In which Dame Slap savages trial by media, something of a trial by Slapping, with the Killer as a bonus thought ...

 

For some reason, the pond was reminded this day of the old joke of the unhappy dictator demanding to catch up with the 2% that hadn't voted for him ...

While looking up the old joke, the pond came across this February 2012 piece by Joshua Keating in Foreign Policy, The dicator's dilemma: To win with 95 percent or 99?

Inter alia ...

In today’s world, even the most blatantly undemocratic governments feel the need to hold periodic elections to reaffirm their legitimacy. But I’m always interested by the final numbers in elections where there’s absolutely no question of who will win. The 90 percent mark seems to be a useful line to distinguish between the authoritarian governments that care about the international perception of their elections and want to present the appearance of having an  opposition, and those that care only about demonstrating their absolute control to their own citizens.

While neither is a democratic contest, there is a difference — in intended effect at least — between Hosni Mubarak getting 88.6 percent of the vote in 2005 and Bashar al-Assad getting 97.62 percent in a “presidential referendum,” with no opposition candidates, as he did in 2007. Then there’s the 99 percent club, which includes the Castro brothers, and Kim Jong Il. Saddam Hussein went for the full 100 percent in 2002, but then again, he was overthrown a year later. (Why a dictator decides between winning by 97 percent or 99 percent isn’t quite clear.)

In general, when a former 90-percenter start slipping below that mark – as Mubarak did in 2005 — it’s not a good sign for the future of the regime. The Communist Party of the Soviet Union won 100 percent in every legislative election until 1984, when the party, led by General Secretary Konstantin Chernenko, won 71.5 percent, with the rest going to handpicked “independents.” Seven years later the Communists were done.

Today’s Russia is something of a hybrid. In the last legislative elections, the ruling United Russia party took 64.3 percent of the vote nationwide, the kind of number you see in an authoritarian country that feels the need to demonstrate that it has at least a token opposition. (Iran, for instance.) But in Chechnya, United Russia took a Turkmenistan-like 99.48 percent of the vote with 99.5 percent turnout — quite a show of support in a republic that recently saw a bloody nationalist uprising against Moscow. 

Cue Vlad the impaler ...

Okay, okay, the pond will 'fess up. It's bored beyond belief by the reptile offerings this day in the comments section of the lizard Oz ...

What is it with that rat from the ranks who hails from the deep north? He's becoming ubiquitous, more cockroach than cane toad ...

So the pond went looking elsewhere and found the predictable in search of the obvious ...

Spend time with the meretricious Merritt doing the reptile obvious? But Wilcox had already taken care of that conversation ...

So the pond went looking elsewhere and stumbled across more of the reptile usual, though with an odd juxtaposition ...

Of late the pond has found visits to planet Janet above the faraway tree increasingly wearisome and tiresome, but this was such an odd juxtaposition that the pond decided to give it a go, and never no mind that the pond has absolutely no interest in Victorian football, or the weird obsessions it provokes ...

Well it's classic planet Janet, everything's always threatening her and the reptiles core beliefs of justice, except perhaps "Lord" Monckton, or donning a MAGA cap, or going all in with fascism ...

But speaking of trial by media and vigilante journalism and open slather, the pond innocently clicked on that other link and magically found itself transported to the HUN, home of Rita "meter maid" Panahi and the Bolter, and so a place the pond never visits ...

The pond quite liked the idea of attaching the HUN to the top of the gobbet to ensure authenticity, because the pond always likes to know who's doing the trial by media ...

Meanwhile, there was Dame Slap, still railing away in her usual way, apparently unaware the calls and the reporting were coming from inside the reptile house ...

There was another click bait video the pond cut out, "Hawthorn racism allegations 'could well end up in the actual courts'", but it was only amusing because like the neutered one above, it showed that while Dame Slap was railing, the reptiles were joining in the inevitable media trial ...

Speaking of which, the pond really should stay true to that HUN yarn ... and yes, they're genuine, certified HUN gobbets ...

It goes without saying that Dame Slap wouldn't have any of that, and so to her final gobbet ...

Media vigilantes? Oh reptiles, if only there were a looking glass handy ...

As for the rest, if the pond might be so bold, please refer all comments to the HUN ...

And now the pond confesses to not having a bonus, so decided to press into service a bit of a Crikey piece, (paywall), though only because it features Killer ...

For years the pond was leery of using the "F" word, thinking it unfair, but fuck it, isn't Killer the perfect all round smug Fascist? 

The pond did rather a hard cut, just so it could start with the smugness ...

Ah panhandler Panahi with another honourable mention ...but then the reptiles have always had a thing about the Rothschilds and George Soros and the international banking system (though you have to understand what that code really means) ...

It's funny how things keep popping out from the mouths of babes saying what they really think ...

The far-right Brothers of Italy party has suspended an election candidate after it was discovered he had praised Adolf Hitler and described the group’s leader, Giorgia Meloni, as a “modern fascist”.

Calogero Pisano, a coordinator for Brothers of Italy in the Sicilian province of Agrigento, wrote on Facebook in 2014 that the Nazi leader was “a great statesman”.

The post, which sparked condemnation from Italy’s Jewish community, emerged in a story by La Repubblica newspaper days before Italians go to the polls in general elections.

The newspaper found another post by Pisano, written in the same year, saying he supports the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, while the words referring to his party’s leader were written in 2016. (Graudian).

Well yes, but how silly to say what you actually think ...

And so to end with an infallible Pope, which reminded the pond that when it listened to Morning Joe rabbiting on about what a great movie Armageddon was, it decided there was absolutely no point to aesthetics or art or American TV chat shows ...

And if that seems a bit bleak and existential and random, just remember the odds would suit a dictator if expressed in percentage terms ...

Oh heck, instead of contemplating the dismal fate of the dinosaurs and humanity, perhaps the pond should end on a lighter note  ...

And as Killer's been mentioned this day, here's one for Killer ...