Why the bromancer on a Sunday for a convention now long gone?
Well it's the pond's dismal duty to follow the bromancer, and his sometimes furtive love for the Donald - person, woman, man, camera, TV - and to chart the way the bromancer's hopes and fears follows a predictable formula.
The bromancer is a cunning dialectical debater. He's most comfortable attacking Joe and the convention and so on and so forth, but at some point, as a cunning deflection and smokescreen, he will take issue with the odd Donald eccentricity, before reverting to the implications of his main theme - why not another four years of grifting, narcissism, snake oil-selling and conspiracies of the QAnon kind? Deep down, what's wrong with that, up against cotton candy, schmaltzy Dems?
This is of course essential preliminary reading for the real treat - the way that the bromancer deals with the Donald and his acceptance speech, coming from the White House to you sometime around 27th August ...
It will, for example, be interesting to see the bromancer celebrating the many Donald policy triumphs, and future policies, already announced in such an abundance that it's impossible to deal with all the paperwork (Sunday irony) ...
Yes, read that and marvel. The Knights are not a political or campaigning organisation, but they just happen to campaign for the control of women's bodies ...
Only a tyke of the bromancer kind could come out with this sort of guff (and incidental Catholic paranoia) ... but what an excellent way to maintain the culture wars and avoid other policy issues ...
And now to another serve, showing the way that the bromancer manages to have his Donald cake and keep the weight off ...
You see, it's legitimate to criticise Trump, robustly and harshly, except it's grotesque to criticise the Donald for all those deaths, and besides there's that completely useless travel ban, and anyway while the Donald is at his irrational worst, but he's also completely right, because Europe's hopeless ...
It's a sublime skill, which suggests that somewhere in the distant past a whiff of the Jesuits hovered close to the bromancer ...
Sure you might complain that Trump has been vulgar, crude and offensive, but sheesh, you must suck it up, and turn the other cheek ... if you want to maintain pristine decency and sublime bromancer stupidity.
Sadly from where the pond siets, if you're a dumb fuck or a crook, the pond reserves the right to call you a dumb fuck or a crook...
It's the classic, ancient argument - you must fight with one hand tied behind your back if you're going to play fair. Someone might start sounding off about libtards, but respond in kind, and you're being seriously rude.
But if you're a grifter journalist scribbling a covert message of love for the Donald, sorry, you're just a grifter, and if Mike Pence is your idea of how to behave, why not head off and drown yourself in a bowl of milk? You don't get to allow the Donald off the hook by pointing at a man clutching at Mother ...
The most cunning aspect of the bromancer's scribbling is the way that he pretends he's doing rational, coherent analysis ...
What he really wants to do, is confuse, conflate, subvert, and make the standard sort of Donald cry - that the Democrats have moved a very long way to the left, conveniently overlooking the way that the Donald has moved dangerously close to the authoritarian dictator mindset - such as the poison-dispensing Vlad the impaler ...
And there you have it - "brain-rotting cotton candy" - as if the Donald himself doesn't love junk food, and as if there's anything more to add, except perhaps person, woman, man, camera, TV, maybe with a dash of covfefe ...
But now duty has been done, and it will be magical to compare and contrast the bromancer feasting on Donald's burgers and chicken wings ... and the pond will be standing by to report on the bromancer's many insights into the bright path the Donald will offer the United Ssshtates ...
And so to prattling Polonius, and sure enough, as might be expected, Polonius sniffed the catnip of Joel and was whisked back to his glory days of the 1950s, when he was alive in a transubstantiation sort of way ... and lordy was that catnip more powerful than putting the boot into Emma and the ABC ...
Of course there are many other things people might be reading something more useful - say Katharine Murphy's Labor would have to be politically insane to follow Fitzgibbon's fossil fuel folly ....
It is not helpful to coal workers in the Hunter to pretend that a transition isn’t happening and doesn’t need to happen.
Well yes, but Polonius is your nuanced sort of climate science denialist, and naturally Joel took him back to the 1950s, no matter what might be happening now ...
Please allow the pond to admire the cunning way that Polonius takes up Joel's offer to talk about the inner city elites - he speaks with experience, as an inner city 'leet, and he blathers about progressives in style, but never bothers to get tangled up with the actual science ...
The funny thing of course is that others are noticing things happening in the world, and it has nothing to do with being progressive or whatever ... it just involves some observation ...
At least 140 Western weather stations notched record highs in the past 10 days as a thermometer in California’s Death Valley hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit, one of the highest temperatures measured on Earth. Eighty million U.S. residents are under excessive heat advisories. More than 35 wildfires are raging in California, burning 125,000 acres in the San Francisco Bay area alone, threatening 25,000 businesses and homes this week. Parts of the country are suffering drought conditions. And in the Atlantic Ocean, a marine heat wave is fueling what is becoming an unusually active storm season.
Scientists say there is no doubt that climate change is driving the extreme weather, increasing the threats to property and life.
Scientists say there is no doubt that climate change is driving the extreme weather, increasing the threats to property and life.
“Yeah, it’s summer, and summer is hot, but this is different,” the National Weather Service tweeted. “These are dangerous conditions.” (and so on at WaPo).
But Polonius doesn't want to deal with the present, or Greenland, or melting or warming, or any of that other nonsense that makes him feel uncomfortable and out of his depth. For his mischief-making, he wants to fellow travel with Joel, blather about inner city 'leets, foment class warfare, and produce other distractions...
Above all Polonius loves to meander back in time, as if somehow the way to deal with the new millennium is to romp with Billy Hughes or maybe Lyons, or his special love, the 1950s, but sssh, don't mention how the tykes made mischief ...
Sometimes it's necessary to include an antidote to this sort of mischief-making and Murphy is as good as any ...
... While Fitzgibbon absolutely has a point about the necessity of meaningful rapprochement with workers, it would be seriously stupid for Labor to back off on climate action, given what the science says. Given this political party has spent a decade lining up on the right side of history (unlike the other major political party in Australia), it would also be politically insane. Deferring concrete action to deal with the “great moral challenge of our time” precipitated the collapse of Kevin Rudd’s prime ministership. Even if the science was somehow negotiable, the politics of any substantial pivot are diabolical for Labor.
It is not helpful to Fitzgibbon’s coal workers in the Hunter to pretend that a transition isn’t happening and doesn’t need to happen, and it is not helpful to Australia’s interests to leave our prosperity tied so substantially to fossil fuels when Australia has an opportunity to become a renewable energy powerhouse. If you care about blue-collar workers, you need to care about making this transition. Making this transition is about showing up for workers.
Climate change is an economic issue, not a matter of religious observance, or inner city high fashion. All the ridiculous language of “belief” and “scepticism” – as if climate science was astrology, or a cult, or a wellness guru – has been entirely unhelpful to progress. Labor is fully capable of putting workers at the centre of a plan for economic transformation which will see carbon-intensive industries scale back and other more sustainable industries prosper in a low carbon world. That’s how Bob Hawke would have framed climate and energy policy in the 2020s, and Hawke presided over one of the most successful Labor governments in the party’s history.
So to cut a long story short, the only way Labor will fracture on this issue is if competing forces within the political movement point blank refuse to find the obvious common ground. It will be a matter of choice, not necessity.
Well yes, and it's already happening, as noted in the AFR recently, right at Joel's back door ...
And so on, and that's the way it goes for those who think climate science is just some inner city hippy religion ...
And so to the pond's worst duty of the day.
The pond will understand anyone who decides to skip it, but a promise is a promise, and a bout of nattering "Ned" is just the sort of event a triathelete would like as a way of finishing of their Sunday triathlon ... you've done the bromancer swim in murky waters, you've spun the wheels with Polonius, now on with the 30k sweat with "Ned" ...
It will, of course, be clear from the header that "Ned" is full in hagiographic mode. You see, that alarming bit about the wine export market went largely unnoted by the reptiles - suggesting that the war on China might not be going that well - but "Ned" was feeling in full "mouse that roared" mode ...
Say what? Hagiography with SloMo means doubting the infinite wisdom of the Donald? Hmm, that subtle distinction must have escaped dictator Xi ... and even worse it hints that the Donald loves a bit of wrecking ...
The pond doesn't know why it bothered with a cartoon - the reptiles blessed "Ned" with a bit of graphic art, and even though it's not classic cult master, it'll have to do (has anyone seen the cult master of late? Not that the pond has looked much, or much cares) ...
The Donald isn't known for his nuance (nor is Xi for that matter), and right now the Donald has other things on mind, but if the bromancer succeeds in helping get Joe defeated and the Donald returned, things might turn a little ugly ...
Oh okay, the pond has only put in vaguely irrelevant cartoons the way they put drink stations in place for mugs game enough to run a marathon ...or these days game enough to go to the movies and load up on popcorn and high fructose corn syrup, as a Donald-approved vaccination against the virus ...
Back to the movie ...
Well it doesn't have much to do with "Ned" but the pond is told that at a certain point, anyone doing a marathon will hit the wall, and experience an overwhelming sense of fatigue, together with a desire just to sit down and do nothing ...
The temptation must be resisted if you want to get to the end, and (spoiler alert) what sounds like a remarkable notion that the mouse has roared and been heard ...
And now back to the trudge, and the pond feeling close to exhaustion, what with all these messages being sent, and "Ned" as some kind of Delphic oracle, intoning away for what seems like hours, as he inspects the entrails, and penetrates the deepest recesses of SloMo's enormously skilled diplomatic thinking ...
And so to the good news, there is only one brief gobbet to go, and because the pond is keen to get to the end, it had thought of giving up the cartoons ...
But there's such a splendid punchline coming, the only reason for suffering the whole tedious thing, that pond thought it might help "Ned" with his punchline ...
Surely that will help "Ned", surely that will set up the punchline for him ...
Say what? We're no longer the deputy sheriff? We no longer do things at the behest of the US? When did that happen? Why didn't anyone tell the pond or the bromancer? The bromancer loves the Donald so ... and yet it seems we've done a Dirty Harry and tossed the badge in the pond, and abandoned the Donald and those wretched Americans, and all the pond could think of was that old song ...
Mama, take this useless deputy sheriff badge off of me
I can't use it anymore
It's gettin' Xi dark, too dark to Donald see
I feel I'm knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Mama, put my useless deputy sheriff guns in the ground
I can't shoot them anymore
That long black Xi cloud is comin' down
I feel there's no bloody point knockin' on Donald's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door
Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door with "Ned" ...
And so to a final cartoon as the pond anxiously waits for the bromancer's report on the Donald's glorious moment next week. Yo semite, bromancer, and yo Rowe here ...
The Bromancer isn't having a really good time at the moment is he. Dire thoughts of Biden-Harris presidencies perhaps ? So we get this: "That a candidate can manage to read a 25-minute speech and get the intonations right is a good thing, but surely the lowest possible bar for a presidential candidate to jump."
ReplyDeleteAnd is it perhaps that Trump being lower than the lowest possible presidential candidate is the reason why he can't jump over the bar, but Biden can ? But then, what bars has Trump ever got over ? Oh yes, pussy grabbing and bankruptcies - he gets over them just fine.
The Bro, like just about all the reptiles so far, does love to say this though: "the polls are tightening". Yes but it's when Trump goes ahead that his problems start, being just a few points ahead in the polls is where Hillary lost from, so Trump beware !
As to Polonius, well he would like to tell us that "Fitzgibbon also had a message about Labor's equivocation over the proposed Adani mine...". And is that message that "the divisive Adani Carmichael coal mine could be on the brink of collapse before it even begins operation." as Jack Derwin informs us in the pages of the Financial Review ?
https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/the-adani-coal-mine-could-be-about-to-collapse-before-it-even-begins-20190726-p52ay4
And is it perhaps, as Uni of Sydney Professor Sandra van der Laan has pronounced: "a corporate collapse waiting to happen." as she told the ABC:
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-24/adani-carmichael-subsidiary-surviving-on-lifeline-from-parent/11338926?section=business
Surely not, or why would a smart feller like Joel Fitzgibbon be in favour of it ?
Lastly we get to Nullius Ned and his assurance that the Laurenceson&Collinson paper 'Australian Policy on the PRC: Is it Independent of the US?' assures us all that: "Australia's stance overall is best described as "pro-Australia"." That really is reassuring to know, especially as it looks like after barley, beef and wine comes milk powder. Now lots of locally resident persons of Chinese ethnicity make good money from emptying the supermarket shelves of milk powder and then sending it to China to be sold at a profit. It would really be sad to see that come to an end, wouldn't it.
Ned cannot seriously argue that Australia is anything other than a vassal of the US.
DeleteEven when a policy position might be reasonable in itself it is guaranteed to be delivered in a way that will be seen as a calculated insult. This could be in part due to the stupidity of politicians but it also follows automatically from the role of lickspital.
https://johnmenadue.com/australias-daft-foreign-policy/
"Since WWII, Australian policymakers have been so blinded by the need to retain their new step-parent’s interest, that they have been repeatedly prepared to sacrifice Australia’s other interests to the preservation of this one dangerous liaison. Australians cannot blame the USA if consequently, to help preserve its global economic dominance, it is prepared to fight China to the last dollar in Australia’s treasury"
Well I dunno mate, I always thought Australia had taken up with the USA in order to save itself from the Japanese (back when we still thought a Japanese invasion was going to happen). And Britain via Singapore and the Repulse+Prince of Wales showed just how pitiful the British were.
DeleteAnd of course "Britain looked on the colony through the indulgent eyes of a parent" right up to when it joined the European Communities in 1973 and simply told Australia to fvck off and look after itself.
And as to British indulgence over time, try the British view of Australia in the Great Depression:
"Scullin invited Sir Otto Niemeyer of the Bank of England to come to Australia to advise on economic policy. Niemeyer recommended a traditional deflationary response of balanced budgets to combat Australia's high levels of debt and insisted that interest on loans be met."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premiers%27_Plan
Yep, Australia did take up with the US because of the Japanese threat nearly 80 years ago and nothing much has changed in the intervening period.
DeleteHow many dumb military follies have we followed the yanks into since then? What have lost and what have we gained?
It's difficult to untangle yourself from a relationship with a superpower but it must be time to pull back a bit (probably end in a coup).
I immediately thought of the Repulse and Prince of Wales when the UK decided to get involved in freedom of navigation exercises in the South China Sea - a long bow I know but it highlights the same sort of mindset.
Oh well, the land of the all volunteer ANZACS can tolerate a miltary action or three. We don't lose all that many do we.
DeleteThe real question is: do we still need the USA to "protect" us from nuclear weapons ? Not that I think Russia is going to nuke us, and even China probably thinks we're way too small beer - especially as, apparently, the Chinese have significantly fewer nuke warheads than either Russia or the USA.
But now we have Pakistan, India, Israel and who knows who else with nukes. Except Iran - Iran doesn't have nukes. Would any of them nuke Australia ? And would the USA retaliate if they did ?
Of course, Repulse plus Prince of Wales was just one more in a long line of Churchill idiocies. No wonder the Poms could happily elect Johnson; they have a tradition of electing imbeciles*. Except that as soon as WWII was over, the Poms couldn't wait to dump Churchill in favour of Attlee. Though they fell for him again about 6 years later.
* in order morons are smarter than imbeciles are smarter than idiots.
Dorothy - while we might imagine you chanting 'get the weekend worst out of the way first' (it does have a certain cadence) we trust that that does not harm your general well being. Certainly this reader appreciates your effort, and the cartoons.
ReplyDeleteGB - back in June you remarked on Sir Edwin Chadwick’s apparent place in history.
The most recent (subscriber) edition of ‘National Geographic’ (August 2020) includes a history of pandemics, giving Edwin Chadwick (that good ole American aversion to titles), Robert Koch and Howard Florey particular mention for major advances in response to assorted pandemics.
Oh - they also mention Cotton Mather - I guess they had to have someone who contributed to making America great.
My remark was based on Chadwick's wikipedia entry, Chad, to the effect that: "he was most active between 1832 and 1854; after that he held minor positions, and his views were largely ignored."
DeleteBut then, it's not all that unusual to be both revered and ignored. Especially if one has pioneered "the use of scientific surveys to identify all phases of a complex social problem, and pioneered the use of systematic long-term inspection programmes to make sure the reforms operated as planned."
I'm sure it's the bit about making sure the reforms operated as planned that got him "ignored".
But anyway, a worthy trio Chad. Though one must truly find the devil in order to make greatness, so Mather is the standout.
A great meditative Sunday post DP.
ReplyDeleteOuch! This did make me laugh.....”drown yourself in a bowl of milk!”
You do have ways of making the point...
“But if you're a grifter journalist scribbling a covert message of love for the Donald, sorry, you're just a grifter, and if Mike Pence is your idea of how to behave, why not head off and drown yourself in a bowl of milk? You don't get to allow the Donald off the hook by pointing at a man clutching at Mother ...”
My day was confined to catching up on the last few days of the Pond, thankfully interspersed with a few video catchups with friends, family and grandson, which helped sooth the pain of the reflux inducing reptilian alternative reality.
Everyone seemed to have their own way of dealing with Victoria’s lockdown but our almost 5 month old grandson seemed to have the response down pat, having worked out how to Graaah! like a lion....and spent 30 minutes non stop deep graaahing at the world, and it made for fun relief from some very strange missives from the usual suspects. (Gracie excluded......again)
I can’t wait for the reptile analysis of the GOP Convention of contagion and confusion.
Like your good self DP, GB also pointed out some of the more bizarre efforts, but I find the tone is cranking up to a point where I think the reptile minds are hard to deal with.
Whether its the profound Donald love-ins or flying in the face of sciences, and all that follows as a natural consequence, I’m at times lost for words.
Whether its near 2,000 year old Redwood forests ablaze or ice melting at a staggering rate or phenomenal flooding and piggybacking hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, the reptile mindset just refuses to budge.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/aug/23/earth-lost-28-trillion-tonnes-ice-30-years-global-warming?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
https://www.livescience.com/two-hurricanes-gulf-of-mexico.html
Fortunately, Chadwick teased us with his reference to Cotton Mather and those who made America great.....and hence I was referred to Spectral Evidence.
“It's a sublime skill, which suggests that somewhere in the distant past a whiff of the Jesuits hovered close to the bromancer”..........et al.
That political and religious Puritanism, supposedly from a distant time in history, has in modern times found its natural home in Murdoch’s la la land, probably explains why he is so heavily involved in bible publishing.
“About HarperCollins Christian Publishing: As the world's leading Christian publisher, HarperCollins Christian Publishing Inc., comprises the Thomas Nelson and Zondervan publishing groups, Olive Tree Bible Software, BibleGateway.com, FaithGateway.com and ChurchSource.com. The company produces bestselling Bibles, inspirational books, academic resources, curriculum, audio and digital content for the Christian market space.”
“Rev. Cotton Mather argued that it was appropriate to admit spectral evidence into legal proceedings, but cautioned that convictions should not be based on spectral evidence alone as it was possible for the Devil to take the shape of an innocent person.”
Who knew spectral devils resided in Holt St....even if they themselves appear oblivious to the fact. Such is the world of dreams and visions and FUD.......and the occasional defamation action.
And since you teased me with it Dorothy, arguably the best version of Knockin’ on Heavens Door, as he was literally knocking on it..............and probably more relatable to where the reptiles will find themselves if they maintain their current state of mental atrophy.
https://youtu.be/7ZHmmW-75to
A fairly moving rendition of 'Heavan's Door' indeed but then youtube served up Warren's version of 'All along the watchtower' which sadly doesn't match up to the Jimi Hendrix version:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY
or maybe this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UHHc7POovg
But if you want a comment on Holt Street, try this:
“They Lie All the Time”: An Interview With the News Corp Lie-In’s Brad Pedersen
https://www.sydneycriminallawyers.com.au/blog/they-lie-all-the-time-an-interview-with-the-news-corp-lie-ins-brad-pedersen/
On “they lie all the time”.......how did I miss that one. Love it. I occasionally drop in on Sydneycriminallawyers site and so pleased you shared it. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteI can honestly say I have never seen Zevon’s version of AATW and not that good to be honest, although I liked seeing the old shot of Warren and Jackson Browne with John Belushi. What a tragic loss and wasted life and talent.
Playing for Change version is great. All their versions have amazing editing that makes for great viewing and listening. Not sure if you’ve been watching ABC’s Vanity Fair, but it has an interesting cover of AATW as its opening theme music. Cheers, CA.
https://youtu.be/YfZjPXlNJ-E
Very ballady, CA, almost a serenade. Very listenable. First time I've ever heard Afterhere.
DeleteI'll have to try to remember to look up when Vanity Fair is on and listen.