Killer Kreighton v. Our Henry, a late arvo treat ...

 

While on the road yesterday, the pond couldn't help but notice this exciting reptile juxtaposition ...

The pond had to make that illustration up because the original juxtaposition is long gone ... but you can see why the pond was both excited and frustrated.

Killer Kreighton v. our Henry, and all while the pond was fixated on the price of lamingtons in Euroa.

To be fair, the pond should note that the dog botherer was also out and about that day. But he's in full campaign mode...

How Dutton can deliver a miracle election victory, If you had to offer one word for Anthony Albanese, it would be weak. Weak on confronting anti-Semitism, weak on standing up to China and weak on taking responsibility for anything. He has become the nation’s spectator in chief – and Peter Dutton needs to take advantage with controlled aggression. 

The dog botherer has been this way for yonks, and the reptiles reheated it and served it up again today. 

The pond can only take so much dog botherer banging on and mashing up ...

His previous effort?

The PM’s first term has been a mess — but a second would be worse, The dystopian picture of an Albanese second act with major roles for Greens and teals may be just the scare campaign the Coalition needs. Yet we have to steel ourselves for the prospect that it could become our lived reality. 

And before that?

Beware: the election could throw up a parliamentary flea circus, Paul Keating rightly called the upper house ‘unrepresentative swill’ and it has become only increasingly unrepresentative as more independents and minor parties wallow in the slops. Now we risk turning the house of government into the same godawful mess. 

And before that fear mongering as a way to set up the campaigning:

Australia, we have a problem with migration, We shut our borders to China very quickly to help protect us from Covid-19. The virus of Islamist extremism is much more dangerous for our society.

Now if the lizard Oz had featured the return of the wayward bromancer on the Friday, the pond might have made room for him, but not the dog botherer.

The pond had promised it would remedy things in relation to our Henry, so here are him and Killer as a late arvo treat ...

First Killer, doing his best to put a brave face on chaos and rampant dysfunction ...

There’s economic method behind the Trumpian upheaval, Washington simply can’t afford to support another forever war in Ukraine, quite aside from the likely loss of life that ultimately includes US troops.

It's a relief to report that there weren't many snaps, though it has to be said that the uncredited gif of cash notes pouring down around the mango Mussolini was incredibly inept, The US has World War II levels of debt without having remotely fought a world war.

The pond supposes it served its purpose, because it set Killer off ...

Decades ago I read a quote from a sage who opined that politics was a product of economics, and economics, in turn, a product of the human condition – or something along those lines.
I’ve never been able since to track down who said it, but the truth of the observation struck me.
Donald Trump’s plans to up-end the global trading system by imposing hefty tariffs on even US allies have shocked and infuriated elite opinion everywhere. So has his refusal to offer formal security guarantees to Ukraine and seeming total lack of interest in continuing the US-led proxy war with Russia.
While Trump’s rhetorical justifications vary, these policies likely have the same underlying economic cause. The American fiscal position is diabolically bad.
Washington simply can’t afford to support another forever war in Ukraine, quite aside from the likely loss of life that ultimately includes US troops.
The tsunami of TDS (Trump derangement syndrome) that has crashed over newsrooms right and left in recent weeks has left the public largely clueless about this undeniable fact.
The US has World War II levels of debt without having remotely fought a world war. Public debt as a share of GDP in the US is already 100 per cent and on track for 118 per cent within a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. Spending on interest already exceeds spending on the military. US budget deficits of $US2 trillion ($3.1 trillion) a year, more than 6 per cent of GDP, have been pencilled in as far as the eye can see.

There has never been a question of US troops on the ground in fighting in Ukraine, but that's Killer for you. Always in search of a Killer argument.

The reptiles interrupted with an AV distraction ... Strelmark President Hilary Fordwich has urged Donald Trump is impose “reciprocal” tariffs against countries who have them in place against the United States. US President Donald Trump has imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports, though he limited the levy to 10 per cent on Canadian energy. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has labelled the tariffs against his country as “dumb”. “It is ridiculous whoever made those trade deals over the years,” Ms Fordwich told Sky News Digital Presenter Gabriella Power. “This is ridiculous. “It needs to be fair; it needs to be reciprocal.”

The pond is pleased that the reptiles can make sense of the on-off tariffs, because the pond hasn't the first clue as to what's happening or what might happen, except in a biblical way ...

Go Canucks ...

From what the pond could see, Killer thought that tariffs were a good thing, although they might lead to fiscal collapse, because the only alternative was fiscal collapse...

As the minter of the world’s reserve currency the US can get away with such profligacy for a lot longer than other nations but not forever. The Afghanistan quagmire cost the US more than $US1 trillion across 20 years according to estimates from Brown University. Imagine the cost of a conventional war with Russia on the other side of the world.
Similarly, Trump’s highly controversial plans to jack up tariffs can be seen as a covert way to raise revenues without resorting to politically toxic tax increases.
Indeed, Republicans can even say tariffs are not about revenue but the politically appealing goal of “bringing jobs home”, however much economists may dispute that likelihood. Think of the tariffs as a consumption tax that would never be passed by a Republican-controlled Senate.
In 2024 the Washington-based Tax Foundation estimated that a 20 per cent universal tariff, the sort of which Trump has proposed repeatedly, would raise more than $US3 trillion across the decade to 2035. That’s serious money, enough to at least dent the extraordinary $US2 trillion in annual deficits Washington has pencilled in for years.
Choose tariffs or fiscal collapse, they are the only two choices.
Far from expanding its military footprint, the Pentagon is planning cuts of about 8 per cent a year to the nearly $US1 trillion annual military budget. And Trump has flagged pursuing a three-way agreement with China and Russia to curb spending on nuclear weapons. Economic reality is starting to bite hard.
Europe is in no better economic position to fight. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has announced €800bn ($1.3 trillion) of new spending on military equipment to bolster the bloc’s emaciated, inexperienced forces. Bond yields on the vast quantum of German, French and British debt have jumped significantly already. Where is this money going to come from? The likeliest answer is inflationary money creation.

The reptiles flung in another snap, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen arrives at crisis talks in Brussels. Picture: AFP

The pond was still stuck back on tariffs ...

Killer then made his final lengthy pitch to dress up King Donald I in fine garb, and make sense of the chaos and the rampant dysfunctional carry-on seen these last few week...

When economics does enter the debate about support for Ukraine or tariffs it’s at a rather superficial level. When a market as big and lucrative as the US imposes tariffs, some of the tariff burden will indeed fall on foreigners, who will cut the prices of their exports to absorb part of the tariff to remain competitive against US domestic rivals.
Simplistic comparisons between Russia’s relatively small GDP and that of the EU and the US also are misleading.
First, relatively poor nations tend to be more formidable adversaries because their citizens tend to be more patriotic and therefore far more willing to fight. Russia hasn’t yet had to resort to mass conscription (the 2022 partial mobilisation called up reserves) in its war in Ukraine.
The governments of France, Germany and Britain, widely loathed by their voting publics, would have a much harder time finding proportionately similar numbers without civil unrest.
Furthermore, bloated Western governments, whose economies are based mostly on household consumption, have already lifted taxes to almost the maximum level their economies can bear.
They are in no position to wage a serious or sustained war without huge and politically disastrous spending cuts.
Indeed, the top marginal income tax rates of totalitarian Russia and communist China are both lower, significantly so in Russia’s case, than those in Australia, Europe and even the US: 22 per cent in Russia (where most Russians pay 13 per cent) and 45 per cent in China, a little below Australia’s top 47 per cent rate.
The stock of debt, accumulation of which is a necessity in wartime, is revealing too: China’s is significant at about 90 per cent, but Russia’s is barely 20 per cent.
A strong case can be made that economic exigencies, especially the parlous state of the US budget, are dictating Trump’s most controversial policies. Even his tough line on immigration, including plans to deport millions of low-skilled workers, has been cast as a push to crack down on crime or even a cultural preservation exercise.

It's a tough ask, but Killer is the right man for the job ... what with him being one of Gina's boys these days ...

And so to a final few Killer thoughts ...

But it could equally be a policy to put upward pressure on US wages, especially of low-skilled workers, to offset some of the impact of looming tariffs.
The most proximate cause of our fiscal poverty, and all the unfortunate policies arising from it, was the crazy response to Covid that severely weakened Western nations economically.
The same people who cheered those policies are often the same ones demanding the US fund a forever war in Europe. You can’t have everything, I’m afraid.

He's afraid?

Amazingly, the reptiles this time got around to admitting Adam Creighton is a senior fellow at the Institute of Public Affairs.

And so to our Henry, offering a splendid rebuttal littered with the references for our he's become rightly famous ...

For want of wise counsel, hubristic Trump risks ruin, The arrogance of those who seek to confirm their superiority through the ill-treatment of others is often viewed as a fatal flaw in a leader.

The reptiles thought so little of the outing that they offered our Henry just one measly snap, it is impossible not to be deeply concerned about Donald Trump’s style – and even more so about its likely consequences. Picture: Win McNamee/AFP)

Our Henry did his best to overcome the handicap of being snap and audio visual free, and began with a giant billy goat butt ...

That the Trump administration, in six short weeks, has recorded some serious achievements is beyond question.
Pushing back on political correctness, taking a firm stance on Gaza, Iran and anti-Semitism, placing China and the Europeans on notice, all merit acclaim.

That didn't last long, and our Henry was immediately into the ancient Greeks and hubris and Aristotle and Sophocles and ...

But even putting aside the administration’s protectionism and its shocking treatment of Ukraine, it is impossible not to be deeply concerned about Donald Trump’s style – and even more so about its likely consequences.
The ancient Greeks had a word for that style: hubris. Nowadays, we think of hubris as denoting overweening arrogance. That isn’t, however, what the term meant in classical Greek.
Rather, as Aristotle explained in the Rhetoric, hubris was a particular kind of arrogance: the arrogance of those who seek to confirm “that they are superior by ill-treating others”. And that disdain for others reflected a host of characteristics that were considered fatal in a ruler.
No one more starkly captured those characteristics and their consequences than Sophocles, most notably in his masterpiece, Antigone.
At the heart of its drama lies Thebes’ new king, Creon, who, while not inherently evil, deeply distrusts those around him. Imbued with the conviction that his mission is providential, he is intent on setting out the nomoi, or rules, that will “ensure the city’s renewed greatness” – that will Make Thebes Great Again.
But because he doubts the loyalty and commitment even of his own family, not to mention that of his advisers, the most fundamental rule he lays down is this one: that while the city will always honour its loyal patriots, no exclusion is too brutal, no ostracism too harsh, for the commonweal’s enemies.
“Do not yield to disobedience,” Creon thunders. But he is utterly incapable of distinguishing dissent from treachery, irremediably blurring the line between loyalty to him and loyalty to the city.
To make things worse, he perceives every challenge as an insult, every disagreement as a threat to his standing – as an act of lese-majeste that, at its most basic, imperils even his masculinity. “She exults at what she did,” he exclaims when Antigone refuses to bow to his will. “Now I am no man and she is the man, if she is free to enjoy this power with impunity.”
The consequences of that attitude are twofold. The most drastic is the attempt to punish opposition and make it unbearably costly through actions against real or imagined adversaries that range from public shaming and vicious humiliation to physical abuse.
But by far the most harmful consequences for Thebes’ future come from Creon’s imperviousness to advice.
“The greatest evil among mortals”, we are told in the play’s final bloody scene of self-destruction, “is want of counsel”.
It would be wrong, however, to think that Creon’s flaw is that he lacks advice; it is, on the contrary, that he adamantly refuses to listen to the advice he is given.

“Stop, before your words fill me with rage!” he yells at the very first sign of disagreement, casting aside those counsellors whose advice he does not like as traitors.
Creon, his son Haemon pithily observes, “only wants to speak, but not to listen”. And precisely because he doesn’t want to listen, it is impossible to warn him of the risks he is incurring: “Alas,” the wise prophet Teiresias exclaims, “no man can be shown against his will that the greatest of his possessions is good counsel.”

It was classic Henry, and the pond simply didn't have the heart to interrupt such a noble orator, worthy of being compared to Cicero...

Some might think it was a simpler matter, where a bald summary would have been enough ...

But the hole in bucket repair man was on a roll, and out rolled Thucydides.

Many have asked what happened to our Henry and his devotion to the Greek historian. 

They need ask no more ...

Nor are the risks that dismissing considered counsel causes trivial. In part, they reflect the sheer complexity of managing the city. Achieving Creon’s goals, say the play’s closing lines, would have required phronein, or practical wisdom; and practical wisdom – what we may call informed judgment – can be exercised only by taking note of the “many tempers (or dispositions) that arise in the life of the city”.
Creon, his son concludes, would make “a beautiful ruler in a desert”; but he cannot deal with the government of a polis, where decisions can yield outcomes that are as unpredictable as they are irreversible. Little wonder, then, that Creon’s ambitions end in disaster, decimating his family and condemning Thebes to a devastating plague.
But the plague in Greek tragedy had connotations that went far beyond disease. It bespoke stasis: the descent into the war of all against all, as the demos breaks into battling factions.
And its first step, Thucydides said in The Peloponnesian War, written as Antigone was being staged, is the degradation of public language, which “scrambles judgment” by detaching “the usual evaluations of actions from the words for them”.
Once that process is underway, demagogues readily present virtues as vices and vice-versa: “Recklessness was confused with courage,” Thucydides writes of Athens, “caution bred of forethought was derided as cowardice, and an intelligent grasp of all sides of a question was seen as mere indecisiveness”. Abandoning civility, the strong bullied the weak and rulers openly mocked those they believed had no choice but to submit.
It is by that mechanism, said Sophocles, that “Hubris breeds the tyrant” – the intolerant, the uncivil, the little man who “cannot rise above or control his appetites and impulses”.
And it is for that reason that the hubristic invariably destroy the alliances on which the polis’s survival must at some point depend – just as the mindless arrogance of the Athenians, who told the Melians “you know as well as we do that the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must”, wrecked the bonds of trust that sustained the Delian League, eventually precipitating Athens’ horrific defeat.

Game, set and match to our Henry ...

Killer put in his IPA place ...

Our Henry rolled on ...

“Glutted with a surfeit of self-belief,” Thebes’ pious elders say, the hubristic thereby “climbed to the highest and then plunged sheer down to inevitable ruin”.
Of course, none of that matters to Trump and his acolytes. It is, one suspects, all Greek to them. But Sophocles wrote Antigone to alert the Athenians. As they watched the play unfolding and the Thebans, shamed into public docility, falling into fearful silence – “frightened from the words” Creon did not want to hear – the slow corruption of Athenian public life must have flashed before their eyes.

Of course it's all Greek to them. It's all Greek to the pond. Back in the day at the Capitol Theatre in Tamworth the pond was force fed a diet of westerns rather than ancient Greeks ...

Our Henry seemed to realise his thoughts were worth a plugged nickel and so felt a decent dose of sophrosyne ...though strangely he missed an opportunity to relish and celebrate the condition ...

Sophrosyne is the greatest virtue, and wisdom is speaking and acting the truth, paying heed to the nature of things

Weird that our Henry rabbits on endlessly about theh ancient Greeks, but never seems to celebrate the likes of the tyrant Pisistratus, as good a role model for King Donald I as any ...

Never mind, time to wrap things up with our Henry getting all teary and rhetorical ...

How much more the risks of hubris should flash before ours. In the first Trump administration, many of his advisers were willing to stand up to him; now they compete to anticipate and exceed his every whim. As they race to prove their “Trumpism”, those who should be brakes have become accelerators, compounding the danger of a crash.
Ultimately, it is that danger that is the message of thousands of years of wisdom. “The chasms that yawn beneath us in political life,” the immortal tragedies warned, “are deeper than the peaks that beckon us are high”.
If Trump’s hubris is not brought under control, his pretensions to restore America’s greatness may be dashed as surely and cruelly as Creon’s ambitions for the “glorious future” of Thebes.

Too late for any of that. 

Gina and the Murdochians and Faux Noise have done their deeds, and the results are already in ... and what a glorious future it is ...