In which the pond nukes the country to save Captain Spud, and then celebrates the ongoing genocide with the bromancer ...

 

The pond was delighted when a correspondent noted that the Dame Slap/Walter Sofronoff affair had surfaced yet again, at the ABC and at the Graudian (unfortunately The Canberra Times' link hid behind a paywall, but the AAP report on the matter was here).

At the time the affair broke, Richard Ackland wrote a splendid summary in The Saturday Paper under the header The Walter Sofronoff–Janet Albrechtsen imbroglio (possible paywall).

The keen Keane tried a partial defence in Crikey (paywall) by blaming it all on the evil empire ... Don't criticise Janet Albrechtsen for her role in the Sofronoff inquiry — target powerful people and institutions that allow and enable the tumour that is News Corp.

...The problem is not with Albrechtsen, engaged in doing her job, so much as her employer. News Corp was — and is — engaged in a campaign of merciless character assassination of Brittany Higgins. It is devoted to the task of exemplary punishment of her for the damage she inflicted on the Liberal party — along with Liberal MPs and senators who continue to pursue her.
Will News Corp, or the Coalition, ever be satisfied that they have inflicted enough damage on Higgins? Or on anyone involved in the prosecution of Lehrmann (for, we must remember, a sexual assault he has always denied)? It seems not, despite the extensive evidence of the gruesome toll the News Corp campaign, and relentless litigation, has taken on Higgins.
Indeed, quite possibly there are some engaged in the campaign against Higgins who would be content to see it take as heavy a toll as possible, to ensure every staffer, every woman, every prosecutor, every journalist gets the message not to embarrass the conservative side of politics.
The Albrechtsen-Sofronoff relationship is a kind of micro version of the larger problem with News Corp. It is a malignant participant in the public affairs of the country. But it remains a cancer in our body politic because people in power allow it, and enable it. No one compelled Sofronoff to develop such a close relationship with his News Corp interlocutor. No one compels Labor politicians — Bill Shorten the honourable exception — to tug the forelock to the Murdochs, as is happening right now on the news media bargaining code. No one compels News Corp’s media competitors to treat its lies and propaganda seriously, as though it was an actual media outlet.
It is not a media outlet, but a foreign-owned political player engaged in selling hate and division. If it is a pustulent tumour, it is also a foreign body lodged here and allowed to remain. Powerful people and institutions allow the damage that this foreign company inflicts. And the rest of us wear that damage like a rash.

The trouble with the "just following the orders of the evil empire" defence is that it offers Dame Slap the Rudolf Höss/Zone of Interest routine (yeay, Godwin's Law), a devout family person just carrying out orders. 

But is she merely delusional and mislead, or a willing, enthusiastic participant in proceedings?

This day's effort gives a clue ...

Nah, at the moment, in any known universe, it's not the Brittany Higgins saga, it's the Bruce Lehrmann saga, affair or matter ... and as for the rising costs, with a little bit of luck, there might still be some payback for Dame Slap's role in the Lehrmann matter ...

Before starting the day's proceedings - lengthy and tedious - the pond would like to honour Charlie Lewis in Crikey, with 1984 reasons conservatives should stop quoting George Orwell, All Orwell references are equal, but some are more equal than others for News Corp papers lifting the writer's words for right-wing ends.

The pond should warn that all the hot links are behind the paywall, as is the story, and the pond must also confess to having routinely abused and misused Yeats' poem, but pleads that it fell in love with Yeats and the poem decades ago, back in the days when there were afternoon editions of the tabloids The Sun and the Daily Mirror ...

Besides, the misuse use of Orwell is a far greater thought crime, up there with the abuse of "woke", and the lizard Oz is at the core of it all ...

And so on and of course those hot links in the original (neutered by the screen cap) link to reptile yarns, so the pond would have refused to take them live anyway, but please note the splendid role that Dame Slap played in that hive mind group think ...

But more than enough of Dame Slap, time to check out what's below the fold ...

Simplistic "here no conflict of interest" Simon still nuking the country to save the planet? 

The pond couldn't resist looking at the long forgotten tree killer edition, and sure enough nuking the country was all the go, with nukes jostling for attention, while the reptiles set about traducing the man who had wrecked Dame Slap's version of the Lehrmann matter ...

What could the pond do but follow the EXCLUSIVE and follow the latest twist in the "climate science is crap" saga?

Warning, it's a long and tedious affair, and first the pond must begin with the top of the digital and tree killer edition EXCLUSIVE ...

What better way to begin the saga than with a snap of brave Captain Spud, nuking the country to save the planet, a reformed climate science denialist ... yep, SMRs live to ride the range yet again ...

Ah, pie in the sky, in the bye and bye, long after Captain Spud himself will have left the scene, as will the pond and many others. But in the meantime, dream the dream ...

Of course it's all in the name of climate science, even if that's all crap - just ask the riddling Riddster or Lloydie of the Amazon or the Bjorn-again one - and for some reason, the reptiles felt the need to include the thoughts of the neigh sayers ...

Most days the pond would leave it there, but this day the reptiles truly had a bee in the bonnet, buzzing away in the hive mind, to mix the metaphors. 

Usually the pond would pay absolutely no attention to simpleton "here no conflict of interest" Simon, but he was also out and about down below the fold, still buzzing away about the need to nuke the country to save the planet, and to distract from climate science, and reliable predictions still offered up by the lizard Oz that it was all crap, so attention had to be paid to this gigantic effort ...

The pond couldn't resist a guffaw at that opening line: "The climate wars may be over ..."

It made the pond feel infinitely better ... sublime comedy would justify this outing, even if it was going to be as long and as tedious as one of those interminable nattering "Ned" outings ...

As for the "coherent long-term alternative," that'd be nuking the country with SMRs, as coherent a strategy as you care to believe ...

Social licence? The pond would have expected examples of actual working keenly priced SMRs ready to buy and install (the pond's back yard remains available, whatever the neighbours might think) ... but do go on and on and on ...

Some might complain there's already been a lot of repetition in simpleton Simon below the fold, but that's the whole point of the enterprise. 

To misuse Orwell yet again, four nuclear legs good, two renewable legs bad. Keep repeating until you fall asleep ...

At this point the reptiles began offering some visual distractions, and the pond lumped them all together ... there's only so many pics of a coal-fired power station any possum should be expected to bear ...

Naturally there was much talk of the suffering caused by giving up dear, sweet, innocent, virginal coal ... as if we couldn't keep shipping the stuff abroad to maintain our great emissions record ...

Then it was on to talk of that poll, which has featured in zillions of reptile stories and once again does sterling service...

It seems that vulgar youff is the great hope, those silly alarmists and climate catastrophists who refuse to follow the reptile line on such matters, but who apparently yearn to nuke the country to save the planet, and rather than buy a home, they'd rather have an SMR, whenever they might become available, say when they're turning sixty or seventy...

Ah, the bloody CSIRO and their talk of current absences ... but what would they know? The pond is confident that an SMR will land in the pond's backyard by oh, say, mid-2030s or perhaps mid-2050s or whenever ...

And at this point in the simpleton Simon climb the pond began to run out of steam ...and luckily so did simplistic Simon, with just two gobbets to go, and the pond never thought it would say this, but somehow simpleton Simon made nattering "Ned's" Everest climbs feel like a doddle ...

Indeed, indeed, put markers in the ground, stand for something, and get those bids to nuke the country started, and the pond bids a thruppenny bit for its very own SMR ...and thank the long absent lord this has ended...

And so it ends, with the "we'll all be rooned" gambit, and apparently climate science is real and the climate wars have ended, and the pond will believe that at least until the next reference to climate alarmists and climate catastrophists, coming soon in the lizard Oz ...

And now a final duty remains. The pond always finds space for the bromancer, because there's never been a genocide he hasn't loved and felt the need to justify.

Sure it's as long as a nattering "Ned" offering, sure there were a couple of IDF offices dismissed - when they should have have been court-martialed for war crimes - and a couple more disciplined, but never mind, the bromancer is on the case ...

Yep, it's a sure sign that Israel is in deep dooh dah, with what was plainly an act of the IDF now all the fault of Hamas ...

No, he didn't, if he had he would have done the right thing and resigned on the spot. And then headed off to court to face the music ...

For those who've already had more than enough there was a good story in the Graudian recently, 'I will never join the army': ultra-Orthodox Jews vow to defy Israeli court orders ...

Farewell to those off to gain some real insights; meanwhile the pond will soldier on ...

The pond isn't going to bother with all the usual notes - for example the demand that Israel be free of difficult, tricky, uppity Palestinians, from the river to the sea - and the way that's being done by murder and land acquisition in the West Bank and by genocide in Gaza - and instead will just let the bromancer rabbit on ...

Yep, it was Hamas, and never mind the IDF, or the deliberate use of famine as a strategy of war, or the collective punishment or the killing fields ... and to prove the point the reptiles slipped in snaps of two of the enemy ...

Meanwhile, the bromancer kept lathering himself into a frenzy ...

You might instead by reading Israeli inquiry findings on aid worker killings lack credibility, charity says

Amid mounting international pressure on Israel, the British foreign secretary, David Cameron, said the findings of the Israeli inquiry – which he said the UK was reviewing carefully – showed that “major reform” was required.

“It’s clear major reform of Israel’s deconfliction mechanism is badly needed to ensure the safety of aid workers,” Cameron said on X.

The hurriedly completed inquiry, which led to two middle-ranking officers being dismissed and a general reprimanded, outlined a catalogue of failings by Israeli forces in an incident that has reinforced global criticism of Israel’s conduct of a war in which 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in six months.

While welcoming the report as a first step, WCK’s founder, the celebrity chef José Andrés, said: “The IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza. It’s not enough to simply try to avoid further humanitarian deaths, which have now approached close to 200. All civilians need to be protected, and all innocent people in Gaza need to be fed and safe. And all hostages must be released.”

The charity’s chief executive, Erin Gore, said: “Their apologies for the outrageous killing of our colleagues represent cold comfort. It’s cold comfort for the victims’ families and WCK’s global family. Israel needs to take concrete steps to assure the safety of humanitarian aid workers. Our operations remain suspended.”

WCK’s remarks were echoed by the UN secretary general, António Guterres, who said fixing failings in Israel’s military procedures required “independent investigations” and meaningful and measurable changes on the ground.

Noting that 196 humanitarian workers had been killed during Israel’s campaign, Guterres said: “We want to know why.”

The announcement of punishments and the apology have not calmed the international outcry over the WCK workers’ deaths or reassured international aid groups that it is safe to resume operations in Gaza, where nearly a third of the population is on the brink of starvation.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said the US was reviewing the findings and would be looking very carefully at what concrete measures Israel was taking to reduce civilian harm.

“It’s very important that Israel is taking full responsibility for this incident. It’s also important that it appears to be taking steps to hold those responsible accountable,” he said in Brussels. “Even more important is that steps are being taken going forward to ensure that something like this can never happen again.”

The Israeli military commission of inquiry blamed a series of “grave errors” by military personnel, including lack of coordination and misidentification. The IDF said it had dismissed a brigade chief of staff with the rank of colonel and a brigade fire support officer with the rank of major, and issued formal reprimands to senior officers including the general at the head of the southern command.

The rapidly completed investigation failed to resolve key questions including why soldiers from the Nahal brigade responsible were unaware that humanitarian vehicles were operating in the area with IDF permission, and why commanders launched an attack that the IDF said was in flagrant breach of its operational rules.

The findings are likely to renew scepticism over the military’s decision-making. Palestinians, aid groups and human rights organisations have repeatedly accused Israeli forces of firing recklessly at civilians throughout the conflict – a charge Israel denies...

 ... but then you'd be missing out on wearing patented bromancer blinkers ...

Actually the pond would settle for the ordinary narrative of war crimes, by all sides in the conflict, but that day will never come and the genocide will continue, and the killing fields and genocide lovers will keep on parroting away ...

9/11? Really? How did that get into it?

Meanwhile, the cover up continues ...

The army said it initially hit one car. As people scrambled away into a second car, it hit that vehicle as well. A third strike was launched as survivors scrambled into a third car.

The IDF was unable to say exactly where communication had broken down about the convoy’s plans and declined to answer questions about whether similar violations of rules of engagement had taken place during the war.

Those wanting an answer might turn to Haaretz ...(paywall)

For those who can't get inside Haaretz, one Haaretz story was picked up in Aid workers killed 'because of rogue IDF commanders who do what they want', 'In Gaza everyone does as he pleases,' Israeli sources told newspaper Haaretz ...

..the aid workers’ deaths stemmed from poor discipline among field commanders, according to army sources cited by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

They added that the officers and soldiers involved had violated IDF regulations and orders.

The sources accused the IDF’s Southern Command of trying to deflect blame for the incident. A source in the intelligence branch said the command “knows exactly what the cause of the attack was – in Gaza, everyone does as he pleases.”

Army regulations say that final approval for any action against sensitive targets like aid organisations must be given by senior officers – the division commander, the head of the command or even the chief of staff. But in Gaza, the source said, “every commander sets the rules for himself” and gives his own interpretation of the rules of engagement.

Israel’s military chief, Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi, announced the results of a preliminary investigation early on Wednesday, saying it was “a mistake that followed a misidentification – at night during a war in very complex conditions”.

But a source in the intelligence branch told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz that the Southern Command “knows exactly what the cause of the attack was – in Gaza, everyone does as he pleases.”

Under rules of engagement in war, every commander must get final approval for action against sensitive targets such as aid groups, which must be given by senior officers whether the division commander, the head of the command or the chief of staff. In Gaza, however, “every commander sets the rules for himself”, the source said.

It is unclear whether the decision to open fire on the aid convoy was sent to senior commanders for approval.

The source told Haaretz it was “puzzling” that the incident had been blamed on poor co-ordination. “It has no connection to co-ordination,” they added. “You can set up another 20 administrations or war rooms, but if someone doesn’t decide to put an end to the conduct of some of the troops inside Gaza, we’ll see more incidents like this.”

Meanwhile, on planet bro ...

What's that drifting out of sight at the edge of the end of the world? Not to worry, it's something that was called the two state solution ...

Oh the pond forgot to add, it's all the fault of universities, the BBC and the ABC ... or more to the point, here's the bromancer going down that tired old road ...

Truly pathetic, as is that truly pathetic billy goat butt, "certainly there have been a lot of people killed," followed by the standard crocodile tears expected from a reptile, and then an insulting attempt at a head, or genocide, count ...

At this point, a bout of nausea swept over the pond, as often happens when bean counters get to counting the number of people killed, and John Donne's poem springs to mind ...

No man is an island,

Entire of itself.

Each is a piece of the continent,

A part of the main.

If a clod be washed away by the sea,

Gaza is the less.

As well as if a promontory were.

As well as if a manor of thine own

Or of thine friend's were.

Each man's death diminishes me,

For I am involved in mankind.

Therefore, send not to know

For whom the bell tolls,

It tolls for thee.

The pond only kept going on the promise there was only one more gobbet and then there'd be an immortal Rowe cartoon ...

What a truly contemptible man he is - the pond uses the word "man" loosely - but that interminable and insulting effort does help explain precisely why Israel is losing support around the world. 

The answer to barbaric fundamentalism isn't more barbaric fundamentalism, unless you happen to be a barbaric fundamentalist of the bromancer kind, blathering away into the genocidal wilderness ...

And so to the promised immortal Rowe cartoon...

As is traditional, the pond acknowledges the source to whom the immortal Rowe tendered his apologies ...