loon pond

 

There's little doubt that Uncle Leon is very wide on the spectrum ... and that's why the pond did a double take reading this X meme, still doing the rounds.

Cue fawning shots of cute puppies.

One of the signs of "out there" disorder is a complete unawareness of tonal issues. 

That's how a man can make a squillion and yet the Peter principle always kicks in, as acquiring the ideas of others and monetising them, helped by the lashing of sundry serfs into extended underpaid hours, isn't really proper preparation for the role of unofficial President of the USA.

That's how you can end up berating American voters as uneducable pig ignorant retards, complaining of their lack of education and their laziness, while at the same time wanting to slash the funding of American education.

That's how you end up with stories headed Slapped-Down Musk Forced Into Massive U-Turn After MAGA Meltdown.

That's how Huppke can chortle Trump picks Musk's money over 'forgotten' Americans of MAGA. Sorry, xenophobes! 

It's not a new phenomenon. That's how Henry Ford ended up on the side of Adolf ...

While Musk is patently out there, he's also clueless about the madness he faces: Steve Bannon Escalates MAGA Civil War With Call for ‘Reparations’ Over H-1B Visas (paywall)

Talk about precious white snowflakes taking a leaf out of the book favoured by difficult, uppity blacks. Reparations no less ...

And that's why the new year is going to be endless fun, especially if Tim Miller's prediction that King Donald I will at some point have a health event, as aged folk are wont to do, comes to pass. More burgers for the king, please, oh pretty please...

Even better is watching scales fall from assorted eyes. Brett Samuels made a meal of it in The Hill, In shift, Trump downgrades soaring rhetoric on campaign promises.

You don't say. He wasn't going to end the war in Ukraine before his inauguration and lower prices from day one? Who'd have guessed it, who'd have thunk it? Surely Mexico paid for a fine wall.

Sorry, enuff already, as usual, with a deep groan and a pitiful sigh, the pond must turn its attention to the local three ring lizard Oz clown show, which is more Bullens than Barnum and Bailey. 

(For those who came in late for that reference, here's Bullens headed to the mighty Wang, almost as splendid a town as Tamworth ...)

To think of the money the pond's family wasted in times past, but enough already, here's the lizard Oz's top stories for the day ... with the reptiles still in full silly season campaign mode ...

And here are the contenders for the pond's Hunger Games top spot ...

As if it was ever going to be a contest. 

Why waste time comparing ancient Troy and the bromancer arguing over Jimmy Carter? 

If you want to waste a half hour, you could listen to Jonathan Alter pay tribute on the BBC World Service ...

The fix was always in, the pond was always going to ignore Jennings of the fifth form blathering about China, and pick Dame Groan, and what a relief. 

Instead of her usual staples, bagging immigrants or renewables, she turned Trump whisperer this day in Trump tariffs are more about the ‘art of the deal’ than economics, Donald Trump appears to regard tariffs as a political and geo-strategic weapon as much as an instrument of economic protection of local industries. For him, it’s really all about negotiation.

For those who'd forgotten who he is, the reptiles opened with a reminder, US President Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Manchester, New Hampshire, though some might think he's attempting an impersonation of a cheeky, loveable cane toad.

Then it was on with the whispering, and how foolish of the pond ...of course Dame Groan's groaning would work in a bout of climate science denialism:

The most consequential event of 2024 from a global political, economic and strategic perspective was the election of Donald Trump as 47th president of the United States.
Even though he is not formally inaugurated until January 20, some of the likely effects of his ascendancy are already apparent.
One of the key questions for us is: What will the Trump administration mean for the Australian economy? The answer is likely to be nuanced, with pluses and minuses. How the Australian government responds to the challenges of dealing with Trump also will play an important role.
It is worthwhile briefly outlining what a Kamala Harris win would have meant. Notwithstanding his strong previous centrist leanings, Joe Biden as President has overseen a strongly progressive and high government spending administration.
This would have continued under Harris.
The obsession with climate change that led to the passage of the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act provides for hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and tax credits for renewable energy and related projects. In a final pointless decision, Biden recently announced a target reduction of 61 to 66 per cent in emissions for the US by 2035.
Had Harris succeeded, the policy priority given to the climate would have strengthened – note here Harris’s Californian background – and various government agencies would have been given a free rein to impose costly regulations in the name of saving the planet.

Yes, there's no need to worry about emissions or the planet or any of that yadda yadda, have a snap of President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping leaving a business leaders event at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

Dame Groan was really hitting her stride, but then a strange thing happened ...

It remains to be seen what Trump will do with the Inflation Reduction Act. Some of the spending is directed to projects in Republican states and the lobbyists will be busy trying to lock in spending under the act.
At a minimum, there is likely to be a significant scaling back and redirection of this spending. Trump will again pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement.
But let’s return to what Trump means for the Australian economy. Much of the discussion is about the prospect of the US imposing tariffs on imported goods and services from certain countries. Indeed, Trump has already foreshadowed the prospect of imposing a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian and Mexican imports. The reflex reaction of economists is to declare that tariffs are harmful to economic growth and are a tax on the poor. By distorting trade flows, tariffs can end up damaging the imposing country as well as driving up prices.
The one qualification is that because the US is such a large market, there is scope for tariffs to be absorbed by the exporting countries; it’s called the optimal theory of tariffs.
The reality looks a lot more complicated. For starters, Trump appears to regard tariffs as a political and geo-strategic weapon as much as an instrument of economic protection of local industries. For him, it’s really all about negotiation.
When announcing the potential tariffs that could apply to Mexico and Canada, he mentioned the flow of illegal migrants and fentanyl.
At this point, economists are way out of their depth when it comes to giving policy advice.

Say what? Dame Groan with no advice to give on how bloody migrants ruin everything? Dame Groan unable to go full whisperer? To be sure, that's passing strange ...

To be sure, the president-elect has some strange ideas about trade deficits and the mistaken notion that a deficit indicates that the US is somehow being robbed.
Note here that the US runs a trade surplus with Australia and trade flows between the two countries are relatively small.

To be sure, to be sure, have a snap of King Donald I with the current governor of the 51st state (or maybe 52nd if Greenland or Panama become the 51st), Donald Trump welcomes Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the White House in Washington, October 2017.

Dame Groan did her best to recover, by helping slag off Uncle Leon and his EVs ...

Tariffs are only one instrument of industry protection, however. Many countries engage in supporting local industries through direct and indirect subsidies as well as through regulation and manipulation of the currency. It is misleading to focus on tariffs and changes thereto. Non-tariff barriers can be just as important, if not more important.
The elephant in the room in this discussion is China. Trump sees the rise of China as an economic superpower as diminishing the economic power of the US and eliminating local jobs in certain sectors.
During his previous term as president he imposed a raft of tariffs on goods imported from China, including motor vehicles. These tariffs were largely kept in place by the Biden administration.
Of growing concern in the US and other parts of the West is the rising dominance of China in the manufacture of electric vehicles. Not only are Chinese-made EVs considerably cheaper than those made elsewhere, their quality and technological capability are as good, if not better.
Coupled with government mandates in several countries that require more EVs to be sold, the pressures are now building on the viability of some of the large automotive companies in the West. This issue will likely come to a head under a Trump administration.
The challenges for Australia are indirect. With China as our largest trading partner by a substantial margin, any action by Trump that affects China will affect us. The best scenario is if Trump can negotiate some sort of settlement with the Chinese government that is likely to involve a winding back of state support for industry and a more freely floating currency.
Trump is also likely to disrupt the flow of international capital if he manages to reduce the rate of company tax in the US.
During his first term he achieved a great deal in lowering the tax burden on companies operating in the US, including by allowing immediate deduction of expenses.
US companies that held large amounts of financial assets offshore because of previously onerous tax arrangements were able to repatriate them without penalty.

At this point the reptiles introduced an AV distraction, and cross promotion for Sky Noise:

Strategic Analysis Australia founding director Michael Shoebridge says US President-elect Donald Trump will have a “deal-based relationship” with Chinese President Xi Jinping. “Anyone that thinks he’s going to just whack big tariffs on China and that’s what’s going to happen is wrong,” Mr Shoebridge told Sky News Australia. “He’s got people in his cabinet who are China hawks like Marco Rubio at State, but he’s got Goldman Sachs and Wall Street people that love making money out of China. “It’s going to be a deal-based relationship.”

Yes, it's all going to be the art of the deal, which is to say a book that the tangerine tyrant didn't actually write  ... much the same way he was turned into a reality TV star by others out to make a buck (and helping him make more than a buck or two with the merchandising spin offs).

Dame Groan does her very best to polish this pig ...

During the election campaign, Trump declared he would reduce the rate of company tax in the US to 15 per cent. (He also intends to mandate the continuation of the tax cuts that were enacted during his first term in office.)
At this point, the rate of company tax in Australia looks hopelessly uncompetitive. Add in the cost of energy; it is much lower in the US, particularly in certain states, and the challenge for Australia will be to explore ways of making us an attractive destination for investment.
There will also be considerable interest in the ways Trump is hoping to tackle excessive government spending. He has enlisted the assistance of Elon Musk and former investment banker (and former presidential candidate nominee) Vivek Ramaswamy to take on the task. A new department, the Department of Government Efficiency, will be set up.
Rather than simply trim various government programs, the idea is that a root-and-branch analysis will take place of what drives government spending, particularly the actions of government agencies that effectively face no budget constraints. Attention will be paid to the underlying pieces of legislation and the need to alter or scrap them.
Trump has promised to rescind 10 regulations for every new one, which is likely to have profound implications for doing business in the US. Again, the Australian government will need to pay attention.
There is a real prospect of what economists called a Schumpeterian disruption, which is likely to turbocharge the US economy.
The fact is that productivity in the US is already far higher than here and has been growing strongly while it has been stagnant here. Australia can seek to be part of the new experiment or stick with its existing approach to policy that now looks increasingly out of step.

The pond relaxed. If a reference to a turbocharged US economy arising from Schumpeterian disruption didn't produce a flood of comments, then Dame Groan had utterly failed in her groaning, and so had the pond. 

If groaning about the groaning isn't a form of creative destruction then all is lost.

At this point the pond theoretically should wrap up proceedings. The winner has been elevated into the pond pantheon and that's all she wrote.

But that ship, the notion of just one winner, sailed yesterday, when the pond broke ranks with a winner, a loser, and a drop kick, Lloydie of the Amazon, given a special late afternoon slot.

So there simply had to be room for a runner up, even though Charlotte Mortlock's most excellent piece appeared in the lizard Oz yesterday.

First please allow the pond to introduce Ms Mortlock ... (you can search for it if you like, the pond was reluctant to offer what might be construed as click bait).

What the reptiles need is fresh blood, vulgar youff, and Ms Mortlock was there to provide it in Why the arts became Australia’s most conformist industry, Once synonymous with exposed vulvas, rebellion, promiscuity and swearwords, the arts is now ­synonymous with face-masks, pronouns and ‘holding space’ for non-traumatic trauma.

Showing that vulgar youff are as mindless as old farts, Ms Mortlock introduced the pond to Musician Hayley Mary, of the indie rock band The Jezabels, was cancelled after wearing a MAGA cap. Picture: Mark Stewart

Well the pond can't give Hayley an easy ride, not when berating Dame Slap for donning a MAGA cap, a sure sign of idiocy ...

In fact any form of political slogan on clothing is a sign of idiocy, even if the pond has to make an exception for the Make America Rake Again, Four Seasons T-shirt sent over by a friend ...

Even with the most meta level of post-ironic referentialism, wearing a MAGA cap invites comedy ... if you want to send a message, surely you need to revitalise the ancient art of sending a telegram ...

Never mind, Ms Mortlock was on a roll of indignation, as if she had the back of hillbillies wearing "hillbillies don't need an elegy" T shirts ...

Somehow she imagines she's D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, and William Burroughs rolled into one, though it's fair to observe that Hayley Mary and The Jezabels ain't no Miller, nor with cooee of the likes of Frank Zappa ...

Once synonymous with exposed vulvas, rebellion, promiscuity and swearwords, the arts is now ­synonymous with face-masks, pronouns and “holding space” for non-traumatic trauma.
An industry once hailed as ­society’s most creative is now the most conformist.
While musicians, artists and comedians have historically pushed the boundaries of freedom of speech, these days they’re the most sensitive; they’re now often the biggest advocates for homogenous thought and culture in our society. A field once celebrated for its diversity of perspectives and haughty condescension of anyone who played inside the lines is now playing the role of neighbourhood watch.
The entire purpose of the arts is to do things outside the box and provide art so thought-provoking it could be uncomfortable. In a ­bygone era, the arts did such an ­effective job of this it sparked ­revolution.
In 1863, Edouard Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe depicted a naked woman and two clothed men having a picnic. While entirely scandalous at the time, the piece is now widely accepted to have sparked modern art.
Back then, being an artist typically offered some protection. You were allowed to test the boundaries because of your profession, and your fellow artists would fight for your right to do so. Now, it’s ­actually those in your profession who are likely to come with the pitchforks first.
In 2024, we saw many examples of artists cancelled for thinking the “wrong” way – or so their peers decided.

At this point the reptiles helped out with some art education, Edouard Manet’s Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe at the Musee d’Orsay collection in Paris.

But if the reptiles had wanted to show how radical and disruptive and out there they were, why not something a little less nineteenth century (a time when even the French were easily shocked) with something a little more modern?

Sorry, there's modern and then there's the Catholic church cancelling its subscription to the lizard Oz ...

Meanwhile, Ms Mortlock was struggling to come up with a long list of cancelled folk, a word that deserves its own cancelling ... made even worse by the way that the band cancelled poor Hayley, The Jezabels have released a statement distancing themselves from their lead singer, Hayley Mary (caution, news.com.au link)

Et tu jezabels, cheap hussies? Back to Ms Mortlock frothing and foaming ...

Australian musician Hayley Mary, from The Jezabels, was cancelled for doing the unthinkable. No, not a crime (that’s often celebrated in the arts). Something far, far worse. She wore a hat – a Make America Great Again hat.
Mary seemed apathetic and accepting of the likely outcome. “I probably no longer have a music career in the way that I knew it,” she said at the time.
A month later, it was a fashion designer’s turn, Gold Coast-based label Sabbi.
For no known reason other than boredom or vitriol, an internet sleuth volunteered themselves to spend hours scrolling through the designer’s husband’s “following” section on Instagram. It apparently turned out to be a great use of time because boy oh boy, did they unearth a golden nugget.
This modern-day Robin Hood discovered the unimaginable: the husband followed Donald Trump. Bingo. TikTok was quickly frenzied on the prospect that these creatives might just be politically right-leaning. Fingers were pointed, assumptions were made, and a small Australian business was brought to its knees the month ­before Christmas amid a cost-of-living crisis. A round of applause for all of those involved.
Far more sinister than hat wearing or following a president is portraying a view that challenges a way of thinking.
Adelaide-based comedian Biddy O’Loughlin has been left professionally homeless, with venues refusing to host her comedy shows because of her trans views.
I have read and watched some of O’Loughlin’s jokes and some do make me bristle, but isn’t that the purpose of art? Having the option to just not go to her show is not enough for some.
In all three of these situations it has been fellow peers from the arts who have come down the hardest – the tribe ferociously turning on their own and swiftly ostracising these individuals without a whiff of the curiosity or inquisitiveness they’re supposed to be renowned for.
Friends of mine who work in music have told me of how suffocating this feeling can be, and the very real dread that comes from potentially slipping up and accidentally expressing the “wrong” view.

Then came an AV distraction, featuring the Bolter and "woke" ...

Australian singer-songwriter Hayley Mary has spoken out after facing backlash over posting an image of herself wearing a Trump MAGA cap on social media. The 37-year-old claimed that her cancellation was intentional to make points about the misinformation bill and cancel culture in the music industry. “I think it was a shock because as you probably know, most musicians, maybe all musicians … move in very liberal, woke circles, the industry is very woke and not only was I trying to make a point about the misinformation bill, but I also was trying to make a point about cancel culture and the music industry,” Ms Mary told Sky News host Andrew Bolt. “And the fact that you couldn’t wear a MAGA hat, even though a lot of people like him and he’s the leader of the free world, you couldn’t wear that in our industry in most of the arts without having your career ruined.”

Sorry Ms Mary, use of "woke" requires a pond ritual ...

As for the rest, there was a JJJ Reddit page about the whole fuss...

This is a bit disappointing. Not in that she has different views to me, thats fine - but her whole post, and the follow up post, is this rambling confused meaningless drivel. She doesnt seem to be able to articulate what she wants to say, and its just so wishy washy and pointless.
If you have what you feel is a controversial opinion, just have the guts to say it straight. She just sounds like the dude punching cones in a shed who's decided at 3am theyre going to tell everyone "like it is", but they forget their point half way through and just try to power through it.

And so on and so forth, confusion and bewilderment ...

...how long has it been this way? Cause I can’t imagine the woman who wrote Mace Spray, Smile or Like a Woman Should would support Trump. Also an American fan said in 2016 when playing a show in the states after Trump won she said she’d be out there protesting him if she wasn’t playing the show. How did it turn this way and when?

Who knows? The pond always blames fluoride in the water, or living in Byron Bay ...and now back to Ms Mortlock for more penetrating insights...

What the industry deems as correct and incorrect is actually quite easy to identify. The mistake O’Loughlin made is making a joke at the expense of the left, not the right. The arts are only ever allowed to agitate in one direction. Creatives are allowed to be radical about sex, drugs and gender, and they can be provocative and vile if it diminishes right-wing politics. But the tables are not allowed to turn the other way.
This is actually not new. The arts has always been left-leaning. The part that is new, is that historically they have always been on the side of anti-establishment ­bohemian radicals. And now the anti-establishment is predominantly associated with the right-wing, and it’s the left that’s clinging on to the establishment.

Whoa, Ms Mortlock, there's a potent PowerPoint bunch of paranoid clichés there ...

Always left-leaning?But many fine right wing artists have made excellent contributions to the y'artz ... it wasn't all decadent, degenerate Weimar Republic art you know ...

Adolf himself was a keen artist, producing most excellent paintings, and with a keen interest in architecture. The sweet lad spent much time celebrating the right sort of German art ...

Look a nude and that art lasted a good thousand years, as will the artwork churned out for King Donald I ...

By golly that's way better than a Superman comic book.

So long as there are splendid artists turning out such splendid artworks, the arts industry (funny, the pond thought it was a cultural matter) will be an inspiration to all ...

The pickle the industry finds ­itself in calls for soul-searching, and so far the arts has chosen to remain steadfast to ideology rather than purpose. They have stopped questioning the status quo, and instead begun acting like a propaganda arm for the government, uniformity and conformity. The antithesis of why the industry exists.
The industry now acts as a gatekeeper, full of political prudes. Artists are no longer cheered on by their peers for exploring the boundaries and being brave enough to push the envelope; rather, there is immense pressure to be a sheep. I know this weighs heavily on some who would like more creative licence to be, well, more creative.
I started by talking about vulvas so I’ll end by saying, unequivocally, that the arts has lost its balls. And if that’s too vulgar, just remember I am trying to evoke the emotions once created by a formerly bold industry.

Political prudes?

Lost its balls? Would it have been so hard to suggest that artists had lost their collective cunts? 

Oh of course, it's the lizard Oz, you can't say really naughty words there. Perhaps, Ms Mortlock, you should have talked about them losing their Lady Janes instead ...

Now credit where credit is due, though the pond has already covered this turf ...

Charlotte Mortlock is executive director for Hilma’s Network, an organisation recruiting women to the Liberal Party.

Consider the pond a failed recruiting exercise. The advertisement on offer lacked the right sort of sexual imagery ... a little more reading of Henry Miller might have helped.

And so to wrap up proceedings with a cartoon appearing regularly at Daily Kos ...