Not Trampis

Sunday, 15 April 2018

Evangelicals are the big losers from supporting Trump

We are used to the same apologists using the same excuses in discussing Trump however it is the evangelicals in the USA who have been badly burned by their using any excuses to support Trump.

However it seems the biblically literate evangelicals are hitting back. Timothy Keller here for example. There are other. My favourite Don Carson comes to mind.This is quite topical. Michael Gerson weighs in Jim Wallis puts it very clearly.

It seems from afar that the biblically literate ones live in the north and the others in the south.That is only speculation however.

Let me give an demonstration. I was astonished to hear people who claim to be evangelical trying to show Trump was just like King David!
Let us go to that story.
King David was in his palace . Although the greatest military commander of his age he delegated that to others in the current war.. It is at this time he spots a lady whom he then lusts after. He does indeed have sex with the woman. When he is told she is pregnant he tells the husband whom is a soldier to relax and be with his wife. He does not. Unlike David he knows his duty.
He then sends him to a part of the fighting where he must die and he does. Davisd apparently rationalises all this.
However when Nathan confronts him with his sinful acts David immediately repents. He knows and says he has sinned against God.

On the other hand Trump has said he has nothing to repent of. This clearly shows he is an unrepentant sinner.
It seems some in the evangelical movement have become like the Jews of the Old Testament and are now imitating the secular world.
In other worlds they are neither arthur nor martha!

It is all very sad. The question is whether those are truly Evangelical will escape from this and still be able to spread God's message.

Let us hope so

Thursday, 12 April 2018

Around the Traps 13/4/18

It is time again for Around the Traps

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

Jenni Henderson on when-taxpayers-do-wrong-they-cop-penalties-but-erring-tax-officers-do-not
Kriti Nagrath on agls-plan-to-replace-liddell-is-cheaper-and-cleaner-than-keeping-it-open
Croaking Cassandra on more-on-population-and-per-capita-gdp
David Walker on why-its-worth-deriding-universal-basic-income
Hazel Blunden on punishing-welfare-regimes-basic-income
Simon Holmes A Court onwhy-liddell-is-likely-to-close-in-2022-and-why-you-shouldnt-care
Gregory Melleuish on can-the-liberal-party-hold-its-broad-church-of-liberals-and-conservatives-together
Greg Jericho on the-jobs-boom-continues-but-not-for-everyone , as-the-service-sector-overtakes-blue-collar-jobs-we-must-mind-the-wage-gap
Croaking Cassandra on labours-fiscal-commitment, small-size-simply-isnt-the-issue , bus-drivers-and-essential-skills-visas-revisited, 12-angry-men-and-the-reserve-bank
Gabrielle Gratton on the-many-ways-australia-isnt-as-pro-trade-as-we-claim
Weihoan Zhou on shortens-plan-to-triple-anti-dumping-penalties-misunderstands-the-law
Frank Jotzo et al on we-must-fix-the-foundation-of-our-energy-policy-to-get-out-of-the-current-mess
The Kouk on first-home-owner-grants-and-the-peoples-bank-plan-push-house-prices-higher , 3-85-million-new-housing-loans-since-the-last-rate-hike
Albert Van Bilk and Madelaine Cahill on australias-2017-environment-scorecard-like-a-broken-record-high-temperatures-further-stress-our-ecosystems
Michael O'Keefe on response-to-rumours-of-a-chinese-military-base-in-vanuatu-speak-volumes-about-australian-foreign-policy
Jonathan Pollock et al on ocean-heat-waves-and-weaker-winds-will-keep-australia-warm-for-a-while-yet
Richard Holden on vital-signs-the-world-economy-can-benefit-from-a-vindicated-trump
Jessica Allen on explainer-how-do-we-make-hydrogen-from-coal-and-is-it-really-a-clean-fuel
Marc C Scott on seven-and-foxtel-snag-cricket-rights-meaning-more-content-but-maybe-not-for-free

Northern America

run75441 on fake-news-flawed-analysis-and-bogus-tweets
John Quiggin on hackery-or-heresy
Roland Rajah on american-trade-policy-returns-aggressive-unilateralism
Calculated Risk on weather-adjusted-employment , key-measures-show-inflation-increased-in-March
Sureish Naidu et al on wages-employers-workers-monopsony-growth-stagnation-inequality
the conversable economist on us-lagging-in-labor-force-participation , us-mergers-and-antitrust-in-2017, state-and-local-spending-on-higher-education
Institutional Economics on trump_pursing_the_wrong_strategy_against_china
Kruggers on obamacare-trump Thanks Mark
John Williams on supporting-strong-steady-sustainable-growth Thanks Mark
Martin Neil Bailey et al on a-debt-crisis-is-coming-but-dont-blame-entitlements Thanks Mark
Larry Summers on donald-trump-trade-threats-lack-credibility Thanks Mark
David Brooks on climate-fight-electricity
Mark Meigs on a-friendly-reminder-impeaching-donald-trump-will-not-remove-him-from-office
Menzie Chinn on the-budget-deficit-outlook-post-tcja-and-omnibus-budget
Brian Resnick on political-psychology-trump-explain-studies-research-science-motivated-reasoning-bias-fake-news
Spencer England onexpect-a-core-cpi-of-2-4-in-2018
Justin Fox on beware-economists-who-warn-of-an-entitlement-explosion Thanks Brad
Mathew Yglesias on house-speaker-paul-ryan-fraud
Tara Isabella Burton on lynchburg-rally-red-letter-revival-shane-claiborne-jerry-falwell-jr-liberty-university
New Deal Democrat on is-raising-wages-becoming-a-taboo
Jonathan Chait on trump-attacks-comey-for-handing-him-the-presidency Thanks Brad
Perry Bacon on democrats-chances-of-winning-the-senate-are-looking-stronger

Europe

Mainly Macro on the-complete-failure-of-brexit-project , ian-dunt-vs-owen-jones-comment-on-brief-debate
stumbling and bumbling on thoughts-on-the-gender-pay-gap
James Forsyth on labour-moderates-are-desperate-to-leave-but-theres-nowhere-to-go

Asia

Khang Vu on peril-north-korea-s-charm-offensive
Camille Buollenios on xi-big-bureaucratic-shake
Rory Medcalf on many-questions-about-china-s-vanuatu-ambition
Michelle Bentley on syrias-latest-chemical-massacre-demands-a-global-response
Robin Wright on israel-wages-a-growing-war-in-syria
Richard McGregor on boao-confidence
Wayne McLean on rouhani-erdogan-and-putin-s-bizarre-love-triangle
Hunter Marston on vietnams-crackdown-on-dissent-could-undermine-its-stability-and-growth
Lydia Khalil on syria-trump-must-collude-russia

Wonk

Robert Waldmann on total-blockchain-blocker-man , krugman-mundell-fleming-summers-delong-and-rogoff
The conversable economist on misconceptions-about-milton-friedmans-1968-presidential-address, the-global-rise-of-internet-access-and-digital-government
Tyler Cowen on what-if-we-paid-for-facebook , zeynep-tufekcis-facebook-solution-can-work ,companies-likely-good-bad-public-relations
stumbling and mumbling on on-socialized-preferences , politics-as-risk-management
James Kwak on the-fallacy-of-the-free-market Thanks Mark
Dani rodrik on left-timidity-after-neoliberal-failure Thanks Mark
long and variable on phillips-curve-bashing-and-immaculate-inflation
Thomas Palley on MMT V Structural Keynesiansm
James Sweeney on syria-would-a-new-foreign-military-intervention-be-legal
Stephen Grenville on global-monetary-policy-returning-normality
Noah Smith on rational-markets-theory-keeps-running-into-irrational-humans Thanks Brad
Brad De Long on the-dark-age-of-macroeconomics-and-advanced-economies-lost-decade
Mainly Macro on talking-to-establishment

General

Tim Harford on a-clever-nudge-to-improve-diversity
Craig Barker on fifteen-years-after-looting-thousands-of-artefacts-are-still-missing-from-iraqs-national-museum
Cassandras Legacy on the-empire-of-lies-reloaded
Claire Collins on research-check-is-it-true-pasta-doesnt-make-you-gain-weight-and-could-even-help-you-lose-it

Climate

Peter Sinclair on what-melting-ice-means-for-arctic
Robert Stavins on reflections-economics-policy-making-environmental-domain Thanks Mark
Real Climate onstronger-evidence-for-a-weaker-atlantic-overturning-circulation
Skaptical Science on climate science denial explained

Andrew Gelman (mainly stats)

possible-defense-cargo-cult-science
jet-lag-impairs-major-league-statistical-performance
dont-define-reproducibility-based-p-values
fitting-hierarchical-model-without-losing-control
millennium-villages-project-retrospective-observational-endline-evaluation
failure-failure-replicate
The conversable economist on should-5-convention-for-statistical-significance-be-dramatically-lower
tools-detecting-junk-science-transparency-key
hurricane-andrew-patterns-post-disaster-donations-demonstrate-egotism
Kaiser Fung on facebook-update
stumbling and mumbling on the-tyranny-of-metrics-a-review

Genial Dave Giles (econometrics)

No Hesitations on an-art-market-return-index

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

Vox Wonk

Wednesday, 11 April 2018

Israel Folau should stay off twitter

Israel Folau is in trouble because he answered a question on twitter.

He was asked what happens to gays.

He said they go to hell unless they repent. This is a true statement but twitter does not enable a person to write all there needs to be on the subject. The best you can hope for is that a person may give you good links on various topics like the late great Mark Colvin did.( Soony please take note).

We really should say to say this answer was homophobic or hate speech is simply ridiculous.

Israel should have done a few things which would have added to his answer IMHO.

Firstly ALL people need to repent if they do not wish to go to hell. Heterosexuals and homosexuals alike.
Secondly it is the ACT of homosexuality that is sinful not being attracted to the same sex.

Thirdly he should have said it equally applies to heterosexuals who indulge in fornication and.or adultery.
There is a lot more of them. ( Given homosexuals are only less than 2% of the population I have always wondered why the time and effort decrying homosexuals and little done towards fornication and adultery which is rife in our society and growing unlike homosexuality).

In most cases twitter is used by people to keep them in the public spotlight. Hence why journos. politicians, actors and actresses and of course sports people are wide users of twitter.

I would give twitter away Israel!
This is very good. This is what he should have linked to. you cannot do this on twitter!

Tuesday, 10 April 2018

Some beauties on the ABC

Unforgotten finished last Thursday on the ABC. It was superb.
Well written and well acted where the chemistry was particularly on show.

No beautiful women and no chick magnets just people who looked and acted like detectives. the suspects were very good as well.

I am looking forward to the next season given the quality of the first two.

Harrow continues on friday night. This is an Australian production starring the inimitable Ion Gruffud as a forensic pathologist. sometimes it gets too close to Forever . This is a shame as even though Forever had a stupid overall plot line it had a hellva of a cast.
Harrow has a good cast and an interesting plot line which makes you wonder if you have it right.
Its major problem is the love interest. The female policewoman is simply not attractive. Perhaps because she is a redhead.

Monday, 9 April 2018

Liddell Power Station

There has been a lot of talk in recent days about the Liddell power station and its future.

Firstly Kriti Nagrath looks at this. AGL do have a future without Liddell with which AEMO is comfortable with.

Secondly Simon Homes A Court examines how AGL acquired it and looks to its future.

A couple of things to contemplate.

AGL have stated their plans on replacing the power from Liddell when it closes.
AEMO is quite satisfied with that.
Liddell is a nice little earner for AGL mainly but not only becasuse of the absurd low prices it pays for coal,
This ends when the plant closes.

On a related matter I offer up Hugh Saddler with a dated article on busting myths about South Australia's wind and solar power

Postscript.
In another fact free article Big Al goes thew full Katesy and now advocates nationalising coal powered Stations. He even goes further and believes Liddell should be adquired from AGL and owned by the Government. I must have missed that in the 'conservative handbook. Nationalising industries.

Are there any conservatives in Australia with an intellect and consistency in views?

Sunday, 8 April 2018

News poll number 30

Yes it is the 30th Newspoll the Liberals have lost with Malcolm Turnbull as Leader. This was the benchmark set by Turnbull to get rid of Abbott.

Firstly.

Mark the Ballot on the-newspoll-30-aggregation
The Pollbludger on newspoll-52-48-labor-8
Kevin Bonham on newspoll-number-30-rolling-comments

What can be said.

Well Turnbull obviously did not think he would lose 30 Newspolls in a row. That was foolish thinking.

What is better to cogitate on is why did the polls rise and then fall under Turnbull.

We can ascertain that the public were heartily sick of Abbott. He simply was not up to the job and to be frank he never realised what the government had to do.

The public wanted a change of leadership. What was not known was the Faustian bargain Turnbull did with the conservative wing to become Leader. They all knew they were roadkill at the forthcoming election that is why they changed leaders. however Turnbull had to perform so many policy back flips it quickly became apparent Turnbull was simply Abbott lite and the public did not want that.

Can the Government recover. I doubt it. It is not impossible but losing 30 polls in a row usually means the public have made their mind up.

Can the Government do much a bout it? I doubt it. There simply is no aspiring leader in the background ready to lead then to electoral glory. no-one has the ability. Plenty of ministers but no Prime minsters to be seen.

Update:
Greg Jericho on a-different-style-of-leadership-an-annotated-guide-to-malcolm-turnbulls-victory-speech