The App

"Pretty good really they just won world war three without firing a bullet.
Now the scary thing is that theyre in the process of buying up all the stockpiled
oil and other world wide commodities. I call this stage Two.
Clever little rats."

evosurfer 8.39pm Wed

Blindboy.....did we just encourage a “ rape of Nanking “ style atrocity at the local Pork Hunt restaurant ?

Rooooaaar!

Would it have made a difference if Evo had have said cheeky little monkeys?

Yes , Zen, it would have made a difference.

Blindboy would be so apoplectic with rage that his fingers would be slipping on his keyboard from all the spittle foaming from his mouth.

And I would have found it even more amusing.

Got to watch you , Zen . You’re a clever little rat !

Ratbag if you don't mind.

This just went from funny to weird.

I just realised that I’m laughing at the internet equivalent of the special needs bus.

I'm just mucking around BB.

And for the record, I often call my wife a cheeky monkey or sneaky little tanuki and in turn she calls me her naughty aussie kangaroo. I love it when she says 'fucking japs'. It's a running joke when our favourite restaurant is packed.

Anyway, i'll cease and desist because i can see your point. Again, it's all in the language- words can hurt.

I'm still trying to figure out where Evo called all Chinese people rats.
At every step he was clearly talking about the Chinese government, from an economic and military point of view.

So you're saying words can hurt, Cromwell?

I think Cromwell has left us and taken to his Facebook.....

Facebook= surveillance capitalism.

no thanks.

Been on a Blainey binge the last few weeks. When in twenty years time I look back on COVID, my recollections will be reading his work. Powered through his big ones, plus his recent memoir, and last week started a biography on him.

Read a chapter last night about his 'Warrnambool Speech' and the resulting fallout, and it was staggering to realise that it was 1983. It could've been this very year. Parts of it could've been swiped from this very thread.

Stu....care to give us a brief summary , draw some relative parallels and ascribe an opinion on the issue ?

Over the course of a few speeches and articles in 1983, Blainey mentioned that the rate of Asian immigration had been getting ahead of public opinion. His words had to be taken as an objective analysis, he was a thorough researcher with an eminent academic standing and, at the time, large public presence owing to 'Triumph of the Nomads' and 'The Tyranny of Distance' both of which became Australian standards.

So we have to assume it wasn't bias, just an academic reporting facts, however there was a journalist in the audience at the Warrnambool speech who subsequently wrote an article - and won a Walkley! - for an article with the sub-heading 'Too Many Asians'.

The journalist ascribed an opinion to Blainey that he didn't offer anywhere in that speech, and the story was front page for days, plus dragged out across current affair shows, talkback radio, the whole lurid circus.

Blainey didn't back down but kept trying to make the point that govt policy wasn't matching public sentiment.

He was in turn set upon by uni students who kept trying to deplatform him (and they did), while his arguments were distorted across the press, and some fellow academics wrote a letter to denounce him. Even Patrick White asked him to step down from the board of a charity that White funded.

There is much more, but you get the gist: Controversial statement made, debate shut down rather than encouraged, reputation run through the mud as a racist and a bigot.

Keep in mind this was the guy who just a few years earlier wrote 'Triump of the Nomads', which championed the ingenuity and complex social systems of Aborigines.

My opnions?

It's hard not to see Blainey as a bit naive, a bit tone deaf to public feeling at the time, and this increased when he kept doubling down.

I also believe, as many punters have said above, that words do have consequences.

However, the way it was handled was, I thought, straight out of the New Left playbook. Except this wasn't the New Left, this was 1983.

So I guess my opinion is that Blainey's statements should've been tested and debated in an open and just manner.

I also think that he was a victim of swinging public perception. I've said it before but it's pertinent here, political and social mores swing like a pendulum. For nearly 100 years, Australia had the White Australia Policy and once it was removed it was almost as if Australians had to overcompensate for that chapter. It made rational debate impossible: anyone who questioned carte blanche immigration was considered to be Arthur Calwell incarnate. The pendulum had swung from one side all the way to the other, and it clocked Geoffrey Blainey along the way.

Also, as a sidenote: In his subsequent research, Blainey found that post-war immigration to Australia - i.e the waves of Greeks and Italians - wasn't as harmonious as he first thought. Though they ultimately settled in and the scheme was succesful, it was met by much resistance from Australians.

In fact, most Australians preferred Chinese immigrants to Greeks or Italians.

Stu with inflammatory statements like that, if Greeks and Italians start getting bashed, it's on your head mate.

There's a bunch of students with placards picketting near my letterbox right now.

Not sure about the Greeks , but Australians had been swapping bullets with the Italians not so long beforehand, that might have accounted for some of the animosity.

Thanks for the reply. Always appreciate what you’ve got to say.

So everyone downloaded the App for the sake of our front line health workers and most vulnerable?

Deloitte are US accountants employed by Fed Govt to smooth out online GovID.
They write constant (Very Current) reviews on Govt spending, some say steer it!
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/au/Documents/covid-19/del...
They deliver Govt Report Cards...like as if they're running the show! [Tick!]

Naturally tbb went searching for Covid -Safe review by these Govt Technocrats.

No corporate review or working paper but their nerd had a bloody good crack at it.
29 April ...Tech Guy Robert Valk expertly walks thru the whole app set-up...
https://platform.deloitte.com.au/articles/contact-tracing-apps-can-we-tr...
A good workout... impressive decoding doubles as a bloody good default manual.

Thought it best to share for research...found one of tbb's missing Singapore links.
Links are solid & it's cool how he plays it down to give something for everyone!

Note tbb will soon link other reviews...just that this one best reflects Govt ambition.
Dare say it's up to speed & maybe a step ahead of our Govt...great insight!

Is that crickets................re the App?

Dunno about crickets, but Freeride has a lovely frog app.

Cool anecdote, Stu. Did Blainey or his guys delve into how this 'public perception' was (in)formed?

Seems like the elephant in the room that then bit him on the arse.

Tone deaf? Naive? Useful idiot?

I guess the parallels with 'wogs' post-war, and 'asians' in the 80s, is with the 'fucking vibrant scum' now?

Thanks to what maybe the same frog app I can report a pobbledonk in the nearby creek. Also known as the Eastern Banjo Frog.

"So everyone downloaded the App for the sake of our front line health workers and most vulnerable?"

You can include that as a reason if you want but it's just one small aspect.

Probably the most important reason to dowloaded the app is for yourself, friends and families benefit, it sounds selfish, but if everyone downloaded it for themselves it would benefit everyone.

Downloaded it if:

1. You want to have a chance of Australia getting rid of the virus or at least control outbreaks
2. Dont want to be in lockdown or don't want to be in lockdown again in the future.
3. If you want to be able to see business open again and people regain their jobs (etc hospitality industry)
4. If you want to help/minimise negative economical effect
5. If you want to travel again
6. If you just want to see life go back to as normal as possible as quickly as possible.

Im sure there is many more reasons.

Haha Indo..... Why didn't you stop at 1? I'll tell ya why.. Because its become part of your psyche that you and everyone else must comply to live the life you once knew.

The agenda at work.

I downloaded the WimHof APP instead

The agenda at work.

Because number 1. is only a one piece of the pie and wanted to highlight that.

Yeah 100% i want to live the life i once knew, everyones life have been affected, especially if you live in Victoria, i still cant go fishing and my daughter is still home and home schooling isn't fun, its not my area of expertise.

My best mate new business is shut down and he is hurting, i dont like to see people i care about suffer.

As for your recommended App, im sure its great, but its not going to help with this pandemic the way the COVID-19 app is, and i dont think it's realistic for the government to start promoting every private business app that may or may not have health benefits.

BTW. Are you Jim Banks?

'I downloaded the WimHof APP instead'

You're brave for admitting that in a public forum.

Misapprehensionable

Part 4 - (Limitations)

It's illegal to release the app with no informed consent to use of personal data.
No contract terms, conditions, dates, operation, repair, Ombudsman or (Code!)
Imagine if any of the crew tried the same caper for a Covid App...be in jail by now!

'ALL' experts agree that it's faster & less expensive to locate hot spot viral offline.
All agree more lives will be saved if PM's play money stayed in frontline Health.
Women are fearful of batteries running low during Covid -19 battery rise.

Please stop this bullshit of a hero app saving lives..(Where? No evidence at all.)
100% can swear the exact opposite is true...& all the crew know that!
If tbb took off inland with virus no app could ever track me..Aboriginal tracker Yes!

Google / Apple: "We'll sort the app by mid year after 2 more rogue Hot Shot apps!"
Look like a flamin' drongo arguing with the Dingbatz wot fucked it up already.

What if these Geeks could miraculously crank up Covid Safe for a day or two!
Of what use would it be & could it track the most virulent hot spots & populace.

tbb put together a real basic starter Checklist..ain't nothin' fancy.

O/S visitors (Nope) ...Different distancing settings / Phones ...PM said Useless
Interstate visitors (Nope)..State Govt Health Privacy Act say they won't share.
Intercity or Regional visitors (Response is too slow-weeks, a free tissue voucher?)
Queue Hot Spots (Nope) Front of queue spreads to whole queue. App ?? Doh! ??
Mix & Match Phones (Nope) It tries hard but Aussie Triangulation is too pissweak,
Same Phones in front of screen< >background. (Nope) re: pissweak Triangulation.
Cheap Phones (Nope) Too Pissweak
Old Phones (Nope) Too Pissweak
Most of these come from the side of the Govt's Cornflake App pack!...durr!

False Positives
CBD apps are known to ping > 50m
Passing Car (Ping)
Innercity Apartments (Ping Ping Ping...Ping)

Honestly! tbb hasn't spent long researching...so use this is as best case scenario!
This sad & sorry list is in it's infancy...way more blanks to fire.

Experts agree at best maybe effective for 1% for each 10% of Population (Uptake)
Oz now sits at 2.5m of 25m. (Oz should demand 1% app compliance or sack PM)
note: Tech guys never accounted for half of list for very generous 1% true hit rate.

Workers say stress caused by false alerts is more damaging than disease.
We are talking serious hospitalisation for near death shock factor.

Obviously a larger stress on already makeshift Health Staff...Please no more! STOP!
Scomo tours frontline..."Here's yer Robo Debt champ...what's this flatline thingy.."

Oz State Public Health Units also warned of this...
PS: Health staff were instructed to download, but Union says they can't be sacked!

tbb is no phone owner but reckons 99.9% app fail is classed as a Poll Boost. (True!)

Not sure of the source of this video but it's the first time I've seen Lego used for propaganda.

Yep it is only one piece of the pie Indo, but it's the centerpiece or hook, which gets individuals, organisations and govt radically supporting and defending any dictatorship. If you can get people through fear of an invisible enemy (heard that one yet?) to voluntarily give up their freedoms and become reliant on you, how good is that (if you are that way inclined). Reliance is the ultimate control... If I pay you, you do what I want. If you want to go surfing, you do what I ask. If you want to open your business or stop yourself from closing down, do what I want.
What about stop smoking, then you can go to the beach again.. How much does that clog up our health system..

This app might seem like a logical part of the solution under the circumstances... But it is just the start.
The evidence is there that this increasingly centralised and global regime does not want individuals listening to Hof or icke or others, let alone themselves to become self aware and all mighty powerful beings in our own right.. How many billions ($) get poured into medicine and research yet we still find ourselves in a shit show with high risk, low immunity, scared, anxious and vulnerable masses... There is not a cent put towards promoting accessing natural and accessible means for building immunity and long term resilience. Let alone  How many yoga studios, naturopaths, masseure's, dojo's, etc have shut down along with your mate, all while we're told it's in our best interest to do so and be 'safe' until a centrally developed and issued vaccine gets here to save us... Head slap shaking head emoji.
And PS, not bagging some of the miracles of medicine and ER. 

Re Sunet yesterday. on Blainey - Agree -probably a bit naive -
H2O commentedTUESDAY, 14 MAY 2019 at 3:08PM
"I agree GS. Immigration policy should be reflective of a nations needs at the time and implemented objectively with an eye on possible social and economic outcomes. This view was propounded by Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey several decades ago .He got no thanks for it from some at the time, being labeled a racist but hey, its a free country .

Question for all- what should our immigration policy be when millions of people living in the delta regions of Asia and the sub continent and also islands in the Indian and Pacific ocean are displaced by rising sea levels and are looking for a home? Presuming you believe this may happen of course. It would ,I submit be prudent to think it may.

BB,

I only read Evo's comment as being an attack on the Chinese government. How could it be any other way? The Chinese public couldn't have made the virus, they couldn't be buying up oil surplus. Plus, it's patently false, the Chinese economy is down nearly 10%. They're hurting too.

And anyway, why is it that when you attack Russian meddling or American imperialism does the same judgement not apply?

You've got a tendency towards rigidity, which is fine in itself, yet when you don't agree with someone, it sometimes leads you to accuse them of sins that simply aren't warranted. Again, you don't see that so you'll deny it, but I'm typing it because it's what you do.

If you disagree with Blowin's points then put them out there. I'll do my best to stop any ad hominem attacks, from both sides.

FWIW I think the link between house prices and immigration is overstated. It exists, no doubt, but a direct connection is debunked when looking at countries with less immigration vs their house pricing. But whatever, I don't have to come to blows because of a difference of opinion.

Fact is, I'm right, he's wrong, and I'm probably better looking too.

BB, does it need saying?

Why would ordinary people Chinese buy surplus oil, make fake viruses etc?

They wouldn't, the Chinese governement would - ergo it was an attack on the Chinese government.

Exactly the same as when you put something down to "Russan meddling" right-minded people didn't think you were denigrating every Ivan and Annouschka, but instead targetting the Kremlin.

I can hold your comments up to the very same light as Evo's.

Nah, you're scrambling.

Even if that is true, and I doubt it, the intention was clearly to suggest that CCP had "won the war".

Sorry mate, if you call that racist, then all your posts about Russian meddling and American imperialism are too.

Have you read the reports of how Africans or people of colour are faring in China right now BB?

https://abcnews.go.com/International/foreigners-black-people-unwelcome-p...

If Chinese are racist - you just said this was a fact- then why should anyone be perturbed if they are subject to racism , even if they’re living in Australia ?

Same group pulling the strings behind the scenes of China and US and just about everyone else. Playing people off against each other at our level works a treat, plays into their hands beautifully, always has.

Shortenism, so say your absolute bogus claims are correct.

What you gonna do, what can we do, if such large powers are at play..

Just give the mind a rest and move on.