BIDEN VS TRUMP
So it begins.
Joe Biden and Donald Trump will square off at 11am AEST today in the first presidential debate of 2024. The debate will be the earliest in modern US history, says the ABC, with the election not set to be held until November 5. It’ll be the first of two televised debates and the first ever between a sitting president and a former one.
The goal of the debate will be to “magnify each other’s weaknesses”, reports The Guardian, with Biden set to go after Trump’s recent felony convictions and Trump to highlight Biden’s cognitive health (“conservatives warned the Democratic president would exceed expectations if he managed simply to stay awake”). Abortion rights are shaping as a central issue, according to CNN (which is hosting the debate), with Democrats aiming to seize on “high turnout and success” shown by interim votes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v Wade. “Trump did this — he owns the state of reproductive rights in our country today and if he’s reelected he will go even further,” said Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez.
It’s been 68 years since the first televised presidential debate — which, it may surprise you to hear, was between two women: former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and senator Margaret Chase Smith. Serving as stand-ins for Democrat Adlai Stevenson and Republican president Dwight Eisenhower, the debate was for the most part a pretty civil, if patronising affair (the host called the debaters “charming ladies”…) — at least until the end, when a perceived slight saw Roosevelt refuse to shake Smith’s hand. Later, Roosevelt would put her frustration down to being “mighty tired of the sound of my own voice” — something I think it’s fair to say many of us wish would happen to Donald Trump.
BRACKET VS CREEP
“Workers will share in $23 billion worth of income tax cuts from July 1, returning bracket creep that has built up over the past decade” reports the SMH — but it’ll come at a cost. Parliamentary Budget Office figures have revealed that without large spending cuts or tax increases, the government could be facing a debt of up to $300 billion over the next decade. The NDIS is shaping up to become the most expensive area of government spending, with the $42 billion program set to overtake the aged pension, according to the AFR. Labor has attempted to cut the growth rate of NDIS spending from 20% to 8% but has been hamstrung in the Senate — much to the chagrin of Disability Minister Bill Shorten, who called the process a “circle jerk”.
“Productivity growth stagnated in the first three months of the year, increasing the likelihood rising wages will put upward pressure on inflation,” says The Australian (which I’m sure Bernard Keane will have something to say about), with the national broadsheet blaming poor productivity for a rise in inflation. However, there is a caveat: over half the jobs created in the 12 months to March were in the care economy, meaning that “Many of these jobs likely went to people who are new to these industries who need time to learn and upskill — putting temporary downward pressure on productivity,” according to Productivity Commission deputy chair Alex Robson.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE…
Remember Boaty McBoatface? When naming rights to a new British Antarctic research vessel were given to the voting public and a joke name immediately shot to the lead? Disappointingly, the ship was eventually named the RSS Sir David Attenborough, in a clear affront to democracy.
The same will not happen at the Albany-based Railways Football Club, we have been assured, which is raffling the naming rights to its stadium in an attempt to raise money for a much-needed overhaul of facilities, according to the ABC.
There will be no restrictions on the new name, says club president Wayne Stubber, and the name will remain for all of the 2025 season. “That’s just what we’ve got to live with,” Stubber said when asked if he was worried if a rival side would win the naming rights, which to be honest, would not personally be my greatest concern. You can chuck your hat in the ring here, but let’s keep it civil (weird is fine).
Say What?
Senator Payman made a hugely courageous decision to take a stand on a conflict that has seen tens of thousands of innocent people die. She is 100% in line with our movement’s values, and true Labor people should be applauding, rather than anonymously decrying her stand.
Zach Smith
The CFMEU national secretary said that Senator Fatima Payman’s decision to cross the floor in support of Palestine “undoubtedly strengthened the labour movement”.
CRIKEY RECAP
“Speaking to Crikey in late 2022, Le rejected suggestions she was still aligned with the Liberal Party, putting such claims down to ‘Labor Party supporters’. She has nevertheless raised eyebrows with some of the positions she has taken this term, including abstaining from the historic censure motion against former prime minister Scott Morrison. Le, who spent much of her childhood in refugee camps, angered progressives when she argued against the repatriation of family members of Islamic State fighters from Syria, prompting many to suggest she was still a Liberal after all.
She also seems obstinately disinterested, if not openly hostile, to climate action, despite Western Sydney being set to face among the worst climate impacts. In one of her first acts as an MP, she abstained from voting on Labor’s Climate Change Bill, citing a lack of detail regarding its impacts on Fowler.”
“Look at the $900 million Commonwealth-Queensland contract with PsiQuantum to build a quantum computer in Brisbane. While it’s rather different to making explosives and putting it into bombs, that contract, like the one with Thales, was characterised by rotten procurement practice and a preference for going straight to a preferred supplier rather than finding out what other firms may have been able to offer, with an indifference on the part of governments as to whether a better deal could have been secured for taxpayers. And ultimately the PsiQuantum deal is motivated by the exact same mentality that drove the Thales scandal in Defence — government intervention in a ‘strategic’ industry justifies skipping the need to secure value for money for taxpayers.
That mentality comes with reflexive laziness on the part of both bureaucrats and politicians, and a willingness to default to business as usual. The now-famous bottle of champagne demanded by the Defence bureaucrat is just a footnote to a pervasive institutional reluctance to alter the status quo. The Abbott government briefly gave thought to getting rid of the Mulwala and Benalla factories altogether, but in the end decided to keep them. Then Defence decided to just stick with Thales rather than change the status quo.”
“Voters were first asked to unite against the far right in 2002, when Jean-Marie Le Pen — he of the Holocaust denial — shocked the country by making the second round of the presidential election against Jacques Chirac. A million people took to the streets in protest, and Chirac won with 82% of the vote. Simpler times.
After a repeat performance in 2017 and 2022, in which Jean-Marie’s daughter and political heir Marine reached the second round of the presidential elections, the cordon sanitaire that has kept the National Rally out of government is threatening to break. If the party wins enough seats in Parliament, France will find itself at the whim of its first far-right prime minister of the Fifth Republic in the form of Jordan Bardella, a smarmy 28-year-old from the banlieue with dead eyes, a poster boy smile and a distinct aura of the uncanny valley.”
READ ALL ABOUT IT
Russia sends waves of troops to the front in a brutal style of fighting (The New York Times) ($)
Can von der Leyen muster majority backing of European Parliament? (euronews)
Palestinians flee as Israeli forces renew Gaza City assault (Al Jazeera)
US Supreme Court ruling on emergency abortions offers no clarity for states (Reuters)
THE COMMENTARIAT
The Assange light and sound show overshadows government problems — Michelle Grattan (The Conversation): “After years of substantial support across the political divide for freeing Assange, by week’s end, the splits in opinion about him were more obvious. Coalition members criticised Albanese’s celebration of the moment (though Albanese has not endorsed Assange’s actions in publishing confidential US information).
As for Assange’s future, no doubt the ‘press freedom’ campaign will continue. Beyond that, who knows? The trajectory of a man who ran for the Australian Senate while ensconced in London’s Ecuador embassy in 2013 is not easy to predict. The PM would be wise to take the win and move on. In political terms, Assange could be sticky fly paper.”
Do you recognise this man? He has 300 million die-hard fans but isn’t famous — Waleed Aly (The Age): “He is, right now, the biggest YouTuber on the planet. He has nearly 300 million subscribers: I hesitate to give a more precise figure because he adds about half a million every day, so whatever I write will be out of date before it is published. His most watched video is a real-life (though far safer) recreation of the Netflix smash Squid Game. MrBeast’s version has 624 million views: comfortably more than double what Squid Game itself could manage — and it’s the most-watched show in Netflix history. MrBeast’s more standard-fare videos routinely surpass 150 million views. For context, about 120 million Americans watched the Super Bowl this year, and roughly 70 million watched The Beatles perform on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964.
And yet, every news story reporting on his Opera House event had to explain who he is because it couldn’t presume such knowledge in the audience. I’ve just devoted two paragraphs to it here.”
