In which a mind-blown pond surmounts Heraclitean hurdles to tackle a cane-wielding prof, a Caterist and a Groaning ...

 

Today the pond's brain officially exploded. There would be no time whatsoever for fancy pants smart alec reader links to yarns sparked by Killer Creighton, as if Killer was some sort of doofus, and there would be no time to dwell on Arkansas wanting to ban Bob and Milton ...

Heck, there goes Tony and Jack in the pond's favourite movie - imagine having your mind altered in Tamworth watching Some Like It Hot and that show's punchline - and the pond didn't have time to think about what thugby leaguers and mindless aerial ping pongers would do for entertainment for Arkansas ...

You've got to admit that the thugby leaguer is a good looker, especially up against that prize maroon aerial ping pong dross.

Nor would the pond have time to take in the mango Mussolini's Futurist fascist theatre of cruelty and violence ... turns out The Brutality is the Point ...

As for John Crace brutalising Rish! yet again - will the brutality never end? - the pond would have to leave that for another day, because look at the line up the reptiles had arranged to make sure the pond didn't stray from the fold ...

By the pond's count, and without including the lizard Oz editorialist's splendid filler efforts, noble as they are, that looked like four biggies on one day, up there with that tailor who managed to knock off seven flies with one blow ...

So it was with a sigh of relief that the pond saw that prattling Polonius was just doing his usual, dressing up as a dog, and being a playful hound ...

The pond has never bothered with Polonius as a dog, after disturbing news filtered out of the Sydney Institute that the staff kept a bowl of water in the Polonial office ... together with a pack of his favourite dry food (the pond hears Polonius is a sucker for Royal Canin Maxi for the way it leaves his coat, though the legislators in Arkansas might have to take legislative action). 

Besides, Polonius's thesis, that people have turned on the Royals because the red bandana wearer has stepped down, is unarguable, though no doubt some fancy pants smart alec reader might provide links to talk of the appeal of King Chuck as a tampon, the many highly sexualised charms of Prince Andrew, and the intoxicating fight between Harry, Meghan, William and whatever the name of the loyal breeder is ...

It was with vast relief that the pond could turn away from Polonius, keep him assigned to his Sunday meditation duties, and tackle only three of the reptiles this day, and just for the lolz, the pond simply had to begin with the aging prof railing at vulgar youff ... because everyone knos, it's always vulgar youff that ruins everything ... they won't even conjugate their Latin up to.a Molesworth standard ...

Oh yes, this was going to be a Ginsbergian howl of pain, an epic cry in the wilderness ... and never mind that somewhere some loon had forked over hard-won shekels so that they might read the ancient prof on a mobile device ... perhaps on a bus this very minute, or perhaps reading the pond presenting the prof in all his tormented suffering. 

Stop it, put that mobile phone down this instant, can't you see the hairs beginning to protrude from the palms of your filthy, deviant hands?

Oh never mind, there is something delightful in reading a mental meltdown, especially when it's as witty as an iGenesis ... especially if you find it on an iPond ...

Harsh experiences! Yes, what they need is a good thrashing on their pert little bottoms, upthrust, yearning to be given a hard time ... 

Oh sorry, the pond began to salivate, as it began doing a Percy Grainger with a stout birch ... or should it be leather? The pond always wonders about protocols when it comes to delivering harsh experiences.

And as for those pathetic, foolish fops flinching at the Prof's fine words, here, flay your eyeballs with the last gobbet ... and if anybody worries about the destruction of the English language with the casual deployment of words such as "safetyism", relax, it's just silly Americans wanting to sound stupid in the usual American way, and a handy Glock and a mass shooting will soon bring them around to see some sense ... (by golly there's a wiki listing the mass shootings in the United States in 2023, and really, just harden the fuck up folks, the prof has important things to tell you about mobile phones, or maybe you can freak out about frocks in Missouri) ...

Would the pond want to socialise with this ancient dodo at a cocktail party? 

There's something to be said for discovering that the bird isn't extinct, but the pond suspects it would find some excuse, or else get as pissed as a parrot and start hurling idle abuse at the prof for being a fuckwitted maroon of the first water ... (no desire to hurt feelings, just a jolly good birching) ...when really surely that's what the pond should be doing with the Caterist ...

Chalmerism! Trust the Caterist to come up with a stunning witticism ... though the pond was bereft, because in recent reading, the pond had come across the Caterist in fine form back in 2011, responding to the dreadful Robert Manne, and protesting how the reptiles at the lizard Oz were certainly not climate science denialists (though they might know how to whisper at flood waters in quarries) ...

Broadly, Manne complains of “dozens” of “denialist” articles by twenty named “denialists” over seven years. In his later contribution to the Weekend Australian, he raises that to “scores.” By my count, the number of articles written by the accused is: Bob Carter (6), Michael Asten (2), Lord Monckton (2), Ian Plimer (4), Jennifer Marohasy (4), Garth Paltridge (1), Dennis Jensen (2), John Christy (reprinted from the Wall Street Journal) (1), David Evans (3), David Bellamy (1), Nigel Calder (reprinted from the Sunday Times) (1). There were joint-bylined pieces: one by Richard Lindzen, John Roskam and Ullrich Fichtner and another by Bob Carter, David Evans, Stewart Franks and Bill Kininmonth. That’s a total of twenty-nine, which means Manne was right about “dozens,” though not about “scores.” Roughly speaking, it represents one “denialist” argument for every 350 published opinion pieces. 

No mention of the Caterist, himself an astute denialist, nor Dame Slap in full flight, warning of the UN using climate science to introduce world government by Xmas? 

Sorry, back then the Caterist billed himself as the editor of the Weekend Australian, though the chairman soon put a stop to that and put him out to pasture, so he could blossom into a quarry flood water whisperer of the first water ...

Meanwhile, back to witty talk of Chalmerism ...

It goes without saying, so the pond will say it, that neither the Caterist nor Dame Groan has the slightest interest in that recent announcement, which seems to have reduced Wilcox to simpering empathy and in need of a jolly good caning from the prof ...

Sorry, Wilcox, you can give coloured pencils to the Caterist, and all you'll get is a blank page ... or perhaps a garishly coloured request for another federal government grant ...

Ah years, a fairer and more prosperous nation for all, at least if you can find a way to get some of that government cash in your 'research' centre's paw. As for the rest ...

The first part of the research was published in May 2020 as Inequality inAustralia 2020: Overview. 

That report revealed large and persistent gaps in incomes and wealth between the lowest and highest rungs of the distribution:

• The highest 20% of households, with average after-tax incomes of $4,166 per week (pw) have almost 6 times the income of the lowest 20%, with $753pw;
• The highest 20% (with average wealth of $3.3 million) have 90 times the wealth of the lowest 20%, with just $36,000 on average.

In this second report, Inequality in Australia 2020: Who is affected and why, we dig deeper into understanding who stands where on the income and wealth ladders and the main causes of income and wealth inequality.

And so on and on, and never mind the 1%.

Get your pdf here, because you're not going to get much sense from a Caterist accustomed to sucking on the taxpayer's teat ...

And so at last to a jolly good groaning ... though before beginning the pond should note that The New Yorker's carousel of cartoons now seems to be outside the paywall, and so the pond thought it might fling in a couple of mood setters ...

Oh that's ancient and doesn't suit a good groaning, perhaps this is closer to the mark ...

That's better, because this day, the pond was startled to discover that Dame Groan thoroughly disapproved of western civilisation and all that ancient Greco-Roman malarkey and philosophical crap, of the kind the hole in the bucket man loved to spout like a Sydney Uni gargoyle on a rainy day.

Stay with it, and the pond will get to it ...

The pond regrets to admit that it began to miss the Caterist and his witty talk of Chalmerism ... but the pair share something in common, resentment that anyone should turn up in The Monthly when they should be scribbling for the chairman behind the paywall so that the Chairman might swell his struggling coffers ... though to be fair, Jimbo is a loyal contributor, making sure that taxpayers have to pay to access his thoughts ...

Sorry, that's just a tease ... the pond must now turn to the shocking discovery that Dame Groan will piss on ancient Greek philosophers from a great height ...

All that reptile talk of the infinite wisdom of the traditions of western civilisation come to naught, because wisdom only began in 1776 ...

The pond was still reeling from the sound birching that Dame Groan had dished out to Heraclitus (warning, if you get quoted by Jimbo, you're sure to end up in the Groaner shame file), and realised with a start that there were still two gobbets of Groaning to go, presenting the usual sophisticated and erudite views of a lover of gas ...

What a relief, a truly terrified Dame Groan ... what is this arcane nonsense about socially beneficial? 

Next there'll be talk that gassing the planet isn't good for the planet ... the pond can just imagine the snorting from Dame Groan and the cane-wielding prof that AI was used to predict that 1.5 degrees was now but a dream ... and that the Auckland floods were a sign of things to come ...

Somehow whenever there's a groaning, and Dame Groan is terrified, the pond's thoughts always turn to Santos, gas and climate science, but the pond is sure that her deep thinking will please the pond cultists devoted to her every word ... because enough already of this do gooder nonsense, the slackers all need a good birching ...

What's that? Achieving reliable and affordable energy? 

Phew, for a moment there, the pond thought that Dame Groan might have mentioned climate science in relation to energy, but never fear, there's no way this aged battleship is ever going to change tack ...

And with that, an almost relevant immortal Rowe, and the mind-blown pond is done for the day ...

In which the reptiles fill up the pond and leave no room for distractions, what with the Major, Killer Creighton and a beefy boofhead screeching for attention ...

 

 

The pond noticed that it was improper to refer to "the French" (Graudian here), and immediately realised it was making a ghastly mistake to refer to "the reptiles of the lizard Oz' ...

Each of the reptiles have personalities, and a bit like the Elephant man, are human, and who better to illustrate the humanity than the Major, always on the hunt for that missing Order of Lenin medal ...

But the pond shouldn't start on a negative note. It was drawn to Gizmodo's 11 of the Sleaziest Snake Oil Ads From Trump's Truth Social, and was troubled as it tried to work out the snake oil that best suited the Major...

In the end, the pond couldn't go past the first two, what with the Major back each Monday to warn of the dangers of all forms of wokeness ...

Now that's how to kick off a non-woke Monday with the lizards of Oz ... and so to the Major, blathering on about the voice. 

Usually this would be an automatic red card, of the kind the pond dishes out to Dame Slap when she gets going in her obsessive compulsive way about the voice, but it's the Major and so it's piquant, as the Major tries to keep a foot in assorted camps ...

You can see the Major's problem right there ...he has to walk a fine line between his old mate Pearson and 'Price is right' Price ... and never mind the completely bizarre coupling in the lizard Oz comments section of the 'Price is right' and the mundane Mundine and ... wait for it, drum roll, expert race baiter, Gary Johns ...

That such a thing should be - the pond admits that it's simply too weird a ménage à trois for the pond to contemplate for more than a nanosecond -  but wait, hold on a mo, isn't that the beefy boofhead and Killer Creighton also out and about on a Monday?

More of them anon, but already it's easy to see how the lizard Oz has once again clogged up the pond's arteries and stopped it roaming to fresher fields.

Now back with the Major, trying to blame it all on the city-country divide and pretending that the reptiles of the lizard Oz have had nothing to do with the hoo hah ...

Punters will be pleased to note that yet again the Major was at the centre of attention, and is really the story, and meanwhile, the lizard Oz just keeps on finding ways to stir the pot, as with this LIVE news from simplistic, here no conflict of interest., simpleton Simon ...

Poor Major. Between loyalty to Pearson and long ago memories of being a deep norther, it's hard to remember the need for chest beating about his past triumphs, especially as this means he must even take on the Bolter ...

And there you have the Major's dilemma. It's possible to be a man for all seasons, with the Major loving little Johnny, but tempted by the voice, or so the Major fondly hopes... 

That said, while the 'Price is right' and the mundane Mundine and Gazza Johns get all shouty, and simplistic Simon does it LIVE, the Major is left behind, murmuring quietly into the void with Pearson ...

So the Major ends on a mutton Dutton talking point? While it briefly sounded like the Major was having a go at sceptics, it sounds very much like the Major is about to take his thirty pieces of silver and leave the scene ...

Meanwhile, how could the pond ignore an outing by that windmill-hating beefy boofhead? So many windmills in his electorate, how he must hate them ...

First the reptiles had to define the enemy, even it it was going to be obvious...

Sheesh, if there's one thing that the beefy boofhead lacks, it's imagination. Look at the header the reptiles have cursed him with, completely distracting from the terrifying sight of Jim ...

The best he's got is aspirational Aussies, a sort of rebranding of Howard's dinkum battlers, what with that not having worked out so well? The beefy boofhead, in his search for clichés, wouldn't go as far back as Ronny Raygun would he, and remind us that having a clown like the boofy beefhead in the Canberra car would be a problem for us all?

Sheesh, could it get any worse, this assortment of random thought bubbles and aged rhetoric? 

The pond is glad it asked itself that question because next minute the beefy boofhead embarked on that most deviant of political strategies, the listicle ... all that was lacking was a pointer and a Powerpoint presentation ...

That it? There isn't a fifth? The pond has time to slip in an immortal Rowe?

There you go, and in that hall of fame, the pond took a particular delight in this one ...

There's just something about cigar smoke wafting in the breeze that excites fond memories of budget time...

Meanwhile, the beefy boofhead was winding down ...

Well that was a complete waste of space, what with innovation, aspiration, enterprise yadda yadda, coming from a mob fronted by a Queensland plod, yet the reptiles had done their best for the cause, showcasing the beefy boofhead, while bringing back that old reptile favourite, the CFMEU, likely to cause rampant inflation and roon the country by Easter ...

And so as a bonus - well the beefy boofhead could hardly be considered a bonus - with Killer trawling the bowels of Twitter to dig up a conspiracy, though Killer fans will be disappointed that there's no mention of his Freudian fear of masks ...

Yep, these days the lizard Oz and Killer walk with the 4chan crowd, and as might be expected, the story is full of murk, and Killer's the last person to expect any solid fact-checking from ...

In recent times, now that vaccines have helped quell, if not extinguish the threat, it's loony tunes time for all ... please allow the pond at least one distraction ...

Meanwhile, back with Killer, still in the bowels doing his best to lather up the conspiracy ...

Ah Orwellian as usual - the pond expects an Orwellian dose on a Monday - and bold brave Killer and a few other stout hearts ready to call out everyone ... and meanwhile, the cavorting kept on with other yarns ... please, another anti-vax distraction ...

Bottom line? The pond will keep on with vaccines and masks, thank you very much, but here's a last Killer gobbet, with thanks for your troubles and your assorted conspiracy theories and your anti-vaxxer company ...

The usual fine company for Killer. Marco "small hands" Rubio, and Ron "mouthwash" Johnson - some might enjoy A Look Back at a Year’s Worth of Lies From Ron Johnson, at least until they realised that was only base camp and there was a lot more climbing to do ...

Meanwhile, the pond has had to ignore entirely the delicious events in the UK, currently ongoing, as noted in Rishi Sunak under pressure after sacking Nadhim Zahawi over tax storm.

The best the pond can do is close with a cartoon evoking the assorted nightmares ...

in which the pond resumes observing its traditional Sunday meditation ...

 

For a moment the pond thought it might have to lift the red card it imposed yesterday on Dame Slap, nattering "Ned" and the bouffant one, all blathering on about the voice, all part of the reptile crusade to kill such notions off ... 

But it turns out that the reptiles are fielding a full team, now that the holydays are over, and there were some surprises in a surprisingly big field ...

The pond would have liked to say pleasant surprises, but pleasant isn't the first word that comes to mind when dashing Donners dashes into view ...

The first indication that nothing has changed is that reference to tired old mantras, because the tired old mantra that dashing Donners offers is "choice."

The pond has a thing about "choice" because it exemplifies everything about the American mindset and what's gone wrong with that troubled country. There's always some loon rabbiting on about choice ...which frequently goes with freedumb, and the freedumb to chose the M and M you find most sexy ...

What Donner's choice often turns out to be is the choice to go down the rabbit hole with a bunch of fundamentalist Catholics of the cilice-loving kind ... and there's news on that front, elsewhere, in other places ...

And so on and on ...but back to dashing Donners and the pond will be bitterly disappointed if he doesn't mention the long march through the institutions ... or at least Hayek, because it's your choice to keep reading ancient tomes beloved by culture war warriors...

That's government dictates as opposed to Catholic church diktats using government funding to fund the dick tats.

You can see the crucial distinction, and then the pond could enter the house of the long absent lord full of righteous joy, because guess who should turn up in dashing Donners' reading list for aspiring fundamentalist Opus Dei students ...

The pond wonders whether all reptile postings might soon be reduced to a couple of words ... woke, virtue signalling, 'leets.

One part of Donner's standard outburst is true. The reality suggests that some scribblers, regardless of background, will always be more capable than others. There's a mistaken confusion between ability and motivation, and there's a relentless desire for the less capable some to regurgitate clichés, mistaking them for a form innovative thinking.

How the pond would have liked to have marked Donners' school essay.

Derivative, shows lack of original thinking, quoting without insight or critical examination leads to superficial analysis and an unhealthy reliance on the way the United States has comprehensively fucked, is fucking, and will continue to fuck its education system, not that you'll be able to read about it in the school library, because Ron DeSantis or others will have banned the relevant books ...

And so to prattling Polonius, only because he's there and only because he has long been a part of the pond's Sunday meditation and only because the pond is now back in harness, and the duller the reptile, the more joy to be found ...

Still banging on about Gladys, as if Gladys herself didn't manage to find a way to bang herself into trouble.

Still, Polonius had started well, and the pond held out every hope that for once the ABC might escape Polonial slings and arrows ...

Might the pond humbly propose that Gladys destroyed herself? You don't get to lie down with dogs and then with a leap and a bound, stand up and carry on, without some sense of fleas creating an itch which an ICAC might feel the need to scratch ...

Never mind, the pond does appreciate the supreme act of willpower involved in not dragging the ABC into this matter ...

Um, that'd be the civil liberty to fornicate and supply a little funding for your love rat ... and his pet project ...

And that's the sort of thing Polonius thinks is a jolly good example of jolly good government at work.

Why is the pond surprised? That's the way it's been in NSW since the days of the Rum Rebellion and there's always been sanctimonious, righteous scribblers of the Polonial kind explaining how corruption is a jolly good thing that keeps the wheels greased and turning ...

And so to a few odds and ends, starting with a loon that the reptiles consider something of a comedy stylist ...

The pond couldn't hack an entire piece, but here's what passes for comedy in the lizard Oz, courtesy of Steve Watterson ...

Pond readers will recognise the sea side style, roughly representing a mindset from British postcards of the 1920s ...

And now the pond has set the scene, the vibe and the mood, a sampling...

They didn't make ossified oafs better than that back in the 1920s, with that reference to the Amazon jungle a real capper ...

And so to a final honourable mention ... the lizard Oz editorialist ...

The pond only mentions this because recently the grundle went into a deep grundling about the University of Melbourne .... and the pond was desperate for a moment outside the reptile paywall and headed off to Crikey ... (also a paywall)

The pond recalls reading a note that makes the point that you could read in Haaretz any day of the week criticisms of Israel and its government which would make the ponces at Melbourne uni turn up their toes and cry antisemitism ... (because there's nothing like creating or sustaining the troubles to keep you in power, out of clink, or help you further a theocratic agenda)

And indeed you can ... here's Orit Kamir in Haaretz ... (paywall) though whether you could discuss her views and opinions in Melbourne Uni must now be open to doubt ...

Everyone's talking, and rightly so, about the serious damage the new government has started inflicting on the vital character of Israel’s democracy; not enough is being said about the blow to the rule of law, which, like a thread, connects all the havoc-wreaking steps taken by the government.
The rule of law is such a basic and fundamental value that it's usually only mentioned in passing, automatically, without people stopping to think of its meaning. The rule of law is the primary foundation enabling a country to be part of the modern, enlightened world.
The rule of law means that the legislature passes laws that benefit the entire public (and with only that goal), and that these laws apply to everyone, including state institutions and their representatives, and anyone else residing within the country’s borders. 
No one's above the law or outside of it, not even those who pass the laws, enact them or enforce them. A police officer cannot exceed the authority bestowed on him by law; an inspector cannot enter a place the law prohibits her from entering, and a judge cannot impose a sentence that isn't determined by the law.
Equality before the law, an inseparable part of the rule of law, ensures that state laws apply equally to the entire public, and that they'll be enforced in the same way and to the same degree. In other words, laws passed by the Knesset apply equally to tycoons, migrants, lawmakers and judges, and they must be enforced equally, with no special dispensations, exceptions or stricter enforcement for certain individuals or entire communities.
Equality before the law requires that a president who has committed sex crimes be held accountable, tried and punished according to the law just like any other person; that a member of a crime family enjoy the same protections the law affords to any other person (such as being innocent until proven otherwise, or being subject to a statute of limitations).
The current government led by Benjamin Netanyahu is waging total war against the rule of law, including the principle of equality before the law. It will destroy anything standing in its way, including substantive democracy, the separation of powers, and the independence of the judiciary – all in order to ensure that the rule of law is crushed. 
The government’s war against the rule of law has several causes and several aspects. The main cause is that it’s headed by someone who’s been indicted for serious criminal offenses. His central mission is to free himself from the rule of law, that is, from the legal proceedings against him.
In order to accomplish this goal, he's using all the tools his high-ranking position gives him (hence the argument that his position is a conflict of interest). To evade the law, Netanyahu has tried, and apparently will try again, to pass part of the so-called French Law, which calls for a deferment of any prosecution of a sitting prime minister until their term is over.
Netanyahu, according to one of his senior partners in the cabinet, will try to remove from the criminal codes the serious offenses of which he's accused (bribery, fraud and breach of trust). Ever since his trial began, he's been intimidating the judges, inciting against them and undermining their public status while doing everything he can to weaken the judiciary and hamper its ability to impose the rule of law on him.
The legal changes Netanyahu's planning are ostensibly within the bounds of the rule of law, but aren't meant to serve public interests – only his personal ones, while disregarding the public good. Before he was indicted, he boasted that in the name of public interest, he was preventing the passage of the same laws he is now pushing.
The personal motive makes the planned legislation illegitimate. Moreover, since no rank-and-file citizen can take similar steps to evade the law, the prime minister’s moves grossly violate the idea of equality before the law.
Arye Dery, a senior member of government, is also doing everything he can to break loose from the rule of law. To overcome any legal objection to his becoming a cabinet member, Dery demanded and received from the prime minister some personalized legislation that exempted him from the law. This legislation wasn't passed for the benefit of the public, but for the benefit of the powerful. Obviously, no other citizen can escape the rule of law through such personalized legislation.
In tandem, Yariv Levin, the justice minister in Netanyahu’s government, is advancing a revolution meant to exempt from the rule of law not only the prime minister and Dery, but also the entire government, in all its actions. This is the meaning of a bill presented by Levin meant to nullify the professional independence of legal advisers in government offices. 
Such advisers are public servants whose mission is to guarantee that the executive branch of government, namely the ministries and their officials, work within the framework of the law and don't deviate from it. They ensure that the executive branch obeys laws passed by the legislative branch, without using power and authority not given to them by lawmakers.
The revolution being promoted by the justice minister is meant to exempt government ministries from being subject to the law. When a minister isn't required to obey an attorney general and can appoint an attorney general who does their bidding, no one will make the government abide by the law, and every ministry and its employees can act with disregard to the law.
A police minister with no one obliging him to follow the law could impose a curfew on people planning to demonstrate. Police officers could arrest people without being authorized to and inspectors could impose fines as they see fit. When courts are weakened and constrained, the public will have nowhere to turn to when they need protection against institutional arbitrariness. 
This is how harming the rule of law squashes human rights. Democracy is also squashed, as freeing government ministries from the rule of law means that the legislature, representing the public, can be ignored.
The justice minister is promoting an override clause that will not allow courts to ensure, in the name of the rule of law, that legislation by the Knesset serves the public interest without severely infringing on the public’s rights. This clause is meant to liberate lawmakers from the rule of law. In practice, given the structure of government in Israel, it liberates from the rule of law coalition members who have a majority in the Knesset – the government itself.
If the justice minister’s campaign against the rule of law is designed to give the government unbridled power (something he terms “governance”), Religious Zionism, a dominant coalition party, wishes to obliterate the rule of law for ideological reasons – because it's an important element of progress and the modern world which are, in its eyes, a bitter enemy threatening Judaism, one that must be uprooted.
The secular law is, in their eyes, an evil that must be tolerated, only in order to reach a stage where it can be dissolved and subjugated to a theocratic state and its laws.
In the halakha-based era this party is planning, Israel will no longer be a modern state, and certainly not an enlightened one. It'll return to being the Kingdom of David. This state will be governed by ancient rules.
Furthermore, equality before the law – giving equal status to men and women, to Jews and non-Jews, to straight and gay people – is seen by the party as a despicable, diseased abomination that must be eliminated. Its intention to remove the legal requirement to give equal medical treatment to any person exemplifies its attitude toward the concept of equality before the law.
All of these reasons and actions have combined into a total war against the rule of law. Without the rule of law, Israel will not only cease to be a substantive democracy, but will also no longer be a state of laws in its modern sense.
Tax authorities will be able to exact taxes irrespective of the law, with attorneys general unable to prevent this, and the courts will be too weak to offer help. It'll be possible to expropriate private land, to discriminate against women and silence opposition members, while ignoring any laws. The powerful will be able to evade the law by changing it according to their needs. This is how a tyranny is created.
A government which cancels the rule of law thereby cancels the rules of the game that ensure rights and common decency toward people without power. After taking such a step, the government will have to guarantee its perpetual rule, since if its members are not in power, they too will be vulnerable to arbitrary moves by their political rivals. Thus, immediately after the elimination of the rule of law, a government wishing to survive will do all it can to ensure that it remains in power forever.
As can be seen in Hungary and Russia, in such situations authoritarian governments destroy independent media, and subjugate public broadcasters to make them mouthpieces for government propaganda. They take over schools to prevent pupils from developing critical thinking that could result in the regime being replaced. They change election laws to gain advantage over their rivals.
It’s hard to process that all this is really happening. We take the rule of law as self-evident, just like gravity; but it's happening. You can’t annul gravity, but the rule of law can be revoked. One example is Lebanon, where a deep political crisis led to its total collapse. Anyone horrified that all this is about to happen here, and quickly, must wake up and take action immediately.
The “Dery Law” has already been passed. The justice minister has already presented the outline of a law ending the existence of independent legal advisers in government ministries. Each brick the government removes from the wall of the rule of law brings the collapse closer. Brick by brick, the fortress is falling. If there's anything that can stop this, it's an immense public response that'll make the ground tremble.

Some will note that Kamir made reference to and comparison to authoritiarian Hungary and Russia; and the pond has always thought it piquant the way that Israel has constructed gulags and ghettoes, mirror images of what the Nazis once did ...

Meanwhile, the grundler kept grundling on and the pond was pleased to be away from the reptiles, especially as all of it might be in trouble passing muster at Melbourne university ...

Enough of all that, time to turn to a lighter note, and the inability of Australia to deliver a comprehensive genocide, despite the best endeavours of the reptiles of the lizard Oz ...