The batshit crazy ramblings of Barnaby Joyce

48 Comments

1. I find it amazing that people like b.j. discount apparently completely the growing, cumulative effects of what is now almost eight billion people on this planet. People with growing wants and expectations in the area of possessions and energy usage. Apparently, our eight billion have no effect whatsoever on either earth’s weather, climate or resources … whether on the surface or in the air. Such illogical thinking would have it, we should all strive to get more of anything we may want, use up as much of anything as we want, dispose (or not) dispose of waste where we find most convenient. For nothing we do has an impact, and all resources and economies are limitless.

2. So, let me see, human activities can increase global temperatures, but somehow human activities can’t prevent global temperatures to rise above natural levels?

   Oh, and the Little Ice Age story…. Yep, that has been predicted (by some models) to be coming soon. No, not the next few thousand years, the prediction is that the descending phase of global temperature can happen any day now…. The World keeps waiting, as temperatures continue to rise.

   The denialist idiots are so desperate that they keep talking about the fantasy 20+ year long “hiatus”, whilst pretending that the Hockey Stick is not there for everybody to see.

   Fake knowledge keeps thriving though, thanks to the significant control of the media by the Neoliberal 1% and their Multinationals… Once you have the power to make the voting Morons vote against their own interests – the Holy Grail of Manipulative Pseudodemocracy – you don’t relinquish it so easily…..

3. Barnaby is quoting David Shelley, a geologist from NZ whose research has nothing to do with climate change, who wrote an opinion piece for The Australian. The Murdoch press strikes again.

   https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/2020993130_David_Shelley

   If our government would rather listen to Barnaby Joyce and Craig Kelly than all the experts, then the rest of the world should slap sanctions on us. Or we follow the lead of the Dutch who sued their own government for their inadequate response.

4. Barnaby Joyce’s post was nothing more than another drunken rant from a moron who has achieved a position well above his level of competency and should be treated as such!

5. Murdoch is going full-tilt at the moment. “Climate change signals part of socialist plot”, Maurice Newman writes in the Oz today. There are lots of comments on the article and every one of them denies the existence of global warming. I find it incredible that none of the readers, even of such a flag-waving partisan rag, can be so willfully deluded I can only assume there’s some pretty substantial moderating going on. Newman is a nutter, but give him enough supporting voices and people might start thinking he’s worth listening to.

6. “Climate change signals part of socialist plot” . . . . . In that case I wouldn’t choose that against the RWNJ’s ‘trickle down’ philosophy.

7. What I don’t understand is why farmers vote for this fool. They KNOW the climate trends have changed and it is damaging their business.

   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/jul/02/action-now-the-farmers-standing-up-against-wilful-ignorance-on-climate

   Will we ever see the results of the investigation into Barnaby’s water rorts or will it get buried like the review of the Home Affairs department?

   This was my comment to Barnaby: “You are right to say that temperatures have changed in the past except they did so over millenia rather than decades. You are right to say that natural climate forcings mean we should be in a cooling period. Except we aren’t. There have been catastrophes that have caused rapid change in the past. This time, we are the catastrophe. You conveniently ignore the fact that there are 8 billion people on the planet. You don’t think we make a difference? Your arrogant ignorance is humiliating”

8. Just as with their religious views, joyce and co. play the selective game of choosing the bits and pieces that accord with their own biases.

9. They do walk among us. The quicker Abbott and Barnaby keep their mouths shut the better it will be fo all of us.

10. Rosemary,

    I think it is important for people to know exactly what our politicians are saying. I have written countless articles containing analysis and commentary. One of the best things about this site is the commentary by our readers. I put this forward for their discussion.

    Plagiarism means you copy someone else’s work without acknowledgement.

    I agree giving air time to people like Joyce and Hanson and Abbott is always a tough decision.

    PS If you had to pay to read this, I would understand your displeasure.

11. Barnaby is truly no intellect.
    But there are plenty of Australians less intelligent than he.
    And most of them voted for him.

12. If I’d had to pay for this Kaye Lee, I’d be really ‘displeased’. Because I haven’t paid doesn’t mean I should be manipulated into reading the rantings of a f*ckknuckle I have long discounted as not worth my time. If reading Joyce would help to have him investigated and arrested for his various crimes, I’d have no issue but it won’t. I read on thinking you would kick in with something new for me to think about but alas – no banana.

13. I hadn’t read this rant in its entirety. What a load of waffle. And the coalition has had legions of trolls in comments sections for years. (I believe it began with Campbie in Qld, but now is the primary activity of the Young Libs/Nats – no accident the neonazis attempted to take over the Young Nats)

    BJ is Gina’s lapdog whose only purpose is to prop up mining and Big Ag (IPA) interests. Every time the idiot opens his mouth the response should be the picture of him accepting that $40K cheque. Which I believe he never returned.

14. Barnaby shows the belligerence of the public bar orator – the guy who always has a beer in his hand, often paid for by someone else, who pontificates to an enthralled crowd “That’s all inner-city crap. The scientists are socialists. It’s a money-making rort that will destroy your livelihood. The vegans will outlaw eating meat. They’ll take your ute.”

    And how does Barnaby know this stuff. Same as Pauline – “Someone told me….”

15. Your title for your article sums it up precisely. We all know where his expertise lies!

16. I have added a warning at the beginning of the post so people may choose not to continue reading.

17. Well, the comments here can be more insightful than the content of Barnaby’s brain. I think it’s revealing to consider Joyce’s words: “…[the] ludicrous proposition that Australia can have any affect on the climate”. It illustrates that for Barnaby, Australia is a country that makes wool, coal and iron ore. And it demonstrates the conservatives’ preferred ground for arguing about climate change.

    Because he’s right. Australia’s direct emissions are small and cutting our own emissions to zero will have almost negligible outcomes to global warming. This truth is inarguable and as long as Barnaby and his ilk can keep the discussion there, they have logic on their side. How often do we hear cynics and commentators repeating the line? How do we respond when somebody asks us “How many degrees lower will the planet’s temperature be if Australia goes zero carbon?” It’s a ridiculous question, but it’s the one that the critics – and to a large extent the media – keep pushing. As long as the debate is about cutting our own emissions, it’s not going to be effective, and thus it’s not going to hurt the vested interests. They’re perfectly happy for us to keep talking about closing or opening coal-fired stations. They’re happy for us to keep arguing that per capita our emissions are terrible. They can just point to our economy’s reliance on fossil fuels, and to the fact that it hardly matters what we do domestically. If you keep the argument focused there, what true-blue Aussie is going to argue for tanking our economy for no good reason?

    Joyce goes on to write: “You will divest the nation of its largest export because of “climate action”. Rather than state there is no prospect whatsoever that any action of ours, and most likely of anyone else, will have any affect whatsoever on the trajectory climate is on.” As long as coal remains our largest export, this is an argument that holds weight for the average Australian and most Australian politicians of either stripe. Shutting down our coal export industry will hurt. The Coalition is desperate to prop up the industry as long as the rest of the world can be convinced to buy the stuff, and even Labor resiles from the idea of shutting down existing coal mines. They’re not even willing to rule out new ones.

    What we need is new industries to replace coal. New technologies to export. New ways of not only replacing our own minuscule fossil-fuel driven energy needs, but of becoming a world leader in the field. Barnaby Joyce can’t conceive of a future where Australia makes things instead of growing them or digging them up. Barnaby’s article might be misinformed, uneducated drivel, but it illustrates where the weaknesses in the progressive side’s arguments lie, and it illustrates the mindset that drives Joyce as well as many in the Nationals and, probably, the Liberals. And not a few Labor politicians, if one’s being entirely honest about things. These are the arguments that we have to fight, not the ramblings of a sheep farmer whose greatest ambition for the country is to keep selling sheep.

18. Forewarned is forearmed.As you say you did tell us what you were posting. Knowing that, I read on partly because I had only seen excerpts of his rant and partly because I am a masochist, and partly because I mostly like the comments you elicit. Barnaby truly is a deplorable and like others I wonder how he can continue to be voted in. I suspect it’s that old pig ignorant reason:”nobody’s gunna tell me who I can and can’t vote for, and bugger logic or reason”. Like, he’s an idiot yes, but he’s my idiot. It’s the same sloppy thinking that saw the voters of Dixon re-elect a clear megalomaniac and the broader populace of QLD reject Labor. Bob Brown and GetUp ( which incidentally I support) were counterproductive. We need new approaches to get rid of those evil, ignorant and dangerous people but I don’t know what they are.

19. Oh dear, the Nat$ Adulterer-in-Chief seeks publicity for his campaign to recover the party leadership from Michael What’s-‘is-name.

    Research shows that Barnyard was supported by Tamworth women because he was a local who needed motherly protection from the nasty “outsiders” picking on Barnyard by expecting him to be a credible candidate. Meanwhile, the New England men coveted his extra-marital meanderings and voted accordingly.

    But spare a thought for the (minority) thinking voters of New England dealing with self-serving Nat$ politicians at NSW and federal levels who appear determined to benefit from using public monies and public influence for vested agricultural and mining interests.

    With the drought reducing Armidale water supply from purpose built Malpas Dam to about 12 months supply, why is a foreign owned tomato grower allowed to use Malpas water to grow export tomatoes? What dirty water deal was done by the Nat$ to spend about $14 MILLION of public monies building an access pipeline between Malpas and the Tomato Farm with a spur line to Guyratown water supply dam to give the appearance of public good?

    Transporting water by road tanker is already occurring between Malpas Dam and Guyra township (pop about 3,000) for level 5 residential use, so when Malpas is dry, how will the water needs of Armidale, (pop.about 26,000) be satisfied when the Great Northern Railway remains dilapidated and threatened with conversion to a fail rail trail because the Nat$ want to remove competition from the ill-conceived Northern Inland Railway that by their own research shows will be uneconomic for about 50 years?

    Oh silly me ….. the Chairman of the NIR is John Anderson, former leader of the Nat$ and Campaign Manager for Barnyard at the last two elections. Well you gotta help a mate, right???

20. David Shelley, the geologist, and Malcolm Roberts, the mining engineer, both seem to think they have some expertise in the Atmospheric Sciences.
    What makes me wary of their claims to knowledge is the simple fact that there ain’t much atmosphere of any description down there under the ground.
    If you encounter any other self-described “expert” in this field, simply ask them to explain the Kinetic Theory of Gases to you….they won’t be able to because it is really difficult science and math.

21. Thanks Kaye, it is always helpful to have one’s view of BJ reinforced.

    I feel immense sadness for his young son who is not only facing a future of a dying planet, but if he has any independent thoughts he will learn that his father is a complete fool. Poor thing.

    His daughters are fortunate that they already know.

22. Thank you for shining a light on this blokes’s Facebook ramblings, Kaye, which I would normally be unaware of.

    Between Trump’s tweets and Barnaby’s posts there is enough to drive a sane person mad. You can chuck in Malcolm Roberts as well. Now there’s a bright one. Not.

23. Kaye, all our resources are finite, what the fck are ya gunna do with a petrol V8 Ute when there’s no fuel? We can’t grow crops for it there’s a huge problem feeding the world now. When fuel runs out how ya gunna get coal out of the ground without fossil fuel to run the machinery needed?

    How are ya gunna get it to port? What about overseas, on a sailing tanker. If ya think about it there are a miriod of logical arguments as to why we should be going renewable. For one it never runs out and leaves no waste or very little, logical I thought. BTW, love ALL your work.

24. It is m/y 2019, there is no place on earth for halfwits drunks like this bloke in this day and age. He who apparently finds it easier to copy/ paste idiotic rants than to research anything for himself. I would suggest that if any sanctions were to be applied by overseas Governments the Australian “government” should be Number One on the list. Fools like kelly and joyce holding the “government”, and the people of Australia, hostage with their spoon fed Fossil Fuel idiotic claims has seen Australia become an International embarrassment. There Is No Planet B….By the way, who/ what is David Shelley?

25. Another nutter.

26. Did this man really use the word, zeitgeist? Does he know its meaning ? Or did he repeat someone else’s ramblings?

27. Apologies Kaye Lee – didn’t see the warning – must have skimmed that bit.

28. Yvonne, after listening to the concerns from you and Rosemary, I added it No-one should be forced to read Barnaby’s bulldust. As Ben Cubby said of Malcolm Robert’s ramblings, “how does one critically analyse a pile of horseshit?”

29. Barnaby quotes David Shelley as ” a person far more competent than me.” I was going to say that comment would apply to the vast majority of the people, but the very fact that he keeps getting reelected along with his largely incompetent coalition colleagues, I really do have misgivings. It is a shame none of them have the ability to lift their vision beyond the meaningless mantras engendered by the IPA and the Murdoch pernicious drivel because I see some lees than friendly headwinds ahead. These fools keep indirectly referring to them but would not have the least clue how to combat them upon encounter. I presume it will be ” Labors Fault” as we sink beneath the morass of incompetence.

30. Thanks Kaye. As Michael said, unless you had posted this, most of us would not have seen it. I read one comment earlier today by someone who took issue with you for having posted someone else’s words rather than write an actual article yourself. (Was that Rosemary?) Anyhow, I can’t seem to find that comment now, but just wanted to say that I very much appreciate the way you do this from time to time – There’s no ‘Law of Journalism’ that forbids it, and every reason for your readers to be appreciative.

31. This is simply head-scratchingly absurd. How is it possible for somebody to rise to a position of considerable political eminence and be so wilfully, woefully, ignorant and stupid? I agree too that it’s good for us to get a better insight into how these trolls think: Barnaby Joyce, Malcolm Roberts, and their ilk. It’s just so bloody frustrating: too many people will believe unthinkingly what Joyce & Roberts say, because too many people are unable to think for themselves. And the results of the past few elections show conclusively that en masse, Australians are a pack of utter dills. It would be too much to ask for Barnaby to check his evidence, do a little independent analysis himself, and indeed show a modicum of scientific thinking (say, the equivalent of a 13 or 14 year old), before he starts spouting his garbage about matters in which he is not only unschooled, but also completely ignorant. I hate it that he gets air-time, and his rants are taken as news-worthy. I’m now going to cry into my beer.

32. “Politics takes politics to the absurd.”

    I couldn’t agree more… agreeably.

33. So. it s all good.

    Therefore we don’t have to worry about the Murray/Darling (or corruption) because its just the way it is as god ordained it.

    What comes of slob attitudes?

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/11/nsw-deputy-premier-vows-to-open-up-murray-valley-national-park-to-logging?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

34. Alasdair,

    Barnaby doesn’t even have to do any reading or research. Experts actually take the time to go and speak in person to these idiots.

    “Australian MPs and senators have been attending briefings in Canberra this week by some of our country’s world-leading climate scientists. On Monday evening, three of the scientists also provided a briefing to the Coalition’s backbench committee on the environment.

    The Liberal MP for Hughes, Craig Kelly, the chair of the committee, had accepted the invitation to host some scientists. In attendance would be the Global Change Institute director and marine biologist and coral reef expert Prof Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, Dr John Church, a world-leading scientist on sea level rise from the CSIRO and Prof Mark Howden, a chief research scientist at CSIRO and also the director of the Climate Change Institute at Australian National University.

    But on the Friday, the scientists were told that Kelly had also invited three representatives from the “free market” thinktank the Institute of Public Affairs to also make presentations. This was, apparently, to provide “balance”.

    Prof Hoegh-Guldberg described the meeting this way. “Monday evening, though, was unpleasant. We had people shouting. We have heard all of the old arguments before a million times – ‘CO2 is plant food’ … ‘climate change isn’t happening’ … that sort of thing. It was disappointingly uninformed. The scientists were from premier institutions taking time to address the committee. Then we had three people from the IPA – clearly lobbyists. What they were saying was not based in reality or science – it was an anti-intellectual environment.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/planet-oz/2015/oct/23/coalition-committee-tries-to-balance-climate-science-briefings-by-inviting-denialists-from-think-tank

    Gina, Rupert and their IPA are who pull Barnaby’s strings. Matt Canavan is a wannabe Barnaby. Craig Kelly and Malcolm Roberts are just morons.

35. Kate Ahearne,

    I have never considered myself a journalist. This is not what I do for a living. I started because I knew Tony Abbott personally and couldn’t believe he might become my PM. It evolved.

    I care about truth. I consider it my civic duty to share information so people can make informed decisions. I do not get drops from politicians. I don’t need to leave the house for the investigation I do. It’s all freely available. I just try to string it together. Hopefully that will save me from having the AFP try to search my house. My lack of housekeeping would make that more traumatic for them than me.

36. Kaye, your lack of housekeeping reminds me of why my mother never went out in her second best undies – in case she got hit by a bus! But seriously, it doesn’t really matter whether you call yourself a journalist or not. Whatever you call it, the work you do is very important. Thank you.

37. Thanks, Kaye, for your response. I didn’t mean to intend that Barnaby suddenly do his own scientific research; more that he engage in a sort of critical analysis of the provenance of his sources. As you well know, a first step in the direction of scientific literacy is to validate your sources, and not accept anything with blind faith. Barnaby shows a complete lack of critical thinking, which means that his crazy ramblings have no validity.

    As to the IPC offering to “balance” a scientific meeting, this smacks of the same sort of thinking by which creationists demanded equal time in science classrooms so as to “teach the controversy”. Neither the IPC nor creationists understand what science is, how it works, how to infer from evidence, and how to identify the limits of your evidence. They espouse muddled thinking which goes down just fine with a muddled, confused, and tired polity.

38. When I was at uni, the toilet graffiti said “Knowledge isn’t private property so stop putting footnotes on your essays”. I considered it funny at the time – putting footnotes on everything was much harder in the handwriting days.

    But now, with the internet, credibility of sources has taken a whole new importance for me that I didn’t appreciate as a youngster competing to borrow the book from the library. Or saving five cent pieces to photocopy as much as you could from the books in the library reserve.

    We are blessed with access to information now. And cursed with misinformation.

    Kate, we are all good at different things. Domestic duties is not my forte. I admire those who can actually keep it under control. No wonder everyone wants a wife. I want their version of one too.

39. Why do you call him barnaby this “person” is better described as joyce or better as “jerker joyce

40. Barnaby needs to get his message across to the Arctic Ocean, Alaska , Greenland, Notthern Territories of Canada and Siberia; they did not get his memo about the climate cooling. The state of the Arctic Ocean is a real worry at present. Currently, sea ice extent is at the lowest recorded since satellite measure began to be used. It could rebound to an extent, even if that did happen, there is no evidence of the climate cooling.

    Joyce was an Accountant prior to becoming a politician, Accountants theoretically use objective numbers to manipulate. Scientists use objective measure from satellites. The continual reduction in sea ice since being measured by satellites in 1979 shows a decline, there are variations from year to year; but, the overall trend is clear. A record was established in 2012 for the lowest sea ice extent recorded, that record could very well be smashed this melting season. As of 11 July, 2019, the Arctic Ocean had the lowest sea ice extent, 2011 had second highest and 2012 had third highest, the figures can change on a daily basis and it is not until September that we will know how the 2019 sea ice melt season will fair. There was a difference of 93,087 square kilometers between the sea ice extent of 2019 and 2012 on 11 July.

    Over the last few years extremely sensitive equipment has been used to measure conditions in previous epochs through the use of extremely small samples. The use of Geology to measure what went on in previous epochs through paleo-climatology adds weight to anthropological climate change.

41. Whoops
    … 2011 had second lowest and 2012 had third lowest. My apologies.

42. Does anyone else get the impression that Barnaby is desperately seeking attention?

43. I often get that feeling, Kaye.

    You gotta laugh – after shortly pleading for privacy – that he gave an interview (for money, I believe) that was to be aired on prime time TV.

44. As Mark Twain said, no amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot. I am embarrassed to say, but 3 years ago I listened to Alan Jones, watched Sky News, voted for Abbott and thought Barnaby Joyce made a lot of sense. Of course I was also a climate change denier. I would be angered by the heavy handed approach of the ABC where the subject of climate change was always accompanied by the vision of belching smoke stacks for dramatic effect. I viewed this as a clumsy attempt to manipulate the masses and stoke fear and danger for a power source that was vital to our country’s survival. After any bushfire, the believers would blame climate change and coal fired power stations (mostly espoused by the Greens who did not believe in backburning). The over reach from the media was like propaganda to me and just reinforced my views

    Thankfully I am not that person today. There was no pivotal moment my eyes were opened but it happened gradually (some call it the “nudge theory”). Perhaps it was the heightened ugliness and hysteria of the alt-right on all matters of social responsibility that made me slowly realise it was just an echo chamber of hate where any suggestion of social improvement was branded as either a conspiracy, virtue signalling or Marxist.

    My point here is subtlety and nuanced voices are more effective than loud clanging hysterical voices and clumsy over reach. Rather than frightening the young that the world will end if we do nothing about climate change, the education curriculum should teach positive reinforcement of the wonders of our natural environment and its fragile eco systems, respecting its resources and living sustainably. The young people hold the key to a better world so we must invest more in their education. How good would it be if “new and fashionable” was frowned upon and “sustainable and recycled” was championed. With all our 21c knowledge we are still building ridiculous houses, poisoning our land and waterways and living wasteful lives. Change for a better world is moving too slowly and, under our visionless Government, going backwards.

45. Wendy … welcome aboard what I see as the more “rational and clear-eyed” side of the spectrum.

46. Thank you Kaye Lee. Erudite, entertaining & informing.

    Talking of tools.

    Barnyard Joyce, The fully paid for member for Rhienhart Mining.

    Before becoming a MP, Joyce’s only claim to fame was as a habitual drunkard.

    The Aust Parliament plumbs the depths of depravity with the LNP machine re-elected.
    As for Labor????

    Talking of tools, fools and Members of Parliament.

47. @Wendy, well said.

48. I think it is also instructive how the bully boys in the Coalition work.

    “One of the few graces of being on the backbench …”

    Barnaby reminds us that, having been overlooked for a Ministry, he will make it as difficult as he can.

    Just like Craig Kelly who makes regular threats, the latest being he will lead a No campaign for any constitutional recognition for First Australians. Barnaby’s on board along with Peter Dutton. What an odious trio.

    Kelly also threatened he would move to the crossbench if the State Executive did not endorse him as candidate – Morrison caved and issued the directive/plea.

    If you keep pandering to bullies, they only get worse.