The Guardian, which joins the fun by spruiking the result as the “eightieth straight loss” for the Turnbull government, reports that Labor holds a lead of 53-47 in the latest Essential Research poll, out from 52-48 a fortnight ago. The poll also features Essential’s monthly leadership ratings, which find Malcolm Turnbull’s lead over Bill Shorten as preferred prime minister unchanged at 41-26 (a growing contrast with the narrow results from Newspoll); a 39% approval rating for Turnbull, down two, and a disapproval rating of 42%, down one; and a 35% approval rating for Bill Shorten, down two, and a disapproval rating of 43%, down one.
A question on preferred Liberal leader finds Turnbull moving clear of Julie Bishop since the last such result in December – he’s up three to 24%, with Bishop down two to 17%. Both are well clear of the more conservative alternatives of Tony Abbott, on 11% (up one) and 3% (down one). Scott Morrison scores only 2%, unchanged on last time. When asked who they would prefer in the absence of Turnbull, 26% opted for Bishop and 16% for Abbott, with Dutton and Morrison both on 5%. Also featured is an occasional question on leaders’ attributes, but I would want to see the raw numbers before drawing any conclusions from them. Those should be with us, along with primary votes, when Essential Research publishes its full report later today.
UPDATE: Full report here. The primary votes are Coalition 38%, Labor 37% (up one), Greens 10% (up one), One Nation 7% (down one).
Also today, courtesy of The Australian, are results from the weekend’s Newspoll which find support for a republic at 50%, down one since last August, with opposition up three to 41%. With the qualification of Prince Charles ascending the throne, support rises to 55%, unchanged since August, while opposition is at 35%, up one.
So briefly are you advocating a full out nuclear war with Russia, or some kind of proxy war in Syria, and if it is proxy war in Syria to what end, what are you hoping to see achieved?
Oh wait, is blowing the hell out of Syria and killing as many innocent civilians simply supporting Israeli calls for such?
WeWantPaul @ #2201 Saturday, April 14th, 2018 – 4:46 pm
Neo-liberal capitalist domination.
Good to see that the Turnbull Government is not participating in the attacks on Syria.
“Neo-liberal capitalist domination.”
We aren’t going to win. See Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam.
Of course if London cops a direct hit the question must be asked as to who will succeed as our head of state
In the Bed Sitting Room it was Mrs Ethel Shroake of 393A High St, Leytonstone who was the closest in succession of the 20 people still alive in the UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AVBEwTIfDM
(Who can forget Arthur Lowe mutating into a parrot)
Quotes of an earlier comment by myself re. Syria – direct or indirect – are the responsibility of the quoter, not the quotee.
Having said that, I am glad Turnbull limited our response to the usual bum-licking, MeToo ,”All-the-way-with-the-USA” expressions of support, rather than actual wings in the air, for once.
Boerwar @ #2204 Saturday, April 14th, 2018 – 4:50 pm
What’s the Informal Party position ?
In regards to the potential use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Government. It does seem completely unnecessary and brutal at this stage of conflict however there are a few strategic reasons for which they might have done so.
At this stage in the war the Syrian Government is probably looking towards long term stability and preventing future unrest in retaken areas. For this reason their strategy for retaking the remaining rebel enclaves has been to heavily and indiscriminately bomb these areas, then offer to evacuate the remaining fighters and their families to Idlib province. By forcing out opponents of the regime they are not only retaking these areas without a longer military assault but also removing potential sources of future political unrest (whether they are foreign fighters or locals). It also saves the regime some effort in the purge of political opponents and Islamist elements that will likely follow. It is looking increasingly likely that Idlib and Afrin will be occupied by Turkish forces for the foreseeable future so, for now at least, more insurgents in Idlib makes little difference to the plans of the Syrian Government and may even help to weaken the Kurds in the North-East.
The use of chemical weapons may have been to try to accelerate the surrender of rebel forces in Duma as negotiations had stalled regarding their evacuation. Short of a full scale invasion by US or Turkish forces, nothing is going to stop the Assad regime from retaining power now and the involvement of Russia restricts the actions NATO can take without risking a much wider conflict. So the Syrian Government may have simply evaluated that the advantages of using chemical weapons outweighed the potential risks.
Oh dear. The bloom has definitely gone off the Trump rose for this dyed in the wool Trump supporter. The Syria strike was obviously a bridge too far for him 😆
https://twitter.com/funder/status/985021732850462720
Rossmcg @ #2193 Saturday, April 14th, 2018 – 4:26 pm
FFS Ross
If anyone seriously opposed the key figures in the US or UK they have a habit of ending up dead too. Unchecked power leads to murders and these happen in the US as well. Pleeesse do not tell me you believe in ricocheting bullets, cos if you do I will just giggle at you. You probably think David Kelly suicided too!
In the west we can usually control people by a scandal or sex tape and it has the same effect. Consider the attack on Jim Cairns. We have forces of darkness too, but we go all shock horror when someone does what we have been doing for years.
Give me a break from Biggles boys.
When you curse Israel for its destructive genocide in Paleastine you can start to be treated like a reasoning person .
Doesn’t unlawfully bombing Syria, kinda give Putin a free pass to do exactly the same where-ever he wants. Just giving up on international law seems pretty ham-fisted.
DTT
A reasoning person? From you?
Get back to digging the bunker and boiling the kettle.
Bill calm down !!
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/bushfire-out-of-control-south-of-sydney/news-story/d93cd2a084040cf1ea49dbc4772c25df
WeWantPaul says:
Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 4:46 pm
So briefly are you advocating a full out nuclear war with Russia, or some kind of proxy war in Syria, and if it is proxy war in Syria to what end, what are you hoping to see achieved?
There has been a proxy war that was a predictable and catastrophic failure. No-one advocates a nuclear war…had you forgotten? For my part, I think it is almost inconceivable that nuclear weapons will ever be deployed by one nuclear power against another nuclear power.
Somehow peace has to be reinstated, preferably on terms that include Russian and Iranian withdrawal from Syria, and the cessation of Saudi/Gulf funding for the insurgents. The trouble is, these two powers have made great gains from the war and will not wish to concede them. Since they control Syria, they can influence events in the wider Eastern Med and Persian Gulf, including in Turkey, Cyprus, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi and Israel.
This has been another war that has been a complete disaster not only for those directly affected but for the wider region.
WeWantPaul says:
Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 4:48 pm
Oh wait, is blowing the hell out of Syria and killing as many innocent civilians simply supporting Israeli calls for such?
What are you actually trying to say, WWP?
Do we think that Trump will use the cover of the fizzer in Syria to fire Rosenstein and/or Mueller?
C@tmomma @ #2217 Saturday, April 14th, 2018 – 3:12 pm
Absolutely.
Did you watch today’s Real Time?
“No-one advocates a nuclear war…had you forgotten?”
No I hadn’t forgotten, but one has to have a rather different attitude to Russia if one isn’t prepared for a nuclear war with them. If Assad wants them in Syria, they have much more right than any other country or group to be there, so I’m kinda lost on even a half arsed ridiculous justification for an attack in breach of international law.
Perhaps if the West spent a bit more time thinking about the Kurds and Palestinians and bit less time cheering on their murder, things might begin to become a bit clearer, a bit more sensible.
Donald Trump, ‘thou art a worse-bodied villain’! 🙂
WeWantPaul
George Dubya along with @#$$%#! Blair and our very own ‘Deputy Sheriff” unlawfully invading Iraq set a bit of a benchmark on that score. They scored bonus points for making torture ‘legal’ . although ‘we’ prefer to call it enhanced interrogation.
C@tmomma @ #2216 Saturday, April 14th, 2018 – 5:12 pm
Yes, seems quite plausible.
Did you watch today’s Real Time?
Not yet. I am an Athletics tragic, so I’ve been glued to the Commonwealth Games. I will though! It’s only the Netball Semi Final atm. 🙂
Confessions says:
Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 4:58 pm
Oh dear. The bloom has definitely gone off the Trump rose for this dyed in the wool Trump supporter. The Syria strike was obviously a bridge too far for him
https://twitter.com/funder/status/985021732850462720
This muffin has bought the line that ISIS or Al-Qaeda were responsible for the gas attack. But this makes no sense at all. If the terrorists were responsible, Russia would have agreed to the Security Council resolution appointing an investigation. Rather than have an investigation, Russia preferred to say either the attack did not occur or was carried out by the UK.
C@tmomma says: Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 5:12 pm
Do we think that Trump will use the cover of the fizzer in Syria to fire Rosenstein and/or Mueller?
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……or even the tapes and FBI collections of materials of Trump ‘fixer’, Michael Cohen, that they have been collecting for a reasonable amount of time.
Will Cohen take a bullet for Trump or sing like a canary to Schneiderman/Mueller save his own arse ?????
C@tmomma
Far too mild. I tried the professional wrestling name generator. Entered Donald Trump and got
“Moronic Assclown” . Much better.
Oh, and C@momma pro wrestling name is “Amatory Doom ” .
WeWantPaul says:
Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 5:14 pm
“No-one advocates a nuclear war…had you forgotten?”
No I hadn’t forgotten, but one has to have a rather different attitude to Russia if one isn’t prepared for a nuclear war with them.
On the contrary, if we wish to avoid war with Russia we need to stop them now.
“What are you actually trying to say, WWP?”
I’m trying to understand the situation. Trump is pretty easy, he gets to drop big bombs on shithole countries and hopefully distract from his many failures. He couldn’t careless about the lives of many of his own citizens he isn’t going to be genuinely concerned about either the innocent civilians killed by the chemical attack or the innocent civilians killed by his bombs.
The UK and France I’m assuming had thought it through a bit, but I’m not sure of their motivations.
Israel’s motivations are pretty clear, and their record on human rights, other than their own, is abysmal, makes our killing and torturing of people on Manus and Naaru look pretty well behaved.
And all of this in a context where we need to show Putin he is naughtier than us and needs to show more respect to human life and international law.
You see the logic starts to feel a lot like an ouroboros pretty quickly?
What a pathetic effort from America, with a strike rate of 5/100 missiles, most intercepted by the Buk Russian Anti Missile battery, and those that did connect probably hit buildings empty of people and chemicals because Trump did his master’s bidding and gave him clear warning over Twitter.
Oh well, the only consolation is that Trump couldn’t time it better and closer to the Mid Terms when he might have got a patriotic bounce for the Republicans.
So what else is new?
“UK provided chemicals to Syria for production of nerve agents.”
C@t:
I noted the other day that there seems to be this acceptance within the political commentariat that Trump will fire Mueller, however that comes about.
On Real Time the panelists were talking when, not if, simply because Trump is always talking about the Mueller witch hunt or tweeting about it, and because he even tried ending it last year.
“On the contrary, if we wish to avoid war with Russia we need to stop them now.”
Any rational thought out ways we might achieve that?
Given the whole bombing Syria idea seems to be headed pretty fast in exactly the opposite direction?
The UK and France I’m assuming had thought it through a bit, but I’m not sure of their motivations.
I think they were tempted to give Russia a poke in the eye after the way Russia has treated their countries recently.
Sohar @ #2232 Saturday, April 14th, 2018 – 5:23 pm
When, which ones and why did they do it?
C@tmomma says:
Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 5:23 pm
What a pathetic effort from America, with a strike rate of 5/100 missiles
This is the claim made by the targets. I would not believe a word of it.
Sohar says:
Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 5:23 pm
So what else is new?
“UK provided chemicals to Syria for production of nerve agents.”
Says who?
“I think they were tempted to give Russia a poke in the eye after the way Russia has treated their countries recently.”
So not in the ‘had thought it out a bit’ just a poke in the eye, you are probably right when one thinks of the capabilities and competence of UK and French leadership.
briefly @ #2234 Saturday, April 14th, 2018 – 5:26 pm
who exactly would you believe ?
C@tmomma @ #2228 Saturday, April 14th, 2018 – 5:23 pm
It helps a lot when you know the missiles are coming. And perhaps even where they are heading.
You think this is the end? I think this is probably just the beginning. I would expect lots of orchestrated chest beating between Putin and Trump.
briefly says: Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 5:22 pm
No I hadn’t forgotten, but one has to have a rather different attitude to Russia if one isn’t prepared for a nuclear war with them.
On the contrary, if we wish to avoid war with Russia we need to stop them now.
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Stop them now ?????? ……. How ????? ……what do you mean – “Bomb Then Into The Stone Age” like a Curtis Lemay ?????? ……. I think the US have already tried that in their bombing campaigns against smaller countries
The US Bombing List :
•Korea and China 1950-53 (Korean War)
•Guatemala 1954
•Indonesia 1958
•Cuba 1959-1961
•Guatemala 1960
•Congo 1964
•Laos 1964-73
•Vietnam 1961-73
•Cambodia 1969-70
•Guatemala 1967-69
•Grenada 1983
•Lebanon 1983, 1984 (both Lebanese and Syrian targets)
•Libya 1986
•El Salvador 1980s
•Nicaragua 1980s
•Iran 1987
•Panama 1989
•Iraq 1991 (Persian Gulf War)
•Kuwait 1991
•Somalia 1993
•Bosnia 1994, 1995
•Sudan 1998
•Afghanistan 1998
•Yugoslavia 1999
•Yemen 2002
•Iraq 1991-2003 (US/UK on regular basis)
•Iraq 2003-2015
•Afghanistan 2001-2015
•Pakistan 2007-2015
•Somalia 2007-8, 2011
•Yemen 2009, 2011
•Libya 2011, 2015
•Syria 2014-2016
A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn’t have an air force.
“You see the logic starts to feel a lot like an ouroboros pretty quickly?”
——————————————–
Well I don’t see, unless I accept a lot of ill-considered bunkum as fact AND ignore all other evidence that could possibly detract from the theory.
There are two things that are utterly true about the Middle East today. First, there is no more complex place in the world. Second, there is no place in the world where events are more susceptible to mindless, prejudiced self-serving and, about all, absurdly simplistic conclusions by people who know bugger all about anything!!!
WeWantPaul says:
Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 5:24 pm
“On the contrary, if we wish to avoid war with Russia we need to stop them now.”
Any rational thought out ways we might achieve that?
Given the whole bombing Syria idea seems to be headed pretty fast in exactly the opposite direction?
WW3 has not broken out. Russia will not put its own territorial integrity nor significant numbers of its personnel at risk for the sake of Assad. This is clear.
Confessions @ #2233 Saturday, April 14th, 2018 – 5:24 pm
Yes, but it has also been said that, like Nixon, such a move would be the beginning of the end for Trump. The Mid Terms would see a Democratic tsunami, not just a wave, as patriotic Republican voters put country before party, when their elected Representatives cannot.
Then the Democrats could institute Impeachment proceedings. Finally.
I mean, the Rick Wilsons and Ana Navarros and David Frums of the Republican Party aren’t simply whistling Dixie, they want to see something done about Trump and their party rescued. There’d be a lot of rank and file Republicans in their camp. You may even see some of the Republican Representatives in Congress who are left after the Mid Terms finally grow a spine and vote with the Dems on Impeachment.
“A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but doesn’t have an air force.”
Come on now, they really need non-white skin and a weird religion as well*
*(if the skin is a long way from white then weird religion not required, if the religion is Islam non-white skin is not required).
phoenixRED
I like that version.
“WW3 has not broken out. Russia will not put its own territorial integrity nor significant numbers of its personnel at risk for the sake of Assad. This is clear.”
You are almost certainly right about its territorial integrity but pffffft ‘significant numbers of its personnel at risk’ suggests a pretty big misunderstanding of Russia, Russian pride and how Russian’s felt after the fall of communism and how they feel now.
Some in the west seem to work on an assumption that Arabs, Russians and Chinese have no collective sense of pride at all, or worse have it but aren’t entitled to it.
Even the Russian opposition forces have really strong passionate pride in Russia, just not in Putin, which kinda puts them on the same footing as many Amerians who oppose Trump.
Re Syria & other trans-national bastardry: Most of us seem to be under the misapprehension that any of the spectra of political processes involved is directed, let alone logical and principled. This is war. It is blind and purposeless. Assad’s regime used chlorine this time and sarin last time because Putin’s CW corps could, and because they correctly realised that the US response would look pathetic, and demonstrate the power of being ruthless – just like the Russian use of Novichok as a terror agent in the UK was.
Perhaps the Bludgers who expressed their loud doubts about that might like to acknowledge their bullshit this time too.
C@t:
Impeachment is one thing, but the Democrats need 67 Senate votes to see him removed from office. They are nowhere near getting that and no serious commentator I’ve seen has even suggested as such.
Most people think there is a very strong chance the Democrats will control the House and possibly get to 50+ Senators after the mid-terms, but that’s it. So it is probable that Trump will be impeached, but unless Democrats can engineer the numbers in the Senate, he won’t be removed.
Given all we know and our hard left lean here on PB, if you were trying to imagine how to justify a modern form of slavery, how would you go about it, what would you use?
WeWantPaul says: Saturday, April 14, 2018 at 5:40 pm
Given all we know and our hard left lean here on PB, if you were trying to imagine how to justify a modern form of slavery, how would you go about it, what would you use?
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The Australian work force ????? 🙂