In which the pond begins a farewell tour with prattling Polonius ...

The pond came across that passage in an anthology, The Golden Age of Lesbian Erotica, 1920-1940, which it picked up at the local street library. It comes from a story Jazz Babies written by Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse in the 1920s …

About all it needed to make it contemporary was a line "as I dream of a time when we may be without thugby union fundamentalist bigots and delusional reptiles to condemn us …"

And that circuitous Folau-riddled introduction is by way of a hint that the pond is very tired of reading the reptiles, and would rather read almost anything else, including lesbian erotica, than keep on with the reptiles …

And so the pond will be retiring from daily blogging immediately after the next federal election. It's been a slow process … first the pond said farewell to the Daily Terror and the likes of Miranda the Devine and Akker Dakker and little Timmie … and it's been yonks since the pond last looked at the Bolter, blathering away to a very small crowd on the telly … and so saying farewell to the lizard Oz, the Speccie mob, Flinty and sundry other loons is just another part of the journey ...

There are any number of reasons, boredom chief amongst them, and the getting up early to attend to the herpetarium before going on with other matters, an especially tedious chore during the winter months. 

And then there's the impending result. The pond can't face the prospect of another three years of reptile insanity, not with SloMo speaking in tongues as he leads the Murdochian Surry Hills 'leet down the coal-loving, climate denialist path. But if comrade Bill were to get up, while the pond would enjoy drinking the tears of the reptiles for a time, it would soon become exceptionally tedious, especially if the pond were to fall into the role of defending comrade Bill's works …

And with the poodle gone, and the onion muncher teetering on the brink, what's the point? Even if he gets back in, the onion muncher is a nation-wide figure of amusement, all authority lost, all potential gone … and to spend any more time with him is a waste of time.

Better instead to contemplate those green boxes, requiring maintenance and power, that are springing up around the land, like eerie Kubrickian monoliths, and marvel at the folly of humanity and in particular the reptiles, sent on a mission to destroy, and sending the country into some kind of 18th century drawing room of technology …

And besides, there are others now willing to take up the cause, and keep a finger on the cold, clammy reptile pulse. The venerable Meade is always worth a read, and this Friday she was at it again here …

Inter alia, there was a mention of the craven way that the forelock tuggers can see blindly through one eye …

And yes, the Chaser did come up with that offer, and there were a few comical responses that couldn't find their way into Meade's reproduction of the tweet …

If the pond has ever helped one person summon up the courage to unsubscribe to any News Corp offering, be it Foxtel or some tree killer rag, that is a joy to the pond …

There are others at the Graudian who report on the herpetarium, as with this story here …

At one point, the pond fantasised about giving up when Chairman Rupert passed on to answer the charge sheet produced by the reptiles' imaginary friend ...or perhaps celebrating as the lizard Oz finally had to stop throwing away its rag for free in airports, and stop its tree killing ways, and go digital ... or best of all, go into receivership as part of a company meltdown … but in reality, there's a new Murdochian lemon on hand, perhaps even sourer than the root stock, a lemon who hasn't fallen far from that venerable original lemon tree, by all accounts needing a kilo of sugar to mask the bitter taste of the lemonade ...

Yes, the Murdochians will keep on with their wicked ways, and in its own small way, by paying attention, the pond draws needless attention to the braying and the shouting at clouds ...

There's no point in being as desperate as Bill Maher and pleading with Jerry Hall or Melanie to make a stand. They sold out long ago, and they line up daily for their rewards …

'Just … wow' … and so it will be into the foreseeable future, but the pond is tired and has other things to do. 

On the upside, the pond won't even begin to feel the need to reference the dullest knives in the drawer, or even stage an argument about who's the biggest back paddock short of a sheep…

Can anyone be sillier or manage to sound stupider than the Angelic one? Does this explain why the bouffant one is in a permanent state in the lizard Oz?

Of course there will be sadder farewells, not least prattling Polonius …

With Polonius, it's always been necessary to wade through the fringes of the mangrove swamp to arrive at the heart of darkness, or historical distortion, and so for one of the last times …

That yarn would have read so much better if Keating had added, "mate, I'm a nutter just like you. Two nutters together, and sometimes I wonder who's the nuttier, you or me … but let's not make it a competition, let's not argue over who's the nuttiest, let's just celebrate our mutual nuttiness …"

Meanwhile, the pond had to get through a load of shell to arrive at this day's distilled essence of historical Polonial peanut …

But in his day Ming the merciless was very much a bone spurs man, and as well as being something of a Pig Iron Bob each way, was himself something of a Hitler man …

And so on … and that's why the pond is tired … because there's only so many times you can read even Polonius as he rattles and prattles his way into his past eternal loyalties ...

Ah it finally comes out, the little hoppy toad, still kicking the commie can down the road. And as usual it leads the dissembling one into a whopper ...

Read that one and marvel … "played little role in the election campaign."

Why would anyone scribble that? Well  it actually is very Donald, because it's very much like the Donald agonising over the legitimacy of his election. 

Everyone knows that the Russians interfered with the US election in 2016. Some might not mind, some might try to claim it had no effect, some might even see it as a liberal conspiracy, and there are even some Vlad lovers who join RT and the Donald in labelling it a hoax.

The reality is that the Donald simply can't bear any of the talk about the Russians because it hints at his illegitimacy … even as he then bows down to Vlad and tugs the forelock like a submissive in a piece of lesbian erotica …

As it is with the Donald, so it is with the supine Polonius …he just can't admit to what was an artful ploy back in the 1950s …

And yet there are other interpretations, as that by Jack Waterford here, and worthy of a few relevant quotes …

...So began one of the most momentous affairs in Australia’s postwar history, and a landmark episode in Australian political mythology. The defection of Petrov, and the dramatic decision of his wife, Evdokia, seventeen days later, to join him, changed the face of Australian politics for a generation. It may have been the factor that cost Labor the election in May that year – an election Labor had been expected to win (and where it won an absolute majority of votes, in fact, but not of seats). At the time of Petrov’s defection, the communist-baiting Senator Joseph McCarthy had been condemned by the US Senate, and overt McCarthyism was in decline in the United States. In Australia, the potency of communist can-kicking had been beginning to fade: had Petrov not defected, the 1954 election would have been fought primarily on economic issues. But the Petrov affair gave the official denunciation of communists new impetus and the political tactic a central role in Australian elections for at least another decade ...

Well yes, B.A., the DLP, Polonius himself, the onion muncher, it all started way back then, with the fellow travelling with Spanish fascists and the kicking of the Commie can and the child-fiddling Catholic church, a whole brew of badness that still hasn't gone away ...

...The prime minister, R.G. Menzies, artfully promised that the defections would not be an election issue, but his lieutenants, particularly the deputy prime minister, Arthur Fadden, got maximum mileage out of it, asking particularly whether Labor, said to be soft on communism, could be trusted to follow up the royal commission’s findings.

Well yes indeed, and the saucy doubts and fear-mongering paid off ...

...Evatt correctly saw that the affair was the major factor that cost him the election. His mood was even less sanguine when his press secretary, Fergan O’Sullivan, confessed that he, as a Sydney Morning Herald journalist before he joined Dr Evatt’s staff, had composed Document H; he was quickly sacked by Evatt.

And there were other resonances ...

...As the drama unfolded, there were further repercussions for Labor. The handling of the affair by its leader, Dr H.V. Evatt, destroyed his political credibility. It was a key background factor when a long-festering division between left and right within the Labor Party burst into open warfare, resulting in the split that kept Labor from office until 1972. “What if?” speculation is largely sterile, but it seems fair to argue that had Petrov not defected, or, as I would argue, had Evatt not responded to that defection in the way he did (dragging most of his party, most of them unwillingly, with him) the split of 1955 might not have occurred, or at least could have been more contained. And, had the split not occurred, it seems likely that Labor would not have spent so long in the wilderness, making its return to a partial power in 1972 so painful.
Even now, a generation after the defection, Petrov haunts Labor. An image that had been created in the late 1940s but was beginning to fade by 1954, that Labor was not sound on national security matters, took hold again and still dogs the party. It still makes Labor leaders act as if they have a guilty conscience whenever they are called on to make security decisions. That image, and the distrust of ASIO that the Petrov affair brought, was as much responsible as good old-fashioned incompetence for a series of ASIO–Labor catastrophes in 1972–75 and from 1983.

Jack has a lot more to say about the affair, but he's already said enough for the pond's Sunday meditation ...

Read that one and contemplate … "played little role in the election campaign."

That's what Polonius would like you to think, as he kicks the China can down the road a little ...

Just as it is with the nutter Donald, so it is with the nutter Polonius …it's one thing to be a winner, using all the tricks in the book, but to dissemble about it, and to pretend it never happened that way, is almost the surest sign that it did …

And now, as Polonius keeps company with the Donald, why not a few Donald-related cartoons?