Trooly rooly, if it weren't for the bromancer and a jolly dreary Groaning, it would be holyday time ...

 

Truth to tell, the pond almost declared the holyday season had begun and the pond was off, because Tuesday is the direst reptile day.

It only occurred to the pond belatedly, as the pond surveyed the dismal Tuesday offerings, whatever happened to the Oreo?

Where did she go? Did she fly back to Capistrano? It's a pretty pickle when this load of cobblers reminds the pond of the absent Oreo ...

Look, there's Shanners, blathering about hubris, as if the proud reptiles have none of it, and didn't recently land on a snake in Victoria, and there's simplistic Simon, without a hint of a conflict of interest celebrating the hicks from the sticks doing a standard bout of black bashing, and there's Damien blaming Labor for the Nationals doing what Nationals must do, ever since they poisoned the flour, and there's ancient Troy, apparently unaware that talk of a towering legacy for Gough verges on the deeply heretical and might lead him to be burned at the stake ...

Luckily the bromancer was on hand to sort out the Victorians, so the pond could abandon that tiresome mob for the loftier insights the bromancer always offers ...

That blather about "weird woke" and all the rest, and yet if you wanted the Duke of Plaza-Toro you just had to read the efforts of the reptiles in the HUN, and the lizard Oz, a castrating bunch of inept right wing yowling cats, to which the electorate replied: who cares?, and in the case of a fundamentalist tyke offering bromides, who cares even more?

At this point the pond must thank a correspondent for drawing the pond's attention to a Malware tweet ... (there's another large gobbet the pond left out, there's only so much Malware the pond can take in a day before thinking about the NBN and multi-noodle connectivity).

Oh dear, did Malware just Kroger the Kroger as part of his maltreated malware Messiah complex, and did he dub the bro as part of the angertainment complex ...?

He did, he did, so it's back to the angertainment ...

By golly, the bromancer is really dishing it out, reminding the pond that another correspondent wanted to celebrate by drawing attention to this machine, apparently designed for naughty young reptiles of the HUN and lizard Oz kind ...

The pond is always up for a little SM training, but it's also probably apparent by this point that the pond couldn't give a toss about the bromancer's prescriptions, coming as they do from the right wing angertainment complex, mostly Murdochian* (*Malware approved) ... but please, more tears and idle nonsense, because the pond is being angertained yet again...

Yes, keep on with bashing the blacks, it's the reptile way ... 

It was only by chance that the pond caught a little of the ABC last night and was reminded yet again of that great, iconic, and enduring Nicky Winmar photo ... and all the racial slurs that infested the AFL, and infest Australia to this day ...

Sorry Nicky, there's going to be a lot more abuse dished out by the angertainment machine in the next few months...

Meanwhile, it was perhaps inevitable that the bromancer would turn for advice to a tired old codger, who didn't just manage to lose government, but also achieved the rare distinction of losing his own seat in the process ...

Well there's the Liberal party in Victoria fucked for another day, and you don't need the HUN mob to help when you have the bromancer blathering on, and what better way to celebrate than to turn to the infallible Pope ...

By golly that's a passing fair imitation of the coconut clapper,  who recently featured in the pond's pages ...

The pond can't get enough of that one, but truth to tell, the pond hadn't thought of the eerie similarity until the infallible Pope pointed out the bleeding obvious ... and yet if you head back to the source material, how obvious it now seems ...

And so to Dame Groan, and unhappily, instead of joining in all the black bashing, this day she gives the IR bill another serve.

The pond is so over talk of IR that the pond has been banning reptile attempts to discuss the topic, but it's Dame Groan, and for reasons that are completely mysterious, she has a small cult following, so the pond will for once allow it ... because the angertainment is strong in this one ...

Is there any upside at all? Well Dame Groan is so distracted that she's completely forgotten about her fear of renewables, climate science and all that jazz ... and like any member of boards on a modest stipend and living in reptile style to the manor born, she's deeply worried about small business ... because just look at all the small businesses in her bio ...

Please ignore her wiki, much too short for her small business accomplishments ...

Sloan sat on the boards of several companies, including Mayne Nickless, SGIO Insurance, Santos, Primelife (chair).

Primelife? That was back in 2006, and noted by the AFR ...

One of the most intriguing wrongful dismissal cases in recent times will reach its conclusion this coming week when the Victorian Supreme Court is scheduled to rule on the claim brought by former Primelife chief executive Ted Sent.

Responding to questions from the floor at Primelife's annual general meeting on Friday, new chairwoman Judith Sloan said the $5 million-plus action was expected to be decided on Tuesday. Professor Sloan, who was appointed to the role in July, said she was confident about the outcome of the case, which had been a major distraction for management.

Over the course of several weeks earlier this year the court heard allegations of secret video-taping of the company's board, murky transactions and that Mr Sent was pushed from the company by former chairman and deputy chairman Robert Champion de Crespigny and Ron Walker.

Both Mr Champion de Crespigny and Mr Walker have relinquished their Primelife roles in the past year while Jim Hazel, who replaced Mr Sent as managing director, announced his resignation in September.

New managing director John Martin said the court decision on Mr Sent's claim would help to clear the air as Primelife's list of outstanding litigation was cut from more than 50 matters a few years ago to just two.

He said Primelife was now progressing well towards its targets of developing and selling 300 retirement units each year and before pretax annual earnings of $7000 from each of its aged care beds. But the company was still not in a position to pay dividends, Mr Martin said.

Later there was a name change, but back in 2008, Dame Groan knew what to do ...

Busy board director Professor Judith Sloan has moved to pick up stock in gas leader Santos (STO). Sloan, who is a board director of Westfield and has also enduring an extended tenure of PrimeLife and later Babcock & Brown Communities, acquired 2143 shares worth $38,331 under the non-executive director share plan on October 2. Sloan, who is also a former deputy chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, showed good timing with her latest share purchase. It preceded a surprise bid by British Gas for Queensland Gas announced on Friday October 25, a deal that breathed new life into the gas sector. Santos was 3% stronger today as the wider market suffered another decline.

Okay, okay, the pond is bored, and had to slip in some mention of why satantic windmills are terrible. 

Now back to the angertainment, knowing that Dame Groan knows a lot about bureaucratic ruses ...

Please excuse the pond but it had wanted to pick a bone with the bromancer about his devotion to Modi ... and failed to mention it at the right time, and now the pond is running out of Dame Groan gobbets.

Is it wrong to abandon the angertainment for a moment, and draw attention to a recent Graudian editorial?

India is considered a geopolitical counterweight to China and, in many ways, an indispensable actor on the world stage. But Mr Biden’s team appears to see the position as more contingent, and will be less tolerant than the Trump administration of Mr Modi’s attempts to remould Indian democracy so that Hindus become constitutionally pre-eminent, with minorities reduced to second-class citizens. Last week, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom accused New Delhi of a “crackdown on civil society and dissent”, and “religious freedom violations”. The Indian foreign ministry hit back at “biased and inaccurate observations”. Officials would do better to reflect on where their country is going.

While a rising power, India’s ascent depends on building bridges with others. The Middle East is a key energy supplier and regional trade partner that supports 9 million Indian workers. India’s security depends on Arab states sustaining a hostile environment for terrorism. So when BJP functionaries made derogatory remarks about the prophet Muhammad this summer, Gulf states lodged formal protests with New Delhi. Chastened, the Modi government was spurred into action – suspending one party official and expelling another, as well as saying it accords “the highest respect to all religions”.

Bland assurances may not be enough. The intimidation of India’s 200 million Muslims is hiding in plain sight. State elections in Gujarat begin on Thursday, weeks after BJP ministers approved the premature release of 11 men convicted of rape and murder of Muslim women and children during the riots. On the campaign trail last Friday, India’s home minister claimed troublemakers had been “taught a lesson” in 2002. This sounded like a signal to Hindu mobs that they could do as they pleased.

Worryingly, there are signs that the communal clashes seen in India are being copied elsewhere. In Leicester, many south Asian Muslims – like the city’s Hindus – have Indian roots. Yet when violence erupted between these communities this September, escalating into attacks on mosques and temples, the Indian high commission in London condemned the “violence perpetrated against the Indian community in Leicester and vandalisation of premises and symbols of [the] Hindu religion”. Pointedly, there was no condemnation of Hindus’ violence against Muslims. Once careful to proclaim its secularism, India’s government appears content to export its Hindu chauvinism. That should trouble everyone.

Well it won't be troubling the bromancer, who does have certain chauvinist and autocratic tendencies, and there the pond has done it, and so back to a final burst of guaranteed "free of renewables and climate science", ""get your gas shares here" angertainment ...

 

And so the pond has dished up a serve for the devotees in the cult of Groaning, and meanwhile, as usually happens with the reptiles, thereby ignored almost everything that is happening in the world, and in view of the immortal Rowe taking a break, the pond has turned to a couple of other cartoonists for its daily news briefing ...