I reckon Phillip Adams summed up the USA over 40 years, in one of his Weekend Magazine pieces for The Australian. Now let's see if I remember aright.
'The trouble with the USA, is that they believe their own publicity.' I think he also said something about the country being a Hollywood movie.
I would add that they are so hidebound by their crazy antiquated traditions surrounding elections, that it paralyses them. I hope they implode but like the phoenix, rise from the ashes (yeah, Pacific Palisades 😔).
They have always the best and the worst, their hypocrisy not the least of it. But this is something different, decades in the making. Phil was onto something!
Yes indeed. 5 live Presidents and one dead one, and the dead one, the best of them all. Would Kamala Harris have evened the odds? Probably she would have tried her hardest.
America is over. The remaining question is whether what's left of the democratic world can pull itself together and resist the pull of Trumpism. I'm semi-optimistic. Even the European "far-right" is nowhere near as bad as the Republicans.
Thanks for another excellent article Tim. And thanks for the little fact that it's winter where the LA fires are raging. Winter! That is a terrifying fact that hadn't registered with me and which I had not seen on the (very limited) news I had read about it.
This is a scary time and it's easy to despair. What we need is each other and we need to create democratic organisations and forums in which we can see each other face to face and thrash out the many problems that beset us. I can see some potentially good things about the Dems losing this election. One of them is that the business-as-usual, "centrist," snuggling-up-to-billionaires approach is clearly a disastrous strategy.
Agree, and would go so far as to say the *only* response is community level organising of different sorts, with people talking to each other and working things out together. Big ask, but our "leaders" are showing themselves to be unable to rise to the challenge.
Yes, the Democrats all being nice (in front of the camera's anyway) is sickening.
As you mentioned, when the shoe was on the other foot four years ago there was an attempted coup.
I am not saying the Democrats should do a coup, but they should be calling things out. "America you have voted for fascism, are you happy about that?" "Your relatives who fought against fascism in WW2 would be turning in their graves."
What is even more sickening is all the tech bros sucking up to Trump. Why are they doing that? Yes I know the answer, they are scared that instead of being worth 100 billions dollars they will only be worth 80 billion dollars if they aren't sucking up to Trump.
Trump has told us what he's going to do. I don't think he's joking about any of it, either, unlike the pundits.
I thought about it and decided that I'd prefer to be taken over by China than the US. China has pulled more people out of poverty than anyone, and the US impoverishes in order to bully. I think the world is tired of unfair sanctions.
I've been thinking of writing something around what you say in your opening comment. Too many people are dismissing all his ranting as "distractions" as "bait and switch" but I don't think that's what they are. He mightn't find a way to do everything he spews out (annex Canada, invade Panama etc) but they aren't distractions. Their articulation is part of methodology of violence and corruption that makes his authoritarianism possible. (There. I've just about written my opening sentence!)
Years ago I wrote to the Chinese ambassador (I think!) and although no answer I tend to think that my request for China to go renewables as Australia was incapable of foresight was taken up seriously .I am no politician but I had hope then Now I pray that China turns out to be our next empire and can push the world into a nicer place than we have allowed USA to mislead us for so long .Human rights be damned just let our kids grow up somehow 🙏🏼🙄🤷🏾♀️
Having just about succeeded in turning the USA into a full-blown plutocracy, the billionaires won’t lift the boots off anyone's face willingly. If you can believe it, these men, who are richer than anyone has ever been, are motivated by the desire to have more money. And it's only money that gives them the power to buy geopolitical outcomes that best suit their business interests. They have no inherent right, and certainly no democratic right, to tell the king to sack an elected government, or the German people to vote for fascists (again). We're all aghast at Musk's audacity in the US, but now we have his new campaigns for regime change in the UK and Europe! With more money than anyone else, these American plutocrats believe they have the right to direct the world. With Trump providing cover from the White House along with more tax breaks for the rich, and most politicians preferring to cuddle up rather take them on, as long as they don’t rock the boat for the security/military-industrial complex they’ll be allowed to run amok. Civil society wouldn’t seem to stand a chance. Will there be pushback? Where might it come from? Not the Democrats. They're tucking in. The progressive left? MAGA is more coherent! Media? Hahahahahahahahahaha. So yes, maybe it is just "face, meet boot" for the foreseeable future. What a miserable fucking excuse for a country the US has become. Most sadly, it's something Australian governments never really seem to notice. Just smiling and nodding, as they do.
From memory, George Megologenis did not mention McGowan in his Quarterly Essay. Yet she is the Orignal Teal (although her colour was always orange). If he did, it was in passing. He showed almost no interest in how the Community Independents (Teals, if you like) have come about and how they organise. I didn't read the essay until after I'd read Tim's review of it. I thought Tim was a bit too kind, GM's lack of curiosity about the crossbench was really disappointing.
Hi TD. In understanding, OK attempting to make some semblance of sense out of the American experiment I found Nick Bryant's 'The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict with Itself' useful and easily digestible. Others will have their own turn-to book. I'm no scholar of America like a Bob Carr but I did get an inkling of the US backstory from Bryant. All I know is that the duopoly's appeasement & support of America's hegemony is dangerous. We need to step back & distance ourselves from the lunacy.
Obama giggling with Trump is the image that lingers, isn’t it? The polite handshake with the man who tried to burn it all down, the laugh shared with someone they’ve all called a threat to democracy. It’s the perfect metaphor for this mess: the theatre of resistance collapsing into a farce of complicity. No smoke, no mirrors, just the quiet agreement that the system isn’t worth saving as long as the club remains intact.
I reckon Phillip Adams summed up the USA over 40 years, in one of his Weekend Magazine pieces for The Australian. Now let's see if I remember aright.
'The trouble with the USA, is that they believe their own publicity.' I think he also said something about the country being a Hollywood movie.
I would add that they are so hidebound by their crazy antiquated traditions surrounding elections, that it paralyses them. I hope they implode but like the phoenix, rise from the ashes (yeah, Pacific Palisades 😔).
They have always the best and the worst, their hypocrisy not the least of it. But this is something different, decades in the making. Phil was onto something!
Yes indeed. 5 live Presidents and one dead one, and the dead one, the best of them all. Would Kamala Harris have evened the odds? Probably she would have tried her hardest.
Thanks, Tim. This stuff needs to be said again and again and again. Indeed, “they’re doing it deliberately.”
Yeah, that line really stayed with me. With my friend too, I think.
America is over. The remaining question is whether what's left of the democratic world can pull itself together and resist the pull of Trumpism. I'm semi-optimistic. Even the European "far-right" is nowhere near as bad as the Republicans.
I think I moved to semi-pessimistic. I don't know.
Thanks for another excellent article Tim. And thanks for the little fact that it's winter where the LA fires are raging. Winter! That is a terrifying fact that hadn't registered with me and which I had not seen on the (very limited) news I had read about it.
Yes, I had the same realisation and the same response.
This is a scary time and it's easy to despair. What we need is each other and we need to create democratic organisations and forums in which we can see each other face to face and thrash out the many problems that beset us. I can see some potentially good things about the Dems losing this election. One of them is that the business-as-usual, "centrist," snuggling-up-to-billionaires approach is clearly a disastrous strategy.
Agree, and would go so far as to say the *only* response is community level organising of different sorts, with people talking to each other and working things out together. Big ask, but our "leaders" are showing themselves to be unable to rise to the challenge.
Yes, what else is there? Writing polite letters to the Age? Hoping Labor will elect a leftie leader whom we can believe in? I don't think so.
Yes, the Democrats all being nice (in front of the camera's anyway) is sickening.
As you mentioned, when the shoe was on the other foot four years ago there was an attempted coup.
I am not saying the Democrats should do a coup, but they should be calling things out. "America you have voted for fascism, are you happy about that?" "Your relatives who fought against fascism in WW2 would be turning in their graves."
What is even more sickening is all the tech bros sucking up to Trump. Why are they doing that? Yes I know the answer, they are scared that instead of being worth 100 billions dollars they will only be worth 80 billion dollars if they aren't sucking up to Trump.
I think they are also completely onboard. Trump is the tech billionaire's secrets revealed.
Trenchant.
Trump has told us what he's going to do. I don't think he's joking about any of it, either, unlike the pundits.
I thought about it and decided that I'd prefer to be taken over by China than the US. China has pulled more people out of poverty than anyone, and the US impoverishes in order to bully. I think the world is tired of unfair sanctions.
I've been thinking of writing something around what you say in your opening comment. Too many people are dismissing all his ranting as "distractions" as "bait and switch" but I don't think that's what they are. He mightn't find a way to do everything he spews out (annex Canada, invade Panama etc) but they aren't distractions. Their articulation is part of methodology of violence and corruption that makes his authoritarianism possible. (There. I've just about written my opening sentence!)
Very much looking forward to reading that piece.
Years ago I wrote to the Chinese ambassador (I think!) and although no answer I tend to think that my request for China to go renewables as Australia was incapable of foresight was taken up seriously .I am no politician but I had hope then Now I pray that China turns out to be our next empire and can push the world into a nicer place than we have allowed USA to mislead us for so long .Human rights be damned just let our kids grow up somehow 🙏🏼🙄🤷🏾♀️
Having just about succeeded in turning the USA into a full-blown plutocracy, the billionaires won’t lift the boots off anyone's face willingly. If you can believe it, these men, who are richer than anyone has ever been, are motivated by the desire to have more money. And it's only money that gives them the power to buy geopolitical outcomes that best suit their business interests. They have no inherent right, and certainly no democratic right, to tell the king to sack an elected government, or the German people to vote for fascists (again). We're all aghast at Musk's audacity in the US, but now we have his new campaigns for regime change in the UK and Europe! With more money than anyone else, these American plutocrats believe they have the right to direct the world. With Trump providing cover from the White House along with more tax breaks for the rich, and most politicians preferring to cuddle up rather take them on, as long as they don’t rock the boat for the security/military-industrial complex they’ll be allowed to run amok. Civil society wouldn’t seem to stand a chance. Will there be pushback? Where might it come from? Not the Democrats. They're tucking in. The progressive left? MAGA is more coherent! Media? Hahahahahahahahahaha. So yes, maybe it is just "face, meet boot" for the foreseeable future. What a miserable fucking excuse for a country the US has become. Most sadly, it's something Australian governments never really seem to notice. Just smiling and nodding, as they do.
Cathy McGowan has an uplifting article in the Saturday Paper: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/comment/topic/2025/01/11/how-community-independent-campaigns-actually-work
From memory, George Megologenis did not mention McGowan in his Quarterly Essay. Yet she is the Orignal Teal (although her colour was always orange). If he did, it was in passing. He showed almost no interest in how the Community Independents (Teals, if you like) have come about and how they organise. I didn't read the essay until after I'd read Tim's review of it. I thought Tim was a bit too kind, GM's lack of curiosity about the crossbench was really disappointing.
As I said in the review, I think, his was very much a top-down view. Agree completely: big hole in his analysis.
Hi TD. In understanding, OK attempting to make some semblance of sense out of the American experiment I found Nick Bryant's 'The Forever War: America's Unending Conflict with Itself' useful and easily digestible. Others will have their own turn-to book. I'm no scholar of America like a Bob Carr but I did get an inkling of the US backstory from Bryant. All I know is that the duopoly's appeasement & support of America's hegemony is dangerous. We need to step back & distance ourselves from the lunacy.
I have Bryant's book there to read but haven't got to it yet. Good to have your recommendation. I quoted this guy the other day, but just read this article/review, which you might find of interest. I thought it was great: https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2019/08/15/jill-lepore-suketu-mehta-real-americans/
Obama giggling with Trump is the image that lingers, isn’t it? The polite handshake with the man who tried to burn it all down, the laugh shared with someone they’ve all called a threat to democracy. It’s the perfect metaphor for this mess: the theatre of resistance collapsing into a farce of complicity. No smoke, no mirrors, just the quiet agreement that the system isn’t worth saving as long as the club remains intact.