Coronavirus 3 - Al Pacino's turn to mumble

[watt price tully]

The remaining live one of the notorious Koch brothers. Time solves all such problems, Tannin.

You’re terrible Muriel.

[Tannin]

The remaining live one of the notorious Koch brothers. Time solves all such problems, Tannin.

One hopes that we don't get a Murdoch-style transition, P4S, with the son being even more rabid than the father.

EDIT: though "more rabid than Charles Koch" is not an easy concept to grasp, I admit.

[Pies4shaw]

That arseholes like them would have ploughed 100s of millions of dollars into conservative causes does not surprise me. What does surprise me is that it doesn’t seem to give much pause for thought to the many poor and dispossessed Trumpinistas that they share politics with the ridiculously rich. If that politics is good for the interests of people who are so rich that they could actually try to burn all their money and fail because there isn’t enough oxygen on the planet to keep the fire going, why do they imagine it would be good for the stragglers?

[Tannin]

Good question! I don't have an answer, but I note that the most dyed-in-the-wool losers of that ilk are often the most vociferous of all. I think there is a clue there somewhere.

Which reminds me:

I have a relative. No names. This relative is a vocal and dedicated supporter of the usual suspects - Abbott, Morrison, Dutton, Pauline, and doubtless Trump, though I don't think DT has come up in our conversations that I remember . Said relo is heavy into the right wing stuff - say around about where our own Eddie is. You get the picture.

But said relative lives on government-provided welfare, hugely assisted by four-figure gifts begged from a different family member who is pretty firmly of the educated left, started with the same nothing said relative started with, and became quite wealthy through hard work, thrift, and a dash of good luck. But mostly hard work and thrift.

"Dole bludgers", "welfare cheats", "drug addicts" (said relo can't leave the pokies alone - biggest secret everybody knows about), scandalous taxation rates, Muslims, Africans, and "governments spending beyond their means". Said relo lives on a combination of government welfare and gifts begged from a wealthy near-socialist, but never misses a chance to carry on like a rabid Trumpistsa.

Go figure.

[Pies4shaw]

In the good old days, we called this "false consciousness". We're not allowed to say that anymore, are we?

[Tannin]

False consciousness it is indeed. Of course, naming it does nothing to explain it. Onward the revolution, Comrade P4S!

[stui magpie]

The Aus Open off to a flying start.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-16/ ... t/13063920

Yet people in regional and rural NSW are still classed as being in an orange zone

[eddiesmith]

I have no issue with the Australian Open going ahead, but their treatment of Victorians is disgraceful. Just sooking because so many people escaped the first chance they got which upset Danny.

But they tried to make things as difficult as possible for the Open, that happens when you’ve hit a premier who hates sport, but in the end the money wins. Interesting to see a few tennis players have gone to Adelaide instead as rules a bit more relaxed there.

[Dark Beanie]

Eddie, too funny for words.

[pietillidie]

After today's exercise session I can see no hope here for beating the pandemic or dealing with anything vaguely complex. We get a break in the weather and head out for exercise, and we're the only ones wearing a mask, forced off into the mud by clueless, careless, callous mouth-breathing halfwits. 100% of everyone we passed, including every single one of the many elderly people, was not wearing a mask.

You just want to grab them and say: "You're in a high risk group you effing moron. The economy is trashed. Hospitals overloaded. People are having operations and treatment delayed. Wear an effing mask you selfish fool."

We're in the third national lockdown on the back of a dangerous new spike, and there are less masks on the street and more traffic on the roads than at any time since this began. Western society really has become Effwitville.

As I say, the well was poisoned from the start by people that should never be let near leadership or management, granting in turn the self-entitled the licence they needed to avoid responsibility. Fuming

Idiots are to be expected, but older people as a group should know better, FFS. The growth of the elderly as a voting block is fast becoming a massive problem for democracy: from austerity to NIMBYism to Brexit to the blind election of utterly incompetent leaders and now a pandemic and health system overload that will never end, the pathologically selfish among the old imperialist Thatcherites are really laying waste to the place (and I'm not referring here to the poor helpless oldies in homes who have been hit hardest by the pandemic).

We give rural electorates a helping hand through an electoral college system, but it's increasingly clear that it's the young who now need a weighted vote.

[watt price tully]

False consciousness it is indeed. Of course, naming it does nothing to explain it. Onward the revolution, Comrade P4S!

Hasn’t the term false consciousness been replaced by the term “politically correct” in some ways.

False consciousness is a term as you know used in Marxist theory and often used to explain phenomena like Alf Garnett in “Till Death us do Part “ as an exemplar whereas politically correct is an overused term whose purpose is often to disparage, ridicule, minimise and obviate (and thereby) avoid dealing with the issues raised often important issues.

[stui magpie]

So stuff is going swimmingly all round.

The Vaccine is killing people in Norway. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-17/ ... s/13064910

Victoria has imported 4 cases so far with the Australian Open and those pesky Tennis players and support staff just don't seem to get the idea of staying in your room. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-17/ ... d/13064616

The Andrews government clearly politically motivated border closure against NSW rightfully comes under fire https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-01-17/ ... y/13064880

[Pies4shaw]

As long as there isn't any tennis, I'm ok with all of this.

[stui magpie]

Of course you are.

[Tannin]

Look, there is a pandemic on and I can understand locking tennis players like Novak Djokovic up.

The bit I can't understand - and I know it's still 14 days away - is why anyone would want to let the barstard out.