In which the pond can only offer cackling Claire and the hole in the bucket man, and thinks age-identification might be required before reading is allowed ...

 

The pond's heart sank. 

Friday, and there, like a baleful spectre, sat Henry, le trou dans le homme seau... still urging on collective punishment and genocide ...

Looking below the fold brought no relief ...

Oh there was some mild irony in John Lawrence's observation of equality before the law, what with the number of Indigenous prisoners in the NT, though he should probably tell the hand and Dame Slap. 

The meretricious Merritt also had a line about equality before the law ...

...In November, at the NSW Justices Association conference, he (Justice Hanks) outlined how equality before the law was established in Australia in 1788 by the first civil case which involved two convicts from the First Fleet – Henry and Susannah Kable.
But it took almost a century before the courts were allowed to accept evidence from Indigenous people, including evidence of massacres, he told that conference.

Oh yes, equality before the law, established in 1788 and still going strong ...

As for the rest, the pond found no relief in blather about AUKUS and generational politics. 

The pond can't begin to think about the number of times it's noted the completely pointless division of generations into letters of the alphabet, and won't go there again, and yet here we go again ...

There is no more striking demonstration of the degree to which AUKUS has seeped into the national consciousness than its starring role in the annual Australian lamb ad.
Though incorrectly nailing the decision to buy nuclear-powered submarines to the baby boomers – former prime minister Scott Morrison hails from Generation X – the ad draws down into a now pervasive national mythology that AUKUS was an “impulse buy” and that the public must now live with the consequences.
AUKUS has become a case study in generational politics. Public opinion polling reveals only 33 per cent of Gen Z and millennial voters believe it’s a good idea for Australia to have nuclear-powered submarines, compared with 66 per cent of voters aged 65 and over.
Still, on some things, all generations agree: a plurality of Australian voters feel nuclear-powered submarines are not worth the cost to Australian taxpayers. Only 21 per cent of voters believe the submarines warrant their $368bn price tag.
These apprehensions, especially among young people, should alarm our policymakers. The people who are expected to staff Australia’s new submarine enterprise as of now don’t support it. This is only the tip of the iceberg for Australia’s workforce challenge.

The logic is fatuous, and soon enough the authors have to abandon the line of meaningless generational divisions to talk about all generations ...

Notably, since it seems it's a matter of generational tribes, the authors never mention their own ages or tribal loyalties, but the fatuities continued to the bitter end...

...Our migrant workforce is just as strategically necessary as a strong citizen labour pool to Australia’s AUKUS enterprise. Rigid security requirements around this highly sensitive project must be respected. Nevertheless, migrant workers’ contributions across the whole supply chain and for infrastructure construction must be considered.
To get bang for its buck out of a far smaller population, Australia will have to think even more creatively than its partners about workforce productivity. Workers must be seamlessly transitioned from infrastructure work to maintenance and sustainment to shipbuilding roles.
The greenfield nature of our enterprise should be seen as an opportunity to build in technological solutions that increase productivity and efficiency.
There is no one solution to the workforce challenges AUKUS will face over its lifetime. The industrial workforce is only one piece of the puzzle; recruiting workers in sufficient numbers to the public service and the defence force stand to be equally difficult fixes. This is the start of a larger conversation every level of government must prosecute with Australian industry and its workers.
In the absence of that conversation, voters’ suspicion that AUKUS was a mistake to the tune of $368bn is here to stay.
Professor Peter J. Dean is director and Alice Nason a research associate in the Foreign Policy and Defence Program at the United States Studies Centre at Sydney University.

Sadly the pond can't report whether the pair belong to Generation Y2K or K2Z, and so has no reference point for understanding their scribbling, but this is bromancer turf, and they've been warned ...

With a deep sigh, the pond accepted the inevitability of it all and turned to cackling Claire, always willing to get excited by anything out of Florida, and no doubt keen to join in the war on the house of mouse, and at the same time, ban a goodly number of books, though the pond was delighted by that Daily Beast story Even Moms for Liberty Are Tired of Moms for Liberty (paywall):  At the chapter’s holiday gathering in December, 20 moms showed up.“[But] January was low turnout. February was low turnout,” Vicalvi said. By Tuesday, the chapter was down to just the three who voted to call it quits.

Natural attrition, rust never sleeps, and if only the same could happen to Claire's cackling ...

It turns out that even Ron DeSanctimonious blinked at the first draft of that bill. Per The Orlando Sentinel ...

Florida senators moved forward late Monday with a proposed social media ban for children that has drawn concerns from Gov. Ron DeSantis.

The measure (SB 1788) seeks to block users under 16 from using social media platforms with addictive features, regardless of parental approval.

The Florida House overwhelmingly approved the proposal (HB 1) in a 106-13 vote last month. The Senate’s Judiciary Committee advanced the bill Monday in a 7-2 vote.

DeSantis hasn’t committed to signing the proposed ban as it’s presently written. He said he has concerns about its “breadth” and whether it would pass legal review. Similar bans in other states are being challenged in the courts on First Amendment grounds...

...Opponents argue a ban overrides parental rights, runs afoul of the First Amendment and ignores the positive aspects of social media, such as fostering a sense of community.

“SB 1788 is a government censorship bill, and it is aimed at stifling the freedom of expression online and requiring all users, including adults, to verify their age by providing a photo ID or other age verification documentation,” said Kara Gross, legislative director and senior policy counsel for the ACLU of Florida.

The bill doesn’t list specific social media platforms, but it targets outlets that track user activity, allow children to upload content and contain “addictive” design features. Social media companies would need to use a third-party age verification system and terminate the accounts of underage users.

The legislation includes numerous exemptions, including for email, news outlets, direct messaging and streaming services.

Platforms that violate the law could face fines of up to $50,000 per violation. Parents could also bring private legal actions with fines of up $10,000 per violation.

In short, everyone would have to be caught up in age verification, and make their identity known.

Does any of this trouble cackling Claire? Not in the least, though apparently she's got over investigating pizza shops...

Meanwhile, it turns out that paedophile networks don't need the internet, they just need safe havens such as the Catholic church ...

Not being a user of social media, the pond has been forced by cackling Claire into uncomfortable company ...

... but the pond knows that attempts to ban things always increases the temptation, which is why naughty boys furtively handed around copies of Playboy in the Tamworth High School library long ago ... and being pinged by the librarian didn't stop them ...

They just moved to another forum, while she headed off to the golf club to run her week's earnings through the pokies ...

But the pond digresses ... while Claire is still maintaining the rage ...

At last something the pond understands. It's in the grip of a weird obsession, the repetitive reading of mindless reptiles, the fear of missing the latest stupidity, the addictive quality of the comments on the latest stupidity, the endless cycle of dependency and compulsion.

Will the pond ever be able to break its addiction to the lizard Oz. Is cackling Claire at least making the helpful suggestion that the paywall should be even stricter, and that anyone under 16 should be banned from accessing the site via their parents' subscription? Will there be a thought police to maintain a constant monitoring of parents to ensure the new laws are obeyed?

Never mind, just a gobbet to go ...

Ah, there's a promising way to break the cycle of addiction. Cackling Claire must require anyone seeking to use Quillette to establish their identity by way of photo ID... and as the pond is always on the lookout for fresh business opportunities, the pond will set up a service offering fake IDs, and thus life and teens sneaking into venues for a drink will maintain a teetering equilibrium ...

And so to the onerous duty of keeping a bigot for company ...

The real risk, of course, is that the collective punishment, the collective displacement and the genocide will continue ...

Even this day's Haaretz couldn't resist marvelling at the devastation that has been wrought ...

The pond isn't going to get into genocide porn, though the headlines were grim ...

Talk of famine is of no interest to the hole in the bucket man, he wants to make sure no relief is to hand ...

Meanwhile, if you happened to have ignored the pond and headed off to the Graudian, you might have already read ...

The last refuge is no longer a refuge. Around half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have found some kind of shelter in Rafah, often under canvas, raising the border city’s population fivefold. Now, though desperate, traumatised and exhausted, many are readying to flee again.

Benjamin Netanyahu has said that Israeli troops will soon enter, despite warnings from António Guterres, the UN secretary general, that it would “increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences”. Strikes on the city appeared to be intensifying on Thursday.

The UN has warned that a ground offensive could lead to war crimes. It is hard to see how devastating civilian casualties would not result, given what has happened in less crowded areas. Israel said in late January that it had killed only about 30% of Hamas fighters – around 10,000, including 1,000 killed in the group’s murderous attack on 7 October, which claimed 1,200 mostly Israeli lives. The total death toll stands at 27,000 people, more than 11,000 of them children. Another 66,000 have been injured. A quarter of the population is starving.

Israel has reportedly told Egypt that it will allow people to leave Rafah before it moves in. But not everyone is capable of fleeing again, and there is nowhere safe to go. Some of those who have tried to leave the city in recent days have not been heard of since making the attempt. Fierce fighting continues in the Gazan city of Khan Younis. Overall, more than half of Gaza is still under evacuation orders, and Israel has said that fighting will continue in the north, where it had previously said operations were completed, due to the reappearance of Hamas combatants and officials.

Where fighting has ceased, a wasteland is left. Homes, schools, bakeries, hospitals, mosques, churches, sewage infrastructure, aid centres – all erased from the earth. In the words of one witness: “It’s like after an atomic bomb.” The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has also complained that it has not been able to deliver aid to the north for more than a fortnight. A major ground offensive in Rafah threatens to cut off Gaza’s lifeline completely, since aid comes via the city’s crossing with Egypt.

Meanwhile, each day of war increases the need for those deliveries. The US has, belatedly, invested heavily in attempts to pursue a ceasefire and the release of hostages. Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, said the Hamas counteroffer to proposals from the US and Israel contained clear non-starters, but offered “space to pursue negotiations”. However, Mr Netanyahu’s response made it clear that American shuttle diplomacy is of limited use while Washington’s pressure essentially amounts to urging and imploring. He insisted that “absolute victory” is needed, and that there will be months more fighting. Nor is the prime minister willing to listen to freed hostages, and relatives of those still held, as they plead for a deal. The extreme right, upon whom he depends for political survival, would not tolerate such an agreement.

Mr Netanyahu is far from being the only obstacle on the Israeli side to a ceasefire and the release of hostages. But there can be little if any progress while he remains at the helm. He is too busy pursuing his personal interests to serve his country’s. That means, frighteningly, that the least grim scenario for Rafah now looks like further mass displacement and a deepening humanitarian disaster.

Well yes, and for some strange reason, the reptiles decided to interrupt the hole in the bucket man with a snap of people in urgent need of relief ...

It looked so surreal as to suggest PhotoShop? Did it in any way move the bigot and his cold heart, way worse than the giant dwelling in his Oscar Wilde garden?

Of course not ...

Meanwhile, Colbert style, on another planet ... the Graudian managed to get around the IDF ban on talking to Israeli soldiers. They were still in favour of the genocide, but they let a few things slip ...

Information about the actual experience of fighting in the conflict has been closely controlled by the Israeli authorities. Journalists have been barred from Gaza, except for short, carefully supervised trips with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

The IDF did not act on repeated requests by the Guardian to speak to serving soldiers who had fought in the Israel-Gaza war.

“The destruction is massive,” said one noncommissioned officer (NCO) who was in Gaza for two months with an infantry unit. “What really blew my mind was that there is nowhere for anyone to come back to. There aren’t even three walls connected. It looks like a scene of a zombie attack or something. It’s not a war zone. It’s a disaster area, like out of Hollywood.”

And again ...

The interviews suggest that the soaring civilian death toll is at least in part due to Israel’s use of massive fire power to limit its own losses.

One soldier from the special forces Duvdevan unit said his unit had only encountered Hamas militants on three occasions during six weeks in north Gaza, from where the majority of civilians were ordered to evacuate early in the war.

When asked what tactics the unit employed in such situations, the soldier laughed.

“There are no tactics. We take some fire and identify a target. For an hour we unload everything we’ve got, our own weapons, tanks, anything we can get. Then we advance and find dead terrorists,” he said.

And it seemed like it was going to continue, per Al Jazeera ...

Meanwhile, our Henry finally decided to wrap things up, with no relief, and the genocide continuing so long as Benji thinks he can use it to save his hide ...

How weird can that get?

Anshel Pfeffer in Haaretz proposed Ntanyahu's Refrain of Fighting Hamas Until 'Total Victory' Is a Fantasy ... (paywall)

With his constant refrain of "continuing until total victory," Netanyahu, like many other leaders before him, is living in a Churchillian fantasy. He still believes he can emulate Britain's wartime prime minister and lead Israel "forward into broad, sunlit uplands." What he can't accept is that in his World War II cosplaying, he isn't Winston Churchill but Neville Chamberlain – the dismal appeaser whom Churchill replaced eight months after war began.

Everyone but the most die-hard Bibi-ists already know the unavoidable truth: that Netanyahu will forever be remembered in history as Israel's worst prime minister, who led it into the greatest tragedy to ever befall the state. But he is incapable of understanding that and will continue fighting to change that narrative, even after the war ends.

Neville Chamberlain?

Surely not, surely there's a better historical parallel, another politician who often talked about total victory ...

Even the most superficial observation shows that Nature’s restricted form of propagation and increase is an almost rigid basic law of all the innumerable forms of expression of her vital urge.

Every animal mates only with a member of the same species. … Any crossing of two beings not at exactly the same level produces a medium between the level of the two parents. This means: the offspring will probably stand higher than the racially lower parent, but not as high as the higher one.

Consequently, it will later succumb in the struggle against the higher level. Such mating is contrary to the will of Nature for a higher breeding of all life. The precondition for this does not lie in associating superior and inferior, but in the total victory of the former. The stronger must dominate and not blend with the weaker...

And so to the final thoughts of the dominating strong one ...

As for aid?

Forget it Jake, it's Gaza, and the genocide continues and famine and disease are rampant, and there being no natural segue from that catastrophe, the pond decided to provide its own form of relief with a serve of the infallible Pope and immortal Rowe celebrating other matters... 

On the upside neither of them feature lickspittle lackey and useless idiot Tuckyo Carlson crawling up the backside of a dictator, just as another potential rival is banned from the field ...