When did the Christian religion first influence American and Australian politics? Let’s start in the present. Faith got its back up when the now-disgraced Christian President Trump signed an executive order separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Religious organisations of varying denominations spoke out against what they considered a barbaric practice. The Trump administration pursued a “zero-tolerance” immigration policy as a deterrent for immigrants by prosecuting adults who illegally crossed into the country, resulting in systematic family separation. Five hundred and forty-five children’s parents still cannot be found, and it is estimated that about two-thirds had been deported without their kids. So religion does speak its mind when it is confronted with things it considers evil or against God’s laws.

It is easy to prove the historical involvement of religion in politics concerning particular issues. But which presidents or prime ministers have defended the separation of church and state most ardently? Both in Australia and the U.S., our constitutions both explicitly outline the separation of church and state.

John F Kennedy was in danger of being overlooked for the 1960 Presidency because he was a Catholic:

“Protestants questioned whether Kennedy’s Roman Catholic faith would allow him to make important national decisions as President independent of the Church. Kennedy addressed those concerns before a sceptical audience of Protestant clergy.”

He made his now-famous speech about the separation of church and state. But there are also many examples of religion seeking a place in government. They all form part of the Christian or religious right that has its origins in Christian political factions that are strongly socially conservative. Mostly they are United States Christian conservatives who seek to influence politics and public policy with their own particular interpretation of the teachings of Christ. (Note: An opposing view might be that Jesus was the world’s first socialist.)

These Evangelical Christians are an informal coalition with a core of conservative evangelical Protestants and some Roman Catholics.

In Australia, the Christian right was unheard of until recent times when conservative Evangelical Christians took control of both church doctrine (the gospel of wealth) and political Liberal ideology moved to the far right (a reluctance for change). With an Evangelical Prime Minister who has similar religious and political philosophies as former U.S. president Donald Trump, Australia began to shift in both language and style under the Prime Ministership of Tony Abbott.

The Christian right has influenced politics since the 1940s but has been particularly powerful since the 1970s.

Although Christian rights are most commonly associated with politics in the United States, similar Christian conservative groups can be found in other Christian-majority nations’ political cultures. It promotes its teachings on social issues such as:

“school prayer, intelligent design, embryonic stem cell research, homosexuality, temperance, euthanasia, contraception, Christian nationalism, Sunday Sabbatarianism, sex education, abortion, and pornography.”

The right-wing Evangelical churches promote these issues in and outside the church. Most members adhere to these teachings, but those raised in a modern pluralist society feel conflicted between church and state.

The problem for the Australian Christian is this question: Is it a good thing to be associated with a political party who only has the interest of those who ‘have’ at the centre of its ideology or should it re-examine Biblical teaching in light of a rapidly changing society and technological change and reach out to the ‘have nots’?

Scott Morrison started his church life in the Uniting Church and was greatly influenced by the Reverend Ray Green. Brian Houston of the evangelical mega-church Hillsong (Assembly of God) and Leigh Coleman left a lasting impression on him. All three got a mention in Morrison’s inaugural speech to the Australian parliament.

Houston was criticised by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse for failing to report sexual abuse by his father. In other words, he broke a law of the state. Mind you; he wasn’t alone in his sin.

Morrison’s flippantly opportunistic approach to programs run by the Government like Robodebt, Sports Rorts, and Aged Care homes suggest corruption on a grand level.

His “dear friend” and fundraiser Leigh Coleman somehow raised $43 million from the Morrison government for programs to help Indigenous folk, but somehow most of it seemed to go in salaries.

Leigh Coleman, formerly of Hillsong, has allegations of fraud and bribery against him. (Note: Allegations, not charges.)

The $43 million in contracts from the Defence Department to a company he is linked to (in so much as he founded and managed it) “while being a registered charity was set up to address Indigenous unemployment and disadvantage.”

That’s $43 million of our money, and it reeks of suspicion. And this man is a friend of the Prime Minister, and just as importantly, a friend of Pastor Houston.

A bit sus, cynical, or wouldn’t pass the pub test are few expressions Australians would use to describe these transactions. So much so that it has the whiff of corruption about it. These are the sorts of things that can happen when religion gets to close to government.

Even more suss when one looks closer at this recent piece from The Guardian, and you see that the org upon which such legion of government largesse is bestowed, ServeGate Australia, has all the hallmarks of a front, a tax dodge, a money-laundering operation

In part 2: How the merger progressed to make a threesome with the industrialists and their wealth.

1 The forthcoming election is up for grabs. On the one hand the conservative parties are convinced that they can win based on what they believe to be the excellent job they have done with the pandemic. That is despite the states doing most of the work.

On the other hand, Labor has its policies and a bottomless basket full of conservative corruption and other activities to choose for an attack on the government’s legitimacy. If I were going into an election, I would much rather be in Labor leader Albanese’s shoes than the Prime Minister’s.

Let me remind you of a few of those activities.

Sports rorts, Robodebt, Federal ICAC, aged care deaths, land sales and now a follow up to sports rorts in bushfire rorts. Add to that list their opposition to an increase to Newstart, political donations and rental assistance and failing to follow up on the Uluru Statement.

They have been a do-nothing government of little accountability and endless corruption.

And might I add big business’s failure to return the JobKeeper money; the taxpayer’s money the government gave to companies to save jobs. And there was the Treasurer on Insiders last Sunday joyfully defending their right to pocket the taxpayer’s funds.

Belatedly the Prime Minister says it’s the politics of envy when you ask companies to give back job keeper money, which begs the question of Robodebt. What was it when the government pursued its false debt? Anyway, the Auditor General will investigate JobKeeper after it (was illegally used) to pay dividends and bonuses.

In a comment on my previous post for The AIMN the astute Kaye Lee noted that:

“He can ignore the debt and deficit and all other policy because…. pandemic.

But I don’t think he will be able to ignore, or deal with, climate change and energy policy. With the election of Biden, world scrutiny and demand for action is ramping up. They can’t con the international community with “meet and beat in a canter” crap. There is every chance that the EU and other countries who are making significant cuts to emissions will impose “carbon border adjustment charges”. Scotty is in trouble here.”

And how true that is.

Of course, every government has its share of scandals. Nothing new in that but this Coalition government has critically changed how we are governed. Acts of corruption, malfeasance, wrongdoing and impropriety are now weekly occurrences, not just unlucky slip-ups.

They are now so commonplace as to be an embarrassment. And worse is that most are ongoing open wounds in our democracy.

2 By the way, its Happy Birthday to Medicare. 37 on 1 February. Not perfect but nonetheless it has served us well. If the conditions were right, the conservatives would be rid of it in a flash.

3 I was reading the Michael West weekly email newsletter yesterday. One of his authors (Lyndsay Connors) points out that:

“Since Scott Morrison became prime minister in 2018, the Coalition has poured an extra $4.6 billion over a decade into Catholic and independent schools.

“Productivity Commission figures released this week show government funding for non-government schools continues to grow faster than for public schools. Judging by statements the new federal Education Minister Alan Tudge made to Parliament, inequality will deepen.”

4 The new QandA timeslot will hopefully bring a broader audience to the panel discussion show. Last night’s panel – apart from Alexander Downer who appears to be remote from ordinary people – was excellent.

5 Now we have Bushfire Rorts. How long is it going to last? Have you ever applied for a grant? It is almost as if they don’t want you to get it.

6 One would have to think that Craig Kelly has something on the Prime Minister. If not, how does he get away with all the crap he serves up.

The Hughes group against Kelly hopes to field an independent in the seat to challenge him in the next election.

7 The government is serving up a very meagre policy agenda for 2021, as reported in The Guardian:

“The Morrison government has nominated waste policy, climate adaptation and reform of national conservation laws as its environmental priorities for 2021, prompting criticism that it is not focused enough on improving the plight of the country’s declining wildlife and threatened species.”

Note: Not a mention of the 38 recommendations made by the former competition watchdog head, Graeme Samuel, in a review of the EPBC Act released last week.

8 Albanese has his party no more than a point behind the Coalition, according to this week’s Newspoll 50/50 poll, at level pegging. The Guardian’s latest Essential Poll has Labor ahead 47 to 44, with the rest undecided.

9 The abuse of Albanese of the last few weeks has led me to this: Having supported Labor for all of my 80 years l am now of the view that my party isn’t much interested in winning government.

10 Total political donations for 2020:

“… are $168m, way down on the $434m in the previous year 2018/19. The Liberal Party edged out Labor as the top recipient. Total donations for Liberal Party are $57m, Labor $55m, Nationals $12.4m, Clive Palmer $10.2m, Greens $7.2m and One Nation $5.8m.”

If I had time I would sit down, do a bit of research and document how more often than not events seem to fall rightly or wrongly into place to favour the Liberal Party or what is now the Conservative Party waiting for another name.

On this occasion, a virus slipped in to help a down and out government on the ropes and just about to enter a recession. After almost three pathetic and corrupt governance terms, they are looking to take a fourth, and if you believe all the Albanese knockers, he hasn’t the charisma to beat Scott Morrison. Sorry, but we have heard it all before.

Which of these leaders had charisma?

John Howard.

Julia Gillard.

John Hewson.

Bob Hawke.

Gough Whitlam.

Bill Shorten.

Kim Beasley.

Kevin Rudd.

Malcolm Fraser.

Anthony Albanese.

Mark Latham.

Scott Morrison.

Who had the least, yet in terms of longevity was the most successful? In my view, John Howard was the least charismatic yet the most (in terms of longevity), successful. It is often the case that in polling, the popularity of a leader doesn’t always correspond with the party they might vote for.

People get carried away with popularity when as we get closer to the election the question of; “Who would you vote for?” is more important than; “Who would make the better Prime Minister?”.

In the last week or so we have witnessed a bombardment of attacks; call it character assassinations if you like, against Anthony Albanese that amount to nothing more than people’s feelings and have no basis otherwise. Take Troy Bramston’s article in The Australian 2 February 2021. It can only be described as a list of unsubstantiated claims that are nothing more than grubby attempts at character assassination.

In polls such as Newspoll, one can take little from them other than how people are feeling at the time. On the question of who is the more popular, Morrison must come out on top. He is well known, full of crap and has taken over the media, in the fullness of its reach. I mean, COVID-19 has by necessity demanded that the Prime Minister be proactive in leadership and feeding information to the press and the public. That means exposure. Its value in terms of public perception cannot be measured, but I sure wouldn’t like to be paying for it.

For his part, Albanese has and still is an example of how bipartisanship politics in the face of a national crisis should work. He has been firm but fair in all respects without any acclaim.

It is often difficult for an opposition leader to get a sentence on the national nightly news let alone during a pandemic. On top of that, he is fighting the Murdoch media empire’s might.

Yet despite all this people demand that he be more assertive. That he should be in campaign mode before the campaign has even begun.

Nobody in the party is more aware of the leadership rumblings within than Albanese. This was the entire point of last Thursday’s reshuffle.

Albanese has come up with a more purpose-fit alternative ministry. One that in my view that person for person is much better than the incumbents. Take a look at the frontbench and see if you agree.

No doubt many Labor MPs ask themselves if their current leader can beat Scott Morrison in an election this year. Despite the 50/50 Newspoll result, The Australian has written Albo off as yesterday’s hero to be replaced in a matter of days. If the 50/50 remains for three consecutive polls, you can say there is a trend. What a load of piffle it is. For those who look for a more in-depth analysis, I would suggest in part that people may have woken up as they did in the US to the enormous falsities that they were being told.

When a political party deliberately withholds information, the voter needs to make an informed, balanced and reasoned assessment of how it is governed. When it lies over a long period, disregards science and tells the people that everything is fake except what they tell them, they eventually react.

Labor MPs might continue to ask themselves and one another whether Albanese has what it takes to beat Morrison, but they should give him a chance. Like President Biden, he can call bullshit out for what it is and then calmly explain the truth of things. Why people need a raving voice of reply to counter everything a leader says is beyond me.

Biden has set an example that others should take notice of; “Let your words speak their purpose.” Trump’s words or lies then became exposed for what they were.

Frankly, I am sick of people proposing a leader’s dismissal before the fight has even begun. Give the bloke a go.

Joe Biden’s victory should be seen as a fillip for international action against the extremities of the right.

Now a few words about the Albo’s shadow cabinet.

Bowen is an excellent choice for when, as it must, the climate debate eventually becomes one of economics. He is a proven performer and debater of a wide range of policy.

Labor desperately wants the election to be a post-pandemic one that outlines a future Australia. In the reshuffle, Richard Marles has a super portfolio that narrates our future. No one better than the philosophical Marles to do that.

Burke stays in Industrial Relations as was his want with Chalmers still in the Treasury, leaving Stephen Jones to prosecute Superannuation. Plibersek loses her portfolio’s skills component to Marles, which is a bit of a slap on the wrist to a possible challenger.

Victorian left-winger Brendan O’Connor was handed the shadow defence portfolio. Both O’Connor and Albanese are in the same faction but have been indifferent corners in a few debates.

This reshuffle reflects the battle that lays ahead. In my view, the government is very vulnerable on many fronts, and the opposition has a team that can take it up to the government.

They need to be a group of enthusiastic men and women who believe that winning is a result of good leadership, supporting the leader and tackling your opponent with words that have the ring of truth about them.

The world is sick of leaders like Trump and Morrison. It’s time for a change.

“If you’re ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot,” ( President Biden, 21/01/2021).

He might have been showing his age using that language, and I may be showing mine by repeating it. However, what is inferred by the message is that the new President will no longer tolerate the sort of behaviour demonstrated by the former President, Donald Trump. It is time for all the abuse to end.

What happens in America usually repeats itself in Australia. We seem to inherit everything about them, their music, sport, dress, speech and many other cultural influences. Ain’t that right, guys?

Under Trump, the language of politics changed. US politics was harsh enough and brutal enough as it was, but Donald Trump added a new dimension.

In Australia, we had picked up on the vernacular at the beginning of the Tea Party revolution when one could call on the use of foul language, bad manners and a lack of truth as legitimate political tools. Lying in earnest began in the US when Mick Romney opposed Barack Obama in his second term.

Australia experienced it out of the mouths of opposition leader Tony Abbott and Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce. And what vile fluid it was.

Then from the first time Trump met Morrison, they developed some sort of relationship of thought that lasted until Trump’s bitter end. They may have had more in common than we first thought.

They both admired populist strongmen and had a fawning allegiance to reactionary populist strongmen the world over.

Both were prone to making mistakes by not taking advice and being surrounded by people of mediocre intelligence. Look at Trump’s sackings and Morrison’s hopelessly incompetent cabinet.

Both were devoid of international diplomacy. Look at Morrison’s handling of the Jerusalem embassy and his inability to fulfil any trade diplomacy with China. And, especially in his handling of the China relationship, there’s been a streak of impulsiveness that at times outweighed any consideration for the delicate balancing act that is international diplomacy.

Trump would have nothing to do with getting things done for the common good, fearing that socialism might be used to describe it. Morrison and his cabinet have committed policy failures that would see riots on some countries’ streets, but laidback Aussies don’t do such things. Morrison is a little less subtle, but the comparisons are remarkable.

In a review of Nick Bryant’s latest book; “When America stopped being great,” Andrew West, says that.

“Joe Biden had a solid win in the electoral college, but the Democrats are weaker and more divided on ideology than at any time in the past forty years. Trump’s influence will taunt Biden’s administration, which will need to balance its two factions: the social-democratic left versus what you might call the social media left. The former will hope that Biden summons up his instincts of half a century and prioritises unions and workers’ rights; investment in infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, and his beloved Amtrak; higher taxes on the super-rich; the protection of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security; and the incremental expansion of health care. The latter, channelling its energy through Vice President Kamala Harris, will demand attention to group rights based on ethnicity, sex, sexuality, and gender. Biden and Harris have about eighteen months to make it work before a bruised, but defiant Trumpism stirs again.”

Biden needs to convince his nation that his way of doing politics will have better outcomes for a country yet to overcome the callous, selfish politics of a leader bereft of decency. He needs to make his methods work and show the world that the crass politics of conservative Trumpism is of a world that has now passed.

If they can, Australia’s people will see through the copy-cat style of Morrison’s politics that have washed over us. He should stop pretending to be Trump and start telling us the truth.

Now that he doesn’t need to align himself to Trump, Morrison should quietly back away from his impersonation.

Some time back he praised Trump’s political priorities, saying that they “shared a lot of the same views.” As recently as December, Morrison accepted the Legion of Merit (a US military decoration) from the 45th president. What on earth did he think he was doing?

He should never have accepted the honour. And with a President as mentally fragile as Trump, he should have kept the fact that they shared many thoughts and ideas to himself.

His judgement in attending what was fundamentally an election rally with Trump in 2019 was another error. His presence gave the impression that he was tacitly endorsing Trump, whereas he should have stayed out of it as another nation’s leader.

The end of the Trump era has opened the door to endless possibilities. Time to ponder the damage he created, but more importantly to consider just what Biden’s ascent to power will do to the rest of the world.

He has come to power with an impeccable service record to the American nation. His inauguration has given his country – and perhaps the rest of the world – a chance of doing politics in a new way.

The last vestiges of Trumpism await a second impeachment that will hopefully never see in a public office again. What are the implications for Australia where our conservative politicians have so astutely followed the principles of Trumpism?

Joe Biden intends to reverse America’s image that Trump built in his four-year term. He is already back on board with the Paris Agreement on climate change, together with a wholesale shift in energy policies.

A raft of other policies are being reversed, dropped, or shelved under Biden’s administration. It is now time for us to put a heavy emphasis on how Biden’s new policies will reflect on our own.

We still have the pandemic and a recession that began before it. The heavy dominance of global and domestic terrorism seems to have given way to right-wing terror and insurrection in the US.

But politics in Australia will have to change. Not only in the way it is delivered and the manners that are used, but also in the policies.

Our issues will move closer to those of the US and domestically – rather than a fight between two protagonists – both Labor and the LNP will be forced into being more broadly acceptable. Morrison will have to shed telling all the lies he does and drop his phoney imitation of Trump, and although Australia has never placed much weight on personality, Albo will have to grow some and do it quickly.

The Prime Minister has a dominant, know-all personality with a liking for demonstrating it. On the other hand, Albanese is relatively unknown and super clean when it comes to controversy.

Morrison is a weak leader who gets away with a lot. His unwillingness to punish and replace those of his cabinet who have failed leaves the electorate thinking they have something on him.

We don’t seem to have the same methodology for dealing with incompetence that other countries do.

From now on we will not be able to rely on the old comparison answer that “oh well, we are not as bad as them” be it vaccinations or economics.

According to The Washington Post, Trump told more than 30,573 lies (or misleading claims) during his presidency.

The political and cultural damage from all those lies now lay at Biden’s feet. Our Prime Minister followed his very same political game plan. Conservatives in Australia need to look at the damage his philosophy has done to his country and ask themselves if they should continue with their Trump-style politics, or start acting like real Aussies. Do we really want to end up with a similar mess that Biden has to clean up?

Amid the trumped-up support of Donald Trump, you might remember the time he made some lewd comments, on a recording, about women. The one where he mentioned grabbing them by the p#ssy.

At the time, his running partner Mike Pence said, “I do not condone his remarks and cannot defend them.” After that episode, he continued to come out strongly in support of his partner:

“Pence vigorously defended his running mate against the claims and promised evidence casting doubt on the claims was about to be released.”

Pence said Trump personally assured him that the allegations were untrue:

“Before the day is out, there’ll be more evidence publicly that calls into question these latest allegations.

Stay tuned. I know there’s more information that’s going to be coming out that will back up his claim that this is all categorically false.”

Nothing eventuated.

In the same breath, Pence also defended Donald Trump’s use of the Tax Code, racism, and the disgusting remarks he made against the Army Capt. Humayun Khan.

He defended Trump against what he said were unsubstantiated allegations of sexual misconduct made by multiple women.

We are entitled to ask the question: How is it possible for a man who places his belief in God above all else, including politics, able to defend a man who is so obviously at odds with the teachings of Christ?

Is he not sinning in defending a racist misogynist who has little time for righteous behaviour?

Are we not also entitled to ask the Australian Prime Minister and his deputy, who display the same God-fearing traits, why they both defended Trump’s actions.

Well-known journalist Dennis Atkins concurs:

“Morrison’s been unmasked. His refusal to openly condemn Trump’s behaviour & legacy is the deliberate act of a weak, spineless & character free Prime Minister. At a pivotal time, Morrison retreated. He didn’t want to tell the truth (because of) politics.” https://t.co/UUPwqDEpuY

— Dennis Atkins (@dwabriz) January 15, 2021

How is it that godly men married to the ten commandants and believe in the absolute Christian tenants of faith, love and truth can defend a known narcissistic liar and cheat? If you are a Christian, then perhaps you should ask your God.

Too often, those of faith hide behind the omission of facts and actions. They deny things that can be proven to be true. In front of their God, they deny their actions.

In my knowledge of faith, every time Scott Morrison tells a lie or puts into action a policy that will hurt people, he sins. He cannot have it both ways.

Very distressing scenes at the US Congress. We condemn these acts of violence and look forward to a peaceful transfer of Government to the newly elected administration in the great American democratic tradition.

— Scott Morrison (@ScoMo30) January 6, 2021

Morrison’s refusal to criticise Trump’s behaviour – let alone accept that the violent mob was incited by Trump – can only mean that he condones it. Even now, he continues to imply his admiration for the man.

But then their policies and decisions show that they are both opinionated, self-centred, narcissistic, and without empathy. The only difference is that Trump thinks himself a genius.

In a survey conducted by The Australia Institute, 56% of respondents agreed when asked whether Morrison should either criticise or condemn Trump for his role in inciting the riots. In comparison, 26% disagreed and 18% were unsure.

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, was circumspect in his response to what he called “effectively an insurrection”, saying there was “no doubt that both the words and actions of Donald Trump have encouraged this activity.”

I agree with Dennis Atkins. We have a weak, spineless and character-free Prime Minister.

Goodness knows how many words I have written about this man. I want to think it is my last, but I’m not confident.

74,222,957 Americans voted for Donald Trump in the recent election. 46.8% of them don’t hold the President responsible for any of his mistakes. They see no wrong in his most vile acts. It is these people that have the secret to the why of it. Why are so many people dissatisfied with their lot in the land of milk and honey?

No doubt there are many factors like inequality, jobs and many others. Still, in this piece, I want to concentrate on my thoughts on Donald Trump’s Presidency and what he has done and how he has impregnated his worshipers with the same vile hatreds. In part, the why of it can be explained by what I call the “if it’s okay for them” rule.

Suppose my government or its leader demonstrates that it’s fair to act in a certain way then it is okay for me to follow suit. When America’s most privileged and powerful break the rules of accountability with impunity, the less well-off act with the same impunity, albeit the destruction of property or other violent actions.

Remember back in 2008 when:

“Wall Street nearly destroyed the economy. The Street got bailed out while millions of Americans lost their jobs, savings, and homes. Yet no major Wall Street executive ever went to jail.

In more recent years, top executives of Purdue Pharmaceuticals, along with the members of the Sackler family that own it, knew the dangers of OxyContin but did nothing. Executives at Wells Fargo Bank pushed bank employees to defraud customers. Executives at Boeing hid the results of tests showing its 737 Max Jetliner was unsafe. Police chiefs across America looked the other way as police under their command repeatedly killed innocent Black Americans.”

Nothing has been fixed. It all continues to happen, and the disenfranchised respond accordingly. If it is okay for our leaders to break the rules, then it’s okay for me to respond in kind.

Trump became President thinking that no law was too rigid for him to break thus setting an example for the entire population. He, over four years, became a threat to American democracy itself. “IF THEY CAN DO IT, WHY CAN’T WE?”

He told the people that the Presidency gave him the power to:

“… dig up dirt on political rivals, fire inspectors general who find corruption, order the entire executive branch to refuse congressional subpoenas, flood the Internet with fake information about his opponents, refuse to release his tax returns, accuse the press of being “fake media” and “enemies of the people”, and make money off his presidency.”

He was a President who lied without conscience about the election result insisting he had won when the evidence insisted Biden had. And of course, he had.

At the dawn of his exit, he has misused his Presidential pardons to the point of corrupting them. They are typically used as a pardon for possible wrong sentence, good conduct or the grace of forgiveness.

Those pardoned include:

“… aides convicted of lying to the FBI and threatening potential witnesses in order to protect him; his son-in-law’s father, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, witness tampering, illegal campaign contributions, and lying to the Federal Election Commission; Blackwater security guards convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians, including women and children; border patrol agents convicted of assaulting or shooting unarmed suspects; and Republican lawmakers and their aides found guilty of fraud, obstruction of justice and campaign finance violations.”

Trump has not only deemed the crimes of those he has pardoned as unaccountable actions but also demeaned the courts that convicted them.

The problem here is societies’ willingness to accept his actions as standard, of somehow condoning actions that a mere decade ago might have condemned.

Other than saying the man was a sociopath, the why of it is not easily explained. If nobody is held accountable in a democratic society, norms collapse, and society’s very fabric decays with it.

History shows us that no former President has been convicted of ever having committed a crime. Perhaps this speaks volumes for the system. When Trump’s presidency is finally finished, and the last of his vilest words escape his tongue, he may very well face a barrage of lawsuits, but it is doubtful that he will serve time.

He will probably, almost certainly present himself with Presidential immunity or a self-pardon that will protect him.

One would think that the slightest hint of a criminal trial against the former President might see a partisan uprising across the states.

All this, of course, brings into perspective the power of future presidents. Congress might seek to make it tougher to break the rules. Trump will probably get away with all the mayhem he has created, including a new way of doing politics. Robert Reich writing for The Guardian, puts it this way:

“Congress may try to limit the power of future presidents – strengthening congressional oversight, fortifying the independence of inspectors general, demanding more financial disclosure, increasing penalties on presidential aides who break laws, restricting the pardon process, and so on.

But Congress – a co-equal branch of government under the constitution – cannot rein in rogue presidents. And the courts don’t want to weigh in on political questions.

The appalling reality is that Trump may get away with it. And in getting away with it he will have changed and degraded the norms governing American presidents. The giant windows he’s broken are invitations to a future president to break even more.”

America faces, whether they like it or not, the startling reality that Trump will get away with breaking many laws and degrading the norms of American democracy and decency.

Those who voted for Joe Biden voted for a return to normalcy whilst those who voted for Donald Trump voted for a continuance of his brand of hate-filled politics.

Democrats need to sort out the why of it if they want to return to a typical America. In the next four years, they will need to discover the answer to my question, address it and gain another term with control of both houses and set an agenda that will make America great again.

Is it just a rumour or another timely deflection? Ambassador to the USA, Arthur Sinodinos was rumoured to be ill and would be replaced by a cabinet minister. However, he ruled out any shock early departure, saying he is well.

Another rumour suggested Marise Payne would take up the post. Yet another had Peter Dutton a laydown certainty of being the next Defence Minister. Nevertheless, all rumours aside when one has a pool with such little talent, what does one do?

One rumour on news.com said that Josh Frydenberg organised a women-only dinner with the Prime Minister to praise the work of Senator Reynolds.

When rumours of cabinet reshuffles are imminent, the grapevine becomes alive to the whispers of the political insiders.

So, let us take a look at the current Ministry, analyse the performance of the incumbent Ministers and throw in the changes.

Ministry List

The 46th Parliament Morrison’s second Cabinet.

They are updated after reshuffle made on 18 December 2020. My comments about each are in italics.

Prime Minister and Minister for the Public Service

The Hon Scott Morrison MP

Robodebt had Scott Morrison’s name written all over it when he was the Social Services Minister, and it followed him into Treasury and then the Prime Minister’s Department. Over 2030 people committed suicide because of Robodebt. It also cost the taxpayer $1.2 billion to settle the problem.

The same goes for Aged care. Seven hundred older adults died of COVID-19 because the Prime Minister turned his back on numerous reports demanding action.

It is now known beyond doubt that he took part in the distribution of the Sportsrorts funding.

That he is a liar is beyond doubt. Any honourable man would have resigned.

He alone as leader is responsible for all the irrational decisions, and the corruption that stems from them.

His greatest crime, of course, like leaders before him, is being unable to convince his party that Climate Change is real and requires immediate attention.

An ICAC candidate if ever there was one.

Minister for Indigenous Australians

The Hon Ken Wyatt AM MP

Retains his portfolio, but he will never achieve a mention in the constitution for our First Nations People. I think the “know your place” rule applies here. In other words, they will never become equal. He is a good man for a good cause but a member of the wrong party.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts

The Hon Michael McCormack MP

How this gay-hating individual ever became the leader of his party let alone Deputy Prime Minister is beyond my comprehension. He has also called for the return of caning in high schools. He has also dismissed climate change as the concerns of “raving inner-city lefties.”

Minister for Agriculture, Drought, and Emergency Management

The Hon David Littleproud MP

A trier at best. Still has a family water problem. Ambition to be the leader of his party (or is that just a rumour?).

Minister for Education and Youth

The Hon Alan Tudge MP

Wikipedia records that:

In March 2020, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal ordered that an Afghan asylum seeker who had previously been a part of the Afghan National Army be granted a temporary protection visa. Tudge, who was Acting Immigration Minister at the time, instantly appealed the judgement of the AAT to federal court, which failed. However, during the 6-day appeal process, the asylum seeker had been kept in the detention centre. Six months later, the Federal Court found that Tudge “engaged in conduct which can only be described as criminal,” and that Tudge had deprived the asylum seeker of his liberty, which has prompted calls for his resignation.

“In the ABC Four Corners episode broadcast on 9 November 2020, former Tudge staffer Rachelle Miller revealed that she and Tudge had engaged in an affair. A moderate Liberal Party member, Miller described Tudge’s opposition to same-sex marriage (based on his support for “traditional” marriage) is hypocrisy.”

A decade ago he would have been sacked for having an affair. Now there is no accountability.

Treasurer

The Hon Josh Frydenberg MP

Yet to prove himself in the court of public opinion.

Minister for Finance

(Vice-President of the Executive Council)

(Leader of the Government in the Senate)

Senator the Hon Simon Birmingham

Steady as she goes. Doesn’t seem to stay in a ministry long enough to make a mark.

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women

Senator the Hon Marise Payne

Kept her job despite persistent murmurs of underperformance and incompetence.

Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment (Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate)

The Hon Daniel Tehan MP

A big promotion given our relationship with China, which has the fragility of a bull in a china shop. Is he up to it?

Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Leader of the House

The Hon Christian Porter MP

A womaniser who is lucky to have retained his job after recent flirtations. You could also add to his titles the Minister for Never Allowing a National anti-Corruption Body.

From Wikipedia:

“On 20 September 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Porter would replace Scott Morrison as Social Services Minister as part of a Cabinet overhaul.

In 2016, Centrelink, operating under Porter’s senior oversight as Social Services Minister, became involved in a debt recovery controversy. Despite heightened media interest and complaints, after meeting with the Department of Human Services, Porter stated that the program was working “incredibly well”. The program was later subject to a Senate committee inquiry, and the program was estimated to be responsible for over 2000 deaths.”

An ICAC candidate if ever there was one.

Minister for Health and Aged Care.

The Hon Greg Hunt MP

The workaholic who is good at making announcements about new medicines. Has inherited most of the Aged Care ministry from Richard Colbeck who could not count the dead from COVID-19. Brilliant liar when Environment Minister.

Wikipedia reminds us that:

“In June 2017 Hunt, Michael Sukkar and Alan Tudge faced the possibility of being prosecuted for contempt of court after they made public statements criticising the sentencing decisions of two senior judges while the government was awaiting their ruling on a related appeal. They avoided prosecution by, eventually, making an unconditional apology to the Victorian Court of Appeal.”

Minister for Home Affairs

The Hon Peter Dutton MP

Probably the most disliked Minister of all. Showed a distinct lack of judgment in thinking he was prime ministerial material.

An ICAC candidate if ever there was one.

Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts

The Hon Paul Fletcher MP

Paul Fletcher was Urban Infrastructure Minister at the time of dodgy land deals worth $30Million at Western Sydney airport. The purchaser was a Liberal Party Donor. Pub test anyone.

Another ICAC candidate if ever there was one.

Minister for Education and Youth

The Hon Alan Tudge MP

He is just getting over a messy affair with former advisor Rachelle Miller.

“A former adviser to Population Minister Alan Tudge has lodged a formal complaint that alleges he engaged in workplace bullying and intimidation that left her “anxious and afraid” in a system that failed to support her and other staff.”

Minister for Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business and (Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate)

Senator the Hon Michaelia Cash

In October 2017, the Australian Workers’ Union offices were raided by the Australian Federal Police, and media were tipped off before the event. Cash denied it was her office. She misled the parliament in doing so and should have been sacked for that alone.

Yep. Yet another ICAC candidate.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology

The Hon Karen Andrews MP

There were no misdemeanours that could be found.

Minister for Resources, Water and Northern Australia

The Hon Keith Pitt MP

Another one were no misdemeanours that could be found.

Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction

The Hon Angus Taylor MP

Where does one start with this individual? Controversy seems to follow him like a bad smell. Senator Penny Wong, the Labor leader in the Senate, said:

“I do not think there has been a climate minister, energy minister who has been more anti-renewable than Angus Taylor.”

His emphasis has always been on emphasis on reducing the cost of energy rather than reducing energy.

Taylor was accused of using $80 million of taxpayers’ money to buy water licences from two Queensland properties owned by Eastern Australia Agriculture (EAA). Taylor was a director of EAA, though resigned from his position in November 2009

October 2019, Taylor was said to be repeating misleading claims about the previous Labor government’s poor record on carbon emissions.

In July 2019 “An investigation into illegal land clearing against a company part-owned by the family of federal minister Angus Taylor.”

In October 2019, Taylor was accused of having “forged” a City of Sydney Council document and providing that document to The Daily Telegraph. The incident stemmed from a letter the Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore wrote to the Minister, asking him to declare “a climate emergency.” In his reply to her, Taylor criticised her own department’s travel – claiming that the City of Sydney Council spent $15.9 million on travel for the 2017-18 period, which he attributed to an annual report document available on the council’s website.

When one looks at his ministerial record it hard to imagine how on earth, he is still a minister. An ICAC candidate if ever there was one.

Minister for the Environment

The Hon Sussan Ley MP

Came back into Ministry after serving time for misusing parliamentary expenses.

“Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said Ms Ley’s replacements in the health, aged care and sport portfolios would be announced next week.”

She was using the flights to negotiate her property investments.

Another one for the ICAC.

Minister for Defence

Senator the Hon Linda Reynolds CSC

Despite the rumours, she has held onto her Ministry. Journalists had formed the view that she was unqualified for such a significant portfolio.

Minister for Veterans Affairs and Defence Personnel

The Hon Darren Chester MP

Chester is one of the few honest politicians left in the Coalition (and not because he is in the electorate of Gippsland where I reside).

Minister for Families and Social Services

(Manager of Government Business in the Senate)

Senator the Hon Anne Ruston

There were no misdemeanours that could be found.

Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme Minister for Government Services

The Hon Stuart Robert MP

Both he and the Prime Minister attend the same church and are personal friends. He has a list of controversies as long as one’s arm that genuinely make him unfit to be a minister. This article provides the truth of his misdemeanours.

Outer Ministry

Because this piece addresses significant decision-makers in the government l have left the Outer Ministry off the list in order to concentrate on the Ministry’s themselves.

Notwithstanding that, it is beneficial to mention some names which would prevent decent policy decisions. Names like Moylan, Canavan, Christensen, Joyce and Kelly, who are questionable in terms of intelligence, and have far too much influence.

People such as these are nothing more than enemies of progress.

I contend that my comments are a reminder of just how poorly equipped the Coalition is to make decisions that effect this great nation and its future.

Hardly any of the personal listed are qualified for the positions they hold. Particularly the Prime Minister.

Continued from My view of the year that was (part 2)

The latter half of 2020 saw Australia as one of the leading countries in the world with its COVID-19 interventions, although the federal government always had its eyes on economics before people, it was the states that led the way. Victoria experienced a second wave, but with strong leadership from Premier Daniel Andrews, it gradually whittled down what was a horrendous list of casualties to none in over 30 days.

The Murdoch news media began a character assassination of the premier that was relentless. It was supported by the Victorian opposition leader who was more of a hindrance than a help in reducing the list of COVID-19 cases. Eventually, the premier overcame his distracters, and as a consequence, was praised for his leadership.

In July, I wrote a piece that was a record of my personal experience of the virus and my family. I make no apologies for its title: “You bastards,” I thought to myself. I wrote that:

“The waiting itself is like a custodial, totality severe sentence. Hour after hour ticks by as your thoughts imagine the worst. The tyranny of distance and a parental need to action is unbearable, overwhelming in its desire to help.”

I followed this up with From Abbott to Morrison: By God you need patience in which I talked about the dysfunctional government and how much patience was required if one was to have any confidence in conservative governments ever reversing their incompetence.

“In short, they had behaved criminally. I recall thinking at the time that if a hopelessly dysfunctional government can have a Royal Commission into alleged corruption in the Union Movement, why can it not have one into our financial institutions?

Well, you all know what happened after that. The government relentlessly resisted a financial services Royal Commission until the scandal became more significant than Ben Hur and the chariots of fire were let loose.”

As the months passed by the American elections – due in November – came closer and Trump became more desperate and erratic. He contacted the coronavirus, entered a hospital, and miraculously a few days later was cured. Many thought it was a stunt, as the polls had Biden well ahead. The election confirmed their predictions. The world sighed in relief at his loss, but Trump was far from convinced.

Speaking at a book launch of A long view from the left written by a former footballing friend Max Odgen, Bill Kelty raises the question “How come?” Trump wins so many states without a health policy, without a superannuation policy or a minimum wage. It is a question I have also posed in the context of Australia this year on many occasions.

“How come?” with almost nine years of pathetic governance is the Morrison government able to maintain such a lead in the polls.

On this very subject, I posted When ‘sorry’ seems to be the hardest word in which I wrote:

“Which of course leaves me with the most puzzling of questions. “That being, that at the end of their third term in office, the government will have served close to nine years with three prime ministers. During that time, they have committed numerous severe misdemeanours, including the rejection of climate change. The current prime minister has a list as long as the Flemington straight. So how come his popularity sits at 68 per cent?”

I followed this up with A damming report on aged care that the government cannot ignore and I wrote that:

“The COVID-19 deaths in our aged care institutions have revealed the dereliction of duty by the federal government. It is the federal government, which is ultimately responsible for setting the standards for their care. This failure, however, is not a recent phenomenon. The Interim Report into Aged Care Quality and Safety released late last year was also damning for the federal government…”

Why we find such compelling reasons to mistreat each other is beyond me. Even when old and frail the difference between being alive and truly living can still, with proper care, be experienced.

On the same theme, in late September I posted JJust because we are governed by clowns it doesn’t mean we have to laugh.

“Yet another scandal surrounding the Liberal Party. A Liberal Party donor purchases a parcel of land near the Western Sydney airport for a fraction of its true value, and the Auditor General finds it to be a shonky deal.”

We were then in September scandal, and corruption has punctuated the year. The public – weary from the performance of corruption-riddled governance – had completely turned off to its effects.

October was quickly upon us when I wrote Who protects us from the government?”

The Prime Minister spruiks his lies but is the preferred Prime Minister by a mile. But few trust him. Well, that is until the virus came along and now everyone does because, in their minds, they want protection from it. So, they put their trust in someone with the power to protect them.

When the virus goes, and the ghastly hardship of recession takes on its most dreadful consequences, they will revert to their untrustworthy attitude.

We all know of the draconian laws legislated during the terrorist threats and asylum seeker periods that gave our government the right to intrude on our civil liberties.

In a speech delivered at the Sydney Human Rights Law Centre Dinner, 27 May 2016 Peter Greste said:

“The human rights that governments both state and federal have been chipping away at – the right to free speech, the right to privacy, the right to freedom of association and protest – are all foundational rights that underpin the way our democracy works.

Freedom of the press, protection of whistleblowers, the public’s right to know have all taken hits over the past few years. Yet they are fundamental reasons why our country has been one of the most stable, the most peaceable, the most prosperous and thriving on the planet.

To try to make us safer by undermining the system that has made us safe in the first place to me doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

In Australia, we have seen such a decline in the practice of government that it wouldn’t surprise me if circumstances might prevail that would give the conservatives a long period of power that might entrench them.

So good has the propaganda been. Add to it the lack of interest the public has in politics, and you have a situation where maintaining the status quo is but a few lies away.

How bitterly disappointing it is when this virus of political lies so utterly corrupts the hearts and minds of our politicians, but more demoralising it is that ordinary people catch the same infection.

We were almost into November, and I was still writing about the government’s crazy year. Nothing seemed to wash them from the uncleanliness of their brand of politics.

But the government was doing well in the polls when I wrote Another week in a government going from bad to worse.

“A short time ago I wrote these words: ‘The worse they govern the more popular they become.’ This week’s post budget Newspoll confirms it to be so.

Mind you, it might also be an indication of the lack of interest we Aussies show in our national affairs.

That Newspoll would reveal such a commanding lead by the government after nearly three full terms of continuing scandals, bad policy, bad implementation, unfairness, shocking leadership and an assault on the very sustainability of planet earth is a scandal of enormous importance.”

By now it was certain that Donald Trump lost the American Presidential election. Joe Biden eventually won the popular vote by 7 million votes, however 75 million people voted for the incumbent. That needs further analysis.

In my post Trump is going to La La Land I wrote:

“I dared not think about it, but I couldn’t avoid reality. I dared to think that the vindictive nature of the President would come to the fore. Was he in his vindictiveness, by doing nothing to prevent further coronavirus-related deaths, actually punishing Americans for not voting for him? Was it possible? His personality suggests a categorical ‘yes’.”

In November I continued to attack the government for its continued sloppiness with This government isn’t fit for purpose followed by Government dishonesty continues unabated.

“Looking back on my writing for 2020 and what has motivated it the most common ingredient has been a sense of frustration that I do not have the impact I once did. By that I mean my readership has dropped a little. I want more people to know the truth. Perhaps I have become too repetitive, and people are bored with it. Or as my son suggests, I’m a bit too lengthy.”

And so this post brings me to the present. My writing will continue, but thin out during the run-up to Christmas and into the new year. 2021 might very well be an election year, and much writing is needed to inform and convince people of the damage these conservative fools are doing to this nation.

“Well done,” tweeted the NSW environment minister, Matt Kean, to the Prime Minister

There were many responses, but federal MP Zali Steggall’s was to the point:

“Are you kidding? A pat on the back for committing not to cheat but still no commitment to Net Zero? Come on, Aus needs leadership, not spin.”

She referred to a report in The SMH that the Prime Minister intended not to use the controversial Kyoto carry-over credits to achieve its emissions reduction targets.

It seems the worldwide embarrassment for using this scandalous accounting trick has become too much for the Prime Minister.

“Morrison signalled a political retreat on the issue in late November, saying in a speech, ‘my ambition is that we will not need them, and we are working to this as our goal, consistent with our record of over-delivering’.”

Goodness, does he mean like Robodebt and Sports Rorts, for example?

And there was Liberal MP Trent Zimmerman on the ABC’s Saturday news program telling Australia that we were on track to meet our target without using the carry-over credits. No mention as to how this was possible.

They are so pathetic and simultaneously self-congratulatory about a fall in our emissions. Still, they neglected to add that we have experienced it because there have been fewer cars on the road, businesses have been closed, and no planes in the air. Whoops, I just conveniently forgot such things.

What a turnaround it has been. For years Morrison has said that Australia was entitled to use the surplus carry-over credits but never justified why. The fact is, he rarely mentioned them. He just said that Australia would meet its targets.

“Mr Morrison’s stance will be a significant shift after years of government claims that Australia is entitled to use “surplus” units. The country accumulated them when meeting the Kyoto Protocol targets from 2008 to 2020 were negotiated and counted toward the Paris targets from 2021 to 2030.”

The latest national figures on greenhouse gases, released last Monday, came with an estimate that Australia would beat its 2020 316 million tonnes without relying on the credits. I agree with Malcolm Turnbull in being a bit sceptical about that given their record on ‘nonconditional announcements’.

Mr Turnbull said: ‘I welcome any advance, but a 28 per cent 2030 target – given the developments since 2015 – will be seen and will be a very cautious and hardly ambitious goal’.”

In response, the leader of the opposition leader Anthony Albanese said:

“… it was a ‘rather pathetic announcement by Scott Morrison’ not to use Kyoto credits, ‘as if that’s a positive’. ‘The rest of the world rejected that as an accounting trick,’ he said. ‘What we need is a plan to reduce emissions, not a plan for accounting tricks’.”

And Greens leader Adam Bandt chipped in, saying:

“… the government ‘deserves no applause’ for giving up the use of the credits, which he likened to ‘cheating’ on global pledges to reduce emissions.

At the upcoming climate ambition summit, when Australia announces its targets, this announcement will, compared with nations like the United Kingdom with a target to cut their emissions by 68% by 2030 levels, will seem miserly.”

Even without the use of credits, Australia will have to do much better than it is proposing. Our targets will be measured as insufficient when compared with other nations.

When one thinks back to the Coalition’s rejection of Labor’s ‘carbon tax’, one cannot but regret that decision’s folly. Had they agreed, it would have become a successful emissions trading scheme and we would have been leading the world.

Continued from My view of the year that was (part 1)

Come April/May of 2020 the coronavirus had taken control of our economy and our health. The government, to its credit, believed in the science and took the advice of experts. Which is something they refused to do with climate change.

With the economy they acted quickly ditching its ideology for socialist action, having learned from Labor’s action with the GFC. Jobs were supported and union leader Sally McManus – together with the Government’s Attorney General Christian Porter – compromised to form a policy known as JobKeeper.

Every economic decision wasn’t seen to be fair and the conservative philosophy that jobs were there for those who wanted them, haunted them still.

At the time I wrote a two-part series titled What will happen in the aftershock of the corona virus? in which I said, among other things, that:

“Our political system is in crisis because our government fails to speak with any clarity on issues that concern us.”

It was a general comment about how they were governing outside of COVID-19. Nothing has changed since.

In America a disengaged President was making a proper mess of the pandemic. A problem that he knew more about than any other person on the planet. I wrote another piece about this dreadful individual.

“Since the coronavirus revealed itself to a world mostly preoccupied with how they would finance their living from month to month, Donald Trump, with his usual bullshit and lies, has been inventing or at least trying to invent, a world that is far from the reality of what damage this virus is capable of doing to the health and wealth of the world’s citizens.

COVID-19 is real and America isn’t immune from it and no amount of shouting fake news will make it go away.”

Trump’s response was predictable:

So much FAKE NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 9, 2020

Back to Australia… Have you noted this year how the word ‘Liberal’ has quietly begun to vanish from the writing of those involved in the reporting of politics? I know that I rarely use it. The word has an altogether different meaning that would describe the political right. They are all conservatives. Nothing more, nothing less. The same goes for the National Party – who are also conservatives.

Another American in Rupert Murdoch was also throwing his weight around asking or demanding money from our government to support his Foxtel (pay station).

In response I updated and reposted a review I had written a few years back of a biography by Paul Barry. My post was titled The Mongrel that is Rupert Murdoch and in which I wrote that:

“During the last election, Bill Shorten copped scathing headlines and opinions from the Murdoch stable of filthy headlines as to his character and anything else they could attack, which I covered in my Election Diary.”

Then when a second wave of the coronavirus hit Victoria Murdoch decided it was Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews turn to cop a pasting. Day after day he copped a pasting from the Herald Sun and Sky News.

The virus had a stranglehold on the media and it was twenty-four seven. It never left us and I wrote a two-part piece titled What will happen in the aftershock of the coronavirus? (part one). In it I used these words written by right-wing conservative journalist Greg Sheridan from the Australian (paywalled):

“The government’s massive fiscal intervention in the Australian economy, entirely justified by the gravity of the COVID-19 crisis, will change center-right politics in this country forever. You cannot make the need for small government, free markets and less state intervention your chief political narrative if you have just used government on a scale never before imagined to rescue the nation from a desperate health emergency.”

Jumping ahead to June the US election was beginning to take up more media space. I wrote The greatest showman, or the greatest threat? to show my distain for this person of ill repute.

“The protests spread like a festering ulcer across the United States making a vain attempt at overcoming an unpretentious and legitimate frustration over decades-long failure to reform police practices and the broader criminal justice system in the USA.

Trump, in characteristic fashion, was condemning the violence he and his capitalistic ugliness were ultimately responsible for.

Condemning the violence of the protesters and promoting his.

Not once in his callous speech was there a hint that the protesters might have a point. That the knee had been bent over inequality and injustice for too long.”

I wrote another; Trump talks of God, but acts of evil before the odour of his words disappeared.

In June and July, the American police seemed to be at war with their dark-skinned people and the #BlackLivesMatter protests started. I wrote A dilemma of monumental proportion. Indigenous Australians joined in and so began a conflict with the COVID-19 rules. It was a clash that had no answers.

“So, on the one hand, you would have to say that the health warnings were in keeping with previous warnings, which had been obeyed and were very successful.

On the other you would have to acknowledge that 432 First Nations People have died while in the custody of the police, someone was responsible, and people want to know why. There had never been a greater opportunity to protest that point.

Who can blame our Indigenous brothers and sisters (and those who support them) for raising their voices? For seizing the moment.

For those who see the point of view of the health professionals but still wish to protest during the course of a pandemic raise’s questions of conscience and ethics.”

In June I was questioning how a government so bad could be so popular, penning The Morrison Government is bad, but is it that people don’t care anymore?

Bad and mismanaged policy suggestions of corruption, Claytons’ announcements and no sign of a national ICAC were all pointing to a government with its right hand unfamiliar with what its left was doing.

I followed that up with a terse article The Morrison government has no sense of urgency on our future … or perhaps the marketing plan isn’t finished and then We live in shadowy times and white men who inhabit it lead us further into darkness.

So disgusted was I with the malevolent way in which our democracy was being exploited that every time I felt my age, I determined to find something more in me.

It was now July and the coronavirus still had us by the short and curlies. The state governments were full of self-interest and the Prime Minister had a dose more than any of them. Trump was allowing his citizens to die and spent most of his time on the golf course. He was looking for something he had lost, and it wasn’t his ball.

I finished the year 2019 with a piece titled George Christensen and other secrets about the rather rotund figure of George. Well, not about his wholesome physique but about why he needed to spend so much time in Manilla.

“Many fellow parliamentarians now call him the ‘Member for Manila’ because of his frequent travel to the region, including an astonishing 28 trips in a four-year period.”

Then as we Australians are apt to do, we shed as much clothing as possible and began our annual sojourn into the January siesta. Little did we know what was to confront us in the year ahead.

As for me, well, as one day merged with the next, I continued to write and in January a four-piece post arose from my keyboard. I gave it the title The baggage they have lugged from one year to the next means 2020 will be a hard slog not because I was trying to be prophetic, I was just pointing out how badly we were being governed and how ongoing it was.

And in my view, it has engaged the whole of 2020 and will do the same in 2021. During this period to make matters worse the country was ablaze with the ruddy redness of bushfires.

I followed up with another article in January; As prophetic as I may be in which I said: “I don’t see myself as being particularly gifted in prophetic wisdom, but on at least three occasions in 2019 I said that it would take an event of catastrophic proportion to wake the Australian population from its malaise over climate heating.”

That it happened attached no pleasure to my words. That they make for a catalyst for action does. A Guardian Essential poll (1 December) saying that “Three-quarters of Australians back a target of net zero by 2030” would seem to support my words.

In February I wrote my best read piece for the year; You cannot be a leader and a bare-faced liar at the same time. In it I lambasted Scott Morrison’s need to lie all the time. “Never in the history of this nation has a government been so unfit to serve, and never in the history of this nation has its people been so indoctrinated with so much propaganda that they, in effect, discarded any sense of levelheadedness or reasoning to re-elect this sordid lot of corrupt politicians.

And yet again I am compelled to watch Prime Minister Scott Morrison, the one with the mouth that weaves its way in and out of problems with all the charm and vigour of a rattlesnake ready to strike, and thus my writing may be intoxicated with the venom of his untruth and lies.”

It of course has never stopped and he continues on with his Trumpish bullshit. I followed up that piece with “Keeping the bastards honest”: Was it just a passing fad that lost its way? The government had promised to have a national corruption body done and dusted by last December, but strangely, more than a few scandals seem to have gotten in their way.

Controversy still raged into March and April about Sports Rorts, the Prime Minister’s holiday during the fires and if he didn’t believe in the science of climate change, he was at least believing the science of COVID-19.

March came and I lifted my game. I wrote four pieces in anger as the appalling governance continued. However, with the help of the Murdoch press the conservatives, despite them experiencing disaster after disaster, were becoming increasingly popular.

I wrote The shopping spree and a 12-pack prize which was a spoof on buying toilet rolls during the height of the pandemic.

At the height of the virus, when the question of who can you trust was first and foremost in the public eye, I wrote this piece; The Public versus Scott Morrison such was my anger at this un Christian man. This was followed by; Our greatest failure has been the decline of our democracy in which I posed the question that conservatives were hard-pressed to explain: How come the science of climate that discovered our planet is overheating and threatening our existence is somehow different (and unbelievable) to the science that discovered a virus that also threatened great destruction? They were indeed A government trying to fix everything while they’re not even working (which was another post which referred to the fact that they wouldn’t allow the parliament to sit).

What makes the Morrison government’s actions of the past week so astonishing points out how the government used socialist monetary policy to resist the effects of the recession we inevitably found ourselves in. And remember that’s where we were headed prior to the pandemic.

In April I was so disgusted with the lying of this conservative government that I was compelled to write A layperson’s guide to lying:

“Lying in Australian politics has also reached unprecedented levels. The Prime minister and his Cabinet have taken lying to such depths that it is not disingenuous to suggest that this government under Morrison no longer has a moral compass nor any understanding of truth.”

With the virus now ripping the heart out of Australia, masses of people joining the dole queues, education upended, sporting fixtures being cancelled together with the arts and businesses across the country we were all looking each other in the eye wondering what was going to hurt us next. There wasn’t, it seemed, anything that this virus couldn’t reach and destroy.

It was a time when presenting facts to people who had reasoned by virtue of their feelings that they are right was totally futile. Conspiracy theories intermingled with the headlines of the Murdoch press to create an atmosphere of despondency.

At the end of April I posted It’s more than just a virus: there are culture wounds and abscesses of leadership:

“So submersed had we become with all the consequences and complications of COVID-19 that it preoccupied our minds as if nothing else existed.

And rightly so, given the deathly possibilities this virus insinuates upon society.

Like rust this deadly infection, without instruction, without fear or favour, spreads itself throughout the community; the wealthy and the poor die. The aged and not so aged.

Its side effects include the wrecking of lives, families, and the devastation of economies and cultures with the possibility of a world recession.

Without a cure our only defence is isolation and some meaningful rules that – if followed – suffice as effective and efficient weapons.

The rich with a negative worldview see the gloom as a reason to protect themselves and their wealth. The poor with no recourse to health insurance die because Trump hates the word Obama. But the rich do too because of an unpreparedness to combat this killer.”

To be continued …

I dared not think it but I couldn’t avoid the reality. I dared to think that the vindictive nature of the President would come to the fore. Was he in his vindictiveness, by doing nothing to prevent further coronavirus-related deaths, actually punishing Americans for not voting for him? Was it possible? His personality suggests a categorical ‘yes.’

Deaths are predicted to double and hospitalisations will soar before any vaccine offers relief.

If Nero fiddled while Rome burned then Trump is guilty of golfing while people perished.

Five years ago, he was to me nothing but a celebrity of little note. A person of no redeeming features; just another tin man who loved to exhibit his wealth, his racism floated around him, narcissism and nefariousness walked with him in a way that appealed to the like-minded.

At the same time, he displayed his ability to lie in a way that demonstrated his impaired process of believing his lies to be the truth.

Then in my analysis l felt an unexpected pang of sorrow for this sad excuse for a human being. That anyone, let alone a President, would allow an expected 500,000 of his people to die when avenues were open to try and save them could only be done by someone either brain damaged or brain dead, and that person was the POTUS.

Ad Astra on these pages described him as a cult leader. He may very well correct.

Grumpy Geezer, also on these pages, said he was:

“Devoid of friends, not even a dog.

Devoid of humour he doesn’t make jokes, he doesn’t laugh. Not ever. An occasional dismal rictus, a necrotic gash in his ochre-lacquered face-bladder signifies nothing more than his satisfaction in transacting another con.

He’s a loathsome coagulation of every human failing with no compensating virtues.

A craven coward.

A sociopath.

A serial rapist.

A racist.

A quisling.

An opportunistic grifter.

An inveterate cheat.

A deceitful toad.

A chronic liar.

A shameless braggart.

An ignoramus who lacks curiosity. He doesn’t read, he doesn’t care.”

Both are correct in their assertions and views such as theirs have been voiced by good people around the world.

I have no doubt that he should be committed or institutionalised for acts against society. That he is mentally unstable is a given. I of course have no qualifications that would merit such a judgement. I only have a lifetime of studying human nature to back up my supposition.

Farron Cousins writing for Stand Up. Move Forward has been one of many professionals to voice an opinion on the President.

“Former Harvard psychiatrist Dr. Lance Dodes didn’t mince words during a recent conversation with Salon.com when he said that Donald Trump is a successful sociopath. Dr. Dodes says that Trump only cares about his own well-being, and his presidency has just been an extension of his sociopathic tendencies.

Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals are tired of mincing words about Donald Trump’s mental health and they’ve now come out and been very blunt about the fact that the president is not well.”

Psychiatrists usually stick with their associations advice and don’t comment on the health of prominent public figures but any Google search on the subject will reveal hundreds of professional people prepared to diagnose this POTUS.

Having said that, we have all made an effort either in our minds or with keyboard to analyse this person of ill repute. Diagnosing on mass those who have supported him is another matter altogether.

‘Crass’ is the first word that comes to mind when I think about Donald Trump. Another is ‘superficial.’ Crass because he has one of those mouths that seem to put you offside. His vile “pussy” comment seemed to sum him up. Superficial because there was always something sinister about him that was un-presidential. He wore a coat of many colours, none of which could be trusted. A man of superficial charm that left me cold. His glibness of sole and falseness of sincerity was astonishing and lacked any conscience. He wasn’t complex as many would have it. He was a simpleton. We normal people are complex.

People of Trump’s ilk, well, you can see right through them. He lacked empathy and in terms of mortal importance only one number mattered.

He was a sexual predator who failed intellectualism. A charmer, whose merit was purely verbal and had no underlying substance.

A very “stable genius” who knew more about anything than anyone else was the way he described himself.

But all these things accumulated together with his vindictiveness never approached his capacity for untruthfulness.

“All of Trump’s lies that contradicted commonly accepted facts challenged the fundamental principles of the Enlightenment, which are premised on the belief that there are objective facts discoverable through investigation, empirical evidence, rationality, and the scientific methods of enquiry.” (brookings.edu, April 13, 2018).

From these premises, it follows that political discourse involves making logical arguments and adducing evidence in support of those arguments, rather than asserting one’s own self-serving version of reality.

Senator Patrick Moynihan’s admonition is apropos: “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.”

“These are the diagnostic standards for a textbook sociopath.” He seems to fit them all.

Trump’s belief that as President he didn’t have to refute any charges that he wasn’t telling the truth, that as the President he didn’t have to explain himself to others.

This self-imposed God-like power suggested a highly inflated appreciation of the Presidency and that others had to accept his version of reality, or none at all.

Surprise slithered across his face when they didn’t.

Anyone for golf? No cheating.

Looking back on my writing for 2020 and what has motivated it the most common ingredient has been a sense of frustration that I’m not having the impact I once did. By that I mean my readership has dropped a little. I want more people to know the truth. Perhaps I have become too repetitive and people are bored by it. Or as my son suggests, l’m a bit too lengthy.

That’s not my fault of course, it’s the government’s. They have been so consistently horrific in yet another year of awfulness that one feels compelled to regularly convey it to the AIMN readers.

Governance is an amalgam of many things; of leadership, of managerial expertise, of economics and culture, and another element is crisis management. In fact, politics controls everything we do. Or at least government regulates what we can and cannot do. We aren’t truly free.

It is astonishing just how much control government has over us. Think about it. From how fast we can drive a car to how well we are cared for when ill or old. There are thousands of rules. How well it exercises these regulators indicates how well it is governing.

In a moment of meditation last week I began to think about how the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments have fared when their governance is put through the wringer of political performance. How well have they served us. Well, the answer is empathetically, poorly!

When you think deeply about the government’s performance during its time in office, it has been deplorable. Most of its ministers wouldn’t get a job in a major private company, or heads of departments in our public service based on current performance. How would you rate them on telling the truth, transparency and openness for example?

What I’m trying to reason in my own mind is why a government without any of the aforementioned skills, with so many policies that are anathema to the common good of the country keeps getting elected by the people no matter how narrow the margin.

I’m not trying to put together some sort of study here. On the contrary, all my comments are just random thoughts that might fit into any of the aforementioned categories.

It is my contention that lying, misinformation, lying by omission, subliminally implied suggestions, straightforward propaganda, deliberate scare campaigning and corruption is nakedly practiced by this government.

Any form of untruthful communication has become the norm with Coalition politicians and the media conversing with the public through lies. So normal and long applied has this form of conversation become that we are now unquestioning of it.

When a political party deliberately withholds information that the voter needs to make an informed, balanced and reasoned assessment of how it is being governed. It is not only lying by omission… it is also tantamount to the manipulation of our democracy.

Why else would the people of Australia keep on electing a government that fails so often? Just look at their record.

Robodebt and lost lives. Sports Rorts, Aged Care, lost lives. Climate change and lost lives. Energy prices. Handling of fires and lost lives. Angus Taylor’s scandals, the behaviour of Coalition MPs and how they conduct themselves with women. Great Barrier Reef Foundation, land deals, corruption, money for Murdoch, contracts without tender, refusal of FOI applications, Barnaby Joyce’s water deals, and the failure of the NBN.

These aren’t just small errors of judgement; these are large scale mistakes, bad management or straight out corruption that have cost billions of dollars and hundreds of lives and the Coalition government is responsible. Yet they remain popular. How is it so?

It is fair to say they performed well with the coronavirus but always with an eye on the economy ahead of people’s health.

The electorate, however, seems unmoved. Why is it so?

Sooner or later we need to wake up to just how badly our politicians are governing our country. It has been going on for almost nine years. It is a disgrace and has to be stopped. The government must be challenged over its incompetence.

Have the same group caught the anti-socialist virus? Do they dislike the leaders Labor promotes? There is some truth in that but then the conservative leaders don’t stack up so well either. Is it a choice suggesting that it’s better to stick with the devil you know than the one you don’t?

At the last election not even the government thought it could win. but win they did. Labor couldn’t be accused of not putting forward progressive (perhaps too many) ideas and sound policies. They had an ambitious set of reforms. What they lacked was a popular leader and positive salesmanship but instead all the big-ticket items were complicated and difficult to sell.

They will, one day, have to be fixed or they will sink the economy: Franking credits, negative gearing, top-bracket tax, climate change.

We have a government supported by Australia’s biggest and most biased media outlet. So much so that more than 500,000 people have signed Kevin Rudd’s record-breaking petition to get a Royal Commission into the bias and power of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Australia. With the help of Turnbull’s recent outburst on QandA at least a Senate inquiry has been secured. They might even talk about that $40 million Murdoch asked for… and got.

The Coalition has had a long-term problem with women. Last week the ABC Four Corners programme revealed some very bad behaviour by Ministers Alan Tudge and Christian Porter. Another example of these damaging affairs has been the behaviour of hillbilly Barnaby Joyce.

All have one thing in common. They all like to lecture us on how we should behave. Barnaby was doing it again on QandA last Monday night.

On that subject let’s look at the incident where the Prime Minister interrupted the Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston.

She was asked if the political culture for women had improved. Before she could say “Hiawatha” the Prime Minister jumped in to answer the question.

And it happened in the middle of the accusations of sexual misconduct by Porter and Tudge.

From a cultural point of view the Senate’s decision not to allow the Aboriginal flag to be flown alongside the Australian flag had the “know your place” sarcasm about it. So literally male, white and middle-aged. It tells our First Nation People all they need to know. A voice for our First Nations People seems further away.

Anyhow, let’s move on. A short time ago I wrote these words: “The worse they govern the more popular they become.” The recent post-budget Newspoll confirms it to be so.

Not joking. This is absolutely true. Nothing seems to put a dent in the government’s popularity or that of Morrison’s. Years of deplorable governance has made no difference.

Here is another example: Porter is also charged with putting together an Integrity Commission that will do them no harm, such is the list of scandals they are involved in. Really, you wouldn’t trust him to shuffle a pack of cards. “Porter’s plan will help cover up corruption, not expose it,” wrote Geoffrey Watson in The SMH.

Another of course is the handling of our aged care sector and the failure of Morrison to respond to the many reports. The deaths of many can be directly blamed on this inaction together with the suicides from Robodebt. Possibly the worst example of maladministration in Australian political history.

The government has agreed to a $1.2 billion pay-out to nearly half a million Australians affected by the controversial Robodebt scheme. A record for class actions and a disgrace of governance.

The election of Joe Biden with a major pro-climate policy will place a lot of pressure on Morrison to improve his government’s climate policy and abandon the use of controversial Kyoto ‘carryover credits’ or risk damage to Australia’s reputation worldwide. He seems to laugh it off.

I think without doubt l have proven my point. We cannot allow this government and this Prime Minister to take us any further into this world of self-indulgence where nothing matters but the state of the economy. I will therefore continue to reveal the failings of this most incompetent mob of thoughtless managers.

Repetition be buggered.

Murdoch has them by the balls.

What is it that Rupert Murdoch has that enables him to demand of our government millions of dollars of taxpayer’s money whenever he wants it?

I first came across this story in 2017 when the government kicked in $30 million dollars to Foxtel to promote women’s sports. It appeared as a one-line item in the budget of that year.

At the time it pricked a lot of ears, and questions were put to the then minister Mitch Fifield. As usual, he played a straight bat to all the questions he faced. There wasn’t a journalist who could penetrate his defence.

On the surface it looked as though Murdoch’s Foxtel man, Patrick Delany, just demanded 30 million dollars and got the money without so much as a condition being bowled.

They could spend the money in any way they wanted and the umpire would overlook any excessive appeals. Not a bad deal. The umpires didn’t even have to write a match report, meaning no plan on how the money would be spent even existed. There wasn’t even a plan to enforce a follow on.

Although it is supposedly to:

“… support the broadcast of underrepresented sports on subscription television, including women’s sports, niche sports, and sports with a high level of community involvement and participation.”

Why would you give that sort of money to a subscription television station? Wouldn’t the ABC be a better proposition for underrepresented women’s sports?

I mean, they didn’t even have a plan for a bit of ball tampering in Murdoch’s groin area when he was fielding in the covers, let alone the promotion of women’s sport.

There were never any terms or conditions, no plans needed to be submitted, no terms and no accountability. The women’s cricket team didn’t even have a dress code.

All attempts at fielding documents under Freedom of Information were denied for the reason that they didn’t exist. Any drunk on the boundary would reckon a googly had been bowled at the taxpayer during a pandemic.

Minister Fifield declined to comment:

“But a statement from his office said the decision was made by the Government as part of the budget process, and the FOI decision was made independently of him.”

Now you have to pay a subscription to Foxtel who have asked for money from the government, and in turn the ABC for broadcasting rights for women’s sports for which we already pay tax. Hit that one to fine leg.

Is that clear? If not, it simply means they got $30 million dollars no questions asked.

But Foxtel being the run hungry buggers they are weren’t satisfied. They asked for and got another $10 million. They don’t even have to submit a plan until the end of the season. Just before the footy starts. If you are thinking it’s a bit of a balls-up you would be correct.

With the latest $10 million a further FOI request was hit for six when:

“Communications Minister Paul Fletcher’s chief of staff Ryan Bloxsom said the disclosure ‘could reasonably be expected to have a detrimental effect on the working relationship between the minister’s office and the Prime Minister’s office, now and into the future’.”

That sounds to me like a bit of grafting at the crease now and into the future.

So, let’s hope that the parliamentary inquiry into Murdoch’s media ownership brings some sanity to the game. At the moment only one side is playing cricket.