Andrew Bolt:

Anthony Albanese on Tuesday reached the death zone in a prime minister’s fall. For the first time, his own ministers are telling journalists he has no judgement.

That was about the kindest thing they were saying about this broken leader.

Labor-friendly journalists on the ABC, shocked, told of Albanese’s colleagues also calling him “selfish” for buying a $4.3m beach house on NSW’s Central Coast.

Other Labor MPs – again anonymous – vented in the Sydney Morning Herald.

“I can’t think of a greater act of self-sabotage in my life,” said one. “This is f—ing terrible.”

“Not a good look,” complained another.

A line has now been crossed – both by Albanese and the Labor MPs he pretends to lead.

I said on Monday that Albanese’s authority was already destroyed when Australians a year ago rejected his racist Voice. Albanese was exposed as politically clueless, unpersuasive, unfocused and strangely disengaged.

But until this week his colleagues stayed disciplined, as if expecting Albanese to bounce back with an agenda that might finally wow voters, smashed by inflation and falling living standards.

True, there were signs of fraying patience. Treasurer Jim Chalmers last month struck out on his own and asked Treasury to work out the figures if he cut negative gearing, to Albanese’s obvious surprise.

But only this week did that discipline truly break, with widespread leaking by Labor politicians of their anger and frustration with Albanese. Not coincidentally, it came the day after Newspoll for the first time had Labor behind the Coalition.

Some Labor spokesmen have tried to publicly defend Albanese’s decision to buy an expensive beachfront house at Copacabana, of all the frivolous names.

“Leave him alone,” pleaded Energy Minister Chris Bowen. Buying a house ahead of his marriage was Albanese’s private business.

Except that’s not quite true. Just look at the intense media coverage since, all totally predictable. Almost all negative.

Sure, Albanese’s nice house has inflamed Australia’s ugly tall-poppy jealously. That said, Labor has for decades exploited the politics of envy, so I’m short of sympathy.

But there’s more to this anti-Albanese backlash than mere envy, or a suspicion that Albanese is checking out of politics for more beach time.

Back when he was running against Bill Shorten to be the Labor leader – back when we still spoke – I told Albanese to give more speeches mentioning he was raised in a housing commission flat by a single mother on a disability pension.

Sorry for that. He’s since overdone it to prove he really is a man of the people who understands battlers and their struggles to buy groceries and a house.

How often have you heard him tell that story? It’s so critical to the Albanese image that his personal web page features “My Story”, which starts: “This is what drives me. My mum raised me in public housing as a single parent.”

Even on Tuesday, defending his house purchase, he told it again: “I also know what it is like to struggle. My mum lived in the one public housing that she was born in for all of her 65 years.”

He added: “I know what it is like, which is why I want to help all Australians into a home.”

And there we get to the real problem.

Compared to many past prime ministers – Malcolm Turnbull, Kevin Rudd, Paul Keating, Bob Hawke – Albanese is not rich, but his I-grew-up-in-a-shoebox shtick is now dead-dead-dead.

As of this week, it’s going to grate. Voters aren’t going to buy what Albanese is trying to sell by telling that story – that he’s one of them, and knows the struggles they’re going through as he relaxes on his balcony with its magnificent ocean views.

No, his colleagues are right. Albanese has hurt his party. He was selfish to buy this house at this time, when millions of Australians are struggling to afford a roof over their own head.

The thing is, Albanese is no longer like the battlers. Buying this $4.3m home on the beach was naturally going to make millions of voters compare his finances to theirs, and feel like losers.

Worse, many would work out that Albanese is to blame, in part, because he’s made it harder for them to afford a house of their own.

Look at the inflation that’s making us poorer. Whose government made that worse with its wild spending, and with its union-friendly laws, green tape and race laws that destroy our productivity?

Then there’s Albanese’ insane immigration policy. He’s still letting in nearly half a million people a year, when building approvals have dropped to their lowest level in a decade – less than 160,000 homes a year.

No wonder that homes in our capital cities have become so scarce and expensive.

There’s where Albanese has gone so wrong. Just before an election he buys a showy house that reminds voters how hard he’s made it for them to buy anything at all.

No wonder his MPs now think he’s lost the plot.

One could argue he never had the plot to start with Mr Bolt.
As Damon said a couple of days ago on the olde fred, what are his achievements? What has he actually done that has benefited his constituents in Grayndler and indeed Australia since he became Pwime Minister?
Expect serious discussion on whether he will lead Labor to the next election.

Dedicated to Albo’s new home away from his other homes:

If you see a faded sign at the side of the road that says
“15 miles to the Grub Shack”
Grub Shack, yeah, yeah
I’m heading down the Avoca highway
Looking for the grub getaway
Headed for the grub getaway

I got me a car, and a protective detail
And we’re headin’ on down to the Grub Shack
Where no one can see us so we can spend plenty
So hurry up and bring that taxpayer’s money

The grub shack is a little old place where
We can spend together
Grub Shack, baby (the Grub Shack, baby)
Grub Shack, baby, Grub Shack
Grub Shack, baby, Grub Shack
Grub Shack, baby, Grub Shack (grub, baby, that’s where it’s at)
Grub Shack, baby, Grub Shack (grub, baby, that’s where it’s at)

From the Grub Shack one can easily go looking for rock lobsters.

Comrade Montgomery,

What invective loaded bombast straight from chunk yoghurt do you have for us today?

The “Trump has a senior moment on stage and is obviously senile” narrative lasted barely half a day.

This is what happens when there’s an invasion.

EXCLUSIVE‘Evil’ super gang seizes four apartment complexes in major Texas city in new terrifying show of strength

The Revised FBI Crime Data Reveals that it Originally Missed 1,699 Murders in 2022. Given that Almost all Murders are Reported, How Does the FBI Miss that Many Murders?

Another example of how they actually care about health and safety.

This girl was brutally assaulted twice in one day by a boy dressed as a girl. Their principal responded by suspending the victim.

Australia’s birth rate has hit 1.5, which demographers say is close to the point of no return.

The finger is pointing at declining living standards, unaffordable housing and a lack of hope for the future due to the climate change scare.

One could also mention a punitive tax system.

Well played, Uniparty.

Anybody looking for some “Thinking persons fiction”, I can recommend Robert
Harris “An Officer and a Spy.” – it’s based on the “Dreyfus Affair”, and has some resonations in today’s society…

https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2024/10/australia-will-send-49-of-our-armys-m1a1-abrams-tanks-to-ukraine-to-kill-russians.html

Numbers Bob is there, banging on about conscription and the Vietnam War…

Just watched the Kamalala- Fox interview.
She ain’t no retail politician. She’s just a cocksucker.

This feminism seems pretty racist to me.

White women must have all the jobs and fulfilling careers, while the dirty work of birthing and raising children is outsourced to immigrants from the 3rd world.

Pulling this out of embedded because it’s one of the best things I ever wrote:
Arky
 October 17, 2024 11:53 am

 Reply to  Roger
The change occurred due to de-industrialisation.
During our Industrial Age, housing was where you kept a productive workforce, therefore it was a cost to be kept down.
During the current Stupid Age, housing is financial assets.
Houses are assets on balance sheets against which money can be created.
Immigration drives housing, drives the financial sector, which is all that is left in a post industrial apocalypse.
It’s a means to pull people’s future potential earnings into the present and enrich c*nts.
Same with welfare, same with electrification, same with degree loans.
Don’t think of a degree, a car or a house as the thing. Think of them as the hook required to get people to sign over potential future earnings, and then that to be traded on the financial markets.
That’s all it is, and that’s why the policies around all those things are what they are.

When I was growing up we were so poor …

…mum used to cut holes in our pockets so we’d have something to play with.

H/T Michael Smith

Greg said…
I have heard about Albabese’s mother for years and years. If she had a tough time in her early years I sympathise with her and understand the difficulties she may have endured. But I believe that his mother and father met on a cruise ship in Europe. In about 1960 cruising around Europe was very expensive and reserved for the wealthy. So what went wrong? How can you be cruising around Europe at vast expense while living in social housing? Something doesn’t add up.

Tintarella di Luna
 October 17, 2024 3:06 pm

Luigi the Unbelievable’s back story smells of tripe.

I do not believe for one moment that the Grayndler Grub has a scintilla of mediterranean DNA is that stale pale body.

Yep.
I reckon mum was potted by some minor local luminary whose family had enough cash to ship her off on a cruise to save embarrassment.
The Itie waiter back-story is simply a cover.
Interesting that Luigi was an out-and-proud Itie but suddenly became a little coy when all the Sec 44 mud was being thrown about citizenship.
The media were remarkably uninterested in the provenance of baby Luigi. This could just be the normal reflex of giving the Liars a free pass. Or perhaps they were briefed that the whole Itie heritage thing was bullshit.

In contrast to the close relationship with his mum, Albanese knew nothing much of his father — just a romantic, tragic story. He knew his father’s name was Carlo Albanese, that he was Italian and that Maryanne Ellery had met him on her greatest adventure, a trip to Britain and Europe when she was 25.
He recalls that from when he was young, he’d heard that Maryanne and Carlo had married after a short courtship during her eight months abroad, but that his father had died in a terrible car accident, leaving her pregnant and widowed. The story was accepted without question among those who knew it, both within the family and around the neighbourhood; there was no reason to doubt it.
But one night, when her son was 14, Maryanne sat him down at the kitchen table and said, “We need to talk.” Then she told him the truth, a startling rewrite of his life’s story. Maryanne Ellery had, indeed, met Carlo Albanese on her trip to Europe — a four-week ocean voyage she and her older brother had taken from Sydney to Southampton in March 1962 on the Fairsky, a cruise ship of the Sitmar Line. Carlo was a steward on board, and he and Maryanne had begun a romance. Not long after, the good Catholic girl discovered she was pregnant.
According to this new version of his origins tumbling out onto the kitchen table, Maryanne had told Carlo of her situation. The response was not what she might have hoped — he could not marry her; he was engaged to wed a girl from his town in southern Italy, and that was what he was duty-bound to do. So, contrary to the story upon which he’d built his life to date, young Anthony learnt that his parents had never actually married at all. There had been no fatal accident.
Still a single woman, Maryanne had arrived back in Sydney in October 1962, nearly four months pregnant. She moved back in with her parents and acquired and wore wedding and engagement rings — to this day, her son doesn’t know where they came from — and took her lover’s surname as her own, not bothering with the deed poll. When her son arrived on March 2, 1963, he became Albanese too — pronounced then in a plain, Australian way without any Italian flourish: Alban-eez.
After his birth, Maryanne had gone about her life in an elaborate, well-intentioned ruse. Seeking to avoid the innuendo she feared might come from being an unmarried mother in a tight-knit working-class Catholic community in 1960s Sydney, she presented herself to the world as a young widow, to protect her son from scorn and maintain their family’s public reputation.

GreyRanga
October 17, 2024 12:00 pm

I’ve got a baby crow that can hardly fly. I’m giving it lessons, as in chasing it so it flys. About 10m, 300mm off the ground.

—-

Don’t you dare ditch it. If it becomes a pet, so be it. Look after it.

Give it a feed.