Open Thread – Tuesday 17 August 2021

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8,670 Responses to Open Thread – Tuesday 17 August 2021

  1. Eyrie says:

    “on artificial turf”

    Had an American mate at uni in Perth in the late 60’s. His old man detested that “awful English habit of gardening”, reckoned green concrete was the go.


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  2. Bruce of Newcastle says:

    Steve – I like the USGS map, because I can get the details in a couple clicks without taking the time to watch a video. Nice information density.

    This one was near Vanuatu fairly deep (58 km) on the plate boundary. Often get quakes there. The more interesting stuff lately is the swarm of Richter 5’s along the South Sandwich plate margin. There’s been a whole bunch of them. The extra interesting thing is all the back arc volcanoes, which is what the South Sandwich Islands are. If a few of them go off due to all the shaking it could have an interesting effect on our weather since they’re located upwind of us in the Furious Fifties.


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  3. Carpe Jugulum says:

    *sigh*……… I’ll go get the Karcher


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  4. Eyrie says:

    Glencore is buying up any coal assets it can in Australia. Got that from an engineer working for them. Unfortunately the green virus is inserted into engineering graduates nowadays. He’s happy to be out of working in the coal stuff as he’s in bauxite now. I wonder if he knows how much electricity that takes to turn into aluminium metal?


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  5. That Jo says:

    custard says:
    August 19, 2021 at 6:53 am
    Vaxhole

    A person who brags about their vaccination status

    Thank you! My first actual out loud laugh for the day 🙂


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  6. calli says:

    From ABC.

    Troops will be deployed to the Queensland border in a bid to block New South Wales’ rampant COVID-19 outbreak from breaching the state line.
    ………
    But she (Young) prefaced her statement by saying she was aware it was necessary for some essential workers to enter Queensland as there was no one in the state that had their skill sets.

    It’s an interesting problem for Queensland. How do you justify the circuses while refusing the people their bread?


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  7. FlyingPigs says:

    Troops will be deployed to the Queensland border in a bid to block New South Wales

    finally, a decent State of Origin match.


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  8. calli says:

    Thoughtful article on Afghanistan by Daniel Greenfield at Sultan Knish.

    Afghanistan didn’t fall because it never existed. The Afghan army laid down its arms because it also never existed. And not just because many of the 300,000 soldiers were imaginary. Its Pashtun members surrendered to their fellow Taliban Pashtuns, or fled to Iran or Uzbekistan, depending on their tribal or religious affiliations which, unlike Afghanistan, are very real.

    The Afghan army was there because we spent $90 billion on it. Much like Afghanistan with its president, its constitution, and its elections existed because we spent a fortune on it. When we left, the president fled, the army collapsed, and Afghanistan: The Musical closed in Kabul.

    Worth a look.


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  9. Steve trickler says:

    BON.

    Problem there is you don’t get the history from over a few days. You only get a 24 hour period. Dutch, the tree lopper runs rings around these people. He has saved a lot of lives with his forecasts. Pricks at the USGS haven’t. Only after the event do they chime in. Absolutely f*cking useless.

    Watch the livestream on Twitch. Even I are getting good at forecasting.


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  10. Figures says:

    Notafan now swallows every commie talking point.

    The bakers were happy to serve anybody they just didn’t want to bake a specific type of cake.

    Just like if you made violins and someone said “make me a piano” you should have the right to say no.


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  11. Top Ender says:

    Hi Adam.

    Just tried to post an article and got a big red screen with:

    “You have reached an error page on WPX.net

    If you are seeing this page, it is because there is no website installed on this domain yet.”

    on it, plus ads underneath saying how good WordPress is.


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  12. Top Ender says:

    Strangely enough, it allows me to post the above and this….


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  13. calli says:

    I’m worried about the look of this place.

    Too Spartan.


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  14. Michael says:

    It’s funny watching those who hate the site and who are never coming back, come back and respond to comments made some time previously. It’s almost like ‘the only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about’


    moderated
  15. mh says:

    Trump with Maria when she mentions Vaxxx boosters:

    “You know what? That sounds to me like a money-making operation for Pfizer,” Trump stated. “Okay?”

    “Think of the money involved,” he continued.

    “…Tens of billions of those, how good a business is that?”

    “If you’re a pure businessman, you’ll say, ‘You know what let’s give them another shot.’ That’s another ten billion dollars of money coming in.”

    “The whole thing is just crazy.”

    “You wouldn’t think you would need a booster. You know when these first came out they were good for life. Then they were good for a year or two.”

    “And I could see the writing on the wall, I could see the dollar signs in their eyes, of that guy that runs Pfizer. You know the guy that announced the day after the election that he had the vaccine.”

    Andrew Solender
    @AndrewSolender
    Trump, after lauding coronavirus vaccines in a Fox interview, says the booster shot plan “sounds to me like a money-making operation for Pfizer.”

    https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1428034847646363653?s=20


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  16. Ruprecht says:

    Keep commenting normal stuff, Calli, things will improve.


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  17. Barking Toad says:

    Custard @ 6:53am

    Vaxhole

    I’m fucken stealing that!


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  18. calli says:

    TE, I’ve had that WordPress glitch a couple if times too.

    Clear the last hour’s browsing and try again. See if that works.


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  19. Rockdoctor says:

    Wow Scomo slaps us plebs again… We can’t leave even if we are a perm resident of another country but lets let in 3000 Afghans…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9904055/Pictures-evacuation-flight-Kabul-taken-Australia.html

    Notice the subtle bracket creep too. Days ago it was 150 expats/contractors, yesterday that had grown to 400. Today we find out it is that plus 3000 others…


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  20. Top Ender says:

    For information, the post was simple text – the complete article from the Oz print edition about Tudge telling ACARA their recommendations were rejected.


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  21. mh says:

    In a video co-produced with the Ad Council, Pope Francis urges people to get vaccinated against Covid-19, calling it an act of love toward others.

    Yes, really.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWf3Ji11EaU


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  22. Top Ender says:

    Over on the other Cat, Rosie posted a Twitter link from someone in Berlin. Here is some of the comment stream:

    Jason
    553 new cases of covid yesterday here in Berlin, and I had to hunt through a local papers website to find that number. No-one is bothered, life goes on as pretty much normal.

    Maybe every society has to go through two waves of covid before they’re considered largely normal (with vaccination) and no longer a source of terror.
    Replies
    Peking Pamela

    Replying to
    @AusBerlin84
    How many people in Berlin died to get to this point of complacency? I’m pretty glad Australia doesn’t accept this.
    Simon Rowe

    Replying to
    @AusBerlin84
    Fuck I wish I was in Berlin right now.
    SMH ? ????
    @smh_ch
    ·
    2h
    Replying to
    @AusBerlin84
    I know it’s the same where I come from. Even more cases but the main thing they care about are icu patients and deaths. No one looks at case numbers any longer. When will this ever happen in Australia where all that’s acceptable is 0.


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  23. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:

    “The Afghan resistance to the Taliban begins in the Panjshir Valley

    AHMAD SAHEL ARMAN/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
    Anthony Loyd
    Wednesday August 18 2021, 5.00pm BST, The Times

    Littered with the wrecks of Soviet vehicles and the bones of the soldiers that drove them, the Panjshir Valley has for decades been an untamable heartland of Afghan guerilla warfare.

    Its 60 miles of mountain terrain now stand alone as the last bastion against the Taliban — and its defenders have vowed to fight on with anyone who will join them. For the latest generation inhabiting its steep and inhospitable cliffs, the war is not over.

    The valley and its namesake province were the birthplace of Afghanistan’s best known mujahidin hero, Ahmad Shah Massoud, who led the Northern Alliance against the Taliban until his assassination by al-Qaeda, two days before the fall of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.

    The only one of the country’s 34 provinces not to have fallen to the Taliban, in the past 48 hours it has become a redoubt of resistance once more as Massoud’s followers and fighters issue the most serious challenge to a complete victory for the Taliban.

    On Tuesday this week Amrullah Saleh, the Panjshiri first vice-president of Afghanistan, who was once part of Massoud’s inner sanctum, declared himself the country’s “legitimate caretaker president” and vowed to resist the Taliban.

    “Join the resistance,” Saleh urged Afghans on Twitter, vowing that “I will never, ever and under no circumstances bow to Talib terrorists. I will never betray the soul and legacy of my hero Ahmad Shah Massoud, the commander, the legend and the guide.”

    Ahmad Massoud, son of the dead mujahidin leader, was filmed striding through the valley with his followers on the same day that the Northern Alliance flag was hoisted in Panjshir for the first time since 2001.

    “I am in Panjshir with my people,” Massoud, 32, who was trained at Sandhurst, said to the camera. “We will stand with our people to the end.”

    In recent days the 173,000-strong, predominantly Tajik population of the valley, which withstood ten Soviet offensives during the 1979-89 occupation, has had its numbers swollen by an influx of Shia Hazara families, some of whom are reported to have walked 200km to reach Panjshir, sensing it as a sanctuary from Taliban persecution.”
    —————————————————————————————————–


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  24. Indolent says:

    Covid over in vaccinated America
    ***********

    I didn’t bother clicking the link, but even if the title were 100% true, it still wouldn’t justify forcing people to do anything.

    Ever heard of personal responsibility?


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  25. Bruce of Newcastle says:

    The Afghan resistance to the Taliban begins in the Panjshir Valley

    I can’t see them hold this time. The usurper has just gifted the Taliban with a huge armory of heavy weapons and close support helis. There is zero chance of the US under this regime giving the Northern Alliance sufficient manpads to keep the helis out of the fight. And even then the heavy weapons alone are probably sufficient.


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  26. rosie says:

    Forced.

    Only in your mind.

    Maybe other people are smarter and more rational than you think

    https://tonedeaf.thebrag.com/nick-cave-covid/


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  27. rosie says:

    Im going to guess Afghan just means tribal group that doesn’t want to be ruled by Pashtun Taliban.


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  28. Baba says:

    Tensions escalate between Queensland and NSW. Palaszczuk rushes troops to the border.

    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-19/covid-19-qld-nsw-border-troops-essential-workers/100388548


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  29. Roger says:

    Afghanistan didn’t fall because it never existed.

    —————————-

    Tell that to the folks the Taliban just shot for waving the Afghan national flag in a protest in Jalalabad.


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  30. mh says:

    Top Ender says:
    August 19, 2021 at 8:40 am
    Over on the other Cat, Rosie posted…
    ***
    🤦‍♂️


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  31. Eyrie says:

    Oh good. I always use musicians as medical experts.


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  32. calli says:

    That was normal, Rupe.

    For me, anyway. 😄


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  33. lotocoti says:

    I won’t make too much of any air assets the taliban have inherited.
    Hit it harder doesn’t fix a lot of modern stuff.


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  34. Eyrie says:

    Via transterrestrial.com this morning:

    https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/what-china-wants

    Explains a lot about China.


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  35. rosie says:

    Berlin’s vaccination rate ?

    Just over 50 percent double dose.

    ps://www.statista.com/statistics/1195589/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccinations-number-federal-state-per-1000-germany/


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  36. Eyrie says:

    When did Queensland acquire an Army?


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  37. Baba says:

    CDC report:

    Two doses of mRNA vaccines were 74.7% effective against infection among nursing home residents early in the vaccination program (March–May 2021). During June–July 2021, when B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant circulation predominated, effectiveness declined significantly to 53.1%.

    https://www.theepochtimes.com/mkt_breakingnews/cdc-director-concerning-evidence-shows-covid-19-vaccine-effectiveness-is-waning-against-delta-variant_3954466.html


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  38. min says:

    Numbers out for Victoria , 57 today after a sex worker was tested covid positive. A homeless sex worker and mystery cases in the area, a contact tracing nightmare surely as probably no paper work or phone records kept in that line of business . However never fear our valiant Health Minister is asking for customers to ‘fess up and get tested . Then true confessions ?


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  39. mh says:

    Happy 200, Melbourne! 🎂🥳

    ‘Victoria has recorded its highest daily coronavirus case total for this current outbreak, as Melburnians mark their 200th day in lockdown.’


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  40. Roger says:

    From a Mark Steyn column in 2014:

    “The fellows who planned 9/11, for example, were planning it before Al Gore got into his hanging chad problem down in Florida. So they don’t think about Bush or Obama. They just hate America. And if you look at it again from the point of view of people who love America, or who made the mistake of getting on the right side of America in both Iraq and Afghanistan, I was on a panel with the great Bernard Lewis a couple of years ago – actually six or seven years ago – and Bernard said that the danger here is that America risks being seen as harmless as an enemy, and treacherous as a friend.

    And if you’re someone who got too close to the Americans in Baghdad, where the most expensive US embassy, the most expensive any embassy on the planet in the history of embassies, is about to fall, if you’re someone who got too close to the Americans in Kabul, you’re about to learn the truth of Bernard Lewis’ dictum. And likewise, if, you know, the other half of that – that America is harmless as an enemy, treacherous as a friend – that applies to Libya, that applies to Egypt, that applies to Syria, that applies to Iraq, that applies to Afghanistan. It’s a very dangerous lesson to teach the planet.

    Not just for our enemies, but for our allies, too. The Brits, Canucks and Aussies have been in these wars at America’s side for over a decade. They’re not “allies” in the Churchill-Roosevelt-Stalin sense, where you all get together and agree on the way forward. They’re essentially junior participants in an American war directed on American terms. They went along because they believed it was important to show support for American leadership in the world. As John Howard said a few days after 9/11, “This is no time to be an 80 per cent ally.” And the Aussies weren’t. But, 13 years later, why would they want to make the same mistake as Sirik Matak of “believing in you, the Americans”? “


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  41. Bruce of Newcastle says:

    It’s not only Gladys who is having problems with a certain demographic.

    MK Esawi Frej: ‘Embarrassing to speak about vaccination rates in Arab sector’ (18 Aug)

    Meretz’s Arab MK, Esawi Frej, says vaccination rates in Arab sector are ’embarrassing,’ emphasizes school must be in-person.

    When asked about the Arab sector’s low vaccination rate, Frej said: “I am embarrassed to speak with you about it. I’m not desperate, I believe that we will succeed in improving the situation. The percentage of people getting vaccinated is very low and that’s concerning. They aren’t ignoring the sector, there is stubbornness and a failure to provide information.”

    Yup, stubbornness. And speaking of stubbornness there’s an article on the Daily Tele main page today about a rather well known Western Sydney family from the certain demographic who have been caught completely ignoring the NSW covid rules. Weird that.


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  42. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha says:

    I won’t make too much of any air assets the taliban have inherited.
    Hit it harder doesn’t fix a lot of modern stuff.
    ——————————————————————————————————-

    Nor would long quotations from the Quran do much, either, I should imagine.


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  43. rosie says:

    I didn’t post the Cave article because I thought he was a quotable medical expert.

    And I didn’t see anything he said where he made any claim to be one.

    No he’s just a normal person being grateful for a medication he sees as reducing his risk of dying.

    The links to vaccination rates in Germany and the US highlight how hopelessly nannystatified Australia is

    https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/56 percent and life is mostly normal


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  44. rosie says:

    Are they getting fined $5500 each like the Melbournr engagement party attendees BoN?


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  45. John Brumble says:

    Rosie, the current deaths per day numbers in the US are higher than they were at the time of the last Presidential election.

    I believe the word I’ve previously used is “parasite”.


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  46. H B Bear says:

    I imagine Pony Girl will be taking up arms and heading to the front line of the War on Gladys in the historical military tradition. I am not holding my breath.


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  47. Davey_Boyee says:

    Good morning (maybe)


    moderated
  48. jo says:

    Nota why don’t you ask Danofthedead since you’ve been vaccinated you are still locked up?


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  49. Bar Beach Swimmer says:

    Baba says:
    August 19, 2021 at 9:01 am
    Tensions escalate between Queensland and NSW. Palaszczuk rushes troops to the border

    On Sky, footage of the situation in Kabul showing a road block of vehicles separating the Taliban and British Army troops and described as “two sides in close proximity.”

    Here, on the other side of the world, our Government authorises Australian Army troops to guard the border between NSW and QLD. What a disgrace.


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  50. egg_ says:

    I imagine Pony Girl will be taking up arms and heading to the front line of the War on Gladys in the historical military tradition.

    ——————————-

    Partisan politics in a plandemic?

    How we got to the “Net Zero” Global laughing stock?

    Who’s in charge?


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  51. mh says:

    PJW

    The World Economic Forum’s Totally Not Creepy New Idea

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_nu7F2weBw


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  52. Helen says:

    NTG in strife again – 35 million allocated not by court order but by Department to juvenile crims locked up for committing crimes, yet victims of crime 3.5 years and still no compo.

    This is bigger than the great grandstand fiasco.

    From Steve Eddington member for Barkly

    The below is a quote

    Territorians deserve to know which Minister made the decision to pay $35 million in compensation to Don Dale detainees – and who instructed government lawyers to try and hide that figure.
    Which Minister made the call to settle for $35 million? Was it the Minister for Territory Families, Kate Worden? Was it the Chief Minister or was it the Attorney-General, Selena Uibo? – or was it a cabinet decision?
    This is $35 million in taxpayer funds. The Minister, or Ministers, who signed that cheque should own up to it and be held accountable.
    The Gunner Government then instructed its lawyers to attempt to suppress the $35 million figure so that Territorians would never know how much they were forking out.
    So the next burning questions are: which Minister(s) tried to keep the payout secret? And what is the total legal bill Territorians will be forced to foot?
    Let’s be clear, this is an out of court settlement – not a court order to pay $35 million. The Gunner Government wanted this to go away as quietly as possible.
    The suppression application to keep the payout figure hidden was either a decision by Minister Worden, a captain’s call from the Chief Minister, or Minister Uibo.
    In stark contrast, we have more than 1,650 people waiting for Victims of Crime compensation – and they wait an average of three years.


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  53. Roger says:

    Doctor Jeannette Young has said she would like to see zero people crossing from NSW into QLD but admits there are practical difficulties in implementing that.

    Now we have check points at border crossings and Palaszczuk has prevailed upon the Commonwealth to send in the army.

    We’ve certainly come a long way since the Left didn’t believe in borders.


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  54. struth says:

    Meanwhile thousands of un-jabbed truckies cross back and forth, back and forth.
    I’ve been seriously trying to get some transport higher ups to get a blockade going.
    When they introduce jabs for truckies it will happen.
    That’s why the won’t.
    Haven’t given up yet.


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  55. Bruce of Newcastle says:

    Are they getting fined $5500 each like the Melbournr engagement party attendees BoN?

    No idea Rosie, I’m not a subscriber, so I can’t read the story. They wouldn’t bother to pay the fines anyway, for very obvious reasons. Here’s the headline and blurb:

    Notorious crime family in alleged Covid rules breaches (DT, today, paywalled)

    Some members of the famous Alameddine crime family and their friends have caught Covid-19, but that hasn’t stopped other members from allegedly breaking lockdown rules.


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  56. H B Bear says:

    Most street hookers wouldn’t even know what a QR code is. Even Chairman Xi would have a problem dealing with that.


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  57. Roger says:

    Some members of the famous Alameddine crime family…

    ——————-

    “Infamous” is evidently not in the journalistic vocabulary anymore.

    What next…will one of them appear on ‘Dancing with the Stars’?


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  58. Vicki says:

    “No he’s just a normal person being grateful for a medication he sees as reducing his risk of dying.”

    Well Rosie, I have just prayed for the first time in quite a while. I prayed for my treasured 18 year old grandson who has just been vaccinated (his choice) with AstraZeneca and is very, very ill.

    This is a nightmare that I wish would stop.


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  59. mh says:

    It’s good to know normality continues in New York:

    Andy Ngô
    @MrAndyNgo
    ·
    23h
    GRAPHIC: Police in New York City are trying to identify & find a black male suspect who randomly hacked a victim using a hatchet inside Chase Bank in the financial district on 15 Aug.

    https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1427785614540353540?s=20


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  60. Farmer Gez says:

    The cracks are showing up in the TaliDan supporters.
    Epidemiologist Tony Blakely, a favourite of the ABC and Sky believers, was just with Virginia Trioli and said that after the next two weeks of hard lockdown, the strategy should be reviewed if cases remain at these levels.
    He said he was personally tired of the current situation and thinks that city can’t stand much more. Rats and ships.


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  61. Baba says:

    We’ve certainly come a long way since the Left didn’t believe in borders.

    On the other hand, the collapse of the Afghan government has encouraged the ABC and SBS to do an about face and call for increased inbound travel.


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  62. Bruce of Newcastle says:

    I won’t make too much of any air assets the taliban have inherited.
    Hit it harder doesn’t fix a lot of modern stuff.

    As I posted a day or two ago the Taliban have trained pilots who were flying around in Mi-17s in Kandahar last week. I suspect plenty of Afghan army and air force people are going to be working for the Taliban very soon, including many technicians trained by those nice helpful Americans.


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  63. cohenite says:

    Great lame pics.

    In other news that utter flog, john laws, ridiculed some poor wretch who rang his fucking program and observed it was the muzzies who were 100% behind the latest outbreak in Western Sydney; the guy was called a bigot for daring to suggest the muzzies did not respect our laws and customs.

    Then another sap rang and complained about the chunks not letting anyone find out about their virus. Again the old bastard wheeled out the bigot term.

    I wonder if the muzzies and/or chunks pay any of the vile old creep’s $1 million a year.

    I reckon you could eliminate 95% of the msm in Australia and the place would be back on its legs within a month.


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  64. Bruce of Newcastle says:

    It’s good to know normality continues in New York

    Quite so.

    De Blasio threatens $5,000 fine for serving the unvaccinated (18 Aug)

    That’ll go down just peachily, I think, seeing that the main vax-reluctant people seem to be highly educated lefties and the black community.


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  65. cohenite says:

    Well Rosie, I have just prayed for the first time in quite a while. I prayed for my treasured 18 year old grandson who has just been vaccinated (his choice) with AstraZeneca and is very, very ill.

    Terrible news. Has he got CVST?


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  66. Top Ender says:

    Isms and ideology are sapping our strength

    PETA CREDLIN

    Do you ever worry, as I do, that we may have lived through the best of times and that future generations may struggle to cope with a world that’s quite different and much worse? Of course, the end of the world (at least as we know it) is a perennial human fear. Still, it’s the wrong catastrophes that we now fret over while other looming disasters are ignored until it may be too late to avoid them.

    It’s not just the shameful scuttle from Kabul, or the cruelly oppressive lockdowns crushing our main cities here in Australia, that have prompted this primal anxiety so much as the readiness of otherwise intelligent leaders to indulge thinking that’s just wrongheaded and bound to end in tears.

    There’s no doubt that recent times have been the best in human history. Since 1945, in countries such as Australia, people largely have avoided the ills of earlier generations. Contrary to just about all other people in all other places at all other times, nearly everyone here has long been able to expect to die peacefully in old age after a safe and materially comfortable life.

    Remarkably, from about 1980 freedom and prosperity started to go global, so that almost everywhere the poor are now less poor and there’s a vast middle class even in many of the countries of Africa. During the past 30 years the percentage of the world’s population in absolute poverty has shrunk from over 30 per cent to under 10 per cent; likewise, the percentage without access to safe drinking water; and more wealth has been created in the past 25 years than in the previous 25,000.

    Three factors helped this along: technical and scientific advances that were rapidly disseminated around an increasingly interconnected world; an ideal of human solidarity, perhaps best exemplified by Martin Luther King’s powerful plea that children would one day live in a nation that judged them by the content of their character and not by the colour of their skin; and the readiness of the US, with its key allies, to keep the peace between the other substantial powers while not standing in the way of others’ own development. Underlying it all was a general faith in the possibility and desirability of human progress.

    But it’s now some time since any of this could be taken for granted. Not only has the pandemic disrupted travel and trade but it also has rekindled an “each country for itself” economic nationalism. And China has exploited globalisation to make itself more or less the equal of the US in economic and military power, but definitely not in largely disinterested benevolence.

    Worse, the Western world, especially its English-speaking parts, increasingly has succumbed to various isms and ideologies that have sapped its strength and smashed its self-confidence.

    Take climate change. Quite rightly, no one wants to take big risks with the only planet we have. But even if human emissions are causing dangerous temperature rises, why is it the West’s duty to make its power unaffordable and unreliable and to export its manufacturing industry when the world’s biggest emitter by far, China, is making no commensurate effort? Why were protesters last week daubing slogans on Parliament House against a country that’s meeting all its agreed targets but not on the Chinese embassy just down the road?

    Take the virus. Of course, no one should expose the sick and the old to avoidable danger. But continuing to keep whole cities locked up long after everyone in nursing homes has been offered vaccination is perverse. It’s not a policy of safety first but safety only. When Scott Morrison repeatedly observed this week, in response to the Afghanistan debacle, that it’s always right to defend freedom, no one seemed to notice the paradox that, simultaneously, our soldiers were enforcing against our own citizens the indefinite strict lockdown of our largest city; and in our second largest, police were patrolling playgrounds cordoned off from toddlers.

    To be fair to the US and the growing weariness of its people with fighting “forever wars”, America should never have been expected to fight harder for other countries than it would fight for itself. But President Joe Biden’s catastrophic mismanagement of the Afghanistan withdrawal has only amplified the fissures in the West and given succour to our enemies. The America of Donald Trump and Biden is not John Kennedy’s America, which would “pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend (and) oppose any foe to assure the survival and success of liberty”.

    But there’s a much deeper problem here too, exposed by last year’s often violent Black Lives Matter protests across the US and mimicked here and in Britain too. It’s not that Americans no longer think Afghanistan is worth defending; vast numbers no longer think America is worth defending

    – that it’s supposedly irredeemably blighted by a racism that “white privilege” renders incurable.

    After a black president, a black military chief and black Supreme Court judges, the only possible conclusion is that America has never been less racist, yet the less real racism becomes, the more it’s used as a weapon to destroy people’s faith in their country – it is the Marxist playbook to divide, demoralise and destroy.

    However sympathetic ordinary people may be to remedying minority disadvantage and to symbolic gestures to make amends, most of them still don’t believe their countries are fundamentally illegitimate. But how long can this common sense last in a country such as ours, where the national curriculum makes an abundance of references to Indigenous history, culture and spirituality – many of them worthy – but almost none to the Judaeo-Christian ethic on which Western civilisation is based?

    Take gender fluidity. If young people have survived politically correct brainwashing in class, they are now liable to have their sense of self undermined by the notion that something as basic as being male or female is just an arbitrary societal construct.

    In Victoria, 16-year-olds need parental supervision to drink in a restaurant but don’t need parental permission to change their gender; indeed, it’s now a criminal offence for a parent to try to dissuade them.

    Senator Matt Canavan’s droll question this week – “When will the Taliban sign up to net zero?” – was regarded as offensive precisely because it highlighted the double standards and folly of today’s zeitgeist.

    Even in our locked-up living rooms, the unfolding human tragedy in Kabul and the brutality that will come for a whole generation of women and girls are causes to count our blessings. But how vulnerable is our way of life right now, on so many different levels? As the Prime Minister has conceded, there’s an echo of the 1930s to these times, hence Winston Churchill’s words after Munich remain apt: “This is only the first foretaste of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us year by year unless by a supreme recovery of moral health and martial vigour we arise again and take our stand for freedom as in the olden time.”

    Peta Credlin is host of Credlin on Sky News, 6pm weeknights.


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  67. Rorschach says:

    …the danger here is that America risks being seen as harmless as an enemy, and treacherous as a friend

    An excellent observation.


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  68. cohenite says:

    Helen says:
    August 19, 2021 at 9:33 am
    NTG in strife again – 35 million allocated not by court order but by Department to juvenile crims locked up for committing crimes, yet victims of crime 3.5 years and still no compo.

    FMD. I can honestly say 95% of our pollies should be put on a leaky boat in the South China sea with a Taiwanese flag on it.


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  69. stackja says:

    The Sydney Water Incident: July-September 1998 – NSW Health https://www.health.nsw.gov.au › phb › Documents PDF
    https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/phb/Documents/1998-8-9.pdf
    9 Aug 1998 — On 25 August, the Sydney Water Corporation reported detecting up to 1079 cryptosporidium oocysts and 347 giardia cysts per litre at different …
    16 pages


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  70. Figures says:

    “The links to vaccination rates in Germany and the US highlight how hopelessly nannystatified Australia is”

    So why do you get so excited about vaccination rates rising here?

    Vaccines are like masks. They are 100 per cent useless but they are a virtue signal that you are afraid. So rather than making people safe, they only ever *increase* the general level of fear in the community which is why they start a feedback loop whereby having one makes you want two, and three and four and then of course you start demanding that everybody else wears/gets one too.


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  71. stackja says:

    The Sydney Water Incident: July-September 1998 – NSW Health
    https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/phb/Documents/1998-8-9.pdf


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  72. mh says:

    ‘New South Wales cabinet minister Victor Dominello has warned Australians to look after their health after being diagnosed with Bell’s palsy.’
    ***
    Did he get Pfizer or AstraZeneca?


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  73. MatrixTransform says:

    Does anyone know how many Australian companies or individuals have applied for bankruptcy since January 2020 up to June 2021???

    you can search on ASIC…

    https://publishednotices.asic.gov.au/browsesearch-notices/


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  74. Roger says:

    UK Chief of Defence General Sir Nick Carter yesterday:

    “The Taliban want an Afghanistan that is inclusive for all.”

    We “should be careful” of calling them an enemy.

    He must have missed the Taliban leader calling for world wide jihad earlier in the week.

    Someone stick a fork in us; we’re done. When the long march reaches the upper echelons of the military, resulting in useful idiots like Mark Milley & Nick Carter being in charge, the show is over.


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  75. slackster says:

    mh says:
    August 19, 2021 at 9:58 am
    ‘New South Wales cabinet minister Victor Dominello has warned Australians to look after their health after being diagnosed with Bell’s palsy.’
    ***
    Did he get Pfizer or AstraZeneca?
    —————
    He took AZ: https://imgur.com/a/IkQ0R7D


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  76. Vicki says:

    “Terrible news. Has he got CVST?”

    Don’t know, Cohenite.

    After initial text, my daughter is not returning calls. He is a strong boy – champion athlete through school career. But that counts for nought with this spike protein that seems to stir up endemic problems.

    Maybe just a strong immune response. His father, who also had AZ, had the same response. His mother, who had Pfizer, nil response.

    Grandmother – me – who has not had any jab, but a lot of Vit D, Vit C, bioflavonoids, zinc – is still OK – for now.


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  77. Morsie says:

    We Victorians will be out of lockdown just in time for the footy finals.Eddie Everywhere flagged that last night.
    Its either an existential health crisis or its not.
    It seems Not is the answer.


    moderated
  78. Vicki says:

    “mh says:
    August 19, 2021 at 9:58 am
    ‘New South Wales cabinet minister Victor Dominello has warned Australians to look after their health after being diagnosed with Bell’s palsy.’
    ***”

    Wouldn’t you think that this government would start to rethink their vax policy? Noon.


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  79. jo says:

    FMD. I can honestly say 95% of our pollies should be put on a leaky boat in the South China sea with a Taiwanese flag on it.
    ____________________________________________________________Why should the Pooh Bear Zacharies have all the fun?


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  80. mh says:

    I can’t open imgur, slackster, but thanks.


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  81. egg_ says:

    Over on the other Cat,

    —————————

    Must be folk with a lot of time on their hands.

    Uno non-renewable resource.


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  82. Vicki says:

    ‘They are 100 per cent useless but they are a virtue signal that you are afraid. So rather than making people safe, they only ever *increase* the general level of fear in the community which is why they start a feedback loop whereby having one makes you want two, and three and four and then of course you start demanding that everybody else wears/gets one too’

    Figures, you are SO right about vaccines and “the fear”. We have gone right back to cave man fear of the unknown.

    Trust “the science” they say. Good grief, SCIENCE is about testing theories, constant research, strictest testing of new medication……..need I say more ????


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  83. slackster says:

    mh says:
    August 19, 2021 at 10:14 am
    I can’t open imgur, slackster, but thanks.
    ===============

    Try this: https://imgfly.me/i/ju7t1c


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  84. mh says:

    American Greg Reese has a video on Australia and Covid tyranny.
    A couple of errors, including calling Gladys the Premier of Australia.

    https://reesereport.com/


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  85. egg_ says:

    UK Chief of Defence General Sir Nick Carter yesterday:

    “The Taliban want an Afghanistan that is inclusive for all.”

    —————————–

    Sounds like something out of a Gilbert and Sullivan Musical.


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  86. Runnybum says:

    Our political toerags are shitting all over us & the worst thing is they will be voted back in next election be it state or federal.
    Hello biggles.


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  87. slackster says:

    Looks like Mr Dominello was scheduled for 2nd Az dose this morning.
    Didn’t take long for his face to start falling off did it

    https://imgfly.me/i/ju7yzo


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  88. cohenite says:

    Grandmother – me – who has not had any jab, but a lot of Vit D, Vit C, bioflavonoids, zinc – is still OK – for now.

    My son, a medico, had Pfizer, and apart from a headache, which he gets a lot anyway, he was fine. On his recommendation I’ve had my first AZ with no problems. This should not be a lottery. There needs to be a blood clot test and more info about carditis.

    And ivermectin needs to be available.

    I take comfort in the fact Trump is largely responsible for the vaccines and genuflect before my shrine to him in my media room.


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  89. twostix says:

    What an unbelievably malevolent society, what an unbelievably evil society has manifested.

    Adults – many childless managerial class lunatics – are now going after children. Chomping at the bit to force them, ‘targetting’ these ‘carriers’ to get the as-yet unapproved vaccines. Not at all for the children’s sake health they openly admit, but purely for their own sake.

    NSW health authorities want all children between 12 and 15 vaccinated immediately given the deteriorating situation in the state but approval is still yet to come from the national immunisation body, which says it could take months.

    “I believe in targeting school-aged children, in particular high school children, very quickly because we know they contribute to transmission.”

    Hospitalisation is uncommon in this age group so we’re talking about vaccinating to prevent transmission,” she said.

    “targetting” children, experimenting on children for the benefit of others (themselves).

    An evil managerial class preys on a materialist old generation’s terror over their own mortality. They combine forces and turn their ugly puffy bloated faces towards children: the reminder of the future old people no longer have, the reminder that the managerial class did not have children and their society dies with them, a reminder of the innocence and promise that repels the degenerate managerial class.

    Using words like “targetting” “carriers” “super-spreaders” to talk about healthy children.

    They must be stopped.


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  90. cohenite says:

    Politicians and msm germs who praise the talifucks should watch this, no doubt the first of many reports of what the talifucks will do:

    VIDEO – HORROR IN KABUL: Taliban Begins Home Searches, Public Beatings, Women Scream for Help Outside Airport Gate, Traitors Beaten in Street as Up to 40,000 Americans Remain Trapped in Country

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/08/video-horror-kabul-taliban-begins-home-searches-public-beatings-women-scream-help-outside-airport-gate-traitors-beaten-street-40000-americans-remain-trapped-country/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily


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  91. Black Ball says:

    So whilst Melbourne are in purgatory, I see the head honcho of the AFL strolling the streets of my town. What business he is doing here I don’t know, maybe the premiership cup is on tour. But another kick in the nuts for city dwellers and indeed bush footy, which on the eve of their finals, have been postponed whilst the big boys play on the MCG.


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  92. Terry Pedersen says:

    Well Rosie, I have just prayed for the first time in quite a while. I prayed for my treasured 18 year old grandson who has just been vaccinated (his choice) with AstraZeneca and is very, very ill.

    Terrible news. Has he got CVST?

    Impacted wisdom teeth.


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  93. HD says:

    “Wouldn’t you think that this government would start to rethink their vax policy?”

    Can’t think of the term for when someone is experiencing a state of psychosis and becomes aware instantaneously, that they are in a state of psychosis. Regrettably unable to change their course of action as they are invested, over-committed, too far gone to snap out of it.

    I sincerely hope this not to be the case wrt the current mass psychosis/delusion!


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  94. mh says:

    So from the timeline it’s likely Victor Dominello got the second AZ shot and Bell’s Pallsy was a side effect.

    Is Dominello admitting this?


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  95. H B Bear says:

    I for one won’t be using the unisex toilets in Kabul.


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  96. mh says:

    Looks like Mr Dominello was scheduled for 2nd Az dose this morning.
    ***
    Ok.


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  97. Figures says:

    Unconfirmed reports that 2 kids have died out of those ushered into the stadium for vaccinations.

    Notafan will presumably tell us firstly a) not true; and then b) if it is true, who cares?


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  98. Vicki says:

    Victor Dominello has not reported having had AZ before developing Bells Palsy.
    Does anyone have further info on that?


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