The pond thought it might start with a great joke, thanks to Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark ...
Frankly the pond hasn't seen a funnier tweet, not since the last Elon emission, and that dry hump spurt from Joel Berry will surely go down as a forlorn Incel classic ... helped along by that Popehat capper.
Why start with Killer when, if you think about it for a nanosecond, it's a premature ejaculation of the kind befitting a Joel Berry? After all, the Donald has yet to come, and so Killer has bugger all to get excited about ...
Deep down, Killer loves all the abuse, and still worships at the feet of the gorilla ... that fake news click bait video defanged by the pond giving DeSanctimonious a strong chance was undercut by Killer celebrating the huge grassroot support for the gorilla, and the possibility that the living dead might yet walk again and reach the top ...
Yes, in Killer's adoring eyes, the mango Mussolini might well make history again, thereby consigning the mood shift in other Murdochians to the history bin ...
Just to prove that the pond made the right choice, the pond decided to drop in on nattering "Ned", on the third of one of his endlessly tedious, fatuous listicles.
It used to be that the pond joked about "Ned" running about doing a splendid Chicken Little impression, routinely announcing that the sky was falling, but Dame Slap seems to have taken on that role with her dedicated bashing of uppity, difficult, tricky blacks, apparently so fiendish that they'rewilling to tear down the entire country ...
So much by way of hysterics, so little time, but really there have been trickier moments on board ships dealing with icebergs ...
Meanwhile, speaking of pussy groping as the solution to what ails the world, as the pond's invaluable American correspondent recently noted, today is the day where the mango Mussolini is supposed to light the taper, then stand well clear as the GOP tears itself apart.
Naturally the reptiles offered up the Killer to celebrate the news ...
Well you need to read between the lines, because Killer has always had a deep and abiding love for authoritarians and autocrats, and whatever reconstruction the Murdochians have attempted regarding the orange Jesus, Killer seems to fit into what Joe Perticone diagnoses as The MAGA Wing: Blame Anyone But Trump ...
There was another reason for starting with Killer ... the chance for a few cartoons, because these days the pond is only here for the entertainment ... and the first one vividly evokes the Killer celebrating how his authoritarian wannabe autocrat might well make history again ...
The rest of the reptile business this day was astonishingly dull, or excruciatingly predictable. The bromancer was out and about and so was nattering "Ned" and so was Dame Slap, but look at the topics of conversation ...
It was just as bad below the invisible broadsheet fold ...
Grudgingly, the pond went with the bromancer, because at least he would be short, compared to the pontificating pompous blather by "Ned"... and so it proved to be ...
Subject to difficult interpretation? The infallible Pope was up to the job ...
It's always in the details ...
Happy days, and not so long ago, and so back to the bromancer, with the strong hope that the reptiles' best warrior will forget all this idle nonsense, and be back to bunging on a third world war by Xmas using drones and missiles, and gifting our tanks to our Pacific island neighbours...
"Ned" had spent the entire time channeling Richard Marles on defence, in the usual "Ned" way constructing a column out of someone else's sayings, and he at least wasn't falling for the bromancer's pandering ...
Apologises to those who wanted a full serve of "Ned's" natter, but have you thought of following the biblical injunction and plucking out an eye.
Surely that gobbet is more than enough to produce a state of Joel Berry onanistic blindness, for once again "Ned's" ability to sound uncannily like a regurgitatin parrot was on hand ...
But the pond will concede that he provided invaluable spacing for an immortal Rowe ...
And so to Dame Slap as a bonus, but the pond thought long and hard about this one, because Dame Slap these days is becoming increasingly hysterical, while at the same time, mind-numbingly repetitive.
Back in the day, when she was a conventional MAGA cap wearer and a climate science denialist, and an IPA devotee, there was some unconscious humour to be found, but these days the relentless black bashing is both never-ending and tedious.
The pond only agreed to the outing on the condition that it could run a few completely irrelevant cartoons ...
But really, as Dustin Hoffman might have said in Wag the Dog, that's nothing ... here's how you really fall apart ...
The pond recently ran the Norman Rockwell original so there's no need to go there, except, what the hell, it does conjure up Dame Slap's vision for Australia ...
No unsightly, difficult, uppity blacks around that table ... and now, back to the black bashing ...
Truth to tell, the pond quite likes celebrating Elon, while Dame Slap goes about her black bashing ...
Of course anyone who's been paying attention to Dame Slap's recent screeching will realise that they've heard all this apocalyptic shouting at the clouds before ...
She might just as well have scribbled, "in my day, in the 1950s", or perhaps a little later ... we kept the blacks across the oval in portables so they wouldn't get in the road of a good education for the white spawn ... (and made sure that what was born in Coledale stayed in Coledale).
It's easy to get a sense of what motivates her...
That leaves just one short bout of hysteria to go, and the pond has managed to dignify this latest outburst by not commenting on anything Dame Slap has raised. Perhaps if she settled down a little, disappeared into the basement for a time...
Speaking of the shame of illegitimacy, how much better it was when Dame Slap donned the MAGA cap and worshipped at the feet of her orange Jeebus.
Those were the days ... and yet if Killer is true to his word, they might come again, and so the comedy can continue ... though perhaps with Dame Slap in the basement with her one-time hero, where they can conspire to burn down the building, before the uppity, pesky, difficult blacks turn up in her nightmares ...
And so to a reminder. Bored by Dame Slap and her black-bashing? Bored by the reptiles? There's always Marina Hyde, out and about today, and spoiler alert, with these her last few words on the matter ...
...According to what Bezos told CNN, philanthropy “is really hard”. It certainly seems to be for him. Do recall he was only dragged kicking and screaming to the giving-a-shit game, having spent years accruing billions before it was finally pointed out to him that not having some kind of philanthropic arm looked fairly abysmal. In 2017 Bezos asked Twitter users for ideas on how to help the world “in the here and now”, before embarking on a truly committed programme of ignoring every single one of them who suggested paying his workers properly and contributing fair tax.
A year later, he actually uttered the words: “The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel.” That was the same year Amazon helped kill a Seattle tax on big firms to alleviate the homelessness crisis, by threatening to pull a huge building project. The business and tech commentator Scott Galloway calls Bezos “the mother of all welfare queens” for the vast benefits he’s drawn from public money and the tax breaks he remorselessly chases and demands.
But of course, Jeff is the kind of widely acclaimed visionary who simply lacks the vision to realise that the first way to help is by paying people a fair wage and forking out your taxes like an ordinary person – and not by turning up to dole out “charity” after the event like some bastard god of the purse strings. Unfortunately, he’s part of that specific billionaire class that believes they should be allowed to hypothecate almost 100% of their own vast riches in whichever direction they wish, because the exchequers of the world are just junior personnel, and they know better than all of them how to spend it.
So yes, for Bezos philanthropy “is really hard”. What he does – fauxlanthropy – is much, much easier. Moving billions to non-profits you control, effectively awarding yourself tax breaks, buying media fawning with one of the lamest possible sleights-of-hand: these things, self-evidently, are a whole lot easier. What’s hard to understand is why on earth we’re still buying into this obvious bullshit from some of the most selfish people in the world. The poor give a far greater proportion of their money to charity than the rich. I don’t mean to be uncivil, but what is courageous about letting Jeff Bezos pretend otherwise?
A year later, he actually uttered the words: “The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel.” That was the same year Amazon helped kill a Seattle tax on big firms to alleviate the homelessness crisis, by threatening to pull a huge building project. The business and tech commentator Scott Galloway calls Bezos “the mother of all welfare queens” for the vast benefits he’s drawn from public money and the tax breaks he remorselessly chases and demands.
But of course, Jeff is the kind of widely acclaimed visionary who simply lacks the vision to realise that the first way to help is by paying people a fair wage and forking out your taxes like an ordinary person – and not by turning up to dole out “charity” after the event like some bastard god of the purse strings. Unfortunately, he’s part of that specific billionaire class that believes they should be allowed to hypothecate almost 100% of their own vast riches in whichever direction they wish, because the exchequers of the world are just junior personnel, and they know better than all of them how to spend it.
So yes, for Bezos philanthropy “is really hard”. What he does – fauxlanthropy – is much, much easier. Moving billions to non-profits you control, effectively awarding yourself tax breaks, buying media fawning with one of the lamest possible sleights-of-hand: these things, self-evidently, are a whole lot easier. What’s hard to understand is why on earth we’re still buying into this obvious bullshit from some of the most selfish people in the world. The poor give a far greater proportion of their money to charity than the rich. I don’t mean to be uncivil, but what is courageous about letting Jeff Bezos pretend otherwise?
Thank the long absent lord there are more things to read in this universe than reptile dribble ...
Jeez, the Killer is keen today, isn’t he? I think we can all guess what live news feed he’ll be watching at 9pm AEST - he probably already has his first dozen propaganda pieces already sketched out. He might get a bit of a shock if the widely-reported claims that Rupert has already informed the Orange Ogre that his misinformation machine will instead support DeSantis this time around turn out to be correct. Still, any first-rate Reptile needs to be extremely flexible, and I’m certain that the Killer will manage to tie himself in knots and explain that his undying loyalty to Trump clearly meant that Ron DeS is the right choice for the Repugs in 2024.
ReplyDeleteThe Killer’s admiring references to Trump as an “800 Pound Gorilla” was probably intended to convey an image of a magnificent political beast, a veritable King Kong - or at least a Mighty Joe Young or Konga. However, I was reminded of an article I read recently on a forgotten mainstay of old B-Movies - the tatty gorilla suit - https://reprobatepress.com/2022/11/08/gorilla-thrillers-terrible-looking-ape-suits-in-entertainment/
Talking about tatty 'gorillas', is it true that our Pauline is joining SAS Australia ? In the Middle East, even ?
Deletehttps://www.nowtolove.com.au/reality-tv/sas-australia/pauline-hanson-sas-australia-75645
The pond thought for a nanosecond that was a sketch in The Onion or The Chaser or The Betoota Advocate but was reassured by the mention that the Daily Snail was the slimy source ...
DeleteOne Nation leader Pauline Hanson is reportedly joining the upcoming season of SAS Australia, which is set in the Middle East.
A source told the Daily Mail that politician was approached about the show, but has only recently agreed to join the cast as she wants to "challenge herself".
"The new season will be filmed in the Middle East, so it will defiantly take Pauline out of her comfort zone," the source told the publication.
By golly Hancock will feel put out if Pauline shows him how it's done ...
“The talismanic- if massively overrated-moment” when the Whitlam Government established diplomatic relations with China… Even if the article had no byline, such an asinine assertion immediately identifies it as the work of the Bromancer, who never misses an opportunity to sneer at Whitlam and his government. Lacking of course is any actual explanation as to just why that event is massively overrated - presumably because the Bro has no such evidence. Still, what can you expect - he’s the embodiment of that old truism “You can take the boy out of the National Civic Council…. but that doesn’t make him any less of a fuckwit”.
ReplyDeleteOh c'mon Anony, it is "massively overated" simply because a reptile says so - that's the way it always has to work, yes ?. But then again, Nixon did beat him too it, didn't he ?
ReplyDeleteI seem to recall the press went into a full, roiling, scale and fang fit when Whitlam made that visit, then before they had pause to take breath, Nixon announced his impending visit - oops, heaps embarrassment!
DeleteIf I recall correctly, Bef, Whitlam made the first contact by visiting China, but Nixon was the first to establish an actual diplomatic setup...followed closely by Whitlam, of course.
DeleteSeems correct
Deletehttps://www.whitlam.org/publications/1971-visit-to-china
"Whitlam's bold initiative was vindicated, however, when it was revealed that just as Whitlam's ALP delegation was leaving Beijing, US National Security Adviser, Henry Kissinger, was arriving to arrange President Nixon's own visit to China."
Yes, Befuddled - and there was just enough time between Whitlam's discussion with Zhou and Nixon announcing that Kissinger would be visiting China to set up for a visit by Nixon - for Billy McMahon to make a right nana of himself (again) with " I find it incredible that at a time when Australian soldiers are still engaged in Vietnam, the leader of the Labor Party is becoming a spokesman for those against whom we are fighting!”
DeletePoor Billy was caught out by the Nixon announcement, because then Australian 'intelligence' had not been able to tell him that it was coming. So much for our great relationship with the USA at that time.
It is nicely covered in 'The China Breakthrough: Whitlam in the Middle Kingdom, 1971' (Monash University Publishing, 2012).
So, Nixon was a 'despicable' just like Trump, and just like Trump he did lots of good things in his term(s) as president. It seems to be a speciality of the USA while we just get McMahons and Frasers and Howards and Abbotts and Turnbulls and Morrisons (and Duttons ?) which seems to be a speciality of ours.
DeleteIf the Dame Slap continues to be repetitious and tedious, perhaps this humble interlocutor might be allowed the same, provided it is briefly so.
ReplyDeleteIn 1977 Australian voters (of which the Dame - then Princess, I suppose - was not one) had no trouble with a series of proposals presented to them in simple language. Some were rejected, others carried, by convincing margins, including one that (gasp) allowed citizens who happened to live in the Territories to vote in - referendums. What blatant pandering to special groups in the population, who already received special treatment from the Federal Government!
Why, if this Dame had been able to advise us then - it is quite likely she would have swung opinion on that, and the absolutely procrustean requirement that judges sign off at age 70 (all that wisdom and experience, the very basis of conservative administration - lost, when it should have been nurtured for as long as their Honours could be sat upright in robes).
Yes - as that showed, results of a referendum, where the proposition does not include extensive speculation by the lawyer class, can lead to all kinds of unexpected chaos in public administration.
If it wasn't the usual Slappy crappy, I'd think she might have some kind of point - after all, it is not given to humans to achieve perfection, not even faq mostly, so there will be the usual issues with verbally formalised legal setups. But then, there always is, isn't there, and there are always legal 'activists' to argue the usual case between 'originalism' and self-interested interpretation. And that's what gives lawyers lasting employment, so why is once-upon-a-time lawyer Slappy so much against it ?
Delete:)³ You've got a long way to go, Chadders, before you master the art of being repetitious and tedious. Sorry, sensible observations don't cut it; the pond suggests you head outside each night to howl at the moon. Give it a week, or perhaps a week, or perhaps a decade, and you might be able to match up to Dame Slap...
DeleteWhy - thank you, Dorothy. I am always ready to take advice from careful observers. A decade - well, others tell me it is good to maintain an objective in life, and to maintain mental exercise. I will find a way to fit that into the formula for 'Quality Adjusted Life Years' (cheers to GB)
DeleteWe can all do with just a bit of adjusted quality, can't we.
DeleteHasnt the chairman cast reservations on the Donald running for office again? If that is the case it's going to be interesting to see how it affects the Aus columnists scribblings and the sky after dark opinionated.
ReplyDelete"There's always Marina Hyde<'/i>". Indeed there is, and she's saying and writing so many of the things I've just been thinking for some time. But you know, it is all our own fault (isn't everything ?): we've just watched the neoliberal capitalists do everything to favour the Bezos's of the world: mainly, bit by bit lowering the maximum income tax level, and the maximum corporate tax level, and providing so many safe money hideaways and allowing gross share buybacks and so on.
ReplyDeleteThus a lot of people who would, once upon a time, just have been multi-millionaires became instead multi (and multi-multi) billionaires. And also, given the incredible increase in human population (about 5.4 billion since 1950) and the proliferation of international trade and so forth leading to an incredible increase in the amount of money in the world (governments and banks have to "print" $billions more every year just to keep up with the population increase), then there's no wonder that the world that once just had just a few multi-millionaire Vanderbilts now has Bezos's and Gates and Musks and so forth by the score.
I still recall, back in my mid-teenage years, the story about how GM paid its CEO a salary of $500,000 per year - yes, that is all of one half of a $million - and Ford paid theirs $400,000 but he got a slightly bigger post-tax take-home-pay because the GM CEO's salary put him in a higher tax bracket (about 95% I think). Now isn't that real 'bracket creep' ?
But hey, didn't we all want to be a Warren Buffet too ? (I'd have settled for just being a Charlie Munger, myself.)
Way, way off topic but a great example of the reptile dilemma
ReplyDeletehttps://www.afr.com/policy/energy-and-climate/logging-native-forests-in-victoria-costs-more-money-than-it-makes-20221114-p5by4s
Using this against dictator Dan would require supporting a worthwhile cause - you can see the problem immediately.
Sheesh, BF, that's so on topic, the pond hardly knows where to begin ...
DeleteImmediately ending native forest logging across Victoria’s central highlands, one of the world’s most intense carbon sinks, would generate an extra $60 million in benefits for the state this decade alone.
In a challenge to the Andrew government’s ongoing support for logging of native wet forests – a position that Greens are actively campaigning against in the state election – a report by the right-leaning Blueprint Institute to be released on Tuesday finds preserving trees generates more in tourism, water supply benefits, and carbon credits than cutting them down.
Another prime instance of acting just like a self-interested political party and not like a government.
Delete