Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi #7

[Axver]

Oops, forgot to come back to the politics discussion. But later, because:

People think 2016 was awful, John Clarke has died

Gutted. Only 68 too.

And mate you totally jinxed it:

You know what is amazing, Clarke and Dawe. How many years, and they're still excellent. When there's no one left but cockroaches they'll still be turning out the goods.

 

[cobl04]

[emoji24][emoji29][emoji24]

 

[thatsnotmypuppy]

Bit of a gut kick losing him relatively early.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Man, that comes as a bit of a shock I have to say, even if I haven't watched Clarke (or Dawe) in years (nothing against them, it's probably more accurate to say that I haven't watched the 7.30 Report in years). They were a fixture on the televisual scene.

 

[cobl04]

457s scrapped lololol

 

[Axver]

Suppose we shouldn't be shocked: Cory Bernardi's Australian Conservatives to merge with Family First

The best bit? The Family First senator elected after Bob Day's disqualification is going to sit as an independent.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Family Fist seems like a good name for the new conjoined body.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Fortunately for us all, One Nation has an unerring instinct for picking flakes, dodgy businessmen, weirdos and outright psychos as candidates.

 

[cobl04]

Fucking hell, the outrage over Yassmin Abdel-Magied's comments, jesus christ.

Bill Leak publishes blatantly racist cartoons and all these right-wing fuckwits fall over themselves them to defend him cos of freedom of speech, then all call for her to be deported. Give me a fucking break.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Reckon the right wing here would quietly love some censorship of opposing views.

 

[intedomine]

It's disturbing, the hypocrisy of the right when it comes to free speech, but the whole saga only validates what we (most who participate in this thread, I'd say), knew all along.

It was never about "freedom of speech" at all, only about consolidating specific modes and behaviours of patriotism. Some opinions are clearly more legitimate than others.

And how insignificant was the actual post by Abdul-Magied?! She didn't really say anything at all, it was barely a couple of words, not even a sentence.

The warriors against "political correctness" keep insulting those that they disagree with by emphasising their sensitivity (do-gooders, snowflakes - their insults of choice), but how petty must you be to take issue with such a trivial post.

Infuriating, the whole saga.

 

[cobl04]

They're absolute hypocrites, plain and simple, and have been hopelessly exposed.

 

[Axver]

Just had a look at the Age's website and I'm surprised how much content is there right now. Are they taking that much from wire services? Are there that many scabs?

Fucking Stephen Mayne ahahaha. What a tosspot.

Anyway, fully support the striking journalists. Fairfax's executives now just seem to be stripping assets. No desire for a long-term quality newspaper, just Domain and ads. It's the old parliamentary railway trick: to get a railway line closed, the service provider would run the absolute minimum service they had to, at the most inconvenient time possible. Yes, sure, we're running the mandated two services a day. They're at 4:40am and 11:28pm. Nobody catches them. Please close the line. Likewise, Fairfax can point to declining readership - "we're still producing a paper!" Yeah, but like the train nobody wants to ride, it's a paper nobody wants to buy. The appeals to subscribe are now meaningless. What is being offered is so bad that it's not worth subscribing, and the likelihood is of more cuts and further declining quality, to the point the paper dies. The only reason anybody would have to subscribe is if the paper made a dramatic shift - hired people, put quality journalism at the forefront, downplayed clickbait, etc.

 

[Kieran McConville]

they're just stripping the thing for parts at this point.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

[tweet]861195691355381760[/tweet]

 

[cobl04]

twirling, twirling, twiiiiiiiiirling towards the far right

 

[cobl04]

Mark Latham has joined the Liberal Democrats lololol

 

[AndrewCowley]

Mark Latham has joined the Liberal Democrats lololol

Well unlike some of his fellow nutter Sky News colleagues, at least he's having a go. Rowan Dean on the other hand. Sometimes I think there is too much oxygen on this planet.

 

[Axver]

Mark Latham has joined the Liberal Democrats lololol

Fuck that's funny.

As for the ALP ad thing, the first thing I noticed wasn't the ethnically homogeneous photo, but the really crude formulation of protectionist economic rhetoric. And, frankly, that is the far more important debate. The hue and cry about not having a more diverse group in the photograph is a distraction. Essentially, what's more important? That the ALP have an ad that proves they represent non-Anglo workers, in a media cycle that will have turned far away within a week, or that we have a meaningful debate about whether protectionism is an appropriate long-term economic direction of this country? Does this gel with other ALP policies? Does this recognise the realities of globalised labour and production? These are big questions we should be debating with far-reaching implications for everybody in this country, not who's in some dumb fucking photo no-one will remember on Friday.

 

[cobl04]

It's a really weird one because it's obviously been made to pander to the right (which is despicable as it is) but then they've come out and owned the lack of diversity in the video. Laughable. It's like, you're either embracing pearl-clutching nationalism or you aren't, you can't have it both ways.

 

[Kieran McConville]

This would have to be one of the more foolish columns I've seen in a while https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/12/jeremy-corbyn-bob-hawke-general-election-landslide.

Regardless of what you personally think about Jeremy Corbyn, does the author have not the slightest awareness of how the procedures for electing the leader of the British Labour Party work? Let alone how those of our own local party have changed in the three and a half decades since Hawke was installed.

It's also a terrible example as Hayden would have won in 1983. Anyone would have.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Van Badham has somehow become even worse over the last few years. A quick look at her Twitter only confirms that. She's a complete sycophant to the ALP, has made absolutely no comment on the Shorten ad, attacks the Greens - she's essentially a garden variety liberal still desperately trying to masquerade as a socialist.

The article's funny because she was a massive fan of Corbyn until a year ago, and it seems to have coincided with the beginning of her uncritical adoration of Hillary Clinton.

 

[cobl04]

Mate, she's a fucking idiot. Was a massive Greens shill until the whole preference deals thing happened and then completely flipped and now supports the ALP, despite the fact that they have many, many shitty policies.

Shorten shits me up the wall. His first budget reply was great but he was his usual boring self this year and worse on 730 afterwards. I'd dearly love it if Albo became the leader, but Shorten's got a pretty good grip on it.

Was also fun watching all News Corp people shit themselves over a "Labor" budget. Bolt in particular wrote a terrible, irrelevant column. Hilarious.

 

[Axver]

It's also a terrible example as Hayden would have won in 1983. Anyone would have.

Yep, the old drover's dog. Such an odd example to pick, but it fits with how the cult of Hawke and Keating has become especially strong. When I wrote that article in January attaching Hawke's idiotic ahistorical piffle about the states, it met stony silence from my ALP friends. Hawke is apparently beyond reproach.

The article's funny because she was a massive fan of Corbyn until a year ago, and it seems to have coincided with the beginning of her uncritical adoration of Hillary Clinton.

She has turned awful hot takes into an artform. Her massive changes in position are hilariously abrupt, especially because they're based on the dumbest reasons. Her disavowal of the Greens is actually incoherent and proves she does not get most of what goes on around her.

Was also fun watching all News Corp people shit themselves over a "Labor" budget. Bolt in particular wrote a terrible, irrelevant column. Hilarious.

This was the BEST. Bolt et al somehow managed to make themselves into even bigger flogs.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

She has turned awful hot takes into an artform. Her massive changes in position are hilariously abrupt, especially because they're based on the dumbest reasons. Her disavowal of the Greens is actually incoherent and proves she does not get most of what goes on around her.

Ideologically, she's a mess. She tries to take bits and pieces from separate places but together it's all very incoherent.

 

[Kieran McConville]

The best thing I can say about Shorten is that, from what little reportage we get of such things, he seems to be a good operator behind the scenes, generally respected for how he goes about the business of herding cats. And we don't live in a presidential system; yet.

So while I find Bill Shorten about as exciting as a soggy banana sandwich, I think there is reason to hope for some good from the next Labor government. Put it this way, more reason than there was in 2007 or 2004. I think even Bill gets on some level that 'me tooism' will not be the order of the day (and for those with short memories, Kevin Rudd ran a distinctly bland and non ideological campaign to see off Howard a decade ago. A lot has changed since then).

I don't know what happens if they screw it up. The Coalition is exhausted. Notions of a radical-right supremacy in Australia strike me as overcooked, but still and all. I hope they don't screw it up.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

[tweet]866463718418272256[/tweet]

 

[cobl04]

haha, he's great.

 

[Kieran McConville]

Americhristland.com.org

 

[coolian2]

The passport cancellation/travel ban?

So on board with that. Perhaps kick the cunts in the balls (not really a sentence that makes sense) as well.