In which the pond warns of the hazards of Caterist radiation exposure, there's a Killer letter from Gina of the IPA, and the Major continues his ramble down memory lane ...

 

As usual, Major Mitchell occupied the top, extreme far right, highly desired, position this morning ...

Cackling Claire was also on hand to do some black bashing, an important service in the hive mind, and the pond thanks her for her service, but luckily found alternatives.

There was also an EXCLUSIVE seeking to downplay the ongoing Gaza genocide, a killing field which sounds like it's about to get even worse...

Never mind famine as a weapon of war, never mind the collective punishment, just argue about the stats. Not this morning, please ...

Late breaking addition:

Add those to your stats, and cook 'em some more...

And then the pond was confronted with a medical emergency. 

Regular correspondents will be aware that for some reason the Caterist shifted to a Friday, and there was some reason to hope that this meant he would go AWOL today, which would have been a great relief, because the pond received authoritative medical advice that the ingestion of two Caterist columns banging on about renewables within a week posed a grave threat to physical and mental health. 

At best, safe consumption allowed for one Caterist a week, and only then with extreme caution, because extended exposure was rather like lead in water pipes in a small US city, permanently damaging ... and yet here the pond is ...

What to do? Risk life and limb, or get depressed with simplistic Simon or blather on about handwriting with Watto? 

There was a new Shanahananahan to hand, and there was always black bashing with cackling Claire, apparently under the impression that science couldn't allow matters of opinion, which will be news to Einstein on the matter of quantum mechanics ...

Sorry, the pond should have known that climate science is a delusion, a cult, a religion, a mere opinion, about which the likes of the Caterist could rightly have an opinion, and so the pond decided to risk life and limb, having offered a due and appropriate medical warning of the dangers of extended exposure to a radiating Caterist ...

One of the weirdest tricks of devout climate science denialists in recent times has seen them transform into devout environmentalists, with an abiding passion for creatures and the land.

Perhaps that produces the nausea that medical authorities warned the pond about ... or perhaps it's the grand delusional quality of that line "last July, when I drew national attention ..."

The pond grants that the Caterist is amazingly famous as one of the great flood waters in quarries whisperers in its lunchtime, but the reptile paywall does limit the national attention a tad ... (unless you accept the reptiles wondrous tales of their circulation).

Never mind, megalomania is always handy for new born environmentalists intent on saving the world ...

The point of this brand of environmentalism is simple enough ...

Well that's more engaging than the snap the reptiles inserted to break up the ranting Caterist ...

Visual relief done, it was on with more dangerous exposure ...

Speaking of the animal spirits of speculators, the pond was struck this day by the absence of any celebration of Captain Spud's desire to nuke the country to save the planet.

The pond sat through the tedium known as The Insiders to see the valiant Captain duck and weave. 

These days the ABC is too cheap to provide a transcript of said ducking and weaving but over at the Nine rags there was this ...with talk of rifts and saucy doubts and fears ...

...In another sign of the fear of voter backlash to the Coalition’s nuclear agenda, Nationals MP and former minister Darren Chester, whose electorate of Gippsland is widely considered a probable Coalition pick for a nuclear site, told party leaders he would not accept a site unless his community was handed a significant economic package. He wants more than incentives such as free energy, an idea flagged by Dutton.

Chester declined to comment on his internal advocacy but said he had an open mind for a calm policy debate about nuclear energy in his region, which suffered economic consequences due to the closure of coal and timber industries.

"As a matter of principle, you would need to be able to demonstrate to a potential host community, including Gippsland, that any safety concerns could be ameliorated and there were direct social and economic benefits,” he said.

Chester’s position is significant because his regional electorate is home to three coal sites in Victoria. The Coalition has said plants – either new-age small modular reactors or traditional large-scale ones – would be put at, or near, old coal sites so they were able to be cheaply hooked into existing transmission lines.

Queensland has many possible sites but the state’s Liberal National Party leader and likely next Queensland premier, David Crisafulli, is opposed. In NSW, some of the possible sites are owned by companies, such as AGL, that have no nuclear interests.

Dutton declined to commit to the pre-budget timeline for announcing nuclear sites when asked on the ABC’s Insiders program. He cited the Sydney stabbing incidents as having overtaken other priorities.

“I think events just happen and you have to deal with that,” he said. “We’ll make the announcement as soon as we believe it’s, firstly, ready to go, and secondly, it’s the most opportune time for people to hear that.”

Dutton, who suggested on Sunday that coal and gas would fill the power gap as Australia waited for nuclear, said attitudes would shift as the nuclear debate in Australia matured, citing French and Canadian moves towards greater nuclear reliance.

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen responded by noting Germany and Italy had shifted in the opposite direction, adding that Dutton looked like a “kangaroo in headlights” when probed on the Coalition leader’s “lies”.

Tasmanian MP Bridget Archer, a leading moderate voice in the Liberal Party, has previously warned against any plan that uses nuclear energy to diminish the role of renewables.

Dutton said he was not opposed to renewables but pointed out community opposition to some large-scale wind projects.

The pond only offers this 'roo in the headlights snapshot for its relevance to the sublime hope expressed by the Caterist in the final par of his final gobbet ...

Of course once you've got lead in your system, there's nothing much to be done, but the pond issued authoritative medical advice before proceeding and accepts no liability ...

And now to a Killer distraction. For a brief moment yesterday, Killer Creighton was at the top of the digital edition reporting on a cosy get together ...

It seemed like the sort of headline designed to put the bromancer into a frenzy, but relax, this time you get to enjoy talk of woke climate science alarmism, juxtaposed with the urgent desire to nuke the country to save the climate because of all the dire warnings issued by woke climate science alarmism ...

Yep, they're nuking the country to save the planet, though of course the planet doesn't need saving, because climate science is merely a cult of the Scientology religion kind...

Meanwhile, on another planet (is anyone looking forward to seeing Janet Planet? Likely it doesn't offer much to devotees of Dame Slap) ...

And so on, but never mind, comrade Gina of the IPA has never met an authoritarian dictator she hasn't loved at first sight, and so it was with comrade dictator Xi ...

All the greats ... the onion muncher, the Price is wrong, and Dame Judith Groan herself, and Killer himself right there in the thick of the invitation-only conference, sending out the news to the world of the gathering of the 'leets.

Humble 'leets of course, much like other revolutionaries...

Why did the pond go there, talking of 'leets and the orange Jesus? Well in the last gobbet, the valiant onion muncher, keeping company with a billionaire, went there ... while Gina of the IPA did her very best to entertain Dame Groan with tales of invading hordes ...

What a gem Killer Creighton is, shine on you crazy diamond, and what splendid company he keeps ...

After that exalted assembly, it's a bit of a bummer to close with the Major doing a Caterist and slipping in some renewables bashing to his weekly sermon, but there is a cure to hand for this ailment. 

Just clap hands over eyes and start singing loudly "nah, ne, naah naah" and the gobbets will fly by ...

Of course the pond should have warned that there are a number of gobbets, so some might need to keep singing the chorus line until the voice gets a tad hoarse ... yep, the Major's going to have yet another go at EVs ...

Some might even be old enough to remember the Major's valiant hunt for a long lost Order of Lenin medal, but wandering down memory lane seems to be a major part of the reptile output these days, something about the over seventy demographic, even if - as Polonius showed to correspondents on the weekend - it means misremembering the past ...

For some reason the reptiles decided to interrupt the Major with a publicity snap ...

It seemed an entirely inappropriate thing to do, which is why the pond let it stand before proceeding on to another gobbet wherein the Major could rant on about solar, it being well known that sunlight is intermittent and that the sun will soon expand to swallow the earth, and then where will your solar cells be? Answer the Major that ...

At this point, the pond could hear a certain throbbing and pulsating of anxious tapping fingers, you know, when you're in the company of an old codger rabbiting on and on ... you know, the point, please, the point ... (the pond knows this because people keep tapping fingers in the pond's presence).

Not to worry, after a snap, the Major will proceed ...

The point, for those who haven't guessed it, is the madness of climate science and the madness of renewables, which in short summary might be the madness of relying on China, that great threat from the north, for anything, while at the same time, celebrating the way we can rely on China to do it cheaper and better, and so Gina can keep shipping the country out, the bromancer can rail about the threat from the north, and the Major can rant about subsidies, because state businesses in China never do subsidies, and there you have as virtuous a circle as the pond could imagine ...

All this of course is completely antithetical to the Major's strong desire for Captain Spud to splurge billions on nuking the country to save the planet ... because some businesses are entitled to subsidy, provided the colour green is nowhere to be seen ...

As for the national interest? Luckily it doesn't have anything to do with climate science or picking winners. Just pick nuking the country and all will be well ...

Nonsense, Mr Banks, and you can take that to the banks.

Just declaring that nuking the country is in the national interest makes it so ... the pond read it in the lizard Oz ...

And so to close with an immortal Rowe, celebrating another matter which seemed to pass by the reptiles this day, what with Killer's letter from America more a letter from Gina of the IPA ...