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Clive Palmer apologises to Chinese mongrels
$orry…
Clive Palmer has now shown what a shrewd operator he is. Many saw his apparent spray at the Chinese government as an off the cuff frustration as the QandA presenter pressured him on a commercial case he was embroiled in. Whether Clive realized it not (an we suspect with the money he has he can afford the best advice) he attacked at the most critical point.
Clive has shown he is able to legitimately convert financial power into political and media power.
This gave Clive Palmer two powerful weapons in his current cases against a Chinese business over money he is owed.
Mongrels, Bastards!
Palmer seemingly cornered, raises the stakes threatening to do the unthinkable.
The Chinese government hates scandals.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/mongrel
In Australian English ‘Mongrel’ means or mixed breed dog , applied to sports (particularly boxing) means tough aggressive man.
Mike Tyson’s boxing style might be described as Mongrel, tough, aggressive, and lacking complex technique.
When translated, the term Mongrel means mixed or hybrid.
Chinese are very sensitive on questions of race and race mixing and genealogy.
Bastard looses nothing in the translation but is generally considered more offensive in China than here, as the Chinese are very conservative in family matters.
Chinese are also very sensitive to insults in general, so much effort is spend on keeping up good appearances (saving face) it becomes a significant distraction in day to day life.
Chinese people eats dogs and wealthy people eat more dogs that those who are poor. Chinese people realize westerners find the idea of eating dog objectionable seeing dogs largely as beloved pets or animals of service. Even wild or feral dogs which are culled are not eaten in the west, eating dog s is seen as a cultural taboo through much of the west.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Bastard?s=t
Bastard also continues the theme of sexual improper conduct and adds in illegitimacy and despicable nature.
You have got more to loose than me. Game on!
The most curious thing about the uses of these insults is that they are an anachronism even for someone of Clive Palmer’s age. The terms are now obscure in language generally, and are considered locally only mildly offensive.
So a mildly offensive remark in the Australian vernacular translates via a dog whistle (pun intended) to a highly offensive slur against a litigation opponent very much under control of the Chinese government. It entirely possible this scandal has reduced the resolve of Palmer’s opponent in the court case due to Chinese Government political pressure. On the third party adjudicator side of the commercial case, the court is now under pressure to resolve the case in Palmer’s favor, as he is willing to damage trade relations with a very important international trade partner. Palmer’s PUP party has a controlling wedge in the senate, able to block any legislation the opposition wont support. The opposition is unlikely to support Liberal/national policy because of its shock doctrine budget.
That’s a hell of a gambit by a man who can afford to move large pieces on the board.
They backed down, my stones are this big.
Clive Palmer clearly is economically rational and hardly a man to do any thing without very careful precognition. Palmer openly admits he rarely attends the lower house where he is a member citing the fact his single vote there generally makes little difference in the outcomes. This in itself a dog whistle to the disenchanted vote who see both major parties as being out of touch and rightly seeing greens as being destructive Marxists. This was no accident, it was a carefully planned and disguised scandal to get leverage in his commercial case.
The apology was a week in forth coming so one can imagine the back room horse trading that was done to produce such an apology and smooth things over.
OK we can negotiate now.
How much did you say we owed you?
Billionaire mining magnates don’t apologize for free.
Best of all I’m tapping into nationalism and resentment of job losses to China, general dishonesty in Chinese business practices, and I’m dog whistling to the public that I’m a hero of the people strong enough to stand up against a bigger opponent.
Clive Palmer now has significant leverage in his commercial case, after all he would not appear on a leftist echo chamber like QandA without a good reason.
Money is always a good reason.
*Scoring political points a good ancillary benefit.
If you prefer ‘Return of the Jedi’ as an analogy this is what more or less happened.
ADMIN ADDITION:
How did the Chinese government feel about this?
Heres a clue, be sure to read the comment to this Chinese newspaper link.
Palmer United Party cages the beast
The garden variety lefties don’t want to admit it, but the biggest threat to Tony Abbott and his insane posse of neoconservatives is the wealthy mining magnate Clive Palmer.
Having clearly shown that political office can be effectively bought by throwing sufficient money at carefully chosen electoral and senatorial seats, he has now chosen to do something unexpected, caring about anybody else apparently. It’s fair to say Palmer is doing something slightly more honest that the typical billionaire, in that he is in office himself rather than buying a hollow man (politician). But in this sense you really see the agenda for what it is, rather then filtered and massaged through through a puppet. Hearing Palmer say ‘bullshit’ on a TV interview is refreshing and demonstrates that with enough money you can really say what you like.
So what did Palmer get for his investment?
One house of representatives seat. Palmer admits he often doesn’t attend parliament unless there is a division, declaring his one vote is often useless.
Three Senate seats, this is significant political capital in a very divided senate. This voting block give PUP effectively a kingmaker position. Palmer has used this to strike down the carbon tax repeal until electric price reductions have been added to protect the pocket of the lowly voter.
Can you hear it? The roars of ‘man of the people’?
Nope, the political left typically are deadly silent when a ‘rich bastard capitalist’ does something good for everybody. That’s the typical dishonest and blinkered thinking you can expect from the left.
So now Abbott and his mad ideology have been put in the cage by someone a bit more real. Perhaps Palmer now has another dinosaur to add to his theme park, an Abbottosarus, extinct since people starting calling bullshit.
there might be a Christmas this year now that Palmer has caged the beast of Abbottosaurus
We stole this picture from The Age, its grouse mate, nice work.
Clive Palmer in the Senate of Doom
Surprisingly (or perhaps not surprising given the size of the chequebook), Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party (PUP) has gained senate seats forming part of the wedge in the current senate.
Rumor has it he will vote against any bill until there is electoral reform.
What radical electoral reforms is he seeking?
Use of pens not pencils on ballot papers so votes cannot be altered after being cast.
Hardly radical, in this day and age.
ID required for voting, so that there can be certainty that people are not casting extra votes, or using other peoples votes.
Again hardly radical, in fact both recommendations seem quite sensible.
With the update senate vote count there are now just 8 senators in the wedge and the Liberal coalition will need all 6 to get a bill passed, being that the two PUP senators will vote no until electoral reform is implemented.
I guess we all suspected Clive would use his political clout to make himself more wealthy, He may still do that, but perhaps he’s too rich to care about money.
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