Open mike 07/03/2021

Written By: notices and features - Date published: - 31 comments
Categories: open mike

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31 comments on “Open mike 07/03/2021”

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  2. 2
    • Thanks AJ. Great map. I usually visit COVID-19 worldometer.

    I think most people are getting tired of covid, including the PM.

    less compliance with level three this time. Not sure what can be done about it. We all need to remain vigilant.

  3. 3

    Borders will be gradually getting more secure with the vaccine rollout. The Govt will face difficult decisions and pressures for at least 1-2yrs to come on how to expand our contact with overseas countries.

    1. 3.1

      Yes – the current vaccination of border, and border adjacent, workers lowers the immediate health danger sharply. But the political pressure on the government is going to increase.

      They have already emphatically won the ideological battle over the elimination strategy, and their critics are reduced to pathetic catastrophising and finger-pointing over the minutiae of the execution of that strategy. But as the vaccine is rolled out, working out how, and how quickly, to dismantle our border controls will open up another front for political attack.

      The best hope is that enough of the public now have a taste for the safety and security of the elimination strategy, that they will want to see a similar mindset dominate the winding down of border controls.

    2. 3.2

      Opening the borders can only occur when a population has immunity or a vaccine which gives enough protection. There is still so much to be known about having immunity from a vaccine and immunity from having been infected with a strain of Covid-19.

  4. 4

    Who said humans do not have a hive mind?

    It’s mayhem at the shops in Auckland with enormous queues and busier than at Christmas time.

    1. 4.1

      As a newbie apiarist, I find comparing the zombies at the malls with the wonderful community that is bees, highly dubious. wink

      1. 4.1.1

        I can just sit and watch them leaving and arriving at the hive for ages. Hilarious how they evict the drones. It's a shame people don't treat property infestors similarly.

      2. 4.1.2

        Bees go out to collect stuff that satisfies the needs of the collective. It is productive activity.

        Humans go out to collect crap that satisfies the needs of the individual. It is destructive activity.

          1. 4.1.2.1.1

            Addiction fuels a need and a need fuels an addiction. It was horrendous, carparks that are normally empty were chocker and the queues at check-outs were miles long. And I’m not referring to supermarkets. It was crazy.

  5. 5

    changing the subject from Covid19. Months ago Donald Trump predicted someone would try to steal the recent US elections. He was correct.

    Thankfully people stood up to him and stopped his cynical attempt to pervert democracy and steal the election.

    I am surprised no trump supporters are claiming him to be a clairvoyant, predicting he will try and steal the election months after he stated such

      1. 6.1.1

        The "Great man" referred to is Woody Guthrie. The bit quoted, starting with "That" was out of Guthrie's song Pretty Boy Floyd. So the piece given is by Bob Dylan who is quoting Woody Guthrie.

    2. 6.2

      Bob Dylan? He should stick to writing songs.

      Just the other day I was sitting in a radio studio waiting for a satellite arrangement abroad to be set up. The engineers were putting together interviews with Bob Dylan from about 1966-7 or so (judging by the references), and I was listening (I’d never heard him talk before — if you can call that talking). He sounded as though he was so drugged he was barely coherent, but the message got through clearly enough through the haze. He said over and over that he’d been through all of this protest thing, realized it was nonsense, and that the only thing that was important was to live his own life happily and freely, not to “mess around with other people’s lives” by working for civil and human rights, ending war and poverty, etc. He was asked what he thought about the Berkeley “free speech movement” and said that he didn’t understand it. He said something like: “I have free speech, I can do what I want, so it has nothing to do with me. Period.” If the capitalist PR machine wanted to invent someone for their purposes, they couldn’t have made a better choice.

      —NOAM CHOMSKY, June 1994

      https://chomsky.info/199406__/

      [link fixed]

      1. 6.2.1

        Sigh

        You figured that you’re thinking about Bob Dylan is what Noam Chomsky is thinking about Bob Dylan? So, you Googled it and found that brilliant quote that nailed it?

        As to possibly your only own original words in your comment:

        Bob Dylan? He should stick to writing songs.

        Brilliant, utterly magnificent! Such a wonderful and original contribution. Can I ask, as opposed to what Bob Dylan is doing, today or in 1966-7 or so?

        BTW, I fixed your link. It was as useful as the rest of your comment.

        1. 6.2.1.1

          BTW, I fixed your link.

          Thanks Incognito! Much appreciated. yes

          It was as useful as the rest of your comment.

          Ouch. crying

          1. 6.2.1.1.1

            Well, let’s be fair here, it did not contain one original thought or opinion from you, did it? In fact, it was just another ad hom, albeit an indirect one. You earn more respect and make for better conversation here if you were to actually put some analysis into your comments. That applies to a few other regulars here too, BTW.

  7. 7

    Horrifying, tragic': The world's worst coronavirus outbreak

    It doesn't help matters that President Jair Bolsonaro — who has downplayed the pandemic and its consequences almost since it began — continues to do so, railing against face masks and telling residents to "stop whining", 24 hours after 1910 people died from the virus in a single day.

    "How long are you going to keep crying about it?" the far-right leader said at an event on Friday.

    His conduct, Sao Paulo governor João Doria told the BBC, means that "Brazil has to fight, at this moment, two viruses: the coronavirus and Bolsonaro virus. This is a sadness for the Brazilians".

    I remember we had a commenter here, James I think, who praised Jair Bolsonaro.

    Still, despite the far right wing evil in charge of Brazil I do take issue with the headline. They are doing better than Britain by some margin. So what does that say about Boris Johnson?

    Covid-19 deaths/million:
    Brazil – 1238
    UK – 1826

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/brazil-battling-worlds-worst-coronavirus-outbreak-as-mutant-strain-spreads/TBKBC56ZCGVNU6EZDHIBO65UTE/

    2. 7.2

      Though the West has largely forgotten it, there was a time when political leaders felt obliged to cultivate and display sensibility.

      That we often derive sorrow from the sorrow of others, is a matter of fact too obvious to require any instances to prove it; for this sentiment, like all the other original passions of human nature, is by no means confined to the virtuous and humane, though they perhaps may feel it with the most exquisite sensibility.

      Adam Smith – his economics were not his main work.

  8. 8

    Bolsonaro is not able to show empathy for the gravity of how Covid-19 is affecting the population or the impact that it is having on the health service.

    Were Bolsonaro to require hospital treatment for Covid-19 he would get a bed in a prestigious hospital and he would have access to experts. He would have a high chance of survival compared to most people.

    1. 8.1

      Were Bolsonaro to require hospital treatment for Covid-19 he would get a bed in a prestigious hospital and he would have access to experts. He would have a high chance of survival compared to most people.

      Mmmmmm. Sounds familiar. Was there another RW self absorbed President in the same continent that this happened to?

      1. 8.1.1

        He already had it, in July last year:

        Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for coronavirus.

        He took the test, his fourth, on Monday after developing symptoms, including a high temperature.

        Mr Bolsonaro has repeatedly played down risks of what he has called the "little flu", saying he would not be seriously affected. He has opposed lockdowns, which he says hurt the economy.

        Brazil has the second-highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths in the world, after the US.

        https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53319517

  9. 9

    Money can't buy you love apparently!wink

    https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018786463/why-happiness-doesn-t-cost-any-money-at-all

    …Solomon Islanders are able to produce their own food, to make their own shelter and have strong communities.

    "They have the elements that we see in satisfied wealthy countries that make people satisfied but the thing is they achieve those without money and importantly with very low material needs, so they have low environmental impacts."

    Solomon Islanders are able to produce their own food, to make their own shelter and have strong communities.

    "They have the elements that we see in satisfied wealthy countries that make people satisfied but the thing is they achieve those without money and importantly with very low material needs, so they have low environmental impacts."

    What have they got that we haven't? Perhaps we should adjust our thoughts – my suggestion is stop watching television etc. Read a book of fiction? Let someone tell you a different story than your usual. Go to a film – get out in the community. Make sure we keep the one we have.

    Oh damn. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/437846/pop-up-globe-files-for-bankruptcy

    1. 9.1

      Try a little garden. My gherkins this year were showing a lot of potential in my limited garden, lots of flowers and then curled up and dried gherkins. Not enough bees pollinating the male and female flowers. There is next year to get it right.

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