The United States(!) of A

"I’ve never known someone to have so many connections to well known people as you Adam. Sports stars, politicians, gangsters, tv celebs you know em all."

indeed, he's kinda your cliche establishment aussie bogan sports billy...

but he's a pretty cool cat as well

been around like the town bike

a life well lived

burleigh wrote:

DOGE sliding it's way into IRS now. You beauty

That's going to be interesting.

indo-dreaming wrote:

burleigh wrote:

DOGE sliding it's way into IRS now. You beauty

That's going to be interesting.

It will indeed. Wonder of Donnie has filed his returns properly yet.

Great posts A12. Thanks

soggydog wrote:

Great posts A12. Thanks

Concur.
Any Qlders with Joh stories?

^^ as a grom on my first trip to Noosa we were refused petrol at a servo on the Goldy after the attendant servicing us noticed that my friend’s car Vicco plates and he had a vote Labor sticker on the back window with a “fuck off back to Victoria with your commie ideas” as we argued the toss! Hilarious looking back on this ….

GuySmiley wrote:

^^ as a grom on my first trip to Noosa we were refused petrol at a servo on the Goldy after the attendant servicing us noticed that my friend’s car Vicco plates and he had a vote Labor sticker on the back window with a “fuck off back to Victoria with your commie ideas” as we argued the toss! Hilarious looking back on this ….

Queenslander ey!
Least we play proper footy up here. :)

I've still got a vote for Joh sticker in my collection.
I can still hear him saying "Don't you worry about that."

Hahaha, about 10 years ago I was invited outside to settle a question I asked the manager of Port Douglas’ IGA about the price of some groceries. Gotta love the good ole boys of FNQ!

Before my time a bit, but something happened in qld.

https://m.

I opened the car door for Joh at Jupiters casino numerous times and didn’t matter if the cameras were there or not, he’d get out talking to nobody in particular repeating good evening good evening good evening hello hello hello , the bloke was a fucking nut job .

Supafreak wrote:

I opened the car door for Joh at Jupiters casino numerous times and didn’t matter if the cameras were there or not, he’d get out talking to nobody in particular repeating good evening good evening good evening hello hello hello , the bloke was a fucking nut job .

Haha that cracked me up. Great, to the point, description of Joh there Supa.

goofyfoot wrote:

[

I’ve never known someone to have so many connections to well known people as you Adam. Sports stars, politicians, gangsters, tv celebs you know em all.

Yeah blimey you’ve got some stories to tell adam12. And boy can you tell ‘em. They take me right along for the ride. Bloody compelling and easy to read, the way you spin a yarn. I remember that someone on here suggested that you write a memoir. I think you replied that you couldn’t really be arsed, and that if you did, you’d end up a belated victim of the Underbelly Wars. Or something like that. Blimey again! My suggestion then would be to change the names etc. and bang out a crime novel. Seems like every other bugger is. Cash in. There’s a series there. Melbourne Noir with ace law student somehow turned nightclub impresario as protagonist. No doubt a story in itself. Fed to the reader in fragments as we go? Lurching from one perilous encounter with colourful local identities to another, despite best (or otherwise) intentions. Suspect you wouldn't have to overly exagerrate. Hard to come up with a credible hero (anti-hero perhaps?) and sense of place in such an overcrowded genre where there’s no shortage of clichés. You’ve got both without even trying. Look at it as though you’d be doing historians a favour. I’m guessing that the world you inhabited represents a time and a subculture that hasn’t been so well documented in fiction. I'd be the last to know, but reckon I'd get a vicarious thrill reading about it. And as noted, you’ve got more than a few insights into the cast of characters who make the dark heart of the whole joint tick. Couple of anecdotes you wrote a while back about your nightclub days already read like a somewhat darker and equally comic version of Shane Maloney’s Murray Whelan novels. Any editors or publishers out there, do yourself a favour!

I’m sure you’ve heard various versions of all this shit before, so I’ll stop the unsolicited advice and let you be on your way. A signed copy of the first edition hardback would be good though.

@Goofy
"I’ve never known someone to have so many connections to well known people as you Adam. Sports stars, politicians, gangsters, tv celebs you know em all".

@Goofy,
Whatever I ever posted here about any of those people or those stories or stuff I've done or seen done or world's I traversed, it's just the PG rated tip of a big dirty iceberg. If we could sit down in the flesh one day and I could bring my brother as a memory prompt and because he has most of the photos, I could run you through the whole thing, tell you some of the stories I could never tell in public and like I do some days now, you would sit there wondering how a no talent not that smart or good looking big mouthed and probably a danger to himself and others little shit like me did all that too.
Sometimes you plan a life and find out life had it's own plan for you.
I could keep going here for days, even on the famous white haired politicians stream, the house I used to talk cricket to Henry Bolte in, that Bob Menzies used to sing "Little Adaminiby" to me when I was a baby in, that I used to sit in his famous Rolls Van Der Plus parked out the front in and pretend I was driving Dame Patti sitting in the back around in while Bob was inside with my grandad, was one house up from where Geoff Whitlam was born. Pure coincidence.
I met Geoff too! Was on TV with him!
Geoff thought I was a girl!
(I was very young and pretty at the time so I can't blame him for that.)
Fark, I've even got Harold Holt stories too!
Saw Zoot doing their "Elanor Rigby" cover in the backyard at Holt's place in Portsea at his wife's b'day party once, with Rick Springfield on lead, years before he ever laid eyes on Jesse's girl, stayed in that house just after he went missing, I know all his goss! Red hot rootin' tootin' philanderer old Harold!
(Fuck I wish I could tell a Sam Newman story I found myself telling my neighbor the other day, @Goofy and boys I reckon you would love it.)
It's all true @Goofy and it all happened and even I don't believe some of it.

@Guy Smiley. thanks Guy, In answer to your question, having been around all those people and those times and knowing them as I do I doubt even the current ALP would pre select Menzies era conservatives these days!
The line has moved right for all of them.
When I hear the current LNP and their backers and propaganda machine and zombie following talk about Australian conservatism or Bob Menzies and what he thought or stood for my fucking skin crawls.
There was a reason he called it the Liberal Party.
Those guys, that era, it was a different world. They were war era, they lived with the rations, rich and poor. They knew what we had was worth "conserving" and "progressing" because they knew how close they came to losing the lot. They actually gave a fuck, even the one's that didn't. They didn't spend their spare time viewing investment properties or setting up Bahamian tax dodges or negative gearing. They volunteered! Legacy, Jay Cees, Lions Clubs, on and on. everyone did it, rich, middle or poor. My grandad did more unpaid work in his career than paid. The politics was still dirty, but compared to now? Old Bob has been spinning in his grave so hard since about the leadership of John Hewson I'm surprised it hasn't triggered some kind of singularity event and opened an alternate universe.
Maybe it has, because that is where the Libs are at now.
@Stu's on to it, he wrote a post the other day with the magic word "reactionary".
There's a few more I'd add to that list too, and none of them are or are within a bulls roar of what Bob and those guys were on about., their liberal conservatism.
The faux worship by these corrupt self interested turds of him is sickening.
They need to get Bob Menzies name out of their dirty mouth's and stick with sanctifying the rodent Howard as their deity.
Way more appropriate.

^^ more great reading from your chronicles @adam12

Yep, reactionary says it all, if only @blowin was about these days, he’d be taking us to task over its use ….. WGAF, bahahaha, it’s 100% the right word.

Cheers mate

Describing little Johnny as a rodent is very accurate. A wouldn’t be dead for quids type book would be great A12 .

Supafreak wrote:

Describing little Johnny as a rodent is very accurate. A wouldn’t be dead for quids type book would be great A12 .

@supa,
aaah, middle of the night reply post/whizz (left the computer on), I may be turning into Jeffy! (you're gonna miss Jeffy I reckon)
I could have been more accurate re. JWH, I could have prefaced it with "fucking". "Fucking rodent John Howard" sounds better, rolls off the tongue better.
And the "dead for quids" one would be me if I ever published all that, "suicide by gangster" would be the COD on my death certificate, bet the house on it, and what the lawyers would be prepared to sign off on would make it a pretty thin book in the end anyway I reckon.

“He felt like somebody had taken the lid off life and let him look at the works.” Dashiell Hammett The Maltese Falcon

Supafreak wrote:

I opened the car door for Joh at Jupiters casino numerous times and didn’t matter if the cameras were there or not, he’d get out talking to nobody in particular repeating good evening good evening good evening hello hello hello , the bloke was a fucking nut job .

my impression was a peaNUT job, he did that one I believe.

Seeing its Saturday for those interested in Trumps by 12:00 Saturday call.

Bibi was a bit more diplomatic and said if the hostage deal doesn't go down on Saturday then the war is back on.

So it did work Hamas backed down and said the deal is back on three more hostages return today.

Going to interesting to see if they are in the same condition as the last lot, one was quite chubby faced to begin with other two just average.

The man just keeps getting better:
https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/trump-bars-federal-funding-schools-c...

indo-dreaming wrote:

Seeing its Saturday for those interested in Trumps by 12:00 Saturday call.

Bibi was a bit more diplomatic and said if the hostage deal doesn't go down on Saturday then the war is back on.

So it did work Hamas backed down and said the deal is back on three more hostages return today.

Going to interesting to see if they are in the same condition as the last lot, one was quite chubby faced to begin with other two just average.

Hamas need to be finished. The carry on with those paraded hostages is fucked up.
Waving their new shiny guns around all masked up.
Hamas don’t care about their people, they are waving a red flag at a bull and the bull is about the fucking charge.

indo-dreaming wrote:

Seeing its Saturday for those interested in Trumps by 12:00 Saturday call.

Bibi was a bit more diplomatic and said if the hostage deal doesn't go down on Saturday then the war is back on.

So it did work Hamas backed down and said the deal is back on three more hostages return today.

Going to interesting to see if they are in the same condition as the last lot, one was quite chubby faced to begin with other two just average.

Is trump going on Israel time or US time , isn’t it still Friday in the US ? If all the hostages aren’t released isn’t all hell supposed to break loose like we have never seen before ? I know you can’t take Trump at his word but wouldn’t this threat if not carried out make him look a bit weak in his enemies eyes ? What’s the all hell bit ? Is it tariffs on hamas ?

quadzilla wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

I opened the car door for Joh at Jupiters casino numerous times and didn’t matter if the cameras were there or not, he’d get out talking to nobody in particular repeating good evening good evening good evening hello hello hello , the bloke was a fucking nut job .

my impression was a peaNUT job, he did that one I believe.

Don't you worry about that....
Just feeding the chooks...

Must have crossed paths with you at some point supa, was working at casino 89-94.....

andy-mac wrote:

quadzilla wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

I opened the car door for Joh at Jupiters casino numerous times and didn’t matter if the cameras were there or not, he’d get out talking to nobody in particular repeating good evening good evening good evening hello hello hello , the bloke was a fucking nut job .

my impression was a peaNUT job, he did that one I believe.

Don't you worry about that....
Just feeding the chooks...

Must have crossed paths with you at some point supa, was working at casino 89-94.....

I was there from day one in 85 , did 4 years so may have just missed you . I worked there as a brickies labourer for 2 years when it was being built . Funny story how I jagged the job , commissionaire of the concierge , what a title , only funnier thing was my outfit with all the fruit . Best part of job besides the tips were my hours 4.30 pm to 1.00am , got to surf everyday.

Supafreak wrote:

andy-mac wrote:

quadzilla wrote:

Supafreak wrote:

I opened the car door for Joh at Jupiters casino numerous times and didn’t matter if the cameras were there or not, he’d get out talking to nobody in particular repeating good evening good evening good evening hello hello hello , the bloke was a fucking nut job .

my impression was a peaNUT job, he did that one I believe.

Don't you worry about that....
Just feeding the chooks...

Must have crossed paths with you at some point supa, was working at casino 89-94.....

I was there from day one in 85 , did 4 years so may have just missed you . I worked there as a brickies labourer for 2 years when it was being built . Funny story how I jagged the job , commissionaire of the concierge , what a title , only funnier thing was my outfit with all the fruit . Best part of job besides the tips were my hours 4.30 pm to 1.00am , got to surf everyday.

Haha classic... yeah missed ya.
I was in F&B, shift 3pm-11pm.. yep great shift and lifestyle for surfing.....
And partying back in the day.

Supafreak wrote:

indo-dreaming wrote:

Seeing its Saturday for those interested in Trumps by 12:00 Saturday call.

Bibi was a bit more diplomatic and said if the hostage deal doesn't go down on Saturday then the war is back on.

So it did work Hamas backed down and said the deal is back on three more hostages return today.

Going to interesting to see if they are in the same condition as the last lot, one was quite chubby faced to begin with other two just average.

Is trump going on Israel time or US time , isn’t it still Friday in the US ? If all the hostages aren’t released isn’t all hell supposed to break loose like we have never seen before ? I know you can’t take Trump at his word but wouldn’t this threat if not carried out make him look a bit weak in his enemies eyes ? What’s the all hell bit ? Is it tariffs on hamas ?

I would expect Israel time, but it's irrelevant really

Because Trump also put the ball in Bibi's court and made it clear it was ultimately Bibi's decision and Trump has made this even more clear a few times since.

The whole thing was actually a smart move by Trump, what it did was show Hamas that USA gives full support to Israel and that Trump has even less patience than Israel with Hamas playing games, if it was up to Trump the deal would be all hostages back by Saturday or it's back to war on Hamas.

This narrative is the exact opposite of Biden, if this happened under Biden, Biden would be blaming Israel and putting pressure on them to satisfy Hamas to save the deal and Hamas would be rubbing their hands together after creating division between Israel and USA and also creating division between Israel public and Bibi and no doubt drag it out for a few weeks or milk more out of the deal in their favour

Anyway for Bibi it's not realistic to take the same position as Trump, if he did it would highly likely mean, hamas says' no deal and the war starts again.

And thats not what the majority of Israeli public want, most want to see the first stage of the deal completed and as many live hostage's returned as possible.

There is 17 left to be returned in the first stage six live, nine are likely dead, so this week and next week are real important deals, after that it will be bodies only, so not as important.

IMHO and many others the second stage of the deal will never happen and the war instead will restart, but i guess we will wait and see.

BTW. The reason why Hamas would say no deal under Trump's all hostages returned call is Hamas cant afford to give up all the prisoner's because its the only leverage they have, plus they know the war is likely to restart anyway, so its smart for them to milk as much out of the deal before then and delay things as they prepare for battle again.

My girlfriend worked at Jupiters for a couple of years in the restaurant around '91. I was up at the Sheraton Mirage '91-'98.

Small world.

Edit: shift work and surfing go hand in hand.

zenagain wrote:

My girlfriend worked at Jupiters for a couple of years in the restaurant around '91. I was up at the Sheraton Mirage '91-'98.

Small world.

Edit: shift work and surfing go hand in hand.

Garden Cafe?
Yep Goldie in 90's doing hospo shift work was pretty epic looking back.

@Supa, you've posted some great stuff on here over the journey, but that one....those two shots...I've got so much I could say...but I'm almost speechless....I've sat here grinning at it for about five minutes...so many thoughts...

The outfit, FMD.
Like some kind of dandy light horseman. Still got it? It would be good to see a then and now comparison! Would it still fit?
The feathers...!!!
Fuck I would have loved to have put you on an 80's King Street door in all that get up!
Money couldn't buy the kind of entertainment that would have been!

The fingers, both shots, the first and second fingers there @Supa...they are talking to me...those things are ...like they are looking for something! I think I know what it is too! They are two dangerous looking digits there, bet they could write an X rated novel on their own those two.

The bitches! Wow! the look on that brunettes face! That finger there just dangling like that over the blonde! Despite their somewhat modest, not outstanding physical appearance I must say, they look like a couple of aunties on a night out, and the smiles, that shot looks...like someone is in danger there somehow..not sure if it is them or you.

I could go on riffing but there is something in that shot I do recognise, I know it well, I've seen it before many times, including the mirror around that era...it's the look in your eyes @Supa, I know that look...in that second shot it's there with that grin...those eyes, that slightly shit eating grin, coupla bitches under each arm, you would have fit right in back in my world then @Supa, could have rode shotgun with me with that face, and those dangerous looking fingers, that aura I see in shot two.
Great photos.

@A12 , you have a good eye , it was designed on the light horse brigade uniform . As for the 2 ladies the blonde is my auntie and her friend up from Adelaide on holidays so you were on the money there too . I met every crook , crooked cops , politicians , hollywood stars and some really bizarre individuals. The white shoe brigade of the day ruled . Some great live music venues & sunday session beer gardens . Fond memories but glad I got out , wouldn’t be dead for quids .

Supafreak wrote:

@A12 , you have a good eye , it was designed on the light horse brigade uniform . As for the 2 ladies the blonde is my auntie and her friend up from Adelaide on holidays so you were on the money there too . I met every crook , crooked cops , politicians , hollywood stars and some really bizarre individuals. The white shoe brigade of the day ruled . Some great live music venues & sunday session beer gardens . Fond memories but glad I got out , wouldn’t be dead for quids .

@supa, well apologies to your aunt for how I referred to her and her friend firstly and as for getting out, I hear you, and reckon, as much as I love where I live, you ended up with a better out than I did. Extra points there. Enjoy your day in paradise.

Yep- Garden Cafe Andy, couldn't remember the name.

She was a gorgeous little beach girl, looked like Rachael from Friends. She fucking hated it- got monstered by drunken idiots. Dunno how she lasted the year. Ended up getting a job in a fashion store in Pac-fair. Broke my heart.

I reckon when the Casino was built and Miles Buisson was murdered it seemed the coast changed overnight- and not for the better.

Good days, but I don't miss the Goldy much except for the waves.

Btw- great stories from A12 above.

I like some of the past ones where he genuinely feared for his life.

Nothing makes you feel more alive when you're in danger of losing it.

I've met Joh and Flo a couple of times in a service capacity and they were always very nice.

I got some seedy Goldy stories too- I'll write about them one day.

Here we go again. How malnourished will these next 3 humans be.
https://x.com/ShehabAgency/status/1890635763915571334

zenagain wrote:

Yep- Garden Cafe Andy, couldn't remember the name.

She was a gorgeous little beach girl, looked like Rachael from Friends. She fucking hated it- got monstered by drunken idiots. Dunno how she lasted the year. Ended up getting a job in a fashion store in Pac-fair. Broke my heart.

I reckon when the Casino was built and Miles Buisson was murdered it seemed the coast changed overnight- and not for the better.

Good days, but I don't miss the Goldy much except for the waves.

Sally?
For some reason, that name comes to mind.
Miles, yeah, that was so heavy. He was good mates with my flat mate's brother. Such a sad time. Senseless...

That Cafe was 24 hrs. After 11 it was a nightmare. After 2am on a Saturday night it was a circus...

Drunken dick heads who had just lost a lot of $$ not very pleasant....

There were some very pretty girls working at casino, not a bad gig for a youngun....

Fark Andy- yes, Sally.

And you know what- Supa looks Damn familiar as a young'un.

Jeez- 6 degrees and all that.

zenagain wrote:

Fark Andy- yes, Sally.

And you know what- Supa looks Damn familiar as a young'un.

Ha classic.
Yeah she was a great girl.
Dunno how remembered, but I do remember she said her bf worked at Sheraton.
Think she was studying hospitality/ business at Griffith uni with you?

Small world.

All the best Zen....

Jeez- 6 degrees and all that.

Ha ha! Trippy. Yeah, top girl- right girl, wrong time. We were both studying business.

You too man. Somehow somewhere I reckon all of our paths would have crossed.

zenagain wrote:

Ha ha! Trippy. Yeah, top girl- right girl, wrong time. We were both studying business.

You too man. Somehow somewhere I reckon all of our paths would have crossed.

Yeah the surf world is a small world.... :)

burleigh wrote:

Here we go again. How malnourished will these next 3 humans be.
https://x.com/ShehabAgency/status/1890635763915571334

Dont be surprised if they aren't, last week was the last of the older hostages two in their 50's (52,56) so had no choice it was the bottom of that older males barrel. (others that are older are only bodies)

This week they have a lot more too choose from younger males 29, 36, 46 so expect they would have picked guys in better shape to avoid negative press two weeks in a row.

Just worked out that Hamas are carrot cakes have yas?

andy-mac wrote:

zenagain wrote:

Ha ha! Trippy. Yeah, top girl- right girl, wrong time. We were both studying business.

You too man. Somehow somewhere I reckon all of our paths would have crossed.

Yeah the surf world is a small world.... :)

Indeed it is. Did chauffer driving on the Goldy 2000/2001 and Jupiters was one of the main pick up and drop off points. Spent alot of time coming and going from there under the tutelage of the great Bradley Charles Stubbs.
Also spent a shit load of hours in Orchid/Cavill ave in the wee hours of the morning picking up partyers. Was fun at the time.

I distrust a close-mouth man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things.

Gold Coast Limos used to be cheaper than taxis and less of a hassle.

I was once 'escorted' out of Jupiters, via a side door, by several large individuals and an extremely well-dressed man with a walkie talkie.
And by 'escorted', well, I think you get the drift.
Those guys have zero sense of humour.

tubeshooter wrote:

Gold Coast Limos used to be cheaper than taxis and less of a hassle.

I was once 'escorted' out of Jupiters, via a side door, by several large individuals and an extremely well-dressed man with a walkie talkie.
And by 'escorted', well, I think you get the drift.
Those guys have zero sense of humour.

Just hope it was not the exit without the CCTV.
Use to rough up a few the ol Jupiters security.

Not sure andy-mac, but I remember it led to a bushy area a fair way away from the main entrance.
T'was only a mild touch up, considering some the stories I have heard.
I was actually on a roll that night and in a pretty good mood, but I did have too much to drink and got a bit a cheeky with a couple of the staff. My bad, but I wasn't being agro or anything, just thought I was being funnier than I was, as drunk people often do. No excuses, lesson learned.

One day long ago in a land far away, two men stood on opposing banks of a big river, staring at each other.
Eyeballing.
It was a cold, bleak day but there was something else beside the weather in the air.
Something human.
It was hate.

Big hate. Massive hate. The kind of hate that is so big it can create it's own weather sometimes, you can smell it and taste it in the air, hear it's thunder, see it's power.
These two men had hate like that.
For each other.

Because despite some similarities, they both had the same first name for a start, and they were both, you could say, visitors to the land they now stood staring at each other across that river on, they had a difference that was so big, so fundamental, that it echoed through time itself.

The land through which that river flowed had seen that kind of hate before, the hate of war. It was a land of war, beautiful, vast, dangerous and owned by people who knew all about war.
They were masters of it, so good that they were and are today still, known as warrior people.
They got so good at it and did so much of it they were able to derive great wisdom and human understanding from it, some even got so good it became like a game.
They didn't even have to kill or injure their enemy to win, just an act that let their enemy know that they could have already if they wanted was enough for victory, their warrior pride did the rest.

And on that very day those two men stood staring across that river with that big hate between them, some of those warrior people were fighting a war in other places on those lands, with other visitors, and there were even more visitors on those lands fighting each other too. There were many more wars before and after this day.

Like I said it is a land of war.

And our two protagonists standing there hating on each other across that river had also been at war, and besides staring, they were really pausing in the midst of it, a decisive moment was about to occur, in what would be the most decisive of the many wars those lands had or would ever see, and they were regrouping and planning for that.
And staring at each other.

Now yes they had the same name these men, it was "George" by the way, and a huge disagreement that had led to war, that was really just about an idea when it's all boiled down, but as men they were very different.

One of them was quite mad, as in insane mad, and probably a coward*, but he was very powerful and had much wealth and a powerful army and he could pretty much exert his power at will and no one could challenge him because all the power was his and his alone in his world.

The other George was brave and very smart and although he was inexperienced at war, and the mad George and his people were not, they had fought many like this, the brave George was a natural leader, a great one, so good history would go on to remember him as one of the greatest that ever lived, Hall of Fame.
Brave George had challenged the all encompassing power of Mad George, he had a better idea about power and who should own it and have the right to exercise it, it wasn't his idea, it was an old one, ancient in fact, started by a Greek Senator a long time ago. But Brave George and his followers, of which there were many, had worked up this idea into not just a great one and better than Mad George's, but one that they were willing to fight and die for, to go to war over.
It would want to be a good idea.
And it was.

So they had banded together and declared they were independent from Mad George who was trying to use his personal unlimited power to put them down, and this great war had begun, this War of the Georges.

The idea that had caused all of this, about power, that brave George and his army were fighting for was the opposite to mad George's.
Mad George was not just mad, but he was actually an hereditary English King, he didn't really need to be brave or smart to lead like the other George, his merit was that he was alive and the male son born first in line to the last relative in his family tree that had owned all the power.

That part of his idea alone, the succession to power, had led to some, well, shall we say, problems at times. Problems that led to conflict that led to hate that went big hate and....you know the rest.

That wasn't so much what brave George was fighting about, it was the power itself of that mad English King that was his problem, how he passed on that power when he died was just a part of it.

Now mad George couldn't do all the work needed to exercise that power himself, obviously, he was mad as a march hare to start, but he didn't have to, because he had all the power, he and he alone could decide who to "lend" some of it to so things got done, and so he had enough people who would fight for him to protect his power, or make it bigger. And he could give some of it, and some of his wealth to others too, but really it was all his still, and his decision, and no matter who you were or whatever power you might have, he could take it, or do whatever he wished.

He didn't have to share it around, he could just force people to do things such was his power. But some King's, even this crazy one, had this arbitrary thing they call benevolence, so when they felt like it, some would be kind or generous, but there was no hard rule about it. No rule at all really, because even if there was, the King could change it all on a whim. The King's liked it like that, it kind of kept everyone on their toes, praising and worshiping them and never questioning them, even when they were wrong, or mad, like mad George, because they wanted his benevolence and feared his wrath and life and death power.

George was a King, a mad one at that, but no matter how mad his exercise of his one man unlimited power got, or unfair or cruel or stupid his decisions were, he could and would kill you if he wanted, or at least destroy your life, so he was more like a God than a man or a leader of men, his word, his wish, was the law, even if the laws at the time said otherwise.

All that power in the hands of just one man.

There is even a word for it..."autocracy", loose translation, "one power".

It's a great system if you are say, mad George or some of his favoured people, but pretty terrible, unfair unjust and really diminishes, extinguishes any freedom for the people the King "owns".
They hated it.
Anyone would really.
Brave George and his people felt like that.

They had a better idea, and they were in a new land and wanted to stay there and make it their own, away from the problems they left their own lands for, including this "one" power King who was there in these new lands now too and wanted them for himself.

Now the story of what happened to the actual owners of those lands, those warrior people, is not so important here, but it is still very important and is still going today, but we need to put that aside and hear about brave George's idea for a while.

Brave George was, unlike many hereditary Kings, a wise and fair and very principled man, like his followers. They believed in lofty things, like freedom, and liberty, and justice and equality. High ideals.
The most important thing they believed, the old Greek's idea they had worked up brilliantly and kept working on even after the War of the Georges, was about who owned and exercised the power.

Their idea, based on those fundamental principles, that they and all like them who followed believed so much in that they would go to war for, die for, was that from now and forever, they would never be subject to the power of one, never again a King, that power would reside, forever, equally, fairly, justly with all. With the people, with the many. And no matter who it got "lent" to so it could be exercised because , obviously, everyone couldn't do it, that person or group of people would never be allowed to own any more of it than the equal share they held as one of the many, no matter what position or person the many may have fairly and equally and justly allowed to exercise it. their power that never leaves them.
Even an election mandate, no matter how big it's majority or how loved the candidate was or how smart or dumb he was, or good or bad he was at his work. He never got power.
All he did was win the majority vote in the fair and equal and just contest to decide what person got the job of doing the work of the body or office who had limited, shared, cross checked and balanced, with regular contests set like clockwork to decide if they did a good enough job with the exercise of power they never owned, that always stayed with the many. No matter what.

There was more to it, but the whole point of it was that there would or could never be another King.
They would all fight to the death to stop that ever being how power was owned again.
The King would have to kill them all.
Even the people who came after brave George all felt the same, and many died in the name of that ideal.

There is a word for it, what they were fighting for, "democracy" loosely translated "many power".

So at some point on that cold bleak day at that river during that pause in that decisive war, the outcome of which would set the course of those lands and it's people for the next quarter of a millennia, brave George decided he had had enough of this staring match, and although his words are recorded for history, and they were great words and lofty ideals, loosely translated, he said to his men,

"Fuck this shit. Fuck this King. I'm willing to die for this!"
And his men agreed.

So they got in some boats and crossed that cold river, and after many heroic battles, they beat the army of mad George all the way off those lands and back to England and the mad bastard had to sign what amounted to a surrender.

And a great country was born, many say the greatest ever. And the brilliant men of that country set up a great system of laws and rules to make sure they never had one person who could take part or any or all of their equally shared power ever again, no matter what or who or what office they held, based on their lofty ideals of how free men should live, liberty, equality, justice. And they spent many years developing more rules on democracy, the most important for this story being the separation of powers, something many readers of this story have heard but few understand. They should. They are key.

So even the Office of President when exercising the people's power is always limited, they never get unlimited power, because that is the opposite of democracy, that is a King , and another body, the people's chamber, has the ability to do some of the people's work too, and to review and sometimes reject what the President's Office decides, with similar checks and balances on their work also, and similar limits, and yet another body, the Supreme Court has the power to make the expert decisions when there is a disagreement over who's job it is, or how the rules work.

And the whole thing is about power, and it's exercise, and the truth and moral of this story is that any man or woman in the job of Office of President has none, ever, and never will, elections, popularity, even bravery like brave George's doesn't mean a thing.
No power.
All they ever get is the job, on behalf of the people who own the power, for a limited time and with specific limits on what and how much power they can use. For example, they have no power, even if they issue an executive order, to order financial audits of government departments, the people's place has that power. The person in the job of the Office of President is required to nominate people to key roles, but the people's place vets and approves them, not the President.
Shared, separate powers. Limited powers under the Constitution. No Kings.

And the first man they elected fairly and equally and justly in the job of the Office of the President, and fittingly, was brave George himself, and he did his work in that job well, but even brave George never got any power, any more than his equal share like everybody else, and his rules and limits were all spelled out in the great document they created called the Constitution.
Same for every President.
It contained many words and many brilliant ideas, but really it was all about never again having a King who had or thought he had all the power.

The story of American democracy and the War of the Georges.

And it all ended about a month ago.
After all that.
A mad King has taken all their power again.
And none of what brave George and his people and all that followed them did mattered anyway, all that spillled blood of brave good men, because it seemed there were no more men like brave George and his people back then around to stop him anymore.
Something new has begun.
Not the Democratic Constitutional Republic of the United States of America.
It died quietly in it's sleep, distracted, confused, aggrieved.
And the new mad King is making up his new rules as he goes along.
And some stupid people, people who weren't with or like brave George and his people and forgot or didn't understand what "power by, of, for the people" really means, what a democracy, free, just, equal, really is, and what America is and what the story about power in America is about, are clapping.
And fuck me dead, there are some of them here, on Swellnet.

True story.

*(maybe one bit embellished for effect,) Mad George was a coward, and the truth is he wasn't actually even there that day, his boys were repping him. But it would have wrecked my opening so....

True story, indeed, Adam. And, even though this new story is in it's beginning chapters, we already have a rough idea of it's arc. And still they clap. The fever won't break until it's host is broken.
What's that saying i keep seeing here??? Ah yes, interesting times we live in.

wax24 wrote:

True story, indeed, Adam. And, even though this new story is in it's beginning chapters, we already have a rough idea of it's arc. And still they clap. The fever won't break until it's host is broken.
What's that saying i keep seeing here??? Ah yes, interesting times we live in.

Hey Waxy, what is the vibe like over there in SF?
People happy, scared, or just life as usual?