Who would expect prattling Polonius to mention the attempted coup in the United States, or the extensive coverage that beguiled the pond?
The whole point of Polonius on the pond is to ensure a sleepy Sunday, and this outing was no exception ...
The pond can't understand Polonial masochism, exemplified by starting off with that reference to ABC radio. Polonius purports to be deeply irritated by the ABC, but it's always ABC this, and ABC that, and nary a word for commercial radio or commercial television ...
It suggests he'd love to be inside the tent ... if only the insiders would have him ...
The pond gets it. Polonius listens to the ABC, including breakfast, so he can get deeply agitated. But is this not the perfect definition of a weird masochist? Forget about the sex thing, try this: (in general use) a person who enjoys an activity that appears to be painful or tedious.
As in, "what kind of masochist would take part in such an experiment? Listen endlessly to the ABC in order to get endlessly agitated by the ABC ..."
As if speaking to a duly elected teal was some kind of colour heresy of the Marimekko curtain kind ...
Postscript: no one noticed the errors because no one cared, because everyone expects the pedant's page to be littered with errors, because that's what inept pedants do, and the pond wouldn't be so sure of Polonius's blithe nonsense about the Senate either, or his attempt to rewrite the joys of Malware and SloMo and their Senate experiences ...
Not to worry, the pond has other fish to fry this Sunday, including that whale of a serve of simpleton Sharri, and must move on to a most unhappy Gracie ...
Phew, the bitterness is palpable, and it didn't get any better, as the pond began to hum ...
He was born on a summer day 1951
And with a slap of a hand
He landed as an only son
His mother and father said what a lovely boy
We'll teach him what we learned
Ah yes just what we learned
We'll dress him up warmly and
We'll send him to school
It'll teach him how to fight
To be nobody's fool
Oh what a lonely boy
Oh what a lonely boy
Oh what a lonely boy
In the summer of '53 his mother
Brought him a sister
And she told him we must attend to her needs
She's so much younger than you
Well he ran down the hall and he cried
Oh how could his parents have lied
When they said he was an only son
He thought he was the only one
And so on and on and on, and full of self pity, and the only upside that you had to be of an age to remember the song, or know it once existed ... or that
Andrew Gold was the son of
Exodus composer Ernest Gold ...
Never mind, on with Gracie's lament ...
Well there's always blogging, but just as our Gracie got into full song mode, the lament was over ...
What, she wants the mutton Dutton to be sensitive and caring? Fucking over national security is more his style ...
And now as a bonus, an extremely lengthy and tedious offering from simplistic Sharri.
Usually the pond doesn't bother with simpleton Sharri, who has been busy over the years explaining how the Chinese government hatched Covid so that they could force their citizens into a zero tolerance lockdown which has rocked dictator Xi to his core, especially when it came to the locking down of cities the size of Shanghai and Beijing ...
Even more to the point, in another country, the attempted coup might have warranted full coverage in an American-owned newspaper, but the pond will take its pleasures as it finds them ... and so this epic bout of navel-gazing must suffice ...
The pond should have warned that this experiment is only for thoroughly experienced reptile handlers. There are some 13 gobbets in the piece, and the level of tedium, ennui and masochism is high ...
But the pond stuck with it, because it was interested to see if there was a nanosecond's reflection on the epic failure of News Corp to flog its horse to the winning post, to bring home the bacon ...
As expected there's a lot of talk about rats in the ranks, but no mention of the epic failure of the king rat and his gang ... instead the keen Kean was in the firing line ...
And yet, and yet, for all the work of the keen Kean, it wasn't for want of of the reptiles trying, and trying hard, with any number of News Corp rags running with this sort of propaganda trick ...
So comical, how they loved the poking tongue, but it would be foolish to expect the navel-gazing, fluff-gathering Sharri to spend any time on meaningful introspection relating to the reptile role in the folly ...
Oh yes, plenty of stuff about the rats in the ranks, and yet when it came to the crunch, where was the deep reptile analysis of the attempted coup this weekend?
Oh right, and luckily siimplistic Sharri was on hand with an endless supply of sand of a different, but same, sort ...
The pond was left scratching its head why anyone should care that the oscillating fan called Deves as in the hunt for Warringah ... and was also left wondering when, if ever the reptiles might turn their attention to the attempted coup ...
Okay, okay, the pond is shamelessly using cartoons to get through the entire internal probing, what with internal probes often leading to pain ...
Yes, all that, but what about the attempted coup?
Oh right, that head in the sand routine is a just a News Corp meme ... back to the dissection by the shamelessly silly Sharri ...
Uh huh ... but still ...
Chances are that the pond will run out of cartoons before the reptiles run out of their supply of endless Sharri ...
But still there's a certain fascination in all this superficial introspection ... though the pond long ago gave up hope that there'd be any mention of the role News Corp played in the disaster ...
Never mind, there were still a few cartoons to hand, reminding the pond of another reptile-inspired disaster ...
Some might forget that the reptiles tried their hand at some half-hearted tranny bashing, and did their very best to invoke the culture wars and the climate wars, and now all that's left is regret and an analysis that entirely misses the point ...
Coulda woulda shoulda, and yet the reptiles did their very best, with the dog botherer lending a helping hand ...
Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves has defended her position on transgender children, saying the language concerning the issue is “confronting” and “very emotive". Ms Deves had previously issued a public apology and wiped her social media accounts – after posts criticising transgender children. While speaking with Sky News host Chris Kenny on the first day of pre-poll, Ms Deves appeared to double down on her comments. “I apologise for my language, I do not resile from my position,” Ms Deves said. “It’s very confronting, and it’s very ugly, so of course people are going to be offended.” Liberal candidate for Warringah Katherine Deves has defended her position on transgender children, saying the language concerning the issue is “confronting” and “very emotive”. Ms Deves had previously issued a public apology and wiped her social media accounts – after posts criticising transgender children. While speaking with Sky News host Chris Kenny on the first day of pre-poll, Ms Deves appeared to double down on her comments. “I apologise for my language, I do not resile from my position,” Ms Deves said. “It’s very confronting, and it’s very ugly, so of course people are going to be offended.”
Sorry, the pond doesn't link to the reptiles but does have a spare cartoon ...
The pond will no doubt run into a cartoon supply side crisis, but for the moment ...
Still no mention of the News Corp role in the folly? The question perhaps should have been, which one?
The reptiles were themselves so bored that they flung in a nostalgic snap of Josh, for old times' sake ... though you shouldn't expect any mention of the HUN and its double page spread and front page urging people to vote for Josh ...
Sorry Josh, the reptiles did their best, but now all must be forgotten, and all you get is a snap ...
In the next gobbet the reptiles also resorted to that favourite ploy of a click bait video as a form of distraction ...
You can see how that would play: "true conservatives" being ripped off, which means that the reptiles, who went all in with the Morrison government, weren't true conservatives, whatever that is, though they've done a lot of ripping off ...
Yes, the pond had reached its cartoon shortage crisis, and stepped away from the coup cartoons, though if you think about it for a nanosecond, playing dead to survive an attack is just what the reptiles have done regarding their own participation in the election ... not to mention the attempted coup ...
What did the pond get out of this epic trudge? Well it was no wiser as to why wannabe dictator for life Xi launched Covid so he could lock down China and introduce chaos into world markets, nor was the pond any clearer in its understanding of that attempted coup, or the devotion the reptiles displayed before the election ...
And there's also the sweet nectar of the reptile tears, as supplied by shameless Sharri ...
As for the rest? How's it looking?
Well it's the polling you see, and nothing to do with the reptiles going in boots and all.
When it comes to the reptiles, whether coup or election, all was silent, all was forgotten, all was glossed over, and so it likely will be a long time before the pond returns to simpleton Sharri, astute at ignoring the News Corp elephant in the room ...
And so on and on, but at least it provides a segue, so that the pond can end with a Wilcox ...
Polonius: "Malcolm Turnbull's government managed with a majority of one. For the most part Scott Morrison's government got by with a majority of two." And Julia Gillard got by with a minority of four - aided and abetted though by Adam Bandt, Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor. And yet:
ReplyDelete"Julia Gillard had the highest rate of passing legislation with a rate of 0.495, followed by Bob Hawke at 0.491"
Was Julia Gillard the most productive prime minister in Australia's history?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/jun/28/australia-productive-prime-minister
Polonius again, with his little tale about Bert Kelly questioning Jim Cairns: "if printing money is a good solution to unemployment, why not print more of the stuff and get rid of unemployment altogether" to which Cairns supposedly replied "We might do precisely that". So Polonius comments that "He [Cairns] never recovered from this question time stumble."
ReplyDeleteI rather suspect that it was many more and different things from which Cairns didn't recover, one named Juni. But that was then when both zero government debt and NAIRU were gods. The Howard government with treasurer Costello actually did achieve virtual zero government debt by selling off about $72billion of revenue generating government assets (Testra, DASFLEET etc) and thereby condemned all later governments to extensive borrowing.
And Howard/Costello had to reinstitute "borrowing" via issuing government bonds anyway because the financial industry complained that they couldn't make money by investing themselves and their clients in secure, guaranteed interest bearing bonds.
GB - interesting to read Polonius citing Bert Kelly. There are occasional moves by the libertarians/IPA to recast Bert into their version of economic warrior, but too many Liberal and Country/National MPs ignored, or quietly loathed him during his time in the House, because he kept going on about tariffs.
DeleteOur Polonius, as some kind of functionary in the Fraser administration, would have been well aware of that, and the happy circumstance that saw the quite ineffectual O”Halloran Giles replace Bert when northern South Australian electorates were realigned and amalgamated.
Part of Bert’s difficulty with the Fraser administration was that those economic vandals, the Labor Government, had actually cut tariffs - all tariffs. None of the steady drip of hearings, and representations, on each, carefully isolated category, which could go on for years, and culminate in a huge announcement that such tariff had been increased - to the applause of the Australian manufacturers.
Fraser and his economic pathfinder of a Treasurer, John Winston Howard, did add their own wrinkle to this - by adding import quotas (NOT TARIFFS, QUOTAS - different thing entirely) which made life even easier for local industry. They no longer had to produce actual things - they could do quite nicely thank you just out of selling the quotas that were ‘grandfathered’ to them.
That also put some conflict before ‘Financial Review’, because, on the one hand, they were supposedly promoting more open trade policy, even as their advertising office was scooping up way more revenue from people advertising to sell, and others to buy, import quota. Well, when in doubt - follar the dollar.
Of course, JWH, as soon as Fraser was safely out of the way, claimed that none of this was his doing, ever, but whoever worked him over did not leave any visible marks, so we will never know.
I had several conversations with Bert, who could be found in Burnside Library working on his columns, and at the odd country meeting where the local Agricultural Bureau saw value in having him speak to actual farmers. He was nothing like the ‘warrior’ that IPA et. al. tried to make him.
I have absolutely no recall of Bert Kelly whatsoever, so thanks for that background, Chad. As for JWH and his "quotas", well what can be said - he was no neoliberal, that one.
DeleteTo see how an actual journalist goes about investigations - The Klaxon
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theklaxon.com.au/
has interesting follow-up on the CEO of Guide Dogs Victoria appearing in election material for Josh Frydenberg. In the process, Anthony Klan points to many other interests not known to have much to do with the recruitment, training or allocation of guide dogs, but finding the organisation otherwise useful to LNP objectives.
Oh - the (now former) CEO is the unfortunately named Karen Hayes - these people should be named.
The Klaxon article is much better written than Sharri’s usual hoovering of factoids and things that someone told someone, and actually imparts useful information.
Warning - do not bring it up if you have been in the habit of donating to Guide Dogs Victoria.
Thanks for the link, Chad:
Delete"Corporatised" Guide Dogs Victoria: a charity broken
https://www.theklaxon.com.au/home/guide-dogs
Just one more case, amongst many, of "malfeasance, misfeasance, nonfeasance, unfeasance, afeasance", but no 5 o'clock shadow this time.
Gracie on Morrison's "quiet Australians": "The disappontment in the quiet Australians is great now because everyone is doing their best to forget they ever existed." Aww, g'wan Gracie, just ask $loMo what it was that so upset his invisible friend that he denied the talker in tongues a second miracle. Lots of us "whispering Australians" would like to know.
ReplyDeleteBut in truth, as someone with some small experience of it all, Gracie has done well in bringing up a very serious failing of Australian "Judeo-Christian democracy", especially as most of the victims are just ignored. And it's been going on for a very long time.
"so it likely will be a long time before the pond returns to simpleton Sharri, astute at ignoring the News Corp elephant in the room ..." Well yes, but that's just the first rule of ultra-partisan agitproppery: totally ignore any contrary testimony. It's also the first commandment of reptilism of which Sharri is a prime exponent. But all things considered, she almost came across as a trainee journalist which was kinda surprising, at least to me, given her rampant history.
ReplyDeleteBut surprisingly, Sharri almost managed to imitate a journalist for a fair bit of it.
Despite his correction of a couple of earlier errors, Hendo still seems to lack an awareness of how the electoral system and Parliamentary politics work. By what rationale can you counter Greens / Teals claims of a “mandate” by lumping together the votes of all other parties and calling that a mandate when they will never work together? Why is it so strange that Allegra Spender should set out her political priorities - hasn’t she been elected to Parliament on the basis of pursuing them? How can Polonius have failed to absorb some basic awareness of such matters while spending so much of time obsessively watching and listening to ABC political coverage?
ReplyDeleteMind you, it’s probably not that surprising from someone who thinks the height of political insight is to quote 47 year old exchange involving an obscure backbencher like Bert Kelly. I recall Bert’s main achievement as writing a weekly “Bulletin” column for years that was a masterwork in tedium in an already dull magazine. Hmmm - perhaps Hendo modelled his style on that of Bert….
Hendo lacks an awareness of a great many things I find, Anony. In fact I'm not sure I've ever caught him showing an awareness if anything - except maybe the ABC's program list.
DeleteWithout wishing to be a Polonius wannabe, I noticed that in the first paragraph of Shari’s epic, she refers to Matt Kean as the second most senior Liberal in the NSW Parliament.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure Matt would find that description flattering, but the Deputy Leader of the NSW Parliamentary Liberal Party is actually Stuart Ayres.
I look forward to that level of accuracy being maintained as I continue to slog through this…. whatever it is.
Scotty spent half an hour on the phone to Josh on election night? Struth, what an epic blub that must have been!
ReplyDelete“I thought they really, really loved me, Scotty….”
:-) Yair, we all did, Joshy, we all did.
DeleteAs far as I can tell - and admittedly my brain is meltdown after finishing Sharri’s airport novel - it all boils down to this: it was all the fault of those traitors who failed to back Scotty and his tactics to the hilt. Even though he had a delusional belief in his own infallibility, clearly didn’t have a clue what was actually going on and took zero notice of the views of those around him. Right.
ReplyDeleteBen Morton sounds like a tragic loss to the Liberals - “he didn’t want to do the hard slog in Opposition, so he doesn’t really mind losing”. Such fighting spirit!
An entertaining read, Chad:
ReplyDeleteAlan Kohler: The two great stupidities behind our inflation
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/finance-news/2022/06/09/inflation-stupidities-alan-kohler/