Like A Brown Floater That Just Won’t Drown, TwoNames Thompson Plops To The Surface Again …

… and openly promises disruption, distraction, division and lawfare if he makes a successful run for the council in the Division 1 by-election. Thompson has learnt nothing from his recent fleeting acquaintance with reality, and is already telling outright lies even before he’s made a final decision to run. The ‘Pie tries to keep count.

Genius!! Hanson Solves Overcrowded Gaol Crisis: ‘If You Don’t Like It, Just Leave.’  “If it works for women trapped in domestic violence, why can’t inmates donate their space for others?” she seems to reasonably ask. As its leader continues her life-long wrestle with English, The ‘Pie takes a crack at analysing One Notion’s temporary rise in popularity. Let’s hope the established parties are quick learners.

Did you know that cities hosting the Olympics can petition for a one-off inclusion of a non-Olympic sport for their Games? (Breakdancing, anyone?) The ‘Pie has a few suggestions for Brisbane. Have you got any?

And too much bang for their bucks? Americans are dismayed to learn that the toddler terrorist’s  Iran tantrum has just ka-chinged up a $37billion bill. So far. Now there are signs unrest is growing, as Americans catch up with the rest of the world saying they’ve had enough. Better late than never, as our regular US gallery tells the story.

Plus a thigh slapper featuring this week’s British Prime Minister.

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Seriously, It Must Again Be Asked: What The Fuck Is Up With This Man?

RUOK, Troy?

It’s not that Troy Thompson is publicly musing about whether he will nominate to run for Townsville Council’s Division One vacancy, although that’s weird enough in itself. No, it is that in his musing in a social media post the FB equivalent of War and Peace, he openly promises council chamber disruption, legal challenges and disharmony if he makes it back to Walker Street. If you’re of a mind to, you can read here, but The ‘Pie will just deal with a few matters therein.

This is not going to be some alarmist pile-on of a known crook, it is the hesitation of reporting this situation that may draw accusations that The Magpie is mocking the afflicted. But Thompson is really mocking himself, while at the same time mocking those he seeks to represent. It really is deeply disturbing that someone who is counting on voters’ amnesia (and good luck with that, me old shyster) decides to remind them precisely of the destructive, costly and open lying that ended his previous ill-starred tenure. 

And all with an emotionally triggering photograph.

But judge for yourself from these excerpts from his ‘manifesto’. Let’s start with this prize bit of sophistry.

The past two years have played out very publicly.

There have been headlines, allegations and plenty of opinions.

From the very beginning, I have refuted every allegation made against me, and that position has never changed.

People are entitled to their opinions.

The facts, however, remain unchanged.

There were no criminal charges.

There were no convictions.

There were no court findings against me during my time in office.

The CCC report is a public document. It is not a court finding.

I’ll leave it there.

You would just love to leave it there, chum, but The ‘Pie won’t. It’s clear your first lie is that you have ‘refuted’ everything. One is entitled to expect a basic understanding of English from their aspiring representatives, but you clearly do not know the difference between ‘deny’ (a personal opinion)  and  ‘refute’ (proving that an allegation is false).

So you have refuted nothing. All you have done is ‘deny’ the allegations and even denied the proven lies you told the electorate about your Army service, your non-existent uni degrees and your totally false claims of being a cancer sufferer.

You were a crook then, Troy, and you remain one now, because you won’t even acknowledge – in the face of all empirical evidence – that you did anything wrong, it was apparently the fault of others, critics and dark forces in lived in the rafters and came at you in the night..

Moving on, there is then this further bit of self-promoting hucksterism. 

The next Division 1 councillor will have less than two years remaining in this council term.

There won’t be much time to learn the role. Experience matters.

As Mayor, I wasn’t responsible for one division, I had to understand the entire organisation.

The budget, the debt, the legislation, infrastructure planning, governance, how decisions are made, how reports are written, where money is spent and when difficult questions need to be asked.

That experience doesn’t disappear because you’ve left office.

It stays with you.

You arrogant goose. You understood governance, legislation?  Two areas that were primarily responsible for you being shit-canned last time. You think threatening to physically assault the CEO is how things work?  A Crime and Corruption Commission investigation uncovered about 9000 WhatsApp messages between  you and an adviser plotting against council staff, including threats of physical violence against the chief executive officer and councillors.

In one message exchange, one of your sovereign citizen advisers (adviser said that they should kick the chief executive in the balls and punch councillors in the guts. And you didn’t reprimand them, advising them that this was contrary to good governance and certainly against state legislation. Or was it Stephen Lane, that sort of thing is about his speed, just ask Les Walker.

Outside council, do you think it is any sort of OK governance for an aspiring public representative to unsuccessfully attempt to have this blog hacked and disabled because of criticism of you? 

You have clearly learnt nothing from your ‘experience’,  Troy, which was much more instructive personally than you care to talk about. And suggesting no one else could take on the role of a councillor as adequately as you could smacks of insult, arrogance and further ambitions beyond divisional representation.

“I’ll continue asking difficult questions about unnecessary spending, excessive bureaucracy, consultants and projects that don’t represent value for money”.

Presumably questions beyond the borders of Division One, but The ‘Pie seems to remember you telling councillors during your brief stint in the mayoral chair that they should stick to their divisional work and leave the bigger stuff to yourself. 

Certainly, those questions you pose need to be asked, but in the context of accepted good governance and respect, not in an asinine mostly ill-informed manner to further personal ambition. And further the ambitions of your shadowy supporters, the mental cripples and emotional hunchbacks in the My Place sovereign citizen lala land.

Give it a miss, Troy, give Townsville a bloody break, mate. And give yourself one, too, and get some serious help.

Liar, Liar, Hair On Fire … Calling Out Hanson’s Deliberately Targeted DV Rant

For a woman challenged by the English language – as exemplified by her now famous ‘please explain’, asking her 60 Minutes interviewer to explain what xenophobia meant – Pauline Hanson’s literacy hasn’t improved much. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t know exactly what she’s doing. 

In a carefully planned strategy, probably thought up by her noisome pet gnome, her posturing chief of staff James Ashby, Hanson did a fine job of deliberate rage farming and publicity reaping with her comment that domestic violence is a ‘two way street’. By any measure, that meant she was saying ‘provocation was justification’ – provocation meaning a woman standing up for individual rights of safety and individuality. 

You couldn’t find a better example of victim blaming. The storm of indignation at this shallow callousness was swift and universal, so Hanson next day waffled backwards, saying her words were taken ‘out of context’, what she was suggesting was that if women didn’t like the response to a demand for personal respect, just leave. 

Problem solves, eh, simples, no, as the Russian meerkat says? But that’s not context, that’s a lame attempt to walk back a statement in the face of criticism, it is a favourite political go-to when caught out. It was unmistakably victim blaming. Although quite a few of them won’t be concerned by this … they’re dead.

Looking closely at the whole episode, The ‘Pie is convinced this whole thing was no mistake, and not – to use the clumsy modern term – ‘a misspeak’.  One Notion’s political navigators had apparently picked up on the populist front bar mantra of men as victims, entrapped by woke anti-bloke rules that gave women in the home power – hell, even equality  -with them.  This allowed scheming females to push some poor blokes to the limit with nagging, whingeing and legal threats, fair dinkum, some of ‘em really needed a clip around the ear, or a thump or two to keep ‘em in line.

This played directly to a cohort of valuable support for One Nation’s populist agenda, with a surprisingly wide range of ages, from the generational sneer of ‘the place has gone to the dogs, not like the old days’ to the more recent rise of the disaffected young male youth influenced by the likes of the Tate brothers.

From this low social bar was born Hanson’s ‘two way street’ which in effect was saying to victims , 95% who are women, to cop it sweet or fuck off. From home, safe shelter and often children. A deliberate simple-minded philosophy from a devious mind.  For in just those three words ‘two way street’ lay a bonanza of publicity and criticism that at its core would play to exactly the audience Hanson is dangerously courting.

Hanson’s rise in popularity is a result of the smug complacency and tin ear of the mainstream parties, where social engineering and corporate control of power have crossed an unacceptable line.  One Nation has been  a useful as a reality check for the current political system, but are they listening.  Hanson’s half truths and overreach often blur a legitimate core message clearly expressing the issues of concern to a wide swath of the electorate, but she can only name the problem, not any coherent answer.  are the main stream parties finally listening, and are they willingly  or unwillingly ready to start listening?  As they say, there’s nothing like being due to be be shot in the morning to concentrate the mind.  And shot they will be if they don’t start litening.

But endorsing domestic violence will never be accepted, legally or informally,  by the vast majority of decent Australians of any background.

Is Dwarf Throwing About To Make A Temporary Comeback?

During the week, The ‘Pie was reminded that Olympic host cities/countries can petition the Olympic management to include a particular non-Olympic sport for their Games only.  It is usually to highlight a localised sport, and not intended as a permanent inclusion in the accepted list of sports which greed has now expanded to the point of diluting and devaluing the Olympic cachet.  

So will the Queensland Government seek to have a uniquely Queensland ‘sport’ included in the 2032 economic disaster heading our way? And if so, what?

The Gold Coast was home to dwarf throwing back in the day, and although that has since fallen foul of the fun police, a resurgence might be argued for the run-up and participation of the Brisbane Games. The dwarf employment situation is a bit dire at the moment, especially since upskirting has been outlawed, so perhaps an argument could be made for an Olympic interlude, mi’lord?

But there are plenty of other possibilities that could reflect our major preoccupations around here, although some might be lost in translation. Like ‘Passing The Buck’ might be vetoed in Paris on the grounds of mistaken animal cruelty and Australia’s paucity of a reindeer population. Similarly, our popular pastime of ‘Punching Down’ might be misinterpreted as an unpleasant variation involving dwarfs who refuse to be thrown.

Niche sports pose problems, too, like ‘Evading The Question’, (unfortunately, probably impractical, because the field would be restricted to politicians, their staff, and husbands who come home at 2am with lipstick on their collars). 

No, The ‘Pie thinks a better chance of inclusion would be to devise a variation on a traditional sport. He rather favours two track and field events with entrants restricted to neo-nazis, Jehovah Witness door knockers, My Place Sovereign Citizens and American Presidents. The events would be Catching The Javelin and Heading The Shot.

Getting The Message In America

For the current social media cleverness, there is nothing that carries a message’s impact quite like the old fashioned airing of a grievance in a prominent public place. This is an idea that has been rejuvenated in the USA, and the messages are getting savagely to the point. Overpass bridges are proving to be great places to have one’s say. Like this one in Ohio.

And this one in California, referring to the mid term elections where the Republicans might not have the necessart numbers.

The nation’s cartoonists continue to have their say, too.

Meanwhile, In London ..

Clever.

And Finally, Oh, For Font’s Sake.

Seen in a local newsagents.

No doubt, Uncle agrees.

…………

Bit rough and ready, still getting into a routine. Another week down, but  plenty more to keep us on our toes. Don’t forget comments run 24/7, have your say on anything that buncheth thy panties. Donations to help with Nest finances also run 24/7, the necessary button to click is below.