Jason Clare seriously defamed rocks, and for a nanosecond, the pond thought of taking a defamation action against him on behalf of rocks everywhere, as they do their best to help humanity.. . All the empathy of a rock’: Jason Clare accuses Peter Dutton of playing politics in the wake of bombshell Robodebt findings (warning, a click will reward News Corp).
But rocks are loved, rocks are empathetic, rocks are caring, and the rock love you take is equal to the rock love they make. And it's not just the passing fad of pet rocks, still being peddled on Amazon.
Why the pond can remember going to the Ryōan-ji Zen temple and contemplating the fifteen most perfectly placed rocks , though it's alleged you can only see the fifteenth stone when you've attained enlightenment. Perhaps thinking of Queensland plods prevented the pond from reaching enlightenment.
Sure minerals and crystals and such like take the limelight with hippies, but if you look around you can get grounding stones for anxiety and panic attacks, and therapy rocks and massage stones and rocks.
Couldn't Clare have found a better, more suitable comparison, and left hapless, cuddly rocks alone? How about Sauron? Clare could even have flung in a joke about one Queensland plod to rule them all. What about all the empathy of a Hannibal Lecter? Darth Vader? Thanos? The Joker? Voldemort has a pretty close matching look - too close for some - and agent Smith is almost an aspirational figure in terms of style and presentation.
Or you could go high art like the immortal Rowe, with a hint of robo Terminator in the eye ...
It's a pretty fair likeness though the pond apologises for the lack of gilt and a frame ...
... and the lack of that detail ...
And so the moment irritation passed, but before moving on to the lack of empathy routinely shown by the lizards of Oz, the pond would like to note a few things.
First the pond would like to pause a moment to acknowledge and contemplate Politico's We Investigated the Deepest, Darkest Corners of the Internet to Understand Ron DeSantis’ Bizarre New Video.
For starters, at time of writing, it had a link which showed off the video, now no easy task to find. And it briefly explores the deep, rich homoerotic, nakedly fascist worship of blondes, not so far removed from the 1930s. If you want an example of where that sort of worship led, try Mark Felton's Reinchard Heydrich short on YouTube.
Second, the pond concedes that it failed on the weekend, with the reptiles slipping in a couple of ripper contributions from the dog botherer and the bromancer...
Sadly, they escaped the pond's net and now must remain at large, though with respect, with friends like the dog botherer, who needs enemies, and the bromancer really was just same old same old ... you know, pure undiluted fundamentalist tyke gibberish ...
You know, the civic universalism of empire, bringing enlightenment to the world, and never mind the odd massacre, looting and rorting, and the silly Dutch finally admitting a bit had gone on ...
What a relief the pond missed it and can move on to the Major, back on active duty and ready to serve the nation, and co-joined with news that the pond found remarkably piquant...
"The onion muncher, petulant Peta and the Major", and if that isn't a movie title, the pond will eat its hat or at least munch on the Major, proudly an expert in nothing, but remarkably, as a result, an expert in everything ...
Ah, thar he blows ... but why the scare quotes around 'silly'?
Sadly, even the Major these days must be canny and avoid outright abuse or climate science denialism and so needs must, has to talk of "nuanced views".
Where's the Major celebrated in his
remarkably short wiki, with so many astonishing expert achievements packed in to so few words?
Mitchell was named by academic Clive Hamilton as one of Australia's "Dirty Dozen", a list people he believed to be "doing the most to block action on climate change in Australia". He featured in editions of the list published in 2006, 2009 and 2014. In 2010, Mitchell claimed that he had been defamed by academic Julie Posetti in a series of tweets she posted from a journalism conference claiming that reporter Asa Wahlquist had said Mitchell controlled election coverage of climate change issues. Posetti refused to apologise when tapes of the conference seemed to back her version of events. In 2017, Mitchell wrote an opinion piece entitled "Climate hysteria hits 'peak stupid' in hurricane season".
In an apparent effort to undermine the nature of global temperature rise, Mitchell wrote: “Evidence suggests temperatures were higher during the medieval warming and the Roman warming.”
Actually, evidence does not suggest this. The latest United Nations assessment of climate studies says the world is warmer now than at any time over at least the past 100,000 years.
Indeed, indeed, but you can hardly expect the Major to take note of, or talk about recent world heat records ...
Now we're left with "nuanced views" and a very large snap of the usual News Corp villain ...
It's probably wise for the Major to get on to "nuanced views" in other areas, what with him being an expert on pretty much everything ...
Indeed, indeed, why read an Aboriginal person writing about Aboriginal experiences. What on earth would they know?
And at this point the reptiles offered up another huge snap, which the pond had no problem marking down ...
Meanwhile, the Major continued to show his astonishing expertise, especially on the matter of experts ...
Indeed, indeed, in his many careers, as climate scientist and epidemiologist, doctor and soothsayer, many overlook the Major's top notch expertise in the engineering field, not to mention his matchless way with data, statistics and climate science denialist hysteria and humbug ...
Better still, go on practising journalism like the Major and you can be on an endless field trip to find long lost Order of Lenin medals and other follies...
After all that, turning to the flood waters in quarries whisperer was something of a let down, what with the endless field trip for government cash in the paw a more immediate matter requiring urgent regular attention ...
The pond must immediately interrupt, and wonder why the reptiles insisted on running such a dour, severe snap of Clarence.
Wouldn't it have been better to have shown him relaxed and enjoying a quiet puff with his billionaire buddies?
Just wondering, because it really is a top notch effort, but now on with the Caterist doing his impression of the bromancer doing their impressions of the Major ...
At this point the reptiles slipped in another huge snap, which the pond had to mark down ...
The remnants of the Oz graphics department just get in the way of some exceptionally fine Caterist thinking ...
Indeed, indeed, things are hunky dory in the United States ... at least if you can count on a billionaire for a buddy ...
Why it's the Caterist's turn you
silly billy Luckovich ...
Indeed, indeed, astonishing eloquence and a good eye for a bargain, very much in the cash in the paw Caterist spirit ...
Sorry, but if the lizard Oz graphics department won't do it, then it's left to the pond to provide a little visual distraction, and so a final gobbet with the Caterist, and don't pretend you don't like lavish gifts and a little cash in the paw ...
Fine words, and a fine future for all ...
At this point the pond would usually draw stumps - if only to show that the pond can do a fine sketch, especially when asked to draw the blinds (licensed from the Goons) - but there's a Killer on the road, and having missed the dog botherer and the bromancer, how could the pond miss the Killer, a rider on the storm, a dog with a very big bone, a journalist out on loan ...
Warning, there will be masks, there's always masks when the Killer's on the loose ...
Now, now, the pond can hear someone in the stalls wondering if we hadn't already seen that graphic. Didn't the pond joke about it just a few days ago?
Why indeed so, it was only four days ago, to be precise ...
But you can't expect one harried intern heading up the entire lizard Oz graphics department to remember trivia, when it's the buzz, the zeitgeist, the mood, that's important ...
The pond is pleased that Killer raised the matter of that barking mad Trumpian judge because the pond can turn to a
story in Salon ... pointing out just how the judge sounded like Killer in a black robe ...
District Court Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, issued a wide-reaching 155-page opinion in a lawsuit brought by Republican-led states on the July 4 holiday when most federal courts were closed.
"During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian 'Ministry of Truth,'" the judge wrote, citing a range of topics that he said "all were suppressed" on social media at the behest of administration officials, including posts expressing opposition to COVID vaccines, masking, lockdowns and the lab-leak theory as well as posts disputing the legitimacy of the 2020 election and posts pushing content related to Hunter Biden's laptop.
"Authority it does not have": Kagan says SCOTUS student debt ruling "violates the Constitution"
"This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech," Doughty wrote. "American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country … the evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario."
Justice Department lawyers argued that officials had simply urged the social media companies to police their own platforms and that their communications were protected by the First Amendment.
Biden in July 2021 warned that social media companies were "killing people" by not policing anti-vaccine content.
"The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and they're killing people," he said at the time.
Doughty's order bars numerous administration officials, including all employees of the FBI and Justice Department, from contacting social media companies for the purpose of removing constitutionally protected posts...
Real Orwellian fruitcake territory, and again ...
...New York University Law Prof. Ryan Goodman marveled at the judge's "extraordinary" and "far-reaching" order, noting that it carves out an exception for the administration to continue to contact companies about "national security threats."
"A federal judge telling willing parties they can't chat as a constitutional problem is mind-boggling stupid and an abuse of power," tweeted Georgia State Law Prof. Anthony Michael Kreis.
Sherrilyn Ifill, a civil rights attorney and former head of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said it was "deranged & dangerous" to label efforts to ask tech executives to act responsibly and publicly urging the need to end tech immunity as "censorship."
"The evidence cited by the judge doesn't add up to govt censorship. Unless the govt is muzzled from calling out disinformation or reaching out to corporate leaders during a global emergency to ask for care & caution. But it's a nice set up for 2024 for Republicans," she tweeted.
"This is a truly astonishing ruling that will compromise the health, safety, and yes, liberty of some so others can spread false, harmful information in the name of free speech," wrote MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin.
"Remember," she added, "No district court judge issues a 155-page opinion on a federal holiday (much less July 4th) unless he intends to make a career-altering statement and craves major media attention."
Meanwhile, the graphics department knew what was needed ... a huge snap of Hunter ...
Couldn't they have found a graphic of a laptop? The pond understands there are meaningless snaps of laptops, and copies of laptops that allegedly look like allegedly relevant laptops that would have suited the lizard Oz graphics department down to the ground.
Now back to Killer, hitting his Kovid Killer Karping stride ...
It goes without saying that what was needed at that moment was a komical snap of komrade Dan... in a mask ... of a kind designed to terrify Killer ...
And so to a rousing finale ...
At this moment the pond regretted spending the immortal Rowe so early in the piece, but there was a cartoon that summoned up the Killer spirit in relation to social media ...
And there was another fine Luckovich explaining the grand and generous thinking of that SCOTUS mob, and with that the pond could indeed draw the blinds on another day with the reptiles ...
Oh yeah, the Bro is at it again: "This marks a tragic regression in Western politics, a repudiation of civic universalism..." Right, so what the Bro is saying is that we have to basically make "Western civilisation" homogenous - everyone all the same: same language, same living conditions, same everything so that we don't ever have to accept differences and learn mutual understanding and tolerance. So he reckons "...the voice would 're-racialise' Australian politics and society." No, it won't because "Australian politics and society" were never actually de-racialised, were they. Go on, Bro, tell me how nobody recognises the Chinese and Indian (amongst others) components of Australian society with their own language, customs and religions - tell me again just how much they have been "de-racialised", yes ?
ReplyDeleteActually, human society was much more 'de-racialised' prior to "Western civilisation", back in the days of Rome, for instance - go and look up how many citizens of Rome were dark skinned. And many of them made it to what is now called Britain.
Here we go, another reptile tactic: claim that everything is "politicised". Maj. Mitch: "OECD analysis shows how politicised in hindsight the expert public health advice was during the pandemic." And the Old Potato tells us just how "politicised" the response to the Robodebt commission is being made and how "politicised" the Yes side of the (small v) voice referendum is. Politicised this, that and the other - yep, definitely a reptile and wingnut tactic in full flight.
ReplyDeleteAnd here's another one: claiming that Sweden had a low excess death rate and more or less claiming as due to Sweden's failure to implement lockdowns. But here's a thing about Sweden's "excess death rate": "The date associated with a death might refer to when the death occurred or to when it was registered. This varies by country. Death counts by date of registration can vary significantly irrespectively of any actual variation in deaths, such as from registration delays or the closure of registration offices on weekends and holidays. It can also happen that deaths are registered, but the date of death is unknown — this is the case for Sweden."
You can find that quote here:
https://ourworldindata.org/excess-mortality-covid
where you will also find a very comprehensive coverage of the topic (and I really do mean comprehensive).
This all seems like the revisionism following the GFC. "Sweden had a low excess death rate". So, comparing apples to apples -
Deletehttps://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-excess-mortality-p-scores-projected-baseline?tab=chart&country=DNK~NOR~SWE
or
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/cumulative-excess-mortality-p-scores-projected-baseline?tab=chart&country=DNK~NOR~SWE
Hard to look those charts and not notice something seriously wrong with the Swedish response in the early stages. So maybe Sweden had a better economic outcome? Apparently not
https://www.ssb.no/en/nasjonalregnskap-og-konjunkturer/konjunkturer/artikler/economic-development-through-covid-19.an-updated-comparison-of-norway-sweden-and-denmark
"Accounts figures for 2020 for Mainland Norway, Sweden and Denmark all show an annual decline between 2-3 per cent. By the 3rd quarter of 2021 all three countries had recovered to a level around 2 per cent higher than before the pandemic."
So what's the point? Looks on the surface like Tegnall brought forward the deaths of the at risk for no actual benefit.
Still, you can compare apples and oranges by comparing a Scandinavian country with good social welfare with countries like the US or UK who have drunk deeply of the neoliberal cool aid and draw the conclusion you would prefer.
Drawing "the conclusion you would prefer" is of course a way of life for reptiles and wingnuts - Maj. Mitch's rant today is a fine example - but sadly affects nearly all of humanity to a greater or lesser extent.
DeleteIt seems that nothing much really improved things, though in some places the peak harm - personal, social and economic - was reached earlier than in others. I note, though, that the 'QALY' reprise seems to have died down.
But we have to try to minimise harm, don't we: the uncertainty of outcome isn't a license not to try.
Perhaps Abbott and Credlin's new program could be entitled "The Road to Ruin". I peered into the crystal ball and I saw Niki Savva's next book: "How Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin destroyed Sky."
ReplyDeleteOne can only hope, Anony….
DeleteMitchell: “Nowhere is a continent doing better than Australia was doing under the Morrison government.”
ReplyDeleteEven for the most ardent Coalition supporters, that one makes the quote of the month. Apart from the weird mixture of past and present tenses, has he read the news lately? And perhaps we could repeat the often used taunt that Morrison used against the Labor Party when he was in government, that the Australian people voted out the last government. If the Morrison government was so good….Oh, I get it, absent-minded voters.
"Jackson did not suffer segregation" is an ad hominem, which has nothing whatsoever to do with the validity of Jackson's argument and Nick's ad hominem argument would apply equally to himself. And it wasn't affirmative action which asked the questions of Jackson on her appointment. It was journalists, and others, who apparently want to question the value of affirmative action and if it did aid her in her appointment why is that a stigma? It is only a stigma or stain in the eyes of people who apparently think she otherwise did not deserve the appointment. Affirmative action does not mean that the person was not appointed on merit.
ReplyDeleteThey speak and act as though we can actually somehow determine this "merit"that everybody should be appointed and/or promoted on. But of course we can't except in the most obvious of cases. But I would put to them that the persistent rate of human and organisational underperformance, and even failure, says very differently.
DeleteSo, for instance, were all the public servants and all the PwC employees involved in the Robodebt 'misadventure' appointed/promoted strictly on merit ? Merit for what and how determined and scored and ranked so that always the most meritorious, even if only minutely so, are always the ones appointed/promoted.
When the Killah opened with "In an age of relentless propaganda it's more important than ever that governments not be allowed to censor differences of opinion", I'd have sworn he was about to deconstruct the Simon Benson "opinion" that had been fed to him directly from the Office of not-remotely Honourable Mr Tudge, as outlined by the spurned staffer that Mr Tudge had developed a relationship with - and that we the tax-payer have paid out for. As revealed in the meticulous Royal Commision into the crimes of Robodebt.
ReplyDeleteBut I was mistaken. It was a different narrative.
Creighton’s Masklophobia: “One possible cause explained is that a young child’s developing mind can have trouble distinguishing reality from fantasy when confronting fictional characters such as Mickey Mouse in human size.” (Wiki) You see, as Ron says, it’s all Disney’s fault!
ReplyDeletePS. Forgot to add this link which shows just where mask wearing can lead, because look at that horrific photo of the team at the Kirby Institute. Freedom dictates they should be allowed to wear their swimsuits.
Deletehttps://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-07-10/the-mystery-of-why-some-people-keep-getting-covid/102565846
Implicit in the Major's disparaging experts for the way they are warping his version of journalism, is his own belief that he is an expert - in journalism. And yet, his writing this day would try to persuade us that the effect he brings to our notice came about of quite recent time.
ReplyDeleteSo - he displays little knowledge of the early days of newspapers - can we agree, from various dates late in the 17th century - particularly in how they dealt with - IF they dealt with - conflict between emerging ideas in biological science, astronomy, and geology; and the religious teachings of those times. The religious dogma was presented, almost always, as the single truth, while people with strange ideas that contradicted the Creation were rarely even excused as 'well meaning' - more often there was a sufficiently senior churchman (always men - what would women know of such things?) prepared to be quoted as condemning the soul of that proud person to an afterlife of everlasting, but unimaginable, pain.
Oh, those savants could circulate their little journals - if they could find a printer prepared to take the risk - but they could not expect favorable coverage in a newspaper. This continued through the dichotomy that came with great changes in pubic works, usually to do with transport of people and goods. The newspapers would write glowing predictions about the benefit of the new canal system, or the steam power of trains and boats, partly because they had had some direct incentive from the promoters of each new system, looking to garner investors (some things have not changed, although your modern writer on technology can be won over for as little as lunch at a 5 star restaurant, or it might extend to 'plane tickets and accommodation at the 'launch' of product at international resort). But the newspapers would promote impressive works of engineering, while giving no space to the better understanding of physics and chemistry that lead to that engineering, or to the appearance of geology as a science, largely from observations made in digging of canals.
There were two centuries of that conflict before Charles Darwin published his several works, which, amongst other sources, drew on an understanding of geology that confounded the biblical account of creation perhaps even more than evolution by natural selection.
Through all that, the steady content of newspapers focused on wars and other physical disasters, government propaganda, mysticism and public executions. Again, about the only change is that propaganda is accepted almost exclusively from the reactionary side, there are fewer public executions (though extensively, and mawkishly, reported if it is a good Aussie lad who just happened to be found with one or other illicit substance in his backpack) and every newspaper continues with an astrology column.
What the Major really demonstrates is the belief of too many people that there was an inchoate period of nobody knows how long - then they came into the world, and all significant human history started then.
"an understanding of geology that confounded the biblical account of creation". Oh no it didn't, Chad, they just claimed the rights of 'freedom of religion' to persecute anybody who didn't believe what they did. And they're still doing it. But then there is, as I have mentioned, the Omphalos Hypothesis (qv) which satisfactorily explains it all.
DeleteSo: "the better understanding of physics and chemistry that lead to that engineering" and mathematics, Chad: the fundamental base of all useful human knowledge without which other branches would not have got very far. Even the Romans knew that engineers needed their base 10 abacus to do the computations that made concrete (another Roman creation) structures possible.
The Chinese didn't have that which is why so much of the many Great Wall(s) of China had to be put together with rocks, stones and mortar.
GB - I mentioned astronomy mainly because of the vigorous allegations of conspiracy when various parts of Europe changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. The Marjorie Taylor Greens of the time were every bit as inventive as the Tuckers and the Hannitys of now, and incited plenty of civil disturbance, although it was scattered.
DeleteI have tried a few times to follow the development of the Chinese calendars, and find it interesting that the people seemed to have no trouble accepting fractional days, although it also seems that they did so because that helped place important dates fairly precisely through the year. Christian easter, on the other hand -
Umm, 'fractional day'? The Chinese did understand how days happen, didn't they ? Like when did they cotton on to a rotating Earth and not a revolving Sol ?
DeleteAs to Easter: "first Sunday after the Paschall Full Moon" (first full moon after the Spring Equinox), I guess you've gotta have something to confuse hoi polloi over.
GB - and others who come here, but still live in beautiful Victoria - your State Library (a place I remember fondly, but not for this reason) apparently has copies of what is claimed to be England's first daily newspaper, which, as it happens, was published by a woman, Elizabeth Mallet.
ReplyDeletehttps://blogs.slv.vic.gov.au/such-was-life/the-woman-behind-londons-first-daily-newspaper/
Naah, just another one of those 'trans' things, Chad. No woman could have done that back all those years ago.
DeleteWell that was some Monday, a full serve of reptile goonery via Maj. Mitch, NickC and KillerC. Could a collection of any other three reptiles be as brainless ? We all wait in breathless anticipation of what Tuesday will bring. Will we ever see Dame Slap again ?
ReplyDeleteA true Australian icon:
ReplyDelete"There are roughly 22 million jars of Vegemite manufactured in the original Melbourne factory every year. According to the Vegemite website, around 80% of Australian households have a jar in the cupboard."
A rose in every cheek: 100 years of Vegemite, the wartime spread that became an Aussie icon
https://theconversation.com/a-rose-in-every-cheek-100-years-of-vegemite-the-wartime-spread-that-became-an-aussie-icon-204917