In which the pond wanders from fundamentalist Wahhabism to fundamentalist Peta ...

It's an obvious enough angle, with plenty of stories and plenty of tweeting on the subject ...

The pond is routinely bemused by the world, and the sight of the Donald bowing to an Islamic for a trinket and an arms deal - that'll really help the peace - compounds the bemusement.

The pond has a particular thing about the purveyors of fundamentalist Wahhabism, and kowtowing to a state where women still aren't allowed to drive and must be escorted under veil everywhere by men - and that's before getting on to the public executions in the square, and sundry other persecutions and the flowering of extremism around the world (not least in Indonesia).

Fifteen of the nineteen 9/11 attackers were Saudi, and Saudi Bin Laden's fits of pique about Saudi Arabia shouldn't obscure the way his ideological and theological notions were formed in country, and saw him naturally gravitate towards the fundamentalist Taliban ...

What dimwit haters of Islam in the United States make of the Donald's odyssey is beyond the pond ... though it does look forward to Stephen Miller's speech, as delivered by Miller's short attention span sock puppet ...

And now to do a quick pivot, helped along by an old pivoting Rowe cartoon, with fresher Rowe here ...

Whenever the threats of the boats returning is dragged out from beneath the bed, dusted off and given a run in the Terror, the pond goes on high alert ...

Now the prime point is obvious enough.

Undiluted fear mongering, panic and hysteria, up there with the Donald, or perhaps down there in the gutter, a familiar enough place for petulant Peta ... but being perverse, the pond always looks for the sub-text, because there's always sub-text.

Bashing Comrade Bill seems a straightforward matter of Liberal unity. Everyone joining with Malware to unite and stop the boats,  because otherwise they'll never be stopped again ...

Now this is familiar enough, and yet, noting that the Devine this day is still rabbiting on about the Lindt siege, that line about trusting Liberals on immigration is a tad broad ... better to have stuck to the old line of stopping the boats ...

Ah the good old days, when the pond was in a state of terror from hour to hour, day to day ... but this sort of yarn wouldn't work without some demonising of coffee makers and drinkers ...

Oh that vile luxuriant liver in la la latte land ... sock it to 'em ...

The pond wept tears to imagine a hapless Peta watching the country run down while she was forced to watch ... instead of running the country down while in government and making a right mess of things ...

... which brings the pond back to the perpetrator of the Lindt siege. The reptiles in another place (which can be googled) attempted to fit up Amnesty, in the matter of Mohamed Hassan Manteghi, aka Man Haron Monis, but ...

All blame cannot fall on Amnesty, because they do not decide who comes to this country. Manteghi’s protection visa was approved at departmental level, under asylum hard line minister, Philip Ruddock. An Immigration insider confirmed that anyone seeking Australia’s protection at that time would have automatically been referred by Immigration to ASIO for further investigation. And, because Manthegi claimed to have information in return for protection, it is likely that Australian Security Intelligence Service, which is concerned with foreign intelligence matters, was also engaged, as were foreign embassies.

Now the truth is, the man was a dissembler and a liar, as well as barking mad, and as likely as not it was the crazy as much as any inclination to Daesh or Islamic fundamentalism that provided an explanation for the siege ...

As for the department and Ruddock, anyone can make mistakes, especially when tall tales are told and secrets about Iran are offered ...

But here's the thing. One of the few examples of a terrorist incident routinely cited by agitated reptiles as a warning to us all started under Ruddock and would have involved vetting by alleged experts ...

And now, the pond not having been sufficiently terrorised thus far, please allow the reptiles to produce a truly terrible, threatening image, designed to bolster petulant Peta's hysteria and alarm ...

By golly the pond is still reeling from that image of invading children ...but what an impressive segue, that one about the nation being sent bankrupt by these children turning up and turning into welfare bludgers and nobody being able to afford anything and turning into a basket-case, because even thought it's routinely suggested by economists that immigration helps bolster economic activity and productivity (IMF it here), what the fuck have facts got to do with anything when panic, fear and loathing is the game?

Now earlier on, the pond wondered about the sub-text of all this.

After all, petulant Peta loathes Malware, so why do a story bashing refugees and migrants generally, and raising alarums about the budget, if it's simply to help a loathed figure return to power?

Here's where the sub-text comes in handy, because there's an alternative hero who can be featured, by photograph and by epic word and deed ...

There it is, the sub-text liberated in that last par. That gutless Malware without the heart or the ticker, saved by the wondrous mutton Dutton ...

In the best of all possible worlds, here's how it will play out. Malware is rolled before the election, and mutton Dutton strides to the leadership on the back of his impeccable record of sorting out the boats and making Australia hate again. As one of his first acts, he brings back the onion muncher and puts him into cabinet, and peace is restored and all is well in the land.

Alternatively, Malware leads the party to defeat, and is rolled by the mutton Dutton, with the able support of the onion muncher, who is given a jolly good position in the shadow cabinet. Working on the Peter principle, the pond humbly suggests shadow Treasurer...

And so to one of the comments evoked by petulant Peta, where one Cec R dared to wonder about the emperor's clothes, and received a response which, in a kindly way, can only be called remarkably stupid ...

The pond sometimes wonders how stupid people ended up thinking that Trump was the solution, and Jason provides the perfect reprimand to the pond for such silly wondering ...

The logic about the chemical weapons is pure Trumpism, and the ability to do a Greg Hunt and learn about the southern walri and the number of victims of Saddam's regime, here, sadly seems to have escaped Jason ...

As soon as anyone starts a sentence with "The fact is", the pond knows it will be in a fact free zone, because the fact is, Jason's pretty much a fuckwit ....

But there in a nutshell is the Terrorist market for a cosmic alliance of chaos and confusion, where petulant Peta can be found hurling around fear and hysteria in a way not so far removed from the Donald, Fox and friends ...

So many stupid people, so little time, and petulant Peta always on hand to lather them into a frenzy and offer the mutton Dutton as their salvation ... which just allows time for a few more golden memories, with fresher Pope here ...