Is the Biden-Harris Team Energising a Cautious Global Progressivism?
By Denis Bright
The arrival of Kamala Harris as the running-mate to Joe Biden has energised this year’s US Presidential Campaign. As a fringe-benefit, the Biden-Harris team is challenging some of that old-time emphasis on corporate ideology and military intrigue which has been part of the Republican agenda since the Nixon era in the 1960s. As keynote speaker at the Virtual National Democratic Convention, former first lady Michelle Obama is kicking off a second week for momentum for the Biden-Harris team.
Progressive leaders worldwide should look at the excellence of Michelle Obama’s speech. Here are just a few extracts:
A president’s words have the power to move markets. They can start wars or broker peace. They can summon our better angels or awaken our worst instincts. You simply cannot fake your way through this job…
… Four years later, the state of this nation is very different. More than 150,000 people have died, and our economy is in shambles because of a virus that this president downplayed for too long. It has left millions of people jobless. Too many have lost their health care; too many are struggling to take care of basic necessities like food and rent; too many communities have been left in the lurch to grapple with whether and how to open our schools safely…
… So, let me be as honest and clear as I possibly can. Donald Trump is the wrong president for our country. He has had more than enough time to prove that he can do the job, but he is clearly in over his head. He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us. It is what it is…
Michelle Obama’s rhetorical excellence increases with this moment of self-criticism:
Now, Joe is not perfect. And he’d be the first to tell you that. But there is no perfect candidate, no perfect president. And his ability to learn and grow — we find in that the kind of humility and maturity that so many of us yearn for right now. Because Joe Biden has served this nation his entire life without ever losing sight of who he is; but more than that, he has never lost sight of who we are, all of us…
… So, it is up to us to add our voices and our votes to the course of history, echoing heroes like John Lewis who said, “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something.” That is the truest form of empathy: not just feeling, but doing; not just for ourselves or our kids, but for everyone, for all our kids.
And if we want to keep the possibility of progress alive in our time, if we want to be able to look our children in the eye after this election, we have got to reassert our place in American history. And we have got to do everything we can to elect my friend, Joe Biden, as the next president of the United States…
Future roadblocks may slow down this momentum of this political renewal across the US where only 55.7 per cent of registered voters answered the call to vote in 2016. However, political momentum for change is in the wind in both the US and across the countries in the US Global Alliance which are largely in the grasp of centre-right government with a profound loyalty to corporate ideology and commitment to peace through military strength above diplomatic initiatives which acknowledge profound changes in global political economy since the Fall of the Berlin Wall.
Latest electoral map graphics are based on a summary of the results of major US polling networks. Those which were too close to call have not been included in this national tally which should cover all 538 votes for the US Electoral College. At this stage, the Democrats would still win a majority of 270 without any of these additional states.
Map from 270towin.com
Even without 101 US Electoral College Votes from so-called Toss-up States, the Biden-Harris team is definitely headed in the right direction, but the situation changes every day. The vital state of Florida keeps moving in and out of the Democrat camp and now in the Toss-up category. The state of Ohio is also in this category. This is very relevant to this story-line as later sections of this article will show.
Expect future roadblocks to this initial momentum. Support from minor parties like the Greens and Libertarians gained enough support to deny victory to the Democrats in 2016 in a national electorate where only 55.7 per cent of registered constituents cast a ballot. Current polling has Florida leaning towards the Democrats.
Back in 2016, votes from the minor parties in Florida were enough to push the Republicans into the lead. There was a similar situation in five other swing states:
Image from New York Times, 13 August 2017
Another potential roadblock comes from the siege mentality of President Trump as some fellow-Republicans to break ranks with him on issues such as rigged elections (Criticism from Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost in the Cincinnati Enquirer 17 August 2020).
In the traditions of those crazy musical lyrics from Lily the Pink in 1968, literally anything could happen under the directives of an unstable global leader with a penchant for exotic medicinal remedies.
Critical probability theory adds new dimensions based on chance factors in the Toss-up states and a very unstable global community where the election outcomes have great significance.
Don Smith’s article on Ubiquity is a handy reference to assist in anticipating the Unexpected.
In this context, the best option for the Democrats is surely to talk up their emphasis that Blue Wave Road to ways out of the multi-faceted crises facing the USA. President Roosevelt (1932-45) made a similar break as Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives at the Mid-term elections in 1930 at the economic and social crises of the Great Depression grew.
From Wall Street to the swing constituencies and states which have vacant senate spots in 2020, there is an increasing commitment to the value of pragmatic government intervention in an ailing economy under siege from COVID-19 and social tensions associated with profound disadvantage. Increasingly, the Biden-Harris economic agenda is a very mainstream agenda which can assist in bringing the world’s still most influential superpower back to the political centre over the aberrant phase under President Trump.
On the important US military fronts, the Council on Foreign Relations notes that Kamala Harris’ policies on maintaining US global hegemony offer highly pragmatic calls on the specifics of Russian and Chinese challenges. However, these calls on specific theatres of international tensions are balanced by support for steady US military engagements abroad and the diversion of $10 trillion to sustainable economic agendas and related environmental and energy policies.
Wavering Loyalties to Corporate Political Values?
Days before Kamala Harris became Joe Biden’s running mate, the swing from corporate values to support for pragmatic reform and commitment to social justice had already gained momentum.
Here Jose and his wife are some of the many New Yorkers receiving produce, dry goods and meat at a Food Bank For New York City distribution event. This is hardly a plus for a repeat of those Make America Great Again (MAGA) hopes generated in 2016.
Image from Washington Post, 1 August 2020
President Trump of course continues to talk up that populist spirit of natural resurgence and will try to ask the conservative leaders of Allied Countries to answer the call to collective greatness if President Trump is indeed re-elected.
There was a different mood less than a year ago on that Fall Day when President Trump took Australian Prime Minister to the opening of a paper mill in Wapakoneta in North Western Ohio on 22 September 2019. Here the unity ticket between corporate ideology in a militarised state is available to be revisited. This is the MAGA media strategy in full swing at the opening of the Pratt Holdings Paper Mill.
Fancy Footwork Between Elites at Work in Wapakoneta, Ohio?
Australia’s Prime Minister became caught in the vortex of a bizarre event.
This was a euphoric day for a town on Interstate 75 with a population of 11,000 in safe Republican Congressional District 4. Wapakoneta was also the birthplace of Neil Armstrong (1930-2012). His contribution is revered at the Armstrong Air & Space Museum.
In the mainstream media’s focus on eyewitness coverage, the background details about the Pratt Holdings Paper Mill tend to be overlooked. They have real implications for US Allies like Australia.
The theme of the US Global Military Alliance as a bastion of market ideology and conformist militarism was a cornerstone of a day of celebration in Wapakoneta as the global media networks descended on Wapakoneta. Readers can check out the media sites to investigate the details for themselves and to avoid tedious block quotes in this story-line. Each site offers subtle differences in the interpretation of the media hoopla at Wapakoneta that Fall day on 22 September 2019.
The Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt negotiated some helpful tax concessions for his investment in the state of the art Pratt Consolidated Paper Mill in Wapakoneta long before the media throngs assembled that day (Wapakoneta Daily News, 29 November 2017).
The Cincinnati Enquirer (22 September 2019) talked up this spirit as entrepreneur Anthony Pratt from Australia beamed with delight in the presence of President Trump and Australian Prime Minister Morrison. Interested readers should search out the coverage given to this event.
The Guardian (29 October 2019) in Australia had a less upbeat coverage of the event with its emphasis on Anthony Pratt’s tax minimisation efforts in both Australia and the USA.
Scott Morrison showed no hesitation in supporting both President Trump and Anthony Pratt in Wapakoneta. Some interpretative details are provided by the Australian Pulp & Printer Strategy Group:
“We would not have invested in this plant if it wasn’t for President Trump’s election,” Pratt told reporters at the opening.
“He has given us a tremendous faith in investing in America and we have redoubled down on our investment in America. With the construction of this plant we will have 9,000 American manufacturing jobs in the United States.”
Pratt also applauded Morrison for being the “Don Bradman of Australian job creation” as the trio walked the floor of the new billion-dollar facility which employs hundreds of local workers.
Morrison joined Trump in making an official address at the opening and said Pratt, like all Australians, had kept his promise in building the plant following the election of Trump in 2016.
“To Anthony Pratt and the whole Pratt Enterprises here well done on a fabulous investment,” Morrison said.
“We’ve got Wagga Wagga, Wollongong, Wallerawang, Wangaratta, Warrnambool and Wooloomooloo so Wapakoneta fits right in. This is a bit of Australia right here in Ohio.”
Morrison also pointed to the low unemployment rate in Ohio, the birthplace of Neil Armstrong, and said this relates to the investment that has taken place in industry.
“The reason that is happening is because people are investing in policies that are seeing the economy grow and that is what Anthony is doing right here in Ohio. Anthony is a wonderful Australian who has taken a good company to a great company, you might say a company as strong as steel to a company as strong as titanium, Mr President,” Morrison said.
“This is a great Australian who is building an even greater company and a company that is investing both in the United States and of course in Australia. Twenty-seven states he now is in, 70 factories, but the thing about Anthony that is true of all Australians is we keep our promises.
“When we make a promise, we keep it. When we make a promise to be in an alliance, we keep that promise and Anthony promised that he would invest in the United States with the election of the president and the jobs that are here because this man keeps his promise.”
Corporate Ideology in the Shadow of a Militarised Culture?
Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Media Centre offers an official transcript of his informal address at the Pratt Holdings Paper Mill. Beneath the rhetorical hoopla, our prime minister’s version of the event contains some interesting anecdotes. The unconventional rhetoric commenced with an emphasis on Veterans to fire up an enthusiastic US audience.
AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: Thank you. Well thank you Mr. President, Donald. It’s wonderful to be here with you in Ohio. G’day Ohio How are you? You good?
Can I also acknowledge veterans who are here today? Put your hand up if you’re a veteran here today. Thank you for your service.
Not just to the United States but to the great alliance between Australia and the United States.
Senator Rob Portman, Jim Jordan, it’s great to see you guys here today. Ambassadors’ Hockey and Culvahouse you guys are doing a tremendous job.
But to Anthony Pratt and the whole Pratt Enterprise here and Ed, well done on a fabulous investment and project here.
This introduction added a very US Republican tone to our Prime Minister’s informal address. It is a very American genre to place emphasis on Veterans.
Of the guests mentioned in the introduction, there is no evidence that President Trump, Scott Morrison or Anthony Pratt were indeed veterans. Does this tag really matter at the opening of a recycled paper mill?
If the Veteran tag is really important, I can see no evidence that either the Australian Ambassador Joe Hockey or the US Ambassador in Canberra, had a military service background.
As Wapakoneta is in Trump Heartland in Ohio’s Congressional District 4, the US Congressional guests are all from the Republican Party. Steve Chabot is from District 1 and Jim Jordan from District 4. Ohio’s Senator Rob Portman has served in Congress since 2011. There is scant evidence of their military careers.
However, like most Republican politicians they like to stand tall in the shadow of the military as in this memorial event at the funeral of Neil Armstrong in 2012 which shows Senator Rob Portman in an appropriate statesmanlike mode:
Image from NASA
The extent to which Prime Minister Morrison made concessions identify with US political culture is showing up in the conclusion of his official speech transcript from Wapakoneta:
So, Mr. President thanks for the opportunity to be here today.
Thank you for the opportunity for Australia and the United States to work together in the way we do, not just an alliance based on security and our defence forces but an economic partnership where together we’re making jobs great again.
Cheers.
Is the National Political Mood Changing Across the USA?
Hopefully, the national political mood in the USA has probably changed during the past year but as the Presidential Campaign map shows it has statistical quirks each day based on margins of error in the sampling as well as possible drifts in public opinion.
Republican Congressional District 1 in Cincinnati now highly marginal from the Mid-term election in 2018. Congressman Steve Chabot of District 1 in Ohio was on the guest list at Wapakoneta. He will be under challenge in his District 1 on 3 November 2020 from an energized youthful Democrat, Kate Schroder.
A blatant gerrymander divides Metro Cincinnati into two Congressional Districts continues. The trick is to link Metro urban areas with adjacent middle-income precincts and rural areas which always seem to support the Republicans.
Even in the strong Republican Precincts of Wapakoneta Precinct in Ohio’s District 4, the Wapakoneta Daily News offered a favourable pictorial coverage of Kamala Harris in Campaign mode:
Positive endorsement from the Enquirer in the more Democratic Party leaning precincts of Cincinnati is even more empathetic towards Kamala Harris (Cincinetti.com 12 August 2020). Here journalists also strive to report real issues of concern like the deaths 2,500 people in nursing homes across Ohio which can be looked at on the newspaper’s web site. The horrors of a mass shooting in Cincinnati’s Grant Park added another twelve fatalities early by early on 16 August 2020 to the mix of last weekend’s stories.
Republicans continue to spin populist rationalizations for these enormous structural problems as reviews are made of the swings to the Democrats at the 2018 Mid-term elections, at least in the House of Representatives. Only one third of the Senate plus two casual vacancies were up for re-election. These contests delivered gains to the Republicans in North Dakota, Missouri, Indiana and Florida with Democrat gains in Nevada and Arizona.
Republican Congressman Steve Chabot in Ohio’s District 1 keeps communicating those old themes which have little relevance to many constituents. Perhaps some of this rhetoric was refined through his attendance at the media circus on Wapakoneta on 22 September 2019.
Expect more rhetoric from Congressman Chabot about the need for tax reductions for the rich and famous, controls on government spending, commitment to peace through military strength, improved school security, more financial support for small businesses and of course those registrations for tours of Washington monuments.
As Co-Chair of the Congressional Taiwan Caucus, Congressman Chabot supports quite benign initiatives to promote more trade and investment with Taiwan and a sharing of public health policies in the current COVID-19 crisis. Ironically, China supports similar initiatives in its pragmatic relationships with Taiwan.
Parts of the Chinese city of Xiamen with its population of at least 5 million are within sight of Taiwan territory. It is indeed a popular tourist, golfing and education centre for residents of Taiwan.
However, Steve Chabot wishes to extend these ties with Taiwan to other sabre-rattling agendas as part of his commitment to peace through military preparedness (Press Release from Steve Chabot 30 November 2016):
WASHINGTON – The Associated Press (AP) reported on November 29, 2016 that a Chinese state-run newspaper, Global Times, had issued a blistering critique of Singapore’s defense cooperation with Taiwan. This editorial came on the heels of nine Singaporean infantry-fighting vehicles being impounded in Hong Kong. Representative Steve Chabot (R-OH), Chairman of the House Small Business Committee and senior member of the House Foreign Affairs and Judiciary Committees, stated that the U.S. needed to reaffirm its commitments to Taiwan’s security.
“These are the latest in a series of aggressive steps that China has taken in its long-running campaign to isolate Taiwan. The United States has a legal and moral commitment to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty in the face of attacks,” Chabot said. “It is in America’s national interest to bridge the gap and foster solidarity among our allies in Asia. The development of closer ties between Singapore and Taiwan should be welcomed. If anything, we should be doing more to integrate Taiwan into the regional security architecture.”
In a concession to grim local realities, Steve Chabot has tabled a letter to US Treasury Secretary and the Inland Revenue Service in support of the continuation of the Economic Income Payment (EIP) with some reservations in the current crises facing the USA on his web site.
Talking up issues like the right to carry weapons as recommended by the NRA and support for the US Global Military Alliance are more often features of Republican communications.
In the forthcoming US presidential campaign from the Democratic Party’s Biden-Harris team most of the running on strategic issues will be left to Joe Biden.
Even on this sensitive issue, Joe Biden can infuse a progressive agenda and seems to be on a winning streak with his pragmatic needs-focused agendas.
Should the Military Establishment Fear the Biden-Harris Team?
US Think Tanks have not fully evaluated Kamala Harris’ national economic perspectives or her strategic perspectives. Joe Biden will fine-tune commitments to the US Global Alliance to prevent it from becoming a political play-tool of the White House.
Even the US Government-funded Military Times has given even-handed space to Joe Biden’s campaign.
Democratic presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden speaks about foreign policy at The Graduate Center at CUNY on July 11, 2019, in New York. (Bebeto Matthews/AP) (Image from Military Times)
Previous Democrat Administrations have been highly supportive of US Global strategic alliances and strategic bilateral relationships. There is no reason why this will change under a Biden-Harris team. No administration in the past has striven so much as President Trump to control these vast strategic global networks by Twitter or bombastic executive decisions which features in our nightly news coverage in Australia for example.
Maintaining such a vast global military alliance has indeed become a financial burden to an ailing US economy and future Republican administrations will undoubtedly require more cost sharing of these financial burdens with other countries like Australia in the US Global Military Alliance. In a pre-retirement speech, Republican President Eisenhower warned of the growing influence of the military industrial complexes through its effective lobbying on democratic public policy settings.
How far indeed is the current growth of the US Global Alliance too much?
Image from the Smithsonian Institute
A Republican Administration will want to extend the outreach of the Global Military Alliance further through cost-sharing with other allied countries for new generation space warfare and anti-missile shields.
Should Australians Welcome the Biden-Harris Dream Team?
Progressive opinion on both sides of the Pacific should welcome the Biden-Harris team as a way out of our multi-faceted problems facing developed countries like Australia in the immediate future.
Hopefully, Prime Minister Morrison will learn to stand up to pressures from our Allies to impose that insistence on the importance of corporate economics and strategic re-armament as the solutions to our current problems.
In 1951-2, Labor supported the formation of the ANZUS Alliance with the proviso that decision-making on strategic issues affecting Australia, New Zealand and the US should be consultative and democratic.
Thirty years later New Zealand ceased to be an ANZUS member. The Hawke Government with support from the Reagan Administration replaced three-way consultative meetings with the formation of the Australia United States Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN).
With the old ANZUS Alliance now lapsed, what are the democratic protocols which guide Australia’s role on the US Global Military Alliance and its Associate Membership of NATO? Perhaps the Biden-Harris Team will explain just where we stand on this vital issue.
Also, there is that advice from US Ambassador which is alienating Australians from our most profitable trading and investment partner (US Embassy, Canberra, 6 July 2020).
Press Statement – 6 July 2020
“I join Secretary of Defense Esper and our National Security Council in commending our Australian friends and allies on the release of their 2020 Defence Strategic Update. In a rapidly evolving world, our unbreakable alliance is more important than ever. This important strategic document strengthens regional stability and helps secure our shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific. We applaud Australia’s robust and ongoing leadership in the region.”
– Ambassador A.B. Culvahouse Jr.
Perhaps the Biden-Harris Team will end this interference in our national sovereignty by adding some accountable protocols to AUSMIN in the future.
This is an opportunity for progressive opinion in Australia to ask for some more breathing space and national sovereignty as our profitable commercial trading ties with China continue to grow despite the current trading and investment dispute between the Trump Administration and China.
At this stage, Australia’s commercial trading partnerships with China continue to grow but there are warning signs in the latest proposed Chinese tariffs on Australian wine exports.
From far-off Britain, the Financial Times (FT) seems to be more in tune with the economic threats to Australia from US interference in our relationships with China in pursuit of the current agendas of the Trump Administration (4 August 2020).
The new Democrat Dream Team offers some more Post-COVID 19 Sunshine through a return to normalcy in both economic and strategic policies which give allied countries opportunities for enhanced national sovereignty and freedom to set our optimal rates of defence spending.
Let’s have your comments through the Replies Options available on AIM Network on these vital issues in the best traditions of Citizens’ Journalism. Readers have nothing to lose but their dependence on flamboyant Twitters and interview clips from the White House.
Denis Bright (pictured) is a financial member of the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA). Denis is committed to consensus-building in these difficult times. Your feedback from readers advances the cause of citizens’ journalism. Full names are not required when making comments. However, a valid email must be submitted if you decide to hit the Replies Button.
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Return to home pageScott Morrison went a long way to Wapakoneta to reveal his true loyalties to the Trump administration.
An interesting great story about Those Faraway Places – very thought provoking in these current times.
Denis, thanks for an interesting and well-researched article about the political situation in the US.
Good to be introduced to these times of change as the USA copes with its public health crisis and financial woes. Will the world ever be the same again?
Thanks Denis for the time taken on this topical issue in your ongoing commitment to Citizens Journalism.
In answer to the question in the headline, No.
Yep, I think the USA is on the cusp of change. Michelle Obama said it all at the Convention.
When will Kamala Harris visit us as Vice-President?
Biden and Harris are not galvinising progressives, they sitat the authoritarian conservative end of the Democrat party.
What is mobilising progressives is the increasingly blatant lawless despotism of Donald J Trump (and the broader recent global upsurge in far-right extremism.)
Biden and Harris merely provide the only realistic option to arrest the escalating damage to their constitutional democracy.
In culinary terms, the democrats are offering a ‘bowl of boiled white rice (with a small splash of soy)’ as an alternative to ‘glass shards and paint chips served on flypaper’.
Democrats, although long on rhetoric they do live up to their party logo – the donkey. You will understand how big a donkey, or turkey if you will, if you watch the documentary by Millie Weaver, ‘Shadowgate’ (15 August 2020). Our PM and his partys way of going about things fits perfectly with the US Dems.
The US, on 4th November with a new POTUS elected, will be the same US. Nothing will change except the faces. It is a rogue state, as it was under Obama.
Al,
Just did the 2 minute google on Millie Weaver.
An infowars kook/troll whose ‘documentary’ was too full of toxic crap for even yewchoob or faecebook to run.
Kindly refrain from peddling deranged stupidity.
cb, putting faith in Big Tech, Google, YT, etc, believing every word of their narrative, what could possibly go wrong?
Looks like the doco got disappeared but is probably on Bitchute, not that I expect you to check, others might though.
There are 2 reasons things get dumped by YouTube, #1 it’s illegal or #2 it shines a light on corruption involving Big Tech.
Al, It’s not so much that I put my faith in big tech, it’s more that you provided a link to vapid excrement,possibly of a legally dubious nature.
Infowars is a loopy fringe internet channel run by a froth-lipped whack job who encourages mob violence through false claims whilst mountebank-shilling vitality products and snke oil cures.
Your putrid propaganda video is probably also available through 8chan links for those who want to creep around the underbelly.
I can guess your views on climate change.
You obviously didn’t watch the video corvus which is a pity. This is something I offered up to AIM a few days ago – not that I expected them to use it but it might explain a little of what it is about.
‘I read a lot but sometimes a movie can tell a better story. This is not quite a movie review more a contemporary doco – so much so that the doco host has just been arrested, I dare say for telling the truth. YouTube has banned the video but you get that these days when outfits like the Atlantic Council, who by the way gave Murdoch a nice little award, control so much of what is allowed in the public realm these days but I digress. I’m not even going to link the video here cos where ever it is hosted right now will probably be taken down but if you are keen and can put two and two together you will work it out y’self. ‘We have been hacked’ would have been a better title but of course its not just us. From US elections BLM Iran Belarus Ukraine I could go on but you get the picture or you might if you watch the video. This is about psyops ie psychological operations or if you prefer perception management. So the key words banned video and shadow gate – (will get you to one site or try some of the suggestions above). Its as long as a movie. I like to download these sorts of shows onto a thumb drive and play them back on the big screen. I thought the last two minutes was a stretch but that was more about the hosting sites interests than the video itself. This is not a left right ie donkey v elephant issue. This is about unaccountable government and empire and abuse of power.
5 chock bombs from me.
Mark,
I’ve always regarded you as bit fringe in your expression of views, but I didn’t realise that you had fallen down the infowars hole.
Sad to see.
Backing away now…
You didn’t see the video did you? BTW you will get crap from all news outlets sometimes. And most will sometimes offer gems.
Like almost everyone else, I saw the election of Obama as a sign that the USA had woken up to it’s defects and was going to be a shining example. Obama had both houses controlled by the Democrats for his first term but did nothing that a Republican Potus would not have done. He was a shit sandwich albeit made with wholemeal bread. He is an admirable man, certainly, but because his party is owned by the same people that own the Republicans, he changed nothing and even destroyed Libya, just like his borderline simpleton predecessor.
So I do not expect a Biden/Harris election to do anything. It may even provoke the gun-wielding sister-shaggers to take to the streets, watched by disinterested law enforcers. What is wrong with the USA is not all Trump’s doing, and all a Democrat victory will do is, at best, restore the status quo as it was before November 2016.
As I’ve said before I no longer care what happens within the USofA – its their problem afterall to fix. What concerns me is what the factions of capital do outside their borders.
Picture Obama and Bush sitting around and boasting – I killed more Arabs – says Bush – True says Obama but my administration destroyed more countries, ran more coups and created more refugees.
Drain the Swap – didn’t happen.
Hope and Change – ditto.
Words are cheap.
ack Cade,
Methinks if you haven’t noticed a significant deterioration in the US’s and it’s influence under Trump, then you haven’t been paying attention. It has gone from a functioning sociopath to a completely unhinged psychotic megalomaniac.
Trump has ticked all 14 boxes that classify a fascist regime, and undertaken 9 of the 10 implementive steps (all that is left is arbitrary execution of minorities.
He is deploying private operators (mercenaries) to gas his own people in the streets
Then think about what the toxic influence of this ignorantly bigoted sexual predator has been on social discourse, particularly online presence.
I refer to the renormalisation of racism, sexism and blatant false claim (always handy when fighting against scientific messages), all enabled and validated at the highest level.
Just to give you an inkling, yesterday president was asked about Qanon, a loopy extremist online brainfart peddling group described by US law enforcement as a ‘domestic terrorism threat (think pizza gate). The president replied that he ‘didn’ t know much about them, but they like me, and love their country’. This about domestic terrorists who foment violence by spreading malicious lies.
Now we have AIMN contributes trying to infest this site with links to a conspiracy video by ‘millennial millie’ from infowars, a completely discredited kook site that peddles nothing but political extremism of the neo-nazi variety, blustery science denial and snake oil remedies, despite the fact that this video has been barred from even yewchoob and faecebook for unacceptable, and probably actionable content..
I absolutely refuse to play devil’s advocate and exercise moral equivalence on this one.
corvusboreusAugust 20, 2020 at 8:54 pm
” Mark,
I’ve always regarded you as bit fringe in your expression of views, . . . ” ……..Bwahahahahahahahahaha!….
Jack Cade,
Re your comment on potential outcomes of a Democrat victory.
I agree that inbreds with AR15s would/might take to the streets to violently protest the result, probably aided and abetted by swathes of the worst elements in.law enforcement. After all, Trump has tacitly endorsed their worst excesses (“bang his head against the door”)
However, I don’t think it would result in true civil war.
This is because Trump has lost the support of the US military at the highest level (the general in charge of special operations has even spoken out against POTUS45, and the chief of SOCOM is a bad foe to acquire).
The lgeneral oss of military confidence has probably been a combination of poor decisions (withdrawals from alliances, haphazard deployments), ill judged comments (“I don’t care what the military says” when Generals spoke in support of renaming bases after people who weren’t rebels to the nation in support of the cause of race-based slavery) and the general military antipathy towards those who utilise privelige to avoid service during times of perceived need.
On the other hand, if Trump wins (by whatever means) then I reckon the house will redivide in a fracture of the union, soldier will fight soldier and tragedy become a statistic.
Anyways, just a thought.
Joseph, what an astute and informative comment that adds so greatly to the discussion of article
Any claim emanating from Infowars is immediately suspect. I would go so far as to say I would assume it was total crap unless I could find verification from a more reputable source.
The most important thing we must ALL learn is credibility of sources and I get very uncomfortable about Infowars crap being peddled here.
Any “legitimacy of views” expressed on social media as being judged by those “gatekeepers” of social media could be compared to any legitimacy of views on priestly behaviour as judged by the Vatican Authorities….may I suggest we do some “thinking outside the square” (of conservative centre-left thinking).
I agree thinking is good Joseph. So I check what I read. I look for verification. I look at the sources. I look at actual evidence to support what is being said. I see if that can be backed up by other references. I look at the credibility of the source. I look where they get their money.
I kinda like my thinking to be informed by something other than a guy trying to sell dietary supplements.
I assume your reference to gatekeepers is your usual dig at me. Please give it up Joe. There is no need for it.
BTW, I had never considered this site social media?
Beyond ‘conservative centre left”.
In Australian party terms, that’s probably around where the left wing of Labor and mainstream Greens overlap. To the left lies the inner city Trots of the Green left (a faction within a fringe), Socialist Alliance’ (popular support around 0,5%),the Communist Party (“we’re not banned!) a few forlorn hope indis and those too deeply disenfranchised to be bothered participating.
Reality: that powder is somewhat damp and diluted and currently in very scant supply.
I find it tragic that so many people in this world who have reached an age where experience and gained learned knowledge OUGHT to be the arbitrators of clear thought, still seek the opinion of various links, “learned” or otherwise, before coming to any conclusion of their own…I have grave doubts ANY links found on social media in today’s media landscape are put there for purely alturistic aims…I am personally of the opinion one ought to practice doing one’s thinking for oneself.
Kaye Lee…please don’t flatter yourself..
corvusboreus
Any view at this stage of the disintegration of the USA is legitimate. However, I don’t take comfort in the suggestion that Trump has possibly alienated leading US military figures. The much-vaunted Mattis, for instance, revelled in the nickname ‘mad dog.’ That nickname more or less describes the entire US military machine. The average US military recruit has an IQ rating less than its boot size, which is possibly why he or she is in the armed forces.
Joseph Carli, give it a break. Your sniping of Kaye Lee is unnecessary.
Jack,
IMO using our ADF for military purposes is such a waste. They are a highly trained, well-organised, well-resourced, skilled, basically self-sufficient, mobile workforce who can be very quickly deployed to help with almost anything.
The US military are too used to wanting to get things by force. Plus the arms industry makes them a shitload of money and creates a lot of jobs. It also buys and classifies technology rather than exploring and developing its further potential for things other than killing and controlling.
Jack Cade,
Coming from a more environmentally focussed POV, I don’t really take much comfort in any of it.
In reality, whatever temporary political stability or amelioration humanity manages to achieve, we are facing a unfolding and exponentially escalating biospheric crisis of our own creation.
The upheavals to current lifestyles caused by upcoming climatic instabilities will definitely cause mass displacement (most live on the coast), and the historical human fear-desperation responses to critical adversity (ie increases in inter-tribal hostilities) will more than likely overwhelm any negotiated consesnses when the excrement really hits the oscillator. .
I’d still prefer to seeTrump lose.
The ABC peddled the Russiagate rubbish for years – and still does for the most part much like it peddles BBC propaganda from the day prior. But even sometimes the ABC gets it right. Rarely though would I seek it out as quote worthy or trustable when it comes to international news. Its true too for most of the cabal that passes as the rest of the MSM – who more or less speak with the one voice on most issues.
The USofA is beyond the pale. The power structures so entrenched and outside of political control that no amount of creeping progessiveness can change that. They need a root and branch revolution and probably like the USSR a major dismembering imo.
Although I have spent half a life observing the surrounding bush and all it’s creature features, I stiill like to seek reference in the opinions and findings of those who have better or differing levels of experience and education compared to my own.
It is one way to learn things from clever people.
This applies much more so when I seek to inform my opinion on subjects more external to my acquired knowledge or experience.
I also tend to disregard the unbaked opinions of those who too frequently smear their lips with sticky stool stains.
No apologies, just how I roll.
To change the topic entirely, has anybody here seen ‘Plandemic’?
mark delmege, maybe you haven’t been keeping up with the news:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/08/19/marco-rubios-curious-summary-his-committees-russia-report/?outputType=amp
Oh lawdy cb,
Unleash the anti-vaxxers
Roswell,
You still peddling that Russiagate HOAX???!!!
Just like on matters regarding climate ‘science’, you need to go to RT or Gateway Pundit to get the REAL STORY!!!
Speaking of anti-vaxxers, oh what a lovely meltdown from Pauline Hanson over Morrison’s as yet undiscovered COVID-19 vaccine.
Sorry, cb, I got swept away by a few facts.
I’m one of those crazy people who still thinks Elvis is dead.
You’re probably one of those sphere-cult roundtards too.
I’m completely opposite to that. I’m one of those multiverse theorists.
I remember commenting on Cafe Whispers about ten years ago on my theories of evolution. I’ll leave that for another day. I’m straying off topic enough as it is.
Roswell,
Evolutions within and between species, and other fundamental motivators of emergent and recurrent patterns of increasing complexity (energy into matter into structure into life) is a subject of great fascination and one of the prisms by which I try to make sense of that which I see.
But, as you say, we digress.
I still hope Trump loses.
corvus, that’s exactly where I’m coming from. People ponder how common life might be in the universe. If life is common, then the creation of life would be more common.
I still hope Trump loses.
Kaye, you’re correct. Officially – according to the government – we are not social media. The term they’ve applied to us and similar sites is “Public Interest Journalism.”
A couple of years ago I was called before the Senate Committee (I forget the actual name of the committee) on PIJ. Despite a month of preparation I still managed to make an idiot of myself. ☹️
I still hope Trump loses.
Within all our chatter and static, I reckon Kaye Lee made an interesting crosspoint regarding the military, both their potential ubiquity and their corrupt and cancerous realities within the brass and ranks.
To expand on this, the process that creates a soldier is abnormal to modern social function,especially where activities like hunting, which normalises killing, are no longer the norm.
One of the earliest documented processes was the Spartan system, where boys were taken to permanent barrack accomodations for a routine of physical and weapons training interspersed with blood stew and beatings. They graduated when they succeeded in stealthily murdering a human of non-citizen underclass status.
The enlightenment leap saw a similar regime, the Prussian system, which means to strip away all individuality through tortuous discipline and replace with automatic unthinking obedience.
Modern tweaks have included uses of anthropomorphic targets during weapons training, and a few other benefits of psychological research in how to best remove the ingrained societal injunctions against killing one’s own species.
(As a bytheby, the brutalising effect of routine simulated murder is worth consideration when discussing one facet of ‘big tech’ aka the market for 1st person murder simulator electronic games.)
It is very important that soldiers not hesitate when ordered to kill because that is a their ultimate function and they are supposed to be the sharpest tool available to leader or state.
Trouble is, if and when the killing has been done, sweet FA effort is taken to put the ‘human lives matter’ bits back into their heads.
You remind of something, cb. On a camp in 1981 I asked my staff sergeant, who had served in Vietnam, if he ever killed a person. He didn’t answer the question but he provided me with an indirect response:
“If I ever had the choice between killing a 14-year-old boy or being killed myself, I’d settle for the latter.”
I took it that he once had that choice, and it haunted him.
Before my father died at the ripe old age 91 I asked him the same question. He’d spent nearly two years in New Guinea in WW2. He said “No.”
I didn’t believe him. After knowing him for 55 years, and what he was like, I thought he too might have been haunted by the past.
Michael,
Regarding your fist recount, your staff may have done the maths regarding taking a long flight across an ocean to kill a teenager, probably only a few klicks from his home.
Not really a true definition of self defense..
Regarding your father, if he exchanged fire in battle, there’s a fair chance he may not have truly known the answer to that question himself.
cb, I think the staffy said more in his non-verbal communication than he did with his words. I could tell he had once been given that choice.
As for my Dad, he tried to tell me he didn’t even carry a gun. Now that … I didn’t believe. My Dad was in Signals, so much of his time was spent behind enemy lines setting up communication systems. Go behind enemy lines and not carry a weapon! Yeh, right, Dad. Pull the other one.
Anyways, given recent credible claims that DJT demanded that there be super sharp serrated spikes all along on the top of his big bad beautiful border wall (all the better to tear into human flesh, m’dear),
I still hope that Trump loses (BIGLY!!!)
BTW, when you consider words by their definitions, “public interest journalism” is an honourable mantle to wear.
Congrats.
It is a moot point about ‘killing people’ if you are a crew member in a bomber over Dresden or a member of a team of war participants anywhere else.
I have photos of my own father loading torpedoes aboard HMS Mauritius – a battle cruiser, and loading shells aboard the same vessel , which fired more shells and other arms than any other ship in the Royal Navy, in the North Sea, North Atlantic and the Mediterranean in WW2. Did he kill anybody? Not personally, no. But to say he never killed anybody just because he never saw it happening would clearly be untrue.
I really do hate war, and I hate the bastards who send people to fight the wars they started.
Michael Taylor,
Cliche for the day:
“War should never be exported”
*addendum: “nor domestically consumed”.
Oh Yes Roswell I did hear that. But like your namesake, fantasy. I’m surprised you would even raise it in a seemingly serious tone. You should see the video mentioned above.
cv, you’re a very wise person. I mean that.
mark delmege, so you know something that the 17 US security agencies and the Senate Intelligence Committee doesn’t?
Wow.
Fantasy? What fantasy? The last time I looked, Roswell is a real place.
By the way, mark delmege, I’d believe in aliens visiting our planet offering free tomato sauce before I’d believe any of the crazy shit you sprout. Now piss off.
Michael,
Thank you, sincerely.
I consciously try to exercise my cognitive faculties with situational awareness and subject such to critically rational analysis in order to inform some kind of logical conclusions that enables semi-coherent dialogues and strategies.
Nice to know that it sometimes kinda works.
Thankfully, cb, this site attracts more people like you than it does the mark delmeges.
Ps: What Roswell said @7:01, I agree with.
Btw, cb, you’re also an excellent wordsmith.
CB, at 7.04
Have you been reading Sir Humphrey Appleby’s memoirs?
Jack, where’s my stuff?
I couldn’t have made it any easier for you.
Jack,
No.
Sir Humphrey would say “that is one of the least benightedly unintelligent comments that it has ever been my relatively surprising lack of mental displeasure not to able to avoid encountering”.
About as clear as I can state it.
corvusboreus
That sounds more like Marvin (aka Douglas Adams).
‘the 17 US security agencies and the Senate Intelligence Committee doesn’t?’ yep thats about your limit Michael Taylor. BTW are you still looking for the WMD’s in Iraq or maybe Irans nuclear weapons program? Maybe you could take Roswell with you on your next trip.
Michael
Me bikes gorra puncher.
Leefe
Clever spot.
Me does freely admit to a mutated plagiarism on that one.
Sir Humphrey Appleby has a deviously functional enough brain to work, but Marvin the paranoid android has a large enough brain to hurt.
Ps A toast to Douglas Adams, a logical yet compassionate mind with a spicy keen sense of the absurd,
delmege, what are you on about? I never thought or said that I believed there were WMDs. Where’s your evidence that I said it, idiot?
Jack, don’t you carry a spare?
Michael
Anyone with any feel for Liverpool culture and mores would have said ‘Knock another one off.’
About 20 years ago after my son’s soccer game, someone from their opponents team came into the shed and said ‘Are there any scousers in here?’
My lad said ‘No. but my dad is. Why?’
‘We’ve locked ourselves out of our shed and need someone to break in.’
Made me feel proud…
Love it, Jack. 😀
I’m just watching a pretty dated movie on 9 – Morgan Freeman is portraying a US prez’dent with all the Hollywood dignity, gravitas and intelligence that the post is expected to bestow on its occupant.
I can’t help thinking that Donald J. Trump has torpedoed that little cliche, possibly forever.
Football terrace song sung to Liverpudlians (to the tune of ‘My only sunshine’)
You are a scouser,
An ugly scouser,
You’re only happy,
On gyro day,
You’re dad’s out stealing,
While mum’s drug dealing,
Oh please don’t steal my,
Hubcaps away.
Tribalism can be funny.
What happened to “You’ll never walk alone”?
Come on Michael Taylor you can do better, your personal attacks on me have been more vicious in the past. Try harder.
Right now, with covid-19, In some cases it’s You’ll Never Work Again.
mark delmege, do me a favour. Go away. Leave this place and never come back.
I’m sure I’m not the only one who moans to themselves when they see your name here. Nobody is interested in your bizarre, crazy, dumbfookery conspiracy theories.
Now go away quietly.
Jack, as long as I can still get a feed of chips from the Red Lobster Cafe (at the top end of the mall, a bit further up from the Cavern) when I ever get back to Liverpool, then I’m happy.
Your fealty to the Democrats is breathtaking Michael Taylor, you are also very rude and uninformed.
My new word for the day is ‘apophenia’.
It refers to a tendency to incorrectly infer patterns or connections within unrelated inputs.
Effects and ramifications of manifest apophenia can range from an eccentric tendency to see faces in clouds through to full blown paranoid fixation on the notion of massive global networks of hidden and interconnected conspiracies.
What I learned yesterday:
The ABC & BBC are nothing but a sinister cabal of propaganda peddlers, whereas millennial millie from alex jones’ infowars ( a conservative Christian who opposes the message of mainstream climate scientists) is a thoroughly reputable source.
The real reason that faecebook and yewchoob took down infowars ‘shadowgate’ movie (they cited reasons of hate speech) is because it’s truth is just WAY too big, just like when they barred alex jones for claiming that Robert Mueller was a pedo who needed to be shot.
The Republican controlled senate intelligence committee manufactured evidence of contact and cooperation between senior Trump campaign officials and Russian intelligence operatives in an effort to delegitimise their own electoral mandate.
It’s noice to lern nyoo stuff.
You learned more that I did, cb.
I only learned than I believed in the WMD, that I’m beholden to the Democrats, and that I’m rude.
Conspiracy theorists are their own worst enemy. They are like Peter who cried wolf once too often. You can pretty well guarantee that those who think climate change isn’t real will also be anti-vaxxers who think George Souros is running the world and Jewish bankers have teamed up with environmentalists to impose a new world order. They will like ‘strong’ leaders – not in the Jacinda Ardern mold – more the Putin and Assad kind. They will get their facts from sources with no expertise or credibility because they are the only people who know the ‘truth’. They don’t trust experts but they trust what Putin’s government funded RT says. Only the west does propaganda and EVERYTHING is a false flag operation.
What I learned this week is that ‘Plandemic’ is the most banned & watched doco ever; the nightly msm ‘Panicdemic’ propaganda blitz is the most watched and ironically unbanned pile of ever; and the WHO foresees another 2 years of driving small business into the dirt while talking up a once in a lifetime pandemic that has killed how many people in the NT? I’ve given up on anyone else waking up, if you can’t see through it by now you never will.
Yes, I mentioned this previously but I used to engage on Facebook with this guy who constantly told me that I wasn’t thinking for myself before posting a link to a video which was meant to “enlighten” me because apparently “thinking for yourself” meant swallowing some conspiracy theory without question.
Of course, I don’t believe everything that government’s tell me, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t believe anything they tell me. For example, when they admit that they stuffed up and that they’re sorry, I can easily believe that they stuffed up, but I’m not so sure about them being sorry!
Kaye, what gets me is that everything is non-negotiable. Their “truth” is the only truth. We have been fed lies and we’ve swallowed them willingly.
I mean, really, how can people say that the Russian interference in the 2016 election is a hoax after it had been confirmed by America’s 17 security agencies and now even “admitted” by the US Senate?
Let’s be grateful for one thing: Nobody’s brought up the Port Arthur massacre conspiracy theory yet.
What if I came to the conclusion, ‘thinking for myself’, that certain commenters here were actually part of the Russian (or Chinese or North Korean or fossil fuel industry or SkyNews or…pick your own boogeyman) attempt to sow doubt to cripple the west from addressing the issues it must face?
Would that make it true?
What if I came to the conclusion, thinking for myself, that they sound ripe for the picking by those who choose to misinform? Or just angry about their own circumstances and looking for something/someone to blame?
Would that make it true?
‘You can’t teach on
Old dog new tricks.‘
Except you can. I am an old dog, but I’ve changed my mind several times over the last decade, sometimes changing views I’ve held for decades. I’ve changed my mind on
Brexit
Blair
Muhammad Ali
Thomas Cromwell
Thomas More
Sir Alex Ferguson
China
Russia
Labour
Labor
Greens
Kaye, there was a guy at uni who was always trying to shoot me down (because I was getting higher grades than him, which irked him, he thought it was a completion). Whatever I said during a tutorial … he had to interrupt with an argument.
One day, he jumped in all worked up, “I have the opinion that … blah, blah, blah.”
When he finally finished I stepped in with, “I have to agree with you … (pause) …
(A smug look came over him)
… you do have an opinion.”
😀
Jack, and Charlie Dixon?
I’ve changed my mind on many things too, Jack.
I was brought up to believe that the US were the good guys and Russia the baddies.
I now reckon they’re both baddies.
Learning is a lifetime pursuit. The internet has opened us all up to so much information….and misinformation…that critical analysis is more important than ever. Certainly ask questions. We learn from others (unless we already think we know it all). As we learn more, our views often change. The part that takes time, energy and research is sorting the wheat from the chaff.
Michael
Charlie is a work in progress…
I’m steadfast on the Hoff. It was like shooting Bambi, dropping the Hoff.
Thanks for all the discussion.
I was not there at Wapakoneta, Ohio on 22 September 2019 to observe conservative leaders from both sides of the Pacific acting out their unity ticket in support of the strategic corporate state. I can only raise issues for discussion and see how the wind blows.
Fostering corporate and military power as foundations of a more enduring one party state is always the goal of contemporary conservatism. This contrasts with the spirit of the American Revolution itself, the US Constitution (1787-89) and transparent alliances like ANZUS as established in 1951-52 with bipartisan support on both sides of the Pacific.
This whole charade in Wapakoneta communicates volumes about contemporary politics in action through the involvement of political players from corporations and military networks who are outside formal politics.
The big corporate players want big privately negotiated tax concessions to add to their tax minimisation strategies within the USA, Australia and Caribbean tax havens.
The military want our loyal patriotism with as little critical scrutiny as possible. Hence all that secrecy in Australia about discussion of foreign and strategic policies.
The ANZUS Treaty of 1951-52 offered some token political scrutiny with its emphasis on commitment to UN Processes to resolve strategic threats, real and imaginary. This limited transparency was compromised by the ANZUS arrangements entered into by the two allies partners on both sides of the Pacific during the early 1980s when NZ refused to allow nuclear weapons in its ports or naval vessels with nuclear traction.
NZ is free to return to ANZUS under new circumstances. ANZUS has evolved as a partnership between two current active partners.
The US probably did not like the old arrangements as the two smaller strategic players had too much influence.
The NZ government would be kept well informed by developments at AUSMIN.
US Defense Secretary Mark Esper paid a courtesy call on the NZ Government in his way to cement closer ties with Mongolia after that Kirribilli meeting of AUSMIN on 4 August 2019: https://www.foreignminister.gov.au/minister/marise-payne/media-release/australia-and-united-states-alliance-future
This is an amazing press release from AUSMIN and should be looked at in full by interested readers. It actually intrudes into commercial arrangements affecting our exports which was not mentioned in the 1951-52 ANZUS Arrangements
These issues should be more openly discussed in the mainstream media. They are not classified secrets in the old traditions of ANZUS.
There would be no wars if it were politicians who had to lead the bayonet charge.
Our global commander in chief in President Trump avoided the draft five times according to Mary L. Trump’s book, ajogrady. He is not up to any bayonet charges as sore feet got him off the last draft call during the Vietnam war. Smart move perhaps, but then he sends disadvantaged Americans off to fight in foreign wars.Great comment ajogrady.
Fascism and its co travellers are often not a brutal boot in the face but carefully crafted propaganda pushed over years often using emotionalism to create an environment of acquiescence. The ABC like the BBC – both state media outlets – is not dissimilar to what many presumed functioned as media in the USSR or China. Sometimes thats a good thing on issues of health and welfare but foreign news reporting is all that I am interested here. As five eyes members they concoct news and opinion to rally support for empire. I know because I listen to them both (as I do with other MSM outlets) and have run down so many stories that have proved to be nothing more that crude propaganda (psyops). Name any war or significant international event and they will be out there pushing a barrow. What that video mentioned above did was explain how and why these sorts of psychological operations are run.
The RussiaGate narrative is one case in point. Some here fell for it.
Mark Delmege
I have no doubt that Russia ‘interfered’ – or attempted to – in US politics. And why not? The US ‘interferes’ – and worse – in the politics of almost every other nation on earth.
“The ABC like the BBC – both state media outlets – is not dissimilar to what many presumed functioned as media in the USSR or China.”
Press Freedom Index
Australia 26
UK 35
Russia 149
China 177
That’s out of 180 countries….but hey….yeah….Russia and China media is just like the ABC….NOT
You may find this interesting mark….if you are interested in actual evidence, that is.
https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252445769/Briton-ran-pro-Kremlin-disinformation-campaign-that-helped-Trump-deny-Russian-links
I’m with you, Jack. I believe (from the mountain of evidence) that Russia interfered with the US elections in 2016 (and will attempt the same in 2020) and I hate them for it.
I also hate that the US has interfered in allegedly 80+ foreign elections since WW2.
There’s something about these super powers who feel that the world should spin in only one direction: theirs.
But I still hope Biden wins. He’ll be up against every cheating method (and foreign interference) that Trump can muster. He might have to do a Zac Butters in the dying stages of the campaign.
(My apologies to everyone. The Zac Butters reference is Jack/Michael jargon).
Re:
Of course! If you have the power and don’t use it, then it’s a complete, unforgivable waste.
Or is there some other explanation in the world of realpolitik?
Yes, MN, I am aware that the world actually does spin in one direction.
Michael Taylor
Zak Butters. Melbourne pundits call it the play of the year…
And it was over in a flash, Jack. Blink and you’ll miss it.
PS: SPP has been rubbed out. 😡
Michael
That’s a pity – he’s had a great season so far, since Boaky persuaded him to pull his head in.
I really enjoy reading Mr. Bright’s articles. Actually, I make sure I don’t miss any of them. A very unique style of getting the facts together while letting the reader fill in the blanks. As per the topic covered in here, I definitely would like to see a big change in the USA coming elections. Trump is the biggest accident ever in USA politics! However, the duo Biden-Harris is a better option but not the best America can do… I am looking forward to your next article Mr. Bright.
Thanks Denis from beyond the veil.
Still a spark of independence left in the old country.
What a coincidence. Spirit of Dr. Cairns: Those random connections are important in the Spirit of Carl Jung and probably extend beyond the Veil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jr_20uEVOiE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D1xtexw75A and hundreds of other articles and videos.
I did visit Jim Cairns at his home in Narre Warren East in 2001 when I was completing Investigative Journalism as a subject at UQ. Our lecturer in that subject had worked for LNP Premier Robin Gray in Tasmania before his appointment to UQ. In retirement, Premier Gray became a Director of the Tasmanian wood-chipping firm, Gunns.
I don’t think the federal LNP has really changed its spots since those days as revealed by my investigations into that media hoopla at Wapakoneta.
Keeping the message populist and simple is an LNP forte. Even this morning our Scott Morrison continues to live out the Spirit of Wapokoneta with its faith in Evangelical Politics and Populism, Commitment to Corporate Values and Clinging onto Militaristic Images.
This is the Holy Grail of Australian and US Conservative Politics: Evancortell in action: Evangelical populism:Evan), Corporate Values (Cor) and Scary Rhetoric from the Military Industrial Establishments (Tell Short for Military Intel).
While Scott Morrison was campaigning for Donald Trump and Anthony Pratt at Kapakoneta, Ohio, Australian Unions were picketing Anthony Pratt’s factories in support fair pay and less tax avoidance which is crippling our delivery of Medicare rebates through lack of funding from the collective tax take.
More recently the LNP has joined Trump to isolate Australia from profitable trade and investment ties with China.
Trump policies are actually hurting the US economy. My new shoes are from Drew Shoe Corporation. It;s headquarters are in Lancaster, Ohio on Interstate 33 out of Columbus. However, my shoes are actually made in China for distribution by Drew.
Australia’s involvement is this trade and investment war with China is quite appalling.
Also appalling is the gerrymander of the 15th Congressional District in Ohio which links up parts of Columbus and Lancaster with rural heartlands favourable to Trump and the Republican Party in a Congressional District that is 60 per cent rural.
I watch George Galloway’s ‘Mother Of All Talk Shows’ every week. George is a controversial, old style ‘Labour Party as was’ commentator, who was ousted from the Labour Party because he was outspoken against Tony Blair and the war in Iraq. I assume most of his viewers and listeners are LW in their politics, which brings me to the point I wish to make; this week (last Friday) he ran a viewers/listeners poll on the US presidential election. Who would you vote for -Biden, Trump or Jesse Ventura?
I was astonished at the result. Maybe 2000 people responded:
Trump 44%
Ventura 41%
Biden 15%
BearImg in mind Galloway’s audience, you’d better prepare yourselves for another 4 years of the USA disembowelling itself (instead of its customary disembowelling of other countries.)
Personally, I don’t care what the USA does to
itself.