In which the pond returns to discover the swishing Switzer and a certain Zoe, and wished it had stayed oblivious in the big smoke ...

 

And why not help Saudi Arabia with nukes?

Israel has got nukes, Iran wants them, so why not smooth the way for even more? 

The pond had expected the reptiles to at least make a note, but top of the digital page ma, this morning, came this yarn ...

EXCLUSIVE
Jihadi Tareq Kamleh’s survival was a secret ALP sat on for years
Labor kept Tareq Kamleh’s survival secret for years despite being briefed multiple times, as his father speaks for the first time.
By Paul Garvey and Mohammad Alfares

Nah, hard pass. If he comes back, prosecute him according to the law. (And think of the hay the reptiles would be able to reap with that never ending jihad!)

Down below that, the obsession with Gina's pet continued, with three stories all in a row ...

EXCLUSIVE
Swan’s warning: One Nation is Labor’s biggest electoral threat
As Wayne Swan sounds the alarm over Pauline Hanson, Linda Burney says Aboriginal constitutional recognition is still possible in Australia’s future.
By Greg Brown

COMMENTARY
I was the true brains behind One Nation. Here’s why Pauline is in strife
Everyone has an opinion of what One Nation is – mostly, they’re wrong.
By David Oldfield

Did the pond need to spend time with another irrelevant loon of the Oldfield kind? And his delusions of Svengali grandeur?

Nah, hard pass ...

Perhaps the reptiles covered it yesterday, but this should have been the angle ...

Geoff was on hand to chamber another round and concoct a radical conspiracy theory ...

Commentary by Geoff Chambers
This time round, Albanese’s got them by the Shorten curlies
Anthony Albanese tried to disrupt the last ALP conference in Adelaide – now he’s the master
Expect well-orchestrated faux debates enshrining motions at this Labor conference that are ultimately designed to help the PM push ahead with new policies, some potentially even radical.

Sheesh, that's a pun that made the pun-addicted pond flinch.

Sorry, Geoff didn't actually mention Gina's pet, but whatever, it was inserted into the Gina pet's stew, a bit of trading off trolling, with that alarmist fear-mongering unexplained and left to a darkening final sentence ...

Expect well-orchestrated, stage-managed, faux debates enshrining motions that are ultimately designed to help Albanese push ahead with new policies, some potentially even radical, aimed at helping Labor win a third term in 2028.

"Potentially even radical"?

The pond's mother used to say that if you had nothing to say, best to say nothing, but Geoff apparently hadn't heard the saying, and squeezed out two minutes of drivel.

Well played Geoff, but nah, time to head over to the far right for a serve of the swishing Switzer ...

The header: Do celebrity activists really hold any political influence? The celebrity chorus may dominate the headlines. In the end, it never gets the final vote.

The caption suggesting that the swishing Switzer was shamelessly trading off on someone who still had way more box office clout than him: Paul Hogan carrying dead crocodile in bar in a scene from the film Crocodile Dundee, 1986.

One of my favourite sideshows of modern politics is the celebrity chorus: the actors, singers and writers among whom ideological conformity is as thick as Beijing smog.
Paul Hogan recently added another layer to that smog when he criticised Pauline Hanson for suggesting Australia should be a monoculture. “She’s a pelican. Outrageous, so racist. It sounds very much like this stupid boofhead over here, Trump,” the Los Angeles-based actor and comedian complained.
Hanson responded in kind, with her hilarious Please Explain video accusing Hoges of lecturing Australians while living in California and asking why someone who no longer lives here should presume to tell Australians how to run their country.
Fair enough. Both were entitled to have their say. But the exchange raises a broader question: how much political influence do celebrity interventions really have?

Such an inane and deeply stupid man, and apparently infatuated with Gina's pet's cartoons ...

The Pelican - Please Explain
Pauline Hanson's Please Explain

Nah, the pond isn't going to bother with a YouTube link.

And it took a lot of summoning of energy to continue with the swishing Switzer, what with evidence of at least one celebrity intervention that has had much political influence, much of it malign ...

But do go on, in a superficial and vapid way, picking low hanging fruit ...

For decades, in Australia, Britain and especially the US, actors, musicians and writers have sought to influence political debate – usually with far less success than they imagine.
Start with Australia. In the lead-up to the 1998 federal election, veteran broadcaster Phillip Adams declared that John Howard’s Australia was poised to occupy “the proud place vacated by pre-Mandela South Africa”. Not to be outdone, novelist and playwright Bob Ellis warned that Australia would become “an international pariah like South Africa, with no way back”. Howard won (again).
Three elections later, actor Toni Collette lamented: “I think I’ll slit my wrists if Howard gets in again.” Howard did get in again. Two decades later, Collette is happily still with us.
In 2015, a group of entertainment figures – including Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce and Brendan Cowell – launched the #saveourboys campaign against Tony Abbott over the impending executions of drug smugglers Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran in Indonesia. They urged the Prime Minister to “grow some balls”, “show some ticker”, “be a leader” and do more to help the Bali duo.
The campaign changed nothing. Chan and Sukumaran were executed, and Abbott preserved Australia’s crucial relationship with Indonesia.

Now there's a triumph, and then for some reason the reptiles slipped back in time... Hanson is set to meet with Nigel Farage during her time in the UK. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

She's set to meet? During her time in the UK?

Will someone tell the reptiles about her return? Will they ever wonder who paid for the junket?

Preserve the pond in aspic and persevere...

The pattern repeated itself during the 2023 voice referendum. John Farnham allowed his anthem You’re the Voice to be used by the Yes campaign, joined by figures including Shaquille O’Neal, Jimmy Barnes and Missy Higgins. The referendum was defeated decisively.
Across the democratic world, celebrities have repeatedly ventured into politics, usually with little to show for it.
Scottish tennis star Andy Murray backed independence ahead of Scotland’s 2014 referendum. The No campaign prevailed. Two years later, a galaxy of actors, musicians and writers implored Britons to remain in the EU. Brexit won instead.
If celebrity politics has a natural home, however, it is the US. Politics may be described as show business for ugly people, but America’s beautiful people have long shown an enthusiasm for nailing their colours to the mast – usually Democratic blue.
Take the 2004 election when virtually all of Hollywood’s stars backed John Kerry against Republican president George W. Bush. Indeed, celebrity activism had generated such public irritation that it became the target of the satirical film Team America: World Police. Puppet versions of Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon and Matt Damon joined forces with Kim Jong-il before meeting spectacularly grisly ends, to the delight of cinema audiences.
The same campaign produced an even more revealing episode. Britain’s Guardian newspaper urged its readers to write to voters in Clark County, Ohio – one of the pivotal counties in a pivotal swing state – explaining why they should reject Bush. Among those lending their names to the effort were Antonia Fraser, John Le Carre and other celebrated progressive writers.

Here's the thing. It's all about the vibe. Some care what celebrities think, some don't. Some care about the drivel the swishing Switzer scribbles, some don't.

Some realise that the real point of this piece is to mock anyone speaking out who might have some visibility, especially if they can be shown to disagree with the reptile monoculture that the reptiles want to impose on the world... Robert De Niro speaks in support of US President Joe Biden outside of Manhattan Criminal Court. Picture: Charly Triballeau / AFP

And so to the inevitable bout of mad King Donald triumphalism (and hasn't that worked out well?):

The response from Ohio was not what The Guardian had hoped. Many recipients told the newspaper that “real Americans aren’t interested in your pansy-ass, tea-sipping opinions”. Clark County, which had narrowly backed Al Gore in 2000, swung decisively behind Bush in 2004. Local Republicans later credited the campaign with energising conservative voters rather than persuading them.
The pattern was even more pronounced in the 2016 contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Middle America was inundated with lectures from Hollywood’s cultural elite – actors, comedians and musicians who seemed united in their conviction that Trump was unfit for office. Meryl Streep, Madonna and Robert De Niro were among the most outspoken. De Niro declared that he wanted “to punch him in the face”. Trump won anyway.
Eight years later, almost every major figure in Hollywood and the music industry lined up behind Kamala Harris, from Taylor Swift and Katy Perry to George Clooney. De Niro again became one of Trump’s fiercest critics, Bruce Springsteen branded him “a moron” and Basic Instinct star Sharon Stone spoke of moving to Europe if Trump returned to the White House. None of it mattered. Trump won. Stone remained in the US. Television host Ellen DeGeneres and her wife did “get the hell out” of Trump’s America only to relocate to (of all places) post-Brexit Britain.

Did it occur to the swishing Switzer that mad King Donald was a reality TV star, famous for his starring roles?

 

It's a Hollywood circus, cf the both siderist NY Times, How Donald Trump Used Hollywood to Create 'Donald Trump' ...(*intermittent archive link)

So all the swishing Switzer is doing is putting one celebrity up against others...ones with their own kind of charisma, ready to go into the entertainment game after serving their time handing out gongs ... Barack Obama presents actress and comedian Ellen DeGeneres with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Eventually there had to come a billy goat butt, but it was a minor one, though it suggested that at last the swishing Switzer was realising that there might be something to getting the vibe ...

None of this is to suggest that celebrities are invariably wrong. Gough Whitlam’s 1972 It’s Time campaign enlisted an array of entertainers, such as Little Pattie – and it helped capture the national mood. Nor were celebrities mistaken in opposing the 2003 invasion of Iraq. At that year’s Academy Awards, dozens of Hollywood’s biggest stars wore silver “dove of peace” pins to signal their opposition to a war that proved a costly strategic blunder.

But, billy goat butting away, it might have been a costly strategic blunder, but did they stop it? 

Does anybody have a way to stop mad King Donald and his impotent, if testosterone laden, sycophants, conducting an incredible folly in Iran?

So why did the swishing Switzer give mad King Donald a pass, but crack down on George Bush?

All anyone can do is say their piece, and add to the vibe, and hope that appearing with a crocodile in a bar might boost a lizard Oz columnist, even if it's an appearance from the 1980s ... (is that the real time for the lizard Oz demographic?)

The lesson is not that celebrities should stay out of politics. Like everyone else, they are entitled to their opinions. The point, though, is that celebrity interventions rarely change electoral outcomes and can even provoke a backlash when cultural elites appear to lecture voters, who are more concerned about cost of living and national sovereignty.
Hogan’s intervention is fair enough. Yet it also serves as a reminder of an enduring democratic truth: in liberal democracies, political authority belongs not to actors, musicians or bestselling authors but to citizens casting ballots. The celebrity chorus may dominate the headlines. In the end, it never gets the final vote.
Tom Switzer is presenter of the Switzerland YouTube podcast.

The real point? Appearances by dull pedants in rags like the lizard Oz can provoke a backlash when these cultural 'leets declare war on other cultural 'leets ...

The celebrity did get the final vote, and the last disunited states ruining vote ...

What a useless tool he is, another four minutes of the pond's time down the drain, never to be recovered ...

Please allow the pond a chance to catch up with today's infallible Pope ...

As for the rest, it was a dull early morning stint in the hive mind, with a bit of legalese ...

‘Fleeting facts’ make comments a comedy
A Federal Court judge has handed Rebel Wilson a defamation victory, finding Instagram posts are too ‘fleeting’ to damage a person’s reputation.
By Jenna Clarke
Culture Writer

NSW DPP Sally Dowling should not be allowed to play covert games
Scrutiny of the NSW DPP wouldn’t undermine justice — it would protect it. After what this inquiry uncovered, greater oversight seems hard to argue against.
By Stephen Lawrence

The pond felt vaguely guilty it had to turn to Zoe for the bonus.

The header: The green energy transition: soaring bills, dead eagles; It is time Australia’s leaders stop pretending the current paradigm is working.

The caption for the terrifying image: “When it comes to energy sources, we need every option on the table,” writes Zoe Hilton.

Zoe could only manage a three minute serve, but the moment the pond saw that snap of wind farms, the pond knew she knew what would sell to the reptiles of Oz and their hive mind.

When it comes to energy sources, we might need every option on the table, but dammit, we don't need those bloody windmills.

So Zoe plucked up her best Don Quixote impression and tilted at them ...

Two recent stories from NSW wind farms have exposed the failure of the energy transition before our eyes. Far from saving the environment while lowering power bills, the attempt to transform a mostly coal-powered grid to one running on 96 per cent wind and solar by 2050 has shown no signs of doing either.
The first story reveals wind farm developers have been unable to make their projects stack up economically, even with federal underwriting, and are now setting their rent-seeking sights on a state scheme.
The federal Capacity Investment Scheme provides taxpayer underwriting to wind, solar and battery projects. But for wind developers even this generous subsidy scheme isn’t enough for them to turn a profit. After the federal government rejected their plea for more taxpayer money, some developers in NSW are now trying to secure even more subsidies, this time through NSW’s Electricity Infrastructure Roadmap.
Subsidies doled out through the roadmap are charged to NSW consumers, not taxpayers. That means consumers are being hit with a double tax – once through their tax bill and again through their energy bill, all to benefit renewables investors in the name of government targets; targets that have completely failed to deliver affordable energy for Australians.
Power prices have more than tripled since the mid-2000s, with prices rising 21 per cent in the past year alone.
The effects are devastating. One in five households is in energy hardship or on the brink. The same number have been forced to skip meals because of financial strain. Forty-one per cent of Australian seniors are rationing heating in the winter and cooling in the summer, and 340,000 customers are in long-term energy debt, averaging $1367.

The source of this data?

Go whistle in the wind, and maintain that fear of windmills...Lotus Creek Wind Farm (central Queensland). Picture: Steven Nowakowski

In lieu of reptile links, the pond did find one beat up at Nine ... Millions of Aussies going cold as electricity bills bite

More than half of Australians are minimising heating in their homes this winter to avoid paying hefty electricity bills, new research released today shows.
Many households are also buying cheaper heaters, despite experts warning the budget buys consume more electricity, according to the survey by comparison website Canstar.
The findings were based on 700 people who had purchased an electric heater this winter to stay warm.
While their main concern was keeping power bills down, less than half of are carrying out basic measures to stay warm, such as pulling on a jumper and socks before switching their heater on, keeping their room warm by closing windows and doors and fixing a draught stopper on their doors.

That's a survey? Sure, and this is a knife.

The pond scented the stench of AI in that ...

As for Zoe, it's like she'd spent the last 18 months swallowing reptile talking points...

And it’s not just households paying the price. Rising energy costs are now the No.1 factor affecting the finances of small businesses, with one in five reporting difficulties in paying their energy bills. Australia has lost 39,400 manufacturing jobs in the past two years alone.
Government energy policy has failed to put affordability at the centre for too long.
That’s why I’m launching the Affordable Energy Australia campaign. We are calling on our country’s leaders to prioritise affordable, reliable energy. We are calling for every party to commit to prioritising energy affordability and sustainability.
When it comes to energy sources, we need every option on the table. It is time to put engineering before ideology – because ideology is not lowering power bills or saving the environment.
The second story revealed a single NSW wind farm killed 20 wedge-tailed eagles in 18 months. This is only the tip of the iceberg of the impacts many wind farms are having on wildlife across the country.

The pond did chase that story down. 

Here's the thing.

The data came from the developer, and was picked up by the AFR (*intermittent archive link), and remedial measures were put in place ...

Inter alia ...

Well yes, it should be possible to pat climate change tummy and chew conservation gum at the same time, but Zoe was intent on a litany of fear...

In Queensland, pristine rainforest and the habitats of endangered koalas are being blown up to make way for the infrastructure required by wind farms. Bird and bat deaths from wind turbine blades are commonplace, and reported numbers are likely underestimating the death toll because carcass surveys are being carried out only on a monthly basis.
Destroying the environment to save it is nonsensical. 

How did the pond know this was pure reptile? It came with this line:

At 1 per cent of global emissions, Australia does not have any control over our own climate. 

Oh that's all right then, do nothing, and carry on regardless ...and make sure you confuse and conflate action in relation to conservation with climate change, and disregard entirely the impact that climate change is already having on all parts of the planet, humans and creatures alike...

What we do have control over is the direct impacts we have on our environment at the local level.
We need a rethink of our approach to environmental policy. For every industrial project, there is a trade-off between its economic benefits and the effects it has on the environment.
Wind farms are not providing the predicted net economic benefits to Australia. In fact, they are often a net cost to society as they cannot survive without ever-growing subsidies. On top of that, many are destroying the environment they were meant to preserve. Yet the federal government still plans to more than double the amount of wind capacity in the eastern grid by 2050.
It is clearer than ever that governments’ renewables targets cannot help secure cheap energy for Australia, nor will they preserve our unique natural heritage.
Australian families and businesses deserve better. It is time Australia’s leaders stop pretending the current paradigm is working. They must prioritise affordable, reliable energy so our energy system serves the needs of all Australians – not just the rent-seekers profiting off the public purse.
Zoe Hilton works at Affordable Energy Australia.

The pond felt titillated enough to check out "Affordable Energy Australia" and discovered its site was just a shell (and that of late Zoe has been picked up by the likes of Sky Noise and petulant Peta) ...

Eek, he's a 'Gong-ite. The pond bowed its head in shame, and it turned out that Zoe had other connections ...

 

CIS?

See its wiki and the opening lines...

The Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) is an Australian think tank founded in 1976 by Greg Lindsay. The CIS specialises in public policy research and publishes material in areas such as economics, education, culture and foreign policy. Although there are no explicit ties between the CIS and the centre-right Liberal Party, the CIS is politically aligned with the Liberal Party, praising Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies, hosting various Liberal Party politicians and holding very critical views of the Labor Party.

So Zoe is a mover and a shaker, a tilter at windmills, and the pond offered up a Herbert 'toon as an act of contrition ...

And here's what a TV celebrity will give you ...