The Foreign Minister at Hollywood party yesterday, with her partner and Nicole Kidman.
By now, US President Donald Trump’s executive order denying entry into the US of an wide selection of people, including Australians with dual citizenship, is common knowledge, but here’s an excellent link in case you want to catch up.
World leaders expressed dismay at Trump’s “Muslim ban” and two of the countries on Trump’s List of Seven, Iraq and Iran, have retaliated by denying visas to US citizens.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, when asked to outline our position on the US crisis responded thus:
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said the government would continue to work closely with the Trump administration to implement “strong border policies”. She said: “We share a common view on many issues so we will continue to work very closely with the Trump administration,” adding: “The very best days of the Australia-US relationship lie ahead.”
Take a few moments to think about this statement. Let it sink in, remembering events underway in the US right now.
No refugee from any of the banned countries has ever perpetrated an act of terror in the US. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia supplied the majority of the 9/11 attackers and is strangely absent from the list, as are other Muslim countries in which Trump has financial interests.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has thus far made no comment at all on the deepening crisis in the US. He has assured us that Trump will honour his commitment to take the refugees from Manus Island and Nauru off our hands. In other words, Trump has agreed to save the ugly racist faces of the Australian politicians that so closely mirror his own.
Turnbull has not revealed the price Australia will pay for Trump’s magnanimity. Neither has he explained why, when Trump is committed to the protection of his own borders to the extent that he has defied judicial orders and in so doing has provoked a constitutional crisis, the President is willing to take our refugees, many of whom come from some of the countries on Trump’s List of Seven.
The Turnbull government supports Donald Trump. How does that make you feel?
No Place For Sheep 
It makes me feel sick to the core.
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Me too Elizabeth. It also makes me so angry that we have to put up with peoples inability to see that the rise and rise of Trump has quite distinct similarities to the rise and rise of Hitler and the Third Reicht. It is scary because I’m old enough to have been born during that era and know just how bad it was both before and after WW2.
My soul is very disturbed at the moment.
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sandrasearle I wonder if any of these conservative leaders have shares in ammunition factories, if they do we could well be facing WW3.
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Right townsvilleblog – and just how many are sitting on shares in the production of uranium, you know, the one that is used to make nuclear weapons. The ones that will destroy our planet as we know it. Aaaaagh!
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That’s capitalism, if you can make a dollar from something, sell it, no matter what, the power of the almighty dollar is King. Labor offer regulated capitalism, which is better than straight out capitalism, but capitalism all the same. I’m leaning toward democratic socialism these days, a fair share for all.as Practiced in Nordic countries.
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Good on ya, Townsvilleblog, not bad role models those Nordic countries, they are cool in more ways than one…. 🙂
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Uranium, with appropriate safeguards, can also be used to produce affordable energy. The energy that will preserve our planet for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren to live in comfortably. Aaaaagh!
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Mine too, Sandra. Very concerned about the future.
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Australia Government afraid US will leave pacific & “other influences” will fill the void. Is Australia so weak it can’t stand on it’s own two feet? And if so, it’s time Australia steps up.
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Yes, and I also believe its true that conservative politicians share Trump’s beliefs & are in agreement with him.
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Christ knows they are spending enough on weapons and killing machines over the next two decades, if not to set an Australian identity then what? Australia has imported far to much US customs like violence, sex and violent sex. The average US citizen has been dumbed down so much that they laugh as US sitcoms, aagghhh!
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In a word? Horrified
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Yep.But not entirely surprised. Unfortunately
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It makes me feel good, so very good, our excellent relations with the American President makes me feel so safe; our PM was right ,so right when he ENSURED us :” It’s never been a better time to be Australian. ( of course only if you are white and Christian)
Ms Julie has added to my happiness: “The very best days of the Australia-US relationship lie ahead.”
( Julie dearest, you are working too hard, you are losing weight, and so is our dearest PM, Mal…)
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They are being eaten from the inside by their greed and wickedness
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I feel angry that the Australian conservatives are supporting the US conservatives, but mostly I feel nausea at the apathy in both countries that allows this situation, opposition parties in both countries need to get vocal and enthusiastically enunciate their alternative policies, explaining to the people how their policies would be helping ‘people’ instead of helping corporations.
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Yes, that’s spot on Shaun. The apathy and stupidity that gives these people their power.
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I fear that the likes of Dutton & Morrison, Bernadi & Christensen, and Abbott will be emboldened by Trump’s rise to power to say and do even more outrageous things than they have done already. Morrison appears to be gloating that Australia led the way and that the rest of the world is catching up. With Trump’s setting the bar higher (actually lower) for outrageous actions and comments, Australians will get to see even more clearly where their politicians stand on issues of human rights, protectionism and xenophobia.
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Yes, Greg, I think they are already emboldened by Trump’s actions, admiring of them even.
They’re also trying to push out Hanson.
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Lest we ever forget all the way with LBJ that got 3 million Vietnamese, 3 million Cambodians and no-one knows how many Laotians killed and they are still dying today thanks to Menzies and Fraser agreeing to the use of agent orange.
Lest we forget Dubya who only Latham stood up to and was pilloried for it, or our love affair with Tricky Dicky.
Australia doesn’t give a shit how evil the US presidents are, just so long as they are our ”protector”.
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Exactly, Marilyn. We are the pathetic snotty kid in the playground everybody hates who sucks up to the bully in order to find protection and fifth rate company.
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Marilyn, when push comes to shove, ‘will’ the US step in to help protect us? I’m not so sure…
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Shaun, that’s looking increasingly unlikely I reckon
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They are so mad they wouldn’t know what’s good for them. Like our government, denial at best, evil at worst.
We live in an asylum, but which side of the bars are we on?
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PW, I just read a little piece about what Thoreau would advise. I have to confess it didn’t enlighten me much, but it reminded me of the necessity of taking a variety of perspectives.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_David_Thoreau
Just reading the Wiki and it rings bells. I definitely grok to this guy, with his idea of the non adversarial human, community, bottom up government and notion of us as guests of the world rather than the other way round.
Coming from an era where “nature” was limitless, cornucopian,sustaining and awe inspiring, rather than some thing that is a small remnant of a world trashed, I think he would shudder at what has become of humanity, the lack of respect we have for life and for that which nurtures us.
The arrogance and self absorbed nature of the modern person that sees things only in the context of what they should yield up for a dislocated from reality mentality, would send him crazy.
I get the essence of him as “live and let live”, something utterly oppositional to modern attitudes. His spirit would find a home in a song like Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi”, he wouldn’t “get” us, at all.
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It’s still the best strategy for Australia to bend over for the US whether we like it or not. A departure from this would be a massive upheaval. It would be great to see Labor differentiating itself from our homogenous duopoly, but again, stability over choice & change. I feel numb but still very confident that Trump won’t destroy the world. He’ll screw lots of people over bigly sure but that’s a long way from all out war. Tired of all the hysteria tbh from both sides. Trump supports peaceful protest as do I. Fighting extremism with extremism isn’t endearing to most who are in the middle. Have we really reached the threshold where we’ve got to fight fire with fire? I certainly hope not but I wasn’t in Europe in the 30s. But forget all that. My first thought was that Julie was looking hotter than Nicole… I think my brain must be having trouble processing reality…
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I don’t think expressing disapproval of Trump’s Muslim ban is fighting fire with fire, Dave. Most other western countries have done this. I’m not at all confident the Trump/Bannon dyad won’t cause havoc within and outside of the USA.
Trump supports peaceful proest? Really?
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I agree of course about expressing strong disapproval. It is interesting what countries are and are not on the list. It’s a ban on 6 Muslim countries right? No hard line stance on the Saudi gov which seems hypocritical to me. I’ve been to ‘men’ chat rooms where the quality of political rhetoric is not much better than apes grunting at each other. And these people get the same vote as those who can actually rationally debate. That’s the kind of fire with fire I was talking about which seems more widespread in the US. I wonder what Shorten would have done if he had won. Language may have been different but action possibly much the same? Keep kowtowing to the superpower. We’ve never really grown up. It was Great Britain then the US. Havoc will be caused with the current populist tribalistic US policies which are a departure from the general globalistic policies of the past. It’s not the way to go for world harmony but too many Americans were feeling left behind then were fuelled by a narcissist telling them exactly what they wanted to hear. A lot seem barely aware that the rest of the world exists. On the anti-Trump side, I’ve got a bet on that Trump will last 4 years with someone convinced he’ll be impeached. Left ideologies surely need some tweaking because they failed to believe that the rise of Trump was possible. It was a joke, then became a reality. Trump tweeted that he supports peaceful protest. Doesn’t mean this is true but what peaceful protests has he shut down? Our tribe are fighting the Trump tribe that seems to be a new beast. We still don’t know thy enemy well enough in my opinion. Yours is still the only blog I read so thanks again, Jennifer, and keep up the great thought provoking work. My podcast is going pretty well considering how unreliable I am. Assuming that people will get more and more disillusioned with Trump, as seems to happen with all leaders who promise too much, it would be cool to develop my most pro-Trump character and turn him anti-Trump in a year or two.
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Dave, I think we all need a rest mate…
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Haha. Yep. I assumed that there’d be some quiet time. Nope. Our brains can’t keep up this intensity for too long. Can’t wait to implant my Google brain enhancement chip.
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There has to be a reasonable possibility that trump will be impeached. However, if and when that happens, pence won’t step in as Johnson and Ford did.
The likely replacement? At this point I’d say Bannon. Because what we will be seeing will not observe the US constitution: it will be a genuine coup d’état. Recommended reading are The Handmaid’s Tale and 1984.
Unless there is a huge – and successful – uprising of the American people, the only thing that will eventually defeat Bannon and his
ultra-rightfascist supporters is global warming. If, as the climate scientists now predict, it’s all happening much faster than initially thought, whoever is the last dictator of America may as well change his (sure as hell it won’t be a woman) name to Ozymandias.Mind you, that means all humans will be under threat, but maybe it’s time to leave this beautiful planet to the cockroaches.
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Fiona, liking mild summers, and cool winters ( open fires and thick feather doonas), we moved from Sydney to Southern Highlands…
Now the CC has reached our region, and today we sweated in +36C heat, add to that Trump and our Teflon-coated Turnbull, and have just about had enough…never thought we would be looking to install air-, conditioning into the place. The previous summers one rickety fan was more than enough..
I better calm down, my anger about Oz and USA politics is adding to the heat..
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oops, air-conditioning, no bloody commas
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Helvi, we may have one or two days over 30C in our summers usually. This year every week there’s three or more days, up to 36 here on the coast which is extraordinary and absolutely vile accompanied as it is by 90% humidity.
I want to move to Iceland. For the Pirate Party as well.
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I agree about Bannon, Fiona. I think he’s smarter than Trump. And I agree that the rule book has been thrown out the window in the first week of Trump’s presidency, so anything can happen.
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No, “Australia” does not support Trump, the Liberal-National Party does. This is an important distinction.
“Australia” is more than just the opinions of a select, powerful few. It is the people, the ideology and the geo-cultural imagining of all who identify with the nation. Failing to recognise the voices of those who disagree with the politician-of-the-moment is failing to acknowledge the deeper issues within Australian politics: the politicians in charge are out of touch and misrepresent those they profess to govern!
Why do we continue to accept this as their right? Just because they “won” an election? Respecting democracy under these circumstances to continuing to stab yourself in the leg because “everyone” says it is what should happen.
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Well, AMH it isn’t just the LNP: it’s also the millions who voted for them presumably because they share the ideology.
Add to them the Hanson supporters, who are even more extreme and you’ve got a majority, way more than the handful who are in government.
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My lovely Donald hasn’t got a racist bone in his gorgeous tanned masculine body. In fact his temporary ban is not on swarthy suicide bombing Muslims at all. His Executive Order makes no mention of Muslims. He is only selecting the same Arab countries Obama identified as sponsors of state terrorism. That’s all. Look it up.
He’s agreeing with Obama and the Left, yet as soon as he does so, he gets attacked as being wicked and cruel. Not so. Fake news,
There seems to be one set of rules for Obama and another for The Donald. Fancy that? But par for the course with the hypocritical Left.
Regarding Saudi Arabia, Donald is playing 3D Chess while the rest are playing checkers with the fake news merchants and he had a phone call today with King Salman of Saudi Arabia. Whilst the rest of you are locking yourselves in airports chanting anti Trump slogans, or wearing vagina suits, the Great Donald is negotiating deals to put all those swarthy Muslims back in the box and into their safe zones. Fortunately not in America or Australia. That’s the brilliance of Donald. Saving western civilisation from clueless dumb arses.
“The president requested and the King agreed to support safe zones in Syria and Yemen, as well as supporting other ideas to help the many refugees who are displaced by the ongoing conflicts,” the White House added today.
Imagine if Trump can get the shifty looking Saudis to pay for the upkeep of their fellow Muslims? How good is that? That’s why he never banned the lousy mongrels. Someone has to always pay the bill, whether they are Mexicans or Saudis. Read the Art of the Deal. The second best book after The Bible and under appreciated by Labor voters. But not Frank.
So cut the great man some slack. He did a big favour for Turnbull. He gave him a few extra weeks of life as PM on death row, before he’s overthrown by my Tony who will return as PM of Australia. Sheriff of South Pacific. Shirtfronter and firefighter. And it will happen. It will be Putin, Trump and Abbott. Arm in arm like the three musketeers. Glory days ahead my friends.
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Frank, opinions as to your reliability as a narrator vary greatly on the blog, I’ve noticed.
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No, Frank can some times get closer than some think. The Americans just lost their first soldier in the Yemen.
Bet you didn’t know the Americans are now interfering DIRECTLY in yet another civil war that is none of their concern, but the Shia v Sunni issue plays directly to the “get Iran” mentality with both Wahab fundamentalists in Saudi Arabia and Xtian fundamentalists in the US Red states…also lucrative.
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Just read it and expresses exactly the nausea I am experiencing. Why should I have to feel nausea, when Turnbull did the fellating?
As for Bishop, words failed me with her, years ago.
How other nations must despise us.
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The price of the US taking our Manus Island detainees is that we will take South and Central American detainees the Yanks want to be rid of. If Trump wants to honour this deal you may be certain it is a stinker for Australia.
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I just read in the Guardian that the terms of the agreement with the US make it possible for them to accept not even one refugee, and still *honour* the deal
Whole thing has been smoke & mirrors.
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And our Fearless Leader, fizza – aka man of impeccable judgement – never realised he was being played for a sucker.
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Just watching the emerging story on Trump’s rubbishing of Turnbull, I find myself warming to Trump, no end.
Bob Carr and Stan Grant are bleating about the nasty US President and poor little Malcolm, who bought msm off for his narrow election win, but in light of Turnbull’s treatment of both refugees and Centrelink clients, I wonder if he is feeling somewhat disempowered and grasping how that feels for his own victims.
Since we are on an American theme today, I will retreat to the armchair to contemplate the term and concept of “comeuppance”.
No, am not smirking; not a bit..
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Can you imagine Turnbull – ego the size of a house – and Trump – ego the size of his office buildings – meeting amicably over anything?
And don’t you dare smirk. Not a bit.
LOL
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I hear no mention of the South American immigrants in all of these reports, the quid pro quo exchange as each country antes up in human trade, not a peep.
You are right about ego though Doug. I’ll go out on a limb here. Israel.
Trump’s rhetoric is how America is being used unfairly, by friends and foes alike.
Trump has the inherited Presidential ambition for peace in the Middle East.
Peace in the Middle East is “the prize”, the holy grail, excuse the clumsy metaphor.
Israel gets billions in aid year in and year out in exchange for what exactly, look at the Middle East, where is the return on that investment?
Not sure how Trump went with the Jewish vote in the US, won Florida right? but lost NY and California?
Netanyahu is on the nose in Israel, the Jerusalem thing is up for discussion, settlements etc. Trump’s modus operandi is to say yes first get ’em all wide eyed and panting, then throw a spanner in the works, start shaking his head and stomping his feet, then squeeze.
Israel is expensive and after the negative relations with Obama over the preceding years probably looking forward to some relief from Trump, where Trump might actually double down.
No altruism, just ratings, applause.
I am reading Philip Roth’s “plot against America” and imagining of the successful election of Charles Lindbergh instead of Roosevelt at the outbreak of WWII.
Eerie reading.
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Allthumbs I have a feeling the Costa Rica refugees have fallen right off the *agreement* scene.
Roth was prescient in that novel.
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