In which prattling Polonius and the bromancer are on their usual jihads for the pond's Melbourne Sunday meditation ...

 

The pond might be out of town, or more likely out of mind, but there was simply no way it could allow a meditative Sunday to pass without the spectre of prattling Polonius railing at the ABC ...

The endless repetition is way better than counting sheep, and it's a handy distraction from the reliable bigotry of angry Sydney Anglicans ... a tribe who once turned up at the pond alongside the Pellists, but who are now far too predictable in their gay bashing and their endless quest for complimentary women ...

As a bonus, the reptiles purchased at spectacular expense a library snap from Alamy which simply exudes the 1950s, a period in which Polonius resides ...

The pond is giving its travelogue snaps a break, but the pond couldn't help but note as it did a quick tour of the Potter this Les Tanner effort c. 1970, and be immediately reminded of Polonius and his gods ...

It's probably the most useful form of Ming the Merciless the pond has ever seen, and it reminded the pond that when it came to Ming and Polonius and the Vietnam war, they were on the wrong side of history ...

And so to a long burst of Polonius hitting top form ...

One of the leading intellectuals of his time? That surely must mean there was a big deficit in intellectuals at the time.

The pond once had the pleasure of being turned down by Ashbolt for a job, but bears no grudge. He was likely right in his choice, but all the same, he hardly constituted a major intellectual force.

The pond knows that it's the business of the commentariat to inflate straw dogs so that they might seem like fierce, terrifying enemies, but when you look at Ashbolt's actual publications, they're extraordinarily predictable and of their times ...

Of course if you happened to be an extremist right wing ratbag of the Polonial kind, the notion that the Vietnam war was a waste of time, space, lives and energy remains an anathema and you can still see the odd attempt by Polonius to justify it ...

And now on with the usual mindless, childish repetition by Polonius that the ABC is a conservative-free zone ... as you might expect from someone who prides himself on being on the wrong side of history as much as possible ...

It goes without saying - though the pond has said it many times, and will say it again - that Polonius is routinely on the wrong side of history, which explains his indignation and alarm ... but then we all know that B. A. Santamaria worshipped Franco, and that Polonius in his day fellow travelled with B.A. and couldn't shake his fixation, to the point of writing a book about the man ...

Launching that book, the onion muncher said ...

...He might have lost the fight for the soul of the Labor Party in the 1950s. He might have despaired of the direction of the church, despite admiring Pope John Paul II and Cardinal Pell among other prelates. He might have privately despised many of Australia’s public figures, including some who had helped him.

Yet if his life was the failure he often protested it was, it was a magnificent failure that changed and improved our country and hundreds if not thousands of its leaders.

Of course, he was profoundly right on the big struggle that shaped our times.

“When the bullets of the communists hit the statue of Jesus outside the Cathedral of Valladolid, for some it was just lead striking brass,’ he famously told the great Melbourne University Spanish Civil War debate; ‘but for me they were piercing the heart of Christ the King.’

You see? The pond can more than match Polonius when it comes to repetition.

That noted, the pond can cheerfully live without Ashbolt and without Franco lovers ushering in decades in the wilderness for Spanish people while blathering about the heart of Christ the King ...

And if that bout of Jesus weeping isn't enough, here's another, courtesy of the bromancer, embarking on his once standard jihad ...

Questions flooded the pond's mind at the return of the jihad.

Will it last long enough to replace the bromancer's endless war on China? Will the fickle bromancer ever turn to saving the people of Ukraine from Vlad the impaler? Or will he once again avoid the chance to tackle a genuine ratbag with territorial and imperial ambitions?

There you go, a brief aside, a nod towards Vlad the impaler, but before the bromancer gets into full stride, might the pond just mention another matter, as outlined in the Graudian ...

In recent times, Faux Noise has been pouring fuel on that fire, and the bromancer is himself employed by News Corp, profiteering American owner of that wretched outlet ... and having mentioned a genuine source of alarming terrorism, the pond can now get on with the next gobbet ...wherein the bromancer will naturally downplay and deflect, and get back to the Faux Noise agenda ...

Um, in the interest of sobering judgment and balance, a link to another story ...

CNN host Jim Acosta pointed to the Fox News network for its ongoing promotion of the theory the Buffalo, New York, shooter allegedly adopted as his philosophy. Police discovered a manifesto that addressed the "great replacement" theory, which holds that Democrats are somehow orchestrating an increase in people of color to intentionally dominate white people.

Fox hosts Laura Ingraham and Tucker Carlson have both hosted shows about the theory.

"What Tucker Carlson is doing by peddling 'replacement theory' and other white nationalist talking points is dangerous and we called it out today," Acosta said on Twitter. It was part of an interview with NAACP chair Derrick Johnson, who called on the Justice Department to step up efforts in regulating terrorism online.

"The real question is, what are we going to do as a society?" asked Johnson. "Are we going to continue allowing domestic terrorism to dominate the public discourse every so many months? We have seen this before. The question is now, when will the Justice Department aggressively pursue these domestic terrorist cells that are populating on social media platforms? When will social media platforms finally stand up to their community responsibility and remove these cells? When will News Corp. stop funding Fox News to promote theories that only divide and create tribalism?"

Advertisement:

The neighborhood that the Buffalo shooter specifically targeted was known for being predominantly Black. Not responding to white supremacist terrorism means that more of it will continue, Johnson said.

"How are we going to pivot away from this domestic terrorism that we have seen?" asked Johnson. "We have to come to grips with the racist dogma out there that is causing harm to the African American community, the Jewish community. We have to stand up as a society."

Acosta then showed a supercut of videos from Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has been pushing the "replacement" theory on his show for over a year. He noted that the clips are just "a few examples" of many that the researchers found. He went on to show the New York Times report on Carlson, which cited his record of promoting white supremacy. Carlson took a photo of himself pointing to the story and laughing at it.

"Millions of people absorb this garbage on his program on a regular basis," said Acosta. "Fox does nothing about it. They make millions of dollars off of it. We have not shied away from calling that out and calling Tucker out on this program, because what he's doing is very dangerous. What do you think can be done about this, and what do you say to all of that?"

But of course it won't suit the bromancer to consider this exemplary contemporary centre of terrorism in his listicle ...

In any event, the United States has done nothing about the domestic terrorism fomented by Chairman Rupert and his minions in the name of the prophet, sorry, autocorrect at work, profit ... and so to quoting Petraeus, best remembered for charting a path for the mango Mussolini ...

On November 9, 2012, he resigned from his position as director of the CIA, citing his extramarital affair with his biographer Paula Broadwell, which was reportedly discovered in the course of an FBI investigation. In January 2015, officials reported the FBI and Justice Department prosecutors had recommended bringing felony charges against Petraeus for allegedly providing classified information to Broadwell while serving as director of the CIA. Eventually, Petraeus pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of mishandling classified information. He was later sentenced to two years of probation and fined $100,000 for the unauthorized removal and retention of classified material he gave to Broadwell. (wiki here)

And Jeffrey Toobin has left CNN, but in the manner of wankers, has a book coming out ... as the pond heads back for that Petraeus insight ...

If the pond might be so bold, could it suggest to the bromancer a fertile topic? It's white Xian nationalism, which infests the United States and News Corp and particularly Faux Noise ...as in The Conversation here ...

Well there's no need to go back to the unfortunate events at Waco or Ruby Ridge when you can follow the link and save time wasted with the bromancer, though it's fair to say that in some of his jihads the bromancer exudes a particularly offensive and rampant form of Xian nationalism ...

The angels are a true story?

Barking mad, as barking mad as any jihadist you might come across ... and so on with the current barking ...

So on one side there are barking mad Islamics, and on the other, there are barking mad Xians, and no sign the long absent lord will return to save the pond from these wretched tribes ... but at least there's just a gobbet to go, and at least the war on China has been put on hold for the day ... and as for Ukraine, consider yourself ignored yet again ...

As for that remarkable coincidence? 

We've already had plenty of insights, including the mother of the alleged assassin disavowing her spawn and explaining what happened to him, and it would have been useful if the bromancer had spent some time on what has been uncovered, instead of tossing in a vague, unsubstantiated conspiracy theory.

But then both Islamics and Xians are most excellent at vague, unsubstantiated conspiracy theories ... most likely it comes from a belief in an imaginary friend much given to anger and genocidal tendencies ...

And now, speaking of fundamentalist Xians speaking in tongues to imaginary friends, the pond meant no harm by leaving Kudelka until today because the pond likes to give The Saturday Paper a clear day in the sun ...

Aw, no coal and the pond was hoping the reptiles had included coal in the set ...

And yes, the pond realises it's already run these Wilcoxes, but dammit, it'll run them again because they just feel so germane to this day's blather ...