Yes its a thing and simply, its this. If you're debating say Voluntary Assisted Dying (insert any issue) and there is a person or persons in the debate who are of a particular faith that is strongly for or against the issue "Arguing from Authority" is an imminent threat.
Is basically that if one argues from a Scripture point of view THAT is arguing from authority and it will not convince other people to change their mind because it comes from an authority that some people won't recognise, respect or follow.
Arguing from Authority cannot convince anyone of thought change unless you first thought change them on their spiritual faith. It is a massive insurmountable discourse barrier. The solution is by all means, if you are a person of faith do not use your faith based arguments, keep it secular. If an issue is damaging to society as a whole you can present that in a secular fashion & you will have a chance of finding a more sensible fact based solution, not disturbed and partitioned by faith or opposition to faith.
Yes, to those who are non and even anti faith they too need to tread carefully and keep it secular, non faith based. Using it as an opportunity to fire pot shots at people of faith is counter productive and again sets up insurmountable barriers to sensible solutions.
To date even amongst varying faiths things are showing disturbing trends. One particular charity for disadvantaged people in our community was shut down from using a Social Media platform that it uses as its prime generator for donations. Why?
Well on the platform they had used an "offensive term or phrase".
The operators of the site went through their entire postings to find an offensive word or phrase and couldn't find one. Then they suspected what might have happened. They replaced the word "Christian" with "Muslim" and the site was reinstalled straight away.
At present faith is being segregated and weaponised in discourse & political decision making. Both sides are involved but I suspect the more left leaning are more keen on this angle.
Keep your faith, keep adhering to your Scriptures but argue in a totally secular manner.
Keep your non faith, adhere to whatever worldview you choose but argue in a totally secular manner.
I suspect we're beginning to see some weaponizing of worldviews in WA. There are claims that the Liberals are being stacked & run by "far right Christians" which is odd because if you're far right you are not Christian, you can't be. Some might call them that, some might claim that but its not exegesis-wise possible.
The Nats have been labelled by a small few as being strongly anti faith, strongly Christian and also very divided. Those claims didn't come from Nationals or Liberals...came from the left.
Separation of Church & State...we ALREADY HAVE IT. We do not live in a theocracy or caliphate. But we do have to be careful that we keep law making & law keeping totally secular. Sorry Muslim friends, it means that Sharia Law is inconsistent with Australian Society. Same as we do not have Amish enclaves making local laws & penalties.
Secular. In political discourse its the only way to proceed to a solution from discourse.
Saturday 27 July 2019
Saturday 20 July 2019
Australian Politics, The Left, The Right, Conservatives & Donald Trump
Donald Trump & Australian Politics? Yes there looks like a link but its more of an effect than a connection or plan but it may play out in a big way in one particular way. First, lets look at the US scene and crack it open & guess a bit. During the Clinton/Trump US Presidential election a good US friend & I were talking & I asked which candidate would be better for the country, who's the best out of the two of them. The answer I got was "Depends one whether you like to be stabbed or slashed"
Yeah a bit cynical and almost Australian like. His view now is remarkably different. He says as much as he thought Trump was going to be a total cartoon character from The Simpsons he's had to eat humble pie. He's actually done some of the things he said he would & actually tried to do some of the things he's predecessors did. Moving their US Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, well his predecessors said they'd do that & didn't, the wall between them & Mexico, same deal. Tightening borders & deporting illegal aliens same too.
His biggest fault is claiming he'd do something and then actually carrying through. No I'm not a Trump fan boy but its hard to dispute the facts as they unfold. Is he a great leader? Maybe and maybe not. Is he a great statesman? No, not even close. He is a great salesman and he knows to close a deal he has to deliver and he's got lots of deals, every decision appears to be a deal. Now he's not the emperor calling all the shots on everything. There'll be a huge number of background briefings, advisors & support staff working different length strategies. But he does put his finger prints over things.
I don't if he'll be impeached over something, I don't know if some new scandal will come out. Fact is no one really notices now. Any other politician that had the amount of scandals he's had would be toast in the bin. Yet he survives & bounces back, often much stronger.
Now how does this an effect on Australian Politics?
Seems odd but bear with me, "The Squad"
A group of 4 left wing Congresswomen who play identity politics, group politics, victim cards and talk in the most profoundly vague generalisms not to mention complete silence when they're asked a question they don't like. Do they support or oppose the fire bombing attacks by Antifa or not? Dead silence, the reporter asks again and a again in a walk presser but they won't answer. One now is possibly going to fact a serious investigation re election fraud & possibly immigration fraud..."did you marry your brother?" and again complete silence.
The Squad have gone after Trump with a vengeance trying to do a Penn & Teller level card trick...and failed. They played the race card over & over. They went after him and possibly they should have just not poked the bear. His race credentials (if there is such a thing) seem to stack up quite well. Black Americans are thought to primarily voted Democrat, thought to be 80% range. I think that's going to change and it may slowly ended up 50:50 eventually.
The Squad went after Trump and its kind of looking like the kayak attacking the battleship.
Interesting is Black American unemployment rate double under Obama's first 2 years in office. Under Trump its currently at an all time record low. The share market has kept travelling on gain cycle too.
Not all attributable to Trump & Trump alone...but it's hard to be critical of a President that isn't playing the Left vs the Right game, is just delivering and delivering well.
The horrible cages at the border the children were placed in, Trumps copped merry hell for them but they were installed during Obama's reign. And he is not deporting refugees or immigrants, he's deporting illegal aliens.
All this has an effect, the left is taking a serious blow, the socialism of Venezuela is failing with catastrophic results for human life. Socialism is being properly outed for what it is. Against individuals going about their daily lives getting ahead without government interference.
THAT effect is going to slowly go worldwide. No it won't lead to the fall of North Korea & China but the Hard Left is going to dwindle & will be less likely to dupe people.
I think we saw in the recent Australian Federal election the exact opposite of what nearly every predicted, it was not the continued Red Tide we saw in the WA State election.
Yes it turned into a Blue vs Red election or perhaps a ScoMo vs Bill dish up but Bill Shorten was outplayed mainly by himself and he did end up losing the unlosable election. There possibly isn't a Blue vs Red tide tussle, its what best for your country, your state that's at play and people are working out what the 2 major parties in Australia are about.
If there's a draining of the swamp in Australia, its red that will likely be drained. The Greens may not win too many more seats in the decades to come, but they might make up a higher percentage of the Left in most parliaments. Further cementing the Blue team in power most likely.
Its no longer mainly Left vs Right. From here on in it'll possibly be Left vs Conservatives vs Right.
It the Left keeps fighting the Right, which is all they know the Conservatives will prevail. The downfall of Conservatives is most likely going to be self inflicted over time.
The Squad, by pursuing Trump have probably damaged their own chances and may well contribute to Trump's re-election greatly. The press is seeing the Squad as the intellectually bankrupt train wreck they are, they will continue to get massive press coverage compared to all other members of Congress and they will further cement Trump & undermine themselves. Where there's a spectacular crash, the press will follow it, nurture it and milk it for all its worth.
They are lawn & Trump is the lawn mower.
And now the age of the internet means more people are closely inspecting what Socialism is, what Neo-Marxist Post Modernism is, how to some truth is whatever you say it is even if its fictional or a deliberate lie.
In WA's upcoming State Election (20 months away) its likely the Red Tide will recede. McGowan could lose power & government. The biggest thing will be whether people vote Liberal or Nationals if they flee Labor at the ballot. Nationals don't run in most seats so metro will not see that Blue vs Green & Gold contest. Might in some country seats.
So yes, Trump may have an effect on Australian politics in the next 12-18 months. I expect & hope it will cause people to less Neo-Marxist. I don't think McGowan will deliver as much as he said he would even by plundering Royalties for Regions to cost shift the financials. Yes, the bush is subsidising MetroDebt and quite a few other projects in Metro Labor held seats.
Interesting is Black American unemployment rate double under Obama's first 2 years in office. Under Trump its currently at an all time record low. The share market has kept travelling on gain cycle too.
Not all attributable to Trump & Trump alone...but it's hard to be critical of a President that isn't playing the Left vs the Right game, is just delivering and delivering well.
The horrible cages at the border the children were placed in, Trumps copped merry hell for them but they were installed during Obama's reign. And he is not deporting refugees or immigrants, he's deporting illegal aliens.
All this has an effect, the left is taking a serious blow, the socialism of Venezuela is failing with catastrophic results for human life. Socialism is being properly outed for what it is. Against individuals going about their daily lives getting ahead without government interference.
THAT effect is going to slowly go worldwide. No it won't lead to the fall of North Korea & China but the Hard Left is going to dwindle & will be less likely to dupe people.
I think we saw in the recent Australian Federal election the exact opposite of what nearly every predicted, it was not the continued Red Tide we saw in the WA State election.
Yes it turned into a Blue vs Red election or perhaps a ScoMo vs Bill dish up but Bill Shorten was outplayed mainly by himself and he did end up losing the unlosable election. There possibly isn't a Blue vs Red tide tussle, its what best for your country, your state that's at play and people are working out what the 2 major parties in Australia are about.
If there's a draining of the swamp in Australia, its red that will likely be drained. The Greens may not win too many more seats in the decades to come, but they might make up a higher percentage of the Left in most parliaments. Further cementing the Blue team in power most likely.
Its no longer mainly Left vs Right. From here on in it'll possibly be Left vs Conservatives vs Right.
It the Left keeps fighting the Right, which is all they know the Conservatives will prevail. The downfall of Conservatives is most likely going to be self inflicted over time.
The Squad, by pursuing Trump have probably damaged their own chances and may well contribute to Trump's re-election greatly. The press is seeing the Squad as the intellectually bankrupt train wreck they are, they will continue to get massive press coverage compared to all other members of Congress and they will further cement Trump & undermine themselves. Where there's a spectacular crash, the press will follow it, nurture it and milk it for all its worth.
They are lawn & Trump is the lawn mower.
And now the age of the internet means more people are closely inspecting what Socialism is, what Neo-Marxist Post Modernism is, how to some truth is whatever you say it is even if its fictional or a deliberate lie.
In WA's upcoming State Election (20 months away) its likely the Red Tide will recede. McGowan could lose power & government. The biggest thing will be whether people vote Liberal or Nationals if they flee Labor at the ballot. Nationals don't run in most seats so metro will not see that Blue vs Green & Gold contest. Might in some country seats.
So yes, Trump may have an effect on Australian politics in the next 12-18 months. I expect & hope it will cause people to less Neo-Marxist. I don't think McGowan will deliver as much as he said he would even by plundering Royalties for Regions to cost shift the financials. Yes, the bush is subsidising MetroDebt and quite a few other projects in Metro Labor held seats.
Yes I do think a reckoning is coming, I think we may see the Federal result replicated in the upcoming WA State Election & I think we might enter a period where Identity Politics, Group Politics, Post Modernist Neo-Marxism and all the Socialist bents will get cracked open like the left will not want. They will be inspected closely & found wanting. The faces will be red too.
What will be funny to watch is how Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau will weigh in and take it to a gob smackingly daft new level. On the world stage he's considered a joke and a fool. I think he'll confirm those views & probably support the anti Semitic Squad at some point.
What will be funny to watch is how Canadian Prime Minister Trudeau will weigh in and take it to a gob smackingly daft new level. On the world stage he's considered a joke and a fool. I think he'll confirm those views & probably support the anti Semitic Squad at some point.
Saturday 13 July 2019
WA's Current Political Landscape...
Every political party is going to go through ebbs and flows. WA Lberals did but suffering an electoral defeat that wasn't unfairly referred to as the Red Tide. Now in the Lower House Labor doesn't need a lot of their MPs to be present to run their majority. In the Upper House, not so much. If the flu goes through the chamber some things could go a little pear shaped for the Government.
WALabor certainly has its ebb & flow dynamic. The recent Federal election was a rejection of all the polls and pretty well all commentators who were expecting another Red Tide or some cases a Red Tsunami came up red faced. Some even predicted Labor would win 86 seats. Yes some commentators were speaking partly in hopes and dreams and their bias slipped out into full view but it wasn't just Shorten who was on the nose.
Yes it was a Red vs Blue battle, yes it was a ScoMo vs Bill tussle but in the West it was Mark McGowan who fronted the hustings and one could be forgiven for thinking the Premier was actually running for a Federal seat. The ballot showed what the ballot showed and Mark McGowan since then has been flat out distancing himself from Federal Labor and flat out throwing distraction grenades out ever since...but it may not be enough.
The next WA State Election is a little way off (13th of March 2021) but at some point McGowan and WALabor will actually have to cease with the "The Liberals fault..." for everything angle. They've been in power for a while now & you'd expect they'd be on top of their own term in office by now.
Here's the thing, WALabor is in full fright mode. They only have to lose a handful of seats and there's more than a handful of seats that sit on 3-5% swing, which in the scheme of things is a coin toss. They really do know they're on the cusp of "One Term Wonder" status. I suspect this is why you see a big rush of photo ops with international who's who types. Tennis players, actors filming here & then bringing popularist sport stunts like Mixed Martial Arts cage fighting to WA along with Manchester United. These distraction grenades aren't helping the regions who're being stripped of Royalties for Regions to cross subsidise bold election promises in key metro based Labor seats.
McTiernan is still devoutly ANTI LIVE EXPORT despite the industry having a 7+ year descending trendline in Transit Mortality Rate, despite having the best Animal Welfare outcomes across the globe, despite it holding up the entire sheep market & farm gate price, despite it having competitors that have NO Animal Welfare standards or regulations. Despite us having NO ability to process an additional 3 million head of livestock here in Australia, nor having any market to sell them into. Banning Live Export will deliver the worst Animal Welfare Outcomes possible, remove all regulations to keeping it a cruelty free and destroy regional economies in the process.
Despite what you've been told by some, there is no evidence whatsoever that the current Ag Minister has anything on her mind except "Plan B" and "transition". She is an Animal Rights activist, always has been.
Transport Minister...well she can't manage much more than dart throwing across the floor of the chamber. She even had to break off ports from her Transport Portfolio because she's battling to manage METRONET or as many are calling it "MetroDEBT" and just wait til those real numbers fall out of the ether. Its a massive mess & it is going to plunge us into some deep debt.
Education, mess...thankfully School of the Air was saved from being abolished. If you're a minister and think that's a good idea to run with, you're either not telling cabinet or cabinet are all dangerous fools. That should have been enough to remove her from office, along with her already departed confidence from the sector.
Dave Kelly...the minister who was alleged to have feigned a head butt across the chamber at a female MP from the opposition, who was going to expand the Rock Lobster Industry and make the industry subsidise cheap lobsters for the domestic market and wait til you see what he's really been doing & not doing with water.
I'm staggered how bad things are being run, Emergency Services is in a diabolical state, especially in rural areas. Yet to meet anyone with soaring confidence in that area or in that minister. Police are being denied a sensible pay rise & what small gain they will get will be gobbled up by the cost of rent in rural postings, in fact it will only go part way to covering the regional posting rent crisis. For most, a rural posting is effectively going to be a big old pay cut.
You'd think a party with such so called union cred in the ranks would not turn this into something rhyming with "Duster Truck".
Health...well wait n see there. We'll see if all the hospitals & campuses get their promised outlays. Several rural & remote hospitals had their renovations slashed and burned.
Meanwhile one priority was clear in the Labor Government's first budget. Did you know that in the Premier's own electorate of Rockingham the basketball courts had more money poured in by him in ONE YEAR than was spent on 2 years of Ice/Meth rehab in Albany over TWO YEARS? True Story.
Of course Albany got royally shafted. "Only Labor will deliver the Ring Road" and no, they haven't and strangely blame the Federal Government. Albany's MP Peter Watson is over the hill and was relegated to "Speaker of the House".
Happy are you Albany? You now have a representative who has no involvement in Government Business at all, doesn't enter into debate except to umpire and never votes on any legislation before the house at all. Now someone asked me what is the signature project that Peter Watson has delivered for Albany. I can't think of one.
One of Albany's biggest newest highly spouted projects was the Albany Wave Farm. Financially its imploded and all the jobs it was going to bring Albany, all but 2 were in Perth and one of those was in EUROPE!!!
Then there's a bunch of links with the Chinese Communist Government in business equations.
Apparently not just me thinking the red tide will recede like a Tsunami in reverse and possible we may see WA Inc Mark II heading our way. All the while cosily rubbing the chest of Rio & BHP, the 2 biggest foreign owned mining giants who still pay a 1964 rate of pittance for the Special Rental Fee.
The Labor Party is the master of shiny squirrels, distraction grenades, untruth bombs with smoke & mirrors. But to completely butcher the metaphor I'm not sure they can pull a 30 ton rabbit out of miniature hat.
Its a long way from the State Election, no commentators will call a prediction. certainly not since they all got it so horribly wrong at the Federal Election. It certainly was the case Bill Shorten did lose the unlosable election and his front man in WA steering the bulk of the face campaign was Mark McGowan. No doubt he went flat strap distancing himself from Shorten, saying the promises were too grandiose.
Watch this space. WALabor may just turn into a one term wonder. The economy is worse than most are letting on. Fee & charges in WA will rise. I think WALabor will be punished for delivering pain.
20 months out & ticking
WALabor certainly has its ebb & flow dynamic. The recent Federal election was a rejection of all the polls and pretty well all commentators who were expecting another Red Tide or some cases a Red Tsunami came up red faced. Some even predicted Labor would win 86 seats. Yes some commentators were speaking partly in hopes and dreams and their bias slipped out into full view but it wasn't just Shorten who was on the nose.
Yes it was a Red vs Blue battle, yes it was a ScoMo vs Bill tussle but in the West it was Mark McGowan who fronted the hustings and one could be forgiven for thinking the Premier was actually running for a Federal seat. The ballot showed what the ballot showed and Mark McGowan since then has been flat out distancing himself from Federal Labor and flat out throwing distraction grenades out ever since...but it may not be enough.
The next WA State Election is a little way off (13th of March 2021) but at some point McGowan and WALabor will actually have to cease with the "The Liberals fault..." for everything angle. They've been in power for a while now & you'd expect they'd be on top of their own term in office by now.
Here's the thing, WALabor is in full fright mode. They only have to lose a handful of seats and there's more than a handful of seats that sit on 3-5% swing, which in the scheme of things is a coin toss. They really do know they're on the cusp of "One Term Wonder" status. I suspect this is why you see a big rush of photo ops with international who's who types. Tennis players, actors filming here & then bringing popularist sport stunts like Mixed Martial Arts cage fighting to WA along with Manchester United. These distraction grenades aren't helping the regions who're being stripped of Royalties for Regions to cross subsidise bold election promises in key metro based Labor seats.
McTiernan is still devoutly ANTI LIVE EXPORT despite the industry having a 7+ year descending trendline in Transit Mortality Rate, despite having the best Animal Welfare outcomes across the globe, despite it holding up the entire sheep market & farm gate price, despite it having competitors that have NO Animal Welfare standards or regulations. Despite us having NO ability to process an additional 3 million head of livestock here in Australia, nor having any market to sell them into. Banning Live Export will deliver the worst Animal Welfare Outcomes possible, remove all regulations to keeping it a cruelty free and destroy regional economies in the process.
Despite what you've been told by some, there is no evidence whatsoever that the current Ag Minister has anything on her mind except "Plan B" and "transition". She is an Animal Rights activist, always has been.
Transport Minister...well she can't manage much more than dart throwing across the floor of the chamber. She even had to break off ports from her Transport Portfolio because she's battling to manage METRONET or as many are calling it "MetroDEBT" and just wait til those real numbers fall out of the ether. Its a massive mess & it is going to plunge us into some deep debt.
Education, mess...thankfully School of the Air was saved from being abolished. If you're a minister and think that's a good idea to run with, you're either not telling cabinet or cabinet are all dangerous fools. That should have been enough to remove her from office, along with her already departed confidence from the sector.
Dave Kelly...the minister who was alleged to have feigned a head butt across the chamber at a female MP from the opposition, who was going to expand the Rock Lobster Industry and make the industry subsidise cheap lobsters for the domestic market and wait til you see what he's really been doing & not doing with water.
I'm staggered how bad things are being run, Emergency Services is in a diabolical state, especially in rural areas. Yet to meet anyone with soaring confidence in that area or in that minister. Police are being denied a sensible pay rise & what small gain they will get will be gobbled up by the cost of rent in rural postings, in fact it will only go part way to covering the regional posting rent crisis. For most, a rural posting is effectively going to be a big old pay cut.
You'd think a party with such so called union cred in the ranks would not turn this into something rhyming with "Duster Truck".
Health...well wait n see there. We'll see if all the hospitals & campuses get their promised outlays. Several rural & remote hospitals had their renovations slashed and burned.
Meanwhile one priority was clear in the Labor Government's first budget. Did you know that in the Premier's own electorate of Rockingham the basketball courts had more money poured in by him in ONE YEAR than was spent on 2 years of Ice/Meth rehab in Albany over TWO YEARS? True Story.
Of course Albany got royally shafted. "Only Labor will deliver the Ring Road" and no, they haven't and strangely blame the Federal Government. Albany's MP Peter Watson is over the hill and was relegated to "Speaker of the House".
Happy are you Albany? You now have a representative who has no involvement in Government Business at all, doesn't enter into debate except to umpire and never votes on any legislation before the house at all. Now someone asked me what is the signature project that Peter Watson has delivered for Albany. I can't think of one.
One of Albany's biggest newest highly spouted projects was the Albany Wave Farm. Financially its imploded and all the jobs it was going to bring Albany, all but 2 were in Perth and one of those was in EUROPE!!!
Then there's a bunch of links with the Chinese Communist Government in business equations.
Apparently not just me thinking the red tide will recede like a Tsunami in reverse and possible we may see WA Inc Mark II heading our way. All the while cosily rubbing the chest of Rio & BHP, the 2 biggest foreign owned mining giants who still pay a 1964 rate of pittance for the Special Rental Fee.
The Labor Party is the master of shiny squirrels, distraction grenades, untruth bombs with smoke & mirrors. But to completely butcher the metaphor I'm not sure they can pull a 30 ton rabbit out of miniature hat.
Its a long way from the State Election, no commentators will call a prediction. certainly not since they all got it so horribly wrong at the Federal Election. It certainly was the case Bill Shorten did lose the unlosable election and his front man in WA steering the bulk of the face campaign was Mark McGowan. No doubt he went flat strap distancing himself from Shorten, saying the promises were too grandiose.
Watch this space. WALabor may just turn into a one term wonder. The economy is worse than most are letting on. Fee & charges in WA will rise. I think WALabor will be punished for delivering pain.
20 months out & ticking
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