Bolsonaro, Johnson and Trump – three lying conmen kicked out of office!
Now let’s clean the world up!
The Hall of Infamy
The Hall of Infamy
Wednesday morning at five o clock as the day begins. That’s when we started putting the final touches for the show together. It takes a lot of work to put together a Media Show. I don’t think anybody knows how much effort goes in. The team spends all week gathering all the little clips on our candidates – clips that will get the crowd going, and that final day is madness as we rehearse, write the links and decide the final format.
That’s where I come in – Bang Max – the man who gets the crowd roaring. It’s my job to pull it altogether and make a show out of it. I’m Bang Max the showman. I have, even if I say so myself, made the Hall Of Infamy the biggest show on Earth. Our ratings are through the roof.
Last week we focused on the mucilaginous gunrunners. This week it’s the politicians turn.
Time to hit the boards. Cue flies, hair and smile.
‘OK you Crazy Crew!!!’ I started with my trademark greeting to get the show off the ground, looking right into the camera and gesticulating, wide-eyed and looking suitable manic.
A great roar went up from the audience that I milked for all it was worth.
‘Last week you chose that slimy scumbag Leonid Minin, the Ukranian gunrunning thug, as the latest entry to our Hall of Infamy.’
Another great roar of approval went up.
‘A good choice,’ I agreed, nodding my head and grinning round at them all.
I quietened them with a motion of my hands, changing my expression to one of seriousness.
‘This week we turn our attention to politicians,’ I told them what they already knew.
A big oooooh went round the studio. They understood their role and were playing it to perfection – an integral part of the show.
‘So which one of these scurvy shysters is going to join Minin in the Hall of Infamy?’ I asked, mouth open, hands upturned.
Shouts and hollers echoed round as they bellowed their choices. I let it run a few seconds before cutting back in. The show depended on their energy but it had to be controlled. There was only one maestro here, and that was me – Big Bang Max. I called the shots.
‘Well you’ve already expressed your views,’ I told them in conspiratorial tones. ‘The votes are in.’ I paused dramatically. ‘You’ve told us who you want.’ A great murmur went round the studio. ‘It seems that dithering May, Blithering Boris and moldy Mogg didn’t make the cut.’
There were cries of dismay but the excitement still built. They wanted to know who was in.
‘No!’ I told them, pausing again, raising the level of tension a notch and dragging it out just long enough. ‘We’ve got it down to two. You’ve instructed us that it’s between these two behemoths of populist ugliness. That it is down to these two purveyors of hate and division.’
I allowed the bated breaths to hang as they waited on my words.
‘Which of these two lying, disgusting perverters of democracy are you going to vote in to join the savage Minin and the other sleazy paedophiles, murderers, rapists, serial killers and warmongers in the Hall of Infamy?’
They roared. They wanted to know who it was that they had to choose between. They were chanting names, on their feet, stamping and waving their arms.
‘You’ve chosen……………..’ having to raise my voice above the din, I waited for exactly the right moment, ‘a run-off between the gun-mad, scourge of the Amazon – Bolsonaro!’ A great bellow of approval nearly took the roof off. ‘And the hate rallying, Muslim bashing, epitome of arrogance – Trump!’
A bigger roar shook the walls.
Over the next half hour we ran through the video clips, juxtaposing the carefully chosen cameos, as I gave each one a nice little intro and biting comment, as I played the audience, working them up into a frenzy and maintained the balance of humour, disbelief and anger that made the show the success it was.
We had Bolsonaro threatening to build a motorway through the Amazon, Trump working up his base with evocations of ‘Drain the Swamp’, ‘Crooked Hilary’, and ‘Lock Her Up’, Bolsonaro taking away all environmental restrictions and opening up the jungle for logging and farming. There was Trump urging his mob to beat up hecklers, Bolsanaro looking to arm everyone to beat crime. Then Trump, looking surly as he pulled out of the Paris Treaty, while Bolsonaro stated how he was going to hunt out and shoot all the leftists. Trump building walls, supporting the NRA and exaggerating the threat of the refugees, portraying them as an invasion of rapists, murderers and Muslim terrorists and Bolsonaro saying the Blacks were not even good enough for procreation and should go back to the zoo and that an opposition politician was too ugly to rape – that the Juntas mistake was to torture but not kill.
I brought it all to a head.
‘Which one of these clowns is the most repugnant? Who’s the most despicable?’ I asked them as they bayed and chanted their choices. ‘Which one deserves to be included in the Hall of Infamy?’
‘Who’s your choice? Grab your buzzers.’
‘Time to vote!’
Poetry – Cynical Leadership
Cynical Leadership
Inciting, infiltrating and spinning
Deviously
To prey upon the gullible.
Threatening, posturing and jeering
Arrogantly
To enrage the peaceable.
Cajoling, lying and frightening
Blatantly
To scare the fallible.
Any tactic will do
To gain their power.
Illegal, immoral or insane
Turning the future sour.
Opher – 31.8.2020
I was thinking of Trump, Johnson, Cummings and Bolsonaro when I wrote this. I was thinking about the way they manipulate people with simplistic slogans; the way they drum up fear; the way they incite division and tribalism.
We’ve had the obnoxious reign of Trump and we’ve got the disaster of Brexit that will hit us in January 2021. All conjured up with blatant lies and duplicitous statements.
Spin, fake news, conspiracy and outright untruths.
That’s politics.
It stinks.
Tyrants and Potential Tyrants!
Tyrants are all the same. They fear democracy. They want to control the population. They want to stifle all opposition.
That’s what Trump very nearly did!!
This is what Johnson is trying to do – controlling the BBC, controlling Channel 4, pumping out propaganda through the press, making protest illegal.
Fascism.
Fascism
Definitions — Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition,
While fascism is defined as a product of the far-right it is just as evident in the far-left.
For me, fascism is associated with arrogance, racism and extreme authoritarian control. It divides and labels people. It promotes one group of people above others (even within nations) and sets up mechanisms for suppression and oppression.
Fascism is hierarchical. It sets up a powerful elite and establishes a means of crushing opposition, controlling the people and pumping out propaganda. It runs on fear and deploys secret police, torture and death.
There is no real difference between the way far-right Nazi parties, such as Hitler, Mussolini and Franco operated to that of far-left organisations such as with Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot. They all worked on creating division, exterminating enemies, using fear, deploying propaganda, suppressing all opposition and suppressing the population.
We still operate tribally. We like to elect ‘strong’ leaders who put forward policies in black and white. These leaders often appear strong because they are psychopaths or sociopaths.
Much as school bullies attract sycophantic groups of henchmen and henchwomen who they use to help exert their power, fascist politicians attract both henchmen and followers who put their policies into action.
One has to wonder at the mentality of these people. One can see the attraction for those high up but there are similar benefits for those further down the organisation. They are part of the organisation. They have power over others. They are safe, rewarded and have power. Hence the secret police, the torturers, the executioners, the propagandists, the spokespeople, troops and their families feel superior and secure.
Fascism seems to be the default state for human politics. We see democracies such as the present-day USA and UK drifting towards it with Trump and Johnson. It is evident in Russia, with Putin, In China, North Korea and Brazil.
Fascism exists in many forms and can be an insidious force infiltrating the most benign governments. The Johnson government is showing fascistic tendencies – arrogance and superiority, control of the media, suppression of opposition, creation of division, ignoring of the law, move towards a one-party state.
We have to be forever vigilant.
Poetry – Fake News
Fake News
You can’t trust the media.
The experts are all wrong.
The scientists are all
In the pockets of the strong.
The net pumps propaganda:
Covid is about control.
There is no global warming.
Just burn the gas and coal.
Vaccines are poison.
The election was stolen.
Everything is fake
As coffers are swollen.
All the happy populists
Busy dividing countries,
Counting all their profits
Bringing nations to their knees.
Opher 5.1.2022
We’ve just suffered a great wave of populism. Cynically milking peoples’ dissatisfaction with politicians, experts, scientists and the media they have set themselves up as the only dispensers of truth.
While rubbishing other politicians, undermining experts and media, they have set out to divide and rule, spreading fear, hate and conspiracy.
For some reason a segment of the public seem to believe them. These populist sociopaths home in on genuine concerns. They set themselves up as saviours.
The truth is that they are using their power for their own ends and greatly profiting. Trump made $1.6 billion out of conning Americans. Bolsonaro is pocketing billions. Johnson will walk away from the mess he is creating with a fortune.
It is to be hoped that this wave of extremism burns itself out.
But then…. There has never been either a shortage of snake-oil quacks or gullible people.
Poetry – It’s a Dark Matter
It’s a Dark Matter
There is dark energy pervading politics
Creating ninety-five per cent ignorance.
At its centre is a dark matter.
It is driving everything apart
Swirling, spinning and careering
Into isolation.
It is banishing the warmth
Of togetherness.
Will we ever come back together again?
Opher – 30.10.2019
I was reading about Dark Matter and Dark Energy. It makes up 95% of the mass of the universe and yet we know nothing about it.
It made me think.
All the energy and matter in the universe, every single atom and ray, makes up a mere 5% of what is out there. That is all we know about.
It is the Dark Energy that is driving the expansion of the universe. If it wasn’t for the Dark Energy gravity would pull us back together. Instead all our trillions of galaxies will spin off into the vacuum, become more and more isolated and die alone.
I thought this was analogous to the state of politics right now. There is a dark centre of populism and nationalism that is driving us apart, isolating us. It is based on ignorance. We can call it Trump, Brexit, Farage, Johnson or Bolsanaro.
Move towards a Totalitarian State.
Poetry – Fools are Fooled
Fools are Fooled
The gullible are roused
By the glib gamesman
With the gift of the gab
To suit a gnat’s attention span.
‘The threats from outside
Not from within.’
He tells them sincerely
While raking it in.
He watches them all
Through podgy piggy eyes.
Rubbing his hands
With disdainful disguise.
All too easy to play this game –
Fooling the punters –
Feeding them lines
Feeding the grunters.
Down through the centuries
The stupid are played
With statistics and fears
Cunningly displayed.
The men with the power
Pull all the strings.
While the ignorant sheeple
Keep taking it in.
They sneer as they speak
Knowing they will win.
People too stupid
To know where to begin.
They crow and they strut
Secure in their power
While the losers all pray
To their ivory towers.
Opher 17.6.2018
Well Trump was my model for this poem. His arrogance and disdain are so openly expressed. That is unusual. Most of the bastards keep it hidden. I think his sheer disbelief that he is getting away with it has created an open contempt. He thinks he can get away with anything.
We can be sure that there is at least one person in America who is getting incredibly rich with each passing second. He gloats about it.
One day we will wake up and stop putting people like this in charge.