The pond was devastated to learn, as others were, of news from the Canavan caravan. Such a humble servant of pure, dinkum, clean, decent, godly and innocent Oz coal; such a devoted climate scientist; and yet somehow reduced to a sitcom episode of All in the Family ...
And so to the reptiles for the day, and leading off with a fine harumphing and glorious triumphalism, courtesy nattering "Ned" ...
By "we" of course, we should include all the fine reptiles, such as Killer Creighton, the dog botherer, the loons at Sky, and above all, SloMo, who led from the rear, and what fine leadership it was ...
See how, in his humble way, "Ned" berates the follies of many, but can't find a single flaw in the reptile or dear leader responses ... at least not by name, because a naming might lead to a shaming, and what would be the use of that in a triumphal outing?
Sound the trumpet, sound the trumpet, sound the trumpet!
Sound, sound, sound the trumpet till around
You make the list'ning shores rebound.
On the sprightly hautboy Nedboy play
All the instruments of joy
That skillful numbers can employ,
To celebrate the glories of this day.
Oh those outrageous premiers becoming national figures and lurching towards provincialism ... and yet how could "Ned" fail to mention the glorious federal leadership that produced this astonishing result?
Oh please, just wait ... the utility man has something in his utility belt, and please credit where credit is due, and sssh, no mention of the reptiles lionising the Swedish response, with Killer Creighton on the charge, that's all water under the bridge now ... you see, it's "many conservatives in this country" wot did it, and certainly not "many conservatives scribbling furiously in the lizard Oz" ...
Yes, the past is a different country, and "Ned's" infinite capacity for amnesia is one of his great strengths ...
How many stories of this kind did the lizard Oz trot out this past year?
And so on and so forth ... the pond could trawl endlessly through its coverage of the lizard Oz this past year, but the pond always liked this outing from the Killer as an exceptional example, if only because it mentions ABBA ...
And so to the wonders of SloMo, and that tremendous job of leadership, because you know, the premiers might have done all the dirty work, and been assailed by the reptiles on a daily basis, but to the federal victors must go the reptile spoils ...
What does it all mean? Well the pond thinks that finally "Ned" has found his niche in his declining years. His boot-licking and arse-polishing and general standing as a hack means that reptiles like the bouffant one and the bromancer have been left behind, astonished at his extraordinary skill at sucking up to SloMo's mob ... does anyone remember in those very early days that SloMo's response to the impending disaster was to head off to a football match? Probably not ...
Never mind, that's here and it's ancient history and the loser backed a loser team and that's ancient history too ... and meanwhile "Ned" is on a winner ...
Indeed, indeed, it was those dreadful premiers wot done it, and how glorious was and is SloMo and our very own Huntsman ... and as for the reptile campaigns, all is forgiven and forgotten, so that the light might shine from SloMo's arse all the more strongly, and dazzle "Ned" with its splendour ...
And so to a trifle, a bon mot featuring the Donald, and also amazingly, showing the resilience of the reptiles, with News Corp peddling the wonders of the Donald for years, and now suddenly discovering that the Donald might not all that Fox News cracked him to be ...
Indeed, indeed, but thanks to the reptiles, the Donald has left an enduring mark on American exceptionalism ...
The pond was reminded of a story in Politico, Koreans Believed America was Exceptional. Then Covid happened ...
And then there was another widely reported story. Some suckers swallowed American exceptionalism whole, and blather about democracy, and then the Donald and the election happened ...
Luckily there's not much more to be said about the United States and its current situation ...
And so to a final revelation.
It seems Dame Slap has suddenly discovered a fierce loathing for the big end of town. She's gone populist and Pauline ...
Whenever the pond reads Dame Slap these days, that image of her slipping out into the night in New York proudly wearing her MAGA cap still rears up like a Flynn on steroids ...
Is it any wonder that Dame Slap now discovers an elective affinity with Pauline? Is it not astonishing that the head of the IPA deplores big, unregulated businesses making obscene profits? Sorry, that's only when someone holds the blowtorch to big, unregulated, obscene profit-making big businesses by taking them to court ...
Indeed, indeed, there's nothing like a MAGA cap wearer to speak with moral authority ... especially as they also happen to be wearing an IPA cap, an organisation so far up the big end of town no light has been seen escaping that black hole this past decade or so ...
Of course there could be a simple solution. The IPA might encourage businesses to conduct themselves ethically, to treat their customers with respect, to deliver quality goods to the marketplace that have been thoroughly checked, certified and approved ... and to refuse to embark on callous rip offs which leaves a lot of mug punters deeply out of pocket, and in worst case scenarios, dead ... but when it comes to the crunch, Dame Slap no doubt says Boeing to that malarkey ...
Actually the naive plaintiffs have already been pillaged ... by the plunderers at the IPA telling them to suck it up for the good of the economy ... the sort of befuddled thinking that saw the greatest scam artist and snake oil salesman of the century foisted on the United States ... with Dame Slap's MAGA-hatted approval ... and who knows, we might well not see the end of him in the next four years ...
But one thing will endure, Dame Slap and the IPA's devotion to the big end of town, just the right sort of big end of town, don't cha know, wot wot, pip pip?
"sssh, no mention of the reptiles lionising the Swedish response, with Killer Creighton on the charge, that's all water under the bridge now ..."
ReplyDeleteYep, if it never gets mentioned again, then it never happened at all.
MAGA caps, Moncktons or Lenin medals anybody ?
Opinion writing is a consequence-free activity within the herpetarium and they are trying to extend the same privilege to the making of government policy.
DeleteScumo is very like that co-worker whose only talent is self-promotion. The rest of the team work full time to fill his productivity gap and fix fuckups but you can be sure that he will be claiming credit for anything that gets done.
Energy policy mimics pandemic response in that the states, Liberal and Labor, are trying to move forward but the Federal Government are acting as a handbrake.
In other interesting developments
https://www.afr.com/companies/infrastructure/dalrymple-bay-infrastructure-shares-sink-on-first-day-of-trading-20201208-p56lj8
https://www.world-energy.org/article/14357.html
Reptile "opinion" writing is not only consequence, but also conscience, free. And always has been - nobody is going to hold that crap against Killer C because, clearly, it never happened !
Delete"co-worker whose only talent is self-promotion" - but hold on, Bef, they're the only ones who actually "succeed". Just think of the lineup presently: Trump, Johnson, Morrison just for starters - is there any visible talent or ability anywhere in that lot ?
Bur ooh, what about coal ? Put it down to SloMo's inept showing off in the parliament: surely somebody should have known that SloMo is "the kiss of death" ?
And what about Slosh 'n' Josh's late life adoption of MMT ? That, I have to admit, was a surprise. But it wouldn't have been if I'd remembered Menzies better:
Unlike today's Liberals, Robert Menzies boasted of delivering large budget deficits
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-30/liberal-party-of-robert-menzies-proudly-delivered-large-deficits/12609876
"For his last nine budgets he delivered deficits, and the size of his last deficit, at 3.3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), was 0.3 per cent larger than the deficit in Wayne Swan's last budget in 2013.
So why wasn't the public angry?"
Ooh, a really good question that one - I wonder if it has an answer.
But here's a better question: how did Menzies acquire the nicnom 'Ming' ? I only stumbled across the answer to that yesterday: apparently the Scots actually pronounce the name rendered as 'Menzies' as Ming'iss. Robert Gordon's paternal grandad was a genuine born in Scotland kilty and so Robert Gordon, proud of his ancestry, tried to get Aussies to pronounce his name in the authentic Scottish way, but all we'd come at was giving RG the nick 'Ming'.
Oh the byways of history and language.
I always assumed it was the likeness to Ming the Merciless often portrayed with extravagant black eyebrows
Deletehttps://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Ming+the+Merciless
I expect the LNP will claim Ozzie coal is being victimised by the evil Chinese. It sure beats admitting that you have been backing an industry in secular decline.
I've been thinking how the whole trade farrago seems a bit like Brexit. An inflated idea of your own importance, particularly in regard to the product you are trying to sell, and an inability to see what reactions any actions might cause.
Think about the Brexiteers who seem baffled that a deal cannot hammered out or that they have to queue up at borders. A little bit of thought beforehand would have seemed sensible, but of course that would be a bit sissy wouldn't it? Best to start swinging in a manly fashion and wake up some time later in casualty.
Another example of an unforeseen (at least by these Wallys) consequence
https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3112922/china-australia-relations-canberras-path-through-wto-looks-be
Now whose been arguing against a globalist approach in recent years?
Naah, RG was already a 40yo 'Ming' by the time of Flesh Gordon and "The Merciless". And anyway, he later became 'Pig Iron Bob' which was a much more fittingly descriptive nom.
DeleteA "trade farrago" ? Nix, just one up and be-coming dominant power centre becoming the new Australian suzerain. A little trick they leaned from Great Britain and Russia in disputes about who had sovereignty over Tibet.
"A little bit of thought beforehand", Bef ? Nonono, not within the human remit: no forethought, only crazy heroics as afterthought. What I'm wondering just now is why nobody has mentioned China's 'developing economy' ranking and 'most favoured nation' status. But apparently no matter what China does, mentioning its blatant cheating in those respects appears to be a total nono. Though Trump and Morrison have at least queried China's status, and it may not be all that much of a good thing anyway::
https://theconversation.com/myth-busted-chinas-status-as-a-developing-country-gives-it-few-benefits-in-the-world-trade-organisation-124602
I don't think anyone is in any doubt about China gaming the system, especially with regard to currency manipulation and IP. No doubt about the bullying either, but its instructive to observe how China's neighbours handle disputes.
DeleteJapan has an actual territorial dispute as well as history and trade to deal with but they still manage the relationship much better than we do - I believe it's called diplomacy.
Anyway, we might have still ended up here but I cannot help think that much of the acrimony still comes down to the particularly cloddish actions of Scottie from Marketing. I certainly would have trouble dealing with him.