07.04.20.  At the moment UK’s COVID-19 struck Boris Johnson has been moved into ICU with breathing difficulties. We wish him God speed!
Without a road map to get us back in business, Australia’s lockdowns look headed down a dead end that will kill the economy. New figures suggest there is a better way, writes Alan Jones. The emerging and disconcerting issue in relation to this coronavirus, and it’s an issue which cannot be put to one side, concerns one simple question, when will this end? Everyone appreciates what is being done by Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his team. They also appreciate the difficulty of determining when we will return to some sense of normal. Six months is frightening people who don’t have a pay cheque banked every two weeks, like public servants, politicians and the ABC. More

07.04.20.  Chinese journalists have shed light on their country’s deadly coronavirus cover-up which has led to tens of thousands of deaths and sent global economies crashing to a halt. Sky News Australia presents COVID-19: Ground Zero – an investigation into what caused the killer coronavirus and how China managed to bury the truth for so long. South China Morning Post news editor Josephine Ma told Sky News her government covered up more than 200 cases of coronavirus in 2019, delaying global warnings and allowing the spread of the virus to leak into other countries. Ground Zero also details the incredible steps nations around the world are taking to minimise the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s 26 minutes long! More

07.04.20. We knew it would come to this. RBA boss Philip Lowe has spent the weekend down in the basement of the RBA vault in Sydney’s Martin Place printing money for the government to spend—truck-loads of it! Morning Mail’s Finance Department (for obvious reasons in a secret undisclosed location) has loaned its money printing machine to speed up production. MM has also loaned the RBA a money generating computer which can print cash notes in varying country denominations—see below!
If you stand on the other side of the street long enough you’ll see an armoured truck, with a large police escort, pulling into the driveway. It’s like a scene out of the Italian Job, but it’s actually a pretty standard Reserve Bank procedure — the truck is delivering cold hard cash to the central bank. That’s the image you might summon when you think of the Reserve Bank printing money: a truck chock full of cash arriving from the mint with brand new money, the Reserve Bank unloading it and then pushing that money out into the economy. More

07.04.20. Venezuela! From riches to rags in short order led by socialist governments. Not long ago, Venezuela was the wealthiest country in Latin America. Then it elected Hugo Chavez, the local version of the US communist Bernie Sanders and then Nicolas Maduro. Now Venezuela is a basket case. Once oil-rich prosperity with relative social harmony turned to a humanity disaster, people staving to death, difficult to do, even for corrupt socialist leaders. This story exemplifies how prolonged civic unrest in the hands of despots can seriously warp the minds of fools.
The RCGS Resolute, currently in Curaçao, sustained minor damage to its bow
A Venezuelan navy coastal patrol boat sank in the Caribbean after allegedly ramming a cruise ship that it had ordered to change direction. The owners of the Portuguese-flagged RCGS Resolute said the naval vessel Naiguata also fired shots in an “act of aggression in international waters”. More

07.04.20.  Sky News host Peta Credlin says under NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard’s watch “over 600 Australians have now been infected and 12 have sadly died” from the novel coronavirus after contracting the disease aboard the ill-fated Ruby Princess cruise. The Ruby Cruise ship is thought to be linked with 10 per cent of Australia’s coronavirus cases after authorities allowed its passengers to disembark in Sydney on the 19th of March. Ms Credlin said the Ruby Princess debacle “heightens the contrast” between how the federal and state governments have handled the ongoing health crisis. Mr Hazzard on Sunday told Sky News the NSW community should be “satisfied” with his handling of the incident, and refused to accept any responsibility on behalf of NSW Health. More

07.04.20. As written before on this blog, the People’s Republic of China has many words struck from its lexicon. There is no translation for decency, compassion, fairness, charitable, good spirited and now seemingly banned from translation is a combo, “arrogant little bastards.” China is copping very bad press from all quarters, as it deserves, and not before time. There is a track well worn between Chinese embassies and host country embassies the world over as the missives of complaint are carried routinely—and they expect action because Western countries genuflect like ragged serfs before the bullying little shits as a matter of tradition. Let it now and for ever more be a valuable lesson of how China views Australia in the midst of their catastrophic COVID-19. Instead of keeping their heads down for a bit, they double down with their supreme ARROGANCE as indicated in this article.
The Chinese Embassy in Australia has accused media organisations of “defaming” Chinese companies who bought up medical supplies in Australia to send back to China earlier in the COVID-19 crisis. More

07.04.20 The published guidelines of the Italian College of Anesthesia, Analgesia, Resuscitation and Intensive Care for nurses and doctors to follow provide a shocking preview of what awaits the demographic group that is most vulnerable to the coronavirus: the elderly. Their prescription for coping with the crisis is utilitarian. Their conclusion is as shocking as it is obvious: “It may become necessary to establish an age limit for access to intensive care.” Those who are too old to have a good chance of recovery or with few years left to live will be allowed to die. Luigi Icardi, a councilor for health in Piedmont, said that the document “will be binding and will establish, in the event of saturation of the wards, a precedence code for access to intensive care, based on certain parameters such as potential survival. Chris Stigall discusses the concept of when death is acceptable. More

06.04.20.  By the headline I refer to the Prime Minister Scott Morrison while relying on the that old adage, “A leopard doesn’t change its spots!” Today, he will be basking in a positive Newspoll that has lifted his political fortunes, although there remains only a three-point lead over Labor. This scribe might be a lone ranger with the belief that Morrison is still not a good leader, he is good follower as he was under then PM Tony Abbott. It’s ScoMo’s body language that offends. He seems to be getting puffy—like blow fish does out of water. With every new “phase” (like every last detail has been considered) announced the puffiness grows. What “phase” are we in now—Phase four? My tool shed has been with phase three long before ScoMo came along, if you get the meaning! But espying the PM before the cameras delivering these upgrade “Phases” as though this one is better than the last “Phase”, which must not have worked, begs the question, how many more bloody phases does he have? More