ScoMo Speaks his Mind.

(source, sort of)

If the people behind Macquarie Dictionary ever decide to produce an illustrated dictionary, they can’t go wrong if they use Scott Morrison’s photo to illustrate the definition of “bullshitter”. It also works for the phrase “full of shit”.

That was the Three Stooges, about two years back, to Do-Nothing Malcolm’s evident embarrassment:

ScoMo: “Don’t be afraid, don’t be scared,
it won’t hurt you. It’s coal.” (source)

Now ScoMo wants us to believe he, unlike his colleague David Littleproud (what’s with these people’s names?), suddenly started to give a rats’ ass about climate change. Gives us some credit, ScoMo. We aren’t that dumb.

Or, better still, watch ScoMo trying to bullshit Leigh Sales last night. Look at her face. Pay attention to the tone of her voice.

And as usual with the COALition their rehash of Tony “Not-Gospel-Truth” Abbott’s Emissions Reduction Fund will only further their own goals: a pork barrel project for their mates. Don’t believe me? Here’s how Tony’s earlier incarnation of ScoMo’s recent bright idea is being used … to increase emissions! A further and unrelated example: Do-Nothing Malcolm’s $444 million to save the Great Barrier Reef.

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Credit where credit is due: federal opposition leader Bill Shorten (or billshorten as the COALition politicians pronounce it as instructed by their media advisers) promised, if elected, he will scrap that abomination.

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Speaking of farces. Stephen Long reports the spontaneous reactions and comments among representatives of the finance lobby as they examined the recommendations (or lack thereof) of the Hayne Royal Commission on Banking.

Extracts:

According to several people in the room, some 35 minutes into the lock-up, Anna Bligh, chief executive officer of the Australian Banking Association [and former Labor QLD premier], sat back, relaxed and looked around the space.

Bligh's brow unfurrowed and the tension in her shoulders slipped away.

…

“Fifteen minutes in, people were looking perplexed,” recalls someone who was in that room. “Where were the heavy hits?”

About the same time as Ms Bligh relaxed, a representative of the industry funds turned to a colleague and said: “He's squibbed it.”

The Finance Sector Union comments.

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Australia is not a third world country or a banana republic. Quite to the contrary: one of the world’s richest countries, with a stable liberal democracy from the get go. Australians pride themselves in a nation where the rule of law prevails, where there are checks and balances. Illiteracy has been eradicated in this country and, indeed, our universities figure routinely among the world’s top. Australia has its fair share of Nobel Prize winners (I’m talking about the real Nobel Prize, not the “Nobel” Prize in economics). Australian government, at all levels, have resources that are the envy of their counterparts, even among rich nations.

And yet … We have to witness that second rate, absurd, opera buffa as the world burns, ecosystems collapse, and even our own survival as a species becomes uncertain.

Those who believe capitalism can be reformed (billionaires of the Davos set and their minions, non-Marxist democratic socialists, social democrats, Darwinian Lefties and very respectable Aussie Greens, Third-Wayers and New Democrats, mainstream economists, Keynesians -- whether old, new, or post--, MMTers, liberals, progressives, reformists) have their work cut out for them. Start with the easy bit: fix Australia. After that your real job starts: the rest of the world. Good luck.