Strewth: Troll position

The world is now two days into the Donald Trump presidency and the northern hemisphere has not been turned to cinders.

The world is now two whole days into the Donald Trump presidency and, contra the naysayers, the northern hemisphere has not been turned to cinders, a chauvinist dystopia worthy of Margaret Atwood has not yet come to pass, and Russian Spetsnaz forces have not yet overrun the American midwest a la the mid-80s Patrick Swayze war film (an unexpected quartet of words if there ever was one), Red Dawn. Those horrors thusly avoided, culture vultures are still dissecting the early Saturday morning inauguration address for pop call-outs; Strewth thinks it’s a stretch to claim Trump deliberately quoted Batman villain Bane, but reckons it’s a dead certainty his line “I will never, ever let you down” was a sly reference to Rick Astley’s unbearably long-lived 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up. Closer to home, Strewth noted a bit of Trump-style trolling — or what used to be called “stirring the pot” — in Sydney on Saturday. Some cashed-up wags paid what has been reported as being as much as $5000 for skywriters to etch TRUMP in the blue midsummer sky above a local protest over the democratic transfer of power in a foreign country, much to the horror of Australians who spent their day off marching with rather redundant signs reading “Not my president”. Of course, at a thousand bucks a letter, we’re not holding our breath for anyone to stump up for a similar tribute to NSW’s new premier-apparent, Gladys Berejiklian.

Orange you glad …

One Australian who wasn’t putting up with any guff from
anti-Trump marchers this weekend was — no surprise — Pauline Hanson. Commenting on the estimated 400 anti-Trump marchers who turned out in Brisbane, the One Nation leader thumped the table yesterday, saying: “Don’t these clowns have anything else better to do with their time other than to hold sad, anti-democracy protests? Why on earth would anyone want to walk around in this heat chanting about One Nation and the new President of the United States of America, Donald Trump? Oh well, at least they didn’t seem as bad as the left-wing protesters in Washington who were vandalising businesses and committing assaults. And I suppose it is good that they were out and about and doing a bit of walking because it looked like a few of them needed to get a bit of sun and do a bit exercise.”

Bilateral barks

Meanwhile, the 45th President must surely be cheered to have in his corner former PM Kevin Rudd, who, speaking on Sunrise on Friday, told the present Australian government: “Give the guy a go … If it all turns bad, then we go to plan B. But I think we have to try and give him the benefit of the doubt, at least for the beginning.” Bill Shorten, on the other hand, has remained shtum on US politics since the inauguration; should the Labor leader ever unseat Malcolm Turnbull, Strewth looks forward to the prospect of cringe-worthy photo shoots in some future bilateral meeting between Trump and the man who last year called him “barking mad”. Turnbull, for his part, took a more diplomatic line on Twitter on Saturday: “Congratulations President Trump … We are steadfast allies & trusted friends with a great future ahead of us. We wish you every success.”

Twitter diplomacy

Award for Australian closest to the action in Washington would have to go to Joe Hockey, seen standing defiantly against the elements in the grandstand on Capitol Hill while other invited ambassadors and emissaries cowered under plastic ponchos, and delivering his own stream of commentary on social media, calling Trump’s address: “A significant moment in history!” Readers are left to ponder what Australia’s top diplomat in Washington meant when he retweeted former Republican congressman turned liberal TV presenter Joe Scarborough’s assessment that “Yesterday’s speech was radical, unprecedented & breathtaking to friends and foes alike. It was also aimed solely his 38% support” with the words, “interesting tweet”.

A dog’s life

Finally, Washington is not the only place where old power structures are being swept aside. According to an (admittedly subjective) analysis by the BBC, the old shibboleth that the internet is a cat lovers’ paradise is no longer true. Instead, our feline friends have been usurped by dogs — or doggos, as they are known — with the most popular animal on Facebook being a dog named Boo, the all-time top three posts on Reddit all being about dogs, and on Instagram, the second, third and fourth most popular animals are, again, dogs. Strewth thanks the British taxpayer for this important bit of research.

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