Earl Hood

Hey what's wrong with the Benny Hill Show?

But I noticed their wine is cheap as over there anyway. Not so much here though. And they do reds, never knew that.

Biff I have just come back from the North Island does that count? And you are probably right.

Biff I would prefer we put Robert to a more constructive task cleaning the graffiti around Fitzroy! It should keep him busy for some time and he could sleep in Edinburgh Park at night with the possums, better than a bridge I would think.

I suspect the local indigenous tribe might have sent you on your way, that is very much their territory. They know they were dudded by J Batman, then Pascoe Fawkner so they would be very wary of another whitey intruding on their space, especially one who lives under a bridge!

Moons please I do not live in the burbs as that is how I regard Fitzroy North! I am Fitzroy central please and no I will not be lodging Special. As I have said elsewhere living under a bridge is luxurious compared to my former circumstances growing up in a shoebox. Hardship can be character building and I am a shining example of what it can produce, even if I say so myself. I do thank Special for living away out of sight, under a bridge, that is preferable to the ferals sleeping out at Flinders Street Station. Very untidy, and it upsets Robert Doyle so much. But don't bring your bedding to Fitzroy by the way. We have a zero tolerance rule here, Robert.

Dieter, please! Conchita is my number one assistant and confidant. She is extremely skilled, a great organiser and communicator. She is of Spanish origins and yes is somewhat hirsute, ok she has a beard but she sings like an angle. But these days we are all about diversity, yes? However I know this diversity may be a bridge too far for youse people?

Oh living under a bridge are we, sheer luxury, I say, Special. We grew up, whole family living in a shoe box on main road, up at dawn, off to mill, work all day, back for tea but there weren't none, just some coal to munch on, then a good flogging for our troubles. Aye sheer luxury these days!

Hittites, the Battenbergs, and the dirty digger, Rupert, how the hell did we get here? Is there a Trump link?

Well eventually it was worth reading through this Breitbart article because at the end there was a visual link to Susan Sarrandon and her amazing cleavage, always worth another look. Otherwise I will await corroboration from some reputable organisations, other than an organ representing the thoughts, self interests and fantasies of Steve Bannon thank you. I am not totally dismissing the allegation it is just we need some objective evidence from reputable organisations before we make judgements. We can't keep responding to every ludicrous allegation from some nut job, conspiracy theorists on the web, as it is a receipe for political paralysis. And that is where we are.

The evidence?

Looks like Ophra is going to run, can't wait for that one. Will she give away a car or a trip to Australia to every American if she wins?

Context?

Is this the longest stretch without a post in the history of this thread? I am in the land of the long white cloud so I have an excuse for my absence.

Hi ProDee Thanks for your well thought through, forensic analysis of the deficiencies of the left leaning political classes. On my first reading I believe you have made some assertions that can be challenged but at this stage let me take your post on notice so I can investigate this in further detail. I will get back to you once I have reviewed all the historical data. Yours in good faith Earl

Apologies to Bowie!

Wrecker Depends how you define progressive. The drift of my original post was that my beliefs hadn't changed since my early 20's which is 40 years ago not 50, although I can see how you made that inference, I was actually in my teens when Whitlam gained power, my fail there. That said my core values haven't changed, a fair go for all, justice, less inequality is better than more, look after the poor, rather than the interests of the rich. And look after the environment and protect what is left from the depredations of those that would destroy it for personal profit. But the the political middle ground has moved much further to the right after Reagon and Thatcher took power and we have kept going that way since, entrenching the Neo-classical economic theories of small government, minimal regulation, low taxes, flexible wage rates, hours of work and no organized labour unions. I am old school believer in a mixed economy of small and large private companies working in with government run organisations to deliver basic services and competition. We once created the CBA as a solution to keep private banks honest, now it is part of the problem. Once there was Telecom, has anyone done a cost benefit analysis on its privatisation? The sale proceeds went into the Future Fund and tax cuts to the rich, the costs were the loss of a billion $ a year of dividends to the Feds and the likelihood that KRudd's High performance NBN would have been rolled out 5 years ago to 90% of consumers across metropolitan Australia instead of the disfunctional NBN Corporation's high cost second rate copper to the node non solution to everyone.

Yes Nut you are probably right that you can't halt progress, however you define progress I suppose. But gee there is no shortage of forces today trying their best to halt technological and social change! Social progress - same sex marriage, euthanasia, that is my right to choose when I die, subject to medical checks of course, the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy if the woman chooses, all these progressive ideas are fought tooth and nail by certain religious and political groups. Then technological progress, well yes in theory progress is inevitable unless it upsets certain vested interests. Progress in the energy market points to solar and wind but our federal government is talking coal! Forget climate change issues, new so called high tech ultra supercalafragilistic coal fired generation plants are more expensive to build than equivalently sized renewable wind or solar plants. Vested interests will work very hard to halt progress. then there is on line shopping but don't get Gerry Harvey going on that advance.

You are probably right DC these days I probably am lurking in some far left wing subculture. I don't think my beliefs and values have changed since I was in my 20's, back then I was just left of centre and well in the mainstream when Whitlam was in charge for that brief period in the 70's. Gee I wonder now if Rex Conner had prevailed we might have full control over our energy resources and have control over pricing but no he was an idiot that threatened our international multinational partnerships at the time with local ownership and control of a nation wide LNG supply network. And in the same way that Malcolm Fraser was right of centre in the 70's but 35 years later found his values were so far to the left that the LNP disowned him, I find myself thinking like I am some sort of radical. The fact is for whatever reason the Anglophile West, the US, Australia, the U.K. has moved to the right and is now throwing up the likes of Trump and given new life to One Nation and their xenophobia, it was Asians in the 90's now it is Islamists. I blame Rupert and the influence of Multinationals and their think tanks for much of this move to the more extreme right and their beliefs in small ineffectual democratic government, no red tape, flexible working arrangements for employees, including their wages and hours of work and no unions of course. I am appalled at our treatment of refugees but that is a fruitless argument and then there is our failure to deal with climate change. I mean we now have federal ministers talking about taxpayers funding new coal fired power generation plants because the private sector won't touch them. Oh yes they are the new Ultra Supercalafragalistic coal fired generation technology so admired by Malcolm Trunbull and Barnaby but they are still high emission plants compared to every other green option. The intermediate option for base load power is gas fired power generation but guess what the gas price is too high to be economical for the privately owned generators to be bothered firing up even though we have the world's largest reserves of gas because we are exporting every cubic metre of it off shore at a world parity price to China and Japan. We have lost the plot and I am as mad as hell and I am not going to put up with it anymore!

DC are you one of those big picture technocrats? Obviously we are all going to die at some stage but my point is that quality of life and time on the planet is important to most people and that is not helped by avoidable poisons like tobacco. Her dodgy economic theory does not justify tobacco use and governments should do their best to discourage tobacco use amongst their constituents, short of making it illegal. P.S. I picked up the interview while I was perusing The Guardian on line I think.

Gee we all like having a go at Donald, including me but did anyone see Miranda Devine's defence of tobacco and cigarette smoking on Channel 9's Today programme with Karl Stephanovic on the weekend and again this morning? Apparently smoking is good because it takes out people earlier than normal through cancer or respitory failure or organ failure or lung disease and horrendous pain before death and that apparently frees up resources for other health outcomes. So it is a win, win in economics terms but let's not look at human costs. Talk about big picture "Technocrats out of control", even though Miranda isn't one of course. She is just a second rate hack journo working for News Corp. but willing to sacrifice lives on the alter of free choice to smoke your self to death. And I should add Miranda works for El Diablo, Beelzebub the Devil in carnate but I wouldn't want to denigrate her more than she deserves.

Biff do you have any real data on your accusation? Or are you playing the Trump card? I will state now it is fake news. You are telling me rapes have happened in Sweden over and above the norm due to refugees but there is a left wing cover up that nothing is happening. I think not. It seems to me most people in Sweden are asking WTF is he talking about but you know more, even though you are currently up river in Indochina chasing Colonel Kurtz!

DC don't mention the climate. It always starts off a shyte-storm around here!

Well yes the world is a lot less safe but this is mainly due to George W blundering into Iraq and destabilised the whole region in the service of the Sunni Saudi Royal Family in their battle for supremacy in the Middle East against Shiite revolutionary Iran. This political vacuum created by US intervention has created the environment where violent lunatics like IS have flourished.

Anyhoo back to President Gump the storm clouds are gathering over this Russian stuff. He has obviously got the intelligence agencies off side big time because there are leaks coming from multiple agencies and there are multiple investigations underway examining Trump's campaign people and who they were communicating with. Why were they talking to Russian Intelligence agents? Who knows. And of course Flynn has fallen on his sword but the big question is what did Donald know and when? Why would Flynn make a deal with the Ruskies without some agreement with the Donald? All we can take from this mess is that the FBI and the CIA have been infiltrated by lunatic left wing Marxists!