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Energy Minister Angus Taylor (Image: AAP/Mick Tsikas)

Well done, Angus Last year we wrote that incumbent Arsehat of the Year and friend of this column Angus Taylor embodied the reality that “so many people in power … [are] simply mediocre people who find it very difficult to get fired”.

Taylor’s mates keep backing him through embarrassment after embarrassment, most recently the Russian doll-style investigation into those forged documents that Taylor’s office leaked to The Daily Telegraph as part of his attack on Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore.

NSW Police referred the investigation to the Australian Federal Police (AFP). A month later, having not interviewed Taylor or Moore, the AFP concluded there was “no evidence” to indicate Taylor was involved in falsifying information.

After more than a 100 complaints, the Commonwealth Ombudsman is investigating the AFP’s investigation. But don’t expect any more candour than previous investigations. We checked on the process, going since March, and got this curt response: “The investigation is still ongoing and as we investigate in private no further comment will be made.”

TikTok hits back TikTok, the annoying video app for zoomers, is on a PR blitz, hitting back at calls from hawkish MPs to place it under greater scrutiny over its links to China.

At the weekend it bought full-page ads in newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun-Herald, The Weekend Australian, The Australian Financial Review, The Daily Telegraph and the Herald Sun.

“Don’t make TikTok a political football,” the ad warned — wording similar to a letter its general manager Lee Hunter had sent to all federal MPs last week.

Fears that the app, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, is giving user data to the Chinese government has had it banned in India, and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has hinted at a potential ban.

TikTok’s counter-campaign comes just months after it opened an Australian base, where it added ex-Google exec Hunter and Airbnb’s Brent Thomas as director of public policy.

On Monday The Sydney Morning Herald ran an editorial about why TikTok shouldn’t be banned. Perhaps the ads are working.

Anti-vax lawyers go viral Yesterday we told you about G&B Lawyers, the Sydney firm urging Melburnians not to wear masks. The firm has since deleted its bit of free advice, claiming it was partner Nathan Buckley’s political belief.

But that didn’t stop a message worded just like Buckley’s being shared approvingly by one-time celebrity chef-turned-conspiracy theorist Pete Evans.

And the winner is … Sportsbet Last night Emelia Jackson took out the MasterChef: Back to Win crown. This should come as no surprise to Crikey readers. As we reported a month ago, Jackson’s odds were far too good to be true, leading to concerns that one of the many insiders with knowledge of the pre-recorded show’s outcome had been cooking the betting markets.

In mid-June, when nine contestants were in the running, Jackson’s odds were $1.37. Since then they’ve been more or less unchanged. Before the finale Sportsbet had her at $1.33, and her odds across a bunch of sites never went over $1.50 through the final week. Looks like the bookies managed to get this one right. Unlike the last election.

Kanye 2022 Rapper, entrepreneur and professional shit-stirrer Kanye West unveiled what looks like a logo for his vanity campaign for the White House. Except it doesn’t look much like the White House but another building far closer to home.