Friday 29th of March 2024

we're cheap and lazy (I mean crazy) ....

WE WATCH SOME YOUTUBE VIDEOS WHERE PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS DOING SOME STUPID THINGS BUT NO-ONE GETS HURT…. THE RULE OF THUMB IS THAT ORDINARY PEOPLE CAN GET AWAY WITH THIS AND THE VIDEOS WHERE PEOPLE BLEED OR DIE ARE NOT ON THESE FUNNY DISPLAYS. THE KILLER IDIOCIES ARE RESERVED FOR THE “NEWS”.

 

THERE, POLITICIANS SHOW THEY ARE NASTY IDIOTS WHO HURT PEOPLE WHILE CLAIMING TO THE CONTRARY. TAKE FOR EXAMPLE JOE BIDEN. HE IS A SMART IDIOT. HE TAKES US FOR FOOLS WHILE DITHERING LIKE A SENILE IMBECILE... TRUMP IS A FOOL WHO TAKES US FOR SMART IDIOTS. THANK YOU....

 

WE FERVENTLY HOPE THAT WE WOULD NEVER EVER BE SO SMART AS TO BECOME IDIOTS OF THE FIRST KIND. IT’S A WORRY. AS WE, OLD KOOKS, AGE TOWARDS OUR FINAL DESTINATION AT ROOKWOOD (A SYDNEY CEMETERY), WE LOOSE SO MUCH OF OUR BRAIN CELLS TO NATURAL DECAY AND TO DRINKING TOO MUCH VINO  AS TO BLOT OUT THE PAIN OF OUR INEVITABLE DECREPITUDE. 

 

YOU CAN SEE US, BENT AND SHUFFLING ALONG AROUND THE BLOCK, UNABLE TO CARRY A WINE BOX. SO WE WHINE ABOUT IT. 

 

MEANWHILE THE NEWLY BORN IDIOTS, BARELY WALKING, BUT ALSO SHUFFLING AND BENT BECAUSE THEY ARE CAPTURED BY THEIR SMART(!)PHONE AS IF THE FUTURE OF THE PLANET CAME IN MEGABITS OF INANE IMAGES OF “INFLUENCERS” — ON THE WAY TO BECOME THE NEXT RICHEST PERSONS WITHOUT THE BRAINS OF AN ELON MUSK OR THOSE OF A MICROSOFT INVENTOR. IT MAKES THE IDIOTS HOPEFUL. ANY IDIOT CAN MAKE IT RICH. IT'S SIMPLY A MATTER OF BEING A BETTER IDIOT, BUT NOT EXCLUSIVELY.

 

MEANWHILE COMEDY ABOUT OUR IDIOCY CAN TAKE US AWAY FROM MOROSE ISOLATION… WE’RE NOT THE ONLY IDIOT ON THE PLANET. THIS IS REASSURING. 

 

THIS IS WHY WE SHOULD LAUD THE SMART KIDS ON THE “CHEAP SEATS”. IF YOU ARE AS OLD AS MY CARDBOARD BOX, NEW THINGS ARE OLD STUFF THAT DOES THE ROUND SINCE HUMANS INVENTED THINKING. TAKE THE LATEST EPISODE OF THE “CHEAP SEAT”…. 

 

THEY HAD THIS THINGY ABOUT FISHING WITH A REMOTE YELLOW TORPEDO… I DON’T KNOW THE COLOUR OF MINE, BUT THIS INVENTION AND THE ADVERT FOR IT, WHICH MADE THEM LAUGH ALL THE WAY TO THE NUDIST SEGMENT, IS A REHASH OF A 1963 AMAZING ADVERTISED THINGY… SEE?:

 

 

ON AVERAGE, WE ARE LAZY. WE INVENT THINGS TO REDUCE OUR TAXING EFFORTS (HENCE TAX MINIMISATION).

HUNTING AND GATHERING DEMAND EFFORTS OF SEARCHING, FINDING AND CATCHING. WE THUS INVENTED CROPS AND HUSBANDRY. WE BRING THE DINNER PLATE TO US.

 

MEANWHILE ON THE NUDIST FRONT, PUNCH COMPILATION OF 1973 GIVES US THE GIST….

 

 

NOTE WE'VE ALREADY MENTIONED NUDITY ON THIS SITE, A WHILE BACK...

 

CARRY ON THE GOOD WORK OF SHOWING US THAT EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WORLD IS AN IDIOT AND THAT WE ARE SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE BEAR CATCHING SALMONS WITH A FISHING ROD...

 

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW. HE'S MUCH SMARTER THAN A MILLION OF US.... THAT'S WHY THE IDIOTS IN THE WHITE HOUSE PUT HIM IN JAIL.

the new idiots in kanbra......

 

BY Nicholas Stuart

 

It would require a microscope to discern any difference between this government’s foreign policy priorities and those of the last. The verbiage is cheap and empty. It’s not aligned with actions. Labor has done nothing to change the direction and momentum established by the previous government.

A couple of months after the election, Penny Wong gave a speech to her department describing her vision for Foreign Affairs. She urged her diplomats to be ambitious for the country, act creatively and, importantly, bring foreign affairs “back to the centre of … government”. Her vision was that Australia would be much “more than just (a) supporting player in the grand drama of global geopolitics”.

I put this to a foreign ambassador who nodded tolerantly in response, a slight smile playing around the corner of their mouth.

“Indeed.”

In business they say, “don’t worry about what someone says; watch where they’re investing”. It’s the same with international relations. The real imperatives that drive policy priorities are revealed by the itineraries of leaders. Use this rubric to divine Anthony Albanese’s agenda and very different priorities spring into focus from those publicly endorsed by Wong.

It’s not a split – it’s simply that it would require a microscope to discern any difference between this government’s foreign policy priorities and those of the last. The verbiage is cheap and empty. It’s not aligned with actions.

Take climate change; the most serious issue facing the world. Even Scott Morrison attended last year’s COP 26 in Glasgow. Albanese derided the (then) PM’s speech as weak and insubstantial, but he won’t even bother attending this year’s meeting. Instead he’s prioritising strategy, meeting four times with Japan’s PM Fumio Kishida, attending a Quad meeting, and repeatedly emphasising the critical role of our alliance with Washington. Australia’s ‘line’ at the forthcoming ASEAN meeting in Cambodia will be indistinguishable from that of the US. Despite a slim leavening of forthcoming economic forums (the G20 in Bali, and APEC in Thailand) Albanese’s major international project has been to continue locking the country into a series of alliances against China.

This isn’t necessarily bad. The point is, however, to recognise that instead of reshaping the world, this government has continued barrelling along the tracks planted by the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison administrations. In another interview on the weekend, the PM made clear once again his determination to spend up big on defence. The arms manufacturers will be pleased.

The terrorist attacks of 2001 changed the world, but the lingering effect of George Bush’s 2003 subsequent decision to invade Iraq hasn’t been fully appreciated. America, the UK, and Australia have now lost the ability to pose where Wong would place us, listening independently, engaging impartially, and respecting sovereignty. That’s neither good nor bad; it simply is.

When Wong refers to our commitment to universal values, international law and human rights, she’s endorsing principles she believes in. Unfortunately many other countries hear nothing more than hypocrisy. They claim we pick and choose principles as we go.

Take Taiwan.

In the 1970s, both the US and Australia agreed there was only one China and shifted recognition from Taipei to Beijing. Today that’s all changed and President Joe Biden has indicated he’d order US troops to fight to defend the island. This would almost certainly plunge Australia into war with China, for two reasons.

The first is the ‘Anglo-sphere’. Beginning with the deployments in the middle-east, Australia has seen an increasing number of generals attached to and given senior US command positions. Prominent examples are Senator (and General) Jim Molan (former Chief of Operations in Iraq) and current Army commander Rick Burr (formerly Deputy Commander, US Army Pacific), but many, many others are embedded with our ally.

The depth of this military integration makes any pretension that we could somehow maintain a policy separate from Washington’s quite farcical. The collaboration is so very intimate and close it is naive to pretend that Australia would not be involved at the beginning of any conflict. Canberra would not have the time to stand aside and calmly decide where our national interests lie.

Additionally, American officers and officials are increasingly filling senior positions in this country. They’re doing good jobs, but by definition their loyalty is divided. Nobody can, or should, be expected to serve two masters, as becomes obvious when a new capability like the nuclear submarine is being introduced. Any US Navy expert would naturally consider the advantages of using SSNs (nuclear attack submarines) to destroy Chinese nuclear ballistic boats. That’s not Australia’s requirement, which is rather for small robotic underwater vessels that can defend this country in the shallow waters off our northern coast. Our requirements are being skewed to fit in with US needs.

The second factor is China’s changing capability and determination. As the accuracy and range of missiles has altered the military equation across the Taiwan strait has also changed. The risk is conflict would quickly spiral to catastrophic levels. Wargames never ‘prove’ which side will win, they demonstrate that losses, on both sides, would be massive. If at some point Beijing decides it will act to change the current situation and initiate conflict, the cost will be huge. It’s dangerous to prepare for a conflict that doesn’t have a way for either side to back down.

The point of basing US B-52s here is that Tindal airbase is (currently) beyond Chinese tactical missile range. This won’t remain the case for long and it’s almost inevitable that, in the case of conflict over the strait, American forces based in the Northern Territory would be committed to the fight. This would make such facilities perfectly legitimate targets.

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, Albanese was a factional warrior on the left of the party. During this period he developed a deep understanding of the way power worked. He knows that unless leaders grip the tiller and set their own course, institutions will simply continue down the path already fixed for them. Labor has done nothing to change the direction and momentum established by the previous government.

That’s why Penny Wong’s flowery verbiage emphasising a ‘third way’ sounds so hollow. Don’t believe anyone who says otherwise: we’re locked and loaded with our US partners.

 

Nicholas Stuart is a Canberra writer.

First published in The Canberra Times Nov 7 2022

 

READ MORE:

https://johnmenadue.com/we-are-locked-and-loaded-with-our-us-partners/

 

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FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW.............