In which the pond is forced to go there by the allegedly Aristotelian dog botherer, and the mind-numbing nattering of a tediously droning "Ned" ...

 

The pond was pleased to note a correspondent noting the keen Keane in Crikey noting ...

At The Australian, a severe reverse ferret has been required. Stenographers Dennis Shanahan and Simon Benson are today, hilariously, lamenting the politicisation of sexual assault allegations and insisting all sides have been damaged. But at last count, there is only one party that’s ended the week with fewer senators than it began. The opposition would have been far better to have left The Australian to stew in its own sordid juices rather than following its lead.

The headline said it all, Oops! News Corp campaign to destroy Higgins takes out Liberal senator, (likely paywall), as did the lede ...After targeting Brittany Higgins and Labor, News Corp and the opposition have instead found that they've taken out one of their own in a disastrous week.

And yet as late as last night "the stenographers" were still front and centre in the commentary section, still bold as brass, but as putrid as month old sour milk ...

It wasn't just the reptiles ... Crikey also lost a grundling piece by the grundler: A statement regarding Crikey removing an opinion piece by Guy Rundle (likely paywall).

No need to go into the details of the imputations and errors, the lede will do: Crikey has made the decision to unpublish the article, and apologises to Brittany Higgins and readers.

In recent times, the grundler has attempted to become a tiresome latter-day Bob Ellis, with wild-eyed columns, pandering to the weirder elements in Crikey subscribers, but at least they decided to take him down this one time.

As for the reptiles, the keen Keane concluded by asking ...

If women, no matter their status, party or prominence, are still being made to feel unsafe in the nation’s Parliament without serious consequences for perpetrators, how much has changed?

Not much, not bloody much at all. (Would My Fair Lady get past the blogger censors these days?)

The shameless reptiles, unabashed and unrepentant, had this at the top of the digital page, and it was top of the tree killer edition too ...

 

This from a rag that has conducted a show trial, a kangaroo Murdochian court, in the Lehrmann matter for month after shameless month ...

The pond regrets to advise that the reptiles are still at it, and finally the pond has been forced to go there ...

As an esteemed correspondent noted, any stray reader would be better off heading off for a good Hyding, with Are Tory MPs as deluded as Boris Johnson? It’s a tough act to follow, but they’re doing their best.

Those who stay will be left with the latest contemptible offering by the dog botherer, who manages to conflate and confuse, and somehow manage to get Covid and climate science into his filthy mix ...

Dear sweet long absent lord, the pond had long dismissed arcane talk of a Henry virus, but it seems that the dog botherer has indeed caught it, what with blather about Dante and Machiavelli.

A mention of Aristotle will confirm to the pond that the virus is real, and that the dog botherer has indeed caught it ... and henceforth the virus will be known as the portentous humbug variant ...

At this point, the reptiles slipped in a snap of long lost Xian Porter, because even they realised a snap of the trudging Tudge would be a step too far ...

And at this point, the pond thought it might be worthwhile reprising the keen Keane on the whole sorry reptile saga ...

Spare a thought for the hardworking operatives of News Corp today.

It must smart something terrible — you put weeks of effort into a conspiracy theory-based campaign to destroy Brittany Higgins using illegally leaked text messages, only for all that labour to blow up the Liberals instead, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton forced to suspend a Victorian senator from the party. Worse yet, a former Senate colleague of the man emerges to make similar accusations as those levelled by Lidia Thorpe.

Today, even The Australian has had to report that several other people had concerns about the behaviour of David Van, who denies all of the allegations made about him. The awkward silence that greeted Thorpe’s accusations of harassment and assault by Van has, within 24 hours, given way to the headline “Open secret of a groping senator”. Presumably the angry columns about how Van has been denied justice and due process can wait for a later edition.

Having started off with a historically small opposition bench thanks to Scott Morrison’s 2022 election disaster, Dutton has overseen its further diminution in a variety of ways: he lost the Aston byelection, Nationals MP Andrew Gee departed in a fury over Dutton’s hostility to the Voice, and now the opposition leader has been forced to turf a senator accused of repeat groping. Each is his own fault — especially the loss of Van, whose alleged behaviour has only been discussed because Dutton thought it’d be a good idea to peddle the discredited conspiracy theory about Higgins.

A common criticism of the Dutton-era Liberals is that, despite the smashing they took in May 2022, they have learnt nothing. The last week has fulfilled that description to the letter. Clearly nothing has been learnt from the failure of the Morrison government to respond appropriately to Higgins’ allegations: they smeared her partner, claimed a conspiracy with Labor, called her a “lying cow” and tried to dismiss the seriousness of her claims. That only demonstrated how badly out of touch Morrison was and how uninterested he was in responding to the toxicity of the Parliament House work environment as anything other than a political problem to be managed away and lied about.

This week has seen a replay of exactly that, in partnership with News Corp, complete with the same conspiracy theory being touted, only with a greater willingness to target Higgins herself. The immediate result is the loss of a senator — surely Van will quit to make way for a Liberal replacement to finish the remainder of his term — and further damage to the Liberal brand. The longer-term result in terms of how impressed female voters are that the Liberals are still trying to destroy Higgins remains to be seen.

At The Australian, a severe reverse ferret has been required. Stenographers Dennis Shanahan and Simon Benson are today, hilariously, lamenting the politicisation of sexual assault allegations and insisting all sides have been damaged. But at last count, there is only one party that’s ended the week with fewer senators than it began. The opposition would have been far better to have left The Australian to stew in its own sordid juices rather than following its lead.

The larger question is less one for Dutton — who may well not have been aware of the talk about Van, and who moved quickly upon learning of it — than for the parliamentary Liberal Party as a whole. Van strongly denies any misconduct, but if it really was an “open secret” about his behaviour among staffers and parliamentary colleagues, why was nothing done other than to move him away from a complainant, in light of all that has happened since early 2021?

If women, no matter their status, party or prominence, are still being made to feel unsafe in the nation’s Parliament without serious consequences for perpetrators, how much has changed?

Is the dog botherer smarting terribly? Well he's not terribly smart, but that's another matter ... and so suddenly we're off with climate science and Covid ...

Others will have their opinions of this ongoing climate science denialism and endless distracting speculation about Covid ... 

As a pre-emptive strike, the pond just wanted to slip in this note from The Graudian ... beginning ...

And so on and on, and the pond wanted that to be kept in mind as the dog botherer, supposedly a supporter of the Voice, indulges in some idle black bashing, and confuses and conflates the mango Mussolini with Hillary, because cats and dogs, and apples and oranges ...

Aristotle as a closer? What a contemptible fool he is, and what a potent form of the virus that pompous humbug variant is, and the pond reminds stray readers it's not too late to head off for a good Hyding ...

Those who stay will be served up a spiteful offering from a fossilised dotard, if only to prove that the reptiles have learned absolutely nothing from their recent efforts.

Not even an infallible Pope could sway nattering "Ned" from his course ...

Keep that image of a badly burned spud in mind when reading ...

Actually, in political terms, the Liberal party has been stabbed in the back by the lizard Oz and the Murdochian media ...

Remember ...

Spare a thought for the hardworking operatives of News Corp today.

It must smart something terrible — you put weeks of effort into a conspiracy theory-based campaign to destroy Brittany Higgins using illegally leaked text messages, only for all that labour to blow up the Liberals instead, with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton forced to suspend a Victorian senator from the party. Worse yet, a former Senate colleague of the man emerges to make similar accusations as those levelled by Lidia Thorpe.

Today, even The Australian has had to report that several other people had concerns about the behaviour of David Van, who denies all of the allegations made about him. The awkward silence that greeted Thorpe’s accusations of harassment and assault by Van has, within 24 hours, given way to the headline “Open secret of a groping senator”. Presumably the angry columns about how Van has been denied justice and due process can wait for a later edition.

It saves the pond having to comment on "Ned" or his talk of the Coalition and the Murdochians being justified. This dotard down from the attic knows nothing of righteousness or being justified ...

The pond won't comment on the Lehrmann matter, but does note the grim determination of the reptiles to persist in their work ...

The pond said the image would come in handy... now back to "Ned's" burning ...

And still he blathers on, an insufferable old toady, without the first clue about anything ... and yet ...

Having started off with a historically small opposition bench thanks to Scott Morrison’s 2022 election disaster, Dutton has overseen its further diminution in a variety of ways: he lost the Aston byelection, Nationals MP Andrew Gee departed in a fury over Dutton’s hostility to the Voice, and now the opposition leader has been forced to turf a senator accused of repeat groping. Each is his own fault — especially the loss of Van, whose alleged behaviour has only been discussed because Dutton thought it’d be a good idea to peddle the discredited conspiracy theory about Higgins.

A common criticism of the Dutton-era Liberals is that, despite the smashing they took in May 2022, they have learnt nothing. The last week has fulfilled that description to the letter. Clearly nothing has been learnt from the failure of the Morrison government to respond appropriately to Higgins’ allegations: they smeared her partner, claimed a conspiracy with Labor, called her a “lying cow” and tried to dismiss the seriousness of her claims. That only demonstrated how badly out of touch Morrison was and how uninterested he was in responding to the toxicity of the Parliament House work environment as anything other than a political problem to be managed away and lied about.

This week has seen a replay of exactly that, in partnership with News Corp, complete with the same conspiracy theory being touted, only with a greater willingness to target Higgins herself. The immediate result is the loss of a senator — surely Van will quit to make way for a Liberal replacement to finish the remainder of his term — and further damage to the Liberal brand. The longer-term result in terms of how impressed female voters are that the Liberals are still trying to destroy Higgins remains to be seen.

How lucky for the pond not to have to bother with it all, or to wonder ...

The longer-term result in terms of how impressed female readers are that the Murdochians are still trying to destroy Higgins remains to be seen.

Instead it's back to the stifling toxicity of "Ned's" natter ...

Here's a thought ...

Spare a thought for the hardworking operatives of News Corp today.

It must smart something terrible — you put weeks of effort into a conspiracy theory-based campaign to destroy Brittany Higgins using illegally leaked text messages ...

Sorry, keen Keane, "Ned's" still doing it, and by this point the pond's patience is wearing incredibly thin ...

It's an interminable rehashing, remarkably defensive and incredibly tedious, and it were best over with ... and in the pond's defence, it's the first and last time it will go there ...

Over and over the same old ground, and to what avail?

There are lessons to be learned, but "Ned" and the reptiles will never learn them ...

Sorry that's just a teaser for the immortal Rowe that will be at the end of "Ned's" ranting ...

At this point the obviously bored reptiles stuck in a huge snap of a wicked witch, naturally downsized by the pond...

If only the reptiles could have found a relevant image ...

And so to what will be the very last gobbet the pond will run on the Lehrmann matter and associated events,and reptile capering and witch-burning...

What was that?

If women, no matter their status, party or prominence, are still being made to feel unsafe in the nation’s Parliament without serious consequences for perpetrators, how much has changed?

Put it another way. If this is where the reptiles have ended up, with "Ned" promising that this will be a never ending saga, have the reptiles learned anything from their folly?

Nope ... nada, zilch, zip, nihil, nothing ... but at least the pond can end with that immortal Rowe in full...