The pond couldn't help but note yesterday the ongoing persecution of Higgins in the Lehrmann matter by the persistent Dudders ...
The pond couldn't also avoid the follow-up in Crikey ...
Foolish judge, fancy talking to the reptiles, and then blaming yourself for what emerged.
But there's an upside for the pond. This day nattering "Ned" himself went down the Lehrmann rabbit-hole, as if what Liberal party staffers got up to in parliament house, you know rape in your bosses' office, was a matter of singular importance ...
At last the pond had the chance to give "Ned" a red card. The twaddle he routinely twaddles could twaddle off somewhere else and blithely twaddle to itself...the pond still refuses to indulge in the Lehrmann matter.
This did produce some anxiety in the pond regarding its business model. Would there be enough regular twaddle to fill up the page? Sure there was the dog botherer, in the top far right position, much desired and esteemed by reptile ratbags, twaddling away about kumbaya, but what about below the fold?
So first it was time to deal with the dog "harden the fuck up" botherer ...
Yep, it's another day of bash the Islamics, when the dog botherer might have noted how certain fundamentalist Islamics, Xians and far right loons love to indulge in poofter bashing.
Perhaps it's in the name? The pond has always thought of "Jeremy" as terribly gay, and that observation could only be taken the wrong way if you happened to have a deep, paranoid fear about being gay ... or living in a state of gaydom ...
The notable point comes in the gigantic billy goat butt introduced in that dog botherer line "without excusing the homophobic language."
Then he goes on to excuse it by saying it was in a pop song in the 1980s, and anyway he said sorry ...
Meanwhile, the genocide goes on, and a snap of a flag was surely designed to send the reptile readership into a frenzy of fear and loathing...
In the pond's world, usually spent outside the lizard Oz, being a barking mad fundamentalist Xian and creationist and young earther provides very clear examples of intolerance, well worth the condemning.
For this the pond must wander back to Crikey in 2015, and part of Alex Mitchell's and Sally Whyte's piece, Hastie retreats from confirming creationist beliefs ...maybe outside the paywall by now, but the pond can never tell ...
Gays and womyn, talk about tolerance.
Incidentally that website link still works, so you can still get your dose of creationism, young earthism and general bigotry ...
But enough of the pastie Hastie and that tired old brood, the pond never expected to be going back to those olden times; instead it's time to note the incipient fascism ...
Yep, there it is, and the pond hates to say Orwellian, but when you say your duty to tolerance is to enforce it, why you're well into peace is our profession territory.
You know, there is a price to be paid for this tolerance, the crime is life, the sentence is death, the dog botherer is death, or if you're not a Judge Dredd fan, perhaps a dose of Sly Stallone in Cobra, "You're a disease, and I, the mighty dog botherer, am the cure" ...
Truth to tell, when you're a raving ratbag constantly making a living out of angertainment, the best that can be said about the unapologetic superiority of creationism is that it's rich comedy material.
And so to the oscillating fan's farewell. The pond never paid any attention when he was in his lizard Oz reptilian prime, but should at least note his passing ...
A contrarian? That's what hacks seeking the lowest form of media life - the gutter sometimes known as the Daily Snail - call themselves, and with narcissism also close at hand? Apparently, but first those preening snaps ...
Approached for comment? Finally we''ll learn who slept with whom? (Good one, Mr Martin).
What could you possibly say about the oscillating fan or the dung heap known to some as the Daily Snail?
All the pond can remember is the rag's black shirt tendencies in the 1930s ...huzzah.
And so on, but on with the oscillating fan ...
How desperate this "contrarian" was to fit in and to please his masters ... and there you go, a bouffant one and an oscillating fan in one go, and with all those links to the lizard Oz stories safely dead, though you can stray outside the lizard Oz hive mind, head off to Crikey, and see for yourself ...
Then it was on with the narcissist going dewy-eyed ...
Call the pond a simpleton if you like, but at least the pond has never been a compleat and comprehensive suck of the oscillating fan kind ...
And as for complicated truth, how exactly is it that a university would tolerate, let alone employ a man parading for the Daily Snail?
Truly it's a mystery beyond comprehension, though it does reveal how far a knave will go to prostitute himself, without any sense of shame ... why even a Tony Martin joke would leave the shameless, extremely thick, elephant hide untouched ...
On the upside, it's the last time that the pond will ever have to think about the oscillating fan, unless he makes a fool of himself yet again and so turns up in the Weekly Beast, Crikey, or the Graudian as a clown employed by the University of Western Australia because sandgropers love a circus ...
And so to the bromancer, filling in for "Ned" this week as the Everest climb ...
The pond, having no shame, will interrupt with 'toons, as a reminder that there's another world out there, beyond the hive mind, especially as even those briefly passing by the pond will have read this sort of bromancer rant a squillion times before ...
Personnel crisis? Perhaps they could pack the entire lizard Oz staff off to the military and lick 'em in to shape. But what a relief to get the listicle out of the way in a lump sum ...
Meanwhile, the first of those cartoons, this one in honour of the missing "Ned" ...
Then it was back to the bromancer for a serve of the usual ...
Remember, the pond is only doing this because "Ned" went down the Lehrmannn rabbit hole.
The pond is fully aware that in the real world there's stuff going down in relation to the orange Jesus and the genocide, but a few 'toons will have to suffice ...
Meanwhile, have faith, we will eventually get to the point where the bromancer exclaims "this is nuts" ... there's just a lot of verbiage before we land at that hallowed piece of turf ...
Indeed, indeed, but rather than carry on about the F-35s, what about the genocide?
The pond realises that 'toons are small compensation, because nothing can distract from the glazed expression and the wild eyes as the bromancer raves on ...
Is this not even harder than a "Ned" Everest climb? Why do they let him near a keyboard? Might it not be better to let him sleep with the fishes?
Okay, here it comes, and the pond must apologise, it seems that "nuts" is out of season, and so "crackers" must be served ...
And now a couple of cartoons, because amazingly, even after that crackers punchline, the bromancer still had a small gobbet to go ...
More than anything? More than the desire to bung on a war with China by Xmas? More than a a genocide painfully unfolding?
Not to worry, the pond has done its Everest, in the proud "Ned" tradition, with barely a note on the bromancer's ranting, and so to end with a couple of cartoons ...
I thought it was just the oceans rising:
ReplyDeleteChina’s cities are sinking – because there are too many people in them
https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/other/china-s-cities-are-sinking-because-there-are-too-many-people-in-them/ar-AA1ng2GW?
"Dozens of Chinese cities are sinking – including Beijing – and hundreds of millions of people are going to be affected.
The sheer weight of buildings to house everyone living there, combined with groundwater extraction, is causing widespread subsidence."
I wonder what's happening to Indian cities ? Delhi is already at 33million (ie 6 million more than the total Australian population) and Beijing is only about 22 million. And Jakarta is only 11.4 million and it's already sinking.
I hope some kind family member has now persuaded the Bromancer to take a sedative and have a nice lie-down in a darkened room for a while.
ReplyDeleteIn such as torrent of babble it’s difficult to focus on specifics, but one in particular jumped out - “Countless analysts from all over the political spectrum point out the government is leaving us effectively defenceless for the next decade”. Does “countless” mean “zero”, because other than linking to few fellow Reptiles elsewhere in his piece, the Bro doesn’t cite any of them. I suppose that when you’re in full rant-mode, it’s too much much of an effort to provide the detail.
Having now reached peak mania, it’s hard to see how the Bro is going to top this. On the basis of today’s effort though, it may be time to consider replacing that shot of Peter Finch in “Network” in the blog header with one of the Bromancer. In every sense, he’s definitely “Mad as Hell”.
Yair, right on Anony, you really can't count a 'zero' can you - it's an absence of a count.
DeleteThe bromancers best line was in the first paragraph - the Platonic ideal of incoherent policy!
DeleteWhich of course sums up the nature of the Scomo years. And of course in the US that of the orange haired monstrosity and up until now the GOP too, which will definitely change if they gain the power to enforce the 2025 project
For the record, I assume... "the posing, preening, smirking one" ... "seeking the lowest form of media life - the gutter sometimes known as the Daily Snail" (DP)... to wit the Oscillating Fan Onselen is as Nic Newman and Dr Richard Fletcher tell us, the Daily Mail and Newscorpse et al publish so... "that powerful people are using the media to push their own political or economic interests, rather than represent ordinary readers or viewers." (^1)
ReplyDeleteBacked up by DP with "Andrew Crook yarn from Crikey in 2012, suggesting that in his day, the oscillating fan was a fine corporate shill and hack"
Then the PoV Fan is blowing up himself. Amazingly 26% of Daily Mail will believe the "Questionable Reasoning: Right, Propaganda, Conspiracy, Some Fake News, Numerous Failed Fact Checks
Bias Rating: RIGHT
Factual Reporting: LOW". (^2)
^1.
"Simply put, a significant proportion of the public feels that powerful people are using the media to push their own political or economic interests, rather than represent ordinary readers or viewers. These feelings are most strongly held by those who are young and by those that earn the least.
"The Daily Mail is rampantly biased and distorts the news for its own agenda. (UK)
"The information is not independent but mostly in the hands of billionaires who dictate the editorial lines. (France)
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/news/bias-bullshit-and-lies-audience-perspectives-low-trust-media
^2.
"The Daily Mail tends to publish stories utilizing sensationalized headlines with emotionally loaded wordings such as “Woman, 63, ‘becomes PREGNANT in the mouth’ with baby squid after eating calamari”, which is a misleading headline. In 2017, Wikipedia banned the Daily Mail as an ‘unreliable’ source. When it comes to sourcing information, they use minimal hyperlinked sourcing and sourcing to themselves. Further, a Reuters Institute survey found that 26% of respondents trust their news coverage and 47% do not, ranking them #11 in trust of the major UK news providers. In general, most stories favor the right; however, the Daily Mail will report either side of the story is sensational enough.
"Overall, we rate Daily Mail Right Biased and Questionable due to numerous failed fact checks and poor information sourcing.
"Detailed Report
Questionable Reasoning: Right, Propaganda, Conspiracy, Some Fake News, Numerous Failed Fact Checks
Bias Rating: RIGHT
Factual Reporting: LOW
...
MBFC Credibility Rating: LOW CREDIBILITY"
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/daily-mail/
PvO's PoV is now Mail blowin' wind Daily.
"On the upside, it's the last time that the pond will ever have to think about the oscillating fan, unless he makes a fool of himself yet again".
Details matter.
ReplyDeleteThe peace dove is looking afraid at the bottom of the Biden "Escalation".
An offer to the Bromancer. How about a "more than anything" tour through the middle east with only Whatsapp to correspond and propagandise with. No?
ReplyDeleteWhatsapp's new feature! - Targetted Communications (with a whiff of Lavender) - may cause death.
"Despite WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption claim" ... "Boldend had developed tools to hack WhatsApp's encryption, gaining access to user data" ... "Boldend is financed, in part, by Peter Thiel, a notable investor in Facebook."
Does the Bromancer tell us about, or endorse the new feature of WhatsApp - Targetted Communications, brought to you by Mata Zuck, Peter Thiel and NSO?
"Suppressed Nws @SuppressedNws
"BREAKING: TIES BETWEEN WHATSAPP AND LAVENDER - META ASSISTING ISRAEL BY LEAKING DATA?
"Accusations suggest Meta, via WhatsApp, may share user group metadata, potentially aiding Israeli military targeting in Gaza.
"Despite WhatsApp's end-to-end encryption claim, concerns about privacy and complicity in conflict situations persist, heightened by Meta leadership's ties to Israel. Source:
@paulbiggar"
Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand
"Important caveat: "if true" . We need to bear in mind that there's no smoking gun in this story that proves Meta did send this data. But it is private Meta data that somehow ends up in the hands of the IDF so it's a fair speculation
[Link]
"And if it is true, and Meta quite literally participates in the killing of its users, they absolutely should be sued to oblivion and probably dismantled. A company shouldn't normally be able to survive something like this, it's completely crazy.
Quote
Wael Nawara @WaelNawara
Replying to @RnaudBertrand
"If true, this implicates WhatsApp/Facebook in genocide and killing of USERS and opens the door for $billions in damages. I can see a HUGE CLASS ACTION coming. All the assets of Facebook will not be enough to settle the damages."
...
https://meaninginhistory.substack.com/p/more-complicit
Besides all the rest of Whatsapp controversies... "At the beginning of 2022, it was revealed that San Diego-based startup Boldend had developed tools to hack WhatsApp's encryption, gaining access to user data, at some point since the startup's inception in 2017. The vulnerability was reportedly patched in January 2021. Boldend is financed, in part, by Peter Thiel, a notable investor in Facebook.[287]"
Wikipedia / Whatsapp
h/t nakedcapitalism
Doggy Bov: "...the word was so recently mainstream that it was sung in a worldwide No.1 pop song in the mid-1980s." And if you're like me and still can't work out what the word was, here's a better hint: the first two letters are 'fa' and the word rhymes with 'maggot'. Anyway, he goes on: "Yet the hate merchants face no sanction." Well I dunno how many "hate merchants" play Aussie Rules, but perhaps if more of them did, then they too could be maybe suspended by the AFL for 3 matches.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps Doggy Bov could grasp that "hate" and "face to face insult" are just two quite different things, and that sanctioning hatred might mean that the majority of the human race has to be 'sanctioned'. Including, just perhaps, members of his own family.
So: "...the politically easy, convenient or fashionable causes are tackled with an iron fist, but Islamist extremism gets the kid-gloves treatment." Yeah, right on Bovverer, lets suspend for three matches everybody who displays hatred whether from Islamic or Christian or just plain psychopathic emotion. That'd fix it, wouldn't it. We could even make 'hate' a reason for divorce - there's so many women who suffer as a consequence of it - if we didn't already have 'no fault' divorce.
Thus: "...NSW police cracked down hard and broke up lockdown protests. Yet anti-Israel and pro-Hamas protesters are ushered along, including on Sydney streets..." Yeah, but you see Bov, those lockdowns were intended to save lives, especially of the innocent, from the anti-vax nuts, whereas the anti-Israel and pro-Hamas folks are protected by religious freedom rights. Can you grasp the difference ?
Crikey 2015: "There are rumours that Senator Cory Bernardi might finally start his own party." Who ? (oh now how are the very mediocre fallen).
Over in Morrie land, a succulent question is aired. https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2024/04/20/who-janet-albrechtsen
ReplyDeleteTa, VC, that link is worth a teaser quote ...
DeleteTwenty-two years ago, Janet Albrechtsen was especially concerned about the survivors of rape. This should be unremarkable, except for the writing that followed.
At the time, she saw rape as a religious issue. She blamed it on “Islamic values”.
She claimed a French psychotherapist, Jean-Jacques Rassial, had showed the “pack-rape of white girls is an initiation rite of passage for a small section of young male Muslim youth”. She went on to describe it as a “barbaric rite of passage into manhood”.
In reality, Rassial’s work said the opposite: “There is absolutely no connection between the cultural background, even less between the ethnic one, and this practice.”
A Danish expert cited by Albrechtsen said the same: “The citation is completely wrong.”
Speaking under parliamentary privilege, Craig Emerson said: “This is not sloppy journalism; it is dishonest journalism. Ms Albrechtsen did not fail to check her source. She checked it all right – and doctored what he had to say, to deceive the public in her column.”
Media Watch alleged Albrechtsen plagiarised parts of this fabrication from a British newspaper, which she denied. Two years later, the Howard government appointed her to the ABC board.
Albrechtsen occupies a curious place in the Australian media. Where there is an ideological grift, she is often there grifting. She has spent half a lifetime fighting culture wars. She is a studious defender of conservative power and its belief to be forever under attack, a useful female voice in the lonely role of guarding men’s rights.
When Alan Tudge was accused of an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, and was removed from the front bench by Scott Morrison, Albrechtsen jumped on a slender inquiry to vindicate him. She said some women had legitimate complaints. That was only so she could say what she really meant: “For the sake of a few votes, Morrison made it known he was willing to snivel in the face of a bunch of graceless women.”
For Albrechtsen, the Me Too movement has distorted the courts. It has emboldened prosecutors to pursue men. She points out justice is a lady. “Lynch mobs come and lynch mobs go – from the women of Salem to the Ku Klux Klan to McCarthyism – but until political leaders are prepared to stand up to this behaviour, it will get worse.”
It was Albrechtsen who raked through the diaries of the dead woman who accused Christian Porter of rape, a claim he denies. It was Albrechtsen whose obsession with the Brittany Higgins case infected an inquiry into its handling.
It was Albrechtsen who published pieces describing Higgins’s partner as her “puppet master”. It was Albrechtsen who described Scott Morrison’s apology to Higgins as “nothing short of grotesque”. It was Albrechtsen who wondered in print if the compensation paid to Higgins after she was raped was “for services rendered”.
Albrechtsen knows what these words imply. Double meaning is essential to columns that say the opposite of what is true. There is always in her work a cruelty and a cleverness. She is a good writer and a bad person...
The pond stopped there, a bad person writing bad things isn't redeemed and turned into a good writer by way of a facility with words. She's a bad writer, writing bad things, as you'd expect of a bad person ...
Is Dame Slap actually “a good writer”? Yes she can string a coherent sentence together, though the overall work is generally vile and / or barking mad. Or perhaps the implication is that she’s “good” in that she normally manages to stop herself from venturing into defamatory or libellous territory, presumably informed by her training in the law.
DeleteI’ve certainly never seen her work as a source of either wit or sparkling prose.
That just about covers it all, doesn't it. But how come nobody ever seems to want to mention Kroger ?
DeleteGB that so true he is just as culpable when on Sky after dark.
DeleteSo the PVO is still identified as ‘Winthrop professor of politics and public policy’ at a recognisable university, Nine years ago, that university put up a statement on ‘Academic titles at UWA’ that it was aligning its titles with ‘Australian standard academic titles’. So a couple of ‘Assistant’ or ‘Associate’ professor titles were reduced to ‘lecturer’ and ‘senior lecturer’, and ‘Winthrop Research Professors’ became Professors, Level C. However, the university continues to attach the title to particular academics, so its commitment to alignment with other universities is open to question.
ReplyDeleteThe ‘Winthrop’ comes from the first chancellor of UWA - Sir John Winthrop Hackett - whose financial success and social prominence came from his newspaper interests, which he maintained through his time as a member of the Legislative Council, up to 1916. How neat is that?
Anyway, the person somehow occupying that distinctively-named chair, tells his readers that ‘To this day, Kelly’s The End of Certainty remains the greatest book on Australian politics ever written.’ Mmm - ‘kay - perhaps it is just as well that he occupies that chair apparently from the eastern side of the country, and is not instructing students that ‘Anyone who hasn’t read it should.’
His professional judgement will be well matched to the ‘Mail’. It is unlikely to lift the overall quality of that publication.
Maybe not, Chad, but I can't see he'll actually lower the "overall quality of that publication" either.
DeleteThey really do honour him .... the more unsavoury the media the better ...
Deletehttps://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/peter-van-onselen
Professor, PhD W.Aust.
Professor, UWA Business School, Management and Organisations
Biography
Peter van Onselen is a professor of Australian Politics and foundation chair of Journalism at UWA and is The Australian newspapers Contributing Editor. Dr van Onselen previously hosted a daily news program on Sky News as well as worked on cover stories for Channel Nine's Sunday program. Prior to commencing his professorship with UWA Dr van Onselen was an associate professor of government at Edith Cowan University.
Roles and responsibilities
Professor of Australian Politics
Foundation Chair of Journalism
Future research
The role of the media in politics
The toxification of the media
The decline of the political class
Previous positions
Sky News anchor
Associate Professor at Edith Cowan University
Columnist, The Bulletin
Current projects
Writing a book titled Slaughtering Sacred Cows: policy ideas the major parties won't touch (Melbourne University Press)
Teaching overview
Australian Politics and Journalism
Research
Electoral systems
Political campaigning
Political institutions
Can't wait to see the further research on the toxification of the media and the role of the Daily Snail in detoxing it ...
What a lurk ...
A wise decision to red card Ned today. After all, what can he possibly have to say that hasn’t already been repeated ad nauseam by numerous other Reptiles in umpteen other pieces? Ned might bring new levels of verbosity and pomposity, but that’s hardly a reason to endure the experience.
ReplyDeleteMeantime - in our glorious, zero-emission future; price on application -
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240417-the-nuclear-reactors-that-could-power-moon-bases
Coming to a former servo site in your town.
Yeah well, the only possible alternatives are solar+very big batteries or solar+electrolysis of water (of which there is supposedly some at the poles) and hydrogen fuel cells.
DeleteAnyway, won't be a problem with radioactive spent fuel waste (after about 40 years or so). Just take it out the hack of the base and dump it.
Saviors are on hand in the Maldives:
ReplyDelete"An underwater experiment to restore coral reefs using a combination of “coral IVF” and recordings of fish noises could offer a “beacon of hope” to scientists who fear the fragile ecosystem is on the brink of collapse."
Scientists’ experiment is ‘beacon of hope’ for coral reefs on brink of global collapse
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/apr/20/scientists-experiment-is-beacon-of-hope-for-coral-reefs-on-brink-of-global-collapse
And if it works, why then Lloydy and the Riddster will tell us that the reefs were never really under threat anyway.