Weekly Roundup – Top Articles & Commentary (Week 34, 2025)

 

Here are links to some selected articles of interest and our posts from this week;

• How Australia's Immigration Policy is Strangling Productivity
  
• Wake up Call:The explosive increase in Autism and ADHD
  
• Tesla's New Battery Could End the Lithium Era
  
• Australia Abandons Israel and Australia's Jewish Community
  
• Future Foreward:The Rise of Electric VTOL Aircraft
  

We welcome all feedback, so please feel free to submit your comments or communicate with me via email at grappysb@gmail.com or @grappysb on X.

Weekly Roundup – Top Articles & Commentary (Week 32, 2025)

 

 

Here are links to some selected articles of interest and our posts from this week;

• Russiagate Episode 3: What Has Been Revealed So Far
• The March of the Machines Continues
• Australia's Shameful Display
  
• Western Media Acts as Hamas' Stooges
  
• Karma Comes Knocking
  
• Proud to Be a RWNJ (Right Wing Nut Job)
  

We welcome all feedback, so please feel free to submit your comments or communicate with me via email at grappysb@gmail.com or @grappysb on X. 

Weekly Roundup – Top Articles & Commentary (Week 28, 2025)

Here are links to some selected articles of interest and our posts from this week.

• What Big Pharma won't tell you!
  
• Palestinian sheikhs propose historic break from Ramallah to join Abraham Accords
  
• Pandemic, Protocols and Preventable Deaths
  
• Will Elon sabotage the Republican Party? Here is Victor Davis Hanson's view ;-
• 
  
  
  
• Multiculturalism: The People Speak, the Media Spins
• Is Iran's enriched Uranium Still in Play?
  

We welcome all feedback, so please feel free to submit your comments or communicate with me via email at grappysb@gmail.com or @grappysb on X. 

Weekly Roundup – Top Articles & Commentary (Week 26, 2025)

 Here are links to some selected articles of interest and our posts from this week.

• Maher Telling it straight
  
• Scientists shocked as glass bottles found to shed 50x more microplastics than plastic
  
• The Doctor Who Spoke Out - And Paid The Price
  
• Insights of an ex KGB Russian Spy
  
• Premature ceasefire?
  
• Did the US destroy Iran's nuclear sites?
  
• The rebirth of old battery technology could provide safer, large-scale battery complexes for power grids. See the infomercial below; -

• Has Bill Maher Already Left The Democrat Party?
  
• Trump's Most Winning Week
  

We welcome all feedback, so please feel free to submit your comments or communicate with me via email at grappysb@gmail.com or @grappysb on X.

OTG WE 25 May 25

The UN is spreading lies.

In what must go down as one of the most egregious episodes in the UN's already tainted record of moral clarity and honesty, the UN's Humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, made an outrageous claim that "there are 14,000 babies (in Gaza) that will die in the next 48 hours unless we can reach them". 

The claims were widely reported in mainstream media worldwide, proving that " a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth puts on its shoes."

Of course, the BBC reported as Fletcher claimed, but hats off to them, they did follow up to identify the basis of the claim with the relevant UN office, which referred to an IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) report. The IPC report, however, did NOT make the claim that was made by Fletcher. It projected that over the next 12 months, 14,000 were at risk of acute malnutrition—a somewhat less dramatic claim, albeit still questionable.

Given the UN's biased stance on all things related to Israel, we cannot be surprised, but the media, the supposed last barrier to misinformation, are anything but. They continue to amplify these ludicrous, extreme statements without question. Nor do they go back to correct the errors they keep making.

Thankfully, a few media organisations look at the other side of every story and try to report on the misinformation perpetrated by the media.

Honest Reporting is one such organisation, and its report on Fletcher's claim is well worth reading. It is titled ‘14,000 Babies Will Die’: How the UN Invented a Blood Libel — and the Media Ran With It'.

"Why I left Utopia?

You had me at the headline. That was the intention, but I have to admit that after investing the next five or so minutes, I was not disappointed. It was, I am almost ashamed to admit, another video by Konstantin Kisin, who seems to be my bestie. This time, it was not via YouTube but via PragerU's five-minute instant enlightenment series.  But instead of my summary, why don't you watch it? Why I left Utopia. It provides an insight into the question, 'What is Utopia?'

Imagine the possibilities!

With all the world's crises, it is easy to gloss over technologies and medical breakthroughs that have the potential to transform the world. The world's media focus on the current urgent problems and potential future crises. There is no room for good news, or it is at best rare. Yet if we look back at just the past few decades, we have seen many dramatic changes to our lives. Two decades ago, there was no social media, iWatch, iPhone, electric cars, free video communication worldwide, and many more.

Such dramatic improvements have not been restricted to technology alone. The World Health Organisation's Millennium Development Goals web page lists some of the achievements over recent decades as ;-

• Globally, the number of deaths of children under 5 years of age fell from 12.7 million in 1990 to 6.3 million in 2013.
• In developing countries, the percentage of underweight children under 5 years old dropped from 28% in 1990 to 17% in 2013.
• Globally, new HIV infections declined by 38% between 2001 and 2013.
• Existing cases of tuberculosis are declining, along with deaths among HIV-negative tuberculosis cases.
• In 2010, the world met the United Nations Millennium Development Goals target on access to safe drinking-water, as measured by the proxy indicator of access to improved drinking-water sources, but more needs to be done to achieve the sanitation target.

We hear the bad news, but the good news creeps by without a mention. We should not be surprised; it has always been this way.

The advances of the past lead us inexorably into a new future built on the achievements of the past.  The recent leaps in AI and robotics will totally transform human experience. The merging of AI+Robotics will see the advent of humanoid robots with Artificial General Intelligence, creating universal machines that have the potential to free humans from the need to work. All work, not just manual labour, but all labour, white collar and blue collar.  Dramatic yes. World-changing, yes. A nirvana, mmm, maybe. It does pose a serious challenge for humanity. Imagine our world in a decade, with universal machines capable of replacing all the drudgery in your life. It may sound wonderful, especially after a day of hassles. But what will you do with all that time? How will humanity reorganise itself?  Like most developments that have the potential to create a golden future, there are potential abuses, which are usually of equal importance. So not all a bed of roses. 

A recent Elon Musk presentation challenged us to imagine the possibilities. The guru himself explains this in the video below. 

Good intentions, bad results!

It is a sad truism that despite the best of intentions, too many projects fail. Why is this so? Well, of course, there can be many reasons for failure, but we can see a common theme for many failures. 

Consider the multi-decade project to lift the living standards of Australian aborigines. Successive Australian governments have invested vast amounts of capital, both public and political, into reducing the 'GAP'. This GAP is a well-defined set of social measures that shows aboriginal communities, especially those living in remote areas, have lower standard of living than average Australians. Yet, year after year, we see limited improvements. 

There have been multiple parliamentary enquiries with input from the communities and their representatives. They have compiled lists of recommendations. New bodies with substantial government money have been formed. They have been given the authority, the resources and the means to implement programs that address all the recommendations. This has been going on for decades, with only small improvements in the GAP.  After each review, new recommendations are generated, which always entail more money and onerous commitments. While the government has been spending some $A30 billion pa, Aboriginal activists say this is not enough; they want a change to the Australian Constitution to create yet another special body, called the Voice, comprising a selected group of Aboriginals to advise government on all legislation that could affect the Aboriginal community. This was taken to the Australian people through a referendum, and it was defeated with a resounding NO vote. (Thank goodness!)

This is not over; we have yet to see what our newly elected Labor government will do. I would not be surprised if they tried to create a legislated Voice that did not require a constitutional change.

That is by the by. I only used this as an example of the failure of good intentions. 

So why do these good intentions fail? The simple answer is incentives. Intentions do not cause a change, but incentives do. If one invests a pot of gold each year to reduce the GAP. Those receiving the money will want to keep receiving it, so they will not have any incentive to reduce the GAP but an incentive to NOT reduce it.

This is a general principle: you cannot solve any problem if your incentives do not provide a reward for solving the problem.

I have to confess my theme was triggered by a recent video from Konstantin Kisin. The video gives several examples of where this has worked or failed. It's well worth a view.

Abundant Energy drives the modern world

Energy and electricity policies have attracted me over the past week. This is partly due to recent discussions I have had with my circle of friends and YouTube's tendency to base its recommendations on one's previous selections. Despite this, I can not resist posting this video by Bjorn Lomborg, also presented at an ARC conference. Lomborg is well-known for his economic evaluation of the impact of Climate change. He calls out the lunacy of current climate policies that cost more than the projected economic impact of the climate change they are trying to remediate. Along the way, he dismisses many of the fallacious claims climate zealots use to panic the population into accepting climate policies that are not cost-effective.

Another must-see!

 

Australia's renewables obsession

After the defeat of the opposition parties at the recent election, there is nothing to prevent Labor's drive to decarbonise Australia's electricity grid, no matter the cost. And the cost will be much higher than the already unprecedented energy costs that households and industry have already borne. Many have warned the government that its path will cost too much. The costs will fall on the poorest in our society and continue to drive manufacturing offshore. Despite the warnings and real-world experience of countries that have already taken the renewables path, the Labor government insists that "renewables provide the lowest cost of electricity".  

Gerard Holland at the ARC conference in Australia addressed these issues in a clear and direct presentation. In the presentation, he identifies all the cost components for the competing electricity generation technologies and conclusively demonstrates that an all-renewables solution will cost ~$2,500 vs ~$850B for nuclear and ~$550B for coal. (See the table below, taken from the presentation.)

This video is a must-see.

  

Progress on fusion?

I remain sceptical that fusion energy is just around the corner. The technology has been on the precipice for too long to expect a sudden breakthrough. It seems much of the media has also taken this view, so we have heard little about it for some time. Yet, there seem to be some green shoots. I came across this video about a 'breakthrough' in plasma stability. The novel German design has achieved an unprecedented 8 minutes of operation. This may not seem much, but compared to the alternative designs recorded in the seconds, it is major. I won't bother you with the technicalities, I am not an expert, but you could glean a bit of the excitement of this achievement from the video below.

Perhaps the video is a bit overenthusiastic, but it is worth a view.

OTG WE 11 May 2025

The robots are coming.

As a technology freak, I keep abreast of new developments, especially in robotics. You will have noticed many articles that highlight recent milestones. The major leap in recent times has been the integration of AI with conventional Robotics. AI adds the brain to the robotic machine. The programming of conventional robots has required extensive time-consuming programming. Robots require function-specific programming to ensure the robot does exactly what was intended and nothing that was not specified. The need for each task to be programmed meant a drag on their use to repetitive tasks, where the cost of programming was justified through repetition. 

That is now changing. AI is providing the facility for the robots to respond directly to instructions from a human. The AI then programs the robot to execute what is required. While this integration is in its infancy, over time, it will enable the elimination of all manual labour. The Rosie robot of Futurama will become a reality. Of course, it will create significant challenges to human organisation, but is a topic for another day. 

Here is a recent video that highlights some of the most recent developments in robotics.

Is Musk's Starlink raining satellites?

Everything Musk is undergoing scrutiny. It's as if the once Dr Jekyll had turned into Mr Hyde following his taking a pro-Trump elixir. The most recent claim is that some 4 Starlink satellites are falling to earth every day. A rather stark and worrisome claim. Alas, as seems to be the case with every reason given for a new panic, there is more to the story. Once 'more' is explained, it is less worrisome. 

Let me not be the one to explain, just listen to YouTube physicist Sabine Hossenfelder.

Adolescent distractions

Given the many and diverse real social issues that pervade today's United Kingdom, it is shameful to focus the nation's attention on a red herring. Yet that is the case. The Netflix series 'Adolescence" has attracted widespread and high-level attention. Spoiler alert, while I have not seen the show, I believe the series tells the story of a young teenage boy bullied on social media, ending up knifing and killing a teenage girl.

The story seems to have struck a chord, with many talk shows raising the social issues it portrays. Some claim it as being a true story, a documentary, and politicians are asked how they will address social media epidemic that causes such breakdowns. Even in Australia, family members have raised it with me and one friend thought it was a true story. 

It is certainly not a true story, nor is it representative of the types of problems teenagers face. I don't have the statistics, but the much more common knife crime in the UK, and other Western cities, is teenage gang members knifing each other. Yes, the television series has exposed our feckless media once again, chasing illusive problems while ignoring the very real problems staring them in the face. 

Here is Konstanti Krisin summary. Konstantin is always entertaining.

  

You cannot trust polls!

Given their lack of success over many elections, it is surprising that anyone would trust a poll. Just think of the 2016 US Presidential election, which Hillary would win by a country mile, or even the recent 2024 US presidential election, which the pollsters had totally misjudged. In Australia, too, the pollsters are not much better with multiple failures at National polls. The election of 2019, where the Opposition leader was predicted by pollsters to "walk it in",  but ended up failing. Came close, but "no cigar".  

I accept that predictions are subject to error, and we cannot assume a poll will give an accurate prediction. However, given that the results in these elections were far outside the predicted error in the polls, we have to ask why. Why does this keep happening, and why do these pollsters keep their jobs? 

The recent 100-day milestone of Trump's second presidency has seen the media engage pollsters to apply a popularity gauge to Trump's performance. This resulted in many polls declaring a loss of support for Trump. But can we trust these polls? It seems not.

Victor Davis Hanson provides some insight into why many polls are just producing what the anti-Trump media wants to promulgate.

Here is the short video, well worth a watch.

Is China in chaos due to Trump's Tariffs?

The Trump China tariff battle is still in progress. I can't keep up with the numbers. However, at this stage, new very high reciprocal tariffs have been imposed on goods being transferred between the countries. Trump's argument is that this has a greater impact on China as it benefits more from US purchases. There are already some exceptions, and more will follow. Trump has already softened his position on this. We can expect more changes. 

But already I  am seeing multiple YouTube videos highlighting the impact on China of these tariffs. The videos claim panic as orders are being cancelled and exporters are going broke. Surprisingly, I am not seeing corresponding reports from our mainstream media. So I am somewhat skeptical, but we will see.

Here is one of these videos.

Shocking abuse by unhinged radicals

Given the distractions of our recent general election, we have forgotten about the extremists who held their repeated demonstrations at our Universities. Perhaps one may have thought it was all in the past. But no, Avi Yemini of Rebel News recently posted a shocking video of the vile abuse screamed at Mark Leach, of Never Again is Now, as he and his daughter were at a University Campus. This occurred about 4 weeks ago, during the election campaign, but that is no excuse. 

While I am reluctant to give more 'air' to such vile events, we do need to remember these hateful people are amongst us. 

Here is the video.

But there is something to celebrate in the election results. The Greens, the hate-filled party stoking the type of bullying and abuse demonstrated in the above video, have had a major electoral setback. Adam Bandt, the party leader, has lost his seat, and all the Greens' lower house seats are currently in doubt. This is a resounding rejection of their hateful policies. Something to celebrate!

Is Spain the canary in the renewables coalmine?

The recent Earth day, 22 April, was especially significant for Spain. It national grid had managed to run 100% renewables for the first time just 6 days earlier on 16 April.  (See Spain hits first weekday of 100% renewable power on national grid). However the celebrations did not last long, just a week later Spain & Portugal were hit by a massive blackout.  

"A massive blackout has caused mayhem along the Iberian Peninsula, stranding passengers in trains and hundreds of elevators and leaving millions without phone and internet coverage in Spain, Portugal and – briefly – south western France.

A state of emergency was declared in Spain in the wake of the major outage, which the country’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said occurred when about 15 gigawatts of electricity – more than half of the power being consumed at the time – “suddenly disappeared” in about five seconds."  Ref Spain blackout, News.com.au

Electricity blackouts are not generally reported in headlines, certainly not worldwide. So why was this, admittedly serious, blackout so significant? It is recognition that the 100%-renewables target of much of the Western world may be flawed. 

Of course, the climate zealots are looking at other explanations. Indeed several were posed by operators. Be it some technical mumbo jumbo that the average pundit cannot follow, or "very rare and unusual environmental circumstances", these causes do right the ship of doubt. If these events have occurred, they can occur again, so the unavoidable conclusion is that the new renewables grid is unstable. Moreover, the greater the proportion of renewables in a system, the less stable the grid becomes to unexpected fluctuations. 

This video provides a more technical analysis of the issues, and well worth a view.

It seems the blackout in Spain is an early warning of a serious flaw in the strategy of decarbonization by using Wind and Solar. That is a difficult conclusion for the many countries that are busy trying to transform their countries' electricity grids to renewables. Hopefully they are watching!

OTG WE 4 May 2025

Australia's Labor part re-elected

My hopes were shattered. The polls were not wrong, but not because the swing against Labor was greater than expected, but because they failed to predict the more significant swing towards Labor. Yes, the bumbling, hapless, mendacious Albanese government has won a second term with an increased majority. How was this possible, given its singular failure to run the country effectively? 

There will be much soul-searching in the coming weeks and months. There is no doubt that the campaign was mismanaged by the Coalition and was well managed by Labor. Peter Dutton as leader of the opposition, has accepted responsibility, as he should. He does not have to resign as leader as he lost his own seat. A most undignified end to a 20-year political career. I will leave my comments short, nd let the dust settle before drawing more conclusions. Alas, my flag is at half mast today.

Johannes Leak cartoon summarises my thoughts exactly.

But, obviously, the majority did not agree with me, or Johannes.

Australian election tomorrow.

After a campaign of some six weeks, Australia's federal election takes place tomorrow. Polls indicate the re-election of Labor under the leadership of Anthony Albanese, most likely in a minority government with The Greens and Teals. All the polls, however are national polls, and seats are decided in individual electorates. It is unusual, but has occure just a few years ago in 2019, where the national polls were all wrong.  So, I for one am hoping, that history will repeat itself. In any objective measure this Labor government does not deserve another term. They have mismanaged the economy, have allowed the rise of anti-semitism and social division, have trashed relationship with Israel, have sucked up to China, and neglected defence. It goes on, but I won't bore you. If you live in Australia you know ,and if you don't , you don't care. 

But here is a recent Liberal party ad that highlights Albanese's bumbling manner.

Can you afford another three years of this? pic.twitter.com/QQG7ST9udB

— Liberal Party (@LiberalAus) May 1, 2025

Is Islam a religion of peace?

Despite the oft-quoted claim that "Islam is a religion of peace", observers of Europe's experiment with Muslim immigration have convinced many that it is not. Certainly, the crime rate in Europe following this experiment has risen in direct proportion to the increase in Muslim immigrants. Yes, I know immigrants are always troubled souls who find it difficult to integrate, so it should not be surprising if crime levels increased. But, it is much worse than that. Europe has experienced many waves of migrants from all parts of the world. In the sixties, it was Indians and Pakistanis. Then, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, there was a great wave of Eastern Europeans, Poles, Romanians and Ukrainians into Western Europe.

In these earlier waves, there was no great rise in crime rates. The most significant rise has occurred following the wave of migrants from the Middle East and North Africa. These migrants were mainly Muslims, coming from a different culture, and consequently, they have not integrated well. Crime rates, including sexual assault, have risen steeply. 

Should we therefore conclude that the rise is due to the religion? Perhaps not. In a recent video, Konstantin Kisin analyses these questions following his recent trip to Uzbekistan. He notes that although Uzbekistan is a mainly Muslim country, it has avoided the crime rates that have plagued the West. He concludes that Western governments have failed to control the Islamists, the religious zealots who advocate global Jihad against non Muslims.  Uzbekistan, in contrast, has succeeded in isolating the Islamists by insisting that non-Islamist Muslims are not allowed to be intimidated or coerced. This is achieved by strict rules against the Islamist dogma. For example, Burkas are not permitted in public. 

So perhaps the religion is not to blame; it is Islamism,  the violent corruption of Islam that is the source of the problems in Europe. The lesson of Uzbekistan must be heeded by all of Europe, and soon. Without significant moves to control the Islamists, Europe is destined to become a battleground with the Islamists gaining ever more population clout.

Here is Konstantin Kisin's video. Well worth the 10 minutes.

 

Trump's first 100 days

I couldn't avoid covering this, too, but I am sure you have already heard multiple analyses of Trump's first 100 days. No doubt, the analyses have varied widely depending on the degree of TDS of the person doing the analysis. Not only the US, but the world is polarised. I cannot remember a time when the performance of the US presidents was so widely covered by the media. Trump is a larger-than-life character, for better and for worse. Let me make just a few observations, as so much has already been said.

The Good

The southern border has been closed, DOGE has uncovered significant savings, and the deportation of the violent illegal immigrants is progressing. 

His executive orders have progressed his agenda on stopping DEI, restarting energy production, removal of Climate Change red tape. He has addressed anti-Semitism on College campuses. 

His support for Israel has released weapons, and he has given Israel free rein to run its defensive war against Hamas. Under Trump, the US has taken direct action against the Houthis to liberate the shipping lanes through the Red Sea. He has negotiated favourable deals for the US for its use of the Panama Canal.

The Bad

Not all has gone well, though. He has started fights where they were not required, for example, Canada and Greenland. In Canada, this has had a disastrous impact on Canada's elections, causing the reelection of Canada's liberal government, reversing a 20-point lead by the conservative party. 

His bombastic approach to foreign affairs has caused unnecessary friction with allies. A more diplomatic approach could have yielded the same outcomes without the bad blood.

The Ugly

There are a couple of areas where Trump's strategy and approach have been terrible. The first is Ukraine-Russia. Commendably, Trump entered the fray to try to bring peace to the region. This was never going to be easy. His approach seemed to be to 'butter up ' Putin to get him to the table. That may have been justified, had he succeeded. But at the same time, he chose to distance himself from Zelensky. This was not necessary and was counterproductive. Putin, seeing Trump's apparent willingness to jettison the close relationship with Ukraine, only served to make Putin demand more. Not very artful deal-making. At this stage, we have had Trump move his position toward Ukraine and threaten Putin with more sanctions. It is a game in progress, so too hard to call. But it has been ugly.

The second and perhaps even uglier issue has been the handling of the Tariffs. With a rather upbeat 'Liberation Day' announcement, Trump effectively started a war against all US trading partners. Naturally, this had serious ramifications in international stock markets. A totally unnecessary own goal. He has now chosen to delay the implementation for all countries except China. Of course, that is a good idea, but he should have anticipated the consequences of his big Liberation Day hit-them-all-at-once strategy and introduced the tariffs for trading partners on a gradual basis. China remains a big issue, and Trump has already modified even the China policy by removing electronics and now some cars. Yes, this is also ugly. This tariff stuff-up is unfortunate and has not yet been sorted. 

So we have seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Given the pace at which Trump has been implementing new policies, some errors are not surprising. Hopefully, he will be able to learn from these errors. But I suspect not. Trump is Trump. We knew he was impulsive and insensitive to consequences. His approach has always been to try to break his way through a problem, and if it doesn't work, reverse and try another approach. That can and has looked messy.

Here is one analysis of Trump's first 100 days from Alan Dershowitz, once a Democrat but now an Independent.

COVID conspiracies transform into Facts

The White House official COVID-19 Site has turned ideas demonised as "conspiracy theories" but a few years ago into today's accepted 'facts'. We have seen this coming. Many of my recent posts have highlighted the results of studies that questioned the 'official facts' relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

There were too many ideas that have now been proven wrong, but let me note a few; - 

• The origin of COVID is believed to be a Wuhan wet market with animal-to-human transfer
• that lockdowns were effective
• that masks are effective in preventing transmission
• that vaccines prevent infection
• that vaccines prevent hospitalisation
• that ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine are not safe
• that side effects are low and justify vaccination even for young children
• etc.

Unfortunately, the reaction of the authorities was herd-like panic. Most Western countries adopted a lockdown approach, used by China, but against their prior pandemic plans. The approach to vaccination was shameful. Authorities coerced the population to inject themselves with a vaccine that had far less testing than any other vaccine in history. The unvaccinated were vilified, and those protesting vaccination were vilified. The accepted human rights of citizens were supplanted by mandates. Mandates restricting their ability to marry, to attend funerals, to visit dying relatives in hospital, and to travel. We have yet to see the elites who imposed these restrictions even acknowledge and apologise for their errors, let alone be held accountable. Perhaps it will happen, but I won't hold my breath.

Here is the recent video from Dr John Campbell about the White House COVID site acknowledging the errors of the past.

Israel has new strategy on Gaza

While I have not seen any announcements of this, I have seen a few articles highlighting Israel's new strategy on Gaza. The news media have concentrated on the ongoing negotiations to try to release the remaining hostages. With Israel's demand for Hamas' total abdication in exchange for the end to hostilities, there is little incentive for Hamas to release more hostages. After all, they want to remain in power. 

But that may be the side show. Israel has taken some dramatic steps in its battle against Hamas. Some time ago, Israel stopped all UN aid from entering the country. The justification for this was that Hamas was commandeering the aid and instead of distributing it to those in need, was taking what it wanted and then selling what was left to the highest bidders. Despite initial protests from the world, to my surprise, the issue has been forgotten. But of course, it means the supply of food must be diminishing, and will no doubt become a serious issue. It has been reported that Israel will now take responsibility for distributing all aid in Gaza. This is a game-changer, as it removes Hamas from the game. It prevents Hamas from trading on this, and also removes the influence Hamas gains by being the sole source of food. 

At the same time Israel has not withdrawn its military. On the contrary, the troops have been active. They are int eh process of isolating Rafah, by creating a 2 km wide, 14 km long corridor. 

Until recently, the border between Egypt and Gaza has been very porous. Egypt has played a duplicitous role, pretending that it prevented armaments from entering via the Philadelphi corridor, while turning a blind eye to it. Israel's invasion of Rafah and the corridor has proved this, exposing the large number of tunnels that were used to arm Hamas.  Israel's new corridor is some kilometres from Rafah, dividing Gaza into two distinct zones. We have yet to see how Israel will exploit this division, but it will certainly enable Israel to prevent weaponry from entering Northern Gaza, and also allow its troops to clear Rafah of its Hamas terrorists. 

Here is a short video highlighting these changes.

 

WEF's Schwab in Hot Water?

Klaus Schwab has stepped won as chairman of the World Economic Forum, following serious claims of governance malpractice. The claims were made by an anonymous letter reported by the WSJ as being from existing employees of the organisation. Naturally, the Schwab family has denied all claims and threatened to sue those making the claim. Many observers of the WEF, yes, me too, will feel some 'Schadenfreude" at this development. After all, it is the WEF that seems to have appointed itself as the de facto rulers of the world, dictating future world developments to us plebs. The WEF has a membership of 5000 of the richest /most powerful members of the world. Most are unelected, and certainly none have been elected to make any decisions as to the future of the world. Yet, they gather each year for a talkfest and make declarations that are reported widely. Their declarations seem to set some sort of agenda for those members who have leadership roles in some countries' governments. So yes, they have a disproportionate influence on our lives. 

I do not care whether their plans have any merit at all. Some may, perhaps, but many are clearly abhorrent. For example, they advocate censorship and the elimination of ownership.  I object to the influence they have managed to gather by bribing the elites. These bribes take the form of bestowing kudos on members.  The organisation should be boycotted, and indeed any members' kudos should be negated, by boycotting those who have been members of the WEF. However, that will all take time.

But for now, we can rejoice that the WEF leadership has been 'hoist on their own petard'. Their staff are now accusing their leadership of the same sort of governance issues that have been used to bring down many organisations, think Black Lives Matter, for example.

Here is a short report on the claims against Schwab.

OTG Week ending 27 Apr 2025

It Must be Climate Change

Like an unforgettable earworm, "it must be Climate Change" has been assailing us from every corner of our media exposure. It has become the go-to phrase to explain whatever weather-related issue arises. A flood here, a cyclone there,  an algal bloom, an unusually hot day or even an unusually cold day. It seems there is no environmental event that Climate Change has not caused.  Worse still, there are many nodding heads, agreeing. Heads of politicians, media commentators, business entrepreneurs, large renewables portfolios, mind you, and of course, the experts, the academics. So is this correct? How can one even consider that those we always rely on for our view of the world are wrong? They wouldn't collude to fool us? They couldn't, could they? 

I don't believe it is collusion. However, they are acting in concert to mislead us. Some do not do it intentionally, but certainly some will avoid exposing information they do possess that would contradict their statements. Lying by omission. 

Like all great movements, the Climate Catastrophe phenomenon will unwind over time. Just as we are now seeing the COVID hysteria unwinding with a slow trickle of information exposing the sheer lies we were fed "for our own good", so too will the Climate Catastrophe dogma unwind. But as it has been going for much longer, its unwinding will take longer. 

Nevertheless, some green shoots of truth are emerging.

The Prager U recently focused on this issue with a video titled "It must be Climate Change".

As usual it is a rather short video, but well worth a view.

The robots are running, sort of

In a world first Beijing hosted a half marathon for robots. I guess it had to come. This was an opportunity to gauge the status of humanoid robots, at least as to their ability to run. It was a somewhat comical affair with many robots failing the task in hilarious ways. Battery life was the most obvious problem for many, but the sheer task of coordination was enough to bring many down to earth. The win, hail  the hero, was a Chinese candidate with the cute name of Tiangong Ultra. Young Tiangong finished in 2 hours and 40 minutes — a long way to go before it can surpass the men's winner who finished in 1 hour and 2 minutes.  Here is a video summary of the race.

Yet, we should be aware that this is a massive development and without doubt future models will soon overtake human capabilities. 

When humanoid robots combine with AGI (artificial general intelligence), all human work on the planet will be obsolete, unlike global warming, which is the ultimate threat to humanity. 

China in Chaos

Trump's high tariffs on China are having a dramatic effect on China. I covered some of this in last week's post so won't belabor it here. This second video tells the story. 

No doubt this has a long way to run, and the consequences may not be welcome. A China under pressure will likely resonate across the world. 

A picture paints 1000 words

Lies, Damn Lies and politicians

In the throes of an upcoming election, politicians are sometimes forgiven for 'gilding the lily'.

But IMHO, our Labor government is setting records on the eve of the upcoming May 3 election. Pinocchio could no longer walk into a room had he chosen to tell so many porkies.

Of course it is not just the Albo, the current PM, it is his entire team. Nor is it just the Labor party, or its close acolytes. It includes the media, always left-leaning, failing to do their due diligence to ensure the electorate knows the 'facts'. Yes, I know 'facts' are elusive. Yet in this campaign, there has been scant scrutiny by the free press to ensure honesty. This would be somewhat forgivable if they applied an equal standard to right-leaning parties. But it is not so. There remains a blatant bias in our left leaning media. 

SO what are these 'untruths'? Lets look at a few ; -

• Labor have repeatedly claimed the LNP coalition's nuclear program will cost $600B. the only basis for this figure, sort of, is a costing supplied by an anti-nuclear lobby group who claim the cost not at $600B but within the range $110 B to $ 600 B. 
• Labor then claims the LNP opposition will pay for this $600B by cutting services
• Labor claims the LNP is going to cut Medicare, with absolutely NO justification
• Labor claims the LNP will cut the public service with NO justification
• Labor claims the coalition will cut the number of 'urgent care' clinics. LNP say no it will not
• ... and many more

And, it is working! The lies may not be believed, but they have been effective in deflecting scrutiny, of their own record, which has been abysmal.

I guess that is politics, and it is a challenge that every opposition leader faces. How to control the narrative. How to ensure your own policy agenda wins hearts and minds. At this stage, Labour seems to be in the ascendant, but there are two weeks to go.

On the grapevine WE 30 Mar 25

Trump's first 2 months

Trump was inaugurated just 2 months ago. After the euphoria of his first 2 weeks, reality is now setting in. Without doubt he took the reins with gusto. He was prepared. He selected a dream team of articulate, capable and anti-woke individuals. Almost all were confirmed by the Senate. They in turn, have taken the reins of their organisations and are generally settling in well. The pace has been hectic, and we cannot expect it to continue at this pace. 

The decisions and executive orders that Trump initiated are starting to bear some fruit. Most notable is the success on the border. Border crossings are down 90%. This was achieved WITHOUT the new legislation the Democrats had been insisting would be necessary. Not a bit surprise, but worth noting.

In second place, IMHO, is the work of DOGE. Musk and his team have exposed unexpected levels of waste and fraud. Savings are already in the hundreds of billions, and are projected to reach $1 trillion pa. That is stupendous. Musk has suffered personal attacks, and his Tesla dealers are being terrorised. It seems the Democrats cannot stop digging their grave. How could any responsible citizen object to the elimination of fraud? No doubt most citizens do not. So the Democrats are picking the wrong battle, again.

There have also been some negatives. The handling of Zelensky with a public altercation in the OvalOffice was unseemly and unprofessional.Although Zelensky must accept some of the blame so must Trump and his team. JD in particular. He seems to me to lack nuance and finesse. This will become a real problem if he cannot learn, and quickly. Although a lot of commentary on the Putin Trump relationship seemed to indicate Trump has some rapport and would be able to come to an agreement relativley quickly. While Trump's claim of 24 hours for a ceasefire was always regarded as a 'rhetorical flourish', it is looking messy. Putin is toying at the moment, perhaps misreading Trump's ability to turn on a dime. we shall see soon enough. But at this stagre I expect Trump will have to force Putin to get serious, either by strengthening Zelensky via additional arms, or additional sanctions. 

On the ISrael-Hamas war, Trump has gone as well as could have been expected. Hamas is crumbling but slowly. Trump and his team are giving good support and arms shipments are flowing. 

On Iran Trump has issued an ultimatum give up your nuclear ambitions or have them destroyed. He has sgiven them 2 months. That period however is a problem, and I have read recently that Russia and China are now encouraging Iran to develop their bombs within the next 2 months. I take the report with a grain of salt as I cannot see either Russia or China wanting another nuclear state, especially an Islamist state, given the problems they have both experience with their Muslim insurrectionists. Still it is an issue.

Still on the negatives, the anti-Trump media has re-grouped and are back to their TDS. However, their supporters have diminished and many are re-structuring, and even aligning with Trump's policies. 

The Democrats are in disarray; there seems to be no clear leaders, so the extremists, AOC, Warren, and Sanders, are making hay. The only coordinated action seems to be judicial, with over a hundred legal cases against the Trump administration's decisions. Local judges have put a halt to many, and the process will now continue to the appeals court and some to the Supreme Court. This was expected and will cause some delay, but most are expected to succeed.

That brings us to the most recent fiasco, where a reporter from left-wing Atlantic was 'invited' to attend what should have been secret meetings between senior members of Trump's executive team. This has been in the papers for a week now, and should die down, but it is the first serious failure of the team. I am guessing no heads will roll this time, but hopefully, there is some investigation being done to determine why this happened, and why Walz has the Atlantic reporter's personal number??

That is my short summary. But it is much better to hear from an expert. Here is a brief one from Victor Davis Hanson.

More Gaza demonstration against Hamas

It seems the demonstrations against Hamas in Gaza are no abating. In multiple cities demonstrators are out in force decrying Hamas for starting the war against Israel AND demanding the release of the remaining hostages. If only we had the same demonstrations and slogans from the Western world. We can only speculate that the war would have been over by now.

Still better late than never! Let's see if the pro-Palestinian demonstrators will change their tune and align their slogans with that of Gaza's Palestinians, calling for Hamas to release the remaining hostages. I suspect not.

Here is another video of the demonstrations.

Here come the Robots

I am a tech freak, having been weaned on engineering and science. Living in the late 20th and early 21st century, I have had a feast of technological developments. While robotics has already transformed large-scale manufacturing across the globe, most recently, our collective focus has been taken by AI with nary a new announcement every week. Without doubt, both disciplines independently are at the very beginning of their life cycle and will transform life on earth. The greatest impact, however, will come from their integration. AI will take over the cognitive functions, and robotics will enable execution. The world of Futurama, with intelligent humanoid robots, will present humanity with the possibility of eliminating all physical labour. Imagine a world where intelligent robots can do all the work required for housing, feeding, and entertaining a populace that can spend its time on whatever it wants. This can be viewed as a dream or a nightmare. Yes technology always presents new challenges.

But let's not get bogged down in the philosophy, have a look at some of the advances in robotics presented in this video.

That, of course, presents too many social problems to cover here. 

Gazans protesting against HAMAS

It seems to have taken eons, but at last, we have demonstrations by 'innocent' Palestinian citizens against their Hamas overlords. Why should this be surprising? After all, in many Western cities, there are regular ongoing protests against Israel in support of Hamas. Yes, we have citizens of the free West protesting Israel's defensive war against a terrorist organisation that started the war and still holds hostages. Innocent civilians who happened to have attended a music festival some 18 months ago. While one can dismiss the atrocities that started the war as those of a barbaric group of Islamic terrorists, surveys of the population of Gaza just after the Oct 7 attack and even after the Israeli response including a ground invasion, and extensive bombing, the surveys showed about 80% of Gaza's population supported Hamas' atrocities. Yes, some 80%. Over the following months, Hamas' popularity dropped to about 60%, most recently to around 40%.

At last, it seems, those 60% who no longer support Hamas are now out in the streets calling for Hamas to leave. This is good news, and one could predict it to be the beginning of the end of Hamas. But let's not be overly optimistic, Hamas is still in control, and they may manage to quell this uprising. If they do, it will be brutal. We have seen their brutality in the past. But we live in hope.

The reporting of these demonstrations has been limited. I have seen it on SkyNews, X, and reported in the Australian. However, there is, at present, some reluctance in main stream, read left-leaning, media to report on this. After all, for 18 months they have been reporting extensively and enthusiastically on the demonstrations against demon Israel. So it is difficult to turn around and now report on the Gazans rejecting the very group that those demonstrations supported. 

Here is the report from SkyNews.

Lockdowns do NOT work

Though a few years have passed, the pandemic is now a somewhat remote nightmare. Most of the world has moved on. Sure, a few million people died (actually some 7 million, according to Wikipedia). Sure, the authorities made some poor decisions. Sure, vaccination would have had some side effects, including some deaths, but it is claimed they were necessary to save lives. Sure vaccine manufacturers took some shortcuts in the testing of the vaccines. Sure, the media and medical authorities stretched the truth to get us to conform to vaccination and lockdown mandates. But it is claimed this unprecedented authoritarianism was for our own good. So goes the claim. But although, as Oliver Tearle said, "A lie is halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on", the truth does, eventually catch up.

The truth has been trickling out over the months. The truth that current COVID vaccination presents zero efficacy, that COVID vaccination has serious adverse events at a rate that makes it inadvisable for many, if not all, age groups, the truth that the lockdowns that were imposed in many Western democracies violated the human rights of the population. 

Most recently, we learned that lockdowns are NOT an effective strategy for limiting the impact of a pandemic. In fact, quite the opposite. Here is a Prager video by Dr Scott Atlas, Senior Fellow in Health Policy at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, titled "COVID Lockdowns:The Real Cost". Well worth a view.

Much Maligned Musk manages miracle!

With US Democrats virtually losing their minds in a Musk-hate frenzy, we are unlikely to hear too much about the miraculous rescue of the marooned astronauts on the International Space Station. But miraculous it was. It elevates Musk in the eyes of anyone with a heart, but that condition may perhaps leave out many Democrats. Musk is a genius across many fields, and is widely respected across the world. Yet, in our politically polarized world when he dropped the Democrats and joined Trump's campaign the rabid Democrats have turned on him. Bogus investigations, campaigns to boycott companies advertising on Twitter, and most recently a violent campaign attacking Tesla dealerships. 

It seems 'hell hath no fury like a "Democrat" scorned!

The rescue of the marooned astronauts did make the media, yet was quickly forgotten to focus on anti-Trump propaganda. Here is a brief video from Dave Rubin.

How to handle calls to boycott Israel

Sad to say politics has infiltrated every aspect of our lives. Local councils, whose sole raison-d'etre is "rates, roads and rubbish' are invariably hijacked by activists to pass resolutions that have nothing to do with their core function. We have councils that object to Australia Day being on 26th January, to wanting to fly a Palestinian flag, to celebrate Pride Day by painting roads multi-coloured, or imposing a boycott against Israeli goods. These types of issues are political in nature and a council decision will have a miniscule, if any, real impact. Usually, the position of these activist councils runs contrary to the government of the day and does not have community support. It is as if some minority clique has managed to take control of the local council, then flexing their power to enact radical policies to 'make a statement'. 

While the examples I have given apply in Australia this issue is by no means limited to Australia. Indeed the following video shows how Rami Feinstein an Israeli citizen addressed Summit County Ohio council meeting when they were considering boycotting Israel. His response is succinct and comprehensive and serves as a template on how individuals should confront their councils when faced with political motions. 

OTG for WE 16 Mar 25

Who is the architect of Europe's downfall!

Europe is in a downfall. It is not just me saying it, but most European leaders admit the serious problems they face. The demographic problem, the energy problem, the inability of Europe to defend itself, the widespread and increasing social dislocation. 

So why has this happened? After all, Europe has been at peace for 75 years. By any measure, Western Europe is rich, and even Eastern Europe fares well compared to most of the world. The answer must be mismanagement.

Over the past two decades, we have seen the economically strongest countries, Germany, France, and UK, mismanage two vital components of the well-being of a country: energy and immigration. Climate Change zealotry has increased the cost of energy, which has decimated manufacturing industries, mostly exporting them to countries not conforming to the decarbonization dogma. Uncontrolled immigration has seen an influx of large numbers of African and Middle Eastern migrants who become a drain on the economy and stress social cohesion. These migrants have been very slow to integrate into European culture, and this has resulted in increasing crime rates, including terrorism. This, in turn, is causing the rise of right-wing anti-immigration parties and may lead to vigilantism.

Who is to blame? In democratic countries, the problems can rarely be attributed to a single individual. However, Germany's Angela Merkel has been the major architect of the policies that have led to the sad state in which Europe finds itself. At least, that is the conclusion historian Victor Davis Hanson has proposed in his video titled " Germany is falling apart before our eyes. "

He makes a compelling case, well worth a view.

Australia's Energy policies are bonkers!

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I will let the meme tell the story.

Australia's energy policies are bonkers. QED!

Alberta's Pandemic Report recommends against COVID vaccination

I have seen so many of these that I am becoming reluctant to include them in the weekly posts. Yet, having listened to it, it is compelling. Not so much for the conclusion (spoiler alert, that COVID vaccination is not recommended), but the insights into the way bureaucracies operate to suppress the truth. The shading of facts, the misinformation on treatments like Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin and even vitamin D. are all quite absurd and, in my opinion, criminally negligent. 

Well worth viewing this interview of Dr Gary Davidson by Jan Jekielek as part of the Epoch Times' American Thought Leaders program. 

CC the Grift of the Century

In the first of what is a 2 part in depth review, The Gatestone Institute has focused a critical eye on Climate Change,which it has labeled "the Grift of the Century". One would say "you had me at the title". My first response was, Wow, the tables have turned. Such headlines would have been unheard of just a short pre-Trump while ago. While these analyses are overdue they are welcome. We need to have this type of analysis come from the left-leaning media too. I can see that will be slow, but hopefully they too will return to some proper analysis, sometime.

The article is well worth  read, but to whet your appetitie here are some of the summary points; - 

• "Perhaps the climate hoax is actually not about saving the environment? What is it, then?

• Climate change is largely caused by solar flares. So far, at least, there is not a blessed thing anyone can do about them. Many industries offer grants for papers that support the efficacy of their products that relate to climate change. Solar flares, regrettably, do not offer grants.

• (In) 2015 Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change: "This is the first time in the history of mankind that we are setting ourselves the task of intentionally, within a defined period of time, to change the economic development model that has been reigning for at least 150 years, since the Industrial Revolution."

• That would mean the destruction of capitalism and the world economy, however long that takes.

• When the global elites arrived in Davos, Switzerland, in 2023 to discuss the urgent need to declare climate emergencies, they did so using more than 150 private jets.

• Any journalists or commentators who dare to question or oppose the climate change orthodoxy are immediately shunned as "climate deniers" and met in the legacy media with an instant end to their careers.

• "What is, in my view, even more dangerous, is the quasi-scientific form that their many times refuted forecasts have taken upon themselves." — Former Czech President Vaclav Klaus, The New American, December 22, 2009.

• "For the last 16 years, temperatures have been going down and the carbon dioxide has been going up and the crops have got greener and grow quicker. We've done plenty to smash up the planet, but there's been no global warming caused by man.... I still say it's poppycock! If you believe it, fine. But I don't and there's thousands like me." — David Bellamy, English botanist and former BBC broadcaster, The Daily Mail, January 22, 2013.

• It is no wonder that the climate change scam won the day. Few people have been willing to risk their livelihoods to fight against the manipulation."

Now , read the full article at "'Climate Change': Grift of the Century? Part I Dismantling Capitalism, Transferring Wealth, Dismantling the West"

HRC report too little too late!

Australians were hit hard by the COVID pandemic! No, the virus did very little damage, and we fared better than most Western Countries, but this is a big BUT!. The unprecedented extreme overreach of both state and federal governments, the medical fraternity, the media broke all the norms in a free society. 

• After instituting extreme lockdown laws without passing them through the normal legislative processes, the police enforced them most aggressively. 
• An old lady sitting in a park on a bench with a mask on was told to move on, 
• The Premier of Victoria castigated citizens for watching a sunset on a beach, 
• The Premier of Queensland prevented critically ill citizens from NSW from attending their hospital: "Queensland hospitals are for Queenslanders". 
• Citizens who had left Australia for an overseas trip were not allowed to return to their country even with valid passports,
• Citizens were not even allowed to leave the country. 
• Family members were not allowed to visit dying relatives in hospital,
• police violently attacked lock-down protestors, 
• individuals were arrested and charged with unknown crimes for a social media post advertising a protest.
• Thousands of residents were fined for breaking the most ridiculous ad-hoc lockdown rules, driving outside the nominated 5 km from home, no wearing a mask, not moving fast enough when walking through a park

Do any of these make sense in a free society? But shame on us, we Australians, on the whole, accepted this overreach. Not all of us, mind you. Many did protest, but they were generally cast out, demonized. Yes, demonized by many who should have known better. Our legal fraternity let us down. After all, they should have spoken up about this overreach. Our media let us down; after all, they too should have asked more questions and held these petty dictators to account. Our medical fraternity let us down, as they put no value on the very freedoms that were being denied to citizens. Families with children locked into small spaces for months, with but a few allowed excursions, have a long-term effect on the family. 

And most importantly, Australia's Human Rights Council let us down. They remained stumm. They failed to speak up; they condoned by silence. Now, years after the events, they have produced a report. And yes, they now acknowledge that there was an overreach. Yeh, right! It only took years to say what was evident at the time. This mob has proved themselves useless, and the whole lot should be fired. If only we had a Trump-like overhaul of the bureaucracy, they would indeed be disbanded. But I can only dream.

I was only planning a few words to introduce Avi Yemini's recent video on this subject, but I seem to have dropped into a diatribe. Still, I do feel better getting it out. After all, this site is called Grappy's Soapbox, so you will forgive me an occasional rant.

In the meantime here is Avi Yemini's post WATCH: Human Rights Commission stands up against COVID abuses ... Five years late!

Aid Hypocrisy

Israel recently declared it has suspended all aid entering Gaza. Is this reasonable? Indeed it has received widespread criticism. But as always seems to be the case when Israel is concerned, the truth is somewhat buried. Here is a short video that puts the move by Israel into perspective.

Decarbonization lowers living standards

Slowly, very slowly, the truth about decarbonization, the rapid elimination of fossil fuels, is receiving more attention. Epoch Times has reported that "On March 3, leading UK investment bank Peel Hunt published an analysis that challenges the government claim that there is no trade-off between Net Zero and economic growth." In effect, the UK's decarbonization efforts have left the UK poorer.

With major emitters China, India and the US no longer committed to Nett Zero, the climate dogma has lost momentum. Countries with lower contributions to world emissions are re-evaluating their commitments. Just today, Canada has abandoned Nett Zero ambitions. After all, why would any country sacrifice their standard of living to achieve significant cuts to their emissions when such cuts will not have any impact on global emissions? Watch this space. 

What is the greatest thing AI did for humanity?

We have watched in wonder at the rate of development of AI. Virtually every week, we hear of a technological breakthrough or the release of a new product. AI companies are receiving massive investments, and their stock prices are setting records. Their use is still in its infancy but is growing rapidly.

 I have had a play and have posted at times showing my results (see On the Grapevine WE 9 Mar 25 ). For students, it is like having a personal tutor and a best homework buddy. For any office worker, it is a valuable personal assistant, writing and correcting text, creating images and presentations, preparing proposals, reviewing documents, even developing new ideas. Given their ready availability at zero or low cost, it is no surprise that every single enterprising administrator is already using it. Those who do use it well have increased their productivity. No doubt, this is a growth area.

These are not minor benefits, but the potential is much greater. AI has the potential to increase the rate of scientific discovery, which will greatly benefit all of mankind. In one of my recent posts, I mentioned that AI has already contributed to the doubling of the life of lithium batteries (see AI Creativity Challenge). But the most significant contribution to science I have seen so far is AI's success in mapping the structure of proteins. This is a fantastic story, but it is a bit too technical to provide detail. In summary, over the past 5 decades, thousands of scientists have managed to map the structure of about 150,000 proteins. Then, using an AI model specifically designed for the purpose, just 15 scientists have mapped 200,000,000. That is virtually every known protein.  I think this qualifies as the most significant scientific contribution of AI so far. I expect many such breakthroughs in the years to come.

This video tells the story, but it is quite technical and about 25 minutes long.

On the Grapevine WE 9 Mar 25

Lomborg destroys Green Energy narrative!

Contrary to claims by too many Climate Zealots, the greater the penetration of renewables, Solar and Wind in an economy, the greater the cost of energy and the lower the living standards. This is a sobering conclusion and seems paradoxical. Why would this be true if solar and wind power are totally free whenever the sun shines and the wind blows? The problem is intermittency. Neither sun nor wind are available all the time. This means any society that needs energy 24/7 needs backup energy to cover the periods, and the backup system must provide as much energy as would have been provided by the renewables. This requires two energy systems instead of one, doubling the cost. 

Bjorn Lomborg covers this and much more in his interview by Dave Reuben as part of The Reuben Report. Well worth a view. 

Now, if we could only tell Chris Bowen, Australia's Minister of Energy and Climate Change, to watch this video, perhaps Australia could walk back the decarbonization crusade that is already damaging Australian living standards. 

AI doubles EV battery life!

In a new and under-reported breakthrough, Chinese researchers have used AI to identify an additive that can be used on lithium-ion EV batteries at what was thought to be their end-of-life and revitalise them for full second life. Remarkable but apparently true—I say apparently as it sounds too good to be true—the results have been published. Watch this short video from The Electric Viking for the details.

VZ asks for forgiveness

It did not take long! I guess Zelensky has been told , most probably in no uncertain terms, that he had stuffed up. Perhaps I am being a wee bit uncharitable, and he realised it himself. Still he had no choice. No doubt Trump and team will hold make him squirm for a little while, but I still expect the deal will be done. 

This was not necessary, and hopefully Zelensky has learned his lesson, but I suspect not yet. Unfortunately this has provided more ammunition to the isolationists in the right making Trump's job more difficult. C'est la vie.

Jordanian Politician stands with Israel

Why should this be news? After all why shouldn't Israel's neighbours support it against Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists? Why indeed?

It seems many of Israel's neighbours avoid open declarations of support for the Jewish state. This is often interpreted as their supporting the terrorists, but it is just as likely that the politicians are simply avoiding "harm". In many cases, this can be direct physical harm. Still, even if not, it can come through isolation from their social groups with potential loss of their political status and position. So they are just scared. 

With this background, we must laud the bravery of those willing to risk everything to declare their support for Israel. 

Not surprisingly the video was published by a Jewish commentator. It is disappointing that the mainstream media seem to avoid articles where Israel's neighbours speak up in support of Israel. Could it possibly be an anti-Israel bias? 

The context of his words and the words themselves are covered in this short video.

Reverberations of OO fracas

Last Friday's fracas in the Oval Office has reverberated across the world. The steps taken by Trump and his team following the blow up have been single-minded. Zelensky has tried an apology of sorts, but this was after he talked with European leaders and received great adulation. Europe has offered much overdue commitments, however predicated on US continued support. Trump has subsequently suspended all weapons shipments to Ukraine. This has received widespread criticism from Western countries and, of course, Democrats and those for whom Trump cannot do right. But he has widespread support in the US, both due to the many isolationists in the MAGA group and also from Republicans who feel the US has borne the bulk of the costs in a European war with Europe not bearing its share.

No doubt this is a moving feast. Trump is exposing Zelensky and Europe to the hard truth that without the US, Ukraine would lose the war and its independence. That Zelensky was arrogant in his demands when 'he has no cards'. I do not believe this is irretrievable. Zelensky needs to come to the table, apologize for his poor approach, then simply sign the minerals deal.  Under the circumstances, that deal is very fair, giving 50% of the profits to both parties, with the US undertaking the development. If Zelensky fails this simple task, then my guess is that he will be replaced by others willing to make this commitment.

Given Putin's personal animus against Zelensky, after all, as a comedian, Zelensky mocked Putin quite wildly, and Zelensky's resignation may help a peace deal.

Alas, we will see soon enough. 

In the meantime Konstantin Kisin presented his autopsy on the fracas. Well worth a view, as always.

Zero, zilch, nada, COVID Vaccine efficacy!

Many studies have reported various levels of efficacy for COVID-19 mRNA vaccines. Many of these studies are retrospective, covering periods when the virus was active in 2021 and 2022. These studies showed various levels of protection, mainly from severe disease. But viruses are tricky creatures they mutate generally to become increasingly contagious but decreasingly virulent. Over time, you are more likely to be infected but suffer less from the disease.

However a recent study by Sara Garazo in Quebec Canada has looked at vaccine efficacy over the full period from 2021 to 2024. The results are noteworthy. The most recent version of the vaccine, when working against the most recent mutation of the virus has zero efficacy. So it will not reduce infection, it will not reduce the virulence of the virus, but may still have the deleterious side effects of the mRNA virus. This is a staggering conclusion when you look at the widespread encouragement by our medical communities to continue to vaccinate people of all age groups , and especially the elderly. This is criminal negligence!

I learned of this study from a recent video of a discussion between John Cambpell and Professor Robert Clancy. It is well worth a view,

Are we living on stolen land?

The world of politics is small. A political strategy in one country seems to appear by magic in another where it again seems to be relevant. I was reminded of this truism when I came across one of Prager U's short videos. It had me as soon as I read the title "Are we living on stolen land?".After all this seems to have become a dominant accusation at Australians in many recent divisive demonstrations led by pro-indigenous militants. The video encapsulates all the arguments posed by this land-stealing accusation in Australia. It also put into context all the arguments to refute such claims. 

So it is a must see. PragerU's videos are no longer automatically posted on YouTube, after YouTube ridiculous censorship, so you need to follow this link "Are we living on stolen land?"

It seems the strategies to destroy social cohesion, by socialists and marxists, is the same no matter what country in which it is applied.