politics

Martin J. Sabine // State of the World Visual Address #5 // Fists of Fury

Fist_of_Fury.jpg

A few months ago I asked a bunch of people to produce or give me an example of how they saw this world right at this moment. Some replied, and the next few weeks, their offerings will be posted in an ongoing series.

The 5th one is by Martin J. Sabine. If you like this, do engage and leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you.

This is clearly symbol minded, but this time for all the right reasons. One of the best weapons against an adversary, perceived or real, is to bastardise or outright steal their symbols and twist their values. It sows division. But there is a graphic quality at play here that I really like, best described as timeless. Timeless is better than trend and much harder to achieve.

/Z

Christoffer Fabæk Kjær // The Speaker // State of the World Visual Address #1

Taleren.jpg

A few months ago I asked a bunch of people to produce or give me an example of how they saw this world right at this moment. Some replied, and the next few weeks, their offerings will be posted in an ongoing series.

The first one is a drawing by Christoffer Fabæk Kjær. If you like this, do engage and leave a comment. We’d love to hear from you.

For more on CFK check his IG.

Zaar Riisberg (Zaarchasm) feat. Martin J. Sabine // The Silence of the Trolls

Huh? /MJ Sabine

Huh? /MJ Sabine

With all the predictions about how Donald Trump will fare in November, it is surprising that no one focuses on the silence of the 2016 trolls. I used to go to Twitter and debate with Trumpettes, just to be in a hostile environment - you know, training? But these days it is downright hard finding someone to attack you. In ‘16 and ‘17 they would swarm you on fake accounts as soon as you said anything about Trump. Likewise, Yahoo! is flooded with what is usually referred to as ‘libtards’, having fun at Donnie’s expence.

Forget polls or anything else you see in the media, this is the clearest sign that if there is a silent minority or majority out there, it is not only silent, it is hiding. If Trumpers are anything, it is in your face - Roger Stone taught Trump that, and he passed it on to his followers. Admit nothing, deny everything, launch counter offensive. Or the short version: attack, attack, attack. I realise that Stone is the architect in this, but he is a mere opportunist navigating in a modernity gone awry. This has been on the cards since Ronald Reagan, mind you. Perhaps one of the worst presidents in modern times, yet he is a hero to many Americans, which should tell you all you need to know about how the American mind operates.

At least Stone is smart - and believe or not, he is also quite cultivated and a libertine feminist. How you can enable misogynism as a declared feminist, remains unexplained, though. Had Trump not commuted his sentence, Stone would have exacted a horrible revenge at some point. Stone was around before Trump, he will be around after. But as the designing architect, Stone is more guilty than anyone.

Where’d everybody go? /MJ Sabine

Where’d everybody go? /MJ Sabine

Now, as recently as yesterday, there are lots of reports still suggesting that the silent majority/minority is large, and we are lead to believe that a huge amount of people will not admit to voting for Trump, because of the stigma that carries. One argument is that Hillary was even further ahead than Joe Biden is, so this will not be a problem. This is not true, in all of 2016 there was not one poll that put Hillary 12-13 points ahead. She was never close to pulling even with Trump in states like Texas and Georgia. Uncle Joe is. Today, reporting is suggesting that Biden might take a state that no republican president has been able to do without for 95 years. I mean, this is starting to look like at Jimmy Carter’esque flogging. And Biden? He is just sitting on his ass.

Nobody likes Trump, not even himself. That is the curse of the narcissist. Meanwhile, Donald is a odd narcissist, as he over compensates, but he also under performs. Anyone with a brain in their head - even alt-righters - know that if USA re-elect Trump it is over. This world must burn. The reason? There isn’t one.

Martin J. Sabine // Boris Johnson "Class" Clown

photostudio_1592144318882.png

Imagine if you will Boris and his "Bullingdon Boys" talking of jolly japes guffawing out loud at their outlandish behaviour their collective arses covered by their privilage, trashed restaurants, hotel rooms and pigs heads notwithstanding is this really the acceptable background and remit for someone to run the country.

The characteristics he displayed at Oxford – entitlement, aggression, amorality, lack of concern for others – are still there, dressed up in a contrived, jovial image. It’s a mask to sanitise some ugly features. They "the boys" treated certain types of people with absolute disdain, and referred to them as ‘plebs’ or ‘grockles’, and the police were always called ‘plod’. Their attitude was that women were there for their entertainment, to do with them whatever they wished. Among them was the former Prime Minister David Cameron and George "Austerity" Osbourne a fine bunch of individuals? Well I leave that up to you to decide.

Johnson's total lack of morality and his penchant for lying is excused by those around him as "Oh it's just Boris being Boris" Really!! Portrayal of him as an irrasicable charmer  running his hand through his mop of hair like a spoiled child is dangerous as this paints him as harmless when he is anything but. Class to him is the get out of jail card, the product of a privileged background, all grace and favor, the cheque book bailout if all else fails. It's hardly the credentials of an upstanding citizen.

His grotesque portrayal of ethnic minorities is another failure of his "class" upbringing, couched in terms of colonialism his references to black people as "piccaninnies with watermelon smiles" and muslim women in burkhas as nothing more than postboxes is an affront to common decency and downright racist. When challenged about this Johnson characterised it like this "I like to think my instincts, in this respect, are as blameless as those of the average person; and the thing is, I am guilty nonetheless. Not of racism, I hope, but of spasms of incorrectitude, soon over, soon regretted". Well that's fucking alright then! Hand slap to forehead…

He leaves behind him a trail of failed relationships and "bastard" children the number of which is unknown as again the cheque book defence came in handy to keep that tally out of the public domain. His failure to accept responsibility for anything is self-evident in the way he distracts, waffles and bluster's through the present crisis of the pandemic, plausible deniability his weapon of choice. His animated delusional obsession of leaving the EU without a deal is on display everyday, his use of latin phrases used as a warrior would use a shield, to deflect from his inadequacy, his continued use of language which is often a mixture of unexpected metaphors or turns of phrase, hyperbole, and nostalgia, very often with a particularly British twist such as piffle, mugwump and nincompoop.

All the character traits listed here are the sum of the parts of a public facade to absolve Boris Johnson of the reality that he is in fact of a lesser intelligence than he and his entourage would have us believe, personally I blame his parents, siblings and educators who have allowed him to become the person he is today a self obsessed misogynist, a racist and narcissist, a fucking good slap early on in life would have knocked the "braghard" out of him and sending him through a normal educational system would have stood him in better stead than the cloak of privilege which hangs loose upon his rounded shoulders.

So when Boris and his "Classmates" drive us over the Brexit cliff edge all those who voted for him and his cronies will have those immortal words ringing in their collective ears "Well it's just Boris being Boris".....

© M.J. Sabine 2020



Martin J. Sabine // Trump - America's Foremost Problem

Trump_Straitjacket.jpg

Notwithstanding the ongoing pandemic and the uprising of the Black Lives Matter movement the biggest problem the United States of America has at this moment is Donald J Trump. The President and Commander in Chief is cerebrally challenged and not fit to hold office; his malfeasance and irrational behaviour would have had a lesser person sectioned under the relevant mental health legislation.

Trump's lack of empathy, knowledge of world affairs  and plain old common sense leave him and the office he holds at the mercy of malevolent countries and operators worldwide. He is a toxic mix of weak moral leadership, racial divisiveness, crass and vulgar rhetoric and an erosion of norms, institutions and trust in traditional values.

His detractors at home are subjected to kindergarten playground bully tactics delivered in a staccato twitter speak, examples such as "Sleepy Joe, Pocahontas, Little Marco" are but a few. This coming from a man with a thousand isles dressing complexion, flyaway hair, small hands and an even smaller brain. 

He’s a TV personality, a failed businessman with many bankrupted companies lying in his wake, he's a serial philanderer, bigot, misogynist and liar. He has a cult following that’s centred around this white power broker persona rooted in white supremacy and racism. Wherever he goes, he carries that role and that kind of persona, but ultimately right now what America needs is real leadership. He is incapable of providing that because that’s not who he is. This in itself should tell you everything you need to know about the state and health of the body politic in America today.

The fact that he officiates via twitter and through stooges such as Kayleigh McEnema the latest "Barbie Doll" press secretary is testimony to his delusional behaviour, I wonder if he grabbed her by the crotch  by way of an introduction? The list of people holding this post includes just one man Sean Spicer who visibly imploded in public under the strain of trying to defend the indefensible, all since then have been women which clearly begs the question, why would they lie for a President who shows nothing but contempt for their rights and gender? 

Trump has also succeeded by implanting his own picks, to manipulate the way the Attorney General's Office and the Department of Justice works in a way that undermines the integrity and professionalism of the lawyers and prosecutors who work there, and in turn subjugated the law into an arena for gaining partisan advantage and settling political grudges. Other Presidents have never asked nor expected their attorneys general to use the vast investigatory and prosecutorial power of the justice department itself to intervene in criminal cases to help political allies, to buy the silence of those who might threaten him, or to discredit political adversaries. That is a dangerous precedent being set in turbulent political times and can upset the fine balance that exists between the judiciary and politicians, a very new world order indeed.

I just hope that come November the people of the United States of America make the right choice and vote accordingly and restore some balance in the world which seems to have been taken over by right wing populism at the moment, it's very unsettling when the world is in the midst of dealing with a pandemic.

Some of you reading this will no doubt accuse me of the same juvenile transgressions in my criticism of Trump well sometimes you have to adopt the tactics of the transgressor to make valid points about their personality traits, but to be honest it's actually because I'm a sarcastic bastard and I totally lack objectivity when it comes to someone like Trump so as they say in America….."bite me".

© M.J. Sabine 2020





Lasse Fischer // Big Deep Breath

We should talk about something.

2J8K0237.jpg

In the aftermath of the European and Danish elections many might feel disillusioned, exhausted, and some even bitter. Let us take a collective breath and giant exhale as the dust settles. What did we learn? Well, for one we got to experience precisely how intense it is to live in a time where the cries for our attention are shriller than ever, at least according to my memory. The need for attention whether it be products or politics has always existed, but the commercialization of our attention is something rather new. Our electronic devices have made it laughably easy for anyone to gain access to us, and as such, our spaces of refuge from the hustle and bustle of everything around us have shrunk - and are still shrinking with remarkable speed.
Pling
Did you reach for your phone? Of course not, this is a text and there was no actual sound, but you get the picture.

Big Deep Breath

We have happily embraced this development with relatively little criticism, and even when we criticize we mostly do not act on our arguments against the invasion of our privacy and mental resting places. And we have become complaisant with this reality because we get used to how things are very quickly, especially if it involves more convenience and comfort for us. And so the great trade-off of our time is that of our private refuge for an endless catering to our needs. It is someone’s best interest for you to pay attention, but it will not always be in yours, no matter how flashy the screen might get. And so we get to the crux of this post.

It is easy to get riled up, and one should get their blood pumping from time to time over important issues, but with the way we live there is always a cause to bleed for. Being a big consumer of political commentary and news on Youtube I know how anger, sadness, frustration and utter disbelief can be summoned within minutes of the first press on a screen. It is crucial to get some distance once in a while. I recall overhearing a 16-year old punk kid discussing climate change the other day crying out ‘it is all too late, were going to die’, his green mohawk wiggled with fear and frustration as he talked. And while being at a barbeque at my parents place my brother in law decreed the then upcoming election to be ‘the most important in history’. I silently made a salad in the kitchen while he vigorously discussed this with my sister in the living room.

Big Deep Breath

I am not one to beat real and heartfelt issues to death with a big ‘all things are relative’ stick because there are genuinely causes for concern that should be taken serious, but such concerns require a measure of rest as well. When dealing with an unending stream of information it might be difficult to figure out when to take a break, but let me tell you, anytime is fine. Living in a constant stream of reasons for emotional upheaval isn’t healthy for anyone. Do it now, take a walk, drink a cup of coffee with a friend, paint something, put the phone away – take care of yourself. While you do that let us reaffirm a couple of truths and contemplate some well-meant pointers:
 
Consuming media without the time to reflect on the information given is merely consumption.

Some things are out of your control.

Seeing results take time.

Be ready to admit when you are wrong.

Getting upset is a valid response, but not always productive.

Striving for a positive mindset and perspective will greatly increase your quality of life.

Pay attention to your own, your family’s, and your friend’s well-being.

Take care of yourself, take a breather.