‘Zionists are not welcomed’– UC Santa Barbara Multicultural Center displays litany of deranged anti-Semitic posters

It’s Chorley, not bloody Gaza!

Here you go, Beach Bar Swimmer.

paul kelly paul kelly
History will look kindly on Morrison’s legacy, flaws and all

5:00AM February 28, 2024
368 Comments

Scott Morrison had no finer moment in politics than taking his departure on Tuesday. On display were the qualities that took him to the prime ministership – a personal life anchored in family and faith, a spirit of combat that left “nothing on the field”, an attachment to community in the Shire and his ambitions in economics and national security.

These moments are shaped by the deeper instincts in our humanity and bring out the best in our parliament. Morrison and Anthony Albanese were warriors on Tuesday who put away their swords and offered tribute to their common cause – the Australian interest. In an emotional episode both spoke from the better angels of their nature. People familiar with the usual acrimonious rituals would have been astonished.

Albanese hailed Morrison “as a truly formidable opponent”, pointed out he governed during an extraordinarily difficult pandemic, saluted the quality and generosity of his valedictory speech, honoured Morrison’s family and, as a fellow member of the prime ministers club, said once achieved, that standing could never be taken away.

theaustralian.com.au04:28

The paradox of Morrison was on display. As a politician he was assertive, driving and self-absorbed, his eyes fixated on the ultimate prize, yet as a Christian humbled by the imperfectability of human nature. He ruminated on Tuesday on the limits of politics and the false hopes vested in governments and markets, all being run by imperfect people “just like all of us”.

Morrison departs surrounded by contemporary dispute. He is loathed, even hated by many of his opponents, and the Labor benches on Tuesday were notably only half-full for the speeches. From his own side he is respected but largely unloved, seen as a prime minister whose ability was undermined by personal defects – witness the multiple ministries blunder that constituted misplaced prime ministerial egoism.

At the end Morrison opened his heart wider than before. Speaking as a politician and a believer, he said: “I leave this place not as one of those timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. I leave having given my all out there in that arena and have many scars to show for it. I do leave behind in that arena any bitterness, disappointments or offences that occurred along the way.”

Morrison said his release from any bitterness is “due to my faith in Jesus Christ, which gives me the faith to both forgive but also to be honest with myself and my shortcomings”. His farewell speech had a powerful moral and cultural message for the nation – a message our politicians are frightened to speak and Morrison spoke only in his farewell. It is that Australia needs to retain the core of its being, its Judaeo-Christian ethic.

This is a religious position but transcends religion, going to the essence of our civilisation. He said “diminishing the influence and voice of Judaeo-Christian faith in our Western society” risks our “drifting into a valueless void”.

Why didn’t Morrison stand for this position and issue this warning as prime minister? Why, only now, does he talk in this way about his deepest beliefs? And if he had, wouldn’t he have been more successful? A skilled transactional politician, Morrison had two obstacles as prime minister – the Labor Party and a cultural revolution that he only poorly grasped and that he kept provoking.

Morrison’s faith, his social conservatism and his traditional view of families revealed a prime minister governing in an Australia undergoing a cultural transition defined by the rise of secularism, the elevation of human feelings as the basis for morality, and demands led by professional women for new rules, better behaviour and an end to discrimination.

Morrison’s flaw was lack of empathy when empathy became the electric current of political communication. He was a professional who missed that the mood and values of the nation had changed. But it wasn’t just women who turned against Morrison – it was the professional class.

The combination of Morrison’s personal failures – from the bushfire crisis onwards – and the cultural shift in professional class values brought him undone. To a significant extent Morrison lost the 2022 election on character grounds. In an astute campaign Albanese denied Morrison a major policy difference to exploit and then made Morrison’s character the central question. He was helped by the obvious reality – the government post-pandemic was weary, exhausted, and out of ideas for the future.

Morrison belonged to the post-Howard era of the Liberal Party when internal divisions over leadership, belief and tactics convulsed the party. Yet he had a lucky and successful career. Serving only 16 years in parliament, he spent nine years in office and had dominant portfolios – essentially immigration, social services, Treasury and prime minister.

He was in cabinet for the full nine years of the Coalition. His achievement in stopping the boats was conspicuous. From this time onwards he was a potential prime minister. As Malcolm Turnbull’s treasurer he supervised much of the journey towards a balanced budget while maintaining government services. Morrison was an endlessly calculating minister, competent, hardworking and with an unquenchable ambition to become prime minister that put off many colleagues.

In August 2018 Morrison outmanoeuvred Turnbull and Peter Dutton to come through the middle and take the highest office.

He won the 2019 election against the trend. Many of his critics misjudge that result. The extent of the polling recovery was virtually unprecedented and it is highly improbable that any other Liberal could have led the government to that re-election.

It gave the Liberals another chance. With the end of the Abbott-Turnbull chronic rivalry, the Coalition’s third term saw no internal challenge. Morrison and his deputy Josh Frydenberg had a close partnership, and Frydenberg remained loyal to Morrison and to party unity. Morrison became the 12th longest serving prime minister, between Paul Keating at No. 11 and John Curtin at No. 13.

He had an extraordinary prime ministership, dominated by three external events – China’s strategic assertion and its coercion of Australia, an event of international import; the pandemic that delivered not just a health crisis but the worst trauma for the federation in a century; and the global and domestic recession that threatened the highest jobless rates since the Depression.

On each front, Morrison’s achievements were significant. In retaliation, he internationalised China’s coercion, deepened ties with Japan and India, backed the Quad and was the originator of the AUKUS agreement for the development of nuclear-powered submarines in his negotiations with Boris Johnson and Joe Biden. That initiative is bipartisan. The Albanese government has assumed its political ownership. If it comes to fruition, over the decades Morrison will be seen as architect of one of the most important defence and foreign policy initiatives since World War II.

Australia’s economic response to the pandemic measures as implemented by Morrison and Frydenberg saw the most intense era of economic decision-making since World War II, co-ordinated with Treasury and the Reserve Bank. Yes, they spent too much. But they minimised the economic damage, saw unemployment return to historically low levels and delivered world-leading outcomes among OECD nations.

The pandemic response was blighted by the slow vaccine rollout and ongoing political battles between the premiers and Morrison. Mistakes were made in Australia – but far less than in many other nations. Australia had one of the lowest fatality rates from Covid in the developed world, with Morrison saying more than 30,000 lives were saved.

When history assesses Morrison’s performance as prime minister, much will flow from his handling of the three principal challenges on his watch, each being a world-defining event. So far contemporary assessments seem anxious to avoid this precise task, preferring an emotional focus on the rich list of Morrison’s flaws. And there are plenty of them. It is a safe bet, however, that as the tyranny of the present fades, history will reveal what really mattered and Morrison’s record is likely to loom in far more favourable terms.

Over on the Sydney Moaning Hemorrhoid, they are full of what a rotten leader he was, and how Goof Whitless was one of the greatest leaders this country had, including how he withdrew Australian forces from Vietnam….

allowing officers to impose immediate protection orders for up to 12 months without having to make an application to a court.

Similar to (but of greater duration than) the existing Liquor Banning Notice, which most cops are too dumb to use.

A consultation document – which has not been publicly released – says a trial of the new measures would include “safeguards” designed to prevent misidentification of the person most in need of protection.

What indeed could go wrong?
In my experience, when cops make an arrest outside a pub, One third of the time they’re arresting the wrong person. And that is with a very simple safeguard: Which one was breaking the law?

My pleasure, Beach Bar Swimmer.

Calli, if you are reading, please come back.

Thirded!

Mistakes were made in Australia – but far less than in many other nations.

“We were bad but others were worse” doesn’t cut it.

That is Morrison’s legacy.

As for his Christian piety, it wasn’t displayed in his treatment of others during his political career. Appealing to man’s imperfectibility as an excuse is a cop out.

Some might describe Morrison’s premiership as a “valueless void.”

She had been gifted a turn key business, all she had to do was turn up.

We had a case where a woman bought a successful lunch bar and managed to send it to the wall. Often there is a lot of small subtleties attached to these businesses not readily apparent on the surface. We won the case, bankrupted the vendor, she got divorced and moved back to NZ and I’m not sure the firm ever got paid. Welcome to the law.

Some might describe Morrison’s premiership as a “valueless void.”

Exceedingly generous.

MT, Winston and Wodney.

You appear to hate JC’s stoushing, but are goading him to respond to you. Why not just scroll on by?

If it isn’t, we’re lost in more ways than one.

You can always move to QLD, dot.

😀

GreyRanga
Mar 1, 2024 10:06 AM
I think a Bill of Rights is a brilliant idea. Here’s the Bill. You keep voting for us and we’ll make sure you never have to pay the bill. Who needs rights in a Totalitarian society. We take…… care of everything.

The Feral Guv’ment now has a ‘Give and Take’ position on the idea of a Bill of Rights.

To the populace – You Give and We Take.

Real Deal
Mar 1, 2024 10:54 AM
MT, Winston and Wodney.

You appear to hate JC’s stoushing, but are goading him to respond to you. Why not just scroll on by?

Not goading at all IMHO. The POS just needs to STFU and stop belting into others. This poster/imposter has a bad history on this Blog and it doesn’t make for good bedtime reading.

The entire NEMCO “market” mechanism is a giant Alice in Wonderland construct. Even State government ownership and union featherbedding would probably be better than the current mess.

Poor old Albo. He’s just weeks away from being bussed to the Rooty Hill RSL.

Not being at Dunkley seems a wise move.

Although he will be itching for the glam of Oxford Street, …”

Antibiotics should fix that.

Deaths in the Senate are much more convenient. Finally Albo cops a break.

A poisonous egg laid by Hilmer.

An egg from an egg head. He didn’t kick too many goals at Fauxfacts either. Most of the regulatory structure is unremarkable but it significantly increases the opportunity for gaming and lawfare.

Roger
Mar 1, 2024 10:00 AM
Shuffling along like an escapee from the aged care home

Making a frail old man walk on an uneven surface like that is dangerous.

A fall could easily lead to a broken hip and an extended hospital stay could lead to pneumonia, the old man’s undertaker.

Biden is indestructible. I expected some injuries when he fell off the bike and then again when he tumbled on the stage yet he was completely unscathed. My mother broke her hip when she stumbled while walking from bed to bathroom.

It doesn’t matter if the CEO of AGL is an engineer, a chemist, a physicist or a tradesman.

True. Electricity ceased being an engineering game some time ago.

and how Goof Whitless was one of the greatest leaders this country had, including how he withdrew Australian forces from Vietnam….

I remember reading that Kieth Windschuttle visited the newly opened Australia Museum (or some other such jarringly preposterous name) that he came across some display that referred to Aborigines finally being given the vote, or being classified as human, or whatever their boneheaded interpretation of the 1967 referendum was – surmounted by a picture of Gough with an Aborigine. The impression thus dishonestly created being that Saint Gough was behind this as well.

It is certainly significant that the referendum had bipartisan support – there was no villain there – but the suggestion that it was Gough’s Labor, in light of the existing hagiography of that stupid calamitous man, feeds into the idea Liberals-bad/Labor-good.

Gough had nothing much to do with it. He was probably squatting in his underground lair plotting to block supply for a Liberal budget (which I believe he tried a few times and failed, only for the Libs to do it to him and succeed).

As for his Christian piety, it wasn’t displayed in his treatment of others during his political career. Appealing to man’s imperfectibility as an excuse is a cop out.

This is what surprised, or rather shocked me the most about Morrison’s attitude to crises. For someone who professes his faith so publicly he didn’t seem to use it in his working life.

I don’t consider Morrison to be a particularly wicked PM. That adjective belongs to all the people that prevaled this way then that upon the flaccid polyp.

I am reminded of the Nietzsche aphorism from the Kauffman translation of The Gay Science:

Narrow souls I cannot abide; There’s almost no good or evil inside.

It is like the “Guns don’t kill people…” thing. It would be far more productive to identify those around Morrison, loaded him, aimed him, and fired him upon the Australian people.

Lots of fence sitting by the j’ismists over Dunkley. My view? Like the Voice, Spud home comfortably, two lengths.

Those of us involved have recognised that the fix is in before you even begin to go through the sham process.

A cynic would aver that they wouldn’t offer the complaint process if they couldn’t manipulate it.

Still, they’ve had some wins in north QLD.

Gough had nothing much to do with it. He was probably squatting in his underground lair plotting to block supply for a Liberal budget (which I believe he tried a few times and failed, only for the Libs to do it to him and succeed).

Yep, I remember talking to a Labor party operative/recruiting officer around 1968-69 at UWA who boasted that that was what they would try. No compunction about doing so.

Re: Taylor Swift in Singapore.

We fly to SIN tomorrow to catch a cruise back to SYD.

Original plan was to fly up yesterday and stay a day and two nights with a bit of a look-round and shopping.

Problem: Swifts flocking to SIN have more than doubled (even tripled) the prices hotels are charging for a room. Some well over $1000 per night.

Miltonf – it wasn’t government ownership per se, it was that generators followed the demand curve in cost order. You still had excess generating capacity built to support coal mines, large industrial customers supplied below cost and other forms of political interference. All up, I’m not sure many would argue it was worse than the situation today.

Johanna, your croc piece was priceless. Keep ‘em coming.

Those of us involved have recognised that the fix is in before you even begin to go through the sham process.

Anyone who has ever put in a submission to a community consultation process would know the feeling. We had the same thing with the redevelopment of the WA State Netball Centre which creates traffic chaos on our street for six months of the year. A slight improvement, a new set of traffic lights but the lollipop men and the traffic management guys are still there till about 1:00 on Saturdays.

Albo abandoning the Mardi Gras is telling.

What…really?

Presumably an adult has told him that shimmying the night away at a passé event might not be a good look

He’s such a doofus.

One wonders how much longer Labor will put up with him.

As reported a couple of weeks ago, it’s now confirmed that Penny Wong (one half of Elbow’s so-called Praetorian Guard, the other half being Mark Butler) wants out and Jim Chalmers has his nose out of joint due to Albanese’s handling of the stage 3 tax cuts.

‘Obsessed’ Higgins told Ten not to settle with Lehrmann
Miklos BolzaAAP
Fri, 1 March 2024 9:30AM

Brittany Higgins was so obsessed with pursuing Bruce Lehrmann over an alleged sexual assault that she refused to help Ten defend his defamation case unless they agreed not to settle, his lawyers say.

In a submission made public on Friday, Lehrmann’s side argues Ms Higgins’ credibility is so poor the court should completely reject her testimony unless it is corroborated by some other source.

“No confidence can be placed in Ms Higgins’ understanding of her obligation to tell the truth under oath or on the most solemn of occasions,” Lehrmann’s submission said.

Ms Higgins had a “preparedness to tell lies” both to the federal government to obtain a “life changing” settlement of almost $2.5 million and to an ACT criminal court during a now-dropped prosecution of Lehrmann, the document said.

The former Liberal media advisor had an “obsession” with securing vindication against her claimed rapist through the courts, including in his defamation case against Network Ten, Lehrmann argued.

Lehrmann is suing Ten and journalist Lisa Wilkinson over a February 2021 report on The Project where Ms Higgins was interviewed about her alleged rape in Parliament House.

She claims Lehrmann sexually assaulted her in the office of their then boss, Senator Linda Reynolds, in March 2019.

In agreeing to help Ten defend the defamation case, Ms Higgins said the network was not to make any offer to Lehrmann to pay him damages, retract the articles, make an apology or pay his legal costs.

“That is an extraordinary position for a witness to take,” Lehrmann’s submission said.

In the document, Lehrmann continued his denials that any sexual activity took place, saying there were “too many other plausible possibilities” about what happened and why Ms Higgins was later found naked in Senator Reynolds’ office.

She could have vomited on her dress and removed it or taken it off because she was afraid of getting sick on it, the submission said.

“The critical point is there are a number of plausible explanations for why Ms Higgins, being affected by alcohol, took off her dress and lay down naked on the minister’s couch.”

Even if the court rejected claims nothing happened, it would still need to find Ms Higgins was unable to give consent in order to show that rape occurred, the submission said.

Lehrmann also sued News Corp and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation over their coverage of Ms Higgins’ allegations.

Both these cases have settled, with the ex-Liberal staffer receiving $445,000 in legal costs under the agreements.

The trial against Ten has concluded and judgment will be delivered at a later date.

Lehrmann was charged in August 2021 over the alleged rape, but his criminal trial in the ACT Supreme Court was derailed by juror misconduct.

Prosecutors did not seek a second trial, citing concerns for Ms Higgins’ mental health.

Lehrmann is also before Queensland courts accused of raping another woman twice in Toowoomba in October 2021.

He has not yet entered a plea, but his lawyers have indicated he denies the charges.

Pogria
Mar 1, 2024 1:06 PM
ny Cats live at or near Rockdale?

Fred Flintstone does. Oh no. That was Bedrock not Rockdale.

I really enjoyed reading Nietzsche.

It was Eine Frohliche Wissenschaft.

It’s about time Lake Burley Griffin was drained, for the environment of course.

That reminds me…

Walter Burley Griffin fell on hard times in the Depression as commissions dried up.

He ended up designing industrial incinerators.

A surviving incinerator in Ipswich, SE QLD is listed on the state heritage register.

Imagine that…a culture where even incinerators could be thoughfully designed and aesthetically pleasing.

I quite like Griffin’s work. I’ve seen the other designs for Canberra and, believe me, we dodged some bullets there!

Excellent! Blurred vision has gone from my eye. I copped a punch to the head recently from two friendly indigenous blokes.

I wonder how they are fairing? I dropped both of them with two mighty blows.

Black eye fading. I didn’t want go out in public looking like I did. A horrible experience all up.

MareeS
Mar 1, 2024 12:36 PM
“Please Explain” is rich with implications in today’s 2024 debut. Particularly regarding the *non* royal engagement.

Loved it, glad it’s back from its hiatus. I still think that the engagement will be called off if Albo is deposed as PM though a prime ministerial wedding in The Lodge may be just the thing to save him. The producers of the cartoon were very kind to Jodie but I suspect she is just as cynical as her swain.

Thanks Dover. Your help will be most appreciated by 99.99% of this Blog.

Wodney, the Instagram Influencer. People are very persuaded by the strength of his opinion and depth of character.

JC
Mar 1, 2024 1:46 PM

The Stoush Nurse has spoken once again. All quake to his/her/its/whatever rantings.

Or else. LOL.

Little boy of about 7 years old is sitting on a park bench, smoking a cigarette. An elderly lady is walking past, sees him smoking, and says, ”Young man, don’t you know smoking is bad for you? It will ruin your lungs, yellow your teeth, make you stink of smoke, and it will shorten your life!”

The kid looks up at her, takes a drag, and says, “Ma’am, my great-grandfather just celebrated his 99th birthday yesterday.”

She looks down on him and says with disdain, “Oh, and I suppose he smokes?

The boy replies, “No. ma’am, but he does mind his own goddam business.”