Keeping people at work seems counterintuitive if there is no work to keep them there for. Give the money to the workers not the businesses alone. The record of wage theft has been clear and evident. (ODT)
Tag: Coronavirus
The most striking reversal of LNP ideology though was the government’s decision to double the Newstart allowance and extend it to others. Hoping that voters would not see that as tacit acceptance of the repeated advice of countless social advocates, as well as hard-nosed economists, they ditched the name ‘Newstart’ in favour of the more benign-sounding ‘Jobseeker Allowance’. It was obvious to all that the LNP was devoted to the belief that Newstart recipients were bludgers, ‘leaners’ rather than ‘lifters’, people who ought to be out getting a job. It must have been a hard pill to swallow to accept that increasing Newstart would have large economic benefits, as so many have been telling them for months.
Morrison and Frydenberg have been given praise for their package, bordering on lavish from their media set. But we have to ask why it took a crisis the magnitude of the coronavirus pandemic to bring about their awakening.
via The great awakening – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Its a rigged system go to Robert Reich’s explanation on Youtube (ODT
But the need for large stockpiles of masks, like the need for ventilators, has been no secret.
via Trump’s Claim That Ventilator Shortage Was “Unforeseen” Is False
While President Donald Trump fantasizes of wrapping up the virus in time for Easter church services, people are getting sick and dying, hospitals are overwhelmed, medical workers are begging for vital supplies and protesting their conditions.
People are literally prevented from social distancing. Premal Dharia, founder and director of the Defender Impact Initiative, describes the situation in carceral facilities across the U.S. and why she is warning of a humanitarian disaster if action is not taken immediately.
Bad press.
Reuters reports that the death toll in Iran from Covid-19 has risen to 1,284, and infections to 18,407. The country’s ministry of health spokesman, Kianush Jahanpur, is quoted as saying that another person dies there every 10 minutes now and every hour sees 50 people infected.
Researchers at Sharif University of Technology have modeled likely deaths and say Iran could be stricken with as many as 3.5 million dead.
Trump’s secretary of state Mike Pompeo just announced that the US would actually tighten its economic and financial blockade on Iran. Iranians are already saying that US Treasury Department restrictions on bank transfers have made it impossible for them to buy needed medicines, tests and medical supplies. The US does not prevent medicine from going to Iran, it just makes it impossible for Iranians to afford them or for the international banking system to handle the money exchanges necessary to buy them.
via Trump Spared Iran from Bombing, but his Sanctions Fed Pandemic in which 1 dies every 10 Minutes
Celebrities, politicians and professional athletes faced a backlash this week as many revealed that they had been tested for the coronavirus, even when they didn’t have a fever or other tell-tale symptoms.
via Coronavirus: celebrities get tests easily, raising concerns of inequality
Before the coronavirus, property market pundits were tipping their usual, regulation, 10% rise in house prices. They have been quiet in recent days. Callum Foote reports on the impact of the virus on an already weak economy, racking up the present crisis against the Global Financial Crisis (GFC). Australians are unprepared. The ratio of household debt to household disposable income is now at an all-time high, suggesting the risk to property is also at an all time high.
via Debt, House Prices and the Virus: How prepared are Australians really? – Michael West
Capitalism and the Pandemic, (ODT)
In recent weeks, investment bankers have pressed health care companies on the front lines of fighting the novel coronavirus, including drug firms developing experimental treatments and medical supply firms, to consider ways that they can profit from the crisis.
The media has mostly focused on individuals who have taken advantage of the market for now-scarce medical and hygiene supplies to hoard masks and hand sanitizer and resell them at higher prices. But the largest voices in the health care industry stand to gain from billions of dollars in emergency spending on the pandemic, as do the bankers and investors who invest in health care companies.
via Banks Pressure Health Care Firms to Raise Prices Amid Coronavirus Crisis
The Danish government will pay workers 75% of their salaries while British employees face financial ruin
At just after 5pm on Monday, my phone rang. I missed the call – I was in one of Copenhagen’s supermarkets, buying groceries and toilet paper and soap and things I still do not need to think twice about getting hold of. Danes aren’t panic-buying, or at least not in a way that resembles anything like the videos I’ve seen on social media from my home country, the UK. When I looked down at my phone, I saw a string of messages from a close family member.
Herd Immunity vs Social Distancing. The collective vs Individual Response. (ODT)
via Social distancing: What it is and why it’s the best tool we have to fight the coronavirus
Australia’s attorney general Christian Porter has pooh-poohed concerns about the fate of casual workers caught up in the coronavirus crisis, saying they would have “already made provisions” if they have to take time off work.
Australia has 25 mill pop US 350 mill X 14 Australia puts aside $ 11 Bill and has Universal Healthcare US $50 Bill which is an equivalent of $100 Bill less than Australia and Trump is bragging. (ODT)
If Australia’s health system struggles and we have universal health care what chance has America got? (ODT)
All it took was a global epidemic of potentially unprecedented scale and severity and suddenly it’s like we’re turning into Denmark over here.
In the last few days, a parade of American multinationals that had long resisted providing humane and necessary benefits to their workers abruptly changed their minds, announcing plans to pay and protect even their lowest-rung employees harmed by the ravages of the coronavirus.
Because the virus is coldly indiscriminate and nearly inescapable, it leaves us all, rich and poor, in the same boat: The only way any of us is truly protected is if the least among us is protected.
The Grand Prix, The Football, all come first and we are like children looking to America to lead us out of the bewilderness (ODT)
Through poor leadership and a media who loves to sensationalise, our government is turning Australians against those truly in need, writes Noely Neate.
via Scott Morrison’s spread of fear has turned Australians from the public good
Hiding the most important fact. Lack of Testing Equipment!! Yes Now Coronavirus is Real and not as trivial as Trump made out.(ODT)
Trump Responds To Spiraling U.S. Coronavirus Outbreak By Unveiling Europe Travel Ban
The president said nothing about the lack of available testing across the country. The coronavirus has already killed dozens in the U.S. and infected at least 1,200.
Here Are 13 Claims Trump Has Made about Coronavirus That Have Already Gone down in Flames
Remarkable, is it not? Trump is openly dismissive of the experts and the number they have announced because what he says is true because he is Donald Trump. He identifies it as ‘coronaflu’ and not a virus. My favourite part of the summary is his suggestion that people with the disease return to work. Not only is this fundamentally irresponsible from a medical perspective, it also shows a quite callous disregard for the sick. The President is effectively saying ‘GET BACK TO WORK!’. He simply lacks the empathy (like a certain Prime Minister I could name) to offer human responses. All he can see is the consequences for him and his fellow rich people. Ordinary people do not enter into the equation.
via Ideology Über Alles: The White House and COVID-19 – » The Australian Independent Media Network
Bernie, not Trump wants to ensure all Americans are safe (ODT)
