In which the pond seeks transparency with prattling Polonius, and the usual dose of rage from Dame Slap ...

 

Poor reptiles … what a bleak and dismal day for the business model …

This morning the reptiles the lizard Oz were still at it …

The pond hadn't paid much attention, and was mildly surprised. The one attempt the pond had made to pay attention to the issues was to watch their ABC's The Drum, but when a loon, disguised as a woman, began banging on about the Laura N'order issue, the pond switched off. There's only so much time the pond is prepared to waste on trollers and provocateurs banging the fear-mongering drum with faux statistics…

The best thing about the Victorian result federally might be that it dissuades ScoMo from going down the Laura N'order path (the mutton Dutton is too dumb to learn anything and will doggedly persist).

Using demented terrorists to stoke fear for political gain only serves to give the terrorists their much desired reward, their fifteen minutes of glory, and ups the chance that someone else might want to follow suit. This particularly applies to lone wolves. 

Just as the Donald needs the media as an enemy, so the reptiles have used Laura N'order in the hope of saving a dying business model, and the Victorian Liberals used her to score cheap political points … and both they and Matthew Guy got their comeuppance …

And with that said, the pond must turn to left over business, and what do you know, good old prattling Polonius wanted nothing to do with Laura N'Order, at least if it happens to be applied to federal politicians …

But, billy goat, butt, the pond wanted to say, what about good old Eddie? Is it likely that amongst the Feds there's not a single Eddie to be found? Polonius would have none of it ...

The pond supposes that it should go without saying that Polonius is dead set against integrity and transparency, but never mind, Polonius will say it anyway ...

Of course Polonius himself can't spot any corruption, based on deeply relevant experience that relates to the 1970s and 1980s …passing strange though that is, because it would put him in the game around the time of the Khemlani loans affair (Greg Hunters go here),  while in more recent times, there has been much murk around the Australian Wheat Board oil-for-wheat scandal and the Reserve Bank securency scandal …

And so on and on, and the one thing the pond will note - from its own time within federally financed institutions - is the infinite capacity for public servants and politicians to cover up mistakes, errors and corruption, in much the same way as Polonius so ably demonstrates with his prattle. Not every scandal ends as conveniently as once happened within the pond's purview, when an accountant with his finger in the till for gambling debts, decided to hang himself …

Never mind, Polonius is keen to leave open the possibility that public servants can continue to pursue bribes in relation to defence matters. Such matters should be swept under the rug and kept there … after all, the pay for public servants is generally miserable, so surely there should be a few perks ...

Luckily, by its nature, corruption tends to keep itself under cover, and so we may rely on the ongoing discretion of public servants and politicians inclined not to be as naked and obvious as an Eddie … and prattling Polonius's helpful desire to throw a blanket over anything that might be found to be too disturbing for minors to see ...

Yep, good old Polonius has done a comprehensive audit of government departments and federal politicians and has issued a clean bill of health. 

Please, federal pollies and public servants, feel free to go on with whatever covert activities that appeal … Polonius will see you right. Move along, nothing to see here, oh and incidentally, please, no revelations about Polonius's funding sources …though there's fun to be had here, at Media Watch here, and Fairfax here …

"There's got to be an argument in terms of transparency," Latham says. "They should be as accountable as public authorities or journalists. We've had the 'cash for comment' inquiry - these outfits have been overlooked."
Gerard Henderson from the Sydney Institute is very reluctant about identifying his supporters - and claims it is not relevant. For a start, he says, his organisation only promotes discussion and debate: it does not seek to lobby governments. He also says his weekly column in this newspaper - which is compiled using institute resources and gives his institute email address - is "totally separate". It is written in his name, not representing the institute's views.
Henderson has attracted publicity over a $10,000 "charitable donation" given to the institute by Philip Morris in 1993. Before then he wrote in support of tobacco industry positions, describing smokers as a "disadvantaged minority" and criticising "social regulators". He has written little on tobacco since.
Henderson says he writes on different subjects all the time - there were some issues about tobacco industry regulations that were relevant in the early 1990s but they subsided and there was not much more to write about. "There is no evidence of any link between what I write and the corporate supporters of the Sydney Institute," he says.
Henderson says some funding claims are plain silly - he scoffs at a parliamentary question asked by Latham suggesting the Sydney Institute was backed by US intelligence agencies.
On the sponsorship question, Henderson referred the Herald to the institute's chairman, Meredith Hellicar, who says benefactors are not disclosed except for "those who've been happy to out themselves".

And now the arm-breaker has gone off with the pixies, or at least the Paulines, and Polonius still  prattles on about the absolute certainty that there's no need for transparency …

It's a funny old world, which is as good a cue as any for the pond's dessert, a large bowl of Dame Slap jelly …

Now ever since Dame Slap announced last week that "Trump may be democracy's saviour", the pond has renewed its interest in her work. 

The Dame stays loyal to her MAGA-wearing Trumpian dream, and the pond thought that if nothing else, a paranoid outburst about enemies would at least provide a coat-hanger for a few cartoons ...

Straight away, Dame Slap began to deliver some tremendous lines. Perhaps in due course she'll talk about the need for "calm analysis", but right now the pond will settle for the incongruity of Dame Slap talking about hate speech and trolling … then promptly trotting out the line "They are the online Stasi for the 21st century…"

There you go, hate speakers, see how to speak hate and fear in style …  because a few tweets are surely equivalent to the East German secret police (how sad the KGB and the SS no longer have the punch they once had).

Here, have a cartoon or two celebrating democracy's saviour at work…

Now it's back to the paranoia ...

Of course, of course … it wasn't really a cry about online trolling, it was a howl of corporate pain. 

Oh the suffering, the endless suffering of News Corp, and poor old Sky, as if the pond cared a hoot or a fig …and that loon of loons, Rowan Dean, who apparently likes to dish it out, but can't take a few tweets in return …

By golly, talk about calm and moderate analysis, even if it makes the pond feel good scribbling about loonacy …

Now where's that list of advertisers again? The pond feels a boycott coming on … but in the meantime, have a few cartoons …

What a pity the pond never ever watches Sky. Why if the entire organisation disappeared overnight, it would be a never no mind to the pond, but Dame Slap seems to be on the verge of tears ...

Oh dear, not Breitbart …but before we get on to a vision splendid of the manly representative of the new world order, perhaps a few more cartoons?

Hopefully that should make the next illustration a little easier to handle … the vision splendid ...

Well, the one thing we can say about Dame Slap's rage is that it isn't confected. It's genuine, ongoing, relentless and designed to intimidate, with naming and shaming, yet with the sublime insouciance and cheek to say that "cooler heads" matter …

Surely she means cooler cartoons?

And so to the best Dame Slap line of all … "calm analysis helps too."

Sure, it's improbable, it's silly, it flies completely against the rage and hate and irrational anger and emotion Dame Slap routinely lathers up, but the pond hastens to assure stray readers that these are genuine screen caps, and there has been absolutely no Photoshop tinkering …

… and so, here it comes ...

So if the pond gets things aright, Dame Slap spent all this energy, this rage and anger, on not even a cricket team?

Presumably that's the same not even a cricket team that recently helped Matthew Guy romp into government in Victoria …

Just kidding, but oh the whimsy, oh the joy … 

Meanwhile, is Dame Slap really suggesting Sky might be brought down by a campaign against its advertisers… who by their sponsorship, are endorsing climate science denialism, and a night-time rogues' gallery of raving fundamentalist right wing ratbag loons, out of touch with everything apart from the fluff they gather in their navels?

If only it were so easy … 

Meanwhile, here's a few more cartoons celebrating turkey time …