The pond did enjoy Simon Tisdall's outing in The Observer, née Graudian, In an unheroic age, Putin, Trump and Netanyahu are sick parodies of great men.
The name dropping associated with the bashing and the trashing gives an idea of Tisdall's attitude - These successors to Stalin, Hitler and Mao are the ones making history in an unhappy, warring world.
There was also a pleasing bashing of Thomas Carlyle and his blather about the great men of history.
Nothing changed after Tisdall's piece appeared - Vlad the Sociopath went on his way with his war crimes and the mango Mussolini still attracts crowds, and amazingly Netanyahu still hangs around, despite massive crowds displaying fear, loathing and contempt for him.
But it was a satisfying read, as all "kill the beast" reads can be.
The pond wishes it could spot something similar in the dismal parade in the lizard Oz this day ...
The only surprise was that Leunig had been sacked because the pond confesses it didn't have the first clue he was still employed by L'Age ... talk about times that have long past, a bit like David Hill emerging to blather about the ABC ...why bother, when the reptiles have the Major?
As for the rest, mid-week the pond intends to take a break of indeterminate length. Spring has sprung, and the pond has long cherished the right to disconnect when the tedium of reptile company becomes underwhelming ...
Anyone wanting an example needs only to look at the underwhelming Caterist. Who wouldn't want to disconnect every so often?
As for the planet? The hollowed out Caterist will do his best to ruin it, and the only relief is that delving into the Hawke archives seems to be the limit to his productivity.
Meanwhile, there was a genuine chance to slag off the government for missing a mark, but of course the reptiles can't rabbit on about something they yearn for themselves...
The pond also wouldn't mind disconnecting from the Major, squawking each week about the ABC.
Talk about mind-numbing tedium ... with the Major, in his headline, attempting to strike an apocalyptic note ... or perhaps he's just doing song lyrics ...
There's an irony in all this, and once the two distracting snaps are out of the way ...
The Major is of course completely clueless about where things are heading, and his devotion to tree killer editions was just one indicator of his ancient irrelevance... and so back to that ancient feud ...
And so to the Major payoff ...
Yes, and thanks to the Weekly Beast, here the reptiles are, if not at the bottom of the toilet, then certainly in an outdoor dunny...
What joy that the Major can't do what physicians are advised to do, and heal himself and the lizard Oz business model ...
... says the man who managed to produce a business model of singular stupidity ... and indeed the lizard Oz is not the dominant force it once was.
Some might enjoy the laugh at all the ironies bounding through the Major's piece like a mob of 'roos, but all the pond could feel was the urgent need to disconnect and recover a little sanity.
It would also be good to take a break from American insanity ...
Usually the pond would treasure the detail, but Xs and the still born can be a confronting sight, so instead ...
Correct DP... "If things work out, likely there won't be open anger, so much as panting, heat exhaustion and resignation." ... because one eyed reptiles can't read the temperarure...
ReplyDelete"Scientists testing deadly heat limits on humans show thresholds may be much lower than first thought
"The new study shows that for healthy, young people, it could be as low as 25.8C.
"And for older people, it could be as low as 21.9C.
"During 2023, the hottest year on record, more than 47,000 people in Europe are estimated to have died from heat, according to a study published in Nature.
"These deaths occurred in conditions that were lower than the 35C wet-bulb threshold.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-02/deadly-heat-limits-tested-in-world-first-human-experiment/104242788
Stay cool on your break DP. The wet bulbs will still be under the rock on return. And the koolaid temp will definitely be above 21.9 wet bulbs.
More than 47,000 dead from heat ? Wau, how many died from cold then ?
Delete"Researchers also found that cold-related death rates declined during the study period while heat-related deaths increased, a trend they expect will continue as the world gets warmer each year. " Precisely ! And a trend that will not just continue but that will grow and accelerate.
DeleteYes, because very hot areas have been very lightly populated for a long time, then clearly more people would presently die of cold than of heat. But now we are rapidly reversing that. Watch this space.
Here in Australia, we have worked hard to assure that our houses are hot in summer and cold in winter, so we've got a lot of air conditioning in place. But that will only protect us just so far, and when we've got cold air conditioning turned on all year round, then what ?
Yair, here we go:
Delete"Six teenagers have now died while playing school football in less than three weeks.
...
The first four of these recent deaths were due to apparently heat-related causes and the latest two due to head trauma. Five of the athletes were high schoolers, the eldest only 16, and one was a 13-year-old eighth-grade student."
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/aug/29/high-school-football-deaths-public-health-crisis
That's in the USA, of course, but we'll catch up soon enough.
"... mid-week the pond intends to take a break of indeterminate length."
ReplyDeleteRest, recuperate, reinvigorate and return, DP. Please.
"Nothing changed after Tisdall's piece appeared - Vlad the Sociopath went on his way with his war crimes..."
ReplyDeleteThe Comedian said "its a joke".
The reptile marjor and minor comedian's comedy stylings reminds us of how reptiles react to "The name dropping associated with the bashing and the trashing gives an idea of Tisdall's attitude - These successors to Stalin, Hitler and Mao are the ones making history in an unhappy, warring world."
Corpse "Duvalier's reaction...
"In his Ways of Escape, Greene wrote that the book "touched him [Duvalier] on the raw." Duvalier attacked The Comedians in the press. His Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a brochure entitled, "Graham Greene Demasqué" (Finally Exposed). It described Greene as "A liar, a cretin, a stool-pigeon... unbalanced, sadistic, perverted... a perfect ignoramus... lying to his heart's content... the shame of proud and noble England... a spy... a drug addict... a torturer." ("The last epithet has always a little puzzled me," Greene confessed.)[4]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Comedians_(novel)
And mango Mussolini too.
The polypus of evil has many tentacles:
ReplyDelete"‘There was no mercy, even on children’: trauma in the West Bank after Israeli raids
Israel accused of using a 10-year-old girl as a human shield as it carried out its devastating attack on the occupied Palestinian territory".
https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/aug/31/trauma-in-the-west-bank-after-israeli-raids-palestinian-territory
"America isn’t ready for another war — because it doesn’t have the troops".
ReplyDeletehttps://www.vox.com/future-perfect/368528/us-military-army-navy-recruit-numbers
No, no, guys, it isn't a million footsloggers you need to recruit. it's a million drones you need to make.
The Cater’s title at the Menzies Research Centre has changed, which suggests he might be looking for a new gig, at public expense. Might that be why he is following Dame Groan’s style of discussion on productivity? Could he be looking for a seat on the Productivity Commission? On the Dame’s performance, the qualification for selection seems to be no more than a capacity to groan about how productivity is pointing downwards, and somebody (else) should do something about it.
ReplyDeleteHe accuses the Prime Minister of having a ‘subprime’ understanding of what productivity is (was that an attempt at a pun, of the kind that probably wowed them in Billericay back when?), invokes the unimpressive Gary Banks on the way to Cater mouthing dimly recalled parts of ‘capitalism 101’ - that the government is ‘preventing that capital from flowing naturally to enterprises likely to deliver the greatest economic return.’
This in spite of the recent experience across the world of central banks making capital available, in large quantities, virtually free of cost, to, um - ‘enterprises’. Largely established firms. Most of whom used that capital for the short-term benefit of their executives, by buying pesky competitors who might have shown much better ways to do or make whatever, but could be neutralised through acquisition, or, if there were not threatening competitors - just buying up the firm’s shares to boost the value of remaining shares. Yep, that is where capital flows naturally; the cheaper it is, the faster it flows, and, yes, there is some ‘economic’ return, but to restricted segments of the overall economy.
So, if that experiment towards a ‘free enterprise’ economy did nothing for productivity overall - in fact, may well be responsible for much of the decline in productivity in the last around 7 years - the Cater cannot offer us any more wisdom on productivity.
He had to lengthen his column with standard, reptile, disparagement of public institutions (set aside the penetrating ‘Productivity in the non-market sector is hard to measure since the value . . is often hard to measure.’) In this country, the productivity of the mining sector came primarily from the public institutions that sent qualified geologists out to systematically map the entire country. It was another set of public institutions that put in place legislation that conduced to highly efficient, but single operator, exploitation of the different mineral prospects. Apart from some gemfields, mining ceased to be any kind of ‘competitive’ activity from the first couple of years of the gold rushes.
I could offer the Cater examples of great gains in productivity from restructuring management of living natural resources, but he showed such gullibility in his supposed interviews with disgruntled fishers in Northern Queensland that I doubt that I would be able to get through to him. I have had 8-9-year-olds readily understand how that can happen, but they tend to be truly open minded.
NickyC was demoted from Executive Director to "Senior Fellow" quite some time ago, Chad, unless you're saying he been demoted even further (I think the MRC did need a janitor).
DeleteMaybe he just wasn't showing enough 'productivity' in his prior role, or maybe the wingnuts just got tired of patronising him with undeserved charity.
But as for grasping the concept and the practice of 'productivity', well that's just another one of those 'economics' things that everybody likes to ramble on about but nobody really understands. Like how exactly does an aged care attendant increase her productivity ? By stacking the oldies up on a bed so that she doesn't have to waste time walking around quite so much ?
But really, a major question is just how can a Cater significantly improve his productivity ? Or will he just have to put up with progressive salary reductions until his remuneration comes down enough to match his current 'productivity'?
Another example of...
DeleteThe Chadwick quotient aka the "you know" quotient.
https://loonpond.blogspot.com/2024/08/in-which-pond-settles-for-ughmann-and.html?showComment=1725075013247&m=1#c9213379058764362993
ReplyDeletepotholer54 looks at Senator Rennick's understanding of the greenhouse effect and asks "Could this be the stupidest politician in Australia? "
Joe - Rennick could well deserve that title. Another contender would be Malcolm Roberts, who entertained many of us 8 years ago, on QandA. This episode -
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf3TGmaLXow
- from that time, just happens to include prediction of likely global temperatures in - 2024. Spoiler alert - that prediction almost certainly has been exceeded, even though there is a third of 2024 to go.
In assessing 'stupidest', should we adjust the index where a contender has had some vaguely appropriate tertiary education? Roberts has a degree in engineering from U of Q.
A question I never tire (or should I say tyre so I can say 'tow the line'?) of asking: how did these nongs ever manage to actually pass their school exams, much less Uni ones ?
DeleteIt's a serious negative judgement on our education system that so many of them do.