What’s on

Beat Winter Blues at the Kinema

The Blues at the Kinema concerts con nue in June with the legendary Bondi Cigars on Friday 16 June, hosted by Narooma School of Arts.

“The Cigars’ meless and unpreten ous music has long merged rhythmic, rootsy grooves with blues, soul, funk and R&B,” said co-organiser Pe McInnes of Narooma School of Arts.

“So it’s no surprise they’re widely regarded as one of Australia’s greatest R&B bands, s ll producing great songs and fantas c live shows a er 30 years.”

Bondi Cigars

Coming to Narooma Kinema Friday 16 June – The Bondi Cigars Frank Corby, le , Eben Hale, Shane Pacey and Alan Bri on

The Bondi Cigars are led by Shane Pacey (guitar and vocals) and Alan Bri on (bass and vocals), two of the founda on members of the Cigars. Eben Hale (guitar and vocals) and Frank Corby (drums, percussion, vocals) round out the current lineup.

Support musician is Jake Hoskins, from Margaret River via Queensland.

“Jake is reputed to have an infec ous presence and sound, with shows full of high energy and feel-good, toetapping sounds,” Ms McInnes said. “We can look forward to Jake’s blues and roots style with catchy melodies, soul-powering vocals, great guitar and honest lyrics.”

Doors open 6pm; show starts 6.30pm. There will be a bar with wine, beer and cocktails, noodle boxes for vegans, vegos and meat eaters, and pizza.

Tickets cost $45. Buy ckets online through www.naroomaschoolofarts.com.au, not at the Kinema. If you but ckets by 7 June, go in the running raffle for Bondi Cigars merchandise announced on the night.

Batemans Bay’s Premier

Entertainment venue

Gadfly 289

By Robert Macklin

Last week, America’s President Joe Biden, 80, fell over. He was handing out graduation certificates to US Air Force students when his feet became tangled on stage and down he went. He was quickly up and about and later tried to make a joke of it.

Alas, it too fell flat.

So, here’s a confident prediction – something similar is going to happen again – probably more than once – in the lead up to the presidential election in November 2024. Each time it does, Biden will lose support, and the closer we get to the election the more he will dig in and press his case for re-election; the less chance a Democrat alternative will have to establish herself as a viable option to the Republican nominee, now almost certain to be Donald J Trump.

Already Biden trails the Republican front runner. Unless something totally unexpected occurs (always a possibility in gun mad America) in January 2025 Trump will resume his chaotic, narcissistic governance from the White House, backed by a rabble Congress and a compliant Supreme Court.

I have been inspired to point this out by the thoroughly admirable efforts of John Menadue who does Australia a great favour by publishing each week a collection of erudite articles in his Pearls and Irritations journal. This week he featured a 5000-word analysis of Australia’s need for a defence and security policy and the formula for arriving at the best possible result.

It was written by retired Major General Mike Smith who, we’re told, was Deputy Force Commander for the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor. He covered all the bases – the American alliance, the role of intelligence, parliamentary oversight, public engagement and debate, as well as the obvious involvement of diplomacy and collective regional bodies.

But here’s the thing: It presumes that America will stay the same. All the old Biden policies of moderate Chinese containment and ‘status quo’ for Taiwan will remain

General Smith is not the only oracle to dip his toe into that murky stream of consciousness. There’s an entire platoon of pundits parsing the same story, from Hugh White and John Blaxland to more retired Generals than you could poke a swagger stick at.

They gather like the witches of Macbeth around the stewpot crying, ‘Double, double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble,’ and into which they load all manner of ingredients from ‘eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and owlet's wing.’ robert@robertmacklin.com

Trouble is, their analyses might well be tasty and logical, but the world is full of surprises. Perhaps it’s unlikely that Pretend Emperor Xi Jinping, say, will be struck down by some deadly disease; or that North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will mistakenly drop a missile on Tokyo. But some shining Australian VC hero might be revealed as a murderer who drinks beer from a victim’s prosthetic leg, or Australian defamation law actually delivers a fair judgement.

Either way, doddering Joe Biden fell over his own 80-year-old feet, and that’s a fact. Americans don’t want a doddering President, and many will stay home rather than vote for him. Trump’s people by contrast would walk over hot coals to the voting booths.

It’s not yet inevitable, but chances are that Trump is on his way back to power. And not all the eyes of newt or toes of frog in the oracles’ cauldron will prepare us for the chaos awaiting.