In which the pond continues the misinformation business, aided and abetted by Dame Groan and Mein Gott ...

 

The pond should have realised it. 

That entirely misconstrued social media bill was the work of News Corp, as detailed in Media Watch last night, with this the punchline:

...The Human Rights Commissioner is also alarmed and is calling for more debate.
And its concerns were being reported by Cam Wilson at Crikey, (paywall to this added link) one of the few media outfits to actively question the policy.
Which we should point out, will force everyone, regardless of how old they are, to verify their age to access social media platforms.
And when Australian adults realise that, they’ll be wondering why they didn’t read about it in the media first.

The pond hasn't the slightest interest in joining a social media outfit nearby or distant, and even less interest in keeping company with Uncle Leon, but even more, nil desire to give any social media outfit the sort of meaningful data required for effective age verification. 

It's not like a library card will suffice. So must a government ID of a driver's license kind be submitted? You know, our data belongs to the intertubes? Roll on a High Court challenge.

On the same show, tricky Dick and malign Macca were given a serve for being dickheads. This had been covered by Graham Reafearn way back on 6th November in The Graudian in Dick Smith’s ABC radio rant against renewables overflows with ill-informed claims.

Still, better late than never for the ABC to provide a reminder of the ineffable stupidity that pours out of a Sunday morning on ABC radio. 

While on the subject of government mis-steps, what a corker was the now MIA misinformation bill - cf The government has withdrawn its misinformation bill. A philosopher explains why regulating speech is an ethical minefield.

The point of course is that for the government to be able to quash misinformation, you must have faith in the government. 

But then there's the matter of Haaretz, and an authoritarian theocratic government, with this poignant plea landing in the pond's email box:

Ah yes, only in the western east's greatest democracy ...

Apropos of misinformation, the pond is of course a professional in the business of spreading misinformation, what with the content of the pond largely consisting of News Corp lies.

The pond is also a victim. The pond's logarithms have lately taken to exposing the pond to fanciful FAFO stories of Republican suffering - the latest meme being all the Thanksgiving dinners they've been cut from and all the Xmas bonuses Trumpers are missing out on because of businesses building up stock to avoid impending tariffs. (There's a collection of the memes at BuzzFeed here).

Some of them might even be true, or eventually come true, but there's a limit to how much the pond can take of memes, though one funny line came with "I never thought leopards would eat my face,"sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

Well, each day the pond knows that the reptiles will lie to its face, but the pond is a signed up member of the reptiles lying to its face party, so it might as well get on with it ... so what's on the menu today?

In short, more of the usual, negativity central, we'll all be rooned by Xmas, with Dame Groan on hand for her usual epic groaning ...

The pond will go there in due course - how else to avoid "no conflict here" simplistic Simon or Thakur urging that this is not the time for an attempt at world law n'order. Good on ya, thick Thakur, you're at one with Pete, covered in the Graudian in Trump Pentagon pick attacks UN and Nato and urges US to ignore Geneva conventions.

Yeay, let the genocide continue, and if you feel like torturing or murdering folks in time of war, feel free.

Oh wait, that mention of the Leviticus infringer takes the pond back to the carnival of clowns.

Enough already, the pond needs a break and there was one to hand.

In days gone by, the lizard Oz was notoriously known as the Catholic Boys' Daily, and with the pond tired of reading about genocides and mango Mussolini nominees, what better way to waste a Tuesday than to read a report about tykes feuding? 

 Please allow the pond a little detour, but first a little background is required, to be found in Playing hooky? Why did the ACU vice chancellor skip abortion speech? (L'Age paywall)

The blowback (and blow up) from the Australian Catholic University’s decision to grant conservative unionist Joe de Bruyn an honorary doctorate so he could rail against abortion at distraught nursing and medical graduates continues to reverberate through the Catholic establishment. The blame, counter blame and political intrigue has reached Daniel Mannix levels.
But vice chancellor and chief executive Professor Zlatko Skrbis did not attend the controversial ceremony in Melbourne on Monday. The vice chancellor attended a lunch for de Bruyn earlier in the day. And chancellor Martin Daubney, KC, a former Queensland Supreme Court judge, also truanted.
Add this disaster to the questions in parliament and reports in The Australian that the ACU paid out more than $1 million to Professor Kate Galloway when she was “reassigned” from her dean of law role after daring to write about abortion law reform.
At the ceremony De Bruyn told outraged students that abortion was a “tragedy that must be ended” and the “single biggest killer of human beings in the world, greater than the human toll of World War II”.
It prompted a mass walkout of staff and students, after which Skrbis offered counselling and promised to refund students graduation costs.
During a speech for graduates at the ACU, former national president of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association, Joe de Bruyn, compared abortion to the loss of life in World War II and told graduates that marriage was between a ...
“It was very unusual for the vice chancellor not to be there. Nobody can explain this,” a senior Catholic told CBD.

Forget about elephants having long memories. They're nothing up against a tyke in a position of power. Vengeance shall be mine, sayeth such tykes.

Fast forward from October to Yoni Bashan's lizard Oz piece Australian Catholic University cops broadside from Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher, The ACU’s shambolic response to a mass walkout from a speech by former union leader Joe de Bruyn has drawn the ire of Sydney Archbishop Anthony .

Naturally it began with a snap of men in frocks, Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher has taken aim at the ACU management. Picture: Chris Pavlich.

Oh it's been ever so long since the pond featured men in frocks ... and so to the lizard Oz celebrating the internecine warfare

Could there be a greater smackdown of the Australian Catholic University’s embattled leadership than having a fed-up Anthony Fisher, one of the country’s most respected prelates, venting his utter shame with the institution’s management?
We’ve intercepted a copy of this extraordinary six-page letter sent by the Sydney Archbishop to ACU Pro-Chancellor Virginia Bourke on November 13. Carbon-copied were Vice-Chancellor Zlatko Skrbis and ACU Chancellor Martin Daubney, both of whom were probably the intended targets of Fisher’s opprobrium.     
Crisis-ridden as the university has already become, the archbishop’s letter was clearly prompted by ACU’s shambolic and fawning response to students and staff who staged a mass walkout of a speech given on October 21 by former union leader Joe de Bruyn. 
Awarded an honorary doctorate, de Bruyn’s acceptance speech canvassed Catholic social teachings in public life and his personal views on IVF, same-sex marriage and abortion, which he called the “biggest killer of human beings in the world”.
Seats began emptying at the sound of the word “abortion”.

At this point came a snap of one of the warriors, ACU Vice-Chancellor Zlatko Skrbis.

Then it was back to tykes outdoing elephants:

Instead of apologising to de Bruyn and backing him for espousing “Catholic moral positions at a Catholic graduation ceremony”, Fisher said the university apologised to those who walked out of the event and “behaved so discourteously”. Refunds on the graduation fees were offered to distressed students while de Bruyn, escorted off the premises by two security guards, was left “humiliated rather than honoured”.
“As a bishop charged with pastoral oversight of two of (ACU’s) campuses, I find myself ashamed of the university’s recent performance,” wrote Fisher, who sits on the corporation that owns and conducts ACU as a Catholic institution. His remarks will undoubtedly be read as a grave and telling censure of Skrbis and Daubney. 
“This latest crisis should surely occasion some serious soul-searching within the university about its identity and mission … Confidence in the university among many of its stakeholders, as well as of the broader community, has been shaken.” 
Fisher went on to confirm that he’d been contacted by numerous individuals expressing unease at ACU becoming “ambivalent about its Catholic identity”, a sentiment that gained momentum with the appointment of Professor Kate Galloway as Dean of Law earlier this year.
Galloway, a vocally pro-abortion academic, was named dean only to have her role terminated within a matter of weeks following a conservative backlash within the institution over her published works. She was reassigned to the role of “strategic professor” and given a compensation package of more than $1m over the embarrassment caused.
Fisher’s letter points out that de Bruyn shared an advance copy of his remarks with university officials but received “only vague encouragement from ‘lower down the tree’ to lighten his speech”. No one from management directly raised an objection, he said. 
The mass walkout was orchestrated by attendees who’d probably been tipped off to the substance and spirit of what de Bruyn planned to say, Fisher said. He also voices doubts over ACU’s assertion that it was not aware of any mass walkout being planned. 
For a start, several important university leaders were conveniently absent from the stage that day, including the chancellor, vice-chancellor and pro-chancellor. Their absence alone is considered irregular.
“I cannot recall an honorary doctorate being awarded without such a senior officer being present,” he said, pointing to the order of ceremony being “changed without notice”, the speech being moved “to the end” of the program, and counsellors being on hand “outside the hall” as other anomalies.
Fisher’s consultations with staff and his own knowledge of ACU graduations turned up no recollection of a doctoral speech “being moved to the end of the ceremony”. Suss, too, is that the printed running sheet listed de Bruyn as “speaking at the beginning, as is customary”.
“I can only assume that this change was made to enable the protest without compromising the granting of the degrees,” Fisher wrote. At this point, you really have to wonder just how broken Fisher’s trust must be for him to basically accuse ACU’s leadership of lying. 
The letter culminates with the archbishop’s resignation as chair of ACU’s Committee of Identity (a forum that guides the institution’s Catholicity), but he will remain a director of the committee and of the corporation that owns the university.   
A symbolic gesture, by the sounds of it, but one that’s powerful enough to place even greater pressure over the heads of Daubney and Skrbis. YB

What a horrible, terrible institution it is, miserable, petulant, petty minded, and with a never-ending desire to make the world into a handmaiden's tale. What a relief to be able to see it as comedy relief.

Speaking of comedy relief, the pond's fondest hope is that somehow they find a place for the incredible, feebly shirt-tearing Hulk in the administration, with Hogan pumping up his own balloon in The Hill, Hulk Hogan suggests Trump may nominate him for position in administration

Make it so ... it would be the perfect cherry on the top of the Xian fundamentalist Project 2025 baked clown car cake.

And so at last to duty, and to Dame Groan's epic groan, which the reptiles assured the pond would waste five minutes of precious time best spent doing other things, Yes, COP29 was a gabfest. But at least the entire world can now see Labor’s energy denial, This year’s COP was focused on extracting vast sums of money from rich countries to compensate developing countries for climate damage and to fund climate policies.

Naturally the groaning began with a snap of Satan incarnate at the gathering of Satanists, Chris Bowen speaks at the COP29 Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.

That horrific sight sent DG right off ...

As yet another Conference of the Parties – the annual UN climate confab – winds up, the key question now is: What is the point?
This year COP was held in Baku, Azerbaijan, a small petrostate that was once part of the Soviet Union. It was a strange choice, although the venue did look very attractive, as did the accommodation on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
Thousands of delegates gather at these talkfests, but it’s increasingly clear that any “deliverables” – that’s conference-speak – are now very thin on the ground. There were significantly fewer attendees, but the Taliban did send several representatives.
Azerbaijan’s President welcomed the attendees by declaring that the oil and gas resources of his country are a “gift of God”. Doubtless this caused a degree of confusion in the crowd, given the determination of many of them to eliminate oil and gas industries altogether.
This year’s COP was focused on extracting vast sums of money from rich countries to compensate developing countries, including China, India and Saudi Arabia, for climate damage and to fund climate policies. A sum of around $2 trillion per year was floated, but there was always an element of try-on in this figure.
The distribution of wealth has become an increasing focus of the annual COPs as the mission to see global emissions fall runs out of puff. For all the soaring rhetoric of past COPs and agreed communiques, the stark reality is global emissions continue to grow, particularly among the largest emitters, including China and India.

The pond has dwelt on Dame Groan's infatuation with climate science denialism, the only question now is when nuking the country to save the planet from a non-existent problem (so they say) will arrive to nuke her column.

First there's a cross-promo item, A $460 billion deal has been agreed to at COP29 to help developing countries address climate change. However, some countries felt the deal did not go far enough and walked out of the summit. The deal was forced through without allowing objections following two weeks of deadlock.

Now wait for it, wait for it...

This year, global emissions will grow by around 1 per cent, with gas the biggest contributor. Over the past 30-odd years, since COP has been an annual event, yearly global emissions have risen by close to 2 per cent on average.
The notion that global emissions would be halved by the end of this decade is completely fanciful. This year, there was some boring stuff about standards attached to carbon credits and how the regulation of offsets should be administered.
But this is far from the main game. And let’s not forget that electricity generated from wood pellets is counted as renewable energy – this is surely a joke – even though a great deal is exported from North America and transported by ship. In the UK, the largest electricity generation unit is fuelled by wood pellets/biomass.
The inescapable conclusion is that the relevance of COP is rapidly diminishing but, sadly, Energy Minister Chris Bowen has failed to read the signs. It’s all systems go for Australia, along with some Pacific countries, to bid to host COP31 in 2026, although Turkey may pip us at the post.
At Baku, Bowen declared: “This year I am here to tell you how Australia is accelerating our transformation to lock in our place as an indispensable part of the global net-zero economy, to help other countries decarbonise.” It’s not clear who was listening.
The proposal is that the main COP31 proceedings will take place in Adelaide. There’s a certain irony to that; as a state with an extremely high penetration of renewable energy, the energy market operator is constantly intervening in the grid to ensure its reliability.

Still waiting, and first we must endure Barners on an outing ... Former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce slams an acknowledgement of country given in Azerbaijan during the COP29 as an “absurdity”. “It’s a little bit too much welcome to country, isn’t it?” Mr Joyce said. “Honestly, we’re almost having to say it after every second breath.”

Good old tosspot Barners, is he still on the wagon? Haven't heard much from him in recent times, but it's good to see that he's still got it. The innate bigotry. Why it takes years to cultivate it, and get the skill honed to a fine art ...

Now for all those who patiently waited, yes, at last it's 'nuke the country to save the planet' time:

Most of us have not forgotten that blackout of the state that occurred in 2016, or the fact South Australia has one of the highest electricity prices in the country – indeed, the world.
There has been one useful COP development in recent years – the increasing prominence given to nuclear energy. An alliance has been formed between several countries, including some of the largest advanced economies – the US, the UK, Canada, Japan and France are all members – to encourage the rapid development of nuclear power as a zero-emissions source of power. There is even a target: a tripling of the use of nuclear power by 2050.
The sad reality is that domestic nuclear power generation in many countries was allowed to flounder up until around a decade ago, lumbered by excessive regulation, costly finance and a lack of investor interest. Several projects undertaken in recent years have been plagued by delays and cost overruns, although not all. The newly built plants in Korea and the UAE are exceptions.
But a new dawn is emerging for the nuclear industry, with the pace of technological developments and investment quite extraordinary. Because of Australia’s opposition to nuclear power generation – a position that is overwhelmingly political rather than logical – we are being left at the starter’s gate.
There is Bill Gates’s pilot project being undertaken in Wyoming, US. Small modular reactors are being developed. Several large energy users, particularly associated with data centres and artificial intelligence, have entered into private purchasing arrangements to lock in nuclear power for their facilities. The old Nine Mile Island nuclear plant in New York is to be recommissioned.
It may just be that COP is one of the facilitating factors that has led many countries in the world to reconsider the role of nuclear within their electricity grids and to head in this direction rather than the more uncertain route of firmed renewable energy.

Naturally there was a snap of the climate denialist in chief in waiting, Donald Trump speaking at a press conference in New Jersey, US.

Meanwhile, Dame Groan turned from groaning to a lyrical rhapsody about nuking the country. She began her final gobbet with a bit of misinformation, if the World Nuclear Association is to be believed:

Generally speaking, early nuclear plants were designed for a life of about 30 years, though with refurbishment, some have proved capable of continuing well beyond this. Newer plants are designed for a 40 to 60 year operating life.

Nah, me hearties, it be a 100 years or more, which explains why the pond rarely quibbles about numbers with reptiles, because if the pond did it, we'd be here all day dealing with the misinformation:

One of the key features of nuclear plants is their long lives – between 60 and 100 years – although the initial capital costs are high. By contrast, solar panel and wind turbines mostly last between 15 and 20 years and then must be replaced. The efficiency of solar panels also diminishes over time. The fact that nuclear power is centralised and can use existing transmission lines is a distinct advantage. The small number of plants required avoids the widespread despoliation of rural landscapes.
There is also the highly problematic issue of the dominance of China in the production of renewable energy equipment and batteries and the seeming inability of other countries to set up competitive alternatives.
A cynical person might query the Chinese government’s commitment to climate action – coal-fired power stations have been built at pace for many years – as nothing more than a means of convincing other countries to set ambitious climate targets, particularly using more renewable energy. In this way, growing demand for Chinese products is assured.
The COP world is about to change again with the election of Donald Trump, who has flagged his intention for the US to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. There is also the possibility that the US will withdraw from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Treaty, the underlying architecture of the Paris agreement.
The onset of higher living costs in many countries has diverted the attention of many voters away from worthy concerns about climate change toward more prosaic worries about making ends meet.
This was apparent in the recent US election. It also played a role in the Queensland election. The Albanese government may care to take note and reconsider its irrational opposition to nuclear power.

Why? 

Why this allegedly rational desire to nuke the country?

Climate change isn't happening, global warming isn't real, the reefs are fine, the ocean's temperatures are entirely reasonable, the oceans aren't rising, storms and droughts rise and fall in the usual even tempered way. 

Why nuke the country to save a planet that doesn't need saving? Just drill, baby, drill, and gas, baby gas, and if running a little short, there's still dinkum clean, virginal Oz coal. 

Yes, the pond gets its misinformation from the lizard Oz and the likes of the Ughmann and the Caterist and all is well ...

Send down a nuke-charged seamer, or perhaps a Captain Spud googly, immortal Rowe:

While on the reptile desire to nuke the country, the pond thought that it might take in yesterday's outing by Mein Gott, what with the reptiles assuring the pond it was only a four minute read: Bowen, Chalmers have a big problem heading into the election next year, If the Coalition can show Generation Z that there is a better way to slash emissions, Peter Dutton might attract the intelligent youth vote at the next election.

It began with a glum Albo starring in a cross promo video, labelled:

Liberal Senator Dave Sharma has accused the Albanese government of being “tokenistic” as they “do not” have a plan for housing. Labor is hoping to push through multiple bills during parliament’s final sitting week of the year. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has rejected the Greens’ latest demand on Labor’s housing policy. “I don’t think they have a plan for housing,” Mr Sharma told Sky News Australia. “They’ve got a discredited state government scheme which is not being taken up in the states. “Our solution is to unplug the arteries and allow more housing to be built and to reduce immigration to take pressure off the housing stock. “What we’ve got from this government is tokenistic, and it’s not surprising that both ourselves but also other political parties in the parliament are opposed to it.”

Fear not, Mein Gott wasn't just going to talk about housing, he was going to appeal to vulgar youff on the urgent need to be wary of renewables and to nuke the country:

Australia has two federal ministers who maybe underestimating voter intelligence.
First, Energy Minister Chris Bowen must think the voting members of Generation Z will not wake up that his proposed $660bn outlay over 25 years to 2050 on a renewables-gas energy scheme will send power prices skyrocketing and keep the cost of living and interest rates high.
And big slabs of that $660bn Bowen investment must be replaced after about 20 years.

The reptiles had to interrupt with a snap of that session of Satanists, COP29 delegates of parties, including Energy Minister Chris Bowen at ‘Qurultay’ session in the main plenary hall on day 10 at the UNFCCC COP29 Climate Conference last week in Baku, Azerbaijan. Picture: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Then it was on with Mein Gott explaining to vulgar youff how nuking the country was the right thing to do. 

Think "we had to destroy the village in order to save it", whatever the veracity of the quote.

We simply have to nuke the country to save the planet:

If the Coalition can show Generation Z that there is a better way to slash emissions, Peter Dutton might attract the intelligent youth vote at the next election. Obviously nuclear will be in the mix, but the Coalition proposal needs to be wider.

And at that point Mein Gott wanders off down the road of his own favourite pet themes, and the pond won't interrupt his meandering, which inevitably leads to an apocalypse somewhere along the line:

Jim Chalmers duplicates the Bowen strategy at the other end of the age spectrum.
The Treasurer gambles that his proposed tax on unrealised capital gains in superannuation - the so-called grandma’s and farmers tax - will not enrage them, and they will not broadcast the tax loud and clear to their families.
A well financed group has been formed around the “family tax” banner and is planning to campaign on the tax to make sure the Federal Opposition Leader regains at least seven seats via family hostility. If the group can mobilise grandmas and their families, they will do much better than just seven seats.
Dutton needs to win back the 19 seats the Coalition lost in the last election, plus a couple more. His greatest assets maybe Bowen and Chalmers.
Let me explain the forces behind the community attacks on Bowen and Chalmers.
Newcastle-based Tomago Aluminium is Australia’s largest aluminium smelter and is owned by Rio Tinto, CSR and Norway’s Norsk Hydro.
The enormous power costs required to make a Bowen’s $660bn investment anywhere near economic convinced the partners the plant would have to shut in 2028.
Tomago employs more than 1000 full-time equivalent staff as well as 200 contractors. The Tomago shut down is just the start. The higher power cost consequences of the $660bn Bowen power generation and distribution plan will shut enterprises requiring high skills around the country. Dutton needs an 18 per cent swing to gain the Newcastle seat, so winning the seat is probably impossible. But the Newcastle anger with Bowen will be white-hot and will be underlined by the plan to erect one of the highest cost power projects in the world dash - wind power off the coast of Newcastle. As I have pointed out previously, the $660bn cost estimate of the Bowen plan is calculated by Frontier Economics who were hired by government bodies to cost the plan conceived by Bowen and state premiers apparently without any regard to cost.
Huge power prices and/or massive subsidies paid by taxpayers are required to make that investment economic.
I believe most young people believe their future is linked to reducing emissions. But they will also realise that their living standards will have to be dramatically reduced if that conversion to non-carbon power is badly handled. Once a well-thought-out and economic plan is prepared to reduce emissions, then those investing in the uneconomic Bowen schemes are going down a very hazardous path. The trustees of the Future Fund need to become very vocal because community money is set to be directed to badly thought out plans.
The fact that Australia is rejecting US urgings to be part of carbon reducing nuclear power research illustrates that the $660bn Bowen plan is about politics, not seeking to reducing emissions in an economical way.
Under the Bowen plan, the nation is facing massive shut-downs that can be avoided by the nation being part of the exciting alternatives that are now available. Nuclear is not the only one.
Chalmers’ grandmas and farmers tax is set to come before the Senate this week, and the rumours spreading around Canberra suggest that David Pocock will renege on previous promises and allow unrealised capital gains to be taxed.

Disaster upon disaster,  with a snap of one of the Satanists, Jim Chalmers at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

That smirk sent Mein Gott right off ...

I hope those rumours are wrong, but even if Pocock honours his undertakings, the tax will still be on the agenda if Chalmers remains to as treasurer after the next election.
Chalmers is proposing two taxes. First, a 30 per cent tax on income earned on assets above $3m held by an individual in superannuation funds. This tax has widespread support.
But Chalmers also wants to tax unrealised capital gains in superannuation funds again on people with balances above $3m. This will impact vast numbers of older people because when grandpa or grandma die and their separate superannuation balances are normally combined.
Accordingly, a great many more will be hit by the tax on unrealised capital gains than the numbers being canvassed by Chalmers. I must alert readers, I am part of the grandparent community. Chalmers has structured the unrealised capital tax so it will be paid individually by grandma or grandpa (not the fund). Tax experts say that as currently constructed, Chalmers wants to “double dip” in his “grandma” attack so. When the asset is sold the by the fund(s) it may be forced to pay tax separate from the tax already paid individually by “grandma”.
Silly situations like this can arise because this was a tax devised by Chalmers in a hurry when he discovered that his mates in the industry superannuation funds had antiquated accounting systems that couldn’t provide the data to properly calculate his first tax.
Julian Simmonds, who lost his Brisbane seat of Ryan at the last election to Greens’ Elizabeth Watson-Brown, has launched Australians for Prosperity (A4P) and will focus a major campaign on “no family savings tax”.
The initial campaign will be focus on the marginal Labor seats of Tangney, Chisholm, Higgins and Adelaide but will also extend to the Teal held seats of ­Wentworth, Warringah and Goldstein. Very large sums appear likely to be directed towards defending Australian middle income families from the Chalmers’ attack. The above seats may be just the start.

Onwards and upwards, and an SMR in every grandpa's or grandma's back yard.

And so the pond has done its misinformation duty for the day, and can end with a celebratory infallible Pope: