If you never hear from me again, it’s because Bushfire Bill has dealt with me for publishing this brilliant post that should have been up on Sunday.
Just because he hasn’t had time to do the pics!
I ask you!!!
Anyway, if I’m not around tomorrow, that’s why.
So, I leave you with . . .
If Murdoch has to write letters to Abbott through his newspapers, then that means he’s not getting to him via the usual channels: closed door meetings, a quiet word, Friday night get-togethers, surreptitious visits to the New York News HQ, and so on.
Abbott seems to have gone off the reservation. He’s always had a high opinion of his own judgement and intellect, and now there’s no holding him back.
Truly Murdoch has created the monster. It has broken its shackles and now wanders the world, frightening children and shirt-fronting adults at random. Its crazy ideas, reflecting its piecemeal make up – part journalist, part thug, part priest – are being let run wild. It won’t even listen to its master now, the man that gave it life.
Only one thing can tame its excesses, and that is Peta’s sweet whisper. She is with him night and day, always at hand, just off camera, in the room at even the highest level meetings. But lately even her calming words are not being heard.
Abbott is becoming used to being in charge. He’s learning that what he says goes. He’s never had this before. He’s always been the protégé, the golden boy who’s headed for great things, guided by the wisdom of a wise patron.
Well, now he’s arrived – and he’s doing to do those great things. Why confine your psyche to just inside your head, keeping counsel, waiting for The Day when you can paint a nation with your grand ideas and force even the mighty to call you “Sir”? There’s no more waiting. This is destiny. Tony’s mind has expanded, and now his canvas is a nation, but one he’s never loved for itself. It’s always been one he wanted to change to look more like where he came from, not realizing that place too has changed and has moved on.
He got rid of the schoolboy fringe he used to cover his thinning hair. He applied … something … was it Botox? Or some surgery? … to his forehead and his eyes to ease out the wrinkles. He’s combed his hair over like he’s seen real leaders do, the better to look the part. And his speech patterns have changed. He sounds more hesitant now, as if every word he utters is gold, to be taken down by adoring scribes and kept for posterity.
Sure, he can’t resist the simian swagger, and his suits are still too tight. That’s the boy in him, wanting to show off his physique. The hands are everywhere too: defensively, pushing away questions and criticism. He used to have a cruder use for his hands in his boxing days. One king-hit out of nowhere and he’d deck his opponent. But he can’t do that now. He has to settle for mugging his old punching bag, Joe; not really satisfying, but something of an outlet for his natural instincts.
Maybe he’s timed it well. Maybe he thinks he can cast off his backers in the media because the media isn’t as powerful as it once was, making and breaking kings and queens. Maybe he’s right. Maybe he’s wrong.
But he can’t cast off the ridicule. As he tries harder and harder to be ever more serious and statesmanlike, he’s the butt of more and more jokes. He believed once that cometh the office, cometh the man, but the cartoonists cruelly still depict him with those ears, those budgie smugglers, that hairy torso, those exaggeratedly cruel lips. They never show the New Tony, the one he’s always wanted to be, and was always told he could be. They laugh at him and his narcissm instead.
The man must be going crazy with frustration. It’s all fallen apart. His Macbethian plan to claw his way to the top has ended as all such progresses do: with more enemies to use as shields, no-one to trust, more blood and more dysfunction.
He thought Labor was dead. He killed it himself, didn’t he? He won so many battles against it … and still Labor lives. He made promises he shouldn’t have, and which he couldn’t possibly keep, right on election eve – and now they, like Labor, are coming back to haunt him, no matter how much he licks his lips, protests his innocence and redoubles his lies. Now he’s lying about lying. Did he say he’d never do that? He can’t remember. There have been so many lies. So many contradictions. So many speeches and interviews. Can he be expected to remember them all?
Bill Shorten just won’t play the way Tony wants him to play. Bill – boyish, quiet, considered, and intelligent, won’t come on to the battlefield and fight him man to man. Bill’s biding his time. It’s a war Abbott doesn’t like: one of manoeuvre, skirmishing, probing, even agreeing with him from time to time, avoiding a fight. With each clash Abbott loses a few more devotees he can’t replace. Volunteers and supporters are thinning out as they contemplate whether being otherwise engaged is the better option. He just can’t line up Bill Shorten for the sucker punch. He has to face it, Bill intends to go the full fifteen rounds. Until that time, Bill will dance and sting to weaken his opponent so that Abbott will be wounded and bloody when they come out into the ring for the penultimate bell.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. People have always been scared of Abbott, of his sheer naked aggressiveness, his mercilessness and of his ability, without reflection, to turn on anyone who gets in his way. He’s always liked being surrounded by bodies – friends or enemies. They’ve been his substitute for sandbags. But bodies bring blood and flies. People start to notice the stench of death around him.
The Catholic Bishops saw his temperament, and threw him out of the seminary for it. Jesus didn’t need a holy warrior to minister to a parish. He needed someone with empathy and humility, not a thug.
Australia celebrated his thuggishness, in a shameful period where they valued light entertainment because they could afford to. The nation was prospering. Vilifying Gillard was good sport. We kidded ourselves that if we called Gillard a liar over legislation then that would mean Global Warming would go away. We were on top of the world … ironically because Labor put us there while other countries fell by the wayside.
But now, digging holes and lecturing other nations has lost its authenticity. We’re becoming a basket case state, with a basket case leader at the helm. It’s no longer Reality TV. It’s Reality. Slogans and slagging-off won’t put meals on tables. A nation that is taxed higher and suffers cutbacks to basic services simply to satisfy its government’s insane surplus fetish – when that government puts little back by way of innovation, and actually closes productive industries down – is not a prosperous nation. It is a nation that is being laid waste by its own rulers to serve their vanity.
Why did we close down manufacturing? Who cares if imports are cheaper, if no-one can afford to buy them? What’s the point of the government’s coffers being full if the peoples’ are empty? And then there’s the dollar … are imports really even cheap anymore? We have high price tags on the things we’ve taken for granted for so long, and diminishing capacity to compete with those who charge them. We’ve pissed our economy up against the wall, in favour of a few brief, nothing moments on the world stage so that Abbott can indulge himself in his schoolboy fantasy of someday growing up and being respected among his peers. He had the chance to impress world leaders with his vision for a magnificent estate, and all he talked about was how he’d tidied up the back yard and pulled out a few weeds. Not satisfied with stalking the land, the monster now stalks the world.
THE PUB 
Ducky,
It would take more than David Hicks to interrupt Brandis SC DH in full flight.
There was a lot of malice directed towards Gillard because she was a woman. In Abbott’s case it has little to do with prejudice that he is so angrily held in low esteem by so many. It’s all his own doing.
Joe6pack,
Stop contemplating home surgery and get to the vet AT ONCE.
(That goes for you too, Bushfire Bill – though probably not quite as urgently as The Boss.)
Lord of the Fridge,
Noticed some differences between you and Leone re the Schools Spectaculars. Really, I think what she was trying to get at was that for poor folks, (folks like Mrs Scorpio & I that have only ever had one income) even to provide the where-for-all to allow our offspring to go to the final performances of these Schools Spectaculars, is a huge financial burden. even if they are just one of the chorus.
Our no 2 daughter was a champion runner. Possible Olympics standard, but we couldn’t finance her past Qld inter schools standard. The reason why was that as she graduated through to the next level, the outlay that we were expected to provide jumped by so many thousand or tens of thousand dollars!
We didn’t have it and there was no way that we were going to either go into debt or sacrifice our obligations to the other three of our children.
They also were talented but in different ways. They also deserved the best opportunity we could provide but with very limited resources.
One thing you can be sure of, is that the mob that are currently in power in Canberra, are only interested in making sure that “their” off-spring get the best chances in life and that the rest can please themselves.
Joe6p
We want to hear the doc’s diagnosis. Just remember you are The PUB treasure.
BTW, the SA government looks like it is going to cover most of the cost of trucks being towed off the Southern Freeway arrester bed, after the last couple of incidents.
Fiona,
A groundswell has to swell from somewhere.
Way back before the likes of things like ” Schools Spectaculars” had even been thought of, on breaking up day at schools I attended, the pupils/students put on a bit of a show for their fellow classmates!
Pumped up with ice cream & watermelon, a mate & I did a version of the following song in I believable, grade 6 or 7! Long time ago.
My mate got dressed up in one of his mothers dresses and was Lisa. The whole school cracked up. I haven’t and will never forget it!
I could write a dissertation about what this family, that is not particularly penurious, thinks about this government.
I could write an even longer one about the relative responsibilities of parents and teachers.
Anyone watch the 7.5 segment about “why aren’t the parents teaching their kids how to read”? Could it be that many parents don’t know or can’t?
Really, seriously – I think that Your Government wants to abolish itself and un-Commonwealth us.
There are certain functions that they want to keep. Just think Morrison PM.
Oh, well, yeah, you think he is one of the “big swinging dicks”, but I can tell you that it it is just ‘this’ long and not a millimetre more! 😉
Damn! Try this one.
If ever there was a “Listen, Bitch!” that is it.
Joe6p,
Hey, the $7.00 GP Co payment isn’t in yet. Get yourself off to the Dr in the morning or I will be coming down to deal with you! 😉
Didn’t Peta say today that she and Bananas were “co-operating”?
Bananas Bishop has shown no guts whatsoever. All her look-at-mes at the UN and elsewhere have been treated with ignore , disdain or just plain ridicule.
I just hope she gets Lima’ed.
scorps,
They can put in regulation whenever they want, even out of session of parliament. Either house can disallow it.
I cannot see how anyone could see Bananas as a Prime Minister. She is no Gillard. But then, none of them are.
Just check the body language of that photo. Bananas could just as well have stripped naked, laid on her back and said the words.
Ducky,
The polite terminology is biarch.
I just love this description of Credlin’s vest – from the exemplary Corvus Boreus:
http://loonpond.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/in-which-pond-adopts-siamese-fighting.html#.VIgmCLdxl9A
Maybe Abbott and the Libs should think about this while they’re pursuing their ideological obsession with roads over public transport.
Gippsland Laborite,
They’ve already cornered the market for toll roads; why shouldn’t they do something similar for parking stations?
Fiona,
And I should choose not to be offensive?
As Henry said, unto the morrow, dear friands.
Several apogolies to Willie.
Ms Bishop and Ms Credlin have had this to say about their relationship (posted earlier today, but to save going back)
“Ms Credlin told The Australian yesterday she had worked closely with Ms Bishop for many years “and we continue to work in a close and collegial way …”
“Ms Bishop told The Australian: “There is no rift between Peta and me. I have never had a cross word with her.”
Fiona,
👿
Fiona,
reptile skins
😆 😆 😆
Leone,
I’m 99 point 9 percent certain Peta and Julie have never had a crossword together.
Doing crosswords together – especially cryptic ones – is an excellent way of promoting friendship.
Scorpio,
Not my idea – but I agree with it!
Ducky,
Sweet dreams
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-10/public-servants-begin-industrial-action-government-pay-offer/5958830
Not financially constrained enough to stop billions being wasted for an indefinite time on a useless search for MH370
Not financially constrained enough to stop Abbott leaping into another pointless 'war' that is none of our business.
Not financially constrained enough to prevent those pointless witch-hunt royal commissions.
But when it comes to keeping the pay of public servants in line with CPI increases then sorry, we have no money.
Bastards!
I said this would happen to the rest of the public service when I twigged to the statement Abbott made to the ADF, that no one in the public service would get a greater rise then them, due to them putting their lives in harms way.
I knew it. The ADF pay and conditions cut was simply to put the thumbscrews on the whole of the public service.
Leone,
I wouldn’t drink their KoolAid if they paid me eleventy billion bucks.
This – mob – rabble – host of pretenders – have no effing clue.
They don’t even CARE how wrong they are.
Their sole motivation for existence is to make sure their rich “mates” get richer – and to hope like hell they’ll get richer too.
They would do well to keep in mind the old adage about supping with the devil – because most of them will be thoroughly burned.
The main game with Public Service salaries is not really restraining government spending. It’s sending a price signal to the entire labour market.
If ADF personnel can only get a paltry 1.5% and Public Servants less than 1%, then everybody can take a bath – all for the good of the country, you understand.
Always follow the money with the Libs – this is a mammoth payback to the big end of town – the pricks who have been grabbing a larger and larger piece of the pie for the last decade and have now decided that workers living standards have risen to high and that a little bit of discipline is required to set us back in our rightful place.
Bastards, one and all
BBBF,
Yes.
The Greens have won the recount in Prahran, so that seems to be that. In the end, I suppose that’s better than the Liberal winning.
At a state level the Greens hopefully can’t be as obstructive as they are federally.
bbbf
Spot on.
That is always the long game with these parasites. The peasantry in penury and the toffs in the toffee.
Kirsdarke,
It’s so good to see the salubrious Clem Newton-Brown(e)? out of a job.
I was on Gumtree and saw something that I will find useful for my house. But my first thought was that the Coalition ministry was way overpriced.
Box of knobs
$15.00 Negotiable
Craigmore
Congratulations to The Greens.
I have always had a dislike for cheerleading. not for the skills of the cheerleaders but for the sexism and exploitation that is inherent in the practice. Women get paid a pittance for giving some life and interest in a boring game with too many stoppages. too much time wasting and too many breaks to allow television stations to play adverts, while the male football players get paid big bucks for the same level of effort, training and skills as the cheerleaders.
http://www.motherjones.com/media/2014/05/nfl-cheerleader-lawsuits-sexism
Good morning Dawn Patrollers.
Abbott gets some words of warning from Paul Sheehan about Peta Credlin. It all comes from within he says.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/tony-abbott-must-watch-the-peta-credlin-phenomenon-carefully-20141210-124c06.html
Mark Kenny on the Credlin/Bishop issue.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/cracks-emerge-over-peta-credlin-in-tony-abbotts-government-20141210-124edb.html
The AMA says the copayment will hit bulk billing. Well surprise, surprise! e effect of the limited $5 rebate cut will be dwarfed by the freeze until 2018.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/copayment-will-hit-bulk-billing-ama-predicts-20141210-124e1n.html
A torrent of letters to the editor at SMH excoriate Abbott and the copayment.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-letters/turning-our-doctors-into-tax-collectors-20141210-1242w0.html
Its editorial says the copayment plan is far too dangerous and should be rejected by the Senate.
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/tony-abbotts-revised-gp-copayment-far-too-dangerous-20141210-1246fz.html
The ever-unimpressive Dutton admits most Australians will pay more to see a GP but it’s a good thing.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/health-minister-peter-dutton-admits-most-australians-will-have-to-pay-more-to-see-gp-20141209-123p4c.html
A wounded government doubles down on its war with doctors – Ben Eltham.
https://newmatilda.com/2014/12/10/wounded-government-doubles-down-its-war-doctors
GP copayment 2.0 – a triple whammy for patients.
https://theconversation.com/gp-co-payment-2-0-a-triple-whammy-for-patients-35334
The three worst things the Liberals did yesterday.
http://www.ellistabletalk.com/2014/12/10/the-three-worst-things-the-liberals-did-yesterday-134/
Time to stop the “clean coal” crap.
https://independentaustralia.net/environment/environment-display/time-to-end-the-clean-coal-crock,7174
Section 2 . . .
What!!!!! $1.50 postage stamps?
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/postage-stamp-prices-expected-to-rise-to-150-under-abbott-government-plan-20141210-124fsb.html
Malcolm Fraser savages Morrison.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-fraser-savages-scott-morrisons-new-asylum-seeker-laws-and-senators-who-passed-them-20141210-124bp1.html
The A380 is at the crossroads.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/aviation/is-this-the-beginning-of-the-end-for-the-a380-20141210-124a0c.html
Nice try Prissy – but you’re still on the nose!
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/christopher-pyne-begs-pm-tony-abbott-to-save-abc-tv-in-adelaide-20141210-124hro.html
Abbott’s “reset” won’t work because he can’t reset himself. This is a good read.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/dec/10/tony-abbotts-reset-can-never-work-because-he-cant-reset-himself
David Hicks heckles Brandis over torture at Human Rights function.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/david-hicks-heckles-attorneygeneral-george-brandis-at-human-rights-awards-ceremony-20141210-124h54.html
The beloved Kevin Andrews speaks out.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/kevin-andrews-calls-on-colleagues-to-unite-20141210-124723.html
Should the Nationals rethink their place in the Coalition?
http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/bush-mail/2014/dec/10/a-country-road-should-the-nationals-rethink-their-place-in-the-coalition
Rumblings from dissatisfied women in the Liberal Party.
http://www.theage.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/senior-female-liberals-call-on-the-party-to-boost-the-number-of-women-on-frontbenches-20141210-124jca.html
There will be industrial action by Human Services staff today as the stoush over the 1% pay rise offer with accompanying reduction in privileges.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/national/public-service/human-services-public-servants-begin-industrial-campaign-over-pay-offer-20141210-124ar7.html
Section 3 . . .
Processed foods health claims exposed as being fallacious.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/health/cancer-council-fruit-and-vegetable-claims-on-some-packaged-foods-debunked-20141210-124cfi.html
Alan Moir takes us to Lima to see Mesma’s chaperone at work.
Ron Tandberg on the Victorian Education Department’s slush fund excesses.
David Pope has had a really good year. Here he is with the Christmas Scrooge.
David Rowe has Abbott undergoing barnacle removal surgery.
I can’t win with linking jpg here!
Moir http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/cartoons
Tandberg http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/ron-tandberg-20090910-fixc.html
Pope http://www.smh.com.au/photogallery/federal-politics/cartoons/david-pope-20141123-1t3j0.html
Rowe http://www.afr.com/p/national/cartoon_gallery_david_rowe_1g8WHy9urgOIQrWQ0IrkdO
Kirsdarke, many Labor Party hacks were of the opinion “Better Clem than them”, even though the Labor Party had put no effort into the Prahran campaign selecting a lame candidate – Neil is 5 foot and gay.
The Greens campaign kicked off in March with door knocks and phone calls, it wasn’t safe to answer your phone between 5:30 and 8:30
Clearly 30% of any electorate will vote Labor and 30% of any electorate will vote Liberal
Kirsdarke, if ALP had eliminated Hibbins the Greens (and minor party) preference flow would have installed Clem Newton-Brown by a small margin
More bored Russians?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-12-11/nato-planes-join-search-off-scotland-for-submarine/5959106
Test to check on Pope’s link that did not come up for BK
Jaeger
Definitively not bored it was just ,…….
I’m sorry but that has to be one of the dumbest reasons as to why a candidate is a bad candidate that I have ever heard.
This co-payment thing gets worse and worse the more we learn about it.
We are hearing a lot about how it will affect doctors, but until tody I hadn’t heard a word about how it will hurt those who are not bulk-billed. The average income earners with a couple of kids who pay the going rate and get the Medicare rebate. And even worse, altough doctors will put their fees up several times over the next three years that rebate will be frozen until 2018.
If Abbott and Dutton get their way these people, not their GPs, will be hit by the changes. That message needs to be talked up by Labor. Forget the pensioners, they are OK, they will still be bulk billed. Worry about families who will have to pay just that little bit more every thime the kids get sick. To make it all worse Abbott wants to increase the PBS price for prescriptions – I think that is still stuck in the senate. I hope it is, anyway. I can see parents opting out of GP visits for sick kids because it all costs too much.
I don’t know what GPs charge these days, mine bulk-bills me. But from the signs in the waiting room I know that a short consultation costs over $60 The Medicare rebate is currently $37.05. If your doctor gives you less than ten minutes of his time the rebate will be only $11.95. Sometimes – often – you only need a few minutes. The cut in that rebate is going to really hurt.
As a result of this lousy scheme people who are not bulk-billed will put off going to a GP because they can’t afford it and will suffer the consequences. Those consequences will end up costing the health system far more than a rebate to a GP. Did anyone who worked on this lousy scheme ever think about the consequences of their actions? I don’t think so. The aim is to kill Medicare, who cares about what happens to the little people during the death throes.
Plane Talking on the A380:
“If Airbus surrenders its costly and apparently premature grip on the very large plane sector, it will flourish as soon as it retreats, and be filled by its US competitor.”
http://blogs.crikey.com.au/planetalking/2014/12/11/airbus-a380-future-put-on-line-just-as-qatar-postpones-a350/
I’ve flown on the A380 twice (Brisbane – Auckland), and it was much more comfortable (18″ wide seats) that the 777 originally scheduled for the service would have been (17″ wide seats.) The windows were disappointingly small and further away than I expected – but I’d prefer that than the bean counters’ dream of using cramming another seat in each row! (Clearly they don’t fly economy):
http://www.ausbt.com.au/airbus-a380-gets-11-across-economy-seating-option
Bananas being a fruit loop
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/12/11/aust-will-not-cut-emissions-alone-bishop