Monthly Archives: December 2021

Big Brother will now have a younger sister

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Here’s a book I am unlikely to read: George Orwell’s estate approves retelling ‘1984’ from woman’s point of view. The title is to be Julia.

Julia you will recall was Winston Smith’s lover as part of a plot designed to outline the nature of a totalitarian state in which the past is erased and recreated at every turn to suit the government’s narrative of the moment (“Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia”). It’s been a while since I read the book, but the bits I remember were the two minute hate, the thought police, Room 101, Big Brother and Newspeak. Not to mention Emmanuel Goldstein. Actually I remember quite a lot about I book that so far as I know I read only a single time and that when I was in university, possibly even in high school. Anyway, a very very long time ago. An amazing book although I have seen movie versions of the story. It’s part of the language, although it seems today to have in many ways become a how-to book.

The book was not a love story, and to the extent that Julia figured in the plot it was only to demonstrate the massive power the state holds over its citizens. This is a brief bio of the proposed author:

Sandra Newman is the author of the novels The Heavens, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, and The Country of Ice Cream Star, longlisted for the Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction and named one of the best books of the year by the Washington Post and NPR, as well as several other works of fiction and nonfiction. Her writing has appeared in Harper’s and Granta, among other publications. She lives in New York City.

This is a description of one of her books: The Heavens.

A work of rare literary brilliance and emotional power, The Heavens is a mesmerizing novel of love and dreams that moves between a reimagined New York City and Elizabethan England and asks how our world comes to be.

A depressing thought that one of the great political classics will now be deprived of all interest in what will almost certainly be a feminist treatment since no doubt Winston Smith was not the perfect companion and broke many of the latest views of boy-girl relations as 1949 will be seen today. Of course, the book might be written using Peng Shuai as the model for Julia.

But I thought this comment in the discussion at Instapundit explained quite a lot of why this is happening.

1984’s copyright expired 1/1/21 so it’s not clear that the foundation could have done much about this anyway.

Might go and re-read the original. Re-read Brave New World a few months ago and ended up writing an article that has been submitted for publication. I wonder what surprises there still are in Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Socialist Left taking over Victorian Labor

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That’s what the headline should be. This is what we find instead: Dan warned over party bloodshed which completely misleads any potential reader about what is going on. Here’s the sentence that matters.

The administrative body – controlled by Daniel Andrews’ Socialist Left faction … is looking to oust several “internal enemies”.

“Oust several internal enemies” means getting rid of soft left Members of Parliament to replace them with members from the the hard left. Further down the page we find this:

One Labor MP said people in the Right targeted for destruction would be forced to leave the party because they “are being accorded no right to exist”.

Party bloodshed is just what Andrews wants. Socialism is the natural home of the stupid. Utter fools. Other than, of course, the leaders of these factions, who are predatory wolves who know how to politicise their way to the top.

We will definitely not decarbonise if it means that the cost of energy has to rise

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The Global Warming Fairy Tale appears to be wearing thin: When The Costs Hit Home, Nobody Will Give Up Fossil Fuels. A fascinating article that says what its title tells you it will say but in a very nicely put way. This was especially well put.

So, as the costs of attempting to “transition” away from fossil fuels start to hit home, will anybody actually go through with the project? I think that the chance of that is about zero. China and India show how it works. To judge by their actions (rather than their words), they have long since figured out that solar and wind energy can’t succeed in running a modern economy, so they mouth empty platitudes to placate the Western zealots, make unenforceable promises that only come due after everyone is dead, and forge ahead with massive development of coal power. And even more telling are recent developments in Western jurisdictions. When the first hint arrives that fossil fuel restrictions are going to impose cost increases large enough for meaningful numbers of voters to notice, even the bluest of blue U.S. states take about three minutes to abandon their “decarbonization” promises.

There are people who believe it is true, but who are they?

Everywhere — or at least everywhere in the Western countries — government functionaries with degrees in English or Political Science (or maybe Gender Studies) issue edicts that carbon emissions will be reduced “50% by 2030” or “90% by 2050,” without any knowledge or understanding of how that may be accomplished.

Undoable and therefore will never be done.

The collapsing covid narrative

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What are we to make of these? First: More Vaccines, More Covid: Why are Case Rates Exploding in Areas with High Levels of Vaccination?

And then this: Two More German Footballers COLLAPSED Unexpectedly In The Same Match!

And note especially the word “more” as in “two more”. There are many such instances which until now have been entirely unknown.

“Scientists” say all kinds of things, but it’s someone else who is collapsing.

AND THEN THIS: Report Shows Nearly 300 Athletes Worldwide Collapsed or Suffered Cardiac Arrests after Taking COVID Vaccine This Year – Many Died.

The report begins:

It is definitely not normal for young athletes to suffer from cardiac arrests or to die while playing their sport, but this year it is happening. All of these heart attacks and deaths come shortly after they got a COVID shot. While it is possible this can happen to people who did not get a COVID shot, the sheer numbers clearly point to the only obvious cause.

The report ends with this:

That is the current list … all these athletes have suffered heart problems after COVID shots. At the time of initial writing, 28 died. That was not normal, but then, 10 days later, 56 deaths were listed, and the numbers are climbing. Any other real vaccine would have been pulled off the market long before now. The media would be asking questions. They would be pressuring governments. But they are not. And governments are continuing on and running TV and radio and newspaper ads encouraging people to get their 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th shot.  Perhaps that is why the mainstream media are saying little, because they are collecting government money for ads?

“Former US president Donald Trump was right …”

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Now there were words I have not seen in any newspaper anywhere, possibly ever. Yet there they are in today’s Oz in Adam Creighton’s column: I caught Covid and it was no big deal – providing a perspective equally rare in this day and age. Here’s the full sentence:

Former US president Donald Trump was right last July when he pointed out that encouraging people to be tested when they weren’t especially sick was a waste, inflating the perceived risk of catching the virus, not to mention the financial cost and the disruption to the lives of close contacts.

The article goes on to point out just how astonishingly wasteful this expenditure has been.

The US has conducted more than 620 million tests since the pandemic began, even more per capita than test-obsessed Australia. At a cost of a few hundred dollars each, when the whole chain of Covid ticket clipping has been tallied, that’s more than $US100bn spent on testing in the US alone.

$US100bn!!! And as pointed out, the PRN test has massive numbers of false positives. But as he also points out, the true positives are almost nothing to worry about either.

The virus is already rampant in the US, as it is practically everywhere else. Does it matter if someone flying to the US has Covid when practically half the country already has had it? In short, got Covid, who cares.

Ran into a friend on the street just yesterday who almost first up told me he had been vaxxinated and will get the booster in January. After all, he said, I don’t want to die. I suppose not, but who wants to live in such morbid fear either? I will conclude with this from Adam’s column, which is my own conclusion as well.

It has been 21 months of rolling restrictions in what can be described only as the greatest, and arguably one of the most destructive, obsessions in world history given the economic and social chaos governments have caused. We urgently need to move on.

“Urgently” is putting it mildly.

“Just zip it Andrews…we have had enough of you”

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I think Daniel Andrews is finally beginning to see what a screw up he has been and how tragically he has mangled the response to Covid. Of course, he doesn’t put it quite that way: Andrews declares Covid response a ‘triumph’. From the article:

Daniel Andrews has declared Victoria’s response to the pandemic has been a “triumph” but has conceded his government has made mistakes in its handling of COVID-19.

And then he gnashes at the ungrateful sods who fail to appreciate his towering genius:

“We’ve got some people who just can’t find it in themselves to say ‘well done’ and to speak out against extremism.”

As a completely clueless buffoon, he reaches astonishing heights.

More broadly, Mr Andrews argued it was state governments, and not federal ones, who now play a more consequential role in driving the economy and improving people’s standards of living….

Mr Andrews said states now oversee the “big levers of productivity” including health, education, energy and infrastructure, which will drive future economic growth.

“The big drivers of our standard of living and our quality of life, productivity and therefore people’s prospects, sense of security and options in life … are all run by the states now,” the Victorian Premier said.

“It’s the main game.” 

This is from the man who has left the state a financial wreck and taken Melbourne from The World’s Most Liveable City to a barren wasteland. But he does now say this.

But Mr Andrews – who presided over the world’s longest lockdown in Melbourne in an effort to quash the virus – admitted his government’s response to the pandemic hasn’t been flawless.

“I wouldn’t want anyone to think we regard our pandemic response across the board as having been perfect, he told former Labor campaigner Stephen Donnelly.

Not flawless, was it? As noted by the first 15 “Most Liked Comments” out of 620:

Victoria under Daniel Andrews has become a tragedy – for those people who never vote Labor, but worse still for those of us who entrusted him to the role of Premier of our state. Power has gone to his head and when he is not trumpeting his triumphs he resorts to lecturing those who are opposed to him. He has become addicted to power and control so he needs to be removed as soon as we can do it. You cannot argue with individuals like this who have become so fixated on their own self preservation. The only option is to vote them out as soon as the opportunity arises.

I am so over him using the word extremist to describe everyday Australians voicing their opinions. Thousands upon thousands demonstrating against him for weeks and no arrests, no damage and no injuries. Where are the people getting hurt dan? Do us a favour and release the data used to inform your restrictions instead of wasting taxpayer dollars to keep it hidden.

Just zip it Andrews…we have had enough of you.

Triumph of incompetents I would say.

In light of the terrible misery, sadness, divisiveness and lack of accountability experienced in Melbourne and Victoria over the last 2 years, triumph is the last word I would think of, let alone apply to this most hopeless of Premiers and State of Governments. We deserve so much better. #VoteThemOut

The bloke is utterly deluded. Most deaths in the country Most locked down Most debt etc etc etc History will not be kind to the current government, that is for sure. But the question is, how much damage can this bloke do to the srate between now and then? The ‘polls’ say he’s leading by a majority, yet only one person (my mother) says she’ll vote for him again. And I cannot remember the last time anyone had anything positive or nice to say about him. What a 2 years !

It’s this sort of shameless arrogance that enrages long suffering Victorians even more.

No-one believes any of the pathetic Daniel Andrews spin.  He has been atrocious as the leader of the ALP in Victoria and his constant hidden agendas are despicable. The worst premier of any Australia state.

Where is that health advice premier?

Just shows he has no idea.

My goodness! What does failure look like then?

Destroying long running businesses due to forced lockdowns is not a triumph.

Andrews doesn’t want to know that thousands of Victorians are marching every week to oppose his dictatorial government. His ego can’t stand it.

If it has been such a triumph, why can he not be interviewed by regular media or speak with regular Victorians? He hides away and cannot face regular Victorians. And we are told he is popular? 

Andrews and his mob need to be voted out next election. Anyone who thinks he did a good job during the Corona virus saga cannot be serious. Vote this mob out !!!!

There are lots more just like these with this the most on the money:

So under Dan’s watch:

1.  Victoria had 67% of all COVID deaths in Australia.
2.  Victoria had 60% of all COVID cases in Australia.
3.  Melbourne has recorded, so far, 263 days of hard lockdown – a world record.
4.  No responsibility from anyone for the 2020 hotel quarantine fiasco despite an inquiry and millions of dollars spent on lawyers for Govt. ministers and the Premier.

If that’s “a triumph” well . . . 

Worst premier ever is how he will be remembered.