Steerzing in a New Direction...

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Rescue dogs shot dead by NSW council due to COVID-19 restrictions

Bourke Shire Council are lucky I don't live in Australia.

[Service Dog]

General Michael Hayden is a former director of the NSA and the CIA under Clinton, Dubya Bush, and Obama.

He refers to those who oppose CIA use of torture as "interrogation deniers". He lied to Congress about the number of prisoners held in Gitmo.

https://media.patriots.win/post/CThCXEeU.jpeg

[Service Dog]

Australia. Cops ram man, stomp his head into the road.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever."

[Hunt]

Clean up of borked post.

Conan O'Brien speaks the truth, but you have to remember, Afghanistan was always just a stepping stone to Iraq. It has 1.6 billion barrels of oil reserve, which sounds like a lot (you have to give some alms to the poor) until you realize that Iraq has 100x as much, which is why, while 'Merka might withdraw from Iraq, it will never--can never--allow a takeover like in 'stan. Everything is simple when you follow the oil.

Simple, but not necessarily true, and very tempting if you are of a certain mindset.

As a method of finding the true motivation for thing, following the money rarely fails.

[MarcusAu]

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever."

I'll see if I can find a free spot in my calendar.

[John D]

Australia. Cops ram man, stomp his head into the road.

but he isn’t black so the media doesn’t care.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Members of the House of Lords -- who all have funny names like Lord Stirrup and Lord Headstall -- wail on Dementia Joe:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/british- ... ntent=news

[John D]

Members of the House of Lords -- who all have funny names like Lord Stirrup and Lord Headstall -- wail on Dementia Joe:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/british- ... ntent=news

haha… and now they realize Trump was the better choice… fuck off Europe…

[Service Dog]

.

The US Media & CDC report a Covid vaccination rate of 61%.

But a Kaiser Family Foundation survey of data from 2,415 counties-- reports a vaccination rate around 32%.

___

I've been watching a claim circulate on dubious-looking websites.

The claim is that the 'official' number is based on ridiculous math:

an average of 28.5% of people living in counties which Trump carried-- are vaccinated

an average of 35% of people living in counties which Biden carried-- are vaccinated.

Allegedly-- the CDC added (their internal version of) those two numbers-- arriving at 61% Adding them makes no sense. Might as well multiply them.
Averaging the 28.5% and 35% makes more sense-- resulting in a number close to Kaiser's 32%

Like I said-- I've only seen this claim on shoddy-looking websites, like this: https://www.europereloaded.com/cdc-and- ... -it-is-32/

But the Kaiser Family Foundation data is considered solid-- quoted by Sam Harris, Dr. Topol, many institutionally-approved experts.

[Lsuoma]

Dyatlov in The New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021 ... een-solved

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Dyatlov in The New Yorker:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021 ... een-solved

Your standard, 6,000-word New Yorker article with 1,500 words worth of info in it. Designed to be long enough to take a mighty shit before listening to Weekend Edition.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

.

The US Media & CDC report a Covid vaccination rate of 61%.

But a Kaiser Family Foundation survey of data from 2,415 counties-- reports a vaccination rate around 32%.

___

I've been watching a claim circulate on dubious-looking websites.

The claim is that the 'official' number is based on ridiculous math:

an average of 28.5% of people living in counties which Trump carried-- are vaccinated

an average of 35% of people living in counties which Biden carried-- are vaccinated.

Allegedly-- the CDC added (their internal version of) those two numbers-- arriving at 61% Adding them makes no sense. Might as well multiply them.
Averaging the 28.5% and 35% makes more sense-- resulting in a number close to Kaiser's 32%

Like I said-- I've only seen this claim on shoddy-looking websites, like this: https://www.europereloaded.com/cdc-and- ... -it-is-32/

But the Kaiser Family Foundation data is considered solid-- quoted by Sam Harris, Dr. Topol, many institutionally-approved experts.

Is maybe one counting adults only and the other everyone?

[Service Dog]

Yes-- even the shoddy-looking website says "adults" next-to 61% and "people" next-to Kaiser's lower numbers.

[Service Dog]

The next claim I've been vetting today... starts with all the headlines saying the Pfizer jab has been fully approved by the FDA.

Which was met by this meme:

► Show Spoiler

https://media.patriots.win/post/KVX66vmn.png

The meme's FDA.gov document, on the right, dated today, is real: https://archive.is/59Msf

So... which is it? Is the vax really fully approved? Or was the emergency use authorization merely extended?

The answer appears to be both*, with one asterisk.

The asterisk is that the 'full' approval is for ages 16-and-up ONLY.

But for ages 12-and-up the (Extended) Emergency Use Authorization is the only authorization.

Today's FDA.gov document admits: "Additionally, there are no products that are approved to prevent COVID-19 in individuals age 12 through 15,"

I expect that asterisk to be highly-contentious-- in the debate over mandating the vax at schools, for kids 15 and under.

[MarcusAu]

Sean Lock dead at 58
...
..
.

[ThreeFlangedJavis]

Australia. Cops ram man, stomp his head into the road.

Going by the title I was expecting something brutal, like neck kneeling, but it was just a boot to the head.

[ThreeFlangedJavis]

Clean up of borked post.

Conan O'Brien speaks the truth, but you have to remember, Afghanistan was always just a stepping stone to Iraq. It has 1.6 billion barrels of oil reserve, which sounds like a lot (you have to give some alms to the poor) until you realize that Iraq has 100x as much, which is why, while 'Merka might withdraw from Iraq, it will never--can never--allow a takeover like in 'stan. Everything is simple when you follow the oil.

Simple, but not necessarily true, and very tempting if you are of a certain mindset.

As a method of finding the true motivation for thing, following the money rarely fails.

I know, if you're talking Biden family or Cheney family and the like, but there are such things as ideology, personality disorders, hubris and of course strategic interests. Was Afghanistan a base for Islamic terrorism? If it was, then why is that not a more reasonable explanation for intervention? Tony Blair provided the big moral impetus for invasion in the Middle East and he is all about moral crusading, not money, at least as far as foreign policy goes. There's nearly always someone making money out of major events but that doesn't mean that was the cause. I can point you to a thousand and one claims that global warming is all about research grants. Does that mean AGW is all about money? Follow the money is just a cheap argument making up for a lack of direct evidence.

[ThreeFlangedJavis]

The next claim I've been vetting today... starts with all the headlines saying the Pfizer jab has been fully approved by the FDA.

Which was met by this meme:

► Show Spoiler

https://media.patriots.win/post/KVX66vmn.png

The meme's FDA.gov document, on the right, dated today, is real: https://archive.is/59Msf

So... which is it? Is the vax really fully approved? Or was the emergency use authorization merely extended?

The answer appears to be both*, with one asterisk.

The asterisk is that the 'full' approval is for ages 16-and-up ONLY.

But for ages 12-and-up the (Extended) Emergency Use Authorization is the only authorization.

Today's FDA.gov document admits: "Additionally, there are no products that are approved to prevent COVID-19 in individuals age 12 through 15,"

I expect that asterisk to be highly-contentious-- in the debate over mandating the vax at schools, for kids 15 and under.

Full FDA approval is meaningless in such a short time frame. Don't trust a word coming out of the FDA and Whitehouse on this subject because I suspect some decisions are based on the realisation that a constitutional can of worms is being opened up by forcing an unapproved vaccine on people. The SC isn't captured and there are non-activist judges in some districts.

[Service Dog]

[Service Dog]

Rebecca Watson Word Games & Pearl Clutching

[Service Dog]

https://media.patriots.win/post/ucDP1Rbh.jpeg

[Service Dog]

Very informative interview, from Sargon, about Australia's authoritarian culture:

[fafnir]

Clean up of borked post.

Conan O'Brien speaks the truth, but you have to remember, Afghanistan was always just a stepping stone to Iraq. It has 1.6 billion barrels of oil reserve, which sounds like a lot (you have to give some alms to the poor) until you realize that Iraq has 100x as much, which is why, while 'Merka might withdraw from Iraq, it will never--can never--allow a takeover like in 'stan. Everything is simple when you follow the oil.

Simple, but not necessarily true, and very tempting if you are of a certain mindset.

As a method of finding the true motivation for thing, following the money rarely fails.

I know, if you're talking Biden family or Cheney family and the like, but there are such things as ideology, personality disorders, hubris and of course strategic interests. Was Afghanistan a base for Islamic terrorism? If it was, then why is that not a more reasonable explanation for intervention? Tony Blair provided the big moral impetus for invasion in the Middle East and he is all about moral crusading, not money, at least as far as foreign policy goes. There's nearly always someone making money out of major events but that doesn't mean that was the cause. I can point you to a thousand and one claims that global warming is all about research grants. Does that mean AGW is all about money? Follow the money is just a cheap argument making up for a lack of direct evidence.

Blair is a complicated guy to have his motivations summed up so simply. If we are looking at the purely moral dimension.... sure you've got the terrorist angle, and the helping people angle.... but I think he is simultaneously keen on the vision of building the current incarnation of the global progressive/wall street Jerusalem.

As to "follow the money" being cheap. Politicians making moral cases is also very cheap. We tend to accept them from politicians we like and not from those we don't. Of course he made a moral case, he was hardly going to pull a Trump and straightforwardly say that the motive was oil or something. Blair making a moral case is like Cardinal Richelieu making a moral case, he might well sincerely believe it, but the moral case is unlikely to be his sole reason for doing it.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

In case you Ozzies were wondering whether it was time just yet to get out the lever-actions what your nanny state left you with ...

I mean, like how many cop head-stompings should we mutely stand by and watch, before maybe we should defend our liberties?

Umm, the time is NOW.

I'd come and join you, like the Marquis de fucking Lafayette, only I'd need a vax passport to fly.

[Brive1987]

A couple of inside POVs on the NSW response to COVID.

NSW had a stella response from 2020 to a month or so ago. Main lapse was allowing the Ruby Princess cruise-ship dock early on.

We laughed at Melbourne and their extended lockdown last year. Fucking dirty communist Mexicans.

Our Premier celebrated our gold plated contact tracers. Our resulting zero cases. We opened up fully. NSW issued gifts - everyone got 4x $25 vouchers to get us back into the restaurants and museums. We were back in the office, pissed at wearing a mask while on trains when there was no need.

But the Federal government fucked up by not getting a vaccine program in place. They were lazy and Australia didn’t rate as an ‘in need’ country. The only vaccine we could make here was AZ. And then it turned bad as the ‘clot-shot’ but our PM made it clear “vaccination isn’t a race”. We were sitting pretty in Fortress Australia. We’d sort it out. In time.

Then NSW fucked the unanticipated Delta strain up. We were slack. We didn’t require drivers of OS arrivals to wear masks. So Delta happened in Sydney. Bugger.

There was a real disinclination by the State government to locking down. We’d do a limited one just to let the contract tracers get ahead of the growth and sort it down. That’s how we roll.

They failed.

Delta spread from the rich eastern suburbs to the Muslim / poor Asian working class desert of Sydney’s south west. These people a) couldn’t work from home b) can’t read their own exotic languages let alone English c) are Muslim goat fuckers who aren’t gonna listen to harbour-side whitey.

So cases climbed mostly in these migrant Local Government (council) Areas. Goat-fuckers illegally traveled (while sick) to Victoria and spread Delta there.

Three things happened in NSW. Firstly “LGAs of concern” were slowly but progressively locked down harder as they got dirtier and dirtier. Secondly, ‘Non LGAs of concern’ (the rest of us) were further locked down so Delta couldn’t spread from the slums. Thirdly the Federal Government ran away from the problem, Scott Morrison knew a steaming turd when he saw it. Fourthly Victoria slammed NSW for not locking down harder sooner. NSW Govt is politically liberal, Victoria is left-labor. NSW had laughed at Victoria in 2020 and then we exported Delta to them through our slack approach. As the rona spread, NSW became open to criticism for a piss-poor performance and so increasingly we had to demonstrate we were serious. Finally Qld, SA, WA looked at NSW and Victoria. They noted the Feds cowering. In unison they screeched “stay the fuck away from us, we don’t care if you get 70% vaccinated, you’re filthy, we have no rona so fuck off”. Borders slammed down.

So Rona is seething in Sydney migrant-land. We can’t lock ‘em down any more because “racism”. We can’t let it spread to the country and rest of the city. We don’t have enough vaccine - which is the only Plan B. The rest of Australia is bullying us. People say we should’a gone harder faster, we should’a had a bad-plan, we should’a done anything than the lurching that’s got us here. We want the breezy days back.

but basically we have two options now.

1) Open up - not a political option. And we may go all “Florida”.

2) Stay locked down - as a sop to unfettered spread - while we vaccinate to an arbitrary level of, oh say, 70-80% then open up UK style.

Option 2 is what they are doing. Problem is, lack of an acceptable vaccine means Sept-Oct is the earliest we can open. And the limited vaccine keeps getting shuttled around from the countryside to the city kids who meant to be doing their final exams back to the country as Abos start catching the wu-flu. Fear of spread in the countryside is why the local council shot their strays. Hardly the number 1 issue.

Meanwhile we stay locked down, recording daily record-growth of cases, hoping to keep a lid on things till we sort it out. The added problem in NSW is that the State Govt’s previous soft approach failed and now the police have the upper hand to set the agenda. Strangely that hammer sees the problem as a nail. And strangely they don’t like crowds of feral people, cos playing minute-men and congregating in the CBD subverting the whole plan. The police got their way last week and now we have harsher laws being exercised.

Bottom line is the NSW government’s predisposition was to avoid a lockdown. They have been reluctantly dragged into this and their slowness resulted in a worse set of circumstances.

That and the muslims.

And China.

[screwtape]

As to "follow the money" being cheap. Politicians making moral cases is also very cheap. We tend to accept them from politicians we like and not from those we don't. Of course he made a moral case, he was hardly going to pull a Trump and straightforwardly say that the motive was oil or something. Blair making a moral case is like Cardinal Richelieu making a moral case, he might well sincerely believe it, but the moral case is unlikely to be his sole reason for doing it.

Blair's 'legacy' - such as it is - has been substantially undermined by the criticism that as 'Bush's poodle' he obediently sent British troops into Afghanistan and then Iraq after 'sexing up' the evidence of WMD (see the Hutton Inquiry). It must be galling for him to see that it was all for nothing. All he is left with are the errors of devolution, Lords reform and the Supreme Court. History will not be kind about any of them.

[Brive1987]

So really. We don’t need crazy-talk about seizing our “if-only” AKs and launching a revolution. We don’t need to worry about Australia’s latent fascism. The shooting of a handful of surplus dogs is a typical outback solution to an inconvenience.

We have enough logistical, political and medical problems of our own making without armies of conspiracy nutters imposing some unbalanced worldview onto the landscape.

The reality is that an unmanaged spread of COVID isn’t an option. Lockdown is barely working as containment and comes with significant cost. Vaccination is a solution. But not today.

It’s a shit sandwich.

But compared to much of the world, things could be considerably worse.

[Keating]

ACT government too. The bastards are almost completely unreachable by phone since they locked everything down, and completely unopen to reason. You can lead them, with reason, to the conclusion that their approach is flawed, and they’ll always fall back on that they’re just following World Health Organisation guidelines.

Two people got fined the other day for going on a 12 km hike because it was longer than 1 hour, even though they didn’t encounter another human. It’s bloody insane, and I call every day.

[Brive1987]

Our bureaucracy is noted for a stupid inability to apply nuance to their own business rules

[Keating]

Finally Qld, SA, WA looked at NSW and Victoria. They noted the Feds cowering. In unison they screeched “stay the fuck away from us, we don’t care if you get 70% vaccinated, you’re filthy, we have no rona so fuck off”. Borders slammed down.

This is a clear violation of Section 117 of the Constitution. I'd rather they ignored Sections 48, 49, 66 and especially 51 and 52.

[Brive1987]

Finally Qld, SA, WA looked at NSW and Victoria. They noted the Feds cowering. In unison they screeched “stay the fuck away from us, we don’t care if you get 70% vaccinated, you’re filthy, we have no rona so fuck off”. Borders slammed down.

This is a clear violation of Section 117 of the Constitution. I'd rather they ignored Sections 48, 49, 66 and especially 51 and 52.

Nothing is clear about 117.

https://www.unswlawjournal.unsw.edu.au/ ... ynolds.pdf

[Matt Cavanaugh]

The shooting of a handful of surplus dogs is a typical outback solution to an inconvenience.

You all shoot shelter dogs on a regular basis, then?

... imposing some unbalanced worldview onto the landscape.

"The right of the people to peaceably assemble shall not be infringed". Can't have that sort of unbalanced nutter worldview disrupting your shangri-la.

The reality is that an unmanaged spread of COVID isn’t an option

How many dead?

But compared to much of the world, things could be considerably worse.

Give 'em an inch, they take a mile.

Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny.

[Service Dog]

I greatly appreciate Brive's comments. Which confirm 100% the view of Sargon's guest-- that Australia is eminently practical/authoritarian-- viewing rights as fanciful fluff. Brive makes the case well for that perspective. Keating's replies show there's also room-- remaining within the frame of Australian values-- to call-out the supposedly practical as actually ridiculous.

___

I'm reading the 'Emulate Australia? It's Not That Easy' article by Sargon's guest (Helen Dale).
https://standpointmag.co.uk/emulate-aus ... that-easy/

She writes with clarity, and finds the crux of the argument. But I depart from her-- when she says Steven Pinker proved (with Science!) that no natural rights exist in man's primitive past. I'm not defending Rousseau's noble savage nonsense. Rather, something in a George H. Smith column. I can't quite recall which-one, maybe about Lord Acton? Or Hoppe? https://www.libertarianism.org/podcasts ... ns?page=16 The point was-- that two primitive savages who meet like animals-- may see each-other only as threats. Safer to exterminate the other-guy, than risk letting him live to exterminate you. But if one guy knows how to sharpen stones & the other guy is fast-enough to stab a rabbit-- then there's mutual incentive to spare each-other's lives, as long-term trading partners. And from there-- bit by bit-- the good sense of property rights and natural rights can be derived.

I apply that to an earlier point in pre-history. We often hear that wolves were domesticated into dogs-- when wolves followed-behind human hunting parties, scavenging our food scraps. The friendlier wolves we gave extra scraps/ the unfriendly ones we killed. Smart ones participated in the hunt. Thus the dog was selected into existence. Except that version gets the timeline wrong. Wolves co-operated with wolves to hunt -before- humans co-operated with humans to hunt. The wolves were the civilized hunter society and we were the hapless scavengers. They spared the smart, helpful, friendly humans/ and killed the rabid ones. They selected us into existence.

Shooting dogs unnecessarily is patricide. I means the wolves were wrong to spare us.
It fails the Voight-Kampff test. And the Bene Gesserit Gom Jabbar.

Covid is not such an existential threat-- that man's mutually-beneficial value to other-men-- is obliterated-- so we're back to kill-the-other-guy-before-he-kills-you (by breathing!). The govt restrictions and police brutality are NOT justified in the name of survival. The disease kills hardly-anybody. The vast majority of the dead were living on borrowed-time. And the bureaucratic opportunists-- using Covid as an excuse to supercede our rights-- are a far-greater threat.

Australia may be the exception. Where the local clockwork keeps the trains running on time... without tic-tic-ticking into a grey nightmare of totalitarianism. That social experiment Australia's problem, not mine.

For me-- knowing about Australia provides insight into the institutions on my own side of the world.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

But I depart from her-- when she says Steven Pinker proved (with Science!) that no natural rights exist in man's primitive past. I'm not defending Rousseau's noble savage nonsense.

Hell, even Hobbes recognized natural rights. He just advocated relinquishing them to the Bourke Shire Council for the good of the collective.

The govt restrictions and police brutality are NOT justified in the name of survival. The disease kills hardly-anybody. The vast majority of the dead were living on borrowed-time. And the bureaucratic opportunists-- using Covid as an excuse to supercede our rights-- are a far-greater threat.

The authoritarian Left is actively seeking ways to make the populace unable to take care of themselves, thus becoming entirely dependent on the largesse of the government/oligarchs.

I recently viewed a series of ads from the Democratic Party. Each first portrays a terrible problem -- covid, struggling businesses, poor education, systemic racism, etc. -- then with soaring music describes how much Joe and Kamala care and all the amazing things they're doing to fix the problems. Closing tag line: Help Is On The Way.

Because you're helpless. Because we made you so.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

[Service Dog]

Jefferson's 'tree of liberty' quote came to mind, so I googled it. And of course google prioritizes fucking Snopes.

The punchline is this: Snopes attempted to 'fact check' a Ben Garrison cartoon in 2019.

With the benefit of hindsight, let's see how Ol' Ben's cartoon aged. (Note the syringe in the center-branch)




Snopes hems & haws, seeking to portray the meaning of the quote as unclear.

Snopes re-embeds the quote in it's original context, as-if that invalidates current use. That tactic backfires in a post January 6 & QAnon world:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/thoma ... f-liberty/

[ThreeFlangedJavis]

As to "follow the money" being cheap. Politicians making moral cases is also very cheap. We tend to accept them from politicians we like and not from those we don't. Of course he made a moral case, he was hardly going to pull a Trump and straightforwardly say that the motive was oil or something. Blair making a moral case is like Cardinal Richelieu making a moral case, he might well sincerely believe it, but the moral case is unlikely to be his sole reason for doing it.

Blair's 'legacy' - such as it is - has been substantially undermined by the criticism that as 'Bush's poodle' he obediently sent British troops into Afghanistan and then Iraq after 'sexing up' the evidence of WMD (see the Hutton Inquiry). It must be galling for him to see that it was all for nothing. All he is left with are the errors of devolution, Lords reform and the Supreme Court. History will not be kind about any of them.

Don't forget the petty legislation spree and lurch toward authoritarian control of freedoms, not to mention the deliberate acceleration of immigration.

[fafnir]

The authoritarian Left is actively seeking ways to make the populace unable to take care of themselves, thus becoming entirely dependent on the largesse of the government/oligarchs.

Then you get wiped out by a bunch of savages and the cycle begins again.

[screwtape]

Charlie Watts has kicked the bucket.

[Service Dog]

Charlie Watts has kicked the bucket.

I don't understand why the cause of death hasn't been made public. (It's not anything controversial or shocking.)

[Service Dog]

.

Orange Man is so Bad that there's no bad left for anyone else to also suck. Amazing.

https://media.patriots.win/post/dey9ycH6.png

[Brive1987]

Hmmm. I see.

Ok. A couple more points that you may want to input to your mental algorithms.

Australia has always been happily and indulgently insular. Which is another word for ‘conformist within our bubble’. We didn’t like Catholics. We didn’t like Abos all that much. Didn’t like the post-war wogs. Or the Vietnamese. Or the Chinese. Or poofs. We didn’t like British attitude.

But it was a lucky country without too much strife. “Have a go”. “She’ll be right”. “Look out for your mate”. Life was easy, beach culture was aspired to and so was the imagined honesty of perceived outback simplicity. We were proud of our seperate distinctiveness and felt we punched internationally ‘above our weight’ is areas that mattered. Like sport, beer, individual / small unit military capacity and lifestyle.

The other clear trait was that we didn’t like overt displays of … anything much. We didn’t stand for the anthem. No hands on hearts. Australia Day was a bit of joke. The flag wasn’t anything special. Politicians by definition, were blow-hards who needed a good kicking to deflate them. Unless they were Bob Hawke who’d drown a beer and swear and screw like the rest of us - in our dreams. True, Anzac Day was a solemn expression. But of laconic diggers who did the right thing. Emotion was reserved for the weekend footy game. Consequently demonstrations were suspect - hippy louts. Non conformists. People yelling at the rest of us. Lefty wingbats. Our general feeling was “bugger off, you dickhead”.

Now Australia is changing. Urban-elite globalism is upon us. Post national expression is all the rage in the city. Massive migration has removed the ability to recognise, let alone celebrate an insular national character. And we are picking up American traits. A lot of the wokeness. The demonstrative right-wing popularism that is the antithesis of old-Australia quiet, smug patriotism. Our PM wears a natty POTUS-style lapel flag. And an un-ironic Australian-flag mask. Dickhead. We have weird ‘blood of the patriot’ bullshit and gun rights bullshit creeping in. These are perfect for American culture. They are alien to ours. And we get Alex Jones style global tin-hat conspiracy that extends beyond the economic globalism that’s obvious in a connected world with concentrating wealth.

It’s been weird watching this and weird seeing local events being viewed through overseas lens during the past couple of weeks.

My original post tried to provide real world context around what’s happened here and how pragmatics of local politics, remnants of Australian character, mistakes and other grass-root factors were more determinative than grand themes of overseas origin.

I’d be careful enthusiastically applying the “lessons” you draw to your own local conditions. There’s some circular reasoning at play.

[Service Dog]

I’d be careful enthusiastically applying the “lessons” you draw to your own local conditions.

Good advice.

On the other hand, for what it's worth, there are parts of the US which would see themselves in your words. Places where the arrival of pushy politics and apocalyptic gun-waving is 'not how we do things around here'-- an intrusion on local culture, seeping-in from a lowest-common-denominator American Culture.

[Brive1987]

The shooting of a handful of surplus dogs is a typical outback solution to an inconvenience.

You all shoot shelter dogs on a regular basis, then?

... imposing some unbalanced worldview onto the landscape.

"The rig...

______________________________________________________________

You all shoot shelter dogs on a regular basis, then?

That's a crap argument. Especially for you. I know for a fact that 'Out Back of Bourke' has never had a lockdown before. I'd imagine there's been a gun-centric holocaust inflicted on local kangaroos and rabbits / foxes. Bourke ain't leafy Annandale. Shooting a few dogs to lose a problem wouldn't lead to the fainting couch. Maybe you should wonder why a local council ranger in fuck-stick Bourke has become so iconic? Who is playing who?

"The right of the people to peaceably assemble shall not be infringed". Can't have that sort of unbalanced nutter worldview disrupting your shangri-la.

In the past, Aussies didn't generally look at "demos" with fondness. Unless it was for workers rights or more pay. But not so much for social wetness. We certainly don't fetishize the "right". That's different in other cultures coming from other historical contexts. I get it.

How many dead?

Not a lot - and that's the way we like it. We have watched Italy. And China. And South Africa. And India. And New York. And the UK. No thanks. That's the point of containment.

Give 'em an inch, they take a mile.

Maybe. But I think the pollies are rat-cunning enough to understand a few facts. Australians will roll with the punches while they believe its for the greater good. We rolled with going to Turkey in 1915. We did the Somme. We were in North Africa FFS in 1940-42. We told the pollies to fuck off in WW1 re conscription though. But we rolled during Vietnam because it was on our doorstep. We are rolling with lockdown. But just. Gladys has been keen to be slow and measured. She's a wog-Shelia so we'll extend her some rope. But non-compliance is costed in and demanded compliance of the un-willing will kill pollies at the polls. Right now we have bought the logic that we don't want to be India/Florida. That our splendid isolation is over. That there is a deal around 70-80% vaccination rates which makes sense. There is a timeframe around the deal.

[mordacious1]

I come from a family of cops. My dad was severely injured on the job in New York in the Forties and medically retired. Many of my immediate family are and have been cops. I tried it myself for a while, but quit because of poor impulse control. A younger me could go from zero to kick your ass in a split second. Not good when you have a gun.

Anyhow, many of my close friends have been cops too, so I’ve always been prepared for the phone call. Fortunately, it never came. No one since my dad has been seriously injured while on duty. I’ve been thankful for that. And lately, I’ve relaxed because my friends and all but a couple of relatives have retired.

Unfortunately (fortunately for society) it’s a tradition in some families for the kids to take up the badge. A few days ago, the son of two of my friends was shot twice while executing a warrant:
https://policetribune.com/modesto-offic ... t-service/
Tonight they’re amputating his leg in an attempt to save his life.
I held him as a baby. I pushed his stroller.
He’s got a wife and little baby at home. I just hope that kid doesn’t grow up to be a cop. Probably will though.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

I’d be careful enthusiastically applying the “lessons” you draw to your own local conditions.

Sez the guy who not too long ago was pontificating about the evils of American Gun Culture™.

[Service Dog]

Tom Woods gives a little tour of recent Covid responses in Iceland, Denmark, UK, and a nurse's letter from the Philippines:
https://tomwoods.com/ep-1956-the-world- ... everse-it/

Of note:

https://amp.smh.com.au/world/europe/ast ... ssion=true
Sydney Morning Herald:
"AstraZeneca lead scientist says Delta makes mass testing pointless in UK"
London: The Delta variant of COVID-19 has wrecked any chance of herd immunity, according to the Oxford scientist who led the AstraZeneca vaccine team, as he called for an end to mass testing so Britain could start to live with the virus.

Scientists who addressed Britain’s all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus said it was time to accept that there is no way of stopping the virus spreading through the entire population, and monitoring people with mild symptoms was no longer helpful.

Professor Andrew Pollard, who led the Oxford vaccine team, said it was clear that the Delta variant can still infect people who have been vaccinated, which made herd immunity impossible to reach, even with Britain’s high uptake.
...
Speaking to the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, Sir Andrew said: “Anyone who is still unvaccinated will, at some point, meet the virus.

“We don’t have anything that will stop transmission, so I think we are in a situation where herd immunity is not a possibility, and I suspect the virus will throw up a new variant that is even better at infecting vaccinated individuals.”
...
Analysis by Public Health England has shown that when vaccinated people catch the virus, they have a similar viral load to unvaccinated individuals, and may be as infectious.

Paul Hunter, a professor at the University of East Anglia and an expert in infectious diseases, told the committee: “The concept of herd immunity is unachievable because we know the infection will spread in unvaccinated populations and the latest data is suggesting that two doses is probably only 50 per cent protective against infection.

“We need to move away from reporting infections to actually reporting the number of people who are ill. Otherwise we are going to be frightening ourselves with very high numbers that don’t translate into disease burden.”

On Tuesday, Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, confirmed that third dose booster shots would be given from next month. However, Pollard argued that Britain could be continually vaccinating the population for no real health benefit if mass testing continued.

“I think as we look at the adult population going forward, if we continue to chase community testing and are worried about those results, we’re going to end up in a situation where we’re constantly boosting to try and deal with something which is not manageable,” he said

.... if they’re not unwell, then it makes sense for them to be in school and being educated.”

Dr Ruchi Sinha, consultant paediatrician at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, told MPs and peers that choosing not to vaccinate children would be unlikely to cause problems in the health service.

“What matters is the burden of patient hospitalisation and critical care and actually there hasn’t been as much with this Delta variant,” she said. “They tend to be the children who have got their comorbidities, obesity, or severe neurological problems and those children are already considered for vaccination. COVID-19 on its own in paediatrics is not the problem.”

COVID-19 in Iceland: Vaccination Has Not Led to Herd Immunity, Says Chief Epidemiologist
https://www.icelandreview.com/society/c ... miologist/

"While data shows vaccination is reducing the rate of serious illness due to COVID-19 in Iceland, the country’s Chief Epidemiologist Þórólfur Guðnason says it has not led to the herd immunity that experts hoped for. In the past two to three weeks, the Delta variant has outstripped all others in Iceland and it has become clear that vaccinated people can easily contract it as well as spread it to others, Þórólfur stated in a briefing this morning.
....
the Director of the National University Hospital Páll Matthíasson asserted that the pandemic is here to stay. He recommends that people turn the focus from lockdowns and restrictions to preparing hospitals for the new realities.

“This and other pandemics are here to stay,” Páll says. “We must strengthen the healthcare system so that it is not always on the brink of collapse.” We are all in the same boat in this society. It’s a pretty good boat despite everything, but we must work together to ensure success, Páll says.

One Swedish Professor thinks people might need five booster shots.

While many people have bragged about being “fully vaccinated” after taking two COVID-19 jabs, a Swedish professor says that as many as five shots may be needed to combat falling immunity.

“We don’t know how long the vaccine protects against serious illness and death,” said Karolinska Institute Professor Matti Sällberg

https://summit.news/2021/08/06/swedish- ... necessary/

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Australia has always been happily and indulgently insular. Which is another word for ‘conformist within our bubble’.

The other clear trait was that we didn’t like overt displays of … anything much.

You're passing current events off as typically Australian, par for the course. Really? You often get put under house arrest, with the Army patrolling the streets to enforce it? Your cops regularly beat the living shit out of protesters, stomp on their faces? Do your police in a normal year burst into homes to arrest pregnant women for disagreeing online with the government? Your government instruct you to not speak to your neighbors?

This might be what they call the 'new normal', but it's not normal and never was. And if they'll pull this shit over a minor outbreak of a wimpy variant that's not killing anyone, they'll never stop.

Never give up your freedom without a fight, cuz they never give it back without one, either.

[Matt Cavanaugh]

I come from a family of cops. My dad was severely injured on the job in New York in the Forties and medically retired. Many of my immediate family are and have been cops. I tried it myself for a while, but quit because of poor impulse control. A younger me could go from zero to kick your ass in a split second. Not good when you have a gun.

Anyhow, many of my close friends have been cops too, so I’ve always been prepared for the phone call. Fortunately, it never came. No one since my dad has been seriously injured while on duty. I’ve been thankful for that. And lately, I’ve relaxed because my friends and all but a couple of relatives have retired.

Unfortunately (fortunately for society) it’s a tradition in some families for the kids to take up the badge. A few days ago, the son of two of my friends was shot twice while executing a warrant:
https://policetribune.com/modesto-offic ... t-service/
Tonight they’re amputating his leg in an attempt to save his life.
I held him as a baby. I pushed his stroller.
He’s got a wife and little baby at home. I just hope that kid doesn’t grow up to be a cop. Probably will though.

That's terrible.

Perp was a tweaker looking for suicide-by-cop:

The man arrested in the Saturday night shooting of a Modesto police officer recently had resumed his methamphetamine use and wanted to die at the hands of the police, according to his daughter. “When he shoots it with a needle, he becomes a monster... He wanted to take his own life but he was too much of a coward. He knew there was a warrant out for his arrest. He’d told us he was so tired of this life, of parole and jail and being a scumbag. ... He’d told us, ‘If they catch me, I’m going to shoot (not to hit anyone but to draw officers’ fire) and want them to shoot me.’ ... In a normal state of mind, he’d never speak like that.”

https://www.modbee.com/news/local/article253529939.html

We just keep letting these POS out, and they keep fucking up everything they come in contact with.

Seems like every day, a cop in CA is shot, killed, or dragged by a vehicle.

[Service Dog]

A few days ago, the son of two of my friends was shot twice while executing a warrant

Wow. The news reports hint-at the harrowing unpredictability of the job. A motorcyclist evades a traffic stop. Then is spotted at a house... owned by a 100 year old man. The biker surrenders. Officers obtain a warrant to enter the home, but yet-another man opens fire on them. The old man's old-lady daughter is in the yard, and enters the house when she hears the shots. Too many variables to process.

[Keating]

A difference for me may be that I spent my formative years in Warsaw, very soon after the Iron Curtain came down, so I saw first hand what the Soviet Union meant and what liberty meant. So, I don't necessarily have a typical Australian attitude.

[Brive1987]

I’d be careful enthusiastically applying the “lessons” you draw to your own local conditions.

Sez the guy who not too long ago was pontificating about the evils of American Gun Culture™.

No. I said it was incomprehensible to a foreign audience. It still is. Guns are not a thing here outside farmers, bogans and sportsmen.

[Brive1987]

Australia has always been happily and indulgently insular. Which is another word for ‘conformist within our bubble’.

The other clear trait was that we didn’t like overt displays of … anything much.

You're passing current events off as typically Australian, par for the course. Really? You often get put under house arrest, with the Army patrolling the streets to enforce it? Your cops regularly beat the living shit out of protesters, stomp on their faces? Do your police in a normal year burst into homes to arrest pregnant women for disagreeing online with the government? Your government instruct you to not speak to your neighbors?

This might be what they call the 'new normal', but it's not normal and never was. And if they'll pull this shit over a minor outbreak of a wimpy variant that's not killing anyone, they'll never stop.

Never give up your freedom without a fight, cuz they never give it back without one, either.

I’m interpreting COVID as an extraordinary event to which societies and politicians have reacted with varying approach, efficacy and result. Usually employing extraordinary methods.

History is replete with examples of atypical occurrence. If a government can strap you into a Lancaster over Dresden to immolate children, it can do anything - right? Wrong. Pollies ultimately want to be needed and re-elected.

A dictatorship is another thing altogether. That’s why true threats to the democratic process are dangerous. Whether it be rogue Governor Generals, asterisk elections or liberal media/institutional power.

[Brive1987]

Here is today’s news and the reality of what’s happening in NSW.



New highs of cases.
Containment barely keeping a lid on things. NSW fucked, other states nervously looking on.
States fighting each other. Over sewage (below the fold, NSW vs ACT over who’s infected shit it is)
Vaccines at only 30% but a sense of urgency in train
Dickheads looking to break containment. Because “I’m alright Jack”

[Matt Cavanaugh]

Say again -- how many dead?

[Brive1987]

And here, between the MSM baiting, we see two other dynamics.

The interstate wars going on - that shape policy in part. And this is in tension with the desire of NSW pollies to limit the pain and to wind back the limitations as they did (prematurely) last year prior to Delta and sans a vaccine plan.

[Brive1987]

Not a lot - and that's the way we like it.

I say again, “Not a lot - and that's the way we like it.”. Out

[Brive1987]

A difference for me may be that I spent my formative years in Warsaw, very soon after the Iron Curtain came down, so I saw first hand what the Soviet Union meant and what liberty meant. So, I don't necessarily have a typical Australian attitude.

“Warsaw, winter, ‘96 … “

[Keating]

That ad spoke to me when it came out. Winter of '96 was the last year we were there.