Covid Mental Illness Parade (cont.): Vienna's Mayor to 'Recommend' Masking Up, Getting Jabbed
The more things change, the more they stay the same, I suppose. So, let's keep your (middle) fingers up in the air for these people
You’ve probably heard or seen NY Gov. and absurdly deranged person Kathy Hochul (D) spout some more nonsense about the Covid-infested autumn:
The data is clear. The (COVID) vaccines actually work. And it reduces infections by 57% in 18 to 49 year-olds and it cuts doctor visits and hospital visits down by about 50%. Now here’s the choice people have…You can spend thanksgiving quarantining walking around the house with a mask on not enjoying the holiday dinner waiting for a nasal swab from a hospital or you can be with your family. I want to encourage all New Yorkers, now is the time to take care of yourselves and your children. Don’t wait till later, don’t get sick.
I watched her actually say these absurd words here.
No need to bother with any further details or questions, such as how does Ms. Hochul know about quarantine orders over Thanksgiving? Well, since your ‘guess’ is about as good as mine, here’s more of the same from the Vienna’s mayor and healthy-as-f*** supermodel, Michael Ludwig.
Before we dive into this next instalment of the Covid Mental Illness Parade, one more word about Vienna State chieftain Michael Ludwig—he and his equally unhealthy side-kick, an apparatchik by the name of Peter Hacker, are both long-term Social Democratic (sic) party stalwarts, and their joint mission during the WHO-declared, so-called ‘Pandemic™’ was to keep Vienna’s 2m inhabitants under partial lockdown, with FFP2 mask mandates, and mandatory PCR tests from primary school upwards, incl. workplaces. It was, in short, a shitshow, which featured many absurd things, such as the following (but two) examples:
For a fuller treatment (that is, if you can stomach it), see here:
With that being said by way of an introduction, here’s today’s main course (as always, translation and emphases mine). Sigh.
Mask Mandate Comeback? ‘Can only be recommended’
Cool municipal buildings, hot debate on minimum security: Vienna's Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) in a summer interview with Heute.
By Claus Kramsl, Heute, 7 Sept. 2024 [source]
Why go far away when good things are so close—that was the motto of Mayor Michael Ludwig this summer. The head of the city spent it ‘on the balcony’:
I spent the summer in Vienna and took advantage of the very rich cultural programme. There were many wonderful activities in the districts as part of the Vienna Summer of Culture, but there was also the summer opera at the Belvedere, theatre in the park.
Ludwig also raves about the Viennese public pools, the 60 kilometres of natural beach in Vienna that can be used free of charge, and the wine tavern culture: ‘It makes you wonder where you should even go on holiday, where it could be even more beautiful.’ [not-so-nice things incl. almost daily knife attacks and stabbings, one of which also occurred in downtown Vienna]
Hot summer and climate crisis
Climate change and the associated heat in the city is also a social issue, says Ludwig:
It’s an issue that has been on our minds for many years. We have had a climate protection programme in Vienna for over 20 years, which has also achieved corresponding results. We have half as many CO2 emissions per capita as the Austrian average. This means that we are making a major contribution to stopping climate change and reducing it. [gaslighting galore: of course, these reductions have no impact whatsoever on global CO2 emissions, but whatever, I suppose]
But secondly, we also want to deal with the effects, which are of course also noticeable in a large city like Vienna. And that’s why it's important that we also renaturalise large areas. Where possible, in many parts of the city.’
Ludwig refers here to the former train station in Breitenlee or the closed Simmering motorway exit [this is Austria’s most heavily used thoroughfare], where extensive greening measures have been implemented. Another example of a ‘green wedge’ is the Helmut-Zilk-Park in the Sonnwendviertel district (Favoriten), ‘which we have completely redeveloped and which will greatly improve the microclimate in a large city by providing meadows, bushes and trees.’ [see: global climate change is affected by ‘the microclimate’]
Another important point is the expansion of district cooling: in future, all parts of the city should be supplied not only with district heating, but also with district cooling. In the long term, municipal and other residential buildings should also be able to be cooled in this way. The expansion of photovoltaic systems and geothermal energy would also be promoted in municipal buildings: ‘We have set ourselves the goal of building photovoltaic systems the size of 100 football pitches every year,’ says Ludwig [a standard football (soccer) pitch is 7,140 square meters; Vienna’s land surface area is 395.25 km2, i.e., they could build PV systems of that size for some 550 years, that is, as long as no-one lives there…]
Corona Wave and Compulsory Masks
Making masks compulsory is ‘not an issue at the moment’, says the city boss [remember: ‘at the moment’]. ‘But of course we can only recommend that people wear a mask wherever many people come together, for example on public transport or in a doctor’s surgery.’ The current corona wave came several weeks earlier than expected.
Ludwig urgently advises particularly vulnerable groups to get the coronavirus vaccination. He has instructed City Councillor for Health Peter Hacker to ‘make appropriate arrangements for the City of Vienna to take this on again. Because we can see that it hasn't worked quite so well in recent months after the city didn’t support it.’ [translation: if it’s not available everywhere, no-one is taking these poison jabs] ‘It is important to create the opportunity to be vaccinated against coronavirus, influenza, and other serious illnesses such as whooping cough, measles, and the like. This is particularly important for children’, says Ludwig [who clearly hates the elderly and children: your standard career politician]…
Bottom Lines
We have learned nothing, and we’re doing the same crap all over again.
Yes, Austria has a federal election upcoming on 29 Sept., and I’ll spare you the remainder of his interview (it’s mostly domestic stuff, but it’s also hilariously stupid), with the exception of the following ‘gem™’.
Asked if he’s worried about his own future given all that’s going south, this is Mr. Ludwig’s reply:
We are now living in a crisis situation, in a completely different media world…
I am very concerned about developments on the labour market. We may have record employment in Vienna, but unemployment is rising massively throughout Austria. Fortunately less so in Vienna, but still.
The economy is training fewer and fewer apprentices. ‘In four or five years, we’ll be short of skilled labour [remember: we’re importing ‘the most qualified migrants of all time’, as the ‘refugees welcomers’ are telling us since 2015]. We will therefore increase the number of training places for apprentices in the city of Vienna, because I believe that the dual training system is very, very good. However, it presupposes that there are companies that offer young people this opportunity. We will do this as the City of Vienna.’ [oh, look, government can create jobs, eh?]
He himself has no job worries and plans to run again as a candidate for mayor in the 2025 Vienna elections: ‘There is a lot that we have done, but a lot that still needs to be done, so I would be happy to stand. But the people of Vienna will decide.’
Of course not.
His record is absurd, and his legacy will be an overcrowded, crime-ridden metropolis.
It’s all so sad, and the Covid madness adds the icing on this shit-cake.
I never understood the slavish devotion to masks despite the preponderance of data against its efficacy. Vaccines are easy to understand that it is all about the money. The billionaires want it pushed at every opportunity to increase profits and set up future profits. My only guess with masking is that maybe it is just about control and getting people to do what they are told. An item of fear and compliance.
I suspect that this is how absurd but entrenched cultural practices (for example, the Chinese practice of foot binding) get started. Some high status person somewhere decides it's a good idea (whether due to an honest mistake, or due to some weird fetish or phobia), it gains traction due to being associated with high status, and then good luck rooting it out.