The clean up #auspol #CycloneDebbie pic.twitter.com/Unlc37P303— Broelman (@Broelman) March 28, 2017
Saturday, 1 April 2017
Tweet of the Week
Just because it is beautiful.........(26)
Gwion Gwion rock paintings
North-west Kimberly region
Western Australia
Famous for its rock art, Quinkan Country contains a large and dramatic body of prehistoric rock paintings. These galleries have been identified as being at least 15,000 to 30,000 years old and have been included on the Australian Heritage Estate and listed by UNESCO as being among the top 10 rock art sites in the world. People from many countries visit this remote location to view the rock art and gain some understanding of the Aboriginal stories associated with this magnificent sandstone landscape. [Quinkan & Regional Cultural Centre]
Friday, 31 March 2017
Clarence Valley Council: Yamba Hill landslip red alert extended throughout April 2017
Clarence Valley Council, media release, March 31, 2017:
Slippage risk in Yamba hill
HEAVY rain in Yamba over the past two days has resulted in the reinstatement of a red alert warning for possible land slippage.
Clarence Valley Council works and civil director, Troy Anderson, said the red alert would remain in place throughout April.
Mr Anderson said Council monitored rainfall at Yamba hill area as it provided a guide to the risk of landslip.
“Once again, the rain that has been experienced has reached the level requiring a red alert to be notified,” he said.
On March 18, council advised red alert level had been reached because of heavy rainfall at that time and reduced to threat level to orange on March 22.
“The situation can change within a day, especially when high rainfall events are experienced,” Mr Anderson said.
“It can take some time for the alert level to be reduced, but this also varies depending on how much rain has fallen in the previous days and weeks.
“With the extra rain that occurred this week, the red alert level will remain in place throughout April. This will continue to be monitored and council will advise of any changes.
“If the area gets another 50mm of daily rainfall owners/site managers/occupants should monitor their land and/or buildings for evidence of any movement during and after this rainfall event.
“Should evidence of any movement be detected, those people should consider evacuation, and immediately advise council of their action.”
Below is a chart indicating trigger levels for the Yamba landslide risk zones.
The shaded area shows the Yamba landslip zone
Turnbull Government opposes rise in minimum wage because 9 out of 10 Australian workers on a low wage are NOT from highest income households
The Daily Telegraph, 30 March 2017:
Read the full article here.
Other statistics the Turnbull Government helpfully offered up to the Fair Work Commission in its submission of 27 March 2017:
* More than 50% of low income workers are in the bottom 1-4 percentiles of the 1-10 percentile range of household incomes;
* 20% of all female workers and 15.5% of all male workers are low-paid;
* 26.7% of all low-paid women and 30.3 % of all low-paid men were in the bottom two deciles of household incomes (ie. these households are likely to have an average disposable income of less than $300 to no more than $375 per week);
* 24.7% of all low-paid workers with a partner are the only breadwinner in the relationship; and
* 46.9% of all low-paid workers have children living at home, with 35.9% having dependent children ranging in age between under 1 year and 17 years of age.
Based on the figures cited in the government’s submission (much of it derived from 2012-2014 data) it appears Liberal and Nationals members of parliament and senators are quite content with the fact that so many of their fellow Australians live in either absolute income poverty or relative income poverty, while they enjoy parliamentary base incomes in excess of $195,000 per annum plus allowances and entitlements.
And Donald Trump golfs on........
MSNBC, 23 March 2017:
Donald Trump told reporters yesterday he felt
“somewhat” vindicated about his wiretap conspiracy theory following the bizarre
press conferences yesterday from House Intelligence Committee Chairman David
Nunes (R-Calif.). The president then turned to Twitter to promote messages saying how right
he was.
This was an odd reaction. There’s more to this story than the specific details in the president’s tweets, but the fact remains that when he was making the case for his conspiracy theory, Trump said he was personally targeted, and Nunes said the opposite. He said the surveillance was illegal, and Nunes said the opposite. He said Obama was personally involved, and Nunes said the opposite. He said the surveillance was before the election, and Nunes said the opposite. He said this was all part of a campaign-related scheme, and Nunes said the opposite.
In other words, Trump was “vindicated” to the extent that the president got literally every detail wrong.
I mention all of this because it’s emblematic of a leader who continues to struggle, in alarming ways, to separate fact from fiction. If you haven’t read Trump’s newly published interview with Time magazine’s Michael Scherer, it’s well worth your time. The questions about the president’s awareness of reality and appreciation of objective truths are only going to grow louder as a result of some of his more ridiculous comments.
He started by arguing that Hillary Clinton’s emails were on Anthony Weiner’s laptop, the Democratic primary race was “rigged against Bernie Sanders,” and that he was “totally right” about Brexit. All three of these claims are plainly and demonstrably wrong.
Trump went on to say his conspiracy theory about Barack Obama conducting illegal surveillance of him has merit because, “I have articles saying it happened.” He does not actually have articles saying it happened.
This exchange soon followed:
This was an odd reaction. There’s more to this story than the specific details in the president’s tweets, but the fact remains that when he was making the case for his conspiracy theory, Trump said he was personally targeted, and Nunes said the opposite. He said the surveillance was illegal, and Nunes said the opposite. He said Obama was personally involved, and Nunes said the opposite. He said the surveillance was before the election, and Nunes said the opposite. He said this was all part of a campaign-related scheme, and Nunes said the opposite.
In other words, Trump was “vindicated” to the extent that the president got literally every detail wrong.
I mention all of this because it’s emblematic of a leader who continues to struggle, in alarming ways, to separate fact from fiction. If you haven’t read Trump’s newly published interview with Time magazine’s Michael Scherer, it’s well worth your time. The questions about the president’s awareness of reality and appreciation of objective truths are only going to grow louder as a result of some of his more ridiculous comments.
He started by arguing that Hillary Clinton’s emails were on Anthony Weiner’s laptop, the Democratic primary race was “rigged against Bernie Sanders,” and that he was “totally right” about Brexit. All three of these claims are plainly and demonstrably wrong.
Trump went on to say his conspiracy theory about Barack Obama conducting illegal surveillance of him has merit because, “I have articles saying it happened.” He does not actually have articles saying it happened.
This exchange soon followed:
TIME: One of my ideas here is that throughout
the campaign and now as president, you have used disputed statements, this is
one of them that is disputed, the claim that three million undocumented people
voted in the election…
TRUMP: Well I think I will be proved right about that too.
TIME: The claim that Muslims celebrated on 9-11 in New Jersey…
TRUMP: Well if you look at the reporter, he wrote the story in the Washington Post.
TRUMP: Well I think I will be proved right about that too.
TIME: The claim that Muslims celebrated on 9-11 in New Jersey…
TRUMP: Well if you look at the reporter, he wrote the story in the Washington Post.
When the conversation turned to Trump’s
conspiracy theory about Ted Cruz’s father and the JFK assassination, the
president said, “Well that was in a newspaper…. I didn’t say that. I was
referring to a newspaper…. Why do you say that I have to apologize? I’m just
quoting the newspaper.”
The “newspaper,” in this instance, was the National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid with which Trump has an eerily friendly relationship.
It’d take hours to go point by point, fact-checking every error of fact and judgment, but Trump’s final comments stood as especially interesting: “I inherited a mess, I inherited a mess in so many ways… I mean we have many, you can go up and down the ladder. But that’s the story. Hey look, in the meantime, I guess, I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not.”…….
The “newspaper,” in this instance, was the National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid with which Trump has an eerily friendly relationship.
It’d take hours to go point by point, fact-checking every error of fact and judgment, but Trump’s final comments stood as especially interesting: “I inherited a mess, I inherited a mess in so many ways… I mean we have many, you can go up and down the ladder. But that’s the story. Hey look, in the meantime, I guess, I can’t be doing so badly, because I’m president, and you’re not.”…….
Dear Malcolm, Barnaby, Scott, Peter, Julie, Alan and friends - before you put that federal budget to bed in May let me tell you about those living in relative poverty
As the Coalition Government approaches yet another cost cutting budget – the fourth since your political parties regained federal government – I’ve noticed how financially comfortable all six of you are in comparison to a great many of other Australians.
It must be satisfying to see your names listed against family homes, rural properties and investments:
8 March 2017
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13 January 2017
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13 February 2017
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15 February 2017
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28 November 2016
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16 December 2016
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However, before your red pens slash across currently funded government programs covering health, education, training, community legal services and various forms of income support, you need to remove those ideological blinkers from your eyes and really look at the people you have been labelling welfare cheats, leaners, lazy bludgers and worse for the last four years.
They are not an anonymous horde harbouring a vile intent to drain money from the pockets of your family, friends and business acquaintances.
These ordinary people are not your enemy.
They are two parents with three young children but only one low-paying casual job bringing in a weekly wage.
The single mother at the bus stop who has to scrimp and save for months to buy her children new school shoes because her rent is too high and her part-time wage too small to allow her to buy all necessities easily.
The old man living alone in a rented flat who goes without meals to pay the veterinary bill for his only companion – his faithful old dog.
It is the grandmother with arthritis who gets up at 5am every weekday so she can travel to her son’s house to babysit her grandchildren so both he and his wife can work to cover the normal bills of a growing family.
A 23 year-old permanently confined to a wheelchair who is determined to live a full life and is out there job hunting every week.
Or the 17 year-old on the street selling The Big Issue to get extra money towards a boarding house bed and meals, because growing up in care left him without a support network.
It’s every middle aged person holding down three separate 8 hour-jobs each week to make ends meet in the face of widespread employer age discrimination and not enough job vacancies.
And so many volunteers in every town or village who spend their few spare pension dollars getting back and forth to the unpaid jobs that keep community alive.
These are people who deserve the certainty of an adequate universal welfare safety net – they are also the voters you will have to face in 2018.
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