I’m at a complete loss as to understand why that rasping husk of compromised humanity we’ve had inflicted on us as Prime Minister decided to co-opt this morning’s hideous mass slaughter of gay people in Orlando, Florida to the service of his government’s pathological border protection policies.
Not once in his obligatory comments on the mass murder (this link has since been updated by SMH to include Turnbull’s third press release in which he refers to gay people) did Turnbull acknowledge the identity of the victims, rather he carefully framed his remarks within the “terrorist threat facing the Australian way of life” narrative, a threat for which the LNP, with the full support of the opposition, created for our salvation the paramilitary border protection force.
Turnbull stopped short of invoking “stop the boats” and I suppose we should be grateful that even he, apparently, was unable to draw his stinkingly homophobic bow that far.
Had the victims been children they would have been identified as children. Had they been black, they would have been identified as black. Had they been Palestinians, Jews, women, protestors, Australians, ISIS, students, politicians, doctors or the homeless, they would have been identified as such.
But these were members of the LGBTQI community and Malcolm Turnbull could not speak their name.
Other politicians, including Obama, Clinton, Shorten & Plibersek have made a point of speaking directly to that community in their commentary, acknowledging that this has been an attack that will affect LGBTQI people wherever they are.
The murderer’s motives are as yet not fully known. But what is unquestionable is that he targeted a gay venue, and that he has been described by his own parents as “not religious, didn’t pray or fast, was very angry when he saw two men kissing.”
It might behoove us to remember at this time that the most vocal opponents of LGBTQI communities in Australia are white Christian men, some of whom are in the LNP, and some of whom gave Malcolm Turnbull his job. Could this perhaps go some way to explaining the PM’s bizarre reluctance to acknowledge the Orlando massacre for what it clearly is? A murderous attack on a particular community because of that community’s sexual orientation.
Whether or not the murderer was informed by other political motives as well does not alter the fact of his choice of target.
Let’s not forget that Turnbull recently bowed to pressure from Christian homophobes to gut a Safe Schools program that sought to educate, and protect LGBTQI kids from bullying, depression and suicide.
Let’s not forget that Turnbull has decided on a completely unnecessary and highly expensive plebiscite on marriage equality, an event that will permit all manner of hate and bigotry against LGBTQI people free expression.
Let’s not forget that Turnbull has firmly established himself on a vile homophobic continuum (making himself clearly part of the problem) that begins with playground bullying, and ends in the mass slaughter of gays who’ve just gone out dancing for the evening.
This is our Prime Minister, people. The man who denies the dead their identity. The man who dares not speak the word.
Since I wrote this post, and after a great deal of criticism on social media, Turnbull has made another statement in which he refers to the gay club and the deaths of gay people.
All traces of his first statement, on which this post is based, have vanished from the SMH and other media. ABC Radio’s Patricia Karvalas tweeted that she’d never heard of an earlier statement, and I don’t doubt her.
Extensive tweets remain, as proof of Turnbull’s initial presser. Unless the Libs own Twitter as well as the MSM
No Place For Sheep 
“It’s an assault of every one of us. It’s an assault on freedom,” Tony lite wants to make us all a little fearful that this is part of a ‘war’ between ‘us’ and ‘them’ and it could happen to any of ‘us’, so didn’t identify the victims. It would also undermine his own parties dumb plebiscite as you rightly point out. Fear motivates people to maintain the status quo because change is too risky. Our strong laws reduce our freedom to protect our freedom. So vote LNP first preference and Labor second preference. Or the other way around if you must. Only the duopoly can keep Australia as safe as possible during these ‘dangerous’ times, is my interpretation of Turnbull’s real message.
Using tragedy for unrelated political gain seems abhorrent. Problem is: it works 😦
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Dave, I’m buggered if I know why it still works in Australia, we have come a long way since 1950s in so may ways, but the extremist right wing faction who control the Liberal Party these days include many members of the USA cult, the assembly of god, they are religious fanatics and collectively they control the faction and so control the PM. this is why, if the LNP win this election, I expect TA to again challenge for the leadership because it seems to me that they installed MT for a glamor image, but if the election is won, they won’t need that image anymore and will finish off the job they began and are only half way through.
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Yep. Hard to interpret the power of the far right as anything other than a failure of our democracy. I’d love to see the duopoly throw out those at the extreme and dangerous ends of the political spectrum, and democratically represent most of us closer to the middle, but can’t see how that could happen any time soon.
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Only a hung parliament with good independents can help us Dave.
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Yep,vote early and vote out the 2 big parties.This ‘vote the other mob out’ crap we have tried for multi-decades has failed us.
Even the greens have become a ‘major party’ as far as manipulation goes.Di Natale should go ASAP and the greens should return to their core principles.
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“Even the greens have become a ‘major party’ as far as manipulation goes.” What is that supposed to mean?
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It means they have manipulated their supporters and their seats to go against their core values which got them in, for political expediency.Where once they ‘stood up ‘ they now ‘roll over’.
And in case you missed it, King Di Natale said ‘their’ political aspiration is in a main role with all that entails.
My view is you don’t change the menu after the orders are placed.
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A hung parliament is a delicious idea. I’ll get some rope.
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Let’s not risk an escape clause,
PW.I’ll get the piano wire.
: )
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(smiles, daydreams.)
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Get out the tumbrils and I’ll find my knitting
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Bonsoir, Madame Dafarge. The Evremonde will pay yet..
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How many independents does it take to change a dysfunctional duopoly into a well-hung parliament?
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Mwahaha, there are so many ways to read that question
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Yes, I agree with all that Dave.
I’m utterly gobsmacked, however, at the reluctance of some media & politicians to acknowledge this as a homophobic attack.
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Trioli and Rowland had it as a terrorist IS attack right from the get go, must have had orders from the new Murdochista boss. The killer was a killer, he slaughtered 50 human beings because he hated their sexuality.
Just as the west slaughter people after they create bogeymen to kill.
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Trioli comes across as a bullying closest misandrist who thinks her shit don’t stink.Everything which comes across the ABC 24 morning show desk has to be spun into her ‘see sexism where none exists’ agenda.She is the ABC resident walking talking ‘full stop’.No-one dare speak after she has told it how it is.
She definitely channels Abbott when it comes to Muslim bashing.No guess why that is.
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Hypo Typo ^ ‘closet misandrist’
[although not so shy at delivering it ,both barrels]
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I’ve never watched her. I hate TV in the morning
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Lucky you JW.I’ve got right off,FIGJAM.
The ABC 24 news breakfast favourite condiment.
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It isn’t luck, Hypo, it’s a choice not to start my day with all that shite.
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They are right about the tight message control on ABC Breakfast, but think some are a little hard on Trioli and her various co hosts, given they probably have half a dozen so called executives peering over their shoulders.
The weather presenter is also bland, btw.
Personally, I liked Helvi’s sketch of Annabel, someone who I think has crossed a line Trioli and co have only thought of crossing.
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Virginia is sooo look-at-me wonderful, that after seeing her, even the cute cake-baking Annabel in her yellow vintage skirts is a relief…well, almost.
Give me the matter of fact, very professional Sarah Ferguson any time.
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Yes, Helvi, VT is just a non bogan version of Kochy.
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I’m a huge Ferguson fan. She has my total respect.
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^ MASSIVE FERGUSON fan?
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Aaaaaargh
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Helvi
Love Sarah Ferguson – shining light of incisive intelligence.
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She married the vile liar Russell Skelton who destroyed the Bakhtiyaris lives with his evil crap.
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Do you mean Ferguson or Trioli?
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Trioli. Sarah is married to Tony Jones; he must have talents outside his political remit.
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*snort*
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You think it depends on what you call politics…
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Oh, these alliances…
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Excellent piece, Jennifer. Let’s not forget, also, that Turnbull is a gutless wonder who is in thrall to Crosby-Textor. Their grubby strategic genius is all over this latest, despicable fear-mongering, grandstanding.
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Thanks Urbanwronski, and yes, you’re spot on.
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Turnbull’s initial response was crass, but it was couched in the scaredy-cat political script from which, in part, both the Coalition and Labor hope to attract a winning margin of Australian voters. That’s the sickening bit.
Later, he got around to mentioning the fact that America’s worst mass murder in history was committed in a gay club against gay people, apparently by some despicable human being who didn’t like to see men kissing each other.
But that was too late. Making an Australian political issue out of horrific criminality elsewhere, to bolster the ridiculous notion that ‘they’ are all out there just beyond the moat, waiting the scale the walls of fortress Australia and murder us in our beds, is the sort of thing you’d expect to hear articulated (well, inarticulated) by former fish and chip shop operators with dyed red hair and a voice that shatters windows at 50 paces.
I don’t think it was the real Malcolm Turnbull speaking. That only makes it even worse.
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Whatever he is ,real or ‘unrea’l, I don’t want some
Janus–faced PM. 🙂
( having two contrasting aspects; especially : duplicitous, two-faced)
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It seems like being two-faced is a requisite for pre selection, Helvi.
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Turnbull seems entirely inauthentic and that’s because he is. He gave up everything to be PM, every scrap of integrity.
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Jennifer, my Liberal voting English neighbour told me that Turnbull was not really good enough to marry into the Hughes family, according to her he is only a Johnny- come- lately…
Maybe Mal is trying to prove that he is good enough, he managed to become our PM, now he wants to keep his job at any cost…?
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He married up, I guess?
He doesn’t strike me as a strong character.
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Yes it was, he has always been a thoughtless lazy bully.
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The slaughter at wounded knee was not that many years ago in the scheme of things
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As it happened over night, the first short statement omitting any mention of LGBTIQ could – and I think I’m being generous saying ‘could’ – be forgiven due to ‘speed’, heat of moment, staffer, you name it.
The second statement was a LIVE press conference from Townsville, where the PM expounded on the virtues of his Government making Australia a safer place, but need to be vigilant blah blah, yet not once was any support offered to LGBTIQ community, in fact, watching it seemed as though is was a deliberate act to omit this reference.
Finally, at nearly midday, the PM actually acknowledges the pain that the LGBTIQ community are feeling. So third time lucky?
For particular journo’s to now be quickly re-writing history is just doubling down on the insult to the gay community.
For particular journo’s to be smart-arsed about saying punters are politicising is just a fecking insult!
Personally, if a journalist or punter cannot see what is wrong with the PM’s approach to what happened in Orlando overnight and totally omitting any reference to a community of people who thought they were in a safe place, who related to what happened in such a personal way, who in fact were grieving, says more about them, and it ain’t good 😦
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I realize that I’m an old bloke but could someone please tell me what the I is in LGTB”I” please and what it actually means, I’ve worked out the others, thanks.
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Intersex
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Intersex, Townsville.:-)
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Just Google it, mate. It’s hardly the crux of the story.
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Don’t you approve of people being civil and helpful, Anonymous ?
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There’s also Q for questioning and A for asexual, but less commonly used due to length. And there are different kinds of asexuals. It can probably all be simplified down to one graph for gender and one for sexuality which could possibly better capture the concept of fluidity and also include those who identify as mostly male and female straights.
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Thanks for that timeline, Noely.
It says that homophobia is as ingrained as racism.
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There is no excuse for Janus (TKS Helvi) Turnbull’s thoughtless first speech – others managed to include the stricken community targeted by the killer, swiftly. Now Libs are rewriting history (again).
Far right neo cons; the same the world over – can’t tell if they’re from Australia or the Middle East.
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In a couple of hours I watched the narrative being rewritten. It was an astounding experience for all the wrong reasons.
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Thank you Jennifer for telling us about this duplicity, about the re-writing, I can’t believe it’s happening. How low can they sink, are there no limits…?
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Apparently there are no limits, Helvi. 😦
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Me too, being the insomniac I am I watched the media change the story within a nanosecond without any evidence that what they were claiming was true. They have totally ignored what the father said.
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I could hardly believe what I was seeing.
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I am fascinated by news stories which disappear. D Notices.
40 years ago a now beloved be-scarfed Sydney character/muse [you all know of] was apprehended/arrested at Perth airport with a stonking amount of heroin and sum of cash. There were 2 small reports and then it disappeared. totally. phonecalls must have been made to people of influence. so intriguing. and now our PM has his slime trail cleaned for him.
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Yep.Just like the Man Monis case.Granted citizenship under Howard,Abbott on the front bench,our security warned by his home country(Iran) and yet?
None of that ‘tiny detail’ was scrutinised properly at the enquiry in the Lindt siege..Instead the spun a story about a nutter with a grudge and a gun.
Same MO as the nightclub shooter in the USA now being turned into a ‘martyr’ who both sides can gain ground by.
The similarities are obvious.
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The clue is in the word “beloved”. Rupert Murdoch.
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“Far right neo cons; the same the world over ”
They are the bowel excreta of aliens and the toxic discharge pus of the cosmos.
The next election here and the USA is a crossroad for humanity and the survival of the planet .
Nothing less.
There are no TKO’s in this, and you can bet your own sweet ass, the tea partiers and rednecks won’t be throwing the towel in.
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I agree about the next elections, Hypo. It’s tipping point time.
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PS You have a wonderful turn of phrase
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JW,
your energy at this site inspires many a ‘turn of phrase’.
It is a refuge of passive intellectual creativity and contemplation.
An incubator or laser sharp observation…..in fact.
A meaningful gem which historians in the future will stumble upon, to rival the Pharaohs treasures of Egypt.
: )
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Put me in a space capsule?
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(s)he doesn’t mean that kind of incubator, like germs and things, but a processive engine establishing a powerpoint for creative and ruthlessly incisive thinking.
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Incubator, where the conditions are right for things (in this case pearls of wisdom) to hatch .
Nothing more complex.
JW
Yes a space capsule sounds good.Being quite fond of the better species of the planet, I think the a*seholes wrecking the joint should be the ones to go,however such is the rate of irreversible damage the converse may be the better option.
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I would rather go than stay. If I had a choice. Who wants to stay here and watch the planet’s death throes?
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I mean a space capsule for posterity. Like the Mormons do.
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Time capsule?
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Yes, Hypo. That’s what I mean. Thank you.
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The shooter walked into a shop the week before and just bought his guns over the counter.
It is true that the crime fits the pattern with USA, with two differences. This time the crank was muslim and that presented an opportunity to blame Islam. But in essence this individual is an alienated crank of the sort that shot the negroes at church last year and a stack of other nutters with persecution fantasies who act out “gunfight at the OK corall” scenarios at the expense of other people these people don’t even recognise.
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Three other factoids come to mind..Trump’s dog whistling against minorities..so like Howard and Abbott. Secondly, the recollection of other cranks with axes to grind who got hold of a gun, like Christopher Martin Bryant and Anders Breivik.
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Indeed, Martin Place was not an ISIS related act of terrorism, Man Monis was another loner – no organisation wanted him despite his attempts to join just about anyone except Dikes on Bikes, yet Abbott whistled this one for all he could squeeze out of the massacre.
Our “leaders” are beyond disgust.
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He actually had a particular thing he wanted done and it was not onerous. Being the only person in history here convicted of sending nasty letters but being left in limbo with a 3-3 High court decision he wanted a 7 member bench to rule.
It wasn’t much to ask and our media are so stupid they don’t get that shiíte muslims are the biggest enemy to the US created wahabi nutters.
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You mean Turnbull?
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They commit their hate crimes under the umbrella of terrorism.
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Agree.
Destroying humanity for personal gain.
Equally as vile,evil and repugnant as those who incite this hatred and backlash.
There are more of them than there are peace advocates in positions of power, and the media helps to keep it that way.As for the efficacy and accountability/credibility of the security agencies?
There is none.
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For what it is worth, the Drum panel tonight covers this issue a bit more thoughtfully than they sometimes do with issues like it.
In particular, Prof Ian Hickey retreives what could have been a farce into an honest examination of what has happened and the rest of the panel followed suit- the host couldn’t “sell” terrorism against the cultural phenomenon of US violence and gin massacres.
The man responsible is apparently American, although a moslem, but Trump is playing it for all its worth, by his tweets, on the the “terrorism/islamophobia” aspect and panellists remarked on the grubbiness of this.
My friend DQ will wonder if I have ignored the role of religion in it all and I agree religion and ideology play parts in most of these US gun massacres.
Oth, many people go to church or participate in political discourse without being so deranged as to pull out an automatic weapon and cut people down by the dozens.
From that point, therefore, I’d find Marilyn’s approach, including her description of factors to do with alienation of such people, coming closer to the real issues of power, culture and influence in our society. We need to stop finger pointing at outsiders and bystanders and get honest about OUR culture, society and politics and ourselves.
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Islam is an ideology masquerading as a religion.
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It is always interesting, the way religions and ideologies have started off as grass roots movements, got sold out by patriarchal, hierarchical types who are interested in and gain control and are incorporated into the system through a sort of symbiosis.
This grants the rulers a god-given right to plunder or enslave, nay, a moral obligation to punish as god’s agents, in return for protection of that which justifies their existance in the minds of masses.
What was it Marx said.. something about opium?
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btw, can’t link it, but interested folk can go to AIM and view an instructive clip offered by Ginny Lowndes involving Foxtel trying to skew Orlando as islamist rather than a hate crime and being called out in devastating terms for it by Guardian columnist Owen Jones who shows that, as an insider himself, he understands and can call out the Foxtel game.
If you view no other clip tonight, view this for a look at brutal consent manufacture and stomach turning dishonesty.
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Owen is a gay journalist
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Here is the link. I don’t know how Owen Jones put up with that homophobic crap for so long before he walked off. https://youtu.be/TEgd9q8ugs4
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He is a very smart young fellow. But the others were ugly, particularly the host.
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Heterosexual privilege on display. Ugly indeed.
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Classic Murdoch formatting.
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Yes, the arrogance was insufferable. It is an astonishing comparison, the one between the Drum’s Treatment and Sky (Murdoch) with its guff. Just watching the ABC 24 and they are STILL trying to sell Orlando as some Muslim plot that denies what it actually is, a tragedy for all those young people with their lives in front of them and also a warning signpost for a troubled society.
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“a troubled society.”
They’re a write off PW.
Have been for decades.The majority dare not call out the problem.The rise and rise of Trump proves it.FFS the Commander if Chief is hamstrung and cannot (is forbidden from) defend his own bloody nation from themselves.
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Youve noticed what a paralysed mess it is too. Good, you wonder some times if others see what you see. Thanks.
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Daily, the Muslim plot theory loses all credibility.
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Am wondering how such a horror story would be covered if massacre occurred in a men only club such as the Melbourne Club – hate crime against wealthy males or somehow linked to IS if shooter had Islamic name?
The murderer in Orlando was not religious, but reportedly homophobic.
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Oh my gawd, privileged white men gunned down in the gentleman’s club? Someone should write the novel.
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Jeffrey Archer; white, male, English, former pollie, author – won’t be at all biased… 😛
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Brought to the big screen by Tarantino.
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Worse still, the creatures are allowed to penetrate the sacred precincts of the Club…gahhh!
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Thanks for posting this before too many details disappeared, Jennifer. I’m not sure which is worse: Turnbull’s erasure of queer people, or the sickening celebrations all over social media by Trump supporters and similar. Most of them are happy that queer people died, and all of them are ecstatic that it was a Muslim who did it.
It reminds me a little of the Martin Place siege – packaged as terrorism, glossing over the mounting evidence that Man Monis was a violent misogynist among other things (I know, no doubt the victims wouldn’t care one way or the other).
Nevertheless, even if the Orlando killings were completely ISIS-related, they are first and foremost hate crimes against the queer community.
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The hypocrisy is sickening, mish.
It’s becoming more apparent that the murderer in Orlando was not aligned with IS, rather used them to glamorise and justify his homophobia.
Politicians would rather think it was ISIS, especially Turnbull who has compromised himself so much on the matter of marriage equality.
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It was horrible, whatever the motive, whatever the “cause” the murderer espoused. Whether it was gay hate or Daish inspired, the 49 victims are still dead.
The NRA announced that “gun laws do not deter terrorists” in a predictable response.
I suppose they will soon say that if everyone in the nightclub had an AR15 the murderer would not have gotten far on his rampage, ignoring the ‘collateral damage’ issue which would almost inevitably be even worse than the actual threat it was meant to deal with.
I pity anyone trying to deal with the US gun lobby.
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The sooner Trump is President the better.Why drag Americas inevitable self destruction out any longer? Let the gun lobby have their wish, with all it entails.
There is no democracy left in the USA.The people are mute.
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Hypo, I detect an apocalyptic leaning in you with which I closely identify.
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You detect right JW.Sadly none of this is sandwich board stuff.It is just a ‘real’ reality .
Such a ‘smart’ species with all the tools to fix shit (or prevent calamity in the 1st place) and we continue to break the important things and then waste energy trying to make a commodity to exploit the mess.I like to think of that apocalyptic ‘leaning’ as an accurate analysis of the available data.
In regards to the USA ,it is ‘self determination’ time on a scale which will make or break them.Trump is just the last mm of the fuse.
The main reason the media wants to claim the latest shooter as a Muslim terrorist, is to skew the current data on domestic terrorism Vs radical imported terrorism.To spin this line fits Trumps agenda.It protects the useless security forces from the exposure to serial failures, and it turns the focus away from the NRA.
I think Australia should piss off all US bases & build a wall.
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It now appears that the Orlando murderer was himself gay.
The repression of human sexuality & the hegemonic insistence on monogamous heterosexuality is likely at the heart of many calamities, one way or another.
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Self- hate?
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I told you so, I trust my female intuition, it has served me well…so far.
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Yes, DQ, have been waiting for NRA and David Leyhenholme (Can’t spell it don’t care) to argue that if everyone in that club had been armed the only death would have been the attacker’s.
As someone argued, if the deaths of all those children at Sandy Hook didn’t stop the NRA, nothing will.
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Them, the Tea Party and the idiot religious right..in unholy alliance with the ice-cold pricks who dominate Wall St. Back to the Dark Ages and the Coalition’s agenda here is influenced by it.
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I’ve tried to list out all the ideologies whose representatives would callously use this tragedy for their own selfish gain. It’s so depressingly predictable.
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Malcolm Turnbull’s telling omission has not been missed and needs to be remembered.
Sean Kelly recalls his time in Paris and considers his experience in conjunction with the LGBTI community’s feelings in the aftermath:
” Virtually none of our newspapers put the fact at the centre of their coverage. Our own prime minister’s failure to mention that these were attacks on LGBTI people in his first statement was awful. One gay friend said it made him feel invisible. Turnbull did the right thing in changing his language later.
I should add that it is not just in a historical or theoretical sense that LGBTI people do not have the same freedoms as I do. I am free to marry my partner. My LGBTI friends are not. That is what our laws say.
I know that many people are against “politicising” events like this. But an event like this is political from the outset. Politicians cannot tell people what to think. But they can offer sincere leadership. In an excellent piece today Michael Koziol quotes gay Liberal MP Dean Smith: “Calling out prejudice and fear and intolerance should be the first task of people in public office.” As long as our parliament has not approved same-sex marriage than our leaders are sending the message that inequality is alright with them. ”
………”That night in Paris was the most terrifying night I’ve experienced, and nothing really happened to me. There was a threat of violence in the air, and the knowledge that others had been attacked, and the accompanying knowledge that I too could be attacked. And at the end I could leave, and I did, and I was glad to do so.
I bring it up not to make some claim on the experience of terror, or acts of mass violence. My point is the direct opposite: it was easy for me to leave, and to arrive somewhere safe. But for many people in America, and in Australia, and particularly for LGBTI people, that safety remains elusive. That is why the attacks on Pulse, a space in which safety should have been a given, are so devastating. This was an attack on LGBTI people, targeted and hateful. The rest of us can only imagine what that must feel like – and, realistically, we will probably fail.”
https://www.themonthly.com.au/today/sean-kelly/2016/14/2016/1465888727/act-hatred-orlando
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Well, the truth is that it is a hate crime, something that bespeaks the shortcomings of our culture andsociety. In which case the people running things have a duty of care and can be criticised for (deliberately?) not getting their ideas right on social policy.
If it is seen as terrierism, all bets are off, unfortunate incidents like Orlado, well that’s just life and the Establishment are in the clear and can be valorised by the propaganda machine instead as caped crusders against darkness, ala War of Civilisations.
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Some interesting facts:
The killer was homosexual himself.
He worked for a decade with G4S which is the world’s largest security firm.
The FBI had studied him twice, and then dropped the inquiry.
The rest is self-justification and conclusions drawn by others, for their own political agendas.
For what it’s worth my conclusions are that he was a rejected, jilted gay who had access to weapons and enough training to use them, and who attempted self-justification links to Daish etc to cover up his true motives, in a confused/deranged mind.
DQ sighs.
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I had my doubts about him, and wrote about him on AIMN.
I thought that he was a closet gay, a strict Muslim father would not have been happy if he came out…
I have wittnessed this quite often, the fiercest anti gay men are gays themselves…
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/Interesting Helvi.
A couple of high profile right leaning angry Australians come to mind Helvi….
One media mouthpiece the other a ‘lofty’ politician.
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Hypo, I was tempted to mention a couple of names, but erred on the side of caution…for once.
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Helvi
Maxwell Smart: “The old doth protest too much trick.”
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🙂
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It seems you are right Helvi.
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It all plays into the hands of ;
security agency power grabs,the rise of Trump, the spread of weapons and the systematic scaring of the horses.
Sound familiar?
How much freedom do they really have? Are they are democracy or a democratic train wreck.(rhetorical)
Soon it will be technically safer for Americans to head to a foreign war zone.
What a pity that both our LNP and LNP Lite parties are such subservient sycophants. If the TPP and FTAs brings us a gun shop on every corner,
pretty sure QLD would be first cab off the rank.
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Yep. A man who hated his own sexual desire. Freud was frequently right about sexual repression and its outcomes and so was William Blake.
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An entire community of people have had their lives forever changed.
For a few others, this event will be seen as an opportunity.
Will the Orlando tragedy, be used as another “perfect storm” such as Howard and children overboard, Bush and 9/11?
The ripple effect…
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Today I heard US authorities announce the Orlando murderer had no established links to terrorist outfits: and that he was gay.
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The irony of Dr Frankenstein (Trump) denying all responsibility for the monsters he is creating.
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I also note that the ‘local terrorism’ card is now being actively played to swing the electoral pendulum back to the divisive LNP and their politicising of all things uniform/security/harmony.
Right on the back of ‘horse has bolted security methodology’, by seeking to expel an Iman BRANDIS et al, let in ,in the first place.(No fish smell there, is there?)
You can expect more arrests and raids whenever the polls dip down for the new Commander in Chief.
Keep the people in fear,it’s a no brainer.Worked for Howard and worked even better for the last PM…………Peta Credlin
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…and Mal finally got what he always coveted, his promised land, he’s not letting go of it easily. He’s using the old Liberal scare/fear tactics…
What happened to his ideas about being INNOVATIVE ?
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He’s achieved in other careers, but as a politician he’s a dead loss. Too beholden to RWNJs.
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If we are to expel all those who speak hatefully against the LGBTQI community we should start with Devine, Bolt, Shelton, ACL, and all the rest
But expel to where? They are homegrown haters.
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Have just finished watching 2014 documentary “Dirty Wars” about the US secret, undeclared wars in Yemen, Somalia, Afghanistan….
US apparently takes the view that the war on terror is a global war, therefore war anywhere on the planet is justified.
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The war in terror is an ice cold excuse for naked aggression and exploitation.
There are terrorists and they are the product of an unbalanced culture, but they are not who the majority of people have been taught to think they are, they wear suits and they do not on the whole live in the third world, where the real victims of the REAL terrorism are.
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I would argue that political fear campaigns are low level terrorism with high level consequences.
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Exactly accurate.
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They’re propaganda, which is a tool of terrorists.
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Warning, Godwin’s Law in effect:
We really don’t learn a thing from history. Studying WW2 taught me a great deal about propaganda, manipulation and the power of lies.
Yet we continue to fall for the Trumps, Abbotts and the more sly Turnbulls.
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I’ve known this for quite some time, but watching this doco brought it all home again.
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You’ll notice of course that the real Turnbull is now springing forth,now.
As soon as the topic veers off script…..Angry,dismissive,superior,condescending,patronising.
The veil has well and truly gone.
And it’s official now.Abbott is poised one out, and one back.
A vote for Mal is a guarantee of an Abbott comeback as leader.
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LIBBI GORR: … when you go out …
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Mmm.
LIBBI GORR: … do you have to say to – it’s like, you just can’t take risks, you can’t make mistakes.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Um, I think that quite a few people in politics, um, try very hard to appear to be someone else. And I think if you spend too long appearing to be something that is not you, you run the risk that the real you is no longer there and you sort of – you become – so, I’m …
LIBBI GORR: That’s what people are saying about you.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, I – well Libbi, I’m – well, OK, why is that the case?
LIBBI GORR: We want to know the same guy …
MALCOLM TURNBULL: But you see, what …
LIBBI GORR: … is there still.
MALCOLM TURNBULL: But you see, …
LIBBI GORR: Are you still there?
MALCOLM TURNBULL: Of course I am. I mean, of course.
What was that all about?
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He is a drone, isn’t he Helvi?
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He is a Muppet.He was quick to milk the ‘tolerant leader charade’ (last 36hours) by kissing local Islamic peoples butts, and as soon as he found one with previous unhelpful utterances, he went on the attack.He was fit to be a leader he would check the guest list first.Same brain dead pattern as the previous Muppet.
Prepare for a few more ‘terrorist’ raids, as the timid sheeples get shocked into voting for a Commander in Chief Part 2.
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oops>
“IF-He was fit to be a leader …”
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It’s gone very quiet. For my part, the enormity of it is still sinking in.
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ABC>
‘Malcolm Turnbull regrets hosting homophobic Islamic cleric’
Why Mal?
Because the ‘homophobic cleric’ title is reserved?
Do tell….
“http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-17/pm-criticises-islamic-clerics-homophobic-comments/7520884”
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He should have a look at his own, starting with Morrison.
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..Brandis,Bernardi,Abetz, almost every QLD member [Nat and Lib] and most of his front bench.
Dare we mention the Mad Monk?
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Our leaders cannot say anything without it being analysed, dissected, parsed and vetted to see just what was said. In a previous age, the utterances were controllable; the reporters had to file ‘stories’ and their editors were often approached to filter the stories to read the way the leader’s advisers thought they should.
No chance now, with instant media and social media all hanging upon the leader’s every word. But the advisers still try to close Pandora’s box, issuing corrections and revisions – which merely manage to make the leader look weak, or deceptive, or two-faced.
We have seen lately the Trump rebellion. Trump says exactly what he thinks, love it or hate it. And rarely tries to retract, so seeming stronger and more forthright.
No matter what we think of Trump’s ideas, most politicians secretly hanker for his apparent freedom to say what he thinks. Turnbull has fallen into the same miasma that damaged Rudd, and Gillard, and Abbott. Howard avoided it largely by saying nothing much and doing it carefully. Thinking back, Keating suffered from speaking his mind, exciting hatred from his detractors, of whom there were many. Hawke’s utterances were better received, but any misstatements he made were seized upon and repeated ad nauseam, as have those of all who followed him.
I have no solution to offer; but stating the problem is a start.
We must judge as best we can, and try not to raise a leader onto a pedestal. There is no Messiah; the one who was perhaps closest was crucified, after all.
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The politics of greed within an environment where capitalism has reached it’s potential,has now hit the perfect storm of social media.We are teetering on a d-evolutionary pinnacle and it’s a long drop DQ.
If you are going to reflect the fall of our social responsibility and respect for each other imploded under Howard.He drove the sheep towards shareholding and they willingly followed,sacrificing the two keystones of our young culture.The ‘fair go’ and ‘do the right thing’.
Both are clinically dead, for the most part.The rest is history.We can all pontificate as much as we want.There are two chances of this all ending nicely for humans.I’ll let readers guess what those two options are called….
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The term collateral damage comes to mind as to the most recent comment by dq, expanded upon by Hypo. It’s top down: it’s what Financialised Capital wants and what it has got.
I was just viewing a Lisa Miller story on Brexit on the ABC Very well told as far as it went, identifying hard nationalist inputs, but where was the examination of the contradiction, large labour inflows, yet a severe welfare system for those left behind locally (if they can’t or won’t employ locals, why persecute them through a skewed welfare system..surely not just for tax cuts for the City of London, then offshored by the recipients and THEN there is a so-called “budget crisis”?’)
The key factor Miller identified was a sense of disempowerment, and I think the sense of disempowerment is also part of what eventually creates gun nuts filled with wrong, “tabloid” conclusions, as to blame for the gunman’s own miseries.
Like DV, gender wars and gun events, labor force “collateral damage”is “inconvenient” . It is something that could be dealt with at least to some extent through good social policy, but resolution is the one thing NOT on the agenda for those who run things; play ’em off against each other is more useful to them.
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“…resolution is the one thing NOT on the agenda for those who run things; play ’em off against each other is more useful to them….”
‘The ones who run things’ don’t even care whether a few of us are aware and resent them, being too busy trying to survive.
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Ask yourself how America can possibly unscramble the egg that is Trump.If he wins the nightmare begins.If he loses the disenfranchised supporters will ‘wreck the joint’.
Then add ice and meth to all those shiny guns.
Fun to dream,innit.
Capitalsim holds up the Trumps of this world as the pinnacle of power and achievement.So sit back and keep your head down for the fireworks ahead.We still have the Phillipines,Putin,Daesh and PPacific conflict and Brexit Brexit on the back-burner, to name a few..
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Gonna be bigger than “Independence Day: Resurgence” for sure!
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My thanks for the intelligent and thoughtful comments by all commenters on this blog. You should be proud of yourselves. 🙂 🙂
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And yourself.. your timing has been good this time.
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