In which Polonius takes to onion munching, while cranky Jennie does it for the hive mind ...

 

The pond would like to be almost anywhere else for its Sunday meditation than mired in the swamp of herpetology studies.

Why not leave it to the experts?

The venerable Meade was in exceptionally fine form last Friday in the Weekly Beast ...

Not Dame Groan herself?!

Or why not just take a sabbatical, and enjoy say, Jill Lapore's Ginsbergian howl of pain and despair in The New Yorker?

Trump and the Presidency That Wouldn’t Shut Up, His posts and rants are omnipresent, ugly, and unhinged. Don’t look to history to make it make sense. (*archive link)

Peter Wehner was at it too in The Atlantic ...

Trump’s Plan Is Now Out in the Open,It’s getting ever harder to avoid connecting the authoritarian dots (*archive link)

How about a serve of Parker Molloy?

The Liar's Dividend: Trump, AI, and the Death of Shared Reality, When everything could plausibly be fake, liars benefit — even when they're lying about footage from the National Archives.

Has there ever been a better time to be a doom-laden heralder of the impending apocalypse?

Or why not simply take a swig of the nutty in a desperate attempt to forget?

During an episode of The Kardashians TV series that aired Thursday, the Skims founder questioned whether the space mission ever took place, and noted her fascination with conspiracy theories.
“There’s no gravity on the moon. Why is the flag blowing?” Kardashian said. “The shoes that they have in the museum that they wore on the moon is a different print in the photos. Why are there no stars?” she continued. “They’re gonna say I’m crazy no matter what, but like, go to TikTok. See for yourself … ”

Too weird even for King Donald's minions...

But the pond must study what the reptiles at the lizard Oz serve up, swill designed to dull the pond's brain, like a swig on lead-laden petrol ...

Desperate stuff.

Truly desperate stuff.

And none more desperate than prattling Polonius this weekend, pandering to the local narcissist in chief, a poor match for King Donald, but all the reptiles have got ...

The header: Australia’s oral history well worth Tony Abbott’s retelling, Clearly there is a role for verbal accounts in any nation’s history. The question is – what strength should be given to them?

The caption for the narcissist posed in a way only an onion muncher could manage: Tony Abbott’s book on the true – and often untold – story of the nation’s past and the complementing Sky News Australia documentary have enjoyed sales and ratings success. Picture: James Horan

Caravaggio perhaps caught the inclination the best, though instead of having the subject gaze off into the distance like a seraphic seer, he suggested a little pool gazing...

The pond isn't quite sure what's more pathetic. The irrelevant narcissist pleading for attention, or Polonius pandering to the craving...

There are a few surprises in Tony Abbott’s recently released Australia: A History (HarperCollins, 2025) which, according to reports, is already undergoing a reprint. The written word is supplemented by a three-part Sky News documentary of the same name.
First, the publication received endorsements not only from former prime minister John Howard, historian Geoffrey Blainey and British historian Andrew Roberts, but also from former Labor leaders Kim Beazley and Bill Shorten along with former Labor senator and Olympic gold medallist Nova Peris plus independent MP Dai Le.

What a desperate, deeply pathetic set of referees...but do go on ...

Second, Abbott’s book of history received a favourable, but not uncritical, review by left-wing historian Frank Bongiorno in the avowedly leftist Guardian Australia. Bongiorno drew attention to the fact when discussing the extent of frontline violence in the early years of the European settlement, Abbott cites “not the right-wing history warrior Keith Windschuttle but one of the latter’s principal targets, Lyndall Ryan”.
As Bongiorno points out, Abbott regards Bob Hawke and Howard as “the standout Australian prime ministers since Robert Menzies”. In short, this is not political conservative hagiography.

In short, pull the other pandering leg, you portentous goose, as the reptiles made sure that the hagiographic elements were attended to by dragging in petulant Peta to celebrate her muppet puppet, Sky News host Peta Credlin sits down with former prime minister Tony Abbot to go over the release of Mr Abbott’s new book ‘Australia: A History’

It wouldn't be a decent bout of hagiography without throwing in some bonus revisionism ...

Then there is the unintended consequence of Australia: A History’s publication. Namely, a discussion on the value or otherwise of oral – as distinct from documented – history. This revised a debate that was prevalent among historians three decades ago.
The starter’s gun was fired when ABC Radio National Breakfast presenter Sally Sara interviewed Abbott on October 13. The author told his interviewer that he had focused on incidents such as the Myall Creek and Appin massacres because they were “very well documented at the time”. He made the point that governor Lachlan Macquarie “sent a detachment of troops around the Cumberland Plain to try to ensure that there were fewer raids on settlements”.
Abbott’s point was that the above instances were “well-documented encounters” and that there was “a lot of subsequent oral history which is not quite as reliable”. This was challenged by Sara.
To which Abbott responded: “You think back to something that happened in your own past, many years ago; it does tend to get a bit embellished.” He added: “Grandma’s stories can often become embellished with the telling and particularly with the telling and retelling over the generations.”
Abbott also declared that he was “very uncomfortable with any use of the term genocide because … Governor Phillip’s initial instructions were to live in amity with the native people”.

Speaking of references, the reptiles decided to interrupt with two huge snaps, Nova Peris at Tony Abbott's book launch. Picture: Christian Gilles; Sam Mostyn at Tony Abbott's book launch. Picture: Christian Gilles

Polonius proceeded in a way that's beyond caricature ... but can be said to reveal the inner Polonius...

He went on to comment that all the governors “went to great lengths to try to say to all of the settlers ‘treat the native people well because they are the subjects of the king … and they all have rights of British subjects’ ”. Abbott said: “It didn’t work out that way particularly on the frontier of settlement – but even on the frontier settlement it was a story of co-operation as least as much as it was one of conflict.”
The discussion continued the next morning. Sara introduced Ian Hamm, whom she described as a Yorta Yorta man and chair of the First Nations Foundation.
He was asked to “reflect on Tony Abbott’s perspective of oral history in Australia” and responded that “oral history plays an important part in the Australian narrative and particularly for Aboriginal people”.
Hamm conceded that oral history might be unreliable “if you’re looking for a particular detail of particular things”. But he said: “Overall, oral history is a very, very solid way of progressing narratives … of events over time.”
An interesting exchange, to be sure. Spoilt, alas, by condescension. Sara asked for thoughts about Abbott’s “new book”. Hamm replied that it was “a worthy thing” for an “amateur historian”.
Abbott has degrees in economics and law from the University of Sydney plus an Oxford University MA. As the acknowledgments of Australia: A History attest, writers and historians Andrew Kemp and Alex McDermott assisted with the book, as did two unnamed researchers. In any event, Hamm did not cite any historical errors in the work.
Clearly there is a role for verbal accounts in any nation’s history. The question is – what strength should be given to them?
In the LexisNexis Concise Australian Legal Dictionary, hearsay evidence is considered less valuable since the original statement was not given under oath and cannot be challenged by cross examination.

The pond would rather pluck out an eye than read the tome or watch the show, but luckily others did, with Grace Tame setting it down in The Saturday Paper in Tony Abbott's warped story of Australia ...

Well yes, all that and more, as the reptile promotional tour continued ... Explore Australia's history is a landmark three-part Sky News documentary presented by former Prime Minister Tony Abbott. From the ancient traditions of Arnhem Land to the bustling streets of modern Cabramatta, the series traces the pivotal moments that shaped Australia’s identity. Abbott embarks on a deeply personal journey, exploring the triumphs, struggles, and transformations that forged our nation, from Sydney Cove to the Eureka Stockade, and from early settlement to a thriving multicultural democracy. Spanning over three nights, this special event provides a powerful reflection on Australia’s past, its current challenges, and its vision for the future.

At last Polonius began to run out of hagiographic steam ...

It is much the same outside the law courts. It’s impossible to prove or disprove stories transmitted over the generations. And then there is the problem of memory. Some people tell the truth, some others lie and others have clear “recollections” of events that never happened.
There is an important article in the June 2005 issue of the Southern Journal for Contemporary History titled “A critical evaluation of memory as a potential source of evidence for oral history”. Written by Marietjie Oelofse and Derek du Bruyn, it focuses on Africa. They write that what sets oral history apart from other branches of history is its reliance on memory and not the text.
The authors refer to the fallibility of memory. They quote oral historian Allan Nevins as saying: “Any man’s recollection of the past events is untrustworthy.” This, they suggest, also applies to the memory of a witness. Yet they argue that the potential and usefulness of memory as a source of evidence cannot be ignored.
The position of Oelofse and du Bruyn is that “oral history should not stand alone as a single source, but should be used alongside written evidence”. They recognise the significance of oral evidence but maintain it should be substantiated by cross-checking against all available written and oral evidence.
In January 1993, I wrote a cover story for The Bulletin magazine challenging what was then the pervading left-wing interpretation of Australian history. I opposed the falsification of Australian history – namely that the nation was born in genocide and oppression and remained in what Manning Clark once termed the “age of ruins”.
Oral history, just like text, can be challenged. It remains to be seen whether Abbott’s relatively optimistic view of Australia’s past and present will survive considered empirical-based criticism. So far, this is the case.
Gerard Henderson is executive director of The Sydney Institute.

So far, this is the case?

Is it?

And so on ... as in the closer ...

To be fair, at least Polonius gave the pond an excuse to read an alternative view on the narcissist in chief ...

And so to the bonus, which thankfully is just a short 3 min read, so the reptiles say, and features cranky Jennie, still cranking it out for benefit of the hive mind...

The header: Chris Bowen hides the true cost of energy switch, Power has to be affordable and reliable; it’s neither under Labor’s transition.

The caption for the excruciating collage, featuring Satanic windmills and Satan himself, done in a manner even more crude than usual, for which no human took credit: Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen assures us that Labor’s transition is on track and the 82 per cent renewables target can be met.

Regular readers of the pond's transcriptions of the reptiles will already know that cranky Jennie has been down this road many times before, and if they decide to bail, the pond certainly won't be blaming them ...

The pond hopes it gives cranky Jennie as much relief as kite-flying did for Mr Dick ...

...Every day of his life he had a long sitting at the Memorial, which never made the least progress, however hard he laboured, for King Charles the First always strayed into it, sooner or later, and then it was thrown aside, and another one begun. The patience and hope with which he bore these perpetual disappointments, the mild perception he had that there was something wrong about King Charles the First, the feeble efforts he made to keep him out, and the certainty with which he came in, and tumbled the Memorial out of all shape, made a deep impression on me. What Mr. Dick supposed would come of the Memorial, if it were completed; where he thought it was to go, or what he thought it was to do; he knew no more than anybody else, I believe. Nor was it at all necessary that he should trouble himself with such questions, for if anything were certain under the sun, it was certain that the Memorial never would be finished. It was quite an affecting sight, I used to think, to see him with the kite when it was up a great height in the air. What he had told me, in his room, about his belief in its disseminating the statements pasted on it, which were nothing but old leaves of abortive Memorials, might have been a fancy with him sometimes; but not when he was out, looking up at the kite in the sky, and feeling it pull and tug at his hand. He never looked so serene as he did then. I used to fancy, as I sat by him of an evening, on a green slope, and saw him watch the kite high in the quiet air, that it lifted his mind out of its confusion, and bore it (such was my boyish thought) into the skies. As he wound the string in and it came lower and lower down out of the beautiful light, until it fluttered to the ground, and lay there like a dead thing, he seemed to wake gradually out of a dream; and I remember to have seen him take it up, and look about him in a lost way, as if they had both come down together, so that I pitied him with all my heart. (Project Gutenberg)

Poor Jennie ...the pond could have quoted Don Quixote tilting at windmills, but somehow kite-flying seemed just as apt ...

Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen assures us that Labor’s transition is on track and the 82 per cent renewables target can be met. Claims it can’t be done are “just plain wrong”, he says, failing to recognise that “government policies are yet to have their full impact”. He cites the capacity investment scheme as “massively successful”. Taxpayers underwrite these projects in secret contracts that are costing billions off budget.
Experience tells us not to take Bowen’s comments at face value. He recently announced the capacity investment scheme would underwrite 10 more wind farms, knowing not one company had agreed to fund a wind farm this year. Worse, only 1.17 gigawatts of renewable generation had reached financial close in the first six months of 2025, less than a third of the annual 6GW to 7GW needed to reach an 82 per cent renewables grid by 2030.
Meeting targets drives Labor’s energy transition. The 43 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030, was increased to 62 to 70 per cent by 2035, on the way to net zero by 2050. Labor sets targets decades ahead but can’t tell us if, and when, power prices will fall. It’s cold comfort for households and industry struggling to pay their bills. Their priority is cheaper electricity, not Labor’s reduction in our 1.1 per cent contribution to global emissions.

Just to make sure the hive mind caught the climate science denialist drift, the reptiles threw in a serve of the dog botherer ... Sky News host Chris Kenny explains how the costs associated with backup generation and extensive transmission infrastructure are driving up retail prices. The discussion centred on rising unemployment and inflation, comparing current economic challenges to the stagflation of the 1970s. “Chris Bowen, who despite retail power prices increasing by more than 20 per cent over the past year, is crowing about a recent drop in wholesale prices,” Mr Kenny said. “What we pay is what matters, and what we pay is being pushed up by Labor's reckless renewables rollout, the storage and transmission costs, and the way it deliberately undermines the business model for the fossil fuelled generators.” “Labor's energy mismanagement is a huge input into its overall economic mismanagement. We all pay the price.”

Cranky Jennie did her best to carry on with the renewables jeremiads...

Power has to be affordable and reliable; it’s neither under Labor’s transition. A renewables grid has to be backed up with firming and storage capacity and new transmission. Snowy 2.0 is beset with problems. Two years ago it was costed at $12bn, double the previous estimate and six times the original. Now we’re told it’s insufficient to finalise a project that’s unlikely to be operational this decade. Labor was warned by expert advice that “the all-up cost for Snowy 2.0 and its transmission connections was approaching $25bn – an absurd amount for a 2200MW water battery”. Now there’s to be another reset, taking up to nine months to complete.
About $600,000 has been spent on legal proceedings to prevent information about these blowouts being made public. As shareholder ministers, Bowen and Katy Gallagher are responsible for protecting the public interest. Although Senate estimates didn’t get to probe these matters and the $322,000 bonus paid to the chief executive, this warrants continuing attention.

The pond routinely asks where a reptile renewables bashing would be without a snap of whale-killing windmills (the Hume is littered with whale carcasses down beefy boofhead way, past Goulburn).

The Satanic windmills had already been on view in that cornball opening collage, but just to make sure, here they are again,  Without the billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies, the renewables transition would have collapsed long ago.

The pond had promised cranky Jennie would be short, but perhaps inspired by that terrifying snap of the whale killers in action, with a threatening sun looming in the distance, she did go on a bit ...

Keeping information away from scrutiny is commonplace. So too claims of misinformation and disinformation, used by the minister in his failed attempt to denigrate the mapping efforts of Rainforest Reserves Australia. For the first time the public saw the cumulative impact of renewable projects on productive land, biodiversity and the environment.
The public’s right to know is fundamental. Bowen was forced to release official documents kept secret from the Senate but, as expected, critical information was heavily redacted. The most serious breach is keeping secret the whole-of-system costs for the transition.
Without the billions in taxpayer-funded subsidies, the renewables transition would have collapsed long ago. No wonder this climate of secrecy is described as “red hot and totally wrong”.
Bowen often tells us there’s no transition without transmission but says little about the huge costs and timing blowouts occurring on his watch. Three years on and billions over budget, not one of the five “urgently needed” transmission projects – HumeLink, VNI West, Marinus Link, New England REZ and Sydney Ring – is at the construction stage, with only one scheduled to operate by 2030. This has serious consequences for the future supply of electricity.
In another worrying sign, Victoria has resorted to punitive legal measures and financial penalties when compulsorily acquiring private property for transition infrastructure. Is this to be the precedent? State governments are relying on negotiated agreements to protect reliability of supply. This includes the Torrens Island B gas generator in South Australia, Yallourn and Loy Yang A in Victoria and Eraring in NSW, likely needed beyond 2027.

Then came a final AV distraction ... Nationals Leader Michael McCormack has questioned Energy Minister Chris Bowen’s claims that energy bills in Australia would fall by $275 in 2025. “Labor promised Australians that their power bills would fall by $275 in 2025. Is the minister aware that it is now 2025?” Mr McCormack asked during Question Time on Thursday. “Electricity bills are up by nearly 40 per cent. “Why did the minister mislead Australians?”

And at last cranky Jennie began to wind up, or wind down ...

In the past our abundance of energy resources provided our comparative advantage, but now our power prices are among the world’s highest. Trade-exposed industries, such as the Tomago aluminium smelter, can’t compete with their high energy costs and a carbon impost. Deindustrialisation has set in, with adverse impacts on thousands of jobs and regional communities. Like the $275 reduction in annual power bills promised at the 2022 election, the promise of 604,000 new green jobs by 2030 disappeared when Labor abandoned its modelling.
The government failed to heed early warning signs. It should have followed the lead of the Minns government in NSW by undertaking an independent audit. The transition is failing, but there’s no plan B. It’s no surprise that independent expert advice concludes that 2030 targets won’t be met.
Labor’s transition to renewables depended on widespread support, beyond the powerful cheer squad of vested interests, virtue signallers and cashed-up election donors. The social licence it needed has always been missing. Once again it confirms that good policy is good politics.
Jennie George is a former ACTU president and Labor MP for Throsby.

She's been reduced to blathering about "virtue signallers"?

This one is now fully of the hive mind ...

The pond often wonders what makes people turn, from full blown atheist to Opus Dei, or vice versa, or perhaps from JD Vance to JD Vance, but it must remain a mystery.

It's just the turning that provokes wonder and awe ...

Turning and turning in the widening gyre   

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Those bloody windmills are so loud;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere climate science denialism is loosed upon the world,

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere   

The ceremony of innocence is drowned by windmills;

The best lack all solar conviction, while the worst   

Are full of passionate coal-loving intensity.

And so to finish by returning to that epic TV series that's unfolding in Faux Noise and the disunited states ... better get to jumping that shark, and now, happily nuking the fridge, and the planet, or for starters, Nevada ...

Finally a catch-up for those who missed their pre-Halloween briefing ...