lev.lafayette's blog

Today the good Walt Dardyman reminded me of a quote:

"The very stupid and the very powerful have something in common; they don't alter their opinions to fit the facts, they try to alter the facts to fit their opinions." - The Doctor, Face of Evil, 1977

This is what a real conspiracy looks like; the suppression and alteration of scientific research to suit economic interests and imposed by political authorities. Their attempt to "manage perceptions" and public opinion does not change reality.

I was going to write a long post about how the Chamber of Commerce, the Australian Hotels Association, and the State and Federal LNP would prefer that you, your parents, and your grandparents, were infected so their pockets are lined for their non-essential profits.

However, Daniel Andrews has just explained it without even having to mention how these carping muppets don't know the first thing about epidemiology.

But I will. And I'll also mention who does know. The AMA:

Australia has various bilateral associations that promote friendship, cooperation, and understanding between the people of one country and another. Obvious to all, these represent a sort of soft-power strategic orientation as well as a source for business contacts, along with the more benign elements of cultural, scientific, and familial associations. A very notable example is the American Australian Association which is affiliated with its complement, the American Australian Association, and likewise the Australia-Britain Society and its complement, the Britain-Australia Society.

In 1998 I co-authored a paper, "ALP Reform Discussion Paper 1988: ALP Branches a Structural and Systematic Review" with then Party-organiser Peter Mitchell. This paper was written at a time when there were a number of public reports about branch-stacking within the Victorian branch of the Australian Labor Party. The Discussion Paper sought to provide solutions to these problems.

It is not unusual for authoritarian and totalitarian regimes to engage in mass secrecy, especially when their public policy results in embarrassing figures.

But the United States has at least pretended that it believes in the free communication of scientific data.

Until now.

The Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, has warned attempting to eliminate the coronavirus would destroy the Australian economy.

This is capitalism in its most worst, class-ridden, form. Labour (i.e., workers, flesh-and-blood, visceral "natural persons") are literally disposable if their continued existence gets in the way of profit.

"You don’t just shut the country down because that is not sustainable" #ScottyFromMarketing told Triple M on Wednesday [1].

Actually yes it is. It is very sustainable. Because you don't have to do it on a permanent basis.

Yesterday the Australian Scott Morrison said that those attended the Black Lives Matter protests should be charged.

"Mr Morrison has previously urged Australians not to attend the mass protests against Indigenous incarceration rates and deaths in custody, citing the risk of COVID-19."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-11/black-lives-matter-protests-morri...

For the following questions, I am using the phrase "sentient-free diet" to mean food intake that is not based on the premature killing of living animals. By "sentient" I mean the etymologically correct term, capable of feeling (capable of thinking is sapience). Such a diet can include vegetarians, vegans, and even people who eat carrion.

What are the best ethical reason *against* a sentient-free diet or similar? For example, the argument eating grains is worse as industrial grain productions cause the violent deaths of lots of little rodents.

"We alerted the world on January the 5th. Systems around the world, including the U.S., began to activate their incident management systems on January the 6th."
Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO's Health Emergencies Programme
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/04/15/835179442/we-alerte...

Dear Mr. Marape,

I read with interest some time ago (Sydney Morning Herald, 2019/05/30) your interest in reviewing PNGs natural resource wealth, and am interested in how this review is developing.

I have some background in the subject through formal studies in public economics and environmental science, as well as many years of informal studies and advocacy.

In particular, I am interested in the economic and environmental success of those jurisdictions which have applied site-rental approaches and public ownership of resources.