Bill Shorten is right. The kids should go back to school, and learn….” Mainstream Australian Values”

We at pcbycp are delighted that Adani is pushing on with its planned Galilee Basin coal mine. 

WE are bitterly disappointed that it’s not quite as big as what was originally planned, but delighted nonetheless that once work gets underway it will demonstrate to the word Australia’s credentials in disavowing Climate Science. 

These protesters should’ve stayed at school, (note spelling error)

NOT GOOD ENOUGH! The Cat in the Hat should only be read at SCHOOL!

How dare these protesters use OUR PARLIAMENT to demonstrate the sick theology of “Climate Science”!!

It’s not good enough being recognised as the number one despoiler of bio diversity, and recent, inspection by our environmental action team has proved that not all of the Great Barrier Reef is dead yet. So there’s still some heavy lifting to be done. We interviewed the pcbycp environmental change management unit leader, Mr, Rapine Pillage and he had this to say:.”We’re worried about that state of things in Queensland. It’s encouraging to see the devastating bushfires, destroying vast swathes of open forest and hinterland, but there’s still much more that can be done.  The unprecedented heatwave in November may be killing off the flying foxes, and doubtless will ensure another catastrophic coral bleaching, but it’s not enough yet to ensure our position, as number one species extinction leader.  We’ve so much competition from Brazil and Indonesia, and now with New Guinea, the Solomons and most of South East Asia coming on stream we’re under some serious threat

That’s why we need Adani to do its bit. 

Kids risking pneumonia when they should be AT SCHOOL!!!

And we are very encouraged that both Federal Liberal and Labor are encouragingly silent on the project. We cannily assume, as Mr Shorten so emphatically told the kids protesting the mine in Canberra, “ Go back to school”, that he’s one hundred percent in lock step with the mine. It’s good news for species depletion and will ensure that Queensland stays on top. 

WE hope that all of Federal Labor will agree with Mr Shorten that what is good for Queensland is good for all of us, and since they stopped black-birding, there’s only land clearing and mining to keep the percentile looking northwards. And the climate is what the kiddies don’t understand.  They’re protesting their future, when they should enjoy forty degree days in November, and the promise of much warmer weather in years to come. 

Labor in lock step to preserve the right of ADANI to make us Number1#

Science has always proven we can get top of this existential crisis, and once again though we ignore climate science, there’ll be some bonuses for every kiddy. Smart hats, their very own lump of coal, and these wonderful signed portraits, “Coal is good for humanity”. 

And  the most important defining issue about this whole thing is that the it comes to the really big decisions, and particularly in light of the recent Victorian election, both sides represent the interests of homophobic, future hating, climate change deniers. There’s solidarity in that, And the kids better believe it. They have no right to have a say, and betides they don’t vote. And even if they did, they haven’t got the pull to offer us tickets to the Grand Final, free flights and sinecures post parliament as the lobbyists do. And learn to stand on their own feet and abide by principle’. 

Kelly O, questions “mainstream values”

Julia Banks, repudiating “mainstream values”.

Hot on the heels of the Victorian election drubbing, and scorching hot, (Queensland bushfire climate denier hot), we’re shocked by the latest from Julia Banks suggesting the Coalition is not welcoming to women.  And from the horse’s mouth itself, Kelly O’dwyer, describes the Liberal party as “Homophobic, anti-women climate change deniers”.  Female representation is plummeting in the Coalition.  Recently elected independent small L liberal women, who once represented the “heartland”  suggests that the ship is sinking. That the party is a lost cause for women. And to rub salt into the wound the newly re elected Labor premier of Victoria announced fifty percent of his cabinet were women. 

Which begs the question; Are there any women “man enough”  to stay the vessel, that drifting, rudderless, empty vessel that is the Liberal party from floundering?

What is to be done to the flagship, as Kelly so correctly said yesterday; “the natural party for womens representation”, even though they are self described, homophobic anti woman, climate change deniers. ?

Is the wash-up for the Victorian Election? Does it bode ill for the federal election? 

Kerryn Phelps, confronting ” mainstream values”

According to the conservative right, there is nothing wrong with the Liberal Party, it’s just that Guy wasn’t conservative enough.  We agree he should’ve gone harder. And sought fundamental change. The sort of change that would make him a viable alternative. And now faced with the prospect of a “long parliament”, and very little debate till the next election, we leave it to you our devoted readership, to rescue this conundrum before it’s too late. 

We at pcbycp need suggestions. Should it be compulsory sterilisation for lgbti’s. Execution for jaywalkers. Castration for those who are not women and possess long hair, or just incarceration for all women, who don’t deport themselves respectfully, and live at home supporting the kiddies and hubby when he comes home shagged. 

There are so may issues where they could go harder. 

Mass incarceration of all people who are not pure on the skin colour chart. 

Banning of people who are left handed from voting, 

Summary arrests for those who can’t recite more than the first stanza of “Advance Australia”.

Banning any who doesn’t have an extensive, portfolio, (as both sides of the house seem to have) of investment properties. 

Kathy McGowan, eschewing ‘mainstream values’.

Or just the cessation of funding for any school which is silly to enough to suggest that god didn’t create the world, that the earth is to just six thousand years old, and that man was derived from Adams rib, to stone women who shall be blamed for all eternity for making small men feel insecure. 

All of this and more, but there is a bigger issue confronting the Coalition. One of titanic proportions, which if unchecked will rock the very foundations of governance as we see it. The Trojan horse of Liberal domestic policy. 

Without women in the Liberal Party, who will make the tea?

Without women in the Liberal Party, who will make the scones?

Without women in the Liberal Party, who will take out the rubbish, and clean up after the booze ups after the boys have had their fun?

Could it be 457 visa holders? No way, they’re foreign. 

Could it be refugees? They threaten our way of life, 

Could it be native Australians? Don’t be silly. 

Julie Bishop, relegated from deputy PM for questioning “mainstream values”.

It will be interns. They’ll work for nothing and just like our women, go away when they’re no longer needed, and do what they’re told. 

To uphold, 

“Mainstream values”! 

Not her fault the Liberals lost.

Dear reader, there’s been a state election. The Liberals have been trounced. 

Not his fault

Worse than that, they’ve been shellacked, creamed, rendered cactus, made unviable, sent to the wilderness for another eight years. And for the people of Hawthorn, Brighton, Portsea and Box Hill, the Liberal brand has been made unpalatable? How could this be? The most blue ribbon of the blue ribbon seats turned red. Could this require a root and branch change in Liberal party tactics? Could this in any shape manner or form be attributable to what’s going on in Canberra? And has been boldly suggested by some, suggest that their policy direction of more prisons, more fear and hate for anyone who’s not a white, heterosexual and God – fearing male could be questionable?

Not his fault.

Well the answer is this. It’s got nothing to do with the Liberals lunch to the right. Nothing to do with the proliferation or ultra right nut job looney mormons in the party. And nothing at all to do with the party being tainted by the likes of Dutton, Abetz, Kelly, Abbott, and Kroger etc. They’ve got nothing to do with it. They’re just doing their job protecting all of us from African Crime Gangs and the threat of terrorism. 

Nup, according to experts within the Party, it’s the electorates fault.  And they’re quite right. 

Not their fault.

Election time is always a tricky time for the likes of us, at pcbycp. Cecil likes to vote left of centre, and the centre keeps shifting. Last time we looked he’d voted for what used to be the left and it’d gone right, whilst the centre had gone off the scale. Not content he set up his own party and didn’t expect to win, 

His Monster looney, walk backwards, and say “dum dum dum de dum” party scored only .0005 % of the vote. 

Not his fault.

“Phew” thought Cecil, that’ll shake the place up a it, and there’s no way I’ll ever have to bear the responsibility of being elected. But he was dead wrong. He’s now in the Legislative Council. And worse still, he’s gotta attend Upper House meetings to determine important pieces of legislation. 

You’d think in the last state parliament safe injecting rooms, the right to die, the right for women not to be stoned represented the high point of  legislation passed through the Upper House. They were all promulgated by Fiona Patten, from The Reason Party.  Patten wanted to do something really radical, like remove the status of religious groups to proclaim themselves as charity. That’d mean they’d be like everyone else and pay tax. That would also compromise their capacity to amass vast amounts of real estate and in the case of the Catholic Church, allow them to have a huge war chest to crush mums and dad and kiddies who’d been abused, raped, demeaned and buggered any recompense. Bit like the Liberals, It’d be all their own fault. 

No wonder why Fiona failed, she was just too reasoned for the electorate. 

But Cecils dilemma is much bigger. His first piece of legislation? 

The right to be reasonable. 

HER FAULT!!

A dodgy bit of legislation, and doomed, cos being reasonable in politics is unreasonable. 

And this from Lionel Fogarty

COSTUME JEWELLERY

The difficult woman made a cult 

Staggered furtive shirting tucked whisper,

Counter drawers were albums of drain remnants.

The difficult woman secreted a bed carpet,

      Man on to the child’s weed scribbles 

Humpty beer taped drinkers were chewing,

     Hoist of dumpty blue Colgate.

The difficult Mothers plasters was over the cars driven by with words,

  ‘’Give up on Father who can’t pay’’

Open space manager’s slip on timeless walk as running business went 

Ascertainable for credit card none had to spend.

Behaving hearts when on loan, as alone when on it’s own.

Grieving parent who can afford an executor sain start a school for tool of experts.

The difficult yellow kitchen unit man because anger on chest fires,

As estate agents run inspection for the real owners spiritual.

Brief bitter beneath the light moments was sweet despites broken.

The cult woman new she needed people’s staggered by truth the elaborate lies didn’t work out as planned.

Determined by a lovers strength the difficult woman hush and dust on scared choices, for her cult.

Costume women on the jewellery looking for life out codes?

Lionel G Fogarty Merton Vic Sunday 29 Sep 2013 Time pm 1.30  

E gudde Dag fir jiddereen (Google Translate- Luxembourgish),

A decade ago I wrote up my dad’s anecdotes. An excerpt from the Chapter titled ‘Ante-bellum- Amsterdam/Haarlem 1932-1940’ :

A highlight appears to have been a bicycle camping trip to mountainous Luxembourg. On this trip, dad told me, he found out he was acrophobic, a condition I have inherited. Each generation has trouble imagining their parents as ever having been young and in love. The photo album is right there with the evidence: athletic, good looking, sun-tanned young men and women having fun at the beach. Dad with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, whilst playing the banjo-mandolin. A group of youths forming a human pyramid, showing off to the girls. Young leggy ladies posing for the camera in their bathing suits (no bikinis back then).

In a recent phone conversation with my brother, who like myself, dredges the shallows of miscellaneous information for (what in our student days were) mark producing pearls of wisdom, he mentioned Luxembourg’s motto: “Mir wëllen bleiwen wat mir sinn” (We want to remain what we are). Regular readers of these Dispatches, will not be surprised when I tell them that this motto immediately resonated with me.

From a Eurocentric perspective the Luxembourgers have good reason to want to remain what they are. According to that modern oracle, Wikipedia, the 600K population of the tiny country of Luxembourg (2.5K square kilometres) has the highest GDP per capita in the world. A mere $US105K per annum. I’m not aware of the Luxembourgers being pressured by anyone to change being what they are. No forced assimilation, no stolen children, no Closing the Gap initiatives for them.

The Intervention (the 2007 Northern Territory Emergency Response) yielded some nice witticisms for our enjoyment (to keep us laughing to keep from crying) such as labelling the GBMs (Government Business Managers) the Ginger Bread Men. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ganA1AiYyO0

Gary Foley calling Warren Mundine the “white sheep of the family”.

Another was “They think that if you squeeze a black-fellow hard enough a white-fellow pops out “ which when I told Jakamarra about this, he retorted “It won’t work, you’ll end up with a squashed black-fellow”

Metaphorically that is what the Intervention did, it resulted in many squashed black-fellows.

On our kitchen table, there landed the March 2017 Quarterly Essay (‘The White Queen-one Nation and the politics of race’ by David Marr), at the rear there is the “correspondence” on the previous issue. The previous essay was ‘The Australian Dream’ by Stan Grant, which unfortunately I didn’t get to read. One of the “correspondents” was Kim Mahood the author of that seminal cross-cultural masterpiece ‘Position Doubtful”. Like the Luxembourg motto, Kim’s contribution immediately resonated with me. In it she quotes Stan Grant “I am who and where I am in spite of the past….” Which Google Translate renders as:  “Ech sinn wien a wou ech sinn trotz der Vergaangenheet…” in Luxembourgish. Kim also invokes the squeezed black fellow, albeit a slightly different version. Apparently Stan took issue with Jon Altman’s statement “ I fail to see how standard education will assist those who live fundamentally non-standard lives.”. Kim springs to Jon’s defence- “… includes an understanding, difficult to articulate, that there is something of fundamental value in the evolving culture of remote Australia” and to “ …aim for a kind of excellence that bridges different knowledge systems… “ Hear, Hear!

From past Dispatches:

Missy Higgins… The Biggest Disappointment’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I51ImqkOAM

And the biggest disappointment in the family was me
The only twisted branch upon that good old family tree
I just couldn’t be the person they expected me to be….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl0C4Zkpv1M Maggie’s Farm…. Bob Dylan

Well, I try my best to be just like I am,
But everybody wants you to be just like them

From the Scottish Clearances: The Landlords carried out “Improvements” to their estates. The improvers said the eradication of the Gaelic way of life, with its antiquated Clan loyalties and low rates of return, was necessary to bring the Highlands into the modern era-

Squeeze a Scottish Highlander or Islander hard enough and an Englishman pops out. 

Bob Marley’s Babylon System:
We refuse to be
What you wanted us to be;
We are what we are:
That’s the way  it’s going to be. If you don’t know!
You can’t educate us
For no equal opportunity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5EoiQX7u5k

So once again I get to repeat what Gough Whitlam’s Education Minister said half a century ago:

“In Australia, our ways have mostly produced disaster for the Aboriginal people. I suspect that only when their right to be distinctive is accepted, will policy become creative”… Kim Beazley Sr.

To be or not to be, that is the question. Ser o estar.

Anyway you get my drift.

Seems to be, paradoxically, that remote Aboriginal Australia will only be allowed to remain what they are if like the Luxembourgers they become filthy rich.

Dat ass gutt fir si. Bis zur nächster Zäit

Frank

Cecil has thrown an insight into the war on terror. And it’s worth looking at some of the figures. In actual fact there’s  only one figure worth looking at and that’s the six trillion being spent since 9/11 by the U.S on war. Whichever way you look at it, that’s a pretty tidy sum. All as a consequence of the terror attack on New York. 

The figures  (Brown University’s Watson Institute for Public Affairs) have been published in its annual cost of war report. And it makes staggering reading, because it repudiates the value of the military industrial complex. Reports like this undermine national solidarity and the comfort of knowing that we are righteous and it’s “U.S” against ‘THEM!

Cutting research to preserve Mainstream Values!

In Australia, if such research sought funding in our universities, the Federal Education Minister Mr Simon Birmingham would close it down sensibly as; “useless to the national research effort”. 

But seriously, it begs the question is six trillion enough? Is it keeping us safe?. It also begs the question is five hundred thousand dead through the U.S war on terror enough? Is it up to the mark? Can it prove the metrics and demonstrate as the War on Drugs has done, an outstanding success for prisons, incarceration and ruined lives? 

Value for Money! The F 1-11, worth every cent to the Australian Taxpayer! To preserve ” Mainstream Australian Values”

Which begs the question; Have we been doing our heavy lifting? 

Our First Submarine. HMVS Cerberus. Since 1878 protecting Port Phillip Bay from Russian Invasion. Still at WORK preserving Mainstream Australian Values!

Collins Class Submariners listen intently to PM’s speech on Terror! On the frontline to preserve Australian mainstream Values!

Well onto that score we’re doing our best. We haven’t lost three thousand to a direct terror attack, but at the latest count three people may have died in Australia as a result of terror. Though it may have just been people acting under the influence of terror when they should have been under mental health care. Still, it’s a terrifying statistic. Though another woman was killed by another enraged, immature petulant, man-child yesterday which gets our tally up to 67, that doesn’t count. Cos the victims were only women, and the men who knocked em off were normally decent Aussies, who like a bit of cricket, and just “Lose it” when they’re being nagged at. A demonstration of “Mainstream Australian Values”. Perfectly understandable, and not the hideous, heinous, nefarious bastardry we associate with acts of terror. Terror that we must defend ourselves against and be ceaselessly wary of, for it poses an existential risk, as our PM said, “the greatest threat to the Australian way of life”. 

That’s why it’s good to know that we’re doing our bit to assist with the war on terror. We’ve alienated an entire sub section of the population who cannot ever atone for the sins of their ilk in coming from parts of the Middle East where they don’t play cricket (decently and fairly and gentlemanly as we do). And we’re up to our armpits fighting them where they could unleash an attack on us at any time, in the foothills of what we used to call, “the north-west frontier” and beyond. As at Gallipoli, if we don’t stop em there, they’ll be marching down Bourke Street. 

New le-merde class submariners in training. Re-listening to the PM’s speech on terror. On the frontline protecting Mainstream Values!

But what of forward defence? You may tremble in bed. What if they should think to catch a boat and infiltrate our northern shores, and thus equipped inspire through their insidious process of indoctrination the crocodiles to wreak jihadi violence on hapless beachcombers? Is this the next existential catastrophe?

Well, be assured, we are building a fleet of submarines, negotiations alone, have so far cost in excess of five billion, and when they’re ready, and operational by the 2050’s they’ll have cost us fifty billion plus. And per capita, as the F 1-11 did, they’ll show the Australian taxpayer willing to do whatever it takes to do the heavy lifting and prove we’re lock step behind our glorious ally the United States in protecting us from evil. 

And the benefits are immeasurable. Just was the purchase of the F 1-11’s did in giving us a place at the international table. To fight gloriously in Vietnam!

Another fifty billion and the U.S President might even bother to turn up to the APEC forum. 

Insidious populist left-wing Get Up activists undermining mainstream values.

We at pcbycp are increasingly worried about the trend of populist politics. All across the world we have seen the rise of a political class offering simple solutions to complex problems. Invariably, sensible, balanced policy which has given us the benefit of watching our hard working politicians receive sinecures, kickbacks, and exceptionally well paid post parliamentary careers courtesy of caring lobbyists has fallen foul of public opinion. This is not good for society. It shows a communication impasse. Whereby the public just don’t understand how seeking personal preferment through public office has a trickle down effect which is good for ordinary people and the bounty of “mainstream values”.  Every way you look at it our society is being rent by vested interests, single issue parties and a public disgusted by the chicanery of political opportunism and rampant short termism. It’s a rot. And if you look at Turkey, the U.S, Brexit, Hungary, Poland, the Phillipines, and progressive societies like those found in Saudi Arabia, there is only one conclusion. Left wing ideology is killing our society.

Lefty ratbags questioning mainstream values!

Major political parties are under siege. In the upcoming Victorian election, the independents, and minors, once a speck, a fly spot on the page of legislative progress are set to take the reins of governance. And through their actions, pursue policy direction that could destabilise the security, stability and certainty of shopping, pumping the housing sector, and the benefit of prisons for everyone. This is a worrying trend. Some of these minor parties are even talking of the “Commonwealth”, as if it means something more profound than siphoning public assets into private coffers.  And some are thinking that it’s time that politics was made accountable through a national anti corruption scheme. This is the thin end of the wedge. And  it just got thinner still with Getup’s plan to oust Tony Abbott from the safe seat of Wahringah. The former PM Tony Abbot has done more for the coal sector the any politician in Australian History, and has worked, harder than Bob Santamaria to destroy the very fabric of his party. For this he should be celebrated as a man of conviction. Instead Getup want to destroy him.

Such a scheme by Getup is insidious, and further betrays out trust in the system that has served some of us so well.

Tony Sanataria and Maurice Newman hard at work defending mainstream values, and as a minor consequence, the vested interests of VERY WEALTHY PEOPLE!

Good news then that a committed cabal of millionaire business men have  set up the new lobbying group “Advance Australia”. Like the ‘Monash Forum’, these very wealthy people are committed to see this slide into political correctness, vision, and fair mindedness stop. And in doing so “Advance Australia”. The groups direction is to re assert mainstream values. The values that made Australia Great, (again). They are convinced that powerful elites are taking over Australia. Not the likes of Gina, Twiggy and Clive, but the left. And by saying “left” those forces that would strip Australia of the certainty of mandatory incarceration for aboriginal males, stoning of women, alienation of anybody who is not white, male, or heterosexual, and the right to rape, pillage and convert the land into an extractive industry or real estate.

Just like Stalingrad. Lefty Do -gooders at work destroying viable mainstream industries like COAL. Shown here at work destroying Mainstream Australian Values!

One of the groups members, Maurice Newman, who worked closely with the former PM Tony Abbott to stem the evil tide of climate science, likened their position to Stalingrad. ‘The lefties represent the tide of nazism. Unless ‘Advance Australia’ makes a stand the lefties will destroy these core values’. And we can only hope Maurice is right. The lessons of Stalingrad are with us every day. Our backs are  to the wall. If they cross the metaphorical Don, we’re done for. (for those of our readers who are members of the Advance Australia group, the Don is a river in Russia, and not a small goods manufacturer).

Lefty activists at work in Stalingrad. Forcing locals to build a wind turbine over their sacred coal-fired power station.

The left with their iniquitous plans, for public education, public health, equity and fairness are a scourge. After Stalingrad, it could be Magnetogorsk?

Or even worse….. tax reform!

Fear triumphs over vision every time.

Now we know that there’s no point worrying about the Asia Pacific region because the two major contenders will never ever agree on anything as a core principal, we can get back to the nitty gritty of local politics. And it’s good to see that the big issues of the environment, global warming, inequity and the loss of good governance to the vested interests of oligarchs and the kleptocracy can be brushed aside. And for complex problems there are always simple solutions.

And foremost amongst them, as the opposition leader Mr Mathew Guy is fond of proclaiming is safety and crime. He’s cleverly following the line that we are besieged by African Crime Gangs. That a known “Terrorist” as distinct from a mad- man was out on bail. As a consequence we need boot camps, more prisons, arcane sentencing laws and more prisons to prove we’re tough on crime. We think that’s pretty laughable, but in the daily tabloids such an approach is looked upon as a sound plan for the future.

Clearly fear triumphs over vision.

One of the texts recommended for the Baby Bundle.

And who are we to criticise?  It’s just the general criminalisation of society. It’s been happening ever since they generated computer data systems of those who can’t pay their parking fines. As a one hundred dollar fine, (after administration costs) can accelerate into  five hundred dollar fine, and for thereon it’s just a sheriffs knock away from the slammer. Or to be more precise, in our modern society It’s a poor person’s tax. Just like tollways, ticketing on public transport, high electricity costs, and the price of petrol it hits the poor hard, and leaves the well to do to sermonise about the ladder of opportunity and human rights.

Still, apart from the promise of more prisons, relaxing of gun laws, public humiliation of magistrates and promise of more roadway mega-projects there’s one initiative we’re really impressed with, and that’s the initiative designed to give new parents a start in life. It’s called there baby bundle.

“The “baby bundle” promise is inspired by Finland’s baby box — a package of clothes, sheets and toys that can also be used as a bed.

Labor says its bundle will include a sleeping bag and muslin wrap, with advice from the Royal Children’s Hospital about how to safely wrap babies, and a teething ring or toy with information on teething.

It will also include a nappy bag and four picture books by Victorian authors for different stages of development, as well as an emergency contacts list and information about child safety, feeding, sleeping and literacy and numeracy.

First-time parents would be given their bundle in hospital’. (The Guardian).

We’re not  too sure about the muslin, and would ask the state opposition if there could be a tendency for terrorists to infiltrate maternity wards. But we love the initiative, and would suggest a flask of good whiskey, a packet of cigarettes or roll your own tobacco would augment the bundle. Perhaps a few tickets to Crown Casino, a bundle of betting slips and a free voucher for legal aid would be an added bonus.

Except legal aid has been de-funded. Good news for the prison sector.

There’s always a silver lining.

G’day

I’ve always suspected those Getup folks must be doing something right when (akin to the ABC) they’re often under attack by the authorities.

It’s called “hitting a nerve” a phrase which in my experience clearly derives from non anaesthetic dental procedures.

I’m lukewarm  about on line petitions and appeals. Those TV advertisements that urge you to donate to save some unfortunate third world child, whose only original sin is to have been born where he/she has been, such as in a war torn country sitting on oil or mineral deposits. Charity always makes me thing of George Orwell’s diatribe against the Salvation Army (In ‘Down and out in London and Paris’) who expected him to pray and sing hymns in exchange for a sandwich. Ironically, I was told that my paternal grandfather, a lifelong self proclaimed atheist, had a Salvation Army band play at his funeral. I was also told that Jean Paul Sartre another lifelong atheist, on his death bed, asked for a priest to read him the last rites. Were they having a bob each way?

Away With Rum, The Song of the Salvation Army Music…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88bU_iSGa7E

As for petitions and donations, I wonder to what extent these are an easy way to salve one’s conscience. Every now and then a petition is launched about something I feel strongly enough about, that I cave in, and for all it’s worth, sign up, whilst not having any illusions that by the click of a mouse I have made a significant contribution to the betterment of humanity.

One such is the Get up – Scullion and Abbott resign (from their Indigenous affairs roles) petition:

“Both the Indigenous Affairs Minister and the Special Envoy on Indigenous Affairs have completely disregarded the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and need to resign.”

http://getup.to/Qe9oOiBlKcnGZUBYP

Many revolutions and coups fail because there is no Plan B. You get rid of the tyrant, the ignoramus, the mean spirited, the incompetent, the evil, and what do you do next?

This one is easy, I could think of countless people, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, better qualified and motivated to take over the roles from this pair of hypocrites.

A friend sent me this link  https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/528711/   It is an article in The Atlantic titled ‘Power Causes Brain Damage’

As someone who derives much solace and pleasure from irony and satire, I immediately assumed that we were dealing with such. Turns out it is a serious and instructive article which explains much about our leaders, not least about Abbott and Scullion.

From two separate researchers:

“….acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view….”

..If you could see you through my eyes instead of your ego… Elvis, ‘Walk a mile in my shoes’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-NgDbK9N6g

“….under a transcranial-magnetic-stimulation machine, he found that power, in fact, impairs a specific neural process, “mirroring,” that may be a cornerstone of empathy…… “

I have always thought that one of the reasons remote Aboriginal Australia finds itself under sustained ethnocentric assimilationist attack is because the powerful can’t bear to look into the mirror that First Australians hold up to them.

Now I know why, the powerful have suffered brain damage. One could almost empathise with the poor bastards, it isn’t their fault they are so mean spirited….wiyarrpa! (A Warlpiri expression of empathy- a bit like the French ‘pauvre petit’ or Spanish ‘Pobrecito’)

Wiyappa (sic) Wanti Jalu – LAJAMANU TEENAGE BAND
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kpc1tlZlGg

The Warlpiri kinship system is non hierarchical. Everyone has rights and obligations. Those belonging to a particular sub-section have obligations to another sub-section, and have rights over yet another sub-section. There is no need for a Warlpiri person to have the system explained, for example on a circular diagram, they’ve simply grown up with it. Within family groups there are people with authority and respect (usually older men and women) but the overall system exerts checks and balances over individual authority and privilege.

When the local council was introduced with its secret universal ballot, we had middle aged men elected as Council President. Almost without exception these men never stood for re-election (“it’s someone else’s turn”) albeit some re-emerged as Council President after a period of self imposed ‘abstinence’. The system seems so designed as to minimize brain damage.

It is no coincidence that the Intervention introduced a push to encourage “young leaders” (by, for instance, holding workshops in leadership for young people). The Aboriginal Industry also increasingly insists on making Aborigines attend courses in ‘governance’ and obtain certificates in ‘Community Development.’ The authorities encourage ‘role models’. One only need look into the Federally supported “Generation One” initiative, to perceive what is happening. “Generation One” delegated all previous generations of Aborigines with their age old system to “Generation Zero”. Assimilation by stealth.

None of these initiatives come with a health warning- “Power can cause Brain Damage”

0:41 / 3:25

Bob Marley – Get Up, Stand Up – Live At The Rainbow London Theatre (6-2-1977)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKuUKHmTHPk

Stand up for your rights and obligations.

And now a bonus non-sequitur song (have no idea what the words say, but music ‘speaks’ for itself):

Brenda Fassie… Hara Lebitla…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fECbY5Acnxo

Toodleloo

Frank

PS- Whenever I have my heartstrings tugged at by those charity fund raising advertisements, sadly I’m all too conscious of the industry that money raising has become and wonder what portion of donations reaches the intended recipients. A notable exception was Medicins Sans Frontiers who after the so called Christmas Tsunami raised more money than they could effectively use in their work and offered donors a rebate (or if they so chose, to allow MSF to use the money elsewhere)

I once again caved in and signed MSF’s Nauru Petition.

MSF were told to leave Nauru by brain damaged powerful people.
https://www.change.org/p/i-support-msf-s-call-to-immediately-evacuate-asylum-seekers-refugees-from-nauru

Not a dog-whistle

An isolated, disaffected mad man killed a gentleman who came to his aid. The tragedy is that both are dead. A good man died. He was stabbed by a mad man. A mad man is also dead. He was shot by those who’s duty it is to protect us. And in a city that prides itself on civic virtue as the “worlds most liveable city”, we pause and think of what values we place in our society.  Fridays crime was disgraceful, because it went to the very core of our sense of self. It violated a sacred principle of trust and compassion. And the lingering question; “How could this be’? Is distorted by the cheapness of scapegoating, isolating and revenge.  This is after all, “Our Melbourne”. Where ex Lord Mayors are unable to own their drink filled philandering tendencies and the homeless become heroes rather than shadows for a moment, before they’re pushed back into the place where they belong.

And that’s where the mental people belong. Not in asylums, they’ve been sold off to developers. Not in hospitals, they’re full to overflowing. But to the community. To fester and allow the dark forces of any opportunistic ideology to take hold and consume them

Another incident of daily madness.  This madman, unlike the other isolated dissafected madman who drove his car through Burke street killing and maiming spoke in his madness of “Allah’. This makes him a terrorist. The man who killed and maimed with his car was acting under instructions from “God”.

These isolated, dissafected mad men were similar perhaps to the men who rape, kill and mutilate women. Except we’re told that their crimes are usually pre-meditated.  And derive for a history of sexual violence and deep seated personality disorders. One thing we do know, if you combine the word terrorism with murder, you have politicians. Like flies to the carcass, they cannot help themselves. And in the heat, the message, the distillation into cause and responsibility for all of us, is lost to oblivion.There are always those who seek to divide. To score points, and cheapen us all.

Great to see the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, leader of the State opposition and the PM jump on board. In a word Tragedy becomes ” SHOW-TIME”!

Who would have thought that Rupert’s finest would help our PM and our Home Affairs Minister determine that Islamic Terrorism is Australia’s greatest threat? One person killed by a mentally disturbed black man born overseas represents a far greater threat to our way of life than the 69 women and 19 children killed in domestic violence incidents this year.  The logic here is clear.  Killing women and children is part of Australia’s way of life.  So the ongoing killing of them is actually supportive of this cultural practice.  Just as our jingoistic war-mongering leads to far greater deaths of civilians (usually women and children) than of soldiers.  Estimates put the ratio at something like ten civilian deaths for each soldier killed.  Thus we remember the soldier and forget the civilian.  Oh, could it be that systemic violence begets violence?  Never.  And there is no connection with Australia’s aim to become one of the top ten Armament Exporters. 

Those polliticians who led us all the way to the maw of Gallipoli and the Western front knew one thing.  The desire for revenge is good politics.