In which the gangsta gang of gangsters drive too fast and too furious ...

Look no further for evidence that Tony Abbott and jolly Joe are out of touch with the zeitgeist.

While Peter Martin has eminently sensible and rational things to say in Abbott should stop tilting at windmills - they're the price we pay for progress, with the greatest respect, the pond must insist that Martin has missed the point.

You can't argue rationally with luddites. Hysteria and emotion are their stock in trade.

Which is why the pond turns to one of the stupidest, dumbest, silliest movies to be made in yonks to illustrate the zeitgeist. Forget the title: look what's in the background:

Yes, it's wind turbines in a wind farm, because gravel-voiced Vinnie, so deep you might mistake him for the music of the spheres, the muscle and tatt clad Rock, and the whole damn creative crew know that wind farms are visually cool, and just right for a blockbuster. (The pond is watching five Bunuels and a Fellini as a kind of rosary for cinematic sins).

Yep, and the turbines thus far, on a budget of $190 million, have scored a world wide nod of $1.510 billion and counting (don't believe the pond, believe Box Office Mojo).

There's the zeitgeist, right there, luddites.

But the subject of the film, gangsterism of the wild-eyed kind, introduces the other theme for the day, which is to say the gangsterism of the current federal government, which reminds the pond of Richard Nixon's reign.

Of course it's possible to see some humour in both matters:

(and more Rowe here).

The federal government has long been a haven for gangster elements - look no further than the wheat scandal and the RBA's plastic banknotes scandal - and what is invariably striking is how the federal government never tackles the gangster elements properly.

In the current crisis - out of control gangsters paying off criminals - the proper reaction would have been a mild expression of concern, a tut tutting and a wringing of hands and a promise to look into it, followed by an attempt to bury it by way of an inquiry conducted behind closed doors, for unspecified and unstated security reasons, and with a pre-determined 'white as a Rinso wash' outcome.

That would get the government around Fairfaxian editorials such as The Coalition's dangerous 'whatever it takes' immigration strategy, Voters are entitled to know whether their money is now supporting peddlers of death on the high seas.

Or the likes of Mark Kenny, scribbling Tony Abbott's tangled web over paying people smugglers:

The secrecy at the heart of Operation Sovereign Borders should never have been allowed because, as critics complained, it inevitably invites a loss of confidence and the suspicion of official malfeasance. That suspicion has just become a material claim and one that demands immediate examination. The opposition, late to the party on this as well as the above-mentioned citizenship denial, is now pushing for an Auditor-General's inquiry. 
Bring it on. Australians want answers. Indonesians deserve them too.

Comical really, asking gangsters deep into gangsterism for transparency and answers.

Let's watch as the reptiles provide the proper response, channelled by the bromancer, the major part of which is to double down and blame the Indonesians:

There you go, that's how much the reptiles love their gangsters.

Here's Sheridan channeling Bishop abusing the Indonesians, as if it's somehow their fault that the gangsters in Canberra, who are in charge of high seas gangsters, somehow made them allegedly hand out cash in the paw, and then mucked up the alleged cover up by refusing to confirm or deny. Or more to the point, denying, and then refusal to confirm the denial, because the chief gangster got his tongue into a muddle...

Perhaps because it's in the gangster genes not to take their criminality too seriously ...

You'll need to click to enlarge, if you can summon the energy and the courage, and control the rage:

Now within that story is a little break out piece, more easy to read in its digital form. It constitutes a classic apology for gangsterism, purporting to tell undiplomatic truth, blaming the Indonesians, blaming the left, confusing and conflating payments to informers with payments to conduct criminal activities, defending secrecy that should be indefensible in a democracy and then defending the gangster government:

Here's the difference. Paying an informer to advise of smuggling operations is one thing; paying criminals actively involved in criminal activity is another ...

Of course a better comparison would be the appalling, and also profoundly dumb and counter-productive behaviour of the ATF in the US gunwalking scandal (wiki it here).

Even the Oz editorialist couldn't go as far as that front page, but the reptorialist too shows all the classic signs of gangster logic:

Uh huh. So on the front page there's an elaborate and detailed defence of how the the gangsters are indulging in their gangsterism for the benefits of all Australians, and the cash in the paw was probably just an attempt to save lives and stop an illegal venture.

A little further in, and we discover that it wasn't this heroic endeavour, it was just a nefarious furphy, and lordy lordy, the Indonesians might even have a reason to be concerned.

Well let's stop that sort of idle chit chat right there. Remember it's Indonesia's fault they, as a developing economy on many islands, can't stop the relentless flow of people moving around south east Asia. Let's give the upstarts a bloody good slapping, and along with it, a slap down of dangerous lefties. 

What's the bet that the twitterati also get a mention, along with the vile greenies?

Finally, right at the end, an acknowledgement that the gangster in chief might just have set the hares running all by himself.

You can of course, at risk to your Godwin's Law swear jar, imagine a craven newspaper editorialist in the early 1930s doing their level best to support the government in murky circumstances:

Unfortunately, in the absence of a definitive statement from Herr Hitler on the claim of maltreatment of the Jews, the Reichstag week is set to be dominated by an issue that would have been better cleared up last week. By launching unilateral action against Indonesia. Heil Tony ...

Oops, that got a little confused, Perhaps we should just mis-quote ATF agent John Dodson, featured in the wiki linked to above:

I cannot begin to think of how the risk of letting cash in the paw fall into the hands of known criminals could possibly advance any legitimate law enforcement interest.

And here it is, just Monday, and the polls gone walkabout again, and this is the week that the citizenship legislation will rear its ugly head, and there's Bret Walker on RN this morning on breakfast, still yammering away about how he didn't even begin to imagine that the federal government would do what it's proposing to do when he made his report to the federal government. (He'll turn up here in due course).

The cost of acting like a gangsta trying to take down Vinnie and the Rock?

Nope, that's the price for being incompetent in the previous weeks ... for Joe Hockey mis-speaking and paying his wife a handsome stipend for bunking down in Canberra and so on and so forth.

The gangsta angle and the howls of constitutional lawyers are to come this week. They just earned themselves a dance with the devil.

Bring it on.

(Below: and more Cathy Wilcox here).