Daily review 28/07/2022

18 comments on “Daily review 28/07/2022 ”

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1. Robert Guyton 1

   28 July 2022 at 7:02 pm

   Just now watched the live interview with Andrea Vance and Luke Malpass and found her much better than her previous Q&A effort. Kinda interesting, that National Party dirty-laundry airing, but we've moved on…
2. Robert Guyton 2

   28 July 2022 at 7:05 pm

   Bryan Gould alerts us to Luxon's potential for harm:

   "For Luxon to demonstrate his lack of judgment and probity in this way is bad enough for a Leader of the Opposition – the only ones to suffer are his party and supporters. But for a Prime Minister to show similar weaknesses is worrying for all of us. Mistakes such as these could have a major impact on the lives of all of us and on our country as a whole.

   The only comfort is that he has demonstrated his deficiencies in time for us to take the action needed to avoid being affected by them."

   https://bryangould.com/luxons-undoing/
3. Robert Guyton 3

   28 July 2022 at 8:18 pm

   Watch this, or we all die
4. joe90 4

   28 July 2022 at 8:32 pm

   Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

   /

   A federal judge has dismissed libel lawsuits against five media companies that a Kentucky student filed over an incident at the Lincoln Memorial in January 2019 in Washington D.C. which generated national news coverage.

   Nick Sandmann, who was a 16-year old student at Covington Catholic in Northern Kentucky at the time of the incident, was the center of videos that went viral which showed Sandmann and Nathan Phillips, a Native American man, standing face to face as Phillips beat a drum and sang a traditional song while Sandmann smiled.

   The five lawsuits were thrown out by United States District Eastern Kentucky Court Judge William O. Bertelsman, according to documents filed on Tuesday. The complaints were against media outlets The New York Times, CBS, ABC, Gannett Co. Inc, and Rolling Stone. Sandmann filed the lawsuits in federal court in Kentucky.

   https://www.kentucky.com/news/state/kentucky/article263868652.html
5. joe90 5

   28 July 2022 at 9:03 pm

   On gas substitution by German companies who discovered they could make do with a lot less when faced with mandatory cuts.

   https://twitter.com/ben_moll/status/1548004141049425920

   […]

   https://twitter.com/ben_moll/status/1552206045539360770
   • Poission 5.1

     28 July 2022 at 9:41 pm

     What they say,and do are very different.This morning electricity generation in Germany is close to 60% fossil due to low offshore wind,and solar.Gas generation is 15% of total generation.
     • joe90 5.1.1

       28 July 2022 at 10:22 pm

       Read a piece the other day, and of course I can't find it, saying winter is coming and Russia's gas industry is unlikely to be equipped to stop pressure and flow restrictions causing plant to freeze solid. And if not, because re-starting frozen well heads and pipelines is no easy thing production has to continue and the gas has to go somewhere.
       • Poission 5.1.1.1

         28 July 2022 at 10:49 pm

         That would make sense over winter,though there is some discussion also that Russian internal gas use is down due to sanctions on Russian industry exports,so there should be some site closures.
   • Belladonna 5.2

     29 July 2022 at 8:09 am

     Just reading that Germany has no mechanism to throttle back gas supplies, either to companies or to individual households, so they only control they have is pricing.

     https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11058375/Germany-turns-hot-water-Hanover-ban-hot-water-response-Russian-gas-crisis.html

     Plans to shield households from shocking price hikes are quietly being shelved in an effort to protect energy companies from absorbing the costs themselves and going bust.

     'We can't say yet how much gas will cost in November, but the bitter news is it's definitely a few hundred euros per household,' said Economy Minister Robert Habeck.

     Even this number might be optimistic, with some fearing that German bill payers could see an extra €500 (£420) added a year by the Russian gas squeeze.
     • Belladonna 5.2.1

       29 July 2022 at 8:19 am

       Also other EU countries are unlikely (in practice) to bail out Germany from their position with over-reliance on Russian gas. (quote from article above)

       Spain and Greece – whose economies were strangled by Germany after they were given bailouts following the 2008 financial crash – are strongly opposed, sarcastically telling Berlin to 'live within its means'.

       More widely, many of the EU countries are likely to protect their own population/industries, rather than penalizing them to help Germany – which is seen has having dug this hole for itself.

       Spain is known to have been particularly irked by demands for a gas cut, with diplomats saying ahead of talks that the country had 'done its homework' by building infrastructure that was not linked to Russian supply lines.

       That is widely seen as a slap-down to Germany, which ignored at least 15 years-worth of warnings to become over-reliant on Russian gas – and has now been pushing for reductions as a result.

       https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11053097/EU-diplomats-admit-gas-cut-deal-holes-Emmental-cheese.html

       And, lots of pressure from the US for Germany to reverse the mothballing of the nuclear plants – which is seen as ideologically driven, rather than pragmatic.

       Among the goals will be persuading Germany to delay the shuttering of its three remaining nuclear power-plants, which are due to come offline at the end of this year, to help ease the transition.

       Chancellor Olaf Scholz has so-far ruled out the move – brainchild of predecessor Angela Merkel – and is instead firing up old coal power stations, flying in the face of carbon emissions targets.
     • Sabine 5.2.2

       29 July 2022 at 11:43 am

       https://www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jul/27/uk-energy-bills-forecast-to-hit-3850-pounds-russia-cuts-gas-supply-further-europe-pipeline

       '

       British households face being told shortly before Christmas to brace for annual energy bills of £3,850, three times what they were paying at the start of 2022, after Russia further squeezed Europe’s gas supplies.

       Consumers have also been warned that annual charges of more than £3,500 a year, or £300 a month, could become the norm “well into 2024”.

       French Government to continue to freeze Energy prices.

       https://www.thelocal.fr/20220530/french-government-to-continue-energy-price-freeze-until-at-least-2023/

       As energy prices have spiralled across Europe following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ensuing sanctions, French households have largely been protected from increasing bills.

       The government’s bouclier tarifaire (price shield) has frozen gas prices and capped and electricity price rises at four percent.

       Italy:

       https://www.enerdata.net/publications/daily-energy-news/italy-unveils-new-eu14bn-package-cope-surging-energy-prices.html#:~:text=Despite%20the%20announced%20decline%20in,%25%20higher%2C%20at%20%E2%82%AC1%2C652.

       Despite the announced decline in the second quarter of 2022, the average electricity bill for a typical household will be 83% higher in the 1 July 2021-30 June 2022 year, compared with the same period of 2020-2021, at €948; the average residential gas bill will be 71% higher, at €1,652.

       Netherlands:
       https://www.government.nl/latest/news/2022/03/21/measures-to-cushion-impact-of-rising-energy-prices-and-inflation

       The government is therefore raising the one-off energy allowance (energietoeslag) for people on incomes around the level of social assistance benefit to € 800. It is also lowering the rate of value-added tax (VAT) on energy from 21% to 9%, and the excise duty on petrol and diesel will be cut by 21%. Finally, the government is bringing forward spending of € 150 million, originally earmarked for 2026, to help low-income households take energy-saving measures.

       there is not a single country in the EU or in Europe for that matter that will not feel the pinch.

       The good news is however that a lot of housing – private and public housing – is insulated, double glazed etc. What may be an issue to some households is the electricity costs to charge that EVcar, the gadgetry that needs charging, and of course the cost of working from home if hte companies balk at the prices that the end consumer pays and thus calls its force back to work in offices were electricity costs are generally cheaper as commercial rates are better then residential.

       Good luck for us that we have had this good rain over the last few weeks and our dams are full – yei!

       Never mind though that if we are wanting to have E cars for all, we really need to invest in Electricty generation, and i have yet to hear smart words from anyone with access to power and decision making.

       Germany and a few others in Europe will have to ask themselves if a war in Ukraine on behalf of the US hiding behind Nato against Russia really was such a good idea, and if a different solution might not needed to be found. In the meantime the Russians will be warm this winter.
       • RedLogix 5.2.2.1

         29 July 2022 at 12:02 pm

         The Germans are still struggling to accept that their much vaunted Energiewende has been a catastrophic mistake. Over the past two decades the Germans have almost doubled their installed nameplate generation capacity – mostly wind and solar – for a miserable 5% increase in net generation. All the while doubling electricity prices, dramatically increasing their carbon emissions and leaving Europe geopolitically vulnerable to Russian warmongering.

         At every single point – failure.

         Trillions have been spent on green energy over the past 20 years, notes energy entrepreneur and investor Brian Gitt, but the percentage of global power generated by fossil fuels has barely declined from 85.54 to 82.28 percent; the bulk of reductions have come from replacing coal with natural gas.
         • Sabine 5.2.2.1.1

           29 July 2022 at 12:06 pm

           And i hope this failure serves to remind people that what we have right now is about the best we will ever have.

           Ditto, Sri Lanka.

           and is it not nice that we here are importing cheap coal from elsewhere so that we can pretend to be green, and have a renewable 'energy supply'.

           Lol, can you see all the E cars charging on that overseas coal that we import by the boat load, or would that be to rude to mention?

           Germany will do alright, not because of the politics but because of the people. Ask yourself if you can confidently state this in regards to us here or in OZ?

           Never mind that pesky war that the US wages till the last Ukrainian (who has not yet fled) has been fed into the meat grinder.
           • RedLogix 5.2.2.1.1.1

             29 July 2022 at 12:16 pm

             There is but one person who can stop this war tomorrow. That is Putin.
             • Sabine …

               29 July 2022 at 12:32 pm

               Nah, there is but one country who can stop that war. That would be the warmongering nation of the US and its idea of posting nuclear warheads on the Ukrainian / Russian border and insisting that it is nothing to worry or fret about.

               So Russia has to do absolutly nothing, it can continue to do what it does now, fight a bit, keep them busy, take over one little town after the other until soon enough they have re-occupied the country, keep that gas and oil and grain to themselves or sell it to the BRICS countries and wait for the west to freeze to death in winter. Cause with Russia comes General Frost and whilst we might want to fear ourselfs silly with 'global' warming – more people will die this winter in Europe/UK for lack of heating and food then this summer.

               But its ok, these 'unfortunates' are collateral damage – that is people like you and me – and that is a completely acceptable price to pay for the wankers in high offices – what ever clown is selected in the UK, the old man from the US, the pretend wanna be's from the rest of Europe and also OZ and NZ.

               Russia has time. All the time. They have the grain, the oil, the gas, now trade in rubels only, and well it seems that there are quite a few countries that will trade with them, cause they actually have goods that people want/need/.

               Nek Minute, China………doing its own thing. LOL

               If Germany has any brains left, and considering the current configuration of the German Government they don't have any brain cells to them, they will find a way to tell the US to get the fuck back to the US (unless that country implodes on its on before that) and Germany will try with the rest of the European Union to come to the understanding that Russia will always be a neighbourgh that is not even that far away, whilst the US and its vassal states are far far away.

               It will come soon enough. Chances are after this winter and a few thousand dead people in central Europe and the UK.
               • RedLogix …

                 29 July 2022 at 12:58 pm

                 and its idea of posting nuclear warheads on the Ukrainian / Russian border and insisting that it is nothing to worry or fret about.

                 While the Russian weapons that have been pointed towards the West for decades were just harmless nothings?

                 It is all very well for Lavrov to demand Europe disarm itself and remove all their nuclear capacity like Ukraine did in the 1990s – but then some might think this would be a silly thing to do.
                 • Sabine …

                   29 July 2022 at 8:16 pm

                   there are still enough nukes in the west to kill all of europe several times over.

                   neither one of them – russia or europe or the us or the uk comes out of this looking good. They are all wankers, and we – he tangata – the world over will pay the price. The ukrainians as refugees and war dead. The africans/Egyptians and others because they will not get the grain they need. The russians cause Russia. The poor in Europe who have a good chance freezing to death. And so on and so forth.

                   You want to blame russia? Lol. Seriously. Lol. Again. Lol. It ain't Russia who is in talks with Canada to put nukes pointing at Washington on the Canadian / US American border in the name of safety. And for some reason the old dude in the US thought that Putin would not call Natos bluff. As of today still, i am waiting for Nato to put boots on the ground and fight the russians in the defense of the Ukraine.
                   • RedLogix …

                     29 July 2022 at 10:48 pm

                     It ain't Russia who is in talks with Canada to put nukes pointing at Washington on the Canadian / US American border in the name of safety.

                     It is not the US who has invaded Canada, brutally grinding it's way through Ottawa with artillery. Nor has it ever seriously posed such a threat.

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