Indeed, it is wonderful how the pond is not interested, and grows less interested by the day, and the digital Oz headlines spelled out the many reasons ...
A posturing, preening dinosaur relic at the top of the page, posed as if a statesman rather than a dropkick loser, using the current mess for base political purposes, and down below a shrieking Sharri doing the same, and there at the top far right, Dame Slap still bashing away ...
It is wonderful how the pond isn't interested in the slightest ...
The only good thing about Dame Slap is that apparently they named a movie after her ...
“What are we even talking about?” asks Regina during one late-night chat with Janet, and the question applies to virtually every back-and-forth in Janet Planet, where what’s said is superficially banal but meant to linger in the air—during all those pauses between every uttered word—with weighty significance.
A red card for the lot of them ...
Meanwhile, down in the comments section, there was nothing going down that the pond wanted to contemplate or show an interest in ...
Killer's outing was the best of a bad bunch. Who else but Killer could or would want to talk up RFK Jr.?
Luckily, Forbes was only just starting with its listicle...
Back on the same old road with "Ned" ...
And that nicely set the tone for the rest of the "Ned" gobbets ...
And then it was on to the penultimate gobbet ...
Uh huh, but we already got there with that Wilcox cartoon ...
And so to a note on what's happening in the middle east.
The pond doesn't like to encourage the reptiles, but was startled to read the keen Keane in Crikey yesterday ...Right-wing strongmen, it turns out, are bad for national security, (paywall), with the lede According to intelligence officials, right-wing strongmen like Benjamin Netanyahu are bad for national security. Who knew?
Given the Murdochian hysteria, it was worth the read ...
Benjamin Netanyahu has been Israeli leader for nearly 13 of the past 14 years. Until the weekend, he would probably have been known for being the longest-serving Israeli prime minister, and for facing corruption and fraud charges while in office. But after Hamas’ assaults on Israel and the ensuing atrocities, however, he will be known for overseeing the greatest security and intelligence failure in his country for 50 years.
Netanyahu is surely the unlikeliest recipient of such a title. His leadership of Israel has been characterised by the institution of an apartheid-like separation of Palestinians from Israelis, a massive investment in security infrastructure, the ongoing killing of hundreds of Palestinian civilians, and the steady seizure of Palestinian land to extend Israeli colonisation.
He has been dismissive of any concern other than Israel’s security, dismissing Western leaders’ mealy-mouthed professions of support for a two-state solution as irrelevant to Israel’s need to control its security.
As it turned out, Netanyahu’s relentless hostility towards Palestinians, rather than enhancing Israeli security, undermined it. How do we know this? What left-wing or Palestinian propagandist offered that take? In August, YnetNews reported that Ronen Bar, head of Israeli security agency the Shin Bet, had warned Netanyahu that Israeli settler terrorism against Palestinians would incite Palestinian terrorism and that the Israeli Defence Force was having to divert resources to deal with increased violence in the West Bank as a result of settler violence.
Netanyahu has long encouraged the expansion of Israeli settlements on occupied land and done nothing to curb illegal settlements. Early this year, he appointed far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich — himself from an illegal settlement — to control the West Bank.
At this point the pond will pause for a Wilcox ...
The pond usually wouldn't take so much from Crikey ... it's not like the reptiles, it runs on the smell of an oily rag ... but the keen Keane had some useful insights ...
...In 2020, an array of former Shin Bet and Mossad heads condemned Netanyahu and warned he was a threat to Israeli security and the country’s continuing existence. Among their criticisms was that Netanyahu used “strategic assets” for his own benefit.
The accusation echoes ongoing revelations about how Donald Trump — a friend and ally of Netanyahu — misused and shared secret information and classified files after losing the US presidency. Trump faces dozens of charges in relation to the misuse of more than a million documents, thereby endangering US national security.
Netanyahu’s aggressive support for the colonisation of occupied Palestine contributed to the failure to prevent the weekend attacks — similar to the way in which Western (particularly US and UK military) interventions in the Middle East, allegedly intended to reduce the threat of terrorism in Western countries, in fact led to more terrorist attacks — according to some of the most senior figures in Western intelligence services. (The keen Keane is quoting himself there, but there's a way around the paywall for those who care to throw a little money Crikey's way rather than into the Chairman Emeritus's coffers).
For a non-Western parallel, look no further than Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose nationalist aggression has only led to humiliation in Ukraine and a dramatic exposure of his country’s military inadequacies.
We even have a miniature version right here, with the detailing of how Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, for all his “tough on borders” reputation and rhetoric, presided over a stunning breach of our border security by organised and people traffickers.
Netanyahu’s response to the Hamas atrocities is to vow an unprecedented vengeance — with the, in the words of his defence minister, “human animals” of Gaza the first to be targeted. In doing so, he’ll follow the exact script that the US followed in response to 9/11, which resulted in the waste of trillions of dollars, the deaths of hundreds of thousands, the extension of Iranian power in the Middle East, and the emergence of performatively monstrous terrorist groups such as Islamic State. Goading the US into such a response had been Osama Bin Laden’s plan, and George W. Bush almost gleefully cooperated.
Doubtless a new generation of militants and terrorists will be created by the Israeli response, just as Hamas intends, enabling it to harvest the bloodshed to reinforce its ranks. Whether Israel will be any better off in a decade, or 20 years, isn’t clear. The US experience suggests no-one will be.
You won't read any of that in the lizard Oz, and therefore you usually won't read any of that in the pond, but it pretty much describes the pond's feelings on the matter, and that'll likely be the last time the pond will mention the middle east mess, save for this day's cartoon by the infallible Pope ...
Noodlenut Ned: "Respecting the [referendum] result won't be easy. There will be a cavalcade of anger from aggrieved people accusing the No side of everything from misinformation to racism." But Ned, that's because Dutton and Price and Thorpe and the Murdoch press have already unleashed a cavalcade of misinformation and racism - oh, and deliberate disinformation too (which we once called 'lying agitprop'). So poor old Albanese cannot "...blame Dutton for a defeat that, as PM, he can't stomach and doesn't countenance." So what ? Does Ned expect Albanese to praise Dutton for the campaign he waged ?
ReplyDeleteSo: "People suggesting the referendum might finish Albanese as PM are talking nonsense." A subject in which Ned is a consummate expert. But is that the way it is: Dutton started his 'war of hate' because he thought it would be the end for Albanese ? Or is that just the way that 'Conservatives' play politics nowadays.
And Ned can indulge himself with: "He [Albanese] will need to demonstrate to the country that his vision as PM extends far beyond the inner-city progressive class and arrogant institutional elites that became the backbone for the voice." Yeah, right, there's none of those "arrogant institutional elites" in Ned's world is there. And the Coalition have never lost a seat to Teal, have they.
Wilcox is so correct and what the Murdochracy will try to do is lay into the labor party when the real truth of middle east problems go back to America supporting the Israeli take over of Palestine after the second world war so the European Jews could take over from the existing people that had been living in Palestine for centuries. What has now taken place an intractable conflict that cannot be solved from external interference but will be exacerbated by America involvement and support. According to Murdoch media we should support Israel no matter what harm they inflict on innocent beings that have had their homes taken from them.
ReplyDeleteHi Dorothy,
ReplyDeleteBit of a tough gig for the Killer. Knowing that the Chairman Emeritus is watching, young Adam has to play up a viable candidate that could trounce an Octogenarian Democrat but also appeal to a Nonagenarian Proprietor.
Trump is of course not a favourite as having to pay out $US785.5 million hits Rupert where it hurts the most, his back pocket. However if Trump is the only viable option then the Murdochs will grudgingly get behind the orange ogre, the Fox viewers will demand it.
Still another option would be preferred.
DeSanctimonious looked good on paper but turned out to be a wooden martinet with zero appeal. As for the rest of the Republican nominees nobody can remember who they are, so they’re out of the running.
So the Killer pulls Bobby Jr out of the wack job sack. Crazy, paranoid, conspiratorial, filthy rich and can be interviewed by Fox’s own Frankenstein’s Monster Hannity.
Worth a try.
Too right DW, got to be in it to ruin it, and any loon in a storm ...
DeleteFather Frank Brennan’s argument that Australians won’t vote for the Voice until they hear and see it in action, is absurd. Logically, if Australians don’t vote for the Voice, then they will never hear it and see it in action; a circular fallacy which fulfils its own conclusion.
ReplyDeleteThen Kelly defends Brennan’s absurd argument by claiming this was because the Voice was “a totally new, contentious concept”. Wow! Aren’t most forward-thinking ideas new and contentious? Where would humans be if we had dismissed every new idea or change as too difficult to understand and refused to accept it because it was “new” and “contentious.” The Uluru Statement from The Heart was made in 2017. Hardly “new”. It’s six years ago. I guess if you are ideologically rigid, unaccepting of the world around you, six years just passes as a fleeting blip in time.
Then Kelly references the polls as though the referendum has already been held. Maybe Kelly has already voted; a lot of us haven’t. There’s only one poll that counts.
As for: “Who does Albanese govern for? He will need to demonstrate to the country that his vision as PM extends beyond the inner-city progressive class and arrogant institutional elites that became the back bone for the voice”. For whom does Kelly write? Answer: Rupert Murdoch. For whom would Dutton govern? Answer: Rupert Murdoch, his elite side-kicks, Coalition backers and himself.
Still, we got a bingo on the “inner-city progressives” who have now advanced from an elite to a class. But we can score Kelly’s whole nasty scrawl one of the lowest grades with his comment that people like Marcia Langton, Megan Davis, Noel Pearson and many others are “arrogant institutional elites”. These Australians are members of First Peoples who have not only achieved much in the face of systemic disadvantage, but who have striven for the advancement of their fellow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Peoples. To denigrate them as Kelly has in this private sewer that is the Murdoch Empire is unforgivable.
Kelly and Brennan are disingenuous. You are correct - it is logically to silly to say you won't support implementing something until it has been implemented (we don't want it in the constitution until it is already operating in the constitution). But they are also disingenuous - Brennan / Kelly propose that the voice should be legislated first; supposedly if it is a success, then you hold the referendum to enshrine it in the constitution. But how do you tell if it is successful, either because it asks that legislation be amended or abandoned, or because it supports legislation; what is good, what is bad? And funny, but it happens that Dutton's position was that the voice be legislated (at least that was his position at one time, though I think he has also supported a non-Canberra regional hierarchy of voices instead, actually does he support anything), so once it is legislated, why would he support de-legislating it and putting it in the constitution. We can only be sure of these things - Dutton says NO, and Kelly opposes putting the voice in the constitution using any manner of confusing arguments.
DeleteThe Kelly muddling goes on - a Yes result will be a nightmare for Labor, and a No result will be to their benefit because it will avoid the nightmare. It is akin to saying that despite our year-long efforts, we are glad we lost the grand final because it would have been too difficult to bear the burden of victory.
What troubles me is that the rubbish Kelly writes is being sucked up into some AI repository. AG.
So there was a reason to put up "Ned". The pond couldn't think of a single useful thing to be said about him, but now it's been said ...
DeleteMm - Kelly had become 'political correspondent' for the Flagship when the first referendum relating to local government was presented to the public. He was older, and, supposedly, wiser, when the second one went down in 1988. It is mildly diverting to apply the 'reasoning' of 'Ned' and Father Frank to what voters of those times understood, or had experienced, of local government. And, of course, to wonder what happened to local government after that second, resounding, defeat. I guess that is why Brisbane, the largest local government in the country, is now a wasteland, with deserted buildings being slowly overgrown by choko vines.
Delete"too difficult to bear the burden of victory", AG ? Yeah, it is just a bit like that isn't it: 'If we win the election, then we'll have to actually govern !' If the Yes side wins the Voice referendum, then somebody is going to have to put together the Voice legislation and get it through parliament and then actually have to administer it for years to come.
DeleteDefinitely way too hard.
I was prepared to venture into 'Sky Australia' so others would not have to. 'Crikey' for this day mentions PM Albanese questioning Kieren Gilbert on the source of supposed 'survey' of all electorates which purports to show a very high proportion committed to 'No'.
ReplyDeleteSimple arithmetic - with 151 electorates, to use the sampling of, say, 'NewsPoll', you contact about 8 electors in each. That is not even a current affairs 'Vox pop', and could have a sampling error in some electorates around 50%. Apparently Gilbert claimed he did not happen to have such numbers to hand, but an outfit called 'FocalData' was responsible. Yep, that business has a promotional website, telling us that it draws on more than 4 600 'panels', and offers almost instant results. So - odds on - those 'panels' are the now ubiquitous market research data gatherers, harvesting contacts by offering the chance to sample new lines of toothpaste or wrinkle-cream, including 'free' samples of whatever product, in return for a detailed profile of - you. So, no doubt this effort draws on contact lists of our old 'friends' Compass Polling and/or PureProfile (which can be interchangeable anyway).
Oh - I was not able to find this exchange between PM Albanese and Gilbert on 'Youtube' - but I do trust 'Crikey'.
With Limited News/Sky being the virtual publicity arm of the Coalition, be prepared for cascades of this stuff as we approach the next federal election.
Do you remember a period, especially in the US, when the savants started to do telephone polling, utterly disregarding the fact that only a smallish percentage of people - the 'better off' ones - had a telephone in their house.
DeleteIf I recall correctly, the 'phone poll' was used to predict a presidential election and went very strongly for the Republican candidate, but the Democratic candidate won handily. Might have been FDR, I think.
GB - could it have been the 1948 election? The 'Wiki' item on Thomas Dewey has one cartoon pointing up what was supposed to be Dewey's nigh unassailable lead in polls; it also has the famous photo of Truman holding up the Chicago Daily Tribune with headline 'Dewey defeats Truman' from the day after the election. One of those 'collectors items', no doubt.
DeleteAh yes, that sounds like it thanks, Chad - Dewey as the 'unassailable' candidate rings a bell in my memory somewhere.
DeleteThat staged photo of the Lying Rodent cosplaying as Churchill, or some sort of generic Elder Statesman, is always good for a laugh. So far as I can recall, Howard’s foreign affairs role pretty much started and ended by proclaiming Australia to be the USA’s “Deputy Sheriff” in the region. Isn’t it about time he realised that his political role these days is limited to being rolled out at election time to frighten elderly voters in suburban bowls clubs?
ReplyDeleteNow there's an interesting term: chronostalgia: "the lure of a mass-marketed ersatz past that drives out our shared memories of what actually happened, or what could happen next."
ReplyDeletehttps://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/how-no-with-the-media-s-help-trades-on-nostalgia-for-a-past-that-never-was/ar-AA1i0vIL?
Gracious ! Maybe one more piece of irrational, anti-scientific stupidity might be on the way out:
ReplyDelete"The Compeat Performance team, which provides nutrition support to the Matildas, stopped weighing players or monitoring body composition two years ago – saying the metrics often came at the cost of player performance, and didn’t have a clear purpose."
Don’t cheer the scale: Doctors and dieticians untangling body size from health
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/oct/12/dont-cheer-the-scale-doctors-and-dieticians-untangling-body-size-from-health
Here we go: Trumpism is alive and well and living in the Coalition:
ReplyDelete"The opposition’s weaponisation of the most minute points of difference between the Coalition and Labor on the situation in Gaza – and at times its outright falsehoods – are sure signs that US-style extreme political polarisation is now a feature of Australian politics."
When Peter Dutton claims Labor isn’t horrified enough about Hamas, it doesn’t help anyone
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/11/peter-dutton-labor-albanese-israel-hamas-war-response
Just one last diversion for a bee in the bonnet of mine:
ReplyDelete"Phillipson didn’t stray too far from her pre-briefed notes. Better maths education for young children rather than compulsory maths for everyone until they are 18."
A victory lap for Starmer, now officially a member of the glitterati
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/oct/11/a-victory-lap-for-starmer-now-officially-a-member-of-the-glitterati
I've said it before and I'll say it again, to more or less quote an educator of many years ago in Nation Review whose name I've long forgotten: "For most students the maths taught in school is too much too soon; for those who will go on to a maths profession, it is too little too late."
Now if you, like very many apparently, confuse a bit of basic arithmetic (add, subtract, multiply, divide) with "mathematics" that might be a little confusing, but nowadays even quite cheap mobile phones can do more, and more sophisticated, arithmetic than the vast majority of people will ever need in a lifetime. But they can't do any genuine "mathematics" - differential and integral calculus anybody ?