for later reading

[tielan]

Representation: The story is a Spell. The Story is a Curse.

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Vatican Pedophilia and an Australian jury called it:

Cardinal George Pell, Vatican Treasurer, found guilty of child sexual assault (The Guardian Australia)

And a primer: Who is George Pell and what has he been convicted of? (The Guardian Australia)

"You wouldn't hang a chicken on this evidence," said one of Pell's lawyers.

Welp:
1. He's not a chicken.
2. He won't hang.

At the least, a history of brushing aside sexual sin in others would make him a highly questionable moral choice for chief Catholic in Australia (although it would make him a highly likely traditional choice, so we are given to understand from the history of management of sex abuse cases in religious organisations the world over).

Finally: Pell's War On Sex (The Guardian Australia)

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Auspol:

Scott Morrison and the self-inflicted political wedgie.

If the Coalition has had a climate epiphany, I'm Beyonce

In order to hit reset on climate policy in a way that has some prospect of cutting through with the cohort of voters inclined to desert the government over this issue, and this issue alone, Morrison needed to do two things on Monday.

He needed to say sorry for all of that insanity. He needed to say I don’t know what came over us, but we aren’t going to do that again.

Prime ministers can do that in two ways. The first is to just say it, but that’s very hard for risk-averse politicians who equate public acts of humility with public acts of weakness.

The second is do it by implication: put forward a serious policy program that is an implicit apology for past misdeeds, and in so doing, project that you are prepared to stare down any internal brinkmanship that ensues.

That didn’t happen on Monday, and it didn’t happen on Monday because we all know what happens when the Coalition hits these particular tipping points.

Just ask Malcolm Turnbull.