Jones and Turnbull Peace Deal. Why?

Daily Telegraph a lead story. Jones and Turnbull’s Peace Deal 

That any politician regardless of what side, has to cosy up to a trumped up peacock like Jones infuriates me. The fact their possible meeting is newsworthy is beyond belief. Plus, we’ve heard it all before. Why should any politician require Jones blessing? Why do we allow people like Jones and other shock-jocks to determine who is worthy of being elected and who is not? 

I was a long time Jones listener. I turned off some years ago because I could no longer take his two-faced sycophantic ravings. Jones, like Bolt plays to an audience. He does it not because he always believes in what he is saying. He does it to gain an audience, increase his ratings and hence his paycheque. 

I have been on the receiving end of Jones attacks more than once. I was a climate skeptic when Jones was a climate change advocate.  I took issue with Jones pushing the climate myth down our throats.  It was obvious it was a money making scam. Given my job at the time I saw it firsthand. I believed I was in a position to speak from a basis of fact. He disagreed. Yes, he has changed his position now because the mood changed. But it doesn’t absolve him of the vicious attacks on people who disagreed with him. 

Who could forget his denigration of people who had the temerity to take off public holidays? Remember those episodes?  At the time Jones had to work public holidays. So it was the perfect excuse to climb onto his soapbox and attack those who didn’t.  Jones circumstances changed and he hasn't worked a public holiday for years and never a word has been uttered since. 

Then we suffered his endless railing against the development at Circular Quay. Jones went on and on about the harbour foreshore being stolen from the people. His accusations of impropriety against the developer and those who approved the development were a daily occurrence. We found out sometime later (when the attacks had stopped) Jones owned an apartment and lived there. What a hypocrite.

Jones was a long-time champion of Julia Gillard. In fact, he even convinced me (cut my wrist and my blood runs blue) she was OK. Then he turned on her in the most vicious way. Was she a good PM? No. Did she deserve to go. Yes. Did she deserve the vicious attack by Jones in claiming her then recently departed father died of shame? No, no, no!!! No person with a modicum of decency would think that let alone say it. How cruel. How contemptible. Any respect (which wasn’t much) I had for him flew out the window at that point. He lost me as a listener. 

What genuine Liberal supporter would forgive Jones full on assault against the Queensland Liberal Party? Jones even returned from holiday to (his words) sink them. Jones summarily dismissed what the Libs had inherited, their record or the impact of electing another Labor government. It was a personal vendetta, stuff everyone else. That speaks volumes about the man. 

Jones cares only for himself and his mates. He's never gotten over being overlooked for Liberal pre-selection. He's an A class hypocrite who wields far too much power. Jones sees himself as the King maker, the ego of the man is unbelievable. 

I laugh when I read comments about him ‘standing up for us’. He doesn’t. He stands for himself and his mates. He will stand up for you as long as you fawn over him and stroke his ego. Or, as long as there's something in it for him. The moment you stop or there is no benefit for him, Jones drops people. Listeners are no different. Try disagreeing with him. 

Jones found his niche and as a result he has become very wealthy. But he isn’t your friend and I would be much happier if Malcolm Turnbull had continued to boycott him. But I understand why he possibly won’t, I hope he doesn’t live to regret it as so many others have. 

Could We Give It A Rest, Please?

Don't know about you, but I'm a bit tired of hearing about ISIS & maybe terror attacks. Page after page of media reports. Social media saturation with every armchair expert in the universe voicing an opinion, which is their right, I know but seriously can’t we give it a rest? 

Reminds me of a few months back when we were all going to die from an Ebola pandemic.  Remember that? It was going to wipe out millions of people. Days and days of  scare mongering and knee jerk. Thousands and thousands of dollars spent on screening and tightened security. Guess what, it didn't happen. We are still here. 

I’m not saying we should be blasé about what is happening in the Middle East. I'm not saying we should be completely fooled into thinking we are immune. Only an idiot would think that. But seriously, on the probability scale of what will kill me, I’m figuring being bumped off by a terrorist wouldn’t be number one on the list right now. 

I feel very comfortable that our security forces and our police are on top of this. They can never guarantee everyone will be safe, no one can. The same as a driving test assessor in granting someone a license can never guarantee that person will not kill you whilst they are behind the wheel of a car. That’s life. 

I don’t know about you, but I had safety rules drummed into me from the time I was a child. We should be cautious. Nothing new in that. But to turn on the news, switch to any media service and be faced with as I said page after page of drama, hypothesis and questioning our security only frightens people or increases their anger. 

I caught the replay of an Alan Jones interview with the odious Mr Bernard Gaynor on 2GB873 last night. My God. Talk about whipping up paranoia and hatred. I’ve mentioned Mr Gaynor previously. He is the ex Army Major who was booted out for his extreme homophobic, Islamophobic, misogynistic  and bullying tactics. Mr Gaynor is running for a senate seat next election for the Australian Liberty Alliance. Mr Gaynor also now appears to have found a champion in Mr Jones, who is also well known for possessing the same set of corrupted values as Mr Gaynor. They were having a great old time slurring our ADF and our security capability. The main thrust of their discussion was Muslims in the services and the fact that our security is compromised as a result. Disgraceful stuff in my opinion and my very low opinion of Gaynor and Alan Jones has now reached the level of utter contempt. 

Whilst ever we put up with this stuff and support people like Jones and Gaynor the more they’ll play to an already frightened electorate in their cynical campaign to garner listeners and supporters. 

But hey, I’m merely one voice, but I suspect I’m not the only one thinking they have had enough. There are more things going on in the world and in the country that we need to know about and talk about. 

LIBERAL PARTY, LABOR PARTY: NO COMPARISON

Day two under the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull and the social media trial continues. The witch-hunt for the ‘turncoats’ is in full swing, ably supported by the shock-jocks. The opposing Liberal camps are ripping into each other. I have a personal view that some of the comments would probably be best left unsaid, but expression is good and we do believe in free speech. 

What is really interesting, is the tactics now being used by our Labor chums. They are doing their level best to compare the Labor years to what happened on Monday. For them to suggest there is any comparison between Rudd-Gillard-Rudd and Turnbull-Abbott is ludicrous. But, it’s a deliberate tactic to brand Liberals as no better than Labor. We must not let them get away with it. Mr Abbott’s situation is very different. 

In February, Mr Abbott survived, as one journalist described as a ‘near death experience’ when MP’s called for a change of leader. This challenge came after months of the government's inability to gain support for key budget measures and to explain their vision to the electorate. People were also becoming frustrated with what they perceived were broken promises. Whilst I understood the reasons for actions taken, it would be fair to say the government did a very poor job of selling the reasons to the electorate. The electorate was very angry including many staunch Liberal supporters.  

I remember having discussions with some LNP social media activists. We were trying to defend broken promises, but we were losing the battle. The communications from HQ was almost non existent. Polls were declining and our elected members of parliament were trying to deal with the disenchantment in their electorates. Months of this finally led to the demand for a leadership spill as referenced. Mr Abbott survived, but he had received the most public and direct warning possible from the party room that he had to change. Mr Abbott was given six months.  

Over the ensuing months little improvement has been made. Mr Abbott has received multiple warnings of the potential consequences of failure. Elders of the party, i.e. Former Prime Minister John Howard (who by the way was an advocate of carbon pricing, but who had a change of heart), Peter Reith and Peter Costello also pleaded him to change and to make changes. Mr Abbott refused. 

I am well aware of some of the substantial help and advice that was offered to help bring the two warring camps together. Likewise, advice was given to change the line-up so that some of the performance gaps could be closed. That was also ignored. 

Mr Abbott’s stubbornness got in the way of good judgement. The merciless media attacks on him continued and the white-anting from within, grew in intensity and frequency as anxiety levels increased because nothing was changing.. Now, I am not supporting white-anting, but I do understand the frustration felt by many. 

Mr Abbott could have made necessary changes, but he didn’t. Not because he couldn’t but because he chose not to. I’ve read all sorts of comments related to the swiftness of the spill, but once again it was Mr Abbott, who called the vote for Monday evening, a few hours after Mr Turnbull made his announcement. Mr Abbott could have delayed the spill motion to give his supporters more time, but he didn’t. Unlike the first spill that Mr Abbott won, he was unfortunately not victorious a second time. 

Now we have an active campaign by some Liberals to paint Mr Abbott as a victim. He wasn't and isn't a victim. I'm sure he wouldn't want to be remembered as a victim either. And we have Labor and their ‘pointing the finger’ campaign; “see, see your party is no better.”

I’m sure Mr Abbott was deeply hurt by what happened on Monday. No one likes rejection. But as we would expect from him, he was gracious in his departure. And, he would NEVER do anything to wreck his party. We should respect that. We owe him that.

And, the next time someone from the Labor side tries to tell you the Liberal Party is as bad as Labor, put them straight. There is NO comparison, not even close. Assassinating someone behind closed doors is very, very different to extending the courtesy of giving someone six months to fix the problem, knowing full well what the consequences of failure are. 

As for the view, that the only the public should have the right to decide the fate of a Prime Minister, that simply isn’t how the process works. The Prime Minister isn’t The President. The Prime Minister's electorate vote him in, we vote for our own candidates, their party policies and local issues. The party room appoints the Prime Minister. If people vote for a party based solely on the leader, that probably explains more about them and their lack of understanding of the Westminster system than anything else. And it clearly explains how we ended up with the Rudd Labor government. We know how that worked out. 

One last comment. I happened to pick up 2GBS Alan Jones comments about both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten last night. I was frankly disgusted. That sanctimonious so call 'King of Radio' branded the  The Prime Minister hypocrite over what he said about Mr Abbott when addressing the parliament. It might pay Mr Jones to play back some of the things he himself has said about Mr Abbott. 

What really sickened me was Jones fawning over Bill Shorten!!!!! The same Bill Shorten who played a major role in knifing, not one but two Prime Ministers in a most sinister manner. Who himself has said some dreadful things about Mr Abbott. So if we are handing out Hypocrite Awards I think Mr Jones and Mr Shorten might be very worthy recipients.