Saturday, February 07, 2015

In which Mr Abbott channels Sophie and the thoughts of the reptiles ...

First a survey of the blood-spattered scene:







Yes the Daily Terror's Photoshop artist scores a knockout blow, and things are looking grim for Abbott in the cage fight of life.

Is there no peace anywhere?


Uh huh. They do things differently up above the Berrimah line.

Meanwhile, the reptiles below the Berrimah line are in a state of uproar, agitation and high excitement.

Naturally there are old favourites like Akker Dakker pounding the shoe on the floor:



The pond is simply revelling in the fuss, especially as it involves one of those ethical dilemmas routinely summarised as Abbott's choice (get lost Sophie).

You see, if Abbott uses strong arm tactics and decides the call for a spill with a show of hands, and it goes in his favour, the seething resentment will be something special to see, as it foments and bubbles and then erupts.

But if Abbott allows a secret ballot, the chances are high that the vote will be close, or might go against him, and then where would he be? If it's close, it's mortally wounding; if he loses, there's the exit door, and don't slam it on the way to the sulking room.

It's so sweet, it's so delicious, and for all the talk of strong government and not emulating the Labor party, that's way too late. It's already happened. Just look at the Daily Terror front page, the only one with the decency to break out the Photoshop and treat the ruckus the way the entire Murdoch press treated the Labor party ructions.

Look at the way the reptiles at the lizard Oz have attempted to handle the affair. With utmost discretion. A determined, heroic-looking and defiant PM, a prattish-lookin, smirking Turnbull and an unseemly, trout-mouthed zinger Bill:


There were the usual attempts to blacken the revolutionaries:


Uh huh.

But what does this prove?

(a) that the current Liberal party is full of barking mad, offensive right wing types of the fundamentalist kind.
(b) that there's bugger all difference between Randall making a cheap gay joke, and Abbott trampling all over gay marriage rights. What's the more offensive and damaging?
(c) that there's bugger all difference between Simpkins making bizarre comments about Halal, and Abbott using security and Islamic fundamentalists as a way of invading privacy and shoring up his power in the most offensive scare mongering way. What's the more damaging?
(d) So it's news that even barking mad conservatives have had a gutful of Abbott?

That's the trouble when you try on bitchiness and being a journo with very little brains but a lot of kool aid in the system, can't imagine where the thinking might lead ...

You mean even barking mad conservatives might prefer Turnbull to Abbott? How rich is that message? Even climate denialist Jensenist - here have a can of coke with bonus carbon dioxide - would rather have Turnbull than Abbott? How bizarre is that?

Meanwhile, every reptile at the lizard Oz worth his (few hers) salt was out and about offering their tuppenceworth:


It was a feast of reptiles:


The pond didn't know where to start. There was Paul Kelly banging away in crisis mode about how the entire world was falling about because a generally reviled politician was in trouble, Shanahan the bouffant one was wreathed in gloom, while Kenny tried to sound fair and even handed and balanced:

Nervous MPs (and some ministers) just feel Abbott is unpopular and ineffective, and they don’t think he can change — so they want to change him. 
The last time the crisscrossing paths of these political powerhouses went head to head in a leadership contest, Abbott prevailed by a solitary vote. 
This coming week, these personalities, along with the competing tensions of social conservatism and economic liberalism — and vice versa — will tear at the fabric of the party once more, as it considers a treacherous crossing of Sydney Heads.

Only van Onselen was prepared to point out the bleeding obvious - that, barring a Catholic miracle the Pope would accept as a token of sainthood - Abbott is a dead man walking, no matter how it plays out on Tuesday. He's mortally wounded, but like the Black Knight, it's in his nature to fight on (which reminds the pond of the enormous stupidity of Janet "Dame Slap" Albrechtsen proposing that there was a chance he'd resign out of loyalty before the blood started to flow).

What was most heart-wrenching was to see the tearful columnists mourning their hero. There was Hendo celebrating his 'considerable achievements' - but then as a man dedicated to nit picking and pile and nattering negativity, of course the desiccated coconut, our very own prattling Polonius, would always cheer on Abbott.

And there was the bromancer Sheridan, holding out hope and once again smoting mightily the evil world of electronic graffiti:


Pure drivel in the inimitable Sheridan way, of course, to imagine that everything is new, nothing is the same, and it's a whole new world, so he can find reasons for alarmism on every level:


So that's why the reptiles at the lizard Oz did their best to ruin the NBN, and with Malcolm Turnbull's help, have caused it considerable damage.

It's to save western civilisation! Yes, once again little sir echo is channeling the chairman:


Never mind, confronted by such an infinitely complex and dangerous world, full of social media deviates that need civilising, and full as a goog with the sounds of a Yeats' poem announcing the impending apocalypse, it's little wonder a bear with as few brains as Sheridan plumps for his old mate (having spent much of his column reiterating Abbott's many failures):


Uh huh. A simple Wilcox cartoon bells that cat bag full of blather:

Reading the lizard Oz these days is to be reminded of what an ossified gentleman's club it is, full of harumphing angry old white men, alarmed at new ways and new media and upstarts and flibbertigibbets, when in reality it's the reptiles themselves that are prolix and garrulous, as with the lizard Oz's editorialist, who also, at great length makes the case for Abbott.

Reading the piece is like wading through a tub of treacle, but as it's outside the paywall, it's there for anyone who cares to make the effort. How stupid does it get?

Well there's some standard abuse of the ABC and Fairfax, and a lot of bile directed at Malcolm Turnbull, of which this is just a sample:


Yes on and on they rant about the dangers the government faces, the economic difficulties, and the follies of Turnbull, and his uselessness as a leader, and then how does the rant end?


Yes, they end up, with Abbott back in the leadership, taking the bold step of appointing Malcolm Turnbull to fix the economy!

WTF. That's more weird than anything you could read in Fairfax or see on the ABC.

Though, while speaking of Fairfax, it's worth noting that someone seems to have been bugging allegedly private conversations between Julie Gillard - sorry, make that Bishop - and Tony Abbott, at least if Peter Hartcher's The inside story of how the Liberal leadership duo of Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop cracked. (forced ad at end of link).

Well it couldn't have been Tony Abbott, could it? Not with so many of the telling anecdotes running against him, and it couldn't have been sweet, loyal, innocent Julie Gillard - sorry, make that Bishop - could it? Must have been a rat lurking behind the arras with a tape recorder ...

What else?

Well the pond performed the stupendous, heroic and gratifying feat of reading ponderous, pontificating Paul Kelly from go to woe. It was more chicken little, the sky is falling in, hand wringing, sackcloth and ashes, and it can be googled for any masochists out there. This is how it ended, conflating Liberal leadership with the ruination of the country:


If ever there was a better example of a fearful old man rustling about in his leather seat in the club, the pond would like to see it ...

Well to Mr Kelly, all the pond can say is 'toujours gai, Paulie, what the hell, toujours gai' and only three more sleeps until the apocalypse and the rapture ... and Abbott's choice ...

Which is why it's about time for a few cartoons, and remember you can cop the Fairfax cartoonists at the Canberra Times here.





25 comments:

  1. The most awfull thing about the RW's lament of the collapse of centre-right govt's around the world, is their complete misunderstanding of the primary question of : Who owns the money?..who ownes the capital these "fiscal-managers" wish to "consolidate"?...I have yet to see any piece of currency that has a private individual or corporation logo as it's sole custodian...sure, we see heads of state etc...but the entire lump of collected currency extant in this know universe is a possession of The People...or it should be...If The People do NOT want austerity budgets, it is up to the govt', in a democracy, to seek another solution...imposing policy by decree is dictating policy...that is not governing, THAT is a dictatorship.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dorothy,

    Abbott is brown bread, infact he is the political equivalent of a contaminated polar bear's baculum;

    http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26855-polar-bear-penis-bone-may-be-weakened-by-pollution.html#.VNVBvsZM70c

    DW

    ReplyDelete
  3. Money on its own is worthless (likewise gold, precious gems etc.). It's only the collective belief that we regard it as a denominator of value that makes it work. Take away that belief and you have nothing left except for things that have a real value - food, shelter etc. - and you revert to a barter system. For example, Germany in the '20's, more recently Zimbabwe with inflation rates of thousands of percent a week.

    If we all stopped believing in the collective fantasy that money has a value in and of itself, western capitalism would collapse overnight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Anon,

      Global debt has now reached $199 trillion and is now 286% of the worlds gross domestic product.

      Roll those numbers around for awhile, savour the flavour. The economic model that the western world is desperately clinging to, bears absolutely no relation to reality anymore. All those assets aren't worth what the markets think they are. It's a bubble created by governments pump priming feral Stock Markets with quantitive easing.

      It will all crash again..... and then again and again until we decide to stop using this patently broken model.

      DW



      Delete
    2. DW - it's food for thought. I remember my time in PNG and the Solomons and visiting the local markets. Barter was common. You could exchange a radio for a fortnight's supply of food. I remember thinking - if the western economy collapses, these people will survive better than us.

      Delete
    3. And we've been there before. Check out the great south sea bubble.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Sea_Company

      Delete
    4. Anons, is that private or public debt? That 286% is near the ratio to annual income of Australia's individual averaged personal private debt - which after a pause is again climbing that cliff.

      Money? Belief? As usual, work by those true believers, Wahhabi father John, and son Kim Philby, continue to shape the world....

      "Everyone has some; no one has enough. People despise it when they lack it, yet they welcome it with open arms. Reluctant to discuss it, they think about it constantly. Lifeblood of the economy, source of all activity, key to success, symbol of strength, it is the essence of power. It cures, it destroys, it saves, it kills, it is idle, it circulates, it fertilizes, it vanishes, it corrupts, it grows, it changes hands. It is fairly—or unjustly—earned. It is used, dreamed of, hidden, shown off, squandered, scorned, worshipped. Hoarded, it is a treasure—only to become sterile. It is reviled, repudiated, coveted. People invest it with their own intimate feelings: their rivalries, triumphs, frustrations, ambitions, resentments. At night it grows into something living, overpowering, enlightening, protective, crushing. It is a phantasmagorical god whom we both pray to and dread. It is the scapegoat for our misfortunes. Created as a convenience, it is burdened with our emotions; it is a means, but it has become an end." - Guy de Rothschild, The Whims of Fortune

      "We made an agreement with Ibn Saud that we would give him gold for every ton of oil we took out of his country, we would give him gold. And we did at first. Then we got producing more and more and more. And try to find gold schillings to meet the requirements so we could ship another ton. And finally we had to tell him that we couldn't find that much gold. There wasn't that much gold. We had now, such an enormous business that we cleaned the world of gold schilling." - Gwin Follis former chairman of Standard Oil of California. (Follis ran both Philbys in the Middle East, Iran, and particurly Saudi Arabia, beating imperial Britain at the game. The imperial US corporate spymaster Follis leaves no trace in Wikipedia.)

      "Beginning in 1945, the US minted special gold disks, at the discount market price of $35 per ounce, for Aramco to deliver to King Saud. This was necessary because Aramco simply couldn't source enough gold at the official price on the open market. In fact, it was reported that many of those gold disks we sent were then shipped to Bombay where they were sold for $70 per ounce, melted into bars and then resold in Macao.

      In 1948 Saudi Aramco started its own airline for, among other things, delivering 8,000 lb. shipments of gold to the King. King Saud died in 1953, and in 1961, the airline ceased international operations.

      That was right around the time that cracks first started appearing in the 17-year-old Bretton Woods international monetary system, due in part to the rising price of gold on the open market. And it was the same year that eight central banks—US, Germany, England, Italy, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium—resolved to covertly use their own gold reserves to fix the open market price in London at $35 per ounce. With the fix in, backed by eight CBs holding 40% of the world's gold, the Saudis could simply use their dollar profits to buy as much gold as they wanted in London..." - FOFOA

      Those Philbys did much to ensure, TINA, we're just about set here and now for FREEgold!

      In the Land of Oz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXgGr905IF4&feature=player_embedded

      Bring it on!

      Delete
    5. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9MoaEfCUAARYJU.png

      Delete
    6. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9MCmIjCUAITquD.jpg

      Delete
    7. Well, DW, it'll either be some version of MMT or freegold. The entrenched beneficiaries of the current patch and patch again system fight against adoption of the MMT paradigm whilst they attempt to stave off the ineluctable sudden imposition of a freegold paradigm if the IM$ don't get it.

      http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=30101

      http://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2011/html/sp111003.en.html

      Delete
  4. The term "says it all" is a bit trite but in this case will serve-
    that Pope cartoon says it all.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Exclusive ...
    Julia Gillard rushed to hospital ..
    http://www.sbs.com.au/comedy/article/2015/02/04/julia-gillard-rushed-hospital-after-overdosing-schadenfreude

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9Mb6yeCYAAfBuD.jpg

      Delete
  6. I wonder if our next PM will be in such a hurry to pay homage to Rupert Murdoch as previous ones have? News Ltd just hasn't been performing well as the publicity arm of the Liberals and Abbots prime ministership. Maybe their symbiotic relationship is reaching its use by date.
    Of course trashing the leadership challengers may backfire in the longer term too....

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi GlenH,

    Julie Bishop made the pilgrimage to New York two weeks ago, in order to kneel at the feet of Lord Rupert. It's unclear though if he went as far as applying the 'chrism' or holy anointing oil.

    Whilst support from Ltd News might not be quite as powerful in swaying public opinion as it once was , it still retains it's ability to destroy political ambitions and careers. Few politicians can withstand the full force of prolonged attacks from Murdoch's media empire.

    DW

    ReplyDelete
  8. Graham Gee JacksonFeb 7, 2015, 1:45:00 PM

    Apologies if the following information has already been revealed, but it is now clear Abbott's crisis has been precipitated by the employment of former ABC man, Mark Mole Simkin. His association with Luke Simpkins must surely be obvious. I await Dame Slap's expose with a good deal of interest.

    ReplyDelete
  9. DW
    With negative saving rates on the way, we are having banks charging you money to put it in their banks. This is nothing but fraud!!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeYE5r-LPWc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How laughable , the sleeze bags are now bleating that poor little Tony deserves a fair go .
      I guess that means like the fair go they gave Gillard , such as -
      Juliar - Bob Browns Bitch & that other little gem Ditch the Witch and let's not mention the daily abuse in the Parliament & in Murdochs rags.

      It would seem though that the threats have all been issued to the back bench & Malcolm shouldn't be surprised if he finds the Horses Head in his bed before Tuesday, the one thing the Lying Nasty Party do well is vicious thuggery , just ask Tony Windsor & Rob Oakshott.

      What planet do these bastards come from and what country errr corporation are they really working for ??????
      They just keep telling more & more lies.


      Delete
  10. Such utter horseshit from bromancer Sheridan seen there:

    "The astonishing volatility of the voters,which saw Campbell newman's government ... swept out of office with a massive swing, and which has seen the Abbott (mis)government ... reduced to deadly levels of support in the polls.."

    Horseshit!

    It's not the voters' fault, you fuktwit:

    "The electorate isn't volatile. Voters aren't unpredictable. The rules have not changed. If you lie to people, if you promise one thing and deliver its opposite, if you treat public office as your due and the ordinary people who put you there with contempt, they will turn on you. And when they come for you, their vengeance will be swift and terrible to behold."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland-state-election-2015/opinion-tony-fitzgeralds-warnings-about-accountability-swayed-poll-result/story-fnrab879-1227211088254

      ...73 per cent of those surveyed said “accountability, transparency and trust in government” had a large impact on how they voted. Only 13 per cent said it had no impact, and 15 per cent said these issues had a small impact.

      Delete
  11. Sheridan should be ecstatic if Abbott is sacked. They'll be able to relive their courtship which took place in Melbourne including other fun times.

    "I suggested we dine at Lygon Street, one of Melbourne’s glories and a street whose Italian cafes I love … We parked a couple of blocks away and strolled round to find an eatery. I’ve dined with Abbott in Lygon Street before and people are always happy to see a celebrity … [This time] a group of six to 10 demonstrators burst into the restaurant, surrounded our table, and started screaming something along the lines of “Tony Abbott, you don’t dig it, you’re a bigot” or some such drooling nonsense … The manager … asked us to go upstairs, where we finished our dinner."

    http://bit.ly/1bO1HZo

    ReplyDelete
  12. Phillip Coorey’s take on Abbott’s crushing week.

    “Colleagues of Abbott say he is shattered at how quickly things have deteriorated. It took him some days to comprehend the enormity of the damage caused by his Prince Philip brain fart.
    What will really gall him is that if he is tossed after just 16 months in the job, he would have held office for a shorter time than either Rudd or Julia Gillard, both of whom he cannot abide.
    Gillard had her flaws as leader but she also had it a lot harder than Abbott. Gillard and her colleagues were savaged daily by the News Corp tabloids and the shock jocks, they were opposed by the powerful lobbies representing business, mining, energy and gambling, and she was being actively undermined by Rudd and his supporters. Abbott was undermined by nobody and News Corp and the lobby groups were on his side. This is his work.”

    http://bit.ly/1LXAFi2

    Poor Abbott, life sucks sometimes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Whatever happens chewsday the incumbent will have very bad weeks if they don't fix this: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B9NbDb4CcAAyh_p.jpg:large
      All were present and shared when HoWARd offered his tokens of appreciation and friendship to Indonesia.

      Delete
    2. Awesome work Phil Coorey!

      Thanks to your diligent work we knew all about this prior to the last Federal Election, and thus you proved worthy of employment. Or not.

      As Andrew Elder says, we deserve to know how we are governed.

      Delete
  13. Anons, is that private or public debt? That 286% is near the ratio to annual income of Australia's individual averaged personal private debt - which after a pause is again climbing that cliff.

    Money? Belief? As usual, work by those true believers, Wahhabi father John, and son Kim Philby, continue to shape the world....

    "Everyone has some; no one has enough. People despise it when they lack it, yet they welcome it with open arms. Reluctant to discuss it, they think about it constantly. Lifeblood of the economy, source of all activity, key to success, symbol of strength, it is the essence of power. It cures, it destroys, it saves, it kills, it is idle, it circulates, it fertilizes, it vanishes, it corrupts, it grows, it changes hands. It is fairly—or unjustly—earned. It is used, dreamed of, hidden, shown off, squandered, scorned, worshipped. Hoarded, it is a treasure—only to become sterile. It is reviled, repudiated, coveted. People invest it with their own intimate feelings: their rivalries, triumphs, frustrations, ambitions, resentments. At night it grows into something living, overpowering, enlightening, protective, crushing. It is a phantasmagorical god whom we both pray to and dread. It is the scapegoat for our misfortunes. Created as a convenience, it is burdened with our emotions; it is a means, but it has become an end." - Guy de Rothschild, The Whims of Fortune

    "We made an agreement with Ibn Saud that we would give him gold for every ton of oil we took out of his country, we would give him gold. And we did at first. Then we got producing more and more and more. And try to find gold schillings to meet the requirements so we could ship another ton. And finally we had to tell him that we couldn't find that much gold. There wasn't that much gold. We had now, such an enormous business that we cleaned the world of gold schilling." - Gwin Follis former chairman of Standard Oil of California. (Follis ran both Philbys in the Middle East, Iran, and particurly Saudi Arabia, beating imperial Britain at the game. The imperial US corporate spymaster Follis leaves no trace in Wikipedia.)

    "Beginning in 1945, the US minted special gold disks, at the discount market price of $35 per ounce, for Aramco to deliver to King Saud. This was necessary because Aramco simply couldn't source enough gold at the official price on the open market. In fact, it was reported that many of those gold disks we sent were then shipped to Bombay where they were sold for $70 per ounce, melted into bars and then resold in Macao.

    In 1948 Saudi Aramco started its own airline for, among other things, delivering 8,000 lb. shipments of gold to the King. King Saud died in 1953, and in 1961, the airline ceased international operations.

    That was right around the time that cracks first started appearing in the 17-year-old Bretton Woods international monetary system, due in part to the rising price of gold on the open market. And it was the same year that eight central banks—US, Germany, England, Italy, France, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium—resolved to covertly use their own gold reserves to fix the open market price in London at $35 per ounce. With the fix in, backed by eight CBs holding 40% of the world's gold, the Saudis could simply use their dollar profits to buy as much gold as they wanted in London..." - FOFOA

    Those Philbys did much to ensure, TINA, we're just about set here and now for FREEgold!

    In the Land of Oz: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXgGr905IF4&feature=player_embedded

    ReplyDelete

Comments older than two days are moderated and there will be a delay in publishing them.