In which the lizard Oz, and so the pond, is beset by a horde of visiting Americans ...

 

It's unfortunate that Michael McCormack is a twit, and it's also unfortunate that most of the stories about his stupidity seem to have turned up elsewhere ...

 

 

 It's understandable that he's sensitive about the banning, because the Nationals have more loons per square inch than even the United States, and in any rational world, all of them would have been sent into shadowy silence ...

But happily they can go on spreading virus and climate science disinformation, lies and alternative reality, and the pond can turn to the reptiles of the lizard Oz for its daily fix, though in the current holiday torpor, it seems it's become a branch of the WSJ ...

 
 

Another shot at comrade Dan? Cyber warfare? The cricket? And the lizard Oz editorialist holding up one end by stroking two editorials to silly point?

Well the pond best put the lizard Oz editorialist's front foot forward, before turning to the Americans visiting the lizard Oz shore ...

 

 

Phew, what a relief. For a moment there, the pond thought that the lizard Oz editorialist might have lost his (or less likely her) marbles, and suggested that it was essential that the actions of the Donald's enablers - including but not limited to Fox News and its array of pundits - be fully scrutinised with the forensic dispassion of the law ...

But no, let us now deplore Twitter and celebrate Mike Pence, who certainly did nothing to enable the Donald's loonacy these past four years or so ...

 

Move on? Will Fox News move on? Pull the other leg? There isn't going to be a post-Trump pivot at Fox News ...

And so to the visiting Americans, a reminder that the lizards of Oz are just a small part of the larger empire ..

 

Though not entirely?

Indeed, indeed ...

In the hours and days since the attempted insurrection, which some US national security experts labeled a “terrorist attack,” Fox’s anchors, contributors, and guests have spent much of their time on the air justifying the rioters’ violence and floating conspiracy theories without any evidence.
“Of the people who gathered yesterday, 99% of them were peaceful,” Fox & Friends host Steve Doocy said Jan. 7. Doocy later claimed the rioters were merely “frustrated,” as if being frustrated makes one want to lay siege to the US Capitol building. Five people have now died as a result of the riot, including a Capitol Police officer, who was hit in the head with a fire extinguisher, the New York Times reported. US federal investigators have opened a murder investigation into the officer’s death.
“They were there to support the president of the United States and defend our republic, and stand up and say, ‘I just want a fair shake,'” claimed Fox News contributor Pete Hegseth. “It manifested at the Capitol in a different way, but that doesn’t mean you have to condemn the entire thing.”

 But please, do go on ...

 

 

Yes, yes, but do go on, especially as the pond keeps reptile videos in only for the pictures ...

Indeed, indeed, but wait a tic, hang on a mo ...

Later, Fox guest Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University professor, compared the insurrection to “an attack on the White House,” presumably referring to the June 1 incident in Lafayette Square, during which a group of entirely peaceful protesters were dispersed by law enforcement with tear gas, riot shields, and rubber bullets. The network also had other guests on who lied unchecked about the 2020 election—even while the Capitol riot was still ongoing.
And then Fox gave voice to discredited conspiracy theories, which had surfaced in far-right social media circles in the hours before. Hosts Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, Lou Dobbs, and several guests referenced “reports” that Antifa—the term for an unorganized movement of antifascist political activists—had embedded covert agents to instigate the insurrection. In truth, many of the rioters were well-known white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and QAnon conspiracy theorists, who did not take steps to conceal their identities. There is no evidence the rioters were infiltrated or encouraged by anyone with other motives.

Please, do go on ...

 

There's a chance that this week's horrors may lead everybody on all sides to step back from harsh rhetoric?

Good luck with that!? That'd be like the pond scribbling that at the moment there's a certain virus that makes the United States look like a war zone, and nobody has seemed to notice or to care as the country tears itself apart ... but with Fox News modestly able to take some credit for its role in enabling anti-maskers and assorted other loons ...

And so to another visiting American ...

The pond made the mistake of plunging into the comments section and was immediately unnerved ...

Oh dear sweet long absent lord, it's the sort of column that brings out that sort of loon, yearning for the "erudite Mr Ergas", but do go on ...

Indeed, indeed, good prof, but whatever you do, please don't mention Fox News ... we wouldn't want to discredit the media and its ability to enable the Donald and support his astonishing ability at carnival barking lies ... or more properly, bullshit ...

That reminds the pond that it came across Harry Frankfurt's On Bullshit in a piece in the NYRB wondering why people kept on talking about the alleged new Donald inspired car plants in Michigan, when they might just as sensibly have been talking about unicorns or Mexicans paying for the wall ...

...What bullshit essentially misrepresents is neither the state of affairs to which it refers nor the beliefs of the speaker concerning that state of affairs. Those are what lies misrepresent, by virtue of being false. Since bullshit need not be false, it differs from lies in its misrepresentational intent. The bullshitter may not deceive us, or even intend to do so, either about the facts or about what he takes the facts to be. What he does necessarily attempt to deceive us about is his enterprise. His only indispensably distinctive characteristic is that in a certain way he misrepresents what he is up to.
This is the crux of the distinction between him and the liar. Both he and the liar represent themselves falsely as endeavoring to communicate the truth. The success of each depends upon deceiving us about that. But the fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct
apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are of no central interest to him; what we are not to understand is that his intention is neither to report the truth nor co conceal it. This does not mean that his speech is anarchically impulsive, but that the motive guiding and controlling it is unconcerned with how the things about which he
speaks truly are.
It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. Producing bullshit requires no such conviction. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth, and he is to that extent respectful of it. When an honest man speaks, he says only what he believes to be true; and for the liar, it is correspondingly indispensable that he considers his statements to be false. For the bullshitter, however, all these bets are off: he is neither on the side of the true nor on the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all, as the eyes of the honest man and of the liar are, except insofar as they may be pertinent to his interest in getting away with what he says. He does not care whether the things he says describe reality correctly. He just picks them out, or makes them up, to suit his purpose.

The whole thing is here in pdf form, and the pond must apologise to the current Prof under review for preferring a dose of bullshit from another prof ...

Apparently the nobly named Frankfurt wrote the original essay in 1986 before turning it into a book in 2005, but do go on, reptile-visiting prof ...

 

Um, to start rebuilding US democracy, Fox News and the Murdochians and the GOP must not keep on carrying on as if it's business as usual?

Sorry, the pond might just as well have scribbled about unicorns or Mexico paying for the building of the wall ...

And so to a last visitation by an American to the lizard Oz down under, and it clearly shows the reality ... that the United States is fucked for the foreseeable future. It seems to be an attempt at humour, but can stupid be truly funny?

 

Once Trump goes, who's left to blame?

How about Andy Kessler for starters? The pond can blame him, if only for wasting the pond's time ...

 

Cigarette companies peddling an addictive product have nothing to do with it? It's just good old medical science and advertising at work in the American way?

 

Sorry, the pond couldn't resist, it can never get enough bullshit. Please, do go on ...

 

 

 

Sorry around this point the pond knew it needed a cartoon or two just to make it to the end, with even Ramirez able to find a little humour in the situation ...

 

 

 

 Ah, that feels better. Fancy, two Ramirez cartoons in the pond on the one day, that's as rare as unicorns or the Mexicans paying for the wall or new Donald-inspired car plants in Michigan ...

 

And that's what passes for comedy stylings in the WSJ?

Sheesh, no wonder the rag's got issues.  The pond much preferred I see no choice but to resign from this Death Star as it begins to explode ... unfortunately now behind the paywall ...

...It’s been an honor to work on this Death Star. I love the aesthetic. I love how I’ve been able to pursue my greatest passion: destroying planets and pressing buttons. I love my little hat that is a sunshade for no reason! I love the easy-to-access computer interfaces, the blast-door equipped hallways and that one area we can access only by pressing a button to extend a bridge. Our design always made a lot of sense to me! And I love our reliable trash disposal system and the little one-eyed tentacle fella that lives in it. In general, I’m proud of this station and of what we’ve achieved on it, together.
Sure, there have been moments with which I disagreed. Lord Vader and I don’t always see eye to eye; in fact, I have no idea where he is looking in that creepy helmet of his. I didn’t like when he tried to choke my colleague, or my other colleague, or that additional different colleague who later passed away. But I stayed at my post because I knew that my work mattered, and I was helping Grand Moff Tarkin keep the regional governors in line.
I understand that there might be some confusion about what exactly I’m doing, and why I’m doing this now, but I don’t think there should be. I am objecting, on principle, to staying on this Death Star for a single additional second. To those of you who would question my motives: I did know for a long time that the place I worked was a Death Star, but I have to say, until today, I didn’t understand that it was also very vulnerable to assault by a small one-man fighter because of a design flaw!
Destroying planets and using fear of this battle station to keep the local systems in line was my No. 1 passion until — about 30 seconds ago, weirdly! That was when I saw the X-wings that had evaded our turbo-lasers and were proceeding down a trench toward our vulnerable thermal exhaust port — and realized I had to speak up. I thought: What if remorselessly destroying planets isn’t my passion? What if my real passion is staying alive and avoiding the consequences of my actions?
The only thing I hate more than the population of the planet Alderaan, who totally deserved it, is consequences. Consequences and not having a job! I think any galaxy in which I had to face a consequence for my past work on this weapon would be a sad one. That would be divisive and the last thing we need. So I hope that when the history of this moment is written, I will be remembered as someone who stood on principle.
Technically, I am standing on an evacuation shuttle, if I can make it there in time. But mostly principle.

Alexandra Petri was the author, and who knew that WaPo had a nerdish sense of humour, though Petri alienated the nerds by getting some Star Wars arcana wrong ...

So it goes,  and so to a few cartoons celebrating the Death Star and the WSJ's lament ...