Best Batman takes

Matt Y has been repeatedly tweeting sarcastic takes on Batman (due to the new movie) and I agree entirely.  (Although I would go as far as saying I don't care for the character in either campy or dark modes.  It's just an inherently silly concept.)

Poor medical outcomes in remote aboriginal communities

I watched the 4 Corners show last night on aboriginal deaths from rheumatic heart disease in the remote community of Doomadgee.   

This is a difficult issue, as the individual treatment the three women received appeared inadequate.  (Although, it should be noted, there was really not enough detail provided to make confident assessments of what was going on.)

But - there was absolutely no contextualising the difficulties of providing good medical treatment in those communities.   And perversely, Aboriginal leadership (and locals) crying "racism" - as they did repeatedly on this show - as the root cause is not going to help.  It's already hard enough to get medical staff to work at remote aboriginal communities, because they are isolated, often socially dysfunctional, and dangerous.   Throw in "and the locals will riot and call you racist if they think you caused someone's death" and you are only going to exacerbate the staffing problems.

I mean, there was frequent reference to the ill women being assessed at night through a metal grill at the hospital.  Was there any attempt to explain why these places have to be run like that at night?  No, none at all.  

This is a well known problem, and the ABC has at times run stories on nurses who bravely try to work at remote locations.  (In fact, I heard one story again on the radio today.)   And here are some extracts from an article in BMJ Open last year:

 

As I said, this seems some really important background if you're going to talk about cases involving poor outcomes, even in individual cases.   

Update:   I think I should also have added - given that the problems of working in these remote communities are well known, it would suggest that those who nonetheless try to give it a go are far from racist.    

Conservative blogger watch

As far as I can make out, over years of reading, Currency Lad is about 50 and never been married.  I wonder if he ever wonders why:

  

Less than optimal

This is a pretty surprising image to see out of Sydney, where (apparently) you can lose your car to a flood while on top of a high bridge above other water:

 

Sounds like an interesting, if depressing, read

At Slate, a review of a book about the incredible scandal that is Alex Jones and the Sandy Hook "truther" movement.   Just an appalling situation that it has taken so many years for the American system to deal with. 

Some random notes

*   Forgot to say during last week's flood event - doesn't anyone question the number of private pontoons that are allowed on the Brisbane river?  I mean, the last big flood taught us that they need to be super secure or else they cause havoc downstream, but this time there seemed to be dozens nonetheless careening down the river.

*  I couldn't believe some of the stories from Hertz in America, where they report a car stolen if a credit card is knocked back when someone rings up wanting an extension.   Then years later, hapless renters can be arrested even when they know the card payment later went through and the car was returned.   Just hopeless administration, probably worsened by having so many different states with different laws complicating matters further. 

* You want to know about an academic who seems to be a one person grievance industry?   (I think Greg Jericho, who I think is sensible on most things except trans matters, re-tweeted - them? - complaining about the ABC doing something apparently wrong when referring to drag and trans during the Gay Mardi Gras telecast).  Here are some selection from their (I think that's right?) twitter account:

And yet, I still don't think the West is militarily weak and swooning for Putin and Christofascism is the way forward.

*  Speaking as I was of the Brisbane River - it makes no sense whatsoever that my city, with its shallow, flood prone river, and big but shallow bay with one deep channel through it, should be being considered at all for a new defence base for nuclear submarines, as I heard on the radio this morning.

*  Trump, being an idiot, all over again.

*  Helen Dale, writing about the Ukraine war on 28 February, makes some bad calls:

We now know that not only does Nato lack the capacity to intervene militarily on Ukraine’s behalf, but it also can’t even impose effective economic sanctions. Germany is so dependent on Russian gas that, while Western powers work to suspend Russia’s participation in the SWIFT international banking system, Germany has won itself a special carve-out, otherwise it won’t be able to pay Gazprom and German grannies will turn into popsicles next time there’s a cold snap. ‘We are currently seeing the downsides of a sovereign nation constructing a barrel-shaped pipeline and then obligingly bending over it,’ Bond observes drily.

She should stick to esoteric fiction.

 

What, indeed...

Update:  lots of people saying this was a big exaggeration for propaganda purposes.  All the same, it's a worry to hear of any military engagement anywhere near nuclear power plant.

I'm feeling more convinced that internment camps for key members of the Murdoch family and all of Fox News is warranted

 

Superyachts considered

Am I alone in this?   When I see pictures of Russian owned "superyachts" that look like this:

 or this:

my thoughts run to "why does anyone want to own something that looks a mini cruise ship anyway?"

I mean, they must cost a mint to operate (although maybe that can be charged to a company?), but seriously, who has that many family and friends that they can entertain on it and make it seem inhabited?    I imagine most of the time they are far from fully occupied, and feel kind of empty and wasted.

And if you let people you don't know well take a holiday on them, as some sort of reward for hard work, or for sleezy deal making, don't you get problems with bad behaviour?

 

That was hard

I lucked out and got Wordle today, but gee, it was a hard one.    

More of the same

There are storms and heavy rain passing through Brisbane this morning, but it seems more like the "normal" fast moving storms...so far.  Some big wind damage at Beerwah, north of Brisbane, they were saying on TV this morning, but without any images yet.

The news from Ukraine is sort of moving slowly now, it seems, making the doom scrolling feel a bit tedious.   (Makes it sound like I'm demanding more disaster so I can be more engaged with twitter - sorry.)   

Anyway, on the up side, even if it is sort of taking some pleasure in negatives:   seems to me a lot of people are over Stan Grant's weird positioning into some sort of soft-ish left wing contrarian, willing to entertain the "it's the West's fault that they've gone all squishy liberal and can no longer understand salt of the Earth conservatives like Russians".   Bernard Keane's been a strong critic of Grant and his fatuous writing:

And his free to view article on Crikey is pretty good.

Gray Connolly has copped a lot of flak for his SMH article too, which I didn't bother reading as I've already decided he way, way over-rates himself as a pretend historian.   He's just too full of conservative Catholic biases to be taken seriously.

Oh, and I just looked at Twitter and see this idiot making a deeper idiot of himself:

Update:   Bernard Keane mocks John Pilger as a Putin apologist, too.  (And from the photo in the article, Pilger could now pass for the decrepit as John Laws now.  Not a good look.)

Anastasia comes out looking OK

Just noticed this tweet, which I would say is very effective (and super efficient) in explaining to the public that rail services in Brisbane (and elsewhere) are out for good reason.

 

I also think she presents very credibly during a natural disaster like this. 

Day 3 of no power

At least (one of the) fridges got cleaned out.  I'm pretty sure that if this hadn't happened, in 30 years time, my kids when dealing with the last of their parent's deceased estate would have have been throwing out egg whites in a plastic freezer bag from 2012.  

Update:  power's back.  Yay.  (And ancient frozen egg whites collected in the rubbish today.)

Rainfall records break, and floods follow

Graham Readfearn in The Guardian notes:

The Bureau of Meteorology has been checking the rainfall data from the floods in south-east Queensland, revealing a string of broken records and a stunning amount of rain.

In the six days from 23 to 28 February, at least 33 places recorded more than one metre of rain, including an astonishing 1.77 metres falling at Mount Glorious, just east of Wivenhoe Dam that helps reduce flooding in the city.

Parts of south-east Queensland and north-east New South Wales had at least 2.5 times their average rainfall for the month, with some areas getting five times the average.

In Brisbane, 792.8mm fell into the city rain gauge over the six days to 9am on 28 February, which is above the previous six-day record of 655.8mm set in January 1974.

For the first time ever, the city had three consecutive days when more than 200mm fell. Before last month, there had only been eight previous days when the city had seen more than 200mm in one day.

The BoM national manager of climate services, Dr Karl Braganza, said this meant the city had received almost 80% of its annual average rainfall in only six days.

In northern New South Wales, several places in the northern rivers region had daily totals above 500mm up to 9am on 28 February.

Braganza said preliminary analysis of rainfall in Lismore, which is currently inundated, suggested more rain had fallen in the town than the previous record in March 2017 when the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Debbie passed through.

As I've been noting for years - climate change and its effect on rain and floods was the massively disruptive and costly effect that was not discussed enough in early talk about climate change, and just imagine how much worse it may get with another .5 to 1 degree temperature rise.

Oh look, two stooges

 

No power (continued)

It seems the estimate for the repair time for power to houses in my neighbourhood has stretched out to Friday!   I know this happened to other houses in my area in the 2011 floods (5 to 7 days with no power), but my particular neighbour only lost it for one day.  Hence we were not particularly worried when it first went off yesterday morning.

Now, a friend has lent us a generator.  Noisy, smelly things they are.   But I think the idea is to run them for a couple of hours to get the fridge cold, then turn it off for an hour and don't open the fridge.   We have eskys and plenty of ice too.  And a gas stove (yah).  

Speaking of gas stoves, I know they are getting so much bad PR for their health effects now, but I'll put on my populist "it didn't affect me, so it can't be so bad" hat now and mention that I grew up in a house with town gas and therefore a gas stove top and oven, in a rather small three bedroom house in which I sometimes shared with older brothers who would smoke in bed.  (!)  I have now lived in a house for nearly 20 years with a gas stove top from bottle gas. 

No one in my family (6 siblings, and parents) ever suffered asthma or any lung disease*.  Neither of my kids (now adults) suffered asthma.  Same with allergies to anything (which I mention because of asthma's connection to allergy.) 

Is it because I live in a warm climate, where kitchen windows are nearly always open during cooking?   But my life experience is not consistent with "gas is really bad for health".

Anyway, back to the floods.   This report concentrated mostly on suburbs on my side of town, so I'll put it here.    

 

The estimate of the number of houses affected seems to be about 15,000 to 20,000. 

But the Lismore flood is more remarkable - highest known historical flood exceeded by 2m! I mean, that's really incredible.

 

*  Whoops - I forgot that I had included both parents in that explanation, but my father did die of lung cancer.  However, he was a life long smoker who gave up only a few years before the cancer was diagnosed.   All of my brothers eventually gave up smoking - I think by their 40's at the latest.    

Amusing

 Here's a question:   why does Murdoch, or anyone with their head on right, consider Piers Morgan a "star".   He's always been shallow, and I have always found him instantly dislikeable.    

By the way, Morrison did turn up in Brisbane yesterday afternoon, and did an underwhelming TV appearance.   I think everyone seeing it probably thought "you're only here because of Hawaii."   Amusingly, I didn't see his visit even covered on the evening news, which I'm sure must have irritated his minders a lot. 

What a disgrace of a Party

 

This is the thing they are talking about in relation to the GOP:

Notice: due to Graeme, comments are in moderation

I'm sick of having to constantly delete Graeme Bird's anti-Semitic conspiracy comments, which are at full blown fever level due to the situation in Ukraine. 

So all comments are going into moderation for now.

Floods, again

Well, seems I'll be living through the third major Brisbane flood in my life time.  It has been extremely wet in the Western suburbs today, and the promised move of the worst of the rain band to the south of the city just never seems to happen.

More news tomorrow...

 

Update:   Anyone who has lived in Brisbane for a long time would agree the weather yesterday was very unusual.   We're used to storms that whip through in the space of 30 minutes to an hour, dump a huge amount of rain, and are gone.   What we don't see much is systems that produce thundery slow storms that hang around for, like, 6 to 9 hours?  The rain just kept coming yesterday, with only occasional slow downs in rate.  Mostly, steady heavy rain with bursts of "torrential".

As with 2011, it's kind of weird.  If you can get to an unaffected suburban shopping centre, you wouldn't necessarily know how bad the flood affected parts are going.  But roads are cut everywhere:

The flooding in my area (which is close to the river) is not a high as 2011, but there are businesses and houses well under.   Unexpectedly, the power has gone off at home due to flood damage.  (As per 2011, when it was off for a day.)   But other streets not far away still have power, which seems odd.

 

I have read someone saying that it was a record 3 day rainfall event, but haven't seen that confirmed yet.

 

Anyway, what a weekend for doom scrolling - floods and the threat of nuclear war....

 

 

Just too stupid

This is just breathtakingly shameless and deeply stupid.   Yet brainless partisanship is on full display in the comments...

Most went with "Hawaii"

....with Jen and the girls, of course.

Update:  There are so many memes of this sort being created, it must be irritating Morrison...

More idiocy noted

So, I wonder what made Tucker Carlson start to walk back his pro-Putin performance art?   A self realisation it's untenable when images of dead and distressed civilians turn on TV?  A Murdoch family member telling him to wind it back?

But of course, he's not the only one now trying to square supporting Putin but not his war.   

Of course, Dinesh would be completely on board with the wingnut Right's "moral" panic (actually, it's more like a group psychopathology) about there being no Real Men running the West anymore.  

This guy makes the obvious point that no fatuous " but if only the West had shown some strength" complainers never mention:

Queer libertarian very concerned with masculinity

I thought Helen Dale, self confessed Ukraine expert, would have some bad take related to the war there.

She didn't disappoint:

 

The photo, she fails to explain (but one of the tweets following does) is from a 2015 article about how there was some consternation that some ROTC members (college cadets) had done this walk event as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, without authorisation.  

Yeah, a real crisis of masculinity (and damning evidence that the entire US military is just emasculated weaklings now) on display there.  

Why are libertarian types so obsessed with masculinity?   Even queer ones like Dale?   

Beyond the pathetic culture war take, she seems to also be in on the "let's have my cake and eat it too" camp -  juggling "don't get into wars you can't win" with "the West is just so weak now" in her vacuous head.  

 

Yet more in the series: Australian Christofascist watch

How depraved is this, from supposed Catholic Currency Lad:

A revanchist pseudo-Czar only gets one Joe Biden in a lifetime and Vladimir Putin has had his. The two men are equals, morally, but Putin has an edge – only measurable by micrometer, granted – for sincerity. I don’t believe the United States can survive as a recognisable iteration of itself if Biden remains in office till January, 2024. Compare this situation to, say, 1982. Had Ronald Reagan become incapacitated in that year, George H.W. Bush was ready to step in. 

In the next paragraph, he says that there is no point in committing Western troops to the battle, as there is no "serious prospect of success".  

So, it would have been wrong for any President to go to war over this, but he's sure that a Reagan (or Trump - with actual runs on the card for never wanting to commit American troops to a Euro war) would have just had to puff out their chest and Russia would have meekly left?   It's such a fantasy land they live in. 

The only constant is their self-serving inconsistency

I'm not sure how many on the wingnut Right actually agree with the extremes of the Tucker Carlson line, which  is to effectively advocate the West doing nothing at all - not even sanctions - against Russia and Putin. (He declared weeks ago he was "on Russia's side", and is telling his fans to be very, very upset when sanctions lead to more expensive petrol.  A real American patriot.) 

I mean, we all know many of them admire Putin for culture war reasons, but I still think the majority know it's not a good look to actually shrug your shoulders (or make clear your support) for unprovoked military excursions of this kind.

So I think the more common line is to not offer an endorsement of the invasion per se (Morrow, Connolly, the execrable Brendan O'Neill) but to nonetheless run the line "ha, the West is so weak, decadent and absorbed in identity politics it was like an invitation to Putin",  while simultaneously being a supporter of Trump and his America First isolationism.  

They want the West (or Europe alone, who knows?) to be both "strong" and sabre rattling, while simultaneously always complaining about how bad the neo cons were for getting involved in unnecessary wars that ultimately failed.  Here's the motormouth Brendan O'Neill today, for example:

Weak Western leaders like Joe Biden pose as the saviours of the Ukrainian people while making it clear that they won’t take any firm action to actually defend Ukraine. Putin is picking up on this incoherence, and exploiting it, says Brendan O’Neill

Here he is in 2008:

Military interventionists, both of the "neocon" and "humanitarian" variety, never learn. Over the past 10 to 15 years, not a single one of their interventions has delivered democracy to a tyrant-hit hotspot, or liberated a people from bondage. Instead they have inflamed and intensified conflict and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. And yet, blinded by the narcissistic and deluded belief that they have the power to free people from tyranny, both left-leaning and rightwing interventionists continue to call for more "wars of liberation", for one more chance to prove that their bombs and bloodshed really can spread freedom around the globe.

This is what decades of culture warring does to the brain - it doesn't matter  if your political "enemy" actually agrees with you on what to do to a present problem - you just shred consistency and strawman your way into "it's all your fault, always."  

 

PS - another example that is irritating to watch - the praising of Trump for telling Merkel she shouldn't be dealing commercially with the Russians, while ignoring the fact that Trump spent years trying to get a hotel in Moscow, and lied about still actively trying to do so during his first Presidential campaign.    

 

Trump and Nord Stream

Fox News and the conservative set like Gray "there's always a way to blame liberals" Connolly (and gormless James Morrow) have excitedly been reminding people of the clip of Trump complaining at the NATO summit in 2018 that Germany shouldn't have gone with Nord Stream 2 because it would become too reliant on Russia, as if this shows some remarkable Trumpian prescience.

But, for once, Trump's concern wasn't some completely new (and crackpot) idea.  (Although it may well have had more pure commercial self interest at heart than he predecessors had.)  Here's the start of an opinion piece in Foreign Policy in 2018 defending the pipeline:

Other articles point out how the project has always been controversial within Europe - and note the Obama administration was encouraging concerns:

“A number of other EU states are getting pretty vocal about the fact that the implications are much bigger than just Russia-Germany,” John B. Emerson, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, told POLITICO in Berlin, stressing political divisions on the project both within Germany and the broader European Union. “We continue to push our concerns about Nord Stream both at the EU level and with Germany.”

The Obama administration’s attempt to influence the debate seems to annoy Berlin.

“Some things the Europeans need to decide for themselves,” Peter Wittig, the German ambassador to the U.S., told reporters last month in Washington, noting that the Americans have “taken up some of the fears of other European countries.”

So congratulations, Conservatives, your orange oaf had one legitimate concern that wasn't entirely a fantasy of his own - but it was still irresponsible to threaten to walk away from NATO over it.   (Which, if I recall correctly, he did in private, if not in public.)   That threat in fact clearly shows why Putin wanted him as President.   The Trump election and American culture war is still paying dividends for Putin, if national unity and resolve matter in foreign relations.  

 

A modest proposal: internment camp for all Fox News staff and those in the Murdoch family who run it

I mean, honest to God, we have never seen anything like this in my lifetime - the poisonous stream of continuous propaganda of a major American "news" operation so determined to blame and vilify at every opportunity a sitting US President and his party that it will blame and undermine him for the patently unwarranted military aggression of a nasty dictator like Putin.   

While you can never expect complete political unity in terms of American use of military power, this isn't even a case of it being used, or threatened!   

I'm just flabbergasted that it seems to be of no concern to those who own Fox News that their top rated "star" is literally repeated on Russian TV as a propagandist on Putin's side.   

Now, you might say that it doesn't matter what Russian citizens think, it's not as if they have influence on Putin anyway.   But it surely encourages Putin himself - he knows there is an American company so willing to make money by pandering to his side of the culture war that it will propagandise for him and for the return of the President who literally wanted to walk out of NATO completely.

In short, Fox News works against the security interests of America and Europe and deserves to be shut down.   An internment camp is the minimum they should endure.   Either that or permanent residence in Russia.   

Update:  add this Christofascist to the permanent holiday in Russia list as well.

 

Some context

This guy seems to know what he's talking about:

 

Effective tool already loosened - sounds like good governing to me

News from Canada:

The Canadian government began lifting a freeze on more than 200 bank accounts linked to recent protests in the country, officials said on Tuesday.

As many as 210 accounts holding nearly $8 million collectively were frozen under authorization from the nation's Emergencies Act, which was invoked in an effort to quell protests against COVID-19 restrictions, Canadian Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance Isabelle Jacques told a parliamentary committee, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) reported...

Some conservative members of Parliament have said constituents reported that holds were placed on their accounts after they donated to the protests, according to the CBC.

But the RCMP said it only provided banks with the names of convoy organizers and the owners of trucks who had remained in the protest zone in Canada's capital city of Ottawa, the CBC reported.

According to the CBC, Jacques told the parliamentary committee that the financial measures in the Emergency Act were designed to put financial pressure on protesters to go home. She said it was unlikely people who donated small amounts to the protests would be captured in the freezing of bank accounts, but not impossible.

"It's not impossible in view of the order, but in view of the exchange of information and the focused approach that was taken to stop the illegal funding of these activities, it would appear to be unlikely that this occurred, but not impossible," she told the committee, the CBC reported

As far as I know, there was one claim by a conservative politician that a "single mom" had her account frozen over a $50 donation - but no actual proof that this was true.  The politician refused to supply her name, and (as far as I can tell) offered no proof.

It would not be at all surprising if it was a lie from a wingnut.

Update:

All use of the Emergency Law is over:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is revoking the use of the Emergencies Act, the powerful legislative tool that was deployed in response to protests and blockades that erupted in Ottawa and at border crossings over recent weeks.

"The situation is no longer an emergency," Trudeau told a news conference.

"We are confident that existing laws and bylaws are now sufficient to keep people safe."

The Governor General signed off on the revocation on Wednesday afternoon, which formally ended the state of emergency.

 Wingnuts will have to find something else to hyperventilate about. 

Some decent takes

Update: William Saletan's well deserved attack on Tucker Carlson is worth reading.

Update 2: Rupert must be so proud:

Oh to be a fly on the wall during the breaks in the trial

I'm talking about the Ben Roberts-Smith defamation trial, and imagining the sort of discussions that might be being had between his barristers and him during breaks.

Because, really, it's impossible to believe they would not be wanting to say to any other normal client "this is a disaster, you need to cut your losses now".   Instead, what are they saying?  

Waiting for how they'll factor this in

It's pretty hilarious, really.

Pro-Trumpy conservatives:  of course Putin wouldn't have tried this under Trump; he wouldn't have dared.

Next day:

Trump:  Hey, brilliant move on behalf of Putin.  Really smart, a lot to be admired there.   

(Of course Trump then claims Putin wouldn't have done it if he was President - that is just his basic incoherence and lack of self awareness kicking in.)

As noted on Twitter:

True.

I note in the Australian Christofascist Right, the shell of a former conservative who years ago could write well and cohesively confirms his descent into wingnut madness.   Currency Lad and his admirers cannot be debated or reasoned with, because facts stopped mattering to them years ago* - and when democracy gives effect to cultural changes they don't like, the problem they perceive is with democracy itself.  Hence he's decided the whole of Western Europe is "not my friend".   I get the distinct impression he thinks Putin rolling in on tanks over the entire continent would be only mildly regrettable, and overall a good thing for their culture war objectives: after all, like them, he doesn't like the gays, is not keen on abortion, promotes conservative Christianity, doesn't think vaccination in any sector should be compulsory; and and is highly motivated to burn every last bit of fossil fuel. 

The only amusing thing about this is that their extremism means they are left without any political party to follow - everyone has failed them - and they can't see that the problem is that they're the ones who have created the problem by moving into a their own fantasy world.   

 

 *  the list of false or risible factual claims in that post is just so long - and it doesn't matter to any of his admirers.

 

Can we change the law to allow deportation for being "an embarrassment to journalism"?

James Morrow, being pathetic, again:

Yeah, sure, sure.  Nothing speaks louder in terms of support for Ukraine than getting on the phone to them and saying you need a personal favour against a political rival before you'll release money for security.

And here's a longer article about Trump trying to reduce the effect of congressional sanctions on Russia.   Here's one from 2017.  And this article indicates the number of Russian sanctions went down under Trump. 

 

Of course he's not concerned

It is of no surprise to me that Dover Beach, the pro-Christofascist who runs the nuthouse support group New Catallaxy, is into excuse making for Putin:

[I will add further that this is an example of the classic, morally empty, "whataboutism" that is so beloved of the Australia pro-fascist conservative Catholic bloggers.]