Open Thread – Tues 1 March 2022
2,757 responses to “Open Thread – Tues 1 March 2022”
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Apparently a poll of staff asking, “do you want an unvaccinated person working with you?”, came in at 80% “No”.
What happens when they walk outside the distribution centre? Do they shop at Woolworths? Do they carry a clipboard around asking people if they are vaccinated or not? Daycare centre? Pub?
Sounds to me like some wanker in management is a full on mask freak.
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Learned a few things about covid /pandemics from a well known virologist at dinner the other evening.
Covid is the most researched (think data) pandemic in world history. It’s therefore very hard to make comparisons.
The world went THIS CLOSE to acting in the same way as covid against the swine flu back in 2008/09. We also simply just stopped capturing data on this pandemic at the time. Just stopped.
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Not ‘the face of America’: Biden and NASA decide white men won’t be going to the Moon
Irrelevant. NASA ain’t going to the Moon anytime soon.
Finally, we know production costs for SLS and Orion, and they’re wild. (2 Mar)
Appearing before a House Science Committee hearing on NASA’s Artemis program, Martin revealed the operational costs of the big rocket and spacecraft for the first time. Moreover, he took aim at NASA and particularly its large aerospace contractors for their “very poor” performance in developing these vehicles.
Martin said that the operational costs alone for a single Artemis launch—for just the rocket, Orion spacecraft, and ground systems—will total $4.1 billion. This is, he said, “a price tag that strikes us as unsustainable.” With this comment, Martin essentially threw down his gauntlet and said NASA cannot have a meaningful exploration program based around SLS and Orion at this cost.
Dunno where all that money is going. Maybe they’re spending it on diversity programs. Meanwhile Atlas V ain’t going to the Moon either, since the Russians have ceased selling the rocket engines it needs.
Russia Halts Rocket Engine Supply To US As ISS Partnership Threatened (4 Mar)
United Launch Alliance (ULA), a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin, uses Russian RD-180 engines to power Atlas V launch vehicle’s main propulsion systems.
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Rogozin said Russia had delivered 122 of the RD-180 engines to the US since the 1990s, and about 98 have been used. He said Russia would no longer service the remaining 24 engines, adding that plans to supply the US with an “additional 12 RD-181 engines in 2022-2024” can no longer be fulfilled.Maybe NASA can go back to reaching out to muslims instead.
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But I still can’t agree that its the biggest issue for the last several hundred years, not by a long shot.
I bet you would if, instead of a coerced/forced/mandatory vaccination for what is now literally a common cold, it was a coerced/forced/mandatory mastectomy in order to stop so many women dying of breast cancer.
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From yesterdays Paywallion:
The Mocker muses on how Jane Caro, candidate for the Reason Party, would introduce herself to the Senate if she were elected:
As an acclaimed novelist, writer, social commentator, public speaker, and Walkley Award winner, I would normally have no trouble in preparing my first speech as senator, especially one concerning my favourite subject. But a time limit, not to mention modesty, precludes me from listing all my achievements.
I say to you my being elected is a sign that conservatism’s influence is waning. It is time for senators and MPs to listen to Australians, and by that I mean real Australians. Let us heed the wise words of those who appear on The Drum as well as Q&A, let us pay serious attention to the speakers at writers’ festivals, let us respect the wisdom of human rights commissioners. And let us read the room, by which I mean Twitter.
To use one of my oft-repeated expressions, I am existentially terrified of climate change. As one who has more experience than most in seeing the planet from a commercial airline, I have seen first-hand the effects of climate change, and it distresses me greatly. For the sake of our children, Australia must reduce its carbon emissions, but instead government sides with the big emitters, particularly the coal and fossil fuel industries. These are the thoughts that preoccupy me as I travel in our Toyota Landcruiser VX from our North Shore home to our farm in the Upper Hunter.
I come to this chamber with an open mind, one free of preconceived ideas. I only wish everyone in this country had my attitude. It troubles me to see in this place an Australian flag, which I associate with racism. As I have observed on social media, I assume people who fly the flag outside their homes are racist. In fact I said in 2015 that Australia is more racist than South Africa was during the apartheid era. I have lost count of the number of times I have said I am ashamed of this country. As you can understand, it was an exceedingly difficult decision on my part to accept an Order of Australia in 2019, but ultimately my sense of civic duty overrode my misgivings.
It is my fervent hope that Australia will one day be a secular democracy. I stand by my opinion that we live in a “soft theocracy” given we subsidise religious schools, which by nature discriminate. My tolerant nature and open mind are such that I have a deep suspicion of parents who do not send their children to public schools.
I myself am a product of the public education system, and without the skills it taught me I would not have won a Walkley Award. Private schools, on the other hand, foster elitism, privilege, and intolerance. As I wrote in 2018, I think the Tax Office should audit all parents with a low taxable income who send their children to private schools.
I hope my fellow senators and the Australian people appreciate the enormous sacrifice I have made in standing for public office, something that compelled me to renounce my British citizenship. Previously I had called for the Constitution to be changed to accommodate people in my situation, but the government ignored me. I suspect it was because I was a woman, or that the prejudice against British migrants is still a factor. To them I say the stereotype of the whingeing Pom who complains incessantly about Australia is an outdated notion.
Among the many skills I bring to this place is my expertise in communications and a gift for words. As I wrote on Facebook when announcing my intention to run for the Senate, “It’s time to get shit done and stop electing governments who don’t believe in governments”. Did I mention I am a Walkley Award winner?
The Reason Party has decided Jane Caro represents its best chance of securing a NSW Senate seat in the forthcoming federal election. I can only assume its nomenclature is analogous to that of a despot third world country which has the adjective ‘Democratic’ in its official title. In other words, it is anything but.
Nonetheless Caro has a high profile, thanks to her remarkable capacity for self-promotion and her ability to confidently deliver an opinion about anything, regardless of how little she knows about the subject. When called out on her ignorance, her usual response is to claim her critics are motivated by misogyny and sexism. Like many faultfinders, she quickly resorts to victimhood when her hypocrisy is exposed.
Her reaction to the election result in 2019 is a case in point. “Well, Australia may be f..ked and the whole planet not far behind but I am at the best, most brilliant and cool wedding I have ever been too (sic),” she tweeted late on election night. “So I shall just dance & get pissed & stick two rude fingers up to the truculent turds who voted to turn backwards.” And then tweeting again for good measure: “I wish I was a New Zealander”.
To Caro’s dismay, many Australians wished the same, some even offering to fund her migration across the ditch provided she not return. Writing in the Sydney Morning Herald two days later, her reaction was most revealing. Saying only she had “sent a couple of ill-advised tweets,” she complained of being called an “absolute bitch” in response.
“But I don’t tell you this to evoke sympathy,” she added. No, of course not. Notably, she did not apologise for her own conduct, despite having insulted half the nation. Want to see these tolerance luminaries for what they really are? All it takes is a skinful.
But in one respect Caro has advanced gender equality, something central to her policies. She has demonstrated that women can be as vain, pompous, and obnoxious as any man. And while it would be a big mistake for any government to disregard the voices of women, one thing should be remembered. Refusing to take women seriously and refusing to take Jane Caro seriously are vastly different things.
Lexcorp
Jane Caro
Jane CaroPs: hope the links work.
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The Army Tank Museum is on Puckapunyal Base near Seymour in Victoria. Take the Hume Hwy north from Melbourne and about 90km later take the Seymour exit. Don’t turn right to Seymour, but rather turn left to Pucka. You’ll be stopped at the gate, and if the museum is open the guard will give you a map to get to the museum itself.
Well worth a visit
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JC
Swine flu was the trigger for the global guidelines being set and largely put in place before covid.
From what I read it was a little too fatal too fast to get the spread it needed to be a massive menace.
I also seem to recall either swine or avian flu ( possibly MERS) had a variant which was massively deadly in a very short period of time which really put the wind up a lot of people. -
Vik State Gvt have been pimping the Foo Fighters concert that is currently getting rained on in Geelong
one concert then the Foo Fuckers fly back home
40k punters @ what $200 a ticket is revenue of like $8M
I’m struggling to understand how this could possibly have turned a profit
the stadium, the staff, the insurance, the marketing, the band, the freight … etcseriously did the Vik Govt put a on show with public money ?
Foo Fighters … honestly, Dave Grohl has about 10 albums but only one song
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So far in this plandemic I have two heroes.
My boss. If I had a different boss he would have insisted on me becoming double vaxxed, I’d be out of a job!
My GP. He has provided me a mask exemption for two years. He requested that I present personally last week in considering a further exemption. He extended it again after seeing me. A hero!
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Didn’t they have a Chinese tank there, at one stage?
Several- 2x Ex-Iraqi Type 69s (One being a Command Tank), a YW531 APC (The first of its kind to be evaluated by the West- Thanks to an Aussie Armour Officer having a close friendship with the ARVN General whose forces captured it from the NVA).
There is also an ex- Polish BTR-50 and BMP-1 (or 2, it’s been awhile.since my last visit), and an East German T-72M1.
Also a Swedish Stridswagen 103 and a 90mm armed amphibious tank destroyer, the designation of which escapes me.
Plus all the preserved Australian Armour from the first Vickers Medium and Lights purchased in the early 30s, thru to ASLAVs and Bushmaster prototypes.
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She’d bring you a chewed rat and win your heart
areff, I give you Jack the black cat (when I was a yoof) rats, mice, sparrows (or other small native birds) and a possum (which used to dance around above my ol’ man’s bedroom at 3:00am) that he stalked for a lengthy period of time, including some legendary contretemps in the back yard arena.
Watching Jack stalk birds in the back yard was to witness a true artist in action. The stealthy crouching, the phenomenally quick low sprinting and then the coli sprung leap. Nature, red in tooth and claw.
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Woo-Hoo! Off to their Sydney gig at Luna Park 26 April.
JC and BoN – any tips for chatting up the magnifique Miss Ellie?
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Till the subdivision is approved when you want to sell up ( not you of course Zulu).
The local Shire Council, here, used to run seminars on “How to manage a smallholding.” Make sure you have good firefighting plant, make sure your firebreaks are in good order, don’t piZZ off back to Perth, after the weekend, and leave your rubbish burning..” Said seminars were discontinued after being labeled “patronizing.”
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Pressure to have a vaccination is exactly the same as pressure to have a mastectomy is exactly the same as the the terror/holdomor/shoah.
I never once have claimed to be in favour of mandates and passports but I doubt one person here who is vaccinated has not ‘taken advantage’ of their so-called passport.
I’ve read a lot of predictions here, mostly wrong, many convinced even in December 2021 we were heading to January 2022 lockdowns, that international travel for the hoi polloi was over forever etc.
All this vitriol because I came to the conclusion, after doing my own research that getting vaccinated over getting earlier iterations of covid was a sensible decision.
Subsequent government decisions to force people to vaccinate aren’t on me, strangely enough.
My thoughts regarding Andrews might be wrong, my hopes regarding the next state election may be wrong.
I’ll live with that. -
So far in this plandemic I have two heroes.
Our local “Bowlo Manager” has been pretty heroic. Despite taking a couple of “jabs for the team”, he never even “asked the question” of a patron.
Everyone had an “exemption” as far as he was concerned. When questioned by a few of the walk in “mask Nazis” in the club about other patrons not wearing masks or whatever, he had a simple response.
“Yeah mate, I sighted it yesterday. Do you seriously expect me to ask them to produce it every time they walk up to the bar. You just showed me yours on your phone, so do you want me to ask you every time you want a beer? I can remember what you are drinking, so I think I can remember if you are vaxed or not”?
End of story. He was fascinated by the amount of people who wanted to involuntary flash their COVID credentials to him on their phone. He didn’t give a shit, only to note that they were “sheeple” who might cause problems.
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I’ve been distracted from my proposed activities, decided to pop into the museum of Paris and discovered there is an antiquities section in the basement, thought I must have missed it on a prior visit but turns out it only opened in 2021.
Some of it must have been upstairs at some stage, as seemed familiar, with maps and 3d scenes, it gives a good view of the little town that grew. -
My thoughts regarding Andrews might be wrong, my hopes regarding the next state election may be wrong.
I’ll live with that.Custard is confident in America.
I am confident in them, Australia and the other Anglophones.
Heck, I’m confident and hopeful to the point of cock-eyed optimisim in my home state of WA.
And if I can be confident in that, then even Victoria and the Eastern Islands under St Jacinda of the Horseteeth have a chance… 🙂
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After having the last two years of our lives destroyed by unrepentant hitlerists, you take the victories where you can, Cats.
So feel free to tune in 7:00pm tomorrow evening, for the next Radio Show.
New Wave 1978 – 1985.
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And that’s another point, everyone suffered under lockdowns and Melbournians, followed by Sydneysiders, the most.
If people who got vaccinated for private reasons, which had nothing to do with government mandates, no longer care that much about the chosen few that daily slag off at them including the ever delightful death wishing, well, it shouldn’t be a surprise. -
His (long suffering) neighbour told a great story at his memorial service how he was driving along the road between their two properties and saw Dad’s ute out in the paddock and went to investigate. When he got there Dad (who was in his 70s at this point) was asleep across the front bench with the dog in the footwell. On waking him, Dad just said he was watching the sheep listening to ABC Classical and must have fallen asleep. He was a bit notorious in the district.
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Rabz: Elsie is too fat these days for leaping after birds, but she compensates by being the scourge of rats and mice. We’ve had plenty of rain, so there are seeds aplenty in the unmowed section of the back yard (it’s a whopper of a back yard) and the rodents have been enjoying an orgy of rooting and eating in the long grass and under the old shed
That explains why I’ve had two small rats, three mice and a baby possum in the past ten days.
I just wish she wouldn’t leave them on my office chair, keyboard or coffee table. Flicked out the back door, the crows very quickly make off with their little chewed up bodies.
It’s raining at the moment and she’s out in the front yard trees, still on the job.
Little baby possums had best say their prayers.
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rickw:
An ‘extraordinary’ $240bn has been amassed in savings accounts during the pandemic, which one banker says is ‘just too much’.
Is this now going to be a National Asset just like the superannuation funds?
I’ve been keeping only a minimum amount in mine for the last couple of months. Just enough to allow for fortnight to fortnight regular payments.
The rest goes into the bikkie jar on top of the fridge…
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