In years to come our children might ask, “What did you do in the Macklemore War, Dad?” My response will be, “Like a lot of people, I fought and died just a little bit inside.”
The noise around the same sex marriage voluntary postal survey has turned this country into a dismal, joyless place, where proponents and opponents quibble over meaningless symbolism like seagulls over a chip.
I confess I didn’t have the slightest idea who Macklemore was until earlier this week. I would be perfectly happy to bathe in that ignorance today. I might even have watched him perform in the NRL Grand Final pre-match, wondered out loud who he was before going to the fridge and grabbing another beer before the kick off.
By the time the match ended and the premiership trophy was held aloft by the victorious captain, Macklemore’s performance would have been a distant memory, rather like my knowledge of the 2004 coup d’etat in Equatorial Guinea in that it was a long time ago and didn’t really make a whole lot of difference to my life.
Full column here.
Very good article in Crikey from a member of the law profession on just how bad the decision by the high court to allow the expenditure and survey to go ahead sets a very bad precedent.
“The end result is twofold:
1.Within only the constraint of the size of its slush fund, the executive government can spend that money however it wants so long as the Finance Minister says it’s urgent (for which, read expedient), and Parliament has no way of placing a check or balance on the exercise.
2.The High Court has signalled a liberal attitude to how elastically it will allow the government to interpret the limitations on what it and its agencies can do. This promises to have untold consequences.”
With any the luck the cowboys will be looking for a little bit of this………….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rKEXFSw54M
Bman might like a bit of this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DwI-nWq2Cw
Macklemore should send Eric Abetz a dozen Red Roses, Mr Insider, for the fabulous publicity silly old Eric has generated for Macklemore. Eric was on ABC TV almost choking with indignation about Macklemore appearing at the NRL GF today and the TV audience must surely have quadrupled thanks to wallies like Eric imho. May the best team win as it sure did yesterday with Richmond. Wonderful to see all the kids in Melbourne yesterday dressed up in their chosen teams colours,, a day to remember for many.
http://www.richmondfc.com.au/
Bassy is right. Rap is crap, or as my mate Ajax the amateur philosopher reckoned, musical masturbation. Bring on the footy….
It’s hard to comprehend all this crap about a song at the footy.
They should have just put Jimmy Barnes or someone singing “up there cazaly” and be done with it.
The whole thing is so pathetically silly.
Thank God I missed it.
Pretty tired after about 32hrs getting back to Oz so far – just the Melb-Hobart leg to go.
@ reference to:
https://tinyurl.com/yd8nphvq
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OT apologies.
One would wonder how Malcolm Turbull’s mind is working these days. Is he past caring? Is he so far down the newspoll rabbit hole that he no longer needs to behave like a Prime Minister? Is it time, as they say, to eat the onion, because its all over?
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On the divisive language he uses, and his sneering jokes, one would think he can throw away the support of 1.7m Australians over his ego.
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Lets face it, rather than walk the world stage with leaders like Elon Musk and celebrate the success of South Australia , Malcolm pouts and spits venom. The future world is not for him, no thank you to the spot light shining there right now, bugger off to the investment from industry looking to the future!!
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South Australia had one, count it, one, black out incident after a major storm event, now, over a year ago, and this poor sap of an excuse of a Prime Minister is still trying to make mileage out of it. Distraction from the looming crisis in the eastern states, his failed bullying of AGL, his inability to keep one, count it one, coal show open, is his failure.
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He is so desperate to avoid people examining the Libs lack of power, when it comes to power, and the mess the eastern states are going to be in, he’s going the “look over there, at SA. OOhhh look over there.”
Sad thing is Mr Prime Minister, the whole world is looking over there, at South Australia, in a good way. Its all happening here.
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The only question is, what do you have going on over there? Anything worth looking at? Gonna hang out in the old hydro tunnel again (safe place)? Australians waiting for a coherent energy policy still wait.
But Wraith that just the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg.
Net debt: This came in at $322.3 billion, an increase over the year of $18.8 billion. That’s a blow-out since the 2013 election of $161.1 billion, almost exactly double. But whereas Labor’s debt was accumulated in five years and nine months of the most devastating global recession in 80 years, the Coalition stacked on its debt in just three years and 10 months — much of which has been a global trade and profits boom.
Assistance to business: support for the mining, manufacturing and construction sectors was up 4.8%, for the grains industry up 6.9%, for fishing up 8.6%, for the wool industry up 17.2%, and for “natural resources development” up 36.3%.
Assistance to families with children: Using similar arithmetic, to continue last year’s support, an increase from $38.3 billion to $39.7 billion was required. This allocation was cut dramatically to $36.0, a real decline of 9.6%.
Assistance to others in need: Allocations to the unemployed and the sick increased by less than 0.13%, a real decrease of 3.4%. That’s if we assume the percentage of people unemployed was constant. In fact, we know total hours worked per person declined over the year. So this outcome is worse than a 3.4% rip-off.
Student assistance plummeted from $4.05 billion to below $3.10 billion, a real decline of 27.0%.
The line item “other welfare programs” also collapsed 14.2% in real terms from $1.5 billion to $1.3 billion.
Other allocations down in both dollars and percentages include assistance for indigenous Australians and for veterans and their dependents. So a fair whack of the so-called “savings” on the spending side was clearly snatched from those least able to afford income cuts.
Never forget the UNFUNDED $65billion to The Big End of Town…not needed as their profits are booming!
Bman, funny you should mention that. Profits from business between 1996 and 2013 were about 28% of all tax revenue at last count under ths coalition company profits provide 23% of all tax revenue even though as you say over 75% of company profits have met or exceeded expectations each year.
I heard Chris Bowen on tax gthed ogther day…yes company tax is 30% BUT and it is a BIG BUT…only 17% of companies pay it!!
Bman, I was talking about the drop in the % of revenue from Company tax. Was 28%-29% from 1996 through to 2013. It has dropped to 23% of tax receipts under this coalition and they want to pay even less. There is NO justification for the Company tax cuts. NONE.
thePOS runs a15KW solar array at home…jerk
Sweetie, take a deep breath. The world really is a beautiful place.
Did you sneak in a wedding? Well good for you, congratulations and best of luck!
Thanks Wraith. It wasn’t really spur of the moment, but the timing made it seem so.
Agree Dwight.
Coming back to Australian politics is a bit hard to handle.
Beers cold, homemade sausages are in the smoker. Homemade sauerkraut ready to go. The tribe about to arrive at Chez Razor……….now for the Cowboys to win to top the day off!
Have a good one. Quieter here. Had the troops in yesterday.
I like the sound of that Razor. Don’t be surprised if Dwight sniffs it out!
On the game, I was listening to the radio and they asked Gordon Tallis for his thoughts on how it would pan out. After a few of the usual clichés he said “… it would come down to who wants it the most, and they both want it the same” !!!
We may be back doing the same next week….
We all turn the sound off when Phil Gould starts his biased commentary. It’s always the same tiresome dross. 🏈
Two hurt in Sydney CBD ‘Comic-Con brawl’
Lemme guess, someone was debating which Star Trek captain was the best, or how to conjugate Klingon.
Star Wars donnybrook, my tip.
Who took a shot first?
I’ll guess a wookie who turned up at the wrong party. They’re bastards when they’re on the piss.
I was reminded the other that the Greeks invented sex and then the Italians introduced woman to it.
Gillard, of course, claimed she wasn’t a fan of the whole idea of marriage in the first place, but I suspect that’s a cover for her own cowardice.
In answer to Dwight, the disingenuousness of the whole conception of the plebiscite or survey is why I rank it so highly/lowly on the list of bad public policies; in that it’s not just well-meaning but badly designed policy like very many, or policy failure, but something quite deliberate in its mendacity in a loud and small minority taking a good idea like direct democracy and using it to throw a spanner in the works of something that seemingly a supermajority of the population seem to be in favour of to some degree.
Then there’s the diabolical mess of a postal survey (partly because Bill Shorten couldn’t help himself in trying to inflict political pain on what’s left of the Prime Minister), considering how open they are to every kind of political jiggery-pokery known to man, woman, etc., and beast, and the now predictably toxic and absurd debate accompanying it.
Dwight, I assume I’m right in picking up that you’ve got hitched in Bali? If so, hearty congratulations to you and the missus.
Rhys, yes indeed. Thanks for your good wishes! Surprised the hell out of the family.
Congratulations Dwight.
Thanks mate! She’s out of my league but loves me anyway.
It’s kind of a battle of minorities Rhys. The 30 or so % that object to SSM versus the 5 or so % who want it.
Denigrating either side, as is happening now, is not helpful.
Indeed Rhys. Shorten with all his political games seems to forget that he is responsible for this shambles.
A referendum would at least have been quick and decisive.
Sigh!
Blaming Bill Shorten now? I think we’ll find that MT should have shown some balls and I lay this squarely at his feet. I think he thought that he would pick up some votes somehow by showing what an all round good guy he is by voting YES.
It hasn’t worked, he’s still just as unpopular as ever and this will cause untold angst and division among Australians for quite sometime. Having said that I have yet to meet anyone who has admitted to voting NO. Probably just the people we mix with.
Razor, hope your day was good yesterday, despite the loss. I was sort of barracking for Nth Queensland because we have had such a good time there this year, but once a Melbourne girl, always a Melbourne girl……..I do use the term “girl” very loosely mind you.
Had a great night regardless of the result Penny. Two of my three sons and their ladies over. Plenty of laughs alround. I just love having family around and cooking. Going to a restaurant is all well and good but the atmosphere around a family dinner table with good home cooked food and a glass of wine or 2 is unbeatable in my view.
Glad you enjoyed Nth Qld I’ve moved back to Brisbane with work and miss the North very much.
Not ”blaming” Bill. Just stating the obvious. God politics here are pathetic, truly. He used a political ploy to try and score points on MT by refusing to pass the plebiscite, – – which would certainly have been the better option of the two options that were on the table. (Plebiscite or survey) Yes, yes, we all know the parliamentary vote wasn’t going to happen. I suspect if MT had suggested that right at the start, Shorten would have worked that in whatever way to disadvantage the government – even may have rejected it.
It’s all about trying to put the other at a disadvantage – instead of governing in the best interests of the country – on all issues, not just this SSM thing.
Sigh indeed,Bassy.
They are all pathetic, the whole lot of them.
Footy more than a little disappointing.
*sniff*
Not for me, Perentie!
Dare I say it Jack, but on studying your tipping form over the season, when you tipped Adelaide I decided that the Tiges (my team) were definitely in with a chance. So I tipped them! 😀
You could have done very well tipping the opposite of my tips all year. Very happy to see the Tigers win all the same.
In the butcher’s shop on Saturday morning and mentioned that there would be a lot of disappointed Crow eaters in the evening.
Nope! The world on the street is that it will be Adelaide to win. Not the way Richmond played last week says I.
I got this funny look.
I might add that it is probably the first time in history that I have made a prediction and got it right.
How much was a leg of lamb?
Well done on winning the comp, Boa and your team winning.
Thanks Gryzly for running the show.
Sadly the lights went out for Adelaide in the second half. Richmond too good on the day.
Thanks to Gryzly. Always good fun. Well done Boa and the placegetters.
Congrats Boa, a great win for your team and some mighty fine form yourself in the finals especially. Well done Simon for jumping me at the last hurdle. And thanks to Gryzly for running the show, it is the first comp I have been in since retiring from corporate life.
We are at a place called Merzouga, which is on the edg of the Sahara in Morocco just 50 kms from the Algerian border, now closed because the two countries are in a serious territorial conflict. I’m going into the desert today to contemplate my tipping failure, so you will understand if the blogs stop!!!