More bad, bad news for smokers, as the price of a packet of cancer sticks now hits an average of $ 35 from a 12.5 percent tax hike.
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7421087/Cigarette-prices-Australia-surge-12-5-cent-latest-excise-hike.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

“The price of Australian cigarettes rose by another 12.5 per cent on Sunday - the latest in a series of tobacco excise hikes that's taken the average packet to a world record of $35. The federal Government has now hiked tobacco excise for seven consecutive years - with an average pack expected to hit $40 a pack by 2020. One health official said the habit will cost an average smoker $10,000 a year. The excise increases are on top of regular CPI hikes, with experts telling Daily Mail Australia an average cigarette stick now costs more than $1 including GST. People looking to save a buck by rolling their own sticks are not immune to the tax sting, with prices for a bag of tobacco jumping by a similar amount.”

     I am almost too afraid to write anything about money and finance, knowing nothing much about them, and expecting the learned here to expose me for being economically challenged. Still, I do know that the ordinary people like me are suffering, and that the debt collectors just keep coming like those killer robots in the Terminator movies:
  https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/personalfinance/debt-collectors-are-bankrupting-australians-over-small-credit-card-debts/ar-AAFHL22?ocid=NL_ENAU_A2_20190815_10_2

“Australians can be bankrupted over small debts
In Australia, an individual can be sued for bankruptcy for an unpaid debt of as little as $5,000. Last year, consumer advocates became increasingly alarmed by the number of clients being taken to court over relatively small debts by one company in particular — Lion Finance. They decided to do some research, analysing court lists over the past four years. Their data, released exclusively to the ABC, backed up their suspicions. "Lion Finance stands out as the debt collector using bankruptcy proceedings so much more frequently than any other debt collector in the market that it's absolutely astounding," Financial Rights Legal Centre's Karen Cox said. When it comes to the number of bankruptcy cases filed in the past financial year, Lion Finance was not far behind the Australian Tax Office (ATO). But while the ATO halved the number of people it sued for bankruptcy from 1,215 in the 2015-16 financial year to 543 in last financial year, Lion Finance increased its cases from 182 to 512 people in the same period. "Whereas most debt collectors ... have been using bankruptcy proceedings less and less, Lion Finance has been a growing user, the numbers of bankruptcies are just going through the roof," Ms Cox said. Ms Cox said bankruptcy would normally only be used if the debtor had an asset like a house. Lion Finance declined the ABC's request for an interview, but in a statement from its parent company Collection House Limited said it made every effort to avoid legal action. "We encourage customers to engage with us so we can discuss and assess their financial circumstances and avoid the legal process," it said.

     The death of Western civilisation is a long drawn out messy affair. Some people simply want to kill English people, perhaps because … well … white privilege? I don’t know… it could be because we are in a racist society; you know the tune, which plays endlessly. Sociology can give us no other explanation. Whatever; it all must be our fault.
   https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7358539/Afghan-asylum-seeker-tried-murder-stranger-Tesco-jailed-19-years.html

“An Afghan asylum seeker who tried to murder a complete stranger while 'fuelled' by a desire to kill English people was jailed for 21 years. Samiulahaq Akbari, 22, was caught on CCTV walking into the Tesco Extra in Thornton Heath, south London, on January 8. Akbari tapped a customer on the shoulder and asked for his nationality. He then took a swing at the victim, Mr Speight, with a ten-inch kitchen knife when he said he was from the UK. Mr Speight managed to kick Akbari off when he leapt on him and miraculously escaped from the scuffle without a mark on him. Just ten minutes earlier Akbari had pulled a knife on two other men in separate establishments on the same road in Croydon and was said to be 'fuelled with the same intention'. Prosecutor Heidi Stonecliffe told jurors: 'On that evening in January this year this defendant had set out deliberately to threaten, harm and kill members of the public by virtue of their nationality, or what Mr Akbari perceived to be their nationality - they were English.' Akbari was convicted of attempted murder over the rampage which took place just 12 days after he was released from prison for another assault. Judge Mark Dennis QC jailed him yesterday for 19 years with an extended licence period of two years. The judge said: 'The report on you says you have a deep seated fixation which gave rise to serious violent situations when in drink.'”

     If this is happening under Trump’s watch as commander in chief, guess what is going to happen when the Democrats get into full swing in the now open program of White Replacement:
  https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2019-09-01/us-military-fake-news-disinformation

“Fake news and social media posts are such a threat to U.S. security that the Defense Department is launching a project to repel “large-scale, automated disinformation attacks,” as the top Republican in Congress blocks efforts to protect the integrity of elections. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency wants custom software that can unearth fakes hidden among more than 500,000 stories, photos, videos and audio clips. If successful, the system after four years of trials may expand to detect malicious intent and prevent viral fake news from polarizing society. “A decade ago, today’s state of the art would have registered as sci-fi — that’s how fast the improvements have come,” said Andrew Grotto at the Center for International Security at Stanford University. “There is no reason to think the pace of innovation will slow any time soon.” U.S. officials have been working on plans to prevent outside hackers from flooding social channels with false information ahead of the 2020 election. The drive has been hindered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s refusal to consider election security legislation. Critics have labeled him #MoscowMitch, saying he left the U.S. vulnerable to meddling by Russia, prompting his retort of “modern-day McCarthyism.”

     The Christian churches did not put up much resistance to the same sex plebiscite, did they? Well, there will be exemptions, not to worry, we will be ok. But now, these religious leaders are worried that things may not be going as promised:
  https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/churches-mount-revolt-on-draft-laws/news-story/e798d46133b4d1fe418e56ebbd437352

“Religious leaders are demanding Scott Morrison provide them with extra safeguards after the government unveiled proposed laws shielding religious -institutions from discrimination claims and protecting workers who express their beliefs from being sacked. Attorney-General Christian Porter came under attack from religious groups yesterday over a “lack of consultation” and concerns that the draft religious freedom bill would not deliver an effective legal defence in faith-based -discrimination cases. Releasing the draft legislation at the Great Synagogue in Sydney yesterday, Mr Porter said the proposed act would not create a “positive right to freedom of religion”. Instead it would “make it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of religious belief or activity in key areas of public life”. He indicated he would work “constructively with interested parties” before the bill enters parliament in October after Catholic and other Christian groups boycotted his speech yesterday. Some senior religious leaders expressed concern over what they described as “holes” in the proposed legislation, pointing to the fact the bill would not override laws in state jurisdictions or prevent some religious doctors from being compelled to refer on patients to receive abortions. While the government has included an “Israel Folau” provision in its legislation, aimed at preventing staff at large companies from being dismissed for expressing religious views outside the workplace, religious leaders warned the protection was too limited. Australian Christian Lobby managing director Martyn Iles, who has been closely associated with the rugby union star’s case, said: “There is no robust protection for people such as Israel Folau or (Catholic Archbishop of Hobart) Julian Porteous. To suppress rugby players’ freedom of religious expression, Rugby Australia would merely have to say, as they did in Israel Folau’s case, that it was seeking to avoid ‘unjustifiable financial hardship’ for a sacking to be justified.”

     See, nature itself embodies feminist principles. Just ask the dragonflies:
  https://thewildchild.co.za/female-dragonflies-fake-their-death-to-avoid-males/?fbclid=IwAR0h9cP3KZHB-ua8PCzFyhgOZA-3kd8FLYK09odYdbXN33OjB51LWXYEyCI 
  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2017/05/death-dragonflies-switzerland-mating-sex/

“Everyone has those nights when their significant other comes to bed and — for one reason or another — they decide to feign sleep to avoid talking or …doing other stuff. Well, female dragonflies take this kind of sneaky rejection to the next level — faking their own deaths to avoid having interact with aggressive males. Scientists recently captured this phenomenon on video for the first time while observing moorland hawker dragonflies in the Swiss Alps. In the newly released footage, the female is seen freezing mid-air and plummeting to the ground, where she lies motionless until the male leaves. (When researchers approached the females, they immediately flew away — showing they remain alert throughout the fake death.) This behavior, which has been previously observed in five other species, is called ‘death feigning’. It’s believed to have developed as a survival tactic, since female dragonflies often risk injury or death when coerced into mating. “In a lot of dragonflies, males try to seize the female with or without consent,” Rassim Khelifa, a biologist who recently published a study on the phenomenon, told National Geographic. “The fittest — that is the fastest, most powerful male — is usually the one who mates.” Male dragonflies often pounce on their female victims as they bask in the sun by the water. After a female has laid eggs once, Khelifa found, she’s pretty much met her quota for male interaction. And that’s when she starts playing dead. It’s apparently an effective escape method, since more than 60% of the females who employed it successfully deceived their male pursuers — and every female who didn’t was intercepted. Other methods used by female dragonflies to avoid mating include laying their eggs in dense vegetation and avoiding areas heavily populated by males.”

     This story got me so hungry that I broke off a bit more plastic to eat. Wait, I will bring readers up to date. There are so many families dumpster diving now, that to survive needed another food source. So, I took up eating plastic. What, you say, Uncle Len, you are not an insect, how can you survive on plastic alone? But, I am not alone, for we all are eating heaps of plastic and doing fine too:
  https://www.msn.com/en-au/health/medical/we-eat-a-credit-card-worth-of-plastic-a-week-do-water-filters-help/ar-AAGkuJt?ocid=NL_ENAU_A2_20190829_8_2

“A new review by the World Health Organisation (WHO) has found that the potential health risks from consuming microplastics in our drinking water are not yet known. Microplastics are “ubiquitous” in the food we eat and in drinking water, both bottled and tap, the report said. Australian research revealed in June that, on average, we could ingest about five grams of plastic every week which is the equivalent weight of a credit card. However, the health impact is unclear and requires further research. “We urgently need to know more about the health impact of microplastics because they are everywhere – including in our drinking-water,” says Dr Maria Neira, director of the Department of Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of Health at WHO. “Based on the limited information we have, microplastics in drinking water don’t appear to pose a health risk at current levels. But we need to find out more. We also need to stop the rise in plastic pollution worldwide.” Associate Professor Duncan McGillivray from the School of Chemical Sciences at the University of Auckland said we are more exposed to microplastics than we think.

     Someone, I think Jimmy Reed, did a review of The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt – no, I should have checked, it is not up yet, but may be when you read this. Anyway, the book is the usual liberal stuff, the common theme being that even though it is bad that dumbing down is occurring, still the baked goods can be pulled from the fire, with much preserved. Nevertheless, there is some hint that all may not be well in liberal town, as we find John Derbyshire over at American Renaissance, the place where East Asian IQ rules the waves, and we are but a poor second best, observing:

“I am now very pessimistic. I think there is a very good chance American democracy will fail, that in the next 30 years we will have a catastrophic failure of our democracy. The current political civil war is between two groups of educated white people with radically different views about what the country is, what morality is and what we need to do to move forward. Most Americans are non-political, but in the age of social media they have become like dark matter. The modern civil war is being fought by the extremes … We just don't know what a democracy looks like when you drain all the trust out of the system.”

     Trump himself made a big thing about this illegal migrant killing Kate Steinle with a stolen handgun which he just happened to find, and which just happened to fire itself:
  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/sole-conviction-against-alleged-killer-of-kate-steinle-overturned-in-california-court

“The only conviction against a man accused of killing Kate Steinle in 2015 was overturned in the 1st District Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Friday. Jose Inez Garcia-Zarate was accused of shooting Steinle while she was walking with her father and friend on the San Francisco waterfront. Garcia-Zarate, a Mexican national, was in the U.S. illegally at the time of the shooting. He had previously been deported five times, and it was not known when he reentered the country. Steinle was 32 at the time of her death. Garcia-Zarate maintained that the shooting was accidental and that he did not mean to discharge the firearm he says he found wrapped in a T-shirt. The gun was stolen one week earlier from the parked car of a Bureau of Land Management ranger. Garcia-Zarate was acquitted of all but one charge in November of 2017, more than two years after Steinle's death. The jury at the time found him "not guilty" of assault with a semi-automatic weapon, first and second-degree murder, and involuntary manslaughter. He was convicted only of being a felon in possession of a firearm. That conviction was overturned on Friday when the California court found that a judge failed to instruct the jury on one of Garcia-Zarate's defenses. He will remain in custody while awaiting trial on federal gun charges. The family of Steinle filed a wrongful death suit against San Francisco earlier this year alleging the city's status as an immigrant sanctuary unduly put their daughter at risk. The suit was dismissed by the lower court and that decision was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The suit also named San Francisco County Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi as responsible for the death of Steinle. The sheriff's office had Garcia-Zarate in custody just three months prior to the shooting but released him when the drug charges against him were dropped. The office ignored a request by federal authorities to hold Garcia-Zarate until they could take him into custody, an issue that became a flashpoint in the case.

     Expect Italy to now be flooded extra fast by migrants as payback for daring to resist for only a little while, before hubris led to the one man who tried to stop the flood, falling on his own political, sword:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/italys-salvini-partied-beach-while-rivals-plotted-his-overthrow

“What's the Italian word for 'hubris'? Somebody should ask League leader Matteo Salvini. In a report published Friday, Bloomberg examines the circumstances surrounding Salvini's failed political gambit, which the Interior Minister and Deputy PM had hoped would install him as prime minister of Italy, but instead resulted in his political rivals joining forces to outmaneuver him. Less than a month ago, Salvini was out partying at Papeete Beach. At one point, he stepped up to the decks during a music festival, where the man who was until very recently the most powerful politician in Italy was surrounded by dancing bikini-clad women. This was Salvini at the height of his power. But little did he realize that, while he was partying, his rivals were busy plotting his downfall, and within weeks, his hopes of taking over as prime minister would be crushed. The public didn't know yet, but he had finally acquiesced to his party's demands to withdraw his support for the coalition government that had seen his League govern with the Five Star Movement (M5S) for more than a year. Salvini believed that by forcing an election, he could capitalize on his popularity and return with a new conservative coalition that would more readily support his party's platform of anti-immigrant measures combined with tax cuts that antagonized Brussels. And instead of serving as co-deputy PM, he would be prime minister.

     No, Generation Z or the millennials is not the most historically informed of all generations; in fact, they are even worse than the boomers, which is saying something:
  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/aocs-latest-instagram-video-shows-her-most-hilarious-lie-millennials-most-informed-historically-literate-generation

“For conservative commentators, upstart socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is the gift that keeps on giving. The New York Democrat’s social media feed offers up a constant stream of clueless left-wing commentary that’s ripe for debunking. The latest instance is a recent Instagram live video, in which she claims that “young people are more informed and dynamic than their predecessors.” The social media starlet goes on to say “this new generation is very profound ... They actually take time to read and understand our history.” This, frankly, is absurd to the point of hilarity. Nothing could be further from the truth: The millennial generation and Generation Z behind them, of which I am part, is uniquely disengaged from history and woefully uninformed. Which she went on to prove, naturally. In praising the new generation as the first "wiling to go to the streets" and protest, she appears to have forgotten about the 1960s. Oops! But she disproves her own point in more ways than one. Young people increasingly identify as socialist, which on its own shows that they are woefully ignorant of history. That ideology of failure and oppression has a very dark past of which few are aware. And only 16% of millennials are even able to define socialism in the first place. As far as broader historical literacy goes, two of three millennials, the same generation that Ocasio-Cortez deems “informed and dynamic,” do not even know what Auschwitz is. Ignorance of the Nazi death camp is bad enough, but 1 in 5 millennials aren’t even aware of the Holocaust at all. This isn’t exactly a surprise, when you look at young peoples’ habits. According to Business Insider, “Millennials spend far less time consuming news overall than older adults, and the time they do spend is concentrated on digital consumption. Millennials ages 21-37 consume only about 30% of the amount of news as adults age 38 and older.” Plus, many young people don’t read books. At all.”

     First, by way of disclosure my one personal belief, is that after this Melbourne winter, if anything, we are heading towards a new ice age, and that increasing our carbon footprint through coal, oil, and glorious fossil fuels and anything that burns cannot be too bad. That over, let’s get down to business, bashing global warming in the morning:
  https://dcdirtylaundry.com/nasa-admits-that-climate-change-occurs-because-of-changes-in-earths-solar-orbit-and-not-because-of-suvs-and-fossil-fuels/
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-08-30-nasa-admits-climate-change-not-caused-by-suvs-fossil-fuels.html

     Well, I read the article at Natural News looking for a juicy quote, but only found a discussion about the geometry of Milankovitch cycles, variations in the Earth’s orbit, that can cause ice ages. But nothing much about NASA saying that climate change is not caused by fossil fuels, sadly. Very disappointing; in fact NASA has a whole website on climate change, all conventional stuff:
  https://climate.nasa.gov/

     Why does every city have to have a China town? Well, keep wondering because now this concept is being applied to the Australian country side as well:
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-31/foreign-investor-plan-to-create-rural-chinatown-in-geraldton/8537422

“Foreign investors have purchased hundreds of hectares of land in WA's Midwest with a view to establishing a rural Chinatown, including an English-language school. City of Greater Geraldton Mayor Shane Van Styn revealed the bold plan by developer PIP Holdings to create the suburb in the city's eastern fringe. It includes building homes specifically for Chinese migrants and associated service industries to cater to their needs. Cr Van Styn said foreign investment could be just the ticket to revitalise the region's main city, located 400 kilometres north of Perth. But there are questions about whether the proposed development will help or hinder the region. Geraldton, a once-thriving city built on agriculture and lobster fishing, enjoyed a boom through iron ore mining and exploration but is now battling a shrinking population and rising unemployment. It was for this reason that Cr Van Styn said he believed overseas investment would be the key to revitalising the struggling region. "They're proposing anywhere up to 1,500 houses, a commercial centre, and that school in the centre," he said. "This is proposing building two years' worth of houses in one single development, so it would be a building boom unlike anything ever seen.

     Science and the bizarre … did you call me?
  https://www.livescience.com/teens-twin-found-inside-adbomen-fetus-in-fetu.html?utm_source=ls-newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20190829-ls

“A teenager in India was discovered to have a bizarre mass of bone, teeth and "hairy cheesy material" in her abdomen, according to a new report of the case. It was her own "twin" growing inside her, the result of an extremely rare condition called "fetus in fetu." The 17-year-old went to the doctor after developing a lump in her abdomen that had been gradually increasing in size over the last five years, according to the report, published Aug. 12 in the journal BMJ Case Reports. The teen told doctors that she sometimes experienced abdominal pain and a feeling of fullness, even when she had not eaten much food. A CT scan revealed that the teen had a large mass in her abdomen that appeared to contain multiple bones "resembling the shape of vertebrae, ribs and long bones," the authors wrote. Doctors diagnosed the teen with fetus in fetu, a condition that is estimated to occur in only about 1 in 500,000 people worldwide.”

To The Age        Barry Lizmore's claim (6/9) that "democracy is still healthy in Britain", thanks to the parliament's frustration of the government's Brexit plan, is the opposite of the truth. The ongoing efforts of Remainers to dishonour the clear 2016 referendum result show this beyond all doubt. Brexit Secretary Stephen Barclay is right ("Brexit in the hands of the Lords") to accuse the Conservative rebels and opposition of "attempting to stop Brexit altogether". The scaremongering objections to a no-deal departure from the EU are a ploy only, an attempt to hide the dishonesty involved.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave

To The Australian         Henry Ergas ("Brexit reveals what Parliament thinks of the people", 6/9) cites an important statement in 1734 by John Wilkes that the whole power of electors is devolved upon MPs who must "regard only the public good in general". Parliament may indeed be sovereign constitutionally, as Ergas shows, but, once elected, MPs must seek to act honourably and righteously to defend the welfare of the nation. There is good reason to feel that many of the MPs who have voted to frustrate the Government's Brexit plan were not regarding the public good in general, but serving an unelected elite and/or furthering their own careers. As regards the incorporation of the UK in the EU, there is a long history of deception of the public by MPs and elements in the mass media. The duplicity of Remainers has indeed “shattered the complex web of make-believe" that has hidden UK political realities. It turns out that, when the chips are down, Britain is not a democracy but an oligarchy.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

     Forget about the battle to stop rural Australia from being made into one huge Chinese shopping mall, a fundamental attack has been made upon our culture. Americans think that our talk about going to the toilet is weird and they prefer “bathroom.”
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7404881/American-Emily-Keefe-living-Australia-lists-bizarre-things-shes-noticed-country.html?ico=pushly-notifcation-small

“Instead of referring to the 'restroom' or 'bathroom', Australians tend to excuse themselves for the 'toilet'. 'First and foremost is the use of the word "toilet". In Australia, instead of saying "bathroom", everybody says "toilet",' Emily said. 'Being a teacher, I would get asked every seven seconds "miss can I go toilet" and because the word "toilet" was just the word that was being used, it was the word that I started using. 'Then I came back... it's just awkward when you use the word "toilet" in the United States... I don't know it just feels weird coming out of your mouth.'”

     God save the Queen! And may He protect her from the insane globalists, who have invoked something of a historical threat:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/08/29/off-with-her-head-soros-funded-best-for-britain-group-threatens-queen-over-brexit/

“The EU loyalist Best for Britain group appeared to invoke the fate of the beheaded King Charles I after Queen Elizabeth II agreed to prorogue (temporarily suspend) Parliament for a few weeks before the Brexit deadline. Following news that the Queen rubber-stamped Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s request to suspend the parliamentary session — the longest-running for almost 400 years — so that his government can bring forward a new legislative programme on October 14th, the George Soros-funded group tweeted that it would “make no sense for the Queen to back this deeply undemocratic, unconstitutional and fundamentally political manoeuvre from the government,” in comments later attributed to its CEO, Naomi Smith. “If the Queen is asked to help, she would do well to remember history doesn’t look too kindly on royals who aid and abet the suspension of democracy,” the anti-Brexit group added darkly, appearing to allude to the fate of the monarch’s ancestor Charles I, who tried to govern without Parliament and was in the end publicly beheaded.”

     It is not often that we see an article where the climate experts let all of the cats out of the bag about their agenda of eliminating consumption, but here it is, I found it:
  https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-49499521

“People must use less transport, eat less red meat and buy fewer clothes if the UK is to virtually halt greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, the government's chief environment scientist has warned. Prof Sir Ian Boyd said the public had little idea of the scale of the challenge from the so-called Net Zero emissions target. However, he said technology would help. The conundrum facing the UK - and elsewhere - was how we shift ourselves away from consuming, he added. In an interview with BBC News, Sir Ian warned that persuasive political leadership was needed to carry the public through the challenge. Asked whether Boris Johnson would deliver that leadership, he declined to comment. Mr Johnson has already been accused by environmentalists of talking up electric cars whilst reputedly planning a cut in driving taxes that would increase emissions and undermine the electric car market.”

     Most of those collapseologists who argue that the number is up for techno-industrial civilisation make use of global warming nonsense. But that is hardly going to bring the temple down, maybe make a few plants grow. However, there are those who reject global warming but still see the end as nigh, and Natural News is along these lines, having many critiques of global warming, but still publishing searching articles like this one:
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-08-29-the-decline-of-industrial-civilization-has-already-begun.html

“Experts insist that the decline of industrial civilization has already begun, and its signs all echo the events that happened in the past, albeit with some differences. Notice how every single civilization and empire in the past had collapsed – Chinese, Egyptians, Incas, Greeks, Mayans, Mongols, and Romans? These civilizations showed common “symptoms” or trends during their decline: the destruction of the natural world, depletion of crucial resources (water, fertile soil, forests, etc.), famine, overpopulation, financial crisis, inequality, social and political unrest, invasion or war, and disease. Sound familiar? Indeed, these things are already happening today, and at an alarming rate. Our global industrial system currently has no room for expansion, the natural world is in crisis, and the logistics that keep our civilization running are now so complex that they are more fragile than ever.