In which the pond turns to dashing Donners to give the lizard Oz a caning ...

Another day, another dollar, and the rabid politicisation, the demonisation and the fear-mongering, continues apace at the top of the lizard Oz ...

It's now become completely naked and shameless ...

But wait, what's that the pond trimmed, that snowstorm at the top of the digital revolving fickle finger of fate splash of doom?

It's a Ridders, in full scientific flight ... as the reptiles show off their colonial cringe by running with re-heated half-baked beans from the one-time alleged mother country, one of those weird catastrophists that spend their days conjuring up all sorts of disasters, provided it doesn't have anything to do with global warming ...

Yes, we're running out of carbon in the atmosphere, and ruination confronts us all ...

Is there anyone to hand who can add to the benefits of a colonial cringe?

Sexton for Prince Chuck ... or is that Sexton the prince of Chucks?

But that's all just an elaborate troll and tease, because the pond has other equally ancient business to conduct.

You see, yesterday the reptiles were all about the need for education to feed the machine ...

At the time, the pond wondered whatever happened to the notion of knowledge for knowledge's sake, the benefits of wisdom and understanding and insight, no matter how arcane, because at some point said knowledge might come in handy, and even if it didn't, there was still a certain joy in the pleasure of knowing ...

This was prompted not just by the reptiles but by some kindly soul leaving a copy of Eugenio Garin's exotic slim volume in the street library - Astrology in the Renaissance, The Zodiac of Life, is hardly in the mainstream of studies, especially as Garin promotes the thesis that astrology gave way to more rational and scientific approaches to the world ...

Dammit, that's not going to deliver for business, because apparently the entire point of life is to be a humble servant of business, or perhaps a minion of the Chairman ...

Then came Ridders, Nancy Reagan reading the tea leaves, and many an astrology column still hanging on in many reptile tabloids ... presumably because including the tea leaves would leave the tree killer editions a tad soggy ...

Perhaps not enough people had read their Garin ...

As for the dubious benefits of education delivering for business?

We've seen where illiteracy and genuine ignorance can get you ...

Who and what Donald Trump is has been known to everyone and anyone who cared to know for years and decades. Before he was president, he was the country’s leading racist conspiracy theorist. Before he was the country’s leading racist conspiracy theorist, he was a celebrity gameshow host. Before he was a celebrity gameshow host, he was the multi-bankrupt least trusted name in real estate. Before he was the multi-bankrupt least trusted name in real estate, he was the protege of Roy Cohn’s repeatedly accused of ties to organized crime. From the start, Donald Trump was a man of many secrets, but no mysteries. Inscribed indelibly on the public record were the reasons for responsible people to do everything in their power to bar him from the presidency.

Donald Trump Goes Full Fredo even comes with a movie quote ...

“I can handle things. I’m smart! Not like everybody says, like dumb. I’m smart and I want respect!”

It shows how weird things can get, the pond quoting David Frum approvingly, and the lizards of Oz somehow imagining that Ridders is a top of the page climate scientist deserving attention and respect ...

At this point, the pond was getting desperate.

Who would argue that perhaps knowledge had an important role to play, and not just serving up graduates to the maw of business? Was there a knight in shining armour ready to charge the reptiles and scatter them in their folly ...

Come on down, dashing Donners ...

Phew, deep breath. If the pond can agree with David Frum, is it possible it might have a little in common with dashing Donners, especially if he gives the reptiles a public caning?

Yeay, ancient Latin and Greek, and perhaps even astrology in the Renaissance, and the White House ... and a Donners daring to depart from the official lizard party line ...

There's just one question to ask Donners, with his talk of a liberal view committed to wisdom and truth ... 

Does having Ridders at the top of the page show any sign of a liberal view committed to wisdom and truth, and since when has the Catholic church peddled liberal views committed to wisdom and truth?

Talk about shocks to the system, as noted by the Pope this day ... with more papal pleasures here ...

And now, following a reader alert, the pond must note the departure of a cartoonist who turned up many times in the pond, always reliable, always with a little interstitial that said more than all the commentary around it (and certainly around the wretched morass that Fairfax slowly became).

It had been foreshadowed late last year, and even then Tandberg showed his usual good humour ...

... and in his passing he's still alive, in the sense that the best any of us can hope for is to live on in memories ... with Tony Wright noting his passing in The Age here ...

A google will score a host of Tandbergs ... he was a very popular inker ... so here's one for Ridders and the reptiles of Oz ...