Sorry, the pond doesn't have a "skip intro" function.
If anything, there's a good case that with the reptiles in the house, all you'll ever get is a never-ending intro, and in that spirit the pond intros the bromancer, in typical, top bro, fully woke liberal form ...
The pond appreciates that line "not because I'm a conservative but because I'm a liberal" will produce howls of derision and gales of laughter, and so immediately decided to introduce a distraction in the form of a grundling ...
The grundle keeps grundling away in Crikey, (paywall) raging at liberals and progressives giving SloMo rent-free living space in their heads (What’s wrong with a little creationism?, Who cares if tranny and poofter bashing is the new Xian sport?, Do the lizards of Oz live rent-free in the grundle's head?)
Every so often the prevert for the sake of perversity, the swimmer against the tide, the iconoclast, the determined eccentric, the nonconformist, the dissing dissident, the radical ratbag, steps out with a piece that shows the benefits of herpetological studies.
It proves to the pond yet again the eternal healing power and the harmony of the spheres that can be produced by distracting a wayward grundling beast by getting back to the main game … ravaging reptiles.
Have we finally found it? The single greatest self-own by News Corp in its long history of baiting left-liberal news? On Saturday the Guardian published an obituary of Archie Roach, in which the writer made reference to the “so-called ‘stolen generations'”. As the Guardian made clear when it removed the “so-called” the next day, the error was made in trying to introduce global readers to the concept of “stolen generations”. Not good enough for Sophie Elsworth, the culture war hack labelled “media reporter” who then ran a major story about what a disgrace this was.
This will be news to News Corp’s readers, since their No. 1 boy, Andrew Bolt, has used his column and Sky News TV show for 20 years to deny that the Stolen Generations even existed — claiming, utterly incorrectly, that no child was removed for anything other than “welfare” reasons.
Wait, it gets better. Who did they go to for a rent-a-quote about how racist the Guardian was? Nyunggai Warren Mundine, who was happy to dilate on how racist the Guardian was for leaving the “so-called” phrase up for 24 hours. Mundine, who not only appears frequently on Bolt’s show but got a Sky News show of his own (with a government subsidy), joining the Sky Pravda Dark crowd.
You’d think this was a high price to pay to make the Guardian squirm a bit. Many of News Corp’s readers go there to have their reactionary views endlessly affirmed. Now they’re being told that it’s shocking shocking to use a phrase that (unintentionally) throws doubt on the Stolen Generations? What’s going on here?
What’s going on is that debate around Indigenous issues is tearing News Corp apart. This has arisen because of the push for a “Voice”, championed by Noel Pearson, News Corp columnist and darling of Chris Mitchell, Paul Kelly and other grandees. The current push is being led by Chris Kenny (“led by Chris Kenny”, there’s a phrase) who warned that the chance of the Voice getting up should not be “destroyed by the left”. Yes, Chris, because that’s really the major threat to the Voice, not, say, The Bolt Report, the show your show directly precedes on Sky Pravda Dark.
So is this some three-dimensional chess thing going on, the Oz playing both sides to advantage blah blah — haha, no. Truth is, it’s completely thrown by the comprehensive nature of the Coalition defeat, have no response to it, nothing to offer the right side of politics by way of guided reflection. Mostly, it’s thrown by what the 2022 election exposed — that it has no power to direct the vote. Powerlessness always has this effect — you end up squabbling like Russian exiles in a Paris teashop. With a bit of luck, News Corp will hack away at itself for months to come.
Trouble is, powerlessness may well be one effect the Voice suffers, should it get going — its lack of ability to actually make anything happen will sew useless and unwanted division among its participants, as the frustration mounts at working in a constitutionally ordained talking shop. Still, that’s another issue. For the moment, get the kale popcorn and kombucha, sit back and watch The Australian enforce wokeness concerning the Stolen Generations. And stay tuned for the Paul Murray meat raffle. This week, tofurkey.
Sorry, grundler, this day brofurkey, and allegedly a very liberal brofurkey at that, and as usual you've got it wrong ... because the idea is to publish the controversy, and the more heat and the less light, the better for all ... and if it takes the bromancer blathering on about state religions without a shred of irony from a follower of the Papal States, then so be it ...
Of course Mundine had been mentioned in despatches by the grundler, but even more curious was this poignant juxtaposition in the commentary section of the lizard Oz this day ...
Aussies of goodwill, dinkum ancient Troy? But the lizard Oz is already far down the path of bitterness and division, because how else to stir up the base of ancient white bigots and sell more tree killer editions?
Now back to the fundamentalist tyke bromancer in a fever dream of liberalism ... peddling exactly the same Dame Slap nightmare of an activist high court ruining everything, and quite possibly trampling on the white dreaming...
BTW, the pond uses the term "Aboriginal Australians" rather than "Aborigines" because it consulted with Aboriginal people and discovered ....
Oh okay that was actually in a pdf for Flinders university, and besides, if you want an alternative view, you can head back to the ABC in 2011, to what seems a world away ...
The point is that almost any topic, perhaps even root canal therapy, is better than the bromancer doing a standard reptile rant about blacks having a voice, and then drifting off down illiberal memory lane ...
Luckily there was a Wilcox cartoon to hand, so that discussing the idea that a fundamentalist Catholic could give a toss about liberalism could be avoided ...
And so to the usual Groaning, which the pond offers strictly as a service to devotees of the Groaner, with only a sparse commentary to get in the way of the groaning pearls of groaned wisdom ....
The point about a good Groaning is that it is always unhappy, because the Groaner is always deeply miserable ... nor would she ever appreciate the rich irony in a header that urges "call time on the blame game", only to be followed by an epic fit of Groaner blaming ... and there's no need to guess who will cop it in the Groaner's blame game ...
As noted, the pond merely runs the Groaning as a service, much like if it ran a picture theatre, it would probably try to have a midnight session of The Shining every Tuesday ...
Others may pick at the feast as they will, the pond is pleased to get to the end ... and so will merely be content to run an infallible Pope, celebrating the very best outcome for the Groaner when it comes to balancing the books ...
And so to a final gobbet of groaning and the blame game in full swing ...
And so to a bonus, and this day the lizard Oz was in top form ... because of course any discussion of the global situation, climate science, and such like must be preceded by a snap of a coal-fired power station in eastern Germany ....
As for the rest, the usual "just the hard economic facts ma'am", "just the hard economic facts ma'am scribbled on the back of an envelope and posted to the lizard Oz", the pond was reminded of this bit of graffiti ...
Yes, it's truly odd, but already, and only a few days back on the reptile case, the pond is in full distraction mode ... especially as it can sense a bit of promotion at work in this talk of modelling (p.s. remember to hire the modelling team for better modalities) ....
At this point the pond can hear someone calling out in the distance, who are these people? And as always the pond is here to help ...
If the print is too small, you can always head off here to see the whole three person team that makes up Macroeconomics Advisory ...
All the pond could think was that the world was doomed ...
Why does Hollywood always get there ahead of the pond?
Never mind, there's just a short gobbet to go ... and relax, after all that preening and display of modelling finery, a Victa motor mower solution is to hand ...
Let's hope? The pond is in abject despair, and decided to end this post and head off to the toilet for a little reading ...
Hmmm, so going on about "keeping wages low", the Groany gives us this: "...the prevailing legislation right through the Coalition's terms in government was the Fair Work Act, a Labor creation." So, Groany, either the Coalition fully supported the FWA and the decisions made under it, or it was too lazy or stupid to change things for the better.
ReplyDeleteOr both. So tell us Groany, what should the Coalition have done and why didn't it do that ?
Macroeconomics Advisory - write ‘about $7.5 bn for each gigawatt retired, and grandly invite ’Anyone who has better figures based on a working model using actual data is welcome to provide them. It certainly would be nice to have a policy direction based on logic, evidence and the laws of physics if that is not too much to ask . . . ‘
ReplyDeleteA few months back, Brookfield and Mike Cannon-Brookes offered around $8 bn for AGL. For the whole kit and caboodle. The generating component of that is around 3.7 gigawatts, and they were happy to retire that just as soon as they could, offering real money to do so. But it seems, in this case, the Flagship has paused from its regular denunciation of ‘models’ being used in any part of the discussion on responses to climate change, to accept Macroeconomics Advisory’s plucka number, because it is, well - BIG. And we must have BIG scary numbers in the name of f u d.
I did smile at Macroeconomics Advisory’s neat advertorial for ‘Sunlands’ - technology that is ‘world’s leading edge’ - just don’t trouble them to explain how it works, and how and where it might be wired into the grid. And you really cannot argue with ‘one-tenth or less than the cost of battery storage.’
I guess that last paragraph simply assumes a wide, intuitive, knowledge of the laws of physics.
The pond knew MA 15+ mob would get people going ... but just think Victa, Chadders, and it will all be clear ...
DeleteAh Dorothy - in the back of my mind there is an image of Mr Richardson's first prototype of the eponymous mower, and my recollection is that he used a can that had contained sections of peaches as the petrol tank. I have been trying to imagine what the appropriate piece of adaptation might be for the 'Sunlands' thermal storage prototype. I suspect there is no ' Eski' that would hold graphite at 1000℃, so perhaps it is just a clumsy tug at the heartstrings - the little Aussie inventor who shows the world.
DeleteGiven that Mr Richardson's great leap in technology came 70 years ago, the numbers of us with heartstrings tuggable by reference to 'Victa' is shrinking.
Anyway, time to fill the tank of my Sarich Orbital SUV with the oil left over from last night's fish fry, and whiz into town.
I suppose the Sunlands technology could require some grid work, Chad; upgrading our merely 'gold-plated' grid to a fully up-to-date 'platinum-plated' one: that would add a few billion per GW, I expect.
DeleteSo Stephen Anthony (Managing Director of Macroeconomics) gives us this: "In all these cases electricity is taken from renewables and converted to high-temperature storage." And it's a reptile adjunct telling us this ? Like, he couldn't find anywhere else ?
ReplyDeleteBut ok, at least he is telling us about something estimated to be "in the order of one-tenth or less than the cost of battery storage." Though I'm not sure I can recall any serious proposals to store very large amounts of energy in batteries - more for short-term coverage and grid management.
So, how come we haven't heard much about it ? Are there problems that Macroeconomics isn't telling us about ? And what about hydrogen: either as H combustion engines or fuel cells or even just burning it to turn water into steam. How does that compare with battery storage ? And with heat storage ?
And keep in mind that we're already developing H-based technology:
Hydrogen fuel stations to be built between Sydney and Melbourne under $20m plan
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/18/hydrogen-fuel-stations-to-be-built-between-sydney-and-melbourne-under-20m-plan
So, when Twiggy Forrest's 'green hydrogen' really gets going, we'll have 'renewable energy' absolutely everywhere.
GB - this link shows how much Macroeconomics Advisory and Sunlands are in each other's pockets. It seems the 'Sunlands' idea puts a big pile of graphite - of which they just happen to have options on a likely deposit - where the coal-fired generator used to be, and that is a high temperature storage. 100 000 tonnes per gigawatt. MA does slip in the odd caveat about the technology actually being proven, and its likely commercial availability, but -
Deletehttps://www.sunlandsco.com/ws/media-library/c50a3d59e2c24ca9be1e6231dd44c80a/qsp_completion_of_national_electricity_market_study_mar22.pdf
They do say that no major grid upgrade will be necessary, so that's hopeful. I would like this technology to actually work if all the requisites can be brought together, so I hope it isn't just another 'fusion power' exercise - ie that it will work "eventually", like in maybe 20, 30 or 40 years.
DeleteIn the meantime, hydrogen technology is on the go; who will win ? Or will it be both ?
GB - I did not intend to comment on the Dame Groan ‘offering’ this day, mainly because of the snide comments - ‘Chalmers’ understanding of the factors that drive productivity is feeble’ - even as she inadvertently agrees with him on investment in energy. Our Dame tells us that Australia is a world leader in terms of renewable energy investment’ - but concedes that that alone is a bit like being top flea on a dead dog. We need appreciably more investment in generation, and in distribution, and would have had it but for the Angus and - well, the whole COALition, who couldn’t even get the interim gas supplementation going.
ReplyDeleteBut the Dame again pulls a ‘bait and switch’ - as befits a sometime member of the Productivity Commission. It seems being a member of the Productivity Commission is a bit like being a member of a Lodge - you take an oath not to reveal the secrets of promoting productivity.
The ‘bait and switch’ is the ‘As for investing - also known as spending taxpayer money - in local manufacturing.’ Nope. We had several years of our banking system offering money at virtually no cost, to boost private business - that good ole ‘free enterprise’ that supposedly underpins our economy. Where did that money go? For businesses - way too much went into mergers, acquisitions and buying in shares. Those activities tend to reduce competitiveness (so are well regarded by the intricately intertwined boards of our corporations) so blunt gains in productivity.
And, of course, the big banks sluiced as much as they could into the ‘investment’ housing portfolios of their better-regarded customers. The same buildings changing hands every couple of years for steady capital gains of 10-20%, trumpeted by the ‘finance’ writers of our mass media. Difficult to explain how those transactions contribute to productivity, but they do help to reduce the take in tax for the government of the day.
Oh we are getting the bestest economic commentary you could wish for today.
Oh, but I always enjoy your refudiation (tm Sarah Palin) of Her Groaniness and today's commentary was no exception. So do please keep it up, you have an appreciative audience of at least one.
DeleteReciprocal, GB - and to all the other contributors, who make this almost a modern (and electronic) Algonquin table (shape being immaterial). We have Jersey Mike for extra perspective, and I cannot imagine the site that would so suit the remarkable talent of Kez as this one does. One advance on the famous Algonquin is the regular serve of the best of cartoons from so many sources, to stimulate our individual minds.
ReplyDeleteThe pond would long ago have given up Chadders, but for the learning offered by the commenters, for wisdom garnered from the reptiles, there be none ...
DeleteDon't do half bad yourself, DP. And who knows where all the very best cartoons live ?
Delete“A kind of Australian Gettysburg Address”???
ReplyDeleteGet your hand off it, Bromancer; you’ll go blind(er).
Ah but the Bro is about to have a ball, Anony:
DeleteAustralia's military structure, preparedness and investments to be reviewed for first time in a decade
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-02/defence-strategy-review-conducted-by-stephen-smith/101293878
So, more nuclear subs and fewer tanks, do we reckon ? After all, surely the reviewers will earnestly consult a military expert like the Bro, won't they ?
But hey: "first time in a decade" ? Just another little omission from 9 years of Coalition rule.