If there's any relief to the pond, it's that it never went down the Lehrmann matter rabbit hole with the reptiles, though the pond can't help but note that this day the matter was again featured with a serve of plain Rice, without any added Dame Slap sauce ...
In the adjacent top far right position sat Dame Groan and it seemed with the news slanted to do some more migration bashing, Dame Groan would be in the box seat to add to the frenzy.
The pond knew what must be done, but first wondered if there was anything below the fold to avoid the obvious ...
Two lizard Oz editorials to fill the gap, a couple of columns about the Alice, and only simpleton "here some fair degree of conflict" Simon to add to the migrant talk? Slim pickings, and not just the actor... and of course there was the bro, sorting out the middle east before embarking on his war with China by Xmas, but the pond knew in its heart that the Groaning should take the first cab off the rank ...
On the way below the fold, the pond couldn't help but notice that certain stories were now being packaged in a "Discover" section, mostly reheated offerings, and with the huge graphics in inverse proportion to the actual interest value of the stories ...
Really? Is that the best they can do? A new variation on the old triptych from hell at the top of the digital edition?
Each day the pond pauses to look at the digital presentation, each day it seems more desperate ... and so there was nothing for it but to go the Groaner doing the ritual Groaning for the day so that pond correspondents could groan at the Groaner groaning the Groan ...
Is the Groaner being too harsh? Of course not. Each Groan is an exercise in sickly, sentimental, sugary sweet piety, but it is an interesting tweak to compare Jimbo to the French clock lover, what with the French clock lover routinely paraded as a demented, Satanic dictator lover ...
Here the pond must note that the reptiles loaded the Groaning up to the Groaner's gills with assorted snaps, noted in miniature size ...
That beaming snap of the French clock lover was a ripper, but without these pictorial Oxford commas, the Groaning came in short gobbets ...
Ah, back in the USSR, an oldie but a goodie, as Dame Groan played her favourite hits, the platters that matter and the pond wondered how long before climate science and furriners came into play ...
Ah, the big spender routine, though the pond has heard a whisper that there might be a surplus coming in May. Still, it's another of the Groaner's favourite devices ... now for that bloody climate science...
Dame Groan lovers will roll about cackling to the heavens at that incredible play on zero emissions ... and the pond was pleased to see a little union bashing in the listicle lexicon but all good, and bad, things must end, and so does this Groaning ... but not before renewables come in for another bashing ...
What's remarkable in this outing is the restraint the Groaner has shown. Usually we'll all be rooned because of pesky furriners, but these days it seems it's all because we don't love French clocks or at least can't behave like the French clock lover ... or some such thing. The pond always leaves the Groaning in a fog-like condition ...
The pond didn't dare break that news about the Xi-worshipping French clock lover to the bromancer, still stuck in his "let there be genocide" phase ...
Speaking of the real world, there was some splendid news of democracy in action ...
Naturally Benji was delighted at the news - the theory being that if you shut out the world, nobody will notice, especially the bromancer - and so it was back to the bromancer in genocide mode ...
Actually there's a moral burden on everyone when there's famine used as a method of collective punishment and as a tactic of war, and one who can take on that burden is the man who fears a term in the clink as a criminal if the war comes to an end and an election is called, and so he was naturally featured in a big hagiographic snap by the reptiles ...
Then it was on with the bro defending the genocide...
For some reason the reptiles decided to run against the bromancer by showing a snap of civilised warfare at work ...
There had only been a brief note on the topic in the likely to be banned
Al Jazeera ...
MSF: Al-Shifa Hospital ‘in ruins’ after Israeli attack
The NGO Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF) says it is “horrified” at the destruction of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
“Gaza’s largest hospital is now out of service,” MSF said in a social media post. “Given the extent of the destruction, people in the north are left with even fewer healthcare options.”
What with the deliberately induced famine, and the enormous level of destruction, you'd think this might give the bromancer pause, but that means you haven't been a regular pond visitor and haven't caught up with the reptiles' devotion to the killing fields ...
Oh, and an excellent way to distract is to argue about the figures ... because apparently the killings are only a statistical blip ...
Meanwhile, the genocide goes on, and as another downside, there's a sociopath who benefits from the lack of interest in another killing field ... as he goes about his killing, though frankly either Benji or Vlad the impaler would fit this 'toon ...
That's a tidy variant on that old Chaplin routine featuring Adolf ...
Godwin's Law broken again!
There was a final bro gobbet on the necessity of genocide, but the pond almost forgot about it ... but then on inspection, it was just an invitation to hand Israel more sovereignty ...
Actually these days Israel deals in genocide, that's the unfortunate reality, and an end to Gaza, the West Bank, talk of a two state solution, and pretty much everything else, unless you happen to be one of the thousands of Israelis who recently took to the streets...
No need to mention any of that in bromancer land, in a land above the faraway tree ... but there's no need to end on the banning of sites featuring stories Benji doesn't like to hear.
The immortal Rowe is back, and he features the orange Jesus, who was on an epic roll over Easter, unTruth socialising at all hours ...
BARKING MAD AND OFF HIS ROCKER, HAPPY CARTOON EVERYONE!!!!
I do like that Mr Ed header - “Aged duds vie for world’s top job”. My immediate reaction was “I wouldn’t really call being a Reptile columnist the world’s top job…..”.
ReplyDeleteThe cult of Groan should eschew that reptile tendency to ‘whataboutism’, but our Dame clearly is upset that the current treasurer has had ‘more than his share of luck’. Yep - this one has chalked up a budget surplus, helped (?) by a high rate of employment. Best we not compare with the Howard Costello economic management, where much the same circumstances are still attributed to wise, stringent economic management. Management so stringent that much of the budget gains was salted into odd payments and concessions to their likely voters, in such a way that subsequent treasurers, of either colour, find it difficult to remove. Particularly the concessions that have needlessly inflated the housing investment bubble since Howard/Costello, while doing remarkably little to promote building of actual housing.
ReplyDeleteOur Dame crafts her words with more than her usual care when she refers to Mariana Mazzucato. ‘Unconvincing author’ is slipped in early, and the claim that she ‘only’ finds favour with the far left. Prof. Mazzucato (of University College London - fully tenured at a substantial institution), has upset those who preach incessantly of the benefits that their image of free enterprise have bestowed on us, by pointing out that virtually all the fundamental research, the basic technology, of our age, came from projects that were funded by government. Yes, entrepreneurial types combined those things to deliver the smart phone, but her chapter on the iPhone in her ‘The Entrepreneurial State’ has been widely reproduced.
Prof. Mazzucato has further upset the custodians of the myths of free enterprise, by pointing out how readily our commercial systems promote those, who do commercialise government-funded research, into a scale of wealth beyond the imaginations of most citizens.
For those reasons, what Prof. Mazzucato writes about is frequently repudiated by the ‘experts’ who are summoned to say three sentences on ‘Fox’ or ‘Sky’, although many of those ‘experts’ are now required to traduce what ‘big tech’ is doing with the billions its founders have pocketed. If you write for Rupert, anyone who does not accept the clips on ‘Fox’ and ‘Sky’ has to be on the ‘far left’, so all true by definition.
In your usual top form Chadders, and the only reason the pond sticks with the groaning, and please allow the pond to add the home page of the deviant heretical prof so that unbelievers might seek more of her heresy ...
Deletehttps://marianamazzucato.com/
A promo sample of her deeply vile thinking ...
https://marianamazzucato.com/books/the-big-con/
There is an entrenched relationship between the consulting industry and the way business and government are managed today which must change. Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington show that our economies’ reliance on companies such as McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain & Company, PwC, Deloitte, KPMG and EY stunts innovation, obfuscates corporate and political accountability and impedes our collective mission of halting climate breakdown.
The ‘Big Con’ describes the confidence trick the consulting industry performs in contracts with hollowed-out and risk-averse governments and shareholder value-maximizing firms. It grew from the 1980s and 1990s in the wake of reforms by both the neoliberal right and Third Way progressives, and it thrives on the ills of modern capitalism, from financialization and privatization to the climate crisis. It is possible because of the unique power that big consultancies wield through extensive contracts and networks – as advisors, legitimators and outsourcers – and the illusion that they are objective sources of expertise and capacity. To make matters worse, our best and brightest graduates are often redirected away from public service into consulting.
In all these ways, the Big Con weakens our businesses, infantilizes our governments and warps our economies. Mazzucato and Collington expertly debunk the myth that consultancies always add value to the economy. With a wealth of original research, they argue brilliantly for investment and collective intelligence within all organizations and communities, and for a new system in which public and private sectors work innovatively for the common good. We must recalibrate the role of consultants and rebuild economies and governments that are fit for purpose.
The moment she referred to the climate crisis as if it was real was the moment the pond knew the reptiles would go full Taiban and pick up stones...
The reptiles and wingnuts have clearly decided that it's truly them who own Keating, probably because he's un unrepentant neoLiberal and so much better at sludging Labor than they are.
DeleteBut truly, it's apparent that the likes of the Groany simply have no knowledge or understanding as to how Australia was brought into existence: virtually all by government: roads, shipping, railways, aerodromes, light rail, telephones, mail, schools, hospitals CSIRO, CSL ... all sorts of wondrous things. Like CSIRO's 'rust-proof wheat' for instance - has Groany ever heard of any such thing ?.
Then our various governments of both "ideologies" sold off our assets for pitiful prices therefore getting a few $billion for a once off sale and losing good and steady revenue forever.
Yeah, just great "economics" that is.
See also this review Innovation: The Government Was Crucial After All in the New York Review (paywalled, depending on..., but you get the first few paragraphs, which are a delight).
DeleteWell, Joe: Jeff Madrick: "Above all, the government should not try to pick “winners” by investing in what may be the next great companies."
DeleteI agree entirely, the government shouldn't "invest", it should just do what Australia did so well for so long before falling for that "neoliberal" bullcrap: just do it !
Oh and pardon my aged forgetfulness: Gas and Fuel Corporation and State Electricity commission, both of which were government 'enterprises', set up and fully owned by the state government of Victoria until first Joan Kirner started the selloff which was finished by Jeff Kennett (who actually later apparently did regret doing it).
DeleteIn time, even the Dame's spitting chips might be doable, locally:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.aspi.org.au/report/australias-semiconductor-national-moonshot
https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2020/8/12/is-apple-green-not-until-its-taiwanese-suppliers-cut-emissions
https://orsted.com.au/about-us
Israel's People of Light must deal in a reality of see-what-you-made-me-do-ing to defeat the Amalekite Children of Darkness, sans performative gestures and virtue-signalling, eh, Bro?:
ReplyDelete"UN military observers are unarmed, and the group - from Australia, Chile and Norway - were with a Lebanese language assistant on a foot patrol along the border."
https://www.news.com.au/world/australian-injured-in-blast-on-lebanonisrael-border/news-story/ab5f028837cc0031aeb3e7283d19effd
"Contrary to the reports, the IDF did not strike a UNIFIL vehicle in the area of Rmeish this morning," the Israeli military said in a statement."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-03-30/australian-among-three-un-observers-wounded-at-lebanon-border/103651586
“Defence is taking the appropriate steps to ensure the safety and welfare of the member.”
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/adf-observer-hurt-in-lebanon-border-explosion/news-story/06fbdf8c6f879a49124450d20ed733aa
Elsewhere, a Norwegian troll does and doesn't seem terribly convinced:
https://twitter.com/FranceskAlbs/status/1774697364390916118
Ways of seeing ep.3: "as a means of depicting or reflecting the status of the individuals who commissioned the work of art." (Wikipedia)
ReplyDeleteEpisode 3 Newscorpulant example ... "that certain stories were now being packaged in a "Discover" section, mostly reheated offerings, and with the huge graphics in inverse proportion to the actual interest value of the stories ..." DP
Episode 3 - Painting and Possessions
"22 January 1972
The third programme is on the use of oil paint as a means of depicting or reflecting the status of the individuals who commissioned the work of art.[10]
Episode 4 - Fine Arts and Commerce
"29 January 1972
In the fourth programme, on publicity and advertising, Berger argues that colour photography has taken over the role of oil paint, though the context is reversed. An idealised potential for the viewer (via consumption) is considered a substitution for the actual reality depicted in old master portraits.[11]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ways_of_Seeing
Ways of Seeing
John Berger et al
Based on the 1972 BBC series and comprised of 7 essays, 3 of which are entirely pictoral, Ways of Seeing is a seminal work which examines how we view art.
Episodes 1-7
https://www.ways-of-seeing.com
Thick as a bunch of very thick sticks that Bromancer; consider:
ReplyDelete"If Israel immediately ceased all military operations in Gaza ..."
and
"Hamas would keep attacking Israeli soldiers within Gaza."
So, Israel would "cease all military operations" in Gaza but still leave lots of troops in Gaza for Hamas to shoot at. Truly very considerate of the Israelis especially as having "ceased all military operations", the Israelis can't shoot back.
Please can someone send Groanie a copy of the book extracted in this story ‘Outdated and misleading’: is it time to reassess the very concept of money? (under plain wrapper, no one need know). A taste:
ReplyDeleteAs with money created through bank lending, money created through government spending does not persist and circulate indefinitely through the economy. The slightly shocking and dispiriting reality is that, when you pay your taxes, the money doesn’t go into an account or a vault. It is vaporised. The tax payments cancel out the money that was created at the time of the original government spending."
I think most people just don't know or realise that 'bank loans' actually 'create' money. But of course they do as I have said previously: if you need some money, go and get a bank to create you some.
DeleteI still don't understand in this ongoing era of large population increases all over the world all the time how people do not grasp that money is being created in large amounts all over the world all the time.
So, is that all a matter of just 'printing it' ?
Joe, GB and our always esteemed Hostess - the Groans directed at Prof Mazzucato for this day really make the point that, to reptile publishing, there is no purpose to comment on economics beyond promulgating the self-serving cant that CEOs of banks are so good at spouting. Well, that, and then the abject apology when their bank is found out in yet another scam of a kind that even Trump is not clever enough to think up. The bank sacrificial CEO, of course, departs with his (almost always a his) long term 'incentives' intact, and the prospect of a couple of board appointments after the smell has dissipated a little - or been replaced by stench from one of the other big banks.
ReplyDeleteIt's probably time to repeat Holely Henry again:
Delete"money is a social construct underpinned by a complex of social and institutional conventions."
And of course, it's all down to who can best manipulate a "social construct", isn't it.
Though indeed money is a very real thing at a personal level - the bits of metal and polymer in my pockets are real, and the place I bank at believes that a number in a computer system - aka my "bank balance" - is real (sort of), but at a national level it is indeed just a "social construct".
But clearly, none of this is known, grasped or understood by the likes of the Groany or an 'army' of people - in and out of government - who think that 'debt' is something that always has to be paid in metal and polymer that has to be extracted from "taxpayers".
I don't think any of them have ever heard of Japan.
And talking about Japan:
Everyone in Japan will be called Sato by 2531 unless marriage law changed, says professor
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/02/japan-sato-only-name-by-2531-marriage-law?ref=upstract.com
Which I guess proves that names are just a 'social construct' too.
And here's an interesting read:
Delete"After decades of this, Japan boasts the biggest pile of debt in the developed world at a whopping 255 per cent of GDP. By contrast, Australia's gross debt sits at just 36.5 per cent of GDP."
Japan's economy is emerging from a long winter. What could its wilderness years teach us?
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-02/japan-economy-recovery-prosperity-future-path-lessons/103653912
Oh my, I wonder what Dame Slap will have to say about this:
ReplyDeleteBruce Lehrmann defamation trial: Channel Seven reimbursed Lehrmann for drugs and sex workers, court documents allege
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/apr/02/bruce-lehrmann-defamation-trial-channel-seven-reimbursed-lehrmann-for-drugs-and-sex-workers-court-documents-allege-nfbntw
Oh I know: "hasn't been proven in a criminal court verdict so it never happened". But who knows, maybe it will be:
Bruce Lehrmann defamation trial: Channel Ten wins bid to present fresh evidence
https://www.theguardian.com/law/2024/apr/02/bruce-lehrmann-defamation-trial-network-10-fresh-evidence-bid-lisa-wilkinson-brittany-higgins-delay-ntwnfb