Since posting that on 26 February much has changed. Country after country has been set the IQ test, and the results have varied. China, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan are well ranked, though China may have cheated. Italy and Spain are towards bottom of the class. Sweden’s results are still being marked, but very much worth watching. Holland has also tried an intelligent, adult approach, with many shops open, but as death rates rise may move to more severe lockdown. The US is a new arrival to the class, and will be evaluated in a few week’s time.
If you don’t have tests, or treatments, you have to use social distancing. Social distancing works if everyone does it, but if only 10% cheat, then the effect is blunted.
On a broader front, this pandemic raises the question: how much of our economy is strictly necessary? The essentials of food growing, processing and distribution probably account for no more than 4% of the working age population. Power generation and basic utilities perhaps another 4%. Perhaps the remnant 92% will all be bloggers.
Author: peterimrich
Give me a break.
I agree with Kissinger that the post-Covid world order will be significantly different from the world that preceded it, but that’s as far as I’ll go. In truth, the US-dominated system is unraveling because the people of the world don’t want to ruled by force, because US leaders are incompetent bunglers who cannot be trusted to do the right thing, and because Washington’s arrogant go-it-alone policy-making has turned vast areas of the Middle East and Central Asia into uninhabitable wastelands.
Let’s face it, the United States had a chance to show the world it could be a reliable steward of global security, and they blew it. Nothing Kissinger says is going to change that.
Henry Kissinger calls for a New Post-Covid World Order, by Mike Whitney – The Unz Review
We can’t afford to allow right-wing scapegoating China. (ODT)
This goes double for the right. In Australia, too, prominent voices are making it their business to ensure that this pandemic is blamed entirely on the PRC, and that this leads to a posture of conflict with that country. This will inevitably worsen the scapegoating of Asian immigrants which is being reported in majority-white countries.
There is a strong anti-China current being promoted in right-wing circles and some neo-liberal ones in light of the coronavirus epidemic.
These forces are seeking to redirect real criticisms of globalization – deindustrialization, stolen intellectual property, and trade deficits – and utilize them for support for regime change operations and possibly even war against China for the financial self-interest of a few American oligarchs. It’s similar to how anti-immigration sentiment was swerved into concerns about Islam’s illiberalism in hopes of advancing Israeli interests in Europe and promoting neo-conservative wars in America.
All in all, it is important to make a distinction between an accurate diagnosis of the symptoms arising from our relationship with China, and the actual problem. Moving factories from China to Vietnam, India or Taiwan will leave the American people just as poor and jobless. Wasting energy following conservatives in their idiotic crusade to change how Chinese people live in China will provide no benefit to the white worker. American liberalism is collapsing because it is an unnatural and dysfunctional system.
The real conversation should be focused on the legitimacy of money power that rules us, and whether it benefits us. The answer is that it doesn’t, which is why they would like your eyes on China, rather than them.
via International Finance’s Anti-China Crusade, by Eric Striker – The Unz Review
It’s something Capitalists don’t seem to get and what’s worse don’t want to (ODT)
If Covid-19 is not beaten in Africa it will return to haunt us all | Free to read | Financial Times
George Pell wins High Court appeal against child sex abuse convictions
Timeline of events in George Pell case:
- 2015: A former choirboy tells Victoria Police he and another boy were sexually abused by George Pell in the 1990s, shortly after he became Archbishop of Melbourne
- February, 2016: The Herald Sun newspaper reveals a Victoria Police taskforce is investigating Pell for historical child sexual abuse, the first time the investigation is made public
- October, 2016: Detectives question Pell in Rome about a number of allegations. The Cardinal denies any wrongdoing
- June 29, 2017: Pell is charged with historical child sexual abuse offences. He says he is looking forward to his day in court
- June 29, 2017: The Pope grants Pell leave to return to Australia to fight the charges
- May 1, 2018: Pell pleads not guilty after being committed to stand trial for historical sexual offences. The most serious of the charges against him are struck out
- August 15, 2018: A trial into the allegations Pell abused two choirboys when he was Archbishop of Melbourne in the 1990s begins at the County Court of Victoria
- September 20, 2018: The jury is unable to reach a verdict and is discharged
- November 7, 2018: A second trial begins
- December 11, 2018: A jury finds Pell guilty of one count of sexual penetration of a child under the age of 16 and four counts of committing an indecent act with, or in the presence of, a child. A suppression order banning all reporting on the trial is in place until the delivery of a verdict in another case
- February, 2019: The other case, relating to separate historic sex offence allegations, is dropped by Victoria’s Director of Public Prosecutions
- February 26, 2019: The suppression order is lifted and the guilty verdict is made public
- March 13, 2019: The County Court of Victoria sentences Pell to six years’ jail, with a non-parole period of three years and eight months
- June 5 – June 6, 2019: The Victorian Court of Appeal hears two days of legal argument as Pell appeals against his convictions on three grounds
- August 21, 2019: The Victorian Court of Appeal unanimously rejects two of the grounds for appeal, and a 2-1 decision rejects the third ground. Pell’s convictions are upheld
- March 10 – March 11, 2020: The full bench of the High Court of Australia hears two days of legal argument from Pell’s legal team and Victorian prosecutors. The court reserves its decision
- April 7, 2020: The High Court of Australia delivers its decision in Brisbane
“If the current approach of telling everyone to stay home is to be lifted, widespread and faster testing will be needed to identify infected people for isolation. Easing stay-at-home orders in the absence of sufficient testing would risk reigniting the outbreak.”
The question is: Where were WHO, NIH, CDC, health ministers, prime ministers, presidents? Why did the leadership of the Western World sit on its hands for three months? Has history ever experienced a worse and more complete failure of leadership?
Leadership is absent, because the West has been organized to serve private selfish interests with agendas inimical to the public interest. The People accepted lies and deception, and now we are paying the price.
A Failure of Leadership, by Paul Craig Roberts – The Unz Review
Small investors on the ASX are being ripped off again by Wall Street investment banks, writes shareholder activist Stephen Mayne. This time, it’s a sneaky tweak to the rules governing how companies raise new capital, and right now, there are a lot of companies raising new capital, or dying to …
via ASX Heist: small shareholders ripped by bankers in rash of emergency capital raisings – Michael West
From the Barons: “Keep ’em housed. Keep ’em fed. Promise ’em anything to keep ’em quiet. Once the Plague has passed we’ll march right back in again and walk all over ’em. The power, and the entitlement, remains ours!”
via A Serf in the time of plague … – » The Australian Independent Media Network
As Fauci Pleads For Americans To Keep Distance, Trump Talks Of Opening Country
Despite saying that the worst was yet to come, President Trump talked of opening things back up: “We don’t want to be doing this for months and months.”
headshot
By Carla Herreria Russo
via As Fauci Pleads For Americans To Keep Distance, Trump Talks Of Opening Country | HuffPost
When the President takes precedence over a national emergency (ODT)
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided less than 10 percent of the N95 masks requested by officials in five states and the District of Columbia, according to documents released Thursday by the House Oversight Committee. FEMA also told the committee that the Strategic National Stockpile had only 9,500 remaining ventilators — far short of what will likely be needed to treat a growing number of coronavirus patients.
Although federal officials have known of the shortages for months, they have not been remedied. Yet every year since 2017, Congress has directed FEMA to set aside $41 million of its budget to offset the extraordinary costs of providing security for President Donald Trump’s properties. The “Presidential Residence Assistant Protection Grants” were most recently funded by Congress in an appropriations package in December.
via Amid Critical Supply Shortage, FEMA Is Spending Millions to Protect Trump Properties
In the time of COVID-19 Your being “Kushnered” rings a bell in the US as once did being “Rackmanised” did in 1950s London. Slum lords cut from the same cloth. (ODT)
Jared Kushner’s family real estate company, which owns and manages thousands of apartment units, continued its aggressive eviction practices and debt collection lawsuits as Americans wait for government relief. Well into the coronavirus crisis, which has led to skyrocketing unemployment, court records show properties owned by Kushner Companies are still filing new eviction lawsuits.
via Jared Kushner’s Real Estate Company Filing Eviction Lawsuits
UNREPORTED FACT AMERICA WON”T HELP
Efforts by Russia for mutual cooperation among all nations to combat COVID-19, including the lifting of illegal US sanctions on targeted countries, failed because the Trump regime rejected the humanitarian gesture.
Moscow continues providing vital aid to Venezuela, Iran, and other countries on request. China and Cuba are doing the same thing.
The Trump regime and Congress are hellbent to replace all sovereign independent governments not controlled by the US with pro-Western puppet rule — even as the world community prioritizes the battle to contain and eliminate COVID-19.
MZ noted efforts by Cuba to help other countries combat the virus.
The UK cruise ship MS Braemar was allowed to dock 40 km from Havana “on March 18-19 with five confirmed COVID-19 cases on board and 52 passengers with symptoms of the illness,” MZ explained.
In response to Italy’s request for medical help, Cuban authorities sent dozens of doctors and other medical workers to the country.
They’re also working in Venezuela, Grenada, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as Suriname, Jamaica, and elsewhere.
On April 1, a Russian cargo plane arrived in New York City with a cargo of protective gear for medical workers on the front lines of treating COVID-19 patients — despite unrelenting US hostility toward Moscow.
Given its hostility toward all sovereign independent countries, it’s unlikely that the Trump regime will return the favor — or extend humanitarian outreach to any nations it wants transformed into vassal states.
MZ explained that Russia is actively aiding Iran combat COVID-19 outbreaks and transmission, over 50,000 Iranians affected.
Days earlier, the foreign ministers of both countries discussed the pressing issue.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry reported the following:
Moscow “inten(ds) to continue the comprehensive development of Russian-Iranian trade and economic ties and investment projects, including assistance in increasing the supply of agricultural products, which our good neighbor, which is, above all, under the pressure of illegal unilateral US sanctions, is in dire need,” adding:
“It has been noted that Russia has previously sent humanitarian aid to Iran.”
Lots more is coming from Moscow to the Islamic Republic and other countries in need — polar opposite how belligerent USA operates, a global menace to humanity even in a time of great need.
via Russian Foreign Ministry on Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and Iran – Stephen Lendman
It is welcome then that this federal government, intrinsically reactionary, prone to lassitude, ignorant, arrogant in its ignorance, has turned on the sluice gates. For lack of grounding, it is forced into the ultimate in pragmatism, dependent on a federal Treasury out of its depth.
But will it change its ways after this crisis relents? There’s no evidence, as there is no evidence of such to date in any other country. With a nasty budget black hole, that ‘bigger role’ will, in all likelihood, not be turned to permanently enhancing Newstart or abolishing Robodebt siphoning but to further tightening the screws.
via The state and the economy – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Will the conservatives when they have done with the philosophical ideals of the left once again take on the mantle of the capitalistic rights of the individual over the collective?
The way I see it at the moment is that all they are doing is governing for the common good and I have to salute that.
The philosophical arguments will come later.
My thought for the day
It’s difficult to caste yourself in a new light when you’re coming out of the darkness.
This was the state of play and it certainly hasn’t improved and it’s worse for the Mentally ill. Are there are no experienced mental health practitioners in the NDIA? Doesn’t anyone understand that “Transition” to Independent Living doesn’t mean the consumer needs less care but more? As elderly parent/Carers, we have saved the government hundreds of thousands of o dollars. When the caring framework needs a change NDIA put up barriers with no visible gates or even a desire to assist. (ODT)
In Trump Media just Lie and deal with the fallout later. After all it’s a 24/7 cycle (ODT
Donald Trump’s latest campaign rally disguised as a coronavirus task force briefing took a remarkable turn on Wednesday when he was stunned by a tough question from, of all people, John Roberts of Fox News.
Trump was sailing along, singing his own praises (“Did you know I was number one on Facebook?“) and denying any responsibility for the catastrophe when Roberts asked the president about the massive blunder of disbanding the White House pandemic preparedness team set up by his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.
The top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, Virginia senator Mark Warner, said it was “unconscionable” that Mr Trump would fire Mr Atkinson in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
“We should all be deeply disturbed by ongoing attempts to politicise the nation’s intelligence agencies,” Mr Warner said.
House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff, who led the House impeachment inquiry, said “the President’s dead of night decision puts our country and national security at even greater risk”.
Addressing the employment crisis by ensuring workers remain employed and paid as well as providing social services for everyone in the country, regardless of citizenship or immigration status
Guaranteeing a free at point of service Medicare for All single payer healthcaer system for everyone in the country
Immediately using the Defense Production Act to manufacture personal protective equipment (PPE), ventilators, and other needed healthcare equipment for frontline workers dealing with the pandemic
Providing food for everyone in the country for the duration of the crisis
$600 billion in aid to states and cities
An immediate suspension of collections of rent, mortgage payments, medical debt, and consumer debt for four months and a suspension of student loan payments through the duration of the pandemic
The 1% impose the intrinsic instability of their system on the entire population, and then get the government to respond with deficits that even further benefit and reward the greed of the very same 1% oligarchs and corporations.
Ironically, we’ve borrowed so much as a nation from the rich, large corporations and some foreign countries that even they now are unsure they want to continue to lending to us because of today’s astronomical debt. To maintain their loan profits, they want us to eliminate/severely reduce programs for poor and sick people with austerity/cuts in all social and public health programs, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc.
The absurdity and danger to our community of such an economic policy is exceeded only by its gross injustice.
via The US Tax System is a vast Ponzi Scheme that only Benefits the Wealthy
This revelation is a condemnation of acts not Judaism (ODT)
The Jewish community’s behavior during this pandemic has been atrocious. A recent police raid on a warehouse belonging to Baruch Feldheim uncovered a massive stockpile of desperately needed medical supplies. Feldheim was selling struggling hospitals N95 masks at a 700% markup, revealing a callous willingness to profit from misery and death.
Murdoch Media preaches “So What” Get back to work and save “us” the privatised media and get rid of the ABC. They are the voice of the Oligarch funded Association the IPA and the LNP who desperately want to control their self-interested narrative that COVID-19 Death is minimal and the current reaction is an overreach that should end. A Quid Pro Quo relationship if there ever was one. Murdoch/IPA/LNP in the US Murdoch/ Citizen’s United/GOP. UK I’m not sure because I’m not well enough informed. However not so in NZ and Canada why? Murdoch hasn’t a presence there yet. Thanks for the ABC under constant attack by the Murdoch/IPA/LNP/Virus (ODT)
Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor, who has a history of disclosure failures and being embroiled in scandals, yesterday updated his pecuniary interests register to reflect thousands of dollars worth of gifts from Virgin Australia and Qantas. These disclosures were made only after questions for this story. Taylor’s office points the finger at alleged co-offenders in the ALP but just how many Coalition MPs have failed to report largesse from the nation’s two major airlines, both of which are now demanding the Government support them with billions in public money? Anthony Klan reports
Scandal-magnet Angus Taylor fails to disclose Virgin and Qantas freebies – Michael West
Panicked into action, FauxMo and Co. have seen their beloved lifters-and-leaners feudalistic #Mefirst ideology founder, as useful as a concrete lifejacket. I won’t lie – the schadenfreude of watching the rampaging, free-marketeers scramble for the sanctuary of the socialist life boat has brightened the gloom a tad and there’s some small promise of a better society and a greener planet once the pandemic has passed.
HE’S YOUR PRESIDENT AMERICA (ODT)
via This Humiliating Failure Is Actually Our President During a National Crisis | The Smirking Chimp
Trump’s doing nothing but scapegoating 1) the Chinese, 2) Impeachment,3) the States (ODT)
WIthout federal intervention, states and hospitals may only become more vulnerable to the demands of brokers and speculators outside the normal supply chain, said Chaun Powell, vice president for strategic supplier engagement at the national health care consultant Premier Inc., which helps negotiate contracts for hospitals and health systems.
State data shows that New York is paying enormous markups for vital supplies, including almost $250,000 for an X-ray machine. Laws against price gouging usually don’t apply.
QUID PRO QUO Opportunity (ODT)
That may be true, but the loans that Trump has with Deutsche Bank are personally guaranteed—meaning that if the president is unable to repay them, Deutsche Bank would be able to come after the personal assets of the president of the United States to settle the debt. We’re looking at the possibility of a face-off between the most powerful politician on Earth and a German bank that has struggled financially in recent years and run into trouble with U.S. law enforcement and bank regulators—all in the shadow of a global crisis. This is pretty much the worst-case scenario posited by ethics experts when Trump took office and refused to sell off his assets. .
via Trump Asks Deutsche Bank and Palm Beach County to Give His Businesses a Break – Mother Jones
Trump, so it goes, was too big to fail. Well here we go again. According to the Wall St Journal: “More than 500 staff at Trump properties in New York, Washington, Las Vegas and Florida have been laid off or furloughed, say people familiar with the matter and federal disclosures. Several Trump hotels have been closed, and those still running have experienced dwindling occupancies. One day in March, the family’s flagship Trump International Hotel in Washington had just 11 guests in its 263 rooms, according to an employee.”
Trump wilfully ignored the briefings given him in February (ODT
“The Intelligence Community has warned about the threat from highly pathogenic influenza viruses for two decades at least. They have warned about coronaviruses for at least five years,” adding:
“There have been recent pronouncements that the coronavirus pandemic represents an intelligence failure…It’s letting people who ignored intelligence warnings off the hook.”
The Pentagon predicted large-scale outbreaks and shortages of critical personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical staff and the public.
The Pentagon report states the following:
“Competition for, and scarcity of resources will include…non-pharmaceutical MCM (Medical Countermeasures) (e.g., ventilators, devices, personal protective equipment such as face masks and gloves), medical equipment, and logistical support. This will have a significant impact on the availability of the global workforce.”
via US Knew of Novel Coronavirus Threat, Failed to Prepare – Stephen Lendman
So for the Brussels bureaucracy, the Health Silk Road is not about saving lives; it’s about “destabilizing” the EU and improving Xi Jinping’s domestic image after China lied, lied and lied again about the extent and severity of coronavirus. That happens to be the exact same narrative of the Trump administration, US corporate media and US intelligence.
Does it matter? Not for those 89 nations that are receiving much-needed help and equipment. The dogs of demonization bark while the Health Silk Road caravan passes.
via China rolls out the Health Silk Road, by Pepe Escobar – The Unz Review
Remember when the Surplus was Everything (ODT)
Both of these facts around this part of the government’s response expose the brazen hypocrisy at the core of Neoliberalism. The takeaway is this: these governments have the money for increased social safety net programmes and infrastructure, but they choose to not invest in these things. To put it crudely, the issue is not ‘we can’t afford these programmes’, you fuckers are just unwilling to pay for them! A blank cheque and the keys to the treasury for the political donor class with crumbs and scraps for the serfs! As the Irish poet W.B. Yeats said ‘the centre cannot hold’.
olddogthoughts 
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