Potkorok

Well he's resigned I believe and good riddance - hopefully criminal charges can be laid - this whole Powerbroker thing is one of the worst aspects of Australian politics - is Eddie Obeid still inside? - the structures of the Labor Party do lend themselves to branch-stacking and favour-reciprocating more than the Libs - but they're by no means free of it either. Then theu Unfortunately, the disconnect between modern citizens and politics is exaggerating this issue - part of the problem is a lack of "rank-and-file" members joining up and supporting the best local members, thus the situation is open to exploitation of false members to fill the books. Not that you can blame people for not joining up when you see the way the so-called "faceless men" try and parachute in their preferences for seats and push out good local members who join up to serve their community.

As a Christian this saddens me deeply. The man is the final evolution of the worst kind of politician who will stop at nothing to communicate with his deranged base and shore up his support. The thought that his supporters think he is a follower of Jesus Christ just beggars belief. It is that weirdly American triumvirate of guns, individual rights and patriotism/nationalism/religion with the Bible being held out to justify it all. Oh and the way some of them are so deeply racist given the Gospel's call to people of all nations to come to Christ is more evidence of their stupidity.

Disgraceful and foul behaviour towards local Chinese and Oz-born people of Chinese descent - my wife is a psychologist and has had two cases of this already towards her clients and cannot be justified in any way. The ignorance of some Australians in how the virus is spread etc is mind boggling, not to mention the easy casual racism. It should be emphasized that the gripe most of use have is with the CCP, not the Chinese people or their local relatives. It should also be remembered that (one day!) Trump will be gone (bring it on!!!!) but the CCP is likely to still be with us and we shouldn't lose sight of the bigger picture that, as far as we can ascertain from a regime that specialises in obfuscation and propaganda, the CCP has deliberately delayed its response to this pandemic and tried to cover it up in the early stages. We (and indeed the Chinese population) need to know how it started so that it can be prevented from happening again if at all possible. Not to excuse the pathetic and astonishing response to COVID-19 by Trump et al - it beggars belief.

The astonishing thing is that people still seem to trust big corporations with their information more than their elected governments - yet we all know how much data is collected by corporations to enable them to improve marketing, increase revenue and profits. I've not been a fan of the current government but have been reasonably encouraged by the level of bipartisanship shown during this crisis and think that the risks of the COVID-19 safeapp are outweighed by the potential advantages of enabling society to return to some semblance of normality. And yes, like a post mentioned earlier, with a family that includes mainly frontline and allied health workers, I am supportive of methods that improve our safety and enable others to return to work.

We feel your pain...

Selfishness, or self-absorption tends to be at the heart of what is less than ideal in most Western, capitalist democracies - the constant tension in a Western capitalist society between the desire to produce, let the market decide and make profit vs the need to protect the vulnerable, spread the wealth and create opportunity to raise the educational, health and living standards for all is more evident at times like this I reckon. Listening to the radio on the way to my (somewhat quiet:)) clinic this morning there was the usual old hoary chestnut debate between renters and landlords. To give the ABC their due, they had an academic with an obviously renter-sympathetic bent counter-pointed with the head of the Real Estate institute. It would be funny if it weren't so serious in this property-obsessed city of ours - I struggle to find anything positive to say about real estate agents and landlords - with a few notable exceptions, most seem to think that it is their right to always make money from their investment properties and they are not keen on any additional rights for tenants (I'm reasonably independent here as I have a mortgage but no investments properties). Australia is so far behind the eight-ball in terms of renters it isn't funny - the landlords have all of the power in general, and if you're fortunate enough to have a good landlord (and I do know some), often the agents get in the way and seem to enjoy making life difficult for tenants as well - all the more galling when real estate agents are essentially little-qualified retail workers who flog houses ( no offence to the good estate agents out there - I know there are a few ) - yet we have elevated them to the status of neuro-surgeons or rocket-scientists in this country! Perhaps COVID-19 will challenge our suspicion of education and science and encourage more kids in the future to study science and go into research and health, teaching etc. Sorry for long rant - work is rather quiet and my family always much prefer me to rant on forums rather than at them

But looking at the data, more than half the country still voted green, labor or independent. I guess what I'm saying is that around half of the country did not vote for the current mob, or their independent supporters - even after preferences - 48.47% to be exact TPP. Therefore you can't really say that we asked for it! Coz almost half of us certainly didn't!

No less than half of our fellow Australians chose this.....preference deals did the rest

No muller?

Oh it’s better than that. The CCP are now spruiking their genius at containment and making propaganda to inform the world how well they’ve done. Talk about hubris. If the local branches hadn’t hidden the illnesses and deaths and covered it up in the first place, this might have all been contained in Wuhan to start with. Let’s not forget the bravery and sacrifice of the local medical personnel there who fought to expose the dangers. But sorry getting off topic. #noEPLinchina!

Any news on Kamau's injury? And what about baby Baccus - back this week?

About time Charlesworth pulled the pin on Charlesworth I reckon. Something dramatic needs to happen up there or they should tear up the licence. Just a disgrace. Feel for the supporters especially the members. They don’t deserve such crap

Spectacular finish from Stensness.....thankfully VAR didn’t find a way to rub it out. Lord knows the Coast need everything they can get

So anyone else enduring Fraudsters v Mariners? Coasties are plumbing new depths of hopelessness

Far out Victory that's leaving it late!