May Day at last.
It would be foolish of the pond to expect a Floralia festival at the lizard Oz, and as for an International Workers' day, forget it Jake, it's reptile town.
But if the reptiles prefer to ignore the flowering of ancient Rome, they at least release the hares and goats expected in the festivities (or so the wiki says that Ovid says).
One hare and/or goat the pond won't be paying attention to this day is Jennifer Marohasy, celebrated at DeSmog and still rabbiting on about BOM, as if BOM was at the centre of a climate conspiracy.
If the pond wanted to read about temperatures, it might head off to the Graudian back on 26th April ...Record ocean temperatures put Earth in ‘uncharted territory’, say scientists
Ooh, it's a graph, so it passes the Kohler test.
Or there's the Beeb, Recent, rapid ocean warming ahead of El Niño alarms scientists. Or there's The Conversation, In hot water: here’s why ocean temperatures are the hottest on record. Or there's The Smithsonian back in January noting a trend Oceans Break Record for Highest Temperatures Four Years in a Row.
But you never get any of that in the lizard Oz, not when there's a climate science denialist to hand.
The pond was briefly tempted to break with its Monday regulars to do a Jason, but all Jason could do was produce a Ginsbergian howl of despair, with the best of it saved to the last gobbet ...
The pond wasn't certain who had wrought this devastation - Jason was a tad opaque on the matter of the "them" that was involved, you know, the bloody 'leets - and had to settle for the notion that somehow it was all the fault of the house of mouse.
Jason will need to improve before he can truly stand shoulder to shoulder with the bromancer on defence ...
And then, it being May Day, the pond spent a brief moment thinking about the fallen and the departed - where is the Oreo now? whither her Monday rant and why did it wither? - before turning to the Major, and reaping the usual rewards, because this day the Major manages to explain how all the recent Faux Noise follies are a lesson for ... no, not News Corp and its rabble, but you guessed it, the ABC ...
If the pond can borrow and tweak an old joke ...
“It’s great that cable news networks are here tonight, MSNBC owned by NBCUniversal, Fox News owned by Dominion Voting Systems,” he said.
“Last year, your favorite Fox News reporters were able to attend because they were fully vaccinated and boosted. This year, with that $787.5 million settlement, they’re here because they couldn’t say no to a free meal. And hell, I’d call the Major honest, fair and truthful. But then I could be sued for defamation.”
Carry on Major ...
"Others inside the network"? Of course the Major can't go near the boss, being a toddler at heart he learned the lesson fire hot, burns ...
Murdoch was sending unhappy messages to the network’s C.E.O., Suzanne Scott. “Getting creamed by CNN!” he wrote to her the day after Biden was declared the winner. “Guess our viewers don’t want to watch it.” (New Yorker, possible paywall)
Quick, cut to a snap of Tuckyo with his patented look of a man pleased at the thought of fucking a green M&M - check out the size of the penis - and on with berating the ABC ...
Whenever the reptiles get into a spot of bother, bashing the ABC is a great relief, though apparently some prefer telly drama as a distraction ...
Two days after the Arizona call, the anchor Bret Baier e-mailed Fox News’ president, Jay Wallace, to suggest retracting it. “It’s hurting us,” he wrote, proposing that the network put the state “back in his column,” referring to Trump. A few days after the election was called for Biden, Baier texted Wallace and his fellow-anchor Martha MacCallum that he was “trying to focus on the memes not the Fox hating.” MacCallum was similarly glum. “I can’t look at any of it anymore,” she wrote. “I’m watching the Queens Gambit, good escape.”
Well at least it's not
Succession ...
Ah, the IPA. Trust the Major to go all in for the IPA.
But surely he misses some of the best bits of Faux Noise?
Once this would have been a serve on Faux Noise ... now, et tu Rudy?
Former New York City Mayor and Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani has said he “was expecting” the firing of Tucker Carlson by Fox News amid an interview littered with disproven claims.
Mr Giuliani, speaking on Thursday to Eric Bolling of Newsmax, heavily criticized Fox, which he said he had “a long history with.”
“I was expecting it; I was still shocked – shocked by it because he’s had, like, about a year or two, year and a half of what I would consider historic and inspired journalism,” he said of Carlson’s work, particularly citing the host’s coverage and controversial pieces regarding January 6.
Taking aim at mainstream media, including Fox News, Mr Giuliani said: “Everything we’re going to see now for the next year and a half can all be answered by: they don’t want Trump back.”
Then he praised the proliferation of streaming media platforms, adding: “I expect to see Tucker with a bigger audience very, very soon on ... any number of online locations.”
He said “it wasn’t even so much that Tucker was that much for Trump, he had to become that way. Really, he was laying out the circumstances that show how incredibly crooked they are. I mean, they manipulated January 6; they were more than willing to create the fiction of an American insurrection in order to get rid of Donald Trump. For that, you should probably be thrown out of the country.”
He claimed that “nobody’s dead” – despite four members of the crowd dying on January 6, one police officer dying the following day from a stroke, and several others dying by suicide in the aftermath – and insisted particpants were unarmed despite admissions to the contrary.
“They’re talking about an insurrection, except an insurrection without a gun.” (One rioter who had been armed with a loaded handgun was sentenced to 87 months in prison while another recently admitted to carrying 25 rounds of ammunition.)
While Bolling did not correct the claims, he appeared to try to steer the conversation away from January 6 and back to Fox and Carlson.
Much as the Major tries to steer the conversation away from Faux Noise and back to the ABC and the IPA?
You have to hand it to the Major, the way he can deliver his lines with a straight face.
Who else could furiously scribble "Some conservative commentators in Australia have echoed the same vote fraud claims trumpeted by Carlson" without mentioning Sky after dark?
And so on, and if the Major wasn't a Major Mitchell and a prize galah, the pond might have suggested he do a physician and heal himself first ... before we got to talking about the ABC ...
And so to the Caterist, and the pond understands there's some agitation about the infamous Flemington racecourse wall, and for a nanosecond thought that sending the famous floodwater quarry whisperer to sort things out ...
But this day the Caterist is intent on copying the Groaner and doing a jolly good groaning ...
Two snaps of the satanic ogre sent to torment the Caterist's soul in one gobbet? Couldn't the reptiles have turned to a leftover cartoon?
Sorry, that should have gone with the Major, but the pond just knows that the thoughts of a black sheep sent over from a third rate sociology course to lecture locals on immigration aren't going to be much fun... and so it came to pass ...
Well yes, if you think of the justification for letting the Caterist in, there's a good argument that it's likely to wildly overstate the benefits and all but ignore the costs ...
But, billy goat butt, it being May Day, hasn't 'the immigration' given us the Caterist, armed with skills to scribble furiously, and discern the movement of flood water in quarry, while gouging cash in the paw from the feds? We shall see ...
Scant attention? That's all the reptiles scribble about, that and doing a Groaning week after week ... but given the theme, the pond is pleased it held over an
infallible Pope to deal with the situation ...
And so to a final gobbet of the kind you might expect when you import a low-skilled scribbler from little England ...
Still with John Howard?
Rather than end on that sorry, jaundiced, lose your seat, lose government, note, the pond was pleased to see that the immortal Rowe had produced a hare, or rather an ancient bigot from his archival hat ... (no blue tick, now there's a guarantee of quality)
It was a great chance to see how the style had evolved, but how the comedy remained the same ...
"as if BOM was at the centre of a climate conspiracy." But, BG, butt of course it is. Everyone and everything that isn't a paid up climate denier is therefore, ipso facto, part of the worldwide climate conspiracy. There's a whole lot of people who write for Murdoch media that will, and do, tell us that.
ReplyDeletePS: I would have thought that "taking instataneous readings from the probes and using the highest in any 24-hour period as the maximum for that day" was a precise measure of the "maximum temperature" for the day. Maybe other places just don't have the Australian technology and can't do that.
DeleteStill chuckling at the Major this day. Sky 'News' - last night, with Michaelia Cash displaying the breadth of her understanding of the Constitution as it stands, claiming that the proposed referendum would mean that a Federal government would have to consult 'The Voice' on everything from nuclear submarines to a parking ticket.
ReplyDeleteMichaelia (the 'whiteboard tap-dancer') is a true gem, isn't she. Almost makes up for how bland and all but invisible Sussan is.
DeleteMitchell argues that the ABC is alienating its 50-plus radio and television audience by not targeting their values (apparently James Madden’s unnamed internal sources know what they are) and at the same time ABC’s programs, like Four Corners, pander to the ABC’s audience, so much so that Mitchell concludes that the ABC has been captured by its audience. So we must assume this means that the ABC radio and television programmes have been captured by its young audience at the expense of the old audience, although Mitchell doesn’t make this distinction clear.
ReplyDeleteOf course the Mitchell/News Corp solution is for the ABC to refrain from making any programs which may be commercially profitable, in other words, programs which would be less popular and few would watch, which would presumably alienate all its audience, old and young and that audience would then move to Fox and Fiends (sorry Friends). But a commercial enterprise - in fact any enterprise - targeting only an older audience would not have much future.
As Chris says, talk is cheap but Mitchell's twitterings are worthless.
Maj. Mitch.: "Opinion-based journalism is easier and cheaper to produce than conventional reporting let alone serious investigative work." Yeah ? What about those ridiculously inflated 'salaries' that the likes of Carlson are paid ? Is that "cheap" ? "But conservative commentary has built profitable businesses as consumers seek relief from the left-wing activism of mainstream media." Oh, right; it's a full-on case of bidirectional reptile projection: their evil projected onto us and our virtue projected back onto them. As always.
ReplyDelete"Carlson and others inside the network were concerned their audience was being alienated by reporting that suggested Trump's claims did not stand up."
"Suggested" that they did not "stand up" ? You mean they were outright blatant lies, don't you Mitch.? As indeed they were shown to be in the Dominion trial that Murdoch, as always, bought and paid his way out of. But more to come.
And oh yeah, the "Hunter Biden laptop" story which Mitch. considers has been "confirmed genuine". Well I don't recall having seen anywhere that the "Hunter left it at a computer shop to be repaired then never came back for it" nonsense has ever been confirmed in any way at all - can anybody even prove that Hunter was anywhere in that vicinity on the supposed day ? Yes, some of the content in that 'repair shop laptop' might qualify as 'genuine Hunter' but in these days of rampant hi-tech hacking that's easy to achieve. I haven't seen any proof that the entire content of the laptop is genuine Hunter, have you ? Or was it just coupled together on a cheap laptop from some standard stuff together with some hacked Hunter.
Happy to be told otherwise if anybody has reasonable proof - of the kind that Dame Slap requires of any case made public: in short, that would stand up in court, like Dominion's case against Fox.
So, Mitch.: "Ferguson was pandering to the anti-Trump biases of the ABC's audience in much the same way Tucker Carlson was using claims of election fraud to appeal to his audience." Yep, blatant bi-directional projection there. Does anybody at all with any sense of reality still think that reasonable people's reactions to the lies, crimes and misdemeanors of Trump is "biases" ?
GB - are you casting doubt on the 'best selling' book by the unlovely Miranda Devine, which set out an irrefutable case about the 'laptop from hell'? Why, she was a regular interview on none other than 'Tucker Carlson Tonight', repeating that it was all set out and proven in her best-selling book.
DeleteHow 'best selling' is best selling in Ms Devine's mind ? Did she sell 1 million copies, maybe ?
DeleteSadly, Chad, I haven't seen any extracts from 'The Laptop from Hell' (and I'm not going to waste any money buying it) but experience with Ms Devine back in her SMH and The Australian days doesn't fill me with confidence in her 'investigative reporting' capabilities. So yes, I guess I would be casting doubt on her book - except that I suspect lots of doubt has already been cast and anything I could cast would be entirely superfluous.
But now that it has been shown just how ethical Fox and its employees are, surely some legal action against the 51 "intel officials" and their membership of the 'deep state' must begin 'real soon now'.
GB - as the writer in 'Crikey' told us - her contribution to reporting is that she has refined the lemniscate for the guidance of other reptiles.
DeleteOh yes, the infinite lemniscate (aka λημνίσκος): known only to the truest of believers and I had forgotten all about it. Thanks for the reminder.
DeleteNickyC: "The shake-up of the system Labor is promising must begin by restricting the pathway from education to permanent residency to those with particular skills." Hmm reptiles never grasp that their own words often apply to themselves; now what exactly are the precious skills and increases of productivity that Cater has brought us ?
ReplyDeleteBesides, what about this:
"Most Australians would be surprised to learn that since 2015, Australia experienced its biggest labour-trafficking scam abusing the asylum system.
This scam involved about 100,000 people being organised to arrive by plane, mostly on tourist visas.
Organisers of the scam targeted vulnerable people, initially from Malaysia and China, with the prospect of well-paying jobs in Australia, usually working on farms. The organisers apply for asylum on behalf of workers who often know nothing about the applications."
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/boats-are-not-the-problem-it-s-the-130-000-asylum-seekers-living-here-20220617-p5aufm.html
And who was in government in 2015 ?
Yeah, trust NickyC to tell us all about the planes. He's just as much a valuable immigrant who knows about that as he is a valuable immigrant who knows all about floodwaters.
What was I saying about the stability of conservative parties ?
ReplyDelete"Party stability on the progressive side of politics, and repeated party reconfiguration on the conservative side of politics, is a marked contrast in the history of Australia’s two-party political system."
The Liberals are the fifth iteration of Australia’s main centre-right party. Could the Voice campaign hasten a sixth?
https://theconversation.com/the-liberals-are-the-fifth-iteration-of-australias-main-centre-right-party-could-the-voice-campaign-hasten-a-sixth-203654
Note again that it's the "Libs" not the Counts.
Oh:
Delete"Federally, the Liberal Party’s genealogy is:
Protectionist Party, Free Trade Party (1901-1909)
Commonwealth Liberal Party (1909-1917)
Nationalist Party (1917-1931)
United Australia Party (1931-1945)
Liberal Party (1945+)."
Seems that Hughie the rain god is part of the BOM conspiracy: Drought threatens to dry up crucial Panama Canal shipping link
ReplyDeleteJoe - thank you for that link. I know there has been angst in the Panamanian administration about declining rainfall for a couple of decades. Perhaps the need to restrict canal traffic might attract the attention of certain business types who otherwise see no threat to their profits and dividends from climate change - Maurice Newman, for example?
Delete