In which there's much to note, but mein Gott, there's still a groaning and a Killer time ...

 

On the upside, the pond has developed a taste for Stewart Lee's scribbling, if only on the basis that his relationship to Birmingham is remarkably like the pond's relationship to Tamworth: I value Brummie art, but who else does?

On the downside, the pond read Ariel Bogle's piece in The Graudian, False claims started spreading about the Bondi Junction stabbing attack as soon as it happened, including this ...

...Esther Chan, a disinformation researcher, said “Islamophobic and anti-immigrant comments” were rife online in the hours after the Bondi Junction stabbing, including speculation about the perpetrator’s skin colour, appearance and supposed religion.
“In fact, several X accounts based outside of Australia and each with a large following were among the earliest to share these videos, some unverified, alongside comments with a racist or Islamophobic undertone,” she said.
“It’s important to beware of how incidents like this can be used to promote harmful narratives.”
In the aftermath of the attack, several prominent verified accounts on X, including those of journalists and far-right political leaders in the UK, speculated without evidence that the person responsible was motivated by Islamic faith.
The verified account of Julia Hartley-Brewer, a presenter on British channel TalkTV, claimed the attacker was an “Islamist terrorist”, which she later clarified was incorrect. The verified account of Britain First co-founder Paul Golding made similar allegations, which had been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

TalkTV?

Yep, she's another Murdoch minion, and the tone of her X'ing retraction was insulting.

My tweet below was incorrect. The attack in Sydney was not an Islamist terror attack, it was carried out by a man the police have since named as Joel Cauchi who they say had mental health problems not an ideological motive. I doubt that will be much consolation to the families of his victims.

The pond doubts that anyone will be consoled by that sort of half-baked retraction or the mentality it doesn't seek to cloak ...

It turns out that others kept Hartley-Brewer company, per Charlie Lewis's timeline in Crikey, paywall, including inter alia:

8.09pm: Julia Hartley-Brewer, a host on right-wing UK broadcast outlet TalkTV, posts on X: “Another day. Another terror attack by another Islamist terrorist. Six dead, others seriously injured, including a baby”, accompanied by an uncensored photo of the attacker after he had been shot dead. Hartley-Brewer has more than 460,000 followers. 
8.30–9.30pm: Channel 7 incorrectly identifies the student as the killer on its YouTube channel and website. They hook this to “expert analysis” from criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro. Watson-Munro gets several details of the attack wrong during the interview. This clip stays on the Channel 7 YouTube channel for more than an hour. It is viewed at least 3,000 times. 
8.39pm: NSW police commissioner Karen Webb says the attacker is believed to be a 40-year-old man and that terrorism is no longer the suspicion: “We are waiting to confirm his identification and if it is the person we believe it is, we don’t have fear for that person holding an ideation. In other words, that it’s not a terrorism incident.”
Sunday April 14
6.05am: Channel 7 presenter Matt Shirvington, broadcasting live from the Bondi Junction on Sunrise, once again incorrectly identifies the student as the killer.
7.10am: The father of the erroneously identified student posts on X, demanding NSW police release the name of the true perpetrator “before this nonsense claiming it was my son causes more harm”.
8.44am: A 40-year-old Queensland man is confirmed as the attacker.
~12.15pm: Channel 7 issues an apology for incorrectly identifying the killer. (It has declined to comment on where it originally sourced the incorrect name.)
7.59pm: The student mistakenly identified by Channel 7 as the killer tells The Australian: “It’s extremely disappointing to me to see people mindlessly propagating misinformation like this without even the slightest thought put into fact checking”.

The pond realises all this was traversed in last night's Media Watch: Inflammatory fake news floods social media as Seven News apologise for misidentifying the Bondi Junction attacker who killed six people.

Even so, the pond can't resist noting that all the vile roads seem to lead to the Chairman''s minions or to Seven and Kerry Stokes, and so the pond was on the road again today, seeking to avoid jumping the gun, but invariably involved in the business of promoting harmful narratives, which can only be corrected by resorting to the comments by assorted able correspondents...

For starters, there's the Lehrmann matter and yes the pond hung in through the entire reading of the learned judge's findings in relation to the matter. 

The pond makes no finding on the matter, as it has consistently refused to comment on a matter that has been before various courts, though the pond will make sure not to leave hat if ever in the company of the learned judge (how everyone loved that joke).

On the upside, is this the chance Dame Slap and the reptiles have finally been waiting for, the chance to let the Lehrmann matter go? 

Surely Dame Slap should get back to climate change denialism, the dangers of renewables, the threat of the woke, occasional bouts of transphobia and so on ...

The pond recorded the moment the option became available to the reptiles yesterday ...

What do you know, the wretches had let loose Mein Gott, there he was in the preferred far right 'top of the lizard Oz digital world ma', and he's suddenly an astonishing defence expert up there with the bromancer.

Before getting on to Mein Gott - the pond's new favourite defence expert - the pond checked out this morning's edition to see if there was the slightest sign of remorse regarding the rag's treatment of Higgins. month after month after relentlessly crusading Dame Slap month ...

Media Watch seemed to cover the main points: Ten wins its defamation case in the Federal Court after it found Bruce Lehrmann was ‘hell-bent’ on having sex with Brittany Higgins.

But the reptiles?

Hah, Rice and Dudders: Lee’s findings are comprehensive and exhaustive. They should be the final word of this whole mess.

Dame Slap: In other words, though Lee’s job is done, and a fine one he did, this omnishambles is not yet over.

Yep, she'll go on persecuting Higgins until the long lost cows up in the back paddock come home ... and so the world will continue to miss out on Dame Slap's expertise in climate change denialism, the dangers of renewables, the threat of the woke, occasional bouts of transphobia and so on ...

Below the fold, the pond was pleased to see that Mein Gott had survived the morning cull ...

The meretricious Merritt with the cheek to talk about trial by media, when the reptiles have been indulging in trial by media from the moment the circus began? Count the pond out ...

And as for cackling Claire raging at decadence, in her rage at the NDIS, she seems to have missed the obvious target ...

A final note on another circus currently taking place. Some put it at the top of the world ma ...

Yep, the Graudian was doing it live, while the best the reptiles could do was a note from Killer Creighton down the page ... and so the pond slipped him in, but only down the page ...

And so at last to the business of the day, and Mein Gott, what a relief it was to tiptoe past the bromancer and land on a real defence expert ...

Mein Gott, what a compelling line, finally a chance to deal with the axis of weevils, though disappointingly, Mein Gott was interrupted by the flow of snaps, just when the pond was hoping for talk of nuking Iran, and why not nuke Gaza at the same time, seeing as how that's been mooted ...

China, Iran and a multitude of Arab nations condemned an Israeli minister’s statement that a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip was an option in the Israel-Hamas war, calling it a threat to the world.

At Monday’s long-planned opening of a United Nations conference whose goal is to establish a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East, many ambassadors expressed condemnations and criticisms of comments by Israel’s Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu, who later called his remarks in a radio interview Sunday “metaphorical.” (AP).

The poor lad was spanked with a lettuce leaf for that courageous nuking suggestion, but on with the snaps ...

By golly, they've given Mein Gott a hero - the orange Jesus - and some fine looking kit, and he knows just what to do with it ...

Sadly, Australia can't nuke the nukes? Never mind ... Mein Gott is a first class warrior who can handle disappointment ...

Meanwhile, as great minds contemplate a ding dong right royal do, the genocide continues, but it would be wrong for an eminent defence expert of the Mein Gott kind to notice ...

Uh huh ... now there's a stand alone mindset with no help from friends ...

If the United States and its allies can rush to Israel's defense in the skies, shooting down dozens of drones and missiles fired by Iran, why can't they do the same for Ukraine — which has suffered under Russia's missile attacks for more than two years?

That's the question Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his country's staunchest backers in the West were asking on Monday, hours after the U.S., the United Kingdom, France and Jordan helped Israel shoot down some 300 drones and missiles fired by Iran in retaliation after Israel killed its senior military commanders in Syria.

“European skies could have received the same level of protection long ago if Ukraine had received similar full support from its partners in intercepting drones and missiles," Zelenskyy wrote Monday evening in a post on X.

And so to economics and the usual Tuesday groaning ... with the usual topic, the perils of renewables.

In this episode, Dame Groan turns populist and rails at filthy rich people - snaps will be provided - and their filthy plans to turn to renewables ...

Of course virtually all Dame Groan's pals is not virtually the same as virtually all economists, but remember there's billionaires to demonise, and here are a couple (naturally right-thinking Gina of the IPA wasn't one of them)...

There was also a snap of a smirking patsy ...

Never mind the snaps, heed the groaning, and celebrate coal and the nuking of the country to save the planet ...

Meanwhile on another planet, as noted by a correspondent, there have been many stories about a recent event, none of which sullied the lizard Oz or the groaning ...google as you will, this being just a screen cap ...

One tweet that caught the eye?

Follow. that link and you land on NOAA confirms 4th global coral bleaching event.

Meanwhile the old duck (don't blame the pond, she called herself a duck) was still groaning away ...

Forget it Jake, it's just another groaning about renewables, and the pond has done its duty ...

As for climate action being good for the world, forget it, and as for the Australian economy, that too is under control. 

The pond understands that Dame Groan is soon to launch a first class tourism business in the deep north ... with millions expected to flock to the reef to see the dead coral, the sensational experience of a lifetime... 

Perhaps the Riddster can join her in the venture.

And so for a bonus to Killer. The pond had thought that sorting out the middle east and the planet's climate might be enough for one day, but it was the Killer headline to Killer's piece that tipped the scales...

The pond can't really expect to pin that headline on Killer - back in the day, the pond found all sorts of weird headlines attached to its copy by a sub-editor.

Even so, it's worth noting that the charge isn't about allegations he illegally paid off a porn star. Making. hush money payments isn't a crime in New York, and while doing cash and kill stories is deeply unethical, what could anyone expect from a peckerwood or the National Enquirer?

Even the naughty business with the cheques and falsifying business records only counts as a misdemeanour, because you wouldn't want to get in the way of Americans doing business. 

The way Bragg elevated it to felony charges was to skate past all that and argue that the orange Jesus falsified business records in a conspiracy to influence the 2016 elections.

But then you wouldn't have got a mention of a porn star in the headline, and everyone knows the best way to sell a Killer story is to slip in a porn star ... (or perhaps cocaine and hookers).

As expected there were a couple of distracting snaps of a dull kind ...

A snap of a lawyer and a banner? And Killer seemed strangely muted, with the pond feeling the need to croon  ...

You walked into the courtroom like you were walking onto a yacht

Your hat strategically dipped below one eye

Your face it was mango, or maybe apricot

You had one eye in the mirror, as you watched yourself gavotte ...

Sorry, he just walked into the courtroom and the problem the pond has with the way of singing 'apricot' to match up with 'yacht' and 'gavotte' will have to go on the back burner ...

The pond was pleased that Killer stood by the Donald. Where's the harm in conspiring to attempt to overthrow the US system of government and the peaceful transfer of power?

And as for those bloody New Yoikers and their devious ways, they're not bloody Americans, you have to cross state lines to Joisey to get a real American, amirite?

Then it was on to the last couple of gobbets of suffering by the unfairly persecuted orange Jesus...

Hah, Killer's already explained the agenda, judge. You can't slip out of it that easy ... you're just a closet Democrat with spawn working for democratic candidates, as if anybody wanted anything to do with democracy.

If only she'd been working for a Saudi Arabian prince, or perhaps Vlad the sociopath, it would have looked like a real court case ...

Yep, he wants to be present at everything, except when he wants to skip the trial, or he wants to nod off because he's a sleepy Don ... and so to end with a celebration of the new circus in town, and in Tamworth, you always needed a circus, even if you became vaguely aware of the cruelty done to the animals (and the humans)...

In which the Caterist goes missing, but that provides only minor rerlief ...

 

The pond spent a pleasant half-hour with Google's new, "improved" way of logging in - when you run multiple accounts on multiple devices, be ready for a nightmare - before turning to the reptile news of the day ...

The pond doesn't do ambulance chasing, or indulge theories about same, and is beyond prayers, but does have thoughts for the victims and for the cop forced to shoot to stop the mayhem. 

It's not just enough to say she was just doing her duty and the pond hopes she gets proper help and care, not the usual NSW plod treatment. Strangely, the pond was reminded of an exchange between Raylan and Kendal about killing in that soap Justified ...

Enough already, too much killing, and meanwhile the reptiles are preparing for the big news, which falls outside the pond's business cycle. Strangely Dame Slap again went missing  in the featured stories ...

Of course it doesn't matter how it turns out, they all just factor the costs in as part of doing business.

The pond was reminded of this on the weekend when reading an aged piece by Jack Shafer in Politico back in April 2023, Rupert Wins Again For the media mogul, the massive Dominion settlement fee is just the cost of doing business.

If it seems fairly daft to congratulate Rupert Murdoch on settling the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case at a cost of $787.5 million, you probably need to be brought up to speed on how the tycoon excises malignancies when they threaten his core businesses.
Murdoch’s company paid $100 million to celebrities and crime victims in his tabloid phone-hacking scandal in Britain, according to the Washington Post. Another $50 million went one year to women at Fox News who alleged sexual harassment at the conservative network. In another case, $15 million went to a former host who complained about wage discrimination. A “seven-figure payment” went to the parents of Seth Rich, who sued Fox for trafficking a false conspiracy theory about his death. And in 2010, Fox dropped a mammoth $500 million to settle a supermarket-coupon trade secret lawsuit. In 2011, Murdoch completely shuttered his News of the World tabloid to limit exposure in the phone-hacking scandal.
A hundred million here, a hundred million there, might crimp your finances. But in the Murdoch universe, paying such settlements is just the cost of doing business Murdoch-style. The alternative to settling with Dominion for telling a series of lies about voting fraud would have been a painful and long courtroom drama. A stream of ugly would have been on the Fox image, day after day, as Dominion made its case. Even after the case concluded and went to appeals, the Fox brand would have been further stigmatized, and shame and disparagement would have been leveled at Murdoch, Fox executives and Fox hosts Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Maria Bartiromo, Laura Ingraham and Bret Baier, all of whom Dominion planned to put on the witness stand. Getting out from under all of that hurt for $787.5 million is a kind of bargain for a company with a market cap of $17.3 billion. Fox has $4.1 billion in cash and warrants on hand, says the New York Times.
According to early press reports, Fox won’t have to apologize or acknowledge wrongdoing in any fashion. Like the phone-hacking scandal, like the sexual harassment cases, like the Seth Rich case, like the coupon case, this settlement will allow the Fox media machine to return to cruising speed and even continue its sleazy ways. When Murdoch was shamed over the phone-hacking scandal and closed the News of the World, observers hoped that maybe he or one of his children would amend the company’s manner. But here we are a decade-plus later, and the Murdoch enterprise is just as contaminated as it ever was.
There have already been whisperings that the settlement will tame the Murdoch beast. That Fox News will tread more carefully. That Fox’s shame will bleed into the media diets of their most faithful viewers and they’ll start looking at Fox News with new eyes as the enlightenment burns into their consciousness. Don’t kid yourself. If you had a machine that tossed off the sort of money Fox does, you wouldn’t tamper with it.

If you want to keep wielding political clout down under, even while a US citizen and even though it's a minor part of the empire, don't tamper with the lizard Oz ...though the pond noted a minor disturbance in the force, because this day the Caterist went missing, and so there was no ranting about renewables to behold ...

Perhaps he'll turn up later in the day, but meanwhile, the rag's take on the news was just as contaminated as it ever was, with two regulars showing the way ...

That snap set the bromancer's tone, which is why the pond downsized it ... then it was on with the usual ... and never mind the current genocide ...

Iranian victory? Beyond fever dreams, and the pond's explanation was simpler. 

Back in the day, there was a tradition that embassies and consulates were off limits, and any attack was beyond the pale. It was a nonsense of course, an imaginary element of polite discourse - think of what might happen if you're a journalist and you stepped inside a Saudi Arabian embassy. You'd end up being as bloodied and mutilated as a 'gator ...

Nonetheless, it was a cunning ploy by Benji and his team, knowing that the mad mullahs would bite and then there'd be an existential choice to make ...

Not everybody liked the choice, but at least a few noted that that the sideshow was bunged on to raise the stakes and distract from the genocide ...

But not the bromancer, who's never met a genocide in Gaza he hasn't loved ...

So what was Benji's likely motive in starting the sideshow, tweaking the beards of the mad mullahs? Ah, that's above the bromancer's paygrade, he's back in the glory days of the axis of weevils, and seeking inspiration from his orange Jesus.

At that point, the reptiles slipped in a snap of the provocateurs, the beard tweakers at work ...

Then there was a wrap-up gobbet, with the bro still in raptures about the tangerine tyrant ...

Amazingly, it's possible to chew gum and rub belly, and have no time for the mad mullahs, nor for the rabid mob of fundamentalists currently running the government of Israel ... and meanwhile, famine as a means of warfare and genocide continues, with the world nicely distracted by the possibility of the whole thing going up in some epic style ...

That's why the pond turned to the immortal Rowe for a sensible summary ...

And so to the Major, not because the pond likes it, but because it's there, and one more kick of the hornet's nest of reptiles - to mix metaphors in mighty style - surely can't hurt ...

Stop right there.

Why is it that the Major and the other reptiles never mention that Rabin was assassinated by a fundamentalist, one Yigal Amir.

What a barking mad piece of work he was, with women issues ... and yet the tone he set isn't that far from the current barking made far right fundamentalists currently running the country ...

In 1993, Amir began studying at Bar-Ilan University as part of its kollel program, mixing religious and secular studies. Amir studied law and computer science, as well as Jewish law at the Institute for Advanced Torah Studies. Amir was strongly opposed to the Oslo Accords. He participated in protest rallies against the accords on campus, was active in organizing weekend bus outings to support Israeli settlers, and helped found an illegal settlement outpost. He was especially active in Hebron, where he led marches through the streets.

During his years as an activist, Amir became friendly with Avishai Raviv, to whom he allegedly revealed his plan to kill Rabin. After the murder, it was revealed that Raviv, a well known right-wing extremist at the time, was in fact only posing as a right-wing radical. In reality, he was working for Shin Bet, the Israeli internal security service. While some right-wing militants have accused the Shin Bet of having orchestrated the assassination to discredit them, a court later ruled that there was no evidence Raviv knew Amir was plotting to kill Rabin.

In 1994, during his university studies, Amir met—and began a platonic relationship with—Nava Holtzman, a law student from an Orthodox Ashkenazi family. In January 1995, after five months, Holtzman ended the relationship after her parents objected due to Amir's Mizrahi background. She married one of his friends soon afterward. Amir, who attended the wedding, went into a deep depression.

See the wiki for the footnotes, and apologies, the pond has this thing about fundamentalism at work in all religions, and on view in most of the reptiles at the lizard Oz ... carry on Major Mitchell ...

The reptiles followed that gobbet up with a huge snap ...

Meanwhile, the genocide continues ... with the world's attention nicely distracted, even at Al Jazeera... with Godwin's Law broken yet again, while the territorial expansion continues unabated, as does the genocidal use of famine as a weapon of war ...

As for poor old Ukraine, don't even ask ...

That Nine story is hardly news - it's just far right authoritarian Modi helping out a mate ...

Though Russia was more or less internationally isolated, it was no surprise India had ramped up oil trade with Russia, and that China had remained steadfast, Orr said.

India is the world's biggest arms importer, and it has always bought the majority of its arms from Russia. India considers Russia a trusted ally from the Cold War era, and it has not voted against Russia in the UN or criticised Putin since the invasion began.

"Russia has played the India card, and the India card is so significant (Moscow) has won that hand," Orr said.

"The West has been trying to win this war without fighting this war."

Remember how the bromancer was deeply in love with Modi and his rabid nationalism?

Meanwhile back to the distracted Major, rabbiting on as only the Major can ...

Well yes, but not for the Major, and who does he turn to for a rebuttal? Why, Sharri of course, full disrespect intended ...

It's the Arab world that's been conducting pogroms against Jews for centuries? Trust the Major not to credit the heroic work of the Catholic church and sundry forces at work in Europe for centuries ...

Just for fun, please honour Father Charles Coughlin, the perfect storm ...

Father Charles Coughlin, was a Canadian-born Catholic priest assigned to a parish in Michigan. Coughlin was antisemitic, anti-Communist, and isolationist. Throughout the 1930s, he was one of the most influential men in the United States. A new post office was constructed in his Michigan town just to process the letters that he received each week—80,000 on average. The audience of his weekly radio broadcasts was in the tens of millions, and his journal Social Justice eventually reached one million subscribers.

By the mid-1930s, Coughlin had become a vocal critic of the Roosevelt administration, and he attacked Jews explicitly in his broadcasts. In the days and weeks after Kristallnacht, Coughlin defended the state-sponsored violence of the Nazi regime, arguing that Kristallnacht was justified as retaliation for Jewish persecution of Christians. He explained to his listeners on November 20, 1938, that the “communistic government of Russia,” “the Lenins and Trotskys,…atheistic Jews and Gentiles” had murdered more than 20 million Christians and had stolen “40 billion [dollars]…of Christian property.” Following this broadcast, several radio stations refused to broadcast his program without pre-approved scripts. A few stations in New York cancelled his programs.

By the late 1930s, Coughlin began to promote fascist dictatorship and authoritarian government as the only cure to the ills of democracy and capitalism. The Roosevelt administration decided that, because the radio spectrum was a "limited national resource" and regulated as a publicly owned commons, broadcasting was not afforded full protections under the First Amendment. In October 1939, the Code Committee of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) enacted new limitations on the sale of radio time to 'spokesmen of controversial public issues.' Manuscripts now had to be submitted in advance, and radio stations were threatened with the loss of licenses if they failed to comply. As a result, on September 23, 1940, Coughlin announced in Social Justice that he had been forced from the air.

What a relief to turn to the truly infallible Pope and discover a different topic, featuring Clippy, almost as loathed by the pond as googgle's double tap log-in procedures ... and yes, the pond did read John Naughton's From boom to bust, the AI bubble is only heading in one direction ...

Sure, it's an oldie, but it remains relevant ...

The pond reserves the right to re-use one the pond missed when the reptiles turn again to the horror of that female GG ...

In which Lloydie makes a brief appearance, Polonius offers the usual history lesson, and the pond tries to keep religion out of politics ...

 

The pond was delighted to see that Lloydie of the Amazon at last broke his near month long silence a few days ago ... until the pond actually read the piece, and realised Lloydie of the Amazon was now serving up remarkably thin gruel.

There's been a lot of talk about the oceans of late, as in The Conversation's offering of The heat is on: what we know about why ocean temperatures keep smashing records, and over at Counterpunch, Antarctic Sea Ice Hit Another New Low This Year; How Ocean Warming Is Driving the Loss. 

Back in January the Graudian was offering 'Astounding' ocean temperatures in 2023 intensified extreme weather, data shows. Then there was reef matters, with the Graudian reporting Great Barrier Reef suffering 'most severe' coral bleaching on record as footage shows damage 18 metres down.

That last one probably needed reliable denialist Riddster of the IPA, but still there was a lot of climate news that Lloydie of the Amazon could have demolished. 

Instead he delivered just two short gobbets on the need to gas the country to save the planet. This is a variation on the need to nuke the country, but in a minor key... and the offering verged on the pathetic. The pond has no idea what the reptiles use for their KPIs but someone needs to run a rule over Lloydie's work habits...

It's like the old joke that the scribbling is terrible and served up in such small portions, with Lloydie going full slacker mumblecore, too lazy to do more than another three short paragraphs ...

The pond was so disappointed it couldn't even summon up the strength to note that methane is a handy by-product ...

Really? Lloydie of Amazon sticking it to Keynes when he should be sticking it to all those fear-mongers caught up in the alarmist religious cult known as climate science? 

The pond marked this "could do much better" and sent it back to reptile HQ the suggestion that Lloydie might do better by composing an essay on the need to nuke the country, preferably with huge government subsidies and some fine examples of crony capitalism ...

And so to the usual meditative Sunday duties, and please don't be mislead by Polonius's headline. 

It's just another exercise in the reptile hive mind's current pleas for the genocide to continue... please don't be fold by the snap of that old bigot Mannix that starts off the pond's D.L.P. hour ...

Now there was a marvellous example of religion and politics mixing in the lizard Oz this weekend, and more of that anon for those already deeply jaded by the Polonial history lesson ... naturally skewed in the way only a pontificating Polonial tyke could manage ...

It was all just a feint, so that Polonius could get on to his real theme, which was to repeat the dog botherer and nattering "Ned" carrying on about the need to keep the Gaza genocide going, as featured in the pond yesterday ...

Sure enough, there was a snap of Wong, the newest member of Satan's inner circle ...

The pond isn't going to repeat yesterday's trick of intercutting news of the genocide. Instead it feels right to celebrate the slaughter ...

Well it is Sunday, and the pond needs a little 'toon relief to get through yet another serve of the hive mind ...

Talk about a verbal word salad from a prize maroon and the pond is content to note that the Taliban is now in control of large swathes of the United States ...

And now, as Polonius has insisted there can't be a strict division between religion and politics, on to ancient Troy and a prime example of religion in politics ...

Why add this to the Sunday meditation? For those who can remember, for those who have yet to learn the skill of letting reptile rants go in one ear and quickly out the other, last week saw the reptiles do a huge pile-on of the new GG as some kind of monstrous DIE imposition (DEI if you must, but the pond prefers the dying kind)..

The pond appreciated ancient Troy's balancing of the record ...

And with all that in mind, the pond doesn't mind if it does read the letter ...

Back to ancient Troy for a little more commentary ...

No need to check up on what the doctor wrote to Prince Chuck of talking tampon fame ... another page from the resignation letter will do the trick ...

If ever there was a good reason for separating church and politics, this is surely it, but then Polonius has over the years vigorously defended the right of Catholic priests to molest school children because they were also doing it in state and Anglican schools ...

At this point ancient Troy wrapped up his notes on the resignation letter ...

... but why see it in cold, hard type, when you might see it in the original, though the pond must say that the cursive style is not what the pond was taught at Tamworth Primary ...

Only a loon of the first water could scribble about being greatly troubled that the office of Goveernor-Generalhas now been politicized, thereby showing an abysmal ignorance of the deeds of his predecessors....

It's always a good day when the pond can get the Northern Daily Bleeder into the story, especially if it shows a drunk taking a tumble at the show ...

And now onwards and upwards to the start of that trial, studiously ignored in this weekend's lizard Oz, but sure to provide fun, perhaps not up there with killer OJ, but killer enough, and far more advanced than some other trials ...

Cue Philip Rotner's piece in The Bulwark, Judge Cannon Signals a New Plan ...

With all that's going down, with the help of the new Taliban and familiar old Vlad the sociopath support, who knows what might happen ...

And as the pond mentioned DIE, DEI if you will, earlier, why not finish with this celebration ...