Things aren't going that well in golden "lockdown" Gladys world, so the reptiles naturally resorted to a shot of a female athlete at full stretch as a fine visual distraction, and flung nattering "Ned" into the pile-up so that everyone could doze off and have a good snooze ...
The scribbling of tedium by the tedious is never likely to change in reptile la la land, and so it might be said about the wretched level of illustrations the reptiles now routinely thrust on their readers ...
Oh how the pond yearns for the days of the cult master, and wonders why the reptiles prefer a bit of nonsense off the shelf from Getty Images to a cartoon designed to help "Ned" get started.
The pond presumes that it's all part of a grand design to produce numbness ... a complement to the numbness always induced by a shot of "Ned's" patented natter straight to the eyeball ...
The metrics will change? There will be a new metric - the ability to roll out a cliché? And yet all this Ned nonsense feels remarkably familiar ... a new shifting of the goalposts of distraction ...
That was at the end of May, and yet here we are with talk of a NSW situation, and "Ned" doing his best to stick his finger in the dyke ...
Say what? Even "Ned" realises that the man from marketing has been sublimely incompetent? But your passing infallible cartoonist could have told you that ...
It must be hard, given the job of finding something positive to say about a posse of clowns ... perhaps an explanation of how, in the hunger games, the hunter becomes the hunted ...
Oh ye ancient suffering cats and howling dogs, a snap from the AFP, as if the pond couldn't take a stroll past Camperdown park, and see people lounging on the grass and having a drinking party in the winter Sydney sun ... no doubt a form of exercise, with the elbow given a real work out ... and yet "Ned" has go go on finding others on whom to pin the blame, no doubt itself a form of exercise ...
Around this point the pond began a silent scream of despair. How else to respond to the following snap, designed to distract from "Ned", but in reality the most banal illustration yet ...
The pivotal question is: does anyone really give a flying fuck about the thoughts of "Ned" in the interim or for the future? So many fuck ups, so little time, and all that might be flung at the wall is another infallible Pope ...
And now to keep on showing its workings, this was what the pond confronted below the fold ...
Hope? Our Tom Hopes? Not in the pond thank you very much ...
JIM: Tea? Tea? Is that your answer to it all? Tea? The panacea to the middle class! The answer to all the problems facing mankind today? Have a cup of tea, Jim! You both make me sick. You're dead, both of you. You're both mentally dead. Your souls are drowned in tea. Your minds are clogged up with tea bags. You're like two slop basins swimming around in a sea of tea! Just like this country, the whole rotten system, stained in a tea of apathy!
BROTHER: What's he mean, Mum?
MOTHER: I don't think he wants a cup of tea.
And what's this, our Henry on a Wednesday? Things must be really tough in the Surry Hills bunker ...
Oh fucketty fuck, another hideously banal illustration, this one so boring that the reptiles didn't even bother to offer a credit ...
Luckily our hideously banal Henry was short ... valiantly defending the right of monopolies to go on charging as they liked ...
Indeed, indeed. The pond's electricity bill arrived this week, and the silly old pond focused on the total on the tape, instead of looking at the quality, availability and variety of electricity on supply ... but do go on ...
Ah yes, all that baleful climate change regulation has ruined everything ... but instead of continuing the argument, the pond was distracted by yet another mystery.
Somewhere at the top of that piece a certain Jonathan Pincus was mentioned as our Henry's co-author, and yet when it came to the pinch and the credit at the bottom, the Pincus was nowhere to be seen, and our Henry monopolised the spotlight ... suggesting that there's at least one problematic monopoly in the ether ...
Meanwhile, keen eyes will already have noted that Dame Slap was out and about for her regular Wednesday gig, and no doubt bored by all this talk of the virus and the vaccine, and not wanting to listen to Kyle on the radio, the steely Dame decided to indulge in a classic bit of IPA chairmanship ... good old union bashing, just like the tasty bacon we used to have before the war ...
The first thing to note here is the simplistic resort to the movies for a bit of defamatory slander ... and the usual pond response would be to run that yarn about Dame Slap donning a MAGA cap and slipping out into the night to support a notoriously corrupt multiple bankrupt con artist willing to do deals with Mafia dominated unions about concrete pours... and wonder what movie might be appropriate as a metaphor for that sort of caper...
But time is short and the pond must move on quickly, because union bashing, like snake bashing, must be done expeditiously ...
A Corleone clause? Hmm, what about the IPA clause that means you get to piss into a bottle, if you're lucky, while racing to keep up your numbers, just so a billionaire can hoon around in space?
Never mind, around this point the pond snapped, because the reptiles offered up another snap of unremitting banality, as a way of padding Dame Slap's scribbling .... and the pond decided to give it the Corleone treatment ...
That looks better. Now back to Dame Slap doing her IPA chairman snake-bashing thing ...
And so to the next illustration, and sure enough it was for Dame Slap, getting nostalgic and waxing lyrical about the good old days of union busting, which will no doubt be news to your average Deliveroo rider delivering coffee for a dollar and change ... and so the pond decided to give its heroic pose the same Corleone treatment ...
And when you do that, wading through this standard IPA offering becomes much easier ...
 |
| She also happens to be the Chairman of the IPA but strangely the reptiles never actually mention this ... |
And so a fair average day with the reptiles comes to an end, and as usual the pond will end with the immortal Rowe, with the usual note that there's more Rowe to be found here ... relieved at the thought that the reptiles, and so the pond, has avoided mentioning anything unseemly currently doing the rounds elsewhere ...
Wallpaper? The wallpaper guy? Say no more...
Please correct me if I am wrong but Ned's talk of 70-75% vaccinated refers to the adult population. The published plan has no mention of vaccinating under 16s. A quick google didn't return under 16s but under 14's were 19.28% in 2019. So in reality, forgetting about vaccine hesitancy and supply issues, about 60% of total population would be really optimistic.
ReplyDeleteI've been a bit worried from the start about assuming children could be ignored in the rollout but the Delta variant would seem to have made it a concrete issue.
Yeah, the earlier variants were somewhat easygoing on the young (especially under 16). But not so much Delta: it may be less of an infection when caught, but now many more could, and do (see the UK) catch it.
DeleteI haven't so far seen any stats on frequency of 'long-haul Covid' with Delta, so I guess we can hope the rate of long-haul is lessened.
You seem to enjoy videos, Bef, so one for you:
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaWIiAFvZy8
So what did Taiwan do right, and why did it then 'fail' ? I think very clearly having a small island landmass, with only one government (no states) with a single, universal language and culture which includes having already faced a SARS together with well developed and widely used ITC technology helps one hell of a lot. I wish we had those 'medical history' cards.
So sayeth Holely Henry (or maybe Johnny Pincus ? Who is the real author ?): "... every study with which we are familiar suggests that consumers have access to a greater range of products, in most cases offered by more competing suppliers, than ever before."
ReplyDeleteWell, I do most sincerely trust that every study with which the Henry and Apprentice is familiar is a truly representative sample across the entire range of consumable products (has he checked on suppliers of billionaire's yachts ?) or we might find out that the world actually belongs to H.J.Heinz:
"Today, the company has over 5000 products, with fifty affiliates operating in around 200 countries. Heinz owns the brands StarKist, Ore-Ida, Weight Watchers, T.G.I. Fridays packaged products, Quality Chef, Jack Daniels Sauces, Wattie’s, Plasmon, Farley’s, The Budget Gourmet, Rosetto, Bagel Bites, John West, Petit Navire, Earth’s Best, Orlando, Olivine, Pudlizki, 9-Lives Cat Food, Ken-LRation, Kibbles ‘n Bits, Pup-Peroni, and Nature’s Recipe (pet food),to name just a few."
https://culinarylore.com/food-history:what-are-the-heinz-57-varieties/
One single supplier, over 5000 consumable items under many different, and not recognisably belonging to Heinz, popular brands. And I even buy John West salmon myself without ever knowing it is Heinz. Their baked beans are recognisably Heinz, though.
Even Toyota has many brands: Hino, Lexus, Daihatsu, TRD and Ranz and a whole plethora of brand-names as well. So I truly hope Henry and Pinky have done their homework on "in most cases offered by more competing suppliers". But then they are reptiles, so who am I kidding.
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteDammit - I'm gonna get this right!
DeleteConsumer role-model Edina Monsoon said "I don't want more choice, I just want nicer stuff".
As you point out, most 'choice' is essentially the same product being offered at different price points. In the automotive example most brands use components from the same small pool of manufacturers. German and Korean might both use engine management systems by Bosch, gearboxes might be Getrag and so on. Even within the small pool of component manufacturers the same game plays out as they produce cheaper products in China or other low cost countries.
Perhaps blogger should limit the number of attempts at producing a legible comment?
No, no, just keep on trying, Bef. The more tries you have to make, the more I can say to myself "I'm not the worst !" :-) L-)
DeleteAnd this one is just for us: "you only have to answer to yourself"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLQ0biK-ZgA&list=RDMM&index=3
‘Its analysis might have been technically less sophisticated than this paper is’
DeleteSurely, the ‘this paper’ is not the Flagship. While the Henry might be prepared to engage in such flannelling, or to use crass, ingratiating phrases like ‘the unusually intelligent readers of this paper’, Pincus does have some lingering status within the profession.
I suspect the ‘this paper’ identifies much of the content of the Henry column for this day as having been taken from a paper written for a collection of responses to the Intergenerational Report to be issued under the aegis of one of the think tanks, or a financial business, or even a ‘learned society’, and the Henry has simply not been careful with his extraction and adaptation to the Flagship.
The ‘tsunami of regulation’? There is an equally plausible explanation of the effects of that on profit margins and rates of return. Look to several studies of how the illicit drug businesses operate. The foot soldiers in the ‘war on drugs’ take out many of those at the base level of the pyramid. This removes the woefully inefficient or just plain stupid - and quite a few of the potentially adventurous - those who think they can make it further up the pyramid. As studies show, this is very much to the benefit of the people nearer the top, who are seldom visited by the foot soldiers of this ‘war’, who tend to keep the whole pyramid in place, and profitable for those at the apex.
In this country, the financial system shows some of the same effects. One characteristic of the ‘tsunami of regulation’ which has supposedly over run the financial system is steadily revealed by the succession of commissions of inquiry into that sector. Those inquiries show that the major banks and similar businesses pretty much ignore much of the new regulation (and much of the previous regulation that the new measures are supposed to strengthen). They are regularly caught out, make abject apology, with promises to do better, and - are called out for much the same offences a year or three later. How many senior bankers are in jail right now?
How many of us truly expect that that very large casino operator will be told to hand in its licence? Hands - anybody?
No - the paper from which this was sloppily extracted no doubt sets out the text -book explanation of the perils of regulation but to be fair to Treasury - it is not packed with utter innocents who have no inkling of how the world really goes around.
Oh - and for broader consumer benefits in choice and price - anything to do with a large, erstwhile trading partner, to the north of us? The one with millions of people making those ‘widgets’ that so figure in the literature?
Australia has been a basically consequence free criminal nation ever since it was founded by British convicts together with a bunch of soldiers who should have been.
DeleteBut every species has its set of 'freeloaders' doesn't it, and they are more or less tolerated because policing them is more expensive than putting up with them.
Many years ago, my partner had as her GP one Bertram Wainer who campaigned for years for women's right to legal abortion only to be opposed and attacked by corrupt police who 'taxed' the illegal abortion underground. Some of the cops were finally charged and some even went to prison for a short while, but it ruined Wainer's health and seriously shortened his life.
Just one small aspect of the acceptance of criminality in Melbourne which still boasts of being the home of Squizzy Taylor. And Melbourne was very law-abiding compared with the criminal empires of Sydney.
Such is life.
Wainer was the author of "It Isn't Nice" published in 1972.
Look up Jack Ford:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertram_Wainer
Anyway, here's something you might enjoy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNddyTHA_Ao&list=RDMM&index=12
Thank you GB - I feel better now.
Deletewhile noting and enjoying all the other comments, back to your original point GB, and the company that irritates the pond the most is Suncorp, not least for all those bloody ads where it pretends to be different ...
DeleteSuncorp trades under a number of brands, including AAMI, Apia, Shannons, InsureMyRide, Vero, Terri Scheer, Bingle, CIL and Tyndall insurance brands in Australia, and Vero, Asteron, Guardian Trust, Tyndall, Vero Liability, AA Insurance, SIS, CMV/AXIOM and Autosure brands in New Zealand.
Ah, on a few occasions when I did wake up while the tv is on, I had, in passing, noticed Terri Scheer and wondered vaguely where it came from. But they sprout like pre-calicivirus rabbits: AAMI and Apia I did know of, but Shannins, InsureMyRide, Vero, Bingle, CIL and Tyndall ? Who's ever heard of them ?
DeleteJust because I found this funny
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/Glaven1994/status/1412306868052004866
One of the comments reads "Thats the thing about RWNJ's; they often don't 'do' IT very well. Their little brows will be all furrowed wondering how on earth they got caught out..and they'll be out in the backyard setting fire to their laptop, or..tractor driving.."
That wondrous wall chart is going to cause a fair amount of heartache at bars and dinner tables this evening.
DeleteThere a few completely shit human beings in Australia that did not make the wall chart - and they will be hurting. Thoughts and prayers. I'm not seeing a nation builder's family represented!
From Dame Slap: "But when something is so obviously rotten for the country, then there is less room for debate."
ReplyDeleteOh my, my; those IPAers and reptiles have absolutely no self-insight at all have they. I winder when Dame Slap will tell us that tobacco and smoking are clearly not even the least bit "rotten for the country", but quite the contrary.
Janet will be aghast when she learns of the incestuous hiring practices of her own employer. As far as I'm aware, News Corp has provided journalism jobs to the children of:
ReplyDeleteJanet Albrechtsen
Paul Kelly
Piers Ackerman
and other associated organisations such as Andrew Bolt's son getting a media role at the IPA.
And this is only from my limited knowledge.
You just have to remember the RWNJ rule, Anony: "when we do it, it is good; when they do it, it is evil !"
DeleteHi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteIn what should be an alternate reality, climate change deniers will soon be able to get the “weather” they like…
https://gizmodo.com/climate-supervillain-creating-new-tv-channel-to-report-1847236993
DiddyWrote
What you believe is what you see and feel, so indeed the Foxians will be getting the weather they like. Right up to the point that it kills them.
DeleteQ? How much longer before Roopie carks it and Lachie takes over and mucks it all up ?
Thanks DW, irresistible, so the pond didn't resist ...
DeleteOne wonders about its broadcast model, DW. Being true to a denialist model, how many people will tune in to be told 'nothing to see here' about extreme weather events? I can't see it being profitable unless it has something to draw the punters in. I therefore expect it will be brimful of conspiracy theories.
Delete