In which the bromancer and Dame Groan sort everything out, but other reptiles are also keen to help ...

 

"O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!", said the ecstatic toot-tooting Mr Toad, to which the pond might add, "oh frabjous joy", because the reptiles have discovered a "secret" black hole.

EXCLUSIVE
‘Money monster’: Labor’s secret $170bn budget black hole
The mystery missing billions in Labor’s federal budget have sparked serious concern about spending blowouts fuelling inflation ahead of Tuesday’s Reserve Bank rate decision.
By Matthew Cranston

And the canny Cranston inspired the lizard Oz editorialist to go right off the rails - dammit, somehow they managed to link it to the Melbourne Cup!

What astonishing skill, what relevance! How these "secret" black holes keep on giving...

Meanwhile, the Australian Daily Zionist News was at it again ...

Schools’ role a lesson in turning back tide of antisemitism
Teachers are already refusing to teach Muslim students about the Holocaust, so a new curriculum mandate is unlikely to repair Australia’s crumbling civic foundations.
By Alex McDermott

The pond won't go there - it's in the archive - but will mention Jeff Sparrow's outing in Crikey, which luckily can be found outside the paywall ...

Jillian Segal’s report is a Trumpian plan to curtail free speech (*intermittent archive link)
The new report by Anthony Albanese’s special envoy to combat antisemitism is as conspiratorial as it is a genuine threat to anyone expressing criticism of the state of Israel.

...Ostensibly, the report lays out priorities to combat antisemitism. Yet Segal pays only the most cursory attention to the rapid growth of the far right, even as genuine neo-Nazis like Thomas Sewell and his White Australia friends reach audiences (online and IRL) unthinkable even a decade ago. She pledges instead to combat what she calls “modern”, “progressive” antisemitism, which, she claims, manifests “through the language of social justice and human rights”.
To that end, Segal wants, among other things, a special ombudsman to monitor the ABC and SBS; new codes of conduct for cultural organisations; restrictions on the use of grants for arts, sports or research; the operationalisation in higher education of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism; a review of the school curriculum; and “continual review and reform by … governments of gaps in the legislative framework”.
All this is warranted, she says, because “the language of human rights and its greatest crimes — apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc. — has increasingly been appropriated” against Israel. On that basis, Segal seeks the institutional adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, explaining that “criticism of the Israeli government” should only be considered legitimate if “the level and standard of scrutiny applied is equivalent to the standards to which one would hold other governments in similar circumstances”.
There is a roll call of experts accusing Tel Aviv of genocide: a partial list includes Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Genocide Watch, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, the Middle East Studies Association, Oxfam, Médecins Sans Frontières, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
In the name of Segal’s vaunted equivalency, we might expect to find Israel listed alongside the other regimes Australia currently sanctions for human rights violations (beyond individual ones directed at Ben-Gvir and Smotrich). You’ll be shocked to learn that this is not what Segal seeks. The scrutiny she considers appropriate was demonstrated back in 2023, when Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong had the temerity to suggest Israel might “cease the attacking of hospitals”.
In response, Segal, then president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, cosigned a statement condemning Wong’s remarks that said they “only serve to demonise the state of Israel and its supporters”. The same logic dominates her report. Segal argues that claims Israel has committed genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid “allow for the depiction of anyone who associates or aligns with Israel as complicit in its purported evil”. But when confronted by genocide, most of us do not worry that our condemnations might upset those who “associate or align” with the perpetrators.
In Segal’s report — a document in which the word “Gaza” appears only once — the feelings of Israel’s supporters take precedence over all else. For her, “the Palestinian cause” represents a “gateway issue, of sorts … used by far-left activists to magnify their appeal and prominence and to attempt to introduce traditionally moderate Australians to radical and anti-Jewish propaganda”.
It’s crazy, conspiratorial stuff.
The report warns that “references to “Zionists” can function as a proxy for Jews, particularly where Jews in Australia are treated as collectively responsible for the actions of Israel (acts of conflation)”. That’s certainly true, which is why organisations like the Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) make the distinction between Judaism (a religion and ethnic identity) and Zionism, urging the recognition of “the political and religious diversity of the Australian Jewish community”...

And so on, and the pond guarantees you won't be reading any of that sort of stuff in the lizard Oz until at least the twelfth of never (and that's a very ...)

What you will be reading is the pond's very favourite reptile, the bromancer, skipping right past the current electoral action...

Luckily the bromancer wasn't in to Tucker and his theory about the mad King wanting to nuke the mad Mullahs ...

Unearthed Clips Show Carlson Repeatedly Claim Trump is Weighing Iran Nuke Strike

... but the pond did enjoy the way he managed to articulate three war aims, as if the aims of the mad King and minions were remotely coherent and comprehensible, as opposed to being roughly equivalent to Melbourne's weather, ever changing ...

The bro's insights were bolstered by a beaming blonde of the kind beloved by Faux Noise...

How the bromancer loves the drumbeat of war, how he loves to pound the skins, but then he wasn't appointed Reichsmarschall des GroßAustralisch Reiches so he could practise his knitting skills.

Has it though? The pond supposes it's a matter as to whether it's AIS-visible tanker tonnage, or black ships running dark ...(who knew there were sites dedicated to tracking the traffic?).

In conclusion, how about a shot of crazed jihadists, designed to terrify the lizard Oz hive mind, and send them on their own jihad? Sure thing...

Curiously, Luckovich had another figure in a similar pose ...

Meanwhile, it was left to the echo Chambers to propose a solution to what might ail the country.

While the pallid, wan bromancer ran up the white flag of despair, the echo Chambers knew what had to be done...

Albanese must get in Trump’s ear
Anthony Albanese faces pressure to use upcoming Trump summits to end wars the government blames for devastating Australia’s economy.
By Geoff Chambers
Political editor

Get in his ear! How easy is that, what a quick fix ...

Yes, forget all that blather fest with King Chuck and the remnants of empire, and as for taking climate change seriously, in what alternative universe are we living?

What needs to happen is that Albo needs to sort out mad King Donald, and maybe get on board with him, and as for what might happen in the mid-terms and what that might produce in the United States? Fergeddit...

The trips that do matter are the ones where Albanese crosses paths with Trump. The Quad meeting in the Philippines is critical. Albanese also cannot miss the opportunity to visit Trump’s home state of Florida for the G20 summit. Albanese, who briefly encountered Trump in New York during UN General Assembly week, had a lengthy phone call with the US President in mid-August. The pair spoke about the conflict in the Middle East, Chinese aggression in the South Pacific, the 75th anniversary of the ANZUS treaty, the AUKUS defence pact, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence.
With the US ambassador to Australia David Brat and the Australian ambassador to the US Greg Moriarty both in place, the relationship between the White House and Albanese government should be strengthened.
As Australians tighten their belts, Albanese must prove the summit season is value for money and secure outcomes that are critical to the nation’s economy and security.

How easy it is to wrangle a mad King and fix what needs fixing.

And now always better late than never for the infallible Pope ...

And that serves as an introduction to the real Tuesday treat, a rampant Dame Groan, revived by the prospect of disaster, and the hope that we'll all be rooned, if not by the end of the week, then certainly by Xmas ...

Please begin with one of those astonishing reptile collages for which there's no credit ...

The pond was shattered to discover that the Groaner hadn't discovered the black hole featured by the canny Cranston and the lizard Oz editorialist, but perhaps that was because it was too "secret".

On the other hand, the Dame didn't need cheap tricks like that to arrive at totally rooned gloom ...

Eyes wide shut now ...

Potent points, and Dame Groan wasn't done yet ... it was time for the cardigan wearers to cop a pounding, together with Jimbo ...

Not Petey boy again. Will the reptiles ever tire of their desire to return to the ancient days of Petey boy and the lying rodent?

And then all too soon the pond had arrived at the final gobbet of despair, what with all this talk of EVs and batteries and renewables, when the world is in tip top shape, and if there was just more coal and more emissions, what a fine prospect for the younglings ...

The pond has laid out the Dame Groan banquet, and expects correspondents to enjoy the feast ... with the important message from the Dame that there's no need to worry about all those other horses in the race aiming to make life miserable ...

And with the immortal Rowe setting the tone, so to a final thought from the reptiles, actually talking about the current election campaign, and hoping against hope that maybe the GOP might yet survive ... at least in the Senate, what with it all being really hard to turn the Titanic around ...

And with that a couple of 'toons ...

Old news now, but the pond can watch train wrecks over and over again ...

In which the echo Chambers scores top jihad spot, the Major is Majorly tedious, Lord Downer goes nihilist, simpleton Simon tries to swim agains the tide, and the hive mind and the Caterist rush to correct him. Phew!

 

The reptile Jimbo jihad, accompanied by the always active Albo ambush, swung into even higher gear early this morning.

Some might have thought that the reptiles couldn't crank it up beyond eleven, but little did they know ... with the echo Chambers the jihadist in chief ...

EXCLUSIVE
Newspoll: Labor slumps as Jim ranks worst among ministers
aka Newspoll: Labor slumps as voters mark down Jim Chalmers
Jim Chalmers has claimed the mantle of the worst-performing senior minister, as Labor’s primary vote falls.
By Geoff Chambers

EXCLUSIVE
$3bn trusts tax raid looms as PM steps in to plot cost-of-living relief
Trusts tax to rip most $3bn from business in first year of Jim Chalmers’ revenue crackdown
Anthony Albanese has ordered rolling cabinet meetings with his Treasurer to finalise a savings package and non-inflationary cost-of-living measures in the mid-year budget update.
By Geoff Chambers and Richard Ferguson

COMMENTARY by GEOFF CHAMBERS
This could end badly for Albanese’s successor-in-waiting
Some inside Labor are now contemplating a scenario where both Albanese and Chalmers are forced to flee from an angry posse.

This echo Chambers is a one man threshing jihad machine, tilting at Jimbo windmills, with Fergo as his plucky Pancho.  

It was a hive mind wet dream start to the week ... but remarkably the reptiles seem to have, at least temporarily, abandoned the search for golfballs ...

Over on the extreme far right, the Major was doing his level best for the Australian Daily Zionist News ...

Israel’s election result proves it is no apartheid state(dodgy but readable link)
When the Middle East was at the forefront of Cold War hostilities, the focus on Israel was understandable. But why do global media outlets still stack Jerusalem bureaus?
By Chris Mitchell
Columnist

The Arab parties? Aren't they just a bunch of terrorists?

In a series of posts on X on Tuesday, Netanyahu attacked Arab voters, describing them as “Muslim Brotherhood supporters” and accusing them of “raiding the polling stations and stealing the elections”.
In a separate post, Netanyahu referred to a picture of a large queue that appeared to show Palestinian citizens in Israel at a polling station, and called on right-wing Israelis to “go out and vote for Likud”, referring to his political party and describing the situation as a “matter of life and death for us”.
Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, said on Tuesday that it had received numerous reports from Arab voters of attempts to discourage them from casting their ballots. Adalah said it had also been told that queues at polling stations in Arab-majority towns were moving very slowly and, in some instances, had stopped altogether. It also reported a lack of ballot slips printed in Arabic. (Here)

And the spawn didn't fall far from the racist tree (only as far as draft-dodging Miami)... per The Jerusalem Post (just to take a break from Haaretz)

PM's son Yair Netanyahu deems Israeli Arabs 'greatest danger' to Israel besides Iran
The Prime Minister's son, Yair Netanyahu, claimed Israel "cannot survive long-term when 20% of its population identifies with its enemies and wants its destruction."

The pond is well over these jihads, and what a relief that Lord Downer arrived to seize his natural place in the firmament, in the nick of time to save the pond from them ...

Did the pond say what a relief?

What a relief to have Lord Downer arrive on the scene, and with his infinite experience and skill prove that he was a nihilist and that voting was largely a complete waste of time...

What even-handedness, what skilled discernment, up there with the Major himself. 

Did the pond mention His Lordship's hard won infinite experience and skill?

The pond was entranced yet again by His Lordship's sage advice to do nothing, and all would be well, and sameness and a lack of change would calm the universe ...

It's business as usual in Israel, and never mind the ethnic cleansing and the genocide, and it's business as usual in the States.

As His Lordship turned to eye off the mad King's kingdom, the reptiles were so excited by a little MAGA hat-tossing that they featured it bigly ...

Excellent. The mad King can dabble in a demented way in foreign affairs, while indulging every so often in a little show biz hat tossing.

What joy for Buddy Holly,  as His Lordship did a final hat toss of his own ...

Indeed, indeed, it all fits His Lordship's motto: voting is a waste of time, why bother, everything stays the same ...

Every so often there's a reptile who tries to pander to the pond, and swim against the hive mind tide. 

So it was with simplistic Simon this day ...

Slashing migration will cause more harm than good

Forget the Uber driver stereotype: new data shows recent migrants are nearly twice as likely as Australian-born workers to hold a university degree.
By Simon Benson
Political analyst

The hive mind wasn't having any of that claptrap and nonsense. 

Who cares about doctors and nurses? What geriatrics need are plumbers, tradies who can plug up a fractured artery, or pour some Drano into a blocked heart...

Oh the hive mind went wild with anger ...

The pond suspects that simpleton Simon only trolled the hive mind to make sure they were alive, and so in a position to receive the correct and proper message from the Caterist.

It takes a black sheep migrant to know the dark and sinister ways of black sheep migrants ...

Dammit, there are wretched trouble makers amongst us, but more of this anon, as the flood water whispering Caterist foamed on ...

The quarry whispering Caterist maintained the rage through a third gobbet ...

That culminated in a fiery denunciation, an inquisitorial denunciation ripe for the ages ...

...These people are non-citizens, owed nothing by Australia other than the civility we extend to visitors. There is no reason, other than naivety, why they should be allowed such a convoluted form of due process.
Once a court finds a non-citizen guilty of anything more serious than an unpaid parking fine, they should be out on their ear. We don’t need the tribunal to re-litigate the character question when a check of their criminal ­history tells us everything we need to know.
A successful migration program requires tough rules that are unflinchingly enforced. We must not allow it to be weakened by misguided sentimentalism or misplaced pity.

And what about those wretched sorts who act in a way that produces a massive defamation payout?

What good are these black sheep to the body politic?

Strip them of their citizenship, the pond says, having been lathered up into a righteous Caterist frenzy.

Send them back to where they came from ...

Does the pond have any candidates who come to mind?

One does seem like a jolly good candidate ...

Nine and Nick Cater ordered to pay Wagner family $3.6m in 60 Minutes defamation case (*intermittent archive link)
Justice Peter Applegarth says report defamed family and was ‘recklessly indifferent’ to the truth

How does a journalist who was recklessly indifferent to the truth, and indeed concealed information which might have led to an alternative understanding of events, still scribble for the lizard Oz? 

Ah, that's the delightfully different way that migration has contributed to the hive mind...

Deport, deport, deport ...

And now, to take up Lord Downer's theme, what could possibly go wrong after the mid-terms?

And now this from Vlad the sociopath land ...

More weekend readings in the Australian Daily Zionist News, aka the lizard Oz ...

 

When the pond signed up to the Murdochian Institute for Herpetology Studies (an affiliate of Trump University), the pond didn't expect to get a bonus subscription to the Australian Daily Zionist News.

As a result, the pond's studies have of late taken a dire and beyond tedious turn.

If it's not lectures on antisemitism and the joys of Zionism, it's extended bursts of Islamophobia.

As an atheist, this puts the pond in a difficult position. Once upon a time, the pond could berate all religions as stupefying nonsense.

But these days it's necessary to step in when stupid people carry their innate, drug-addled stupidity too far:

FACT FOCUS: Kennedy’s claim that Arabs ‘don’t produce science’ meets a Nobel Prize reality check

“There’s 500 million Arabs in the world and yet they don’t produce science,” Kennedy said on the campaign trail Monday. “They don’t win the Nobel Prize. They don’t win the Fields Prize. They don’t win the Wolf Prize. They don’t produce literature.”
The health secretary’s comments — widely condemned overnight by critics as untrue and racially biased — were made while campaigning in a state with a large Arab American population...
...Arab refers to an ethnic and linguistic identification, while Muslim refers to a religious identity. So while Arabs can be Muslim, Christian, Jewish or of another faith, the vast majority of Muslims worldwide are not Arab.

There followed a list of "Arabs", who had won Nobel and Field Prizes.

Others get to read exciting stories, including wizard crypto heists ...

North Korea is likely culprit behind $6.3bn crypto hack, ‘largest heist in history’
Binance exchange says it will cover customer losses as it scrambles to freeze affected assets, with about $3bn located so far

No such luck for the pond. These days the lizard Oz is just mind-numbing and unnervingly repetitive and boring.

Take Nick, please someone take Nick ...

Israel’s electoral diversity tests myth of apartheid
Israel’s citizens have argued, organised and voted for competing visions of their future. Palestinians deserve precisely the same freedom.
By Nick Dyrenfurth

The pond tried to summon up interest, but just couldn't be fagged (in an Etonian sense) ...it being just an elevated form of drivel ...

 At the very end Nick tried a little both siderist balancing act...

...Israel is not a perfect democracy. Netanyahu’s disgraceful, Trumpian claims on X this week that the election was “stolen” by Arab parties, the influence of religious extremists, settler violence and the unresolved Palestinian question are serious challenges to its future.
But democracies are not defined by rancorous debate or imperfections. They are judged by whether citizens can challenge authority and replace their rulers. That power belongs to every Israeli citizen, regardless of religion or ethnicity.
Which returns us to Vayera. Abraham’s challenge to God reminds us that justice demands questioning authority, however legitimate its claims. Israel’s citizens have argued, organised and voted for competing visions of their future. Palestinians deserve precisely the same freedom.

Do they Nick? Netanyahu's Son Says Arab Citizens Are Israel's 'Greatest Threat' After Nuclear Iran (* intermittent archive link)

... which brings the pond back to Luis Bunuel. 

Thank the long absent lord, the pond is an atheist ...

Immediately the pond spotted garrulous Gemma's contribution, it knew where it would be heading...

European riots a wake-up call for West
A pattern of co-ordination shatters the myth that the recent violence is about cost of living.
By Gemma Tognini

The rest of this abomination is in the intermittent archive, so the pond can cut to the bog standard Islamophobia ...

...While the French have form when it comes to burning stuff to the ground, the recent riots felt and looked different. I never bought the “children demanding better education” line because of the many clearly non-school aged people involved in the violence and destruction.
The second giveaway was the prominence of the Palestinian flag. Like the Holy Spirit, it is beginning to appear omnipresent. The third was the looting. Nothing says “give us better funding” than smashing a window at luxury designer boutique and running away with a late season bag...
...You may not want to accept it but extremist political Islam wants to destabilise Western democracies. It’s the playbook and they don’t hide it. Read the charter of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Actually if the pond wanted to read about attempts to destabilise Western democracies, it would just read Murdochian publications or ruin eyeballs watching Faux Noise, or perhaps indulge in a study of mad King Donald and his GOP minions, as good a set of planet wreckers as any currently doing the rounds, but do finish up ...

There are undoubtedly cost-of-living pressures among some cohorts in Italy and France, but the vague umbrella of “economic and education concerns” as the central motive for the riots is a false flag.
It makes me fear for the naivety of this country; we can’t rely on our “she’ll be right” attitude any more. This week in Australia, ASIO confirmed that the Iranian regime, the greatest sponsor of proxy terrorism, targeted my colleague Sharri Markson and political figure Michael Kroger. The action was real and sophisticated. It should terrify us.
We are not immune. Bondi told us that. Torched synagogues taught us that. An expelled Iranian ambassador showed us how serious it is. This past month I have been close enough to these riots to smell the smoke.
“Europe is lost. The UK is gone,” a friend said to me over drinks in London last week. I don’t agree. It’s not in my nature to be fatalistic. But neither do I have my head in the sand. We must wake from our apathy, lest we end up with the kind of society others are prepared to riot for.

Or perhaps just send a dinkum Aussie to take out as many Islamics as he could find?

New Zealand mosque attack suspect faces 89 charges

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The man accused of carrying out the Christchurch mosque attacks will face 50 murder charges and 39 attempted murder charges when he makes his second court appearance, New Zealand police said Thursday.
Police had earlier filed a single, representative murder charge against 28-year-old Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant. He is due to appear via video link during a brief hearing on Friday, and won't be required to enter a plea.
Fifty people died in the March 15 attacks on two mosques and another 50 were injured.

Waddya kno. Same message as you get in the lizard Oz ...

“In 2100, despite the ongoing effect of sub-replacement fertility, the population figures show that the population does not decrease in line with the sub-replacement fertility levels, but actually maintains and, even in many White nations, rapidly increases,” the alleged killer wrote in his manifesto. “All through immigration. This is ethnic replacement. This is cultural replacement. This is racial replacement. This is WHITE GENOCIDE.” (New Zealand Terrorist Manifesto Influenced by Far-Right Online Ecosystem, Hatewatch Finds)

For the love of the long absent lord, a KitKat or a 'toon break ...

Okay, you suggest being a mug and giving the pond a chance to segue, surely the heart of darkness, the lizard Oz editorialist, wouldn't confirm the pond's feelings?

Hold the pond's beer ...

Oh dear, that looks ominous, and yet entirely befitting the Australian Daily Zionist News, out and about on its regular jihad ...

Any chance of getting a balancing Haaretz editorial?

Sure thing ...Netanyahu Is Making Arab Israelis' Right to Vote a Crime (* intermittent archive link)

What was that you said Nick? Just asking for a friend ...

What supposedly irredeemably authoritarian society inspires such extravagant democratic fidelity?

Oh that ...

Please, please, a 'toon break to celebrate western democracy in action, and at its finest ...

And that inevitably brings the pond to Polonius's prattle for the Australian Daily Zionist News this weekend.

On the upside, the piece allowed Polonius to indulge in his chief passion, ABC bashing (down there with Snake Day bashing), though the pond did wonder if it would include his many repeated assurances that not a single conservative ever appears on the ABC...

Huzzah, it seems that the savvy Savva passed the Polonial conservative smell test, but there was more bad news to follow ... what with it being important to downplay the impact of Islamophobia.

Say what? Polonius in praise of faux ranga Pauline? To be fair, she really does encapsulate the lizard Oz agenda ...

...In November last year, Pauline Hanson, an Australian senator and leader of One Nation party, wore a burka in parliament to push for a ban on the Muslim garment. She was suspended for a week. Then, earlier this month, she was again censured by the Federal Senate after she made comments questioning whether there were 'good' Muslims.
Community leaders like Kheir say that politicians like Hanson have legitimised racism - and that there's evidence in the numbers of threats his mosque and community face.
"We're talking astronomical figures," he said. "We're talking about women being spat on in the street. We're talking about women whose scarves have been pulled off.
"Our Facebook posts used to have five to 10 comments. [Now] we're getting a thousand plus comments of the most bigoted, vile, racist comments. People feel empowered and emboldened because [politicians] like Pauline Hanson have enabled this sort of racism to be rampant and normal."
Experts say the issue isn't treated seriously enough.
"Imagine [if Hanson] said the same thing for Jews in Australia – that there are no good Jews in Australia," said Dr Zouhir Gabsi, senior lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Deakin University and author of Muslim Perspectives on Islamophobia: From Misconceptions to Reason. "There would be a huge backlash."
Kheir agrees not enough is done to rein in racism.
"The fear that I have is Pauline Hanson and her dog whistling has such an effect on the Labor and Liberal Party that they are too scared to take the defence of the Muslim community, because it's political suicide for them," he said. "So we're left to fend for ourselves."
A cumulative effect
Earlier this month in the Australian city of Ballarat, a man who declared himself "far-right" allegedly threatened children outside a community hall where Muslims were enjoying Iftar. The man proceeded to barge into the hall and hurl racist abuse - but, controversially, was not immediately arrested and has not been charged.
Days later, in the same city, a man racially abused staff at a pharmacy, yelling Islamophobic and racial remarks including "go back to where you came from".
According to Malik, the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, these attacks all have a cumulative effect.
"Each impact reinforces a sense that Muslim identity is not welcome, nor part of Australia's social fabric," he said last week, in a speech to mark UN International Day to Combat Islamophobia. "This has the immense danger of reducing institutional legitimacy and fraying social cohesion." (BBC)

Oh please, don't worry about any of that, Polonius will do his best not to help out by diminishing, distracting, and amplifying the very worst people ...

The answer is: Don't ask the Australian Daily Zionist News about bigotry, hate and fear mongering. It's their main mission ...

And now, as the pond has featured the lizard Oz editorialist, and as the pond couldn't be bothered to hang around waiting to see if the dog botherer turned up to contribute to the Australian Daily Zionist News, more inspired lizard Oz thinking ...

Is it only the pond that thinks this talk of a magical shield is mystical nonsense of the mad King Donald kind?

It's not just the Maginot Line or the Great Wall of China. 

History is littered with military strategists and strategies designed to halt invaders, but defending the castle has never been a top notch strategy, from the walls of Jericho to nimble Greeks bringing gift horses as a way to trick and treat ...

Good luck with that, as if we haven't already flung enough AUKUS dung against the wall.

Will anyone at all in the lizard Oz pay attention to the way that the much smaller Ukraine has held off Vlad the sociopath's wannabe colonising Russia? 

And this little outing caused much mirth ...

They should pay their way? 

Talk about insolence and cheek

Time for another reminder of the keen Keane's contribution in Crikey, News Corp celebrates more than a decade of paying zero tax in Australia, News Corp continues to make serious money in Australia while paying no tax:

Despite its pretensions to lecture Australia about its values and how it should be run, the Murdoch family’s News Corp really has nothing to do with Australia. It is a foreign company, and it serially pays no tax here, despite earning billions in revenue on our shores.
In 2024-25, according to the Australian Tax Office’s corporate tax data released today, News Australia Holdings — the official name of News Corp’s Australian subsidiary — racked up 10 years of paying precisely zero tax. For that year, it earned $1.89 billion in revenue, made more than $300 million in profit (a record for the past decade) and paid nothing in tax.
Indeed, there’s a peculiar steadiness to News Corp’s tax dodging. For the past four years, it has earned around $1.8 billion in revenue and paid no tax on around $300 million in profits in 2023-24 and 2024-25, and $200 million in profits in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
You can go all the way back to when the first corporate tax transparency data was released for 2014-15 — the result of a Rudd-Gillard government initiative (opposed by the Coalition) — and find News Corp’s main company has paid no tax across those years, on revenue of, in total, $23.9 billion and profits of $1.38 billion.
The only News Corp entities to pay tax in that time were an investment company, which paid $200,000 (sic) in 2017-18 on $291 million in profits, and a pay TV financing arm, which paid $8 million in 2015-16. Real estate listing oligopolist REA Group, which News Corp part-owns, paid $246 million in tax.
Otherwise, News Corp’s only contributions to Australia are social division and the fostering of hate and resentment.

Oh yeah, they must pay their way.

And so to close with another visual celebration of western civilisation and democracy in action ...

Crucial insights. May be applied to the understanding of domestic Murdochians ...

On the other hand, there's Tom. Everyone loves meme Tom ...