Democracy's Demise in Oz

Shane in the Slammer

G'day possums,

Remember when Australia was a "larrikin" nation, celebrated as a "Fair Dinkum" breed-apart from its colonial masters, thumbing its nose at overweening authority and mythicized as the "workers paradise of the South" where "a fair go" and a "fair day's pay for a fair day's work" were part of an egalitarian social contract, and "mate-ship" was real?

Well Petals,  the "thumbing your nose at authority" bit was finally put to rest last week when Labor supported the Ruling Rabble's Foreign Influence and Transparency Bill through the Senate.

Now, thumbing your nose at the Government of the day ( may we get one soon), by writing a researched  article critical of it, planning or participating in a demonstration against its programs or intentions, will land you with a minimum of seven up to 25 years in jail.

Fair dinks!

For now, it is a criminal act to plan or to demonstrate en masse and you will be deemed a threat to security and the army can now be called in to disperse you. 

Imagine, if you will, Potato-Head Dutton taking umbrage at being criticized for lacking compassion, empathy and understanding the rights of humanity and that his concentration camps full of refugees, are illegal and an abomination? Can you imagine his pleasure in sooling the dogs of war onto his own people out of sheer venal spite because he was being held accountable for his malicious cruelty?

No?  Why are we so different to the humanity he has incarcerated illegally for so long?

Fair dinks, we are now the authoritarian state we used smugly to point at overseas.

But wait there's more... the legislation will also support the so-called "free trade deals" where multi-national business can sue a country who use legislation to protect its own or where legislation interferes with their profit. In other words your government becomes an agent for the multi-national and will use its draconian powers to suppress any dissent from the local populace being affected by the multi-national.

But wait.. it goes further...concurrent with this gross diminution of free speech and congruent to it, alleged Attorney General, the Un-Christian Porter has sent for trial (in secret) Witness K and his lawyer who blew-the-whistle on Australia's illegal bugging of the Timor-Leste government offices under the aegis of Little Johnny Howard and his cross-dressing Foreign minister Fishnets-that-Batter, Downer eleven years ago.  Then, Australia diddled the Timorese out of their fair share of the oil riches beneath the sea near their coast.

Interestingly, included in the arraigned are four ABC journalists who reported on the nefarious actions of Howard, Downer and ASIO at the time including one, Emma Alberici, who currently is no pin-up gel for the Ruling Rabble.

More interesting is the fact that the Newscorp journo who broke the story in The Ugly American's "Australian" in the first place, has not been called.  Vindictive and petty? 

Bloody oath!

Annabel Crabb was hosting “Insiders,” attempting to replicate Barrie Cassidy who is on leave. Having obviously been fed not only food on her lunch date with Truffles earlier in the week but Ruling Rabble talking points as well, Crabb was outplayed by Wayne Swann who was direct and clear in his answers, something the Ruling Rabble never are and although attempting to find division, she never followed up on a reply to tease out more content, often cutting off the end of Swann’s answer to limit him cementing a case different to the one she was pursuing.

Did we mention that Hissy-Fits Sales was at the lunch with Truffles as well?

It was like reading out a recipe of one star difficulty as the program degenerated with hosting the politically lopsided panel of Saava, Coory and Crowe all sitting and smugly agreeing with each other’s “talking-points” on just what a disaster (in their Murdoched minds) Willie Shortstuff’s tax policy adjustment was and trying to beat up a leadership challenge in the best of the Ugly American’s tradition while ignoring the fact that it was July 1^st and worker's penalty rates were being cut again but with the Prime Miniature and all other pollies simultaneously getting a 2% pay rise: Truffles raking in a $7,000.00 yearly increase …. 

A fair Go?

What started as a pie ended up bland right-wing blancmange.

I have to admit it did bring back memories of the last election night and the right-wing bias of the ABC panellists which included Crabb…

https://shanewombat.blogspot.com/2016/07/not-with-bang-but-whimper.html

The demise of "the Larrikin" was hastened, too when Senate clown and IPA fellow- traveller, Loopy Leyonhjelm in debate about  "respecting the safety of women" (but really wanting them all to be able to buy 7-15 shot Adler 's for their handbags) confused his own more important thoughts to the words spoken by Senator Hanson-Young and in high dudgeon retaliation, told her to "...stop shagging men"....and when she confronted him over this, then told her to "F**K Off!"  Confusing his "libertarian" cover with being an honest larrikin, and being roundly castigated in the press and at interview on this matter Loopy showed all the recalcitrance and indignant outrage of a 14 yo schoolboy pretending not to know what had gone wrong... Nahh, youse dunno anyfing.... ya pussys!  ...and it seems he is obviously garnering favour with the alt-right (he likes his Milo), Patriot Fascists and Tru-blu's for the next senate election.... if they can locate a polling booth, that is ....and read the voting form.

For those wanting to jump on the Ruling Rabble's Fascist, IPA bandwagon I have spare copies of the Horst Wessel in sheet music form ....

Hoo-roo Possums,

Shane.

The Orthodox Stench of Corruption

Shane in Ferns

G'day Possums,

Mrs Wombat and I had a little sojourn in "Warby" recently and it reminded us somewhat of the town of Glastonbury in England.

All the pics that follow are from its surrounds.

The Ruling Rabble, fellow-traveller apparatchiks and other assorted entitled had a memoriam, a get-together some weeks ago to eulogise their hero and Liberal Party founder, "Ming Menzies" and his "Forgotten People" speech. That in their orthodoxy they had their dates wrong and their "memoriam" was a historical confection was of no import to them;  particularly "Mings" adulation of Hitler prior to the war and who as PM was selling iron to the Japanese just before WW2, hence his sobriquet, "Pig-Iron Bob:" and also the fact that he "went missing" in London for months, leaving Australia completely unprepared for the coming Pacific conflict was of no relevance to them in their re-enactment.

What matters most to the Ruling Rabble is the public facade of respectability, the pretence of fiscal rectitude and the impression of solidity.

This fractured orthodoxy was well demonstrated recently when the monies paid to the ineligible and now sacked right-wing Senator, Bob Day (apparently $130,000.00) have been "forgiven," but the data matching program informed private debt collectors are still chasing down citizen's welfare debts as miniscule as $20.00 with pensioners being hunted, too.

Don't do as I do, do as I say. 

Double standards = Orthodoxy.

 

Warburton

Enter, stage right: Trade Minister Andrew, Reboxetine Robb. 

Paid $100,000.00 by a Chinese businessman for his election funding. The day before the Federal election, he signed up to a $880,000.00 pa job with the same Chinese firms who months before were awarded a 99 year lease on the Port of Darwin. Subsequently, one month after being elected Reboxetine leaves parliament!

As this little piece of chicanery was a trifle more news and noteworthy than Silly Sam Dastyari's $5500.00 worth of Chinese "donations," prime miniature Truffles, worried that the stench of their orthodoxy was becoming more apparent:  Asbestos Bishop also had her "seat" warmed to the tune of $800,000.00 of Chinese electoral munificence too,  found some 5 minutes of solace in a desperate "Look-Over-There" moment by blaming Tardis State premier Dan-the-Man Andrews for the Victorian parole board's decision to parole an ice-addled criminal nutter who, claiming allegiance to both Islamic State and Al Queada,(?) murders an innocent man, takes a woman hostage and wounds three policemen before himself being shot and killed.

What a saviour of probity is "terrorism," eh?

 

Warburton

It's a Ballarat tradition... there's a Prime Minister's walk in the botanic gardens on Lake Wendouree with portrait busts of all the country's PM's.

It may be unfortunate for the nation that Rabid-the Hun, Abbott ever existed but now he too is there in effigy, stiffly fouling the rural environment. 

Sometimes we need to be reminded of our electoral and educational failings.

Interestingly, Julia Gillard's portrait in this line-up was once the most attacked and defiled but as Rabid's has already had a crown of onions adorn it, I dare say petals, that attention to his visage might well soon overtake that of his bete' noire's.

 

Warburton

Watching The Drum (ABC) recently I was again struck how the orthodoxy of opinion has become the mere rote of the narrow, neo-conservative.

Discussing Corbyn's almost victory in the British elections all of the panel, left and right (what was that faecal matter from Quadrant, Cater, doing there btw?) were happily repeating their truisms of how unelectable Corbyn was seemingly oblivious to the fact  that their opinions did not in any way, accord with the reality of the vote!

This is what I had noted during our last federal election:

"Early in the evening during the election broadcast I was looking at the performances of Sales, Uhlmann and Crabb and also noting the growing number of seats that were falling to Labor and sensed that "something is up here" but this panel kept blithely brown-nosing Scummo and often interrupting and ignoring Wong until : Bang: 1,2,3, Tassie seats had gone, then suddenly they were all at sea having to deal with a reality that was way out of their comfort zones. They never recovered and their bias' took a battering for the rest of the night."

http://shanewombat.blogspot.com.au/2016/07/not-with-bang-but-whimper.html

Warburton

The smug, self satisfied repetition of ruling rabble assertions as question, the mindless repetition of neo-liberal theory as substitute for discussion, the banality of the current orthodoxy is deadening debate and dumbing further down a nation not generally noted for the liveliness of its thinking.

 When you see Fictions Frydenberg allowed to blather on nonsensically about energy costs and the failures of a privatized market being the fault of the alternative energy producers and then his opposition being question-cajoled into agreeing to the same you know you're witnessing the proliferation of propaganda by a player not a journalist.

When you hear constant commentary that there is partisan agreement to Finkel's energy review before it is even released you know that you are listening to the softening-up propaganda of what-you-must-believe. Personal opinion and analysis is being corrupted from the start.

When you have to suffer through Andrew Probyn's (ABC 7.30) sing-song "opinion" homily's attempting to rhapsodise right-wing cant ..Oi!

But for once you can only agree... he can't!

Better that Probyn, be given time off to study a talent; a real wordsmith of popular culture like Clive James and discover that James knew not just his word's worth but that with them he drew from reality succinct images of value and meaning.

Warburton

It has been said that The Ugly American, Murdoch stormed out in high dudgeon from The Daily Mail's London election room as the exit polls began suggesting that his vituperative campaign against Corbyn had failed miserably..... I hope that is true. 

I wonder too, if Lynton Crosby is feeling aggrieved again?

Two elections old boy, two flops....times up?

 

Warburton

"There was a crooked man and he walked a crooked mile.

He found a crooked sixpence upon a crooked stile.

He bought a crooked cat which caught a crooked mouse,

And they all lived together in a little crooked house.

 

Warburton

Hoo-roo possums

Shane