Back in the day, the pond recalls that folk of a conservative bent always won the argument because they could call out vulgar, uncouth behaviour.
"I say, old chap, or dear sweet lady," as the smirking twits were wont to say, "do you have to be such a tasteless, gross, crass, unrefined, tawdry, indelicate, offensive, obnoxious, positively distasteful, coarse and crude oaf when trying to make a cretinous point?"
The pond would skulk away but these days realises the only way is to return fire in kind. Do a Keating, or conduct political discourse the way it's done in the States, as a form of skunk hunting, roasting squirrels as you find them ...
Yes, that's a cheap shot, and all the better for it, and while on the United States front, can the pond just note this NY Times/Jeremy W. Peters' story, outside the paywall Yahoo, Inside the 3 Months That Could Cost Fox $1.6 Billion.
There was one deeply poignant line that stood out for the pond: Fisher: I believed that I was respecting our audience by telling them the truth.
Oh the poor thing, and then she up and quit, and meanwhile, another cheap shot, Tucker Carlson Laughed Out Of The Room With Eyebrow-Raising New Trump Defense.
The pond needed to start with a laugh, but then the reptiles slipped in this recycled guilt trip yesterday and it almost slipped past the pond, and the urge to race to the window, rip it open and yell 'mad as hell' returned...
Actually two decades before, the Iraq war was hard to defend, but the reptiles down under did their best with a burst of gung ho war mongering that has never gone away.
What a fine bunch of war mongers they made, with the bromancer in the lead. There's even a paper, Getting the Story Straight: Greg Sheridan in the Shifting Moral Sands of Iraq, by Martin Hirst & Robert Schütz (sorry no link) dedicated to looking at his worst blather about the war between good and evil.
But they were all in that game. Polonius tried to be circumspect - this was back in his granny days - but still did his shilling, and much later Robert Manne foolishly expected some kind of repentance or apology from The Iraq War's coalition of the shilling ...
Let me put this plainly. The leaders of the Australian war party – John Howard, Rupert Murdoch, Alexander Downer – and their most influential cheerleaders – Chris Mitchell, Andrew Bolt, Greg Sheridan – bear some responsibility for the deaths of half a million Iraqis, for the incalculable number of deaths still to come and for the unimaginable suffering that has been endured by the people of Iraq since the invasion of their country. And yet so far as I am aware – their supreme self-confidence apparently unaffected by the catastrophe they had helped unleash in Iraq – not one of these warriors of the right has expressed even one word of contrition or remorse.
Sorry, contrition or remorse isn't the reptile style. Right now they're preparing for the next war.
Back in the day, Dame Slap was one of the contrition-less and the remorseless, and on the 19th March 2003, she boldly scribbled Resolve and resolutions on our side ....Legally, the US and its allies are completely justified in using force against Baghdad. This war is legal. This is the law.
She then spent months handing out white feathers, and doing her very best slapping down and war mongering up ... now all safely lost to time and deliberate burying by the lizard Oz, except for those who remember and those who can't forget or forgive ...
The pond led with this reminder because there she was at the top of the digital edition, right next to the neo-Nazis and the ratbag radical feminists spouting bigotry that Nazis were pleased to endorse ...
So much to pick from, so little time, but sorry the pond will have to pass on Killer and Biden's laptop, and the Greens ...
After all, there has to be room for the infallible Pope ...
And having fixed the planet, the pond will also have to pass on yet another reptile attempt to deal with difficult, uppity, agitated blacks by putting them back in their place, or better still, their box ...
If there's a basket of deplorables, you can guarantee the deplorable Allan will be in it, but speaking of deplorables, for a long time the pond has had a ban on Dame Slap, either black bashing or blathering on about inside leaks from the Lehrmann camp, but this day she reverted to good old-fashioned Slappy form ...
Oh butter melt in mouth, mouth indulge in Technicolor yawn, was there anything funnier?
Reaching out for a reminder of Dame Slap's incessant abuse of Juliar, rhetorical chaff bag always at hand, the pond came across a listicle, celebrating the top 10 most publicised abusive comments about Julia Gillard, and what do you know, there was Dame Slap, slap bang in the middle with a slap that would have made the French clock lover wince with envy ...
Turns out Keating's a rank amateur when it comes to snide personal attacks and routinely managing to get it wrong when it comes to life and death issues, such as war and the fate of the planet ...
And after that, the pond simply has to make room for the bromancer ... because he got correspondents agitated with this little outburst ...
… they’ll be able to go up and kill you and then run away at very high speed which a conventional sub couldn’t do …
… The Virginia class submarine is perhaps the most complex artefact which the human race has produced.
- Afternoon Agenda, Sky News Australia, 14 March, 2023
What a ripper, and never no mind dictionary definitions of artefacts, or even American artifacts, or complexity, or that dodgy "perhaps" which is perhaps there because perhaps it's a nonsense, there's years of debate in that one, because without doubt, the next mission to Mars will feature a Virginia class submarine, built to Uncle Elon's specifications (warning, do not step in front of moving vehicle) ...
OK the bro is down on his game - it's hard to keep producing stunning artefacts - but please note the talk of the need "to socialise its younger members."
Back in the day, a more honest reptile would have talked of the need to mind fuck vulgar youff, program them, give them the Manchurian candidate treatment, but you can sense the bromancer's impending alarm.
Could all his cunning plans for war with China by Xmas come to naught? Would that most wondrous artefact, yet to be devised and produced, fall into a screaming heap of delays and cost overruns? The air of nervous energy and repressed anxiety was palpable in the room ...
And next thing you know, the bromancer would be off in the sands of Iraq, fighting the just fight, and what a big advocacy task that was ... though looking back, it's just a warm up for the biggest game of all, the mother of all wars, the war to end war, the third world war with China ...
To be fair, while he was off his game, that left enough room for the pond to slip in the lizard Oz editorialist, celebrating trans bashers and hate and fear mongering ...
Actually it relies on Deeming having long ago outed herself as a bigot and a hater ... curiously selected by a Liberal party which once thought that the culture wars were a way to electoral success. D'oh ...
Such a mess, even the reptiles had to pay attention ...
He alleges Ms Jones posted on Twitter on the same day: “Nazis and women want to get rid of paedo filth. Why don’t you.’’
Part of Mr Pesutto’s case is that Ms Deeming organised the rally on the steps of parliament without taking into consideration Mrs Keen’s background. He is furious Ms Deeming attended the rally.
Mrs Keen has said she would not sue the Liberal leader.
The rally was ambushed by neo-Nazis and Ms Deeming is accused by colleagues of failing to condemn the presence of the fascists at the time and later that day.
Oh they're fascists are they? Where's Petronella when she's needed?
And then there's the company she decided to keep and not just the Nazis, naturally attracted by the message ...
This out of the mouth of babes and defensive reptiles ...
Victorian Opposition Leader John Pesutto – in a dossier justifying his moves to expel Ms Deeming – has accused the British activist of taking selfies with a leader of Norway’s far-right movement, Hans Jørgen Lysglimt Johansen, and said she was using a profile picture of a Barbie doll wearing a Nazi swastika on her social media pages.
Ms Keen said the Barbie picture was a “joke” and she did not know Mr Johansen when he asked for a photograph.
A joke? That's what they call virtue signalling to Nazis these days?
And so to the rest of the lizard Oz editorial ...
And so finally to a challenge ...
The pond has had the expert Groaner groaning about productivity, so naturally "Ned" had to have a groan too, and stifling a groan, the pond indulged him, even if it meant that Hunter's laptop and Allan's boxing of difficult, uppity blacks had to slide ... and by the end of it, those who groan about the Groaner will be groaning that they never had it so good when keeping company with Dame Groan ...
Of course the pond has no actual interest in what "Ned" has to say. Is "Ned" asking questions a threat to the pond's desire for a quiet time? Many seem to say a rhetorical bullshit yes ...
And there you have it. After decades of climate science denialism, and routine demonising of renewable energy, "Ned" has the cheek to talk of embittered politics ...
But then it's the reptile way, isn't it?
I believed that I was respecting our audience by telling them the truth.
D'oh ...
I couldn’t defend my employer to my daughter while trying to teach her to do what is right. I couldn’t get over that. So I’m leaving six weeks paid leave on the table and taking a paycut.
Isn't it wonderful how Dame Slap, the bro, "Ned", the lizard Oz editorialist and the whole bunch can get over it all so easily, from the Iraq war to climate science, from bro to bitch to dotard ...
And with that time for an immortal Rowe on a parochial matter which gives the pond some pleasure ...
As always, it's in the details ...
What is happening where are our usual contributors come on. As for dame slap what a bitch shacked with another right wing dud.
ReplyDeleteKind of low hanging fruit today Anony. We all know that personal attacks are all this dried up old chicken carcass can manage (how’s that for personal invective).
DeleteVery predictable how the press would react to the type of tongue lashing they received. After they regained control of the collective lower lips it was time to lock themselves in a safe space and start revising history. They weren’t asking loaded questions, introducing some red herrings or claiming there was consensus where none existed. No, they were the ones introducing “nuance” with their sophisticated “yellow peril” talk.
The thing is, in nearly all cases the reptiles try to stifle debate by filling every space with white noise. It is important to the grifters and paid lickspittles that there is no debate. That’s why they hate social media so much, there may be loonies but there are also diverse views, not diverse in the sense of right wing and far right wing as seen in the Oz, but folk who might actually talk back to the emperor.
I thought I’d check just how much faith the public have in the media - not much apparently
https://www.edelman.com.au/trust-barometer-2022-australia
Thank you BF. for the extension. Very interesting but would the Murdochracy read this about their publications or would that boof head from nine understand that they are so unpopular.
DeleteNo matter how much and how often people say they don't trust "the media" they still buy it (dead tree and/or web) and tune in to it and pay attention to it. But only when something is happening that they reckon maybe they should know about - after all, how many Australians mistrust the media so much that they don't believe Aussie troops fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, or that there were floods and fires out there in the outback. Or that Albanese is PM.
DeleteBut then, when the fires and floods hit, a great many of us just turn to ABC radio and tv to get the info. So media "unpopularity" is really rather time and place and occasion dependent, yes ? But then if you are a right wingnut, you trust the Murdoch media all the time about all places and every occasion.
And if you're not out there getting your bum incinerated in the bushfire that Sky news didn't mention, then it really doesn't matter, does it.
It may just be us GB, but we hardly watch any mainstream media these days. We follow some small independent outfits struggling and a lot of YouTube channels. I think the declining profits (or increasing losses for Murdoch) indicate we are not alone.
DeleteAll a bit sad really, but all the mainstream, including Aunty, are in tighter lockstep (or goose step) than the troops at a Victory Day parade. It seems unlikely they can adapt, so it’s probably best to do a demolition and rebuild from the ground up. Dominion and Smartmatic are being good enough to lend a hand with some of Rupert’s ventures, though it hard to know just how much damage they can do.
As far as the basic facts are concerned, you can often reference the same source documents as the press use. Because they are under-resourced they tend to just trawl stuff off the internet in a lot of cases, so you might as well read or watch it without the editorialising by sparkling intellects like Stan Grant or Chris Uhlmann (where the hell is he - did the mothership return).
Aghhh - didn’t edit that very well - meant to say we follow some of those refugees from the mainstream running small outfits that struggle to stay afloat.
DeleteAnonymous - looking at the 'talent' on offer this day, there was nothing I could add to Dorothy's assessment of our Dame Slap. I will admit I had a smile when she - Slap - tried a hypothetical in which she would have been moderator of Paul Keating. Smile, because as a regular watcher of Press Club, I cannot recall seeing Dame Slap, or Ned, or, back in the day, Akerman, or any of the other 'personalities' of the herpetarium actually in the audience there. Of course, they are of such eminence, and wisdom, that they have no need to listen to the guest, let alone ask questions. If you are a regular watcher, you also may have wondered why you don't recognise the names of journalists asking questions. Too often now they are the merest of minions, perhaps armed with a question, including boring statement by way of preamble, from one of the eminences.
DeleteOh, further evidence of the mediocrity of this day's flagship was that there was a contribution from the Garrick Professor - Allan. He has been in a steadily sullen state since Covid restrictions, because up till then, he seemed to spend the majority of his time in a country other than the one in which he occupied the Garrick Chair, on 'sabbatical'; from which he often sniped at layabouts in various Australian bureaucracies who lived too well off the taxpayers, but returned little for that largesse. Named chairs at a university, of course, are never in that category.
Essentially - not much actually to respond to this day; same old is just - same old.
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DeleteNow how can you say that, Chad, after all of the effort that I put into explicating Ned, the PC's 'productivity' and fiat currency ?
DeleteSpeaking of which, we in Australia - along with a few others in the world - have to keep creating money "out of thin air" every year to keep up with our growing population. Otherwise we'd increasingly have too many people chasing too little money, wouldn't we.
What do those places with 'shrinking' populations do ?
Don't do a lot of mainstream media watching on 'live tv' these days myself, Bef. But I do watch a bit just to keep up with what is being regarded as 'important happenings' (mainly 'gang violence' and traffic accidents, it seems).
DeleteTime was that I'd buy an Age at the news stand at the railway station and have about half an hour of time in which to 'keep up'. But then I retired and even were I to somehow get back into a day job, I wouldn't bother nowadays. Besides, I never did think much of Peter Hartcher.
But I don't think I'd turn to Youtube channels instead - though I do appreciate being able to get lots of music thereupon, and for free provided I'm prepared to sit through a few seconds of ads.
Burn money?
DeleteYeah, a $50 note in my wallet, or in a shop's cash register counts as 'money', but otherwise, all of the money in the country is just bits and bytes in a computer. I hope they all have very good backup.
DeleteBack in 2016, for example (because it's the only quantified example I could find), there "were A$71.12 billion in Australian currency in circulation, or A$2,932 per person in Australia". Now that's a real lot, isn't it: we could all live quite sumptuously on a lifetime wealth of A$2,932 per person, couldn't we.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_dollar#:~
You have to start with the thing that gets you the most, don't you. So here from Ned: "Despite its techno-optimists [how did Elon sneak into here ?] the digital revolution is still a flop at delivering across-the-board gains in prodctivity." Very well said by an old git too senile to remember what typewriters and copy boys were like. So then "90 per cent of Australians now work in service industries, including education, health, hospitality, retail and finance. It has traditionally been difficult to lift productivity in these sectors."
ReplyDeleteWell, ignoring the fact that you can't define "productivity" in those sectors, or accurately measure something you can't define, here's a thought: what the "digital revolution" has done, is prevent very significant losses of productivity in those areas despite the many changes the world has imposed on them.
Of course one area that is never mentioned in this list is entertainment becaue, after all, a live performance musician, for example, can still only produce about the same number of played or sung notes in a day as were produced in a day many hundreds of years ago. And of course we won't mention the medical profession, will we: when the medicos are putting in 18 hour days, 7 days a week, then that's the absolute limit of their "productivity" isn't it.
But here is the real, classic Noodlenuts Ned: "The ACTU wants the Productivity Commission abolished [and they ain't the only ones]. It is a forlorn institution within the government [and never should have been there]. The progressive chant is that the PC is a dinosaur from the failed age of neoliberalism" [or, as we Aussies used to call it: the age of econorats]. (Yes, the deluded progressive mantra actually believes Australia has been trapped in neoliberalism for decades." And so it has, and the PC still wants everything in the country "privatised" for "productivity gains through competition". Oh yeah, that'll work, won't it.
Oh dear, the amazing facts about "fiat currency".
ReplyDelete"In the first year of the pandemic, Australians were given a glimpse of a truth so unnerving that economists and politicians normally keep to themselves.
It’s that, for a country like Australia, there is 'no simple budget constraint' – meaning no hard limit on what we can spend."
https://theconversation.com/how-can-australia-pay-368-billion-for-new-submarines-some-of-the-money-will-be-created-from-thin-air-202150
Oh wau, if we just invent the currency for ourselves, then ...
"...Australia’s Commonwealth government has been in deficit (spent more than it earned) in all but 17 of the past 50 years. The US government has been in deficit for all but four of the past 50."
...we can just keep on spending !
It's a miracle. Quick, somebody tell the Productivity Commission about that before the "thin air" gets too thick to breathe. But hey, just don't tell anybody about Japan:
"As of December 2022, the Japanese public debt is estimated to be approximately 9.8 trillion US Dollars (1.29 quadrillion yen), or 263% of GDP, and is the highest of any developed nation."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_Japan
See, that's how a really prosperous nation deals with "fiat currency". Japan abandoned the 'gold standard' in 1931, same year as Britain.
Just a little something to remember the next time the reptiles feature Peter 'Ridd of all Rubbish' on just how great the health of the Great Barrier Reef is:
ReplyDeleteDecline of more than 500 species of marine life in Australian reefs ‘the tip of the iceberg’, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/22/decline-of-more-than-500-species-of-marine-life-in-australian-reefs-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-study-finds
Oh my, but human ingenuity never ends, does it:
ReplyDelete"For five decades Caffarelli has been a leading figure in the study of partial differential equations, a large field based on methods devised by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz in the 17th century to describe things that change continuously in relation to each other.
Almost every well-known equation that models physical or human behaviour is a partial differential equation, from the Navier-Stokes equations in fluid dynamics to the Black-Scholes equation in finance.
The Abel citation states that Caffarelli has made “groundbreaking contributions” that have “radically changed our understanding of classes of nonlinear partial differential equations with wide applications. The results are technically virtuous, covering many different areas of mathematics and its applications.” It adds: “Combining brilliant geometric insight with ingenious analytical tools and methods he has had and continues to have an enormous impact on the field.”
Caffarelli studies the mathematical consistency of these equations, essentially trying to work out if they are meaningful representations of reality."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/mar/22/the-messi-of-maths-argentinian-luis-caffarelli-wins-abel-prize