In which the pond meditates with Polonial prattle, but then runs wild and free with the house of mouse ...

 

The pond had to patiently explain to an acquaintance why Succession had no appeal to the pond. 

It's not that the pond is against the drama per se, but the pond is busy enough with reality television. 

When told the patriarch carked it in the third ep of the current and last series, the pond countered that a plot twist like that could just as easily turn up in the real world.

Meanwhile, what script could possibly bring together a triple headed hydra featuring Harry, Megan, Rebekah and an ancient scandal that lurks in the wings?

...Rebekah Brooks is one of Murdoch’s favorite executives, regarded almost as a daughter for her loyalty and avidity as a ruthless tabloid professional. In his classic account of the hacking scandal, Hack Attack, the journalist Nick Davies said that Brooks was known as “the beating heart of the Devil.” When Davies worked for The Guardian, Brooks threatened his editor that she would run a story about his having a love child. There was no love child, and the story did not run, but it was part of a Brooks doctrine to “monster” critics of the Murdoch empire wherever they surfaced.
One particularly disingenuous part of her defense in the Old Bailey trial was the idea that although hacking in both tabloids had reached industrial scale she could remain unaware of it. The hacking, backed up by gumshoe snooping by private detectives, was a large part of the papers’ budgets. Murdoch tracked all budgets with a gimlet eye, and Brooks was a trusted manager.

To buy the idea that she missed all of this you would need to believe that she was either negligent or incompetent, and she was neither. Found not guilty at the trial, she and Murdoch had reason to believe that the true scale of the hacking crime as a part of a deliberately corrupted editorial ethic that turned in huge profits while it lasted would never be disclosed. That looks highly unlikely now.

And then there are the sub-plots. There are so many loons that are only one degree of separation from the core drama, and the best of these loons gather regularly to provide plot twists.

 Sure, Mike Lindell Makes Bats**t Claim About Fox News' Role In 2020 Election might only be a C-strand, only worth a few moments in an ep, but still ...

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell on Thursday accused Fox News of playing a “big part” in the mass 2020 voter fraud that he claims was Donald Trump’s downfall in the election. (Watch the video below.)
Lindell, a vociferous election denier who has appeared on Fox News and other right-wing outlets to shout his pro-Trump conspiracy theories, now says Fox News was somehow wrapped up in the election “steal” and suppressed the flow of information.
This would be the same Fox News that just paid Dominion Voting Systems gobs of money to settle a lawsuit because the network falsely and repeatedly claimed that balloting machines were rigged against Trump.
Be warned: Following Lindell’s addled argument could prove challenging.
“I believe Fox played a big part in this election crime because back then, they called Arizona early,” he said, referring to the channel’s correct election night projection that Biden would win the swing state, which angered viewers.
“Smartmatic sued Fox News on Feb. 4 of 2021,” Lindell continued in a nod to another voting technology company suing Fox for defamation. “That started lawfare in this whole country. Since that time people like me have not been able to go on any conservative media and talk about our election. ... So Fox News has been suppressing for some reason and they make this deal with Dominion?”

And what of the fun to be found reading TV reviewers trying to desperately work out the latest plot twists and where the drama might be heading as Peter Wehner did in The Atlantic in MAGA Is Ripping Itself Apart (paywall)

...Lack of restraint is the essence of the Trump movement. Shattering guardrails is what they find thrilling. But what MAGA adherents forget is that those guardrails exist to protect not only others, but also ourselves from excess, self-indulgence, and self-harm. There’s a reason temperance—self-mastery, the capacity to moderate inordinate desires, balance that produces internal harmony—is one of the four cardinal virtues.
The extremism, aggression, and lack of restraint in MAGA world are spreading rather than receding. They are becoming more rather than less indiscriminate. Those who are part of that movement, and certainly those who lead it, act as if they’re invincible, as if the rules don’t apply to them, as if they can say anything and get away with anything. That has certainly been true of Trump, and it is often true of those who have patterned themselves after Trump, which is to say, virtually the entire Republican Party.
But it goes even beyond this. MAGA world directs its ridicule at those who exercise temperance, who embrace restraint, and who ask themselves what they should do rather than what they can get away with. Those who reject the ethic of Thrasymachus—the cynical Sophist in Plato’s Republic who believes might makes right and injustice is better than justice—are dismissed as weak and delicate. The denizens of MAGA world not only relish discarding guardrails; they scorn those who abide by them.

There's no way even a superior show could work in all the exciting angles the real world offers, right down to cynical Sophists ... and the angles are never-ending ...

Okay, the pond had to embark on that extended rant, because sometimes there's clear evidence you'd be better off watching a TV show, and as proof, the pond offers prattling Polonius, joining the reptile horde in preparing for war with China by Xmas ...

Poor Polonius. Has he already forgotten valiant Bromancer, always ready to bung on a do, and always looking for ways to be winning ...

Sadly the pond can't spend time with old bromancer, but the only catastrophe he could see was losing ...

Decisive capability? Forget the catastrophe, there's a war to be won by Xmas ...

The pond realises that the ABC is full of faint hearts, sooks, cowardly custards, quislings, lickspittle fellow travellers and white anters ... and that's why we need warrior Polonius ...

By the pond's count that's three ways, and then there's the Polonial way ...

Indeed, indeed, France is a long way from the Asia Pacific. 

When the pond last checked, New Caledonia, Wallis and Fortuna and French Polynesia were somewhere near Jersey in the English channel, and so nonsense such as France: The Other Pacific Power was just so much 2012 CSIS gibberish. 

No doubt New Caledonia will become fully independent at some time, but in the meantime, perhaps the pond should be wary of taking Peak Polonial Geographic Skills too seriously ...

And so to the bonus, and there the pond had to hand out a few more red cards, such as this one ...

Fuck a city that trades as a city of churches and purports to take hard-hitting satire seriously, and fuck blather about hand-wringers, and especially idle talk about a 'provocateur' who in his later days seemed mainly designed to upset drag queen haters in Florida, and fuck Penbo too for being a crow-eating dimwit ...

But the notion of a drag queen in Florida did suggest a bonus for the pond, Ron DeSanctus ...

The pond realises it's outside its usual domestic reptile brief, but there's only so many times the pond can visit the reptiles visiting the voice over and over... and besides there is a chance for a cartoon recovery ...

It's another reminder to Succession lovers, because Ron DeSanctus is an interesting minor character in the pond's reality TV show, adding a little colourful C-strand, which might rise to the B or A strands. 

After all, he's a Trumper who wants to out-Trump the Donald, and for a time he was much beloved by the Chairman and his Faux Noise minions, and the DeSanctus war on the house of mouse has been distilled essence of telly, as noted by E. J. Dickson in Rolling Stone ...

Much like the cloud of red smoke that envelops Agrabah when Jafar takes over in Aladdin, however, the noxious political climate has slowly been infiltrating the Magic Kingdom. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, much debate raged among Disney fans over park mask and vaccine mandates, and the Disney attraction the Hall of Presidents, featuring animatronic versions of past POTUSes, has been host to a number of protests due to its inclusion of former president Donald Trump. And though Disney has long been the target of criticism from conservatives for various reasons, such backlash has ramped up over the past year due to the corporation’s opposition to Don’t Say Gay, with conservative pundits like Candace Owens urging followers to boycott the company.

This hyper-charged political climate, combined with DeSantis’s aggressive attacks on the company, appear to have had something of a radicalizing effect on some members of the fandom. Though subreddits like r/waltdisneyworld have tried to curb the tone of political discussions — “As always with the posts around RCID/ Drama please refrain from personal attacks and keep it magical,” one post from a mod reads — the battle between DeSantis and Disney appears to have hit too close to home.

One meme posted on Reddit features the puffy-looking Florida governor in a fleece vest, depicted among a pantheon of classic Disney bad guys like Ursula from The Little Mermaid and Jafar from Aladdin. Another, showing Mickey superimposed next to DeSantis, is more explicit: “Suck my mouse dick you fascist fuck,” the caption reads.

Well yes ...

The history, while frequently regurgitated, is rich ...

As Charlie Sykes said in his podcast, all Disney has to suggest is that they might be moving jobs and operations to another state, or let Nikki Haley and Ron go to war ...

Indeed, indeed ... much as the pond has lost interest in the house of mouse since Carl Barks stopped doing his comics, and actively loathed changes to copyright laws to suite the mouse house, there's no doubt Ron is up against it ...

Each story somehow gets topped up with the sort of image that fills the pond with terror, but which induces a warm fuzzy glow in Americans always ready to go on vacation with Chevvy Chase and Bev...

And here's another angle for the storyline. Who is Casey DeSantis, the powerful first lady of Florida?

...she always had grander ambitions, according to former co-workers. “I remember I once said [to a colleague], ‘Casey wants to be a senator’s wife.’ And he said, ‘No, she fully intends on being a president’s wife,’” a former WJXT staffer told Vanity Fair in 2022.

And whenever Ron swears on the bible, she also always had her paw on it too ...

Calling all Freudians. Suddenly we're in Dallas territory, which is what Florida would like to be, and that had a long run, and so it was right for the next gobbet to start off with the right sort of snap of the controlling figure and the stolid, humourless puppet ...

But if you're into post-apocalyptic scenarios, you could see something coming, because some are predicting a compelling third act ...

All to troll a sort of half-woke mouse ...

Forget the lobbyists... the cartoonists keep filing notices of appearance ...

Meanwhile, ancient hits are still hanging around, offering little plot tweaks and character notes ...

Okay, it might be Oklahoma, but let's never forget that Ron DeSanctus got that ball rolling, and produced a cartoon-led recovery, and that's why the pond is sad there's only a gobbet to go ...

Even if the house of mouse loses, avid reality TV followers are winners, and those devoted to Succession don't know what they're missing ...

Take your eyes off the flat screen, and see the many plot points still to explore, so many things are going down.

Why instead of drawing the series to a close it could run forever, and reality TV might even remind you of old movies, so your screen life wasn't a complete waste of time ...

And there's always TT ... offering fresh story ideas weekly ...

 

After time with the suffering dog botherer, the pond inspects kit with the bromancer ...

 

The fascist-inclined war mongering Vlad the impaler is back to his bellicose blitz-bombing worst, but the local reptiles are so inured to his behaviour - even with messenger from god Tuckyo Carlson sidelined - that it wasn't noted in the digital edition of the lizard Oz.

Instead the reptiles were on their own worst behaviour, and Dame Slap immediately earned two red cards ...

 

Sorry, Dame Slap on the voice and the Lehrmann matter is a step too far, and so the pond turned to Marina Hyde for a little light relief, and lo Nixed nuptials, Fox in trouble and ‘erratic’ behaviour … Is Rupert Murdoch OK? hovered into view. 

The pond expects everyone has already read it, so only a brief note to establish the tone ...

...Media outlets have been scrambling to find logical explanations for actions that arguably, to deploy a euphemism, defy logic. After all, this is a 92-year-old who only weeks ago was delighting us with news of his impending fifth marriage – a whirlwind engagement to a former dental nurse turned prison chaplain, which was hastily called off a mere fortnight later. Apparently, Murdoch had become “increasingly uncomfortable” with his fiancee’s “outspoken evangelical views”. Again: really?
The one thing we can say with certainty is that Murdoch would want us to pick over his actions and ask if he was still playing with a full deck of Happy Families cards. For decades, his newspapers have lasered in on public figures as they reach their twilight, premature or otherwise. Back in the day, a paparazzi picture of a painfully thin Freddie Mercury limping across the street was glossed with the Sun’s front page inquiry: “ARE YOU OK FRED?” – one of those newspaper questions to which the answer is patently: no. No, he’s not – what does it effing look like? So in the same solicitous spirit we must survey the recent actions of the mercurial mogul, and ask, in the way he taught us: ARE YOU OK RUPE?

And while at the Graudian, the Weekly Beast had a timely reminder of the uselessness of being spanked with a wet Acma lettuce leaf ... How Sky News Australia turned watchdog’s rebuke over climate denial into an ‘exclusive’ story.

The pond could have predicted the response. You can't keep a climate denialist Bolter down with a lettuce leaf spanking. He loves it as much as Percy Grainger loved the whip ...

...A spokesperson for Acma told Weekly Beast: “Acma did not dismiss 90% of the allegations.
“As much of the content across the programs was repeated, there were recurring concerns raised in the 80 allegations … [and we] looked at all 80 allegations and selected a sample to formally investigate against the relevant codes of practice. We did not come to a view on whether or not those matters which were not investigated complied with the codes of practice.”

The investigation of licensee Foxtel, which is responsible for the channel’s content, found a breach of the industry codes for fairness and for failing to distinguish opinion from fact, which govern both subscription and free TV, because Outsiders is also seen on some regional broadcasters.
That night Andrew Bolt was there to back up the company line, claiming on After Dark that the authority “foolishly allowed itself to be used as a vehicle” for Rudd’s “vindictive crusade”.
“Global warming is grossly exaggerated … and one of the worst panic merchants, of course, has been Kevin Rudd and shame now on Acma for letting Kevin Rudd use that authority for his vendetta against us for pointing this out,” he said.

And so to the dog botherer, and here some might ask why the pond red cards Dame Slap on the voice, but allows doggie boy a free kick, and the answer's simple. 

While Dame Slap is just being her usual shrill self on Planet Janet above the faraway tree, the dog botherer is these days a tortured, unhappy soul ... and his latest outing is evidence of his suffering, as he smites and smotes at fellow reptiles ...

That's a really big header, but this is just the warm-up. Soon enough the talk of the vibe will just be dog bro vibe and the divisions will become apparent ...

At this point, the reptiles decided to slip in a snap of a couple of women, which shows just how far the dog botherer has fallen ...

Allowing women to discuss or have a voice is surely against everything the lizard Oz stands for ...

... but it's a measure of how the dog botherer has become an alienated outsider. Why he's even up to launching an attack on the Quadrant mob ...

The pond just had to leave that large snap full size because of the detail. It's always in the detail ...

Dear sweet long absent lord, has the dog botherer become a fellow travelling lickspittle Labor party apologist?

Even worse, he says he's not familiar with Peter O'Brien. Egad sir, he's one of Quadrant's finest and has contributed all sorts of splendid far right offerings ...

Peter O’Brien graduated from the Royal Military College Duntroon in 1970 and was posted as an infantry platoon commander on operations in South Vietnam with the Fourth Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment. He served in the Australian Army for twenty-one years, rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. During his military service he gained a Bachelor of Science degree, a Graduate Diploma in Data Processing and a Diploma of Military Studies.

After retiring from the Army, Peter spent twenty years in business and scientific computer sales. He has contributed frequently to Quadrant and Spectator Magazines and is the author of Bitter Harvest – the illusion of Aboriginal agriculture in Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu.

Has it come to this? Must the pond do all the dog botherer's research for him? Has he left his right wing loons behind him?

The pond has to ask because it's not just the Quadrant mob of boofhead dissidents in the dog botherer's sights. Oh sacred aunts beneath the wisteria on Adelaide verandahs, he's taking a shot at the hole in the bucket man ...

Not our Henry? Yes, our Henry!

Our Henry dealing out low blows? How the wheel has turned, how plaintive the dog botherer tone... and for once he hasn't managed to slip in his usual nod towards climate science denialism, and time is running out and the reptiles keep on slipping in period snaps ...

Really? Really ... it's all in the details ...

Eek, unions ... and meanwhile in the lizard Oz, the dog botherer's old mate Noel is in a deeply mournful mood and recalling the time he was hanging around with dinkum mates ...

Well you won't find a heart in little Johnny ... but back for a final gobbet of dog botherer v. Ergas ...

Did the pond just read a reptile actually noting prospective disparities in the here and now? 

More to the point, will our Henry strike back, smoting the dog botherer mightily with a reference to Thucydides and possibly Cicero? 

Let us hope the nation isn't so divided it ruins the voice, but it seems that the house of the reptiles is now grievously divided by a dog botherer finding himself on the side of Labor and unions ... and yes, the pond finds a perverse pleasure in those details ...

What else? Well this day the offerings, to put it kindly, were dismal ...

On the upside, there seemed to be no nattering "Ned", but of course Polonius's war on China must be held over for a Sunday meditation, and the pond rarely pays attention to Jennings of the fifth form ... so it had to be the bromancer blathering on at great length.

The pond will understand if many leave the room at this point. You could be off at The Conversation reading The defence review fails to address the third revolution in warfare: artificial intelligence. Heck, you could leave the field altogether and read about dobber Mike, or that shameful lawyer, or the Beeb chair that went missing ...

But for those that stay, the pond can promise a few excellent snaps of the sort of kit that gets the bromancer as excited as pictures of Lily.... Lily oh Lily ...

Oh okay, that snap of a pointing Albo and a scrambled egg isn't exactly the kit that the pond promised, but there will be some exciting kit to go with the national tragedy ... along with the bromancer's fading hopes of a war with fiendish mask-wearers by Xmas ...

By golly that snap of those mask-wearers would be enough to send Killer to the hills to act out his Red Dawn fantasies, but relax, the first bit of kit is to hand, together with an answer to the question, WWLD ... which as every reptile knows, stands for What Would Lenin Do?, to which there is only one answer, begin the long march through the institutions ... such that a reptile reference to Lenin might seem perfectly normal ...

There's also no sign that the bromancer has the first clue about other developments coming down the AI pipeline, but there is a snap of a splendid aeronautical piece of kit coming down the reptile pipeline...

Not just Lenin, but a Stalin reference as well, and meanwhile, Vlad the impaler is demonstrating the proper use of missiles ... to terrify, kill and maim civilians ...

Meanwhile, the pond has to do it tough because there's not a snap of a single bit of kit in the next gobbet ... just a bloody listicle dressed up as propositions ...

Not a Yank in the tank ... but relief is at end, because there's a splendid kit snap in the next gobbet ...

Indeed, indeed, and it's not as if we haven't just seen how splendidly useful missiles are ... at taking out civilians.

As to winning the war? Here, have a snap of another bit of kit ...

Ah there's the problem. The pond should have realised it in the first five minutes. The bromancer hands out his defence advice behind a paywall, and apparently Defence is too stingy to hand a few shekels over to the Chairman to get the bromancer's advice.

There is only one solution, and the pond has been campaigning for it for years. The bromancer must be made head of Defence, or perhaps the head of combined forces. What this country needs is an experienced, skilled armchair general, one armed with a keyboard and who knows how to use it, and by golly, the pending war with China by Xmas would be over by New Year's day ...

And so to the last gobbet ... at last, the valiant few might say ...

Poor bromancer ... and as for the rest, he'll keep polishing his kit dreams, while the immortal Rowe notes a few other possibilities ...

In which the pond ends the week with great contributions from the hole in the bucket man and cackling Claire ...

 

Hallelujah, the long absent lord be praised, the pond knew deep in its heart that the hole in the bucket man would stand and deliver.

At best it might be called a tepid week for the reptiles, but our Henry has the pulse of the world at his fingertips ...

For shame. Another shocking attempt to drag the Catholic church into the twentieth century. It simply can't be allowed to stand, and our Henry is up for the knee-capping, with an eye-glazing wander through the past ...

How lightly the learned Henry wears his learning, though the pond suspects that in the end it will all come down to "indigenous people"? Fuck them ... 

Meanwhile the pond is grateful for that reference to "incredulous settlers". Some might be wondering what the word "incredulous" means, but rather than resorting to the full to overflowing intertubes, why not use this Wilcox for enlightenment ...

And so on with the learned Henry, grappling with the here and now in a way that boggled the pond ...

Indeed, indeed, the pond remembers the equal respect the Opium Wars offered, and as for the equal respect provided by slavery ...

And as for equal respect and the rule of law ...

Still, the pond is tremendously pleased that our Henry took the pond's mind off all recent business ... there's been so much mindless conformity - you could hardly call it intellectual - in the world of the reptiles, that it's always a pleasure to bump into a genuine wanker of the old school ...

Um, does that include wannabe dictators, aspirational authoritarians and manufacturers of monsters?

And so to the rest of the reptiles for Friday ...

Sussan? Ssorry, the pond can never get past the "ss". A groan about migrants? Much as the pond has the deepest respect for Dame Groan, the pond has been there so many times before when it comes to roughing up migrants that it could write the column in its sleep. The meretricious Merritt having yet another go at comrade Dan? What was that about nodding off? The pond is so tired of discussing the ways that the reptiles have ruined the Liberal party, and given comrade Dan new life, but if you must,  Alan Kohler: If the Liberals hope to survive it must be as progressive conservatives.

And what about Brendan blathering on about Bazza? 

Apparently the loon doesn't realise that Bazza's actually a Norwegian blue, stone dead, gone, definitely deceased, passed on, ceased to be, expired and gone to meet 'is maker, bereft of life, 'e rests in peace, 'e's off the twig, and so "hurting Humphries" is a mildly bemusing concept ...

So the pond had to move on to cackling Claire and didn't regret the choice ...

Significant mental distress? Well yes, contemplating Faux Noise and News Corp can do that to you, but harden up vulgar youff, because wearing masks and protesting is a sure way to ruin your lives. 

Run wild and mask free with Killer, or take in cackling Claire's wise words and soon you'll be on an anxiety free course to breaking Godwin's Law with glee ...

The pond is pleased that cackling Claire mentioned  climate change, because there's no reason to worry about that at all.

An esteemed correspondent provided a link to the Graudian's Record levels of renewable energy help bring down Australia’s energy prices, says Aemo.

But the reptiles had it covered ...

That's in the business section so it doesn't count, and rest assured the Caterist will be along soon to explain why it's terribly wrong, but what a pleasing snap of a power station the reptiles dug up to go with it. 

And then there was Graham Readfearn, farewelling Tuckyo with Farewell Tucker Carlson, climate change denier whose claims never stacked up, but there'll always be another one to take his place ...

And over at Crikey there was some fair excitement with ‘Systemically spreading lies’: Turnbull and Burrow laud watchdog’s Sky News climate crackdown. (paywall?)

Uh huh, what a dud that was ...

The pond challenges anyone to head off to the Acma site, and read the report, Investigation report - Foxtel Cable Television Ltd [Sky News Australia], and feel what it's like to be slapped around with a warm wet lettuce leaf, before lightly being tossed in a bureaucratic word salad ...

As a one-time cardigan wearer, the pond recognises the syndrome and shuddered through the experience and came out of it with not a single quote, with everything hedged about with briars and verbiage.

No wonder News Corp will go on spreading climate science denialism until the baking hot cows come home, and once again the pond wonders if Acma is possibly the most useless government body on hand in the land.

Sorry, sorry, the pond almost forgot all about cackling Claire and the salvation of vulgar youff ...

Say what? At this point the pond began to wonder about just how sane cackling Claire was. 

It turns out that anxiety about being woke can lead to all kinds of neuroses and troubles and worries ... as explained at The Bulwark ...

And it's not just at The Bulwark. It seems having an anxiety about the woke can lead to the delusion that the house of mouse is woke, when in fact they're more like a tricky Wile E. Coyote, and for anyone who can get past the NY Times paywall,  there's much to amuse in Man vs. Mouse: Ron DeSantis Finds Taking On Disney Is a Dicey Business, Republicans are increasingly taking on corporations they denounce as “woke.” The Florida governor is just the latest to find that it isn’t easy...

Sometimes it's better just to be dumb ...

Well the pond vaguely recalls that cackling Claire did mention importing American culture, and it seems she's doing her level best to import Marge ...

But that might seem mean and the pond wouldn't want to give the wrong impression. The pond is extremely grateful to cackling Claire for filling up a posting. The pond can't live by Henry alone, and is ever so umble and deeply indebted for the insights, to an almost Uriah Heep level ...

'I am well aware that I am the umblest person going,' said Uriah Heep, modestly; 'let the other be where he may. My mother is likewise a very umble person. We live in a numble abode, Master Copperfield, but have much to be thankful for. My father's former calling was umble. He was a sexton.'

'What is he now?' I asked.

'He is a partaker of glory at present, Master Copperfield, with Bazza and beyond hurt' said Uriah Heep. 'But we have much to be thankful for. How much have I to be thankful for reading the thoughts of cackling Claire!'

I asked Uriah if he had been reading cackling Claire for long?

'I have been reading her, going on four year, Master Copperfield,' said Uriah; shutting up browser, after carefully marking the place where he had left off. 'Since a year after my father's death. How much have I to be thankful for, in that! How much have I to be thankful for, in cackling Claire's kind intention to give me instructive articles each Friday, which would otherwise not lay within the umble means of mother and self ...

Some might think the pond has gone too far, but then some are about to read "Conservative values also promote gratitude", and the pond was only wanting to express gratitude, though her words, ever so gratefully and umbly received, were immediately followed by another terrifying banner likely to induce sleepless nights for vulgar youffs for months, tossing and turning in their anxiety ...

That blather about Nazi prison camps reminded the pond that Andrew Bridgen was recently kicked out of the Conservative Party for comparing Covid vaccines to the Holocaust ... which sent James O'Brien right off, and made the pond wonder if cackling Claire sometimes changed her voice, and rang in to his show ...

Whatever anyone thinks of social media, and the pond doesn't think much, time on Twitter isn't exactly the same as time spent in Auschwitz-Birkenau ...

And with that thought, the pond happily pronounces cackling Claire the reptile fuckwit of the week, an honour not lightly bestowed ... especially when you look at the competition, and our Henry's own entry this day ...

At this point the pond would usually turn to a cartoon to wrap things up, but the immortal Rowe seems to be on a break, and so the pond is left with an infallible Pope which surely can only mean something to Tasmanians ... because the pond finds the subject matter completely arcane and mysterious ...