Tha ks for posting the whole PDF instead of a news article

Driving Rogue has been my goto this last two weeks. Just something I can sink like 20 minutes into for a full run.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3088700/Driving_Rogue/

This is my favourite thing I’ve seen today

Bread

Hey you don’t have to call me.out like that. I put in a solid effort those first 2 years specifically so I could lazily coast for the remainder of my contract.

In the wake of WWII, America set up a global system that bent the whole world to its service.

Its companies crushed competition worldwide, it created a global baking system that was subject to US needs first while it’s diplomats coerced every sovereign elected government to fit it’s narrow definitions of acceptability backed by US military bases that could strike any nation on the world.

But no it’s everyone else who’s had it too cushy for too long.

“Come with me” - Puff Daddy (P Diddy) from Godzilla (1998)

The song peaked at No 2 on the UK charts.

The movie was a colossal failure and got 20% on rotten tomatoes.

Ironically both feature monsters.

I appreciate the sentiment but let’s be real about Australia’s adoption of universal healthcare:

• Medibank begins in 1975 after the passing of legislation by a joint sitting of Parliament on 7 August 1974. It had only a short period of operation before the Whitlam government was dismissed in what amounted to an attempted coup by the conservatives. (With some backing from a particular US Ambassador nicknamed “the coup-master” who was close to Rupert Murdoch and the Governer General.)
• 1976–1981: The conservative Malcolm Fraser Coalition government unwinds Medibank, scaling back universal funding and promoting private options.
• 1984: The Hawke government introduces the highly controversial Medicare system. It established basic health care for all Australians. It offers free-ish public hospital care, and “bulk-billing” for GPs through an income tax levy and creates a blended public system with private provider options.
• 1986: Edelsten pioneers the concept of 24-hour “superclinics” that offered completely bulk-billed services. Patients flock to his clinics which feature chandeliers, grand pianos, and mink-covered examination tables as his underlying business model was heavily driven by maximizing Medicare billing in a $100m overservicing scheme.
• 1997: Following a failed attempt to end the Medicare scheme while in opposition, the Howard government introduces the Medicare Levy Surcharge (MLS). This penalises high-income earners an extra 1.00% if they do not hold private hospital insurance. They also introduce the Lifetime Health Cover (LHC) charge which means if you’re over 30 and buy private hospital cover later in life, you are charged an extra 2% for every year you were aged over 30 without cover in a scheme explicitly designed to prop up the private system.
• 2013: The Gillard Labor government puts a “temporary” freeze on GP rebates as a budget-saving measure. This continues under successive governments until 2022, as government rebates fail to rise with inflation or the true cost of running a clinic, GPs are increasingly forced to abandon bulk-billing and charge patients high out-of-pocket private fees effectively killing the system by proxy.
• 2014: The NDIS is established to create a parallel social insurance architecture for long-term disability supports are funded with a 0.5% Medicare levy increase but funding for the NDIS is instantly being outpaced by demand.
• 2024: Reforms by the Albanese government to curb escalating costs and tighten rules around plan budgets and provider registration cut millions from receiving NDIS funding. However they also increase the rebate to make bulk billing once again viable for GPs.

The lesson is this. There are no permanent victories.