The pond is still finding it hard to resist the jokes which might be responsible for far too much attention being paid to the reptiles.
Take this one, the header's the punchline, and all you need to know ... Clarence Thomas ruled against student debt relief. Now a Senate panel alleges his healthcare exec pal forgave his $267,230 loan.
Couldn't make up that level of meta irony even if you were Meta. You only need the headline for this one too, Perry Mason Would Have A Field Day With This Latest Donald Trump Typo, though really it should have referenced famous telly lawyer Petty Mason.
The pond spent a lot of time yesterday celebrating MAGA man, and should have found room for this cartoon ...
It's always in the detail and that devilish sprite looks like fun, if the end of civilisation can be called fun ...
Then there are the usual suspects, with Marina handing out another hydeing in Dear Mr Speaker, what are we to do about the honourable gentlemen for Sexpest North?
But it was a cracking Crace that stole the show last week with his talk of Rish! and AI:
Artificial intelligence has progressed exponentially in recent years. As has artificial stupidity. So much so that it’s often hard to differentiate between the two. Only seven years ago, the Conservative party gave us Theresa May. The original 1980s Amstrad version of a prime minister. The Maybot. Primitive malware that could only repeat a few phrases in a staccato bark. Even so, it took the Tories three years to realise she was completely ineffective and junk her. They wanted to believe and finally had to accept the evidence that had been staring them in the face.
Now we’ve got Sunak. Or RishGPT, as he likes to be known. More avatar than human. Albeit a rather more sophisticated shapeshifter. He looks and sounds far more plausible than the Maybot. His sentences even conform to basic grammar. Where things rather fall apart is at the level of meaning. All too often he merely talks in computer-generated soundbites. So much so that there is an almost total disconnect between what he thinks that he is saying and the words that come out of his mouth.
Now we’ve got Sunak. Or RishGPT, as he likes to be known. More avatar than human. Albeit a rather more sophisticated shapeshifter. He looks and sounds far more plausible than the Maybot. His sentences even conform to basic grammar. Where things rather fall apart is at the level of meaning. All too often he merely talks in computer-generated soundbites. So much so that there is an almost total disconnect between what he thinks that he is saying and the words that come out of his mouth.
Amstrad. A tear trickled down the pond's eye at memories of Amiga and Atari and Coleco, and and somewhere in the house is the pond's first 512, kitted up to 1mb and with an actual floppy ... the pond could have bought a couple of Kingswoods with the change...
Meanwhile, still on high tech, the pond can't begin to count the number of articles it's read about Uncle Elon in the last week, including a disgruntled user scribbling Everything Elon Musk Broke in the Year He’s Owned Twitter.
You only needed the headline for this one - After ordering staff back to the office, Elon Musk didn't turn up for X's first all-hands meeting - and there were assorted stories featuring Telsa's downward spiral and border wall visits to meet bemused and confused guards, and assorted XXX news, and Linda saying and doing many silly things, as the fateful anniversary arrived... (sorry paywall, but for paywall breakers ...) ...
Then there's distracting readers' comments, with Joe sending in this link:
John Stuart Mill: On the Treatment of Barbarous Nations (1874)
To suppose that the same international customs, and the same rules of international morality, can obtain between one civilized nation and another, and between civilized nations and barbarians, is a grave error, and one which no statesman can fall into, however it may be with those, who from a safe and unresponsable position, criticize statesmen.
Among the many reasons why the same rules cannot be applicable to situations so different, the two following are among the most important. In the first place, the rules of ordinary international morality imply reciprocity. But barbarians will not reciprocate. They cannot be depended on for observing any rules. Their minds are not capable of so great an effort, nor their will sufficiently under the influence of distant motives. In the next place, nations which are still barbarous have not got beyond the period during which it is likely to be for their benefit that they should be conquered and held in subjection by foreigners. Independence and nationality, so essential to the due growth and development of a people further advanced in improvement, are generally impediments to theirs. The sacred duties which civilized nations owe to the independence and nationality of each other are not binding towards those to whom nationality and independence are either a certain evil, or, at best, a questionable good. The Romans were not the most clean-handed of conquerors; yet would it have been better for Gaul and Spain, Numidia and Dacia, never to have formed part of the Roman Empire?
To characterize any conduct whatever towards a barbarous people as a violation of the law of nations, only shows that he who so speaks has never considered the subject. A violation of great principles of morality it may easily be, but barbarians have no rights as a nation, except a right to such treatment as may, at the earliest possible period, fit them for becoming one. The only moral laws for the relation between a civilized and a barbarous government are the universal rules of morality between man and man.
(John Stuart Mill, Dissertations and Discussions: Political, Philosophical, and Historical (New York 1874) Vol. 3, pp. 252-253.)
To suppose that the same international customs, and the same rules of international morality, can obtain between one civilized nation and another, and between civilized nations and barbarians, is a grave error, and one which no statesman can fall into, however it may be with those, who from a safe and unresponsable position, criticize statesmen.
Among the many reasons why the same rules cannot be applicable to situations so different, the two following are among the most important. In the first place, the rules of ordinary international morality imply reciprocity. But barbarians will not reciprocate. They cannot be depended on for observing any rules. Their minds are not capable of so great an effort, nor their will sufficiently under the influence of distant motives. In the next place, nations which are still barbarous have not got beyond the period during which it is likely to be for their benefit that they should be conquered and held in subjection by foreigners. Independence and nationality, so essential to the due growth and development of a people further advanced in improvement, are generally impediments to theirs. The sacred duties which civilized nations owe to the independence and nationality of each other are not binding towards those to whom nationality and independence are either a certain evil, or, at best, a questionable good. The Romans were not the most clean-handed of conquerors; yet would it have been better for Gaul and Spain, Numidia and Dacia, never to have formed part of the Roman Empire?
To characterize any conduct whatever towards a barbarous people as a violation of the law of nations, only shows that he who so speaks has never considered the subject. A violation of great principles of morality it may easily be, but barbarians have no rights as a nation, except a right to such treatment as may, at the earliest possible period, fit them for becoming one. The only moral laws for the relation between a civilized and a barbarous government are the universal rules of morality between man and man.
(John Stuart Mill, Dissertations and Discussions: Political, Philosophical, and Historical (New York 1874) Vol. 3, pp. 252-253.)
What on earth is the pond supposed to do with that? Sure, it explained the English empire, and speaking of God's chosen people, it probably does serve as an introduction to Polonius's prattle this day, but first a word of warning.
When you travel with Islamic fundamentalists of the barking mad kind, you can end up in all sorts of weird company ...
Still, as Polonius went there this weekend, the pond also had to go there. If the pond had red carded everybody, there'd be no fun ...
Perhaps first a warm-up cartoon, because Polonius is feeling pretty frontline feisty, a keyboard warrior of the first water ...
Now on with Polonius reporting from the front...
Then, there’s Gaza: Though Israel withdrew its settlements from Gaza in 2005, it has still exercised effective control of Gaza. While there is not international consensus that this amounts to an occupation, many experts consider it sufficient to meet the international law definition. Even before this war broke out, Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza that restricted access to basic goods and restricted the movement of people in and out of the territory. It controlled all heavily militarized access points to Gaza with the exception of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, which coordinates with Israel to manage it.
That quote came from a piece in Vox, How we talk about the Israel-Hamas war, and the pond thought it might provide some nice counterpoints to Polonius talking about how he was at the heart of the action and knew everything about it, another slice of the old Burroughs cut and paste method (warning to wives, don't put an apple on your head) ...
Meanwhile, Polonius was still at the heart of the action, seeing things closely from a distance ...
The pond realises it's breaking every reptile warning and is likely troubling Chance the Gardiner no end...
But in for a penny, in for a forced displacement pound ...
He's right about that.
Gaza isn't exactly utopia today ... and likely never has been since 1948 ...
And so to a little light relief, and who better than the Angelic one, sticking up for men in a way only a fundamentalist Catholic can ...
After all, the two main areas of emphasis should surely have nothing to do with child safety and the rights of the child.
In the pond's day, children were rarely seen and never to be heard, and really were only useful for priests wanting warm flesh to molest ...
Poor Joe, will he ever achieve "Ned" status, and get up there with a Jerilderie Letter?
The pond thought the Angelic one was much stronger when warning about the dire state of Canberra. For some obscure reason, she left that task to a lesser member of the Kelly gang, in an abject funk about the dangerous radicals running the show ...
Mmm, call the pond befuddled and bemused, but the current Federal Liberal Country Party ruling the country so splendidly surely shows there's no place for Labor to rule the country in the way they do in Canberra ...
Meanwhile, the Angelic one was busy keeping children in their places, but does a listicle of two count as a genuine listicle?
More importantly, the Angelic one was on side with Pauline ... it takes a fundamentalist to love a barking mad loon ... while praise about the usefulness of Cash quickly transformed into talk of the benefits of a Cashless society, thereby avoiding germ-flecked Cash dollar note determined to get into bed with radical feminists (who possibly refuse to shave their armpits) ...
Now it's true that the Angelic one did talk, in proper Catholic fundamentalist style, of the far left and greenies and feminist campaigners in cahoots and the feminist lobby and feminist lawyers, but she needs to get back to the rampant destruction of the capital. The pond is aware of dangerous tendencies in the capital ...
ROAD SAFETY EXPERTS are opposing a trial of new roadside signs in the Australian Capital Territory aimed at being "more user-friendly for Australian drivers''. The controversial signs advise motorists wanting to suddenly change direction to "Chuck A Random U-EE Here" while others such as "Don't Drive If You're Full as a Goog" and "Bog Standard Bingle Ahead: Brake Suddenly If You Want to Have a Good Squiz at This Dog's Breakfast" have also been condemned as confusing. An ACT spokesperson denied the signs would bewilder drivers unfamiliar with Australian jargon, claiming they were modelled on a recent successful initiative by motel owners to scrap neon "No Vacancy" signs in favour of "Currently Chockers".
Oh okay, but you do get the infallible Pope cartoon with The Echidna, and besides, the lesser member of the Kelly gang can't do it all on his own ... remember Calvary, remember druggies ...
You need at least 8,000 words to bore the socks off pond readers and bring the pond's hits back down to a sensible level ...
And so to end on a couple of cartoons celebrating the state of play ...
Hmm, that might remind some of that infallible Pope from not so long ago ...
And here's another troubling trope designed to set Chance the Gardiner off again ...
"Amstrad. A tear trickled down the pond's eye..." Mine too.
ReplyDelete"Amstrad was a British electronics company, founded in 1968 by Alan Sugar at the age of 21. The name is a contraction of Alan Michael Sugar Trading..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amstrad
Oh memories, memories ...
The war to end all wars: "The fourth world war will be fought with sticks and stones..."
ReplyDeleteThese days you’d need to be pretty optimistic to think we might make it as far as WW IV, GB…….
DeleteI reckon there'll still be enough of us alive to not have given up our inbuilt habit of murdering each other.
DeleteIt’s always amusing to see the Reptiles fore off another popgun in their one-sided War on the Woke ACT.
ReplyDeleteI’m intrigued by Lesser Kelly’s logic though. Can an entire Territory population - around 400,000 - be ‘leets? That sounds like some sort of socialistic levelling -up or down. We’re not representative of the Australian population as a whole? Guilty as charged, m’lud - but so what? I don’t know of any jurisdiction that could really be said to be representative of Australia as a whole - unless it’s the country as a whole. Could the ACT model be adopted elsewhere, ponders Lesser? Well Dan, that really all depends on on the sorts of things that the inhabitants of other States / Territories/ the Federation want that weird thing called “democracy”, doesn’t it? But then, democratic consensus has long been a difficult concept for Reptiles to wrap their lizard brains around.
As for that growing criticism at the Federal level regarding various ACT initiatives - yeah, those “criticisms” are from the Opposition, pissed off that they’re not currently in a position to override Territory laws as they’ve done in the past. Political sour grapes.
Lesser ignores the most obvious thing that keeps the Liberals out of power in the ACT - adopting policies and selecting candidates that might be vaguely acceptable to the bulk of voters. As long as that local Party continues to mirror that approach of its State and Federal, being dominated by flat earth economic views, social reactionaries and religious fundies, it will continue to be rejected by the majority of the locals. That’s at least part of the reason why there’s yet to be an “It’s time!” election in the ACT, despite local media attempts to whip up such feeling in recent years. Even voters who disagree with numerous ALP / Green initiatives tend to look at the Liberals, think “THAT’S the alternative?” and give them a miss.
Now you know Reptiles can't actually "wrap their lizard brains around" concepts, Anony; all they can do is get caught up on words; you know 'identity' 'Green-left' 'woke' 'ABC' '#me-too' and so on.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-evIyrrjTTY
ReplyDeleteLovely, Anony; keep 'em coming !
DeleteWow - just, wow. And thanks, Anonymous
DeleteDo you think Polonius will reference Souria Cheurfi next week?
ReplyDelete"News Coverage of Israel and Palestine Makes Me Ashamed to be a Journalist
"Calling Palestinians killed in Gaza “casualties of war” loses sight of their humanity.
By Souria Cheurfi
BRUSSELS, BE
27 October 2023
...
"I know some readers viewing this article and seeing my name will think that I’m the one who’s biased because of my origins. But don't worry, my sources are almost all white, because I know only too well that even if you have a degree in journalism and years of experience, you’re much more credible when you’re white."
"In the end, the question of whether we should “take sides” is simply irrelevant. When thousands of civilians are being killed, the international community’s role has always been to intervene and stop it. Since 2020, we’ve had so many public discussions about colonialism. Cultural institutions have organised talks, workshops, events to decolonise public spaces – so why is there radio silence when it comes to the actual, ongoing colonisation of Palestine?
...
"When Gaza is wiped off the map, it will be too late to show your support."
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy35p7/palestine-israel-coverage-ashamed-journalist
And depressingly fantastic cartoons DP.
Only if Cherufi is one of of those “Campus cowards” , fellow Anon.
DeleteHendo has been to the Gaza region twice. Good on him - that obviously qualifies him as an expert. I’ve been to Hong Kong twice - obviously that makes me an expert on internal Chinese politics, right?
Thanks for the link Anony. That brilliant article is a welcome antivenine to the poisonous reptile coverage we are being bombarded with daily by MSM.
DeleteOf course the Yanks wrote the book on post WW2 anti-"terrorism" retaliatory methods with their totally criminal "Shock And Aw...Shucks!" bombardment of Baghdad; where unknown thousands of innocent civilians were blasted to bits in their homes. And for what exactly?
Now all these tinpot wannabe regimes use such indiscriminate bombing as a blueprint for any "military action" against basically defenseless citizens. And now Israel is releasing footage of totally devastated buildings in Gaza as some kind of trophy. They are proud of the destruction they are inflicting. Netanyahu is running on pure blood-lust fed by a compliant world media and US military backing.
Cheurfi is spot on. One country's freedom fighter is another's terrorist. War itself is a form of terrorism. Perish the thought but if one were suddenly vaporised in a cloud of pink mist by a bomb; would it matter whether it had been set off by some "fanatical" suicide bomber, or dropped from the moral high ground by a "legitimate" air force's top gun pilot? I think I should stop now...
Howsabout G-d's actively participating in the pettifoggings of war, given Bibi's recent recapitulations of Israelite-Canaanite relations and the great chain of heroics?
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua#Conquest_of_Canaan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Joshua#The_enemy
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleinu#Censored_passage
Lovely links, thanks Anony. Though one is obliged to note that Joshua did not, in fact, "destroy" Jericho which mostly still stands today as indeed it has since it was founded back in about 9600 BCE. And the walls are largely still standing today, too.
DeleteQuite a weekend - the Gaza situation plus some Shanahana preaching. Not much to be said about Gaza that hasn't already been said, but I do wonder just a little why our biggest and best ally is so vehement in support of Netanyahu.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, for some Sunday light relief there was Shanahana's preaching about the awful changes that Mark Dreyfus is making to the Family Law Act. "The new amendments have twisted the wording of the act so the two main areas of emphasis are child safety and the rights of the child. The rights of both parents to shared care have been surpassed by these two principles." I wonder what Rosie Batty, amongst many other women, would think of "the rights of both parents to shared care."
I would have thought that the rights of the child surpasses any supposed "rights" of parents to enforced 'equal time'. But Shana tells us that "the safety of children was assumed to be part of the original intent". "Assumed" ? Is that how the law is supposed to work now ?
Ah, now we're getting to the real nub of things:
ReplyDelete"Morgan Stanley and TD Bank hope for aerospace and weapons boon after a 7% value increase from start of Israel-Hamas conflict".
‘Hamas has created additional demand’: Wall Street eyes big profits from war
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/30/wall-street-morgan-stanley-td-bank-ukraine-israel-hamas-war