The pond thought that the best comment by far - yes it has seen Fantastic Four, but no, the pond didn't watch.
When confronted by such challenges, the pond always sits down to watch that scene in Clockwork Orange where Malcolm McDowell's Alex has his eyes prised open. Yes, there are better ways to watch television than sit and watch the Donald and Joe go at it for an hour and a half ...
Inevitably however the reptiles were in attendance, especially the bromancer, who went, as is his nature, full Trumpian ... oh there was the usual hedging, and talk of rudeness and brashness, but the bromancer called it for the Donald ...
Of course the pond got some idea of what went on by watching Colbert, and a little of NBC News, and catching up on the measures to be taken for the next debate, if there is to be one ...
And that's going to be the pond strategy this day. Cartoon and gobbet of reptile mirth, showing cartoonists how feeble they are up against lizard Oz comedy stylings ... and so back to the bromancer ...
The bromancer is in the extreme minority? Whoever would have guessed? In the spirit of the Donald's nuanced, subtle debating style, the pond might even call him barking mad ... but the pond digresses, when there's comedy afoot ...
Now back to the bromancer, polishing the Trumpian turd in genuine reptile style ...
But what about the constant lying on view, mainly by the Donald, in his usual way, sending fact checkers into a kind of dementia?
Please, don't worry about any of that. It didn't trouble the bromancer, it's what he expects, it's what he likes ... because apparently, it was Fox News and Wallace that helped save Biden from a total shellacking ...
Say what? As legitimate a subject as Trump's taxes? What trouble with Trump's taxes? The pond has been assiduously reading the bromancer and the reptiles in general, and that's the first it's heard that there might be some trouble with the Donald's taxes. What on earth could he be talking about?
Oh right, the things of which the reptiles dare not speak ...
And so to other reptile reactions, and strangely, Cameron Stewart refused to go with the bromancer's Trump derangement syndrome ...
That header struck the pond as ominous. The bromancer had already advised the pond that the descent into chaos only helped one contender in the 2020 race, and that was the Donald. Surely Stewart wasn't going to refuse to drink the reptile kool-aid, surely he wasn't going to upset the lizard Oz apple cart ...
Oh that's not right, that's not right at all, the bromancer said so, and the pond is standing by, as instructed by the Donald and the bromancer, still anxious to get on side with Franco and win the civil war ...
But back to Stewart's strange report. Does he live on another planet to the bromancer, or does the bromancer live in his own little world?
 |
Well that's a nice picture of the finger-pointing Donald, but the pond prefers its own portrait ...
And so to the final gobbet of a very disappointing contribution ...
How disappointing is that? Why, both siderism is the sort of thing a Richard Nixon might embrace ...
And so to the final gobbet by the lizard Oz editorialist ...
Say what? It wasn't a game changer? Even the lizard Oz editorialist thinks the bromancer is delusional?
And what was that repeat mention of those mysterious taxes that the pond had heard nothing about? Has the lizard Oz editorialist gone mad, with the talk of the Donald only paying US$750? Why, the pond has been a devoted reader of the lizard Oz, and knew the real story ... the Donald was a huge success and a great businessman ...
In search of further insights, the pond even plunged into the comments section below the lizard Oz editorialist, and came up with a kool-aid swilling, Judeo-Xian beauty ...
Sorry, ignore that last comment, the pond doesn't know how it got to tag along, and in any case, the pond was only looking for a little Judeo-Xian filler, a little sea food extender, before it could cut to the infallible Pope for the day ...
And so to other business, and with deep regret the pond won't be travelling with the savvy Savva this day, thanks to pressure of space, and other matters ...
Actually living in the inner west and watching the mountains of the moon grow apace means the pond is very tired of the deifying of Gladys, especially as a stick with which to beat SloMo and comrade Dan, and as previously advised, the pond is so over all the reptile talk of comrade Dan ...
And besides, for some reason, the Caterist has popped up this day, and so he must serve as the bonus ...
What the pond likes is a man who can write about a movie when all he's seen is the trailer, which would be a bit like the pond talking at length of the Donald's performance, but that's the Caterist for you. A trailer is about as long, and as in depth, as he can get ...
Dammit, the Caterist is right. Let's introduce foot rot across the land, and while we're at it, why not a bit of Mad Cow disease, and if that doesn't satiate your taste for blood and chaos, let's run a little mad and kill all the koalas ... not slowly, over time, so their going is barely noticed, but all at once, in a mass slaughter, Caterist style, and by golly, what a good trailer it would make, perhaps with a special guest appearance of the dodo ...
... and an excerpt of an ancient Caterist text ... wherein the Caterist smote mightily all those useless Liverpool plains farmers trying to protect their land from coal mining ...
It turned out that these bloody pinko prevert Commie swine were bloody Trotskyites of the old school, and posed a dire threat to Caterism and Stalinism, and so they deserved a bloody good icepick to the back of the neck ...
And with that sorted, back to the present, and the Caterist sorting out farmers and that whole damn climate change thingie, even though thanks to the bromancer, the lizard Oz and the Donald, we know it's a fraud and a hoax, and for the life of the pond, it can't work out why anyone should be worried about greenhouse gas emissions ...
The pond began to feel incredibly nostalgic and reverted to Guy Rundle at Crikey in 2019 here, paywall affected, for some fond memories ...
As Friday arvo comes on, it’s time for the end-of-the-week news drop, something to be buried in the drinking season. But can anything top last week’s, when a $3.6 million judgment against Nein was announced, for its wholly false story accusing the Wagner farming family of lethal negligence in the Queensland floods?
Of course, mirabile dictu, turns out it wasn’t all against Nein. It was $2.4 million against them, and $1.2 million against Nick Cater, director of the Menzies Research Centre, former News Corp executive editor, and author of the now ironically titled The Lucky Culture. It’s a sizzler of a judgment: Cater was a talking head on the Nein show, and outside of the News Corp orbit, so financially unprotected by both presumably.
Going by our report on Tuesday, the judgment found that Cater actively disregarded the evidence of an eyewitness, which contradicted his false argument that poor flood prevention by the Wagners had created an “inland tsunami”. This news was the opposite of buried: it raced around inner-city pubs where media types gather. The general take was that Cater would now be offered the chance to move out of his salubrious accommodation in Kirribilli and out amongst the suburban culture he has so long celebrated in his writings, but has, for some reason, failed to shift to.
This is, of course, not the first judgment in favour of the Wagners for stories by or involving Cater. The Spectator Australia (circulation: 1800 copies, as evidenced in court) got hit for half a million, the Parrot and Macquarie for $3.6 million for shows on which Cater was a guest. Eight million bucks has gone to the Wagners, who will now be doing their farm fencing in gold leaf and diamond spikes. Could this rank as among the most wanton series of libels in Australian history?
How did Cater get it so wrong? The man has decades of media experience. First, years at the BBC before being shocked, shocked, to find that it was elitist, then at News Corp where he developed a born-again larrakin Aussie spirit… of faithfully towing the company line.
There’s a serious point among this malarkey. Cater was either duplicitous in his conduct, or he so wanted to believe that the Wagners were culpable that it entirely bent his mind out of shape. Why? Well, having a plain old cause of human malfeasance for a major flood removes the possibility that it might be a climate change-related weather event. That can’t be allowed, so human cause must be found.
And for more fun? Try Does climate science denialist Nick Cater know the difference between an ice sheet and sea ice
Perhaps the pond can help here by providing the original text discussed in that link, in three hearty chunks of Caterist gobbets ...
Ah memories, and the rotting carcass only five years old, but what was that about carbon capture and worrying about greenhouse emissions, even though the science is unsettled and deeply flawed, and only the Caterist knows how to work out the movement of flood waters in quarries? The pond should return to the present and finish it off ...
Indeed, indeed, dig the land up for coal, and all will be well, and much great farming will be done, and with that, the pond only needs an immortal Rowe to wrap up a truly splendid, albeit very lengthy day in reptile la la land, with more Rowe as always here ...
The Editorialist judges: "...the pair spun falsehoods as fast as each other..."
ReplyDeleteAnd when do we get a fact check on that one, or is The Editorialist just spinning them faster than either candidate. And no, the Wall Street Journal does not conduct fact checks ever, and definitely not on anything connected to Trump.
As an aside, Crikey's Guy Rundle produced this gem: "...of faithfully towing the company line." Now obviously the immediate response is to laugh at Rundle's grade-school ignorance: the correct statement is "toeing the line". As Wikipeda succinctly has it: "'Toe the line' is an idiomatic expression meaning either to conform to a rule or standard, or to stand poised at the starting line in a footrace. Other phrases which were once used in the early 1800s and have the same meaning were 'toe the mark' and 'toe the plank'."
But then, really, who "toes" the line or mark or plank nowadays ? Anybody ? So really, isn't it a more descriptive modern expression to consider that "the line" (or "mark" or "plank") has been lumped onto one's body - as an expression of deeply inescapable compulsion - and henceforth must be "towed" around until one can be fortuitously liberated. And boy oh boy, does Cater have a load to "tow".
So salutations, Guy, in retrospect, I think you're the one who has got it right.
Ah but the Cater is a true reptile joy, isn't he. So: "Carbon sequestered in soil would make a positive contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions for which farmers could be rewarded."
ReplyDeleteGoodness gracious, the Cater acknowledging not only the existence of "greenhouse gas emissions" but also the desirability of reducing them. Not the necessity of reducing them, mind, because that might require that the force of the law be applied to "farmers" instead of the usual tax-payer funded bribes.
Now what was that I said about reptiles and wingnuts ? Oh yes: "never admit you were wrong, just change what you're doing as though that was always how it was."
It's the general right-wing understanding of the world. "We know for certain that something is impossible, OK, it is happening but it will not work, we always knew that would work but this other thing you are talking about is impossible, OK, it is happening but..." and so on endlessly.
DeleteIt's more than just memory failure or lake of any insight, it's an abiding suspicion of anything new and the lack of a framework to understand likely changes.
I know Cater is just paid to support a point of view but the man really is as dumb as a plough in an attic so these sort of tasks are a natural fit for him.
I'm also reminded of the point about salespersons, Bef: that they totally believe everything they say for only as long as it takes to say it.
DeleteNow I don't call that memory 'failure' because, given the ongoing success of 'selling', it is just about the most successful brand of human 'memory' possible.
But I also grant your point about a series of 'non-concessional changes' in which every prior stance is simply 'forgotten' with each change. Well, it seems like they are changes to us, but to them it just goes to show that they were the ones who had it right from the beginning and they've never been proven to be wrong.
The Caterist demonstrating the depth of his reading to write his book on Australian culture, complete with sneakily purloined title.
Delete‘The koala has been a protected species since who knows when.’ Actually, there are many people still alive who would remember since when. A quick ‘wiki’ would have told him about the last open season in Queensland in 1927, when 600 000 were killed in a month, in what was intended to alleviate poverty from the drought of that time.
Had the Cater absorbed any of the writings of Steele Rudd, he would have been aware of - possibly even amused by - ‘Dad’s’ great idea to generate some cash flow from hunting ‘bears’.
But it is the Cater’s reporting on current agriculture that attracted the attention of my Source this day. You, Dorothy, have included his observation about how scientists have appreciated the capacity of soil to store carbon.
The Source had to tell me that the Cater went on to write ‘The challenge up to now has been to find a cheap and accurate way to measure carbon in soil, since the present costs are prohibitive. If the cost could be reduced to $3 a hectare, as Taylor outlined, the benefits for farmers and the environment are potentially enormous.
Carbon sequestered in soil would make a positive contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions for which farmers could be rewarded.’
So, on the authority of Angus Taylor - farmers would do more to sequester carbon, if there were a cash reward (from - surely not Government - my taxes!!), but, alas, it costs too much to find out if it is working.
They are a minority, but - smart farmers have long known that building up carbon in the soil delivers real benefits to their farming operation, and will deliver more as the climate continues to heat up. It does not need a laboratory test to show the smart farmer what benefits he is gaining for his particular business - it is just a matter of keeping good records, and counting up the extra income.
You get a quick synopsis, at almost any time of the year, by driving along the road. As it happens, there are enough who claim to be farmers, but who do nothing to boost the basis of their operation - the soil - for the properly-managed farm to stand out during the ‘car window’ survey.
But it seems it does not stand out sufficiently to register with those who attribute their neighbours’ successes to luck.
The Angus, and then the Cater, do not look beyond yet another bit of agrarian socialism. To do that, they are even prepared to concede that there may be some point to that malarkey about ‘greenhouse gas’, but neither feels inclined to promote activities for the prime purpose of improving the nation’s soils.
"...it is just a matter of keeping good records, and counting up the extra income. "
DeleteOh dear, oh dear Chad: you speak of things that it has ever been impossible to inculcate in the vast majority of homo saps saps. "keeping good records" - where do you get these far, far leftist ideas from ?
Anyway, here's something that Killer Creighton and his claque will be very pleased with since it will, as per the discussion above, prove they were absolutely right from the very beginning:
Thank you, Victoria – Australia as a whole is healthier and wealthier because of you
Richard Denniss
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/01/thank-you-victoria-australia-as-a-whole-is-healthier-and-wealthier-because-of-you
I never volunteered to be quite that self-sacrificing, did you ? I want a payback from the rest of Australia !
"lack of insight" - I'm as bad as Grundle.
ReplyDeleteToday's offering, in case you've never heard the original:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnFzCmAyOp8
A nice, quiet time of day, and the Cater has been fittingly disposed of, so is the Bromancer worthy of some attention ? Some thoughts on his exposition today:
ReplyDelete"Donald Trump is a bad-mannered, bullying bulldozer and in the first presidential debate he behaved according to type."
I guess the Bromancer thinks that "excuses" Trump for being what he is. He, affectionately, is just a "bulldozer". Not a real mindless, conscienceless bastard at all, just one of those very effective "bulldozers" that we all know and love.
"But people know that about him already."
Do they, now. And how long is it exactly since The Bromancer, and the rest of the reptiles have known that ? Ever since yesterday, maybe ? After all, if "people know that" then clearly Trump is just a bit of an affectionate rogue that nobody could get upset about, isn't he ?
"Joe Biden, in contrast, looked like a weak candidate trying unsuccessfully to be macho."
Oh well, that's it then, isn't it: a "weak candidate" couldn't possibly be voted for compared with a "bad-mannered bulldozer" could he. Or at least that's what the Bromancer seems to be desperately trying to convince himself in the hope that his "conviction" will carry through to us all.
It might occasionally be amusing to watch the mental conniptions that reptiles go through in order to convince themselves - in the hope that their "conviction" might carry through to us - of utter bullshvt. If it wasn't just so blatantly obvious, that is. And so unto more of the same for all the daze of their lives.
Cameron Stewart quoted Biden as saying Game Show Donnie is
ReplyDelete"the worst president America has ever had."
In the past whenever anyone asserted that about Nixon or Buchanan I would point out that John Tyler had to be the worst. He swore allegiance to an enemy - the C.S.A. - trying to overthrow the United States government and was an official of same(elected congressman). His citizenship was revoked for being a rebel official and since
he died during the war, it was only restored decades later due to pressure by
Southern states.
Tyler's grandson still lives on his estate/museum.
In 19999 I insulted Junior's grandpappy on C-SPAN and he turned beet red.
I now honestly believe Trump has done worse than Tyler. His gutting of the State Department alone has done tremendous strategic harm. Allies no longer share
extremely sensitive Intel with us nor should they. Any reasonable assessment by
their own services would have to conclude that Trump has been compromised,classed
as a "useful idiot" to use the Russian term,initially done in by his own greed and
no doubt ensnared in a Honey Trap during his visits to Moscow given his proclivity
for that sort of thing.
My buddy once worked out of our Serbian and South African embassies, he assures me that the Kissinger/Haig Caper while unconstitutional,has been and is being repeated
in ways large and small throughout the government and most probably the military.
If you recall Nixon went on a days long bender, talked of 'pushing the button', asked Kissinger to get on his knees and pray with him and took a midnight run to the
Lincoln Memorial where he drunkenly jabbered to Honest Abe.
Haig and Kissinger conferred with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and civilian officials
and it was agreed any order from Nixon was to be ignored unless both Haig and Kissinger signed off on it.
Taking a page from Haig and Henry patriots are no doubt conducting end runs around official policy. Cutting the Trump White House out of the information loop and acting as their own conscious dictates.
At least according to my buddy. I hope he is right but it's been a dark four years
and the swine may still get re-elected.
To borrow a pithy phrase from Miss Parker,
"I'd rather be pissed on by a koala drunk on gum leafs" than go thru another 16
seasons of this nightmare.
Saying 16 seasons rather than 4 years puts it in better perspective for me.
American politics has been a wild ride of which I am largely ignorant, so you have given me some more reading to do.
DeleteAs GB points out below, politics turns up some extremely odd individuals. In fact, it seems to select for undesirable characteristics. An intelligent, emotionally stable sort of person would probably have real self doubts about their ability to navigate the party system and override vested interests.
Grifters like Trump or clueless idiots like Tony Abbott are a natural fit. The former never had any intention of providing what the general public would see as leadership and the latter had the delusional belief, despite his personal history, that he had a calling.
We all elect unsuitable types now and then, JM; after all, we Australians elected Tony Abbott (but weren't quite stupid enough to go for Joe Hockey) and the Poms have elected Boris de Pfeffel and Canadians have elected Justin Trudeau.
ReplyDeleteA few times when I've seen 'Trump basers' interviewed on tv, they have praised Trump's "honesty". Now since he lies copiously every time he opens his mouth or twitches his Twitter fingers, that seemed a bit strange. But actually, they don't care about Trump's "lies" - we all lie and politicians more than most - it's that he is happily prepared to loudly espouse the very 'politically incorrect' things that they all believe too. In that sense he is very "honest" - he "speaks his mind" - and everything else is irrelevant.
Personally, it seems to me that the road to the top 'politically' is strewn, and it's only nutcases of one kind or another who seriously undertake the journey - and they all have their problems, even the 'good guys' (FDR perhaps as one). So I guess the Haig-Kissinger ploy is needed more often than we think. But then neither Henry nor Haig won office as Tricky Dicky did, so they could stay relatively sane - "relatively" being a very variable and flexible pronouncement.
But I guess, all things considered, most non-Americans are hoping for a return to 'normalcy' too.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt's of small interest to anyone but me but my computer insists on playing
ReplyDeletehavoc with my posts. Odd indentations, sentence lines of two words with the sentence
continuing on the next line, paragraphs disregarded. I only note this lest any of
you wonder if I am losing the plot.
No probs, JM. Just take a close look at some of my posts sometime and realise I'm doing it all myself. :-(
DeleteHi Befuddled and GB,
ReplyDeleteI take your point on the nature of those seeking higher office. As regards Kissinger
I do realize he could have been indicted as a war criminal, but unlike the Trumpers he at least has a small understanding of right and wrong.
I don't comment often as I am not up to snuff on internal Aussie politics.
However I am taking the advanced course at Dorothy Parker University, whose guest
lecturers GB, Chadwick, Befuddled and others provide much to digest.
I think the point about Kissinger (and Haig) is that, unlike Nixon, Reagan, George W and Trump, they did have at least some sense of the real world.
DeleteThough I can never forgive Kissinger for what he did to West Papua, and nor the Aussie bastards who allowed themselves to be dragged along with him.