To The Australian        How can the Liberal Party regain strength and impetus in our national affairs? Michael Sexton analyses problems ("Liberals face decline amid shifting public priorities", 23/4), but does not provide ideas for reform. The greatest mistake the party can make, as Malcolm Turnbull has helped show, is to turn itself into a second centre-left party. Rather, it must "go right", but this must be done in an intelligent manner. What does that require? Firstly, a new effort must be made to build a narrative of Australia as a great nation with further greatness ahead of it. This means celebration of the British settlement, our roles in two world wars and several minor conflicts, our pioneering history and our construction of a modern free nation based on an outstanding constitution which it is difficult for the left-wing zealots to erode. Secondly the party needs to associate itself strongly with sacred tradition - not just Christian tradition and certainly not "old-fashioned" Christian practice. Leave atheism and rationalism for the ALP and the Greens. Thirdly, and most painfully, the party must detach itself from the "anti-racism" zealotry that has done immense harm to our sense of who we are and where we can go. This, especially, will call for gallantry and honesty; for there are very powerful interests opposed to such necessary reform.     And fourthly the party must not allow its identity to be primarily tied to business and economic issues. These lack glamour and have been over-emphasised in recent decades.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

A personal opinion from Viv Forbes
who takes responsibility for any electoral comment.
23 April 2019.

     This is not meant to be a statement of Saltbush Club policy – our members have enough sense and experience to make up their own minds. But I believe these guidelines will help to achieve Saltbush policies. It also explains the background for my how-to-vote opinions.

A Quick Summary:
     Hold your nose as you enter the polling booth. Then -

     Surely this is false news, Brunei imposing the death penalty for gay sex? I must run this pass the socialist group in the shopping mall handing out leaflets to let in the refugees; they will know the truth and set me right.
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6872465/UN-condemns-Bruneis-new-inhuman-laws-impose-death-penalty-gay-sex.html

“The United Nations has condemned Brunei's new 'cruel and inhuman' laws imposing death by stoning for gay sex, and amputations for theft. UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said in a statement that the country should maintain its long tradition of not applying the death penalty - which it has not imposed since 1957. 'I appeal to the government to stop the entry into force of this draconian new penal code, which would mark a serious setback for human rights protections for the people of Brunei if implemented,' Bachelet said. Bachelet also stressed that international law imposes very stringent restrictions on the use of the death penalty, which can only be applied for the crimes of murder and intentional killing, and only after all due process requirements have been met. 'In reality, no judiciary in the world can claim to be mistake-free, and evidence shows that the death penalty is disproportionately applied against people who are already vulnerable, with a high risk of miscarriages of justice,' Bachelet added. 'I urge Brunei to maintain its de facto moratorium on the use of capital punishment.'

     It is truly amazing how things work. On day one, Julien Assange is kicked out of the Ecuador embassy, then the next day the IMF approves a giant 4.2 billion dollar loan for Ecuador. An amazing coincidence, and we can be sure that nothing went on behind the scenes, because, well, that would be conspiratorial wouldn’t it?
  https://www.enca.com/business/imf-approves-42bn-loan-ecuador

     And Facebook, which is  supposed to any censor white nationalists and horrible anti-vaxxer people, has now blocked the Facebook page of Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa, who is neither, but still a pest to the globalists:
  https://www.rt.com/news/456366-rafael-correa-facebook-blocked/

To The Australian        If the ALP does win the coming elections, it is to be hoped that common sense will trump fanaticism in the management of Aboriginal affairs ("Dodson under pressure to deliver", 20-21/4). Expectations that "Labor would deliver a first-term referendum on a 'voice to parliament'" will need to be disappointed. All models of "constitutional recognition" involve an innate inequity and capacity to divide, not unify, the nation. Most Australians will not be fooled out of seeing the obvious, so any referendum proposal looks doomed to failure and that is as it should be. Moreover, a failed referendum would see strengthened international pressure put on our government. That also is an ill that should be avoided by common sense and fair play.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

To The Age        The argument of Gillian Triggs and Julian Burnside in favour of stronger legislation to prevent events such as the Christchurch massacre ("We need stronger laws to deal with hate speech", 15/4) is fraught with danger for the principle of free speech, which is so vital to the wellbeing of the open society, such as we currently enjoy in Australia, but which millions of human beings in closed societies around the world do not. Their plea in fact looks like a carefully manicured proposal for the political censorship of views they happen to dislike and disagree with. This is suggested by their thoroughly misleading description of Senator Fraser Anning's commentary on the massacre. In his open letter to the Prime Minister dated 27th March the senator wrote: "My statement unequivocally condemned this heinous act of murderous violence. After putting the immediate blame where it belongs, I looked for contributing causes." There is thus no justification for the description of his comments as "a vile response" that "constitute an abuse of free speech."
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

     In my local newspaper this week (the Ferntree Gully Belgrave Mail) the front page story (“Cross of Easter”) deals with an art installation at the front of nearby Tecoma Uniting Church which is said to draw “parallels between Christ’s crucifixion and the treatment of asylum seekers in Australia”.

     Described as “confronting”, the work shows three figures representing asylum seekers hanging on crosses. The artist, the Reverend John Tansey, is reported as stating that his art work reflects “the crucifixion of the human rights of asylum seekers”. There is no reason to doubt his sincerity or compassion for detainees on Manus Island, Nauru and Christmas Island – or the church’s good intentions or those of its minister, the Reverend Matt Cutler.

     Conventional Christian theology holds that Heaven as a wall, and gates, if only metaphysical and metaphorical. Not everyone can get in. Presumably, the Pope holds to this, for otherwise why bother with all of the stuff Catholicism requires you to do? If anyone can get into Heaven, then eat, drink and be merry, and care not about anything at all. And, Hell is really easy to get into as well, having basically open borders. If one simply lived an anti-Christian life, then one is in.  Now, how can the Pope be against borders between nations, or at least, once white Western nations? Surely to be consistent he will need to go the way of liberal Christianity and have open borders for Heaven. That means that immigration critics, and champions of walls will get into Heaven, to annoy him in the afterlife for all eternity! Cheer up, Popey.
  https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2019/04/07/pope-francis-praises-multiculturalism-migrants-always-bring-riches/

     Migrants always bring riches? So, Trump was wrong about migrant crime? Ok.
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-42557828

     There is at least some bright news in an otherwise dull computer simulation; Italy is going after the gold of the central bank, which it is rightly claiming is the people’s not some ban of bandits:
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-05/it-belongs-people-not-bankers-italy-moves-seize-gold-central-bank

“Two weeks ago, somewhat out of the blue, ECB President Mario Draghi issued an odd statement confirming that the European Central Bank needs to approve any operation in the foreign reserves of euro zone countries, including gold and large foreign currency holdings. “The ECB shall approve both the operations in foreign reserve assets remaining with the NCBs (national central banks)...and Member States’ transactions with their foreign exchange working balances above a certain threshold,” “The purpose of this competence is to ensure consistency with the exchange rate and monetary policy of the Union.” Specifically, Draghi made this statement to two Italian members of the European Parliament. At the time it did not seem notable for any reason other than its peculiar timing, but now things are starting to make more sense as The Wall Street Journal reports that Italy’s ruling populists pushed ahead this week with efforts to seize control of the central bank and its gold reserves.

     We all know that with global warming, or is it cooling now, no, it is still warming, there is a need to recycle stuff rather than throw it in the streets, which is what I would prefer. That is all fine, but Mexican cartels are way ahead of everyone in the recycling philosophy, and now recycle refugee children!
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-04-04-mexican-cartels-operate-child-recycling-rings.html

“Meanwhile, outside of faulty federal laws, Democrats, and wishy-washy responses from the Mexican government, the cartels south of the border are mostly responsible for the humanitarian abuses of children and “families.” That includes, by the way, recycling children kidnapping them and giving them “to an adult to cross the border, present themselves as a family,” Nielsen told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson Tuesday, The Daily Wire reported. “We’ve broken up so-called ‘child recycling’ rings, if you can believe it, in the last couple of months, which is where smugglers kidnap a child,” she said. “Once they get in, because, as you know, we can only hold families for 20 days, they send the child back and bring the child back with another family – another fake family, another adult,” Nielsen added. She noted further:

     So, the Deepers finally got poor old Assange, but what took them so long? There is no doubt that the leaks helped Trump enormously in the election, and even though Trump is crucified by the false news media, he will do nothing to save Assange. Some cites are raising technical issues with the evidence, but the rules of evidence will have nothing to do with it, since it is already decided that Assange will fry, as an example to all, that resistance is futile, so just be quiet and die, deplorables.
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-11/dojs-entire-case-against-assange-hinges-one-critical-piece-evidence
  https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-04-11-analysis-deep-state-behind-arrest-of-julian-assange-torture-confessions.html

     Anyway, Natural News still seems to be on the Rump train and has given an interesting spin on this story:

     Even though it is far to late to save the Britain of modernity, perhaps this is good news for those who are working on a post-collapse society, which will be just, and not based upon the philosophies of illusion, such as the diversity cult, multiculturalism/multiracialism and the love of money:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/09/study-britons-want-immigration-reduced/

“A majority of people in the UK from every age bracket and ethnic background want to see immigration reduced, a new survey has found. The study of 10,000 people carried out by the newly formed centre-right think-tank ‘Onward’ discovered that all groups, including minority ethnic groups, 18-24-year-olds and those who voted to remain in the EU, all back reducing the level of immigration into the UK. Broken down, the figures show that Remainers back reducing immigration by 40 to 34 per cent, the same proportion as British Asians interviewed. The results also showed that a plurality of 18-24-year-olds backed reducing immigration by 38 to 36 per cent, The Sun reports. The study also found that among the most popular of proposed policies focussed on immigration would be one requiring new migrants to learn the English language upon arrival. The findings come as Britain faced its highest rate of non-EU migration for 14 years. In 2018, net immigration from non-EU countries stood at over 248,000, equivalent to the population of Southampton arriving in just one year. The demographic shift helped push the non-UK born population of the country to 9.4 million, around one in seven people nationwide. The most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that between July and September last year, there were 1.24 million non-EU nationals working in the UK as well as 2.25 million EU nationals, a total of nearly 3.5 million, larger than the population of Wales.”

     If innocent people are killed by guns, then the gun banners immediately move to ban guns. So, by this logic, as the military kills innocent people, and even has a term for this, “collateral damage,” surely the military needs to be banned? Doesn’t that follow by the same “logic”?
  https://www.rt.com/op-ed/455568-us-civilian-death-toll-somalia/

“The Trump administration, which made promises to rein in Washington’s unnecessary wars, has not only expanded the US’ covert and lethal drone program, but has taken the covering up of its civilian death toll to a whole new level. Like most of the battlefields opened more widely under the Obama administration, Donald Trump ramped up airstrikes against the infamous Al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia approximately two years ago. And, like most drone wars expanded under Obama and dramatically widened under Trump, the details of this covert assault are continuously swept under the rug, particularly when it comes to civilian casualties. The Pentagon has openly said that its airstrikes in Somalia have killed zero civilians. Yet, recently, an Amnesty International investigation into just five of the strikes carried out since March 2017 by both manned and unmanned reaper aircraft found that the strikes resulted in at least 14 civilian deaths, with instances of eight civilian injuries as well. In total, the US has carried out more than 100 strikes …

     See, it all conforms what I have been saying all long; the universities are not about the pursuit of truth, which would require free speech, but have their own globalist, universalistic agenda. After all, they are not called “universities” for nothing.
  https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2019/04/08/college-president-argues-against-free-speech-on-campus/

“Union College President David R. Harris recently penned an argument against free speech on college campuses, claiming that institutions of higher learning have a responsibility to manage speech by providing “constructive engagement,” so that students can have an optimal learning experience. Union College president David R. Harris penned an op-ed, entitled, “A Campus Is Not the Place for Free Speech,” in which he argues that it is the role of colleges and universities to filter the conversations on campuses to provide “constructive engagement.” “I oppose free speech on college campuses,” states Harris in his op-ed, adding that “it is not because I think college campuses should be safe havens from voices on the left and right that violate what I have learned and what I believe,” but that it is “the mission of a higher education institution” to provide students with the appropriate information and context. The college president had written his op-ed in response to President Donald Trump’s recent executive order requiring colleges and universities to uphold the First Amendment on campus in order to continue receiving federal research funding. “Many of the president’s supporters have applauded his free speech decision,” states Harris, “because they argue that higher education institutions trumpet liberal perspectives and silence conservative voices.” Harris adds that members of academia believe “the president and his supporters do not understand what actually happens on college campuses.”

To The Age        It is odd that as our federal elections process begins you should editorially warn readers of the "real danger to our communities in saying anything that divides Australian from Australian" ("Get ready for a gruelling campaign", 11/4). Elections are all about division between Australian and Australian concerning a whole range of policies and philosophies. All that can reasonably be asked is for public discussions to be conducted with courtesy, sympathy for opponents and a good sense of humour. It is swinging voters in the centre who will determine the final result. My hope is that they will weigh carefully the values of traditional Australia before casting a vote against the Coalition. Giving the reins to idealistic but foolish left-wing zealots may in itself lead to unpleasant and severe hostility between Australian and Australian in the not too distant future. It is human folly rather than wickedness that breeds revolution.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

To The Australian        Neville Clark's useful advocacy of the term "authoritarian extremism" (11/4), when applied to the coming elections, shows that there is much greater danger of this noxious behaviour in Australia at the moment from the Left than from the Right. Barnaby Joyce correctly points out ("Beware the red dawn") that ALP/Green policies threaten our nation with decline into the sort of socialist/communist tyranny that Solzhenitsyn spent his life exposing for the horror that it is. There is simply no credible fear at all of a comparable Nazi/fascist takeover here. Swinging voters would be well advised then to keep the Coalition in government. Admittedly, like the UK's Conservative Party, it is ideologically divided and weak about sticking to true and tried principles. Too many of its representatives and supporters prefer hedonism to metaphysics. However, casting a primary vote for one of the centre-right minority parties is the best way of administering a timely rebuke to its MPs.
  Nigel Jackson, Belgrave, Vic

     Well, at long last, here is some hope, so join up now!

“Senator Fraser Anning? @fraser_anning

     It seems that the Brexit issue is driving British politicians into the mad house, or at least into the arms of Big Pharma drugs. It is difficult to be so continuously traitorous, as the poison flows freely:
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/04/07/brexit-madness-top-mp-warns-of-rising-mental-health-issues-in-parliament/

“Brexit madness” has overtaken the House of Commons according to one senior MP, warning about the rise in mental health issues among parliamentarians. Education Committee chair and senior Brexiteer Robert Halfon has said that “It feels like the Commons is having a collective breakdown — a cross between Lord of the Flies and One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest.” In comments reported by London’s Evening Standard, the Tory MP went on to say, “People are behaving in ways that were unimaginable even just a year ago, whether they be Remainers, Leavers or in-betweens. The Brexit madness has affected us all”. Mr Halfon is not the only Member of Parliament to express such concerns, with one female MP telling The Sun that parliament had become a “boiling pot of mental ill health”. One male MP was reportedly reduced to tears after finding out he won’t be able to go home to see his children next week, due to the cancellation of MP’s Easter recess. Comments made to a BBC radio programme by Members of Parliament claim Brexit was leading to politicians drinking more and avoiding people. One said it was “taking an emotional toil”.

     A large number of articles from mainstream sources have commented on the growing hostile cultural divide between the two America, on the one hand, the cosmopolitans mainly urban elites from the big cities, and on the other, the localists, mainly unfortunate deplorable Trump voters from rural and other regions.
  https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-two-americas-have-grown-much-fiercer-11553816463?

     Meanwhile, Trump has gone back on every election promise that he made, and openly champions mass immigration and the displacement of American workers. While doing this, he continues the neo con mania of engaging in wars that the global elites want, with the invasion of Venezuela currently being floated. This is done even given stern warning by Russia not to intervene.
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-usa/trump-adviser-warns-russia-on-military-presence-in-venezuela-idUSKCN1RA1LT
  https://www.apnews.com/597b194af93c473aa4f041a4462788d8

     Italy is the only country in Western Europe that seems to be resisting the present flight towards the grave. Apart from immigration control, it has moved to give legitimate self defence laws, mainly due to the threat of rising crime, as Brazil has also done. The best way of people defending themselves, is to do it themselves, rather than depending upon police who, you can bet, will not get there when they are really needed:
  https://www.ansa.it/english/news/2019/03/28/senate-gives-final-approval-to-legitimate-defence-law_78e1e7c5-7758-42cd-b3b8-228042dbbb5c.html
  https://www.dw.com/en/italy-paves-way-for-legitimate-self-defense-measures/a-47806420

“It was a campaign pledge of Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini: The right to defend against intruders by any means necessary. Now, being able to grab a gun in self-defense is one step closer to reality. The Chamber of Deputies, Italy's lower house of parliament, on Wednesday voted in favor of a draft law on self-defense in the home. The bill specifies that "defense is always legitimate" in a person's home. It aims to protect a person who acts in self-defense in response to a perceived threat from an intruder. Under current legislation, a person who harms an intruder, even in cases of self-defense, can be held responsible for damages. The bill is reminiscent of US "stand your ground" laws , which often allow a person to use lethal force to defend themselves against an intruder on their property. In Germany, self-defense is vaguely defined, with the criminal code stating "a person who commits an act in self-defense does not act unlawfully." Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who leads the far-right populist League, has long campaigned for bolstering self-defense measures.”