Hilary or Donald

[Black Devil Dog]

I think there is a very good reason to think that they didn't vote (Article) and it's a bit silly to be politically engaged after the event, if they weren't engaged enough during.

Not disputing the value of protesting, just do it where it will be most effective, rather than waving placards when it's too late.

 

[MHB]

Our American friends make a great deal of noise about democracy, in fact they aren't a democracy, if they were Hillary would be president.
They are in fact a Republic - their founding fathers really trust the people to choose their own president, the electoral college isn't even really bound to vote the way their collegiate members did. Interesting system...
Mark

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

Our American friends make a great deal of noise about democracy, in fact they aren't a democracy, if they were Hillary would be president.
They are in fact a Republic - their founding fathers really trust the people to choose their own president, the electoral college isn't even really bound to vote the way their collegiate members did. Interesting system...
Mark

Those of us Queenslanders with long enough memories are a little loathe to say that could never happen here Mark!

Bjelke-Petersen's Country (later National) Party controlled Queensland despite consistently receiving the smallest number of votes out of the state's leading three parties, achieving the result through a notorious system of electoral malapportionment that resulted in rural votes having a greater value than those cast in city electorates. Wikipedia.

 

[MHB]

I am old enough to remember the gerrymander "don't you worry about that" - one reason for being this side of the border, they haven't brought back the upper house yet either, might be saving it for the centenary in 2022.
Mark

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

I don't think we need an upper house here mate, judging by the talent wading pool that we have in the Reps. And to think that current polling indicates a strong likelihood of an LNP minority government next year with the balance of power dominated by One Nation and Katter Party members... Lunatics, Asylum, Trump isn't looking so damned scary after all.

 

[MHB]

That's when you NEED an upper house, makes it harder/slower for total stupidity to become law.
Mark

 

[LAGERFRENZY]

I do understand the old argument about a house of review being a necessity. I just don't believe that it fits in with the way that modern voters are casting their ballots. Labour struggles to get its percentage of the vote above the low 30's and its been that way for a long time now. That's why they will never have a majority in the Federal Senate ever again in all likelihood. In Queensland, where the electorate is even more conservative the reintroduction of an Upper House would simply garner the same result that Trump is inheriting - a solid majority in both houses to the conservatives.

 

[Dave70]

One of the ironic things about Trump is he's a clown who doesn't like it when people laugh at him.
This must have been quite an evening, Obama can deliver lines like a seasoned stand up.
Must have been an awkward moment at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave when he handed the keys over.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMH9O8t_YG8

 

[wobbly]

Love it, love it, love it

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/donald-trump-has-potential-to-wipe-out-the-left/news-story/7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bb

We need some similar thinking in this country to swing the pendulum back from the left to the center or even a bit to the right. Unfortunately non of the Australian politician's or parties have the balls to take on the left and/or greens. Will be very interesting to see how One Nation poll in the Western Australian in March and later in Queensland

Wobbly

 

[lost at sea]

Love it, love it, love it

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/donald-trump-has-potential-to-wipe-out-the-left/news-story/7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bb

We need some similar thinking in this country to swing the pendulum back from the left to the center or even a bit to the right. Unfortunately non of the Australian politician's or parties have the balls to take on the left and/or greens. Will be very interesting to see how One Nation poll in the Western Australian in March and later in Queensland

Wobbly

from the left???..... you need to lay off the glass barbie, have you seen who wields the power in this country at the moment? its not the clown at the top either.

 

[bradsbrew]

Link not working.

A "politician" making good on election promises?
A "politician" bringing back manufacturing and jobs?

Maybe our pocket lining representatives politicians can invest back into our auto industry and stop selling off the land. Banker turnball resuming prime cattle land in Qld to sell/lease to Singapore defense.

 

[manticle]

Love it, love it, love it

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/donald-trump-has-potential-to-wipe-out-the-left/news-story/7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bb

We need some similar thinking in this country to swing the pendulum back from the left to the center or even a bit to the right. Unfortunately non of the Australian politician's or parties have the balls to take on the left and/or greens. Will be very interesting to see how One Nation poll in the Western Australian in March and later in Queensland

Wobbly

Yeah mate Greens are the super power lobby in our anarcho-socialist state

 

[wobbly]

Not sure how to fix the link and when I try and cut and past the article site rules don't allow the included image!!!!

Wobbly

 

[Liam_snorkel]

mind blowing stuff Wobbly, haha.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Great...all we need is a right wing government... Go Pauline

 

[wobbly]

Copying works without the image!!!


[SIZE=10pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]MELANIE PHILLIPS[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]· [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]The Times[/SIZE]

[SIZE=10pt]· [/SIZE]

[SIZE=9pt]2:01PM January 24, 2017[/SIZE][SIZE=10pt]· [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Savehttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...t/news-story/7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bb[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]· [/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]o [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Share on Facebookhttp://facebook.com/sharer.php?u=ht...faf6393e31bb&t=Potential to wipe out the lefthttp://facebook.com/sharer.php?u=ht...faf6393e31bb&t=Potential to wipe out the left[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]o [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Share on Twitterhttps://twitter.com/intent/tweet?ur...6393e31bb&text=Potential to wipe out the lefthttps://twitter.com/intent/tweet?ur...6393e31bb&text=Potential to wipe out the left[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]o [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Share on emailmailto:?subject=Potential to wipe o...t/news-story/7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bbmailto:?subject=Potential to wipe o...t/news-story/7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bb[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]o [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]Share more...http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new.../7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bb#share-toolshttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/new.../7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bb#share-tools[/SIZE]
[SIZE=10pt]· [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt]157http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...ory/7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bb#commentshttp://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...ory/7d30e10abba1dbdde3d4faf6393e31bb#comments[/SIZE]
In his inaugural presidential address, Donald Trump shocked people to the core by making clear that he actually intended to keep his promises to those who had voted for him.
After picking themselves up off the floor, many wondered how this novel principle would translate into real policies. Due to the volatility of the new president’s character, though, it would be a rash person who would predict what he will actually do.
In any event, this is to look at him through the wrong end of the telescope. It’s not so much what he does as what he undoes.
The progressive agenda is all about changing the world and human nature to accord with a preferred model of existence. That’s what Trump voters want him to stop. He has already begun to deliver. Both at home and abroad, he intends to put into sharp reverse the policies of previous administrations which he thinks have hurt the American people. So he is poised to slaughter a herd of sacred cows.
Immediately after his inauguration the White House wiped off its website the pages on LGBT rights, civil rights, climate change and health care. Under “An America First energy plan” it now says the president is “committed to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan”. In its place he will “embrace the shale oil and gas revolution” and “clean coal technology” while protecting clean air and water and conserving natural habitats.
The White House page on civil rights has been replaced by “Standing up for our law enforcement community”. Instead of previous concerns about police behaviour, there’s now a pledge to end the “dangerous anti-police atmosphere” and support men and women in uniform in “their mission of protecting the public”.
[SIZE=10pt]· [/SIZE][SIZE=7.5pt]MORE: [/SIZE]Trump’s talk is of false cures
[SIZE=10pt]· [/SIZE][SIZE=7.5pt]MORE: [/SIZE]Good riddance to Obama
The new “America First foreign policy” is all about defeating Islamic State and rebuilding the military. There’s no mention of China or Russia, other than gnomic references to feeling happy “when old enemies become friends” and “peace through strength”.
Last October, candidate Trump said: “Every trade deal we have is horrible ... Believe me, they will be unwound so fast.” Now he is not only pulling out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership but threatening to leave the North American Free Trade Agreement if the terms don’t benefit America. Trade deals, says the website, will no longer be negotiated “by, and for, members of the Washington establishment” but will be implemented “by and for the people”.
Security is paramount so the military and police will be well-funded; and the president has promised not to cut Medicare or social security. Otherwise, though, he intends dramatically to shrink the state.
According to the Washington newspaper The Hill, he plans to reduce government spending by more than $10 trillion over the next decade. At the Department of Justice, the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services and Violence Against Women grants would be axed.
The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities would be eliminated altogether. The NEA awards millions of dollars’ worth of grants each year for art projects, which have included plays about assassinating Christopher Columbus, gun-control activist lesbians, “Doggie Hamlet” and climate change poetry.
This rainbow alliance of causes has already been behaving as if the election of Donald Trump presages the end of the world. It is the end of their world, for sure. For such a drastic withdrawal of government patronage would help cut off the progressive agenda at the knees.
The contemporary culture of complaint by myriad groups demanding their “rights” didn’t arise from nothing. Although its emergence owed much to the millions of dollars spent by major Democratic donors such as George Soros, who wanted to change the culture (and who was reportedly tied to more than 50 groups involved in the “spontaneous” women’s anti-Trump march last weekend), it was institutionalised and validated by government agency funding.
On Friday, Theresa May is due in the US capital for talks with Mr Trump in his first meeting with a foreign leader. Mrs May might do well to overcome any aesthetic distaste she may have for the new occupant of the Oval Office and instead take a leaf out of the Trump playbook.
For what he is promoting is the classic conservative agenda of small government: protecting what is valuable, putting your own country first and defending your nation against its enemies. Unlike Mrs May, who seems to think the beneficent state can address systemic inequalities, what Mr Trump is not doing is telling Americans how to behave or trying to engineer a different kind of society.
However flawed he may turn out to be, the enormous popularity of his approach, which speaks to the everyday lives and concerns of ordinary people by being rooted in what is rather than in what should be, has the potential to wipe out the left.
Donald Trump rejects utopian ideologies. His intended programme amounts to a counter-revolution against identity politics, the grievance culture and a free pass to certain groups for bad behaviour. It stands instead for upholding the national and cultural identity that the left has spent half a century attempting to dismantle. That’s why they’re screaming.
The Times

 

[manticle]

Where do you think the centre actually is?

 

[Liam_snorkel]

"Immediately after his inauguration the White House wiped off its website the pages on LGBT rights, civil rights, climate change and health care"

genius.

seriously, **** these people. Rolling climate science into what they view as a "liberal agenda" is not logically consistent.

 

[user 31093]

from the left???..... you need to lay off the glass barbie, have you seen who wields the power in this country at the moment? its not the clown at the top either.

Of course, because it's all those RIGHT wingers who are rioting, starting fires and assaulting people who don't agree with their views.

The far left is just utter, utter hypocrisy. The values conflict and are only applied in isolation when it suits them.

• "Freedom of religion!"
• "Equal rights!"

Freedom of religion + Equal rights = means I can choose a religion which is anti homosexual, and lefties can't say anything about it without disagreeing with themselves!

Much of theology is inherently conservative in its own respect, the idea of freedom of religion ALLOWS right wing values to exist. You can not have both.

 

[Brewnicorn]

Where do you think the centre actually is?

I guess therein lies the issue, both sides of politics fail to recognise the centre. It's also pretty easy to just use the left right as an accepted continuum when people's engagement politically likely borrows from many parties perspectives these days. I think that's where major parties fall by the way side these days when they fail to recognise change in the wind by being dogmatic. Trump's great fraud was to use the republican establishment as a bedrock for his 'change'. Populism got him to where he is. Populism and a flawed voting model. Just my two cents.