The Question
Is Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson using steroids?
Talking Points
- WNBA star Britney Griner swapped for arms dealer Viktor Bout
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy named TIME's person of the year
- Trump Org. found guilty on all counts in criminal tax fraud trial
- Raphael Warnock elected to Georgia Senate after run-off
- Microsoft-Activision deal blocked by the US FTC
- TSMC feted for its $40bn microchip factory in Arizona
- End of Covid Zero restrictions accelerated in China
- Mongolia's state palace stormed by protestors
- Australia's Parliament House rape trial got very, very political
- And all is NOT well in the House of Windsor
Deep Dive
This week we'll cover a couple of coups. A two-d'etat. A pair of putsches. A duet of depositions. Okay, that's enough. Onwards.
Duelling accusations in Peru
In Lima, the revolving door at the presidential palace is approaching the speed of sound. The country's first female president, Dina Boluarte , has been sworn in under extraordinary circumstances. Six presidents in five years — a level of political degeneracy rarely sighted outside of basket cases like Australia and the United Kingdom. And this wasn't a garden-variety spasmodic ejection over corruption allegations. The last guy, President Pedro Castillo, is history. Prisoner Pedro Castillo now faces charges of 'rebellion' for a power-grab. Confusing matters is the fact that Castillo's own supporters accuse the former president's political enemies of conducting their own stealthy, administrative coup. It all sounds a bit coup-coup.
Castillo was the surprise packet in the 2021 presidential election; a former teacher and farmer from the vast rural underclass. He edged out Keiko Fujimori (of Albert fame and genes). Castillo drew his support from the working poor in the countryside but it wasn't a fairytale South American leftist victory: he snuck in with a paltry lead of 44,000 votes. And that's where things start to diverge in interesting ways. Yes, Peru's right comprises agribusiness and minerals types who keep trying to shoe-horn in the corrupt fail-daughter of a borderline dictator. Yes, they have spent 18 months undermining the president , his cabinet, and their policies. And yes, every tool at the parliament's disposal was turned against the president. But Castillo's government was also completely shambolic! Churning through 80 ministers in 18 months is very funny. Failing to secure enough fertiliser for the country during growing season is not. Half of Peru's population is food insecure as it is.
Last week, Castillo faced his third impeachment vote. but he didn't like which way the breeze was blowing. So he announced that parliament would be dissolved ahead of new elections. And in the interim he would rule by decree. The thing is, Peru's constitution allows both the parliament and the president to kick one another out of office. And the finer details are what constitutional experts would call a real headache. In this case, Castillo's efforts to dissolve Congress only hardened the resolve of some members to hold the vote: Castillo's impeachment passed in a landslide. He made a runner for the Mexican embassy but was turned over to police by his bodyguards. In the space of a day he had traded the presidential palace for a cell in a police barracks outside the capital. If you can work out who coup'd whom, please write in.
Burnt Reichsbürgers
Meanwhile, Germany was adding to its own impressive history of abortive putsches. There was the weirdly-monarchical Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch of 1920 which was hobbled by a general strike in four days. And who could forget Adolf Hitler and Erich Ludendorff's ill-fated attempt to seize Munich via its beer halls in 1923? Those were the captivating, dynamic years. Then the First World War was lost, the civil war won (unless you were the Kaiser), and a nascent democratic republic was imperilled by socialist, communist, and fascist factions. The violence of the Freikorps loomed large, and power started flowing back to the old city states and free states. But to some in Germany this is not just history: it's a model.
Enter, the Reichsbürger movement . If you squint at it, the Reichsbürgers are like any reactionary revanchist movement (every country's got one). They want a Reich, a contiguous realm for Germans (as in, white, Christian Germans). And never you mind if some of it happens to be on the wrong side of the Polish, Czech, and Austrian borders. The idea was spawned by one Wolfgang Ebel, a railway traffic superintendent who grew so disgruntled with the Germany of 1985 that he named himself Reich Chancellor of an imaginary state. A small crowd gathered around him and together they spun up their fictitious utopia, even printing stamps and ID cards for one another. It all sounds quite cute... were it not for the whole Nazi thing.
Some Reichsbürgers get hot under the collar thinking about being subjects of a new German empire. Others pine for a different time, namely 1933-1945. All believe that the modern German state is ruled by shadowy foreign powers and has no legitimacy. Oh, and strictly no Jewish people.
After the Second World War ended, there wasn't much of a de-Nazification process in Germany. Most went to work in the West German government and military. And the old ideas have festered like wounds, in some segments of the German army . An entire unit of the special forces was disbanded because of its virulent, far-right, racist culture. Last year, a soldier attempted to provoke a race war by registering as a refugee and committing a series of false flag attacks.
Which just about brings us to this week, when thousands of German police swooped on members of a Reichsbürger conspiracy. At the centre of the ridiculous web was a distant relative of German royalty; Prince Heinrich XIII . Gathered around him were an ensemble of molten-brained QAnon-posting soldiers , ex-AfD hacks, and other assorted losers. They met in a castle (LOL) to plot an assault on the Bundestag, and overthrow the state. It was a ludicrous plot that was doomed to fail, and were it not for the violence involved, we'd have loved to see them try.
Worldlywise
South Korea's freight fright
A great many jobs (and some entire industries) could disappear tomorrow, and society would adapt just fine. But everything falls over without freight transport workers. Sure, it's good to build KnOwLeDgE eCoNoMiEs, but the world at large is the world of stuff. And stuff gets about on trucks and trains. We've just seen how important it is in the US, where the Senate spiked a bill that would award rail workers seven days sick leave. The spice must flow, etc.
In South Korea, it is the truckers who are agitating for their rights. Poor working conditions are ubiquitous. The pay is rubbish. Rising fuel costs and inflation are bending livelihoods out of shape. The essential nature of the industry makes it difficult for truckers (or teachers, or nurses) to engage in industrial action. But three weeks ago, the drivers behind the wheels of semi-trailers, oil-tankers, and cement mixers packed it in and sat down on the streets of Seoul. It is the freight workers who are striking to extend a minimum fee to the drivers of steel carriers and package delivery vans.
Their simple demands, leveraged using the most rational tool available to them, have been met with a closed fist by President Yoon Suk-yeol. The freshman leader has threatened to use 2004 laws to jail striking workers for up to three years, or impose $34,000 fines. His response has won some plaudits from the electorate ( fluctuating container freight from ports is biting into the stocks of everyday goods and petrol). But it's only sent more labour organisations onto the street. It's a strange time to be picking new fights when the president ought to be figuring out how old people are, and trying to exit a debt crisis .
An indecent civil code
A recent slate of changes made to Indonesia’s criminal code has drawn sharp interest — some justified, some prurient — at home and abroad. Historically, reforming the old Dutch colonial criminal code hasn’t been a particularly popular move. One notable example in 1998 triggered the protests that ultimately toppled Suharto. And when President Joko Widodo had a crack at it in 2019, the country ground to a halt under the weight of mass student protests. Now, Jokowi has had another go; this time ramming it through parliament in one week so as not to give opposition groups time to organise. Whether the ploy works will depend on the success of the coming civil disobedience and legal challenges.
The decision to include a ban on extramarital sex as part of these changes seems to be somewhat counterintuitive to the Indonesian government’s aim of ‘modernising’ the code. They are modernising it, but not in the obvious way. Indonesia is an increasingly devout country. So politicians of all stripes are staking out increasingly strident moral positions to shore up their right flanks. It's a race to the mosque, and the secularists are winning. For marginalised groups and women, the dangers are clear. The provision punishing extramarital sex and co-habitaiton outside of marriage with one year prison sentences are delik aduan, or complaint offences. This means only a family member – spouse, child or parent – can report someone, meaning another potential lever of coercive control against partners, and an opportunity to clamp down on the LGBT community .
The effects on freedom of the press from the criminal code also point to an obvious backslide in democratic processes . It is now illegal to ‘insult’ a public official, even if the allegations are true. This restricting of free speech also extends to protests, or “unannounced demonstrations”. Disappointingly, a good deal of the coverage on these events has focused on how Western holidaymakers in Bali will manage the "bonk ban". For sure, it must front of mind for the legions of sex tourists who converge on Bali. But it would be nice to consider the local effects from time to time.
The Worst Of Times
Carthago delenda est
The lights are back on in Carthage, North Carolina , after a bunch of hillbillies with assault rifles shot up power stations. Now, shooting at county property is as American as apple pie, but the police suggested that these infrastructure attacks were inspired by dark intents. Earlier in the year, a bunch of white-trash accelerationists shot up substations to bring on societal collapse, and start a race war. For anyone thinking of doing the same thing, we recommend a far more direct form of sabotage: stick a fork in your toaster.
Greek cops shoot another child
Clashes broke out in Greece's second city, Thessaloniki, on Monday. Rioters set things on fire (as is the local fashion) and threw molotov cocktails at police after yet another Roma teenager was on the receiving end of police brutality. The 16-year-old is fighting for his life after being shot in the head . His crime was leaving a petrol station without paying. It came in the same week as the anniversary march of an infamous police killing in Athens. The shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos in 2008 sparked the worst riots in recent history.
The Best Of Times
Age is just a really big number
Up until recently the oldest genetic material we had access to was bone matter from a one-million-year-old Siberian mammoth. Ah the folly of youth. As of this week, a team of researchers digging around Greenland's fjords has uncovered a rich world of DNA fragments some two-million-years-old. Reindeers, mastodons, hares, meadows of flowers, multiple tree varieties, and funghi were among the living things identified.
Renewables will overtake coal in three years.
Highlights
The Image
One of the world-historic Moai statutes on Easter Island/Rapa Nui: charred. A wildfire on the remote island has laid bare the conflict between those conserving land and those turning it to commercial use on the tiny island. Photo supplied by Reuters .
The Quote
"Crypto tokens are like pet rocks."
The Numbers
7 minutes 15 seconds underwater
- Kate Winslet has laid claim on the most coveted title in Hollywood: the on-set underwater breath-holding record. Winslet held her breath for over seven minutes while shooting James Cameron's Avatar 2: The Way of Water. She smoked Tom Cruise's previous record of six minutes.
7,600,000 new countryfolk
- Is it essential for a government to know how many people live within its borders? A United Nations report suggested that Papua New Guinea's population is around 17m — substantially higher than the 9.6m reported today. Some academics have questioned the methodology of the study but PNG Prime Minister James Marape concedes he simply doesn't know.
The Headline
"Anwar Ibrahim finally won Malaysia's worst job" — Foreign Policy . Perfect headline.
"Meet the ultrawealthy children of the world's richest man Bernard Arnault, vying to take over his LVMH empire in a real-life 'Succession' plot"
— Fortune . No thanks!
The Special Mention
After a few minutes use it is clear that OpenAI's ChatGPT large language model is unworthy of this week's Special Mention. Disappointment the whole way down. As an AI, I do not have the ability to experience or comprehend sexiness... As an AI, I do not have the ability to predict the future... It is impossible for me to determine the silliest thing that has happened this week... An algorithm would conclude that this puts ChatGPT out of the running. But we're not stupid computers. We're stupid people! So in a moment of untrammelled human ingenuity, we are awarding this week's Special Mention to ChatGPT.
The Best Long Reads
- Politico scratches away at Herschel Walker's campaign
- Financial Times puts a price on the world's oldest bank
- The Atlantic transcends with the human brain
The Answer...
The world's most-successful podcaster Joe Rogan asked the question : Is there any way for a 50-year-old to be that jacked sans a steroid stack? We'll let Dwayne respond in his own way (punch a hole through concrete, throw a fridge, overturn a bus, etc).
