Does anyone here want to talk about Australian politics?

I would start a thread if I thought anyone else cared enough to use it.

so i know v. little of australian politics but was that a surprise? i thought rudd was doing fine?

You could have used a joke title like "The Member for North Sydney has gone out to lunch" or something.

the other thread seemed to be a useful enough place

Wasn't there something in the news about the first female woman being elected prime minister?

oh Phil has got internets at home again? and they say Gillard hasn't done anything to improve the country yet.

Wasn't there something in the news about the first female woman being elected prime minister?

no

BUT THE AUSTYRALIAN PEOPLES DIDN'T ELECT HER TEH UNION BULLYBOYS DID OMG

NO I DO NOT KNOW WHAT A WEST MINSTER SYSTEM IS

the other thread seemed to be a useful enough place

― how much can a koala ˁ˚ᴥ˚ˀ (sic), Sunday, 27 June 2010 10:41 (43 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
Other thread?

In all the hullaballalullabaloo about the union scum staging a union scum campaign to install a union scum PM, the nutbars seem to have forgotten that the ALP's bad polling universally pointed to Rudd being the only problem they had. Abbott's rating barely changed and the ALP's reduced, but Rudd's personal rating was rubbish in every measure.

The dying days of the Fourth Reich: it's the 2007 AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL ELECTION

nutbars be dissemblin'

The only reason why it was down is because a large percentage of Queensland and Western Australia are populated by selfish morons too moronic that they're minor bit characters in the play that ends with shareholders walking away with a wheelbarrow full of money while these morons don't realise that they only reason they get paid $100,000 a year to drive a truck in the middle of nowhere is that it is in the middle of nowhere.

Also, racists.

The dying days of the Fourth Reich: it's the 2007 AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL ELECTION

― how much can a koala ˁ˚ᴥ˚ˀ (sic), Sunday, 27 June 2010 11:37 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

o fuc sorry, I didn't know that thread was still going. CLOSE THIS THREAD plz

uh but it's a thread from 2007 guys

maybe a pre-emptive 2010 election thread instead?

Why not. Maybe someone wants to rename this thread and make it relevant to 2010 and/or witty.

REDZ UNDER THE BEDZ: Australia besieged by communists in 2010

Better Dead Than Redhead iirc

btw I don't think Tony Abbott "gets" irony after listening to him brag about how the Libs have got rid of one Labor leader

Dude the ALP is totally unstable. Abbott is setting an example by overseeing a party which has been kept stable under one leader for at least 12 minutes.

RED HEAD REDEMPTION 2010

i understand there was a solid zing by labor

Labor Bloc Zing Crew

In the Lower House she shook hands with Tony Biggott and said 'game on'. The 'moll' was implicit.

Former editor of the National Indigenous Times explains in full why Rudd failed Indigenous people, and touches on one facet of Howard's racism. Vital reading.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2937488.htm

Gillzo refuses to be religious

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/29/2939879.htm

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she has no intention of pretending to believe in God to attract religiously-inclined voters.

Former prime minister Kevin Rudd was a regular at Canberra church services and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is known as a devout Catholic.

In contrast, Ms Gillard says that while she greatly respects other people's religious views, she does not believe in God.

THAT'S what I'm talkin' 'bout

greens mp in melbourne ftw

love the huge posters of b4ndt on swanston st

Ace.

Drove past Tanner's office on Saturday. Looked as glum as ever.

Did anyone read this shit?

http://www.watoday.com.au/opinion/politics/shacking-up-is-hard-to-do-why-gillard-may-be-leery-of-the-lodge-20100628-zexr.html

OK it is less to do with politics and more with value judgements but fuck me, was Bettina Arndt always this much of an A-grade cuntbubble?

The gist: Gillard is a bad rolemodel for women BECAUSE SHE ISNT MARRIED TO HER MAN.

What in the everloving FUCK.

wow what a moron

Only just read it. She also claims Pat Rafter was bad choice for Australian of the Year because he was not married and therefore an uncommitted father. Moments like this I have second thoughts about freedom of speech.

morelike bettina arsendt, amirite

bettina arsebandt

bettina ardnthole

bettenalady cumstain

buttina hurdt

^^

http://inside.org.au/shoulder-deep-in-the-entrails/

i liked this

parents dragging children through a succession of chaotic ''blended'' families
parents dragging children through a succession of chaotic ''blended'' families
parents dragging children through a succession of chaotic ''blended'' families
parents dragging children through a succession of chaotic ''blended'' families
parents dragging children through a succession of chaotic ''blended'' families

i think bettina arnottsscotchfingeruptheanus has confused real life with saturday kitchen

bettina beats us all at our own game

http://bettinaarndt.com.au/aboutbettina.php

Bit of a Bettina Arndt

Her brand new book - What Men Want – is being published in August, 2010.

oh this will be fascinating

http://inside.org.au/shoulder-deep-in-the-entrails/

i liked this

― assiest boy in america (haitch), Tuesday, 29 June 2010 13:57 (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Michelle Grattan and Paul Kelly join the crowd, waxy and wrinkled as exhibits in some glass case at Madame Tussauds.

^^ perfect sentence

Her brand new book - What Men Want – is being published in August, 2010.

oh this will be fascinating

― jo jo zeppelin (electricsound), Tuesday, 29 June 2010 14:04 (29 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Ways to promote a forthcoming book:

1. Write a controversial column two months earlier

buttina hurdt

A+ lol

Guessing that Bettina's "Sex Diaries" features the not-having kind of sex.

Also...WTF??!!! Cannot believe she's sagely using Whitlam/Greer to bring her stupid argument "home". Yes, Bettina and while we're at let's examine this new trend of women wearing mens trousers and driving their own cars.

Gaaaaaaaahhh!

Love that Shane Maloney piece btw...

My mum went to school with ButtArndt.

Actually, come to think of it that explains a lot.

in any case i look forward to this future of high-powered career women with loose morals

:D

they can only be career women some of the time, clothes don't iron themselves

As long as career doesn't require shoes, being barefoot & preggers

If I start taking birth control pills does this mean I get to be Prime Minister now?

Thanks to King Boy Potato

http://www.smh.com.au/national/gillard-against-gay-marriage-20100630-zkcj.html

Dozy fucken bitch.

See now, I dont read her saying "I'm against gay marriage" in that article, seems a bit shit stirry to me. Fucking papers.

Labor policy on gay marriage will remain the same under her prime ministership, Ms Gillard told Austereo show today.

"We believe the marriage act is appropriate in its current form, that is recognising that marriage is between a man and a woman, but we have as a government taken steps to equalise treatment for gay couples," Ms Gillard said.

Asked if that was also her personal view, Ms Gillard said it was.

= against

abolish marriage for heteros imo, this is a valuable step towards equality

^^

Abortions for some, tiny Australian flags for others!

http://yfrog.com/0g96erj

(thanks to mr bidness)

...

erection erection erection erection erectnio erecirtonn eredcoifn

keating will shit this in btw

i better update the address on my enrolment innit

Loving various TV stations insinuating the announcement is late because the PM and the G-G are having girlie-talk.

Talk about your periods here, girls: Better Dead Than Redhead: the 2010 Australian Federal Election thread

Grim.

To give you some idea of how utterly vicious the JobSeeker cut is: rent eats up a full 65% of my reduced payment leaving me with just $130 per week for bills and food. This is what today looks like for millions of people

— Joshua Badge (@joshuabadge) September 25, 2020

Our labor ‘opposition’ makes starmer look like corbyn, but then we have Fitzgibbon to make Albo look less than a complete collaborator.

Feel I need a safe space to experience dread

My wholly unverifiable prediction is that people sharing amusingly-captioned photos of Morrison crash-tackling an 8 yr-old are somehow going to swing the election for the Coalition by playing into some kind of Buffoon Daddy image that the inhabitants of this dipshit colony secretly crave

My other prediction is that the UAP are going to be a much more potent electoral force than anyone is anticipating

Would be glad to be proven wrong on these, maybe 13 years of this shit has trained me to reject any optimistic scenario (I mean to be fair the best possible outcome is an ultra-milquetoast Labor govt, pretty hard to get super excited about this)

Agreed on all, except UAP are a joke even to their constituency. But the "shy tory" vote and the invisible hand of the Boomers will keep the LNP in power for another decade I think.

The ALP did well to avoid their fatal hubris when ahead in the polls, but they've become so centrist there is literally no positive reason to vote for them other than "less worse than the Coalition". There's nothing to believe in any more in Australian politics, just a choice between parties offering the same things while one group openly enrich their power base while the others clutch their pearls.

UAP are 100% clown car shit for sure, but I actually think their dopey messaging is gonna translate to a reasonable anti-major party protest vote. Precisely on account of that Lab/LNP death spiral you mention.

I actually thought Labor went into the last election with a non-terrible policy offering, and they were eviscerated by boomer self-interest, News Ltd, right-centrist media bias generally and Shorten's uncanny lack of human qualities. So I guess I understand their timidity this time. But they are gonna get smashed again.

This is beginning to feel pretty grim. It does feel like the Coalition is staging a comeback and it might come down to whether some of the teal independents can win and we end up with a hung parliament.

I find it helpful to expect the worst

It’s what both major parties’ policies are offering, so

Bit in the Guardian this morning saying 25% (!!!) of early voters exit polled in Wentworth (fuckin WENTWORTH!!) copping to voting UAP. That may be unscientific data but my dread is empirically real.

sharma reported “shook”

Yeah, the UAP is going to get a lot more votes than the polls say. But I have a hard time thinking they'll get 25% in Wentworth! I live on the edge of that electorate, and it's basically evenly split between rich people who will reliably vote Liberal no matter what, and young professionals who will vote all over the spectrum, but are hardly naturals for a populist conspiracy theorist party. But who knows anymore.

Appalling automated text message I just received from Clive Palmer’s party. Brazen Trumpian lies like this one should not be part of our political discourse. Shameful attempt to scare voters pic.twitter.com/6kodfSx1cF

— Lily D'Ambrosio MP (@LilyDAmbrosioMP) May 20, 2022

Yeah this sucks but if the major parties were committed to truth in political communication they would make it illegal to lie like this. But they’re not, so they don’t. https://t.co/ULbIJdyzc2

— Tim (non-spooky, non-Halloween version) (@burgotastic) May 20, 2022

idk i am feeling more optimistic than most of you, signs of a labor victory look much better than 2019's signs were and even if the same sort of polling error is repeated that just gets into likely labor minority territory (& at the very least some of the problems with the polls last time have been fixed). still possible that things go very wrong but it doesn't seem overly likely, things aren't too close on paper at least. labor getting 52-53 TPP and somewhere around 80 seats seems pretty realistic, at least i hope

i am not optimistic about labor being very good at all but there is at least the possibility of them being pushed to the left a little by the greens (who they will necessarily need to rely on in the senate to do anything that isn't terrible) & they're absolutely an improvement over the coalition at least. don't think they're quite as useless as say, uk labour or the us democrats yet

also feel reasonably optimistic about the prospect of the greens finally winning another house seat or two, things seem quite good for their chances in a few seats, especially in some of the brisbane seats, so hopefully they'll be able to scrape a victory together somewhere at least

thanks UFO, this country has trained me to live without hope, but I hope you’re right

Final two polls both have it 53-47. I am daring to hope...

I’m not. But good luck Straya.

today has been very very long and slow

Ok bracing for a golden shower of UAP primary votes

Have been enjoying the endless minutes of Lib, Nat and ALP numpties on the ABC all explaining how a vote for anyone not affiliated with a party formed before the end of WW2 is a vote for chaos and the end of civilisation.

No landslide for Labor, that's for sure

Brisbane *is* rather interesting. ufo otm yesterday!

Labor minority govt with Greens support, if that's how it pans out, is probably the best result

sickos_yes.jpg

Albo in, Scummo out, happy for Aussies.


Albanese describes himself as "half-Italian and half-Irish" and a "non-practicising Catholic". He is also a music fan who reportedly once went to a Pogues gig in a Pixies shirt and intervened as Transport Minister to save a Dolly Parton tour from bureaucratic red tape. In 2013, he co-hosted a pre-election special of music program Rage and his song selection included the Pixies and Pogues alongside the Smiths, the Triffids, PJ Harvey, Hunters & Collectors and Joy Division.

Time for DJ Albo! #AusVotes22 pic.twitter.com/uKHOFnoCYo

— Sam Menhennet (@sammenhennet) May 21, 2022

sentiment taken as intended but afraid I had to FP you

Cautious phew

Feeling pretty good! Greens have done well, Labor won't be able to ignore them. Frydenberg losing is pretty sweet.

Dutton’s “I am your cuddly Liberal Daddy” repositioning speech was super gross

Very glad that my worst imaginings re auspol shitshow failed to materialise - strong Green vote unexpected surprise - realise I know not much about the teal independents other than at least one of them is an ex-Lib - not sure what the implications are if a bunch of them get elected?

this is… quite a good result all round?

This guy scraping by to keep his seat would be a win for nominitive determinism.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Goodenough

I know not much about the teal independents other than at least one of them is an ex-Lib - not sure what the implications are if a bunch of them get elected?

they're a mixed bag, some are very much tree tories who would happily fit into the moderate wing of the liberals if they didn't believe that was a dead end, some are fairly progressive on a lot of things and even to the left of labor on many issues but usually more conservative on economic issues

their overall influence will likely be fairly limited as labor will necessarily require the greens' support to pass anything in the senate & likely won't need anything more than the greens' support in the house at most (they could still end up with a majority but minority seems more likely), so the teals shouldn't have any ability to block anything & if labor passes something that they support but the greens don't, it'll have trouble getting through the senate

this is pretty fantastic result, the worst result for the liberals in at least 40 years which will put them in existential crisis territory, and unexpectedly great for the greens (the greens have gained at least 2 seats and it could be up to 5, though some of those are rather unlikely) while also teaching labor a lesson or too (no, people weren't inspired by your small target and parachuting terrible candidates like keneally who have no community backing into "safe" seats can horribly backfire)

the one risk is labor gets very bitter about the greens 'costing' them a majority (if that's how it works out) and refuses to negotiate on issues much at all & parliament becomes horribly dysfunctional. really just have to hope that they'll be pragmatic enough.

Yep, agree this is a pretty great result. I think Albo's instincts will veer towards the pragmatic re the Greens. But he'll worry about the optics (cue Coalition talking points about Bandt the puppet master) and feel the need to beat his chest and invent confrontations.

https://i.imgur.com/QpWJlzK.jpg

Amazing number of pissy Lib/Nat takes saying that the party had drifted too far to the left (!!) - like, I kinda get that this is jostling for control of the post-loss narrative but it’s also utterly demented.

yeah the party has absolutely lost touch with public opinion and has only retained the rusted-on boomer vote (hi mum and dad). Labor should be deeply ashamed that they “won” on a “platform” which consisted of “the same but not Morrison” which, while pleasing in the short term to be rid of the Scunt, offers little in the way of vision or leadership. At least the numbers of Greens and indies is a neon sign saying “make some actual progress on climate or suffer the consequences.” Plibersek’s hubris was pretty gross but Albo I think is properly humble about taking the job with such a tiny primary vote.

Its that Pato you are sharing a succulent democracy sausage with sic?

my fckn polling place had no (zero) sausages or cake stalls, in inner suburban Hobart. Ruined my day, I had even timed my vote for lunch.

Really wish this was true:

the Mail’s review of the Australian Greens’ agenda is one of the most intense “threaten us with a good time” pieces I’ve ever seen pic.twitter.com/uJEVq9hqSm

— James Mackenzie (@mrjamesmack) May 22, 2022

that is all real greens policy, they're great, but they're not in government so most of that isn't really on the table, unfortunately. in practice i'd probably put them to the left of most european greens parties

labor will necessarily need to rely on them in the senate to pass anything so there is going to be a lot of room for the greens to negotiate concessions & push labor to the left though. we'll have to see how it plays out but it's still the most progressive parliament we've had here in my lifetime by a long way

That's great to hear. Hope the Greens don't fold and are able to get a few things through.

'Bandit' is an anagram of 'I, Bandt'.

off to a great start

Chris Bowen has slapped down Greens demands for a more aggressive decarbonisation pathway amid fears over projects such as Woodside’s $16.5 billion Scarborough gas project. https://t.co/3pnoopcnWg

— Financial Review (@FinancialReview) May 23, 2022

(@trayce - yep, couple of hot Polish with cream cheese & sauerkraut, eaten in the batting cage at the corner of the CHAZ/CHOP: true fucken blue m8)

This parliament is going to be a real argy bargy between Labor and the Greens, but I expect the Greens will win at least some of the battles.

guillotine time

i <3 toto albanese, there i said it

you can line up the account holder though, that’s another matter

Still the best 15+ minutes of TV a week, if you haven't seen it yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANeqEi0xcxw

labor are not going to immediately concede to the greens on anything so i'm not surprised by the rhetoric (though there has been some slightly softer language elsewhere)

the reality is that labor is forced to negotiate with the greens if they want to legislate and this is the reality going forward for them in government that they need to get used to (it was the case in 2010 too but that was a more complex situation). they've shown they can be pragmatic in the past so we just have to wait to see how parliament will play out. labor being underwhelming in government is also a very good way for them to lose further seats to the greens

I suppose the makeup of the Senate will determine how tightly the thumbscrews are applied (and bring it on). They'd have to read a surge in green sentiment in the national outcome too, it might embolden them to tiptoe left of "Liberal Party Lite" policies.

the makeup of the senate is clear enough to say that labor + greens + david pocock (a left-wing independent) should be a majority. an alternative option to working with pocock (though he shouldn't pose many problems to anything labor & the greens support) is jacqui lambie & her newly-elected second senator who should also not be too difficult for them to work with.

if labor wants to pass something extremely shit though they can of course try to get the opposition's backing for things the greens oppose.

not going to immediately concede to the greens on anything

yah, but it’s also clear that the new Minister For Coal is not going to be living up to any broekn labor voters’ fantasies of “they have to campaign on things they don’t believe in in order to win votes! they’ll just do good things instead once they’re in office!”

ty for the MW S- -- I also enjoyed last week's breakdown of Morrison's total failure to whip up a culture war about trans ppl, let alone a victory from one

Are we going to have some UAP nutter in the senate¿?

https://kevinbonham.blogspot.com/2022/05/2022-senate-postcounts-main-thread.html

here's a detailed overview of the senate prospects, it's possible we get a uap senator from victoria but it's probably not going to be clear until the senate results are finalised mid-june. would only be potentially taking a seat from the liberals so not a great loss.

That Vic UAP guy appears to be an antivax/antilockdown nutbar. Not the greatest platform to run on when its not even an issue anymore yeesh.

Delightful that Victoria can't claim a Steve Fielding-like "it's byzantine preferences deals wot done it" situation with the Palmer candidate. The UAP primary vote *was* actually relatively strong here and a win for them would appear to be a pretty fair approximation of what the people asked for. *weeps*

Labor + Greens + Pocock = absolute majority in the Senate though, so as long as the right compromises can be made on the Left side of things (big 'if' I guess), they don't have to deal with any of the other morons.

UAP primary vote *was* actually relatively strong here

no, it was still very weak (only 4%, less than 1/3 of the quota for a senate seat), it's just that the Liberal primary vote collapsed enough in Victoria for them not to have a clear path to the 3rd seat that they'd usually be able to get, and the UAP is simply the strongest of the minor parties so they have a chance at it. the result is going to come down to preference distributions so it will be a fair outcome, unlike the case of Steve Fielding which was a product of the completely broken GVT system

there isn't any way for One Nation or any potential UAP senator to be a decisive vote with the way the senate looks now. if Pocock opposes something (not sure why he would but regardless) that's supported by Labor & the Greens then Lambie is a very reasonable alternative, and if Labor wants to pass something completely opposed by the Greens their only option is the Coalition.

We largely appear to be agreeing. I was referring to the Bonham link. Still a small portion of a quota but *relatively* high by national standards. Such that even with a crude allocation of senate slots on first prefs alone (hopelessly artificial but arguably kinda sorta 'What The People Asked For' in many minds) you be giving it to UAP. It certainly wouldn't be scandalous if that's what actually eventuated after distribution. That's basically all I meant.

UAP would need to leap-frog others, via preferences, in most states. Admittedly they'd be leaping over One Nation or whatever, which is arguably a more hideous outcome. Maybe I'll try to take some solace from Palmer at least being preferable to Hanson here, lol.

Lambie is reasonable as long as it's a problem she's personally experienced, otherwise she doesn't give a fuck.

I was all "who or what the feck is a Pocock", having not paid much attention to the indies/ACT votes bcs why would I.

Question about Aussie preference voting from a lefty American: my impression from the instructional pages and other sources is that you get to "vote your heart" (say, a Green candidate), then add a second vote for Labor over the Liberal/National Sadness if the Green doesn't win, so you aren't splitting the left-of-center vote. Is that basically the situation?

Also, I read in the AU version of the Guardian that state legislatures still have some horrific-yet-legal malapportionment and gerrymandering. Any chance a Labor/Green coalition puts a stop to that? Thanks!

Yes, that is basically the situation. It means you can vote Greens without worrying that you're splitting the centre/left vote, because you can put Labor as your second preference. So much better than the first-past-the-post system. That's the lower house, the upper house system is more complicated and I'm not entirely sure I understand it...

I don't know about gerrymandering here, but if it does happen it's nowhere near on the scale of the US. In theory there's an independent commission that decides electorates, so there's shouldn't be gerrymandering. That said, I think Labor generally needs a slightly higher percentage of the vote to win than the right-wing coalition.

We number every candidate in the lower house elections. Then, if no-one has an outright majority we eliminate the weakest candidate and peruse the second preferences on the ballots that had been provisionally allocated to them on first preferences. It continues until an outright majority is found. No 'wasted votes' but it's arguably flawed as only a minority of second/third/etc preferences are ever consulted.

Senate elections (and some state upper house elections) are more complicated as we have multi-member electorates. eg. federally, each state votes for 6 senators at a time, so they each need to reach a quota of 1/7 of the pool of voters in each. We express at least 6 preferences there (though one can tick dozens of boxes if one wants to) but the algorithm is sufficiently complex, and the various margins so small, potentially, that we hand it over to computers after being satisfied that every ballot has been received.

The federal and state electoral commissions are theoretically scrupulously independent, so gerrymandering is not often raised as a huge problem.

The lower house elections tend to entrench two-sided Labor vs Liberal/National contests, with voters for other parties overwhelmingly contributing to a win for one or the other, via their lower-order preferences, year after year. A more proportional system for the lower house(s) would be nice but there doesn't seem to be much enthusiasm for fighting for it. The three long-established parties do rather well under the current system!

Someone else can talk about malapportionment, lol. [Oooh, XP!]

I took too long but I tried hard with this, so sorry for the repetition -

Yes that's how preferencing pretty much works in the House of Reps (lower house). First choice votes are apportioned to the candidates, lowest candidate removed and votes distributed to second preference, lowest removed and next pref distributed etc.
The Senate is a weird baroque system where each state has six senators, so there is a quota of 1/6 of the number of votes to get a senate seat, but candidates are grouped by party. So then if Labor get 1.5 quotas they have one senator for sure, but the 0.5 might either be the basis of receiving prefs to reach a second quota (thus 2 senators) or might not be enough to be the leader when parties begin getting eliminated and hence the 0.5 would be redistributed to others (and they stay with one senator). If that's not already complicated enough, there are 2 ways of voting, one where you number the groups (parties) "above the line" and your preferences go by the order you put the parties, or you can vote "below the line" for full chaos where you might number 39 candidates and somehow that interacts with the quotas to determine which of the people in each party actually become senators for the quotas the party got.
I know the audience have drifted off but an example of that is the Liberal party, whom I dislike intensely, had put their ultra Christian Senate bully (who e.g. verbally attacked people in Senate and harangued them because they were speaking in favour of same sex marriage) last on their list of three candidates. This made him unlikely to be elected because the Liberals would only get 3 quotas in a landslide. His supporters ran a "vote 1 for Abetz below the line" to try to circumvent this and make him a Senator even if the Libs only got 1 or 2 quotas. However I and quite a lot of other people went through the ordeal of below the line voting for the satisfaction of putting "39" beside his name.

No 'wasted votes' but it's arguably flawed as only a minority of second/third/etc preferences are ever consulted.

One way in which we mirror the US system is in the Senate, where every state has the same number of senators, regardless the population, ie Tasmania (pop. 500,000) has the same number of seats as NSW (pop. 8 million). Never heard anyone talking about reforming that though.

Every time I look at Hare-Clark, I say "that looks... pretty good, maybe" then feel like I understand it for maybe a few weeks, and then I drift back to feeling clueless about how it works again lol.

though one can tick dozens of boxes

Whoops, I just described an informal ballot lol. *Number* the boxes, innit.

in the Senate, where every state has the same number of senators, regardless the population, ie Tasmania (pop. 500,000) has the same number of seats as NSW (pop. 8 million). Never heard anyone talking about reforming that though.

Until the Parliament otherwise provides there shall be six senators for each Original State. The Parliament may make laws increasing or diminishing the number of senators for each State, but so that equal representation of the several Original States shall be maintained and that no Original State shall have less than six senators.

Also, I read in the AU version of the Guardian that state legislatures still have some horrific-yet-legal malapportionment and gerrymandering. Any chance a Labor/Green coalition puts a stop to that? Thanks!

not really, nothing like the US at all - gerrymandering is not an issue these days thanks to independent electoral commissions. there have been major historical issues with malapportionment in state parliaments but anything remaining is very minor - i think the Queensland state parliament might still have a tiny bias to a few gigantic, sparsely populated rural seats but it's not a big issue. the Western Australian parliament was the last to have significant malapportionment issues but they've been fixed in recentish times - the lower house was fixed in 2008 and the upper house last year. the federal government doesn't have any power to fix issues with the state electoral systems though. if you have a link to the article i'd be interested.

I think Labor generally needs a slightly higher percentage of the vote to win than the right-wing coalition.

this was just the way the marginal seats fell at the last election - after this election's count is finished i suspect it'll be firmly the opposite based on the numbers so far.

One way in which we mirror the US system is in the Senate, where every state has the same number of senators, regardless the population, ie Tasmania (pop. 500,000) has the same number of seats as NSW (pop. 8 million). Never heard anyone talking about reforming that though.

a referendum would be required to reform that, which would never get up due to that requiring approval of all states, so it's a non-starter. it thankfully doesn't pose the same sort of problem as the US as every state/territory is competitive for both major parties and our senate uses proportional representation so there isn't the same sort of bias as from single-member districts. if anything i'd say the senate's malapportionment as it stands actually slightly benefits the left, due to Tasmania leaning left & being the smallest state.

the Hare-Clark system used in Tasmania and the ACT is basically the same as the Senate voting system except without the option to vote above-the-line, so you're only voting for candidates and not parties.

I didn't realise that, but of course!

In that case, I fear I repeatedly misremember H-C as having some New Zealand-like features or something. *blushes*

I do remember what Robson Rotation is though. Why that's not universal is quite beyond me.

Wow, thanks to all y'all for the educational treatise on the AU voting process! I'm involved with groups in the States who seek to reform our FPTP quagmire with ranked-choice voting (our term for preference voting), and we've had success in several cities and a few states. I wish we had mandatory voting here, then we'd get to spend more time on issue discussion and persuasion, and less time fighting against voter-oppression laws.

Here's a link to the Guardian article that references malapportionment:

"Druery said reform of WA’s electoral system should deal first with issues of malapportion, which mean the votes of electors in remote and regional areas are worth up to seven times that of inner-city voter"

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/07/wa-candidate-elected-to-parliament-with-less-than-100-votes-prompts-calls-for-electoral-reform

you might number 39 candidates

If I'm not suffering PTSD from the experience, the longest senate ballot I ever had to number was c. 130.

Whoa, yeah I did a few big ones when I lived in NSW. Our US colleagues might enjoy knowing that our entire system is paper based, and because of the structure of the Senate ballot it can be a piece of paper 2-3 feet wide and 6 inches tall, which we have to fold up into a small wad to fit the ballot box slot.

I’m actually kind of shocked that Plibersek was dumb enough to make those comments about Dutton, real basic shit for a senior minister to get wrong.

bring back Keating

I recall having to wrangle a HUGE senate ballot when I lived in the ACT in the early 90s. At that point they had a lot of joke parties was one reason why. LIke the Party Party Party and such. Seems to be less of that now? Or they dont allow it anyomre, I dont know.

Sorry estela but thank fuck

Sorry guys, the Toto account is not being run by Albo, Albo’s team team, Labor or Toto.

— Matt Burke (@matttburke) May 24, 2022

Also re: preferential voting, this cartoon explains it very well.

https://www.chickennation.com/voting/

"Druery said reform of WA’s electoral system should deal first with issues of malapportion, which mean the votes of electors in remote and regional areas are worth up to seven times that of inner-city voter"

yeah this was fixed in the WA upper house reforms last year, along with other significant issues there. Druery was very good at exploiting some of the other issues in the WA upper house electoral system (that also were fixed in last year's reforms) & was just cynically saying "let's only do one thing at at time"

i don't think ranked-choice voting is ideal (multi-member districts with proportional-representation are significantly better, single-transferable vote like we have in the senate here is pretty great) but it's the best option for single member districts for sure

You can’t judge someone on either comments they’ve made, or decisions they’ve done when they’re exercising their either personal conscience or their particular viewpoint.

Just because someone’s got a different view to the ABC, respectfully, doesn’t make them terrible or wrong.

It simply gives them a different view, and that has got nothing to do with the size of his heart or the quality of his character or the capacity of his intellect, respectfully.

stuart robert on new opposition leader peter dutton. not sure this is going to go well for them lol

Unless the Labor govt is catastrophically incompetent (quite possible I guess), there is no way Peter Dutton can win a federal election. They'd have to win back at least some of those teal seats and he can't do that. My guess is he'll stick around for a couple of years and then they'll kick him out for someone more palatable.

yeah i think even abbott was only so successful as opposition leader because labor were disastrously tearing themselves apart for four years straight and dutton really just emphasises all the reasons morrison was hated

there is no way Peter Dutton can win a federal election.

Not so fast! They’re on the case, ready to reform:

The party’s internal analysis of its election performance will be led by Liberal elder statesman Brian Loughnane, who was federal director for more than a decade, and senator Jane Hume.

Sorry estela but thank fuck

🐦[Sorry guys, the Toto account is not being run by Albo, Albo’s team team, Labor or Toto.
— Matt Burke (@matttburke) May 24, 2022🕸]🐦

In an extended interview with Nine Newspapers on Sunday, Ms Keneally was asked by columnist Peter FitzSimmons whether the loss was because she went up against a local candidate while she was a "wealthy white woman from distant parts parachuted in."

"I think the impact of the COVID lockdowns had far more to do with it and was far more at play on the day," Ms Keneally replied.

Some wag has suggested that KK is a shoe-in for next Governor-General and that would be both hilarious & awful at the same time.

also props to Fairfax/Nine for letting Old Red Bandana Mate ask the softball questions, in case it wasn't enough of a wankfest with her Morrison-esque worldview

With Labor stuck on 75 seats it's becoming ever clearer what a monumental cock-up it was to parachute KK in

they're more likely than not to get at least one of the remaining seats but it would be very funny if that was the decisive factor in them missing out

Kristina Marie Kerscher Keneally

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S08E13/91056.jpg

I am wondering what kind of dirt she has on the Labor mavens, for them to repeatedly trot her out to an electorate which has demonstrated its dislike for her several times.

Worth adding: There is no Teals stealing seats from the Libs - they earned them. There is no Greens stealing seats from Labor - they earned them. If you can't mentally adjust to the notion that a diverse community believes in more than two parties can provide, get a new job https://t.co/9mBLRrMflB

— Possum Comitatus (@Pollytics) May 29, 2022

A zillion times this.

Some days it feels almost like the ABC might even be the worst offender here with their "both sides of politics" and the sheer amount of staff and airtime invested in a stiff Labor vs Coalition "show-business for ugly people" contest forever. It may as well still be the '70s.

agreed, burn the parties to the ground, false dichotomy is boomer politics

I am wondering what kind of dirt she has on the Labor mavens, for them to repeatedly trot her out to an electorate which has demonstrated its dislike for her several times.

she only got her senate seat due to shorten's personal backing, and then didn't have enough internal factional support to keep a winnable spot on the ticket when actually up for election this time. she's close to albanese so he wanted her parachuted into a safe seat in the house so she could remain on his frontbench. it probably would have worked if a strong local candidate in dai le didn't see the opportunity to run against her, i doubt the lib candidate would have posed the same threat at all on their own.

Even boomers had the aphorism of being team players in the lower house but voting Dems in the senate “to keep the bastards honest” - the sincerity of that principle has persisted but been wildly unfocused in this century, flickering wildly between Houses and a range of nutbars, grifters, sincere indies and Palmer. This election feels like a potential sea-change away from two-party domination for a generation or so.

(And of course ppl have the example of our only functional legislature this century being a minority government…)

tbf the other govts were flat-out shovelling grants and tenders to their cronies and enshrining generational inequity, you didn't expect them to *run the country* as well did you?

dai le is a conservative ex-lib (she was suspended from the party for running against their mayoral candidate in the council she's on when she lost pre-selection) but has very strong ties with the local liberal branch still. the only reason she's stayed an independent is because she seems to see an advantage in not having the baggage of a political party, the libs have repeatedly tried to re-recruit her to the party as a star candidate, having been very willing to overturn her suspension. will be interesting to see how much she diverges from the liberal party line in parliament now that she's more than a councillor.

i'm not sad i'm laughing actually

"I suppose you think I am sad. Not really." @Barnaby_Joyce #auspol pic.twitter.com/PzFG6fAQs1

— Political Alert (@political_alert) May 30, 2022

congratulations to the future shadow treasurer of Austraalia

“I read about this numerology theory that if you add the numbers that match the letters in your name you can change your personality,” she told The Australian.

“I worked out that if you added an ‘s’ I would have an incredibly exciting, interesting life and nothing would every be boring. It’s that simple.

“And once I’d added the ‘s’ it was really hard to take it away.”

no, angus taylor of a million corruption scandals fame is reportedly the likely shadow treasurer

Fantastic. Great move.

It was nice to have eight days of looking like we had the best-case-scenario result, but ABC has called 76 for Labor. Probably close enough to recount preferences in Macnamara, but if they're confident enough to update now, looks like it. (Lab also ahead 50.1% to 49.9% in Gilmore at current count.)

((btw ufo u may have missed my extremely elaborate joke about arithmetic))

you meant shadow treassurer?

Can't talk about a republic now (the Queen hasn't died yet and she's been Queen... well, for quite some time)
Can't talk about a republic now (the Queen has just died, how distasteful)
Can't talk about a republic now (he's only been the King for a few months, give him a chance)
Can't talk about a repub--

Pull the fucking ripcord before kerchunking any Chazcoins ffs

But not before the public holiday!!

Nothing was going to happen before the next election anyway. I'm not exactly optimistic, but Charles is a pretty odious character and if Labor can get a healthy majority next election who knows...

Yes I saw some of the proclamation stuff and thought ugh, this guy? seriously? I would imagine with Liz out of the picture the monarch isn’t a popular notion any more.

labor had previously announced that their plan is to hold a republic referendum during their second term (if they get one) because their focus re: constitutional reform at the moment is the indigenous voice, so it's not anything new that they're not going to have a republic referendum immediately. i do expect that once the voice referendum is out of the way we'll hear more about how they're going to go about holding the republic referendum, deciding on a republic model, etc.

I really hope they don't have anything to say about which republican model and just opt for an up/down vote on whether you want an Australian for head of state or not. Once that's done, the options for which model can be the subject of a further referendum. Putting a specific model forward from the outset just risks the disaster of 1999

when shorten was labor leader he announced plans to do something like that, idk if exactly that is still their policy but i think they're well aware of the failings of the 1999 process at least

my preference would be to remove the governor-general/monarch or any equivalent completely, formally codifying all the unwritten convention of the current constitution, making the pm the head of state, & specifying reasonable procedures to deal with the existing grey areas that the g-g has responsibility over

hopeful that we the nation opt for mediocrity and disappointment rather than actual evil* wearing an ill-fitting skin suit

but we have gotten this choice wrong before!!

*not to discount incompetence

hearing word that it's going to be a trumpet of patriots sweep

As long as Michael Jessop beats his "trumped up" charges

Police allege they found weapons and camouflage clothing inside his car. It is also alleged that during a further search of the vehicle officers located a shovel, axe, gloves, duct tape, ropes and a cadaver bag.

Tough choice in the Dickson electorate between Dutton and Jessop.

far out, had managed to miss that story (in my defence this has been the most boring election campaign i can remember and that includes that one with Turnbull in that felt like it lasted six months)

it's been pretty interesting in just how disastrous it's seemed to be for the lnp, probably the worst federal campaign i've ever seen

Two things you've got to give the trumpets credit for

1. Funny name
2. The bat-shit insane controversy surrounding all their candidates, bringing the entertainment factor to this election

In the Division of Reid, New South Wales, the party nominated David Sarikaya, who had claimed to hold a doctorate in psychology. However, an investigation by the NSW Health Care Complaints Commission revealed that his doctorate came from an American, online, non-accredited institution called "The American College of Metaphysical Theology (ACMT)". His doctorate was in theology, unrelated to counselling or psychology practice, and the degree certificate was purchased online in 2009 for around $249. The HCCC launched an investigation in 2016 and found that he had been continuously misleading the public for years, posing as a mental health professional without any formal qualifications in psychology or counselling. In 2018, the New South Wales Civil and Administrative Tribunal even issued an order permanently prohibiting him from providing any paid or voluntary healthcare services. He was also convicted of fraud in Victoria in 1997 and later declared

Trumpet of Patriots candidate Mark Aldridge quits over party's spam SMS messages

Queensland candidate, Gabrial Pennicott, who is running in the division of Wide Bay, was declared bankrupt and imprisoned in 2011 after being involved in 23 counts of fraud.

Trumpet of Patriots candidate Jason Smart has withdrawn his support for the party and urged voters to put him last, after a Teal independent was placed second on its how- to-vote card.

Not to mention

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/serial-pest-in-sperm-donor-groups-joins-clive-palmer-s-colourful-cast-20250501-p5lvrl.html

Joseph O’Connor claims in the biography posted on the party’s website that he brings “a wealth of experience in mental health and counselling” to his candidacy.

But this masthead can reveal that he has also presented himself as Dane McDuff, Blake McBeth, Adam Nilsson and Jack DeBevay in Facebook groups for women and couples looking for sperm donations, among a stream of identities that mushroom each time he is banned from a group.

Sperm donor groups generally do not allow members to use aliases.

Multiple women have complained to the group administrators that he has engaged in creepy behaviour, sent them unwanted imagery and is using the groups for sexual gratification.

The unwanted material included videos of himself on a porn site called “Chaturbate” where he uses the moniker JackPhallus.

In one of his early profiles, set up under the moniker Dane McDuff in 2019, he boasted of a “super high” sperm count.

“I kept knocking up all my previous girlfriends so figured I might as well come here and put it to good use,” he wrote. “Australia only pls unless you’re willing to travel, shipping sperm seems like it would reduce quality.”

He set up his own sperm donation group in 2022 under the alias Adam Nilsson, after administrators of other sperm donation groups collaborated to identify all his aliases and remove him from their groups. He posted his vital details, including a photograph, offering to donate sperm as recently as September last year.

One of the rules of his group is that if a man agrees to donate via artificial insemination, they cannot renege at the last moment and insist on natural insemination.

“Grow some balls I know a lot of you have tiny dicks and this is the only way your micropenis having self can get laid but I don’t care, go to a brothel,” the rule states.

“Anyone who whines, whinges, complains etc about anybody will be BANNED … This isn’t your soap box for you to have a cry and get sympathy because boo hoo it’s too hard.”

It is not clear which of the three administrators of the group wrote the rules.

also the particularly bizarre party history - it was originally founded by the staffer for a rural independent in the vic parliament in 2004, and first federally registered in 2011 as the country alliance (getting 0.05% of the vote in the 2013 election) and then ran as the australian country party in 2016 (with 0.07% of the vote). at some point it was taken over by far-right conspiracy theorists and ran as the australian federation party in 2022 (0.39% of the vote despite running in most seats outside nsw). it only changed its name to trumpet of patriots last year, before it was effectively sold to clive palmer this year - he'd deregistered the united australia party to avoid donation disclosure laws and failed to re-register it due to laws specifically meant to ban such shenanigans.

I'm in the apparently-perilous seat of Wills. There's every chance Sam Rattnam will win, which would be grouse - I actually thought we already had a Green in the seat but apaz its only at the state level.

I voted at the primary school in Abbotsford this morning which holds the distinction as the most Yes booth in the country (>84%) and the nos were probably more radical nos than reactionary ones.

Bandt got my lower house vote however what I really want to do is make him a sandwich. He’s looking positively skeletal right now, to the point that I hope he’s not ill.

Senate, pingersfor parliament all the way and a good line of socialists , progressives and vaguely progressives so you can get to 6 or even 7 above the line without having to add in someone awful.

The demonically pissed potato cop completely stuffed it which means a labour lower house majority, we might have got something done with the greens and teals as the balance of power.

I sit next to climate 200 in my coworking space andwhilst I couldn’t vote for a teali appreciate your never going to get anything better in kooyong so I appreciate what they do, at least until they show their true colours and support a knuckle dragger government. (Also the Holmes a court white savior gene can go fuck itself)

The redistribution of virtually the entire eastern suburbs moved me from a 'Yes' electorate to a 'No' electorate. I'm faintly annoyed about that despite no real world consequences. Will presumably now plead "b-b-but the local primary school booth, while not in Abbotsford's league, was firmly 'Yes' " etc, etc lol

I'm in a teal seat (Wentworth). She's basically a moderate Liberal - but she's up against a horrible robotic Michaelia Cash soundalike, so I guess I'll take what I can get

good luck oz, we (we as in me) are all counting on you.
Hoping Wannon can get it done!

I sit next to climate 200 in my coworking space andwhilst I couldn’t vote for a teali appreciate your never going to get anything better in kooyong so I appreciate what they do, at least until they show their true colours and support a knuckle dragger government.

i think there's very little chance most of them would back a lib government these days, the libs have gone too far to the right for there to be much common ground with them. spender is the main one who would consider it but even then i think she'd find it easier to work with labor.

Whilst I would trust Dr Monique as far as I could throw her and really didn’t like how her campaign suckered in a lot of really progressive an potentially left wing people last time, still rather have her than frydo, or whatever nazi Barbie the Victorian libs have put up. (I had the misfortune to meet Matthew Guy and David Southwick in the last state campaign and fuck me the best and the brightest don’t go anywhere near the Victorian liberal party, and they were the last hope against the transphobes, christofascists and flat earthers).

Interested to see what mal, frydo and kean do on Sunday morning, watching the libs tear themselves apart again will provide some amusement.

There was a thing on the radio this morning about our electoral system leading to inevitable dull mediocrity, which I guess is better than the alternative.

Heh I threw a BTL vote at purplepingers as well. He seems to be a good advocate for housing security/affordability/tenant rights.

Any views on the prospects of the Greens holding onto their lower house Qld seats?

(Actually, I think ufo might have been amongst the first I noticed talking seriously about those potential Green gains in 2022!)

I think Dutton ran such a bad campaign that he’s handed all those seats to Labour.

Please please please, let that also mean Dickson dumps him.

Wow, those Dickson numbers really are looking delicious.

I gather he’s out on his ear now.

Yep, GONE.

Congratulations to the new PM, matttkkkk (I think that’s right)

lol even with the biggest federal victory and first re-election as PM for anyone in over two decades, a bigger swing to Greens than Albo at home

get in the bin Dutton you absolute potato

woke up to this and super stoked. good on ya, oz. Dutton losing his seat is the cherry on top of the sundae

any form of rebuke for American branded fascism spreading abroad is a means for celebration.

Very civilized country to be all sorted out before bed time.

Disappointed in the greens result but the libs ran such an awful and incompetent campaign it trashed the greens chances even though the green vote went up. It’s been amusing to watch the libs for the last couple of weeks, basically trying to engineer the worst possible result for Dutton without actually loosing their own seats.

Anyway, time to see if albo grows a pair or if the lesson learnt is that mediocrity is what Australia wants.

The latter, surely? Best not rock boat too much with an election in some 1100 days.

rock THE boat, rather

The best part about last night was the fact Dutton had told everyone not to posion themselves with watching the ABC coverage. On Insiders just now I saw that Ch9 or 7 or whatever it was put a pic of Duttplug in a dunk tank and sunk him! The indignity is delicious.

pretty crazy result - an unexpected labor landslide that the polls only barely hinted at. a significant polling failure, though not as severe as 2019.

result seems potentially existential for the libs, in that they've nearly been completely wiped out in urban seats and the 'moderates' have been reduced down to three. it's hard to see how they have any chance of winning back a lot of the seats they've lost without moving away from the right, but the remaining party is dominated by the hard right who lost them this election & the nats will have more influence than ever as they're now proportionally the largest they've ever been in the coalition.

Any views on the prospects of the Greens holding onto their lower house Qld seats?

(Actually, I think ufo might have been amongst the first I noticed talking seriously about those potential Green gains in 2022!)

ryan is still looking very good for the greens, but the other two are lost. it's not a good result in those seats, though a big part of it is just being swept away by a labor landslide, but i do think there's lessons to be learned about how to pick battles better

unfortunately melbourne is also at risk - we don't have a good idea there yet because the aec hasn't started the right preference count (they were expecting it to be a liberal vs. greens contest not labor vs. greens). wills is pretty much knife's edge but there is still a real possibility of greens winning it.

time to see if albo grows a pair or if

🤣 😂 😆

ufo otm
Conservative politics seems alien to millennials and gen Z, I think they will need to find a new position to occupy. Campaigning on nuclear energy, walking back climate action and eliminating remote working in 2025 is breathtakingly out of touch.

Yeah the nuclear thing baffled me. That was a discussion to be having in the 80s, not now, given how long plants apparently take to fire up? And it'll always have bad optics thanks to Chernobyl and Fukushima.

It’s just what some aging pricks from Queensland come up with when they want to throw a bone to those concerned with climate but protect their coal and gas interests. It was just so blatant it didn’t land unlike all the anti renewables and anti transmission Astro turfing that’s going on. Sadly that seems to be working.

We’re one clapped out mud burning turbine failure in the Latrobe valley away from being utterly fucked next summer. We are most summers but it could be really bad this year.

Excited to watch the libs begin their journey of renewal by totally ignoring the messages being sent to them by the Australian public

It’s just what some aging pricks from Queensland come up with when they want to throw a bone to those concerned with climate but protect their coal and gas interests

yeah it was more about resolving the internal conflicts within the party than any sort of serious policy - it kept both sides of the party happy, the denialists who do the resources lobby's bidding and the section who believe in climate change and want actual action taken. they spent the last decade tearing themselves apart over that so this was a convenient way to paper over that but it wasn't a remotely serious offering

lol

I know right!

Are you laughing at the social media id laws, hate speech laws that simultaneously broke the coalition and free speech rights, or the country joining the Board of "Peace"?

All are very lol worthy when coupled with tears. And I'm here right now. No one I know is talking about much of any of this...

Ha! I quite like that emsworth didn't specify as, yeah, a rolling, perpetually renewed 'lol' is generally warranted. But I was faaairly confident that a 'lol' late on Thursday AEST would have been elicited principally by the second matter! :)

yeah was posting in wonder at the coalition shitting the bed (again)

which is not to say those other matters are not lol/cry-worthy

i have a 13 year old kid who doesn’t seem to have been affected in the slightest by the social media ban

should i be worried about Hastie? unelectable far right headbanger? or the acceptably smooth face of palatable fascist vibes for a restive electorate?

I for one will miss feigned outrage at Joy Division t-shirts, etc, amidst the time-honoured ranting about migrants and renewable energy.

Haha, belatedly tuned into Angus Taylor's speech and immediately hear about immigrants with bad values and the unaffordability of renewable energy.

To paraphrase Turnbull earlier: "Sky News is the best thing to have ever happened to the Labor party."

Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus

Sussan Ley identifying as a keeper of the punk rock spirit will never not be laugh out loud funny to me

but, but she added another “s” to her name! Just like Siouxsie!

i like that taylor's saying the libs need to change or die when he's just offering a mix of howard and abbott

LOL. Everyone OTM.

I have to say the Aus politics thing I most want to comment on is the police brutality and racism at the Sydney rally against Herzog's visit. I was genuinely shocked at the wanton violence and aggression, it was like a unit of ICE had crossed the Pacific.

Ley’s greatest gift to Angus will be loosing her seat to the nats, one nation or a helen Haines style independent.

On the protests, minna clearly let/encouraged the cops to go all ice on people protesting genocide.

I would almost have put money on Vic police going insanely thuggish at some point this week. That they managed to look -- by comparison, in parallel circumstances -- like the model of restraint for once is pretty impressive NSW!

In a week noted for ridiculous speeches I did enjoy that the esteemed visitor rose to the occasion with some juicy disingenuousness and A+ whataboutery:

It’s obscure and odd that we need to have so many incredible police officers protecting us for the inherent right of us to gather here as proud Jews, to host the President of the only Jewish state on Earth without any harassment and disturbance. I say to all those protesters outside, go protest in front of the Iranian embassy.