Daily Archives: June 21, 2017

Updated June 21, 2017 17:39:18

Tony Abbott's former senior adviser, Andrew Hirst, is shaping as the frontrunner in the race to become the next boss of the Liberal Party.

Several sources have confirmed that Mr Hirst, who served as Mr Abbott's director of communications and deputy chief of staff, is likely to be confirmed as the party's federal director on Friday.

Acting director Andrew Bragg was considered to be Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's preferred candidate.

But in what has been described as a "peace deal", Mr Turnbull has secured support for former NSW premier Nick Greiner to replace Richard Alston as the party's president.

With a federal election due in just under two years, it is understood the party favours Mr Hirst over Mr Bragg, given his lengthy campaign experience and institutional knowledge.

He has worked as an adviser to every Liberal leader since John Howard and served as communications director to the former director Tony Nutt, who some blame for the party's disastrous 2016 election campaign.

Others point the finger squarely at Mr Turnbull who, at best, was seen as a reluctant campaigner.

But Mr Hirst will take the helm at a difficult time for the party Labor controls most of the states and territories and, at a federal level, the Turnbull Government is battling stubbornly low opinion polls.

Then there is the money.

While the treasurer, Andrew Burnes, is understood to have turned the party's financial fortunes around, fundraising remains a major challenge.

One source likened the Coalition's campaign coffers to a "surf lifesaving club" and Labor's to a "professional AFL team".

Labor's major advantage is the union movement and left-wing groups like GetUp who can summon their army of supporters to attend rallies and campaign on key battleground issues including health and education.

Some of the Liberal party's grassroots supporters remain deeply sceptical about Mr Turnbull's political values.

Mr Hirst's challenge will be to placate them, ensuring the party's war machine is well-primed and well-staffed for the next federal election.

He will also need to recast the Liberal Party's campaign strategy as it confronts an increasingly volatile electorate.

Topics: liberals, federal-government, government-and-politics, australia

First posted June 21, 2017 16:39:25

Continued here:

Tony Abbott's former advisor, Andrew Hirst, tipped to be named Liberal Party director - ABC Online

A Black Lives Matter protest in Charlotte, N.C., following the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott (Sean Rayford/Getty Images)

Last October, teachers in the Seattle Public Schools district planned a Black Lives Matter in the Seattle Public Schools event that consisted of wearing T-shirts with the slogan printed on them, despite the fact that a similar effort at Seattles John Muir Elementary in September was met with criticism, hate mail and threats of violence.

The teachers expected backlash, and they got it, in the form of white parents from the citys wealthier neighborhoods writing to their school principals and saying that they were displeased that such an event would take place, saying that a Black Lives Matter day was too militant, too political and too confusing for their young children, according to KUOW.

Because the parents would not speak directly with the news station about their displeasure, KUOW made a public records request and published their emails with all identifying information redacted.

The letters range in tone from Not all white people to What about Martin Luther Kings dream, but in the examples cited, KUOW notes that the parents complaining are from one of the whitest, most affluent and staunchly liberal neighborhoods dotted with rainbow yard signs that say All Are Welcome.

From KUOW:

Wrote a parent at Laurelhurst Elementary: Can you please address why skin color is so important? I remember a guy that had a dream. Do you remember that too? I doubt it. Please show me the content of your character if you do.

From Eckstein Middle School in Wedgwood: What about red and black or yellow and white and black? How does supporting Black Lives Matter help that gap?

And from Bryant Elementary in Ravenna: Im writing to share what my 9-year-old daughter told me about what she learned in class regarding the Black Lives Matter discussion. She said she felt bad about being white. And that police lie and do bad things.

Stephan Blanford, a Seattle school board member who is black, and whose doctoral research focused on race and public education, told KUOW: This is what Ive come to call Seattles passive progressiveness. We vote the right way on issues. We believe the right way. But the second you challenge their privilege, you see the response.

This is a common refrain whenever the topic of Black Lives Matter comes up. Its as if no matter how many times we explain that Black Lives Matter doesnt mean other lives dont, people still overlook that and want to argue about why black lives shouldnt matter more than any others. It is the not all whites reaction that leads into All Lives Matter and ends with black people being called racist simply for pointing out that black lives should, in fact, matter.

The white parents in Seattle are a microcosm of supposedly liberal white people all over America who want to be good allies but cant seem to move past semantics in that allyship. They get hung up on words, and not the greater actions that the words are speaking against.

Before you go over to KUOW to read the rest of the emails, pay attention to what happens in the comments of this post. Even as I type this right here and forewarn you, people will immediately jump and call me racist just for posting this.

Read more at KUOW.

Read more:

White Liberal Tears and Racism From Parents in Response to ... - The Root

Our new analysis of How Britain Voted shows that age and generation were crucial factors in the outcome of the 2017 election, in a way we have never previously measured.

On party support, we saw the biggest age gap between Labour and Conservatives since we started compiling comprehensive statistics on how people voted in the 1970s. As the chart shows, there is now almost a perfect mirror between the generations: young people were over twice as likely to vote Labour as Conservative, and older people were almost the exact opposite.

And much more than this, the turnout gap between the age groups is smaller than we or others have measured in decades: registered young people were around 20 percentage points more likely to vote than in 2015, at 64 per cent while turnout among older people softened, to around 74 per cent, down around 5 percentage points.

The democratic deficit between young and old has been massively reduced, and political parties should take note. As the Intergenerational Commission at the Resolution Foundation have outlined over previous months, and again today looking at wealth, the difference in opportunity and outcomes between generations are some of the most important challenges facing the country.

This sort of voting shift raises a number of questions what caused it, will it last and what will the consequences be for political parties? And there are a number of credible explanations, some of which point to how long-lasting it will be.

First the campaigns and leadership of the main parties will have played a part, and may be fleeting as circumstances and strategies change. Jeremy Corbyn mobilised the young in a way not seen in recent general elections, and the Conservative manifesto alienated their core older support, at least partly through uncertainty around their pensions and inheritance.

But Brexit may also have played an important role as much as a political event as an issue. Our turnout estimates for the different age groups in the General Election in 2017 are remarkably similar to the turnout patterns for the EU Referendum. The levels of voting by age in 2017 were much closer to that supposedly one-off event than they were to recent general elections. This is a key explanation for why most polls ahead of the election were too low on Labour we expected people to turn out in a similar age profile to other elections, but they actually voted like it was the referendum.

This is something pollsters should have maybe picked up on more: we know from countless academic studies that voting is habitual once you start, you are much more likely to continue. And while the young didnt quite turn out enough to be decisive in the referendum, the very fact it happened may well have changed the course of voting behaviour for many in that generation.

So does this mean an easy march to power for Labour in the future, given they have an energised youth massively more likely to support them? Not necessarily. Our work on generational difference shows two things.

First, the old adage that people get more Conservative as they age is broadly true. As the chart below shows, Generation X (now mainly in their 40s) have become much more Conservative than the 18-34 age group they started out in.

But our analysis also shows that young people have no over-riding party affiliation in the way previous generations did. Only 20 per cent of Millennials feel they are closer to one particular political party, compared with around 60 per cent of the oldest generation.

This doesnt mean that younger groups are politically apathetic as their turnout levels now attest. But it does mean that political parties are going to have to work hard to keep them. Its a more fluid attitude to politics a challenge for parties, but also healthy, stopping parties taking bloc votes for granted.

The short-term impact of the 2017 general election may be more uncertainty and mess but the long-term effects of having three major political events in the last couple of years may be a better balance of political power across the generations, which can only be a good thing.

Bobby Duffy is managing director of Ipsos MORI's Social Research Institute.

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Vince Cable as Liberal Democrat leader would complete the revenge of the old - New Statesman

A police officer lays some flowers passed over by a member of the public, close to Finsbury Park Mosque in north London, after one man died and eight people were taken to hospital and a person arrested after a rental van struck pedestrian

PA

The Borough Market bell is seen in Borough Market in central London following its re-opening after the June 3 terror attack

Getty Images

Two women embrace in Borough Market, which officially re-opens today following the recent attack, in central London

REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Mayor of London Sadiq Khan attends the re-opening of Borough market in central London following the June 3 terror attack

Getty Images

People walk through Borough Market in central London following its re-opening after the June 3 terror attack

Getty Images

News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, with one of his daughters, visit Borough Market, which officially re-opened today following the recent attack

REUTERS

A woman reacts in front of a wall of messages in Borough Market, which officially re-opened today following the recent attack, in central London

REUTERS/Hannah Mckay

Vivenne Westwood walks the runway at the Vivenne Westwood show during the London Fashion Week Men's June 2017 collections

Getty Images

Millwall fan and London Bridge hero Roy Larner on 'Good Morning Britain'

Rex

Richard Arnold, Roy Larner, Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on 'Good Morning Britain'

Rex

England players celebrate after defeating Venezuela 1-0 to win the final of the FIFA U-20 World Cup Korea 2017 at Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon, South Korea

AP

England players celebrate with the trophy after the final match of the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2017 between Venezuela and England at Suwon World Cup Stadium in Suwon, South Korea

EPA

Great Britain's Alistair Brownlee celebrates winning the Elite Men Columbia Threadneedle World Triathlon Leeds

Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Two men drink beer outside the Southwark Tavern which reopened for business today next to an entrance to Borough Market which remains closed in London

Getty Images

Singer and songwriter Ed Sheeran receives a bottle of mezcal from a reporter during a press conference in Mexico City

AP Photo/Marco Ugarte

This photo issued by Freuds shows the car that was involved in a crash where Richard Hammond escaped serious injury, in Switzerland

Freuds via AP

The Cateran Yomp, Scotland's foremost outdoor fundraiser that puts soldiers and civilians side by side on a 24-hour trek across the historic 'Cateran Trail' in Perthshire. With a target to walk over 37,000 miles collectively, more than 1150 hikers signed up for the 2017 Cateran Yomp challenge, raising an estimated 2.9 million in seven years in support of ABF The Soldier's Charity

David Cheskin/PA Wire

The Cateran Yomp, Scotland's foremost outdoor fundraiser that puts soldiers and civilians side by side on a 24-hour trek across the historic 'Cateran Trail' in Perthshire. With a target to walk over 37,000 miles collectively, more than 1150 hikers signed up for the 2017 Cateran Yomp challenge, raising an estimated 2.9 million in seven years in support of ABF The Soldier's Charity

David Cheskin/PA Wire

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain kisses an Ayrton Senna helmet that was presented to Hamilton after he won the pole position to tie the late Senna at second for most career poles, at the Canadian Grand Prix

Tyler Remiorz/The Canadian Press via AP

A poster hangs from a railing outside Downing street in London

REUTERS/Hannah McKay

Protesters gather outside Downing street in London

REUTERS/Hannah Mckay

A general view of police presence inside Hampden Park before the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying, Group F match at Hampden Park, Glasgow

Martin Rickett/PA Wire

The Duke of Cambridge, Colonel of the Irish Guards, parading down the mall in Central London during the Colonel's Review, the final rehearsal of the Trooping the Colour, the Queen's annual birthday parade

Ben Stevens/PA Wire

Prince William, Duke of Cambridge attends the Colonel's Review at the Queen Victoria Memorial in London

Getty Images

An Irish Guard collapses before being taken away on a stretcher, during the Colonel's Review, the final rehearsal of the Trooping the Colour, the Queen's annual birthday parade, on the mall in Central London

Ben Stevens/PA Wire

An Irish Guard collapses before being taken away on a stretcher, during the Colonel's Review, the final rehearsal of the Trooping the Colour, the Queen's annual birthday parade, on the mall in Central London

Ben Stevens/PA Wire

Police officers remove the cordon tape by Borough Market following the June 3rd attacks in London

Getty Images

Items next to the van used in the London Bridge attack

Metropolitan Police/PA Wire

Interior of the van used in the London Bridge attacks

Metropolitan Police/PA Wire

Messages of solidarity written on post-it notes stuck to a wall are seen at the southern end of London Bridge in London on June 8, 2017 following the June 3 terror attack that targeted members of the public on London Bridge and Borough Market

Getty Images

Ozzy Gandaa with Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway on 'This Morning' TV show. Ozzy Gandaa, a pub doorman saved countless lives when he hurled bar stools, bottles and glasses at the London Bridge terrorists as they went on a rampage through Borough Market

Rex

Ozzy Gandaa with Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway on 'This Morning' TV show. Ozzy Gandaa, a pub doorman saved countless lives when he hurled bar stools, bottles and glasses at the London Bridge terrorists as they went on a rampage through Borough Market

Rex

People look at many messages of solidarity and love written on post-it notes and stuck to the side of a wall at the southern end of London Bridge, following the June 3 terror attack that targeted members of the public on London Bridge and Borough Market

Getty Images

An exit poll predicting that the Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn will win 266 seats in the British general election is projected onto BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, in London, after the polls closed

Getty Images

Britain's Prince Harry speaks to Nazhath Faheema, a Muslim Youth Ambassador of Peace, as they eat an evening meal to break fast, or the iftar, for Ramadan - the Muslim fasting month, during a visit to a children's home in Singapore

REUTERS/Joseph Nair/Pool

The Brandenburg Gate is illuminated with the colours of the British flag to show solidarity with the victims of the recent attack in London, in Berlin, Germany

REUTERS/Christian Mang

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Jo Swinson appointed deputy leader of Liberal Democrats - The Independent

Six times the B.C. NDP proposed legislation that would have led to the ban of union and corporate political donations in British Columbia.

And six times the B.C. Liberal government stood in the way.

But thisThursdaythe B.C. Liberals willunveila new look.

The 2017 speech from the throne will be very different from throne speeches of the past,since the party was firstelected in 2001. Many of the ideas the party fought against while in power will now be included as Liberal policy.

Banning union and corporate donations - check.

Increasing social assistance rates - check.

Transit funding without a Metro Vancouver referendum - check.

And here is the political kicker.

NDP MLAs willhave to vote against all of those changes they've championed for yearsif they want to form government. That is because the upcoming throne speech will be pegged to a confidence vote expected to end the 16 year Liberalpolitical dynasty.

"What you are seeing is exactly what you would expect from a government in the situation that we are in where we won the electionin having the most seats and the most votes but not having a majority," said Social Development Minister MichelleStilwell.

"I think we are always looking at creating the bestBritish Columbia that we can."

B.C. Premier Christy Clark arrives June 12, 2017 at the swearing-in ceremony for her new cabinet. (Richard Zussman/CBC News)

It's not just legislative votes the Liberal partyhasitseye on. It's the next provincial election.

With the B.C. legislature in an unprecedented time of uncertainty, predicting when that next election will be is impossible.

But the Liberals know that what they did leading up theMay 9election didn't work and this new course is an attempt to lure back voters in Metro Vancouver.

As bits and pieces of the speech from the throne are leaked to the media, thepicture emerging is of a Liberal party willing to substantially change.

B.C. NDP Leader John Horgan promised to make education a defining issue in the 2017 provincial election. (Denis Dossman/CBC)

This could mean a more direct approach onovercrowded Surrey classrooms, a focus on increasing child care spaces in Metro Vancouver and closing loopholes for evicting renters and for foreign investors parkingmoney in Vancouver real estate. All issues that weren't part of the last Liberal election campaign, but were featured in the platforms of both theGreens and NDP.

"For sure, it's about getting votes, but it's about connecting with people," said B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Sam Sullivan. "We have really recognized how we didn't do well in the urban area. We did really well in the Interior, the North, the suburbs, etc, but we were unable to connect with urban voters."

Many of those urban voters weredisappointed when February's provincial budget was the ninth in a row to provide no increase to social assistance rates.

This, despite recognition the province hasbecome one of the country's most expensive places in which to live and the government's claim it was using the province's wealth to help those who needed it most.

It's only now, with the confidence vote looming, that the Liberals will increase those rates by $100 a month at a cost of about $53 million a year.

The same goes for increasing disability rates. The government hadbattled for years with advocateswho were angry rates were left unchanged from 2008 to 2015.

Now, the Liberals are promising to do just that if they stay in power or win the next election.

"We all know that there is a lot of cynicism and skepticismof people in politics. Ithink this will add to that cynicism," said disability advocate JaneDyson. "Ithink that a lot ofpeople's confidence in politicians will be further eroded from what we are seeing now."

There are some core principles the Liberals are unwilling to budge on.

Don't expect the throne speech to include a change of direction on the Site C dam or Kinder Morgan. The Liberals will also likely stick by thebalanced budget pledge and theMasseyBridge project.

But beyond that, almost anything goes. And that will set up an election where the major parties appear to stand for many of the same things.

Leaving voters to wonder if they believe any of them.

See the original post:

BC Liberals adjusting principles for a shot at power - CBC.ca

A fake news story said White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said liberal women hate her because she's too smart and beautiful. (AP photo)

The false assertion that White House adviser Kellyanne Conway told an anonymous reporter that liberal women hate her for being smart and beautiful showed up on a website that made it especially confusing to identify it as fake news.

A undated post on LondonWebNews.com said Conway told a media member at a Washington luncheon that left-leaning females dislike Conway because of her "striking beauty and intellect." The post was published June 1, 2017, and updated June 13.

Facebook users flagged the post as part of the social media sites efforts to fight fake news, and this one does appear to be contrived.

The post didnt name the reporter, media outlet or event, and only featured the partial quote allegedly from Conway. The article did say pundits attacked Conway for the comment. We couldnt find any instance of a reliable media report that corroborated the story, or any pundit who reacted to it.

The post also said Conway drew criticism on social media, but good luck finding anything on this specific (fake) comment that doesnt track back to LondonWebNews.com.

The site does not appear to be filled entirely with fictional stories, like some fake news websites. It looked to include posts taken from many places, including reliable news sources. One post, for example, was about the June 14, 2017, Grenfell Tower fire in London. This kind of mix would make it very difficult for a reader to be able to discern this particular item is fabricated.

The sites disclaimer said only that the site made "no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability, or availability" of anything it posted. "Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk," it warned.

We tried to contact LondonNewsWeb.com via the email address provided on the sitebut didnt receive a response. There was no byline listed with the story.

We did reach a White House spokesman, who didnt want to give an official comment about the post.

But theres no proof Conway made this comment, either way. It looks as if the website (or its original source) made the story up entirely.

We rate this statement Pants On Fire!

Share the Facts

2017-06-20 15:36:11 UTC

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Pants on Fire

Says Kellyanne Conway said liberal women hate her because of her "striking beauty and intellect."

LondonWebNews.com

website

in an Internet post

Thursday, June 1, 2017

2017-06-01

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Kellyanne Conway did not say liberal women hate her for being ... - PolitiFact

Dave Rubin, the gay, liberal host of The Rubin Report, has become the Lefts latest victim of smearing-by-association, his character having been contorted in Josh Harkinsons recent Mother Jones article Cashing in on the Rise of the Alt-Right. After describing the funding models of a number of alt-right and neo-Nazi websites and podcasts, Harkinsons piece notes that Rubin has interviewed such personalities as Milo Yiannopoulos and Mike Cernovich, the self-described new right blogger who has argued that date rape does not exist and regularly peddles conspiracy theories. Originally, it also characterized Rubin as farright.

While the term farright probably does not merit the legal label of libel, its use in this context was at best lacking in intellectual honesty, and at worst a shoddy, malicious attempt to slime Rubin. Rubin is married to a man and favors marijuana legalization, pro-choice policies, and single-payer health care. He has publicly challenged the regressive Lefts increasingly illiberal attitude toward speech it finds objectionable, but that doesnt mean he can be characterized as further to the right than Breitbart in good faith. And Harkinson seems to know as much. After Rubin called the piece libelous and demanded a retraction on Twitter, the author backpedaled, claiming that Rubin merely host[s] softball interviews with lots of people who are to the right of Breitbart. Meanwhile, Mother Jones changed the sentence in question to remove the term farright, added Rubins response in parentheses, and highlighted both changes in a vague editorial note at the bottom of the page.

In digital journalism, such errors and retractions are inevitable. But the conflation of Rubin with literal white supremacists and separatists and the subsequent half-hearted retraction were no accident. Evidently, Mother Jones intended to equate Rubin who interviews and challenges personalities ranging from Margaret Cho and Hilary Rosen to Yiannopoulos and Paul Joseph Watson with the Internets most prominent alt-right extremists.

This is obviously quite problematic. Reasonable people can, of course, disagree about the propriety of giving a platform to those with views that engender wide, bipartisan disgust. But Harkinson isnt interested in having such a good-faith debate; his aim is to silence and de-legitimize those who attempt to air and understand extremist views. Indeed, when confronted with criticism from the likes of Ben Shapiro and Joe Rogan, he doubled down on his attack, retweeting clips of Rubin (rightly) arguing that non-mainstream voices are worth engaging with in part due to the failures of the media but also because entities with audiences as wide and engaged as, say, InfowarsAlex Jones, should be unpacked and understood.

Although this example is particularly egregious, it is by no means unique. The mass uproar over Megyn Kellys recent interview with Jones has, to a lesser extent, been informed by the same hostility toward interviews with controversial guests. Lost in the hubbub was that,given Kellys professional and prosecutorial credentials, her interview with Jones who has a massive audience and the ear of the president carried the potential to be an act of journalistic service.

Jack Shafer of Politico smartly lambasted the censorious power of the hecklers veto that was wielded against Kelly and threatens edgy, truth-telling journalism of the uncomfortable variety that explores how someone such as Jones could attract millions of followers. Under the veil of a moral panic, Kelly and Rubin have been stigmatized for the crime of heterodoxy, made to serve as a public warning to anyone else who threatens to deviate from a leftist agenda.

One wonders where this game ends. Back when the term alt-right was exclusively reserved for white supremacists with no regard for conservatism as it has traditionally been understood, it maintained a sort of incriminating implication. But every time the Left attempts to tar non-leftists with the same brush, it dilutes the label, just as it has done with every other pejorative that came before. The difference now, thankfully, is that the Internet gives victims such as Rubin a chance to fight back.

READ MORE: You Gotta Lie: The Tangled Progressive Web The Sickening Attack on Otto WarmbierIs Symbolic of the Lefts Hate Problem To Both Sides in Americas Dialogue War: Disarm

Tiana Lowe is an editorial intern at National Review.

See the rest here:

Mother Jones Smears Liberal Talk-Show Host Dave Rubin for Daring to Interview 'Alt-Right' Figures - National Review

Tucker Spars With Liberal Strategist Behind #HuntRepublicanCongressmen NewsBusters (press release) (blog) Tucker Carlson, Fox News' heir to Bill O'Reilly's slot in their primetime cable lineup, often fills the hour with bewildered glances, engaging dialogue, and outright mockery of his typically-deserving opponents who he brings on to the program. Monday ... and more »

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Tucker Spars With Liberal Strategist Behind #HuntRepublicanCongressmen - NewsBusters (press release) (blog)