Gorth

The vaccination rates varies a lot from state to state. Biggest problem in Melbourne and Victoria are the neo nazi and alt right organized "anti vax" rallies, but the vast majority of people now ignore them. A few thousand might sound like a lot, but not out of a pool of 5 million people in each city, with double vaccination rates approaching 90%. It's harder in South Australia, West Australia and the Northern Territory in particular, simply because of the geographical and infrastructure challenges. Much of it desert, rain forest or otherwise sparsely populated. Queensland is to Australia what Florida is to the US. The home of the local variant of Florida man. We call them bogans. Yes, they are meme worthy too, but any vaccine that doesn't come either disguised as a six pack of beer or has the word 'BBQ' on the packaging and if it doesn't get delivered by a 1970's V12 held together by sticky tape and chewing gum is suspect and the instinctive first reaction is rejection. Need no foreign stuff polluting a gene pool carefully cultivated through generations of inbreeding!

Basically what it says in the posters other thead: For the less Russian speaking people around.

Since I'm going to have company this Christmas, we're probably going to be hanging out a bit at my place, we already got tickets for some interesting theater performances (experimental theater, where the audience is in the middle of the play), visiting Australia Zoo in Beerwah (the place created by the late Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwing), doting on said friend's little 6 month old niece (and visiting the nieces parents I guess), getting a rental car and go for some rain forest walks in the national parks north of Brisbane, making BBQ at my place, getting drunk in cider and sake... so much to do and sooo little time. Edit: And a Merry Christmas to everyone around here, whether they celebrate it or not (I don't, but I won't turn down the opportunity to have a good time with friends either, as they don't my a grumpy old agnostic like me) Edit2: With the Omicron variant around in Australia too, I should probably stockpile on toilet paper before the holidays 😁

You are as bad as McCarthy area USA when it comes to BLM. You see them everywhere the same way the McCarthyists saw communists hiding behind each street lamp and behind each window curtain, ready to tear America apart! The word is 'paranoia' I think... in a society where poverty is a crime, sometimes punishable by death if you have the wrong skin colour and politicians threatens their children with the commies comming and taking them if they don't eat their dinner, people live fearful lives. Add to that a very badly functioning healthcare system for decades (one of the worlds most overpriced and inefficient ones), the lack of workers protection, the lack of security if you lose a job, making many people working 2-3 jobs at a time (making the statistics look nice, but in truth the US workforce is under-employed (and often grossly underpaid). Lack of mental health care. Lack of social welfare. Lack of higher education for large demographic groups... oh yeah, and also knowing that every weirdo who was never questioned about anything can buy an AR-15 and use for anger management purposes. https://www.quora.com/Why-do-Americans-live-in-fear You need a google or facebook account to read the related questions and anwers... Lets forget the silly, constant BLM boogie man for a moment and look back at 2016. Trump campaigned on fear. Fear of losing whatever manufacturing was left in the US, fear of immigrants, fear of Muslims, fear of empowering women and black people, fear of socialism (which was apparently everywhere as soon as daylight waned), fear of people taking your guns away, fear of a liberalization of society, fear losing status and prestige... and yes, he had this unhealthy, pathological obsession with Obama and Obama's popularity in particular It's almost like he made it his life's goal to destroy anything Obama created, being somehow an abomination in his mind. The better and more popular, the more effort was put into destroying it. **** envy much maybe? As for the bullet points: 1) The fear of "socialism" never left the McCarthy area (the 50's). It's like a cultural, collective memory thing, where there is absolutely no reasoning. If it gets labeled 'socialist', its inherently bad, regardless of any truth of such a statement. Truth is not important, the unreasoning fear is important (and exploitable by savvy politicians who keeps fanning the flames of fear in that regard). 2) Look at the number of unarmed black people killed by police compared to the number of unarmed white people? Look at the job opportunities in different layers of society? (not just burger flipping or garbage collection), look at how often people of various skin colours have been sentenced to life in jail or even executed after a death sentence, only to be cleared 20-30 years later by DNA evidence? I'll give you a hint, it's not white people who are dis-proportionally represented. 3) Unless something changes the current trajectory, yes, I think the US is perfectly capable of oscillating between the extremes until some government in the future does away with pretending and assume centralized executive power. Trump failed 2016-2020, but NOT for lack of trying. If not Trump in 2024, somebody else makes a case study of his presidency may succeed. Yes, Trump overtly supported (and was supported) by alt right groups and everything from right wing, armed militias over QAnon to The Klan.

I think I quoted all the important parts of your post... but since you already know the answer, why even bother with the question in the first place? 🤔 It's a society that spends a disproportionate part of its existence living in fear. Racism and McCarthyism is alive and well, even if it's 50 years past its best by date. To this outsiders eye, it looks like Trump got elected because he wasn't Hillary and Biden got elected because he wasn't Trump. Yet those are just symptoms of much deeper issues with a much longer history. In an atmosphere of fear, you have a fertile soil for demagogues, if history is anything to go by. Just lie, accuse, point fingers and blame anything and everyone for every woe, real or perceived (especially the latter). It's worked like a charm since the ancient Persians.

It's a long and complicated story 😂 No. We were never "partners". Nor "friends with benefits". She's the best friend I ever had though. The one you can share everything with and vice versa, you get to know inside out. She sort of dragged me out of a deep, dark place I was in about 5-6 years ago. She's half my age and could be my daughter, so no, never an "ex", just a really good friend.

Todays weather forecast for Australia (pictures from yesterday I think). Unchanged from the the stuff I posted in the weird and random thread a few days ago, it looks like it's going to follow this pattern for most of the summer (which is the other half of the year down here compared to you people up north): Warm weather in the west: And a lot of humidity in the east: Unless some yet unknown border restriction comes into place between now and the day after tomorrow, a friend of mine will arrive from Melbourne and stay at my place for a month. Really looking forward to it. Haven't seen her for almost two years, since the on and off lockdowns started. I better get used to not leaving the shower and the kitchen a mess when I'm done 😂

The Catholic Church... so removed from reality, always living in a state of denial! https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59626108 Italian church apologises after bishop tells children 'Santa does not exist'

I read a funny comment on Texas on one of the previously posted twits, something to the effect of the state the puts more effort into removing womens rights than fixing their broken power grid.

That brings back fond memories of cold winter days back in Denmark... resting first one foot, then other etc. on the Commodore 64 power supply on the floor 😂

From a comic artist named Trudy Cooper, residing in Australia. Some of her stuff is NSFW, but not all...

Finished Mieruko-chan episode 10 Short rundown. Hana's appetite is not just cringe worthy. It turns out it might actually be supernatural in nature. Yulia (the diminutive wannabe worlds greatest spiritualist) accidentally reveals she can see auras and Hana is glowing like a 100w light bulb in the dark, constantly attracting malicious ghosts, who chew away at her aura so to speak, hence her constant need for fuel. Miko want's to ask Yulia more about what she sees, but she of course still thinks Miko an evil overlord out for world domination and remember how she tried to choke her to death, so she runs off. In the park, a childish looking ghost tricks Miko into revealing that she can see him and comes for her. The shrine guardian from a previous episode intervenes and destroys the ghost, with an ominous warning "2", which Miko suddenly realises means, she's used 2 of the 3 extra lives shrine guardian offered her. She now decides she needs help, just constantly ignoring the ghosts is not a recipe for a long life...

I wonder if Nier: Replicant and Nier: Automata would qualify as watching anime?... they sure as heck feels like watching some very elaborate anime movies (complete with awesome soundtracks).

Watched Death Parade 2 & 3... Episode 2 was episode 1 seen from a different perspective. An (yet) unnamed woman gets let to the bar by a what I assume is a senior arbitrator. She is going to work as Decim's (the bartender) assistant (like an intern/trainee really). It shows how they experience from their perspective, what we, the viewers saw from the other side in the first episode. Episode 3 was a young couple, who had grown estranged since childhood and now suddenly realized, too late, that maybe they were meant to be together. Not exactly a "happy" ending (they are dead after all), but a lot less antagonistic attitudes all around. And now off to get episode 10 of Mieruko-chan which seems to have come out in the meantime

Australia really is a land of contrasts at times... West Australia today: East Australia at the same time:

...and to something a bit further from home... https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59582146 A senior Western intelligence official has warned that if Russia decides to invade Ukraine, a conflict could spill over further into Europe. Somewhere at the end, the article eventually gets to the point, what is it really about. It's a reverse Cuba crises. Back then, The US didn't want Soviet forces withing easy striking distance of the US heartland. Now, Russia doesn't want Nato within easy striking distance of the Russian heartland: Russia wants assurances that Ukraine will never be allowed to join Nato; that Nato members will have no permanent forces or infrastructure based in Ukraine; and for a halt to military exercises near Russia's border. Of course, not without a bit of hypocrisy... But the alliance has also made clear that it believes that Ukraine has a right to make its own decisions as a sovereign nation, and it is not willing to give Russia a veto on Ukraine's future. Cuba was never given the same courtesy of course, like being allowed to make it's own sovereign decisions about what happened inside its borders. Whats better than having a standard? Two standards!

No actual examples yet, because the law hasn't been passed yet. It's just the gist of the proposed law (and the background I provided above, what went before and lead to it)

It means you can legally refuse to hire someone who is gay for example, because it offends your religious sensibilities. It would be similar to refusing to hire somebody whose skin has the "wrong" colour being legitimate because it offends whatever values you profess to have.

A bit of background information... it all started with a rugby player who got fired from his club because he went on a hate rant on social media against the LGBT community. He sued his then employer for wrongful determination, because he did nothing wrong according to the bible and his religion (I'm not kidding, that was the basis of his claims) So, the Liberal party saw an opportunity to get back at the LGBT community because of the lost referendum in 2017, which the church handled very badly. Enter stage left, a new law that would allow to discriminate as long as it fits the narrative of your (the Christian) church and give it some fancy name like the Religious Discrimination Act, which is ostensibly about not allowing people to discriminate against religion, but in reality is a carte blanche for religious people to discriminate against minorities not to their liking. Because if something is offensive to the church, it's obviously discriminating against the church, right? So, lets give the church some added protection by allowing it to discriminate at will. They have since then watered down the text a bit, as it now does not allow doctors etc. to refuse to treat minorities, even in life threatening situations (which was possible in the original wording of the law), because if they were part of LGBT community, they were obviously sinners and it would be ok for medical staff to just let them die. That's The Australian Liberal Party and the Australian Church (bunch of hypocrite child rapists that they are) for you.

Since Gromnir brought up the subject of government overreach, the Australian Liberal Party is at it again. Smarting badly after their referendum defeat on same sex marriage, they have been investigating every possible avenue to suppress civil liberties and rights of the Australian LGBT community. Their latest escapade is ironically called the 'Religious Discrimination Act'. https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/australia-introduces-contentious-religious-anti-discrimination-legislation-2021-11-25/ I say ironically, because while they market it as being about not discriminating against people because of their (Christian) religion, it's in reality, if you've followed the story the last 4 years, a way to allow people to discriminate freely if they do it in the name of religion, effectively being a blank cheque for religious people to discriminate as they see fit. Especially targeting the LGBT community (as a payback for the "wrong" referendum results).

Janssen: (about Sputnik) "How did HE get here so quickly???" Pfizer: "He took a shortcut" 😂 The casting is great too, with the different types representing the vaccines 👍

I wonder what the little sign up in the right corner means... no Vodka or Balalaikas allowed on the premises?

Finished first episode of Death Parade. It's... different (in a good way). A young couple gets killed in a car crash at the start of their honeymoon and ends up in the bar. It takes a while for them to realize that the game (in their case, a game of darts) they have to play is serious and winner goes to heaven and the loser to hell. A few additional catches to the game, like each hit causes excruciating pain the other player. The girl reveals she's pregnant and asks her husband not to aim for any "belly parts" on the dart board. As the game progresses, the true nature of the couple sort of shines through more and more. Won't give spoilers as to what gets revealed, but at the end I was just sitting and thinking they both deserved the lift down...

Which reminds me, it's been a while since I last saw 'Event Horizon' (awesome movie, like an adaptation of the WH40K universe set in the near future)

You mean 'hard' evidence? 😇 Makes you wonder if it's the drug or the constant erection that lowers the risk of Alzheimers? Would watching porn all day long have the same effect?