Posts Tagged: politics

  • Cartoon of man holding a book with polycrisis written on the cover surrounded by four images of environmental crises

    Polycrisis and eco-grief

    As a teenager I wanted to be an animal conservationist. So I got myself some university qualifications which were sure to be useful in the new environmentally enlightened world. But in the more than forty years since I graduated, the world’s environment is more degraded, there are more species extinctions, we are creating microplastics with […]

  • A.I. generated and modified image of Karl Marx who coined the word lumpenproletariat behind an Apple MacBook with a word bubble "Resistance in futile".

    Lumpenproletariat in the A.I. Digitopia

    Very recently I wrote a post about the Luddites. In it, I light-heartedly drew a parallel with the arrival of artificial intelligence (A.I.) in modern times and suggested we either try to take the benefits of the opportunity or we get left behind. The machine breakers of earlier times could not stop technology changing their […]

  • GENOCIDE — “… a coordinated plan of different actions aimed at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves”. Raphael Lemkin

    GENOCIDE—is Netanyahu guilty?

    I couldn’t participate in the March for Humanity protest last Sunday but I am proud that 90,000 Sydney people mustered for the pro-Palestinian event despite the bad weather. This is my protest. Behind the march there is a war of words occurring—the word at the centre of this Gaza tragedy is “genocide”. Israel’s Prime Minister, […]

  • https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ Swift Boat on a quiet day-Photo Courtesy of Tom Lefavour

    The swiftboating of Tim Walz

    As the Trump presidential campaign team struggle to contain the groundswell of support for Kamala Harris (in August 2024) they are upping their smear campaign tactics. They are now using “swiftboating” a tactic of unfairly attacking or smearing a candidate with half-truths. They are going after the Democratic vice-presidential nominee Gov. Tim Walz’s military record. […]

  • Julius Caesar being warned by the soothsayer to beware the ides of March

    The Ides of March—why should you beware?

    Introduction “Beware the Ides of March” forebodes dastardly events. Julius Caesar is told so by a soothsayer as he appears before the Roman crowd during the Lupercalia, an ancient religious holiday (according to William Shakespeare in Act 1, Scene 2 of his play “Julius Caesar”). Why beware? Why should Caesar be beware? In 44 BCE, […]

  • Kamala Harris speaking with attendees at the 2019 Iowa Democratic Wing Ding at Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. Creating her memes. Original photo by Gage Skidmore

    Kamala’s coconut tree and other memes

    Are you keeping up with Kamala Harris’s rise as the US Democratic Party’s candidate? Are you understanding some of the words around the campaign? I love politics and the US election has more drama than Netflix can ever provide—bigger heroes and villains. But what makes it so insanely addictive for me is watching the political […]

  • SPolitical cartoon of a Russian oligarch tumbling from a building, with rouble notes spilling from his briefcase against a snowy Moscow Kremlin backdrop, illustrating Sudden Russian Death Syndrome.

    Sudden Russian Death Syndrome

    Defenestration—a symptom of Sudden Russian Death Syndrome (SRDS) The Atlantic, an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, published a story on the last day of 2022 that dubbed a series of ostensibly accidental deaths and suicides of high-profile Russians, Sudden Russian Death Syndrome. Over the weekend, Pavel Antov … a man who had […]

  • Propaganda is not new. But to mobilise nations and their soldiers it had its invention in WWI. The use of highly dramatic posters with messages appealing to bravery, guilt, and social obligation were created.

    Understanding propaganda

    Russia is protecting Ukraine “Today Russia started a special military operation to protect people who have been subject to abuse and genocide by the Kyiv regime for the last eight years”. Thus the Russian state media reported the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 (from The Washington Post). This is propaganda. CBS quotes Nick […]

  • AI generated image of Putin and his oligarchs.

    Putin and the oligarchs

    We are all watching the Russian invasion of the Ukraine (post Aug 2022) with great empathy for the Ukrainians and the hope that the Russians are repelled. The west is providing weapons and has introduced sanctions against the Russian nation, its banks and Vladimir Putin and the oligarchs. The oligarchs are central to the west’s […]

  • The word dance has been in English since the 12th century. Native English dance words were derived from words meaning to jump or to leap and others such as "tumbian" (to tumble) and "hoppian" (to hop).

    The joy of dancing

    The word origin of dance The word dance has been in English since the 12th century. It started as “dauncen” meaning to move the body or feet rhythmically to music. It came from Old French “dancier” (Modern French “danser”). Perhaps originating from a Low Frankish word “dintjan” meaning to tremble or quiver. It replaced the […]

  • the second most important event of 2020 was the US election played out in against the back-drop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.

    WORD OF THE YEAR 2020—POLITICS AND THE US ELECTION

    Perhaps the second most important event of 2020 was the US election played out against the back-drop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement. Here we look at words from politics and the US election for 2020  (I have borrowed a photo from the Trump Tie Meme). The OED reported that in the early […]

  • Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on 24 Sept 2019 that the House would initiate a formal impeachment inquiry against President Trump.

    The meaning of impeachment

    Impeachment is very likely going to be a word we hear often over the next few weeks and perhaps even up until the next US election in November 2020. The New York Times reports today (24 September 2019 in the USA): WASHINGTON—Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced on Tuesday that the House would begin aformal impeachment inquiry […]