In which the Major picks at his feathers yet again ...

Here's a trick question, one that the pond is certain will fool even the most devoted follower of the reptiles.

What's the subject of the Major Mitchell's treatise for the day?

Is it:

(a) the failings of Comrade Bill (helpful clue, Simon Benson is scribbling furiously this day);
(b) a backflip on the failings of Comrade Bill (hint, the oscillating fan has suddenly discovered Comrade Bill is shrinking into his role);
(c) the tale of Pauline Hanson's woes, as One Nation supporters allegedly break with her position on company tax cuts (hint, the prolific Benson might have a hand in this, even as the rag publishes Hanson herself scribbling Big firms don't deserve tax cuts);
(d) another tirade about Victoria's gang culture beating the Vic police (hint, the Oz editorialist has got to have something to scribble about);
(e) a mocking piece about Tim Soutphommsane (clue, please reserve a spot for Cut and Paste to have a go at those bloody tricky Asians down under)
(f) the bloody ABC and its bloody bias.

Oh okay, the pond made it easy, it wasn't really a trick question, because if ever there was a tediously predictable old fart, it just has to be the Major …

A wily old bird? Sorry up Tamworth way, we'd just call him a galah or a cockie that's picked up a few words … and would find it easier to pick his feathers than to pick up the trail of an Order of Lenin medal …

Look, there he is, just below the Oreo's transcendent glory …and featured in twitter to the cosmic amusement of the few …

 

Well after that introduction, there's almost no need for a pond commentary, as the stars align in the Major's mind …

The Bolter concurs? The Bolter's an expert in bias?

The pond really does wonder sometimes what these birds do for brains.

What if they manage to get the ABC re-invented in the form of the lizard Oz?

What if the ABC toed the line on climate denialism, giving the banks a free ride, scrapping renewable energy and celebrating the return to government-owned five year planning for power generation using dinkum clean Oz coal, oi, oi, oi?

Where would that leave the useless bloody reptiles?

Speaking of Media Watch, just recently it quoted the humbug galah as conceding it was all a game, a kind of honeytrap form of click bait trolling for the faithful …

And so the dumb galah keeps on harumphing about the need to turn the ABC into the lizard Oz, perhaps in the hope that the reptiles might have somewhere to flee should the worst come to the worst for their business model ...

Climate science?

Well that's a bit of a stretch for the Major's brain …

You see, in the same Media Watch, the Major talked of the lizard Oz …

The pond rolled the jaffas down the aisle at that line about trying to explain "to the more sensible journalists there …"

Which is a dumbfuck way of explaining that the likes of the bromancer, the dog botherer, Dame Slap and the Major are about as sensible as baseball in Italian …(fair dibs, it was supposed to be H. L. Mencken who observed "Opera in English is, in the main, just about as sensible as baseball in Italian", presuming that baseball, like cricket, made sense in any language at all).

Never mind, it's the last gobbet by the Major and what a relief that is ...

Donald Trump?

Here's a curious thing. The logarithms on one of the pond's television sets has turned to sending assorted segments from Fox Business the pond's way.

The pond does its best to stop the recalcitrant logarithmic beast, but lately with news of the tariff war heating up, Fox has turned hysterical and alarmist, with the latest involving the US's major manufacturer of nails.

The Chicago Tribune has a story here …as the layoffs begin.

A couple of excerpts lumped together ...

"There's a lot of uncertainty and a ton of fear in Poplar Bluff," said Skarich. He voted for Trump and says he's "disappointed" and "sad" at what's happening to a town and company he loves. If Skarich had a minute with Trump, he says he'd tell him these tariffs aren't hurting China, they are hurting Missouri. The workers who lost their jobs on June 15 were contract workers paid about $10 an hour, but the next round of layoffs will hit longtime employees, many of whom are making $13 to $14 an hour plus benefits. That's a middle-class job in Poplar Bluff where the median income is just over $31,000 a year. Trump campaigned on "jobs, jobs, jobs." He promised to be the "greatest jobs producer God ever created." He and his team regularly argue that the tariffs are going to save jobs and even bring jobs back from overseas. But the vast majority of economists and business leaders have warned that many more jobs are likely to be lost than saved. The Tax Foundation predicts 48,585 job losses from the tariffs Trump has already enacted on imports of washing machines, solar panels, steel, aluminum and $50 billion in Chinese products. That figure would soar to over 250,000 job losses if Trump moves forward with tariffs on another $200 billion of Chinese products, the Tax Foundation said….

...the situation in Missouri is a warning sign of how the tariffs are helping some workers and harming others, and that's tricky politics for Trump who looks like he is picking winners and losers. Workers in New Madrid County, Missouri are celebrating as Magnitude 7 Metals is restarting an aluminum product line, giving 450 workers back their jobs. But just an hour away in Poplar Bluff, 500 workers could be out of a job by the end of the summer. The president's focus has been on saving jobs that make raw steel and aluminum, but there are many more jobs that are harmed by the tariffs because they turn raw metal into something else like a car or airplane. The longer the tariffs are in place, the more companies are likely to have to make cuts. Experts have warned Trump that the tariffs are likely to cause more job losses than jobs saved, and the early signs of that are starting to play out in small towns south of St. Louis As the job losses mount, so may the pressure on Trump.

The pond realises that the Major Mitchell is a slow-moving old bird still infatuated with the Donald … but then if the pond wants actual news and insights, almost any news service is better than the lizards of Oz …why, they manage to make the ABC seem like an oasis in the desert of Murdochian silliness.

And so to a cartoon featuring the Donald, which seems to indicate that Rowe might be back - huzzah - after a long break, with this here …

And here's another one, just for the Trumpist Major …