From Sarah to Warren, the pond can't get enough of the sickening and the disgusting ...

The pond is indebted to hawk-eyed correspondent DW, who rightly feared he might be helping Chairman Rupert make money by linking to a story on an actual Murdoch site.

The story was fanciful, and as it turned out, a lie, or at least an embellishment in relation to former chairman Abbott meeting up with Obama.

It turned out that he landed at a general gathering and he didn't come away with a selfie of himself and the man.

Instead he tweeted a couple of snaps of himself standing next to the man who elevated Sarah Palin in the world of politics, as well as that famous snap of two war criminals sharing a little quality time ...

Sort of like one of those old passport booths. Oh and there was a snap of Abbott standing in front of New York rubbish destined for recycling. Metaphor anyone?

Never mind, the footage discovered on Sky showed Abbott in heroic poses and sauntering through Washington in the manner the pond imagines is favoured by wall-punching thuggees ...

First the serious snaps ...

And then came the unintended punchline ... Peta trying to stay out of camera eye ...

And so on. The rest is just more of Abbott white-anting and undermining and sniping and posing as a fearless alternative leader to Malware, but there, just in shot on the left, is the reality, lurking ...

Truly, it was delicious, it made the pond's day ... surely we're now in similar territory to other famous matches, such as John Gorton and Ainsley, and Jim Cairns and Junie ...

And so to a little bonus filler ... every muesli needs its rolled oats along with its fruit and nuts ... and sometimes you can get the oats and the nuts in one delicious bundle ...

By golly, the stenographer knows how to copy it down. 

Is it wrong for the pond to point out that the last time the pond looked into it, there was no talk of banning people from going to Israel?

The talk was of sponsored trips to Israel, as you can Fairfax here.

If Warren wants to go, he can dust the red backs out of his wallet and get on the move.

It's a measure of how deep Mundine's nose is now in the trough, how accustomed he is to a decently subsidised and sponsored lifestyle that he should get so agitated about sponsored trips, which are designed to beguile and seduce.

The pond recalls being offered a 'sponsored' trip to North Korea and deciding there were better things to do in life.

How did talk of a responsible attitude to 'sponsored trips to Israel' come to be deemed as "verging on the anti-Semitic" and "sickening to watch."

The pond has to say it's sicking to read this sort of hysterical beat up.

The pond would be happy if all politicians and public servants were to be deprived of 'sponsored' trips. There's always an agenda, and it's always an implicit or explicit bribe. It operates on the same level sometimes as stars requesting that they can vet the copy arising from an interview, and even when it doesn't reach that level, the moral pressure to toe the line is strong. It's polite not to bite the hand that feeds you the junket.

This applies to both sides of that particular middle eastern aisle. Palestinians have better things to spend their money on than hosting junketing Australia politicians, and Israel should, but of course Israel is busy using its money for land grabs, and then offering 'sponsorships' to visiting politicians so that they can be sold on the deal ...

The rest of the stenographer's story shows where Mundine sits, and the pond found it quite sickening and disgusting, so naked was his pandering ...

Uh huh. Once again brave Bill is at the forefront, standing between the pigs rushing to the trough and brave Labor principles ...

So how does it go in Israel?

Don't trust the pond. Let's ask Ban Ki-Moon, scribbling Don't Shoot the Messenger, Israel for The New York Times:

Lordy lordy, has that and a few other sharp observations caused a ruckus.

There's more of course, and there's an attempt at a balanced consideration of the flaws on both sides, but the pond didn't need a sponsored junket from one side to learn a little about what's going down ...

There's a problem here, and when Mundine talks of disgust, perhaps he should share around the disgust a little more ...

Contempt's a two way street when it comes to pandering and pigs at trough ...

Which leaves the pond just time to celebrate the return of Rowe, and more properly framed Rowe here ...

Hmm, let's hope the folks travelling on that rickety craft are suitably sponsored ... wouldn't want them to be paying their own way ...