Labor slips back a point in this week’s reading of the Essential Research fortnightly average, from 54-46 to 53-47, although this is to do with a particularly weak result for the Coalition a fortnight ago washing out of the result, rather than a turn in their favour this week. On the primary vote, the Coalition is up a point to 36%, Labor is steady on 37%, One Nation is steady on 10%, and the Greens are down one to 8%. Other findings are that 49% disapprove of Donald Trump’s self-styled Muslim ban, with only 36% in favour. At least some of this would appear to be down to questions of implementation, as the gap is narrower on the question of whether Australia should do something similar, with 41% in support and 46% opposed. Fifty-three per cent agree with the Prime Minister’s position that it is not his job to comment, versus 36% who disagree. Other questions relate to technology use, including a finding that 50% say technological change is making lives better, with 25% opting for worse.
I see 41% support for a Muslim as a complete failure of our political class and press.
I wonder if Turnbull’s “are you scared yet” campaign will be tempered by Trump making up terror attacks. Hopefully there is such a thing as a bridge to far
I am off to see The Mousetrap. My cab driver from just now was
http://www.lastmanstands.com/player-profile&userid=58412
From Afghanistan he hopes to play (probably) for England one day. He plays county i think, and wants one day to see and play on our Aussie cricket grounds.
Good story for tonight.
Go for it Sadar!
Sorry “Muslim ban”
swamprat @ #1363 Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 10:46 pm
It seems the new USofA President is functionally illiterate.
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2017/02/07/can-trump-read-and-write/
See the imbeded video.
Thank you, that explains a lot.
The reason Trump talks at a fourth grade level is not because he wants to communicate to the majority of his listeners, but because that is the level that he has attained.
He doesn’t even type his own tweets, he dictates them to a secretary who types and sends them. That explains why his tweets appear to me to be censored and almost in measured tones compared with his spoken outbursts.
He reads, if at all, at fourth grade level, and has probably never read a book cover to cover once he stumbled through Dr Seuss.
From end of previous thread:
Regarding the earlier Trump Cant Read video, an earlier monologue on that topic by Samantha Bee was hilarious but scary a few weeks prior to the election but is horrifying now.
Asked to describe his understanding of a lease, Trump’s answer was “Once you have a lease……..you know when you have a lease you have a lease…..and err, I just don’t know what the lease says”
So there you have it. Once you have a lease you have a lease.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LFkN7QGp2c
Can trump read.
http://bellacaledonia.org.uk/2017/02/07/can-trump-read-and-write/
Sorry Don; so flabbergasted forgot where we got the link.
Don
Just watched the video. Yes, it explains a lot. Knowing that his tweets are dictated… No intellectual curiosity… Gaining knowledge of the world through (biased)TV shows (although he’s not alone in that!)… The writer of ‘his’ book, The Art of the Deal, was persuasive.
How has he got so far without someone giving the game away before this???
lizzie @ #8 Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 6:46 am
Having a lot of money helps, I guess. If your paypacket depends on not being a whistleblower, that is a powerful incentive to keep stum.
However he is now so much in the spotlight that his illiteracy can now no longer be hidden. He doesn’t use teleprompters, or declares them broken, because he cannot read.
The only name of a book he can remember is ‘All quiet on the Western Front’.
Gittins
If this is true, I’m angry.
http://www.theage.com.au/comment/bill-shorten-wants-politics-to-change-but-labors-sneaky-strategy-has-been-part-of-the-problem-20170207-gu73li.html
Who said the Crusade was finished….
In one of the cardinal’s antechambers, amid religious statues and book-lined walls, Cardinal Burke and Mr. Bannon — who is now President Trump’s anti-establishment eminence — bonded over their shared worldview. They saw Islam as threatening to overrun a prostrate West weakened by the erosion of traditional Christian values, and viewed themselves as unjustly ostracized by out-of-touch political elites.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/07/world/europe/vatican-steve-bannon-pope-francis.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Matthew Knott examines the fracturing of the right wing of Australian politics.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/more-than-cory-bernardi-why-right-wing-politics-is-fracturing-in-australia-20170207-gu7c2u.html
Pontificating Paul Kelly begins his article with ” The conservative side of Australian politics is now devouring itself, consumed by personal aggran¬disement, ideological delusion and populist fervour in an upheaval likely to destroy the Turnbull government, deliver power to the Labor Party and generate a structural split among conservatives that will weaken their cause for years to come.” Google.
/opinion/columnists/paul-kelly/conservative-principles-and-values-are-being-trashed/news-story/71ffe25ddd3ba333d907d80b2a4dad3e
The mother of a woman who was stabbed to death in a Queensland backpackers hostel last year has publicly condemned Donald Trump for including her on a White House list of terror attacks. (I wonder if Trump considers all the mass shootings in the US as terrorist attacks).
http://www.smh.com.au/national/mother-of-murdered-backpacker-condemns-trump-for-including-queensland-attack-on-terror-list-20170207-gu7qu8.html
Mark Kenny on Turnbull’s run of “bad luck”.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/cory-bernardi-split-if-it-wasnt-for-bad-luck-malcolm-turnbull-would-have-no-luck-at-all-20170206-gu6zrc.html
Peter Lewis writes that Cory Bernardi may be just the latest in a growing line of chancers to jump on the global wave of reactionary, rightwing populism but, for Malcolm Turnbull, he is a one-man existential crisis.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2017/feb/08/bernardi-bets-on-wave-of-destruction-but-future-of-rightwing-populism-is-in-trumps-hands
Can Cory Bernardi create a viable conservative party in Australia? That’s the fascinating question raised by the long-awaited defection of the maverick South Australian Senator today, writes Ben Eltham.
https://newmatilda.com/2017/02/07/corys-party-bernardi-exits-stage-far-right/
Senator Cory Bernardi has laid the blame for his defection squarely with the Liberal Party, saying it was the party’s views, values and principles that changed, not his.
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2017/02/07/cory-bernardi-blames-liberal-split/
Michelle Grattan writes about the reactions to Bernardi’s move.
https://theconversation.com/bernardi-says-his-new-party-will-offer-a-principled-alternative-for-disillusioned-conservative-voters-72582
The AFR examines Bernardi’s departure. Google.
/news/politics/national/this-doesnt-happen-to-liberals-20170207-gu7iyv
Young Australians should be given a grant funded by an inheritance tax on wealthy estates to help them enter the housing market, pay university fees or start a business, a senior union figure says. This will fire up the loudmouths in the government.
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/death-tax-grants-would-give-young-australians-a-future-union-secretary-says-20170207-gu7eda.html
Section 2 . . .
Malcolm Turnbull will face a “shirt-front” moment of his very own when eventually meeting Donald Trump for the first time, face-to-face writes Daniel Flitton.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/a-doozy-of-a-showdown-when-malcolm-turnbull-calls-out-donald-trump-20170206-gu6jyu.html
The White House list of “unreported terrorist attacks” was full of crap according to the Washington Post.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/white-house-list-of-terror-attacks-is-littered-with-errors-20170207-gu7m33.html
More on “the list”.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/white-house-includes-lindt-cafe-siege-and-curtis-cheng-killing-in-list-of-underreported-terrorism-attacks-20170207-gu7m9x.html
As Donald Trump prepares for a court showdown that could permanently overturn his immigration ban, revelations about his personal habits in the White House triggered an outraged response from the new President, and speculation about whether he owns a bathrobe.
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/world/2017/02/07/trump-bathrobe-expose/
And another retail clothing business folds up.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/herringbone-rhodes–beckett-join-retail-carnage-20170207-gu7gow.html
The US president is attacking the very institutions that are meant to expose lies: universities, the media and the judiciary. Democracy is impossible without them. Why Trump wants to nobble institutions that protect the truth.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/07/trump-disempower-institutions-protect-truth
The Trump White House suffered another defeat in their war with the media today as CNN immediately shot down a Sean Spicer lie about why the network turned down an offer to interview Kellyanne Conway. CNN has had enough of the White House lies already.
http://www.politicususa.com/2017/02/07/trumpcnn-putting-anymore.html
Is it time to put the brakes on property investors again?
http://www.smh.com.au/business/comment-and-analysis/is-it-time-to-put-the-brakes-on-property-investors-again-20170205-gu67dy.html
Bill McKibben says that Trump and Bannon have turned the White House against America. We can’t know how the battle will finish, only that it will be fought. This is, quite suddenly, the story of our time he writes.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/07/trump-administration-white-house-steve-bannon-influence
In the fight against racism and Islamophobia, the complexities of far right politics need to be examined, writes Sameer Murthy in Te Independent Australia.
https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/populism-and-the-complex-tyranny-of-the-far-right,10001
Section 3 . . .
Late-night hosts took aim at the latest developments within Trump’s government, saying the president has gone from “dickish to dictator”. Watch the clips.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/feb/07/late-night-hosts-trump-segments-bowling-green-massacre
Fact checking alone is not enough to fight the far right. The media must spread the truth. Hear hear!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/07/fact-checking-far-right-media-truth-donald-trump-terrorist
Oh dear! The Tax Office cannot guarantee it will begin tax time 2017 on July 1 as it scrambles desperately to save this year’s tax return program from the fall-out of its disastrous pre-Christmas online meltdown. So much for innovation, agility and Turnbull’s digital revolution in government!
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/tax-time-in-danger-from-atos-tech-wreck-20170207-gu7a98.html
It’s not just the working class that’s fed up with politics according to Michael Koziol.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/its-not-just-the-working-class-thats-disillusioned-with-politics-20170201-gu39wc.html
Jacqui Maley on why the Bernardi-Abbott bromance broke up.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/the-bromance-is-over-why-did-cory-bernardi-turn-on-tony-abbott-20170207-gu7abk.html
The Solicitor-General fronted the High Court yesterday to put the heat on Bob Day.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/07/bob-day-sought-arrangement-to-receive-rent-for-electorate-office-court-hears
Most economists believe that health insurance premium hikes that are well over the inflation rate can’t be justified, a survey shows. What’s the betting though that Hunt will fold and approve them? Hunt should tell them to strip out all the shit “treatments” from the schedules first. But he won’t.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/economists-say-health-insurance-premium-hikes-well-above-cpi-are-unwarranted-20170207-gu766d.html
This GP writes that homeopathy sells dangerous lies to patients. I ask the question “should pharmacists’ licences be revoked if they sell homeopathic “preparations?”
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/homeopathy-sells-dangerous-lies-to-patients-20170206-gu6m3h.html
Tony Wright’s satirical column on the departure of Bernardi and the Gold Card.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/sketch-cory-bernardis-departure-overshadowed-by-the-end-of-the-gold-card-20170207-gu7gmk.html
Marine le Penne might be too hot to handle for Trump.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/donald-trump-may-not-find-an-ally-in-french-nationalist-marine-le-pen-20170206-gu6za1.html
Section 4 . . .
In explosive evidence at the CA Royal Commission Fr. Thomas Doyle dumped the Vatican right in it.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/father-thomas-doyle-tells-royal-commission-vatican-failed-sex-abuse-victims-20170206-gu6zs7.html
Here’s more on Doyle’s evidence.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/feb/07/catholic-church-doesnt-understand-toll-of-child-sexual-abuse-says-us-priest
The SMH editorial says that the Catholic church can no longer hide from the child sexual abuse issue.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/on-sexual-abuse-the-catholic-church-can-hide-no-more-20170207-gu7aq3.html
Labor and the Greens are set to force a Senate inquiry into Centrelink’s controversial automated debt recovery system, an issue that had dogged the federal government for more than two months. I would LOVE to be a Senator for a day and be on the panel!
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/greens-and-labor-to-move-for-senate-inquiry-on-centrelink-automated-debt-systems-20170207-gu7h3s.html
Israel continues to do what it likes.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/israel-passes-law-to-seize-private-palestinian-land-for-jewish-settlements-20170207-gu75n3.html
Ross Gittins doesn’t think Shorten is playing fair.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/bill-shorten-wants-politics-to-change-but-labors-sneaky-strategy-has-been-part-of-the-problem-20170207-gu73li.html
Alan Stokes writes that Bernardi gamed the system and should quit. Some chance of that!
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/hypocritical-cory-bernardi-gamed-the-system-he-must-quit-the-senate-20170206-gu6z9s.html
The government is looking for a new database providing monthly updates on investment returns, which could allow it to reduce or increase the Centrelink and pension benefits it pays out as markets rise and fall. It plans to have the new database running by the start of next financial year providing monthly updates on unit prices for managed investments. Don’t they alredy have access to that data?
http://www.smh.com.au/business/centrelink-keeping-track-of-monthly-investment-performance-20170206-gu6hhi.html
This GP writes that homeopathy sells dangerous lies to patients. I ask the question “should pharmacists’ licences be revoked if they sell homeopathic “preparations?”
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/homeopathy-sells-dangerous-lies-to-patients-20170206-gu6m3h.html
Australia, it’s time to face the facts. We have a sleep problem and it’s affecting how we live our lives.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/02/07/australia-we-have-a-sleep-deprivation-problem/?utm_hp_ref=au-homepage
Section 5 . . . Cartoon Corner
Mark David launches Bernardi’s new party.
:large
David Pope on the CA Royal Commission.
Broelman on Hanson and Putin.
Cathy Wilcox has a good dig at Centrelink.
Ron Tandberg exposes Bernardi’s principles.
As does Alan Moir!
David Pope with the government’s efforts on political climate change.
A good one from Mark Knight on Bernardi’s departure from the Liberal Party.
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/f3fd1245d7b0c6fa94b813181628a240?width=1024
Bill Leak goes into full dark mode for this one!
http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/595459f8b95454d1cf07ac43dacc052f
David Rowe sees Bernardi leaving the tent.
BK
Thanks. Very depressing.
Just the way to make Centrelink ‘customers’ feel even more vulnerable.
Good Morning Bludgers 🙂
Steve Bannon must have thought he had struck the motherlode when he hooked up with a charismatic, narcissistic, vainglorious sociopath who was ignorant and functionally illiterate and innumerate but whose ego and drive compelled and impelled them to want to be President of the United States! Nothing could be better than a Shadow Presidency of the Western World!
Here also is a CNN analysis of Trump’s latest assertion that the media isn’t covering terrorist attacks well enough, but more importantly, why the Trump gang are making that claim. Very interesting:
https://youtu.be/KIueBVW2KIo
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-08/great-barrier-reef-coal-spillage-discovered-in-waters/8248546
Lizzie,
The government is looking for a new database providing monthly updates on investment returns…Just the way to make Centrelink ‘customers’ feel even more vulnerable.
That will really impress the Liberal base. Not! 😀
Pontificating Paul Kelly begins his article with ” The conservative side of Australian politics is now devouring itself, consumed by personal aggran¬disement, ideological delusion and populist fervour in an upheaval likely to destroy the Turnbull government, deliver power to the Labor Party and generate a structural split among conservatives that will weaken their cause for years to come.”
He seems to be saying it like it’s a bad thing???
Rough as it is, Malcolm Turnbull can take some comfort in the sheer regularity of negative events engulfing his government because it at least ensures nothing remains front-page news for long.
Whether it is incompetence, bad luck, or bad judgment, controversies glow white-hot but fade when the next disaster hovers into view.
Mark Kenny finally noticing the Turnbull method I’ve been describing for about a year now. Cover up last week’s fuck up with another fuck up this week, rinse, repeat.
The pattern is too consistent to be just chance.
Though I wonder how that computer program will apply to the Liberals’ biggest supporter base, the Property Investors? They go through a process at Tax time, as I understand it, where their accountant massages the numbers with Capital Gains Tax and Negative Gearing to get their income close to the magic $80000 level, then submits their tax return. So if these people are also on a Part Pension, I can’t see them liking the fact that they have to have their investments reconciled monthly or whatever, if it’s at all possible, and then their payments adjusted accordingly, only to be readjusted at tax time when their income is assessed? It makes no sense to me.
Or are they going to be excluded from the net? Are their ‘Investments’ now sacrosanct?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-07/halal-certifier-sues-anti-halal-campaigner-for-defamation/8248178?pfmredir=sm
This seems to be a useful article detailing the Senate numbers after Day, Culleton and Bernardi did their thing.
BK
Thanks once again.
I was particularly interested in the the “story” about homeopathy.
Citizen,
Thanks for that ABC article. It made a lot of sense, and had cute computer graphics. 🙂
Bernardi crush – sounds like a tropical cocktail:
On homeopathy.
I have never found these things helpful myself. Perhaps because I don’t have enough ‘faith’. However, there are people who use them for animals, and swear they’re effective. Surely craefully designed tests on animals would provide evidence for effectiveness – or not.
Citizen
This will be interesting. Usually they all pretend to have clean hands. 🙂
The ABC analysis of the Senate does not take account that the new PHON Senator from WA looks like he may be a different kettle of fish from the other PHON Senators, so possibly an extra “group”.
Also, as it dawns on NXT and PHON that Labor is now very likely to win the next election, their inclination to deal positively with the coalition will decrease. They will still want to be seen as affecting decisions but will be more likely to listen to Labor.
Basically the government is f**ked.
With respect to the Cory Bernardi departure, the Liberal Party, in SA and federally, has to take some of the blame.
Did they not believe Bernardi’s threats would one day be carried out? He set up a new grouping outside the Liberal tent! The only other alternative to that was that Bernardi somehow engineered a takeover of the Liberal Party, Trump style. That was an impossibility. So, what else did they think? That he would remain a disgruntled Liberal Senator with no real sway over the government? When the action right now is in the Senate and where his one vote can enable him to extract real concessions from Turnbull?
So, of course Bernardi was going to leave, sooner rather than later. The Liberal Party should have realised that before the election and at least got him to sign a commitment to stay in the party for the duration of his term or resign from the Senate if he wanted to go his own way. Even better, resign from the Liberal Party before the election if he would not make that commitment.
That would have at least put a spoke in his wheels. Now he can just freewheel for 5 and a half years.
Lizzie,
On homeopathy.
I have never found these things helpful myself. Perhaps because I don’t have enough ‘faith’. However, there are people who use them for animals, and swear they’re effective. Surely craefully designed tests on animals would provide evidence for effectiveness – or not.
As a former pharmacist I can say that I have never felt comfortable pushing Homeopathic remedies. All the evidence suggests that the Placebo Effect is likely as much or more a contributor to their efficacy as anything in the bottle.
On the other hand, some of the Bach Flower Remedies have been shown to have plant-derived active principles that are similar to conventional medicines, just at lower, less concentrated doses. So there’s that.
St John’s Wort and Valerian are a couple that work similarly to their conventional counterparts. However I prefer to use the standardised commercial versions if I need that kind of treatment, rather than self-medicating off the shelf after consulting Dr Google. 🙂
Little James Patterson hard at work in senate committees.
His target is Ahmed Fahour. It is a mission de jour that encompasses the IPA efforts to privatise Aus Post and besmirch a prominent Muslim in the community.
Everything I have seen of Fahour tells me he is successful and competent. Not all his decisions at AP are popular but seem necessary to keep it viable in the 21st century.
Successful, competent and Muslim. Three things Patterson and his ilk are not.
lizzie
Assuming Gittins’ information is correct, and there’s not something else we’re missing, I agree. Labor should not undermine the position they’ve been building, first in government and then in opposition.
You can’t score points off everything, and Labor should not be so greedy as to try to do so. Sometimes your opponent is going to do things that align with your own plans, it is self-defeating to suddenly decide you’re going the other way.
I don’t agree with his comparison to Labor’s decision on SSM though. What the Coalition were planning – both with the plebiscite and subsequent legislation – did not align with the wishes of SSM advocates.
lizzie @ #29 Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 8:43 am
There have been numerous scientific studies that show homeopathy has zero efficacious effect.
C@Tmomma
I think the point is that not all the ‘alternative ‘ treatments are shonky, but each should be treated on its merits. I am definitely not in agreement with all being added to the Extras list for reimbursement.
So much for ‘cutting red tape’.
Just cutting it for some….
Is Trump Going To Fire Spicer Because Melissa McCarthy Played Him On ‘SNL?
Donald Trump is said to be furious about Melissa McCarthy’s portrayal of Press Secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday Night Live, but his anger allegedly is not being vented entirely at SNL or McCarthy, but rather at Spicer for appearing weak enough that a woman would play him. Now, Spicer is under Trump’s microscope, and it might not end well for him.
http://www.inquisitr.com/3961200/is-trump-going-to-fire-spicer-because-melissa-mccarthy-played-him-on-snl/
I think Labor’s line on the private schools has been that the Government needs to back the Gonski model in principle. If the Government did that I’m sure they would be open to a change around the edges to cut rich schools funding. Otherwise the Government gets the credit for attacking the rich schools and the whole issue of funding for government and disadvantaged schools gets ignored.
Wouldn’t be surprised to see Labor come out with a tweak to its policy in the near future.
ratsak @ #21 Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 8:05 am
……………………………
so trunbull is an undercover Labor Manchurian candidate after all ?
Nah – just a common or garden variety phoney…..and on the make.
—
citizen @ #28 Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 8:43 am
Sounds like comical Ali ranting “We will roast their stomachs!”
Corgi will in many/most cases vote with the tories in the senate.
The most effective thing the tories could do is deprive Corgi of political oxygen – publicity, particularly free puplicity and mainly in the form of them attacking him.
Far more effective to get their media mates to also cut off Corgi’s media oxygen – but thats probably not going to happen.
After all Corgi has such a dynamic agenda – take society backwards 50 years or so, give the rich tax breaks, reduce government services and impose his so called “morality” on society.
The epitome of FDR’s “a Republican {Tory} is a person with two perfectly good feet that can only walk backwards”.
Can’t believe it – a sinkhole has opened up outside the PM Point P home.
I thought it was satire at first …
Hey Dave, while you’re around, I’ve been using the premium on Mobilism ($25 a year, with a ten day free trial). Absolutely fantastic.
AB – At that price seems hard to go wrong. I’ll take a look.
Ta.
Here’s the sinkhole near the PM’s home: https://au.news.yahoo.com/video/watch/34366596/sinkhole-opens-up-near-pms-home/#page1
May material for a cartoon or a one-line quip for tweeting there.
Sydney has had 90 millimetres of rain in the last 36 hours. Hopefully that’s all the humidity being squeezed out but it doesn’t quite work that way.
technology such as robotics and other Labour saving devices provided through Corporate tax cuts will gradually make peoples life worse as this money is used to cut further into Labour saving costs. Increasing population growth will further compound the problem.
steve777 @ #47 Wednesday, February 8, 2017 at 9:50 am
TV people trying to keep a straight face 🙂
technology such as robotics and other Labour saving devices provided through Corporate tax cuts will gradually make peoples life worse as this money is used to cut further into Labour saving costs. Increasing population growth will further compound the problem.