ezlxa1949
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As to vaccines, I’m one of many people who prefer to wait and see what happens before giving informed consent. There’s lots of reassuring messages in the media here, and so far the failure rate has indeed been very low.
But then we were being told that the AstraZenaca was perfectly safe — until discovering that it wasn’t. OK, so now it’s almost perfectly safe. Pfizer is now the gold standard and we’re constantly reassured that it is perfectly safe. What might we discover 6 months from now with both vaccines? As far as I know the EUA didn’t terminate the Phase 3 Clinical trials.
The Federal government’s vaccine rollout campaign has been a shambles. Plenty in the media here if you’ve an interest in learning about it.
Forgot to add that we can do postal votes quite easily; they’ve been available for decades and are uncontroversial.
Further, if for some reason you can’t go to a polling place on polling day, then you can vote early. The procedure is the same: turn up, recite name & address, be crossed off, go and fill out your ballot.
The only non-Australian citizens who are eligible to vote are British subjects who were on the Commonwealth electoral roll immediately before 26 January 1984, at which time the eligibility requirements were altered.
What the libertarians don’t like is that voting is compulsory. It’s not a big deal. If you fail to vote then you will be sent a please explain letter. If your grounds are deemed unsatisfactory, you will be fined in the order of AUD$20, hardly crippling. They’re fairly flexible when it comes to valid reasons.
The Australian Electoral Commission has a solid reputation domestically and worldwide.
Voter ID in Australia? Huh? I live and vote there.
Last time I voted I turned up at the polling station, told them my name & address, was crossed off the list, and then I voted. No ID expected or shown. No changes to this system in the wind.
Am I missing something here?
By the way, we have a choice of electronic or paper ballots. I always choose paper.
I get so weary of trying to sort out the ping-pong of vaccine claims and counter-claims. What seems clear to me is that by accident or design, a kind of vaccination dictatorship with attendant vaccination apartheid is being set up, and at great speed. Almost as if there’s something heading our way and TPTB need a system in place to meet it.
In Australia the general mood is clear: vaccines are good for us and are the only way for us to be released us from captivity. The messaging is loud and clear and persistent and pervasive. Never mind that compared to other countries our yoke has been light and our burden small. Gotta get the economy moving again! It is also clear that the federal government really doesn’t know what to do about any of this, and seems to be making things up as it goes along.
Yes, vaccine adverse events are reported, but are so few in number that they are acceptable for the greater good. A statistician remarked to me some time back that there is an error rate associated with everything that we do. Medicine is no exception.
Thus far vaccination is not mandatory here, the number of people jabbed is not large compared to the total population, and there seem to be quite a few refuseniks. I won’t be surprised if in time one of our governments gets out the big stick and demands that everyone submit, er, accept. Yes, there is unhappiness here at the dictatorial nature of the whole exercise, but how that will affect polity remains to be seen.
Thus far Australia has not descended into the neofascism that now imprisons the UK. By the way, I can’t help remarking that the British are now experiencing what they have let be done to Julian Assange: confinement, helplessness, hopelessness. A dose of their own medicine!
But if Shanna Swan’s research findings are correct and human sperm counts reach zero by 2045, what does any of this matter? If the decline is at least partly due to “forever chemicals” (non-degradable) in the environment, what remedies do we have for that? Would it end up that the only way to reproduce is via in vitro technology? And who can afford that? The sterile elites?
Can it really be possible that Homo sapiens is poisoning itself out of existence? Really?
Hmmm. 2045. I may possibly live long enough to see that year arrive, although I rather hope not.
I read Zerohedge but grow weary of its tendencies towards strident alarmism. “Protesters in London, Germany, France, Sweden, The Netherlands, Australia, Belgium, Japan, Vienna and elsewhere came out for the Worldwide Rally for Freedom.”
Australia? I live there. Saturday protests? Which? When? Where? Nothing happened that I saw.
Quite a few years ago the BBC made a drama series about the consequences of a fascist government in Britain having been freely voted into office by a populace fed up with the chaos and confusion of democratic politics. I forget what it was called; I think it was released towards the end of the Thatcher era.
Looks like a fascist government is well on the rise in Britain today, freely accepted by if not specifically voted in by a populace confused and frightened by the chaos and confusion wrought by this virus.
madamski wrote, “btw, this is not a covid site altho covid has become the predominant topic.”
Agreed, it’s not. If you want something else to talk about, start here:
Declining sperm counts: Nature’s answer to overpopulation?If the current trend continue, sperm counts reach zero by 2045. We go extinct.
Germ wrote, “Choose your vaccination carefully.”
Not possible in Australia, where thou shalt choose between Pfizer and AstraZenaca only. At least it’s not (yet) mandatory to make a choice.
The narrative in Australia can be read here:
Your COVID-19 vaccine safety questions, answered by expertsI recommended reading it. There’s a lot in it to dissect and analyse, and as I am no medico I would find it a hard slog. And I would be easily howled down.
Here’s but one excerpt:
In Australia, our vaccines have had the full approval process, not emergency authorisation like in some countries. That means every bit of data that was required for approval has been provided, whereas with emergency approval they don’t require quite so much data. The regulators who sit on those approval panels would’ve been working around the clock to scrutinise that data. In that sense there would’ve been a bureaucratic layer stripped away as they were able to focus on this approval, not other work.
So, the Australian medical system was able to do what the US system was not, i.e. demonstrate safety and effectiveness in an exceptionally short time. Impressive. I think.
Basseterre Kitona wrote, “That’s convenient because maybe it is time that the rest of the world refuses to accept the US’s annexation of Hawaii.”
Brilliant! Hawaii was annexed in 1898, in spite of public opposition. Would the US ever give up Hawaii? Of course not, it’s too strategically valuable.
My reading indicates that Crimea freely voted to return to Russia. Would Russia ever give up Crimea? Of course not, it’s too strategically valuable.
madamski wrote, “I wonder if covid will prove to be the straw that fully breaks public confidence and support of government.”
Not in Australia, or at least not yet. The public mood here is almost euphoric as the wonderful vaccines have at last arrived to liberate us from our captivity. The mainstream media and mainstream medicine are all praise and optimism. Recently I heard two radio commentators excited at the prospect of the vaccine’s arrival. The view of the government is that the public are NOT guinea pigs.
All dissent is ignored. A few weeks ago the ABC ran a nasty article by a medical doctor implying that anyone who doubts is morally and ethically deficient.
Und so weiter…
One concession: it’s not mandatory. Not yet. While I have any choice in the matter I will wait until the Phase 3 clinical trial period has ended, and then hope for honest reporting of the results.
Re the Ted Cruz tweet, Reuters say it’s a fabrication.
I could fact check the fact checkers if I could be bothered, but I’m not.
John Day said, ‘I “Hope” Australia outlasts Facebook, on principle.’
So do I (an Antipodean resident). Our federal government has reacted strongly against Farcebook’s exercise of power, and good on them, but this is also a government which has far too many failings and weaknesses in far too many areas. How long their nerve will hold remains to be seen.
If you want to get an idea of what’s going on here, visit https://www.abc.net.au/
I don’t use any social media at all, so to an extent I am insulated against all of this.
Texas is freezing. Questions from an outsider: when was the last time that Texas had it this cold for this long? Any ideas how long until the next big freeze?
In Australia’s south-east, we get red-hot summers about every 8 years, but their frequency is increasing. This summer has been cool and mild, great for personal comfort but not good for ripening fruits and vegetables.
It all comes under the heading of Instability. Hard to prepare for or against.
Talking of nasal sprays, I have an article saying that a 1.5% povidone-iodine spray deactivates the virus within 20 seconds. Some time ago this strength was available OTC under a well-known label (Vicks? don’t remember). So I bought a 7.5% OTC solution (Betadine) but now need to dilute it before trying it. Problem: sterility. I don’t know if the solution would be self-sterilising or if I need some more elaborate procedure.
Anyway, the virus is scarce in my part of the world, so I haven’t pursued this treatment.
To rely on electricity alone is to invite system failure. We need alternative and backup sources of energy, such as natural gas or even biomass (wood). Problem is that under present arrangements all of these contribute to climate change.
In Australia the political scene is controlled by a surprisingly small number of people who are obsessed with digging up and selling fossil fuels — coal and gas. They deny climate change. The environmental damage to our country caused by fossil fuel extraction is large and growing, but such considerations are irrelevant to development.
Were places like Texas less well-endowed with fossil fuel reserves, opening up a wonderful export market for Australia, then the damage here would be just appalling. In the absence of a fundamental change in how we think and act, it seems to be a lose-lose situation.
More than ever I’m convinced that the total amount of intelligence in the world is fixed but the population keeps growing.
In Australia the ABC is telling us “how an armed mob forced its way into one of Washington DC’s buildings.” As we would expect, my reading on this site and other non-MSM sources sorta contradicts that.
People here who rely on the MSM for their ideas, values and opinions seem to end up regarding Trump as only evil continually, a treasonous psychopath who is best erased from history.
By the way, the US and modern France were set up as countries of The Enlightenment. God was part of the arrangement but mainly in an Epicurean sense, i.e. very far away and not playing all that much part in worldly systems. “God’s in His heaven, all’s right with the world.” I suggest we are seeing the long-term results of those experiments in society and governance.
It’d be nice to Make America Great, oops, GOOD Again (MAGA) but at the moment it looks more like Got America Griping Again, or GAGA. So sad.
$2,000 cheques
I find it very hard to understand why so many of the US ruling classes seem so keen on starving the poor. But then, In this country (Oz), the neoliberal ruling classes have the same instincts: the poor are weak, lazy, unmeritorious, and don’t deserve help.This isn’t governance or government, it’s Applied Psychopathy. Honestly, at times I feel that little people like me are simply baggage not wanted on the elites’ voyage and can be jettisoned.
Never mind. If the climate change scientists are correct, then our goose is cooked about 2050. I’ll be safely dead by then and the elites can spend the rest of their lives as some kind of troglodytes hiding from the heat.
Vaccination Dictatorship
Vaccination passports are nothing new. I had one early on in life. Many decades ago when my parents brought me from India to Oz, I needed vaccinations for Yellow Fever and Cholera. Proof of these was noted in a yellow-covered WHO-issued passport-sized booklet which had to be shown on arrival. I may still have it buried somewhere in my archives.Of course, back then it wasn’t tied to every other aspect of life. Subsequent vaccinations (chiefly polio and tetanus) were not recorded in the booklet. I think I may have needed to show it to one medico but never again. This vaccination dictatorship that is now being speedily and eagerly set up is possible only in our electronically interconnected world.
John Day wrote, “better soil than most of Australia.” Sadly true, although we do have large areas of amazingly good, productive soil — which our fossil-fuel obsessed state and local governments are happy to damage with open-cut coal mines. Good soils are irrelevant to development.
Prior to the European invasion — it WAS an invasion and the general public increasingly is seeing it as such — the indigenous peoples had been maintaining the entire continent almost as the world’s largest estate. In some areas the tilth came up to the chests of the Europeans’ horses. And then it was destroyed by sheep and wheat. So sad.
One way to reduce birth rates is to give women BOTH an education AND a measure of prosperity, i.e. SHARE the good things in life. Birth rates then seem to decline quite readily. Ages ago when I was a relatively new environmentalist I read or heard a report from Mali, where a woman was asked how many children she wanted. Her answer was eight. I thought this was a ridiculous ambition, that Mali couldn’t possibly support that many people. But later and upon reflection it struck me that her ambition was, for her society and her times, entirely reasonable. Eight children would provide a workforce for the farm and retirement security for the aged parents.
The World Bank website has data showing global GDP as having grown on average at 3% per annum since 1970. This means a doubling every 23 or 24 years. Growthism is built into the structure of the elites’ thinking; indeed, the neoliberal system needs constant growth or it will collapse and die. It cannot survive on non-growth.
Think about it: doubling every 23 years. Double the mining. Double the soil deplection. Double the wastes and run-off. Double the waste heat. And the politicians and economists will expect another doubling over the succeeding 23 years. Preferably a doubling over the succeeding 5 years.
How long can this go on?
Forever, because technology will always save us and outer space is chock full of stuff!
It’s all very well sourcing articles from RT, but how much credence would we in the Glorious West give them? Some such articles have links to “reputable” western-origin sources which can be cited, but in today’s political climate I would never cite RT directly.
So sad.
I see what looks like another predetermined outcome. Today the ABC (Australian) offers a “Coronacast” introduced thus:
Is the Oxford vaccine worse than the other ones?
On Coronacast with Dr Norman Swan
All of a sudden, the world has three strong vaccine options to fight coronavirus. There’s the Moderna vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine and now the Oxford vaccine.
But while Moderna and Pfizer both reported they were more than 90 per cent effective, the press release for Oxford said it was only 70 per cent effective on average.
Australia has a deal to get access to the Oxford vaccine if it’s approved, but is it as good?
This ignores the rest of the Oxford press release which states:
• In the two different dose regimens vaccine efficacy was 90% in one and 62% in the other
• Higher efficacy regimen used a halved first dose and standard second doseSo yes, while the average of 90 and 62 is 76%, the issue is that the better results came with the second does, which the ABC seems to have ignored. I wonder why.
John Day wrote, “I took a political self analysis test online a few years ago; I’m not sure how to find it again. A friend sent it. I came out as “Left Libertarian” on left-right, libertarian-authoritarian axes.”
Go to politicalcompass.org
Some of the questions are defective IMO, but overall they’re quite good. In spite of the instructions, don’t rush to answer. Think a little.
BTW, I’m in the same quadrant as you are.I haven’t seen even one say, I’m sorry, I failed, I step down. Instead they all talk about doing more of what didn’t work.
Not all entirely. We’ve just seen a pollie resign in Australia:
At Victoria’s COVID-19 hotel quarantine inquiry, Daniel Andrews squarely pointed the finger of blame at Jenny MikakosMikakos was thrown under the proverbial bus, and the catastrophe continues.
I get a strong sense of déjà vu when reading news reports from the US these days. It’s the Red Guards all over again.
the WikiLeaks publisher is largely being treated as a “non-person” by the Australian political and media establishment. Moreover, they, no less than their counterparts internationally, are committed to an agenda of militarism and escalating attacks on democratic rights
We know, we know, we know. It is to our undying shame that this vicious, vindictive neo-Stalinist show trial continues unopposed and unmentioned. There’s a similar SECRET show trial taking place in Australia even now, of a whistleblower who revealed Australian bugging operations in Timor Leste. Search for “Witness K” and “Collaery” if you want to know more.
There is no honour left, no dignity. Visit Psychology Today and look for “Dark Personalities.” These exist in swarms at the top of our hierarchy. So sad.
polder dweller wrote,
they all believe that Assange is a traitor who should be locked up
I’ve seen the charge of “traitor” levelled at Assange from other directions. But Assange is not a US citizen, so under current legal definitions it is impossible for him to commmit treason.
Unless of course the US has decided, like ancient Rome towards its end, to grant citizenship to everyone within its borders, in this case those borders being the entire planet.
At the same time it is of course ignoring the controversial HCQ and Ivermectin alternatives costing about 50c a time. Nice for some!
As a result of this and other features our Prime Ministers and Leaders of the other parties tend to be very young.
Maybe so, but the flip side is that the politicians tend to have no breadth of life experience. Too many of them are lawyers who know nothing about their portfolios. They tend to arise from the wealthy ranks of society and do not understand what real people endure in life. They have a naive faith and a huge investment in the status quo. They have done well for themselves in life, so anyone who is doing it tough has only himself to blame for being lazy, indolent and lacking enterprise. All benefits should be removed because that only encourages indolence and dependence.
The party political system has failed. The only roll of the dice left is sortition, which of course the ruling classes will oppose fiercely.
Australia Post recently announced that owing to the enormous volume of parcels they’re now handling, deliveries of conventional mail (i.e. in envelopes) will be cut back to every other day, while parcels will continue to be delivered daily.
Thought you might like to know this.
Talking of the US Post Office, some years ago its overseas postage rates went up quite suddenly by a factor of about 10.
Recently I purchased two CDs, one from the UK and one from the US. British postal charges were £5.50, the US was $22.43, or about double the British cost for a shorter distance.
I’ve largely stopped ordering anything by mail from the US as a result.
Australia to self-isolate? Good!
For far too long we’ve been relying on mass immigration to keep the Ponzi scheme operating. It’s about time that reality caught up with us. Infinite, low- or no-cost growth is a thing of the past.
If one can enjoy anything in this Year of the Plague, it’s watching the staunchly, sociopathically neoliberal Federal government being forced to examine its Market Theology and, if only for a few brief months,
- abandon them
. It’s actually been giving suffering people a stipend large enough to survive on! Oh, the horror — ! How amazing is that! The subsidy will be reduced soon from $600 to $250 — at least it’s not stopping entirely.
Sorry, my schadenfreude is getting the better of me.
Early Treatment with Zinc, Low Dose HCQ and Azithromycin (Zelenko et al)
Maybe download it now in case it disappears.
More on Modern Monetary Theory
Interview with Kelton by The Australia Institute (a leftish economic thinktank)
Criticism from The Mises Institute (not lengthy)
