Another Message Board
Post comments on any topic. Civil discussion and no coarse language please. Side discussions and idees fixes to the sandpits, please.
I’ve moved my irregular email news from Mailchimp to Substack. You can read it here. You can also follow me on Mastodon here
I’m also trying out Substack as a blogging platform. For the moment, I’ll post both at this blog and on Substack.
John Quiggin 
This aptly named recent study made me challenge my misinformed heuristics about (mis)information transmission.
“Misinformation on Misinformation:”
Conceptual and Methodological Challenges”
We need to fix (mis)information communication asap. Because “Social scientists focus on social media—Twitter in particular—because it is methodologically convenient”! Gasp.
So our information about misinformation transmission is also framed by Twitter – need I say more!? Therefore researchers and funders are like the drunk – looking for keys (to misinformation) under the brightest light, not where the keys may actually be. Lazy humans.
And we have all heard the analogy of the megaphone that is social media. Imagine the megaphone is picked up by partisans and Limited News and used as a lever. Yes. Worse than bad. Has anyone – JQ – realised the megaphone is now a lever too?
That megaphone is picked up, nudged by timing and tags, also used as a lever… reach and timing are also key to framing:
“If political elites or partisan media did not wait for social media to spread misinformation, now they can leverage social media features (e.g., hashtags) to frame topics of discussion in online public debate and to impose their partisan agenda based (sometimes) on outright lies.”.
Fig 2 – The left hand side panel depict how we [ I ] usually react to transmission of misinformation. The rhs panel is what is “active audience approach” and systemic providing a better grasp of information dynamics.
“Drawing on an active audience approach, the following sections explain why certain findings from quantitative studies can lead to misconceptions about the impact and reception of misinformation (see Figure 2).”
“Figure 2. Contextualizing misinformation effect and reception.”
As much as we try, having information beholden to manipulation by private for profit tradeable corporations is a major failing of all of us. And will probably in future be the birth and death of many ‘movements’, and humans, as and when the polycrisis’ interacts with needed facts between time 0 (event)-1(transmission) of life and polity saving information.
Study:
Misinformation on Misinformation: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges
January 28, 2023
Third, falsehoods do not spread faster than the truth; how we define (mis)information influences our results and their practical implications.
…
“3. Falsehoods spread faster than the truth
“How (mis)information is defined influences the perceived scale of the problem and the solutions to fight it. Misinformation should not be framed only in terms of accuracy (true vs. false), it could also be framed in terms of harmfulness or ideological slant”.
…
” Television is a gateway to misinformation from elites, most notably from politicians (Benkler et al., 2018; Tsfati et al., 2020). For instance, Trump’s tweets in his final year of office were on cable news channels for a total of 32 h (Wardle, 2021). More broadly, the detrimental consequences of mainstream partisan media, where politicians routinely spread misinformation, are well documented (e.g., Broockman & Kalla, 2022). If political elites or partisan media did not wait for social media to spread misinformation, now they can leverage social media features (e.g., hashtags) to frame topics of discussion in online public debate and to impose their partisan agenda based (sometimes) on outright lies.”
…
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/20563051221150412
*
Note re Substack & Stripe “information” and financialisation – Substack is a veto waiting to happen and a perfect divide (knowledge away from mainstream) and conquer platform. And Elon Musk and (groan) Peter Thiel are founding funders of Substack’s payment services via payment provider Stripe – a US / Irish company. Financial sandwich providing tax benefits. Not for thee.
Stripe now has Twitter, Ford Motor, and crypto. So by using Substack and Stripe, you are part of the problem. And assisting in misinformed financialisation due to ignorance. But! I hear you say – it is so easy and seemless! So is the slippery slope toward hell.
– Next researchers will do biased studies using Substack data, falesly weighting results towards “conservative” and “the top five anti-vax authors alone”. Wikipedia
“By late 2020, the conservative newsletter The Dispatch claimed the title of top Substack user, with more than 100,000 subscribers and over $2 million in first-year revenue, according to founder Steve Hayes.[17]”
Wikipedia
– The Dispatch says of itself:
“Fact-based reporting and commentary on politics, policy and culture – informed by conservative principles. Tens of thousands of paid subscribers.”
thedispatch com/about/
– “Why The Dispatch outgrew Substack
“Many would assume the most popular political publications on Substack are culture war agitators like Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald. In fact, the top two slots are much milder publications: Letters from an American and The Dispatch. Taibbi and Greenwald will be moving up a slot soon, since The Dispatch is leaving Substack.
therebooting [replace dot]
com/p/why-the-dispatch-is-leaving-substack
“In January 2022, the Center for Countering Digital Hate criticized the company [Substack ] for allowing content which could be dangerous to public health, estimating it earned $2.5 million per year from the top five anti-vax authors alone, who have tens of thousands of subscribers.[36] Presumably in response to press inquiries, the three founders in a blog post their commitment to minimal censorship.[37]
wikipedia /Substack
– And crypto not going away…
“April 22 (Reuters) – Twitter Inc TWTR.N and digital payments processor Stripe Inc will pilot cryptocurrency payouts for select users of the social media site’s content monetization products, the companies announced on Friday.
“Eligible users of Twitter’s Ticketed Spaces and Super Follows programs will be able to receive their earnings from the company in USD coin, a stablecoin whose value is pegged to the U.S. dollar.
“Twitter added the monetization features last year in an effort to integrate more into the “creator” economy and boost revenues.
“Users who receive crypto payments can hold their earnings in crypto wallets on the Polygon network, a crypto infrastructure firm on the ethereum blockchain, and can then exchange them into other currencies.”
nasdaq [replace dot]
com/articles/twitter-stripe-pilot-cryptocurrency-payments-for-creators
I feel things will get worse before they get better. And the rich will be richer and enable “the system” in their favour. Ever thus.
Any thought / ideas? Not incrementalism please
Considering “Misinformation on Misinformation:”
Conceptual and Methodological Challenges” above, we had better tell our eSafety Commissioner not to let the foxes run the henhouse.
We leave recommendation algorithms to self manage:
“The online industry can take a lead role in improving digital literacy and empowering users to make informed choices by making sure they:”
https://www.esafety.gov.au/industry/tech-trends-and-challenges/recommender-systems-and-algorithms
The US is taking Sect 230 to the Supreme Court;
“The 27 attorneys general seek to limit Section 230′s protections. Social media sites, they wrote in an amicus brief, don’t just provide platforms for content; they “exploit” it to make money using sophisticated algorithms. When Americans are harmed by criminal content pushed by those algorithms, they should have the right to sue the platforms in state courts, the attorneys general argued.”
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/section-230-supreme-court-gonzalez-google-partisan-amicus-brief_n_63efbd79e4b022eb3e368382
Section 230 is a section of Title 47 of the United States Code that was enacted as part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which is Title V of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, and generally provides immunity for website platforms with respect to third-party content. At its core, Section 230(c)(1) provides immunity from liability for providers and users of an “interactive computer service” who publish information provided by third-party users:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230
3 of 3.
Providing some data to back up above 2 comment’s – this misinformation machine megaphone is both a lever and provider – abnewscorpse oz.]
“EDITORIAL
“Greens lead government down the socialist pathway”
“If ever there were any doubts, Adam Bandt has reconfirmed why the Greens pose a great threat to the nation’s future prosperity.”
Link? You must be joking. You will then be part of the problem of 70%”reach”. But for ref:
theaustralian / commentary
Via https://loonpond.blogspot.com/2023/02/in-which-major-misses-major-media-story.html
How may socialism be reframed and named, because as it stands ” COMMENTARY ON AUSTRALIAN AND WORLD EVENTS FROM A SOCIALIST AND DEMOCRATIC VIEWPOINT” is just part of the megaphone leverage language to subvert.
Q: does any know of a disparaged concept word which has been flipped back to zeitgeist acceptable?
4 of …
“Activist Group Spreads Misinformation to Stop US Solar Projects”
https://m.slashdot.org/story/411001
5. I’ll leave it at 5.
“child exploitation material”
“The online industry can take a lead role in improving digital literacy and empowering users to make informed choices …:”
https://www.esafety.gov.au/industry/tech-trends-and-challenges/recommender-systems-and-algorithms
And reported today;
“The online safety regulator says it has no Australian staff at Twitter that it can contact to take down child exploitation material, after mass firings by Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk shut down the team.”
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-20/australian-twitter-staff-dealing-with-child-abuse-material-axed/101998040
Out eSafety (caveat emptor) Commissioner asks platform nicely to be nice. Elon Musk one of the wealthiest people on the earth, remove child abuse moderators from Australia.
Good use of a voluntary code of conduct eSafety Commissioner. lmfao. Shows eSafety in Australia is a toothless joke.
My thoughts on the information issue? We have already lost. Ignorance, special interests and vanity have triumphed. So far as I can see, among those I followed and respected, none who said they would leave Twitter as registered users because of Musk’s acquisition have done so, except myself. I can’t claim any virtue. I was spiraling into vituperative criticism of almost everybody and everything so I left for my own mental health.
I am no longer a registered user of Twitter so I no longer comment there. I look there occasionally for news on Covid-19 from the scientific realists. There are still some few of those out there. They are no doubt vastly outnumbered by the denialist cranks whom one does not see if one stays out of their echo chambers.
A system (late stage capitalism in this case) which lives and operates in denial of physical reality is not a sustainable system. Our current system denies physical realities (limits to growth, climate change and a serious new airborne disease as examples) or gives mere lip service to tackling these issues while actually doing nothing substantive about them. A system which lives and operates in denial of social realities is also not a sustainable system. Inequality is continually increasing. The unemployed, the working poor and even the younger working-age middle class (ages of 20s and 30s at least) are all trapped in an unaffordable, unsustainable, rental or mortgage purgatory as they attemp to run up on the down escalator. They are mostly going down on current indicators. Our society is headed for both environmental and social collapse.
New Zealand’s current woes are an indicator of what is to come. The intensification of floods and droughts was predicted by the climate modelers. This future has now arrived. The Guardian sports a headline “After Cyclone Gabrielle, New Zealand wonders how – and if – to rebuild”. Another question could be added. Can it rebuild? Will environmental destruction reach recurrent levels such that nations cannot rebuild? Of course, there is refusal to rebuild and there is inability to rebuild. These are two different things. Then there is a third thing. Is it wise to rebuild in locales where conditions have already become unsustainable long term? One cannot rebuild on eroding coasts in the face of significant sea level rise and increasing cyclones, storms and surges. It is also doubtful if one can rebuild in deep valleys which begin to experience massive, recurrent floods over most of the entire valley floor. New Zealand had much mountainous, ravine and narrow valley land.
When does the rate of destruction of property become greater than a nation’s ability to build property? When does the rate of destruction of livable and arable land become greater than a nation’s ability to find and open up new, livable and arable land? I would suggest that for some nations that time has already arrived. All of these problems will only intensify from here. One can only wonder how long the populace can live in denial… of limits to growth, of climate change chaos, of the seriousness of new pandemics and the seriousness of social inequality and the collapse of all classes except the tiny, rich minority. How long can the masses mentally deny these realities or support a false model of why it is happening? As in saying it’s the fault of some scapegoated class?
Matters are going to get horrendously worse and soon. One hopes the penny will drop and a new understanding of why all this is happening will arise in enough younger people. That is the only way we will get any change.
A book for Ikon & I – “an introduction to category theory for people whose math education might have stopped with high school.”.
“Eugenia Cheng recently wrote a most peculiar book. It is an introduction to category theory for people whose math education might have stopped with high school. With such modest prerequisites it is remarkable that by the end of the book you are wrestling with advanced topics that my first-year graduate students still haven’t seen!”
Eugenia Cheng left tenured academia to focus on communicating concepts to normal humans… “formerly a tenured professor at the University of Sheffield, UK. A decade or so ago, Dr. Cheng decided to give up the traditional academic track and put her energy into bringing mathematics to a broad audience. Dr. Cheng is now a Scientist in Residence at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, a writer of popular math books,” Thanks Dr Cheng!
And comment re game and category theories by Ernestine Gross – of course. (Hope you are ok Ernestine)
*
“On “The Joy of Abstraction”
by Eugenia Cheng.
…
“Eugenia Cheng wrote a Ph.D. thesis entitled “Higher-Dimensional Category Theory: Opetopic Foundations”,
[Opetopic definition below]
…has written more than a dozen research papers on all sorts of serious categorical topics, …and an all-around evangelizer for thinking about math in novel and humanistic ways.
…
“Once you start to see that relationships between things are at least as important as the things themselves, you see categories everywhere. It is as much a philosophy and a way of thinking as it is mathematics. Like the water surrounding the fish in David Foster Wallace’s Kenyon College commencement speech, these relationships are only invisible because you never bothered to notice them before. Once you do, it gives you a valuable new way of looking at the world.
…
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2023/02/the-joy-of-abstraction.html#more-228677
*
In ” What’s wrong with game theory” a 2005 post by JQ, Ernestine Gross (of course) provides us an engagung & insightful comment:
Ernestine Gross says:
October 17, 2005 at 11:32 pm
“Some years ago I had the pleasure of listening to James Dolan presenting his work on modelling dynamic games using category theory….”
“Dolan’s special interest at this seminar was amnesia games. (eg p’s boss changes the rules of the game retrospectively to affect the pay-off matrix.)”….
https://johnquiggin.com/2005/10/13/whats-wrong-with-game-theory/#comment-26920
*
Opetope
1. Idea
“Opetopes are one of the geometric shapes of cells in the approach to the higher category theory of n-categories and ∞-categories put forward in (Baez-Dolan 97) and developed by (Makkai) and others: opetopic ∞-categories.
. ..
2. References
“An overview is in chapter 4 of Eugenia Cheng, Aaron Lauda,
“Higher dimensional categories: an illustrated guidebook” (pdf)
…
“Cheng has carefully compared opetopes and multitopes, and various approaches to opetopic nn-categories:
– Eugenia Cheng, Weak nn-categories: opetopic and multitopic foundations,
Jour. Pure Appl. Alg. 186 (2004), 109–137.(arXiv)
– Eugenia Cheng, Weak nn-categories: comparing opetopic foundations,
Jour. Pure Appl. Alg. 186 (2004), 219–231.(arXiv)
“She has also shown that opetopicbicategories are “the same” as the ordinary kind:
– Eugenia Cheng, Opetopic bicategories: comparison with the classical theory. (arXiv)
…
https://ncatlab.org/nlab/show/opetope
*
Ernestine’s mention of category theory & James Dolan, who along with every other category theorist it seems, may be found here:
“Australian Category Seminar
“All past talks
“Here is a list of all talks given at the Australian Category Seminar. Click on the title for an abstract, or on the speaker’s name for other talks by that speaker.”
http://web.science.mq.edu.au/groups/coact/seminar/cgi-bin/past-talks.cgi?year=-1
*
Search “Opetopic + Quiggin” yields 1 only result.
JQ’s paper is referenced in conference paper “TYPES 2021 – Book of Abstracts” June 2021
[16] John Quiggin.
A Theory of Anticipated Utility.
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 3(4):323–343,
In:
“A Formal Theory of Games of Incomplete Information
Hélène Fargier, Érik Martin-Dorel, and Pierre Pomeret-Coquot
IRIT, Université Toulouse III, France
Abstract
“We provide a Coq [a proof assistant not french rooster]/ SSReflect formalization defining algebraic finite games of incomplete information (generalizing Bayesian games) and proving an extended version of Howson’s and Rosenthal’s theorem. This is our first step toward a decision theory library in Coq.”
Click to access book.pdf
Alexey Navalny
On the eve of the anniversary of the full-scale and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops, I have summarized the political platform of mine and, hopefully, of many other decent people.
15 theses of a Russian citizen who desires the best for their country.
What was all this about and what are we dealing with now?
1. President Putin has unleashed an unjust war of aggression against Ukraine under ridiculous pretexts. He is desperately trying to make this a “people’s war,” seeking to turn all Russian citizens into his accomplices, but his attempts are failing. There are almost no volunteers for this war, so Putin’s army has to rely on convicts and forcibly mobilized people.
2. The real reasons for this war are the political and economic problems within Russia, Putin’s desire to hold on to power at any cost, and his obsession with his own historical legacy. He wants to go down in history as “the conqueror tsar” and “the collector of lands.”
3. Tens of thousands of innocent Ukrainians have been murdered, and pain and suffering has befallen millions more. War crimes have been committed. Ukrainian cities and infrastructure have been destroyed.
4. Russia is suffering a military defeat. It was the realization of this fact that changed the rhetoric of the authorities from claims that “Kyiv will fall in three days” to hysterical threats of using nuclear weapons should Russia lose.
The lives of tens of thousands of Russian soldiers were needlessly ruined. The ultimate military defeat may be delayed at the cost of the lives of hundreds of thousands more mobilized soldiers, but it is generally inevitable.
The combination of aggressive warfare, corruption, inept generals, weak economy, and heroism and high motivation of the defending forces can only result in defeat.
The Kremlin’s deceitful and hypocritical calls for negotiations and ceasefire are nothing more than a realistic assessment of the prospects of further military action.
What is to be done?
5. What are Ukraine’s borders? They are similar to Russia’s – they’re internationally recognized and defined in 1991. Russia also recognized these borders back then, and it must recognize them today as well. There is nothing to discuss here.
Almost all borders in the world are more or less accidental and cause someone’s discontent. But in the twenty-first century, we cannot start wars just to redraw them. Otherwise, the world will sink into chaos.
6. Russia must leave Ukraine alone and allow it to develop the way its people want. Stop the aggression, end the war and withdraw all of its troops from Ukraine. Continuation of this war is just a tantrum caused by powerlessness, and putting an end to it would be a strong move.
7. Together with Ukraine, the U.S., the EU and the UK, we must look for acceptable ways to compensate for the damage done to Ukraine.
One way to achieve this would be lifting the restrictions imposed on our oil and gas, but directing part of the income Russia receives from hydrocarbon exports towards reparations. Of course, this should only be done after the change of power in Russia and the end of the war.
8. War crimes committed during this war must be investigated in cooperation with international institutions.
Why would stopping Putin’s aggression benefit Russia?
9. Are all Russians inherently imperialistic?
This is nonsense. For example, Belarus is also involved in the war against Ukraine. Does this mean that the Belarusians also have an imperial mindset? No, they merely also have a dictator in power.
There will always be people with imperial views in Russia, just like in any other country with historical preconditions for this, but they are far from being the majority.
There is no reason to weep and wail about it. Such people should be defeated in elections, just as both right-wing and left-wing radicals get defeated in developed countries.
10. Does Russia need new territories?
Russia is a vast country with a shrinking population and dying out rural areas. Imperialism and the urge to seize territory is the most harmful and destructive path.
Once again, the Russian government is destroying our future with its own hands just in order to make our country look bigger on the map. But Russia is big enough as it is. Our objective should be preserving our people and developing what we have in abundance.
11. For Russia, the legacy of this war will be a whole tangle of complex and, at first glance, almost unsolvable problems. It is important to establish for ourselves that we really want to solve them, and then begin to do so honestly and openly.
The key to success lies in understanding that ending the war as soon as possible will not only be good for Russia and its people, but also very profitable.
This is the only way to start progressing toward removal of sanctions, return of those who left, restoration of business confidence, and economic growth.
12. Let me re-emphasize that after the war, we will have to reimburse Ukraine for all the damage caused by Putin’s aggression.
However, the restoration of normal economic relations with the civilized world and the return of economic growth will allow us to do so without interfering with the development of our country.
We have hit rock bottom, and in order to resurface, we need to bounce back from it. This would be both ethically correct, rational, and profitable.
13. We need to dismantle the Putin regime and its dictatorship. Ideally, through conducting general free elections and convocating the Constitutional Assembly.
14. We need to establish a parliamentary republic based on the alternation of power through fair elections, independent courts, federalism, local self-governance, complete economic freedom and social justice.
15. Recognizing our history and traditions, we must be part of Europe and follow the European path of development. We have no other choice, nor do we need any.
Not to put too fine a point on this, it seems that on the question of youth justice, the Queensland Premier and her AWU faction have adopted a conscious strategy of throwing progressive Labor members in Brisbane under the Green bus in order to appeal to the lumpen white vote in places like Townsville and Toowoomba with policies that “The government accepts… are incompatible with human rights”.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/queensland/power-and-the-passion-why-youth-crime-drives-queensland-wild-20230221-p5cm6o.html
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/queensland/a-g-insists-breaking-youth-crime-cycle-key-as-labor-tables-tougher-laws-20230221-p5cm6p.html
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/queensland/qld-to-bypass-human-rights-laws-in-youth-crime-crackdown-20230221-p5cm9v.html
Thanks rog.
Seeing Alexey Navalny at top of your comment, my dumb brain thought the 15 points were you writing in solidarity with and for Alexey Navalny!
A ref or “said…” may assist my comprehension.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1627632098608644099.html
Alexey Navalny has seriously big cojones!
The only thing I’d add is re
AN – “12. Let me re-emphasize that after the war, we will have to reimburse Ukraine for all the damage caused by Putin’s aggression.:” …
… and ameliorate and nutralise the pollutions of complex neurologically active persistant compounds and heavy metals to current EU standards.”
As complex neurologically active persistant compounds and heavy metals will reek havoc on 2-3 generations – add budget $1Trillion at todays prices into reparations calc.
Pollution Remediation Workforce?
Putin, + ” the so-called siloviki, the Russian security men who have surrounded him, many of whom served in the KGB and have maintained conservative, often conspiratorial political views” + Wagner management and employees conscripted to do the dirty wotk?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/04/putin-security-elite-siloviki-russia
Rob Brooks of UNSW says in “I tried the Replika AI companion and can see why users are falling hard. The app raises serious ethical questions”:
“These are issues tech companies, users and regulators will need to grapple with more often. The feelings are only going to get more real, and the potential for heartbreak greater.”
AI externality: suicide inducer. Read again – chatbot as suicide inducer. An AI Emotional Temperature Tax?
Ethically bereft humans cause AI chatbot to be an automated gaslighter
(KT2 – https://johnquiggin.com/2023/02/15/monday-message-board-587/#comment-259097 )
… and money maker, by targetting children and the emotionally vulnerable.
At least the Italians, because of EU privacy protections, have scared Replica off. And inadvertently caused harm to users.
From:
“I tried the Replika AI companion and can see why users are falling hard. The app raises serious ethical questions
…
“The concerns centred on inappropriate exposure to children, coupled with no serious screening for underage users. There were also concerns about protecting emotionally vulnerable people using a tool that claims to help them understand their thoughts, manage stress and anxiety, and interact socially.
…
“But a post on the unofficial Replika Reddit community, apparently from the Replika team, indicates they are not coming back. Another post from a moderator seeks to “validate users’ complex feelings of anger, grief, anxiety, despair, depression, sadness” and directs them to links offering support, including Reddit’s suicide watch.
“Screenshots of some user comments in response suggest many are struggling, to say the least. “…
https://theconversation.com/i-tried-the-replika-ai-companion-and-can-see-why-users-are-falling-hard-the-app-raises-serious-ethical-questions-200257
“A four-day workweek pilot was so successful most firms say they won’t go back
“15 percent of employees who participated said that “no amount of money” would convince them to go back to working five days a week”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/02/21/four-day-work-week-results-uk/
4dayweek not cooperating. Study?
https://www.4dayweek.com/
Quote of the Day.
“People don’t realize our brains are just electrified jello. Do people know how hard it is to fix jello?” – *William.
Take care of your brain. Protect it from knocks, diseases of all types and gaslighting/invalidation from others.
Wear your seat belt, don your bike helmet, run a mile from fisticuffs, eschew psychotropic substances and avoid pathogens and viruses. “Living life” does not mean taking easily avoidable risks. Take it from me. I’ve done all the dumb things.
Are liberals (small l) in the West kidding themselves about the imminent collapse of Russia? These two, using Mossad intelligence in the public domain, are predicting the collapse of Ukraine. Ukraine is exhausted in terms of men and munitions. Russia is winning now according this analysis. Expect a Russian breakthrough soon, according to this.
There are widely diverging opinions about what is going to happen next. Western conservatives, liberals and armchair experts all assume Russia is done. I’ve been badly wrong once (in this matter alone) when I thought Russia would drive through to Kiev easily and early in this war. I am not about to make any more predictions. There are MSM reports that Ukraine and the West (Europe at least) are running out of small arms ammunition and artillery munitions to supply to Ukraine. In addition, they cannot crank this production up easily or soon. That again is admitted even in the MSM.
Russian production on the other hand seems not to be limited in this same way, at least according to reports like the one linked to above. Who is right? We seem to forget that Russia has a huge left-over legacy of arms and arms production capability from the Soviet era. We seem to forget that Russia, a bit like North Korea, is more a war economy than a consumer economy. This is almost their default and chronic state. We think Russians will crumble without comforts, mod-cons, SUVs, flat screens and lattes. That is classic projection. It is we who crumble without that stuff.
What will happen? What’s the truth? I don’t know. I am suspending judgement. Is Russia capable of being more autarkic than we believed? It has all the food and oil it needs. Can it get further tech supplies (silicon chips, drones etc) from its SCO friends like China and Iran? It is trading happily with India too: our good old Quad partner. India views China as an enemy but Russia as strategic partner in some endeavors if not an ally.
What will the MSM and liberals (even left liberals) do and say if Ukraine collapses? They will conveniently forget this war and move on to other trendy topics… unless Russia starts pushing into Moldava and perhaps Poland. Perhaps the support for Ukraine needs to become a lot more serious. Or perhaps we should prepare for Ukraine’s defeat and what that will mean. Who knows what will happen next? I certainly don’t. Theories and predictions?
Greens leader Adam Bandt tweeted a thread on Tue afternoon (Feb 21) beginning with:
I wonder whether the region in which the EPBC approved Arcadia Valley gas project would be situated will still be livable by 2077?
Published on 1 Aug 2022 in PNAS was a paper by Luke Kemp et. al. titled Climate Endgame: Exploring catastrophic climate change scenarios. It includes Figure 1 showing the overlap between future population distribution and extreme heat:
Under a SSP3-7.0 scenario, the regions where MATs would likely exceed 29 °C are calculated occurring during around 2070 (2060–2080). The black shaded areas depict regions where the mean annual temperature (MAT) exceeds 29 °C, while the coloured topography details the spread of population density.
It seems that the northern third of Australia could become unlivable in less than 50 years on our current GHG emissions trajectory.
It seems to me that federal Labor, by approving more fossil fuel projects, is facilitating increasing areas of Australia becoming unlivable in the coming decades.
Published at ClimateCodeRed.org are two of a three-part series by David Spratt on:
Faster, higher, hotter: What we learned about the climate system in 2022
part 1 published Feb 20 includes:
1) Record emissions
2) The 1.5°C target
3) What about overshooting 1.5°C and cooling back to that level by 2100?
4) Likelihood of achieving the 2°C target
part 2 published Feb 22:
5) 2°C degrees is not a point of system stability
6) We are heading towards 3°C or more
7) System-level change and tipping points are happening faster than forecast
http://www.climatecodered.org/2023/02/faster-higher-hotter-what-we-learned_22.html
part 3 still to come…
“In the last twelve months I’ve learned a lot and changed my mind a lot. Perhaps the most salient lesson is that anti-war can mean pro-genocide.“
http://www.mariatumarkin.com/withdrawal-from-adelaide-writers-week
Shocking news: Justice Alito gets one right!
A case has reached the US Supreme Court, Gonzalez v. Google. Joan Carter at Daily Kos, my snip and emphasis:
“The family of Nohemi Gonzalez, a 23-year-old American exchange student who was killed in the 2015 ISIS terrorist attack in Paris, sued Google as the owner of YouTube. The family argued that the platform didn’t remove ISIS recruitment videos, and that its algorithm recommended those videos to users, and thus was in violation of the Antiterrorism Act’s ban on aiding and abetting terrorism. […] Just one justice seemed inclined to take the opportunity to curtail Section 230 [of the of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 ]: Justice Samuel Alito. He asked Google’s lawyer, Lisa Platt, why YouTube’s recommendations didn’t count as “YouTube’s speech,” and whether Google should be liable “for posting and refusing to take down videos that it knows are defamatory and false.”
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/22/2154394/-Supreme-Court-proves-reluctant-to-upend-the-internet
IMHO Alito does not go far enough here. The videos were speech by ISIS. YouTube has a circumscribed duty not to publish certain delimited categories of bad speech like child porn. This is hard to define and police, and while the tech companies don’t try hard enough, it’s an unenviable task and they deserve some sympathy when they screw up. Recommendations are a different matter. They aren’t essential to the service, just a way of increasing user engagement and advertising revenue. Alito is right to see this as speech by the social media companies, for which they are fully liable. It has been plausibly alleged that the Facebook recommendation algorithm steers (or used to steer) users interested in a topic to ever more inflammatory and radical websites and posts, which they would be more likely to respond to. This is trying to put out a fire with gasoline.
At first sight, this problem could easily be fixed. One way is to drop recommendations entirely. Another could be to give posts an automated civility score, and add a filter that only material with an equal or higher civility score than the starting post would be recommended.
Alito’s good deed here does not begin to make up for the damage he has already done or abetted in Heller and Dobbs, but he is right – just this once.
Sexual anxiety so often plays a prominent role in authoritarian/fascist propaganda .Immigrants are after our women, poofters are after our kids ,men need to be real men .Many Russians actually think Putin is protecting their families from a world of gender confusion and sexual deviancy that would destroy Russian civilisation .He is not the first to make outlandish statements of this kind at the podium in front of thousands .Many Australians want such a leader to protect us . In private some of these leaders are sexual deviants themselves ,and sometimes if their followers find out, they still have popular support .Its bizarre what people will put up with if they feel threatened, truth goes out the window. The Murdoch press is full of it too .Apart from the fact that his life and fortune depend on it ,it would be humiliating for a He Man like Putin to lose a war to a bunch of degenerate and confused Nancy girls. Wouldnt they be too busy sodomising each other in the trenches to put up a decent fight ,how do they even know how to fight ? Maybe it is wise not to talk about it too much but I think the nuclear possibility is underestimated.
James, thanks and agree “”Alito’s good deed here does not begin to make up for the damage he has already done or abetted in Heller and Dobbs, but he is right – just this once.”
They just can’t deal with not having the get out of jail free card – read avoid social responsibility – which is Section 230.
Saw Putin propaganda last night. I Can’t recall a more absolute liar and hypocrite. Ukrainian’s are Nazi’s all is his message to his people.
As to your statement sunshine, I’ll just quote one bit as the rest gets bit murky and k-yoo annon ish “Many Russians actually think Putin is protecting their families from a world of gender confusion and sexual deviancy that would destroy Russian civilisation”.
I think your quote is the secondary Putin lie “Ukrainian’s all Nazi’s!”
Keen to be corrected as this needs to be justified.
Putin is as bad psychologically as weapons of mass destruction .
Replying to Geoff. The oligarchic capitalist hegemony of the Western powers and their allies is intent on continuing to use fossil fuels… for short term to mid term profits of course. Australia is a litmus test in a sense. Australia does what the big Western powers (USA, EU, GB) tell it to do. Or, at least, we do what those powers fail to tell us not to do. Australia has been told to keep pursuing fossil fuels or at least it has not been told to cease and desist. The Labor Party is also beholden to big coal and big gas for party donations. The ALP does what big coal and big gas tells it to do.
Since our powerful allies have not told us to stop opening coal and gas fields it is clear they don’t care or they actually want us to. Since they probably want Chevron and other profits to continue (not sure of their interests in Santos) and since they also want alternatives to Russian coal and gas (we don’t have oil) they also want us to continue. All the capitalist, oligarchic, corporatist, hegemonist and geostrategic ducks, ignoring the climate change monster black swan, all line up in favor of more fossil fuels so this is what is happening. The powers that be are interested in proximal power and profits and not in (slightly) distant events.
Where is this tending? It is tending to the end of making catastrophic climate change a near certainty. It is almost certainly going to happen. There is almost no way of saving the situation at this point and almost no way of convincing the powers that be to take the dangers seriously. They think they can kick the can down the road and continue BAU (business as usual).
All that powerless individuals can do (that is about 99% of us while we refuse to take full democratic socialist moves and direct actions in solidarity) is to vote Green or Green Socialist at election time(s), try to use less fossil fuels ourselves by reducing all forms of consumption and implement sensible green energy / green buffer, projects around/on our homes or plan a move now if your home is or seems in danger after events of this decade. We need to plan or move if need be, if we have sufficient personal/family/cooperative resources, to meet almost endless alternating rounds of massive floods and massive bush-fires. These are not just coming. They have already arrived and they will just keep coming, relentlessly.
Section 230 and rulings details and links.
“Gonzalez v. Google LLC (9th Cir. 2021)This case was heard by the Supreme Court on February 21, 2023. Currently the Ninth Circuit upheld that YouTube’s recommender system for videos was covered by Section 230’s liability protections in relation to videos posted by ISIS. The petitioners argued that the recommender system is a type of moderation that would be outside the bounds of Section 230.[205]
“Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh (9th Cir. 2021)This case was heard by the Supreme Court on February 23, 2023. Currently the Ninth Circuit dismissed Section 230 immunity claims that Twitter had argued in regards to its services being used by terrorists, and instead considered Twitter to be liable for aiding terrorism under the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 amended by the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act.[206]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230
EFF background -Section 230
“Section 230 is On Trial. Here’s What You Need to Know.
FEBRUARY 16, 2023
“Here’s some useful background on these extremely important cases:
Gonzalez v. Google
And
Twitter v. Taamneh
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/02/section-230-trial-heres-what-you-need-know
*
Dad joke:
2.30 is time to go to the dentist.
Tooth Hurty.
Ikonoclast, Scott Ritter is a convicted sex offender and is as pro-Russian as anyone I know. He sees “victory” as the Russians winning against the neo-Nazis in Ukraine and posts every day on Facebook feeds about how the Ukrainian army is being decimated. He may have some factual basis for his claims but he does have pro-Russian linkages and I have grave suspicions about his credibility. I listen to this guy but I have not heard anything from him that offers sympathy with Ukraine: He offers a standard story thast the US engineered a coup in 2014 that replaced the democratically-elected government with neo-Nazis. Ritter ignores the history that led up to this “coup” and the general hatred Ukranians feel for Russia.
Of course the Americans and the Ukrainians as well are putting out their own streams of propaganda too about the incompetence and casualties in the Russian military.
Its difficult to work out what is going on in Ukraine. My best understanding is that the current situation is a stalemate with both sides experiencing heavy losses over battles that don’t yield much. Neither side has interest in throwing in the towel and the US is suspicious of peace talks that it believes would provide Putin with an basis for regrouping.
The obvious solution of giving Russia secure ownership of Ukraine’s eastern provinces and of renouncing any moves to seek NATO membership, probably will not work even in the medium term because Putin clearly wants Ukraine as a Russian client state.
Not all clearly formulated problems have a solution and the Russia/ukraine conflict seems an example. I foresee a long war with huge casualties. A disaster that should never have happened but which has. The real fear is that out of the stalemate a mistake will be made that initiates a nuclear conflict. That fear has been reduced over the past few days by Chin’s instruction to client Russia that it should not use nuclear weapons.
Harry is on the mark re Ritter.
“It’s tragic,” Seymour Hersh, The New Yorker’s investigative reporter, said when we spoke this fall. Hersh grew close to Ritter in the late ’90s and appeared as a character witness at his trial in Pennsylvania last April. “He understands the Arab world in a way that few Westerners I know do. You have no idea how smart he is.” NYT “Scott Ritter’s Other War”
“On April 6, 2022, Ritter was suspended from Twitter for violating its rule on “harassment and abuse” after he posted a tweet claiming that the National Police of Ukraine is responsible for the Bucha massacre and calling U.S. President Joe Biden a “war criminal” for “seeking to shift blame for the Bucha murders” to Russia. The following day Newsweek reported his Twitter account had been reinstated.[44] ] Ritter has written various articles critical of NATO for the Russian channel RT.[45] In July 2022, Ritter was added to a list of pro-Russia propagandists compiled by the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation.[46]”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter
Anyone claiming to know what is going to happen w Ukraine after watching Foreign Correspondent last night is pulling your leg.
Putin is as close to Hitler as we currently have. Not Jews. Nazis. The most twisted propaganda.
“VIDEO: Russia’s Info War
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-02-23/russias-info-war/102016186
Before our eyes genocide is being committed by Russia in Ukraine.
We were warned about Putin and his darkness but we were swayed by the appeasers – like many, Germany thought that involving Russia with free trade would ease tensions and induce harmony.
One consequence of Putin’s violent delusions has been the injury, perhaps mortal, to of all those assumptions; history has most definitely not ended and anti NATO pacifists are now genocide enablers.
Seymour Hersh is not a reliable or credible source.
rog said “Seymour Hersh is not a reliable or credible source.”. OK. But having known Ritter I assume accurate as to Ritter’s fall..
rog, I do not tell kids not fighting at school, they are engendering fight enablers rog.
Here is a pacifist: “Being killed is, after all, a rather extreme form of deprivation of freedom, and in a typical modern war, the killer is subject to as much compulsion as the killed. I tended therefore to a rather pacifist position.”
From: “A Cautious Case for Socialism”
Kenneth J. Arrow
Fall 1978
…
” But as I observed, read, and reflected, the capitalist drive for profits seemed to become a major source of evil.”
“Thus, beside the efficiency value, the values of freedom and the avoidance of war were vital in my attitude toward socialism. The two were and are intimately linked in my mind. Being killed is, after all, a rather extreme form of deprivation of freedom, and in a typical modern war, the killer is subject to as much compulsion as the killed. I tended therefore to a rather pacifist position. This position, to be sure, began increasingly to separate me from a revolutionary socialist position.”
…
https://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/a-cautious-case-for-socialism
KT2
At the direction of their unelected leader Russia invades Ukraine and in the process of their leaders’s ‘military operation’ they hurt (torture, rape), kidnap (children for reeducation) and kill (torture, extra judicial murders) of many innocent people and seize their property (looting)
How is this a consequence of capitalism?
rog,
Multi-factor causation. Heard of it or thought about it yourself? The world is pretty obviously a very complex place.
“A multifactor approach recognizes that socio-economic / socio-historical phenomenon or event “x” (like a war of aggression) is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon with multiple causes. By integrating a variety of ecological, geographical, social, evo-psychological, biological, economic and ideological factors into a coherent structure, such multifactor theories overcome the shortcomings of simplistic one-cause theories.”
The above is substantially cribbed from a criminology paper with the names of phenomena changed and/or added to make the quote fit our case. Capitalism (of the form of oligarchic-corporatist “free market” (actually rigged market) capitalism has played a role. Have you forgotten about the economic shock therapy given to post-Soviet Russia which paved the way for the Russian oligarchs and the rise of Putin?
Russia also has a history of being attacked from every quarter (and doing their own attacking in turn). They’ve been attacked as principalities by the Golden Horde (originally a Mongol and later a Turkicized khanate), by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Ottomans, the Swedes, Prussia, France plus the Poles, Italians and German states under Napoleon and of course by the Germans in WW1, then by the Western nations allied with the White Russians after WW1, then by Nazi Germany in WW2, then pressured by Cold War pressures post WW2. This is just a quick history. We might begin to realize why they are more than a little paranoid.
At the same time, we cannot forget Russia’s own history of autocracy and dictatorship, where they have never had a democracy and have never thrown off (essentially) the chains of dictatorship of one form or another. It’s a wicked problem for them and everyone else. Neither the West nor the imperialists proto-capitalists or capitalists are totally blameless in all this.
rog, I was showing you a pacifist. Capitalism irrelevant. I’ll cherry pick. Arrow says; “Being killed is, after all, a rather extreme form of deprivation of freedom, and in a typical modern war, the killer is subject to as much compulsion as the killed. I tended therefore to a rather pacifist position. ”
rog, what of my schoolyard fight analogy?
rog, why did you invoke capitalism, not socialism?
Ikon you say “The world is pretty obviously a very complex place.” which I agree with.
Putin is waaaay past capitalism. Complex multifactorials will be for pre and post war analysis imo.
For some light relief and to provide Ikon with a springboard, here is, in one picture a thousand words re “By integrating a variety of ecological, geographical, social, evo-psychological, biological, economic and ideological factors into a coherent structure, such multifactor theories overcome the shortcomings of simplistic one-cause theories.”.
“The Politics of Envy
Alan Moir
The Sydney Morning Herald
11 September 2021
“In September, the Australian Tax Office announced a decision to let companies who’d made ‘honest mistakes’ keep $180 million in JobKeeper payments. Alan Moir’s cartoon compares this to Services Australia’s admission, a few weeks earlier, that it was sending debt notices to 11,771 welfare recipients for pandemic-related overpayments.”
https://behindthelines.moadoph.gov.au/2021/wheel-of-fortune/the-politics-of-envy
“By integrating a variety of ecological, geographical, social, evo-psychological, biological, economic and ideological factors into a coherent structure, such multifactor theories overcome the shortcomings of simplistic one-cause theories.” in a picture.
“The Politics of Envy
Alan Moir
The Sydney Morning Herald
11 September 2021
“In September, the Australian Tax Office announced a decision to let companies who’d made ‘honest mistakes’ keep $180 million in JobKeeper payments. Alan Moir’s cartoon compares this to Services Australia’s admission, a few weeks earlier, that it was sending debt notices to 11,771 welfare recipients for pandemic-related overpayments.”
https://behindthelines.moadoph.gov.au/2021/wheel-of-fortune/the-politics-of-envy
Oops.
Black Robodebt.
Cant wait for the staff class action. The instigators will settle before they take the stand… “has opened a whole new can of worms, Dune size worms at that. For starters, there is now a realistic prospect of a class action by employees for injury in the workplace.”
[The following is difficult reading and contains painful and distressing evidence.]
(h/t a media Dragon & the mandarin.)
*
“Robodebt victims had ‘ice cube’s chance in hell’ with Centrelink
Nor were clients treated with respect or courtesy, Blake said.
“I feel that the managers in that instance were in breach of their code of conduct in the way they treated their staff and the way they forced the staff to treat our customers, our public, the public that we are employed to serve,” Blake said.
That evidence has opened a whole new can of worms, Dune size worms at that. For starters, there is now a realistic prospect of a class action by employees for injury in the workplace.
Fade to black
[The following is difficult reading and contains painful and distressing evidence.]
The most damning evidence that Blake gave concerned the withdrawal and implosion of employees who were experiencing the consequences of the policies they were required to mete out.
“There is a particular Friday afternoon and we had a colleague who had a really rough call. Luckily, they were able to get ahold of a social worker. And the social worker stayed on the call with them until they got a welfare check. And at which point the staff member was instructed that they could end the call now,” Blake said, visibly upset.
“When they came into work on Monday, they were told that that person suicided over the weekend. And if you’re upset about that, call EAP [employment assistance program] and they’ll get a social worker out to the team.”
“The employee assistance program that fixes everything,” Blake bristled.
“We got a social worker come in — I don’t know six/eight weeks later — and did a whole thing with the team. And they said, ‘Well, we understand somebody in the room had had an incident. Does anyone want to talk about it?’
“And that colleague had to relive that experience that had happened. Retraumatized themselves while they were explaining what happened.
“Then we discussed it in the room, and everyone was upset. I don’t think there was a dry eye in that room. And then at the end, we went with that person out to have a cigarette.
“And then we saw the social workers just drive off. Seeya later, job done. Not even a check-in to that colleague [to] say, are you okay?
“That colleague worked for 30 years. And I saw that colleague, after that, just give up.
“They used all their personal leave.
“There was no ‘thanks for your 30 years of service’. It was just oh, by the way, that colleague is no longer coming back once they had exhausted all their personal leave,” Blake said.
This article references suicide and mental health issues. If you or a loved one need help, contact Lifeline at 13 11 14 or lifeline.org.au. In an emergency, call 000.
https://indaily.com.au/news/2023/02/22/robodebt-victims-had-snowballs-chance-in-hell-with-centrelink/
Rolling Stones – Paint It Black LIVE (1966)
Discussions as to causality may be of interest to some but, at this point, are essentially irrelevant.
Europe has also had periods of war, destruction and horror but have been able to push on.
“Recognizing our history and traditions, we must be part of Europe and follow the European path of development. We have no other choice, nor do we need any.”
-Navalny
rog, Caveat – where he would count – Russia.
” -Navalny” …”but, at this point, are essentially irrelevant.”.
State capture – or the aquiensce if power to private actors. Ignorance of states will NOT be bliss.
How is this acceptable?!
Along with US security department contacts 2015 aporox 15. Amazon & Microsoft had 140 contracts by 2019. Imagine the veto or malfeasance power of nefarious actors.
“Eric Schmidt Is Building the Perfect AI War-Fighting Machine
“The former Google CEO is on a mission to rewire the US military with cutting-edge artificial intelligence to take on China. Will it make the world safer?
“EXPENSIVE MILITARY HARDWARE LIKEa new tank undergoes rigorous testing before heading to the battlefield. A startup called Istari, backed by Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google and chair ofAlphabet, reckons some of that work can be done more effectively in the metaverse.
“Ishtari uses machine learning to virtually assemble and test war machines from computer models of individual components, such as the chassis and engines, that are usually marooned on separate digital drawing boards. It may sound dull, but Schmidt says it can bring a dose of tech industry innovation to US military engineering. “The Istari team is bringing internet-type usability to models and simulations,” he says. “This unlocks the possibility of software-like agility for future physical systems—it is very exciting.”
…
https://www.wired.com/story/eric-schmidt-is-building-the-perfect-ai-war-fighting-machine/
“Google Doesn’t Want to Pay Websites for Content, so It’s Blocking News in Canada
“The company began limiting access to news content in search around 4% of users in Canada in response to a new bill that would require it to pay news publishers.”
https://gizmodo.com/google-search-block-news-canada-law-australia-facebook-1850150207
Forget FANGS.
Q: who receives most income from Uber? A: below.
“Big Tech – The rise of GAFAAMT – Seven companies – Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Alibaba, Microsoft and Tencent (GAFAAMT) – each have more users than the population of most countries.”
Google is the biggest lobbiest. Yet Eric Schmidt invited in to US Military with conflicts of interest at all points. EG – owns the new simulation company doing virrual testing of physical systems.
Google + YooT’yoob revenue approx $125Bn in 2021.
Vanguard, Blackrock, State Street, own approx 30% of GAFAM
Capital and platforms eat any competition.
Peter Thiel “Competition is for losers.”
Amazon has 47% of the cloud.
Internet cables. 2010 GAFAM owned one. By next year they’ll own 30.
Veto and control of information.
“Google Doesn’t Want to Pay Websites for Content, so It’s Blocking News in Canada
“The company began limiting access to news content in search around 4% of users in Canada in response to a new bill that would require it to pay news publishers.”…
https://gizmodo.com/google-search-block-news-canada-law-australia-facebook-1850150207
US security department contacts 2015 aporox 15. Amazon & Micrisoft had 140 cinttacts by 2019. Imagine the veto or malfeasance power of nefarious actors.
The Voice – GAFAM are of course the top lobbiests.
Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman $11,000% hr. Morgan Stanley biggest institutional investor in…
Uber CEO $4,000 / hr.
Uber Driver $21/hr.
https://www.tni.org/en/big-tech-the-rise-of-gafaamt
Above from one of 11 articles:
“Digital Power
“State of Power 2023
DIGITAL FUTURES
1 February 2023
120 minutes read
https://www.tni.org/en/publication/stateofpower2023
TNI -president of the Transnational Institute;
“Susan George (political scientist)
Susan George (born June 29, 1934) is an American and French political and social scientist, activist and writer on global social justice, Third World poverty, underdevelopment and debt. She is the president of the Transnational Institute, a think-tank located in Amsterdam.[1] She is a fierce critic of the present policies of theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (IBRD) and what she calls their ‘maldevelopment model’. She similarly criticizes the structural reform policies of theWashington Consensus on Third World development. She is of U.S. birth but now resides in France, and has had dual citizenship since 1994.”
Wikipedia.
Who is the fascist?
“In the video, Godwin can be heard telling Turnbull to “fuck back off to Wentworth”, the eastern suburbs electorate he represented. Turnbull later claimed the protest was “at odds with every value Sydney University holds” and called the protesters “fascists”.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/24/students-who-protested-at-malcolm-turnbull-event-say-they-have-been-suspended-for-a-semester
“The top 3 causes of death in Australia are now (in order):
1. Heart disease,
2. Dementia
3. COVID-19 disease
No one should be deceived into thinking that COVID is a mild disease.”
“Each time you get infected, you host the coronavirus in your body. Once in your body it gets the opportunity to mutate. The virus will keep mutating while people play host to it. Coronavirus can’t mutate itself. It needs a body to mutate. Don’t play host to coronavirus”
– Prof Kathy Eagar, Foundation Director, Australian Health Services Research Institute, University of Wollongong.
Warning – personal anecdotes below.
Where I live, people are acting like COVID-19 disease does not exist. Masking is rare in most “venues” my wife and I have to attend. We still mask. Hepafilters are non-existent. These “venues” are almost all medical, dental or pharmacy locations. We don’t go to such locations often. But when one has a disintegrated tooth to near gum-level, one needs a post and crown, if one can afford it, or a tooth extraction if one cannot. It’s just over 6 months since my fourth C-19 vaccination. Let’s see if I can get a post and crown without catching Covid-19.
I object strenuously to being forced to play mandatory Russian roulette with COVID-19. I couldn’t properly time my procedure(s) and find a fully safe dentist andr get my fifth vax shot first. It is quite to difficult to impossible to line up all these ducks in the current situation: tooth in desperate need of dental work.
My wife also pointed out to me that jury duty in Qld. is mandatory until age 70 unless one can show a valid exemption (medical, caring or planned holiday (sic)). I haven’t been called yet, not recently. I would have thought being over 65 would permit exemption upon request regardless of vax status. Imagine being stuck in a court room and then locked in a jury room. One person masking will not be safe if there is one other there with C-19 unmasked and there are no Hepafilters. Is masking permitted in court? Do Qld courts and jury rooms have Hepafilters. What will court building security think of me masking? Questions I hope I don’t have to seek answers to.
All of this illustrates (anecdotal as it is) the bind that many vulnerable (at least three, maybe four, vulnerable people in my immediate and in-law family) and 60 plus or 65 plus people are in. What we have is a society now of near mandatory infection with a BSL 3 pathogen, for that is what SARS2 is. This is absurd and unsustainable just as our climate policy, environment policy, housing policy, wages policy, interest rates policy etc. are also absurd and unsustainable.
It is all unsustainable. Our current course leads to catastrophe, physical and socioeconomic, for the majority of our society and ultimately to total socioeconomic collapse. This will affect everybody not just the ranters like me. I am waiting for the penny to drop among the general populace. How long will they stay in irrational denial?
Another tweet on Feb 24 from Prof Kathy Eagar on the COVID situation & a response from Prof Brendan Crabb AC:
It seems that many more people are now dying many months after being infected by COVID, as indicated by the excess deaths (25,000+) up to 23 Feb 2023.
The latest NSW hospitalisations have been graphed in a tweet by Matt @crudeoilpeak:
Have NSW hospitalisations reached another trough? Is NSW perhaps at the start of another rising wave?
A close relative of mine, similar age to you Ikon, got Covid 2nd time 5 weeks ago. Fully vaxxed. Still has ‘tiredness’. Recovered enough to play 9 holes today. Back home to bed. Not happy.
Does anyone have research on time to ignore / social blindness:
– Road deaths
– War fatigue – Protest in Germany today to not send weapons and cracks in US Republicans to limit spending to Ukraine
– domestic violence
– kids incarceration
– left to rot refugees. We had strong Rural Aust’s for Refugees locally, lasted 2 years.
– etc
… and effort to overcome?
PUTIN’S BREAD;
“He described walking over dead bodies with Kostya’s father when they went to a bread factory to search for food and get water from a pump.”
The children living in the same – demolished – apartment block now “rescued” – abducted – by Russia and starring in;
PUTIN’S CIRCUS:
” the Kremlin wheeled out children from Mariupol in occupied south-east Ukraine to “thank” their invaders.
“The star of this orgy of Russian patriotism was Anna Naumenko, a 15-year-old with black hair, who was pushed on to the stage of Moscow’s Luzhniki stadium to thank a soldier nicknamed “Yuri Gagarin” for rescuing her: “Thank you Uncle Yura for saving me, my sister and hundreds of thousands of children in Mariupol.” Anna’s sister, Karolina, covered her ears against the noise of the crowd as she stood nearby.”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/25/thats-my-neighbour-mariupol-residents-shock-at-putins-parade-line-up
Putin has definitely had a heart and conscience bypass.
KT2.
Yes, ME, CFF and POTS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) are three of the concerning Long Covid syndromes people could be set up for after catching COVID-19 once or more. One’s chances increase after each bout. And one’s percentage chances of suffering a host of other conditions and attacks also increase significantly after C-19 episodes: conditions ranging from diabetes onset to heart attacks and strokes.
Every organ, blood vessel and almost every cell in the body have ACE2 receptors. SARS2 can hit anywhere in the body. Epithelial damage, micro clots and even mitochondria damage are possible from SARS2. Mitochondria are the little “energy powerhouses” in each cell. It is sadly common enough for some people with LC and some of its syndromes to feel able to get back to do a bit of work or exercise (physical or mental) after seeming recovery and then to “crash” afterwards. The crash can last hours, days or weeks in bad cases.
The 1st lesson is to catch C-19 never or as few times as possible. The 2nd lesson is to take responsibility for isolating and not passing it on if one is unlucky enough to catch it.
Test post. What it feels like trying to warn people to still protect themselves and others against COVID-19.
Above test failed in its intent. It did not post the amusing GIF. Probably just as well. If I could post GIFs I would be too annoying. 😉
Okay, it’s my day for flooding the old Monday thread. This is worth a read.
(FWIW, I am not a registered Twitter user anymore. I closed my account in protest against the new owner, something many claimed they would do and few actually did do. I can of course still browse Twitter a bit in the clunky way available to the non-registered. I do that in desultory way. I have long used Ad-Block so there are no ads for me on any app.)