In which there's a triptych of reptiles rabbiting on about the permatanned pillock (credit Matt Johnson) while the planet braces for a climate rapture. The pond doesn't like it, but we are where we are ...

 

Quite remarkable really. The pond did a search of the lizard Oz digital edition this morning and found not one mention of COP29 in the front page. 

It's not that it isn't happening or that you can't find some news...

It's just that it's been disappeared by the reptiles to the cornfield. That's where many reptile phobias and fears go to die.

There's not even a satirical or ironic piece celebrating the way hundreds of delegates have headed off - via abundant jet emissions - to a remote part of the world to hear the president of the host country announce oil and gas are a gift of God, whoever She is ... it's kind of like an Olympics folly, wandering from country to country at vast expense.

For that sort of humour, you have to turn to the Graudian of all places, with a cracking Crace ...

... or a Rowson ...

So what were the reptiles on about?

Oh sheesh, click on it if you like, while the pond will zoom in on its special subject ...

Dear sweet long absent lord, more ranting and raving about the mango Mussolini, a triptych no less. The pond is so over it, but what to do, except indulge the wretches?

Leading the way is that thundering bore, "Ned", with what the reptiles allege is a five minute read, but which feels like an eternity ... and which features excruciatingly dull snaps as a way of relieving the tedium, the deepening sense of ennui as readers voyage into the land of the dullards ...

Australia’s Trump follies: denial and appeasement, Contrary to almost everything you hear, Trump’s success will not determine the result of the next Australian election.

Inevitably the first snap featured the star of the show, with a caption as kindergarten as the rambling "Ned'isms" that follow, Donald Trump points to supporters with Melania Trump during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Centre.

As for the actual text, it too needed shrinking ...

Every sign is that Donald Trump, the great disrupter, is going to disrupt Australian politics. But before this takes hold, let’s do a reality check – Trump is not popular in Australia, his agenda is littered with risks and traps for Australia, and, depending upon his early decisions, Trump may get very unpopular very quickly in this country.
Contrary to almost everything you hear at present, Trump’s success will not determine the result of the next Australian election. The immediate reaction, filled with hype and hypocrisy, is seen in two manifestations. The first is Trump Appeasement Syndrome (TAS), with populist conservatives calling for concessions to be made to Trump – their tactic being to create conflict between the Albanese government and Trump as a means of undermining Anthony Albanese at the next election.
The second is Progressive Denial Syndrome (PDS), where Australian progressives stick by their stereotypical view of Trump as a threat to democracy and symptomatic of a racist, sexist, misogynist American public – showing progressives are incapable of learning about their own failures from Trump’s victory.
The wild ride about to engulf US politics will have loads of blowback across Western democracies, including Australia. The Coalition, led by Peter Dutton, is targeting Labor, convinced it cannot deal with Trump, making this an issue even before Trump is sworn in or has cleared his throat, its targets being Albanese, Penny Wong and, most immediately, Kevin Rudd. The logic is obvious: if Albanese cannot deal with Trump, he cannot manage the transformed world in which Australia must live.

At this point the snaps reached a point of epic banality, Anthony Albanese, Peter Dutton.

 

They weren't side by side and small. They were glowering huge, while "Ned" blathered on in his inimitable way:

What is vital here is the atmospheric. Trump’s win has emboldened the conservative movement in this country – media, ideologues, security champions, nut jobs and the right wing of the Coalition. To say they feel empowered doesn’t begin to describe it. They see a version of Trump as being Australia’s best future and will use Trump as an instrument to damage Labor and a model Dutton should embrace.
Coalition politicians have refined their lines – it’s “up to Albanese” to prove he can deal with Trump. You get the subtext. Rudd is the first target. The populist conservatives want to destroy Rudd as a means of weakening Albanese. That Rudd has been an effective ambassador in Washington is irrelevant to them. They don’t care.
Rudd is depicted by the pro-Trump media in this country as an unforgivable insult to Trump and must be offered up as a ritual sacrifice – part of Trump Appeasement Syndrome, a case of Australia acting even before Trump has said anything. This shows a contempt for Australian sovereignty and a craven weakness before Trump. For any Americans wasting their time following this saga, we must look a sad, pathetic little country.
But this is just the start. The pro-Trump conservatives are already agitating for Australia – or at least the Coalition – to ditch its hard-won net zero at 2050 policy and follow Trump out of the Paris Agreement like a mob of surrender monkeys incapable of having their own mind or integrity. Can you imagine a more spineless Australian action?
The unleashed populist conservatives may do Albanese some harm but the real threat they pose is to Dutton. Since Scott Morrison’s achievement in carrying the Coalition to net zero at 2050, Morrison and Dutton have striven to transform the climate debate on their side – it is no longer “do we believe in climate change action?” but “what is the best way to get to net zero?”. Hence Dutton’s nuclear policy.
Dutton won’t surrender to such pressures. That’s a given, but misses the point. The pro-Trump agitators and their media backers are likely to generate enough support and noise on the Coalition fringe that the spectre of a divided party will be revived. This helped to ruin both the Turnbull and Morrison governments. In this situation the big winners in 2025 would be Labor and especially the teals. The idea of Coalition regression on climate policy is little short of madness, yet for the agitators, Trump is a messiah to be followed.

What's bizarre? "Ned" ranting about the pro-Trump media, and pro-Trump agitators and their media backers, apparently unaware he's working for News Corp, followed by a snap of former Chairman Kevin Rudd speaking during an event promoting Scott Morrison’s new book.

You see? The former chairman is at one with the liar from the Shire.

Then "Ned" manages a remarkable form of irrational projection:

As for the progressives, the depth of their denial confounds rationality.
Progressive Denial Syndrome extends to the three big policy issues of the US election – the economy, immigration and identity politics. The truism about the US election is that the economy – high prices and the sense of people “being worse off” – was the main issue. Well, you don’t stop there. This is a failure of progressive economic policy since that was the entire meaning of Joe Biden’s rejected presidency.
Massive government spending didn’t work. Huge efforts to compensate people for higher prices didn’t work. Expectations that big spending would deliver political rewards didn’t work. Biden began with a $1.9 trillion fiscal package that the Brookings Institute said would risk higher inflation, and it didn’t work in policy or political terms.
Have you seen a single progressive in Australia make this point? Of course not. They are incapable of admitting the US election is a judgment on spending.
The related point, a heresy not to be discussed in polite society, was raised by US-based economist Steven Hamilton in the Financial Review on Tuesday – namely that the American public would have preferred higher unemployment if that meant a tougher attack on high inflation. This contradicts the deepest faith of progressive politicians and many central banks, certainly the Reserve Bank of Australia.
Hamilton raises the prospect that the Reserve Bank in conducting a monetary experiment – with Labor’s encouragement – made the blunder of tolerating “too-high inflation and too-low unemployment”. If high US prices for too long was the core problem, then the policy was wrong and the inflation/ unemployment trade-off was wrong. Many people will furiously reject this view. Fine. But the proposition cannot be ignored given the US election result.
On immigration, the story is obvious. Border security is non-negotiable and the Biden-Harris administration refused to believe it. Labor’s problem is different – it has presided over excessive high immigration and has been inept in its reduction. Dutton will run on immigration and make guaranteed electoral capital from Labor’s misjudgments.
The Democratic Party is significantly to the left of the Labor Party, with identity politics highlighting this truth. One of the deepest faiths of the Democrats is that identity determines your vote – hence the coalition of minorities that the Democrats have long cultivated in US politics. But the Harris defeat has trashed this ideology.

Just to illustrate that point about identity politics, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris stand at attention during a wreath-laying ceremony at The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery. You know, the suckers and the losers:

"Ned" gets it, and if he isn't up to deep throating a microphone stand, he can still deep throat a keyboard:

Kamala Harris was neither proud to champion identity politics nor able to disown it – a tragic dilemma described by Helen Lewis in The Atlantic. Harris was trapped, hostage to the idea of identity politics and intimidated out of its advocacy. It is the evolving progressive crisis – with most US progressives (let alone their Australian counterparts) still unable to grasp that identity politics is ultimately incompatible with liberal democracy.
Trump gets it. Trump turned identity and woke into an electoral plus for himself, slicing into the Latino and black vote and winning a majority of white women. As Maureen Dowd said in The New York Times “some Democrats are finally waking up and realising that woke is broke”.
But how many? Identity politics has a weaker hold on Australia but is still championed by our elites. The upshot is that Harris’s defeat is unlikely to provoke any progressive reassessment in Australia.
Consider what many saw as Trump’s most successful ad – about Harris supporting gender-affirming care for prison inmates paid for by taxpayers, with one ad saying: “Kamala’s for they/them. President Trump is for you.”
This applied to an extremely tiny number of people. But its message was for the entire nation – it said Harris’s beliefs and priorities were flawed. The point is identity politics is about core beliefs; that’s why it always matters. Trump exposed the Democrats on core beliefs that a majority of Americans don’t accept. This is relevant for Australia but Progressive Denial Syndrome looks the other way.

Sorry, woke has been invoked, so the pond must do the usual ...

By the way, did you note that use of "our elites", by a man who has been cosseted by the emeritus chairman for decades? You don't get much more 'leet' than "Ned", pontificating pundit of the first water: 

Paul Kelly is Editor-at-Large on The Australian. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of the paper and he writes on Australian politics, public policy and international affairs. Paul has covered Australian governments from Gough Whitlam to Anthony Albanese. He is a regular television commentator and the author and co-author of twelve books books including The End of Certainty on the politics and economics of the 1980s. His recent books include Triumph and Demise on the Rudd-Gillard era and The March of Patriots which offers a re-interpretation of Paul Keating and John Howard in office.

It brought to mind the keen Keane's recent musing for Crikey about the misuse and abuse of the word: The hunting of the elites: How right-wingers created the class they rail against, Who are the 'elites' defeated by Trump? Try to get to grips with this trope of right-wing commentary, and it vanishes like smoke (paywall).

The pond doesn't have time to go into the whole piece, but will quote the conclusion, with that epic bore David Brooks - down there with "Ned" - an obvious target:

...Indeed, all this discussion of “elites” seems to boil down to perceived attitudes. You can’t determine elites by education, by wealth, by economic or industrial relations policies. But the picture you get from reading at least the more coherent think pieces from right-wingers is that the “elite” is composed of affluent, educated knowledge workers who have thrived in the globalised economy and share values with people like them in other countries, while being indifferent or hostile to the worldviews of people in their own countries who have failed to prosper in the neoliberal economy.
The funny thing about right-wingers lashing such “elites” — who in no meaningful way are elites, culturally, politically or economically — is that many of those same right-wingers were, until Trump came along, fully signed-up warriors for neoliberalism, who demonised workers and trade unions as at best unhelpful impediments to the smooth operation of free markets and championed the very economic conditions that so alienated working-class voters.
The “elites” now railed against by such commentators are the bastard offspring of the neoliberalism championed by those very commentators — until Trump and Brexit opened up a new path to attack the left for having betrayed the working class by accepting the victory of neoliberalism. Brooks speaks of “an educated class that looks in the mirror of society and sees only itself”. He might more accurately refer to conservatives like himself who look in the mirror and refuse to see what they’ve done.

Speaking of 'leets, another con artist who plays that shell game is Dr. Dame Slap: 

Janet Albrechtsen is an opinion columnist with The Australian. She has worked as a solicitor in commercial law, and attained a Doctorate of Juridical Studies from the University of Sydney. She has written for numerous other publications including the Australian Financial Review, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sunday Age, and The Wall Street Journal.

The pond will spare the sight of this doctor donning a MAGA cap and heading out into the New York night to celebrate the arrival of the mango Mussolini 1.0, because now she's well into 2.0, bugs and all, with a preening condescension designed to be offensive, in the manner of those who know how to deep throat a microphone stand: How to ‘talk Trump’ to progressive journalists, To help Terrified Progressive Adults get through January, when Trump’s inauguration may trigger further trauma, may I suggest purchasing a small sign that says: ‘Dry your eyes, Princess’.

The reptiles promised a five minute read, but it stretched into another reptile eternity, with remarkably tedious snaps, and banal captions of the President-elect Donald Trump kind, as the young man grooves away to a decidedly gay song:

That's where the gayness ended and grey "Ned" took over:

Driving from Washington DC to New York in January 2017, the day after Donald J. Trump was inaugurated the first time, I heard Rush Limbaugh on the radio. He was having a chuckle about a serious advice column from PJ Media called “How to Talk Trump with Your Terrified Progressive Adult Children”.
With two months until Trump’s second inauguration, may I offer myself as counsellor to The Guardian and other such places. I’ll run classes – “How To Talk Trump with Terrified Progressive Adult Journalists”. It will include some cognitive behavioural therapy to help them address faulty or unhelpful ways of thinking about president-elect Trump so they might understand why he’s moving back into the Oval Office.
Professional help may help contain the catastrophising too. Michelle Goldberg at The New York Times decreed the next few months as “a period of mourning”. Her party lost. That’s it. No one died. The Guardian’s London office offered counselling services to staff after the US election result. None of them reported from a current war zone or even a copycat Charles Manson cult murder scene. Trump won office – in a different country.
This hyper-emoting is funny. But the serious side is we will all benefit if the left – including cheer squads in the media – lifts its game and its gaze.
First suggestion: Step outside your comfort zone. A shrink will set you back a couple of hundred bucks for exposure therapy so you can deal with irrational fears. I’ll do it for free. This type of psychotherapy gradually exposes you to your greatest fear – be it confined spaces or the dentist or Trump supporters – so you realise it’s not so scary after all.

After this drivel came another snap, Supporters react to election results during an election night event for US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

Rather than listen to Dame Slap prattle on in her 'leet way, there are things that can be done. The pond was pleased that Adrian Wenner in the Daily Beast caught up with one idea for direct action:

Jump cut:

...Twitter’s lifeblood today is libelous, racist and bigoted rants, spewed by shameless liars. It’s owned by a soon-to-be trillionaire who grossly overpaid for the privilege of pushing his own caustic untruths at a rate of his choosing; a man more than a few have compared to a real-life James Bond villain—only I would argue he’s not even one of the interesting, clever ones like Blofeld or Goldfinger. Just one of the creepy one-and-dones. More bleach-blonde Christopher Walken than cool, ‘70s Telly Savalas. But I digress.
This same man—and this is the truth—played an essential role in getting Donald Trump re-elected.
So why are you still on Twitter? It’s so easy to leave! Go into your account settings. Tap the “More” button on the left. Select “Settings and Privacy”. Click “Deactivate your account.” Enter your password. Click “Deactivate” again. Done.
“But, but, but… It’s how I get my news.”
No. It isn’t. At best it’s how you get your opinions re-enforced by like-minded people you follow because they tell you what you want to hear. At worst, it’s how you are lied to by anyone from a Russian bot to the soon-to-be President.
“But, but, but… I’m not really giving Elon money. I didn’t get the blue check mark, and I don’t watch the ads.”
How dumb do you think I am?
You expect me to believe you’re not also on TikTok and Instagram? Get your funny dog videos there.
“But, but, but… I have a presence. I need it for work.”
Your podcast maxed out with 1300 followers. You’re not going to be famous. Move on.
“But, but, but… my Twitter crushes…”
Grow the f--k up.
Friends, Americans, Countrymen-and-women… You’re better than Twitter. As the dying light of democracy flickers in front of us, we’re understandably left flailing for a flashlight with working batteries, or a way to tilt the wax and nurse the flame back to life. I’m giving you a free and easy way out of the darkness.
And guess what? It’s win win! Leaving Twitter will actually make you happier. Less anxious. Less frustrated. Think of the lost hours you’ll retrieve. I’m not even asking you to put all your tech away and go outside and become part of the world again; I’m not insane. I’m still uncomfortable in a waiting room or on a stalled subway train because I can’t not be on my phone. But I have retrained my brain. Yes, it was hard for a couple of days, but now I open a language learning app—Je deviens assez bon en francais, merci! Or I doodle in a painting app. Or I do a crossword. Or I read a poem. There’s a million better things you can do on your phone.
Oh, and get rid of your Tesla too. There are so many better electric cars out there.
PS: If you found this article being shared by The Daily Beast on Twitter, then I would say… Just enjoy the irony. And then get off Twitter.

Luckily blogs don't have the reach of an X, but due credit for sticking to the old name, and credit where credit is due:

Adrian Wenner has somehow managed to be a working screenwriter in Hollywood for 25 years. He's written on shows you've heard of like New Girl and Grey's Anatomy, but he's much prouder of getting a laugh out of Steve Martin at an improv show once.

After reading something funny, it's always a shock to return to someone who thinks lashings of bile, and an application of vinegar and brown paper is somehow funny ...

But take it slowly. Before going the full Monte by talking to a Trump supporter, start with a progressive from Connecticut who’s clear-eyed about the challenges facing left wing parties.
Speaking to the BBC Hard Talk’s Stephen Sackur a week before the US election, Democrat Senator Chris Murphy highlighted what he called “the shortcomings of the left when it comes to being in a conversation with American men”. He said the left hasn’t bothered to have a direct conversation with men, particularly working-class men regardless of their race, about issues that affect them. His observations about the cultural dietitians on the left apply beyond America.
If you’re certain about your views, why be shy about having them tested by others? Maybe you’ll change your mind, or maybe your position will grow stronger from being prodded. Like a runner flexing their legs before hitting the path, try to spur some new brain synapses before making up your mind.
If you’re not ready for the shock treatment of tuning in to an evening of Sky News, again, go gently by checking out Ruy Teixeira. The long-time Democrat who, with John Judis, wrote The Emerging Democrat Majority in 2002, has a good idea why his prediction of a Democratic golden age didn’t happen.
Speaking to The Wall Street Journal’s Tunku Varadarajan last week, Teixeira said Democrats lost working-class people by nuzzling up to militant movements such as Black Lives Matter, Defund the Police and other radical groups. When Joe Biden described trans rights as the civil rights issue of our time and Kamala Harris followed suit, supporting taxpayer-funded sex change operations for prison inmates, Trump struck back with an ad that said “Kamala’s for they/them. I’m for you”.

Killer line, right.

Only if you happen to think killing trans people is remarkably funny. But why did the pond expect anything different from a genuine, certified bigot ...

Teixeira said that while there may not be large swathes of “trans one-issue voters out there” … the trans issue “symbolises the out-of-touchness that we’re talking about, the sort of cultural boutique outlook that people think is just weird”.
Democrats, he said, also need to “give up on this equity baloney and start talking about equal opportunity, and fairness, which is what people really believe in”.
“Go back to Martin Luther King,” Teixeira said. “He had the right idea. You ought to judge people by their character, not the colour of their skin.”

But judging and abusing and demeaning and hating on them for their gender is apparently AOK. 

Then came another snap, and amazingly, the reptiles didn't have footage of US President Joe Biden tottering across sand. Instead, with a profound lack of imagination, they offered this:

Sheesh, it's tedious, though not as tedious as Dame Slap preening away:

It’s bracing stuff. If the WSJ scares you, try some exposure treatment from The New York Times. “Democrats spend way too much time trying not to offend anyone rather than being brutally honest about the challenges many Americans face … I have two little girls, I don’t want them getting run over on a playing field by a male or formerly male athlete, but as a Democrat I’m supposed to be afraid to say that,” Democrat congressman Seth Moulton told the NYT – after the election.
For those Terrified Progressive Adult Journalists ready to take the plunge, speak to some Trump supporters. Like NYT journalist Shawn McCreesh did, attending dozens of Trump events. “I watched as he connected with all sorts of people in all sorts of places” he wrote. “There was often a split screen between the way the news media interpreted things Mr Trump said and how his voters heard him.”
Think … for yourself. Get really curious. On Sunday, Trump clinched Arizona, winning all seven battleground states and bringing his final electoral college tally to 312. This wasn’t a fluke. Just for fun, think about why Trump might not be the end of democracy.
For starters, check your facts. Turnout was not low, as some doomsday critics claimed. Trump isn’t the undertaker of American democracy, as one Australian media hyperventilator said. To repeat, no one died. In fact, democracy thrived. Over 63 per cent of eligible voters (that’s 154,757,700 people) cast their vote, just south of the record 66.38 per cent vote in 2020, when Covid drove up postal votes. Trump’s historic comeback is a sign that American democracy is alive and well.
Open an atlas. There are far worse places than the US to live. Places where there is no actual democracy. No elections. No dissent. Not a skerrick of freedom. Have a cry and a whinge about women and men in those places.

Oh dear sweet long absent lord, not the old routine of love it or leave it, or go back to where you belong, or all the rest the racist routines, followed by a tiresome snap of Simon Holmes A Court:

Luckily that was the end of the snaps, and soon enough the end of 'leet Dr. Dame Slap:

Park your morality judgments. You can disagree with someone without thinking they’re immoral for having different views. Simon Holmes a Court put Trump’s win down to racism, misogyny, division, grievance and so on and so on. Except that Trump won votes from women, from Hispanics, from blacks too. The red Republican arrow headed north in disparate parts from New York and New Jersey, from Texas to California.
Look in the mirror. If you’re talking down to, and about, people you disagree with, you might be the problem. In Australia, once Trump’s victory was clear, the geniuses at legal magazine Justinian tweeted a map of the US with Democrat slivers coloured blue on the east and west coasts labelled AMERICA and the rest of the country in red labelled DUMBF..KISTAN.
Trump is the unintended creation of snooty people like this. And Trump is back in the White House because the left still has so little interest in the concerns of working-class people, from black to whites and Hispanics.
Have a laugh. As Trump told Joe Rogan: “You need at least the attitude of a comedian when you’re doing this business.” That applies if you’re reporting on “this business” too. Find humour close to home. For example, those women taking themselves off dating sites, going on sex strikes, buying vibrators because of Trump’s triumph. Girls, you may not be missed.
Finally, to help Terrified Progressive Adults get through January, when Trump’s inauguration may trigger further trauma, may I suggest purchasing a small sign to hang above their desk that says “Dry your eyes, Princess.”

Nah. The mango Mussolini is the intended creation of Faux Noise, and the oligarchs with big pockets determined to put their corrupt billionaire con artist and snake oil salesman into the White House so they can have a fine deregulated four years or more, while the income inequity gallops way out of control, and with the suckers and losers completely fooled by the shell game that has played them ...

If the pond wanted a laugh, it wouldn't be reading Dame Slap, it would be looking at an immortal Rowe. Are we not Joe Rogan entertained?:

It really is a good likeness ...

... though perhaps he needs to borrow a little of JD Vance's eye liner to finish off the look, though the tints in the hair are a reasonable match ...

And so to the final yarn in this Trumpian triptych, which the reptiles promise would only be a three minute read: Ignorant ALP has missed the point of ‘disrupter’ Trump, One might dismiss the Trumpian rhetoric that insists the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza would have been averted under his watch. But if you speak to those tasked with managing affairs at the coalface of regional trouble, they’d likely think differently.

Continuing the run of exceptionally dull snaps, this one opened with Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman.

Is it only the pond who misses the grand old days when the lizard Oz used to have an actual graphics department? The pond used to make fun of them, but now misses them something shocking, as some kind of relief from the text, a kind of visual happy ending ...

Not to worry, we must take this deep throater seriously, or so says this John Lee:

Australians tend to assume we have an insiders’ understanding of America even if many Australians have never ventured beyond the major east and west coast cities, such as New York and Los Angeles.
The Albanese government wanted Kamala Harris to win. Its angst and unpreparedness for a Republican victory became clear to me over the course of several months, in the lead-up to the US election, after holding conversations with political leaders, bureaucrats and experts from across Asia, Europe and India.
Whether the government preferred Donald Trump or Harris is a view that will continue to shape how it sees foreign affairs. Let’s accept Trump is profoundly disruptive and Harris would’ve been less so. In foreign policy, disruption is a virtue or vice depending on whether we believe structural and geopolitical trends are in our favour, or else are declining or dire.
Take our collective troubles with China and Russia. Joe Biden and Harris pursued an approach of managed competition which elevated the avoidance of escalation and surprise.
Trump has personally expressed praise for Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, but has also demonstrated a willingness to impose far more severe and sudden economic costs on China and Russia during his first presidential term.

Yeah, yeah, and yeah, and then another snap Donald Trump is surrounded by Secret Service agents at a campaign rally.

The pond thinks its borrowed gif is a little bit funnier, acting on Dame Slap's advice to look for the humour.

And if looking for more humour, you might follow Anne Applebaum's advice and take in an Onion skit:

You can find it at YouTube and it explains why the pond does its best to avoid polling news at all times.

As for Lee's notion that it's possible to understand a weird county like the US, the pond has driven clean across the States, and found it deeply weird ... with the trip revealing onion-like layers of weirdness, not helped by getting caught in an ice storm and crushed in a crowd frenzy of beads and beer in New Orleans ... and in between, so many Tamworths in so many remote regions.

But the pond digresses, and there's more work to be done...

His personality and psychology are not just unpredictable but also at ease with escalation – and so too his likely cabinet choices, who speak about not just competing but changing the rules of the game in order to win.
One might dismiss the Trumpian rhetoric that insists the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza would have been averted under his watch. But if you speak to those tasked with managing affairs at the coalface of regional trouble, they’d likely think differently.
A common perspective in Northeast Asian and Eastern European countries is that restrained competition has failed to temper the actions and ambitions of authoritarian powers. Imposing real costs and choosing to escalate is essential and only America has the hard power to lead such efforts.
Doing so is disruptive because it goes against more than two decades of America prioritising predictability and stability in Asia and Europe since the 1990s. Trump has no sense of allegiance and loyalty to strategic history, which is unsettling. But that means he is more willing to change America’s approach if it doesn’t seem to be working. For allies on the frontlines against China, Russia and Iran, deterrence is failing. Rolling the dice is better than allowing the status quo of unchecked authoritarian aggression to play out.
Some prefer Harris because there will be less heat on countries to do or spend more to bulk up their own security. Unlike Trump, Harris spoke sentimentally about Asian and European allies. But sentiment doesn’t deter nor increase one’s national resilience. For those who believe their nations are unprepared for the darkness that could be approaching, Trump is a welcome circuit breaker. American military power will be greater under Trump.
He will conduct an audit of allies and exert considerable pressure on countries to bear a greater security burden by making American assistance and protection conditional on doing so. This is profoundly uncomfortable, including for Australia. But whether one believes it is necessary depends on how seriously one takes national assessments about the deteriorating external environment.
On trade and economics, Biden/Harris agree with Trump that China is the problem, and the global economic system and institutions such as the World Trade Organisation cannot function as they once did in the 1990s and 2000s given the scale and nature of market distortion and cheating that China engages in.

Cue a final deeply banal illustration, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping speak during a plenary session at the BRICS summit in Kazan.

As for the Lee thesis, the pond thinks it will be remarkable to return to it, as Tamworth dogs return to their vomit in the noon day sun after chewing on grass, just to see how these prophesies work out. The pond gives them a year before Lee is furiously scribbling an explanation of why things didn't come to pass:

The Biden/Harris playbook is to achieve dominance over China in key sectors such as semiconductors. However, Trump’s approach will be much more brutal. He promises to use the extraordinary powers of executive orders to punish an extensive list of state-backed Chinese firms. He is far more prepared to circumvent, change or break institutions such as the WTO if they get in the way or prove ineffective in enforcing their own principles and rules. Tariffs will be imposed to compel firms to divest from China, and preferably invest in America if they seek to sell to American consumers.
As a commodities exporter, Australia benefits disproportionately from Chinese state policies that encourage excessive fixed investment and overcapacity. But other economies, such as Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, accept Chinese distortion and cheating needs to be confronted because the negative geopolitical and economic implications of not doing so becoming more severe. So long as friendly democratic and strategic partners are given reasonable concessions and access, the Trumpian willingness to defy conventions and break institutions that China is exploiting might well be worth the gamble.
This offers some critical context to comments made by Labor leaders several years ago about Trump being “scary”, “nuts” and “destructive”. Rooting for a Democratic administration is understandable for a centre-left party. But dismissing the reasons Trump and his unorthodox methods have considerable support within, and outside, America is arrogant, ignorant and dangerous.
Dr John Lee is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington DC. From 2016-18, he was senior adviser to the Australian Foreign Minister.

Actually if anyone is sounding arrogant, ignorant and dangerous, it's those reptiles peddling the notion that the world is going to be a better place with a climate science denialist in charge of a major polluter of the planet. (Not to mention the chance of the US developing a vaccine in a timely manner for the next pandemic.)

And that at last brings the pond back to where it started, and the chance to end proceedings with an infallible Pope ...

Never mind the ostrich with head in sand, and only his tie visible, the pond loves the rapture ...