Dang. These days the keen Keane just has to wind up in Crikey (paywall) and the pond's reptile studies are done for the day ...
...Peter Dutton put it very well a couple of weeks ago, when he said “central to Australia’s social cohesion is a social contract”. That is, social cohesion in Australia is based on a demand for compliance.
Indigenous peoples have never been part of our social cohesion; they have been deliberately excluded, and remain so after the majority of Australians last year rejected recognition of the historical reality that Australia is founded on invasion and dispossession. It is only within recent years that the most overt forms of exclusion of LGBTQIA+ Australians has ceased; trans people still remain targets of vilification. Muslim communities remain excluded, treated as a threatening Other, demonised by politicians and the media even as they’re handed money for integration programs and festivals and courted by political parties.
With two of our biggest media companies, News Corp and Seven, basing their business models on encouraging division, grievance and victimhood among white Australians, cohesion in Australia is a game only the powerful — powerful white people — are allowed to play.
The Hamas-Israel conflict has exposed just how exclusionary our idea of “social cohesion” is. Only pro-Palestine protesters have been targeted by politicians, law enforcement and the media, smeared and threatened with dramatic escalations in police powers. Only pro-Palestine activists who pushed back against attempts to destroy their careers have been singled out for “doxxing” and threatened with new laws.
“Political leaders are reluctant to say it in public,” one senior press gallery journalist sniffed recently, “but many feel that the protesters for Palestine are more aggressive and troubling than those in favour of Israel.”
“Troubling”. “Aggressive”. That’s people objecting to mass slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians, the murder of aid workers and the complicity of Western governments. They’re excluded from “social cohesion” for failing to accept the demands of a white government and media elite.
All the festivals and workshops and transformative peacebuilding processes in the world can’t paper over that social cohesion is a demand for silence and complicity.
Indigenous peoples have never been part of our social cohesion; they have been deliberately excluded, and remain so after the majority of Australians last year rejected recognition of the historical reality that Australia is founded on invasion and dispossession. It is only within recent years that the most overt forms of exclusion of LGBTQIA+ Australians has ceased; trans people still remain targets of vilification. Muslim communities remain excluded, treated as a threatening Other, demonised by politicians and the media even as they’re handed money for integration programs and festivals and courted by political parties.
With two of our biggest media companies, News Corp and Seven, basing their business models on encouraging division, grievance and victimhood among white Australians, cohesion in Australia is a game only the powerful — powerful white people — are allowed to play.
The Hamas-Israel conflict has exposed just how exclusionary our idea of “social cohesion” is. Only pro-Palestine protesters have been targeted by politicians, law enforcement and the media, smeared and threatened with dramatic escalations in police powers. Only pro-Palestine activists who pushed back against attempts to destroy their careers have been singled out for “doxxing” and threatened with new laws.
“Political leaders are reluctant to say it in public,” one senior press gallery journalist sniffed recently, “but many feel that the protesters for Palestine are more aggressive and troubling than those in favour of Israel.”
“Troubling”. “Aggressive”. That’s people objecting to mass slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians, the murder of aid workers and the complicity of Western governments. They’re excluded from “social cohesion” for failing to accept the demands of a white government and media elite.
All the festivals and workshops and transformative peacebuilding processes in the world can’t paper over that social cohesion is a demand for silence and complicity.
Never mind, on with the obligatory survey of what was on offer in reptile la la land early this day ...
Nothing unusual, with Dame Slap perched in the highly desired far right position, and migrants (actually terrifying Islamics) heavily featured, though it is remarkable how the reptiles manage to ignore that trial in New York ...
Down below there was the usual weekend line-up, with the odd variation...
Lots of sacrifices to be made - sorry garrulous Gemma - and it's simply perversity on the pond's part that it decided to go with the swishing Switzer for a laugh ... if only because the pond didn't take offence, nor a gate, the pond took the chance to do a Godwin's ...
It goes without saying that the swishing Switzer is a FH of the first water, and his scribbling this day just provided more evidence...
Jerry Seinfeld may have a little egg on his face, based on the reaction to “Unfrosted,” his new Netflix comedy about the creation of Pop-Tarts.
The release of “Unfrosted” comes after a media campaign where Seinfeld griped about the state of comedy because of all “the extreme left and PC crap.”
The film was released Friday, and by lunchtime it was obvious many critics weren’t sweet on the film, based on a tally of reactions compiled by the Hollywood Reporter.
Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper even went as far as to call “Unfrosted” “one of the decade’s worst movies” in his review and said in a social media post that it was so dreadful it made “Flamin’ Hot,” a film about the creation of an extra-spicy type of Cheetos, “look like ‘The Social Network.’”
There were the usual X quotes too ...
...Despite Seinfeld’s lifelong affinity for cereal (which was a part of his Seinfeld persona), Unfrosted doesn’t do much with its knowledge about Kelloggs and Post except to have famous faces dress up in goofy outfits and reference Alpha-Bits, Cream of Wheat, and other era-specific doo-dads like Silly Putty and X-ray glasses. Kyle Dunnigan grumbles about his wife and booze as Walter Cronkite and Bill Burr make cracks about philandering as President John F. Kennedy. Yet everything feels under-developed, as if Seinfeld and company assumed that the costumes alone would be enough to keep things lively. Only on rare occasions does the film go off the deep end into truly gonzo territory, and it’s better for it—a ceremonial funeral for a beloved colleague in which an open grave is transformed into a giant cereal bowl, for example, stands out for its bizarre insanity.
Instead of going down that route, alas, Unfrosted squanders the majority of its good ideas—like the bitterness of the milkmen cabal toward a no-milk-required food like Pop-Tarts—and concludes with a dreary siege on the Kelloggs offices to stop FDA certification of Pop-Tarts that’s staged by mascots led by Tony the Tiger in a QAnon Shaman-esque get-up. This is less funny than it sounds, and no matter the enthusiasm of Seinfeld, McCarthy, and the rest of their ensemble, the action rarely exhibits much comedic energy. With no inspired perspective on its subject matter, the film proves a soggy attempt at deriving humor from a breakfast-wars premise that seems better fit for a five-minute Saturday Night Live sketch—and doesn’t come close to matching the genuine madness of the Pop-Tarts Bowl’s death-by-consumption showstopper.
And so Seinfeld joins a long line of aged comics bleating about how vulgar youff don't get it, with a few of them featured in the endless snaps designed to break up the swishing Switzer ...
Never mind, back to the clueless swishing Switzer ...
Gerard Henderson? Dear sweet long absent lord, is he quoting prattling Polonius on the matter of humour? Why a bowl of desiccated coconut, never mind the Frosties, would be a bigger laugh.
Apropos of the bleating Jerry, Kevin Fallon offered this in the Beast Jerry Seinfeld’s Crotchety Whining About ‘P.C. Crap’ Comedy Gets It All Wrong (paywall).
Don't get the pond wrong. In its day it watched a lot of Seinfeld - even though Seinfeld couldn't act, he was surrounded by actors - and a lot more Curb, though the last and final series was a real struggle, and the pond still occasionally watches an old episode from the Python days, and that show's various descendants ...
But time and comedy move on and you're in dire trouble when your saviour is the likes of the swishing Switzer...
Never mind that Switzer entirely misses the point intended by the creator of All in the Family, and never mind that Fallon decided to do a bit of a listicle himself ...
Again there were quotes ...
And so to the final gobbet of the clueless Switzer ...
The pond has been chuckling about it all week, no more cornfield jokes, and still one of the greatest current stand-up comedians is delivering killer routines ...
What else? Well this day, Ughmann landed with a thud to take over dog botherer duties on renewables...
The pond is sure that others have noted events in Brazil, though you'd never know from reading the lizard Oz ...
Of course, of course, nuke the country to save the planet, and a snap of Satanic windmills and a snap of Satan's cuz to go...
Second thoughts, maybe it is, at least if Ughmann is the standard bearer, but to be fair, he was short about it, and this was the final gobbet ...
Nah, what we need is a climate change future with extreme weather events, and if the likes of Ughmann have their way, we ain't seen nothing yet ...
And so to the Everest, and while the pond doesn't like to offer the climb these days - talk about the death of comedy - it has to be done.
Many decide to leave the room at this point, but a few, the most intrepid, will step outside the tent and head up the hill ...
That doesn't measure up to the yarn about Sky's abuse of an indigenous fisherman, but it did rouse the pond's suspicions about "Ned" ...
That talk about being illustrated is one thing, but surely the bots are also helping with the wordsmithing ... or is it just that "Ned" has always been a bot, and the pond is slowly waking up to it?
Bear with the pond as it gets past a few snaps and can cut to the "Ned" chase ...
You see? It's the Islamics.
For some reason, the pond was reminded of the keen Keane's rant, which had set this day's circus in motion ...
With two of our biggest media companies, News Corp and Seven, basing their business models on encouraging division, grievance and victimhood among white Australians, cohesion in Australia is a game only the powerful — powerful white people — are allowed to play.
The Hamas-Israel conflict has exposed just how exclusionary our idea of “social cohesion” is. Only pro-Palestine protesters have been targeted by politicians, law enforcement and the media, smeared and threatened with dramatic escalations in police powers. Only pro-Palestine activists who pushed back against attempts to destroy their careers have been singled out for “doxxing” and threatened with new laws.
“Political leaders are reluctant to say it in public,” one senior press gallery journalist sniffed recently, “but many feel that the protesters for Palestine are more aggressive and troubling than those in favour of Israel.”
“Troubling”. “Aggressive”. That’s people objecting to mass slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians, the murder of aid workers and the complicity of Western governments. They’re excluded from “social cohesion” for failing to accept the demands of a white government and media elite.
The Hamas-Israel conflict has exposed just how exclusionary our idea of “social cohesion” is. Only pro-Palestine protesters have been targeted by politicians, law enforcement and the media, smeared and threatened with dramatic escalations in police powers. Only pro-Palestine activists who pushed back against attempts to destroy their careers have been singled out for “doxxing” and threatened with new laws.
“Political leaders are reluctant to say it in public,” one senior press gallery journalist sniffed recently, “but many feel that the protesters for Palestine are more aggressive and troubling than those in favour of Israel.”
“Troubling”. “Aggressive”. That’s people objecting to mass slaughter of tens of thousands of civilians, the murder of aid workers and the complicity of Western governments. They’re excluded from “social cohesion” for failing to accept the demands of a white government and media elite.
Is there anything the pond regrets in going down this path?
Well yes, there's simply no comedy to be found and the pond has to look elsewhere for a laugh ...
The pond slipped that in because "Ned" still has a long way to go and the temptation to take a snooze is powerful ...
The pond can never get that Anon comment out of its head ...
A quintessential Ned column. So much huff, so much puff, but in the end….. Inflation may go up further, or it may not. Interest rates may drop - or they might rise - or they might stay the same. This may happen - or perhaps not happen - sometime. In other words, Ned has NFI what the future may hold but that doesn’t stop him pontificating, and it certainly doesn’t stop him from assuming false gravitas by quoting umpteen other talking heads.
Sure it's migration and the pesky, difficult, uppity Islamics, but the faux gravitas is still there, and all the umpteen talking heads, and so you have another quintessential "Ned" column ...
Just make sure there are no pesky, difficult, uppity Islamics taking a view about an ongoing genocide ...
And so the pond has trudged the trudge, and with the final gobbet will make it to the top of yet another "Ned" Everest, with only a hollow Treasure of Sierra Madre style laugh to celebrate ...
No need to repeat the keen Keane a third time. Genocide lovers will keep on genociding, while the pond will look elsewhere for laughs, and luckily there was the immortal Rowe, celebrating what the reptiles refuse to mention ...
"...failing to accept the demands of a white government and media elite." Keane is once again right, of course, but what, then, can we 'excludeds' do about it ? Stage a sit-down demo at a university, perhaps ? That always works a treat.
ReplyDeleteSwitzer shows why a referendum on whether taxpayer money should be used for grants to think tanks would probably have the no case reach 80%.
ReplyDeleteThat's a case where "if you don't know, vote no" would work a treat.
DeleteThose reptile writers who nod to classics, but usually observe the ‘definition’ of a classic as a work widely quoted, but seldom read; will welcome Uhlmann to their pages. He tells us, early, that without ‘energy’ (of the forms he favours) life would return to ‘one that is nasty, brutish and short’.
ReplyDeleteAnd like others who garnish their writings with the partial quote - that nod to Thomas Hobbes is amusingly inappropriate.
Might I offer the context in which Hobbes used those words. Remember, Hobbes was writing in 1651, when energy came in much smaller quantities, from different sources, than anything Uhlmann is pointing us towards. To Hobbes -
‘Whatsoever therefor is consequent to a time of Warre, where every Man is enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention, shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain: and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, . . . no commodious Building; . . .no Knowledge of the Face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish and short.
Gee - Chris - seems Hobbes lacked awareness of what made life worth living. Could there really have been Arts and Letters before energy was being boiled up in large furnaces fired by coal? OK - setting aside Shakespeare and his contemporaries of a couple of decades earlier - how could a writer write without electric light? Culture of the Earth - the mass of people were reasonably well-fed through the 17th century; settlers in the Americas rather marvelled at how well the indigenous peoples had organized their sources of food. Navigation? Wasn’t that largely driven by, um - wind? I guess wind in the age of sail must have been, oh, more - energetic? than what blows these days. Back then it was also used to grind grain and pump water. Of course, other nascent industries used water power directly. Anyway, different times, and the poor (poore?) folk didn’t realise just how miserable their lives were while they waited for electricity and - an economy.
Oh, and to help you settle yourself among the reptiles who draw on the classics - you might be able to drop into a column that Thomas Hobbes’ first published work was a translation of Thucydides.
"...when energy came in much smaller quantities". Wau, what would life have been like without ..."Archaeological evidence indicates that the domestication of horses had taken place by approximately 6,000 years ago in the steppelands north of the Black Sea from Ukraine to Kazakhstan."
DeleteWhat would the Egyptians and Romans have used to pull their chariots and carts without them ? They'd have had to walk the whole distance of the Silk Road carrying all the trade goods with them (hand drawn carts ? Like the American Indians ?). Because I don't reckon that elephants or zebras or donkeys or camels would have been quite up to the job.
Now that's a bit funny because Kazakhstan (well, its border with China) is where the apple came from. Apples and domesticated horses - what would we have done without the Kazakhstanis ? Dunno that I've heard much of Greeks using warhorses though, so maybe Thucydides wouldn't have known much about them.
Pity about the Abos though; I don't reckon that either kangaroos or emus would have done any good at all.
And having mentioned elephants, what was the name of Hannibal's elephant ?
"Cutting greenhouse gases is a secondary goal" types Chris Uhlmann, which is an absurd statement given that the reason we are having to transition is because of the burning of fossil fuels and climate change. There wouldn't be any need for any discussion of any net-zero models if cutting emissions was a secondary issue. It is the issue. Naturally CU dismisses that the transformation can be achieved. Then CU types: "If you believe, as the Albanese government does, that there is a climate emergency then no technology that offers even the remote possibility of refuge should be ignored. ...So nuclear and carbon capture and storage have to be in the conversation...". But CU appears not to be at one with the government, believing that doing anything on climate change is secondary and suggesting that climate change is a belief rather than founded in science. So why then does he advocate that nuclear and carbon capture and storage be in the mix? If there's no climate emergency, then we don't need all the life boats; assuming CU is right, we don't need any life boats at all.
ReplyDeleteSome people think only bureaucrats use jargon, but CU proves that journalists do it much better as in the nonsensical sentence: "The pace should not be forced to fit artificial deadlines set in a political virtue auction."
Just proves once again, Anony, that wingnuts - and especially ex-reptile wingnuts - just have no grasp whatsoever of the nature of the universe or of this little planetary part of it. I wonder if he's ever heard of Venus and what happened to it ?
DeleteBut as for CCS, what's happening to it ?
"With the Labor government under pressure over its decision to scrap $250 million in funding for CCS projects in last October’s budget, and not offer any new funding in last week’s budget, some project proponents have paused their respective projects until they can resolve the funding gap."
But then:
"Other projects backed by big listed companies such as Santos have moved ahead with their CCS or CCUS projects, despite the loss of federal funding."
So I guess it's still a 'wait and see' situation, but how long will the wait be ?
Ah Ned - where do you start? I liked every line, so ...
ReplyDelete‘The principles defining a multicultural society are being undermined almost daily, not at the margins but in our institutions, with plenty of examples - witness the Greens political party, the cultural sector and our leading universities.’
Not sure I would describe the Greens nor the cultural sector as institutions, nor the leading universities given they are predominantly self-funding these days. But all three have been around long enough for Ned to consider them as institutions, indeed ones that he does not like.
Anyway the agenda is being set for the next election - immigration, foreigners, islamics (who are purportedly the flip side of far right extremists though I am unaware of how Islamics are aligned with the left, but it achieves notional balance of the nasty hard right by having nasty left Islamics) - can’t wait for the sewage to start flying.
On reflection, at least there is plenty we can still laugh at - angry white males are still fair game.
Also, I suggest that Ned is not a bot - no self-aware bot could produce rubbish like Ned - so he is probably just off his meds. AG.
I could be persuaded that the columns attributed to ‘Ned’ could be generated by something artificial. If that is so, could someone program the bot so it did not refer to inherently contradictory ‘movements’ such as ‘the rise of identify politics’. At fairly fundamental level - all politics is about identity. The ‘Wiki’ sets out the derivation of the term under the heading - ‘Politics’, clear back to Aristotle
DeleteThis is all just 'magic word' stuff: use a 'magic word' such as 'identity' or 'woke' or 'Green left' or suchlike and it just stimulates a well-conditioned reflex and no further correspondence need be entered into. And nobody needs to produce a definition of the 'magic word' either, since it's just the conditioned response on its utterance that is the point.
DeleteOh pish tush, what a load of wiffle piffle from the bitser Switzer. And it all "stems from a politically rather than morally, induced obsession to prevent anyone being caused offence." Yeah, wau, we all want to be able to go around gratuitously insulting people and making a good living from doing it, don't we. Well at least Seinfeld, Cleese, Atkinson and Humphries apparently do, or did, and who would dare accuse them of being small-minded juveniles who just can't think of a good, non-insulting joke.
ReplyDeleteFunny thing is, I may just be very forgetful, but I simply can't recall the Goons ever being personally (as opposed to societally) insulting. For mine, I always thought the idea was to stop gratuitous insults from propagating and thus continuing a long and sad human history of reactive murder and warfare.
But what would I know ? Only that I never found Seinfeld, Cleese, Atkinson and Humphries as funny as the Goons. But that's just a personal prejudice, I guess, you wouldn't think of it as an insult to Seinfeld, Cleese, Atkinson and Humphries, would you ?
Oh, but "...distinguished intellectual Simon Heffer" - who the hell is he ? Has anybody other than maybe DP and Chad ever heard of him ? And what intellectual wonders did he spout ? Anyway, apparently "stupid white men" (of which there is a plethora) are the only ones "...about which a comedian can publicly joke." Well maybe they are the only ones about whom insulting jokes can be regularly made because otherwise if "comedians" (self designated) tell jokes about "the Irish, black people, women (often mothers-in-law) and homosexuals" then they're just engaging in culture (mis)appropriation and identity denigration, aren't they. Because all those groups, and more, have their own "jokes" that they tell about each other, don't they.
So anyway, here's the definitive question: "But so what if someone is offended? How does it change their life ?" Well maybe not so much now as back when an insult would frequently result in a duel with some percentage of fatalities. So ok, I'm curious, what exactly was it that ended the behaviour of calling for a potentially fatal duel just because somebody felt "insulted"? Switzy tells us "We have reached ridiculous levels of sensitivity that simply reinforce the increasingly poisonous creed of identity politics." Well of course we have, and simply nobody throughout the entire period of documented human history has ever reacted to an 'identity insult' until right now when we get all upset.
Lastly: "...what Professor Heffer calls the moral terrorism exerted by the wokerati" - oh yes, now I can see why Switzy calls the Heffer a "distinguished intellectual", can't you ?
So, the sullied Uhly wants to tell us that "...weather-dependent generation has become the Greenwishing[TM] answer to every question about transitioning the grid." Not quite true, Sullied One:
ReplyDelete'Staggering' rise of rooftop solar to put all other power generation in the shade, report finds
"In short: The capacity of rooftop solar will soon exceed that of coal, gas and hydro combined in Australia's main grid, a green energy report finds.
There is already almost 20GW of rooftop solar in Australia, but this is forecast to more than triple in coming decades."
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-02-21/rooftop-solar-cells-in-australia-to-outperform-demand/103489806
It's really stunning, isn't it, that this nonce passed his school exams and even gained a university degree. What does that say about education in Australia (and indeed in the wide world). Go back to school, Suhly, and try to listen and learn this time.
This is for Gerard tomorrow that he choses to ignore.
ReplyDeleteRight-wing pro-Israel agitators threaten free speech on campus
By Jewish Council of Australia
May 4, 2024
The Jewish Council of Australia condemns attacks on students exercising their democratic right to protest.
In the last few days we have seen increasing violent attacks on peaceful student Palestine solidarity encampments at universities across the world. At Monash University in Melbourne, a far right vigilante group holding Israeli and Australian flags raided the encampment, knocking down tents and tables, stealing food and intimidating students.
At Melbourne University on Thursday a motley group of right-wing zionists, including well known far right agitator Avi Yemini, harassed and taunted peaceful pro-Palestine protesters.
Dr Max Kaiser, Executive Officer, Jewish Council of Australia:
“We call on university leaders to speak up against vigilantism on our campuses from pro-Israel groups aiming to intimidate protesters and instigate conflict. Students in the Gaza solidarity camps are taking a brave and peaceful stand against genocide and should be heard.”
“We are deeply concerned that universities are not taking this far right threat seriously. Allowing attacks on peaceful protestors has a chilling effect on our right to free speech.”
“This is not a conflict between Jews and Palestinians. It is a conflict between supporters of Israel and the assault on Gaza, and anti-war, anti-genocide protestors. Many Jews have been part of the Gaza solidarity camps.”
Dr Elizabeth Strakosch, Executive Officer, Jewish Council of Australia:
“In the United States right wing Zionists violently attacked students at the pro-Palestine UCLA encampment. We must not allow similar scenes to play out in Australia. Palestinians and pro-Palestine students are being targeted and made unsafe, and yet they are the ones who are being painted by many as threatening. Students must be able to voice their views safely without fear of violence.”
“Universities have a critical responsibility in this moment – to uphold democratic values and to make real their claim to be spaces of dissent and intellectual freedom. ”
Republished from The Jewish Council of Australia, May 2nd, 2024
Some relevant thoughts about Israel here:
ReplyDeleteIsrael through young and old eyes
https://jabberwocking.com/israel-through-young-and-old-eyes/