In which the pond joins the reptiles in a little Donald watching ...

Well that's the Trump joke out of the way, and it doesn't pay to dive beneath the headlines for the 'tish boom' payoff ...

Of late the reptiles have dropped off the Trump watching, though it keeps up a heated pace in the United States, as they marvel at the strange cuckoo in their nest ...

One tweet and share prices crash and the poodle is plunged into a world of uncertainty and defensive pain ...

Meanwhile, the lizard Oz editorialist is still trying to catch up and tempt the pond with a bit of Ozzie Oi Oi ...

But it turned out to be a damp fizzer ...

There was at least one good joke.

Benefited greatly from fracking?

Sorry, that's just Forbes being alarmist here ...

All the reptiles have to say is that Americans have benefited greatly from fracking ... especially if they happen to be standing on an earthquake in Oklahoma as the wind rushes right across the plains ...

But it whetted the pond's appetite for more of the reptiles going on about the Donald, and sure enough ...

Oh it's the reptiles up to their old recycling trick ... though a little more promptly than usual ...

Yes, only a nine hour delay ... but there it was in its original setting, glistening like a conservative think tank jewel ...

And now it's time for the reptile make-over, and the marvel of that opening par ...

A Saudi broadcaster?

So that's where we're heading? 

Back to high oil prices, so that the Saudis can use the money to keep layabouts off the street, the royal family in power, women away from the wheel in cars, and fundamentalism Wahhabism financed around the world ...

Where's Boris when he's needed? No, not the Boris lying about the NHS and Brexit, the other off the cuff Boris who allowed a little hoppy toad of truth to pop out ...

Silly old Boris, that's almost as bad as talking to the Taiwanese ... and more of Boris at the Graudian here ...

Meanwhile, it's back to the Americans showing an unerring capacity to get it wrong ...

Flynn?

The barking mad Flynn struck welcome notes to welcoming Arab ears? Well maybe not these ones here ...

As for the rest, the Saudis can be assured that the easy times are coming back, and they can continue to create mayhem around the world, and the Americans will fall into line and demonise the Iranians, and who knows who else ...

With a bit of luck and despite the Donald's protestations, gratefully recycled by the reptile Oz ...

Remember that one, no wonder they're giving it away for free, because we might yet end up with another regime change bit of war-mongering, even if John Bolton failed to make the cut ...

Let's see how the WSJ pundits see it going ...

Indeed, indeed, and if nothing else there's going to be tremendous fun watching the war between those urging greater US engagement, including organising and arming yadda yadda, and the Donald furiously tweeting ....

It's all there, in that line "To confront worse enemies, the US must work with countries that do not share, and sometimes violate, its values. Ultimately, she believed, this will serve security and freedom."

... as it no doubt served the security and freedom of those in the Twin Towers at the wrong time ...

Thanks Wahhabists, thanks visionary American foreign policy ... oh and thanks oil-funded Wahhabists for stoking the flames of bigotry in Indonesia.

That's just what we needed to our north ... a barking mad flock of Islamic fundamentalists running the old heresy line and demanding social policies that might keep Cory Bernardi and the ACL happy, but doesn't do much for the pond ...

Ah well, it's just another conservative think tank piece, as tone deaf and mystifyingly stupid as the next, and that talk of "greater US engagement" bodes well for the future, especially as it's not even the main game for "greater US engagement" ...

What is likely to be the main game? Well that's another tweet or ten away, but meanwhile the infallible Pope has a cartoon about that game, and there's more infallible cartooning here ...