Friday, July 31, 2015

In which the heat in the kitchen blows back on the feckless, fearful leader ...

Now the pond isn't a grammar Nazi - we save that for soup - but every day it occurs to the pond that it could make a business out of marvelling at what allegedly professional sites get up to ...

And then there's the nonsense to be encountered whenever you break the golden rule and read the comments beneath a viperish Bolter column:



Actually Allan the problem is you're a fuckwitted speller, and as a bonus, a fuckwit with a very loose understanding of the meaning of the word you're mis-spelling. Why don't you do a Greg Hunt?

Indigenous people are those groups especially protected in international or national legislation as having a set of specific rights based on their historical ties to a particular territory, and their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations. (here)

Now the pond, what with the daily errors induced by NZ subs who simply won't listen, isn't in a position to throw stones ...

So perhaps it's also time to admit that the real reason the pond started off this way is to avoid the bleeding obvious.

Come on David Pope, induce a collective groan, a sigh of eternal pain (and more Pope here):


Ah the prescient Pope, the leadership issue ...

Yes, the Bronniechopperentitlementeversosorrygate affair has taken a new and satisfying turn, in which the commentariat now brood about the doings of Dumbo, aka the gutless wonder, aka the fearful, feckless leader.

Naturally the Fairfaxians are at the head of this particular pack. This in the AFR and below that, Kenny having multiple bites in the main masthead:




But it's not just Fairfax.

Even the reptiles have noted the issue:


Bold action? Bold action from Tony Abbott? PM's choice?

The fairy floss candy man is being called on to take bold, decisive action?

Look at the illustration even the reptiles think they can now run:



So what does Abbott do? How does he make his presence felt? Well, just above that urgent plea from the bouffant one comes this, with bonus thuggee impression photo:



Say what?

What a dumbo, what a gherkin, what a useless and yes, a gutless wonder.

Now some News Corp minions are doing their very best to sow confusion:


That third reason? Everybody's doing it, and nothing can be done about it because both sides do it, and waiter, bring a bowl of water, and let me ritually wash my paws, while declaring she should resign but she won't, and that's an end of the matter ...

By golly, it sounded like Simon Benson was lining up for a job in Abbott's office ...

Naturally the comments below took up the refrain, berating Labor and Slipper and Andrew Wilkie because it's all their fault that Bronnie is in such trouble ...

Meanwhile, what's the response of the fearful, feckless leader?

Feed them tripe and B.A. Santamaria.

And help prattling Polonius launch his book.

Okay, the pond will bite:


It's hard to count the number of times that Abbott has endorsed Santamaria supporting the fascist Franco. The bullets fired by the fascists might well have come from Hitler himself - the bombs and the planes certainly did - and Spain had to endure decades of corruption as a result of the outcome of the civil war.

But because Abbott is an addle-brained, simple-minded zealot, of fundamentalist Catholic stock and training and inclination - see the way he started to hang around the Pellists - reciting a few lines like a parrot is what he's good at.

There's more of it, of course ... got to get in that ringing endorsement of Polonius for being a brave cultural warrior who lived the life...


Say what? The reptiles put a gold bar over a speech by Abbott which no doubt in due course will turn up on his website and be available for free?

And even worse, it's just a man plugging a book for a Catholic mate? And coming out with gut-wrenching, jaw-breaking, historically astonishing and inept lines like Santamaria coming to be seen as the Edmund Burke of Australian conservatism?

All the more poignant because of a quote noted in a pond comment:

I hope that our opponents will end their flirtation with the ideas and the fears of the past. (hat-tip UC, here).

Well it's pure comedy gold, arising from the piquancy of delusional optimism, but how does it help the government of the moment?

In no way at all, though it does explain why Abbott really doesn't have a clue about what to say about Adam Goodes.

How to act like a statesman and how to tackle the viper Bolter and the rest of the clamouring racists, demanding of all things, an apology from the victim.

How to nudge the 72 year old Bishop out the door with a hearty thanks and a new broom.

It's not going to go away. Even Clive can suddenly bask in the glory of denouncing the entitlement culture.

And the more Abbott skulks behind closed doors or only steps out to celebrate Edmund Burke down under, the worse it's going to be when parliament resumes.

Sadly, it seems that Abbott has already reached that point in the senility charts known to many ... he's happiest living in the past and the glory days of the great feuds of his student years ... along with Greg Sheridan, prattling Polonius and the rest of the angry old white men who scribble for the lizard Oz ...

And that's why we get headlines like this:



Gone to skulking ground. Doggo. In a funk unworthy of Burke. Unable to grasp the nettle or even the Bronnie ... as they used to say in Tamworth, and perhaps still do, a gutless wonder ...

And meanwhile cartoonists have an easy option (and more Fairfax cartoons here):


That's the hand of almost everyone else, except for Tony Abbott ...

27 comments:

  1. Dorothy, I swear when I first saw that photo of Goodes and the PM I thought you were going to start talking about marriage equality.

    Such a sweet-looking couple!!

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  2. So Santamaria was a 'spellbinding speaker?' Then why did I fall asleep whenever I watched "Point of View?"

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    1. Too much opiate of the masses perhaps?

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    2. When I was at Uni in the late '70s, "Point of View" was a highlight of the viewing week in my group house. It was generally felt to be the best deadpan humour on TV.

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    3. in the 60's all I knew was it was standing between me and "Epic Theatre"

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    4. The pond is with Anon - there was something captivating about the way Santamaria did his thing, like watching a slightly demented version of the figure of death in Bergman's Seventh Seal (for those still watching Jon Stewart).

      http://crooksandliars.com/cltv/2015/07/jon-stewart-white-house-visits

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  3. And why does Erica Betz speak the same way?

    Was Erica brought up watching "Pointless view"?

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    Replies
    1. I once had some work dealings with a fellow who had been a University chum of Erica and, like him, was a Tasmanian. He had a very similar accent. Perhaps it's some sort of upper-crust Tassie thing?

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  4. Abbott, skulking Abbott, self absorbed as always, is thinking of himself. Abbott is about conjuring the future obits and tomes about himself. Shrinks could have a field day with this delusional ratbag. Hard slogging back to the future in the la la Abbott Captain Catholic psyche. Salutes to a magnificent failure indeed!

    "... it was a magnificent failure that changed and improved our country... It demonstrates that a good cause is worth failing for." Oh yeah? More fool you, scumbag loony.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, but, wasn't Labor going to save the reef?

      Morningstar, Thursday 30 July - ..Downer EDI Limited (DOW) Downer EDI announced it had received two Letters of Award from Adani Mining advising of its intention to enter into contracts in relation to the Coal Handling and Preparation Plant (CHPP) at the proposed Carmichael Coal Mine in Central Queensland. The first Letter of Award relates to the engineering, procurement and construction works for the CHPP with the project to be delivered by a JV between Downer and POSCO Engineering and Construction Australia. This contract will be valued at $420m. The second Letter of Award relates to the operations and maintenance activities for the CHPP to be performed by Downer, with an estimated value of $260m over the initial five year term with two additional one year options.

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  5. From 730

    Look, why don't you celebrate Aboriginality with something that's non-threatening and non-warlike, you know, like Greg Inglis does the goanna crawl after he tries. I mean, that's not a threatening move. Why this talk of war and why must there be black versus white? I just think playing with racial division like that is dangerous and stupid. This is not a country that is so racially divided you need to exploit it like that and make a symbol of war your expression of Aboriginality.
    Bolt proves (if any more is needed) that he is full of shit and a hypocritical cult, to boot. ANZAC, Kokoda? The Major-General G-G? Abbott strapping on the khaki at any pretext? But, Oh No, mustn’t open up the frontier massacres, they were, after all, not wars, at all, just clean-up ops.

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    Replies
    1. Agree, UC, only white folks have the right to appropriate the symbols of war. That's because they won.

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  6. Tony Abbott's support of the Falangists would these days qualify him as a terrorist and a watching brief on national security files as an extremist wanting to intervene in the affairs of a foreign country. Lock him up as a security risk!

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    1. DP - There was this clue amongst the Jesuits at Eureka Street, here:

      After the Guernica-bombing atrocity came an antifascist protest meeting at Uni of Melbourne. Newman-College-based blackshirt claque headed by B.A. Santamaria tried to break it up, yelling ¡VIVA EL CRISTO RE! - Falangist slogan. Fascist? You betcha! See also James Duhig and Norman Gilroy."

      Keeping their relgious motivations (Angries) under wraps a generation later Little Johnny and his young liberal thugs are known to have been similarly disruptive. Intrigued by the Santa blackshirt Falangist reference, I googled thinking something may turn up in Trove newspaper archives. No such luck, but had one hit here:

      University Library
      University of Melbourne Archives

      Case 1: Prelude to War ...

      The Spanish Civil War, when Franco's rebels returned from Morocco to overturn the Republican Government, invoked a widespread engagement from supporters of either side of the ideological conflict which overlay the war. The Catholic Worker had been founded in 1936 to counter a perceived spread of communist influence in Australian society and the Spanish conflict figured largely in its columns. It proclaimed in its first issue that 'We Fight' both the old capitalism and the new Communism. In its issue of 3 April 1937, it reported on the Spanish debate at the University, when B.A. Santamaria led the affirmative on the question that 'The Spanish Government is the ruin of Spain' and the Public Lecture Theatre rang to the cry, so goes their report, of 'Long Live Christ the King', the battle cry of Catholic Action.

      •In this issue of 8 January 1938 a letter from co-founder Paul McGuire in Spain puts their side of the propaganda war. Rather than Guernica's being the culmination of a series of trial runs in which Franco had invited his allies to bomb his own people, McGuire's letter begins, 'This is posted from Guernica, obviously dynamited by the Reds.'
      Catholic Worker Collection


      Paul McGuire in Spain?

      ADB - McGuire, Dominic Mary Paul (1903–1978)
      The book was favourably reviewed, and prompted (Sir) Robert Menzies to make McGuire a personal adviser for the 1951 British Commonwealth prime ministers' meeting in London. McGuire was appointed C.B.E. (1951).

      Discussions at that meeting gave shape to plans for a non-party political campaign to revitalize Australian moral life and strengthen the bulwarks against communism. McGuire drafted a statement on the steps of St Peter's Basilica during a stopover in Rome, and contacted Sir Edmund Herring, a former chief justice of Victoria, who agreed to lead the campaign which became 'A Call to the People of Australia'. A flurry of semi-secret meetings between business leaders and ex-servicemen provoked questions in the Senate about McGuire's role in a sinister 'New Guard'. The government answered the question with a statement on spiritual renewal. Broadcast on 11 November 1951, with signed support from State governors, chief justices and church leaders, the 'Call' urged a return to values of civic duty, loyalty and moral strength. To maintain the momentum of overwhelming support, standing committees were established and McGuire directed the national campaign until 1953.


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    2. Fighting For Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain during the Spanish Civil War
      ...There he found 'the cry of Christ the King on everyone's lips' and 'the Christian Thing is reborn'. While in Franco's Spain McGuire wished that he 'might see in Australian cities so many laughing children.


      THE METHODS OF JOCISM
      24 By Paul McGuire.

      As Father Kothen said the other day at Oxford: “The one means of combating Communism is to establish a spiritual Communism between souls in order to put them at the service of the Church, of society, of Our Lord, of God. The social problem will not be solved by a simple redistribution of goods. What is necessary is, much more profoundly, to socialise souls, so that hearts and minds may unite in the Mystical Body of Christ, in that vast association in which one is enabled to forget oneself, to go beyond one's personal interest in order to seek the general good, to serve the common good. …”


      Papers of Paul McGuire
      In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, McGuire travelled to Spain as a correspondent with the Catholic Herald (London) where he investigated the suitability of conditions for the return of expatriated Spanish children. His articles from this time were published in Australian Catholic newspapers.

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    3. Crikey - Labor in SA – an historical perspective
      A speech delivered by Mr Gary Lockwood – (President of the Australian Society for the Studies of Labour History Adelaide Branch)
      [imo worth the price]

      For various reasons – possibly to save his life and curtail his non religious activities Hackett was sent to Australia and came to Melbourne in 1922 under the safe protection of controversial Catholic Archbishop Dr Daniel Mannix. Many years later Mannix would describe Fr Hackett as the ‘father of Catholic Action’...

      None of the three key people mentioned were in support of Evatt, – by this time Fr Hackett had made friends in high places and with the assistance of Ambassador Paul Maguire (sic) had become a friend and confident [sic] of Bob Menzies – was in fact the person that encouraged Menzies to see that the Federal Liberal Party provide an opening for Catholics to be accepted into that conservative- non Labour Party...

      To give you the fuller picture – you need to know that John Paul had his own special army – he had his safe supporters to spy on radical bishops – his own storm troopers to pull the liberal side of the Catholic Church back under conservative Papal Control. There were and are 5 group
      Communion and Liberation

      Neo Catechumenate

      Focolare

      Legionaries of Christ

      Opus Dei

      You might be surprised to hear that the Pope could call on 45 million people to carry out this work – all members on these 5 groups...

      My assertion is (and I admit it is more of a hunch than a proven fact) that Opus Dei is alive and well in Australia – very active in Sydney and has the full support of Cardinal George Pell. As with all secret societies it is difficult to know who are members of Opus Dei unless they reveal it themselves as has Liberal member of the Legislative Council David Clarke MLC.
      I am almost certain that within the circles of the University of Sydney Catholic Chaplaincy (10) and the NCC – that the National Secretary and Treasurer of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) Joe de Bruyn,(11) is strongly involved. He may well be the most powerful political force in Australia – despite the efforts of Paul Howes, the AWU and Bill Ludwick of Queensland.
      Irrespective of actual membership of Opus Dei or not – this is where the power lies – primarily within the power of the SDA but who has the influence there.
      There is no doubt that it is the National Civic Council who has the power and influence – ‘You could stretch it a bit and say the old DLP’ – There is very little doubt in my mind that Opus Dei is certainly also in the mix...

      I believe the power of the Shop Assistant’s Union comes from the National Executive of the SDA – that is most likely controlled by the National Civic Council and that real power rests with its National Secretary De Bruyn who is believed to be very closely associated with Cardinal George Pell and the Catholic University.
      Do I think that De Bruyn is a member of Opus Dei – yes I do but who can really know when secret organisations swirl around us as is happening in our modern Society...

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    4. photocopies and mimeographed material including pieces by Paul McGuire
      Passionist Historical Archives
      Paul McGuire Maritime Library, State Library of South Australia

      Fighting for Franco: International Volunteers in Nationalist Spain During the Spanish Civil War, 1936-39. Reviewed by David A. Messenger (Department of History, Carroll College)
      ...Keene, however, is interested in what she estimates to be the 1200 or so true volunteers for Franco, a varied group of "pious Catholics, crypto-Nazis, aspiring fascists, old-style conservatives and anti-Semites of every stripe" (p. 2). ... In dealings with foreign volunteers, who came to Iberia ignorant of Spanish realities and burdened by the baggage of their own national political conflicts, Franco always managed to redefine his movement in terms they understood, often in international anti-Communist terms. Yet it was clear that within Spain Franco successfully cast himself as a defender of national honor against outside influence, and the treatment of foreign volunteers outside of the Caudillo's presence suggested that they were not welcomed by most on the Nationalist side. The dual nature of the regime as an internally nationalistic one and as a bulwark against international Communism served Franco well in the years that followed.

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  7. But, DP, BB is "remorseful". Not only that, she is ... deeply ... ...... deeply .... remorseful. [Execute half-turn to right, gaze into middle distance, wave it off.] There, let that be an end to it.

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  8. Bolt - "Goodes is the one that should apologise"

    What a vile racist arsehole of a man he is.

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  9. "Abbott goes to ground". Yep, in every conceivable manner, the gutless wonder will be absent. Can anyone here recall leadership? Can you imagine for one moment that Hawke or Keating for all their flaws would not have nipped this booing shit in the bud months ago? The absence of even the basics of leadership in racistgate, choppergate, sees the Prime Dipstick forever marked - the worst PM we could come up with at the time.

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    1. Abbott's so lacking in moral (or any!) direction,vc, when it comes to those who direct him.

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  10. Just for you DP - a report from the Northern Daily Leader.

    HE SWAGGERED down Peel St like a Nashville star, posing in a cowboy hat, dancing a country-style jig and even embracing a mystery blonde holding a “Free Hugs” sign.

    But Prime Minister Tony Abbott has found himself in the eye of an expense scandal storm after it emerged his trip to the 2012 Country Music Festival was anything but “free” for taxpayers.

    The then-Opposition leader claimed $9347 in work expenses for the whirlwind visit – despite not even staying in the city overnight.

    http://www.northerndailyleader.com.au/story/1828922/free-reign-pm-tony-abbott-under-fire-for-tamworth-festival-trip-as-expense-scandal-deepens/

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    1. Sheesh mate, "free' hugs are very expensive these days.

      But Tone Yabott is PM and he's allowed to do that. Bronnie's sin is that she thinks she's entitled to do the same. Which clearly she is until somebody has the appallingly bad manners to complain. How long ago was Sophie M's wedding again ?

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    2. Incidentally, Grant Goldman, the tame talkback radio host (and Manly-Warringah ground announcer) who interviewed Tones today, is a former Tamworth boy:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Goldman
      His show is also syndicated to 2TM, the Tamworth AM station where he started his radio career.

      As DP has often commented, Tamworth is indeed the centre of the known Universe. The plot thickens.... had Bronnie ever been there?

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    3. Excellent link - people should pay for the privilege of visiting Tamworth! As for Grant Goldman, that young tosser has done more to ruin Tamworth's reputation than Barners ... fancy going to Manly. Well the pond knows who to support, and it's any team playing Manly and Goldman ...

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grant_Goldman

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  11. The title of last night's Doctor Who re-run just about sums up the LNP.

    "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship"

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    1. You're not going to stop the pond thinking of daleks!

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