As the pond continues to wind down, and the silly season cranks into Covid overdrive, the pond was relieved to see that the reptile cry is still for freedumb, freedumb, which is to say the freedumb to take Clive's cash in the claw ...
As for the rest it was slim pickins, as the pond has come to expect from the reptiles of late ...
Josh looking forward with confidence and optimism?
The pond immediately knew in its gut that we were fucked, the planet was fucked, and the new year would be a gloomy time...
The pond looked around and did its level best to avoid Josh and the hole in the bucket man and the bromancer, but even the triptych of terror was tepid ...
The meretricious Merritt telling judges to shut the fuck up? Why then doesn't the meretricious Merritt shut the fuck up, and you know, be dignified ... and silent ...
Okay, okay, it's impossible for a reptile to be dignified, not when your job is to suck up to the chairman and SloMo, and so it's impossible to be silent ...
As a result, the pond couldn't go there with the meretricious Merritt, and was it really news that the reptiles beloved nukes posed a key fiscal risk?
Just look at NSW Transport and you'll see a key fiscal risk in action ...and there'll soon be no need for the secessionists to feud with Dom, he's about to preside over a Covid implosion ...
Sorry, the pond just had to revert to its old faithful, and with a bit of luck George's name will be flung about and we'll have an Orwellian moment, as often happens when in company with the reptiles ...
Before the pond gets going, it's not prepared to bet on the odds of the hole in the bucket man studiously ignoring the mango Mussolini, his failed coup and the cult of personality surrounding the wannabe autocrat, so the pond would like to balance things up with a couple of tidbits ...
Why, it's just like when the Nazis trembled at the slightest hint of displeasure from the Führer. And then came this Eva Braun moment, if the Führer had only allowed his partner to do an Imelda Marcos ...
Why that's almost as good as a hefty dose of Gwyneth Goop, and suddenly the pond felt better about indulging the hole in the bucket man, railing away in his usual way ...
Yes, yes, all the usual stuff about Marxists and leftists, and Engels and Lenin, and not a solitary word about the coup and its GOP enablers, yet it has been in the news for quite some time ... and has recently taken off into the meadows in a spectacular fashion ... just take a squiz at some of the headlines ...
It's been splendid fun, and the late night comics have been having a feast - too many to mention - and perhaps our hole in the bucket man needs some help in spotting current trends ...
Sorry it's small, but if you click on it, it might get larger, and if not, it's all over the intertubes and on Twitter here ...
It's worth checking out the detail to see where your favourite reptile fits ...
Cultural Marxism! A lot of them would fit there, including our Henry ... and down the rungs a little bit, our Henry can still find a spot ...
Yes, the global warming hoax, that's our Henry to a T-model Ford.
Sadly, our Henry doesn't have the cultural references to get a little lower down the tree ...
Sorry, sorry, the pond does wonder from time to time if Ted Cruz was the Zodiac killer, and this means the pond keeps wandering away from our Henry's actual text, but truth to tell, the pond has heard it all before, and it's exceptionally tiresome, especially in the silly season, and the pond could easily do without an Orwellian overdose ...
By golly, that mote in our Henry's eye about the GOP and the mango Mussolini is astonishing to behold, almost Orwellian, dare the pond say it, if it had a real taste for the truly hole in the bucket moronic ...
The pond's takeaway from all that blather?
Our Henry still thinks climate science is a matter for debate, wherein keen scientific minds of his kind might dispute matters, which is why, just like Tinker Bell, reality and the planet will at some point evaporate ...
Meanwhile, keen eyes who bothered to look past freedumb, freedumb, will have noted that the reptiles had trotted out another bit of random thinking from SloMo, wanting to make Boris seem like a freewheeling amateur ...
Yes, split 'em up, and leave them confused and disjointed and in opposition and disharmony ... why it's a masterstroke, and so the pond was this time inclined to listen to Josh ...
Just more of the usual confusion, but at least the immortal Rowe has celebrated Josh's contribution ... his way forward, with more ways forward here ...
And so back for a final bite of the Josh confusionist cherry ...
No, no, you should never call inertia a permanent state of conflict ... you should just lie down with a hearty dose of soma and loll about with the lotus eaters ... and if nothing happens, no matter ...
And as for the great Liberal tradition of being progressive, it's great how things progress ...
And so as a bonus, it's off to the bizarre sight of the bromancer bowled over by 'leets, and American royalty, and dynastic nobility, because that's what reptiles actually love to do ...
Frankly the pond is disappointed that the United States didn't send us the very best of their dynastic nobility (paywall affected)...
Freedumb, freedumb!
Or even better a 'gator from the swamp ...
Sorry, the pond has found it terribly hard to focus on anything the reptiles have had to say this day ... perhaps it's because all the pond could see was sticks, or a game of pick up stix ...
And with that bit of stick shtick out of the way, a final word from the bromancer ...
Meanwhile, the infallible Pope has joined the bromancer in celebrating good news from every angle, and is no doubt with Josh in welcoming a zillion jobs in the new year, and like Josh is looking forward with confidence and optimism ...
Good luck with that switch ... the makers seem to have forgotten the kill switch bit ... and do try to stay safe ...
The Congress for Cultural Freedom - that is the best the Henry can offer us? The body that gave us ‘Quadrant’?
ReplyDeleteIf you have forgotten how that worked out - go to its free ‘Quadrant online’. You will see a too familiar crew - current editor is Windschuttle, but Flinty, our Garrick Professor (whose name they have trouble spelling) and, yes, a decade or so back - the Henry put up the odd thought. But most of its content now comes from serial contributors who, mercifully, you are unlikely to find in any other publication (The Oz ‘Spectator’ does not really count as a ‘publication’, given that it has about the same number of readers as the P’n’C newsletter of many high schools)’
These serial bores are consistent in ‘tackling’ - the Pell case, the ABC, the global climate ‘scam’, the ABC, Bruce Pascoe, the ABC and - in the name of cultural freedom, the ABC.
I dunno, DP, Holely Henry gets more and more tediously insipid week by week. And not even a Latin or Greek quote to show us why we should be very grateful that he deigns to edify us. So, Holely informs us about Uncle Joe's electronic chinwag: "A non-event if ever there was one. Joe Biden's Summit for Democracy came and went."
ReplyDeleteJust like everything else the human "race" gets up to, then. "Does aught befall you? It is good. It is part of the destiny of the Universe ordained for you from the beginning. All that befalls you is part of the great web." The Great Web of Henry boring us unto death. But hey, he's a licensed reptile and therefore: "If you do it, it is evil, but if we do it, it is very, very good." So Trump's insurrectional uprising and invasion of Congress is very, very good; it strengthens our Democracy whereas your wordfest destroys Democracy."
Or so 'Freedom House' tells us, according to Henry. Now not being an FH aficionado, I just vaguely wonder what it said back in the days of the KKK and its pogroms and lynchings, the House Un-American Activities Committee, rampant apartheid and deadly (literally) injustice to 'African Americans', the whole gangster era with the corruptive destruction of trades unions and the total practise of "democracy" in the USA. FH was formed in 1941, so it had plenty of time to comment on all of that.
But hey, none of that was ever written up in Greek or Roman so Henry knows nothing about it, and never will.
Chad: another Geoff Harcourt article in case you missed it.
ReplyDeleteGeoff Harcourt was one of Australia's greatest economists and a link back to Keynes's circle
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-12-17/geoff-harcourt-obituary/100698320
Hmmm. "During the Whitlam government, some South Australian economists, including Geoff, Eric Russell and Barry Hughes devised 'The Adelaide Plan' that advocated an incomes policy that laid the foundation for the ACTU-ALP Prices and Incomes Accord of the successful Hawke-Keating Labor Government," noted Harcourt's son Tim, perhaps better known as The Airport Economist."
Not a real keen supporter of the Prices and Incomes Accord, myself. How about you ?
GB - to me, the Prices and Incomes Accord was a way to dampen the sensitivity to inflation in the 1980s. A lot of that sensitivity was stoked by regular claims in ‘Limited News’ that Whitlam had set off the highest inflation in Australia’s history, and the punters needed to be perpetually fearful of voting those dreadful socialists ‘in’ for that reason.
DeleteThis was quite wrong - Menzies holds that dubious distinction, by a substantial margin, but Reginald Reader was not going to see any hint of that in his ‘news’paper, and lazy, largely self-qualified, ‘economic commentators’ repeated the Whitlam claim.
What was that about Australian kids being taught ‘real’ history?
The Accord was also the means of reinstating Medicare, to defray most of the costs of medical attention for Australians, after the Fraser ideological bumbling around Medibank.
It wasn’t perfect, but I think it is a fair claim that the Accord stabilised expectations of the national economy for a decade or more, including expectations for rank and file workers of seeing a little more money in their pockets. Compare with the last 8 years.
I also think it was worth showing that it was possible to reach such an arrangement without having employer organisations at the table - or anywhere in the mix. One of the odd consequences of the various mutations of the Conciliation and Arbitration Commissions was that Australia had a remarkable number of self-styled ‘employer organisations’, most of which existed to block, delay or otherwise interfere with attempts to keep the nation working.
One further observation on Geoff Harcourt. Nine days ago, I did comment that I was not aware of any recognition of his death in the Flagship. My Source has not found mention of him in that ‘journal of record’ since then.
Ah well, maybe the P&IA was more worthy than I've given it credit for, but then it is all just 'real' history now. Or it would be if ever we could get people to put fact and truth above their devotion to their ideo-religious faith.
DeleteWhat to do while waiting for doomsday
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/AGRfJ6-qkr4
Thanks for that GB. Everyone should sing in a choir.
DeleteWell Joe, to quote First Dog on the Moon:
Delete"The bad news is that there is always bad news. But that is also good news as it means you can relax about the bad news because if you miss any there will be some more along shortly which is also bad news if you get what I am trying to say."
Now what can we do in response to that ? Except maybe "Dance with a baby to Music For A Found Harmonium by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra."
https://youtu.be/yJg1NNyke2E
Or maybe this if you like a choir:
Deletehttps://youtu.be/SNs0vKDvs0g