In which the pond has a late arvo celebration of Shanners and the onion muncher ...

For a nanosecond the pond thought of catching up with Mein Gott for a late arvo treat ...

Seven West-Southern Cross merger signals end of free-to-air TV dominance
Seven West’s merger with Southern Cross at just four times earnings signals the end of free-to-air TV’s golden era in Australia.
By Robert Gottliebsen

But Media Watch had already debriefed the pond on Stokes bows out ...and that was more than enough time on a funder of alleged rapists and alleged war criminals.

The pond didn't even waste a nanosecond on Dame Slap before sending her to the archive cornfield ...

This human rights body is past saving – abolish it
Political meddling is so entrenched at the Australian Human Rights Commission; it is time to disband this taxpayer-funded clique.
By Janet Albrechtsen
Columnist

The pond has long known that there hasn't been a human right that Dame Slap hasn't wanted to trample on, as befits a MAGA-cap wearer, but that was an old and stale angle on a familiar story.

The pond will confess to being tempted by yet another reptile rant about universities, done in the spirit of Dame Slap herself, if only to show off the opening graphic ...

Where do they get them from?

Wisely there was no credit, but after that flush of cash in the mortarboard paw, there was little else to see...

Old, rich and ‘elite’: the truth about Group of 8 wealth and (lack of) performance
Now where do people get the idea that universities are big, rich and out of touch? Perhaps from self-promoting members of the Group of Eight. The truth about their wealth and performance.
By Stephen Matchett

The fallible archive can take care of them, but the archive fails by the moment and the day, and so the pond wanted to make a little room for this effort by Shanners ...make sure it was to hand outside the frail, failing archive so that correspondents could enjoy it at their leisure.

The worn down old digger these days can only manage a couple of minutes (and why has Ms Shanners shunned the limelight of late?), but truly his celebration of Jimbo was for the ages ...especially as the reptiles blessed it with a quintessential Jimbo snap ...

The header: One top performer can’t fill all Liberal gaps – and he is in the wrong chamber, James Paterson is now covering four portfolios, including finance and home affairs, and has become the political equivalent of Ghostbusters – who else can you call?

The caption for the snap that suggested someone at the lizard Oz had it in for Jimbo, unless thinking that making him look like a simpering, smirking, grimacing idiot was a step up: Who can be trusted to front the media? James Paterson, above. Picture: NewsWire/ David Crosling

The bouffant one did his best to scrub up Jimbo:

There is only one answer to a series of vital questions for the bowed and beaten Liberal Party going into the final parliamentary sessions for 2025 and that answer is James Paterson.
Who can be trusted to front the media, go bravely on to the ABC and defend Sussan Ley’s leadership on Sky TV? James Paterson.
Who can take over the red-hot portfolio of home affairs at a moment’s notice and not miss a beat? James Paterson.
Who can sensibly apportion and accept blame for the Liberal election loss? James Paterson.
Who can put the best gloss on Andrew Hastie’s resignation and rebellion without antagonising the former frontbencher? James Paterson.

Talk about shades of...

Who can make me laugh until the sun goes down
Who can make me happy, make me feel like a clown ...

Sure enough the reptiles slipped in an AV distraction showing Jimbo in "who can toucan" action, blessed with another outing for that still, Acting Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson discusses Andrew Hastie leaving the front bench of the Liberal Party. “I would certainly prefer that we still have both Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Price on the front bench, and it is my hope that in due course both of them can return to the front bench,” Mr Paterson said. “I think they’re high-quality contributors to our cause. “I think it is critical that we demonstrate unity to the Australian people.”

Shanners was in awe ...

The Victorian Liberal senator now covering four portfolios, including finance and home affairs, is the political equivalent of Ghostbusters – who else can you call? – but unfortunately for the Liberals and Coalition opposition. Paterson can’t be the answer to every question and just epitomises the lack of talent and depth in the depleted opposition.
Paterson was a confident and mistake-free voice and face for the Liberals during the election campaign, and has displayed a competency and calm beyond his experience, but he must not be the only voice for the Coalition on radio and television. A written statement does not cut the mustard any longer.

By golly, he was right by the side of the mutton Dutton in that astonishing campaign, James Paterson, left, with Peter Dutton during the 2025 election campaign. Picture: Adam Head / NewsWire

Is there nothing this genius can't do? No feat that can't be performed?

Since taking over home affairs last Friday, Paterson has pushed his way into live media where few other opposition MPs dare to go, and sought to prosecute the only viable political agenda against Anthony Albanese at the moment over what he knew about the “secret” bringing back of the Islamic State brides.
Likewise opposition leader in the Senate, Michaela Cash, pursued on Tuesday what the Prime Minister knew in Senate committees and declared the refusal to provide information on the ISIS brides “has turned into another Albanese government cover-up’’.
Yet one of the biggest problems the opposition faces is that Paterson is not in the House of Representatives.

Oh dear, and there was the pond thinking that he'd be a dead cert to make the pond's cash backing that lettuce really safe, Opposition Leader Sussan Ley with frontbencher Michaelia Cash. Picture: Getty Images

Shanners wrapped up his tribute:

While Liberal senators pursued the PM over ISIS brides, Sussan Ley’s team in the house did not ask a question on the subject and concentrated on the Optus triple-0 catastrophe.
With only weeks before the summer parliamentary break, Ley has to act quickly to find other answers to the Paterson questions or write off 2025 as a disaster and go into next year on an even more diminished political platform.

Keep digging those holes ...

Once again the pond knew it was on a winner ...

And so to the onion muncher, and the way that narcissists, always in the grip of relevancy deprivation syndrome, do their best to be out and about ...

The pond appreciates that the onion muncher has a tiny, but deeply loyal cult following, which loves to follow his attention-seeking, and so wherever possible the pond will make room for his cavortings.

Most people who have failed in some way - the pond has failed in jobs, love and life - try to hide their failures, or at least be a tad discreet about them.

But when narcissists fail they feel the need to seek reassurance, to parade and seek out attention, and in this case, to remind the world that he wasone of the country's worst prime ministers - even Harold Holt and Billy McMachon can't hold a candle to him - and now he's reduced to wittering and twittering ...

Sorry, the pond won't be linking to the onion muncher's Substack - it's easily found if masochists insist - but the pond will note how the gadfly keeps attracting attention ...Tony Abbott addresses the faithful at Tory party conference ...

The reptiles in particular love their errant gadfly, and still pay attention and give him space, with the malignant Magnay on hand to offer a two minute read (surely the right length for an Australian man, what with many men struggling to last 8 minutes, while 10 is beyond the realms of a rich fantasy life):

The header, with a line designed to be a cheap headline grabber: Tony Abbott’s solution for UK’s migrant crisis: Unsinkable life rafts, just enough fuel and a mothership,Tony Abbott says Britain should transfer cross-channel migrants to a 'mothership' and return them to France on unsinkable life rafts to solve its $8.2m-a-day crisis.

The caption for the snap showing the OM gesticulating in macho fashion like the finger-pointing, always angry bully he is: Tony Abbott with UK Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Priti Patel, at the Conservative Party conference in Manchester. Picture: Getty Images.

One past the headline, it's pretty much apparent that's all it is, a cheap narcissist attempt at attention-seeking:

Tony Abbott says Britain should move illegal migrants onto a “mothership” in international waters in the English Channel before being taken back to France in unsinkable life rafts “on a suitable night”.
The former Australian prime minister didn’t mince any words when it came to describing how hapless Britain can solve its illegal migration crisis, which is costing the country AUD$8.2m a day, and fuelling widespread social unrest.

Like Joh back in the day, it's the way to feed the chooks a little corn so they'll pay attention to his big day:

Ahead of this week’s Tory party conference in Manchester, Mr Abbott explained his Australian government policy of turning back the boats which he introduced back in 2013 at a fringe party conference event hosted by Politico.
Mr Abbott said: “When I came in, we reopened offshore detention, we put back in place temporary protection visas and we put in place a policy to turn boats around through Operation Sovereign Borders.”
Crucial to the plan was moving the migrants onto a “mothership” with “total radio silence”, he said, before adding “Then, on an appropriate night we put them on an unsinkable orange life raft with just enough fuel and say: ‘Back you go.’”
Mr Abbott said there was no reason why the hordes of illegal migrants who are currently picked up in their small rubber boats by the British Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) and border officials as soon as they enter British waters could not be turned around.
“[There is] no reason why these people can’t be taken into international waters,” he said. “The English Channel is narrow between Dover and Calais — but it’s wide once you get down towards Normandy.
“When they are in British waters … we should take them onto a mothership into international waters down the Channel. Then, on a suitable night, they can be back on the shores of France.”

It's just a variant on a wannabe Stephen Miller, another voice in a carnival of cornball clown show hysteria ...

The point is to make sure there are snaps of the onion muncher in action, and yes, he's not drowning after falling from a raft, he's still alive and he's waving, Tony Abbott with UK Shadow Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, Priti Patel. Picture: Getty Images.

And so to the show ...

On Tuesday Mr Abbott elaborated further to the Tory conference, telling delegates the British government needed to have “sufficient will” to solve its growing migrant problems and questioned the legitimacy of the asylum claims of the migrants who have travelled through a number of safe countries.
Mr Abbott suggested Keir Starmer’s government could reinvestigate the Tory policy of sending the asylum seekers to a third country for processing, “such as Rwanda, the Ascension Island or somewhere like that as opposed to putting people up in nice hotels in large towns in Britain”.

Why engage a middle man?

Why not just shoot them and dump their bodies in the channel?

And then relief for those who had feared the worst for fired, fried Freya ...Sky and Freya Leach  were fired up, then it all went wrong ...

She lives, she breathes, possibly she munches onions, and there she is performing valiant service, by interrupting the onon muncher with an AV distraction ... Sky News host Freya Leach discusses the “dire” situation in the UK with illegal immigration. “Things are really dire,” Ms Leach said. “It now looks like the UK government could be paying compensation to migrants who are housed in migrant holding centres. “They are now the ones suing the UK government for the inhumane conditions they’ve been put in.”

Why thank you kindly fierce Freya, that's jut the sort of craft, just the sort of excellent raft that's needed ...

He repeated the mothership option of putting the migrants on unsinkable life rafts with just enough fuel to get back to France in the middle of the night, adding that it was “just as we did”.
He also warned: “Whether it’s conducting very vigorous mafia busting operations in northern France, I mean Britain has to get serious about this and it’s going to deeply involve upsetting the French”.
More than 33,000 asylum seekers have crossed the channel in small boats this year, and nearly all are immediately placed in hotels and provided with three meals, daily payments, and free access to doctors and dentists, putting enormous strain on medical access for Britons.
Sir Keir has introduced some headline policies such as a one-in-one-out deal with France, which has seen fewer than 30 rejected asylum seekers returned to France and swapped for legitimate migrants. But the scale of the problem has overwhelmed the government and seen a meteoric rise in support for Nigel Farage’s party, Reform UK, which has a policy to return all illegal migrants.
Tory Party leader Kemi Badenoch is also tapping into the discontent, announcing that asylum seekers wouldn’t be allowed automatic access to benefits under a Tory government, that 750,000 illegal immigrants would be removed within five years and that boat arrivals would not be allowed to claim asylum.

And how's that working out in the disunited states?

Seems there's a bit of FAandFO doing the rounds...

Comedian Theo Von is one of the most prominent faces of the so-called “manosphere,” the online network built on the foundation of masculinity and dominance.

But while recording an episode of his podcast last week, he was suddenly overcome with emotion.

“My father immigrated here from Nicaragua. One of my prized possessions is his immigration papers from when he came here—I have them in frame,” a visibly distraught Von said on his show This Past Weekend. “This was just f–ked up. It was f–ked up.”

Last month, the Department of Homeland Security featured Von in a video promoting the Trump administration’s contentious mass immigration plan.

“Heard you got deported, dude. Bye!” Von can be heard saying in an edited clip—something he was quick to voice displeasure with online. “Yooo DHS i didnt approve to be used in this. I know you know my address so send a check. And please take this down and please keep me out of your ‘banger’ deportation videos,” Von wrote in a now-deleted post.

And again ...

NBC News reported in September that just one-third of U.S. adults aged 18 to 29 approved of Trump’s handling of deportations and immigration, while 67 percent disapproved.

Meanwhile, Trump has seen his popularity sink among Americans, with 58% saying they disapprove of him in a new CBS/YouGov poll conducted earlier this month.

And that disapproval is echoed by the very voices shaping young male political culture.

Joe Rogan, who previously endorsed Trump, has slammed the administration’s “insane” immigration raids targeting ordinary laborers, despite Trump’s original campaign pledge to focus deportation efforts on the “worst of the worst.”

“I don’t think anybody would have signed up for [this],” Rogan said in July.

Well they voted for it and got what they wanted, though perhaps not what they expected ...

Late arvo is when the pond can also cover other lost regrets, for example, this infallible Pope tribute ...

Jane might be gone, after a career tackling climate science amongst other environmental and ecological matters, but her prized apes live on and haunt the world like an onion muncher haunting Tories...