The pond just wanted to set a bipartisan tone for the day … and couldn't imagine a better way of doing it than starting off with a Rowe, proving that a tie is more than a Freudian phallic symbol … with more symbolic Rowe here …
You see, the pond's only business is curating the reptiles, and it decided to go with the bromancer, as it usually does …
And as usual, there were many sacrifices to be made along the way …though many are unaware of the curatorial rigour with which the pond must approach its task each day.
Look there, the urbane Urban in fine form …
Sorry, the pond could only pause to wonder for a nanosecond: what is it with the reptiles and their obsession with homosexuality, or come to that, The Great Gatsby?
Shocking stuff, and urbane Urban reliable as ever, but the pond had to push on remorselessly against the tide, alarming as it might be to the reptiles to read Twelfth Night and …
Why even the latest news of the Ramsay centre had to be tossed aside …
There was a lot more, but the siren song of the bromancer was calling.
And so the pond had to step roughshod over Moorice himself, the immortal Moorice. So many sacrifices, so much suffering, but he had to be cut short, even if he'd been blessed with the Lobbecke of the day and was lashing out at the socialists like a wounded, feral beast …
No mention of climate science, Moorice's speciality? But what about his real task, to talk down and explain away Climate change: world heading for warmest decade, says Met Office ...
Venezuela's too easy for Moorice … he should have been tackling Trump State of the Union speech: what climate change experts say …
And so the pond came to the bipartisan bromancer, basking in the glow of his adoration of the Donald …
Now it's true some have the image of a man child at work …
But the pond is with the bromancer and can see an upside …
And so enough of the tease, and so to SOTU with the bromancer …
Now pedants could get picky and talk of the administration's hostility to gays and TG folk and point to stories like Trump Promised to end AIDS, a Day Later May Have Made the Crisis Worse ...
But the pond is dancing in the fields of the bromancer's delusions, and will settle for a cartoon …
Was it only yesterday that the reptiles ran with this splash yesterday at the top of the digital page?
But that was yesterday's delusion, and Caroline explaining how there are so many women in Congress … because it was the pussy grabber wot done it, "so yes, Trump is absolutely responsible for the record number of women in Congress …"
Weird logic, or what, and yet the mystically wise bromancer could see the very same silver lining ...
Ah poor persecuted Donald, and the pond could feel another cartoon coming on, one relevant to that speech and its mention of investigations …
And so to the last gobbet of the delusional ...
No mention of climate change? What matter? Why it's simply marvellous that the bromancer can find so much to love in a grifter and a con artist and a snake oil salesman.
Why if the Donald failed to mention climate science, that must be because it's fake news and a hoax …as the reptiles line up on a daily basis to explain …
Oh Moorice, why did you forsake your expertise for the easy task of mocking Venezuela?
And now just to prove that the pond made the right choice in representing reptile thinking at its finest and most advanced, lo, see how the lizard Oz editorialist acts as echo chamber for the bromancer ...
Well that's that, done and dusted …
And a day later?
Trump blasts Schiff as 'political hack' over new investigation … and so on and so endlessly forth … as anyone outside the world of reptile delusion might read Mueller probe filings raise prospect of more indictments …
The pond's one regret? All the important domestic matters that must be held over until the morrow … but perhaps those fearless domestic leaders are best left in the hands of the infallible Pope anyway, with more papal insights here ...
Oh dear, such a hilarious little Bromancer: "That was a remarkable State of the Union address from Donald Trump. For content, it was the best speech of his presidency..."
ReplyDeleteOh yes, just absolutely spiffing. Now, for a basically informed and rational view of Donald's Doodles, look here:
I liked parts of Trump’s State of the Union; then I remembered his presidency
In his speech, Trump imagined the president he hasn’t been.
By Ezra Klein
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/5/18213031/donald-trump-state-of-the-union-2019-fact-check
Now Klein was thick enough to fall for the Paul Ryan "wonk" myths and lies, so he's a bit dicey on his worse days, but this wasn't one of them. But for the Bromancer, can we now also imagine the journalist he hasn't (ever) been.
But if only we could get Greggie into a solid program of 'counterexplanation', then maybe he wouldn't produce 'belief perseverance' like this: "Overall, this was a new tone for Trump. Tough but measured, partisan where necessary, bipartisan where possible. Even if this tone only appears occasionally, it is a new and potentially powerful item in Trump's repertoire."
Oh go on, say it, Greggie, you know you want to: Trump has pivoted into the Presidency. And it's that "Executive time" that's made all the difference.
There now, that's the full quota of lies and delusions that you can give us. Well done, matey.
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteIf Moorice is agin it then its probably got some merit. Modern Monetary Theory appears on first glance to be a new uptake on Keynesian Economics.
http://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-modern-monetary-theory-72095
That may be no bad thing as Keynesianism led to uninterrupted growth in the West from the end of WW2 to the 1970s. No mean feat.
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2014/09/basics.htm
With no real growth in wages, especially here in Australia the economy risks stagflation as households, short on expendable cash, cut back their spending. Yet another example of why making rich people even richer doesn’t promote economic growth.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/grogonomics/2019/feb/07/an-interest-rate-cut-might-be-coming-and-the-reason-why-is-rather-scary
So maybe it is time for Keynes again. It can’t be any worse than the Neo-Liberal Trickle down that we are so ‘blessed’ with at the moment.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/dec/11/keynesian-economics-is-it-time-for-the-theory-to-rise-from-the-dead
DiddyWrote
Bill Mitchell is an Australian proponent of MMT who often comments on current issues.
Deletehttp://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/
A big critic of austerity.
Aren't we all, Unk, aren't we all. And we're all totally woke to the problem of "the paradox of thrift" too. [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_of_thrift ]
DeleteNo matter what anybody thinks, an economy is just people spending money. But if you'd like a bit of interesting reading, try Brad DeLong:
"Yes, There Are Individual Economists Worth Paying Respect to. But Is Economics Worth Paying Respect to?"
https://www.bradford-delong.com/2019/01/yes-there-are-individual-economists-worth-paying-respect-to-but-is-economics-worth-paying-respect-to.html
DW, there was a rather amusing smackdown of Liberal Party economic orthodoxy on the Guardian a couple of days ago: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/06/scott-morrison-thinks-cutting-taxes-is-economics-101-as-an-economist-i-beg-to-differ
DeleteThe comments below the line make some references to MMT, particularly in the context of the absurd notion, beloved of the Morrisons of this world, that a national economy is the same as a household budget with seven zeroes at the end.
Well possibly because the word 'economics' derives from the Greek word for 'household management', FD. But truly, is there now, or has there ever been, a 'senior' politician who understood the difference between 'domestic' meaning 'household' and 'domestic' meaning 'homeland' ?
DeleteIf the Labor "Gang of Four" (Rudd, Gillard, Swann and Tanner) hadn't gone completely against all previous political practice and listened to an economist instead of their own fevered imaginings, Australia wouldn't have been one of the two or three nations to come out of the Global Financial Crisis practically unscathed - but who knows, maybe the presence of Dr Craig Emerson helped ?
And I see our erstwhile saviour has left the NAB under something of a cloud - though calling his exit "a scalp" as some have is nonsense - he's kept all his payments and bonuses and will not see a single day in court. And he's such a good friend to hairy-nosed wombats and such a conscienceless exploiter of people. Then again, maybe hairy-nosed wombats are just much nicer than people.
Dorothy, the reference to Twelfth Night made me wonder if "Malvolio" wouldn't be just as appropriate for Gerard Henderson as "Polonius".
ReplyDeleteI appreciate aptness of Polonius with the words, words, words Gerard produces, but Malvolio was an arrogant, petty and precious pedant, and ultimately exposed as deeply stupid, bitter and rather spiteful.
As Olivia puts it "Oh, you are sick of self-love, Malvolio, and taste with a distempered appetite. To be generous, guiltless, and of free disposition is to take those things for bird-bolts that you deem cannon-bullets."
Sounds quite fit for Gerard.
Yeah but, butt FD, apart from you and DP, who's ever heard of Malvolio ? Ar least we've all heard about the arras even if none of us know what it is - other than a hiding place for Polonius, anyway.
DeleteAnd why pick 12th Night for a bit of cross-dressing ? What about Portia and Nerissa in The Merchant of Venice ?
An arras is a tapestry, made by the weavers of the northern French city of Arras (now probably most famous for a battle in 1917, pointless even by the standards of that war). Consumer goods were once commonly known by their point of origin, like the practical pants worn by the wharfies of Genoa, made from the hard-wearing cotton cloth from the south of France, known as les genes de Nimes, or, when Levi Strauss started flogging them to Americans, denim jeans. Globalisation put a stop to that, or latter-day Polonii would have to hide behind the Shenzhen or the Busan...
DeletePortia and Nerissa posing as men provokes questions of sex and power and legal standing, which are dead letters in a philosophical, if not practical, sense. Viola's tale starts the same (taking the identify of Cesario for self-protection), but the story becomes on of love and gender (as opposed to sex), which by reason of its lack of neat clear boundaries and even more by its currency, is the sort of issue your average reptile can really get into a lather about.
"Could be interpreted...?" - no, can only be - all of the comedy and all of the humanity of Twelfth Night (other a little tinsel about the high brought low and the woes of aging) come from that wellspring. But I suspect that notion is far to confronting for the Urbane one to concede.
Ah, but would even an arras be enough for our Polonius to skulk behind ? And thanks for the reminder about 'les jeans'. I had encountered that tale before (who hasn't), but like so many in these benighted days, that memory was hiding behind its own arras.
DeleteNot being one to boast of Willys, I know nothing of Twelfth Night, however I can see that if what you say is taken as right, then it would be more disturbing, even to an Urbanity, than The Merchant's Portia. But how would she have known ? Did she perhaps learn about that in Uni ? In an Australian Uni without benefit of the Ramsay Foundation ?
Nonetheless, I am partial to a bit of "the high brought low":
"Why this spade? this place? This slave-like habit? and these looks of care? Thy flatterers yet wear silk, drink wine, lie soft; hug their diseased perfumes, and have forgot that ever Timon was
And I'm quite absorbed by the woes of aging.