Day to Day Politics: It’s all about me.
Thursday 26 January 2017
1 I have been writing for The AIMN now for some time, and my readers probably know little about me personally. I started writing stories as a hobby and became so good at it that one was accepted by the New York Times and I went on to become a successful writer of fiction. Another of my hobbies is portrait painting and I have exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
I also got interested in music and composed a number of songs. The conductor of the Victorian Symphony Orchestra asked me to write a Sonata or two for them.
These are my alternative facts:
It used to be called lying but now it has been given this title of alternative facts. President Trump says that 3.5 million people voted fraudulently in the election. He insists this is a fact and no manner of proof will persuade him otherwise. He has the alternative facts. The danger is that many will believe him in the same way they believe Hansen and others.
An observation.
“You see now he is saying that what I thought he said is only a figment of my imagination. That what I think I thought he meant is not what he meant at all.That when he says something and I take it to mean one thing he has the option of saying that what I thought I heard was not what I heard at all. It was only my interpretation of what he meant. I mean, did he say what he meant or did he mean to say what he meant or was what he meant really what he meant.
I know that I am 76 and I have the odd senior moment but usually I know what I mean and what is meant by what I say. I also know that people understand what I’m meaning.”
Now back to the matters at hand.
2 My NBN is due to be installed tomorrow. I’m dreading the thought given the experiences of many others.
An observation.
“The problem with designing a network to meet the needs of today is that it denies you the ability to meet the needs of tomorrow.”
3 Now the Federal Government is under pressure from conservative ‘Trumpist’ MPs to abolish renewable energy and carbon emission reduction targets altogether.
Barnaby Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister with about as much charisma as a limp tea bag, says the Government remains committed to the target of cutting emissions by up to 28 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030. Really?
After years and tears of debating the science and how best to reduce emissions the Federal Minister Josh Freydenberg has now reduced it to the suggestion that clean coal, gas and battery storage technology will be more effective in reducing greenhouse gas emissions than carbon taxes.
Seriously, this man has enough degrees to wallpaper the living room of his place of abode but he can’t put two and two together. We had a Carbon Tax that was working. They replaced it with a nonsensical Direct Action plan that hasn’t. I do wish they would take the matter seriously.
Katherine Murphy writing for The Guardian had this to say:
“On climate policy the Coalition has backed itself into a tight corner of its own making – and it shows no sign of finding the courage, the steadiness or the integrity to try to manage its way out.”
4 It is said that every picture tells a story so let your mind digest the significance of this picture of seven white men smugly looking down on their master as he signs the death penalty on many women.. I don’t think in my lifetime, perhaps not even yours, that you will see seven women watching a female president signing legislation determining what men can do with their reproductive organs.
To commit this act of moral indecency against women two days after millions protested against him was the act of a capricious, despotic misogynist.
Simply put it means that organizations that offer or promote abortion would be omitted from receiving federal funding.
The money, about $600 million went mainly to women in third world countries many of whom may now very well die because of Trump’s decision.
No wonder women hate the vile creature.
5 Both Japan and the US have said that the multi nation trade agreement is dead in the water yet Australia’s Trade Minister Steven Ciobo says the nation will press ahead with the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership. Yet another example of wishful thinking.
In more bad news for free trade, protectionist Trump has also signalled the introduction of a punitive border tax on US companies that shift manufacturing jobs offshore and then seek to import goods that used to be made locally.
6 When will politicians get serious and admit that more jobs have been lost and will be lost by the effect s of advanced technology that any other factor. It is said that we are training 50% of our school levers for jobs that wont exist in 10/15 years time.
On this day in 2016 I wrote:
In Australia we have a saying, “only in America”. It’s a phrase we say when something outrageously good or bad happens, as though such excesses can occur only in America. It might be violent racism, another Columbine, kids being slaughtered – any preventable, tragic loss of life that repeats time and again for which no remedy is forthcoming. All of this is beyond the average Australian’s capacity to understand.
For example when the Republicans put forward a candidate like Donald Trump for the Presidency who says:
“I could ‘shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”
We are apt to say … “Only in America”.
My thought for the day. (You will have to give this some thought)
“What is the difference between the purpose of life and the reason for it?”
22 comments
Login here Register here-
Allan Richardson -
1petermcc -
Terry2 -
John Lord -
kathysutherland2013 -
wam -
Michael Taylor -
Keitha Granville -
helvityni -
SGB -
wam -
johnlord2013 -
delightedtobe -
Egalitarian -
win jeavons -
1petermcc -
jamesss -
corvus boreus -
guest -
olddavey -
Harquebus -
Ricardo29
Return to home page“The problem with designing a network to meet the needs of today is that it denies you the ability to meet the needs of tomorrow.”
I am also due to get the NBN this quarter. I’m concerned that it will not meet the needs of yesterday (ADSL2) which were met adequately.
I can only add to your NBN stress, John. Mirboo North has the service available since October last year. I’m about to go back to ADSL2 tomorrow with no penalty from my provider for breaking the contract after they finally admitted 9 Meg can’t be improved upon due to line quality. Unfortunately the lines are owned by Optus so even the service provider has accepted they can’t get them moving.
Strangely some folk nearby have good speed but if there are line issues you are up the proverbial creek. I’ve now met 2 gentlemen who work for NBN and both have told me the techs hate deploying a deliberately hamstrung system.
Good luck with yours. My wished for 100 Meg remains elusive but I will regard 24 as a win after a long battle to improve on 9.
Looking at that photo, I wonder will there be an Executive Order requiring all male flunkies to wear a blue tie : Tony would bristle with pride.
On the NBN what I have noticed since being connected (satellite) is that NBN as a wholesaler will not deal with the public and will refer you to your ISP and frequently your ISP won’t have a clue what the problem is or what’s going on. This avoidance of responsibility is going to be a major problem for us going forward.
Thanks Petermcc
Re the NBN – I have no idea when I’ll be getting it! I live in Hobart, and there are still parts of the city without the NBN.
Great to see you having a little boast.
Your thought is an easy riddle:
there is absolutely no difference, at all. The purpose of life is to spread an haploid motile single cell and the reason for life is clearly shown in your picture, Fortunately, despite the lnp’s best efforts, we are not septic tanks(yet), as is demonstrated by 30% of our 1000 honors has been presented to women.
6 we? these poor buggers are paying for training and are in debt. Singapore pay them any the companies have to provide but here the companies just need a signature to rip off the government. They are so successful that this government will have been debt-disastrious. Unfortunately by the time, it is discovered we will be with the fairies.
my NBN was installed by 457ers, a syrian and a turkish kurd.
After a pleasant introduction, I asked if they could put the connection at the phone out let and they had a little chuckle, at my hand set with the old fashioned curly cord.
They followed the line and put the fibre up through the ceiling.
So, Lord, just be your friendly self and explain your want.
ps the prick sold telstra but there is still some history so stick with them?????
We had our NBN connected on Wednesday last week.
We were living in Canberra when we were connected to the Rudd NBN. What a world of difference that experience was! A bloke came around, put a small box on our wall, and bingo. We had download speeds of 98.5mps from the moment it was switched on.
But here … with Turnbull’s Fraudband … oh what a mess.
After being connected we had the amazing speed of 4.5mps for a whole five minutes before the system crashed. And as NBNCo had turned off our ADSL2, we were without the internet for almost a week until NBNCo sent around a technician to kick-start it. I now have the whopping download speeds of 2.5mps (we’re paying for the plan to have 100mps, btw). The technician said that the best we can hope for in the interim is 9mps.
Apparently there’s something wrong with the cable, so everyone in the area is having the same problem. And being in a new estate the excuse of old cables can’t be used.
All this costs us $30 a month more than what Rudd’s cost us. And Rudd’s worked. Turnbull’s doesn’t.
Not sure about the purpose or meaning of life, my youngest son(23) asked me this question just before Christmas – he wanted a deep and meaningful answer. I struggled to find one in these times of uncertainty and dismal government.
I am glad to hear that others view ministers in our government with the same withering disdain. I can never work out why they see themselves as the saviours of the free world – then I read Kaye Lee’s piece on fascism and it all made sense.
Re the NBN – I am in Tas and we were fortunate to be provided with wireless because we are rural. Our ADSL was pathetic, some days only reaching 2mbps. Impossible. We love our NBN which gives us 10. 100 is probably a pipedream.
Good on you John Lord for a bit self-promotion. Let the pedants and nit-pickers here know that creativity, the Arts, matter.
Yesterday we were driving past the boarding school , theTudor House, in Southern Highlands, and were disappointed that there were no signs indicating it was Patrick White’s old school…. he’s after all our only Nobel Prize winning author.
Plenty of fuss made of a mere cricketer, Bradman. 🙂
My NBN is just as good as the ADSL.
One must ask why the government spent so much on a network to be as good as the one before?
haha well said helvityni about patrick but ‘mere’ wow my dad’s heros were three men and a horse. One man was so far ahead of the world that the rules were changed to try to stop his dominance and another was so good that the English devised body line
The purpose of life is procreation. The survival of the species. There is no reason to it.
Why should Trump be blamed for other countries problems. He has made it abundantly clear that he cares about the USA first.
Women perhaps should take responsibility for their own reproductive organs, I believe Trump is only making it clear that when life begins, you become a murderer to end it. If you don’t want the child then someone else will, its called adoption.
As far as climate change/ global warming / ozone layer whatever. The real problems with oil are, firstly you are supporting terrorism by purchasing it from terror supporting countries and second, it will not last forever and alternatives need to be found. I don’t believe blackening out whole states with green power at this early stage of finding good alternatives is really necessary.
I don’t think people nowadays know what “Only in America” means anymore.We are them now,
And John :Barnaby Joyce, the Deputy Prime Minister with about as much charisma as a limp tea bag, says the Government remains committed to the target of cutting emissions by up to 28 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030. Really?
Yes Barnaby’s comment’s are a bit like a Guard giving you a comforting smile as he closes the train door on your journey to Auschwitz.
In other words people will say and do anything for their blind ideology; especially the ignorant ones.
Perhaps the meaning of life IS LIFE , not even just human life. If this does not answer the question, that may be because humans evolved / were created to ask hard questions ; it certainly makes life interesting and promotes evolution; God knows humans badly need to evolve fast or we will , at best, cease to be the dominant species.
It doesn’t take a whole lot of effort to work out Donald has decided to remove the ability for women to make their own decisions about their bodies. There is a lot of commentary out there if further reading is required to catch up.
It will require an open mind though which obviously won’t help apologists.
Life can be many things, its how you go about it. Walk the surface of Earth Mother as a considerate and mindful person. Be of service to others, be the example to others in your thoughts and deeds, lastly be community minded.
We are also aware Political Parties need to be dismantled as their intention is to enslave you.
delightedtobe,
‘climate change/ global warming / ozone layer whatever’.
Claiming a fuddled ignorance regarding the subject of which you speak may be quaint in coquetry, but it does not add weight to your claims in any debate, particularly regarding serious and complicated scientific matters.
The climate change debate is seriously muddled in this country, and deliberately so because Oz has plenty of coal and there are those among us who want to cash in before it all becomes stranded assets.
Two writers in The Australian today, Greg Sheridan (foreign affairs) and Graham Lloyd (post-truth climate change spruiker) have had their say about “clean coal” and “cheap electricity”. This in defence of Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg’s missives on coal and renewables.
The whole idea of “clean coal” is an oxymoron and one would have to be a moron to believe it. What they mean is that “clen coal” emits less CO@ when burnt, but it does emit plenty of CO2.
And readers must also take note of how the statewide blackout in SA is explained – as being the result of too much windpower generation of electricity. Are we to believe that with 22 power line towers blown overby high winds coal powered stations would have continue to churn out the power with no loss of voltage?
These two writers see climate change as some kind of religion. The science does not suggest that, given the facts, but denialism is a belief not based on facts.
One only has to Google China, India and Japan and coal consumption and one sees that these two Murdochians have not looked closely at the issues.
At reneweconomy.com.au (2 Dec 2016) we find this:
“China’s coal consumption has been steadily declining…and decreased by 68m tonnes or 2.4%.. China will gradually shift away from high energy consumption and increase the proportion on non-fossil fuels in its high energy mix…In the long run, China’s coal demand will stabilise , and domestic coal supply will meet the country’s demands.”
So Oz coal will be shut out. But besides that, as renewable energy becomes cheaper, it will be cheaper than coal.
When the Murdochians speak of the cost of electricity, we might also ask them what is the cost of cooking the planet?
A headline at Fortune International, Nov 28, 2016, says”
“China May Be Building $500bn Worth of Unnecessary Coal Plants ” and goes on to say: “Even as China had 895 gigawatts of existing coal generating capacity, by this summer only half of it was being used.”
Then we have talk about what Japan and India will do. Japan has no fossil fuels of its own Its nuclear plants have been shut down. There is talk of coal-fired stations and especially of over-seas plants (exporting pollution, which is what Oz does). India is already looking to abandon coal and is well on the way to using solar power.
Meanwhile, here in Oz, w are supporting coal mines, including the unlikely Adani Carmichael mine. It is all about the money, stupid – but nothing about the costs. Good luck with that! Health, Great Barrier Reef, jobs…gone!
The idea that we make ourselves rich before we do anything about climate change (Sheridan) is ridiculous. The longer we leave it, the more it costs. (See also the NBN).
Looking at that picture of the seven white men one word comes readily to mind,
C**nts.
I know I shouldn’t say this, but the assassination can’t come soon enough.
“Life is really simple but, we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius
Olddavey, such a great pejorative word. Pity its connection to a wonderful part if the female anatomy makes it so difficult to use. I like the alternative proposed by Gina Reilly in a segment on the pronunciation of Chardonay, (sorry would love to be able to post a link), when she referred to her critics as a bunch if chunts.