Courtesy of The Guardian, some headline results of another weekly Essential Research poll on coronavirus, the full report of which should be published later today. This includes regular questions on federal and state governments’ handling with the crisis, of which we are only told that respondents remain highly positive, and on easing restrictions, for which we are told only 25% now consider it too soon, which is down two on last time and has been consistently declining over five surveys.
Beyond that, the survey gauged response to a number of what might be described as conspiracy theories concerning the virus. By far the most popular was the notion that the virus “was engineered and released from a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan”, which has received a certain amount of encouragement from the Daily Telegraph but is starkly at odds with the scientific consensus. Agreement and disagreement with this proposition was tied on 39%.
Thirteen per cent subscribed to a theory that Bill Gates was involved in the creation and spread of the virus, with 71% disagreeing; 13% agreed the virus was not dangerous and was being used to force people to get vaccines, with 79% disagreeing; 12% thought the 5G network was being used to spread the virus, with 75% disagreeing; and 20% agreed the number of deaths was being exaggerated, with “more than 70%” disagreeing. The poll also found 77% agreed that the outbreak in China was worse than the official statistics showed.
The poll was conducted Thursday to Sunday from a sample of 1073.
UPDATE: Full report here.
lizzie says:
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 9:11 am
Most will because they don’t hold the government responsible for China taking the completely unjustified actions.
Those that don’t will make little difference.
In terms of seat-warming: there’s really nobody there. If Albo suddenly decided to call it quits, there’s no obvious successor.
Marles is not credible.
Plibersek isn’t up to it.
Wong doesn’t seem the least bit interested in coming down from the Senate.
Chalmers isn’t up to it: all he’s really got going for him is the Queensland address on his birth certificate.
This is the biggest load of ridiculous I’ve read all day. No wonder lies have spread around the world before the truth gets its pants on. Such certainty. Such utter codswallop.
I love a good Karma Bus story in the morning.
.
Man who claimed ‘coronavirus is hoax’ changes mind
…………..”God is bigger than this virus will ever be.I’d get up in the morning and pray and trust in God for his protection, and I’d just leave it at that. There were all these masks and gloves. I thought it looks like a hysteria.”
But Hitchens and his wife with soon both hospitalised after contracting Covid-19.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12332946
guytaur says:
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 10:21 am
CI
No your propaganda makes life more difficult.
You keep repeating right wing talking points that undermine science and Labor with your Green attacks.
It’s a false equivalence thing.
At least though you admit it’s propaganda
I feel applauded by your criticisms. Thanks again. I make no bones about it. The Greens constitute the institutionalised split of the Left. They embody the dysfunction in our politics. As long as they compete against Labor the LNP will continue to win elections. This is a foregone conclusion in my book.
There will be no rest and no progress in this country for as long as the Greens run interference for the LNP. Simple story. The divide is always ready to be exploited by the LNP…and they do. We are fucked in Libkin Garden.
lizzie @ #144 Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 – 10:16 am
Gladys is just being Scott Morrison’s cat’s paw.
So, China retaliates against Australian barley farmers. Brilliant economic management by the government!
Up next: China bars international students from coming here, killing our 3rd largest export industry stone dead. Brilliant!
Who put these thick-as-shit f*ckwits in charge?
The Continually Insufferable comments about The Greens by pompous itinerants are the sort of anti-left propaganda you would expect to find in a West Australian shed, under a dust covered tarpaulin that reaches 55 degrees in Summer.
Yep. I posted a few days ago that a spokesperson for a local grain group was on local ABC radio and he was very supportive of the Coalition and scathing of China. Said wtte ‘they are awful to do business with, slimy and cunning, always trying to get a better price…. we dont want their business and will find markets elsewhere yadda yadda’.
This is what blind allegiance to a political culture produces and is perhaps inevitable (over time) in a two party, adversarial system. It is a clear threat to democratic checks and balances and turns a contestation of ideas into a tribal battle.
CI
No your attacks doing Murdoch’s bidding of destroying the Greens do that.
Something you should reflect on. Murdoch will be smiling at your efforts.
The local, tiny, anti-lockdown protests are notable for the weird mix of far right and pure nutter people on display. The current situation will speed up the move of our local anti-vaccination crowd to the conspiratorial Right. We will have a recruitment conveyor belt. Watch out for your totally non political relative who intially shares memes about 5G and the virus and is just asking questions. By the next election they may be voting for Hanson. The rightward trend started locally years ago. See below from 2017…
https://reasonablehank.com/2017/09/07/introducing-the-antivax-avns-odious-new-public-officer/
“The left side of the political spectrum was previously thought to be the home of conspiracy theorists. It has become increasingly apparent, for a number of years, that the right-wing has taken the mantle from the stereotypical mung-bean-loving, toxin-free hippies we once acknowledged as being at the heart of anti-vaccinationism.
Indeed, one of the first things I noticed in my short career following antivaxers is that antivaxers will lie down with any mangy, anti-Semitic, homophobic dog; this is concurrent with the rise of assholes like Alex Jones, and the conspiratorial new US President and his violent, baying, white nationalist, conspiracy theorist acolytes.
The Australian Vaccination-skeptics Network is a perfect example of this intermingling of people like Meryl Dorey – previously, sickeningly described by one author as a “kindly aunt” – a Jewish woman in charge of the AVN, in the antivax, hippy heartland of Australia, and the right-wing, MRA-inspired, anti-Semitic, homophobic elements with whom she associates, accepting the ugly misogyny and anti-Semitism of her peers with nary a whisper of dissent. This is anti-vaccinationism now: Donald Trump, Alex Jones, Pauline Hanson and other toxic-laden, wretched, cruel souls are the heroes.
Appropriately, the AVN has recently appointed its latest public officer. Wayne Baird is a right-wing conspiracy theorist from Tintenbar, in the NSW Northern Rivers; residing not far away from Dorey.”
Of course, in the USA they were well ahead of us before the pandemic.
How the anti-vaccine movement crept into the GOP mainstream
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/05/27/anti-vaccine-republican-mainstream-1344955
Anti-Vaxxers Are Cozying Up to the Far Right Online
https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-vaxxers-are-cozying-up-to-the-far-right-online
We have been lucky in Australia so far. The mainstream right including our main conservative political parties, have not adopted this. The News Corp tabloids have campaigned on No Jab, No Play. At the same time, the Australian left generally including the leadership of The Greens have firmly moved to be be pro-science across the board, a cultural trend driven by the climate issue in part, which has been important in reigning in a lot of people who might have drifted that way. This has left the far right as the only place for the hard core to go.
Gladys is Scomo’s sock puppet.
The rest of the country does not want your filthy infected citizens crawling over the border.
Keep the borders closed until they have 14 days without infection like WA, SA & NT.
Greensborough Growler says:
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 9:19 am
“Celeste Barbers millions in donations don’t appear to able to be spread beyond the RFS.”
Correct – that’s why it has gone to Court. If the Judge doesn’t make a ruling that allows the Trustees discretion to distribute as per the intent of the donors then the next option is for the NSW Parliament to legislate for that specific trust.
lefty_e @ #155 Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 – 10:27 am
I keep harking back in my mind to when Labor put a stop to the Live Cattle trade as a result of animal cruelty. You couldn’t move for squealing farmers and squawking Barnaby Joyce.
Now, as a result of this, all I can hear is the sound of *crickets* from the farm. I don’t think I’ve heard a Nationals MP speak up about it either.
I call this the ‘Strategic Silence’ media response from politicians and their interest groups. They only make a noise if it’s Labor in power.
For the
“Coulda, shoulda, woulda” page.
https://www.quora.com/Why-didnt-the-Warren-Commission-interview-Carlos-Hathcock-He-is-the-most-widely-respected-combat-sniper-in-U-S-history-and-said-Oswald-did-not-assassinate-JFK
Why didn’t the Warren Commission interview Carlos Hathcock? He is the most widely respected combat sniper in U.S. history and said Oswald did not assassinate JFK.
Original Question: Why didn’t the Warren Commission interview Carlos Hathcock? He is the most widely respected combat sniper in U.S. history and said Oswald did not assassinate JFK.
Along with the other old answer here, Hathcock didn’t go to Vietnam until 1966, and was a MP until an officer convinced him to become a Sniper.
The Warren Commission issued its report in 1964. At that time Carlos Hathcock was an unknown in the sniper world. Further anyone who ever qualified expert in any branch of the military could look at the shot set-up and tell them that yes they could make the shot.
Could they work the bolt that fast on the WWII surplus Italian rifle? Most would tell you they could with practice, or that they would certainly give it a try if the commission wanted them to.
Hathcock said they tried to do it and couldn’t at Quantico. He didn’t feel that Oswald could have done it. But a blind Hog will find an acorn sometimes.
*******************************************************
This myth about bees is scientifically incorrect — here’s why …www.businessinsider.com › bees-cant-fly-scientifically-i…
Dec 27, 2017 – “According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way that a bee should be able to fly. Its wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground. The bee, of course, flies anyways. Because bees don’t care what humans think is impossible.”
We’ve all heard that one that scientifically bumble bees can’t fly. The one that persists that misleading parliament is cause for resignation also persists.
Back to mowing. 1000 steps so far. Very good for me.
“ Lizzie Windsor is wrong in his attack. Ruby Princess was a Fed failure.
See Tasmania.”
Shoot me now for engaging with you today Guytaur, but the Ruby Princess was a failure of both levels of government. So much was obvious from day dot. Generalissimo Fuller’s spin notwithstanding.
Simon Katich @ #157 Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 – 10:27 am
Brilliantly perceptive analysis, poroti!
Bucephalus,
Making laws for one organisation or person is never a good idea and regardless of merit or otherwise of this particular instance I’d be personally opposed.
He’s tall, he speaks well in meaningful sentences (ignore the lisp), has logic on his side, there’s no way he appeals to the Hawke-ocker type. So of course he’d be labelled ‘pompous’. Sheesh!
AE
Correct however the Buck stops with the Feds.
That’s my point. Windsor would have done better to leave the Ruby Princess out of it.
Barney I agree real life can be more interesting than fake news.
Re farmers and Covid, even red neck farmers can take a moral stand occasionally. 🙂
phoenixRED: “I was always impressed by the revelations of famed US military snipers that they could not duplicate the assassination shootings and they said if they could not do it, they found it hard to believe that Oswald – not necessarily a great shot – with an antiquated WW 2 rifle could .”
Yes, but we know that Oswald was there firing his gun and the Zapruder footage strongly suggests that at least one of the shots that hit Kennedy was fired from that precise spot. So, unless you go with the theory of all the other bullets coming from badly aimed police guns (and that theory has some merit), you quickly get to the point of having to argue that someone else was firing from somewhere else at exactly the same time.
And that would have been possible if you assume that Oswald was conspiring with a second assassin and that they had agreed to begin firing at exactly the same time. But no credible evidence has ever been produced that shows that there was a second assassin: yes, people thought they heard shots coming from the grassy knoll, but the plaza was an echoing sort of place and people were panicking and you can’t put much faith in that evidence.
Nobody has ever shown that it was impossible for Oswald – who was, after all, a trained shooter – to have made all the hits he made. There is some argument as to exactly how much of an obstruction the oak tree presented on the day, but it was perfectly possible – albeit difficult – for him to have made the hits through the tree. The old argument that the Zapruder film proved that he couldn’t have fired all the shots in the time available has, I believe, been disproved by the fact that Zapruder had briefly to reload his camera in the middle of the shooting.
Personally, I reckon it was just Oswald. Quite what motivated him to do it, and why Ruby killed him, remain interesting questions. There’s a great scene in Norman Mailer’s novel about the CIA, Harlot’s Ghost (which so needed a sequel, but sadly he never produced one). The day after the assassination, the leaders of ever security-related organisation in Washington (and there’s more than a dozen) get together to try to work out what happened and who the culprit or culprits were working for. And they identify a whole lot of connections between Oswald and various espionage operations, particularly those involving Cuban exiles. And ultimately, they can’t get to the bottom of it all: it’s too complicated and there were too many moving parts.
So that’s how I think it happened. Oswald was some sort of minor operator in the espionage world and, for some reason he went rogue. I still reckon it’s possible there was some sort of Soviet involvement in it (eg, revenge for their humiliation in the Cuban Missile Crisis) which – for any number of good reasons – the US Government has always chosen to play down.
“ Who put these thick-as-shit f*ckwits in charge?”
The same low interest low information voters who think we actually have some power and agency in ‘standing up to china’. This idiocy is polling quite well at the moment.
C@tmomma
The first two words are a big hint that it was nae me that wrote those posts 🙂
“ Windsor would have done better to leave the Ruby Princess out of it.”
That makes as much sense as police only going after the lookout and wheel man in a bank robbery and leaving the actual armed assailants alone.
cat,
To be fair the banning of the live cattle trade was a knee jerk reaction to a 4 Corners programme.
This current spat is about China attempting to bully/punish Australia for telling the truth to the Chinese. Australia is going to take some pain and I’m sure that both the Government and the Opposition are in agreement on the stance being taken.
meher baba says:
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 9:58 am
You forgot the most recent Pollbludger Conspiracy of the Cruise Ships, a Hillsong Conference and Alex Hawke’s family – completely a load of bollocks but fervently pushed by many here – even after it was debunked by friendly leftist media.
JFK was shot by only Oswald. The reconstruction of the ballistics only support this.
I recall the viscous aspersions being cast upon the Abbott’s marriage. That was such utter garbage that William stepped in and finally shut it down and that doesn’t happen often.
Some here even believe that 9/11 was a US Government job and that the World Trade Center Buildings we’re dropped by pre-rigged explosives.
AE
Stop thinking in Sydney terms. Ruby Princess had its impact in other states too. Not the jurisdiction of NSW health.
meher babasays: Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 10:41 am
******************************************************
One of the best books I have read about the JFK assassination was written by of all people, Roger Stone :
The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ
Recommended reading for those interested – 4 1/2 stars on Amazon
guytaur @ #178 Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 – 8:46 am
It started in NSW.
You mentioned rabbit holes earlier derisively, yet you are so fond of creating your own.
AndrewEarlwood
“Shoot me now for engaging with you today Guytaur, but the Ruby Princess was a failure of both levels of government. So much was obvious from day dot. Generalissimo Fuller’s spin notwithstanding.”
Ruby Princess was such a monumental clusterfuck that there’s enough clusterfuckery to spread around both State and Federal jurisdictions.
Even though everyone saw it coming our away, Dutton failed to stop the boat.
Barney
You are wrong. That was just the first Dutton failure. North West Tasmania is not the only contender outside Sydney. Just the most obvious.
Oh dear Simon 🙂
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/may/19/australia-coronavirus-live-updates-nsw-victoria-qld-schools-china-latest-news-update
What is a conspiracy? Criminal conspiracies do happen, but not on the massive scales that some people think. In general, the alleged conspirators are too divided, their interests too diverse, they are also likely too incompetent, to run a conspiracy on any scale and keep it quiet.
What about inaction on climate change? There has been a concerted and, in Australia, mostly successful effort by a number of interests that would be damaged by concerted action on climate change to water down and block effective action. These interests included especially those that derive profits from the extraction and use of fossil fuels. They formed alliances of convenience with politicians, political parties, think tanks and lobby groups to advance their cause. Tactics including the spread disinformation and confusion and the establishment of astroturf groups. It is likely that in the mix is a bit of good old fashioned corruption, although I have no specific knowledge of this.
We have also seen the earlier but less successful efforts by the Tobacco industry to keep their game going, with 70% of the adult population addicted to their product in the mid 20th century.
Is this a ”conspiracy”? It did happen, but it was basically corporations (those that own and run them) using the tools of lobbying and of the old and new media to advance their interests.
Continually Insufferable says:
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 10:00 am
“Bucephalus has attempted to debunk the epidemiology of viral spread.“
Utter rot. Pointing out how inaccurate that the modelling has been is not debunking the epidemiology of viral spread – it is just highlighting the fact that the difference between forecasts numbers of cases versus the reality has been significant not just in Australia but throughout the world.
This means he is a long way ahead on getting his conviction quashed.
Given the long prison sentence served, a retrial must be doubtful.
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/convicted-mokbel-drug-trafficker-zlate-cvetanovski-granted-bail-as-he-appeals-conviction/ar-BB14gYH0?ocid=msedgntp
Andrew_Earlwood @ #172 Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 – 10:41 am
‘“ Who put these thick-as-shit f*ckwits in charge?”’
About 51% of the thick as shit voting public.
guytaur @ #182 Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 – 8:52 am
What the ship didn’t dock in Sydney?
Perhaps Labor could go back and analyse (once more) how Kevin Rudd managed to knock off Howard. There must be something they could learn from that, yes?
conspiracy theories & ignorance go hand in hand. -a.v.
https://theconversation.com/deeply-worrying-92-of-australians-dont-know-the-difference-between-viral-and-bacterial-infections-138619
Barney
Now you are creating a rabbit hole.
lizzie @ #168 Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 – 10:39 am
Fraser was pompous arrogant entitled, ruled him out of becoming PM of course….
Howard was weird, boring, uninspiring…ruled him out..
Abbott was mad as bat shit..
Morrison is….well you get my drift
Bu
“JFK was shot by only Oswald. ”
Boring, but true. The conspiracy theories are so much more interesting and seductive though.
mundo
I know, I know.
poroti @ #46 Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 – 8:17 am
Absolutely! The radio waves merely activate the micro chips that have been included in every vaccination since Windows 8 turned out to be such a disaster, and Bill Gates decided he needed a new marketing strategy. It’s the microchips that do the damage – they were supposed to just control people’s buying impulses, but they are malfunctioning because they have been hacked by the Chinese using Huawei 5G equipment.
Covid-19 is a computer virus, not a biological virus.
guytaur @ #191 Tuesday, May 19th, 2020 – 8:57 am
😆 😆 😆
I’m trying to keep it on the surface, you’re the one burrowing all over the place.
P1
😆
Ah that was a good laugh.
Thank you.
Re the barley tariff: much though I love the people and culture of China, I’m probably the last person on PB who would want to go into back for the Xi Jiping regime.
However, while the media seems to be merrily reporting that this is a payback for our championing the idea of an inquiry into the origins of coronavirus, it is important to be aware that the Chinese have been complaining since 2018 that our barley is being dumped on their market at prices that are below the cost of producing it. I understand that they back their claims by pointing to the cost of producing barley in China and also to how much we have sold barley for in some other markets.
Arguments about the true costs of producing food or fibre tend to be quite complicated and, while I believe the Australian Government when it says that we are not engaged in dumping barley, this case might be quite difficult to prove to the WTO.
Sure, the timing of their announcement of the new tariff is interesting, but it’s a good idea to try to understand the full story.
Barney
Nope you are. I was making a point on messaging. You buy into the AE rabbit hole.
Remember. Keep It Simple Stupid.
phoenixRED says:
Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 10:17 am
Utter garbage. It was an achievable shot for trained Marine like Oswald.