[Non-US] News That Makes You laugh/cry/neither...

[PhoneLobster]

About how well informed is the average Australian when it comes to government because your political process over there sounds a lot more dynamic than non presidential elections here.

Rupert Murdoch has a stronger grip on our major media than he does in the USA. Media control and spin is at incredible toxic levels. Our public broadcaster meant to counter this has been corrupted at every level and is now pretty much openly documented as being in the conservatives pockets (not that the media will talk about it of course).

And our last major election saw the Australian public safely elect a man who may as well have been a male Sarah Palin with senility and fairly obvious Dementia pugilista leading a party who's most competent and prominent members basically consist of things like a Ted Cruz analogue only with LESS charisma, a kind of evil creepy extra campy peewee Herman no one can seem to even explain the existence of, a fat weasel man who thinks poor people don't drive cars and a guy who is the (still) next anointed successor of the party who might as well be Hitler only without the likable mustache and the solid commitment to idealism.

That party won the actual election handily on an embarrassingly small number of embarrassingly obvious lies, and only bombed in the polls the moment they started trying to institute the policies that anyone who knows ANYTHING about politics new they were going to try and institute because that's their fucking political parties entire fucking public agenda that apparently comes as a total surprise to the people who elect that party.

I'm going to suggest the average Australian isn't all that reliable.

[PhoneLobster]

So anyway. Our election has (kinda) been called.

Probably for July 2nd... but that requires an announcement of a double dissolution by the 11th of May at the latest, which in turn requires an appropriate double dissolution trigger which will be voted on some time around about the 18th of April, and all this requires the budget to come early on the 3rd of May.

This is unusually elaborate for Australia because if it works out like this it will be a special sort of election. Basically if the senate blocks something the government nominates as vitally important enough times the government can just say "screw you guys lets go to the election early, lets ALL go to the election early" (there is more election than usual, in... ways).

No one ever does it because generally in Australia the senate blocks things that the public WANTS blocked (ie basically everything this government had blocked and a fair number of things Labor helped it push through) and the "more election than usual" thing puts them at greater risk combined with the "what? a fucking early election fuck you guys!" backlash at the same time.

The... "genius" plan is what they have chosen for their double dissolution trigger.

So anyway Australia has these things called a "Royal Commission" they are a super powered legal entity put together from (usually rigged) custom lawyer components to investigate specific topics of vital importance and often very criminal significance and are about the most powerful court possible with powers to compel witnesses, testimony and evidence that basically outrank everybody and everything we have, or at least more so than any other court in the land.

We've had a bit of a spate of gimmicky ones lately. And for some odd reason none of them inquiring into the Iraq debacle or the whole concentration camps and related torture/child abuse/rape/murder business.

Instead one of them was an open ended political hatchet job on the Labor party. To the point that originally when forming it the government was actually told "Oh for fucks sake, no you CAN'T actually flat out say that in it's terms of reference" by it's legal advisers.

Still it was a hatched job, the lead judge was outed as blatantly biased, the lead witness was a corrupt criminal pretty much literally sold out to the conservative party, they made a big thing of calling the leader of the opposition (and former labor prime ministers) to give evidence, but then buried the announcements clearing them of all wrong doing with blatantly timed late week/night media releases, and most spectacularly considering the actual well known wide spread corruption in the targeted unions... they failed to uncover basically any crimes that you could consider to be particularly contemporary, damaging to the labor party, or indeed actually even as bad as anything that the prime witness was basically getting away with as part of testifying.

All the same the commission came back with a bunch of "recommendations" that legal experts have pretty much described as really bad ideas and blatantly unjust.

See now most of the "problem" the recommendations are supposed to solve is corruption in unions. While there has been some embezzlement much of the criminal activity uncovered has been corporate bribery and has the unfortunate implication for the conservatives that for pretty much every union criminal there is a bigger matching corporate criminal they look really bad for not going after as well.

But fuck it they don't care. The commissions findings regarding the corporate side of the corruption have largely been kept top secret. The recommendations have nothing to do with the corrupt corporate activities and all disproportionately punish unions in bat shit crazy ways.

Now me, I'm a fucking radical, I'd LOVE it if say a CEO or even a minor corporate official were legally barred from EVER working in so much as a middle management EVER AGAIN if they were SO MUCH AS FINED let alone charged with a crime.

That however isn't a recommendation of the commission. However exactly that but for Union officials only just so happens to be a recommendation. And it is worth noting that a qualifying fine would include some ludicrous shit like "might have vaguely encouraged (or simply failed to stop) a tiny snap protest that was retroactively not approved by a conservative run body that never approves union protests/strikes". Even being accused of even the most minor wrong doing will see Union organizers banished from their own organizations indefinitely.

Anyway. So the government is pushing a bill based on these "recommendations". Fuck knows how draconian it is because this government can't write coherent legislation in the first place or be relied on not to change it at the last moment repeatedly apparently just for shits and giggles.

They have tried to pass it twice before and failed. The senate blocks it once more and it is a double dissolution trigger.

They have decided to run with it as their trigger (instead of say, their repeatedly failed attempts to sabotage our renewable energy industry or to make college affordable for the middle classes, BOTH of which are among other potential Double Dissolution triggers already, you know ALONG WITH BASICALLY EVERYTHING FROM THEIR FUCKING BUDGET FROM 2 YEARS AGO).

The idea is that "WAAAH UNIONS ARE BAD!" is "good ground" for the conservatives to fight on. And while it's certainly better ground than say, anything else they have that's only because the conservatives have been in a state of violent public self destruction ever since someone about as radically left wing as Margaret Thatcher was recently made their leader.

But it still makes little sense. They STILL have to pull out a budget before the election. The rumblings still indicate it will be a fiasco. They will have a whole single week between that budget and their last day to call the Double Dissolution to get cold feet over the polling.

Their current public "master plan" for the budget to totally win over voters is seriously just some fucking corporate tax cuts. And they can't really remove their much hated budget cuts they never passed from the new budget because they have dishonestly had treasury base all it's projections off those actually having been passed and as soon as they DON'T appear in the budget the deficit, already doubled by a "deficit hawk" government will skyrocket. Which won't play well in an endlessly "deficit hawk" media for an electorate made up largely of "deficit hawk" chumps.

I just don't see how this works out well for them. I mean they might win anyway, it's a hard to lose election in many respects and the position is incompetent, but they could lose well over a dozen MPs even if they do over all win, it's just all stinks of real desperation and bad politics.

Aaaand... all of this actually requires the bill that might as well be titled " The crush and eradicate the last remnants of Unions BWAHAHAHAHAHA Bill" to be blocked. And that might not happen because A) ahahahaha no double dissolution for youz, B) Labor doesn't REALLY care about unions, C) Even if they did care they want to look good on corruption and actually have been openly supportive of not insane variations of the same reform, D) Even if they did care the Union movement is pretty much a rotting long since gutted carcass at this point anyway and even a genuine progressive might actively consider the possibility that the small political gain involved would be worth the cost of letting the conservatives stomp on some already dead unions.

So yeah. Definitely going to election on 2nd of July.

Or not.

And the outcome is totally already decided and the conservatives cannot lose.

Or not.

[Koumei]

No one ever does it because generally in Australia the senate blocks things that the public WANTS blocked (ie basically everything this government had blocked and a fair number of things Labor helped it push through) and the "more election than usual" thing puts them at greater risk combined with the "what? a fucking early election fuck you guys!" backlash at the same time.

Also, calling a Double-D is almost always your last action as the ruling party. This is almost as solid as the American "I won my first term, I just flat-out get a second term" presidential thing, where for all sorts of reasons, it has just become the way it works.

I can only think of one time a DD resulted in the same party holding power (Labor, under an incredibly good and competent Labor PM (it was a long time ago), Gogh Whitlam). And then the Governor General just removed him from power anyway and put Liberals in, for reasons certainly not relating to Murdoch pushing heavily for it and the CIA pressuring him (which they flat-out admittedbragged about).

We've had a bit of a spate of gimmicky ones lately.

My favourite one was the house insulation! (Where even most Liberal ministers went "Dude, that shit isn't okay. You have to be very fucking careful when doing revenge witch-hunts on the opposition once you're in power, you don't just call a Royal Commission over every tiny thing, because they'll remember it when THEY get in, and they'll have more ammunition." But try telling Tony anything.)

Now me, I'm a fucking radical, I'd LOVE it if say a CEO or even a minor corporate official were legally barred from EVER working in so much as a middle management EVER AGAIN if they were SO MUCH AS FINED let alone charged with a crime.

It's one of the things I like about the Chinese government, honestly: sometimes they execute a white collar criminal! There's this interesting window where if you're corrupt, but not so corrupt that a powerful person can hide you away, you go to the football pitch.

So yeah. Definitely going to election on 2nd of July.

Or not.

Working on a drinking game for Australian politics, so far we have:
1. If the PM threatens a DD, drink once
2. If ScoMo (Scott Morrison, Minister for Being a Shitty Person) is left out of the loop, drink once.
3. If Labor flip-flops/rolls over for Liberals, drink once.
4. If a former PUP senator shouts something crazy or votes against their own principles due to some bizarre stance taken without thinking, drink once.
5. If someone says something so wildly racist/sexist/homophobic that you're left thinking "Holy shit, you did not just say that in front of a camera", drink once.

[PhoneLobster]

My favourite one was the house insulation! (Where even most Liberal ministers went "Dude, that shit isn't okay. You have to be very fucking careful when doing revenge witch-hunts on the opposition once you're in power, you don't just call a Royal Commission over every tiny thing, because they'll remember it when THEY get in, and they'll have more ammunition." But try telling Tony anything.)

I can't remember the exact context now but MY favourite political witch hunt Royal Commission thing was about year ago in a senate commity into... something or other.

Someone suggested something vague like what with all these royal commissions into everything someone should maybe commission one into [insert much more legitimately important thing, but one that is wildy politically dangerous for conservatives if investigated]. Probably the camps or financial industry/mining industry bribery of governments or something.

And a coalition guy on the comity freaked the FUCK out, he was fuming, he was mad, he nearly had a stroke and he was all "HOW DARE YOU EVEN SUGGEST A POLITICALLY MOTIVATED WITCH HUNT ROYAL COMMISSION INTO OUR OBVIOUS WRONG DOING! THE PRECEDENT YOU WOULD SET IF YOU DID THAT! MARK MY WORDS WE WOULD REMEMBER IT AND GET REVENGE ON YOU BY DOING THE SAME THING! GLASS HOUSES! STONES! GLASS HOUSES!"

Basically everyone in the room just dropped their jaws and sat there in amazed silence looking at the apparent space alien who lives under a rock not apparently aware his own government had no less than three royal commissions running, one distraction and 2 outright attacks directly on the opposition party.

Seriously, he was outraged at an opposing politician merely jokingly suggesting they might one day do something his party was already doing (double), then threatened retribution in the form of doing the thing his party was already doing (double).

Talk about fucking disconnected from reality. Conservatives don't just think they can get away with anything, they can't even perceive that they are doing things and getting away with it.

edit:[/i] Still let me run some potential Royal Commissions by you here that Australia needs AND would really really hurt the liberal national parties especially hard.

The Iraq War.
The NBN.
Off Shore Detention.
Children in Detention.
Whatever the fuck is going on internally in the Immigration department in general (seriously something is really weird in there even beyond the obvious).
Australian Naval border enforcement crimes at sea.
Financial Industry internal corruption and crime.
Financial Industry corruption of our political process.
Mining Industry corruption of our political process.
Corrupt Privatization practices (and into privatization and it's impact on the public good in general).
Everything Telstra has ever touched.
Corruption and Bias in the ABC (the conservatives keep promising this one, but only the low ranking media personality ones that don't seem to have noticed what the high ranking politician conservatives have been doing for the last 20 years).
Corruption of the Australian Media and the undemocratic influence of Rupert Murdoch.
The Destruction of the Australian Renewables industry.
The total con job Direct Action and the abolition of the worlds best carbon tax.
The rather obvious corrupt political allegiances of the Australian Federal Police.
The ongoing attempted destruction of Australian Democracy through sweeping (coalition states only, hmm) bans on protests and new draconian secrecy laws and more.
A Royal Commission into Tony Abbot's Royal Commissions.
Oh wait. Oh Yeah. A FUCKING ROYAL COMMISSION INTO THAT WHOLE WHITLAM THING (treason doesn't have a statute of limitations).
... fuck it I could keep going.

[maglag]

Democratic Freedom fighters blow up bombs in the airport and subway of Brussels.

Oh wait, it wasn't in Syria? I mean filthy terrorrists placed the bombs.

Paris a few months ago, now the city where the top european dudes usually gather for their reunions. Shit is getting real.

[Occluded Sun]

Never mind, I forgot for a moment this was non-USA.

[tussock]

Our NZ prime minister is an idiot. Strait-up, garden variety, fucking idiot.

Our dairy sector, which is almost the entire international trade in dairy products, including all the state land where the forestry was cut before it was ready so they could build more dairy farms (on instructions of the prime minister, woo hoo, follow the boom), and now the price has crashed thanks to massive over-supply and no one actually wants fucking milk powder. Oops, massive debt, banks in crisis, emergency schemes so not everyone goes bankrupt all at once.

Apparently that's fine, because China will take up dairy use and then we'll all be rich, and also India, and bla bla bla! Yay! Ignoring that adult lactose tolerance is a gene only really found in European people, so no they won't. Food that hurts does not sell.


But also, who cares about all those carbons and stuff (cows vs trees, who knew?). Because, OK, sure, if we do nothing (or actively make shit worse by scamming the trading schemes for profit) it's obviously like the end of the world or whatever, but our prime minister says that we're not doing nothing because we're investing in SCIENCE! See, that'll just science all the problems away with science and we spent like $7 million on science last year alone. Anyone who's worried about carbons and whatnot should just do that too, because all problems will be solved by science in a timely and surprisingly affordable fashion. So you can't just ignore it, which is why they're going to fiddle with the carbon scheme to give slightly less free money to the big emitters, and ask private farmers (all the bankrupt ones) to fund more science out of their own pockets.

Actual science results are that ruminants need to ruminate, it's what makes them live. Things which stop them ruminating are bad for them and cows will not eat that shit, because it gives them a sore stomach. Also, fucking climate science.

You can't trust in science while ignoring all the fucking relevant science, you fucking idiot. Gods damn it all to hell. News today, 6-9 meters sea level rise in the next 50-150 years now that we bother modelling the different oceans, oh right, so that's all our cities and shit. Huh. Low end of the time scale most likely on recent data.


You know, you work on the principle he's just a callous short-term profiteer, because he totally is, but then it turns out he's also blindingly naive and stupid. Which I get, people are outside their area of expertise (his being, of course, budget cutting in times of hardship, that's who we voted into office in 2009).

"If we did absolutely nothing and just allowed temperatures to continue to rise then we would have a huge issue but the truth is that won't happen" says PM Key.

Or the actual truth, here in the real world, where we are making shit rapidly worse if you look at the emissions curves, and the feedback loops out in the wider world that make that a very, very, bad idea. Also, we're going to be too fucking broke to do anything even if science did magic up a free-energy solution because our collective investment strategies are bullshit land-price pyramid schemes.

[Stahlseele]

<mr.cynical>
On the other hand: you will become the new venice after the original has sunken beneath the waves.
Also:
All that useless for building mountainous land will suddenly become immensely valuable, so if you invest wisely right now and buy some big useless mounds of dirt and rock, you could be sitting on a veritable gold mine if you live long enough to make use of it.
</mr.cynical>

[maglag]

Apparently that's fine, because China will take up dairy use and then we'll all be rich, and also India, and bla bla bla! Yay! Ignoring that adult lactose tolerance is a gene only really found in European people, so no they won't. Food that hurts does not sell.

Dunno about India, but I'm living in Beijing right now, and they sell different kinds of milk and yogurt everywhere that they sell food, with chinese labels so I seriously doubt it's aimed at foreigners passing by.

The prices are higher than other food products, but chinese people still buy it.

Plus, don't you remember that scandal a few years ago where they were selling milk in China that had been doped with some dangerous chemical to pass the protein tests?

[Orca]

As usual, Tussock is wrong. Demand for milk worldwide including milk powder is up, but supply is way up due to many people jumping in to take advantage of the initial price boom, hence low prices now. It still screws NZ farmers who jumped into dairy in huge numbers on land which was marginal for it (just about no one sees a price bubble until it ends; our PM still can't see it now) but not for the reasons he stated.

Also NZ has been cutting investment in science of this sort, not investing more.

[OgreBattle]

Powdered milk and condensed milk is super common across East Asia and Southeast Asia, and I prefer it to American "buy it in the gallon and drink it this week because we don't hulk ray it for longevity" refrigerated milk.

Yogurt is also found in every convenience store. Every night when I step out of my office for lunch there is an old lady with a cooler full of yakult bottles to sell.

There's also milk put into coffee and tea across Asia and China is full of Starbucks with milk in the drinks. "Thai ice coffee/tea" is a thing.

As for New Zealand milk, the problem isn't that mainland Chinese aren't buying milk, it's that Chinese dairy production is increasing and lessening the need for foreign imports:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... rs-see-red

[Count Arioch the 28th]

Powdered milk is bad and you should feel bad.

[name_here]

Lactose tolerance is pretty rare in East Asia but they totally drink milk anyway; the effects can be unpleasant but are in no way dangerous.

[tussock]

Eh, I guess people eat Curry.

And yes, our government has slashed science spending, while preaching about the importance of the few million they reallocated from old science funding programs to the same, smaller, science funding programs. More of that A and ~A thing.

Because Science will fix everything through the miracle of private charity, you see. All we need is more tax cuts for the rich, paid for in part through cuts to science funding.

[Ancient History]

http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/03/28/ine ... rsoc=FB_CM

[Stahlseele]

interesting O.o

[hyzmarca]

http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/03/28/ine ... rsoc=FB_CM

That's my schedule.

[Ancient History]

You're going to have to be more specific; I'm more Swedish myself. Although I have to get up at 0500.

[Stahlseele]

my natural sleeping time has nothing to do whatsoever with the rest of germany.
going to bed at 4 or 5 in the morning and then getting up somehwere between 12:00 and 18:00 . .

[nockermensch]

my natural sleeping time has nothing to do whatsoever with the rest of germany.
going to bed at 4 or 5 in the morning and then getting up somehwere between 12:00 and 18:00 . .

OnE oF uS! oNe Of Us!

[PhoneLobster]

our government has slashed science spending

Our government has virtually shutdown the entire science sector and abolished the position of minister for science and the list of atrocities and cuts is ridiculous. And then there is what they are doing to our broadband network...

But then they just go and call themselves the "innovation" government as their primary slogan for their election campaign and as their one and only solution to all of the nation's (mostly recently self inflicted) woes.

I won't go into never ending cesspit of details on our apparently "innovation" based never ending assault on science and, well, "innovation" other than to point out the latest bald faced public "fuck you" to science and technological advancement of our society.

They just announced 1.3 Billion dollars of new funding for a "new renewable energy technology" funding body that they had until very recently been trying to utterly destroy despite never getting the legislation through to have any legal basis to do so. (they among other things have neglected to appoint board members until it HAS NO ONE RUNNING IT).

Buuut... the new 1.3 billion has a string attached... they no long give out GRANTS to promising new technology based on what we want developed... they now must give out LOANS based on what they think they can turn a profit off.

Aaaand... actually the "new" 1.3 billion is NOT additional funding. Because actually they cut the ENTIRE funding for this body THEN they added this funding. The PREVIOUS funding was... 1.3 Billion. They cut all that (in blatant and improbably illegal defiance of the senate), then (sort of) refunded... the same amount and called it "new funding!".

Aaaand... actually the "new" 1.3 billion is actually not even the SAME 1.3 billion. Because the new 1.3 billion is actually cut directly out of ANOTHER renewable energy funding body in Australia they couldn't manage to abolish with legislation either, the one that acts as a bank funding actual practical renewable energy projects instead of just research. (and yes, again, with cuts that are blatantly in defiance of the fucking senate)

Yes. They couldn't abolish EITHER by legislation. So they've... basically illegally... cut 100% of funding from one. Refunded it by an equal sized cut in funding to the other, then without ANY legislative backing just utterly changed the mission of the smaller one until it is the same as the mission of the larger one, thus utterly abolishing it...

...and then they announced it as an "innovative" and "new" project with a commitment of "new" funds from the government.

It's jaw dropping bad. But the local media DOES seem intent on carrying it as a positive story of new science and development funding...

[tussock]

Hehe, snap.

Such is politics, up is down, attack your opponent's greatest strengths, laud the utility and importance of the things you're defunding, promise to support the value in all the crazy bubbles, rebalance the taxes to "reward hard work" by taking money off poor people who work 16 hour days and giving to the rich who mostly play golf very badly.

Because it works.

Göring: Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship.
Gilbert: There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars.
Göring: Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

It's a science, the things you have to say to get people to accept and even support whatever it is you're going to do anyway. The Nazis called it propaganda, we call it political science and public relations. People want more money for schools or some shit, you cut funding anyway and repackage what's left as a "fix" for the "new funding" of "billions" and that's all people hear. Even if it's a loan that no one can get with no one to give it out anyway. Because that would be insane, no one would do that when I can imagine my chosen political party doing sane things instead.

[PhoneLobster]

Such is politics

Well. Not quiet.

Sure, spin, call a cut new funding, get a corrupt media to co-operate and not call you out. That's depressing business as usual.

But some things in this are not business as usual.

Like the sheer scale of this. The cuts to science and renewable projects in this country have been numerous and gigantic, in a conservative wet dream of hacking the living fuck out of everything the government does our science and renewable energy sectors have been hit hardest by an incredible margin. If they did the same thing to public health we wouldn't even HAVE any hospitals left. That's pretty unprecedented.

But the biggest thing that is not business as usual is that whole "in defiance of the senate" thing.

That is actually a really fucking gigantic big deal. Now (some) of what they are doing is (abusing) various ministerial powers and minor technicalities. But rather than doing so in a "they can get away with this, technically" manner they are doing so in a "actually technically they still can't get away with this, but fuck it they apparently are doing it anyway!" manner.

You never appoint a new board member to ARENA ever again? Well there is no punishment for such vast ministerial incompetence/malfeasance and that ends up with control devolving to a secretary who answers directly to... a minister. But... that doesn't actually give you the authority to alter the mission, funding or existence of the fucking whole body, you need to fucking legislate that, and our senate fucking refused them. Twice. Once more and they would have been at early election ALREADY.

As a minister/government you get some authority to make decisions about things like funding, policy and missions for various bodies in advance of passing legislation, sort of, but the legislation still has to be passed and if you over extend your ambitions you get stiffed with having to then attempt to UNDO the bullshit you went ahead and did but failed to legislate for. This has come up with this government already. The result? Who cares they just DON'T.

Technically the senate should be in total open revolt. The actual correct and intended function of our governmental system is that when a government attempts this bullshit and defies the senate that EITHER the senate blocks supply and shuts them down for breaking the fundamental fucking law of the land OR the high court steps in and says "stop breaking the fucking fundamental basics of the rule of fucking law already".

We are observing the total break down of our very system of government here. We have a government forcing through (terrible) policy in total defiance of the senate. We have a High Court unwilling to enforce the law. We have a Senate unwilling to defend their basic function with a blockage of supply. And we have a media not just complicit with the terrible policy but not even particularly caring to mention that our prime minister and his ministers are essentially breaking some of the biggest laws that are even available for them to break.

I mean fuck it, I keep mentioning this, but these guys actually passed legislation that gave unrestricted, retroactive, extra legal authority to a minister and the High Court, very clearly with a duty to strike down that obvious over-reach chickened out and made excuses about it totally being some narrow thing applying in a way that even the fucking minister publicly stated it didn't.

We are up some serious corrupt shit creek here. They said we would become a Banana republic and we are there already.

[hyzmarca]

So, when's the revolution? Traditionally, when governments get that corrupt, there is a revolution.

[Koumei]

Your average Australian is kind of an uninformed twat who watches the mainstream "Property of Rupert Murdoch" channels. So between Home and Away, My Kitchen Rules and Game Show #837, they get little bits of news where people talk about how good this government has been at reducing debt* or how they've doubled Australia's Internet** or how, now that crazy out-of-control Abbott is out, nice Turnball will totally fix everything.

People need to be educated and also not complacent in order to have a revolution. Now if the TV stations stopped or sports were banned, we'd go Full Egypt in the space of a weekend.

*When you're as good at reducing debt as this government is, you don't use the word "good".

**We used to rank 30th in the world, now it's 60th, so you could spin it that way