lev.lafayette's blog

A couple of days ago I visited the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which has the jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for the international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and crimes of aggression.

Like any other European city, The Hague sells postcards. I bought three.

If you want some really different "opinions", there's the closed Facebook group under the name "Australian Politcal Debate". Today one of the moderators (they're all right-wingers) suspended me from posting because - and get this - they couldn't handle having two people engaging them in a discussion on the same thread. This is a group which openly welcomes Nazis and other associated racists, various shades of climate-change deniers, anti-vaxxers, and even a literal Biblical flat-earther.

The NSW Sports Minister John Sidoti has stood down whilst the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigates him for land purchases and planned developments near planned new train stations and accepting donations from the very property developer that he has a 10% investment in. Through a family trust of course.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-17/john-sidoti-steps-down-pending-ic...

For a few weeks, as bushfires raged in NSW and Qld, a debate broke out here on whether climate change was contributing factor.

In the main part, the answer to the question fell across partisan lines with people from the Labor/Greens/Left saying that it was and those from the LNP/ON/Right saying it was not.

Something I have observed over the years however is that the LNP is very split on the question of climate change. About half seem to accept the mainstream scientific opinion, and about half don't.

Somewhat notorious for his selective referencing, Alan Bolt comes first with a frankly weird act of excessive cherry-picking. Interviewing Daniel Fitzhenry, a hydrographic surveyor of NSW, it is noted that the data collected by the tidal gauge at Fort Denison by the Bureau of Meteorology, from 1914 onwards, shows rise and fall within the range of 15 centimetres, but no net overall change. The implication provided is that there is no increase in sea-level overall.

After the surprise election of the Coalition government in Australia in May, the Director of the Centre for Economic Policy research made this rather harmless, but insightful scatter diagram of select demographics and swings.

Some potential drivers of swing to Coalition at electorate level - low income, low education, Christian religion. Age, rentals little correlation. Usual correlation caveats apply! pic.twitter.com/ZRwZPB7xj0

I recently encountered an individual, who is deserving of remaining unnamed, who claimed that in the later years of his life that CLR James shifted from support of Trotsky to Stalin in his with his interest in the Pan-African movement and association of WEB DeBois and Paul Robeson. This irked me somewhat because CLR James was, in my opinion, never sympathetic to Stalinism.

After all the rubbish during the election about "retiree taxes" and "death taxes", neither of which existed, we're now looking at "reforms" to industry superfunds. Why? Because of union influence in such funds.

Push to curb industry super power
https://www.afr.com/news/policy/tax/push-to-curb-industry-super-power-20...

Well, it seems my seat predictions were a little off. In my defense I simply followed what both the bookmakers and opinion polls were saying, which was Labor to win c85 seats. As it turns out, the polls over-estimated the Labor vote by about 4% and under-estimated the LNP vote by about 3%, the sum of which is quite significant. I did express concerns about Queensland and, grimly, they turned out to be correct and worse. The 11% vote for One Nation and Palmer, who directed preferences to the LNP, now means that the ALP holds 5 of the 29 seats there, and with no change seen in WA.

Day 36 and 37 of the campaign, and I thought it was all going to be over. But then the Liberals provide their costings just before the electronic media blackout (hilarious on the days of the Internet, right) and announce $1.5bn public service cuts to fund election promises. Surprise! Also, the last quarter's unemployment figures were announced an they came with a spike to 5.2% unemployment, 8.5% underemployment, and the dollar's down. Move along, nothing to see here, right?