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moksha wrote:Trump seems to be lying at an increasing rate. That does not bode well.

aussieguy55 wrote:John Stuart Mill wrote " Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people it is true that most stupid people are conservative." Another "The intense fear that somewhere somehow someone you think is inferior is being treated as your equal"

Scott Morrison was always known as the coal industry's lackey, a religious nut case like his predecessor. There was no trickery, Russian interference. Australians are dumb as dogshit. We are complicit and we deserve it.

[–]teknokryptik 5772 points 15 hours ago77

Volunteer firefighters are crucial in Australia.

Traditionally our full-time firefighters and parks & wildlife staff would handle their area for most of the year, and call upon some volunteers for a day or two during the summer.

Every couple of years there'd be "a big one" in some state and they'd call on volunteers from their area and from across the country for maybe a week or two in summer to fight it.

Maintaining a full-time force year-round consisting of the same numbers as all volunteers during that "peak" fire season at the worst of times would send the country broke pretty quickly, so a large volunteer force ready to go for the occasional big bushfire once every few years was a necessary compromise and everyone was happy enough knowing that they could take a few days off work without getting sacked to go and help out their neighbours (knowing that the favour would be returned in the future).

But then the fires got bigger.

And burned for longer.

And the "big ones" came around more often. We started getting "once in a generation" fires every year.

And then the "fire season" went from maybe a couple of weeks to a couple of months.

And then "big ones" would happen in multiple places at the same times.
And then the "fire season" went from "all summer" to "most of spring, all summer, and a fair chunk of autumn too".

And our volunteers were not just called upon for a couple of days a year, or a week or two once every few years, but for MONTHS, EVERY YEAR, giving up their holidays, taking unpaid leave from work, missing Christmas with their families, feeling like if they said "no" this year they'd be letting down their mates even though they are exhausted and stretched thin and financially stuffed.

Then the PM goes and takes a holiday in Hawaii while volunteer firefighters are dying and losing their own homes during an UNPRECEDENTED bush fire season...

...AFTER BEING WARNED BY ALL THE EX-FIRE CHIEFS IN THE COUNTRY MONTHS EARLIER THAT: "“F” ME, MATE, crap'S ABOUT TO GET SERIOUS AND MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE CUT MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM THE FIREFIGHTING BUDGET oh and we know you don't believe in climate change, and we're not allowed to mention it, but is anyone else getting warm around here?

And now we're in the position where, despite being in a recession everywhere but on official budget papers, and in order to keep the fantasy of "perpetual growth" going, and to deliver a "Budget Surplus", we're going to sell out the medium and long-term future of the country and the human race for short-term political gain and DOUBLE DOWN on coal, DOUBLE DOWN on Climate Change Denial, while asking out volunteer firefighters to risk their lives every year, for months at a time, with no financial support because to do so would bankrupt our country, but Barnaby can claim over half a million in taxpayer expenses to drunkenly spend a few weeks wandering in the bush sending texts back about the drought.

I KNOW WE COULD HAVE AVOIDED ALL THIS DECADES AGO WHEN THE SCIENCE BEHIND HUMAN-INDUCED CLIMATE CHANGE WAS WELL-ESTABLISHED BY INTRODUCING POLICIES TO ENCOURAGE CLEAN AND RENEWABLE ENERGY BUT BY GOLLY RUPERT AND GINA HAD TO BE APPEASED, AND ALL THAT COAL WAS JUST BEGGING TO BE DUG UP AND SOLD TO CHINA, AND CUTTING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS FROM FIRE PREVENTION YEAR AFTER YEAR IN A COUNTRY THAT, EVEN ACCORDING TO THE ADULTS IN CHARGE "HAS HAD FIRES FOREVER" IS JUST GOOD GOVERNMENT POLICY!

Don't worry, though! No matter what they do they will still get re-elected.

Nearly 500 million animals killed in Australian bushfires, experts fear

Around 480 million animals are feared to have died in the bushfires sweeping Australia, including nearly a third of the koalas in New South Wales's main habitat.

Ecologists at the University of Sydney estimate around 480 million mammals, birds and reptiles have been killed, directly or indirectly, by the devastating blazes since they began in September, The Times reported.

This includes almost 8,000 koalas, which are believed to have burnt to death on the state’s mid-north coast.


The region, which lies around 240 miles north of Sydney, is home to the largest number of Australia’s koalas, with a population of up to 28,000.

Federal environment minister Sussan Ley told ABC "up to 30 per cent of the population in that region" may have been killed, because around 30 per cent of their habitat has been destroyed.