Flag of convenience?

So this is what we’re getting outraged about now:

A major supermarket chain has realised certain products don’t sell very well and so they’ve decided there’s no point keeping them on shelves. I can only assume this has never happened before in human history, cos people are certainly carrying on as if that were the case; their sudden inability to purchase things they apparently weren’t purchasing anyway has driven them to madness. I first discovered the story via the estimable Terry Sedgwick, who posted this on FB:

In other words, “don’t let Woolworths tell you what to do and think, let ME tell you instead!” Needless to say, this got the dickheads on Twatter riled up and all rabble rabble rabble, and when Coles piped up to say they would be selling Oz Day merch, the dickheads just got more rabbly, and your humble scribe here was just… what the fuck is WRONG with all these people? Why do they care about this culture war bullshit? And if having Australiana matters so much to them, why do they apparently not ALREADY own it? Jesus fuck, but these people are embarrassing.

But is it just culture war bullshit (though obviously it is fully that), or is Dutts trying to distract us from something?

Peter Dutton was flown to a party at the Pilbara mine of Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, by another billionaire rich-lister, where he made a speech suggesting parents and teachers talk to children about the positives of the mining sector.
In a speech at Hancock Prospecting’s Roy Hill mine in November last year, Dutton repeatedly thanked those working in resources. He described the work carried out at the mine as a “national treasure”.
“We need to hear more parents tell their children that the schools they attend, and the cities they live in, are only possible because of the mining sector,” the federal opposition leader told the crowd.
“We need to hear more teachers tell the students that the roads, the bridges, the railways that we travel on have been constructed thanks to your sector. Too many of our teachers are telling kids to be ashamed of the fact that their parents work in the mining sector. We need to turn that around.”
Rinehart hosted the party at her iron ore mine on 22 November as part of a lavish celebration to mark national mining day – a celebration founded by Rinehart herself.

Obviously there’s nothing actually surprising about the Liberal Party and its leader being owned by Gina Rinehart, that’s been clear for years, but the fact that Dutton engaged in such an act of arse-kissing from within Gina’s pocket and seems to have more or less tried to hide the fact really makes him look like an appalling piece of shit if we ever doubted he was one. I can’t help but feel the fact that this news appears to have emerged on Wednesday and the fact that this Australia day bullshit kicked off on Thursday are connected somehow. Indeed, if I were REALLY inclined, I might even argue the supermarkets actually colluded with him to provide the distraction on his behalf…