In which the pond has its usual soft Oreo snack ...

The pond has long wanted to smash up its Godwin's Law swear jar and note the heavily fascist streak in the Oreo ...

Sure the Oreo is perhaps the most favourite, most loved of all pond treats, but here's what happens when you move from a deeply patriotic snack to a meal of fudge ...

You move from this ...   ... to this ...  

Or you cop this ...

Now the pond doesn't have the foggiest clue what "soft" treason might be ...

Treason is inclined to be treason, at least in a legal sense ...

It's not like there's an out like manslaughter, though the degree and nature and affect and impact of the treason might influence the sentencing ...

Try to find a definition of "soft" treason online and you're referred to the Oreo ... or to this talk of "sweet treason", both hard and soft ...

Now the pond could dress it up with a bit of feminist jargon, all this talk of "soft" ...

Oh dear the pond just knew that Judeo-Christian would have to get into it somehow.

Wouldn't it just be simpler to say that the Oreo is hard barking mad, with soft fascist inclinations?

Around this point, the pond's mind began to wander, and it drifted off to another weird moment ...

A reporter on Friday questioned a claim by the White House chief of staff, John Kelly, a retired four-star marine general, that the Democratic congresswoman Frederica Wilson had taken credit for securing funding for an FBI building in Florida. Chip Reid, a CBS News correspondent, said during the daily press briefing: “He was wrong yesterday in talking about getting the money. The money was secured before she came into Congress.” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, replied coldly: “If you want to go after Gen Kelly, that’s up to you. But I think that if you want to get into a debate with a four-star marine general, I think that that’s something highly inappropriate.” Reid’s follow-up question was ignored and the implication – from a democratically elected civilian government – that a military general was beyond criticism was troubling to many. Perry O’Brien, a former army medic who served in Afghanistan, said: “It’s just another example of the administration hiding behind the uniform of others. That’s why it’s so unfortunate to see someone like Gen Kelly enable that and jump on the grenade that Trump threw.” O’Brien, organising director of Common Defense, a group of veterans against Trump, added: “When you say, ‘How dare you criticise a general?’, how about [former Trump national security adviser] Gen Michael Flynn, who was the first to resign after we learned they were colluding with foreign powers? I don’t think most generals would say a star on your shoulder makes you immune from criticism.” (Graudian here).

Well yes, one of the joys of a democracy is that you can question and criticise the military, and what the military does in the name of the democracy ...

That's the entire point, that's what you can't do in communist and fascist regimes, and in quasi-totalitarian regimes of the Donald and the Vlad kind ... and what apparently you're not supposed to do in the Oreo's Australia ...

Some of the commentary and the criticism might be wrong and require correction ... and some of it might uncover a Flynn, deep in bed with Vlad and the Turks ...

You're supposed to be able to go the kneel, even if others think it might be misguided or ineffective.

The point is, exercising the right to free speech and free reporting isn't a form of treason, soft or pulsating tumescent hard, it's actually supposed to be a distinctive feature of the brand ...

But your hard, or soft fascist, of the Oreo kind, never get this, and routinely attempt to silence discussion or reporting by leading with the notion of treason ... conflating and confusing things that might require correction with a desire to ban the whole thing, because banning is a chief delight of the soft and hard fascist ...

You know, the whole flag waving, knee jerk patriotism is the refuge of the scoundrel thing ...

The pond wonders whether the Oreo has sat herself down and taken a look at the ultimate body count mentality which was at work during the Vietnam war ...

It's never been accounted for, all the killing of civilians ... and yet, despite the obvious drawbacks of the hardline communist North Vietnam regime, it made many Vietnamese people prefer a form of Stalinism as a solution to the agony of the country, and the endless killing fields, the burning down of villages, the destruction of towns in order to save them, the bombing back to the stone age as a way forward to a notoriously, deeply corrupt democracy ...

The same sort of logic infests the current Judeo-Christian desire for a civilisational war with Islamics, and to hell with the men, women and children caught in the cross fire ... and to anyone interested in reporting on this sort of dilemma as experienced on the front line ...

But all that said, the pond did appreciate that last line by the Oreo. It's not often that she's as clear as that in her attacks on the Donald.

But it's perfectly reasonable and legitimate for her to question our willingness to go to war with a paranoid dictator of the Donald Trump kind, hot as he seems to be for nuclear holocaust ...

The pond doesn't think she's guilty of soft or hard treason for raising the question. It will be a serious matter if we do decide to follow the paranoid narcissist dictator Donald Trump down the road if he does, in his hotness, decide to bung on a nuclear holocaust ...

The reality is that the United States is a much bigger elephant in the room than the 25 million or so North Koreans, who can be expected to put up stout resistance at home,  but if they decided to venture abroad would be incinerated within the hour ...

Raising as an issue matters whirling around the paranoid dictator Donald isn't soft treason, it's to be commended, and once again the Oreo manages to retrieve the situation right at the end of her column ...

It turns out it isn't so hard, to indulge in a little bit of soft questioning ...

Why with a bit of luck, the Oreo might soon begin to wonder about many other aspects of the Donald ...