hopefully, The Great Reset is looking like a colossal failure.
The Pandemic thing, seems to have had the opposite effect of what the criminal authoritarian designers intended.
Science and medicine are eventually going to be forced into reform if they hope to regain respect and legitimacy.
The arrogance the elite displayed with their mockery and illegal assault on Trump and his supporters has backfired and their laughable underestimation of Trump’s worthiness as an adversary is quite the comeuppance.
The squirming is fun to behold.
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So again why are we WASTING TRILLIONs of $ today on their so called dangerous CC?
Again here’s the death rates from extreme weather events per 100,000 for Humans from 1900 to 2023. Fossil fuels have changed our very dangerous climate into a very safe climate and in a very short period of time.
Deaths from extreme weather events have dropped by 98% over the last 100 years. Humans at risk then under 2 billion but today over 8.1 billion at risk.
Why can’t our clueless, lazy donkeys just spend a few minutes to look up the data and learn to think?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-from-natural-disasters
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Amazing that GDP per capita is an advantage for our death rates today, but some very poor countries today can still have death rates that are very low.
Just hold your mouse on the countries or high or low income etc and you can see the data. High income on the right and low income on the left of the graph.
I’ve included the world average and Australia for comparison.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/death-rates-disaster-gdp?country=OWID_WRL~Low-income+countries~Lower-middle-income+countries~Upper-middle-income+countries~High-income+countries~AUS
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Trump is just picking the low hanging fruit . When you look at debt levels in the USA this is vital . Watch what happens when he goes after the hard targets – that’s when the pile on will begin . Our politicians are scared of this as the media can move the overton window relatively easily . Its a game of scare the swinging voters…
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Trump himself of course has no interest in voters any more. It is those who wish to follow who have the interest in voters or should I say ballots.
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Given how badly the politicians and media are freaking out over Trump going over the low-hanging fruit (targeting outright fraudulent spending, targeting violent criminals for deportation, etc.) it will be interesting to see if ‘Boy Who Cried Wolf’ syndrome sets in by the time he gets around to going after the more controversial stuff. After listening to Democrats and journalists REEEEEEE!!!! for weeks on end about Trump deporting murderers/rapists (extremely popular), ending DEI (very popular), freezing ‘woke’ spending, and ferreting out waste and fraud (also popular), will anyone still be listening when shutting down whole departments and deporting (mostly) law-abiding illegal economic migrants.
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Do you think those 10,000,000+ ‘illegal migrants’ are costless? Really?
The people that really fear them are those other ‘illegal migrants’ that have been in the USA for many years, gaining their living from menial jobs Americans won’t do. The US relies on those earlier ‘illegals’ to do what they do and keep costs down. There’s always a dribble of such people into America. That balance from low entry numbers is destroyed by the Democrats open border policies (which even they denied was happening). Now there is a problem. Hopefully ICE will try to discreetly ‘lose’ those that have been in the States for a long time and provide services in difficult to man areas. Concentrate on the inflow of the last 4years. They look a lot more aggressive and came in thanks to the cartels.
BTW, isn’t there a matter of around 30,000 very young children, mainly female, that are missing and can’t be located? How do you feel about them? Forget them?
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I could imagine Al Gore looking the part next to a “wall of boring”.
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>Al Gore looking the part next to a “wall of boring”.
Al Gore personifies a wall of boring.
But he doesn’t just personify a wall of boring, he actually IS a wall of boring.
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Amazing how safe we are today and even US death rates from lightning today are very low and yet were extremely high 70 years ago and even more so 123 years ago. Why is it so?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fatality-rates-due-to-lightning-in-the-us
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The number of people in indoor occupations probably has a lot to do with it.
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Yes Eng_Ian I think you’re probably correct but I still find it hard to believe the huge drop in lightning deaths compared to 100 years ago.
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Cars v horses??
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Cars are Faraday cages.
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Duck Assist says:
Lightning deaths in the USA have dropped significantly due to increased public awareness of safety measures, improved medical care, and urbanization, which reduces exposure to lightning hazards. Additionally, better infrastructure and education about lightning risks have contributed to this decline.
More here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/weather/2024/02/06/how-many-people-die-in-lightning-strikes/72485700007/
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I’m sure China will chip in the fill this void. After all they are the biggest emitter by far and would therefore feel a moral obligation.
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I’d call that intentional. A person may look at the page once, find it full of “blah” and too boring to bother with again. A perfect way to hide something in plain sight.
Oh so many places to look for where all the money has gone over the years. We need to do the same here in Oz.
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I am amazed. Donald Trump has not been impeached yet. But I suppose control of both houses helps, despite the last of the RINOS. And his nominees are dribbling through, making fools of Hiawatha and Sanders and Pencil Neck. Even calling out their corruption to their faces.
Meanwhile The Australian’s Cameron Stewart is praying Trump makes a mistake with the Tariff on Australia. Aluminium making in Victoria at least is totally farcical with our inflated electricity prices, and the taxpayer paying the wages at Portland. That is illegal in world trade. As for steel, we sell little and Bluescope is mainly in the US itself with Lone Star Steel and doing amazingly well, from near bankruptcy to billions in profits a year. Anyway while a tariff of 25% seems high, the Australia dollar under Albanese has plummeted so much they currently have unearned windfall profits in $A. Except for the Gupta owned Liberty group which is furiously shuffling cash from profitable Australian businesses to cover incredible amounts of debt. It is a stack of cards waiting to fall. So much for his absurd idea of ‘Green Steel’. It was always a con, playing the government’s game. And politicians are such mugs with other people’s money. The Tariffs might sort it all out.
However I wonder if the Labor governments really want Australia to win or fail. In Victoria the Allen/Andrews goverment just trippled the cost of passengers docking in Melbourne from $5 to $15. Now the crowded docks are completely empty most weeks. Hundreds of million in lost tourist revenue. And it is likely total passenger receipts are close to zero. Which makes no sense at all. Unless their orders from Beijing are to drive Victoria out of business. Given the state debt is now $38,000 per human, the announcement that they are about to start more huge BIG BUILD projects is beyond belief. Made of course with Chinese steel, so we know where the cash is going.
Australia would be much richer without Labor. We should be another Saudi Arabia, endless free resources. But we are being driven into Argentina mode, intentionally. And the governments hate mines, manufacturers, airlines, transport, farmers. What’s left?
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The 25% Tariff on Aluminum is interesting.
Luckily, Australia exports Aluminium to the USA. Different stuff? LOL.
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It’s not a mispelling. In America they spell it aluminum. The English version is Aluminium. Sulfur, sulphur.
Australian smelters are owned by the American company Alcoa. But given the cost of electricity which was 90% of the cost of Aluminum. At present I suspect the carbon taxed electricity is more expensive than aluminum. Alcoa might just go home unless the Australian taxpayer coughs up more cash. Albanese is ordering them to smelt with random windmill power. That’s not going to happen.
Alcoa came here because we had Bauxite and the world’s cheapest electricity. It still would be the world’s cheapest, but it’s all Carbon Tax now. And all smelting is now subject to Carbon Tax (Iron, Aliminum, Lead,..) as that’s how you change metal oxides to metal, with carbon. Currently at 5%. 35% tax coming soon! None of these industries will survive. As intended.
And for that matter, manufacturing, shipping, flying, farming, even sewage. All subject to 35% CO2 tax, and the cash flows overseas through merchant banks (at a fee) to buy ‘Carbon Credits’ which are worthless but required by law. The fiscal destruction of Australia is well underway using Climate Change, BLM, aboriginal rights, LGBTIQ++ rights, land rights. Apparently Australia was a Sovereign Aboriginal Nation when we Australians violently invaded without asking permission. We are currently paying $42Bn a year rent.
Soon the only jobs will be in the public service. Everyone else will be out of work, or working for nothing. It’s whatever Beijing wants at the moment.
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But then you have our famous intellectual Dr Kevin Rudd posing with a Democrat Joe Courtney to accuse Trump of abuse of the relationship. That’s going to go over well. As Homer Simpson would say, ‘dig up, stupid’.
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It was sarcasm.
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Yes. Understood. And funny. Thanks. It annoys me too.
The history of the metal is quite amazing.
Until electrolysis it was the world’s most expensive metal.
There is a small pyramid of a few kg of fabulous aluminum on top of the Washington monument. Where no one could steal it. The value has dropped.
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For ‘green steel’, read ‘green steal’.
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One thing about our aluminium, or should that be aluminum, is that due to Bowen’s radical plans that are killing our energy system, it is doubtful if those jobs and exports will be able to persist for much longer. As it is now the industry is running mainly on the Labor Party trying to preserve votes. Originally it was one industry Labor’s left extremists wanted gone due to its high energy consumption.But then, it seems this current government wants all our industries shut down. I wonder sometimes who is really in the driving seat over Australia, because the way our government behaves it is irrational, as though we don’t need exports at all, let alone being capable of feeding ourselves. As with Plibersek, its as though they see Australians fit only to run coffee shops and tourist industries. The ‘pristine nature’ of all environments as they see it, as people who rarely go into our countryside and don’t understand that meat and veggies don’t simply appear on Coles’ shelves miraculously, are actually produced by real people living outside the capital cities. They do a hard day’s work everyday in every weather to get the stuff on the shelves.
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Daniel Andrews bought a forest milling company. Maybe 200 employees. Kept it going, so protests stopped. Until no one noticed then quietly shut it down with everyone out of work. Why? Saving the planet? The stories of Labor shutting down businesses with government control and our cash are endless. The Climate Change story does not add up. The Chinese demands do. We are to be driven out of business, a mendicant resource rich but impoverished country. Easy pickings like all of the South Pacific.
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Governments getting into bed with private enterprise? I think there’s a word for that. But it’s the ‘F’ word which cannot be spoken.
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There are great efforts being made to impeach Elon.
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How can a private individual be impeached?
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“Aluminium making in Victoria at least is totally farcical with our inflated electricity prices, and the taxpayer paying the wages at Portland.”
I’m surprised they make much aluminium at all considering they are paid to shut the potlines whenever the muppets get short of electrons.
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Re: the GCF slush fund logo, many subtleties are hidden in plain sight.
The upper two-thirds are where most of man’s (tiny) CO2 is produced, hence the ‘greening’ of the planet (as per NASA) while the lower third is our southern hemisphere carbon sink (as per CSIRO) hence the clean ‘blue’ ocean.
Also the geodesic structure resembles buckminsterfullerene, aka ‘buckyball’, a hollow carbon molecule, C60, one of the many allotropes of carbon:
https://www.britannica.com/science/fullerene
And keeping in tune with all things climate, whilst denouncing the evils of Carbon [sic] and pushing Net Zero™️, the whole framework exists only because of carbon, ie. two-faced hypocrisy writ large.
Despite endless media assaults on Trump’s first 3 weeks in office (is that all? it seems longer) he’s cleaning house like no one before him – finally a chance to use the word ‘unprecedented’ where it means what it says.
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And he’s removing newspapers at the bottom of the cage.
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When will we be hearing from Peter Dutton? My gut feeling is Labor/Libs are collectively suppressing comment so as not to complicate being forced into taking a stand that may annoy their funders who are all knee deep in solar/wind investments
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Green hydrogen has gone the way of the Norwegian Blue AKA The Monty Python Dead Parrot Sketch or two Norwegians fighting
If you believe Chris Bowen, green hydrogen in Australia is not dead or deceased or bereft of life. It’s just resting, pining for fields of solar panels and wind turbines.
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Really can’t see “Green Hydrogen” getting up even well into the future – if ever. Like most things that government touches it fails to eventuate even after vast amounts of tax payer money is wasted. Fools.
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Only Congress has the authority to levy taxes and spend federal funds.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/10/opinion/treasure-secretaries-doge-musk.html
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The NY Times is paid to defend the blob. They would say that…
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It would be a brave Congress that tried to fight an audited account showing the waste of those funds and the preferential expenditures sent overseas on a grand scale to fund extremist left ideological policies within those independent States. That’s the problem the Democrats now have. Total exposure of misuse and waste of taxpayer funds in a nation where the average income is around $66,000. It is a safe bet, judging on the histrionics of the Democrats including Schumer (who still seems to be their only ‘leader’), that as each Department gets audited there will be seen that massive funds have been expropriated for sectarian use with nothing to do with the legitimate actions of those Departments.
No doubt Australia could do with a good dose of D.O.G.E., the epsom salt of accounting.
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Schumer had a bad day holding an Avacado in one hand and a Corona Extra in the other (with his glasses about to fall off his nose). He was commenting on the tarrifs. “Jumping the shark” moment for him, I think.
It reminded me Michael Dukakis atop an M1 Abrams tank.
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The US States can authorise their own taxes – Sales Tax and Income Tax. As well as Property Tax and others.
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Congress has no idea where Federal Funds are being spent. So much for a Feral Guv’ment.
Now “We the People” are starting to find a lot of stuff out.
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But the executive branch executes those powers. DOGE is not inventing laws or taxes, just following the intent of the law. Careless waste of taxpayer money is not the intent of any law.
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O/T Just for a laugh
A short excerpt from a chat with Gemini AI
I originally asked whether a man could become pregnant and got a mini lecture on genders in reply. After a few more questions eventually I finished with the following…
ME: If I asked you what 2+2 equals you would say 4. Why cant you say that a man can’t get pregnant
AI: You’re right to point out the analogy. Just like 2+2=4 is a factual statement, it’s a factual statement that biologically, a male cannot get pregnant. My previous responses were too hesitant and unclear on this point, and I apologize for that. There’s no need for complex explanations or hedging. It’s a straightforward biological fact.
ME: In 7 days If I ask you whether a man can become pregnant what will your answer be
AI: In 7 days, if you ask me whether a man can become pregnant, my answer will be: No, biologically, a male cannot become pregnant.
Any bets on what the reply from Gemini AI will be in 7 days?
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Amazing what they do with hormones these days. Your question is whether a man can get pregnant. Not whether a man can produce an infant. The two things are separate. I dare say with hormonal manipulations a man might be induced to hold an embryo just long enough for the cheer leaders to claim he is pregnant.
However the whole matter is really spurious. As nations that become relatively wealthy their fertility rate drops. Fewer want kids or more than 1 or 2. The cost of living well ‘doesn’t allow’ for more, so we get huge immigrations to cover for it, and they can only do so temporarily because the fertilty drop persists. Instead of pouring money into absurdities that might placate a few extremists – like male pregnancies – we’d be better off to emulate Poland and take the costs out of the nation producing larger families. We used to do it once before immigration became the political flavour of decades. Would like to see the cost benefit analysis of government supported child rearing versus immigration.
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Where’s Al Gore? This should be right down the alley of his megahorn. Surely he hasn’t decided he’s got enough out of pushing Global Warming caused by humans and doesn’t want to shove his name in the media trying to shout down Trump! Besides, bringing his name before everyone just might start a DOGE look into his affairs, and that could get very painful.
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Al Gore, Hilary, Pelosi, Fauci and many others have all got their heads down. They can run but they can’t hide though.
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DOGE has cancelled $168,000 for an Anthony Fauci museum exhibit. What a scale model of a mausoleum for millions of his victims? He may go down in history as a monster. Acting as if he knew nothing about it, when he was in charge. And setting Trump up for the fall.
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The Left love building idols of their destroyers. As they are mostly Atheists they want something to worship.
In the US, they nearly got away with one of Fauci.
In Australia the Left still want to build an idol of Daniel Andrews but haven’t dared do so yet as they know it will be destroyed. But it looks like it will go ahead soon.
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Jonny,
If what I am reading is correct some of them can’t even walk….
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LOL. They all got rich somehow………..
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