In which the pond once again flees the lizard Oz hive mind, and seeks some other distractions...

 

The rats are leaving the lurching ship ...

Could January become a colourful month for departures, shifts and shuffles?

And the Hitler comparisons keep coming ... (archive link)

Those with no interest in tonsorial history are doomed to repeat it?

But none of that will compensate for the pond having to give up Our Henry this day.

The pond knew what would be coming, and thought of a compromise ... 

Devotees can still find him at the intermittent archive:

When Australia demanded moral courage, our Prime Minister Anthony Albanese failed us
A Prime Minister unwilling to plainly accept responsibility for his government’s failures after the Bondi killings cannot learn from them – or protect Australians in the future.

Correspondents will be relieved to note that even in the matter of a slaughter of innocents, the pontificating pundit managed to retain his ability to parade his book of quotations...

...the Hebrew Bible offers a lesson that has resonated through the centuries: the willingness to accept responsibility is not a sign of weakness, but of the fitness to govern. Saul’s refusal to shoulder the burden of his office disqualified him as a ruler; David’s willingness to unreservedly confront his own failings, and to hold himself accountable, earned him enduring greatness.
That contrast did more than shape theology; it forged the political imagination of the West – and of our country with it. It informed George Buchanan and John Knox when the Scottish Protestants articulated the covenant that had to underlie a true commonwealth. It lay behind John Milton’s and the English Puritans’ insistence on accountable government. And it stood at the centre of John Dunmore Lang’s influential sermons in colonial Australia, which placed responsibility for – and accountability to – the people at the heart of our commonwealth.

John Dunmore Lang?

Why he was a wowser of the first water....

The upright young minister was always horrified by the licentiousness of the convict colony. Even his agitation for free immigration had a moral purpose, for he hoped the immigrants would behave better than convicts and emancipists and, by reducing colonial wages, lessen the workers' deplorable dissipation. He attacked fancy dress balls, Sabbath picnicking and alcoholic intemperance. A major target was the colonial press, especially that section run by convicts or emancipists. In June 1835 the emancipist, Edward O'Shaughnessy of the Sydney Gazette brought a libel action prosecuted by William Charles Wentworth. At the preliminary hearing Lang defended himself so ably that the case lapsed. Lang's sharpest journalistic attacks were made on sexual immorality; he was determined that none should enjoy the pleasures of matrimony without undertaking its responsibilities. He drove some offenders from society, one of whom later committed suicide. Lang recounted their sufferings with an implacable, hard impartiality.

And a splitter ...

In lectures delivered in Sydney in April 1850 Lang proclaimed his republicanism for the Australian colonies. This republicanism was due partly to his belief in the necessity of local self-rule, because he thought all government from a distance was bad government, and partly to his recent treatment by the British government and his dislike of aristocratic influences in English society and politics. Usually he chose to express his republicanism in his published writings, but ignored it at elections, preferring instead to cheer enthusiastically for the Queen when his opponent called for this show of loyalty. 

Much more about this insufferable barking mad fundamentalist cavorting Calvinist - the Fred Nile of his time - at the ADB, but at least there was a shard of levity in the suffering of innocents thanks to Our Henry ...as the infallible Pope came immediately to mind ...

Our Henry was just part of the seemingly never ending ratpack of hysterics, black winged birds of prey, which have made the lizard Oz unreadable ..

Not even a Killer Creighton or a bromancer addressing worldly affairs to save the pond's day?

Seeing all that reminded the pond of Michael Bradley yesterday in Crikey ...

The Bondi victims are already fading into the background, collateral of a bigger war

The families of the Bondi victims haven’t even had the chance to mourn or bury them, yet blame and demands from all sides have flown thick and fast. (sorry, paywall)

“It’s really fucked and quite violating — like we can’t even feel safe to go and grieve without someone trying to profit from our vulnerability.”
That’s not a quote from any of the politicians, lobbyists, opinion columnists or social media warriors who have all felt no compunction about laying their hot takes and urgent demands on the pile of bodies, none of whom have their families had a chance to bury or mourn.
They are the words of a young Jewish woman I know, whose family was directly impacted. Video of her and her friends, grieving near the scene of the mass murder, has been published by almost every media outlet without their consent. Nobody asked because nobody thinks to.
I can’t quite comprehend that it’s not been a week since two killers murdered 15 people in the first racially targeted mass-death terror attack in this country’s history. The targets were Jews, because they were Jews.
Yet, already, while we still don’t even know all their names, these innocent victims of the worst human instinct of all — the desire to dehumanise and exterminate other humans on the basis of a label — are fading into the background, collateral incidents of an apparently far more important war.
Everyone, apparently, has the answers. I’m going to resist name-checking any of them, because my disgust for their lack of decency is total and I won’t excuse them by omission...

Well yes, and the pond isn't going to pile on, and add to the lack of decency ... but here was Michael Bradley in Crikey way back in February of this year, Antisemitism definition will be devastating for academic freedom and equality itself, Of all the panicked silencing measures executed by Australian institutions in defence of Israel over the past year, this is the worst. Yet. (sorry, paywall).

Thanks to a couple of barking mad fundamentalist Islamic sociopaths in the grip of a cult, that fight is likely now over ...

As a result, the pond has sought distractions elsewhere until the hysteria subsides, though the reptiles are likely to keep going long after the pond has gone off on its holyday season Xmas break...

Bill Wyman made a feeble attempt to distract with As media moguls show Warner Bros the money, keep an eye on CNN – and US democracy

As if anybody should care about CNN, or CBS for that matter, what with CBS having gone down the Kirk rabbit hole, no thanks to Bari Weiss ...

According to early numbers from Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel measurement, the one-hour CBS News town hall – which aired on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET – drew 1.548 million total viewers and 237,000 in the coveted advertising demographic of viewers aged 25 to 54. Those numbers rose to 1.867 million viewers overall 265,000 in the advertising demo when Nielsen released its final numbers Tuesday afternoon.
Based on Nielsen’s final ratings, the Erika Kirk sitdown declined 11 percent in total viewership compared to the network’s standard programming in that time slot year to date – and was down 41 percent in the key demo.

And again ...

While Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET is one of the lowest-watched primetime hours on broadcast television, CBS has still generally averaged at least 2 million viewers during that hour over the past 12 months. According to Nielsen, the network has attracted 2.109 million viewers and 449,000 in the 25-54 demographic in that time slot throughout 2025.
Making the low viewership for the Erika Kirk town hall even more striking is that CBS pulled in a large audience for the annual Army-Navy game that afternoon, drawing 7.3 million viewers per Nielsen’s early measurement. The post-game show, which served as a lead-in for the Kirk-Weiss chat, attracted a viewership of 3.5 million and 901,000 in the advertising demo, according to Nielsen.
Online, the interview didn’t attract all that much interest either, despite the social media hype the network put behind it, along with preview airings on CBS Mornings and multiple digital writeups of the town hall – including a listicle titled “7 highlights from Erika Kirk's CBS News town hall.”
As of publication, the video of the event has tallied just 105,000 views on CBS News’ YouTube channel – which boasts nearly 7 million subscribers.

And again...

CBS News employees who spoke with The Independent said Weiss serving as moderator, an unusual move for most newsroom executives, was “embarrassing” and “revealed that all she really wants is to be on TV herself.”
“It doesn’t get more toe-curling than this,” one staffer said. “David Ellison must be mortified by his $150 million investment in someone who’s so quickly revealed themselves to be the most shallow, least interesting person in TV news.”
Meanwhile, Variety reported that blue-chip advertisers appeared wary of airing their commercials during Weiss’ special, noting that CBS News hasn’t typically hosted “town halls or debates on trending issues or with newsmakers.” Throughout the broadcast, commercial airtime was filled by direct-response advertisers, such as the dietary supplement SuperBeets.
The following hour, though, when a rerun of the investigative crime series 48 Hours aired, larger companies like Procter & Gamble and Amazon provided ads.
In the end, reviews for Weiss’ turn as a broadcast network moderator were less than kind.
“The broadcast was entirely deferential and incurious. Charlie Kirk’s critics were painted in broad strokes as badly motivated,” MS NOW opinion editor Anthony Fisher noted, adding: “The event revealed next to nothing about Erika Kirk that we didn’t know before. It wasn’t journalism, it was public relations.”

Meanwhile CNN has perfected a form of deeply noxious form of both siderism that would make the NY Times writhe in envy.

Think of Scott Jennings - yet another dissolute wretched Jennings to add to the local one - and say no more. 

Trolling for the sake of rage bait.

A takeover by either side isn't in the interests of competition and diversity of voices, but it looks like Paramount has been sold a pup by King Donald, and so likely Warners will be swallowed by the Netflix python ...

In a sane world, either take over would be stopped, but this isn't a sane world ...

What else then?

Well the childish antics in the White House continue ...

White House adds plaques below Biden and Obama portraits, calling them ‘the worst President in American history’ and ‘divisive’

It's trolling of the most feeble and pathetic kind ...

New Plaques Featured In White House Troll Past Presidents With Well-Known Trump Insults

Trump lined the famous West Wing colonnade with portraits of his predecessors earlier this year.

The pond couldn't summon the energy to bite on the rage bait slop...but Guv Gav did provide a relieving distraction.

What else? Well the reptiles did catch up with the latest Epstein news ...

Disturbing new batch of Epstein photos released
The 68 photos from the sex offender’s estate include images of people’s passports, powerful men with Epstein and a screenshot of a text message in which a person is discussing sending girls. (archive link)

It was breaking at the time the pond looked at it, with a promise of more to come, but the pond won't be following up, with tabloids of the Beast kind full of it ...

Epstein’s Powerful Pals Exposed in New Creepy Photo Dump
PANDORA'S BOX
The images were released as the Trump administration faces a deadline to release files about the notorious child predator. (archive link)

You could also read about it in the Graudian, with the disclaimers coming thick and fast ...

The release also includes photographs of Bill Gates posing with a woman whose face has been redacted, and of the prominent linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky sitting on a plane with Epstein. It has been previously reported that Gates and Chomsky knew Epstein. Gates has previously said that he made a “huge mistake” in meeting with Epstein.
Other images show Woody Allen, the director; Steve Bannon, Trump’s former adviser; and David Brooks, the author and New York Times opinion columnist, among others. In November of this year, Brooks wrote a column headlined “The Epstein Story? Count Me Out”.
Again, no context for these photographs has been provided, and the appearance of these people in the photos is not evidence of wrongdoing.
In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson for the New York Times said that “as a journalist, David Brooks regularly attends events to speak with noted and important business leaders to inform his columns, which is exactly what happened at this 2011 event. Mr Brooks had no contact with him before or after this single attendance at a widely-attended dinner.”

Ah Mr Brooks, Mr Brooks, can we count you in? And for those wanting The Epstein Story? Count Me Out, follow the link to the intermittent archive.

It's as if he knew it was coming, but didn't have the courage to 'fess up ...

More fuss, more bother ...

No wonder King Donald was seeking distractions, with Guv Gav helping ...

That didn't leave much room for diligent cartoonists ...

While on the matter of the war on Xmas, there should be an honourable mention for David Smith in Washington evoking its imagery in Trump’s ‘Bah! Humbug!’ address suggests he is feeling the chill of opinion polls

It's a variant on the war on Xmas, but is of course a distraction, one of many planned distractions...

Smith ended up back there, with those tiresomely childish plaques ...

...The speech also revealed Trump’s need for a reliable foil. Over the years Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been useful antagonists for a man and movement defined less by what they are for than what they are against.
The point was illustrated earlier on Wednesday when Trump’s presidential walk of fame at the White House unveiled plaques that called “Barack Hussein Obama … one of the most divisive political figures in American history” and said, “Sleepy Joe Biden was, by far, the worst President in American history”.
Good luck with that. In truth Biden has been gone 11 months and people don’t think much about him any more. Trump needs a new punching bag but Democrats do not have an obvious leader for him to target.
When the remarks wrapped and the president was given the all clear, a pool report said, he turned to the press and said, “You think that’s easy?” and then took a swig of Diet Coke. He suggested that Wiles had told him to give the speech and asked, how did I do? Wiles assured him: “I told you 20 minutes and you were 20 minutes on the dot.”
But there were few tidings of comfort or joy. We are still in the arc of the story where Scrooge, the Grinch and Mr Potter are at their unrepentant worst, determined to crush the Christmas spirit. Friday, however, casts a long shadow: beware Epstein, the ghost of Christmas past.

The war on Xmas sputters back into life, and how right and just for King Donald to be the Grinch...

And so to wrap up proceedings with the rest of Bradley, way back in February ... if only so that those outside the paywall could finish the read ...

What to say?

Here, have an immortal Rowe for a concluding distraction ...