If you havent been watching the debate slowly gathering pace in the United States about the safety of popular social media app TikTok, then its worth tuning in, at least briefly.

Thats partly because Australians are also big users of TikTok, and we almost always follow US trends, Namely, TikTok is also likely to provide a helpful bogeyman in Australia for conservatives to terrify parents once the trans-are-coming-for-our-kids scare runs out of steam.

TikTok, which was launched in 2018, is a video sharing app where people mostly kids create short-form content focussing on mindless shit, in particular bad dancing, how much of a sense of privilege you can jam into a short video, and tantrums. Depending whose figures you believe (weve used Statista, which is a moderately reliable source), TikTok is now the worlds sixth most popular social media app. And its that meteoric rise in popularity that has got American leaders, well, faux terrified, because as it turns out, the app is owned by a Chinese a company aka, the Chinese government.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration repeated threats first levelled by the Trump administration that TikTok must either be sold to an American firm (or at the very least a non-Chinese firm), or itll be banned outright in the US.

The theory goes that the Chinese government is using TikTok to corrupt American society. The obvious problem with that theory is that American society doesnt need help from anyone, let alone China, to corrupt itself and ruin its children. And the argument looks even more ridiculous when you consider the ownership of other social media giants dominating the market.

The worlds most popular social media app is Facebook (owned by Meta), followed by Youtube (owned by Google), then Whatsapp (owned by Meta), Instagram (owned by Meta), WeChat (another Chinese app), and then TikTok. Then theres Facebook Messenger (Meta again), Douyin (another Chinese app) and Telegram (owned by a Russian billionaire).

With that sort of diversity, what could possibly go wrong? It certainly doesnt seem to be a focus for American lawmakers, seen here earlier this month grilling the CEO of TikTok who, disappointingly, turns out to be from Singapore, not China.

The first video below is a three-minute precis of Shou Zi Chews testimony before a hostile and bi-partisan US congress. But if youve got five and a half hours up your sleeve, the second video is the extended C-Span version, which is deeply ironic if you think about the average length of TikTok content (in 2020, videos from 11 to 17 seconds performed best on the app).

...

Klaus Schwab, Founder of the World Economic Forum brags about 'penetrating' cabinets of Government pic.twitter.com/DIXrRzcVjM IncompetentHuman (@IncompetentHum3) April 18, 2023

And thanks to our veteran mate Mirovini.

Great to see soldiers being soldiers. Close with and kill the enemy. Lest We Forget.

Painting your kitchen is a simple and effective way to completely transform the look and feel of your home. However, just because its simple, doesnt mean that you can just dive into a painting project without a plan.

Its important to take the right steps in order to ensure that the job is done correctly. If you cut corners during the process, youll soon discover that the paint job is not going to last long. When a poor paint job eventually fails, youre going to find yourself paying a lot of money for repairs and repainting.

In this blog post, we will provide five tips on how to successfully paint your kitchen so you can avoid this problem and get the desired results.

1. Clean the Walls
   
   Before you start painting your kitchen, it is essential to clean the walls thoroughly to ensure that any contaminants on the surface are removed. Any dirt, grime and grease on the walls could prevent the paint from adhering properly. Over time, this can cause the paint job to swell, bubble or peel.

   To clean the walls, you should use a combination of mild detergent and warm water. For tougher stains, you might need to use a stronger cleaning solution or even some sandpaper.

   After that, rinse away any remaining suds with clean water and you should have a fresh canvas ready for painting.

2. Prepare the Room With Tape
   
   When painting your kitchen walls, proper preparation is key to achieving a great outcome. Prior to starting, its important to use painters tape to mask off any parts of the kitchen that you dont want painted. Additionally, you should take the time to remove all furniture and other items from the painting area and cover furniture with drop cloths.

   Finally, make sure you have opened windows and ventilation fans to minimise exposure to potentially toxic solvents. While the risk of exposure is not going to be as great as in a paint manufacturing facility, its still a good idea to take safety precautions.These preparatory tips will also help you get a cleaner finish on your walls. You dont have to worry about going over edges and splattering paint on your precious furniture during the process. You can just focus on getting even, smooth coats.

3. Choose the Right Colour...

Fancy being such a scummy grub that you'd try to demean two magnificent women on their special day - their promotion to the shadow-ministry in critically important portfolios, earned by them. I'm struggling for words to describe you Hewson. Serpent.

Justin Trudeau isnt too happy that Twitter labelled @CBC Government-Funded Media pic.twitter.com/KJF8NSgWyT ALX (@alx) April 17, 2023

In this Pip Podcast, we chat to ecologist, author and environmental photographer Alison Pouliot about the diverse world of fungi and its importance in our ecological networks.

Contributed by Joe Montero

Last year saw a record rise in renewable energy in Australia. construction begun on more than 5,000MW of large-scale wind and solar farms. More than 310,000 homes had new solar systems installed, totalling a capacity of 2,700MW. The building of 19 big new energy storage batteries with 1,380MW/2,004MWh capacity began.

Last year saw better cooperation between the federal and state governments on renewables.

Although this is a significant shift for the better, it is still not enough, according to the latest annual report from the Clean Energy Council. It says that Australias total renewable energy generations must lift from 35.9 percent of 2005 levels to 82 percent by 2030.

A second problem is that even if such a reduction was to be achieved, bringing it close to the emissions of 2005 will still remain far from approaching zero net emissions.

Nevertheless, what has been achieved does show that progress can be made. Being an island nation with a lot of sun, makes Australias environment well suited to transform to renewable energy. There is no excuse to not do so.

Future success will depend on a mix of different types of renewables suitable to Australia conditions. Wind and solar are not the whole of the answer. Further research into alternatives is important.

The report calls for lifting targets and providing more government support for clean energy production.in next Mays budget. The report, however, does not go beyond recommending more support for the energy producing industry. The problem with this is that such support has not works well so far and is unlikely to work any better in the future.

The pedophile Frank Houston founder of Hillsong. Pictured in Sydney in the 1980s

Donald Elley of Bellingen

For years, US intelligence officials could hold their allies, notably the British, in contempt for leaking like sinking vessels and harbouring such espionage luminaries as the Cambridge Five. The whirligig of time has returned the favour with the latest leak from the US Department of Defense. They pose a question pregnant with relevance: Do Washingtons allies have any reason to trust their own secure channels of sharing defence information? The answer: probably not.

The spray of Pentagon documents began appearing on such platforms as Twitter, 4chan, Telegram and a Discord server that hosts video games. (How odd, go the folks at Bellingcat.) The very nature of this distribution has tickled pundits into assuming a sense of play at work here. A few have even asserted that the alleged perpetrator, Jack Texeira of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was making a playful effort to make friends.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was informed of the leak during his April 6 morning briefing after five images surfaced on the platforms. The following day, Austin commenced daily crisis meetings to discuss the matter.

These briefings seem to have come some weeks late. Certain documents began circulating on the Discord messaging platform in March, featuring photographs of folded up printouts, only to then be smoothed out again.

The lions share of the documents came in the form of slides developed by the Pentagons Joint Staff, largely acting as briefing notes for senior leaders regarding Ukraine. A pessimistic picture emerges about the prospects of success for any Ukrainian spring counteroffensive. Shortages in ammunition were also becoming critical, and the capacity of Western states to replenish them had yet to be developed. The delivery of existing equipment to the frontline had also been slow, as was training Ukrainian forces. Soviet-era munitions and artillery continued to be the mainstay of Kyivs military effort.

But then the picture became more cluttered and clotted. Messily, there were suggestions that the United States had observed that old adage that friends need to be spied upon to be good. South Korea proved a case in point.

One leaked document revealed the state of mind of South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeols senior advisors on whether to yield to US pressure to send ammunition to Ukraine, or resist arming the state altogether. In 2022, Seoul had agreed to replenish US artillery stocks on the proviso that they keep the shells for th...

by Mary Maxwell, LLB

This is a new time in human history. There is now a central rulership over all of mankind. It has big demographic plans in which most of us will die.  Breaking the food supply is a major way.

Governments are now engaged in killing our livestock, and destroying food-processing plants.

Our laws and jurisprudence, and our religion-based ethical rules, have not left us prepared to deal with this emergency.   On the other hand, we are prepared in a general way, given that many thinkers over the centuries have hit upon good ideas.

I will now show how we can act in a flexible way to save the bees. Save the what?  The bees. A young man in Australia has sent an urgent video into the atmosphere depicting a new tragedy, one that we should make every effort to stop. The government of Australia has sent its agents out to farms to kill the bees.  The flimsy excuse is that the bees have a disease. I assume it is not true. The purpose is malicious to break up the food chain....

Stunning video of twin waterspouts spinning near Australia's Whitsunday Islands in Queensland, was captured by fisherman on a boat on April 12. Video filmed by Murray Story shows two waterspouts rotating close to each other under a low cloud near an island. Story told Storyful that the video was filmed at 6:30 in the morning and that he got to within 400 to 500 metres of the waterspout before he stopped and took photos. "We could literally see the spout picking up the water and swirling it up into the very low cloud," said Story. Credit: Murray Story via Storyful

Paul Keating has worked out that the great Penny Wong might be a little bit of an actress. All the smugness and worthiness is really just a cover for Senator Wong being totally full of shit.

FREE MIND FILMS

This is a great documentary by Free Mind Films about the 1995 False Flag Event bombing in Oklahoma City. The government claims that 168 people were killed, including nineteen children. For years following the bombing, countless victims family members, survivors, rescuers, and ordinary Americans, have questioned the governments conspiracy theory (aka the official story) about that fateful day. Hoping to shed light on answers long ignored and censored, both by prominent media outlets and the U.S. Government, A Noble Lie peels back what we thought we knew about the bombing and the perpetrators. This film exposes information never before examined or brought to the attention of the American public. A Noble Lie is the culmination of years of research and documentation conducted by independent journalists, scholars, and ordinary citizens. Often risking their personal safely and sanity, they have gathered evidence which threatens to expose the startling reality of what exactly occurred at 9:02 am on April 19, 1995 in Oklahoma City.

The Murrah building was bombed for three reasons, two having to do with records stored there and the destruction of those records, and overall to promote THE FAKE WAR ON TERROR. They were:
1) The first set of records were those concerning the Clintons and their CIA ops in Mena, Arkansas which involved drug smuggling, gun running, and the whole Iran Contra affair.
2) The second set of records of greater concern had to do with the Anthrax vaccine and the use of depleted uranium weaponry, both which had many adverse effects on our troops which participated in Gulf War 1. These records were to be used in lawsuits against the federal government for what is known as Gulf War Syndrome.
3) The official definition of Terrorism had been changed in all dictionaries from GOVERNMENT BY INTIMIDATION to extremists fighting against democracy. The OKC bombing was setting the stage for their biggest upcoming False Flag Event which was 911. That event would be the Final Solution (along with the COVID-19 PLANdemic) in bringing forth the NEW WORLD ORDER agenda against mankind.

AN AUSTRALIAN BUSINESSMAN, WHO has worked in China for over two decades, is facing up to 15 years in prison for allegedly selling secrets to two foreign intelligence officers.

Do Washingtons allies have any reason to trust their own secure channels of sharing defence information? The answer: probably not.

The post The Leaking Republic: The Pentagons Take On Information Security appeared first on OrientalReview.org.

Let the ABC character assasination launch with full steam. What's the bet some arsehole is dispatched to dig up crap on everyone in the commercial. The left will stop at nothing.

Heres a report from news.com.au about the legal system brutalising a woman for seven years because two men raped her. 

According to the headline, however, they didnt rape her. They raped a party. Or maybe the rape was the party? Hard to know and beside the point. 

The two rapists have been found guilty *twice*. They served 19 months in jail and after seven years all they have to do now is some community service and go back to the town that filled the courtroom with their supporters.

The woman they raped was forced to move interstate by her communitys furious defence of the men who raped her.

She also had to survive four trials, a successful appeal, and a sentencing hearing, to finally be told that the rapists have suffered enough and dont deserve any further punishment. Then, because she hasnt already had enough to deal with, she has to see this headline, erasing her from the story and calling the revolting crime committed against her a party rape.

I cant imagine how much strength it must take for this woman to just keep breathing in an out, let alone try to rebuild her life as this tortuous process dragged on for seven years. 

Dame Vera Baird called this the decriminalisation of rape. Its not only that almost none of the men who commit rape are are convicted. Its also that the price rape victims pay for seeking justice is far greater than the price men pay for committing rape on the rare occasions they pay any price at all. 

Women and feminists have been protesting about this for more than fifty years. Decades of parliamentary reports, inquiries, law reforms, and investigations have proven the legal system has no justice for people who are raped.  

P...

1.00 AUD = 0.00002 BTC
0.00010 BTC = 4.40 AUD
Converter

Some fungi live inside plants. Some live on their surfaces, and some live around plant roots. Pre-colonisation, a tree may have had 2-50 different types of companion fungi, each with their own community, which were spread across the ecosystem. The more native fungi, and the larger the fungi community, the healthier the tree.

The post A brief natural history of fungi in Australia appeared first on Overland literary journal.

Contributed by Jim Hayes

Peter Dutton seems to be getting himself in all sorts of trouble. The latest is his clumsy performance on the Voice issue. He cant get it right anywhere, and a growing list of parliamentarians are walking away from the Liberal Party.

Everything can and sometimes is blamed on Dutton. He doesnt help matters at all. But the basic problem is that the party is divided and fighting within itself, and this battle is reaching a new level. Any leader would be stumbling in these circumstances.

Two divergent dominant tendencies exist. They share broad support of a belief in the market as the solution to everything. But they differ in how this should be achieved. One holds that the future lies in a hard-line approach of unrestricted capitalism, with the strong arm of the state to enforce it. The other considers that the way should be capitalism with a more human face, including some public intervention to correct market failures. This is the broad difference that is the source of the existing division.

Division has become so intense because it exists in circumstances of a deepening crisis in the economy, characterised by a worsening crisis of production and debt, coupled with a rising distrust of the political system. Each tendency sees its own way as the only possible path to rescue the situation.

Neither has sufficient dominance to get its way, and this leads to division, inconsistency, and loss of direction. After a series of humiliating electoral blows, internal argument is becoming more desperate. Argument about how to restore credibility with the disintegrating political base, win it back and move forward, is becoming increasingly fierce.

Dutton belongs to the hard-line faction, which, from the time of John Howard, has had the upper hand. It has however, failed to consolidate and pull enough of the party and base, in the face of the strength of the opposition.

Some of the opponents have left the Liberal Party. Others continue to battle within. Division is the reason for the inept tactical blunders. The way in which the Voice issue has been handled is one of them. But it is not the only one, and we are likely to see more tactical blunders. whether Peter Dutton stays at the helm or is replaced wont chan...

Introduction by Dee McLachlan

The above video speaks for itself.

BEEKEEPER WHISTLEBLOWER VIDEO PROOF AUSSIE GOVT MASS KILLING BEES: THE GOVT DOESNT WANT US TO EAT

I published this article in July 2022. Brace Yourselves Crop Yield Losses, Fertilizer Shortages, Animal Diseases and Viruses. We know the powers that be deliberately let lose a bioweapon on humanity, and so I suspected various false flags on our food supply one being a bee virus.  This is what I wrote:

Isnt it strange that all of a sudden that we have the bee virus and foot and mouth appearing across Australia. Is this the psyop to prepare us for attacks on food supplies? Last month it was reported (News.com.au): A bee-crippling virus has been detected in biosecurity surveillance hives at the Port of Newcastle, threatening the honeybee industry as authorities scramble to contain the parasite. Varroa mite has devastated bee populations overseas, with previous detections on Australian shores in Queensland and Victoria eradicated before it could take flight.

NSW Agricultural Minister Dugald Saunders is confident the virus has been contained saying Its clearly the most serious pest for honey bees right across the world. And then a few weeks later a foot and mouth buzz in Victoria.

Agriculture Victoria is ensuring staff are ready to respond to any biosecurity threats after fragments of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) and African Swine Fever (ASF) were detected in pork products at a Melbourne retail outlet yesterday. While the fragments are not transmissible, the detection shows how easily diseases and pests could enter Australia

This is what I wrote in 2017: Humanity In Crisis, Part 7: Mass Extinction and The Death of Bees. Link HERE.

Does the government want you to eat?

UPDATE:

Update by Mary W Maxwell:

Yesterday, I saw this 36-second warning from the young man (as above), and all the comments under it were of the Ho-hum variety. You know, like &...

On 13 April we wrote to Elon Musk, stating: Australia's ABC is wholly government (ie taxpayer) funded. Perhaps you might be so good as to correct their label to accurately reflect that status. https://twitter.com/ABCaustralia Here's our note: With two follow-ups.

Dozens Killed as Army, Rivals Battle for Control of Sudan

By JACK JEFFERY and SAMY MAGDY

This satellite photo by Planet Labs PBC shows two burning planes at Khartoum International Airport, Sudan, Sunday April 16, 2023. The Sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary group are battling for control of the chaos-stricken nation for a second day. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) The Sudanese military and a powerful paramilitary group battled for control of the chaos-stricken nation for a second day Sunday, signaling they were unwilling to end hostilities despite mounting diplomatic pressure to cease fire.

Heavy fighting involving armored vehicles, truck-mounted machine guns and war planes raged Sunday in the capital of Khartoum, the adjoining city of Omdurman and in flashpoints across the country. The rival forces are believed to have tens of thousands of fighters each in the capital alone.

At least five civilians were killed and 78 wounded Sunday, bringing the two-day toll to 61 dead and more than 670 wounded, said the Sudan Doctors Syndicate. The group said it believes there were dozens of additional deaths among the rival forces.

The clashes are part of a power struggle between Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, the commander of the armed forces, and Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, the head of the Rapid Support Forces group. The two generals are former allies who jointly orchestrated an October 2021 military coup that derailed Sudans short-lived transition to democracy.

In recent months, internationally backed negotiations revived hopes for such a transition, but growing tensions between Burhan and Dagalo eventually delayed a deal with political parties.

Volker Perthes, the U.N. envoy for Sudan, said that both Burhan and Dagalo agreed to a three-hour humanitarian pause in fighting in the late afternoon Sunday, but violence continued to engulf the capital.

As night fell, residents reported heavy explosions and continued gunfire, as well as airstrikes pounding RSF targets. The clashes come as most Su...

A statement of fact and an important fact to consider when deciding whether to trust their average journalism.

Poll Reveals Level of Russian Publics Confidence in Putin

The poll also revealed that the level of support for the United Russia party stood at 39.8%

Vladimir Putin Andrei Babushkin/Russian Presidential Press and Information Office/TASS

MOSCOW, April 15. /TASS/. The proportion of Russian citizens' confidence in President Vladimir Putin amounts to almost 80%, according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center that published the results of a survey conducted from April 3 to 9 among 1,600 respondents aged over 18.

"When asked about trust in Putin, 79.7% of respondents answered positively (-0.7% over the week), the approval rate of the Russian president's dropped by 0.8% and stood at 77.1%," the pollsters noted.

Positive assessment figures for the Prime Minister and the Russian government amounted to 54.9% (-0.3%) and 54.1% (+0.3%), respectively," the report stressed. Mikhail Mishustin was trusted by 63.5% of respondents (-0.2% over the week).

Those surveyed also expressed their confidence in the heads of various parliamentary factions. Russias Communist Party (CPRF) leader Gennady Zyuganov was trusted by 33.6% of respondents (-1%), Sergey Mironov, the leader of A Just Russia - For Truth, received 31.3% (-1.6%), the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR) Leonid Slutsky got 16.3% (-1.1%), and the leader of The New People party Alexey Nechaev procured 7.8% (-1.3%).

The poll also revealed that the level of support for the United Russia party stood at 39.8% (-0.5%), with the CPRF supported by 10.3% (+0.4%). The LDPR got 8.9% (+0.6%), A Just Russia - For Truth procured 5.5% (-0.2% over the week), and The New People partys figures came to 4.7% (no changes over the week).

<p>Welcome to <a href= "https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/daily-wrap-up/" rel= "nofollow noopener" style="color: #ff0000;" title= "This link will take you away from steemit.com">The Daily Wrap Up</a>, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (4/16/23).<br> As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth is, or claiming they have the answer, is likely leading you astray, for one reason or another. Stay Vigilant.<br> (<a href= "https://www.rokfin.com/TLAVagabond">https://www.rokfin.com/TLAVagabond</a>)(<a href="https://www.bitchute.com/channel/24yVcta8zEjY/">https://www.bitchute.com/channel/24yVcta8zEjY/</a>)<br> <br> https://rumble.com/embed/v2g1nqq/?pub=2q643<br> <br> Video Source Links (In Chronological Order)<br> <br> <br> <br> <a href= "https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/70-americans-are-financially-stressed-58-live-paycheck-paycheck"> 70% Of Americans Are Financially Stressed, 58% Live Paycheck-To-Paycheck | ZeroHedge</a><br> <a href= "file://Users/ryancristian/Desktop/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-16%20at%203.47.08%20PM.png"> Screen Shot 2023-04-16 at 3.47.08 PM.png (1204732)</a><br> <a href= "https://twitter.com/tlavagabond/status/1646843987544645633">(7) LastAmericanVagabond on Twitter: "This kind of disputed (and in my opinion false) statement is what drives radical irrational action. Yet objective debate around this and other topics is what they would have you believe is radicalizing people. #QuestionEverything #TwoPartyIllusion" / Twitter</a><br> <a href= "https://twitter.com/NetZeroWatch/status/1640629943813001216">(1) Net Zero Watch on Twitter: "Brazil's Minister of Environment and Climate Change is considering declaring a permanent climate emergency for over 1,000 cities in Brazil in order to enact emergency measures and spending. Climate lockdown forever? #CostOfNetZero https://t.co/GLtIJ83rIA https://t.co/yYKSz5v1fG" / Twitter</a><br> <a href= "https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/04/address-climate-emergency-everyone-everywhere-all-at-once/"> Address the climate emergency: everyone, everywhere, all at once | World Economic Forum</a><br> <a href= "https://twitter.com/decensorednews/status/1646600966236524553">(26) Decensored News on Twitter: "FT: " 'Every night I ask myself why all countries have to base their trade on the dollar,' Lula said in an impassioned speech [in China]... 'Why cant we do trade based on our own currencies?' he added, drawing loud applause from the audience of Brazilian & Chinese dignitaries." https://t.co/tQwGxVwpCv" / Twitter
...

The Gomeroi people of the Pilliga today will welcome hip hop artist Gurridyula Gaba Wunggu for a global broadcast a lyrical ballistic missile aimed to rally up support for the inland wars on sacred grounds that have never ended. 

A spokesperson for the event said that the central Queensland, Wangan and Jagalingou tribes have reoccupied the lands at the operations of the Adani Carmichael mine, by winning one successful court case after another. The ever growing Standing our Ground SOG mob of indigenous and non-indigenous allies are a well-oiled team of law combatants, taking on this giant corporation.

Geed up is a a song that Gurridyula has dedicated to Gomeroi fighting Santos in the Pilliga.

Decimating the heart of Australias ground water

The spokesperson said that Santos approved to further decimate the heart of Australias ground water source as part of the Narrabri Gas Project in the Pilliga Scrub.

We are invited to sit on country in the Pilliga Scrub, absorb the powerful knowledge in one of the most sacred locations on this ancient landmass and learn through citizen science and gas field tours why the Pilliga is so sacred. 

As an eco-hydro-geological miracle, the Scrub i...

 https://www.voltairenet.org/article219130.html

The war, the separation of the world, or the end of an Empire?

by Thierry Meyssan

The American "Straussians," the Ukrainian "integral nationalists," the Israeli "revisionist Zionists" and the Japanese "militarists" are calling for a generalized war. They are alone and they are not mass movements. No state has yet committed itself to this course.

Germany with 100 billion euros and Poland with much less money are rearming massively. But neither of them seems eager to take on Russia.

Australia and Japan are also investing in armaments, but neither of them has an autonomous army.

The United States is no longer able to replenish its military and is no longer able to c...

Previously on #SolutionsWatch James Corbett has looked at Building Community as a key part of the solution to the issues that we face . . . but how do you find that community in the first place? On the most recent episode of the de-program James goes through just a few of the many, many,

Cyclone Ilsa smashed into a remote stretch of coast in Western Australia around midnight Thursday local time with wind speeds that broke previous records set more than 10 years ago in the same place. After brewing off the coast for days, Cyclone Ilsa made landfall between De Grey and Pardoo Roadhouse as a category 5 storm, according to Australian Bureau of Meteorology - the equivalent of a category 4 Atlantic hurricane. The cyclone has since weakened and is moving southeast across the state, bringing heavy rain and sustained winds of 120 kilometers per hour (74 miles per hour). Just before it hit the mainland, Ilsa sped over Bedout Island, a tiny uninhabited island, where its sustained wind speeds reached 218 kph (135 mph) over a 10-minute period.

HenryMakow.com April 15, 2023 

When your country has been subverted by traitors (globalists, satanists, communists, perverts and criminals,) when your elections are fixed, and your courts are corrupt, treason is an act of Patriotism.

By Mike Stone HenryMakow.com

Can someone answer a question for me?

Why is Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, regarded as a hero by the mainstream press, while recently accused Jack Teixeira, who basically did the same thing as Ellsberg, is flagged as a heinous criminal?

The Pentagon Papers is the United States Department of Defense history of our countrys involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967. It apparently details illegal actions by our military in Vietnam. When Ellsberg leaked the document, it was reported on the front page of The New York Times as if he were a whistle-blowing hero.

Jack Teixeira allegedly leaked a similar document regarding our countrys involvement in the military conflict between Russia and the Ukraine. Like the Pentagon Papers, the information Teixeira allegedly leaked shows illegal actions by our military in the Ukraine. Only Teixeiras treatment by the media is the exact opposite of how Ellsberg was treated. Not only that, but apparently it was the New York Times the same paper that heralded Ellsberg as a hero who outed and identified Teixeira. They had his house staked out before the Feds even arrived.

Continues

By Michael Australian National Review April 15, 2023

A new global currency just launched, but 99 percent of the global population has no idea what just happened.  The Universal Monetary Unit, also known as Unicoin, is an international central bank digital currency that has been designed to work in conjunction with all existing national currencies.  This should set off alarm bells for all of us, because the widespread adoption of a new global currency would be a giant step forward for the globalist agenda.  The IMF did not create this new currency, but it was unveiled at a major IMF gathering earlier this week

Today, at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Spring Meetings 2023, the Digital Currency Monetary Authority (DCMA) announced their official launch of an international central bank digital currency (CBDC) that strengthens the monetary sovereignty of participating central banks and complies with the recent crypto assets policy recommendations proposed by the IMF.

Universal Monetary Unit (UMU), symbolized as ANSI Character, , is legally a money commodity, can transact in any legal tender settlement currency, and functions like a CBDC to enforce banking regulations and to protect the financial integrity of the international banking system.

As the press release quoted above indicates, this new Universal Monetary Unit was created by the Digital Currency Monetary Authority.

So who in the world is the Digital Currency Monetary Authority?

Honestly, I had no idea until I started doing research for this article.

The press release says that the organization consists of sovereign states, central banks, commercial and retail banks, and other financial institutions

The DCMA is a world leader in the advocacy of digital currency and monetary policy innovations for governments and central banks.  Membership within the DCMA consists of sovereign states, central banks, commercial and retail banks, and other financial institutions.

Basically, it sounds like a secretive cabal of international banks and national governments is conspiring to push this new currency down our throats.

We are being told that the Universal Monetary Unit is Crypto 2.0, and those that created it are hoping that it will be widely adopted by all constituencies in a global economy

The DCMA introduces Universal Monetary Unit as Crypto 2.0 because it innovates a new wave of cryptographic technologies for realizing a digital currency public monetary system with a widespread adoption framework encompassing use cases for all constituencies in a global economy.

I dont know about you, but this sounds super shady to me.

Of course the Digital Currency Monetary Authority is not the only one that has been working on a new digi...

"Next to Celtic-Warlpiri senator Jacinta Nampinjimpa Price in Alice Springs." Never in the history of ABC reportage have we seen a self-identifying Aboriginal person described first by their European blood-line. No "proud Warlpiri woman" for Senator Jacinta Nampinjimpa Price. But Lidia Thorpe - check - proud Aboriginal woman. And Marcia...

Michael, Todays Outside Insiders reminded me of the Good Old Days, when I used to encounter Bill Shorten leaving their ABC, or the Melb C'wealth Offices, via the back door, instead of the usual entrances. I started calling him "Billy Backdoor" as a result! Thanks to Paul Kennedy for being...

For todays entertainment, I [DM] adjusted the 2011 poster for the movie CONTAGION to adapt to the real 2019 2023 story.

The original plot:

Returning from a Hong Kong business trip after an affair, Beth Emhoff is feeling a little bit sick which she attributes to jet lag. Her husband rushes her to the hos...

Historic you say? May I present Exhibit One - the uniquely shithouse sports-management stylings of Ms Raelene Castle.

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BREAKING NEWS: A jury in the United States land of the brave and home of the free has been given what effectively amounts to a life sentence in prison for spitting at two police officers.

Larry Pearson, aged 36, was this week sentenced to 70 years in jail for two counts of harassment of a public servant.

It followed a domestic violence incident in May last year, in which Pearson twice assaulted his girlfriend, before their vehicle was pulled over by police.

Pearson got angry after officers didnt arrest the woman (her car was unregistered) and spat at them and a third officer at the Lubbock Country Detention Centre.

During closing arguments of the sentencing phase of the trial, prosecutor Jessica Gorman asked the jury to send a message, and they certainly did that, delivering a combined sentence of 70 years.

Pearson had prior convictions for family violence and aggravated robbery, meaning that in Texas law, under the law of habitual offenders, Pearson faced a minimum sentence of 25 years.

Seeking to explain the sentence after trial, Prosecutor Gorman told media, Youre not going to get 70 years for something like this when youve never been in trouble before.

The treatment of Pearson stands in stark contrast to that of another Texas offender last week. Army Sergeant Daniel Perry, aged 30, was convicted of first degree murder after shooting dead a #BlackLivesMatter protestor in Austin. Perry had repeatedly boasted on social media that he would kill a protestor, before firing on 28-year-old Garret Foster, also a veteran, who approached Perrys vehicle after Perry drove into the crowd of protestors. Foster was legally carrying an unloaded assault-style rifle.

Immediately after his conviction, far-right Texas Governor Greg Abbott asked the Board of Pardons and Paroles to expedite a pardon for Perry (he hasnt even been sentenced yet), which Abbott said he would sign.

The town of Lubbock is situated deep in the heart of rural Texas, about 500 kilometres west of Dallas, and 100 kilometres from the New Mexico border. The town is named in honour of Thomas Lubbock, a Confederate colonel who fought for the preservation of slavery in the United States.

Its a deeply conservative community of the 20 most populous counties in Texas, Lubbock returned the second widest winning margin for former US president Donald Trump in 2020.

By US standards, Lubbock is not a big city it has the...

This is an INSANE use of AI. I love it. All forms of media are going to be majorly transformed with AI in ways we can't yet predict. - Movies / TV - Video games - Music This is just the beginning. via @Flawlessai pic.twitter.com/LHBsvHds33 Matt Schlicht (@MattPRD) January...

Ahead of the release of her memoir, Running Strong, Warner sat down with Stellar for an exclusive interview. She opens up about the lasting repercussions of her 2007 hotel bathroom encounter with then-NRL player Sonny Bill Williams, laments how it affected her family and the years she can never get...

Editors Note: This article is a reprint. It was originally published June 3, 2018.

In his book "The Dorito Effect: The Surprising New Truth About Food and Flavor," award-winning journalist and author, Mark Schatzker, investigates the introduction of flavor into the industrialized food supply. An investigative journalist by profession, Schatzker's curiosity about flavor led him to eventually write two books addressing this issue. The first, "Steak: One Man's Search for the World's Tastiest Piece of Beef" was, as the title implies, about steak.

"I got deep into the science of flavor [and] the science of how we perceive flavor. But I also [asked a] question that we rarely ask, which is 'Why does food have flavor?' We think it's all very simple. We take for granted of the fact that apples taste like apples and steak tastes like steak. But then when you start to get inside it, it becomes very interesting," he says.

"I would visit a ranch and there would be a field of pregnant cows and a field of steers. The rancher would say, 'Oh, the pregnant cows are in a field of clover because they need a lot of protein [when] they're pregnant.' Cows don't even know what protein is, so how does a cow know what to eat?

The answer is flavor feedback. They seek out the flavors that bring their bodies what they need. It's something we are certainly very alienated from ... We tend to think there's an inverse relationship between health and deliciousness. I set out to do that steak book thinking, 'It might be that the best steak I find is awful for the cow [and] horrible for the planet; it's like a heart attack on a plate.'

What I found, oddly, was that the most delicious steak was the best for the planet, nicest for the cow and the best for me. I thought, 'This is not what I expected. This is not what we were taught to expect. Is there something going on here?' ... [I]n nature ... delicious flavors guide animals to the foods they need. So, I asked what is a simple question with a very complex answer, which is, 'Does it work that way for humans?'"

The History of the Dorito

The story of the Dorito starts with the late Archibald Clark West, a marketing executive who, in the 1950s, worked on the Jell-O Pudding account. In 1960, the Frito company offered him the position of vice president of sales and marketing. (Shortly thereafter, Frito merged with the Lay's chip company to become Frito-Lay....

Jeff Beacham with second wife Melva

Rupert Murdoch and Donald Trump have had a very bad week with their numerous court cases and smoking gun evidence in the Dominion Voting Systems versus Fox News defamation case could end []

Ten years ago today, two bombs close to the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and injured hundreds many of them severely.

What happened next was unprecedented in US history. While the nation watched with bated breath, Boston was essentially shut down. Thousands of law enforcement personnel participated in a door-to-door search for the perpetrator(s), whom the authorities eventually identified as the brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

The story had all of the ingredients of a drama destined to keep Americans glued to their screens for days: terrorism, Muslim bombers, a shootout, heroes, a city that emerged Boston Strong, and, most importantly, a happy end. 

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died following the shootout while his brother Dzhokhar was captured later, tried, and sentenced to death.

It was such a good story that not many people asked whether the narrative that the authorities presented, and that was repeated by most of the media, was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

But WhoWhatWhy did. 

And it quickly became apparent that, at the very least, there were some questions that should have been asked and were not. During the coverage of the bombing, and then during the trial of Dzhokhar, lots of information was withheld and inconsistencies were glossed over. 

That is not to say that the Tsarnaevs were not the perpetrators of the bombing. They very likely were. However, it is also true that we were not told the whole story. 

What role did Tamerlan Tsarnaevs previous contact with the FBI play? Is it at least possible that he was one of the young Muslims targeted to serve as informants or to participate in a fake terrorist plot hatched by the bureau itself to show the US was making headway in the War on Terror? What exactly happened a month later when an FBI agent killed a friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev? And why, if the brothers acted as lone wolves, were special administrative measures put in place that severely restricted Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs ability to communicate with the outside world ostensibly to prevent him from talking to accomplices which the government said didnt exist? 

These are just some of the many unanswered questions that the mainstream media should have asked but didnt. Instead, it was a small nonprofit news organization with a tiny budge...

It is not by delusion, however exalted, that mankind can prosper, but only by unswerving courage in the pursuit of truth.

Bertrand Russell, The Pursuit of Truth in The Collected Papers of Bertrand Russell (1993).

    The Truth is Out There. WSF lamented in comments yesterday that we may never know the truth. In an effort to address that concern, I turned to the Alien Cathouse, where intergalactic overweight, aging whores, who may (or may not) have hygiene issues, are said to have  answers of some description An extraterrestrial-themed []

The post Saturday Supplement appeared first on Virtual Mirage.

Michael Hoffman michaelhoffman.substack.com April 14, 2023

www.RevisionistHistory.org

April 19 marks the 248th anniversary of the day on which 700 agents of the lawfully constituted government of Massachusetts approached the town of Lexington intent on seizing the guns of the areas farmers. Eight farmers were gunned down on Lexington Green, after which the uniformed gun confiscators came under attack by thousands of swarming farmers organized as the Minutemen, a citizen militia armed with the same weapons as the governments forces. On the day of The Shot Heard Round the World in Massachusetts, these United States were founded.

The battle of Lexington and Concord which marked the start of the civil war known as the American Revolution, is too often presented in books and lectures as between foreign troops and Americans. In order to disguise what was a police action by the royal governor acting on the order of the Commander in Chief (King George), the event is presented in terms of foreign troops invading New England, the equivalent in our day of the Chinese Peoples Liberation Army landing in Seattle and disarming the local citizens.

By framing Lexington and Concord as Americans vs. aliens, the role of the loyalist American government is overlooked, as is the fact that this was a police action by troops charged with enforcing the law of the land, who spoke the same language and were in some cases cousins of the English-Americans they killed.

Beginning the previous autumn, the local governors of New England began to enforce the kings October 19 order for the seizure of the peoples guns and ammunition (Cf. Boston Gazette, December 12, 1774). One patriot remarked, the Decree that prohibited having arms and ammunition was a violation of the law of self-preservation and the right to defend the liberties which God and nature have given us. (New Hampshire Gazette, January 13, 1775).

A Short History of our Militia Heritage and Ideology

These thoughts didnt spring from erewhon. They were inspired in part by another civil war, in Britain itself some 130 years earlier, when the people took up arms against the government of King Charles I. Those Puritans had argued that the legislature, i.e. the House of Commons didnt just represent the people, it answered to them: We are your principals, and you are our agents.

Their petition, Remonstrance of Many Thousand Citizens and other Freeborn People of England to their own House of Commons (July 1646), did not only denounce (King) Charles, but monarchy itself. It was possible, the petitioners said, for a nation to be happy without a king. It argued for thorough reform. It asked of the victorious Puritan New Model Army, Have you shook this nation like an........

How Barry Silbert is Contributing to Positive Changes in the World of Cryptocurrency

Barry Silbert, a millionaire entrepreneur and the founder of Digital Currency Group, has been instrumental in the growth and development of the cryptocurrency industry. Silberts expertise in finance and experience in the world of cryptocurrency have established him as a prominent figure in the field.

Silbert is the founder of Gensis Trading, a trading firm that specializes in cryptocurrency, and Grayscale, a cryptocurrency investment firm. Silberts most recent project, Foundry, intends to fund and assist bitcoin mining ventures.

One of Silberts most notable contributions to the cryptocurrency industry is his role in preventing the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox, a major bitcoin exchange. Silberts efforts to revive Mt. Gox involved purchasing a large amount of bitcoin from the exchanges bankruptcy estate and establishing a syndicate of investors to purchase additional bitcoins. Silberts actions helped to prevent a catastrophic loss for many bitcoin holders and helped to stabilize the cryptocurrency market at a critical moment.

Silbert has been a strong supporter of establishing regulatory guidelines in the cryptocurrency industry. According to Silbert, instituting transparent regulations would improve investor confidence and entice institutional investors to get involved in the cryptocurrency market.

Established in 2016, the caucuss goal is to educate legislators on the advantages and potential hazards related to digital currencies and blockchain technology.

Silberts involvement in the caucus has helped to bring attention to the need for clear regulatory guidelines in the cryptocurrency industry, and his efforts have played a role in the introduction of several bills related to digital currencies and blockchain technology in the U.S. Congress.

Silberts advocacy for regulatory clarity and his contributions to the growth and development of the cryptocurrency industry has made him a respected figure in the world of finance and technology.

As the cryptocurrency sector continues to develop and expand, Silberts efforts and support will undoubtedly remain critical in shaping its trajectory. Barry Silberts contributions to the cryptocurrency industry are numerous and varied, and his work has had a significant impact on its growth and development. It is evident that as the cryptocurrency sector continues to develop and mature, Barry Silberts contributions and support will continue to be crucial in determining its future, and he will undoubtedly remain a prominent leader in the industry for many years to come.

Finally, Barry Silbert is a prominent figure in the world of cryptocurrency, having made a fortune as a Bitcoin investor and entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group, which oversees a diverse portfolio of...

One might think it prudent to have maintained the two methods of measurement alongside each other for some period at Rutherglen to determine whether there were any biases.

Via: cohere.ai: So why would a transformer model build text word by word? One answer is, because that works really well. A more satisfying one is that because transformers are so incredibly good at keeping track of the context, that the next word they pick is exactly what it needs to keep going with an []

Can organizations sincerely say they are leading the climate justice fight without also being unapologetically antiwar? Short answer no. Heres why.

We cannot end climate change without ending war. The United States military is the planets largest single emitter of greenhouse gasses and consumer of oil. The US military and its weapons, consistently deployed to secure economic dominance for the few while ensuring suffering for the many, has no place on a just and livable planet. The corporate interests and fascist, militarist tendencies that lead humanity into conflict are the very same that view our Earth, its atmosphere, and its abundant life as a resource to be exploited for profit. Ending war means ending the war economy the colonial system of extraction and exploitation that got us into this mess in the first place.

That a more peaceful world could be a result of the broad system change climate activists are calling for is no coincidence. But the theoretical intersection alone isnt enough! Environmentalists and climate change activists must make a commitment to peace explicitly. Our planet depends on it.

There are already plenty of reasons to oppose war such as the threat of nuclear destruction, massive civilian casualties, and violence against women and the concentration of fascist imperialist powers into corporatized hands. But if that is not enough for folks doing important work in climate justice to also oppose all wars, then lets also consider militarism and the war economy.

The Pentagon is already the planets largest single institutional emitter of fossil fuels, and US-backed conflicts around the world since WWII can always be tied back to economic gain dominance, especially via the private control of fuel and natural resources. A war with China, which the US has gradually encircled with hundreds of military bases and weaponry, is being provoked for economic reasons as the government and media manufacture the consent of the American public. This will only result in the increase of Pentagon funding (already at $858 billion), siphoning off billions of dollars of taxpayer money to infrastructure and weaponry which is destroying our climate.

Many people dont realize that every solution to climate change already exists. The problem is the government simply will not fund it while its priority is war. Demilitarization is one of the most important things we can do for the climate, and for living beings inside and outside conflict zones.

Currently, our measure of success as a country is based on how much we can destroy and exploit. While the basic tenets of capitalism are taught in America as economic law, this is hardly the case.The economic system we operate under is a choice. There are other options. Our broken and optional system  where income inequality is at an all-time high, the poor have little access to healthcare, and the climate is nearing deadly tipping points is...

BY ALEX KRIEL AND DR DAVID BELL | THE DAILY SCEPTIC | APRIL 14, 2023

The mRNA vaccines were released globally in early 2021 with the slogan safe and effective. Unusually for a new class of medicine, they were soon recommended by public health authorities for pregnant women. By late 2021, working age women, including those who were pregnant, were being thrown out of employment for not agreeing to be injected. Those who took the mRNA vaccines did so based on trust in health authorities the assumption being that they would not have been approved if the evidence was not absolutely clear. The role of regulatory agencies was to protect the public and, therefore, if they were approved, the drugs were safe.

Recently, a lengthy vaccine evaluation report sponsored by Pfizer and submitted to the Australian regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) dated January 2021 was released under a Freedom of Information request. The report contains significant new information that had been supressed by the TGA and by Pfizer itself. Much of this relates directly to the issues of safety in pregnancy and impacts on the fertility of women of child-bearing age. The whole report is important, but four key data points stand out:

• The rapid decline in antibody and T cells in monkeys following a second dose;
• Biodistribution studies (previously released in 2021 through an FOI request in Japan);
• Data on the impact of fertility outcomes for rats;
• Data on foetal abnormalities in rats.

We focus on the last three items as, for the first point, it is enough to quote the report itself: Antibodies and T cells in monkeys declined quickly over five weeks after the second dose of [Pfizer Covid vaccine] BNT162b2 (V9), raising concerns over long term immunity. This point indicates that the regulators should have anticipated the rapid decline in efficacy and must have known at the outset that the initial two dose course was unlikely to confer lasting immunity and would, therefore, require multiple repeat doses. This expectation of failure was recently highlighted by Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director at the U.S. NIH.

The three remaining items should be a major cause for concern with the pharmaceutical regulatory system. The first, as re...

South Florida was hit with a 1-in-1,000 year deluge of rainfall this week as a series of storms pummeled the area, causing widespread flooding, stranded vehicles, closed schools and airport shut-downs.

A record 25.91 inches of rain was measured at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood airport, according to the National Weather Services preliminary report, falling in the 24 hour period leading up to Thursday morning.

Ana Torres-Vazquez, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami, said a typical strong hurricane would produce 20 to 25 inches of rainfall over the course of more than one day, reported CNN.

This amount of rain in a 24-hour period is incredibly rare for South Florida, Torres-Vazquez said, describing the rainfall as a 1-in-1,000 year event, or greater, as CNN reported.

This means the chance of it happening in any given year is 0.1 percent.

The average rainfall for all of April in Fort Lauderdale is three inches, and the city hasnt seen 20 inches of rain in a month for almost 25 years.

South Floridas historic rainfall followed a low pressure system that developed in the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday, causing a warm front to move across southern Florida, reported The Guardian. This was followed by a series of slow-moving supercell thunderstorms.

The amount of rainfall is unprecedented, Mayor Dean Trantalis said Thursday, as NBC News reported.

Experts have predicted more extreme weather as the climate crisis wears on.

According to the National Weather Service, another two to three inches of rain...

"... We need to see 25GW of new [generators] between now and 2035 ..." - but Victoria is consistently voted the hardest place to do business in Australia.

By Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge | April 14, 2023

A former staffer who worked in the Obama administration is blowing the whistle on the Bidens  and has accused President Biden of being involved in a kickback scheme directly related to his son Hunters overseas business dealings.

Mike McCormick, a stenographer in the White House for 15 years who worked with Biden from 2011 to 2017, told Fox & Friends First that the FBI has completely ignored him despite his willingness to testify under oath before the grand jury investigating Hunter.

In February, I went to the FBI and filed one of their tips on their website. If you do that, and youre lying to them, you go to jail. Im not lying. Im telling the truth, and Im not going to jail, McCormick said on Thursday. Joe Biden is a criminal. He was conducting malfeasance in office to enrich his family. Jake Sullivan is a conspirator in that, and theres more Obama officials involved in it, I believe.

McCormick specifically noted a key dialogue involving then-VP Biden, aide Jake Sullivan and the press on Air Force Two before an April 21, 2014 trip to Kyiv, Ukraine, in which Sullivan now Bidens national security adviser outlined a US investment in the Ukrainian energy sector just days after Hunter joined the board of Burisma.

Months after the trip, Congress allocated $50 million to Ukraines energy market.

Im sitting back there with a tape recorder. Jake Sullivan comes back and somebody asks about fracking. His answer is, well, were bringing a lot of American assistance over for fracking. Burisma was the direct beneficiary of that fracking, and thats what I recorded, and thats in a White House transcript, said McCormick, adding: In the transcript, you dont know who Jake Sullivan is. Its a senior administration official. Im the witness that says Jake Sullivan is the guy who said it and he should be investigated because at the time Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma and Joe Biden is bringing American taxpayer money to enrich that company and himself and his family.

Hunter joined the board of the Ukrainian natural gas firm on April 18, just three days before Biden and his team traveled to Kyiv. But that critical piece of the...

The president is using his Irish identity to bully Brexit Britain. Power often wears the mask of weakness in the 21st century. Think of those strapping, angry 'transwomen' who cry victimhood even as they harass real women. Or privileged students in the luxury surrounds of Oxford or Yale heaping pressure on hapless administrators to decolonise the curriculum so that they might be spared the pain of reading Shakespeare, Chaucer and other long-dead white men. Or Hillary Clinton depicting herself as a victim of sexism even as she wielded her extraordinary power to brand half her compatriots as deplorables. Julie Burchill calls them 'cry-bullies' - a 'hideous hybrid of victim and victor, weeper and walloper'. Now there's President Biden, the most powerful cry-bully in the world. He's taken the grievance machine global. He speaks of his historic pain even as he impresses his imperial power across the Earth. Witness his visit to Ireland. He's hyping up his status as a descendent of the...