Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
*Stephen Bannon stumbles into office with visions of swastikas in his head*
*sits down*
*sits down*
Kaikoura, Te Wai Pounamu, Aotearoa (Kia Kaha, Aroha to all) Superthread
- Thread starter coolian2
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
- Status
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
I see-saw on this whole thing to be honest. At what point does the emerging administration show the signs of being too incompetent and out to lunch to effect great or lasting damage?
At what point do the impeachment proceedings begin?
Yeah, I don't really mean any of that, but at the same time, I kind of wonder.
At what point do the impeachment proceedings begin?
Yeah, I don't really mean any of that, but at the same time, I kind of wonder.
This is my one hope, that they are too incompetent or disorganised to do anything. But the forces that have been unleashed more broadly in society - much like in Europe - are deeply troubling.
And I fear too much of the left is rolling over and saying "it can't happen here" or going for some sort of appeasement. You know how to make sure it doesn't happen "here", wherever that may be? By fucking doing something to ensure that.
And I fear too much of the left is rolling over and saying "it can't happen here" or going for some sort of appeasement. You know how to make sure it doesn't happen "here", wherever that may be? By fucking doing something to ensure that.
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
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.
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.
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
Part of me wants to tell the Democrats - insofar as they are the left, which is not very far - to cheer up. Cheer up beautiful people, you still won the popular vote with a terrible tone-deaf candidate. The only way is up. But denial is not an option.
I remember being deeply dismayed during the Bush years, especially at his re-election in 2004, but the whole thing just seemed comical really, an embarrassment for America but not a threat to global order or American democratic institutions. Likewise, Tony Abbott, good god that hurt, but at no point did I think Australian democracy itself was unravelling. Trump's rise is something else entirely, and I think the only way to ensure that "it can't happen here" is to make as much noise as possible. You may end up looking like the boy who cried wolf, but when the threat is neo-fascist authoritarianism it's worth the risk.
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.
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
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.
The team, if you can call it that, assembled around Trump is like a glimpse into an open sewer. I try to hope that they'll bring themselves undone. But yes, they must be opposed at every turn, and loudly. Just not by Lena Dunham please.
Last edited:
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?
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
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.
At any rate, the noises from the Trump camp have been confusing as regards Iran.
No, I was just using the erstwhile 'Girls' creator as an example of someone who hurts the cause more than helps it.
Last edited:
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.
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
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?
OP
OP
coolian2
Blue Crack Supplier
Man, it's nice that Auckland gets to have nice things now.
It disappoints me that there is so little sober questioning of the US-Saudi alliance, in any respect. Too often if you see the topic raised it's by cranks (of all political stripes) - but this is one of the cases where the cranks have a point. I promise you, if the Saudis weren't sitting on all that oil, the US would've engineered a coup decades ago or would at least keep the place at arm's length.
As for poor old Yemen, it's just a shitshow really.
Like this evening's Crowded House live stream from their Auckland studio? We could access that outside Auckland too you know.
OP
OP
coolian2
Blue Crack Supplier
Like this evening's Crowded House live stream from their Auckland studio? We could access that outside Auckland too you know.
Haha. I meant being able to have a casual walk around the harbour with a bunch of real cool boats in town.
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
Do they ever break out 'Chocolate Cake' anymore?
Yep, I've seen them do it three times. It's one of the few Crowdies songs that both Neil and Tim do in their solo shows as well, though I've only seen Tim do it myself.
Won't be surprised if it gets an airing at the Opera House next week. I suppose it's critiquing a somewhat different America to today's, but it still has a topical feel.
Won't be surprised if it gets an airing at the Opera House next week. I suppose it's critiquing a somewhat different America to today's, but it still has a topical feel.
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
I've always quite liked it, but the reason I mentioned it is back in the day it was the one Crowded House song everyone seemed to agree was rubbish. But I suspect that was probably a similar thing to the people who think Miami is rubbish; they just can't handle that from the band that otherwise mostly does this other thing.
OP
OP
coolian2
Blue Crack Supplier
Wait, people don't like Chocolate Cake?
Are they insane?
Are they insane?
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.
OP
OP
coolian2
Blue Crack Supplier
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!
My S-Gear 2 lights up for no reason other than to tell me to check my phone. Like....fuck yeah!
OP
OP
coolian2
Blue Crack Supplier
I really wish I'd waited for an S-Gear 3.
OP
OP
coolian2
Blue Crack Supplier
In other news, I'm playing softball in Howick this summer. Once they give me a team. Then I get to find out my shade of battleship grey (let's be honest) and how many times I can get hit in the face.
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
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.
The only time I wish I had a watch - smart or dumb - is when I'm teaching and it looks a bit unprofessional to keep checking my phone for the time.
I can't actually believe I'm saying that, because all through my teenage years a watch never left my wrist. I couldn't imagine even getting up without putting it on. It was as essential to me as my glasses.
Woodface is my least favourite of the four original Crowded House albums. Most of the first half is good but then it rather falls off for a bit. The ending of "She Goes On" and "How Will You Go" is good, but shit like "All I Ask" and "Italian Plastic" is dreadful. And even on the first half I really wouldn't care if I never heard "Fall at Your Feet" again, and the studio version of "It's Only Natural" blows (it unexpectedly rocks live).
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
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).
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).
Same for me with "Four Seasons", but I will never not be addicted to that jangly guitar in "Weather With You".
The Crowdies have almost never played anything from other Finn projects except for some Split Enz material, the sort of songs from late in that band's existence that were proto-Crowded House anyway. They do "Message to My Girl" a lot, and "This Is Massive" comes out when a show gets loose. Just last night during the webcast one fan successfully got Neil to do one of the first songs he ever wrote, an Enz rarity called "Late in Rome".
But at Neil's solo shows he busts out some of that stuff from Finn. He does a ripping version of "Suffer Never" these days.
Kieran McConville
ONE love, blood, life
I had a feeling you were going to mention 'Message to My Girl' when you started that one sentence there. And it totally makes sense as a proto-Crowded-House song.
Suffer Never's a good one. Does he ever do Only Talking Sense?
Suffer Never's a good one. Does he ever do Only Talking Sense?
- Status
Similar threads
- Locked
- Sticky
- Locked
