There are posts above on state politics in New South Wales and below on the slow motion demise of Boris Johnson. This one covers local electoral news relevant to (mostly) the federal tier:
• In an article for The Monthly by George Megalogenis, Shaun Ratcliff of the University of Sydney relates research suggesting home owners were nearly twice as likely to vote Coalition than non-home owners after controlling for income. However, there was a marked exception for those under 35, who were twice as likely to vote Labor and Greens than the Coalition, which played a major role in the latter’s disastrous showing in the big cities. The Coalition had just 16% support among renters, compared with 38% for Labor and 35% for the Greens. Home owners were only half as likely to vote for the Greens as renters, while distinctions among Labor were more modest. This was based on the Australian Cooperative Election Survey, conducted during the campaign from a sample of around 5800 by YouGov and various universities, which we will be hearing a lot more from in future.
• The Guardian reports Senator Andrew Bragg is pushing for changes to the New South Wales Liberal Party’s rules at its annual general meeting later this month to allow preselections to proceed without the involvement of the leader’s representative in the nomination review process. This seemingly arcane point lay at the centre of the long-running logjam in its preselection process before the federal election, when Scott Morrison’s centre right faction ally Alex Hawke persistently failed to show at meetings to move the process forward. Factional rivals said this was a deliberate effort to force the national executive to intervene to protect centre right incumbents from preselection defeats. Bragg’s proposal has been criticised by Hollie Hughes, Liberal Senator and centre right member, who instead blames reforms championed by Tony Abbott that required the concurrence of 90% of state executive members to certify factional deals that would have broken the deadlock.
• Matthew Knott of the Sydney Morning Herald reports members of Labor’s Cabramatta branch have reacted to Kristina Keneally’s parachute malfunction in Fowler by calling for those who “white-anted” her to be disciplined. This included passage of a motion calling on the party administration to consider expelling Tu Le, whose own aspirations for the seat were thwarted by the Keneally manoeuvre. Local sources cited by Knott said members were “peeved by the presumption Le would have won a rank-and-file ballot given she had only moved to the electorate a year earlier herself and was not well-known in the area”.
• Poll Bludger regular Adrian Beaumont has a piece in The Conversation on the performance of the polls at the federal election, which I mean to get around covering myself in depth eventually.
• Matt Martino of the ABC drew upon my supposed expertise in a fact check on claims made by Barnaby Joyce about the federal election result. I rated him no pinocchios, but told him to watch it anyway.
• Late counting has shown the Liberals’ performance in Saturday’s Bragg state by-election in South Australia to have been a bit less bad than it appeared on the night. There has actually been a 2.8% swing in their favour on postals and pre-polls, compared with a 6.0% swing on the election day votes that were all we had to go on on Saturday. This leaves the Liberal margin at 5.5%, down from 8.2% at the March election (and 16.8% at the election before).
In the months since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, maverick journalist Glenn Greenwald has emerged as one of the loudest anti-Ukraine voices in the American media, with all the usual themes: transparent gloating over Russia’s apparent war gains in Eastern Ukraine; alarmism over United States support for Ukraine leading to World War III; even the flogging of “American biolabs in Ukraine” conspiracies in his Substack newsletter and in videos. While Greenwald has made overwrought claims about the “neo-Nazi menace” of the Azov Regiment, his only response to reports of Russian atrocities in Bucha has been to warn about the dangers of falling for “war propaganda” and “social media’s manipulations.”
This stance from Greenwald, a former lawyer who has been widely lauded for his investigative journalism and civil liberties advocacy, in particular, for his role in helping former National Security Agency subcontractor Edward Snowden expose illicit NSA surveillance and his Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of that story—has been met with bafflement and disappointment from many of his erstwhile admirers, who lament that “Glenn lost his way.”
But Greenwald has been baffling and disappointing legions of his progressive admirers for years with his cozy relationship with the MAGA right. And a look at his career shows that his pro-Kremlin affinity goes way back—as part of a more general tendency to sympathize with foes of the U.S.-led “neoliberal” (or “neoconservative”) international order.
https://www.thebulwark.com/the-long-history-of-glenn-greenwalds-kissing-up-to-the-kremlin/
So those with the ability to play sport at elite levels should be absent emotion and adopt robotic dimensions
Sorry
To compete at that level you need to be totally engaged and totally committed
The frustrations at a failure to produce goes with the territory – including frustration with officials and their decisions (which are not always correct)
And then media attention is what it is – media exclusively looking for a sensation headline
I trust we add another Australian name to the Honour Board at Wimbledon
To boot, he is an outstandingly unique player who attracts an audience (witness the doubles ratings last January)
These players are entertainers courtesy of their abilities (the umpires are not)
I note also the record of a prior Australian tennis player as a Stockbroker – but he does not have a surname identify his heritage – but is not labelled by media as some others are
Abe was no hero of progressives – except, apparently, to the odd Bludger niggler.
Any Japanese politician who visits the Yasukuni Shrine is automatically engaged in aiding and abetting avoiding accountability for Japanese war crimes.
Abe’s rule co-incided with a considerable rise in militarism in Japan.
As for waiting for his blood to dry, his idolators certainly did not.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/10/19/national/shinzo-abe-yasukuni-shrine/
‘Here we go again says:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 3:22 pm
So those with the ability to play sport at elite levels should be absent emotion and adopt robotic dimensions
Sorry
…’
————————-
Dozens of top tennis players get by perfectly well without having to abuse umpires. Your apology is accepted.
C@t
“But Greenwald has been baffling and disappointing legions of his progressive admirers for years with his cozy relationship with the MAGA right”
———
Haha,…… i just thought it was a local UK commenter. I gather he must be famous/infamous.
Asha @ #311 Saturday, July 9th, 2022 – 2:57 pm
The latest understanding is that the Dems have chosen solid, middle-of-the-road candidates for the vacant Senate seats, plus having Mark Kelly and Raphael Warnocke up for re-election, whereas the Republicans have gone full hubris with their Senate choices in Georgia, Arizona and Pennsylvania. This should hopefully lead to the Dems retaining control of the Senate with a slightly increased majority and thus control of choosing judges for another 2 years and being able to put a break on the worst excesses of a Republican-controlled House, which still looks likely, but with a reduced majority.
”
Rakalisays:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 3:04 pm
Ven
GGreenwald is hiding his racism behind sarcasm.
———
Is he?
Against Goldman Sachs? Investment bankers? Hedge fund managers? or Rishi Sunak?
”
How can one be racist against a corporate?
Ven
How can one be racist against a corporate?
———
What’s “a corporate” mean?
I thought investment bankers and hedge managers were people? Silly me.
nath says:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 1:05 pm
I think it is nerdy types who hate Musk the most. They don’t have a revolutionary electric car company, a revolutionary space company, and all the other ventures. He makes them look unremarkable, they hate him for that.
There is a long distance between “don’t worship” and hate.
Re Socrates at 8.10 am, Cronus at 9.07 am, Boerwar at 9.16 am and Cud Chewer at 10.25 am
Cud the 2014 essay by Pomerantsev is interesting but presents Surkov with almost all of his nastiness hidden, a bit like ProMo Morrison was presented by the Australian media of late, as a marketing guru.
Allegedly Surkov coordinated the shooting by snipers of protestors at the Maidan in February 2014. For a long 2019 report by RUSI (a British military institute) about Surkov’s activities in Ukraine, see:
https://static.rusi.org/201907_op_surkov_leaks_web_final.pdf
According to Lawrence Freedman it is too soon to say if the Russian military has stalled in Ukraine. Things might be clearer by late summer, in two months, but Ukraine Defence Minister Reznikov’s expectation (at the link Cud posted) is that Ukraine can’t win militarily “before the end of the year”.
Cronus says Putin may think “his job is far from complete” in Ukraine since his aims have not been fulfilled. What were his aims? Two principally: a) regime change in Kyiv – fail; b) wreak vengeance upon Ukraine – success. The RUSI report discusses the Kremlin’s Novorossiya project, aiming to break off south-eastern Ukraine. Key Russian belligerents, such as Sergei Karaganov, have talked about breaking Ukraine into two or three states. That subsidiary aim is unachievable as a sustainable occupation in southern Ukraine, as their critics, such as Kortunov, have pointed out since February.
Reznikov poses 3 scenarios: a) a Russian withdrawal based on goodwill; b) a gradual, i.e. long, war of attrition with Ukraine eventually prevailing, not before next autumn; and c) collapse of the Russian state. Both a) and c) are doubtful, though c) might be possible next year if Ukraine eventually wins. At present, however, it is fanciful for Reznikov to entertain scenarios a) and c); maybe he presents those to suggest there is no alternative for Ukraine and its allies but to keep calm and fight on till 2023.
The CDU statement posted by Socrates is significant, showing there will be more pressure on Ukraine to come to a deal. Germany is, after all, the key EU state. It will be much harder for Reznikov’s second scenario to lead to a Ukrainian victory if Germany insists that the war should end relatively soon.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov is a liar by profession, but on one point he is correct: Russia is now in a proxy war with the US and its allies supporting Ukraine. The implication is obvious: for all of the human and material losses Ukraine has suffered, it cannot decide alone when victory is unachievable.
The question of whether Crimea remains part of Russia is, geopolitically, not for Ukraine to decide. The Ukrainian nationalists lost Crimea in 2014 because, supported by the US, they destroyed a deal that the EU had helped mediate on 21 February 2014, which would have kept Ukraine’s borders intact. (See the history from Feb 2014 recounted in my 7.05 am post; that history is not disputed in essence.)
If Ukraine gets the military capacity to destroy the Kerch strait bridge, built by a company owned by Arkady Rotenberg, one of Putin’s oldest buddies, will they do it? If not, it will be because the US has told Ukraine not to bomb that bridge. Why? Because if the bridge is destroyed Russia has a stronger incentive to fight to keep control of Kherson, rather than withdraw from there as part of a deal. The geopolitical point is that the US has no interest in allowing Ukraine to extend the war to Crimea.
Reznikov says “there will be no Minsk 3 for sure”, i.e. no resuscitation of the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements that did not resolve the initial phase of the Donbas war. Those agreements included, under article 5, an amnesty for all Russian and Ukrainian perpetrators of war crimes (and crimes against humanity, and genocide). That article suited Putin fine, among others. Instead of an amnesty now there will be, hopefully, prosecutions in the International Criminal Court for perpetrators of such crimes. However, that will be a long process, which will depend on major political change in Russia.
Rakali @ #329 Saturday, July 9th, 2022 – 3:27 pm
This kind of sums up Glenn Greenwald, though I recommend reading the whole article:
In fact, Greenwald’s see-no-evil-on-the-Russian-side stance during the events of 2014—the Crimea grab and Russia’s first, limited invasion of Ukraine—became flagrant enough to rankle some of his fellow leftists. Writing in the Huffington Post in March 2014, New York-based journalist Nikolas Kozloff praised Greenwald’s role in the Snowden scoop but also blasted him for soft-pedaling repression in places like Russia, Syria, and Belarus, simply because those regimes are “on the receiving end of U.S. foreign policy.” And in Foreign Policy, two-time Pulitzer winner Thomas E. Ricks ripped into Greenwald for “moral posturing” and finding excuse after excuse not to comment on Vladimir Putin’s actions.
”
Rakalisays:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 3:36 pm
Ven
How can one be racist against a corporate?
———
What’s “a corporate” mean?
I thought investment bankers and hedge managers were people? Silly me.
”
Corporate
adjective
relating to a large company or group.
“airlines are very keen on their corporate identity”
noun
a corporate company or group.
BTW
Do you know that a Corporation/ Corporate has a vote like a ordinary citizen in ‘City of London ‘
Boerwar @ #42 Saturday, July 9th, 2022 – 3:25 pm
Like Serena Williams?
2009 A furious Serena walked towards the umpire and said: “I swear to God I’ll f***ing take the ball and shove it down your f***ing throat.”
Williams went over and shouted and cursed at Tsurubuchi, pointing at her. The line judge went over to chair umpire Louise Engzell, who assessed a penalty point, because it was Williams’ second code violation of the match (she broke her racket when the first set ended).
2011 What Williams said then: “You’re a hater, and you’re just unattractive inside,” to Asderaki, the umpire.
2018 Williams was cited by official Carlos Ramos for three code violations during her 6-2, 6-4 loss to the 20-year-old Osaka on Saturday: for getting coaching signals; for breaking her racket, which cost her a point; and for calling the chair umpire a thief, which cost her a game.
Boerwar @ #328 Saturday, July 9th, 2022 – 3:25 pm
And other top tennis players besides Nick Kyrgios abuse the umpires. Your point is? Selective.
Here we go againsays:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 3:22 pm
So those with the ability to play sport at elite levels should be absent emotion and adopt robotic dimensions
Sorry
To compete at that level you need to be totally engaged and totally committed
The frustrations at a failure to produce goes with the territory – including frustration with officials and their decisions (which are not always correct)
And then media attention is what it is – media exclusively looking for a sensation headline
I trust we add another Australian name to the Honour Board at Wimbledon
To boot, he is an outstandingly unique player who attracts an audience (witness the doubles ratings last January)
These players are entertainers courtesy of their abilities (the umpires are not)
I note also the record of a prior Australian tennis player as a Stockbroker – but he does not have a surname identify his heritage – but is not labelled by media as some others are
——————————————————————-
Sorry, the guy is a total embarrassment to Australia. He deserves nothing but derision.
The likes of Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Ken Rosewall, Eyvonne Goolagong, Pat Rafter and so many others who did this country proud, never needed to stoop to the depths of poor behaviour that he does incessantly. They still went OK!
Are not the umpires, ballboys/girls and other officials entitled to a workplace free from bullying and abuse. He should be drummed off the circuit.
As a proud Australian, I always barrack for whoever he is opposing if I watch at all.
While I condemn any political assassination, my late grandmother was a survivor of the Nanjing massacre perpetrated by the Japanese when they invaded the then capital of China. Ten years old at the time, she lived into her nineties, always in good mental health, and her outlook undimmed, but she was never again able to purchase any goods or appliances made in Japan.
Shinzo Abe was, objectively, a misogynist, reactionary, ultra-conservative nationalist and negationist and apologist for the Empire of the Rising Sun. While I will not gloat at the suffering of others, I attribute what occurred to Divine Providence.
Ven @ #550 Saturday, July 9th, 2022 – 3:21 pm
Yes. Musk’s view of “freedom of speech” – i.e. who has a right to it and who does not – was also explored in the video.
Dr Doolittle
I appreciate you are reporting various views including Russian and I follow their logic but I do not agree with theirs. I can’t see any repeat of a Minsk type agreement in Ukraine now. Once you conclude the other side is not negotiating in good faith, there is no point negotiating. Ukraine won’t. Even Macron has given up on Putin.
I can’t see any thaw between NATO countries and Russia at present either. There is a lot of propaganda and pressure tactics doing the rounds which is why I posted that German tweet. But I don’t think Ukraine will give in to it. This problem has been commented on by many eminent analysts since the start. There are no “off ramps” for Putin. That doesn’t mean nuclear war either. Putin can’t just push the button on his own any more than Trump could have.
In fact I think Germany is in a really difficult position now. The majority of the German population does NOT support Russia or any accession to Russian demands. German political and business leaders who have become reliant on continued Russian trade have painted themselves into a corner. Most of Europe is making plans to sever Russian gas links permanently. Germanys power in Europe may decline.
Parts of German industry are both dependent on Russian gas for profit and yet Germany is too weak militarily to stand alone against Russia. They need to change policy and rebuild in both areas. It will take years.
Ukraine might take years but I can’t see them giving up till they have all their land except maybe Crimea back. With heavier military weapons now rolling in they will be keen to payback Russian aggression.
Where does this leave any international order? Nowhere. Totally fractured. Russia will keep getting weaker. But whether it collapses or not China is now on top. So the new Cold War will continue, with or without Russia.
This is why I am doubling down on Australia building SSNs and a stronger domesticated built defence. We live in a more dangerous world now.
Millions of people spend every day in careers that are incredibly emotionally and/or physically exhausting. Most manage to remain decent human beings as they do so
If you are a grown adult and your typical way of dealing with stress is to abuse others, it’s time to see a therapist.
‘yabba says:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 3:43 pm
Boerwar @ #42 Saturday, July 9th, 2022 – 3:25 pm
‘Here we go again says:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 3:22 pm
So those with the ability to play sport at elite levels should be absent emotion and adopt robotic dimensions
Sorry
…’
————————-
Dozens of top tennis players get by perfectly well without having to abuse umpires.
Like Serena Williams?
…’
——————
No, not like Serena Williams.
Borewar
Perhaps you should restrict your opinions to matters you personally have some knowledge of
Your contributions to this site would identify no experience and no knowledge – merely a boring fossil carrying prejudice
So laughable
Noting you also seek to speak for others
Asha @ #343 Saturday, July 9th, 2022 – 4:15 pm
He has been and his behaviour is improving as a result. He’s not 100% an angel 100% of the time but he is not 100% a madman 100% of the time any more either.
I’m sorry but I believe in redemption stories. I like to give people a second chance at life. You don’t seem to want to. Your choice.
Collingwood get up. Bad luck BW.
Dr Doolittle
I just had a google view of the Kerch Strait bridge. Big and reinforced concrete. It will take more than a few Himars round to bring that down.
Ukraine is in no position to bring it down now. It would need army units with heavy artillery parked in range to bombard it, or warships with equivalent sized naval guns, or fighter bombers unloading large bombs. So no.
However my understanding is that they key weakness for Russia holding onto the Crimea long term is water supply, not transport. The peninsula is very dry and gets its supply from a pipeline from the River Dneiper near Kherson. If Ukraine recapture the territory between the current frontline and the Sea of Azov (i.e. northern end of Isthmus of Perekop) then the pipeline is cut. Russian use of Crimea will then be very limited.
You’ve got to give it to the Ukrainians for innovation:
https://www.rideapart.com/news/597123/dnepr-sidecar-bikes-ukraine-war/
Soc,
I just read that Ukraine is slowly taking back parts of Kherson.
I created a story myself about Collingwood FC.
Person 1: Do you notice puddles around Collingwood players, officials and supporters ?
Person 2: I notice them. Why are they only around them and not others.
Person 1: The puddles are created because they drip with arrogance. They behave as if they won the Cup each and every year and other teams are there to make up numbers.
Cat
Yes, Kherson is really strategically important. It is a Black Sea port, pushes Russia back further from Odessa, and with just a few km more cuts off the Crimea water canal/pipeline.
When you go through all these logistical details you realise that Russia’s strategic position in Ukraine is now really hopeless in the long term. Ukraine knows this and won’t give up.
Hence pro-Russian propagandists are trying to scare weaker western supporters into making Ukraine concede.
On Abe I agree with all the criticisms of him and WWII Japanese militarism, which I don’t defend. However Abe did make major improvements in Japan’s foreign policy (except Korea) and his assassination was wrong in principle regardless of politics.
A satellite picture showing flooding North West of Sydney two days after the rain stopped as the flood waters are slowly draining.
From here: https://twitter.com/DeadInLongRun/status/1545584520027869184?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1545584520027869184%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=
The Lake near Richmond isn’t normally there. The blob of mud to the North is Tuggerah Lake (a lagoon) on the Central Coast. It has overflowed and inundated parks, roads and residential areas in places.
Glen Greenwald is a bona fide imposter. Has been for a very long time.
@Catmomma
Glenn Greenwald has lost the plot over the last couple of years. It’s a shame, he used to be ok.
Bellwether
I would say more than a few years.
And Asha, “millions of people” are not on their lonesome on a tennis court with the attention of a global audience on them – including know alls in the media and those they influence
And looking to produce perfection – because that is what it takes to deliver results in such cauldrons
In the Corporate world you have resources both legal and accounting plus that you define a course of action consistent with those advices and the outcome which is the objective
So no comparison
How many cricket ground dressing rooms have been damaged after a batsman is dismissed?
These days you sometimes have recourse to challenge an Umpiring decision (given reviews remain)
Recall the media response during the times of Meckiff and Rorke (by the Pommy media) directed at the Australian umpires?
Glenn Greenwald has become an ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’, kind of guy. He despises the Centre Left/Centre Right so much he will now find common cause with anyone who also despises them.
… his loathing of the Bush administration’s foreign policy had “turned into a knee-jerk tendency to be against whatever the ‘neocons’ are for, and consequently into a very real moral blind spot.” In the years since, the loathing has expanded to what Greenwald perceives as bipartisan U.S. imperialism; change “neocons” to “neocons/neolibs,” and that’s still the driving force behind Greenwald’s views. (A whole other article could be written about in Greenwald’s “anti-anti-” stance with regard to radical Islamism, which reached its nadir in 2015 with a campaign vilifying the slain journalists of Charlie Hebdo as anti-Muslim bigots for their equal-opportunity mocking of all religions.)
… Add to this making common cause with the most noxious political forces inside the U.S. whose only virtue is that they are opposed by the neocon/neolib Blob.
One could debate to what extent Greenwald’s crusade against anything he sees as associated with American and Western imperialism undercuts the merits of his journalism (which has included genuinely brave coverage of political corruption in Brazil, where has lived for the past 17 years). One could also debate the extent to which the NSA surveillance revelations were a part of the same crusade—and to which this unquestionably important story was morally compromised by Snowden’s flight to Russia. What’s not in question is that, whatever good points he may make here and there about media groupthink or other issues, Greenwald views Western liberal democracy and its enemies through a horrifyingly distorted lens.
https://www.thebulwark.com/the-long-history-of-glenn-greenwalds-kissing-up-to-the-kremlin/
I commend Andrew Leigh for raising the issue of exploitative business monopolies in the Australian market, in the context of rising prices and stagnant wages.
To appreciate just how broken the Australian wage market is, consider we have 5% inflation and less than 3% wage growth. Even free market USA has similar inflation and unemployment (3.6%) yet 5.1% wage inflation. We need more pay!
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jul/09/labor-vows-to-shake-up-cosy-monopolists-with-fines-of-up-to-50m-for-anti-competitive-behaviour?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
Kyrgios has achieved something I thought was impossible: made me want Djokovic to win.
Tuggerah Lake Flood. Lucinda Ave, Killarney Vale, 8/7/2022
There is a roadway under that. The lake is about 40 metres behind the flooded toilet block. You can see the playground, and the Lake behind if you blow it up a bit.
Here we go again says:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 3:22 pm
“So those with the ability to play sport at elite levels should be absent emotion and adopt robotic dimensions”
Absolutely nobody says that, what a terrible deflection.
Sorry
“To compete at that level you need to be totally engaged and totally committed”
Again, nobody disagrees with this point however does this extend to the constant bullying, abuse, harassment and humiliation of umpires, lines persons and ball persons? And what of the considerable majority of players who don’t behave like this, are they not totally engaged and totally committed?
”So those with the ability to play sport at elite levels should be absent emotion and adopt robotic dimensions”
Not at all. They are just subject to the same rules of civil society (written and unwritten) as everyone else.
C@tmomma says:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 4:30 pm
“Soc,
I just read that Ukraine is slowly taking back parts of Kherson.”
Ukraine has taken back a bit of territory in Kherson Oblast, but it is relatively small and still quite some way away from Kherson city.
However, partisan activity in the occupied territories of Kherson (and more so in Melitopol) is having a major impact on Russian logistics.
Socrates
The very best solution for the Russia/Ukraine scenario is the death of Putin. I doubt this is a case of the ‘devil you know being better’. It would allow an entirely fresh approach to the situation and I suspect would result in a generally positive resolution for all sides. How sad to think that so much misery exists at the behest of one man.
‘Here we go again says:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 4:21 pm
Borewar
Perhaps you should restrict your opinions to matters you personally have some knowledge of
Your contributions to this site would identify no experience and no knowledge – merely a boring fossil carrying prejudice
So laughable
Noting you also seek to speak for others’
———————————-
Rank personal abuse.
By the way, for those interested in a. relatively impartial and factual view of the Ukrainian conflict, I would recommend
https://www.understandingwar.org/publications
They publish a daily update.
Here could be a bit of Saturday night fun for PB’ers……
I’ve been at Caulfield races today and a trainer I vaguely know (Peter Moody) had the favourite in the main wfa race Sir John Monash Stakes which eventually ran a struggling 7th.
Prior on tv this morning he said he would be honoured to win the race as he considered Sir John Monash clearly the greatest Australian ever!
What are PB’ers picks if they differ from Moody or each other or William B as their top pick?
(To stir things up I would assume Moody is a right winger, raised in outback Qld and I have witnessed him bagging ‘Greenies’ when a guest speaker at a formal luncheon)
Steve777 @ #28 Saturday, July 9th, 2022 – 5:26 pm
Do you mean like the Christian Brothers, or Boris Johnson, or Michaelia Cash, or Serena Williams or just everybody else?
Can you point us to a source for your unwritten rules of civil society? Would Deuteronomy be a good place to start?
Steve777says:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 5:26 pm
More to the point they’re subject to rules and codes of conduct of their sport.
At the end of day it comes down to what the sport’s controlling body is willing to tolerate and how actively they police it.
Some sports have low tolerance for certain behaviours and come down hard on transgressions, others have a much weaker approach.
That tennis seems to tolerate more than most other professional sports.
Dr John says:
Prior on tv this morning he said he would be honoured to win the race as he considered Sir John Monash clearly the greatest Australian ever!
What are PB’ers picks if they differ from Moody or each other or William B as their top pick?
______________
If you were to pick the Australian who had the most influence upon this world, well, I’m afraid it would be the Dark Lord himself, Rupert Murdoch.
Cronus
I would agree with your perception of Putin but I think it is more than just him. Putin was one of a group of former Cold War warriors who resented how things ended for Soviet Russia and were determined to regain power and even the score. They undermined any Russian democracy from Yeltsin on.
I have been reading two books I recommend on this period, Serhiy Plokhoi’s The Last Empire and Catherine Belton’s Putin’s People. One conclusion from them for me was that if it was not Putin it would have been another like him.
The rule of law in terms of protecting individual rights never really existed in the Soviet Union. Putin and most of his oligarch allies were all in a clique of KGB agents from St Petersburg. They operated more like a crime gang than public servants.
One of Putin’s cold war era jobs was to launder money to send to pro-Moscow agents and groups in the west. This skill has served him well since.
So we have an autocratic militarist in charge of Russia who wants to reassemble the old Russian empire and feels no legal constraints in the process. Putin is not irrational. However he has very different values and objectives to us. So does Xi, but the two are different to each other as well.
Socrates says:
Saturday, July 9, 2022 at 5:47 pm
Cronus
“I would agree with your perception of Putin but I think it is more than just him. Putin was one of a group of former Cold War warriors who resented how things ended for Soviet Russia and were determined to regain power and even the score. They undermined any Russian democracy from Yeltsin on.
I have been reading two books I recommend on this period, Serhiy Plokhoi’s The Last Empire and Catherine Belton’s Putin’s People. One conclusion from them for me was that if it was not Putin it would have been another like him.
The rule of law in terms of protecting individual rights never really existed in the Soviet Union. Putin and most of his oligarch allies were all in a clique of KGB agents from St Petersburg. They operated more like a crime gang than public servants.
One of Putin’s cold war era jobs was to launder money to send to pro-Moscow agents and groups in the west. This skill has served him well since.
So we have an autocratic militarist in charge of Russia who wants to reassemble the old Russian empire and feels no legal constraints in the process. Putin is not irrational. However he has very different values and objectives to us. So does Xi, but the two are different to each other as well.”
Indeed they are an interesting peoples. I was one who incorrectly assumed when the Soviet Union disintegrated that all would see the sense in democracy and most of its values and benefits. Notwithstanding the failures of Yeltsin, it quickly appeared that many Russians soon missed the old days of communism , militarism and sense of having a ‘strong man’ in charge. It really appears to be all that many of them (perhaps the older folk) can relate to. Better the devil they know in this case.
Dr John @ #553 Saturday, July 9th, 2022 – 5:38 pm
Moody sounds like conservative plonker trying to hang onto old ways and practices.
Murdoch is the most influential. No way the greatest Australian though.
Fred Hollows is hard to beat.