Politics is a dirty word

 Politicians are helping to boost profits for pharmaceutical companies by enforcing mandates for Covid vaccines and protecting the companies from the consequences of any damage caused by the vaccines. The Australian government provides indemnity against liability for side-effects such as myocarditis and other heart conditions. The government will pay compensation if a member of the public wins legal action against the drug company.

  The Victorian Government is threatening the lives of residents with deadly smoke from deliberately lit fires it describes as ’hazard reduction burns’. People have been warned to stay indoors if they suffer any breathing difficulties. In recent weeks, more than 135 planned burns have been conducted. As a result, air quality has been ‘poor’ over most of Melbourne suburbs and parts of Gippsland. Far from making Victorians safer, It’s likely that health risks from inhaling the smoke from the deliberate burns will result in more deaths in Victoria than caused by a combination of the Covid virus and unplanned bushfires. “ Smoke is a common trigger for those with asthma, causing irritation in the chest and eyes, coughing, difficulty breathing, and it’s vital that those triggers are avoided as best as possible, by staying inside,” says the A sthma Foundation.

  There is never any shortage of examples of stupidity from politicians, but a special case is t he federal government’s announcement of a cynical election splurge aimed at buying votes. It says that, i f elected, It  will spend $5.4bn to build the Hells Gates Dam in north Queensland. The dam has no business case, no environmental approvals, and  experts say it will threaten the long-term health of the Great Barrier Reef. The prime minister, Scott Morrison announced that his government w il l build the 2,100 gigalitre dam – about four times the size of Sydney Harbour – that could potentially support 60,000ha of new land for irrigated agriculture. A business case cannot be completed until after the federal election. The government has said the funding is guaranteed. Earlier feasibility studies prompted serious questions about the project’s claimed economic benefit. Hells Gates has no environmental impact statement, and no environmental approvals. Local landholder...

  Israel National News claims that according to the Ukraine Ministry of Defence a group of 'influential' Russians are planning to oust Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to “restore economic ties with the West that were destroyed by the war in Ukraine,” it may be wishful thinking, but Ukraine says the removal could be achieved by p oisoning, illness or accident at any time. It seems that they think Putin's nationalist fervour upsets the wealth accumulation of oligarchs.

 Despite all the chaos in modern life such as bureaucratic bungling, having less income than needed, inadequate health services etc politicians are now spending time considering extending daylight saving so we don’t have the inconvenience of adjusting our clocks twice a year. Politicians really have fixation with population control rather than letting people get on with their lives. The answer is very simple – scrap daylight saving and maintain uniform time throughout the year. If people want more daylight at the end of their working day, Start work earlier, instead of working 9 to 5. work from 8am to 4pm - problem solved. Activity on the farm is dictated by the natural cycles of daylight and seasons – not by the arbitrary decisions of inept politicians and fat-cat bureaucrats.

  US authorities decided not to block interest payments on Russian bonds totalling $US117 million, allowing the country to avoid its first default on foreign debt in more than 100 years. The payment was processed by JP Morgan and was allowed despite monetary and economic sanctions imposed on Russia.

  The Victorian Government and Bass Coast Shire are currently going through the charade of public consultation over the development of a Statement of Planning Policy covering the region’s environmental and sustainability values. They have asked for on- line comments and they will probably receive plenty about the destruction of native vegetation and wildlife habitat in the name of ‘development’. The Statement and proposed planning controls need to fully take account of the comprehensive and expert data in the Regional Sand Extraction Strategy, Lang Lang to Grantville plus flora and fauna survey work undertaken for Friends of Bass Valley Bush Landcare group as published in Baseline Studies of Bass River, funded by the Natural Heritage Trust in conjunction with Bass Coast Shire. But the reality is that the document is simply window-dressing to allow the pretence that planners, bureaucrats and politicians actually care and can bothered to do something useful. Past performance dem...

  Palestine is the name by the Ancient Greeks for an area in the Middle East between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. It has a long history of control by various empires including the Babylonians, Persians, Alexander the Great and the Romans Palestine was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire in 1517 and remained under the rule of the Turks until the end of the First World War, the Turks were defeated by the British. Parts of the Ottoman Empire were handed over to the French to control and parts were handed over to Britain – including Palestine. Britain governed under a League of Nations mandate from 1920 to 1948. For the Arabs it was their homeland which had been promised to them by the Allies for help in defeating the Turks. Palestinian jews claimed the same area of land had also been promised to them in the Balfour Declaration. In August 1929, relations between the Jews and Arabs in Palestine broke down. The focal point of this discontent was Jerusalem. The ma...

  There has been growing speculation about what is likely to happen when Vladimir Putin steps down or is removed as President of Russia. It  seems probable that few policy changes will be made. A long-time Putin ally, Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu may become the next President of Russia. From 1994 to 2012 he served as Minister of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergency Situations, and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters. From May to November 2012 Sergei Shoigu took over as Governor of the Moscow Oblast (the territory around Moscow). On November 6, he became Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.

  While many animal species in Australia are on the brink of extinction as a result of habitat loss, millions of dollars are proposed to be pumped into resurrecting a species that was exterminated years ago. Scientists at t he University of Melbourne say they may be able to bring the extinct Tasmanian Tiger back to life following a $5 million philanthropic gift. The Thylacine has been extinct since 1936, The funding will allow the university to establish a "world-class research lab for de-extinction and marsupial conservation science".  Specifically, The money will establish the Thylacine Integrated Genetic Restoration Research Lab to focus on : improving understanding of the thylacine genome; developing techniques to use marsupial stem cells to make an embryo; and then successfully transferring the embryo into a host surrogate uterus, such as a dunnart o   Tasmanian devil. A better move will be to protect remaining species like Dingoes, koalas and Lace M...