@emmadegotardi When I lived in the US, it was explained to me that the country ran on the backs of an underclass that was paid poorly, had no health care and no pension. Essentially these people replaced the black slaves following emancipation. /2
@emmadegotardi An example of how close this equivalence is, is the US custom of tipping wait staff, whose salaries are so low that they they are unliveable. Remarkably, the custom of tipping wait staff originated during slavery; wait staff were unpaid and survived on tips. /3
@emmadegotardi When emancipation arrived, many southern states were so opposed to it that the only result acceptable to them was to maintain the custom of tipping emancipated slaves for their labour. Even now, the majority of America's underclass are the descendants of those freed slaves. /4
@emmadegotardi What is horrifying is that, instead of being horrified by the cruelty of the structural inequity in the US, some Australian politicians are trying to create an underclass in Australia too. The want unsurviveable wages, minimal education, no health care, and no pension. /5
@emmadegotardi It is important to see these politicians as they truely are: greedy, aggressive and unspeakably cruel. To identify these monsters, watch how they treat Australia's most successful pieces of legislation: Public education, public health care, public pensions and superannuation.

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More from @AlanBixter

6 Feb
Why Boris Johnson is not the new Churchill:
Churchill had a brilliant mastery of the English language, excelling in writing and delivering speeches; Johnson is a poor-to-mediocre writer, and a weak speaker. /2
Churchill, while ambitious, was at heart insecure and modest; Johnson is an egotist.
Churchill served in the army extensively; Johnson served himself.
Churchill’s policies were liberal/left although conservative; Johnson’s are extreme right. /3
Churchill largely educated himself; Johnson was educated at Eton and Oxford.
Churchill preferred to work, and did his best work, in coalitions. Johnson hasn’t done any good work; /4
Read 4 tweets
30 Sep 20
So: What is Wrong with COVID-19 Hotel Quarantine in Australia? A thread.

After difficulties with compliance to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders for returning travellers, Hotel Quarantine became the mainstay of infection management for these people in Australia. /2
But the efficacy of this program has varied enormously between states. Here I argue that the key difference lies in ventilation. /3
Think, for a moment, about the hotel rooms you have stayed in: Most would be serviced by one of two types of air handling: a) Natural ventilation modified by a split system air conditioner; or b) A mechanical (ducted) ventilation system. /4
Read 19 tweets
27 Sep 20
Victoria COVID-19 28/09/2020
A least squares fit of the latest case data trend line generated by the sum of two Lorentizian curves, fitting the curve ALL the way down to FIVE!!!. Image
TEN...
NINE...
Read 8 tweets
9 Sep 20
#COVID19VicPressBriefing That Jerome guy speaks very well.
& Great press questions.
"It starts principally in the bathroom. Right up there with, "I hope I don't need to go into any more details about what 'intimate' needs."
Read 5 tweets
5 Sep 20
A story about Kennett's Melbourne. In 1993, I was working at Cambridge Uni, but my father was sick, so I flew back into Tullamarine Airport, catching the airbus to the top end of Elizabeth St, where I waited for a tram to take me & my baggage down to Flinders Street Station. /2
I waited for over 30 minutes and a single tram passed me. I looked around for a time table, but there wasn't one at the tram stop. And them I had a moment on panic: Had I arrived on a Sunday morning? Not only no trams, but virtually no cars either. /3
I pulled out my itinerary and checked the arrival date. I standing in the middle of the CBD on a Monday morning at a little after 9am, and the city was as dead as if hit by a pandemic. That was what Kennett did to Melbourne.
Read 4 tweets
3 Sep 20
Two days ago, the Morrison government made an unusual addition to the list of people exempt from Australia’s travel ban on temporary visa holders: covid19.homeaffairs.gov.au/critical-skill…
/2
It's an odd addition, since this is probably the only professional group that, if their claims are true, gets no additional advantage from travel. If, for example, they wanted to provide me with critical skills in a religious field, they could just pray for me to acquire them. /3
(And they have.) It occurs to me that a government so focused on their own personal benefit might conceivably have added this group because they planned to hold their own "religious" convention. Of Hillsong perhaps. <end>
Read 4 tweets

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