In which a distracted pond keeps on wandering off the Killer tracks ...

 

The pond woke to the news that ABC News Radio had just turned 30 and couldn't believe it, and yet its wiki gave its first air date as 15th August 1994 ...

Not many share the pond habit -  the best it does is in Adelaide (1.7%) and Perth (1.6%) or so the figures here suggest - but the pond has increasingly abandoned television and returned to ancient rustic ways...

If Kim Williams wanted to walk his talk, he'd see the station freed of the yoke of parliament and given a real place in the sun (in the shade, in the shade).

The pond is also finding it increasingly hard to wake up in the morning and feature the lizard Oz and its reptiles, basking in the sun (in Death Valley, or Lahore).

Yesterday's demand by Dame Slap that Higgins apologise for being raped and making a fuss about it came hard, though there can be consolations, with the keen Keane going on a rant in Crikey, Dear Scott Morrison, you are NOT the victim in the ordeal of Brittany Higgins (paywall)

Scott Morrison’s evidence yesterday to the defamation action brought by Liberal senator Linda Reynolds against rape victim Brittany Higgins stands as one of the more offensive moments in a career that, while he was in politics, was marked by mendacity and deception. It represents nothing less than an attempt to rewrite the history of his government’s utterly inept and malignant response to Higgins’ revelation that she was sexually assaulted by fellow Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann.
According to Morrison’s testimony, he and Reynolds were the victims of “the weaponising of this issue for political purposes to discredit both Senator Reynolds … and the government, and by extension myself”; the idea that there was a cover-up of the issue “was completely and utterly false, without any foundation” and Reynolds and her office “had done everything they possibly could within the processes they had to support Ms Higgins”.
This is a man who was prime minister, the most powerful man in the country at the time, portraying himself as the victim of a woman who was sexually assaulted inside his own ministerial wing, and of the media scrutiny of the standards of conduct within his government.

And so on, but the pond must remain focussed and not hare off down that path ... that way lies a form of Dame Slappian madness...

But then there are very few paths worth haring off down this day ...

That's it? The mutton Dutton's dog whistling below a reptile EXCLUSIVE featuring talk of a Trumpian dystopia ... and the rampant bigotry dismissed as a captain's call?

The pond felt the need to recycle John Hanscombe's thoughts in The Canberra Times' newsletter, The Echnida, Try a little humanity, Pete, you'll feel better.

Unfortunately there's no way to link to it - you can subscribe to it to get a serve of infallible Pope each morning - so here it is:

The scene was harrowing. An inconsolable father holding up the birth certificates of his four-day-old twins. He'd left them with their mother to collect the certificates only to find them all dead when he returned a short time later, killed in an Israeli airstrike.
Shaking uncontrollably, wailing, unable to make sense of his unimaginable loss, Mohammed Abu al-Qumsan's grief reached out from the TV screen. All that was left of his little family were two pieces of paper. Tears streamed down his face. And watching the BBC report they streamed down mine, too.
Like so many others I'd become a little inured to the violence in Gaza but this story reawakened me to the ongoing tragedy.
On the other side of the world, in his trademark country cop monotone, Peter Dutton was calling for a pause on accepting refugees from the Gaza war.
A threat to national security, he said, shamelessly pressing the fear button for cheap political advantage. Not only that, he ignored a crucial fact.
The border between Gaza and Egypt - the only place to exit - has been sealed by the Israelis for months. No Palestinians are getting out these days. Since October 7, 2023, some 2922 visas have been approved and 7111 rejected after vetting by ASIO. We're not being overrun with extremists as Dutton would have us believe.
The Opposition Leader seldom lets facts get in the way of appealing to base instincts. He's done it before, back in 2018, with his inflammatory African gangs dog whistle. If it was intended to shore up support for the Coalition in the Victorian state election, it failed miserably. The Coalition lost, later admitting the fear stoking strategy had backfired.
And it's backfiring this time around. One problem for Dutton is that the security vetting regime is exactly the same as it was when he was immigration minister. Australia has accepted refugees from numerous war zones - including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, countries which all had proscribed terrorist organisations operating on their soil - and it did so under Coalition governments.
Another perhaps more serious problem is that by trying to milk political capital out of the Gaza misery, he's drawn attention to a major shortcoming of his own - his apparent absence of humanity.
Dutton labours under an unfortunate image, acknowledged by one of his own, Michaelia Cash. Defending his call to pause refugee intake from the Gaza war yesterday, she let this slip (italics are mine): "The one thing you'll always get with Peter - you don't have to like him, but guess what? He will always stand up for Australia, Australians and put the national interest first." There's the thing. In his quest to appear strong, Dutton makes himself unlikeable.
It was stark yesterday. On the one hand, the heart-wrenching BBC report laying bare the horror of the Gaza war. On the other, a transparent bid by the Opposition Leader to demonise the people desperate to escape that living hell.
We'd all be better off if Peter Dutton sat down and watched that report. If it doesn't soften his heart nothing will.

Nothing will, of course ...

He's a cynical, head-kicking, boofhead infatuated by the Trumpian way ... but what a fine excuse to turn to the immortal Rowe of the day ...

... which brings the pond back to that reptile talk of dystopia.

For some reason the reptiles decided that the way to bash the government was to headline talk of a Trumpian dystopia. 

Surely in a Murdochian world, a return of the mango Mussolini and his drag-dressing, couch-loving mate would constitute a utopia, but instead the tree killer edition had dystopia at the top of the page...together with Captain Spud ... no doubt to be regurgitated by the ABC in some drivel about "what the papers say" ...

The pond couldn't believe it, and yet there it was ...

The enemy of thine enemy? 

How the reptiles relished that talk of dystopia, with this sort of chatter ...

Ms O’Neil said that following Mr Vance’s selection as Mr Trump’s running mate, the “former mining region of Appalachia is in the international spotlight, and the story of that region is illustrative of how damaging it will be if we fail to deliver a truly just transition”.

“Politicians like Donald Trump have lied through their teeth, insisting that coal was never going away,” she said.

“Trump and his allies worked with the coal bosses to torpedo any just transition policies that would have actually supported workers and built new jobs. 

It's as if the reptiles had nothing to do with the elevation of the mango Mussolini and could share that Appalachian angst (will no one think of Tamworth?)

Meanwhile, the planet keeps heating ... 

The pond just came off reading Ross Andersen's piece for The Atlantic, A trip to one of the hottest cities on the planet ... 

...The Lahori poet Kishwar Naheed once wrote that “the sun spends itself” in Pakistan. In recent years, its expenditures have increased. In May, temperatures rose into the 120s. Schools were closed so that kids would not get heatstroke during their commute or on the playground. In Lahore, the heat is not only cruel; it is two-faced. Moist air from the monsoon creeps north from the Indian Ocean in July. The towering ranges of the Himalaya, the Hindu Kush, and the Karakoram corral it into storms that mellow the city’s temperatures without easing the discomfort felt by its residents. I learned this the hard way that very morning. A three-hour downpour had struck overnight, but by 9 a.m., the ground was mostly dry. The rain had evaporated into a thick layer of street-level humidity. It was not the genteel dab-your-forehead variety that you might experience in August in Washington, D.C. It singed your face like steam.

Turns out dystopia is already here - if paywalled, try here, and while there, try Gary Shteyngart's droll The Case for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. 

...Although President Trump has been mostly good for our Country, I think he dropped the ball when he started Operation Warped Speed, which gave many people the autism and worse. I have been listening to Robert F. KENNEDY’S book The Real Anthony Fauci on audiotape, and he makes many compelling points. First of all, his name is KENNEDY, just like John F. KENNEDY and Robert F. KENNEDY. Second of all, he is against Operation Warped Speed and the COVID vaccines, which Dr. Hussein has been trying to get me to take for years. Third of all, my granddaughter won’t speak to me because I voted for Trump (she moved up to St. Paul and thinks she knows everything), and if I vote for KENNEDY maybe we will have a relationship again. Fourth of all, I live in a town where a davenport is just for sitting, which is to say President Trump did not choose a good running mate. Fifth of all, although President Trump’s wife is pretty, I do not understand a word she says, just like I don’t understand Dr. Hussein. KENNEDY, however, married an actress who looks like a younger version of my cousin Suzie. Sixth of all, even though I don’t think that KENNEDY is as prayerful as President Trump, he has the support of Joe Rogan, and Joe Rogan always “calls them as he sees them.”

Say what? Herpetology studies? 

Pay attention to petulant Peta's offering this day? 

No way, not on your petulant nelly ...

No one would say that the barking mad (far right wing) petulant Peta was the sharpest tool in the shed, and on some days might even be the dullest knife in the drawer, which is why the pond only bothered with the last few lines from the barking mad (far right wing) hack no longer able to dictate policy to an onion-munching pawn:

...Part of the problem is that the Prime Minister has always been an activist and a campaigner rather than a thinker and a doer. He took an extra year to complete his undergraduate degree, thanks to time off protesting. As one of his (left-wing) lecturers told a biographer, Albanese himself “would be the first to say he wasn’t an intellectual high-flyer”.
The Prime Minister has claimed to be an economic policy adviser to the Hawke government when, in fact, he was a research officer for the (left-wing) minister for local government. Notoriously, during the 2022 election he was unable to cite the jobless rate or the official interest rate.
As the Albanese government nears the end of its first term and seeks re-election, the big question is whether its senior members have grown or shrunk in office. As he nears 30 years in federal parliament, Albanese is the great survivor of contemporary politics. But how genuinely talented is our Prime Minister?
Deep in the throes of a previous episode of Labor bloodletting, Albanese confessed that “I like fighting Tories … that’s what I do”. At that, he has been sufficiently successful to lead Labor back into government, albeit against a Coalition that had well and truly run out of puff. Now he’s fighting against almost everything, including economic reality.

Yeah, nah, as bubble-headed as when she had the onion muncher for a puppet ...

Sorry, the pond just couldn't do it, the pond couldn't be bothered going there.

That just left Killer, which isn't much to celebrate ... with Killer naturally excited about the right to indulge in a good old fashioned riot ...

This is of course personal for Killer, because the right to shout in social media posts is key to a devotion to X and Y (a much better name for Truth Social).

Why the very fabric of society is disturbed when you can't rant on social media ...

That talk of loons had the pond from the get go, even if you have to head off to the original for the links, in the same way that the pond defuses the distractions the reptiles provide in their pieces, including this reminder of already forgotten man Rish!

There's a price to pay for screen capping ... you can't even see the sequel, The Return of the Killer Lettuce ...

Oh righty-ho, Killer was also banging on about free speech, but sadly the pond defused the X file attached to his piece ...

That triggered Killer...

Joe Rogan? The bear man? Uncle Elon? Safer from hurt feelings? Support the right of Uncle Elon to run a sewer pit?

John Anderson? Konstantin Kisin? Now there's a hustler who knows how to do an echo chamber and appeal to the base ...

All the best references, as only Killer can do, though that Kisin isn't the sharpest stick with which to poke a dead bear in the eye in Central Park... even if he shares Kennedy Jr's killer brain worm ...

Turns out there were other things hurt, though the pond was delighted to read UK riot losses to be manageable for British insurers, says Morningstar DBRS ...

Analysts at Morningstar DBRS predict that the total insured losses from the recent UK riots will be manageable for British insurers, estimating that they will remain below £250 million.

The impact on the insurance industry is expected to be limited, as claims under £1 million per property can be covered by local police authorities under the UK Riot Compensation Act 2016 (RCA). However, the RCA does not cover business interruption losses.

Despite this, the firm notes that recent civil unrest in various parts of the UK could put pressure on the profitability of certain commercial insurers, depending on how significantly businesses are affected.

Additionally, the unrest in the UK will raise concerns for global providers of specialised SRCC (strike, riot, and civil commotion) re/insurance, who have faced an increasing number of adverse events over the past decade.

Traditional home and motor insurance providers in the UK may also need to reassess how they include these coverages in their standard policies.

Morningstar DBRS analysts commented, “The recent UK riots will be a major test for the RCA compensation mechanism as insurance companies try to recover losses from the local police authorities. We expect that British insurers will ultimately bear a relatively small portion of the total economic losses caused by the riots.

“We note, however, that business interruption losses resulting from vandalism, looting, and potential curfews, as well as large claims, are not covered under the RCA. Large companies and retail chains will likely rely on separate business interruption coverage under their commercial insurance policies.”

What a relief, no more than a quarter billion, though there might be a few expenses kept off the books.

Oh there were the usual crybabies and sooks ...Counting the cost of UK's far-right riots: Burned books and shame ...

LIVERPOOL - Scorched chairs and tables and charred books scattered across an ash-covered floor - this is how far-right rioters left a library in Liverpool as waves of violent disorder swept Britain this week.

Spellow Lane Library Hub, in Walton, northern Liverpool, was set alight on Saturday night as rioters ran amok in the northwestern English city, looting shops, torching bins and firing rocks and bottles at emergency service vehicles.

The library, which only reopened after refurbishment last year, now stands boarded up.

"This is a valuable community service, I come here almost every Saturday. I'm horrified, shocked, disgusted, by what's gone on," Kevin McManus, who worked in the library decades ago, told Context from outside the building.

"It's mindless thuggery. I've lived here for 30 years and I'm completely taken aback."

Misinformation quickly spread on social media, with far-right activists falsely identifying the alleged killer as a Muslim migrant and targeting mosques in response.

Anti-racism groups have blamed political rhetoric surrounding migration, which portrays asylum seekers as putting extra strain on public resources.

Crowds gathered outside Downing Street in London a day after the Southport attack chanted "we want our country back" and "stop the boats", a slogan used by the Conservative government, especially ahead of the July general election, which it lost to the Labour party.

But the clean-up and repair costs caused by the riots will only put further strain on underfunded towns and cities.

"Communities believe [migration] is a legitimate grievance because it's been drummed into them. There is competition for resources, and the real reason for that is because of austerity," said Suresh Grover, founder and director of The Monitoring Group, a British anti-racism organisation.

"The language used in the election, I think it's one of the worst things I've seen in the last 40 years. It has allowed the far right to gather legitimacy."

Local authorities in cities across Britain have endured sharp spending cuts over the last decade, with government data showing sharp cutbacks on housing, transport and cultural services since 2011.

Spending remains more than 40% lower compared to the start of the Conservative government's austerity policies, while the costs of meeting rising demand for services such as adult social care and homelessness support are outpacing inflation, according to research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

Councils in the north of England and London faced the largest per-person cuts due to the nature of their funding, with already deprived areas suffering the most, the research showed.

"If you go to Southport, where the three girls were killed, there are shops closed in the city centre, the pier is closed," Grover said. "If you wanted something to honour those girls, it would be to actually restore and invest in that town."

Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the riots as "far-right thuggery" and said those involved would feel the "full force of the law".

Smashing a library and burning books? That's the sort of stuff designed to make Killer at home, almost as good as banning books and dismantling libraries and sending librarians off to prison, Ron DeSanctus style...

At this point the reptiles helped out by running a snap of Kier ...

Turns out that there's never been mindless thuggery and misinformation or a dinkum riot that Killer hasn't loved...

Indeed, indeed, but truth to tell if you set off on that task, it can turn into a Augean stables sort of do. 

Witness NPR's 162  lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact-checks former President Trump...

What on earth would that do to the Faux Noise/mango Mussolini business model?

So many lies, so little time, and you won't find Killer helping ...

Instead the reptiles flung in a snap of those bloody leftists ...

... then there was just one gobbet of an outraged Killer to go ...

An increasingly culturally remote ruling class seeks to impose its values on everyone else?

Is that supposed to be a laugh line?

...Not only is the party subjected to his worldview, but there is a new group of influential, pro-Trump, mega-donor billionaires, whose influence may be increasing, and whose views could, at best, be called eccentric.

Elon Musk, for example, seemed to promise he would give a pro-Trump political action committee US$45 million (A$68 million) a month, but in true Trumpian fashion, later seemed to backtrack. Musk also believes “the woke mind virus” is “one of the greatest threats to modern civilisation.”

Another tech billionaire, Peter Thiel, Vance’s principal backer, has said, “I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible.”

Indeed, he thinks “the 1920s were the last decade in American history during which one could be genuinely optimistic. Since 1920, the vast increase in welfare beneficiaries and the extension of the franchise to women – two constituencies that are notoriously tough for libertarians – have rendered the notion of ‘capitalist democracy’ into an oxymoron.”

This Republican Party is a very different beast from the one over which Murdoch exercised so much influence in recent decades. Indeed, Peter Wehner, who worked for three Republican presidents, says the party today under Trump is pretty much the opposite of its former self.

Murdoch has never given much hint of being someone who harbours regrets. But America’s political landscape today is one he would abhor: the legitimacy of the electoral system is under assault, conspiracy theories have more potency than in decades past, and the Republican Party is dominated by someone he detests and considers a danger to democracy.

Does he ever acknowledge how his own actions gave momentum to forces that now run against and threaten his own values? He might plead commercial necessity, but surely he knows the disservices to American democracy his media have done. (The Conversation)

Yep, it was a laugh line, albeit a hollow kind of Treasure of Sierra Madre laugh ...

And so to the infallible Pope of the day, a reminder of the days when you could once have relied on dashing Donners to occupy centre stage and rant about the joys of a Catholic education...

Good times, fond memories ...

Look ma, I'se got to be VP ...