BludgerTrack leadership trends

A small measure of historical perspective for this week’s leadership polling, on which Scott Morrison lost his lead as preferred prime minister from both Newspoll and Essential Research.

It’s not exactly news that I’ve got BludgerTrack going to the extent of running leadership trends, which I launched about a month ago, but under the circumstances (and for the want of much else to blog about, which I’ll get to shortly) I thought it worth drawing attention to again. Newspoll and Essential Research both provided new sets of numbers this week, and while some have questioned the value of polling in high summer while holidays are being had and fires are being fought, they were interesting in their consistency: Newspoll recorded a 19% drop in Scott Morrison’s net approval while Essential had it at 14%, and both found Anthony Albanese opening slight leads on preferred prime minister.

All of this comes through loud and clear in the trends you can see on the sidebar (or in closer detail at the link below). Morrison’s post-election bounce was already coming off before the fires, but the trend has now become a freefall he must hope will reverse in fairly short order. By my reckoning, out of 673 preferred prime minister results published by Newspoll as far back as 1987, the incumbent has led in 519 (77.2%) and the Opposition Leader in 140 (20.8%), with thirteen (1.9%) being tied. However, this hasn’t offered much of a guide for the leaders’ future prospects. Malcolm Turnbull had an unblemished record, as did Kevin Rudd in his first tenure (Tony Abbott took the lead in the first two polls before the 2013 election), while John Howard trailed in early 2001 and for much of the second half of his first term, as did Paul Keating more often than not before the 1993 election.

Author: William Bowe

William Bowe is a Perth-based election analyst and occasional teacher of political science. His blog, The Poll Bludger, has existed in one form or another since 2004, and is one of the most heavily trafficked websites on Australian politics.

2,599 comments on “BludgerTrack leadership trends”

Comments Page 43 of 52
1 … 42 43 44 … 52

  1. My favorite lizard is the gecko. They’re so sweet, the only damage they leave is a bit of nitrogenous waste behind a work of art.

  2. Bushfire Bill says:
    Monday, January 20, 2020 at 9:13 pm
    Forget McKenzie, will youse?

    She’s the monkey, not the organ grinder.
    ___________________________

    And, metaphorically speaking, she’s chained to the organ grinder. If she goes down she drags him down with her – unless he works out some cunning plan to cut the chain.

  3. Bob Sprocket gets very shy when it comes to questions about the former NSW Labor Government.

    So much to share Bob Sprocket!

    What can you tell us about the Carr-Iemma-Rees-Keneally Government. For the record!

  4. Tonight for something different, climate change denial.
    When you start looking at blogs this is what you find. Why should I suffer alone.
    First of we have our own JoNova
    Upset there is to be a royal commission.
    57 Bushfire Inquiries isn’t enough. We need one more for leaders to hide behind
    Our institutions failed us: The CSIRO didn’t save us, the ABC didn’t. What’s the point of them? Academics and CRC’s could’ve warned the nation, but instead most experts and the “reporters” said renewable energy would prevent these fires, even though climate change has made no difference to rainfall or droughts, which are driven by ocean currents, and solar cycles, not carbon dioxide. Let’s promote those who got it right, and turn off the tap to those that didn’t. Who pays damages? Who gets sacked?
    First up, i would line up all those that denied climate change is an issue we have to del with, but that is me.
    http://joannenova.com.au/2020/01/57-bushfire-inquiries-isnt-enough-we-need-one-more-for-leaders-to-hide-behind/#comment-2259874
    Have to go back a few days for this gem
    https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2020/01/hardline-lefty-meteorologist-masters-in-astrophysics-piers-brother-of-jeremy-corbyn-explains-climate.html
    Fight fires with facts – not fake science
    Greens are incensed over suggestions that anything but fossil fuels and climate change might be turning green California and Australian ecosystems into black wastelands, incinerating wildlife, destroying homes and killing people. The notion that they and their policies might be a major factor in these fires gets them so hot under the collar that they could ignite another inferno. But the facts are there for all to see.
    Got it in for gum trees.
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/01/19/fight-fires-with-facts-not-fake-science/
    Davos: “Climate Change seems to be Outgrowing the … Institutions … who have Dealt with it Until Now”
    If President Trump falls, if a climate activist takes his place in the White House, the climate activist takeover of the UN Security Council will be complete. The UN will have the power to issue climate demands for cuts in fossil fuel production (except from Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council), or climate reparations for developing countries (which still includes China), backed by the threat of the armed might of UN Security Council members.
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/01/19/davos-climate-change-seems-to-be-outgrowing-the-institutions-who-have-dealt-with-it-until-now/
    Californians Turn a Cold Shoulder on Bill Requiring Climate-Change Education
    I guess it will then be my duty to teach them to unlearn or ignore what the climate religion is teaching, using actual facts and data, and pointing out the long list of alarmist predictions that have never come true. Fortunately my kids go to a public school that is in a district that is actually very good. We don’t have to put up with too many crazies. But the lunacy in California also allows me to teach my kids a very valuable lesson early in life: that the education system is not made up of all-knowing gods. Just because it’s taught doesn’t mean you have to believe it. Learn it for the test, pick the desired answer to get a grade, and move on.
    http://antigreen.blogspot.com/
    Green Madness: Wind Farms Paid Up To £3 Million Per Day To Switch Off Turbines
    Same old story, but numbers keep getting bigger. This just reinforces the point that large-scale surplus electricity can’t be stored. But nobody pays non-renewable sources for switching off or reducing output when wind and/or solar are operating at or near their capacity.
    https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2020/01/19/green-madness-wind-farms-paid-up-to-3-million-per-day-to-switch-off-turbines/
    “Climate emergency” is an absurd concept
    Any sane adult capable of rational thought can see what complete and utter bollocks this “climate emergency” is. It’s not frightening at all. But the fact that so many people actually think that we’re in one is the truly scary thing.
    http://www.matthaydenblog.com/2020/01/climate-emergency-is-absurd-concept.html
    BBC’s Climate Check
    We did not have to wait long for the first of the BBC’s monthly Climate Checks, all part of their indoctrination programme for this year:
    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/
    “Climate Change”: A Leftist Excuse to Redistribute Wealth and Destroy the West?
    The “Church of Climate Change” demands that Western nations impose restrictions on industrial CO2 emissions, encouraging them to squander billions on unreliable “green” technologies and renewable sources of energy. They continue to ignore the one policy that has significantly increased atmospheric CO2 levels in the last few decades, generating hundreds of millions of metric tons of the stuff annually: mass Third World immigration (see Kolankiewicz and Camarota, 2008).
    https://www.eurocanadian.ca/2020/01/climate-change-leftist-excuse-to-redistribute-wealth-destroy-west.html
    Scientific “Consensus;” Political NOT Scientific
    http://theclimatescepticsparty.blogspot.com/2020/01/scientific-consensus-political-not.html
    Certainties and Uncertainties in our Energy and Climate Futures: Steve Koonin
    This is a recent (2019) talk which gives a good overview of current climate science. Speaker is Steve Koonin, formerly Undersecretary for Science, US Department of Energy (Obama administration), Caltech Provost and theoretical physicist.
    It is quite an interesting talk
    https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2020/01/certainties-and-uncertainties-in-our.html

  5. Lars Von Trier says:
    Monday, January 20, 2020 at 9:34 pm

    Bob Sprocket gets very shy when it comes to questions about the former NSW Labor Government.

    So much to share Bob Sprocket!

    What can you tell us about the Carr-Iemma-Rees-Keneally Government. For the record!
    _______________
    I think officially it is known as the Carr-Obeid Government. Simplifies things… and more accurate.

  6. Hi Douglas and Milko:

    [‘God, the way my mother carried on when I told her I was not getting married in a Catholic Church, and the grief it caused me to tell her this, must be 0.0001% of the grief these kids go through.’]

    I agree with you but I wouldn’t be so hard on your mother, as she was the product of her upbringing. I have relatives who were abused, one of whom decided, no matter how hard it was, to adopt an almost a paradigmatic shift. Thus far she seems to have succeeded, but I’ve got a gut feeling, she’s still suffering.
    The lesson I know is to look after the innocence of the child.

  7. TPOF
    Does not sound too bad then. I wish i was that lucky. We had terracotta tiles on ours, but also many other issues involved.
    Never ever buy an ex display house. Builders take short cuts and you end up with a lemon.

  11. Scotty’s direct involvement in the sports grant rorts is the second item on ABC news Perth.

    Good ol social media, always a treasure trove for anyone trawling through looking for compromising info from the past.

  13. Taylormade says:
    Monday, January 20, 2020 at 9:54 pm
    TPOF
    Does not sound too bad then. I wish i was that lucky. We had terracotta tiles on ours, but also many other issues involved.
    Never ever buy an ex display house. Builders take short cuts and you end up with a lemon.
    ________________________________

    I always worry about display anything – or demonstrators. I’ve heard from various sources that anything built in Canberra after 2002, when building certification was privatised, is suss. My place is 45 years old and I’ve owned it for the last 28. Still I need to do some maintenance!

  15. 😮

    Russell CroweVerified account@russellcrowe
    12h12 hours ago
    My place 10 weeks ago after the fire had gone through, and this morning after a big weekend of rain.

    :large

  18. Things are looking grim in retail, not yet 3 weeks into 2020 and the Morrison Recession has arrived

    Store closures so far for 2020:

    Bardot (58 stores)

    Curious Planet (63 stores)

    Harris Scarfe (21 stores)

    EB Games (19 stores); and

    Bose (around 8 stores)

    Jeanswest in administration, many of its 146 stores to close.

  22. This talk of the Carr etc government prompts me to think about the worse State Governments in my adult lifetime.

    But how to judge? I go by criteria of serious corruption and disastrous incompetence. Bad ideology doesn’t count because it’s too subjective.

    The winners are:

    Serious Corruption
    1. Bjelke-Petersen (all of its life).
    2. Burke-Dowding (83-90)
    3. Iemma-Rees-Kenneally ( 06-11).

    Disastrous Incompetence
    1. Bannon (late 80s stage -SBSA)
    2. Cain (late 80s -SBV)
    3. Newman (2012-15 – just generally useless).

    Now you might be tempted to give Bannon and Cain a pass because they were otherwise competent but the scale of the bank disasters, several billions, is too large. These amounts could have bought an awful lot of community infrastructure and social services.

    You might also wonder whether the corrupt governments are only the ones that got caught. I do wonder about what really happened during the Wran Government.

  24. Cud
    The Liberals and their ALP obsessions but its not a surprise for while both sides can be tribal but ALP ministers will meet with whoever they need to. Once I was on a ALP minister’s office and sitting there was one Ron Walker to meet the minister yet the Libs refuse to met with 23 experienced firies because they wont like the message.

  27. Has the yearly Davos summit starts this week there is a new term that will do the Liberals heads in but will become a common finance word green swan risk for climate change. This is a play on a black swan event which is unexpected.

  28. Pascoe takes us through the various ways that Morrison evades responsibility for the sports rorts. Not all the interviewers deserve the criticism they get. As he says,

    It’s rare to see such sustained evasion – evasion that would take a skilled barrister and time upon the stand to break down and demolish, not the hurried minutes of a live interview with other issues on the agenda.

    We have a very clever PM, but his cleverness is not used for the good of the country, it is entirely to preserve his own position.

    Meanwhile, Greg Mullins is showing fearless leadership and is refusing to back down on his criticism.

    It is hard to take suggestions of a royal commission seriously. Might this simply be another way to stifle debate and take attention away from inaction on emissions?

    I know who I respect.

  29. Mavis:’The lesson I know is to look after the innocence of the child.’

    It is interesting that Catholics force kids to take confession. The assumption that they are doing wrong things – ie are bad people. Most kids are innocent of any wrong doing, yet the Catholic Church sees them as sinners. In fact, they believe children are born with sin. How brutal is that?

    The RCC are good at making people feel guilty.

  31. A bit spooky that the massive hail storms yesterday targeted Canberra and The Shire – both stomping grounds of Morrison. Fortunately for him, Kirribilli was spared, but will those affected by the increasing flock of ‘green swans’ be so forgiving?

    “Climate change threatens to provoke “green swan” events that could trigger a systemic financial crisis unless authorities act against such risks, according to the Bank for International Settlements.

    The analysis by officials at the Basel-based institution — often described as the central bank for central banks — adapts the “black swan” concept devised by Nassim Nicholas Taleb to describe adverse events outside the scope of regular expectations with wide-ranging or extreme impacts.

    “Green swans or ‘climate black swans’ present many features of typical black swans,” said the authors, who include BIS Deputy General Manager Luiz Pereira da Silva. “Traditional approaches to risk management consisting in extrapolating historical data and on assumptions of normal distributions are largely irrelevant to assess future climate-related risks.”

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-01-20/-green-swan-event-could-trigger-global-crisis-bis-warns

  32. Comrade Mark
    @markjs1
    ·
    2m
    Inside Lib HQ:

    Baldrick: “Sire, weren’t the Sports Grants supposed to be allocated on the basis of ‘NEED’?..”

    #PMScum: “AND SO THEY WERE!!..”

    Baldrick: “How so, Sire?..”

    PMScum: “WE NEEDED MORE VOTES, FOOL!!”..

    Baldrick: “Fair enough, Sire”..

    #auspol
    @LiberalAus
    #LibLiars

  35. Michael J. Biercuk
    @MJBiercuk
    ·
    3m
    Even without context, it blows my mind that government #FreedomofInformation requests are adjudicated by senior advisers to the politicians in question rather than an independent third party in government. #auspol

  38. Scott from marketing in the photo channeling his inner Mussolini. Scottito Morrislini?
    “Scott Morrison says Australia’s emissions are coming down. Are they?” Huge amounts of carbon dioxide exhaled as he says “No.” in as many different ways as he can to disguise the fact that he and his pack of pollution spewing cronies have nothing but contempt for those who aren’t born to rule and are not from the big end of town.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/21/scott-morrison-says-the-government-is-acting-on-emissions-is-it-true

  40. On that NY Times editorial, referred to as a self parody.

    The New York Times editorial board’s presidential endorsement — complete with a hyped reality-TV show to announce the winner (though there wasn’t one) — is objectionable on many grounds. It oozed with self-importance while failing to actually endorse a candidate (instead it gave the nod to both Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, since it is so hard to choose, you see). It was condescending. (“[Former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg] showing in the lead-up to the primaries predicts a bright political future; we look forward to him working his way up.”) It made itself, videoed in its august boardroom in the clouds of the New York skyline, the story while showing off its lack of connection to those who live beyond the confines of the five boroughs. (One is reminded of the famous New Yorker cover “View of the World from 9th Avenue,” portraying everything beyond New York City as a vast wasteland.)

    …

    Media commentators have been predicting Biden’s political demise since the day he entered the race. A Biden victory seems virtually unimaginable to many pundits and campaign reporters. That may be because they are looking at the wrong things, talking to the wrong people and ignoring the critical role of African American voters. It seems that since 2016, when the media never saw the Trump phenomenon coming, too many have learned too little. The primary election will not be decided by the denizens of the New York skyline, but by ordinary people for whom character, decency, loyalty and reliability are essential. A lot of those are not white, do not have college degrees and do not think the specifics of a health-care plan should be the deciding factor in their choice.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/20/nutshell-what-media-does-not-get-about-biden/

  41. Good morning Dawn Patrollers
    As the IMF warns global warming is a major financial risk, the RBA has been told it may have to buy coal mines and fossil-fuel power stations to save the economy. I suppose all these people don’t know what they are talking about either!
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/rba-told-to-mobilise-all-forces-to-save-the-economy-from-climate-change-20200120-p53szi.html
    Rob Harris writes that Morrison is standing by embattled cabinet minister Bridget McKenzie over the so-called sports rorts saga, but he concedes his government may have to change the way cash grants are handed out.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/morrison-stands-by-bridget-mckenzie-over-sports-rorts-20200120-p53t3y.html
    Michelle Grattan reckons Morrison needs to control his temper.
    https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-morrison-should-control-that-temper-in-liberal-climate-debate-130227
    It should surprise no one that a man steeped deep in an apocalyptic cult should demand that everyone else act as if his reality is the norm, writes Dr Jennifer Wilson.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/morrison-now-demands-we-adapt-to-climate-change-catastrophes,13509
    Law expert Maria O’Sullivan explains why the sports grants findings are so serious. She concludes by saying that a government that bends the rules is a danger to the rule of law and to democracy.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/why-the-sports-grants-findings-are-so-serious-20200120-p53sy4.html
    Michael Pascoe tells us how Scott Morrison whitewashes corruption. Noice!
    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/politics/2020/01/21/sports-grant-scott-morrison-snow-job-corruption/
    Hannah Aulby writes that the McKenzie scandal highlights the need for a (proper) national integrity commission.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6589236/mckenzie-scandal-highlights-need-for-a-national-integrity-commission/?cs=14258
    Meanwhile The Guardian has uncovered some more questionable grant approvals.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/21/upmarket-tennis-and-golf-clubs-among-recipients-of-major-sports-grants
    The office of embattled Energy and Emissions Reduction Minister Angus Taylor has refused to release information relating to an allegedly forged document he relied on to accuse City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore of hypocrisy on climate change. FoI has become a farce!
    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/taylor-s-office-refuses-to-release-majority-of-city-of-sydney-travel-claim-documents-20200120-p53t3c.html
    Adam Morton fact checks Morrison’s pronouncements on emissions and finds he comes up short.
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/21/scott-morrison-says-the-government-is-acting-on-emissions-is-it-true
    John Connor describes seven ways Scott Morrison can evolve his climate policy without a political brawl.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/20/seven-ways-scott-morrison-can-evolve-his-climate-policy-without-a-political-brawl
    Shane Wright tells us that Frydenberg has warned the government’s promised budget surplus could evaporate due to the economic fallout from the nation’s bushfire emergency. Off course flat wage growth and the failure of heroic budget assumptions will have nothing to do with it.
    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/treasurer-warns-surplus-at-risk-as-fires-hit-economy-20200120-p53t3j.html
    Conservation scientists are grieving after the bushfires – but we must not give up implore four professors of conservation.
    https://theconversation.com/conservation-scientists-are-grieving-after-the-bushfires-but-we-must-not-give-up-130195
    A new decade is likely to bring another year of low wages growth writes Greg Jericho.
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2020/jan/21/a-new-decade-is-likely-to-bring-another-year-of-low-wages-growth
    Hotel comparison website Trivago breached Australian consumer law by misleading consumers on which hotel deals were best, the Australian Federal Court has found. And apart from that the woman who stars in their TV ads is the most smug, up herself character going around.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/trivago-misled-consumers-in-favour-of-advertiser-dollars-federal-court-finds-20200120-p53t40.html
    Ben Butler reports that most Australian chief executives believe climate crisis is a threat to business.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/21/most-australian-chief-executives-believe-climate-crisis-a-threat-to-business
    Greg Mullins gives Morrison both barrels over the bushfires. Mind you, Mullins doesn’t know what he’s talking about!
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/20/i-tried-to-warn-scott-morrison-about-the-bushfire-disaster-adapting-to-climate-change-isnt-enough
    Dana McCauley reports that Disability service providers say free university courses and better wages are needed alongside a national advertising blitz to double the size of the sector’s workforce as part of the Morrison government’s overhaul of the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/free-uni-places-better-wages-the-push-to-double-the-ndis-workforce-20200120-p53t2y.html
    Sally Whyte examines the recommendations of the report into the operation of the NDIS.
    https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6588223/ndis-is-too-confusing-frustrating-review-finds/?cs=14350
    The SMH editorial says that tare many problems with the administration of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. But a new report offers the government a pathway to efficiency.
    https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/ndis-participants-still-needlessly-hindered-by-red-tape-20200120-p53t2u.html
    Chinese drivers are earning well above average income while Aussie Uber drivers can’t make minimum wage. Marcus Reubenstein reports.
    https://www.michaelwest.com.au/news-chinas-ridesharing-giant-didi-makes-uber-look-like-a-driver-sweat-shop/
    Clive Williams analyses the profile of firefighter arsonists.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/profile-of-a-firefighter-arsonist-20200120-p53syv.html
    The UNHRC by finding climate refugees cannot be forced back home has upped the ante.
    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/climate-refugees-cannot-be-forced-back-home-20200119-p53sp4.html
    Did elections over the last year show a swinging pattern to the right or left? And what of elections in 2020? Alan Austin believes they offer hope for a better world.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/the-global-lurch-to-the-right,13507
    Thousands of armed gun-rights activists filled the streets around Virginia’s capitol building on Monday to protest a package of gun-control legislation making its way through the newly Democratic-controlled state legislature. What could possibly go wrong?
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-america/armed-gun-rights-activists-rally-against-proposed-virginia-gun-laws-20200121-p53t6a.html
    Europe is worried about what Trump will say at this year’s Davos gathering.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/trump-s-speech-at-davos-is-putting-chill-down-european-spines-20200120-p53sym.html
    Bloomberg warns that every day Europe dithers, Iran’s uranium enrichment program grows.
    https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/every-day-europe-dithers-iran-s-uranium-enrichment-program-grows-20200120-p53t1t.html
    “Is Brand Monarchy losing momentum after 68 years?”, asks futurist Tony Eades.
    https://www.smh.com.au/national/is-brand-monarchy-losing-momentum-after-68-years-20200120-p53sy9.html
    Donald Trump is a good president … but only for the top 1% opines Joseph Stiglitz.
    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/jan/20/donald-trump-is-a-good-president-but-only-for-the-top-1
    John Harris thinks Trump’s greatest ally in this year’s election will be Facebook.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/20/trump-election-facebook

    Cartoon Corner

    David Rowe

    Another cracker from Cathy Wilcox!

    Andrew Dyson and the sports grants.

    Matt Golding




    Mark David


    Fiona Katauskas

    Glen Le Lievre

    https://miro.medium.com/max/1875/1*pzGR-N3iS0-ohxgTF7Rjtg.jpeg

    From the US


  42. Virginia Heffernan
    @page88
    ·
    7h
    If you criticize Sanders, you get reported to your boss, sent rape imagery, savaged as brain-damaged, a snake, a Nazi. For days.

    The Sanders campaign smears, bullies, defames & threatens critics. Happened in 2016 & it’s happening again.
    Opinion | Bernie Bros mobs never went away after 2016 — just ask their victims
    nbcnews.com

  45. Lev Parnas has made it nearly impossible for Trump to deny his central role in Ukraine scandal: conservative columnist

    In her column for The Washington Post this Sunday, conservative commentator Jennifer Rubin had a lot of positive things to say about indicted Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas, who recently handed over documents revealing his role in President Trump’s alleged plot to pressure Ukraine into investigating his political rivals.

    Rubin writes that Parnas’ communications show that his actions around the globe were always done with Giuliani’s consent and Trump’s knowledge, and the trove of documents he released send a stark message to the Senate as they gear up for Trump’s impeachment trial: “There’s a lot of evidence out there, so ignore it at your own peril.”

    “Thanks to Parnas, it is becoming nearly impossible to deny Trump’s central role in the scheme,” Rubin writes.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/01/19/distinguished-person-week-lev-parnas/

  46. Mitch McConnell considering ‘kill switch’ that allows him to pull plug on Trump impeachment at any time: report

    According to a report at Fox News, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is consulting with senior members of his party in an attempt to cobble to together a “kill switch” rule that would allow him to dismiss the articles of impeachment in the Senate against Donald Trump quickly after a minimum of evidence has been presented.

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/mitch-mcconnell-considering-kill-switch-that-allows-him-to-pull-plug-on-trump-impeachment-at-any-time-report/

  47. Major land-clearing operations at the site of Adani’s proposed Carmichael coal mine will begin from this Monday, according to information leaked to groups opposed to the controversial project.

    The first of some 450 hectares of bushland earmarked for clearing will be cut down in a process expected to last 80 days at the mine’s site in Queensland’s Galilee Basin, Galilee Blockade said.

    Ben Pennings, a spokesman for the blockade said the deforestation was “a disaster” because it allowed Adani to build infrastructure that would take groundwater from farmers.

    https://www.smh.com.au/environment/sustainability/major-land-clearing-about-to-begin-at-adani-mine-site-opponents-say-20190720-p5292o.html

  48. Good morning and thanks to BK for the Dawn Patrol.

    From the FK Files.

    Europe is worried about what Trump will say at this year’s Davos gathering.
    https://www.smh.com.au/business/markets/trump-s-speech-at-davos-is-putting-chill-down-european-spines-20200120-p53sym.html

    Easy peasy – he’ll say —-

    I though you meant “Davros”.

    Confusing Mr. Trump with Davros is not difficult

    Davros is a genius who has mastered many areas of science, but also a megalomaniac who believes that through his creations he can become the supreme being and ruler of the Universe.

  49. Dr David Shearman AM PhD FRACP is Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Adelaide and co-founder of Doctors for the Environment Australia:

    As the Liberals rest on their climate laurels, Labor must bite the coal bullet

    https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/2020/01/20/labor-coal-climate-change/

    As the smoke from our bushfires circles the Earth and other developed countries admonish our indolence on climate change, we are deluding ourselves if we hope for government action on emissions.
    :::
    It is not clutching at straws to ask what the opposition Labor Party can do to fill the two-year yawning gap till the next election – by then two of 10 vital years for fossil fuel reduction will have been wasted.
    :::
    There is now a general recognition that our current form of democracy is increasingly incapable of addressing the fast-moving and complex progress of the climate change emergency fast train.
    :::
    The Labor position on coal is also untenable and must change.
    :::
    The position of both parties on the export of coal is unconscionable.
    :::
    Firstly, for the next year, Labor’s small step must be to educate the public why their initial policy setting will be no new coal or gas mining.
    :::
    It is difficult to accept that Labor also supports the expansion of such damaging industries in the Carmichael Basin and other regions.
    :::
    Secondly, Labor must address the abysmal standing of politicians for this will increasingly impair the future functioning of democracy.
    :::
    It is vital we know how much the prodigious infiltration of government by the fossil fuel industries extends to Labor.

  50. ‘Your reaction just confirms it’s true’: Internet mocks Trump for fuming about ‘Stable Genius’ book

    President Donald Trump is miffed that a new book that addresses his childish behavior and ignorance is so popular.

    “Another Fake Book by two third rate Washington Post reporters, has already proven to be inaccurately reported, to their great embarrassment, all for the purpose of demeaning and belittling a President who is getting great things done for our Country, at a record clip. Thank you!” Trump tweeted on Saturday.

    Trump then retweeted himself Monday, calling the reporters “losers” and saying the stories were all made up.

    The book has enjoyed the top spot on the New York Times Bestseller’s List for the five days since it has been released.

    It was something that earned the president considerable mockery on Twitter. Check out the comments below:

    Here you go, two stone cold losers. One had to buy his Presidency and the other had to buy his own book to make it a hit.
    Sorry comrade, I think you meant two Pulitzer Prize-winning stone cold losers.
    Your reaction just confirms it’s true
    Donald, Americans know that the more vehemently (look it up) you deny an accusation, the greater the truth of the accusation.
    You, Donald, are the stone cold loser. Despised by Americans. Mocked by foreign leaders. Insulted behind your back by Republicans everywhere.
    hey everybody go buy a copy of A Very Stable Genius and make our crybaby president cry

    https://www.rawstory.com/2020/01/your-reaction-just-confirms-its-true-internet-mocks-trump-fuming-about-stable-genius-book/

Comments Page 43 of 52
1 … 42 43 44 … 52

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *