What does an apology even mean?
While the New Zealand Public service took a pay cut of 20%, in Victoria, MPs and Public servants got a pay rise of 2%. Dan Andrews will take home an extra $46,000 per annum despite presiding over the most costly public policy failure in Australian history. The private sector pays for the mistakes, while the public sector earns even more.
Dan Andrews asks so much, but gives so little. And it is a scandal that so many cheap, well known treatments and preventions are not being tested in large trials — Vitamin D, HCQ, Ivermectin, and all the other potential anti-virals like Interferon, Bromhexine, Melatonin, steroids, asthma drugs etc etc.
Voters slam ‘unfair’ public sector pay rise
Adam Creighton, The Australian
Private sector wages in Victoria dropped by $1.9bn in the June quarter, while wages in the public sector increased by $88m, according to the IPA’s analysis…
The poll, of just over 1000 Victorians, found only 7 per cent supported the 2 per cent pay rise that MPs and public servants received in July…
In the last five years, the Victorian population grew 12% but the bill for public servants wages grew by 40%.
Robert Gottliebsen wonders if “the state and its bureaucracy simply don’t have the skills to manage a crisis of this magnitude”. Look at the legal charges someone may face:
The unwillingness of anyone to take responsibility is multiplied by the fact that, if there is an occupational health and safety conviction, the minister and senior bureaucrats in the department involved are in danger of being charged with industrial manslaughter which carries a maximum $16.5 million fine and 25 years in jail.
Robert Gottleibsen lists the mistakes: There is Big-Government incompetence in every level
1. The well known hotel quarantine union and diversity hire failures. Emblematic of how inept it was: security staff got one hour of diversity training but no time in infection control.
2. People who tested positive were not notified quickly enough. What was the point of mass testing if the results were not used to stop infections spreading? This failure neutralized the success of mass testing
3. Not enough contact tracing. Test positivity in Victoria is ten times higher than NSW. Per infection, NSW is doing more testing.
What to do with Victoria and the virus is a wicked problem and Sophie’s choice.
More soon on the ugly complexities of melding the mess of virology, business and democratic wishes.
And the bad news for Victorians is that they are stuck with Dan Andrews until 26 November 2022 (when the next State Election is due), ie for another 26 months.
I believe that there are no protocols in place to remove incompetent leaders in Australian States/Territories within 4 year electoral cycles other than by the Party Caucus itself. But that would be like taking on a poison chalice for the incumbent.
Has anyone calculated the human / financial damage ensuing so far in the State of Victoria during the Covid-19 Pandemic?
And how long will this continue for?
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I am not certain on the legal ramifications and outcomes but a vote of no confidence in the Premier should precipitate him standing down as he would no longer enjoy support for any legislation.
It is time Dan was gone. His woke administration is a miserable failure. My recommendation is all public servants, including politicians, be paid the $750/wk survival payment rather than their normal salary. That would get them thinking a bit more intelligently and competency would very quickly displace diversity as the key principle in selecting people for a job.
Any reasonable analysis of the aftermath of the failed hotel quarantine would reveal the way the m-community were exposed and spread the infection during Eid al-Fitr gatherings. With this clear hindsight it would be obvious that the present restrictions are inappropriate.
The circumstances in May would be akin to opening now with the present level of community spread and hosting the AFL finals in Melbourne. The people who presented in hospital in June were not from BLM marches. The vast majority had been at Eid al-Fitr gatherings or close contacts of those who had attended.
You can bet the current modelling does not feature mass religious gatherings, already recognised in South Korea as a major source of infection. We do know that Brett Sutton was so concerned about Eid al-Adha gatherings in August that he made a video with arabic subtitles to address the problem. Bachar Houli’s plea was also widely shown in local news media.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HpfsaTMceE
https://www.afl.com.au/news/465323/tigers-flag-hero-reveals-mum-is-battling-covid-19-in-icu
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Victoria has about 25% of Australias polulation but about 75% of its COVID 19 cases and nearly 90% of its COVID 19 deaths. Those basic numbers put all the context you need to a pay increase to the politicians and public servants who have stood over and watched this disaster. Loyaly to Chairman Dan and the Party are all that matters while he does his cult leader style PR stunts day in day out. SIck stuff.
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Just on the financial damage, cause, Dan,
tab picked up by the com government, that is all Australian taxpayers.
20
We’re All in this together!
Financially shafted.
Except those getting jobseeker-jobkeeper-futuremoney from heaven-voteforme next-time payouts.
30
Remember Vietnam – ‘In order to save the village, we had to destroy it’
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Jo – you said: “…got a pay rise of 2%. Dan Andrews will take home an extra $46,000 per annum”.
Umm – 2% of $441k is about $8,800.
Also, you quoted Gotti: “Test positivity in Victoria is ten times higher than NSW.” Could it be that the tests in Victoria are defective and are giving far more false positives than NSW? This would really screw things up!
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The publice service plebs get 2%. The aristocracy got 11.8%.
The only community spread in NSW is from Victorians making illegal jaunts to the state. In Victoria there has been broad community spread. It went from Covid infested return travellers in hotel quarantine to a couple of security guards of the m-faith and then got cast widely through that community during Eid al-Fitr gathering in mid to late May just after easing of the first lock down. Almost all of the first hospital admission in the second wave were of the m-faith.
The diversity preference in employment of hotel security guards placed priority on recruiting non-english speaking, untrained personnel to guard returned travellers – what could go wrong.
A DHHS official sent emails to her supervisor and supervisors in other departments to ask for police supervision of the quarantine but the Assistant Commissioner said the police had better things to do with their time. Now the police are belting down doors and arresting people in their homes. Dan had already refused assistance from the military to supervise the hotel quarantine that was on offer and that all other states accepted – Victoria is woke and broke as well as close to being broken. You need look no further than a beedy eyed Premier who only has coercion in his leadership arsenal – the result of never having a real job.
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Fair question.
False positives are always a small part of testing. But as much as wish they were all false, there are cross checks. Even basic contact tracing would raise alarms if people were randomly getting a positive rating but never passing it on, never ending up in hospital etc.
Positivity is a good indicator of how widely the testing is covering an area. In the US the tests are now 6% positive but were 10 or even 20% positive. The rate in Mexico at one point was 62% positive. By that comparison Vic currently only 0.3% positive, which is excellent. It means they are likely finding a lot of the cases.
And as a check, Victoria has 1,700 active cases with 266 in hospital and 25 in the ICU. Fits the picture of a declining curve.
23
The problem is how to select of people to be tested. That alone could give you “positives” anywhere from 0% to 99%.
20
Dan Andrews deserves his $46k, because he performed so much better than expected.
11
Yes, agreed, I had only a low opinion of him beforehand and now he has exceeded my expectations.
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The elected officials and their henchers that foisted society-destroying lock-downs (after the medical community was no longer in danger of collapsing) [aka flatten the curve], should be stripped of 85% of their wealth and income for the next 15 years. Same as what they have done to many people.
Also, note that some folks are benefiting greatly from Panic2020.
Note, too, that the UK medical system is a major mess, with delayed and cancelled procedures.
I suspect that Australia has both similar and unique problems.
Good luck to Y’all.
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Category : Global Warming ?
00
Well, this raises my temperature, if not yours.
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The most vulnerable cohort viz. those 70+ (including me), if in full possession of their faculties living independently and being fully informed of hazards, like everyone else are perfectly capable of deciding what risks they wish to take with their own health without ‘nanny’ taking over their lives.
J S Mill as always is an excellent guide:
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I agree MCMXLIII,
Great quote. I must try to read that soon.
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The problem is twofold MCMXLIII:
1. It’s all very well you getting sick or not, but if you are asymptomatic you can kill other people. They don’t get much choice if you fill the tram or cinema with germs.
2. Even if you are happy to risk your own @&&, which is fine, you may end up in an ICU where we will be obligated to look after you and the cost may be $500k. If everyone wanted to do that we run out of health budget before halloween.
3. And even if you are happy to pay for insurance to cover the damages — should you inadvertently transmit it — no insurance company would even offer that cover when costs could run to billions.
That’s the problem with damn pandemics. Even nice people can do more damage than ISIS.
(Try and think of a scenario without a nuclear bomb where ISIS could have cost Victoria as much as Covid has.
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Jo,
I can’t get sick or transmit it if I don’t get it and avoiding infection is an individual task, the intrusion of the state is infantilizing and probably counterproductive IMO.
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The government’s proper role is to inform advise etc., strongly in this case, but not impose IMO.
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Jo,
There must be plenty of us in the community who are asymptomatic with the potential to kill others. No one knows, even the government.
Most of us are in the position of taking risks. It is part of daily life. Most of us, are managing life risks responsibly. None of us wants to succumb to this virus with the potential to end up on life support in ICU.
The real villains in this pandemic are those responsible for withholding cheap and readily available prophylactics and remedies like chloroquine, ivermectin in combination with zinc and azithromycin.
It’s not the “nice people” we should be criticising. Criticise and hold to account the manipulators and arrogant leaders who are maintaining the pandemic at disasterous human cost for political reasons.
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So its all about you? If you infect someone will you support their family?
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Peter if we had a decent testing and contact tracing program along with the Hydroxy or Ivermectin option the whole country could open up .
It’s still taking at least 5 days for test results to come through .
I still have no idea if regional Victoriastan is getting a reprieve because it’s all about Melbourne, mind you at least we don’t have a curfew .
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Its a non issue….94% of deaths are non covid related….see CDC report….
Ergo, its less dangerous, scientifically speaking, than a normal flu.
I guess you could ask Dan of Economic Destruction if he wants to be friends, then you can take turns jumping at shadows….
Thing about Dan is….behind the nerdy exterior there appears to be an outhouse rat cunning that is not medically focussed at all….its all about destroying the middle class.
They sacked Gough, I suspect Scomo could send in the ADF and remove Dan if he wanted to…what Dan is doing is an emergency matter for victorians, not Dan….
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How do you explain the excess deaths? Did you see Jo’s recent post regarding your assertion?
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Lucky do you have a link to your assertion that the most Cov19 deaths in the US is 34,000 all the others did not have Cov19?
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https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm?fbclid=IwAR2-muRM3tB3uBdbTrmKwH1NdaBx6PpZo2kxotNwkUXlnbZXCwSRP2OmqsI#Comorbidities
“For 6% of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death”
—-
My interpretation-
If the number of deaths where the virus was the only cause was 9,210,
the additional number where the virus was not the only cause but was present with other conditions is 2.6 x 9,210
So, 9,210 +2.6 x 9,210 = 33,156
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Ok thanks David, I have misinterpreted what that 2.6 means.
So quantifying the upper limit needs another approach.
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No. See the CDC report. Again-
US deaths due to the virus were at least 9,210 and at most 34,000.
That is-
9,210 died with the only cause being the virus
34,000 died with the virus understood to be present with other comorbidities.
In all other deaths the virus was not present at all. (about 78%)
The 9,210 is 6% of all deaths.
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OS… read the report then comment. You obviously get your interpretation from sources that give you what you want.
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Dear Fitz,
Answer your own question for:
Auto crashes, measles, other flues (or any pestiferous behavior), and persistent insufferable/disagreeable comments.
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The individual is out of fashion,
collectivism
all
the
way
down.
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People voted for socialism. And they got socialism.
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That’s right. The buck stops with the voters. They got the government they wanted and deserve. Let’s see what happens next time. Will they wake up and vote accordingly? We shall see.
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I definately didn’t but I get pretty annoyed with my fellow Victorians who have been sucked in by Dan. I am still gobsmacked that there is any person out there who would still vote for him but I know there are plenty. If he gets in again I will have no choice but to move to another state.
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You have my sympathies Zig.
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I am a bloody Victorian. As if 12% increase in population is not enough, we the poor public, have everything foisted upon us including this Virus courtesy of Dan’s mates. I never voted for such a population increase and all my friends feel the same way. We have been choked to death with foreigners who come here in the new ‘gold rush’ called Ponzi housing via unfettered immigration and all the rubbish that comes with that. As an older Australian I can only say that the quality of life is b-awful and we have no choice but to put up with it.
As for Chairman Dan, he is Xi’s lackey and will hopefully will pay the ultimate political price.
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Remember that (completed) old number plate slogan:-
“Victoria: the place to be from”
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Hehe have been travelling up north here in WA (what lockdown?) and have noticed a number of Victorian number plates and oh how ironic with the slogan “Victoria – The State of Education”
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Just add ‘poor’ wherever you feel it is appropriate!
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Victoria, the pariah state.
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Take some comfort in the knowledge that the population is declining as businesses take their capital and people north.
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And football teams .
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“Not enough contact tracing. Test positivity in Victoria is ten times higher than NSW. Per infection, NSW is doing more testing” seems to be an apples and oranges comparison followed by a “if my aunty was a bloke shed be my uncle” statement.
btw typo/spelling in the item title
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Jo said it but it does not compute on my analysis of the data.
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Victoria will be waiting a long time
“SACRAMENTO, CA—Governor Gavin Newsom has released new guidelines for California’s counties looking to reopen their businesses, saying that counties may only begin to lift their lockdowns once a cure for death itself has been found.
Link at
https://catallaxyfiles.com/2020/09/07/get-with-the-program-daniel/
(My bold)
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We were sold a pup – ALL of us.
‘2 weeks’ to flatten the curve – when their goal was shifted to elimination.
Nobody wants to acknowledge that without a vaccine – we will never eliminate risks from this virus.
Whilst hopes are high that someday a vaccine will be available = that day will likely be well too late to save our livelihoods.
Mine has been destroyed, savings being depleted – but, I don’t want ‘government assistance’, I’d rather they just get out of my way and allow me to redevelop the modest little earner I had carved out for myself.
As for my own health ‘risks’ – I can bloody well manage those.
The pollies and publicly employed ‘experts’ that have cost me my livelihood have not lost a single day’s pay from their actions, but still think they have some inherent right to limit mine.
Spineless goons – the lot of them.
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Victoria has crushed the virus – again. Four weeks to get from 750 cases per day to 40 cases per day.
The lack of acknowledgement of how the second wave evolved from the hotel quarantine into a rapidly developing second wave prevents a realistic assessment of the current circumstances. The authorities are jumping at shadows rather than a forensic assessment and comparison of circumstances. Too woke to look at the circumstances because it gets into topics that cannot be publicly stated.
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Yeah but it will flate up again.
Bottom line – this thing is a non event, but, its been harnessed as a trojan horse to kill the vic economy.
Unless victorians get rid of dan, youre done for.
Choose wisely…Dan…or…your livelihood…
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Clearly someone not in contact with medical staff in any hospital. The rate of rise of cases was spectacular. If community spread was not intercepted the case load in hospitals would be astronomical. As it was, it created stress in certain Melbourne hospitals.
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No it shouldn’t. Not if the communities where there has been widespread infection, were monitored tightly while the rest of us resumed some level of normality.
But such action would require acknowledgement of fact that certain communities failed to adhere to the basic social distancing and hygiene principals during he first lockdown and would be seen to be discriminatory (ie unwoke) as these communities follow a religion that can never be blamed for any issues; ever.
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THIS
I supported the first lockdown and the second one to the point where the 14 day average for new infections was above 100. But since then, we should have been able to be eased out of the restrictions IF those communities with high infection rates were closely monitored, since the initial source of the second wave has been removed.
But again, the religion of peace cannot be apportioned blame. For anything. Ever.
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I heard the same story from two Victorians today. Both had acquaintances that went to public COVID testing places, gave their names and joined the waiting line (one in a car, the other at a doctor’s office). Bored of the long wait both people left, and then 3 days later were called and informed they had tested positive. Seems if you give your name and don’t test negative, that counts as a positive.
So official figures are fudged, and limited contact tracing resources are wasted on false positives.
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Tylos,
This is third hand information. Could the informants come forward and tell their stories directly. A call to Andrew Bolt or to the Outsiders would likely do. Or contact Jo at ( support AT joannenova.com.au)
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On the topic of reporting –
I have it from a reliable source (the doctor writing the death certificte) that an 85yo male who entered hospital in Melbourne with Covid, spent five weeks in hospital recovering from Covid to the point of sitting up; tested negative for Covid then came down with pneumonia and passed away after another week, His death certificate states pneumonia as the cause of death. The hospital did not want to inflate the Covid deaths.
Interestingly the 85yo contracted Covid in another hospital while undergoing a procedure requiring a short stay in hospital. He was released, went home infected and gave the virus to his wife. Both ended up in hospital. The wife was admitted to ICU and eventually recovered after 5 weeks and was released about the time her husband was sitting up, expecting a full recovery.
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Thanks Rick,
It seems to me that the death certificate was completed correctly. The patient had Covid but recovered (and then he tested negative for Covid). You could argue that Covid should have been added as an antecedent condition, but it would appear that it did not cause his pneumonia, which was the cause of death.
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Happened to Rita Panahi from Sky News “Outsiders” program but can’t remember the exact details Peter C .
00
I would recommend against that, their names will be on a list.
00
I keep all sources anonymous, so would Bolt — if it were needed.
Always interested in first hand accounts. The thing any writer needs is just to know the story is reliable. All writers will be wary of fakes — especially if they need to stay anon. So it raises the bar a little regarding some corroborating evidence.
31
“The same story” as what Tylos? As what
00
Jo
Andrews and his catastrophic govt is the nett result of several things;
1) A wild lurch leftwards, and in true fashion peoples ideology trumps expertise or proven ability. So we have Victorias public servants incapable and hopeless as all those for the past few years have all been political appointments. Dr Van Diemen is a classic, I remember looking at her Linked In profile and her age and wondering how somebody could have got to such a position, but her Capt Cook tweet provided the answer – the right political views.
2) The business community has stupidly adopted an appeasement policy with Leftist govts. Appeasement always fails, it gives an appearance of a calmer existence but in reality this just presages a horrible end. Business has until now been terribly silent. They need to drop the stupidity and start getting involved in the political process by pushing their needs and requirements, not by bending over.
3) The Coalition govt has not been fighting hard for years. I hardly imagine Bob Menzies or Joh or even Malcolm Fraser (who I hated) just not fighting back against Leftist idiocy. Scomo smiles and says nice things but he needs to call a spade a spade and fight back at the Leftists in QLD Vic and WA. Stop trying to be a nice guy and start being a leader.
130
I couldn’t even tell you who our opposition is in Victoriastan! Do we actually have an opposition these days ?
50
Rob
This is a product of the Leftist press in VIC. The opposition appear regularly on Sky but the ABC and the other channels refuse to ever give them coverage, even when they call news conferences.
The same tactic happens with the Sydney Morning Herald. I have posted regularly there about climate change, renewables and the virus – and NONE of my posts are put up. All of them question the falsehoods being continuously peddled by the journalists there. If one reads the comments section one would believe that poor old Dan is terribly done by, and is doing such a fantastic job….
This might be funny but its not. The press here in Australia now rival Pravda in their ability to accurately report the news. There are many “low information voters” who use the ABC and commercial channels for their news. And the delusion occurring actually hampers democracy here.
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Aussie, much is true, but don’t for a minute think Andrews or the ALP are enjoying this. Here in WA they are, but it’s not helping them in Victoria.
People will not forget this.
Robert, I also hear the opposition hold press conferences and no one comes.
Pravda indeed.
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‘don’t think for a minute’..They love it.
‘no one comes’ the pres may be allowed out but will find their name on a list with late night home invasions.
‘will not forget’ Maybe true. Bullying is what they wanted. They voted for it. Now getting it.
“Majority decision making is the thought that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it . . good and hard”
H. L. Mencken
00
Life throws up things that make us shake our heads in amazement;
“Malcolm Fraser (who I hated) “.
A strange and unwelcome perception of the world.
What would you expect from someone who gets caught with their pants down.
Certainly not a leader.
KK
30
I guess I can sneak this in this thread, as one of the examples would be, Victoria’s quarantine security being given diversity training, and no security training. ‘Orson’, a couple of days ago, put up a link to a vid from a guy working for a big US nuclear research facility, and it is an absolute 15/10 horror story. Their HR dept have been offering trainings in diversity, and white privilege, and he has put up the work sheets and materials from some of these courses. Maybe this blog was what caused Trump to try to ban this sort of thing from any Federal programs? That would be difficult, as much of it comes from companies and public service, internal HR depts. Without amputating HR totally from our world, it ain’t gunna happen. I have had a few brushes with the human potential movement over the years, and would say this material is of a level of toxicity, that is off the charts. This is a black hole of toxicity. Or a magenta hole of toxicity, a cherise hole of toxicity, whatever you like, it is toxic. These people are being thrown into a wood chipper, while being told this will help you be a better person. This stuff is more toxic and soul destroying than any Maoist re education camp I can imagine. If anyone buys any of this sh.. they are sending their souls down into a wood chipper. This stuff is so foul in it’s toxicity, anyone touching it needs to be ….. I’ll be nice and say exiled.
One simple statement :- They better have some rock solid research, proving that anyone who says I am colour blind, or I am not racist, is racist. I want to see that.
It’s probably hypocritical to put up the link, but this is what we are facing. This is now the point of the spear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyNW9nlFDBk&t=5s
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That’s really getting to the core of the problem in current society: obeisance to some mystical concept that is of no earthly use to anybody in the long run.
Haven’t gone to the link yet, I’ve just eaten.
KK
30
If it’s possible to find any honest lawyers, judges or independent scientists there needs to be a proper inquiry. Plus officials need to be charged for manslaughter or murder for them banning HCQ.
100
Unexplained.
Why Daniel Andrews refused to use the police?
Why Daniel Andrews refused to use the army?
Why anyone thought putting quarantine centers in the very cheapest inner city hotels with the cheapest untrained and inexperienced staff would work, even students hired on social media? Horse and dogs and cows and chickens are put in geographical isolation, not Bourke Street. And most of Victoria’s hotels and clubs were available and empty, some very far from the centre of a giant city.
Cui Bono? $10 million dollars a time. And four contractors who did not even have to tender?
And he lied and lied. Refused the army? They were never offered or available. A proven lie. Four times in writing.
The decision to use contractors was made by a committee. Sure but a video showed him announcing the use of private contractors before the committee had even met. “I would not have said that if it wasn’t true”.
Cedar meats? The owner donated $14,000 to the Labor party. The infection of a worker was hidden, even weeks later when the infection was discovered by the hospital treating a worker. The name of the company was hidden.
BLM matter march. Nothing done but now a pregnant mom in pyjamas was arrested 80 km away in front of her children and handcuffed behind her back like a violent criminatl for making a post on Facebook about a march to protest the lockdowns no less. Where was due process? Where was the summons? Where was the warrant?
Nasty, lying politicians now given six more months of absolute power with no parliament. And what has he achieved with the last six months, 600 deaths which were completely avoidable and entirely his fault.
And he has apologised for the ‘circumstances in which we find ourselves’. Entirely his doing.
Enough! He should have resigned long ago. The Captain of the Costa Concordia looks good in comparison. And why should we believe this utterly unqualified, inexperienced, self important incompetent should keep making the decisions let along getting them right? Anyone with a trace of ethics would have walked away. Or been forced to resign.
Victoria is not different, as he now claims. The only difference is sheer bl**dy minded incompetence. And that’s the nicest explanation.
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🙂 🙂 🙂
So clear from outside but can the voters down there see that they are being put upon by a gigantic loser?
I don’t watch T.V. but from photographs of himself in newspapers and online the feeling is one of dismay that anyone would vote for that.
Then there’s the propagation of the virus in the high rise incubator and the spreading with almost religious fervor at ground level.
If the rest of Australia had the same covid management as Victoria then the death toll for the other states would have been close to 2,000 for a national toll of 2,600.
KK
50
I found it aggravating when Andrews said, some weeks ago (and possibly on more than one occasion), “I will take full responsibility”.
It’s worse than saying nothing. There are / will be absolutely no penalties for stuffing it up – as he objectively has.
Worst case for him is retiring on a fat premier’s pension.
The only reason we are in lockdown is the utter travesty he perpetrated on Victorians via his lack od due diligence in security at the quarantine hotel.
100
That just Devious Dan. He has full responsibilty. What he lacks is any accountability to anyone. Parliament or the courts.
81
He said he would take any responsibility as given by the findings of the inquiry he commissioned into the quarantine debacle.
Why there was any need for an inquiry to find who was accountable demonstrates the Byzantine mentality of this government. That the inquiry hasn’t been able to definitively state who made the key decisions for selecting the security contractors makes this even more apparent.
Corruption lies at the heart of both the Victorian Labor Party and the public service that it has padded out with sycophants.
60
Andrews is the epitome of a left wing socialist leader. For him, money has no meaning. It can be carelessly squandered away by cancelling a valuable tunnel project in an act of political bastardy. If he runs out of his own money, he is prepared to sell his state to a brutal totalitarian regime that is already seeking to cripple the country. And, when it comes to his regard for the people that voted him into office, he is prepared to destroy their jobs, businesses and livelihoods if it helps him retain power for a week longer.
Victoria will be a wasteland when he is finally booted from office and the only option for many people will be to flee interstate once the borders are opened.
120
No checks and balances as would be expected in a democracy.
How can he survive after what was done to that pregnant woman.
That was extremely dangerous for mother and child and beyond legal bounds.
That incident needs to be followed up.
KK
110
And zero accountability. As with his ministers. The parliament has gone home. Again. It came together only to give him another six months of Stalin like power.
Judges are outraged. Where was the warrant? This is a police state.
And where were the police when they were needed? Now they are chasing down bicyclists and mothers and pedestrians asking them to justify their rights to freedom? A total curfew! Fines up to $100,000. Anyone is subject now to arbitrary arrest in their own homes, even for making a seditious post on Jo’s blog, questioning the Dear Leader and his right to use the police as his personal enforcers. We have no laws.
111
Let us not forget that he has all the resources of the CCP backing him particularly now that their stooge Danny Pearson has been installed in the state cabinet after the engineered removal of Adem Somyurek.
It’s all well and good to lament the stupidity of the electorate but both of Andrews’s victories have been cakewalks on account of there being No Viable Opposition to vote for; even the iniquitous Red Shirts episode gained no traction at the ballot box.
He’s told us he’ll lead Labor to the next election and short of a comet strike I see nothing to stop him.
70
KK
as you saw on another thread there are some that don’t think the Victorian govt has wildly overstepped the mark. This sort of thing shouldn’t be happening in a western democracy and that, apparently, Andrew remain popular and a harsh lockdown is considered correct, should worry all of us
80
tonyb: apparently, Andrew remain popular and a harsh lockdown is considered correct, should worry all of us
For the first time ever, I am seriously considering moving.
30
By the way, Scomo has 75 million does of a likely dodgy rushed vaccine ( 3 jabs per person ) … anyone want my families doses?
We wont be touching it with a barge pole…
Maybe the pollies can get 7 does each, then watch what happens …of course its safe…you could jab someone 20 times and if its safe…no probs…
Stay the hell away from anything that has cone out if the Establishment germ factories….G*tes will be rubbing his hands….
81
Jo – you make good points about the rejection of treatments in all states down here for political purpose.
Over in India they are re-opening their economy as the virus is taking hold, because they have no choice, but they obviously don’t suffer from TDS.
“Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is being recommended as chemoprophylaxis drug for asymptomatic healthcare personnel handling COVID-19 cases, frontline workers, and asymptomatic contacts of the confirmed cases, while hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin combination for patients with serious sickness.”
Article here.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666351120300139
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India make 70% of the worlds HCQ. I am very keen to hear how they use it and what their results are.
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https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666351120300139
“Current treatment protocol for COVID-19 in India” in Sensors International
Volume 1, 2020, 100013
Abstract
The whole world is now facing the battle against the severe and dangerous pandemic COVID-19, which is not only physically harming, but also mentally disturbing because of the unceasingly escalating number of affected patients and deaths globally. In India, the containment strategies constitute in identifying, tracing-contacts, quarantine, social distancing, and following other health advisories. The current treatment protocols include real-time PCR test and Point-of-Care molecular diagnostic assays for its diagnosis; some states in India have begun the pool testing. Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) is being recommended as chemoprophylaxis drug for asymptomatic healthcare personnel handling COVID-19 cases, frontline workers, and asymptomatic contacts of the confirmed cases, while hydroxychloroquine-azithromycin combination for patients with serious sickness. India has also launched ‘ArogyaSetu’ mobile-application for tracking the movements of the citizens and has also commenced convalescent plasma therapy to combat the deadly COVID-19. This timely article is a report on the current situation of COVID-19 in India. The discussion can throw light on the potential of a developing country such as India to deal with the pandemic and some of these can be helpful in adverse circumstances in the future.
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Also see
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1871402120302368
“Differential mortality in COVID-19 patients from India and western countries”
in Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews
Volume 14, Issue 5, September–October 2020, Pages 1037-1041
2.11. Use of hydroxychloroquine
Anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine was suggested to reduce the COVID-19 risk in health workers with potential for retinal and cardiac toxicity. This drug has diverse modes of action, including inhibition of cytokine storms in the host cell which work against the viral infections and help prevent deaths [34]. The recent study found that COVID-19 infections are higher in countries where malaria islessendemic and lower in countries where malaria is highly endemic. Large numbers of mortality in health care professionals across the globe have been observed during pandemic [35]. In India; Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recommended the use of hydroxychloroquine in asymptomatic health professionals who cared for suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases early in the rise of the pandemic; this may have prevented more fatalities in the western countries [36,37]. However, there is no hard evidence that hydroxychloroquine reduces the risk of COVID-19 so far. A recent article in the Lancet journal about hydroxychloroquine role and use has been retracted [38].
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The biggest problem we all currently have is that our Politicians at all levels are using the police as Government enforcers instead of being independent to our governments policies.
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From time to time on this blog there is an attempt to log at the energy processes impacting our climate, in all of their glorious complexity, and figure out the lag years and cycles for measurable impact from thing we are just now seeing measurement of. If I were to reduce my carbon pawprint today, in a glorious if tiny gesture to save the world from immolation, when and how you the effects be manifest? Floggers of climate change have great trouble answering, or even grappling with questions like this.
So to with the political affairs of man. When and how will the outcomes of manifest failure to govern (or glorious success, should this ever actually occur) show up at the ballot box?
Now, there are some pretty straightforward cause and effect chains; if your policies are to defund the police and ban fracking, you might lose the votes of the cops and the oilmen immediately, and with some cacaphony. But Victoria, and California, in their own ways, prove that governments can fail the general welfare yet tend to their own successions for long periods. Perhaps being attached to prosperous confederations helps, perhaps disaster grows at a somewhat logarithmic rate thus raises its serpents head from relative prosperity in what seems a sudden fashion.
Someone of a libertarian bent will suggest that disaster, man caused, or natural, is part of our natural condition but private forces always respond with more focus and agility.
The Nobel prize name is taken, and now foolish, so, a Noble prize to he who can find a way to persuade a bloated, corrupt, inefficient, and dysfunctional government to reduce itself
without the necessity of a violent social revolution. So far the best suggestion? All dissatisfied can all pack up and leave. Seems like that experiment might be underway.
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