Saturday Sanity Check
Consider this your weekly inoculation from stupid
The Government says it has shelved plans to hold a referendum on a republic in its second term.
They think they’ll win a second term? They are SO adorable!
Assistant Minister for a Republic (there’s a job I’d love - starring out windows) Matt Thistlewaite said the government wants to focus on cost of living.
I wouldn’t put it past them to appoint a Cost of Living Minister, complete with a large department of staffers.
They could hit Australians with a special Cost of Living levy to pay for it.
Exactly the sort of thing this bunch of nitwits would do.
The PM said this week that Australians were suffering because of “global inflation”.
Hmmm. Well let’s think about that …
In Canada inflation is running at 3.1 per cent
In the US it’s 3.1 per cent
In Germany it’s 3.2 per cent
In France it’s 3.5 per cent
Across Europe it’s 2.4 per cent
In the Netherlands it’s 1.6 per cent
Australia’s inflation rate is 5.4 per cent. We can but DREAM of global inflation!
Israel has almost no friends.
Aside from the US, name a Western country that is seriously attempting to help.
Western governments do little more than mouth platitudes in support of the Middle East’s only democracy. Western politicians are either completely woke or are afraid of upsetting their constituents who are almost completely woke.
The great achievement of ‘woke’ in the Western world as been to destroy all belief in moral absolutes. And now, when the situation in the Middle East requires ‘moral clarity’, none is found.
We are not quite there yet, but it will soon be a case of Israel verses the world.
It’s a good time to dust off your faith in God.
The US Supreme Court will hear an appeal in February on Colorado’s ruling that Trump is an “insurrectionist” ineligible for office.
If the Court rules in favour of Colorado’s bid to block Trump from the ballot, you can kiss America goodbye. The country will never recover.
People should decide who they want as President, not politicised courts.
LGBTQ activist Dr Kerryn Phelps is furious that the CEO of Sydney’s Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras has written a letter in support of Palestinians.
She says gay Jews feel too afraid to march at this year’s gay parade. And they are angry at being forced to choose between their queer and Jewish identities.
Dr Phelps is shocked at the nastiness of the identity politic brigade? Only because she’s now on the receiving end.
The rest of us have understood - since forever - that identity politics always bites in the ass those who dare to play the game.
It’s all fun until the herd turns on you. And never ever forget - a herd is a herd is a herd.
Labor’s latest indigenous thought bubble is a fund to help people in remote communities own their own homes. Like that’s never been tried before.
The taxpayer would build new homes in Indigenous communities that could then be effectively bought by families on a 99-year lease.
But here’s the bit that made me laugh. The Government argues rightly (and Indigenous community leaders agree) that home ownership, and having an asset to pass on to the next generation, is an idea that Indigenous people need to grasp. There they go being colonised all over again.
Colonisation is great when it means getting free stuff.
Of course, the 92,000 people living in remote communities (where the employment rate is just 35 per cent) could move to regional centres and cities where there is work.
But they will not.
And when former WA Premier Colin Barnett said he would simply stop providing money to prop up remote communities there were protests from as far away as Paris!
But why should taxpayers foot the bill for people to live in remote locations with no employment opportunities, and far from basic services?
If people want to live a traditional lifestyle, then fantastic. Be self-sufficient. No-one is stopping them.
But you can’t insist on your right to live a traditional lifestyle and demand the culture you reject foots the bill to provide all the comforts of the culture you reject … roads, power, plumbing … and housing.
Being indolent in the middle of nowhere at other peoples expense should not be an option, whatever your race.
Helen Trinca, writing in The Australian about the beauty of Welcome to Country, (wait. what?!) describes it as “an indigenous gift to us”.
I’m on the floor rolling around in fits of laughter.
“We want to give you a gift. Pay us $5000 so we can tell you you’re a thief. You’re welcome.”
She writes about a heart-warming Welcome to Country she once heard …
“ … as I stood on the ancient land of Mungo National Park in far western NSW”.
I’m writing this sitting on the ancient land of Castle Hill in North West Sydney. Whoopee.
I suspect by “ancient land” she meant land so remote that it’s undeveloped.
She writes:
“(It was) Not so much a spiritual experience for me but a privilege to be at one of the world’s most significant archaeological sites, guided by a man whose ancestors lived and died on this spot.”
Yep. It was spiritual.
Old fashioned paganism is the new black. Whatever.
Trinca says of the Welcome to Country …
“The welcomes help us come to terms with our history and need support as they continue to evolve in a post-referendum world.”
Yeah. Nah.
I think what she meant to say was that the welcome serves to divide the country and needs to be ditched as we seek to rebuild national unity after a divisive race-based referendum.
While the welcome is in trouble, she continues …
“The much-loved Aboriginal flag is pretty safe.”
Much-loved? By Lidia Thorpe and a pogrom of pro-Palestinian protestors, I guess.
The PM held a press conference the week and, surprisingly, it was in Australia!
He announced …
“I have asked Treasury and Finance to come up with further propositions that we’ll consider in the lead-up to the May budget … We asked them to give consideration to what are the measures that can take pressure off families on cost of living.”
You have to laugh.
Despite winning the election by repeatedly promising he had “a plan”, Albo now admits - halfway through his term - that the plan is to ask the public service to come up with a plan that he plans to “consider” in five months.
As my Sky News colleague Caroline Di Ruso told me the other night, Albo’s only plan is to continually disappoint Australians.
Everytime an Albanese Government minister insists they are pushing hard for more renewables as a way to ease energy costs, I laugh.
And then I cry.
The Albanese Government declined to send a warship to the Red Sea but has, instead, put out a strongly worded press release warning that attacks on cargo ships must stop, or else.
Or else what? They’ll be another press release, next time in bold sassy size 18 font?
The Houthi rebels must be shaking in their boots.
Remember when we were repeated warned that the world was watching our referendum on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament and would judge us harshly if we voted ‘No’.
Hahahahaha
Senior Government minister Tony Burke wants stronger laws against hate speech.
I lament the fact we need hate speech laws.
The problem is not that people say horrible things. The problem is that good people remain silent.
Church leaders are afraid to say what they really believe even within the four walls of their own sanctuary.
So we expect the government to do what we will not.
If you hear someone say something hateful or stupid, call it out. Shame ignorant intelligent rebuttals. Let them know that they are wrong, and why they are wrong.
Your’e right. We need stronger hate speech laws.
The best lack all convictions while the worst are full of passionate intensity.
We should not have anymore 'welcomes' to our own country charades. Isn't that what Marcia Landon promised us if the Voice would be defeated??
What work is an Assistant Minister for the Republic doing from 9am to 5pm every day from Monday to Friday? Maybe overtime on weekends even? And what is a Minister for the Republic doing all day long in his office? Will that lot on Capital Hill even invent a Minister for Thumb-twiddling along with a large supporting staff?