Friday, February 10, 2017

Fri Feb 10th Todays News

A court decision allowing the blockage of Trump's executive decision prior to another court's evaluating the legitimacy of the Trump decision in no way changes the fact that Trump has the law on his side. The decision does not mean the vexatious block has merit. What it means is that a status quo will continue until the final verdict is made. And it will suit Trump, who is keeping his campaign promises despite vexatious opposition. The public are reminded that Trump has yet to drain the swamp. But he has begun. Meanwhile, McCain has been paid by the Clinton foundation to attack Trump. And Australia's PM paid Australian money into the Clinton Foundation. If Turnbull did not pay the Clinton foundation for expertise in rolling Abbott, and so signed up for their AGW hogwash and immigration idiocy, what else did he get for it? 

In 2015, I wrote Turnbull should resign as he had nothing left to offer, except damaging Liberal governments. Today, Turnbull has proved me right. At the moment, Turnbull is being lauded by the partisan media for insulting Bill Shorten, the ALP leader. A real Liberal leader would not insult Shorten, but point to his failed policy record. Turnbull still has the support of Miranda Devine. But non partisan conservative commentators say that Abbott is the best alternative. Meanwhile, I am hostage to abysmal political leadership and hopeless journalists. My shopfront has opened on Facebook.

I am very good and don't deserve the abuse given me. I created a video raising awareness of anti police feeling among western communities. I chose the senseless killing of Nicola Cotton, a Louisiana policewoman who joined post Katrina, to highlight the issue. I did this in order to get an income after having been illegally blacklisted from work in NSW for being a whistleblower. I have not done anything wrong. Local council appointees refused to endorse my work, so I did it for free. Youtube's Adsence refused to allow me to profit from their marketing it. 

Here is a video I made Everything is Illuminated (Everyone was Eliminated)
This track came into being because of Didier's love for the movie, the theme.
His playing, his singing. I penned the lyric, following detail, online, about script
http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=58698
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Is_Illuminated 

http://www.icompositions.com/music/song.php?sid=61417

David Ball4 years ago
Фильм блестящий

David Ball6 years ago
@TheIdiosyncratic3 Possibly that is true. It is my fault. I hadn't seen the movie, but found the story inspirational. Didier's work is pure genius. 

Verônica Farias Santos8 years ago
What a strong song! What a beautiful movie! Congrats from São Paulo/Brasil! V for Verônica

David Ball8 years ago
I have not seen the movie. I will soon, but not yet. Didier asked me to write some lyrics for it, and so I read a precis of the book and film and wrote these lyrics in an hour. Didier took some 6 months to make the music .. and it was worth the wait. Didier has since gone on to progressive rock bands. I have family who were holocaust victims and the issue is important to me.

Fredfbar8 years ago
I loved this movie!!

David Ball9 years ago
Thank you. I'm proud to have penned the lyric, but it is Didier's talent you hear in the music. I did a google image search to source the images. I don't recall where I got each of them, but if you google image search for "Everything is Illuminated" you should find it ;)

Nikanaiko9 years ago
That was really an awesome song. <3 2:35="" ask="" at="" br="" by...="" by="" could="" got="" i="" love="" picture="" scene.="" that="" the="" where="" you="">


David Ball9 years ago
Thank you. I do my best work at icompositions ;)




=== from 2016 ===
The success of Trump at New Hampshire is suggestive that many in the GOP accept Trump could be a good figurehead President backed by a responsible GOP administration. Maybe Fiorina would be a running mate. Maybe Cruz. The press seem to really dislike Cruz, so he must be good quality. Thing is, the press hate cultural assets which unite America. On the other side, Sanders has trounced Clinton. It isn't really a choice when neither candidate offers an effective policy beyond dividing America into opposing camps of minorities. 

A report by US intelligence chiefs highlights the three greatest threats to the world at the moment. Daesh death cult, Cyber espionage and nuclear NK. All three have involved an under performing Obama elevating the risks. Worth considering regarding the next election. 

For some at the moment, the sex party has more credibility. 
=== from 2015 ===
Media are shifting focus to the upcoming NSW election with a new poll suggesting 75% of voters don't want to privatise electricity for funding infrastructure. It must have been a push poll, because even among ALP ranks it is divided as an issue, but as settled as an issue gets among conservatives. The idea that a developed infrastructure should be used as a tax targeting the poorest is not good policy. But it has been ALP policy, despite successive ALP premiers being axed for supporting privatisation. Palmer United Party also claims the sale is not necessary, saying they could govern on growth alone. Only PUP will never govern and the promise they make is empty. It is $20 billion which will allow infrastructure and jobs for workers who will probably support the ALP. The NSW government has been competent and certainly not aggressive. That is a stark contrast to the incompetence of the ALP government which preceded it. It is Turnbull memes aimed at the federal government which will descend on the NSW state election campaign. It is the job of government to develop infrastructure .. and then allow business to run it efficiently. The best return for the people of NSW is the sale of mature assets.

It is worth noting the history of the issue. Under Nick Greiner, NSW had a plan to sell the assets for as much as six times the current price tag of $20 billion. But the ALP ran a scare campaign convincing sufficient voters that a tax on the poorest was preferable through government run operations. And just as the ALP did federally, they butchered the only state economy not to fall into a late '80s hole because it hadn't been run by ALP at the time. After the ALP reduced the asset to near bankruptcy, they tried to sell it for next to nothing. The last ALP leader, the one who gave a reference to terrorist Monis, led a scare campaign on the issue. They had failed to report to police on bribery concerns from someone later assassinated, but fell to the Monis reference. 

In 1258, Baghdad fell to the Mongols, destroying the Abbasid Caliphate and ending the culture of science and poetry in the Islamic world. In 1306, Robert the Bruce settled a squabble with another contender for the Scot Crown in front of the high alter at Greyfriars Church in Dumfries. More saliently, he stabbed John Comyn to death. In 1355, two Oxford students, disappointed with the quality of beer served at a tavern, assaulted the taverner, sparking the St Scholastica riots which left 60 scholars dead, and thirty townspeople. The upshot was a penance for each dead scholar that only stopped 470 years later in 1825 when the Mayor refused to take part. In 1567, Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary Queen of Scots, was found dead. He had been strangled. His body was near where two gun barrels had exploded. He was the father of James I of England. He was also allegedly syphilitic and a violent drunk. In 1763, France gave Quebec to UK. In 1840, QueenVictoria married Prince Albert. In 1861, Jefferson Davis was told by telegram he was President of the Confederate states. In 1870, in NYC, young women could have fun at the YWCA. In 1906, The Dreadnought class battleship was launched. In 1933, Ernie Schaaf, a US heavy weight boxer, lost to Primo Carnera, an Italian, Ernie died on Valentines Day from the loss. In 1942, Glen Miller got the first gold record for Chattanooga Choo Choo. In 1954, Eisenhower warned against US involvement in Vietnam. In 1962, U2 Spy plane pilot Gary Powers was exchanged for KGB spy Rudolf Abel. In 1964, Australia's aircraft carrier, Melbourne, crashed into and sank the destroyer HMAS Voyager, killing 82 off NSW south coast. 
From 2014
It is telling hearing the press gush over Corby's freedom. She kept quiet for nine years about the drugs found in her boogy bag. She was willing to endure the nine years because the alternative was worse. What was worse than spending nine years in a Bali Prison? She kept quiet after the death of her father. So her silence is not merely connected with concern for her father. It is telling that Corby would endure so much, and what it tells is what the ABC will endure before losing their bias. It is hard to know what can be done to make the ABC competent, because, like true communism, it has never been tried. Many people agree that there is a breach of charter, but the problem is it takes a limited number of people to be in charge to run the organisation. Personally, I would make John Howard (The former PM, not the actor) chairman of the board. I would make Sophie Mirabella CEO. Others I would place on the board would be conservatives from around Australia, to make it balanced. People like Zaya Toma, Charbel Saliba and Dai Le. Not because I would want a conservative agenda, but because I believe they would be fair and balanced. And would respect the charter. Something the current leadership has failed. Alternatively, leave the current people in place, and cut out the funding. Let them decide what they will cut off. I note Flannery is still faithfully lying about Global Warming, even though he is no longer on the public purse.

A protest was held recently in South Australia against shark culling which is happening in Western Australia. Activists pointed out that South Australia had no fatalities. Now, a twenty eight year old spear fisherman hobbyist teacher has been eaten by a shark. His Principal has praised him as an excellent teacher. A friend of his has declared he would not want there to be retribution against the shark, as he 'loved animals.' Is that why he was spear fishing?

In other excellent moral example news, a 'parent' pretends to throw their child in front of a train. Clearly they got off the wrong boat. Some five men are wanted for the gang rape of a fourteen year old girl. Anger is building in the community. The community does not accept such acts randomly, or by design.
Historical perspective on this day

In 1258, Baghdad fell to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate was destroyed. 1306, in front of the high altar of Greyfriars Church in Dumfries, Robert the Bruce murdered John Comyn sparking revolution in the Scottish Wars of Independence 1355, the St. Scholastica's Day riot broke out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days. 1567, Lord Darnley, second husband of Mary, Queen of Scots, was found strangled following an explosion at the Kirk o' Field house in Edinburgh, Scotland, a suspected assassination.

In 1763, French and Indian War: The 1763 Treaty of Paris ended the war and Franceceded Quebec to Great Britain. 1814, Napoleonic Wars: The Battle of Champaubert ended in French victory over the Russians and the Prussians. 1840, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. 1846, First Anglo-Sikh War: Battle of Sobraon – British defeated Sikhs in final battle of the war 1861, Jefferson Davis was notified by telegraph that he had been chosen as provisional President of the Confederate States of America. 1862, American Civil War: A Union naval flotilla destroyed the bulk of the Confederate Mosquito Fleet in the Battle of Elizabeth City on the Pasquotank River in North Carolina. 1870, the YWCA was founded in New York City.

In 1906, HMS Dreadnought, the first of a revolutionary new breed of battleships was christened and launched by King Edward VII. 1920, Jozef Haller de Hallenburgperformed symbolic wedding of Poland to the sea, celebrating restitution of Polish access to open sea. 1923, Texas Tech University was founded as Texas Technological College in Lubbock, Texas 1930, Yên Bái mutiny in French Indochina 1933, in round 13 of a boxingmatch at New York City's Madison Square Garden, Primo Carnera knocked out Ernie Schaaf. Schaaf died four days later. 1936, Second Italo-Abyssinian War: Italian troops launched the Battle of Amba Aradam against Ethiopian defenders. 1939, Spanish Civil War: The Nationalistsconcluded their conquest of Catalonia and sealed the border with France.

In 1940, the Soviet Union began mass deportations of Polish citizens from occupied eastern Poland to Siberia. 1942, the first gold record was presented to Glenn Miller for "Chattanooga Choo Choo". 1943, World War II: Attempting to completely lift the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet Red Army engaged German troops and Spanish volunteers in the Battle of Krasny Bor. 1947, Italy ceded most of Venezia Giulia to Yugoslavia. 1954, President Dwight Eisenhowerwarned against United States intervention in Vietnam. 1962, captured American U2 spy-planepilot Gary Powers was exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel. Also 1962, Roy Lichtenstein's first solo exhibition opened, and it included Look Mickey, which featured his first employment of Ben-Day dots, speech balloons and comic imagery sourcing, all of which he is now known for. 1964, Melbourne-Voyager collision: The aircraft carrier HMAS Melbournecollided with and sank the destroyer HMAS Voyager off the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, killing 82. 1967, the 25th Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified.

In 1981, a fire at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel-casino killed eight and injured 198. 1989, Ron Brown was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party. 1996, the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeated Garry Kasparov in chess for the first time. 1998, voters in Maine repealed a gay rights law passed in 1997 becoming the first U.S. state to abandon such a law. 2003, Franceand Belgium broke the NATO procedure of silent approval concerning the timing of protective measures for Turkey in case of a possible war with Iraq. 2009, the communication satellitesIridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit, destroying both. 2013, thirty-six people were killed and 39 others were injured in a stampede in Allahabad, India, during the Kumbh Melafestival.
=== Publishing News ===
This column welcomes feedback and criticism. The column is not made up but based on the days events and articles which are then placed in the feed. So they may not have an apparent cohesion they would have had were they made up.
===
I am publishing a book called Bread of Life: January. 

Bread of Life is a daily bible quote with a layman's understanding of the meaning. I give one quote for each day, and also a series of personal stories illustrating key concepts eg Who is God? What is a miracle? Why is there tragedy?

January is the first of the anticipated year-long work of thirteen books. One for each month and the whole year. It costs to publish. It (Kindle version) should retail at about $2US online, but the paperback version would cost more, according to production cost.If you have a heart for giving, I fundraise at gofund.me/27tkwuc
===
Editorials will appear in the "History in a Year by the Conservative Voice" series, starting with August, September, October, or at Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/1482020262/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_dVHPub0MQKDZ4  The kindle version is cheaper, but the soft back version allows a free kindle version.

List of available items at Create Space
Happy birthday and many happy returns George Farsalas, Ivy Lam, Wendy Sun-Song, Cindy Lim and Luke Baker. Born on the same day, across the years, along with
HMS Dreadnought
A caliphate lost. We slapped the mosquito. Our dreadnought ran over a sub. Mickey got the looks. Our treasures burn. Let's party. 
Deaths
===

===

David Morrison: Too ruthless to give our boys a pat on the back

Miranda Devine – Wednesday, February 10, 2016 (2:36pm)

AFGHANISTAN war veteran “Charlotte” was excited to be attending a speech by her former chief of army David Morrison at a Women in Mining summit in Perth last October.
Now working in the mining industry after 11 years as a soldier, she expected empowering words from the recently retired general and “diversity” maven who is now Australian of the Year. Instead, Charlotte felt ashamed at Morrison’s denigration of the Army she loved, as he embarked on his now familiar stump speech decrying a “systemic” sexism she never experienced.
“I felt like it was Army ­bashing, bringing it into disrepute. Those were my exact thoughts,” she said.
David Morrison: Too ruthless to give our boys a pat on the back
It’s jobs for the Bofs in NSW
AFGHANISTAN war veteran “Charlotte” was excited to be attending a speech by her former chief of army David Morrison at a Women in Mining summit in Perth last October.
Now working in the mining industry after 11 years as a soldier, she expected empowering words from the recently retired general and “diversity” maven who is now Australian of the Year. Instead, Charlotte felt ashamed at Morrison’s denigration of the Army she loved, as he embarked on his now familiar stump speech decrying a “systemic” sexism she had never experienced.
“I felt like it was Army ­bashing, bringing it into disrepute,” she said. “Those were my exact thoughts.”
Morrison told the audience of 400 women and 100 men at the Hyatt Hotel about how women had been ill-treated in the Army, about female soldiers being raped, and the Skype scandal in which a cadet filmed himself having sex with a fellow cadet and broadcast it without her permission.
“He was portraying the Army as a really unattractive place to be. I find it ironic he runs a Women in Army campaign to boost numbers and then gives a speech like that.
“If I was a woman in that room with the slightest inkling to join the Army I would have picked up my bag and run the other way.”
Morrison also described how he visited troops in Afghanistan to spruik his sexism mantra.
“We’ve got hardened men on the frontline,” says Charlotte, who joined the Army at 17. “If that was me, I would want some encouraging battle-ready words, not a discussion on the treatment of women.”
Charlotte was affronted ­because all the male soldiers she worked with in 11 years in the Army had been supportive.
“There’s not one moment I can remember that was bad at all,” she said. “I was not mistreated. I have a lot of close ­female friends and I can’t think of one who was. I had a couple of bosses in the Army who were like father figures who I could ring right now if I needed help.”
So Charlotte decided to confront Morrison after his speech. “I’m never disrespectful. He did hold an important role in the Army but I ­approached him afterwards and gave him my opinion.”
She introduced herself and Morrison asked: “What did you think of my speech?”
Charlotte said: “Honestly, I really think you could have mentioned all the decent men in the Army and industry that look out for women.”
Morrison replied: “Well, that’s not really where I was going with that.”
No, because this is a former chief of Army who has carved out a lucrative career disrespecting by association all the decent men and women who have risked their lives in service of their nation.
This is a man who dismayed veterans when he declared his priorities as Australian of the Year were diversity, the gender pay gap and the republican movement instead of highlighting serious problems of mental illness and suicide among ex-soldiers.
In fact, when he was Chief of Army from 2011 to 2015, suicides more than doubled from an average six per year in the previous decade to 14 per year, according to the Australian Veterans Suicide register run by an Iraq War veteran with post traumatic stress disorder.
In 2014, the year after Morrison’s famous Jedi Council speech accusing male soldiers of “systemic” sexism, the number of suicides of Army veterans peaked at 22.
It would be unfair to draw any link. But the blameless lieutenant colonel he stripped of his command two months after that speech for failing to be aware of sexist, offensive emails (which had been cc’d to him but which he hadn’t opened) was almost another statistic. Afflicted with PTSD exacerbated by the injustice, “Ken” has attempted suicide twice since being medically discharged.
Yet, among all of Morrison’s celebrated speeches about “diversity” and gender equity very little can be found about suicide and PTSD.
A new generation of combat veterans could have done with a high profile champion in a military Australian of the Year. Instead, as Morrison himself boasted at that Women in Mining conference, they got a man whose ruthlessness was “life ruining”.
“We discharged over 300 people involuntarily in the Army in the last three years of my time as chief,” he told the audience.
“This was serious stuff and when I spoke to my workforce in the wake of a particular ­incident in 2013, I made it very clear that I would be ruthless in holding people to account, and then people were ­surprised and disappointed I was ruthless in holding them to account.
“And I didn’t care.”
No, he didn’t care.
===

TRUMP SURGES, HILLARY BERNED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, February 10, 2016 (1:03pm)

Comedy continues in the US: 
Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders have cruised to stunning victories in the New Hampshire primary, CNN projects, in results that will rock the establishments of both parties and confirm the strength of outsider candidates in a wild presidential race.
Trump, a brash billionaire reality TV star who has never run for office, and Sanders, a self-declared democratic socialist, were both seen as long-shot outsiders when they launched their campaigns. Their victories reflect deep bipartisan discontent at professional politicians and suggest that both the Democratic and Republican races will now be long struggles that could stretch well into the spring. 
That’s a CNN report, so forgive them for not noticing that Sanders is a professional politician. Still, Hillary Clinton‘s defeat by the elderly commie is all the more remarkable considering her previous popularity in New Hampshire: 
In 2008, Clinton won the New Hampshire primary in stunning fashion, collecting more than 112,000 votes. 
In 2016, with counting still underway, Clinton is currently on 17,467 votes.
UPDATE. Election analysis by P.J. O’Rourke.
===

PILGER PARTY

Tim Blair – Wednesday, February 10, 2016 (12:27pm)

Malcolm Turnbull and Julie Bishop are dragging our government down to the level of John Pilger and Julian Assange. My decision to vote Labor in 2016 is looking better by the day.
===

NATION DOOMED

Tim Blair – Wednesday, February 10, 2016 (12:15pm)

A press release from the Climate and Health Alliance: 
Australian health professionals today described planned cuts to climate research at CSIRO as “a shocking and poor decision” that must be reversed.
Climate and Health Alliance President Dr Liz Hanna said the proposed cuts would gut climate science within the nation’s leading science body – putting the health of the nation and its citizens at serious risk …
Dr Hanna said health professionals were also worried about the health implications of axing scientists from the land and water division of CSIRO as they worked to secure Australia’s water and food supplies.
“Australia is the world’s driest inhabited continent so water security is a critical issue. All our major cities have faced water shortages, and some towns have completely run out of water. People must have access to clean, safe and secure food and water supplies in order to survive.” 
Unless butterflies die, Australia will fry.
===

No celebration for no-surprises Abbott — the damage is done

Miranda Devine – Tuesday, February 10, 2015 (12:43am)

SO a “chastened” Prime Minister lives to fight another day.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'No celebration for no-surprises Abbott — the damage is done'
===

Andrew Robb quits. UPDATE: Tim Wilson steps forward

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (7:56pm)

Trade Minister Andrew Robb is leaving at the next election, having made a brilliant contribution:
Mr Robb is considered one of the government’s best performers, having sealed free trade deals with China, Japan and Korea and the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
That brings to four - possibly five - ministers gone in just five months of the Turnbull Government. Mal Brough was forced to step aside, Jamie Briggs was forced to resign, Robb has quit, Warren Truss will quit and Stewart Robert will almost certainly be forced to resign, too.
Turnbull will have to scrabble to stop his government looking ragged.
UPDATE
Tim Wilson, the Human Rights Commissioner, will run for Robb’s safe seat of Goldstein.
I have huge respect for Wilson.
He is very smart, diplomatic and hard-working, and brave and articulate in the contest of ideas.
He is a libertarian rather than a conservative, and how badly we need people who believe in freedom.
Wilson, for instance, has been brilliant in the defence of free speech, when too many others were silent. He has fought for free markets and against the over-regulation that stifles creativity, initiative, investment and employment.
Even when we’ve differed - on legalising same-sex marriage, for instance - Wilson has been able to argue with the greatest civility, without giving or taking offence. He prefers ideas to combat, policy to posturing, deeds to words.
I like him a lot.
And, of course, now that he is leaving the Human Rights Commission the coast is clear to call for its complete abolition.  
===

White racism is no longer an excuse for black poverty

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (7:50pm)

More deadly excuses and blame-dodging on the ABC last night for the poverty, violence, unemployment and poor school attendance of so many Aboriginal Australians:
Professor Tom Calma, co-chair of Reconciliation Australia:
The lack of progress should never be interpreted as a failure by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It’s a failure of bureaucracy and a failure of the politicians to keep an even course and to keep the funding and the policy direction consistent.
Jackie Huggins, co-chair of Australia’s National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples:
We do see that there is lack of engagement, not a general commitment to the needs and the aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in their community… I think racism is at the very core of the systems that operate in this country. It goes to the heart and soul of our people in terms of trying to lead better, fulfilled and richer lives. 
These twin approaches to Aboriginal disadvantage - to absolve Aboriginal culture and blame white racism - are killing any real hope of improvement. It’s an excuse for failure and a diversion.
How can such shocking attendance rates - just 60 per cent in some remote schools - be fixed unless we do indeed blame parents?
The government’s progress on achieving improved school ­attendance rates is also flatlining… Last year, the attendance rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students was 83.7 per cent compared with 93.1 per cent for non-indigenous students, the rate almost unchanged from 83.5 per cent in 2014.
As Huggins herself admits, the money is there:
You know, there’s twice as much spent on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander funding than there is across other populations.
It’s not white racism or lack of government money that stops Aboriginal children from going to school.
It is not white racism or lack of government money that makes Aboriginal children five times more likely to be assaulted so badly that they’re hospitalised.
It’s not white racism or lack of government money that makes Aboriginal children nearly 10 times more likely to need removal from their homes for their own protection. It’s not white racism or lack of government money that makes a man prefer a drink to a job.
Calma and Huggins are exactly wrong.
The real key to improving Aboriginal living standards is not to make whites nicer. It’s to make more Aborigines take more responsibility for their own lives.
UPDATE
Symbolism:
Malcolm Turnbull’s gesture of addressing parliament in the Ngunnawal language signifies a different approach to indigenous affairs that puts the speech on par with Paul Keating’s Redfern speech and Kevin Rudd’s apology to the stolen generations, says indigenous MP Ken Wyatt.
Reality:
There has been no progress in raising the life expectancy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, the 2016 Closing the Gap report shows… 
Year 12 attainment rates have improved, even though the number of Indigenous students finishing high school is still relatively low, about 60 per cent…
The Indigenous employment rate has fallen from 53.8 per cent in 2008 to 47.5 per cent in 2012-2013. A goal towards improving literacy and numeracy achievements for children within a decade had also shown mixed progress.
===

Outsiders Trump and Bernie triumph. Bush and Clinton crushed

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (2:25pm)


Outsiders have smashing wins in the New Hampshire primaries.
Trump thrashes his Republican rivals. Ohio Governor John Kasich comes second and earns a reprieve and a second look. With two-thirds of votes counted, Ted Cruz comes third and remains, with the damaged Marco Rubio, the main rival to Trump.  Rubio falls after the savaging he got from Chris Christie in the last debate over repeating the same old micro-speech again and again.  Big-spending Jeb Bush limps up the scale a bit, just enough to hang on for Super Tuesday. But beware relying too much on the results of this tiny and atypical state.
Bernie Sanders thrashes Hillary Clinton in the Democrat race, which should terrify her and the party bosses. Vice President Joe Biden will be even more tempted to join in.
Dick Morris, former aide to President Bill Clinton, is scathing:
Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is falling apart. Bernie Sanders soared in New Hampshire and now two polls have him tying her nationally. It’s a disaster.
He notes the cartoonish desperation of the Clinton camp, still playing the victim card despite being rich, powerful and backed by the big end of town:
Their strategy is laughable. After losing 84 percent of young voters in Iowa — and failing to recover them in New Hampshire — they sent in two aging fossils of feminism to insult and threaten young women. 
The 81-year-old feminist Gloria Steinem charged that young women are only backing Sanders because that’s where they can meet boys. And 78-year-old Madeleine Albright threatened to consign to a “special place in hell” women who don’t back female candidates like Clinton.
Those are two great ways to attract young voters.
The aging and raging ex-president, meanwhile, speaking to a half-filled gym in a New Hampshire school, ranted about Sanders’s “hypocrisy” in condemning his wife’s paid speeches. Sanders, too, has given paid speeches, Bill Clinton claimed.
He’s got a point. In 2013, for example, Sanders made all of $1,500, which he donated to charity as required by federal law. In 2014, he raked in $1,850 for paid speeches. By contrast, Clinton made, and kept, over $21 million during the same time period. Sanders was only reimbursed for coach class airfare, while Clinton demanded private jets. Sanders’s hosts were the TV show “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Avalon Publishing and a machinists union. Clinton’s were Goldman Sachs, the big banks and the pharmaceutical and energy industries. What hypocrisy for Sanders to use that as an issue! 
RealClearPolitics in its survey of polls says Sanders would beat Trump in a general election by a handsome 48 per cent to 43. Giving the US a socialist president. 
===

Beyonce dances to the music of racial division

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (2:04pm)

 Beyonce used the greatest sports event in America to give a soundtrack to the new racism that’s spreading here, too.
Get used to this.  We are being divided by race, and by people with no idea that they are the racists they claim to be fighting.
The Texan superstar performed her new single Formation at halftime in the NFL Super Bowl on Sunday and, watched by 110 million people, rammed home a message of black power – even black supremacy.
All her 30 back-up dancers were black – no whites allowed - and all were dressed in black leather costumes modelled on the uniforms of the Black Power movement, a militant Muslim organisation that preached black separatism and violent struggle.
The dancers formed an X, said to be a tribute to the race-baiting black activist Malcolm X, who campaigned for a black-only nation until he was shot be rival black Muslim preachers.
And Beyonce’s troupe ended their performance with raised the fists of the Black Power salute.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'Beyonce dances to the music of racial division'
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The bloated ABC is corrupting debate on “refugees”

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (9:04am)

My column last week:
IF there is one thing our politicians, police and press tend to lie about, it’s refugees. 
The Australian today:
Senior immigration official Michael Pezzullo denounced activist journalism in Senate estimates this week, calling the ABC to account for reporting falsely that a five-year-old boy had been raped on Nauru. In extraordinary testimony, he revealed that the 7.30 program’s claim was not slightly inaccurate — the boy was a “figment”. 
The ABC has form for distorting the truth on asylum-seekers to attack secure border policy. An audit found bias in its reporting on Tamil asylum-seekers and in 2014 the national broadcaster admitted error in numerous reports claiming the Australian navy had burned refugees…
The green-left media increasingly is using children as political capital in pressure campaigns against secure border policy… The campaign against Operation Sovereign Borders is typified by emotionalist reporting and a steady stream of images that portray a regime of cruelty towards children. On the day after the High Court ruling, Fairfax Media’s Melbourne tabloid The Age published a front page featuring an image of wire fencing, with headlines such as “Dutton to move fast to deport 38 babies” and “mother pleads for her Australian baby”.
On Friday, the paper carried an article that opened with: “Cockroaches wriggle over one boy’s body and spread to his face. Another is grabbed from behind; he runs for his mother but she has disappeared.” The highly disturbing accounts of child abuse were not real. They were dreams, as readers were informed later under an appallingly sensationalist headline warning the PM was “killing” children.By centrist standards, Fairfax and ABC media reports on immigration and border security policy often veer towards the extreme. In news and current affairs programs, the ABC frequently presents offshore processing as a violation of human rights and portrays Operation Sovereign Borders as a policy failure. Its refusal to temper in-house ideology can result in reports that resemble revisionist reframing replete with lies by omission and slanted analysis. 
These are not just sins against journalism. They are also unlawful, since the ABC is obliged by law to be impartial in exchange for the $1 billion a year it is given by taxpayers.
Moreover, the ABC’s flagrant bias is also a danger to democracy, which relies on informed and free debate.  The ABC is actually the country’s biggest media outlet, and its massive state power is being used to push exaggerations, half-truths and falsehoods in support of a Leftist ideology hostile to border controls. 
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Surely Julie Bishop won’t now help Assange

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (8:51am)

Tell me Janet Albrechtsen’s hunch is wrong. Tell me this doesn’t sound exactly the kind of thing this Turnbull Government and this foreign minister would do:
Last week, a UN working group released its opinion that [Julian] Assange’s decision to hide in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since August 2012 is “arbitrary detention"… 
Outside the ABC bunkers, the opinion of the UN Human Rights Council’s working group has been treated as a joke. Even Britain’s The Guardian newspaper ... described the findings as “simply wrong”. Assange sought and received refuge at the Ecuadorean embassy to avoid confronting allegations of sexual offences under Swedish laws....

Last September, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop announced that Australia was seeking a seat on this same Human Rights Council… Our diplomats have been instructed to give them away to anyone who may help sway votes for Australia over Spain and France…

And this. There are murmurs about the Turnbull government going soft on Assange, seeking legal advice and shuffling papers, perhaps to facilitate his return to Australia. Wait. What? Why? If that’s the price for getting a seat on the ridiculous Human Rights Council, then more important voters — Australians — may have a problem with that price.
Surely Albrechtsen is wrong. But then I read this:
[Assange’s legal] team made an informal request for consular assistance in person to Australia’s foreign affairs minister Julie Bishop… 
Mr Assange’s Australian lawyer Jennifer Robinson ... said she had had a “very positive” meeting on Thursday with Ms Bishop, who was “very open” to their requests.
UPDATE
Uh oh. What strange and ominous company Turnbull keeps:
John Pilger, website, Friday: 
Four years ago, in Sydney, I spent several hours with the Liberal member of the federal parliament, Malcolm Turnbull. We discussed the threats to (Julian) Assange and their wider implications for freedom of speech and justice, and why Australia was obliged to stand by him.
And what did Turnbull say then about Assange that leads Pilger to now urge him to match deeds to words?:
Prime Minister Turnbull has an opportunity to contribute a modicum of purpose and truth to the conference [in London] by speaking up for his unjustly imprisoned compatriot, for whom he showed such concern when we met. 
Turnbull and Bishop have hijacked the Liberal party. 
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Can Morrison trust Turnbull?

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (8:44am)

Michelle Grattan on Malcolm Turnbull’s undermining of Treasurer Scott Morrison, dropping the planned GST rise Morrison was working on:
Morrison’s options are to stand his ground internally and try to persuade Turnbull and other cabinet colleagues, or to go with the flow if that is against a radical (as distinct from a modest) tax package. 
If he doesn’t fight, he will be condemned as weak by those in business and sections of the media who have been pressing for large scale reform. He has already cast himself as the macho man who wants to make a difference. But to fight and then lose, overruled by the prime minister, would be humiliating.
Morrison also has the issue of his relationship with Turnbull. According to one Liberal source, there is mutual distrust. “What’s happened is that when Morrison became treasurer, he was seen as having equal standing in the party room, as an alternative leader. Since then Turnbull has shown his dominance [?] – in his performance in the media, the parliament, on policy, and with colleagues. It’s like night and day” between them.
Reader Peter of Bellevue Hill:
As PM, Abbott brought out the best in Morrison - and had his back. Turnbull appears comfortable with making Morrison look his worst. If Turnbull is undermining Morrison to make himself look less clueless, is ‘dominance’ the right word?
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Scott is right. What’s the point of paying SBS $270 million?

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (8:36am)

True enough. What exactly is the point of the SBS and why must taxpayers fork out more than $270 million a year for yet another Leftist media outlet?
ABC managing director Mark Scott has lobbed a departing gift to his public broadcasting sibling SBS, suggesting the government should explore a merger between the two.... 
Mr Scott pointed out “the core tenets of SBS when it was established, which was to provide multicultural broadcasting”, were not as relevant now that SBS was focused more on “more general-interest broadcasting”....
“For ­example, I think it’s true to say on any reckoning that there is far less subtitled content on its main channel than 20 or 30 years ago on their main channel.”
SBS2 had reverted to younger-skewing, English-language content that was in direct competition with ABC2, he said, while “no longer programming multicultural programs”.
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Add warming scare and stir

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (7:38am)

Fun story:
A HUNGRY baby sea lion picked the best seat in the house after wandering into a beachside restaurant in San Diego.
Stupid moral:
Climate change has been blamed for raising the temperature of the oceans and disrupting marine food chains.
You could write any story that way now.
The funny thing is that reporters don’t actually blame global warming for any good things - including things far more likely to actually be warming-caused.
Try this:
World food prices fell to almost a seven-year low ..., according to the latest data from the United Nations (UN)… The main factors underlying the lingering decline in basic food commodity prices are ”the generally ample agricultural supply conditions...”
More food, then. Even for sea lions.
(Thanks to reader Leigh.) 
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Turnbull toys with going Green on tax

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (6:27am)

Should we worry when the Turnbull Government, flailing around for a tax policy, switches to one endorsed by the Greens?
Scott Morrison has been offered a Senate deal on two of the leading options in the federal government’s tax reform plan in a move that heightens the prospect of cuts to concessions on negative gearing and superannuation. 
The Greens moved last night to start negotiations on the ­reforms as the government turned its focus to super and other measures to replace a more ­ambitious agenda based on an ­increase in the GST… Mr Turnbull and Mr Morrison have now put super and negative gearing on the agenda in the hope of funding income tax relief for workers, opening a window of ­opportunity for a Senate majority on reform even if Labor and the crossbenchers oppose the changes.
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Creating a white vs black contest is not “reconciliation”

Andrew Bolt February 10 2016 (5:21am)

Dividing players by race to create a white-vs-black battle seems to me not just racist but dangerous.
But once again we are seeing such racial segregation actually hailed as anti-racist. Luckily, though, even the players seem less keen on this racial division than do the activists:
Leading Indigenous affairs commentator Stan Grant has warned the NRL that scrapping the annual All Stars match would be “foolish and insulting"… 
NRL head of football Todd Greenberg ...  told reporters after last weekend’s Nines that the future of the All Stars match would be reviewed to determine its place in the crowded season schedule.
It has been reported that last year’s match on the Gold Coast lost $500,000. As well, with nine members of the 20-man NRL All Stars team and five players selected in the Indigenous All Stars squad withdrawing, there are growing fears the concept is under threat.... “This is not just about the football game, it is about everything else that goes with it,” Grant said. “It is about the community outreach, it is about reconciliation, raising awareness, it is about spiritual and cultural pride...”
Actually black and whites in the same team is reconciliation. Black vs white on opposite teams is war. 
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IN SPACE, NOBODY CAN HEAR YOUR ORDER

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 10, 2015 (12:58pm)

In the latest public service weirdness to emerge from Canberra, a CSIRO space researcher sacked over a McDonald’s meal has lost his bid for compensation: 
Jack Hoffman says he was left mentally damaged after he lost his job at Canberra’s deep space research station after being caught using work cars to grab a burger and fries from a Macca’s drive-through …
Mr Hoffman, who had been specifically warned to stop using work cars to pick up burgers, was told he was facing the sack and offered his resignation.
The previous month, in an episode dubbed “lollygate” at the research station, bosses banned lollies from the workplace after Mr Hoffman lodged a workers’ compensation claim after breaking a tooth on a CSIRO-supplied sweet. 
During the latest case, Hoffman’s lawyer claimed his client suffered food addiction.
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BERNIE SLATTERY

Tim Blair – Tuesday, February 10, 2015 (12:12pm)

Friend, journalist and blogger Bernie Slattery has died. Bernie was a very good man who leaves us far too soon. Deepest sympathies to the Slattery family.
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The Bibi-sitter

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (12:04pm)

 Brilliant. One of the best political ads I’ve seen.
(Thanks to reader Jill.) 
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Where’s that warming? Why this hype?

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (11:53am)

Global warming - dud predictions

Professor Bjorn Lomborg, a luke-warmist, says global warming is a lot less scarier than we were sold:
The latest study from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change found that in the previous 15 years temperatures had risen 0.09 degrees Fahrenheit. The average of all models expected 0.8 degrees. So we’re seeing about 90% less temperature rise than expected.
That already should warn that the climate models on which the scare is based are broken. And we should ask why so few climate scientists and politicians are willing to publicly admit it. (Note that Lomborg bases his statement on figures from the very warmist IPCC.)
Other signs of hype now being exposed:
Yes, Arctic sea ice is melting faster than the models expected.  But models also predicted that Antarctic sea ice would decrease, yet it is increasing. Yes, sea levels are rising, but the rise is not accelerating—if anything, two recent papers, one by Chinese scientists published in the January 2014 issue of Global and Planetary Change, and the other by U.S. scientists published in the May 2013 issue of Coastal Engineering, have shown a small decline in the rate of sea-level increase.
We are often being told that we’re seeing more and more droughts, but a study published last March in the journal Nature actually shows a decrease in the world’s surface that has been afflicted by droughts since 1982… 
At the U.N. climate conference in Lima, Peru, in December, attendees were told that their countries should cut carbon emissions to avoid future damage from storms like typhoon Hagupit, which hit the Philippines during the conference, killing at least 21 people and forcing more than a million into shelters. Yet the trend for landfalling typhoons around the Philippines has actually declined since 1950, according to a study published in 2012 by the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate. 
(Thanks to reader Neville.) 
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Hollywood vs the eco-crazies

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (11:34am)

 I’m keen to see the movie just for its choice of villain:
Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), a technological genius with lots of money, low morals and an athletic female blade-running acolyte (Sofia Boutella), plans a takeover of civilisation as we know it to teach humanity a serious lesson about climate change and poverty.
When Hollywood starts laughing at warming extemists, we know we are winning.
(Thanks to reader Da Borg.) 
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Turnbull attacks “cruelty” of “shocking” plot to topple PM

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (10:49am)


It was one of the cruelest moments I’ve ever witnessed… The betrayal of you as leader of your party was one of the most shocking events I have ever witnessed, and I would think any of us have ever witnessed, in politics - the scale of it. The idea that the man who had won, in this presidential campaign, an election ... was then going to be disposed of, discarded like another course on a lazy Susan in a Vietnamese restaurant - the cruelty of it was extraordinary! …
The tears Turnbull weeps, though, are not for Tony Abbott but Kevin Rudd.
(Thanks to reader Joe L.) 
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We’ve lost Bernie

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (10:44am)

Bernie Slattery, a wonderful colleague and great blogger, has died.
What a terrible loss. 
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Shorten fails the nuclear test set by Labor premier

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (7:02am)

Jay Weatherill, Labor premier, may be a warmist but has guts and consistency. Bill Shorten, federal Opposition leader, has neither on  this important issue:
BILL Shorten has refused to back the South Australian Labor government’s proposal to investigate nuclear energy. 
The refusal of federal Labor to even consider the production, ­enrichment and storage of ­nuclear power came yesterday as Premier Jay Weatherill said all political leaders had a duty to ­explore all potential solutions to climate change.
Mr Weatherill said Kevin Scarce, a former South Australian governor, would lead a royal commission to examine the role of nuclear power in the state.
The federal Coalition and the state’s Liberal opposition have pledged bipartisan support for the move, but federal Labor was not backing Mr Weatherill.. A spokesman for the federal ­Opposition Leader said he would not support the inquiry, and the ALP had a “longstanding position on nuclear power based on the best available expert advice"… Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane said a royal commission was a “welcome” move ...  “The Australian government believes all energy options, including nuclear, should be part of any community discussion about Australia’s future energy mix,” he said.
Bill Shorten doesn’t consult science but scares. This is not leadership but populism.
What other federal Labor policies are based merely on cheap scares and green scare-mongering? Apart from global warming itself, of course.
Weatherill has shown up a terrible weakness in Shorten. The Government’s science minister should use Parliament to expose it.
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Baird’s vote rises; Abbott blamed

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (6:46am)

Wishing Abbott to fail, and calling every step a stumble:
Fun with figures I. Front page of The Sydney Morning Herald, yesterday: 
THE performance of the Abbott government is set to drive almost one in 10 Liberal-National voters away from the Coalition at next month’s election, underlining its drag on the NSW Premier Mike Baird’s re-election bid. An exclusive Fairfax/Ipsos poll shows 8 per cent of voters who supported the Coalition in the 2011 state poll say they will change their vote at the March election because of how the Abbott government has performed. 
Fun with figures II. Front page of The Australian Financial Review, also yesterday: 
THE Baird government has overcome the dysfunction of Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s federal government and increased its support over the last three months, according to the latest Fairfax/Ipsos poll.
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Abbott’s not dead yet

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (6:27am)

TONY Abbott was again written off — but yesterday this hugely underestimated leader survived once more to fight on.
First impressions: the Prime Minister has finally got the wake-up he ignored all last year. And his stalker, Malcolm Turnbull, should explain why he helped cause the Government so much pointless damage.
Abbott yesterday won the support of 61 of 101 Liberal MPs to defeat a motion to put his job up for a vote, with one other MP writing “pass” on his ballot.
That is much fewer than Abbott needed to feel safe. He is on his last chance, and without big changes will be gone within a few months.
But the result was also better than even his closest supporters predicted, and which many commentators happily expected.
In fact, Labor leader Bill Shorten made a fool of himself in Parliament hours later by with a speech damning the Government’s instability and attacking ... Turnbull. Shorten seemed to have called it wrong, too, and couldn’t be arsed trying to adjust.
And that’s actually a danger for Abbott. Many commentators who predicted his fall will now try make their predictions come true, wanting to hail every step Abbott takes as a stumble and every gain as a last gasp.
(Read full column here.) 
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The modern interviewing technique at the ABC: throw pies at Abbott’s face

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (5:53am)

 Yes, ask the tough questions. Yes, ask how he will survive and how he will change.
But there’s a difference between that and just sitting there with a smirk, being as rude and patronising as possible.  Here the questions Leigh Sales asked Prime Minister Tony Abbott last night on the ABC - of course:
LEIGH SALES: Are you a dead man walking? 
LEIGH SALES: More than half of your own backbench though thinks that you’re not up to the job. That must be devastating.
LEIGH SALES: How can you go on together when as I say, more than half of your own backbench doesn’t believe that you’re up to the job?
LEIGH SALES: But that’s given us an insight into the attitude within your own party room. These people are your backers.

LEIGH SALES:  Political history would suggest that you cannot recover from such a significant vote of no confidence within your own side.
LEIGH SALES: But John Howard didn’t have leadership pressure.
LEIGH SALES: He never faced a spill motion with, you know, half of his colleagues basically thinking he wasn’t up to it.

LEIGH SALES: Did you ask some of your colleagues today for six more months to recover?

LEIGH SALES: You’ve not put a timeframe on it?
LEIGH SALES: Is it fair to say that you haven’t passed enough of those tests so far?
LEIGH SALES: But Prime Minister, that is the exact message that you’ve been giving over and over again for quite some time, yet your disapproval rating in the Newspoll that was out today was 68 per cent. Clearly the public is not buying what you’re saying there.
LEIGH SALES: Prime Minister, if you do your best and you’re a unable to turn things around in a reasonable timeframe, will you give your colleagues a promise tonight that you will step aside to give them a fighting chance with somebody else as leader?

LEIGH SALES: But what if you can’t do it, Prime Minister? Will you give them a reasonable amount of time to try to hold onto power with somebody else?

LEIGH SALES: But haven’t you upset - haven’t you upset your colleagues though by implying that the only way that you can be removed is if the electorate votes you out, when actually we have a Westminster system and you are at the helm because your colleagues put you there?

LEIGH SALES: You said at your press conference a few hours ago that, “Good government starts today.” If that is so, what on Earth have you been delivering for the time since you’ve been elected?

LEIGH SALES: You said, “Good government starts today”! That’s exactly what you said!

LEIGH SALES: But Prime Minister - sorry to interrupt you, but how can you say ...  you’ve put it behind you when such a significant bloc of your own party room has lost confidence in your own leadership?

LEIGH SALES: Why have you been giving Australians a government with training wheels on?

LEIGH SALES: We’ve had the Tony Abbott in opposition, the guy who promised no more chaos, the adults back in charge, there’d be no excuses, no broken promises. Then there’s the Tony Abbott that we’ve had so far in government with the surprise policies and the broken promises and the captain’s picks. Now you’re offering us a third Tony Abbott, one who’s going to change. Who are you?

LEIGH SALES: Can we actually just focus on the big picture there? ‘Cause there’s been three different Tony Abbotts. I just want to know which one are you? Who are you?

LEIGH SALES: How about my point, though, that there’ve been three - you know, we’re up to Tony Abbott 3.0. Do you accept that you have thoroughly confused the public about what your government is and what you stand for?

LEIGH SALES: Can we just look at the big picture about you?

LEIGH SALES: No, no, but is - I think it’s a reasonable question and one that voters would be asking themselves and that it would be remiss of me not to put to you. LEIGH SALES: But it’s interesting that you’re not able to answer the question to me: who are you? What do you stand for? Which Tony are you?
Get the impression many in the press pack are willing Abbott to fail and are shouting him down?
Here’s a tip: you want to know if Abbott can pull off a miracle recovery? Then don’t predict but observe. Don’t heckle but listen. 
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Can we have the same debate about policy?

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (5:46am)

Terry McCrann:
AT last the Canberra Press Gallery — and the mixed assorted gallery of others in the capital cities — has been given some matters of real substance to report on, analyse and authoritatively pontificate and prognosticate on. 
It was truly an impressive sight to — quite literally, thanks to Sky News — see the massed might of this collective intellect at work; not just 24/7 but minute to minute within every one of those 24 hours, through every recent day.
Ah, to be able to slough off the dreary detritus of political reporting — all that peripheral if not downright irrelevant stuff about policy, budgets, taxation, health and social welfare; to say nothing of foreign affairs and Australia’s place in an increasingly turbulent, ever more ruthless world.
Foreign? Schmoreign. Jobs? Australia’s future?
Yes, OK, if there’s nothing else to report; but it really is just secondary to this important stuff — “Canberra’s Hunger Games”, the man (and one woman) chase to the political death!
This is the serious business of political reporting: the — hopefully — extended real-time bringing down of a political leader; in this case, the best game of all, that of the prime minister…
It is moments like these that the gallery individually and collectively comes alive, able to spout authoritatively and at length in a way that most individually wouldn’t begin to conceive doing on policy substance. Should the GST be increased to 15 per cent? Should it be extended to all food? In response: mostly the Silence of the Lambs. 
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If you can’t run a lift, you can’t dictate how the country be run

Andrew Bolt February 10 2015 (5:25am)

Ten overfilling an office lift? And protesting on a day when their stunt will be overwhelmed by Canberra news?
To think these geese represent an “education network”:
PRIME Minister Tony Abbott’s electorate office in Manly became the scene of a rescue effort after student protesters were trapped in a lift this afternoon. 
Amid the thrills and spills in Canberra on Monday, where Mr Abbott eventually came out victorious, ten protesters from the NSW Education Action Network entered the lift in Sydney Rd to access the office but became worried when it stopped.
The group, who were protesting the government’s move to deregulate higher education fees, activated the alarm after it became hot inside the lift. “We’ve been here over 30 minutes now, it’s pretty uncomfortable,” protester Amy Thomas said from inside the elevator.
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NOT HIS PROBLEM

Tim Blair – Monday, February 10, 2014 (4:45am)

The mystery religion involved in a 12-year-old girl’s marriage is now revealed: 
The Muslim convert father of the 12-year-old girl at the centre of a child sex case following her “marriage” to a 26-year-old foreigner confessed his unhappiness at their union, but said “it was not my decision”.
But the fifth-generation Australian man, who allowed the pair to be married by an imam in his Hunter Valley home on January 12, now says he fears she is going to “die” from a broken heart.
He also addressed public outrage on the case following the 26-year-old Lebanese man’s arrest on Thursday, saying he might “cop a little bit of abuse off people but I will have to cope with that”. 
This bloke seems to be a few hadiths short of a full Koran: 
“My daughter was not going to change her mind, I couldn’t talk her out of it,’’ he said.
“Him being 26 was not a big concern to me because I was not marrying him. I was not happy with it but it was not my decision.” 
Despite hosting his underage daughter’s marriage, the father hasn’t been charged with any offences.
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LET THE INVESTIGATION BEGIN

Tim Blair – Monday, February 10, 2014 (4:33am)

God bless our caring, compassionate friends from the left, who are now calling for an official government investigation into an asylum seeker’s blistered hand. This is an excellent idea, although two conditions should apply.

Icon Arrow Continue reading 'LET THE INVESTIGATION BEGIN'
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FINGERS CROSSED

Tim Blair – Monday, February 10, 2014 (4:27am)

A prediction from the Age‘s Martin Flanagan: 
I fully expect the ABC to be destroyed in all but name within a few years. 
We can only hope, Martin. We can only hope.
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JUST YOUR BASIC CADILLAC

Tim Blair – Monday, February 10, 2014 (4:22am)

Eight cylinders, eight wheels, a spa and a BBQ. 
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MUCH HEALTHIER THAN DOUGHNUTS

Tim Blair – Monday, February 10, 2014 (4:22am)

“Just back from the supermarket where I discovered this amazing new product,” emails reader Smike. “Can’t wait until the AM to try them with coffee. Instinct tells me this combo might be a winner.”

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AT LEAST HE CAN READ

Tim Blair – Monday, February 10, 2014 (4:19am)

Saturday’s Daily Telegraph editorial took issue with Bill Shorten’s lame reaction to claims that Australian Navy personnel tortured asylum seekers: 
During this entire controversy, Labor leader Bill Shorten has kept a curious distance from the main issues at hand. Yesterday he said that Labor wasn’t “leaping to any conclusions” over the torture claims.
The Labor leader needs to find some courage and to support our men and women at sea. His weak evasiveness is plainly calculated to find some sort of political advantage by using an issue that should be above politics. 
This was his response: 
“Our navy servicemen and women do an outstanding job on the high seas,” a spokesman for Shorten said on Saturday.
“The opposition has every confidence in the skills and professionalism of our navy.” 
Meanwhile, a view from the US: 
Looking around the world, the search for what might be called a full-spectrum conservative government leader was, until recently, a depressing exercise …
Lately, however, there has been a sign of hope. And it comes in the form of Australia’s new Prime Minister, Tony Abbott. Thus far Abbott has matched his open adherence to distinctly conservative convictions by implementing policies that reflect those principles.
Elected prime minister in September last year, Abbott is in many respects the left’s nightmare come true.
Quite so.
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INSTANT CONVERTIBLE

Tim Blair – Monday, February 10, 2014 (3:59am)

Ron Capps experiences an unrequested fresh-air surplus during a brief Californian drive:

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And if they dump Henderson, too, Insiders will be cleansed

Andrew Bolt February 10 2014 (12:14pm)

Spot the common factor in the cleansing of these two non-Leftists from Insiders.
In 2011: 
POLITICAL commentator Glenn Milne has been sacked by the ABC as a panellist on The Insiders.
His sacking from the television program comes in the wake of the controversy surrounding his column in Monday’s The Australian.
The column, which reviewed 16-year-old allegations about Gillard’s one-time relationship with former unionist Bruce Wilson, was withdrawn after complaints from the Prime Minister that its contents were inaccurate. Milne was informed by The Insiders’ executive producer, Kellie Mayo on Thursday night that the ABC’s news management committee had met and taken the decision that his services would no longer be required.
And now:
THE ABC has struck off one of its longest-serving political commentators on the Insiders program following a review of remarks made during the federal election about former prime minister Julia Gillard’s partner, 
News Corp Australia commentator Piers Akerman was not informed of the review or given a right of reply.
Milne had made a trivial error in a column for The Australian which raised Julia Gillard’s involvement in the creation of a slush fund for her then boyfriend, a conman and union official, wrongly claiming she had lived with him in the house he bought with the slush fund’s money using a power of attorney Gillard witnessed. (Gillard says she did not know what her boyfriend did with that slush fund, and says she did nothing wrong.) Yet Milne was dumped by the ABC.
Akerman made no error at all in making comments during a discussion on Insiders in which he condemned Perth broadcaster Howard Sattler for falsely suggesting Gillard’s current boyfriend was gay:
AKERMAN: I thought it was probably the most stupid thing that I’ve ever heard on public broadcasting. But I wondered why is being homosexual in 2013 such an issue? Why wouldn’t if she slapped him down on the basis of – well even if he was, what’s so offensive? 
TAYLOR: Because the point is that he was suggesting that her relationship was not genuine obviously.
AKERMAN: A lot of people in the Canberra gallery have been saying the same thing, Lenore.
TAYLOR: No…
FARR: I think you better name names .
CASSIDY: Are you seriously saying that…
AKERMAN: No no, I’m just saying it, I don’t go around talking about sources. But of course there was this sort of discussion. Whether you put it to the person involved or not is
TAYLOR: No, you don’t, you don’t.
AKERMAN: Precisely, that’s my point.
CASSIDY: You’ve just done precisely what Howard Sattler did and just passed on rumours and that’s just as pathetic, quite frankly…
AKERMAN: I passed on the same question that people said initially when she moved in and it was allayed.
TAYLOR: It’s not you saying it. AKERMAN: And nobody took it any further and that’s why I’m saying that he was wrong, Barrie.
At the very worst you might say Akerman expressed himself poorly, but no one can seriously say he spoke with malice.
Still, this cleansing of conservatives has had its effect. On Insiders yesterday, the program’s three panelists agreed with the host that the Abbott Government was silly and unfair to attack the ABC over its responsible coverage of claims by boat people - well, of one, anyone - that our navy openly tortured seven four three men on a boat.
In that kind of discussion, no panelist need fear the sack from the ABC or a hard word from Labor.   
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Abbott gives up on ABC bias. And that is a threat

Andrew Bolt February 10 2014 (11:45am)

The ABC would be very, very stupid to take this as a comfort rather than a threat: 
TONY Abbott has cast doubt on whether an independent inquiry could finish the debate over bias at the ABC, predicting the broadcaster’s “political correctness” would always make him want to occasionally “throw something at the television set”. 
Amid debate about the ABC’s reporting of abuse allegations against the navy, the Prime Minister yesterday declined to support Defence Minister David Johnston’s call for an inquiry into editorial standards.  
ABC apologists will say good, no inquiry.
In fact, Abbott has concluded what I reluctantly have, too: that the ABC simply can’t and won’t redress its ingrained Leftist bias. That leaves conservatives with two options: to simply accept that a massive state-funded media will campaign forever for the Left in breach of its charter, or to cut the ABC down to a less threatening size for a healthy democracy.
Guess which of those two alternatives most appeals? 
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Why did warmist Matthew England deny the dud predictions he now concedes?

Andrew Bolt February 10 2014 (8:30am)


April 2012: Warmist Professor Matthew England accuses sceptics of telling untruths when they say the planet hasn’t warmed as the IPCC predicted:
What Nick just said is actually not true.  The IPCC projections from 1990 have borne out very accurately.
December 2012:  England accuses sceptics of lying when they say the rise in global air temperatures has paused:
And so anybody out there lying that the IPCC projections are overstatements or that the observations haven’t kept pace with the projections is completely offline with this. The analysis is very clear that the IPCC projections are coming true. 
February 2014 - England now admits there has been a “hiatus” in warming, after all, which the IPCC did not predict:
Lead author Professor Matthew England, a climate scientist and oceanographer at the University of New South Wales, says since 2001 global surface temperatures have remained steady despite an increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases… 
“Even though there is this hiatus in this surface average temperature, we’re still getting record heat waves, we’re still getting harsh bush fires … it shows we shouldn’t take any comfort from this plateau in global average temperatures.”
And England suggests an excuse for this warming pause:
England said ...  the answer lies in stronger than usual trade winds whipping across the Pacific Ocean. 
It was found the winds were churning the Pacific like a washing machine, bringing the deeper colder water to the surface and pushing the warmer water below… “We want the community to have confidence in the climate models,” he said. “They are very good but in this instance the wind acceleration has been that strong and that much stronger than what the models projected.”
Those models have actually vastly overestimated the warming, but England still wants us to have “confidence” in them. Could his own “wanting” explain why England vilified sceptics as liars for saying what he now admits is true: that the warming of the world’s atmosphere has paused for at least 13 years, contrary to the IPCC predictions?
How can we trust him? And will he say sorry?
(Thanks to readers wiley, isobar and Straight Talk.) 
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Corby freed, Australia shamed

Andrew Bolt February 10 2014 (7:21am)

The new morality

 HEAR that cheering — that soundtrack of our shame — as Schapelle Corby is released from a Bali jail?
See media outlets wave as much as $3 million at the convicted drug smuggler for her story, to add to the $270,000 her family earned from her autobiography?
See Corby, the heroine of last night’s Channel 9 biopic, whose writer sighs she feels “very much for Schapelle” and “I carry that compassion before being worried about legal things”.
See Labor’s leader, Bill Shorten, shamelessly tell the mob “I don’t know all the ins and outs of what she has done” but he, too, wants “that woman back in Australia as soon as possible” because “that’s what matters to me”?
So I don’t blame Indonesia’s Justice Minister, Amir Syamsuddin, for that curl to his lip when he announced on Friday that he’d granted Corby early parole, not through “generosity” but “the laws of the land”.
(Read full article here.) 
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Public snowed

Andrew Bolt February 10 2014 (6:04am)

Global warming - dud predictions

No more snow predicted, The Independent, March 2000:
However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”. 
”Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
Porter Fox, New York Times, February 2014:
If greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise — they grew 41 percent between 1990 and 2008 — then snowfall, winter and skiing will no longer exist as we know them by the end of the century.
Fact check:
Five Of The Six Snowiest Winters Have Occurred Since David Viner Declared The End Of Snow
Fact check:
Over two-thirds of the contiguous USA covered with snow
(Thanks to readers Grant and Davie S.) 
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More questions for the unions … and Labor

Andrew Bolt February 10 2014 (4:52am)

Labor should fear this royal commission: 
FORMER leading union figures connected to the investigation into the Australian Workers Union “slush fund” scandal in the 1990s back the Abbott government’s royal commission and vow to give oral evidence and documents to the powerful probe.
Ian Cambridge, a serving Fair Work Australia commissioner and a former national secretary of the AWU, told The Australian yesterday: ... “...I have steadfastly maintained my firm view since 1996 that a royal commission into this should occur....  I would obviously co-operate in any way I can. If I am asked, I will co-operate fully.”
Mr Cambridge ... has named his former AWU boss, federal president Bill Ludwig, among those who should help police…

Another former AWU official, Ralph Blewitt, said from Malaysia yesterday that the royal commission...was essential to expose what he described as the corrupting influence of unions on Labor politics… Former AWU Victorian president Bob Kernohan, who has given a statement to police about the slush fund...said he was glad that the matter would be covered by the royal commission and that he was ready to give evidence.
More than three unions may have questions to answer: 
- The kickback scandal has spread to a second building union, with former plumbing union national president Tony Murphy implicated in a kickbacks for contracts racket. 
- Convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf has been linked to the Sydney gangland violence that erupted over attempts by criminals to collect a disputed $9 million construction industry debt from billionaire property mogul Harry Triguboff. - A building company owner has alleged he was encouraged by a senior CFMEU official to become a major sponsor of the South Sydney Rabbitohs in return for ‘’beneficial’’ backing by the union for job tenders.
UPDATE
Boral CEO Mike Kane: 
Since the middle of 2012, the CFMEU has run an orchestrated and very costly campaign against Boral for one simple reason: we have refused to give in to demands by the union that we stop doing business with one of our long-standing clients, the Grocon group, in Melbourne.The long-running dispute is between Grocon and the CFMEU, and we have been caught in the middle, as part of an unlawful secondary boycott.
Over that time, our trucks have been stopped, our workers have been intimidated, some of our drivers harassed and threatened, and many of our clients in Victoria have had a “friendly visit” from union officials essentially warning them not to do business with us… So far, this unlawful campaign has cost us over $10 million in lost sales and legal fees… We had injunctions granted 12 months ago by the Supreme Court in Victoria, but these were simply ignored by the CFMEU – further proof that some in that union believe they are above the law.
UPDATE
Shorten shifts:
TONY Abbott and Paul Howes have forced Bill Shorten into a major concession on union corruption… Shorten’s proposal of a standing taskforce of specially designated police is a logical and political step away from the previous ACTU and Labor position that there are just a few “bad apples” in the union movement who can be handled by the police.
Not enough. Henry Ergas:
AFTER the 1983 election, when half the Australian workforce were union members, barely a third of the ALP’s new MPs thanked the unions in their maiden speech. By the 2013 election, union membership had fallen below 20 per cent of the workforce; but more than 90 per cent of Labor’s new MPs devoted part of their first speech to praising the union movement… 
Yet these devotional eulogies are no laughing matter; rather, they reflect the complete inability of today’s ALP to distinguish its interests from those of the unions. The result is not merely Bill Shorten’s refusal to support a royal commission into union corruption; it is also Labor’s rejection of reforms to provisions of the Fair Work Act that have allowed union thuggery to become endemic…
Gillard did not just abolish the Australian Building and Construction Commission. She also modified the definitions of lawless behaviour in the industrial relations laws to make it more difficult to prove, while dramatically reducing the ability of the workplace regulator to evidence illegal dealings. The effect was to vastly expand the scope for, and return on, union malpractice. 
Question: how did Labor Government enable union corruption, and why?
(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.) 
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Labor wins Griffith, Shorten loses

Andrew Bolt February 10 2014 (12:20am)

OPPOSITION leader Bill Shorten will be shocked by Labor’s feeble win in the by-election for Kevin Rudd’s old seat.
How could Labor’s primary vote in Griffith actually fall 1.8 per cent, or even more after postal votes are counted? How could the Opposition go backwards in a by-election for only the fourth time in our history?
And now the heat goes on Shorten.
(Read full column here.) 
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I never felt worse. I never felt so poor, as when I could not find anyone to accept my collection of books. I'd collated them, but could not keep them .. and could not give them away. And my dream of building something with my life, and leaving it, and it being understood .. was shattered. And I turned to God, saying "Why don't you love me?" And he said he always has. I am not God, I serve Him. And my building did not do that. It is grass that is blessed, that bends with the wind. - ed
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“We ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters, and rightly so, because your faith is growing more and more, and the love all of you have for one another is increasing.” - 2 Thessalonians 1:3
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon

February 9: Morning

"And David enquired of the Lord." - 2 Samuel 5:23

When David made this enquiry he had just fought the Philistines, and gained a signal victory. The Philistines came up in great hosts, but, by the help of God, David had easily put them to flight. Note, however, that when they came a second time, David did not go up to fight them without enquiring of the Lord. Once he had been victorious, and he might have said, as many have in other cases, "I shall be victorious again; I may rest quite sure that if I have conquered once I shall triumph yet again. Wherefore should I tarry to seek at the Lord's hands?" Not so, David. He had gained one battle by the strength of the Lord; he would not venture upon another until he had ensured the same. He enquired, "Shall I go up against them?" He waited until God's sign was given. Learn from David to take no step without God. Christian, if thou wouldst know the path of duty, take God for thy compass; if thou wouldst steer thy ship through the dark billows, put the tiller into the hand of the Almighty. Many a rock might be escaped, if we would let our Father take the helm; many a shoal or quicksand we might well avoid, if we would leave to his sovereign will to choose and to command. The Puritan said, "As sure as ever a Christian carves for himself, he'll cut his own fingers;" this is a great truth. Said another old divine, "He that goes before the cloud of God's providence goes on a fool's errand;" and so he does. We must mark God's providence leading us; and if providence tarries, tarry till providence comes. He who goes before providence, will be very glad to run back again. "I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go," is God's promise to his people. Let us, then, take all our perplexities to him, and say, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" Leave not thy chamber this morning without enquiring of the Lord.

Evening

"Lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil [or, the evil one]." - Luke 11:4

What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursue or avoid in action. Very earnestly, therefore, should we avoid temptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience, that we may never tempt the devil to tempt us. We are not to enter the thicket in search of the lion. Dearly might we pay for such presumption. This lion may cross our path or leap upon us from the thicket, but we have nothing to do with hunting him. He that meeteth with him, even though he winneth the day, will find it a stern struggle. Let the Christian pray that he may be spared the encounter. Our Saviour, who had experience of what temptation meant, thus earnestly admonished his disciples--"Pray that ye enter not into temptation."

 But let us do as we will, we shall be tempted; hence the prayer "deliver us from evil." God had one Son without sin; but he has no son without temptation. The natural man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards, and the Christian man is born to temptation just as certainly. We must be always on our watch against Satan, because, like a thief, he gives no intimation of his approach. Believers who have had experience of the ways of Satan, know that there are certain seasons when he will most probably make an attack, just as at certain seasons bleak winds may be expected; thus the Christian is put on a double guard by fear of danger, and the danger is averted by preparing to meet it. Prevention is better than cure: it is better to be so well armed that the devil will not attack you, than to endure the perils of the fight, even though you come off a conqueror. Pray this evening first that you may not be tempted, and next that if temptation be permitted, you may be delivered from the evil one.

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Eli 
[Ē'lī] - jehovah is high or my god.
The high priest and judge of Israel of the family of Ithamar (1 Sam. 1-4; 14:3).
The Man Who Lacked Parental Authority
There are few Bible men in whose character we cannot find some great and glaring fault. There is usually a dead fly in the ointment, a rent in the garment, a spot on the whitest sheet. Eli was a good man whose life was pure. He loved and delighted in God's service, but was faulty in one point. He failed to exercise the proper authority of a parent over his children.
Eli belonged to the tribe of Levi, and for years acted as a judge and as High Priest in Israel. He lived at Shiloh in a dwelling adjoining the Temple for the greater portion of his life. We know little about him until he was well advanced in age. The first mention of him is when Hannah came to pour out her heart.
Eli's fault which brought sorrow upon his declining years was the conduct of his own two sons, Phinehas and Hophni, who, although lacking their father's character and qualities, were yet put into the priest's office. Their conduct disgraced their high calling and shocked the people so much that they "abhorred the offering of the Lord." While Eli warned them of their shameful ways, he did not rebuke them with the severity their evil deeds merited. He should have exercised the stern authority of a father and rebuked them as a judge. Instead Eli only mildly reasoned with his sons saying: "Why do ye such things?" But the sons disregarded such a weak and useless protest for their hearts were cold and callous and so they no longer heeded their father's feelings.
Although Eli had no power to change the hearts of his sons, he could have prevented their ministry before the Lord, but he "restrained them not." He wanted to be kind to them but it was a false and mistaken kindness. A seasonable correction would have saved them from ruin. Eli had no need to be harsh and severe, only firm and decided in the matter of obedience. Eli was twice warned that judgment would overtake him and his sons, but such warning was lost upon him. He dearly loved his sons and could not take action against them.
What a pitiable spectacle Eli presents! An old man of ninety, almost blind, waited to hear the result of the grim battle between the Israelites and the Philistines. How he trembled for his nation, his sons and also for the Ark of God which would be dishonored if it fell into enemy hands! Then the messenger came with news of the slaughter of his sinful sons and of the taking of the Ark. As Eli heard mention of the latter he fell off his seat by the side of a gate and died of a broken neck, yes, and of a broken heart! As is often the case, children bring down their father's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
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Today's reading: Leviticus 6-7, Matthew 25:1-30 (NIV)

View today's reading on Bible Gateway

Today's Old Testament reading: Leviticus 6-7

1 The LORD said to Moses: 2 "If anyone sins and is unfaithful to the LORD by deceiving a neighbor about something entrusted to them or left in their care or about something stolen, or if they cheat their neighbor, 3 or if they find lost property and lie about it, or if they swear falsely about any such sin that people may commit-- 4 when they sin in any of these ways and realize their guilt, they must return what they have stolen or taken by extortion, or what was entrusted to them, or the lost property they found, 5 or whatever it was they swore falsely about...."

Today's New Testament reading: Matthew 25:1-30

The Parable of the Ten Virgins
1 "At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep...."

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