Wednesday, October 14, 2020

In which the pond, as ususal, settles for the bromancer and nattering "Ned", and, as usual, wonders why ...

 



 

Just look at that line-up, before and after the 6 am shift changeover at the lizard Oz. There are a few conclusions in order arising from those offerings and a few others from yesterday ...

The pond has of late noticed some disturbing trends at the lizard Oz ... what with petulant Peta popping up, and shameless Sharri seemingly returned as an "investigations editor", though the regular loons remain, with Killer Creighton featured rabbiting on about the Scandinavians ... just as the pond had, after numerous reptile readings, taken to thinking that Sweden was something of a role model ... 

As for the ongoing obsession with comrade Dan, the unwoke Workman took things to extremes with that mention of Halloween, given the way that some of the reptiles routinely get agitated at the Americanisation of down under life, when we should be staying proudly Pom like the onion muncher ...

Confronted with this daily shuffled, shuffling nightmare, is it any wonder that the pond routinely retreats to the safety of long-time loons of the bromancer kind?

 

 

 

 

Yet even the bromancer seemed out of sorts. Instead of say, an illustration from the cult master, and endless clickbait videos promoting Sky News loonacy, the reptiles decided to pad his very thin piece with snaps ... leaving the pond with no room for cartoons ... the usual way that the pond can manage to endure a bromancer piece without ending in partisan rancour ...

 


 

Right there, at the get go, those long pompous policy speeches? That's because it's a foregone conclusion, Moscow Mitch will ram a fundamentalist Catholic home, and hapless Yanks will have some rich originalism to stew on for decades ...

 

 


Note also how the bromancer steers his ship away from talk of white supremactists,  associated terrorism of the Oklahoma bombing kind, and such like ...

As usual a reptile scribbling about polarisations is beyond satire, and beyond irony, and beyond hypocrisy ... because here we go with the usual blather about liberals ...

 


 

Fuck the pond is sick of reptiles scribbling lines like "destructive dogmas of identity politics and endless woke gestures."

Mindless moronic mastication on words of a masturbatory kind ... and even more weirdly it was followed by a snap of a man given to destructive dogmas of an identity politics kind, and endless unwoke gestures, like tossing paper rolls or whatever to the crowds ...



 

 

And after those usual magical words, as if chanting them would make the world seem different, the bromancer came up shorter than usual ...

 



 

It's as if an alleged foreign editor at the lizard Oz couldn't remember back as far as Bush v. Gore and all that flowed from that folly ... but after all that, the pond thought it was entitled to a partisan cartoon featuring unicorns ...

 




But the pond did at least end with a faint hope ...

 

 


 

 

But if enduring the bromancer was a thankless task, what about the business of rolling nattering "Ned" up the pond's hill each day, only to see it roll back to its complacent, smug resting place at the bottom of the Murdochian pit?

 



 

The pond was forced to do some units in American history, and even in those days, it became clear that slavery and the racism that followed from it, was at the heart of lived life in the United States, and that the Civil War remained unfinished business, because one side never truly believed it had been wrong, and had lost, and was sorry for it ... and you can find it still, even echoing in Australia, especially in the complacent smugness of boring old farts of the white "Ned" kind ... and oh lordy, lordy, what a remarkably smug and hypocritical opening, of the kind where reaching for the standard sort of 'physician heal thyself' line seemed completely inadequate ..



 

Of course in all this, and carrying on about the Times, the smug old fogey can safely steer his ship, the good vessel Hypocrisy, away from dangerous waters, and dangerous questions of the kind asked the other day in Crikey, here (may be paywall affected):

 

 


 

 

Yes, and then there's "Ned", shamelessly borrowing from that fool at the Times, Bret Stephens, for his natter ... 



 

 

Speaking of 'long endure', how long can the Murdochian empire endure? In the end, even someone as powerful as Hearst went away ... and even now questions are being asked more pointedly about the nonsense at the heart of the Murdochian ideal ...

 



 

Ah, American democracy and American democratic values ...

 



 

 

It's only a coincidence that "Ned's" next gobbet should begin with blather about American democracy, unaware that the likes of the GOP, the Birchers, and Mike Lee have pronounced it irrelevant ...



 

And there in one, you have the monstrous stupidity of Stephens exposed, and "Ned" with him for quoting the line that "we bat for the same team." 

It's the quintessential Murdochian position ... everybody batting for the same team, everybody drinking the same kool aid, everybody routinely scribbling furious lines about "destructive dogmas of identity politics and endless woke gestures," everybody in mindless Orwellian harmony ...

Diversity, variety, contending viewpoints, reasoned, rational debate, fresh ideas, fresh views on past lives and stories told and history written, especially when written (and mostly) by aged white men of the complacent "Ned" or Stephens kind?

Nope, none of that ... but we know about patriotic education. 

A trip around the United States some time ago convinced the pond think there was only one safe investment it could make when planning retirement. Forget that one word plastics, Benjamin ... think flag manufacturing, for the endless waving thereof, so the lemmings could cheer on the dominant ideology that kept them as serfs and slaves...

“We’re not a democracy,” Republican Senator Mike Lee tweeted in the middle of Wednesday night’s vice-presidential debate. He was reacting to something he’d heard onstage there, in his home state of Utah. Another tweet: “The word ‘democracy’ appears nowhere in the Constitution, perhaps because our form of government is not a democracy. It’s a constitutional republic. To me it matters. It should matter to anyone who worries about the excessive accumulation of power in the hands of the few.” Hours after the debate Lee was still worrying the thought: “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity [sic] are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.”
Why did Lee choose this moment—less than four weeks before an election in which his party seems likely to suffer defeat—to make the familiar, even pedantic, point that we live in a republic rather than a pure democracy? Why did he insist on the point so vehemently that he neglected to mention that power in the American system ultimately lies with the people, which means that our system could also be called a representative democracy? Did he mean rank as in “foul,” “rancid,” or “outright”? If the last, does that mean the tyranny of the majority leading to perverse rule by “the few”? What did this short, misleading course in Civics 101 have to do with anything? (the answer at the Atlantic here, including the pious hope that Lee might get done down)

Uh huh, well there's something worthy of debate, another attempt to steal an election, even as the bromancer assures us it can't or won't be done ...

And there are many other ideas worthy of debate, but not when you happen to be a boring old white fogey feeling challenged and irrelevant ...



 

What cheek, the usual condescending bullshit at the end, of vast injustices, but nothing ever done or remedied, and then to talk of overreach, as the Donald and the Murdochians stalks the world and the land?

 


 

 Oh yes, democracy, such an elegant American rag, so intelligent ...

 





And so as the bonus for the day, a footnote on Gladys, which will only be relevant to NSW readers, and to anyone wondering what the lizard Oz editorialist was on yesterday, because the outing began this way ...



Which reptile thought it was a good idea to start an editorial with a cartoon? Has the lizard Oz now reached a point in shit creek lower than its tabloid kissing cousins?

Could anyone imagine an editorial in The Times beginning with a cartoon? Perhaps in these Murdochian end times they could ... but it still came as a shock to the pond, even more of a shock than the news about poor old Gladys ...

Almost as problematic, much of the content in the lizard Oz editorial was a recycling of material already featured under shameless Shari's name ...

There used to be a time when editorials and journalism were kept separate. The editorial was to state a paper's position, news and briefings and reporting and background information were supposed to be found elsewhere,  kept safely in another part of the rag. 

See below how the lizard Oz editorialist shamelessly confused and conflated those old ways of doing things ...



 

The pond sensed that poor Gladys was gone, what with the pious tut-tutting, and the condescending lizard Oz editorialist in full sexist mode with talk of "Head Girl" ... but wondered if there was also a reptile conspiracy afoot, with this reptile posturing a covert way to generate sympathy for Gladys and her plight?

And so to the editorialist mingling news and opinion ... texts and editorial posturing ...



The pond has already wondered if it was a fiendish plot by the reptile editorialist to develop some woke sympathy for Gladys amongst lizard Oz readers, but what of an editorial needlessly including texts of the kind that could have been found in shameless Sharri's piece? Worse was to follow ...


 

Well yes, all that and more, but then for no particular reason, except that it was to hand, the lizard Oz editorialist conflated and confused editorial opinion with copy that also turned up in shameless Sharri's piece ...


 
 
 
 
 
The pond only replicates it here because it wanted to put the whole sorry lizard Oz editorial into the pond's record of reptile musings ... because if this is the way the lizard Oz intends to keep on doing editorials, with cartoons, text messages and borrowings from Sharri, it could become a whole new Murdochian circus ...
 
 


 

Oh yes, there's a serious question mark over the lizard Oz's editorial judgements ...

Luckily the pond isn't an editorialist, and so can legitimately turn to the immortal Rowe for a comment on our Gladys, without affecting the pond's editorial integrity, and as always, with more Rowe here ...





And how about an infallible Pope to top things off? His cartoon might not have much to do with anything above, but why not, because the pond always likes to worship at the Pope's altar ...




6 comments:

  1. "Note also how the bromancer steers his ship away from talk of white supremacists, associated terrorism of the Oklahoma bombing kind, and such like ..."

    And Andrew Kehoe and Sen. Joe McCarthy, and the National Guard (remember Kent State) and the ever-present KKK and the NRA and ... Oh yes, there's such a richness to American society and history that the Bromancer just never mentions.

    Now, from Ned the Nullius: "This is the age of Donald Trump, whose trading in lies and deceptions ..." Gracious me, a reptile stating that Trump trades in "lies". Will he be the only one ? The Bromancer would never, ever admit that Trump lies, would he. And as for the Doggy Bov, the Cater, the two Great Dames ... nope, never even once.

    But hold on: "...and the once proud icons of US liberalism, partly in retaliation, have torched their principles to engage in historical distortion on a scale exceeding even that of Trump."

    Oh silly me, admitting to a few Trump peccadillos so as to accuse "the Left" of greater crimes. Yep, shoulda seen that one coming - it's been a favourite "big lie" technique of "the Right" for a very long time. And who better than Ned to thrust it upon us.

    So Ned stumbles on: "Using the test of perfection or the overwhelming honouring of ideals to determine whether enshrined historical ideals are valid is self defeating."

    Oh, ok then, the ideals of Communism are therefore just as valid as the ideals of Americal Liberalism, yes ? Since both equally fail the "perfection or the overwhelming honouring of ideals" test. And as for Judeo-Christianity, well ... say no more.

    But the matter of "democracy" ? "We're not a democracy," Republican Senator Mike Lee tweeted. ... "our form of government is not a democracy. It's a constitutional republic."

    And do you know, if you consider "rule of the people" (demos kratos) to be on the Greek model, he is absolutely correct. The Greek model - usually taken as defining "democracy" - was direct 'rule of the people' with a full, direct citizen vote on every governing decision. And that is indeed not how America, nor any modern state works - we are all much closer to the Roman 'republic' way where the people elected their rulers who then made the governing decisions.

    Though yes, "power in the American system ultimately lies with the people", whenever, that is, that the "elected representatives" allow the people to exercise that "power". Have you ever tried to have a referendum, or even an election, without the full permission and approval of our elected rulers ?

    And then what about that great "conservative hero" Edmund Burke: "Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion." So he's your "elected" ruler, got it ?

    And then there's the wondrous SCOTUS: which is not elected either, but it still rules without appeal on what the Constitution "means" - just ask Amy Coney Barrett about that. But oh, the outright hypocrisy of the reptiles: Ned finishes with: "Such overreach [by those awful NYT "Lefties"] should be resisted by courageous but reasoned analysis, but always with recognition that vast historical and racial injustice has occurred that demands to be rectified."

    Sure Ned, sure, but just when and by whom will it be "rectified" ? When reptiles and wingnuts are all enthusiastically "trading in lies and deceptions" on a hourly, daily, monthly, yearly basis.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Superb comment GB....... spot on.
      On SCOTUS, this totally got my attention......and not one question needed be asked. 28min.) CA.
      https://twitter.com/clairecmc/status/1316086663085518848

      Delete
    2. Very thorough, CA, but very, very old news isn't it. Of course, it will have zero impact on anything of importance. And the one thing that never gets any MSM mention - because why ? - is that the MSM "normalises" this every time, and the Dimocrats just accept it. After all, the GOP is the true ruler of America, isn't it ?

      Did enjoy this little Sheldon Whitehouse quote though: "When you see hypocrisy out in the light, look for power in the shadows". But hey, "vast historical and racial injustice has occurred that demands to be rectified." Yes ?

      Delete
  2. For something that happened within the Bromancer's lifetime -

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTRaFe703qw

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Fabulous.......a voice like crystal. Superb.
      CA.

      Delete
    2. Within his lifetime indeed, Chad, but has it ever happened within the Bromancer's span of knowledge and attention ? And does it meet Ned's criteria for "recognition that vast historical and racial injustice has occurred that demands to be rectified" ?

      Delete

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