Curiously Polonius had disappeared from the digital front page of the lizard Oz by today - how quickly the lands at the top of the faraway tree move on - even if his weekend column led with a shattering announcement "The ABC is right."
That's as close to heresy as Polonius has ever got.
Typically it only happened when the ABC was wrong. With a grimace, the pond stiffened its remaining sinews and summoned up the strength for a Polonial history lesson on a meditative Sunday.
Typically it only happened when the ABC was wrong. With a grimace, the pond stiffened its remaining sinews and summoned up the strength for a Polonial history lesson on a meditative Sunday.
The pond could have spent its time with other delights. The bromancer rediscovering the joys of They're a Weird Mob, for example (it reveals so much about the mindset) or actual examples of the weird mob at work …
The pond has a little turn each time it's reminded that Grace Kelly has moved on from appearing in Hitchcock films …
But enough of efforts to justify the pond keeping the onion muncher in the banner, it's prattling Polonius time …
Stupidity matters too, and the pond was immediately reminded of the fairly unique ways that the ABC now tries to promote itself …
Now the pond is inclined to take people at face value. If someone presents as a Satanist, does black masses, worships Lucifer and does all the usual silly things required, the pond might look at them in the same way as it looks at devotees of Santa Claus, but is willing to accept they're Satanists.
Ditto Communists, whatever branch of the cult they follow, be it Leninist, Trotskyite, or even - there are still a few around - Stalinist …
When yet another reptile blathers about the long march of Gramsci through the institutions, the pond will concede that Gramsci has a few followers, though Gramsci-ite is a clumsy construction, down there with the absolutely unique ways the ABC promotes itself …
So when a bunch of loons wander around giving the Nazi salute, the pond is inclined to take it at face value.
Of course the far right is less organised or coherent down under than the far left, and has always verged on the pathetic.
But if someone proposes that Adolf's photo and his work Mein Kampf should be placed in every school, and that Jews are responsible for all that's wrong in the world, the pond smells more than a whiff of Nazi …
But if someone proposes that Adolf's photo and his work Mein Kampf should be placed in every school, and that Jews are responsible for all that's wrong in the world, the pond smells more than a whiff of Nazi …
The pond stopped following far right loons long ago, back in the days of the Skull, but others, such as Slack Bastard are willing to do the hard yards, as with this post on the United Patriots Front… and there's more to be found about Blair Cottrell here …
The pond will concede a technicality. The original Nazi party took a bit of a battering way back when, with the solution a bullet to the brain, or children force-fed cyanide (farewell the Goebbels' lineage) … so perhaps "neo-Nazi" is a more acceptable term …
The pond has no idea why Alan Sunderland said what he said, except perhaps to remind the pond of why it no longer watches the ABC, but the immortal Pope helped explain why Polonius might seize on his words …
You see, the mutton Dutton in particular has been dog-whistling to the far right. So has the HUN, with its relentless talk of black crime waves in Melbourne (fear the alien, fear the dark) …
It's more than a tad embarrassing when a bunch of neo-Nazis hear the siren song, and sing along ...
And so to the history lesson, which is bizarrely simplistic, even for Polonius ...
Granted Cottrell is no Hitler, he is at least a self-confessed neo-Nazi …
Now note the illustration that the reptiles selected. How awkward it would have been to have shown actual neo-Nazis on parade …
Now note the illustration that the reptiles selected. How awkward it would have been to have shown actual neo-Nazis on parade …
Why their ABC even carefully attempted to point out Anning in the crowd, surrounded by neo-Nazi salutes …
Agreed it's all pathetic and risible, but it gets a bit much when Polonius tries to write Nazis and neo-Nazis out of Australian history …
He doesn't even mention Francis de Groot, or other old time favourites, celebrated by D. H. Lawrence in Kangaroo (Greg Hunters go here) …
"Kangaroo" is the fictional nickname of one of Lawrence's characters, Benjamin Cooley, a prominent ex-soldier and lawyer, who is also the leader of a secretive, fascist paramilitary organisation, the "Diggers Club". Cooley fascinates Somers, but he maintains his distance from the movement itself. It has been suggested by Darroch and others that Cooley was based on Major General Charles Rosenthal, a notable World War I leader and right-wing activist. It has also been alleged that Rosenthal was involved with the Old Guard, a secret anti-communist militia.
There were fertile days in Australia in the 1920s, and Polonius really isn't up to the job ...
He doesn't even mention Francis de Groot, or other old time favourites, celebrated by D. H. Lawrence in Kangaroo (Greg Hunters go here) …
"Kangaroo" is the fictional nickname of one of Lawrence's characters, Benjamin Cooley, a prominent ex-soldier and lawyer, who is also the leader of a secretive, fascist paramilitary organisation, the "Diggers Club". Cooley fascinates Somers, but he maintains his distance from the movement itself. It has been suggested by Darroch and others that Cooley was based on Major General Charles Rosenthal, a notable World War I leader and right-wing activist. It has also been alleged that Rosenthal was involved with the Old Guard, a secret anti-communist militia.
There were fertile days in Australia in the 1920s, and Polonius really isn't up to the job ...
Okay, as everybody knows, we have some very fine people on both sides.
And the reptiles are probably as puzzled as Steve King: “White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?” Reflecting on the record number of black people and women in the new Congress, he added: “You could look over there and think the Democratic Party is no country for white men.” (here).
There were a few who were a bit more sensitive, here:
When the pond was following ratbag right wingers, the Skull was all the go …
Sure, it was pathetic attention-seeking, but at least they scored a book by a leftie …
So what happened to the Skull? Well in 2013 news.com.au noted here ...
These days, he lives in Sydney's west, wears a Pauline Hanson t-shirt and posts his extremist views on a Facebook page which has a photograph of himself with Hanson as its main picture. Now a supporter of the ultra right Australia First Party, May's radical ideas include blowing refugee boats "out of the water".
And now for a bit of classic "there are bad people on both sides" nonsense from Polonius …
It doesn't seem to occur to Polonius that if you're going to have an anti-fascist movement you might need some actual fascists, risible and pathetic though they might be … but apparently in the fairly unique ABC - and in the Polonial world above the faraway tree - we don't have far right people capable of a formal and consistent belief in Adolf Hitler and Mein Kampf …
And so the pond must return to the real motivation for this hasty bit of wall-papering and Polonial dissembling, and again the immortal Pope explains all …
And that's what happens when you have an incompetent dog whistling to the far right.
You have to send in a Polonius to prattle about the way a headless chook's siren song wasn't heard by actual neo-Nazis …and hope nobody in Dickson notices they have a doofus, a hopeless plod, as their representative ...
You have to send in a Polonius to prattle about the way a headless chook's siren song wasn't heard by actual neo-Nazis …and hope nobody in Dickson notices they have a doofus, a hopeless plod, as their representative ...
And so to another warrior, the dog botherer, still at war with the world …
The pond has no idea why it decided to throw in the dog botherer as an extra, except being a glutton for punishment ...
Oh wait, there was the reason …the piece had been blessed by a Lobbecke, and what's more, the reptiles had made a giant leap in technology, and made it a gif ...
Talk about a ripper … though the downside was that for the sake of completeness, the pond had to listen to the dog botherer drone on to the bitter end, with a peculiar mix of macho bluster (this is going to be brutal) and abject paranoia (watch out, they're going to kick sand in my face) ...
It takes some cheek to turn Anning into a Labor party helper, and the mutton Dutton presented as a long-suffering victim, but that's how it goes in dog botherer world …
The pond hesitates to suggest a solution, but if the Liberals are going to do a Donald, they clearly need a little help …per Lobbecke ...
Ah, the good old days …
The pond apologises … it really should be paying more attention to the dog botherer, still in the grip of a deep fear ...
Golly gee, how did the Caterists get into this story? Speaking of handouts and largesse as we must ...
But seriously no one needs the government - just look at the US at the moment - what we need is private enterprise …
Okay, the pond has been on something of a filibuster, but now we're at the last gobbet ...
Devoted followers of the dog botherer will note just one thing, as he urges them to fight on the beaches and in the columns of the lizard Oz, but fears annihilation …
The only mention of climate is in a toss away line about "the present climate" …and dinkum clean Oz coal only turns up in sundry references to the great "Coal-ition." No oi, oi, oi ...
Could it be that the dog botherer, one of the world's great climate scientists, might have at last realised that climate science denialism and dog whistling to neo-Nazis isn't the best way forward?
Fat chance …or slim chance if you've adopted a new year's resolution on weight.
Here, have a final few cartoons for a calorie-aware snack …
Here, have a final few cartoons for a calorie-aware snack …
Doggie Bov: "Labor always fights hard - witness "Mediscare" - and is buttressed by even more willing efforts from allies such as the union movement and GetUp."
ReplyDeleteOk, so whatever happened to those brave and militant forces of "the Right", Advance Australia ? Has it gone into final receivership already ?
Then he proclaimed this beauty: "It has become a sad reality of political life for Coalition supporters that many of their ranks are more effective running internal battles than tackling Labor."
I can just vaguely remember a time when Labor used to be like that, yes ? The DLP and so forth. But there is one thing that can be unequivocally pronounced: "The Right" never learns, it just keeps on running with the same old partisan blunders, year after year. Probably because it has no ethical, moral or ideological convictions from which to heal itself.
This is my first comment to this site, although I greatly enjoy its content. In following up on GrueBleen's remark on 'Advance Australia', and wanting to find out if it was doing anything, I went to its F...book page. I had not accessed that particular site before. As soon as I brought it up, but without clicking the 'Like' button, I found I had automatically been included as a 'like' - one of, supposedly, '7.4 k' likes. So - it seems any access to that site will be entered as a 'like'. No doubt those 'statistics' will be cited in future as evidence for support for 'Advance Australia'. Can I suggest that other readers of 'Loonpond' not access that part of F...book, for that reason. Oh - you won't be missing anything.
DeleteYou've won me, Anony. But then I didn't think that AA would amount to anything without incorporating lots of reptile deception and dishonesty, anyway.
DeletePolonious should know that there was never a "Nazi Party". The NSDAP would not have liked the near association with 'Ashkenazi' Jews. I believe the term "Nazi" was used externally to Germany, whether from natural contraction or spite, does not matter. Being a pedant, it is a wonder he has allowed this error to slip through to publication.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism
Delete"The term "Nazi" was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backwards farmer or peasant, characterizing an awkward and clumsy person. In this sense, the word Nazi was a hypocorism of the German male name Ignatz (itself a variation of the name Ignatius) – Ignatz being a common name at the time in Bavaria, the area from which the NSDAP emerged"
Polonius sets a very high bar for being a Nazi. A few swastikas and Hitler salutes are not enough - you need putsches and the odd mass atrocity before you can claim the title. Mind you, any sort of reasoned approach gets you labelled as a Leftist - go figure!
Interesting point, KS. I confess I had always just assumed (ass u me) that the Hitler cohort had used that abbreviation (we could call it a 'diminutive' if they were Russian, but we'll have to call it a hypocorism since they aren't) however your comment sent me greghunting and this is what I found:
Delete"The term "Nazi" was in use before the rise of the NSDAP as a colloquial and derogatory word for a backwards farmer or peasant, characterizing an awkward and clumsy person. In this sense, the word Nazi was a hypocorism of the German male name Ignatz (itself a variation of the name Ignatius) – Ignatz being a common name at the time in Bavaria, the area from which the NSDAP emerged.
In the 1920s, political opponents of the NSDAP in the German labour movement seized on this and – using the earlier abbreviated term "Sozi" for Sozialist (English: Socialist) as an example[8] – shortened the first part of the NSDAP's name, [Na]tionalso[zi]alistische, to the dismissive "Nazi", in order to associate them with the derogatory use of the term mentioned above."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazism
But you can't really expect Polonius to know any of that - it doesn't appear anywhere in any Catholic Breviary that I'm aware of.
Ah Bef, two minds with butt ...
Delete