Category: Uncategorized
Advisors Consultants what do MPs really do in their hammocks other than memorising their talking points? (ODT)
via Government spending on consultants still soars despite economic calamity – Michael West
She’s not that Kind (ODT)
Even Joe Biden — who sits on the conservative end of a Democratic Party more conservative than most of New Zealand’s political spectrum — has called for measures that go further than our government’s response. At various times, Biden has called for direct cash payments to families, freezing and forgiving rent payments, a moratorium on utility shutoffs, and forgiving at least $10,000 of student debt, a proposal that has been considered a laughable half-measure by American progressives, but has no comparable equivalent in New Zealand politics at the moment. That Joe Biden of all people has a more progressive vision than a New Zealand Labour-led government should prompt some serious soul-searching by our country’s liberals.
The worry is that even as the government has pumped more than $30 billion into financial markets, an inordinate number of New Zealanders now have less money to spend, and a bigger share of the meager income they do have has to be directed toward paying off debts, including any credit card and landlord debts they may have run up under lockdown. This is not only immoral, but as some economists have warned, could be economically disastrous, as less and less money goes toward buying the goods and services that drive the actual economy, and more and more goes into the world of finance.
via New Zealand’s Coronavirus Response Isn’t as Great as It Seems
I’m not advocating a socialist overthrow of our whole system here. I’m not even advocating that we stay like this permanently. I’m simply saying that now that so many of us have taken a step off the hamster wheel, it’s worth realising that the faster we ran, the faster the wheel went and maybe we could move a little bit more slowly when we do get back on.
Today’s Sermon From Saint Scotty Of Marketing – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The horrific truth is that the uncoordinated, slipshod economic reopening spurred on by Trump and his minions is likely to double our per capita deaths before Election Day. At that point we will lead the world both in deaths per capita and in the total number of Covid-19 deaths. He finally will have made America number one again.
We have to face up to the chilling truth: To win reelection Trump is willfully allowing the virus to kill more and more of us, especially our most vulnerable—the old, the infirm, the poor, and the essential low-wage workers.
It’s on us if we let him get away with it.
via President Donald Trump Culls the Herd | The Smirking Chimp
The decision to shelve detailed advice from the nation’s top disease control experts for reopening communities during the coronavirus pandemic came from the highest levels of the White House, according to internal government emails obtained by The Associated Press.
The files also show that after the AP reported Thursday that the guidance document had been buried, the Trump administration ordered key parts of it to be fast-tracked for approval.
The trove of emails show the nation’s top public health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spending weeks working on guidance to help the country deal with a public health emergency, only to see their work quashed by political appointees with little explanation.
via Top White House Officials Buried CDC Report On Reopening Country | HuffPost
When the cart starts pulling the ss in another direction you know the ass was heading to the knackery. (ODT)
via Fox News starts to turn its attention away from the coronavirus pandemic | Media Matters for America
The Trump administration is doing everything in its power to ensure that America’s meatpackers, immigrant and native-born alike, continue to work during the coronavirus pandemic at considerable risk to themselves, their families, and the entire public. “It’s genocide against the working class,” the leader of Teamsters Local 238, which represents meatpackers in Iowa, told the Guardian. And while the unions that continue to represent these workers are pushing back, their actual power is a shadow of what it was fifty years ago.
So workers crowd in refrigerated facilities as a deadly virus makes its way down the disassembly line — all so the grocery store shelves will remain stocked for consumers and voters, and the Beef Trust will stay in the black. Modern meatpacking may not be the unsanitary industry of The Jungle, but in the absence of strong worker organization, the nauseating disregard for human well-being remains.
via Conditions in US Meatpacking Plants Today Aren’t Much Better Than They Were in The Jungle
Ocasio-Cortez has been the only Democrat in Congress to come out against the coronavirus relief packages; she said she “couldn’t stomach” voting for the previous bill knowing she would have to go back to her community “having to fundraise for diapers and fundraise for food myself because the federal government has chosen not to.”
Imperial over-reach was on full display this week as the US government demanded that a pair of US citizens — former Special Forces soldiers leading a 60-man invasion of Venezuela with the goal of fomenting a coup and/or capturing or killing that country’s elected president — be released from arrest and returned to the US.
Bad enough that the US almost certainly knew in advance about this invasion which involved multiple simultaneous border crossings and beach landings by mercenary forces, many of them reportedly sketchy former Venezuelan soldiers involved in the drug trade, who were on a payroll as soldiers-for-hire. But how about the gall to also claim that when the effort fails, the intended victim of the coup, Venezuela, has no legitimate right to punish the perpetrators, but must release them to their home country, the US — a country that has for years been trying to oust Venezuela’s elected government?
There is a very simple test which can be applied to our parliamentarians to see whether they are fit for office. It works for the general population as well, but it is in the political context where the test is crucial and necessary. The test shows whether they respect the wishes and the needs of the people. The test asks whether they want the ABC privatised or do they want it preserved in its current form. See this page for a list of who, and how, they voted.
Mike Seccombe: ‘ It sounds like a marketing slogan, almost a cliché: in times of national crisis, Australians turn to the national broadcaster. But over the past six months or so, it has proved profoundly true.First came the bushfire crisis, when the ABC’s network of regional reporters distinguished themselves not just in reporting the disaster as it unfolded but also warning those in harm’s way. Then came the current coronavirus crisis….Continue Reading
Take the Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, which measure online interaction. In December last year, on the back of its bushfire coverage, the broadcaster surged into second place with a “unique audience” of more than 10 million – passing Nine and just behind news.com.au, which both fell.
By January, the ABC was No. 1 in the country, with an audience of 11.2 million, well ahead of the Murdoch news site. The most recent figures, for March, showed its audience up to 15.2 million, a 53 per cent gain in a single month, and almost three million ahead of its closest rival.
In one sense, this is unsurprising. Innumerable surveys over the decades have shown the ABC to be the most trusted media outlet, and one of the most trusted institutions in the country.
On another level, though, it is remarkable that the ABC has done so well during these particular crises – given that it has been working while grievously wounded. Since the current government came to power in 2014, the broadcaster has lost hundreds of millions of dollars in funding and about 1000 jobs.
Staff members reveal the significant pressure they are under as the public broadcaster continues to face budget cuts of more than $100 million a year.
Staff members reveal the significant pressure they are under as the…
Staff members reveal the significant pressure they are under as the public broadcaster continues to face budget cuts of more than $100 million a year.
The Australian Labor Party’s Kristina Keneally is using the lockdown to call for a reduction in immigration once borders reopen, citing the nativist trope that migrant workers are driving down wages. But it’s not immigrants that have driven down Australian workers’ wages — it’s the Labor Party’s own history of neoliberal policies.
A majority of Americans are today wary of unlocking the economy and opening up the nation. Yet, each week, more and more people are demanding that it be done. And each week, more and more governors, reflecting the views of their constituents, are moving up the dates for partial reopenings.
By midsummer, the country will have caught up with Trump. That is the idea that animates the pivot.
Behind Trump’s Strategic Pivot, by Pat Buchanan – The Unz Review
Now, sure, you may read Daniels’s piece and wonder: yeah, what’s the point of looking back and holding people accountable?
Well, for one thing, we want a deterrent: we want public officials to fear that if they break laws, act unethically, or otherwise harm the public during a lethal pandemic, they will face some form of justice in the future from those looking back on their actions. That justice can be meted out in all kinds of ways — prosecution, firing, or at least public shaming in front of a national commission that has subpoena and discovery power.
But beyond deterrence, we should also want accountability in order to learn and grow as a society.
A country that doesn’t hold accountable those who lied us into the Iraq War is a country that effectively says it is fine with being lied into any war in the future.
A country that doesn’t hold accountable those corporate executives who created the financial crisis is a country that tells those executives they can continue fleecing us without fear of punishment — just as they have.
In short, a country that lets demands for bipartisanship create a cover-up is a country that refuses to learn from history — and then is doomed to repeat it.
via David Sirota: A Bipartisan Effort to Prevent Accountability for the Coronavirus Response Is Underway
Division for division sake is a political act. (ODT)
via Deconstructed Podcast: Are Trump and the Anti-Lockdown Militias Itching for Violence?
Now another person close to Trump has tested positive, this time a member of the U.S. Navy who serves as a personal valet to Trump inside the White House and is responsible for serving Donald Trump his meals. (Side note: How weird is it there is an elite Navy unit dedicated to being the president’s butlers?)
CNN reports Trump was “upset” at the news and things were “hitting the fan” inside the White House. Unlike some of the earlier exposures, this member of the U.S. Navy was said to be symptomatic when tested.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said both Pence and Trump have since tested negative. The rub is the rapid tests for COVID-19 have 14.8% rate of false negatives. So, a negative test today does not necessarily mean a negative test tomorrow.
via Trump’s Personal Valet Has Tested Positive For COVID-19 | Crooks and Liars
Meanwhile Trump authorised Treasury to stop the $1,200 cheques sent to those that owe the government any money. (ODT)
Canada has become the latest country to refuse pandemic bailout money for tax dodgers. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau joins leaders of Denmark, Poland and France in axing financial aid to corporations registered in offshore tax havens. Noel Turnbull reports.
Should tax dodgers get taxpayer-funded COVID-19 bailout? – Michael West
Righto. So we expect China to be open and transparent but not our fearless men in black. If our own Border Force won’t co-operate then why should another country, particularly considering the accusations being made and broadcast by the Murdoch muckrakers like Sharri Markson who now seems to have become the letter box for US propaganda.
What a joke.
And where is the call for an investigation into the handling of the outbreak in the US and the UK and our failure to stop them importing the virus into Australia?
via Scotty’s shirtfronting sophistry – » The Australian Independent Media Network
The myth of the individual (ODT)
It’s not easy to imagine a Marxist love story. But in Normal People, Sally Rooney shows how our personal relationships — and the troubles we encounter — are inextricably bound to the society around us.
Trump just admits he’s not a multi-tasker (ODT)
President Donald Trump once again deflected blame for his administration’s response to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic that has infected more than 1.2 million people across the country, saying he had been too busy with probes into his conduct as president to ensure the federal stockpile of medical supplies was prepared for a pandemic.
“Well, I’ll be honest, I have a lot of things going on,” Trump told ABC News anchor David Muir on Tuesday. “We had a lot of people that refused to allow the country to be successful. They wasted a lot of time on Russia, Russia, Russia. That turned out to be a total hoax. Then they did Ukraine, Ukraine, and that was a total hoax. Then they impeached the president of the United States for absolutely no reason.”
Trump’s failure denied by a straight out lie. His ex bodyguard was involved (ODT)
The head of state recalled that the U.S. President Donald Trump, who receives a report every day on Venezuela, affirmed he knew nothing of the foiled armed infiltration in his country.
“It is impossible that Trump did not know what happened in Venezuela this weekend. Mike Pompeo said they have not had direct participation, but have they had indirect participation?”
The Venezuelan president also reiterated that the former U.S. green beret Jordan Goudreau, who is the head of the Silvercorp company, has worked with Trump for several years.
via US Mercenary Confesses on Failed Plot Against President Maduro | News | teleSUR English
Trump plays Sargent Schultz but photos tell another story. (ODT)
via Venezuela ‘failed coup plot’: What we know so far | USA News | Al Jazeera
Whoever suggested that a UBI without fundamental changes to the economic system was a progressive solution to the current state of affairs? I’m surprised people like Van Badham thought that’s all people like Bernie Sanders and AOC stood for? Grassroots movements expect far more changes than a simplistic UBI and a change to more Welfare (ODT)
via Why the progressive left should oppose a universal basic income
Both ministers said the Duque-led Colombian regime and Guaido were involved in the US supported plot — dubbed “Operation Gedeon.”
Maduro accused the Trump and Duque regimes of plotting to kill him. He indicated that two Americans were among the captured mercenaries, one reportedly a DEA agent.
Saying Venezuelan intelligence knew of the plot in advance, he accused elements involved of “playing Rambo.”
via Imperial USA Never Rests – Stephen Lendman
and
Trump denies US role in Venezuelan incursion – ABC
Alternative opinions immediately get you fired in Trumpland. Diversity not acceptable. (ODT)
via Official Fired for Standing Up to Coronavirus Corruption
Corporations and Government haven’t changed since British East India Company when 40% of the shareholders were British MPs. Lobbying and corruption is more sophisticated these days but not with Trump. He’s as basic as meat and potatoes. In the open Quid Pro Quo (ODT)
“The House is a bunch of Trump haters,” the president said dismissively of a co-equal branch of government.
via Trump Admits He’s Blocking Coronavirus Oversight Because Of ‘Trump Haters’ | HuffPost Australia
The (American) Fat Lady hasn’t sung yet: Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health, said the virus might have been spreading quietly in humans for years, or even decades, without causing a detectable outbreak.
Why would a medically competent country be investigated by a medically incompetent one? Especially since we know America’s independent investigation SOP: “Current and former staff members of the OPCW have denounced the organization’s IIT report alleging Syrian government sarin use at Ltamenah, criticizing its reliance on rumor, hearsay, “scientifically flawed” claims and the influence of unqualified, secret “experts” aligned with the Western-backed opposition. If we go by demonstrated competence in this field, shouldn’t it be the other way round?”
via Objections to an Independent Investigation of China, by Godfree Roberts – The Unz Review
Australian intelligence agencies have grown increasingly concerned about the Trump administration’s efforts to link the virus to a Wuhan laboratory, saying it is hampering the push to eliminate dangerous wildlife wet markets.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said the Australian government did not have strong evidence linking the Wuhan lab to the virus.
Related Article
Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly poses with the COVIDSafe app downloaded to his mobile phone.
Coronavirus pandemic
Coronavirus updates LIVE: COVIDSafe downloads continue to rise, global COVID-19 cases top 3.6 million as Australian death toll stands at 97US President Donald Trump last week said he had seen evidence that gives him a “high degree of confidence” that the virus began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
But the US government’s top infectious diseases expert, Anthony Fauci, has dismissed the idea, saying all the scientific evidence suggests the virus began in bats and then spread to humans.
These very labs were refunded by Trump in 2017 after Obama had stopped. Doesn’t anybody find it odd Trump fails to mention that? Pompeo is publicising Australia’s support of American suspicions whe the opposite is true. Let’s not forget American Intel ia an Oxymoron. Iraq proved that with the lies spread by Bush/Rumsfeld and Cheney. (ODT)
For weeks the Australian government had been growing concerned about the Trump administration’s promotion of the theory that experiments on bats at a Wuhan laboratory had unleashed COVID-19. This week that anxiety peaked.
Multiple diplomatic and political sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the suggestions by our biggest ally that Chinese lab experiments on bats had unleashed the new coronavirus would undermine Australia’s calls to ban the sale of exotic live animals at wet markets around the world.
“We can’t repeat the mistakes of the past. The WMDs fiasco was not that long ago,” one former security official said, referring to the incorrect intelligence claims of huge Iraqi weapon stockpiles that formed the basis for the Iraq War in 2003.
It is impossible to pinpoint the exact moment concerns within local security and intelligence circles morphed into genuine anxiety, but an April 14 article in The Washington Post is regarded by some as a turning point. The article quoted leaked diplomatic cables detailing how US officials had in March 2018 raised concerns about the Wuhan Institute of Virology “conducting risky studies on coronaviruses from bats”. Shortly afterwards President Donald Trump began raising the “lab theory” during his press briefings.
via Coronavirus Australia: COVID-19 origin theory about Wuhan lab tests relationship with US
“On numerous cruise ships where thousands of people onboard were infected, many of the infections occurred after passengers had to isolate in their cabins even though hand hygiene was implemented,” she said.
“Therefore, the ventilation system could have spread the airborne virus between the cabins. We know that Covid-19’s predecessor, Sars.CoV-1, did spread in the air in the 2003 outbreak. Several studies have retrospectively explained this pathway of transmission in Hong Kong’s Prince of Wales Hospital as well as in healthcare facilities in Toronto, Canada.”
We have more evidence now and we must take it on board
Lidia Morawska
Watching the Four Corners program (ABC 04/05/20), I was struck by the extent of the potential mental and physical health damage that will have been suffered by so many of the medical personnel who were interviewed.
And there were other groups which were not included in those interviews – cleaners in those hospitals, and low-paid staff in the many Aged Care facilities, where protecting the elderly from infection has not always succeeded.
Throw the net wider, and and there will be many in the community both citizens and visa holders alike, whose loss of work and income has left them destitute and often homeless.
For the sake of the exercise, let all these people register in what, for convenience, we will call the Pandemic Victims group, which will entitle them to assistance, and maybe it would be best situated in the Future Fund.
via Caring for the carers and others in distress – » The Australian Independent Media Network
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