The Supreme Court's questions may bring about a 180° turn by the ÖVP who will, quite likely, seek its fortunes in going on the offensive against its coalition partner by late February
I come to the conclusion that corruption and sheer will to power do not have to be bad things (and that we might not have enough of it in Germany, Söder being an exception). Definitely preferable to fanaticism. I like to remind myself of C.S. Lewis:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
As to the matter at-hand: I'm also reminded of Max Weber's consideration (specifically in 'Politics as Vocation'), in which he, too, advocated for elected politicians to run the bureaucracy, for they may actually be responsive to popular sentiment (unlike the bean-counters in the permanent bureaucracy who all 'just follow the rules').
Re Söder: I'm unsure about him; sure, he likes 'power', but being Bavarian, he also understoods the structures of German 'confederalism' that render any of his ambition moot. Historically, the last 'southerner' who made a killing (no pun intended) in Berlin was that odd former Austro-Hungarian who (almost) took Europe by storm.
All told, I agree with your sentiment concerning the abject failures of virtue-signalling do-gooders ('busybodies'). Sigh.
Feels almost like you should have ended with "Class dismissed, and yes this will be on the test" :)
Which is meant as praise by the way, because it sure feels educational. It is also comforting in a weird way to learn that not only are the politicians of other european nations as 'special' as those at home, the green party is consistantly identical in behaviour. Up to and including internal rifts and how their majority partner in crime handles them.
Our greens wants to make us a "post-emissions society". When you clear out all the semantics of their programme and statements, it's basically Khmer Rouge or Juche-style agrarian communism they want. State media, where 85%* of the employees vote either Green or Communist (the real communist party all the way from the 1920s), is working 24/7 to get the numbers up so the Greens don''t drop out of the riksdag.
*Not hyperbole. It's been checked several times from the early nineties to present day, and it's consistently 5/6 of the employees at least who support the most progressive, extreme and radical political ideas.
"Once a cancer patient, always a cancer patient". Reminds me of a story from Russia how a young guy without a leg had to prove to authorities every year that he still does not have that leg to not serve in the army. That's what bureaucrats do.
I thought the same, but apparently, Dr. Mückstein (a MD, no shit) doesn't know this. So, if there's any more proof required to figure out that 'Covid' is a political issue, there you go.
That's pretty much reality here in Sweden when it comes to certain chronic conditions, including disabilities. As long as you're denied early retirement for reasons of health, you have to file a new medical report stating the extent of your injuries, disabilities or other conditions hampering your ability to work.
This includes to name a few from my circuit of acquaintances:
Partial paralysis following a stroke. Every three months this man must see a doctor and send in the diagnostic form to the State's Public Insurance. Every meeting takes a minimum of one hour - with more than 50 000 people on long time sick leave you can imagine what this does to the health care system.
Autism with impaired cognitive functions and comorbid psychological problems (PTSD due to 9 years of being bullied at school). This person must also prove every three months that no, the autism hasn't gone away.
Hairy cell cancer. This person was denied sick leave on the grounds that the disease didn't impaire motor function. So working in the ER while your own immune system is knocked out both by the cancer and the treatment is a doodle according to the apparatchiks.
Thanks, dear epimetheus, for trying to make me famous here 😆😉. Times are so crazy, it‘s like we are all watching a (very badly written) theatre plot.
I share your thoughts and predictions but would have to correct one thing: Snap elections would not be in late spring but rather in early autumn. You know, „private“ arrangements take some time 😉. Furthermore the process of new elections has always taken quite a long time in Austria. Rumors are that there will be elections in May but I don’t believe that this will be feasable. But let‘s see. It all depends on the fact how desperate ÖVP really is.
I wonder how people in Covidistan sleep at night with all these coerced vaxxination mandates in place. How can anybody tolerate this? It does not need to be PhD to understand that this is just fundamentally wrong. What it takes is common sense! Have people lost their common sense at all? Mass formation psychosis at full speed in Covidistan.
Perhaps the Omicron virus in Covidistan is somehow different than the rest of the world...
If my (relatives) and conversations with them are any guidance, I'd go for: Covid is a neuropathological derangement syndrome, on top of everything else. I'd call it 'Covid with Benefits', I suppose.
Jokes aside, my relatives--both my parents and all my three siblings are fully jabbed and boosted (oh, the insanity) for months tried to convince me to 'join' their club, which I steadfastedly refused to do. Around Christmas 2021, my parents came for a visit and I gave them quite a bit of 'information' that isn't readinly available in tightly controlled and propgandised Covidistan state and de facto state media. I got the impression that they started to become a bit more 'open' to return to independent thoughts, but once they returned, the effect quickly evaporated.
Ever since early January, all my relatives--an admittedly self-selective and non-representative sample (also: all credentialised, but that means that they may be deemed quasi-representative of the most fervent Covidian believers)--consistently bring up all matters Covid, in particular since I 'tested' positive.
First, the liked to learn how bad it all was (I always said that to me and my family, it's been less annoying than a Cold, which was quite off-putting to them); then they all warned me, and subsequently enquired about, any possible long-term symptoms ('Long', or 'Chronic', Covid), which I also don't have.
In the past 1-2 weeks, though, while they all still bring up Covid, but they must know that I won't change my mind on this, and everytime I begin to respond, my relatives quickly tell me that they actually don't want to talk about it.
Sic transit gloria mundi, I suppose, but the larger issue might be this: their perceptual matrix (think: the prisoners in Plato's Cave) is apparently cracking up. If my above take proves to quite correct, I don't want to imagine their confusion, but I shall keep you posted.
I am living in Covidistan and therefore I also share my point of view, if I may. A lot of people I know sleep very well as they are living in a parallel world. In their world everything is fine - they are up-to-date-vaxxed (Fauci has created this term, if I remember correctly) and living their lives without wasting a single thought on the fatality of the whole situation in Austria or worldwide. They care only about themselves.
Then there are a lot of people who are scared by the Ebola-like Sars-Cov-2 who love that we now have - finally, oh praise the Lord! - a vaxx mandate. Because otherwise we would not be able to end the pandemic. (I don’t even want to point out that we are a transit country in the middle of Europe where thousands and thousands of unjabbed people go in and out on a daily basis, it makes no sense as these people won’t listen anyway.)
Then there are a lot of people who are scared about the mandate as they don’t know how to pay the penalties in the end.
But I have the feeling that most of Covidistan’s inmates don’t care anymore - apart from their „health/vaccination“ status. They know that the mandate is highly unethical and that it infringes quite some Constitutional Rights and that it will be de-installed by the Constitutional Court anyway. And as the wind in our regime propaganda media has already begun to change (oh my, conspiracy theories are becoming true! Who would have thought this! 😉) we are now being informed between the lines that the mandate will not be executed. So even the most hypnotized propaganda victim has now the chance to wake up.
Let’s see, what time will bring. I hope that the mandate will be cancelled soon in order to bring some mental peace to the people who are really scared of the penalties (although nearly every laywer is 100 % sure that nobody will have to pay anything).
That final point is also something my above-mentioned friend mentioned a while ago (even before Christmas, I think): the entire vaccination mandate was never intended to be executed.
While I would bet that the ÖVP politicos (being 'pros', as in 'professional wrestling') knew this from the outset, the problem is that the Greens--for their above-mentioned reasons--took this idea literally. This mental affliction also affected a sizable chunk of the SPÖ, hence the above-described mess of their own making.
I would expect the Greens and their 'friends' in the legacy media to complain, bitch, and whine about the discrepancy between this beautiful mandate and the aweful reality before too long: how could 'the people' fail to see that this is the best mandate possible?
It's quite fair to assume that by 19 Feb. we'll know a helluvalot 'more'.
I think those who are pushing the narrative are well rewarded. I also heard they are given a narrative that they are "doing it for the greater good and it's the most important thing they will ever do, but they need to be quiet about it". And, of course, they are not given all the true information. Too bad they don't learn history and the fact that once tyrants get their full power the first people they get rid of are those who helped them gain it.
I come to the conclusion that corruption and sheer will to power do not have to be bad things (and that we might not have enough of it in Germany, Söder being an exception). Definitely preferable to fanaticism. I like to remind myself of C.S. Lewis:
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
Amen.
As to the matter at-hand: I'm also reminded of Max Weber's consideration (specifically in 'Politics as Vocation'), in which he, too, advocated for elected politicians to run the bureaucracy, for they may actually be responsive to popular sentiment (unlike the bean-counters in the permanent bureaucracy who all 'just follow the rules').
Re Söder: I'm unsure about him; sure, he likes 'power', but being Bavarian, he also understoods the structures of German 'confederalism' that render any of his ambition moot. Historically, the last 'southerner' who made a killing (no pun intended) in Berlin was that odd former Austro-Hungarian who (almost) took Europe by storm.
All told, I agree with your sentiment concerning the abject failures of virtue-signalling do-gooders ('busybodies'). Sigh.
Feels almost like you should have ended with "Class dismissed, and yes this will be on the test" :)
Which is meant as praise by the way, because it sure feels educational. It is also comforting in a weird way to learn that not only are the politicians of other european nations as 'special' as those at home, the green party is consistantly identical in behaviour. Up to and including internal rifts and how their majority partner in crime handles them.
Our greens wants to make us a "post-emissions society". When you clear out all the semantics of their programme and statements, it's basically Khmer Rouge or Juche-style agrarian communism they want. State media, where 85%* of the employees vote either Green or Communist (the real communist party all the way from the 1920s), is working 24/7 to get the numbers up so the Greens don''t drop out of the riksdag.
*Not hyperbole. It's been checked several times from the early nineties to present day, and it's consistently 5/6 of the employees at least who support the most progressive, extreme and radical political ideas.
"Once a cancer patient, always a cancer patient". Reminds me of a story from Russia how a young guy without a leg had to prove to authorities every year that he still does not have that leg to not serve in the army. That's what bureaucrats do.
I thought the same, but apparently, Dr. Mückstein (a MD, no shit) doesn't know this. So, if there's any more proof required to figure out that 'Covid' is a political issue, there you go.
That's pretty much reality here in Sweden when it comes to certain chronic conditions, including disabilities. As long as you're denied early retirement for reasons of health, you have to file a new medical report stating the extent of your injuries, disabilities or other conditions hampering your ability to work.
This includes to name a few from my circuit of acquaintances:
Partial paralysis following a stroke. Every three months this man must see a doctor and send in the diagnostic form to the State's Public Insurance. Every meeting takes a minimum of one hour - with more than 50 000 people on long time sick leave you can imagine what this does to the health care system.
Autism with impaired cognitive functions and comorbid psychological problems (PTSD due to 9 years of being bullied at school). This person must also prove every three months that no, the autism hasn't gone away.
Hairy cell cancer. This person was denied sick leave on the grounds that the disease didn't impaire motor function. So working in the ER while your own immune system is knocked out both by the cancer and the treatment is a doodle according to the apparatchiks.
There are thousands of such horror stories.
Thanks, dear epimetheus, for trying to make me famous here 😆😉. Times are so crazy, it‘s like we are all watching a (very badly written) theatre plot.
I share your thoughts and predictions but would have to correct one thing: Snap elections would not be in late spring but rather in early autumn. You know, „private“ arrangements take some time 😉. Furthermore the process of new elections has always taken quite a long time in Austria. Rumors are that there will be elections in May but I don’t believe that this will be feasable. But let‘s see. It all depends on the fact how desperate ÖVP really is.
I wonder how people in Covidistan sleep at night with all these coerced vaxxination mandates in place. How can anybody tolerate this? It does not need to be PhD to understand that this is just fundamentally wrong. What it takes is common sense! Have people lost their common sense at all? Mass formation psychosis at full speed in Covidistan.
Perhaps the Omicron virus in Covidistan is somehow different than the rest of the world...
Ha, good question.
If my (relatives) and conversations with them are any guidance, I'd go for: Covid is a neuropathological derangement syndrome, on top of everything else. I'd call it 'Covid with Benefits', I suppose.
Jokes aside, my relatives--both my parents and all my three siblings are fully jabbed and boosted (oh, the insanity) for months tried to convince me to 'join' their club, which I steadfastedly refused to do. Around Christmas 2021, my parents came for a visit and I gave them quite a bit of 'information' that isn't readinly available in tightly controlled and propgandised Covidistan state and de facto state media. I got the impression that they started to become a bit more 'open' to return to independent thoughts, but once they returned, the effect quickly evaporated.
Ever since early January, all my relatives--an admittedly self-selective and non-representative sample (also: all credentialised, but that means that they may be deemed quasi-representative of the most fervent Covidian believers)--consistently bring up all matters Covid, in particular since I 'tested' positive.
First, the liked to learn how bad it all was (I always said that to me and my family, it's been less annoying than a Cold, which was quite off-putting to them); then they all warned me, and subsequently enquired about, any possible long-term symptoms ('Long', or 'Chronic', Covid), which I also don't have.
In the past 1-2 weeks, though, while they all still bring up Covid, but they must know that I won't change my mind on this, and everytime I begin to respond, my relatives quickly tell me that they actually don't want to talk about it.
Sic transit gloria mundi, I suppose, but the larger issue might be this: their perceptual matrix (think: the prisoners in Plato's Cave) is apparently cracking up. If my above take proves to quite correct, I don't want to imagine their confusion, but I shall keep you posted.
How is this in your country?
I am living in Covidistan and therefore I also share my point of view, if I may. A lot of people I know sleep very well as they are living in a parallel world. In their world everything is fine - they are up-to-date-vaxxed (Fauci has created this term, if I remember correctly) and living their lives without wasting a single thought on the fatality of the whole situation in Austria or worldwide. They care only about themselves.
Then there are a lot of people who are scared by the Ebola-like Sars-Cov-2 who love that we now have - finally, oh praise the Lord! - a vaxx mandate. Because otherwise we would not be able to end the pandemic. (I don’t even want to point out that we are a transit country in the middle of Europe where thousands and thousands of unjabbed people go in and out on a daily basis, it makes no sense as these people won’t listen anyway.)
Then there are a lot of people who are scared about the mandate as they don’t know how to pay the penalties in the end.
But I have the feeling that most of Covidistan’s inmates don’t care anymore - apart from their „health/vaccination“ status. They know that the mandate is highly unethical and that it infringes quite some Constitutional Rights and that it will be de-installed by the Constitutional Court anyway. And as the wind in our regime propaganda media has already begun to change (oh my, conspiracy theories are becoming true! Who would have thought this! 😉) we are now being informed between the lines that the mandate will not be executed. So even the most hypnotized propaganda victim has now the chance to wake up.
Let’s see, what time will bring. I hope that the mandate will be cancelled soon in order to bring some mental peace to the people who are really scared of the penalties (although nearly every laywer is 100 % sure that nobody will have to pay anything).
That final point is also something my above-mentioned friend mentioned a while ago (even before Christmas, I think): the entire vaccination mandate was never intended to be executed.
While I would bet that the ÖVP politicos (being 'pros', as in 'professional wrestling') knew this from the outset, the problem is that the Greens--for their above-mentioned reasons--took this idea literally. This mental affliction also affected a sizable chunk of the SPÖ, hence the above-described mess of their own making.
I would expect the Greens and their 'friends' in the legacy media to complain, bitch, and whine about the discrepancy between this beautiful mandate and the aweful reality before too long: how could 'the people' fail to see that this is the best mandate possible?
It's quite fair to assume that by 19 Feb. we'll know a helluvalot 'more'.
I think those who are pushing the narrative are well rewarded. I also heard they are given a narrative that they are "doing it for the greater good and it's the most important thing they will ever do, but they need to be quiet about it". And, of course, they are not given all the true information. Too bad they don't learn history and the fact that once tyrants get their full power the first people they get rid of are those who helped them gain it.
vax = baptism
Think of Covidistan as a theocracy, and it all starts to make sense.