Without getting in to the ghastly post-surgery details, I have been sitting and watching the world from behind closed doors with my new bladder, somewhat more impressively known as a neo-bladder.
It’s a tremendous bit of kit, a bag fashioned from a bit of my small intestine, stitched up like a baseball by the surgeons to stop any leaking. It’s just six weeks old and the only problem is the neo-bladder doesn’t really know it’s a bladder and that means I need to be within a handpass of a brasco at all times or to put it kindly in stand up comedy speak, the front three rows will get wet.
It does provide a unique if occasionally dislocated view of the world.
All the unexpected interruptions notwithstanding, I think I have seen enough of this week to discern that it has had more than its fair share of idiocy.
As evidence, I offer the following:
Pauline Hanson’s claims that NSW PHON senator Brian Burston betrayed her by not betraying the agreement he and she had made with the Mathias Cormann over corporate tax cuts. This led to a smorgasbord of betrayal and from a distance it was difficult to know who betrayed whom first.
Reaching deep into her handbag for the victim card, Pauline turned on the water works on Sky News last night and now Burston is no longer welcome in the PHON tent despite him saying he still wants to be a member of the party.
In 2016, PHON had four senators. Now they can hold party room meetings in the back seat of a Kia Cerato. The good news for the freshly appointed PHON whip, Peter Georgiou, is that his job has just got a whole lot easier. He can discharge his responsibilities with a functioning walkie talkie.
Yesterday also saw a fight for supremacy between Environment Minister, Greg Hunt and Opposition leader, Bill Shorten over who can be ruder to women. Shorten had the runs on the board after abusing a woman in a shop over the availability of a hot pie back in 2012. Hunt’s expletive-laced spray directed at the Mayor of Katherine, 71-year-old Fay Miller was allowed to pass quietly through to the keeper for almost six months until the Herald-Sun ran the story on its front page yesterday. Hunt apologised both privately and publicly to Miller shortly thereafter, saying to do both was the “right thing to do.”
There’s nothing like a politician’s apology, with nothing being the operative word.
One must wonder about the US media and whether they’ll ever come to terms with Donald Trump. Yesterday Trump had a brief meeting with another former star of reality TV, Kim Kardashian. The New York Post ran a most amusing front page, but other media organisations regarded this meeting of minds and substantial backsides as a sign of the End Times, an impending planet destroying Armageddon on its way.
Had they forgotten about Richard Nixon and Elvis, Ronald Reagan and Michael Jackson, George W Bush and Bono, Barack Obama and just about anyone even vaguely famous who wandered by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
Celebs have been visiting the White House since way back, when Abe Lincoln said: “I need a night at the theatre like a hole in the head.” But when Trump plays host, albeit with a low rent celeb, media orgs various lose their minds. This was barely a story and yet there it was, getting a run not just in the US but across all television news services in Australia and I watched every single one.
Who cares? They do apparently. Whether the audience does or not is another matter.
The biggest idiot of the week by far was Roseanne Barr. No contest.
When the Roseanne story first broke, my first thought was, “Wow, Twitter gets another one” but that is missing the point. Also missing the point was the congratulations extended to the US network, ABC, but I believe the plans they executed so swiftly had been in place for months.
Roseanne had to go. In fact, she should have gone long before, after various unhinged Twitter attacks on Chelsea Clinton and George Soros. But that’s not to say ABC was not complicit in Barr’s behaviour at least to a point.
There are a few things the media has largely ignored in this story. Firstly, Roseannerevamped contained just nine episodes when the norm for a sitcom in the US is 22. This tells me there was some scepticism about the show and that a plan B was in effect if it didn’t work or if Barr misbehaved. She was known to be a serious problem way back when Roseanne had its first incarnation and I believe the US network gave her just enough rope in the second.
ABC took the program on because they wanted a little of the blue collar pro-Trump action. It paid off to the tune of 18.7 million viewers on average across the nine episodes (the ratings did drop off in the latter episodes in the truncated series but only off almost record highs from the early episodes).
We often see journalists trudging around western Pennsylvania or in the backwoods of Wisconsin trying to understand the appeal of President Trump to working class Americans. Whether ABC understood it or not they decided they wanted to play to that crowd but they did so having five bob each way. Barr and her show were on double secret probation from the outset.
The US network regarded Barr as a loose cannon but one that could be disposed of quickly. Certainly, a second series had been commissioned but significantly the advertising had not been sold. It would have become almost impossible to do so after Barr’s racist tweet and the social media backlash.
A little digging of the kind I did earlier this week shows just how problematic Barr could be to any network and especially one owned by Disney Corp.
This excerpt from Barr’s blog was published well before she commenced her long walk to Trumpism. It is indicative of the risk ABC took. In relation to Roseanne’s many quasi-political rants, it is not exceptional. It is the kind of tirade she was well known for. It is virulently anti-Semitic, utterly without substance, relying on bizarre conspiracy theories and almost laughably wrong.
“Many of the Palestinian people are Jewish and became Christian after Israel stole their land and homes. They were dark skinned, and so driven out of their homes by a Cheney-ized Judeo-Christian Bushite America. The Jewish American socialists are sending a flotilla from America to break the blockade of the anti-Semitic Zionists in Gaza! Zionists are German. Weird hybrid. In order to defeat Euro-socialism, Hitler leveraged the rich Jewish industrialists against the working-class Jews. The Russian accounts say that the last trains to Auschwitz were first class, as that is all the leverage left to the Jewish oligarchs within the ‘Reich’, (other than the Jews like Hitler, Goebbels, and Himmler at the top).”
I believe the ABC did not act swiftly as was reported but rather put in place some risk management procedures it had already developed should the star of the show go off the reservation as she very clearly did.
There are always risks for celebs using social media to push political barrows and when that turns into ugly racist rants, as it did with Barr’s tweet the new Hollywood or indeed Burbank post Weinstein is not about to protect the star or go to ground as it might have in the old days.
Now, I’d love to stay and chat but I really must go.
This article as originally published in The Australian on 1 June, 2018
“Had they forgotten about Richard Nixon and Elvis, Ronald Reagan and Michael Jackson, George W Bush and Bono, Barack Obama and just about anyone even vaguely famous who wandered by 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?”
Nah Jack, come on, it’s a Kardashian. Nothing beats that for non-entityism.
MAFS contestants?
Big Brother housemates?
Anyone with a CNN talkshow?
Re the first two, I didn’t think we’d be lowering the bar to amoebae.
Haven’t watched CNN for years. What’s the problem? Trump doesn’t like them?
I always have a bit of quiet respect for folks who can turn a not very convincing talent into a decent living, and they sure have done that.
You know Jack I agree with you. I admit I did have to ask my students a few years ago who the Kardashians were, but have to say they have taken their non-talent to interesting extremes….same with Paris Hilton.
Seems that air-head has won clemency for the drug dealer from Trump.
Must’ve been her face that did it….plastic rules in his world.
You always did know how to take the piss, Jack!
That was a pretty ordinary effort from Greg Hunt, a politician from whom I expected much better, as I thought he was a generally decent guy.
Trump hosting the other Kimmie is just par for the course for the most unpredictable world leader I’ve ever seen. The people who voted for him, and those who continue to support him, must be on some powerful drugs.
The ABC did the right thing with Roseanne. Alf Garnett, Archie Bunker et al were OK as TV characters, but I didn’t ever see Warren Mitchell and Carrol O’Connor spew bile in the real world.
Get over it TO. Don’t be sucked into the hype. Did Obama get Nth Korea to the table?
South Korea got the Nth to table NOT your idiot mate trump. Wake up you are looking more ridiculous than usual.
Razor, there’s always hype out there, but I steer clear of the Fox kind. I suggest you do, too.
Trump’s done nothing with Korea so far and I’m not expecting any meaningful concessions from Kimmie on that front, but I’ll be pleasantly surprised if there are.
On the trade front, while there’s a lot of chest-beating from Trump, his accomplishments seem to be self defeating, so far, i.e., they’ll hurt Americans more than they’ll help them.
I’d steer clear of the ABC kind if I was you TO. Mind you I watch a fair bit of the ABC. I find Stan Grant particularly good.
You keep overlooking the choice. In early 2016 people who asked me got the same reply, “Anybody but Hillary.” No buyer’s remorse here. The Dems could have put up Jim Webb. This is on them.
Kudos to you JTI you’ve managed to maintain your sense of humour under what sounds like pretty ‘damp’ circumstances! 😓
As for the Bonking Beetroot, their story has more holes in it now than swiss cheese. For most people it’s not the relationship, it’s the rorting that’s gone on since 2016 they object to.
I love that reporters asked the Nats about the grubby abortion contribution & genuinely expected an honest answer. lol
Funtimes ahead for the christian saints hey, “the finest people in regional Australia” according to McCormack.
I imagine a wild far-right implosion when this hits the fan. 💣
One should not count ones chickens Bella. The coalition are about to pick up one and maybe two seats from Labor. Further Barnaby will be gone and John Anderson will return to the parliament.
Looks like Barnaby’s not going without a fight in New England Razor. He’s either in denial or sleep deprived.
The Coalition of (Greedy Rich Unprincipled Bastards) are very much on the nose around Australia for the aforementioned reason so one should never kid oneself into believing otherwise.
Time will tell.
They’re on the nose with the left Bella. They’re starting to go OK with middle Australia and the right.
What we need is the labor left to continue with the boat arrivals stuff. That’s worth the election in itself.
Both majors are an utter disgrace re leaving asylum seekers in detention indefinitely & for mine, nothing Labor could do would be worse than the global shame no-heart Dutton has brought on our country.
http://junkee.com/peter-dutton-child-nauru/154392
Bella, tell him he is dreamin. all the latest polls show labor in front, across the board it is 53/47 even after Newspoll changed the way they count phony preferences which aids the cons. razor is delusional and stuck in an echo chamber of his own choosing. He refuses to understand Western QLD does not represent the other 97% of the population that votes. seat by seat state by state those that have people on the ground will win even with the coalition using trumps cambridge analytica mates it still wont be enough. even if the cons pick up the 2 conservative seat he talks about it wont be enough. Labor still only needs 1% swing nationally to take the treasury benches. We can only hope. But as razor continues to hope, him and his cons mates will continue to try and use human misery, divisive bigotry and any other lie and misinformation they can they to hold onto to power. That don’t care about the national interest or improving society they just want power. Tell him he’s dreamin. No Surprises
Again you show your lack of knowledge regarding politics. The polls are tightening and will tighten more over an election campaign. This magical 1% means nothing if it only shows up in Labor held seats. The heavy hitters in Labor acknowledge this and are worried. Very worried. Queensland and WA are the key to the next election. Braddon and Longman give Turnbull a further buffer going into a general election. Also throw in Mayo. That majority is starting to increase isnt it? Now let’s tack on Herbert, the Adani seat. All of a sudden Labor need to win 6 others. Are you starting to see the picture? I actually think you know the picture but you’ve been told to hold the line.
By all reasonable measurement and precedent Labor should hold these but they’re in trouble. BIG trouble is my drum. This does not bode well for them less than 12mths out from an election. The downside for the coalition is if Shorten goes Albo is in and he will do Turnbull like a dinner.
razor enough with the conspiracy theories. who is telling me what? Your paranoia is out of control. Labor will hold its WA seats the state government are going along quietly. In Queersville you will get a shock when all is done. You and the rest of your cons mates are becoming hysterical it is seen daily on the pages of the Australian. you are creating conspiracy theories to suit your own agenda. You are in serious trouble you have lost all semblance of reality. Keep dreamin it is all you have. No surprises.
Actually me and the rest of my Cons (sic) mates are becoming confident.
I’ve been saving your comments for after the next election. I predict you will do what you did in Sth Australia when it was obvious Jay was gone. A week or two out you will start making excuses, blaming everyone else but them.
It’s a field in crisis management theory called expectation management. The trick is to not be so obvious.
saving my comments? HAHAHAHA you are spooked big time. SA already knows they should have kept Jay. Marshall is a bad joke, A week after the election he tried to take credit for SA have a great unemployment rate. The guy is an idiot. The “energy” Minister is now spruiking the Renewable sector after attacking right up until the day of the election. You cons are toxic. Did you see the latest polls on Mayo. They just prove how delusional you are.. your entitled downer not fairing too well so far even with the Murdoch press running her campaign. Longman and Braddon will not change the next federal election. You and your cons are more delusional than ever. You have had 2 terms and totally blown it. You are still trying refusing to take responsibility for your toxic brand. Keep dreamin it is all you have. hey wake up it is not 1950 anymore. No surprises.
Well how do you know their answer wasn’t honest?
Joyce has dumped on/blamed just about anyone he can in this whole sordid saga and yet he’s the one who keeps dragging it back into the public domain
Bit of relevance deprivation syndrome happing here, legend in his own lunchtime
And a liaison in his own bedtime.
Good point Tracy, maybe they could go that low.
I reckon they could Bella.
I’ve always thought Roseanne loud, crass and unfunny. All that without watching any of her shows. The ads are enough to form a view, just like 60 mins and Barnaby. And like a lot of people I too didn’t watch it.
get out of it ,Roseanne was never elected to our parliament
Stars meeting US Presidents, as you say Mr Insider, has been going on for yonks. One of the most famous meetings you mention is when ELVIS met Nixon on December 21st, 1970. Elvis turned up with his Pistol which he always carried and of course, the Secret Service took it off him b4 he met Nixon. Elvis loved guns like most Americans and wasn’t afraid to fire a few shots around home at Graceland. He reportedly shot out a dozen TV screens at Graceland in the Jungle Room when he didnt like any Programs on offer!
https://tinyurl.com/y8fdf2lp
JTI, Best wishes on your road to recovery, which you have documented here with characteristic dry good humour.
I was not aware until now that the long-time Trumpiness of Ms Barr’s on-screen character was a result of Method-acting. Good riddance.
If only a similar result could be achieved with Ms Hanson, whose utterances are also often blown off-course by the stiff winds of grammar, logic and aptness . “No one will win a seat on the floor of Parliament in my name”, she sobbed the other day.
well yes, his sense of humour at least has remained dry.
I saw idiocy in the header. Soz.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/cycling-london-uk-sadiq-khan-bikes-race-class-gender-a8367916.html
Smoke please tell me this is some type of sick joke.
I foresee official London share bikes floating in the Thames.
Relax Razor. The header is a bit artful, as you will see if you read the full story.
I did read the whole story and its a joke surely!
Not really, they would just like to make cycling easier, for all sorts of good reasons, for less fit and less outgoing people. You might detect a little sly humour in there if you try.
alas I’m speechless.
Can’t get Asians on bikes? You gotta love the poms. Who else could do that?
“Mystery Road’ more than survived being jerked around by Micallef, it’s a poultice.
Must admit I got tired of the shorts, but it leapt over that barrier the instant Pedersen strode on.
So much to like.
I figure I’ll catch it on iView. It does look good.
Hopefully the waterworks are getting better and better as the days go by mate.
On the idiocy front the US media and its anti-Trumpism is being driven by a group of cultural elites who cannot get their heads around the fact ordinary Americans decided to take their country back. I am starting to suspect there may be some surprises here next year as well. If Turnbull picks up Longman and Braddon watch the bookies nearly dislocating their shoulders trying to wind him in!
That aside Roseanne does take the prize though. For things to happen as quickly as they did the network clearly had a plan in place for this eventuality and executed it with ‘extreme prejudice’ and bloody well done to them. There’s no place in this world for that type of racism.
Pfft! Ordinary Americans decided to take their country back! Hoho Razor, It never was and never will be “their country”. What a bunch of dreamers.
One expects you will be leaving Australia soon Mr Baptiste and handing it back to our Native Australians the Aboriginal Peoples. Cheers
You’re off on a tangent Henry. I was referring to the same ordinary people to whom Razor was referring. The people who think they owned and lost the country. They didn’t, they were delusional in that belief, since the European invasion of North American, the nation has been the property of vastly wealthy individuals.
Unless already very rich the citizens will end up worse off than they were before Trump. He’s there for the wealthy. To quote Jon Stewart, “Just because the man has got his hand up your shirt , doesn’t mean he is your friend.”
Come in suckers, and take it up the jacksie again. They will never learn.
Rubbish, a large chunk of it was purchased for 4 cents and an acre and they also paid over $7 million dollars for Alaska.
Look, the “ordinary” Americans got a better deal for a period when the US was rolling in money and the elites needed them for labour and defending them, the elites that is.
The “ordinary” Americans were encouraged to believe that they were indispensable and a part of a truly great union crossing all internal boundaries.
Things have changed and the “ordinary” American will slowly but surely be reduced to not much more than a peasant class. Nothing new about that.
The fact that “ordinary” Americans have fallen for Trumps snake oil sales talk is indicative of how bamboozled they have become by the red, white and blue.
Trump will give America back to “ordinary” citizens? What a sick joke.
POTUS Trump the best thing that has happened to the US in decades, Razor. As you say our American friends decided to take their country back and Trump promised to deliver that and is doing so in spades. My friends in the US have nothing but good things to say about him. God help the US if Hilary had won! Cheers
Hanson’s Liberal-lite anyway & it’s a shame she resprouted at all, only to flame out yet again. Perhaps she’s more suited to a job in the banking sector, you know, where double-speak is an art-form.
Don’t slam the door on your way out Pauline, we’re so over your tantrums. 😲
Bankers may be arseholes Bella, but they have to be smart too. Back to the fish and chippie I reckon. None of yer raw Thai prawns neither Pauline!
Smart arseholes then.
I stand corrected Trivalve.
Well, I’m just suggesting that Pauline would be pushing it to even be a teller.
Liberal lite my arse….Hanson has voted with the Looters 90% of times
If the Libs lite your arse Bassy you’ll get a blister for sure.
Mate, Trump is a monster, willingly beholden to trigger-happy scum running a cowardly administration who are allowing the killing of grizzly bears & their cubs in their dens and wolves & their pups in their dens on federal lands. He’s trying to make it easier to use ‘extreme hunting techniques’ on Alaska’s most iconic animals like caribou, once protected by bans Obama put in place.
Honestly, I just weep for the future of this planet when people vote in a self-serving grub like that hideous narcissist pig.
Come, dear Bella, I do feel that you secretly admire POTUS Trump for actually getting the job done, unlike Barry Obama who walked around crowing “Yes We Can” then showed us all in 8 long tooth pulling years he just could not! Cheers
Yeah Henry he’s “getting the job done” one bullet at a time.
Trump’s seriously unhinged & so are his demented sons. They make me sick.
How’s that for quiet admiration mate?
You seriously think that Turnbull will (is) give/giving us our country back Razor?? Jayzuz.
Bill will just give it to the CFMMEU.
Good.
At least they’ll look after the workers.
Shorten and the Unions are no friends of the workers, Bella. They’ve shafted some of the lower paid workers simply for the benefit of the unions and the labor party.
Shortens AWU past certainly proves that Milton. Cleaners and people who work in mushroom production are a case in point.
I don’t agree Milton.
Why do you think Cash & the rest of the Fibs want to see the end of unions?
Because their biggest donors demand their demise so they can screw the workers out of their entitlements.
I see the ABCC tried to ban the Eureka and the CFMEU flags on construction sites & they lost in court a few days ago. The Fair Work Commission overturned the ban.
It’s un-Australian & all it achieved was a massive jump in sales of Eureka T-shirts & stickers on work utes. 😎
You may disagree, Bella as you do in your first line, but you are disagreeing with fact(s). Have a search and see and see another version of conspiracy theory.
The rest of your post had no relation to my comment, Bella and I thought some of it was a bit ‘out there’.
I’ve never been against ‘out there’. Bella and feel our desired ‘earth’ would look the same, despite some of our political (?), or interpretive differences.
lurve, the Milton….!
“cultural elites” razor do you have anything but conspiracy theories keeping you going? You were almost right on one thing. Trump has taken the US “back” decades along with the rest of the world. He has managed to take “back” generations of efforts to create stability.
Quick hint. There’s a country North of South Korea called North Korea. How has decades of conventional diplomacy gone with that?
On another note cultural elitism is not a conspiracy but a state of mind. A state of mind whereby a group of people consider, generally due to their formal education or station in life, they are better than Mr or Mrs average. In fact they consider Mr & Mrs average no longer should take part in the democratic process. People such as those in the outer suburbs, tradies, manufacturing workers, miners, small business owners and such are the enemy. Brexit, the Trump presidency and the current state of play in Australia are proving the battler has had enough. Braddon & Longman are a huge chance of proving just what I mean.
razor. You are describing your own conservatives. you and them are eternally outraged that you cannot just do as you please and screw the working man down further. Take note. your and your conservative created “PC” to suit your ideological agenda you now want to try and use it to denigrate people. As with your mate Barnaby, as you reap so shall you sow. The paranoia and hysteria is plain to see everyday on the pages of the conservative mouthpiece the Australian. Braddon is a state Liberal seat and will go the same way at the bi-election, Longman may well also. So what all it shows is the people of those electorate are outliers on a national front. You and turnbull may well have 2 small wins which will actually lead to an even greater loss because the rest of the nation will look and go NO FN Way are we putting up with this conservative coalition again. You are deceiving yourself because you want to believe your own bias. you continue to highlight all that is wrong with the conservative. No Surprises.
Your comments on Braddon and Longman demonstrate you know nothing about either seat let alone how by-elections historically go. I am amused to see your puppet masters are already getting the operatives to start hosing down rank and file expectations. Any thoughts of your own?
razor more conspiracy theories. You are trapped in your own echo chamber. the last couple of elections tell us things have changed. The fact you want to think the bi-elections represents what the whole nation thinks again highlights just how out of touch you are with reality. You keep dreamin, the reason you cons are so toxic with the electorate is because of what you exhibit here daily. A delusional state of thinking you know better than others. Stop living in the past. That is one of your main problems it is no longer 1950. Things have changed. Boundaries have changed in Tasmania the boundaries are the same as the state ones so why would the result be much different? In Queersland the ALP just scraped over the line when the boy blunder could not hold the seat. As I said 2 minor wins for your toxic brand will translate into a bigger loss soon enough. You out of touch. No surprises.
Oh by the way razor I have worked in and offshore Sth Korea and several other areas throughout Asia including the South China sea very recently. Your take on what is going on is so slanted towards the admitted sexual abuser and liar that you support you are blinded to actualities. trump will achieve nothing, any thing that occurs will be because of the Sth Koreans and China. ( not that China really want much of a change) trump is all about his domestic profile., to continue to incite the ridiculously ignorant USA USA USA nationalist mentality of all those he is screwing over. Trump is stifling further progress.That would appear to be his goal along with his latest incitement in the Sth China sea. It is sad people like you and few others here are so ignorant of facts an blinded by your need to belong to an ideology you are unable to actually interpret what is going on yet want to put yourself up as some sort of font/fount of knowledge which are a obviously NOT. No surprises.
Well done you Mr Insider, onward and upward am sure your recovery will be complete in the fullness of time, bravo you for continuing with your fabulous blogs as this one. Goodness me what a week the last one was. Pauline Hanson the biggest political oxygen bandit there is imho. We very shrewd QLDers gave her the old “one-two” at last years State Election when despite campaigning like a mad woman her hopeless, pointless do nothing Paty, One Nation, only managed to win one lousy seat. A fitting tribute to her the sooner she is off the Political scene the better. Roseanne Barr on par with Pauline in the “Idiot Stakes” both so short priced you can only stand and watch with amazement. Cheers all
Hanson’s Liberal-lite anyway & it’s a shame she resprouted at all, only to flame out yet again. Perhaps she’s more suited to a job in the banking sector, you know, where double-speak is an art-form.
Don’t slam the door on your way out Pauline, we’re so over your tantrums. 😲