It’s ALIVE!

bushfirebill Uncategorized

If you never hear from me again, it’s because Bushfire Bill has dealt with me for publishing this brilliant post that should have been up on Sunday.

Just because he hasn’t had time to do the pics!

I ask you!!!

Anyway, if I’m not around tomorrow, that’s why.

So, I leave you with . . .

Abbott Frankenstein 2

If Murdoch has to write letters to Abbott through his newspapers, then that means he’s not getting to him via the usual channels: closed door meetings, a quiet word, Friday night get-togethers, surreptitious visits to the New York News HQ, and so on.

Abbott seems to have gone off the reservation. He’s always had a high opinion of his own judgement and intellect, and now there’s no holding him back.

Truly Murdoch has created the monster. It has broken its shackles and now wanders the world, frightening children and shirt-fronting adults at random. Its crazy ideas, reflecting its piecemeal make up – part journalist, part thug, part priest – are being let run wild. It won’t even listen to its master now, the man that gave it life.

Only one thing can tame its excesses, and that is Peta’s sweet whisper. She is with him night and day, always at hand, just off camera, in the room at even the highest level meetings. But lately even her calming words are not being heard.

Abbott Credlin Bride of Frankenstein

Abbott is becoming used to being in charge. He’s learning that what he says goes. He’s never had this before. He’s always been the protégé, the golden boy who’s headed for great things, guided by the wisdom of a wise patron.

Well, now he’s arrived – and he’s doing to do those great things. Why confine your psyche to just inside your head, keeping counsel, waiting for The Day when you can paint a nation with your grand ideas and force even the mighty to call you “Sir”? There’s no more waiting. This is destiny. Tony’s mind has expanded, and now his canvas is a nation, but one he’s never loved for itself. It’s always been one he wanted to change to look more like where he came from, not realizing that place too has changed and has moved on.

He got rid of the schoolboy fringe he used to cover his thinning hair. He applied … something … was it Botox? Or some surgery? … to his forehead and his eyes to ease out the wrinkles. He’s combed his hair over like he’s seen real leaders do, the better to look the part. And his speech patterns have changed. He sounds more hesitant now, as if every word he utters is gold, to be taken down by adoring scribes and kept for posterity.

Sure, he can’t resist the simian swagger, and his suits are still too tight. That’s the boy in him, wanting to show off his physique. The hands are everywhere too: defensively, pushing away questions and criticism. He used to have a cruder use for his hands in his boxing days. One king-hit out of nowhere and he’d deck his opponent. But he can’t do that now. He has to settle for mugging his old punching bag, Joe; not really satisfying, but something of an outlet for his natural instincts.

Maybe he’s timed it well. Maybe he thinks he can cast off his backers in the media because the media isn’t as powerful as it once was, making and breaking kings and queens. Maybe he’s right. Maybe he’s wrong.

But he can’t cast off the ridicule. As he tries harder and harder to be ever more serious and statesmanlike, he’s the butt of more and more jokes. He believed once that cometh the office, cometh the man, but the cartoonists cruelly still depict him with those ears, those budgie smugglers, that hairy torso, those exaggeratedly cruel lips. They never show the New Tony, the one he’s always wanted to be, and was always told he could be. They laugh at him and his narcissm instead.

Abbott David 2

The man must be going crazy with frustration. It’s all fallen apart. His Macbethian plan to claw his way to the top has ended as all such progresses do: with more enemies to use as shields, no-one to trust, more blood and more dysfunction.

He thought Labor was dead. He killed it himself, didn’t he? He won so many battles against it … and still Labor lives. He made promises he shouldn’t have, and which he couldn’t possibly keep, right on election eve – and now they, like Labor, are coming back to haunt him, no matter how much he licks his lips, protests his innocence and redoubles his lies. Now he’s lying about lying. Did he say he’d never do that? He can’t remember. There have been so many lies. So many contradictions. So many speeches and interviews. Can he be expected to remember them all?

Bill Shorten just won’t play the way Tony wants him to play. Bill – boyish, quiet, considered, and intelligent, won’t come on to the battlefield and fight him man to man. Bill’s biding his time. It’s a war Abbott doesn’t like: one of manoeuvre, skirmishing, probing, even agreeing with him from time to time, avoiding a fight. With each clash Abbott loses a few more devotees he can’t replace. Volunteers and supporters are thinning out as they contemplate whether being otherwise engaged is the better option. He just can’t line up Bill Shorten for the sucker punch. He has to face it, Bill intends to go the full fifteen rounds. Until that time, Bill will dance and sting to weaken his opponent so that Abbott will be wounded and bloody when they come out into the ring for the penultimate bell.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. People have always been scared of Abbott, of his sheer naked aggressiveness, his mercilessness and of his ability, without reflection, to turn on anyone who gets in his way. He’s always liked being surrounded by bodies – friends or enemies. They’ve been his substitute for sandbags. But bodies bring blood and flies. People start to notice the stench of death around him.

The Catholic Bishops saw his temperament, and threw him out of the seminary for it. Jesus didn’t need a holy warrior to minister to a parish. He needed someone with empathy and humility, not a thug.

Australia celebrated his thuggishness, in a shameful period where they valued light entertainment because they could afford to. The nation was prospering. Vilifying Gillard was good sport. We kidded ourselves that if we called Gillard a liar over legislation then that would mean Global Warming would go away. We were on top of the world … ironically because Labor put us there while other countries fell by the wayside.

Industrial wasteland

But now, digging holes and lecturing other nations has lost its authenticity. We’re becoming a basket case state, with a basket case leader at the helm. It’s no longer Reality TV. It’s Reality. Slogans and slagging-off won’t put meals on tables. A nation that is taxed higher and suffers cutbacks to basic services simply to satisfy its government’s insane surplus fetish – when that government puts little back by way of innovation, and actually closes productive industries down – is not a prosperous nation. It is a nation that is being laid waste by its own rulers to serve their vanity.

Why did we close down manufacturing? Who cares if imports are cheaper, if no-one can afford to buy them? What’s the point of the government’s coffers being full if the peoples’ are empty? And then there’s the dollar … are imports really even cheap anymore? We have high price tags on the things we’ve taken for granted for so long, and diminishing capacity to compete with those who charge them. We’ve pissed our economy up against the wall, in favour of a few brief, nothing moments on the world stage so that Abbott can indulge himself in his schoolboy fantasy of someday growing up and being respected among his peers. He had the chance to impress world leaders with his vision for a magnificent estate, and all he talked about was how he’d tidied up the back yard and pulled out a few weeds. Not satisfied with stalking the land, the monster now stalks the world.

Abbott Biggles Price

277 thoughts on “It’s ALIVE!”

  3. The resignation and hence loss of John Faulkner, one of the really good guys in the Parliament, is softened by the fact that his replacement will be Jenny McAllister, much younger and less experienced, but herself really dedicated, intelligent and full of integrity. I’ve had a little to do with her, principally with the ALP Environmental group, and, as you can see, I have been greatly impressed by her.

    Reply

  4. Kaffee,
    Well, of course the bitchop would lash out at China and India – after all, the big excuse for the abbott and his climate change deniers for doing nothing was that China and India were doing nothing. Then the coalition got into government and became the laughing stock of the world for dismantling the ETS and associated policies in favour of paying polluters to pollute; and the abbott et al did not see China moving rapidly to renewable energy and a responsible effort to reduce its emissions, leaving the abbott like a shag on a rock on the international stage.

    It boggles the mind to hear the bitchop pointing the finger at other nations as she spruiks lies with gay abandon and missing the point that the leaders of other nations are fully aware of the inability of Australia’s government to speak the truth.

    Reply

  8. Oh, yeah?

    At the time the prime minister compared it to a domestic fund championed by the former Greens leader Bob Brown, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, which Abbott wants to abolish.

    He told the Australian: “One thing the current government will never do is say one thing at home and a different thing abroad. We are committed to dismantling the Bob Brown bank at home so it would be impossible for us to support a Bob Brown bank on an international scale.”

    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/dec/10/green-climate-fund-abbotts-claim-of-earmarking-spending-is-questioned?CMP=ema_792

    Reply

  9. News from Tones and his newest bestie.

    Australia considering exports of uranium to Ukraine

    “We discussed today the possibility of co-operation in the sphere of nuclear energy,” Mr Poroshenko said.

    “There is the possibility for Ukraine to buy Australian uranium for our nuclear power stations.”

    Mr Abbott said energy security was an important issue for Ukraine and the country faced difficulties in shoring up supplies of coal and uranium.

    “This would be good should we be able to bring it about for jobs and prosperity in Australia as well as for jobs and prosperity in the Ukraine,” Mr Abbott said.

    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11372689

    Reply

  10. GL in the leafy suburbs of Melbourne we see many worthwhile Labor candidates who have limited electoral appeal. There are not enough gay voters in the Prahran electorate to overcome the prejudice against gays held by many traditional Labor voters in the electorate.
    I am not sure the ALP machine put many resources in Prahran ie no paid organiser, but neither did the Liberals.

    Hibbins rode in on the gay vote even though the electoral officials in the booth with the most rainbow triangles were not signing top right hand corner of the ballot for gay voters. Only lady volunteers were not plastered with rainbow triangles, all men were ‘gay for a day’

    Reply

  12. My comment about ballot papers not being countersigned is because we became aware to the problem at 11:15 more than half the votes cast before then.
    When we sighted Newton Brown ballots there was no issue with lack of electoral officer signature

    The blow-in presiding officer was quickly appraised of the VEC election day mistakes by the phlanx of scrutineers

    Reply

  22. ctar1

    I’m doing fine, thanks. I get up at 4am and do all sorts of little duties, until I gradually get a bit tired and need a rest. OH is my trainer. He pushes me up the stairs to flex my muscles … I’m getting used to my new home. Sis is completely devoted to me. I’m the luckiest girl in the world.

    Reply

  23. tlbd

    Love your little duckies … I celebrated my birthday in hospital, and will probably celebrate xmas in the hostel, but with family. In the big scheme of things, these little celebrations are not really important.

    Reply

  27. gravel and ctar1

    Thanks for the wishes. Yes, my intention is to go home as soon as possible. The only problem is the 20 pills a day I have to take. My body has to adjust to them before the doctor will let me go. Normally, it’s at least 4 weeks and then spaced visits for another 2 months. The after care is so thorough.

    Reply

  29. gigi

    The only problem is the 20 pills a day I have to take.

    I had a small brush with rheumatic fever as a child.

    It required 7 pills every four hours – no compound pills then.

    I’ve only ever been to hospital once since being born and the Nurses were amazed at me being able to swallow them without needing water.

    Keep on.

    Reply

  34. billie and tlbd

    Yes, 7x600ml!! I feel like a fish … No, I wouldn’t like to find myself on the freeway and unable to stop. The best thing to do is to remain close to home or always know, wherever I go, where the toilets are ….

    Reply

  35. From behind the Crikey paywall, Guy Rundle says

    The impact of the Prahran victory goes far beyond Victoria, since it shows that more audacious strategies can be applied across the board. In that respect, one major advantage that the Greens have stems from the current weakness at the centre of the ALP, which is really a crisis of the ALP Right. It’s noticeable that in Victoria, where the ALP Left played a greater role than it is usually permitted to do — and the campaign was filled with a grassroots energy, a tech/hard knowledge savvy, and a linked union campaign.

    Reply

  36. gigi

    The best thing to do is to remain close to home or always know, wherever I go, where the toilets are ….

    ‘Worst things have happened to fish’.

    Make it home, but carefully.

    Reply

  45. The Abbott government ‘message’ that will be drummed into us over the Christmas break. Lies, lies and more lies and more weasel words than you have ever seen before. And everything is Labor’s fault, even today’s rising unemployment figures.

    Abbott Government Briefing Notes For Coalition MPs, Friday 5 December 2014

    Reply

  47. Fiona Nash – remember her? – and Jobs for the National Party Girls.

    Controversial new drug tsar appointment. The appointment of former Nationals MP Kay Hull as the new head of the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) has raised some eyebrows in the drug and alcohol treatment sector. Hull is known for her anti harm-minimisation stance — a view not supported by many others in the sector, according to a tipster:

    “This news is extremely worrying for the drug and alcohol sector and is an indicator of a shift away from evidence-based practice towards ideology-driven drug policy. We’ve been following evidence-based practice in Australia for over 25 years and have been recognised as a world leader in developing effective responses to alcohol and other drug use. Australia’s establishment of harm reduction programs has been a key factor in reducing the spread of HIV and blood-borne viruses. We know harm reduction is not a vote winner for politicians, but it is effective, particularly as part of a comprehensive approach. Australia has many internationally recognised drug policy researchers and treatment providers. These are the voices we would like to see on the ANCD, not those driven by a moral agenda.”

    Hull was appointed by Assistant Minister for Health Fiona Nash, and we hear that Liberal MPs are not at all keen on the news. Nash has not had a quiet time as Assistant Minister for Health, after the controversy surrounding her adviser’s connection to the junk food industry and the delay to launching the healthy food star rating system. Could she be another staring at a demotion come reshuffle time? We also hear that this will be just the first of five new appointments to a new-look ANCD. Under the influence of Nash and Hull, it could take on a very different look

    http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/12/11/tips-and-rumours-1271/

    Reply

  48. I have won $3,000,000 in some English lottery.
    just have to give my bank details so they can deposit the money.

    Does anyone ever fall for this?

    I won $5,000,000 last week. I sent off my details and have been pleased to see that my first cheque for $10,000 has been cashed successfully at the Royal National Bank Of Lower Basutoland.

    Now that I’ve paid the minor administrative costs and small-time bribes necessary to get the money to foreign winners before Christmas (those African countries, they’re so corrupt!), I’m expecting the first installment of my winnings any day now.

    By the way does anyone know how many Lower Basutoland Ooonga-Boongas there are to the Australian dollar? I couldn’t find the rate anywhere.

    Reply

  50. Trouble at t’mill

    The violence that killed Reza Barati in the Manus Island detention centre was “eminently foreseeable” and the Australian government is responsible for his death, a parliamentary inquiry has found.

    In a 156-page report, the parliamentary committee found that the Australian government’s failure to properly process claims for refugee status and an overcrowded, insecure facility had led to widespread frustration and two days of rioting.

    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/dec/11/manus-violence-that-killed-reza-barati-eminently-foreseeable-parliamentary-inquiry-finds

    Reply

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