.jpg)
The pond has been reading a little history of late, and has the perfect solution for Winston Churchill, British-empire worshipping Tony Abbott in the matter of uppity Indonesians ...
We have the gunboats in the area. Send them in and bloody the nose and blacken the eye, as a way of teaching them a lesson. Wield the big stick of the mighty Collins class subs ...
You, in the back, stop that sniggering at once ...
Why gunboat diplomacy even has its own wiki here, and no doubt more than Greg Hunt in the coalition could read about it in the wiki with profit.
After all, if the Navy can do keep on brutalising its recruits, in a bid to out-do the landlubbers in the army, why not that difficult northern neighbour?
As for the dreary tales of corruption and the parade of thieves, rogues and charlatans currently clogging the enquiry and the news services in NSW - how proud the pond is not to be a member of the NSW Labor party, in the past, present, or future - it turns out that NSW has been there before, and we're not, for once, talking about the Rum rebellion.
While the pond has been reading it in book form (yes, amazing scenes, an actual book), you can get the gist of it by reading about Richard Denis "Dick" Meagher in the ADB here, and William Patrick (Paddy) Crick here, Sir William Owens, who headed up the Royal Commission into the outrageous land deals, here, and the notorious George Dean case, Sydney harbour ferry boat master and wife poisoner, here.
It's as fine a gaggle of corrupt, self-seeking, self-serving, anti-Semitic rogues as any first eleven NSW has assembled since, and by golly, the current NSW Labor party has done its very best to be competitive ...
Perhaps you'll be as pleased as the pond to learn the Latin phrase "semper eadem" (always the same) was the personal motto of Elizabeth 1, though perhaps she didn't adopt it as a way of understanding NSW politicians ...
But as always we must revert to our usual beat, the crony commentariat and the hagiographers, neatly and tidily described as "bombastic busy-bodies" in a rare moment of reflection and personal insight by Paul Sheehan.
Lacking the stout-hearted Churchillian resolve of the pond, the reptiles of the lizard Oz haven't quite known how to do the hagiographic bit about the stoush with the Indonesians:
Yep, the brave hagiographer is on hand to calm people getting spooked about the spooks, and urging the pugnacious, Churchillian Abbott to lay off Jakarta until the spying backlash passes, and to stay calm in the face of those hysterical northern folk and their over-reaction ...
Damn you hysterical northerners, damn you for making life tricky for our dear leader ...
But, but, but, back in the day, the Churchillian Abbott was gung ho, and come hell or high water, he would turn back the boats, and the damned Indonesians would just have to like it or lump it, and if they wanted a lump, he was the man to give it to them.
How time flies when you're having fun.
Never mind, some excellent news came yesterday courtesy of Crikey - coverage in the MSM has been exceptionally modest.
Let's ignore the figures for the Fairfaxians for July to September, which are dropping like a stone stripped of a parachute, and which you can read in Crikey here (inside the paywall at the moment), to celebrate the ongoing decline and fall of the Murdoch print empire:
Yep, the Daily Terror helped win the war for Abbott, but at the expense of shooting themselves in the foot and dropping a whopping 15%.
And the lizards at the Oz have dropped a hearty c. 8% and c. 10% - the pond has no qualms rounding out the figures, because if you took into account the throwaways and the giveaways, the circulation off an already low base would be as sick as a dog with a flea in the ear ...
Oh yes, what comes around goes around, and karma is a bitch.
Do the lizards have any idea why they're out of fashion?
Well even the digital edition produces a feeling of deep tedium. Once again we're offered Bjorn Lomborg at the top of the whirling digital splash of doom:
Our? Is he coming out here in a boat?
What kind of Australia do you want in 2040? What kind of jobs will be available to the next generation? And how do you want your society to look in three decades?
It is a conversation conducted far too rarely, overshadowed by day-to-day policy battles and the sensational scare of the month. In some ways, it is easy for Australia to avoid this conversation.
It's clearly some kind of sick cosmic joke on the Oz readership, and it turns out it's just a bit of puffery for Lomborg's Copenhagen Consensus Centre, doing a stocktake of the United States and wanting to do the same to, or for, Australia:
...With limited budgets, it is important to make sure the right choices are made to promote the most good for the coming generation.
We would like to involve Australians to define the biggest issues defining their prosperity across the next generation. Then we can ask economists to outline the smartest proposals for the future but, crucially, also to estimate the costs and the benefits. This will provide a real basis for a national conversation between Australians and their politicians on priorities. It could be an amazing conversation, built on facts and economic evidence.
Oh yes, the debate would be engaging, sparks would fly, and Tony Abbott would suddenly develop a long-term vision and move away from the short-term tit-for-tat politics by broadening his horizons.
You there, up the back, stop that sniggering.
And the reptiles wonder why their circulation is dropping.
For the extreme masochist, there are other comedy routines, most notably the one led by Dennis 'the suit and tie and the hair' Shanahan, always a contender for hagiographer in chief:
But he broke all the fucking eggs in the first place, and now he's trying to pretend it was only in order to make an omelet?
Laurie Oakes gets it right in Abbott's march to a new beat:
A cynic might suggest that Abbott is to the Australian parliament what Guy Fawkes was to Westminister.
With Bronwyn Bishop as the Speaker? The pond can't wait ...
Meanwhile, you could hear a sparrow fart on the wide Goonoo Goonoo slopes and plains easier than spot a reference in the Murdochians to the story that heads digital Fairfax this morning.
Yep, the Fairfaxians are claiming a victory, and how that must stick in the craw of the Murdochians:
Fairfax Media led a vigorous campaign on the issue, exposing dubious claims by politicians for attending weddings, rugby league matches and other social functions. Flights, hire cars, taxis and accommodation have all been billed to the taxpayer for such events, with expense claims from both sides of parliament coming under scrutiny.
And it's true, the craven, lickspittle hagiographers in Murdoch la la land were at best half-hearted, though any sensible journalist would have seen the topic as tabloid heaven.
Yet another reason why circulation falls when ideology gets in the road of a story, you might think, if only the Fairfaxians hadn't also taken a tumble ...
Never mind, it's time for a little gloating in Tony Abbott set to crack down on politicians' dubious travel claims ...
The header is actually misleading. The story itself says Abbott will cave and will set tough new rules today, but if the rorting of the past gets a free pass - just say a few Hail Marys Barners and all will be forgiven - then the rorters will have got away with it ...
The Fairfaxians might preen and burst with pride, but truth to tell, Abbott and his cohorts have treated and are treating the fourth estate with singular contempt. And there's very little the flailing and failing print media has managed to do about it.
With most of the print media controlled by the hagiographers and featuring the crony commentariat, very few are interested in holding the new government to account.
Could there have been any better example, or more pathetic sight, than the stone-walling provided by Lt Gen Angus Campbell, doing a St Peter and denying the cock crowing and the media questioning three times?
You can cop it here at Fairfax if you don't mind the ad, and you can stomach another Scott "talking in tongues" Morrison sighting.
How long will Morrison last in the job?
The pond is taking bets, but in the meantime, his presence is really only of use because of the inspiration it provides our favourite cartoonists ...
Inter alia, it's pleasing to note the Fairfaxians are pumping up David Pope in their cartoon gallery by awarding him "cartoon of the day" status (here, at least until the land at the top of the faraway tree shortly moves on).
It's the pond's mortal terror that as circulation continues to die, the cartoonists might be seen as a luxury item, when in reality they're the only visible sign of sanity in the land ...
Given that the Murdoch media have pretty much ignored the travel rorts, I thought the Fairfax papers may have labelled it "Exclusive". It seems they don't want to blow their own trumpets (or maybe they think they need a gold bar to give "Exclusive" some gravitas).
ReplyDelete