Dolphins at Play

 



The politics of the day was frazzled, and Old Alex disagreed with most mainstream positions.

He didn't think the Ukraine War was winnable. And therefore worth fighting.

He thought the dismantling of USAID and its web of NGOs and associated nefarious activities, including spying eyes in a multitude of countries, was a good thing.

He thought Trump's tariffs, now the subject of wall to wall media dismay and within an easily manipulated public thereby a matter of concern, would probably do way more good than harm, and would ultimately achieve their goal of gifting money back to the working poor.

As one of America's best journalists Michael Shellenberger put it: "Indifference To Working People Behind Elite Panic Over Tariffs. Civilizations die when elites stop caring about the people — that’s what happened in America."

"Liberals and conservatives, Leftists and Rightists, have long shared a broad agreement that manufacturing and its knock-on industries are an essential source of employment for non-college-educated working-class people, and that the loss of manufacturing contributed to social fragmentation, family breakdown, and the drug addiction and death crisis. And yet both liberals and many conservatives are reacting with outrage as President Donald Trump puts in place precisely the trade tariffs needed to reduce our dangerous dependency on other nations and increase our manufacturing of the goods we need for national security, economic security, and societal wellbeing."

There was more than one view on the subject, although you wouldn't know it if you listened to the ABC, Australia's miserable national broadcaster.   

"Perhaps we should have done the same thing here," Old Alex said at a party, countering the wall to wall wailing orthodoxies on the subject. "We've destroyed our manufacturing base and impoverished our working class. And increasingly our middle class. How's that working out?"

And he could have added, and almost all new jobs are government jobs. Making people reliant on government is a precursor to totalitarianism. 

But none of these things mattered, an argument in a backyard amongst an increasingly aging cohort.

Way above, way way above in the sky above the sky, an ancient coalition of spirits, an ethereal sting ray rolled eternally slowly above them. 

And down in the dog park this morning, in one of those rare, beautiful moments of perfect weather down there on the South Coast, one of the walkers pointed out to sea and said, "look, a school of dolphins". And there they were, breaching the waves in perfect unison.

Already the whale migration northwards had begun.

Already he could feel them moving up the coast, those truly remarkable creatures.

MAINSTREAM HEADLINES

SKY NEWS

Picture: Victorian Liberal Party.

Politics

‘Albo and Allan’: Coalition uses Vic premier to attack Albanese government in new ad

The federal Coalition has launched a new attack ad that attempts to undermine Anthony Albanese by tying the Prime Minister to Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan, whose popularity recently plummeted to a record low.

GUARDIAN AUSTRALIA

Victoria police pay $90,000 to climate protester who claimed head was slammed into wall, door and ground

Exclusive: State makes no admissions as it settles case with activist who alleged police misconduct during 2019 arrest at Melbourne mining conference

ABC

Benjamin Britton has been disendorsed as a Liberal candidate for the NSW seat of Whitlam ahead of the May 3 federal election, after expressing views "inconsistent with the party's position," a spokesperson says.

Before his preselection in December last year, Mr Britton said the Australian Defence Force (ADF) "need to remove females from combat corps" in order to "fix" the military.

"Their hips are being destroyed because they can't cope with the carrying of the heavy loads and the heavy impacts that's required for doing combat-related jobs," he said.

"Why would you want to send your beautiful women? Your females, the ones that are the backbone of your society. Your society only exists because of women. Why would you want to sacrifice them in war, on the altar?"

Mr Britton also blamed "diversity and equity quotas, and these woke Marxist ideologies" for weakening Australia's defence. 

NEWS

Peter Dutton’s huge work from home backflip


Stung by polling revealing it was destroying his campaign among mums and dads, Mr Dutton has revealed a new stance on working from home

THE NEW DAILY

About two and a half years ago, when Peter Dutton was undergoing his third attempt to find a political persona that connected with people, a Coalition MP told me “until we know what we stand for, and who we represent, this is the best we have.”

Under Dutton, the Coalition is still struggling to decide who it represents and what it stands for. And the ‘best’ it has has started the Coalition’s election campaign floundering for a narrative. 

MACRO BUSINESS

Australian dollar destroyed 4.57%


SPECTATOR AUSTRALIA

 Prime Minister Albanese has chosen the shortest election possible, with the Easter holidays and Anzac Day further limiting the ability of either side to communicate their messages. That’s no accident. In 2022, Albanese’s most successful period in the campaign was the week he had off when he conveniently caught Covid.

Yet while Albanese hid from the public, his party relentlessly attacked Prime Minister Scott Morrison, turning his family’s Christmas holiday in Hawaii during the bushfires in 2019-2020 into a character assassination that dogged the PM until polling day.

CRIKEY


We’ve made it through the first week of the election campaign, folks. While it may be remembered by some for Coalition leader Peter Dutton’s slow start and confusing messaging or Prime Minister Anthony Albanese performing better than he did at the beginning of 2022 before falling off a stage, let’s be honest… there’s only one thing we’re all talking about.

The world is still coming to terms with the absolutely extraordinary scenes in the White House’s Rose Garden yesterday (I think I’m still trying to decipher about 80% of what he was trying to say), when US President Donald Trump announced his “reciprocal tariffs” on every country on the globe.

To recap: Trump is imposing a 10% tariff on Australian imports, which will kick in from Saturday. That 10% is the lowest tariff band set by the 78-year-old on his so-called “Liberation Day”, with some countries like China being hit with enormous taxes of 54% on their goods.

The reaction has been swift, with plenty of coverage yesterday given to Albanese’s five-point plan to counter the tariffs and Dutton’s rather jumbled response, which included something vague about leveraging defence.


THE NIGHTLY


Newspoll: Labor extends lead after bumpy week for Peter Dutton campaigning for Federal election 2025


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