End of times approaches

This is freaking me out.

The Telstra guy told us he’d never seen the intersection of Beaconsfield Ave, Kenilworth Ave and Soldiers Rd, Beaconsfield, under water in all the twelve years he’s lived in the district.

There’s something . . . um. . . not right with the climate.

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Troll drollery assimilated

Whilst visiting Andrew Bolt’s blog in the course of researching my previous post, I encountered the work of a commenter posting under the name ‘Tracey Conlan’.

On a post of Bolt’s concerning attacks by Egyptian government operatives on protesters in Cairo, Tracey wrote:

More disgraceful behaviour by Kevin Rudd — the man is a joke — he is directly responsible for these attacks and must resign.

In fact, I have no doubt evidence linking him to the attacks will soon be found. Keep digging Andrew !

On another Bolt post, Tracey wrote in relation to Ross Garnaut:

What a pathetic man — I mean really — everyone knows there is nothing out of the ordinary in having multiple 1 in 100 extreme events like black saturday, Brisbane floods and an extreme cyclone in such a short time frame.

And even if their is a link to mankind activity with more extreme weather patterns, who cares — we’ll all be long gone and won’t have to worry about it by the time it gets really bad !

Tracey is obviously some kind of blog performance artist who’s taken it upon herself to satirise Bolt and his fans. Bolt’s rusted-on regulars have begun to wise up to Tracey’s trollery, so it perhaps won’t be long until she’s banned.

But the elegance of her work lies in that, to date, the moderators of Bolt’s blog seem to regard her shrill inanity as completely in keeping with the tone of the blog.

Long may she troll!

In honour of Tracey’s work, I’ve thrown together an Australian version of the Twat-O-Tron, which may one day be perfected to automate the kind of work Tracey has exemplified. See ‘below the fold’ (i.e., click READ MORE if you’re on this blog’s front page) to experience the . . .

BOLTaTRON

Click the Refresh button for fresh turdspurt

Yep, admittedly it loses it’s entertainment value after a few clicks, but there could be huge potential here.

Note this version simulates ‘rightard’ turdspurt, but pending sufficient commercial interest I’ve slated development for a ‘leftard’ version.

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The Aussies that Andrew Bolt wanted Rudd to throw to the dogs

Over the last week or so Andrew Bolt has repeatedly savaged Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd for his reluctance to publicly condemn and call for Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak to stand down.

In a typical rant, Bolt ridiculed “in their miserable entirety [Rudd’s] comments today on human rights in Egypt”, selectively quoting some of Rudd’s remarks in an interview on Sky News.

But by glaring omission, Bolt failed to give any weight to a crucial consideration in Rudd’s approach to the Egyptian crisis.

Part of what Rudd said, but what Bolt did not report, was the following:

Well my more immediate concern is to the well being of Australians in Cairo... we are in a difficult security situation and our first and foremost concern is the well being of Australians in the country.

The title Bolt gave to his post was: “Why won’t Rudd condemn Mubarak? Still chasing your UN votes, Kevin?”

Well, if Bolt chooses to see, he may find his answer in the following:

Australia has protested to Egypt over the targeting of foreigners, including its diplomats and journalists, by pro-government protesters in the capital Cairo.

Attacks and raids on journalists and a confrontation involving Australian diplomats came as the Mubarak regime tries to stifle international scrutiny of political upheavals across the country. ...

Mr Rudd said he had protested to Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit this morning about the treatment of foreigners in the country.

“I raised the problems that we have seen with the maltreatment of journalists on the ground from networks around the world,” he said.

“This is not acceptable and that message was delivered very clearly.”

One has to ask how clearly that message might have been delivered had Rudd stuck the boot into the Mubarak regime with the reckless abandon Bolt had been demanding. Does Bolt suppose the regime would have been at all receptive to our diplomacy?

In his hate-driven frenzies, Bolt tears apart anything to hand that represents restraint, order or the related discipline of reason.

UPDATE: Bolt in his latest post quotes from the same news item above, and wonders: “Were our people attacked on the orders of the Mubarak regime?” And he notes that “it’s getting ugly for our own.”

Will the penny ever ƒυςќing drop?

Probably not so far as his readers are concerned, since Bolt has chosen not to quote the part about Rudd’s efforts at diplomacy.

I’ve submitted a comment summarising my concerns as set out above. I conclude with the suggestion that he “try doing some journalism before it's too late for you.” The latter may tend to further limit its chances of getting by moderation, but hey, that’s life.

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The 2008 Bush-Mubarak Love-In

A bit over halfway between the rigged Egyptian presidential election of 2005 and that of 2010, US President George W Bush met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in January 2008 in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el Sheikh.

Bush opened with:

“Mr. President, thank you, sir. It’s a pleasure to be back in Egypt. This is such a beautiful sight, Mr. President. Thank you for hosting my visit here. As you mentioned, I’ve been on a long trip and I can’t think of a better place to end it than right here with you in this beautiful setting.”

You can read the whole thing here.

Spoiler Alert: It doesn’t get any less gushy than Bush’s opener, and there’s not even the most oblique reference to rigged elections, dictatorship, suppression of democratic aspirations, or anything uncomfortable like that.

Nope, it’s all about “building on important steps” led by Mubarak’s “leadership,” which inexorably lurched into the next rigged presidential election of 2010.

Tragically, Mr Bush couldn’t stand for yet a third term to set that all to rights.

But hey, maybe it wasn’t at all Bush’s murderous, deceitful war in Iraq that set Egypt aflame this last week, but rather Obama’s wide-ranging, visionary 2009 speech in Cairo.

If it all goes pear shaped, then at least you can blame it all on Obama.

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Extreme event warning: IG Miranda

After slamming into the northern Queensland coast, Tropical Cyclone Yasi seems to have triggered a related extreme event, Intemperate Grizzleguts Miranda:

“Anna Bligh makes a good news anchor”

This is thought to be the same IG Miranda that in 2006 wreaked the following in the wake of TC Larry:

“This is no New Orleans, so enough with the whingeing”

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Doctor Easychair settles in

Typically, now Andrew Bolt has ‘discovered’ Egypt he’s the instant authority.

Last December, Rudd visited Egypt, just after President Hosni Mubarak rigged another election and just before these huge protests to topple him.

Good time to talk about democratic reform in the Middle East, right? But clueless and hungry for the Muslim bloc’s votes for his United Nations ambitions, Rudd talked instead about nasty Israel, nice Egypt and scary Iran.

(Yep, it’s simply a disgrace Rudd didn’t see these huge protests coming, as did Bolt.)

In June 1998, then Foreign Minister Alexander Downer visited Egypt, where Hosni Mubarak had never contested a presidential election in over a decade and a half as president.

That would have been a good time as any to talk about democratic reform in the Middle East, right?

But Magic Alex talked instead about the great importance of the Australia-Egypt trade relationship, and signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop further cooperation and mutual understanding between the two countries.

“Clueless”, Andrew? There’s been plenty of that all ’round for decades.

 
POSTSCRIPT: Alexander Downer’s United Nations ambitions were fulfilled when, after resigning from Parliament in 2008, he accepted the post of UN envoy to Cyprus, a role he discharged with not unqualified success.

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