Our QED database includes dozens of examples of dubious travel claims made by politicians. But what is more concerning than the apparent inappropriate use of public funds is the MPs’ lack of accountability and their arrogant treatment of the fourth estate – the journalists holding power to account. Elizabeth Minter reports.
via QED travel rorts: it’s not just the misuse of money. We have a right to answers. – Michael West
Trump declares this a historic rebound by the best President ever and he’s your’s America. (ODT)
Trump throws the dead cat on the table (ODT)
When I talk to local people, like a city council or a schools’ committee, I say, “What cost are you willing to accept for being wrong? What is an acceptable cost to you?” Frankly, we got lazy, and we’re not prepared for something like this. Even people like me and my colleagues, we would look at the data and kind of think, can it really be that bad? It’s hard to admit to yourself that it really can be that bad, but you have to know in the back of your mind that it may well be.
via How Our “Balkanized” Health Care System Made the Pandemic Far Worse – Mother Jones
Snake Oil selling has always been an American tradition. At least pet rock’s were refreshingly honest as was a can of Fresh Air. James Murdoch couldn’t “TAKE IT ANYMORE” Tucker Carlson wants to do more selling (ODT)
The Daily Caller is a right-wing publication with a history of promoting false information and hiring or publishing white nationalists and other bigots. In 2019, Facebook began partnering with Check Your Fact for the social media giant’s fact-checking program. Popular Information’s Jugg Legum documented in March how the Daily Caller used “its role as a Facebook fact-checker to boost Trump and discredit a mainstream media outlet, Politico.”
Check Your Fact states on its “about us” page that it is “a for-profit subsidiary wholly owned by The Daily Caller, Inc. Majority owners of The Daily Caller, Inc. are co-founder and publisher Neil Patel and co-founder Tucker Carlson. The Daily Caller’s fact-checking team is funded by The Daily Caller’s general news budget, as well as revenue generated through advertising.” (Carlson sold his stake in the Daily Caller last month.)
The LNP Government pays the ABC less that’s why they don’t need more, But Murdoch gets the $40 mill bonus prize.Seems to me if the ABC isn’t included big tech will just publish the ABC won’t they? (ODT)
Rio Tinto has just announced an astronomical profit, largely on the back of its continued exploitation of Indigenous land in WA. Yet Rio still does not have an Indigenous Australian in a senior executive role. To maintain its social licence the company must also move its headquarters to Australia and up its royalties, writes Stephen Mayne.Indigenous Land,
via Rio Tinto: ditch the colonial baggage and get with a 21st-century program – Michael West
“Customs and Border Protection is, in liberal terms, one of the least professionalized agencies, and to name it more plainly, it’s been captured by white supremacists.”
via Feds at Protests Renew Calls to Dismantle Homeland Security
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The Insanity of Trump: HE”S YOUR PRESIDENT AMERICA
Florida alone, which has a population of about 22 million people, set a single-day record for coronavirus-related deaths for a third day in a row on Thursday, recording 253 new deaths and just under 10,000 new cases. Statewide, 6585 residents are now dead after contracting the virus.
By comparison, Australia, with a population of almost 25 million, recorded 14 deaths and 747 new cases by Thursday night, driven mostly by Victoria’s spike in infections. Friday’s numbers were lower with 649 new cases in Victoria and eight deaths. Overall, 196 people in Australia have died from the virus.
via Coronavirus: Trump criticises Australia as US COVID-19 cases soar
via Fake News
The independent hearings into one of the most controversial projects in NSW history, Santos’ coal seam gas dream for Narrabri, are wrapping up. Meanwhile, new NSW guidelines to fast-track developments look set to turn into a nightmare for community groups, writes Callum Foote.
Has anyone thought about how would you get a measure of the traded lives when we lock an economy down? What are we sacrificing in terms of lives? Economists have tried to do that and we try to do that in currencies like the value of a statistical life… we are still potentially better off not having an economic lockdown in the first place because of the incredible effects that you see not just in a short-run way but in many years to come.
He doublecrossed the Kurds to get their oil wells. Has stayed in Syria for Exxon’s sake. Refuses to leave Iraq and is still in Afghanistan. But he’s turned his back on his European allies for not paying him. However, he doesn’t pay the UN and has left the WHO in order to bring them to their knees and says he’s not a” sucker”. Bye Bye American Pie. (ODT)
via ‘We don’t want to be the suckers’: US to withdraw 12,000 troops from Germany
Anyway, back in Canberra the Saviour was able to quickly explain the situation in aged care facilities:
The challenges are not unique to Australia so don’t try and blame the Federal Government who is responsible for the regulation of aged care.
It’s inevitable that Covid-19 will get into aged care facilities because of the high rate of community infection.
It’s being brought in by staff and not spontaneously appearing in the residents who are under lockdown and not allowed to leave.
Brendan Murphy still agrees with Morrison even though he’s no longer CMO but he’s always available for a press conference.
“When it rains, everyone gets wet.” This I presume is because the profit motive is so strong and the regulations so lax in Aged Care Facilities that there’s no necessity to fix the holes in the roof.
FOI Secrecy and News Corp’s Sensationalism. LNP and Scott Morrison’s “On the Water Matters Multiply” (ODT)
“The idea that the state department would say it’s going to take them three years to look at a few pages is completely extraordinary,” Behm said.
AdvertisementHe said it defied the purpose of FoI laws, which was to inform the public and ensure governments were transparent
Document behind News Corp’s ‘bombshell dossier’ on China coronavirus may be released … in 2023 | Australia news | The Guardian
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The general manager of Gina Rinehart’s mining operations in Ecuador has been caught with a cache of illegal weapons. The arrest has stunned the expat community in the capital Quito where the likes of BHP, Newcrest, Hancock Prospecting and a slew of junior miners are enjoying a millennial “gold rush” as bullion prices hit records and drill results bode for enormously rich deposits of copper, gold, cobalt and other minerals. Michael West reports.
via Gina Rinehart’s mining boss in Ecuador arrested for weapons amid Aussie gold rush – Michael West
However, only one side has the weapons(ODT)
The fact that Trump is taking his cues from the far-right fringes is, sadly, no surprise. After all, he has recently promoted a conspiracy theory about the coronavirus apparently concocted by a far-right nut who believes reproductive health problems are caused by women having sex with demons. The far right is where Trump’s heart is, which is why his impulse after the 2017 riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, was to describe the white supremacists who rampaged there as “very fine people.”
The real issue, however, is that the aged care system is simply not fit for purpose in normal times and so was inevitably destined to fail when under this sort of extreme pressure.
Hunt on Tuesday praised the care his late father received in a home. “I cannot imagine better care that my family and my father could have got.”
But Andrews said “I wouldn’t want my mum in some of these places”, an observation many distraught families will relate to.
The interim report of the royal commission into aged care, released late last year, was scathing, declaring older people and their families were left “isolated and powerless in this hidden-from-view system”.
COVID has provided a tragic real time vindication of the commission’s observation.
View from The Hill: Aged care crisis reflects poor preparation and a broken system
We are witnessing what their deregulation and erosion of job security and ignoring of expert warnings deliver. Rather than learn any lessons during this pandemic, our Treasurer invokes Thatcher and Reagan who hugely increased inequality and diminished workers’ rights and protections. Persistently high rates of income or wealth inequality are bad for social cohesion, political inclusion and crime. The evidence for this is overwhelming.
Budgeting for being caught and ensuring your too big to fail (ODT)
The Wall Street giant is also facing the prospect of another settlement with the DOJ which threatens to raid its profits. The staff are no doubt ready, and additional money is already being put aside for regulatory reasons. With supreme insincerity, the bank promises to reflect about this latest chapter in international financial kleptocracy. “There are important lessons to be learned from this situation, and we must be self-critical to ensure that we only improve from the experience.” The sinner, chastened, readies for the next transgression.
Mahatma Gandhi, in one of his more quoted remarks, observed that “the world has enough for everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed.” The Goldman approach has a different take to his sagacious observation: the greed will always come before the need and there is ample amount to be had. It is a philosophy that has enabled it to escape the calamities of the subprime market collapse in 2009 and survive such catastrophes as the Wall Street crash. While it has received something of a battering, the company has seen worse. Expect much and more of the same: greed sells, and while stumbles are bound to take place, budget for them.
Tina Turner sang it ” Simply the Best….” (ODT)
![Screenshot_2020-08-01 Our relatives are carted into the maw of underpaid overworked profit-at-all costs aged care First Dog[...].png](https://olddogthoughts.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/screenshot_2020-08-01-our-relatives-are-carted-into-the-maw-of-underpaid-overworked-profit-at-all-costs-aged-care-first-dog....png?w=845)
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