Is COVID responsible for our PM’s irrational decisions? – Mick Lawless (Pure brain™)

A number of people, albeit fanatical Labor supporters, have accused Dingo News of being unfairly critical of the Labor party and their leader Anthony Albanese. Apart from their obvious bias, these accusations are made nonsense by the three Dingoes¹ awarded to Dingo News.

This rampant ableism and disrespect for oppositional views is sadly typical of their ilk
I choose to take the “standing for nothing” jibe as further proof of my objectivity

The numerous articles written and amplified by Dingo News exposing corruption and social inequality by the previous LNP government, underline our political neutrality. Neither are we slaves to “balance for appearance’s sake”. I am reliably informed the ABC didn’t get within cooee of a Dingo.

Objectivity means reporting in line with the evidence. It does not necessarily mean “balance”

These points are being made to parry any conjecture that this writer has gone soft on Labor, due to the seemingly apologist nature of this article. The premise being that COVID may be at least partially responsible for the PM’s inappropriate, planet-killing, militarist, all-the-way-with-the-USA, democidal², authoritarian and anti-Poors decision-making.

Michael Pascoe, of the New Daily (We should lobby for individual Dingo awards) has done a good piece on the PM’s control of the Labor party.

“Something rather important has been largely overlooked in all the words devoted to the first anniversary of the 2022 election – Anthony Albanese’s takeover of the Labor Party.

To differentiate it from the ALP, let’s call it the AALP – a party whose leadership exerts iron discipline over parliamentary members through the power won from comprehensively defeating the old foe.” – Michael Pascoe: The ‘A’ in ALP stands for Albanese – The New Daily

AUKUS is the prime example of our PM’s hold over the Labor Party and his total disdain for party democracy. [Admittedly a decision made before his bouts with COVID]

There is little doubt Albanese was always a power-hungry, conservative-minded individual lacking in Labor values even before COVID struck, (such is the nature of these beasts) my argument is merely that COVID-brain may be exacerbating these failings.³
Had I voted for “Albo” – I’d not be happy about his decisions to involve us in two potential trigger points for WWIII, his Fossil Fuel friendly policies or his neglect of our aged and vulnerable as the COVID death toll rises. This is not an isolated view.

Labor Against War and union protests against anti-protestor laws are an indication of the growing internal resentment against “Albo’s” authoritarianism and militarism. Social Media too, reveals much discontent over AUKUS and social welfare policies, with many people proclaiming they’ve left the Labor Party and/or intend to vote for progressive alternatives.

Pascoe points out that due to Albanese’s authoritarianism, the Labor Left does not exist anymore. While I concur that power-wise he’s correct, it’s clear that bedrock Labor values of social justice and wealth redistribution still simmer within the party.

Australia – Coronavirus Cases: 11,585,286 – Deaths: 20,879 (May 2023)

COVID brain

Multiple scientific research findings are exposing just how pernicious COVID really is, in contrast to the lack of Main Stream Media (MSM) publications disseminating this important news to the public.

We now know that, unfortunately, COVID can damage the brain in many ways. When people first become sick from the virus, they may develop encephalitis – inflammation of the brain – causing confusion, difficulty concentrating, and memory problems. COVID also can trigger the onset of new psychological disorders such as severe depression or anxiety. It can even cause people to become psychotic – to see and hear things that aren’t there and to believe things that aren’t true. It often damages the brain’s autonomic nervous system, leading to abnormalities in heart rate and blood pressure. Does COVID-19 damage the brain? – Anthony L. Komaroff, MD – Harvard Health Publishing

~~~

“They also say they adjusted for potential confounding factors. Even after those calculations, the researchers found ‘significant effects’ associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection.

This includes a steeper reduction in grey matter thickness in the areas of the brain linked with smell and memory, including the orbitofrontal cortex, parahippocampal gyrus and the olfactory cortex.

‘The study provides strong evidence of a subtle reduction in brain size, ranging from 0.2–2%, particularly in frontal and temporal brain regions important to cognitive abilities such as self-control and memory,’ he said”

These cases all presented similarly, with new and recent-onset severe anxiety, agitation, paranoia, disorganized thinking, and none of the typical COVID-related respiratory or gastrointestinal symptoms or disturbances in taste and smell. – Research suggests COVID affects brain even in milder cases – The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners

COVID attacks virtually every major system in the human body

Of course, it’s not only the brain that Covid impacts.

“…comprehensive picture shows the coronavirus attacks virtually every major system in the human body, directly damaging organs and causing the blood to clot, the heart to lose its healthy rhythm, the kidneys to shed blood and protein and the skin to erupt in rashes. It causes headaches, dizziness, muscle aches, stomach pain and other symptoms along with classic respiratory symptoms like coughing and fever.

“Physicians need to think of COVID-19 as a multisystem disease,” said Dr. Aakriti Gupta, a cardiology fellow at Columbia who worked on the review, in a statement. “There’s a lot of news about clotting but it’s also important to understand that a substantial proportion of these patients suffer kidney, heart, and brain damage, and physicians need to treat those conditions along with the respiratory disease.” – How coronavirus affects the entire body – Maggie Fox – CNN

COVID minimisation kills and disables

Ironically, our PM who has suffered two bouts of COVID (that we know of) went from promising action on COVID pre-election…

“Asked what he would do to reduce the number of Covid deaths if he won the election on Saturday, the Labor leader said there was a need to “step up the national strategy”.

He said he had requested officials provide a comprehensive briefing on a national plan next week in the event he was sworn in as prime minister.

Albanese said the pandemic continued to be a “major issue” in the community and he wanted advice about how to refresh the approach, including “how do we get the information out there so people get their booster shots – what can we do to minimise the impact of Covid, which is continuing to have an ongoing impact on people?” – Labor to consider new national Covid strategy to reduce deaths – Anthony Albanese says pandemic still ‘major issue’, but Scott Morrison says Australians want to ‘put that in the rear-vision mirror’ – Katharine Murphy, Paul Karp and Sarah Martin – The Guardian

…to “Declaring the time for emergency pandemic measures had passed”.

“Anthony Albanese scrapped the last vestiges of Australia’s hardline COVID-19 restrictions on Friday, (Ed: Friday 13th 2022) with the changes securing unanimous agreement from state and territory leaders at an in-person national cabinet meeting”.

“Mr Albanese said it was not “sustainable for the government to pay people’s wages forever.” – COVID isolation rules dumped as PM calls time on ‘emergency’ measures – Michael Read – AFR

Apparently what is sustainable, are Franking credits, Fossil Fuel subsidies, Negative gearing, Private school funding, Private consultants, Religious funding and an astronomical and mostly secretive tribute⁴ to the USA’s Military Industrial Complex and our homegrown Defence parasites.

This is not the first time “Albo’s” socially skewed sense of budgetary thrift has surfaced.⁵

“When one individual inflicts injury upon another such that death results, we call that manslaughter. When society places hundreds in a position that they inevitably meet early & unnatural death … its deed is murder just as the individual.” – Friedrich Engels, The Conditions of the Working Class in England

Precautionary principle trashed for profit

“The cold truth of the matter is that the motive behind COVID minimization is greed and social control” – Let Them Eat Plague!

Cunning disclaimer

I make no claims to being a medical expert but do keep abreast of the latest findings on COVID by experts in the field. It’s possible COVID has had a negligible effect on our PM’s brain. This is actually the least flattering conclusion given his policy directions.

However, given his role as the USA’s choice to run Australia on their behalf, it seemed an interesting and important area of speculation. It also proved a useful literary vehicle to bring up a host of other issues.

Some people don’t have the brights to understand satire (which is based on truth⁶) or understand the need to offset the garbage we’re fed by the MSM to divide and oppress us. Oh yes, we are oppressed. Labor merely flicks a few crumbs from the Rich man’s table to appease the gullible amongst their base.

Let’s face it, a COVID-afflicted Albanese could perch naked atop an Abrams tank on its way to bust up one of those pesky Save-the-Planet protests – while singing, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy” and the ‘Labor faithful’ would still support him.

– Fini –

Notes

¹The highly coveted and prestigious Dingo Award for objectivity is presented to deserving media organisations. Dingo News currently holds all ~~three~~ four of the awards presented. 🙂

² “Democide is meant to define the killing by government, just as the concept of murder defines individual killing in domestic society. If a government causes deaths through a reckless and depraved indifference to human life, the deaths are as though intended. War-related killing by military forces that international agreements and treaties directly or by implication prohibit is democide, whether the parties to the killing are signatories to the agreements and treaties or not. Killing that is explicitly permitted is not democide.

Moreover, democide is not limited to the killing component of genocide, nor to politicide, mass murder, massacre, or terror. It includes them all and also what they exclude, as long as the killing is a purposive act, policy, process, or institution of government. In detail, democide is any action by government: designed to kill or cause the death of people; and that causes death by virtue of an intentionally or knowingly reckless and depraved disregard for life.” –

³ Examining Dutton for signs of Covid-induced Paranoia and Psychosis would of course be a fruitless exercise given his history of demonstrating these traits.

⁴ “A tribute from Latin tributum, “contribution”) is wealth, often in kind, that a party gives to another as a sign of submission, allegiance or respect. Various ancient states exacted tribute from the rulers of lands which the state conquered. In the case of alliances, lesser parties may pay tribute to more powerful parties as a sign of allegiance. Tributes are different from taxes, as they are not collected in the same regularly routine manner that taxes are. Further, with tributes, a recognition of political submission by the payer to the payee is uniquely required.”

⁵“There were, Albanese told Radio National Breakfast, at least 875,000 people who had received a wage subsidy through JobKeeper that was higher than their pre-pandemic income. Tapering these payments meant the government had finally “woken up to the waste in this scheme”, Albanese said, which had “resulted in literally billions of dollars being added to what will be a record deficit and record debt that should not have been in the original design of the scheme”. This budget hawkishness, already nearing extinction worldwide, sounded out of step with the discourse. Closer examination showed it to be stranger still.

Weren’t the beneficiaries of these “excess payments” Labor’s traditional constituents: the young, the part-time and low-income workers? Didn’t they need the money? This precariat were also ideal candidates to drive a macroeconomic stimulus – so cash-poor they would spend money rather than save it, and spend it on purchasing necessities. The Morrison government was right to shovel money out the door without checking the recipients too closely. This was the basic economics of a Keynesian emergency, where haste was critical.” – The disappearing man – By Richard Cooke – The Monthly

⁶Swift uses a specific satire called Juvenalian. It means “any bitter and ironic criticism of contemporary persons and institutions that is filled with personal invective, angry moral indignation, and pessimism” (Britannica, 1998).22 July 2022.