Even More Things Australian

[Vlad n U 2]

Was tempted to go and greet her with a "DIE YOU OLD BAG" sign

I'd have joined you with a "THIS IS 2011, NOT 1011" sign.

This should've been done, you'd have been beaten by the police.

How stupid are these Occupy Melbourne protesters?

Elaborate on how they are stupid.

Alas, it went over my head.

I love the whole Occupy thing, honestly. But my antipathy towards big business is surely well-known by now, and just about anything giving the middle finger to them meets with my approval.

Agreed, I'm pretty supportive of the Occupy movement even if its mostly populated by liberals. But there seems to be a sort of far-left/communist presence which is always a good thing.

 

[intedomine]

I wonder if they would have so hastily tried to move on the Occupy Melbourne movement if Queen Benefit Scrounger wasn't scheduled to pass by on Wednesday. Tempted to head down their myself on Wednesday to cause some sort of disruption.

 

[Axver]

I wonder if they would have so hastily tried to move on the Occupy Melbourne movement if Queen Benefit Scrounger wasn't scheduled to pass by on Wednesday. Tempted to head down their myself on Wednesday to cause some sort of disruption.

This is a great point. If anything is planned on Wednesday, I may well head down.

 

[Alisaura]

I saw a bunch of protesting happening in the city last weekend, I assume it was the Occupy mob... it looked like a fairly generalised protest against everything from where I saw it.

I think some signs with "Down with this sort of thing" and "Careful now" would probably be taken seriously.

 

[cobl04]

For the record, I've got no problem with people being disgusted by the 99%/1% thing or whatever, but there's soooooooo much more to it than that (and I'm sure as hell there's a shitton of that 1% who got there through hard work and deserve to be there), more than I can understand. But to me, well this is just a pathetic way of going about it, particularly because it's just a small-scale offshoot of Wall St. And this is not to mention a number of vox pops that a number of publications did which revealed that there are plenty of people who are doing it because they have nothing better to do, and were won over because a senior protester told them, "the rich are getting richer! the poor are getting poorer! pull up a sleeping bag!"

 

[intedomine]

Yeah but you still can't violently rip into a peaceful protest. That's police-state-esque. At what stage did a politician, Mayor Doyle or a journalist actually interrogate the grievances of the Occupy Melbourne movement? Didn't see anything of the sort. They were completely dismissed as attention-seeking bludgers by the Murdoch Media especially, which is ironic considering that the Murdoch Media is currently fawning over the world's biggest bludger of all, queen Elizabeth.

 

[cobl04]

Peacefully protest all you want... but don't cause traffic/public transport delays.

 

[Axver]

I'm just surprised by how many people seem to think the protesters are idiots. Why the fuck would ANYBODY be defending the rapacious greed of corporate knobjockeys who are running this country's - and the world's - politics and environment into the ground? I don't particularly care if the protests are a bit shabby, a bit lacking in focus, or whatever; they're peaceful demonstrations making a lot of noise about gross disparity and undue political influence, and I can't see how it's a bad thing. The method could be better, but hell, they're getting the coverage, so they're already one step ahead of keyboard warriors like myself who fume but don't have any ideas of anything to meaningfully do. And at the end of the day, coverage is a big step ... showing the commitment to stick around for ages is another. So many movements peter out after one big hour-long protest. I'm just impressed how long many of these Occupy protests have managed to last.

I'm not even strictly speaking anti-capitalist either!

 

[Axver]

Peacefully protest all you want... but don't cause traffic/public transport delays.

So you're saying "peacefully protest ... as long as you stay out of the way and nobody notices you"? Defeats the point of protesting.

Anyway, the tram disruptions only happened after the police moved in and caused chaos. It was perfectly peaceful until the riot police were inexplicably sent in. If you want to blame anybody for public transport chaos, it's the cops and Robert Doyle, not the protesters.

Doyle's a huge tosspot anyway though, so who's surprised he completely over-reacted. Just look at his previous hatred towards street musicians.

 

[intedomine]

Doyle was the former opposition leader of the Victorian Liberal party, before Baillieu Was a cowardly, pathetic swine back then too.

 

[Alisaura]

I only mock them because I feel guilty about being apathetic myself.

I didn't hear about the protest being broken up... sigh.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Yeah but you still can't violently rip into a peaceful protest. That's police-state-esque. At what stage did a politician, Mayor Doyle or a journalist actually interrogate the grievances of the Occupy Melbourne movement? Didn't see anything of the sort. They were completely dismissed as attention-seeking bludgers by the Murdoch Media especially, which is ironic considering that the Murdoch Media is currently fawning over the world's biggest bludger of all, queen Elizabeth.

Uhuh, agreed 100%. I was actually very surprised to find that the thugs, uh, I mean police, were brought in to rip through such a protest. It's not something I would expect to hear about in Australia, that's for sure, more like something in my own country.

 

[Axver]

Wonder where they'll set up next? Fed Square? It'd actually make the place more attractive.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

That'd be good. I don't really think the movement looks like it's dying yet.

 

[Alisaura]

I sort of assumed they would have gone to Fed Square in the first place...

 

[Axver]

City Square's handy to Town Hall though, so there's that.

I reckon they should set up on the steps of state parliament on Spring Street. Just to piss off Ted Baillieu.

 

[Alisaura]

Oh yeah... maybe dump another load of manure on the steps. I forget who did that the first time, but it was great. Anything that pisses off Little Ted is fine by me!

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Possibly break into parliament during question time or whatever they do there and dump that or something as equally disgusting on Ted and his henchmen?

Need to take inspiration from this.

Video of smoke bomb egg fight in Ukraine parliament - YouTube

 

[Axver]

I at least don't find Baillieu reprehensible like I do Abbott. If Baillieu led the federal Libs, I could hack it if they won the next election. I wouldn't be happy, but I'd get over it. The thought that a frothing unprincipled religious lunatic like Abbott is anywhere near the Prime Ministership terrifies me.

Oh yeah... maybe dump another load of manure on the steps. I forget who did that the first time, but it was great. Anything that pisses off Little Ted is fine by me!

Wait, wait, what? How did I miss this!

 

[Alisaura]

It was years ago... let me see if I can find a link.

*much later*

Well dammit, maybe I was hallucinating. I found something about someone dumping manure out the front of the NSW parliament building, but not the Vic one... I'm sure I remember something about that in the news, though. Maybe it was before the internet was properly established...?

Anyone else remember that, or have I gone completely potty?

 

[Alisaura]

But yeah, Ted is very much preferable to Abbott, if only cos Ted knows how to keep his gob shut.

 

[Axver]

Damn, I want your memory of that to be correct!

And yeah, the other perk Baillieu has over almost every other current state or federal Liberal leader is that he's - in general - an actual small-l liberal. Sometimes he tries to suck up to the loony religious crowd, but he's sure as fuck more of a real liberal than that religious populist Abbott is.

Though neither of them can even put a finger on Malcolm Turnbull, not only a deadset small-l liberal but one of the few current Libs I actually respect.

 

[intedomine]

Bailleu is a shit politician. Only got into his position due to his silver-spooner background, and only won the last election based on how it was "time for a change". His win wasn't policy based, and his work as premier has been pathetic. At least Labor, under Brumby or Bracks, sought to shake things up a bit, try new things, and while they did sometimes make some hideous errors of judgement, shit got done.

 

[Axver]

I don't recall them trying to shake things up or do new things since about 2002. Last state election, I almost had to hold down bile when preferencing the ALP over Liberal because they are practically the same nasty thing on a Victorian state level.

 

[Axver]

OH MY GOD OH MY GOD WE FUCKING DID IT!

NEW ZEALAND WlNS THE RUGBY WORLD CUP!!!!

 

[LemonMelon]

What does that have to do with Australia?!

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Because to rub it in the face of Australians. And because he can.

 

[Axver]

Because this is unofficially also the Kiwi thread, didn't you see the tags on the last one WE'RE THE WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS OH MY GOD!!

Maybe we should call this the Australasian thread in future. Ah come back to me when I'm sober and not dancing around the room!

 

[mysterious_jen]

Oh fuck he will be on about this for a while....

 

[Alisaura]

The Antipodean thread?

Well done All Blacks.