On Tuesday night, Pasquale Barbaro was shot dead in his car in the backstreets of Earlwood in Sydney’s south.
On hearing the news, I first thought of the difficulties facing journalists working at news desks that night. The first question to answer was which Pasquale Barbaro had been murdered? There’s a small army of them and many are known to police. Two other relatives bearing the name had already been murdered. Another was serving a 30-year jail term over his role in the biggest ecstasy importation Australia has seen.
On this occasion it was 35-year-old Pasquale Timothy Barbaro who became the victim.
In 2003, Jason Moran a key combatant in Melbourne’s bloody underworld feud, knew he was in danger and with a contract out on his life. He came out of hiding briefly to watch his children kick a footy around at an Auskick clinic at Essendon in Melbourne’s north with his bodyguard, Pasquale ‘Pat’ Barbaro, Pasquale Timothy Barbaro’s cousin.
Full column here.
JTI.
Last evening I attended a very interesting Lecture.
http://www.theorderofaustralia.asn.au/downloads/OAA-ANULecture2016.pdf
This situation is non-discretionary it is going to be our destiny in 2055.
Neither side of our current politics has the acumen, National Interest or political smarts to address this.
The core problem, manifest in last night’s discussion was the tendency to breakdown the fundamental issue into its component parts. To do so , suits our political and bureaucratic masters; more sources of debate and obfuscation!!
Trying to address this inevitability, with 5 or 10 years to run is hopeless.
Indicative of our destiny is that in 2055 there will be about 40,000 centenarians, males will live to 95 and females to 96!!
And this is only about 40 years away.
Trying to change our current totally inappropriate social model from a national debt of $450B and a deficit of $45B p a is a recipe for disaster!!
Read the lecture and weep – poor fellow my country!!
About the only good thing is of the 40,000 centenarians we won’t be part of them, PLMO.
Might be…
As Bob Hope said when asked the question ” Who wants to live until they are a 100?”. The reply was “Somebody who is 99!”
As I watch friends who are over 80 start to lose the sharpness of mind they once had, the arthritis and other problems preventing them from enjoying past pleasurable pursuits, the problems they have with the normal bodily functions of bowel and bladder, the loss of hearing that no hearing aids can ever compensate, etc, etc, I wonder why on earth anybody would want to put up with it for another 15 years.
I might change my mind when I get to 80 but that is a few years away yet.
So, the fickle nature of the political universe seems to be drawing back some on here to appreciating the quality of Tony Abbott’s spine compared to Malcolm Turnbull’s. Who knows, … in time Donald’s backbone may also become attractive to them.
This is a dud government Carl no matter who’s in charge. Right now with the Japanese whaling fleet on it’s way to the SO Sanctuary to illegally butcher hundreds of whales, we still see turncoat Turnbull incapable of getting up off his knees to Abe once again. We’ve seen with live cattle exports that he nor Abbott never did give a s**t for animal welfare so why am I not surprised.
My best to you Carl for Christmas, Bella
Hear, Hear.
http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/news-and-views/opinion/australian-society-demanded-my-shame-now-i-am-demanding-peter-dutton-be-sacked-20161121-gsuigj.html
I suppose asking you to read what was actually said and the context it was said in would be too much to ask.
TBLS: 21 Nov 12.34
Thanks TBLS! In Melbourne – struggling to adapt to the real (or perhaps unreal) world. The traffic in Melb is appalling. when in a country like Bhutan one realises how focussed the Western world is on money and possessions!
Hmmmm. 34 deg yesterday, about 12 today
Jack and John, it wasn’t just the bouncers who were willing, a lot of the patrons were more than happy to throw a few. i gave up the big venues in about 1980, just no fun.
I had no choice as I was working. I think it was around 1990 in Victoria that they brought in the number system and among other things, a rule that any assault conviction would get you banned from working as a bouncer. It wasn’t perfect but in the main it worked a treat: bouncers had to learn how to talk over-excited punters down or carefully remove them, or else be replaced by people who could. On the whole, bouncers became skilled professionals and from my point of view at the time, it transformed the industry. It was amazing to watch a good bouncer patiently persuading some drunken deplorable that he or she actually _wanted_ to leave, to the point that they would even offer a handshake and a hearty farewell as they went out the door. Or if they insisted on trying it on, they got bearhugged out the door with their arms pinned to their sides, gently placed on the ground in an upright position, and released into the wild.
Good old Nanny State!
My limited experiences in NSW looked a bit different, though.
JOH,
I remember that rule – it was a good one.
There were a number of great venues in Melbourne in those days. One of my favourites was the Crystal Ballroom, which had some great acts, in the seedy side of Melbourne.
Ah the left. It’s always about the seeming and not the doing……..
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/rendezview/do-activists-really-care-about-asylum-seekers-seems-not/news-story/8754e3647a9b7e06582aeaaa47b42a01#itm=newscomau%7Chome%7Cnca-homepage-topstories%7C5%7Clink%7Chomepage%7Chomepage&itmt=1479784794196
Yeah, well it’s easy for them to cherry-pick a few idiots, isn’t Razor? And we are talking about the mob who refused to back Rudd’s ETS because it wasn’t Goldilocks perfect.
On the other hand we have Dutton laying it on the line exactly as he sees it. Honest no doubt, but…
TV have you actually read the full account of what Dutton actually said or just running with the headlines? The context is important here and, in context, his comments are quite reasonable.
Ah The Daily Telegraph, it’s always about the photoshopped-Nazi front page and not the facts….
This guy has nailed it for me
“The real problem isn’t east coast elites don’t understand or care about rural America. The real problem is rural America doesn’t understand the causes of their own situations and fears and they have shown no interest in finding out.”
and
“’Ive had hundreds of discussions with rural white Americans and whenever I present them any information that contradicts their entrenched beliefs, no matter how sound, how unquestionable, how obvious, they WILL NOT even entertain the possibility it might be true. Their refusal is a result of the nature of their fundamentalist belief system and the fact I’m the enemy because I’m an educated liberal. At some point during the discussion, “That’s your education talking,” will be said, derogatorily, as a general dismissal of everything I said”
and
“Another major problem with closed-off, fundamentalist belief systems is they are very susceptible to propaganda. All belief systems are to some extent, but fundamentalist systems even more so because there are no checks and balances. If bad information gets in, it doesn’t get out and because there are no internal mechanisms to guard against it, it usually ends up very damaging to the whole.”
and
“The honest truths that rural, Christian, white Americans don’t want to accept and until they do nothing is going to change, are:
-Their economic situation is largely the result of voting for supply-side economic policies that have been the largest redistribution of wealth from the bottom/middle to the top in U.S. history.
-Immigrants haven’t taken their jobs. If all immigrants, legal or otherwise, were removed from the U.S., our economy would come to a screeching halt and prices on food would soar.
-Immigrants are not responsible for companies moving their plants overseas. Almost exclusively white business owners are the ones responsible because they care more about their share holders who are also mostly white than they do American workers.
-No one is coming for their guns. All that has been proposed during the entire Obama administration is having better background checks.
-Gay people getting married is not a threat to their freedom to believe in whatever white God you want to. No one is going to make their church marry gays, make gays your pastor, accept gays for membership.
-Women having access to birth control doesn’t affect their life either, especially women who they complain about being teenage, single mothers.
-Blacks are not “lazy moochers living off their hard earned tax dollars” anymore than many of your fellow rural neighbors. People in need are people in need. People who can’t find jobs because of their circumstances, a changing economy, outsourcing overseas, etc. belong to all races.
-They get a tremendous amount of help from the government they complain does nothing for them. From the roads and utility grids they use to the farm subsidies, crop insurance, commodities protections…they benefit greatly from government assistance. The Farm Bill is one of the largest financial expenditures by the U.S. government. Without government assistance, their lives would be considerably worse.
-They get the largest share of Food Stamps, Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.
-They complain about globalization but line up like everyone else to get the latest Apple product. They have no problem buying foreign-made guns, scopes, and hunting equipment. They don’t think twice about driving trucks whose engine was made in Canada, tires made in Japan, radio made in Korea, computer parts made in Malaysia…
-They use illicit drugs as much as any other group. But, when other people do it is a “moral failing” and they should be severely punished, legally. When they do it, it is a “health crisis” that needs sympathy and attention.
-When jobs dry up for whatever reasons, they refuse to relocate but lecture the poor in places like Flint for staying in towns that are failing.
-They are quick to judge minorities for being “welfare moochers” but don’t think twice about cashing their welfare check every month.
-They complain about coastal liberals, but the taxes from California and New York are what covers their farm subsidies, helps maintain their highways, and keeps their hospitals in their sparsely populated areas open for business.
-They complain about “the little man being run out of business” then turn around and shop at big box stores.
-They make sure outsiders are not welcome, deny businesses permits to build, then complain about businesses, plants opening up in less rural areas.
-Government has not done enough to help them in many cases but their local and state governments are almost completely Republican and so too are their Representatives and Senators. Instead of holding them accountable, they vote them in over and over and over again.
-All the economic policies and ideas that could help rural America belong to the Democratic Party: raising the minimum wage, strengthening unions, infrastructure spending, reusable energy growth, slowing down the damage done by climate change, healthcare reform…all of these and more would really help a lot of rural Americans.”
Yes deplorable lives matter, but only when they cease to be deplorable.
http://forsetti.tumblr.com/post/153181757500/on-rural-america-understanding-isnt-the-problem?utm_content=buffer2468b&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
Hear hear.
Good piece Uncle Quentin.
I wonder just how long it will take Trump voters to realise all that.
I also wonder just how many of those who voted for Trump purely to protect against a Clinton landslide are now quaking in their boots because Trump got elected.
It sure isn’t a simple problem, or solution UQ. I doubt rural USA could actually make that much of a difference anyway.
The latest global wealth study shows 35% of American adults have a net wealth of less than $10,000. That is a frightening statistic, and a precursor of the voting in this Presidential election. Pissed off with nowhere to go to put it bluntly.
Any company taking business offshore isn’t doing it out of spite, mostly just economics. Yep despite the poverty in the US, it’s cheaper to shift the whole operation elsewhere. So who’s going to decide what to do with the new rat holes like Detroit?
One thing’s for sure. The euphoria of an Obama administration, eight years on, is hardly anything to cheer about for the most needy in US society. Sound familiar?
Great post. The lack of understanding runs mainly in the opposite direction to the way the post-Trump cliche would have it. All the “elites” — cultural, economic, merit-based and undeserved — understand perfectly well the reasons for the inequality. Some care about it, some don’t, some work to change it, some profit from it, but they all understand it. The ones who profit from it have the most to gain by tricking the rest into blaming everyone else but them.
Donald Trumps dear “friend” PM Malcolm Turnbull has more egg on his face Mr Insider as President Elect Trump has just announced he will withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Goodness Turnbull it was only a day or so ago you said it was all go under Trump for the TPP!
In his favour, culturally at least, Trump epitomises the rich tradition of hucksters, snake oil and bond spruikers, pea and thimble tricksters and holy rollers of the American dream.
So perhaps the flop eared dolts with the arse out of their strides who voted for him will get up a riot and tar and feather the silver fork tongued fraud and run him out of town on a rail, when they realise that “Making America Great Again” , doesn’t include you rubes, so “Git back to picking the melons for two bucks an hour. Slaves is what makes countries “great” and you idiots are the next best thing.” And if they tell you America is great again, well damn it that’s plenty to be proud of.
Unlikely. Tarrin’ and featherin’ will be deemed to be “terrorism” and of course there will be some horrendous threat to the nation from furriners requiring all patriotic citizens to put aside their differences to rally around the flag.
It’s true, if one forgets history one is fated to repeat, but to overcome that one does not have to merely remember, one has to understand what was going on in the first place.
Good one JB!!
Hobson’s Choice. Neither Trump nor Clinton were or are President material. We’re stuck with Trump for 4 years and can only hope he’ll grow into the job. One good idea to come out of the bunker is to re-vitalize American car building by making them manufacture electric cars. Can’t be all bad. Cleans up the air, and weans the US off ME oil. I’man Independent voter,usually leaning to GOP but I didn’t vote this time.
Candidate Clinton would have been a shocker in the White House, probably worse than Prime Minister Gillard. My wife is Australian, and a part indigenous woman of the Goomeroi Nation from NW NSW, so I follow Aussie politics a bit too. I hope to see a woman in the White House after the next election. I believe Trump will only get one term.
My pick for Dem Presidential nominee, even this far out, would be Ilhan Omar, from Minnesota. She’s in the State legislature, and is a well known lawyer. She’s Black, Somali refugee descended, Muslim and she’s as sharp as a tack. Watch this space. If she runs, she gets my vote.
Anyone puzzled by the Democrats loss, may find insight in their polling numbers in different jurisdictions prior to this election. Since the inauguration of President Obama, the Democrats have lost 13 Senate seats, 69 House of Congress seats, 900 State Legislature seats,15 Governorships, and 30 State Legislative Chambers. Whatever they’re selling, people ain’t buying.