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Category: opinions and journalism

Word Power: is “The Donald” a “Don”?

Published March 8, 2025 by Pelidoug

Word Power: is “The Donald” a “Don”?

 

 

A: yes, in the Mafia/ Crime Boss sense of “Don”, according to a seasoned, well-respected observer of US Presidential politics.

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Behold Donald Corleone, the US president who behaves like a mafia boss – but without the principles. Of course, one hesitates to make the comparison, not least because Donald Trump would like it. And because the Godfather is an archetype of strength and macho glamour while Trump is weak, constantly handing gifts to America’s enemies and getting nothing in return.

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Word power: longer term, global consequences of “the Trump White House”

Published March 4, 2025 by Pelidoug

Word power: longer term, global consequences of “the Trump White House”

 

Pictured above is a satirical carnival float in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The essay below was written by David French.

Its opening paragraph:

President Trump is doing damage to America that could take a generation or more to repair. The next election cannot fix what Trump is breaking. Neither can the one after that.

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Word power: “the new shape of Australian politics”

Published December 9, 2024 by Pelidoug

On this blog, a Word power post is always an attempt to draw your attention to an essay, article, report, poem or book that is particularly worth reading.

This post’s title is in fact the subtitle of the current Quarterly Essay; Minority Report, by George Megalogenis.

If I could “prescribe” just one “essential” piece for every intelligent Australian voter to read before our next Federal election….

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Word Power: on humans acting irresponsibly, idiotically…knowingly

Published November 6, 2024 by Pelidoug

Word Power: on humans acting irresponsibly, idiotically…knowingly

 

 

This post is a pointer to two opinion pieces.

Both are particularly worth reading in light of the re-election – as leader of “our” planet’s most powerful “democracy” – of an incorrigible liar, felon, bully, ignoramus, narcissist, jingoist, misogynist (probably, also a “sex offender”) and racist.

Just published by ABC News, Carrington Clarke’s is an immediate response to Donald Trump’s victory.

The October 2024 edition of The Monthly published Tim Winston’s more finely-crafted essay, which makes absolutely no direct reference to the American presidential election.

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Word power(lessness): fatuous sentence of the year award

Published December 12, 2023 by Pelidoug

It is hard to imagine how anybody could top ABC News Director Justin Stevens’ latest  contribution to the ever-burgeoning array of managerial weasel-speak.

Today, when announcing the “difficult” decision to axe The Drum, “as part of a wider restructure which would see a programs team on the ABC News Channel disbanded and one executive position abolished”, Stevens delivered this 100% pure nugget of fools’ gold:

Stopping things does not diminish their previous value or contribution,

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Word power: (un)common sense on cats as pets, in Australia (with cat-connected Namibian & Tunisian bonus content)

Published November 15, 2023 by Pelidoug

Word power: (un)common sense on cats as pets, in Australia (with cat-connected Namibian & Tunisian bonus content)

 

 

 

“Our” world is so oversaturated with sensationalism, misrepresentation, haranguing, intolerance, name-calling, “cancelling”, “virtue signalling” and the “100% this versus 100% that” school of argumentation.

It has become an increasingly rare pleasure to read a measured and sensible newspaper article, devoted to a highly contentious topic.

The relevant piece was published this week in the Australian edition of The Guardian.

Fully cognisant of cats’ devastating impact on Australian wildlife, it addresses this question:

can we have cats (as pets) in a sustainable and ethical way?

You may be surprised to know that the answer is yes, albeit yes, if…

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Word power: Timothy Snyder on Putin’s Russia v Ukraine

Published November 29, 2022 by Pelidoug

Word power: Timothy Snyder on Putin’s Russia v Ukraine

(Yale-based historian Timothy Snyder is best known as the author of Blood Lands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin, a book which profoundly enriched/jolted not a few readers’ understanding of “The Holocaust”, this reader’s included)

What European history really shows, and quite powerfully, is that in order to become, quote unquote, a ‘normal’ European country, you have to become post-imperial, [meaning] you have to lose your wars.

Snyder’s words, quoted immediately above and below, are from an article published in today’s Australian edition of The Guardian.

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