With the local reptiles underperforming badly this weekend, the pond couldn't help but feel shaded.
How could the pond possibly compete with Charlie Sykes' parade of The Deplorables of the Week (and with a worthy winner too). The pond wondered whether it should have called itself Deplorables Pond, though it didn't scan. Close by was Cathy Young's review of Vlad the impaler's shoddy parade and plenty of mudaks on hand to fear the march of the gays ...
Then there was the Daily Beast with the latest news on Tuckyo, fortunately to hand under the header Tucker Carlson Wanted to 'Start Threatening' Fox News After 2020 Election (no paywall).
And Uncle Elon was back in the spotlight, with Rolling Stone's Twitter Finally Agrees On Something: Hating Musk's New CEO. Over at the Beast it was Right-Wingers Turn on Elon Musk Over New Twitter CEO (likely paywall):
...Over on Donald Trump’s Truth Social site, the platform sent out a news notification after Musk’s hiring decision was made public around noon, with an attached story that attempted to expose Yaccarino’s “woke ideology.”
“Seems like someone who definitely won’t cave to work corporate censors,” Truth Social communications staffer Mattheus Wagner said.
Far-right radio host Stew Peters—in a text message to The Daily Beast—accused Yaccarino of being close to a “worldwide corporate-run election theft syndicate,” which he said is evidence that “Musk’s claim to hold Freedom of Speech as his top priority is a lie.”
“Seems like someone who definitely won’t cave to work corporate censors,” Truth Social communications staffer Mattheus Wagner said.
Far-right radio host Stew Peters—in a text message to The Daily Beast—accused Yaccarino of being close to a “worldwide corporate-run election theft syndicate,” which he said is evidence that “Musk’s claim to hold Freedom of Speech as his top priority is a lie.”
Or is this the angle? The New Twitter CEO Is a Former Trump Appointee Who Follows Libs of TikTok. Who knows, it's just that the goss is more fun ...
Contrast that with the comedy in The New Yorker, and Bluesky having the feel of a Portland coffee shop (sorry, likely paywall).
Bluesky looks like what you’d get if a tornado hit Twitter and the only people left posting were tech workers, extremely online shitposters with anime avatars and vaguely socialist politics, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who, as far as I can tell, is the most famous person on the platform. It also must be said that A.O.C. is one of a handful of minorities who makes a regular appearance on the “What’s Hot” feed. This almost certainly isn’t intentional: Bluesky has become a place for Black tech workers, in particular, to congregate. But the vibe mostly resembles that of a Portland coffee shop: there are dogs, beards, earnest self-expression about the finely curated superiority of it all, and a whole lot of white people. This matters because other, more successful social-media sites such as Twitter and TikTok are powered, in large part, by the posts of Black users who choreograph viral dances, set the topics of conversation, and utilize the platforms as a megaphone for social-justice issues. As Twitter user @ChampagneNoona succinctly put it, “If black people not on there being funny it’s a flop.”
Well, there goes the flopping pond ...
Across the dutch, as the pond's Kiwi friends are wont to say, Marina Hyde was in top notch form with Who better to sing old Brexit tunes than the Tories' overhyped new act? Step forward, Kemi Badenoch.
To select any one Hyde jab would be to slight many other good jabs, and so the thing has to be devoured as a whole. Of course the star of the piece had already featured in John Crace's Kemi Badenoch provides masterclass in how to lose friends and influence, so the pond was primed for the laughs ...
It all made the CNN follies feel so yesterday though the pond fondly remembered Rex Huppke's line CNN effectively have America a primetime Trump rally with fewer people selling offensive T-shirts outside.
And what's the pond got? Tedious bloody old Polonius, as dull a wretch as ever lurked behind an arras ...
Ah well, we must deal the hand we've been served ... and the pond did run Fergo yesterday as a way of building up suspense about Polonius on the Victorian saga ... so here we go ...
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect. (Yeats, and never mind the aging intellect)
Dammit, this is the snap the pond should have used so the pond knew where it stood ...
The label says it, and the label must be true ... and then the pond discovered it had been caught up in a classic bait and switch, because Polonius deemed the Deeming saga wasn't worth that much time ... and so he switched to Vlad the impaler ...
Um, actually, not to put too fine a point on it, Polonius's own icon, Ming the Merciless, regarded German dictator Adolf Hitler in a positive light ...
Ming got himself into some fair trouble with punters because of his frequently expressed admiration for the man, with the news of the fuss even reaching the Glen Innes Examiner ...
Why did the pond mention a provincial rag? For the pure pleasure of the masthead ...
The Exclusive Organ? Central New England? Damn you losers, you're just Pluto circling in the distant void, far removed from the centre of the solar system, the majestic Tamworth sun, only ruined by the occasional Barners flare, threatening to ruin electronics and communications systems for a decade...
Of course there were other more detailed reports, as in The West Australian on 13th July 1939 ...
The 'Tiser was also on hand for crow eaters and the aunts under the wisteria on the verandah ...
The pond wouldn't want to give the impression that this was the only occasion that Ming expressed his admiration. There was this in the Border Morning Mail on 29th October 1938, with the header Menzies' Praise For Mr Chamberlain and Herr Hitler... just a sample...
Sorry, the pond's only excuse is that Polonius set the pond off ... but waddya know, the pond was on the right track, because Polonius was steadfast in his love for the man who admired Hitler ...
Is it wrong to mention Ming and Franco and fascism, and pandering and bothsiderism, as might be found in The Argus on 12th September 1938?
The tail end to quite a long piece ...
Fancy Franco being called fascist ...
As the pond noted way back in 2015, it's hard to count the number of times that the onion muncher endorsed Santamaria and others for supporting the fascist Franco ...
"Of course, he was profoundly right on the big struggle that shaped our times.
When the bullets of the communists hit the statue of Jesus outside the Cathedral of Valladolid, for some it was just lead striking brass, he famously told the great Melbourne University Spanish Civil War debate, 'but for me they were piercing the heart of Christ the King.'"
There's fellow travelling with fascists in a nutshell ...
Meanwhile Polonius dodders on, and eventually deems the Deeming matter worthy of notice ...
Uh huh ... let's see how Oberleutant Polonius practices what he preaches ... (the pond uses that nomenclature in the Polonial spirit) ...
Is there a Comrade Karvelas in the house?
So comrade Karvelas is out there, with Soviet-era communists ...
And then if you do a quick search you will find Polonial talk of the 'silence of the ABC comrades', and ABC comrades planning a strike, and Comrade Humphries and comrade Fang, and so on ...
How Polonius loves to deploy a comrade here and a comrade there.
Sure, many of those bits were written when Polonius manages to think he's a dog, and dressing up like that can lead to fuzzy furry thinking, but still ... back on 17th January 2018 in a story by Des Houghton for the Currish Snail, headed ABC slammed over using of term 'comrades' during Australian of Year promo, this was line ... (sorry the pond doesn't link to reptile publications)
The ABC stands accused of cultural Marxism today after an extraordinary prime-time radio plug calling listeners “comrades” in an Australian of the Year awards promotion.
Political and community leaders said it was further proof of the ABC’s pro-Left bias. One Federal MP said the ABC was run by “bloody Commos” determined to tarnish Australia Day.
In the message the ABC urged listeners to “spread the word” and to “use your voice while in grief, and say enough is enough!”.
And when asked to comment Polonius came up with this ...
Leading conservative commentator Gerard Henderson questioned the use of the word.
“The term ‘comrade’ is an expression of the international Marxist/Bolshevik left,” said Mr Henderson, founder of the influential Sydney Institute.
“It is an inclusive term designed to exclude those who do not belong to a particular left-wing cause — or the working class.
“In Australia it was the term used by the Communist Party reflecting the leading refrain of The Internationale — “Comrades come rally.”
So from talk of the use of words as weapons to the observation of Polonius using words as weapons to Polonius deploring Polonius.
Comrade, heal thyself ...
And so to a small bonus, featuring little Johnny and a little more history ...
It was presented as EXCLUSIVE but that's probably because no one else pays any attention to the lying, dissembling rodent ...
The pond realises that some might regard Tribune as a suspect source, so hared off to Paul Malone in what used to be a Fairfax paper, on 15th December 2013 writing Howard's Coalition paid lip service to sanctions against apartheid.
Malone was careful to exempt Malcolm Fraser from all this and so he should because as Fraser turned into a western districts leftist, he could at least look back on his apartheid and Vietnam refugee policies with some satisfaction.
But as for the lying rodent?
And that's why this last gobbet from the lizard Oz featuring the dissembling, lying rodent really stuck in the craw ...
The lying rodent dares to invoke the apartheid-era and there's no mention of the shocking, shameful role he played in it?
On the upside, and indirectly relevant to the voice, Malone ended his piece this way ...
And so to wrap up, here's a few more matters the pond missed out on this Sunday while wasting time with the man behind the arras and the lying rodent ...
And the pond had almost a Timothy Leary response to this freak out Tom Tomorrow ...
Ah Polonius, here we go again: "It is expected that authoritarians such as Putin will use words as weapons against opponents." Oh, so whatever happened to "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me"? Ok then, as you say: "But there is no excuse for those of us who live in democracies describing those who take positions with which we disagree as fascists, coup leaders, terrorists and the like." No, indeed not, we just call them 'communists' or 'socialists' or 'cultural marxists' or 'identity politicians' or, the very worst of all, 'wokists'. Or as indeed in Polonius' case: 'employees of the ABC'.
ReplyDeleteOoh my, another Y-chromo Shannahanna ! Ah, now I see that to which you referred, DP; yes, our little (very dis)Honest Johnny doing his favourite thing: exculpating himself, and excusing South African apartheid. And of course, Little Johnny is the one all right thinking rightists - who are all very definitely non-woke - exult over: just think, a man who actually gained 'control' of both the Reps and the Senate, and then proceeded to implement "policies" that lost government in a landslide for his Party and lost his own seat in a large swing. His own, until then, very 'safe Liberal' seat.
ReplyDeleteYep, one of the all-time greats, that one.
Marvellous Sunday entertainment - thank you Pond. I really enjoyed:
ReplyDelete'The Exclusive Organ? Central New England? Damn you losers, you're just Pluto circling in the distant void, far removed from the centre of the solar system, the majestic Tamworth sun, only ruined by the occasional Barners flare, threatening to ruin electronics and communications systems for a decade... '.
Now I remember the when the potential of the NBN was demonstrated by a live interactive transmission of PM Gillard talking to a big screen of school children in Tamworth, Armidale, or was it Glen Innes, anyway New England, or as you put it - Central New England; back then, that was the promise, that the NBN would shrink the tyranny of distance, and anywhere, everywhere, could be a virtual centre of civilisation and modernity. It sounded good, and I envisaged lots of little citylets, across the country, buzzing with online, interactive businesses that did not need to be in a capital city. What a disappointment it has all turned out to be. And thanks to the Coalition, we are still ploughing billions into white elephants such as the inland rail when that same money could be used to connect up, indeed to invigorate, regional Australia. Remember, even with the inland rail, if it ever goes anywhere, over 90% of all freight will be on road, and inevitably, a non-polluting form of road transport, before the rail is even completed. Best regards, comrades! AG.
Anywhere, everywhere, all at once, AG ? But one can't complain about the inland "rail", it's Labor that, like everything in the past 10 years, who will screw that up. Just remember how they conned Turnbull into screwing up the NBN.
DeleteAh, Little Johnny "Lying Rodent" Howard. I'd almost forgotten - what a shame. He is a master of the "Australians are..." generalisation. Funny I could never see a single one of his statements as applying to me.
ReplyDeleteHenderson needs to get his facts straight as well as his language. The Guardian reported that there were 30 men at the anti-trans rally, which is more than several, as Henderson claims. The report also states that they were members of the Nationalist Socialist Network which is a neo-Nazi group, yet Henderson claims that they presented as neo-Nazis implying, it would appear, that they were perhaps not actually neo-Nazis.
ReplyDelete[https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/mar/20/victoria-to-ban-nazi-salute-after-anti-trans-protest-melbourne-australia]
Getting facts 'straight' is a very woke preoccupation, Anony. No self-respecting 'conservative' is going to compromise his principles by doing that.
DeleteLots of sloppy interpretations in the Polonial blather. Try corporatism
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism
“Corporatism does not refer to a political system dominated by large business interests, even though the latter are commonly referred to as "corporations" in modern American vernacular and legal parlance; instead, the correct term for this theoretical system would be corporatocracy.”
And the tie in with Fascism
“ Corporatism became one of the main tenets of fascism, and Benito Mussolini's fascist regime in Italy”
Mussolini’s version would be correctly called Fascist but the Spanish and German regimes have enough similarities to be called (f)ascist.
In a general sense, people like Henderson do the work of creating a thick layer of bullshit to disguise the real motives of some really disreputable people. The knuckle-draggers turning up at anti-trans rallies don’t care about political philosophies any more than their precursors who were fighting in beer halls or smashing windows.
Ok, Bef, so:
Delete"Corporatism is a collectivist political ideology which advocates the organization of society by corporate groups, such as agricultural, labour, military, business, scientific, or guild associations, on the basis of their common interests."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism
Now as I recall, there have been "guilds" for very many centuries, the first often being the 'guild of priests' that organise and control religions. I didn't think we had to wait for Mussolini to get a 'corporate' state.
Just an excuse to nitpick back at Polonius GB. Its funny how easily a reptile narrative can be dismantled with just the tiniest bit of research.
DeleteFair 'nuff though he is, as you say, an easy target.
DeleteI suppose, if you are Polonius, and you feel a need to cite Rowan Dean on anything - anything at all, then you are unlikely to have space left to remind us of perhaps Menzies' greatest contribution to discussion of oppressive governments - trying to ban Egon Kisch.
ReplyDeleteOur Polony might have included some reference to that, if only to demonstrate Menzies' resilience. Most pollies of that time, if they had suffered what became the debacle of Kisch, would have slunk back to being a country solicitor at the next election.
Another one of the many, many things I have wotted not of, Chad, so thanks for that. And also for a reminder of the famously infamous 'dictation test' which was apparently abolished in 1958 whereas I vaguely thought it had lasted a little longer than that.
DeleteJust a bit of a small diversion:
ReplyDeleteDon't you just love "journalists" ? How about this little gem from 'ABC News Breakfast' ?
"If you're reading this, you're emitting carbon.
One online search uses as much electricity as a light bulb left on for 35 minutes. Sending an email with a large attachment ? That light bulb stays on for about an hour."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-05-14/did-you-know-you-are-emitting-carbon-by-reading-this-headline/102338512
Right, well apart from journalistic attention to detail - what wattage of light bulb did you say ? - does it help that all of my light bulbs are LED of about 8 watts or less and not the 100 watt incandescents of not all that many years ago. And what if I make several searches in a fairly short interval of time, say 5 searches in 10 minutes (which I very occasionally might do): does that mean the bulb stays on for 5*35=175 minutes ?
But hey, folks, just a small point, every breath I take releases carbon:
"In one day, the average person breathes out around 500 litres of the greenhouse gas CO2 – which amounts to around 1kg in mass. This doesn’t sound much until you take into account the fact that the world’s population is around 6.8 billion, collectively breathing out around 2500 million tonnes of the stuff each year – which is around 7 per cent of the annual CO2 tonnage churned out by the burning of fossil fuel around the world."
https://www.sciencefocus.com/planet-earth/how-much-does-human-breathing-contribute-to-climate-change/
And apart from the fact that the human population is now 8 billion, so that's now 2941 million tonnes of the stuff each year, that took a search !