Humble servant of the Nation

In Australia, The New York Times of our lives

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I have been perusing the pages of The New York Times so you don’t have to.

With great sound and fury, the NYT recently opened up an office in this Wide Brown Land and the results have been odd, to say the least.

It’s hard to know who the Australian articles are written for. Are they for Americans to glean a greater understanding of a land so far away they couldn’t care less about it, or are they written for the meagre number of Australian subscribers who signed up during the US presidential election, only to forget to unsubscribe after all the votes were counted?

Either way, the Times fails miserably.

Full column here.

270 Comments

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    They came in like a Wrecking Ball , in our guts we knew they were “nuts”. Thanks for coming Tony, shut the door on Your way out buddy!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd35-zAMMpc

  • BASSMAN says:

    Well the 1st of The Great Big Scares has started in today’s Daily Telegraph and it looks like it scribes are deeply worried more about being taken off the drip than the good of the nation. I guess there will be one a week until the next election. There are so many unsubstantiated shocks one could just about call it a terror attack and no doubt The Daily Terror will engage Tony and his phalanx of flags to endorse this rubbish. Of the many acts of terror described there is no proof. There is also no proof that $65billion worth of tax cuts will result in more jobsongrowth. Now if this money was given to lower and middle incomes workers in the form of tax cuts there definitely would be more jobs because these people spend most of their disposable income on goods and services. This would be an immediate stimulus to the economy.

    At least this time the Telegraph has not dressed up Shorten and Co in Gestapo uniforms as they did in previous times-clearly the lowest of the lowest that was and in no way could it be called ‘journalism’. No mention of course of the debt wreckage, unemployment, the denial of global warming, the billions we are spending to keep 1400 people on an island, the doubling of electricity prices, the billions the Liberals want to spend on coal fired power that not one bank or venture capitalist will put a cent towards and the $196billion to be spent on war toys that will be obsolete when we get them.

    Comparisons are often made with the last Labor government. There is no comparison. By every economic and social indicator available this is the worst government in the last 30years. Imagine if this mob of clowns had to guide us through the GFC. The state of the economy is much worse now than during the GFC and there IS now GFC!. When I was in the teaching game many years ago a remedial teacher once said he used the Daily Telegraph as a teaching aid. When I asked why he said because one only needed a reading age of 12 to scat through it.

    • JackSprat says:

      Bassy, this is a perfect example of what many people fear if Labor gets into power.
      “the billions we are spending to keep 1400 people on an island” – we close down Manus and the smugglers use it to indicate a weakening of border protection resolve and activity increases.
      Close down Nauru and it’s going to cost a damn side more than than the cost of keeping it open.
      Labor only pays lip service to border protection as it hates the methods that are being used.
      The Greens, like SHY, are for open borders
      And when Labor goes to bed with the Greens, one of the prices it will have to pay is to close down Nauru and the whole country will be put through the last days of the Gilliard Government again.
      The current mob might be incompetent but when compared with the last Labor Government, they come out smelling roses.
      I wonder if people have had enough time to forget that debacle by the time the next election comes around?

      • BASSMAN says:

        YOU SAY:- “we close down Manus and the smugglers use it to indicate a weakening of border protection resolve and activity increases”

        ABSOLUTE CRAP….there is not one scrap of available evidence that caging children stops boats. In fact they are still coming. A boat was turned back a few days ago. And this is what is stopping boats mate THE TURNBACKS-nothing else. It is costing $500,000 PER REFUGEE for this nonsense to continue. Bring them to Australia and continue the turnbacks. Spend the money on Australians! Its not rocket science and would save us billions. You know what it is…admit it-POLITICS.
        20 boats carrying 633 refugees have been turned back over the last couple of years and another 46 refugees by boat were held secretly by the navy for over a month…this is ongoing, less of it yes but we are not told the full story. We are never told the full story about anything from this lot. This is all we can glean from leaks from the most secretive government since Federation.

      • BASSMAN says:

        …and I am not alone ….

        https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/jul/05/newsagents-urged-to-refuse-to-sell-daily-telegraph-over-fictional-attack-on-labor?CMP=soc_568

        All I am after is some balance in journalism not alarm panic and distortion.

  • JackSprat says:

    JTI
    The minority I talk about are those who have single specific agendas and refuse to take a broad outlook that takes into account all facets of life in this country.
    Many are in parliament and councils, many are in the media, while others speak loudly from the side lines. All probably think that they are immune to the consequences of the economic madness that pervades this country at the moment.
    The current fiasco with electricity prices should never have happened. Every party can take the blame.
    These costs will filter through to everything and soon jobs will start to disappear as imports replace the locally made stuff or firms relocate overseas.
    In NSW, the electricity cost increases cannot be blamed on distribution costs as part of the sale of the poles there is a clause that limits increases to the CPI.
    The real villain is the way supply has been organised between renewables and other sources. The latter only being called upon when the renewables stop supply.
    NSW is even murkier because there have not been a lot of power station closures as in SA and VIC. The price increase can only be due to the use of renewables.
    As an aside, as I dropped off a car for repair because some idiot in Surrey Hills decided to kick the doors in, I wondered how much power the drying booths in panel beating shops use and how the increase in electricity prices will reflect in car insurance prices.
    The Reserve Bank wants inflation – they are going to get it in spades.

    • Dismayed says:

      JS Delusional stuff. Your rant is the opposite of just about every piece of research, data, modelling etc etc done to date. Your echo chamber is the minority.

      • JackSprat says:

        Shucks! I guess you cannot reconcile the restricted increase in distribution costs and the huge increase in electricity prices.
        Never mind. You have never let facts get in the way before so my expectations are very low in this instance

    • Wissendorf says:

      Hi JS. Short answer on spray booths – nil. Unless you’re driving something rather old the paintwork will be acrylic, which dries quickly to a good finish and requires no baking. Something older requiring enamel will still require no booth as modern chemical hardeners do the curing. Sikkens paints and hardener produce a baked result in about 2 hours air dried. There are too many plastic and rubber bits in cars now and these distort or melt under heat. Old fart shops like mine, that do old fart paint jobs on old fart cars still use the booth, but usually only for about 15 minutes (@10,000 watts /140 deg). Longer heating results in a harder cure but the real reason to bake anything is to avoid dust and insects sticking on the job while it’s wet. Enamel will air dry to a good cure in about 16 hours. If humidity is over 60% on the day they paint your car (acrylic only) you’ll probably get a ‘rash’ on the paint work after a while that looks like the paint is blistering and peeling. Paint on ‘dry’ days only.

      • JackSprat says:

        Picked a poor example there.
        What I was trying to illustrate is that the prices will ripple through the whole economy.

  • Dismayed says:

    The AEMO and the coalition continue to do all they can to increase electricity Price rises. Insisting Gas generators must be run even when not needed. this again prove the AEMO because of coalition government intervention and NEM are broken if ever a royal Commission was needed it is on the regressive Energy policies of the coalition and their continued Lies to the people of Australia.
    http://reneweconomy.com.au/new-back-up-rule-means-end-of-cheap-wind-power-in-south-australia-60119/

  • Jean Baptiste says:

    The whinging about , even the perception of “high” electricity prices is a mystery to me. Total cost for a day per household is about the same as a cup of coffee and a biscuit, and not a real flash coffee or biscuit at that. As a life enhancing product it is cheap as chips here.
    https://www.energycouncil.com.au/analysis/worldwide-electricity-prices-how-does-australia-compare/

    If it makes anyone feel less hard done by, the poorest 5% of us are better off than 95% of people in developing nations.

    • Henry Blofeld says:

      Wise words there Mr Baptiste, and once again of late I find myself in general agreeance with your comments. Budgeting is certainly the key imho to being able to meet ones financial commitments. Of course many have very small incomes but that makes it even more important to budget. Cheers.

    • JackSprat says:

      BS JB.
      That is a really weak argument.
      I think Dwight called it “over there”.
      Using that logic we could cut out Medicare, old age pensions and pretty well all the $200 billion (or whatever) we spend on welfare.
      We could cut out ICAC.
      We could cut out the smooth transition of power.
      We could probably cut out this blog.

      • Jean Baptiste says:

        What a ridiculous response. Try all the non sequiturs and red herrings you want, the reality is relative to income our electricity is cheap. And we are mainly a nation of whinging ungrateful for our luck high maintenance brats with an undeserved sense of entitlement.
        People would be a lot happier if they weren’t too stupid to look “over there” and appreciate how well off they are.

    • Mack the Knife says:

      $11.07 per day on my last bill. Le Giant coffee and a (xl) macadamia cookie.

      • Jean Baptiste says:

        Boo Hoo Hoo. Use less of it, for the good of the planet, and to save yourself money.

      • Dismayed says:

        You should probably turn a few things off at the wall. Do you have 15 people in your home? Even is SA with teenagers and tech and TV’s running all out not even half of that per day. Get yourself Solar and batteries.

    • BASSMAN says:

      It is more than the cost it is:-
      The way we have been lied to about the rise in electricity prices
      The way electricity has been used and lied about to win elections
      The fact there is no national policy on energy-just the blame game

  • voltaire says:

    JTI,

    Is it just me or has everyone else noticed that regardless of party, when the economics hit hard times, everyone looks for a social or foreign affairs distraction?

    Sure, for at least a thousand years it was standard practice to go and have a war ( sorry “foreign adventure” during colonial times) if times were tough, but now instead of indulging in navel gazing when times are good, everyone pretends that the economic problems aren’t there. Just witness that which fills our papers with “news” SSM (not about rights but about definitiions fo maybe 46,000 couples per alleged census figures), provincial (and even local councils) determining foreign policy in the Middle East for sovereign states – and others not states (!!), determination to throw money which we do not have at motherhood issues ( eg literally motherhood, PPL, education without actually focusing on outcomes but signalling virtue) and of course “saving the planet”(whether it be by relevance to AGW, another democratically elected leader of a different hue so long as we can revile tehm as being from a more powerful nation etc) or worrying about our flag/head of state?

    What ever happened to solving our own real problems first – or indeed at all?

    No, we should all go whale watching (fine of itself) but at the expense of the (few) taxpayers? Obviously no criticism is allowed – and certainly not if the critic might just happen to be one of those aforesaid white, male, old taxpayers…. so it is not merely a distraction but an entitlement that now pertains to politicians despite straitened economic climes.

    Australia, you’re standing in it – and the stench is awful

    cheers indeed

    • Tracy says:

      The said whale watcher has refused to say when she booked her daughters ticket, it was mentioned on SKY this afternoon that a FOI request to the dept of finance may be more forthcoming on deatails.
      Hope they enjoyed the oysters

      • Razor says:

        That’s what’ll bring her undone Tracy. Nothing will happen to her though. When you’re a nothing you have nothing to lose.

        • The Outsider says:

          I’m off to Ottawa for six weeks at the end of the month.

          It’ll be interesting to see how Justin Trudeau’s faring over there.

          I’d be amazed if the mood isn’t a lot brighter there now, than when I lived there in 2007, just after Stephen Harper was installed.

    • Bella says:

      “The general population doesn’t know what’s happening and it doesn’t know that it doesn’t know.” Noam Chomsky

      • Milton says:

        Old Noam was lucky he wasn’t born in China or the old USSR, Bella or we wouldn’t know what he knew we didn’t know and he wouldn’t know what hit him.

      • Jean Baptiste says:

        Aint that the truth! Theres a wonderful little you tube clip “Noam Chomsky , The Five Filters …………. ” or something like that with great graphics , that’s worth a squiz.
        Give ’em heaps.

  • Dwight says:

    A little patriotic music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvPgYLhOq24
    The shirt I’m wearing today is only slightly less loud than Greenwood’s jacket. *laugh*
    Nice and warm and mostly sunny in FNQ. I should call it an early day and head to the beach.

  • Henry Blofeld says:

    The “Whirling Dervish”, ex ousted Mr 30 Consecutive Negative Newspolls, Tony Abbott, continues his feverish effort to destroy the Liberal Party, Mr Insider, and take down the hapless wally of a PM we have now, Malcolm Turnbull. You are doing a fine job Tony, Rudd Marks 1,2 and 3 big buddy!
    http://tinyurl.com/todea33

  • Bella says:

    http://www.9news.com.au/world/2017/07/03/02/54/trump-tweets-video-of-him-beating-cnn
    Oh FGS this is perhaps the lowest point in POTUS history.
    The mental state of this sad man-baby must now be recognised as precariously unsafe at best.

    • Trivalve says:

      Don’t know much about US presidents pre-Wilson, but you’re probably right Bella. We’ve hit the nadir. The only question is, how much lower can he take it?

    • Razor says:

      So how do you suggest it gets resolved Bella? America is a democracy last I looked.

    • Jean Baptiste says:

      A lot of Trumps frustration is having his wings clipped. He thought he was going to be hell on wheels and now he has discovered he doesn’t get to make the big decisions unless he is told to.
      He’s a harmless nong on a short lead. Apart from harming the image of the nation of course.

      Give ’em heaps.

    • Henry Blofeld says:

      A wonderful piece of “theatre” from POTUS Trump who sure knows how to steal the Media spotlight dear Bella. Simply a 10yo clip with a dub in of “CNN’ yet “many” gullibles professed outrage whilst I think secretly admiring his pluck! Cant wait till he comes here in November to see how the Greens disgrace themselves in his presence as they did when POTUS Bush came here. Strewth.

      • Bella says:

        “I think secretly admiring his pluck!”
        Only you do that Henry.
        I cringe in deep shame that I am of the same species as that orange cretin.
        Trump spews something vile on twitter from his startlingly limited vocabulary & you’re bursting with praise.
        Very sad. 🐑

        “It is hard to give unlimited power to limited minds.”
        Nikola Tesla

    • Boadicea says:

      Agree totes, Bella. It’s getting scary

      • Bella says:

        I wonder if Trump has any idea of the psychotic picture he presents to the world?
        He’s obviously ‘broken’ in some way Boadicea so I’m with you, it’s getting scary.
        Bella 🐬

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