It seems that existential crises and challenges are all the go this weekend, though the main existential challenge for the pond is how it can get through a couple of reptile columns ...
The first existential challenge the pond noted concerned Faux Noise ...
What a great bilboard, and the rest of the piece here is a pretty fair summary of what's been providing the pond with entertainment during the week ...
Locally the reptiles are going through an existential challenge too, but they're Fighting Back ...
And there was the existential challenge for the pond. Could it avoid a tedious old fart pondering the question of vulgar youff?
Desperately the pond looked for alternatives, plunging into the triptych of terror, but alas found no joy or relief ...
This week's bout of Lloydie of the Amazon climate science denialism was too arcane and tedious for the pond - that reference to mercury as a measure gives a pretty fair dating of the ideas behind it - and as for Dame Slap trying to gee up the mutton Dutton's alleged voice model, sorry, automatic red card ...
Below the fold the existential crisis continued ...
Will we at last see return of the empowering cane and the strap, and perhaps even an Opus Dei cilice?These might come in handy for the bromancer as well, because it seems the war on China is going badly, and it hasn't even begun ...
But before the bromancer can turn from cold to hot, and with that lot surveyed - a sorry and pathetic bunch - there was nothing for it but to endure the wailing of the dog botherer ...
Talk about an existential crisis ...
Consider this: the reptiles have hitched their bandwagon to this dud, whose big turn this week was to turn up at Alice Springs, and as noted by a carping Karp in the Graudian, did little to please locals, though it was a boon for bigots ...
As Liberal party fractures over the voice, Peter Dutton turns to Alice Springs – and a dog-whistle
...The tour produced terrible optics for Dutton, standing next to the founder of the Action for Alice Facebook group which has faced suspensions for “bullying and harassment”, explaining away ignoring local Indigenous groups in favour of listening to mystery shoppers.
On Thursday Dutton said “you can’t have a situation where the rule of law only applies to some, but not others in a community”, a dog-whistle which was pretty easy to hear in a town where the perception is that it is white business owners and residents who are victims, boarding up shops and living under “self-imposed curfew”.
When an ABC journalist challenged Dutton for evidence of “rampant child sexual abuse” and noted the SNAICC, which advocates for Indigenous children, had rejected his call for a royal commission, Dutton snapped back “do you live locally”.
Yes, the journalist did live locally. But Dutton ploughed on with his logic that only those who agree with his assessment are local enough to be listened to.
On Thursday Dutton said “you can’t have a situation where the rule of law only applies to some, but not others in a community”, a dog-whistle which was pretty easy to hear in a town where the perception is that it is white business owners and residents who are victims, boarding up shops and living under “self-imposed curfew”.
When an ABC journalist challenged Dutton for evidence of “rampant child sexual abuse” and noted the SNAICC, which advocates for Indigenous children, had rejected his call for a royal commission, Dutton snapped back “do you live locally”.
Yes, the journalist did live locally. But Dutton ploughed on with his logic that only those who agree with his assessment are local enough to be listened to.
And the poor old dog botherer is left to clean up the mess ... oh have pity on him, being a dog fucker has never been easy, and in recent times, it's got harder and harder ...
No chance to do his usual stint of climate science denialism, no chance to celebrate innocent, pure Oz coal. Instead he's tormented and bedevilled by being the one that is caught pissing outside the tent ...
Oh come on dog botherer, cheer up, things aren't so bad. Why only yesterday the pond belatedly noted that the leader of the opposition has so much time on his hands he's opened a chain store in King street with splendid franchising opportunities ...
Andrew Robb, Petey boy, the lying rodent? These are the heroes who are going to revitalise the party, steer it in new directions, develop new policies and bring vulgar youff into the tent? On what alternative planet, in which bizarro world?
Organisational reform is perilous?
The onion muncher, little Johnny, Ming the merciless? Bring them back? Only a scribbler of the "Ned" kind, wallowing in nostalgia ...
There's not a single thought, idea or person in this cavalcade of crap that would turn on vulgar youff, but the pond survived its own existential issue ... it made it to the end of nattering "Ned" and the dog botherer, and as a reward, will now treat itself to an immortal Rowe ...
And so to the next reptile existential crisis, though this is easy enough to predict and to understand, as it features a tired, pompous, portentous scribbler spending his time among a lot of dropkick losers, and wondering why vulgar youff isn't biting ...
Yes, it's time to endure the unendurable ... and that naturally means beginning with a snap of the lying rodent ...
Dear sweet long absent lord, Dan the man, the onion muncher, John Hewson, and the memories ...
Here's the challenge ... see if you can find anyone under fifty in all that follows (the pond had to set the bar at 50 because Dan the man was born in 1968 and the mutton Dutton in 1970, but as "Ned" doesn't have a clue about anyone under 40, that'll do pig, that'll do) ...
Does anyone under 50 have the first clue who this is?
The wench is dead, she died in 2014 at the age of 70, poor thing, and yet here she is again ...
According to Kudelka, it's tremendously simple, and how can the pond argue with Kudelka?
And so back for another snap of a lying rodent and unindicted war criminal as a font of advice ...
Policy formulations? Is that what they're calling dog whistling these days?
...It happened again in Alice Springs on Thursday when Peter Dutton attempted to make a reporter an extra in his campaign against the Indigenous Voice to parliament. The opposition leader clashed with an ABC journalist Lee Robinson in Alice Springs after the reporter asked what evidence Dutton was relying on to support his claim of “rampant” child sexual abuse occurring in remote central Australia. Robinson also asked Dutton why he thought a key peak body had opposed his call for a royal commission into abuse.
“That’s such an ABC question,” Dutton spat back. “Do you live locally? I mean, do you speak to people on the street? Do you hear what it is they’re saying to you?”
The journalist did live in Alice Springs. And he was simply quoting opposition to a royal commission into sex abuse by the Secretariat of National Aboriginal and Islander Child Care. With three questions, Dutton deflected the question, raised doubts about the journalist’s qualifications to ask, and thoughtlessly trivialised the position of the respected and publicly funded national peak body in Australia representing the interests of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and families...
...It is one thing for Keating, long past his political use-by date, to use abuse as a form of public discourse, but Dutton is a leader attempting to drag the Liberal Party into contention. His retreat into offence is a cynical, and ultimately corrosive approach that only undermines the public’s trust in the media.
Dear sweet long absent lord, this is how desperate the situation has become, the pond quoting the Nine papers ...
Well it might be one thing to bring back reminders of the French clock man, but who on earth would think of bringing back the lying rodent or the onion muncher, apart from a scribbler in his dotage?
It's an existential crisis ...
Sure, it'd be great for cartoonists of the infallible Pope kind ...
But on any other planet, this is desperate, tragic stuff ... just take a look at the gaggle in the next snap ...
Now we're referencing Gough? Does anyone under fifty remember those days or even that cartoon?
Why it's almost as ancient as the onion muncher ...
And yet here we are, still listening to upside down, is there a knight in the house, Miss Tony ...
Long gone? About as far gone as an aged scribbler blathering about the economic and social zeitgeist ... about as weird as thinking Marise Payne might be the solution rather than part of the problem ...
And there's another tragedy.
All this blather when there's been so much other fun this week, including this handy summary by Crikey ... of the best bits of Vanity Fair's cover piece ...
And so to the matter of appealing to vulgar youff and the last existential crisis the pond has to endure for the day...
It's always in the detail, the despondent, despairing, desolate detail ...
Never mind, that franchise should boom ...
No idea why Ned’s column is called “The Inquirer”, as there doesn’t appear to be a lot of inquiring going on. It’s more like one long existential wail of despair, tinged with a bit of Good Old Days nostalgia. If Ned wanted to blame other factors beside ungrateful Yoof abandoning the Liberal Party, he might inquire into factors such as the increasing domination within the Party of fundie Christians and their ideological baggage, an increasing public weariness with flat earth economics, and the widespread perception that the Nats are in control of the Coalition. Not to mention That Which Must Not Be Mentioned - that the Party’s direction is largely set by the increasingly eccentric whims of a foreign billionaire in his tenth decade.
ReplyDeleteSure there's a lot of Inquiry going on, Anony. Just consider this: "During a range of interviews conducted by Inquirer a central theme emerges - the Peter Dutton-led party needs to engage in a major review of Liberal policy for a new age." Of course that doesn't mean the kind of 'new age' that has global heating in it, it's just a "new age" in which the indefatigable 'election winning machine' that Dutton is liberating in the Liberal Party will win every election, everywhere and everywhen.
DeleteThus there's really only one major inquiry that needs to be performed: how on Earth would a dummkopf such as Peter Dutton (and his rogue's gallery of "Liberals') ever work out how to conduct an inquiry into their own stultified behaviour ?
[Fox] "a pretty fair summary of what's been providing the pond with entertainment during the week ..." Something about "opening floodgates" comes to mind. Just as well they have the Cater to inform them about such things.
ReplyDeleteBut considering Schwarz's personal anti-Fox action, you'd reckon he'd have to be blind, deaf, dumb and stupid really not to have woken up until now.
Doggy Bov: "...taking the hard edges off Dutton's political persona, and allowing the Opposition to focus on more electorally significant issues such as energy policy..." So, letting the real soft and sludgy Dutton out into the world ? And by "significant issues such as energy policy" of course the Doggy Bov means using any and all means to stop and prevent conversion into renewable energy. And with the fight to the death to keep Liddell alive, he's got plenty on his plate.
ReplyDeleteSo, a little more Doggy: "[The Voice] is a proposal to enact recognition in a way that delivers practical rather than symbolic change - reflecting conservative values." Yeah right on about those "conservative values": if they're just given a Constituional entry and a Voice, then we won't have to give 'em any restitutional recompense (aka $) for our past sins. That's real "conservative values" alright.
If conservatives disdain symbolism, than why are they obsessed with the culture wars?
DeleteI realise your question is rhetorical anony but it’s remarkable how often they claim to be doing the opposite of what you can observe them doing right now.
DeleteIt does save us all the effort of considering whatever they are peddling when the internal contradictions are on display in every screed.
It's kinda reverse projection, folks: instead of, or in addition to, projecting their evil onto others, they try to project others' virtue onto themselves. Works a treat, at least in their limited consciousness.
DeleteBooming hair shirt sales to the reptiles.
ReplyDeleteSo, the white-haired old men at the Australian are going to sort out the problems with the youth vote, possibly with the assistance of the white-haired elder of the Liberal Party.
ReplyDeleteIt doesn’t occur to Ned that the wealth inequality is a direct consequence of the Lib’s (mainly Howard’s) policies. Covid and AUKUS? They voters provided an assessment of the handling of those issues. The current aged care issues? Howard’s 1997 Aged Care Act. Refunds of excess franking credits, refugee policy etc etc The problem is not the messaging, it’s the things they have done!
Utterly clueless, like some old duffer trapped in a revolving door.
Ah, the wonder of it all; Liberal views on what constitutes a serious attempt to stop losing "the battle of ideas". From Dan Tehan via Neddles: "...five key themes: lower taxes, higher productivity, smaller and more efficient government, an immigration plan in the national interest and home ownership." Yep, just the same old, same old: not even a whisper of a mention of climate change, no concern for aged care (how many closedowns so far ?) and an "efficient" rather than an effective government. Simply no concern for 'cost of living'? And what about the war with China ?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, the Mutton says: "We need to understand how we've ended up in this position." Well, actually, Petey boyo, you haven't "ended up" yet, there's still a way to fall. But really, if you can't understand how packing your party with incompetents and then letting them run free is how you've got to where you are, then what can be said for you, or done by you ?
So, Ned says: "The Liberal Party lacks the intellectual resources to pull off an ambitious policy review." Oh my, never a truer word said, Neddles, at least not by you. You say: "...the Liberals have been risk-averse and even their supporters don't know what they stand for." But everybody else knows: more money for them and the wealthy ! And no concern for aged care, cost-of-living, home ownership and climate change. None whatsoever, they don't rate even the merest mention.
But here's a very mere mention: "...greater emphasis on hard science and practical trades..." Now what do we reckon, Neddles means by "hard science". Does he mean anything other that what Graham Lloyd and Bjornagain Lomborg tell him ?
Perhaps he means: "The age of market-based and productivity enhancement coming from Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Howard seems long gone." Yes, and finally the Liberal Party is gone with them. But I do really love how Hawke and Keating are now de facto Liberals of the ecorat kind.
Strange day here - no internet for most of the day (‘Thank you Mistah Turn-bull’) because, although labelled ‘NBN’, it is broadcast from a tower, and seems to need a lot of maintenance. Yes, they do tells us in advance, but being down for most of this day is hardly the sign of first-world communications.
ReplyDeleteEven stranger, visitors arrived with this day’s flagship, and, being of generous nature, left it with us, so I got to see the whole pile of cocky-cage floor cover, without having to send $5 to Rupert.
Dorothy, you were exactly right in setting aside Lloydie’s column as arcane and tedious. Well, all the, um, work was done by Jennifer Marohasy, senior fellow at the IPA, but who otherwise is not seen as frequently on mass media as she once was.
This article is to do with her analysis of three years of records from the Bureau of Meteorology, comparing readings of temperature by the probes now being installed in BOM stations, with the mercury thermometers that many of us probably have somewhere around the house, and which were set beside the electronic probes.
The analysis claims that the probes ‘returned’ higher temperatures than the mercury 41% of the time, the same, 32.8% of the time, and lower, 25.9% of the time. And, no, that does not come to 100%, but let that pass.
Of course, Lloydie fixated on the supposed ‘higher’ temperatures,because, well, obvious innit - BOM has faked warming records. Couple of problems with that, starting with the probes recording a temperature every second, while the mercury instrument is read by sight at much longer intervals, so a probe can record a range of temperatures during the intervening period.
But the more fundamental problem lies in the implicit assumption that, somehow, the mercury reading is THE reliable representation of temperature for the half hour (standard BOM records) and the probes somehow deliver less reliable records. In fact, it is the simple difference between data collected at intervals of one second, and at 300 seconds. While that doesn’t suit the attempted narrative here, no doubt the conversation in the bowls clubs will be that 'there was something in the paper that showed the Bureau had boosted temperature readings by something like 40%.'
Is the 'flagship' really still read, or at least just glanced at, in the bowls clubs nowadays, Chad ?
DeleteThis is not the first time that Lloydie has reported on Ms Marohasy's fantasy about the BOM 'boosting temperature readings'. Good to know that the passage of time has done nothing to impart any semblance of sense to either of them. If the whole, or even just most, of the reptile set were suddenly to gain some sense, what would we do for our daily entertainment ?
Strewth, it's just as well that we're all old codgers here in the Pond or we just might not be able to understand what each other writes.
DeleteWhen what you type doesn’t mean the same thing to the (older) person you’re texting or tweeting
https://theconversation.com/when-what-you-type-doesnt-mean-the-same-thing-to-the-older-person-youre-texting-or-tweeting-197737
Back in my working days, a colleague told me that, unlike most people, how I write is just the same as how I speak. I've always wondered if that was true, but now that I'm an old retiree I don't talk to people as often or as much as once I did (it doesn't take an extended conversation to say "large hot soy latte, please). How about you ?
GB - still catching-up on the extended 'maintenance' of internet yesterday and today (just back on line at 6 PM) so hope you still go to 'older posts'. In earlier lives my organisation had to prosecute the odd malefactor. I had a generally good group of fellas in uniform to do that, but they all wrote up their reports for prosecution in 'officialise' - indirect speech, excessive, and inappropriate, use of 'allegedly' - and other bad habits that had been drummed into them by a former senior, who thought that that is how it had to be done. If possible, I took to calling them in and asking them 'OK - what really happened?' They would all give me, in direct speech, a clear account of what they had actually seen. Often I would give them their report and ask them to write what they had just told me. In time, I was pleased to pass on the thanks of the Crown Law people who had to make out the case.
DeleteFor my own writing for publication - my rule, always, always, has been to have a good editor, and to avoid arguing with said editor. Sadly, I still receive books privately published by people I knew in my sciencing days, and very clearly, while they have been happy to lay out the couple of $thousand to the vanity publisher, they thought they have saved themselves money by not engaging an editor. It also seems that, for all the promises from vanity publishers, none of them actually look critically at the manuscripts they print and bind. One such former colleague clearly had at least two attempts at three main chapters in his autobiog. - but either forgot to remove one of those from his electronic file, or, more likely, was sick of the whole thing and had reached the stage where much of it no longer registered in his brain if he tried to read it.
Yes - I am also aware that, in retirement, I do not have the conversations I used to have, and that is not just a function of living in the country. I do find my activity on 'Facebook' maintains some discipline on my jottings; several of my 'friends' there make their living by writing.
Yep, still cycling around the older posts - while they remain editable, anyway.
DeleteYeah, that may be what my colleague meant: I've never been 'schooled' in officialese or any of its dialects so indeed I only knew - and basically still only know - how to write as I speak.
Editors ? Yes, we can all do with them from time to time. And I still have the occasional lunch with old mates and colleagues so I do still manage to converse verbally from time to time.
Hmmm:
ReplyDelete"Some of Trump’s party’s signature policies enjoy only meagre public support but rightwing judges and state legislators are proving adept at finding workarounds".
Popularity is optional as Republicans find ways to impose minority rule
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/15/republicans-minority-rule-tennessee-race-gun-control
I do wonder just a bit whether we Aussies aren't ourselves finally disposing of our own 'minority rule' that's applied for a decade or more. But we don't seem to have quite the same powers in the hands of many politically appointed judges as in the USA.
Oh, and some very good news for the reptile nuclear freaks:
After 18 years, Europe's largest nuclear reactor to start regular output on Sunday
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/companies/after-18-years-europe-s-largest-nuclear-reactor-to-start-regular-output-on-sunday/ar-AA19TW1i?
"Construction of the 1.6 gigawatt (GW) reactor, Finland's first new nuclear plant in more than four decades and Europe's first in 16 years, began in 2005. The plant was originally due to open four years later, but was plagued by technical issues."
Obviously it isn't one of those SMRs the reptiles go on about.
Areva, is building the unit for a fixed price of €3 billion, so in principle, any construction costs above that price fall on Areva. In July 2012, those overruns were estimated at more than €2 billion
DeleteDecember 2012, Areva estimated that the full cost of building the reactor would be about €8.5 billion, well over the previous estimate of €6.4 billion. Because of the delays, TVO and Areva both sought compensation from each other through the International Court of Arbitration.
October 2013, TVO's demand for compensation from Areva had risen to €1.8 billion, and Areva's from TVO to €2.6 billion. In December 2013, Areva increased its demand to €2.7 billion.
March 2018 French newspaper Le Monde announced that Areva and TVO had reached an agreement. A day later, TVO confirmed that Areva would pay it €450 million in compensation over the delays and lost income. The agreement would settle all legal actions between the two companies. With the settlement, TVO disclosed its total investment to be around €5.5 billion. Areva had accumulated losses of €5.5 billion.
The total cost of the project, therefore, is estimated to be €11 billion, almost 4 times the original cost!
Ah, the wonders of that "efficient" private enterprise we're continually instructed to revere.
DeleteNow that the Liberals have adopted Hawke and Keating as their own, maybe Labor could adopt Menzies in return:
ReplyDelete“The way Menzies got the huge boost to home ownership he desired was by pouring federal money into building a lot of homes and providing people with discounted ways of buying them."
Michael Pascoe: Menzies knew housing couldn’t be left to ‘the market’
https://thenewdaily.com.au/finance/2023/04/12/housing-market-michael-pascoe/
Could that have been part of the reason (along with the DLP) for Menzies long run as PM ?