The pond regrets that the pond's schedule means it rarely finds a spot for Jack, allegedly an insider, though we all know what to think of dangerous 'leets doing the long march through the News Corp institution ...
Splendid stuff, but the pond only caught it last night ...
And what was that one skill the mutton Dutton had? Spoiler alert: ...he has that rare ability of making clear, concise statements to media in the few seconds he has available on any given day.
Absolutely true. The voice? No. Conscience vote? No! Climate science? No. Renewables? No! Bipartisan approach? Certainly not.
Absolutely clear and concise, and never mind if deeply depressing or wildly silly ...
And it's not that he's a negative politician in the style of an onion muncher. Division and bigotry? Yes. Fear? Absolutely. Coal and gas? Yes.
And so on, and so it came as no surprise that petulant Peta was at the top of the digital page this day, trying to boost the mutton Dutton by pushing him to the weird far right, and earning an immediate red card from the pond ...
The pond did like the way that Rose had twisted Liberal leaders rejecting the mutton Dutton into a raising of the bar for comrade Albo ...
Oh and there was the bromancer with a typical Oz reader on holiday in the US ...
Some correspondents dread Thursday because petulant Peta's out and about, but then she's also on Sky News after dark, and if it makes it any easier, the pond likes to think of her as a Marge or a Karen ...
Was that all for a Thursday? Down below the fold was equally unedifying and dispiriting ...
Ah they held over Roger with the news that vulgar youff is revolting, and there's the revolting Jennings, and the minor Milner from the deep north, and there was nothing for it but to indulge the grave Sexton ... even though the pond is already over the theatre and had to avoid MSNBC, such was the level of hysteria ...
And now fair dibs, because the bromancer was given a prominent spot in the tree killer edition ...
... and so it's only fair and just and right that the pond should pay attention, though after his last outburst on the subject - a full blown rant - this day the bromancer is curiously subdued ...
Uh huh ... speaking of debauching democracy, has anyone done freestyle, money grabbing and grubbing democracy debauchery better than News Corp and Faux Noise, and the chairman, and the son who didn't fall far from the tree?
And now this ...
“They are relevant to the case… if Dominion wants to bring them live, they need to issue a trial subpoena, and I would not quash it,” Davis said. He added that that “it would be my discretion that they come” to testify in-person at the trial, which is scheduled to begin later this month in Wilmington, Delaware.
“Both parties have made these witnesses very relevant,” Davis added.
This outcome is a blow to Fox, which tried to block Dominion from forcing the Murdochs onto the witness stand. The judge signaled at previous hearings that he was skeptical of Fox’s claims that their testimony wasn’t necessary. The judge’s comments Wednesday further raise the stakes for Fox in the closely watched case, which is set to go to trial this month, barring a last-minute settlement.
Fox News denies wrongdoing, maintains that it is “proud” of its 2020 election coverage, and says the lawsuit is a meritless assault against the First Amendment. The right-wing network has also said Dominion’s request for $1.6 billion in damages is a wildly overblown figure that was designed to get headlines.
Fox Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son, CEO Lachlan Murdoch, previously gave lengthy depositions in the case, which revolves around Fox’s decision in late 2020 to repeatedly promote false claims that the election was rigged against then-President Donald Trump.
In his sworn deposition for the case, Rupert Murdoch conceded that several of his top hosts endorsed election lies on the air that he knew were false. This is a key point that gets to the question of “actual malice” and Fox’s potential legal liability.
Despite what appeared on air, Rupert Murdoch and other top Fox figures privately criticized the Trump camp in late 2020 for pushing claims of election fraud. It was “really bad” that Rudy Giuliani was advising Trump, Rupert Murdoch wrote in an email that was revealed in court filings.
What a bunch of democracy debauchers ... but it goes without saying that the bromancer can never go there.
And so to an explanation of why the pond didn't bother with the reptile carry on about the voice and the mutton Dutton this day.
You see, the infallible Pope has spoken, sending Jack the the alleged 'leet insider packing ...
Shut up and take the pond's data, this one's too rich ...
Faaark, still MORE Bromancer? Is this some sort of Lenten sacrifice imposed by the Catholic Boys’ Daily upon its readership, whereby instead of giving something up for Lent, they’re required to read more and more of the Bro? Surely a cilice would be less painful.
ReplyDeleteIn the middle of his latest serve of recycled guff, the Bro casually slips in the standard Fox News reference to “cognitively challenged Joe Biden”.
It’s been frequently noted that in archival footage of interviews from the 1980s and ‘90s Trump, while spouting bluster and bullshit, nevertheless speaks clearly and coherently; nothing at all like the disjointed, rambling collection of non-sequiturs of a typical current Trump speech. By contrast, Biden’s occasional lapses and verbal stumbles aren’t that much different from his manner back when he was a Senator. But of course in the News / Fox universe, it’s Joe that’s obviously mentally feeble, and the Bro naturally parrots that approach.
One thing that Murdoch media somehow never notice is that whatever age Biden may be, he’s still a dozen years younger than the Chairman……
Yeah, it's just another example of people saying what they like because they want it to believe that it's true - an imbedded habit of the reptiles. Now Joe does have his moments, to be sure, but being of that age myself I know it's just a passing thing and not a permanent state of being "cognitively challenged". And I definitely wouldn't want to have to speak in public as much as Biden and get 99% of it right first go.
DeleteBiden has also had a life-long stutter. Those of us with friends who stutter, but have been trained to compensate for that, recognise the cadence, and 'breaker' words, that show the training to produce coherent, steady speech. Of course, if you are a Trump supporter, it is quite acceptable to make capital, or just raise a laugh, from another person's disability.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PX9reO3QnUA
Well a stutter is just the kind of thing that a Trumpist would raise a loud guffaw over, yes ?
DeleteBut in addition to that, Joe, like many of us older folks, has this condition where he doesn't actually lose the memory of something, but he does temporarily lose the mental pathway to the memory. So he doesn't actually forget a word, for instance, he just has a temporary block as to where the word he's trying to recall lives.
At times, that can appear to be a stutter.
Fascinating:
Delete"Short-term memory illusions can happen when we ‘start filling in based on our expectations’, study suggests"
Human memory may be unreliable after just a few seconds, scientists find
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/apr/05/short-term-memory-illusions-study
And just to think that every single one of us suffers from that.
Sexton re Trump's payoff to Stormy: "Does anybody really care which bank account was the source of the funds paid, which seems to be the point of the charges ?" Oh right, ok, then it is not a legal requirement to honour the purposes for which a public bank account has been set up - eg. to hold public subscriptions for election purposes - but just take any money from anywhere and do what you want with it.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, Michael, some do "really care which bank account" was used. And what, Sexton is the current Solicitor General for New South Wales ? With no concern for proper legality ?
Don’t mean to be presumptuous, but I was wondering if The Pond’s US correspondent will be providing an update on the 21 moon salute?
ReplyDeleteIt’s hard to gauge from afar what the average citizen might feel about all this. Looking past the rhetoric we see from Murdoch’s flying monkeys and the rusted on mad-uns, it seems like the orange-one’s support may be shrinking. The vision suggests more press than supporters turn up most times.
On another subject, it seems New York police have taken the accused down to the local weighbridge and determined his actual weight
https://www.politicalflare.com/2023/04/the-nypd-weighed-trump-as-part-of-the-booking-process-and-guess-what-trump-doesnt-weigh-239-pounds-and-isnt-63/
It seems he’s gained 31lb but lost 2 inches. No comment yet as to hair status.
JM did make a follow up comment fairly late-ish in Tuesday's pond, Bef: have you seen that ?
DeleteAh, should have checked.
DeleteI enjoy JM's contributions because I'm acutely aware how the media misreads popular opinion and spins news to reflect their preferred narrative and I'm more than a little curious as to what someone outside that bubble thinks. For instance, are we just seeing a small cadre of Trump loyalist surrounded by a large mob of lazy journalists who just want to write the same thing again and again? Is it like Oz where a big slab of the population has realised that the people stoking their fears are the problem not the solution?
I'm tempted to ramble on about what I would consider news and how it differs from what the press in Oz (not just the reptiles) think we should see, but you get the idea.
Hi Bef, GB,
DeleteMy daily swim in Loon Pond doesn't start till a good 12-14 hours after the Aussie
members have hit the water, albeit "in the future". Plus I am rather lax in checking
my e-mail on a daily basis, leading family/friends to heatedly inquire just when
it is that I will finally obtain a cell phone here in the 21st century.
My usual reply is "make me."
Regarding your question Bef, you are spot on, according to my spies who
were there. By design there wasn't much space available to the public to
gather in, the small Trump contingent wisely kept to themselves and came
alive only on cue for the cameras, a tech counting down from 3.
My friend Sandy had infiltrated their ranks to get a feel for the happenings
for her class, and also for entertainment value.
As she said, "a pack of clowns, chanting the same old tired slogans", sad
and shabbily dressed, proudly impervious to knowledge.
Sandy noted, none of these people could afford to stay at a Manhattan
Hotel, much less expect Trump to put them up at Trump Tower at a cut rate.
She wanted to know where all the suits were, all the Wall Street types, but
that merely confused them, like a dog whose food dish had been moved.
By then it was yawn city, time to flee.
They had all assumed there would be much fun to be had toying with the
true believers, no such thing, it was a dreary affair.
Not even worth a farewell mooning as they departed. Heck, I would have
insisted on that, they let the team down.
They had a good time later on and in fact scored the Dylan Thomas table
at The White Horse Tavern.
Not because he was a great poet - he was an utter shit as a human - but
because that was "our" table.
But the Run all in all was a bust, they cursed me for thinking it up while
managing to avoid the whole magilla, instead enjoying Central Park
and the Natural History Museum.
But thems the breaks, you pays your money and you takes your choice.
So that's the story since you asked, there are 8 million stories in the Naked
City and this was one of them.
Oh my, JM: memories of 'Naked City' which I did get to watch some episodes of back in the early 1960s. In black and white, but of course.
DeleteOf course it's always a bit difficult keeping up with things that are quite a distance - both geographic and cultural - away, so your comments are always appreciated. And "the Dylan Thomas table at The White Horse Tavern." indeed.
Anyway, here's a bit of commentary on the ongoing show:
"As a political force, however, Trump is withering. His mounting troubles probably mean he can’t win a general election under normal circumstances, and the candidates he has endorsed during the last two years generally have a losing record."
Trump is collapsing
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-is-collapsing/ar-AA19vRxL
Does that sound about right to you ?
Tah JM, thanks for the update. When the reporting follows a certain pattern you can sort of work out what’s happening, even if the coverage is very skewed, but nice to get confirmation from someone who is actually there.
DeleteHi GB,
Delete"Trump is collapsing" sounds right to me but that's just my opinion.
From my own experiences I can only gauge his popularity in Jersey.
Since the start of the year and more, I haven't seen one MAGA cap.
The marine around the corner flew a Trump banner beneath his USMC
flag for years but it's not been in evidence for months.
Nor are Trump bumper stickers.
My Bible beating brother (once a anti-war hippie peace marcher) who once
swore by his would be prophet Donnie, now begs me to stop when I list all of
Don's moral failures and challenge him to ask his Big Guy Upstairs to give all
his kids Trump's ethics and values and faith, or lack there of.
In her book Trump's niece Mary predicted all of Donnie's actions, she
said he would never accept losing reelection and would do anything
to stay in power.
It's a slim volume, but she is a very well respected clinical psychologist
and her insights into the creation of an American monster are disturbing.
Skip the parts about her dad Fred - he was destroyed by her grandfather
and Donnie because he had ethics! - and you can read it in one sitting.
Her interviews are well worth seeking out on You Tube.
Jersey Mike - here is another reader who has no problem with the time delay on your observations; 'news' does not have to fit into a 24 hour cycle, and I certainly appreciate having your observations, when so little of our mass media, including, to some extent, our ABC, seems ever more committed to that meme, and to beating up whatever is common on other media.
DeleteYep, that's the bits that geographical and cultural separation cause us to miss: the disappearance of all the Trump 'flags' (caps, banners and bumper stickers) and I'd reckon that there's not many of the female gender wearing outfits that point between their legs and say 'Trump can grab me there' (or words to that effect) nowadays.
DeleteThinking about Dylan Thomas though (as you induced me to) it's clear that there has to be a whole lot of disconnection of art from artist in these modern days. But not Mary Lea Trump, I guess, though I hadn't really registered the fact of her existence until just about now (thanks for the pointer). She has a comprehensive Wikipedia entry [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_L._Trump ] and a couple of very well selling books, it seems.
The Bro: "As things stand, the Democrats are playing a co-equal role in debauching democracy." Oh yeah, sure Bro boy, sure. So anyway, the Bro apparently reckons that Alvin Bragg is "co-equal" with "the Democrats" - the entire set of American 'Democrats' have joined with Bragg in this action - which is, let us not forget, based on a number of specific felonies - not of the very serious kind, but criminal felonies nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteIt's just the same old trick by the wingnuts again and again, isn't it: if your bloke commits a serious crime, you can always blame somebody on the other side for farting in public, and then equate that with a felony.
Co-conspirator, co-equal: same same.
DeleteThey're going down like flies:
ReplyDeletePat Dodson takes leave for 'medical treatment'
Patrick Dodson is taking a leave of absence from the Senate.
Cartoonist Bruce Petty has died
One of Australia’s most formidable political cartoonists and satirists Bruce Petty has died at the age of 93.
He was no Pope nor Rowe, but he was a part of our daily newspapers for a very long time.