Wednesday 23 October 2019

"wild bursts of madness and filigree.”



Comrades,

Can't say the 1000th day of the Presidency of DJ Trump! kept me awake at night, but for some reason it did remind me that pretty early on in his term, the finest legal minds and scholars in the US banged their heads together and determined that a serving POTUS cannot be prosecuted for doing crime, while he/she remains in office. I've always thought Stormy Daniels would be The Donald's downfall - and she may well yet be - not because of the size of his pee-pee - 'cos folks can and do go down to the jailhouse for breaking the campaign finance laws. Stormy won't be written off as 'expenses'. But that aint gonna happen while The Crazy in Chief is in the Oval Office, so the Democrats and other self-appointed Defenders of the Constitution had no other place to go except down Copperhead Road to a place called Impeachment. It was gifted to them on a silver platter. Given that the Trumpotus once famously remarked "I will be remembered for my Foreign Policy" it shouldn't really come as a surprise that The Ukraine would be the first shot over the bow of the Resolute Desk. But really, what odds could you have got on the Ukraine? Currently run by a democratically elected former TV comedian, best known for impersonating the President. What's the chances? Never mind My Mate Vlad the Impaler of the Kremlin, whose Russian imperialistic tendencies have now seen him barge his way right through to the Turkey-Syria-Iraq border, otherwise known as the 'Infernal Triangle'. Russian bomber pilots are having some choice target practice as the US Rangers ride out of town. The Ukrainians seem to be the only people who remember the Crimea, and Ol' Mate Putes has made damned sure that's no longer even a bargaining chip. Forget about The Donald callously abandoning the Kurds, the Yanks have done that before. The Kurds always get fucked-over, by everyone, every time, and they know it.

In the meantime, Chairman Ping of China has no interest in the Middle East, and will put up with Hong Kong until the deal with the UK to hand back the lease fully expires in 2047 and the People's Republic takes complete sovereignty, no questions asked. It's been said that China knows it can do without Hong Kong, but Hong Kong can't do without China, and aint that the truth? It's all a matter of face; insult piled upon insult will wear anybody down over time. If you don't like the party line, then you lose yr ass, baby. And Chairman Ping - the hardcore Commo that he is - is always quick to remind the good burghers of Hong Kong that they never had democracy as a British Crown Colony, so why now? What's all the fuss about? Yakkaty-yak, don't talk back. When the Poms lost the Empire they were staggered that it wasn't just misplaced like car keys, but gone forever. How did it happen on their own watch? Now they risk losing the Union altogether. Scotland is set to make a cheeky exit stage right in the direction of the EU just as soon as they can, giving the all-consumed Brexiteers the bird on the way out, because the United Kingdom will then cease to exist. It will become plain old England and Wales. Northern Ireland has been in a fight over hiving itself off from the Union ever since the Acts of Union [1707], and that's a fair while ago now. Jolly good luck with all of that, chaps.

Forget the hopeless Poms and good ol' down town Honkers for a moment, there's been riots in Baghdad, Barcelona, Beirut, Caracas, Jakarta, Khartoum, Manokwari, Port-au-Prince, and Santiago over the last little while. Fully fighting with trigger happy cops, mainly over the price of bread. The Catalans and West Papuans are on their own. [Surprisingly, there's been no recent rioting in Paris, where you can usually rely on it most weekends]. So, how could a man of such limited intellectual capacity as The Trumpotus even begin to get his strange carrot topped cranium around all that foreign policy shit? His peachy orange bonce is not that big. After all, The Donald has got the foreign policy numbers in a briefcase that follows him around, if some squishy turd really does hit the fan. All he needs to do is pick up the phone and ask "what would Justin do?".

There's now several giant Trump Peach helium balloons to replace the dated Trump Baby, and a zillion kinds of memorabilia to mark a memorable age [available right now on yr Amazon home delivery catalogue]. Impeachment is, of course, the ultimate political process - it is 100% politics. Everybody knows how it's going to end, but being banged up in the US Senate is no fun - no fun at all - just ask Uncle Bill, he'll tell you. People forget that Clinton got done for a lot more than simply agreeing wholeheartedly with the long-standing Papal ideology that "head jobs are OK" [just as long as there is no Tunnel of Love action involved]. So how would it look, this impeachment thingy? At the risk of repeating myself, it is very odd, and has no parallel in other places where assassination is usually the go, or in Australia's case, where "un-electable" leaders are knifed in the back overnight. It's run like a common or garden trial, with the Senate acting as a court of law, to determine the President's guilt or otherwise under the various provisions and amendments to the Constitution. We know that. The Senate, and the President, are permitted to engage legal counsel [called The Managers], to run their cases just like any other trial by calling witnesses and adducing evidence. The Senate is in essence a 100 strong jury, with the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding. And everybody knows what happens when lawyers become involved. An absolute majority is required to convict; 67 votes. Uncle Bill carried on regardless after getting an exact 50-50 split on his second Article of Impeachment. No casting vote required. Doesn't take Einstein to work out that there must be at least twice as many votes for, than against. As it always is in the Miracle of Democracy, it's all about getting the vote. But the votes in the Senate are not, and have never been, secret. Senators are required to individually voice their votes, so a lot of horse trading goes on and much water is passed, and then the Trumpotus proceeds upon his merry way as if nothing had happened, while getting all-a-twitter over "kangaroo courts". Pure politics. And please don't get me started on the remote prospect of President Pence. What an appalling piece of work he is. Hard core and bad to the bone. God help us all if Mighty Mike ever becomes Leader of the Free World.

In any case, a successful impeachment would rob the long suffering Americans of all the fun and games of The Donald on the Campaign Trail. Such brilliant entertainment! What a world class show! He should do Vegas! At his last campaign rally in Lexington, Kentucky, The DJ! descended into hitherto unknown hysterical incoherence [and that's saying something], to wild scenes put on by his Rent-A-Crowd people. It's as if the Crazy in Chief is speaking English words, but in an entirely different language that only his adherents can understand [or can they?]. Linguists must be scratching their heads as we speak wondering if the Trumpotus has invented a whole new Pidgin English, of which he is the only squawker. The Donald knows he's No.1; there's no point to get across, so just bamboozle them with words. So many words. Repeated, again, and again. Making sense just complicates matters. It's a time honoured trick in fascist oratory.

As the clock ticks down to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November 2020, I've been thinking it's such a shame that Hunter S Thompson is no longer with us. He'd be having a field day writing the sequel to Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail. He'd be on more drugs than The Donald takes to keep him alive, and he'd be drinking powerful concoctions - hold the Diet Coke. So let's leave the last pronouncement to the ol' gonzo - nothing has changed since '72 - “With the truth so dull and depressing, the only working alternative is wild bursts of madness and filigree.”

Friday 4 October 2019

not only the words, but the meaning







Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House in Washington, 3 October 2019. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP


Comrades,

The two press conferences DJ Trump held with the President of Finland mid-week were a supreme example of The Donald's existential stream-of-consciousness poetry, or as I read somewhere "straight out of the Theatre of the Absurd". Sauli Niinistö did a great job keeping a straight face, but Finish reporters did note that there were times when he struggled very hard not to go into a full-blown Nordic crack-up, which would bring new meaning to the expression LOL. President Niinistö was required to say very little as there was no chance to get a word in edgeways, but when he did, he grabbed the opportunity to take a not so oblique swipe. “Mr. President, you have here a great democracy. Keep it going on.”

Soon after the Trumpotus rigged the Electoral College to achieve the status of Leader of The Free World, I read a fascinating article about the difficulties French translators had in interpreting the utterances of The Donald, as they made no grammatical sense whatever in English, and when put together as a whole, made no sense at all. The French are very particular about words, [very particular, just ask the Académie Française], and after a meeting of minds, the translators decided that there was nothing for it but to translate every single word literally, so DJ! made even less than no sense in French, and there is no doubting that even that is possible.

The Trumpotus is really getting all riled up about the prospect of being impeached, saying [twice] that the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee wouldn't be able to carry the Secretary of State's "blank strap", before going on to say “He should be forced to resign from Congress, Adam Schiff. He’s a lowlife. He should be forced to resign. It was all fabricated. He should resign from office in disgrace. Frankly they should look at him for treason because he is making up the words of the President of the United States. Not only words, but the meaning and it’s a disgrace".

Not only the words, but the meaning. Ah huh. If he was smart, he would use that as his major defence at his upcoming impeachment trial in the Senate, along the lines of 'you can't accuse me of any hokey-pokey with the President of the Ukraine in our "beautiful conversation", or openly encouraging a foreign power to meddle in our elections, by calling on Chairman Ping of China to get all the dirt he can on the low down corruption of the Bidens, because as any French translator will tell you, my words make no sense and congressmen then go around making up words and putting them in the President's mouth, and not only the words, but the meaning, too'. Off the hook, right there.

All that said and done, in private, DJ! was making perfect sense in his phone call to Kiev; The Donald even seems to know what quid pro quo means. Talking like a mobster, the Trumpotus used extortionist gangster style negotiating techniques, "you've gotta give me something I need for the protection I'm offering, otherwise them Ruskies are going to over-run your joint and fuck-you-up-the-arse". That's persausive. Guns for blackmail dirt would make a great raison d'être for any Mafia boss worth his salt. As far as impeachments go, Clinton can be entirely disregaded as precedent, as it all began with a just quick, simple head job in the Oval Office, which let's face it, is very small beer indeed in The Age of Trump. It's better to go back to the appalling Andrew Jackson's impeachment in 1868 [which failed by a single vote in the Senate] as a guideline for "high crimes and misdemenours".

Much has been said on the brain state of the Trumpotus, many accusing him of being mentally ill [which is is not; while he is the quintessential narcissist, in his own mind he knows exactly what he's doing, even if others are not so sure], a more convincing theory is that he is sliding into not-so-early onset dementia.

I have read Donald Hall's illuminating biography Notes of Nearing Ninety [he never made it, dying at 89]. I mention this only because Hall was once a Poet Laureate of the United States and his stated aim in life was "to confuse the hell out of everyone". He remained lucid to the very end. One story struck me. Once a month Hall would visit a dear old friend who was in a nursing home for the demented. His friend would listen to him for hours on end, making pertinent comments here and there. At the end of one conversation he asked his friend if there was anything he could do for him or get for him to which he replied "no, not really, because you know what Donald? I have absolutely no idea who I am". Of course it would be no surprise if DJ Trump! ends up in a State Home for The Bewildered, but it would not be pleasant. He would be a violent, paranoid patient requiring heavy sedation and a straight jacket to protect him from the entire world, which is quite obviously out to get him, big time.

Back on the home front, and Scomo is not doing himself any favors at the moment, going on the campaign trail with The Donald while on his US tour, where the best he could come up with is "we're making jobs great again". That'd be most comforting to the millions of Australians working shit jobs. And overnight he's taken up the Trumpian mantra of "globalisation-is-fucked" in what the ABC reported this morning as a "thinly veiled swipe at the UN". Scomo seems intent on lurching the Liberal Party further to the right than Genghis Khan, especially when he has ministers going around saying any increase to the Newstart allowance would be a gift to drug dealers, and another saying climate change protesters should have their measly social security and student allowances cut to ribbons, not to mention those old male white Tories who privately refer to Greta Thunberg as a "spastic".

It's a wonderful world, aint it?