Sunday 6 March 2016

Notes on Australia

 From my trip to Australia, there are three things that I came to note.

First, it doesn't matter where you go around the country....you feel like you are in the 1950s of America.  Buildings are updated or modern....they all have that brick look and feel like some small town atmosphere.

It has a sense of appeal....a place where you'd like to arrive....open up a coffee shop, and get a feel of home-town real quick.

In the US, most of these places have been torn down and turned into some cheap looking aluminum buildings.

Then you come to this second observation....about humor.

This was a newspaper piece that I saw one day....a missing poster for Tazmania.

You see....if you go and look at most general maps of the country (not the fancy atlas type), they all miss the little island to the far right bottom of Australia.

Folks in Tazmania.....talk about this a bit.  They realize they get no respect and hardly anyone in Australia regards them as part of the country.

So, they turn this into a bit of humor.....noting that they are missing.

Then I come to my third topic.....Krespy Kreme Donuts.

You see....in Australia....they love the franchise as much as Americans.

In Sydney, you can't go more than two blocks without seeing operation.

This one that I took the picture of?  It's just inside the airport terminal.

It didn't matter where I went....Brisbane, Melbourne, etc....they had them everywhere.

Pricing?  Well....it's almost the same as the American shops.  And the quality is about the same.

Hitler This and That

If you Google up the word "Hitler".....just on web activity.....there's not much being reported over the internet.  If you Google against new items?  Oh, there's probably 500 Hitler mentions in the past month....all leading back to Trump.

I sat and looked at one news report....trying to tie enthusiasm at some Trump rally into a Hitler moment.  It was the same enthusiasm that I noted in 2008 during the Obama build-up and it's odd that no one want to observe Hitler-like enthusiasm in 2008's campaign.

At some point near the 2008 election point, someone wrote a major piece comparing the Obama period to likely be like Nazi 1930's-like government.  Some journalists got hostile about that accusation and defended the incoming government.

At some point in the 2004 election period, between Bush and John Kerry.....I can recall one significant usage of the Hitler accusation on Bush.

The thing is....if you go and list the thirty-odd platform positions of the Nazi Party in 1932 in simple English today.....without attributing them to the Party, then over sixty-percent of society today would readily advocate their enthusiasm for the platform, and that would come from both Republicans and Democrats.

Some people think that once you mention the Hitler-word, then folks freak out.  That comical way of thinking probably disappeared in the 1990s.  If you asked a hundred people under the age of 25 of Hitler today.....fewer than a quarter of them would be able to identify him to Germany.  World War II is almost forgotten, and even the Vietnam War would be identified as an ancient war.  If you asked most people to identify the last eight Presidents....most would gaze at you and probably get through Bush, Obama, and Clinton.  Half of them might remember Reagan, and maybe ten percent might be able to include Carter (only because he seems to still write books).

So, it's nifty trick to write up critical commentary and slant it with the Hitler-word.  Hitler this, and Hitler-that.....then pat yourself on the back.  Even I might have read into the commentary back eight years ago and at least noted it.  But I've tired of the Hitler comparison enough.....that it really doesn't work anymore.

If you have some idiot talking up the Hitler business.....stop him in mid-sentence and ask him how many voters (percentage-wise) stood up in November of 1932 and voted for Hitler.  Note, the answer is 37-percent.  Yeah, that's all it took because you see.....so many people were frustrated and angry with German politics.  They'd spent three years working through a massive economic stumble and the two major political parties simply stood around to blame each other and play out theater-like antics, so from the other parties available......they found another option.  So if some Hitler-game was to be played out today.....I'd sit and blame both the Republicans and Democrats for creating the atmosphere and making the public so hostile.....they'd ask for something a bit unusual.  That's the sad analysis to this whole thing.