Kicking off a federal election year with an overdue accumulation of preselection news, going back to late November:
• Liberal Party conservative Craig Kelly was last month saved from factional moderate Kent Johns’ preselection challenge in his southern Sydney seat of Hughes, which was widely reported as having decisive support in local party branches. This followed the state executive’s acquiescence to Scott Morrison’s demand that it rubber-stamp preselections for all sitting members of the House of Representatives, also confirming the positions of Jason Falinski in Mackellar, John Alexander in Bennelong and Lucy Wicks in Robertson. Kelly had threatened a week earlier to move to the cross bench if dumped, presumably with a view to contesting the seat as an independent. Malcolm Turnbull stirred the pot by calling on the executive to defy Morrison, noting there had been “such a long debate in the New South Wales Liberal Party about the importance of grass roots membership involvement”. This referred to preselection reforms that had given Johns the edge over Kelly, which had been championed by conservatives and resisted by moderates. Turnbull’s critics noted he raised no concerns when the executive of the Victorian branch guaranteed sitting members’ preselections shortly before he was dumped as Prime Minister.
• The intervention that saved Craig Kelly applied only to lower house members, and was thus of no use to another beleaguered conservative, Senator Jim Molan, who had been relegated a week earlier to the unwinnable fourth position on the Coalition’s ticket. Hollie Hughes and Andrew Bragg were chosen for the top two positions, with the third reserved to the Nationals (who have chosen Perin Davey, owner of a communications consultancy, to succeed retiring incumbent John “Wacka” Williams). Despite anger at the outcome from conservatives in the party and the media, Scott Morrison declined to intervene. Morrison told 2GB that conservatives themselves were to blame for Molan’s defeat in the preselection ballot, as there was “a whole bunch of people in the very conservative part of our party who didn’t show up”.
• Labor’s national executive has chosen Diane Beamer, a former state government minister who held the seats of Badgerys Creek and Mulgoa from 1995 to 2011, to replace Emma Husar in Lindsay. The move scotched Husar’s effort to recant her earlier decision to vacate the seat, after she became embroiled in accusations of bullying and sexual harassment in August. Husar is now suing Buzzfeed over its reporting of the allegations, and is reportedly considering running as an independent. The Liberals have preselected Melissa McIntosh, communications manager for the not-for-profit Wentworth Community Housing.
• The misadventures of Nationals MP Andrew Broad have created an opening in his seat of Mallee, which has been in National/Country Party hands since its creation in 1949, although the Liberals have been competitive when past vacancies have given them the opportunity to contest it. The present status on suggestions the seat will be contested for the Liberals by Peta Credlin, who was raised locally in Wycheproof, is that she is “being encouraged”. There appears to be a view in the Nationals that the position should go to a woman, with Rachel Baxendale of The Australian identifying three potential nominees – Anne Mansell, chief executive of Dried Fruits Australia; Caroline Welsh, chair of the Birchip Cropping Group; and Tanya Chapman, former chair of Citrus Australia – in addition to confirmed starter Anne Warner, a social worker.
• Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie yesterday scotched suggestions that she might run in Mallee. The view is that she is positioning herself to succeeding Cathy McGowan in Indi if she decides not to recontest, having recently relocated her electorate office from Bendigo to one of Indi’s main population centres, Wodonga. The Liberals last month preselected Steven Martin, a Wodonga-based engineer.
• Grant Schultz, Milton real estate agent and son of former Hume MP Alby Schultz, has been preselected as Liberal candidate for Gilmore on New South Wales’ south coast, which the party holds on a delicate margin of 0.7%. The seat is to be vacated by Ann Sudmalis, whose preselection Schultz was preparing to challenge when she announced her retirement in September. It was reported in the South Coast Register that Joanna Gash, who held the seat from 1996 to 2013 and is now the mayor of Shoalhaven (UPDATE: Turns out Gash ceased to be so as of the 2016 election, and is now merely a councillor), declared herself “pissed off” at the local party’s endorsement of Schultz, which passed by forty votes to nine.
• Hawkesbury councillor Sarah Richards has been preselected as the Liberal candidate in Macquarie, where Labor’s Susan Templeman unseated Liberal member Louise Markus in 2016.
Re Tom @9:25PM. That is a serious allegation made by a named but unknown person on Facebook.
C@tmomma @ #1965 Sunday, January 6th, 2019 – 2:18 pm
C@tmomma @ #2049 Sunday, January 6th, 2019 – 7:53 pm
I’ve DM’d you on Twitter the answer to your question about which politicians have been caught with their pants down.
@C@t
Coming very late to the conversation – I am now well and truely back at work – I agree with you about Obama. If you want democracy, and better (rather than perfect) outcomes, you make the compromises necessary to achieve a “better” rather than “perfect” outcome.
As the great Abe Lincoln said
“I would save the Union. I would save it the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored; the nearer the Union will be “the Union as it was.” If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.
Just looking at social media feeds of Liberal politicians it is safe to say their supporters have gone completely feral. Just as GOP got Trumpified Liberals are heading the same direction.
Years of dog whistling and fear mongering, coupled with Murdoch media pumping right wing propoganda has turned the Liberal party into a feral mess. They are in alternate universe, detached from how regular people are living.
The great Lincoln knew how to put a few words together. He could sing his reasons and all would wish to join in. He was the great poet of persuasion. We need a Lincoln now and haven’t one. Perhaps we always need a Lincoln and must invent them each time.
Realise I forgot the link in posts above: http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/greeley.htm
Only right-wing Labor tribalists with no insight into how party membership and party affiliation in the USA differ from Australia’s party system believe they have a killer point when they observe that Bernie Sanders is an Independent who caucuses with Democrats.
People who keep saying that this fact matters to his aspirations to lead the Democrats just show that they are uninformed and slow learners.
Lot of people don’t like the idea of a military/ ex military POTUS candidate, but an interesting potential one here – not that he is lined up at all, don’t know which way he leans, may be repug, but he has an interesting outlook on life –
Admiral McRaven Leaves the Audience speechless –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBuIGBCF9jc
I think it was Jenuthor who was pondering what would have happened if the American civil war had not happened, and if the south (most of the slave-owning states), had just been allowed to secede.
I have thought a lot about this, being a frequent visitor to colleagues all over the USA.
My conclusion is that war would have broken out anyway, as around 1850 the west of the US was being colonised. While there was an agreement: one slave state to match each non-slavery state, the prize was too big to allow the outcome to chance.
Also, by 1850, any thinking person could see that if nature took its course, slavery would disappear in the USA within a handful of decades, as it was rapidly disappearing elsewhere in the world in this era.
It is a big leap from the USA civil war to now, but the Centre for Western Civilisation, now hosted by the University of Wollongong (where the excellent conductor Richard Tognetti’s father lectured), has been set up as an “explicitly right wing Centre”, because according to John Howard (on the board), unless you keep a University organisation explicitly right wing it tends to move to “the left” (read sensible centre).
Facts have been a “progressive” feature for a long time. If you all look around you in you local areas, you will find “Schools of Arts”, “Halls of Progress”, “Mechanics Institutes”. These were working class people, from whom I am descended, who realised that education was the key to breaking out of serfdom.
And they were very successful!
We just experienced Jersey Boys tonight at QPAC (Brisbane). If you get a chance, I highly recommend it. Energy. Story. Music. Loved it.
Fraser Anning has admitted he stands little chance of re-election after both sides of politics condemned the former One Nation senator for joining far-right extremists at a Melbourne rally and charging the trip to taxpayers.
The Queensland independent senator billed taxpayers more than $2800 for the weekend trip to Melbourne, flying business class and using an official Comcar to attend the St Kilda beach rally, where he stood alongside convicted criminal and Nazi sympathiser Blair Cotterall to protest against Sudanese immigration.
I might have missed an answer before, but when does Fraser Anning’s term expire?
Shorten and Morrison are apparently on leave.
Douglas and Milko @ #2055 Sunday, January 6th, 2019 – 11:27 pm
Thanks for that.
I have in train (reading) two books that vaguely bear on this.
A. Lincoln: A Biography* by David Herbert Donald.
and
Varina ** By Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain). This gentleman has a way with words that is a wonder to me.
And so back to bed gently humming ♫As I lay me down to♫ sleep, I pray …….♪
I also have the David Herbert Donald 1995 biography which I will fit into my projected reading list.
Nicholas
Actually Nicholas, I understand very well. Bernie will split the Democrat vote – because as Bismarck should have said “Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made (Gesetze sind wie Würste, man sollte besser nicht dabei sein, wenn sie gemacht werden). ” He actually said similar things, but this particular quote is misattributed.
Also, see Michael Moore on why GW Bush won the 2000 USA election: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.politics.greens/V20DRKsNOs8
I do not necessarily agree it was all Monica Morehead’s fault – in a First Past the Post system, any split in a particular voting block is likely to deliver power to the the side.
However, can we please stop waiting starry-eyed for the revolution, and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat. It was tried, it sucked.
Education for all , narrowing the gap between rich and poor, making sure all families have a living wage, stimulating the Oz economy by backing renewable energy sources (like Finland did with Nokia some decades ago), bringing the Australian people around to the idea that we should accept a lot more refugees that we do now – I know it is not the glorious revolution, but is it not a shitload better than what we live in now?
Douglas and Milko says:
Sunday, January 6, 2019 at 11:54 pm
I think it was Jenuthor who was pondering what would have happened if the American civil war had not happened, and if the south (most of the slave-owning states), had just been allowed to secede.
_______________________
I came across this alternative history novel years ago, Guns of the South or something like that. Time Traveling South Africans gift the South with thousands of AK-47s and help them defeat the North, thereby saving slavery, and by default, giving White South Africa an ally and lessening the pressure for the ending of Apartheid. Weird stuff. Don’t think I finished it.
Douglas and Milko says
Education for all , narrowing the gap between rich and poor, making sure all families have a living wage, stimulating the Oz economy by backing renewable energy sources (like Finland did with Nokia some decades ago),
____________________
Yeah but then Nokia loses the innovation game with the introduction of smart phones and then:
At its peak Nokia was valued at $300bn, but in 2016 Microsoft sold it in two parts for a paltry £350m. Phones are no longer produced in Finland, and the Nokia tune – no longer just annoying – took on a note of melancholy.
Kay Jay
Thanks so much for these suggestions. I will seek them out.
One of the things that fascinates me is the “New South” (of the USA that is). The movie Three Billboards outside Ebbing Missouri really encapsulated what I felt travelling through these states for work. And my colleagues were on different sides of the divides.
With my voracious interest in history, I lapped it all up. One memorable time was in a town just near the border of Virginia and West Virginia (Stanton?). I had driven a long way, and left my hotel to look for a pub. No such thing existed, nor did a bottle shop. However, I came across a really cool place which had laminex tables and some people playing slide guitar. I popped my head in, and said, I guess you cannot serve me alcohol at this time of night. The person behind the bar said come in and before I knew it I had a bottle of something open in front of me, and I was enjoying the amazing music. Cannot remember who was black, and who was white, but I swear there was a mixture. Did not stay too long, as I had an early start in the morning, but that was 2013. The “New South” of the USA is an amazing place, and I intend to get back there ASAP.
Nath
But the punchline is that Finland did so well out of selling Nokia shares (even if the phone is now a joke), that Finland has one of the highest standards of living in the world. Two years full-paid maternity leave for women. A really big voucher at the Finish version of IKEA so that you can get a bassinet, cot, pram, highchair etc. Most of us women do not want two years maternity leave, but knowing you do not need to go back to work until you have decent early childhood education is a great safety net.
I think that some on this blog should actually look at what the economies of the “Scandi” countries are really like – they are mixed-market public private economies, but regulation by government means that it is not important whether things are in public or private hands – services are delivered.
Douglas and Milko
Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 12:43 am
Comment #2067
I guess you will have figured out that I got myself tangled up with the books.
I have the three books
A. Lincoln: A Biography* by David Herbert Donald.
and
Varina ** By Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain). This gentleman has a way with words that is a wonder to me.
and
A. Lincoln by Ronald C. White.
I like the sound of the pub/tavern/something with slide guitar and friendly atmosphere.
I like your comments about education and…. just about everything.
Goodnight again. 💤💤💤
Don’t worry I found the answer.
Anning only has until end of June. Good.
Anning, Burston, Georgiou, Leyonhelm, Martin. With any luck we will see the back of them all by June. They can return to unsuccessfully running for local council and states’ upper houses.
More right wing guff from Douglas and Milko trying to misrepresent democratic socialism as some type of communism. Grouperism lives! Why do ring wingers like you bother, when there is a perfectly good Tory party for you to support?
Date: 7 January 2019
Subject: More
The tomato on his fork, he found some tears had wet his eyes. He had missed so much through inattention. The sourdough toast was tough and resistant to the knife and he had to eat it with his fingers, but it tasted well as did the mushrooms and bacon, which were salty and sweet, meaty and dry at the same time. He reflected on all that had happened while his time had been given to other things.
‘My brother, my friend, never mind for the money. Not between you and I. Never mind for that.’ O had words. They were said partly for himself and partly for the man too, because the man seldom had more than a few coins in his pocket, and O dealt only in cash. O had words and he had a story. O had once another life in another place, a life and a place from which he had been driven or taken or from which he had run. The telling was in pieces, small pieces, pieces like the fragments of the ceramics he had bought at the city museum in Shanghai in 1987, ceramics broken by anger and for power by the Guards of the Revolution in 1961.
One evening, after a deal involving a box of red-skin navels, a deal concluded in the half light in the factory carpark and in the cold, O had inducted the man to Macedonian grappa. The spirit had been infused with cinnamon or cloves or nutmeg and local wild-gum honeys, and was alive with heat and citrus as well as the berries from which the alcohol had been derived. O conjured a silver flask from among the notes and receipts and folded up maps in the glove box in the dash of his white Suzuki; a small and flat, old and solid silver bottle with a threaded cap on a hinge. O had unstopped it and poured some of this golden liquor into his own open mouth, slurping some before urging it on the man; who took at first just enough to wash his lips and tongue; untried promise. O’s eyes had brightened. The man took a taste and then a swig and then a longer third. ‘We will be friends’, said O. ‘I know you are a good man.’ The man smiled and thanked O and then said, ‘Yes. You too. Yes. I like this very much. This is beautiful, thank you. You know, we could make some. We could get the fruit from your neighbours in the hills. We could make the wine here in my place and then distill it; make more of this. Make it just like this. We could get some cherries too. And we could use some oranges.’ And he passed the silver back to O.
O frowned. ‘You know, it’s not so easy. It’s not. We need things, stainless things, and a copper still. I can get you one, a good one. I know. Back in my country, ah, you would have loved it. My god. We made beautiful grappa, my god. The best. My friends and I. It takes time. And I made a good living from it. With my trucks and so much. So much money changed hands, my god. Always money. Everywhere. But you know. We had everything. The fish too. Such things, not like here. You know. You know. I worked in a factory in Osborne Park. Hard work. My wife too. But not now. You know. You know we had to leave. The war. You know. We could not. My wife. My children. My god. My. We. We. I. I had. I had so much. Everything, my god. So much. So much of everything.’
O’s wrists and hands were swollen and his face was puffy and he ached from his memories and the day of labour. His eyes shone and not from the cold or the spirit. The man offered him water and went to the garden tap that’s fixed to the brown brick wall, opened it and filled a new high metal can, a 720 gram can for large greenlip meat, and gave it to O and said ‘Mind the edge of the can. It’s sharp.’ O drank it all and then went to the tap and refilled it and stood up, tried to arch his back and drank again. Then he stooped forward and rinsed his hands in the stream.
He went to the rear of the Suzuki and found a flat green plastic container, removed the lid and took out a very sharp fruit knife with a thin flat blade and then, taking one from the best box, cut the skin away from a navel, cut into the flesh, pared it into a rough cube and let the plentiful sweet juice run over his fingers and splash to the concrete, and then gave the chunk of fruit to the man. ‘Here. This is for you. I will cut another and another and another and never mind. They are never better. Look. Look at this. My god.’ The man ate the redskin fruit, holding it in his fingers and leaning down so the juice fell onto his boots and the concrete and did not run from his lips to the whiskers of his chin nor into the folds of his neck.
O cut more fruit and gave it the man. And then he walked to the Cleanaway bin, lifted the lid and tipped the trimmings in. He threw the rear door of the Suzuki shut. And he said, ‘I will see you soon, my brother, my friend’, before climbing into the cabin. He let the window down and said again, ‘I will see you soon. I will come back.’
Morning all. What is it with Thai immigration authorities? This is the second case in weeks where they have yanked someone off a plane at the. request of Saudi authorities. Is it low level corruption or political level corruption?
https://www.theage.com.au/world/middle-east/i-am-afraid-my-family-will-kill-me-saudi-woman-en-route-to-australia-detained-in-bangkok-20190107-p50pwt.html
Is Anning trying to raise his profile to ensure re-election? Name recognition is important for independent Senate votes (see also Leyjonhelm).
Good Morning Bludgers ,
briefly hemingway is a delight to read. 🙂
Interesting commentary on Green Politics
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/01/04/tim-ferguson-organic-food/
lizzie,
Fraser Anning will get name recognition alright, but not the sort that will get him re-elected. It will live on in infamy. Australia is not America is not Germany after the Depression. We’ve never been a place that has truckled with that sort of thing. It is repugnant to our national sensibilities, and rightly so.
If anything, Australia has tended to go in the other direction, to the Left. The history of that lives on even to this day with the glorious Eureka Stockade, but also with our flirtation with the Communist Party.
In the end though, we seem to revert back to a Centre Left ‘Fair Go’ position, which sees every child given every opportunity, no matter their skin colour or faith, to be whatever they want to be.
Even with John Howard’s attempt to gin up the rise of the Lunar Right, via encouraging the ‘Tradie’ ethos and the hard scrabbling sole proprietor, that could abandon the collective of the Union and become ‘his own boss’, and the unthinking nationalism and populist thought that goes hand in hand with it, hasn’t been entirely successful in Australia.
We care too much, in the main, when people are down on their luck and being exploited, especially in the existential sense, as the Sudanese migrants are being now by freak shows like Blair Cottrell, Neil Eriksen and Fraser Anning, and, first among equals, Peter Dutton.
So the only thing Fraser Anning will be remembered for is being a skid mark on the underpants of the Australian Senate, consigned to the garbage can of history after the next federal election. 🙂
Gotta say that the Fairfax on-line papers have become print versions of the Today show, mixed in with a little bit of A Current Affair.
Footy “stars'” marriage breakups; endless Karl Stefanovich stories; “models” committing suicide (don’t ugly people do it too?); unrelenting renno and “kitchen trends” advice columns; and of course the (by now) compulsory “Opal apartment block” yarn (today’s installment being about the firm that DIDN’T build it).
New Idea should be quaking in its boots.
Good morning Dawn Patrollers. I had to sift through a lot of lightweight stuff to pull this together.
According to David Wroe political leaders from across the spectrum have condemned independent senator Fraser Anning for attending a far-right rally where Nazi salutes were given and for which taxpayers will be slugged at least $3000 for the senator’s travel costs.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/politicians-unite-against-racism-as-neo-nazis-and-independent-senator-condemned-20190106-p50pw5.html
And Sam Maiden.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2019/01/06/fraser-anning-nazis/
The AFR tells us how ACCC chief Rod Sims is warning companies that mislead consumers to expect fines in the hundreds of millions of dollars this year.
https://outline.com/RDBDXN
There will be a lot of reputational damage from the Opal Tower fiasco – some of it undeserved,
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nothing-to-do-with-each-other-company-clarifies-it-did-not-build-opal-tower-20190106-p50pvv.html
ANCAP chief James Goodwin asks if we are doing enough to reduce the road toll.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/are-we-doing-enough-to-reduce-the-road-toll-20190106-p50ptn.html
And now almost one million motor vehicles are being recalled worldwide by Ford Motor Company to replace the problematic Takata passenger air bag inflators.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/life/auto/2019/01/05/nearly-one-million-fords-recalled-over-airbags/
2018 saw big shifts in the media-scape that might have a bearing on the Federal election in the first half of this year. Lee Duffield asks how much changes in the structures and organisation of the media will have on services and democratic government.
https://independentaustralia.net/business/business-display/media-shake-up-and-the-coming-federal-election,12246
The SMH editorial praises out new ambassador (at last!) from the US.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/trump-s-man-in-canberra-at-last-20190106-p50pvp.html
The London Telegraph’s Tom Hoggins points the finger at Apple itself for its recent woes.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/sorry-apple-it-s-not-you-it-s-me-actually-it-s-you-20190104-p50pk6.html
Can a flagging Apple really reinvent itself? This is a company that has taken too long to relaise that it is the market that seta the prices.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/can-a-flagging-apple-really-reinvent-itself-and-how-20190106-p50ptj.html
The Attorney-General’s office is contemplating tougher terror laws, after the state failed in a last-ditched bid to slap an extended supervision order on a convicted terrorism “activity offender” who had an “obsession” with the Islamic State.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/changes-to-terrorism-laws-on-the-table-after-failure-to-impose-supervision-order-20181231-p50oyv.html
Coalition MPs and security experts say the nation is dangerously exposed if a major geopolitical upheaval disrupts fuel supplies.
https://outline.com/x89sag
Idiot Trump has renewed his threat to declare a national emergency over border security as negotiations to end a partial government shutdown continue.
https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/donald-trump-renews-national-emergency-threat-20190107-p50px6.html
Meanwhile Donald Trump Jr and long-term Trump aide Roger Stone face a heightened threat of criminal charges as Democrats on Capitol Hill prepare to hand evidence to Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. They could be charged with perjury if there is evidence that they lied to Congress during interviews behind closed doors with the House intelligence committee.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/06/trump-aides-could-face-perjury-charges-mueller-investigation
This is the Nancy Pelosi moment and Donald Trump should be very afraid says the Guardian’s Sarah Churchwell.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/06/this-is-nancy-pelosi-moment-donald-trump-should-be-very-afraid
And for a bit of fun – Australian politics in 2019 will inevitably be dominated by the federal election, expected in May. So what can we expect for the year ahead? Here’s your handy politics bingo card to play as we watch the ideas, strategies and tactics of the political parties play out.
https://theconversation.com/pencils-ready-its-time-for-politics-2019-bingo-108503
In what could be a nomination for “Arseholes of the Week” Michael west reports that Victoria Power Network dodges tax and gouges their customers. They even have their paws out for government grants.
https://www.michaelwest.com.au/victoria-power-networks-40-on-the-top-40-tax-dodgers-chart/
Cartoon Corner
What a cracker from Pat Campbell!
Matt Golding on spin.
A nice contribution from Jon Kudelka on Anning’s visit to Melbourne.
https://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/892697800a28bdfd033d33fcb9d678b2
From the US.
Those who have raised their own chickens under hens will also agree that temperature affects the ratio of male/female chicks.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2019/01/06/barrier-reef-turtles-no-males/
Vermont newspaper begs Bernie Sanders not to run for president: ‘There is too much at stake to take that gamble’
An op-ed published Saturday in the Barre Montpelier Times Argus, a Vermont daily morning newspaper, begged Sen. Bernie Sanders (VT) not to run for president, citing the former Democratic candidate’s “abrasive” personality and the “need to know when to step out of the way and let others carry the water for you.”
“Bernie Sanders should not run for president,” the paper wrote. “In fact, we beg him not to.”
But for the editorial board at the Times Argus, their “greatest concern” revolves around “a fear a Sanders run risks dividing the well-fractured Democratic Party” and could split the 2020 presidential vote in a similar manner as 2016.
“There is too much at stake to take that gamble,” the board wrote.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/vermont-newspaper-begs-bernie-sanders-not-run-president-much-stake-take-gamble/
I see an election looming.
What a load of codswallop:
Australia was built on massacres of its indigenous inhabitants followed by theft of their lands right up until the 2000s, an immigration policy based on a White Australia that extended into the 1980s (and is currently being revived), the predominance of its business class as its Ruling Class, a steady diminuition of unionism and workplace politics, a reverence for petty celebrity, chronic lack of national self-confidence and the rise of the Battler Bogan as the champion of anti-intellectualism.
We have ALWAYS been a place that has “trucked with such things”. Australia revels in its own mundanity.
Ex-Trump aides freaking out as his Twitter meltdowns accelerate with Kelly out of the picture: ‘It has devolved into anarchy’
Speaking on background to Axios, former officials who served in Donald Trump’s administration claim the president has ramped up his attacks on the media — and all of his other perceived enemies — because former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is no longer there to restrain his worst impulses.
According to the report, “With the departure of White House chief of staff John Kelly, the misinformation emanating from President Trump has only escalated,” leading to what one ex-staffer called a “wild, wild west” atmosphere.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/ex-trump-aides-freaking-twitter-meltdowns-accelerate-kelly-picture-devolved-anarchy/
‘We’ll give them steel’: Trump explains how he would declare a ‘national emergency’ to build border wall
President Donald Trump on Sunday indicated that he is moving closer to declaring a “national emergency” in order to build a wall on the Mexico border.
Trump also said that his administration was hopeful about using steel instead of concrete to build the wall.
“I informed my folks to say that we’ll build a steel barrier,” Trump remarked. “It’ll be less obtrusive and it’ll be stronger.”
“We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly,” the president insisted on Friday.
https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/well-give-steel-trump-explains-will-declare-national-emergency-build-border-wall/
Bushfire Bill says:
The !#!@#@ Karl stories were so numerous Fairfax could fill a week’s worth of papers with them. The sad part is the thought they do it because there is a big market for such mindless trash.
Bushfire Bill @ #1226 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 6:36 am
So true
A dying species…
lizzie
Mr McGowan should also remember the bit about industrialists getting behind young Adolph really kicking it along. So it is our plutocrats we should watch closely, especially any media owning “demented plutocrats” .
.
So the White Australia Policy and the massacre of Indigenous Australians by the British colonisers confirms us as a bunch of fascists, always have been , always will be?
A simplistic reading of Australian history, but everyone here is entitled to their opinion. 🙂
lizzie
I’ve challenged that tweet.
Firstly, ON hasn’t gained traction, despite being in existence a lot longer than the NAZI party at this stage. It hasn’t because people called it out.
Secondly, I think mocking is an essential part of tackling fascism.
Thirdly, who’s dismissing them? If anything, they’re getting more attention than they deserve.
BB
Historically, yes, Australia (particularly pre WWII) was a racist country – in an era when over 90% of the population were white Anglo Saxon types.
Things have changed a little in the past fifty years.
C@tmomma
Oh good, nothing to do with ‘us’ then, it was all those ‘British colonisers” wot did all the massacres and White Australian crud. No Australians involved eh ?
This is pretty good!
lizzie @ #44564 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 6:58 am
“Bunch of Ugly Tattoos and Fraser Anning” – BUTAFA. Quadbike coins another palpable hit.
poroti @ #2096 Monday, January 7th, 2019 – 8:24 am
It wasn’t me who referred to the massacres of Indigenous Australians. To the best of my limited knowledge these were mostly carried out pre 1901. Therefore by British Citizens.
The Stolen Generation was effected by Australians on the other hand. That’s not right either. I would also say that that wasn’t done by fascists either.
Sure, there have been White Supremacists since the colonisation of Australia by the British, I never said there haven’t. My contention was that Australia, predominantly, has tended to be the land of the Fair Go, especially since Federation and in light of the establishment of the Labor Party, the Harvester decision, turning away and repudiating the White Australia Policy and embracing multiculturalism.
“Not dying, not dead, not slipping away, sorry if I depressed you. Maybe I should have phrased it better,” Connolly joked in the video:
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/celebrity/i-should-have-phrased-it-better-billy-connolly-denies-he-s-dying-20190107-p50pxh.html