The fortnightly Essential Research poll adds to an overall picture of static voting intention despite the government’s income tax overhaul, with Labor down a point on the primary vote to 31%, the Coalition recording 34% for the sixth poll in a row, the Greens up a point to 14% and One Nation steady on 7%, with undecided steady on 5%. Respondent-allocated preferences nonetheless cause Labor to perk up a little on the pollster’s 2PP+ measure, which has Labor up two to 50% and the Coalition steady on 46% (again with 5% undecided), Labor’s biggest lead on this measure since the start of October.
The poll also includes the monthly leaders’ favourability ratings, with differ from the separate approval ratings in inviting respondents to rate the leaders on a scale of zero to ten. This gives Peter Dutton his strongest result so far, with a four-point increase among those rating him seven or higher to 32% and a four-point fall in those rating him three or lower to 33%. Anthony Albanese improves slightly from December, when he recorded the weakest results of his prime ministership, with 33% rating him seven or higher (up one) and 35% three or lower (down two).
Questions on the tax cut changes confirm what was already established in finding 56% in favour and 16% opposed, while telling us something new with respect to awareness of them: only 10% consider they know a lot about the changes, with 37% for a bit, 40% for hardly anything and 13% for nothing at all. The poll also found 59% per cent for the “right to disconnect” laws working their way through parliament with only 15% opposed. Other questions cover fuel efficiency standards, party most trusted on tax, the importance of keeping election promises and the ubiquitous Taylor Swift, who scores a non-recognition rating of 3%.
The weekly Roy Morgan poll has Labor’s two-party lead in from 53-47 to 52-48, but this is due to changes in respondent-allocated preferences rather than primary votes, on which Labor gains one-and-a-half points to 34.5% – its strongest showing from Morgan since October – with the Coalition and the Greens steady on 37% and 12% and One Nation down half a point to 4.5%. The poll was conducted Monday to Sunday from a sample of 1699.
In by-election news, of which there will be a fair bit to report over the next six weeks, the ballot paper draws were conducted yesterday for Queensland’s Inala and Ipswich West by-elections on March 16, which have respectively attracted eight and four candidates. Ipswich West is a rare no-show for the Greens, who are presumably more concerned with the same day’s Brisbane City Council elections. Further crowding the calendar is a looming state election in Tasmania, which is covered in the post above.
@meher:
“ What’s with all the ganging up on FUBAR? He’s a Liberal, so what? He’s a more rational and gracious one than many I’ve encountered online.”
_____
This comment says more about the other Liberals you have encountered online than it does about FUBAR’s credibility.
It also says a lot about the “leave passes” you are prepared to give folk who are frankly … vile RWNJs.
FUBAR is no ‘Bourkean Conservative” that one might enjoy ‘agreeing to disagree agree with’ over a friendly and lively debate.
Nor is he some sort of ‘progressive’ neo liberal like a Nick Greiner who one also might enjoy the cut and thrust of health debate.
He’s a base reactionary – a fact he proves over and over again: a wannabe Colonel Kurtz – but in truth just another Neidermeyer. Like Can-do Campbell, Stuart Robert and a gaggle of other ex servicemen (and coppers) who find their way into the bosom of the LNP. Thankfully our FUBAR never went so far.
The fact is, ‘conservative Australia’ isn’t exactly sending its best people to be bludgers. In fact, meher, you’re probably the best they have – and I don’t know that you even consider yourself a conservative (despite a love of capitalism).
Dandy Murraysays:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 5:49 pm
C@t,
What if I say it?
Miles is a clown.
He might have some good policy chops, he has some good team members behind him, but he is seen as a boofhead. I’m concerned.
===================================================================
Dandy do you see a similarity here?
Can Steven Miles be two people at once?
https://www.cowboys.com.au/teams/nrl-premiership/north-queensland-cowboys/reuben-cotter/
Gotta love the mullet, only Queenslanders can do it.
Milesy might grow one when he’s Premier.
Should do it now though, guaranteed to be a shoe in!
meher baba @ #494 Wednesday, February 14th, 2024 – 9:44 pm
Of course I haven’t read it because I have a very strong belief in Christopher Hitchens as a non-objective observer and a political hitman for the Right.
Dr Doolittlesays:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 9:46 pm
Socrates at 9.10 pm
“If you can’t possibly win, don’t fight.”
That is one of the basic principles of the Just War Theory, which in simple terms is a middle position between militarism and pacifism.
==========================================================
On paper Afghanistan should not of defeated the USSR nor Vietnam the USA. I would argue if you can’t win in a conventional type war. You adapt to form of warfare that gives you a chance. Which is what both Mujahideen and Viet Cong did in the aforementioned cases. If they can both beat super powers, obviously with home ground advantage. It is hard to say that any country that is willing to adopt such tactics couldn’t in the long run. Kick an invading army out its country.
”
leftieBrawlersays:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 9:03 pm
OC,
I didn’t realise you were a medical doctor, makes sense now when you mentioned you were once neighbours with Jimmy Aitken.
Was that during his humbler days along the west back in the golden triangle, or his break out days in the lower mountains?.
They are an occasional client of ours- rarely see the big man these days but son 1 and the grandson pretty often.
Next time I see the big guy I’ll ask about a pesky, left leaning doctor that once graced the other side of his fence lol.
”
As far as I know from the postings, LL doctor is on now on the other side of fence. 🙂
Rex Douglas says:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 5:03
—————————————————————————-
Player One says:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 5:14
——————————————————————————
The person who refuels the warplane as it travels toward its target is as morally conscionable for the death and destruction caused as the person who opens the bomb bay and drops the bombs.
The country that refuels the fossil fuel burning plants of another country is as morally conscionable for the death and destruction caused as the country that burns the fuel.
Not for the first time, Ven, you would be wrong.
”
meher babasays:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 9:10 pm
OC: “Fess That is the argument Clinton used and it was accepted by a sufficient number of senators for him to remain as President.”
Fess, what he said. Don’t think I support what he said in any way. I rather liked his politics, but Clinton the man was clearly a scumbag IMO.
”
After WW2, other than Jimmy Carter and possibly Dwight Eisenhower all other POTUSes are scumbags one way or another.
”
Oakeshott Countrysays:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 10:09 pm
Not for the first time, Ven, you would be wrong.
”
I agree with you OC that I have been wrong quite a few times. I Don’t deny that. Realising that helped me not to keep any grudges and sometimes even appreciate others.
C@t
“And so once you erase trans women from physical sport, you move to sports such as chess and darts”
——————
But it’s not about erasing anyone from physical sport.
It’s about whether women are allowed to retain single sex sports. It also reflects the current ideological attempt to erase “sex” as a meaningful factor and replace it with the metaphysical “gender”.
I gather while Parkrun for most is a “bit of fun” a lot of people took their times and places very seriously. Some women did not want males in the female category. (Obviously Nazis).
The organisers decided to wipe all records which of course is one solution but this aroused horror amongst some of the competitive male runners who up to then were unaffected and presumably uninterested.
It’s very much a first world problem.
Rikali,
You’re shooting the wrong messenger. The ones who should have attracted your ire are the RW zealots and the media they towed along with them to disrupt Parkrun because it doesn’t conform to their antiquated sex and gender standards. And you, as a gay person, iirc, appear to be fine with that! I find that creeping into the TERF realm. I don’t know how you can do that!?! It’s a Fun Run, fcs, and if some people who enter want to take it more seriously, then they can go find another running comp that takes itself more seriously as well. Jesus, transgender people in this world are getting no love at all these days, and they are THE most oppressed people in, yes, the 1st World, because in the 3rd World and many places in-between, they’re just being murdered.
So, I don’t really care that you’re getting your knickers in a twist about it because what I do care about is Trans people being able to have a bit of fun running around in Park Run with everyone else. Free of the perverts who think they shouldn’t exist.
”
Boerwarsays:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 9:13 pm
‘pragmatic pacifism’ is up there with ‘practical reconciliation’.
”
So you disagree with Mahatma Gandhi Non-violence then.
Millions of Indian people were killed following the path of Gandhi.
During British colonialism
Initially people resisted British rulers with armed resistance till Gandhi came on to Indian national scene. British crushed them with superior weapons. They looted India and left a once prosperous country, poor.
Realising this Gandhi adapted Non violence and extolled people to raise against British rule in peaceful non-violent protests. Millions of people were put in jail without trials or even killed mercilessly.
If not for WW2 and complete destruction of British economy, India would not have got independence.
Churchill was on record saying that he would never give Independence to India as long as he was PM. There are couple of reasons why India got Independence after WW2.
1. British Indian army, which was largest voluntary army in WW2, started revolting against British masters.
2. Churchill lost election after WW2.
3. Britain was unable to control India by force anymore because it did not have resources to do so.
Holocaust reminds us of millions of Jews killed in Europe before and during WW2. But How many people outside India know that many more 10s of millions of Indians were killed by British during colonial rule.
When Mahatma Gandhi died, Albert Einstein reportedly said that “hundred years from now people will not believe such a man existed”.
How prescient.
Socrates says:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 9:10 pm
If you can’t possibly win, don’t fight.
————————————————————————
‘O king. Hear then now also: these men have come to fight with us for the passage, and this is it that they are preparing to do; for they have a custom which is as follows: whenever they are about to put their lives in peril, they attend to the arrangement of their hair…
The allies then who were dismissed departed and went away, obeying the word of Leonidas, and only the Thespians and the Thebans remained behind with the Spartans After this they departed from their assembly, and some went away and dispersed each to their several cities, while others of them were ready to remain there together with Leonidas.
Thespians and the Thebans remained behind with the Spartans. Of these the Thebans stayed against their will and not because they desired it, for Leonidas kept them, counting them as hostages; but the Thespians very willingly, for they said that they would not depart and leave Leonidas and those with him, but they stayed behind and died with them.’
Herodotus
‘With music strong I come, with my cornets and my drums,
I play not marches for accepted victors only, I play marches for conquer’d and slain persons.
Have you heard that it was good to gain the day?
I also say it is good to fall, battles are lost in the same spirit in which they are won.
I beat and pound for the dead,
I blow through my embouchures my loudest and gayest for them.
Vivas to those who have fail’d!
And to those whose war-vessels sank in the sea!
And to those themselves who sank in the sea!
And to all generals that lost engagements, and all overcome heroes!
And the numberless unknown heroes equal to the greatest heroes known!’
Walt Whitman
Socrates @ Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 7:20 pm:
=============================
This ship would be very costly and very time-consuming to replace, relative to the USV’s which destroyed it. I also wonder how many of its crew survived. They are, of course, irreplaceable – at least to their loved ones, if not to their government. That blast looked quite destructive.
‘Tom Suozzi is returning to Congress.
The former Democratic congressman defeated Mazi Pilip, a Republican county legislator, on Tuesday in a special election on Long Island to fill the seat left vacant after Congress expelled Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.) in December. Suozzi got 53.9 percent of the vote and Pilip got 46.1 percent with an estimated 93.4 percent of votes counted.
Biden carried the district by eight points in 2020, so Suozzi’s win isn’t especially surprising.
Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.), the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, described the race as “an uphill battle” in a statement Tuesday night. “Republicans still have multiple pathways to grow our majority in November,” he said.
But Suozzi’s victory is a shot in the arm for Democrats at a time when many voters are frustrated with Biden’s handling of the huge numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Suozzi criticized Pilip for opposing the bipartisan Senate border deal, which is now dead.
And it’s a headache for Republicans, whose precarious House majority will get even more fragile now.
Once Suozzi is sworn in, the House will have 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats — a margin that’s likely to shrink even further after the April 30 special election to fill the reliably Democratic seat vacated by Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.), who resigned this month.
(Subsequent special elections to fill two solidly Republican House seats in California and Ohio will ease the pressure a little.)
It’s risky to read too much into any special election, but Suozzi’s victory could make other Republican freshmen in New York City suburbs nervous as they run for reelection. Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-N.Y.) represents a Long Island district that Biden won by nearly 15 points in 2020; Rep. Michael Lawler (R-N.Y.) is running for reelection in a Westchester County district that Biden won by 10 points.’
(The Washington Post)
C@tmomma says:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 9:56 pm
Of course I haven’t read it because I have a very strong belief in Christopher Hitchens as a non-objective observer and a political hitman for the Right.
—————
I mean, the guy was a polemicist, so the non-objective observer comment is no doubt accurate, but where does the “political hitman for the Right” idea come from? Purely his Iraq War support? Because the concept of him being a rightist couldn’t be further from the truth other than on such a myopic approach.
Over in the Cave, the Liberal Party is owned by a bunch of right wing religious loons affectionately known as the Clan.
From time to time, big business and vested interests try to get their party back, and at times the struggle can get quite vicious.
At the moment such a struggle is happening in the seat of Moore. Current member and bible advocate Ian Goodenough has been accused of most unchristian activities like sharing the private information provided by branch members. Of course he insists that a God fearing person like him would never stoop to such underhand tactics.
The preselection is supposed to be finalised on Saturday.
Macarthursays:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 10:54 pm
==================================================
Ukraine has had a very successful 24 hours it appears. As besides the ship, according to Ukraine official sources. The following were also sacrificed for Putin’s hubris: 1060 invaders, 9 invader tanks, 39 invader armoured combat vehicles, 66 invader artillery systems, 4 invader anti aircraft systems and 3 invader mobile rocket system launchers.
Entropy @ Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 11:04 pm:
====================
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the best thing that can happen for the vast majority of the Russian population would be for Putin and his regime to fall from power. I don’t fancy the chances of it, at least for the next few years, but Putin has been his own people’s worst enemy.
C@tmomma
You are seriously unhinged or deliberately missing the point.
Are you saying that women should not have their own sports? I’m surprised.. What are antiquated sex standards?
I have no idea what you mean by disrupting anything.
The gender ideology is in part seriously regressive and at heart homophobic. Do you know that Stonewall in UK which used to be a gay rights charity now talks about same sex attracted men as “sexual rascists” because we wont have sex with women!
Protecting same sex rights is not anti-trans and lthe debate on this issue is not stopping trans-people “having a bit of fun”. no one wanted them to be banned from running, as far as i know.
I think the idea that children are born “in the wrong body” and the appalling medical consequences from trying to align their wrong body with it’s gender “soul” is evil.
It’s metaphysical bullshit.
Macarthursays:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 11:08 pm
Entropy @ Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 11:04 pm:
====================
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: the best thing that can happen for the vast majority of the Russian population would be for Putin and his regime to fall from power. I don’t fancy the chances of it, at least for the next few years, but Putin has been his own people’s worst enemy.
====================================================
Yep, totally pointless war by Putin. Which he can’t ever win. Even if he won the conventional war against Ukraine and took the the whole country, which want happen. Ukraine would just keep fighting a guerrilla war against Russia anyway. Which Russia would eventually lose, like they did in Afghanistan. As the Russian soldiers desire to subjugate Ukraine is nowhere near as strong as desire of the Ukrainian people to be free of Russian oppression.
Jocksays:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 10:56 pm
C@tmomma says:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 9:56 pm
Of course I haven’t read it because I have a very strong belief in Christopher Hitchens as a non-objective observer and a political hitman for the Right.
—————
I mean, the guy was a polemicist, so the non-objective observer comment is no doubt accurate, but where does the “political hitman for the Right” idea come from? Purely his Iraq War support? Because the concept of him being a rightist couldn’t be further from the truth other than on such a myopic approach.
========================================================
I thought he was pretty right wing in later life. A big supporter of GW Bush, an anti abortionist and gun rights believer. To name a few of his right wing beliefs.
‘Australian federal MPs – including the prime minister and cabinet members – have voted overwhelmingly to urge the US and the UK to allow the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to return to Australia.
The independent MP Andrew Wilkie hailed the passage of the motion, 86 votes in favour and 42 against, as “an unprecedented show of political support for Mr Assange by the Australian parliament”.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, joined Coalition colleagues in opposing the motion on Wednesday, although the Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer crossed the floor to back the pro-Assange motion.‘
Source: theguardian.com
About bloody time.
It will be interesting to see who here aligns themself with Dutton.
Entropy says:
Wednesday, February 14, 2024 at 11:40
I thought he was pretty right wing in later life. A big supporter of GW Bush, an anti abortionist and gun rights believer. To name a few of his right wing beliefs.
—————
There was undoubtedly nuance to his worldview and he defied easy pigeon-holing, but describing him as of the right seems too reductive to me. For his slightly conservative views on abortion, he still supported its legality, and was a strong opponent of capital punishment. For his support of the Iraq War, he nevertheless joined a lawsuit against the Bush administration’s domestic surveillance. He considered Euroscepticism to be fascistic, and supported a unified Ireland.
There still seems to be a tendency at times to extrapolate from his Iraq War support a general right-wing bent, which really isn’t borne out by most else he said. I believe he continued to identify as a Marxist until the end.
But I guess the real point is, refusing to engage with him on the basis of considering him to have been a right wing headkicker is only going to do oneself a disservice. Agree or disagree with whatever it is that he said on a given topic, I think one would be better for taking the time to read and consider it if so inclined, rather than dismissing it out of hand on an assumption that he was a right winger. If nothing else, he was always eminently readable.
I am writing this on Wednesday night at 11.26 pm my time.
If Fuber is allowed to denigrate the First Nation People the way he is doing I will stop my monthly contribution to PB, I have been contributing for quite a while. But I will not accept the denigration of our First Nation people.
I know I am a bit late with this, but I like to read the comments.
The only comments I can see from FUBAR about First Nations people lately are positive reflections on Jacinta Price. Obviously it’s your money, but I’ve got to say that I find ultimatums like that one rather contemptible.
Sorry WB, but I find Fuber rather contemptible. I don’t comment here often but I am an original here and I find Fuber a pain in the a#@se. I like reading most comments but if you find my comment contemptible bad luck. Fuber earlier in the day was denigrating the First Nation people and I don’t like it.
Biden, Trump remain locked in tight rematch after special counsel report: Reuters/Ipsos poll
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-trump-remain-locked-tight-rematch-after-special-counsel-report-2024-02-13/
“The four-day poll, which closed on Monday, showed former President Trump with the support of 37% of respondents, compared with 34% support for Biden, at the edge of the survey’s 2.9 percentage point margin of error.
Some 10% said they would vote for other candidates; 12% said they would not vote; and 8% refused to answer the nationwide poll conducted online with responses from 1,237 U.S. adults.
Granny Anny says:
“Over in the Cave, the Liberal Party is owned by a bunch of right wing religious loons affectionately known as the Clan.”
From the other side of the country, I can hear the sound of FUBAR being triggered to post another vehement denial of the malign influence of the Clan.
That’s all in the past, apparently. It’s now sweetness and light in the WA Liberals. Nothing to see here! Move on, everyone …
Canberra is coming for your home! (If you live in Parkwood …)
‘Housing development that could house 30,000 people may see NSW-ACT border moved’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-14/parkwood-ginninderry-development-nsw-act-border-shift/103429378
(snip)
‘Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan has denied he wanted to sack the man who led the investigation into PwC … Michael O’Neill, chair of the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB).’
* * *
‘Last Friday, Mr O’Neill and ATO deputy Jeremy Hirschhorn made contradictory assertions in a tense Senate hearing.
‘Their disagreement related to a media release issued in March 2022 by then-assistant treasurer Michael Sukkar. Mr Sukkar proposed to change the rules to allow the chief executive to be sacked from the tax office entirely, which is not currently possible.’
‘Last week, the committee heard Mr Sukkar was in regular contact with a TPB member who was a former PwC partner. No suggestion was made of wrongdoing by Mr Sukkar, and the proposal ultimately did not proceed due to the change of government.
‘But the question remained: was this proposed sacking power a pretext to get rid of Mr O’Neill because his senior colleagues didn’t like the way he was investigating PwC?’
* * *
‘”I have to say I have the perception Mr O’Neill was leaned on,” Senator Colbeck said. “I’m really shitty about that.”’
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-14/ato-chief-denies-trying-to-sack-man-leading-pwc-investigation/103467742
Episode 1 is up –
Nemesis (ABC) – Episode 1: The Abbott Years
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HvP61y0Er4
Re Hitchens. His support for the seconf Gulf War made him look like a fool, although, in retrospect, we can speculate that his health was already starting to deteriorate by then and cloud his judgement: he’d punished his body with excessive drinking and smoking for several decades.
But in the 1980s and 1990s, when he was very much a man of the left, he produced a great deal of insightful writing on a wide range of topics. Including the Clintons.
“No One Left to Lie To.” Still worth a read, if only for his brilliant use of the English language.
Oliver Sutton @ #530 Thursday, February 15th, 2024 – 5:07 am
Kids have gotta grow. 😉
Oliver Sutton @ #529 Thursday, February 15th, 2024 – 5:00 am
Which is why the Religious Right, who are seeking to take over the democracies of the Western World, as they battle the Theocrats from the other religion in the Holy War of the 21st century and to control our bodies and our lives, have chosen a former pastor to replace Linda Reynolds in the Senate. Okay, got it. 😐
Jericho slips the boot in again… Howard what dun it.. destroyed affordable housing.
Prior to June 2000, if you made a capital gain (ie a profit from an investment) you discounted the profits by the level of inflation over the period of the investment before paying tax.
Then Howard (and Costello) changed it to being a straight 50% discount.
If you bought a property for $500,000 and 10 years later you’re able to sell it for $1m at a profit of $500,000, rather than pay tax on the whole $500,000, you only pay tax on $250,000. The other $250,000 is yours, tax free.
That is about as sweet as it gets.
This change made speculating (sorry, “investing”) in housing very lucrative.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2024/feb/15/the-awful-truth-at-the-heart-of-australian-housing-policy
Niki Savva thinks the pressure is all on Dutton in Dunkley.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/dutton-not-only-should-win-the-dunkley-byelection-he-needs-to-win-it-20240213-p5f4o1.html
Rainman @ 11.43pm
The Wilkie motion was supported by the majority of House members.
However, out of the current 150 members in the House, where did the missing 22 members votes go?
Did they abstain?
Or did they do an Abbott and slink out of the House to avoid their responsibility?
Rikali @ #520 Wednesday, February 14th, 2024 – 11:18 pm
I have to disagree with you again, Rakali. Not about the Stonewall thing, that just sounds silly, and wrong due to some, no doubt, highly influential member of the organisation having too much sway at this point in time. In those sort of cases I believe that another person eventually comes along to right the ship and steer it back off its silly course.
However, I also believe, due to actual, real life experience, that you are still very wrong about Transgender individuals. My son is best friends with a couple, a female friend of his from school and her ‘husband’, Jak, who has transitioned from being born female to a male. And a happier couple you couldn’t hope to meet in this day and age. So don’t, please don’t, try and mock him as practising ‘metaphysical bullshit’. As someone who should intimately know what discrimination feels like, you should be the last person, or so I would have thought, to discriminate against him and the rest of the Transgender community. Maybe you need to get out among the LGBTQI+ community more and see what the world is like now that Transgender people can feel safe to come out and live their lives like the rest of us? Free from discrimination. Well, mostly, as there are still TERFs and RW Religious bigots to fear.
If you can’t get out, I suggest watching Ru Paul’s Drag Race. Mamma Ru has begun including Trans Women, who have partially and fully transitioned, as contestants in the show, and they provide some of the most touching monologues about how their lives have changed, for the better, since they had the operation and began taking female hormones. The term, Trans Liberation, comes to mind. Surely as a supporter of Gay Liberation, you can support theirs?
Also, finally, my connection to Trans individuals goes right back to the 1980s as a Pharmacist in Albany, WA, where I used to dispense the medication for a man who wanted to be a woman. We talked and he let me know that, until he found a sympathetic doctor who agreed to put him on a hormone regimen, he was suicidal and self-harmed. Now that he was on the road to being who he felt he wanted to be for the rest of his life on this earth, he was happy again. Would you deny him that happiness, Rakali, with your intolerant and dismissive ‘metaphysical bullshit’ slur? I never would, and never will.
C@tmomma says:
Thursday, February 15, 2024 at 6:22 am
And not one word on 7:30 about sustainability & suburban sprawl.. Canberra lost the plot 60 years ago
And no, I’m not saying that women shouldn’t have their own sports. However, that issue is being managed very well by the Sports Medicine community. It’s only ignorant cranks in the religious community, in the main, that are getting their knickers in a twist about it.
Sceptic @ #541 Thursday, February 15th, 2024 – 6:51 am
I agree with you, there. The ACT needs to consider going up more, rather than out. Though, it’s a balancing act and some new suburbs will have to be created somewhere at some point in time.
House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Mike Turner (R- OH) released a statement on Wednesday flipping over what he says is intelligence of a “serious national security threat” that he claimed the White House is keeping secret. It prompted National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to take to the White House podium to say that he personally called Turner and the rest of the so-called “Gang of Eight” earlier this week to schedule an intelligence briefing to address exactly that threat, so he’s unclear why Turner would be sounding the alarm.
The “Gang of Eight” are the top House and Senate leaders who have clearance to view highly classified intelligence information. “I am a bit surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today” to announce a potential national security threat he is going to be briefed about tomorrow, said Sullivan. “That’s his choice to do that.”
The US believes that Russia is seeking a nuclear weapon in space.
A_E:
FUBAR seems to me to have pretty similar views on most issues to the Liberals I know personally. He sometimes posts things that annoy me, but so do many other people on here.
And I still don’t think personalised attacks on other posters are warranted and are, in fact, rather absurd, given that most of us don’t have any idea who each other really are: eg, FUBAR could be a 15 yo goth chick for all we know. (Hey, a remake of Apocalypse Now with a teenage girl in the role of Kurtz would be something to behold. “Kurtz, you must follow your orders and bring your men back to base immediately” “That’s not going to happen. Why should I? You’re old and fat. Shut up!” The British actress Helen Monks would have been ideal, but alas she’s all grown up now.)
I suspect I’ve had more to do with Liberals than you and most other posters on PB, so I’m used to them. And left-wing people shouldn’t waste their energy in getting too upset with them. Australians are a conservative people, as befits their mostly affluent lifestyles, and the term “centre right” probably encapsulates the centre of political gravity in this country. (The term has, unfortunately, been devalued by the fact that Tony Abbott continues to describe himself as being “centre right”, which is total garbage.)
I feel somewhat sorry for dyed-in-the-wool Libs in that I reckon their party is slowly going down the drain, as Nemesis showed so well. If there is to be another (slightly) right of centre Prime Minister in Australia in the near future, I do hope it’s Allegra Spender. I can’t see how it could possibly ever happen, but, for people like me who see environmentalism as being totally compatible with Burkeian conservatism, she’d be excellent in the role.
He lost his spine years ago, so this latest posturing isn’t surprising.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/14/lindsey-graham-ukraine-trump/
Macca RB: “out of the current 150 members in the House, where did the missing 22 members votes go? Did they abstain?”
Some did …
‘Some Coalition MPs who have previously backed calls for Assange’s release, including Barnaby Joyce, were not present for the vote. Eight Coalition MPs who were present for a separate vote immediately beforehand did not vote on the Assange motion.’
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/14/australian-mps-pass-motion-urging-us-and-uk-to-allow-julian-assange-to-return-to-australia
Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Comyn says the Reserve Bank may not cut interest rates until early 2025 because of “persistent” inflation, compounding cost of living pressures for borrowers counting on tax cuts and mortgage relief. CBA economists predict the RBA will start reducing rates from September, but Mr Comyn told The Australian Financial Review “there is certainly a possibility that could be delayed” until the new year, after US inflation data came in stronger than forecast.
High-profile Victorian judge Lex Lasry resigns after complaint made by prosecutions boss
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-14/lex-lasry-resigns-kerri-judd-dpp-prosecutions-complaint/103467818
In short: Documents released by Services Australia show people have waited more than 100 days to have their payments approved.
Services Australia CEO David Hazlehurst told Senate estimates that 1.1 million claims had yet to be processed as of December 31.
What’s next? Mr Hazlehurst said more than 30,000 additional staff would come online in the next few months, increasing the average speed in answering calls.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-15/one-million-services-australia-claims-yet-to-be-processed/103467740