In which the pond takes a break from domestic anxieties and the heat, and plunges in for a swim ...

Ever since the reptiles put up a tighter paywall, the pond has been swamped by discussion starters that leak outside … whether it's even more on South African farmers and the Tudge response, or the Folau matter, and the oscillating fan and sponsor still troubling the reptiles, or dinkum Oz coal, oi, oi, oi, and poor old Josh and Barners and the onion muncher and the whole damn thing …

But with Washington awash with gossip about the Donald working up the steam to sack Rod Rosenstein and perhaps Sessions, the pond thought it would take a lunch time break … what with there still being record temperatures in the land, and the Donald's work only just begun, and all the reptiles can do is worry about blackouts in South Australia … and besides, the pond has a number of cartoons to work its way through …

Speaking of mindless adulation, the reptiles did a ripper this day …

A stunning victory?

Hmm, the pond knows where that's coming from …

Of course it took only a few moments for the pond to cop a splash of cold water in the face, thanks to Politico ...

Chinese President Xi Jinping's promise to reduce auto tariffs is not the win for President Donald Trump that it appears to be. While Trump praised Xi’s proposals on Twitter — “Very thankful for President Xi of China’s kind words on tariffs and automobile barriers,” he posted — analysts and business leaders shrugged off Xi’s promises to open markets as old pledges that have yet to be fulfilled. They also dismissed his vow to reduce auto tariffs as inconsequential without other, larger changes. “The Chinese are great at saying what folks want to hear,” said a U.S. industry aide, who spoke on condition of anonymity to be more candid. “Hope springs eternal, and it would be great if the takeaway from this speech is that the Chinese are truly now committed to a level playing field. I think it’s really, quite frankly, a stretch to make that case.” Xi’s offer to cut auto tariffs could be interpreted as “the Chinese version of an olive branch,” but any reductions could be negated by other, non-tariff barriers, said Derek Scissors, resident scholar and China economy expert at the American Enterprise Institute. The problem is the Chinese want to placate Trump by increasing imports without addressing their massive subsidies and regulations that make it hard for foreign firms to compete in their market, Scissors said. Xi’s speech is less of a bending toward Trump administration concerns than an “olive twig” likely to spur only marginally greater market access, said Scott Kennedy, a China analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Meanwhile, there's the ballooning budget … and sundry other matters …

But once the reptiles get a bee in their bonnet, they can never let it out.

If the pond had one bet, it would be that Xi will do the Donald for dinner, and then dessert. 

This isn't particularly pleasing - the pond isn't entranced by dictatorships, but it's also true that Xi has a much better political environment in which to work, while the harried and hustled (and incidentally narcissist and dumb) Donald has all sorts of fires to confront … not to mention the longer term legacy he's going to leave the world …

Touchingly, the reptiles reprinted the Donald's tweet and went on to look at their eggs sunny side up ...

Markets come, markets go, but Xi is in for the long game, and the Donald is in for assorted short-term eruptions, some self-induced …

What's even funnier is the way that the reptiles dragooned Bob Carr into heiling it as a victory for Trump ...

The pond realises it's the business of the reptiles to pretend that everything is going along swimmingly and in a perfectly normal way, and that their kissing cousins at Fox News are delivering the right sort of advice, and helping run a very tight government ship, steering around the shoals to a bright and glorious future ...

… which is why, on days like this, that the pond sometimes whether it should just go for a swim …