Want an explanation for the rout? Consider the bromancer, or the reptiles at large, or perhaps look at the fluff in your belly button ...

 

What an excellent afternoon's entertainment. 

Hand it to Hollywood, they can still turn out the occasional blockbuster, with this epic running into the Oz night.

All the pond's favourite villains were there - looking at you Vivek, looking at you Elon - and in proper old fashioned style, copped their comeuppance in spectacular fashion:

The pond did pause for a moment to think of the lizard Oz, and dropped in at precisely 5.10 pm yesterday to cop this memento:

Of course it only got better after that, and this morning the reptiles were still reeling, while the pond was still rocking ...

The dirty work was left to Joe and Stewie, the hapless reptiles assigned to sort through the pieces ...

HISTORIC ROUT
Donald deflation: Democrats seize US congress in backlash against Trump
Democrats seize US congress in massive backlash against Donald Trump
Democrats have swept both chambers of congress in a ‘blue tsunami’, flipping deep-red states in a stunning rebuke of Donald Trump’s presidency.
By Cameron Stewart and Joe Kelly

And a massive backlash against Faux Noise and its routinely nauseous embrace of nauseating agendas, brave lads, don't forget that ...

MAGA MELTDOWN
Senate shock as Trump’s red-state firewall crumbles
Democrats seize Senate control as Trump’s red-state firewall crumbles
The deep red states of Texas, ­Kansas and South Carolina have turned blue in a horror night for Donald Trump, his MAGA movement and Republicans, with Democrats potentially flipping up to nine Senate seats.
By Joe Kelly

Shouldn't that read "in a horror night for Donald Trump, his MAGA movement, Republicans, and a fawning Faux Noise and News Corp", Joe?

MAGA has had its moment: it’s the beginning of the end
Republican midterm disaster signals beginning of the end for Donald Trump MAGA era
Donald Trump’s grip has almost certainly passed its peak.
By Cameron Stewart

Shouldn't that read "beginning of the end for the Donald Trump Faux Noise era", Stewie?

Viaduct? Quack, quack ...

As always, it was the bromancer's outing that compelled the pond's attention, and the pond was so pleased, it saved the piece to the intermittent archive so it would always be there for the bro's devoted fans...

How Donald Trump crushed the Republican Party and handed power to US Democrats

Take it away bromancer ... and please remember to do your both siderist thingie ...

How sweet it is to sup on News Corp tears.

The bromancer has struggled along these last few years explaining how the demented mad King managed to do good things, and in the midst of a rout, he was at it again, in a way that demonstrates he shouldn't ever be given a hammer, for fear he'd just keep hitting himself in the face ...

There you go ..."And Trump has had some significant policy successes in his second term."

And best of all, his enthusiastic stuffing of the planet received the bromancer's wild-eyed support ... "His pro-fossil fuels, pro-energy policies ..."

And indeed, as the infallible Pope noted, the demented one was in top form on Gaza just before the rout ...

The bromancer finally got around to doing a bog standard billy goat butt ...

The reptiles decided to bless the bromancer's closing gobbet with snaps of assorted losers, while omitting any mention of the biggest loser...

Too delicious, but the pond will accept any losers the reptiles care to nominate ...

Shouldn't that coda read "Only I can do it with the help of Faux Noise. And we sure did it this time"?

The weirdest take on all this? 

Ben packing it, as he kept up the lizard Oz Albo jihad ...

Wounded President a headache for PM
A humiliated, lame-duck Donald Trump threatens to become Anthony Albanese’s biggest foreign policy headache as he looks abroad for wins he can no longer deliver at home.
By Ben Packham
Foreign affairs and defence correspondent

Here's how you do it. Associate Albo with the drop dead loser, and bingo ...

Ben, Ben, Ben, it was looking so good, and then you had to drag moth-eaten Artie out of the closet?

Is this the best the lizard Oz could do:

Oh it'll be shock and awe all round ... with News Corp marvelling at what it's helped achieve ...

But what of the rest of the reptiles this shock and awe day?

Special mention for fossilised Jack, still clinging to the nags as a way of life ...

Cup Day nuppers back the wrong horse
The ‘Nup to the Cup’ protest movement drew poorly attended lunches, while Flemington welcomed its largest crowd since the pandemic and TV ratings climbed.
By Jack the Insider
Columnist

Nothing like a cancer stick, a schooner and a flutter eh Jack?

And a note that some foolishly believe you should pay attention to the lizard Oz agenda, and even attempt a sensible discussion ... as if any reptile was interested in sense, or sensibility for that matter ...

Diverse paths to youth extremism

The Australian Human Rights Commission says religiously motivated extremism and misogyny-fuelled online movements are now converging to radicalise Australian children through the same digital pathways.
By Hugh de Kretser, Lorraine Finlay and Deb Tsorbaris

...The fact our submission discussed issues such as misogyny, online grievance-based movements and the “manosphere” does not mean we regard those issues as more significant than religiously motivated extremism. Rather, it reflects the inquiry’s focus on the drivers of radicalisation and the growing evidence that young people can be drawn towards extremist views through a variety of connected pathways, particularly in digital environments.
The commission’s position is straightforward. Australia needs an evidence-based response to radicalisation. It should focus on prevention as well as enforcement, respond to the growing risks facing children and young people, and address the diverse pathways through which people are drawn towards extremist violence.
Understanding those pathways does not mean overlooking the threat posed by religiously motivated extremism or the danger of antisemitism. On the contrary, it strengthens our capacity to respond to them.
Hugh de Kretser is president of the Australian Human Rights Commission; Lorraine Finlay is Human Rights Commissioner; and Deb Tsorbaris is National Children’s Commissioner.

Trying this on with the lizard Oz is roughly the same as attempting to get the mad King to accept he had a role in the big rout.

Speaking of the path to extremism, this is petulant Peta day in the lizard Oz ... and what a relief to be able to ignore her, as she tried to crank up the Jess volume to 11 ...

Jess Wilson shifts the national contest
Victoria’s official election campaign has begun, with the Liberal leader offering voters clear policy alternatives to Labor amid a damaging week of government revelations.
By Peta Credlin
Columnist

The pond dropped out at the point of the obligatory bashing of TG folk.

Note to Peta: the trans guff just bombed out spectacularly in the US ... best steer clear of the culture wars for a few weeks.

Instead of wasting time with her, the lizard Oz editorialists landed to give the pond more of the treat that will keep on giving for days.

What the pond was looking for was a bout of loser pique, a fit of just you wait, Henry Higgins, just you wait ... and the lizard Oz editorialists obliged.

They've only just discovered those matters now? 

Couldn't they spot the pigeon droppings a little earlier? (Or is that an owl helping the rats with wings out?)

Never mind, wrap it up ...

The sheer, compleat, hectoring, lecturing cheek. 

As if News Corp had anything to offer other than its own ideological ambitions, as articulated by those tragic souls trapped within the hive mind cult.

But as for those responsible for the epic failure, it's surely payback time... Trump blamed Fox News for Republican losses even as network's hosts went easy on him ...

And so on, still dissembling, still genuflecting, still equivocating, still both sidering in classic bromancer style ...

...Just before 10pm, Fox News host Will Cain said: “I look at the pros and the cons of the last two years under Donald Trump, and the pros significantly outweigh the cons.”
While primetime host Laura Ingraham acknowledged that the election was a “referendum on Trump”, she said that “overwhelmingly his policies have been phenomenal for the country. Overwhelmingly, the stuff he’s promised, he’s done, and it’s worked out fabulously.”
Despite his earlier comments, Hannity said that Trump’s policies “are rock solid”, that Iran “had to be done” and that his intervention will eventually be proven right.
One person who shared in the belief that the president was not responsible for the losses was the president himself. “I don’t view it as a hit on me,” Trump told the Fox News panel, adding that “historically, I think I’ll be judged for having done the right thing,” and largely placing the blame on the Republican candidates who were defeated. He repeated his contention that the outcome would have been different if he had been on the ballot.

The reptiles have taken to featuring their brand of AI at the bottom of assorted yarns, with sample questions offered as a way to interact with the reptile brain ...

The pond decided to play the game, only to discover that this brand of AI hated caps and was determined to be clueless ...

The pond tried another angle, and again drew a "no caps" blank ...

And with that the pond turned to the immortal Rowe for the closer ...

Another fine visual reference ...

It's always in the details, and on this raft of fools there were some splendid details...

Perhaps the biggest question. Will there be life for the likes of The Bulwark and The Daily Beast after the collapse? Quite possibly ...

You can throw the loons out of government, but you can't throw them out of the country, and some are way gone ...

In which the reptiles do Jihad No. 1 - Jimbo and Albo - and Jihad No. 2 - Islamics! - and Dame Groan makes a very short appearance ...

 

The Jimbo jihad and the Albo angst was in full swing this day, with a tag team led by the canny Cranston and the echo Chambers both at it ...hard...

RATE RISE
Next year will feel like a recession, warns RBA
Inflation to take six months longer than expected to tackle, RBA warns amid interest rate rise
RBA governor Michele Bullock says Australians will feel like they are in a recession from next year
Despite avoiding an official recession, the Reserve Bank governor has warned Australians will feel poorer as the official interest rate hits an 18-year high.
By Matthew Cranston and Thomas Henry

The pond only needed the headlines ... doom, gloom, disaster, fear, as the echo Chambers evoked the nightmare ...

COMMENTARY by GEOFF CHAMBERS
PM’s dream of winning a third-term could turn into a nightmare
Recovery or bust for PM and Treasurer after latest RBA rate rise
Labor insiders fear Anthony Albanese has drunk too much of his own 94-seat-winning Kool-Aid by believing the economy will miraculously bounce back just in time for a May 2028 election.

It was a trifecta, with doubting Thomas coming up the rear ...

PROPERTY SLUMP
Chalmers’ tax changes pushing property market to new lows: RBA
Tax changes drive plunge in property investment as RBA slashes predictions for housing construction
The Reserve Bank have slashed its projections for dwelling investment, warning Labor’s budget tax changes had collapsed investment in the Australian property market.
By Thomas Henry

With all that safely parked in the intermittent archive, the pond could look around at its leisure, only to discover that on the extreme far right of the digital page, it was more of the same ... only weirder ...

Treasurer needs to stop channelling Jennifer Hawkins
Jim Chalmers is throwing us back to 2008 and the GFC but he will need more than pleading for world peace to get our economy out of this mess of his making.
By Jenna Clarke
Culture Writer

Even the "culture writer" got dragged into the jihad? (Whenever the pond hears "kultur" it reaches for its Glock).

It was so inane, so asinine, that the pond couldn't resist a little taste treat ...

WTF? Hemlines, the Birdcage, Lady Gaga and Jennifer Hawkins ... and Jimbo?

And there was more, but the pond had to cut Jenna off in her prime.

Deeply weird stuff - stick to kultur Jenna, it suits you - but wait, there were also pearls of wisdom on the same theme ...

RBA raises rates, but Chalmers is really to blame
Five rate rises, an 18-year high and a Treasurer who won’t face the music – Australians are paying for Canberra’s spending addiction.
By David Pearl

There was more - Jimbo, Jimbo, Jimbo, did anyone mention Jimbo? - but if the pond wants this sort of feeding of the chooks, it will always turn first to Dame Groan for a damn good groaning.

As for the pending US election? 

It was so far down the page it might have been invisible, a bit like the news of Faux Noise's ratings slump, what with the job of being state regime media difficult in these troubled times: Fox News ratings drop is due to ‘viewer fatigue,’ Murdoch says on eve of midterms

The pond had to turn to TT to get ready for the viewing fest later in the day ...

But the pond digresses. 

The lizard Oz is the pond's beat, and the pond should note a subsidiary jihad this day, what might be called Jihad No. 2:

It was the Australian Daily Zionist News at it again ... with Noah flooding the rag with an anxiety attack ...

EXCLUSIVE
Forget Islamic radicals, manosphere is main security threat: HRC
Despite spy chief Mike Burgess saying Islamic extremism is still the dominant terror threat, the Human Rights Commission says deradicalisation efforts should not focus so much on religion.
By Noah Yim

Any word on the white Xian nationalists who line up behind News Corp?

Never mind, Noah flooded the rag with outrage - remember the Islamics, forget the genocide and the ethnic cleansing and the bermb, berming of Iran ...

Predictably that sent Dame Slap right off ...

COMMENTARY by JANET ALBRECHTSEN
Another radical failure by the AHRC
AFP data shows religious extremism drives most radicalisation, but the $36m-funded Human Rights Commission has instead focused its inquiry submission on misogyny.

Okay, that's more than enough of that. The rest is in the archive for anyone who cares ...

Back to Jihad No. 1 for that groaning, and while it was a bit long in the tooth - it first turned up yesterday in the lizard Oz - it looked good, with a trifecta of grimacing villains at the head of the show ...

Imagine the pond's bitter disappointment when the entire groaning could be swallowed in a single gobbet.

It was more a single tictac than a pack of Allen's XXX extra strong mints (so hard to find for anyone with Germanic tastes):

That was it? That was all the old biddy could muster?

Sheesh, the pond should have stayed the course with Jenna and Jennifer Hawkins.

The pond felt enormous guilt, and reverted to Jihad No. 2, because the lizard Oz editorialist chipped in, with some splendid AI artwork to set the tone...

The rag's one time graphics department keeps degenerating in ways that were once unimaginable, and sorry Frank, the pond realises you took the credit, but that looks like pure AI slop, not helped by the Matrix humbug in the background ...

Must do better Frank, you look like the mad King's Truth Social postings.

As for the actual content, it read a bit like AI slop too ...

It's only Islamic fundamentalists that have it in for womyn and teh gays and TG folk?

Pull the other white nationalist barking mad fundamentalist GOP News Corp Faux Noise Xian leg.

Finally back to Jihad No. 1 for a little 'toon commentary, with both the infallible Pope and the immortal Rowe evoking a horse race ...

Before proceeding, the pond would like to note a few John Hanscombe thoughts in The Echnida (it's an easy subscription and you also get a 'toon a day)...

Let's begin with that race in Melbourne which despite the best efforts of its backers no longer stops the nation.
According to an Essential poll published on The Guardian website, only 9 per cent of Australians have a high interest in the race, 23 per cent are moderately interested, 29 per cent have a low interest and 39 per cent have no interest at all.
No matter how many times the TV networks try to reignite interest with silly hats, glimpses of the filthy rich quaffing Champagne in the Birdcage and bogans in spiv suits passing out on Flemington's Front Lawn, the evidence gets clearer every year. We've lost interest in the Melbourne Cup. It's a dead horse.
But it wasn't the only one enduring a whipping yesterday. The Reserve Bank took the riding crop to borrowers in its own forlorn race that's meant to stop inflation. Borrowers could be forgiven for feeling like dead horses after being flogged repeatedly with a very blunt instrument.

Well yes, but as the lizard Oz proves, there's a market for endlessly flogging dead horses.

And so to said 'toon whippings ...

And while the pond's in the mood, the pond should also note that it's completely over AI and Google, and the way that the search function has been completely ruined. (Google owns Blogger, just don't blame the pond).

The pond usually leaves First Dog alone in his Graudian kennel - the full version is here - but this really struck a chord ...

Okay, this is slightly long in the tooth too, but the old dog still has a few comedic tricks up his sleeve ...

In which the bromancer and Dame Groan sort everything out, but other reptiles are also keen to help ...

 

"O bliss! O poop-poop! O my! O my!", said the ecstatic toot-tooting Mr Toad, to which the pond might add, "oh frabjous joy", because the reptiles have discovered a "secret" black hole.

EXCLUSIVE
‘Money monster’: Labor’s secret $170bn budget black hole
The mystery missing billions in Labor’s federal budget have sparked serious concern about spending blowouts fuelling inflation ahead of Tuesday’s Reserve Bank rate decision.
By Matthew Cranston

And the canny Cranston inspired the lizard Oz editorialist to go right off the rails - dammit, somehow they managed to link it to the Melbourne Cup!

What astonishing skill, what relevance! How these "secret" black holes keep on giving...

Meanwhile, the Australian Daily Zionist News was at it again ...

Schools’ role a lesson in turning back tide of antisemitism
Teachers are already refusing to teach Muslim students about the Holocaust, so a new curriculum mandate is unlikely to repair Australia’s crumbling civic foundations.
By Alex McDermott

The pond won't go there - it's in the archive - but will mention Jeff Sparrow's outing in Crikey, which luckily can be found outside the paywall ...

Jillian Segal’s report is a Trumpian plan to curtail free speech (*intermittent archive link)
The new report by Anthony Albanese’s special envoy to combat antisemitism is as conspiratorial as it is a genuine threat to anyone expressing criticism of the state of Israel.

...Ostensibly, the report lays out priorities to combat antisemitism. Yet Segal pays only the most cursory attention to the rapid growth of the far right, even as genuine neo-Nazis like Thomas Sewell and his White Australia friends reach audiences (online and IRL) unthinkable even a decade ago. She pledges instead to combat what she calls “modern”, “progressive” antisemitism, which, she claims, manifests “through the language of social justice and human rights”.
To that end, Segal wants, among other things, a special ombudsman to monitor the ABC and SBS; new codes of conduct for cultural organisations; restrictions on the use of grants for arts, sports or research; the operationalisation in higher education of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)’s definition of antisemitism; a review of the school curriculum; and “continual review and reform by … governments of gaps in the legislative framework”.
All this is warranted, she says, because “the language of human rights and its greatest crimes — apartheid, ethnic cleansing, genocide, etc. — has increasingly been appropriated” against Israel. On that basis, Segal seeks the institutional adoption of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, explaining that “criticism of the Israeli government” should only be considered legitimate if “the level and standard of scrutiny applied is equivalent to the standards to which one would hold other governments in similar circumstances”.
There is a roll call of experts accusing Tel Aviv of genocide: a partial list includes Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, B’Tselem, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, Genocide Watch, the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights, the Middle East Studies Association, Oxfam, Médecins Sans Frontières, Physicians for Human Rights Israel and the International Association of Genocide Scholars.
In the name of Segal’s vaunted equivalency, we might expect to find Israel listed alongside the other regimes Australia currently sanctions for human rights violations (beyond individual ones directed at Ben-Gvir and Smotrich). You’ll be shocked to learn that this is not what Segal seeks. The scrutiny she considers appropriate was demonstrated back in 2023, when Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong had the temerity to suggest Israel might “cease the attacking of hospitals”.
In response, Segal, then president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, cosigned a statement condemning Wong’s remarks that said they “only serve to demonise the state of Israel and its supporters”. The same logic dominates her report. Segal argues that claims Israel has committed genocide, ethnic cleansing and apartheid “allow for the depiction of anyone who associates or aligns with Israel as complicit in its purported evil”. But when confronted by genocide, most of us do not worry that our condemnations might upset those who “associate or align” with the perpetrators.
In Segal’s report — a document in which the word “Gaza” appears only once — the feelings of Israel’s supporters take precedence over all else. For her, “the Palestinian cause” represents a “gateway issue, of sorts … used by far-left activists to magnify their appeal and prominence and to attempt to introduce traditionally moderate Australians to radical and anti-Jewish propaganda”.
It’s crazy, conspiratorial stuff.
The report warns that “references to “Zionists” can function as a proxy for Jews, particularly where Jews in Australia are treated as collectively responsible for the actions of Israel (acts of conflation)”. That’s certainly true, which is why organisations like the Jewish Council of Australia (JCA) make the distinction between Judaism (a religion and ethnic identity) and Zionism, urging the recognition of “the political and religious diversity of the Australian Jewish community”...

And so on, and the pond guarantees you won't be reading any of that sort of stuff in the lizard Oz until at least the twelfth of never (and that's a very ...)

What you will be reading is the pond's very favourite reptile, the bromancer, skipping right past the current electoral action...

Luckily the bromancer wasn't in to Tucker and his theory about the mad King wanting to nuke the mad Mullahs ...

Unearthed Clips Show Carlson Repeatedly Claim Trump is Weighing Iran Nuke Strike

... but the pond did enjoy the way he managed to articulate three war aims, as if the aims of the mad King and minions were remotely coherent and comprehensible, as opposed to being roughly equivalent to Melbourne's weather, ever changing ...

The bro's insights were bolstered by a beaming blonde of the kind beloved by Faux Noise...

How the bromancer loves the drumbeat of war, how he loves to pound the skins, but then he wasn't appointed Reichsmarschall des GroßAustralisch Reiches so he could practise his knitting skills.

Has it though? The pond supposes it's a matter as to whether it's AIS-visible tanker tonnage, or black ships running dark ...(who knew there were sites dedicated to tracking the traffic?).

In conclusion, how about a shot of crazed jihadists, designed to terrify the lizard Oz hive mind, and send them on their own jihad? Sure thing...

Curiously, Luckovich had another figure in a similar pose ...

Meanwhile, it was left to the echo Chambers to propose a solution to what might ail the country.

While the pallid, wan bromancer ran up the white flag of despair, the echo Chambers knew what had to be done...

Albanese must get in Trump’s ear
Anthony Albanese faces pressure to use upcoming Trump summits to end wars the government blames for devastating Australia’s economy.
By Geoff Chambers
Political editor

Get in his ear! How easy is that, what a quick fix ...

Yes, forget all that blather fest with King Chuck and the remnants of empire, and as for taking climate change seriously, in what alternative universe are we living?

What needs to happen is that Albo needs to sort out mad King Donald, and maybe get on board with him, and as for what might happen in the mid-terms and what that might produce in the United States? Fergeddit...

The trips that do matter are the ones where Albanese crosses paths with Trump. The Quad meeting in the Philippines is critical. Albanese also cannot miss the opportunity to visit Trump’s home state of Florida for the G20 summit. Albanese, who briefly encountered Trump in New York during UN General Assembly week, had a lengthy phone call with the US President in mid-August. The pair spoke about the conflict in the Middle East, Chinese aggression in the South Pacific, the 75th anniversary of the ANZUS treaty, the AUKUS defence pact, critical minerals, and artificial intelligence.
With the US ambassador to Australia David Brat and the Australian ambassador to the US Greg Moriarty both in place, the relationship between the White House and Albanese government should be strengthened.
As Australians tighten their belts, Albanese must prove the summit season is value for money and secure outcomes that are critical to the nation’s economy and security.

How easy it is to wrangle a mad King and fix what needs fixing.

And now always better late than never for the infallible Pope ...

And that serves as an introduction to the real Tuesday treat, a rampant Dame Groan, revived by the prospect of disaster, and the hope that we'll all be rooned, if not by the end of the week, then certainly by Xmas ...

Please begin with one of those astonishing reptile collages for which there's no credit ...

The pond was shattered to discover that the Groaner hadn't discovered the black hole featured by the canny Cranston and the lizard Oz editorialist, but perhaps that was because it was too "secret".

On the other hand, the Dame didn't need cheap tricks like that to arrive at totally rooned gloom ...

Eyes wide shut now ...

Potent points, and Dame Groan wasn't done yet ... it was time for the cardigan wearers to cop a pounding, together with Jimbo ...

Not Petey boy again. Will the reptiles ever tire of their desire to return to the ancient days of Petey boy and the lying rodent?

And then all too soon the pond had arrived at the final gobbet of despair, what with all this talk of EVs and batteries and renewables, when the world is in tip top shape, and if there was just more coal and more emissions, what a fine prospect for the younglings ...

The pond has laid out the Dame Groan banquet, and expects correspondents to enjoy the feast ... with the important message from the Dame that there's no need to worry about all those other horses in the race aiming to make life miserable ...

And with the immortal Rowe setting the tone, so to a final thought from the reptiles, actually talking about the current election campaign, and hoping against hope that maybe the GOP might yet survive ... at least in the Senate, what with it all being really hard to turn the Titanic around ...

And with that a couple of 'toons ...

Old news now, but the pond can watch train wrecks over and over again ...