Celebrate Oz day ... dress for the vibe ...
The pond did try, try, Tri-Tri-anti-wonti-Triantiwontigongolop, but bugger it, it's a long, lazy weekend ...
The pond could have linked to the cracking Crace, Digested week: Toadying Brits finally come to realise Trump has no need of them, featuring comical English toadies in the Toad of Toad hall tradition, and his suffering with Spurs, and explained the pond's method for picking a team to barrack for ... a weird name like Totteringham is a start, but then there's the colour of the uniform (red's nice) and the styling (traditional patterns or modern spiv), and coming from a depressed area or city should always be considered a plus... (that's how you can make a never ending joke about the NY Jets, down there with Spirit Airlines, while yelling for the Detroit Lions. Such a ravaged town, footy is their only hope).
The most important thing is to know nothing, and care even less, about the sport ...
The pond could have linked to suffering Marina, experiencing an infrastructure problem remarkably similar to Sydney's third runway, but the pond reckons that Sydney had an even longer gestation time...
The pond could have linked ot Daniel Immerwahr in The New Yorker, What if the Attention Crisis Is a Distraction?, but immediately got distracted. Attention might need to be paid, but not on a holyday.
The pond could have stayed there to read Susan B. Glasser's Trump is Already Drowning Us In Outrages...outrages, schmages, things are just getting going, the best is yet to come baby ...
The pond could have wandered over to The Atlantic to read Peter Wehner's Evangelicals Made a Bad Trade, Hitching the evangelical wagon to Donald Trump has meant unhitching it from the life and teachings of Jesus.
Dear sweet long absent Jesus, as if Xians have ever given a toss about the first being the last and vice versa. Try separating an evangelical from that loot in the temple.
The pond could have suffered there with Jonathan Chait, There Is No Resistance, The response to the January 6 pardons shows that the president faces on effective constraints within his party.
Franklin Foer brooded about The Dangerous Trump-Paramilitary alliance, By granting blanket clemency to the January 6 insurrectionists, the president has unleashed violent, and loyal militias, and the pond could have shared the angst of Hanna Rosin in January 6ers Got Out of Prison - And Came to My Neighborhood, The strange new reality after Trump's pardons.
Heck, The Purge wasn't sci fi, it was just your average prediction.
But dammit it's Oz day, a long, lazy weekend, and the pond's beat is the lizard Oz, which rightfully should be placed over in the section where they serve swill all the time. 24/7/12/365...
The pond did make an effort.
It even went below the fold to see if there was anything attractively green, some kind of succulent soylent swill derived from human suffering ...
Nada, zip, nihil, nothing ...
What's noticeable even in this lazy long weekend is how all the reptiles, snowflakes one and all, can only spend their time whining and moaning and carrying on and venting their spleen...
But the pond found nothing to inspire below the fold, especially as the pond is well over the rampant Zionism, and Price's abjuring of the Aboriginal flag is to be expected, and duly ignored ...
The pond had its pick yesterday, and nothing new tempted the jaded palate.
There were no sublime comedies of the kind unfolding abroad ...
Heck, speaking of evangelicals, there was no way we could match the US, the fatted calf and all that jazz ...
And so the pond decided to cut the day short ... there would be no bonus.
There would only be prattling Polonius, but truly his relentless snowflakery, his moaning and whining and keening, would surely be enough to stand in for a dozen reptiles ...
Tennis bosses still serving faults over our national day, Mindful of respecting ‘differing views’, Tennis Australia continues to court controversy by downplaying the significance of Australia Day.
Sheesh, who cut short Polonius's supply of champers and strawberries? (though to be fair the pond prefers raspberries and blackberries) ...
The opening snap established the first reason for the relentless Polonial attempt to imitate a crybaby sook ...
Tournament director Craig Tiley and Australian Open referee Wayne McKewen at the official draw on January 9. Picture: AFP
That unleashed the inner Polonial Grinch...
Naarm is the name given to the meeting place of various Indigenous language groups in what is now Melbourne.
In recent years, Tennis Australia has downplayed the significance of Australia Day. This year, the national anthem will be sung on Sunday, January 26 before the commencement of the men’s singles final. And that’s about it.
On January 17, the Herald Sun in Melbourne reported that Tennis Australia had issued a statement declaring: “We are mindful there are differing views and at the Australia Open we are inclusive and respectful of all.”
The statement continued: “We acknowledge the historical significance and deep spiritual connection our First Peoples have to their land and recognise this with a Welcome to Country on stadium screens prior to both the day and night sessions daily.”
Somehow a hapless elderly woman got dragged into the reptile fray, Wurundjeri elder Aunty Joy Murphy AO, provides a Welcome To Country at the trophy arrival ceremony at Melbourne Park on January 12. Picture: Getty Images
That meant Polonius could set free his inner monkey ...
Okay, okay, but why not a cartoon Sunday as a supplement to the snowflakery, the whining and the indignant moaning?
Isn't it supposed to be a carefree holyday long weekend? Not when you're full of grievance, snarl and slur ...
In other words, to Tennis Australia there is nothing significant about Australia Day. If this is the case, why continue to name one of the world’s most important sporting events the Australian Open? The point being that some Australians – Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike – regard January 26, 1788 as “invasion day” and also do not accept the legitimacy of Australia itself.
If Tennis Australia is embarrassed to use the word Australia, then it should drop it.
There is nothing new in alienation – the concept that a person is hostile to his or her environment or country. During the 20th century, alienation was most evident in the social science departments of universities.
In recent times, it has spread into the green-left political movement, which rails against colonialism and post-colonial societies.
What the two groups have in common is a willingness to remain living in and depending on a society they claim to detest as racist and more besides.
It’s understandable that some Indigenous Australians, who have no non-Indigenous ancestors, might regret what happened to their nations during or after 1788. But Indigenous Australians with non-Indigenous ancestors are in a different category.
Why? Why are they in a different category? Why can't the descendants of relationships perhaps conducted from a position of a power imbalance, or colonial dominance, have regrets?
Because it's a way of having a cheap shot at a reptile bête noire, Independent senator Lidia Thorpe created headlines with her demonstration against King Charles III. Picture: Reuters
It's yet another variant form of cheap, snide, disingenuous racism, of a kind that seems to be flourishing...
On with bashing the uppity black, and a chance to bash the ABC too, as always expected when petty Polonius cranks into mindlessly petulant gear...
Previously, on Australia Day 2023, a stick-waving Thorpe stated at a demonstration in Melbourne: “This is war! A war that was declared on our people over 200 years ago!”
Interviewed by Annabel Crabb on ABC TV’s Kitchen Cabinet program, which aired on September 5, 2023, Thorpe spoke about her family life.
When discussion turned to her parents, the following exchange took place.
Thorpe: “He played for the Fitzroy Stars, which was an Aboriginal football team. He was captain-coach.” Crabb: “But he was a white guy, right?” Thorpe: “Yep. He’s a white fella.”
Now, I’m a republican but not of the direct-model kind.
Even so, for the moment at least, Charles is my king. He is also Thorpe’s father’s king, whether she likes it or not.
If Polonius wants to kowtow to the talking tampon, that's his business. But the pond still has enough Irish in the genes to say fuck that ...
This sort of emperor worship can only lead to trouble at inn, or trouble with meme coin ...
It really should have read "statue of loonery".
Naturally Polonius turns to the usual assortment of token blacks to bolster his POV. The pond goes so far as to suggest he boasts regularly of having black friends, though sadly Warren came a cropper ...
Never mind, Polonius managed to rustle up a couple, one a particular Sydney Institute pet ...
Author and academic Anthony Dillon took part in a discussion on the voice referendum at the Sydney Institute in October 2022.
In his speech, Dillon wrote: “For Indigenous people, the secret of the formula to succeed is to, like myself, be born into good circumstances. I don’t apologise for that. I have an English mother and a very successful Aboriginal father who was not born into good circumstances. He’s an example of how you can escape.”
How you can escape from being black? Apparently that's the thing, escape, disavow, deny ...
Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says “traditional culture” should not be romanticised. Picture: NewsWire/Martin Ollman
Despite the pond's best efforts, thar she blows, blathering on about traditional culture ... though it could be worse, it could all just be hypothetical ...
Luckily the pond had cartoon filibustered its way to the climax, more suffering produced for the nth time by the ABC (and there was the pond foolishly thinking that Polonius had broken his addiction and turned to Sky Noise for his angertainment fix)...
Price maintained that Aboriginal “traditional culture” should not be romanticised, and expressed concern about “the level of violence in our communities”.
She also acknowledged that colonialism had delivered “a positive impact” on Aboriginal people – including ready access to medicine, running water and food.
Last Monday, ABC TV ran a program titled Hear Me Out: Australia Day. It was an unusual debate on the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster in that not all the panellists agreed with each other in a left-of-centre way.
All members of the panel identify as Indigenous – namely Andy Saunders (comedian), Kiki Morris (influencer), Bebe Oliver (author), Tyson Lindsay (consultant), Guyala Bayles (artist) and Dillon. All but Lindsay and Dillon favoured abolishing Australia Day.
The strongest opponent was Oliver. He stated: “Every single year in Naarm in Melbourne you walk down the streets on the 26th of January and you encounter groups and hordes of people who have Aussie flag tattoos, the double plunger thongs, the board shorts, the towels, the capes, the flags – basically saying, ‘Down with the black fellas; f. k the black fellas; white power all the way’.” No evidence was cited to establish that such language was used.
A recent poll by Dynata for the Institute of Public Affairs found that close to 70 per cent of Australians believe “Australia Day should be celebrated on January 26”.
It’s not all that clear that abandoning Australia Day – the traditional holiday at the end of the summer break – would assist disadvantaged Indigenous Australians in any way; a point made by Dillon and Lindsay on the ABC – without significant challenges.
Indeed, it could well be counter-productive by those annoying Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike, who enjoy the January 26 holiday.
As to Tennis Australia – well, it’s into what British author James Bartholomew identifies as virtue-signalling. After all, not recognising Australia Day is merely a symbolic gesture – which will deny its supporters an occasion to celebrate and its opponents an opportunity to demonstrate. It would not help Indigenous Australians in any material way.
As to the “Naarm Open” – don’t hold your breath.
What a goose. He's still beating that tired old "virtue signalling" horse and the specious claim of that Pom ponce to have originated its pejorative usage, when it first turned up much earlier, or so its wiki says...
But pejorative about sums up any prejudiced bucket of bile to be found in the bilious Polonial outpourings...
As for enjoying the holyday, that gets closer to the truth. Who doesn't enjoy a holyday, so much so that we'd rather celebrate Sydney invasion day than federation day ...
The funny thing in all this is that Polonius can produce much froth and indignant bubble, but he doesn't seem to have much of a clue about what to celebrate ... even watching a game of tennis seems soiled by unseemly rage and a sudden upchuck of bigotry.
As for Polonius ever changing from his bigotry, more pronounced the older he gets, don't hold your breath ...
And so to a couple of closing cartoons, just for the holyday fun ...
And for those who missed it ...
One of the many exciting items in the Venerable Meade’s latest column was that the now Parrot-free Australian Digital Holdings was rebranding as “Newsmax Australia”, with former sports journo turned Miranda Devine tribute act Erin Molan (Daughter of the late Senator-General Jim) announced as their first signing. Presumably the outfit is hoping to attract some viewers under 80, and perhaps occasionally push their ratings into triple figures.
ReplyDeleteThey’re missing a huge opportunity, though. By now Polonius may have accepted that he’ll never be invited back onto the conservative-free zone of the ABC, let alone receive his own show - but surely he and Newsmax Australia are just made for each other? Who could resist the sight and sound of Hendo sitting in front of a webcam, slowly enunciating each word of this week’s column? Round that out with a couple of extracts from his Media Watchdog blog and a few other pedantries, and there’s an hour-long show, easy! The only thing that could be better would be having Our Henry as co-host - a sort of Gra-Gra and Bert for the digital age.
Hurry up, Newsmax - Polonius is probably sitting by his PMG-issue rotary dial phone, waiting for your call……
Polonius and Ergas as "co-hosts like Gra-Gra and Bert"? Fair go, Anony, that's a frightfully un-Australian insult to Gra-Gra and Bert. Gra-Gra was actually quite entertainingly funny at times.
DeleteA most excellent suggestion Anon and most pleasing to Polonius ... if there's any truth and justice in the world, they will make it so, and then he can use his new pulpit to rail at the ABC. See what glorious televisual stimulation those useless cardigan wearers missed out on ... (though the pond isn't sure what Polonius will do for the under 90 demographic).
DeleteAnonymous - did your mention of 'viewers under 80' refer to age of, or numbers of, viewers? Just kidding - along with GB and our Esteemed Hostess, I have enjoyed running mental youtube of Erin, Henry and Polonius on 'regular' TV. Oh, as long as they retain Flinty also.
DeleteTrump and 'outrages': "...the best is yet to come baby" Oh yes, oh yes and the best is yet to come for four long years. But just wait until he gets all uptight about having to get the Congress to vote 'yes' on whatever nonsense he's just come up with and then he moves to 'eliminate Congress' just like he eliminated FEMA.
ReplyDelete"Who doesn't enjoy a holyday " Exactly, and that's why that most secular of holy holidays - the monarch's birthday - was varied every year to make sure it occurred on a Monday. Now if only it were guaranteed that "Australia Day" were scheduled every year to fall on a Monday, I'd even support it.
ReplyDeleteAs indeed it once was, GB. Unfortunately we might then be content to quietly enjoy a long weekend, ignoring attempts to whip up nationalistic fervour and gaudy displays of faux patriotism. Still, we can always dream….
DeleteLet’s imagine for a moment that, in the world of tennis, the US Open was held a little earlier than it is - culminating on 4 July. In response the organisers festoon the arena in USA flags and bunting, prior to the match there’s a succession of patriotic speeches by various American dignitaries, some form of US history parade or pageant is staged, and a concert of well known songs (“God Bless America”, “America the Beautiful” and these days, probably “YMCA”) performed by Stars ‘n Stripes clad singers, culminating of course in the American National Anthem (with the expectation that all present will stand and sing along, hands on heart) followed by a huge red, white and blue fireworks display. After which, the Men’s Final at last gets underway. Most likely between two non-Americans.
ReplyDeleteIt’s quite likely most of the home crowd would love it. Many others, including much of the world audience tuning in, would have reactions ranging from a polite “Well, that’s the Yanks for you…” all the through to “What a pack of wankers - think it’s all about them”.
It’s possible that Polonius would be quite happy with this, and with a local equivalent today at the Australian Open. Alternatively it may be that, as per usual, he’s simply seeking to be outraged for the sake of it. Hopefully we’re not too far away from the day when he can simply sit in his room at the Twilight Home for Antiquated Reptiles and spend his dotage furiously waving his cane at a wireless permanently tuned to Radio National.
Have just become aware that Jules Feiffer died a week or so back. Outstanding practitioner of the art of cartooning - in the sense of showing us life in ways we may not have viewed it previously. He was 95. His death unremarked in general Australian media.
ReplyDeleteGiven that the reptiles are still required to give space to Johannes Leak, they are not likely to recognise actual masters of the genre, particularly ones who could draft, and draw, AND have their work provoke thought in the minds of readers.
I missed it too. Indeed sad to hear though all good things must come to an end sometime, so they say.
Delete"Sheesh, who cut short Polonius's supply of champers". (**1.)
ReplyDeleteSausage Wars... "MINING magnate Gina Rinehart’s rapid ascent as one of Australia’s largest beef producers has fuelled her pastoral arm" HanCOCK Ag.
Australian Sausages Unite. In bigotry & hate... "performing masculinity and nationhood. These ideas eventually trickled down into popular culture, " (1.)
Butchery. Sausages of NewsCorpses.
Part of The Problem, as nicely shown on the M.Weurkker cartoon... traditional media is has and always will be butchered. Whereas (anti) social media is "Mystery Meat" in spruiking shiny "FREE FREE FREE" clothes, with "No idea where it came from". Ala...
1. "Historical Genealogy of the “Sausage Wars” in Three Acts"
...
"Like in the post-Brexit “sausage wars,” meat for these eighteenth-century patriots was a perfect distillation of a “plain and simple,” common sense, national character in the face of an impoverished, frivolous, bureaucratic, or effeminate Europe.[v]
"There is more than theatricality and identity politics at stake here.
...
Act I: Beef and Land
...
1. ** "As Hannah Glasse, one of Britain’s first celebrity cookery writers, quipped in The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747), if one was to follow the French fashion for serving meat with “sauces,” one might as well “boil a leg of Mutton in Champagne.”[xxvii]
"Influential conservative politicians in the eighteenth century rallied around beef as a symbol of national liberty. They formed dining clubs such as the Sublime Society of Beef Steaks, embossing their club badges and gold rings with pictures of meat grills.[xxviii] For this elite group of men, consuming vast quantities of bloody meat was a way of demonstrating and performing masculinity and nationhood. These ideas eventually trickled down into popular culture, "
...
[Imported meat] "... continued to land in English ports: well into the 1930s, ... [xxxv] Whilst only a proportion of this meat was coming from within the formal confines of the British Empire (primarily Australia and New Zealand), the industry was deeply entangled with British Imperialism. It was the economics of empire that made this imported meat so cheap for British consumers, and it was British investment capital that had built the infrastructure of the international trade in dead meat. In view of recent scholarship on environmental colonialism and “the imperialism of free trade,” meat producing countries such as Argentina can be thought of as part of an “informal empire,” crucial to the extractive economics of British Imperialism.[xxxvi]"
...
"The Cattle intensive farming practices of settler colonialism decimated Indigenous communities and remade the ecology of places such as New Zealand."
...
"superintendent of London’s Smithfield Market clarified his own position with an analogy: “whilst it is certain that a well-preserved Chinaman killed in this country would no more be termed an Englishman than an Englishman killed in China would be termed a Chinaman, it is equally certain that a retailer buying “Sotch” meats would not ticket such meats as “English” or “Irish.””[xlvi]
Questions surrounding the provenance of meat became tangled up with questions of race, nationality, land, and identity. As Sushmita Chatterjee and Banu Subramaniam contend in their recent anthology, meat is an unstable political category: “a site of transnational flows, colonial circuits, and varied mediated significations of gender, race and class.”[xlvii]
...
"Act III: “Eat British Beef […] and Stop Talking Bollocks”[lvi]
..." the EU policies that allowed their contaminated products to enter the UK.[lxviii] The horsemeat scandal ultimately combined well-established fears of food contamination with parallel anxieties regarding national sovereignty: the contamination of the frozen lasagnes stood for the contamination of the national body."
...
https://gradfoodstudies.org/2022/10/12/a-historical-genealogy-of-uk-sausage-wars/