Howdy dear availees...sorry, not doing the long-promised post about the rankly corrupt Mt Gambier City Council, it's part-finished and has just become one of the several dozen similarly part-done posts queuing-up in the 'Drafts' section of this 'ere blog...(and it's quite an important post when one considers that one of the lead stooges from MGCC, Ben Hood, is the current Liberal Party candidate for the Sow Strayan State Election on 19th March 2022-Ed)..indeed, but we've got that covered in a separate part-done post about 1) his particular personal cowardice and unpleasantness...(what a guy-Ed)...2) including his explicitly complicit lead role in MGCC's deceitful corruption regarding the Farcical Aquatic Recreation Centre (FARC)...(now at $76million and counting-Ed)...yep, and 3) a vote for any Liberal candidate in SA is a vote for Pentecostal/Fundamentalist Christian control of your life...(yay, just like Scott 'Scummo' Morrison's Federal Liberal government-Ed)...exactly like that...but that can wait 'cos today we're gunna' sink the boot into Scummo on another specific issue...(I thought we were doin' a 'Grace Tame' post today?-Ed)...yep, and with all due respect to Ms Tame, she is the boot we shall be usin' today...
First off, I want to re-iterate my absolute respect, admiration, and sense of quiet awe for the 2021 Australian Of the Year, Ms Grace Tame...thusly it is with genuine good humour that I reference her name as being text-book definitions of both Nominative Determinism and Irony...(it's a bit like those Harry and Paul comedy skits about Nelson Mandela, the satirical humour is derived from the statesmanship and integrity of the man-Ed)...exactly...firstly, it is remarkable that someone who has been through the trauma that Ms Tame has, and particularly how appallingly she has been treated in the past year...(and most particularly in the last month or so since the famous 'Side-eye at Scummo' interaction-Ed)...indeed, most particularly since then...in that context Ms Tame perfectly illustrates the Nominative Determanism of 'Grace', especially as it relates to 'grace under fire'...(spot on! given all the pressure to 'conform' and 'perform' within 'acceptable parameters' and the abuse for 'not smiling compliantly', etc, Ms Tame has conducted herself with absolute 'grace'-Ed)...including but not least whilst having to publicly deal with people like Scummo who have been deceitful and misogynistic and outright abusive...(who can forget his extraordinary comments about/to the (women's) March4Justice in Canberra on 15th March 2021, quote, "Not far from here, such marches, even now are being met with bullets, but not here in this country"-Ed)...just wow...
And the multi-level irony of Ms Tame's name stems from the fact that whilst she does show absolute 'grace', she simultaneously is everything but 'tame'...(indeed, she is fierce and fiery and fervent and motivated and pro-active and all-things positively self-expressive-Ed)...indeed, all that and so much more...and it's ironically contrasting that by way of her genuine nature she can be both things at once, that is, conduct herself with respect and 'grace', etc, but do so without being in any way compromising of her strength, of being 'tame'...(and then there's the irony forced on her by the appallingly abusive conduct/discourse of others, eg, the shameless and cowardly bully Peter Van Onselen, in so much as much of that criticism/abuse/misogyny is motivated by and focussed on Ms Tame's genuine and grounded natural refusal to be 'tame'-Ed)...absolutely spot on...and whilst PeeVee is only one of many largely Right Wing misogynists and Crumb Maidens who have mouthed-off at Ms Tame for her failure to 'make nice and smile at the nasty old man', he's arguably the worst...
So I'm gunna' do a series of links to the stuff I want to address and/or refer to, starting with a reference to the immediate previous post on this 'ere blog...once and/or if you've already read that, please to be moving directly onto this next link...it is the most extraordinary display of courage and dignity and conviction, as displayed by 2 genuinely inspirational young women, Ms Tame and Ms Brittany Higgins, during their combined presentation to the National Press Club on 9th February 2022...it's about 1hr20m but absolutely worth the effort...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wIzpu3qpvs
Some things I noted...1) PM Scummo did not attend...(as indeed he refused to address the March4Justice right outside Parliament House-Ed)...2) Labor leader Anthony Albanese did attend...3) Liberals were reportedly told not to go...4) the several who did attend, namely Simon Birmingham, Minister for Women Marise Payne, Minister for Women's Safety Anne Ruston, and Minister for Women's Economic Security Jane Hume, failed/refused to stand during the ovations at the end of each speech...this article/link (below) includes footage of Payne and Birmingham briefly standing well into the applause...(but almost if doing so under protest/succumbing to the pressure/not wanting to appear petty-Ed)...whatevs, but Hume and Ruston remain firmly seated...(and weren't their 'Ministerial Women's positions created by Scummo directly in response to and to distract away from the Ms Higgins 'alleged' Rape Cover-up scandal?-Ed)...exactly...(and why doesn't this article even identify that Birmingham was present, that's him sitting right behind Anne Ruston, and doesn't include him in the red circle around the women Liberals?-Ed)...excellent observation, but I got no idea, maybe the writer/editor was trying to protect Birmo? who knows...here's the link...
The Numero Uno thing I take from this is how it reflects on Scummo...in the same time-frame that he's been 'too busy' to attend...(his official excuse for refusing and/or just being too scared and piss-weak to attend-Ed)...exactly, like with the March4Justice and then this Tame/Higgins event, amongst other incidences where he's too busy "just getting on with the job", but Scummo has had any amount of time to do carefully choreographed yet still cringe-worthy, pathetic and even "creepy" photo-ops...(not least of all the intensely "creepy" thing where he washed that young woman's hair at what turned-out to be a former Liberal candidate's hair salon-Ed)...a perfect example, absolutely confected stunt with a complicit/compliant business owner, a pathetic Scummo attempt at showing that he was down with the women and what concerned them...his latest daily cowardly, scared of powerful intelligent women effort is that he's refused to go on the ABC's 7.30 Report with the most excellent Laura Tingle, but he had 45 mins for a chat with the self-satisfied, pig-ignorant mouth-breather Piers Morgan, shipped out here by Rupert Murdoch to try and manipulate Scummo out of losing the 2022 Federal Election...(including a big photo-op with Peirsy maaaate-Ed)...well ya' gotta' have a photo-op...
And finally, I want to address the cynically sycophantic anti-female gaslighting that was/is the Sixty Minutes 'exclusive' interview with Scummo and Jenny...(Scummo's missus, Jenny Morrison, whom he constantly references/trots-out when trying to give the impression that he's somehow vaguely aware of and indeed the least bit interested in what women think, want, experience, and/or are...that Jenny?-Ed)...yes, or as so exquisitely parodied on the ABC's comedy show Mad As Hell, The Ask-Wife 2022 Hologram...and 'cos that's such a spot-on satirical piss-take of what Scummo does, and the complicit part that Jenny apparently willingly plays in that deceit/gas-lighting/manipulation/abuse, here's the link...please note that the 'Donald McEngadine' character references the 'allegation' that years ago Scummo shat himself at a Mcdonald's in the suburb of Engadine...having said that, please leave watching this until after you've watched the actual Sixty Minutes piece, link below, 'cos then you'll properly appreciate 1) how sickening the 'interview is, and 2) how brilliant the parody is in response...so here's the Sixty Minutes link first, then the AskWife 2022 link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zNQxLQRdX4Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IwnLfrBviQ
Hilarious, absolutely specifically directly accurately hilarious...(love the closing about how everyone can see through it-Ed)...and whilst I have no pity for the complicit Jenny, I will note that Scummo also routinely drags his 2 young daughters into the media spotlight, not least of all, to try and bolster his relentlessly failing 'every man's family man/daggy dad/I understand women' narratives...but back to the appalling Channel 9's Sixty Minutes program of 13th February 2022...(ah, Channel 9, where former Howard-era Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello is the Chairman, and whom hold Liberal fundraisers at Ch9 premises, etc, that Ch9?-Ed)...yep, and it was everything that genuine journalism isn't, it was a sickening slab of genuflecting sycophancy, barely trying to conceal it's true agenda...(namely?-Ed)...help Scummo to trot-out Jen, right into the line of fire, to try and distract and deflect and excuse the disgrace that is Scummo...it's a litany of forced/faked laughter and pro-Scummo sympathies, etc, but a coupla' main things stuck out regarding Jenny's role...
She was there not just to 'humanise' Scummo, but to do his bidding...(mate! you can see him sitting next to her literally mouthing through her script with her as she speaks, and then beaming proudly once she's correctly regurgitated her lines-Ed)...indeed, and part of that was 1) taking responsibility for Scummo's bizarrely selfish/cowardly/uncaring decision to take the kids to Hawaii during the devastating 2019 nation-wide bushfires...(ha! typical, Scummo hiding behind the missus and the kids, again-Ed)...yep, it's Jen's fault but she was just thinking about the kids, it's carefully confected multiple layers of taking the responsibility/blame away from Scummo...(it was because of the kid's, it was the missus's fault-Ed)...and whilst this was clearly one of the main reasons for the entire 'interview', to try and draw a line through and/or under that Hawaii holiday that continues to haunt Scummo, and underpins the broader discourse about how he runs away and hides during emergencies/problems/failings, there was another even less subtle attempt to promote Scummo's thoughts/words in the context where he himself simply cannot speak them out loud...(so just get the AskWife 2022 to do it instead-Ed)...exactly....
And that was Jenny's very 'polite' pseudo-support for Ms Tame's actions re the 'Side-Eye' interaction, pseudo-support that was actually just the set-up to a deeply misogynistic criticism about Ms Tame 'not being polite'...(so, starting as faint praise, which included deliberately involving their daughters, again, but actually just a gas-lighting set-up for the thinly veiled criticism about 'respect'...'I hope my girls are like that when they grow-up, just respectful'-Ed)...yep, that one brief statement speaks volumes for the genuine intent, and that is to say the things about Ms Tame that Scummo wanted to but knew would be damaging for him...(so trot-out the AskWife 2022 to do your dirty work for you instead-Ed)...precisely...and don't get me started about the farcical and very deliberate pantomime with playing the ukulele...(more 'daggy dad' role playing?-Ed)...exactly, he's just a bloke like us, just an embarrassing dopey ol' dad like us...
So there's heaps to go through there, and a whole bunch of stuff I haven't specifically covered, but please do try to get through all of these linked articles/features...just to finish, here's a very rude take on Scummo's ukulele performance, using the lyrics from another song, but perfectly synced-over the Sixty Minutes footage...Language Warning, but enjoy...
https://twitter.com/SarkySage/status/1493364172494573571
Tomorrow: A Liberal Dose Of Candidate Ben 'From The' Hood
Will he be elected ahead of incumbent Member for Mt Gambier, the frequently charged Troy 'Saved By The' Bell?...(never met a shocking pun you could walk past, eh?-Ed)...well I was gunna' go with 'Can Bell End Hood Rise'...(oh bravo sir, that's actually almost funny-Ed)...well if you liked that then you're gunna' love the next post...
I am Nick Fletcher and this is my blog...cheers and laters...