In which the pond takes Alex, fellow from Ming land, straight, before moving on to the lesser member of the Kelly gang and Roger of The Times...

 

Thursday is always the worst day of the lizard Oz week.

Pond correspondents rightly refuse to contemplate spending time with petulant Peta, but even when she goes MIA, there's little joy to be found ...

Contemplate the "news" for a nanosecond ...

The reptiles are diligent, the pond will give them that. In their never-ending quest to roast the government, they rolled out 'red tape' and cardigan wearer fat cats as their lead, as vintage as the 'faceless men' routine of yore, while down below they held out hope that the greenies would aid them in their super war against super changes.

Meanwhile, The Australian Zionist Daily News was outraged, outraged they tells ya, not at the bombs falling on Gaza, but by a bombshell...

ARTS
Biennale bombshell: creative licence on show as Burke backs ‘terror’ image artist
Arts Minister Tony Burke has strongly backed the reinstatement of two anti-Israel artists to represent the nation at the Venice Biennale following Creative Australia’s stunning about-face.
By Rosemary Neill and Rhiannon Down

Only in the reptiles' lunchtime.

There's not many freedumbs in the world, at least in the reptile hive mind.

Over on the extreme far right, The Australian Zionist Daily News also hosted a commentary piece ...

Court rips away veil on jihadi preacher’s hateful rhetoric
People are free to engage in robust debate about international conflicts, whether their beliefs are true or false, informed or ignorant. But that does not include the freedom to mobilise racism as a polemic tool to promote one’s views.
By Peter Wertheim

Pity the mad Mullahs haven't learned to lobby ABC management like some have. You know, mobilise Islamophobia to get someone kicked off air for daring to mention the ethnic cleansing currently going down.

Who else was over on the extreme far right? Give a little dance of joy that petulant Peta's not there, and then read on ...

With the greatest lack of interest the pond could muster, this was top of the Oz digital world ma?

Losing one side of politics may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.
By Jack the Insider
Columnist

The pond is well over that feud, but if push came to shove, the pond would rather be reading Paul Krugman on substack, with Muskenfreude, When an oligarch confronts an autocrat, guess who wins?

The pond much preferred Muskenfreude to a lame recycling of an Oscar Wilde quote ripped from The Importance of Being Earnest ...

Eric was also on hand to give Qantas a hard time, but Golding did that job much more succinctly ...

Meanwhile, Alex, fellow from Ming land, managed to overlook the determined attempt by early colonists to wipe out pesky, difficult, uppity blacks ...

Yoorrook inquiry is pushing politics, not truthful history
Genocide is an accusation of the highest order. Beyond the immediate calls for compensation, it fundamentally shapes our grasp of history and the very freedom to discuss its interpretations.
By Alex McDermott

It turns out that Alex is a wannabe Henry, and initially the pond thought just a sample stripped of visual distractions would do ... but why not go the full hog?

Yoorrook Justice Commission’s vice-chair Travis Lovett recently walked 500km from Portland in western Victoria to Victoria’s Parliament House to deliver the final report of the nation’s first formal truth-telling process. Greeted by an enthusiastic crowd on the Spring Street steps, Lovett declared that “the silence ends here. The time of not knowing – of choosing not to know – is over.”
Yoorrook means “truth” in the Wemba Wemba language of northwest Victoria. The four-year inquiry – the longest ever with the power of a royal commission in Victoria’s history – collected thousands of witnesses’ statements and prompted 16 ministerial apologies. The final report, “Truth Be Told”, tabled this week in parliament, purports to tell the true story of colonisation, which it unequivocally describes as genocide.
Genocide is an accusation of the highest order. Beyond the immediate calls for compensation, it fundamentally shapes our grasp of history and the very freedom to discuss its interpretations.
Regardless, Premier Jacinta Allan has welcomed the report, describing the “truth-telling process” as “a historic opportunity to hear the stories of our past that have been buried”.
But if Allan and the commissioners believe Indigenous history is enveloped in a pall of silence, they need to get out more.

 How the reptiles love to savage pesky difficult uppity blacks - it's part of the colonial experience - but it turned out thatAlex's notion of getting out more really meant keeping him company as his bashing quickly devolved into one of those endless litanies that the reptile hive mind loves ...

No need to grace this form of rant with distracting snaps, just feel the ooze ...

...The national curriculum, its state versions, and every Australian university history department have become a cacophony, dedicated to topics they deem to have been shamefully muted.
Museums, state libraries and art galleries have made Indigenous experience a mainstay of their exhibitions, alongside other ­minorities and women. Just a few days ago, Melbourne University’s Potter Museum of Art launched an exhibition on Indigenous art that its curator proudly describes as consciously and deliberately “anti-colonial”.

At the same time, social progressive separatism – in the form of multiculturalism and Indigenous self-determination – has become unquestionable orthodoxy. To challenge them publicly means professional ostracism.
Reflecting that, the Australian curriculum, particularly within Civics and Citizenship and Humanities and Social Sciences, foregrounds the experiences of minorities, often over the common, shared experiences of most Australians. It is through the lens of identity politics, which relentlessly divides society into smaller and smaller groups, that students are encouraged to engage with contemporary political and social issues.
As these preoccupations have become dominant, Australia’s ­national student assessments (NAP-CC) have found an ongoing, now accelerating, collapse in civic knowledge and understanding, the critical foundations of democratic citizenship.
This knowledge collapse is particularly acute in key areas: constitutional structure, the head of state’s role, referendums, and ­pivotal historical events, especially those linked to British ­institutions.

Even in 2004, the baseline was pitifully low. Only half of Year 6 students and 39 per cent of Year 10s met basic standards, as a ­majority struggled with “iconic knowledge” such as the history and significance of the Australian flag and of Anzac Day.
Since then, results have only worsened. Today, a mere 43 per cent of Year 6 students and 28 per cent of Year 10 students achieve proficiency.
Australia’s democratic identity has always been primarily attitudinal, locked into its cultural DNA, rather than grounded in a deeply felt recognition of the ­nation’s pivotal moments.
Unlike the US with its Declaration of Independence or France with its Republican fervour, our political milestones – convicts gaining equal justice in 1788, early self-government and franchise in the 1850s, or the direct vote for ­nationhood achieved in 1901 – have never made the Aussie heart beat faster.

Really? Don't we share the same values? Don't our hearts beat at the same rate?

On with the litany ...

But we at least tried to ensure students knew about them. Moreover, school civics celebrated British achievements – individual liberty, Magna Carta, the rule of law – as our own, which of course they were. Until the 1970s, the British thread in our school curriculum told a clear story: the hard-won fight for political rights through British history, making Australia’s own democratic strides instantly recognisable.
Since then, the emphasis has changed dramatically. What we now celebrate are the victories of the excluded – women’s suffrage, the 1967 referendum – and rightly so. But what about the central trunk of that story, the very foundation from which these branches of increasing inclusion extend? That trunk is gone.
As historian John Hirst, who chaired the “Discovering Democracy” civics program under the Howard government, bitterly noted, in losing our British heritage, our very sense of ourselves as Australian citizens has paradoxically weakened. We’ve shredded everything that united us and replaced it with anything that shoves us apart.
The result is not a culture of forgetting, where past sins are denied. It is a culture of ignorance. It derides at best, denies at worst, the past achievements that make it possible to recognise democratic deficiencies and seek to address them. We have, in other words, created a civic vacuum, too easily filled by climate activism, or anti-racism initiatives that can morph into poisonous anti-Semitism, all dominated by an ideology of protest and post-colonial revolt.
We are no longer Britons, of course. But must we also disown our genuine civic heritage? The political traditions and achievements stretching back to Magna Carta? Yes, there is a pall of ­silence: it hangs over our national culture. The authentic origins and deep roots of who we are remains not just unspoken but unspeakable.
Even after the decisive repudiation of the politics of difference in the voice referendum, and with figures like Jacinta Nampinjimpa Price articulating a more concrete politics of equality than any politician since John Howard, we seem to remain bewitched.
Bewitched and bewildered, by the constant repetition of claims that bear no relation to the reality of history. Surely, after more than 50 years, it’s time to shatter the real silence and reclaim our full civic story.
Alex McDermott is a fellow at the Robert Menzies Institute.

A fellow? A colonial chap? 

What a prize maroon, able enough to assemble the usual reptile talking points, be they "climate activism", or loving mass starvation as a military tactic, or celebrating the Price is Right, but mute on other matters ...

Good one Alex, but that's more than enough Ming the Merciless style claptrap. 

Roll on Friday and an appearance by the true master, always willing to trot out Thucydides as a reminder of what made the British empire grate.

The pond got so desperate that it went off page and dived beneath the fold to discover Joe, the lesser member of the Kelly Gang, now feeling his oats as "Washington correspondent":

Joe was ever so keen that we tug the forelock, bend the knee and kiss the ring: Wong’s dead-bat diplomacy a mistake, Penny Wong’s visit to Washington shows that Australia is gambling it can manage the Trump 2.0 era without making major concessions – a position fraught with risk.

The caption was as deadening as the text that followed: Foreign Minister Penny Wong meets her American counterpart Marco Rubio in Washington Picture: Getty Images

Again with the exotic advice: This article contains features which are only available in the web version, Take me there

Penny Wong’s trip to Washington is a symbol of Australia’s dead-bat game plan in dealing with the Trump administration.
The Albanese government’s diplomacy is marked by no sense of public initiative or urgency – only a passive acceptance that America’s role in world affairs is changing.
The gamble is that Australia can skate through without shifting its approach. Such timidity will fail to deliver the outcomes the country needs during the Trump era.
It stands in contrast to the attitude of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who sounded a call to action on Tuesday, arguing that he wanted the Quad to achieve more “concrete” results.
The transactional dynamics of the Trump administration require nations to embrace action and upheaval while striking deals and leveraging the power of relationships.
Yet Australia appears deterred and uncertain about how to advance the partnership with America at a time when Washington has increased its expectations of allies.
Earlier this year, the government failed to leverage a critical minerals deal to win an exemption from Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and it now faces demands to lift defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP as well as a snap review of the AUKUS agreement.
After a day of meetings with her Quad counterparts, Wong made a number of cautious statements that pointed to the thinking of the Labor government.
First, it does not believe America is as reliable under Trump. Pressed on this question, Wong said: “We understand that President Trump has a different view of how America is to be in the world. We respect that.”
She said the strategic partnership remained “deep”, “trusting” and “to the benefit of both nations”. This qualifies as an endorsement, but does not signal the usual Australian confidence in the alliance.
Second, the Pentagon’s 30-day review of AUKUS is a major blind spot and Wong cannot give any guarantee the agreement will continue in its current form.
“This is a review which is still in the process of being undertaken. We will provide information to that review as and when requested,” she said.
This comment suggests there has been no engagement with the Pentagon so far. It also leaves open the prospect of the review – led by Elbridge Colby – imposing further hurdles and conditions on Australia.

As if anyone could be anything other than cautious around King Donald, a fickle monarch always indulging his narcissism and his whims.

As if the King won't do whatever his mood dictates.

At this point the reptiles interrupted with an AV distraction, but the pond couldn't be bothered inserting the image of Ms Wong. 

Just the text will do, Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong has spoken after a meeting with her Quad counterparts in Washington, DC. “The issue of Australia’s defence budget was not raised with me, either in the Quad or in my bilateral meeting,” Ms Wong said. “What we did discuss is a number of areas of co-operation that we want to see more concrete outcomes in, critical minerals is one of them, maritime security is another.”

Then Joe carried on with his listicle ...

Third, the government is weak on identifying Beijing as a threat. Asked whether it was, Wong said China was a “great power”.
“It is asserting its influence using all aspects of national power,” she said. “The challenge for Australia and for other countries is that one can see where those interests differ from Australia’s interests.”
Fourth, Australia will not increase defence spending simply because it is demanded by the US and, finally, Labor is sensitive about the failure of Anthony Albanese to line up a meeting with Trump.
“I think the world understood the President had a fair bit to do … given what was occurring in the Middle East,” she said. “We are working together on rescheduling the meeting.”
The government is in a holding pattern and calculates that it can manage the US President primarily through an Australian political lens.
It is banking on the US President’s unpopularity at home to insulate it from any pushback it receives from Washington. Leaning into this approach may have worked during the recent election campaign, but it is now a mistake.
If the trend continues, it may weaken the alliance over the longer term. Worse still, it could invite a more serious rupture in relations or a reassessment in Washington about Australia itself.
This will concern most Australians who grasp the difference between the volatility of the current administration and the enduring value of the alliance, the US defensive shield and nuclear umbrella.

Sheesh, whatever happened to nattering "Ned"? 

Did they settle on Joe just to make the pond yearn for that verbiage Everest to return?

More on that shield and its usefulness to Ukraine below, but really the pond just wanted to run Joe as an excuse for this day's infallible Pope, with Ms Wong sheltering in place below a picture of the monarch...

And then the pond did another dive below the fold to discover Roger of The Times...

The header: Cracks in the Crinks play into Trump’s hands, China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are Marvel comic super-villains who seem determined to end Captain America’s grip on the world. But now Russia and China have turned their backs on Iran, Xi is spying on Putin and Kim feels bruised.

The caption: The Crinks were already in trouble even before American bombs hit the Fordow nuclear lair.

The pond hasn't yet taken to inserting "gravy" into every second word to fuck with the AI bots, but just look at that AI mush, that slush, that slop, that visual stodge, that the reptiles served up as decoration for Roger of The Times...

Just look at the way The Times presented Roger a few days ago  (*archive link) before the lizards of Oz reheated him, and dressed him up in their tawdry, wretched clothes ...

See what the reptiles did with their bait clicking ways? This bot bait leapt to the top ...

Marvel gravy comic super-villains who seem determined to end Captain gravy America’s gravy grip on the world. 

Never mind, on with the text ...

A warm glow still emanates from the US security establishment. For once there is some consensus: America’s big beast bunker-busters have severely wounded Iran’s nuclear programme. The difficult, tough-nut Israeli leader Binyamin Netanyahu has been encouraged and praised throughout the bombing campaign, but also subtly reminded of his junior role. A hand-up has been given to Mohammed bin Salman and his ambitions to turn a modern Saudi Arabia into a US-backed regional leader. All this, without the spilling of American blood in a messy forever war.

Um, is that the man who cheerfully butchered a journalist and is as offensive as any of the other dictators in the region?

The reptiles didn't offer an answer, because they were keen to insert into Roger's text a reliable gif they've run time and again...

Sheesh, get over it reptiles... that's the umpteenth time, and that's enough already. 

Back to Roger of The Times... and the war with China, a notion designed to have the bromancer dance with joy ... and giving the reptiles their Marvel cue ...

But for team Trump, the 12-day scrap was always about more than fixing the Middle East. It was about clearing the decks, creating global room for manoeuvre in the coming stand-off with China. The resolution of that multi-layered conflict with Beijing will be the true measure of Donald Trump’s success.
What counts now is not the number of years Tehran will take to get close to a nuclear arsenal but rather spurring on the collapse of confidence within the Crinks. That’s China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, the Marvel comic super-villains who seem determined to end what they see as Captain America’s grip on all corners of the world.
Fact is, the Crinks were already in trouble even before American bombs hit the Fordow nuclear lair. Russia, once desperate for Iranian Shahed 136 combat drones for its war against Ukraine, now produces them in Russia without Tehran’s help. Russian military bloggers are contemptuous of Iranian assistance: a batch of Iranian Fath-360 missiles was delivered last autumn but appears not to have been deployed yet in Ukraine.

The last the pond checked the sociopathic voice of Russian state media, Vladimir Solovyov, was calling for the immediate bombing of Europe (YouTube).

He's going soft. A bombing? Not so long ago he was all in on a nuking.

Speaking of a good nuking and Marvel Comics and the good old days, remember when the Ruskis were the super villains in every comic and movie doing the rounds...

At this point the reptiles interrupted with a snap, Russia frets that China is building influence in Siberia and the Arctic while Russia was distracted by a full-on war in Ukraine. Picture: Vyacheslav Prokofyev/ AFP

Russia frets? 

Don't they have King Donald as a loyal and faithful ally, always eager to help out?

Please allow the pond to take a detour into Phillips P. O'Brien's substack, "Daddy" Just Accelerated The Killing Of Ukrainians

It never works out—never.
The latest iteration of “Trump will be good for Ukraine” lasted three days, but sadly this might have been the most tragic. We have had a number of such moments over the last months. My favorite (in a horrifying way) was the famous Trump-Zelensky sit down in St Peters during the funeral of Pope Francis. For some reason, this picture led people to believe that Trump was honestly going to help Ukraine.
Trump did what he always does after such meetings. Make a bland pro-Ukrainian/anti-Russian statement and then goes back to Washington and continues to help Putin as much as possible. In case you do not remember, the statement Trump made after the St Peter’s meeting was a question that ‘Maybe he (Putin) doesn’t want to stop the war’.
It was meaningless, self-evidently true, committed Trump to nothing—and quickly forgotten.
Btw, this happened on April 26.
We had another re-run this last weekend during the “Daddy” summit. After European leaders massaged Trump with vigor, the US president threw them a little crumb (which people weirdly thought was some great victory). In response to a question, Trump said he was thinking of sending Ukraine more air defense. The actual quote was: “We’re going to see if we can make some available”.
Well, it did not take two weeks for this nonsense to be exposed—just two days. It turns out that the US Department of Defense, at that very moment, was working to turn off as much of the remaining aid taps for Ukraine as they could—including the exact air-defense equipment that Trump mentioned. Last night the White House confirmed that the US was stopping some/all of the remaining (Biden-era) shipments of aid to Ukraine including crucial Patriot air defense systems (and other vital material).

This is a shopping list of much of the most important aid that Ukraine desperately needs to fight and without which many more Ukrainians will die. The nightly bombardment of Ukrainian cities will now be more effective for Russia, and the Ukrainian ability to strike back on the Russians will be lessened.
Just as a clarification—not only are the Patriots a crucial part of the Ukrainian air defense network, AIM-7 (Sparrow) missiles and Stingers are further key parts of the Ukrainian air defense network.
If Putin could write a wish list of the weapons he would want Trump to keep from Ukraine—this would be it.
The idea that the US needs these now is also a sham. Many of these weapons would be of dubious value in a war to protect Taiwan (and btw, the US is hardly planning for one I was recently told).
Now this decision may be revisited one the sham “assessments” are over. However even if that happens, Ukraine will have had weeks without vital supplies.
Its one more example of how the Trump administration is taking active steps to help Russia kill Ukrainians...

And so on, at the link, where the reading concluded thusly ...

...When a Russian missile slams into a Ukrainian apartment building tomorrow night or the next, and a young couple, maybe with a newborn child, is killed, just remember:
This is “Daddy” in action—this is the USA in action.

Well yes, but the pond should get back to Roger of The Times and his ongoing fit of trumphalism ...

Iran is plainly the most dodgy member of the axis of evil, a liability. China and Russia make their own calculations, reassessing perhaps whether a nuclear-armed Iran enhances their collective potential to disrupt or drags them into an utterly unpredictable all-out war. If the clerical state collapses, its failure will end the illusion that the Crink club is in some way a collective security arrangement. Iran’s do-or-die choice now - whether to make a secret dash to weaponise what remains of its nuclear programme - wouldn’t just threaten the West. It would trigger a nuclear arms race in the Middle East and deeply compromise China and Russia as would-be global players.
North Korea too is being sidelined in the Gotterdammerung of the Crinks - just study Kim Jong-un’s tear-swollen face this week. He was watching footage of himself laying flags on the coffins of North Korean troops killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine. Perhaps he was commiserating with the families of the fallen - 15,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent into Russia’s war - but more likely he was crying tears of humiliation. Despite sending millions of artillery rounds to Russia, he has so far received in return only body bags, a hug from Vladimir Putin and some Russian help in modernising air defence.

At this point the reptiles inserted a snap which once would have acted as a convenient trigger, Troops saluting on tanks during a military parade to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Korean People's Revolutionary Army at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang in 2022. Picture: KCNA via KNS/AFP

That sort of image has lost its potency as a trigger when every second rate dictator at the head of a banana republic can bung on a parade ...

And so to a final gobbet of Roger of The Times...

Kim wanted more. Carefully edited film of his trips to arms factories in North Korea and Russia shows what he really expected from the Kremlin: Russian help in building a supersonic cruise missile, AI-equipped suicide drones, air-to-air missiles. The whole world is cranking up its war economies and Kim wanted to be part of the show. Instead, when he rushed to launch a second destroyer in May, the ship capsized. A dozen officials were promptly arrested.
This axis of evil is being reduced to its core, China and Russia. And they too are at odds. A recently leaked planning document from the FSB, the security service, set out how Russian counterintelligence should deal with a surging Chinese spying effort. Beijing, it said, was looking to gather information about how Russia was dealing with a western-backed army, how drone warfare tactics were changing, the modernisation of software and the damaging potential of long-range western weapons.
China was on the hunt, said the nine-page paper, for former Russian pilots and engineers. Russia frets that China, despite swearing an oath of limitless friendship with Moscow, is building influence in Siberia and the Arctic while Russia was distracted by a full-on war in Ukraine.
Even limitless friends can spy on each other of course; it may even be the secret of a happy marriage. But stories about Chinese hacking of the Russian military establishment suggest core-Crink is confused and consumed by doubt.
If China’s biggest looming geopolitical challenge is a perceived independence push by Taiwan then it needs to overhaul its variously rehearsed battle plans. There have been multiple lessons from the current wars - Trump’s readiness to mount a jaw-dropping, one-off preventive attack that stops just short of an act of war, closer US supervision of Taiwan’s AI-enhanced drone fleet - and Beijing needs to game the risks. What new weapons systems does China need for an offshore war? Can it penetrate the Taiwanese army as deeply as the Israelis wormed inside the brains of the Iranian military?
These sensitive questions seem to demand a new approach to war - hence perhaps Xi Jinping’s purge of parts of the top brass including the recently arrested General He Weidong, former commander of the Eastern theatre. If nothing else, this shake-up suggests high-anxiety regime stress, part of the Trumpian everyday. Western allies try desperately to second-guess Trump. China and Russia meanwhile seem not to trust each other in their separate dealings with Trump. It is becoming a free-for-all, a meltdown of the blocs.
The Times

And that talk of a free for all allows the pond to segue to the immortal Rowe for the closing 'toon of the day...

Is there no end to the way he can conjure up King Donald in all his finery and his tatts?

In which there's news of a feud, Dame Slap is above the faraway tree again, and then it's off to Glastonbury with troubled young thing Zoe...

A couple of 'better late than never' notes on matters which previously crossed the pond's mind.

This in relation to EVs and why the Chinese are eating the lunch of car manufacturers around the world, most notably the United States, deep in the grip of a luddite who can marvel at the way there's a computer in the car: Ford's CEO says China's EV progress is 'the most humbling thing' he's ever seen

• The CEO of Ford has said China's EVs are "far superior" to what the West has to offer.
• "It's the most humbling thing I have ever seen," Jim Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival.
• Farley praised Xiaomi's maiden electric vehicle, the SU7, last year after testing it.

And so on and on at the link, and so to Robert Kennedy, a prize loon, a sign of the times in another area where the United States is now deep in loser territory...

The Most Bats**t Moments From RFK Jr.’s Tucker Carlson Disasterclass
OFF THE DEEP END
The health secretary accused Anthony Fauci of “creating coronavirus” and suggested the COVID-19 vaccine may have “killed” more people than it saved. (* Archive link)

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a rambling interview on The Tucker Carlson Show Monday, going deep into anti-vaccine rhetoric, accusing Anthony Fauci of “creating” COVID-19, and admitting that the Trump’s trade wars are “hurting” people and businesses.
Kennedy suggested that former President Joe Biden preemptively pardoned Fauci—who led the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic as the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)—because “he had a lot of liability on creating coronavirus.”
Pushing the unproven theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China, Kennedy pointed out that the facility had received funds from NIAID. But when Carlson asked what the rationale would be for engineering such a deadly virus in a foreign lab, the health secretary had no answer.

And so on and on at the link, which also provided a link (*archive) to this yarn...

Staffers Walk Out of RFK Jr.’s Slur-Ridden Speech About Deep State
LOSING HEARTS AND MINDS
In Kennedy’s bonkers speech to FDA employees on Friday, he accused agency employees of being shills for the industries they regulate.

Barking mad, but that's the new United States  ... 

And so to note Media Watch on the Lattouf matter, Journalist Antoinette Lattouf has won her blockbuster legal showdown, so what does it mean for trust in your ABC?

In fact, the ham-fisted sacking of the radio presenter was spurred by news of an imminent article in The Australian about Lattouf’s comments on the conflict
and the dread of external criticism: 
… Mr Oliver-Taylor sought to mitigate the anticipated deluge of complaints and criticism of the ABC … 
… the decision was made to appease the pro-Israel lobbyists who would inevitably escalate their complaints about the ABC employing a presenter they perceived to have anti-Semitic and anti-Israel opinions … 
- Justice Darryl Rangiah, Federal Court of Australia, Lattouf v Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Judgment, 25 June 2025

And so on and on at the link, and who were the Australian Zionist Daily News doing their work for?Why, it was a particularly nasty, virulent and vindictive Zionist lobby.

And who were the pro-Israel lobbyists who had access to the ear of ABC upper management, while ordinary Australians can only make a complaint online?

Michael Bradley wondered in Crikey in The identities of pro-Israel lobbists in Lattouf vs ABC are suppressed for 10 years. Why?, Though inherently controversial, suppression orders are a common feature of court proceedings — often appropriately applied, and sometimes too freely. (*archive link)

While at Crikey, see the keen Keane's Gaza protesters cop a beating while criminals run increasingly rampant: It’s Chris Minns’ NSW, In NSW, violent crime and especially crime against women is surging — but the Minns government appears more interested in cracking down on pro-Palestine protests (*archive link)

Here, have a Golding to celebrate ...

Oh and apparently it was the hottest Wimbledon opening day since records began. (Not to mention Italy limits outdoor work as heatwave breaks records across Europe).

Stand by for the dog botherer to comb back through the past to discover that the air was was like a furnace and the heat doth make players weary back in 1519 when Henry VIII showed his skill at Royal Tennis, thereby proving nothing had changed since then ... and climate science? Why, 'tis but a religious cult... 

As explained by Dorothea McKellar's immensely popular Renaissance ballad, which begins "I love a sunburnt king, his beauty and his terror, the wide brown mango leader for me".

Oh and as a further bonus, Leon and King Donald have resumed their grudge match. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place for the elephants ... but the pond backs the fascist over the ketamine-fuelled fool. Always go the fascist over the oligarch, see Vlad the sociopath.

Well that was a long preamble, full of links intended to distract, on the basis that others might find the hive mind as troublesome, irksome and wearisome as the pond does.

Back to the pond's core business, and what are the vindictive and nasty reptiles up to this day?

There you go, pretty much as expected, a splash bashing cardigan wearers, two stories bashing renewables, and at the very bottom, a story beating up the proposed super changes yet again.

Oh and there was a note about the "bomb cyclone" currently happening, something of a reversal, what with the reptiles' previous ploy having been to disparage the use of the term (any hint of climate change in action is too shocking for a reptile to bear).

Over on the extreme far right there was the usual motley mob, with Dame Slap on top of the digital world ma...

Groan, not Glastonbury again, and apparently the crowds the pond keeps seeing on BBC music clips are joyless and lefties, the bloody lot of 'em...

Given those options, the pond decided on another delaying tactic, and to do what it rarely does, dive into a reptile news story, but only because it came via the WSJ and only because it was about that feud:

Besides, Meridith McGraw's effort was rated as only a three minute read by the reptiles, under the Oz header The Trump-Musk feud reignites over Republicans’ megabill, Musk pledged to start a new political party and Trump threatened to punish his former ally’s companies as the President’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ narrowly passed the Senate.

The reptiles were so pleased they began with an AV distraction: The feud is back on. Billionaire Elon Musk threatened to create his own political party, and President Trump fired back.

The pond loves the smell of feuding fascists in the morning...

The feud between President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk reignited this week, with the billionaire Tesla CEO attacking Republicans’ “big, beautiful bill” and pledging to start a new political party, and Trump threatening to use the power of the federal government to punish his former adviser.
Shortly before the Senate narrowly passed Trump’s signature legislation, Musk, in a volley of social-media posts, argued the bill was fiscally irresponsible and said he would back primary challenges to Republican lawmakers who supported the legislation.
“Every member of Congress who campaigned on reducing government spending and then immediately voted for the biggest debt increase in history should hang their head in shame!” Musk wrote on X, his social-media platform, on Monday. “And they will lose their primary next year if it is the last thing I do on this Earth.” Later, he said that if the legislation passes, he would form a new political party, called the America Party, “so that the people actually have a VOICE.”

Okay, the pond will freely concede it's not as fruity as the puppy killer yarn Kristi Noem Says Cannibal At Himself on ICE Deportation Flight (that's an *archive link), but it did give the reptiles a chance to feature another AV distraction,  Sky News contributor Kristin Tate discusses Elon Musk forming a new political party if Trump’s bill passes through the Senate. “Elon Musk isn’t going to get any support from leftists,” Ms Tate told Sky News host Danica De Giorgio. “Democrats in this country can’t stand him, so Musk would be better off trying to sort of shape and influence the Republican Party from the outside.”

It was a bigly feud with many caps:

Trump, early Tuesday morning, hit back at Musk, who for months led the administration’s Department of Government Efficiency cost-cutting effort. The president, writing on Truth Social, raised the prospect that he could eliminate contracts and other benefits that the federal government gives to Musk’s companies.
“No more Rocket launches, Satellites, or Electric Car Production, and our Country would save a FORTUNE. Perhaps we should have DOGE take a good, hard, look at this?” Trump wrote. “BIG MONEY TO BE SAVED!!!”
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, Trump said he might take a look at deporting Musk, who was born in South Africa. And he threatened to use DOGE to look into federal subsidies for Musk’s companies. “We might have to put DOGE on Elon. You know what DOGE is? DOGE is the monster that might have to go back and eat Elon,” Trump said.

In the spirit of an ABC finance report, Leon provided a graph...

Fancy Elizabeth Warren agreeing with Leon, as the WSJ outing  carried on...

Trump argued that Musk is “very upset” about the legislation because it ends federal subsidies for electric vehicles such as those made by Tesla. Musk has said his opposition to the legislation centers on its overall cost, not the electric-vehicle subsidies.
Responding to Trump’s threats to punish his companies and consider deporting him, Musk wrote on social media on Tuesday morning, “So tempting to escalate this. So, so tempting. But I will refrain for now.” Tesla shares fell in morning trading following the back-and-forth between Trump and Musk.
Later, Trump reiterated his threat against his former ally, telling reporters: “I think what’s going to happen is Doge is going to look at Musk, and if Doge looks at Musk we’re going to save a fortune.” He added: “I don’t think he should be playing that game with me.”
The Senate passed the bill early on Wednesday (AEST) after a mammoth 24-hour “vote-a-rama” by just 51 votes to 50, after JD Vance cast a tie-breaker vote.
Republican leaders had struggled to corral support, as Democrats offered dozens of challenges to the most divisive aspects of the package.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune was able to turn around two moderates considering siding with Democrats, to deliver a 50-50 vote, with the Vice President breaking the tie.
The sprawling text now heads to the House of Representatives, where it faces unified Democratic opposition and multiple Republicans baulking at slashed health care and food aid programs for poor Americans.
The exchange of words between Musk and Trump is the latest twist in a tumultuous relationship between the two powerful men. A political union that began as a bromance took a turn after Musk left his role as the head of DOGE in late May and ramped up his criticism of the legislation. The attacks grew personal in early June when Musk suggested that Trump should be impeached, argued that the president’s tariffs would trigger a recession and sought to tie Trump to convicted sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Then came a final joyous moment of delirium, of what had been but would never be again, of belly buttons in the air, Trump and Musk's unlikely political marriage exploded in a fiery public divorce in June. Picture: AFP

And so to a final gobbet, a performing last rites...

The president shot back that Musk “went CRAZY” and suggested that he is suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.”
Since then, the two have had little contact. And Musk, who spent roughly $300 million to get Trump elected to the White House, is now looking for ways to support Republicans who have defied the president by voting against the bill.
Musk wrote on X that he would support Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who infuriated Trump by opposing the GOP megabill. Trump’s political advisers are discussing backing a primary challenger to Massie.
Trump told reporters upon arriving in Florida he isn’t concerned that members of Congress will be swayed by Musk and his money.
“I think what’s going to happen is DOGE is going to look at Musk, and if DOGE looks at Musk, we’re going to save a fortune,” Trump said. “I don’t think he should be playing that game with me.”
Wall Street Journal

Here, have a Golding to celebrate ...

And so back to domestic reptile business with Dame Slap, briefly top of the reptile digital world ma...

The pond is always iffy about attending Dame Slap's school above the faraway tree - so much scolding and smacking - but when she's scolding and smacking Liberal womyn, what's not to love?

The valiant fight for Angus, the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way in the header: Forget quotas, it’s mediocrity that’s killing the Liberals, If the Left can’t point to an emoting female leader who won a few elections in a row, why would the conservatives think one will work for them? An Australian version of Ardern? No thanks.

A slap for Susssan in the caption: So-called moderates inside the Liberal Party, including new leader Sussan Ley, are eager to think that a gender face lift will make the Liberals great again. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

A helpful hint if you can't find the faraway tree: This article contains features which are only available in the web version, Take me there

So to the smacking, which headed towards a severe spanking for anyone in search of a hug...

If embracing gender quotas will solve the woes facing the Liberal Party right now, then get moving. Draw up the quota policy today, please. If that’s what it takes to defeat the Albanese government – and bonus, toss out teal MPs in inner-city seats – there’s not a minute to waste.
Welcome to another round of the Liberals-must-have-quotas. So-called progressives – inside and outside the Liberal Party – are nothing if not opportunistic and shallow. The ABC has shifted gears from its usual breathless activism about gender quotas to orgiastic. The Labor government is excited to have the conservatives distracted by another interminable gender debate. And the so-called moderates inside the Liberal Party, including new leader Sussan Ley, are eager to think that a gender face lift will make the Liberals great again.

It's great, because this grating will likely ensure a long sojourn in the wilderness, as the reptiles insist on the Libs attending to Sky Noise down under for lessons from Danica, Sky News host Danica De Giorgio has torched the Liberal Party going “woke” with their proposition to implement gender quotas. Opposition Leader Sussan Ley has claimed she would consider a quota system to solve the gender equity issue in the party. “It is a victim narrative,” Ms De Giorgio said. “Quit the identity politics crap or go left.”

The pond notes the use of "woke" and will in due course fulfil its contractual obligations in relation to the word, but for the moment must press on with Dame Slap's scalding scolding...

Alas, gender quotas are a shallow prescription for a much deeper problem. The Liberals are irrelevant today because they are mediocre. It’s that simple. Mediocre policies. Mediocre team. Mediocrity through and through. The mediocre don’t recognise they’re mediocre, of course. So, when Liberals say they are committed to a merit-based selection process, whether overlaid with a gender filter or not, what they are really promising is more people like them. A quality candidate might risk showing them up.
The problem with applying a gender quota is that, in one fell swoop, the party will draw from an even more shallow pool of mediocre people who just happen to be women.
The Labor Party celebrated 30 years of affirmative action last year, but notice a man is leading the federal Labor government. The last woman to lead Labor federally – Julia Gillard – is best known for calling her male Liberal opponent, Tony Abbott, a misogynist. The sisterhood loved it, but Labor hardheads haven’t raced to test another female leader on the electorate.
Don’t believe the tosh from female politicians who don’t succeed that voters have something against a female leader. The reason is closer to what Timothy Lynch wrote last November: “The progressive faith in gender before talent has given us women who just aren’t very good and/or aren’t very popular.” Think Hillary Clinton. Think Kamala Harris, whose combined double dose of identity politics – namely race and gender – translated into her securing fewer female votes than that old white bloke, Joe Biden, did.

Think? Not while Dame Slap runs through routines that seemingly never get old in the hive mind, Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at the Democratic National Convention.

Dame Slap carried on with her heroes, men of course, except for that foolish Malware fop...

Abbott won a landslide election victory in 2013. Scott Morrison won the 2019 election. Neither bloke was regarded by the political pundits as attractive to female voters. In the middle was Malcolm Turnbull, allegedly the dream candidate for female voters – who took the party backwards at the 2016 election.

Speaking of the onion muncher, did anyone see that Crikey yarn about what he's done for the Liberals of late, much like Dame Slap is doing here?

Charlie Lewis put it together under the header Tony Abbott loves to fail — and it keeps impacting politics, He’s had a shocker, frankly. An absolute mare. (*archive link)

Sometimes the symbolism in a situation is so prominent, so unavoidable, it feels downright needy. Per Guardian Australia, right-wing lobbyist group Advance is courting donations “from deceased estates with the blessing of former prime minister Tony Abbott as part of its latest efforts to fundraise for its campaign war chest”.

Charlie listed so much winning...

• Failing to make Peter Dutton prime minister
• Failing to push Angus Taylor and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price into Liberal Party leadership
• Failing to stop the NSW abortion bill
• Failing to make the NSW takeover committee

But he did agree there might be one really big win ...

Winning on quotas?
As a part of her whole “make the Liberal Party electable again” thing, Sussan Ley declared this week that she will be a “zealot” for recruiting more women to the Liberal Party.
She stopped short of using the “Q” word, but plenty of people — Abbott included — were happy to blast the word anyway. Abbott appeared on the ABC this week to (shockingly, just shockingly) concede that he is “very much opposed to quotas”, adding that they are “contrary to the merit and what should be at the heart of our Liberal conservative philosophy”.

The entrenchment of a disproportionately male representation (and the resultant electoral cost) has to count, so far, as a success for Abbott. We will watch with interest if this holds.

It's holding Charlie, it's holding, Dame Slap is in the trenches with the onion muncher, fighting dangerous womyn at every step. 

They'll have to prise quotas from her cold, clammy dead hands...

Falling into the Left’s trap of seeing everything – especially the last election – through the prism of gender won’t help the Liberals win back government. It will distract them. It also insults female voters.
It’s true that certain demographics of female voters – young women and university-educated women – are, right now, more inclined to vote for so-called progressive parties or candidates. But it would be a mistake to think that female voters will naturally be left-leaning voters forever more. Female voters were once more inclined than men to vote for conservatives. The pendulum could swing back again.
A few blackouts, skyrocketing energy prices, higher taxes to fund spiralling debt might change the voting pattern of even the most ardent teal-voting women of a certain age. As the facts change, intelligent people – including women – may change their minds about who to vote for. A more volatile electorate can work in different directions.
We’re told that introducing a gender quota is little different to other factors that already sideline merit. Factional issues, for example; geographical ones, too. So, what’s the big deal having one more priority – gender – overlaying merit? Oh, but it is a big deal.

How could the reptiles resist a snap of Kamala Harris?

They couldn't and it kept Dame Slap in a rage of womyn fear and loathing...

Every factor that comes ahead of merit guarantees more weak candidates and more lacklustre policies. The Liberals already have plenty of male politicians who are not very good and/or not very popular. Instead of institutionalising gender-balanced mediocrity, the Liberal Party ought to be trying to get rid of factors that shift merit into second, third or fourth place.
When politics was less fractured, John Howard’s Liberal government attracted a primary vote of 47.3 per cent in 1996. That dipped to 31.8 per cent at the May election. When a party can’t rely on tribal loyalty any more – that has gone out the window as politics has fissured – then it’s going to take a stronger Liberal Party machine, along with policies and people far better than their Labor counterparts, to win government.
We ended up with an Elmer Fudd character, to quote Australia’s most famous former street sweeper, Shaun Turner, running the country because, in an age of hyper-professionalism, the Liberal Party is a horse-and-buggy outfit of amateurs and part-timers, bereft of resources. The ALP, by contrast, has now assembled a huge, modern professional organisation with vast financial and human resources.
The closest analogy is that of a third division side playing Manchester United in the FA Cup final. Once in a blue moon the amateurs might win, but under normal programming the behemoth should cruise to victory.
The disparity in resources has been a long time building and has many causes. One obvious factor is the symbiotic relationship between the ALP and the unions, and the naked quid pro quo each delivers the other. The ALP has taken innumerable policy decisions that have enriched the unions, from mandating the role of union-dominated industry superannuation funds to industrial relations laws that protect union roles and privilege.
For example, for years the ALP rode shotgun while the CFMEU amassed what we now know, thanks to a KordaMentha forensic examination, to be simply outlandish riches. The ALP fought the Australian Building and Construction Commission at every turn while the CFMEU gathered some $310m in assets.
In return, the unions deliver not only cash for campaign expenses but workers to man polling booths, jobs for politicians out of work between elections and retirement sinecures on the boards of industry super funds. Being a union-backed ALP politician is a lifelong gravy train of sinecures and preferment opportunities.

Don't expect any response from the pond, because all the pond can do is roll around in pleasure, as the reptiles offered a visual contrast, Jacinda Ardern, Margaret Thatcher

How Dame Slap hates all that touchy feely huggy muck, how she loves a woman who can really fuck a country in style, so much so that little England still hasn't recovered...

For Liberal politicians, let alone Liberals seeking preselection or preselected candidates, there is no cushy income protection. Tim Wilson, who knocked off a female teal MP by running his own campaign, won back Goldstein because he attracted backers who staked him. Roanne Knox in the Sydney seat of Wentworth and Tom White in Curtin in Perth put their business careers on unpaid hold while they campaigned and now have no party-sponsored fallback. Both are quality candidates who would have immediately taken the Liberal Party, and its policies, up a notch in firepower.
How the Liberal Party can build a permanent funding source, permanent job infrastructures and permanent support networks is a big topic. Until the conservatives try to address those fundamental weaknesses, its contest with the ALP is AFC Richmond v Manchester United.
It’s understandable that the Liberals chose a female leader after the May election loss to try to rebrand the party. It was slim pickings, after all. But playing the gender card will likely backfire on Ley. Her early routine, veering from folksy I-feel-your-pain feminist to hectoring head girl, is insulting to women who are searching for something deeper than matching chromosomes. Ley should be zealous about finding sensible policies not on offer from the Left. Why would voters vote Labor-lite when they can get the full-cream version from Mr Fudd? If the Left can’t point to an emoting female leader who won a few elections in a row, why would the conservatives think one will work for them? An Australian version of Jacinda Ardern? No thanks. Let’s raise the bar. We might just get an Aussie Maggie Thatcher.

Sorry, Susssan, you'll probably do better than a lettuce, but by how much?

What a shame, especially as the bull was standing by to help out ...

Elbows up Canada, as with a sob the pond turned to bitching about Glastonbury with a sigh and a sob ...

The header: Glastonbury is just the latest front in joyless Left’s culture war, Even before Covid, the arts were being quietly taken over by the most joyless enforcers of the woke Left who drained everything of its fun and libertine spirit.
The caption: Glastonbury, supposed haven of peace and euphoria, has become the stage for death chants and terror flags.
The mystical injunction: This article contains features which are only available in the web version, Take me there

Of course the pond noted the use of "woke" in the header. 

How could the pond not? 

And so the pond immediately had to fulfil its contractual obligation to the word, for its previous use, and for the uses to follow...

Duty done, the pond could turn to fuckhead Zoe, tragically old before her time ...

One of my most vivid memories of a music festival is Australia Day, 2011. I was 16, surrounded by sweaty, chemically enhanced bodies in the Boiler Room at Sydney’s Big Day Out. I’d taken the Greyhound two hours from Newcastle and blown most of my hard-earned waitress wages on a $200 ticket and a wildly impractical outfit that consisted of short shorts and a bikini top. I can still hear my dad’s voice, his typical humour ringing through: “where’s the rest of that?”
There I was, a teenager thrilled to be playing adult, with no parents, no teachers, just music, noise and freedom. Raving to South African hip-hop duo Die Antwoord, whose transgressive style and trash-glam aesthetic mirrored South Africa’s version of our bogans. Yet despite being proud Afrikaners, no one suggested their show be boycotted or cancelled for being white “settler colonialists”.
No one mentioned apartheid or genocide, and no flags were waved, aside from the Australian flag, which often was draped around the sunburnt shoulders of a drunk girl or tattooed on to the chest of a burly bloke.
These days I’m still wearing short shorts but little else remains the same. The Australian flags are gone; you’re likelier to see a Palestinian one, but more on that later.

On the upside, this opener gave the reptiles a chance to sate the appetite of their aged demographic, always up for a look at vulgar youff prancing about, Big Day Out, like so many festivals, has folded.

How could the pond shrink that goodly image? She's a patriot, feel the vibe...

Back to poor Zoe, in the depths of despair ...

Gone are the days of doing anything remotely fun or celebratory on January 26. In fact, gone are many festivals in general. While demand was so high that in 2011 the organisers added another show on January 27, by 2014 ticket sales had tanked and Big Day Out, like many festivals, folded. Then came the Covid pandemic, which gutted live music and the arts.
But something deeper has shifted. Even before Covid, the arts quietly were being taken over by the most joyless enforcers of the woke Left who drained everything of its fun and libertine spirit.
Take Glastonbury. Last week marked its 55th year. The festival’s founder, farmer Michael Eavis, launched it in 1970 with £1 tickets and free milk for festivalgoers. He chose Worthy Farm at Pilton – his family’s working dairy farm – as the venue, saying at the time: “There’s a kind of euphoria down here. It’s away from the awful realities of life. It’s a nice place.”
I doubt he imagined that, 55 years later, this supposed haven of peace and euphoria would become the stage for death chants and terror flags. But that’s exactly what happened.
Last weekend, punk rap duo Bob Vylan led the crowd in a chant of “Death to the IDF”. It was followed by Kneecap, a Northern Irish rap trio named after an IRA torture tactic and known for peppering its sets with anti-Israel slogans. One of Kneecap’s members recently was charged with a terror offence after waving the Hezbollah flag on stage and shouting “Up Hamas, up Hezbollah”. I can only imagine how Haim – a delightful pop trio of Jewish sisters with an Israeli father – must have felt performing alongside them.
Apologists for this reprehensible and deeply un-fun behaviour will try to tell you it’s simply about criticising Israel’s military, but don’t let them fool you; they don’t just mean the IDF. They mean Zionists: Israelis and Jews. After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, we saw some Ukrainian flags in the crowd but no acts shouting “Death to Russia” or “Death to the Russian army”.

Stay true, Zoe, and BTW did you see that story in Haaretz?: 

'Unelected Clerics': Netanyahu's Son Compares Israel's Judiciary to Iran's Ayatollah Regime in Fringe Interview, In an interview, Yair Netanyahu promoted deep state conspiracies, comparing Israeli Supreme Court justices to a system backed by left-wing elites seeking to 'dismantle Zionism.' He claimed, 'Israel's governing system is very similar to the Iranian model'

Deeply weird, Zoe, and what an inspiration for you, as you flinch from Jeremy Corbyn, left, and Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis appear onstage in 2017.

It seems the prematurely aged and completely joyless Zoe is at odds with all y'artz...

Right now Glastonbury is in the spotlight but soon it will fade – replaced, no doubt, by the next controversy. And judging by the current trajectory, it’ll likely be another one where Jews are made to fear for their physical safety.
We know this isn’t new. The arts have been festering in their own ideological swamp for years. Fahad Ali – yes, the one under police investigation for tweeting “F. k sanctions, I want Zionists executed like we executed Nazis” – also was behind the 2022 Sydney Festival boycott. The crime? A $20,000 sponsorship from the Israeli embassy. He and the Palestine Justice Movement Sydney claimed, among other absurdities, that the donation made the festival unsafe for Arab and Palestinian artists.
After witnessing musicians shouting for death on stage, this looks even more ridiculous now. But as a result of their woke tantrum, more than 100 artists pulled out, 10 per cent of the program vanished and the festival banned all future foreign government sponsorship. So much for claims that the arts are underfunded. I guess these Israelophobes would prefer no art to art made with the help of dirty Israeli money.
It’s not only music and theatre. After a humble trivia night at our local pub, my fiance ended up on Sky News after we were threatened by a woke wannabe comedian turned trivia host. The moment he strutted out in a Bernie Sanders T-shirt and started ranting about everything from Elon Musk to Israel, we knew any hope of levity was gone. To make an unfunny night even worse, this Israel-obsessed trivia host took to Instagram to mock my fiance about losing family in the Holocaust.

It wouldn't be a reptile bit about music would it, without lovely Rita, meter maid, turning up ... Sky News host Rita Panahi says Glastonbury has come to symbolise just how “hateful and divorced from reality” the left has become. British rapper Bobby Vylan – whose real name is Pascal Robinson-Foster – of punk duo Bob Vylan, led chants of “death, death to the IDF” at the Glastonbury music festival over the weekend. The Israeli embassy in the UK said it was “deeply disturbed” by the chanting on stage at the festival, which has been widely condemned by artists and global leaders alike.

And so to Zoe attempting to match our Henry with Roman references ...

Since October 7, even Nazeem Hussain, one of Australia’s best-known Muslim comedians, has pivoted from jokes to lectures about white Australia and Israel.
Historically, Jews have funded and shaped the arts. Without Jewish artists such as Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Steven Spielberg, Franz Kafka and Philip Roth, we wouldn’t have the cultural backbone of modern Western art.
Jewish Australians have done the same here. Despite making up just 0.46 per cent of the population, they have contributed hundreds of millions to the arts. Frank Lowy alone has given more than $350m. Marc and Eva Besen founded the TarraWarra Museum of Art. Jeanne Pratt backed Monash’s theatre program. John Gandel funded Museums Victoria. Naomi Milgrom gave Melbourne its MPavilions. These are the names behind the National Gallery of Victoria, the Melbourne Theatre Company and more.
The Romans understood that shared public spectacles – festivals, games – built social cohesion. Events such as the Ludi Romani or Saturnalia brought everyone together across class and creed. But as Rome declined, so did Romanitas, the civic pride of being Roman.
Today, the West feels much the same: drained, brittle, ashamed of itself. What once brought us together has become yet another front in the culture war.
Zoe Booth is a content director at Quillette.

Says a mindless culture war warrior, deep in the trenches for mass starvation and ethnic cleansing and never mind Twelve days in Gaza:what happened while the world looked away?

At this point the pond thought of providing a link to BBC Music on YouTube, which has been featuring a lot of Glastonbury material, on the basis that it would piss Zoe off.

But then the pond decided to really piss off Zoe, and possibly the world, by featuring a soppy, sentimental Lewis Capaldi at Glastonbury ...

 

And they say mournful power ballads are dead while the joyless leftie crowd sobs their woke tears.

You'll survive Zoe, and thank you for reminding the pond why Quillette is completely off the pond's reading list.

And so to wrap up the day with an immortal Rowe ...

Why it's just like the weather in Sydney, perhaps an explanation, perhaps even the cause of it ...

Wait, this just breaking, this just in ...

Thanks to the Orange Orangutang's spouse, the pond is shortly getting the hell out of here.

By way of email came this splendid news...

Mrs Melania Trump
YOUR FUND

Oh poop, oh joy, oh bliss ...

This message is being sent to you by the United State of America representatives. If you receive this email in your spam/junk folder mail then move it to your inbox mail before responding to me so I will be able to receive your email.
This message is coming to you from Mrs. Melania Trump. I am writing to inform you about your Bank Check Draft brought by the United Embassy from the government of Benin Republic to the white House Washington DC and has been mandated to be delivered to your address as soon as you get back to me with your below information.
Home address:..................
City:...................................
Phone number...................
Your check contains the sum of $60 million USD.
Send a direct text to me on the phone but do not call because I'm always busy and won't have any time to answer your call. send text message to xxx   or WhatsApp message to WhatsApp number which is xxxx  send your full information to my private email which is  xxx

Well you couldn't expect the pond to relay the details before the pond has cashed in ...

I will be waiting to hear from you with your full information immediately you receive this good news, thanks and God bless you. Remember to move this message to your inbox mail before you can respond to my email address which is xxxso I can be able to receive your email
Remain Blessed,
Email:  xxx
Yours faithfully
Her. Excellency Mrs. Melania Trump.

Blessed, the pond has been blessed by Mrs Melania, and who could blame a grifter and snake oil salesman for attempting a con job, when the grifter in chief himself is showing the way?