At last a distraction in these troubled times, as Robins duel ...

Thank the long absent lord that the savvy Savva was honoured this day by a visit from the cult master, and was intent merely on delivering a little political infighting, a distraction from these wretched times …with a couple of Robins ready to step up to the role of Batman, which, it should be noted, has routinely attracted the worst in Hollywood and Australia … (the pond often plays the parlour game of naming the worst Batman (mention of Lewis Wilson as the wartime caped crusader results in immediate disqualification. There has to be limits).

No, really ...

Wait, did she just set up Jim to become the drover's dog? Never mind, it seems Jim lad is acceptable enough - no fuss by him about a few honest mistakes, screwing workers being just an honest day's work with the occasional honest stumble - but Josh seems to have impeccable parentage … what with being blessed by Lord Downer, stunning triumphant warrior in Iraq and deputy sheriff Johnny Howard, always ready to stop a boat full of diseased, disgusting aliens …

Why, all he'd need to top that is to be have Ming the Merciless in his genes, and call for a referendum banning greenies … because, let's face it, they're no better than pinko commie preverts, and we know what Ming thought of them …

But at least it gives the pond a chance to drop a Rowe into the conversation, with more Rowe at the AFR here for a change…

Now back to the competing Robins ...

As usual, the pond always finds something to distract in a reptile missive, and this time it was that line "Frydenber called Donald Trump a drop kick … doubtless someone has since explained rhyming slang to Trump."

But a drop kick is, in the only game the pond knows, thanks to its noble Tamworth lineage, a kick where you drop the ball on the ground, and then kick it. It's only in the world of Australian Rules that a drop kick would turn into, and be called, a drop punt, and with the rhyming consequences aforementioned. But nobody does drop kicks in the pure sense in Australian Rules or gridiron these days (or so the wiki here says).

As a result,  it's a fair bet that not just the Donald would be confused by the rhyming slang, and the arcane ways of Victorians … incapable of doing a drop kick or growing men with no necks ... and the pond is not entirely convinced that pious Josh used the phrase with this double edged entendre as its purpose …

Never mind, the pond getting distracted is always a sign it's time to wrap things up and the savvy Savva obliges ...

Ah good old Ronnie Raygun.

Here for the footnotes and links … and with a bit of luck, Josh can emulate his heroes, fuck the poor, make the rich richer, piss money against the wall on delusional star wars projects, and never talk of a balanced budget again while handing out those tax cuts to the rich …oh and work hard to make government more incompetent than it currently is in Britain and the United States, an ambition which is grand, but it remains within his grasp to at least try …

At least it gives the pond a chance to fall from the sky with an infallible Pope …

After that happy outing, the pond felt like a little reptile stodge, and does the porridge get more like gruel than when reading the lizard Oz editorialist …

The pond really thought that the header should be "plunge in Murdochian reptile media outlets standards drives distrust in the media", but perhaps that was a little too close to home, and instead the reptiles embarked on a litany of the standard kind ...

Remarkable really, but typical of the lowered, deplorable standards of the Murdochians … here's the real scandal that's been going down these last few days …

It's shocking and shameful and it makes the pond pleased that long ago it turned down a position as a tutor as the first step in embarking on an academic career. 

Yet you'll notice that, if you google, you're more likely to get a Honi Soit story than reptile coverage … but take it from the pond, freedom of expression or freedom to do climate science denialist bullshit in Queensland doesn't count as much as being able to put money in pocket and food on shelf, especially as the University of Sydney VC hauls down around $1.5 million dollars a year, and swans around in a company car while planning the next real estate development that'll destroy another inner west suburb...

And yet all the reptiles have got to offer is the craven Craven boasting about freedom of expression, when the pond can drag up assorted scandals related to the ACU, somehow given a free pass by the Catholic Boys' Daily in its litany ...

Always with Ridd, and then in the next breath, the reptiles dare to talk about scientific breakthroughs, apparently on the basis that climate science denialism is something of a breakthrough …

And so to the final outing for the day, and the pond regrets it won't be the bromancer, for reasons that will become obvious ...

It was the bromancer at his most feral and contemptible, a hit job on Andrews at a time of crisis, with all the blame lumped on him for Victoria's current plight.

The bromancer didn't stop there. He also ravaged New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Scotland's Niciola Sturgeon. He talked of Andrews fitting the Cuomo/Sturegon paradigm of the woke, earnest, ideologically perfect left liberal leader who cannot make the trains run, much less run on time, but who gains the plaudits of the dominant PC parts of the media. He accused Andrews of more or less abolishing democracy in Victoria… 

Presumably the bromancer would prefer a tinpot Mussolini, getting the trains going ...

And so on and on. The pond could have worn it if there'd been the slightest attempt at balance, given that the virus isn't ideological and doesn't give a flying fuck about political parties, or political positions …

But guess who was missing from the tirade? Not one word about the Donald, not one word about Boris, not one word about how others have handled and mishandled the virus …

It would have been easy … especially given the Donald's work these last few days …

The bromancer delivered an ideological hit job, flailing about with his hatchet like Jimmy Governor in his prime. And the pond thought, does it really need to recirculate this ideological bullshit in these troubled times? Must it always be a pedlar of reptile shit? Shouldn't the pond sometimes reflect on the way it's an enabler and a panderer, a kind of Ghislaine to the pornographic Eptsein bromancer?

Would it really help Victorians in the grip of a pandemic, this undermining of trust in government, when really everybody should be pulling together?

If you're going to go the hatchet, at least mention the Donald, at least deal with Boris, who in spectacular fashion managed to catch it himself …

But then the standards in News Corp publications are so low that the pond felt that reading the bromancer was like crawling in the gutter with cockroaches … and so it turned instead to a bit of decent paranoia ...

It seems that in attempting to weaken government in Australia, the bromancer was being a useful fool, or perhaps a useless tool, for the perfidious, devious Ruskis and Xi ...

Now being a paranoid in full possession of the facts, the pond loves a little fear-mongering in the morning … though it also couldn't help but marvel at the way that history twists and turns …

No matter, it's just a couple of quick gobbets, and a chance to muse on the ironies of history ...

Indeed, indeed, and when they bombed the shit out of Vietnam and Cambodia, how much easier was it for the state's jackboot to enforce the new normal … except they didn't in the end, just as they didn't in Iraq, and just as the Soviets didn't in eastern Europe or in Afghanistan, though the Americas are still trying, and sorry, where were we?

Wasn't the pond speaking of the bromancer and his attempt to demoralise opponents from within by using the plague as a cheap and easy way to bludgeon comrade Dan, while sparing others from his righteous wrath?

Never mind, just a gobbet to go, though it did occur at this point that given the Murdochians, the Donald, Boris, and all the other clowns doing the rounds, did the Ruskis and Xi really have much work to do at all?

Say what? Why good old Jason is spreading disinformation himself, in a style that Putin would love …

Now others will pick tout sundry bits of Jason nonsense - there could be a Bourne trilogy in it - but the pond will settle on just one item.

The Mueller investigation found nothing? FBI analysis's said there was nothing?

Did this Jason just buy into the whole Ruski line?

As it just so happens the pond happened to be reading in an old New Yorker Jeffrey Toobin's summary of the saga, still outside the paywall here … with this, spoiler alert, the last few pars ...

...On April 18th, Barr announced at a news conference that he was releasing the Mueller report. What the Attorney General said next received little attention, because journalists immediately began diving into the report and revealing its contents. (Rosenstein’s frozen stare, while he was standing behind Barr, drew more notice.) “It is important to bear in mind the context,” Barr said. “President Trump faced an unprecedented situation. As he entered into office, and sought to perform his responsibilities as President, federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office, and the conduct of some of his associates. At the same time, there was relentless speculation in the news media about the President’s personal culpability.” Barr went on, “There is substantial evidence to show that the President was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his Presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks.” Finally, Barr said, “The President took no act that in fact deprived the special counsel of the documents and witnesses necessary to complete his investigation. Apart from whether the acts were obstructive, this evidence of non-corrupt motives weighs heavily against any allegation that the President had a corrupt intent to obstruct the investigation.”
Barr neglected to mention, in these fawning remarks, that the Mueller investigation had taken place because the Russian government had engaged in a systematic attempt to help Trump win the election—an attempt that the candidate and his staff encouraged. It was true that Trump believed the investigation was undermining him, but self-pity does not represent a defense of his efforts to interfere with the investigation. And the only reason that Trump took “no act” to interfere with the investigation was that his subordinates, including Don McGahn and Corey Lewandowski, refused to follow his directives to do so.
Barr continued to diminish Mueller’s report and to dilute its impact. Trump finally had an Attorney General who put the President’s personal and political well-being ahead of the national interest, the traditions of the Justice Department, and the rule of law. But Barr was able to dismantle the Mueller report only because the special counsel and his staff had made it easy for him to do so. Robert Mueller forfeited the opportunity to speak clearly and directly about Trump’s crimes, and Barr filled the silence with his high-volume exoneration. Mueller’s investigation was no witch hunt; his report was, ultimately, a surrender.

Please allow the pond to repeat those few lines enlarged upon elsewhere in the piece …

Barr neglected to mention, in these fawning remarks, that the Mueller investigation had taken place because the Russian government had engaged in a systematic attempt to help Trump win the election—an attempt that the candidate and his staff encouraged. 

Well yes, the Muelller investigation found many things - read it and Toobin's report. The FBI did find many things … ditto.

The pond can only conclude that Jason Thomas is a Donald stooge, or perhaps a Ruski stooge, intent on spreading disinformation, in much the same way that the bromancer seems to think that only those of a certain ideological bent know how to deal with the virus, when on the Donald and Boris evidence, that's simply not true … just more reptile disinformation and useful fool scribbling …

Never mind, on with the virus and on with the election, and by golly, the pond is taking bets that once again Jason's valiant work for Vlad and Xi will be the real winner …