In which the pond joins the hole in the bucket man on the battlefield, but keeps on getting distracted ...

 

If anyone wanted a reminder that News Corp is a criminal organisation in service to a con artist, snake oil salesman and very cunning criminal, they only had to look at recent events in the United States ...

Alas and alack, the pond's beat is restricted to the local office in 'leet Surry Hills, and this day's outing by the commentariat was mind-numbingly dull ...

The pond refuses to indulge The Mocker, if only because News Corp has been righteous in its indignation at anonymous bloggers. 

Remember the golden days?

In years to come our children will ask us, "What did you do in the Great Blog War of '10?"
Well, OK, not really. But last Monday's Media story revealing Canberra public servant Greg Jericho as the writer of the (formerly) anonymous political blog Grog's Gamut certainly triggered a big battle in social media circles.
On one side of the battleline were bloggers, some academics and many social media denizens; on the other, mostly the mainstream media. And early on, both camps were shooting on sight and taking no prisoners.
Microblogging site Twitter was the principle battleground, with a multitude of users attacking the reporter, James Massola, in particular, and The Australian, and mainstream media in general.
There was fierce debate over whether Jericho was a significant enough figure to justify outing, and even if he was, whether the story warranted the relatively high-profile treatment it got.

Where's James Massoloa now? 

Where's a reptile willing to out the childish clown parading about in the guise of The Mocker, a mask worse than that worn by the milk-drinking Phantom? 

And even worse, the disguise is just a chance to pound away at the ABC yet again, when prattling Polonius quite boldly does the mocking every weekend, without feeling the need to dress up as a Mocker ...

Sorry, no link to the quote ... that was the reptiles gloating about the exposure, and the pond only mentions it to explain why the pond was reduced to a dire state of ennui, compounded at the dreary thought of having to deal with the meretricious Merritt doing a variation on the Killer Creighton routine ... so quickly the reptiles forget the killing fields ...

As for democracy damaged, has the meretricious Merritt ever taken a second glance at the work of News Corp and his kissing cousins at Faux Noise?

No, there was nothing for it but to retreat to the usual Friday pond fare, a sojourn with our Henry, and what was even more devastating was that the pond was inclined to agree with the hole in the bucket man's thesis ...

Dear sweet long absent lord, of course, of course ... this is what the bromancer should have been writing, but he's so keen to have his war with China by Xmas that he's forgotten the main game.

Even so, the pond began to chafe at the bit, feel the hobbles bite. 

Where was the fun in maintaining the war with Vlad the impaler, which is growing more bitter and desperate by the day? How could the pond do a segue to lighter, parochial stories?

Oh how good it is to see that business in NSW continues in the usual way ... it's always the developers, unless it's the hustlers doing the Oz hustle ...but what good news that our Gladys has landed on her feet, and that the Barilaro saga keeps barreling along ...

But where was the pond? 

Oh yes, still at the frontline ...though the pond couldn't quite see how a contribution from one of the weakest cartoonists in the country could help the cause, especially as it was entirely antithetical to our Henry's thesis of focussing on Vlad the impaler ...

Hmm, and quoting truly weird statistics isn't all that helpful ... precisely 40 per cent? 

Why if you divide 40% by a zillionth, you end up with the chance of of News Corp not falling into line with the mango Mussolini, which is to say one in a squillion ...

Oh okay, the pond is bored, and can't see any way to slip in an immortal Rowe, but what the heck ...

What a pity that the mutton Dutton will be missing all the fun ...

And then our Henry made a fatal slip. Sure it was accompanied by a reptile click bait video, but note the form of words ...

It was the excuse the pond had been waiting for ... the tendency of dictators, carnival clowns, con artists, snake oil salesman and wannabe coup leads to surround themselves with advisers who enthusiastically endorse their hubristic fantasies ...

Come on down Faux Noise, by way of Vanity Fair ...

Oh yes a lot of weird shit went down, especially that ranting by that drunk who once posed as a judge and by that compleat loon Jesse (not the gunslinger, the Faux noise conspiracy theorist), and did anyone see that joke on Colbert?

Boom tish, and now back to Vanity Fair for more brazen imitations of Al Capone being brazen ...

What do the local reptiles do? Pretend they're not kissing cousins to Faux Noise, and drag out little Johnny, dust off the moths, and run this sort of yarn ...

Why if you followed that line, News Corp isn't fit to be a media company ...

As if anyone is fooled by that bit of local pixie dust ...

Besides, the mango Mussolini is a legend, capable of Herculean feats and immense fund raising, as good as any American hustler, sending daily begging letters to Lawrence O'Donnell ...

At least 440 times!

Sorry, sorry, after all that, the pond must finish up with the hole in the bucket man ...

Um, will anyone tell the hole in the bucket man that the calls are coming from inside the house?

But the pond has already noted the activities of Tuckyo Rose and all the other lickspittle fellow-travelling lackeys at Faux Noise in love with dictators, coups, the appeasing mango Mussolini, Vlad the impaler, and Josh Hawley's balls ...

Sorry you'd need to get past the paywall to read the full WaPo piece by David Von Drehle ...

And so on ... and yes, dear hole in the bucket man, another Faux Noise favourite child ...

What else? Well it should be clear by now that even in the face of a dire ongoing war, this is frivolous Friday for the pond, so all that's left to do is to note the angle of the tree killer edition ...

That "step on the gas" gag about a faster green push, infantile joke that it was, also led the digital edition ...

And there was Jimbo "free speech" Molan entirely missing the hole in the bucket man's point ...still with the war on China, when there's already war with Russia ...

The pond did take a brief interest in the mention of dinkum, sweet, innocent, clean Oz coal, but the yarn was a bust ...

Oh indeed, the outrage at the thought of taxing dinkum clean innocent pure Oz coal ... talk about a stunned mullet sounding stunned ... but there was an upside.

It allowed the pond one final throw of the dice, one final segue this frivolous Friday, over to the infallible Pope caught in a splendid fever dream ...