Thursday, May 12, 2016

Day 52 of MUC and day 5 of MOC, and time to spend a little quality time with the bromancer ...


Malcolm Turnbull as Guy Pearce riding a hot toaster on Mad Max's highway to hell? Well it's an angle, and more angles at the papal follies here ...


Yes, the pond had to flip the image to get a better visual match, but there's something very satisfying about flipping Malware ...

That road toaster seems to sum up where we've reached on the fifty second day of Malware's unofficial call, and the fifth day of Malware's official call ...

The tabloids are already showing signs of distraction, their attention wandering to more comical road trips ...



Only the glorious reptiles of Oz remain steadfast and true to the cause, with another fear campaign blossoming from their fetid mushroom-laden straw ...


Well played Natasha Bita for a sublime outing ...


Now the pond isn't sure of the reptiles' ultimate point.

We should convert immediately to a dictatorship of the proletariat? Or perhaps a dictatorship of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China?

Should Malware become more Xi?

Luckily Andrew Nathan's review of a number of books at the NYRB, asking the question Who is Xi? is outside the paywall for the moment, so Malware could bone up on some of the more attractive aspects of a dictator running a command economy ...

As the members of the red aristocracy around Xi circle their wagons to protect the regime, some citizens retreat into religious observance or private consumption, others send their money and children abroad, and a sense of impending crisis pervades society. No wonder Xi’s regime behaves as if it faces an existential threat. Given the power and resources that he commands, it would be reckless to predict that his attempt to consolidate authoritarian rule will fail. But the attempt risks creating the very political crisis that it seeks to prevent.

Indeed, indeed, an excellent model, and the pond is grateful the reptiles should recommend it.

Of particular interest to the pond is the regime's commendable approach to difficult, pesky journalists who won't do what they're told and so must take their licks ...

A quarter of those jailed globally are in China, the world’s worst offender for the second year in a row; the 49 journalists in prison there are a record for that country. As President Xi Jinping continues his crackdown on corruption and as the country’s economic growth slows and its markets become more volatile, reporting on financial issues has taken on new sensitivity. Wang Xiaolu, a reporter for the Beijing-based business magazine Caijing, was arrested on August 25 on suspicion of “colluding with others and fabricating and spreading false information about securities and futures trading” after he reported that a regulator was examining ways for securities companies to withdraw funds from the stock market. He later appeared on state television saying that he regretted writing the story and pleading for leniency, even as it was unclear whether he had been formally charged with a crime. As CPJ has documented, televised confessions are a tactic repeatedly deployed by Chinese authorities for dealing with journalists who cover sensitive stories. (here with links).


Come on down Natasha, the pond has a cell reserved for stupid reptiles making specious and useless comparisons ... unless, of course, you'd prefer to work in a Chinese factory for a modest stipend. The pond is only too happy to see what it can arrange ...

But all this is just the hoarse douvers for the main course of the day, a sojourn with the bromancer.

The pond never spends enough quality time with a man renowned for his insights ... and the splash promised much ...


Say what? He's not saying that there's a hint of Sanders and Corbyn in Malware?

Relax, the reptiles are just doing their version of click bait for the Red Staters ...


Ah that's better, and so on to the feast ...


Unfair? Then why say it? Is it simply to show that the bromancer is an unfair scribe and that, worse still, he knows it, and is proud to demonstrate it?

And what's this mocking of Asian hermit kingdoms? Wasn't it the way forward at the top of the page?

Never mind, of course the whole point of running a disclaimer saying the comparison is unfair, is to allow plenty of time and space to demonstrating how fair the comparison actually is ... how being unfair can in fact be deeply fair.

And so it's time to suck deep and take a rich swig of undiluted, completely fair bromancer ...


Indeed, indeed. What we need are a flock of submarines that will be outdated before they're delivered, at vast expense ... that'll show a solemn commitment to maintaining the high standards of the Collins class ...

The trouble of course is democracy ...


At least the solution is clear enough here, thanks to Natasha.

We must embrace the Chinese way of governing and end this pesky emphasis on useless, frustrating democracy.

Fancy negotiating and doing deals and reaching compromises and solutions? Spend a little quality time with that unrepresentative swill?

Why bother, when onion munching and wall punching is so much more fun ...

But now it's time for a little balance, and so the bromancer turns his attention to Malware ...


At that point, the pond almost wept, the tears of frustration and impotence welling up and cascading down on its heaving bosom ...

The country's drifting, drifting towards a dangerous moment of democracy ...

Yes, we'll have a day of democracy and then where will we be? Why with schools that need a Chinse solution and a government that is too impotent to embrace the proper and correct Xi solution.

Even worse, the signs suggest the way to the fast ferry is in the other direction ... and so the potential of a glorious future leader is lost in the wake ...





11 comments:

  1. Yeah, see what education's done to China? It would have been much better to just educate the children of the elite; then they wouldn't have those pesky political problems. And think of how much money they would save!

    Now that's a model Australia could follow.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Dorothy,

    “Teachers unions have been the single greatest roadblock to beneficial education reform in the US and have defeated city mayors who have tried to make schools more rigorous and teachers better, in part by making them accountable. The US teachers unions want one thing — higher pay and ever increasing funding for education. The Gonski funding fantasies are our version of that.”

    Nasty, nasty, fickle US teachers and their outrageous demands. So much bitterness, it’s almost like somebody’s beloved employer had recently lost a shed load of cash trying to muscle in on US education;

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2015/09/19/rupert-murdochs-leap-into-education-technology-business-ends-badly/

    By the way what on earth does “ethnic obscurantism” even mean?

    DiddyWrote

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh and 'all for profit' Charter Schools and Teach For America have been such unbridled successes too, haven't they.

      But one thing I don't get: Natasha Bita says "Chinese students are trouncing Australian teenagers in English and maths yet cost half as much to educate."

      Now is that Chinese students in China that are trouncing Australian teenagers in English, or is it Chinese students in Australia trouncing Australian teenagers in English ?

      Because if it's in Australia, then the Chinese students cost exactly the same as Australian teenagers to educate, don't they ? They both attend Mount Waverley Secondary College, after all.

      But if the Chinese students are learning English in China, then they benefit from the fact that things (eg teacher's wages) cost only about half as much in China as they do in Australia (Google the PPP and exchange rate valuations of the Chinese and Australian GDPs per head on that).

      So what exactly is Ms Bita saying ?

      Delete
    2. Ooo, that is exquisite bitchery GrueBleen! Loving it.

      Delete
    3. Rarely has anyone spent so much on bigotry and blatant greed as Rupe. Maybe he should just stick to the safety of bibles? Just for a laugh:
      http://www.christianlibrary.org/authors/Butch_Walker/cyb/theEvilNIV.html
      http://geezmagazine.org/blogs/entry/rupert-murdochs-big-bible-business

      Delete
    4. Yes what is she saying?

      The "English" studied at school by a native English speaker is a very different subject from that studied by a non-English speaker.

      Delete
    5. Indeed Anon. But then it's all the same to NAPLAN.

      Delete
  3. A song for Dutton, who treats PNG with contempt, justifies torture and degradation, and now announces $100M for a completely unnecessary measure to check visas. And as my wife says, he's got the personality of a stick. Mr Potato Head is a goner.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uu5hzc2Mei4


    ReplyDelete
  4. Dorothy,

    Have the AFP reformed?

    When tipped off about the Bali 9 the AFP let the fools leave the country & even tipped off the Indonesians about their plans. Consequently 2 have been executed (of which risk the AFP were well aware) and the remainder will languish in jail for a very long time.

    Yet, with an election looming, the AFP arrest the fools that thought they might somehow make it acroos Torres Stait and around to the Philippines. It was considered better to arrest them in Australia rather than let them, by some mysterious means, reach the killing fields of Syria where they could become targets. These arrests, of course, obviate the escapade becoming an "on-water" matter necessitating silence under threat of gaol (or disappearance to a gulag somewhere).

    Dannosaurus

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. An astute observation Danno; although,did they take the boat for a test drive before it's purchase,thus negating any discussion on the boat's purchase? :)

      Delete
  5. No ideograms for the gwailo, not one ring-breakers' rune!

    ReplyDelete

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