In which the pond settles for a quiet Sunday with Polonius, while indulging in a couple of word salads ...

 

 

The pond realises that its Sunday meditations has fallen into the rut of Polonial predictability, but how comforting is that in these troubled times.

Each weekend something sets Polonius off and he prattles, and the pond is strangely soothed by the sounds of the ranting, a bit like the way that rain falls on a galvanised iron roof and soon turns into a form of white noise or even ASMR ...

So each Sunday the pond still indulges its favourite ancient mariner ...

 

 

The pond is saddened in a way that Polonius has found a new mortal enemy, a bearded hipster with a cap and squillions in loot ...

The ABC has been forced to take a back seat these past few weeks, though everybody knows they're responsible for everything wrong with the world.

The pond mourns the ABC's absence, especially as the pond had lined up a tidy moment from a Miriam Hyde piece, which  had evoked sweet nostalgic memories of Polonius's usual attacks on the ABC ...

Titled Just when No 10 wants to be taken seriously, it creates Sir Gavin Williamson, it ended this way ...

... It’s hard to believe a government that knows all this and still honours Williamson will do the right thing in other areas. Will they clean up the oligarchs to whom they have hitherto shown such sublime indifference or active encouragement, or will they just say that’s what they’re going to do?
They do, after all, say a lot of things. Take the culture secretary. The last time I saw Nadine Dorries cry at work she was sobbing because Boris Johnson had pulled out of his post-referendum leadership bid. Yet here she was on Thursday, turning on the waterworks at the dispatch box, offering the BBC “heartfelt thanks and admiration” for its reporting. Oh Nadine. NOW you’re a fan, is it? Because just weeks ago you were issuing tinpot threats on your Twitter about the BBC as we’ve known it being over. Weirdly, I don’t see Nadine’s precious Netflix dodging the bombs in a Kyiv basement in order to bring the world the news. (I should say that the Beeb is in Kyiv alongside many exceptional journalists from other UK broadcasters – a reminder that the BBC’s unique funding model has always elevated our whole market. Rivals cannot compete for funding, so have traditionally competed on quality. And if you don’t believe it, go and watch a range of American broadcast news for an evening.)
Anyway, amazing that it’s taken actual war in Europe to make the actual culture secretary realise that maybe – just maybe! – the enemy is a station like Russia Today and not the BBC. Like I said, maybe Nadine has realised that. Notwithstanding her tears, I don’t buy it myself. The one thing you can be absolutely sure of is that this government will be trying to cripple the BBC again in a few months, because at that point that particular position will suit them better once again. The Johnson administration doesn’t do immutable principles. They only do expedience. In fact, it’s occasionally hard not to see in Dorries a watered-down version of higher skilled monsters such as Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who yesterday claimed the BBC was being used to undermine Russia’s internal politics and security. She should speak to Nadine. I keep hearing from her and half the rest of the cabinet that the BBC undermines the UK’s internal politics. I can never remember exactly why – I think it’s something to do with talent salaries or running stories about the government that they don’t like.
Either way, the government now seems to be engaged in a number of hasty pivots. If these are genuine, then good. The time for a “let’s not, and say we did” approach has passed. But on the form book, promises to make the British political family completely legitimate are unconvincing. This week the prime minister has managed to knight one of his cronies and not do very much about any of Putin’s.

Where's the harm, the pond thought, in bunging it in anyway, before getting back to Polonius prattling about his new mortal enemy ...

 

 

 

Now it's time for the usual Polonial history lesson, and he's still frothing at the mouth so much he still seems to have entirely forgotten about the ABC, and their perfidious ways ...

 

 

And so to the last gobbet, and the pond couldn't help but notice that in it Polonius referred to the Jewish Zelensky.

The pond isn't sure why. Unless pointedly contrasting his situation to the neo-Nazis that are everywhere, including the GOP, Zelensky has pointedly made a point about not dragging his religious affiliations into the fray. 

The Times of Israel became so vexed by this, they went on a hunt back in 2091 asking Is Ukraine's top presidential candidate Jewish? (paywall affected)

...Boleslav Kapulkin, the spokesman for Chabad Lubavitch in Odessa, said that he is under the impression that Zelensky converted to Christianity.
“I don’t know for sure if he converted, but I heard that he mentioned that he is the godfather of his friends’ children, or that they are the godparents of his children, something like that,” Kapulkin said.
Indeed, five years ago, numerous Ukrainian news outlets reported that Zelensky christened his son Kirill in one of the oldest churches in the Ukrainian capital. As gifts, the baby received a Christian Bible and a cross on a chain. The reports never mentioned that Zelensky was Jewish, but one article noted that “his parents did not attend the christening ceremony.”
On the third hand, there are also photos on the internet of Zelensky attending a Holocaust memorial ceremony in a synagogue in 2010 and visiting a synagogue in his hometown of Kryvyi Rih in 2011.
Regardless of whether he converted to Christianity or not, Vyacheslav Likhachev, the spokesman for the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities of Ukraine, claimed that Zelensky’s electoral campaign is being financed by Jewish-Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky.

Ah, so there's a third hand angle that keeps him in the fold ...

And so to that Polonial Jewish mention ...

 

 

Actually Zelensky can chew gum and fight at the same time, which is more than can be said for the sociopath sending out hit squads to nail him ...

Sure, he's got a lot on his plate now, as happens when sociopaths are on the loose, but back in the day he knew that there were many wars to fight ...

And that's a heap more than you'll get out of sociopathic Vlad the impaler, cheerfully fucking Ukraine and the planet ...

Oh Zelensky, it never ends, another useless accepter of climate science for Polonius to rant about it ...

And now, it being the weekend, the pond sometimes likes a little light relief in the form of a bubbleheaded bimbo, keenly aware that an election is pending, and with the same keen mind as Polonius when it comes to greenies and indies and such like ...

But why does the pond use such offensive labels when confronted by just another rant about indies and such like, it being a staple for the reptiles of the lizard Oz?

Well it's when a bubbleheaded booby talks of word salads, and then proceeds to set a splendid word salad at table ...

The challenge is to count the number of words deployed in the word salad ...

 

This is of course just a shameless borrowing from the mango Mussolini ... 

Others have written at length about alternative facts, as at the Graudian here ...

Some even managed a quiz comparing the mango Mussolini to George here ...

...Many of Trump’s denials, evasions, and obfuscations seem to come right out of the Costanza handbook. Both men are self-centered, prone to angry outbursts, and deeply obsessed with the state of their hairlines. In most situations, Trump appears to adhere to George’s philosophy that one should always do the opposite of your instincts. (How else to explain suggesting the women who’d accused him of sexual assault were too ugly for their allegations to be true?) I’ve never heard him exclaim “Trump is getting upset!” But at the rate he’s going, it’s only a matter of days.
With that in mind, we put together a little quiz to test your knowledge. Who said it: Costanza or Trump? Above you’ll find a dozen quotes that came from either the Donald or the George. It’s up to you to decide who said it, and to see if you truly are the master of your domain (and whether that domain is Trump Tower). Good luck.

 Good luck? The pond will settle for a relevant cartoon ...

 

The real game of course is to diss indies so that Slomo might not get a fright ... and now on with the word salad ...

 

As a an aside, Freedom Boy of the IPA blathering about strong links is a hoot, but we're still getting to the word salad, and it isn't fairy floss, though the point is to downplay the bloody bad movie that Slomo and his merry gang staged... 

 

 

 

 

And so to the word salad in full flight...

 

You know, nitty gritty, ugly, un-sexy, something of substance to say, internal oversight, vetting processes, the popular over what is required, the courage to refocus on matters of substance ... and then to top it off, a dressing of "Now is the time ..."

 

 

And that's why the pond thinks it's just kept the company of a bubbleheaded booby doing her best for Slomo, and in the process not offering a single suggestion regarding policies or government actions ... except the courage to refocus on matters of substance, and "now is the time"...

Even your average politician trying out for a role in Yes Minister could do better ...

And so to finish with our Gracie, and the pond realises this means dropping Dame Slap and the bromancer into a late arvo slot, but such was the bromancer's passion that he went on for yonks ... and presented an Everest to climb that's higher than Everest. It was so challenging, it was best left to expert herpetologists, away from the maddened throng ...

The good thing about our Gracie is that the pond can slip in a few infallible Popes to break things up a little ...

 Of course they would have worked just as well intercut with the bubbleheaded booby, but it's been a long haul ...

 

And if nothing else, our Gracie is inclined to be short ...

 

Splendid stuff, a striking blow, Vlad the impaler banned from enjoying a surf at Bondi ... and so to another infallible Pope ...

The real question, the matter of substance, is where our Gracie is going with all this ...

 

Ah, the old much has been done, but much remains to be done, and what remains to be done and the job ahead can't be understated, and even though the pond was already as full as a goog thanks to the previous word salad, we're back with another word salad ... and talk of leadership and confidence and constructive manners and all that jazz ...

Well having run a few infallible Popes, why not end with one ... as we're dwelling on intractable issues that won't go away anytime soon ...

 Now that'll get Polonius spluttering all over again ...