In which the pond endures our Henry before suffering at the keyboard of the lizard Oz editorialist ...

Every so often someone sends the pond a link to that Vanity Fair story about James Murdoch here, and it seems to be doing the social rounds again.

Relax, the pond has it in hand, and often notes those lines:

In an interview with the New Yorker’s Jane Mayer, published Monday, the youngest son of the right-wing media mogul warned that certain unnamed media outlets are using disinformation to divide people and to shore up their own power. “The connective tissue of our society is being manipulated to make us fight with each other, making us the worst versions of ourselves,” James said, not explicitly naming Fox News but almost certainly describing it. “There are views I really disagree with on Fox,” he added, noting that there are “periods of time” when he and his father do not talk.

But the Vanity Fair story is actually a rip of a New Yorker story by Jane Mayer on 16th September, here (might be paywall affected).

So how’s it going in the United States? Well the Donald and his minions, and thereby indirectly Chairman Rupert and his minions, are helping rack up thousands of deaths in the current crisis, by first downplaying it, and then bumbling along. Why does it matter? Well if the US catches a serious health calamity, the rest of the world will feel the sneeze.

Which is why the pond has no time for the reptile apologists and conflationists and confusionistas (that such a word should be) down under. And with that out of the way, let’s get on with this day’s reptile outing, and the worst versions of ourselves …

No, no, no, that's a belated prank. 

The pond never runs Gra Gra, the pond just wanted to introduce the theme of blindness to the potential for bleakness ahead, and the willingness of the reptiles to play fast and loose on this pandemic, with endless blather about restrictions, limitations and the police state … and for that we must leave Gra Gra alone with the Hansonite one (and his Swiss bank accounts and Gold Coast frolics), and instead turn to our hole in the bucket man …

Is there an upside to having our Henry in our midst? Well at least there's no need for the pond's stoic interpreter of reptile illustrations to be disappointed yet again this Friday, because it's pretty clear that the killjoy, fun-destroying, Orwellian police state routine is going to get yet another airing ...

Complacency and exceptionalism?

Yep, thy alternate name is hole in the bucket Henry …

It's the usual bullshit, unhelpful and counterproductive, with the usual nonsense - it is important to question the need for drastic measures and restrictions - and the usual caveats - "to say that is certainly not to claim the epidemic is over."

Others have been through this nonsense before, in an even more virulent strain ... 

For once, the pond is pleased that politicians decided to act relatively quickly in Australia, and with only a few major blunders, and yet there's no accounting for the endless complacency and stupidity of some. 

The pond's son, who lives in a city apartment block, yesterday reported clusters of millennials gathered together, as if social distancing was but a passing dream and a fad for oldies … and perhaps some of them have been reading all the Murdochian blather about the police state and the needless limitations on their liberties and freedoms, their right to keep on fucking, and if that happens to fuck others, well, what the fuck? So join them, dear Henry, please help with the fucking ...

So we're all right Jack, or Jill, as the case may be? Is it time to do a little boasting, and a little distancing?

As an aside, the best footage the pond saw last night featured Hannity calling the whole thing a hoax, and then, later, denying that he'd ever called it a hoax. For sheer brazenness, Hannity takes some beating. 

But how hard is it for Seth Meyer and Colbert and Kimmel and the like, having to do cold openings, without the buzz of an audience? The pond feels a duty to stay in touch, but watching Colbert feed his dog ham seemed like the most amateur routine you might find on Tic Toc (Kimmel's refuge) or YouTube ...

And that's why the pond is hoping that in the future, our Henry won't have to practise social distancing from his current column, and its many fatuities and foolishnesses, of a particularly dangerous kind ...

Oh enough with the blather about unnecessary, heavy-handed, absurdly draconian measures. 

You sir, to put it politely, are a doddering old fuckwit and a positive menace, and really, it's a disgrace that the reptiles should keep running your column and this sort of police state rhetoric …

We've already seen the form on Australian beaches when Australians are beguiled into the notion that it's all an over-reaction, it's just another form of flu, and a few useless oldies like our Henry will kick the bucket, and where's the harm in that?

And why did the pond find it particularly ironic? Well the very same day, the lizard Oz editorialist decided to wax indignant …

Yes, just as our Henry is rabbiting on about prudence, the lizard Oz editorialist decided to bash the pollies for not telling the deadly story, and instead sweeping it under the carpet ...

Public disquiet?

Publishing our Henry's column caused the pond immense disquiet …have you no shame, no awareness of your own rag, lizard Oz editorialist?

All the lizard Oz editorial is useful for is padding between cartoons …

But do go on, talk up the deadly pandemic and unconscionable approach, while publishing the tripe featured in our Henry's column ...

Yes, there have been major fuck-ups, and the Ruby Princess was a classic. 

But how many people have Fox News and Hannity and a bunch of others and their pet Donald managed to kill? 

And how, in his own humble way, might our Henry manage to kill, if anyone took his words seriously, and decided that the current rules were an overstretch and an infringement of liberties and it was okay to get out and about and spray a little virus here or there? 

Or all the other reptiles down under humbugging away about a police state, including, no less, in recent days, the lizard Oz editorialist.

Openness? Humbug, the pond says, and being partial to humbuggery, the pond decided to press on with another lizard Oz editorial ...

Uh huh, here it comes … the paw outstretched, with the plea, "spare a silver coin, guv'nor" for the humble reptiles doing it hard on hand-to-mouth poverty row ...

Say what? It's a mega story? And the pond should call Paul Fletcher?

Sorry, the broadband's a little stretched at the moment, and the last the pond heard from Fletcher was nonsense about the way the everything was going spiffingly well with the NBN.

Do you ever read your own rag, lizard Oz editorialist?

And who does the pond blame for this situation, apart from the obvious one, being Malware? Why, the Murdochians, and their stooges, who first tried to ruin connectivity to save the old Foxtel model, and since then have done a Hannity every step of the way ...

Read that and weep,  Hannity reptiles down under: "Eventually the NBN's out-of date technology will need to be replaced right across the network."

But the pond isn't sure why the good prof is worried about medical connectivity and the need for a technology upgrade?

Didn't our Henry just blather on endlessly explaining that we were all right, Jack and Jill, and it wouldn't happen here?

And having helped wreck the NBN, the lizard Oz editorialist is now using a pandemic to try to take down the reptiles'  enemies?

Oh how the pond felt the need for a Rowe, with more Rowe fixes here …

Now back to the reptile moaning and whining and wailing and carry-on, and thank the long absent lord, it's the last gobbet and a Friday, those in these endless days without the sun, who knows if it really is a Friday … and who would bother to read the moaning reptiles to try and find out ...

Meanwhile, in the United States, the Donald, ably aided and abetted by Fox News, has pushed the country to an extremely parlous, perilous position … with lies and snake oil salesmanship of the worst kind, and with insufferable sycophantic support from the Murdochians …

And for this, the pond should give a toss about the whining and the moaning down under?

And so, for anyone who's endured far too much for a Friday, here's a few from the infallible Pope … with the first one having fun with another reptile phobia ...

Sorry, infallible Pope, that lesson is a little too advanced for our Henry, who couldn't even fix a bloody hole in a bucket …