Open Thread – Sunday Evening 15 Aug 2021


Nighthawks, Edward Hopper, 1942

N.B. If you’re commenting here for the first time it goes into automoderation. Once I approve it it should appear immediately and without delay from then on.

Also, can people let me know if they like or dislike the nested comment format. I think it saves having to quote replies to existing comments as you can reply directly (there are also other benefits to this) or do you prefer the old format?

Any other suggestions are welcomed too.


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Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 7:14 am

And another pathetic headline.

UK Will Leverage for ‘Moderate’ and ‘Inclusive’ Taliban, Will Boost Afghanistan Aid Spending (17 Aug)

I wonder what Churchill would think about this level of out-of-this-world fantasy in his old party?

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 7:19 am

Thanks Megan

I know exactly who Dr Malone is, and there is evidence enough that he has exaggerated his participation in the development of mRna, being one of many, not The One .

And while I appreciate the compliment othing mealy-mouthed here.
Please forgive me for not bowing down to self proclaimed saviours.

I’m sceptical of all.
https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/covid-19-vaccines-effectively-prevent-severe-disease-havent-shown-signs-of-antibody-dependent-enhancement-as-claimed-by-robert-malone/

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 7:24 am
Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 7:27 am

I saw the picture yesterday of the man falling from the plane and I was reminded of the picture of the man falling from one of the World Trade Centres. To me its message was loud and clear….nothing has changed in twenty years and until the west grows a spine and is prepared to deal with Islaaaaaaaaam….it will only get worse. And given the woke world we live in and given the spineless toad politicians that infest our political parties and govern us….Islaaaaaaaam will continue to win. And one of the reasons why they’ll win is because we here in the west now care more about whether a woman can have a penis (which of course she can’t) than defending our civilisation.

I watched Scummo last night on television…….he’s a shallow lowlife. Remember his description late last year of “brutal truths” about our diggers in Afghanistan……before any legal due process? We’re stuffed.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 7:32 am

“Pete Buttigieg Announces He’s About To Become a Parent (17 Aug)”

And this is one of the reasons why the march of Islaaaaaaam will continue.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 7:33 am

The best story of the day:

Don Surber: Highlights of the News (17 Aug)

FINALLY, a reader wrote, “A number of years ago I met a man who served in the United States Marines. If you asked him about his service, he’d say, oh I just guarded an Embassy. He wouldn’t share much with people who cannot understand. He did share though with a mutual friend, one who served and suffered in Vietnam.

“Gary was an Embassy Guard in Saigon. He was there when they evacuated the place.

“Gary’s job was to protect the helio pad. In that capacity, he was the NCOIC helping people into the choppers.

“Last one out.

“Gary had stuffed another bird when the pilot opened his window and instructed Gary to remove enough people that he and his detail could get aboard, this was the last chopper.

“Gary turned to his corporal who had also heard, together they shook their heads, the Navy will send another bird. They communicated that to the pilot who departed with his full load of women and children.

“Gary and his men waited. The Navy would send another bird. Evening settled upon them, no more birds. Through the night they could hear the gruesome sounds of the approaching NVA and VC troops, the firing, the shouting, the anger and fear of the people trapped near the embassy who could not escape

“Morning came, and soon after, the communist troops began to breach the embassy gate and walls.

“Gary and his men withdrew to the back of the compound where there was an escape route. As soon as the first troops entered, they left. No shouts no shots, just a swift departure.

“Once safely away, they assessed their situation. The nearest base was in Thailand,so they started walking. It’s 536 miles from Saigon to Bangkok. Traveling that today would be difficult, imagine what it was like in 1973 with all the chaos in the region. It took Gary and his men over a month to make that hike. They carried their weapons and what little provisions they had which included one machine gun and zero ammo for it.

“When they finally made it to the U.S. base in Thailand, they were greeted with an ass chewing of epic proportions at the end of which the officer delivering it, a Colonel, allowed that he would have done the same thing.

“Gary and I spoke about it a few months ago. He said he’d still do what he did without reservation.

“What about you?

“The pictures coming out of Afghanistan are heart breaking. People are choosing certain death clinging to those planes over life under the Taliban. How long should we have stayed? It only took seventy years to reform Germany. Of course, they back slid. Don’t you dare say that the lives lost on Omaha Beach were wasted!

“We’ve been the world police for 80 years. It’s a thankless job and we are all tired of doing it. The problem is there is no one to take our place. Promising countries have crumbled. Sadly, we also are crumbling. It’s no longer giant vs giant, today we are fighting a million rats, some of them are our own citizens.

“I know a man. He is getting old. He remembers the pain, he remembers the heart break. He’d do it again if he had to.”

God bless you, Gary.

Seconded.

calli
calli
August 18, 2021 7:44 am

We’ve been the world police for 80 years. It’s a thankless job and we are all tired of doing it.

You can’t be “world police” if you can’t police yourself. Shown up all too clearly last year.

The US surrendered all moral authority in November 2020.

An excellent find, Bruce.

calli
calli
August 18, 2021 7:45 am

We’ve been the world police for 80 years. It’s a thankless job and we are all tired of doing it.

_______________________

You can’t be “world police” if you can’t police yourself. Shown up all too clearly last year.

The US surrendered all moral authority in November 2020.

An excellent find, Bruce.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 7:45 am

Everything that is happening in Afghanistan is a repeat.

It’s Islam.

Young men who aren’t religious until they are, want out from Islamic theocracies because they can’t smoke, can’t drink, can’t wear western underwear, can’t listen to music, can’t shave, can’t talk to women, let alone find one to marry, can’t get an education, have to participate in prayers, so they leave and then decide what they ran from will look damn fine in Paris or Brussels or London.

CL is right, conversion is the only solution.

calli
calli
August 18, 2021 7:46 am

Sorry about the repetition. I appear to have lost formatting buttons so I coded manually and there was a submission failure message.

Zipster
Zipster
August 18, 2021 7:47 am

“Pete Buttigieg Announces He’s About To Become a Parent (17 Aug)”

Like all great Empires, the fall is barely noticeable by it’s citizens, nevertheless it occurs one tiny piece of insanity at a time.

Baba
Baba
August 18, 2021 7:56 am

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration has decided that most Americans should get a coronavirus booster vaccination eight months after they received their second shot, and could begin offering third shots as early as mid-September, according to administration officials familiar with the discussions.

Pfizer / Moderna boosters 4Evah!

Crossie
Crossie
August 18, 2021 7:58 am

Thank you To for the toons, this morning Spooner is very funny.

Crossie
Crossie
August 18, 2021 7:59 am

Pedro the Loafer says:
August 17, 2021 at 10:01 pm
Question for military Cats.

Why did the US leave all that military hardware behind in Afghanistan? Everything from rifles to fighter jets.

————-

Parting gift from Biden to Taliban.

Crossie
Crossie
August 18, 2021 8:03 am

Biden has no idea of how many American citizens are in Kabul and has no plans to get them out – Admin spokesman.
I think we are watching a repeat Tehran hostage situation – or worse – unfurling, and the O’Biden/Harris Administration is complicit in this.

——————-

Can you imagine Twitter being the main channel of communication between the hostage takers and the CNN. Nobody will bother negotiating with Biden’s admin.

shatterzzz
August 18, 2021 8:11 am

Can someone explain this story to me?
.. 1 000s of US citizens trapped in Afghanistan .. How & why would there be vast numbers of US folk be in a country that has been at war for 20 years, a country that doesn’t even like Americans and more confusing .. trapped in a country months after US announced it was withdrawing all troops and knowing once that happened all hell would break loose …. I must be missing something in the fine print ………!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/08/16/biden-must-rescue-thousands-us-citizens-trapped-afghanistan/

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 8:12 am

this morning Spooner is very funny

Crossie – I thought Spooner was being very careful, since his masters supported Joe Biden in the election. Very easy for management to say he’s “too old”, and that “a fresh outlook” to editorial cartoons is needed. I wonder if Rowe wants to move from AFR?

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 8:18 am

“Zipstersays:
August 18, 2021 at 7:47 am
“Pete Buttigieg Announces He’s About To Become a Parent (17 Aug)”

Like all great Empires, the fall is barely noticeable by it’s citizens, nevertheless it occurs one tiny piece of insanity at a time.”

Yes….and for pointing out the obvious people like you and I are now routinely smeared as homophobes, islaaaaaaamophobes, transphobes, far-right, neo-Nazis. All of this has occurred whilst our so called conservative and right-wing parties have barely raised a whisper to defend traditional values and fight back.

As Tucker said brutally yesterday, the US spent 20 years in Afghanistan where they tried to introduce and institute woke garbage like “female quotas”. No wonder the Taliban are laughing.

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 18, 2021 8:33 am

dover0beachsays:
August 17, 2021 at 11:05 pm
Professor Bunyip has stirred.

Where can he be found?

Shy Ted
Shy Ted
August 18, 2021 8:49 am
Shy Ted
Shy Ted
August 18, 2021 8:50 am

Mater, bushkid, others, we may be old and well past our prime but the heart of a lion still beats.

shatterzzz
August 18, 2021 8:50 am

Welcome to GLADYS’ Sydney .. ! I kid you not! .. Yesterday afternoon a plod car drove into this HC cul-de-sac street pulled up and instructed 6 kids (all under 7) to go home as they shouldn’t be playing outside ..
What is more worrying is the only way plod would have been anywhere near here is because someone called them ..
This is drug central, Fairfield .. plod NEVER comes here by accident! ..

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 8:55 am

Non pay walled article on control group getting vaccinated.
From NPR of places.
Tip to someone who has spent over 12 months looking for approval for their vaccine decision.
Maybe don’t post a link to a Pfizer page when discussing issues regarding Pfizer.
I look forward to links to Crown to discuss problem gambling.

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/02/19/969143015/long-term-studies-of-covid-19-vaccines-hurt-by-placebo-recipients-getting-immuni

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 8:56 am

I say non paywalled because even the NY Times & WSJ have reported on the Pfizer control group getting vaccinated.
Based on this, the FDA should green light about a dozen cancer treatments yesterday.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 8:57 am

The NY Times & WSJ are paywalled obviously.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 9:00 am

Where can he be found?

Try looking at the home page

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 9:00 am

Try looking at the home page

snap !

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 9:04 am

Two weeks ago when the Pfizer control group news broke I raised it with someone who is a decision maker within a government regulatory body.
Their response was “it’s a pandemic, it would be immoral not to give the control group the vaccine”.
And just like that, all medical science, regulations got thrown out.
Control groups are the bedrock of any study.
Comparing COVID19 to triage situations in a war zone is so dishonest.

lotocoti
lotocoti
August 18, 2021 9:08 am

Why did the US leave all that military hardware behind in Afghanistan? Everything from rifles to fighter jets.

I think you’ll find much of it is ANA kit.
A rotor-less Little Bird isn’t much use to an illiterate goat herder.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 18, 2021 9:08 am

I still want to know why there isn’t a “kill switch” on multi million dollar military equipment.

There is. It’s called a 9mm bullet fired into the avionics.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 9:10 am

Control groups are the bedrock of any study.

Which is why when I answer the question have I been vaxxed, I say I am part of the control group. Moment of confusion and acceptance (obviously most people have no idea what I mean) 🙂

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 9:11 am

Joe Rogan brought up the Pfizer control group on one of his recent podcasts.
For obvious reasons it didn’t make the youtube teaser clips.
He was saying that there have been half a dozen psychedelics studies that have been binned due to the control group integrity being breached.
The theatrics surrounding the COVID19 vaccines would be amusing if it wasn’t for the censorship.

Delta A
Delta A
August 18, 2021 9:26 am

I’m also disgusted at what such a cabal of arrogant *rseholes has done to my country. The Australia I grew up in was a magnificent place. I doubt very much that that wonderful place will ever return. That’s the saddest part of all this. I’m old enough to not be bothered by the idea of dying, but I grieve that today’s kids will likely never know and enjoy the country I did. It’s hard to see a way back from here.

Yes. Yes. Yes!

My thoughts exactly, Bushkid.

Very well stated.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 9:26 am

The first two years of Trump should have been about reforming section 230.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 9:28 am

There is another view of Robert Malone – that as a non-completer of his PhD and as a drifter around various scientific institutes where he did not do well he now bears a tremendous grudge for not being recognised as initial developer of mRNA vaccines (he did some minor initial work but his work has been far supercede now) and is throwing his weight around (what little he has) in order to claim a place in history. His statements on the vaccine safety are often somewhat muted in tone and he changes tack on them too, depending on to whom he is speaking. So he doesn’t have a lot of authority. Thus I’d be a little cautious in taking his advice over that of many others more qualified. Not saying he has no point, for the vaccines are new and the injected Spike Protein has to be removed by the body (which is seems it mostly is). I’d prefer a longer trial of mRNA vaxes too.
Here’s commentary on Malone from a Science site:

These two studies do indeed represent seminal work in the field of gene transfer, according to Rein Verbeke, a postdoctoral fellow at Ghent University, in Belgium, and the lead author of a 2019 history of mRNA-vaccine development. (Indeed, Malone’s studies are the first two references in Verbeke’s paper, out of 224 in total.) Verbeke told me he believes that Malone and his co-authors “sparked for the first time the hope that mRNA could have potential as a new drug class,” though he also notes that “the achievement of the mRNA vaccines of today is the accomplishment of a lot of collaborative efforts.”

Read: The pandemic’s wrongest man

Malone says he deserves credit for more than just sparking hope. He dropped out of graduate school in 1988, just short of his Ph.D., and went to work at a pharmaceutical company called Vical. Now he claims that both the Salk Institute and Vical profited from his work and essentially prevented him from further pursuing his research. (A Salk Institute spokesperson said that nothing in the institute’s records substantiates Malone’s allegations. The biotech company into which Vical was merged, Brickell, did not respond to requests for comment.) To say that Malone remains bitter over this perceived mistreatment doesn’t do justice to his sense of aggrievement. He calls what happened to him “intellectual rape.”

Delta A
Delta A
August 18, 2021 9:36 am

All of this has occurred whilst our so called conservative and right-wing parties have barely raised a whisper to defend traditional values and fight back.

Cassie has nailed it.

Wow! The Kittehs are on fire this morning. Great reading.

Ellen of Tasmania
Ellen of Tasmania
August 18, 2021 9:47 am

So, you go for a perfectly legal walk holding a ‘Toot to Boot’ sign and you get fined and the court has just declared that you jolly well ought to be. Our Australia.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/wFfsopU5Db0/

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 18, 2021 9:54 am

There is another view of Robert Malone…

There is indeed.
A brilliant but difficult man, bent severely out of shape by being excluded from the fame and riches of ‘his’ discovery of mRNA vaccine technology. And then seeing others on the runway for ‘his’ Nobel Prize.

Don’t believe the Atlantic? His wife tells the exact same story in greater detail (at the link).

Barking Toad
Barking Toad
August 18, 2021 10:07 am

Ellen of Tas ……….

An expected result in the vile corrupt Danistan legal system.

No doubt the bench was a Hull Labor appointment.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 18, 2021 10:09 am

Battle of Long Tan commemoration day today – and indeed Australia’s day of remembrance for the Vietnam War.

calli
calli
August 18, 2021 10:13 am

Lizzie, while you’re here…

I have the window cleaners in and it reminded me of something you said yesterday about your tilers. They were double-vaxxed.

Did they offer you this information or did you ask them? Are they carrying around some sort of certification that they have to produce? Just curious as the New Broom has to go into various houses for quotes and site inspections and he might need something for the prospectives. It’s hard to keep up with all the protocols that keep popping up.

Shy Ted
Shy Ted
August 18, 2021 10:26 am

Having difficulty getting women into bed? This invention can help.

Zipster
Zipster
August 18, 2021 10:29 am

Don’t believe the Atlantic? His wife tells the exact same story in greater detail (at the link).

A leftist fake news outlet?

“When I called Malone at his 50-acre horse farm in Virginia, he directed me to a 6,000-word essay written by his wife, Jill, that lays out why he believes himself to be the primary discoverer. “This is a story about academic and commercial avarice,” it begins. The document’s tone is pointed, and at times lapses into all-caps fury. She frames her husband as a genius scientist who is “largely unknown by the scientific establishment because of abuses by individuals to secure their own place in the history books.””

Shy Ted
Shy Ted
August 18, 2021 10:29 am

Another explanation for the Covid numbers is that there’s no actual diagnostic test for the SARS Cov2 virus. Whereas there is a test for the Delta variant. You simply ask “have you had the vax?” Of course then you have to perform verbal gymnastics to deflect on the vax actually causing the problem.

Zipster
Zipster
August 18, 2021 10:31 am


One target of Malone’s ire, the biochemist Katalin Karikó, has been featured in multiple news stories as an mRNA-vaccine pioneer. CNN called her work “the basis of the Covid-19 vaccine” while a New York Times headline said she had “helped shield the world from the coronavirus.” None of those stories mentioned Malone. “I’ve been written out of the history,” he has said. “It’s all about Kati.” Karikó shared with me an email that Malone sent her in June, accusing her of feeding reporters bogus information and inflating her own accomplishments. “This is not going to end well,” Malone’s message says.

Karikó replied that she hadn’t told anyone that she is the inventor of mRNA vaccines and that “many many scientists” contributed to their success. “I have never claimed more than discovering a way to make RNA less inflammatory,” she wrote to him”

The woke media want to make out that a woman saved the world, which even she denies. How unexpected.

Zipster
Zipster
August 18, 2021 10:35 am

The woke media want to make out that a woman saved the world, which even she denies. How unexpected.

See girls, you can be anything you want, anything that is except get married, be a mother, raise children and you know be a tradwife.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 18, 2021 10:38 am

In Bridge Over Troubled Waters news:

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle address ‘exceptionally fragile’ world in joint statement: ‘Many layers of pain’

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a joint statement on their Archewell Foundation website, pinpointing the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, environmental disaster in Haiti and coronavirus pandemic as sparking “many layers of pain.”

That’s a lovely thought.
Gathers up all the threads.

cohenite
August 18, 2021 10:38 am

Thanks Tom; as usual broelman and that skank rowe blame everyone else except the talidogs. They must have exerted every bit of effort not to have Trump in their cartoons.

I wonder what else the zombie biden will do now to destroy the West. I really think Trump being cheated out of the election is a major pivot point in the history of humanity.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 10:41 am

Most work that ends up in Nobel prizes in science is done by teams of underlings.
In the odd case there is something that goes against the grain (ie Bret Weinstein & his work with mice) it usually gets binned.
PS the person who peer reviewed his work was awarded a Nobel prize for ripping off his work & curating a different, unsubstantiated conclusion.
The Nobel prize is now similar to an Order of Australia or a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 10:50 am

Control groups are the bedrock of any study.

Yes. When the study population is doing so much better than the control population it is usual to give the tested substance to the control group – and then call an end to the study, and declare the situation proven. When the tested substance is a vaccine it all gets very cloudy indeed.

The situation has now been extended to a total population study. The unvaxed are effectively the control group (as many like to joke), and of course there are likely to be confounders in seeing things that way. But that’s what we’ve got now. The mRNA vaxxes do work, very well, in reducing severe impacts and death. That’s the gamble, against any longer term as well as short term vaxx impacts, which also have to be judged against the notable longer term impacts of Covid, including deaths (and avoiding these depends on the availability of treatment). The age parameter should always be front of mind in these judgements. Covid is far more dangerous to the older groups.

Re treatment, it is disgraceful that Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine in the combination therapies currently being used by some doctors are not being tested as they should be, essentially due to politicisation. Better treatments may eventually replace vaxxes. It is a race between these and better vaxxes. We may underestimate the amount of work currently going on here.

calli
calli
August 18, 2021 10:52 am

Incoming! Take cover kids.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 10:53 am

When the study population is doing so much better than the control population it is usual to give the tested substance to the control group

This is not true.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 10:54 am

Zippy I think that’s why Dr Faustus recommends you read the further linked item authored by Dr Malone’s wife.

All the hallmarks with a man with a giant grudge.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 11:02 am

Calli, the chief electrician, whom we know well, was talking (at a social distance) to Hairy outside re our outside lights, which have been shorting out. They were exchanging views on lockdowns, which he said other tradies in other areas were finding hard, but he’d been super busy. He proferred that he was double-vaxxed but that he’d now been reading more internet stuff and wondered about whether he’d be OK and he was also anti-lockdown. He arrived wearing a mask. I think some people ask him outright if he’s vaxxed, others don’t seem to care. The same for the Irish tiler who has been flat out with work – he’s double-vaxxed and happily said so, ‘oim double-vaxxed ya know’, rather as a selling point, when we asked if he’d be willing to come and finish our outside verandah if we absented ourselves way down the cliff to the lower garden to keep it legal. Neither of them presented any evidence, didn’t see proof as necessary, for this and we of course didn’t ask for any. But I suspect some clients would have.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 18, 2021 11:04 am

The Nobel prize is now similar to an Order of Australia or a Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Arguably.
But it matters terribly to the Malones.

Particularly if it lands on Dr Katalin Kariko and her colleagues at BioNTech.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 11:06 am

As I thought, the follow up research, not the initial research.

I haven’t spent twelve months seeking approval for my vaccine decision, a decision I may or may not have made in June 2021.

As for the phase one two three volunteers being offered the vaccine.

Seems to me it would be far more unethical to refuse to allow people to be vaccinated against a potentially deadly disease currently circulating in their communities because they were involved in the earlier trial.
Lives are more important than research.

I’m a little bit sick of having my opinion denigrated because I’m not a member of the no vaccine under any circumstances crew.

I respect people who have decided not to vaccinate after carefully consideration.

Those running around screaming about 5g nanobots and all the rest, dying like flies, not so much.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 11:07 am

Waiting for my car involves torture by morning TV.

And people watch this voluntarily.

cohenite
August 18, 2021 11:08 am

Maybe we can send bird to take on the talirats in afghanistan. He is like the Terminator, he cannot be stopped.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 11:08 am

Yes, that site re Malone was the left-wing Atlantic Weekly, but I also read that Malone’s wife had material that supported his strong feelings about being denied some ‘rightful’ academic claim to ‘being first’. Having worked in academia, I know just how difficult ‘claiming’ rights can be and just how vicious the arguments get. But it does seem that Malone is claiming more than he is owed and bitterness can make a poor bedfellow when it comes to the science itself.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 11:09 am

“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex released a joint statement on their Archewell Foundation website, pinpointing the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan, environmental disaster in Haiti and coronavirus pandemic as sparking “many layers of pain.””

I never thought I’d say this…but can these two parasites please be “Romanoffed”?

calli
calli
August 18, 2021 11:10 am

Thanks, Lizzie.

I had an awful feeling there was some new “rule” hidden in the drawer marked “Beware the Leopard” in Gulag Gladys’ basement. And that nibs would be pinged.

Our guys said nothing- they’re outside scrubbing the salt from the windows. No masks. They’re back in a few months to do the innards, the roof and gutters and the outsides again. Hopefully all this will be over by then.

Old School Conservative
Old School Conservative
August 18, 2021 11:15 am

Another step on the pathway to serfdom.
Amex executives have embarked on a mission to instil critical race theory in the company.
To that end, they invited Khalil Muhammad, great-grandson of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, to speak to the company’s employees about the evils of capitalism
(Janet Albrechtsen at The Oz)
Amex supporting anti-capitalism? Words fail me.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 11:24 am

I’ve invested in a range of pharma & biotechs over the years.
I’ve seen some absolute poison as well as useless drugs approved by the FDA.
I’ve seen some life saving treatments knocked back or delayed for years by the FDA.
There needs to be an acceptance the whole structure is a scam.
That’s a feature of the system.
Not a bug.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 18, 2021 11:25 am

In Much Needed Certainty news:

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian hints at ‘personal care services’ being brought back in September

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has alluded to what eased restrictions in September may look like, provided the state hits a COVID-19 vaccine benchmark.

She said that “personal care services” are being considered for areas with high vaccine uptake and a low caseload.

“I don’t want to give the game away but it would be, potentially, services which could be provided to people provided both parties are vaccinated.

I don’t want to give the game away, but Berejiklistan is heading briskly towards internal passports and ghettos.

Limited freedom for approved consenting adults.

shatterzzz
August 18, 2021 11:25 am
Arky
August 18, 2021 11:26 am

“Amex supporting anti-capitalism? Words fail me.”.
..
Makes as much sense as Australian oil and gas companies starting their annual reports off with screeds about how they’re working towards “net zero carbon”.
Idiotic wankers.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 11:28 am

St Kilda now has its very own testing centre.

Awks a sex worker has the bug.

All very respectful says Foley.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 18, 2021 11:28 am

They must have exerted every bit of effort not to have Trump in their cartoons.

I was surprised that Rowe showed Biden in the cockpit of the plane. Not very clear but if he was trying to shield Biden from responsibility he need not have included him.

He still draws Biden as being not only fully compos mentis, but dripping with the feeling that he is one step ahead of everyone he meets, and that he knows it, and so do they.

He draws Biden wearing sunnies the same way that Fonzie wore his leather jacket, or one of those 1970’s lotharios wore their chest hair and perms. Rather than to hide his utter bewilderment and prevent being distracted by shiny objects.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 11:31 am

In early June I booked in for the Pfizer treatment.
The first appointment I could get was the first week of August.
I’ve had shot one.
Next week, I get the second shot.
I took it for my own reasons.
I don’t give a shit what people think about my treatment/vaccine status.
I don’t give a shit about what other people do.
But the idea of getting some kind of approval from others is quite bizarre to me.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 11:32 am

It is painful listening to Glad right now.
“People are disregarding the rules.”
If the rules made sense people would follow them.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 11:33 am

Well that just means it is perfectly possible that the vaccines are what they are claimed to be.

Likely to reduce risk of hospitalisations and death with a small risk of a severe adverse reaction.
I think Makka suggested one in 30,000.

Dr Faustus
Dr Faustus
August 18, 2021 11:34 am

Hint of bravery slipped past the censors at a leftie media outlet .. amazing!

Don’t often applaud Chris Uhlmann.
But he has certainly covered the field here.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 11:36 am

18 months into this COVID response.
Admittedly I don’t listen to any CMO much.
But when I did, I have never heard a CMO say pump up your vitamin C, D & zinc intake.
Or at least speak to a doctor about your own personal protection plan.
Not a once.
What kind of CMO’s are these people?

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 11:38 am

When the study population is doing so much better than the control population it is usual to give the tested substance to the control group

This is not true.

Sorry, but that is what often happens. The study is brought to a close for ethical reasons and everyone is offered what is now said to be a useful treatment. I think this happened with a SIDS study, where the technique of laying children on their backs to sleep reduced so many SIDS cases that the control population was given the new advice and the study concluded.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 11:40 am

I’m a little bit sick of having my opinion denigrated because I’m not a member of the no vaccine under any circumstances crew.

Rosie,
I respect everybody’s choice, as I expect my choice to be respected as well. As I posted many months ago, people run their own risk/reward analysis. I am not even anti ‘this-vax’, but rather I feel in my circumstances the risk outweighs the rewards, and will hold off, reevaluate as things change*, and when I determine the balance changes I will roll my sleeve up and get jabbed.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 11:40 am

Thanks Terry.
Have saved the video & will watch at some stage.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 11:45 am

Dover if you have a no Graeme policy you need to drop the ban hammer.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 11:46 am

LOL.
Horse face blaming NSW for their COVID case.
Shouldn’t you be blaming your own quarantine standards? If you are going to blame anyone for a this ?
Or if you are going to blame NSW, why not blame the US where the cabin crew from the plane came from?
Not much lateral thought from that one.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 11:48 am

And I respect your choice Diogenes.

And if I question the credentials of the anti vaccination ‘medical experts’ I expect to get respected too.

lotocoti
lotocoti
August 18, 2021 11:49 am

If the rules made sense people would follow them.

And when they can’t make sense of them, people start disappearing down rabbit holes, because it must be some sort of grand conspiracy, not unyielding incompetence.

Tom
Tom
August 18, 2021 11:52 am

Fuck off before you’re ejected, Bird.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 11:55 am

“Tomsays:
August 18, 2021 at 11:52 am
Fuck off before you’re ejected, Bird.”

I second that.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 11:56 am

Tom, is Terry Boardman Bird?
Oh crap.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 18, 2021 12:00 pm

Afghanistan: fleeing president ‘had cars and helicopter full of cash’

As the Taliban closed in, President Ghani is said to have insisted on a dignified exit from Kabul. When the end came, it was anything but.

The president of Afghanistan fled his palace headed for Tajikistan, and then issued a statement on Facebook: “To avoid bloodshed, I thought it would be better to leave.” Within hours, Taliban militants were filmed posing in his presidential office.

If reports from the Russian government are to be believed, and they are no friends of Ghani, he was followed out of his presidential palace by a motorcade and a helicopter loaded with cash.

“As for the collapse of the [outgoing] regime, it is most eloquently characterised by the way Ghani fled Afghanistan,” a Russian embassy spokesman told the RIA news agency yesterday.

“Four cars were full of money. They tried to stuff another part of the money into a helicopter but not all of it would fit, and some was left on the tarmac.”

Condemnation and mockery of Ghani, 72, has been swift from Afghan leaders left behind to negotiate a handover of power to the Taliban and the civilians who stormed Kabul airport on Monday in desperate hope of a flight.

Oz

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 12:00 pm

Overnight, Snowden published a really smart column on his substack.
If he takes it out behind the paywall I’ll post a link.

cohenite
August 18, 2021 12:02 pm

Tom, is Terry Boardman Bird?
Oh crap.

Don’t be embarrassed. Even a stopped watch is right twice a day. Bird can do that to you.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 12:03 pm

For the record, the youtube link seemed quite reasonable.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 12:05 pm

And if I question the credentials of the anti vaccination ‘medical experts’ I expect to get respected too.

Medical ‘experts’ are the one big reason I am ‘hesitant’. There are so many ‘experts’ being dragged out on both sides, as ‘appeals to authority’, I no longer know who to believe, but I am very skeptical of anyone associated with the WHO or CHOs, current or former or deputies, of any stripe.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 12:07 pm

From Rory Robertson twitter.
53 days of NSW lockdown.
7820 total deaths.
60 from/with COVID.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 12:09 pm

Since there is no evidence without case studies to call them anecdotal and dismiss them is anti-evidence.

What epidemiologists call ‘case-control’ studies form an important part of the armoury of study designs. They must however be properly designed so that they can provide useful comparative statistics.

Consideration of case-control studies introduces the first category of study that is essentially hypothesis-testing in aim. (Hypothesis-testing studies may also be referred to as analytic or a priori studies. Amajor difference from surveys (statistical data collection) is the requirement to collect information about the past from respondents in case-control studies. … The primar aim of a case-control study is to explore the aaetiology of a given condition, by searching for differences in the prior exposure of the cases and controls to a range of suspect agents or factors. Because the development of a disease is often ther esult of a combination of factors (and not just the actue reaction to a particular exposure) a case-control study may often require exploration of a wide complex of factors and their interrelationships in order to comment upon the aetiology. …. (it may) involve exploring the possible influence of factors that have not hithertoo been suggested as having an aetiological role in the disease, or at lest for which ther does not exist any hard evidence that they have a genuinely causative action…. Section 5.2 discussed the principles involved, and indicaates the categories of data that may be collected … the final three sections deal with extension of the basic method, advantages and disadvantages of the method, and some appropriate statistical techniques.

Michael Alderson, An Introduction to Epidemiology, 2nd ed. (one of my old textbooks)
Also good too, especially on rare disease, is Fletcher, Fletcher and Wagner, Clinical Epidemiology, the Essentials. These are just introductory texts, epidemiology gets much more sophisticated in design and statistically complex than covered in these texts.

A case-control study is often quite complex (do you take account of ‘dead’ controls, for instance) and uses some advanced statistics for analysis (for instance using two-time-n tables, and combining several two-times-two tables, relative risks, odds ratios and attributable risk, as well as full multivarite analysis).

Other types of studies are prospective studies, intervention studies and medical-care studies.

The gold standard of course is always the well-designed randomised controlled trial.

Arky
August 18, 2021 12:09 pm

Just left yob catallaxy.
How’s it going wankers?

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 12:10 pm

“53 days of NSW lockdown.
7820 total deaths.
60 from/with COVID.”

I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.

I think I’ll cry.

Eddystone
Eddystone
August 18, 2021 12:10 pm

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare says:
August 18, 2021 at 11:38 am

When the study population is doing so much better than the control population it is usual to give the tested substance to the control group

This is not true.

Sorry, but that is what often happens. The study is brought to a close for ethical reasons and everyone is offered what is now said to be a useful treatment. I think this happened with a SIDS study, where the technique of laying children on their backs to sleep reduced so many SIDS cases that the control population was given the new advice and the study concluded.

Lizzie, the two trials are not comparable. (SIDS vs vaxx.)

We need to know the long-term effects of these new vaccines, compared to the controls.

According to the latest COVID-19 vaccine weekly safety report – 12-08-2021 there have been 447 deaths following covid vaccinations, only 7 of which are being attributed to the vaccine.

This may be correct, although it seems that a rigorous investigation is warranted, but a control group from the phase 3 trials would add to the confidence in the TGAs pronouncement, at least for the Pfizer vaxx.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 12:14 pm

This may be correct, although it seems that a rigorous investigation is warranted, but a control group from the phase 3 trials would add to the confidence in the TGAs pronouncement, at least for the Pfizer vaxx.

The original control group has been corrupted.
This was not a mistake.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 12:18 pm

There is an ASX listed company that continues to monitor a control group from a study that began over a decade ago.
Their drug is currently being used under one of the “clutching at straws” provisions that Obama (via the Biden moonshot) or Trump approved.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 18, 2021 12:21 pm

“Amex supporting anti-capitalism? Words fail me.”.

The main shareholders in any large corporation is most likely other large corporations which have essentially assimilated the same SJW guff at more or less the same time.

Eddystone
Eddystone
August 18, 2021 12:23 pm

I’ve emailed the TGA asking for details of the covid vaxx deaths investigation, also for the corresponding flu ones before and during the covid scare.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 12:29 pm

According to the latest COVID-19 vaccine weekly safety report – 12-08-2021 there have been 447 deaths following covid vaccinations, only 7 of which are being attributed to the vaccine.

This may be correct, although it seems that a rigorous investigation is warranted, but a control group from the phase 3 trials would add to the confidence in the TGAs pronouncement, at least for the Pfizer vaxx.

I am fairly sure that the investigation of these deaths is rigorous enough although I can’t be sure of how much data is offered and shared beyond set scientific groups. Every practicing epidemiologist would have their eye on these, how the determinations were made, what were the co-morbidities involved etc vs known population parameters for deaths in these. The numbers sound high because of the enormous number in the ‘study’ population – running into many millions. I agree that a better controlled trial period would leave everyone feeling more secure and that it is hard to trust whatever data we get filtered down to us in the gen pop.

Apologies to all for not proofing my typing from my Intro Text. Probably too even Wikipedia could give you more up to date accounts of simple epidemiological methods. But I took the opportunity to retrieve and peek into the few texts I have kept for old times sake. 🙂

Arky
August 18, 2021 12:33 pm

While you are locked in your home and have not been able to travel overseas or even interstate for much of the last two years, be reassured that as I type this your representatives and public servants in Canberra are busy arranging the importations into your country of thousands of Afghani “interpreters” and “allies”.

Boambee John
Boambee John
August 18, 2021 12:35 pm

bern

What kind of CMO’s are these people?

People smart enough to pass the exams, but not intelligent enough to do the real work?

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 12:40 pm

So, you go for a perfectly legal walk holding a ‘Toot to Boot’ sign and you get fined and the court has just declared that you jolly well ought to be. Our Australia.

Ellen, I was appalled by this judgement in a Victorian Court, where the poor woman was intended to be hit with a large legal bill for defending something that strikes me as not illegal at all.

She was simply expressing an opinion. On a legal walk. Not close to anyone else.

I’ll bet if her sign said ‘onya Dan’ then she wouldn’t be in the dock. Vic Judges fail again.

I rather liked the two LDP politicians being ‘at work’ on the steps of State Parliament because it was ‘closed’ and standing up for the rights of kids to go to a park, ffs. In NSW kids still play in parks. The most extreme chance of passing on Covid there has to be balanced against the damage to kids who are locked down for almost a year of their childhood. Lock Dan can’t even see that.

Arky
August 18, 2021 12:41 pm

Media whores right now are busy storyboarding a series of soft lighting and emotive background music pieces on Aussie “diggers” desperate to get their own personal Afghani “mate” out of harm’s way. I’ll give you the final scene:
[Poignant music]
Shot 1: Digger holding sign with Achmed’s name on it at Melbourne airport.
Shot 2: Achmed coming through the terminal.
[music swells]
Shot three: Hold on digger and Achmed embracing.
Shot 4; Digger smiling broadly.
[fade]

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 18, 2021 12:48 pm

So, you go for a perfectly legal walk holding a ‘Toot to Boot’ sign and you get fined and the court has just declared that you jolly well ought to be.

The lockdowns, such as they are, are supposed to be about the virus. On that basis they restrict contact. There is no justification for crimping the right to political opinion.

I hope the need to ‘clamp down’ on such things reflects an awareness that people are so getting well and truly fed up. You know how you can’t even allow the tiniest spark in a powder magazine? Andrews can’t even risk a little mockery.

Gladys the tardy mimic, late to the Dan Andrews policies but ardently cleaving to them, can soddingwell join him down the plug hole.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 12:50 pm

Dennis Prager | The Left is Destroying Western Civilization

More of this sort of observation going around at the moment. VDH in his column this week had a similar flavour:

Are We in a Revolution and Don’t Even Know It? (VDH, 15 Aug)

He has a case, a very real case I think. Doesn’t get to the reason for it though, especially why now, which I’m on record for saying why that might be many times.

cohenite
August 18, 2021 12:50 pm

Let me tile the kitchen in peace, Bird.

Yeah, feel for you; my missus has decided she needs a new kitchen; starts next week; tiling will be the least of my problems. I’ll be living on takeaway chicken and salad for the next month. I have to do it because she’s a great cook and needs a new stove and it’s the only way she’ll do cheesecakes.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 12:55 pm

Arky, I have no real objection to taking in as refugees Afghans who risk death if they stay and who have directly helped Australians during the war there. I don’t think it shoud be open slather though and checks do need to be made regarding claims. Difficult in the immediate situation though. If an Aussie soldier vouches for someone, that’s actually good enough for me. The numbers in that situation are not huge, and easily assimilated into our overall refugee intake. It is simply civilised to do so right now.

Arky
August 18, 2021 12:56 pm

It is simply civilised to do so right now.

..
No.
Screw them.

cohenite
August 18, 2021 12:57 pm

He has a case, a very real case I think. Doesn’t get to the reason for it though, especially why now, which I’m on record for saying why that might be many times.

It’s not a complicated thing. There are a couple of types of lefties who both share a common trait. The first type are out and out commies who think they should be in a position to tell other people how they should live their lives; the second type are upper class twits who just think they’re better then other folk and their moral perspective should prevail. The latter personify cognitive dissonance and are incapable of appreciating what they are doing will destroy their privileged position. The former ultimately don’t give a fuck as long as they are in power.

The others are useful idiots, kiddies, cat ladies and assorted karens, teachers and bureaucrats.

Zipster
Zipster
August 18, 2021 12:59 pm

While you are locked in your home and have not been able to travel overseas or even interstate for much of the last two years, be reassured that as I type this your representatives and public servants in Canberra are busy arranging the importations into your country of thousands of Afghani “interpreters” and “allies”. Uber drivers.

fixingly

Arky
August 18, 2021 12:59 pm

You are about to be emotionally manipulated into accepting thousands of Afghani refugees.
Fortify yourself against that propaganda before it starts.
Don’t be a mug.
Again.

Professor Higgins
Professor Higgins
August 18, 2021 1:01 pm

Just left yob catallaxy.
How’s it going wankers?

Pretty good.
The owner doesn’t take four days to hose out the bird-shit, which is a plus.

Professor Higgins
Professor Higgins
August 18, 2021 1:03 pm

Arky, I have no real objection to taking in as refugees Afghans who risk death if they stay and who have directly helped Australians during the war there.

Thirty year TPVs with no anchor baby rights is where it needs to go, if at all.

Arky
August 18, 2021 1:13 pm

Almost all the refos will not be “allies” and they won’t come direct from the Stan.
They’ll come in from third country through UN run camps.
A heap of the fuckers probably won’t even be from Afghanistan.
The people who run our programs don’t give a shit.
The propaganda pieces to justify this will be real tear jerkers.

Zipster
Zipster
August 18, 2021 1:13 pm

from above link

Here is a final reminder of why the revolution has already turned society upside down. The canniest elements of the aristocracy always cut deals with the revolution and indeed often remain the nomenklatura. What unites Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and the Silicon Valley billionaire crowd are the exemptions they purchased from revolutionary justice.

In the old days they would have gotten dachas on the Black Sea coast and three dial phones on their desks. These days they keep their billions if they give a hundred million dollars in “civility” bounties here to Van Jones (ex-truther and expert on why white people are supposedly responsible for mass shootings) or there seed $500 million to key voting precincts to help ensure the good people defeat the bad.

In 1961, Cubans were not quite aware that they were experiencing a Marxist takeover. Nor were Russians fully cognizant in 1917 of the plans that the Bolsheviks had for them over the next few decades. It is hard to see during anarchy, chaos, and collapsing institutions that leftists still have an agenda for what will emerge on the other side.

In other words, we are in the midst of a revolutionary epoch and probably most don’t even know it.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 1:14 pm

Absolutely certain that this is yob catallaxy.

Evidence?

St ruth still posts at the other.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 1:15 pm

They’ll be Pakistanis, like most other ‘Afghani’ refugees.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 1:22 pm

“Dennis Prager | The Left is Destroying Western Civilization”

Prager is right…..but I reiterate what I wrote earlier today…that all of this is happening because the right has surrendered. The only person who tried to fight the nonsense was President Donald Trump…..and we saw what happened to him.

shatterzzz
August 18, 2021 1:25 pm

Gotta trust the “experts” .. LOL!
https://ibb.co/Xkf7SN0

Bruce in WA
August 18, 2021 1:25 pm

Premier Gladys Berejiklian has alluded to what eased restrictions in September may look like, provided the state hits a COVID-19 vaccine benchmark.

She said that “personal care services” are being considered for areas with high vaccine uptake and a low caseload.

Rub-and-tug shops?

calli
calli
August 18, 2021 1:28 pm

Needs her roots touched up, Bruce in WA.

Hairdresser and nail salon led recovery!

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 1:28 pm

Don’t be a mug.
Again.

Said my piece now, Arky. I didn’t agree to an open slather. Just current and vouched for cases.

I’d be quite happy to halve our current immigration intake, or even quarter it.
I’d also favour restricting it to people with good skills who speak good English and who are in urgent need in places where they will never again be safe – such as white farmers in South Africa.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 1:29 pm

Rub-and-tug shops?

I think she means hairdressers.
Wouldn’t want everyone in NSW looking like wookies.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 1:30 pm

Snap to Calli!

Arky
August 18, 2021 1:31 pm

” people with good skills who speak good English and who are in urgent need in places where they will never again be safe – such as white farmers in South Africa.

..
Never going to happen.
The departments are staffed with people who will ensure that is impossible.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 1:32 pm

Refugees in camps where they can return back home should be strongly encouraged to do so. Holding out hope of a life in the West means that capable trained people are lost to the original country.

Top Ender
Top Ender
August 18, 2021 1:32 pm
Winston Smith
August 18, 2021 1:32 pm

rosie:

Which reminds me of another pernicious claim made at old and dash cats.
Some Australians receiving vaccines are only getting saline injections.

How do we know we aren’t?
I’m not saying it’s true, but we take on trust that what is on the label is the stuff that’s in the vial.
That stories like this get traction is merely a symptom of the rising distrust in Government – a situation they have brought on themselves by their own arrogance.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 1:33 pm

Never going to happen.
The departments are staffed with people who will ensure that is impossible.

We need to exert more political pressure to fire those people. Firing people can cause remarkable changes in those left. Ministers with balls can also issue directives.

Arky
August 18, 2021 1:35 pm

You need to understand how moist and weak in the knees your average middle aged chick in the public service gets at the idea of Muhhammed and Achmed and Muhammed and Ali and Muhammed and Muhammed arriving.
I’ve seen 60 y.o state school teachers have standing up fully dressed multiple orgasms in such situations.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 1:37 pm

I think she means hairdressers.

I hope she means hairdressers. Cassie and I are both exchanging notes on the matter of our glorious locks and how to control them in these torrid times. I have taken to wearing a headband for dancing. It looks dreadful.

Arky
August 18, 2021 1:39 pm

For your average bloke to understand what we’re up against, imagine there was a war between Norway and Sweden, and you were asked to vet a hundred thousand big titted blonde chicks for refugee status:
“Her. Her. Her … and her, her, her, her. Her. Definitely her. And her”.

Bruce in WA
August 18, 2021 1:40 pm

Needs her roots touched up, Bruce in WA.

Please, Calli, it’s not that sort of blog! 😮

Arky
August 18, 2021 1:45 pm

Over fifty percent of Afghanis are under the age of twenty.
Imagine Jan. Public servant. Cat lady. 85Kgs. 49 years old. Childless.
You expect her to give a shit about your family as her pen hovers over the “pass” checkbox for a million studly young blokes?

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 1:47 pm

Thirty year TPVs with no anchor baby rights is where it needs to go, if at all.

If Professor Higgins Dot?

Winston Smith
August 18, 2021 1:50 pm

Cassie O’Sydnanee:

Yes….and for pointing out the obvious people like you and I are now routinely smeared as homophobes, islaaaaaaamophobes, transphobes, far-right, neo-Nazis.

Fair enough comment, Cassie.
I don’t like the whole homosexual lifestyle – its depravity and perversions, it intense focus on itself and the next round of self satisfaction. These people are sick but I don’t care if they do or don’t get treatment for their emotional trauma. It’s their choice.
I don’t like Islaaaaam – it threatens me and my family merely for having a different opinion and has shown itself capable of the most horrific behaviour – behaviour that when perpetrated by an individual in our culture would see that person locked away for life.
But I’m not a far right neo nazi. I have vast sympathy for the victims of these odious regimes and would put myself in harms way to defend them.
So where do I fit on the Woke Spectrum?
I have come to the conclusion I don’t exist anywhere on it and that brings a certain relief to me.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 2:00 pm

Good luck with net zero lady. Net zero? Absolute zero that should be. Oops, I get wrong lefty cause célèbre. Net zero is the other one.

NSW smashes previous pandemic record with 633 local COVID-19 cases, three additional deaths

Premier Gladys Berejiklian confirmed three additional COVID-related deaths as she revealed 550 of the 633 cases reported on Wednesday are from southwest and western Sydney.

Southwest and western Sydney eh? Well knock my socks off with a feather.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 2:03 pm

Winston

I dunno

Maybe for the same reasons we trust all the medications we buy are as it says on the label?

If anyone has evidence that people are either randomly being given saline to minimise the alleged thousands dying and in hospital because of the ‘death jab’ or the Australian government is conducting a randomised trial without the consent of participants please post it.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 2:04 pm

Mater, with reference to your musings posts, there is a billionaire who is at the NSW government about setting up a public enquiry to investigate all aspects of the COVID19 response.
Not a combative Royal Commission.
The idea he’s floating is an open, research symposium, conference style situation that is ongoing.
I would be very surprised if it progressed past thought bubble status.
That is, as Sir Humphrey said, only have an enquiry when you know the outcome before you start.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 2:05 pm

Net zero is idiocy.

Just stop it.

Perhaps it really is out of control as one sorta assumes the people breaking the rules are also not getting tested unless they are crook enough to seek medical attention.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 2:07 pm

Incidentally try getting the jab at a government hub in south East regional Queensland if you are under 60.

You can’t made a booking.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 18, 2021 2:08 pm

TE’s link above is to an article called

The silence of Western feminists is deafening

I have long since noticed that feminism is not about helping girls in third world shitholes win the right to read, but promoting ambitious women in first world countries to positions of power and privilege on the basis of vagina rather than talent, and defending them from meritocracy and consequence.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 18, 2021 2:08 pm

The silence of Western feminists is deafening

Can you tell me where there is such a one?

Asking for a friend.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 18, 2021 2:12 pm

I think she means hairdressers.

And manicurists.

And those shops where dowdy gargoyles go to buy expensive dresses and gaudy handbags.

And dog-fighting dens in Willoughby.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 18, 2021 2:16 pm

Sorry, that should have been:

Please, Calli, it’s not that sort of blog! ?

Can you tell me where there is such a one?

Asking for a friend.

Mother Lode
Mother Lode
August 18, 2021 2:18 pm

Damn it. It changed what I pasted.

It was referring to where Bruce alerted Calli to this not being that sort of blog.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 2:20 pm
feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 2:20 pm

The first vaccines landed in NSW in March.
From 1st of April, they have been readily available for everyone over 50.
The availability has increased exponentially over the last month for everyone.
By the 1st of Oct, there world have been 6 months of varying levels of access.
If want the shots by then, get it.
If you haven’t by then, it’s your personal choice.
If 6 months of access isn’t enough, what is?
The logic of lock downs at all can be debated.
But there is zero logic to having lockdowns after everyone who wants a vaccination has had a 6 month window to get one.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
August 18, 2021 2:22 pm

Prager is right…..but I reiterate what I wrote earlier today…that all of this is happening because the right has surrendered. The only person who tried to fight the nonsense was President Donald Trump…..and we saw what happened to him.

I agreed with a lot of what Denis Prager said, but he’s wrong on his later comments because he confounds secularism with leftism. Most believers do. I’m particularly conscious of this because I’m secular and very anti-leftist. I’m not a joyless, unhappy man who worships the state, on the contrary, I’m a happy, sunny bloke who thinks this is a wonderful universe and gets immense pleasure from looking at trees and birds and nature generally. But so long as I have to believe that the only alternative to worshipping the state is to worship God , you’ve lost me.
I can get along with people who worship God; I think they’re slightly dotty, but generally good people. People who worship power are not, and I don’t like them. I loath them and will do what I can to thwart them. But it’s distressing to find that the only opposition to them comes from an older and failing religion which I can happily tolerate but cannot honestly support.

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 2:22 pm

would, not world.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 2:24 pm

Good luck with net zero lady. Net zero? Absolute zero that should be. Oops, I get wrong lefty cause célèbre. Net zero is the other one.

lol, Bruce. They are certainly using one as a trial run for t’other.
Things not quite going according to plan on Covid though. The populace is restless.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 2:25 pm
rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 2:28 pm

Absolutely.

The only rule should be opportunity to vaccinate then open up.

Quite frankly this should and could be the federal government forcing state hands by announcing that international borders will open in a free for all on I October.

Bruce in WA
August 18, 2021 2:28 pm

I got my 10,000 k service today because essential.

Please, Rosie … phrasing! 😉

Eddystone
Eddystone
August 18, 2021 2:30 pm

The submissiveness to, no the willing compliance with, SAs lunatic mask regulations, is absolutely depressing.

The State is full of numpties proudly walking around wearing masks outside, some even while alone in their cars.

I feel as though I’ve lost something really precious.

Arky
August 18, 2021 2:34 pm

. But so long as I have to believe that the only alternative to worshipping the state is to worship God , you’ve lost me.
…the only opposition to them comes from an older and failing religion which I can happily tolerate but cannot honestly support.

..
Time for you to reread those sentences and acknowledge that even in your own words you understand that Christianity is the only thing working to achieve the society you want to exist in.
I might not know how quantum physics works, but I have to look at the things it is applied to and admit that it does in fact work.
Maybe your position, given your own words here, might shift to something like:
“I don’t understand Christ, and it bugs the shit out of me that something that shouldn’t work does in fact work, but work it does. Might be a metaphysical placebo effect or something I don’t yet comprehend, but even a placebo is better than nothing”.

rosie
rosie
August 18, 2021 2:35 pm

It wasn’t conducted in St Kilda fortunately Bruce 😉

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 2:35 pm

..
Time for you to reread those sentences and acknowledge that even in your own words you understand that Christianity is the only thing working to achieve the society you want to exist in.

For 90% of the population, that is very true.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 2:35 pm

“Winston Smithsays:
August 18, 2021 at 1:50 pm”

I have come to the conclusion I don’t exist anywhere on it and that brings a certain relief to me.

WS, I think that many of us feel the same way as you do.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 2:41 pm

entertainment tweet

She must be Scottish.

Angry protesters storm Edinburgh Castle as they ‘seize’ iconic landmark -police on scene (18 Aug)

In a video shared on social media, one woman can be heard saying “we have seized Edinburgh Castle”.

She continues: “We’re waiting to restore the rule of law. We’re doing this peacefully and we’re doing this lawfully.

“We are using Article 61 of the Magna Carta. We have had enough.

“The people of Scotland have had enough and today we claim our power back.

Magna Carta protests have broken out after 806 years!
Ok, yes, it took a bit of time to organize the clans.
Good thing the Poms don’t have an FBI.
‘Insurrections’ are yummy.

Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
August 18, 2021 2:43 pm

But there is zero logic to having lockdowns after everyone who wants a vaccination has had a 6 month window to get one.

Yep. Was thinking of having mine in mid-April when news came through I might need major abdominal surgery early May. Didn’t want to complicate matters by an AZ blood clot before that, nor for six to eight weeks after it, so didn’t end up getting my first shot till early-July. So add twelve weeks and it’s late-September for the second. I’ve actually brought it back by two weeks to ten weeks instead of twelve. Seems prudent with Covid on the rise. Will be fully vaxxed and with immunity renewed by October 1. So on my example, all who want the vax, even if hintered a bit in getting it due to personal factors, could still be vaxed by October 1. If not, then they can self-isolate if they wish till they can get it.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
August 18, 2021 2:47 pm

I might not know how quantum physics works, but I have to look at the things it is applied to and admit that it does in fact work.

Like quantum mechanics, Christianity works for some things but not for others, Arky. I’d like to keep the morality but dispense with the bullshit. I may be forced to the conclusion that human nature generally demands both, but I don’t have to like it.

Arky
August 18, 2021 2:55 pm

I’d like to keep the morality but dispense with the bullshit.

..
I don’t mind either.
I’m happy to live in a society with a relatively benign set of agreed upon ceremonies, celebrations, mythologies, epistemology, culture and the morals based thereon.
Even though I found such quite boring and constraining in my youth, as we get a good look at where we’re going without it, and the shit we’re in, I’m firmly of the belief I should personally have done more over the decades to propagate that which was handed to me.
So much that was common to all of us is being erased from public life and replaced with truly sinister shit.

cohenite
August 18, 2021 2:57 pm

The silence of Western feminists is deafening

The real feminists put their lives on the line opposing the scumbags of islam:

Astra Nomani
Anissa Naoumi
Jeanine Piro
Dana Loesch
Pam Geller
Faith Goldy
Lauren Southern
Qanta Ahmed
Raheel Raza
Tomi Lauren
Meriam Ibrahim

And of course the great Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

When I think of western feminists I think of the demented chipmunk AOC and that horse faced bitch the kiwis vomited up.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 2:57 pm

By the 1st of Oct, there world have been 6 months of varying levels of access.
If want the shots by then, get it.

Bern – I couldn’t get an acceptable vaccine right now even if I want one (which I’m not entirely adverse to, although I strongly would prefer Novavax based on its immunization approach).

Over 60 you still only are allowed AZ. AZ is made using cells derived from an aborted fetus. And I’m a believing Christian. So the only vaccine I can get is one which I can’t accept through deep conviction. Even vegans get more consideration than Christians: they’re allowed conscientious objection, we aren’t.

shatterzzz
August 18, 2021 2:59 pm

The Taliban .. does anyone think the leopard will change its spots?
27 September, 1996
On an elevated traffic island outside Kabul’s presidential palace the corpse of former president Najibullah wa strung up by the neck. His clothes were drenched in blood and the pockets of his coat and mouth were stuffed with afghanis, the country’s worthless currency.
Kabul had fallen to the Taliban …….

Mater
August 18, 2021 3:01 pm

Mater, with reference to your musings posts, there is a billionaire who is at the NSW government about setting up a public enquiry to investigate all aspects of the COVID19 response.

Thanks. Got more lined up.
The statistics and maths demonstrated in the official reports is horrific. Out right wrong, in some instances. Someone needs to buy them a calculator.
One can only hope that they haven’t guided the official response.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 3:07 pm

“The real feminists put their lives on the line opposing the scumbags of islam:”

More names…

Brigitte Gabriel
Yasmine Mohammed

and one of the bravest….Hatun Tash….who was attacked in London’s Hyde Park three weeks ago by an adherent of the religion of pieces, he attempted to slash her throat…in broad daylight. The London Met police are still looking for the attacker……because, you see, they’re very busy charging white working class twelve year old boys for racist tweets and middle aged women for transphobic tweets.

Bruce of Newcastle
Bruce of Newcastle
August 18, 2021 3:07 pm

So I’m stuck waiting for Novavax vaporware to arrive, or for Pfizer/Moderna to be allowed to over 60’s, or for ivermectin to be legalized. In the meantime I get nothing, can do nothing, can travel nowhere further than 5 km and even if I wanted to I can’t go to a restaurant in NY without the place having their arses fined off them.

NYC to Impose Up to $2,000 Fines on Businesses Serving the Unvaccinated (17 Aug)

Maybe I should just start wearing a yellow crucifix badge.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 3:09 pm

“cohenitesays:
August 18, 2021 at 2:57 pm”

And I’d take out Lauren Southern…..there’s something not quite right about her.

calli
calli
August 18, 2021 3:09 pm

Bruce of Newcastle, you have summed up my own approach entirely and succinctly.

In addition, even if Pfizer is offered to me*, I will not take a vaccine that could go to a younger person from a high risk environment who is desperate for it. In other words, I refuse to queue jump.

* and if I pulled some strings, I could get it

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
August 18, 2021 3:13 pm

I don’t mind either.
I’m happy to live in a society with a relatively benign set of agreed upon ceremonies, celebrations, mythologies, epistemology, culture and the morals based thereon.

I don’t mind either, so long as I’m not expected to take it seriously. In my youth, I wasn’t. The sinister shit of which you speak is a consequence of an alternative religion which I am expected to take seriously, and that’s why I find it loathsome.

I expect you’d feel differently if you’d been brung up in a religion where you’d been closely examined for heresy every six months. That’s what’s happening soon, it’s already going on in some quarters, but Christianity was like that once.
See you in court, when we’re both up on heresy charges.

calli
calli
August 18, 2021 3:14 pm

Also, the rebel in me refuses to do it under duress (the choice between being locked out of normal activities and freedom because vaccinated).

I have committed no crime, but my freedoms will be assessed and bestowed by the CHOs and state premiers. Because reasons. Forget it.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 3:15 pm

nd I’d take out Lauren Southern…..there’s something not quite right about her.

Cassie,
He should be taken out of the list unless he changed back to female since I last heard. :-0

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 3:17 pm

Bruce, Calli, my point is it should be open slather right now.
Considering the fake carrot/real stick on offer from Gladys, the basis of an ongoing lockdown based on 100% vaccination rate is even more insane considering those who want it have had ample time to get.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 3:18 pm

“He should be taken out of the list unless he changed back to female since I last heard. :-0”

Umm, not sure what you mean Diogenes. Southern is definitely an adult human female.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 3:20 pm

I have committed no crime, but my freedoms will be assessed and bestowed by the CHOs and state premiers. Because reasons. Forget it.

Even some of my colleagues are starting to get it. In a faculty meeting today, somebody mentioned that the CHO would decide when we reach n% what we will be allowed. The retort from many others was – why are paying Gladys and the rest of parliament when we are ruled by CHO & Police Commissioner edict?

cohenite
August 18, 2021 3:20 pm

And I’d take out Lauren Southern…..there’s something not quite right about her.

I saw her when she came to Sydney with Stefan Molyneuxs who also seems to rub people the wrong way. I wrote a review of the evening, which was brilliant, but that has now disappeared with the old Cat along with my other priceless musings.

Anyway here she is; I think she is very courageous; the left have attacked her physically. I haven’t heard much about her recently: this 11 minute talk is about when she tried to go to Lakemba and was turned back by the wallopers; actually refused entry. Of course it seems like small beer today:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9MgCE933w8

Zipster
Zipster
August 18, 2021 3:21 pm

I agreed with a lot of what Denis Prager said, but he’s wrong on his later comments because he confounds secularism with leftism.

I don’t think he does. He is a very smart man, but he is religious and so feels a need to justify his belief.

Prager is right and but not entirely. Secularism does not come with an unquestionable moral code. We can see our historical moral code has been questioned, trampled and increasingly discarded in favour of absolutist subjectivism.

Gay marriage is the perfect example of this in action, everything about the left revolves around creating a moral high ground of grievance through division and claiming that moral high ground with “equity” as the solution. Equity of course just being more marxism. The traditional moral code becomes the enemy. The solutions revolves around unquantifiables like feelings. The logic is circular and unassailable to simplistic countering. There is nothing offered by secularism to pierce this web of entrapment. Who is to say love isn’t love? Who is to say one can’t pick one’s gender irrespective of ones chromosomes or genitals? Well it certainly is not the word of god to the secularist or marxist. Your parents, historians? the ancient romans or greeks who were accepting of homosexuality?
How to do you counter these positions, without an unquestionable source of authority. Science is of no help it has nothing to say about morality.

That the religious are happier than secularists, that’s just an opinion. If being obedient to an invisible creator makes you happy then good luck to you.

What I tell my kids is life is what you make of it. You don’t need to go looking for meaning, you create your own meaning in your life, make the best of it. From a secular point of view thats about it.

Davey Boy
Davey Boy
August 18, 2021 3:21 pm
Arky
August 18, 2021 3:30 pm

Imagine if after WW2 the Americans had have occupied Germany until 1965, then handed the joint over to Himmler and Goering.
That’s the timeline equivalent with the Afghanistan.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 3:34 pm

My boyfriend has Covid….he’s the first person I know who has caught it. He has no symptoms….anyway he’s in isolation.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 3:35 pm

“Zipstersays:
August 18, 2021 at 3:21 pm”

Great comment Zip.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 3:36 pm

Umm, not sure what you mean Diogenes. Southern is definitely an adult human female.

To demonstrate how stupid the whole trans is, she tucked her hair under a baseball cap, put on masculine type clothes, and told her doctor she was sure she was actually a male. Her doctor signed off on it, and that afternoon she had a drivers licence that stated she was male.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SQGuuyVAsw&ab_channel=Serenity

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 3:36 pm

Imagine if after WW2 the Americans had have occupied Germany until 1965, then handed the joint over to Himmler and Goering.
That’s the timeline equivalent with the Afghanistan.

Chilling isn’t it.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 3:37 pm

“Stefan Molyneuxs who also seems to rub people the wrong way”

yes…because he’s a fraud and anti-Semite.

Marty
Marty
August 18, 2021 3:37 pm

What a pleasure it is to lurk here.

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
August 18, 2021 3:37 pm

What I tell my kids is life is what you make of it. You don’t need to go looking for meaning, you create your own meaning in your life, make the best of it. From a secular point of view thats about it.

I agree entirely, but for most people creating meaning is too hard, so they’ll buy it from someone else.

To me, morality comes from something pretty similar to natural law; I find it enbedded in human nature. So it’s objective, but sometimes hard to discern, which is why people can argue about what’s right and wrong.

I’m very glad I was brought up in a Christian society, influenced by the enlightenment. I got the best of both worlds. I feel pity for the woke generation, they are throwing away both the science that came with the enlightenment and the morality that came from the Judaeo-Christian tradition.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 3:38 pm

“To demonstrate how stupid the whole trans is, she tucked her hair under a baseball cap, put on masculine type clothes, and told her doctor she was sure she was actually a male. Her doctor signed off on it, and that afternoon she had a drivers licence that stated she was male.”

Oh yes…sorry Diogenes. I’d forgotten.

Diogenes
Diogenes
August 18, 2021 3:38 pm

And here is one she recorded of teh whole process
https://www.louderwithcrowder.com/lauren-southern-man

feelthebern
feelthebern
August 18, 2021 3:39 pm

Sorry to hear that Cassie.
The only person I know who had COVID over the past 18 months didn’t know they had it either.

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 3:42 pm

“Sorry to hear that Cassie.
The only person I know who had COVID over the past 18 months didn’t know they had it either.”

And guess where he caught it? In hospital. He’s been in hospital for something else (I haven’t been able to visit him)…for ten days and he’s caught Covid……he rang me fifteen minutes ago to tell me and I laughed!

cohenite
August 18, 2021 3:49 pm

My boyfriend has Covid….he’s the first person I know who has caught it. He has no symptoms….anyway he’s in isolation.

All the best to him.

Was he vaxxed?

He has no symptoms, let’s hope that keeps up. How old is he?

Cassie of Sydney
August 18, 2021 3:51 pm

“All the best to him.

I will pass on..he’s a longtime lurker at the Old Cat and he’s reading DB’s site now.

Was he vaxxed?

Nyet

He has no symptoms, let’s hope that keeps up. How old is he?

Late 50s

DrBeauGan
DrBeauGan
August 18, 2021 3:54 pm

My boyfriend has Covid….he’s the first person I know who has caught it. He has no symptoms….anyway he’s in isolation.

And for this you’re all in lockdown. When, oh when will sanity prevail?

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