But oh the humanity, what a tragic waste, for the cult master to be hooked up with the oscillating fan…
Say what? Out-of-the-box thinking and mundane capacity and the stakes are high? Did the oscillating fan buy a Don Watson book on bad use of the English language, and decide to adopt his worst examples.
The pond simply couldn't go any further. A banal mind offering banalities and clichés was too much.
But were some other duds too …the poor old Oz editorialist suffered another blow …
And the Malware fixation continued …
/
Ironic really, that the Utegate man is given the opportunity to blather on about visions of smallness, since it's impossible to image anyone - not even the worse of the reptiles with the "Iraq war was a success" gnat-like vision of the dog botherer..
But the pond had a solution, and usual, it was the bromance that came to the pond's rescue ….
That's it bromancer, talk him up. What have you got to lose? And all the more poignant, just to reaffirm the bromancer's point, there was this at the top of the digital edition ...
Talk about a zombie movie, and zombie directors at WaPo think so too …
So why not a relaxed Saturday dalliance with the bromancer to ease fears, and get on board with the Donald?
Uh huh, this is the man who made the country world leader in deaths and infections, so much winning, and it takes a remarkably chutzpah to talk of some strengths in his handling of the matter … but that's the bromancer for you …
Like the Donald himself, he has an astonishing and reassuring capacity to accept responsibility for a for all that's gone done before, and nary an excuse in sight …
And so to sundry more thought crimes, though it has be said that "truly unique" in the next gobbet is truly moronic, and makes the oscillating fan's attempts at Watson-isms a very weak affair ...
By golly, the Donald himself would b e pleased with this version of history, and it might remove the need for him to make his own Sharpe adjustments …
Is there nothing the Donald can't do to show off civic pride, as here …
When do we want the zombie apocalypse? Why not now ...
Perhaps the pond should also have warned stray readers that this is an epic bromancer effort, up there with nattering "Ned" … and so the pond has put in way stations for a drink … and besides skipping through it too quickly made make people miss laugh out lines, like the one talking of an "almost modest Trump" … which is a bit like saying the bromancer is truly unique ...
Ah yes, it was all a mistake in the reporting. It takes a truly unique moron to think that everybody has forgotten the recent history of the Donald's deeds and sayings … as here:
There's a tweet for everything and grabs from speeches too …
The pond doesn't much mind if the United States re-elects Donald Trump. The pond's son has been yearning for a zombie apocalypse for years, and this seems the best chance yet to avoid normalcy. rationality, and basic human decency …
Oh, and it's all the media's fault, when it's not the WHO or Obama or the Democrats, because when confronted by a lie, it's the bromancer reptile way just to lie down and swallow it whole, it's the only proper response to a bullying thug...
Superb forecasting of the kind that makes the bromancer essential reading. "He might. He might not." And it all might go away in the northern spring. Or it might not.
Ah yes, there's nothing like cutting off funding for the one world body designed to deal with pandemics, in the middle of a world pandemic, whatever its flaws, which up against the Donald begin to seem a little small.
Let us examine how the bromancer spins that on ...
A tough nationalist who is going to protect their interests?
Not only did the bromancer jump the shark and nuke the fridge, he fudged because he couldn't come right out and say it, though it's implication in everything he's scribbled. Who's the bromancer gunna call? Why the Donald of course, he'll bust ghosts, and he'll bust American, and what glory in that ...
Meanwhile, pity the poor buggers the Donald is currently protecting the interests of …
And so to the bonus of the day, and the pond regrets that it has had to report our Gracie to General "Killer" Creighton, and General "Bucket" Ergas for lacking the right mind set. There's a hint of defeatism in this splash, an horrific thing for any decent order-following reptile. Why, in the old days, they would have dragged them out of the trenches, taken them out the back and shot 'em ...
The pond suspects she read one of General "Killer" Creighton's pieces - say on the need for some human wastage to get things back on track - and so was plunged into one of the depressions "Killer" specialises in ...
The pond's not sure about that, surely we have plenty of countries into borrowing …
But back to Gracie, still in a state of deep anxiety, but hoping against hope that things will get better...
The neediest at the front of the queue? Well that will be a quicker way to kill them off, what with all this rubbish about social distancing.
And what's this melancholy talk of 2022. General "Killer" Creighton has already called on that one …
Yes, the General knows the way. Sure there will be losses and a few sacrifices to be made, but if we can keep the herd wastage to minorities and weirdos and the vulnerable, especially the neediest, all we'll be doing is emerging stronger … since by definition the neediest are the most useless and a waste of good food…
And so to our Gracie's final gobbet, and worst of all, the pond began to wonder if reptiles might suffer from a misplaced dose of empathy ...
Actually, perhaps our Gracie's right. It'll probably be a while before the pond decides to wander out into a restaurant again, what with eating behind a mask a tricky proposition. What was a once a weekly treat now feels like a death mission.
But you can't explain this sort of recidivism to General "Killer" Creighton, the notion that some people might prefer to live than die in his cause …
And now just to wrap things up and cheer up our Gracie, and confirm everything that the bromancer said about the Donald's brilliance, here's a consoling Rowe, with more consolation here ...
And as some seemed to have enjoyed the celebration of a decade of the infallible Pope, here's another one …
Does this mean there's hope for the reptiles, even the bromancer?
The bromancer is going to be on the Insiders this Sunday.Dare i watch
ReplyDeleteRather put bleach in my eyes!
DeleteBefuddled, belated thanks for your link (yesterday) to ‘The New Yorker’. I went back to it late last night, because it so invites Pauli’s ‘That is not even wrong’ (and I won’t be reptile pretentious by putting it in German, with translation).
DeleteBut there was a particular gem in there - where Epstein said -
“I’m taking standard Darwinian economics—standard economic-evolutionary theory out of Darwin—and applying it to this particular case.”
Darwin had a view of economics which was significant to the work he is now honoured for. Essentially, he was an advocate for compound interest. His investments were based on that, and made him wealthy. The principle of compound interest can be seen in his observations on how a favourable mutation would spread through a population, over many generations, where all other members were releasing potential offspring in large numbers.
I suspect Epstein’s ‘Darwinian economics’ is his interpretation of unbridled competition. The list of ‘fellows’ at the Hoover starts with - ‘The’ Baroness Thatcher, so that is a reasonable assumption. Life is too short to go to his other writings to try to find out, and, in this interview at least, he appears to make up a lot of stuff as he goes along.
Charles Darwin’s personal principles of investment do not figure in the current agitation for what to do to boost the economy. Investing in a venture for its likely growth over 30 or more years? Nah - Wall Street up yesterday, down today, and the ‘action’ there and here as much because directors are using the equivalent of ‘Monopoly’ money to buy in their own shares and boost their apparent ‘yield’. The trick is to know/guess what directors are about to authorise what purchase.
With ScoMo and Josh claiming that they are ‘fine tuning’ the process.
Other Anonymous.
"Investing in a venture for its likely growth over 30 or more years? Nah".
DeleteHmm. There will only ever be one Warren Buffett then, OA. He could wait a lot longer than 30 years, but then he did get in on the ground floor with many of his best investments. When he was actually putting money into a young or startup company.
Back when buying shares actually meant investing in a company; something we really can't do now because all we can actually do is transfer dividend, and hopefully share price increase, ownerships around.
But Dorothy,have you got the balance right?
ReplyDeleteGoing forward, aren't there learnings to be learnt from a Bromancer article?
Trump Voters
ReplyDeleteIf you’re still locked down
In your neighbourhood
Who you gonna call?
Trump Voters!
Even though he’s weird
They all think he’s good
Who you gonna call?
Trump Voters!
They ain’t afraid to love Trump
They ain’t afraid to love Trump
If you think his tweets
Are the best you’ve read
Who can you call?
Trump Voters!
When you need a big crowd
Who are off their heads
Who you gonna call?
Trump Voters!
They ain’t never gonna dump Trump
They ain’t never gonna dump Trump
Who you gonna call?
Trump Voters!
If you're stuck in your home
pick up the phone and call
Trump Voters!
A friend of mine used to work on The Australian in the 90s and knew Sheridan well. He said Sheridan was just a normal journalist at that time, and he can’t understand what later happened to him. ‘Unhinged’ describes it without knowing the cause.
ReplyDelete“Trump’s truly unique – not to say frankly weird – political genius that he is never bound tomorrow by what he said yesterday”. This also is Sheridan’s journalistic genius, but it could also be called stupid and incompetent lying.
“Avuncular, co-operative and statesmanlike”. What can you say about that? 2 + 2 = 5 ?
And I thought Trump's "almost unique" thing (ie shared with only a few million others) was that he wasn't bound by what he said just two minutes ago. But then, are any of us sure Trumpskin can even remember what he said two minutes ago ?
ReplyDeleteAs to Greggy-boi, did your mate mention whether he was quite the religious nut he's turned into nowadays ?
No. At the time of the conversation Sheridan only worshipped Ronald Reagun.
DeleteCould there possibly be a worse word to describe Trump’s clumsy lying than “pirouette”? Trump in “Swan Lake”?
Another friend of mine was at uni at the same time as Robert Manne (and Henderson too). He studied maths and philosophy after Bertrand Russsell, so he easily won all arguments. He knew a lot about Sartre too. I phoned him a few years ago & he said he had become a Christian. I didn’t think much about it – only to steer clear – and it wasn’t hurting me.
Recently I discovered in Quadrant that he has become a flat out bible-basher. He has always thought the White Australia policy was a good idea. Trump is the best ever president. Daniel Andrews is a communist. The ABC is a gang of socialists.
How did this happen? He still writes clearly and well. He’s not crazy.
All I can think of is a romantic disaster.
The Bro worshipped Ronnie ? Oh dear, that just reminds me of that Reagan-Thatcher dialogue: "He promised to take her to the end of the world. She promised to follow him there." But good to know that Greggy has always been thus: starting with the Muncher (or maybe even before ?), a lifetime of teenybopper bromances.
DeleteAs for your rabidly converted mate, well you'd have to think that it was some kind of life-tragedy, and love's labours lost is a common one, to provoke that kind of change. But then the story used to be that crazinesses were interchangeable: so apparently devout Catholics would flip over into being communists and vice versa. The obvious example from the Bible is Saul/Paul and his instant conversion from being a merciless persecutor of Christianity into its de facto leader (but still a very nasty misogynist etc).
That seems to be so with some people anyway, but I have never even begun to understand it.
Ah, NH - one of the two functions of 'Quadrant' (better as two words 'Quod rant'?) is to be the index nutjobbicus, as you have found. As proof I offer what appears to be one of the few editorial directions - that thingy that is outsmarting Trump must be identified as 'Wuhan virus'.
DeleteThe other function? - giving J Winston Howard something to read. I do recall his identifying it as his favourite reading matter, some years back.
At least it is not soaking up any of MY taxes, following review by the Australia Council. But - sorry about your friend.
Other Anonymous
One thing I've noticed about the likes of Sheridan when they start talking about religion is that they don't make much effort to prove the existence of their invisible friend, they talk mainly about why they personally need to believe. They ramble on about existential anxieties, belonging and so on but don't seem to realise that most other people don't suffer to the extent they need to invent supernatural solutions.
DeleteMaybe I'm kidding myself but I think I grew out of that sort of neediness.
The thing that goes with that mindset seems to be the need to be part of some larger social organisation. They sort of project all that onto their (many) enemies - leftist conspiracy anyone?
Once again, I'm not part of an anarcho-syndicalist commune, I just share some views with a lot of other people.
I dunno, Bef, but I suspect there's just a little bit of solipsist in us all, and more than a little in the likes of the Bromancer. But then, as you say, there's also some need to feel the power, and/or in some cases the more or less selfless communion, of a group.
DeleteStrange lot, homo sapiens sapiens.
The Prances Grace: "Pretence and delusion. One begets the other, and right now, in the public discourse, they are swirling around like a thick fog, causing bewilderment and preventing acceptance."
ReplyDeleteOnce again I'm very impressed by just how well the reptiles know themselves - but only if they can express this by projecting it onto others.
Then we do get to the nub of it: "It appears the most likely outcome is that we will all have to contract it [COVID-19] but in manageable numbers and an orderly fashion so that our health system can treat us and give us the best chance of survival."
What was that she just said about "Pretence and delusion" ? Of course given that the alternative is probably a rigorous course of testing just about everybody and making sure all of the infected - asymptomatic, presymptomatic and symptomatic all - are quarantined and treated, then what alternatives have we got.
Except that if this one is like a fast cold - any acquired immunity fades away very rapidly - then we may all have to "contract it" every year or so for the rest of our lives. But at least the 'comorbids' and the elderly will be quickly filtered out from the population in the first few years, I guess.
So that's why she reckons that "A new way of living will have to be built". And that "In fact there is much to look forward to."
Can't argue with that.
Chuck Dickens, you ought to see the joint in 2020 -
ReplyDeleteCharles Dickens, "American Notes", 1842:
"Another prominent feature is the love of 'smart' dealing: which gilds over many a swindle and gross breach of trust; many a defalcation, public and private; and enables the knave to hold his head up with the best, who well deserves a halter; though it has not been without its retributive operation, for this smartness has done more in a few years to impair the public credit, and to cripple the public resources, than dull honesty, however rash, could have effected in a century.
The following dialogue I have held a hundred times: "Is it not a very disgraceful circumstance that such a man should be acquiring a large property by the most infamous and odious means, and notwithstanding all the crimes of which he has been guilty, should be tolerated and abetted by your Citizens? He is a public nuisance, is he not?" "Yes, Sir." "A convicted liar?" "Yes, Sir." "Should he be kicked, and cuffed, and caned?" "Yes, Sir." "And is he utterly dishonourable, debased, and profligate?" "Yes, Sir." "In the name of wonder, then, what is his merit?" "Well, Sir, he is a smart man." "
G'day JM
DeleteYeah, "smart men" make "smart dealings" and that's all that matters, apparently. Even if the vast majority of homo saps really are saps and wouldn't know a 'smart man' or a 'smart deal' if they fell over them.
I have no idea how or why Trump and his cronies have gotten away with it all this time, but there's a couple of things:
1. Trump's "approval" as registered in sundry polls hardly ever varies from about 46%, no matter what he's done and no matter how much his base suffers for it
2. An awful lot of bosses and leaders are simply sociopaths and hardly anybody ever seems to object to that - more often, they'll just make up excuses.
So I dunno, mate, but it seems the human race simply doesn't much understand itself. Either that, or we're all much further along the 'sociopath spectrum' that we fondly believe we are.
“Of all the grifters, the confidence man is the aristocrat”. David Maurer The Big Con 1940. In this book the con man is also a great organizer of massive swindles involving dozens of operatives and fake betting or stock broking premises. He is an artist and a gentleman who never uses violence.
DeleteAustralia has never had con men on this level. Neither have we had evangelists – Henry Miller thought they were a uniquely American phenomenon that had never been satisfactorily explained.
Does this mean we are safe?
and - thanks to my source - nomination for dubious metaphor of the week comes from NSW Water Minister Melinda Pavey, responding to the most recent ‘report’ on the Murray Darling Basin Plan, in this weekend’s edition.
ReplyDeleteAccording to ‘Wikipedia’, Ms Pavey started with the National Party as a media officer at age 19. Seems that she has been on staff of various NP members, then a member herself, since 1988. So - make allowances, but this is the quote -
“When the plan was conceived, flexibility was intended to be hardwired into its DNA, to adapt during times of extreme conditions.”
Other Anonymous
Well you gotta admit, OA, that after that gem there's very little that can be said.
DeleteTo match the deathly gravity of today’s cult master illustration I felt it only fitting to (clumsily) paraphrase the forbidding verse of a true master. It’s meant as literal interpretation and as such it’s quite grisly - as is the graphic.
ReplyDeleteA being in ragged hoodie with no form of a man
With gaze black and merciful to none
Raises up its scythe and grasps its sack
That holds a load of virus-blighted souls
The reaper starts ahead for still it knows
That further victims in their chambers sleep
And vexed in nightmares resign themselves to fables
And this dark beast - its power come home at last
Slouches towards Parliament in the dawn
Powerful, Kez. Liked your 'ghosties' too.
Delete