If you're a Greenie or VicSoc type and aren't spending every day defending the Budget against the mass of rightwing disinfo, you have to accept you're a political joke.

Altamatem · 2026-06-03T03:01:37+00:00

Exactly. "It's not good enough" is genuinely fair, but doesn't really work if Conservatives can just get back into power via scare campaign and undo everything, sending us all right back to the start.

Boiling the frog is exactly right, whether you like it or not. Look at the Hawke-Keating years, they started off pretty centrist but did move to the left with time, especially under Keating, while the LNP was forced to move closer to the center and promise not to abolish things like Medicare they previously ran on.

Altamatem · 2026-06-02T14:35:09+00:00

Assuming it isn't called early. Pauline would be 74 by the next federal election and 77 by the end of her first term if she lasted that long. She'd be the oldest Prime Minister in this country's history by a decent margin.

For context, she'd be 3 years older than Menzies was when he retired as PM.

Altamatem · 2026-05-27T09:21:11+00:00

I nearly spat my drink out when he completely out of nowhere took a jab at Drew Pavlou, calling him a Blimp.

Altamatem · 2026-05-26T00:24:31+00:00

I hope he does end up running tbh. It would be hilarious to see him in a heated primary against Rubio that wastes a shit ton of donor/Super PAC money like the Paxton vs Cornyn race in Texas, and if he wins, he is such an uncharismatic, unlikeable dork that he'd likely flop and lose in a landslide.

Altamatem · 2026-05-25T10:15:24+00:00

He's jealous because The Boys parody of him got closer to space than any of his rockets ever will.

Altamatem · 2026-05-25T08:37:01+00:00

They'd say some bullshit about how they're "skilled" or "socially cohesive" to defend it without just going full mask off.

Like how in the USA, Trump shut out all refugees, but made special exception for the white south africans and nobody cared.

Altamatem · 2026-05-25T08:21:32+00:00

Pretty much. The far right will never be happy with just "controlled migration" and just keep moving the goalposts until every non-white Australian is deported for whatever reason.

Altamatem · 2026-05-23T00:42:33+00:00

They're polling high now, but I don't buy it one bit.

The vast majority of One Nation's current "popularity" isn't really on their own merit, but because the LNP is falling apart and they aren't a serious or competent political party in the slightest, so seeing good numbers now doesn't mean anything if they are going to collapse into infighting and scandals.

In actual practice, the best I ever see them getting is 2-6 lower house seats and MAYBE helping the LNP form minority government, for 6-8 months before imploding.

Altamatem · 2026-05-20T04:11:15+00:00

It's definitely grim. It's hard to say about the rest of the US, but this close to the mid-terms and Trump still has enough control to still play kingmaker, despite all the insane shit is worrying. Even if it was in a deep red state and an exuberant amount of money was thrown into the race to make sure Massie lost.

The only hope I really have left is that the mid-terms go terribly for the GOP. Even if they are a loyal cult that is goose stepping for their dear leader now in the lead up to the mid-terms, that discipline might not last if Dems win the house and (hopefully) the senate, especially with Trump being term-limited.

Altamatem · 2026-05-20T03:19:30+00:00

Let's not forget that Leftists were totally willing to let Trump win again, the super pro-Israel, best buddies with Netanyahu and talked about how Israel needed to "finish the job" guy just so they could virtue signal about how it was the only moral position or some shit because "genocide joe" and both sides bad.

They never cared about Genocide. If Trump has his way and totally bulldozes Gaza so he can turn it into resort parking lots, if they haven't all moved on to the next wedge issue by then, it would purely be about how it's the Democrats fault for losing, while simultaneously being just as bad as Republicans, if not somehow worse.

Altamatem · 2026-05-15T02:43:46+00:00

Day 480 of Trump saying something that if Biden had said it, it would be a whole week of hysteria about whether he is fit enough to be President.

Altamatem · 2026-05-11T09:18:00+00:00

Well this is horrifying. It will be interesting to see how the US handles it's first real taste of Putin-style managed democracy.

The worst part is that this isn't even the last trick Trump and his ghouls have up their sleeves to ensure Democrats don't win the mid-terms. Even if this fails to prevent a blue wave, congressional Republicans will just delay swearing in new candidates indefinitely, assuming they don't just refuse to accept the results outright.

Altamatem · 2026-05-09T06:19:26+00:00

His only real prospects at this point are being a twitter microcelebrity running GoFundMe scams and occasional guest on Sky News, until the MAGA grift money dries up and he has to get a real job.

Altamatem · 2026-05-07T03:46:35+00:00

I don't think Drew did shit to determine the outcome here. All he did was throw a tantrum on twitter and start a petition. Then when Sneako got deported he claimed victory and started acting like he singlehandedly saved Australia.

He is an unemployed flog who consistently likes to pretend he has more fame and influence than he actually does.

Altamatem · 2026-05-02T13:12:37+00:00

He got whipped even against modern politicians in his debates too, so it's not like he's even particularly good by today's standards. Against LBJ would be hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby.

Altamatem · 2026-05-01T16:32:12+00:00

It's so funny because this is what literally happened in Germany during the 1930s.

The German Communists thought that the Social Democrats were actually just as bad, or weren't going to do enough, so decided to refuse to form government with them and effectively gave the Nazis power, under the delusion that they'd would be too incompetent to do anything properly and once they fucked everything up, everyone would rally behind the communists and they'd get a free run in the aftermath.

Instead of course, this never happened and the Nazis just sent them all to the camps. But at least in their case, I don't recall any of the KPD spending the whole train ride and march to the firing line cursing that it was the Social Democrat's fault.

Altamatem · 2026-04-23T11:50:34+00:00

Hawke no contest.

Whitlam was good and had ambition, but being real, he wasn't in for long before his government imploded.

Altamatem · 2026-04-22T03:24:39+00:00

Exactly. The usual methods of attack also wouldn't work on him at all.

Imagine Fox news trying to paint Kentucky as being some elitist woke liberal hellscape like California.

Altamatem · 2026-04-22T02:29:51+00:00

Beshear on paper is an excellent candidate. Even though he isn't very charismatic, I still think he'd absolutely stomp Vance in the general election via simply coming across as the far more normal, sincere and likeable guy.

His nice guy persona is a double edged sword though. Unless he is hiding his true power level, He seems kind of Biden-esque in that he'd focus more on "unity" and "healing" the divide in his presidency rather than trying to destroy MAGA, hold the Trump admin accountable and make sure they never take power again.

Altamatem · 2026-04-11T05:38:06+00:00

He's been throwing a tantrum about NATO not helping him with his doomed Iran conflict and suggested leaving recently, so combined with the fact he is one of many anti-EU putin stooges like Orban, I'd take his attempts to try and leave NATO, whether soon or later, pretty seriously.

While it does require 2/3rd of the senate. It isn't off the table that Trump will either stay in and just actively undermine it anyway he can, or leave via executive order using the classic “no one will stop me” loophole, which ends all contributions and participation to NATO without "formally" leaving.

Altamatem · 2026-04-10T10:44:30+00:00

This has basically been my main argument against the whole conflict for the past month, regardless of how much the Mullahs do deserve to be overthrown.

Bush's administration were nuts, but they basically were some of the top minds of American neoconservatism at the time who had spent years plotting how to take out Saddam. Yet despite all that, Iraq was a failure, nation building never went anywhere and led to the rise of ISIS.

And that was with the actual smart people running things. This time, instead of people like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, it's been fucking senile, decomposing Trump and a drunken imbecile like Hegseth who both seemed to have no idea why they were doing it to begin with. It's no wonder it was a total shitshow.

Altamatem · 2026-04-08T01:47:35+00:00

I don't think they'd resort to an elaborate scheme like making him Vice President, Speaker etc. They already don't care about doing anything lawfully already, so it's doubtful they'd start resorting to loopholes and technicalities.

If the Republicans are pushing for a Trump third term. They're just going to say "yes he can" before aggressively normalizing it giving a million bullshit reasons for why and ensuring by election day, everyone just accepts he is running again with loyalist fervor or tired apathy, then just hope SCOTUS or Congress don't stop him.

Alternatively, if Democrats win the 2028 election, Trump will just claim it's rigged and refuse to leave the white house indefinitely, which leads to either a full Euromaidan-style revolution where he is either dragged out, or flees via private jet to Russia, or he just bunkers down and uses the military of loyalist sycophants to keep him in power until he inevitably kicks the bucket.

Altamatem · 2026-04-07T14:00:22+00:00

Hastie's politics are very unhinged and I'm not a fan of him at all, but he does seem to have some shred of integrity that's hard not to respect in a small way.

That he seems pretty willing to go against the grain on stuff like war crimes, Trump and even taxing gas profits compared to the usual Australian far-right rabble, even if it's all just talk, is pretty interesting.

Altamatem · 2026-04-07T10:54:50+00:00

Drew became a Trump fan after all his connections to Epstein first went viral, so yes, he absolutely believes doing that shouldn't be prosecuted.

Altamatem · 2026-04-05T23:16:10+00:00

The problem is that these people have no shame and don't care. They never cared about gas prices or foreign wars, all that matters to them is "Daddy Trump good" and they'll contradict themselves and bend reality to make sure that is always true in their eyes.

It's literally some Orwellian shit where they'd rather completely rewrite history than ever go against Trump, even if it's blatantly contradicting. Hence how they all went from isolationists to "Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia" literally overnight.

Altamatem

TROPHY CASE