On the seemliness of gloating ...

The pond is off to see the dentist early this morning, with the result likely to see the pond bruised, battered and full of self-pity … and yet, somehow, it feels like a strangely pleasurable thing to do, with improvements coming from it, and less like an SM session with the reptiles without a safe word …

Anyhow, the pond decided it would take pre-emptive action and provide a little filler for those wanting to drop a comment. 

The pond realised some time ago that the point of the blog has now shifted. It's no longer to read the reptiles, who jade senses and mind with dull, moronic repetition, it's for passersby to chat about music, share a link or three, and muse about the world, and if they must, note the latest moronic reptile outburst presented by the pond for dubious pleasure, and absolutely no insight …

And while the pond is on this theme, it recently began to meditate on the seemliness of gloating, inspired by a recent story in Crikey ...

It's a couple of days old, so the pond hopes that Crikey doesn't mind. 

The pond usually doesn't like to intrude behind the paywall, but when it concerns the reptiles, there has to be a little room to movie, if only to enjoy the suffering of the reptiles, in much the same way the pond was once taught to enjoy the writhings of St Sebastian, pinned to a post or tree and shot with arrows. If the marketplace is a metaphorical stand-in for cruel arrows, who is the pond to complain?

And that's where the pond could hear the odd passerby wondering if it was cruel to gloat at the fate of those sacked, retrenched, sent elsewhere, especially during a pandemic. 

But the way that the pond looks at it, if you've been downsized from employment with Genghis Khan, you might go on to lead a useful, productive and honourable role in other areas of society (just look at the refugees who fled to wear cardigans at the ABC - the pond hopes its ABC-based reader is looking at the site out of hours and not gloating too much). If you're currently a practitioner of Scientology, it's possible to dream of a life without Xenu, and if you're a reptile, there's life after Chairman Rupert, with a chance to do something for the world ...

More cuts up its sleeve? Please pardon the pond, it has to put on its dancing shoes … just in case there's a chance to dance on News Corp's grave ...

And here's the reason why the pond sees some seemliness in the gloating. This was a reptile item yesterday, but the pond saved it up, as an example of the way the reptiles have become an outpost of Gina's mob, the IPA …

Not only is Dame Slap the chairman, in a manly way, but every so often one of the lesser minions feels the need to promote Gina's assorted causes ...

Oh fucketty fuck, the only one giving a toss about identity politics at the moment are the IPA and the reptiles … or those that thinking killing black people while they're in custody is a tad suspect ...

You know, apart from noting that Bella's own job description is risible - rabbiting on about western civilisation, - please pardon the pond if it travels back to the politically incorrect and indefensible times long ago in Tamworth, where talk of the value of identity, diversity and inclusion would have been met with a blank stare.

And yet if Bella had been around in those long lost and largely forgotten days, she would have been dismissed out of hand as a wog. 

The name alone would have qualified her for the dismissal, at best with a chance for a supporting role in They're A Weird Mob (you know, they wouldn't even let a wog write that book, they had to pretend it was a wog).

Bella should be grateful that a little diversity and inclusion has come along, so that the bigots of Tamworth have to try to a little harder to hide their attitudes a little more (the pond's best friend, Greek, was always being called a wog, and when a burst of tears resulted, well what could you expect from a wog?)

Never mind, perhaps some might wonder on what basis Bella was selected by the IPA to pen drivel for the IPA ...

Well here's hoping that the IPA has no cultural and diversity plan, and so Bella might join others in the reptile empire in the retrenchments that will soon come … and then we won't have to listen to drivel about her being the director of the Foundations of Western Civilisation Program, whatever the fuck that might mean …

She even had the cheek to have a go at those who had a go at Cook, precursor to many diseases that took a heavy toll on Aboriginal people, and at the same time, comes out with astonishing shit along the lines of "the most draconian measures imposed on an Australian population since days of the penal colony."

The pond has a cat of nine tails on standby to give Bella a taste of draconian measures ...

It's a global pandemic you goose, and between stubborn attachment to identity politics and the nonsense about not wearing a mask, give the pond a mask-wearer any day of the week ...

And so to a couple of reptile editorials, always good as stocking fillers in times of stress, and by golly, did this one produce a hollow laugh, or what ...

Have the reptiles already forgotten that the Bolter solved this issue sometime ago?

Our second priority, after quarantining the sick, is protecting those most likely to die. We don’t crash this economy just to stop the young getting a stuffy nose.

Most people dying of this virus are over 80. More than two thirds dying in this Victorian wave are in aged-care homes.

But more bungling: the federal and Victorian governments let the virus get into more than 80 nursing homes.

Surely putting a tighter lock on those homes makes more sense than trying to stop all infections everywhere by shutting businesses.

Note: 40 per cent of aged-care home residents die within nine months. The average stay is just under three years.

So Victoria’s bans are doing huge damage to — essentially — save aged-care residents from dying a few months earlier.

After that little outburst, the Bolter tried a little strategic retreat, what with it being rabid frothing at the mouth, even for the Bolter ...

Yes, indeed, lock away the old dotards from all human contact, that'll fix things, at least until they have the decency to solve the problem by dying ...

Take it away reptile editorialist ...

It's a sound principle that a media organisation should be judged by the people that they hire and the nonsense that they scribble, especially when it affects the way the most vulnerable are treated …

And now, as the pond can't help it and might be gone a few days, why not another reptile editorial? If you're going to binge and gloat, go the full binging, gloating hog ...

Fucketty fuck, they're predictable. Concerns surround Mr Biden's acuity, but the reptiles haven't got a problem with Yo-Semite and Thigh-land? Or the way the Donald boasts he can complete a quiz by picking out a camel or an elephant, a test designed to pick up on early signs of dementia?

As for the rest, it's the standard GOP talking points, though, like the GOP, the reptile editorialist seems to be having a little trouble getting a fix on the party line, on how to demonise Harris, and thereby fulfil lickspittle quisling duty and appease Lachlan ...

Do they still think he's hiding in his basement? Isn't News Corp supposed to be a news organisation that keeps track of thing,s rather than recycle Donald's tweets?

Do they even read their own columnists?

But he's still in the basement according to the lizard editorialist.

And as for Biden and Harris spelling things out precisely, wouldn't it be simple enough to say, not fuck the country and the planet the way the GOP, the Murdochians, Fox News, and all the QAnon followers, white supremacists, and racists sheltering in the party have done, are doing and will continue to do?

Better still, how about the Donald and Pence - if he can be dragged away from mother - explaining how they'd be a better choice for the next four years?

It'll take a power of explaining ...

Never mind, if News Corp takes a pummelling and the Donald wins and keeps on fucking the United States, the pond will be able to keep on meditating in a bemused way, because the fall, when it comes, is going to come mighty hard, and Vlad and Xi will rule the planet, and then where will we all be? With the necessity, for the powerless, and the seemliness, of gloating ...

And so to a collection of cartoons about the IRA. Many of them run the same riff, but the pond has no further use for the collection, and thought it should cash them in, though probably you'd make more money on lemonade bottles … oh, and there's a bonus Donald too, though it seems like yesterday, when the pond's troubles were far away ...