I’ve spent about an hour scanning (and reading some) the news coming across my feed. And you know what? I’m going to get cosy with a good book and maybe do some weeding in the yard when the temperature comes up a bit, then call it a day.
#NewsIsDepressing #GiveMeMoreCatPictures #FlowersAreGoodToo #NoNewsDay #Reading #Books #Gardening #TakingABreak
## The PM, TechBros, and Datacentre Developers in Bed Together
What bloody hope do we have that #AlboPM will actually wake up from #AI #Psychosis. This is what our *brave leader* had to say on the floor of the House today. (Sourced from The Point Live - 12Oct26)
> “Indeed, AI offers extraordinary opportunities for Australia. For our growth, for our investment, for productivity, for businesses such as those I’ll speak with tonight at the Australian Industry Group to use AI to benefit their productivity and, therefore, to be able to grow.
> Our government knows that, and that’s why we’re legislating Australian standards for AI. And that’s why we’re also consulting across the board, engaging seriously with other nations, as well as with AI companies themselves, so we can make sure that AI stands for Australia’s interests.
> Harnessing its power as a tool to help us build a stronger economy. But we know that we need humanity to shape AI, rather than the other way around. And that is why we’ve established the AI committee that has been stood up in a bipartisan fashion and has already begun its work under the leadership of the member for Maribyrnong and Senator Duniam in the other place. Because the hack by a frontier AI agent into government websites brought home to Australians that some of the risks which are there are very real indeed.
> We took strong action on that, and made our notions clear that the breach was completely unacceptable.
> But it is clear for everyone to see that the AI genie is well and truly out of the bottle. We can’t pretend that it doesn’t exist and it isn’t already having an impact on the way that we work, the way that we engage – indeed, the way that politics is conducted as well. And that is why what really matters is how we respond to it – how we intervene and shape it. And that is why, as well, we’ve engaged not just domestically, but we’re engaging with global companies and we’re engaging with other nations as well. And we did that at the United Nations’ General Assembly last month. We did that, as well, in the meetings that we have continued to hold with the major companies.
> We’re going to make sure that Australia can gain from the benefits that can come from AI whilst mitigating the risks. That is the way forward. That is what is in Australia’s national interest. And that is what we will continue to do. And I encourage every member of this House to engage with this process, because this will be one of the dominant issues over the next decade and beyond.”
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry…
#LLM #GenAISlop #GenAIdatacentres #AusPol #IALobbies #PonziScheme #AIFIancialBubble. #AIGlobalFinancialCrisis
Well, it looks as through #Journalists are about to catch up with some *real* economists and what we've all been saying on this platform for quite a while. Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer write in #CrickeyNews:
## GenAI and Datacentre Ponzi Scheme Breaks News Finaly
> "The failed float of local AI start-up Firmus is trivial in global terms, but it shows investors are getting sceptical of AI projects fuelled by mammoth debt. Alarm bells should be ringing, especially as tech companies get “creative” to obscure their debt in ways reminiscent of the lead-up to the global financial crisis, write ."
https://trk.mail.crikey.com.au/l/01M4PVY6MF8D1JX699KBRV21D3_9
#GenAISlop #Datacentres #BanDatacentresForGenAI #LLM #AusPol #FinancialBubble #GFC
## Australian Labor in league with the Big Oil
It’s not supposed to be surprising at all. Yet, why am I taken aback when confronted with the fact that our *dear leader* is parroting #FossilFuelIndustry talking points? Talking points that are btw unadulterated **BS** in the *real* economy, you know, the one we’re all sufferring under… the one with massive investments pouring in due to one of the other ponzi schemes (#datacentres and #GenAISlop ).
> “Anthony Albanese was the first leader to back the US-Israeli war on Iran, despite the hardship it has brought to Australian households struggling to make ends meet. In April, amid popular demand for a tax on gas companies, the prime minister backed the fossil fuel giants and said it was “the worst possible time to jeopardise these partnerships, or the investment that underpins them”.
> The remarks echoed those aired by the chief executive of the oil and gas lobby, the Australian Energy Producers, who, three days prior to Albanese’s comments, said: “It shouldn’t need to be said that this would be the worst possible time to impose an investment-destroying tax.”
I don’t know why, perhaps because I still cling to the idea that politicians know, deep in their heart, that they are supposed to look after the people they *serve*. No, not them… *Us*.
https://www.deepcutnews.com/p/ampol-profits-up-376-as-oil-sector
#AusPol #TaxGasExports #TaxExtractionIndustryProfits #TaxFossilFuelIndustryProfits and cap domestic gas and fuel prices. #TaxReform
Why hasn’t anyone here reminded me Bathurst race was on TV?
Apologies for fossil fuel use support, I’m a tragic petrol head trying to keep a low profile but I sometimes reveal the awful truth…
Apparently I have a new name (courtesy of @politicalGadgets ) From this moment on, my surname shall be **Lee**.
I’m happy with that, I’m a bit of a budding sinophile :))
I guess this calls for a new #Introduction …
## Proposed CDC Datacentre in Wagga Wagga
Help us defeat this insane proposal by signing the **Petition** (see link below).
Quite aside from the environmental impact of mega-datacentre on potable #water supplies and the #pollution released into the atmosphere by the insane amount of #FossilFuels that will be burned to generate the #energy required to run these mega-computing farms, there are *no jobs* there for the community beyond putting up the building and installing the gear and required infrastructure (a year’s worth of jobs at most and likely not many locals ones).
The **driest Continent on Earth** does not need a *water guzzling* white elephant, especially in a *warming climate* drying up the country. Our energy generation capacity is constrained by investments in #Renewables and nothing is currently in place (legislation) to mandate renewable energy use for any datacentres built in Australia (some States donn’t care at all about the pollution or water usage)
**But there’s more**. the investments which goes into these datacentres mainly comes from the non-bank sector feeeding a *financial bubble* that a growing number of #Economists are warning us is expected to cause a market crash in the near future, bankrupting the AI tech companies using these datacentres and sending datacentre operations broke.
And *still more* the computers installed will need replacing in 4-5 years after installation due to changes in chip technology and architecture as well as the ancillerary equipment to support the new chips - it a rip out and start anew exercise. WIth new tech comes higher energy consumption and more cooling (water) required. Once these centres go up, its a never ending upgrade race until it burns down (or the financial bubble bursts).
I don’t need to convince most people on this platform that building #GenAI #ComputingFarms is not a good idea right now. But I do need to ask you all to sign the petition so that we can call a halt to this madness while we get our development laws and federal legislation up to date to deal with them.
**Please sign the petition and circulate it widely**
Thank you
#datacenters #Datacentres #WaggaWagga #CDCDatacentre #Water #Energy #FinancialBubble #LLM #GenAISlop #CoryDoctorow
OMFG the headline posted to the ACME Propaganda machine 7News right now:
## Labor MP voices concern over ATO credit card ban following surcharge rule.
Followed up by a masterpiece of confabulation:
>‘If you’re paying cash or card right now, you are paying a surcharge for Labor’s economic failure.’
I don’t know whom it is that 7News is quoting in the title, they don’t say.
How does #Bank #Usury on card equate to Govt economic failure? Talk about running your colours up the flagpole #KerryStokes, Onya bloody #Grifter. It’s the #Banks you idiot! Paying a surcharge for cash use is new one on me.
And then we have the Business Council of Australia (BCA) confused as ever in their broken record fashion on the ABC confusing an #ATO ban on bankcard use for tax payments — has anyone on the #BCA heard of EFT and ATO payment plans, anyone, anyone at all — with a ban on businesses applying a #Surcharge for card use which came into effect 1st October this year. Are we being *snowed* by dimwits these days? How dumb do they think Aussies are anyway? I understand that under a constant barage of lies and misinformation we could all get a little slower in catching on, but this is so blunt *in our faces* lies!
I’m not going to link to #7News. Go see for yourself if you don’t believe me. Warning, you’ll be confuse by the article because it argues against its headline with an extensive quote justifying the ATO’s action. Go figure…
But back to the BCA. Frankly, if a business’ livelyhood hinges on the 0.3% the bank charges them for using card systems, they shouldn’t be in business. Moreover, that 0.3% impost is most likely a tax deductable cost of doing business anyway. Jeeezzz… save me from idiots and thieves.
/Might-do-more-ranting-later-on-/
#AusPol
## Bankcards Surcharge Beatups
Everything regarding the ban on #CardSurcharges can be simply understood by asking one simple question: “Who *profits* from such bankcard use and the charges it attract s?”
There you go… **BANKS**. That’s it.
All issues and underlying problems regarding the recent bankcard fees ban can fairly be laid at the feet of #Bankers. It is their relentless pursuit of profits (betting on late payments and interests on top of the charges levied to businesses and customers alike), as if they don’t make enough as it is.
There is no point in blaming anyone else at all. Of course news media will blame govt because that what’s right-wing propaganda does, parroting the lies of #Misdirection by #Rentiers and their puppets to focus our attetntion away from the real issue here, #Rentier #Avarice and the #Redistribution of #Wealth to the wealthy few.
Oh, and all the noise about leaving thousands without means to pay their tax bill. That’s a shoddy one. Another furphy from the propaganda machine. Every business operates a bank account. Just about everyone with a mobile has a Banking App installed, and everyone knows what an #EFT is. That’s how I’ve been paying my tax bills for decades. Give us all a break #ABC.
I can just imagine the #Treasurer’s frustration in having to pary all those cheap shots from stupid news hounds.
WIth the #greenparty leader(s) election and what seems to be a renewal of the party’s *combative* stance, I am left wondering whether #Shoebridge can pull the party out of the *also ran* percentile and into the 30% range to win government. I have my doubts.
IMO the only way out of our mess is to elect a truly left-leaning #Labor party. But that can only happen if Labor is **pushed** back into its grass-root constructed *Box* which, in turn, can only happen if the *small L* liberals somehow manage to coalesce into a functioning party able to hive-off its #RWNJ factions, return to the center-right of politics and push Labor leftwards. There are a lot of *ifs* here and a multitude of changes required to achieve the goal of a *center-left* social democratic govt to put an end to this mad #EconomicRationalism.
Alternatively, the *sacking* #AlboPM and his Parliamentary faction to bring about a #LaborGreenCoalition govt might prove just as effectively optimistic.
This is rich. #FossilFuelCompanies blaming each other (as well as the NT govenment) for their own failures to clean up decommissionned wells. #Grifters blaming #other #Grifters for… check notes… #Grifting. What a bunch of *Scrooges*.
They blame the NT govt because it’s not cutting corners in cleaning up the mess left behind in the #TimorSea by #Woodside and the company it sold the delapidated assets to as they wrote the #Endeavour off their books at around 100% discount — #Grifting never stops.
And this is just **One** example of the industry’s absolute disregard for the #environment, their #SocialLicence and what they are legally required to do when retiring #wells. *Grifters* doesn’t half cover their despicable practices.
At least the NT Govt has seen fit to #Fine the industry as a whole to cover the clean up costs and perhaps try to teach the industry a lesson they will not forget. They shoud double the fine imo — it’s not as if the fossil fuel industry can’t afford it. Even doubling wouldn’t cover the damage done over the years.
#TaxGas #FossilFuelIndustry #MakeTheBastardPay #LeaveItInTheGound #EnvironmentalVandalism #StateCapture
https://www.boilingcold.com.au/governments-northern-endeavour-oil-vessel-cleanup-set-to-exceed-2b/
This #Racist pharkwit stuffed everything he touched so far (while raking in the dosh), what could possibly go wrong…
Ohh America, what have you done?
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/30/pete-hegseth-elon-musk-taskforce-warfare
The scale of profits required to meet the expectations of investors in #LLM-based #GenAISlop within to 5-6 year lifespan of current technology rolled out in #Datacenters is astronomically huge. And the #Hyperscalers (the six main companies super heavily invested in #GenAI ) have even less time before every bit of computing kit, power and cooling supply used needs to be tossed out, written off the books, and replaced with new and expensive gear just to remain competitive and keep investors from pullling out —replacing just the chips is not possible given current chip evolutionary trends. The sums discussed here are in the order of **tens of trillions of dollars**. An unimaginable sum just to break even. To put it into perspective, Australia’s annual gross product (GDP) is just $2.1 trillion. That’s the total output of about 28 million people over a whole year. Think about that.
All the while #Economists and #EconomicReporters are arguing whether there is a #FinancialBubble and whether it will burst? Give me a break.
I have seen no factual & compelling reasons to believe that #GenAI adoption by business customers paying for the product have in fact gained any advantage over their non-adopter competitors. The #Hype is real. The #AIPsychosis is real. The #Chips and the *hothouses* are real. The *Brute force* attacks on specific *solvable* problems are real. But the financials simply do not make sense. All adopters and investors in GenAI are guilty of failing in their **due dilligence** obligations and will pay for it when the financial house of cards falls down.
What will it take for #AlboPM and his coterie of weaklings to wake up to this financial #PonziScheme and call a #DatacenterMoratorium ?
This substack post (apologies for linking to a #fascist platform) by Ryan Cummings, Chief of Staff for the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and Jared Bernstein, former Biden CEA Chair, spell it out by the numbers in this post. A long read, but a shining light of facts in the fog of #MarketingHype.
https://econjared.substack.com/p/ai-companies-are-in-a-race-against
I am starting to fall out with the Guardian, and if it keeps this sort of shit up, it won't see me reading it for much longer. Patrick Commins reports on the #RBA #CashRate hike decision as **palming off blame somewhere else**. That, in itself, is a journalistic error. The RBA and the Treasurer are bang on about putting the blame for inflationary pressures on #tRump 's desastrous war for which we are paying in price increases (and stagnant wages).but if that wasn't enough #Commins then quote the hopelessly self-contradictory #TimWilson blaming govt spending for the inflation figures, a cause specifically rejected by #Bullock during her presser. And then Commins leaves it hangin there, without so much as a retort -- parroting #LNP nonsense as if there's nothing to dispute.
--Quote
Already grumpy with the state of the economy and high living costs, a rate rise is the latest blow to household finances and to the popularity of a Labor government that is increasingly on the nose with voters.
Tim Wilson, the shadow treasurer, has no doubt what drove today’s rate hike.
“The key thing we need to do to address the problem of inflation is to get government spending down,” Wilson said.
It wasn’t helpful that Monday’s final budget outcome showed federal spending as a share of the economy has reached its highest since the mid-1980s, leaving out the pandemic.
--Unquote
That Mr Commins **is not journalism** go back to school, do not pass go, do not collect....
PS. I'm not linking because it's shite.
[edited for typo]
The question is: why aren’t messaging apps regulated under the Telecommunication Interception Act?
https://appleinsider.com/articles/26/09/28/metas-new-ai-agent-blatantly-ignores-users-permissions
#Auspol #Telecommunication #Intercept #ForeignInterference
#Meta #TechBros #Privacy
Why aren’t we seeing pervasive reporting on Climatology research? Especially the results of observations on Climate Change and how those changes are currently tracking. What is it going to take for our *leaders* to pay heed to the scientific evidence that we, as a species, are living on borrowed time and that this *time* is fast running out?
“Seven breached Planetary Boundaries continue to worsen as record ocean heat, droughts, floods, wildfires and extreme heat reveal an Earth system under strain, according to the latest Planetary Health Check. The annual update is authored by more than 60 scientists and produced by the Planetary Boundaries Science Lab at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK).”
#ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #NoPlanetB #PlanetaryBoundaries #PostdamInstitute #ClimateImpactResearch
It doesn’t take a particularly bright mind to understand what #pollution generally and #methane #emmissions does to our planet. Everyone already knows it’s bad for one’s health (try breathing some of it if unconvinced) . Everyone knows one can die from exposure to these foul gases. Everyone already knows car engines exhaust is deadly. It doesn’t take a scientist to understand that more of these deadly gases in the air we breathe isn’t a good idea.
The jump from that understanding to having a pretty good notion of what scientists have been telling us for decades about the effects those emmissions are having on our planet’s #atmosphere is but a tiny step for anyone. In it’s simplest terms, a hottter #planet (the hothouse analogy), more catastrophic #WeatherEvents more often (read the news) and all of the threats to our lives that come with them (increasing cost of living, declining #food production, higher #energy costs and consumption, #environmental and #ecological degradation, etc.). This raises an obvious question WTF are our leaders doing? We know what #TechBros and #FossilFuelRentiers are doing, they simply do not believe in the #science because they are full on **cultists** as Ketan Yoshi describes them in his Crickey News article. But our *Leaders* are like us (we elect them), unlike the #TechBros. So why are they entranced by, under the spell of, these *anti-social Monsters*? Are they blind? Deaf and unable to put two original thoughts together? WHAT?
“Whether it’s marketing, regulatory capture or sincere cultist freakout, we already know with total certainty these people have no conscious connections to the people they’re already killing with immense levels of climate pollution, let alone the widespread impacts of generative AI slop spreading through society. “
#LLM #GenAISlop #TextRegurgitatingMachines #ChatBotSlop #Datacentres #GenAIPonziScheme #AIFinancialBubble #WaterTheft #EnergyTheft #PoliticalCorruption #MisDisInformationCentral #RegulateTechNow #DatacentreAmnestyNow #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #NoPlanetB #Rentiers #TaxReform
It seems that #Datacenters #Developers are trying to stay ahead of the curve and the possibility of an #AI #Datacenter #Moretorium. Developers are resorting to #LegalThreats to #FastTrack approvals.
“New South Wales planning officials allegedly bypassed consultation with key agencies over a proposed data centre and gas-fired power station after the developer threatened legal action, a Senate inquiry has heard.”
#GenAISlop #LLM #Environment #WaterScarcity #Energy #Pollution #AusPol
On the way home from shopping, I was listening to the #Senate (as you do :)) and I got a nice surprise. Senator #DavidPocock has been added on to the Senate committee for AI …. He is the most unlikely parliamentarian to be bamboozeled by the #LLM-based #GenAISlop marketing machine and will do right by us in #Datacentres legislation I reckon.