peopleswing to the right – Page 2

Another Mad Hatter’s Tea Party?

I guess I should be celebrating, making odd Musk-like salutes ‘from the heart‘ and singing ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy‘ with my South African accent..

It seems there is a mighty punch coming up for the Woke way of thinking.

The Donald’s antics and gestures are very puerile and devoid of dignity. Why all the pomp and circumstance when the top billing is a clown act?

But I keep on having flash thoughts of Alice’s Queen of Hearts and Caligula and occasionally Mussolini.

The violent white supremacist thugs who bludgeoned police officers at the Capitol were among the throng released by Trump.

* Trump launched a meme coin called $TRUMP on Friday, just days before his inauguration. Is this a new way to buy influence? Market capitalization soared to nearly $6 billion within hours. Melania also has a coin, so there! (Not called $trumpet…)

Vindicatory vengeance seems to be gushing up.

Trump’s nominee for FBI director, Kash Patel, has come up with a specific list. In Patel’s 2023 book Government Gangsters, he lists 60 current and former executive branch officials whom he refers to as members of the “Executive Branch Deep State.”

President Biden issued preemptive pardons to many people who tried to hold Trump responsible for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 election and against whom Trump has promised “retribution.”

How far will Trump’s “retribution” actually go? Should Biden have granted himself and Harris and Clinton pre-emptory pardons as well?**

Trump is notoriously antagonistic to institutions that oppose him, like the Supreme Court and the Treasury and even Congress. His promise to extend the Tik Tok deadline to 90 days is contrary to a Congressional decision. Wonder if anyone will mention that to him?

I’m not squeamish about the purge.

Government bureaucracies have either been given or have usurped the power of elected representatives. They now control society by incriminating them. The rule makers are now the real rulers.

To unravel that Gordian knot will be impossible, so only an Alexandrine sword will reduce it.

I hope Musk’s purge will trim them, slim them and refocus their purpose.

The woke way of thinking is embedded in western culture and will be resistant to jackboots and muskrats. But there will certainly be a shaking up of the fashionable fringe followers, so that’s a start.

I wonder whether Trump will be constrainable or will he have to go the way of Caligula?

*Daniel Hampton – https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/

**Robert Reich January 21, 2025 ‘That’s interesting:’ Did Trump just launch a new conspiracy theory? – Alternet.org

Empty head

… not a good way to start a new year.

But it’s Friday and my son commented on the absence of blog blather recently. It is of some solace that somebody noticed.

The real reason for the absence of new air hot year predictions is that I am a doomsayer that didn’t get it quite right.

Peace has not yet blessed the Middle East nor Ukraine, but it looks to be soon.
I did Trumpet the the new US Pres, but not the extraordinary global impact thereof
Covid has seen a major slowing of China’s economy
The swing to the right in western democracies is gathering momentum: goodbye Trudeau, good riddance
- Who else will go? Macron? Scholtz? Starmer? Albanese? (please!)
  - The Muskimpact on technology and economics has been phenomenal; his forays in communications are redefining political dimensions and the expression of the peoples’ wishes. (Wait! Isn’t that democracy?)
  - Jordan Peterson seems to be doing Robbie Williams’ Better Man type of change
  - The influence of influencers defies imagination and logic.
  - The Wallabies could win the Lions Tests, but don’t bet too much on it.

Tough Love

I have just read “in Cold Blood”, a novel by Truman Capote, based on a real event in Kansas in 1959.

Two petty criminals who met in prison, agreed to rob a rich farmer in Kansas after their release.

They made preparations and an alibi and drove 800 miles, broke in late at night, tied up the four family members. There was no safe. They shot all four victims leaving with just $40 and a portable radio.

All they did leave was a bloody footprint.

They were identified by a former cell mate, who had told them of the rich farmer and been told by them of their plans to rob him

Arrested, they confessed and were tried, duly being sentenced to death.

There was a suggestion that the accused did not feel it was wrong … and that should save them from the noose.

To no avail – they were hanged in 1965 after many appeals.

As was right and just.

Many countries have now abolished the death penalty. Terrible crimes can be punishable by life imprisonment. This can actually mean as little as a dozen years in prison before parole is granted. At huge cost to the State.

I believe that a society that nurtures people who commit ghastly crimes and later releases them is eventually doomed.

If we can’t pull the trigger, we are not up for the job. Remember the Lindt cafe fiasco?

Rehabilitation is an unacceptable gamble.

At the 2021 “Summit for Democracy” President Biden said:

“Today, democracy is under more pressure than at any time since the 1930s…. Will we allow the backward slide of rights and democracy to continue unchecked? Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We have to renew it with each generation. […] In my view, this is the defining challenge of our time.

President Macron said: ..”… the only political model that allows us to defend these rights and freedoms: democracy” –, adding that the fight was “more necessary than ever”.

Many are beginning to believe that: …the time has come for a world dominated by authoritarian powers, that the historical cycle of freedom has come to an end…..

So we see the surge of influence by authoritarian regimes. They have no compunction in using their power to obliterate opposition.

There, criminals receive short shrift, death penalties are common for all manner of acts. At the same time the sowing of destruction outside borders is actively promoted.

The democratic Western polities struggle mightily with huge issues like the right to declare oneself to be the opposite gender and unfettered rights to abortion.

Governments are unable to say “No”. Police must wear kid gloves to restrain the dangerous and disobedient. They must do so with a compulsory delicate etiquette. Children wreak havoc again and again despite frequent arrest.

Politicians are powerless to act without being pilloried by vociferous public dissent. They seek to keep their positions through the buying of public affection with the reckless disbursement of our revenue.

No wonder we are dissolving into disillusioned leaderless mobs, changing side every week. Soon the demagogues will turn vigilante.

We need some hard leaders who can say:

We will act to solve our problems, despite outcry. We did it in the pandemic, we can do it again.
Stop pussyfooting: squash disorder and crime quickly using the most effective means.
No more public protests stopping traffic. If students fail, they leave university. If they misbehave, they will be expelled. They will repay their loans in full.
The Review Tribunal will clear the Immigration backlog. Illegal entrants will be removed and can appeal from offshore. No more refugees/asylum seekers
Tax carbon emissions; incentivise clean energy systems; let the market prevail.
Minimise imports, maximise home grown
Labour disputes to be resolved by Tribunals.

These are the things I would do if I was PM:

Introduce nuclear power stations
Introduce National Service for all school leavers
Ban gender transition until 18 years of age
Bring back the death penalty for murder, child molestation and drug traffickers
Limit the right to silence, requiring explanations for compelling evidence. I would also dispense with juries
- Media would be banned from interviewing witnesses or accused persons.

WGEA

Workplace Gender Equality Act

Women in Australia earn 28% less than men!

This type of bite size statistic is a hallmark of the sensational disinformation used by identity politicians.

In my last blog, I mentioned that the incoming Labor government had added 26000 jobs to the payroll.

This statistic is the type of work they do

It is illegal to pay women less than men for doing the same work.

Prosecute the bastards that do that! Don’t squeal and puff out meaningless statistics.

More women than men choose to stay home to care for their children and parents.
Fewer women work fewer years than men.
Fewer women work in dangerous and isolated occupations than men.
Fewer women (only 15%*) follow STEM careers

* https://www.industry.gov.au/

Note the above Ministry also collects gender data…

Of course, I am sure that other identity imbalances have not nearly been addressed appropriately. What about the representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual, aromantic/agender people ?

(Oh! don’t forget + additional identities that are not included in the acronym).

All of them should have their own departments and compliance legislation too.

Soon only racist, misogynist, misanthropic bigots will not be employed by government!

That’s what Musk’s job is going to be. He will clear out all that ephemeral, flimsy, dangerous and expensive regulatory claptrap.

Purge

At a time when most Western democracies are burdened by disillusion, poor economic and social outcomes and leadership that lacks either conviction or courage, Trump arrives as a giant on the stage of history

In his campaign Trump has promised “… savage public-sector cuts, a reduction in federal bureaucratic numbers, a purging of regulation, cutting taxes…extending tariffs… dismantling environmental obstacles to development, a domestic war on ..identity politics, boosting defence spending..”

If Trump succeeds …

“the governance model for Western democracy will be shaken to its foundations “

Paul Allan Western Australian 16 Nov 2024

A purge will not be before time, I say. And this should pave the way for all Western democracies to see the writing on the wall and change.

For decades governments have swung back and forth from Democrat/Labor to Conservative/Republican. Each victory led to a replacement of supporters and sponsors. The public service bureaucracy grew because each policy promise required an executive department.

Stalin used the Secret Police in his ‘Great Purge’ in Russia from 1936 to 1938. – his methods were a bit drastic -up to 1 million people were killed.

Politicians, intelligentsia, critics, government officials and the army were targeted.

President Harry S. Truman signed an executive order in 1947 to screen federal employees for possible association with organizations deemed “totalitarian, fascist, communist, or subversive

Primary targets were government employees, prominent figures in the entertainment industry, academics, left-wing politicians, and labor union activists. McCarthy was his hit-man. Public servants were screened…

So now we will see another purge in a democracy, not a totalitarian state ! Interestingly, the same as it was before, it will be the same types and classes of people who will be purged: the bureaucrats, intellectuals and professionals….

Trump has appointed Elon Musk who said he’d cut $2 Trillion from federal bureaucracies . That’s about one third of all employees! Tell me that won’t cause a riot!

He did it to Twitter / X seemingly without crippling industrial action. Maybe he can do it on a much bigger scale.

“Progressives are no longer the party of the working class or the non- college educated…

… the incompatibility of identity politics with the liberal principle of equality … citizens’ trust in mainstream institutions has been absolutely shattered..corporations and the military, universities and the courts .. trust is gone

When people look (at these institutions) they see progressive values shoved in their faces. It’s not the democracy they voted for.”

Politicians don’t purge, because those purged are voters.

Now it seems that this has changed, Trump doesn’t want re-election after this term. He is backed by the working class and opposed by the elites. He wants to change what the elites have done and he doesn’t care about the political risk.

Here in Australia it was reported recently that:

An estimated 70% of jobs growth since 2022 has been government funded….The 2024-25 budget showed the number of public servants had grown by about 25% since the COVID-19 pandemic

Dan Power, The Mandarin, 18 October 2024

Now we see how politics works! Vote for me an I’ll give you a job!

I hope the Coalition ask Elon Musk for some tips before the next election!

Just a splatter of thoughts…

I have no drive to develop and blurt out emotions about the current state of affairs, but will perhaps just mention a few things that gave pause for thought.

“Loot” by Tania James is a book centred on Tipu Sahib a fierce but progressive Rajah of late 18th Century India. “Better to live 2 days as a tiger than 200 years as a sheep.”

When his son asked his mother which was he: a tiger or a sheep, she replied “neither: you are a boy”.

I also took a sidestep; I am an old man.

“We are here because you were there” is a piercing retort to those who object to too many Indians in the UK. That is another clear battlefield in the World Woke War!

There are many current issues where one side controls the narrative, and the other is intimidated into silence – making a topic ‘taboo’ is an ideological weapon. Speak the truth while you still can.

JP of course!

A new woke war cry has clearly been heeded, gender-based health inequity; although how it came to exist, if it really does, is incredible. The far greater majority of medical practitioners are females – I defy those who say they are so feeble as to allow such a state of affairs.

The Queensland government has clearly drunk the Kool Aid – it has devoted $249 million in its budget to address the problem!

There is another woke battlefield: the virtue of vegan:

The world’s top food delivery services are failing to implement strategies to reduce meat and dairy consumption, despite the climate emergency.

There is a lot of “I” in this piece. but they are my thoughts…

Kamala did quite well against Donald, I thought. He seemed a bit old, which I haven’t thought before.

Glad the Olimpics are all over, there is such a thing as too much gush…

Sorry to see Bill Shorten go. I mean I didn’t like what he usually stood for, but he was a competent hard pollie with a real backbone; certainly preferable to Albogreasy…

I saw a cane toad this morning: summer is here.

You can’t say that!

At a friend’s baby’s first birthday (can you believe it?) last week, I saw an Irish friend, who recently returned from a visit to the Emerald Isle. I puffed out my cheeks and chirped that it seemed he had brought some potatoes back with him. He laughed and said he had put away a few while he was there.

Another friend sitting next to me was aghast and berated me for making such a remark about someone’s appearance. I protested that he was a friend and wouldn’t take offence, to which he laughingly agreed.

Earlier in the month, I had been castigated by one of my daughters for calling a nephew chubby.

Should we not say what we think ? And why do others feel they need to spring to defend, calling out possible offence?

Much of the current erosion of western values has arisen from the failure to speak out for fear of treading on some sensitivity or other and causing offence.

So when a few people promote the right of people to choose their own gender and pronoun and demand that the rest of society follow suit, much of society followed suit, without demur.
When a few students muzzled the Oxford Union, professors obliged.
When mobs toppled or defaced statues of historical figures, little action was taken.
When immigrants heckled soldiers’ funerals, little was done.
When immigrant priests urged defiance and eradication of Jews and supported jihad, governments demurred….
When foreigners started flooding borders and consuming benefits funded by citizens’ taxes, governments tip toed and hesitated.

Yet, I shouldn’t tell someone he is looking fat!

Resentment festers and if unresolved can erupt. The recent violence n the UK seems to me a clear demonstration of resentment. It is going to take a lot of undoing, because the damage is a cultural wound and those cannot be fixed by decree. Once you have let people in the gate, it is very difficult to get them out and the process involves bloody mauling.

So defy sensitivity and correctness and speak out or you will forever have to hold your tongue.

It is not just a right, it is a duty.

Go the Marones!

In Australia, marooon is pronounced marone and is the colour of the Queensland rugby league team jersey.

During June and July, a kind of buzz arises about the annual Game of Origin clashes with the New South Wales team. Floods of money are spent on paraphernalia and tickets and Origin parties. Marone is the colour of the day, or blue if you are one of them…

It is a good buzz, well illustrated on TV by bands of pumped-up supporters of the two teams arriving simultaneously at the game bus. Glaring at each other, waving placards, the people at front brace themselves, then stand back and politely wave the other team onto the bus: “after you”.

Fierce love of the game!

One hopes the same spirit of fierce competition and control prevails in the US Red v Blue contest, where tensions are on knife edge after the near miss on Donald Trump. What a vivid demonstration of what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger” !!

My first reaction was that it was a stunt, which refelects my opinion of US politics… but it wasn’t.

But, are the US close to civil war, as speculated by some respected commentaors?

It is no great leap of understanding to see the rationale of: who sent the assassin? It must have been them, let’s show them… The US Capitol invasion occurred in a haze of righteous fervour. Once radicals start indulging in extreme behaviour it doesn’t take much for extreme opposition to erupt.

“Fight, fight, fight” might not be the right slogan for such fraught times in a country quite clearly divided.

‘Without a transcendent vision, the people run amok’; based on Proverbs 29:18, these words underpin our desperate need for leaders who can guide us towards good lives.

Let us hope that Trump has the finesse to control his meteoric momentum to the Presidency in the face of a visibly crumbling Biden camp. Desperation could lead one or some of Dems to say or do something rash!

In a flash, there could be a rash of violence, assassination attempts and general mob chaos, which in that heavily armed civil society could descend to civil warfare.

Here in Australia, we too are suffering from poor leadership. The current Prime Minister is a wishy washy socialist, unable to make hard decisions or control the factions and individuals in his party. The opposition is not particularly impressive, apart from a conservative Aboriginal Senator who opposed the notion of an Aboriginal voice. She appears to have the charisma and courage to lead.

Let us pray for strong clear leaders who can build a plan for the rapidly evolving future.

I fear I hear the feeble, quavery voice of Neville Chamberlain in September 1938, “peace for our time’ – the world was at war in less than a year.

Ya Nincompoop!

nincompoop (plural nincompoops)

(derogatory) A foolish or silly person. [from 16th c.] synonyms ▲quotations ▼Synonyms: dunderhead, fool, imbecile, nitwit,
gaby, hammerhead, putz; see also Thesaurus:fool

It seems that insults or slurs are subject to fashion and context.

“You little monkey” is often heard from proud mothers beaming at agile, mischievious infants. However, it is a gross insult for dark skinned people, particularly hulking great sportsmen!

As an African I am keenly aware that the K-word is a definite no word and is felt as a terrible insult by black Southern Africans. Yet Afrikaners frequently referred to their own chubby little children as klein kaffertjies, as a sign of endearment.

I recall some years ago yelling out in exasperation “O you baboon!” at a rugby game when one of my son’s team mates dropped the ball, missing a certain try.

After the game, I was delicately taken to task (I usually gave lifts to the players and was a faithful fan). It was said that exasperation was acceptable and they were happy for the exchange of hairdresser for baboon.

I suppose one should not use even that as exasperated critique at a rugby match these days….

I am sure if I called my wife a cabbage, she would resent it, yet in France it is a term of endearment.

In a change of direction we see that Sam Kerr, who has an Indian grandmother, was arrested for calling a cop a stupid white bastard.

I wonder which word makes it an insult ?

There is a whole list of ethnic slurs in Google for almost every country or ethnicity: quite enetertaining reading and in a way an account of history.

Identity slurs have become a political weapon, capable of being exaggerated and sensationalised until the fallout stuns the nation. How did simple words get so over inflated into righteous causes? You bitch is not a nice thing to say; you black/white bitch is a mortal sin, likely to entrance the nation for a week!

Back in the day, if one was insulted, one returned the insult or biffed the insulter on the nose or walked away. Now we huff and puff and the house is blown down by the selective Mother Grundy zealots determined to impose their values and solutions on our world. And the media pumps it up with suitable tones of horror and barely suppressed outrage.

What happened to “Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words will never harm you”??

It really is a matter of choice – but there seems to be so much ado about nothing!!

It is time that the nanny response to such small stuff is shelved and we need some brave politicians and editors to say so.

Ya piddle nishers!

Xenophobia

“Never talk to strangers” was an admonition for young children. It was intended as a caution to be wary of the unknown; a portmanteau of the plethora of advice/warnings a parent gives: don’t take lollies from a stranger, don’t go anywhere with a stranger, don’t get in a stranger’s car…..

Seems to be still good advice. Take care with the unknown.

When a stranger wanders into our housing estate, warnings and photos are posted on community websites. I usually go out and ask if I can help.

My intention is primarily to help, but also to confront, to say I have seen you, so if you intend mischief, know you are being watched…

Europe, the US, Australia and South Africa are magnets for strangers who pour into their perceived rich territories, fleeing their less comfortable homelands.

The generation which has been taught that diversity and inclusion are holy duties and moral imperatives, faces political turmoil and dilemma as their homeland is flooded by alien peoples who have nothing and need support.

Suddenly refugees receive more support than pensioners, hospital access is clogged, crime rates increase with increasing unemployment. Welfare and employment of native citizens is vastly diminished…

In London, the last census reports a minority of white British people in 22 out of 33 boroughs …

In the Midlands of UK, churches are rapidly being converted to mosques.

The US Presidency will likely be decided by who will keep the most refugees out of the country. Many European countries are seeing political swings to the right because of the lack of political xenophobia.

In South Africa massacres of foreign migrants have to be prevented just 25 years after the end of apartheid. If you are white, you are unlikely to get a job, unless you have an extra special skill or a connection or start your own business., which must have a majority of black employees!

Of course taxpayers object if much of their taxes is spent on people who steal into a country.

Legitimate migrants have to jump through bureaucratic hoops and offer skills and money to be accepted. And God help you if you make a mistake!!

Refugee peasants just need to sneak in by boat and have a better chance of support from the government agencies.

So how can refugees be refused without offending the compelling Social Responsibilty imperatives which now dominate our corporate and political policies? How can we ignore the years of applying affirmative action and employment equity …?

I say we must protect our community by ensuring people who enter can support us and contribute positively and not be a drain on our resources.

Discriminate fairly: scrutinise strangers, ask where are you from, why are you here, what can you offer? before you invite them to stay.

Send the boats back – don’t let them in.

Soft, warm fuzzy attitudes and the inability to say no will ruin your country!