When the pond signed up to the Murdochian Institute for Herpetology Studies (an affiliate of Trump University), the pond didn't expect to get a bonus subscription to the Australian Daily Zionist News.
As a result, the pond's studies have of late taken a dire and beyond tedious turn.
If it's not lectures on antisemitism and the joys of Zionism, it's extended bursts of Islamophobia.
As an atheist, this puts the pond in a difficult position. Once upon a time, the pond could berate all religions as stupefying nonsense.
But these days it's necessary to step in when stupid people carry their innate, drug-addled stupidity too far:
FACT FOCUS: Kennedy’s claim that Arabs ‘don’t produce science’ meets a Nobel Prize reality check
The health secretary’s comments — widely condemned overnight by critics as untrue and racially biased — were made while campaigning in a state with a large Arab American population...
...Arab refers to an ethnic and linguistic identification, while Muslim refers to a religious identity. So while Arabs can be Muslim, Christian, Jewish or of another faith, the vast majority of Muslims worldwide are not Arab.
There followed a list of "Arabs", who had won Nobel and Field Prizes.
Others get to read exciting stories, including wizard crypto heists ...
Binance exchange says it will cover customer losses as it scrambles to freeze affected assets, with about $3bn located so far
No such luck for the pond. These days the lizard Oz is just mind-numbing and unnervingly repetitive and boring.
Take Nick, please someone take Nick ...
Israel’s citizens have argued, organised and voted for competing visions of their future. Palestinians deserve precisely the same freedom.
By Nick Dyrenfurth
The pond tried to summon up interest, but just couldn't be fagged (in an Etonian sense) ...it being just an elevated form of drivel ...
At the very end Nick tried a little both siderist balancing act...
But democracies are not defined by rancorous debate or imperfections. They are judged by whether citizens can challenge authority and replace their rulers. That power belongs to every Israeli citizen, regardless of religion or ethnicity.
Which returns us to Vayera. Abraham’s challenge to God reminds us that justice demands questioning authority, however legitimate its claims. Israel’s citizens have argued, organised and voted for competing visions of their future. Palestinians deserve precisely the same freedom.
Do they Nick? Netanyahu's Son Says Arab Citizens Are Israel's 'Greatest Threat' After Nuclear Iran (* intermittent archive link)
... which brings the pond back to Luis Bunuel.
Thank the long absent lord, the pond is an atheist ...
Immediately the pond spotted garrulous Gemma's contribution, it knew where it would be heading...
A pattern of co-ordination shatters the myth that the recent violence is about cost of living.
By Gemma Tognini
The rest of this abomination is in the intermittent archive, so the pond can cut to the bog standard Islamophobia ...
The second giveaway was the prominence of the Palestinian flag. Like the Holy Spirit, it is beginning to appear omnipresent. The third was the looting. Nothing says “give us better funding” than smashing a window at luxury designer boutique and running away with a late season bag...
...You may not want to accept it but extremist political Islam wants to destabilise Western democracies. It’s the playbook and they don’t hide it. Read the charter of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Actually if the pond wanted to read about attempts to destabilise Western democracies, it would just read Murdochian publications or ruin eyeballs watching Faux Noise, or perhaps indulge in a study of mad King Donald and his GOP minions, as good a set of planet wreckers as any currently doing the rounds, but do finish up ...
It makes me fear for the naivety of this country; we can’t rely on our “she’ll be right” attitude any more. This week in Australia, ASIO confirmed that the Iranian regime, the greatest sponsor of proxy terrorism, targeted my colleague Sharri Markson and political figure Michael Kroger. The action was real and sophisticated. It should terrify us.
We are not immune. Bondi told us that. Torched synagogues taught us that. An expelled Iranian ambassador showed us how serious it is. This past month I have been close enough to these riots to smell the smoke.
“Europe is lost. The UK is gone,” a friend said to me over drinks in London last week. I don’t agree. It’s not in my nature to be fatalistic. But neither do I have my head in the sand. We must wake from our apathy, lest we end up with the kind of society others are prepared to riot for.
Or perhaps just send a dinkum Aussie to take out as many Islamics as he could find?
New Zealand mosque attack suspect faces 89 charges
Police had earlier filed a single, representative murder charge against 28-year-old Australian Brenton Harrison Tarrant. He is due to appear via video link during a brief hearing on Friday, and won't be required to enter a plea.
Fifty people died in the March 15 attacks on two mosques and another 50 were injured.
Waddya kno. Same message as you get in the lizard Oz ...
“In 2100, despite the ongoing effect of sub-replacement fertility, the population figures show that the population does not decrease in line with the sub-replacement fertility levels, but actually maintains and, even in many White nations, rapidly increases,” the alleged killer wrote in his manifesto. “All through immigration. This is ethnic replacement. This is cultural replacement. This is racial replacement. This is WHITE GENOCIDE.” (New Zealand Terrorist Manifesto Influenced by Far-Right Online Ecosystem, Hatewatch Finds)
For the love of the long absent lord, a KitKat or a 'toon break ...
Okay, you suggest being a mug and giving the pond a chance to segue, surely the heart of darkness, the lizard Oz editorialist, wouldn't confirm the pond's feelings?
Hold the pond's beer ...
Oh dear, that looks ominous, and yet entirely befitting the Australian Daily Zionist News, out and about on its regular jihad ...
Any chance of getting a balancing Haaretz editorial?
Sure thing ...Netanyahu Is Making Arab Israelis' Right to Vote a Crime (* intermittent archive link)
What was that you said Nick? Just asking for a friend ...
What supposedly irredeemably authoritarian society inspires such extravagant democratic fidelity?
Oh that ...
Please, please, a 'toon break to celebrate western democracy in action, and at its finest ...
And that inevitably brings the pond to Polonius's prattle for the Australian Daily Zionist News this weekend.
On the upside, the piece allowed Polonius to indulge in his chief passion, ABC bashing (down there with Snake Day bashing), though the pond did wonder if it would include his many repeated assurances that not a single conservative ever appears on the ABC...
Huzzah, it seems that the savvy Savva passed the Polonial conservative smell test, but there was more bad news to follow ... what with it being important to downplay the impact of Islamophobia.
Say what? Polonius in praise of faux ranga Pauline? To be fair, she really does encapsulate the lizard Oz agenda ...
Community leaders like Kheir say that politicians like Hanson have legitimised racism - and that there's evidence in the numbers of threats his mosque and community face.
"We're talking astronomical figures," he said. "We're talking about women being spat on in the street. We're talking about women whose scarves have been pulled off.
"Our Facebook posts used to have five to 10 comments. [Now] we're getting a thousand plus comments of the most bigoted, vile, racist comments. People feel empowered and emboldened because [politicians] like Pauline Hanson have enabled this sort of racism to be rampant and normal."
Experts say the issue isn't treated seriously enough.
"Imagine [if Hanson] said the same thing for Jews in Australia – that there are no good Jews in Australia," said Dr Zouhir Gabsi, senior lecturer in Arabic and Islamic Studies at Deakin University and author of Muslim Perspectives on Islamophobia: From Misconceptions to Reason. "There would be a huge backlash."
Kheir agrees not enough is done to rein in racism.
"The fear that I have is Pauline Hanson and her dog whistling has such an effect on the Labor and Liberal Party that they are too scared to take the defence of the Muslim community, because it's political suicide for them," he said. "So we're left to fend for ourselves."
A cumulative effect
Earlier this month in the Australian city of Ballarat, a man who declared himself "far-right" allegedly threatened children outside a community hall where Muslims were enjoying Iftar. The man proceeded to barge into the hall and hurl racist abuse - but, controversially, was not immediately arrested and has not been charged.
Days later, in the same city, a man racially abused staff at a pharmacy, yelling Islamophobic and racial remarks including "go back to where you came from".
According to Malik, the Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia, these attacks all have a cumulative effect.
"Each impact reinforces a sense that Muslim identity is not welcome, nor part of Australia's social fabric," he said last week, in a speech to mark UN International Day to Combat Islamophobia. "This has the immense danger of reducing institutional legitimacy and fraying social cohesion." (BBC)
Oh please, don't worry about any of that, Polonius will do his best not to help out by diminishing, distracting, and amplifying the very worst people ...
The answer is: Don't ask the Australian Daily Zionist News about bigotry, hate and fear mongering. It's their main mission ...
And now, as the pond has featured the lizard Oz editorialist, and as the pond couldn't be bothered to hang around waiting to see if the dog botherer turned up to contribute to the Australian Daily Zionist News, more inspired lizard Oz thinking ...
Is it only the pond that thinks this talk of a magical shield is mystical nonsense of the mad King Donald kind?
It's not just the Maginot Line or the Great Wall of China.
History is littered with military strategists and strategies designed to halt invaders, but defending the castle has never been a top notch strategy, from the walls of Jericho to nimble Greeks bringing gift horses as a way to trick and treat ...
Good luck with that, as if we haven't already flung enough AUKUS dung against the wall.
And this little outing caused much mirth ...
They should pay their way?
In 2024-25, according to the Australian Tax Office’s corporate tax data released today, News Australia Holdings — the official name of News Corp’s Australian subsidiary — racked up 10 years of paying precisely zero tax. For that year, it earned $1.89 billion in revenue, made more than $300 million in profit (a record for the past decade) and paid nothing in tax.
Indeed, there’s a peculiar steadiness to News Corp’s tax dodging. For the past four years, it has earned around $1.8 billion in revenue and paid no tax on around $300 million in profits in 2023-24 and 2024-25, and $200 million in profits in 2021-22 and 2022-23.
You can go all the way back to when the first corporate tax transparency data was released for 2014-15 — the result of a Rudd-Gillard government initiative (opposed by the Coalition) — and find News Corp’s main company has paid no tax across those years, on revenue of, in total, $23.9 billion and profits of $1.38 billion.
The only News Corp entities to pay tax in that time were an investment company, which paid $200,000 (sic) in 2017-18 on $291 million in profits, and a pay TV financing arm, which paid $8 million in 2015-16. Real estate listing oligopolist REA Group, which News Corp part-owns, paid $246 million in tax.
Otherwise, News Corp’s only contributions to Australia are social division and the fostering of hate and resentment.
Crucial insights. May be applied to the understanding of domestic Murdochians ...
