Those masters of deflection, distraction and denial, prattling Polonius and Dame Slap, get to work on King Donald I ...

 

Seems like everybody's doing it these days ...

It's pretty weird when even France's far right run for cover ...

The French far-right leader Jordan Bardella on Friday morning cancelled a scheduled speech at the US Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, after Donald Trump’s former aide Steve Bannon flashed a fascist-style salute there hours before.
Bannon, who helped Trump win office in 2016 and is now a popular rightwing podcast show host, finished his CPAC speech on Thursday with an outstretched arm, fingers pointed and palm down – a sign that echoed the Nazi salute and a controversial gesture made by the tech billionaire Elon Musk at the US president’s second inauguration in January.
Bardella, of the far-right National Rally party in France, pulled out of CPAC citing Bannon’s allusion to “Nazi ideology”.
The salute during Bannon’s speech brought cheers from the audience at the US gathering.
Bardella, who was in Washington ahead of his appearance and had said he intended to talk about relations between the US and France, issued a statement saying: “Yesterday, while I was not present in the room, one of the speakers, out of provocation, allowed himself a gesture alluding to Nazi ideology. I therefore took the immediate decision to cancel my speech that had been scheduled this afternoon.”

But knowing that the United States is veering full fascist and is in a state of chaos isn't what intrigued the pond when reading prattling Polonius's weekend outing ...

The pond is currently well over attempting to keep track of the madness and the futile attempts of American pundits and reptiles to keep track of it all. 

There'll be more madness tomorrow, and the day after that, and the week after that, and the month after that ...

Rather, the pond was interested in seeing how Polonius was coping ... knowing the company he was keeping were Nazi-saluting agents of darkness.

What defence mechanism could he deploy to keep himself comfortably numb? Denial, repression, projection, rationalisation, sublimation, regression, displacement ... they're all handy techniques.

As expected, as always, the reliable dissembler displayed extraordinary skill ... plodding, pedantic, pedestrian, and the pond felt that familiar comfortable numbness fogging the brain. Polonius waved his fingers in that famous gesture ... these are not the Nazi-saluting agents of chaos you're looking for:

Trump looks to be caving in to Putin, but the deal is not yet done, Yes, the US President’s overture to Vladimir Putin sounds like ‘a terrifying echo of the betrayal of Czechoslovakia in 1938’, but it remains to be seen whether this is simply his opening gambit.

Ah, it's just an opening gambit. Pawn to 1.e4, the King's Pawn Opening, as befits the new monarch.

On the upside, the reptiles clocked it as a four minute read. It wasn't going to be a "Ned" Everest climb - the pond is still feeling ginger and bruised from that arcing saga of aches and mental pains.

It began with a standard snap - no AV distractions for Polonius: 

US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting of the Republican Governors Association this week. Events suggest Trump’s approach to diplomacy with respect to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aims in Eastern Europe goes something like this. First step: ask Putin what he wants. Second step: if possible, give it to him. Picture: Samuel Corum/AFP)

The modest length gave the pond a chance to celebrate recent triumphs with a few 'toons...

Note the discreet way that Polonius begins, cautious, wary of being caught out ...

It is said that history repeats itself – first as tragedy, second as farce. The quote is attributed to Karl Marx. 

It's more than an attribution, it even has a moment in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte wiki ...

The opening lines of the book are the source of one of Marx's most quoted and misquoted statements, that historical entities appear two times, "the first as tragedy, then as farce" (das eine Mal als Tragödie, das andere Mal als Farce), referring respectively to Napoleon I and to his nephew Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III):

"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Caussidière for Danton, Louis Blanc for Robespierre, the Montagne of 1848 to 1851 for the Montagne of 1793 to 1795, the nephew for the uncle. The same caricature occurs in the circumstances of the second edition of The Eighteenth Brumaire."

Marx's sentiment echoed an observation made by Friedrich Engels at exactly the same time Marx began work on this book. In a letter to Marx of 3 December 1851, Engels wrote from Manchester:

"... it really seems as though old Hegel, in the guise of the World Spirit, were directing history from the grave and, with the greatest conscientiousness, causing everything to be re-enacted twice over, once as grand tragedy and the second time as rotten farce, Caussidière for Danton, L. Blanc for Robespierre, Barthélemy for Saint-Just, Flocon for Carnot, and the moon-calf together with the first available dozen debt-encumbered lieutenants for the little corporal and his band of marshals. Thus the 18th Brumaire would already be upon us".

See the rat cunning? See the point of the quote. It's not to establish Polonius's Marxist credentials, it's to sooth ...

It means these wild-eyed days are like any other days of yore ... these are the days you can watch Sky or Faux Noise and stay fully informed and feel calm and confident that the "woke" are in retreat  ...

Certainly there was tragedy and farce aplenty when Australians woke up on Thursday.

It came as no surprise to anyone who followed US politics on Sky News in Australia and/or Fox News in the US when Donald J. Trump won the presidential election in November 2024. Or that the Republicans won control of the Senate and kept their majority in the House of Representatives. Or that Trump won the popular vote.

The evidence suggests most Americans are sick of the left-wing/progressive ethos (some call it “woke”) that prevailed throughout the land in recent years.

Note the coy some call it “woke”

That's Polonius ducking and weaving and dodging, hinting that he might agree, but off-loading it onto "some" so he could try to avoid the pond's contractual liabilities whenever the word looms into frame...

Eventually Polonius has to show how he's coping with the Vichy quisling elephant in the room ...

However, the atmosphere changed on Thursday morning. Many political leaders possess a strain of narcissism. Trump has it in spades. How else to explain his post on X dated February 20 in which he referred to himself in the third person as “TRUMP”.

Trump described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “modestly successful comedian” who decided “to go into a war that couldn’t be won” and “never had to start”. The implication being that Ukraine started the hostilities against Russia on February 24, 2022. It also overlooked the fact that Russia conquered Crimea in Ukraine in 2014.

Which suggests that Trump’s approach to diplomacy with respect to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aims in Eastern Europe goes something like this. First step: ask Putin what he wants. Second step: if possible, give it to him.

The Wall Street Journal is one of the few parts of the mainstream American media that broadly supports Trump and the Republican Party. This week the paper’s editorial board stated “global politics can be an ugly business, but the looming rehabilitation of Vladimir Putin is especially hard to take”.

The board pointed out that in 2022, Putin “started the biggest land war in Europe since Hitler, and his ‘special military operation’ has killed or maimed hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians”.

The reptiles followed that with a couple of snaps,  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Picture: Pool/AFP,Russian President Vladimir Putin. Picture: Pool / AFP

Another deflection from uncomfortable events ...

Is there an upside? So it seems, if you can believe AP's report Trump’s attempts to denigrate Zelenskyy have led to a surge in Ukrainian unity;

..Over three years of war, Ukraine’s initial unity had started to wear thin, as old frictions and political spats reemerged. But after Trump’s false claims this week that Ukraine is led by a “dictator” who started the war with Russia, even some of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s harshest critics have rallied around him and feelings of unity have surged again.

“Yes, he’s not a perfect president, but he’s not a dictator,” said Kateryna Karaush, a 25-year-old tech worker from Kyiv who like many Ukrainians — and even some Republicans in Congress — is struggling to wrap her head around Trump's embrace of Russia, which represents a major about-face in U.S. foreign policy.

“It feels like the whole world is against us," Karaush said.

....A poll released Wednesday by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology put public trust in Zelenskyy at 57%. The survey was conducted Feb. 4 to Feb. 9 among 1,000 people living across Ukraine in regions and territories controlled by the Ukrainian government.

“We have a president whom we support. During war, we are united,” said Larysa, a 52-year-old resident from the northeastern city of Kharkiv, who refused to give her last name due to security concerns.

The political rift with the U.S. comes as Ukrainian forces, outnumbered and outgunned, increasingly struggle to hold back Russia’s slow but steady advances.

Speaking from the front lines, some Ukrainian soldiers said they were not panicking yet, and not ready to give up the fight.

“Even if we don’t get enough weapons or if funding is cut, that doesn’t change our duty to (fight),” said a Ukrainian officer who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military rules. “No shells? We’ll take up rifles. No rifles? We’ll grab shovels.”

On Wednesday, Trump echoed one of Putin’s frequent talking points, claiming Zelenskyy, whose term expired last year, must hold elections. But the idea has little traction within Ukraine — even among opposition politicians, who recognize Zelenskyy’s right to postpone elections during wartime.

“Elections are not needed right now because they should only take place when we understand the framework of (a peace) agreement with Russia,” said Volodymyr Ariev, a lawmaker from the opposition European Solidarity party. “Holding elections now would only benefit the Kremlin, further dividing Ukrainians and installing a new president who could sign a deal favorable to Moscow.”

Polonius didn't care about any of that.

Instead his solution was to fling his hands in the air. 

The tea leaves aren't working, he can't decipher the runes, the Delphic Oracle has failed as his muse ...

Putin’s initial war aims failed. Ukraine was not conquered within days or even weeks. The Russian air force and navy have performed poorly and Putin had to secure ground troops from North Korean communist dictator Kim Jong-un to aid the Russian army. What’s more, the Russian economy has been devastated. Yet Trump is willing to hear from Putin before he consults with Zelensky.

It’s impossible to say what the future may be... 

The Doris Day answer. Que sera, sera, whatever will be, will be, the Hitchockian future's not ours to see, who can say what the future will be ...

Might there not be some sort of clue?

Polonius has to tweak hard to allocate blame ... it isn't King Donald, it's those bloody Europeans ...

King Donald is correct, bend the knee to the monarch ...

Trump is correct in calling on European nations to spend more on defence and take responsibility for the security of their region. Poland and the Baltic states, which until some three decades ago were controlled directly or indirectly by the Soviet Union, are pulling their weight. But many leaders in Western Europe like getting their security on the cheap, via the US.

Perhaps a little sotto voce, but clear enough - let's hear it for King Donald.

Then comes a slip, a bit of a fall, a hint Polonius might not be paying attention ...

The evidence suggests that Trump remains popular in the US.... 

Oh do keep up Polonius ... things are changing quickly at the moment ...

'Delusional' Trump Openly Mocked As His Newest Boast Backfires Spectacularly

The president's critics fired back after an unrealistic claim about his approval rating.

The latest polling numbers aren't that hard to find ... and there's been a lot of clucking about them ...

Over at The Bulwark, there was some celebrating at the MAGA mob deep into FAFO territory ...

Forget it Jake ...

Polonius is only really interested in talking himself and others off down the ledge ...

...Moreover, the idea that the US is in constitutional crisis is mere hyperbole. However, Trump’s foreign policy in Europe is a concern.

Mere hyperbole?

So that's how to talk about a meltdown in the courts and in the nukes? The Bulwark again ...

As for the King's foreign policy, it's merely "a concern" ... why Mr Pooter himself couldn't have presented the matter with a more discreet and refined sensibility.

How soon before the 4D chess gambit appears?

If Putin is allowed to prevail over Ukraine, he and his cronies are unlikely to cease Russia’s demands to conquer land beyond its borders that were determined after the collapse of European communism. As British historian Antony Beevor has argued, “we should always distrust historical parables, especially those with World War II”. But he says: “Donald Trump’s overture to Vladimir Putin sounds like a terrifying echo of the betrayal of Czechoslovakia in 1938.”

Who knows, Trump may have in mind what may be called “a cunning plan”.

What else to do, but fling hands in air and exclaim "who knows"?

Oh dear sweet long absent lord, it's not 4 or 5D chess, it's merely "a cunning plan" ... or perhaps an alternative universe in which Polonius lurks ...

And at that point, exhausted by the effort involved in his Donald dissembling, Polonius turned to Titanic Clive ...

Meanwhile, in Australia on Thursday it was Clive Palmer who was blowing his own trumpet. The former Queensland businessman held the seat of Fairfax for three years from 2013 as a member of the Palmer United Party. He subsequently headed the United Australia Party. It appears Palmer has risen from the (political) dead once again. Newspapers have carried an advertisement that contained a photo of Palmer over the caption “Chairman, Trumpet of Patriots”. It declared: “A Message To All Australians From The Trumpet of Patriots And The Next Prime Minister.”

Spoiler alert: According to Palmer, the next prime minister is the little known Suellen Wrightson. She maintains that “The Trumpet of Patriots believes in many of the same commonsense policies as President Trump in the US”.

Spoiler alert, this snap ...Chairman of Trumpet of Patriots, Clive Palmer, holds a press conference at Parliament House this week. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

.

.. gave the pond no alternative. 

The pond simply had to repeat this 'toon ...

The upside for Polonius, in dealing with a local loon, is that he's absolved from dealing with King Donald, and he can also take a sideswipe at the savvy Savva, now fair game after having stepped outside the reptile tent ...

In recent years Palmer has spent a large amount of money to achieve political representation in Australian politics but with very limited success. It’s unclear what impact, if any, his new party will have on the election.

One likely benefit of the emergence of the Trumpet of Patriots is that it will help to reduce the claims by commentators hostile to Peter Dutton that he will “do a Trump” to get elected and if he happens to become prime minister.

Writing in Nine newspapers on February 6, Niki Savva claimed the Opposition Leader was “relishing playing his role of a lifetime as Little Sir Echo”.

Savva is just one of a number of Dutton antagonists among Canberra-based journalists.

American and Australian politics are quite different. It may suit a fringe political player such as Palmer to imitate Trump. But Dutton is smart enough to know the forthcoming election will be determined in Australia on Australian issues. Moreover, on matters such as border protection, Dutton as minister of immigration in the Abbott government was focused on unlawful arrivals well before Trump first became president.

Trump is an American nationalist. He is not the first president to be wary of the US entering European wars. This was true of Woodrow Wilson in 1914 and Franklin Roosevelt in 1939. Eventually the US entered both conflicts. So far Trump looks like he is caving in to Putin – but, in Trumpian language, the deal is not yet done.

The deal is not yet done ... or, hump away, hump away ...

There was also this, well worth a repeat ...

So to another deflector, dissembler, denialist and rationaliser ...

Dame Slap deployed a different defence mechanism in Trump carries Reagan’s torch for common sense, Donald Trump may not have Ronald Reagan’s charm, but the two have much in common: when Trump is exposing fads, he’s helping the cause of freedom across the world.... but the result was much the same ...

The cause of freedumb? Fascist salutes 'r us ...

Pond correspondents will recall that Dame Slap has been a MAGA-cap wearer since the early days, if only because the pond is constantly reminding them ...

Here's Dame Slap's deflecting trick. 

Pretend that King Donald has much in common with Ronnie Raygun, Ronald Reagan with his wife Nancy on the South Lawn at the White House in Washington in 1986.

It's compleat nonsense of course, but it helps Dame Slap cope ... it turns out fascism is all a big laugh, a hoot fit for a holler ...

I’ve been reading Max Boot’s book on Ronald Reagan over the summer. The 40th US president was a serious man who had some fun along the way, often at his own expense.

On his birthday in 1986, Reagan said: “It’s true I am 75 today … but remember, that’s only 24 Celsius.”

Politics is a serious business. But like any profession or calling, it can be fun.

Europeans have been upset about Elon Musk trying to interfere in their elections. Making some bleedingly obvious points to European leaders in Munich last week, JD Vance said: “If American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg’s scolding, you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.”

Foreign interference is more complex, to be sure, but a laugh rarely goes astray. Unless you’re a po-faced European.

Some said Reagan’s gentle humour took the sharp edges off his ideas. I disagree. His humour sharpened his ideas.

Before he was president, at a Labour Day address in New Jersey, Reagan said: “A recession is when your neighbour loses his job. A depression is when you lose yours. Recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his.”

How far can Dame Slap get with this coping mechanism? Quite a long way ...

Republican Senator Tom Cotton says former US president Ronald Reagan’s “strength” and “resolution” during the Cold War didn’t lead to World War III but led to “victory and success”. Mr Cotton said Russian President Vladimir Putin has “rattled the nuclear saber” but there has been no indication he has taken the steps to use nuclear weapons. “Ronald Reagan took a sort of strong, assertive stance against Soviet Russia and communism even though the nuclear threat at the end was just as dangerous then as it is now,” he told Sky News Australia host Piers Morgan.

Talk of Ronnie Raygun strength and resolution, and you can avert your eyes from what's going down ...

Seek comfort and distraction in Ronnie Raygun anecdotes...

Reagan changed the way we think and talk about the economy. Government is not the solution to our problems, he said. Government is the problem.

His lasting influence could be felt 15 years later when president Bill Clinton said the era of big government was over.

Alas, it’s not over but we must keep trying to shrink the power of the state so our power over our own lives increases.

The man once dubbed the “amiable dunce” confronted communism with his steely commitment to freedom – and humour. “If the Soviet Union let another political party come into existence, they would still be a one-party state because everybody would join the other party,” he told a gathering of Polish Americans in Chicago in 1983.

I learned some personal things about Reagan from Boot. There was some conflict the US president couldn’t bear.

The man who, standing at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin in June 1987, told Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall” couldn’t bear family disagreements. At the dinner table, at home, Reagan would hunch his shoulders, look down and push a piece of carrot around his plate with his fork rather than engage in a family quarrel.

So when Reagan said, in his farewell address in January 1989, that “all great change begins at the dinner table”, I’m not sure it did for him.

Great change begins with great ideas. His ability to convey those ideas was tremendous, lasting.

I discovered that his wife thought he talked too much. Not Nancy, of course. Towards the end of his first marriage, Jane Wyman told friends never to ask Ronnie what the time was. He’ll give you a 15-minute history of the watch, an even longer explanation of how a Swiss watch is made. And you may still be none the wiser about the time of day.

A journalist described Nancy Reagan, when she was next to Reagan, this way: “Nancy composes her features in a kind of transfixed adoration more appropriate to a witness of the Virgin birth.”

The pond thought she composed her features in an astrologer's chart...the house of Adolfo zodiac sign.

The good old days ... let the reptiles help you out with a nostalgic snap of a couple of genuine cowpokes having a chinwag, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev at Reagan’s ranch in California in 1992.

See how the Dame's avoidance works?

Avoid the present as much as possible, or if you must dabble in the present, avoid King Donald, and present a litany of pet peeves, fears and loathings cultivated over the years ...

Reagan was far from perfect. When he uttered those famous words in August 1986 – “the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I’m from the government, and I’m here to help” – Reagan was handing out subsidies to farmers.

His rhetoric outpaced his achievements. But he understood that if you don’t start from first principles, you’re destined to go off the rails. He understood that we shouldn’t fall for fads.

There’s a lesson for us to consider as elections loom. We have our fair share of fads.

What’s the difference between a fad and a principle? A fad can feel good – for a while. The right principle is good – in perpetuity.

Speaking of fads, tealdom may go the way of the Australian Democrats. The teals came into office in a wave of slogans and general voter malaise. This federal election is different. There is plenty of evidence the teals are splintering on core political issues such as tax and national security, and remain united only in their climate activism. 

Slip in a reminder of your never-ending addiction to climate science denialism...

Indeed, as reality starts to dawn and the need for a continued role for coal and gas becomes clear, even the most zealous bands of climate activists are not as monolithic as they were.

Wander down memory lane to old feuds ...

Educational fads have been harder to dislodge. A fad called the “whole language” theory convinced generations of teachers that kids could learn to read by osmosis, without structure, without learning the sounds that made up words.

Phonics was one of the first issues I wrote about more than 20 years ago. I had seen it work. When my daughters were very small, they were keen to read. So I taught myself how to teach them how to read – using phonics. I used a large set of phonetic cards called Spalding cards.

Phonics was so unfashionable back then that some so-called educators described it as a right-wing plot from George W. Bush. I’m not kidding. The reading wars were insanely political. This nonsense was hurting kids. It stopped because a group of serious educators kept making the case for evidence-based teaching methods.

My eldest daughter is now a high school history teacher in a country public school and a foster mum to a beautiful nine-year-old Indigenous girl. A few months ago my daughter bought a set of Spalding cards to help this divine little girl read better.

Now this little girl loves reading. Loves it. This is life-changing.

Principles require hard work. Fads are easier – they are based on emotion, not reasoning, not evidence. Fads are also soul-destroying, unjust, often divisive.

Take the corporate fads called DEI. Donald Trump is slaying this dragon. In his January 20 executive order he called the DEI fad “an unlawful, corrosive, and pernicious identity-based spoils system”. DEI is baloney, too.

There is no evidence showing that DEI leads to higher profits. The beneficiaries of DEI are women who secure board seats because of their gender and consulting firms that make a motza from perpetuating the myth that diversity is good for the corporate bottom line.

Actually he's slaying his own supporters ...Donald Trump Supporters Are Waking Up To The Reality Of Their Ballot Choices, And The Stories Are A Loooooot

So many face-eating leopards, but Dame Slap can keep her mouth planted on a plastic straw ...

Avoid any self-reflection, cultivate a complete absence of irony when talking about secure board seats ...

Remember DEI hires are disgraceful, these were just your due, they were right and proper. It's a blonde thing, it certainly had nothing to do with mates' rates ...

Maintain the bigotry and hate ... works for King Donald, can work for you too ...

Other fads need to be dismantled, too. Sporting fads that allow men to compete against women – in women’s sport.

Social fads, too, are being questioned, like the overused welcome to country. The voice referendum was a big deal. Here was a chance for the country to reaffirm the principle of Martin Luther King – that we should not treat people differently because of their skin colour.

Yeah, yeah, if only those bloody uppity, tricky blacks would just get out of the way ...

Rabbit on about bureaucrats, and the ABC ...and freedumb, freedumb's always a good go ...

If you start with a basic principle, all kinds of good things follow. Like this one. A healthy democracy is founded on the rights and responsibilities – and therefore the dignity – of every citizen regardless of their skin colour, gender or other traits. Representative democracy doesn’t mean parliament must reflect every group favoured by the social engineers. Representative democracy is not identity politics. We don’t want or need quotas to dictate the makeup of parliament.

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is in federal parliament because she’s brilliant. Not because she’s Indigenous. Who better to oversee a new portfolio to give power back to the people by making government smaller?

Drain those swamps, Jacinta.

The left is committed to dividing the country, entrenching victimhood where bigger government is the answer to their grievances. A recent report on multiculturalism to the Albanese government misrepresents this country, shows no understanding of why migrants came to Australia, why they still come.

The report called for layers and layers of more bureaucracy.

I can guarantee the multiculti tsars that no migrant ever came to Australia thinking: “I love this country because there is so much … bureaucracy!”

Maybe, just maybe, it's nice to know that a competent government isn't producing complete chaos? Instead of taking a scary ride ...

Nah, stay with a completely dysfunctional family, run by a man who likes to cheat at Monopoly, as if that's a better alternative ...

This silly report called for an expanded role for SBS and the ABC.

I don’t want to fund the ABC’s current role, let alone an expanded role. No matter how much more money it gets, the ABC won’t make room for conservatives. Intellectual diversity at the taxpayer-funded ABC is dead.

There’s another principle for us to champion: freedom of speech. This is a tough one right now. But that’s precisely when we need to defend freedom of expression – when we loathe what’s being said. But let’s be clear, there is no right to say things that incite violence.

The Labor government committed the biggest sin of any government – failing to keep Jewish Australians safe from threats of violence. And when Jews aren’t safe, neither are the rest of us. Two simple changes to the Criminal Code should have been enacted 18 months ago.

We need to free businesses, big and small, from the stranglehold of ideology so the country can thrive. Ideology is lowering our standard of living.

At some point the Cantaoloupe Caligula eventually had to intrude into this Slappian universe above the faraway tree, Donald Trump is not everyone’s cup of tea, but he has generated momentum for common seanse (sic, so and thus) at the start of his second term in office. Picture: Rhona Wise/AFP

Not everyone's cup of tea?

But you can soften the taste of the tea by proposing a gigantic billy boat butt ... but he has generated momentum for common seanse

It's all perfectly normal, that momentum for common seanse ...

It would be wise to avoid some topics, localise them, lest you notice what's happening in King Donald's land ...

Electricity prices were on average 25 per cent higher in December 2024 compared with the same month in 2023. Before the last election, Anthony Albanese promised Australians that our household power bills would come down $275 by 2025. He promised it 97 times.

Speaking of promises and common seanse ...

A cunning move by Dame Slap, trumped again as she reverts to her ancient, abiding lust for coal ...

Last month, Woodside Energy boss Meg O’Neill said that after a decade of political opposition to the fossil fuel industry, it’s now too late to avoid economically damaging gas shortfalls in Victoria.

The result is that Victoria, Australia’s most gas-dependent state, will have to import LNG – adding to price pressures. “Ideology has stood in the way of sensible energy investment,” she said.

Make sure to rabbit on about the rule of law ...

Another principle that needs constant defending: the rule of law. The law and all its punishments and protections must apply to everyone equally. Victim-centric justice is a legal fad undermining the presumption of innocence.

We need to defend our history to pass on these principles to our children.

Defend white history, pass on the principles of blonde-ism... it only requires avoiding a few harsh realities ...

You really need good blinkers fitted for this job ... how else to blather on about momentum and excuse the narcissism ...

I believe there is momentum for more common sense, aided by popular opinion, to solve many difficult problems. Trump is undeniably part of this momentum. He’s not everyone’s cup of tea. The great John Howard told me more than once that Australia could never see the rise of a man like Trump. The party system would weed out an A-grade narcissist, he said.

I can think of an A-grade narcissist who became prime minister. In fact, more than one.

Trump doesn’t have Reagan’s charm, his boundless optimism, his grace or gentle sense of humour, but Trump has this much in common with Reagan: when he’s exposing fads, replacing them with principles and common sense, he’s helping the cause of freedom – across the world.

And there you go, QED, he's just Ronnie Raygun in drag ... a perfectly normal and amiable chappie helping the cause of freedumb ...

Round it all out with a few more pieties...

For Reagan, freedom was the most noble achievement for any society. Freedom, Reagan said, “is never more than one generation away from extinction”. It’s not passed “on to our children in their bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it and then hand it to them with the well-fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same.”

It’s that simple.

Finally, note the simpletons that copped this epic bout of mindless simplicity ...

This is an edited version of an address to a WA Liberal Party event in Perth this week.

The illusion, the delusion, the distraction, the downplaying, the denying, is compleat...

The pond has only one question left over. 

Why do cartoonists keep on seeing Star Wars metaphors in the current catastrophe? Why do their characters sound just like Polonius and Dame Slap, down playing and denying?

Is freedumb somehow tangled up in all this?