Play Nice Society, Religion & Politics Thread

[the hypnotoad]

i also

Herein lies the problem. It is so huge and so bad that it makes those of us who scoff at whacko conspiracy theorists look like conspiracy theorists.

(Same with that completely staged “assassination” attempt on Trump that miraculously did no damage to his ear.)

i also don't consider myself a conspiracy theorist ... but for the sake of argument ... normally with political assassinations or attempts, certainly in america, there'll be weeks of follow-up stories on the assassin, his family, motivations, background etc, particularly if it involves trump ...
but in the case of thomas matthew crooks, the "assassin" who shot trump's ear, everything seemed to go very quiet soon after the incident (this was something pointed out to me, i hadn't paid much attention) ... and this in an election campaign ... the media focus was on trump the surviving warrior hero, rather than posthumous vilification of the shooter
that seems very much contrary to the trump way of doing ... anything ... obnoxiously loud and public

but in terms of epstein, the biggest conspiracy of all has to be his "suicide" ... which i definitely struggle to accept happened as has always been reported ... not just because of the very strange circumstances surrounding epstein's death, and the quite obvious belief that so very many people stood to benefit from his eternal silence ...
but just the sheer arrogance and entitlement of the man, you'd have to think he would have maintained a very strong belief, for a very long time, that he had enough of those very rich and powerfully connected people on his side that he would sooner rather than later be freed and cleared to resume his existence

 

[Membling]

Random scrolling and Kayne's New Workout Plan music video released in 2009 is a trip. From about 1.00 to about 1.34.

 

[RedOrWhite]

i absolutely agree this is potentially the very biggest story that doesn't (yet) involve bloodthirsty military and political ambition
unfortunately it will really only become the actual biggest story when names are named, and action is taken ... truly meaningful punitive action

james o'brien on LBC is spot-on most times, but very much so on this story



and it seems keir starmer is in real trouble ... but as o'brien points out, then what? a crappy british labour government is replaced by the brexit imbeciles? and that's just in britain ... what about america, where this all starts!?

the concern is that if "we, the people" get what we want in terms of consequences for those involved in this story, we're facing a likely unravelling of 30, 40, 50 years of global power, politics, business, media, art/culture ... the threads of this seem to go everywhere ... but then what?

and your * last line is exactly right ... which is what this julia baird comment piece also refers to

I have a question for the men who had no questions about Epstein

The millions of pages of documents related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein have shone a light on how many influential men were ready to disregard the experiences of countless women.

www.abc.net.au

this whole epstein thing, so far beyond fckng awful, is emotionally, intellectually, pscyhologically and morally fckng exhausting because yo want so, so many people to pay for their evil weakness, and so far the only person who really is paying is a woman, ghislaine maxwell (no sympathy at all!) and that utterly gormless fckwit former prince

Hard agree mate, Starmer has governed the same as the Tories before him. Cutting school lunch budgets, cutting payments to cover heating homes of poor pensioners in winter and having elderly protestors arrested for the most mild banners opposing genocide.

It's been the trend of centre left parties in Europe for decades, the fetish with neoliberalism and subservience to US empire (the latter may be in jeopardy, it's the only good thing about Trump being there is that he's so repulsive, that allies are forced to diversify trade, diplomatically and even militarily). I hope against hope Albo and Labor are diversifying as we speak.

And the whole Epstein saga, it's revealed to everyone the rotten underbelly of many of our politicians, billionaires and other leaders.

I'd recommend reading Dark Money if you haven't read it, it's a great book that goes back to the post ww2 period where the John Birch society worked to repeal the new deal, the influence of the Koch brothers and others like them in helping usher in the politics and institutional control by right wing lobbies of the last 50 years that you alude to.

 

[the hypnotoad]

Hard agree mate, Starmer has governed the same as the Tories before him. Cutting school lunch budgets, cutting payments to cover heating homes of poor pensioners in winter and having elderly protestors arrested for the most mild banners opposing genocide.

It's been the trend of centre left parties in Europe for decades, the fetish with neoliberalism and subservience to US empire (the latter may be in jeopardy, it's the only good thing about Trump being there is that he's so repulsive, that allies are forced to diversify trade, diplomatically and even militarily). I hope against hope Albo and Labor are diversifying as we speak.

And the whole Epstein saga, it's revealed to everyone the rotten underbelly of many of our politicians, billionaires and other leaders.

I'd recommend reading Dark Money if you haven't read it, it's a great book that goes back to the post ww2 period where the John Birch society worked to repeal the new deal, the influence of the Koch brothers and others like them in helping usher in the politics and institutional control by right wing lobbies of the last 50 years that you alude to.

cheers ... will track it down

meanwhile, the biggest actual test of this new-fashioned centre-right labor govt, beyond paying lip service to the historic "alliance" with america, will be aukus ... at what point do albanese and co realise they anchored themselves to what amounts to the morrison government's dick pic to the white house?
at the moment, trump and hegseth are basically saying the only submarines america will "supply" will be operated by the us navy out of australian ports ... and albanese will stand condemned by history if allows that to happen, rather than showing some boll0cks and quitting the deal before the trump idiots legislate that

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

but in the case of thomas matthew crooks, the "assassin" who shot trump's ear, everything seemed to go very quiet soon after the incident (this was something pointed out to me, i hadn't paid much attention) ... and this in an election campaign ... the media focus was on trump the surviving warrior hero, rather than posthumous vilification of the shooter
that seems very much contrary to the trump way of doing ... anything ... obnoxiously loud and public

Yes, same here.

And for me, the really weird turning point was when the footage emerged of the (secret service?) guy immediately after the "shooting", ushering all the photographers along the front of the stage to all get their iconic shots of Trump pumping his pathetic tiny fist.

I thought OK, either this whole thing is completely staged (most likely), or (very concerning for other reasons) - it really was a genuine assassination attempt, and the world is so ****ed up and media-driven these days that even in the instant after a major world figure has been shot, there's a person whose job is not to attend to the victim, or protect others from being shot, or attempt to apprehend the shooter, or any of the dozens of other reasonable things to do at that moment; rather, that person's job is - regardless of the mayhem that has just occurred around them - to ensure that the media coverage is as spot-on as possible.

That scenario alarms me almost as much as the faked assassination possibility.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

I'd recommend reading Dark Money if you haven't read it, it's a great book that goes back to the post ww2 period where the John Birch society worked to repeal the new deal, the influence of the Koch brothers and others like them in helping usher in the politics and institutional control by right wing lobbies of the last 50 years that you alude to.

I've had that one on my shelf for a few years now. You've prompted me to pull it down and get started on it.

 

[RedOrWhite]

I've had that one on my shelf for a few years now. You've prompted me to pull it down and get started on it.

It's been a while since I read it but those parts stuck with me.
I also found it hilarious how scared they were of Obama when he first came in if only he did what they thought he would.

 

[RedOrWhite]

cheers ... will track it down

meanwhile, the biggest actual test of this new-fashioned centre-right labor govt, beyond paying lip service to the historic "alliance" with america, will be aukus ... at what point do albanese and co realise they anchored themselves to what amounts to the morrison government's dick pic to the white house?
at the moment, trump and hegseth are basically saying the only submarines america will "supply" will be operated by the us navy out of australian ports ... and albanese will stand condemned by history if allows that to happen, rather than showing some boll0cks and quitting the deal before the trump idiots legislate that

No worries mate, it's very illuminating.

I agree. AUKUS feels like a massive anchor that could bog us down for a century if we give them all that money and we don't get any subs. We'd basically be paying tribute to be a US imperial outpost. At the cost of funding needed for essential services back home.

There is a need to keep our military at a certain level for self defence and emergency operations but AUKUS isn't it. And not to be part of some Pacific NATO armada patrolling seas thousands of kms from home.

 

[the hypnotoad]

No worries mate, it's very illuminating.

I agree. AUKUS feels like a massive anchor that could bog us down for a century if we give them all that money and we don't get any subs. We'd basically be paying tribute to be a US imperial outpost. At the cost of funding needed for essential services back home.

There is a need to keep our military at a certain level for self defence and emergency operations but AUKUS isn't it. And not to be part of some Pacific NATO armada patrolling seas thousands of kms from home.

yep ... that's exactly the problem ... and then the almost inevitable technological obsolescence of almost any human-operated submarine by the time we're due to get one makes the original decision bad enough, and the decision to stick with it indefensible

 

[RedOrWhite]

After the shocking scenes of last night, this is an article worth reading that goes beyond the circumstances behind the visit of Herzog and the political discourse since Bondi and the upcoming RC into antisemitism.

https://archive.is/2026.02.09-11465...stralians-welcome-herzog-here-20260209-p5o0lf

 

[the hypnotoad]

After the shocking scenes of last night, this is an article worth reading that goes beyond the circumstances behind the visit of Herzog and the political discourse since Bondi and the upcoming RC into antisemitism.

https://archive.is/2026.02.09-11465...stralians-welcome-herzog-here-20260209-p5o0lf

ha ... sarah schwartz is regarded by the nation's most powerful media organisation with the same contempt as randa abdel-fattah and every other confected "public enemy" it has pilloried for the past 20 years

for the purposes of "argument", the same media and political entities lump all our indigenous races into the one group, assuming they're all in agreement on every issue that concerns them ... or should be ... which of course made it easier to play to the simplicity and ignorance of the anti-voice droolers and thus crush the whole, entirely worthy and necessary voice movement

all part of the "us and them" culture warfare we've allowed ourselves to be herded into

 

[McGowan3]

After the shocking scenes of last night, this is an article worth reading that goes beyond the circumstances behind the visit of Herzog and the political discourse since Bondi and the upcoming RC into antisemitism.

https://archive.is/2026.02.09-11465...stralians-welcome-herzog-here-20260209-p5o0lf

Sarah Schwarz is spot on and, like all other spokespersons from the Jewish council, cops shocking vitriol from the Israeli Lobby.

 

[RedOrWhite]

Sarah Schwarz is spot on and, like all other spokespersons from the Jewish council, cops shocking vitriol from the Israeli Lobby.

Defo mate, I have so much respect for her and so many other Jews who oppose zionism, as they cop antisemitism as bad as the rest, but are equally hated by pro-zionist forces.

 

[McGowan3]

yep ... that's exactly the problem ... and then the almost inevitable technological obsolescence of almost any human-operated submarine by the time we're due to get one makes the original decision bad enough, and the decision to stick with it indefensible

We should take a leaf out of Carney's book and distance ourselves from the US instead of sucking up to Trump and his cronies. It's embarrassing with defence minister Marles being the leading toadie.

 

[the hypnotoad]

We should take a leaf out of Carney's book and distance ourselves from the US instead of sucking up to Trump and his cronies. It's embarrassing with defence minister Marles being the leading toadie.

yeah, marles is a shocker ...

 

[the hypnotoad]

barnaby joyce, that man of integrity and champion of values, wants to remove grace tame's australian of the year gong
i'd be happy to have grace tame as prime minister

 

[McGowan3]

barnaby joyce, that man of integrity and champion of values, wants to remove grace tame's australian of the year gong
i'd be happy to have grace tame as prime minister

Imagine if Joyce and Hanson got to run the joint.

 

[caesar88]

There was an AI post of Albo & Pauline Hanson on the US TV show The View (who would not be able to pick either politician out of a line-up).





That's the closing part of the spiel included in the caption.

The post got 10,000 likes and 3,000 comments, most of which were praising Hanson for her words.

No one will ever convince me that the rise of AI is not a right-wing endeavour to continue undermining the concept of truth. Right-wing ideology is fundamentally detached from truth, reality, values etc., so it can't thrive in an accountability-based society. It's not a coincidence to me the two have risen side-by-side.

 

[RedOrWhite]

There was an AI post of Albo & Pauline Hanson on the US TV show The View (who would not be able to pick either politician out of a line-up).

View attachment 2530159

View attachment 2530157

That's the closing part of the spiel included in the caption.

The post got 10,000 likes and 3,000 comments, most of which were praising Hanson for her words.

No one will ever convince me that the rise of AI is not a right-wing endeavour to continue undermining the concept of truth. Right-wing ideology is fundamentally detached from truth, reality, values etc., so it can't thrive in an accountability-based society. It's not a coincidence to me the two have risen side-by-side.

AI is a mixed bag, some of it is relatively slick and the majority of it is crude, like this is. I believe I have a good eye for telling if something is AI or not, whether in a video, written form or a phone call. But many don't.

AI's only going to get harder to tell what's real or not, for those who don't understand it now, it'll only get worse when thinking of it's capability to scam people or influence elections. It's telling that the billionaires most of us ridicule are all investing huge money into it.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

After the shocking scenes of last night, this is an article worth reading that goes beyond the circumstances behind the visit of Herzog and the political discourse since Bondi and the upcoming RC into antisemitism.

https://archive.is/2026.02.09-11465...stralians-welcome-herzog-here-20260209-p5o0lf

Great piece. Sarah Schwartz is a legend.

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

There was an AI post of Albo & Pauline Hanson on the US TV show The View (who would not be able to pick either politician out of a line-up).

View attachment 2530159

View attachment 2530157

That's the closing part of the spiel included in the caption.

The post got 10,000 likes and 3,000 comments, most of which were praising Hanson for her words.

No one will ever convince me that the rise of AI is not a right-wing endeavour to continue undermining the concept of truth. Right-wing ideology is fundamentally detached from truth, reality, values etc., so it can't thrive in an accountability-based society. It's not a coincidence to me the two have risen side-by-side.

FMD Big Footy so needs a vomoji.

 

[RedOrWhite]

FMD Big Footy so needs a vomoji.

We could do with a few additional emojis on here tbf, a bit like adding Curnow to our forward line

 

[.Shotties.]

No one will ever convince me that the rise of AI is not a right-wing endeavour to continue undermining the concept of truth.

Never forget JD Vance's eternal words during the vice-presidential debate: "Margaret, the rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check".

 

[SBD Gonzalez]

Never forget JD Vance's eternal words during the vice-presidential debate: "Margaret, the rules were that you guys weren't going to fact-check".

Nor Donald Trump’s rare lapse into honesty when he told a gathering of Republicans “if we make it easier for people to vote we’ll never get in again”.

 

[caesar88]

Another crock of shite from the AI-generated right-wingers

Absolute ****ing idiots