Indeed. Depending which province, they are similar with variances. The outright cognitive dissonance and ignorance by our health authorities, of what is going on in the rest of the world, is stunning. They ignore the reality that the shots cease being effective, instead ending a new narrative, based solely on hopes, wishes and maybe even outright lies. If you want to have some fun, research Bonnie Henry, who has assumed a godlike status amongst the deceived. She poses as being тАЬvery nice, very calmтАЭ as being a qualification for intelligence and trust. BC/Canada is about 3-4 months behind the rest of the world for jabs, many of the elderly are just getting their boosters, while the rest of the population is starting at the 6 month mark or so and counting from first jabs. She is relying outright to citizens, or is clueless. And sheтАЩs a fan of jabbing all kids as soon as possible. SheтАЩs our MHO in BC, a doctor in name only, a career bureaucrat.
Canada is doomed, they are going for 90% jabs. Clueless and tone deaf, itтАЩs still a go smack to see this level of arrogance, but irrational fear has clearly driven the agenda on the public side
I have heard of Bonnie Henry but donтАЩt know much about her. She sounds like a classic sociopath.
I have considered doing a future Recommendations Roundup focused on Canada, but I swore off doing themed versions after the Down Under edition turned into such a colossus, and then I wound up with so many deferred recs for the next version that it, too, became a behemoth in and of itself (hence why IтАЩve put off the latest edition ;-) That said, I may change my mind later as Canada definitely deserves special attention.
Thank you for standing up for liberty. IтАЩm sorry your wife is losing her job but glad you guys are in a situation where thatтАЩs less painful than it is for so many others. You guys take care.
IтАЩve now been up for nearly 25 hours so am going to try to drag myself away from the computer before I am tempted to respond to more comments ;-)
Thank you, I suppose in the end, Canada is no different than any other country that continues to make the wrong choices, likely be design and malfeasance. ItтАЩs surreal, to see this reprehensible shitstorm happen all around us.
And yes, get your well deserved rest, thanks for your substack, I found you through either Berenson or El GatoтАЩs site. Eugyppius is a good one too.
I would, as an Australian, apply a qualifier here. I have lived in Canada and spent a long time in the US with friends and family living there and I am aware of the high levels of ignorance about the Land Downunder. That also applies to the UK and Europe.
The penal colony reference is trite and ill-informed. It is two centuries since Australia had penal settlements and in some parts of the country, including where I live, they never existed in the first place. For what it is worth the British also sent convicts to Canada and the United States. We were all once penal colonies.
Australia is not high on the tyranny scale. We have one deranged State Premier in Victoria who could be labelled as such, and a few other poll-driven Premiers in other States but the situation in Victoria has not been universal throughout the country and neither has the recent lockdowns in New South Wales.
Australia is a big country and the same size physically as the US, but with 26 million people not 320 million. Our States are huge. Western Australia is the same size as India with less than 3 million people, compared to 1.3 billion. In most of the country life has gone on pretty much as normal. Where I live mask mandates appeared about three months ago, otherwise they were never seen, even as my friends in Boston and family in NY State had spent a year being abused if seen without a mask.
Beyond the fact that the Federal Government closed international borders for holiday travellers - business travel continued - there is little or nothing which has happened in Australia which has not happened elsewhere, including the UK, Canada and the US.
Thanks for your perspective, Roslyn. If you donтАЩt mind my asking, which part of Australia are you in? I am getting daily on-the-ground updates from my Australian subscribers and connections, and the stories they are sharing are alarming. Most of them are in Queensland, so perhaps itтАЩs worse there than where you are.
In addition to proposed legislation such as permanent emergency powers and outrageous fines/penalties for not wearing a mask or breaking quarantine, there is a strong police presence with lots of harassment (and worse) of ordinary citizens occurring. I document numerous instances in the Down Under Edition of my Recommendations Roundup (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/recommendations-roundup-2-down-under-41b).
Victoria is in both. One the capital city on an island the other is a State of a country. The Strong Cities crowd seems to have become confused as well as the State manages to make it on to the network but the city is missing.
Or else they couldn't get the Mayor (of the city) to agree but the Premier of the State (Dan Andrews) was a soft touch.
I would also add, I keep up with the hysterical material being published about Australia in North America and know that most of it is being put out by the US Gun Lobby organisations to frighten Americans into believing they need their guns to be safe, i.e. look at unarmed Australia etc.
I donтАЩt watch mainstream news so canтАЩt attest to that ;-) All the info I have comes directly from Australians who are living this on a daily basis. IтАЩm not disagreeing with you as you obviously have a different experience, but IтАЩm guessing itтАЩs worse in Queensland than wherever you are.
Victoria has been the worst where they have had the strictest and longest lockdowns in the world and the worst outcomes.
Queensland and New South Wales entered the 'fray' in more recent times and have had severe responses but that, compared to Victoria has been very short-term.
South Australia where I live has not been too bad with masks only appearing a couple of months ago, kids off school for a week last year and a week this year and cafes/restaurants inactive for a couple of weeks. Not a lot changed.
Western Australia has had very strict border closures but their mask madness is also pretty recent and they have been more like SA.
Tasmania and the Northern Territory have been reasonably moderate and the ACT, Australian Capital Territory more like NSW.
From talking to friends who have been travelling, country areas in Australia have been pretty normal and in outback areas, more isolated country, if you wear a mask they will probably call the police is the story. :) So, diverse experiences across a very big country.
Thanks for those details, Roslyn. That makes a lot of sense and sounds like the contrasting experiences between urban centers and rural areas in the U.S. as well as red vs. blue states.
IтАЩm glad youтАЩre in a less-restrictive location and hope it stays that way :-)
Yes, urban/country does make a difference. And yes, hope it stays that way also. Don't get me wrong, I am concerned about the betrayal of Democratic rights and freedoms but I also see similar things happening in the US, UK and elsewhere in the Western world.
Australia is a good hook though on which to hang all sorts of things which are actually not true,i.e. land of deadly creepy crawlies for instance when there are greater threats in the US. Not much threat from a Kangaroo or Koala compared to Bobcats and Bears. :)
And we have become a 'hook' for the American Gun Lobby - see what happens when you give up your guns.
However, in an age of the internet we can communicate and learn more about each other which is great.
I appreciate your level-headedness and desire to head off hyperbole as that can undermine our arguments. The facts are compelling enough as it is, so itтАЩs smart to stay focused on those.
That said, totalitarianism infiltrates by degrees, so we need to be alert to the subtlest progressions because if we wait until itтАЩs obvious, it will be too late to halt it.
Regarding the gun issue, I am antiтАУgun lobby and proтАУSecond Amendment :-) I believe the gun lobby is corrupt and profits off of scare tactics, even going so far as to contribute to chipping away at the Second Amendment to fill their coffers. I do, however, agree with the founders that it is vital for people to have a means of defense against tyranny as well as criminals and others who would wish to do us harm. I feel totalitarianism has and will advance at a slower pace in the U.S. because the government fears a backlash from armed citizens, as well it should.
Berijiklian (resigned a few weeks ago) and Palaszczuk are just as bad as Dan Andrews. Western Australia has closed off its border to everyone but the jabbed, Northern Territory is imposing 5k fines, South Australia has an absolutely moronic CHO.
As Australians we cannot come back unless we accede to tyrannical directives from all the Premiers, not one is in dissent.
Australia deserves everything heaped on it right now. Sure Andrews is a degree worse but from what, Palaszczuk who's building a camp near Toowomba?
BTW the camp that Dan is building, at Mickleham in Melbourne's north is close to the proposed train line that circles around just about all the suburbs of Melbourne. And Monash University doesn't understand why the planned stop is across the road at the 'Recycling Plant' rather than at the University.
Yikes, there is something particularly creepy about it being across the road from the тАЬRecycling Plant.тАЭ At least itтАЩs not a rendering plant (yet ЁЯШм).
It goes right through Box Hill as well, a major suburb of Melbourne. There is no attempt to integrate this new train line with the (train, bus, tram) services that are already there.
Oh yes, and I forgot to comment on the double-creepiness of the new train line! YouтАЩd think they would be using newer technology these days, a bullet train, perhaps (ouch, that was a bad one, sorry).
It could definitely have a creepy explanation. But regardless of whether it does or not all the local planners etc have been not been involved at all. I think the planning has been in the States. And Andrews the Premier is currently trying to pass a dictator bill into law which has upset the head of the Victorian Bar Association
Andrews and his Chief of Staff Pallas look to be doing China's bidding as well, Morrison actually curtailed their involvement (with kick backs no doubt) with the 2021 Silk Road venture (Belt & Road)
I did not say it was good. I just said it is not as bad as it is often represented but, more importantly, it is not universal in effects.
The Queensland 'camp' is not as the American lobby would have people believe, i.e. a general concentration camp, but is a quarantine facility for returning travellers. I agree it is ridiculous but hyperbole does not help.
The stupidity of it all is that people have continued to travel for business over the past two years, particularly politicians, and beyond 14 day quarantines have merged back into the population. We have also had planes and ships arriving and onloading and offloading cargo and trains, planes and trucks back and forth across the country doing what needs to be done.
It's not hyperbole. If you let them build "quarantine facility for returning travellers" then it's only a matter of (a fairly short) amount of time before it's a concentration camp.
It is total hyperbole. A concentration camp is where people are kept imprisoned by a military force, i.e. Gaza in this age. A quarantine facility is something which has long existed in various forms in many nations, particularly Western. People were isolated/quarantined during the 1950's Polio epidemic but that was sensible because they only quarantined people who were sick and not healthy people who had just returned from overseas.
You are correct, anything can become anything else, but one thing I do know is that hysteria and hyperbole help no-one. Referring to Australian quarantine facilities as concentration camps is as dishonest as Governments referring to Covid as a Pandemic.
Yes, I understand some people who are fearful have vivid imaginations. I also understand it is important to be aware of potential outcomes but that requires calm, considered, clear reason and not emotional hyperbole.
And yet the Australian army is part of the hotel operation which in the NT already includes a camp where videos have surfaced from inside showing the unpleasantness. And a viral video of a hotel in Sydney where the guy next door was not allowed to leave on his completion of servitude.
Polio was likely caused by DDT or even possibly by Penicillin. Those inflicted with the poisons of biological warfare (most likely the Americans) were no danger to anyone in Australia.
My wife's grandfather suffered horribly in WW2. But one has to be grateful to the Australian authorities that he did not suffer more. I'm not sure that independence and empathy still exists in the upper echelons of an Australia that has given us Turnbull, Rudd & Morrison in the last decade or so.
The use of the ADF to help support quarantine facilities is because Australia, a huge country, the same size physically as the US, has only 26 million people and a police force too small to cope.
I am not saying I agree with it but simply saying the use of the ADF in this way does not equate with the US bringing in the military. You will also find that they used the military in the UK.
I never saw the video of the man prevented from leaving although many people cite it so it may be an urban myth. I know people who have done quarantine and there was never an issue with them leaving at the end of 14 days. Since the 'viral video' cannot be found I have no idea what it was about.
The origins of Polio are not the point. I cited the use of quarantine. And yes, I know the DDT theory for the epidemic of Severe Paralytic Polio in the 1950's but more likely triggers were the practice of removing tonsils and adenoids, common from the early 20th century when doctors could not understand what they did (immune system) and decided they could make a fortune cutting them out because antibiotics made surgery safer. Which they did.
The other trigger was vaccinating kids against Diptheria/Whooping Cough. An Australian doctor in charge of the vax programme for the State of Victoria, Bernard McCloskey first made this link and wrote a paper for The Lancet. Other UK doctors later made the same connection. It has come to be called Polio Provocation.
I think our standard of politician is appalling and Government parlous but that applies to most Western nations and is hardly particular to Australian. One would not count Biden or Johnson as exemplary leaders.
I don't really understand your reference to your wife's grandfather but glad it worked out well.
I have seen the video, I will track it down for you. The guy who was filming it was a little frantic himself. And the officer who was not letting the neighbour leave (you only hear them in the video, you don't see them) threatened at one stage to have him gassed, whatever that might mean.
Re 'working out well' I was just comparing what Australia used to be with what it is now.
Thanks. It gets mentioned but I could never find it.
And yes, Australia today compared to what it was. Although having lived in Canada and the UK and spent very long periods in the US with friends and family, I think that applies to most Western nations.
Perhaps we notice it more in Australia because it was so much better as a place to live than most others.
But also opportunities to learn and grow. Even with Covid a lot of Australia has gone on pretty much as normal. But I agree, troubling if not potentially dangerous times for and in the Western world.
Agree that an event that begins as an uneventful news item can be turned, by the rumor mill alone, into some lurid horror. And even worse if someone wants to deliberately mutate into some form of propaganda. I've polluted this discussion elsewhere with a long diatribe. For now, let's just call it the "Big Lie." All factions are prone to it (at least lies of varying size).
Shipping containers into Australia cost 14-23k whereas 2 years ago, more or less from anywhere, the cost was normally around 3-4k. I can't even get a quote from Japan into Australia at the moment (or couldn't a month ago when I tried).
You cannot leave Australia (or couldn't until recently) unless you were going away for 3 months or more and asked the Australian Government for permission. Obviously this did not apply to politicians, well not some of them anyway. Some were using the temporary free travel to NZ as a way of getting out of Australia back in April/May.
Canada, not Aus, which has reverted to a penal colony
Right, I was referring to Canada as Australia #2 as it's close behind on the tyranny scale, sorry to say :-(
Indeed. Depending which province, they are similar with variances. The outright cognitive dissonance and ignorance by our health authorities, of what is going on in the rest of the world, is stunning. They ignore the reality that the shots cease being effective, instead ending a new narrative, based solely on hopes, wishes and maybe even outright lies. If you want to have some fun, research Bonnie Henry, who has assumed a godlike status amongst the deceived. She poses as being тАЬvery nice, very calmтАЭ as being a qualification for intelligence and trust. BC/Canada is about 3-4 months behind the rest of the world for jabs, many of the elderly are just getting their boosters, while the rest of the population is starting at the 6 month mark or so and counting from first jabs. She is relying outright to citizens, or is clueless. And sheтАЩs a fan of jabbing all kids as soon as possible. SheтАЩs our MHO in BC, a doctor in name only, a career bureaucrat.
Canada is doomed, they are going for 90% jabs. Clueless and tone deaf, itтАЩs still a go smack to see this level of arrogance, but irrational fear has clearly driven the agenda on the public side
I have heard of Bonnie Henry but donтАЩt know much about her. She sounds like a classic sociopath.
I have considered doing a future Recommendations Roundup focused on Canada, but I swore off doing themed versions after the Down Under edition turned into such a colossus, and then I wound up with so many deferred recs for the next version that it, too, became a behemoth in and of itself (hence why IтАЩve put off the latest edition ;-) That said, I may change my mind later as Canada definitely deserves special attention.
Thank you for standing up for liberty. IтАЩm sorry your wife is losing her job but glad you guys are in a situation where thatтАЩs less painful than it is for so many others. You guys take care.
IтАЩve now been up for nearly 25 hours so am going to try to drag myself away from the computer before I am tempted to respond to more comments ;-)
Thank you, I suppose in the end, Canada is no different than any other country that continues to make the wrong choices, likely be design and malfeasance. ItтАЩs surreal, to see this reprehensible shitstorm happen all around us.
And yes, get your well deserved rest, thanks for your substack, I found you through either Berenson or El GatoтАЩs site. Eugyppius is a good one too.
Indeed. I think the primary difference is the speed of acceleration тАж
All great Substackers, and IтАЩm grateful to be in their company!
I would, as an Australian, apply a qualifier here. I have lived in Canada and spent a long time in the US with friends and family living there and I am aware of the high levels of ignorance about the Land Downunder. That also applies to the UK and Europe.
The penal colony reference is trite and ill-informed. It is two centuries since Australia had penal settlements and in some parts of the country, including where I live, they never existed in the first place. For what it is worth the British also sent convicts to Canada and the United States. We were all once penal colonies.
Australia is not high on the tyranny scale. We have one deranged State Premier in Victoria who could be labelled as such, and a few other poll-driven Premiers in other States but the situation in Victoria has not been universal throughout the country and neither has the recent lockdowns in New South Wales.
Australia is a big country and the same size physically as the US, but with 26 million people not 320 million. Our States are huge. Western Australia is the same size as India with less than 3 million people, compared to 1.3 billion. In most of the country life has gone on pretty much as normal. Where I live mask mandates appeared about three months ago, otherwise they were never seen, even as my friends in Boston and family in NY State had spent a year being abused if seen without a mask.
Beyond the fact that the Federal Government closed international borders for holiday travellers - business travel continued - there is little or nothing which has happened in Australia which has not happened elsewhere, including the UK, Canada and the US.
Thanks for your perspective, Roslyn. If you donтАЩt mind my asking, which part of Australia are you in? I am getting daily on-the-ground updates from my Australian subscribers and connections, and the stories they are sharing are alarming. Most of them are in Queensland, so perhaps itтАЩs worse there than where you are.
In addition to proposed legislation such as permanent emergency powers and outrageous fines/penalties for not wearing a mask or breaking quarantine, there is a strong police presence with lots of harassment (and worse) of ordinary citizens occurring. I document numerous instances in the Down Under Edition of my Recommendations Roundup (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/recommendations-roundup-2-down-under-41b).
Victoria is in both. One the capital city on an island the other is a State of a country. The Strong Cities crowd seems to have become confused as well as the State manages to make it on to the network but the city is missing.
Or else they couldn't get the Mayor (of the city) to agree but the Premier of the State (Dan Andrews) was a soft touch.
I would also add, I keep up with the hysterical material being published about Australia in North America and know that most of it is being put out by the US Gun Lobby organisations to frighten Americans into believing they need their guns to be safe, i.e. look at unarmed Australia etc.
I donтАЩt watch mainstream news so canтАЩt attest to that ;-) All the info I have comes directly from Australians who are living this on a daily basis. IтАЩm not disagreeing with you as you obviously have a different experience, but IтАЩm guessing itтАЩs worse in Queensland than wherever you are.
Victoria has been the worst where they have had the strictest and longest lockdowns in the world and the worst outcomes.
Queensland and New South Wales entered the 'fray' in more recent times and have had severe responses but that, compared to Victoria has been very short-term.
South Australia where I live has not been too bad with masks only appearing a couple of months ago, kids off school for a week last year and a week this year and cafes/restaurants inactive for a couple of weeks. Not a lot changed.
Western Australia has had very strict border closures but their mask madness is also pretty recent and they have been more like SA.
Tasmania and the Northern Territory have been reasonably moderate and the ACT, Australian Capital Territory more like NSW.
From talking to friends who have been travelling, country areas in Australia have been pretty normal and in outback areas, more isolated country, if you wear a mask they will probably call the police is the story. :) So, diverse experiences across a very big country.
Thanks for those details, Roslyn. That makes a lot of sense and sounds like the contrasting experiences between urban centers and rural areas in the U.S. as well as red vs. blue states.
IтАЩm glad youтАЩre in a less-restrictive location and hope it stays that way :-)
Yes, urban/country does make a difference. And yes, hope it stays that way also. Don't get me wrong, I am concerned about the betrayal of Democratic rights and freedoms but I also see similar things happening in the US, UK and elsewhere in the Western world.
Australia is a good hook though on which to hang all sorts of things which are actually not true,i.e. land of deadly creepy crawlies for instance when there are greater threats in the US. Not much threat from a Kangaroo or Koala compared to Bobcats and Bears. :)
And we have become a 'hook' for the American Gun Lobby - see what happens when you give up your guns.
However, in an age of the internet we can communicate and learn more about each other which is great.
I appreciate your level-headedness and desire to head off hyperbole as that can undermine our arguments. The facts are compelling enough as it is, so itтАЩs smart to stay focused on those.
That said, totalitarianism infiltrates by degrees, so we need to be alert to the subtlest progressions because if we wait until itтАЩs obvious, it will be too late to halt it.
Regarding the gun issue, I am antiтАУgun lobby and proтАУSecond Amendment :-) I believe the gun lobby is corrupt and profits off of scare tactics, even going so far as to contribute to chipping away at the Second Amendment to fill their coffers. I do, however, agree with the founders that it is vital for people to have a means of defense against tyranny as well as criminals and others who would wish to do us harm. I feel totalitarianism has and will advance at a slower pace in the U.S. because the government fears a backlash from armed citizens, as well it should.
Thank you!
Berijiklian (resigned a few weeks ago) and Palaszczuk are just as bad as Dan Andrews. Western Australia has closed off its border to everyone but the jabbed, Northern Territory is imposing 5k fines, South Australia has an absolutely moronic CHO.
As Australians we cannot come back unless we accede to tyrannical directives from all the Premiers, not one is in dissent.
Australia deserves everything heaped on it right now. Sure Andrews is a degree worse but from what, Palaszczuk who's building a camp near Toowomba?
BTW the camp that Dan is building, at Mickleham in Melbourne's north is close to the proposed train line that circles around just about all the suburbs of Melbourne. And Monash University doesn't understand why the planned stop is across the road at the 'Recycling Plant' rather than at the University.
Yikes, there is something particularly creepy about it being across the road from the тАЬRecycling Plant.тАЭ At least itтАЩs not a rendering plant (yet ЁЯШм).
It goes right through Box Hill as well, a major suburb of Melbourne. There is no attempt to integrate this new train line with the (train, bus, tram) services that are already there.
Oh yes, and I forgot to comment on the double-creepiness of the new train line! YouтАЩd think they would be using newer technology these days, a bullet train, perhaps (ouch, that was a bad one, sorry).
It could definitely have a creepy explanation. But regardless of whether it does or not all the local planners etc have been not been involved at all. I think the planning has been in the States. And Andrews the Premier is currently trying to pass a dictator bill into law which has upset the head of the Victorian Bar Association
https://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/biglaw/32886-bar-association-labels-vic-s-new-pandemic-legislation-appalling
And 12 or so QCs wrote to the local paper on the same topic a few days ago.
Also Melbourne is a 'Strong City'.
Andrews and his Chief of Staff Pallas look to be doing China's bidding as well, Morrison actually curtailed their involvement (with kick backs no doubt) with the 2021 Silk Road venture (Belt & Road)
I did not say it was good. I just said it is not as bad as it is often represented but, more importantly, it is not universal in effects.
The Queensland 'camp' is not as the American lobby would have people believe, i.e. a general concentration camp, but is a quarantine facility for returning travellers. I agree it is ridiculous but hyperbole does not help.
The stupidity of it all is that people have continued to travel for business over the past two years, particularly politicians, and beyond 14 day quarantines have merged back into the population. We have also had planes and ships arriving and onloading and offloading cargo and trains, planes and trucks back and forth across the country doing what needs to be done.
It's not hyperbole. If you let them build "quarantine facility for returning travellers" then it's only a matter of (a fairly short) amount of time before it's a concentration camp.
It is total hyperbole. A concentration camp is where people are kept imprisoned by a military force, i.e. Gaza in this age. A quarantine facility is something which has long existed in various forms in many nations, particularly Western. People were isolated/quarantined during the 1950's Polio epidemic but that was sensible because they only quarantined people who were sick and not healthy people who had just returned from overseas.
You are correct, anything can become anything else, but one thing I do know is that hysteria and hyperbole help no-one. Referring to Australian quarantine facilities as concentration camps is as dishonest as Governments referring to Covid as a Pandemic.
Yes, I understand some people who are fearful have vivid imaginations. I also understand it is important to be aware of potential outcomes but that requires calm, considered, clear reason and not emotional hyperbole.
And yet the Australian army is part of the hotel operation which in the NT already includes a camp where videos have surfaced from inside showing the unpleasantness. And a viral video of a hotel in Sydney where the guy next door was not allowed to leave on his completion of servitude.
Polio was likely caused by DDT or even possibly by Penicillin. Those inflicted with the poisons of biological warfare (most likely the Americans) were no danger to anyone in Australia.
My wife's grandfather suffered horribly in WW2. But one has to be grateful to the Australian authorities that he did not suffer more. I'm not sure that independence and empathy still exists in the upper echelons of an Australia that has given us Turnbull, Rudd & Morrison in the last decade or so.
The use of the ADF to help support quarantine facilities is because Australia, a huge country, the same size physically as the US, has only 26 million people and a police force too small to cope.
I am not saying I agree with it but simply saying the use of the ADF in this way does not equate with the US bringing in the military. You will also find that they used the military in the UK.
I never saw the video of the man prevented from leaving although many people cite it so it may be an urban myth. I know people who have done quarantine and there was never an issue with them leaving at the end of 14 days. Since the 'viral video' cannot be found I have no idea what it was about.
The origins of Polio are not the point. I cited the use of quarantine. And yes, I know the DDT theory for the epidemic of Severe Paralytic Polio in the 1950's but more likely triggers were the practice of removing tonsils and adenoids, common from the early 20th century when doctors could not understand what they did (immune system) and decided they could make a fortune cutting them out because antibiotics made surgery safer. Which they did.
The other trigger was vaccinating kids against Diptheria/Whooping Cough. An Australian doctor in charge of the vax programme for the State of Victoria, Bernard McCloskey first made this link and wrote a paper for The Lancet. Other UK doctors later made the same connection. It has come to be called Polio Provocation.
I think our standard of politician is appalling and Government parlous but that applies to most Western nations and is hardly particular to Australian. One would not count Biden or Johnson as exemplary leaders.
I don't really understand your reference to your wife's grandfather but glad it worked out well.
I have seen the video, I will track it down for you. The guy who was filming it was a little frantic himself. And the officer who was not letting the neighbour leave (you only hear them in the video, you don't see them) threatened at one stage to have him gassed, whatever that might mean.
Re 'working out well' I was just comparing what Australia used to be with what it is now.
Rich, please share the link if you do find it.
Thanks. It gets mentioned but I could never find it.
And yes, Australia today compared to what it was. Although having lived in Canada and the UK and spent very long periods in the US with friends and family, I think that applies to most Western nations.
Perhaps we notice it more in Australia because it was so much better as a place to live than most others.
But also opportunities to learn and grow. Even with Covid a lot of Australia has gone on pretty much as normal. But I agree, troubling if not potentially dangerous times for and in the Western world.
https://www.brighteon.com/246d9a96-d19a-4e89-84c1-1cfe69e97adb
likely by the Americans
Agree that an event that begins as an uneventful news item can be turned, by the rumor mill alone, into some lurid horror. And even worse if someone wants to deliberately mutate into some form of propaganda. I've polluted this discussion elsewhere with a long diatribe. For now, let's just call it the "Big Lie." All factions are prone to it (at least lies of varying size).
Shipping containers into Australia cost 14-23k whereas 2 years ago, more or less from anywhere, the cost was normally around 3-4k. I can't even get a quote from Japan into Australia at the moment (or couldn't a month ago when I tried).
You cannot leave Australia (or couldn't until recently) unless you were going away for 3 months or more and asked the Australian Government for permission. Obviously this did not apply to politicians, well not some of them anyway. Some were using the temporary free travel to NZ as a way of getting out of Australia back in April/May.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/i-ve-escaped-aussies-use-kiwi-bubble-as-back-door-to-defy-travel-ban-20210422-p57lne.html
Camps are being built in Melbourne, Toowoomba & elsewhere;
https://twitter.com/DrP_MD/status/1451666159665881091
Please advise where the 'big lie' is.