In which Ewen Jones helps promote McCarthyism while hand-wringing about the consequences ...

(Above: more Wilcox here).

Oh sorry, that Wilcox cartoon is a left over from another pond post, but let it serve as a reminder that the pond woke up to grand news this morning on several fronts.

No, we didn't collect the expected gong. It must have gone astray in the post. Perhaps, now that stamps are so expensive, and no one sends postcards any more, it will be delivered by carrier pigeon later in the day.

But we did wake up to Maurice Newman in the lizard Oz announcing a world conspiracy yet again, and then the ABC led with a story about Ewen Jones at 6 am, and the pond got another grand cackle.

Fortunately, the pond has its own awards system, and this very day, it would like to award Liberal MP Ewen Jones the honourable title of a member of the right royal golden order of the ultimate ning nong, for this story:

After beginning on radio, the rest of that story turned up on the ABC website here.

Now we don't have to trawl through the rest of the story to know what the citizenship kerfuffle is all about. Cory Bernardi and Ewen's gorgeous George fellow Queenslander and many others have been busy using it to demonise Muslims as the foreign, the evil, the other, the alien, with no business living in Abbott's Fortress Australia. Fear has always been a potent ally of the grasping politician seeking to stay in power, especially politicians with no ethics ...

So why the pond's award?

Well there it is in the second par: Queensland MP Ewen Jones recently signed a letter supporting the Government's push to strip dual nationals of their Australian citizenship ...

But what did the letter say? Well for that, the pond must turn to Muslim bashing central, the reptiles of Oz:

In short, Jones empowered Abbott and others in the federal government to take the most extreme stance they can get away with, in their ongoing efforts to demonise Muslims and encourage fear and loathing in the community at large.

Why, for that breathtaking bit of pious handwringing and remarkable hypocrisy - Jones sounds too sanctimonious to write it off as mere stupidity - the pond also awards him the right royal order of the cackling golden goose, with bar.

So where does that leave us?

Well this morning, the reptiles are dancing with joy at the thought that they can pander even more to their audience of angry old white males:

Yep, rather than deal with Australian citizens as an Australian responsibility, we're going to dump Australian citizens abroad, thereby maintaining the grand British nee Australian tradition of dumping convicts in a strange new land.

It should be remembered that the bromancer is still deeply in his bromance with Abbott and has good contacts within the government. He is routinely barking mad, but sometimes in a well-informed way.

So what sayeth the bromancer?

Yes, indeed. Time to pause for a Moir cartoon, and more Moir here:

Uh huh. The man intent on demonising Triggs, who can't even get the details right as he goes about his demonising business.

So this is the man you want to be tough on citizens, Ewen Jones? Is this the Decider, the Terminator of rights?

And so back to the hard yards:

And there you have the bottom line. The politics of it should benefit the government. Let the demonisation of Islamics continue ...

Let the Joseph McCarthy era begin in earnest ...

Thanks for the handwringing Mr Ewen Jone. Arise, honourable member of the golden order of ning nongs and cackling geese ...

Now for the hard yards when it comes to aliens and furriners. 

Could it be that somehow a damned furriner has got himself promoted to the head of the government? Is this the first dual citizen who should be evicted for law breaking? Tony Abbott is almost certainly a British dual citizen - and so he can't be our PM ...

Now there's a plum conspiracy theory for Maurice to sink his teeth into.

Treason and treachery at the highest levels. Thank heavens we're entering the McCarthyite era and such miscreants can be returned to the prison hulks on the River Thames from whence they sprang ...

But let us end on a lighter note. Those who have read Jeff Sparrow's Mike Baird's plan for scripture lessons by stealth - in which Mike Baird pretends he didn't do a deal with the unreverend Fred Nile while doing a deal with the unreverend Fred Nile - will enjoy this bonus cartoon by Moir:

Ethics in Australian politics? Yep, there's a knock-down irony for you ... as the terror state continues its state of terror ...