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T-Rump And The Inevitable Destruction of Malcolm Turnbull

Gee, it’s amazing when you find your shtick how far you can go.

When Donald Trump was a recovering bankrupt businessman, he took a job on “The Apprentice” which consisted of him saying “You’re Fired!” after telling someone how inadequate he or she was. And while he couldn’t fire Obama or Hillary, he ran a whole election campaign talking about how bad America was and how it was all the fault of the people in power and how – as someone who wasn’t in power – he knew exactly what is was like to be an unemployed coal miner and if, you’d just vote for him, he’d build a wall/drain the swamp/make America great again/seal the deal/stop political correctness and allow locker room talk and so on.

So, of course, as POTUS, he’s showed that was only part of the act by calling up Sally Yates and saying “You’re fired”! Actually I’m not sure that he actually called her up, because when he sacked James Comey, there was no call. Comey saw it on the TV while giving a speech…

Trump must be losing it. Surely he should have had the cameras there for the big moment. Comey walks in. Donald, sitting behind the desk. Camera zooms in and Trump says…

Oh silly me!

He’s saving that for when he sacks the special counsel, Robert Mueller.

Of course, his advisers might try to remind him about Nixon and Watergate by pointing out that it was the attempt to sack the guy in charge of the investigation that was the final straw. However, I could imagine Trump asking if that led to his impeachment and, when told that Nixon resigned before he was impeached, Trump would say that Nixon was a pussy…

Perhaps the wrong word to use when writing about Trump, but anyway, speaking of Malcolm Turnbull and coal miners, how do you like the Liberal response to the Finkel Report?

Like I said the other day, surprises are surprising but Tony Abbott is one certainty in a world of constant shocks. Yep, he’s concerned about coal. Now, Tony’s attachment to coal can’t be explained in logical terms. All possible explanations can only go so far. Financial support from the fossil fuel industry would only buy you so much love, but Tony’s admiration of coal rivals that of Donald Trump’s cabinet’s support for its leader.

Of course, the difference is when Mr Abbott speaks to a lump of coal and says, “We thank you for the opportunity and the blessing that you’ve given us to serve your agenda”, we don’t have a bunch of sycophants adding that it’s a “Great honor to serve coal” or “My hat’s off to coal” or “This is the privilege of my life”.

Oh wait, yes we do.

We have the wonderful economic logic of the Liberals surfacing yet again. You know, the same economic logic that told us back in 2013 that they’d remove the enormous tax on everything, as well as the mining tax, not cut spending or put up taxes AND get the Budget back to surplus. Apparently, the concern with renewables is that they’ll push prices up, but George “I saved the public health system by getting my operation done overseas” Christensen telling us that the government should start building its own coal-fired power stations because… well, the private sector is a bit worried about investing in them. Now, I could put on my capitalist hat here and say, “Government investment! Outrageous. The Market, George! The invisible hand of the market guides everything and governments should put any spare money they have into reducing the tax burden on all those companies who have to pay their accountants millions of dollars to shift their profits off-shore!”

But instead I’d like to talk about Moore’s law.

For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Moore’s law wasn’t something passed by a government and can therefore be thought of as a ridiculous infringement on our civil liberties like child labour laws or anti-pollution regulations, but – by a strange coincidence – was dreamed up by a guy called Moore. Or maybe the law was named after him. Whatever. For the purposes of this, it doesn’t really matter. Neither does it matter whether I use the two years that Moore proposed in his 1985 paper, or the eighteen months that people have since used when talking about it. In simple terms, Moore’s law proposes that every eighteen months computers will have twice the capacity at half the cost. And, in the time since he suggested the idea, this has been largely true.

Which means, of course, when we talk about renewables and battery storage, we shouldn’t be looking at current pricing. While they may not be computers and subject to Moore’s law as such, improved efficiency as well as economies of scale will bring down the price of solar and wind power, while it’s hard to argue that coal-generated power will become cheaper as it captures a greater share of the market.

So, in the coming weeks, you can look forward to seeing our beloved Malcolm asking Labor for bipartisan support for an energy policy and hoping that Bill doesn’t try to point out that it’d be a good idea if there was some sort of bipartisan support within the Liberal Party on the issue. Or indeed, any issue. While Mr Turnbull may have previously said that he couldn’t lead a government that didn’t have a strong policy on climate change, I’m sure that he’ll justify himself by arguing that at no stage has he led this government, and that his position has more akin to the Governor-General where you’re only there to make approved speeches and cut ribbons, and not get involved in the politics of the day.

Yes, the Liberals have always maintained that they’re a broad church. Lately, however, they seem to be not only lacking the “true believers” but there seem to a rather disproportionate number of deniers.

P.S. I should probably tell everyone that the headline “Bludgers’ Coal Jihad” is not an actual headline from a Murdoch paper. Yes, it is hard to tell these days.

21 comments

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  1. Roswell

    “how may you can go.”

    Rossleigh, am I missing something (in the first sentence)?

  2. Terry2

    By the way, I hear that the Coen Bros are planning a movie on the Trump presidency ; evidently they will draw from movies such as The Manchurian candidate, The Addams Family and the TV show,The Apprentice.

  3. Rossleigh

    Thanks, Roswell. It was probably autocorrect which doesn’t always understand me.

  4. bobrafto

    Before reading this piece, I was reading
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-13/heated-exchange-between-abbott-and-laundy-over-finkel-report/8615354 which contains:

    ‘Some MPs are also concerned that a CET would be too similar to Labor’s climate policy and would see the Government lose its edge over the Opposition.’

    They should be charged with a crime against humanity as they certainly lack it.

    At the heart of all this is the cost of electricity.

    One sure way of bringing costs down is by eliminating the retailers, what’s their profit margins? 20% or more? And all of a sudden power bills go down 20% or more.

    When Premier like Beatty went bare faced on TV and said retailers would engage in competition and it will drive prices down. I’m still perplexed to this day how anyone could believe him as if installing a middleman (retailers) the prices would go down.

    Privatization of public utilities is just one colossal fraud, the Commonwealth is becoming the Privatewealth.

    The experiment in privatization of public utilities has not as promised by the politicians resulted in lower prices and is patently a dismal failure and it’s time to Nationalize every public utility that has been privatized as it will bring back prosperity with folks having more to spend.

    The choice is clear do we want a Commonwealth or a LIB/NAT Privatewealth?

    The latter is driving folks into poverty,

  5. Kyran

    “Trump would say that Nixon was a pussy…
    Perhaps the wrong word to use when writing about Trump, but anyway, speaking of Malcolm Turnbull and coal miners, how do you like the Liberal response to the Finkel Report?”

    What a brilliant segue, from ‘pussy’ to ‘dick’.
    Anyway, speaking of talcum, coalminers and the Finkel report, we have the usual liberal response.
    Their cunning plan is to commission a report, with no intention of reading it or implementing it.
    Then spend a few months on unedifying commentary, denigrating each other and ridiculing the content of a report they haven’t read.
    After those few months have elapsed, having demonstrated nothing more than the attention span of Nemo, they will commission a new report, should they recall the subject.

    Your reference to ‘Moore’s law’ as a standard that may be applicable to this government is, as Sir Humphrey would say, ‘courageous’.
    “In simple terms, Moore’s law proposes that every eighteen months computers will have twice the capacity at half the cost. And, in the time since he suggested the idea, this has been largely true.”
    The only law this mob seem capable of demonstrating is ‘Murphy’s law’.
    “In simple terms, Murphy’s law proposes that, if something can go wrong, it will”.
    And, typical of their lazy ignorance, they forget completely about ‘O’Toole’s law’.
    “In simple terms, O’Toole’s law proposes that Murphy was an optimist”.

    Apropos of nothing (well, to the extent that tiny is nothing), did you see tiny was in Ballarat the other day for the unveiling of his bust? Apparently, there is an avenue adorned with busts of our past prime miniatures. I’m sure his costs of attendance will be reported in his expenses chit at some point in the future. Anyway, I digress from my digression. It has caused me amusement on two counts.
    The first count is that some terribly unkind people have been taking photos and putting them on various f/b pages, suitably adorned with onions, coal and terribly inappropriate signs.
    The second count is more speculative and based on your observation about talcum.
    “I’m sure that he’ll justify himself by arguing that at no stage has he led this government,”
    Would this mean he doesn’t get a bust in the avenue (presuming the avenue doesn’t go bust in the meantime), or that the ‘bust’ will simply be a vacant stand?
    Just curious.
    Thank you Mr Brisbane and commenters. Take care

  6. jimhaz

    I would assume Moore’s law also applies to political untruths. One starts off with a small lie, but this foundation creates the circumstances where the number of lies told must double every 18 months – yet it takes the COALition half the effort and personal cost to produce these lies. I’m sure that is what we are seeing now.

    Gosh – the immigration ministers must have had the Moore effect well established for Manus Island. No personal cost for the blatant lying over the years will apply of course – just additional costs to taxpayers and detainees.

    TRUMP of course started off with 500 lies, so his capacity to produce new lies has now become beyond one man and he has outsourced this to many others, even the ordinary man in the street is telling porkies for Trump now – luckily for them infinity can never be reached.
    Something I found interesting about the Finkel discussion is the prioritisation of the call to take action. The parliamentary excerpts I saw all spoke about how much harm electricity prices are doing to business. It was abundantly clear that the issue would be sidelined if it was just consumers complaining, as has been the case for a decade since the gold plating method to scam us started (for which the ALP was also clearly complicit – too many +500k jobs for the ex-union boys in the industry)– it is only now that there is pressure coming from business that they are getting all proactive. This really shows us yet again where modern politicians loyalty lies, who they actually work for. We need to refer to pollies now as business lobbyists – as I see no evidence that they govern.

  7. economicreform

    ” … Apparently, the concern with renewables is that they’ll push prices up. ”

    In a recent blog (“Global warming must be addressed now”, macro-economist Dean Baker ridiculed the idea that replacing fossil fuel energy technology with renewable energy technology will be necessarily harmful to the economy. Here is an extract from his longer article:

    ” …. the idea that addressing the problem [of climate change] will devastate the economy is nonsense.

    ” The price of solar energy and wind energy has plunged in the last two decades. Both are already competitive with fossil fuel energy in many parts of the country, even without subsidies.

    ” Modest subsidies, coupled with modest fossil fuel taxes, would go far toward reducing our emissions of greenhouse gases. And these would hardly bankrupt the economy.

    ” Most analysts believe that a $40 per ton tax on carbon would be sufficient to allow the United States to meet the commitments it made in the Paris agreement negotiated under President Obama. A tax of this size would raise the price of a gallon of gas by 40 cents, not a negligible amount but hardly one that would devastate our economy.

    ” And there’s a big upside to clean energy. The solar industry already employs four times as many people as the coal industry.

    ” We need to both manufacture the solar panels and have people install them on the roofs of houses and businesses. This industry can be the source of hundreds of thousands more jobs as the industry grows and the technology improves.

    ” The same story applies to electric cars. It’s great that we still have many good-paying jobs in the auto industry, but there is no reason that we can’t employ as many people – or even more – producing electric cars. Here, technology is also improving rapidly so these cars can be more competitive.

    ” Addressing climate change should not be a tough choice. We can both sustain a strong economy and sharply curtail our greenhouse gas emissions. There is no excuse for President Trump’s environment-threatening executive order. ”

    Source: Real-World Economics Review, 9 May 2017 https://rwer.wordpress.com/2017/05/09/
    global-warming-must-be-addressed-now/

  8. Frank Smith

    Unlike most Coalition pollies I suspect, I have taken the time to read and study the Finkel Report. As I did, the overwhelming impression that was emerging was just how complex our energy system has become, because of the large number of players involved in power generation, transmission and retailing. How much simpler the problem would be to fix if the States still owned the generators, transmission and distribution networks and the retailing of electricity (and gas). Flogging off these vital public assets and services, which I think started in earnest with the Kennett Government in Victoria in the 1990’s, has resulted in the chaotic system that we have. Finkel has come up with one possible solution, but that is probably never going to be properly implemented because of the Coalition RWNJs and Turnbull’s inability to stare them down and pull them into line. Meanwhile the planet is suffocating and all consumers and businesses are being saddled by ever-soaring energy costs

  9. jimhaz

    [As I did, the overwhelming impression that was emerging was just how complex our energy system has become, because of the large number of players involved in power generation, transmission and retailing]

    One of the reasons I have never supported heavily subsidised domestic solar panel installations on existing homes. The other being a lack of efficiencies of scale.

  10. Kronomex

    http://www.smh.com.au/victoria/ministers-to-be-hauled-before-supreme-court-after-criticising-terror-sentencing-20170614-gwr6t0.html

    What’s the bet that Malky comes up with some bullshit excuse, says that they’re wonderful ministers and gives them each a slap on the wrist with a piece soggy spaghetti? And tries to find some way of burying it and blame Labor for the whole situation. Strange, there seems to no mention of it on Rupert’s (all hail Rupert) news.vomit site.

    There is this –

    http://www.news.com.au/national/mps-come-out-in-style-for-the-press-gallery-midwinter-ball-in-parliament-house-canberra/news-story/9b68baeab0dd9c3406b01999b2a18fdb

    Yay for Barnaby.

  11. darrel nay

    Trump is an anti-globalist while Turnbull is pro-globalisation (ie. Trump is against the TPP while Turnbull supports the TPP and all the other globalist ‘free’ trade deals).

    Shame on all the Lefties who have pushed violence to the point where a senator is shot. The lefties and stalinisers who promote violence should be locked-up under sedition laws and incitement laws.

    Peace

  12. Terry2

    darrel

    Your thesis started off quite well in para. one but then fell off the cliff in para. two : what happened , is that what they call a brain-fart ?

  13. Roswell

    Shame on all the Lefties who have pushed violence to the point where a senator is shot.

    Shame on anybody who has pushed violence to the point where a senator is shot.

    There, I fixed it for ya’.

  14. Freethinker

    And shame on the disgusting ignorance of darrel nay to blame one of the authors in this site.
    This man is a complete IDIOT.

  15. Roswell

    Perhaps Mr Nay would like to direct us to examples of where an author on this site has suggested violence or worse. If such examples exist, I would suggest that they be removed.

    And because Mr Nay is a fair and balanced individual, he would remember Alan Jone’s ‘inciting’ violence in when he told his listeners to bash a ‘Lebo’. Mr Nay would also be aware of the numerous times Donald Trump tried to incite violence against certain people during his rallies. Perhaps too he remembers how certain right-wing politicians and media wanted Julia Gillard dealt with.

    But perhaps Nr Nay has a short memory. Or is just biased against the Left.

  16. darrel nay

    Does ‘freethinker’ support the violent fantasies of freefall852?

    Freefall852, an ‘author’ on this site wrote that the Right needs to be stalinised – this is violent hate. Further, freefall852 wrote that I should be stalinised for pointing out his violent fantasy. Not a single person on this site has stood up and said that the staliniser’s comments are disgusting. I, for one, won’t be hen-pecked by some commie with a big mouth.

    Peace

  17. darrel nay

    reply for Roswell,

    The author freefall852 (the Staliniser) wrote recently on this site that the Right needs to be stalinised and when I pointed out that this was disgusting he wrote that I personally needed to be stalinised as well. I believe in free speech, but free speech doesn’t cover the incitement to violence.

    Clearly incitement to violence has been pushed by both sides and I don’t support it.

    Cheers

  18. darrel nay

    reply for rossleigh,
    are you comfortable with special counselor Mueller having close personal ties to Comey, given that Comey will be a star witness? Are you comfortable with Comey, who was in charge of investigating leaks as the head of the FBI, committing leaks of his own?

    Obviously, I could provide alternative explanations for most of your Trump criticism’s, but let’s just deal with the swamp creatures Comey and Mueller first.

    Cheers

  19. jimhaz

    @ Darrel

    Are there any conservatives policies/ideology do you NOT support.

    By the way, I picture you as looking much like the George Christensen. Certainly as bereft of contextual honesty as him.

  20. Rossleigh

    Yeah Darrel, all seems good to me. I take it you think that Comey is a swamp creature because of his letter about Hillary Clinton a few days before the election, but hey, get over it.

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