In which the pond detours via Mattie's climate jihad and Shanners' savaging of Susssan, but ends up with Our Henry gushing on a Friday like a MAGA geyser ...

 

As for the Nobel Peace Prize, why not? 

The pond lost all interest in the notion when war criminal Henry Kissinger was given the gong in 1973, and absurdly tried to return it, but the committee declined the offer.

As for the current process, the infallible Pope summed up the situation ...

As for the reptiles, they were in full triumphalist mode ...

That lesser member of the Kelly gang, Joe, led the way ...

‘MOMENTOUS BREAKTHROUGH’
‘This is peace in the Middle East’: Trump hails deal as Israel votes
Donald Trump hailed the agreement to end hostilities between Israel and Hamas as a ‘momentous breakthrough’ as Hamas says the US guaranteed the war would end.
By Joe Kelly

The bromancer was arm in arm with him ...

Much to be done but a huge victory for Trump and Netanyahu
While uncertainties remain, the proposed Gaza peace deal could achieve what seemed impossible: the release of hostages, cessation of fighting and humanitarian relief.
By Greg Sheridan

The pond will watch from the side lines, just as it will leave the humiliation of the "top 100 innovators", artfully posed in black, to the hive mind ...

The pond was more intrigued by the current state of the Mattie jihad, which just made the cut with an EXCLUSIVE ...

EXCLUSIVE
Bowen concedes making false statements on renewables rollout
Chris Bowen appears to have finally come clean on his questionable renewables rollout claim, as a top scientist calls for a temporary halt to new projects.
By Matthew Denholm

The header: Chris Bowen concedes on renewables figures, as top scientist calls for moratorium, Chris Bowen appears to have finally come clean on his questionable renewables rollout claim, as a top scientist calls for a temporary halt to new projects.

The caption for that leering, sneering villain: Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen in question time on Thursday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

It was only a three minute read, so the reptiles said, and the pond delighted in the use of "appears", as safe a word in reptile speak as "could" or "might" ...

Chris Bowen appears to have finally conceded making false statements about the scale of Australia’s renewables rollout, as Biodiversity Council co-chief Hugh Possingham called for a moratorium on projects pending planning reforms.
Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen on Thursday faced questions in parliament, after refusing to justify claims the area needed for the renewables rollout was just 12 per cent of figures featured in The Australian.
He appeared to confirm he had confused figures relating solely to NSW with The Australian’s national figures, based on landmark research by conservationist Steven Nowakowski and Rainforest Reserves Australia.
“The NSW Agriculture Commissioner has estimated that it would need 55,000 hectares in New South Wales, or 0.1pc of rural land,” he said.
The 55,000ha is 12.6 per cent of the RRA mapped area for solar panels nationally, appearing to confirm Mr Nowakowski’s suspicion Mr Bowen had mixed-up NSW-specific data with the national figures.
Mr Bowen was also on Thursday challenged on his claim that renewables projects in the “wrong places” would be blocked under assessments underpinned by the federal Environment and Biodiversity Conservation Act.

Naturally the reptiles rolled out Dan the man ... Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan questions Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s “chaotic” renewable rollout. “Labor’s unplanned and chaotic renewables rollout will swallow up important areas of biodiversity and prime agricultural land, 1.7 times the size of Tasmania,” Mr Tehan said during Question Time on Thursday. “Will the minister commit to tabling his map, detailing areas of important biodiversity and prime agricultural land at risk from his renewables rollout, or doesn’t he have one?”

Mattie sought comfort and counsel from a preposterously named Possingham, and the pond had to use every ounce of its remaining strength not to mention possums or posse comitatus ...

“We have a very strict environmental approval regime in place,” Mr Bowen said. “If an application is in the wrong place, it wouldn’t be approved, whether it’s renewable energy or anything else,” he said. “That’s how it should be.”
However, Professor Possingham backed claims by conservationists that destructively located projects damaging to biodiversity were being approved, saying the EBPC Act was not working as intended or needed.
In particular, it was insufficiently protecting species from the cumulative impact of multiple projects, and failing to protect remnant vegetation needed as refuges for species from rising temperatures.
“There is no reason anywhere in Australia to put wind or solar on native vegetation – it makes no sense,” Professor Possingham said. “You can site all these renewable energy facilities by not destroying forest.”
Approving native vegetation clearance for renewables was undermining carbon emissions reductions from the projects.
“As soon as you destroy forest you release carbon dioxide,” he said. “So people who worry about climate change should very worried about the siting (of renewables) because one of the biggest contributions to climate change in Australia is habitat destruction.”
The Upper Burdekin/Gawara Baya Wind Farm, southwest of Ingham in Queensland, secured EPBC approval in June 2024, despite the government acknowledging “significant” impacts on threatened species.
These related to clearing 605ha of Sharman’s rock wallaby dispersal habitat, 581ha of greater glider habitat, 614ha of koala habitat and 616ha of red goshawk habitat.
The government approved the 69-turbine plant, concluding these impacts were not “unacceptable” on the species as a whole and could be offset and mitigated.

Disappointingly the reptiles didn't recycle all their graphs, instead offering a weirdly thumbed AV distraction, In a social media post, Mr Bowen accused conservation group Rainforest Reserves Australia of vastly over-estimating the footprint area of renewables ­projects proposed for Australia and of being “anti-­renewable, pro-nuclear activists”.

And there it was, with the possum suggesting that all was already lost, and it was time to head for the hills ...

Professor Possingham said the compounding impact of multiple projects with similar impacts on a species were not sufficiently considered, allowing a species’ “death by a thousand cuts”.
Nor did the process consider the growing importance of ridge lines – sought after by wind developers – as refuges for species impacted by the warming climate.
“If we have two degrees of warming, most species to survive are going to have to move … 200-300km south or go up 200-300 metres to enter cooler environments,” he said.
“So destroying ridge tops and the areas around them is not smart.”

Oh dear, the pond could just imagine News Corp reluctantly shifting from Surry Hills, to perch on Flagstaff Mountain out Tamworth way ...

The possum next suggested delay, music to the reptiles' ears ...

Professor Possingham, a former Queensland chief scientist and globally lauded ecologist, called for a freeze on renewables projects until biodiversity mapping could guide a less damaging rollout.
The Biodiversity Council – Australia’s peak ecologist and conservation scientists – had been urging such an approach for years, but had been ignored by government. “We warned the government this was going to happen,” he said.
Spatial mapping, using existing federal data on threatened species, would take just 6-12 months and could then be used to create red, amber and green zones for renewables projects.
“It’s not rocket science – it’s all publicly available data and simple spatial planning,” he said.
A similar “traffic light” approach factoring in biodiversity was recently recommended in a report by the University of Queensland and Princeton University.
It estimated that over 110,000 sq km — about 1.7 times the size of Tasmania — of renewable energy infrastructure was needed by 2060 to reach net-zero in Australia.
A conflict-ridden rollout would, the report warned, fail to meet these goals, leading to “higher energy prices” and a “clean energy shortfall of almost 500 gigawatts”, undermining decarbonisation.
A government spokesman said: “It’s important proponents do the right thing and consult their communities. There’s state environmental decision processes these projects have to clear. And national environmental laws consider the impacts to the local environment in nationally significant areas and add conditions if needed.”

And there you have it, a modest contribution to the jihad, and it will be interesting to see how long the reptiles can keep it going.

Meanwhile, over on the extreme far right the usual suspects were out and about ...

Col offered ...

End of Hamas is the only hope for peace
Hamas has naturally drawn great encouragement to continue fighting from all the anti-Israel activities across the globe.
By Colin Rubenstein

... without thinking to mention that it might be time for Benji and his barking mad fundamentalists to also go, together with the ethnic cleansing and the talk of an Israel stretching from the river to the sea ...

You know, "Good news, but the world must make sure the ethnic cleansing is not just stopped, but reversed".

Fat chance, and sadly the pond also wasn't excited by ...

AI policy walks cultural tightrope
Besides the risks to the capacity of writers, artists and musicians to make a living, there’s also a risk to Australia’s cultural life.
By Nicholas Davis and Edward Santow

Guys, guys, too late guys, did you check out the opening uncredited snap, which undercut you from the get go?

It was truly hideous, it reeked of AI, and it heralded your doom ...

If that assault on visual sensibilities is an AI deal that benefits hive mind members who've forked over shekels to watch the decline and fall of the lizard Oz graphics department, count the pond out.

Besides, the pond was shattered that the bouffant one's piece had already dropped off the twig by the time the pond indulged in its morning reptile read...

It was only a two minute outing, so the reptiles said, but it was of vital concern when considering the pond's heavy plunge on the lettuce winning the race ...

The header: Ill-prepared Sussan Ley left stranded and outwitted on ISIS brides and Optus crisis, Coalition’s shifting focus between ISIS brides and the Optus crisis has exposed critical weaknesses in Sussan Ley’s parliamentary strategy against Labor.

The caption for the woman in a desperate race to outlast the lettuce: Opposition Leader Sussan Ley in question time on Thursday. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Sure it was already a day old, but the pond is always up for a serve of the bouffant one, especially when he's serving it up to Susssan, and giving the lettuce a leg up ...

Sussan Ley came to the issue of ISIS brides too late, ill-prepared and without conviction.
As potential peace in the Middle East dominates the world and political agenda and frames the public debate in Australia, the Opposition Leader chose the catastrophic Optus triple-0 outage as the Coalition’s main point of parliamentary attack at the start of final sittings for 2025, despite pressure from Liberal senators at estimates committee meetings revealing a politically plausible argument that Anthony Albanese had misled parliament over his claim the government had provided no “assistance” to the group of women and children to settle in Victoria last month.
Indeed, after two days of being missing in action from Ley on the re-entry of the ISIS brides, it was independent western Sydney MP Dai Le who asked for a guarantee that people in her electorate of Fowler who had suffered terribly at the hands of Islamic State would not face a threat in their new homes.
Tony Burke, as Minister for Home Affairs and Immigration, pilloried the Coalition for not asking the question and had a prepared if vulnerable argument that the government had not “repatriated” the group as it was revealed in the Senate there had been “assistance”, including the issuing of passports, to the group.

Sky Noise down under was also deployed, Sky News Political Reporter Cameron Reddin discusses Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s response to questions about ISIS brides returning to Australia during Question Time in parliament on Thursday. “They say there’s no assistance because there’s been no repatriation,” Mr Reddin told Sky News host Steve Price. “The government has said in Question Time … there was no attempt to, for example, assist them with flights. “There is now a degree of investigation underway … into these individuals.”

Shanners was feeling in the mood for a savaging of Susssan ...

The government defence relied on word games, split hairs and a counter-attack accusing the opposition of urging the government to break the law and lacking faith in the Australian Federal Police.
It was classic parliamentary bravado that was vulnerable to carefully planned pursuit and prosecution on an issue that was all the opposition had.
On Thursday morning, clearly believing there was more political mileage in the triple-0 debacle, Ley didn’t change course but the traditional round of her media appearances on Thursday demonstrated the triple-0 problems were well behind the ISIS brides as an issue.
At a time when Ley is trying to reformulate Coalition policy, it is essential the opposition demonstrate a spirit and taste for political engagement on the hot button issues of the day. Labor has successfully – and easily – been able to deflect heat from the fatal failure of Optus.
It’s not hard to demonise and blame a big telco and even the PM raised the issue with the visiting Singaporean Prime Minister as evidence of Labor’s determination to prosecute the case against Optus and introduce tougher laws.

More Sky Noise poured on the pressure, Independent MP Dai Le says if ISIS brides are returning to Australia, then the government needs to make sure they have “not been indoctrinated”. “I want to be assured that they're monitored, I want to be assured that they are held accountable,” Ms Le told Sky News Australia. “These families chose to go and accompany their husbands, to my understanding, to fight during the ISIS, the whole crisis over there.”

End result? Yet again judged feeble, not barking mad fundamentalist enough, a wet of the old school ...

When asked about the ISIS issue on TV, Ley mounted an argument that a Coalition government would have stopped the cohort coming back – a difficult task since they were Australian citizens and there is no evidence of any involvement in terrorism.
By the time Ley entered question time, the triple-0 problem was gone, she’d changed horses between Wednesday in parliament and Thursday on TV, and amid a mix of questions failed to go near landing a punch on Albanese or Burke.
Sloppy questions, vague references and a clear lack of commitment left her at the end of what was always going to be a difficult week stranded and politically outwitted, with Labor unscathed on the Optus outage or lack of transparency over the arrival of ISIS brides.
Labor’s dominance makes it almost impossible for the Coalition but it doesn’t help when you pull the wrong rein on the issue of the week.

Go lettuce ...

And so to the usual Friday treat, though the pond has been finding the outing with Our Henry heavier going than usual these past few months, and this offering was no different ...

Our Henry had no difficulty with this 'toon ...

On the contrary, Our Henry was all in on King Donald, full MAGA ...

The header: Donald Trump seized opportunities while others succumbed to opportunism, Had Barack Obama or Joe Biden been president, the prospects for peace in the Middle East would be far poorer than they are now.

The caption for the object of worship, though the pond would prefer to celebrate a cane toad: Donald Trump after he was informed of the peace deal. Picture: Getty Images

Our Henry was in full triumphalist mode, heiling his new Caesar ...

While the details of the peace deal between Israel and Hamas remain to be seen, as does the durability of any pause in the fighting, having come this far is an extraordinary achievement for Donald Trump and for the exercise of American power.
Ever since Trump’s return to the presidency, he has been widely portrayed as a buffoon, whose erratic approach to world affairs would condemn the United States to ridicule, isolation and ultimate irrelevance.
Declining economically, deeply divided politically and with its core executive agencies, such as the State Department, shorn of their best minds, America was, we were repeatedly told, reduced to flapping and gasping on the world stage like a large, moribund fish writhing in agony on the deck of a trawler.

How sick did it get? See the first illustration, People in Tel Aviv's Hostage Square on Thursday following the announcement of a new Gaza ceasefire deal. Picture: Jack GUEZ / AFP

Sorry, the pond does reserve the right to celebrate King Donald the dangerous buffoon ...

The interesting question is how much Our Henry might be undone by unfolding events. 

The old codger is usually inclined to the coy and to philosophical and historical references suggesting that angels shouldn't rush in ... but this day Our Henry was in an electric rush ...

As the US withdrew from the scene, it was the sensitive Europeans, and “progressive” governments such as our own, with their faith in the “international community” and the “rules-based international order”, that would lay the basis, in the Middle East as elsewhere, for peace. And the crucial step, of course, was to recognise the non-existent state of Palestine – a move that would, for reasons shrouded in mystery, supposedly advance peace instead of promoting the very terrorism it was so plainly rewarding.
Trapped in idea clots that barely rise to the level of cliches, it is the proponents of those views, and not Trump, who have proven entirely irrelevant at best, harmful at worst. Rather, if there is now a chance of a respite for Gazans and Israelis alike, and for the release of the hostages from the savagery of Hamas and its partners in crime, it is for two reasons.
The first is the Israeli attack on Iran, followed by the flawlessly executed American bombing raid, which showcased both the US’s formidable military might and – every bit as importantly – Trump’s willingness to do as he says.
The effect on the Arab states was electric. Hesitant until then about placing effective pressure on Hamas, they were brought to their senses by that sheer show of force, and by Trump’s subsequent threat that Hamas, unless it accepted an agreement, would face Armageddon. It wasn’t the snivelling Europeans, Canadians or Australians who could credibly provide the leaders of the Arab states with security or, alternatively, seriously endanger their hold on power; it was the US, and the US alone.
And the price of getting the good side of that bargain was to ensure Trump got what he wanted.

Might not the stupidity of Benji bombing Qatar have helped? 

Might not the increasing isolation of the US and Israel spurred on King Donald? 

Might not revulsion at the ethnic cleansing and the genocide helped with the notion that a little window dressing was urgently needed?

Nah, it was all in, all on board, Israelis in Jerusalem expressed gratitude and thanks to U.S President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday morning (October 9), after the Gaza ceasefire deal was announced. Israeli hostages may be released as early as Saturday (October 10) under a U.S.-brokered agreement.

Those impatiently waiting for Our Henry's famous predilection, the trotting out of quotes, should relax, because he's famously at it again... celebrating genocide as a tactic ...

But all that would have been futile had it not been for a second factor: Israel’s success on the field of battle, which ensured that both Hamas and Arab states knew the Armageddon Trump threatened was a realistic possibility.
It is a foolish but widespread mistake to pin that success on technological superiority. No doubt, it has played a role. But what has really counted, and transformed that superiority into tangible results, is the courage, initiative and devotion to duty of the young men and women of the IDF who have put their lives on the line in the horrific conditions of dense urban warfare against a foe utterly contemptuous of the rules of war.
Clausewitz famously termed the qualities those young men and women displayed the “moral force” that though it “will not yield to academic wisdom”, would forever be the critical determinant of success in the moment of combat, “where every man, down to the individual soldier, is on his own”. When the conflict erupted, Yahya Sinwar believed that while “the Zionists had many weapons”, “the Jew” would never be able to “confront the Muslim face to face”. Now Sinwar too has met his fate.

Carl stripped of his "von", as Our Henry danced on graves?

Don't get too excited, that's your historical and philosophical lot this day, and it's hard not to feel shor-changed, as the reptiles dressed in, Yahya Sinwar, during a rally in Gaza City in May 2021. Picture: MAHMUD HAMS / AFP

Our Henry was all in on the moral force of genocide and ethnic cleansing ...

Would a passing reference to Winnie and Osama be enough to placate those mainly in it for the name-dropping? Probably not ...

What made those soldiers’ “moral force” all the greater was the shock effect on Israeli society of October 7. Confronted with the atrocities Hamas perpetrated on that day – and the Palestinian Authority’s staunch refusal, only reversed a few weeks ago, to condemn them – whatever trust Israelis might previously have placed in agreements with terrorists evaporated, probably forever.
Benjamin Netanyahu was consequently in a position to make sure Israel did not repeat the mistake it had made four times in Lebanon, of buckling to domestic and international pressure to withdraw before the Islamists’ ability to strike again had been severely degraded, if not destroyed.
And precisely because “the first duty of a government” is, as Winston Churchill put it in deriding the appeasers, “to keep its citizens safe”, Netanyahu was rightly willing to pay the price of being condemned by those Western leaders, such as our own, who do not have to live next to terrorists, to advance Israel’s long-term security.
The cost, both to Israelis and Palestinians, of the war Hamas unleashed has been absolutely devastating. Given that Hamas’s core strategy has always been to view the deaths of innocent civilians not as a tragedy but as an asset, which helps it galvanise into action the Western dupes who are its surest allies, that was unavoidable.
Echoing, and putting into practice Osama bin Laden’s taunt at the West that “We love death as you love life”, the Islamists felt no qualms about condemning their own people to destruction. Indeed, it was the Israelis alone who showed any practical concern for the civilians Hamas persistently prevented from fleeing the areas where the fighting was at its most intense.

Practical concern? 

That's what the slaughter and the rampant destruction and the mass starvation is being called these days? 

Sure enough, to help with the jihad, the reptiles rolled in simplistic Sharri, full disrespect, as a kind of Greek chorus ... Sky News host Sharri Markson celebrates the commencement of United States President Donald Trump's peace plan in Gaza. “20 living hostages who have been held in underground tunnels in horrific conditions for 732 days,” Ms Markson said. “They’re coming home. Set to be freed on Monday. “America did this. Trump did this. Israel did this. Not the UN. They did nothing but criticise Israel. Not Albanese, Macron, Starmer, and Carney, who did nothing but reward terrorism. “This deal, and the release of the hostages within days, is entirely thanks to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.”

The pond reserves the right to continue to mock, because all that glitters might not be gold ...

It's also possibly a tad too soon for triumphalism, but our Henry rushed right in ...

And Hamas’s equally adamant refusal to free the hostages made the toll even greater than it needed to be.
Writing in the wake of the English Civil War, which caused proportionately more deaths than World War I, Thomas Hobbes ­argued that nothing more surely “instructs” human beings into an abiding love of peace than experiencing the “calamity of warre”, which “is the greatest evil that can happen in this life”. Whether that insight, which was amply borne out in Germany and Japan, will apply to the people of Gaza, who have for years been indoctrinated into hatred, is hard to say.
What is clear, however, is that had Barack Obama or Joe Biden been president, the prospects for peace would be far poorer than they now are. At least so far, Trump has not only displayed a realism that completely eluded his smug and sanctimonious predecessors; he has also demonstrated a dogged commitment to getting results and a willingness to seek opportunities, rather than succumb to opportunism, that puts them – and our own leaders – to shame.
Most of all, what Trump has shown is an understanding of the need to accompany promises with credible threats.
In a world where the notion of an “international community” is just pious hot air, and where the “rules-based order” all too often protects the ruler-breakers at the expense of the rule-keepers, thus encouraging the very barbarism it was intended to deter, nothing could be more consequential.
Doing all that has involved addressing intractable obstacles and taking great risks. If they bring the people of the Middle East the peace they so desperately need, Donald Trump will have more than earned his Nobel prize.

The rule keepers? So that's what they're calling apartheid these days?

And so to round out the discussion with the immortal Rowe of the day ...

As always the portrait of the king in all his finery delights ...