In which the pond nods off thanks to nattering "Ned" ...

Still in urgent need of distraction, the pond looked to the reptiles for help, and lo, nattering "Ned" hovered into view ...

The alternative would have been to brood yet again about Wahhabism, that peculiar form of fundamentalist puritanism that Saudi Arabia has spent billions exporting to the world, and behind much of the thinking of barking mad terrorists ...

The blind spot in United States thinking on this is a bit like the assumption that it was only the fault of the Catholics or the Protestants that their civil war continued, with much violence, for centuries.

... He (Trump) blamed “terrorism” almost exclusively on Iran and, by implication, on the Shia minority in the region, while al-Qaeda notoriously developed in the Sunni heartlands and its beliefs and practises primarily stem from Wahhabism, the sectarian and regressive variant of Islam prevalent in Saudi Arabia. It flies in the face of all known facts to link the wave of terrorist atrocities since 9/11 on the Shia, who have most usually been its target. This toxic historical myth-making does not deter Trump. “From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms and trains terrorists, militias and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region,” he told an assembly of 55 Sunni leaders in Riyadh on 21 May. (here).

It reached some sort of peak doofus when surrealist goose, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, noted that there were no protestors waving placards during the whole time the Trumpists were in country.

Ross would have enjoyed his time in Germany in the thirties, with nary a negative sign on view and for the very same reasons. Death by decapitation tends to put a damper on protesting .... ( and there's another dollar in the Godwin's Law swear jar).

But then Wilbur's a real live wire, with his ear to the ground and his eyes wide shut ...

Wahhabism is one of the least attractive - actually vile and loathsome - forms of religion active in the world, down there with all the rest of the puritanisms ... and there's the Americans swallowing it down whole, all for the price of an arms deal ... which will really quieten down that centuries-old civil war ...

Is it any wonder that the pond would seek refuge and Wilbur-like bliss by reverting to nattering "Ned"?

With all the rest of the demonisations going on, what can he do to remind us of the need to fear China?

Ah the fiendish, cunning Chinese. Fancy wanting to catch the Americans off-guard with their devious Marxist-Leninist machine imposing political authority ... while democratic United States gets into bed with the Wahhabists for a mess of arms-sales pottage ...

Now the thing the pond likes most when "Ned" goes on one of his "sky is falling down" routines is its simultaneous effect ... the endomorphins of alarm are quickly overwhelmed, and the desire to slumber wins out ...

In the end, it seems even Ned couldn't sustain the spectre of the all-devouring dragon ... and in fact by the very end, it seems the onion-muncher, Malware and nattering Ned are as one ... there are deals to be done, and orders to be followed, once the obligatory idle chatter about the Marxist-Leninist machine has been put to bed, perhaps somewhere alongside talk of Wahhabism ...

So that's it then ... done and dusted and all's well, and conservatives have once again done the right thing, and reason has triumphed. China is intent on world domination, and must be feared, but astute deal-makers can do the right deals and nothing needs to be feared ...

Boiled down to its essence, it's not so far from the gibberish of the deal-making Donald, intent on producing peace in the Middle East by Christmas ... by shipping $110 billion in arms to a region in the middle of an eternal theological civil war and any number of ongoing practical fights ...

Oh bliss oh poop, and so the pond can now return to its own favourite form of fear and loathing ...