The pond was delighted to see correspondents greet the new year with verve, vivacity and verse.
Meanwhile, the pond continues its peregrinations, this time taking in the origin story for the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way.
You see, before going on his valiant mission to help destroy the planet, the humble lad first attended the Nimmitabel Public School (still perched on a hillock in the hamlet).
The village has fallen on hard times since that golden age, but the pond was pleased to see the old Sundowners movie pub had been given a refuge for coffee swillers, and that the abandoned railway station had been turned into a men’s shed. (The hamlet’s never been the same since the night they drove the old line down and the bells were ringing).
Sad to say, some have forgotten the beefy boofhead’s noble battle against satanic windmills in his early days, putting him on a similar career path to that of King Donald.
Angus did his best, but the pond was startled and appalled to see a wind farm lurking not far from the village which had groomed the child.
Once again the WCRS (whale corpse removal squad) had done a tremendous job cleansing all traces of the carcasses of the creatures daily killed by those infernal machines (handily, they’d also removed the corpses of all the Oz critters routinely mashed to a pulp), but it was mortifying to see some farm animals loitering nearby, apparently unaware of the dire peril surrounding them. As for the landscape, how they ruined the vision of bleached, parched tundra:
In related news, the pond was shocked to see Wired recently recycling ancient warming myths:
How long before this fear mongering ends?
How long before Nimmitabel’s shame vanishes in the wind?
How long must the pond wait until returning to the sweet, climate-science denying bosom of the lizard Oz, the IPA, and the likes of the Riddster?
The link?
Handy further reading:
Bonus extra +, "Handy further reading"...
ReplyDeleteJames, describing his opinion of Rupert texting his barrister questions, during James' deposition...
“How fucking twisted is that?”
~ James Murdoch
Looong read.... and a suck-session... "For nearly five hours, Rupert’s attorney asked James a series of withering questions.
- Have you ever done anything successful on your own?
- Why were you too busy to say “Happy birthday” to your father when he turned 90?
- Does it strike you that, in your account, everything that goes wrong is always somebody else’s fault?
"At one point, the attorney referred to James and his sisters as “white, privileged, multibillionaire trust-fund babies.” At another, he read an unsourced passage from a book about the Murdochs to suggest that James was a conniving saboteur."
From;
"GROWING UP MURDOCH
James Murdoch on mind games, sibling rivalry, and the war for the family media empire
By McKay Coppins
...
"During our first meeting, he [James] told me about a document that one of his father’s lawyers had written, which included a quote from King Lear: “How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child.”
... "James and Kathryn found it darkly amusing. Did Rupert and his lawyers not realize that the line is uttered by a mad king who disowns his only honest daughter?
“The whole point is that the crazy old man doesn’t know that Cordelia is telling him the truth,” Kathryn told me.
...
"Rupert sat slouched and silent throughout the deposition, staring inscrutably at his younger son. Every so often, though, he would pick up his phone and type. Finally, James realized why. “He was texting the lawyer questions to ask,” James told me. “How fucking twisted is that?”
...
"James hated the books and articles written by professional Murdoch chroniclers, which he mockingly referred to as “the canon.”
...
http://amediadragon.blogspot.com/2026/01/growing-up-murdoch.html
https://archive.md/ZwrEj
“but imitations thrice removed from the truth, and could easily be made without any knowledge of the truth, because they are appearances only and not realities” (Republic, Book III).
And a rhymes with, follow on...
"The insider is trapped with his own recollections, which we are privy to. How he got trapped with these painful memories, and his way out, are the purpose of this theater piece. He is in the process of remembering and reliving his interrogation by a prosecutor, and other aspects of his life relevant to the
Cum-Ex financial scandal he came forward to expose to the German authorities.
"Cum‑Ex was a European‑wide tax fraud scheme, carried out from the early 2000s until its exposure in the late 2010s, in which bankers and investors exploited dividend tax loopholes to siphon off billions of euros. Some investigative journalists and researchers estimate that the scheme cost European treasuries up to €55 billion in total, with losses to Germany alone estimated at more than €30 billion.
...
https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2025/12/if-the-poor-die-the-rich-die-too-a-review-of-the-insider-by-teater-katapult-in-hong-kong.html#more-294444
As luck would have it DP, I spoke with an old friend down Goulburn way on the weekend. The boofhead was redistricted out by the AEC. Said friend owns a hobby farm of 150acres. He offered the satanic windmill makers his plot for whale killers but alas, a moratorium... "and your block is too small anyway".
ReplyDeleteSo he's taken up the "if your rich enough to afford batteries we'll subsidise them for you" Albo affluence type vote grab pork barrel.
So trickle up, but my leg is wet!
He is going "off grid" as soon as batteries installed to remove poles & wires daily charge of $800 /yr before an electron delivered.
Further diluting the pool of public power, ala private health. Ha! And we've been HAAS'd.
Off grid by subsidy.
A sinking of polity opportunity cost.