In which the pond indulges in a Thursday potpourri ...

Oh it's too delicious and more delicious Rowe here ... and don't forget the original ...

But M'lud, movie reference enjoyed and digested, may it please the court of public loonery that the pond witnessed a prime display by the Caterists last night, and we owe it all, not to the big screen, but to ABC television.

It was on The Drum, your honourableness, and the pond had forgotten the prime directive that the show should not be ingested at tea time because of the obvious dangers to health and digestion (that's dinner time for anyone living outside Tamworth).

First, on the census debacle, the Caterist went on a rant about incompetent government without once mentioning that IBM was involved.

The last time the pond checked IBM wasn't a government body, and yet it had some fair degree of involvement in the debacle ... as the reptile front page suggests this day ...

No doubt the ABS has made many imaginable, and quite a few unimaginable mistakes, not least a remarkable incapacity for communication, but their biggest mistake was to sub-contract to IBM, notorious within the sector as one of the most over-priced, bloated and inept suppliers of services doing the rounds.

Now there's ample evidence that government makes many mistakes - how else to explain taxpayer grants being given to the Caterists? - but we should remember the way that the ostensibly private sector loves to sup on the government dollar. How else to explain the way the Caterists are quick to pocket the grants?

And then, after proving he didn't have a clue, the Caterist then launched into the Graudian for daring to do a document dump about the Nauru matter, replete with ostentatious and bullying references to how he'd been an editor of the Weekend Australian and how he knew how to expend shoe-leather being a hard-nosed journo right out of Raymond Chandler, and how he'd dared to report from Thailand and other dangerous jungle countries, and how it was all wrong to persecute the government by daring to reveal information, and so on and so forth.

Fortunately the Graudian representative - Paul Farrell - didn't take the bullying lying down, despite the fawning attempts of compere John Barron to pretend that the Caterist made the slightest bit of sense.

Even better, Jamilia Rizvi, who was introduced as a News Limited columnist (whatever happened to News Corpse?), didn't toe any imagined corporate line, and instead of reflexively supporting the Caterist, supported the Graudian document dump.

It gave the pond hope for the future - two young people with some care for what happened and refusing to dismiss events as recent as 2015 as "history", as the Caterist did, while in the other corner, an old and irrelevant codger foamed and frothed and ranted and railed and when not sounding pathetic, looked tragic, like a King Lear slowly realising he doesn't need a fool, not when he can be the fool himself...

The pond should have been pleased at the outcome -  after all the pond is in the business of humiliated reptiles getting it wrong, and the Caterist was eventually reduced to a grudging attempt at mending bridges - but it came at such a price.

There was the shouting at the television screen, and the near fatal stroke, and so the pond has once again instituted a complete and comprehensive ban on The Drum, which will probably last as long as the partner forgets and turns the kitchen telly on ...

Those who want to experience the same trauma can visit here, but the pond denies any legal liability for physical injury or a reduction in intelligence ...

What else? Well all is relatively quiet in reptile land ...

Of course the reptiles have featured Glenn Stevens doing his 'we'll all be rooned' routine, and naturally ABC 24 responded with its own very unique crisis - should the host eat an over-ripe banana? Even American breakfast television would find it hard to match this exquisite level of banality ...

So the pond scurried over to the Daily Terrorists, there to be confronted by the Bolter going over very old ground ...

Controversial cartoon had a clear message?

Then why have the reptiles and Leak himself had to expend so much energy explaining the cartoon and its "clear message", since the clearest message was that Leak was a cartoonist with an ongoing taste for racist imagery ...

It reminded the pond of the "explain xkcd" site which had the onerous duty of explaining xkcd to non-geeks, as if non-geeks would care ... though by some irony, the cartoon this day was just the sort the pond would be inclined to send off to the ABS ...

Actually, while enjoying the exquisite level of pedantry, wouldn't Warren Mundine have been better off simply writing his piece - positioned alongside the Bolter in the Terror - to Mike Baird under the header "Oh my god, you are why we can't have nice things," you know, like the ongoing slaughter of greyhounds and live baiting and betting, always the betting  ...

But it was the census debacle that dominated proceedings, and as usual there were exquisite ironies ...

Ah yes, diabolical social media ...

Inevitably there was an embarrassment of riches in response ...

It was such a bad hair day that the reptiles, as if swept along in unison, went off-shore for their columns...

There was the bromancer ranting at China, and a couple, including Savva, savaging the Trumpster, and Salt helping to cure the ageing ... (make sure the salt is generously rubbed into the skin for good crackling) ...

But the pond has more than enough American sources for any discussion of the Trumpster ... and besides, what more needs to be said than can be said in a cartoon which is clear in its message?

Besides, that piece by Bret Stephens is a two day old, reheated for recirculation downunder piece that originally ran in the Wall Street Journal and by now is taking on the shape of an over-ripe banana ...

You can if you want google it, and thereby bypass the reptile paywall ...

Now admittedly it's a good read - anything that disses Hannity is a fun read, but at the same time, Stephens' indignation tends to diminish and obscure the responsibility of assorted spear carriers who have paved the way for Trump ...

Yes Hannity works for chairman Rupert, as do any number of others at Faux Noise who still cheer on the Trumpster because that's all they know, that's all they've been trained to do...

So when you get to the end of Stephens' piece about the veneration of ignorance, it's wise to remember that locally News Corp hosts a cartoonist with a taste for racist imagery and a right wing ratbag columnist only too willing to defend such imagery ...

Actually it's thanks to the veneration of the chairman for the dollars generated by the groper Ailes and Faux Noise and the climate denialism that festers in the WSJ, and all the other ways that News Corp has encouraged the veneration of ignorance.

Never mind, speaking of ignorance, this morning the really infinite over-ripe ABC banana man excelled himself by demanding a rolled gold guarantee ...

(Metallurgy) a metal, such as brass, coated with a thin layer of gold, usually of above 9 carat purity. It is used in inexpensive jewellery. Also called (US): filled gold (here).

So the next time you want a piece of crap jewellery and a guaranteeas solid as brass to match, and an over-ripe banana, why not watched the infinitely dumbed, down really unique ABC News 24?

You never know, you might come across a Caterist in the wild and won't that make the clueless Pokémon GO generation jealous ...

And that's more than enough for this Thursday potpourri, though we shouldn't wrap it up without remembering that you can collect your daily Pope here ...

Or you could rake it up with the chairman and Hannity rolling over to promote the horse's arse ...

They're just doing what they've been trained to do ...