The Entrenched Culture of Corruption

The US election has polarised a lot of people. The so-called ‘silent majority’ that support Trump (extreme right) have managed to demonstrate the disconnection from reality that afflicts a very loud and offensive (in every sense of the word) minority, while the actual silent majority (the left) continue to protest that very epitome of corruption and incompetence in the political swamp. The swamp Trump promised to drain but then filled with his KKKabinet, the very worst human beings that should never, ever be given that kind of power, creating the reality from his fictional rhetoric. People seem to forget that all the productive nutrients in a swamp that maintain the ecology are found at the bottom, while all the scum that rises to float about on the top sucks the light, oxygen and life from that ecology and causes it to become stagnant and dead. Trump was elected because he targeted an entrenched culture of corruption yoked to racism and bigotry, a massive disconnect with reality...

Last year I wrote a little something about Back to the Future Day. People here in Australia were all very excited about it and celebrating Marty’s arrival from 1985, even though time-zones mean we're a day ahead or behind. But for most of us in Australia and the US, it was like he was arriving from the future because we have governments that seem hell-bent on returning us to the 1950's with all the economic mess and bad attitudes of 1985 to 2015 just too really make things even more unpleasant. More so for the US in the last year of their most recent 'Presidential' election.     It really makes no difference. Marty would arrive regardless of our timezone, but if you applied the logic used in that movie… well, things get hinky pretty quick. The flawed political and social attitudes and behaviours aside, there were so many things wrong with that movie it wasn’t funny, and yet the interaction between the characters was hilarious and the whole premise inspired an ...

When I was a kid,  Star Wars  hit the screens. I was four. I didn't see it until I was eight, but it captured my imagination and from that moment on my life was focused on science-fiction. Most lads my age were fans, but for me it was something that provided escape from the reality of an absent, indifferent, self-centered father, and the physical and psychological abuse inflicted by an alcoholic, psychotic mother and her lunatic second husband. As an adult, well, the abuse never stops and never goes away, and the  New Hope Star Wars  offered has turned out to as disappointing as almost everything else.  The reasons have been encapsulated in this gem on the Internet (see link below). It was posted under  Alternate Ending to The Empire Strikes Back . Sadly, and with a collective wince of what most of us would call embarrassment and shame, some people might find it rather amusing. To those who are a little less morally and ethically stunted, howeve...