In which the pond deals out a dish of contempt as a way of handling the gloom ...

(Above: you can find more Kal cartoons at The Economist, here, paywall affected)

Moving beyond the current contemptible attempts to taint and corrupt the evidence and deal cruelly with the victims of mass murder, the contemptible Putin poses a particular future problem for Tony Abbott.

The middle of November isn't far away, and the G20 is looming, so what does Abbott do?

Now the pond has always had trouble with the sort of Pilgerist apologists who present Putin's backing of mercenaries and terrorists in Ukraine as acceptable, and blame the west and Obama and anybody else within cooee for Putin's criminal behaviour and his criminal consorting with criminals.

Pointing to the idiocy of George W. Bush and the west's behaviour in Iraq and Afghanistan, or Vietnam if you want to go back a little further, is no excuse for Putin's own execrable behaviour.

The pond demonstrated against the idiocy of Bush, and his fellow travellers and deputy sheriffs, John Howard and Tony Abbot, not that it did any good at all, but is now too old and tired and poor to travel to Brisbane to protest, should Putin have the cheek and the front to turn up in Brisbane - he has more front than Melbourne Myers once had - but there will be others that will, and not just those directly affected by the crimes of the criminals in Ukraine. And good on them, the pond will be there in spirit should it come to that ...

Should Abbott and Campbell Newman have allowed the contemptible Putin to land ...

But if they do, what do they do then?

Turn the fire hoses of the state's paramilitary on the dissidents and protestors taking a stand against a man complicit in mass murder?

They should be standing in the street protesting with the protestors.

Bowing to the contemptible Putin would be a bad look, and there should be more at stake here than looks.

But do the parochial bully boys have the ticker to stand up to the much bigger bully boy? Seeing as how the nervous nellies and fellow travellers like Germany's Merkel and the dictators of China have already been wringing their hands ...

It becomes an even sharper matter for Campbell Newman, who this very day is now confronting an epic defeat.

Yes the Currish Snail has the full story in LNP concedes defeat in Stafford by-election as Labor secures more than 50 per cent of the vote, though you have to hunt for it.

So what did the contemptible Newman - though he's less contemptible than Putin, he's certainly contemptible enough - have to say for himself?

“We understand that many people weren’t happy with the need for an election,’’ he said.

Say what? That's the best you've got? They voted against you in plague proportions and it's all because they were grumpy about getting out of bed?

Surely you should be blaming dissidents and traitors, in best Animal Farm style ...

 “Clearly the attacks on the Government by the former member were a factor in this election as well. It did us no favours. It did Bob’s campaign no favours."

Does it occur to Newman that Campbell Newman, through his deeds and legislation and wayward inept behaviour did Bob's campaign no favours? Yep, here it comes, like extracting a molar with pliers:

“But I do absolutely understand that there are people that are unhappy with this Government, our Government and I just say this evening we know they’re unhappy because we have had to make many unpopular and strong decision.” 

Ah, the old Vlad 'the impaler' Putin strong man routine.

It's not the time or the place for that.

But you can smell the fear in this digital effort by the Currish Fail today:

What an ugly, sickening mix of tragedy and domestic politics.

But it's easy enough to see why.

If the dedicated Queensland runes reader heads off to Antony Green's site here, you'll find the real measure against which the current astonishing swing can be judged:

There was a 6.9% swing against Labor at the 2009 election with Hinchliffe defeated after a further 14.4% swing at Labor's landslide defeat in 2012.

The Stafford by-election was notorious for another matter, the introduction of the lowest and basest sort of Tea party measure, clearly designed to disenfranchise or discourage Aborigines, the poor and minorities from voting, by requiring some form of personal identification to be presented.

If you didn't front with the various forms of allowed ID, you had to complete a form to permit a declaration vote.

The contemptible Newman got exactly what he deserved for this contemptible form of trickery.

As for the dissident who dared to question the state dictator? Well he had a final word to say:

... Dr Davis said it was obvious Stafford voters had delivered a message Mr Newman didn’t want to hear. “I did my best to get the message to the LNP early on and the messenger was shot,” he said.

Dr Davis? As per Mr Green:

Davis was appointed Assistant Minister for Health when the Newman came to office. In 2014 he began to raise questions concerning the government's handling of the doctor's contract dispute in Queensland Hospitals, as well as changes to the Crime and Misconduct Commission. This resulted in him being dismissed as Assistant Minister. Davis subsequently raised concerns about the government's changes to electoral donation laws, missed the vote on the legislation and then announced his resignation from Parliament.

And there you have the contemptible "strong man" Newman's problems and wrong-headed behaviour in a nutshell.

So how did the Currish Snail handle the story?

Pages 16 and 17?

They might use the excuse of the contemptible Putin's crimes to try to bury the story, but here's the figure that counts, and it's a pretty clear one:

That tweet's here, and its link to the results is here.

So what is it with Queensland, and the roller coaster ride and the wild swings?

Well the pond's initial thesis is that it's the result of a lack of fluoride in the water.

Okay, we keed, we keed, but every day Queensland produces fresh wonders and marvels.

It was only yesterday that the Currish Wail was reporting Queensland Palmer United Party leader Alex Douglas says Clive Palmer walked out of ABC interview 'to be polite'.

State Palmer United Party leader Alex Douglas says Clive Palmer was right to storm out of an ABC television interview because women don’t have the “same capacity” to handle themselves during a combative conversation. 
The Gold Coast-based state MP said he supported Mr Palmer’s handling of the 7.30 Report July 10 interview, explaining the PUP leader walked out “to be polite” to the show’s host, respected journalist Sarah Ferguson. 
“In Australia you are marked severely for being rude to any woman,” Dr Douglas said. 
“You have to be able to give them (women) a better chance to represent themselves than you would for a man because a lady does not have the same capacity,” he said. 
“It’s a very blokey world. Women do not have an equal chance. 
“They have to be given greater capacity. You can’t bully them and you can’t swear at them.” Asked later to elaborate on his comment that women did not have the “same capacity”, Dr Douglas said that a man “has a natural advantage” when it came to a hostile confrontation. “A lady, if she wants to be abusive and shouting. particularly if the line of questioning is overtly hostile and aggressive, you are far better to say nothing at all because you can’t win the argument,” he said.

Only a Queenslander? Only in Queensland?

Here he is, with his PUP meister:

Oh dear that combination of shirt and tie rather says it all, not to mention the ill-fitting suit.

But wait, there's more:

In an interview with The Courier-Mail, Dr Douglas insisted Mr Palmer left the interview to be polite.
“He did not want to be seen to insult her (Ferguson) and he did not want to be seen to be uncouth,” Dr Douglas said. 
“It’s never acceptable to insult a woman. It’s never acceptable to be rude to a woman and it is not sexist to say that.” 
Dr Douglas also accused members of his former LNP of shouting down female Labor MPs. He said women were being put into a position of having to become “pseudo-men” to survive. 
“I think the majority of girls don’t want to do that,” he said.

The majority of girls? Soft, cuddly, all feminine girlies?

Girls!

Oh for fuck's sake ...

But at least you know why the pond made a joke about the man's dress sense. It's the least he deserves.

Still, credit where credit is due.

The pond has been very gloomy these last few days - impotence and anger can do that to you - what with the under toad out and about in planes and in the occupied ghetto sometimes known as occupied Palestine, except if you happen to talk to George Brandis.

Wait, wait ... don't remind the pond, the bigot-loving, book-shelves loving, taxpayer book-buying Brandis who wants to be the Sauron of the intertubes is another Queenslander ...

Call the pond nutty, but it has to be the lack of fluoride in the water ... and maybe Vlad the impaler would be right at home, amongst strong men making strong decisions ... and keeping the riff raff away from the ballot box ...

(Below: and you can head off to Ronin here)