The Hermit Kingdom

October 19, 2015 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | PETER'S WRITING, POLITICS |

I’m well aware I’m a little dumb, When it comes to fact I am under your thumb But how can I possibly believe These things he does when in a peeve? Shooting men with some anti-tank gun For nothing; presumably, for fun Because he can. Oh, I know his hair Is silly, but that cannot be fair, When we’ve Hillary and Donald Trump. Showing their dead wigs on the stump Before adoring crowds, which they all share. How do we know he doesn’t care For his people? They talk a different game And subsume their souls unto his fame, They venerate…

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Homeless

September 29, 2015 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | LIFE, POLITICS, Ulalume |

"Evicted" by Erik Henningsen (1892)

At a recent symposium on the homeless, a number of aspects arose in a policy and legal sense.  Access to Justice and availability of work were naturally to the fore.  The futility of fines and the false panacea of cheap grog and drugs loomed large. There was no talk of starvation and in fact, in these days of safety nets there would not appear to be any need for indigent people to go without food for five days (the ‘standard’ complaint in Down and Out in Paris and London). Intriguingly, public or affordable housing did not feature at all.  Dare…

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“A Vast Scene of Confusion”

September 20, 2015 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | Australian Politics, HISTORY, Ulalume |

"the tide of popular fury returned..."

On the eve of the ides of September 2015, Monday 14th, the Australian Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, was assassinated in the Liberal Party room and his usurper, Malcolm Turnbull, assumed the imperial purple.  One hopes this will end a strained period in the nation’s body politic – over the last 6 and a half years, there has been blood in the corridors of power, and 3 serving Prime Ministers elected by the people have been boned. 1/12/2009 – Leader of the Opposition, Malcolm Turnbull, is defeated by Tony Abbott by one vote.  Mr Abbott becomes leader of the Coalition opposition….

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The Holt Report

Open water

(by John Larkin and Geoffrey Barker) (1968) Yes, Americans can joke about President Taft being eaten by wolves (particularly greedy wolves) but only in Australia could a serving Prime Minister be taken by a shark.  On Sunday 17 December 1967, Prime Minister Holt went for a swim near his beach house at Cheviot, near the Heads leading from Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, into the Bass Strait, and was never seen again. Though a shark is The Varnished Culture’s preferred theory (and after all this time, chances of finding traces are approximately nil) there are a number of other possible solutions; kelp…

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Primary Colors

June 6, 2015 | Posted by Peter Jakobsen | American Politics, FILM, THUMBNAIL REVIEWS |

"Aw, c'mon, Henry. This is ridiculous: you've gotta be with me."

(Dir. Mike Nichols) (1998) Probably the best political road movie, almost a primer of American Democratic Presidential politics.  Great direction by Mike Nichols, solid performances and a sensational script (by Elaine May). The book published by Anonymous (Joe Klein) is a roman à clef about the Bill Clinton comeback campaign of 1992.  Profane, salty, clever, hilarious and sad, it is a fascinating story of the politician’s challenge to be all things to all, a marathon, run as a sprint. John Travolta is uncanny as Governor* Jack Stanton.  In P’s favourite scene, where Stanton addresses a union crowd in a cold, closed-down factory,…

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