In which the pond dreams of reptile red cards, but who could be that cruel to Dame Groan?

 

Thank the long absent lord, it seems that the reptiles are starting to get over their Jimbo fixation. 

The pond had expected his talk of the "usual suspects" to set them off for another week, and ensure another bout of pond agony and red cards ...

Instead there was a new reason for a red card ...

The pond was alarmed. Had he ben sacked from uni, had he been muzzled and silenced and spurned? 

Nope, there he was as large as life, bleating along with the rest of the reptiles, seeking his fifteen minutes of fame as an endlessly suffering, persecuted victim, or as the reptiles like to say, a whiner ... and a snowflake ...

Yes, there he was, as Terry """" Goldsworthy, and it turned out he was a former Queensland plod turned academic and suffering from deep delusions ...

..I was cast aside by a victim support service I had assisted for a decade; I was told my post was not in accord with “their values”.
My crime was to post a link to the High Court judgment. Hypocrisy is now overlord; the highlighting of fact is punishable. I was to be subject to an inquisition. I resigned out of principle.
As a Catholic I am reminded of the denial by Peter of Jesus. The Gospel tells us Jesus foretold that Peter, one of his disciples, would deny he knew him before the rooster crows. When Jesus was seized, Peter was accused of knowing him, he denied it three times, and then the rooster crowed, and Peter wept.
The message here is that you must stand by your convictions and beliefs; to fail to do so is a betrayal of the contest of ideas and a surrender to the absolutism of populist narratives where only one viewpoint is acceptable.
But worse, it will mean the generations that follow will never hear fearless voices arguing a position with conviction based on fact in the face of the baying mob. And how many of us, like Peter, will then weep for our failure to protect the freedoms that we have come to enjoy.

Terry Goldsworthy is associate professor of criminal justice at Bond University and a former Queensland detective inspector.

FFS, he thinks he's Jesus Christ? Red card for him ...

But that left the pond a bit short, so it turned to Dame Groan for the usual groaning, because who could red card a jolly good groan ...

The pond did indeed set aside bulk billing for a moment to note that pathetic illustration, which (a) looks nothing like what goes on in a general practice in a big city, and (b) suggests the pathetic level of desperation that now exists in the once proud, much reduced lizard Oz graphics department?

Could it have something to do with the cost-cutting noted by correspondents, highlighted by Zoe in another place?

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation will slash $20 million in costs from the business that owns The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, and The Herald Sun over the next two years, in a bid to make the newsrooms financially viable over the long term.

The project, which staff are referring to as ‘Audience 25’, is the latest move by the Murdoch-controlled media company to find efficiencies against the backdrop of rising inflation and broader global economic pressures. Media sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the project is confidential, said senior executives are in the process of identifying where to reduce costs.

The sources said the program was being led by national community masthead network editor, John McGourty, and Rowan Hunnam, head of digital, national regional and community network. News Corp declined to comment.

If the pond might make a helpful suggestion to John and Rowan, get rid of the graphics department altogether and return to the great days of the nineteenth century when a front page might consist only of advertisements.

Another rag noted the plan to slash costs with a cruel jibe ...

A proposed re-merger of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Fox Corp was also put on ice recently. Murdoch and his son Lachlan had been considering re-uniting the two ends of the empire in order to save costs. However, it was deemed “not optimal” for shareholders.

However, News Corp also owns cable TV operator Foxtel and streaming services Kayo and Binge. It is unclear whether these will be affected by the same cost-cutting measures.

Of course, one way to save money would be to cut down on the number of very boozy lunches.

There was a link to that story of very boozy lunches ...

Just days after News Corp Australia executive chairman Michael Miller warned staff that “inappropriate behaviour has consequences”, it has emerged that the media giant is investigating a third drinks “incident”. 

According to rival publicaiton The Australian Financial Review, News Corp is investigating complaints relating to an incident at the end-of-year drinks for The Australian, which took place in Surry Hills last Thursday (the 8th of December). Both senior and junior staff were meeting for drinks at the event.

The Financial Review reported that a senior editor at The Australian attended News Corp headquarters in Sydney on Wednesday to meet with HR over an incident during end-of-year drinks at a pub in Surry Hills.

publicaiton?

You see, reptiles, there's an inspiration. 

Don't just get rid of the graphics department, there's really no need for sub-editors when heading to the online world, as you finally realise your fixation for killing trees is a delusional dream, and a waste of time and money.

And after that lengthy interruption, the pond apologises and turns back to Dame Groan for a jolly good groaning ...

If the pond might be so bold, it too received a notice from the general practice it attends, but it realises the reason came with a change of ownership ...

These days public health is just another form of pet food ...

Yes, they bring a lot of professionalism, insight and experience to screwing purchasers of pet food ... and those seeking medical advice ...

Oh sorry, once again the pond has interrupted a jolly good groaning ...

No, it doesn't take a genius to work out how private equity would learn how to screw governments and those seeking medical advice, and for some perverse reason, the pond was reminded of that recent Kudelka ...

Sorry, the pond realises there are cultists deeply devoted to Dame Groan and the pond keeps getting in their way ...

Of course we've learned up front in her piece that Dame Groan is fine and dandy and has no need of bulk billing, and thanks again be unto Santos, and never mind the planet, and for some inexplicable reason, the pond's mind began to wander again ...

Might this be the point where it slipped in a reference to the comedy stylings of Rex Huppke? 

Sure it's USA Today, which the pond remembers as the rag they tossed under motel doors, but as well as the primary source, Stop trying to make sense of Marjorie Taylor Greene. She inhabits a world of nonsense, you can also find Huppke occasionally at Yahoo News, though then you miss out on the pitch ... You can't apply logic to something wholly illogical. You'll never pierce the membrane of the right-wing bubble Greene inhabits, as she speaks a language most Americans will never understand.

What the pond liked was a reference to another part of the chairman's empire ... which came after contemplating Green on the matter of the death of an insurrectionist, compared to other deaths by cop killing ..

Anything can make sense if Fox News tells you it makes sense 

But in Greene’s world, this is a legitimate gripe. It’s as if she doesn’t speak our native tongue, but spins words and conspiracies embraced as gospel among an insular swath of Americans whose lives are defined by lies and bent reality.

George Santos steps down from committees:A letter from George Santos: 'I am recusing myself from committees. Also, I am Batman.'

Feeling exasperated that Greene is where she is, that she somehow overcame Jewish-space-laser comments and an obvious absence of intellect, is a waste of energy. She won’t make sense to people outside that spooky, Fox News-fed world any more than the rest of us will make sense to them.

Indeed, indeed, and anything can make sense if Dame Groan scribbles it and now the pond must really get back to that spooky lizard Oz-fed world, with a final short gobbet ...

Yes, fancy expecting bulk billing if you happen to be poor. There's pet food to be sold, and health to be exploited, and if you think Dame Groan gives a stuff, the pond has very good shares in a gas company to sell you, provided you care not a whit or a jot about the planet ...

And so to other reptiles and those who attend to the primary sources will know that the pond has thus far deliberately ignored the bromancer, out and about this day and blathering about the voice, because the reptiles can never shut up about it ...

FFS. Not the old identity politics and radicals hiding under the bed routines.

The pond thought of a red card, and then thought that a gobbet would suffice, and that by way of text, rather than a cut and paste, because there's only so much fear-mongering and FUD the pond can abide in any given day ...

...Most legislation affects all Australians, which means the voice will have a say on health, education, defence policy etc. That’s undemocratic because all other Australians get to vote only once, whereas those who can vote for the voice get two votes.

That is at the heart of why I think the voice is such a radical and bad idea. It rests on the notion that parliamentary democracy is not capable of representing certain minorities. This is an attack on parliamentary democracy in principle....

You see? That's a deliberate misrepresentation, and a deliberate lie, a falsification and a fabrication. 

The pond should have known, because Anything can make sense if the reptiles of Oz tell you it makes sense ..

So short of a red card, but reduced to text, as the pond has suggested should happen with the lizard Oz, given that the graphics department is a complete waste of space ... and just a sample beginning with a classic bit of bromancer boosterism, which is to say everyone agrees that Aboriginal communities should be consulted, except of course that'll completely ruin parliamentary democracy...

...Everyone agrees that Aboriginal communities should always be consulted by government on matters that affect them. There’s no need at all to put that in the Constitution. One likely motive for constitutional change is a power grab by groups who think they can capture, or benefit from, a newly constitutionally privileged institution.

The voice is thus a weakening of parliamentary democracy and a rejection of the core principle of political liberalism, that all citizens are equal in civic status regardless of race, gender, religion, background etc.

As Malcolm Turnbull wrote in his memoir: “Our democracy is built on the foundations of all Australians having equal civic rights – all being able to vote for, stand for and serve in either of two chambers in our national parliament …

“A constitutionally enshrined additional representative assembly for which only Indigenous Australians could vote for or serve in is inconsistent with this fundamental principle.”

(Turnbull, perfectly conscientiously, later changed his mind on the voice, but I am convinced by this argument.)

The remit of the voice grows like Topsy. Now it’s a voice not just to parliament but to executive government, and now to cabinet as well. No one has the faintest idea what our ultra-activist High Court would do with all this.

However, two other elements of the voice, apart from the question of contradicting racial civic equality, are of growing concern.

One is the element of Cuban-style soft Stalinism about the demand for public unanimity on the voice. ABC and SBS news reports on the voice frequently contain naked editorial endorsement of the voice, as though there is no other legitimate position. It’s like the Chinese Communist Party denouncing ideological deviationism. It is truly shameful that the government plans to end the age-old practice of posting to Australian households a pamphlet containing the Yes and the No cases, will not fund either case but will provide government money for an education (re-education?) campaign, and will make only pro-Yes organisations tax deductible.

This is deeply undemocratic. The proponents of the voice are scared of having a real debate. Price and senator James McGrath typically had a small segment explaining why they will vote No censored by YouTube.

If Dutton’s opposition follows the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of Liberal voters and MPs and opposes the voice in principle and in practice, then ABC panels on the subject and the like will have to include opponents as well as supporters, and there is at least a chance of democratic debate.

Some Liberals argue that a conscience vote would allow them to avoid becoming the issue. This is just an excuse for raw cowardice. If the Liberal Party doesn’t have a view in principle about the most important, radical and ultimately unpredictable constitutional change proposed in modern Australia, it ought to just go out of business.

Strategic victory is seldom secured by tactical manoeuvres accompanying complete strategic surrender.

The other worry is that the voice will likely entrench the most destructive elements of identity politics into the heart of Australian life. Identity politics is killing Western societies.

It pits group against group. It is not about unity but constant grievance and performative pantomime, of grievance discovery, perpetual escalating apology, relentless identification of new villains and whipping up new hatreds.

The proponents of the voice say it’s only the first step to a treaty, presumably involving reparations, and truth-telling commissions, as though Australian history classes are currently anti-Aboriginal.

The voice would move Australian culture and politics several standard deviations to the left, permanently institutionalising the destructive dynamics of identity politics into every part of our national life.

This would be damaging for Australia. And, incidentally, disastrous for the Liberals.

Speaking of disasters for the Liberal party, out of the mouths of babes and their own polling ...

More fear mongering and FUD desperately needed reptiles! 

More shrieking about the complete ruination of parliamentary democracy required. More posturing and posing about the destructive dynamics of identity politics urgently needed.

You're falling down on the job ... butif you work hard enough the voices of the far right and the far left might still come together, and again keep difficult, pesky uppity blacks in their place and deny them a voice, because there's already enough voices carrying on, as noted by the immortal Rowe ...

Put it another way ...

Or put it another way ...

And so to a bonus, and while they quickly took it away from the spotlight, the pond found it vastly amusing ...

Nikki Haley as a serious contender? 

The pond supposes it makes sense, on the basis Anything can make sense if Fox News tells you it makes sense ...

But the pond prefers Charlie Sykes's take ...

...After a brief flirtation with independence, Haley returned to the fold, posing for pictures with Diamond and Silk, and repeating hot MAGA mantras on cue.

So what can we expect from her campaign?

One big tell: Trump doesn’t seem to mind. He says he encouraged her, and he hasn’t started calling her names. Why? Because Trump knows that the bigger the field — especially with candidates who will never take a shot at him — helps him. He doesn’t need a majority of GOP votes to win renomination. He only needs a plurality in the winner-take-all primaries, so the more the merrier.

And he knows that he has nothing to worry about from Nikki circa 2023.

Yes, and she didn't even make it into any of the cartoons where barking mad contenders joust for attention ...