Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
*Stephen Bannon stumbles into office with visions of swastikas in his head*
*sits down*
*sits down*
Yes, they are troubling.
I think that too much of the left is in denial in all kinds of ways, one of which is 'it can't happen here'. Of course there is also the danger of being the boy who cries wolf, as I remember from the Bush years. People treat him now as a respectable mainstream conservative, but that's not how it felt at the time. Not even Bush the man, so much, as the people assembled around him, who ran the show.
Also, as far as the people around Bush went, yes, Cheney was a war criminal and a deplorable person, but I never felt a strong disregard for people like Colin Powell or Condoleeza Rice. Disagreements, yes, but I always took them as intelligent and capable people. Trump is surrounding himself with unqualified and dangerous lunatics, or D-grade people who never would have been appointed by anybody else (see: Mike Pence, who probably only joined this farce because he knew it was his one opportunity to be a VP candidate).
I hope history recognises just how mediocre or fringe some of these people are. It's too easy to look backwards, to assume that people were inevitably going to achieve a prominent position.
Powell - to pick one - was personally capable no doubt, career military then senior political figure, but he willingly sold his reputation down the river for a war that, who knows, he could have helped avert or at least delay. I have absolutely zero regard for him. More generally, I didn't and done have much trust in the judgement of many figures in that administration; it wasn't just Cheney. To this day I'm sure that the only thing that prevented a truly disastrous war with Iran was that the clock ran out on them, circa 2008.
Just not by Lena Dunham please.
Honestly I find the Reagan administration more abhorrent than Dubya's. At least the two big wars of the Bush years were big public events, even if one was based on fraud and deceit. Reagan & Friends had no scruples about secretly fucking up other countries and leaving them in a right mess.
Speaking of Iran, I dread what's about to happen on that front. The Obama administration has had remarkable success there through years of careful diplomacy. Relations between Iran and the States haven't been this good since the overthrow of the Shah. If that is all ripped up now... god, what a blunder.
Have I missed something?
I don't see how them being public events makes the wars (still ongoing btw) of the Bush era any better. And pretty much every American administration in the last century has been secretly fucking up countries here there and everywhere.
Eh, if you're going to do something morally dubious, at least have the balls to do it in daylight, where you have to try to justify yourself. It's been nice to watch that house of cards finally come down. Just a shame it maintained structural integrity in 2003.
Maybe, maybe. Has the Obama administration ever faced questions about its amoral at best, and politically incoherent, arming of the Saudis in Yemen? Do most Americans have the faintest idea about it, and would they care if they did?
Man, it's nice that Auckland gets to have nice things now.
Like this evening's Crowded House live stream from their Auckland studio? We could access that outside Auckland too you know.
Huh, I thought it was just that the Yanks were a bit offended by Chocolate Cake and that explained why Woodface tanked in the US but - finally - brought the band success in the UK. It's always got a good reception when I've seen it performed.
Can I recommend getting a smartwatch? It's like trying to tame a rather dumb animal on your wrong wrist (if you already have a boss watch on your other wrist).
My S-Gear 2 lights up for no reason other than to tell me to check my phone. Like....fuck yeah!
Yeah, I suppose that's partly why I drew a half-joking parallel with 'Miami'. Which also got a pretty good reception on the one tour they played it.
No, I dig 'Chocolate Cake'. Frankly I prefer it to a lot of the rather soft-centred stuff on Woodface.
Yeah, 'Fall At Your Feet' is a bit over played for me. So is Four Seasons in One Day and Weather With You, even if they're all quite good and all.
If I was a concert going type, I'd like to see Neil and the gang break out some 'Finn' (1995) material, like Kiss The Road of Rarotonga or Paradise (which for all I know they do).