The reptiles have decided on an all-out war to protect the filthy rich, so naturally Dame Groan was snatched from her Tuesday slot to form the centrepiece of the reptiles' unholy supeer triptych ...
Realising that there are a few unhealthy cultists who have a weird fixation on any groan emitted by Dame Groan - the louder the groaning the better - the pond will save this groan for the bitter end ...
Meanwhile, it was February 24th, and only one reptile stood up to honour the day ...
Yes, broken clock, twice a day and all that, but what alternative did the pond have?
Cackling Claire doing some tranny bashing? No thanks, red card, though it did remind the pond of Arwa Mahdawi's piece in The Graudian, The New York Times’ trans coverage is under fire. The paper needs to listen. You could easily convert that to "cackling Claire is deeply offensive and needs to listen" ...
Meanwhile, it's on with our Henry, because broken clock, twice a day and all that ...
Meanwhile, back in the United States, the Murdochians are still unwilling to pull the plug on the mango Mussolini, or Tuckyo Rose, or all the rest, with not a hint of a waver from the secessionists, isolationists and Putin lovers ...
But at least broken clock, twice a day, yadda yadda, and just a gobbet to go ...
Well yes, and as a bit of a tease, before getting on to the groaning, after that serve, how about a slice of the lizard Oz editorialist on the voice?
Yes, yes, the pond routinely red cards the reptiles on the voice, but this contained such an astonishing conceit, such an astonishing sight - the lizard Oz editorialist so far up the paper's collective bum that sight and light and reason were entirely lost from sight - that the pond simply had to go with it.
The line?
This newspaper stands out in the Australian media for its unparalleled role in covering Indigenous affairs with deep knowledge, understanding and empathy; it has long been in favour of an acknowledgment of the country’s first peoples.
Oh fair suck of the bigoted sauce bottle, you wretched clowns ... as you push the coalition line of confusion and chaos and blather about details, in much the same way as you've done to befuddle climate science in recent decades ...
That infamous lizard Oz editorialist line full of preening self-regard hasn't come yet, but the pond promises it will ...
Meanwhile, top of the page, fuck it, they'll do it LIVE, the reptiles have to push that stupid woman who doesn't know how to spell Susan ...
So far up themselves, even a black hole lets out more light and sense and empathy...
Speaking of black holes, at last it's time for a jolly good groaning ... and what a relief, it's only two gobbets shallow, though replete with the usual dot point listicle beloved by devotees ...
Never stand between a rich person and their tax breaks, because if you can't make out like a bandit, what's the point?
Should the pond at this point have mentioned Qantas, Coles, Woolies and the like making out like bandits?
No need there's an infallible Pope to hand which does that job ...
And so to the listicle, in which the Groaner patiently explains why the rich must keep their snouts in trough, or where's the humanity ...
It's always in the detail and the pond had a difficult time picking between this detail ...
... and this detail ... (especially if you substitute "Oh Peter" with "Oh Dame Groan, what a splendid groaning" ....)
Today's Mr Ed: "It would be unforgivable failure of leadership if the voice was rejected simply because on referendum day we were still trying to find out what we were voting for." Yeah, the reptiles exercising their 'Chip-chip' strategy for opposing things that Roopie doesn't like. Portray the thing as a minor edifice - the "voice" but never the "Voice" then chip, chip chip until the edifice starts to fracture. Then pick on each chip and chip away at it, until nothing but pointless rubble remains.
ReplyDeleteAnd all the while proclaim loudly that "we the reptiles" are the genuine article and the guardians of "Truth" (but never merely "truth").
Groany: "Mind you, we have muddled on without a definition [of superannuation] for more than three decades." Yep, another great Hawke-Keating-Kelty achievement: scramble together some things so that the wonder of "superannuation" for the working unionist stiffs can take the place of a genuine wages rise.
ReplyDeleteThen we get: "Fiddling - or transforming - the taxation and regulatory arrangements affecting super also undermines the public's trust in a compulsory system that involves the holding of assets for long periods pf time". And we all know that there is only one "public" - no, no division into those holding $100million in super versus those (mainly women) struggling to hold $100thousand, and we know that the superannuation legislation has never been changed, not even once, so that the "trust" of that single, unified "public" has never been undermined.
But hey, pointy Groany: "It's not even clear how a cap would work, as annual investment returns will often lead to the cap being exceeded. Would the trustees be expected to withdraw the excess every year ?" Got it in one, Groany, that's exactly what the trustees - remembering that Groany herself reckons that the large funds are self-managed - will have to do.
Well gracious me, the 'Teal MPs' have their say (well, some of them): "Independent MPs including Kylea Tink, Zoe Daniel and Zali Steggall have said that capping superannuation balances at $3m may undermine the confidence of people saving for retirement."
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/feb/25/teal-mps-say-capping-superannuation-at-3m-might-undermine-confidence-in-saving-for-retirement
And of course they are quite right, the "average Australian" who has a magnificent average of a whopping great $150,000 in their super account by retirement would completely agree: they'd absolutely "lose faith" in a super capped at $3,000,000 wouldn't they.
Especially because of never-ending inflation which diminishes the value of every dollar every year. So super accounts couldn't just be capped at $3,000,000, the cap would have to be inflation adjusted every year to retain its retirement value.
After all, even if inflation stayed within the preferred limit of 2 - 3 per cent, then $10,000 put into super at say age 25, wouldn't be worth nearly that much by age 67, would it. But that's "the magic of compound interest", isn't it - that $10,000 will have earned enough compound interest to be worth maybe $20,000 to $30,000 by retirement age, and that'll be an outright fortune, won't it (what's that 'rule of 72' again?). More than enough to live luxuriously on in the nearly 20 years the average Australia can expect to live after retirement (unless the retirement age keeps on being raised periodically).
Ah GB - your morning musings always add extra interest. Not sure about your speculation that retirement age can be raised, because that suggests increase in life expectancy. We need only look at our friends across the pacific waters to appreciate the long-term planning in the minds of the side of politics most aligned with Roopie. The USA stands out even now as one of the few nations where life expectancy is falling. Factor in the coverage that mighty intellects like Rand Paul receive from 'Fox' and its ilk, and we should see further reduction in life expectancy - until it vies with assorted bits of semi-desert where failed states are still being harvested by military 'strongmen' for whatever loose change can still be flown out to Swiss depositories.
DeleteOr, speaking of mighty intellects -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1DviQ9mva0
You might just hit the copy and paste key GB when "Ned's" super natter rolls around on the pond this Sunday ...
DeleteOh yes, a classic, Chad:
DeleteSir Humphrey: "You can prove anything with statistics..."
Hacker: "Yes, even the truth."
Of course the USA is having a hard time, Chad, but the average lifespan is still increasing in Aussieland. Goodness, if anybody had told me 50 years ago that I'd still be alive now I'd have thought they were just a wee tad crazy. I still do.
"copy and paste", DP ? I can't wait :-)
Hi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteWhat’s worse than rolling back a tax break for the filthy rich, why this piece of heresy from the FT;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHeYDHIeIBY
The Financial Times Channel on YouTube does a pretty good job of straight reporting, often on topics you wouldn’t expect.
Thank DW for that information it was very interesting article but will never be listened to by politicians. In a similar vein misinformation gets spread around by people who make up their own version of the truth such as an acquaintance told me that the aboriginals were handed $20,000 as a result of the floods in WA and when I checked they had to apply for the help and would receive $10,000 and would have to make a second application for the next payment. The assertion was that Albanese went to Western Australia and just handed out $ 20,000 without any other requirements needed to be met.
DeleteAnd maybe that is how it should have been ww, but as you say, it wasn't. I wonder, though, how many may have applied for the second $10k and been given it.
DeleteHi WW and GB,
DeleteSomething else you won’t see politicians talking about, is how technology is increasingly making many jobs redundant. Back in the 1930’s John Maynard Keynes predicted that we would be working just 15 hours a week.
Washing machines, vacuums and electric cookers put paid to the majority of domestic servants and industrial automation streamlined an enormous amount of factory work. Now the office jobs that replaced these more manual labours are going to be superseded by an ever improving AI technology.
The benefits of all this technological improvement is not being equally distributed however and that is very troubling. In the Amazon warehouses the pallet systems are automated but at the moment it is cheaper to use humans to sort small items that need to be placed in a box but for how much longer.
Most people don’t want to work long hours doing boring and possibly dangerous jobs. The problem is late stage capitalism is on track to only reward a tiny percentage of the population whilst the majority have to try to be cheaper than a robot or a computer.
This is fatal for capitalism as if the majority don’t have any money how can they consume.
https://theconversation.com/whatever-happened-to-the-15-hour-workweek-84781
As I said don’t expect politicians to even think about discussing anything remotely like this, its like climate change twenty years ago.
Well obsolescence creeps up on us all, DW, even species. It's only the tough little buggers like ants and cockroaches that will still be here when Sol goes nova and swallows the solar system. Though I have to say that I understood that bigger species - like us - were expected to have around 5 - 10 million years of existence before succumbing to extinction. We might just make it as the forever record holders for very short species survival times.
DeleteNothing wrong with Our Henry’s contribution today, but really - what’s the point? He’s simply repeating comments that others have made more succinctly and less soporifically. Plus a single quote, taken from a Jonny-come-lately like von Clausewitz? That’s not what we expect from our Classics Man! Nothing from Thucydides’ “ History of the Peloponnesian War”, Caesar’s “Invasion of Britain” or even that old standby, Sun Tzu’s ‘ The Art of War”? Though I suppose as a Western Civilisation man, Henry might baulk at the latter.
ReplyDeleteHenry is getting sloppy. While Lenin did talk about promises and pie crusts, he noted that it was an English proverb (https://www.nytimes.com/1983/01/22/us/briefing-180486.html) "he makes no more of breaking Acts of Parliaments, than if they were like Promises and Pie-crust, made to be broken." by Heraclitus Ridens in 1681 (https://www.bookbrowse.com/expressions/detail/index.cfm/expression_number/487/promises-are-like-pie-crust-they-are-made-to-be-broken)
DeleteNice one, Joe.
DeleteBut BG Butt, that's exactly the point, Anony: it's just the old bit about 'if you say it often enough, nearly everybody will come to believe it.' Roopie's reptiles are dedicated practitioners of 'truth through repetition'.
DeleteThat's why every single reptile is pushing the line that "there's not enough detail about the voice". Amongst other things. The art of reptilism is to say the same thing as every other reptile but just sufficiently varied so as to seem like multiple separate confirmations of the facts.
I will pass on Dame Groan this day - if cultists can be allowed the odd day of rest. The whole reptile 'tactic' on a discussion on superannuation resembles a group of 6-year-olds at their first session of soccer - all of them chasing after the ball. Will leave that there, because most groups of 6-year-olds can be shown some basic tactics, and field layout, within 2 or 3 training sessions, whereas we have the Dames, and the Neds, proud to proclaim that they have learned nothing in 4 decades or so.
ReplyDeleteWe see similar lack of subtlety in reptile land with directions on 'the Voice' - essentially F U and D trowelled on. Again, I look back to the referenda of 1977, in particular the one for orderly succession in the senate, where the question put to the voter (in the states only) was "It is proposed to alter the Constitution to ensure as far as practicable that a casual vacancy in the Senate is filled by a person of the same political party as the Senator chosen by the people and for the balance of his term. Do you approve the proposed law?"
Now that wording introduced the term and concept 'party' into our Constitution, but I do not recall the then-equivalents of Dame Slap, and Ned (and they existed) carrying on, in print, along the lines of 'Ooooooh, you have no idea where those dreadful judges will take you as they use that 'party' thing to overturn all that we have held sacred for hundreds of years.' It passed, comfortably, and the final wording in the Constitution went on at much greater length, as seemed necessary.
GB has already pointed out that by simple population growth, the absolute number of voters of less than normal- or median-IQ is consistently increasing, so perhaps the reptiles understand that, and see steady repetition as their duty to this increasing number of the below-average.
Ah but Roopie's reptiles have been involved in a learning experience: right from day one they learned that they have nothing to learn because they've already learned everything that's important: follow Roopie's directions (ie "all that we have held sacred for hundreds of years") and all that's well will follow.
DeleteThis in regard to the top of the Dame's listicle...and her scowling profile pic.
DeleteThe reason Dame Groan is so grumpy
Could be that her assets are lumpy
And whilst on them she sits
It gives her the shits...
No wonder she's looking so frumpy
Sheesh, Chadders not the white flag to a groaning. There will be another chance when "Ned's" super musings roll around on Sunday ...
DeleteKeen anticipation here, Dorothy - keen anticipation. At least with the Ned one can add his ponderous intonation mentally as one reads the words. Difficult to do with the Groaner, as she appears more frequently on 'Sky', and we realise she is another with an irritatingly high 'You know' quotient on interview.
Delete