What's got the Coffs Coast talking?

Reader addresses PM, taxi driver praised, dog told it can't board a train, Bernardi is a good Christian and how Trump fooled votes. Plus a laugh from Mark Lynch

Reader addresses PM, taxi driver praised, dog told it can't board a train, Bernardi is a good Christian and how Trump fooled votes. Plus a laugh from Mark Lynch

Grin Bin by Mark Lynch. Picture: Mark Lynch

A message to the Prime Minister

BILL Shorten may well be a sycophant but as Confucius once said; "In a country badly governed, wealth is something to be ashamed of."

Wayne Evans,

Sandy Beach

Coffs taxi driver does more than just drive

TO Peter of Coffs Coast Travel for organising my direct flight to Melbourne then going over and beyond duty to have it delayed, (owing to ill health) up to six months.

Job well done Pete from John and Barb

Gripe after pup refused entry onto train

I'M giving NSW Trains a Thumbs Down for not allowing me to take my caged puppy on the train. I had just bought my ticket, about to step onto the train with my little plastic cage with my little pup in, when I was stopped and told "sorry no pets allowed" and yet the only signs around say no alcohol, no bikes and no surf boards. Not one mention of pets at all.

Most disappointed. Surely one in its cage should be allowed.

Karen Hislop

Bernardi a pillar of faith too good for the party

MOST of Australia's top politicians seem to be Catholics.

Or lapsed Catholics...attending Catholic school, then giving it up.

Prime Minister Turnbull, born non-Catholic, became a Catholic in 2002 - yet doesn't his "progressive" views on abortion, same-sex marriage etc. contradict Catholic teaching?

Bill Shorten, who attended Catholic primary school then Xavier College - now likewise supports anti-Catholic policies.

Greens leader, Richard di Natale, attended Melbourne's Parade Catholic College....

Perhaps one reason why Cory Bernardi gets bad media coverage is his cheerfulness about being Catholic - and trying to live accordingly.

In his book, "The Conservative Revolution", Bernardi identifies "Faith" as number one of the "Four Pillars" on which a better Australia must be founded.

He seeks a society based on "that uniquely Christian doctrine that man was 'created in the image of God', a principle on which the western concept of human dignity depends...." (page 33).The unkind label of "rat" has been thrown at him.

He is perhaps too well brought up to brand his critics as chameleons.

Arnold Jago

How Donald Trump won the US election

POLITICIANS are increasingly using a cynical, despicable tool called message framing to capture votes.

Donald Trump used it to win the Rust Belt states and, as a result, win the US presidency.

How did he use it? First, he targeted a region he believed would yield him a stack of votes. The four Rust Belt states were such a region. They had suffered economic decline, population loss, and urban decay due to the shrinking of its once-powerful manufacturing sector.

Second, he framed messages aimed at the Rust Belt's white working class.

The messages were many and varied. Some accused people of colour of taking jobs and tax dollars from whites.

Other messages were promises that he would revive manufacturing in the Rust Belt, that he would bring back their lost jobs from China.

So far I've described what most politicians do. From now on, however, it gets ugly!

Third, he realised that many in the white working class wouldn't vote for him. In the message framing manual, they are described as those who use their thinking brain to make decisions.

It was clear to them that Chinese labour would always be cheaper than US labour, that US companies would always have their products made in China, that manufacturing would never return to the Rust Belt!

Not only would these people not vote for Trump, many would campaign against him. So he starved them of information they could use in a campaign.

Like, he never outlined how he would bring manufacturing back to the Rust Belt. In short, he made himself a small target!

Fourth, he targeted voters who don't use their thinking brain for decision- making.

We use our reptilian brain to respond to a threat. It tells us to fight or to flee.

It can't, however, think. So it can't tell truth from untruth like the thinking brain can.

So how does it make a decision? The 'message makers' flood the reptilian brain with untruths. When it interprets one as a threat, like Afro-Americans or Latinos are taking your jobs, it has a fight response, it gets angry. And in that flash of anger, it sides with Trump, it votes for him!

How dispiriting it is that Trump and the like can target people who use their reptilian brain instead of their thinking brain, flood it with lies and be assured of their vote!

Dr Michael Blockey, Scotts Head