Election 18th May

[hinekadon]

My old Nelson College mate ... currently a Lawyer in Sidney ... flicked this on to me.
Takes time to read and absorb. P





Subject: Fwd: (Reputedly) Letter from retired journalist to Lebron James (evidently prominent basketball player)

This was sent to me.
I have not verified any of it, but I anticipate most of the claims are verifiable.
Assuming veracity, I feel obliged to look on No.45 in a less critical light.
Most of the matters mentioned are US-domestic which probably explains why very little of it appears reported in Australia. Cheers V.

[Thala Dan]

Did Hal Lundgren Write an Open Letter to Lebron James?

We’ve attempted to contact Hal Lundgren to find out if he truly authored this missive but haven’t been successful in eliciting a response so far. What we can say is that we didn’t find this letter at Chron.com, where Lundgren publishes his work, and we have not found Lundgren’s byline attached to the letter in any other credible publication. Furthermore, it appears that this letter was attributed to a nameless “third party” before Lundgren’s name was tacked on to the bottom of the text.

And on a foreign affairs side note.........if anyone feels that what Trump has done to the people of Syria and Venezuala places him in a "less critical light", then....wow....just Wow!

How much misery, destruction, and blood do you reckon is the value of a barrel of oil?

Trump may well have done some good things for the American people.....not disputing that.......but this is a bloke who promised the American people at election time that America would not get involved in any more (unnecessary) wars:

Candidate Trump promised to stay out of foreign wars. President Trump is escalating them.

On April 27, 2016, then-Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump used an invitation-only event at Washington’s ornate Mayflower Hotel to argue that presidents of both parties had gotten the US ensnared in too many costly, grinding foreign wars.

That, Trump promised, would change once he moved into the White House.

“I will never send our finest into battle unless necessary, and I mean absolutely necessary, and will only do so if we have a plan for victory with a capital V,” he thundered. “The world must know that we do not go abroad in search of enemies.”

Still, I guess we're all familiar with lying politicians........remember?

"No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS."

[ol' boy]

Is it even remotely possible to watch TV or YouTube without Clive F@#king Palmer playing every single time?

[Thala Dan]

Is it even remotely possible to watch TV or YouTube without Clive F@#king Palmer playing every single time?

If Palmer manages to snag the Kingmaker position out of all this, then we have entered the realm of having the best government that money can buy.

I'm no great fan of electric vehicles (unless they make a diesel version of them), but I'd have to say that the bloke in the Palmer ad that scoffs at EVs on the basis of electricity prices going up wins my "Dinosaur of the Decade" award

[ol' boy]

I reckon i've heard about the airport at least 1000's times

[lsemmens]

All I have seen of Clive Palmjob is his promising to build Nuclear bunkers.....errrr Power stations.

[george65]

If Palmer manages to snag the Kingmaker position out of all this, then we have entered the realm of having the best government that money can buy.

And what would be new about that? Only difference would be it was done more publicly than behind the scenes with different lobby and business groups and done with Clives own money not from just backhanded donations from vested interest looking for policy changes and kickbacks for the money the threw in.

From what I understand, Clive is spending no more money that the the majors but everyone is putting shit on him for it and ignoring the other clowns doing the same thing.

Maybe clive is putting all his budget into TV ads instead of Littering the country side with election posters and making a mockery out of " Environmental concerns with all the printed shit they hand out. Yes i know it's plantation grown but those things make a mess everywhere, there are loads that are never used and they all take energy and resources to produce.

I'm no great fan of electric vehicles (unless they make a diesel version of them),

You are in Luck!
Been making them for years, thousands of the bastards.
Look up "Locomotives".
Electric Vehicles run by diesel! Got a bit of grunt to them they have too. Not real good on the traffic light grand prix's but the towing capacity is off the charts!

but I'd have to say that the bloke in the Palmer ad that scoffs at EVs on the basis of electricity prices going up wins my "Dinosaur of the Decade" award

Yeah but you are missing the point. He's targeting a specific demographic and that is precisely how that demographic think. They still believe Automatic cars use heaps of petrol and are unreliable, they think fuel injection isn't as good as carbs you can fix on the side of the road and " New" cars are weak and no where near as strong as the 1952 Austin spacemaster their fathers had that they carried all the wood on the roof to build their home and didn't get a dent in it.

I was in the country a few weeks ago and the Electric cars by 2030 came up many times with customers given i was in an automotive business. Everyone thought it was a complete and utter joke and that included one couple that have lived off grid on their solar panels and batteries for 9 years. While everyone accepted it may be the way of the future, the labour time frame was seen as idiotic and the price and SUPPLY of power was seen as just as much ignorance to the reality of people in the country.

While you are sitting there watching that "Dinosaur of the Decade" laughing to yourself, there are thousands of other Dinosaurs nodding their head in agreement and deciding Clive's box is the one they are going to tick.

It's a bad mistake to assume everyone else thinks like you do and I'd suggest it's NOT one Clive has made. No doubt his advertising is only a part of the overall expenditure and I'd bet my arse he's spent plenty on polls and research, probably in a lot of places the majors have ignored.

In my observation, the whole Green/ globull warming thing is something VERY few people outside the citys think is anything but a scam. Even if they do believe it, there is a long list of other things well ahead in their priority of concerns.

You might think the old Dinosaur is a joke but i'd suggest he is winning people hand over fist whom agree with him and is a VERY effective piece of Campaigning.

[exited]

If Clive Palmers' platform was all about job creation it would be a self fulfilled promise going off the work needed to put all his ads together

[Thala Dan]

And what would be new about that? Only difference would be it was done more publicly than behind the scenes with different lobby and business groups and done with Clives own money not from just backhanded donations from vested interest looking for policy changes and kickbacks for the money the threw in.

From what I understand, Clive is spending no more money that the the majors but everyone is putting shit on him for it and ignoring the other clowns doing the same thing.

Maybe clive is putting all his budget into TV ads instead of Littering the country side with election posters and making a mockery out of " Environmental concerns with all the printed shit they hand out. Yes i know it's plantation grown but those things make a mess everywhere, there are loads that are never used and they all take energy and resources to produce.



You are in Luck!
Been making them for years, thousands of the bastards.
Look up "Locomotives".
Electric Vehicles run by diesel! Got a bit of grunt to them they have too. Not real good on the traffic light grand prix's but the towing capacity is off the charts!





Yeah but you are missing the point. He's targeting a specific demographic and that is precisely how that demographic think. They still believe Automatic cars use heaps of petrol and are unreliable, they think fuel injection isn't as good as carbs you can fix on the side of the road and " New" cars are weak and no where near as strong as the 1952 Austin spacemaster their fathers had that they carried all the wood on the roof to build their home and didn't get a dent in it.

I was in the country a few weeks ago and the Electric cars by 2030 came up many times with customers given i was in an automotive business. Everyone thought it was a complete and utter joke and that included one couple that have lived off grid on their solar panels and batteries for 9 years. While everyone accepted it may be the way of the future, the labour time frame was seen as idiotic and the price and SUPPLY of power was seen as just as much ignorance to the reality of people in the country.

While you are sitting there watching that "Dinosaur of the Decade" laughing to yourself, there are thousands of other Dinosaurs nodding their head in agreement and deciding Clive's box is the one they are going to tick.

It's a bad mistake to assume everyone else thinks like you do and I'd suggest it's NOT one Clive has made. No doubt his advertising is only a part of the overall expenditure and I'd bet my arse he's spent plenty on polls and research, probably in a lot of places the majors have ignored.

In my observation, the whole Green/ globull warming thing is something VERY few people outside the citys think is anything but a scam. Even if they do believe it, there is a long list of other things well ahead in their priority of concerns.

You might think the old Dinosaur is a joke but i'd suggest he is winning people hand over fist whom agree with him and is a VERY effective piece of Campaigning.

Yeah, right.

Federal election 2019: Vote Compass finds broad desire for more action on climate change

A majority of Coalition, Labor and Greens voters all want more government action on climate change, Vote Compass data has found.

Key points:

81 per cent of voters want more government action on climate change
Among Coalition voters, 60 per cent now back more climate action
More than two-thirds of voters favour efforts to boost renewable energy and electric cars
A majority of voters also support more renewable energy, a higher uptake of electric cars and a price on carbon, with renewables amassing the most support.

Might be time to get out and about a bit more George......and stay away from the geriatric nursing homes

I've lived in the country most of my life and have yet to talk to anyone who longs to go back to driving a 1952 Austin.

Oh, and the money Clives' spending on his ads.......it's not his money....it's the money he owes the workers from Queensland Nickel.......poor old Clive is down to his last $4,000 million, he tells us, but can't find the $77million he owes his ex-workforce.....$70 million of which has already been stumped up by the Australian taxpayer.

Are these the people you reckon are going to vote for him in droves?

And nobody is laughing at the dinosaur on TV, or believing that everyone thinks the same.....those are figments of your imagination.......or deliberate constructs to divert the discussion.

And if you think that country people aren't concerned about climate change, well....like I said.....time to get out and about a bit more.

Thanks for the tip on these new-fangled locomotives....will check it out and see if they come with a tow-bar suitable for the boat.

[Mr 672A]

I even had a toilet paper roll with Clive Palmer on it whist I was sitting down doing a crap, but I had no trouble using it wiping my hemorrhoids ridden butt. Seriously if he did not give his preferences the the LIBs I possible would vote for him.

[Thala Dan]

I even had a toilet paper roll with Clive Palmer on it whist I was sitting down doing a crap, but I had no trouble using it wiping my hemorrhoids ridden butt. Seriously if he did not give his preferences the the LIBs I possible would vote for him.

You raise an interesting point there.

The UAP, like most smaller parties, seeks to offer itself as a safe repository for protest votes, generally against the incumbent government, but also against the major parties in general.

No doubt many voters had intended to vote for UAP for this very reason.

Now that UAP (Palmer) has done a preference deal with the Coalition, a proportion of those voters are going to see things in the context of "a vote for Clive is a vote for the Coalition"......something which they had been studiously trying to avoid.

We have a recent example of just such a phenomena in the 2016 Federal election in WA, when One Nation did a preference deal with the Liberals, and their vote crashed.

That crash, in what had been previously strong support, has been sheeted home to the aforementioned preference deal.

The generally accepted wisdom now is that if you are a minor party seeking to take votes away from major parties, you DO NOT do preference deals with the very same major parties, and expect to receive widespread support for doing so.

By doing this preference deal, Clive has clearly aligned himself and his party with one side of the prevailing political orthodoxy, whereas those inclined to vote for him are, for a large part, looking for something different to the status quo.

Will be interesting to see how this all works out this time around.

PS: I'm still trying to get the rest of the vivid imagery in your post out of my head

[Thala Dan]

Clive Palmer is seemingly everywhere, but the United Australia Party has given voters few details

The United Australia Party's entire policy platform is about the length of a long text message, yet its leader Clive Palmer is spending tens of millions of dollars to get your vote.

They have 177 words on the "National Policy" section of their website.

It is incredibly rare to see a political party with less detail. I have never seen a political party with so few specifics about what they actually want to do.

There are a few sentences that count as policies, albeit vague.

"Establishing a System where people create wealth in various parts of the country and for that wealth to flow back to the Community that generates the wealth."

Or how about this one:

"Creating Mineral Wealth to continuously contribute to the welfare of the Australian community."

That is not a policy; it is as detailed as a feeling. It is like saying I like apple pie and mums are great.

This "party" is nothing more than Clives' back door to the Coalition, to be paid for in yet-to-be-revealed return favours.

At least poor old Pauline actually stands for something.

[DB44]

@Thala. Vote Compass seems to have little credibility. In this election it is being run by the ABC, and those who choose to participate do so through the ABC. I fail to see how this alone would not result in significant bias. A voter answers about 30 questions online, presumably drafted by ABC journalists. Vote Compass then shows how your views as expressed in these questions line up with the participating candidates and parties. It seems many candidates, particularly minor party candidates, do not participate. You can find more about Vote Compass . It is hard to escape the conclusion that the same software run from the site of the Sydney Institute, Sky News or even The Australian would produce a very different perspective. Personally I find it about as useful as the worm during debates, at least in this particular incarnation.

As for Clive Palmer, I can only ask how on earth we have come to a situation where so many people are prepared to vote for him in preference to our tainted major parties. Then again, I do ask the same question in relation to the Greens.

[george65]

I've lived in the country most of my life and have yet to talk to anyone who longs to go back to driving a 1952 Austin.

Please quote with precision and detail where I said ANYTHING about country people wanting to go back to driving old cars. If thats how you took what I said, I highly recommend you go back to 6th grade and start there to bring your reading and Comprehension skills up to an acceptable level.

Oh, and the money Clives' spending on his ads.......it's not his money....it's the money he owes the workers from Queensland Nickel.......

Ah No, that's incorrect and a typically biased fabrication. He does not owe them anything himself personally. I suggest once you pass 6th grade reading you look up how companies work with regards to share holders Etc. Would also pay to get your Numbers right AND to not spin doctor stories by Omitting facts about the $7M paid to those workers.

And if you think that country people aren't concerned about climate change, well....like I said.....time to get out and about a bit more.

That's Very ABC of you indeed to link to a story from the most biased and lefty media organisation in the country to prove a point never mentioned in the story and present that as supporting evidence of the green washed agenda you want to push. Story has zero credability to start with coming from the national fiction and storytelling organisation and it says nothing about country people being concerned about globull warming anyway.

If that's what you want to believe, go ahead. I'm not going to argue globull warming with you, don't have to. It's clear the reality is nothing significant is going to be done about it by Big biz and gubbermints and it's on the downhill slide to be rendered just something to whinge about by those intent on flogging an overhyped but very dead horse.

There have always been " End of the world" doomsday crackpot theories , this is just the latest and most successful one. In 5 Years, I think it will be seen as a sham and typically, no one will admit to every having been taken in or supporting it.

[lsemmens]

I tried the Vote compass thing and, according to them I should vote for Pauline Pantsdown, so I guess I now know where to put her on my ballot. (Is there a place below last?)

[exited]

@Thala. Vote Compass seems to have little credibility. In this election it is being run by the ABC, and those who choose to participate do so through the ABC. I fail to see how this alone would not result in significant bias. A voter answers about 30 questions online, presumably drafted by ABC journalists. Vote Compass then shows how your views as expressed in these questions line up with the participating candidates and parties. It seems many candidates, particularly minor party candidates, do not participate. You can find more about Vote Compass . It is hard to escape the conclusion that the same software run from the site of the Sydney Institute, Sky News or even The Australian would produce a very different perspective. Personally I find it about as useful as the worm during debates, at least in this particular incarnation.

As for Clive Palmer, I can only ask how on earth we have come to a situation where so many people are prepared to vote for him in preference to our tainted major parties. Then again, I do ask the same question in relation to the Greens.

People were making these sorts of statements when I posted a similar ABC survey on here during the marriage equality debate. Turns out the vote-compass results on that survey were very similar to the final outcome.

Make of that what you will

[Thala Dan]

People were making these sorts of statements when I posted a similar ABC survey on here during the marriage equality debate. Turns out the vote-compass results on that survey were very similar to the final outcome.

Make of that what you will

What I make of it is that left-wing conspiracy theories are the new black.

Still, as the saying goes........"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't really out to get you"

[Thala Dan]

Google provides some interesting reading about the events leading up to the collapse of Queensland Nickel.

As always, it's a case of "follow the money".

[george65]

Mrs happened to bring home the telegraph today for the coverage of Bob Hawke. Reading through the rest of the paper, as someone who hasn't pick one up in year I was amazed at the amount of political Advertising or should I say slandering in it.
Clive had a double page spread and the majors had just as much or more scattered through.
Don't know why the ALP put any ads in there, the editorials against them would have been more subtle and tried to be less biased if they had been written by the opposition. Maybe they thought advertising was Damage control?

Wonder if all the Coverage of Bob will help shorthead with any benefit by the coverage and the association with labour. Might be one last thing Bob could do for his party.
I was a lot younger when he was PM but I remember him having a lot of support and even being respected by those on the other side. I think people were actually proud of him being PM and felt an affinity for him. A far Cry from the esteem any PM has had in many years in this country. Big difference between someone even the party supporters were actually prod to have in the top job rather than supporting the best pelican they had available at the time. Then again, people were proud of their country and it's heritage back then largely fostered by People like Bob rather than having so many trying to disparage and undermine it to please the whingers like we do now.

Reading the tele today lead me to one conclusion, there sure does seem to be a well stocked photo library of shortarse pulling stupid faces! Must have been 10 different one I saw of him looking like a fruitcake.

The polls in the tele at least ( haven't seen any others and couldn't give a damn) seem to be tipping shortarse by the hairs on his nether regions.
I'm wondering if that means he'll get in by a landslide or the Libs will? It'll be interesting to see how far Clives advertising gets him. I'm thinking probably a lot further than a lot of people think. Or no where at all. Most likley one extreme or the other. I think I'd like to see him do well just to give the other arse clowns a wake up call and let them know the people are fed up with their BS and to pull their head out their arses.

Most people I have heard seem to think it's not a matter of voting for the best party but the one that is less shit than the other. Getting to be nothing unusual about that.

Seems the most predictable thing with polls is whatever they forecast, is not what will happen.
Probably have a pretty good idea about 30 hours from now.

[ol' boy]

WTF!

Just received this...
Is that in breach of any Communications or Privacy Act?