The pond can only deal with the material the reptiles serve up.
Thursday is savvy Savva day for the reptiles, and so it's savvy Savva day at the pond.
It's not that the pond wants to read the savvy Savva or inflict the savviness on the world, it's just the way it is …
The pond could have cut it short by simply running the infallible Pope of the day …
Or perhaps yesterday's Rowe …
But where's the fun in that?
And there are other dangers and temptations. Sometimes the pond drifts off, thinking how it might better spend its time, perhaps reflecting on the meaning of it all …
But then the pond casts aside temptations, abandons the infallible Pope, holds another immortal Rowe in reserve, snaps back, and gets on with its duty ...
Oh dear, she's got her usual bee in the bonnet about SloMo and the man with an unfortunate rhyming name … as if somehow it's got something to do with them …
But surely when it rains, everyone gets wet ...
Experienced medical help in a pandemic? By golly those uppity, demanding, difficult Victorians are always being unreasonable. What they need to do is read Killer Creighton and understand it's no biggie, that there's been an over-rection to an unremarkable case of the flu ...
Yes, there you go, and a lot more of the same, and so the pond wonders what the fuss is all about. Isn't death the natural order of things? Why, the risk of dying while reading Killer Creighton is about as great as understanding the universe by reading a cereal box ...
Indeed, indeed, but Killer Creighton is the pond's great comfort …
Oh dear, another metaphysical question. What the pond needs is someone who can introduce metaphysical notions into foreign policy considerations ….
And so to the other bee in the reptile bonnet this day, and wouldn't you know, it's China, and all the 'leets crawled out from assorted places to examine the state of play ...
Special reporters were assigned to hunt out EXCLUSIVES spotting lickspittle fellow travellers, or to reveal top secret defence plans, so secret that any fool reptile reader could be in on the joke ...
Yes, put vital supplies in Darwin, because heck, why trouble the Chinese by putting them at a distance, why try to keep them out of harm's way? Why not just make them missile friendly and plunk them right next to the Chinese-leased port? Think of what a handy nearby missile might do to a decent stash of oil supplies ...
But enough of the experts, because whenever the pond wants real analysis, it always turns to the bromancer, and what a good week it's been for him, and so for the pond ...
We've got closer to the US? Why was the pond suddenly nervous?
Never mind, it's on with the good news, and the way we're doing a tango with one of the most incompetent presidents of all time, one barking mad enough to channel the alien mumbo jumbo, and obscure ramblings of a cultist, until even Twitter felt the need to say enough already …
Sorry, the pond has it on good authority that sex with aliens is the cause of all the STDs doing the rounds …
Sorry, this is a day of distractions, please, oh please bromancer, lead the pond in a recitation of the Agnus Dei ...
Does the bromancer ever disappoint? Who else could translate foreign relations into Papist-speak, what with a gathering of Cardinals, talk of theological language and doctrinal precedent, and for a capper "hermeneutics" …
And the Papist didn't stop with it there … because there's even more longstanding, though nuanced theology to come …
You know, the sort of nuanced theology currently going down in the States …
Never mind, Agnus die, qui tolls peccata mundi, miserere nobis, as they say … and now, instead of talk of a miserable condition in a miserable world, it's time for the bromancer to make crystal clear how brave we've been, and how brave we will be, tackling the unknown unknowns, never saying never, but hardly ever doing ever ...
Another bromancer score! A veritable hit!
Who else could diagnose a condition that was both non-inflammatory and acutely annoying. Speaking personally, if the pond is acutely annoyed, it's usually related to some inflammatory condition … you know, if there's an ingrown toe-nail, it's inclined to be annoying, and it can get pretty inflammatory, and if the bromancer can use theology, why the pond feels free to go medical metaphor ...
Yes, you can be half-pregnant, you can be intimate and socially distant, you can do a dance at arm's length and consider it a romance, you can keep trading with China while poking out the tongue at a safe distance, and meanwhile, in another country, our great ally, everything is going spiffingly well, with the sign posts easy to follow ...
As a bonus, the pond decided to turn to the lizard editorialist to study another reptile phenomenon ...
What had happened? Where did it all go wrong? Can anyone remember when the onion muncher, with a shit-eating grin, was standing amongst the pack celebrating a momentous triumph?
Or at least huge if you could get a lobbying gig … but back to that curious reptile habit, which sees the lizard editorialist beg, steal and borrow thoughts from its scribblers and stick them together in an elaborate nest of conceits like a bower bird.
Thus we began with Cameron Stewart and end with the bromancer, and the pond irresistibly finds the effect akin to an echo chamber, or a vision of Surry Hills as a cult with everyone saturated to the gills on the same kool aid - well when we drink, the innards surely get wet.
Do they ever get out and about, does the lizard Oz editorialist do anything other than read the lizard Oz?
Ah yes, it's all Obama's fault. Four years into the new regime, and yet still it's all his fault. Is there nothing he can't be blamed for? One of his many colossal failures.
As opposed to the colossal triumphs of the Donald and his mob.
But, stay, hole a moment what's this defeatist talk in that penultimate sentence, "Whoever wins in the US in November…?"
And who, apart from the delusional reptile, imagines that be it Mr Trump (respect) or sleep Joe (no honorific for him), that anyone will follow the reptile order "must be resolute", especially when everyone knows the reptiles will crumble and do some lavish boot-licking the moment that precious, dear sweet clean dinkum Oz coal looks like it might be under threat … because we still have a planet to destroy ...
After reading the reptiles, the pond began to experience a mixed-message overload - but surely the country and the world is in the safest hands, and this is no time for defeatism … surely there must be another chance for Dame Slap to don the MAGA cap and celebrate on the streets of New York …surely Mr Trump will march to another triumph, and then we'll see how fucked things can really get.
And as for that alternative view of reality the pond was hoping for, why not an immortal Rowe sending a postcard, with more postcards from the seer here ...
A great start by the Savvy Sav: "Here is a not so bold prediction: there is not a single person alive today who will be around when the last cent of the national debt, expected to grow to mote than $1 trillion, is paid off."
ReplyDeleteWell I very sincerely hope so, because "the national debt" will never be "paid off". Clearly Savvy Sav has never read J K Galbraith's 'Money: whence it came, where it went' And clearly she took absolutely no notice of what happened back in the early noughts when Howard/Costello actually did "pay off the national debt".
Never pay no mind, Savvy is not now, nor ever will be, economically sapient. But just like any reptile in good standing, it won't stop her from blowing off at length, proudly demonstrating her ignorant stupidity, will it.
Moving right along to the Bromancer and how: "This AUSMIN produced real results." Oh yes, indeed it did, nobody could dispute that. Though, nonetheless, the Bromancer has to enunciate that: "criticism of the Chinese government is not criticism of the Chinese people." Well of course not, who could possibly think that ?
Afrer all, the Chinese People stand in steadfast opposition to the Chinese government, don't they. However, taking note of the 'use of language', perhaps it might be noted that the Chinese have gone way past Teddy Roosevelt; their "language" is clearly saying: "Speak loudly, and carry many big sticks". Which indeed is what the USA also used to say.
Finally, The Editorialist is pleased to note that Australia is gearing up to reduce "US dependence on China for materials critical to defence manufacture" (where will the yanks get their uniforms made ?). Especially as China is rapidly increasing the size of its navy by building steel ships. And where is it again that China gets so much of its iron and steel ? 'Pig-iron Scotty' perhaps ?
A great start by you GB. Sadly there's just more Riddster today ...
DeleteAnother view on the phoney war against China:
ReplyDeletehttps://johnmenadue.com/john-tan-the-us-and-australia-two-elections-and-two-fear-narratives/
To accept the Bromancer's narrative requires a fair degree of naivety about how things actually work. It's not that all the observations are necessarily wrong, China is an authoritarian, nationalistic state and Australia is deeply enmeshed in a strategic alliance with the US, it's more that how you go about things can be more important than what you are trying to do.
The US has already reached some accommodations with the US over agricultural products that have disadvantaged Australia. For China fighting the US in a trade war is a problem, squashing Australia - meh, no problem. When elephants fight the grass dies!
Incidentally, I think someone told the Bro about Simandou the other day. Like his pandemic coverage, when he discovers something new he has to pretend that he always knew. A bit like Trump really.
Talking about the "how" being more important than the "what", Bef (and JM), though the mills of the mind grind exceedingly slow nowadays, I have a word for you: satisficing.
DeleteLook up Herbert A Simon (1956).
Very interesting.
DeleteIn a rational world decisions would be made this way, unfortunately the world is full of homo sapiens.
Maybe not quite so full for very much longer, Bef, but we will see, I guess. Herbert Simon however, was a fairly rational man in his day.
DeleteAnyway, Bef, it's a fine example of that sadly neglected Rumsfeld category: the unknown known; things that humanity has discovered but forgotten and which often lead to much re-inventing of the wheel. Something our species is muchly given to.
DeleteThis was put up in ‘Catallaxy Files’, where it is identified as from Peter Ridd’s ‘GoFundMe Page’.
ReplyDelete“In the final analysis, I was fired for saying that, because of systemic problems with quality assurance, work from the JCU coral reef centre, which also publishes extensively on climate change, was untrustworthy. I believe what I said was true and have given plenty of published evidence to support the statement. After I was fired, it was proven beyond doubt that I was correct when a group of seven international scientists who audited eight of the major studies from the JCU coral reef centre found them ALL to be 100% wrong. You can’t get much more scientifically untrustworthy than that. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/ex-judge-investigate-controversial-marine-research”
Now, that supposed link to THES stops at a paywall, but it does show a subheading ‘Ex-judge to investigate controversial marine research’. To investigate - not ‘has proven beyond doubt’. Yer pays yer money . . . .
A little further down, Ridd writes - “The Commonwealth government has already signalled its intention to consider adapting the French Review Model Code to prevent a similar case. This may be the most important long-term implication of the case. Ironically, even if we lose in the High Court, it will demonstrate beyond doubt that the work contracts at universities have the effect of crushing free speech.”
and “So even if we lose the High Court challenge, we still win the ultimate political battle.”
So - we have the decision all wrapped up, but please send money.
For the record - I haven’t sent any. But GB has noted that uncharitable streak in your humble correspondent.
Chadwick
I started worrying at 'ex-judge'. Why not a game show host or an astrologer?
DeleteI used to think my dad was a bit cynical when he pointed out how often people with a high moral purpose needed your money but I am coming around to his point of view.
Befuddled - it is said that one of the sweetest sayings in our language is 'Dad, you were right.' I was able to say that, about a couple of matters, to my own Dad in his lifetime; trust you had similar opportunity, because in this case he was right.
DeleteChadwick
It's all just a bit ridiculous isn't it. "seven international scientists" ? Presumeably they were actually named behind the paywall, but in a world containing a million or two scientists it's not all that difficult to find some to agree with any proposition you care to make.
DeleteSo what exactly are the qualifications of these "seven scientists" and what is their claim to being able to audit the JCU work ? And that bit about "found them ALL to be 100% wrong": it takes considerable effort to be "100% wrong", ie not one single small fact to be correct but every tiny bit of them "wrong".
And yes, then there's the bit about the "Ex-judge to investigate". Investigate what ? What did the seven scientists finding the JCU work to be "100% wrong" leave to be investigated ? On the paywalled Times Higher Ed page it says: "Australian university scrutinises former student’s research record, as whistleblowers refute ocean acidification theory".
So which "Australian university" is that ? Which "former student" ? Which "whistleblowers" ? And as for "the Times Higher Education" magazine, Wikipedia has this to say: "It is published by TES Global, which until October 2005 was a division of Rupert Murdoch's News International." Hmm - doesn't say what TES Global is now though, but Wikipedia indicates that TES is now owned by a mob named Providence Equity Partners, whoever the heck they are.
But the main thing, as I recall, wasn't that Ridd criticised the science but that he did it in a less than collegiate way, making it into a personal conflict between him and his colleagues and JCU; and it's that unseemly behaviour that JCU sacked him for - and after some number of warnings, I do believe. My recall is that specifically some of his colleagues - responsible for much of the JCU work - were fine with the science being questioned and they believe that they answered the critiques adequately, but were not impressed by the personal animosity displayed.
So I really have difficulty with that "100% wrong" claim, and with the idea that an ex-judge could sort any of it out.
But presumably we shall see.
If interested, you can get some commentary on the 'French Model' here:
DeleteDan Tehan wants a ‘model code’ on free speech at universities – what is it and do unis need it?
https://theconversation.com/dan-tehan-wants-a-model-code-on-free-speech-at-universities-what-is-it-and-do-unis-need-it-119163
I don't think the 'French Code' is quite what Ridd and his claque think it is.
Sorry all, and Chadster ... thanks to our Henry, you will need to reload, rinse, spin and do the whole cycle all over again … and make sure the washing machine is well maintained, because there's going to be endless sudsing until past Xmas ...
Deleteand thanks to you, Dorothy, for, again, trundling through the Henry's maunderings, so saving the rest of us that particular drudgery.
DeleteI do draw some entertainment from seeing this minister Tehan setting out on one course to restructure universities as the steadily declining readership of Limited News would like to have them (but careful what you wish for, declining readers!) while being nudged by such mighty intellects as the Henry, and Gideon to, somehow, impose a fuzzy, rambling, statement of, er, 'freedom', on those same universities.
It is mildly entertaining, but a diversion at best, because it is difficult to find an example of this Tehan actually accomplishing anything in his political career. He seems to be fitting the model of the Pyne and Birmingham - doomed to be nominated to appear on TV to spout the party line, no matter what the question is.
Chadwick
No rest for the wicked, eh, DP ? I must admit that it is very tempting to leave it all to UCh (Uncharitable Chadwick), and really, after what he's said above what more can be said about Teensy Tehan ? Other than that maybe he's a very fine example of auto-Tinkerbell effect: he only exists because of his own belief in himself.
DeleteAh, but "the Henry" - indeed there is a mighty intellect, so mighty that it addles itself as well as bamboozling us. But then, if we didn't want to rise to such challenges, why would we be reading loonpond anyway ?