Wednesday, November 23, 2016

In which the pond dallies with the pasty Hastie and nattering "Ned" Kelly ...


Of course the pond couldn't ignore it ...

But then the pond is an ideal candidate for a slapstick silent comedy. Slip on a banana, tangle with the street bully, race the train to the crossing, dangle from a clock? Sure thing ...


At least when Harold was doing it, it was quarter to three, rather than being one minute to midnight as it is now ...

But in that spirit the pond simply couldn't resist stumbling into the mugwump swamp of the pasty hasty mind of a man brought up by fanatical fundamentalist creationists, and no doubt resulting in a slightly skewed view of the world ...

In these Trumpian times, what better preparation?


   


Now the pond is sorry that the hasty pasty had to become involved in a stupid and useless war. That's where stupid mindless misguided patriotism will get you ... but what's the takeaway here?

We need to tell the story of creationism and climate denialism more convincingly? But didn't the Donald do that?


Well it seems that the Donald might be walking that dog back, or he might not, who knows, but it makes it all the funnier to read the pasty hasty getting excited about Bjorn back in the day ...


There's something rich about that string of rhetorical platitudes (more here, paywall permitting or google the text) but time is short, there is much to do and promises to keep, and the pond must stay on the move ...


And now the pond must do a quick segue, because more is never enough, from a silly man nattering away in platitudes, to a traumatised nattering Paul "Ned" Kelly, caught up in a Götterdämmerung moment:


Oh poor, poor Ned. Besieged by the progressives like Alice ...


Reading the besieged Ned, you'd almost be forgiven for forgetting that the lizard Oz has been climate denialist central these past many years ...


That's it, that's the best Ned has got?

There'll be a Trumpian moment for China? But China has already got its Trump and he's in charge and making out like a bandit, while humble Malaysian leaders struggle to get out of primary school and rort their first billion.

Never mind, the reptiles have for years played with fire and cultivated the very worst in Australian thinking.

Now we can all reap the wind, but sadly it's going to be more than hot air this time ... if anyone imagined that Berlusconi was the prince of Italian rorters, they're likely to be dazzled when the Trumpists really get going ...

Now speaking of stupid wars, the pond has had tremendous fun of late prodding those who had high hopes of Malware with tales of the NBN, parades of the racist mutton Dutton - who manages to radicalise the pond, long absent lord knows what he's doing for the Lebanese community - and tall tales of Barners doing over the Murray Darling basin and the crow eaters, and making a stand for sugar, because everyone has a right to be obese and make the medical system explode so we can privatise the lot ...

Yes, while all this and much more is going on, the gormless effete gutless cowardly Malware ducks for cover and lives the rich fantasy life of imagining that somehow he's an infallible town sheriff ...

Sadly even the robots in Westworld are more sentient and intelligent, but at least there are infallible papal cartoons to look at, and more splendid Popery here ...



12 comments:

  1. I recommend a book to Andrew Hastie who appears to be under the illusion that nobody saw the likes of Donald Trump coming.

    That book is Friendly Fascism by Bertram Myron Gross. When was it published? Long ago in 1980. It was a bit of a sensation I believe.

    But Gross was an optimist. He thought the US would avert totalitarianism because its institutions were strong. Present day scholars believe present day circumstances would have diluted Gross's optimism.

    I too am pessimistic. The sight of those young banker types in the US giving a Nazi salute and the Klu Klux Klan's adoption of Trump as Big Daddy is enough to give anyone the willies.

    But hey Christmas is coming and the long summer break. She'll be right. Isn't that how it goes?

    Miss pp

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dorothy, is it Götterdämmerung?

    At "one minute to midnight as it is now.." it's certainly past any such twighlight then, Ragnarökkr.

    It's the Anthropocene. Already the Great Dying.

    It's Ragnarǫk.

    It's Trump:

    The Mind of Donald Trump by psychology professor Dan P. McAdams - The Atlantic, June, 2016.
    Donald Trump - A psychological trap: making sense of Donald Trump’s life and personality - Dan P. McAdams, Guardian US, August, 2016.
    Dan P. McAdams - Wikipedia

    Dan P. McAdams chooses his words carefully there cognisant that both he and Psychiatrists Can't Tell Us What They Think About Trump due to:
    The Goldwater Rule, aka Section 7.3 of the American Psychiatric Association's Principles of Medical Ethics With Annotations Especially Applicable to Psychiatry:
    On occasion psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself/herself through public media. In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his or her expertise about psychiatric issues in general. However, it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Kelly is right to see Trump as a reactionary, full of nostalgia for a past which we might describe as an old "political correctness" in economic, military and migration matters. There is this great irony that globalisation and liberal economics have supposedly lifted billions out of poverty across the world while at the same time destroying the lives of millions of Americans. Trump cannot hope to unravel all that and retreat to the 1920s where the same things he advocates were the issues of the day. Kelly seems to be uncertain of the likely success of Trump's rise, as are so many of us - not so impressed with the euphoria of the Right.

    Then there is the matter of the writing of opinionistas in the Murdoch press, how they become entangled in contradictions and paradoxes through their repetition day after day of bits and pieces which make up the pot-pourri of their collective propaganda. They rave about "freedom of speech" but pillory those who question them; they vilify "identity politics' yet use it to attack others; they criticise 18c but forget about 18d and the success of AHRC in sorting out the thousands of cases proposed. They seize upon particular cases and drag them in at every opportunity, with out details but simply to anchor their argument.

    Take the case of Leak's cartoon, redeemed by 18d. Yet the cartoon is clearly using stereotypes to make a point which is a side issue to the main topic, the mistreatment of juveniles in detention. The father is Aboriginal, drunk and ignorant of the name of the boy before him. The policeman is Aboriginal (not white) - it is not clear how many detention centre staff are Aboriginal. Yet we are led to believe in this cartoon this is a comment about all (or a vast majority of Aboriginal parents, especially fathers, apparently). So, it is a cartoon - and a very poor one in my opinion. Leak has a history of poor cartoons. Yet the Murdochians support him - a "lovely man" - no matter what.

    Had a visitor from the UK recently who cannot believe the poverty of the press here in Oz, same in the UK - with one or two exceptions, Murdoch not one of them.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fuckity fuck Anon, the pond had missed that one about the vandals and the visigoths at the architectural gates

      Delete
  4. The inevitable collateral damage of the soon to be ramped up plunderfest of the new repugnant administration.
    www.tomdispatch.com/post/1116
    Which is to say that the future of life on earth may be well and truly TRUMPED.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dorothy, is it Götterdämmerung?

    At "one minute to midnight as it is now.." it's certainly past such a twighlight, Ragnarökkr.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's the Anthropocene. Already the Great Dying.

      It's Ragnarok.

      It's Trump:

      The Mind of Donald Trump by psychology professor Dan P. McAdams - The Atlantic, June, 2016.
      Donald Trump - A psychological trap: making sense of Donald Trump’s life and personality - Dan P. McAdams, Guardian US, August, 2016. Dan P. McAdams - Wikipedia

      Delete
    2. Dan P. McAdams chooses his words carefully there cognisant that both he and Psychiatrists Can't Tell Us What They Think About Trump due to:

      The Goldwater Rule, aka Section 7.3 of the American Psychiatric Association's Principles of Medical Ethics With Annotations Especially Applicable to Psychiatry:

      On occasion psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself/herself through public media. In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his or her expertise about psychiatric issues in general. However, it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.

      Delete
  6. Why Many People Love Trump - Ian Welsh

    Ian Welsh pasted those four paragraphs from:
    Listening to Trump By Christian Parenti (New York University) - nonsite.org

    About nonsite.org
    ...Today, the various theoretical forms of neoliberalism – from the postmodern to the posthuman, from the new historicism to the new pluralism – have become so pervasive that they are nearly invisible. nonsite.org seeks first to make them visible and then to make them less pervasive. Our goal is to criticize what is and replace it with what we think ought to be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Christian Parenti article was a very valuable pointer, Anony, especially in explaining the attraction of Trump - he comes across as Earth Mother, Venus and Father Xmas all rolled into one.

      But I thought his observation of HRC was quite acute and largely accurate:

      "Hillary Clinton, on the other hand, constrained by sexist double standards and lawyerly calculation, too often came across as bloodless. At her best moments, like facing down the vainglorious Trey Gowdy, she exuded impressive competence, brains, and steely self-control. She bested Trump in the debates. But more often, Clinton came across like a scripted and dissembling Human Resources manager."

      Bingo.

      Delete
  7. Hastie is a member of a government which implements the neoliberal policies which are designed forget the "forgotten people"

    ReplyDelete

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