The pond had hoped and expected that Dame Slap would be out and about early this morning explaining her ongoing devotion to her orange Jesus and shrieking to the high heavens about the injustice suffered by tricky Dick. After all ...
How to make things right for the persecuted tricky Dick. If only he'd had the current SCOTUS in his employ ...
Instead of contemplating Dick's suffering, the lizard Oz turned a bit strange, a tad weird, this morning ...
Killer's effort covering the state of the orange Jesus's situation can be safely overlooked.
It was relatively straight, was put together in company with Dow Jones, didn't mention Covid or masks as the real reason, and was summarised by Golding ...
There was a juicy conspiracy theory podcast, setting straight those naïve mug punters who thought the 81 year old had died in UPMC Salvator Mundi international hospital as a result of a cardiac arrest following hip surgery ...
"Shrouded in mystery", up there with the mysterious shroud of Turin, but not having a podcast to sell with a conspiracy theory, the pond has more prosaic business to hand... nattering "Ned" having conniptions about nuking the country to save the planet ... with Emilia Tortorella's opening artwork setting a new standard for reptile interns using Photoshop ...
This is more than passing strange. For years the reptiles have been baying to the moon about the urgent need to nuke the country, and suddenly "Ned" discovers the obstacles are mammoth and multifaceted
Colour the pond bemused, as the reptiles offered the usual visual distractions ...
The pond did like one of Captain Spud offering a Christ-like gesture, but it seems he might be just a naughty boy ...
"Ned" was having one of his classic Chicken Little fits, running about in a state of high excitement and despair, as the clouds from the SMRs got dangerously close to earth ...
What on earth is this talk of cynical political opportunism, callow renewables denialism and big challenges? What did they put in the water cooler in Surry Hills this week?
Oh dear, now it's clear, it's the polls wot done it, and "Ned" has gone into a classic funk, or fugue if you will, which is to say, "a loss of awareness of one's identity, often coupled with flight from one's usual environment."
After years of pumping up nuking the country, suddenly we're here? Suddenly "Ned" is doing a Chance the Gardiner routine?
Unless the foundations are secure, but as long as the roots are not severed, all is well, and all will be well in the SMR garden ...
Here, have a Wilcox in memory of the absent Dame Slap ...
Moving right along, there were other reptiles having conniptions this day, revolving around the notion that Captain Spud and his team had gone beyond pinko prevert policies to dire green ...
What to say? Well this was, in the pond's fragile memory, the first time that snappy Tom had appeared in the pond, but clearly he was no fan of agrarian socialism, and a little video didn't console him ...
Snappy Tom was short, but sharp and severe ...
Dear sweet long absent lord, first nervous nelly "Ned", then snappy Tom. Here, have an infallible Pope in memory of the absent Dame Slap ...
The pond's survey this day wouldn't be complete without noting the contribution by an agitated Eric, carrying a big stick and covering much the same turf as snappy Tom, resulting in a murmuration of agitated reptiles...
Ah, the pond just knew it, it was those bloody agrarian socialists, with Little to be Proud Of at the root of the problem ... but what's all this talk of a big stick? Why it was a tremendous success back in the day ...
It seems there's no pleasing agitated Eric, who came with his own illustrations, featuring the mutton Dutton up against the saintly, demure Coles CEO ...
There seems to be no pleasing the reptiles this day, with agitated Eric embarking on a long rant ...
Dear sweet long absent lord, has the mutton Dutton got Little to be Proud Of, or what, and yet back in the day, carrying a big stick was much loved as a strategy ...
But enough of Xmas surprises, and Nobel prizes, this is the winter of reptile discontent, made inglorious by this Little to be Proud Of and the rest of the suddenly greenie mob ...
We must put the big stick away? So much for the pond's attempt at history, and so to end this weird day in company with deeply unhappy reptiles with a couple of immortal Rowes, celebrating the orange Jesus in full flight ... with a twinge of regret that Dame Slap wasn't around, at least in the early morning light, to bow down and worship her hero ...
There was a Luckovich too ...
Can anyone clear up and show this report by the oz - maybe they have a straight news Department - , which I have not seen reported anywhere else incl loonpond...
ReplyDelete"... Agrees to Destroy ‘Information’?
"The Australian‘s court reporter in Saipan, Mark Rabago, wrote:
“The court heard that Julian Assange must instruct WikiLeaks to destroy the information and provide an affidavit that he has done so and the US lawyers are satisfied that he has done this. Assange told the judge he had read ‘at great length’ and signed the plea agreement while at London’s Stansted airport on June 24.“
"If the court heard this, why is it not being more widely reported? Al Jazeera said: “As a condition of his plea, he will be required to destroy information that was provided to WikiLeaks.”
"But it is missing from many other courtroom accounts, such as from CNN, the AP, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. As of early Wednesday morning, the files provided to WikiLeaks by Manning are still on the site.
( https://wikileaks.org/+-War-Military-+.html )
*!!! delete dp if you don't want a link to 'the' files )
Assange: I Broke the Law But the Law Is Wrong
June 26, 2024
https://consortiumnews.com/2024/06/26/assange-walks-out-of-court-a-free-man/
The pond couldn't find any link in the lizard Oz, but did find the story at LinkedIn (the pond will also link to Satan in hell):
Deletehttps://www.linkedin.com/pulse/assange-i-broke-law-wrong-the-daily-courierng-trr1f
Assange: I Broke the Law But the Law Is Wrong
The Daily Courierng
Delivering Up to date News and Stories that Matter, Instantly."
Published Jun 29, 2024
Julian Assange’s plea deal with the United States was completed before a U.S. federal judge Wednesday on the U.S. possession of the Mariana Islands, reports Joe Lauria
By Joe Lauria, Originally Published in Consortium News
The Rabago story turned up in the Daily Terror (paywall), with lots and lots of big snaps:
Julian Assange free: WikiLeaks founder’s legal battle finally ends
Julian Assange is just hours away from starting his new life as a free man with his wife and two young sons in Australia. Follow updates.
Mark Rabago in Saipan, Zoe Smith and Maria Bervanakis
11 min read June 26, 2024 - 7:14PM
National News Network
Inter alia:
When asked by the judge to “explain what it is you did” to constitute the charge for which he is pleading guilty, Assange said: “Working as a journalist I encouraged my source to provide information that was said to be classified in order to publish that information but I accept that it was … a violation of the espionage statute.”
He continued: “I believe the first amendment and the espionage act are in contradiction with each other but I accept that it would difficult to win such a case given all the circumstances.”
At the beginning of the hearing, Judge Manglona read out the charge against Assange, of conspiring to obtain and disclose classified US documents.
When asked if he would plead guilty or not guilty, the WikiLeaks founder leaned towards his microphone and replied: “Guilty to the information.”
The court heard that Assange must instruct WikiLeaks to destroy the information and provide an affidavit that he has done so and the US lawyers are satisfied that he has done this
Assange told the judge he had read “at great length” and signed the plea agreement while at London’s Stansted airport on June 24.
Etc.
Ta DP.
DeleteIt was Tony Windsor who named the Member for Maranoa 'Littlejoh', and it seems that the ever-perceptive Windsor saw an inclination to good ole Queensland agrarian socialism in Littleproud right from the beginning of his term. That Littleproud at one time tried to fudge his c.v. to claim that he had been a 'consultant in agricultural finance' should have warned others. He has become the Nationals' tail wagging the Liberals dog, or, at least, part of the dog, as it also seems that Cape Spud keeps making captain's calls on what he thinks might be a policy, without feeling any need to engage the rest of the party in those 'thinks'.
ReplyDeleteBut, yes - reading what 'Ned', and others, have tapped out for today does have one wondering if a Bizarro Flagship has sailed into the internet. Perhaps Main Gott will set us right, at least on supermarkets
The pond hadn't come across Littlejoh, but it's delicious. Sadly Google wants to call him Littlejohn ... but there's no need to bring agrarian socialist Robin Hood into the story.
DeleteI suppose there's more Joe Bananas fans than Robin Hood fans in Qld.
DeleteNed of course avoids the problem that the Federal Government has no constitutional power to build an electricity-generating nuclear plant. But the government would have the power if the nuclear facility produced electricity as a by-product of producing materials for nuclear weapons. Spud would need to transfer his affections from our sweet coal to pure, virginal, glow-in-the-dark, precious plutonium.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, it is an interesting question whether the Feds have the constitutional power to ban nuclear power plants. I suppose you can ban doing something that you have no power to do, but it seems rather pointless.
Thinking about governments and nuclear facilities, back in 1987 I was doing some 'consulting' work at SECVic (back just a few years before Kennett 'privatised' it) and there in the (then) ADP section two of the senior employees had degrees in nuclear physics. Why ? Because SECV had intended to 'go nuclear' and had employed a number of uni physics graduates to form its team.
DeleteThen for various reasons, it decided not to go nuclear after all, so most of the physics graduates left for fresh fields and pastures anew - except for just the two I worked with in ADP (one of whom had a physics doctorate).
I don't imagine there'd be a lot of people who remember that - and I'd kinda forgotten (had to look up my long-ago CV to get the date) until your bit about governments and constitutional power to build nuclear generators.
From Nature Briefing: Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
ReplyDelete"The U.S. military launched a clandestine program amid the COVID crisis to discredit China’s Sinovac inoculation – payback for Beijing’s efforts to blame Washington for the pandemic. One target: the Filipino public. Health experts say the gambit was indefensible and put innocent lives at risk."
and
"The pandemic hit the Philippines especially hard, and by November 2021, COVID had claimed the lives of 48,361 people there."/i>
How the human race invented comis:
ReplyDelete"New dating technique finds painting on island of Sulawesi is 6,000 years older than previous record holder."
https://www.theguardian.com/science/article/2024/jul/03/oldest-picture-story-cave-painting-indonesia-record-51000-years
Kinda went to sleep for about 45,000 years after that, though.
"comics"
DeleteBut who ever pays any attention to John Quiggin ?
ReplyDelete"...many, perhaps most, macroeconomists who have looked at the question have concluded that a 4% inflation rate would be the ideal target, at least providing that wages and other incomes kept pace."
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/03/low-inflation-targeting-is-such-a-dubious-idea-why-did-the-reserve-bank-adopt-it-in-the-first-place
Well ok, 4% then - and how few years would it then take for nominal prices to double ? Would we then every 20 or 30 years have to do what the Germans did when they "revalued" their hugely inflated currency ?