The pond broke its usual rule to watch Malware whine endlessly about a News Corp conspiracy, sure to maintain reptile rage about him, and the ABC for giving him a platform (many book plugs), followed by John Oliver exposing the devastating stupidity and enormous damage American reptiles of the Fox News kind had inflicted, and were continuing to inflict, on the United States (though drug addled Rush Limbaugh also came in for a tidy serve), and then it was on to Media Watch, and a defence of the ABC in the Pellist matter, which while feeble ('on the one hand, on the other'), would still infuriate the reptiles, and that was always enough. There was also a moment to pile on to Malware and the 7.30 Report a second time …
Meanwhile, across at Crikey, Christopher Warren was assessing the fragile dreams and delusions of the reptiles in their war against the tech giants:
...Despite the excitement that ran around newsrooms overnight (“designed to save the mainstream media” says The Australian’s editor-at-large Paul Kelly), it’s unlikely to significantly rescue the publishers from their financial mess. According to the ACCC’s digital platforms report, Australians only spend 2.3% of their time online on Australian news sites.
Google says it already pays significant copyright fees in Australia — mainly for music used on YouTube. (Digital streaming on, for example, YouTube and Spotify are now the major source of fees for music use.) However, this is based on clear and long-established copyright principles. The claim for a payment for news which the publishers, themselves have long provided for free is harder to determine.
As in Spain and in France, Google (and Facebook) will be approaching this with a global frame, conscious that any concession made here will generate matching claims in all other jurisdictions. Expect more hardball.
Well yes, the pond is no lover of the 'tech giants' - not on Facebook to this day! - but the dreams and delusions are a sign that the dear little reptiles don't get outside their Surry Hills bubble these days …
What a fun night it was, and sure enough, the fun continued today …
Out of all that lot, even with General "Killer" Creighton in the field - yes, suh!, hup, one two - the pond just had to begin today with the hopes and anxieties of the lizard Oz editorialist …
Oh you poor deluded dears, you think that Google is going to start cutting you cheques and sending them your way and saving your business model?
Well you'll need to head behind the paywall for Warren's full opinion, but it's bleeding obvious from previous examples ...
… In 2019, the EU determined that headlines and opening words of an article (known as “snippets” in Google speak) were covered by copyright, requiring Google to do a deal with the publishers to reproduce them in search results.
As France moved to require payments for this copyright, Google removed the snippet text from its search results in France, leaving only the headline and the url. France’s competition authority has declared this action is likely to constitute an abuse of the search engine’s dominant market position. This month, it’s given Google three months to negotiate a deal with the publishers.
Google has form in playing hardball. When Spain legislated payments for news search in 2014, Google blocked its news tab in that country — and readership dropped as a result..
The debate may seem arcane, but Google search remains the dominant channel for accessing news stories. Snippets catch publishers both ways: they can provide enough information to satisfy the casual reader. Strip them out and there’s not enough taste to lure other readers to click through.
Facebook, meanwhile, has been attempting to fob off the publishers — particularly News Corp — with its news tab.
Last November, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg joined News Corp CEO Robert Thomson to announce that payments would be made for stories in a newly-launched news tab. Despite claims at the time that this would be rolled out across the world, six months later it’s still in trial in the United States.
But back to the hopes, dreams and rapacious desires of the reptile editorialist …
Good luck with all that, and the pond can't wait to walk over the gory battlefield, and as for News Corp demanding others behave ethically? Why it gave the pond the biggest early morning horse laugh it had had in recent times …
As John Oliver so ably demonstrated, News Corp is conspicuous in its contributions to malignant right wing loonacy ...
And so to yet more transgressive pond behaviour. The pond had sworn to ignore Malware, and gave up the 7.30 report long ago, but really, after watching the 7.30 interview, why not go the whole hog with our valiant, almost mythical, not quite so ancient Troy?
And besides he'd scored some lesser artwork that demanded comparison to the mighty cult master …
Pretty much as expected for an opener, almost in Diary of a Nobody turf, and in no way comparable to the slo-mo shot of the Chairman and the onion muncher deployed on the ABC, in which the onion muncher worker displayed a sly cheese-eating lickspittle fellow travelling grin that was most beguiling … like a couple of cats that had supped on field mice …
But now the pond must follow Troy through to the bitter end …
Ah Troy, did you really read the book? You seem to have missed all the talk about a News Corp conspiracy, as if somehow 2016 might redeem the reptiles in Malware's eyes …
And who can argue that the party has stayed the same? Especially with loons of the mutton Dutton kind still roaming the corridors, looking and acting like a third rate Mussolini … and somehow finding the likes of Angus "Pure Mince Beef" Taylor a suitable ministerial companion ...
Never mind, a final grab for the sheer fun of it …
Well no, the pond won't buy the book. The PMO has already demonstrated that the Liberal Party is a leading devotee of the art of piracy, and possibly heads off to the Pirate Bay for all their intellectual property needs.
But also like as not, even though it's all over the place for free thanks in no small part to the PMO and SloMo's mob, the pond won't bother to read the book, though it might skim a copy should it ever turn up in a street library, where the price is right, should of course the pond ever venture back out into the world …
And so to the final outing for the day, and one of the things that particularly irritated John Oliver last night was the way that …while News Corp was dissembling misleading information that put American lives at risk, encouraging the Donald in his enormous stupidity and delayed response, and otherwise behaving very badly, as might be expected of a mob containing a bunch of Hannitys … the precious petals themselves were taking the virus seriously and taking precautions …as in this note by CNBC on 29th February, 2020, the month in which the Donald did nothing but delay, lie, obfuscate, and fuck up the country…
Locally, we have General "Killer" Creighton out in field command, still urging on the right of others to selflessly die so that the General might continue the lifestyle he's accustomed to …
Cull the herd, cull the herd, it's only a few oldies, and the dying is quick, and the surf calls ...
The pond has been here before with the General, and trusts that he'll put himself in harm's way to show how all this nonsense is only swallowed by scaredy cat pussies …
Of course it's slightly different in the United States, where News Corp generals have been equally bold and brave ...
The pond sometimes yearns for a John Oliver, able to deliver a proper smoting and smiting to the local reptiles … but instead, we just get General "Killer" Creighton doing the same old same old, all over again ...
The pond invites General "Killer" Creighton to cross the road, and head into an infectious care unit, preferably without a mask or any other form of protection … perhaps just a couple of pearl-handled pistols in the Patton style ...
Oh okay, the pond only ran with General "Killer" Creighton for more of his patented "culling of the herd" guff because it meant it could run a few cartoons in the spirit of a John Oliver …
Would it be wrong of the pond to propose that News Corp immediately declare itself open for business, defy assorted governments, and send its employees out into the streets, travelling how they will, and without PPE?
Sure there might be a few losses, but where's the harm? Cull the herd, cull the herd! Would nattering "Ned" in his senility be missed? Shouldn't prattling Polonius be out in the street without a mask demonstrating it's all piffle? He's in the right demographic for a culling.
Perhaps Peter Singer could join them in their travels, doing everything he can for infected cats, but making sure to toss the bodies of older folk into a tidy, inoffensive heap ...
And that last paragraph, the pond suggests, is General "Killer" Creighton attempting to display sardonic wit and humour of the kind which would no doubt have had Field Marshall Haig slapping his thigh and doubling over in a fit of cackling laughter …
The Somme was an epic of both slaughter and futility; a profligate waste of men and materiel such as the world had never seen. On the morning of July 1, 1916, 110,000 British infantrymen went “over the top.” In a few hours, 60,000 of them were casualties. Nearly 20,000 of these were either dead already or would die of their wounds, many of them lingering for days between the trenches, in no man’s land. The attacking forces did not gain a single one of their objectives. (here)
Now that's how it should be done. What an inspiration to General "Killer" Creighton. (The pond's grandfather was at the Somme, and always spoke of what a spiffing fun time he had up to his waist in the mud).
And with all that said, in closing, the pond must join the moon in a delicate and awkward situation, which will no doubt appeal to the lizard Oz climate science denialists (was it Malware who was so mystified as to why they congregated together like infected bats in News Corp?) …
"Maybe its peace!"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3-Gt7mgyM
Thanks, Bef. Truly classic.
DeleteWould anyone be surprised to learn that the quote from Peter Singer by Creighton is not a good summary? https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/when-will-lockdowns-be-worse-than-covid19-by-peter-singer-and-michael-plant-2020-04
ReplyDeleteWell it is a literal quote, Joe, but no, it is not a good summary. Singer goes on to raise the "identified victim effect" (which everybody, or at least me, first encountered in the movie 'The Collector' back in 1963). However, Singer goes on to say:
Delete"...making trade-offs requires converting different outcomes into a single unit of value. A problem with the current conversations about whether we should strangle the economy to save lives is that we cannot directly compare “lives saved” against “lost GDP.” We need to put them into some common unit."
Yep, that's just what we need, alright. And of course that's exactly what Paul Frijters created with his WELLBYs. Ah the ingenuity of human rationalisations is unlimited.
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDelete“These untamed beasts, respectfully, have simply become too big to flail.”
Yet another example of the reptiles ‘flailing’ business model. Why pay for a product so sloppy that even the editorial isn’t properly proof-read.
DiddyWrote
Oh well I reckoned it was just some semi-conscious wish fulfillment that the long departed subed just couldn't alter.
DeleteI dunno, DP, this must really be the off season: The Editorialist expounding woolly daydreams, Troy the Bram explaining just how magnificent he was to Malware, and General Creighton wanting us all to just go off and die. Typical herpetarium stuff, I grant you, but it doesn't improve with endless repetition.
ReplyDeleteSo, starting with The Editorialist: "The Morrison government ...finally has taken decisive action to make Google and Facebook pay for the content they now steal from news organisations."
Decisive action ? Ponying up some unenforceable laws is "decisive action"? Well it is in a way, I guess, it's "decisive action" to allow SloMo and Frydenberg to feel really good about themselves without actually having to achieve anything. Which is the first rule of Politics Club.
Onwards with the Troy and 'sufficient unto the day' which is also some kind of 'first rule'. And here is what Troy says about Malfeasance: "Hardly anybody is spared in the memoir. Even Turnbull's steadfast supporters, such as Julie Bishop [and hasn't she just vanished from the world stage], have had their trust in him breached. It makes for enthralling reading. It gives his claim authenticity. But it is also damning and damaging."
I guess that says all that can be said about Malware who truly is just a small road shoulder on the highway of history. Who will even remember him in 10 years time ?
But our Troy, who, in February, was invited to speak to the Mosman branch of the Libs, is shameless: "The branch generously invited me, as Menzies' biographer, to speak about the party's founding, and its longest serving, leader. I stayed for the rest of the meeting and a meal."
In February ? When SARS-CoV-2 was already ramping up on its relentless march ? And what's this "Menzies' biographer" thing - like Troy was the one and only. Whereas it was Allan Martin back in 1993 who started off the Menzies biography after Frances McNicholl (appointed in 1969) had given up the project.
Now last, and equally least, is Grandpa killer Creighton. And here we have an illuminating illustration of reptile philosophy: "About 60 million people die each year and coronavirus has claimed 165,000, many of whom were elderly and unwell and might have died soon in any case."
What a beautiful example of 'high decoupling' that is. Indeed the entire current human population will die "soon", depending on just how you measure 'soon'. So I guess we could really say that about a lot of cases; eg the starving in the third world: they'll all die "soon" anyway, so why bother to do anything.
But it seems that nothing whatsoever can get through to the 'high-decoupled', and especially opaque seems to be the fact that if we just open up without a cure or vaccine, then basically the entire world population will sooner or later become infected and the death count will soar way past Creighton's claimed 165,000 and into the tens of millions - especially in India and Indonesia I would think.
But hey, Creighton doesn't think that he's at any particular risk, and that's all that matters, isn't it.
Hi GB,
Delete“Who will even remember him in 10 years time ?”
Oh I think Turnbull’s name will be on many people’s lips in the years to come as their “high speed broadband” drops out for the umpteenth time that day.
DW
Hmmm the subject of a million daily curses - oh well, DW, I guess one could do worse.
DeleteYes - Turnbull's legacy is reminiscent of the joke that ends "one indecent act with a goat and people never let you forget".
DeleteHi DP. In reply to your demand for a comparison between today’s Jellet and Lobbecke’s mighty works I happily offer up the following differentiation.
ReplyDeleteAn obvious understudy of the cult master, this illustrator is rapidly absorbing his mentor’s insurrectionist devices and introducing subversive codes into his deliberately understated graphics. Keen-eyed cultorians will notice how the budding novice has cleverly superimposed the lower half of Bramston’s splash photo onto the cover of Malware’s incendiary tome. What this actually means is anyone’s guess. Maybe the fledgling Lobbeckian simply found Bramston’s superficial smile more thematically appropriate than Turnbull’s pained expression? Or perhaps Jellet has the crazy idea that the Troyster secretly agrees with everything Malware has written? This latter suggestion could be backed up somewhat by the telling fact that Bramston and Turnbull are wearing exactly the same tieless white shirt and blue suit.
CM Lobbecke would have also manipulated the cover and rendered something gothic and sinister no doubt. After skimming the headline and shunning the paras he would have knocked up a pothering, pseudo-Daliesque collage incorporating zebras, bazookas, and flaming phone towers. In contrast the humble Jellet has sensibly opted for a deceptively mainstream effort.
And…I am wondering if “Turbull” is an accidently-on purpose-typo in that it’s almost a homonym of “Terrible”. If this is the case the sub-editor could also be accused of “taking shots in black and white” methinks.
Thought I should mention something that I came across today: that putting a photo with some kind of claim inclines people to believe it:
DeleteHow fake news can exploit pictures to make people believe lies
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-22/fake-news-image-information-believe-anu/10517346
Now I wonder if that tells us anything about the reptiles inclusion of the Cult Master's work along with their regular wide swaths of lies.
Have you heard this one, DP ?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWR9vW8BUFI
How about this one:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJYWtzivvWo
If you think I've just discovered a whole new world of music I'd never heard of (much less heard) before, you are quite right.
Wonderful GB! I've never heard this before either. African rhythm is a universal treasure, not to mention the beautiful melodies and language.
DeleteGreat links GB, and no I hadn't heard the piece. Maybe the pond should just abandon the reptiles and explore all the music on YouTube (or the clips from Blackadder).
DeleteI'd enjoyed the Angel City Chorale's rendition of Toto's Africa for a while, but I had no idea that there was somebody called Christopher Tin nor that ACC were doing so much of his work. I only fell over it by accident a couple of days ago.
DeleteIf you look them up in Wikipedia, ACC are a fully licensed charity that has been going for quite a few years.
Yeah, one could make a full time job of exploring Youtube's music and just never get near hearing it all. And for 'free'.
All is normal Kez...Turbull flailings was the order of the day and in synch with the business model, although you are entirely correct......a Lobbecke would have been the icing on the gruel.
ReplyDeleteCheery Anon.
Cheers Anony. Isn't flailing is such a superb word? It conjures up HD images of sailings, harvestings, floggings, thrashings, and of course ineptitude of Trumpian proportions, i.e. FLAIL! It's one of those evocative Teutonic Latinisms that strike directly to the heart of the serious internet linguist.
DeleteAnd, to paraphrase the immortal REM (yet again):
"What if all these untamed beasts... are too big to flail?"
“And that last paragraph, the pond suggests, is General "Killer" Creighton attempting to display sardonic wit and humour of the kind which would no doubt have had Field Marshall Haig slapping his thigh and doubling over in a fit of cackling laughter “…...Great link DP.
ReplyDeleteThe Somme was an epic of both slaughter and futility; a profligate waste of men and materiel such as the world had never seen. On the morning of July 1, 1916, 110,000 British infantrymen went “over the top.” In a few hours, 60,000 of them were casualties. Nearly 20,000 of these were either dead already or would die of their wounds, many of them lingering for days between the trenches, in no man’s land. The attacking forces did not gain a single one of their objectives. (here)
Surely Gen. “Killer” Creighton must have drawn the short straw in the bunker on who got to be Covid’s arsehole.
Hard to fathom really.
Re: The Somme.... a true tale of an unknown theatre. In 1971, I was sent to an old Edwardian house in Foam St. Elwood, adjoining the NW corner of the Elwood Canal crossing. As a 5 year old I had lived on the opposite side of the canal some 15 years earlier, strangely enough. I was to empty the house and outbuildings for a R/E agent as a deceased estate.
I presumed this was the home of a spinster as there were no photos of children or family barring those I presumed were her parents. The furniture was a range of Edwardian and Queen Anne and the place had an air of austerity, forced or otherwise,...I couldn’t tell, until I began breaking down the furnishings to load onto the truck.
Every drawer and sideboard and cupboard had letters, booklets and donation envelopes from the Rosicrucian Order. Literally hundreds of them. I worked away, wondering how someone could be so hooked into what I imagined was another type of religious cult, although I had no clue as to who or what Rosicrucians were.
I remember having a feeling of anger that someone had spent decades giving there savings to some organisation from America. After cleaning out the lounge, dining and bedrooms, I had some lunch while reading some Rosicrucian literature before clearing the kitchen and bathroom and another back room.
Almost finished, I entered the last room at the back of the house. On opening the door, I stood frozen.
What was once a bedroom was a room that had remained untouched since 1918....... a complete museum, like a shrine, that belonged to an army nurse.
Her uniform lay on the bed and her shoes were placed under the bed, near the bed end. On a dressing table there was her complete field medical kit bag with wound dressings, needles, syringes, morphine vials and bottles of medical supplies. There were assortments of letters and postcards and medical books and notebooks both on the dresser, and on and inside the bedside table and the robe had a few clothes from the era and the walls were full of beautiful Edwardian framed photos of soldiers....presumably brothers and or family members.
As a kid who had drawn a hundred versions of Simpson and his donkey, attended Anzac Day Cenotaph memorials as a cadet, read lots of books on the Great War as well as asking my Grandmother about all the photos of uncles in uniform, who had both served and died, and now hung on the wall of her vestibule, but nothing was as profound as having to pack up and dismantle that room. Apart from the nurse that shut that door in 1918, I felt I was the only person to ever have entered it.
Creighton and his musings on bodies on stretchers in tents on a field and other sideshows indeed show the soul of a very sick man. I wonder what his mother thinks of his musings? Are old nurses also on his list?
Cheery Anon.
You've certainly had some very affective experiences, CA. And I haven't encountered mention of Rosicrucians for quite a while - I probably no longer read any of the old magazines that they advertised in.
DeleteOne thought though that we both seem to have had was the bit about Creighton as the 'short straw Covid arsehole'. I wouldn't put it past the herpetarium to do such a thing, so something along those lines did cross my mind - and if for covid, why not for a bunch of other matters.
But then I thought of lots of people that would fill that bill without even having to be asked, just because of what they are. Like many (most ?) of the US Fox News people for instance. And we have a few here too.
So basically I concluded that Creighton was just another scorpion on a frog: because "it's his nature" (not that all of them are "he's", just the overwhelming majority of them).
You are right GB.....it’s in his nature more than not, but it certainly messes with my head. And the fact that there are others in the wings is equally saddening.
DeleteThe world of the rubbish remover and recycler was indeed rewarding in strange and unexpected ways, although more brains and a little less brawn may have helped in some instances....particularly in working longevity.
Such are the ways of the world.
If I had the intellect and writing and language skills of a DP, I would have the makings of a good book. Cheers.
Cheery Anon.