Sign In
0 Items (
Search
Comments (31)
Well, you don’t say, Lionel Shriver. “I backed Joe Biden. He has been a terrible disappointment.” Presumably his responsibility for the death of American troops in Kabul pushed her over the edge. Pathetic.
I spotted her feckless conservatism when she appeared on Q&A in 2019 and tried terribly hard to be considered reasonable by her fellow panellists and the green-left audience. You know the kind of thing — ‘We conservatives aren’t so bad once you get to know us’. Appeasing the crocodile came to mind. An impression born out when I listened to her at the Bonython lecture the next evening where she extolled the need for civility in political debate.
Let’s be clear. Civility is wasted on those who don’t know the meaning of the word. It’s bringing a knife to a gun fight.
Shriver like Jordan Peterson burnished their so-called conservative credentials by virtue of harpies. You’ll recall Yassmin Abdel-Magied walking out of the Brisbane writers’ festival in afront at Shriver’s views on cultural appropriation. And Peterson being interrogated on the UK’s Channel 4 by Cathy Newman. Peterson later distinguished himself by suggesting that Brett Kavanagh should first win his confirmation to the Supreme Court but then immediately resign to clear his name. A wishy-washy wally, doesn’t quite do it.
Don’t be fooled by putative conservatives. Mark Levin and Candace Owens these two ain’t. In the same vein, name a so-called conservative here that didn’t snipe and snipe at Trump. OK, good old Alan Jones. As usual he stands so far above the rest.
I am not talking about those on the postmodern Left. Nothing can be expected of them but wall to wall dross. I am talking about commentators at various distances rightwards from the centre. They couldn’t help themselves. His policies were good but he was such a “braggard,” “liar,” “buffoon,” etc., etc. Relentlessly, on it went. And it added up.
Sure, players in Australia played only a small part, as did those in the UK and Europe, in tearing the man down. The main game was played out in America. Nevertheless, every bit contributed. Are we about to hear abject mea culpas from those who played their part in giving America a president so mentally unfit for office it defies belief? Don’t hold your breath. Almost all, if not all, of the snipers are know-it-alls.
I didn’t find Trump’s demeanour the least offensive. Was he different? Of course, he was. Without his gigantic personality, reflected in his self-belief, called narcissism by some, how could he ever have survived being dumped upon each minute of every day.
How could he have ever moved the US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and forged pacts between Israel and numbers of its neighbouring Arab countries? How could he have let loose oil and gas exploration in this time of morbid climate hysteria? Slashed job-killing taxes and regulations. Started building that wall without congressional support? No other Republic president could have done those things. Think of Bush senior and junior.
Those who position themselves right of centre need to take a grip. They’ve already played their part in ridding us of a unique and powerful champion and given us a drooling fool as a replacement. A first step towards redemption is to admit culpability. Join a self-help group for quisling conservatives.
Shriver and anybody else of sound mind (i.e., not of the left) who voted for, or overtly supported, Biden or implicitly supported him by carping about Trump’s demeanour, is complicit in what’s happening at the Southern Border of the United States and in Afghanistan. Relevantly, I have just glanced at an opening Greg Sheridan comment in this morning’s paper: “This is the world that Joe Biden has wrought- the return of mass-casualty terrorism, multiple deaths of US soldiers in terror attacks.” Precisely. Not the world Trump (however rude the refined thought him) would have brought.
Of course, without COVID and its aftermath, Trump would have won the election in spite of the baying media mob. With COVID, and the likely election shenanigans it allowed, the mob tipped the balance; got their way. How exactly is that turning out?
Quite correct, Peter,
But don’t forget the Outsiders team. They also refused to play the ‘I deplore Trump’s (insert fault here) but …’ game. I also think Miranda Devine has restored her reputation post her unseemly trashing of Tony Abbott.
And, it amazes me how many so-called conservatives still refuse to give any credence whatsoever to the evidence of the cheating that cost Trump the election.
This is the comment I wrote to Sheridan’s anti-Trump drivel in the Australian a couple of days ago:
“Sheridan’s comment that Trump was “half mad” is a shameful remark for which he provides absolutely no evidence. Once again, he completely ignores the indisputable fact that Trump was forced to operate in a totally hostile environment with almost all print and electronic media doing their damnedest to disseminate the most blatant Democratic Party lies to help bring him down simply because they refused to accept defeat. Yet years later, the same political rabble are pursuing Trump for the very same things.
In every important way, when compared with every Democratic candidate since Bill Clinton, Trump was a towering giant to their corrupt, hypocritical and incompetent pygmies.
Almost nobody argues that Trump was an exemplary let alone a great President. But at least he was competent, and it’s high time Sheridan protected his own reputation my admitting as much and stopped the cheap shots.”
It was rejected, of course.
I think that Greg Sheridan is an excellent and knowledgeable foreign writer. However, when it comes to Trump and Covid he goes into an apocalyptic meltdown. Best to ignore him on those two issues. Andrew Bolt also disappointed me recently when he started to promote vaccine passports (it’s the only way out blah blah blah). Alan Jones: the last man standing! Let’s face it: Australia is a dystopian county for conservatives.
Mr. Trump took many good positions. It was obvious to me that Mr. Biden would be a far worse president. But I would like to know when the standard for what makes a conservative is supporting (apparently without question) a thrice-married man who, whatever else he is guilty of (and I don’t for a moment believe that all the accusations are true), went on radio bragging about immoral behaviour. He also said that he’d never needed to be forgiven for anything. That’s hardly a person that should be held up by Christians as someone to be admired.
It is also concerning that the saviour from authoritarians who call themselves progressives is so often assumed to be an authoritarian who calls himself a conservative. Above perhaps all else, surely a political conservative must value freedom and the rule of law. Rule of law means following the Constitution.
Under the U.S. Constitution, Congress makes laws–not the President. Disliking Congress’s decisions does not justify defying the Constitution. Nor does a desire to change things to our version of “right” justify seeing a strong man who can do whatever he wants as the solution. Such a person should be feared by conservatives, not idolised.
None of that is to say that Trump did not do many good things and was not a far better option than Biden, or to say that the 2020 election was fair; but there is no need to justify what is wrong.
Peter OBrien, the Maricopa County audit should be released soon. It will hopefully tell us a lot about what happened in November.
Yes you’re right, Peter O’Brien. Rowan Dean, Rita Panahi and James Morrow deserve honourable mention alongsde Alan Jones.
Rebekah Meredith, as a Christian I don’t judge the sexually immoral deeds of others when they occur between consenting adults. When I think of my own shortcomings it helps a little to know that God favoured King David in spite of his most grievous failing – which put Trump’s failings in the shade.
I was a member of a little know groupuscule called ‘Lefties for Trump’. Mostly ‘old Labour’ (I’m British) anti-Communist/Woke who believed our enemy’s enemy was our friend. We were more sensible than the pro Biden ‘conservatives’ or ‘never Trumpers’. We of the decent old left want to work with the hard -edged right to defeat the common threat to civilisation coming from the Woke at the moment. But how many hard-edged rightists remain? The right has largely been useless in the culture wars: discuss
David repented of his sins; Psalm 51 (and others) are about as far as you can get from claiming no need for forgiveness. Immorality, even between consenting adults, is wicked in God’s sight. The acceptance of divorce and remarriage (as well as de facto relationships) surely led to the acceptance of homosexuality and all its vile add-ons.
A letter I wrote to the Oz on the back of Sheridan’s column on this, very point. This is the longer version I posted to Facebook
“Greg Sheridan writes in his column, (Half asleep, lazy Joe Biden gives a gift to global Jihadism, 28/8) “Many conservative Americans had grown tired of the Trump drama and just wanted normality”.
Was it actually a Trump drama or was it the illusion of a Trump drama generated by a combination of boisterous, cacophonous media drones and talking heads, concocting and beating up stories out of whole cloth from a leaking White House and bureaucratic insiders and defiant generals contributing to the illusion of a Trump drama in order to manipulate the electorate and drive him from office?
Trump was the perfect fit for the business model of the various cable channels. To rework Richard Nixon’s line from his 1962 press conference after losing to Kennedy: ‘You won’t have Trump to kick around anymore’
As a by the way, it’s interesting too, that that was another election clouded with rigging of votes in Texas and Illinois to get Kennedy across the line.
Contrast and compare.
By any measure Trump had the economy humming and was on the front foot with America’s international adversaries not prepared to second guess him.
Mean tweets not withstanding, after only eight months, those same ordinary, suburban American conservatives are suddenly having a facepalm reality check as they realise that Trump was the only thing standing between ‘normal’ and the woke agenda and the multi trillion dollar, hostile takeover of the United States by the far left with their road to chaos, demographic Jihad of open borders and their unique blend of American Marxism leading to a one party state.
So which ‘normal’ do the people prefer I wonder?
The Trump normal or the Biden normal which is unraveling and humiliating America daily if not hourly.
Or perhaps they prefer the Democrat road tested, open sewer normal that is Los Angeles and San Francisco or perhaps the defund police model and high crime normal of Chicago and other major US cities”?
Oh dear God they still can’t help themselves!
Donald will go down in history as one of the best, if not the best President of the United States, alongside Ronald Reagan. He will be spoken of in awe as another Churchill.
It is he alone that has exposed the unfathomal evil and corruption of the Democrats and half the Republicans. Who else could have achieved that? Simply no one. He is a genius.
I loathe Greg Sheridan, I can’t listen to or read a word he says. I can’t even look at him! Conservative my foot! I feel able to write that as he has said some appalling things about Donald so what goes round comes round Greg.
Rebekah I hope you don’t vote labor.
Peter, conservatives need to wake up quick smart and realise the gloves need to be taken off in the current world. Decorum, the old stiff upper lip and high moral ground are not going to work for you any time soon. Trump was on to it with his ‘mean’ tweets in the middle of the night and pithy language about sheethole countries and so on. As for Lionel Shriver, she must have been asleep at the wheel in 2020 when it was so obvious to anyone with a brain that Biden was basically brain dead with dementia. No excuses now, that you’re disappointed, when it was as plain as the nose on your face.
All those who voted Democrat are responsible for the shocking decisions with many more in the pipeline, until hopefully the mid terms next year.
PJM: Two people whom I generally admire, Lionel Shriver and Noam Chomsky, are on the public record explaining their decision to vote for Biden, albeit reluctantly, because it was the only way of ousting Trump. I wonder if they would have done so had that election been held today?
“I loathe Greg Sheridan, I can’t listen to or read a word he says. I can’t even look at him!”.
.
Like so many other vain correspondents, the photo accompanying his articles must be from 20 years or so ago.
I thought Trump was great and I hope he returns. He knows how to make deals, which is something I loved to do in a small way in my career. He does not believe in giving away anything for nothing, which is a good policy domestically and internationally. A healthy economy is a ‘user pays’ economy, not a government hand-out economy. A healthy nation is one that pays its way, takes pride in its achievements and protects its own interests. That was Trump’s ideology. We need a Trump here.
Ouch! lbloveday, a bit close to home. I admit to my picture being of vintage 2005. I am not sure that its vanity as much as a refusal to acknowledge reality. At least I don’t use it on dating sites. Mind you, being well out of the dating game I can’t claim much credit for that.
The question is, are we losers or winners?
Its no bloody just good being right about a country or a world, run by leftist nitwits pretending lies are reality.
How are we to win?
Ah yes Peter, the Implacable Left. Its a good title and I suggest that they have a weekly magazine and its called ‘The Economist’. This magazine was the recent subject of esteemed commentator Judith Sloan where she said that for some years she has refused to read it because it is “On the woke/green path to oblivion”.
I mention the magazine because the cover of the Nov 6, 2020 issue boldly claims
‘Why it has to be Biden”.
Now the regret, too late of course: The cover of the August 27, 2021 issue exclaims “Biden’s Debacle”.
I held out great hopes for Tony Abbott but then he appointed Stott Despoya and the walking cadaver Combet to posts that should have gone to conservatives. He tried to be inclusive but simply lost his own base. You cannot be nice to leftists and you cannot persuade them since they are invariably ignorant and lacking logic. Conservatives are too nice. I admired Trump from day one. Those conservatives who criticise him ignore his successes and concentrate on his foibles except for the likes of Romney who are just plain jealous. (I think Romney now realises that his loss to Obama in 2012 may well have been the result of cheating, a cheating that was not ambitious enough in 2016 due to underestimating Trump, and so outrageous in 2020 that it was well exposed.) The Democrats are not nice people and it will take a strong man like Trump to defeat them. I would remind St Rebekka that Saint Augustine was a well known philanderer when young and is reputed as saying that he wanted to be saved but not yet because he was having so much fun. Is she saying that Trumps good deeds including promoting Christianity and Christian beliefs in the US is not redeeming?
Get used to it folks. Trump said he would drain the swamp, apparently not realising that America in toto IS the swamp. A nation controlled by lying, self-serving, wealth totalitarians. The straight-shooting conservatives are in the minority. The rule of law is subverted at every turn. Don’t wait-up for a change; it ain’t coming.
Peter Smith,
I’m too ugly facially to post my picture on dating sites. My latest wife was caught out when I prepared the paperwork for our wedding – she wasn’t 49 as her dating site profile said at the time we met!
I’ve noticed an excess of women aged 39 and 49 – akin to supermarket prices $1.99, $9.99…?
Good piece Peter. In my view Donald Trump was a very good president, who was getting the corrupt political ship of state in the USA back on course and rolling back the left wing assaults on the US, which flows over to us. He was a President for the times, that are still with us, and he lost due to massive and clever fraud, just like Richard Nixon lost to Kennedy. Nixon knew it and went to outgoing President Eisenhower for advice and was told the best thing for the US was that he accept it to avoid any upsetting of the people. They were different times and the left were trusted more by a man like General Eisenhower, and so Nixon did, but kept his powder dry and came back to deservedly win two terms. Donald Trump deserved two terms to get the corrupt ship well and truly back on course for awhile, and the left wing genie rammed a little back into it’s rotten bottle for a few more years, and he would have got them but for the fraud. I hope he keeps his powder dry and comes back to rightly claim his second term. He’s tough, and comes over to me as mentally and physically fit with a genuine love for his country, believes in God and has lots of experience outside government, with age and now a little more wisdom on his side….just what we in the west need for an American President. The left come over like the Communist Bolsheviks, and Lenin himself, they’re manipulative liars and can never be trusted, and I should add that the only way to go through life like that is to be….. a godless atheist.
Mr Marriott.
There is such a thing as conservative godless atheists.
Do try and comprehend that failing to believe your fairy tale is not synonymous with evil.
Do try not to vilify those who fail to believe your fairy tale in a manner directly out of the woke playbook.
It does you no service.
The criticisms of my earlier post have concentrated on my dislike of Mr. Trump’s character flaws and have ignored my concerns about the yearning of many conservatives for one man with the power to fix all our problems. What they want, it seems, is a “good” dictator. The fact is that the best ruler probably WOULD be a good absolute monarch; but that type of government is simply too dangerous. I understand the frustration with having to “play within the rules” when the other side doesn’t; but, if we don’t, we’re no better than they are. Do we really BELIEVE in the principles of liberty, limited government, and rule of law, or do we only hold to them when we can use them to criticise our opponents?
If people want dictatorship, then the only right way to bring it in is by changing the constitution which is “the supreme law of the land” in the United States. A return to true limited government, that restricted itself to the areas laid out for it in the constitution, would leave US states and local areas free to make their own decisions–and fund them, too.
However, let me make it clear that I never wanted Mr. Biden to win; I would have voted for Mr. Trump had I received my absentee ballot in time (thanks to Panicdemic post, I did not); and I think that the election was stolen.
And, for the record, I was a conservative when Mr. Trump was still donating to the Democrats.
tim1; Good to know you and your mates are out there. Have a look at a photo of two Labor members of the Tasmanian parliament supporting the idea of political violence to be a “good communist”.
https://thebfd.co.nz/2021/07/02/tas-labor-leader-praises-violent-communism/
Even as a joke it is sickening.
I am with you Rebekah. Despite devoting the vast majority of my life to minimising my reliance on government, either through making good health choices, remaining employed, raising my children to impact similarly and so on, i am finding my circle of liberties diminishing at a rapid rate. My reluctance to partake of the experimental vaccines we are being coerced into taking means that I am pretty much trapped here in WA. I have a place in Qld where, prior to March last year, I would spend about a quarter of the year engaging in one of my favourite pastimes I.e. surfing. However this place has been vacant for all of this year and I cannot even get over there to clear it out for renting. What’s next? I guess the government will say I need a vax passport to go to my beach house in Falcon or to visit my daughter and grandkids in Busselton? I’m happy to pay my taxes but in return I expect government to leave me alone to enjoy the liberties I have come to expect from living in Australia.
For an earlier part of my life, the norm was “…if they do it in England then Australia will follow…”. That lasted for about 5 minutes after they dislodged Churchill. Now the operational bile is “…we must do what the yanks do…”. The political copycat incompetence of addressing an influenza outbreak is a case in point.
The issue I have with following the USA system is the great weaknesses in the USA system, like;
1: the USA is not a democracy. Never has been. It is a Republic. All its government heads are political appointments. All Supreme Court Judges are political appointments. Voting is not compulsory and therefore the benchmark rule of democracy “the majority decides” cannot exist if less than half the population votes, as exampled by the 2020 US Election.
2: the individual states in the USA may employ machines at elections which can neither count votes nor add correctly. The USA does not have an acceptable voting system which reflects either democracy or fairness.
3: The bloody minded stupidity of implementing the dumbest military and political strategy for an Afghanistan exit procedure (and similar recent wars) is just so incomprehensible from the same country that once had the skill set to put man on the moon and to build spy networks all over the world.
4: This mentality to raise woke rainbow flags before or alongside their own national flag and their appalling education system do nothing to inspire.
For me, the only way for the USA to bring themselves out of this manure, is for;
a) true democracy to rule
b) promotion by merit only, not by political identity or colour or sex
c) a voting system which is honest, transparent and reliable
d) a time limit cap on service… God gave each human a 70 year design life. Anything after that is old age and should be rested or retired
e) and even though I’m a strong Conservative, the thing with the yanks and their guns is not a big winner for me.
Phillip, you have accepted the leftist propaganda on guns. The fact is that Australians (including the elderly) are denied the right to defend outselves in our own homes against the murderous scum who prey on us. The scum know that we are denied the right of defence and act accordingly. Here is a list of just some of the helpless Australian elderly and women who were unable to defend themselves. Their deaths are the responsibility of those who deny us the right of effective self defence. If the murderous scum did not know who was armed and who was not they would not be so keen to attack and murder.
https://gunfactsaustralia.weebly.com/gun-control-victims.html
.
It is also a fallacy to quote statistics from the U.S. without comparing like with like populations and socio economic factors. The Australian leftist MSM have made a dishonest artform of this. We should question the motives of people who do not want Australians to have the most efficient means of self defence.
The fact is that U.S. states with some of the most reasonable gun laws have had homicide rates comparable or lower that some Australian states.
https://gunfactsaustralia.weebly.com/more-guns-less-homicide.html
Mr. Williams,
Thank you.
Phillip, you have accepted the leftist propaganda on guns. The fact is that Australians (including the elderly) are denied the right to defend outselves in our own homes against the murderous scum who prey on us. The scum know that we are denied the right of defence and act accordingly. Here is a list of just some of the helpless Australian elderly and women who were unable to defend themselves. Their deaths are the responsibility of those who deny us the right of effective self defence. If the murderous scum did not know who was armed and who was not they would not be so keen to attack and murder.
https://gunfactsaustralia.weebly.com/gun-control-victims.html
It is also a fallacy to quote statistics from the U.S. without comparing like with like populations and socio economic factors. The Australian leftist MSM have made a dishonest artform of this. We should question the motives of people who do not want Australians to have the most efficient means of self defence.
The fact is that U.S. states with some of the most reasonable gun laws have had homicide rates comparable or lower that some Australian states.
https://gunfactsaustralia.weebly.com/more-guns-less-homicide.html
Australia has around 3 times the rate of home invasion as the USA, because in America you are allowed to protect yourself, your family and your property whereas in Australia you are not even allowed pepper spray in your own home (SA at least), not even a baseball bat for self defence, and it would be a lie, and unbelievable at that, for me to claim it was to play baseball at my age. The ever-bolder criminals aren’t going to wait while I unlock my gun-safe, remove a firearm, load it……
.
Australians are expected to go belly up and accept being robbed, assaulted, raped, even killed because the governments have taken away our right to self-defence without adequately assuming the role.
The reason Trump was, and is, hated by the commentariat and the political class generally, is that he saw himself as representing the people of the United States, rather than the political parties of the United States. He was the people’s President, not the Party’s flag-bearer. That explains why he was hated by Republican politicians as much as Democrats.
Sadly, the Trump presidency was probably the last gasp for democracy in America. It has now succumbed into corporate fascism.