Wednesday 24th of April 2024
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tony is still fighting to preserve his embarrassing legacy as a devious murdoch-anointed prime minister of this country...

 

trying to protect rubbish...

It’s official. Tony Abbott is no longer our Prime Minister. Malcolm Turnbull is now in charge of our country. Many weren’t sure he’d last as long as he did. When future generations try to understand the roughly two years of Abbott government, their favoured resource will hopefully be the many satires that will be produced. Scholarly study can’t hope to capture the comedic insanity of our federal government since 2013.

I have no doubt we’ll soon be reading collections of Abbott’s gaffes, misstatements, and offensive comments. These began long before he was elected, and will continue, if he does, in public life.

His most recent was his carefree amusement at the thought of entire countries being destroyed by climate change. Whilst his fingerprints couldn’t be found on the Border Force affair, it seemed like the kind of thing he’d push, though he was probably given no warning of it.

Somehow, it still seemed like the kind of thing you’d expect from a Minister for Immigration and Border Protection appointed by Mr Stop-the-Boats.

Abbott crammed too many disasters into his short reign of insular stupidity to review them all. It wasn’t just poorly chosen wording, but also a complete lack of judgment.

When Bronwyn Bishop spent $5,000 of taxpayer money on a helicopter ride to a Liberal Party fundraiser, which was an hour away by car, she initially declined to even apologise.

Even as it became clear that the helicopter ride was hardly Bishop’s only offence, Abbott stood by her long after his favoured loyalists knew his brand of cronyism was disastrous.

Perhaps the clearest indicator of how out of touch he and his insular, likeminded and almost entirely malecabinet was, was the knighting of Prince Philip. No-one had any idea why Abbott would honour a British prince. A more astute politician would have trod more carefully, given that knighting anyone was already controversial.

But Abbott was always the brawler, and never the compromiser. He thought he could fight his way through every political battle.

One example of this was the battle over changing the Racial Discrimination Act. Abbott, with his Attorney-General George Brandis, thought it needed reform after Andrew Bolt was taken to court over gratuitously offensive columns he wrote about various Aboriginal people. This was cynically presented as a matter of high-minded principle, rather than old-fashioned cronyism.

https://newmatilda.com/2015/09/14/rise-and-fall-political-brawler-how-tony-abbott-stopped-votes/

 

Tony Abbott is an embarrassment. A major embarrassment. All his doings as Prime Minister were embarrassing. He only survived because of the merde-och press, giving him good points for bad behaviour. Still does. The merde-och press is an embarrassment. Malcolm, bless him, decided to get rid of Tony, but the stench of Tony's turdy actions is still staining the Turnbull government and the whole country. Either way, Tony was never, and Malcolm is not up the task of running this small country where we're lucky people are complacent enough and not suffering too much, otherwise there would have been a few revolutions... No, like good sheep we wallow in our little debts like pigs in mud. The banks love us to death. We praise the lord of coal and don't give a damn about tomorrow. Can't be more perfect.

 

nauseating tony...

Tony Abbott arrived at the Coalition party room this week with a carefully crafted attack on Malcolm Turnbull. Its barbs were coated in treacle so thick one cabinet minister described it as almost nauseating. Turnbull responded almost in kind. His response to the man he replaced because he was an economic dud was laced with irony bordering on sarcasm.

The official briefing – which is a standard part of these meetings, where the press gallery is given a background account of events – played down the significance of the exchange. “He wasn’t having a go directly at anybody,” the gallery was told. “He was being very inclusive. There was no shirt-fronting, no chest poking.”

Still, few in the room missed what was really going on. Abbott’s first foray into the policy debate since his demise was a brazen attempt to foist on his nemesis the failed prescriptions of the 2014 budget. He was urging the prime minister in the run-up to an election that appears to be tightening to embark on a slash-and-burn strategy. It was like the Star Wars sequel, The Empire Strikes Back.

 

https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/2016/03/05/tony-abbotts-party-room-broadsides/14570964002959

and an embarrassment over there as well...

The chaos of the 2016 US presidential election “is an embarrassment to our country”, secretary of state John Kerry said on Sunday, as he reflected on the candidates’ anti-Muslim sentiment and world leaders’ growing concern.

Asked about what he hears from leaders abroad regarding the US election, Kerry told CBS’s Face the Nation: “I think it’s fair to say that they’re shocked.

“It upsets people’s sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability,” Kerry said. “And to some degree I must say to you, some of the questions, the way they’re posed to me, it’s clear to me that what’s happening is an embarrassment to our country.”

Kerry did not specify which candidates or remarks had embarrassed the US, but he was clearly alluding to controversial proposals from the Republican candidates.

read more:

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/mar/27/john-kerry-presidential-c...

he made a decision...

Some politicians deal with stress by exercising. Others watch mindless TV. Prime minister Malcolm Turnbull likes to go to the opera. So let’s resist calling him a snob. He’s had a tough week, the poor guy.

After all, he made a clear decision. Decisions must be really hard for Malcolm: he’s made so few of them since coming to the top job.

And the prime minister didn’t make any old decision. Malcolm decided to prorogue parliament. Perhaps no one in the Commonwealth of Australia was more delighted with this news than me. He removed the mantle of the most (in)famous prorogation of parliament from my shoulders. I really should send him a thank you card. Or perhaps a bottle of wine. I’ll have to look up the year in which Malcolm was born.

Not only did the prime minister prorogue parliament, but also he moved the budget a week early to 3 May. Running a cabinet government, as he does, Malcolm was careful to ensure that changing the date of the budget was no captain’s call. Important ministers were consulted. Legal advice was sought. Letters to the governor general were drafted. Only then, in a hastily-arranged cabinet phone hook-up on the morning of the announcement, did Malcolm tell the treasurer, Scott Morrison, that he had to hand the budget in a week early.

The prime minister sought to downplay his own admission that the treasurer is not a member of his inner circle. Malcolm explained that he works with ScoMo “as closely together as you can.” I’m sure that’s true, in a Julianna Margulies/Archie Panjabi kind of way.

 

The prime minister not only prorogued parliament and moved the budget, but he also launched an election campaign! No wonder he’s so tired. Well, a pseudo-campaign, hurtling Australia to a possible double-dissolution election on 2 July.


But while the nation might have thought Malcolm launched the Turnbull government’s re-election campaign, Tony popped up to remind us that it Malcolm was really running a campaign to re-elect the Abbott government. A vote for Malcolm is a vote for Tony. A new campaign slogan, perhaps?


But the prime minister, understandably, was not keen to borrow a slogan from Tony Abbott. So Malcolm instead borrowed one from Selina Meyer.

read more: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/29/lets-cut-turnbull-some-slack-hes-had-a-hard-week-after-making-a-decision

 

Yes this reminds me of a French king who was constipated and when he had a satisfactory bowel motion after a week, it made the news all over the country... Meanwhile the groom of the stool was a very important person...