The reptiles have gone on a war footing at last - mounting an operation, possibly with camouflage and netting - but you wouldn't guess it from the 'leet line up in the commentary section.
Clearly they haven't caught up with trends from abroad …
It was truly astonishing to see the Donald attempt a sombre tone, and realise that perhaps the shit might be hitting the fan … given his usual understanding of things …
But was there a reptile down under still in a pre-woke phase, who simply didn't get it, and thought that all that mattered for the moment was the chance to make some blinkered ideological points, as if the virus gave a toss about blather about red tape, and regulations, and such like?
Of course there was, and please, come on down from the school above the faraway tree on the planet Janet …
Right there, in that poignant summary, that blather about the noose of regulation, the pond really did wonder if it was ever possible to leave planet Janet.
The Donald might have had a reality check, but Dame Slap might never actually experience such a moment …you know, prise that delusion from my cold, dead hands ...
The pond felt like saying "no, it wan't to blame," no, cutting red tape and setting business free will at the moment do diddly squat for restaurants and artists and airlines and many many others, and leave it at that …
But for some peculiar reason, the reptiles had decided to give the Dame's musings the cult blessing of a cartoon, even if in their reptilian panic, they didn't see fit to honour its creator with a name … and so the pond pressed on ...
But it's not the red tape you goose, nor is it about the IPA agenda. It's the virus, stupid … and in true Dame Slap form, she doesn't even bother with a pretence at niceties, you know, talk of putting differences aside, and working together to sort out the crisis … perhaps even provide a link to Norman Swan ...
The pond had often wondered how Dame Slap might derive a UN conspiracy to introduce world government from climate science, but here she is, putting out the same sort of irrelevant nonsense that so pleased pond readers yesterday ...
What the flying fuck? Could anything be less relevant, less capable of understanding, less useful right at this moment? That usual litany of IPA complaints? Lucky Dame Slap isn't being tested ...
It seems all we have left is gallows humour, a poem or two, and Dame Slap apparently completely oblivious to what's happening around her … and what is likely to develop within the next few weeks ...
This is what happens with prowling, predatory sharks. They get a sniff of blood in the water, and they go in for the IPA kill, not that you could tell from that little summary at the end, that Dame Slap is merely a hack spreading IPA propaganda in the lizard Oz.
She's not just an opinion columnist, she's president of the IPA, and everything in that piece is undiluted, unregulated, unchecked IPA nonsense … and might have been scribbled the same day she donned her MAGA cap and slipped out into the night life of New York, and so helps chart the path to where we've landed, though the pond wishes we hadn't tried to get here by starting from there …
Well, the pond had a further agonising choice … between Dame Groan groaning and whining, and the gloom of "Ned" …
It's never a contest. The pond will always stay loyal to "Ned", because how else to get a decent dose of gloom, as opposed to Dame Groan singing it just isn't fair, all out of luck and I want my share …
There's more Rowe here, but the pond just had to do a little gallows humour before supping on "Ned" …
Strange, not a word about regulations, just a call for leadership, and have we got a leader for you …
Poor "Ned" doesn't seem to have got the note from the IPA … and might even decline the opportunity to head out for a meal with Devon Nunes and Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt...
Uh huh, and so to the big question. The reptiles love the blame game. Dame Slap was big on blame in her piece. But the virus is here, and blame doesn't really help … but it is helpful to note those who haven't really helped …
...Trump insinuated that the system under Barack Obama — who he has repeatedly blamed for the botched coronavirus response — was “very badly broken,” but under his tutelage has been “broke[n] down,” rebuilt, and “is going to be the talk of the world.” Yes, it’s incredible that in the midst of all this he sounds like he’s hyping the opening of a new hotel with “the finest shrimp cocktail the world has ever seen,” but to be fair, he’s not wrong! Did you hear about that country with 327 million people and basically zero testing kits for a deadly pandemic? It’s the talk of the town! (Vanity Fair)
Good old Greg, he might yet manage to do for health what he did for climate science, and if the pond was going to do a bet, who better for a numbers man, because 20 to 60 is quite a spread …
As for "Ned", instead of regulation, he seems to have settled on decisive leadership as the way to sort out a genuine crisis … and good luck with that …
So what's left? Well there's always a group hug for comfort …
The IPA's use of the virus to call for further much-needed deregulation of the economy is entirely predictable.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/06/naomi-klein-how-power-profits-from-disaster
Quite a lot of species have grifters and cheaters who exploiter their own kind. The usual process as I once read about it was that the percentage of grifters and cheaters grew over time until eventually it outnumbered the 'carrying capacity' of the workers and there was a period in which the worker majority killed the grifter/cheaters until a balance was achieved. And then the whole process starts up again.
DeleteBut in the human situation, we can achieve a state where the grifter/cheaters can actually outnumber the productive people and then a restorative pogrom becomes impossible.
I think we might have just about reached that state.
That 'Group Hug 2020' is right on the mark - that's exactly what this blog is all about.
ReplyDeleteBut Dame Slap is getting dry and boring and formulaic, isn't she. Must be just talking stuff straight out of 'The IPA Libertarian Prayerbook' I reckon. She's reached pretty much the same dogmatic pontification state as the Doggy Boverer. In short, she's reached her pinnacle.
But ooh, how are the ineffectual brought down even further; Ned the Nullius is bidding fair to become the media's most effective soporific. I think when he does "retire" nobody will notice that he's gone. Especially given that The Bromancer will seamlessly take over the reptile calling that he's been rehearsing for now, lo, these many months.
This is all getting to be even worse than the Aussie Spectator, isn't it.
Dame Slap serves up the same unappetising fare every time doesn't she? Long on ideology and short on examples.
DeleteIf you wanted to list the failures of deregulation on the other hand, you would have a list as long as one of Ned's opinion pieces.
We could start with the NSW Government's efforts to cut red tape in the building industry. Perhaps ask the unit owners at Mascot Towers.
How about the Royal Canberra Hospital implosion? It was more of a case of ignoring red tape rather than cutting it, but that didn't stop the conservative press from complaining about the Health Services Union calling in WorkCover regarding the safety of the nearby hospice.
Kate Carnell wanted to turn the demolition into a spectator event and the union were seen to be blockers. The contractors assured all and sundry that debris would travel no more than 10 metres. In the event, masonry was blasted 200 metres across the lake killing a 12 year old girl.
I wonder if Dame Slap thinks that was an acceptable cost to "set business free"?
We could ramble on about Glass-Steagall or Dodd-Frank but what's the point? These IPA types are just repeat this meaningless catechism until the end of time
Try "These IPA types will just repeat this meaningless catechism until the end of time"
DeleteHi DP,
ReplyDeleteI’m sure Dame Slap’s cartoon is a Lobbecke creation as it bears all the hallmarks of his artless style - incoherent or oversimple subject matter; facile forms and lines; and flat, lifeless, primary colours. It’s like a still from a bad trip - a type of faux hip inanity.
Lobbecke’s blog says he is currently doing a thesis on “art from random thoughts”, which sums up his output quite adequately. This mindless MO is borne out by the illustration in question where he selects a few key terms from the Slapper’s headline and opening paras - Morrison, Germans, red tape, and coronavirus – which are then given a superficial visual representation worthy of a precocious eight year old with an iPad. For some reason I look at his bubblegummy cartoons and immediately think of Smurfs!
The resulting depiction of a befuddled Oz-Bavarian “Scotty aus dem Marketing” tangled in red tape, stein of lager in hand, eying off a hovering purple plastic bath toy does not reflect the article because it’s not der Scotty who is stymied by bureaucracy. According to Janet it’s her beloved corporate captains who need to be cut free from governmental regulation.
The purple viral people-eater has been thrown in for good measure as the icon de le moment - despite the fact Dame Slap is only mentioning coronavirus as a foil for her massive gripe against her perceived governmental constraints on business. She doesn’t really give a shit about public health.
More cryptoon than cartoon, Lobbecke’s abstruse efforts will surely help to gain him his contemporary artwank PhD. Or maybe it is a precocious eight year old with an iPad after all…
Do you perchance do this sort of thing for a living, Kez, or is it just a hobby ?
DeleteThanks GB, I'll take that as a compliment. It would be great to be paid but it's all for my own amusement - I don't get out much!
DeleteNot only just for your own amusement.
DeleteWhen will this pandemic of red and green tape end..... fine libertarian peoples are getting tangled and strangled, even falling over. The horror!
ReplyDeleteA bit off topic, but was talking with a nephew yesterday from Kilmore.The town was invaded by a huge bus from which alighted a mob, Google maps in hand, who then proceeded to raid the local supermarket. Pretty well stripped it apparently.
A couple of hours later the B-in-L rang ,telling me bus loads had hit Shepparton, Wang, Benalla and several surrounding regional towns. Heard this morning that Kerang was hit and the mobs were on their way to Gippsland to compound the plight of bushfire victims. And this arvo B-in-L watched a guy at Shepparton servo buy 11 bags of ice to cover about a hundred kilo of meat in the back of a 4WD.
These Libertarian wankers have so missed the bus......on several levels if you ask me. Talk about social distancing.
The horror! .....Cheers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoUa4dIcO50
Don't worry about it Anony, ScottyfromMarketing has spoken most severely to them on the teev and told them that this is just "not Australian". Now a Pentecostal PM can't do better than that, can he, and that will certainly stop all of this un-Australian hoarding, won't it. I just wish I'd thought of raiding country town supermarkets.
Delete"We are one, but we are many
And from all the lands on earth we come
We'll share a dream and sing with one voice
"I am, you are, we are Australian""