The pond began to realise that it was a crisis of massive proportions when it clicked on nattering "Ned" …
There was the usual bombastic spacing in the lizard layout, which heralded extended portentous pronouncements by "Ned" of the usual interminable kind … and when the pond clicked on the header, it prepared itself for a rough ride through the partisan divide …
And then, what do you know, it was all over in a single gobbet ...
This was fortuitous, because before heading off to hear what prattling Polonius had to prattle, it allowed the pond time to offer up the weekend Lobbecke, skilfully formatted for mobile phone sheep …
Make of that what you will, decoders, decrypters, decipherers, though it had an eerie echo of the infallible Pope cartoon the pond ran yesterday …
Unfortunately the master cult illustrator was attached to the oscillating fan, and the pond couldn't go there, but for those yearning for the rest of the fan's advice, remember there's always a handy Firefox extension to help out …
Luckily, not going there created some space for the pond before getting on to prattling Polonius and his prattle … in particular, a story in the Weekly Beast here, featuring the reptiles …
And so it came to pass …
There you have it …at last the ethics and standards of the lizard Oz revealed for all to see …
Well, the pond will wait on medical advice regarding the quality and worth of the snake oil … after all, the Chinese are decimating wildlife in Africa for nostrums to fix ailing men's penises ...
Meade ended the story this way …
Meade ended the story this way …
The Australian’s editor-in-chief, Chris Dore, has been approached for comment.
Comment?
Why need for comment, it's cash in the paw over ethics for all snake oil salesmen and con artists. Just ask the Donald, as good a con man as the ages have ever seen …
And luckily all this proved relevant to Polonius and his prattle …
As usual, on Friday, he was having one of his eternal, monotonous, monomaniacal, obsessive compulsive, anal retentive goes at the ABC …
And then for the weekend, he doubled down with yet another of his eternal, monotonous, monomaniacal, obsessive compulsive, anal retentive goes at the ABC …
Uh huh, but has the ABC taken to publishing expensive ads from snake oil salesmen and con artists?
Of course the real ABC thought crime is to question the government, but Polonius is too clever to go the simple gushing, arse-licking route of the bromancer …
No, no, no, bromancer, in love with the woolly sheep, you miss the point … it's all the fault of ABC activists …
Oh dear, Polonius was briefly unemployed in early 1976 … never mind that those were the glory days, when you could actually get by on the dole, unlike New Start … and it was only in March 1976 that the aloof western districts' squatter, the freezer, the head prefect and his mob really began to turn the screws …
But now, history lesson over, it's time to turn to the glories of the government and the deeds of the wicked ABC, and wonder if they were selling snake oil too?
Please allow the pond to pre-empt Polonius … because the ABC had the temerity to notice a little mixed messaging, as here …
Don't expect any mixed messaging from Polonius, always forthright in his desire to shake the hand of the government ...
Going slow? Irresponsible?
Should we shake hands on that, head out to the gym, or maybe the footy?
Outrageous, shocking, shake your hands all you like, go to the gym, and maybe head off to Bondi or to St Kilda beach to share the irresponsibility, oh, and don't forget to sell the snake oil …
It's possibly apparent by now that the pond has some considerable contempt for the reptiles, and in particular for prattling Polonius ...
And where does that contempt come from? Well only Polonius, allegedly interested in history, could slide from talk of the Great Depression to the line "the recession began in the late 1920s…"
No, a recession didn't begin in the late 1920s, a Great Depression did, a depression that made your average recession look like a Donald Trump easter bunny sitting in the pews munching easter choccies …
You know, in the old days, the pond was constantly told to keep trying harder, to try to do better, to improve things as much as possible, to devise clever responses … and what do we get from Polonius instead?
Woolly cloth-eared notions that everything is going swimmingly, and the government is doing a top notch job, and never mind the odd bump along the road …
… because they're following best practice and best medical advice, and never mind the odd death or three … and instead pay attention to all the wickedness of the ABC … because that's the sort of snake oil the reptiles, and particularly the monomaniacal, anal retentive, compulsive obsessive Polonius, have always been in the business of selling …
And now, as it's a meditative Sunday, why not a bunch of cartoons to show another government following best practice …though one should never forget the entertainment value in Marina Hyde dishing it out to "I'll shake hands" Boris and his motley crew ...
It’s good to know that someone is counting Fran Kelly’s interjections. It would be better to know the exact number. “Close to 20” must mean 18 or 19. This is hard data that can be used to compare interviewers, and detect a trend over time.
ReplyDeleteIt is also useful for historical investigation. In June 1955 Frank McManus was interrupted 11 times in an ABC interview, as the transcript shows. This data cannot be twisted by unelected inner-city journalists.
And it might even mean 22 or 23 both of which are "close to 20"
DeleteBut who, in the treasured Australian Broadcasting Commission of Sir Charles Moses and James Dibble, would have had the colossal effrontery to interrupt Frank McManus - and 11 times, at that ?
PS: does anybody else remember Talbot Duckmanton ? I'm sure Polonius the Pontificator would.
Who could forget a name like that? If you wanted to trigger Polonius, however, you would only need to whisper Richard Downing.
DeletePolonius' small number of obsessions has contracted to just one, the ABC, onto which he projects all his anxieties. An intervention is long overdue.
I doubt the old guy has ever understood the role of the press at any level. A good religious education has lead him to confuse information with propaganda.
And talking about confusing things, Bef, you might find this entertaining:
DeleteA history of FLICC: the 5 techniques of science denial
https://crankyuncle.com/a-history-of-flicc-the-5-techniques-of-science-denial/
Thanks for that. We have long moved on from looking at what's being said and are just amusing ourselves by listing the errors or speculating on motive etc.
DeleteInterestingly, I am quite amused by how quickly RWNJs abandon their unchanging beliefs when their own welfare or wealth are at risk. Like 2008, I note that small government and trickle down economics went out the window and they have gone all Keynesian in the hope of a handout. Or consider the press billionaires and ageing shock-jocks who have been telling all and sundry there's no risk but are safely in lock-down themselves.
Try this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSXIetP5iak
So many great moments in those two series, Bef. And so much wisdom.
DeleteHi Dorothy,
ReplyDelete“He (Morrison) doesn’t want a complete lockdown of the economy and doesn’t like the word lockdown.”
There in a nutshell is everything you need to know about ‘Scotty from Marketing’. Clueless about effective policy and more interested in the ‘messaging’.
DiddyWrote
Strewth, whatever happened to Nullius Ned ? He hardly got started before it was already all over. Did he have a heart murmur or summat ?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, he would like us to note that Morrison has given us "a message": "You can't run a country without an economy". Well now, that would be just some kind of trivial truism, wouldn't it ? Taking Morrison's vague "a country" to actually mean "a nation state" can anybody tell me how a nation state can exist at all without an economy ? It may not be a wonderful economy, there may be much more poverty and moneyless barter than you'd prefer, but there would still be exchanges and factories and shops and very rich people.
And, it may be worth remembering, that's how the human race has existed throughout the vast majority of its documented history.
But then we get to: "Morrison touched on an issue of extreme sensitivity that is being widely discussed -- saying some of the people demanding lockdowns are "going to keep their jobs"."
Wau ! Widely discussed by whom ? Morrison ? The reptiles ? Whom ? Besides, it just may be relevant to point out that many who may lose their jobs, may nonetheless keep their lives. And their parents and grandparents lives.
Still, not as if that can be the least bit important given how minute was Ned's commentary. So it goes.
But then, skipping right on over Palmer's snake oil, we get to Polonius. And then we wish we hadn't bothered. But there is just this one point: "In my working life, I will have lived through four recessions: the mid-1970s, early 80s, early 90s and the likely forthcoming recession."
Yep, Punctilious Polonius was just a 16yo whippersnapper when Holt and Menzies induced the 1961 'credit squeeze' and subsequent recession. Gracious, they said, inflation is raging ar 4.5% so we must stop this. So they did, and unemployment shot up to an incredible 3%. Imagine it, a whole three percent !
Anyway, it nearly cost Menzies an election (at the height of the Labor split the Libs lost 15 seats) and if it hadn't been for Snedden and Killen both luckily holding their seats, Labor would have won.
Polonius finishes up with some comments on the 1929-32 Great Depression: "Australia recovered relatively well during the 30s. But it was a slow process and an experience to be avoided if possible."
Sure, Polonius, sure: our economy is as small as it was in 1929-32, and we don't have a social security and health net, and we are going to spend just as little on 'stimulus' as we did back then. Which was just about zero because we had to pay back our large debt to the "mother" country.
So yair, Polonius old mate, we're at huge risk of repeating that fiscal and monetary insanity.
In line with Warren Buffet's saying "only when the tide goes out do you discover who's been swimming naked", times of crisis tend to reveal just who can do something and who is just blagging their way through life.
ReplyDeleteIn "normal" times, one day seems like another and change occurs slowly enough for the average punter not to notice. The prime minister's role is to walk around in a blue suit, bloviate occasionally and grift as much as possible.
When a crisis hits this all changes. Christ on a bike! Decisions have to be made and everybody has skin in the game. Blame will be allocated. You can smell the panic in the LNP, not least because they run the risk of being subjected to the same tactics they used against Labor post GFC.
Murdoch has deployed all his tin soldiers to defend the "dear leader". I nearly choked when I read the Bro's headline "Morrison is first among leaders". Dear me, the guy stumbling along with a waste paper basket on one foot? This will be a long road for the reptiles.
Have to feel a bit sorry for Brendon Murphy though. He probably thought he would have a role, make a real difference, not just be the Dr Fauci to Morrison's Trump. He obviously got voted down by Morrison then was expected to justify the poor decision. Now the panel's recommendations have become the "on waters matters" of the moment.
Talking about "decisions have to be made", Bef, there's this:
Delete"The Conversation has learned the Prime Minister’s office heard sharply conflicting views from two economists at a dinner in Parliament House’s private dining room on Tuesday March 17.
The economists were Henry Ergas, who previously worked at the OECD and has advised companies and governments, and Warwick McKibbin, professor of public policy at the Australian National University. Present were Scott Morrison’s chief of staff John Kunkel and senior bureaucrats.
The view Ergas presented was substantially the same as he wrote in the Australian on Friday when he warned of the dangers of going “too far” in trying to combat the spread of the virus.
He wrote: “Whatever governments do should preserve, to the greatest extent possible, the economy’s ability to rebound, including by limiting the debt that is loaded on to companies and individuals.
"Would such an approach save as many lives as a complete shutdown? Possibly not. However, if it could achieve two-thirds of the health objectives at one-third the costs, it would be reckless not to choose it”."
https://theconversation.com/government-says-australias-coronavirus-curve-may-be-flattening-134997
Reckless, eh ? Well, now all that remains is to find someone who can actually tell us exactly how to achieve 2/3rds of the health objectives at 1/3rd of the costs. Any ideas ?
One thing I can say with absolute certainty, it isn't and it won't be Henry 'Holely' Ergas who can tell us how to achieve that. Nor any other fvckwitted reptile.
GB - I have had a quick look through my writings of Vilfredo Pareto, but cannot find a ratio remotely approaching 2/3 to 1/3. Perhaps it is in the most recent work from Thomas Piketty, which I have not yet received to help me through my isolation. I do fear that this Ergasm is likely to become our version of the Laffer Curve; quite likely to pop up next in a publication from either the IPA or the Menzies Research Centre, with claims that it goes back at least 1200 years to some hitherto undiscovered wise Persian.
DeleteOther Anonymous
It's rather frightening to think that anyone would seek the views of "hole in the bucket" Henry.
DeleteOn one side of this argument you have quite clear health priorities and a lot of precedents from overseas on the other side you have largely debunked economic theories (belief perseverance?) and no real plan.
Morrison's inclination would be to do as little as he can get away with, which would put him on the Ergas side of this argument, but the states would just force his hand by taking the lead anyway, so I'm guessing he will continue with half-arsed, on again off again version of the right thing.
If all that sounds a bit garbled, just watch a Morrison presser.
Never thought I'd reference Shane Warne but here goes
"Listening to the PM like everyone here in Aust & what I understood was.
“It’s essential. Unless it’s not. Then it’s essentially not essential. I can’t be clearer” Plus people can buy a new shirt at a shopping centre ? WTF? PM just had a shocker. Surely should be in lockdown now"
Oh yes, OA: the 'Ergas Curve' - Australia's very own gift to economic theory. Do let us know if you ever uncover that wise ancient Persian. The only one I know of is Omar the Tentmaker:
DeleteCome, fill the Cup, in the fire of Spring
Thy Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To flutter--and the Bird is on the Wing.
I guess our birds have been winging it for some time now.
Neato comment by Warney, Bef. Puts the matter into clear context, and reinforces DW's point.
"decoders, decrypters, decipherers" DP? Seeking a name for such studies in the Limited News, I thought of 'Lobb-eckology', but that might be confused with a serious area of study. The term 'semiotics' remains appropriate, and properly derived from Greek. I baulk at trying to decode, decrypt or decipher Lobbecke's symbols - I never really worked out how Freddy Freeman could be transformed from crippled newsboy to Captain Marvel Jnr. without having to say 'Shazam'.
ReplyDeleteOther Anonymous
Thus prattled Polonius:
ReplyDelete"Some of the reasons Australia avoided the worst of the global financial crisis in 2008 turned on the economic benefit of the mining boom..."
Psst; don't mention the Rudd Government's s-s-st... (Nope; can't say it.)
I'm pretty sure that the mining boom wasn't like the (apocryphal) make-work stories from the Depression. You know: one group of men digging a hole in the morning, and a different group filling it in in the afternoon. As I recall, the dirt was being sent to a certain East Asian country (who shall remain nameless) who were indulging in some economic s-s-st...
So we can infer that Polonius has settled on the dichotomy: Commie s-s-st good; ALP s-s-st bad.
He prattles on:
"...and the fact this was predominantly an economic downturn that afflicted the northern hemisphere."
Oh get stuffed, you sad little man. My local council, among dozens of others, lost several million dollars because they had invested in the dreaded CDOs that were sold to them by Lehman Brothers Australia.
What did the 'G' in 'GFC' stand for again?
But then almost everything mostly affects the northern hemisphere - that's where the majority of the human race lives. So of course Pontificating Polonius was right yet again.
Delete