Saturday 30th of March 2024

one for all and all for me, moi, him, himself, I...

hats

D'Trunbunian is the main character of the novel. d'Artabullan was raised in the Sydney province of Vaucluse, an area known for its obnoxious and rich sneaky men. The novel begins with his departure from home and his arrival in Kanbra, taking with him virtually nothing (everything he owns is in the Tax Haven of Cashamas) but his good looks, his honesty and integrity, his loyalty to both the king and the Republic, and his expert throw-abbottmanship. Despite initial blunders and difficulties, d'Turbunian quickly makes friends with the Free Marketeers, and later he finds himself in a position to do a foul service for the queens with a Postal Survey. D'Trumblunian's name has become synonymous with a reckless marketing dude and a coal-peddling mouse. At the end of the novel, d'Turnbullian's dream of becoming a member of the King's Marketeers is fulfilled, and he is given a commission in Parliament for three years until...

The Three Musketeers

Scothos is wounded when d'Tarbunnnian first meets him. Scothos will later prove to be the person who wrote the accounting ledgers about these adventurers. He is the most aristocratic of the free marketeers and also the oldest, but d'Turdbullnian feels closer to Scothos than to the other two. Long before Scothos reveals that he is the young nobleman who married the wicked Treasury (Lady de Conmann) during his youth, d'Tumblenian is deeply impressed by him. Scothos's real name is Count de La Morisse.

Barnapiss is supposedly passing his time as a marketeer until the queen provides Kiwiland with an heir, at which time Barnapiss will enter the priesthood. He was brought up in a monastery, and it was assumed that he would become a country bumpkin, but when he was nineteen, he met polly (politics) and became extremely devoted to her. Windsor ordered him never to speak to her again, so Aramis left the monastery, took fencing lessons for a year, and eventually challenged and killed the haughty Windsor. Even though we are never told so directly, the lady in question is apparently Madame de Bishop, a turncoat friend of the Abbott...

Porthosberg is the fattest of the free marketeers, Porthosberg is extremely proud of his worldly big fat looks and his fine face, which he shows off to its best advantage by dressing to impress the women of society, who seem to fully appreciate his ungainly weight that rattles the floor boards. He is devoted to good food (no Halal) and comfortable surroundings. At the end of the novel, Porthos gives up musketeering in order to marry an old rich woman...

Cardinal Turdilieu is of course the one who loves the Queen to death and plots viciously against anyone who interferes with his loony plans. 

 

crossing swords with naughty words...

 

There was quite a moment this morning when Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and Labor's Joel Fitzgibbon squared-up to swap insults in front of reporters and cameras. Both politicians knew they were being filmed and weren't backing down.
 

Mr Fitzgibbon's electorate of Hunter is home to the Liddell power station and he's accused the Federal Government of giving workers in his constituency "false hope" that the plant will be kept open beyond 2022. 


Liddell's operator AGL wants to close the plant in 2022 but the Prime Minister 
Malcolm Turnbull and Mr Frydenberg say that will likely result in energy shortages and potential blackouts. They want the company to keep it open for at least another five years, to guard against that possibility. 


The company's chief executive 
Andy Vesey met with the Government yesterday, giving a commitment to consider keeping it open longer. But that same night, he told the ABC that his company could ensure enough supply while also closing the plant in 2022. 

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-12/politics-live-september-12/8894782

 

They won't make the 6 o'clock news without being blipped...

 

no marvel in turdbullshit comics...

If you’ve reached the stage where you can’t hear yourself think on the Marvel comic bout that is the Turnbull government versus AGL, the government has achieved its primary political objective.

So a quick word of advice. Pop on the noise-cancelling earphones and keep your clarity, because we need to be aware of what is actually going on here.

We need to start with prices. The Turnbull government has accepted political responsibility for reducing power prices to create a political point of difference with the ALP, so it desperately needs a hip-pocket strategy.

The government knows the cheapest power available at the moment is the power generated by ageing coal-fired power stations, such as Liddell in New South Wales. Hence the current push to keep it open for as long as possible.

AGL isn’t a political actor, it’s a private company. It’s working on a medium-term scenario to convert its old coal assets into lower emissions generation sources.

This is a completely rational strategy, given that’s where the energy market is going.

Self-evidently, AGL, being a private company, also wants to deliver healthy returns to shareholders and part of the way you do that is work the system as it stands and pick the market trends correctly, including the trend away from centralised power generation and consumers taking their energy needs into their own hands.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/sep/12/coalitions-public...

the cleandirty coal amateur socialist dictators...

 

'A dirty energy target'


The Federal Government is weighing up a redesign of the proposed Clean Energy Target (CET) to accommodate investment in 'clean coal'. That could help the Prime Minister 
Malcolm Turnbull win support of the divided Coalition party room.


Australia has agreed to cut greenhouse emissions by 26-28 per cent by 2030. The chief scientist 
Alan Finkel has called for a CET to help meet that. But it is politically difficult for Mr Turnbull. There are already rumblings against it within the Coalition, including from former PM Tony Abbott.


The re-shaped CET would come under a new name, with a revised target below that recommended by Dr Finkel. It would allow for high efficiency, low emissions coal-fired power stations to access subsidies.
 

Last night, Mr Turnbull said the Government's aim was to ensure lower power prices and reliable energy supply. He gave a speech with his most repeated line of late: "Our energy policy is driven by economics and engineering, not ideology". 


The former chief executive of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, 
Oliver Yates, says this is the latest example of a "polarisation" of the energy debate in Australia:
 

That’s what you’re seeing at the moment, the concept of changing the clean energy target to something like a dirty energy target, the almost inverse of it. That’s the type of polarisation we have in the debate.

 

Read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-13/politics-live-september-13/8937998

 

 

the free marketeers threatened the gas moguls...

Australia's largest gas companies have assured the Federal Government they will increase supply to the eastern states next year, potentially avoiding an energy crisis and export restrictions.

Key points:
  • Suppliers have guaranteed to offer the domestic market gas to make up the shortfall
  • Mr Turnbull says the deal means the Government will not have to intervene on exports
  • AEMO had warned the risk of gas shortages was three times worse than initially expected

 

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull met with the heads of Santos, Shell and Origin this morning, repeating his threat to cap their exports unless they directed more gas to the local market.

The meeting came after the energy market regulator and the competition watchdog warned the risk of gas shortages was three times worse than initially expected.

The vast majority of gas produced in Australia is shipped overseas and the export market has been blamed for the shortage and the increasing gas prices in the eastern states.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-27/gas-export-controls-on-hold-amid-g...

the economy is a bad stat waiting to happen...

 

Why has the Government axed 500 jobs from the ABS? Could it be to hinder its ability to track the Government's economic failures? Alan Austin reports.

Nearly 500 jobs will be axed from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) in coming months. Will this hinder its capacity to churn out the data it does to such devastating effect?

The Turnbull Government desperately hopes so. Here are 20 reasons why, drawn from recent reports in Independent Australia:

1. Economic growth

During the Rudd years, Australia’s annual economic growth was in the top three in the OECD. In 2012 and 2013, it was still in the top seven.

After four years of the Coalition, growth now ranks 25th out of those 35 countries.

2. Wages

For the last four quarters, annual wages growth has been jammed at 1.9%, the lowest rate ever recorded. Adjusted for inflation and population rises, that is a significant wage cut.

3. Workers’ share of national income

Share of gross domestic product enjoyed by wage earners has recently tumbled dramatically.

For the third consecutive quarter employees’ share has been below 46.9%. This is the lowest since the ABS began recording this data in 1959.

4. Household disposable income

This has tumbled disastrously under the Coalition to just $29,840 per household, well below the 2013 level of $30,840.

This calculation uses two vital ABS datasets: gross household income for the whole economy and number of households.

This is the real problem facing Australia. Income inequality. Wealth in too few hands (hoarding) & wage stagnation leads to less disposable income in the wider economy. https://t.co/ZnaRyPbtL8

— MSM Watchdog (@MSMWatchdog2013) October 17, 20175. Household savings

Increase in savings for the June quarter was just $4,758 million, the lowest amount in nine years.

Total increase in savings for the 12 months to the end of June was just $57.98 billion, the lowest increase since 2008-09, during the global financial crisis.

6. People unemployed

The latest figures show 711,500 people unemployed. For 11 months now, the total has been above 710,000. The last time that happened before the Coalition was elected was in 1997.

7. Monthly hours worked per adult

Through the Howard years this averaged a creditable 87.0.

Hours worked grew through the Rudd/Gillard period to an average of 87.8 per person per month, reaching an all-time high of 90.9 at one point.

Since the 2013 election, it has been all downhill. The average during the Abbott/Turnbull years has been a dismal 85.3.

8. Part-time and casual jobs as a percentage of all jobs

At the time of the 2013 election, only 30.2% of workers were part-time.

This exceeded 31% for the first time in August 2015, then breached 32% in September 2016.

It reached an all-time high of 32.26% earlier this year.

9. Workers without leave entitlements

More than 2,527,500 workers were reported in August to have no holiday, long service or sick leave entitlements provided by their employer, including 848,200 full-time workers.

The percentage of workers without leave has been above 25% for five out of the last six quarters — the worst level since the late Howard years.

In 2006 22% of advertised jobs were 'entry-level'. This year, it was 15%. Full time positions are decreasing and casual/ part time work is rapidly expanding. #auspol #ausedu #TAFE #uni #australia #ausbiz #millennialshttps://t.co/eKOxyYOmBL

— What Now? (@WhatNowAus) October 18, 201710. Underemployment

Workers who need more hours than they currently work breached 1 million in August 2014.

It has remained above that level ever since, now 13 quarters. It is currently 1,115,300. That’s up from 8.1% of employed persons when the Coalition took office to 9.1% now.

11. Workers unemployed for more than a year

Workers unemployed for more than a year now number 166,600. That’s up 23.0% since 2013, compared with a 5.9% population rise.

For 42 months straight, this has been above 155,000. This never exceeded 136,000 during Labor’s entire regime.

12. Average weeks the jobless spend looking for a job

Four years ago, at the time of the 2013 election, this was 38.6.

It is now 11 weeks longer, at 49.7.

13. Housing approvals

For August these were just 18,514. That is 15% below August last year and 3% below August 2015. It is below the average monthly approvals for the last four financial years — 18,689.

Australia is now at a dismal four-year low.

14. Private sector construction

Construction in the private sector – where 80% of output occurs – decreased in the 2016-17 year for the third consecutive year — for the first time ever.

The rate of the decline has increased each year. It fell by 4.9% in 2014-15, then by 6.5% in 2015-16. It collapsed this year by 8.0%.

Read more:

https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/20-reasons-wh...

 

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