The launch of The Art of the Impossible, that is, which may be ordered from The Book Depository for a mere $32.48 with worldwide free delivery.
And it is safe to watch the video since it is all Mark and Ross. For my views, you will have to read the book.
Will someone please convince me this isn’t economic idiocy: PM orders gas giants: Australian consumers first:
Malcolm Turnbull will impose tough new restrictions on the country’s gas producers, introducing sweeping powers to block exports unless there are adequate supplies to meet the needs of Australian businesses and consumers.
Declaring that the domestic shortage had led to consumers paying much more for gas than overseas buyers, the Prime Minister said on Wednesday the Australia-first policy was needed to ensure prices were lower and “fairly reflect international export prices”.
“Australians are entitled to have access to the gas they need at prices they can afford,” Mr Turnbull said ahead of an announcement expected in Brisbane on Thursday.
“It is unacceptable for Australia to become the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, but not have enough domestic supply for Australian households and businesses.”
Following warnings in March that gas companies needed a “social licence” to operate, Mr Turnbull hit out at the sector for failing to meet a demand to become net contributors to the Australian market — that is, producing more for domestic consumption than was exported.
“Gas companies are aware they operate with a social licence from the Australian people,” he said. “They cannot expect to maintain that licence if Australians are short-changed because of excessive exports.”
For a parallel we have this direct from Argentina in 2014:
“You have to understand that the resources of the state belong to the people”, remarked Fernández de Kirchner.
Does this government of ours have no clue how a market economy works? Are we now heading for an Argentinian economic future?
Read this if you can bear it: David Archibald’s WA election diary. This is how it starts:
I have had more than ten years before the mast fighting the global-warmers. Early on in that interminable campaign, when I talked to federal politicians on the subject their eyes would glaze over. I realized they had no interest in stopping the harm to the country. In fact, when a Perth businessman hired a private room in a restaurant so that a few real scientists could give a briefing to Julie Bishop and Mathias Cormann, the response of those two was “Change public opinion and we will follow public opinion.” No leadership, no sense of right and wrong, no inclination to do the right thing for the country if it meant the slightest bit of effort on their part, or risking any of their political capital.
It’s long but filled with the kinds of detail you only wish wasn’t true but should know about anyway.
No namby-pamby PC.
From the accompanying note that came with the vid:
Today we are launching the website: www.marklathamsoutsiders.com
Have a look at the site: hopefully it will become a handy resource for folks wanting to fight back against the loss of our institutions and Australian values.
I genuinely believe conservatives and social democrats need to unite in the fight against cultural Marxism and segregationist identity politics.
The best things about our country, many of which we had taken for granted, are now at risk.
many thanks, Mark
The sound track that got Mark Latham sacked. I may be the last to know, but I picked this up at Andrew Bolt where it is run under the heading MARK LATHAM VS ADAM GOODES: A STUDY IN HYPOCRISY. And if you go to the link, you can find the first of Mark Latham’s Outsiders which I will have to watch in full when I get home tonight.
And to this we can add Mark Latham’s own comment on my previous thread:
Thanks Steve,
Fascinating discussion. Let’s go to the background: on the Outsiders panel show on Sunday 12 March we ran through a series of zany things said on International Women’s Day the previous Wednesday. Five or six items. One of them was the Sydney Boys school prefect video, which had attracted significant media attention. The young men spoke the words of women in trying to help the feminist cause. The first speaker talked about having sex with a man. The video was designed to initially mislead, as only later did it become clear the speakers were quoting women.
I have spoken to scores of people who have said, upon first viewing of the video they thought the first speaker was speaking as a young gay man. That was my impression too. I made no value judgement about that, and never would. I simply thought it was a matter of fact. I don’t know why some people regard the word ‘gay’ as derogatory. I don’t. I was taught in the ALP in the 1980s to look through race, gender and sexuality as minor genetic/preference variations between people.
On the day before our show, the SMH ran a letter from the nearby Sydney Girls school students, attacking the ‘male video prefects’ as having no right to make a statement about feminism, saying they had a “toxic male culture” at their school.
On Outsiders we played the video to highlight that “men can’t win” – if you try to help with a well-intentioned (albeit strange and misleading) video, the feminists will bag you anyway.
Ross Cameron chipped in to say, words to the effect of, “These young fellas ought to be aware that the girls they are trying to impress will run off with a Western Sydney tradie in a ute.”
Very funny. In the laughter, I quipped, words to the effect of, “Well, I thought the first one was gay, so it won’t affect him”.
That’s all.
All I was saying was that the first speaker wouldn’t be impacted by Ross’s observation. There was no condemnation meant, nor should any have been taken. Indeed, that was the initial outcome.
The show would have had 30-40,000 viewers, including the ABC Media Watch, Buzzfeed, Fairfax etc gang who always watched, hoping to jump onto slip-ups. No one said a word about my comments until 17 days later, when other matters had arisen via ‘lawfare’. I still don’t know the reaction to all this from the first prefect speaker. Publicly, I have said if he’s upset at all by my words or by the controversy itself, then I apologise.
This is a feature of the Left’s confected outrage/PC industry: no problem at the time, but if they can delve back into history when a political target is vulnerable for other reasons, they will.
What happened to me was essentially a stitch up. None of the critics gave a crap about the school prefect. They had long been silent. It was all about closing down my (hopefully effective) critique of their ideology.
The mere mention of the word “gay” today is enough to have companies harassed and people sacked. The Left has turned it into a demon word, when I believe I have never used it that way.
True, I am a former Labor leader. I’m not a conservative, I’m a social democrat. And from that perspective, I oppose identity politics as a divisive, segregationist doctrine that weakens social trust and cohesiveness – the basic raw materials of community and the good society. You don’t have to be from the Right to oppose identity politics as an abomination. Peter Baldwin (ex senior minister and ALP Socialist left faction) has raised a critique similar to mine. You don’t have to be from the Right to oppose the extreme Left.
In summary, that’s what happened. If civility-conservatives think that’s fine, they might as well surrender the country and culture wars to the Identity Left right now. We should all go to the pub and have a Coopers instead.
They (and others) would be saying, in fact, no one can make an evidence-based quip about another person in the context of a very funny joke and very strange video.
In hindsight, I would have been better off joining the girls’ school in attacking the male prefects as toxic and calling for them to never speak about gender issues again.
Now ain’t that sad!!
Nikki Saava at her finest:
One of the most amusing, or disturbing, recent developments has been the embrace of former Labor leader Mark Latham by sections of the hard right as their new darling. Almost as amusing and disturbing as their embrace of Donald Trump.
As I recall, she also prefers Malcolm to Tony. Is there anyone on the editorial page of The Oz with worse judgement than her?
UPDATE: I am amazed by some of the comments who act as if we are discussing what Mark Latham said. So let me point out that the issue is what Sky News did. We do not have much artillery on our side of the line and if you want to think that it is quite all right for Janet to line up with those who have effectively shut Mark Latham’s commentary down, well fine and dandy. That’s why many of you also don’t get Donald Trump, who is also someone who fights these issues out. Sky News made a commercial decision but all that has been done is remove someone who was actually trying to explain things from what I would have thought is our point of view. No? OK, go watch Q&A instead.
______
An article by the snooty and condescending head prefect at The Oz titled: Mark Latham’s lack of basic decency. Another one of those pseduo-members of the right decides to become an arbiter of proper and improper free speech in defence of our values. The top ten eleven of the top comments with no omissions.
No problem with what you say Janet, just this: A tale of two insulters of children: one calls a child gay – supposedly a good thing – and gets fired for it; one gets a child subjected to the trauma of a two-hour police interrogation for uttering a single word, then humiliates her across the whole country, calling her the face of racism. The latter gets Australian of the Year – surely now an utterly worthless award. Of course, the fired one attacked the left, the exalted one praised it. Total abominable hypocrisy.
Screw your decency Janet. While you ponder on your precious decency the left continues to wage war a vicious war against men, whites, kids, Christianity and western values, all without shame or fear of reprisal. As far as I can see Latham is one of the few grunts in the trenches, doing the dirtiest of jobs , trying to defend our values and freedoms. If we’re going to rely on our decency we might as well raise the white flag now.
The blatant hypocrisy is what galls me Janet. The left, through State funded media, universities and other Government agencies and now our corporations routinely abuse and intimidate anyone and anything that do not agree with them. Not only do they abuse and falsely accuse and label people they savage them, discriminate, intimidate and do everything to destroy them. I’m totally with Latham on this. It’s time somebody with a platform and the spine and intellect stood up to this rabble of thugs.
Disagree Janet. ABC hurls subversive insults every day. Wendy Harmer is excruciating to listen to, obviously leftist and now living on the public purse. Lathams comments about her are antagonistic and inflammatory and possibly insulting, but so was the lefts relentless attacking of Abbott. The young man put himself in the public domaine, thus open to public criticism. You must admit, he was used as a pawn by feminists for IWD. Lathams sacking was a PR stunt by a board acquiescing to political correctness and his comments were re broadcast by those who like to take offence on behalf of others. I’m deeply offended by the ignorance and bias and insults of the ABC, can we sack all them too?
Yet it is OK for the likes of Wendy Harmer to say worse about conservative targets in her so called comedy routine.
May I toss a rotten egg into Janet’s one woman’s Animal Rescue dog’s dinner? It isn’t all beer and skittles in the State of Denmark. The ABC has been getting away with its sneering, devious, relentless campaign in promoting its own agenda for decades. The “Four Corners” stitching up of Pauline Hanson the other night was a typical example of how this blatant propaganda outfit can abuse with our money by sticking to the “rules”. What a breath of fresh air it was to listen to the “Outsiders” team call this mob out for what they really are. Mark Latham doesn’t mince his words and unlike all the other “decent” and gutless politicians – given the power – I’m sure some-one like Latham would soon bring the ABC into line. I have listened to Mark Latham now for many months on SKY and he comes across as the typical honest Aussie you would meet in the street or pub. He is not a 2 week foul mouthed wonder. Most of the time Mark Latham succinctly puts into words want his viewers are thinking. If he has a “sin”, it is from time to time, like a rugby league player he occasionally throws a punch instead of keeping to the rules. Surely like the talented rugby league stars we watch on SKY, he needs to be sin binned – not given a life sentence.
Mark Latham is one of the most incisive and perceptive political commentators in Australia. Unfortunately in his zeal for the cause he sometimes overstepped the mark. There are others, of course, who are shrinking violets, not game to say anything controversial out of fear that they may upset one of the plethora of ‘identities” who are constantly on the prowl looking for some imagined offence. Mark Latham had the courage to ‘call a spade, a spade’, something that is sadly lacking in so many of the politically correct, left wing journalists who comprise the ‘establishment’ of modern journalism. Many such presenters and journalists abound at Sky News, David Speers, Laura Jays, Kristina Keneally and of course PVO, who would bore you to sleep in five minutes flat, if you had the misfortune of being compelled to listen or watch him. It is apparent that they have taken much delight in bringing down one of their more courageous and outspoken colleagues. The sacking of Mark Latham is a very big blow to the standing of Sky News and further entrenches the power of the ruling, left wing elitists there, such as the aforementioned.
I understand your argument and support the need for decency in debate and argument. But gee I admire Latham’s intellect, ability to identify the weaknesses in PC arguments and cut to the quick. How would he react if his wife or son was abused? Well, it would not be by running off to some government bureaucracy. He would stand his ground and give back ten times. A person prepared to back themselves like he does, on stage in the midst of the hateful luvvies, is worthy of support.
Janet I must take issue with your comment today. As a profuse listener to radio and television I must say I have never heard Mark Latham make any remark that was not totally and completely the truth. You mention Wendy Harmer, I took Marks reference to refer to Wendy’s low acts of attacks on others in her public appearances. As for the young man that Mark referred to, Mark asked was he Gay, and unless a person thought that to be Gay was something to be ashamed of, I cannot see a problem. Alan Jones said it all on his Jones&Co Show last night.
I usually find Janet’s articles stimulating and perceptive. This time, however, while criticising the left for denying freedom of speech, she does the very same thing herself in her last paragraph. Surely Janet appreciates that the concept of decency is subjective. I found nothing indecent in Latham’s comments. Her argument is invalid.
So the right fight with one arm behind their back while the lunatic left run rampant. Get real Janet
I have been thinking about this disgusting story of far left fascist immorality and the more I have thought about it the more angry I get. She is a Nazi through and through and other than a few tinselly bits of law knows nothing worth knowing about human rights or free speech. Seriously, how much closer is she to Beria and Che than anyone who has ever attempted to defend our freedoms? All she lacks are the concentration camps into which she can put people whom she disagrees with. Now she just punishes them by driving them through the courts to drain them of any excess funds they may have and cost them their jobs and career if she can make them notorious enough. How can this woman be the head of our human rights commission? Does no one any longer even understand what human rights are?
“Sadly you can say what you like around the kitchen table at home,’’ she said.
I don’t even care what she thinks the sad part of that is. What I do care is that she thinks it is morally OK for her to use the full force of the law to harass and prosecute people who say things in public that she disagrees with, things she believes should not be sayable and that she and her cronies should be the judge of what can and cannot be said by Australians to each other. And what’s more, she thinks that she ought to be able to sit in judgement over what they say to each other in private. But OK, we already knew that’s what she thinks. The AHRC is already a monstrous modern-day replica of the Gestapo or Stasi or whatever you want to call the anti-free-speech judicial arm of the Australian left. She is obviously too dull-witted to understand her Nazi pedigree.
The problem really is the government, not one of which has said a single word to criticise her for what she said.
And I will add as someone else mentioned to me re the Alex Joske story, that had he not had the Chinese side to go with his white anglo background but had been 100% white, the hounds of political correctness would never have let up. Meanwhile Ayaan Hirsi Ali – even though not a white anglo male – has been forced to cancel her tour of Australia. Most people eventually get used to living in a fascist country. You can easily see how well we are adapting already.
What happens when someone who writes with great charm about the funny stuff in life instead gets really angry about something that is not funny at all. Here we find out. Danny Katz has just been hooked up to the NBN and it is definitely no joke. He titles his column The NBN is coming! but it’s actually about what happened after the NBN arrived. For me, the waste and incompetence associated with government services like this are just one of life’s impractical jokes. This is part of the joint efforts of the Liberal-Labor Coalition to turn Australia into another Venezuela. Read the column through, but this will help you see what’s there at the link.
I sat down and stared at the green lights, waiting for them to stop flashing, waiting for my better life, thinking “NBN (Nearly, Be-patient, Not-long)”. The NBN connection box flashed for another 20 minutes, then another 20 minutes, then another hour and a hour, and I thought, “N… B… N (Nope… Bugger… Nothing).”
I was reminded of the wise ancient proverb, “A watched NBN™ Connection Box will never connect to a high-speed network (via a hybrid fibre coaxial lead-in cable)”.
So I got up and had a little snack in the kitchen: NBN (Nachos, Bowl, Noshing). When I came back the lights were still flashing. Getting a bit stressed now, a bit anxious, NBN (Nails Bitten Nervously).
The NBN instruction booklet told me to contact my internet service provider if there was any trouble, so I rang up Technical Support and was put on hold for another 40 minutes, an occasional recorded voice saying, “Did you know that you can resolve many of your technical problems online?” and I thought, “Well I would, if I could get online, you NBN (Numbskull Boofhead Neanderthal!)”
This is the full flowering of the Kevin-Julia-Malcolm alliance, peak political and economic stupidity at its highest intensity.
From Andrew Bolt, the Coalition is ten points down. Two years out from an election, polls are typically misleading, with the governing party always lower than it ought to be since no actual government can ever live up to expectations. Ten points is not, however, slightly down but a chasm. What I have done is cull from the comments at Bolt those that discuss Malcolm directly. I need hardly mention no one has had a good word to say about the PM.
It is clear that the disgruntled conservatives or Delcons or the Deplorables have NOT fallen for the BS that Turnbull expects us to swallow especially the Snowy river scheme Mark two because there is going to be a long interval between turning the first shovel of earth and Cutting the Ribbon IF it it ever gets started. If the Liberal senators ever think to ask questions in their electorates they MIGHT find that Turnbull is on the nose everywhere and if THEY want to survive the election they are going to have to come up with some answers namely to DO something about Turnbull or we are going to have to endure a Labor Government.
A few decades ago Australia was a wonderful place for our Families, the best place to bring up kids, easy going lifestyle and People were safe to go about their Business. Now no one is safe in our Homes, Schools, Business and even at Leisure times. Our Politicians are so far up themselves and only have two considerations their Political Parties and Themselves. Everything is about staying in Power, not the Welfare of the Country or the Man in the Street. We have Leaders who are so blatant with their lies, it seems none of them have any idea of how the People feel, they are oblivious to the needs of the People especially the Majority. And the Media, well no one believes anything that is Printed or Spoken by them anymore, the two words FAKE NEWS are becoming the most frequent words spoken when People are gathered. Is it any wonder that the People of the US voted for Trump.
Does anyone think that Turnbull’s ‘road to Damascus’ conversion to defend freedom of speech is anything but a ploy to mitigate terminal polling numbers? I would wager the final proposal would depend on the blessing of Triggs or her ilk after a chardy and sausage sizzle/vegan burger. No real change, but another attempt to make it look like change. Treat the voters like mugs…again.
During the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, I remember seeing anger in the community. People were furious with the ALP, and rightly so. With the Turnbull Government I don’t see the same thing, despite similar polling. I witness exasperation and disappointment with the Government. The Sydney Morning Marxist will say it is because we aren’t seeing the ‘real Malcolm’. This is garbage. People are used to seeing centre-right Governments balancing the budget, maintaining a strong economy and keeping us safe. They are let down on all three counts. The Coalition must sort it out, or else we will be getting Prime Minister Bill Shorten, and that would be a catastrophe.
Not surprisingly, the poll results reflect a wishy washy P.M. with thought bubbles that seem like a good idea at the time. Provide a warm fuzzy feeling for a while until reality sets in and the voters again feel betrayed eg, Telling W.A. that he would scrutinize the GST carve up, telling us about the Snowy Mountains scheme mark 2, only to find a day or two later, that it involves pumping water uphill, so it can flow down hill. And is years away. He should invoke emergency powers and ensure Hazelwood continues in operation, until energy supply is stable. On 18C, again he dips his toe in the water, with a suggestion that provides considerable uncertainty, instead of scrapping the HRC, something unnecessary which we can’t afford. Our human rights record is very good compared to numerous overseas atrocities. Mal. has difficulty departing fantasy land and his policy of trying to keep everyone happy all of the time is a weakness.
The Liberals will struggle to get 30% here in Qld. As things stand, the loss of seats in Qld alone dooms the Libs to a devastating defeat in 2018. No amount of useless, hypocritical posturing on “amending S18C” will improve the cellar-dwelling rating he has in Qld. He can act the Conservative all he likes over the next 24 months or so, but up here we know him for what he truly is. And he’d revert to his idiotic leftism if he was, somehow, re-elected to Government in 2018.
You have to be wondering what internal LNP polling has also been saying? If its wipe out material no wonder Mr Turnbull and his government are trying to find their traditional Liberal agenda. Mr Brandis was on radio this morning and gave a fairly forceful rationale for changes to 18C (admittedly to a more friendly interviewer). However, now expect the major of the media to act like they did when Mr Abbott was the Prime Minister. Mr Turnbull will be seen as betraying the media for all the support they have given Mr Turnbull in the last 24 months. Mr Turnbull will need to take it to the media forcefully and consistently. Any retreat now would see him completely smashed.
Also take a look at that apocalyptic Coalition primary vote of 34! The time for beating around the bush and “give Turnbull a chance” is LONG since over. Here are the brutal facts – Turnbull was fatally damaged the moment he knifed Abbott to become PM in the first place. Conservatives have long memories and a fierce moral code, and the reality is that the base will NEVER accept such a serpentine leader. But when you combine that with the sheer arrogance and catastrophic ineptitude that Turnbull has displayed in the job as PM (especially obliterating the giant seat majority he inherited from Abbott), and the crippling primary vote in polling, then you have clear and present evidence that Turnbull is FINISHED as a viable option. And no desperate 11th hour appeasement-offering of 18C reforms will save him. The base have rendered their judgement loud and clear: “We don’t want Turnbull!”
As much as Malcolm Turnbull appeared revitalised I still cannot forgive his treachery and no matter what he does and his cohorts that bitter taste will remain. It did yesterday feel less likely we would be returned to the People’s Prime Minister but today is a new day and I am hoping politicians will not continue to play us for fools. We now have Corey Bernardi’s Conservatives and Hanson’s One Nation, I am not going back to the LNP. The Nationals could have stopped the descent into this abyss but said nothing.
Whatever the case, Turnbull is still a dud and it is only the increasing pressure on him from One Nation, that is causing him to appear much more conservative lately. All the more reason to make sure One Nation or Australian Conservative Party or ALA or any coalition between them is maintained so long as Turnbull is Liberal leader. Without them Turnbull will revert to his left green character. Just look at the way he has been very busily filling the Liberal Party (and the ABC) with all his left green mates.
The real problem is Mal giving his lefty mate the ABC job. Just when he showed signs of improvement he shores up the alt left faction of the ABC to ensure their continued left wing bias.
Just an indication of the fragility of MT’s position. They’re behaving like problem gamblers who have just had a rare good day at the TAB.
Turnbull’s problem is Shorten is running rings around him. And Shorten is a lightweight opportunist. If a horrible little man like Shorten can better you, then it’s all over.
Much better news … the party still has time in front of it to recognise the disaster that is Malcolm Turnbull and then turn on their real opponent —— Shorten
It doesn’t matter anymore what Turnbull and the Bedwetters do, they are “dead men walking”.
Law of Markets 