Knuckle-dragging Aussie PM could get the boot. Stay tuned

[Zep]

If you were not already aware...

With his popularity ratings in the basement and his neocon policies on the nose even with his own electoral kind, knuckle-dragging Aussie PM Tony Abbott may be about to get the boot by his own party. It is unprecedented - from hero to zero in barely 12 months has never happened.

Abbott was the same PM who a few months ago hosted the latest G20 meeting. At this prestigious world meeting he was going to "shirtfront" Putin over the Ukraine and show the world why it was good for Australian business to wind back our World Heritage status to mine the Great Barrier Reef for oil, etc. He looked and acted like a total fool and it was highly embarrassing. President Obama's environmental announcement was the diametrical opposite of Abbott's stance to the Australian public (he has been trying to dismantle our science and environment industries). Even Putin the Judo Master was more statesmanlike than Abbott.

The background to this sort of silliness is Abbott's grounding in politics and religion. He has a lay Catholic background and at one point was in a seminary training to be a priest. He then went into student politics where he gained a reputation as a loudmouth bully and indulged in mindless laddism. Graduating in journalism and somehow being a Rhodes scholar, he dabbled first with ultra-right-wing rabidly anti communist Catholic politics, but when that star faded he took the same thinking into Australia's main conservative party, the Liberal Party. Since then he has worked his way up through the ranks, gaining a reputation as a head-kicking nut-case, and he took his "gang" of like-minded thugs to the top of the party while in opposition a few years ago. He came to the PM position just over a year ago when the ruling Labor Party kicked a number of own goals playing Game Of Thrones between two very able but power-hungry leaders, Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, getting themselves both voted out. Enter knuckle-dragger Abbott to take the sparkling scepter of power, promising us all sorts of things (in fact we didn't vote him in so much as vote Labor out).

In the 12 months since then, he and his team have reneged on just about every election promise they made, they have failed spectacularly to negotiate their last budget measures into passing, and they have put offside just about every demographic of the Australian public, our neighbouring countries such as Indonesia, the public service and even the usually Liberal-compliant banks and major industries like mining. Until a few weeks ago, he was our Minister for Women. Meanwhile for the first time in decades, we had no Minister of Science. He and his team are a disaster, and now his comeuppance is nigh.

Here's the latest from our own ABC. If you are interested, link back from there.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-04/a ... ng/6068584

[Zep]

I LOVE First Dog On The Moon, in the Australian edition of the Guardian!

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... bott-spill
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ional-mood
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ony-abbott
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... eally-hard
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ony-abbott

[bindeweede]

Thanks for that Zep - very interesting and those First Dog cartoons are punchy.

"It's all Labor's fault". We've been hearing something similar here for over 4 years - just spelt slightly differently.

[Matt]

http://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/article/20 ... adenfreude

[Abdul Alhazred]

What (in an Australian context) is a 'Neocon'?

Does it merely mean pro-USA-being-aggressive, or is there some additional nuance?

[bindeweede]

Interesting times for our Australian friends.

Senior cabinet minister Christopher Pyne is unable to guarantee Tony Abbott will still be leader next week, only saying he 'hopes' the Prime Minister still has the numbers in the party room.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ ... 37i13.html

[Zep]

What (in an Australian context) is a 'Neocon'?

Does it merely mean pro-USA-being-aggressive, or is there some additional nuance?

It basically means "free market troglodyte". Someone who thinks the invisible hand will fix all the problems of the country, and is especially good if it benefits them personally. Also, anyone who earns less than they do is not trying hard enough and needs to be flogged or was very careless in picking poor parents. And finally, anyone who votes further to the left than Genghis Khan is a moron and deserves to go straight to gaol.

[Zep]

Interesting times for our Australian friends.

Senior cabinet minister Christopher Pyne is unable to guarantee Tony Abbott will still be leader next week, only saying he 'hopes' the Prime Minister still has the numbers in the party room.

http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/ ... 37i13.html

Pyne is often portrayed as a poodle - all fluff, no substance, with a tiresome yappy little-dog bark. Suits him perfectly. He has a habit of transferring allegiances to keep himself afloat with no qualms or conscience whatsoever. It makes for wonderful cognitive dissonance! So he will be saying "I hope my friend Tony will be PM next week!" and also "Tony has my full backing and support!", all in the same breath! Wonderful to watch such a hypocrite in action in public!

[Abdul Alhazred]

What (in an Australian context) is a 'Neocon'?

Does it merely mean pro-USA-being-aggressive, or is there some additional nuance?

It basically means "free market troglodyte". Someone who thinks the invisible hand will fix all the problems of the country, and is especially good if it benefits them personally. Also, anyone who earns less than they do is not trying hard enough and needs to be flogged or was very careless in picking poor parents. And finally, anyone who votes further to the left than Genghis Khan is a moron and deserves to go straight to gaol.

In the USA, that's a "paleocon".

[Zep]

What (in an Australian context) is a 'Neocon'? Does it merely mean pro-USA-being-aggressive, or is there some additional nuance?

It basically means "free market troglodyte". Someone who thinks the invisible hand will fix all the problems of the country, and is especially good if it benefits them personally. Also, anyone who earns less than they do is not trying hard enough and needs to be flogged or was very careless in picking poor parents. And finally, anyone who votes further to the left than Genghis Khan is a moron and deserves to go straight to gaol.

In the USA, that's a "paleocon".

Good one! Noted for future use!

[Zep]

Well, there has been a party meeting this morning with great flocks of media hacks in attendance outside.

The result was that the party decided NOT to proceed with a leadership spill. Tony Abbott will therefore remain as PM...for the time being. This is the ideal result the opposition Labor Party wanted: An Australopithecene PM with no sensitivity, statesmanship or skill in the position in charge of a deeply divided party that is already hitting record new lows in public popularity. This is our George W Bush moment. Pray for us!

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-02-09/l ... on/6078320

[Zep]

Just for the record: Terrible Tones our dreadful PM has been celebrating and promoting "good government" since the potential spill above by committing so many slip-of-the mouths that he has inserted a whole shoe-store in his face now. The latest public WTF was to eat a raw unpeeled onion.* I kid you not.



*What the onion did to deserve this is unknown.

[Zep]

I just had to share this. This mob of incompetents want to allow the big, nay HUGE end of town to keep their business tax dealings private, unlike the rest of the small fry businesses. The Grauniad report is here: http://www.theguardian.com/australia-ne ... -coalition

And here's a great comment I had to share which sums up the general feeling:

So, let's consider the implications of tax transparency for the average punter.

There's a couple of down on their luck guys on a week long methamphetamine bender. Let's call them Josh and Corey.

At 5am they realise that they've run out of money, and are coming down hard. Under current conditions their next move would be to walk down the road to a nice middle class family, steal their tv, then wait for cash converters to open.

However, with access to tax records, they would instead be able to file a FOI request online, wait for three weeks to get a reply, scan the records for the highest earners, fly to Perth, hatch an elaborate plan to distract the security guards and dogs, scale the wall of the Estate, steal a rich person, then wait for cash converters to open.

This must not happen.

[Ketchup]

He's done it now .... to be sure, to be sure!

The 14 Most Fecking Stupid Things Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott Has Ever Done

He's just come under fire for making a "patronising" St Patrick's Day message. But is this latest gaffe the worst thing Tony Abbott has ever done? There are some strong contenders...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/03 ... 84382.html

[Zep]

Ketchup, that's not really his fault. The feeling here is he made a particularly clunky but heartfelt attempt at cheers for the Irish on St Patrick's Day which has since been thrown back in his face. I don't like to hit people when they are down, but I wouldn't sheet this one down to Tony.

But he's definitely produced some total clangers with regularity. For example, for today's effort he insulted the Jewish members of Parliament with an ill-timed Nazi reference...for fuck's sake, he Godwinned Parliament!!!

Seriously, the game here now with the Australian population is to log Tony or his team's gaffes per day. They just cannot seem to help themselves! Every day they find a new way to kick themselves in the nuts. It's one continuous slow car-crash now...