In which prattling Polonius refuses to shut up, reserving that pleasure for others ...

Now there's a classic example of how to run dead ... tuck the sorry story of Malware and the Donald down in the left corner, with the reassuring note that the horrible deal is still on ...

Just when the pond wanted to know what it all meant, and what it said about Malware, as well as the Donald, the reptiles decide to play dead ...

It was time to turn to that expert commentator reliably sourced from one of the great institutes of Sydney ...

Now at first blush, at first glance, this might seem odd.

Isn't prattling Polonius himself at the head of a think tank? Isn't the dear old sod inclined to be an agony aunt, having public tiffs with the agonised David Marr on their ABC?

Well, no, the google splash catches the tone better ...

You see? Instead of "shut it", he's suggesting that his fellow agony aunts "put a sock in it", because he knows dinkum Aussie lingo -he's just a navvy in Bond's imported singlet at the coal face of life - and yet, such is his generous nature, he's prepared to offer advice ... for free ...

The pond, always a slow thinker, wondered if Polonius might be telling other thinkers to shut it ...

What a line-up of deep thinkers, and it seriously upsets the pond to have to tell all of them - the bromancer, savvy Savva, the bromancer and nattering "Ned" to just put a sock in it and STFU ...

Why, they'd grace any think tank line up ... and heavens above, the pond almost forgot the deepest thinker of all, Dame Slap explaining flirting to the masses ...

What a think tank session that would be, with Dame Slap also advising on birds and bees and ...

No doubt this all comes from a pond confusion, from the bizarre idea that Polonius himself was involved in a think tank, by name the Sydney Institute ...

Heaven forfend that anyone should think it was a think tank, involving thinkers thinking and talking ... when all it offers is a forum where gentle persons might gather to have a chat ...

Now for those befuddled types who refused to click on that image to read it, the key lines are at the start:

"The Sydney Institute is a privately funded not-for-profit current affairs forum encouraging debate and discussion. The Institute is genuinely pluralist and a wide and diverse range of views are heard at its forums".

You see, no thinking involved or required. Views aren't thinks.

Oh and there's an encomium from Frank Brennan SJ over on the right, because the genuinely pluralist Polonius has relatively little interest in the Catholic church ...

As for the Institute, the pond can confirm that none of those shown below are the sort of fish you'd find in a think tank ...indeed, not one of them could be called a thinker ...

Nor are any of the fish scheduled to turn up in the near future the sort that could be described as thinkers or tankers ...

In short, those wretched souls, who think it a tad bizarre that prattling Polonius should offer others gratuitous advice about shutting up and putting a sock in it, while at the same time prattling on endlessly himself, and inviting others to prattle, have entirely missed the point ...

Please, admire the coherent, logical advice of Polonius himself in heightened and deepened and insightful prattle ... remembering that it isn't thinking, merely a view ...

Now around this point, the pond can hear the distant sounds of people shouting 'oh FFS, why doesn't the silly old bugger shut the fuck up, or at least put a well-worn sock in it, or perhaps a stocking if that's his kink' ...

Trying to talk up the Donald as a policy wonk and a success is about as silly as trying to hold back the tide, though, granted Polonius's megalomania, he might well have tried that too, as well as trying to shut up his fellow commentators ...

But of course the pond only runs Polonius so there's some words in between the cartoons, which allow the pond to mention that there's more Rowe here ...

Now your average Freudian might note that still waters run shallow, and that Polonius's neuroses are routinely on view ...

His resentments, his anger, bubble on the surface, and nothing is more likely to get his goat than comedians having fun and having a laugh ...

Indeed, indeed, the resemblance - and the refusal to smile or dance or clap hands with glee - is quite remarkable ... as the infallible one smotes those around him for getting everything wrong ...

Perhaps it's just the pond's relentless desire to infringe Godwin's Law and build up a flourishing swear jar which leads the pond to suggest an amendment ...

Here’s some home-grown gratuitous advice. Australia’s commentators should desist from mocking Herr Hitler* and should assume that our elected representatives know how to handle the German political system. (* Mussolini, Stalin, Mao, and sundry other tin  pot dictators can be inserted here - Venezuela, Syria and Turkey are looking good this year - a according to taste and inclination).

Yes, it's important in a democracy just to shut the fuck up, know your place, join the huddled sheep ready for the shearing each day, and assume that everything's for the best in the best of all worlds and Malware knows how to handle the US political system - perhaps in the same way he's shown he can handle the NBN ...

Say what? It's gone pear-shaped? Why didn't someone tell the pond?

Oh that's right, that's because everyone at the lizard Oz heeded Polonius's advice to desist from mockery, and shut the fuck up ...

Dammit, it's solid advice - only a prune could offer better - albeit a tad odd for a newspaper's business model peddling commentary as the answer to its declining fortunes ...

Never mind, despite Polonius's prune-ish insistence on solemnity - mistaking gravitas for insight - the pond felt the sneaking need to have another cartoon, and who better to fix the craving than the Pope, with more encyclicals here ...