75 thoughts on “Friday’s Papers”

    2. scottser

      I took the day off to cut the grass and crack on in the garden but sure its for the ducks.
      What to do on a day like today?

      1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

        Are ya home alone ? Turn up the music you are never allowed listen too make yourself an indulgent heart stopping noshup, have a long bath with the door open, run around in the nuddie and crack open a beer

        1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

          then report back and allow the rest of us to live vicariously through you Scottser of Broadsheet

          1. scottser

            I’ll probably do the hoovering cos the place is a kip. I got bb king live at the apollo and a fresh copy of John mayall ‘s ‘beano’ album with Clapton on vinyl recently, so Ill crank that up and see how I get on ; )

        1. scottser

          I have a telecaster body that needs to be lacquered and a set of ludwig drum shells that need to be stripped..

          1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

            I read,I have a telecaster body that needs stripped and thought now we are getting somewhere

          2. scottser

            Ah, I’m not alone today so I can’t be running around in the noddy. Bit chilly for commando still.
            Do we still make a thing of Breast Monday on here? It won’t be long now..

          1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

            +1
            as an owner of a pair of tits I stand by my right to call my funbag/ puppies however I choose

    2. f_lawless

      Ah here,

      To quote the Lancet study:

      “Although reported COVID-19 deaths between Jan 1, 2020, and Dec 31, 2021, totalled 5·94 million worldwide..we estimate that 18·2 million . people died worldwide because of the COVID-19 pandemic…
      ..further research is warranted to help distinguish the proportion of excess mortality that was directly caused
      by SARS-CoV-2 infection and the changes in causes of death as an indirect consequence of the pandemic.
      “

      So it never even claimed “18 million died of the disease” as the the Guardian quote would have us believe.

      On top of that, the Lancet study conflates “the pandemic response” with the “the pandemic”. It’s important to distinguish between the impact of SARS Cov 2 itself and the reaction to it . Much of the public health interventions (or lack thereof) advocated by corrupted scientists/institutions and imposed by equally corrupted/weak politicians have caused a huge amount of damage.

      Dr Peter McCullough, the world’s foremost scientist on early treatment protocols estimates that “85 per cent deaths in the US could have been avoided” had the health authorities not suppressed effective early treatments. Instead, much of the world was subjected to devastating pseudo-scientific, ineffective lockdown policies under the false pretence that it was warranted until the experimental vaccines arrived.

      By April 2020, the UN was warning that 130 million people in developing countries would be pushed to the brink of starvation by the end of the year as a result of the knock on economic effect of continued lockdown polices in the developed world. Then there was the shutting down of other medical services – missed cancer screenings, and all the rest. The cruel isolation imposed on nursing home residents greatly increased the numbers dying early from loneliness. Oversensitive PCR tests not fit for the purpose of diagnosing infectiousness, had a huge negative impact on the quality of medical care available to patients in need. etc etc…

      1. Nigel

        But ‘indirect consequence of the pandemic’ could be a tiny number relative to deaths directly caused by covid for all you know. If one old person died of loneliness then lockdowns were wrong, even though thousands died in care facilities before governments worked out what they were doing wrong. And all those supposedly suppressed treatments simply didn’t work. I’ll take our lockdowns and restrictions however miserable over the US where something like a thousand people are dying every day. Wonder what damage that will inflict on their society, or is it a sacrifice you’re willing to make for capitalism?

        1. Broadbag

          Interesting analysis f_lawless, but ”Dr Peter McCullough, the world’s foremost scientist on early treatment protocols” is quite the claim!

      2. Grain of terror

        Any word back from the fantastic Dr. Mcullogh regarding the black tie Dinner yourself and SOQ invited him to? I heard he only charges 40,000 a head.

      3. Nigel

        ‘Hong Kong’s Hospital Authority (HA) has asked the public to understand its difficulties with saturated mortuaries amid the city’s Covid-19 crisis, as an image of bodies lying next to living patients on a hospital ward surfaced online.’

        https://hongkongfp.com/2022/03/11/covid-19-hong-kong-hospital-authority-urges-understanding-as-shocking-photo-emerges-of-bodies-stored-on-ward/

        Are the mortuaries saturated because of the pandemic or the pandemic response, d’you think?

        1. f_lawless

          Classic Nigel,. rather than engage with any of the points made, we get an emotionalised red herring response.

          I was recently re-reading this Covid-related article from Jan 2021 by Sinead Murphy, Associate Researcher in Philosophy at Newcastle University,
          https://dailysceptic.org/the-tyranny-of-public-health-response-to-devi-sridhar/
          and in it there’s a reference to

          “an outline of the emergent citizen of Western democratic societies who willingly participates in and perpetuates their own oppression at the hands of global corporate governance,….

          ..the defining characteristics that make the populations of twenty-first century democracies so ripe for control:.. are: infantilisation, emotionalization, and relativisation.

          [This archetype], as model citizen of modern democracies, is childlike, sentimental, and eminently prepared to relinquish heretofore absolute values.”

          To be frank, it’s clear that there’s more than a few commenters on Broadsheet who fit that bill.

          1. Nigel

            !. That was my second response. You skipped right over the first.
            2. Emotion is not infantile.
            3. Concern about mass death, its causes, effects, and methods of dealing with it are, I would argue, absolute values of any covilisation worthy of the name.

          2. f_lawless

            1. Sorry for missing that comment. The truth is I don’t read all your comments due to your phenomenal comment rate.

            2.”Emotion is not infantile”
            I didn’t say it was. I’m saying that in the context of complex, controversial political issues like public health policies or war, if you habitually react to events first and foremost in an emotionalised way, then you’re hampering your capacity for critical thinking and discourse and are more susceptible to manipulation.

            A sign of infantilisation, for example, would be contenting oneself with the government’s self-congratulatory claims that lockdowns have been successful despite the wealth of empirical evidence two years down the line to the contrary. Or buying into the top-down, simplistic narrative that figures standing in the way of Western hegemony are best understood as crazed, irrational evil-doers.

            3. No one’s going to argue that concern about mass death, its causes, effects, and methods of dealing with it wouldn’t be fundamental to a civilised society. But, for example, in the Covid era when governments were imposing non-evidence based and completely disproportionate measures like domestic vaccine passports which divided society as never seen before on the basis of a medical procedure, shutting people out of various aspects of public life, fundamentally undermining human rights and setting a terrible precedent in the process, the reaction of some was to mockingly say things like “Covid doesn’t care about your inconvenience” or “Muh freedums”. As quoted in my comment above it’s a sign of people who’ve succumbed to “relativisation” and are “eminently prepared to relinquish heretofore absolute values.”

          3. Mad

            Well ain’t that the truth what you said about broadsheet commenters f-lawless.

            I can’t agree your overall point about the coronavirus though. The reality is that the Irish emerged with the third lowest excess mortality rate in Europe during the pandemic. It’s a straight calculator- save lives from this or what was the alternative / watch our awful health service collapse. I’d say your arguments are well intentioned because you are a good person who seeks the truth. But they are also one sided and disingenuous

    1. Tom J

      There would be no one left, most of the older generations would be dying of natural causes. The younger generation would have no one to cook and do their laundry for them, so they would die of hunger.

    1. Trustin Judeau

      gutter journalism

      “Here we are now with a man who just lost his entire family – how does it feel?”

      1. Fearganainm

        “So instead here in the studio we’ll be going over to a spokesperson from the Russian Defence Ministry who’ll explain that these deaths never happened.”

  8. goldenbrown

    reminder….
    the loss of Chelski and the UK stuf are give or take a mere 5% of a haircut for Abramovich

  9. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

    Quand une guerre éclate, les gens disent : Cela ne durera pas, c’est trop bête. Et sans doute une guerre est certainement trop bête, mais cela ne l’empêche pas de durer. La bêtise insiste toujours…

    Albert Camus, La peste (1947)

      1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

        I won’t embarrass myself with what little German I remember, enough to say I have blue eyes, enjoy tennis and I’ll meet you at the crossroads….

          1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

            with the divil himself

            When a war breaks out, people say: It won’t last, it’s too stupid. Without doubt a war is certainly too stupid, but that does not stop it from lasting. Stupidity always persists…

            Albert Camus, The Plague (1947)

          6. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

            my biggest regret is getting such a crap start in Irish, our school gave it the lightest of perfunctory nods, my parents didn’t speak it at all and I had to work hard to play catch up later on, so despite loving languages I have a bit of a mental block with the language of our forefathers, is mór an trua é.

      1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

        oh god when he eats that cake on the train..I can’t handle people chewing at the best of times, it stirs murder in my heart.

        The 1947 novel “The Plague” by the French Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus, tells the story of the residents of the northern Algerian port city of Oran, who struggled against the plague for a year. Even if the epidemic and Covid-19 at that time are not comparable, and neither are the medical conditions, there are striking parallels to the 1940s, the perception of the situation and the handling of it.
        The doctor Rieux, who witnessed the plague from the start, steps out of his apartment and stumbles over a dead rat. In a short time, however, the dead rats spread everywhere, leading to the realization that the entire city has fallen victim to the plague . First the rats die, then the humans. Dr Rieux is committed to the necessary hygiene measures and does not hesitate to continue medical care even in the worst times of this catastrophe. He follows the medical ethos and sees the preservation of the physical integrity of his fellow human beings as his professional and humane purpose. HOWEVER he does not judge those who hold other views. He encounters representatives of different ways of reacting and acting to illness and dying. 

        It’s been a bestseller during the pandemic in France and I thought this quote shows it now to also to be pertinent to the war, the plague being an allegory of the Nazi’s occupation of France.

  10. gringo

    Meehole martin strides the world stage like a veritable colossus, threatening to send the feared Irish Army battalions to the Ukranian border, or maybe he means the Yukon. His SNA should call him back in for his tea.

    2. Me So Harney

      @TerrapinTimmy

      No, the photo is not fake.. The codswallop enters via “according to an official..”

      1. TenPin Terry

        I was actually being ironic.
        Lady TenPin and I were travelling all day between two fleshpot sun-kissed islands in different oceans yesterday so missed most of the debate over the staged preggers photos.
        Seems a couple of posters flounced off Frilly-stylee over BS’s line on it.
        The thing is even if you don’t agree with it at least allow this site to pose legitimate questions.
        There are few enough places in Ireland which don’t indulge in Establishment group-speak as it is.
        And if you’re going to clear off don’t be a drama queen about it.
        Just slink away with your tail between your legs.
        Like Papi.

        1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

          I can’t remember where I saw this quote this week but it has stayed with me
          ” we don’t live in a democracy, we live in it’s echo “

          1. Janet, dreams of an alternate universe

            X’ntigone by Darren Murphy, coming to the Abbey, it came to me

  12. The Millie Obnoxious™

    So I’m away off to sunnier climes for the weekend. See yas, suckers!

    xoxo
    Gossip Girl
    Millie

    2. TenPin Terry

      Great timing Millie with de cold snap like.
      It’s 27 degrees here and we’ve not even had brekker yet.
      Must get up for a dip in the pool.
      Marvellous™

  13. Verbatim

    I was disappointed to learn that DuckDuckGo is “down ranking Russian disinformation” , who asked them?
    Will look into Searx as an alternative. Decenteralization is the only way.

    Meme: TrustTrustGone

    2. benblack

      They were never trustworthy – duplicate default non-private settings for browser extension and search engine – go figure.

  14. U N M U T U A L

    Meta Crisis…?

    Facebook and Instagram to temporarily allow calls for violence against Russians

    March 10 (Reuters) – Meta Platforms will allow Facebook and Instagram users in some countries to call for violence against Russians and Russian soldiers in the context of the Ukraine invasion, according to internal emails seen by Reuters on Thursday, in a temporary change to its hate speech policy.

    The social media company is also temporarily allowing posts that call for death to Russian President Vladimir Putin or Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in countries including Russia, Ukraine and Poland, according to a series of internal emails to its content moderators.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-meta-platforms-idCNL3N2VD40U

    1. Broadbag

      Well, that’s disgusting and wrong. I also saw a fairly revolting video report from a BBC journalist on Twitter last night which purported to show dead Russian soldiers lying in the snow on the frontline, unblurred. There’s no way they’d do that for UK or US soldiers, the hypocrisy is out of control (but don’t let that distract from the fact that Russia is the aggressor here).

    2. Ian - oG

      Disgusting but not surprised, Mark Fooperburger is utter scum and has zero empathy.

      Plenty of terrified young Russian soldiers wondering wtf they are doing there who are going to die….

      ;(

  16. SOQ

    Well well well- this IS interesting.

    Face of Sweden’s lockdown-bucking Covid policies takes WHO job- Anders Tegnell has been hired as a vaccine co-ordinator.

    Sweden’s top epidemiologist, who became the face of the country’s lockdown-bucking Covid-19 strategy, is leaving his job to take up a senior role at the World Health Organisation, officials have said.

    https://www.thenationalnews.com/health/2022/03/10/face-of-swedens-lockdown-bucking-covid-policies-takes-top-who-job/

    An old saying comes to mind- it is better to have them inside peeing out than outside peeing in. That is him gagged so.

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