In which the pond gets comfortably numb with the bro and "Ned", and then goes full comatose with Dame Slap ...

 

The pond would like to make it known that it is available for televisual interviews for a modest payment of rent, though in Sydney these days the pond would expect around $2,500 a week to keep up a minimalist lifestyle. 

The pond can't promise a Walkley nomination, but can promise the feeling of integrity and honest journalism. Unfortunately the pond will not be able to make it incountry to sign a contract to seal the deal - it turns out that navigating the new Rozelle interchange is incomprehensible ...

Meanwhile, looters gotta loot and enjoy the looting, and the Tories are devoted to their looting ... but that's another country, and the pond thought it might start the day gently with another bout of bro hysteria, because the war with China by Xmas is going very badly, and the bromancer's gears seem to be stuck in grinding repetition ...

Why does the pond find the bro's hysteria so soothing? Could it be the reptiles' uncanny skill at finding the most objectionable snaps of politicians available, grimacing and gnashing teeth, while the bromancer grinds away?

Could it be the way that the reptiles show off the sort of kit the bro wanks about before drifting into a feverish nightmare each night?

Whatever, the more the bro hysterically rages and rants, the more the pond drifts off into another world ... and it doesn't take long before the pond is feeling comfortably numb ...

Ah, Adolf got a mention and so Godwin's Law, and what a way to end it all, not with a whimper but a bloody good set of bangs ... and yet the pond remained comfortably numb. 

Enduring relentless bro screeching over the years is perhaps not the most obvious way to achieve peace of mind, but the pond can recommend it as being better than vaping ... when all is lost, you just step out of the tent, perhaps for an extended time, and nirvana awaits ...

Try it sometime, perhaps with a hammer. Pound away at the head with a hammer, or the bro's columns, either will do, and then when the hammering stops,  the ensuing silence, the feeling of pleasant relief, will be almost unnerving ... 

Sure, the war with New Zealand is in deep trouble, but that leaves plenty of time to nuke the planet ...

Not satisfied by the level of numbness achieved by that short outing, the pond moved on to the master of numbness, some quality time with nattering "Ned", this day agitated by education, and with the news that we'll certainly all be rooned, at least until Captain Spud arrives to fix things ...

Ben is, of course, one of those useful idiots who can be joined with the standard reptile litany of the sky falling in ... with "Ned" in the starring role of Chicken Little ...

Usually this sort of educational rage, blather about the long march through the institutions, can be found on Sky News after dark (no link, the pond doesn't link to reptiles) ...

Ben himself has spoken of climate science, in a posting where the pond had hoped that finding a readable font and a useful colouring of said font - as opposed to an impenetrable white fog - might have proved that educational standards in online literacy was on the rise ...

The pond could have tweaked it, improved the contrast, but the beige look went with the beige messaging ...

It is of course grist to the reptile mill, because the reptiles have made a living out of trashing climate science for decades ... 

Ah, so it's all the fault of the Rudd-Gillard era, and yet the pond seems to recall - vaguely - that there have been quite a few governments of a different stripe in between ...

At this point, just to reinforce the message, the pond notes that there was a snap of Ben, a snap of Chairman Rudd, and a snap of the current infidel, looking deeply puzzled, as often happens with reptile snaps ...

The pond would of course rather be off reading Marina giving her usual good Hydeing in Brilliant: a Cop28 to save the planet – staged by oil barons who imperil it.

Inter alia ...

...Speaking of Lord Moore, can it really be only two years since Boris Johnson was leaving his own climate conference early by private jet, in order to have dinner with this longtime climate change denialist, who sought to persuade his former Telegraph employee that it was definitely worth going all-out to save Moore’s friend Owen Paterson from a minor wrist-slap from the parliamentary standards commissioner? Why, I do believe it can. Charles turned out to be wrong about that, and the resulting shitstorm was the beginning of the end of Johnson’s premiership. This week, Moore was railing against the possibility of the Telegraph titles insidiously becoming paid mouthpieces of a government, which somehow means so much more from someone who once refused to pay his licence fee to the BBC but wanted Johnson to make him chairman of it...

And also this ...

...Cop28 seems to be taking on the character of one of those late-stage Fifa tournaments, where World Cups are really just an international bribery exchange to which the football merely serves as the backdrop. How else to explain Monday’s revelation by the BBC and non-profit Centre for Climate Reporting that Al Jaber and the UAE planned to use the conference to pitch and promote oil and gas deals to foreign governments including China, Brazil, Germany and Egypt? We have to say “planned”, because Cop28 spokesfolk now say the documents detailing the strategy “were not used by Cop28 in meetings” and that “private meetings are private”. No doubt, no doubt.

Even so, Al Jaber’s people seem quite upset that this has all come out. Amusingly, even the Telegraph reported the story, having previously not really regarded such things as newsworthy, but presumably having a vested interest now it is itself the target of a vested interest. For what it’s worth, I agree with Charles Moore that a UAE state-backed takeover of the Telegraph titles would obviously be a bad idea, not least because it would mean a tragic farewell to the Telegraph’s fearless climate change coverage (27 November-28 November 2023. Taken too soon).

Meanwhile, the pond must make do with gloomy old "Ned", apparently unaware that the lizard Oz's fearless exposition of climate science was taken way too soon, somewhere around 2000 ...

Provided the mission doesn't mention climate science, the reptiles are right behind you Ben ...

Yes, yes, it's always a good hoot, when someone like "Ned" talks about resistance to evidence-based research ...

Okay, fair cop, the pond has simply used Ben and "Ned" for a little counter-programming, and the strategy has worked because the pond has arrived at the last gobbet with the planet and Australian education in ruins ... not to mention the war with Chyynnah also in ruins ...

Sarah Henderson is your answer Ben? She's your saviour? Well she surely suits "Ned" and the reptile climate science education agenda.

Yes Ben, soon enough education will be mightily improved by potent warriors, celebrated by the immortal Rowe ...

And so to a special bonus. There she was, positioned in her favourite spot, on the extreme far right of the digital edition of the lizard Oz ...

The pond spends a lot of time red carding Dame Slap, but decided she could given a run this day, if only to help the pond with a little more counter-programming ...

Meanwhile, speaking of another country and journalism, far removed from planet Janet ... there was Margaret Sullivan in the Graudian with The Israel-Hamas war is deadly for journalists. Lives are being lost, and truth...

...“The world needs to know what is going on,” but that’s getting harder all the time, Clayton Weimers, the executive director of RSF (the international organization also known as Reporters Without Borders), recently said.

RSF’s representatives, in a meeting at the White House this week, urged Joe Biden to do more to support journalists.

The overwhelming majority of the dead appear to be Palestinian journalists killed in Israeli airstrikes. As of Monday, the CPJ reports that of the 57 journalists and media workers known to have died during the current war, 50 were Palestinian, four Israeli and three Lebanese.

RSF has pleaded with the Biden administration to put more pressure on the Israeli government to protect civilian lives, including those of journalists. RSF also objected to the difficulty of getting necessary supplies – chargers, phones and camera equipment – to those working in Gaza.

“Meanwhile, the journalists in Gaza cannot leave, and the only outside media permitted to enter have been invited to embed with the Israeli Defense Forces and submit to strict rules controlling what they can see and share,” the organization said in a statement.

While this embedded coverage is valuable, RSF notes, “it is no substitute for independent reporting”.

Especially painful to the broader journalism world is the loss of Belal Jadallah, the press freedom defender who made an important contribution to a CPJ report published in May, “Deadly Pattern”. It revealed a complete lack of accountability in Israeli military killings of journalists over the past two decades.

“His killing leaves a gaping hole in the media landscape in Gaza,” said Sherif Mansour, who coordinates CPJ’s Middle East programs.

The willingness of the Netanyahu government to kill to control the information flow is notorious ... at least if you don't live on planet Janet ...

Actually the Graudian manages to publish articles that the reptiles of the lizard Oz have never shown the slightest desire to run ...

A little counter-programming for the poor buggers caught up in the war of the fundamentalists, as with "Rozan" not so long ago, Israel told us to move to south Gaza. Then it said it would bomb the south too. So where do we go now?

...Israeli officials are already considering expanding their ground invasion into Khan Younis. That prospect is too great for us to imagine. Almost a million people have already had to leave northern Gaza for the south. We are running out of food. Taps are decorative at this point, as is the fridge. There is never any running water or electricity. All the canned food and pasta we had has run out. Flour is the main thing we have left. We are having to pluck fruit off the trees in the garden and bake bread on wood fires, or use our neighbour’s clay oven. We still make dangerous trips to buy supplies, but it is so hard to find anything in the shops.

The streets of Khan Younis are packed. Displaced people, if they are not staying with relatives or hosts, are sleeping in schools, in tents and in the streets. The nights are very cold, even for us with roofs over our heads. All of our windows are either already broken or are left open to avoid glass shattering from the impact of nearby bombing. We don’t have enough blankets, and several dozen of us got the flu. Winter is really setting in and those in tents are most affected by the rain.

If we are forced to leave Khan Younis too, where are we supposed to go? We hate to think that Israel really wants to drive us out of Gaza altogether and into Sinai, but at this point it is a genuine concern. We are already hearing statements about turning Khan Younis “into a soccer field” and driving people out as the “solution” for Gaza. The world watched as Israeli missiles destroyed our homes, our mosques and churches, our hospitals. They watched as entire families were wiped out and, according to an update from Unicef’s executive director three days ago, more than 5,300 children were killed. Our greatest fear is that they will continue to watch as those who survive the carpet bombing are driven out of their homeland altogether.

You won't find any of this in the lizard Oz, but you will find lots of snaps ... best get them out of the way ...

You won't find this sort of snap ...

It is of course another chance for Dame Slap to bash the ABC, and soon enough embark on a general rant ...

Meanwhile, in the cause of counter-programming, the pond found Sam Wolfson's Antisemites supporting Israel is weird. Jewish support of them is even weirder appropriate for a gathering of loons ...

Perhaps the most bizarre spectacle of the past month has been watching some of the world’s most wretched antisemites lining up to give their unalloyed support to Israel. Even more jarring has been their embrace by those who are supposed to advocate for Jewish safety.

These people include the radical US pastor John Hagee, who previously claimed that Adolf Hitler had been born from a lineage of “accursed, genocidally murderous half-breed Jews” and sent by God to help the Jews reach the promised land. (He apologized in 2008 for some of his remarks.) He was invited to speak last Tuesday to an audience of thousands at the March for Israel in Washington, organised by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, to help “condemn the rising trend of antisemitic violence”.

Tommy Robinson, a leading member of the British far right, recently called on people to go to the Cenotaph, a war memorial in central London, to “protect” it from pro-Palestinian protesters. Last year Robinson defended Kanye West, saying it was obvious that “there are powerful Jewish people, claiming to be Zionists, who have their fingers on buttons of power in the entertainment industry, in big tech … and in governments” and that Jews “generally speaking, at least the white European Jews, have an average IQ of 110, so inevitably those Jews will rise to the top of corporations”.

Despite Robinson’s history of inflammatory and conspiratorial remarks, a 2019 Guardian investigation found that many of the groups bankrolling or supporting his organisation were rightwing pro-Israel thinktanks in the US, including Middle East Forum and the Gatestone Institute.

Then there’s US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr, who earlier this year repeated the conspiracy theory that Covid-19 was “targeted” to spare Jewish and Chinese people. When he was accused of propagating antisemitism, which he denies, Kennedy chose to blast representatives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for insufficient support of Israel, saying that “criticism of Israel is a false narrative” and “Israel is a shining star on human rights in the Middle East”.

Kennedy was rewarded with an op-ed in Jewish Journal, a pro-Israel publication, titled “RFK is an Ally, not an Antisemite”, which argued that despite his comments “RFK’s unwavering commitment to Israel as a Jewish state is sincere and integral to his political values”.

Europe’s far-right political parties have a long history of promoting antisemitism. Yet Marine Le Pen’s National Front in France, the AfD in Germany and Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party in Hungary all have given unequivocal support to Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Indeed, Netanyahu considers Orbán a close ally and often tweets support for him.

Speaking of Orbán that reminded the pond of a story in the Nine rags about the onion muncher a couple of days ago...

Tony Abbott’s freelance life after politics just keeps on getting better and better.

He’s joined the board of Fox Corporation, was seen recently hanging out with Canadian lefty-baiting provocateur Jordan B. Peterson and continues as an adviser to the UK board of trade.

Amid this already busy schedule, Abbott has joined hard right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán-sponsored Danube Institute as a guest speaker and will contribute to the Hungarian Conservative magazine.

“He believes that the Danube Institute offers a platform where valuable exchanges and debates take place, where different ideas and opinions can be given space,” the institute says via a translated statement.

The Danube Institute has an interesting history. As well as being funded by the Hungarian government (we’re keeping an eye on Abbott’s foreign influence transparency register, which as of Sunday afternoon did not list Danube), it’s developed a rather unhealthy interest in Europe’s changing demographics.

The Hungarian PM, a self-described “illiberal democrat,” is best known for ultra-right prototypical bare-chested nationalism and hostility to press freedom, the LGBTI community and immigrants (including a rant about how different races should not mix, which an advisor labelled “pure Nazi”).

It places Abbott in a difficult position – Hungary is at constant loggerheads with the European Union, an ally of Australia, who accuse Orban of eroding democratic norms.

Will Tony canvass that in his speeches?

We tried to ask, but he didn’t get back to us.

Some might be wondering how this is relevant to Dame Slap, but Wolfson carried on ...

In the US, there is Donald Trump, whose election was heralded by antisemites’ biggest public rally in the US in a generation, the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Yet because Trump was also demonstrably pro-Israel in his foreign policy stances, notably moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, he receives ongoing support and endorsements from many pro-Israel pressure groups. Some of them were nervous when he criticised Israel’s lack of military preparedness for the Hamas attacks, but he’s now back in the fold, adding “#IStandWithBibi”to his Truth Social posts.

As anyone who has dipped into the pond knows, Dame Slap famously slipped on a MAGA cap and slipped out into the New York night to celebrate the arrival of the mango Mussolini, and now here we are ...

And then there was this from Wolfson ...

This month Elon Musk agreed with a post on Twitter that said Jewish people have been pushing “dialectical hatred against whites”. The owner of the account, which had fewer than 6,000 followers, went on to say he was “deeply disinterested in giving the tiniest shit now about western Jewish populations”.

“You have said the actual truth,” Musk said. This was not an unusual stance for Musk, who denies that he is antisemitic. He has flirted with white nationalism many times, and earlier this year he remarked that the Jewish billionaire George Soros “reminds me of Magneto” (the evil X-Men villain, who, like Soros, is a Holocaust survivor).

As expected, Musk was admonished by the Biden administration, advertisers on X and Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, the world’s most prominent pressure group in protecting Jews from antisemitism. Musk has attacked Greenblatt and the ADL many times, threatening them with lawsuits, saying the group over-polices language on social media and calling them “ironically the biggest generators of anti-Semitism on this platform”.

Netanyahu didn’t bother to admonish Musk at all – the pair are friends, and Netanyahu has called him the “Edison of our time” even after many examples of Musk giving a platform to antisemites.

Musk did not remove the original post; instead he denied he was an antisemite and promised to come down hard on those who defended Palestinian rights on X, saying he would remove users who posted phrases like “decolonization” and “from the river to the sea”, which he said were “euphemisms” that “necessarily imply genocide”.

Greenblatt was thrilled: “I appreciate this leadership in fighting hate.”

Over and over again, alleged antisemites or those who give platforms to antisemites have had their offenses chalked off by some in the pro-Israel movement, as long as they show sufficient deference to the Israeli project.

That reminded the pond of another story ...Mayor Of Paris Quits X, Calling It A ‘Gigantic Global Sewer’

Well yes, but to its shame, the pond can't boast. 

The pond spends a lot of time in a branch of News Corp's gigantic global sewer, and frequently spends time with sewer dwellers of the Dame Slap kind ...

These narcissistic sewer rats spend a lot of time preening and pomping around, boasting about being righteous ...

It takes a zealot to spot a zealot?

Perhaps, but please allow one last piece of counter-programming ...Nesrine Malik in The Graudian with The war in Gaza has been an intense lesson in western hypocrisy. It won’t be forgotten...

...Unlike Iraq, it has not taken years for the bodies to pile up, for the evidence to mount and to prove that the venture made no one safer, was merciless and misguided – and ultimately for confidence and trust in political leadership to leach away. Gaza is happening in real time, in some instances livestreamed. The bombardments are so relentless and concentrated that entire families have been wiped out. Thousands have been displaced, dragging their children in makeshift sleds (another harrowing scene). There is also the moral force of the children. Not just their deaths, estimated at up to 6,000 in less than two months, but their orphaning, displacement, and deprivation of food and water in a besieged Gaza that is now, according to Unicef, “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child”.

Humans can be taught to accept an awful lot that does not make sense, but there is a limit to what people can be plausibly told is not possible. Much of consent in politics is secured by popular agreement that there are things that are simply above the average citizen’s pay grade, and even beyond government control. Not being able to persuade “the only democracy in the Middle East” of something that seems plainly obvious, that the horrific events of 7 October cannot be erased by even more horror, is not one of them. The lesson is brutal and short: human rights are not universal and international law is arbitrarily applied.

Well yes, but the  pond learns that brutal lesson each day by reading the lizard Oz ... and brutalists from the school of Dame Slap ...

As for Palestinians caught in the maw? Not Dame Slap's and as for balance, you might as well talk to Dame Slap's hand or to the MAGA cap perched on her head ...

Meanwhile, on another planet, viewers of the ABC might have caught up on a story on YouTube (no need to give personal details to the app), headed Government strikes Murray-Darling Basin deal with Greens ...

Truth to tell, the pond only mentions it to note the many ways the country is stuffed, much like theh planet ... but not as the reptiles imagine it, more in the way that the infallible Pope describes the Murray-Darling basin ...