Tuesday, 28 April 2026

An education lesson for Chris Kenny

 Chris Kenny is allegedly a journalist on sky after dark. He is frequently wrong such as on global warming but sometimes gets it right like on Aboriginal rights.

He believes Jimmy Kimmel was alleging that Trump be asssisnated when he made his comedic statement .

Let us bring into context a few things which somehoow he missed.

  • first of all Kimmel made his joke on late thursday night US ttime. The trumps and then their apolif gists did not react until monsay. huh. Are they that thick it takes that long to digest the joke.
  • second Trump is almost 80 and very fat and eats very badly. She is 56 remembering he has traded in his earlier two models.  Even trying to reduce this by drugs is quite problematic
  • We know courtesy of the Wolf suit she has a different apartment in New york to her husband where she sleeps.
  • The couple are famous for not showing any affection towards each other.
  • lastly Kimmel is well known for making comedic statements on his late night show

How could a 'jopurnalist' not know any of this indeed why did kenny take ssol ong to be affronted by kimmel?

Monday, 27 April 2026

Mark the Graph on fire

 If you are not reading Mark the Graph then you are missing out on something special.

I'h here to help.


I wil warn you they are lenghty articles but are well worth reading.

Sunday, 26 April 2026

The Liberals are mad

 The Liberal party is preferencing one nation in the Farrer by-election. Let that just sink in. They are preferencing a party who is an existential thrreat to them but more importantly to the National party.

IF their prefwrences mean one nation wins then they give one nation another boost, a very big one at that, to their eelectoral stocks. Every national party in parliament will be vulnerable. (I have already given my thoughts on why Littleproud resigned). If one nation contines where they are in the polls then the Nationals wil be decimated and perhaps not even recognised as a party after the next election. The very coaltion is at risk. The Liberal regional seats are of course at high risk as well. At present this is their strength.

Further if one nation wins then they are more likely to keep it than an independent if a swing occurs against the government in the next election as is likely.

Just a minor detail for the Farrer by-election if you support much tighter immigration which the Liberals, Nationals and one nation do then where do all the small buisnesses in the electorate find employees?


another minor detail. I have met David Farley. he is a smart guy. I cannot seeing him deferring to a moroan like Hanson for very long!

Saturday, 25 April 2026

The Models A tribute to James Valentine

 James Valentine died last week.He took his own life voluntary as he had cancer which was inoperable.

He was a brilliant on radio where he could make a very enjoyable radio program out of nothing. My favourite was with HG Nelson where they explored building a canal from the Northern Territory to Sydney as Subs could get here quicker!!  

Here it is

He was a very good saxophone player and had a program on ABC jazz which wasn't bad.


Here is my only favourite Models song which is a pseudo-live version of hold on

 James Reund who is the singer committed suidide a long time ago. his family are stil lwondering why sjowing why and how suicide is a very selfich act!



Thursday, 23 April 2026

Around the Traps 24/4/26

 It is time for Around the Traps again.

Aussie,Aussie,Aussie,Oy,Oy,Oy

OZ Climate

Northern America

Europe

Asia

Wonk

General

Climate

Andrew Gelman ( mostly stats)

Dianne Coyle ( quirky + book reviews)

Vox Wonk



Wednesday, 22 April 2026

Starmer appears stuffed

 The UK Prime minister Keir Starmer appears gawn.

For reasons I have never understood he appointed the prince of darkness to be the UK's ambassador to the USA He had to resign from Cabinet not once but TWICE!! If that was not a red light it was certainly an amber which meant a lot of investigation needed to be done on him.

Starmer whilst impressive on the foreign stage is mediocre on the domestics one.

This  comes down to two reasons.

  1. A successful leader needs to have very good political judgement. Starmer does not appear to have this.
  2. A successful leader needs a very good team. Paul Keating for example always had an outstanding team around him in whom he could trust. Starmer clearly does not have this. Starmer appointed them so he has to own this.
He got into trouble because his judgement was poor BUT also his team di not understood what proper process is. That Mandelson has problems with security should have set off the air raid sirens but it didn't.
Starmer's staff incompetence in this matter simply translates into Starmer's incompetence.

Reform has gained popularity over there for reasons that escape me. They are corrupt and lie with great ease and Starmer's answer to to capture a number of their policies. That never works because people usually want the originals to implement policy.

All this means Starmer is gawn.

Tuesday, 21 April 2026

Stagflation

 I have heard in recent times a lot of talk of stagflation returning. I am old enough to have grown up in the 70s and 80s ( like John Quiggin.) That is when it was trendy to talk about stagflation. Inflation and unemployment both reached double digits! The misery index exploded! IT also stayed around a while.

Thus I got to expect exactly that. both inflation and unemployment had to reach double digits. If you read the definition.clearly it does not state what levels inflation and unemployment have to reach.

Thus if Australia gets to 5% both in the CPI and unemployment do we have stagflation? If we only have it for a short time is that counted?

I would say no in both cases BUT I can see why some would argue otherwise. Mark the Graph we need you to write on this.

Most Western nations have independent central banks. Here in OZ I am sure the RBA will raise rates quickly to ensure inflationary expectations do not rise as well so the rise inflation would be temporary but as the economy slows unemployment will rise. Falls in unemployment always are much slower than inflation.

So my question is are we about to get stagflation or not?


Whoopsy I really should have talked more about the Fed. IF a FEd which has a lot of Trump nominees leaves interest rates where they are or even cut them as inflation rises then look out. Arthur Burns has returned!


Mark the Graph delivers. Well done sir.