The Brown Note

Anthony Albanese and Franking Credits - The Last Straw

Ditch bad leaders not good policy. Australian Labor leader Anthony Albanese has been a meek disaster, spooked by right wing media into adopting a policy of standing quietly and politely as close to Prime Minister Scott Morrison as possible and speaking when spoken too. His abandoning of Labors excellent, necessary policy to shut down the wealthy retiree free money rort that is franking credits out of fear is the last straw for me.

The Untouchables - Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian

In any normal country, the relentless scandals and corruption that have continually beset the federal and state governments of Scott Morrison and Gladys Berejiklian, would've resulted in destruction. Not in Australia, where both end the year on highs with both the public and the press. Something is wrong with this picture.

Brexit - The Deepest Cut Of Populism

Right wing populism has done many terrible things these last five years but when Trump and Scomo and Boris are long gone, Brexit will remain. A Brexit lament.

Scott Morrison - Skating On Thin Ice

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison enjoys ridiculously unearned popularity but a foundation built solely on popularity is no foundation at all and he maybe be on much thinner ice than people credit. Labor should take note of the various storms swirling beneath his feet and strike.

Top 25 Albums of 2020

Bit of cross pollination here with the radio show (show with music https://www.mixcloud.com/julian-brown/the-brown-note-top-25-albums-of-2020/)

My top 25 albums of 2020 in a very flat year all round. Best and worst films of the year next week.

Australia vs China vs America - Scott Morrison's Economic Suicide

How Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has blundered his whole country's economy into a war with two fighting behemoths, without realising their economies are dependent on each other and where we have nothing to fight with at all and no possibility of success, where our best friend in the fight simply picks up the slack we lose and we are the only ones possibly hurt.

Scott Morrison is 100% to blame for the China crisis

Australian idiot bull in a china-shop prime minister, Scott Morrison, threw Australia under a bus six months ago, by wildly and stupidly attacking China to benefit Team Trump. Now his actions are coming home to roost, he's doubled down by falling for an obvious Chinese trap - the war crimes photo scandal. But then he was terrified of getting the blame for the first mistake and Mr walking photo-op, couldn't pass by a potential patriotic flag waver to distract everyone. But don't worry Scott, with our media, you are yet again unlikely to be blamed for something entirely your fault.

Australian Labor need to sack their leader Anthony Albanese

Every time Labor lose an election, they run terrified from the right wing version of events. That they lost for being left wing, that unions, socialism and identity politics killed them. This is garbage, hundreds of millions of dollars in corrupt vote buying and a Labor scare campaign by Clive Palmer did far more damage, yet here we are again. A Labor leader standing as quietly, politely and closely to the left of a right-wing prime minister as possible, almost invisibly. Anthony Albanese is a great guy but a travesty as a leader, ditch him now and find someone like Daniel Andrews, with fire in their belly who will stand up and fight the right without fear.

Australia has the worst news media in the Western World

Our uniquely compliant, backside kissing, endlessly validating media gives the Liberal governments at state and federal level the most easy ride imaginable. A year of never ending scandals and corruption has not dented their love in the slightest, and across the board from television to print media, our liberal governments are held accountable by precisely no-one in the media.

Corbyn v Blair - the cult of personality destroying the UK's Labour party

Supporters of Jeremy Corbyn are portrayed as irrational zealots, hell bent on destroying the Labour Party, yet the cult of personality really destroying Labour is that of Tony Blair, whose wildly misrepresented legacy as Labour's savior is completely untrue and whose acolytes are in delusion and denial.