The pond was sitting back last night watching gobbets of US comics in its usual way, and having idle thoughts of totally dominating the reptiles and making them submit. Total dominance and submission, it's the only way, because hated are the cheese makers ...
Tear gas, a rear naked choke hold, an arm bar, a Peruvian necktie (okay, the pond cheated and looked them up), whatever it took …and then one of the comics made a joke about the Donald praising himself - the pond can't remember which one, Colbert, Seth, Kimmel, but they were unable to imagine any other politician dumb enough to make the same move as the Donald, and indulge in self-praise …
Yep, good old prime Angus 'beef' Taylor could show the Donald a thing or three …and those US comics should remember they don't have exclusive rights to the dumbest, most fuckwitted politicians on the planet …we have our own dinkum proud pollies down under, and no-one can match our prime Angus 'beef' ...
But as the Donald has been mentioned now, it's time to get on with it, so bring on the bromancer, talking up the Donald …
The pond respects the reptiles for running a snap of Reichsmarshall Donald out in the field inspecting the troops in the war against protesting civilians and priests getting in the way of a photo op, but would have preferred a better snap of the Donald with upside down bible in hand, Satan style, to set the cartoonists running …
Fair warning. The bromancer will deliver a bout of piety for starters, but fear not, soon he'll get on to the immense political advantages all the trouble and strife will deliver to the Donald ...
Actually the Donald has been criticised in a number of areas, not least his shameless misuse of the bible, which agitated priests at the church at the centre of the fuss, especially as the Donald hadn't been seen there since inauguration day …(does anyone but the truly dumb think that the Donald has a religious bone in his body?)
Be fair, bromancer. Cartoonists love the smell of hypocrisy as much as napalm, tear gas and pepper-sprayed journalists in the morning …
But let us take it slowly, because the bromancer will slowly turn the spit, until he arrives at a point of hope, determined as he is to turn the Donald into a likely winner ...
At this point, any sane person might wonder whether the United States could stand another four years of the Donald in charge. If the country is erupting now, might we look forward to civil war in a couple of years time?
But the reptiles and cartoonists get inspiration from a country in flames …
It takes some major reptile skill to wish four more years of the Donald on the United States, but fear not, the bromancer is always ready to sink to his knees and abase himself for the occasion ...
Four more years, four more years … saying what Americans want to hear, because the Weimar republic was decadent, and what we want is a courageous leader in the field, ready to strike fear into the hearts and minds of the citizenry …tweeting the tweets loons and reptiles want to read ...
What a vision, what a dream, and the pond deeply regrets that it now has to turn to the savvy Savva …issuing a warning to SloMo …
Really? You've been stripped of your cult master illustration, and instead scored a shot of a simpering ning nong, and you want to destroy future prospects for cartoonists?
But do go on, savvy Savva ...
Amen to that, and luckily the pond is white, so it can enjoy its white bread wonders …
But to do go on ...
Emulate Merkel? Surely our speaker in tongues should emulate the Donald?
Never mind, after all the fuss and the worry, the Savva also sees a way to ride the Donald home ...
Keeping up that talk of a discredited president as a winner, just like tricky Dick, because didn't that turn out well …
And now as bonus, a little of our Adam …relax, it's short, it's painless, it's just the usual Adam thing …
And now as bonus, a little of our Adam …relax, it's short, it's painless, it's just the usual Adam thing …
History will judge? But our Adam has spent column after column judging, always with the same conclusion …
Our Adam has spent weeks worrying about the suffering of the looters …
Who can forget Adam's message, repeated over and over …
But the pond promised it would be short, and short it is ...
Indeed, indeed, just what we need, a round of economic stimulus for beer consumption and Queensland getaways, but at least after saying the rapture was near and all was ruined, in true Hanrahan style, at least our Adam had the decency to make room for the Rowe musical coming to a theatre near you … with more dancing and singing here …
And usually that would be enough for the pond, but this Lloydie piece caught the pond's eye …
Say what? The reptiles surely won't stand for this sort of nonsense. We must immediately resume export of dinkum clean Oz coal, and crank it up to 11, and these Julie and poodle come lately types must be told to get lost …
The pond has no doubt that in due course Lloydie, saviour of the Amazon, will sort them out ...
Alongside Adam Spencer, and prime Angus 'beef' praising himself yet again? And suddenly the born agains are doing a head prefect and going all renewable energy? Oh Scottie from marketing got it right, it's a wonderful country ...
Not to sorry, the pond has its own strategy for survival, should the reptiles succeed in getting the Donald another four years …
A little prepping, and it's down into the bunker for the duration, and the pond reckons that the Donald would understand … and might even join in …
Is that 'to the bunker, Batman and Robin style,' or 'to the bunker, Adolf style'?
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteStrange that the Bromancer should cite this particular shooting;
“In 2017, also in Minneapolis, Justine Damond Ruszczyk, an Australian, was shot and killed by policeman Mohamed Noor...
...As it happens, Damond was white and Noor was black. I don’t think that had any relevance at all, and neither did anyone else. Although it was a tragic incident, it didn’t really reveal any wider cultural pattern. It wasn’t given wider significance. This is only relevant to suggest that not everything is racial.”
The shooting wasn’t racial but the subsequent conviction and sentencing of the black, Muslim policeman was certainly quite a different outcome from when white policemen kill black civilians;
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/03/us/mohamed-noor-guilty.html
DiddyWrote
Yeah, just a bit strange, isn't it. As is the fact that Noor wasn't your average 'born of liberated slaves' African-American. He, via his family, is actually a Somali refugee of fairly recent entry to the US (at about age 8, 25 or so years ago).
DeleteBut mainly, there obviously wasn't any 'premeditation' about Noor's effort: he saw her, he shot her and it was all over. Chauvin persisted with his choking for up to 9 minutes despite being many times asked to stop, both by Floyd and by "passers-by".
So what can one make of that ? Apparently what has been made of it is that the '3rd degree' charge has been upgraded to '2nd degree' murder.
Seems a bit like Myall Creek in that the incident is unremarkable, the fact that the authorities may do something is the remarkable bit.
DeleteSheridan's response is typical of the denialist approach of all kinds in the Oz If something is so self-evident that you cannot say it didn't happen, acknowledge it and claim it shows "balance".
One case here, thousands over there - yes, balance.
"Bothsiderism" and "whataboutery": two of the finest wingnut inventions yet for confusing everything.
DeleteI was reading Credulous Creighton's bleat about "Economy not as bad as we thought ..." As we thought, Credulous ? You mean not as bad as you credulously claimed: "Whether it was the necessary price of success, or born of hysterical overreaction."
ReplyDeleteBut then, I saw this:
Off the chart: Australians were world leaders in panic buying, beating UK and Italy
Australia ‘far and away most panicked country’ say researchers who had to create new graph scale to depict phenomenon
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jun/03/off-the-chart-australians-were-world-leaders-in-panic-buying-beating-uk-and-italy
So, you're absolutely right, Credulous, it was all irrational panic. By you and your neoliberal mates, that is; not by us sensible, normal Australians who just wanted to have a room full of toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, rice and flour. And yes, the powdered milk shelves in my local Woolies were basically empty throughout (and mostly still are).
But I did like this one: "...the first recession in almost 30 years and by far the deepest." The "deepest" in what ? In the last 30 years when we really haven't had one, or for the entirety of Australia's documented history, including the Great Depression ?
You have picked a few beauties today, DP: Credulous Creighton and Lollabout Lloydie all in one easy pass. But hey, Lloydie didn't mention the three holy grails - coal, gas and nuclear - even once. What he did mention was: "Releasing the research on Wednesday, Blueprint Institute said "Australians identify that a potential pathway out of the economic downturn is to increase the supply of renewable energy"."
ReplyDeleteYeah, but hang about a mo', Lloydie: if we increase the "renewable energy" we won't have stable load electricity that doesn't depend on the wind blowing and/or the sun shining. And like you and the reptile brigade (or is that brigands ?) have said so frequently, forcefully and convincingly, the cost of electric power will ruin any chance we might have of restarting our industries. So why say nothing about that now ? Oh, ok: "founded by Mrs Bishop's former advisor", "counts Ms Bishop and Mr Pyne as advisors" and even "ABC presenter Adam Spencer".
An "ABC presenter" ? In a wingnut "research" think tank ? What is the land of "droughts and flooding rains" coming to ? Does this mean that not only did the ABC save Australian lives in 'Black summer' but that it may also save the planet from climate change ?
Given Rowe's propensity for classical allusions, I wondered if Music Hall Josh drew from
ReplyDeleteone of the briefer quotes of Søren Kierkegaard. Well, translated and adapted - Søren was not inclined to the brief, readily memorable, quote.
“A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it's a joke.”
Other Anonymous
:)³
DeleteHeh. Tres bon, OA and of course it is a joke and always has been a joke. I look back at documented human history and note that the same story gets played out, time after time after time: bunch of people get together, form a society, get organised, invent some technology (usually, anyway), get successful and overcome their neighbours ... and then, fall in a hole and mostly disappear.
ReplyDeleteSometimes by virtue of conquest by other 'societies', frequently by just the rampant stupidity that allows creeping entropy to become galloping chaos. Like we've watched the British Empire fade away increasingly rapidly over the last 100 years or so. And once they go, there's hardly ever a second chance (except maybe for the Romans (aka 'Italians') during the renaissance and the Chinese now).
But you know the planet has its quirks: did you know that "Among described species on the planet, the ratio of free-living to parasitic is about 60:40, but that’s a gross underestimate. In reality, the numbers are probably much more in favour of the parasites."
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21929270-300-parasitism-is-the-most-popular-lifestyle-on-earth/
But in the entire history of life on planet Earth, no other parasite has ever been as successful as homo sapiens sapiens at destroying the necessary conditions for its own continued existence. Makes one think of all those lovely cyanobacteria of around 2.8 billion years ago that changed the atmosphere to having a high oxygen content and thus made all those things - from the placozoa of 800 million years ago to us now - possible. And here we stand, showing just how funny it has always been.
But lurking in the swamp are the sulphur bacteria, waiting for circumstances to break their way so they can overcome the cyanobacteria, and their ilk and return the planet to they way they had it, safe from that dreadful, corrosive, oxygen.
ReplyDeleteUnthinking humans are helping prepare those conditions by burning fossil fuels at a great rate, releasing sulphur to the atmosphere. That alone should unite the other oxygen-breathers to sanction the sulphur-releasing community. One might have thought that humanity had learned something from acid rain, but - no, that is all part of the joke.
Other Anonymous
Ah but then OA, some time between 600million and 1billion years hence, planet Terra will become - at least on the surface and for several metres below - uninhabitable by any existing life forms. So, either your sulphur bacteria - which are clearly fairly simple prokaryotes - can adjust, or only if we have (1) colonised some other planets or locations or (2) dug deep into the planet's surface and found a way to make the crust stable despite great solar heat increases, will life, and particularly human life, continue.
DeleteNow that's a mission, should we choose to accept it, that could keep homo saps saps busy for quite some time. We might even have to discard the old 'a national economy is the same as a household economy' nonsense - because even Jeff Bezos's distant offsprung won't be able to be taxed enough to pay for it.
This is about the time that I regret having been born quite so early: in a while (at least I hope so) humanity might have space ships that can accelerate up to 99% of lightspeed which, in a journey around the Cenrauri group and back, might take a few elapsed days but decades will have passed on Earth. So, given say an 80 year lifespan, one could get to see what happens on Earth over many centuries, maybe even many millenia if the spaceship can be speeded up just a little more.
Sic transit gloria mundi ?
Just had series of light bulb moments reading a couple of Crikey articles (behind paywall).
ReplyDeleteThe full reasons for Dame Slap's tilting at class litigation and industry super windmills became clear.
https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/06/04/news-corp-silent-on-bankrolling-anti-class-action-lobbyist/
"News Corp silent on bankrolling anti-class action lobbyist"
"News Corp has donated at least US$1 million to powerful United States business lobby group the US Chamber of Commerce (CoC), which aims to restrict class action litigation in Australia and globally, Inq has learned"
"Inq can also reveal that in 2017 News Corp was forced to settle a $300 million class action in the United States in relation to the actions of one of its subsidiaries."
"In 2017 the company settled a class action brought by six major food companies in the United States. The companies, including H J Heinz Co, alleged that a News Corp subsidiary had monopolised the market for third-party, in-store promotions by entering into anti-competitive contracts with retailers, thus pushing up the cost of promotions for the food companies."
https://www.crikey.com.au/2020/06/02/early-access-super-data-proves-government-wrong-on-industry-funds/
"Government shoots itself in the foot (yet again) in its war on industry super funds"
"The government hoped early access to superannuation would embarrass industry super funds. Instead, they've been among the best performers, while some retail super funds have been the worst at giving people their money."
"Long-time retail fund advocate and Liberal Senator Andrew “virus guy” Bragg linked industry criticism of the early access scheme with fund illiquidity. Assistant Superannuation Minister Jane Hume, who has repeatedly described industry funds as “unholy”, accused the sector of seeking to delay early access payments by several months.
You can probably guess what happened next. With the scheme having run for over a month, it turns out the worst laggards for paying members under the early access scheme are … retail super funds."
Lastly, Lloydie may not be too keen on backing a looser in Aussie gas oi oi oi! Gas may be in for a bit of pain in the near future.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-02/natural-gas-may-be-the-next-major-commodity-to-trade-below-zero
Yes, thanks BF, the pond always feels guilty ripping off Crikey content, whereas it's a guilt-free pleasure with the reptiles. That series on class action has been a good read ...
DeleteAgain, thank you Befuddled. This is a good place to find the stories behind the - facades. As our devoted Dorothy observed yesterday 'it's always a joy when the comments section is way more interesting than the reptile content'.
ReplyDeleteOther Anonymous
Ditto OA as regards Befuddled’s links. The reptile content never ceases to amaze most days. Sheridan is like a Jekyll and Hide in a cardigan......actually they all are, and particularly Lloydie. I think he might have been sampling the Amazonian hallucinogenics, what with all that babble of renewables. He must have been gagging over the keyboard.
ReplyDeleteBetween the prolonged attacks on Industry Super and Dan Andrews and the political obsessions of fuck the virus....get back to work of late, plus, how good is Trump, really does point to a strange disconnect to ordinary events and ordinary people that is quite disturbing, considering where the world finds itself currently.
OA’s analogy of the clown screaming fire is very aptly stated.....and bought these lyrics promptly to mind.
https://youtu.be/lF2BYqc5Zuc
I'm certainly glad that Bef has a Crikey account because I don't think I'll ever have one.
DeleteBut talking headwise about lyrics, it's time to recall some of Trump's: "You just tell them and they believe you". And it's wonderful that after all these years and all those lies, it still works for News Corp's minions.
Well Newscorpse is the great repository of lies....great and small, and Trump being a great subscriber to their MO, it appears he may well have driven an unintended wedge between his religious base by being a total meathead rather than a President.
Deletehttps://foreignpolicy.com/2020/06/03/trump-military-george-floyd-protests/
I agree that subscription to good informative media is a vexed issue when most of us have limited budgets. Over the years I’ve subscribed to a few different outlets. This year I’ve adopted the Guardian after years of free loading, for the simple reason they have some fine journalists and that they are globally diverse and actually attempt to fact check. It’s much like supporting charitable causes....many choices/ preferences but limited funds.
I think the best sign I’ve seen during the whole US chaos was a young kid of about 14, standing on his own, holding a homemade sign that said “first they came for the journalists.....after that I’m not sure what happened”
....or something to that affect. Your comment about Sheridan’s “writing as opposed to filming” was the first thing that came to my mind also, but being midnight at the time, I just let it side. Thanks for noting it. It is both.
Viva La Pond!......and thanks for the Kuper cartoon DP. Been sharing madly. :-) .... :-(
CheeryAnon.
Yair I might have to do the same, CA. At least I can just donate to The Guardian, I don't have to become an identifiable subscriber. Though apparently there are a few services around that provide temporary and/or 'fake' email addresses that one can use.
Deletehttps://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/fake-email-generator/
Not much said about Savvy Sav or the Bromancer today. Not much to be said, I reckon: the Bromancer's postulate that no matter what happens in America it will help Trump is just a tad transparent. And indeed it will help Trump with his 'rusted on deplorables', but other views are rising.
ReplyDeleteHowever I liked this bit: "Chauvin is aware people are filming him. That displays either unbelievable arrogance or stupidity, or perhaps both."
In my mind I rendered that as "Murdoch's minions are aware that people are reading them, and thus are displaying unbelievable arrogance, or stupidity, or both." My choice is "or both". "Like a Jekyll and Hyde in a cardigan" ? Yep, spot on, Anony.
As for Savvy Sav: "There were other things Morrison probably should have said, particularly about indigenous Australians and how much more needs to be done here ..." Yep, second (and third and fourth) that, but I simply wouldn't expect, or trust, Morrison to say or do any of it.
So ends another Thor's Day, and on to Freya's Day now.