Trouble in Tyke Town as Polonius goes MAGA ...

 

Back in the dark ages in this blog, the pond always devoted Sunday to angry Sydney Anglicans and frock-loving Pellists, not that there's necessarily anything wrong with a man in an expensive frock strutting out to show off his wealth and power.

Eventually those times slipped from relevance and memory, but recently there's been a revival of troubles in Tykeland ...

Perhaps it was Conclave that set the pace, a more engaging work than Heretic, which was fun when tormenting LDS missionaries in the first two acts, but then turned to cornball horror memes in the too easy third act resolution. 

Only Hugh Grant's sympathetic portrait of a decent man dedicated to tormenting cultists kept the pond going...but he was no match for this year's triple pork award up against Ralph Fiennes ...

This is by way of explaining that, when dealing with troubled cultists, first there must be a little homework done. 

The far right Tykes of yore are emboldened once again, thanks to the return of the tangerine tyrant, as shown by this Politico story, Trump taps critic of Pope Francis for Vatican ambassadorship (paywall).

Inter alia, the story had this to say about Brian Burch, head of a right wing Catholic advocacy group and critic of Pope Francis:

...On social media, Burch has criticized Francis’ leadership and shared the writings of some right-wing clerics who are critical of him. In 2023, he insinuated that church leaders were collaborating with controversial U.S. law enforcement probes into parishes that celebrated the Catholic Mass in Latin, a practice that was phased out decades ago for liturgy in local languages.

There's something of a weird irony here, what with the pond just having witnessed Tyndale burned at the stake in Wolf Hall for wanting to promote the gospel in English. In 1536! And yet here we are, with assorted loons still promoting the Latin mass ...

Writing on X, Burch said he is “committed to working with leaders inside the Vatican and the new Administration to promote the dignity of all people and the common good.”
Catholic Vote has engaged in tactics that have prompted criticism from more progressive factions of the U.S. church. In 2020, the organization used “geofencing” to identify Catholic voters who attended Mass in swing states and target them with ads boosting Trump.
At the time, Burch defended geofencing as needed to “reach our fellow Catholics in the pews” and “ensure that our fellow Catholic voters get the facts and hear the truth — not the latest lies peddled by the media.”

The fundamentalists are feeling their oats, and more homework is required to introduce a local variant, as featured in The Catholic Leader ... come  on down Sophie York ... before she turns up in due course in the lizard Oz ...

It was a doozy, and not so long ago, from 2021 ...

Sydney barrister Sophie York challenged more than 200 Catholic business and professional leaders at last week’s Assembly of Catholic Professionals to correct the “Godless trend” rising in modern Australian culture.
Ms York, a mother of four and one of 12 children, said Catholic leaders should use their influence in society to stand against the view that Australia was founded on secular values.
She said the term secular had “come to mean secular humanist” which had opened the doors for a new “militant atheism” that was anti-freedom and anti-religious.
 “We have never been a secular society,” Ms York said at the Assembly of Catholic Professionals on May 22.
She said “Australian values” like mateship, service in education and health sectors, and morality that underpinned the Australian legal system, were not based on secular humanist views.
“The secular humanist view that is only held by 20 per cent of our country is taking us where we’ve never been before.”
What was considered “Australian values” were actually deeply Christian values, she said, but warned that the minority secularist views were being falsely portrayed as the foundations of Australian culture.
“The names of our suburbs, our train stations, and our hospitals are intertwined with Christian and Indigenous culture,” she said.
“The case for correction on the Godless trend, based on a false pretence, is needed.
“History will admire you.
“Australian society will be grateful for your courage.”
But she warned that in the public square “admirable people of faith have been described as dangerous” for attempting to preserve Australian values that were deeply founded in Christianity.
“Those who actively seek to remove Christian elements in our school would never dream to taking away algebra which is Muslim,” Ms York said.

Algebra is Muslim? 

The pond thought it was mathematics. The pond doesn't mean to downplay the significance of the great Al-Khwārizmī, but as any fuel wud kno, there were algebraic elements in Babylon, ancient Egypt, Greece and so on (there's a wiki history of algebra).

That's the way it is with mathematics; it might be a foreign tongue to the pond, but many languages and many cultures and many faiths can contribute to the system.

As soon as you hear someone say algebra is Muslim, you know you're keeping the company of a prize loon or a lawyer, ready to blather on about mateship being a deeply Xian value. 

For its sins, the pond once studied Australian history with Russell Ward, who wrote a book on mateship and who would have flung Sophie out of the tutorial if she'd talked up the concept as deeply Xian. 

Ward was more in the Henry Lawson school, noted by Judith Reardon in her James Cook uni thesis as an egalitarian nationalistic creed that has a strong masculine bias.

Reardon skews feminist, but Ward skewed ex-Communist Marxist and masculine as noted by the ADB:

...The Australian Legend (1958) seemed to capture many common characteristics of the Australian male type at a time when memory of the heroic feats and loyalty to their comrades of Australian servicemen during World War II was still fresh. Earlier, C. E. W. Bean—having described the tough work culture of the wool industry in On the Wool Track (1910)—had found these same qualities in the Australian troops he observed during World War I and had begun to create the Anzac legend. Ward’s book seemed to gather all these ideas together and make sense of their origins to readers in the late 1950s, when working conditions were being transformed by postwar industrialisation and when society was becoming more differentiated by European immigration.

In short, never send a lawyer to a history lesson, just let her ramble on about deviant, filthy preverted secularism ...

“The Catholic Church is the largest provider of health and education services.
“Australian values are being eroded, and we need your leadership to preserve them.”
Ms York said Catholic business leaders and professionals at the Assembly of Catholic Professionals “reach many people in all different walks of life and so they influence our society”.
“No one is formally qualified to be a leader, but in a sense we are all leaders if we have influence,” she said.
Ms York said Catholic professionals could influence secular organisations because they had “the courage to stand for things, and that they know deep down, they’re not alone”.
“They meet with each other, they’re fortified by each other,” she said.
“It gives them a lot of strength to have character, to have authenticity, to serve others.
“They’re people of high calibre, a lot of people notice them, and notice what they stand for and what they don’t stand for, which I think is really important.”

Now, with the homework done, the York reptile lesson can begin, with the pond regretting to advise that York's contribution was timed at a verbose 6 minute read, with even the title far too long for its own good.

Why is it not OK for ACU to embrace its Catholic identity?, It is hard to speak up at times like this. The church is like a family. But what has been taking place at ACU is a travesty. Without intervention, the university will be stripped of its Catholic title.

The pond doesn't much care about the ACU or Catholic identity or alleged travesties, but would have walked out on Joe, if for some reason the pond had been beguiled into the lecture theatre under the false pretences that Mark Rylance was giving a talk on Cromwell's attitudes to Tyndale ... because if the pond had known Joe was in the room, it would have skedaddled right quick...

Joe de Bruyn was to be honoured by ACU for his service to the Catholic Church and Australian workers. Instead, he was humiliated when students and staff walked out during his address.

It's impossible to recount the many ways that Joe is deeply offensive.

At a quarterly SDA members meeting in February 2011, de Bruyn moved a resolution against gay marriage, without giving any members a chance to speak or vote on the issue. This led to the first instance of members of the SDA speaking out and challenging de Bruyn on his stance on gay marriage. Speaking at an AWU event in 2003, former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam quipped that "Joe de Bruyn is a Dutchman who hates dykes." In response to a 2014 poll with 72 percent support for same-sex marriage, de Bruyn dismissed the figures but refused to poll his members on the issue. He says he "knows they agree with him absolutely. When we talk to our members about out these things they agree with us". (Joe's wiki)

And again:

During a graduation ceremony speech at the Australian Catholic University in October 2024, de Bruyn espoused anti-abortion and anti-same-sex marriage views leading to what was described by the ABC as a mass walkout.

Well yes, the man's deeply offensive at all times and if you happened to be a graduate not wanting to be reminded you were graduating from a citadel of bigotry, of course you'd want to walk out.

York manages to turn this into some kind of existential crisis for bigots:

What does one do when one sees a plane being flown into the side of a mountain? Some watch and tut-tut. Others wring their hands and sigh.
Still others might go so far as to describe any action to save the situation as a “stunt”. And yet save it we must.
The Australian Catholic University is that aircraft – and you’ll have worked out who the pilot is, and who blindly keeps him there, by the end of this piece.
All of us who are seriously invested in ACU are stunned by the latest in a series of sorry news items coming out of the university.
This week’s punch to the guts is the shutting down of its public policy think tank, the PM Glynn Institute. It was named in honour of Patrick McMahon Glynn KC (1855-1931), one of the founders of the Commonwealth of Australia, no less. He was a key contributor to our nation’s Constitution.
As the import of this latest decision sinks in (that is, the erasure of an important Catholic intellectual oasis), we are asking ourselves some grim questions. How did we allow the largest Catholic university in Australia – and one of the leading Catholic universities in the world – to fall apart on our watch?
And how did we allow the man who was running it to be reappointed as its vice-chancellor?
Throughout the Catholic world, questions are understandably being asked about what is going on at ACU. The fact is: there is a serious lack of good governance at ACU. Everyone can see the problems – but no one is prepared to call time. Nor wrest back the controls.
Slovenian-born sociologist Zlatko Skrbis was first appointed vice-chancellor in January 2021. On December 5, 2024, the ACU senate voted to reappoint him. Nice enough bloke – so why might Catholics regard this as problematic?

Slovenian-born? Did the pond just smell a little sulphur in a witch hunt for furriners?

When fundamentalist Tykes get going on bigotry and hate, they must find an object for persecution, a kind of manifestation that should be sent to the Inquisition or put on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum...

Here he is, the ritual beast ready for the slaying... Professor Zlatko Skrbis, vice-chancellor of the Australian Catholic University. Picture: Supplied

When you get on the wrong side of bigots and fundamentalists, nothing you can say or do will allow redemption ...

Skrbis has implemented a strategic plan, Vision 2033, that proclaims “our Catholic faith, identity, and culture are central to who we are as a university”. But in reality, does Vision 2033 pay anything more than lip service to Catholic faith, identity and culture?

You see? Unless you indulge in gay bashing and want the world to turn into a handmaid's tale,  control women's bodies and deny them an abortion, you'll never cut the mustard ...

This masthead revealed earlier this year that only weeks after appointing her, then removing her, as dean of the ACU law school, Kate Galloway was given more than $1m in severance and damages. Not only that, she was then given a new role at the university. Alarm bells had sounded when it was realised she had published opinions about abortion law reform that were fundamentally at odds with Catholic doctrine.

It's a matter of being able to spot the heretic, the back slider, and consign them to hell ..

The vice-chancellor refused to answer questions about why she was appointed, given her published opinions about abortion.
He refused to explain who decided to pay her out with a vast sum. He refused to explain whether the money came from the commonwealth government or the patrimony of the church. Everyday parishioners who donate into the plate might be keen to know.
But worse than that, no one from the chancellor down seemed to think answers were required.
More recently, ACU awarded unionist Joe de Bruyn an honorary doctorate in recognition of his services to the Catholic Church and Australian workers.
He was invited to deliver the Occasional Address at the ceremony to mark this bestowment, at an ACU students’ graduation ceremony on an ACU campus in Victoria on October 21.
His speech of thanksgiving thoughtfully articulated certain precepts of orthodox Catholic doctrine he had specifically and relevantly supported. Drawing upon decades of experience in various roles, he offered valuable ideas for how newly minted Catholic graduates might best meet challenges that might arise in their careers.
There was a walkout during his address. Instead of being honoured for his service to the church, De Bruyn was set up to be humiliated. And a golden opportunity for ACU to teach students what respect for different viewpoints looks like was lost. Instead of apologising to their special guest of honour and chastising the rude staff and students, this Catholic university provided counselling for staff who heard the speech, and offered to refund the fees students had paid to attend the graduation if they felt they had had an unsatisfactory experience.

And so they should, because being subjected to the thoughts of a bigot is a bit like being reminded of the way that Opus Dei is active on campus, and how it's just a short distance from there to drawing blood with a cilice and giving the back a flogging with a scourge ...

Then came a snap of the redeemer, Catholic Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher believes the ACU has betrayed its Catholic identity. Picture: Nikki Short

This frock-loving fisher of mugs is only a second rate Pellist, but he's always ready to do a Pell and join the fray ...

This led Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher to ask: “Will the university now provide a squad of counsellors every time a countercultural Catholic view is expressed by someone at the university?”
This was contained in a six-page letter Fisher wrote to the university in which he resigned as chair of ACU’s committee of identity, outlining the reasons he thought the university had betrayed its Catholic identity. Not only that, one might well ask also: Why was ACU by its actions sabotaging even the most basic purposes of a university?
As Oxford academic and later cardinal John Newman so aptly and enduringly observed in 1873: “The perfection of the intellect, the enlargement and illumination of the mind, is the real and only aim of a university.” No mention of coddling there.
“Do not say,” Newman noted, “the people must be educated, when, after all, you only mean amused, refreshed, soothed, put into good spirits and good humour, or kept from vicious excesses.” Are students encouraged to have their conceptual sensibilities stretched at this tertiary institution – or not? Are manners also infra dig now?

The pond loves it when Catholics bring up Newman. It reminds the pond of the gay priest in the family, settled in a loving relationship, known as gay to his parishioners, who don't seem to mind, and tolerated by the hierarchy on a 'don't ask, don't tell' basis, likely because the church is very short of people capable of conducting a mass.

Cardinal Newman provided a handy precedent, and an opportunity to torture tykes with tales of his deep, abiding manly love - call it mateship if you like..

Was Cardinal Newman gay? Or (as the joke has it) simply divine? That was the controversy that dominated the dust-up over exhuming John Henry Newman, the great nineteenth-century English convert to Rome, in order to move his body to a more suitable location for veneration--that in anticipation of his beatification (the penultimate step to canonization) by Pope Benedict XVI next year. Newman, you see, had requested--indeed insisted, with his final breath--that he be buried in a grave at Rednal Hill cemetery outside Birmingham with Ambrose St. John, a fellow Oratorian who Newman described as the great love of his life. “I wish, with all my heart, to be buried in Fr Ambrose St John’s grave--and I give this as my last, my imperative will,” he wrote, “This I confirm and insist on.“
Many today thus insisted that removing Newman’s body from the grave would violate his last wishes as well as what they saw as a relationship that was more than Platonic--hence Newman was, improbably, becoming a gay icon of the twenty-first century. Andrew Sullivan--a gay English Catholic--“dished” on this argument here. Not surprisingly, that argument sparked more than a bit of debate, and strong counterreactions. Those reactions may say more about a 21st-century American culture that is hinky about male friendships than it does about Newman. Still, theirs was an especially intense bond. Here is the English Catholic journalist Austen Ivereigh at “In All Things” on the relationship between Newman and St. John:

The two men loved each other deeply, had a life-long friendship, and lived together. And since Newman’s death in 1890 they have remained in the same grave in Rednal, about eight miles from Cardinal Newman’s house in Edgbaston, outside Birmingham.In 1854 Newman wrote: “We have bought (I trust) a burying place -- under the Lickey Hills, just about eight miles off -- it is a most beautiful spot. . . . We are going to build a cottage there and ultimately a mortuary chapel.” They share a tombstone with the inscription “out of shadows and phantasms into the truth” etched across it.Newman wrote after the death of St John in 1875: “I have ever thought no bereavement was equal to that of a husband’s or a wife’s, but I feel it difficult to believe that any can be greater, or anyone’s sorrow greater, than mine. “The Cardinal -- a hyper-sensitive, even delicate man -- had intense friendships of the sort common in that age, especially in all-male bastions such as the clergy and Oxford. (here)

Cut it how you will, and argue endlessly as to whether they actually fucked, that's as gay as any same sex marriage. Masculine love, call it manly mateship if you will ...

On December 3, I was one of a number of Catholic lawyers who signed an open letter to ACU’s senate. We provided an opinion prepared by a canon lawyer. The university is part of the Catholic Church and, as such, is subject to the canon law that governs the church.
We drew attention to the legal advice that either an independent investigation into the circumstances identified by Fisher was required or else a process to remove the university’s Catholic status could begin. None of us wanted to see ACU cease to be Catholic, so we hoped sense would prevail and there would be a pause in serious decision-making, including in relation to the reappointment of the vice-chancellor.
How did it get to the situation that the senate reappointed the very same vice-chancellor who presided over this potential loss of Catholic status? How is it no one in the leadership thought there was a problem?
With an executive headed by Skrbis, the ACU senate, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Martin Daubney KC, and ACU corporation (board of trustees) chaired by Brisbane Archbishop Mark Coleridge, nobody in that illustrious trio picked up that anything was awry?
How could they plausibly think this was “business as usual” for a Catholic university? It would be redemptive for at least one of the protagonists to acknowledge the foul-up and stand up, even belatedly, for the Catholic faith. It would bring great relief to many who are watching this in quiet bewilderment.
This is not a culture war. It is nonsense for anyone to suggest the vice-chancellor has simply been caught in a culture war.

Of course this maid of York protests too strongly. She clearly loves a culture war, she loves to bung on a culture war, she can't get enough of culture wars.

What's the bet she goes around singing Everybody wants to rule the world in the original Latin lyrics? (Because as everyone knows Jesus sang, tap danced and spoke in Latin).

During his tenure there have been a number of problems that have undermined ACU’s Catholic identity. What is worse, none of its governance structures have made him accountable. Instead, they have rewarded him for presiding over the possible loss of ACU’s Catholic identity.
It is a tragedy for all who love their Catholic faith, who treasure the principles that are part of its timeless and incalculable richness, who support the church in every way possible – and who spurn being “fashionable” at the expense of the truth of its teachings.
On December 11, ACU announced it had appointed a new “identity adviser”. Although all naturally wish Father Gerald Gleeson the best, a patch-it person in a newly created part-time role may find it hard to fix a deeper governance problem.
In short, the pilot of ACU is showing a dangerous inability to fly a complex aircraft safely. The plane is at risk. All the passengers are at risk.
Many people, aghast, are watching the tragedy play out, with their hands over their mouths. Yet the equivalent of an aviation safety authority has just reappointed that same pilot, with hopes that a gentle word at his elbow might help. Really?
It is hard to speak up at times like this. The church is like a family. Nobody wants to hurt anybody’s feelings. But sometimes, certain things need to be said.
An independent investigation could help, before it is too late. ACU, are you going to show you deserve your title? The time to show it is now.

Yep, time to return to your original bigotry and bile, and send errant souls to hell, in the service of your friendly advisor: Sophie York is a barrister and law lecturer. This piece is written in a personal capacity, and not representing any organisation.

And so to truly dire news, prattling Polonius has gone MAGA ...Trump’s no lame duck – he’s already getting things done, News from the US suggests that president-elect Donald J. Trump is perceived by many to be the US commander-in-chief while President Joe Biden fades into political nothingness.

Getting things done?

The pond realises that a deal was done at the 11th hour, but the deal had nothing to do with King Donald 1 or his president, Uncle Leon. 

Instead they produced much hand wringing of the kind to be found in Catherine Rampbell's piece for WaPo, Trump and Musk have 'Art of the Deal'-ed themselves (paywall).

It was a sign of things to come, assuming the Mango Mussolini's diet allows him to last that long... as celebrated in the NY Times yesterday ...

They did at least kill off cancer research for kids, helping pave the way for tax cuts for squillionaires, so that's getting things done.

But there's the debit limit to come, and the endless horse trading and Uncle Leon stomping around on X in a clueless way,  measuring bills by pounds and ounces.at least until his King tires of his latest Cromwell. 

You know, an eternity of the art of the fucked-up deal ...

Not to worry, first a snap of prattling Polonius's refurbished heroic action man ... US president-elect Donald Trump speaks at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, on Monday Picture: Getty Images via AFP

Why can't the reptiles keep up? Surely these would have been better illustrations?

Classy, and those burgers are really starting to show, as Polonius gets down with the Donald ...

News from the US suggests that president-elect Donald J. Trump is perceived by many to be the US commander-in-chief while President Joe Biden fades into political nothingness ahead of the inauguration on January 20.
A couple of examples illustrate the point. Earlier this week, Trump gave an occasionally irreverent hour-long press conference at Mar-a-Lago in Florida where he spoke without the help of an autocue and answered journalists’ questions. Biden has not spoken to the US media since the presidential election on November 5.

Why would he bother speaking, when Republicans manage to eat their own on a daily basis? 

Amazingly, the mango Mussolini tickles Polonius's funny bone, amazing in the sense of desiccated coconut suddenly turning into a quite funny laugh machine.

What Trump critics often fail to accept is that the president-elect can be quite funny.
Appearing on Fox News’ Gutfeld! this week, comedian Tom Shillue referred to Trump’s “great sense of comic timing”.

Indeed, indeed ... Polonius is right, there's always a policy giggle by way of a troll ...

Sorry, the pond had a few 'toons left over from yesterday and needs to spend them quickly ...

More recently, the evidence indicates that terrorist organisation Hamas appears to be agreeing to major concessions with a view to attaining a ceasefire in Gaza. They appear to include the gradual release of hostages kidnapped by Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023, along with an agreement that some Israel Defence Forces contingents will remain in Gaza for an unspecified time.
Reports from AFP and other news outlets indicate that Hamas wants to do a deal with the Biden administration before Trump assumes office. This follows the president-elect’s warning ear­lier this month that if Hamas hostages are “not released prior to January 20, 2025 … those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States”.

At this point the reptiles interrupted with an AV distraction:

An explosive report reveals insight into the White House's efforts to conceal President Joe Biden's mental decline from the start of his presidency. President Biden, 82, withdrew from his re-election bid after a poor debate performance against Donald Trump raised concerns about his mental abilities. According to nearly 50 sources, including aides, donors, and politicians who spoke to The Wall Street Journal, Biden's struggles as the oldest President in US history were evident from the beginning of his term. The Journal report revealed the measures taken by President Biden's inner circle to shield him from public scrutiny, including rescheduling meetings and appearances after poor performances.

Jolly Joe might be in his dotage, but does the WSJ ever reveal the mental decline of the tangerine tyrant? There's plenty of evidence, but strangely it's never mentioned.

Could it have something to do with The Decline and Fall of the Wall Street Journal, as unveiled by Mona Charen in The Bulwark?

...for the Journal to look at the world of 2024 and conclude that the erosion of trust in government is due to Biden without ever once mentioning that Trump and his minions are the most prolific bilge spillers imaginable is to be completely without scruple. Just in the last few weeks of the campaign, Trump falsely alleged that FEMA was purposely withholding hurricane assistance in order to funnel funds to illegal immigrants, that the Congo was emptying its prisons to send convicts to the United States, and that the 2020 election was stolen.
It is Trump, not Biden, who is attempting to install as the head of the Department of Health and Human Services a conspiracy theorist so dangerously unmoored from reality that even the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial opposing him.

Well yes, and if the pond might interrupt briefly:

Please conclude Mona:

Trust is crucial to the successful functioning of society. Many social science studies have found that nations with high trust have less corruption and greater prosperity than those with low trust. It makes sense. If you believe that most people are untrustworthy, you will rely only on those within your own family or tribe and be less likely to engage with outsiders. Trust is a social and economic lubricant. It’s also, as we’ve learned, quite easy to undermine when people get their information from online rumors and irresponsible politicians and other actors who stoke distrust for their own political ends.
The drone affair is fluff and will doubtless be forgotten in a month if not sooner. But the spectacle of the Journal chastising the Biden administration without a solitary word about Trump and his enablers (in whose ranks they stand) is breathtaking.

Consider the pond's breath taken, because they're all already doing it ...

Being a Polonius prattle, we must expect a history lesson and the ABC copping a serve ...

In August 2012, US president Barack Obama announced a red line that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was not to cross; namely, the use of chemical weapons against Syrian citizens. Assad crossed the line and the Obama administration did nothing.
It would be foolish for Hamas to take a risk with the unpredictable Trump, especially since Hamas has kidnapped some US citizens.
On November 22, American commentator EJ Dionne was interviewed by Patricia Karvelas on ABC Radio National Breakfast. Dionne is a Washington Post columnist and a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. He had this to say: “I think there’s one significant thing about the Trump presidency that we can’t underrate which is that he is … a lame duck.”
Dionne’s point was that the US constitution prevents someone from being elected more than twice. And so it does.
But this does not mean that Trump will be what in American terminology is termed a “lame duck”. Quite the contrary. If anything, it strengthens his presidency since, unlike first-term presidents, he is not looking for re-election in four years.
ABC journalist Chas Licciardello made a similar error when he appeared on Radio National’s Late Night Live. The date was December 12. Licciardello told David Marr: “Trump right now is at the zenith of his power, it only goes down from here; he becomes a lame duck or a lame dog, so to speak, from here.”
Like Dionne’s claim, this is absolute tosh. The facts speak for themselves. Trump – for better or worse – is influencing world politics from Florida’s Palm Beach before he returns to the White House after a four-year break.

Oh yes ... he's a real influencer ...

What will this Polonial prattle read like in a year's time? 

Likely, in the blessed way that memory works, the pond will have completely forgotten it ...

Moreover, Trump’s strength within the contemporary Republican Party suggests his political influence will continue beyond his second term of office. That’s no lame duck.
Writing in Encyclopaedia Britannica recently, Tracy Grant cited Trump among her list of “Five Great Political Comebacks”. Grant wrote Trump’s “return to power is … stunning; he won both the popular and electoral (college) vote in 2024, and in doing so helped the Republican Party take control of the Senate and secure a larger majority in the House of Representatives”. She also acknowledged that Trump had overcome a state of “ignominy” to get re-elected.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica author also mentioned Vladimir Lenin, Napoleon I, Winston Churchill, Richard Nixon and Simeon Saxecoburggotski (who became prime minister of Bulgaria) in her list of five great political comebacks.

EB? That's a bit like a Time person of the year cover. The surprise is not so much that it continues to exist - a genuine surprise - but that it's mentioned at all ...

The pond suspects Polonius only settled on it because it allowed him to indulge in a hagiographical outburst celebrating Ming the Merciless and Little Johnny ...

But Grant overlooked the achievement of Australian Liberal Party prime ministers Robert Menzies and John Howard.
Menzies became prime minister in April 1939 following the death in office of Joseph Lyons, who had led Australia’s successful economic recovery from the Depression. Menzies led the United Australia Party (the predecessor of the Liberal Party) to a narrow victory in the September 1940 election but headed a minority government dependent on the backing of two independents. He stepped down in August 1941 after losing the support of a majority of his colleagues. Menzies was devastated at having to do so.
Labor came to office in October 1941 after the independents moved their support to Labor. Menzies returned as leader of the opposition after Labor had a crushing victory at the August 1943 election. He formed the Liberal Party in late 1944 but failed to defeat the John Curtin-led Labor Party in September 1946.

Phew, that got Polonius off the subject of the tangerine tyrant in the nick of time ...

Polonius ran a little short on all the grand things that the mango Mussolini had managed to date, and strangely forgot to mention him settling the war in Ukraine before taking office, or his bringing down of prices by bringing on tariffs.

Best stick to regional, local heroes of a kind that Polonius can worship ...

Menzies was shattered by this loss and considered retiring from politics. At this time there was a familiar cry of “you can’t win with Menzies” heard on both sides of Australian politics. But the Liberal Party won under Menzies’ leadership in December 1949 and he retired undefeated in January 1966 – having won seven elections in a row. A great political comeback, to be sure.
And then there was Howard. He became Liberal Party leader in September 1985 and was doing reasonably well against the popular Labor leader Bob Hawke.
But in early 1987 Queensland Nationals premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen took part in a “Joh for PM” movement. It split the Coalition, Hawke called an early election for July 1987 and was returned comfortably to office. Howard lost the Liberal Party leadership to Andrew Peacock in May 1989.
But Howard returned as Liberal Party leader in January 1995 and defeated incumbent prime minister Paul Keating in March 1996. He won four elections before being defeated in 2007. Howard is Australia’s second longest serving prime minister after Menzies. Another great political comeback.
Both Menzies and Howard learnt from their previous mistakes and returned as more experienced and decisive leaders. Trump may well do the same. None of this trio was a lame duck.

On second thoughts, maybe a lame duck would be preferable to the damage done by Ming the Merciless, Little Johnny, and King Donald I and his new President ...

Credit where credit is due:

Gerard Henderson is executive director of The Sydney Institute.

And now to keep that Xmas cheer flowing ...