A confession. Such is the pond's perversity, that it only spent a little time watching Rish! last night knowing that on the morrow would surely come a cracking Crace, Sulky Sunak solves everything with a panicky press conference.
And before that a little time with Boris giving evidence - much strength was required - could be followed by a stiff draught of How can any of us move on from the pandemic in the face of Boris Johnson's contempt? Or perhaps Far from cleaning up Boris Johnson's Covid mess, Rishi Sunak is drowning in it.
Why take an interest in the cavortings going down in a long faded empire?
Why not reference Putin's Pals Think the GOP Just Won Them the War in Ukraine?
Partly it's the paywall, and the necessity then of explaining the link ...
Republicans voted to block a $110.5 billion emergency spending bill to aid Ukraine and Israel Wednesday night, sparking celebrations in Moscow where they believe the U.S. will withdraw support for Kyiv allowing them to win the war.
A classified briefing with administration officials reportedly devolved into a meltdown on Tuesday afternoon, making it clear that the measure would fail. “We are about to abandon Ukraine,” Senator Christopher S. Murphy told the press as he left the briefing. “When Vladimir Putin marches into a NATO country, they will rue the day they decided to play politics with the future of Ukraine’s security.”
These developments prompted jubilation in Moscow. During Wednesday’s broadcast of a state TV program 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov said Ukraine was now in “agony” and it was “difficult to imagine a bigger humiliation.”
During his morning show Full Contact on Wednesday, top pro-Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov joyfully noted: “[Janet] Yellen screamed, “Don’t you dare!” [Joe] Biden screamed, “Don’t you dare!” but Republicans said, “Go to hell! We won’t give your khokhols [slur for “Ukrainians”] any money.” The segment was entitled, “No one needs Ukraine anymore—especially the United States.”
Appearing on his program, America analyst Dmitry Drobnitsky noted, “The downfall of Ukraine means the downfall of Biden! Two birds with one stone!”
During his appearance on 60 Minutes, Dmitry Abzalov, president of the Center for Strategic Communications, predicted that the fiasco with the funding for Ukraine will spell the political demise of Biden. Host Olga Skabeeva added, “We’ll have no pity for him! To the contrary, we’re ready to hammer those final nails right in!” With a happy grin, Skabeeva said, “Well done, Republicans! They’re standing firm! That’s good for us.”
Roman Golovanov, the host of Golovanov’s Time on Vladimir Solovyov’s channel Solovyov Live, pointed out, “This will be a great revelation to other countries. It is even more dangerous to be a friend of the United States than its enemy. In the end, they will abandon you, leaving nothing but the scorched earth on your territory.”
A classified briefing with administration officials reportedly devolved into a meltdown on Tuesday afternoon, making it clear that the measure would fail. “We are about to abandon Ukraine,” Senator Christopher S. Murphy told the press as he left the briefing. “When Vladimir Putin marches into a NATO country, they will rue the day they decided to play politics with the future of Ukraine’s security.”
These developments prompted jubilation in Moscow. During Wednesday’s broadcast of a state TV program 60 Minutes, Evgeny Popov said Ukraine was now in “agony” and it was “difficult to imagine a bigger humiliation.”
During his morning show Full Contact on Wednesday, top pro-Kremlin propagandist Vladimir Solovyov joyfully noted: “[Janet] Yellen screamed, “Don’t you dare!” [Joe] Biden screamed, “Don’t you dare!” but Republicans said, “Go to hell! We won’t give your khokhols [slur for “Ukrainians”] any money.” The segment was entitled, “No one needs Ukraine anymore—especially the United States.”
Appearing on his program, America analyst Dmitry Drobnitsky noted, “The downfall of Ukraine means the downfall of Biden! Two birds with one stone!”
During his appearance on 60 Minutes, Dmitry Abzalov, president of the Center for Strategic Communications, predicted that the fiasco with the funding for Ukraine will spell the political demise of Biden. Host Olga Skabeeva added, “We’ll have no pity for him! To the contrary, we’re ready to hammer those final nails right in!” With a happy grin, Skabeeva said, “Well done, Republicans! They’re standing firm! That’s good for us.”
Roman Golovanov, the host of Golovanov’s Time on Vladimir Solovyov’s channel Solovyov Live, pointed out, “This will be a great revelation to other countries. It is even more dangerous to be a friend of the United States than its enemy. In the end, they will abandon you, leaving nothing but the scorched earth on your territory.”
The pond always thought of News Corp as a variant on Pravda, but who knew that Vlad the impaler, the Chairman Emeritus and the GOP would have so much in common?
At some point as the pond wanders off the tracks with Tootle, the pond is usually reminds itself that it should pay attention to the outpourings of the local Pravda branch ... only to be reminded of the grim predictability, and the reasons why the pond scarpered from the joint in the first place ...
The bouffant one in triumphalist mode and Dame Slap back to bashing Higgins? That reminded the pond of a story in the AFR, a little long in the tooth but still relevant ...Kerry Stokes and Seven's questionable taste in men... (possible paywall).
Of course it could have just as easily been headed Dame Slap's questionable taste in men, but never mind ...
There’s long been an open question around the precise nature of Seven West Media’s relationship with twice accused rapist Bruce Lehrmann.
The ex-political staffer gave splashy exclusive interviews on Seven’s Spotlight program in June and August, in the process handing over photos, texts and video to the network and lead reporter Liam Bartlett. He also did a spot on Sunrise to promote the second program.
Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn told news.com.au in May that “no one was paid”, but added, “the program assisted with accommodation”. The Seven press team ran the same line to other outlets, insisting that the network “made no payment to Bruce Lehrmann for the interview”.
This is hard to square with Tuesday’s testimony at the defamation trial brought by Lehrmann against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, during which Wilkinson’s silk, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, teased out that Lehrmann’s Sydney rent was being paid by Seven from June 2023 to June 2024 for “filming in those places”.
So, Seven wasn’t putting Lehrmann up for a night or two, which is standard practice to facilitate major interviews. The network was instead putting a roof over his head for a full 12 months.
“We paid him nothing, sir! Just some accommodation costs, is all.” For all intents and purposes, Lehrmann was Seven’s tenant. And still is!
It’s a grubby arrangement for a major media organisation, and was presumably designed to ward off the high priests of the media establishment standing ready with accusations of chequebook journalism. But by trying to sneak in a side deal, then issuing carefully worded denials about it, it appears that Seven honchos knew what was happening was, at the very least, unethical.
Part of the story
Who else knew? Did CEO James Warburton sign off carrying Lehrmann’s rent on his balance sheet? Did controlling shareholder Kerry Stokes? And when did Seven know that there was a second woman accusing Lehrmann of rape under seal in a Queensland court?
That’s the problem with paying interview subjects. The minute money changes hands, you’re not telling an accused’s story. You’re part of it.
On Tuesday, after the rent came to light, a Seven spokesman reiterated that “we said at the time we were assisting Bruce Lehrmann with his accommodation costs. It was well reported back then.”
Seven’s Lehrmann arrangements were reached in the months around the network’s devastating Ben Roberts-Smith own goal. For years, BRS defended himself by attacking Nine newspapers and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, using the patronage of Stokes and resources of Seven West Media.
Nine is the publisher of The Australian Financial Review, so any criticism in these pages is generally discounted as one rival going after another. But in Lehrmann and BRS, Seven has shown repeated bad judgment in whose causes it chooses to champion.
Standing by embattled men has been Seven’s habit since the network stood by its then-CEO Tim Worner when he was accused by a former executive assistant of what even Seven described as an “inappropriate consensual sexual relationship”.
More recently, Seven has been planning to launch a digital-only national publication called The Nightly. As part of the project, Seven has signed on former editor-in-chief of The Australian Chris Dore to be a senior columnist. Dore abruptly left News Corp last year after an incident at a work function in the United States.
Last Thursday, Seven West Media sent a group of journalists and editors to the Walkley Awards, who all awkwardly stayed seated as the room rose to applaud McKenzie and Masters.
The Seven group included Llewellyn from Spotlight plus the program’s Steve Jackson, following their nomination for Scoop of the Year for, what else, the Lehrmann interview. It was something that the network pointed to on Tuesday. Go figure, it didn’t win the award.
The ex-political staffer gave splashy exclusive interviews on Seven’s Spotlight program in June and August, in the process handing over photos, texts and video to the network and lead reporter Liam Bartlett. He also did a spot on Sunrise to promote the second program.
Spotlight executive producer Mark Llewellyn told news.com.au in May that “no one was paid”, but added, “the program assisted with accommodation”. The Seven press team ran the same line to other outlets, insisting that the network “made no payment to Bruce Lehrmann for the interview”.
This is hard to square with Tuesday’s testimony at the defamation trial brought by Lehrmann against Network Ten and Lisa Wilkinson, during which Wilkinson’s silk, Sue Chrysanthou, SC, teased out that Lehrmann’s Sydney rent was being paid by Seven from June 2023 to June 2024 for “filming in those places”.
So, Seven wasn’t putting Lehrmann up for a night or two, which is standard practice to facilitate major interviews. The network was instead putting a roof over his head for a full 12 months.
“We paid him nothing, sir! Just some accommodation costs, is all.” For all intents and purposes, Lehrmann was Seven’s tenant. And still is!
It’s a grubby arrangement for a major media organisation, and was presumably designed to ward off the high priests of the media establishment standing ready with accusations of chequebook journalism. But by trying to sneak in a side deal, then issuing carefully worded denials about it, it appears that Seven honchos knew what was happening was, at the very least, unethical.
Part of the story
Who else knew? Did CEO James Warburton sign off carrying Lehrmann’s rent on his balance sheet? Did controlling shareholder Kerry Stokes? And when did Seven know that there was a second woman accusing Lehrmann of rape under seal in a Queensland court?
That’s the problem with paying interview subjects. The minute money changes hands, you’re not telling an accused’s story. You’re part of it.
On Tuesday, after the rent came to light, a Seven spokesman reiterated that “we said at the time we were assisting Bruce Lehrmann with his accommodation costs. It was well reported back then.”
Seven’s Lehrmann arrangements were reached in the months around the network’s devastating Ben Roberts-Smith own goal. For years, BRS defended himself by attacking Nine newspapers and journalists Nick McKenzie and Chris Masters, using the patronage of Stokes and resources of Seven West Media.
Nine is the publisher of The Australian Financial Review, so any criticism in these pages is generally discounted as one rival going after another. But in Lehrmann and BRS, Seven has shown repeated bad judgment in whose causes it chooses to champion.
Standing by embattled men has been Seven’s habit since the network stood by its then-CEO Tim Worner when he was accused by a former executive assistant of what even Seven described as an “inappropriate consensual sexual relationship”.
More recently, Seven has been planning to launch a digital-only national publication called The Nightly. As part of the project, Seven has signed on former editor-in-chief of The Australian Chris Dore to be a senior columnist. Dore abruptly left News Corp last year after an incident at a work function in the United States.
Last Thursday, Seven West Media sent a group of journalists and editors to the Walkley Awards, who all awkwardly stayed seated as the room rose to applaud McKenzie and Masters.
The Seven group included Llewellyn from Spotlight plus the program’s Steve Jackson, following their nomination for Scoop of the Year for, what else, the Lehrmann interview. It was something that the network pointed to on Tuesday. Go figure, it didn’t win the award.
Go figure, later even the nomination was taken down ...
While on the matter of the reptiles in general, there was also a story in the Nine rags - the pond went to L'Age for 'Like a toddler': Departing Gideon Haigh lashes The Australian ...
Veteran writer Gideon Haigh always seemed a little too erudite and independent-minded for Murdoch-owned broadsheet The Australian.
So we were hardly surprised when Haigh, whose columns stood out amid the usual reactionary bluster that stains the paper’s opinion pages, quietly parted ways with The Oz, effectively spelling an end to the popular Cricket, Et Cetera podcast co-hosted with Peter Lalor.
Haigh, who was the paper’s senior cricket writer, hasn’t held back on his thoughts about life at Holt Street, in a very candid podcast with the boys from satirical publication The Betoota Advocate.
“Loyalty’s a one-way street at The Australian,” Haigh said, telling hosts Clancy Overell and Errol Parker he’d recently cancelled a subscription to the newspaper he’d taken out despite being employed there.
Haigh said his departure came after feeling disappointed that the paper had “siloed” him as a cricket writer and wasn’t giving him room to explore other opportunities. He said he’d wanted to continue the podcast with Lalor independently, but The Oz had forbidden his former co-host from doing it.
“It’s a little bit like, you know, dealing with a toddler that wants to break a toy rather than share it with somebody else,” Haigh said.
As for what those new opportunities might involve, Haigh winkingly said he “couldn’t possibly comment” on whether he was writing a book on former treasurer Josh Frydenberg. We hope the rumours are true because it sounds like a cracking read.
So what did the bosses at Holt Street do to celebrate Gideon’s excellent innings? Well, as the man himself puts it: “F--- all. My last day came, and I didn’t hear a word.”
Nor did we after approaching News Corp for comment.
So we were hardly surprised when Haigh, whose columns stood out amid the usual reactionary bluster that stains the paper’s opinion pages, quietly parted ways with The Oz, effectively spelling an end to the popular Cricket, Et Cetera podcast co-hosted with Peter Lalor.
Haigh, who was the paper’s senior cricket writer, hasn’t held back on his thoughts about life at Holt Street, in a very candid podcast with the boys from satirical publication The Betoota Advocate.
“Loyalty’s a one-way street at The Australian,” Haigh said, telling hosts Clancy Overell and Errol Parker he’d recently cancelled a subscription to the newspaper he’d taken out despite being employed there.
Haigh said his departure came after feeling disappointed that the paper had “siloed” him as a cricket writer and wasn’t giving him room to explore other opportunities. He said he’d wanted to continue the podcast with Lalor independently, but The Oz had forbidden his former co-host from doing it.
“It’s a little bit like, you know, dealing with a toddler that wants to break a toy rather than share it with somebody else,” Haigh said.
As for what those new opportunities might involve, Haigh winkingly said he “couldn’t possibly comment” on whether he was writing a book on former treasurer Josh Frydenberg. We hope the rumours are true because it sounds like a cracking read.
So what did the bosses at Holt Street do to celebrate Gideon’s excellent innings? Well, as the man himself puts it: “F--- all. My last day came, and I didn’t hear a word.”
Nor did we after approaching News Corp for comment.
The pond didn't do a screen cap because it wanted to put in a hot link to The Betoota Advocate ... with the podcast still featured. Where else could you find a headline designed to amuse Sydneysiders?
Enough already, time to see what's down below the fold in the lizard Oz ...
So that's why the pond was prevaricating, dissembling, dithering about...
A serve of cackling Claire, climate science denialism and our Henry ...
The pond decided to ignore the cackle and go with the denialism ...
That map at the ABC was a ripper ...
Better get used to it, with a cyclone as a bonus ...
Meanwhile, it was back to the Bjorn-again one ...
Oh that's okay then, we're off the charts, heading into the unknown and perhaps the abyss ... might as well celebrate approaching the edge of the cliff with the Bjorn-again one ...
Of all the things that stuck in the pond's craw, that line "this would help innovate" was the one that reminded the pond why it held the Bjorn-again one in such contempt.
How many more times can the pond listen to him blathering about the need for more money for research - no doubt he'd have his paw stuck out so he could help innovate new ways to get cash in his Consensus pocket ... with "Consensus" used in a "peace is our profession" way ...
And then came the truly onerous Friday duty ...
Perhaps that's why the reptiles slipped in a snap of a writer routinely featured in arty fests ...
Speaking of hell, the pond knows where our Henry is going with all this, and was reminded of a story in the Graudian ...Widespread destruction in Gaza puts concept of ‘domicide’ in focus.
..The imagery moving north to south showed 47% to 59% damage between 7 October and 22 November in northern Gaza, 47-58% damage in Gaza City, 11-16% in Deir al-Balah, 10-15% in Khan Younis and 7-11% in Rafah, the area closest to the border with Egypt. This amounts to between 67,000 and 88,000 buildings, meaning roughly 70% of buildings remain undamaged. The figure for Khan Younis will have risen since the end of the ceasefire and the concentration of Israeli military activity in the south.
Among the buildings destroyed or partially destroyed are the main Palestinian court in Gaza, known as the Justice Palace, the Palestinian Legislative Council complex, 339 education facilities and 167 places of worship, while 26 of the territory’s 35 hospitals are not functioning.
Hugh Lovatt, of the European Council on Foreign Relations, suggested Israel was “deliberately and methodically destroying the civil institutions and infrastructure that will be needed to govern and stabilise post-conflict Gaza”.
Satellite imagery also reveals the destruction of orchards, greenhouses and farmland in northern Gaza. Human Rights Watch said on Monday: “In north-east Gaza, north of Beit Hanoun, once green agricultural land is now brown and desolate. Fields and orchards were first damaged during hostilities following Israel’s ground invasion in late October. Bulldozers carved new roads, clearing the way for Israeli military vehicles.”
Leaks from inside the Israeli government, including the intelligence ministry, show officials have been examining ways to force Palestinians to leave Gaza, either voluntarily or forcibly. The intelligence ministry is not a high-status body in the government, but US conservatives such as John Bolton, the former national security adviser, have canvassed variations of such plans.
Giora Eiland, a former head of the Israeli national security council, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper: “The state of Israel has no choice but to turn Gaza into a place that is temporarily or permanently impossible to live in. Creating a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a necessary means to achieve the goal … Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.”
Naturally as a man deploring any sign of intelligence, there hasn't been a domicide of this kind that our Henry hasn't loved.
Confronted by intelligence, our Henry is wildly in favour of ethnic cleansing and collective punishment, and the more civilian deaths he sees, the more the bloodlust - like that of a primordial beast of the field - grows ...
Then just as our Henry went on to celebrate unshakeable humanism, the pond stopped by Aljazeera - the pond has become dangerously radicalised in recent times - and came across 'If Christ were born today, he would be born under rubble, Israeli bombing...
Bloody Xians ...
It is a poignant representation of the suffering of Gaza’s children who find themselves buried under what is left of their own homes, victims of relentless Israeli bombardment.
“If Christ were to be born today,” Reverend Munther Isaac said, “he would be born under the rubble and Israeli shelling.
“This is a powerful message we send to the world celebrating the holidays.”
The true meaning of Christmas
For Isaac and other church leaders, this was a way to convey a message reflecting the birth of Christ, the messenger of justice, peace and dignity for humanity.
Christ was not born among the conquerors or those with military power, he said, but in an occupied country, which is what Palestine was 2,000 years ago.
“Bethlehem is sad and broken. We are all in pain about what is happening in Gaza, feeling helpless and overwhelmed by our inability to offer anything,” he said.
Of course as a man with a fierce contempt for intelligence, that's water off a duck's back to our Henry, enraptured by the killing fields, the ethnic cleansing, and the collective punishment ...
And for those wondering Is This a Real Photo of Part of the Gaza Strip Left in Ruins by Israeli Reprisal Attacks?, Snopes gave it a green tick of true ...
After all that, it's hard to fit in an infallible Pope, but the pond will do it anyway ...
And so to end the pond's bible course, thanks to Richard Cohen's Making History ... published by Simon and Schuster ...
There are three gobbets - click on to enlarge - but the last is mainly the footnotes. Who knows, if our Henry mentions Thucydides, the pond might well return for a sampler on him or some other early historian ...
Sadly, I lack the wit to make some reference to Chekov’s Gun - such as that if Our Henry introduces some arrogant pronouncement in the opening to his article, he’s sure to shoot his mouth off with several thousand words of pompous justification before mercifully falling silent. Surely though it doesn’t require particularly complex thinking, even for a hater of intelligence such as Henry, to consider the possibility Chekhov, that having expressed sympathy for an oppressed people on his own time and place, might have expressed similar support for an equally oppressed people were he around today? Oh, and it’s still clearly beyond the Hole in the Bucket Man, along with other Retiles, to acknowledge that sympathy with the Palestinian people does not necessarily equate to “support for Hamas”. But then, Henry has proved time and again that any intelligent activity beyond acting as a human encyclopaedia of quotations is beyond him.
ReplyDeleteBjornagain: "...every heatwave is depicted as an end-of-the-world, cataclysmic killer, while the far greater reductions in deaths from warmer winters pass without being remarked on." Yeah, he just loves repeating and repeating how cold kills more people than heat. Well, as might be expected from a reptile, it really isn't that simple.
ReplyDeleteFor some discussion and data about the reality in the US (as a prime example), there's this:
"Extreme heat and extreme cold both kill hundreds of people each year in the U.S., but determining a death toll for each is a process subject to large errors."
Which Kills More People: Extreme Heat or Extreme Cold?
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Which-Kills-More-People-Extreme-Heat-or-Extreme-Cold
Yeah, or there's this:
"Researchers analysed mortality and weather data from 750 locations in 43 countries between 2000 and 2019, and found the average daily temperature in these locations increased by 0.26C per decade.
The study found more people had died of cold than heat over the two-decade period. But heat-related deaths were increasing, while cold-linked deaths were dropping."
Extreme temperatures kill 5 million people a year with heat-related deaths rising, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/08/extreme-temperatures-kill-5-million-people-a-year-with-heat-related-deaths-rising-study-finds
So there we have it: yes, deaths 'related to' cold are diminishing, but in the usual reptile contempt for sense and sensibility, Bjornagain never mentions how the number of deaths related to heat are increasing. But that would be bleedin' bloody obvious, wouldn't it ?
Let’s face it Lomberg and Ergas rattle on to wear us all down and because they have got nothing else.
ReplyDeleteBut some useful quotes from Anton Chekov might help:
There’s Henry praising Chekov, but Chekov might say; “Better to perish from fools than to accept praises from them.”
“There is nothing more vapid than a philistine, petty bourgeois existence with its farthings, victuals, vacuous conversations and useless conventional nature.”
So much for sneering at the intelligensia.
Segueing from the Lomberg piece to Ergas, what did Chekov say?
“Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what he has been given. But up to now he hasn’t been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep disappearing, rivers dry up, wild life’s become extinct, the climate ruined and the land grows poorer and uglier every day.” Oops! Doesn’t sound like a subscriber to News Corp!
Great sport Anon, and fun to play ...
DeleteIt is easy to be a philosopher in academia, but it is very difficult to be a philosopher in life.
For God's sake, have some self-respect and do not run off at the mouth if your brain is out to lunch.
It is time for writers to admit that nothing in this world makes sense. Only fools and charlatans think they know and understand everything. The stupider they are, the wider they conceive their horizons to be. And if an artist decides to declare that he understands nothing of what he sees - this in itself constitutes a considerable clarity in the realm of thought, and a great step forward.
Once a man gets a fixed idea, there's nothing to be done.
Anon and Dorothy - I was not inclined to take up anything that the Henry had scraped from whatever source to display his deep involvement with Chehov (which is how the name is given in my Penguin Classics copies of his plays) but then I see you referring to potential sport to be had, and I am all for making sport of Henry. I was a little surprised that Henry did not look to 'The Seagull' itself to use some of the irony with which it is replete - starting with the dubious name (it all takes place a fair way from the sea), its premier was a disaster, but it was saved by Konstantin Stanislavski, with modifications of which Chehov dd not approve. But - reptile writers do not 'do' irony, or not very easily.
DeleteOh, Henry did try with a scrap gleaned from 'The Cherry Orchard' about some arcane symbolism to do with the Jewish band, but, just for the Henry, I would offer this from Act 3 of 'The Cherry Orchard', from just after VARIA has made the practical comment about them 'So now we've hired a band - but how are we going to pay for it?'
PISHCHIK The philosopher Nietzxche, the greatest, the most famous-a man of the highest intellect, in fact- says it's justifiable to forge bank-notes.
TROFIMOV Have you read Nietzsche then?
PISHCHIK Well, no . . . . Dashenka told me. But just now, I'm in such a frightful position that I wouldn't mind forging a few bank-notes. The day after to-morrow I've got to pay three hundred and ten roubles. I've borrowed one hundred and thirty already [Feels in his pocket with alarm] The money's gone! I've lost the money. Where's the money? [With an expression of joy] Here it is, inside the lining! The shock's made me sweat!
Trofimov, the eternal student, is my favorite Chehov character, and was a stock character for other Russian dramatists.
Great fun Chadders, and very sporting of you to join in. It's been a long time since the pond attended a performance of The Cherry Orchard (or read it for that matter) but the pond could still remember the laugh at the start of the third act ...
Delete[A reception-room cut off from a drawing-room by an arch. Chandelier lighted. A Jewish band, the one mentioned in Act II, is heard playing in another room. Evening. In the drawing-room the grand rond is being danced. Voice of SIMEONOV PISCHIN “Promenade a une paire!” Dancers come into the reception-room; the first pair are PISCHIN and CHARLOTTA IVANOVNA; the second, TROFIMOV and LUBOV ANDREYEVNA; the third, ANYA and the POST OFFICE CLERK; the fourth, VARYA and the STATION-MASTER, and so on. VARYA is crying gently and wipes away her tears as she dances. DUNYASHA is in the last pair. They go off into the drawing-room, PISCHIN shouting, “Grand rond, balancez:” and “Les cavaliers à genou et remerciez vos dames!” FIERS, in a dress-coat, carries a tray with seltzer-water across. Enter PISCHIN and TROFIMOV from the drawing-room.]
PISCHIN. I’m full-blooded and have already had two strokes; it’s hard for me to dance, but, as they say, if you’re in Rome, you must do as Rome does. I’ve got the strength of a horse. My dead father, who liked a joke, peace to his bones, used to say, talking of our ancestors, that the ancient stock of the Simeonov-Pischins was descended from that identical horse that Caligula made a senator.... [Sits] But the trouble is, I’ve no money! A hungry dog only believes in meat. [Snores and wakes up again immediately] So I... only believe in money....
TROFIMOV. Yes. There is something equine about your figure.
PISCHIN. Well... a horse is a fine animal... you can sell a horse.
[Billiard playing can be heard in the next room. VARYA appears under the arch.]
TROFIMOV. [Teasing] Madame Lopakhin! Madame Lopakhin!
VARYA. [Angry] Decayed gentleman!
TROFIMOV. Yes, I am a decayed gentleman, and I’m proud of it!
Not as good a translation, but free...
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/7986/7986-h/7986-h.htm#link2H_4_0013
...and the urge to think of the hole in the bucket man as a decayed gentleman, and proud of it, or as descended from Caligula's horse, is irresistible ...
In Russian his name is spelt Чехов, Chad and the letter х is pronounced as h or kh depending on the word, so your Penguin Classics folk have just done a simple 'transliteration' using the one letter rendition instead of the more 'accurate' kh rendition.
DeleteYes, that early part of Chapter 3 reminds us that Чехов (thanks GB) was so good at letting a little comedy through the prism of steady disintegration of small sectors of society. Pity the Henry is not attuned to that, but it still leaves the way open for us to play our games here, and generally celebrate what reptiles miss because of the blinkers they willingly don so they can accept Rupert's shilling.
DeleteAnd, on the matter of Caligula's horse in recent history - there is always the quip of Senator Carter Glass about 'Huey' Long, "I understand that in the ultimate decadence of Rome they elected a horse to the Senate. At least it was a whole horse."
Ah yes, well about Caligula's horse:
Delete"Scholars suggest that the treatment of Incitatus by Caligula was an elaborate prank intended to ridicule and provoke the Senate, rather than a sign of insanity, or was perhaps a form of satire with the implication that a horse could perform a senator's duties."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incitatus
History is such an indeterminate thing.
So, Chekhov via the Holely: "the Englishman exploits Hindus, but he gives them roads, aqueducts, museums, Christianity." But BG, butt, "he" also gives them railways, cricket and mass murdering famines (the "Great Famine" of 1876-1878 and the Bengal Famine for instances) ! There's not a Pom that wouldn't be proud of that, is there ?
ReplyDeleteAnd wau, there's estimated to be about 30 million 'Christians' in India out of a population of over 1.4 billion (a bit over 2%). Now that's a triumph for the eternal omniscient and omnipotent Trinity to boast about, isn't it.
The pond always fancied that one of the greatest gifts to the sub-continent took place in 1947 ...
Deletehttps://www.history.ox.ac.uk/why-was-british-india-partitioned-in-1947-considering-the-role-of-muhammad-ali-0
In August 1947 British India was partitioned, ending three hundred years of colonial rule with the creation two independent nations: India and Pakistan (comprising West and East Pakistan, present-day Bangladesh). From the tumultuous and tragic set of events that encompass this ‘Great’ and ‘Long’ Partition, much is set in stone: partition caused the ‘greatest mass movement of humanity in history’.
Twelve million refugees moved across new national borders drawn up by the British barrister Sir Cyril Radcliffe (who had famously never travelled further east than Paris before being tasked with drawing up the lines of partition). Crudely, this was a division based upon religious affiliation, with the creation of a Muslim majority in West and East Pakistan and a Hindu majority in India. Between 500,000 and 2 million souls perished as a result of the ensuing upheaval and violence. 80,000 women were abducted. India and Pakistan have since fought three wars over disputed boundaries in Kashmir (1947, 1965, and 1999).
In the long term, Partition has meant an ‘enduring rivalry’ between two nuclear-armed nations and continues to define the tone and character of Indian and Pakistani politics to this day.
And so on and on ...
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ReplyDeleteThe journal Climate Change Economics sounds like a very reputable journal: "I believe that Climate Change Economics can provide an important forum to consider fundamental economic issues that will enhance understanding and improve climate policy deliberations." says Dr. Brian P. Flannery, who is? "Science, Strategy and Programs Manager, Exxon Mobil Corporation"! From the first page of the journal's website! (https://worldscientific.com/worldscinet/cce).
ReplyDeleteAnd there's more!
"This is a presentation given by Exxon Research and Engineering Company’s Brian P. Flannery, who became one of Exxon’s primary climate researchers after joining the company in 1980. His initial research for Exxon on the relationship between CO2 and climate change confirmed the results that other scientists were finding at the time, predicting that doubling atmospheric CO2 levels would lead to a 3 degree increase in the global average temperature. However, over the next decade of Flannery’s employment at Exxon, his research deviated from these initial findings and he went on to become a spokesman for Exxon in blocking international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use." https://www.climatefiles.com/exxonmobil/co2-research-program/1985-exxon-greenhouse-research-budget/
Top notch research Joe. That Brian P. Flannery is a piece of work ...way back in July 2009 in the Graudian ...
Deletehttps://www.theguardian.com/environment/cif-green/2009/jul/01/bob-ward-exxon-mobil-climate
Why ExxonMobil must be taken to task over climate denial funding
I first encountered Exxon Mobil's lobbying efforts on climate change in October 2000, when I and other staff from the Royal Society, together with representatives from UK government departments and other organisations, attended a briefing at the company's offices in London.
The speaker, Brian Flannery, who was the company's science, strategy and programs manager, presented claims that action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions would be economically damaging. He also questioned the scientific evidence that underpinned national and international regulations, such as the Kyoto protocol. I left the meeting rather bemused by what I had heard.
I did not realise it at the time, but this meeting was part of a wider campaign by the oil company to resist restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, including those applied to the burning of fossil fuels. In the United States, the company was engaged in intensive lobbying efforts against the Kyoto protocol, including advertisements that questioned the scientific basis for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
And so on and on ....
Cohen: "...(there are now more than thirty thousand archaological sites in Israel alone), all providing evdence of a very different history, but theologists and conservative scholars have pushed back against anything that questions the Bible's autority, prisoners of what one modern scholar calls a "watershed" mentality, exhibiting little more than 'emotions captured in ink'."
ReplyDeleteAnd that is what Henry's great intellectual, Chekhov, praises the English for giving to the Indians. Which just about says it all, doesn't it.
Except maybe for Thomas Larkin Thompson: "We have insisted that the biblical narrative be historical." And it is; part of the great ongoing history of human stupidity and insanity that created, and continues to insist upon, "biblical narrative". Thompson was a man who "...came under fire, only this time from the Jewish community, for the doubts he had expressed about the historical accuracy of the Jewish origin narratives."
Yes, GB, and the pond liked the final thought: "... it genuinely counts as a form of a history, only of a highly fictionalized and mediated kind".
DeleteI'm not sure we really have any other kind, DP. Even things going on around us on a day to day basis end up as "narratives" because we never know the reality - eg all the stuff that's coming to the fore in the Higgins-Lehrmann saga and all that's come out in sworn court evidence which we would never have otherwise known.
Delete"However, there is a growing scholarly consensus that sacred prostitution never existed, and that sex acts within the temple were strictly limited to yearly sacred fertility rites aimed at assuring an abundant harvest."
DeleteYeah, that'd be right: no fun, just duty.
"According to the Talmud, the returning Hasmoneans were poor and forced to construct the Menorah out of wood. They later upgraded it to silver and ultimately gold."
Yeah, that'd be right: a "god" who created an entire universe and all that's in it (especially, all the gold) can only have a golden menora.
"Judah ordered the Temple to be cleansed, a new altar to be built in place of the polluted one and new holy vessels to be made."
Yeah, couldn't get good cleaning staff even way back then.
"...there are differing opinions as to whether all the lights must be arranged in a straight line, or if the hanukkiah can be arranged in a curve."
Now that's a real dilemma: straight or curved ? After all, there is no such thing as a straight line in the real universe - only in imaginary mathematics.
All those problems we humans had to solve before we could get on with quantum mechanics in a quantum universe that 'God' created just to give us something to think about on slow, rainy Saturdays.
This outfit which intends to re-configure every aspect of US culture has been mentioned before www.project2025.org
ReplyDeleteIt is of course unambiguously supported by various stink tanks etc which promote the same intrinsically destructive world-view promoted by the reptilian noise machine
I wonder what Chekhov would have to say about this project?
ReplyDeleteA bit of holiday reading, about how everything is connected: All the Fish We Cannot See
Sounds about right for a Rowe cartoon:
DeleteMenhaden, a coastal pelagic species, stay in surface waters and don’t travel as deep as mesopelagic fish. But like mesopelagic fish, their poop has the potential to travel very deep indeed, and that travel provides a way for fish to participate in the biological carbon pump.
Examining that fish poop, however, can’t easily be accomplished in the ocean.
“It’s very difficult to find fish poop; it’s big, it sinks quickly,” Cook says. “Also, figuring out who that fish poop belongs to when you find it and measuring all these things in the field is basically impossible.”
Instead, Cook has been settling adult menhaden caught by local fishermen into laboratory digs, feeding them a hearty meal, and measuring the consequences. (One of those measurements: menhaden poop is roughly four millimeters long, about the length of a green lentil.) These samples are used to estimate fecal pellet production and sinking rates—the latter an important factor since it’s the rapid sinking rate of the fishes’ poop, compared with the slower sink rate of the poop of organisms like zooplankton, that makes the menhaden poop a potentially good vehicle for carbon export.