In which a criminal corporation endorses criminal political behaviour ...

Please ignore the preening Keith Pitt.

Nobody likes the goody two shoes, do-gooders, the teacher's pet, the toady:

But now master Tony's attendance record has been pointed out to the pond, it's impossible not to notice the way his derelict, scallywag, truant behaviour has affected his reading skills, his comprehension, and all the other skills that tend to accumulate in a D student, just one step above the palmersaurus dunce of the class:

“I am impatient with and I condemn those who persist in reading pages of my report as if they say the government can exercise ministerial discretion after dispensing with a criminal trial. I said the minister should have discretion over the revocation of citizenship after a criminal trial ... and it reflects very poorly that those quoting me can’t read beyond the few lines they are citing. 
“I assume they have been given speaking notes to that effect, but my report does not provide a justification for what they intend to do … it is not what I said, nor what I think now, and anyone who claims otherwise is wrong. In fact I am saying the opposite.  
“I doubt many of those citing my report have read beyond the one paragraph they refer to and that does not bode well for mature consideration or lawmaking. “To say I am not amused would be an understatement.”

Silly Bret Walker.

There's more at the Graudian here, but hopefully now now he knows that if he gets into bed with dullard, luddite reptiles, he's likely to wake up with a bad case of snake bite.

Meanwhile, yesterday brought the news that both the major parties were morally bankrupt and contemptible.

Well it's hardly news, and in the context of the mythologising and blather about Magna Carta this week, it provides more scope for comedy than usual - try preaching Magna Carta in the gulags of Manus Island or on Nauru, or shortly, to Australian citizens subject to the whim of ministerial fiat (yes, the pond listened to the RN Law report on Magna Carta here - thanks to Anita Barraud and David Clark,  the pond now feels free to subject anyone to a mawkish, sentimental Irish ditty).

There's no point expecting News Corp to hold the government to the flame on its contemptible behaviour (though the opposition, ah, that's another matter).

After all, it is also a criminal organisation, doing whatever it takes, by hook or by crook, to get the story - cracked that cell phone yet? Privacy, quoi, moi? - and the criminals in charge of the organisation escaped without punishment.

The pond uses the word criminal advisedly - there's no other word for criminal activities that involve authorising payments to criminals to sustain them in their criminal activities, and the news that it's been going on for some considerable time shows just what a refined business model the Australian government has managed to cultivate.

And who can doubt the evidence?

It puts Julie Bishop's terse "No" into the context of a deep, rich and fatuous lie.

No, Ms Bishop?

That's what happens when you keep company with Mutton "No" Dutton, still searching for a top paddock haven.

How much can the lawyers in the party stomach as they government and Tony the "D" pursue their neo-fascist ambitions?

Well it seems big Mal might be faltering, if you read Malcolm Turnbull breaks ranks on citizenship, declaring constitution cannot be compromised.

Big Mal knows that any legislation is likely to be challenged in the courts, but of course that's not a problem for the mischief makers.

They want to make mischief and then the matter can wend its way through the courts for years.

And by the way, fatuous fop Bret Walker, at the bottom of that link to the story about big Mal wringing his paws and shedding crocodile tears, there's Mutton Dutton still quoting you chapter and verse as justifying Ministerial whim as a way of dealing with Australian citizens ... how's the snake bite going?

Usually the pond doesn't read the old thunderer's editorials - there's only so much Methodism the pond can stand after an aged aunt converted to the cause - but The Age was in fine form yesterday with an editorial Mr Abbott's morally bankrupt boat business. 

In fairness, it probably should have also mentioned the morally bankrupt Labor party as well, but as the pond has noted before, one set of moral bankruptcies doesn't excuse the next set, especially when Tony "the D" Abbott has been the prime motivator for the mutual descent into moral bankruptcy.

With yesterday's ringing words now fish and chips and no sign that the moral bankrupts have seized the moment for reflection and change, the old thunderer is at it again today, with Memo to leaders: power has limits.

Enough already. The thought that the pond will be in Melbourne in a couple of weeks walking amongst Shorten fellow travellers and lick spittles is enough to send shivers down the spine.

In any case, the pond's beat isn't the Yarra cardigan wearers, it's the way a criminal corporation deals with the criminal activities of the political overlords, and as usual, the reptiles of Oz were in fine, oblivious form.

You'd expect precisely this sort of editorial from a Machiavellian, morally bankrupt criminal corporation:

So there you go.

The payments were likely made to minions, so that makes it alright, and Shorten was a fool and a loser, and the outcome was desirable, so sucks, boo.

And that's how you get a criminal corporation approving criminal behaviour.

It'd be pathetic, if it wasn't so contemptible. And what's more the shameless reptiles have the cheek to talk of opportunism and hypocrisy and a frenzy of outrage in the twittersphere and the press gallery ... because criminal activities by the federal government are A OK with a criminal corporation ...

Don't they realise that criminal organisations are on thin ice when they start blathering about hypocrisy?

Now don't get the pond started on the bullying culture that exists within News Corp. The pond has been regaled with many stories of bullied staff, subsequently sacked, who then take their bullying ways out into the world, in a way reminiscent of the naked visceral fear and the bullying that could be felt in the Nine bunker in Willoughby when a Packer stalked the corridors ...

But bullying's one thing. Now we're on to approving outright criminality ...

No wonder certain cartoonists keep on having a field day, with the myth of Magna Carta still doing the rounds (as usual more Rowe here and more Fairfax cartoonists, including Pope, here):

And while we're at it, let's add this Moir to keep another chestnut alive and glowing, in memory of the D student and the reptile Oz editorialist scribbling uxoriously about the wonders of coal, coal, coal for Australia: