Month: March 2023

Iraq War at 20

Imagine that, 20 years since Iraq II: Bush Boogaloo began and made the world safe for… something or other? This time next year, the Iraq War will be of legal drinking age in the US, it can go out and blootered with September 11… Meanwhile, in Canberra, the War Memorial is marking the event in an interesting fashion:

On the morning of March 18, 2003, Australia was on the brink of going to war in Iraq, and Dave Burgess was scaling the Sydney Opera House in what would become one of the nation’s most infamous protests. […]
Mr Burgess and his fellow protester, Will Saunders, set about painting “NO WAR” in giant red capital letters on the side of the Sydney Opera House.
“We just had a five-metre roller pole and stood at the top writing the words upside down,” he said.
“Ferries started honking, the climbers on the Harbour Bridge stopped, and you could see them staring across.
“I was just thinking about the imminent conflict and the number of people who were going to die and how global politics would be changed forever for the worse as a result.” […]
Two decades later, the Australian War Memorial’s (AWM) $500 million redevelopment will include a new Iraq War gallery.
The centrepiece will be a F/A-18 Hornet, the first Australian aircraft to drop a bomb in conflict since Vietnam.
Alongside it will be the red paint, paint roller and paint-splashed Dunlop Volley sneakers used by Dave during his protest, as well as one of the snow globes.

This actually looks like it could be a really interesting display, it’d be nice if I could actually get to Canberra easily to see it… Mind you, it was another line in the article that really struck me:

No weapons of mass destruction were found, yet the conflict lasted a decade and cost four Australian lives.

I mean, it also killed tens if not hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians (sources disagree), but who gives a fuck about them? John Howard blindly following the US into war caused four Australians to die, that’s what always really matters to Australian media… Grrr. (And I don’t think Labor wouldn’t do the same; Richard Marles says we’re not committed to help the US if they get in strife with China over Taiwan, but we will if it comes to that. Of course we will.)

It’s life, Steve, but… as we know it?

Stephen Hawking was a smart man, so much more so than myself that I don’t think you could begin to measure it. But something about this sounds… off somehow:

Typing on the computer-controlled voice system that allowed the cosmologist to communicate, Hawking announced: “I have changed my mind. My book, A Brief History of Time, is written from the wrong perspective.”
Thus one of the biggest-selling scientific books in publishing history, with worldwide sales credited at more than 10m, was consigned to the waste bin by its own author. Hawking and Hertog then began working on a new way to encapsulate their latest thinking about the universe.
Next month, five years after Hawking’s death, that book – On the Origin of Time: Stephen Hawking’s final theory – will be published in the UK. Hertog will outline its origins and themes at a Cambridge festival lecture on 31 March.
“The problem for Hawking was his struggle to understand how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly hospitable to life,” says Hertog, a cosmologist currently based at KU Leuven University in Belgium.
Examples of these life-supporting conditions include the delicate balance that exists between particle forces that allow chemistry and complex molecules to exist. In addition, the fact there are only three dimensions of space permits stable solar systems to evolve and provide homes for living creatures. Without these properties, the universe would probably not have produced life as we know it, it is argued by some cosmologists.

Continue reading “It’s life, Steve, but… as we know it?”

Trumped on Tuesday?

I still don’t know what to make of Lord Dampnut’s outburst from the other day:

… other than that I have a headache from trying to read all that shouting. The only verifiable thing in it that I can see is the bit about him being the former president, he is undeniably that… as far as I’m aware there’s been no actual confirmation that he will in fact be charged or anything like that in this case, and the “leaks” are probably from his own arse.

It’s the last sentence that bothers me a bit and makes me wonder if there’s going to be trouble in the next couple of days, and it’s not just me… and there is someone in that Newsweek article who reckons it won’t come to much cos Trump just doesn’t have the numbers like he used to, which seems to be true of his rallies at any rate… just concerned that he has enough ready to cause problems. I mean, when the January 6 uprising I can’t really say I was surprised that it happened. I am surprised, though, that there hasn’t been a follow-up to it yet, but I’ve been working on the assumption that the cult is waiting for the right moment…

Meanwhile, Mike Pence continues to inexplicably defend the orange dickhead:

“The idea of indicting a former president of the United States is deeply troubling to me, as it is to tens of millions of Americans,” said former vice-president Mike Pence, who is widely expected to launch a campaign for the Republican nomination in the coming weeks.

Personally speaking, the idea that a former president of the US may have committed a demonstrable crime and may get away with it cos the American legal system is too cowardly to do anything about him is rather more troubling, but that may just be me… certainly doesn’t seem to be Mike. Honestly, what the fuck is WRONG with him? I mean, Mike, I know you’re not exactly supporting Trump for 2024, but good grief, the cunt just blamed YOU for January 6… you remember that, Mike, that was the day a bunch of Trump’s cultists rocked up to the Capitol and called for your execution? Why are you standing up for that freak in ANY way when he fucking DESPISES you? I mean, no wonder he does, you’re a complete piece of shit and you should be despised, but goddamn man, have a bit of dignity…

Well there’s a shock

An Ivermectin Influencer Died. Now His Followers Are Worried About Their Own ‘Severe’ Symptoms.

Just before 7 am on March 3, Danny Lemoi posted an update in his hugely popular pro-ivermectin Telegram group, Dirt Road Discussions: “HAPPY FRIDAY ALL YOU POISONOUS HORSE PASTE EATING SURVIVORS !!!”
Hours later, Lemoi was dead.

Oy. Mind you, this dickhead wasn’t your ordinary Covidiot, by the look of it; he’d apparently been taking the veterinary-grade stuff for years before Covid-19 was even a thing… and though we know ivermectin does have applications for people (Lemoi took it for Lyme disease, which is something it is apparently quite good at dealing with), the version meant for animals is something else:

And according to the Missouri Poison Center, ingesting large doses of ivermectin formulated for animals has a long list of side effects, including seizures, coma, lung issues, and heart problems. Veterinary ivermectin is not a cure or effective treatment for COVID, the FDA has repeatedly warned, and is highly concentrated because it is designed for large animals like horses and cows. “Such high doses can be highly toxic in humans,” the FDA cautions.
“Danny was fully convinced that his heart had regenerated after his incident with Lyme disease that almost ended in congestive heart failure,” the admins wrote, before claiming that “a family history of heart disease and chronic stress” were why his heart had ultimately become engorged. “All of his other organs were unremarkable,” the admins wrote. “And this was determined to be a death by unfortunate natural causes.”

It appears that what got Lemoi in the end was his heart, which was apparently found to be massively oversized, which is one of the side effects from taking animal-grade ivermectin, and now it looks like his fanbase are getting worried about the same thing happening to themselves. But that might not be their only problem:

In the days since Rhode Island-based ivermectin influencer Danny Lemoi died, his 140,000 Telegram followers have continued to promote his dangerous medical advice—including the use of apricot pits to treat cancer, despite official warnings that this “natural remedy” can be fatally poisonous.
“If you’ve been told you have cancer there’s enough proof right here to give you hope,” Lemoi wrote in February under a picture of apricot seeds. “You too could be added to the list of cured people who took back their medical freedom.” In Lemoi’s Telegram channel “Dirt Road Discussions,” Lemoi, who was a large machine operator, recommended that his followers take doses of up to 30 kernels a day.
Apricot pits contain a chemical called amygdalin, which is sometimes referred to as B17, and for years has been touted by conspiracy theorists as an alternative cure for cancer. But when ingested, the chemicals in apricot pits cause cyanide poisoning, which can cause dangerously low blood pressure, liver damage, coma, and death.
“Claims that amygdalin can treat cancer are not backed up by research,” Cancer Research UK states on its website, adding: “It contains cyanide, a poison and can cause serious side effects.”
“Eating more than three small raw apricot kernels, or less than half of one large kernel, in a serving can exceed safe levels,” the European Food Safety Authority wrote in 2016. “Toddlers consuming even one small apricot kernel risk being over the safe level.”

Yeah, pardon me if I don’t shed any tears for shitheads like Danny Lemoi. How much damage has he done to these people that followed him…

I hate Melbourne Nazis

So Australia is currently being blessed by the presence of “Posie Parker”, noted hater of trans people, and for that matter, other women who disagree with her on that point:

Charming. Why Parker Posey hasn’t sued her out of existence for taking her name in vain is something I don’t understand (I mean, Ms Posey’s own track record is imperfect, apparently, but I don’t think that was anything more than one ill-advised joke; certainly not a whole career like her namesake).

Anyway, Mrs Minshull’s appearance in Sydney was comedically under-attended by all the accounts I’ve read of it, but her showing in Melbourne yesterday was… something else. Big turnout of protesters, but also these likely lads:

Now Pissy apparently has a track record of far-right extremists coming out in suppport of her, and her then not disavowing that support, so I don’t expect her to do that this time either. These blokes apparently came from Thomas Sewell’s National Socialist Network (Sewell being one of our prime boneheads with a history of violence, who basically got away with this a couple of months ago), there’s another photograph of this mob with him in it, and there’s also this guy:

…i.e. the one too stupid to wear a mask so no one could identify him; I saw someone claim to have done just that, and to have identified his dad, too… the latter apparently being a police officer. Some of those who work forces, etc. (This is literally the case with Sewell, by the way, who was in the Australian Defence force before he took up literal actual cross burning.) OBVIOUSLY I can’t fucking find where it was now, but they had another photo of someone who looked awfully like him doing the ‘Dolf with a dodgy-looking tattoo, so, for what that may be worth. [EDIT: found a video with some… damning footage of the day’s events, plus info on our blonde friend, who is this guy. Apparently dad has been suspended from the force for not disclosing young Nathan’s Nazi connections or his mullet.]

And what does the beloved leader of Victoria have to say about the whole thing?

Dan.
Mate.
With all due respect, THEY WERE WELCOME YESTERDAY. YOUR police were defending THEM, not the protesters. [See that video I linked above.] They were AT THE FUCKING PARLIAMENT, as you observe… oh, did I not mention that detail yet? That’s where this bullshit was HAPPENING:

Dan. Someone in your government decided this was an acceptable event to take place outside of your Parliament House. I’m sure whoever did that wasn’t expecting a band of fucking actual NAZIS to turn up, but Kels being there was bad enough. Here in Sydney we made her do her thing in Victoria Park, we didn’t let her anywhere near a fucking government building… Also, what’s that arrow pointing to…

…OH. I’m guessing this refers to the Australian branch of CPAC rather than the American one, but still, does local CPAC really differ from them in any way except the accents in which they spout their bile? Anyway, they’re clearly as happy to sling their hook with transphobia as the American one is… pack of cloacas the lot of them.

That’ll show him

Putin arrest warrant issued over war crime allegations

The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The court alleges he is responsible for war crimes, and has focused its claims on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
It says the crimes were committed in Ukraine from 24 February 2022 – when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Since the 24th of February last year, eh? And today is… *checks* the 18th of March this year. The ICC has had an awfully long time to make this futile gesture (because the ICC can’t actually arrest anyone and only has jurisdiction in its member countries, of which Russia is not one), hasn’t it, and I can’t imagine why they’re only doing it now… interesting timing at the very least given that Russia downed a US drone over the Black Sea the other day, I’m sure the two events are entirely unrelated…