The pond was startled and shocked and dismayed by the shocking and dismal outcome proposed by ancient Troy, for once lurking at the top of the digital edition in the preferred far right spot coveted by the most rabid of the reptiles ...
Barners, the pride of Armidale, must go?
Surely not, surely by now his latest adventure has turned into an extremely useful meme ...
The pond looked down below the fold and could see nothing that matched it ...
Snappy Tom snapping aobut the green-left vibe? The bouffant one reduced to tear-sodden one key on the keyboard pounding ... because Zen?
Simplistic "here no conflict of interest" Simon braying about negative gearing? How could any of them compare to that most useful meme, handy for all occasions?
Sadly that line-up meant that the pond had to turn to the old faithfuls, gushing like sometimes unpredictable geysers ...
Still banging on about the tax cuts? But then the reptiles never give up. Once mounted on a hobby horse, that's where they stay ... leaving the pond to mourn the absence of that great new meme ...
Of course Dame Groan experts will know how to decode that one. What Dame Groan means to say, but is far too modest to say it, is that without her sage advice, Treasury has been reduced to a pitiful beast, howling in the wilderness ...
Then came the first of the snaps ...
Like Gillard and that nonsense which always upsets Dame Groan, climate science, and any attempt to deal with said nonsense ...
Some might wonder why the pond is paying attention to the snaps, but it's the only way to deal with an old duck proposing a cost-benefit analysis of death ... apparently on the principle that the more oldies that were bumped off by Covid, the better the cost-benefit analysis would look ...
The pond can't say for sure, it's still stuck on that cost-benefit analysis of the killing fields, and speaking of the killing fields, has the bromancer already become a terminal bore, and it still only February?
The pond is just asking for a friend, but the heading did provide fresh evidence for the pond's general photo relativity theory ...
As surely as the bromancer proposes that Marles is no Abraham Lincoln, then as surely somewhere in the text a rights-free snap of Lincoln will appear.
There, you see, cometh the line, cometh the snap ...
Meanwhile, the bro just keeps ranting away, and the pond slips in and out of consciousness ...
Naturally having mentioned jolly Joe and the mango Mussolini, the reptiles preferred to focus on Joe ...
Couldn't they have shown the meme? After all dark conspiracies are fomenting, and apparently it's all going according to plan ...
The pond supposes it should be paying attention to the bromancer, but the pond was still stuck on that Lincoln reference, and it was only when the pond realised that the bromancer was in fact channelling the spirit of General George B. McClellan that the pond could proceed ...
What the bromancer means to say is that as Generalfeldmarschall in the eternal waiting room, the bromancer has never before faced the most dangerous strategic circumstances since World War II ... putting his wonderful command of Australia's forces in 'Nam days in the shade, back when the dominoes were kept in their box thanks to his able command ...
But there can be no doubting the perils that confront the bro, the reptiles at large and the United States...
The pond could barely contain its hysteria as it turned to the final bro gobbet ...
The bromancer might just as easily have said Marles is no George Washington, and the reptiles would have raided the free stock image larder to produce a snap of Washington.
Ditto General Sherman, General Grant or General Buck Turgidson or even Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper ...
Why he might even have compared him to Nobody: “I only wish I had such eyes,” the Generalfeldmarschall remarked in a fretful tone. “To be able to see Nobody! And at that distance, too! Why, it’s as much as I can do to see real people, by this light!”
Cue a cartoon by Tenniel and the job's done ...
Must the pond revert to the bromancer in full hysterical flight? Needs must ...
The pond supposes it should be paying attention to the bromancer, but the pond was still stuck on that Lincoln reference, and it was only when the pond realised that the bromancer was in fact channelling the spirit of General George B. McClellan that the pond could proceed ...
I find myself in a new and strange position here—Presdt, Cabinet, Genl Scott & all deferring to me—by some strange operation of magic I seem to have become the power of the land. ... I almost think that were I to win some small success now I could become Dictator or anything else that might please me—but nothing of that kind would please me—therefore I won't be Dictator. Admirable self-denial! — George B. McClellan, letter to his wife Ellen, July 26, 1861
It's well known that the bromancer thinks he should be appointed Generalfeldmarschall for the coming world war, but thus far he has pressed his case with admirable restraint, preferring daily bouts of hysteria, whining and moaning as the best way forward ...
To reassure us, the reptiles led with a comforting, reassuring figure ...
The pond could barely contain its hysteria as it turned to the final bro gobbet ...
Indeed, indeed. The Albanese government has been in power since May 2022, and here we are in February and they're responsible for everything.
Yet, much like the Tories belatedly discovering little England is now a complete shambles, from 2013 on, we had the onion muncher, Malware and the liar from the shire, an eternity lasting almost a decade ... not so quickly and easily forgotten ... and yet apparently in the bromancer's mind, responsible for nothing.
Why does the bromancer carry on this way? Well it fills the angertainment needs of the rag's aging demogrpahic and it gives the bro a chance to vent at the way that likely he might never become Generalfeldmarschall down under ...
Meanwhile, for some reason, the pond's logarithms threw up this lecture, and the pond was intrigued to discover that Rowson wears old-fashioned trouser braces, suspenders if you will, as he meandered through tales of cartooning ... (be warned, it's long and there's a little upselling at the start)
If nothing else, it gave the pond the chance to end on a few Rowsons ...
Thanks for that Quiggin link, Chad. I did read that some years ago, but it wasn't resident in the auto-recall portion of my memory. There are, of course, many things in mathematics that aren't in 'reality': circles, straight lines and right angles amongst them. Which didn't stop the Egyptians using their 3-4-5 knots in rope to ensure their walls were meeting at the 'right' (ha ha) angle (though there's apparently no real evidence that they actually did so). The next in the set is, as I expect you're aware, 5-12-13 which is somewhat messier.
ReplyDeleteAnd just in passing, as a one-time dedicated Spoonerist, I encountered on the repeat of an old 'Would I Lie To You' episode that somebody had named a feral cat that was terrorising his domesticated cats, Mark Dennis. Hmmm.
"Is Camilla Regnant". Oh my.
ReplyDeleteGrueBleen, I am not able to see "Thanks for that Quiggin link, Chad".
DeletePlease GB ir Chad, a repost "that Quiggin link"
https://johnquiggin.com/2014/07/28/austrian-economics-and-flat-earth-geography/
DeleteReply
Ta.
Delete"Bro Tuckyo" nearly fully formed.
ReplyDeleteWhen will the Bro be fully devolved into Tuckyo Carlson?
When will vlad the impaler grant Bro Tuckyo a revisionist history 'interview'.
How many reptile requotes?
How much advertising will above generate, assisting in reanimating the corpse of propaganda masquarading as journalism?
What will be the share price rise of x-musk-ox be and # of twits?
Questions, questions!
So, here goes The Bromancer: "We would not get a competitive warship before the mid 2040s ...yet... right now, today, we face the most dangerous strategic circumstances since World War II." Ok, right, so why waste any money or effort on something that will arrive very late and won't 'defend' us anyway ?
ReplyDeleteWhat on Earth are those ships supposed to do for us ? They certainly couldn't successfully engage the large Chinese fleet with its multiple conventional and nuclear submarines, could they. So just forget the ships entirely (except for the patrol vessels which could still be useful in keeping those 'immigrant' boats out while letting the 'refugee' laden aeroplanes in in numbers like we do now). So, go for long range drones and missiles, and plenty of them. And site them all around the coast - thousands in every location (including Tasmania).
That'll do much better for defending us than any number of 'ships' that we won't get for decades and won't be able to crew if we do get them.
Stop refighting the last war, Bro, it's 2024 already.
"The Albanese government has been in power since May 2022, and here we are in February and they're responsible for everything. "
ReplyDeleteOh pish tush, they were responsible for everything even before the election result was proclaimed: they were Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition, responsible for making sure that her Majesty's Government is doing the right things in the right way all the time. That's why we have a member's parliament.
Just like Mutt Dutt is doing right now in keeping Albanese's government right up to scratch in every possible way !
I wonder from where the Dame Groan draws her assumed knowledge of how departments of treasury operate. Of her time in South Australia, the then state government drew its economic advice partly from its own ministers - Hugh Hudson had been lecturer in economics - but the Dunstan administration’s economic initiatives were guided by a small think-tank, run by one person with never more than four assistants (he maintained that having more than that number drew you into having to have regular meetings to keep the larger number aware of what was happening, whereas with four you could cover what was important over a good cup of coffee). Those four were recruited from the best and brightest of recent graduates, who would see it as the best apprenticeship, and would be ready to move on after 4-5 years. I was pleased to recruit one such to my own organisation, after his time with ‘Mliton’. The nascent Dame had nothing to do with that body; I suspect that, as she did not involve herself even in most of the seminars and similar gatherings of the trade, she might not have been aware that it existed.
ReplyDeleteThe S.A. state treasury of that time was little more than a large accounting practice, which is what it had been from the time of Playford.
At the federal level she may be one of those who believe the myths that grew up around John Stone - head of treasury for the Fraser/Howard period. Apropos Anonymous’ comment here yesterday about period of stagflation after the 1973 oil price shock - the national economy that Fraser declared he had to ‘save’ had no net debt at the time of the dismissal, but it then suffered from Fraser’s ham-fisted attempts to reduce inflation. Bluntly - Fraser and Stone were not very good at reducing inflation, and caused a lot of pain in being not very good.
Stone - still with us at age 95 - says in his ‘Wiki’ that he was influential with Premier Joh in Queensland. Clearly he made some impression, because he was slotted into a senate seat, from which to display his old tory attitudes to other races, and similar. He had little influence on economic policy in Queensland - that was the province of (Sir) Leo Hielscher, long time head of treasury in Queensland. Hielscher - also still with us, approaching his century - stands out as one of the few people to extract reasonable economic rent from any of the mining booms. He did that by charging the mining companies for using railways, all long established under the appropriate legislation. Oh - the mining companies built the railways that they used? Well, yes, but - they were still railways, and the state government determined the charges for using railways.
What, if anything, Premier Joh understood of that is lost to history, but Hielscher is a minor hero in public administration in this country.
There is much of interest one could write in a ‘national’ newspaper about how policy is guided by economic advice. Dame Groan has avoided drawing on any of that.
Yair, Fraser and Stone "not very good at reducing inflation" - were they minimally any good at anything ? Other than at killing Medibank: Fraser was capable enough to achieve that.
DeleteAs a distraction from economics, may I offer a article on lastThurdayism https://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/navel-gazing-with-philip-gosse/ ?
ReplyDeleteJoe - always happy for a distraction from the Dame's version of 'economics'. Your link did not work properly for me, but the shorter -
ReplyDeletehttps://michaelroberts4004.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/
- is just fine.
Yes, we have mentioned Gosse's Omphalos in the Pond previously. It's like a lot of mathematical propositions: inherently unprovable and non-refutable. But clearly the only sensible way to explain things as we believe that we know them.
ReplyDeleteNot quite as bad as √-1 though.
Just observed Holie Hughes at senate estimates of the ABC where she stated that Palestine is not a state and does not have a home land apparently but they do have recognition by the UN and the palestinian flag is flown at the UN building. She was allowed to make that statement in our parliament without challenge this. This part of right wing conspiracy to deligitimise the overthrow of a country by a powerful countries such as UK and USA in 1948. When this sort of information is used as a political issue in our parliament that is then used by Murdockracy to spread misinformation and in support of the the liberal party.
ReplyDeleteEt tu, Dame Slap?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/13/walter-sofronoff-bruce-lehrmann-inquiry-contact-details-the-australian-janet-albrechtsen-shane-drumgold-ntwnfb
273 contacts ? That really amounts to a 'bad look' doesn't it.
Delete