Oh, you too

I dropped by Australia briefly this week, and looked forward to getting away from the toxic nationalism that...what, what?

The news there was full of the 'citizenship crisis' in government, in which long-serving parliamentarians were found to have potentially divided loyalties due to birth or family ties to menacing foreign powers like Canada or England.

• BBC:  How a dual citizenship crisis befell an immigrant nation (link)

Also big in the rotation this week was an incident in which Australian senator Sam Dastyari - who has no citizenship issues - was harassed by racist punks in a university pub:

The senator is trying to get a beer. 

A far-right group — who call themselves patriots, as if patriotism somehow means harassing fellow citizens — start following him around, getting in his face, calling him a little monkey, a terrorist, a puppet of China. 

“Why don’t you go back to Iran, you terrorist?” 

“Is that halal?” they say, of the drinks he’s ordering. 

He tries to brush them. They say: “What race is Islam, mate? What race is Islam?”  

• The Weekend Australian:  Dastyari abuse: true blue? No. They’re yellow (link)

Australia, of course, didn't get completely away from race-based immigration policies until the 1970s.  

It's a nice country in other respects.