Trump win would fuel Dutton populous hype

Peter Hartcher succinctly outline the moral vacuum that is Donald Trump (“The ‘pulsating sense of grievance’ driving Donald Trump’s supporters”, August 1). Hopefully enough thinking Americans will vote in November and consign Trump to the dustbin of history. However, should the worst happen and Trump wins it will send a tidal wave across the Pacific. The Coalition has already lost its moral compass and is enthusiastically embracing Trumpism. A Trump win will send Dutton into Trump overdrive and any remaining civil norms will be thrown out the window as Dutton would try to emulate his idol’s success. Australia would be very much the poorer as a result. Ross Hudson, Mount Martha (Vic)

Donald Trump has revealed himself as a racial bigot in front of the very people he’s trying to court. Who’s suffering from cognitive impairment now?
Ian Adair, Hunters Hill

How the tables have turned! It wasn’t long ago that Donald Trump just had to sit and watch Joe Biden trip over his own tongue and failed synapses, laying a certain course to victory. Now Kamala Harris just has to let Trump be Trump and let his own ego, racism, misogyny and “weird” ruminations cause self destruction. Because there is nothing more unsettling and threatening to Trump’s ego than a strong woman confronting him. And she’s black! . It is an affront to him and he just can’t help himself. And JD will back him all the way to defeat. A week in politics is a long time. Rowan Godwin, Rozelle

It appears to be poetic justice that Donald Trump was asked legitimate questions by black reporters and immediately reverted to type. The Republican Party he has hijacked and turned into his own likeness has long worked to disenfranchise poor black voters who have difficulty producing photographic proof of identity. A couple of questions by the journalists and Trump’s comments about Kamala Harris’ racial background were enough to have Trump’s minders end the opportunity to see more of the real Trump. The Trump miasma has been created by a crafty, old, out of touch, rich, entitled white guy, a modern day snake oil salesman. He cares nothing for those dispossessed he professes to love; he craves power and all its trappings.
Geoff Nilon, Mascot

Donald Trump’s question for Kamala Harris - are you Indian or black? Question for Donald Trump - are you white or are you orange? Stephanie Edwards, Leichhardt

Trans trouble

My granddaughter plays representative basketball (“Even if you accept that gender is fluid, the rules of sport shouldn’t be”, smh.com.au, August 2). Last year at under 14s level, her team came up against a transgender player who was much faster, stronger and rougher when playing. It was totally unfair. I left the stadium in disgust, as did others. The transgender player’s team won the tournament. Fortunately this year, the trans player is now in an older age division and my granddaughter’s team won the tournament. David Sayers, Gwandalan

Clearly the International Olympic Committee needs replacing; its approval of biological males being able to compete against females is gross stupidity at its worst and contempt of medical science, with total disregard to the safety of opponents. There is only one criterion for gender identification and that is your chromosomes. We must not wait until a woman of smaller structure, with less muscle development and finer bone structure is injured or killed before sorting out this total stupidity. It is time governments came to the forefront and legislated that the correct and only medical identification of males and females is by chromosomes. Gil May, Forestdale

By definition, the Olympics have been, and will continue to be, unfair. Sports people are advantaged by their different body shape, muscle density and metabolic and biochemical makeup, to name a few variants. Two obvious extremes are weightlifting and gymnastics, whilst for equestrian and sailing there seems to be little body advantage. For this reason, women were allowed to compete only against other women. With changes in scientific understanding, perhaps a new paradigm should be designed. As all athletes should be free of drug enhancement, perhaps you could simply test for the presence of a Y chromosome? And if you require additional hormones or drugs for your mental or physical health, then unfortunately the Olympics are not for you. Or we could go more broad and have a single level playing field, unfortunately this would have meant Australia having no gold medals in the 2024 Olympics at all. Allan Kreuiter, Roseville

Shark folly

Graeme Stewart writes, “as a physician and a volunteer surf lifesaver, I must place the protection of human life above all else. As must the NSW government” (Letters, August 1). I disagree; the government must not do any such thing - at least, not on my part. We humans have adapted, changed and ruined almost every terrestrial environment we’ve entered. We should not try to change a marine environment for mere recreational enjoyment. If we want to enter the water, we should use our so-called “superior” brains to assess the risks inherent where a terrestrial mammal, an unnatural swimmer at that, enters a marine environment. Then we should then decide whether or not to go swimming at the beach. To do otherwise is both an environmental and a personal folly. Peter Butler, Wyongah

According to one of your correspondents, of the “255 marine animals caught in these (shark) nets in the past year, only 15 were “target” sharks”. This evidence says nothing about the efficacy of netting. If the intention of the nets is to safeguard humans by keeping sharks out of beach recreational waters, data on the number of sharks kept out and not kept out, rather than caught in the netting, would be far more relevant. Another letter writer reports data on human deaths from maulings by sharks off Sydney beaches before and after netting, suggesting the nets are effective. To my mind, the loss of 255 marine animals per year is a small ecological price to pay for feel-safe, very probably actually safe, off-beach water recreation for the swimmers of Sydney for most of the year. As a proportion of the populations of the various affected marine species, I suggest the losses are, to put it colloquially and meaningfully, next to bugger all. Ross Drynan, Lindfield

With respect, Graeme Stewart, I disagree that protection of human life should be placed above all else. This is a purely subjective view of humans, and it has been a curse on the world ever since someone decided that a conveniently invented god gave humans dominion over all other life. If a person chooses to swim in the sea, it should be a shark’s right to eat that person. If we keep on breeding and destroying mindlessly, we will destroy ourselves along with so much else. Alynn Pratt, Grenfell

Go for a drive, attend a concert, have a drink, top up the tan, consume that processed food, frolic in the oceans and estuaries. All these pastimes come with their inherent risks yet we are free to do so. Last year’s 18,000 plus cases of melanoma puts the rare injuries and fatalities from shark behaviour well and truly in the shade and still a dubious token strategy of marine meshing continues. It is anthropomorphic arrogance that gives us the pomposity to push nature aside in order to make way for our eccentricity and indulgence. We abide by the rules of nature. Break them too oft at our peril.
Steve Dillon, Thirroul

We must press on with transfer to renewables

Caitlin Fitzsimmons confirms what many of us already know: that higher electricity prices are being caused by outages at our coal-fired power stations, not by renewables (“Ageing coal power pushed bills higher”, August 2). Unfortunately, those who oppose renewable energy are spinning a story that suggests the opposite. In the process, they are impeding the rollout of wind and solar, and exacerbating the problem renewables are meant to fix. We need to get on with the transition, not listen to disinformation peddled by the mendacious or the uninformed. Ken Enderby, Concord

Our continued reliance on coal-fired power is doing more harm than good. Not only is burning coal polluting our air and atmosphere and slowly cooking us, but costs of outages, remediation and the resultant power are high. The now sad and sorry story of coal should be the impetus governments need to improve community consultation, encourage investment, and expedite planning permit allocations to roll out the larger scale wind, solar and battery projects we so desperately need. Amy Hiller, Kew (Vic)

Unlucky country

Jeanna Price writes that students are starving, which doesn’t surprise me with their unavoidable living costs, unless they still live with their parents near a university (Letters, August 1). Then, after working part-time to support themselves while studying, they are given a $50,000 HECS debt upon graduating. Not a great way to start. Meanwhile, rental prices continue to increase with housing either unavailable or unaffordable for many of our young people. What sort of country have we become? Growing up on the 1950s, I never expected inequality to become such a feature of Australian life. It is about time the governments started addressing these issues. Restricting negative gearing to say two properties, increasing capital gains tax would be a start. I remember Peter Costello as treasurer, saying he never thought about the impact of reducing capital gains in the housing market, he was only trying to stimulate the share market. Big mistake. I really worry about our younger generations and their future, those not from wealthy backgrounds. So much for Australia claiming to be an egalitarian country. Glenys Quirk, Forster

Most of us see HECS for the driver of intergenerational poverty that it is. The wealthy pay their children’s HECS upfront, ensuring they are free to choose courses in which they have a genuine interest and no debt to repay in the future. Sometimes, the bank of Mum and Dad also supplies these fortunate young people with a house. For those with less wealthy parents, HECS debt rises with the CPI and is deducted directly from their salaries once they reach a certain income threshold, regardless of their actual circumstances, soaring rents and interest rates, and the high cost of childcare. Let us not pretend it is a level playing field. Pamela Graham, Hornsby Heights

Whenever the subject of HECS debts is raised, the golden era of Gough Whitlam is often invoked. I was a lucky recipient of Gough’s free tertiary education in the 1970s and 1980s but can appreciate why things have changed. Back then, most students did not complete year 12 let alone make it to university. Women were encouraged to get married, have kids and maybe head to secretarial college. Society has changed. ABS statistics show that people now in their thirties are twice as likely to have a degree as those thirty years older. To provide free tertiary education to all those studying in 2024 would bankrupt the country. Mike Reddy, Vincentia

Proud Payne

On July 31, 1924, Tasmanian politician Herbert Payne introduced compulsory voting in Australia, which became law. This should be a well-known fact and we should be proud and remember our history. Zuzu Burford, Heathcote

No better

I suspect I’ll be one of many who point out to Lorraine Hickey that Australia happily voted in Tony Abbott after the horrible misogyny directed at Julia Gillard (Letters, August 2). Sadly, we are no better that the US. Rather than being career-ending, this kind of behaviour continues to be endorsed by some Coalition politicians. And they wonder why they have trouble losing seats to women in the teal electorates. Anne Kelly, Yamba

Bottoms up

Congratulations to those who had been fighting and lobbying for an official recognition of not only Australia’s, but the world’s first milk bar (“Great shakes: first milk bar was in Sydney”, August 2). This was the Black and White 4d Milk Bar in Martin Place that opened in 1932 owned by the Greek-Australian Joachim Tavlaridis. Within years milk bars became ubiquitous spreading out into suburbia usually operated by Greek migrants just as my family did. But milk bars were also important in popular culture from the 50s as these were the places teens hung out not only to get a milk shake and hamburger but listen to what was considered incendiary music supposedly causing juvenile delinquency, rock and roll. The milk bar is an important part of our history. Con Vaitsas, Ashbury

Congratulations to the City of Sydney for honouring the establishment of what became a popular institution across Australia and the US. May the Black & White 4d milk bar plaque in Martin Place serve as another reminder of the historic past of Sydney and its people who made this city great. I’ll have a chocolate malted, thanks. Paul Reid, Campsie

Fingers crossed

This morning my wife complained, again, about my snoring (“I’ve stopped sleeping with my wife. Now we really sleep”, August 2). I’m crossing my fingers that she doesn’t come across John Baker’s article or I may find myself with a permanent spot in our spare bedroom.
Rodney Crute, Hunters Hill

Postscript

No Olympic Games is free from controversy and this one is no exception. Earlier in the week, readers were debating the various interpretations of the infamous opening ceremony tableau. Was it a blasphemous representation of the Last Supper, as alleged by the Australian Christian Lobby, or a recreation of a Dionysian romp?

Katharine Crawford wrote that “the Olympics began in Greece long before the birth of Christ. The blue character was clearly Dionysus. Above Ariadne was the Corona Borealis not a Christian depiction.” Kenneth Smith agreed; “With all the faux outrage could we at least report the facts? It was not a parody of the Last Supper. It was a bacchanalia.”

The thorny topic of sex, gender and sport raised its head - or possibly its gloved fist - when two boxers met in the ring on Thursday.

After just 46 seconds of a women’s welterweight bout between Algerian Imane Khelif and Italian Angela Carini, the Italian boxer refused to fight on and eventually broke down in tears on her knees in the ring. Khelif failed to meet gender eligibility tests at the women’s world championships last year but was allowed to compete at the Olympics.

Gil May wrote “We must not wait until a woman of smaller structure, with less muscle development and finer bone structure is injured or killed before sorting out this total stupidity. It is time governments came to the forefront and legislated that the correct and only medical identification of males and females is by chromosomes”.

Elsewhere, Jenna Price’s opinion piece on the high cost of arts degrees and the subsequent HECS debt attracted a strong response (“Students are starving. One man could fix it with a keystroke”, August 1).

Mark Paskal wrote that “maybe a few of our silver-haired senior pollies, who enjoyed free tuition through Gough Whitlam’s visionary scheme, would like to stump up for those who either graduate with mountainous debt or decide it really isn’t worth it and never enter uni.”

Thank goodness for the Olympics, as I don’t actually want to leave the house. Michael Deeth wrote that it’s so cold outside, he’s “wondering if I’m living in Como or Cooma”. You and me both, Michael.

Margot Saville, deputy letters editor