The reptiles are an exceptionally dull bunch this day, even as the sociopathic Vlad the impaler goes about his war mongering and the Dominator does his level best to distract from the Pellists at the top of the lizard Oz digital page ...
Mentally the pond had already said farewell to the frock wearer, though there were some fancy frocks on display. As well as that shimmering white testament to virginity above, there was also the sign of a scarlet woman, enough to warm the heart of any frock lover ...
However when a friend sent the pond a meme reviving memories of a struggling Britain and the way a Morris Minor almost led to a pond divorce, the pond knew how it was going to start the day ...
What a hoot. The pond must start watching PMQs again, and lie back and think of Harry and the eventual triumph of the gingers ...
And so to the day's business, which largely consisted of avoiding the Pellists, and luckily Monsieur Dupont arrived with a stupendous act of treachery, a craven stabbing in the back while the bromancer was on holydays, and defenceless, and unable to fire off a salvo in reply ...
Still with the idle talk of "critics", and yet only David Kilcullen is mentioned by name, and oh the ignominy, that the bromancer should have been treated so cruelly, and within the pages of the lizard Oz itself!
As for the rest, as usual when the pond goes in search of a bonus, and finds sweet bugger all, the pond will show its workings as proof ...
Oh fucketty fuck, the reptiles even dug the Pellist - """ if you will - up out of the grave to contribute another column, but the pond is done with the Pellists, though there were some mighty fine frocks in the coverage ...
Another virginal white gown, and a reminder of the innocence of childhoods ruined ...
Elsewhere, the lizard Oz editorialist was still holding the fort and the meretricious Merritt was blathering away about NSW Labor, as some sort of distraction from the Dominator, and there was nothing for it, the pond had to go with the hole in the bucket man ... though this day he provided ample evidence why anyone under 30 still reading the lizard Oz is clearly a barking mad young vulgar youff loon ...
A correspondent first pointed the pond to the venerable Meade's joyous The Australian's youth title the Oz folds less than a year after launch ... and instead of hoping hopeless young loons would fork out $8.99 a month to swell the chairman's coffers with Oz shekels, this is the sort of crap they're left to endure, an endless hell of tedious verbiage...
The pond was vastly relieved, it had made it through the hole in the bucket man, and hadn't ventured a single thought regarding his opus, but had some fun along the way, and with nary a thought of Austin Brexits or sociopathic Vlad the Impaler, or child molestation in the Catholic church, and those defending the indefensible frock-loving Pellists in reptile la la land, and then dammit, the infallible Pope had to come along, and give the pond a reality check, and ruin everything ...
Suddenly the death of the Oz seemed the slightest sign of what the cruel, heartless old manage to do to the young ...
That Pope cartoon certainly puts a sudden stop to the laffs; it’s more sobering than any alcohol prohibition.
ReplyDeleteI’ve no idea how old Our Henry is, but the portrait at the top of his scribblings -which I don’t think has been updated for some time - indicates he could be roughly the same age as Methuselah. As such, it’s understandable that his attention may increasingly focus on the cost and quality of aged care provision in Australia. There’d be a lovely irony in Henry ending up in a system that had been “reformed” in accordance with the worldview of the feral abacuses of the Productivity Commission. There’s no doubt they’d enthusiastically embrace the universal application of restraints, drugging and incontinence pad-recycling on the grounds of cost-efficiency.
Apparently Holely Henry was "born in the year 1952 on the 22nd of August"
Deletehttps://vergewiki.com/henry-ergas
He’s only 70?!? Dry economics must have a mummifying effect.
DeleteQuite unexpectedly, our Henry has truly stimulated thinking this day. He may not realise how he has done that, but I will get to that point.
DeleteHe writes that Commonwealth aged care subsidies have ‘only’ increased by 70% since 1999-2000. That happens to be right on the Reserve Bank’s average 2.5% inflation for that period. He then tells us that aged-care provider’s input costs have risen by 2% more than inflation. His justification for this is a bit foggy - ‘intense competition for care workers from hospitals and especially from NDIS’. Some of us might prefer to see wording like ‘providers actually having to pay workers a fair rate’ for doing what his first paragraph sets out - but this IS flying from the Flagship, so let that pass.
If we accept that the extra 2% is justified - then costs would have increased 2.5 times over the period he nominates. That would have demonstrated a little more precision, but a little less rhetorical flourish than his ‘costs have more than doubled, and may well have nearly tripled’.
At that point, Henry might have borrowed some of ‘Killer’s’ thinking - covid is - yep, still is, check the weekly death rates for this year - quite effective in weeding out the aged and infirm from our population. Of course, a columnist has to phrase it in terms of ‘freedumb’ and ‘inalienerable (whatever) rights’, but consumers of Rupert speak are activated by the right verbal cues. As it happens, the Henry passed on the Killer economics, to slip an utterly revolutionary idea into his column - a health insurance scheme that - no two ways to interpret this - that would actually work like all the regular kinds of insurance. One where actuaries calculate the probability of the punter succumbing to one or other of the identifiable ‘slings and arrows of outrageous fortune’ (acknowledgement Wm Shakespeare) and set a premium accordingly.
We will find out soon enough if the significance of that has registered with the existing private health funds, because they would have a collective conniption fit at that idea; it is soooo foreign to the concept of ‘health insurance’ that they have carefully nurtured with a succession of governments of both colours.
Of course, it may be that the private health funds pay no notice to anything flying from the Flagship, on the grounds that its readership is small, and being diminished steadily by natural mortality, and, in any case, they have this dinky implied ‘loyalty’ scheme, the entire reward for which is that you may continue to pay premiums for whatever they care to offer this year.
Meantime - kudos to the Henry, for what Sir Humphrey would have called a courageous idea.
"actually having to pay workers a fair rate" Now can you ever see that really happening, Chad ? As far as I can tell, the entire purpose of 'Aged Care' is simply to keep the slowly dying oldies off the street to stop 'em from frightening the horses.
DeleteI think it's a fair guess that humanity has simply never had so many lame-duck oldies still actually alive this late in their lifetimes, and I'm hoping very hard never to join them.
But then humanity has never had so many multi-billionaire oldies hanging around, either. So it might be thought that somehow or other we could afford to let the oldies die in some semblance of comfort. But no, that's wishfull thinking in an extreme degree: we are all responsible for our own lives, so if we personally live longer than we can personally afford, that's our own and nobody else's responsibility, isn't it.
But then, that's always been the case, hasn't it.
Dupont: "...our neighbourhood comprises thousands of islands." And we'll need to put a tank or two on every single one, won't we: complete with spare parts and service equipment and maintenance mechanics and fuel and so on.
ReplyDelete"...some of them [those thousands of islands] would need to be secured or denied to an adversary in the event of a serious threat to Australia " Why ? Are we going to do the Japanese WWII trick of occupying every Pacific island with tanks and troops ? To achieve what, exactly ? And how are we going to get all those tanks and equipment and fuel and troops to a bunch of Pacific Islands ? By flying them there to parachute onto these islands ? Or via the fleet of ships that we don't have because we bought tanks instead ?
And when our 5-letter-word enemy learns from the futility of American action in WWII [capturing Iwo Jima won the war, didn't it ?] and just sails on past to land on Australia's shores that are now bereft of tanks because they've all been transported to "thousands of islands", what then ?
Bro: "If you value peace, prepare for war."
ReplyDeleteHas anyone ever challenged that slogan? Seems to me there would be doubts about its accuracy. I, for insance, cannot name a nation that has successfully demonstrated its aversion to war by preparing for it. Is it just a Bromancer brainfart?
It was well over 30 years ago since I took an interest in it but Switzerland
Deletemay serve as an example.
The Swiss are armed to the teeth, the locals in their burgs train for
almost their whole adult lives to take out their bridges or blow a narrow
pass in case of invasion. Explosives are cached nearby, the bridges
and passes prepped by engineers years before.
The Swiss claimed they can park their entire air force inside the many
mountains they have hollowed out for the last 90 years.
Today tour guides will show you faux hotels built on the side of mountains
whose facade cover up entrances. Inside are artillery ready to rain fire
down upon invading enemy columns.
Hitler seriously argued for invading Switzerland to the horror of his
general staff who pointed out it wasn't worth the unending drain on
resources.
The Swiss were always fierce fighters, the Swiss Pikemen were the
scourge of Europe, savvy princes renting them for their own wars, the Vatican
using them to this day, only they are packing heat under those 500 year old
uniforms.
I think it is fair to say the Swiss have in fact avoided conflict by being exceedingly
well prepared. Plus like the Swedes they made themselves of use to the likes
of the Nazis, they weren't exactly moral giants.
Heh: Switzerland area: approx 40,000km2, Australia area: approx 7.7millionkm2 Switzerland: totally land-locked, Australia: coastline 25,780km (6th longest in world).
DeleteI think it would take a helluva lot more to make Australia 'war ready' than Switzerland. The main thing going for Switzerland is that it would take just a bit of fighting in order to win very little.
If you wish to continue in a sombre mood, listen to this podcast from The Post Carbon Institute https://www.buzzsprout.com/244372?client_source=large_player&iframe=true&referrer=https://www.buzzsprout.com/244372.js?container_id=buzzsprout-large-player&player=large# about the book, An Inconvenient Apocalypse. The authors reckon that a sustainable human population is about one quarter of the present population, and that no one knows how to get to that state in an acceptable way (to get to it in 50 years you have to send 250 million souls to Glory every year). They talk much, much more about our colliding crises, but still express some hope.
ReplyDelete"The reptiles are an exceptionally dull bunch" and here is your new tool DP, to catch them out;
ReplyDeleteWe'd love to see you catch the Oz corpse propagandists DP, as someone will soon be tempted to have chatgtp write the basis of an article when deadline loom(n)s.
Try
"GPTZero
Humans Deserve to Know the Truth."
http://gptzero.me/
Can't wait.
And I'm staying in Sydney city - for the first time in 20yrs.
Wilson carparks have screens by lifts showing the The Oz articles of the day - vandalism popped into mind. Can I sue for indoctrination?
4 days in and:
1 only fly
1 only mosquito
Almost zero life other than humans. And imported plants.
And pole scrapers - I kid you not, every morning the private poles - everywhere - are photographed before and after scraping off every bit of sticky tape. By 2 humans. Fines at the ready.
Humans on wheeled vehicles - electric unicyclists the worst! - are more dangerous than cars & buses.
Homeless in every lane.
Too much money, too hard hearts.
And the road, traffic & light rail have made for a chaotic mess, compared to my memories from 1970'-2000.
Petrol & food more expensive than my home town?!
Can't wait to leave.
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDelete“[Tanks] are a game changer, as any soldier with combat experience will tell you.”
From his Wikipedia page it doesn’t appear “of the bridge” had any combat experience at all, evidently finding it safer to serve as a policy wonk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Dupont
It also appears that Mr Bridgey’s love of tanks may have a more monetary basis;
“On 16 November 2020 Dupont was appointed the new Northern Territory Defence and National Security Advocate. His main role will be to advocate for the Territory and make sure Northern Territory businesses are well positioned to capitalise on the A$270 billion defence equipment and capabilities spend over the next ten years.”
What would happen to aged dementia patients if they came under the mental health scheme, which is reportedly already underfunded, instead of under the aged care scheme? If they do not come under the aged care scheme, how do they become eligible to enter aged care facilities?
ReplyDeleteErgas compares residential packages under NDIS and aged care as though they provide the same services: “Equally it is hard to understand why we should have the NDIS delivering care packages in residential settings to under-65s and a completely different system delivering similar services to older Australians.”
Well, Ergas, probably because the needs are different. It’s insulting to NDIS participants to put them in the same category as elderly people and such thinking put many a young person in an aged care home which was a completely unsatisfactory situation.
Even a bot would do better than Ergas. At least it might deal with facts.
Over on this day’s ‘Fin’, where Stutchbury has pretty much completed the task of moving content into the space generally occupied by ‘The Australian’ say 15 years back, the inaugural chair of the Productivity Commission, Gary Banks, is lecturing treasurer Chalmers on the virtues of that Commission. The title is ‘Let Productivity Commission speak truth to power.’ - all very heroic and noble. It is on the inside back, so facing the Rowe depiction of the Dom’s bare arse and his wardrobe of costumes. Banks actually meanders around a bit more than I had expected, in trying to aim some shots at Chalmers’ focus on having ‘national conversation’ on major economic issues. Of course, he steadily implies that governments, particularly of one colour, seldom have such conversations (at least to the level he sets) then aims further at the current government, that it should reduce its spending rather than increase taxation. But the true culture of the Productivity Commission emerges in his example - the NDIS. I quote - exactly as it appears. ( I am not smart enough to make this stuff up.)
Delete‘Curtailing this out-of-control program-currently projected to cost the taxpayer six times the amount originally envisaged-would in itself greatly alleviate the government’s fiscal difficulties.’
That is from the inaugural chair of the Commission, who believes he is making a strong case for it to continue in the way he set it up.
Given that his comment is supposed to represent enlightened ‘economic’ thinking, the first response has to be ‘proper economic assessments of social programs look at all costs and benefits - including the costs and benefits of doing nothing for the people affected.’
Oh, and consistent with Banks’ theme that the treasurer really should be doing more to advance ‘national conversation’ - might there not be just some, um - benefits to the population from the services included in the NDIS? Why - there might even be some gains in that productivity thingy by having people more able to take up employment, or participate in community activities.
I had some very minor contact with the Productivity Commission in its early days, when Banks would have been in charge. That fleeting exposure was enough to convince me that it was an asylum for barking mad free-marketeers who seemed completely unconcerned by the fact that their proposals frequently would have breeched current laws, international conventions to which Australia was signatory, and basic logic. I wouldn’t have been surprised if its staff considered the laws of physics to be contrary to free market principles. Other Commonwealth agencies quickly learned to pay minimal lip-service to the Commission’s views and recommendations wherever possible. I’ve no idea how far it’s made inroads into Government decision-making in the subsequent quarter-century, but I very much doubt that a proper cost-benefit analysis of the Productivity Commission would indicate much real return on the substantial public funds that have been poured into the body.
DeleteAnonymous - of course, we cultists note that our Dame Groan was also a commissioner in that early period. Although she does go on about 'productivity' in her current writings, seldom does she offer any practical advice on how to achieve it.
DeleteBefore getting 'practical advice' on how to achieve increased productivity, maybe we should ask for a definition of it: for instance, what is the 'productivity' of a federal politician and what are the increases in it that justify increases in politician's salaries. Because they do get regular increases in salary, don't they.
DeleteBTW, neat rundown on the Prod Comm, Anony. Covers all the important points with great precision.
Delete