In which the pond discovers there's nothing but bush, and bush bashers, and bush whackers ...

In many ways, it's admirable: a chance for a young thing to show off their Photoshop skills, a chance to show off the "very best of our great state", a chance to beard the Russian bear, and, it goes without saying, a chance to show off Murdoch tabloid style.

It also shows yesterday's news, lathered and whipped up into a faux frenzy, delusional and hysterical, with the fear mongering unrelated to Abbott's actual behaviour in the presence of Putin and about as useful as a cold shower.

These days the shirt-front routine is an international joke:

Oh how they laughed, and gambolled with glee ...

No one else followed the Currish Wail's front page. The HUN had the local Labor party to fry, and the Terror - "He's here! Rash-Putin lands on Aussie soil" - put the Russian bear on page 2.

Indeed the reptiles tried to look serious and sound grand and important:

Say what?

The talks on energy security are yet to be concluded, and yet they could be influenced by the growing ­debate over climate change? Some G20 leaders seek a discussion on carbon reduction targets that could take up more time on this weekend’s agenda?

Climate change? But everybody was specifically enjoined not to mention climate change! It's bad enough that there's an elephant in the room, without pointing it out, and getting the elephant embarrassed:

Tony Abbott moved yesterday again to limit the discussion on ­climate change, and gained support from British counterpart David Cameron, who expressed caution about the impact of a new climate deal between China and the US. “There are lots of other issues around right now, lots of other ­issues that individually and collectively we’re interested in, but the focus of this G20 will be on growth and jobs,” Mr Abbott said. 
The energy talks are scheduled for tomorrow morning’s session of the G20 summit, at a time when leaders such as French President Francois Hollande are expected to be pushing for a greater focus on climate change.

Ah it's only the perfidious French getting hysterical. Now if only they could learn a little sobriety and style from the Currish Snail ...

As well as agreeing to the new energy agenda, Australian officials expect that tomorrow morning’s session on energy will include a discussion on climate change. 
The energy session is followed by a final session on future challenges, raising the possibility that the conclusion of the G20 could be derailed by a climate change discussion, with a number of ­nations keen to push back against the Abbott government’s reluctance to make it a central focus. 
Climate change has featured in every G20 leaders’ meeting, and many leaders believe it could help to galvanise commitment ahead of the Paris COP 21 meeting next year.

Derailed? As in off the rails like the little train?

SSSH, please don't mention climate change. The entire talks could be derailed by loose lips, because what's the point discussing an issue which the world's greatest climate scientist has pronounced dead in the water:

Yes, that's how it works in Murdoch la la land. Little Sir Echo echoes the reptiles echoing the ratbags echoing the Bolter, and with enough echoes, you end up in the perfect echo chamber.

There is one amusing problem when the echo chamber can't iron out the inconsistencies, and the Bolter's use of the word "decline", borrowed from Michael Asten, is a classic example.

Any other day of the week, the Bolter would be explaining how warming has stopped, it's done and dusted, it's halted, the climate scare is over ... (Andrew Bolt's "The death of global warmism").

Now it's a decline?

Well that's because the quoted text contains an unfortunate reference:

... Anny Cazenave and co-workers at the Geophysical and Oceanography Laboratory, Toulouse, which shows that from 1994 to 2011 the rate of observed rise in global sea level decreased from 3.5 to 2.5mm a year...

Decreased? So the seas are still rising? Just at an alleged lesser rate, but still rising?

Of course it's also a little disturbing if you take the time to consult Anny Cazenave's Ph.D thesis. It appears the poor deluded possum actually accepts the science, and just wants accurate measurement:

La monte du niveau des mers est une des premières conséquences du changement climatique global. La determination prècise des variations du niveau de la mer est d’une importance capitale notamment, pour les populations vivant dans des endroits à risques et vulnérables tels que les zones 
cótières basses, les deltas des grands fleuves ou encore les petites îles basses du Pacifique et de l’océan Indien. Nous montrons tout au long de cette thèse les liens étroits entre les fluctuations climatiques et les variations du niveau de la mer dûes aux variations du contenu thermique de l’océan, aux pertes de masse des calottes polaires, a la fonte actuelle des glaciers de montagne et aux variations du stock d’eaux continentales. Nous avons etabli différentes estimations des variations du niveau de la mer et des causes climatiques tant en global qu’en variabilite régionale. (and the rest in French in a lengthy pdf download here).

Yes, it turns out that Anny Cazenave is one of those fat cat, grant-gouging scientists, no doubt working right at this moment to use climate science and the UN to introduce world government on a global scale ...

Yes, she treats the science as some sort of religion, as this abstract for a recent paper shows:

Global warming in response to accumulation of human-induced greenhouse gases inside the atmosphere has already caused several visible consequences, among them increase of the Earth's mean temperature and ocean heat content, melting of glaciers, and loss of ice from the Greenland and Antarctica ice sheets. Ocean warming and land ice melt in turn are causing sea level to rise. Sea level rise and its impacts on coastal zones have become a question of growing interest in the scientific community, as well as in the media and public. In this review paper, we summarize the most up-to-date knowledge about sea level rise and its causes, highlighting the regional variability that superimposes the global mean rise. We also present sea level projections for the 21st century under different warming scenarios. We next address the issue of the sea level rise impacts. We question whether there is already observational evidence of coastal impacts of sea level rise and highlight the fact that results differ from one location to another. This suggests that the response of coastal systems to sea level rise is highly dependent on local natural and human settings. We finally show that in spite of remaining uncertainties about future sea levels and related impacts, it becomes possible to provide preliminary assessment of regional impacts of sea level rise. (here February 2014)

Surprised that Asten, and the Bolter, use the findings and words of Cazenave as evidence against the very science she accepts?

Perhaps you should re-read the pond yesterday and follow the link to Michael Ashley's epic taken down of Asten and the reptiles in Event horizon: the black hole in The Australian's climate change coverage.

What else?

Well today the reptiles have assigned assorted lizards the task of doing ABC take-downs for the weekend:

There's going to be a lot more of this sort of stuff as Malcolm Turnbull - having successfully degutted the NBN - moves on to degutting the ABC and SBS.

There's only one consolation, but it's a small one, and that's when the depth and extent of Turnbull's perfidy is discovered, he will have in effect guaranteed that he will never, ever get hold of the preciousss and become Prime Minister ...

Anything else?

Well yes, the pond was struck by this piece by that portentous pompous potentate of forelock tugging:

That sounds so emphatic, so certain, as if Kelly had access to the actual details in the FTA.

Silly, trusting, delusional pond. The entire piece is just Kelly forelock tugging in a worshipful way to Andrew Robb. It really should have been filed under "Propaganda", sub-section "People's Daily" press release.

And it has a quaint five year plan tone to it, this hagiography:

The China deal rests on four pillars — agriculture, services, investment and energy/resources.

Ah, the four pillars of destiny and wisdom:

The "four pillars" refers to the Chinese term (生辰八字, Shēng Chén Bā Zì), which translates as "The Eight Characters of Birth Time". This is also referred to by the Chinese term (四柱命理學, Sì Zhù Mìng Lǐ Xué), which translates to "Study of 'Four Pillars of Life' Principles".  (Greg Hunt it here, watch out for stray walri).

Well enough's enough. There's only so much denialism, bear baiting, ABC bashing, and uxorious Kelly excess that anyone should be expected to endure in a single day ...

Let the circus begin ... and let's see if Tony Abbott and the Currish Flail can disappear any further up their fundaments.

Such are the grander follies, that it's become increasingly difficult to keep track of all the lesser follies, though the terra nullius effort of "nothing but bush" - not a pesky black to be seen - must surely have taken the cake in less grand times.

"As we look around this glorious city, as we see the extraordinary development, it's hard to think that back in 1788 it was nothing but bush," Mr Abbott said. 
"The marines and the convicts and the sailors that straggled off those 12 ships, just a few hundred yards from where we are now, must have thought they had come almost to the moon. 
"Everything would have been so strange. Everything would have seemed so extraordinarily basic and raw, and now a city which is one of the most spectacular cities on our globe." 
Kirstie Parker from the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples said the comments do tremendous damage to the relationship of the Prime Minister and Aboriginal people. 
"I'd say they were a blunder except this is becoming a habit for the Prime Minister," she said. 
"On several occasions just in the last couple of months, he has made comments that have erased Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the landscape." 
Ms Parker said it was not a case of reading too much into the remarks, or taking them out of context. "For the Prime Minister to say there was nothing here but bush is incorrect; there were people here with sophisticated systems and societies and rules," she said. 
"We were here."  (and more here).

Of course, he can't help himself, it's in his British colonial nature ...

He was, in his own peculiar way, trying to show empathy for his ancient colonial forebears, but he's such a clodhopper, he never has the first clue that there are other people out there, and they might look at things a tad differently ... and that relentless blather about terra nullius is a sure sign that for all his empty gestures and treks into the bush, he doesn't have a clue ... which is why enforced removals are going to be revived in Western Australia ...

Sometimes you have to wonder whether Abbott himself thinks that he's been put in charge of a place that resembles the moon ...

(Below: and more Wilcox here)