In which the pond has to settle for a super bigoted broad church with Dame Slap ...

Does the pond regret not referencing the cracking Crace yesterday when dealing with the bromancer?

Of course the pond does, but how was the pond expected to know about the eerily prescient way Crace  evoked the bromancer in To the ramparts! Sir Keir summons hard power for hard times.

...they should be getting their kiddies battle-ready. Buying them toy drones with miniature nuclear warheads. No one is too young to fight. Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
In the new world order there would be no such thing as a civilian. Apart from the reptiles at the lizard Oz. They would play a vital role in the war effort by staying safely at home and telling the rest of us how we should die. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. A few even might get to make a few quid on the black market. Not to mention handing over food coupons and weapons contracts to cronies. Because they were worth it. Covid had been a good training ground for the reptiles.
Peace through strength. At times the language bordered on the Orwellian. But the brmancer had a message he was desperate to get across. We were in the fight of our lives. No one was safe. To imagine otherwise was to be in denial. Even as he wrote, the Russians were plotting our downfall.
Don’t be fooled that the Russian economy was no bigger than Spain’s. Don’t be fooled that Putin thought he could take the whole of Ukraine in a matter of weeks and was still bogged down in a land and drone war more than three years later. Don’t be fooled that the Russian military is already overstretched. The Russians have just been lulling us into a false sense of security. Lithuania could be next. Then Germany. Then us. First he takes Manhattan. Then he takes Berlin. Then he storms Surry Hills. First they came for the Ukrainians, then they came for the reptiles...

Or maybe it was just another fever swamp dream, something the pond had imagined in that moment of delirium felt waking after a troubled sleep, and the pond needed to apologise to the cracking Crace. 

Maybe the pond had just transposed a few words and notions even if the spirit rang loud and bromancer true.

And did the pond regret not exploring the full madness outlined in MAGA Launches Bonkers Hunt to ‘Prove’ Biden Is a Robot Clone (*archive link)

Of course the pond did, it's not everyday that robots and clones meet up in the mind of King Donald and his barking mad devotees.

But that's already so yesterday.

The new yesterday is Ava Kofman's portrait in The New Yorker, Curtis Yarvin’s Plot Against America, The reactionary blogger’s call for a monarch to rule the country once seemed like a joke. Now the right is ready to bend the knee. (*archive link)

It's not flattering ...

...Yarvin’s oracular pronouncements and bottomless disdain for actually existing politics have inspired a viral post: his face under the words “Your anti-regime actions work well in practice. But do they work in theory?” The conservative activist Christopher Rufo has compared Yarvin to “a sullen teenager who insists that everything is pointless.” I came to think of him as a reactionary Goldilocks who would be satisfied with nothing less than the inch-perfect autocracy that he’d constructed in his mind.

...and it would be easy to dismiss it all as the ravings and the rantings of a prize loon, except that prize loons in position of power of the JD Vance kind like to spend time with Yarvin's 'thinking' (the pond uses the word loosely).

Kofman does Yarvin slowly, giving him the attention he obviously desperately craves and pathetically needs, but roast him she does, in exotic locations and in exotic company ...

...After dessert, coffee, and a rum from Guadeloupe, it was time for an evening stroll. Carrying a wooden cane, Camus led Yarvin through the small town of Plieux. Spring had arrived early: a cherry tree was blossoming with little flowers. As they passed the local church, Yarvin took out his phone to show Camus a photo of the toddler he shares with Laurenson. “The mother of that child was not my wife,” he said confidingly. A moment later, he was reading a poem by C. P. Cavafy, in tears once again.
When Yarvin and Camus went on ahead, the filmmakers paused to assess the day’s shoot. Brun said that Yarvin reminded him of the long-winded character in “Airplane!” who talks so incessantly that it drives his seatmates to kill themselves. We wondered what Camus was making of the afternoon. It wasn’t long before we found out. “If intellectual exchanges were commercial exchanges—which they are, to a certain extent—the amount of my exports would not reach one per cent of that of my imports,” Camus wrote in his diary, which he posted online the following day. “The visitor spoke without interruption from his arrival to his departure, for five hours, very quickly and very loudly, interrupting himself only for curious fits of tears, when he spoke of his deceased wife, but also, more strangely, certain political situations.”

Deeply weird, and even the reptiles are compelled by the madness of it all as the pond scanned the top of the digital edition for what had distracted the reptiles this day ...

There, look, down near the bottom ...

BREAKING
Musk calls Trump’s spending bill a ‘disgusting abomination’
In an extraordinary attack on Donald Trump’s legislative centrepiece, Musk warns it will contribute to an unsustainable debt crisis.
By Joe Kelly

It's hard to put it aside, but the pond can only explore so much international insanity when there's so much local insanity to treasure, wonder and marvel at.

And speaking of that, it's a new dawn, a new day, yet another super day at the lizard Oz, with a super deal in the air ...

COALITION DEAL
Albanese leaves door ajar to super tax compromise
Anthony Albanese has left open the chance of rewriting his proposed superannuation tax reforms to strike a deal with the Coalition that would sideline the Greens.
By Greg Brown and Matthew Cranston

COMMENTARY BY GEOFF CHAMBERS
Labor puts the ball in Coalition’s court in early test for Ley
The PM is ready to use his super tax to prosecute Sussan Ley’s pledge to lead a more collaborative Coalition that doesn’t say no to everything and puts the interests of Australians first.

The pond rarely chambers any thought by Chambers but seemed lucky, when,  on looking over on the extreme far right, the usual safe harbour for the pond wafted into view...

Dame Groan was on hand to do her usual super job groaning about super.

The header: For the sake of national interest, super system needs overhaul, There’s no doubt super has benefited some handsomely but there are many weaknesses in the system.
By Judith Sloan

Hang on, hang on ... that sounded exactly like Dame Groan groaning away yesterday, as featured in the pond, In which it's steadily as she goes into drunken binge spending with the bromancer, and super reform with Dame Groan ...

And yet when the pond happened on it, the reptiles boldly and brazenly called it fresh meat ...

COMMENTARY 58 minutes ago
It’s time for a major rethink on super system
There’s no doubt super has benefited some handsomely but there are many weaknesses in the system.

58 minutes ago? Talk about the reptiles attempting a mind fuck.

The pond began to sing "let's to the time warp again", as an entire day disappeared into the reptile ether.

What else? Why, there was a reptile attempting to do a bromancer ...

Albanese’s dilemma: how to sell fortress Australia to Trump
The Prime Minister is gambling Australia’s future defence and security on two fronts and he may lose on both.
By Ross Babbage

Nah, not really, sorry Mr Babbage, no bromancer substitutes accepted.

Besides, if anybody's losing, if anybody's gambling, it's a helpless and hapless United States, ruled by a tormented, narcissistic and delusional king, a disgusting abomination at war with Uncle Leon, himself a drug-fuelled abomination, and therefore an expert at recognising other abominations...

And it would be expecting far too much for the reptiles to feature ethnic cleansing ...

You have to go elsewhere for news of the unfolding genocide, At least 27 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire near aid centre, Gaza authorities say

And that's how the pond ended up yet again in Dame Slap's company.

True, the last time she appeared bleating about her suffering, it did result in some enjoyable correspondence. But the pond expected little from this outing ...

Of course when Dame Slap calls for a broad church, she means a church able to house bigots and far right loons, transphobes especially welcome: Call this a ‘broad church’? Victorian moderates are trashing their own party, The critical point for a so-called Liberal Party is that Moira Deeming’s views should never have been a sacking offence.

The caption: Moira Deeming gives a press conference in the gardens of Parliament House after her defamation win against Victorian Liberal Leader.

The mindless, moronic, endlessly repeated instruction: This article contains features which are only available in the web version, Take me there

Before beginning, the pond should note Media Watch, which featured the shameless yanking of a speaker on the plight of Palestinians by the ABC, shameless pandering by Nine breakfast loons in Dubai, and transphobia in action in the Murdoch press, with Penbo of the deep south leading the way.

...Penberthy insisted to Media Watch his was a legitimate story and said he had tried to address the mother’s concerns by having comments disabled from his article.
And as for why The Australian had failed to publish a correction?
… until now I did not know that she wanted one. If she does want one I will take that up with the editors. - Email, David Penberthy, 30 May 2025 
That’s right, no corrections at The Australian without a formal application first!
After we contacted News Corp however, news.com.au published a correction and an apology and Sky News said it had removed its segments from the internet. 
There is a real and legitimate debate about transgender athletes competing in sport, but this had none of that legitimacy because at the heart of this error-riddled story was let’s not forget a 13-year-old child whose family was never contacted but was rather trampled upon by a media stampede falling over itself to voice outrage. 
It was so irresponsible as to be breathtaking.

Expect a little more of that casual, enthusiastic and breathtaking transphobia as Dame Slap grinds into gear...

Jeff Kennett’s complaint last week that the Victorian Liberal Party faces an “extraordinary implosion” over the Moira Deeming affair may well be right. However, if an implosion occurs it will be entirely and predictably down to John Pesutto and those who backed him in his appallingly illiberal attempt to shut down perfectly respectable beliefs on spurious grounds.
With bankruptcy proceedings against the former state opposition leader now under way after Pesutto failed to pay Deeming’s legal costs of $2.3m by last Friday’s deadline, it pays to remember who’s to blame for this debacle.
While Kennett disputes his level of support for Pesutto’s campaign against Deeming, it does seem clear that neither Kennett nor two other former Liberal premiers, Ted Baillieu and Denis Napthine, or the two senior Liberal MPs, Georgie Crozier and David Southwick, all of whom have been cited by Deeming as backing Pesutto’s efforts, did what they should have done. Namely, told Pesutto to stop the madness.
Not only do they all stand condemned by this failure, they illustrate to the Victorian public why the Liberal Party in that state is such an abject mess.
This is not, however, just a Victorian disaster. The factional thuggery and sheer stupidity of the Victorian branch carries national lessons for the Liberal Party.

Remember, all this is in aid of transphobia in action, in the guise of knocking down the already knocked down hapless and helpless John Pesutto holds a press conference after his loss to Moira Deeming in the Federal Court for defamation. Picture: NewsWire/Ian Currie

It takes a little time for Dame Slap to get fully into transphobic gear, but she'll get there ...

To understand what happened in Victoria, the judgment of Federal Court Justice David O’Callaghan in the defamation action brought by Deeming against Pesutto is compulsory reading. The basic facts are well known.
Deeming spoke at a Let Women Speak rally that, without any knowledge or approval from Deeming, was gatecrashed by neo-Nazis (as well as trans rights activists and Socialist Alternative demonstrators).
Pesutto almost immediately put plans in place to have Deeming expelled from the party.
Over the next few days, Pesutto was busy. He issued a media release, gave radio and TV interviews, a press conference, and had circulated to the media an “expulsion motion and dossier”.
Justice O’Callaghan found that Pesutto made several highly defamatory comments about Deeming including that she associated with neo-Nazis and was unfit to continue to be a member of the parliamentary Liberal Party.
Parts of O’Callaghan’s judgment were particularly scathing about a defendant who was, after all, a solicitor, as well as leader of the opposition. He found parts of Pesutto’s affidavit evidence were simply untrue.
He found “Mr Pesutto’s evidence about what he called Mrs Deeming’s bad reputation was gratuitously offensive, because, when asked to justify the slur, he could not”. He complained about Pesutto’s “lengthy and non-responsive answers to questions”.
Most tellingly the judge awarded Deeming costs on an indemnity basis for all costs incurred after February 12, 2024, because Pesutto ignored Deeming’s settlement offer (which required no apology) at that time of $99,000, which was substantially lower than the amount she was eventually awarded. Pesutto compounded this misjudgment by pursuing his stiff-necked unwillingness to admit error. He now reaps what he deliberately sowed.

First there came a couple of snaps...Jeff Kennett, Ted Baillieu

Then came the transphobic bigotry in full reptile flight ...

All this because Pesutto disliked Deeming’s fierce advocacy of women’s sex-based rights and feared Dan Andrews would make political capital out of them.
Now you don’t have to agree with all, or indeed any, of Deeming’s views to recognise they are widely shared – and not just by JK Rowling. A powerful argument can be made that, after the recent UK Supreme Court decision that the definition of woman in Britain’s Equality Act refers to “biological sex”, Deeming is, to borrow a favourite left-wing phrase, on the right side of history.

The right side of history?

It does help explain why, per Media Watch, the Murdoch press is the home of transphobia in Australia.

As for that bigoted UK decision, the Graudian had its doubts ...

...Equality law now defines sex biologically, but in public life, notions of sex can be plural, lived and contested. The question is whether the UK can adapt to shifting norms without retreating into division. Clearly, lawful exclusion, even in the name of balance, can lead to lives lived apart. The pub landlord adding a gender-neutral toilet may offer compromise, but it risks creating a “separate but equal” trans existence. Formal equality doesn’t guarantee felt belonging. The danger is a third, liminal identity – neither fitting nor integrating, inviting silent self-exclusion. The challenge now is not only legal but moral. Can society protect sex-based rights while integrating trans people into public life – or does it expect them to assimilate on its own terms?
The supreme court’s decision might, for some, revive a Victorian idea: to protect women legally, we must define them biologically. Efforts to ringfence women’s spaces could end up excluding trans people entirely. The worry is that a narrow legal clarification becomes a cultural victory lap. The bigger danger? That liberal societies struggle with those who don’t fit neat categories, leaving trans people in a third sphere: neither male nor female, nor completely welcome.

None of that matters in Dame Slap's broad church of bigots ...

The critical point for a so-called Liberal Party is that Deeming’s views should never have been a sacking offence. Pesutto could have removed her as whip, or counselled her, or publicly disavowed her views. But why try to expel her from the party? And when caught out making plainly false and highly defamatory comments about her, why not simply admit he had gone too far and apologise? Deeming gave detailed evidence – that, tellingly, Pesutto did not challenge – about the emotional, physical and reputational damage done to a woman who was too scared to go out in public with her young children for fear of what they would endure.
Neither did Pesutto challenge this from Deeming: “I was so hurt that the Leadership Team had betrayed every principle we were supposed to protect – women, children, family, free association, free speech, due process, civil rights, even just common decency. I wondered how they could ever be trusted by ordinary people to fight for their rights when they so callously and unfairly persisted in persecuting an innocent woman and tearing strips off her in front of the whole world.”
All along, Pesutto, with at least some prominent Liberals egging him on, doubled down. Three days before the defamation trial began, former Victorian Liberal premier Kennett said he knew who had made affidavits in support of Deeming. Describing them as “disloyal, and perhaps even treacherous”, Kennett said those MPs would be “dealt with in due course when preselections are called for the next election”. This was political thuggery and Pesutto, and perhaps Kennett, must now live with its consequences.
The political lesson for the Liberal Party is about what constitutes acceptable forms of disagreement inside the “broad church”. John Howard’s government is the best, but not the only, evidence that the Liberal Party, and indeed the Coalition, is politically most successful when the moderate and the conservative factions within it can coexist.
Competition is fine and indeed desirable. Contested preselections and fierce debates about policy are necessary and healthy.

Even John Howard managed to think that there was no place for Pauline, fish and chip lady, in his broad church ... as the reptiles paused for an AV distraction, Some Liberals are suggesting Sussan Ley has risked making enemies in unveiling her new shadow ministry. Conservatives who voted for the Opposition leader have expressed disappointment with her decision to demote those who voted against her leadership. According to The Australian, several Liberal members expected Jane Hume to be given a more junior role rather than being removed entirely from the frontbench. Other Coalition members have voiced their support for the Opposition leader's decision.

That signalled a chance for Dame Slap to have a go at Sussssan, because the reptiles aren't into moderates or moderation. Unless you're full blown barking mad, you're not welcome in the broad church ...

Pesutto, though, wanted much more. He didn’t want a debate inside the party or in public. He wanted Deeming expelled. Gone. Finished. This sadly seems to be a common feature of the moderate wing of the party – they are so convinced of their moral superiority that they believe contrary views are not merely wrong but that those espousing them should vamoose.
Watching the NSW moderates in action reveals that this illiberal brutality is not confined to Victoria. In fairness, in the past the conservative wing of the party has been every bit as ugly. Stories about the so-called Clan in the WA branch of the party are equally unedifying, although their methods at least were not so laugh-out-loud incompetent as Pesutto’s attempt to expel Deeming. But at this juncture, the poorly named moderates are busily behaving not very moderately.
It is passing strange that the moderates’ Neanderthal political methods are so at odds with their frequently mushy-minded, Pollyanna-style public persona.

It's always the way, isn't it? Projection, a worshipper of Neanderthals accusing others of the crime ...

Sorry, the pond is under contractual obligation to offer reminders of how broad Dame Slap's broad MAGA cap wearing church is ...

Why at one point, it was so broad that it even included Jordan Peterson, currently making a social media fool of himself yet again, this time in a debate originally titled 'an Xian vs. 20 atheists', until its content forced it to be retitled 'Jordan Peterson vs. 20 atheists'. As usual in these matters, it was designed for clicks rather than sense, heat rather than light, and it broke the pond's YouTube logarithms.

Enough already about members of Dame Slap's broad church, time to wrap up this days proceedings with more savaging of Sussssan ...

Sussan Ley’s new slogan that the Libs need to “meet voters where they are” is a case in point. What on earth does this mean? More entitlements for those who want more money. Less work for those who want to slack off on the same wage? “Meet voters where they are” is only just outmatched for meaningless by Julia Gillard’s “we are us” comment. Ultimately, empathy can take a politician only so far. Jacinda Ardern may have been the most loveable, caring and media-savvy politician the southern hemisphere has ever seen but history will recall her leadership as an utter failure to achieve its stated goals.
Ley’s weekend outreach to voters in The Australian Financial Review was more of the same. To be sure, it’s all meet-and-greet at the moment with an Opposition Leader most Australians won’t have heard about. “As for glass cliffs, I couldn’t give a stuff,” Ley said. Fair enough. But soon Ley will need to offer Australians more than fluff. A marriage of presentation with good policy and demonstrated implementation skills is required. That demands the broad church. Conservatives can be hard to sell, moderates can subordinate good policy to feel good emoting. Both are needed – and each needs to stop trying to defenestrate the other.

As if poor Susssan didn't have enough problems nuking the country.

In all this the pond was given no cue to segue to the 'toons of the day, so here they are ...

The pond also decided it was wrong to interrupt the flow by featuring Jon Stewart taking down Uncle Elon, but for those who missed it, here it is ...