All - as a correspondent recently noted - is a sour mash of slop, feculence, and slime, not to mention sociopathy and war crimes - and amazing scenes where even Marge and gravel-voiced Alex are in a dither:
Oh yes ...
How are the reptiles coping with this Emeritus Chairman, Faux Noise production?
Well Dame Slap did the wise and sensible thing.
Ignore it all together, forget the night she donned her MAGA cap and walked out into the streets of New York in a state of ecstatic triumph, and return to the ancient and noble reptile sport of black bashing ...
We should never forget the bullet we dodged when this country rejected a constitutionally entrenched voice.
Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary%2Fwhy-arent-indigenous-leaders-demanding-an-audit%2Fnews-story%2F6a2c46c434abbd376aac5b034323c7bf?amp
The pond had to do the same for Jihad Jack, as Jack the Insider cheerfully joined in the current reptile jihad.
There are some who think that Jack is better than your average reptile, but he's just your average jihadist, happy to toil away in the belly of the beast.
Abdel-Fattah’s hypocrisy knows no bounds. From the comfort of academia, she fights against racism by fomenting a lot of it.
By Jack the Insider
Columnist
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary%2Fget-hold-of-a-keffiyeh-make-a-big-noise-and-let-the-dollars-roll-in%2Fnews-story%2Ffd59ab5c355ac380825a8c6e613e77af?amp
Jack, doing a Boris, was just joining Natasha as she indulged in another bit a Bita bitterness ...
C-grade review yet ARC gave grant ‘OK’
Confidential documents reveal stark divisions among peer reviewers over anti-Israel activist Randa Abdel-Fattah’s $889,000 taxpayer-funded research grant.
By Natasha Bita
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/education%2Franda-abdelfattahs-889000-grant-awarded-by-arc-despite-cgrade-review-and-formal-warnings%2Fnews-story%2Fa391ec5a8f239b34be9a476e8bc78bb8?amp
None of them had any appeal to the pond.
What a pity then that the intermittent archive spluttered and conked out, so that the pond couldn't personally send these efforts to that dank, dark cornfield.
But that left the pond with very little to do today.
It's already been established on the probabilities that BRS (as the reptiles call him) is a war criminal guilty of appalling war crimes, and the news that Pauline launched a fierce defence of him only made his guilt more plausible.
Marvel at the way that in the midst of King Donald acting as god and promising a genocide, the reptiles still found space to highlight not just BRS, but their current jihad ...
On the BRS matter, over on the extreme far right a soggy Rice attempted to do a little cooking to save the day...
The VC recipient’s defamation case was an own goal, but war crimes prosecutors will have a much more challenging time proving their case beyond reasonable doubt.
By Stephen Rice
Sydney Bureau Chief
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary%2Fwar-crimes-prosecutors-will-face-challenges-convicting-ben-robertssmith%2Fnews-story%2F96fc1de3f4164781ea35c21bd4ffdaf8?amp
In the end, the pond settled for a standard serve of renewables bashing and climate science denialism, served up by the swishing Switzer, still on his never ending rehabilitation tour ...
The header: The era of climate policy consensus is dead. So why are we digging in? The Iran crisis has performed an unintended service: it has exposed, with brutal clarity, the folly of Australia’s energy policy.
The caption for Frank's inimitable effort, Anthony Albanese. Artwork by Frank Ling.
That image of Albo, emerging once again from the lizard Oz's antediluvian swamp, reminded the pond of previous Frank efforts...
Sure enough, it wasn't new and fresh, it was as stale as week-old reptile bread.
It had been recycled, no doubt to help save the planet...
Good old Lloydie of the Amazon, just the right company for the swishing Switzer.
Frank's unifying artwork spread far and wide, with another member of the Kelly gang also entranced ...
Haven't thought about Craig for yonks, but what a relief to see he's landed on his FEE feet ...
Oh wait, it's not that one, it's this mysterious one, see Crikey ...(paywall)
Sheesh, how did the pond end up there, amidst cranks and kooks?
Truth to tell, the pond just wanted to establish that the swishing Switzer and the lizard Oz hive mind were still keeping the right sort of company, and all thanks to Frank's incredible artwork.
As for the swishing Switzer offering, it was short weight, just three minutes, so the reptiles said...
For several years now, Canberra has layered intervention upon intervention: price caps, market controls, regulatory uncertainty and glacial approval processes for new projects. At the same time, Australia has failed to reinvigorate exploration for gas and oil and allowed domestic refining capacity to erode – with only two refineries now operational.
As this newspaper’s Chris Uhlmann has argued, energy is not just another commodity but the foundation of economic life and national security. Australia now sits at the end of long supply chains, reliant on imported liquid fuels to keep the economy functioning. With more than 90 per cent of our energy still derived from coal, oil and gas – and diesel the indispensable fuel of industry, transport agriculture and mining – any serious disruption was bound to bring the country to a standstill.
Here the pond should note that the reptiles, at the mention of his name, provided a link to the Ughmann ... and though it's already been featured in the pond, here's a reminder of the company the swishing Switzer likes to keep...
Enough of that, the Ughmann features regularly in the pond, as the swishing Switzer got down and dirty with the climate science denying dog botherer ... The Australian’s Columnist Tom Switzer says the US President Donald Trump has made a “monumental mistake” with his attack on Iran. Mr Switzer told Sky News host Chris Kenny that Donald Trump most likely assumes striking Iran would “be enough”. “To bring down the regime, he probably in hindsight, should’ve followed the advice of his America first instincts.”
There's nothing new to see here ...
A popular online parody of Albanese captures the same contradiction: an Australia that boasts of climate leadership while exporting vast quantities of coal and gas, importing refined energy at home, and relying on China to process the minerals it claims are strategic. The joke lands because it is so close to the truth.
But this is no longer a laughing matter. Against the backdrop of the Iran crisis and tightening global supply, our vulnerability is being exposed.
And the consequences are increasingly grave: disruptions to petrol supply, renewed inflationary pressure, higher interest rates, weak growth and rising business failures – all pointing to the spectre of stagflation.
A serious government would use this moment to reset policy – acknowledging that fossil fuels will remain central to Australia’s economy for decades and acting accordingly.
Uh huh, and so to a snap of the chief villain, Chris Bowen pictured speaking at a press conference outside his electorate office in Fairfield West. Picture: NewsWire
The pond didn't have the heart to interrupt the swishing Switzer with another tale of the planet going downhill fast...
The question, as Graham Lloyd recently put it, is whether this government is capable of such a shift. Albanese and Labor remain wedded to the belief that climate change represents such an overriding threat that the world will unite to phase out fossil fuels. And much of the mainstream media encourages the government: now is the moment, we are told, to accelerate moves to renewable energy.
But this is not how the world is behaving. Electricity demand is rising and emissions continue to hit record highs as fossil fuels remain the surest path out of poverty in the developing world.
Even in advanced economies, political resolve is weakening – as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has conceded, the consensus on climate policy has gone.
Yet Canberra persists with an approach that risks making energy more expensive and less reliable, with little measurable impact on global emissions. In doing so, it is not only placing pressure on living standards but also increasing our dependence on imported technologies and supply chains.
Yes, why do anything, when you can do nothing, or perhaps trot out a snap of Sir Keir, Keir Starmer speaks during a press conference at Downing Street. Picture: Getty Images
And that was pretty much it, with the swishing Switzer nobly battling the activist establishment ...
But the crisis has performed an unintended service: it has exposed, with brutal clarity, the folly of Australia’s own energy policy.
We are a country that could be far closer to energy self-sufficiency. Instead we have chosen dependence – on imports, on fragile supply chains and on the goodwill of others in a tightening world. The Coalition is right to reject Labor’s net-zero agenda. It now has an opportunity – and an obligation – to press the case relentlessly and unapologetically: for supply, for sovereignty and for a policy framework grounded in economic and strategic reality.
Such a course would be fiercely contested by Labor, the Greens and much of the activist establishment. But if the Coalition – alongside One Nation – is prepared to prosecute the argument, it may yet force a long-overdue reckoning and give Australia a fighting chance of securing our energy future and, with it, our economic potential and national security.
Oh yes, let Pauline and the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way get together and help destroy the planet.
Thanks for that astonishing insight and credit where credit is due ...
Tom Switzer is presenter of Switzerland, a podcast about politics, modern history and international relations.
Not a clue - EVs already do things better and at a lower cost for consumers and trust the pond, the Hume highway is a doddle except for those whale-killing windmills in the beefy boofhead's home turf - and luckily the infallible Pope was on hand to help out ...
- non-canonical texts can still be very influential.
- non-canonical book The Bible translators did not believe the Apocrypha were inspired, but translated these non-canonical books because of their historical significance.
- non-canonical literature The ruling party viewed noncanonical literature with suspicion.
Even that distraction seemed non-canonical - Petey boy as the distraction?! - and the final gobbet was equally dismal, as it failed to mention Thucydides once!
His objectives in Iran remain estimable?
Weird times ...
Ergas & Pincus ... youff, in 30 years you might be better off. Except for...
ReplyDelete"the tax-and-oligarchy catch-22. Taxing extreme wealth is among democracy’s most direct tools for constraining oligarchic power, yet extreme wealth reliably finances the political work of blocking, diluting, or unwinding such taxes. The catch-22 operates through political optionality. When the wealthiest households can defer tax indefinitely, they preserve capacity for campaigns, litigation, lobbying, and producing expert doubt about reforms that might reach them. Every dollar of deferred tax is a dollar available to lobby against its own eventual collection. Progressive Era reforms were designed to interrupt this dynamic. For decades they partially succeeded. But the constraints have eroded, and today’s largest fortunes face minimal effective taxation.
"This Article responds with a democratic tax firewall, an approach that treats durability as a first-order design constraint rather than an afterthought. Drawing on political science, history, and recent state-level campaigns, we identify design choices that can help reforms resist quiet erosion and show how sustained technical preparation can position reformers to act when political windows open.
https://taxprofblog.aals.org/2026/04/02/gamage-presents-confronting-the-tax-and-oligarchy-catch-22-today-at-toronto/
Newscorpse always tries to keep the political windows closed.
Not seen today... wait 30 years and...
ReplyDelete"How important is this? “It’s huge,” I was told by the epidemiologist Michael Marmot. “If our health and life expectancy is in decline, it’s about as clear a sign as you can get that our society is in decline.” In the 1980s, Marmot studied the Soviet bloc and saw illness increase. That’s one way you could tell those societies were on the verge of collapse.
"Now it’s starting to happen in hypercapitalist countries. Scientists increasingly worry about “midlife mortality” in Britain: people in the prime of their lives dropping dead. In Donald Trump’s America, where life expectancy is plunging, more women are dying between the ages of 25 and 44 than did in 1990. Sick lives are the product of sick societies.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/06/uk-death-healthy-life-expectancy-decline-state
"America is an outlier among democracies. Not only is it electing older presidents, its legislators are the oldest in the world. The new administration is unlikely to change that.
Meanwhile, the worldwide trend toward ageing leaders is largely being driven by autocracies. The average dictator is now 64—12 years older than in 1975. This isn't surprising, as autocratic leaders have historically been reluctant to give up power.
https://www.economist.com/interactive/the-world-ahead/2024/11/18/world-leaders-are-getting-older-except-in-democracies
Via
Older but not sicker
by JOHN Q on APRIL 7, 2026
https://crookedtimber.org/2026/04/07/older-but-not-sicker/
I’m guessing the Henry has called on sometime collaborator Pincus to do some calculations for him, so this column can have numbers in it, rather than just words from long-dead Greeks, which otherwise, miraculously, are exactly pertinent to this day.
ReplyDeleteSo y’r h’mbl looked at the numbers - and was mystified. Not, one hopes, in the John Allen Paulos way, although one suspects that Henry and Jonno might have hoped that regular readers would simply accept those numbers, and perhaps quote the conclusion down at the club, or at happy hour in the retirement settlement.
Y’r h’mbl looked at a ‘bequest’ of $80, and ‘earnings’ of $300. Following reference to Darcy and Bingley, do we assume that the $300 (could they not find the £ symbol on their laptops) was annual income for someone in 19th century England. Even if converted to, say, £150, that would have been high pay for someone who had only his skill and labour to provide for himself, and, eventually, family. Let us say he is a farm steward, and call him Mr Ergot for convenience. Mr Darcy’s £10 000 a year was at another level altogether.
Now, narrator Pincus tells us that Mr Ergot’s productivity rises by 3 percent a year (perhaps he has been scientific in keeping the ergot out of the grain). Narrator would also have us believe that his employer increases Mr E’s pay by that amount each and every year. That does stretch belief, but this is an hypothetical.
Mr Ergot receives a bequest of £40, which he invests at 1%. Hmmm - this was going into a time when ‘consols’ were offering 5-10%, and were considered to be fit for the tiny inheritances that came to ‘widders and orphans’. Perhaps Mr E should have looked in on a coffee house and read the investment column of those newspapers of the day.
Narrator Pincus’ numbers must assume that those miserly investment rates compound - they do not work otherwise.
So with those assumptions, but with little reference to rates of pay to labour through the middle of the 19th century, or to interest rates actually on offer, this convoluted ‘illustration’ does work, sort of.
It can say little about taxation (which is supposed to be the theme of the column, no?). In the 30 years from the appearance of Mr Darcy, the income tax - initially levied to pay for the wars with Napoleon - was abolished. Much government revenue was raised on assorted duties and excise, and directly on land. Oh, inheritance duties contributed steadily to the Treasury, but none of Rupert’s tame ‘economists’ is likely to mention that little bit of history.
So not quite sure why the Henry and Pincus did a joint column again. There should be a point in there somewhere. It eludes this reader, but thank you DP for making their words, and numbers, accessible.
Oh, having the Henry and Pincus item to play with reduced my disappointment at finding access to the Quad Rant limited. I use two laptops. When I tried to look in on the Quad on the first, the site told me, sniffily (there is a particular set of meanings with these communications) that it would not risk linking to my machine, because the OS was not absolutely to the most recent update. When I tried the other laptop (yes, you are quite entitled to ask why I persisted, after being told to go away) - with different OS - it eventually offered me possible access, just do these 'tests' to show that I am not a criminal bot.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Rant' cannot have a lot of regular readers - most of its comments come from a pool of about 15 'identities' - so is this apparent focus on security simply trying to show newcomers that what it puts up is, in some arcane way, of national importance?