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So, the IPA opines that “Australia’s Covd response cost $934.8 billion and resulted in 31 x more life years lost than were saved”.
Intriguing. What might this signal? The Institute of Public Affairs is a neoliberal, right-wing think tank. Australia had a neoliberal government in power when The Plague struck, a government that has been sternly criticised for its inept response.
Most wars are about access to resources. This RU-UA stoush — or rather, RU-NATO — is a good example. It won’t matter who wins because The System cannot survive unless it consumes alll manner of resources at an exponentially-increasing rate.
Please consider. Say the entire planet Earth were hollow and full of oil. How long would it last if we used it at a linear rate and at an exponentially increasing rate? Think how big the Earth is compared to us.
The world uses in the order of 88 million barrels per day. DIvide that into the volume of the Earth and we get 211,800 million years. Stupendous. That’s over 15 times the age of the Universe. Just turn those numbers over in your mind for a bit. Plenty of oil for everybody.
Now let’s use oil at an exponentially-increasing rate, 7.04% per annum: this is the rate of growth between 1880 to 1970, a golden period of industrial and economic development, and means a doubling of consumption every 9.8 years. Doesn’t seem much of a growth rate, does it? It’s the sort of growth rate that economists and politicians regard as the norm. Do the maths and planet Earth would be empty in about 330 years. That’s ALL!! So short a time! The difference is unbelievable, and all because of a tiny-looking difference between a linear and an exponential rate of consumption.
Here’s a hypothesis which I support: neither CO2 nor CH4 is THE greenhouse gas of concern. That gas is water vapour. For supporting evidence search for “Walter Jehne” and “soil carbon sponge.” Some good videos are on Youtube.
The pandemic may be over, or at least the end may be in sight, but the after-effects will linger for who knows how long. The cause of course is covid,: I have been seeing recently articles in the MSM telling us how covid has damaged our immune systems, and how even mild covid raises the chance of heart attacks and stroke. The vaccines, of course, like Caesar’s wife, are above suspicion. The Conversation told us this morning that “The increased risks of heart attack and stroke after COVID shown in a recent study, could drive a new pandemic of heart disease over coming years.” Yesterday it opined that “Evidence is growing there are changes to your immune system that may put you at risk of other infectious diseases.” The ABC has published similar.
No-one is immune from error, although some people do seem to be immune from truth. So much of this is he-said-she-said. I wish I had the time to do some research of my own into these matters and not rely on other people’s analyses.
It’s fine wishing for a second Enlightenment, one that removes the present set of rulers from office and replaces them with a kinder, gentler, more human lot. I wish for that too. One way to do this is via the ballot box, another by the direct overthrow and demolition of the power structures.
But the lesson of history seems to be that some time afterwards, another set of psychopaths grows up and gradually takes over, and we’re back to where we started.
What we need is a permanent change in the human psyche, one that will not atrophy over the years.
Warning, warning . . . . . if somebody doesn’t post something within the NEXT thirty minutes I’m going to start up again.
One problem for me is that TAE is posted while I’m sound asleep. I wake up to a well-populated comment stream and it’s all over.
Here is the editorial from today’s issue of The Conversation (ANZ edition).
Donald Trump’s popularity might have suffered a hit from the January 6 hearings in Washington but he continues to transfix Americans and capture headlines around the world. So his announcement early today that his Mar-A-Lago resort had been raided by the FBI caused a predictable – and presumably pre-emptive – sensation.
As Rodney Tiffen shows in today’s lead article, the former president’s response to the raid was characteristic. He reached for a big, misleading historical parallel – in this case, the Watergate scandal, which began unrolling just over fifty years ago – and resorted to the paranoid language that featured throughout his time in the White House.
Only time will tell whether the FBI has unearthed material that could block a run for the presidency in 2024. But there’s a sense the net is closing in on the man who did so much damage to American democracy.
Talking of agriculture and the food supply, the dreaded varroa mite has appeared in Australia. And it has appeared rather suddenly.
This mite kills bees and destroys hives. Treatments appear to be vailable but I don’tknow how safe and effective they are. The response here has been so far to destroy all hives within a 50km radius of Newcastle. Milllions of bes are doomed. If that doesn’t work, the next stepp is to go mad with a potent pesticide that will kill European honey bees and the native bees and a multitude of other insects. The consequences for Australian agriculture and horticulture could be enormous.
The almon industry is putting huge pressure on government to let hives be moved from NSW to Victoria in time for pollination. They ought to be denied AND compensated, but governments here, especially the neoliberal state governments, don’t believe in compensation.
Australia has long been free of the mite and we have been a major source of mite-free bees for other countries. That could all end if we’re not careful. Biosecurity at our ports has been far too lax for far too long. I strongly feel that in this mad world trade and commerce are more important than life itself.
Interesting how this varroa mite outbreak occurred just before it was time to move bees around. Forgive my cynicism.
To watch the Epoch TV I need to create a free account and accept their terms of service. No paywall. But I have quite enough accounts with their associated passwords and I don’t intend to set up any more. I’ll just have to wait for this news to come via another (non-MSM) channel.
A bit more on vaccines in Australia, or at least in the national capital: the radio told me yesterday that the 4th jab is now available to anyone aged 20-65 but it’s optional, no pressure. I presume that people outside this age group have been or able to have been jabbed elsewhere and elsewhen.
Have you seen Dr Ted Noel’s video showing how masks perform (badly)? Very instructive:
I could fault his methodology a little, e.g. he dons them a bit crookedly and doesn’t try to fit them as closely as he might to his face, but I think his demo is very revealing. The lesson is that unless a surgical-quailty mask seals completely around the edges, it’s useless. Seal and stifle. My eye doctor is required to wear a mask on the job. Yesterday he told me that because he talks a lot to his patients during the day, his throat gets irritated from the tiny fibres that he breathes in. Now I’m wondering what that will do to his health. He’s tired of masks but must endure them.
Are face masks effective? I ws told by a retired operating theatre nurse that during a procedure they needed to don new masks every 20 minutes, because the masks clogged up and became ineffective. I don’t see any statements in the press or government instructions pointing this out.
Vaccine mandates may have vanished from Australia for the time being, but there are noises in the MSM about the encroaching monkeypox. There is also an awareness that this latest putative social crippler is spread only by close contact, not in the air, so maybe it’s not so bad. Until our medically-ignorant politicians are convinced otherwise. Stay tuned.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of Australia recently announced an interest rate rise with more to come. In our over-heated, over-borrowed housing sector, this will push ever larger numbers of mortgage holders off the edge. There are already people living in tents in places like Adelaide, although so far in small numbers. Big things from little things grow…
At least our agricultural sector isn’t being shut down. Not yet, anyway. Quite the opposite: the NSW government some years back eased up on regulations controlling forest clearing for cattle grazing, and now the iconic marsupial is officially listed as endangered. But koalas are irrelevant to development — as indeed are most other aspects of the biosphere, aren’t they.
Indeed, it’s not just a war on farming that we’re seeing: it’s a war on the entire biosphere. The human race is being led and deceived into committing slow suicide by habitat destruction.
There is an old Russian expression, that says “you were born where you’re in need”…
There’s always exceptions. I was born in India, at a very early age. Four months later I was in Australia where I have remained ever since, and most likely will die here from one cause or another. It’d be nice to think that Oz needed me.
Friends of ours recently got the bug. They’re both vaccinated, but only the two AZ jabs. No boosters. Both recovered with no apparent ill effects after about a week. Hard to know if their jabs helped or not. Neither wants any more vaccines; they’re fed up with them.
It’s becoming obvious here that the vaccines don’t work but it’s also obvious that they’re being pushed and pushed regardless, only THOSE vaccines and we see little or no news of different vaccines being developed and used. Keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
I rather agree with Naomi Wolf and Jeff Wells: there IS something non-human about how this entire drama is being directed. Why not call it for what it is: demonic?
The German gov’t is not the only one persecuting its citizens for providing information.
The now gloriously-defunct neolib Australian federal gov’t started a neo-Stalinist, secret show trial of a man AND his lawyer who revealed that the feds bugged the embassy of Timor Leste to gain an advantage during sea boundary negotiations. Oil or gas is in the disputed territory.
The worry is that the new Labor gov’t, a thus-far much kinder and gentler regime, isn’t moving to stop the farce.
So disappointing. One faction of the empire fighting another?
Three state governments in Australia have passed laws criminalising dissent by anyone who protests against biosphere-destroying “development.” The neolibs and endless-growth fantacists are getting truly desperate.
I’m not alone in viewing this fighting in Europe as a civil war between parts of the Western Empire. Meanwhile the Eastern Empire watches and waits. What for, I’m not sure — maybe for the EU to weaken itself sufficiently so that the Eastern Empire can move in and take over? And would the takeover be done in conjunction with the Russian branch of the Western Empire?
And what would the Eastern Empire find of use in the European peninsula? Small amounts of oil and gas, some coal, no iron ore or bauxite, and lots of hungry mouths to feed.
Here we are, the brilliant human race, squabbling murderously over shrinking baskets of resources, squandering those very resources in the struggle to control them. Terminal stupidity.
Elon Musk hails from South Africa where the use of lethal force in self-defence is legal. I have seen adverts for cars with built-in flamethrowers to belch fire over attackers and hijackers. I don’t know what environment Musk grew up in and how that has formed his views.
Oops, I made some elementary mistakes. Honestly,my arithmetic is getting worse.
Range is 400km.
Cost of Melbourne trip (one way) is $115. I think the train costs less than that.Chris Hedges wrote, “No respite from gas prices that are projected to hit $6 a gallon.”
Yesterday I put some petrol in my tank, car’s tank that is, and paid $1.939/litre for 91 octane with 10% ethanol. The car runs quite happily on that. This converts to USD 4.92 per gallon. Getting there. On average the car consumes 9 litres/100 km, so the $70 I spent for 36 litres gives me a range of 325 km. I don’t drive much these days, so that should last me for a couple of weeks.
But should I suddenly want to drive to Melbourne, that would cost me $143 for the 660 km trip. Ouch. I can remember the unhappiness when petrol prices rose above $1/litre and the service stations had to find space for an extra digit on their billboards and pumps.
Diesel currently costs over $2/litre. Canberra gets 90-odd% of its food brought here by diesel. Yes, prices are noticeably going up.
And the country as a whole has about 2 weeks’ stocks of transport fuel. Try putting coal in your fuel tank. Back to WW2 days with gas generators on vehicles?
We have made such splendid provision for the future.
Most pietà paintings annoy me in that the model for Christ is largely unblemished, with only minor holes in the hands and feet. The gospels report that he was flogged and beaten almost beyond recognition. To depict the reality would be rather hard to take, and not suitable for children.
So, the Unrainians are putting Russion POWs on trial for war crimes, and the Russians are putting Ukrainian POWs on trial for war crimes. How far will this go?
I am greatly saddened by this whole ghastly war. I know Russians and Ukrainians and I like them all. Indeed, I have yet to meet a Ukrainian I don’t like (although I am sure that such a species does exist). To see them tearing at each other like this is appalling beyond words. May it soon stop. But even when it does, the hatreds and repercussions will go on for generations. Not a good investment in the future.
“They’re operating within an impenetrable superstructure of ideology” -Journalist Michael Tracy”
So what else is new? This is normal. Again I recommend reading Arthur Ponsonby’s book “Falsehood in War Time” about WW1. The first casualty in war is truth. The book is out of copyright and can be downloaded in PDF format. My position is simple and simplistic: I don’t trust anything I read or hear. Full stop.Harari and friends and the transhumanist project
So, they think they will not surely die? Oh, get real. Come on, eternally clever transhumanists, tell me: what are you going to do about the laws of thermodynamics? Are you going to conquer and change them? And exactly what will you DO with your immortality? Who wants to live on and on and on in a universe subject to the laws of thermodynamics which will in the very long-term decay away? What utter futility.Australian federal elections
Final voting day is this Saturday. A campaign of half-truths and pomposity is well under way. Will the fossil-fuel obsessed, biosphere-harming neoliberals get back in, or will we get a glimmer of hope and install a slightly more humane and realistic bunch? We are riders on the storm.Julian Assange
So sad. Justice stands far off, truth has fallen in the streets. “Assange delenda est!” is the goal. As another Australian, it distresses me to see how our righteous government has abandoned one of its citizens. Perfidious Albion. Perfidious Australia. I have lost all trust in both major political parties to have compassion for anyone except themselves.I am so completely fed up with everything.
Ukraine is the point d’appui of the Western versus Eastern Empires. Most wars are about access to resources, and this one is no exception. The decay of the Western Empire is quite obviously well under way. TPTB are daily becoming more agitated and arguably desperate.
However, the Norwegian-born official also noted that its Asia-Pacific partners – such as Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea – have been invited as well, stating that the current security crisis has “global implications.
I am confident that Australia will eagerly accept the invitation. Federal elections are near and the incumbents will be using Security as a major scare tactic. They will do whatever it takes to stay in office. But one of their own disaffected members put it nicely: Power Without Purpose.
NSW govt. in aus just passed a law – 2 years prison for protest that disrupts business.
So, the Mammon-worshippers have sanctified Business. Let them. All this will do is hasten the end. Meanwhile TPTB will happily ruin our best farmland by sacrificing it to the coal and gas industry. No matter; we can always source our food from somewhere else. There is an endless number of Somewhere-Elses, so no need to plan anything, make wise provision, store up for an indefinite future. All we need to do is sit back and let The Market perform its wonders. Hallelujah.
Actually, there’s a growing realisation in this nation that the current economic system is on course to catastrophe and we need to change and change soon. I await developments with interest.
Here’s an idle thought. I’m not serious but it’s fun to play with:
If Putin is a graduate of the WEF leadership course, then he’s in the same club as other world leaders. What if they asked and he agreed to make Russia into the international country of universal loathing and hatred by starting this war in Ukraine? The purpose is to provide a way to help destabilise, overthrow and replace the present world system. Russua becomes the big, powerful and frightening enemy of civilisation and the other empires (EU, US) must do whatever it takes to control it. The covid fracas has provided a testing ground for control measures, so now we can try for a bigger goal.
Probably too complicated a plan to manage! And I agree with other commentators that the elites aren’t unified at all, but are a collection of squabbling factions arguing over how they will cut up the pie when dinner time comes.
I’m so fed up with it all.
The clip of Matt Graetz ended too early for me: I didn’t see that his motion actually passed. Nor did I hear anyone “screaming.” But I did enjoy watching it.
On another note completely, I don’t see how Russia’s holding war crimes trials will impress the glorious west in the slightest, who will simply and loudly claim that the guilty are persecuting the innocent.
Veracious Poet wrote, “If I was Putin I’d also make damn sure Russia’s border was overly secure, as not only will espionage agents/assassins be illegally entering, but also migrants from surrounding regions harmed by U$/EU Empire idiocy…”
A big problem for Russia is its sheer size and long borders, many of which meander over open territory with no easy defences. To monitor and protect these costs a LOT. If China and Mongolia stay on side, that helps. Don’t know what Kazakhstan might do. In the south, the Caspian and Black Seas plus Caucasus Mountains afford good protection. In Europea lot depends on the stance of Romania/Moldava, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, the Baltics, and Finland.
Interesting to note Kaliningrad, potentially very useful Russian exclave. This could be a major headache for hostile parties, or it could fold quickly. Depends what’s stored in it…
Yeah, Morrison wants a “khaki election,” so he’ll pursue and promote the death-to-Russia, solidarity- with-the-oppressed-peoples-of-Ukraine lines (and they ARE oppressed, no doubt about it) for all they’re worth.
Does Ukraine even NEED our coal? According to the IEA Ukraine has abundant mineral resources including oil, natural gas and coal, and great hydro and biomass potential. Supplies are disrupted by this war but anything Australia can send them is trivial tokenism. Never mind; the Australian Coal Cabal would gladly stoke the furnaces of hell to keep their industry alive.
We’re in a war now, and it was Ponsonby who coined the term “When war is declared, truth is the first casualty.” A bit more from him: “A moment’s reflection would tell any reasonable person that such obvious bias cannot possibly represent the truth. But the moment’s reflection is not allowed; lies are circulated with great rapidity. The unthinking mass accept them and by their excitement sway the rest. The amount of rubbish and humbug that pass under the name of patriotism in war-time in all countries is sufficient to make decent people blush when they are subsequently disillusioned.”
Justice is repelled, righteousness stands far off; truth has stumbled in the public court and honesty finds no place there.
VERY glad for TAE Summary’s post yesterday about Arthur Ponsonby’s 1928 book Falsehood in War-time, Containing an Assortment of Lies Circulated Throughout the Nations During the Great War. I knew lies and vicious lies had been spread during that war but not in any detail. This book will fill a large gap.
Wikipedia have an article about this book (link). An excerpt:
Anne Morelli systematised the essential propaganda techniques of Ponsonby’s classic in her book Principes élémentaires de propagande de guerre. Morelli explains how these principles not only worked during the First World War, but were also applied in wars into 2001:
1. We do not want war.
2. The opposite party alone is guilty of war.
3. The enemy is inherently evil and resembles the devil.
4. We defend a noble cause, not our own interests (Just War theory).
5. The enemy commits atrocities on purpose; our mishaps are involuntary.
6. The enemy uses forbidden weapons.
7. We suffer small losses, those of the enemy are enormous.
8. Recognized artists and intellectuals back our cause.
9. Our cause is sacred.
10. All who doubt our propaganda are traitors.It would appear that these principles are being actively applied right into 2022, and in more than one arena: the Russia-Ukraine stoush and also the covid narratives.
In Canberra mask mandates ended a few weeks ago. Most people don’t wear them any more. Of those that still do, the age distribution is mainly older people, but some younger people continue. Individual enterprises can still require them, e.g. doctors’ surgeries.
Waiting now for the next variant to arrive, or for something completely new to emerge from the abyss.
Talking of suicide, it is now clear that Australia has decided to top itself.
Last Tuesday, the Federal Court overturned the ruling from last year that the Federal Environment Minister has a duty of care to protect young people from the effects of climate change when making decisions. Last year’s ruling was a world first, setting a precedent for cases all over the world, and it was also finally some common sense.
In other words, the future is of no consequence. Whatever we lust after now, we do, and hang the consequences.
This is madness. The darkness is closing in. May God have mercy on us all, because we sure won’t.
Kinzhal: no doubt the Western Empire is busily copying it. How much time I wonder before they have at least a working prototype? (Bit like the naval armaments race pre-WW1.) Then all hell will break loose.
Are we not the master race?
Here’s an extract from an email sent yesterday from in-laws in the US:
The war in the Ukraine is certainly sobering. [X] is currently a captain and his specialty is logistics. He is keeping us informed about that aspect of the war. It seems as if Russia really blew it there. He goes to some military sites and gets a better analysis of the war than we can find. Unfortunately it is still a David and Goliath situation.
Interesting that his “military sites” tell rather a different story to sites pointed to by TAE and others.
The Conversation this morning contributed this:
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly invoked the “nazification” of Ukraine to justify Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.
While this claim has been debunked, Russia expert Robert Horvath says far less attention has been focused on the Putin regime’s own record of collaboration with far-right extremists.Wouldn’t surprise me to learn that both sides are flirting with fascism. That, after all, is the direction in which the glorious West is so rapidly heading. Chris Martensen in his latest video read out a press release from some years ago describing how the US Senate passed a bill which inter alia permitted the disbursement of US funds to neo-Nazi organisations in Ukraine. The Senate was inclined not to pass the bill but the DoD put considerable pressure on them and got the result it wanted. Why did it want that? What’s the goal? I think we all can guess.
Regardless of flirtations, it’s so depressing the way the public is being taught to hate Russia and everything Russian, and to glorify anything Ukrainian. The Ukrainian people are being used as mere pawns in a massive game. It’s totally unconscionable. Hatred solves nothing. Wars solve nothing.
The Australian aborigines made extensive use of fire for environmental control. They used cool fires to clear undergrowth and repair the land. It seems never to have occurred to them to hew down trees and make large(r) fires out of them. Of course, with little mining or metallurgy at their disposal, there was no need for large fires. Coal was known to them around Newcastle (in NSW), and they used it for domestic fires.
The Sydney Opera House sails are illuminated with blue and orange.
G’day oxymoron,
Great to have the metalwork out. I do hope you heal up completely. You are needed.
Read your party saga yesterday. Oh man, what a revelation! And yet what you describe easily fits the mentality and morality of TPTB in our benighted, once-lucky country. Good and recent illustration: the Environment Minister just won a court case saying that she does NOT have a duty of care for futue generations in making environmental decisions.
So it’s quite clear then: environmentalism gets in the way of jobs & growth. The biosphere is totally resilient. Demand creates supply ad infinitum. Tomorrow is another day.
“Humans are not meant to be ecological stewards (their short lifespans prevent them to perform the adequate assessment of the consequences of their acts).” I don’t agree either. In Australia the aborigines had been competently managing the entire continent as one huge estate for tens of thousands of years — until the Europeans barged in and wrecked so much of it. It can be done, but it takes learning, education and patience. Europeans are good at learning, not so good at education, and are totally impatient. They want it all NOW.
