The Donald said he was going to do it and now he is.
The Great Wall of the Rio Grande, the Trump Wall will stretch almost 2,000 miles (3,100kms) from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, putting a gleam in the eye of graffiti artists everywhere. Banksy is said to be drooling in anticipation.
The estimated cost of this stunning feat of architecture is anywhere between $10 and $20 billion depending on who you listen to. Construction time is also a bit of a back-of-the-envelope exercise but by the time an exhausted bricklayer slaps the last bit of mortar on it, it is probable Donald Trump will be around 90 years of age.
In centuries to come anthropologists will marvel at it and wonder what far-sighted genius brought it into existence. Maybe even an old shyster like Erich Von Daniken will propose some unlikely theory that the Trump Wall was built by God who arrived by spaceship with the blueprint and a couple of trillion tons of prefabricated concrete.
Full column here.
Looks like our hopeless PM Turnbull has been playing with his “ding a ling” again Mr Insider as we read about the “Special Treatment” he said Australia got re POTUS Trumps tough new travel bans: “The special “exemption” for Australian dual nationals from Donald Trump’s tough new travel bans announced by the Turnbull government on Tuesday turns out not to be an exemption at all.
Dual nationals in nearly every other country across the world will in fact enjoy the same continued access to the US, according to a new statement from the US embassy to Fairfax Media.”
Honestly Australia could be better served in the PM department by a Melon on a Broomstick!
http://tinyurl.com/hyl7bux
Well, …… at least our Prime Minister understands we are all bipedal creatures. And 40+ non-stop minutes at the lectern without a glance at an autocue or a reference to notes in sight.
Not bad.
Compare and contrast with the pretender.
But what did he say Carl? Did he come up with any plans?
What’s more, was it a cunning plan?
Withe the Government debt approaching $500 billion, the whole of Canberra is sleep walking into an economic mess similiar to Japan but only worse – they are a large creditor nation and can get away with it for awhile yet . As a debtor nation, we cannot.
The whole bunch need to be removed – both Labor and the Libs.
–
and replaced with?……can we have Theresa? Bloody sight more acceptable than Pauline
More facts robin and razor are unwilling and unable to digest. It is a magic show for you oldies all these new whizz bang things.
Today NBN said it was misleading to say Gigabit LTE was ten times faster than speed obtainable over NBN fibre. For starters NBN fibre connections could deliver Gigabit speeds themselves.
“Mobile networks would need a massive redesign to handle the current data consumption we are seeing on the NBN network — keeping in mind mobile networks were built for different purposes,” the spokesperson said.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/technology/nbn-refutes-telstra-gigabit-lte-network-speed-comparisons/news-story/676bb323984917c8a4a72ee28ed5ac08
Wow that’s amazing Dismayed. Is this the same NBN you reconed was fxxxed up?
Yaawwnn. You selective reading ability stops you from comprehending the written word. The Mixed technologies the coalition has implemented will need over building within the decade at huge expense. The original FTTP would have been the foundation infrastructure for Australia for the next 60 years. You know, just like the inland telegraph was when you were younger.
Well if you read that link carefully dismal you will see that they say fibre may sometime in the distant future be capable of 1gbit speed.
“NBN fibre connections could deliver Gigabit speeds themselves. But it hadn’t been implemented.”
Why not?
By that time mobile cell devices will be delivering the same speeds. But mobile devices will be paid for by the telcos while The white elephant NBN will be paid for by the taxpayer
But you don’t like NBN corp. Didn’t the Coalition destroy it? How is 5g going to happen without those satellites you declared were needed. You got caught wanker!
Like I said it is like a magic show for you oldies. Gat your grandkids to explain this to you.
https://www.esoa.net/cms-data/positions/5G%20infographic%20final.pdf
Turnbull and hillsong Morrison the treasurer for real estate are misleading the Australian people still. Even NewsCorps old Gotti is having a crack.
https://theconversation.com/what-economists-and-tax-experts-think-of-the-company-tax-cut-72198
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/opinion/robert-gottliebsen/corporate-tax-cut-plan-needs-to-factor-in-franking-credits/news-story/299e7bcf09ccacada84084f11e8528b7
Finally some sanity. We need more MMT.
https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-modern-monetary-theory-72095
Noted!
Get someone to explain it to you Milton. You have no chance of comprehending it your ideology depends on you not understanding progress.
Just listened to Turnbull’s press club address. No solutions…just an hour blaming Labor as if we were in an election campaign. Could somebody remind Malcolm that Labor is NOT the government. No mention of the massive debt incurred by his lot, the 750,000 unemployed the massive dive in business investment and the deaths in the Manus death camps.
Malcolm caned Labor for its renewable policy saying electricity prices would surge. The fact is they have surged under the Liberals more than Labor! This is in conflict with the government’s own appointed Chief Scientist as well as their own hand picked panel. It is a fact that the review panel on renewable energy that Tony Abbott put in place headed by Liberal hard right man Dick Warbuton, a confirmed climate change denier, found that the renewable energy target actually put downward pressure on wholesale power prices. Dick Warbuton concluded that to remove the renewable energy target would see wholesale prices for electricity go up.
And even the Donald may have double crossed him on asylum seekers.
I’d say there is a very strong chance of checkmate on the detainee deal. They’ll just be deemed unacceptable after going through the extremely stringent tests. In that way they will be seen to have honoured the agreement without conceding anything.
Bullshit! The average price has surged in the states that have gone to renewables. Do you want the link?
Give it up razor . Your continued deceit just proves it all about ideology for you rather than the best outcome for people and the Nation.
The Federal Government has spent $590 million on clean coal but not one power plant built? ” key energy companies AGL and Origin have since stated that they will not build, finance or acquire new conventional coal-fired power stations in Australia.” Without subsidisation it wont happen. So surely you will say it must not happen if it does not pay its own way? That is your position razor from your ranting’s, is it not????
What Trump and his loony followers dont seem to realise (amongst many other things – they are not big on theory of mind) is that he has probably single handedly managed to cause the biggest voting turn out in US history – in 2019. So in 2 years this should all get a lot more fun. Trump is definitely a one termer – if he lasts that long. An american friend of mine in the US says that americans voted for trump because they just wanted something to change. One suspects the change was not quite what they were expecting.
In the meantime, flush with wasting trilions of dollars and thousands of lives in the middle east and going backwards economically (and in most other measures) the US will emerge even further behind China than it was. China may be a much weaker power and poorer than the US but with 1.6 billion people its only a matter of time until that changes. And the chaos in the USA is not doing much to convince the CCP that democracy would be a good idea.
Darren the next US elections will be in 2020, but I’m sure you are totally across that.
I am no fan of Trump, but so far he’s actually done what he said he’d do. Unusual. As for your research survey of one, I’ve heard from three mates who think the opposite. None of which would qualify as a representative sample.
One thing for sure, Hollywood and the progressive activists are really pissed off. So why didn’t they get out of bed?
Lou O tod, no, you seem to not understand the US system. The next US federal elections will be the midterm elections in 2018. Thats when one third of the senate and all of the congress are up for election (where do you think Australia got that practice from?).
The date set for those elections is 6 November 2018. To quote your words back at you, Im sure youre across that…
At the midterms in 2018 the democrats will probably take back the senate. They only need 3 seats. 8 republican senators and 2 independents are up for election. Traditionally democrat voters dont turn out for midterms but Im certain they will in record numbers in 2018. If Trump destroys their healthcare system and hasnt delivered on jobs (and he wont), or if he has caused any major international upsets, then Id suggest those 10 seats are in severe danger from the democrats.
Congress is gerrymandered to hell and a lot of the republicans there are sitting in seats where they only scored 30% of the vote (which is how the tea party managed to oust many of the moderates – if only the base vote counts and the base is rabid then you need to be rabid to win). The Democrats have recently had some big court wins ordering the fixing of boundaries in some states and those wins will no doubt be used as the springboard for overturning many other state’s gerrymandered boundaries. That will take some time but its a process well under way. A number of the “red” states” can be expected to turn blue once the voting system is fair.
ahh, won’t that election be in 2018 or 2020?
and how come you have a chairman, i thought you were a fearless independent warrior at the bar?
as for the NBN, it has never seemed much like a proper business plan to me.
yes, it will deliver great speeds, but how many are going to want to pay for that, and there is huge incentive to improve wireless service as there is so much of the developing world which will likely never have fixed line and won’t want it.
that will drive innovation.
fixed line phones are nearly gone here, i don’t know any individual or family who have one.
I have fibre to my lounge NBN, jack. Very nice and all – but to have it I had to have a landline. Which I never use – ever. So I have a plan that excludes landline calls. Can receive them free – but to make one would be expensive.
Must say I would rather have wireless as one can move around with it. Which I did when I was sailing. I am tied to my home to use my NBN.
But wireless bandwidths get overloaded and slow up. I thought? Unless 5G is something magical or new technology I don’t see why it would be different. I haven’t been reading the technical jargon that is causing heated debate here!
Yes wireless bogs down with more connected to it. Several satellites were canned for the 5G set up. FTTP would have been a huge boost for regional and rural areas.
What satellites?
Wake up Robin
https://www.esoa.net/cms-data/positions/5G%20infographic%20final.pdf
darren – says:” An american friend of mine in the US says that americans voted for trump because they just wanted something to change. One suspects the change was not quite what they were expecting.”
darren, if your American friend is surprised re the policies Trump is now enacting, he obviously was not listening to Trump’s campaign promises. But if its you who is surprised, then you obviously badly misjudged Trump’s intent.
Your surprise is a surprise in itself.
Carl, you misread my comment. My american friend voted for Clinton.
The changes I was referring to are the repeal of the ACA. There are many reports coming out – from the USA – about people who voted for Trump who are now worried about that. While Trump’s base may be very happy it should be a remembered that a lot of people who are not Trump’s base voted for him. Also, my friend tells me that – much like the election of Abbott – a lot of people voted for Trump just because he is not Hillary. As Abbott found out the hard way that type of support is, in reality, no support at all. Right now Trump. like Abbott before him, thinks he won because he is a genius. In reality he won because he wasnt Hillary Clinton. A monkey in a wetsuit could have beaten Trump – but Clinton couldnt. Im happy that Trump – like Abbott – doesnt understand that. And Trump not understanding it is all that matters because I guarantee he is the one making all the decisions no matter what some people might be saying.
Wanna bet? The more they bleat the more those that voted will think they did the right thing. Do you think that it was just the dems that decdied not to vote? What about Trump supporters who thought he could never win so did the same. You’re a smart man don’t get caught up in the hype.
Im not saying that the dems didnt vote in larger numbers than the republicans didnt vote. Im just saying that Trump will energise the left (including the non-democrats and previously unregistered) to come out and vote in 2018. Trump won the electoral college by 80,000 votes. He wont better that if he runs again (when he will be 74).
Incidentally, before Abbott won the election that made him PM a lot of people, me included, pointed out that he was doomed to destroy himself because his policies were contradictory, all over the place, and could not work. What has been missing in the week or so since Trump was sworn in is that Trump’s policies suffer from the same problem. And – heres the kicker – in the end the people who are not Trump’s base will judge Trump and the republicans on those polices. They wont judge them on the wall and the muslim hating and all that stuff.
Which means that whats going on right now is all a distraction. The only event that has happened so far that has any real importance is Trump trying to push the fast repeal of the Affordable Care Act – without a replacement policy. If that happens the republicans and Trump are, politically, dead men walking. But the real kicker to that is that the ACA is a right wing policy. It represents the ONLY health care funding system that was politically possible when it was introduced. Repeal it and there is just no other “right wing” policy available to replace it – because it IS the right wing’s policy. Thats the Abbott-like conundrum that Trump created for himself. Politically Trump is already road kill. Its just a question of how long it takes voters to figure that out. And thats the real political news out of the USA over the last week.
Trump is playing hardball. He ups the ante, now he wants two more bases, we have to annoy the crap out of the PRC in the South China Sea, buy 25 more JSF and a permit for a Trump Tower and Casino in Sydney. (That last part is strictly off the record)
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-01/white-house-backtracks-on-australia-refugee-deal/8228336
He may be overplaying his hand, but then again he might have someone by the pussy.
JB – surely you realise that ww3 would be a great plus for the environment, Jean. Knock off a couple of billion people (terrible for the planet) and let the planet get back on top again. Beyond that, think of the jobs and the opportunity to develop eco-friendly urban centres in all that rubble. Trump’s a big picture man, Jean. We haven’t seen that type of visionary for a while. At least not since Hitler.
Um……… I was merely passing on the details of what Trump wanted in return for taking our refugees. The information comes direct from my impeccable embedded source in the Trump administration.
Mad Donald wants to be able boast “Okay I took the refugees , I got saddled with that but I sure as hell did us a hell of a deal since I had the Ossie president Bullhorn by the balls I squeezed ’em till his nose bled. Now people will start to get the message that I am a really smart guy.”
Of course Donald has no idea what he will do with two more bases, he just likes annoying the Chinese because he can and it makes him look tough, and he took a position in Lockheed Martin after he bagged them and will make a killing when Australia announces an extra purchase of the JSF.
But I do agree a proper WW3 would be great for the planet. But don’t get your hopes up. People tend not to start wars if there is a distinct possibility that they’ll cop an ICBM through their window.
Very good. And I did note and nod at your uh-oh. The stuff of legend!
I sense a “softening” towards POTUS Trump in this blog Mr Baptiste. Great appointment by his today for the Chief Justice role. Its all starting to fall nicely in to place. Of course our region the South Pacific will always be of keen interest to the USA, our great friend and staunch ally. Looking forward to a visit to Australia by POTUS Trump but don’t think while we have “Wally” Turnbull as PM it will be in the “near future”. Cheers.
That’s not a “blog” Henry, that’s a post or contribution to the “blog.” I apologise if I have inadvertently led you to believe I am softening towards that ridiculous sleazy joke of a president.
And he’s getting sleazier by the day JB.
How sleazy can he get!
“Fake News”, Mr Insider, a term we hear POTUS Trump using a lot these days to describe news stories he considers beat ups. Am sure the majority of Journalists are very thorough and competent but there must be a few who certainly dish up “fake news” and should be called out for it imho.
Razor – re B’MAN’S comments below, I was wondering whether he was taking the piss, not you. His last couple of posts on our Aboriginal fellow citizens have been so far out of the supposedly “progressive” box he normally inhabits I don’t know whether to read them as satire or not.
And come to think of it, the “darren” posting below seems to be either a different darren to the one to which we’re accustomed or he’s had a stroke.
He’s just been on holidays and has been associating with real people and not his “clients”
Tsk tsk, jackiesprattie. All people are real(except that little purple and green man you keep seeing hanging about inside your wardrobe). That’s a very bad case of bad attitude you have there.
Nope, its me TBLS.
I was going to make an off colour joke about stroking but then thought better of it.
Anyhow, Welcome back!