In which the reptiles try to distract with ISIS brides and a Press Council war, but King Donald doing a Castro has the floor ...

Today the hive mind returned to the ISIS brides jihad ... but remarkably the reptiles missed an opportunity to have a go at a genuinely offensive aspect of fundamentalist Islamic thinking.

Perhaps it was because the ABC had picked up that angle in Suspected serial offender linked to Islamic State walks free over filmed gay bashing and Gay and bisexual Sydney teenagers lured and bashed on camera in IS-inspired attacks.

It was picked up by the Star Observer, ABC Investigation Finds Multiple Gay and Bisexual Teenagers In Sydney Have Been Bashed In Terrorist Inspired Attacks 

...but any hint of pink always inspires revulsion in the hive mind, a trait shared with Islamic fundamentalists. There's simply no room in the Australian Daily Zionist News for that sort of angle.

Instead this EXCLUSIVE was at top of a page designated "news"...

EXCLUSIVE
ISIS brides camp chief reveals existence of two more ‘extremist’ Australians
Syria’s Roj camp director has revealed two additional Australian ISIS brides classified as ‘extremists’ are held separately from the 11 women and 23 children denied repatriation.
By Amanda Hodge, Mohammad Alfares and Mohammed Hassan.

Off to the intermittent archive with them, and ditto petulant Peta, who followed immediately below ...

Commentary by Peta Credlin
Labor has nowhere to hide on ISIS repatriation saga
The government is hoping Australians don’t work out that Albanese’s tough talk is just a facade, that he and his ministers are up to their eyeballs in rolling out the red carpet for these terrorist groupies.

And over on the extreme far right, Hodge was briefly top of the hive mind world ma, with ...

PM’s tough talk on ISIS brides hides a simple truth
The federal government has boxed itself into a corner by issuing passports to ISIS brides and their kids just as the country reels from the Bondi terror attack. Time to stop the tough-guy talk and show some leadership.
By Amanda Hodge
Asia-Pacific correspondent

No interest in gay hate mongers, but devoted to bashing children? 

Only in lizard Oz la la land ...

The reptiles were also at war with Shane Drumgold and the Press Council, a deeply sordid defence of the deeply sordid behaviour of Dame Slap.

‘Put crisply’: Shane Drumgold disgraced, Press Council discredited
Two of Australia’s most respected silks declare Shane Drumgold ‘wears the consequences’ of damaging misconduct findings, but the Press Council sides with ex-DPP against expert opinion.
The Australian

The Australian?

Yes, the reptiles couldn't even find a name to attach to that reprehensible bile, but just below that big splash, the meretricious Merritt joined the fray ...

Commentary by Chris Merritt
Press Council missed crucial legal truth
Shane Drumgold may have won a Press Council ruling, but the seven damning findings about his conduct still stand and no amount of procedural manoeuvring can rewrite what the ACT Supreme Court decided.

The reptiles will never be able to escape the shameful behaviour they exhibited backing the wrong horse in the Lehrmann matter, fuelled and driven by Dame Slap's bizarre obsessions.

The pond didn't follow the reptiles on the Lehrmann matter or track Dame Slap - the whole affair was a sordid descent into the Liberal underworld - but did think it would be droll to link to the Press Council's statement, dishing out a mild slapping with a warm lettuce leaf ...enough to get the snowflake reptiles sobbing into their cereal...

Such sooks and cry babies they are ...

At least it saved the reptiles from brooding about the former Prince ...

What a relief to be able to leave all that nonsense to the intermittent archive and turn instead to the reptile take on King Donald's latest, record-setting, demented ramblings.

Amazingly, Joe, lesser member of the Kelly gang, could only manage two minutes, though perhaps that's the standard for an Australian reptile ...

Joe managed to be impressed and respectful ...

...Likewise, on Iran, the President kept his remarks brief despite the prospect of a potential US strike against the regime at any time. Trump instead chose to elevate his credentials as a peacemaker.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy,” he said. “But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s No.1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon.”
The real point of the address was to launch a sharp pitch to American voters, especially younger people, struggling with the cost of living.
This was Trump’s effort to refocus on domestic priorities ahead of the mid-terms amid sinking approval ratings and growing voter frustration with his handling of the US economy after devoting significant time to foreign policy and trade matters.
The address was an opportunity to show Americans that he was listening. The question is whether he convinced them.

The reptiles interrupted with a few carefully curated moments ...President Trump said Democrats were to blame for making the high cost of living an issue, speaking in Washington during the State of the Union address.

Joe carried on, cautiously hinting that it might not have been so fine, in spots at least ...

Yes, there were a grab bag of measures in the speech to protect the dream of home ownership, keep energy prices lower, grow 401(k) retirement balances and codify lower US drug prices into law.
But there were no new major programs likely to reset the national debate in a decisive way, with the risk being that voters will respond to the speech as simply more of the same.
Despite the trademark bravado from the President, the address may come across to many Americans as more defensive than visionary.
Trump also relished the opportunity to finetune his political sales job, speaking for nearly two hours in the longest ever State of the Union address and running through a shopping list of accomplishments.
He reminded the nation about his key strengths including his sweeping tax cuts, the reduction in illegal migration, the negotiation of a ceasefire in Gaza as well as his efforts to drive down drug prices.
By weaving in the personal stories of many Americans, the President was able to more effectively demonstrate the human impact of many of his policies.
His speech leaned in heavily to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, with Trump promoting his presidency as part of a broader push to revive American greatness as well as Christian values.

Ah, Xian values, so it must have been great.

The reptiles then took the big plunge, all 2:0819 of it ...US President Donald Trump has delivered his annual State of the Union address to Congress at Capitol Hill.

As if the pond was a mug punter of the novice kind up for the sucker punch of two hours lost, and never to be regained.

Instead it was left to Joe to celebrate what the pond had missed:

To complete the comparison, he skewered the Democrats as saboteurs of the American experiment.
This political characterisation was highly effective as he repeatedly blasted his political opponents for refusing to stand in support of key policy positions – at one stage labelling them “crazy” and intent on “destroying our country.”
One of Trump’s key challenges is holding together a fracturing MAGA base which is already splintering over the economy, the Epstein files, the Venezuelan military adventure and the prospect of a further attack on Iran.
Yet the speech proved he can still rally them the old-fashioned way, by turning the Democrats into the enemy.

Apparently it was yet another oratorical masterpiece, designed to  dazzled hive minds ...though the pond can remember ancient times when the disunited States used to mock hapless Cubans, whenever they were compelled to endure an endless bout of Castro speechifying ...

Now they stand and applaud:

The pond must confess its response had been clouded by other reports ... such as Susan B. Glasser's in The New Yorker under the headers Donald Trump’s State of the Union Was Long and Wrong But at least the President thinks everything is going great.

Enough of all that - the pond has always been a sucker for TruCoat (at least the Fargo version) - and so must stick to reptile coverage.

Luckily Cam was also on board, throwing out word salads under the "classic" rubric - you know, classic Edsel, classic Tesla Cybertruck, classic Leyland P76.

At least Cam could grind out three minutes, which was nowhere two hours, so the pond bit ... if only because this dish served by King Donald was allegedly "fiery" ...

His second?

He already had a fine track record ...

... and now he's beaten them all, but do go on ...

He was also speaking just days after the US Supreme Court declared his tariff regime illegal, throwing into flux the President’s signature policy. Trump took aim at the Supreme Court justices sitting in the chamber, bemoaning their “very unfortunate ruling” as Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointee Amy Barrett, who both helped to vote down the tariffs, watched on impassively.
He claimed, however, that he would find a “solution” to the setback and find a new way to levy protectionist tariffs, which he predicted would one day substantially replace income tax.
Trump highlighted his success in slashing illegal arrivals across the Mexican border, one of his most successful and popular policies. He also focused strongly on crimes committed by illegal immigrants but he avoided the controversy over the overreach of ICE agents, which has led to the high-profile deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Those deaths have turned immigration from a positive into a net negative for him.

Again there was a carefully curated moment ... President Trump said Democrats were to blame for making the high cost of living an issue, speaking in Washington during the State of the Union address.

Cam confessed to a little surprise ...

Surprisingly for a president who is likely just days or weeks from ordering a military campaign against Iran, foreign policy was not discussed until well into his more than two-hour speech
On Iran he hinted at the possibility of military action, saying that he would never allow Iran, the world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism, to have a nuclear weapon. He said he hoped diplomacy would persuade Iran to abandon its “sinister” nuclear weapon ambitions, but warned “no nation should ever doubt America’s resolve”.
He also warned that Iran was developing long-range missiles which could potentially hit America. There was nothing in his comments that would give comfort to the ruling Mullahs of Iran. If anything, his comments only reinforced the probability that Trump will soon order an attack on the ­repressive regime.
On other foreign policy issues, he claimed that the next phase of the peace plan in Gaza was “just about there”, and that the US “was working very hard” to secure peace in Ukraine. But he said nothing more about Ukraine despite it being the fourth anniversary of Europe’s largest conflict since World War II. Trump also boasted about his success in persuading Europe to lift defence budgets and about the successful capture of former Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro.
Trump focused much of his speech on persuading Americans that the economy and cost of living – the two issues which polls say have most disappointed voters – were improving.
The US economy slowed to a 1.4 per cent annualised rate in the last quarter of 2025, the slowest in nine years, while inflation has fallen to 2.4 per cent, but remains stubbornly above the Federal Reserve’s 2 per cent target.
Concerns about the economy have been the main driver of the fall in Trump’s approval ratings, raising fears about the ability of Republicans to retain their majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterm elections in November.
Trump’s speech was interrupted repeatedly by angry Democrats interjecting, prompting Trump to declare at one point “these people are crazy”.

The reptiles did allow a little moment of dissent... Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar heckled President Donald Trump as he gave the State of the Union address in front of Congress on Tuesday, February 24. C-SPAN footage shows the moment the congresswoman screams, “You have killed Americans” at Trump while he is speaking. Omar started heckling the president as he asked for “the end of sanctuary cities that protect the criminals.” The congresswoman has previously addressed the “terror Donald Trump unleashed on Minnesota,” referring to the killings of US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good in January 2026, as well as the arrests of documented Americans. Omar also criticised “unlawful tariffs and sky-high prices” affecting businesses, as well as the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files. Credit: C-SPAN via Storyful

Cam eventually shafted the King by ending on an ambivalent note ...

The speech was full of very Trumpian moments, describing his wife Melania as a “movie star” after her recent documentary and claiming America in just 12 months had gone from being a ‘dead’ country to being the ‘hottest” in the world.
He praised the assassinated conservative commentator Charlie Kirk as a “martyr” and condemned all forms of political violence just days after an armed intruder was shot dead at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
As Trump left the podium to the cheers of Republicans and the stony silence of Democrats, his wide-ranging speech was a reminder of how much has already happened in just one year of this novel and volatile presidency. There are still three years to go so we should all strap in because, as Trump warned in his speech, “you’ve seen nothing yet”.

"Novel and volatile"?!

That's one way of putting it, but at least the endless obfuscation served a sublime purpose, up there with the UFO files ...

Perhaps this was all to set the stage for the bewildered swishing Switzer, who seems to have set up Thursday shop in the lizard Oz as a key part of his rehabilitation campaign ... though admitting he was completely clueless at the get go didn't seem a strong way to start:

A tour de force of bold assertions?

Is that what they call lying in swishing Switzer land? 

But perhaps best to leave the fact checking to the likes of the Graudian, or PBS recycling PolitiFact, or the Beeb, just some of many to be found outside paywalls.

Just don't expect the reptiles to join in that sort of coverage.

The pond must stick to a narrower rut, though the reptiles followed the opening gobbet with a snap designed to gladden the heart of the bromancer ...The USS Abraham Lincoln sails in the Arabian Sea on February 11. Picture: US Navy/AFP

But the bromancer has been MIA since 24th January, and until he returns the pond won't have a clue about the need to bermb, bermb, bermb Iran ...

The swishing Switzer was a tad dubious, as if there was anything wrong with a man who had torn up an agreement, then decided he'd bomb the mad Mullahs back into that agreement ...

Meanwhile, Trump must recognise the political foundations for war are fragile. Public support for military action against Iran is thin. Just 27 per cent of Americans favour a war, according to an Economist/YouGov poll; Trump’s own MAGA coalition is divided.
He has built much of his political brand railing against costly foreign entanglements and so-called forever wars.
The broader strategic climate is equally complex.
American public opinion – especially among younger voters – has grown more critical of Israel, now virtually alone in openly pressing for military action. Key Sunni partners in the region, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, have signalled opposition to a US-Iran war.
Yet, despite these constraints, the drift towards confrontation still feels real. Is Trump prepared to defy public caution and act? Or will he search for an off-ramp?
One can’t help but think that Trump realises he has boxed himself in – caught between his Israeli and Sunni Gulf allies; between his “America First” instincts of restraint and selectivity and his determination to impose his will on a thuggish regime that one of his predecessors labelled part of the “axis of evil” in a famous State of the Union address nearly a quarter of a century ago.
The so-called 12-day war that Israel and the US launched against Iran last June was initially aimed at destroying Tehran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. If the mission was truly as successful as the conventional wisdom suggested, why is the US even contemplating another strike?
Unlike in June, any US military intervention would almost certainly provoke Iranian retaliation. Tehran is believed to possess about 2000 mid-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching across the region, including Israel.
It also maintains substantial stockpiles of short-range missiles that could target US bases in the Gulf and naval vessels transiting in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically vital maritime checkpoints.

The reptiles introduced an AV distraction ...Turning to Iran during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday (February 24), Trump said: "They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America."

For some reason, the pond was reminded of the weird bifurcated world that Iraq hawks of the Bill Kristol kind now find themselves in, as in The Nation's Those Sometimes-Trump Neocons Are Returning to the Fold Over Iran; As the president backs Israel’s long-awaited war with Iran, his neoconservative critics find themselves in an awkward position. (Sorry, paywall)

That's some 8 months old, but still not stale, as the swishing Switzer stayed bewildered:

Why would Trump risk being drawn into the kind of prolonged conflict he has long decried?
Let’s remember some history. The misguided 2003 invasion of Iraq was justified, in part, as a preventive strike against weapons of mass destruction. Its consequences were catastrophic, not least because the invasion unleashed chaos and civil war across Iraq.
It shifted the regional balance in Iran’s favour, enabling Tehran to establish new Shia proxy militias, and created conditions in which Sunni jihadists coalesced, eventually giving rise to Islamic State.
True, Iran causes regional disruptions, but it poses no direct threat to American security, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary in his address.
It’s also true the clerical rulers of Iran’s Shia theocracy are ruthless and have committed serious human rights abuses against the many thousands of courageous protesters. But if the regime were removed, what would follow? Does Trump really want to risk turning Iran into a failed state – or, worse, a haven for jihadists, as Iraq and Libya became after American intervention?
During his first term, Trump boasted that he had started no new wars. And during the past year his interventions have been limited in scope.
He should follow his instincts and try to reach a diplomatic outcome. Unfortunately, his State of the Union address offered no clue how to avoid a course that could plunge America into unnecessary and potentially catastrophic conflict.

At last came the real point of it all:

Tom Switzer is presenter of Switzerland, a podcast about politics, modern history and international relations.

As for the rest, did King Donald sway hearts and change minds, or did he simply do a Castro?

Who knows, because the Trumpstein files and the swamp still seem as interesting as ever ...

In which the pond does a survey of the lizard Oz headlines, and consigns the reptiles to the intermittent archive, Dame Slap and Niall included ...

The pond can't begin to count the number of columns produced to commemorate the invasion of Ukraine by Vlad the sociopath, usually with the 22nd February as the date on which the war started, and which has now outlasted the German invasion in the second world war (Stalin delayed the start of that war by doing a deal with the Nazis, worth remembering when the Russians get high and могущественный about ancient Ukrainian flirtations).

Full respect to Ukraine, which has seized the moment to highlight Vlad the Sociopath's war mongering, but the pond prefers to date the start of the war to Vlad's seizing of Crimea starting c. 27th February 2014, though there are arguments that the war started earlier, with "patriots" being funded by the Ruskis, and some turning up in disguise to help create instability.

That dating also encompasses the war crime of shooting down of a Malayasia Airlines 747 on 17th July 2014, with the loss of 298 lives, including 38 Australian residents.

Some might say that the Ukrainians didn't fight back at the time, but what could they do? Obama stiffed them, so did the Europeans, so did the British, with a feeble array of sanctions all that was on offer.

 There were lots of word stews, like the one cooked up by China:  "We respect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine". A spokesman restated China's belief of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations and urged dialogue. (The whole sorry story is in the detailed wiki on the conquest and annexation).

So the pond is jumping the gun by a couple of days on the real start, a tale of a country gone rogue under an authoritarian leader (and providing an excellent role model for King Donald and the disunited states, which is busy arranging yet another foreign adventure to distract from the Trumpstein files).

Whatever the date, it was a never no mind to the reptiles at the lizard Oz.

The closest the reptiles got was this effort by Niall.

Wake up, Australia: AUKUS is good, but where’s plan B?
The war in Ukraine is the first drone war, a new kind of revolution in military affairs. But Australia has not fully adapted to this change in the nature of conflict.
By Niall Ferguson
Columnist

Actually Niall, AUKUS is pathetic, and so, ancient colonial remnant, are you. 

Rely on the UK and King Donald for help in a pinch? 

Maybe the former prince and the King are good for a pinch on the bottom, but not much else.

It was with some amused relief that the pond read Trump Tower developer Altus Property Group's David Young has twice gone bankrupt.

Now there's a man truly credentialed to do business with King Donald, only a few more bankruptcies for the apprentice to match the master ...

Sorry Niall, if the pond wants help for the war with China, it will patiently wait the return of the bromancer, still MIA since 24th January, as if in the grip of long service leave. (Thank the long absent lord that China has been discreet while he's been away).

As usual, the pond was distracted by John Hanscombe in The Echnida (newsletter, no link) wondering if we've seen the start of a world war (the theme of all that Russian state media propaganda in recent times as Lord Haw-Haws of the Vladimir Solovyov kind urge the nuking of the world if Vlad the sociopath isn't placated)...

...Even if it's not World War III as we might have imagined it, the conflict has been globalised.
"North Korean troops on the ground. North Korean troops in Ukraine," Ukraine's ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko told reporters in Canberra on Monday. "Can you even imagine that North Korean troops are fighting in Ukraine? How far is North Korea from you here?"
Myroshnychenko also claimed the Chinese and North Korean militaries were being trained to use Russia's advanced weapons systems, which might one day be turned on Australia.
North Koreans fighting in Ukraine is startling enough but Al Jazeera's website reports that more than 1000 Kenyans have also been recruited to fight on Russia's behalf. Citing a report released by Kenya's National Intelligence Service, Al Jazeera says there are 89 Kenyans on the front line, 39 in hospital and 28 missing in action. Many of these Kenyans were lured to Russia with job offers, only to discover they'd actually signed up for Russian military service.
In November, Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said nationals from 36 African countries were fighting for Russia in Ukraine. South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa said 17 of its citizens were fighting in Ukraine after being lured there with offers of lucrative employment.
There's an echo from history in this. Among the first Wehrmacht troops captured in the 1944 Normandy invasion were Koreans, who had been pressed into military service with the Japanese, captured by the Soviets, then "liberated" by the Germans, who also forced them into military service.
As well as troops, the supply of weapons has also been globalised. Ukraine claims almost 40,000 Iranian Shahed drones were launched at it by Russia in 2025. With technical help from its Persian ally, Russia is now thought to be manufacturing 1000 drones a day based on the Sahed design.
According to former assistant director of the CIA for weapons and counterproliferation Amy McAuliffe, many of the components needed to get the drones to their targets - the engines, fuel pumps, GPS and semiconductors - get around international sanctions by being sourced in places like India and the UAE via Iran's brokerage network.
"I believe use of Iranian technology has helped Russia develop a fleet of sophisticated drones able to erode Ukrainian air defenses and strain the country's resolve," she wrote in article published by The Conversation in January.
Of course, Ukraine's allies have also globalised the conflict by supplying weapons and ordnance, including Australian Bushmasters and Abrams tanks. At least eight Australians are believed to have been killed fighting for Ukraine since 2022.
There are also opaque signs of the conflict leaching out of the conflict zones, so-called "grey zone" attacks across Europe, with Russia suspected but not confirmed as the culprit. These have ranged from acts of sabotage to mysterious drone overflights of western European airports, arson and kidnappings.
In December, the new chief of Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6, Blaise Metreweli, warned that the front line was everywhere and that "Russia is testing us in the grey zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war".
Fingers crossed that threshold isn't crossed because if it is Zelenskyy's grim assessment might ring horribly true.

As for the rest of the hive mind pack, the pond has been hitting the reptile books pretty hard and has decided to take an intermittent archive holiday...

If you want more than this from Dame Slap, you'll have to head off to the intermittent archive ...

Just the sight of that uncredited opening illustration produced a profound nausea in the pond.

Sure, it matches the comic book level of insight on offer from Dame Slap, but is that a good thing?

And Dame Slap's ongoing obsession with women is deeply weird.

Having noted it for the umpteenth time, the pond wanted to move on quickly ...

Want to read Ben, packing it in his usual way?

Procrastinating PM’s Andrew stunt is nothing more than a distraction
Anthony Albanese’s pre-emptive offer to help Britain remove Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession says much about the way he plays politics.
By Ben Packham
Foreign affairs and defence correspondent

Nothing more?

If it's just a nothing burger, if it's so distracting, why couldn't Ben's graphic artist minions resist that photo as the opener?

And if there's smoke, perhaps there's some King Donald fire?

To be fair, Ben did attempt to hint at what was being distracted from, including King Donald, only to answer his own question with an "of course", so stupid it was ...

It’s no coincidence the move drowned out questions on trickier subjects, like what the government is doing about the ISIS brides trying to get back to Australia. Or will it cut the capital gains tax discount, as it has hinted. Other hard issues fall by the wayside, like responding to Donald Trump’s invitation to join his Board of Peace. Unlike his intervention on the royal succession, Albanese has kept Trump waiting on whether Australia will back his alternative to the UN.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s spokeswoman told The Australian that the invitation was still “under consideration”, even after the board’s first meeting last week. Of course, there’s no way Australia will join the board, which costs $1bn a seat and will be chaired “for life” by Trump.

Get on with the corrupt King's self-serving appointment for life? 

Do not pass Go, do not collect some loose change, go directly to Niall for help ...

As for the brides affair, Golding had some advice ...

Meanwhile, Cameron was left as the sole contributor to the Australian Daily Zionist News ...

Bell’s focus on antisemitism is certain to be challenged by Palestinian activists
Royal Commission launches to unmask rise of antisemitism behind Bondi terror attack
The stakes are enormous and Commissioner Bell will need a cool head and clear set of priorities to ensure that the royal commission achieves its lofty and important aims. Let the hearings begin.
By Cameron Stewart
Chief International Correspondent

One thing's certain. No one will ever get the lizard Oz reptiles to focus on the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank, and the Huckster's handing over of the middle East to Israel because that's what the Old Testament says, and in the meantime, it'll be months before the reptiles get to parade their indignation and disappointment at whatever findings finally emerge.

The pond is happy to wait.

And as for this goose ...

AUSTRALIAN VALUES
Labor left urged to step to the right on Australia Day and extremism
Labor frontbencher Julian Hill has warned progressives risk losing ground to extremists unless they stop ‘sneering’ at Australia Day celebrations and address real migration concerns.
By Sarah Ison

Bye bye, Julian. Are you really so needy that you need to score top of the lizard Oz digital world ma, wrapped in the flag and blathering about "Australian values"?

Inevitably the pond was reminded of Yes, Minister, and some desperate, pathetic assistant minister trying to find a space in the sun.

No, minister. That sort of pandering, that desire to fellow travel, is what ensures there's a Tweedledumb and Dee approach to politics that makes the lizard Oz seem like a respectable publication.

You want to do the "there are good people on both sides" routine? You really want to be in Charlottesville with King Donald?

Undercover neo-Nazis led crowds at an anti-immigration rally through Melbourne’s CBD on Australia Day, breaking into racist chants and small skirmishes as a larger crowd gathered for an Invasion Day protest nearby.
One Nation candidates joined associates of recently disbanded neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network on the steps of Parliament House to give speeches at the March for Australia rally, at times railing against Australia’s immigration policy from a podium built by a neo-Nazi. (L'Age)

Take a tip from an atheist, it's easy to slag off all religions, including Scientology, even if that's a more explicit scam than some of the others, and it's easy to avoid the both siderist notion that there are good people on both sides.

And that's it for the day.

The pond did think of featuring the Brown-out featuring the pasty Hastie, but decided that it was off to the intermittent archive with him, and that a look at the opening gobbet was more than enough ...

How could anyone expect the pond to get past this snap which immediately followed that gobbet?

The pond made it as far as the weird notion of "building more coal" and gave up ...

"Building more coal"?

Ye ancient howling dogs and mewling cats, the pond wept in despair. 

This creationist young earth spawn is a V8 short of a couple of pistons ...

And that's the pond's survey of the lizard Oz headlines, with only the immortal Rowe wanting to go deeper ...

Remember Petey boy being dragged out of some moth-saturated closet yesterday to star in the lizard Oz? In his own words?

The immortal Rowe did ...

A final joke. 

Of late one of the pond's email addresses has fallen into the hands of US spammers, and they contrive to avoid the pond's spam bucket.

So the pond is gifted with this sort of treasure ...

Dersh is the hook? He's this Sun's secret weapon, and a spammer's delight?

Does everything always return to the Trumpstein files?

In which the pond romps helter skelter though the hive mind, with the Royals, ancient Troy, Petey boy, Jennie's jihad and a dinkum Groaning all in the mix...

 

This is the sort of headline that causes the pond much amusement ...

Puzzled?

It appeared in WaPo, and it reminded the pond of the parable of the wise men gravely contemplating the matter of an elephant.

WaPo gravely assured the world that leaders were puzzled, what with Greenland having universal health care and no hospital ships being available (though that could only be called "appears to have"), and yet the president - a narcissist horse's *rse in any sensible language - had talked of sending a hospital ship, and so, him being the president n'all, y'all, it must be gravely considered. 

But it's just a momentary distraction, always with the Trumpstein files distraction, and who knows, perhaps yet another small step on the imperial way.

Next, bermb, bermb, berm Iran, and Nancy A. Youssef in The Atlantic, trying to decipher the runes, read the tea leaves, fossick through the entrails in What Would War With Iran Look Like? How the U.S. conducts any attack will depend on what goal Trump is trying to achieve.

What goal is he trying to achieve? 

You might as well ask a toddler in a wild-eyed tantrum why he smashed up the agreement to eat his veggies and then insisted on a new agreement or he'd bermb his Lego.

Or tax the penguins ...

The pond frequently feels the same way in the company of the lizard Oz's hive mind. 

There's no sense to it, it simply is ...

Oh sure there can be fun snipes...

... but ultimately it's impossible to make sense of any of it.

Why, for example, do they keep exhuming notable failures of the past, men who notoriously lacked the ticker?

Okay, it's sometimes women offering an EXCLUSIVE insight ... (archive link)

They had to go the "widow" route? That's her only claim to fame?

So she's just there to channel the man, and who needs the ghost of the steam-train lover to emerge from his grave to warn the world that One Nation is a pack of loons, except perhaps the reptiles, because the lizard Oz has long cultivated the sort of extreme right wing ideology that Barners and Pauline are now cashing in on ...

The latest example of this inclination to grave robbing is the EXCLUSIVE revival of Petey boy ... given the bizarre patented reptile double act treatment ...

On the "news" side, there's the EXCLUSIVE ...

EXCLUSIVE
No net debt to no net worth: Costello’s devastating economic warning
Former treasurer Peter Costello warns that the Albanese government has ‘softened up’ young Australians for tax hikes to fund unsustainable spending.
By Matthew Cranston

Five bloody eternal minutes echoing the current lizard Oz jihad ... and to get the double bunger treatment going, the source of the EXCLUSIVE was over on the extreme far right ...

Note the way that the rant starts with a classic Emilia collage, replete with snarling, grimacing Albo, and sinister Jimbo lurking on the right, though here the pond should be fair, because the reptiles immediately followed that first gobbet with a snap of Petey boy looking like a man just out of a Monty Python sketch ...

Sheesh, way more than enough already, and if you want to see rest of this ancient loon conducting his jihad, consult the intermittent archive. 

There's nothing to learn from these ghosts, except the art of seeing dead people, while resting easy that there are more important matters than the economy for those with a sixth sense ...

What else (though the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way is usually a show stopper)?

Well the news of Mandelson's arrest eventually landed in reptile HQ:

It was old news to the pond, what with the pond waking the Beeb in a flap and the world service wondering why the Poms had a different way of doing things, and coming up with the notion that they loved a decent scandal, while at the same time trying to reassure listeners that there was no way the man formerly known as Prince could ever reach the throne, whether or not formally disbarred.

This isn't true. The pond recalls watching a documentary, Kind Hearts and Coronets, in which a convivial lad with a sense of grievance managed to remove a number of obstacles from his securing of his inheritance, and it was only a momentary memoir lapse that brought him undone.

What is true is that the reptiles have relentlessly mined the hapless Poms for scandal, while ignoring the many scandals surrounding King Donald and his minions...

John Hanscombe in The Echnida (sorry, newsletter, no link) had some thoughts on this ...

...compare the reactions to the arrest from two heads of state. On the eastern side of the Atlantic, King Charles issued a statement before he carried on with his scheduled public appearance at London Fashion Week.
"I have learned with the deepest concern the news about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and suspicion of misconduct in public office," the King's statement read.
"What now follows is the full, fair and proper process by which this issue is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the appropriate authorities.
"In this, as I have said before, they have our full and wholehearted support and co-operation."
On the western side of the Atlantic, another head of state said this: "Well, you know, I'm the expert in a way because I've been totally exonerated. It's very nice. So I can actually speak about it very nicely," Donald Trump said. "I think it's a shame. I think it's very sad, I think it's so bad for the royal family. It's very, very sad. To me, it's a very sad thing. When I see that it's a very sad thing."
One head of state dignified and reassuring in a message that implied no one - not even his brother - was above the law. The other, as always, making the conversation about himself, proclaiming his innocence, and then saying the whole affair was sad.
Not bad. Sad.
The two responses brought into sharp focus the differences between the two political systems. In the UK, the head of state made clear the primacy of the rule of law. In the US, the head of state, a veteran of many run-ins with the law, claimed he'd been exonerated in the tawdry Epstein affair - a claim still contested because half the files haven't been released and those which have are heavily redacted.
Watching this play out and then witnessing Donald Trump's tantrum at the Supreme Court which had ruled he's overstepped his presidential powers with his Liberation Day tariffs, the constitutional monarchy seemed to be working while the American republican model did not.

Well yes, and even if it's a fair bet that the Poms will somehow keep the man formerly known as a Prince out of clink, it is fair to ask that obvious question, make that obvious point - why are the Poms in a flap and in a state of high anxiety while King Donald's court sails on regardless? 

Ancient Troy was to hand to show how the reptiles routinely manage to ignore King Donald and his deeply corrupt and perverse court.

Take it away ancient Troy, show how it's done ...

Because the pond has done a screen cap, it's not easy to do a quick "find" for King Donald's name, but the pond can reassure readers that not once - nihil, nada - did the name "Trump" intrude on ancient Troy's thinking, odd because it's on almost any building you can look at, and might even be coming to the Gold Coast.

Did ancient Troy turn a blind eye to the behaviour of King Donald and his minions? Of course he did, but then the Murdochians have consistently turned a blind eye to King Donald's laddish cavortings ...

Instead ancient Troy kept his blind eye in working order ...

It is more significant than the abdication crisis in 1936 when Edward VIII handed over to George VI. Or the tragic death of Diana in 1997 and the unfeeling response of her in-laws. Or Queen Elizabeth’s so-called “annus horribilis” year of humiliations in 1992. Or Harry and Meghan Markle’s “Megxit” in 2020.
The risk is that this scandal metastasises, embroils others in the royal family and irreparably damages the British monarchy.
The survival instinct of the House of Windsor should not be underestimated. The British royal family has endured as monarchies across Europe have fallen, been executed or reduced their size and scope to remain standing. This is largely due to the wise rule of Elizabeth II. But now The Firm is challenged like never before.
Andrew’s utterly grotesque, likely illegal, behaviour is unlike anything the royals have faced. He had a long association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and is accused of having sex with under-age women, including committing sexual assault. The trove of Epstein’s emails and photos provides vital evidence. Yet Andrew lied about his relationship with Epstein and his involvement with younger women. That was evident in his interview with Emily Maitlis on the BBC’s Newsnight in November 2019. Much of what he said was false or misleading. Andrew has long had a reputation for being rude and arrogant, sustained by a culture of entitlement and a belief that he was above the law.

The reptiles paused for an AV distraction...Spiked Online Editor Tom Slater claims there is little sympathy for Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor because he “was seen as a bit of a playboy”. “From what I can measure, it doesn’t seem like the sympathy goes particularly far or particularly deep," Mr Slater told Sky News host Caleb Bond. “I don’t think there has ever been a tremendous amount of sympathy or affection for prince Andrew.”

But what of the tremendous amount of sympathy and affection for King Donald and his court in the likes of Faux Noise?

Though knowing there was no point, the pond kept searching for a single reference to King Donald ... just the slightest hint that the disunited states should be in the same ferment, the same turmoil as the hapless Poms and Royals ...

Andrew’s behaviour was notorious while he was UK trade envoy (2001-11), and before and after, yet only now has an investigation into his sordid activities begun. His relationship with Epstein was known in the 2000s. He continued meeting Epstein after he was released from jail. It was known more than 10 years ago, through court filings, that Andrew was accused of engaging in sex with under-age women trafficked by Epstein.
The response from King Charles III and his son, William, the Prince of Wales, has been reassuring. Their public statements disassociating themselves from him, offering sympathy to victims and co-operating with police are welcome. So was removing Andrew from public duties in May 2020 and stripping him of honours, titles and his peerage in October last year. “The law must take its course,” Charles said last week.
But they were not quick enough to condemn their discredited brother and uncle. Andrew’s connections to Epstein have been known for more than two decades. Andrew says he was introduced to Epstein in 1999 by Ghislaine Maxwell. Epstein attended Andrew’s 40th birthday at Windsor Castle in 2000. The photo of the two of them walking through Central Park, New York was snapped in December 2010.
We don’t know what the King knew and when he knew it, or what Queen Elizabeth II knew and when she knew it. Charles and Elizabeth likely did not know the extent of what was going on but they or their staff must have been aware of the sexual assault accusations made by Virginia Giuffre more than a decade ago. If they knew even some of Andrew’s activities, what steps did they take in response?

Instead of King Donald, poor old King Chuck, the talking tampon, hugged the limelight with his sibling, King Charles III has been left wrestling with a new test after the arrest of Andrew, the latest in a series of shocks to mar his reign.

Andrew paid a reported £12m ($23m) settlement to Giuffre to end the civil sexual assault lawsuit in March 2022. We don’t know precisely where all of that money came from, but the queen provided £7m and £3m came from Prince Philip’s estate. This was characterised as “hush money” to cover up their son’s crimes. The case was settled even though Andrew said he had no recollection of meeting Giuffre.
There is so much more we don’t know about royal finances, including revenue and expenditure of the ancient Duchy of Cornwall run by William and Duchy of Lancaster run by Charles.
Andrew was allowed use of the Royal Lodge in Windsor Great Park under a 75-year lease with a “peppercorn” rent until he was evicted in February. This was not known when the lease was signed in 2003. The notion that Charles and William, his heir, can just “keep calm and carry on” is untenable. Not only must there be full co-operation with the investigation into Andrew – a commitment that has been given – but the King should also address the nation and his realms to completely repudiate Andrew and begin restoring trust in the royal family.
The UK government is reportedly preparing legislation to remove Andrew from the line of succession. This should have been done long ago. It requires all 14 Commonwealth countries to agree and likely pass their own laws to give it effect. When the order of succession was last changed in 2015, each state also had to enact the Succession to the Crown Act.
All of this underscores the continuing nonsense that Australia’s head of state needs no skills or abilities, or integrity and credibility, but only to be born into one family, observing one religion and living on the other side of the world. We can only live in hope that one day we will be a republic with a head of state who is one of us.

The pond decided to provide an intermittent archive link, so that ancient Troy's links could be checked in the archive, because the last line contained a doozy of a link...

It turned out that ancient Troy has always been a fervent republican ...

So bashing the talking tampon was easy game.

It smply wouldn't do to wonder why the Royals are compelled to show some semblance of decency while US repuglicans show not the slightest sense of shame ...

Oh sure the lizard Oz and the emeritus chairman purported to be republican, but there were backsliders, such as the bromancer, in a fit of Liz rapture a few years ago ...

Oh dear ... he did but see her passing by, and yet ...

We might not have known what she was thinking, but we did know that she was very loyal to the man formerly known as Prince, and no doubt helped him out when paying out an extravagant amount of loot to help conceal his perversions. 

The pond would have liked to report on the bromancer's current state of mind, but he's been MIA since the 24th January, and so it's off to consort with energy jihad Jennie ...

Sure it's like donning an old, worn-out slipper, but what the heck ...

After that opening gobbet, the reptiles cunningly slipped in a snap designed to get Jennie even more carried away on her jihad ...

Ah, Malware's curse ...so naturally it's all the fault of renewables ...

When Bowen rightly says there’s no transition without transmission, he doesn’t acknowledge the risks of every project running years late and billions over budget. The cost of transmission lines increased by up to 55 per cent last year. Eventually these costs will be passed on in network charges, the largest component of domestic power bills.
There’s no end in sight to the rising cost of energy. Without the billions in taxpayer subsidies, the energy transition to renewables would have collapsed. Yet we’re kept in the dark about the extent of the whole-of-system costs from the public purse. Labor needs to be held to its promise of transparency and accountability.
Then there’s Snowy 2.0, our largest long-storage project, critical in the transition to renewables. In 2023, after a “reset”, its cost tripled, from $3.8bn to $12bn. This was to cover the project until completed but $12bn is now not enough. Further price shocks loom. As the black hole deepens, the greater the effort to keep the cost blowouts away from scrutiny.
Almost $600,000 was spent in legal proceedings to this end. It’s hard to understand why it’s taking nine months, until June, to finalise a new cost “reset”, while at the same time being assured Snowy 2.0 will be operational by December 2028. Perhaps they’re waiting to see the ANAO audit results in May? It’s assessing whether Snowy Hydro is “effectively managing contract performance to achieve value for money and to deliver the outcomes required of the project”. Experts estimate the cost of the project, with transmission, is now around $25bn.
It begs the question: Is Snowy 2.0 too big to fail? With alarm bells ringing, the shareholder ministers, Bowen and Senator Katy Gallagher, recently appointed the former secretary of Bowen’s department and the ex-AWU secretary as directors of Snowy Hydro Ltd. It’s wholly owned by the Australian government, after buying out the shares of NSW and Victoria for $6.2bn. Originally, Snowy 2.0 was to cost $2bn and be completed in 2021.
By the time of the 2024-25 budget it needed $7.1bn in financial support; $4.5bn in concessional loans and $2.6bn in equity, on top of an initial $1.38bn. Snowy 2.0 has been a costly debacle.

Usually the pond would slip in a note on the current state of climate change and climate science, but the pond has already gone on too long, and there's still a gobbet of Jennie's jihad to go after this snap of a mortal enemy, Senator Katy Gallagher speaks in Senate Estimates at Parliament House on February 10, 2026 in Canberra, Australia. Picture: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images

It was time to end with a rousing assault on renewables and yet again demand the nuking of the country to save the planet, even though there's no sign in the hive mind that climate change is actually happening...

The problems in transitioning to a weather-dependent renewables energy system are now clear. Labor’s promotion of renewables has come at the expense of acknowledging the multitude of risks in that transition. The consequences can’t be avoided by resorting to false narratives, spin and cherrypicking figures.
The energy trajectory we’re on must change. Electricity demand will increase with population growth and the needs of new power-hungry industries such as data centres. This will coincide with the announced closure of most coal plants and with gas supply remaining uncertain. What then? What is Labor’s Plan B?
It’s the responsibility of governments to ensure reliable and affordable power. Growth in energy demand requires certainty of supply. That’s best achieved by adding emissions-free technologies such as small modular nuclear reactors to our future energy mix. It’s time to lift the nuclear ban and begin testing the market.
Jennie George is former ACTU president and Labor MP for Throsby.

Is there an upside to all of the above? 

Well in all the helter-skelter, the reptiles' most recent jihad has slid down the totem pole ...

The pond will now briefly pause to note Natasha gnashing her teeth at Barners ...

Wasn't this what the reptiles wanted?

Haven't they always been keen on rogue government interventions if it's done by the far right for the wrong reasons? 

Sheesh, back in 2016, when the dirty deed was done by Tamworth's back scratching, log rolling shame, he was deputy PM and treasured reptile pet ...

Any rudimentary examination of the Australian-trained aspiring GP workforce reveals that those entering the profession are predominantly women. Many of them are working mothers with young children for whom upping sticks to perform a stint in the bush is not possible. Joyce’s plan would thus almost certainly ultimately reduce the overall workforce.
The nation’s GP college has pointed out that any geographic restriction on Medicare provider numbers exposes rural communities to harm by flooding them with inexperienced doctors in regions that have the least capacity to educate and supervise them.
There is one outstanding success story, however, in rural medicine. That is the Rural Generalist training pathway, which has been oversubscribed and highly popular for several years now. It works by attracting GPs who want to work to a stimulating and interesting scope of practice, performing surgery and delivering babies. It’s successful because it operates on attraction, not coercion.
It’s fair to say Joyce’s record on coercive policy isn’t good. His insistence that the entire workforce of the nation’s chemical regulator, the Australian Pesticides and Veterinarian Medicine Authority, be shifted to Armidale, which occurred in 2019, resulted in only 15 public service employees moving and led to the governance demise of the entire organisation.
Perhaps Joyce can see no ­parallels here with his Medicare restriction plan. If so, his powers of self-reflection have deserted him, as well as his capacity to formulate anything resembling reasoned policy.

It's fair to say?

It was completely useless pork barreling, Armidale snout in trough.

I's all very well to push back against Tamworth's eternal shame now, but where were the reptiles when it mattered, when the disaster was unfolding? 

MIA like the bromancer ...

And so to the final treat for the day for cultists - so many reptiles, so little time to wade through a vast hive mind - though the pond must report a feeling of disappointment, because the old biddy has arrived late on the scene, only to belatedly join in yesterday's Caterist jihad ... because there must always be a murmuration of like minds in the hive mind...

The old biddy got quite hysterical - this was a "we'll all be rooned by noon" rant for the ages ...

...We are talking violence and threats of violence; infiltration of outlawed motorcycle gangs and other criminal elements; drug dealing on sites; paid strippers; ghost shifts that were funded twice; cash payments for CFMEU-endorsed enterprise agreements; gifts paid to those awarding contracts and shifts; subcontractors and labour hire companies run out of business, and the list goes on.
The net effect of the wrongful conduct that occurred on Victoria’s large infrastructure sites was to impose a cost on taxpayers of at least $15bn, which was essentially transferred either directly to the CFMEU or to interests connected with the union. The figure could even be higher, up to $30bn.

But again the pond was disappointed.

When the Caterist went on his jihad, the illustration of the demonic threat was quite fine ...

The reptiles stiffed Dame Groan with this portrait of the beast, Ex-CFMEU boss John Setka, right, outside Melbourne Magistrates Court in January. Picture: NewsWire / Josie Hayden

Even worse, there was no snap of Mick Gatto ...and not a single mention of the Mafia, and so no chance for the pond to reference that TV miniseries Portobello.

No chance to make a parrot joke?

It's a deplorable state of affairs when the Caterist makes for a more lively read:

And in case you think the $15bn sounds a tad high – it’s more than $5000 for every household in Victoria – the general manager of the Fair Work Commission confirmed its accuracy. So, what has been the response of the Victorian government to these revelations? Denial and attacking the messenger have been the essence of the completely unconvincing reaction. Whenever a politician starts a sentence with the phrase, “let me be clear”, we know that the person is offering up some sort of lame excuse. But according to Allan, “those claims (about the cost of $15bn) are not well-tested or properly founded.”
She did have to concede that “it’s a deep concern to me that there was a rotten culture that took hold”. At the same time, an unidentified Victorian government spokesman made the astonishing claim that “here’s what this is really about: in Victoria, we pay workers properly and some people do not like that”.
In desperation, Allan revealed that she had sent a letter of concern about the conduct of the CFMEU to the state anti-corruption agency, knowing full well the matter was outside that body’s scope. Unsurprisingly, Allan has been keen for her lieutenants to step up to the plate. Police Minister Anthony Carbines made the remarkable claim that the chapter was “lots of florid ramblings … but not a lot of evidence”. One wonders whether he has read the document because it is packed with case studies and a very long appendix with instances of gross misconduct and criminal behaviour by the CFMEU.
Indeed, my only beef with it is that Watson is too kind in parts. He maintains that 99 per cent of CFMEU members are good people. This is a strange statement given the need for collective action and enforcement when extortion is the name of the game.
At a minimum, far too many CFMEU members were going along with activities they knew to be wrong.

Instead of the likes of Gatto, the reptiles offered up a suit ...Minister for Police Anthony Carbines. Picture: Josie Hayden

To be fair, Dame Groan studiously avoided the deep corruption in the building industry on the developer side, but what does it matter when an entire apartment block becomes unusable?

It's just a chance to demolish it, and generate more employment and nice moola off the top while building a new one ...

Watson also makes the mistake of simply linking the rise of John Setka, the former Victorian secretary of the CFMEU, and several other individuals to the emerging problems. In fact, the old CFMEU under the name of the Builders Labourers Federation engaged in similar tactics under dubious leaders.
There was a great deal of strife on building sites in Victoria and a number of officials were able to enrich themselves inappropriately. It was the Hawke government that ordered the deregistration of the BLF. But the culture of the union never really disappeared.
One of the most disturbing stories relates to an Indigenous labour hire company, Marda Dandhi. One of the aims of the company was to provide jobs for Indigenous people, including those who had been in jail. The short of it is that the CFMEU was not having a bar of it and simply refused to sign an enterprise agreement with the company. Without an agreement, the company could not secure any work.
In fact, there was a directive given by the state infrastructure authority that all Big Build workers must be covered by CFMEU agreements, something Allan would have known and probably condoned.
The owners of Marda Dandhi raised their problems with Victorian minister Sonya Kilkenny four years ago, but didn’t receive a response. In all, 80 emails were sent to 15 Labor state politicians but the pleas for a fair deal went completely unanswered. The company was placed in receivership over two years ago.

The reptiles interrupted with an AV distraction, and the pond was pleased to see that Sky Noise Down Under was still the correct title ... Queensland Labor Senator Murray Watt has criticised the appointment of Stuart Wood to conduct an inquiry into CFMEU wrongdoing, according to Courier Mail columnist Des Houghton. “It’s a bit rich for Murray Watt to do this because he of course was chief of staff to Anna Bligh and director of policy in the premier’s department in Queensland during a period of great CFMEU troubles,” Mr Houghton told Sky News Australia. “At the same time, the Labor Party was only too happy to take funding from the CFMEU so Murray Watt’s own comments need some examination.”

And so to the final gobbet, and the news that the Queensland Olympics would be a disaster, as if the staging of any Olympics in recent times has been anything other than a financial disaster ...

Should the federal Labor government bear any responsibility for what happened in Victoria? No doubt, the relevant ministers will be ducking for cover, pointing to the administration of the CFMEU and the refusal of federal Labor to accept direct donations from the CFMEU. But note here that Victoria handed over its industrial relations powers to the federal government decades ago, and that the only statute that matters is federal. The provisions in the Fair Work Act that allow for the establishment of an effective black market for enterprise agreements are part of the story. At one stage, CFMEU agreements in Victoria were effectively being sold – $100,000 to $250,000 was the typical range, cash preferred.
The bottom line of this sorry saga is that the rationale for a well-considered infrastructure plan made necessary by high rates of population growth is quickly undermined when compliance with the law and moral norms is missing. Leaving aside the direct financial costs, the ultimate outcome is a large construction sector that is now less productive than it was 10 years ago, and much more expensive. And the impact is not confined to Victoria.
With Queensland due to host the Olympic Games in 2032, the outlook is bleak for the preparations without major changes to the way industrial relations are conducted.

What a marathon, what a journey of despair, what a relief to turn to the immortal Rowe to celebrate ...

We are all redheads now, we are all Spartacus, we are Tamworth's undying shame, we are reptiles ...