mi2bobswrth

[Aidan Morrison @FootnotesGuy]

A week ago, Grattan released a report, called "Out of gas".

I think it's something quite profound and awe-inspiring to behold. This is the last gasp of the credulous climate absolutists.

Like seeing the last Thylacine, or Dodo.

Grattan now occupies this exquisite remnant habitat of deep-Melbourne-progressive-globalist-elite-academia. They aren't aware this habitat doesn't actually have a place in the new political world order.

They're smart enough and honest enough to know that the transition required to switch from fossil-fuels to renewable-electrified systems will require massive costs and coersion to bring about.

And they're honest enough to look you in the eye, and state in plain language that it should and must be done anyway.

Because climate targets are paramount, right?

They show absolutely no awareness of the enormous betrayal that the mainstream would sense (if they read long academic reports) at the admission that the project is expensive, and requires economic pain and impingement of liberties to accomplish.

It was always meant to be an initiative to reduce cost-of living pressures, and usher in new industrial productivity, right?

The whole paper is weirdly oblivious to dominant policy mindsets, variously more (or less) intelligent and honest, which their position fails to cohere with:

There's the dumb (or dishonest) transition advocates who persist in the narrative that electrification actually costs less than traditional energy. The market will get things done, if only we let it, or maybe just nudge it to get it unstuck. But really costs are lower, and people will wake up and adopt the right preferences imminently, mostly driven by the superiority and increased affordability of green alternatives. This is D'Ambrosio, Bowen, or Kean. But this Grattan report offers them no comfort, because of how bleakly they announced that all the miracle-cures like bio-gas, green hydrogen etc don't scale well, and how expensive the abandonment of shared infrastructure is.

Then there's the savvy compromisers, like Minns and Malinouskas, who have whole-heartedly embraced gas as a cleaner alternative to coal. Not just a transition fuel, but something to be grown and developed. They're deeply concerned about costs and affordability, and wouldn't contemplate strong coercive measures, like banning gas appliances, or paying industry to shut off production while gas infrastructure is slowly disassembled.

And of course, there's the climate and energy realists, who now represent the Taylor, Cananvan, Joyce, Hanson, everyone right of the left wing of Labor, who get that Net Zero is neither achievable nor necessary, as the plan to electrify everything with renewable energy isn't going to work at all, in Australia or elsewhere. And with the rest of the world not moving to net-zero either, the pain that Australia is justified in experiencing to lead the fast-thinning pack of climate absolutists is pretty close to zero. Grattan's report, which elevates emissions targets above everything, won't even register with them.

So Grattan's stance here, declaring the transition to be expensive and painful, but unavoidable and essential, puts them firmly on the path to intellectual irrelevance. This is the last stand of the righteous-but-honest, climate-absolutist intellectual pitching to the mainstream. I admire their ignorance of political realities. In the same kind of way I admire the athletic and instinctive movements of the last Tasmanian Tiger filmed in captivity, still very much its own creature in the moment, detached from the doom that their lonely existence portends to the informed onlooker. 1/

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

“But what riles me about Gillard’s misogyny schtick is that she presided over the greatest act of legislative misogyny against women in this country we have ever seen when she gutted the sex discrimination act to completely removed our biological rights.”

This is 100% true.

[mi2bobswrth @mi2bobs]

https://t.co/5SpmZ1v1j9

[Mor Edge Insight @MorEdge_Insight]

Even Arab leaders admit it.

Everyone is sharing the Bill Clinton clip where he describes how Yasser Arafat rejected a generous peace offer at Camp David that would have given the Palestinians a state on 96 percent of the West Bank, land swaps, and a capital in East Jerusalem. Clinton says Arafat lied to him and that the Palestinian leadership never actually wanted a two-state solution. They wanted to destroy Israel. It’s a video often shared by people like @VividProwess, and it’s an important one for people to see.

Of course, critics immediately dismiss it. They claim Clinton is biased or he’s pro-Israel. They’ll tell you that you cannot trust the American perspective.

Ok, so let us set that aside.

Now watch this.

In this powerful interview, former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a major Arab leader who was directly involved in negotiations, says exactly the same thing from the Arab side. He talks about the Mena House Conference in Cairo as well as the Camp David negotiations of 1978. All failed because of the Palestinians repeatedly rejecting any offer. The Oslo accords were signed but because Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad were not involved, they derailed the accords and any chance for peace by initiating 4 years of terrorist suicide attacks in Israel. Then came the second Camp David negotiations in 2000 which Arafat agreed to, then rejected and instead initiated the Second Intifada.

Mubarak explains how the Palestinians refused to even participate in the Mena House conference of 1977. He describes repeated opportunities they were given, including a detailed document that called for Israeli withdrawal from the Samaria, Judea and Gaza, security arrangements during a transitional period, and other major concessions. The Israelis were willing to negotiate on difficult issues like who would control security. The Palestinians, according to Mubarak, kept saying no and wasting chance after chance.

He speaks with clear frustration about how for decades the Palestinian side has rejected peace initiatives and realistic compromises.

The video further shows footage from the PLO representative in 1977, as well as old footage of Egyptian president Sadat who was involved in the Mena House and first Camp David negotiations of 1978.

This perhaps is far more impactful than Clinton’s account because it is not a Western or Israeli voice. It is prominent Arab leaders who lived the negotiations, who represented the broader Arab world, and who had zero incentive to defend Israel.

When leaders from both sides of the table describe the same pattern of Palestinian rejectionism and violence, it becomes much harder to dismiss as bias.

The pattern is clear across decades and across different voices… generous offers, repeated refusals, and continued demands for everything while giving nothing in return.

This is not ancient history. It is the core reason the conflict continues today.

If you value the truth, please share.

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

@AlboMP @chrisluxonmp Cool story. I can’t run my business because your government thinks men can be women.

Trust me, the world isn’t laughing at us because of my stance.

[Andrew Fox @Mr_Andrew_Fox]

Great article.

“ The UN has become one of the most dangerous instruments in modern geopolitics. Authoritarian regimes are using the UN’s prestige to normalise their behavior, conceal their crimes and peddle anti-Western propaganda. It should terrify all of us that the world’s most trusted watchdog has been successfully leveraged as a PR firm for tyrants.”

https://t.co/scgJQ6REmR

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

“Suddenly”
The case has been in court for 4.5 years.
Women’s spaces are on the basis of sex. Currently, a man who claims to be a woman on the basis of “gender identity” is able to override a woman only space on the basis of sex… I mean… 🤷‍♀️

Don’t gaslight me.

[U.S. Department of Energy @ENERGY]

President Trump is unleashing the American Nuclear Renaissance—aiming to have multiple nuclear reactors critical by July 4th on our nation's 250th anniversary.

@SecretaryWright: “This summer you will see multiple next generation nuclear reactors running...America is back!"

[Yasir Arafat @yasir_fission]

America is back!

[Yasir Arafat @yasir_fission]

When we joined the Reactor Pilot Program, we thought we’d spend most of our energy building a reactor. We were wrong.

⏩ Turns out, roughly a third of the effort has gone into the reactor and fuel.
⏩ Another third into building a nuclear facility from the ground up.
⏩ The final third into becoming an independent nuclear operator.

The lesson is that deploying nuclear is much bigger than reactor technology. You have to learn the entire stack.

I’m incredibly grateful to the teams at the @WhiteHouse and @GovNuclear for creating the Reactor Pilot Program. It gave @AaloAtomics the opportunity to learn the hard parts early and, as a result, build a better product.

[Matt Loszak @MattLoszak]

2 billion years ago, a nuclear reactor geologically self-assembled and turned itself on.

No humans were involved. Only rock, groundwater, & natural uranium.

It ran intermittently for hundreds of thousands of years.

Here's the story of Oklo (not the company, but the place!):🧵

[Matt Loszak @MattLoszak]

The "brains" of the reactor

[Aalo Atomics @AaloAtomics]

We're proud of the team's exemplary work installing final hardware components at the Critical Test Reactor.

These parts were designed, fabricated, and now installed by Aalo engineers and technicians. In many cases, the same design engineers who built the digital models of the parts traveled with them from Austin to Idaho in support of physical installation.

This is the learning by doing that carries the meaning of this test reactor beyond its physical footprint. It is the foundation of a proven commercial reactor supply chain, manufacturing, and installation system.

[Matt Loszak @MattLoszak]

Great callout by @jakedewitte:

Nuclear "waste" in America has roughly as much energy potential as ALL known oil reserves. Globally.

Nuclear waste is not waste.

Video here:

[Ryan Dally @Ryandally08]

#BREAKING The Lakemba Mosque is pushing again to install 4 massive loudspeakers on its 20m minaret to broadcast the call to prayer over residential suburbs.

A previous application was already rejected after 328 out of 329 community submissions rightfully objected to the disruption.

Now, they are trying to bypass that decision.

A public broadcast like this is completely inappropriate for a secular, Western nation.

In the modern era, anyone who wants to hear a call to prayer can simply use a smartphone app.

Forcing an entire suburb, including local schools, parks, and residents of all backgrounds, to listen to a weekly religious broadcast over external speakers destroys community cohesion and local peace.

Our public spaces should remain neutral.

Residents shouldn't have to tolerate intrusive religious broadcasts blaring over their homes at all hours over the day.

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

X is an IQ test

Every day, millions of people voluntarily announce that they cannot distinguish evidence from confidence.

Feelings become facts.
A viral post becomes a source.
A meme becomes an argument.

The internet didn’t make people stupid.

It just made the results public.

[Aidan Morrison @FootnotesGuy]

But still, what this demonstrates is a disaster of planning, and a completely ineffective Integrated System Plan, being pushed around by go-it-alone proposals from TNSP's.

The energy transition is in chaos, and we all know it.

This project should have been built before HumeLink, Project Energy Connect, and VNI West, as it sits at the mouth of the funnel. Instead, it's been handballed between planning processes, and ended up with Transgrid bending the rules to plead with AEMO to get it going.

If only we had honesty and clarity about the full consequences and costs of the decision to embark on the 100% renewable energy pathway. None of this would have gone ahead. And we should still stop. The cost creep is only just getting started. 19/19

[Sall Grover @salltweets]

Australia’s SEX discrimination commission condemns defining male and female by SEX.

Gender ideology is nonsensical.

[Matt Davey @MatttDavey]

Is Labor driving Australia towards recession?

Australia just recorded its first trade deficit since 2017.

The major banks are warning that economic growth is stalling, recession risks are rising and the economy is losing momentum.

Since Labor took office:
📉 Living standards fell
📉 Economic growth slowed
📉 Business confidence weakened
📉 Housing affordability deteriorated

Meanwhile in reality:
📈 Government spending has surged
📈 Migration has remained at record levels
📈 Energy prices hit households & businesses

The result?
🔴 A $4.1 billion trade deficit
🔴 A $27.1 billion current account deficit
🔴 Weak growth forecasts from all major banks

Albanese and Chalmers can spin the narrative however they like, but the economic data is moving in the wrong direction.

A strong economy doesn't run on slogans and media talking points. It runs on productivity, investment, affordable energy, housing supply and responsible economic management.

The warning signs are flashing ⚠

[Murray Cod 🇦🇺🍻 @MurrayCoad]

Full life extension programs for Coal plants requires around $750 million each. Worth doing for NSW and QLD fleet. QLD has already allocated $1.6B over 5 years.
Just rebuild them and buy some local thermal coal.
China could rebuild the whole fleet for $5B.
Why electrify everything for Trillions?