Oh boo hoo, can you imagine having to read these truth twisters on a daily basis, and somehow construct a blog out of it?
We all suffer, and some days the pond's sense of self-pity begins to swell, especially on a slow day when the reptiles have gone into hibernation for the winter …
Then the pond turns to news from other sources, such as Crikey (paywall), designed to lift the spirits …
The drop accelerated from the 2008 global financial crisis, falling half over the following decade. Since then the data suggests it’s been falling faster, about 10% year-on-year.
The lockdown has made things worse, restraining distribution and pick-up circulation through cafes, schools and airports. Based on overseas figures, it’s likely that papers that depend on corporate buys — such as the AFR or The Australian — are particularly affected.
The history of print decline is that there are few new buyers. Once the habit stops (either for individuals or companies) it rarely resumes. Many COVID-19-driven suspensions are likely to be permanent…
...Avoiding the narrative of decline is why we no longer get regular paid circulation figures for Australian print. News Corp pulled out of the Audit Bureau of Circulations (now called ABC) in late 2017, followed by Fairfax the next year.
The only figures since can be found buried in the company’s investor reports: for News Corp papers in the annual 10-K report to the US stock exchange; for Nine, in the print circulation revenue numbers in its annual and half-yearly presentations (which can conceal the scope of decline behind cover price rises).
This means we won’t see any hard figures on the impact of the COVID-19 shock until the companies report their FY 2021 figures.
The media companies say readership, not paid circulation, is the true measure of their scale. Roy Morgan reports that 15.4 million Australians read newspapers — most of them online. That’s nearly 20 times the number who pay for the printed paper. No wonder that’s the figure they want to focus on.
How long will the reptiles be able to give away the lizard Oz in tree-killing form in airports, the pond wondered on an idle wet day, pretending say that the war on China was really a war on China, when it's actually a war on comrade Dan?
Not to worry, it was back to the usual for the pond … though in sullen, resentful way … because Albo had also become a "contributor" … hidden behind a paywall for benefit of the Chairman ... rather than the leader of the opposition, and a taxpayer-funded member of parliament …
All the pond's favourite loons were missing, and the illustrations were crap …
Was it possible to salvage anything from the detritus? Well there was another "contributor", code for a bludger politician moonlighting for the Chairman …
The pond thought that'd have to do, pig, with the challenge to any stray reader to discern any sign that nuclear power benefits were becoming obvious … especially after ploughing through "contributor" O'Brien …
Nope, the pond couldn't see anything there, except for a truly fuck-witted way of referencing the reptiles' favourite word, "virtue signalling", by turning it into the more convoluted "signalled their virtue."
What's more, the pond had to mark down the offering for failing to add other words of the reptile signalling kind. No 'kumbaya'? No reference to romantic delusional greenies? Just a lot of guff about passive safety features and next-generation technologies?
Always with the next-generation technologies, while the pond had the sense that the best action was happening elsewhere …
Well there's more Graudian cartoons here, but we have our own humbug delivering a bunch of verbiage, and the pond must complete the tour of duty … but if the local humbug comes out with words like "pragmatic and evidence-based debate", it's likely the pond will have to be dragged kicking and screaming down into the old nuke shelter ...
The cleanest form of energy? So that's the half-life of meaningless delusion?
And yet in all that blather, not one word about the costs involved, or even a humble table, comparing, say the costs over a fifty year span of nuclear, wind and solar … let alone the half-life of delusional storage of waste from the detritus of a blathering mind …
Periodically, as with the changing of the seasons, various individuals appear in the media extolling the virtues of nuclear energy, promising a panacea of clean and reliable electricity to solve Australia’s energy crisis. But the truth is far less rosy. (here)
Yes, winter must be coming on, and that must be why the pond is forced to turn to Dame Groan, the dullest, most tedious and predictable of the reptiles …
Never mind the carelessness that would result in a casual $60 billion going astray, think about the chance of referring to activist judges and screwing poor buggers on miserable casual rates with no benefits … because how else are we going to transfer to future generations all the current failures to provide for people in old age, except by banking the profits and socialising all those unpaid benefits, by putting them on lay-by?
Joking aside, if Dame Slap actually comes out with "activist judges", the pond will definitely have to be carried, kicking and screaming, down into the nuke shelter ...
And yet, for all the Dame's worthy desire to screw the workers, or rather, to go on screwing the workers, the pond couldn't help but feel that the real action was elsewhere …
But the pond must hop back into the roadster, toot toot poop poop said the toad, and drive a little further with Dame Groan ...
Yes, there's nothing like being a casual in the gig economy - why, talk about sheer luxury - but the pond feels that this was one of the weakest days for the reptiles in a long while, which is why it has decided to offer the lizard Oz editorialist as a bonus …
A bonus? Yes, a bonus in suffering, because who wouldn't want to tear out their eyes immediately upon sighting an example of reptile wit, involving a play on progressive and progress, while deploying
"ain't", in a manner that would have once seen the pond flogged up and down the classroom aisle, and made to contemplate its lowly understanding of everything …
Of course it's that damned Philip Gove and those damned Yankees that ruined English, and the lizard Oz is just a rag run by an American, but still, the pond was clearly in a state of peak boredom when "ain't" should become the focus …all the more so because the reptiles deliberately and provocatively used it as a substitute for "It isn't" ...
But what if the reptiles should refer in the next gobbet to "social justice virtue signalling"?
Yep, the pond ain't mucking about, it's heading to the nuke shelter pronto ...
Breathtaking, really, to move from emotive blather about "social justice virtue signalling" to blathering about "emotive preoccupations" ...
As for "make their way in the world"? Doesn't the lizard Oz editorialist mean get irradiated, work for cut-throat casual wages in a Dame Groan world, and get fucked over by the Chairman, and perhaps become a "contributor" …
As for "make their way in the world"? Doesn't the lizard Oz editorialist mean get irradiated, work for cut-throat casual wages in a Dame Groan world, and get fucked over by the Chairman, and perhaps become a "contributor" …
Is there an even deeper irony? Well the pond tossed aside that WSJ article featuring the war on China, a yarn about how Xi had lost the elites, and would be gone soon, perhaps by Xmas …
The piece made great play with some words in the miniseries about Chernobyl, which apparently wasn't on contributor O'Brien's viewing list …
Valery Legasov: What is the cost of lies? It's not that we'll mistake them for the truth. The real danger is that if we hear enough lies, then we no longer recognize the truth at all.
Oh Valery, you old virtue signaller you, and yet somehow the pond sensed that through all this, through all the usual reptile lies, through the usual absence of truth and insight, the real action lay elsewhere, ain't that a likely reptile fact …
And sure enough, the immortal Rowe confirmed it, with more Rowe here …
“Oh boo hoo, can you imagine having to read these truth twisters on a daily basis, and somehow construct a blog out of it?”
ReplyDeleteYou have my deepest sympathy DP......you deserve a VC for your services to reptile blogging,.....but, we must see today’s Murdochian parade as as prelude to Scotties midday special on the all new post Covid 19 “wanky hanky panky virtual socialist magic bus (nuclear powered/bonus sanitiser) tour”.....visiting all the old tourist hot spots of yesteryear. Dismantled and privatised TAFES, former full time job sites, and universities for low rent, cognitively minimised fee paying students of the gig world, finally disembarking at Job Keeper Seeker Maker Land!
As GB noted the other day, sometimes you wonder if we are still on planet earth. I think the Murdoch machine should just be referred to as the Govt. Gaslight Gazette.
Having been spared the ideologically divisive debates of Covid -19 just makes one yearn for nuclear power......it must be true cos everyone in our street are talking about nothing else, and not only that, they’re all talking about how Covid-19 has let these rigid industrial relation matters turn their home offices into war zones. And it goes without saying that the whole street is talking about Covid-19 and its inability to sort out the business of education reform.......and we actually have a school in the street so this matter is absolutely front of mind in our street....Covid,Covid,Covid....echo,echo,echo!
I’m off to get my shovel DP, because you’ve convinced me that I too need a bunker!
Also, I personally take issue with the Ed.’s typo on our kid’s nuclear enriched future. Not good enough.
Can’t wait till midday!
Cheery Anon.
https://youtu.be/bl9bvuAV-Ao
It's worth watching the original Gaslight movie, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYmtzaHwCKo
DeleteJust as soon as I can talk myself into sitting around for 84 minutes, Joe.
Delete@GB...LAUGHING MY HEAD OFF! I seem to be in the same boat Joe.....I’m still trying to find the time to watch Good Place on Netflix. Every time I see the kids they say,...have you watched it yet? Well no!
DeleteAnd it’s already past 2.30 and I’m still drowning in autumn leaves.....plus I’m only a quarter through digging the nuclear bunker!
Cheery Anon.
P.S. Rowe is a fucking genius!!
ReplyDeleteMy nuclear ode to Dom.....Shameless git!
Cheery Anon.
https://youtu.be/dg-X4RCMZC4
The list of ways to have the economy surf its way to greater triumphs includes the ‘boilerplate’ submissions from every self-styled industry grouping (so many of them, but all made up exclusively of the executive stratum of each industry) recommending ever-lower taxes, removal of all restraints on what they see as development, and none of that nanny state telling US what we should pay those layabouts we see when we can’t avoid the visit to the factory with Minister in funny yellow jacket.
ReplyDeleteToday, the Dame has justified her own miserly casual rate with a half-hearted shot over the bows of the activist judges. Her actual discussion shows no connection between what any of the ‘casuals’ do, and the income they might generate for their employer. It is a given that they must pocket less, because that is the only theme that will get a run in the Flagship, even while other ‘contributors’ deplore that unwillingness of the workers to spend and consume - in the national interest.
My source sent me an item from, I believe, yesterday’s Flagship, of Alan Kohler in conversation with what he calls Small Business Ombudsman Kate Carnell. She is actually - titles, titles, Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman.
The source shares my wonderment that Ms Carnell, after a dismal performance in the weird politics of ACT Government, has subsequently been able to sell herself to industry organisations, to be their public voice. Tenure in each slot - forests, doctors, groceries - has been short, but she has also been favoured by LNP administrations for appointments to qangos to fill in between industries.
Ms Carnell has issued, yet another, ‘COVID-19 Recovery Plan’. Kohler chose to focus on the part of the plan dealing with the ‘better off overall test’ in awards, and quotes the ASBFEO as saying ‘if every person has to be better off, you can’t improve productivity.’
Apart from its inverse logic, that statement shows how little ‘small business’ has read, or understood, of research into the real factors in worker motivation, innovation and so - productivity. Research that involved the Dame in an earlier life, but which she has learned to ignore when producing her casual columns for the Flagship.
Other Anonymous
In my more undeveloped years, OA, in 'logical instruction' what Dame Groan, the ASBFEO and sundry "business managers" spout was innocently called "special pleading". Now, in my declining dotage, I recognise it for what it really is: blind and rabid self-interest.
DeleteBut then, I guess they only keep on doing it because it works.
GB - my experience with trying to deal with 'industry groups' taught me that very few of them actually understood where their long-term interests lay. Almost all, while purporting to represent all of, say, the Dray and Buggy Wheelwrights Association, tended to come under the control of a particular faction, with a specific gripe - like sales tax on stockwhips.
DeleteI was aware of a few such bodies where the executive officer saw it as his or her function to educate members in what their real problems were, and smart ways to remedy them, but most of that cohort have died out, to be replaced by young hotshots who have spent a few months in the office of some minor minister, and see it all as permanent lobbying on behalf of the gripe group.
OK - to get away from pretend organisations - I give you the National Farmers' Federation, which seems to have been AWOL on most rural issues of recent years, and whose 'vision' doesn't extend beyond Thursday.
Other Anonymous.
The whole 'country world' seems to have basically collapsed in the last decade or so, OA, not just the NFF. Look at what the Nationals have as federal leader and deputy leader for examples. And always keep Barny Barners in mind as a prime example.
DeleteAnd one never hears anything about the Country Women's Association nowadays.
Well, the AnonyMice having disposed of Dame Groan and the Editorialist, I thought I'd take the road less travelled: Ted O'Brien. After having read Ted's piece, the only reaction I can show is this: where do they get such naive, ignorant simpletons from and why are they put in charge of important committees ?
ReplyDeleteFrom Forbes: "Workers still regularly fall off wind turbines during maintenance ..."
Solar is credited with causing deaths but isn't actually mentioned as to how.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/10/energys-deathprint-a-price-always-paid/#7694447e709b
[The article is from back in 2012]
O'Brien: "According to MIT, there have been fewer deaths per unit of energy attributed to nuclear than any other method of electricity generation, including hydro, solar and wind."
Therefore "...nuclear is the safest of all energy sources."
That's it then. A total of 44 workers have fallen from wind towers during maintenance and died. But after all the nuclear fatalities - including many innocents who just happened to be in the vicinity - nuclear power plants generate so much electricity (for so few users) that the direct cost in lives of generating nuclear power is so low that it is safer than wind power.
No numbers were directly given for maintenance, or installation, workers falling off solar panels and dying therefrom, but somehow, magically, nuclear is also safer than solar. At least Teddy Boy thinks so, from an MIT report that he neither quotes nor references, so we've got no opportunity to critique what it says. Which is, of course, a favourite reptile and wingnut ploy.
Also, as DP has noted, there's a lot of other questions too: uranium mining, refining and transporting, the still totally unsolved problem of what to do with nuclear waste, the enormous amount of fresh water consumed, the length of time to build and commission (still an issue even with so-called Small Modular Reactors) and overall, just the fact that nuclear generated power is by far the most expensive power available and the cost, if we relied on it, would destroy any hope of ever being competitive in manufacturing - at least according to the reptiles.
So by all means let us "consider" nuclear, and then continue to very sensibly ignore it.
As well as the rest of your post....“So by all means let us "consider" nuclear, and then continue to very sensibly ignore it.”
DeleteNailed it GB. Nuff said......also GB, tried your music link but computer said no. Help me out! :)
Cheery Anon
Works for me, CA, ok go to youtube and enter:
DeleteAmy MacDonald - Dancing In The Dark (Orchestral Version)
in the Search slot. With any luck you'll get it then.
Got it.... powerful and passionate voice. Loved her version of Hallelujah and particularly Run. No wonder that theatre was packed out. I do have a soft spot for a Scottish accent.
DeleteI once share housed in Townsville decades ago with a Scottish couple. They were ballet students and the most entertaining people in the whole house by a county mile.....and amazing story tellers to boot. Thanks for that.
CA.
On that....just a bit of fun GB, from a few days back. The MSM is slower than us old buggers lately! They need to get the Major on to this pronto.
DeleteCheery Anon.
The former prime minister, Kevin Rudd, who is no friend of Rupert Murdoch-owned media outlets, has come out swinging after the ABC reported earlier today that a Daily Telegraph report about “a dossier prepared by concerned western governments” about the origins of Covid-19 was actually a “non-paper” with no new information in it.
Rudd told my colleague Daniel Hurst: “These revelations should be utterly humiliating to the Murdoch media, except that the Murdoch media has zero shame.”
He believes the document “was leaked to News Corp in Australia with the clear intention that it would be funnelled back into the American media, giving the appearance that Australian spies were backing Trump’s claims”. In reality, though, “Australian intelligence officials don’t believe Trump at all”.
Yeah. My problem is that KRudd is a fairly smart bloke, on his better days, and I don't think the vast majority of wingnuts are smart enough to be that devious.
DeleteOn the other hand, there's nothing particularly clever about putting something over a willing reptile, so it may just be so.
Re Amy: yeah, I enjoyed her Hallelujah and Run too. The Dancing in the Dark number comes from a concert of hers with the German Philharmonic Orchestra in 2010 which runs for just a smidgin short of an hour. The whole concert is worth a listen.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMlYR9f_7DQ (or just put Amy MacDonald German Philharmonic Orchestra in the Search slot)
Nicely articulated OA.....of course it is naturally a simple choice to ignore anything required of you when you are on a casual rate of $350K p.a.
ReplyDeleteCarnell, or the small business jewellery display stand as I prefer to call her, seems to have forgotten that most ordinary working folk, when they start out, desire the same as most of us......a permanent job, or something near to it, in order to raise a family and get a mortgage to buy a home. You are never going to get that working in the part time gig economy......let alone with permanently stagnant wages.
My two BIL’s, one in industrial painting and the other in surveying have both looked after their employees and have many staff that have been with them for over 25 years, for the simple reason that they have the ability to plan their family lives......and reciprocal respect then follows naturally. It’s not rocket science
The Groan and Carnell would do well to spend a month on the workshop floor tending an angry piece of machinery instead of pandering to people within a very limited group. I attended a business awards night a few years back listening to Bruce Bilson wail against the working class, quite politely in poli-speak of course, but he won no friends that night, barring a couple of business owners at the very top of the tree. The Liberal disconnect was very obvious to the rest of the 200 odd people in the room.
Cheery Anon.
The only thing I can think of, CA, is that maybe some people - of all genders - prefer the extra 25% for a while so that they can put together enough for a house deposit. But then they'd fairly soon want a permanent spot for the security to raise a family - and to have occasional paid holidays with their kids.
DeleteCA - My Source thanks you for 'the small business jewellery display stand' characterization. No doubt she will purloin it, when opportunity presents. She had some dealings with Ms Carnell (or, perhaps more precisely, tried to have dealings with ACT Gummint under Ms C), which is why the Source counts herself among those who thought the bunch of public servants (whoops, should have put 'unelected' before the 'public' there) - anyway, thought those people ran it all a lot more efficiently because there was not a stratum of - were they called 'Ministerial Members' or some such? between the person who actually did things, and Percy and Prunella Public.
DeleteOther Anonymous
Sounds about right AO. My only experience, after running a smallish family business for many, was within local Govt.
ReplyDeleteI thought I had arrived on another planet during the first 6 months and was about to pull the pin when I lucked in and ended staying well over a decade. It was an enlightening time.... waste, cronyism and glory grabbing on an industrial scale. Although I dislike the man intensely, I understand why he tore it all down and put CEO’s in place across the board.
The only difference I could see was that a lot of poor buggers that would struggle to get a regular job we’re flicked off to the list of the lifetime unemployed but the cronyism and economic waste remained the same. That said, this was at a local level and I’ve no doubt there is a much more stringent level of accountability at the Federal level, although looking at the last 10 years I do have some doubts when I look at say....Anus Taylor and a few others. The more things change the more they stay the same and that is of little consolation for good and well intentioned public servants.
Plus it’s pretty hard to blow the whistle these days.
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/may/26/public-servant-alleging-ministerial-corruption-told-speaking-to-media-could-be-unlawful?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
Cheery Anon.
Apologies AO......Kennett was who I was referring to. Typing faster than my slow brain. Definitely getting a bit jaded in my old age too, me thinks. Cheers. CA.
DeleteI did read in one of Kennett's regular bleats in the Melbourne Herald Sun about a year or more ago, that he'd had a bit of an epiphany in his dotage and that "knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have done what I did then". The usual kind of bland 'justification' for having been a bit stupid in his younger years.
DeleteI don't know how well he understands what he did do or how sincere he is in renouncing it now. But maybe he has finally twigged that the sort of things he did never really change the plot, they only change the cast.
But then
He will always be what he was GB, a narcissist arrogant attention-seeker, which is why he'd join a herd of lemmings in the rush to the cliff if he saw a camera, a mike or a newspaper column at the bottom inviting a loudmouth contribution ...
DeleteCan't argue with that, DP, and it essentially shows in every word he writes. "I may acknowledge youthful indiscretion, but I was never wrong about anything, and I'm still 100% right now" or words to that effect.
Delete