Let’s hope we can put 2020 behind us

There are many topics I’d like to address in this month’s blog. Let me begin with Crown Casino and our State Government pissing in our pockets.

So, it has taken an inquiry into the licensing of Crown to operate a second casino in Sydney to find out that that company has been laundering money for some years. Were Crown pulled up for this? No. When they presented an unsolicited proposal to the State gov to allow them to build the casino and fill it with ‘high rollers’ and specifically visitors from Asia on ‘planned junkets’ the State government couldn’t approve it fast enough, now we learn that all of that ‘planning’ on the part of Crown was actually in contravention of most laws in China and elsewhere which rendered gambling; illegal. In effect, while our government was ‘blessing’ these odious plans, the Chinese authorities were rounding up all of Crown’s senior employees in China, and were arresting them. Many of these personnel still languish in Chinese prisons with precious little help from anyone, their employer, our foreign missions abroad or otherwise.

Now, the State gov and Galdys would have us believe that the government is ‘genuinely concerned’ about the release of findings about this casino inquiry. As if they didn’t know all of this beforehand. They must think we just came out of the last shower. The Premier was even downplaying the ‘pork barrelling’ she says occurs ‘with every incoming government’ when seeking re-election; that was in relation to a local government grants program that was heavily tilted to LNP held electorates.

It seems, there are now precious little reasons for why a Minister must resign, this is a cancer that now permeates almost all jurisdictions in Australia. It’s another reason I call us the nation of educated fools.

China and our increasing trade tensions

It is as if I prophetically wrote about this issue in some detail last month, but I would like to add a few more pertinent points.

Don’t be fooled by the empty rhetoric coming from our inept politicians. They are the one’s who have already sold us out to China and other nations long ago. Our government recently announced (like a thief in the night) that it would be increasing our defence spending by $270 BILLION (over the next 5 years). Did I miss something, or are we planning some big upcoming conflict? Do you have any concept what $270B would do for social housing in Australia? Or the working poor? Or necessary infrastructure? HEAPS !! but we have a government who thinks its better to spend hideous amounts of CASH with our ‘allies’, so we can be sure they will run to our aid, if we need them. Don’t hold your breath, you will die of asphyxiation.

We like to use China as our little ‘piggy bank’ that we can rely on to build our GDP and fail to engage with them as a respected partner. Western governments will tell you how bad China is and the Communist party etc, but they have no trouble dealing with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain or the United Arab Emirates all of whom have dubious credentials when it comes to peoples freedoms, human rights or or their non-existent participatory democracy. No, our politicians continue to deflect attention away from their own misgivings and double standards.

China did not deliberately put this virus out, it jumped from bats to humans, just as it recently mutated into minks and jumped back into humans. Since June 2020, 214 human cases of COVID-19 have been identified in Denmark with SARS-CoV-2 variants associated with farmed minks, including 12 cases with a unique variant, reported on 5 November. All 12 cases were identified in September 2020 in North Jutland, Denmark. The cases ranged in age from 7 to 79 years, and eight had a link to the mink farming industry and four cases were from the local community. So anyone putting scurrilous lies out (like the Australian government) trying to put pressure on the international community for ‘an inquiry’ into Covid-19 are simply playing politics, we should be bigger and not buy into that garbage.

A look at what 2021 has in store for us

Thankfully from January 20, 2021 onwards the world will be rid of that obnoxious man who occupied the White House for the last 4 years. That will be a joyous day for every conscientious citizen of the world who know, just how toxic that man has been.

The Corona Vaccine is about to be rolled out internationally and hopefully it will have a positive impact. I like the great multitude of normal people thank all of the hard working scientists and epidemiologists who have worked tirelessly to bring this about, but I must admit, I have my doubts about its efficacy in the long term. I personally do not believe it will be the panacea for this virus, as I believe variant mutant strains of this virus will continue bedevil us for decades to come, I really hope I am wrong.

We are definitely consuming too much, building too much and cutting off too much of nature’s role in mitigating all of the pollution we are creating. That essentially is a problem of consumption. We are making far too much plastics and they in turn are ruining our natural environments. We can and must do more, that is, consume less. Just how do we do that with the self-serving hedonistic society we’ve created? Big problem. Not sure I have the answer, but I will keep blogging and it may just come to me eventually.

All the very best for the festive season.