Day to Day Politics: Hanson, Trump, and tactless words.
Wednesday 7 June 2017
Christopher Pyne is often called ‘The mouth who roared’ because of the way he feigns indignation. His reaction are certainly ‘over the top’ at times.
Some people, in order to push their own agendas, are much the same: so quick off the mark that they can often get their facts wrong and humiliate people. Some like the bigoted Pauline Hanson and Donald Trump express a view that is deliberate with hatred pursed on sinister lips.
Take both of their responses to the latest London Bridge attacks. While the citizens of England struggled with a second attack and the victims wrestled with the horrific invasion of their personal liberties, the two bigots, and others, ignored the anguish of the dying and injured and instead tactlessly delivered their anti-Muslim rage.
Without even a comforting word Hanson used a police message; “Run, Hide, Tell”, to create a meme to end Islamic immigration to Australia “before Australia reaches 5% like England”.
Likewise, before even offering condolences, Donald Trump tactlessly used the events to urge courts to allow his failed travel ban on certain Muslim countries, tweeting ”We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety!”
Contrary to the calm, judicious thoughtful words of a President Obama that would instill sympathy President Trump tweeted.
”We need to be smart, vigilant and tough.”
Another tweet on Sunday Trump revived an old run in with City Mayor — Sadiq Khan, a liberal Muslim and an old Trump foil — for not being tough enough protecting his citizens.
”At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is ‘no reason to be alarmed!’”
He had of course in his own reckless arrogant manner completly taken the Mayor out of context.
The Mayor had urged Londoners, in a BBC interview that was replayed, not to be ”alarmed” by an increased police presence in the city. He said that after condemning the “deliberate and cowardly attack” as ”barbaric.”
Never one to know when he has said enough Trump raises the question of guns:
”Do you notice we are not having a gun debate right now? That’s because they used knives and a truck!” he tweeted.
Britain, like Australia, has some of the world’s strictest laws on gun purchases. The death toll in London might have been higher had the attackers used the kind of semi-automatic weapons of war that are more easily attainable in the United States.
And so with a few unedifying tweets from the egomaniacal mentally unstable President the stoic disposition, determination and decency of the British people and their leaders had been molested.
Instead of apologising, the next day Trump went in harder tweeting; ”Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his ‘no reason to be alarmed’ statement. MSM is working hard to sell it!”
The leader of the Australian opposition described Hanson’s words thus: ”It’s disgusting and inappropriate,” Shorten said. ”We don’t even know fully what has happened and now what we’ve got is people using this for the crassest of political messages within hours of this event happening.”
‘I would just say to those people on the extremes of Australian politics, hold your horses. An event like this should make you realise that Australians need to stick together.”
”The only way we stop these things from happening is by us being united in our determination to stick together.”
Hanson hit back at Shorten, tweeting ”The people of Britain have been let down by their leaders. It’s so frustrating to see fools like Bill Shorten making the same mistakes.”
Australian Conservatives Senator Cory Bernardi piped in before the ambulances were entering the causality wards:
”Alas too many still refuse to see the problem in our own midst. We need to defend our values, defend our culture, accept the problem is directly inspired by Islam and plan accordingly.”
”Australia is tired of Labor, the Greens and the Liberals RUNNING their campaign that Islam is good for Australia.”
”The fact that terrorism is related to the Islamic teachings” and that Australians are tired of telling politicians “Islam is incompatible with Australian values”
An observation.
“Modern Australia is ”diversity”. In all its forms, together with multiculturalism it defines us as a nation. People of my generation and later should divest themselves of their old and inferred racist superiority.”
When the searching eyes of truth fall upon us one overpowering, unconsidered circumstance becomes apparent. That is that there is too much distance between society and government. As far as terrorism is concerned political parties need to put aside their own political self-interest and build bridges between all sections of the community.
Our initial response to any situation or question should be a consistently good and thoughtful one. Raised angry voices, even if entitled, serve no purpose other than to satisfy the extremists and make the ill-informed feel good about themselves.
We have no choice but to concede that combating street terrorism is almost impossible to do. The public needs to be onside and the authorities need to convince them that 99% of Muslims practice their religion peacefully, much the same as Christians, Buddhists and others do. The war on terror is against the 1% of Muslims who have a warped, sadistic view of the religion they follow which is fuelled ”in part” by practices of the West over hundreds of years.
If one of the sadists, in the name of Allah wants to drive down the middle of Burke Street at 80KPH there is little we can do to prevent it. We have no choice but to place our faith in the authorities best served to deal with the problem.
Most vital though as I see it is the breakdown of the distance between the Government and faith communities. The Muslim community needs to do more to educate their young and if necessary be given the extra resources to do so.In particular something has to be done with a conservative right-wing media more intent on sensationalising anything , in the guise of free speech.
Dealing with these incredibly difficult horror filled events are not helped when people like Abbott, Hanson, Janet Albrechtson, Miranda Devine, Dennis Shanahan, Paul Kelly, Chris Kenny, Gerard Henderson, Paul Sheehan, Miranda Divine, Smith, Steve Lewis and Ray Hadley continuously light the flame of racism.
My thought for the day.
”Will we ever grow intellectually to the point where we are able to discern and understand the potential for the good within us.”
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31 comments
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Michael Taylor
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darrel nay
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johnlord2013
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Jeanette
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Vikingduk
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Matters Not
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havanaliedown
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Zathras
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wam
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Freethinker
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Ian Ellis
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Terry2
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stephentardrew
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darrel nay
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Michael Taylor
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darrel nay
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Kaye Lee
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Michael Taylor
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guest
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stephengb2014
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Kaye Lee
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darrel nay
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darrel nay
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Pappinbarra Fox
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Michael Taylor
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John Lord
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Michael Taylor
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paulwalter
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helvityni
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paulwalter
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Kronomex
Return to home pageA bit off topic, but over the last 24 hours there have been lots of reports coming out of the US that Trump’s $110 billion arms deal with the Saudis is fake news. There was no contract, just letters of interest or intent.
Trump announced the deal thinking it would make him look good. Sad.
When ‘losers’ are running around chopping off heads, throwing gays off buildings, stabbing little girls and making their women wear bee-keeper suits then the time for tact (political correctness) is over.
Cheers
Lying by omission in other words.
“In part the practices of the west over hundreds of years” never was a truer word spoken. The Hansonites need a lesson in history. When I quickly think on these lines thousands of western atrocities burst onto my brain. It is so sad they are so ill informed.
Excellent article, John Lord, the quality and strength of AIMN articles continues to grow, thank you all.
Whilst my cynicism tells me occasionally that all the words written will have the impact of a fart in a hurricane, never for long, though, my appreciation grows for the well written and researched articles on this site.
Yes, John, a great question, “will we ever grow . . .”
Never mind the Saudis, it’s the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, that’s mucking things up.
Acting ‘properly’ is improper apparently
How are you Phill?
About that arms deal – Obama had suspended a $300million missile deal with the Saudis because of concern over the high number of Yemen casualties but Trump simply restarted it.
Both the USA and UK provide financial aid to Yemeni victims but both also sell arms to the Saudi aggressors for triple that amount so despite their “compassion” they are making money out of misery.
Likewise Trump and Hanson are profitting from misery in other ways.
To balance out the local atrocities, there are two images that I can recall –
One is that of the laughing US soldier getting an Iraqi man at gunpoint to remove his son’s body (flattened by a US tank) from the road with a shovel and a bucket.
The other is of a crying woman desperately searching for her daughter’s missing head amid the rubble after an allied attack on a marketplace so she may be given a proper burial.
Just because our media chooses to ignore it doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
Terror sometimes comes as a response to inflicted horror.
Few ascribe intelligent assessment of situations to trump or hanson. They have a simple approach to the question of Islam.
They looked at the london incident through their beliefs which are absolutely true to them and millions of their supporters!
They put themselves, first and foemost, they see the murderer as islam and the victims as white innocent christians. How does the mediashow these awful killings? How does the media treat collateral war damage?
I am certain that trumball is desperate to say ‘enough is enough’
The reaction to May’s enough is someimams are NOT praying for these men.
Wow girls if men can go that far you should step up and ……?
ps good matches truth in the eye of the beholder and intellect requires ‘understanding, objectivity and abstract’ contexts 90% of the population struggle with but they are all good and bad?
Thank you John for a very good article.
Talking about guns, deaths and USA this is a good page to see how many people died in USA due to violence and guns.
If we compare these numbers with victims of terror in USA, IMHO Trump have to start changing his views about the subject
http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/query/14c00d51-0b8d-4dd6-a71e-0caa61f54155
Yet another fine piece of writing by Mr Lord. He writes with considerable passion, even ‘contagious passion’ at times, but not once have I caught the smallest hint of conscious dishonesty or of an attempt to induce an emotionally-induced ‘revolution’. Many thanks, Mr Lord!
In January Trump imposed a controversial 90-day ban on travellers from seven countries – Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The courts in the US have so far refused to uphold this ban and it is likely to go to the US Supreme Court.
Oh, and Trump removed Iraq from that ban when somebody told him that they were actually allies…….whoops
Then we have Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates announcing that they had cut diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar due to its alleged involvement in exporting middle east terrorism – and you thought it was Saudi Arabia, pay attention !
Oddly, Yemen who are currently under massive air attack from the Saudis – avidly supported by Mr Trump – have also cut relations with Qatar as have the Maldives and of one of Libya’s competing governments.
So, has Trump placed a ban on Qatar ? Well, no – mainly because Qatar is home for the USA’s biggest base in the Middle East at Qatar’s Al Udeid Air Base with some 11,000 US military personnel.
But, back to Trumps 90 day ban which took effect from a nominal date in January : had it been permitted by the courts, it would have been all over by the end of April and ancient history by June.
So, Trump can now concentrate his efforts on destroying Obama Care and publishing silly Tweets about the mayor of London.
Good one John. Keep it up mate much appreciated.
Obama actually drew up the list of seven countries in September last year. Trump was just following through on Obama’s finding that vetting was not possible in these countries.
Cheers
darrel, that claim has been reported widely across right-wing sites. It appears to be fake news:
http://www.snopes.com/president-obama-ban-muslims-2011/
reply for Michael Taylor,
The link you provided doesn’t relate. Your link refers to 2011, but my post referred to a list of seven ” countries of concern” drawn up by the Obama Administration in 2016.
http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/feb/07/reince-priebus/were-7-nations-identified-donald-trumps-travel-ban/
If you read this article you will find that congress actually confirmed Obama’s list of the seven “most dangerous countries in the world” on several occasions.
Cheers
p.s. Snopes is just a weird lady with a cat. They are not omnipotent. Better to do your own research sometimes.
p.p.s. Speaking of fake news, did you see CNN got caught staging a fake protest in London yesterday ?
All Obama did was to require people from those countries to have a visa rather than being able to enter for 90 days without one. He didn’t ban them.
“Prompted by concerns about terrorism, the Obama administration did put those seven countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen — on a list that makes travel into the United States somewhat more difficult.
But that list doesn’t necessarily identify the seven as being the most dangerous.”
darrel, you must have just read the title of the link without reading down further.
John Lord rightly points out the stupidity of comments from such people as Trump, Hanson and Bernardi. He adds a list of Murdoch scribblers – and no doubt we could name more. The arrogance and ignorance of their simplistic solutions to terrorism is disheartening.
What these people are doing is blaming political leaders for not protecting victims of terrorism – and they are blaming all Muslims for the actions of a minority.
The comments from the Murdoch scribblers are disturbing for the reason that their volatile and vindictive comments offer no solution but in effect inflame aggression from those who employ violence as a response. Hypocritically, the west itself advocates violence as a solution.
Inflaming a negative attitude towards all Muslims has been going on especially since 9/11. Nationalism and religion are part of that attitude. But Devine says any suggestion of racism is “cultural defamation”. Sheridan says we must not”pretend that terrorist attacks are not terrorist attacks”. Kenny says that four dead terrorists “came under our refugee program”. Chambers, like Sheridan, says we must “call a spade a spade”, “get terror language right”.
Then we have a wicked spiel from Albrechtsen, with personal attacks, cowardly nationalism and racism, and a potted and worthless attempt at employing history as support for her scribbling.
She attacks two people in particular: Khan, London City Lord Mayor, and Walid Aly, academic and social commentator here in Oz. She describes them as “textbook examples of the resolute ignorance from the political class about the deadly ideological war under way within Islam and between Islam and the West”.
This is a strikingly arrogant accusation to make on two prominent Muslims. She regards them to be ‘of the political class” of which she herself, presumably is not a member, but takes it on herself to offer spurious political and religious advice. She goes on to say that Islam should take up the values of the West
Her answer to terrorism is to be “more robust in identifying and stamping out Islamic extremists”.
So, what does that mean? More violence?
This kind of one-size-solution-fits-all solution is far from adequate. Our response must be more diverse and nuanced. We have to deal with the underlying problems which lead to terrorism being one kind of protest.
In my opinion, the Murdoch empire and its IPA has been failures in their advocacy to deal with various solutions here in Oz and overseas:
failure in war in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and now struggling in Syria
failure to deal with famine, water security and problems leading to 50m people in migration
failure to deal adequately with Climate Change, seeing coal as a solution to energy costs (hence the Adani disaster)
failure to deal adequately with debt, housing costs, unemployment, stagnant wages, suppression of women
failure to deal equitably with our First Nations people
failure to be fair in its discussion of “free speech”, “identity politics” and other ambiguous mantras
failure to deal adequately with corruption and behind the scenes lobbying in our politics
failure to see that interference from foreign sources of news/fake news is an attack on our democracy
etc, etc
A lot of noise and obfuscation from Murdoch, but not much achieved by its failing business model.
I recently found this relevant article. It is well worth the read.
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/apr/13/who-are-the-new-jihadis
Tony Abbott’s tacit endorsement of “Islamophobia” this week has annoyed security officials who believe such comments only make it harder to thwart domestic terrorist attacks.
Security sources have told Australian Financial Review that as a former prime minister, Mr Abbott “should know better” and not add to the inflammatory rhetoric against Muslim communities.
For several years, security authorities have been keen for elected officials to desist from generalising about Muslims because it is the Muslim communities that often provide the intelligence to thwart attacks and they are also the frontline in deradicalisation programs.
http://www.afr.com/news/politics/security-agencies-annoyed-by-tony-abbotts-islamophobia-comments-20170606-gwl7io
Kaye I just read your article and it includes only unnamed sources – talk about unicorns. Further, based on the quotes in the article there is not a single generalisation about muslims unless you are referring to his use of the word(corruption) islamophobia. This article is just more faith-baiting ie. injecting faith to get a bite.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/i-was-wrong-says-expert-who-popularised—islamophobia-insult/news-story/2f07fa05c11e784750b0a6eb37b416e0
Cheers
John Lord,
You laud Obamas record of reacting to terrorism, but wasn’t he breaking all records for killing muslims with drones.
Keep it real
Correct if I am wrong but isn’t nay an ancient Scandinavian word meaning “low odious person”?
No, he wasn’t doing that at all. You’re making things up again.
There is a name for a comment like that Darrel. Trump uses it. I won’t.
Sad?
If these are the sad times, god help us when the bad and mad start, like they have elsewhere.
paulwalter, some countries seem to be able to resist the mad and the bad, even the sad…
I have to admit, I do not understand the Abbott/ Hanson/Trump phenomena; Pauline sad, Tones bad, Donald mad….
Teresa May.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/james-comey-testimony-world-reacts-to-statement-on-donald-trump-russia-situation/news-story/2629af480d916c19f409edce9c7b5e79
It’s a no-brainer to realise that The Donald, being the nasty, thin skinned, vicious little child he is, will have a volcanic eruption. I expect Melissa McCarthy, oops, Sean Spicer will be going into overdrive soon in an attempt to dampen anything Trumpenstein is going to say. Fake news will abound and The Donald will become more inflamed with his self-righteous indignation and bullshit.
And, with any luck, cue…