Whether we’re talking about politics, racehorses or the football, there’s something admirable about tipsters and that’s that they never look back. Ok, they may have had it completely wrong last week and, while most of us would feel a sense of embarrassment about getting something so publicly wrong, there they are fronting up again next week and giving us their predictions about the future with all the confidence of an astrologer.
Of course, we all accept that people tipping sport are likely to get in wrong and nobody would seriously expect that the experts are likely to get it right every time because that would create an enormous problem for betting markets and, after all, aren’t the betting markets the main reason that would hold sporting contests?
And even with political and economic forecasters, it’s only reasonable to understand that even the most expert and knowledgeable commentator may sometimes get things wrong because of changing circumstances. You know the sort of thing:
“I said that interest rates wouldn’t rise in the foreseeable future and the fact that they’re now rising means that we’re no longer in the foreseeable future because I didn’t foresee it.”
OR
“It’s only because the Democrats held on to key seats that prevented the Red Tsunami that I predicted from happening.”
No, the future is uncertain and anyone trying to make a prediction will risk the wrath of the gods… Or maybe not! Who can tell?
However, lately I’ve started to wonder how certain people can be so dogmatic about their views without even once pausing to say, “Of course, I have been wrong in the past, so maybe you should be taking everything I say with a grain of salt!” At the very least, perhaps they should take the time to explain to people how their journey has taken them from a point somewhere on the road to Damascus where they were blinded by God to the point where they’re a complete atheist.
Take for example, Warren Mundine who was once president of the Labor Party, and as recently as 2012 expressed an interest in being a Labor senator. However, when Bob Carr got the gig instead, Mundine did an interview where he said that while he’d supported the Hawke/Keating Labor Party, the current one had fallen behind the Liberal Party in selecting Indigenous candidates. Mind you, that doesn’t extend to the Indigenous Voice to Parliament because you don’t need to select more than one Indigenous candidate named Mundine for him to stick with the party.
Anyway, at least it’s all clear about what changed his mind and why he’s gone from Labor President to someone who Retweets things from the Murdoch media.
Mark Latham, on the other hand, is a bit of a mystery. From being the Labor leader who referred to the Coalition as “a conga-line of suck-holes” for their support of the USA, he’s become someone who tweets photos of himself having dinner with his leader, Pauline Hanson.
Latham’s record:
- In 2002, Latham said: “I’m a hater. Part of the tribalness of politics is to really dislike the other side with intensity. And the more I see of them the more I hate them. I hate their negativity. I hate their narrowness. I hate the way, for instance, John Howard tries to appeal to suburban values when I know that he hasn’t got any real answers to the problems and challenges we face.”
- Latham left politics and wrote a book saying how terrible political life in Australia is.
- He returned to politics, joining the Liberal Democrats.
- He left the Liberal Democrats and joined One Nation.
- He hosted a program on Sky called “The Outsiders”, presumably as an attempt to gain sympathy because he’s not an insider.
- He was sacked from the program because he was too much of an outsider.
- He’s a firm believer in free speech and believes that all those complaining about being oppressed should just shut up and listen.
But in all this, he’s never explained what changed his mind from disliking “the other side with intensity” to disliking just about everybody and everything that isn’t Mark Latham.
Or perhaps that was always the case.
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Excellent choice of Mundine and Latham as examples,two of the worst quislings in recent history.You would have more luck trying to put an octopus into a string bag than pinning either of them down.By the way Rossleigh,I thought I was wrong once,but I was mistaken.
Harry
All forgiven – there are, after all, facts and alternative facts !
Poor old Latham, so capable in boring illogicality, with all those syndromes, irritable bowel, scrunched scrotum, collapsible colon, angry aching anus, misguided mouth, larrikin larynx, brittlebrain bonebox, etc. Aldorf Hilter had some of these…lonely stuff.
These guys are just professional contrarians. They have found a niche where some people hang on to every word. Personally, they have no moral compass. Even I can say labor is full of numpties, but i also know the liberals have more, lol. The progressive agenda is slow and sometimes painfully tone deaf. The conservatives have a totally smashed moral compass. How else can you be a christian and then implement robodebt”? latham and Mundine are just looking for an audience.
Mark Latham has a history of poor judgement and erratic behaviour. He blew his big chance, and is embittered by personal choice.
Warren Mundine is in an entirely different category. He devoted his life and energy to indigenous people, he served the ALP faithfully for many years.
It was a serious error to appoint Bob Carr to the senate instead of Mundine and he is entitled to feel aggrieved by the expedient choice of the ALP hacks.
Mundine was always a step above them intellectually and ethically.
Carr was well past his use by date, and served only 2 years.
Mundine was a high profile indigenous leader, who deserved significant respect for his personal achievements, and for what he represented.
He could have served for over a decade.
The ALP is far poorer for the choice they made.
Diving deeply into the ad hom, I met Bob Carr a number of years ago, in his post-political phase; he seemed a bit up himself, a mightier than thou type of person. Even though I’m a life-long rusted-on Labor voter, I didn’t warm to him at all, no siree, not one little bit.
In contrast, I met Chris Minns a couple of months ago… 180 degree different personality. If he wins the next NSW election, as he deserves, I hope he doesn’t change. Unlike Carr, who has no children, Minns is the father of three, and unlike Carr who worked as a journalist prior to politics, Minns has had much more community involvement, as a fireman, along with involvement with youth and mental health. He is a naturally likeable man, will make a good premier.
And if he wins, all Australian mainland states and territories will have Labor governments! How good is that!
Latham is totally untrustworthy, probably mentally ill, not to be considered for any honest, factual basis. Carr is not entirely much better, but has a genuine professional record, which appeals to supporters. Mundine, once a hope, is a totally untrustworthy, unreliable, self focussed nohoper and he will tell you why keenly, for his career was aborted unnecessarily and rumour of racist subtones remain. If only we could ask and listen, with such as Neville Bonnor, Fred Chaney, Ian Viner, even Bill Hayden to offer open comment. On the “other” side, stories might have come from Snedden, Peacock, Lynch, Hewson, Nelson, and the haunting (haunted)Turnbull.
latham has always been un-ALP, in that winning was his driver,
The bandit is similar in his path to power but focussed and cunningly astute..
After reading his diary I learned the real reason for Latham’s “infamous handshake” with Howard and his growing disillusion with politics, particularly the effect of that bogus alleged tape of him “cavorting with strippers at a bucks show” on his family. I even supported his stance at the time.
However I will never understand why he not only joined that sinister side of politics but has promoting himself to become one of their prominent spokespersons.
After abandoning his previous beliefs all that’s left of him now is the hate, so was he lying then or is he lying now?
Such a disappointment and a real waste of talent, with no way back and no future – just a constant whine.
It seems that Latham may have reconsidered his ploy to resign, create a casual upper house vacancy (which would be filled by a One Nation tool) and then stand again at the coming election.
Perhaps that would be too much for a cynical electorate.
In the meantime I see that Dan Andrews continues to be attacked by News Corp’s Herald Sun and febrile commentators on Sky News which is bordering on a fanatical obsession. It may backfire on the Murdoch extremist cranks. So far their attacks on Andrews have told us more about the Newscorp obsession than done any damage to the Victorian premiere – much to their frustration.
The Murdoch media’s treatment of Andrews is now starting to resemble a fanatical football fan’s opinion of the umpires. Because every decision is wrong, evidence of corruption or an example of why there’s something wrong with the rules, eventually the only people who take any notice are the one’s who are club members themselves. That means that even when the umpires do get it wrong, the hollering from the fans has no effect on anyone else.
I almost get the feeling that Laothsome is going to make a run at removing Paween and taking over Rednecks “r” Us. If something that were to come to pass I expect the parasitic Ashby would jump like a flea to the new boss.