- The Guardian
- Issue #2150
Urgent
Anthony Albanese has told his party room they can only build for their future vision if they make people confident they can deliver on “urgent necessities.” These include affordable housing for some people, small wage increases, but not a habitable planet – by okaying the North West Shelf Project extension, Albo has decided that Woodside’s profits are more urgent than that. Last report we saw, Woodside was top of the list of fossil fuel companies donating to the ALP, which must add to the urgency.
Poorly chosen
Here we have a weaselly understatement. ‘Poorly chosen’ is how Alan Stockdale, former Victorian Treasurer and owner of the Liberal Party’s (and possibly the world’s) most prominent eyebrows, on his remark that women in that party were “sufficiently assertive.” He means ‘disastrous’ or maybe ‘offensive.’
Of course it was a joke, the sort of joke that’s so funny you have to laboriously explain it after everyone gets angry for you. That’s the sort of joke Stockdale has chosen (poorly).
Vilification
Used normally, vilification is what you’ve done when you really slag someone off with falsehoods. Coalition Senator James Paterson accused Victorian independent Zoe Daniels of participating in the “vilification” of Israel. His evidence? Daniel once signed an open letter which described Israel as waging “a brutal war against the besieged population of Gaza,” written in response to Israel, umm waging a brutal war against the besieged population of Gaza. Someone needs to teach Paterson the difference between vilification and description.
Intention (not having)
Good thing about not having intentions is that you can publicly not have them regardless of what you’re doing. Since nobody can read your mind, telling them you didn’t have an intention is never really false, although it can sound pretty silly. If you’re ever caught speeding, try telling the police you didn’t have the intention of driving over the limit and see how you go. Israel’s Ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon has said that Israel doesn’t “have any intention to broaden the conflict” (you know, the one they just started. That conflict.). In the same interview Maimon also described Israel as “not war seekers.” Fair enough, they’re more like war starters.
Tranquility
US President Donald Trump has said he will prevent anyone who “undermines the domestic tranquility of the United States” from entering the country, making us wonder if he’s looked around the country lately. If what’s going on there now is tranquility, what would chaos look like?
Precaution
‘Take precautions’ used to be a popular euphemism for using contraceptives. It’s also a weaselly way of describing aggression, the diplomatic equivalent of slipping a condom into a wallet or a purse and telling your worried parents you’re going to be careful tonight. British Chancellor Rachel Reeves has said that the UK is sending jets to the Middle East as a ‘precaution’ “to both protect ourselves and also potentially to support our allies.”
Support the UK’s allies in what exactly, one might ask. Given what the UK’s ‘ally’ Israel is doing to the Middle East, supported by its other ‘ally’ the US, contraceptives might well be in order!
