The news was grim in the lizard Oz, and even gallows humour didn't seem appropriate - not even the irony of that NRL ad still lurking at the top of the lizard Oz digital edition for the NRL games that won't be coming any time soon - and so the reptiles in the commentary section were inclined to be sober or solemn or caring ...
At the top of the section, Troy was lamenting a lack of speed, and the reptiles thought it so urgent, they also had Troy higher up in the page, sandwiched between more bad news …
Relax, at least he wasn't blessed by a Lobbecke … that illustration was by a certain Tom Jellett.
But the general lockdown helps explain why the pond has only one offering today, and that requires trudging back to yesterday, to the dream world inhabited by moron in chief, the dog botherer … also sandwiched between grim news …
Yep, in all the fuss and the hubbub, the dog botherer took time out to have a go at Norman Swan, presumably as a pre-emptive strike against last night's Q and A …
Swan, for some strange reason, has become a figure of hate amongst reptiles because he speaks his mind, is a qualified doctor, and even worse, has frequently been right … so naturally a portrait of the man to hate was at the top of the dog botherer hit piece …
What followed was beyond the valley of the gratuitous, with a fatuous comparison between Swan and others, though lurking beneath it all was the sense that the only qualifications the dog botherer brought to the table was his ability to sound like a dickhead, along with his renowned ability to bother dogs …
Uh huh … but please allow the pond to pre-empt where the dog botherer is heading with a few excerpts from Media Watch last night … because we'll soon be ending up talking about the power of the media and responsibility ...
But don't go looking for a backflip from the dog botherer …
So what's the point? Somebody suggests a sensible step that has in fact ensued, and suddenly it's a thought crime, and the dog botherer can't find anything else to scribble about?
There are plenty of good examples, as per Media Watch … as Paul Barry, after celebrating the Donald, turned to the US media, chairman Rupert's brand to the fore ...
And here? Yep, the onion muncher was featured doing exactly the same thing …
The woulda, coulda, shoulda man … and no, those inverted commas don't provide a get out clause for doing a Donald ...
As for OANN, it's hard to imagine anything or anybody more moronic than Fox News, but anything is possible in the United States, and the One American News Network is the perfect inspiration for loons…
(Here)
And that segues nicely into a final short gobbet of dog botherer resentment and bile …
Say what? He has the cheek, the brazenness, the gall, to attack Swan and the ABC for being all about power and no responsibility? Because Swan is interested in saving lives?
And yet, when it comes to the crunch, Fox News, the Donald, the Murdochians in general, were for months in the front line of disinformation and disingenuous nonsense …and now, a Graudian poll might help explain the social irresponsibility arising from such reporting - "one-third say there has been an overreaction to coronavirus."
And yet here's the dog botherer's having a go at Swan and making insinuations about his commercial activities, and his suggestion that shutting down schools for awhile might be a good idea … you know, remember Troy's London calling: you're too slow, Australia this very day …and we know what even Boris managed in relation to schools.
And why might we have been slow? Well it turns out that the dog botherer's chums, including the Bolter and the parrot, have illustrated exactly what it's like to have media power and absolutely no sense of responsibility …
It seems climate science denialism has produced a completely reflex form of denialism about almost everything amongst the 'leet reptile commentarial …
And front and centre are classic examples of the "I'm all right in my splendid southern highlands isolation, so fuck you Jack and Jill" ….
Actually, as of 7.20 pm, 23rd March GMT, there had been 372,708 confirmed cases, and 16,315 deaths, and that's the way it goes when it comes to stats landing while a geometric progression goes down ...
Never mind, the parrot has been in splendid form, which means Nine can't cover itself in glory, and the Sky mob (and let's not forget Shari of the Terror was peddling this malarky too) …
Yes, indeed, the pond is based on crazy stuff, and each day it has to look no further than the reptiles.
Someone at the lizard oz will have it for the pond, and this day the pond nominates the dog botherer for his epic attempt yesterday to stuff a hair dryer up the nose of Norman Swan …
Sure, it was a minor effort, pointless and useless, and the only media plaudit the dog botherer deserves is a medal for bitterness, bile, resentment, and an attempt, however feeble, to maintain a denialist rage about almost everything, never mind how sustainable it is, never mind the images of the great depression and the great plague days that now haunt the mind …
A real journalist might have been asking just how much the Bolter, the parrot, Gra Gra, and others contributed to a complacency which killed people, and likely enough will go on killing people slow to catch up on the change in tone in Murdochian la la land …but then the dog botherer is the worst of the worst, so why expect something from a nothing?
And with all that shameless cribbing from Media Watch done - because excruciating as it might be sometimes, in its terribly unique way, the pond will still go to the ABC for information above anything scribbled by the Bolter or the dog botherer - it's time for a few cartoons ...
The dog botherer sure is a piece of work.....no wonder his son won’t even wear him.
ReplyDeleteAs his bio says he takes an unashamedly rationalist approach to National affairs, and if that is the case, then why doesn’t he take his fellow travellers down to the Ruby Princess and lick the hand rails of the gang plank.....and do National affairs a favour.
Give us a true example of your all power and no responsibility, after all, actions speak louder than words....dickhead.
Cheers.
P.S. Seeing that personal isolation is probably people’s best defence at the moment, in fact a responsibility, why won’t Supermarkets employ some of these poor buggers locked out of their jobs and reinstate a to the door delivery service?
Dunno where you are, Anony, but out my way (eaternish Melbourne) the Woollies Super does have an operating 'to the door' delivery service. It even has a selectable 'no contact' option where the deliverer takes a photo of the delivered goods outside the front door as proof of delivery and doesn't try to get a signed receipt.
DeleteHi GB.... In same region(Carnegie) and attempted to use app and told would be in excess of 2 weeks to fill a restricted item list........that was about 10 days ago and pickup online orders are cancelled.
DeleteSame today, but even shorter list. No eggs even! Our Woolies has not had dunny paper for a month basically........not that I’m there often, but have only managed to get a 6 pack(very last one)when I did the early bird pensioner run about 10 days ago.
Big mistake. Will never do that one again. A Petri dish of insanity and mayhem! You needed to be there to appreciate. Grabbed the 6 pack, box of Weetbix, a big bottle of tomato source, 2 litres milk, block of cheese and a tub of margarine and bolted, only to find one checkout and the speed aisle manned and queued bigly.
Took the job destroying self checkout queue (hate them) That was my second mistake.......huge queue of septuagenarians trying self checkout for the first time in their lives and all yelling for assistance from the poor young female assistant. Was like a FDOTM cartoon.!! Aside from the health risk, it was hilarious and right out there. :-)
I presume living in Carnegie doesn’t help as we have pretty high density pop. with skyscrapers popping up everywhere over the last few years.Cheers.
You're way ahead of me, I haven't actually tried to use the delivery system. I can see why the pickup orders were stopped: can't have a crowd in the store pushing and shoving to get their order.
DeleteLike you, I tried the 7:00am 'pensioners and vulnerables' just once. Got there at 7:05 (so very, very naive). Already a store full and twice as many more queuing up to get in. Got absolutely nothing.
Now I do a daily round: Woollies and Coles at Camberwell, Woollies and Coles and Aldi at Chadstone, Woollies and Coles at The Glen, Woollies at Burwood Heights, IGA in Mt Waverley (the very big Ritchies IGA), IGA in Maling Rd, and also local IGA. A box of tissue or two here, some paper towels there, an occasional toilet roll or two. And that's about it. Oh, and one forlorn bottle of methylated spirits at the Coles in Chadstone.
I have to say Chadstone is a sad sight, almost deserted, and poor old Kikki.K trying to do a 'sell everything' closing down sale. But at least I can still get a nice latte from the Laurent acting as a pure takeaway. The management did a cute trick in the main food court though: left all the tables but took away all the chairs. That makes all the food stores - the 35% or so still trading - takeaway only. :-)
What a truly sad little wiffle piffle the Doggy Boverer has become. But then, there never was much of any substance to him. A man without skill, speciality or indeed knowledge of any useful kind. Who has, for his manifest failings, even been publicly vilified by his nearest and, supposedly, dearest.
ReplyDeleteSo who knows why he has decided to pick on Dr Swan. Who knows why his reptile cohort decides to pick on anybody - for instance on Yassmin Abdel-Magied ? Though Kenny wasn't the worst of the blood-thirsty pack in that instance, basically, if you are as generally ignorant as Doggy Bov, then you can't pick on the issue, so you have to pick on the person.
So, here's some DB: "Swan is also a principal in a company, Tonic Health Media, which trades, in part, on his profile as the public broadcaster.
So this pandemic will not only boost Swan's professional profile but could translate into business opportunities for Tonic."
Well, at least he's learned from the Caterer's fate not to explicitly state the libel unless you can prove it in a court of law. So, lots of not so subtle innuendo, but no outright accusation. And, to contradict myself, Doggy Bov does have that skill.
But then we come to this: "When the ABC's Q&A discussed the pandemic, panelist Sam Mostyn used Swan as a weapon to attack the govertnment's response." which is a strange comment that DB supposedly justifies by quoting Mostyn. It's a bit long, but let me quote it anyway:
Mostyn: "In the absence of there being a single source of truth, Norman Swan has become that voice for many people - and so when I talk to people, they say, "Norman said to do this", or "Dr Swan said to do this" and he's become a de facto trusted source of news, which is unfortunate in the context of a government that does want to do the right thing."
Now ok, I'm bamboozled; in what way does that constitute using Swan "as a weapon to attack the government's response" ? Does the DB believe that Brendan Murphy is omniscient and infallible ? But hold on, what about this bit: "he's [Swan] become a de facto trusted source of news".
Oops, now that's just the thing to get right up Doggy Bov's nose like an OANN hair dryer.
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DeleteThe Ad hominem is all they have. I always assume that the News Corp pile-on is a compliment. Consider the incoherent rage of all these old hacks at Greta Thunberg - she probably has them all on beta blockers (Greta blockers?).
DeleteThe government and their press backers who have spent years undermining science and expertise now suddenly want us to accept an argument from authority. The irony could not be richer.
Without going into the details, this is all just a defence of a talentless and bumbling politician who has had the misfortune to be in charge when some leadership was needed.
Some info on the school closure issue
https://twitter.com/DrEricLevi/status/1241822971582279680
https://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMc2005073?articleTools=true
Not quite sure what to think of that, Bef, but perhaps the key is from the New England Journal of Medicine article:
Delete"This report describes a spectrum of illness from SARS-CoV-2 infection in children. In contrast with infected adults, most infected children appear to have a milder clinical course. Asymptomatic infections were not uncommon. Determination of the transmission potential of these asymptomatic patients is important for guiding the development of measures to control the on-going pandemic."
I'm still not quite sure whether that means schools should be closed or not, most kids having a "milder clinical course". But I suppose if kids are virus-free and they stay at home with parents that are virus-free, then there's a fair chance they'll all stay that way. The "asymptomatic nature" of a lot of kid's infections doesn't help at all in detecting community infections.
The big question of the day: is it racist to call the Spanish flu the "Spanish Flu". Especially given that that particular flu did not, in fact originate in Spain.
ReplyDeleteOnce upon a time, I would have thought that calling it "the Wuhan virus" or maybe "the Chinese virus" was about on a par with "the Spanish flu". But now, I see that being used in a nasty racist manner, and assaults and such are being committed against east Asians who clearly had no connection with the virus.
So for me, it now and forever is SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 disease.
Nonetheless, we really do have to try to get Xi to actually close down those 'wet markets' and for the Chinese to stop catching and eating wild bats and pangolins.
Amusingly, the Spanish called it the "French Flu" and I can only surmise the French would go for German Flu and the Germans would likely have blamed the Jews (who else). Never miss an opportunity for bigotry.
DeleteYou are right about wet markets though. Plenty of evidence elsewhere of bushmeat's role in the spread of haemorrhagic fever etc.
I guess an authoritarian regime is better placed to stamp on these things.
Hi GB,
DeleteWhilst I share your sentiments regarding the illegal trade in endangered animals such as the pangolin, it would appear that many epidemiologists fear a knee jerk reaction to a virus outbreak that suddenly shut down ‘wet markets’ would be a terrible mistake.
The trade would be driven underground and ongoing testing would be impossible allowing future viruses a longer period to become established before being “discovered”.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(03)15329-9/fulltext?version
DW
Ah, my understanding was that the 'wet markets' are already 'underground', DW, having supposedly been closed down some time ago. SARS-CoV-2 isn't the first or only bat originated virus disease in history.
DeleteFascinating, isn't it that the all-powerful Chinese Communist Party can be simply ignored - it can control what you say, but not what you do. Much like the laws of 'democratic' states if the criminals are determined enough. CF the Mafia.
Perhaps the only solution is for the all-powerful CCP to actually start up 'dry markets' where pangolins and bats are bred, slaughtered and sold legally, and cheaper than the 'wet markets'. As so many places have already legalised marijuana and homosexuality.
Thanks for that link, DW. It appears that my 'understanding' of wet markets might have been a tad 'underdeveloped'. As with most matters of longer term human behaviour, "it's complicated".
DeleteBut hopefully there might be a better future. As the article says:
"In the longer term, wet markets will be phased out. The younger generation of customers in Asia buy their produce frozen or chilled. Public education about the risks associated with wet markets, especially during the current awareness about SARS, could foster this trend."
I certainly hope so. But - the article having been published in 2004 - it obviously won't happen very soon.
Incidentally, do you make it a habit to read The Lancet ?