In which the pond turns to the regulars and is happy at the sounds of silence, because what better noise to accompany a jig in the kitchen?

 

Wow ... just wow ...

There was the pond, innocently sitting down to a bowl of muesli when it was verbally assaulted. Well it was actually Nigel Farage that was the victim of the assault, but the pond could feel the pain.

The Graudian reckons Stewart Lee is a comedian doing a tour, but the pond thinks he's an assassin in charge of a keyboard, and as evidence, muh'lud, the pond tenders Nigel Farage shouldn’t be in the jungle – get him out of there!

In 2011, Nigel Farage co-chaired the Europe of Freedom and Democracy grouping with Italy’s Francesco Speroni, who described the Norwegian white supremacist mass murderer and unlikely celebrity Top Gear fan Anders Behring Breivik as someone whose “ideas are in defence of western civilisation”. Farage has received £1.5m to appear on ITV’s I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! with Ant and Dec. Do Ant and Dec believe Breivik’s July 2011 shooting of 69 people, most of them teenagers, on the island of Utøya represented a defence of western civilisation? Do Ant and Dec, like Breivik, think Top Gear is “one of the funniest shows on TV… and one of the very few programmes at the Burka Broadcasting Corporation still worth seeing”, or do they prefer Bill Burr’s new anti-woke movie, Old Dads?

And so on, at some fair length, and at each fresh Farage crime - there were many - the pond enjoyed the ritual incantation and shaming of Ant and Dec. No doubt the Ant and Dec jokes would resonate with those who know who the pair are ... the pond would have more chance spotting a red bellied black ... but in the meantime, wow, just wow ... if the pond was in London at the moment and had a chance to catch Lee at Leicester Square theatre, it would be standing in a British queue time, if only to honour the scribbler of this piece ... because truth to tell, the pond will never know who Ant and Dec is, and will never watch a nanosecond of the show, and so needs reports of Nige's bum and Nige's crimes from those making plans for Nigel ...

Meanwhile, speaking of dancing in the street, a kind of metaphor for bums in the jungle, there was many a jig in the pond's kitchen last night because the pond's partner was one of many who'd been pezzulloed and so loved the notion that Pezzullo had been Pezzulloed off ...and so did many cartoonists ...

Meanwhile, the pond was put on "Sharri" alert - show some respect - last night with two huge splashes ...

 

No serious investigation? The pond was bewildered. 

Hadn't "Sharri" - show some respect - already conclusively proven it had come from a lab in Chynaah? What need to waste taxpayers' money on an investigation when she had done such stout-hearted work?

And that snap of Fauci ... they really can't let go, can they?

Things had settled down a bit early this morning, with "Sharri" - show some respect - shifted from the central fickle finger of fame spot for the important work being done by simple "here no conflict of interest, just a deep love of Bid" Simon - but still there were three "Sharri" - show some respect - stories in the top of the lizard Oz digital edition ...

Might not a story about the revival of Covid and the need for older people to get a booster seem more significant?

Elsewhere there were stories and videos that could be googled or binged or whatever in abundance ...

... but all the reptiles could manage was to run with "Sharri" - show as much respect as you feel - doing her Jill one note routine yet again ...

The pond had no time for any of it, and so instead turned to the reliable Dame Groan for a dinkum Groaning. 

The pond has known for a long time that Dame Groan herself has only two acts - a hatred of migrants, and a fear and loathing of renewables. It would be splendid if they came together, but individually either will do for a decent groaning, and it was renewables turn this day ...

One correspondent expressed the view that there was nothing to be said when it had already been said, or there was nothing new or novel to observe, and the pond knew the feeling ...

The pond had already expressed deep concern for the whales of Tamworth and Goulburn, threatened by the diabolical wind machine thingies, and so quickly moved on to the next bit of the groaning ... not expecting to feel the need to say anything ...

Yet again with the deep love for coal, and then the reptiles came up with a graph, a trick with which the pond would not upwards put ...

Graphs designed to rouse the ire of the Groaner are best left to the finance report on ABC news ... she's already agitated enough, and what's the bet that coal will again feature in the next gobbet?

Oh sweet black gold, virginal, dinkum and true blue, how could they have banned you? It makes no sense ...

How else to bake the turkey? And so to the final gobbet ...

Given the amount of repetition in this groaning, the challenge is to say something, anything, without repetition, or without a sense of existential angst, or déjà vu whiplash, which can seriously affect the neck and brain ...

How many times can the pond joke about nuking the country to save the planet? Or perhaps nuking the county and nuking the planet, because how else to save the village? Just for a jolly jape the pond checked out that last link ...

Fair dibs... yesterday the Caterist had done the Groaner's work with a groan about immigration and pesky, difficult, uppity furriners and today Dame Groan did the heavy lifting for the Caterist with a groaning about renewables, and so reptile life balances itself ...

Meanwhile, there were surprising absences. The pond had felt sure that Dame Slap would have been out and about at the news of stories of lying cokeheads in the Lehrmann matter, but all was quiet. 

And what a relief not to have to do a counterpoint by referencing "Rozan" in The Graudian, Israel told us to move to south Gaza. Then it said it would bomb the south too. So where do we go now?

Perhaps another day, when the slaughter and the reptile cheering on of the slaughter resumes ...

Meanwhile, what else below the fold ...

Ancient Troy and the bouffant one joining simple Simon? Perforce the pond could feel another bromancer raging at clouds coming on ... but not before a break to celebrate with the immortal Rowe ...

Oh the fun of a kitchen jig ... not even the bromancer could ruin the pond's mood, though to be fair, he does a fair job trying ...

Again what to say when anything sensible has already been said? And said many times ... such that the saying gets as tedious o'er as to return ...

Oh sure, it would be possible to note the totally specious "anniversary" or "birthday wish" offered at the start, with birthdays now apparently falling every two years + two months...

Why did the bromancer bother with that feeble excuse? Why not just crank up the rage machine, get the old copy out of the fridge, remove the frosting, reheat and serve? (Careful, those magic science ovens can turn fridge items into sludge).

Ennui, déjà vu, a jagged knife edgy and dull, are the deepest problem with herpetology studies, the inclination to nod off in mid-droning, with not even a snap of the gang of three enough to remove the need for matchsticks to prop up eyelids in Tom and Jerry style ...

That snap is part of the big yawn, which admittedly is better than a Chandlerish big sleep ...

At this point the reptiles put in another snap, and suddenly the pond knew what was wrong with it and the whole damned rotten world ...

Dammit, it should have been the bromancer taking that briefing, and the bromancer would have been properly dressed, not like those civvies in suits.

The bro's legs would have been like steel springs, ready for a sprint, ready to lead the troops into action ...

And speaking of action, once the bro was installed as CIC, how hard would it be to bung on a little war so he could show his style?

How about New Zealand? It should have just been another state, so why not give them a taste of Aussie steel and reptile rule? Sure, they've reverted to killing themselves with cancer sticks for a little tax bonus, too dumb to realise that death takes away the delight in a little cash in the paw, but all the more reason they should feel a little bro steel up 'em ...

Too hard? Well, the bromancer could always lead a charge on Tasmania, or perhaps occupy the ACT ... it's been overrun by greenies and lefties and who knows when the Angelic one might have to head to the land of the toads? If it's good enough for the Donald to talk of sending in the military to take out the vermin, then the bromancer cleansing the territory should be a doddle ...

Even worse, the pond didn't have the heart to do another "mouse that roared" joke ...

The pond snapped out of it when the pond suddenly felt the bite of chalk on cheek and Mr Brown was storming up to the desk and shouting "daydreaming again, you wretch", followed by "start reading the tenth chapter of Kidnapped this instant, and make sure you look happy about it ..."

Chastised, the pond woke from a double nightmare to the splendid news that there was just a gobbet to go ...

Look, the pond has done its duty, it's shown the best of the reptiles on offer this day, though perhaps it failed the mission when it refused to take "Sharri" - show the respect you feel - seriously ...

If nobody feels the need to say anything, that's fine. The pond's hits are up for the month, and if raging at the reptile machine becomes a chore, then what's the point? The important thing is just to enjoy the reptile raging, and when next in need of a present from a loved one, you now have the skill set to point out that it's two years and two months since your last birthday, and now a new present is way over due ... or better still, using reptile AI - ignore the inherent contradiction in the concept - you might be able to say it's been 6 months + 1 from my last birthday, and so ... it's time for a happy birthday ...

Technical questions - such as the bromancer's sudden preference for "skerrick" over the infinitely more malleable and enjoyable "nuts" - can be left for another day ...

Now please excuse the pond, the partner is calling for another jig in the kitchen. Yes, it's early in the morning, but sometimes any time is the right time for a jig ...

In which the Caterist does a Dame Groan, and the Major does ... a Major of course ...

 

The pond recently had some work done on a site by a Ukrainian coder. Relax, he's not ducking the front line, he's in government work and this was just a sideline.

It all worked out well, and the pond is pleased that it could send a little money in country. If looking for a coder, why not think Ukraine? The pond has used coders of other nationalities - Vietnamese, Chinese (but never Indian, world spammer central) - but there was the added pleasure of knowing Ukraine could still do business as usual while a sociopath hammered the country. When "send in the cannibals" is the war cry of the sociopath, every little bit helps.

Back to herpetology studies and consider the pond an immediate convert. 

The Graudian published a piece by Archie Bland, How the Daily Mail became the Boris and Dorries show – and left middle England behind, and it's a wonderful example of an A+ reptile study.

Not that Bland could be expected to sort out the mysterious ways of those involved in the Daily Snail (not a cousin of the Currish Snail up north in toad territory), though he does a splendid job charting the arcane entrails, the contradictions and absurdities, the power struggles and the knifings (much blood on the floor, let there be snail blood). 

The pond can't begin to contemplate the strength of will required to scribble this line with a straight face: "It’s only a few weeks since the newspaper splashed on Nadine Dorries’ claims that a shadowy confidant of Sunak had murdered his ex-girlfriend’s brother’s rabbit ..."

Following on, there was more ...

...coverage of the Covid inquiry has seemed largely motivated by keeping Boris Johnson out of it. 
For many Mail staffers, the urgent question is not whether the Tory right is remotely serious about the next election, but why the Mail has allowed itself to be the vessel for their furies.

First, implacable support for Johnson throughout Partygate; then the endorsement of Liz Truss, and disgust that her removal “looks like nothing more than a coup by the Tories’ liberal wing”; then fantasies about a Johnson comeback, and a gigantic sulk as Sunak took over – with a warning that some “will find it hard to forgive Mr Sunak for wielding the knife against his former boss”. Johnson and Dorries are now star columnists, and the abandonment of Sunak only ever feels like one liberal prime ministerial gesture away.
“It’s felt pretty deranged for quite a long time,” one reporter said. “You know you’re not writing for the LRB [London Review of Books], and that’s fine, but you do expect to trust the judgment of the people in charge. There are a lot of talented people – but there have been so many calls now where we’re in a totally parallel reality.” Today, instead of a hotline to middle England, Verity’s Mail looks like the house publication of the Conservative party’s untrammelled id.

It all sounded so familiar - if you remember each day the pond must deal with deranged reptiles, and totally parallel realities, while reading the house publication for Captain Spud's untrammelled id ...

Not that the Graudian will notice or care, but the pond humbly suggests Mr Bland's proposed monthly media survey be made a feature in the colonial edition, because, as the Hollywood saying goes, that's entertainment... and an addition to the Weekly Beast as required reading would be great for herpetology students everywhere ...

The pond fears it doesn't have anything half as entertaining to hand this Monday ...but speaking of ids on the loose and in urgent need of a trammelling, there was the Major in his favourite far right perch in the digital edition ...

The pond will run wild with the Major in due course, but first to see if there was a sprinkling of Palestinian voices in the comments section ... as a balanced representative newspaper of record, the pond would expect the reptiles to back the MEAA backing the journos' Hamas pledge ...

The pond was of course using leaden, heavy irony, with a sprinkling of """'s devoted to Benji's cause, and one Ben Jensen offering a truly comical line about a "science deficit", apparently unaware that any day of the week you might find a climate science deficit in the lizard Oz.

Leaving aside the Albo bashing by simplistic Simon - is he still hanging around with Senator Bid? - the pond couldn't help but notice that a migrant was urging migrant bashing ... but the pond refused to indulge in a return bashing of a black sheep pond lavishing his sociological understanding on water in quarries whispering while scoring oodles of federal government cash in the paw...

Still, it was probably as naked as you could get, the urge to demonise the other, generate fear and loathing ... who better to do it than the Caterist?

Of course of course - the filthy rich dropping a motza on a pad in Bondi equals the weevils of migrants.

The pond realised where this was coming from and where it was going to and decided to lead with an immortal Rowe straight away ...

Talk about role models, state of the art migrant basher artistes, and the Caterist was right into it ... showing Dame Groan how it should be done ...

Migrants are certainly ruining everything ... just look at the Caterist ...

Well he did suggest migrant-bashing should be the new national sport ... along with Albo bashing, but the pond decided to shrink that snap ...

Of course when bashing, you need a set of figures, and so the Caterist was on to proving - in a scientific way, Ben Jensen - that migrants were the source of all misery and despair ...

Might this suggest - if the figures are true - and the pond would trust a Caterist stat as far as it could kick it in the shins - that instead of landing jobs promoting bigotry, hate and fear in the lizard Oz, some migrants have to do garbage collecting and fruit picking jobs of a kind snooty sociology students turn up at their noses at?

Never mind, there was more bigotry to follow, dressed up without much subtlety, as a Dame Groan rehash ...

Indeed, indeed, don't let a fear of spreading fear and loathing stop you ... and to help, the reptiles published a snap of two furtive-looking, skulking rats glaring into the ether. The pond usually shrinks or congregates the reptile snaps these days, but this one was a standalone beauty ...as good a study of ferals about to devour a passer-by as the pond has seen in recent times ...

What a pair of rogues and what a lead in to the final Caterest gobbet ...

Say what? Was that last sentence an admission that the Caterist was a visiting, interfering Pom who'd managed to land in the far right money train down under?

Never mind, his solution was to the point, with these the models ...

And only one discernible problem ...

It was such a good joke the pond did it twice. 

Is it wrong to mock the follicle challenged? Not on a desperate Monday where Palestinian bashing is all the go ... and so to the Major indulging in the sport ...

Ah memories ... the pond is now such an ancient institution that it can remember the days that the reptiles raged at bloggers, and even set up their own blog, the late and unlamented Punch in competition, such was the deep fear and anxiety, and every reptile worth his salt had a blog. Even Dame Slap was into blogs for a while ...

Still time never stands still, and the Major has never been short of finding something new to demonise, generally wherever you might find vulgar youff lurking ... and great minds think alike ...

Meanwhile on another planet ...

Enough already, on with the Major ... no need for a ban with him ...

The Federalist society? Isn't that the mob that fucked the Supreme Court?

Meanwhile on another planet there were some names being named in that lizard Oz story about journalists wanting to be journalists and look at all sides of a story ...

What was remarkable in that story - yes Jenna Clarke you wrote the story - was that there wasn't a single mention of the lizard Oz's response, nor that of the position of News Corp, nor any of any of its other allegedly independent in editorial policy local News Corp tabloid outlets, or the Sky News rabbit hole ...

Strictly speaking, it wasn't necessary. The bubble-wrapped hive mind was as one, and no one would try to paddle against the inexorable Benji-loving tide ...

Never mind, time for a big speech by the Major, deep in the hive mind...

Dear sweet long absent lord, the Major's now seeking to erase Palestine and Palestinians from the map, or better still denounce them as biblical invaders ...

Ah the British mandate, celebrated in L'Age way back on 20th October 1920 in Trove ...

John Oliver had the decency to be apologetic for what followed, but for some reason, the pond was reminded of that excellent link by a correspondent regarding the attempt to set up the promised land down under ... How this part of Australia almost became Israel ...

In 1939, Steinberg travelled to Australia to pursue his plan to resettle European Jews in Miriwoong country in eastern Kimberley — Western Australia's northernmost region.

Steinberg was an exiled Russian revolutionary who had served in Vladimir Lenin's government.

"His associates in the Freeland League had their eyes on land in Africa, South America and Palestine. But Steinberg had an almost religious fervour that the Kimberley was destined to be the Jewish homeland," Safran says in the documentary.

That would have produced some marvellous biblical distortions from the Major, but no doubt there's a biblical justification ... the pond understands that somewhere near Tamworth they dug up twelve gold plates providing firm evidence that Christ had visited Australia, and Tamworthians were the chosen tribe ...

Meanwhile, back with the Major there was a snap ...

... and then it was on to a final bout of ABC and Palestinian bashing, aided by another branch of the reptile hive mind ...

Funny how words can take on different meanings in different contexts, and how talk of "civilisation" can sound odd, and how blather about "defence of barbarism" might occasionally ring a little hollow ...

In which the pond avoids "Ned" but finds distractions with manly boys and nuking the planet, before ending up with Polonius prattling yet again about the ABC ...

 

The pond was delighted to see the warm reception given to the dog botherer on his return to familiar turf - no doubt there will be many more warm days to come, warmer and warmer - and it was a relief to avert eyes from other unfolding catastrophes...nothing like nuking the planet to keep regional wars in perspective.

But that left a Sunday dilemma. Normally the pond would torment people with an extended bout of nattering "Ned", but the pond didn't have the heart ...

The pond did read "Ned's offering" and came up with a tentative score card ...

People mentioned disapprovingly but not directly speaking with "Ned": Anthony Albanese, Penny Wong, Penny Allman-Payne

People quoted directly and approvingly and at unseemly length: Julian Lesser, Dave Sharma, (both with huge photos), and indirectly Josh Frydenberg ...

Leeser showed how to talk with sensitivity by referencing "the quisling leaders of some of our universities need to take a good long look at themselves."

In short university leaders in this country are lickspittle fellow travellers with Nazis ... and there went Godwin's Law for the day.

On the upside, it meant that the pond could get away with this one ...

Back to the score card:

Number of people from Gaza quoted, perhaps a recent refugee or someone who at least might have an intimate knowledge of events on the ground and present an alternative viewpoint to that of the Jewish lobby? 0, which is to say, nada, nihil, nothing, nobody ...

Criticisms of the Netanyahu government, or what has happened in the past decade in relation to Gaza and the West Bank? 0, which is to say, nada, nihil, nothing, not even the low fruit of settler outrages or the conversion of Gaza into an open-air prison and the practice of apartheid and ethnic cleansing and forensic displacement ...

Instead, and the pond only quotes a little, there was oodles of this sort of stuff ... purporting some kind of objectivity ...

...There is a sense of an open season on attacking Israel. More important is the inadequate response of political leadership. The so-called rhetoric of multiculturalism doesn’t work in this crisis – being even-handed all around, the ritual of ensuring criticism of anti-Semitism is linked with criticism of Islamophobia. Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong have regularly adopted this approach. And there can be no objection to such statements of principle. But how does this address the situation of Australia today?

Of course, the politics are difficult. The Palestinian community is outraged by the mass civilian deaths from Israel’s military campaign to destroy Hamas and the Israeli community is outraged by the barbaric assault on its civilians on October 7. Wong has made a specialty of calling for restraint. And restraint is important. But this is a moral crisis and goes to the enforcement principles of Australian multiculturalism. There can be no toleration of one community engaged in intimidatory actions against another community. And this is what is happening. Pretending it is not happening is untenable and the path to stacks of trouble for the Labor Party.

Pro-Palestinian protests are completely legitimate. What is not legitimate is protesting behaviour designed to promote hate, parade anti-Semitism and promote an identity-based zero-sum cultural grievance in Australia, one community against another. The complete failure of Islamic leaders in this situation is apparent.

This raises several political questions. Is Labor reluctant to confront the unprecedented nature of the anti-Semitism now on display because it feels that will only further agitate the Muslim population? Does it maintain the political formula of being even-handed to protect the Muslim vote in ALP seats? People are asking these questions.

Leeser was keen to say there was no problem criticising the Israeli government. That government of Benjamin Netanyahu, of course, is far right-wing, has been bent on marginalising the Palestinian issue and now faces the dilemma of having to address the future political complexion of Gaza. Yet the anti-Jewish protest movement has not focused on the Netanyahu government – its focus is on the state of Israel, its alleged racism and genocide.

This movement, entrenched across Britain, the US and Australia, is heavily shaped by the ideology of identity politics that divides the world into two groups – the “white people” who are colonists and are responsible for most of the world’s evils; and the victims, the “people of colour”, the targets of racism and genocide, with the Palestinian people now the frontline of victims and Israel the frontline of oppressors in this identity ideology. 

Such flawed stereotyping might seem incredible to a rational person. But it’s not, it’s happening, it’s the ideology and language now being deployed. It’s one reason the situation is dangerous.

Leeser was keen to say there was no problem criticising the Israeli government? 

Rinse and repeat because the pond must quote itself about "Ned's" piece ...

Criticisms of the Netanyahu government, or what has happened in the past decade in relation to Gaza and the West Bank? 0, which is to say, nada, nihil, nothing, not even the low fruit of settler outrages or the conversion of Gaza into an open-air prison and the practice of apartheid and ethnic cleansing and forensic displacement ...

Routinely "Ned" confused and conflated Netanyahu with Israel and wrote off any criticism of Israel, and so the pond was a long way from home and from the points made in that letter quoted in full yesterday, in part today...

It was left to the lizard Oz editorialist to have the final word on that letter, defending the turning of the lizard Oz into a propaganda arm for Netanyahu's government and his bunch of mad fundamentalist theocrats ...

When not breaking Godwin's Law, the next best opening gambit is the old Orwellian 1984 routine ...

Meanwhile there's a handy cartoon for the reptile strategy ... silence is golden ...

Of course as the reptiles are currently acting as hired hand for the Israeli government, the pond shouldn't have expected anything better than the current lizard Oz coverage, and the justifying editorial ...

Again already with the Godwin's Law-breaking Nazi riffs... so the pond can get away with this one too ...

It was time for a change of pace, and how better to do it than to brood about manly boys in a lizard Oz EXCLUSIVE ...

The pond lives a sheltered life, and so had to confess that "neo-sexism" was a new one. 

The pond knew it lived in a post-modern, post-ironic neo-Orwellian world, and rushed off to the wiki to find the term without a hyphen, and some examples to boot ...

Here follow some examples of neosexism from a 2021 study:

Resenting identification of discrimination: ″I often feel that people have treated me better and spoken nicer to me because I was a girl, so I have a hard time taking it seriously when people think that women are so discriminated against in the Western world."

Questioning the existence of discrimination: ″Can you point to research showing that childbirth is the reason why mothers miss out on promotions?"

Presenting men as victims: "Classic. If it’s a disadvantage for women it’s the fault of society. If men, then it must be their own. Sexism thrives on the feminist wing."

Dammit, the pond still didn't understand it, but was now deeply concerned about the fate of manly boys ... is there "political incorrectness" in the house, the pond understands political incorrectness and manly stuff and boys being boys..

Oh indeed, the poor things have been de-ballsed, castrated, shorn of testicles, long ago, by Amazonians and will be left with a mother complex for life, and all because of bloody womyn out and about, and wouldn't it be better if we all followed the Taliban and put them back in their box, or at least a burqa ...

On the upside, the pond went looking for manly boy literature and stumbled across a site full of old British comics ... all you need is a basic cbr reader and you can wallow, if that's what you used to read... there's even some Bunter, for those wanting memories of that owl of the remove, Akker Dakker ...

The pond has noted before how the pond was inducted into the British empire mind set, via rags left lying around the house by manly boys...

Strange to say, when the pond talked to the uncles who'd actually been in the war, they seemed to think it a rum do, and not the best way for manly men to live their lives, providing they lived at all ...

Of course the pond was more a Harold Hare sort of person, and to this day, occasionally lets loose a "goody goody gumdrops", to be greeted with incomprehension and blank stares ...

Sadly Harold and the Fleetway magazine Jack and Jill didn't make the cut on that British free comic download site, but the pond keeps all its British empire and domestic duties training stored somewhere in the old noggin ...

Meanwhile, the pond has strayed miles away from manly boys doing manly boy things ...

Indeed, indeed, and the pond hopes that all these schools have a decent and sufficient library of manly books for manly boys doing manly boisterous things ...

It's just the sort of reading they'll need when out in the real world competing for complimentary housewives up against angry Sydney Anglicans, or even worse, not being able to find a pliant Stepford wife ...

Say what? So when it comes to Romeo and Juliet, they make a boy dress up in drag as Juliet and make hm make love to Romeo? 

Sure the pond understands that's what happened in Shakspere days, but carrying on like that now could land you in all sorts of trouble with the lizard Oz ...

But it's good that they won't be shamed about dressing in frocks. There should be more of it, and it's splendid training for the priesthood ...

Apparently there are many stuck, not just with the pond back in the 1950s, but back in Victorian days, when a cigar was a cigar ...

Moving right along, the pond was also pleased to see news that nuking the planet was moving full steam ahead ...

For starters it allowed the lizard Oz graphics department to slip in a favourite Freudian snap of phallic towers jutting into the air and sending out emissions ...

And what good news that poor old Ukraine has helped boost the price ... why, we could make a killing from the killing fields ...

Strange. No mention of SMRs? Must be an oversight, though the pond is starting to get worried about the delivery date for the one it ordered for the back yard, so much more convenient than messy solar panels and batteries ...

Of course there's a fly in the ointment ... apparently it's a tricky in the land of Oz, with the guvmint not helping in the nuking of the country ...

And he even scored a hot link to his work, and they say the reptiles don't help out with their links ...

At this point, the pond could sense a rising impatience. Had the pond, with all its distractions, completely forgotten about Polonius? 

Of course not, but the prattle was about the current mess, with Polonius's singular ability to turn every conversation to the lack of conservatives in the ABC, and so the pond slipped him way down to the bottom where he could do the reptile thing without disturbing anyone ...

Yes, it was the bloody ABC again ...

Cue an interview in The New Yorker ... (possible paywall):

Doctors Without Borders has been present in a lot of horrific conflict zones, and I’m wondering how what you’re dealing with now is similar or different from other places you have experienced?

It’s different. And yes, I have worked in conflict zones. And they’re always very nasty. But this is a particularly brutal thing because of the huge number of civilian casualties. And they can’t escape it. They can’t move. They’re told to displace down south. But are we talking about just reducing the area from forty-five kilometres to twenty kilometres in length and trying to put two million people in there, which is . . . It’s just an extraordinary situation. And no, I haven’t seen it.

They haven’t stopped bombing. They’re still bombing. They’ve got troops in there with tanks. And it’s just consistent. It’s well documented. We are seeing it all over the world in all the newspapers and television. So it’s like people know exactly what’s happening. And yet it doesn’t stop. I haven’t seen that before.

Where else have you been stationed?

I’ve been in Congo, I’ve been in Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire. Gosh. Many. Do you need more?

No. There has been a lot of large-scale violence against civilians in the past two decades in many of these places. So you saying that this is still different is notable.

It’s notable in the sense that to have such a volume of people—civilians—that can’t move very easily. And they’re being bombed and shot at. And I just haven’t seen that type of violence. We are also talking about a population that’s around seventy per cent women and children. And so the figures that we’ve seen around mortality are at more than ten thousand deaths. But with the Ministry of Health now being really decimated, it’s very difficult for them even to track it. But then you know that with ten thousand deaths, that seventy per cent are probably women and children, according to the Ministry of Health. And the number of wounded is very, very high. And there’s also people under the rubble, and we can’t get them out. So the figures are just astounding.

Then back to a mind-numbingly indifferent, but profoundly righteous Polonius, still blathering about the ABC ...

Speaking of ethnic cleansing, how would you report this UN press release in October?

UN expert warns of new instance of mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, calls for immediate ceasefire

GENEVA (14 October 2023) – A UN human rights expert warned today that Palestinians are in grave danger of mass ethnic cleansing and called on the international community to urgently mediate a ceasefire between warring Hamas and Israeli occupation forces.

“The situation in the occupied Palestinian territory and Israel has reached fever pitch,” said Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian Territory occupied since 1967.

“The United Nations and its Member States must intensify efforts to mediate an immediate ceasefire between the parties, before we reach a point of no return,” said Albanese. “The international community has the responsibility to prevent and protect populations from atrocity crimes. Accountability for international crimes committed by Israeli occupation forces and Hamas must also be immediately pursued,” she said.

Since 7 October 2023, more than 1,900 Palestinians have been killed, including at least 600 children, more than 7,600 injured, and over 423,000 people have been displaced as a result of the Israeli strikes. This fate befell a population which has already experienced five major wars since 2008 in the context of an unlawful blockade imposed by Israel since 2007, which Albanese said has been widely condemned by the international community as collective punishment.

On 12 October, Israeli forces issued an order for 1.1 million Palestinians in north Gaza to move to the south within 24 hours, amidst ongoing airstrikes. The next day, Israeli forces reportedly began to enter Gaza in order to “clear” the area. Palestinians have no safe zone anywhere in Gaza, with Israel having imposed a “complete siege” on the tiny enclave, with water, food, fuel and electricity unlawfully cut off. Rafah, the only border crossing that remained partially open to the Gaza strip, was closed after damage caused by Israeli airstrikes.

“There is a grave danger that what we are witnessing may be a repeat of the 1948 Nakba, and the 1967 Naksa, yet on a larger scale. The international community must do everything to stop this from happening again,” the UN expert said. She noted that Israeli public officials have openly advocated for another Nakba, the term for the events of 1947-1949 when over 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes and lands during the hostilities that led to the establishment of the State of Israel. The Naksa, which led to Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in 1967, displaced 350,000 Palestinians.

“Israel has already carried out mass ethnic cleansing of Palestinians under the fog of war,” the expert said. “Again, in the name of self-defence, Israel is seeking to justify what would amount to ethnic cleansing.

“Any continued military operations by Israel have gone well beyond the limits of international law. The international community must stop these egregious violations of international law now, before tragic history is repeated. Time is of the essence. Palestinians and Israelis both deserve to live in peace, equality of rights, dignity and freedom,” Albanese said.

That's simple. You don't report the message, and you make sure to shoot the messenger ...

Actually it's been embraced by proponent of the Israeli government ... and there is a difference. It is possible to despise Hamas, but also to despise what Netanyahu is doing to Gaza by way of collective punishment and ethnic cleansing, and all but the lizard Oz and its acolytes seem to understand this ...

And so to end with a few cartoons, though the climate at the moment doesn't suit them ...

With all the talk of Napoleon in the air, the pond especially liked this one ...

... if only because it allowed the pond to run one of the five different versions of the painting that David did ...

Now that's how to celebrate a Corsican sociopath ...