You may be wondering, like I am, who is running the country.
It certainly isn’t the prime minister.
One could pose a forlorn argument that it is the executive, the cabinet calling the shots but that, too, doesn’t pass scrutiny. On Tuesday, Scott Morrison and Malcolm Turnbull were strident in opposition of a Royal Commission into the banks. It would not happen they said. Not on their watch. The commitments lasted less than 48 hours.
Tuesday’s titans have once again become Friday’s flotsam.
So who is running the country?
Sam Dastyari thinks the Chinese might be in charge, if not today then at some point in the not too distant future. Wealthy Chinese businessmen with strong links to the Chinese government imagine Australians as their drinks waiters and golf caddies of the future so with a gleam in his eye, Shanghai Sam has got out of the blocks early.
“The Chinese integrity of its borders is a matter for China. Seven iron, Mr Huang?”
Full column here.
dumb n dumber…..
*Labor’s Tony Burke uses a prop to question Malcom Turnbull about cropping himself out of a photo his media team distributed yesterday showing Bill Shorten with controversial Chinese donor Huang Xiangmo
Burke showed the full photo which also had both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader with Mr Huang.*
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/politicsnow-ssm-debate-citizenship-and-milo-addresses-parliament/news-story/60cfca95b5f416ff0cae16762d8a9e05
I think the poster just shows that Huang is involved with both sides of politics, which in itself is not really very interesting to the voters in Bennelong. John Alexander is a lazy politician from what I have read, even though he might be a nice guy. Kristina won’t get in, but I think that’s only because the voters don’t care much about anything other than making a living and if it ain’t broke don’t fix it. It’s just boring stuff. No-one on this blog (except JS) seems to think there is anything wrong with Andrew Robb earning $880,000 a year without needing to do anything really except make sure the Chinese viewpoints are made known to the Government. But everybody else wants to see both sides go down over this stupid dual citizenship fiasco.
On a brighter note JTI, the findings of the Royal Commission today regarding Dennis Ryan makes all the hard work extremely worthwhile. Congratulations to you both, bring on the compensation.
Indeed. It came as a bit of a surprise but a good one. Formal vindication of my mate and co-author, Denis Ryan. And it only took 45 years.
and the cropped poster shows ?? It came from PMO grubby and tawdry PR
PR is not their strong suit I’m thinking Smoke. As they say “stupid is as stupid does”
Good work, indeed!
“No-one on this blog (except JS)”
I was the 1st to raise Robb dear
Looks like David Feeney still isn’t particularly good with paperwork. Being the member for the seat of Syphilitic Mass-Murderer and not the seat of Caped Crusader, I mean Batman, he really needs an Alfred in his office to do the paperwork for him. The Greens might be rolling in their organic fair trade beanbags, laughing their heads off – https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/12/05/three-labor-mps-caught-dual-citizenship-saga-register-made-public.
The situation in Yemen looks far more serious, even not considering the famines and epidemics caused by the Western-backed Saudi blockade: the former President, Ali Abdullah Saleh has been killed by his former Houthi allies overnight for defecting (again) somewhat to the Saudi side (probably in attempt to regain power) – https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/05/ali-abdullah-saleh-killing-changes-dynamics-yemen-civil-war.
Someone needs a strong word or 27 in the ears of the philistine morons doing radio programming at the ABC – https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/dec/05/abc-radio-programs-pm-and-the-world-today-to-be-halved-in-length.
Sane guy who forgot he had a house worth a million bucks. He’s gone. A gift to the Greens.
A good line from Turnbull in QT today – the house Feeney misplaced probably had his misplaced citizenship paperwork in it.
One thing is for sure, anything Labor now says re the citizenship fiasco is not worh the paper its written on.
Oops ….. I just noticed that Turnbull must have been reading Dwight’s comments.
Brilliant post Needham! Loved the beanbag line especially!
A fascinating little article linked, Mr Insider, on Elon Musk’s TESLA big Battery that has now been installed and up and working in South Australia. Written in layman’s language and imho very informative.
https://tinyurl.com/yc62bfvq
good thing for RoCoF smoothing.. elegant
More of the pink ball and Trump, Jack, please. At least they distract from the toxic hullabaloo being passed off as Parliament.
Getting tedious isn’t it?
Haven’t we heard mention of Feeney before?
And there is Dreyfuss looking the camera straight in the eye declaring that Labor never claimed to have a perfect eligibility test – um, xuse me?
Maybe Feeney left the paperwork in another house he forgot he owns.
Worried that Smith and Boof might’ve shot the albatross last night in Adelaide
Surely the buck has to stop with Smith, being the captain. As I type we have a 305 lead with 7 wickets down and Marsh still in. I think we are still in the box seat with our bowlers.
JB – re your Dec 4 @ 11.23am. There was no need to call me an “old duffer”. I only asked if I would have at least 7 days to buy a new pair of gum boots and a sou’wester.
Which means you still don’t have a clue why it is we will succumb before inundation demands such accoutrements.
You silly old duffer.
https://www.thenation.com/article/global-warming-terrifying-new-chemistry/
Don’t buy green bananas.
Not to mention those holes in the ice up in the Arctic circle that are releasing heaps of methane JB.?
Permafrost
Oh just a little gas! What, me worry?
Probably a much bigger worry is that escaping from the ocean floors . Still theres a silver lining in every cloud. The hoons in the North are having great fun running about setting the lakes on fire!
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/30/siberian-craters-big-releases-of-methane-could-pose-broad-problems.html
Gee that’s an outdated link you put up JB. But even so, what’d you make of Bill’s advice that CO2 is no longer the big bogey man? I suppose there’s no need for reference to a carbon tax from now on, eh? And what’d you think of Obama’s mob dudding little old Bulgaria, What!?
Hey, you do read all this soporific stuff you have on offer me old mate, don’t you?
Re bananas, did you know that monkeys peel them the opposite way to us humans?
If you were capable of taking on any information at all you’d be aware there is no longer any point in attempting to limit the amount of C02 we pump into the atmosphere. Clearly we are at a point of having accumulated so much heat, the heat yield equivalent of 5 atomic bombs every second, the pollution in our atmosphere has ironically become a shield of sorts that might allow us to live a longer than we would if we stopped putting more in.
I understand the psychological efficacy of denial and the needs of those lacking the fibre to confront reality Carl, and I forgive them collectively for being so feeble and acquiescent in allowing things to come to this.
Breeding and conditioning contributed to the evolution of the greater part of humanity into unthinking sheep with such limited capacity for survival , the prerequisites of courage and curiosity.
Such was life.
By way of apology for proffering an “outdated link” I have sourced a document of what one hopes is suitably recent provenance. Well, it’s best I can do this morning.
https://guymcpherson.com/tag/arctic-methane-emergency-group/
I look forward to your next desperate grab bag of limp red herrings.
Bless your soul, you’re a gift that keeps giving.
A document of “suitably recent provenance” you say JB ….. what, an essay prepared over 5 years ago??
A paper that is peppered with contradictory dire predictions including our demise by “2020 at the latest”, and then an apparent rethink where the “processes” are likely to “cause our own extinction by 2030”, and then another rethink where we may be in trouble with a warmer planet by 2035 or, wait for it, …….. we may just be able to hang on until “mid century”.
Talk about having a bet each way!
Did you note the essay was permalinked to “Doonstead Diner” JB? If that’s what I think it means, I bet the folks chowing down on their french fries and sliders chuckled with mirth when and if they read it.
I do hope you haven’t crossed the rubicon me old mate.
Another grab bag of miscomprehended red herrings. Up to your old tricks of linking unrelated information and claiming contradictions. Denial must be a strange place to be eh old boy?
Do you actually have a position on AGW Carl, other than gainsaying anything you feel you cannot cope with? Which is probably just about anything.
Can you analyze a simple graph? Can you observe a simple trend on a graph?
Do you know what a graph is?
https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/global-temperature/
Wraith – re your Dec 4, 10.02pm, perhaps you may care to consider reviewing my Dec 3, 5.59pm post s l o w l y and think again.
You want to kick the chair from under him? Well, I was thinking traditional, more dropped from the back of a horse, but if you are in…
err … 10.02am.
England in a spot of bother with Cook and Root out.
There’s a gag in that line somewhere.
George Christensen is an undisciplined person with poor impulse control. That explains why he got so fat. He is also lazy, which is why he went to a foreign surgeon to fix his weight problem. If a man cannot govern himself he is certainly not fit to govern others.
His oafish attempt at media manipulation reveals him as a spoilt Eric Cartman-like character.
Bolt will be all upset he was made to look an idiot (yes I know) and Credlin too, she will keep maintaining the rage.
Endomorphs always seem to cop it, while ectomorphs get off lightly.
Well, I’m no lightweight and my appetites are reasonably well known amongst the regulars here. Difference is I don’t pretend to be suited to public office, George does.
Having said that, I do regularly pull my finger out, lose weight and get fit. Christensen’s excuse that the life of a pollie isn’t a healthy one ignores the many pollies who are pretty trim and exercise regularly. He’s just a lazy person and not nearly as bright as he thinks.
Seriously, I have noticed though, TBLS, that a fair few of our politicians who were trim taut and terrific when they entered politics tend to put on a lot of weight after a couple of years in the job. I will be nice and not name them!
I reckon it’s feeding off the public purse that does it – we need to reduce the fat in it – and the sugar.
No doubt the requirements of office see them at more than their fair share of catered events. (Although having been to a rather expensive one recently I have to say, while the food was lovely the quantities were not – had to hit the mini-bar for chips and chocolate after midnight to fill the hole).
People like Tony Abbott and Kevin Andrews – for all their faults – show that it’s possible to make time, even at the highest levels of government, to get out for a heart-starter. George (and Joe Hockey before him) had a chance there to show some leadership for those people who don’t have the money to run off and get lap-band surgery. It would have been the perfect opportunity to say to a country that has a serious weight problem, “Hey, I’ve got this problem , too and I’m going to do something about it – join me!” The perfect natural leadership chance.
But no, they did what conservatives are supposed to abhor – throw money at someone else to make the problem go away. Nice example.
Good old Howard was a fine example of the benefits of a daily brisk walk.
TBLS not long now to your yearly period of self denial. there are better ways.
No Dismayed, some people do it one way and TBLS does it his way. I’m not very good at self-discipline, too old maybe,but I love the way he can decide when it’s time to go into the next phase of being fit and healthy. I do Qiqong, Yoga and walk every day, but couldn’t do what he does and be as focused as he is. More power to you TBLS.
It is called yo-yo dieting. e have discussed this with TBLS several times. It is not the healthiest way to go. The old moderation of everything is the healthy more sustainable lifestyle.
Thanks, Penn!
Ooh yuk! Carl. I don’t mind a bit of eroticism but really!
And I always thought the bloke was just sweating.
He’s just outed himself as a devious big mouth with no guts…….so to speak..
Sadky an apt description of me BOW…Smith just out
If you were pretending to be fit for public office I might be rude enough to make the same comments about you B’Man, but you’re not so I won’t.
I remember a couple of years ago you showed great determination and lost a barrowload of weight…dat was well dun!
Thanks mate. The last five years I’ve done a first-quarter no-booze, low-carb diet combined with varying degrees of exercise. Typically lose 14-15kgs over 10-12 weeks. (The reason I usually stop at 10 rather than 12 is it becomes a matter of what comes first – a beer or I murder someone). This year went at the hill-walking like a mad thing and lost 17kgs in 10 weeks.
It’s not lost on me that since discovering I can do it I’ve become pretty intolerant of other people’s excuses – especially conservative politicians who are always on at us about being self-reliant, not looking for easy answers, doing the hard yards, etc.
TBLS So! At the culmination of the regime are you temporarily trim taut and terrific or just temporarily 15kg less porky than you were before?
TBLS So! At the culmination of the regime are you temporarily trim taut and terrific or just temporarily 15kg less porky than you were before?
Good on you TBLS! All it needs is will-power
17kg in 10weeks demonstrates tremendous willpower determination and self control.The most weight I ever lost woz on low carb but it gave me horrific constipation no matter how much physillium husk I ate….17kg…WOW!! The Gold Logi to BOW
B’Man, you’re very kind, mate.
Not sure what I can suggest for constipation related to a low carb diet. It’s not something I’ve run into. If you count anything below 20% carbs as low-carb that allows most fruit and veges. A plate of fruit, cheese and salami for breakfast, along with a cup or two of strong, black, unsweetened coffee should keep things nicely loose!
JB – I slowly put the weight back on during the year. This year is different because I’ve carried over some (not all) of the low-carb habits, primarily not keeping bread or spuds in the house. Currently travelling 6 – 8 kgs lighter than I normally would be at this time of year. Also I’ve started a month early this time because there is an off-season trek in a few weeks and I have to get serious fast!
It is called yo-yo dieting. e have discussed this with TBLS several times. It is not the healthiest way to go. The old moderation of everything is the healthy more sustainable lifestyle.
I just wonder if someone got wind of it and managed to get close enough to have a word in his ear.
It’s nice to see activists posing as meeja commentators getting burnt by one of their own, though. I doubt it’d open their eyes, though.
Slow start in the cricket today
It’s always the same with Test Cricket , live with it…
Thanks for that Bill. It was actually running hot from the third ball.