What you'll never read at the lizard Oz... and what you will read ... part II

 

What you won't be reading in the Oz:

The pond sometimes gets into fierce arguments with people who think King Donald is exceptional. He isn't.

For a chart showing how his path has been smoothed by decades, see Thomas Meaney's review in the LRB (not the Little River Band) of Sam Tanehanus's book Buckley: The Life and the Revolution that Changed America (*archive link).

At a thousand pages plus, and at 33 UK quid, there's no way the pond will ever meet up with that tome (up there with Kubrick's monolith), but here's a few grabs of Meaney.

The first gobbet explores William Buckley's enabling of McCarthyism...

Relevance? 

More here, not only but also ...

It might seem a far cry from Australia’s Adelaide Festival in the summer of 2026 and a West Virginian ladies club in the winter of 1950, but they both carry the taint of hysterical and unsubstantiated public accusations that ended in tales of woe. In his speech at a Republican ladies’ club in 1950, US Senator Joseph McCarthy laid claim to an assertion that would set the wheels in motion for a witch-hunt across the USA that occupied many millions in wasted government resources and ignited the unevidenced persecution and silencing of anyone deemed “un-American”. Feel free to transpose the word antisemitic here whenever you see the term un-American; it will make it more obvious to you, more quickly.

The second gobbet explores the long, slow march through the institutions - how Buckley, together with a vast array of barking mad right wing US loons, from the soft David Brooks kind to the more depraved mob housed in Heritage paved the way for the current madness.

For early soundings on this long march through feeble minds, see The New Yorker in 2017, Intellectuals for Trump, A rogue group of conservative thinkers tries to build a governing ideology around a President-elect who disdains ideology. (*archive link)

For even earlier soundings, see Peter Breinart in 2016 in The Atlantic, Why Are Some Conservative Thinkers Falling for Trump?A few themes emerge among intellectuals on the right about what attracts them to the candidate: his campaign’s energy, his impassioned following, and his eagerness to call out the establishment. (*archive link)

And now, after a hat tip to that MAGA cap donning Dame Slap, here we are, and here's what you will read in today's lizard Oz.

Oh wait, first the pond must go back a day, and congratulate Mein Gott. 

He's supposed to write about economics, but it's all hands on deck when the reptiles are conducting a jihad so he chipped in yesterday with ...

Commentary by Robert Gottliebsen
‘Culture comes from the top’: Unis on frontline of antisemitism
University leaders urged to show zero tolerance as antisemitism grips campuses
Jewish students were too scared to attend universities last year. Chancellors need to pick the right people for the job to protect them. (that's an intermittent archive link)

Impressive, all that can be expected from the Australian Daily Zionist News, and it goes without saying that the Bondi terrorist killers had an astonishing set of academic credentials to their name.

Apparently Sajid Akram worked as a bricklayer, while his son Naveed also worked as a bricklayer. 

No doubt university leaders will show the way in rooting out anti-Semitism in the bricklaying trade.

Also out and about yesterday was the disgraced swishing Switzer, always seeking rehabilitation in his hive mind home ...

The splash featured one of those uncredited appalling collages for which the reptiles are now notorious:

Knowing when to leave them wanting more: Could Albo ever do a Menzies?
As Anthony Albanese enters rare territory – 30 years in politics – should he do what no other Australian PM bar Sir Robert Menzies has done, and quit while he’s ahead? There are signs he’ll go on his own terms.
By Tom Switzer
Contributor

Already gone off to be digital fish and chip wrapping, but the pond has done its duty and provided an intermittent archive link, with a note that this outing confirmed yet again what an air head he is, what a blathering booby ...

Moving along, and remembering that Thursday is always the most dismal day of the week for reptile spotting, time at last for what you can read in today's lizard Oz.

The obvious question: how were the current jihads going this morning?

Luckily the Nats, and Susssan's plucky battle with the lettuce distracted the reptiles.

The always unreadable Petulant Peta was front and centre ...

Commentary by Peta Credlin
There’s really no secret behind One Nation poll surge
If the Liberals can’t come up soon with a strong and credible policy to get immigration down, they are on the same road to oblivion as established and complacent conservative parties elsewhere.

Sarah kept the affair bubbling along ...

NSIDE STORY
‘Jumping at shadows’: How Ley’s Liberals missed the Nats’ ambush
Liberals and Nationals began to fear the impossible could happen when they sat in question time on Tuesday. Could the Coalition split again? But the texts that were flying across opposition benches were heavily of the ‘it’ll be right’ variety.
By Sarah Ison

Truth to tell, the pond had quite given up on the lettuce's chances, but the reptiles had got the silly Nats excited about freedumb - having got the Libs all excited about the urgent need to take action - and there they all were ...

The bouffant one was left to mourn the result ...

Coalition chaos takes heat off PM’s failures in Bondi response
Just when Anthony Albanese was in dire trouble, the ineptitude, rivalries and delusion of Liberal and National MPs and senators has once again made the Coalition ‘the story’.
By Dennis Shanahan
National Editor

Rather than indulge the reptiles, the pond thought John Hanscombe in The Echnida (sorry, newsletter) summed it up best by invoking Wile E. Coyote and his ACME devices and ...

...The "unsalvageable" hate speech legislation was salvaged, the only leadership now under a cloud is Ley's because the cabinet solidarity she invoked to sack the troublesome Jacinta Nampijinpa Price is in tatters. If you can't control your shadow cabinet in opposition, claiming to be the alternative government is risible. And if your Coalition partner is singing from a different song sheet, you're even further out of contention.
The ACME device not only failed. It completely backfired. I'm no cartoonist but in my mind's eye I picture Ley covered in soot, her normally limp bob standing up in tonsorial surprise, and - meep, meep - the PM on his way into the sunset.
While that outcome might raise a chuckle among political cynics like me, for the nation, which is not a cartoon, it's not so amusing. Governments, especially those with thumping majorities, need to be called to account. And it needs to be done effectively - never more so than in times of national crisis or trauma like Bondi.
What we've seen from the opposition in recent weeks has been abject incoherence - apart, of course, from the win on the royal commission. First, it accused the government of moving too slowly on anti-Semitism. Then, it said it was moving too quickly. After horse trading to get the legislation over the line, there was the spectacle of three shadow ministers crossing the floor to oppose it.
The end result: the polls are showing a drift away from the major parties - especially the Coalition - to One Nation. For the first time, one poll has One Nation outstripping the Coalition on primary voting intentions.
Flubbing its responsibility to be a credible opposition, the Coalition has enriched the political fortunes of a fringe party at the expense of its own. As the PM says, that is a worry. Not because Pauline Hanson has a snowflake's chance of forming government but because her party now has the potential to seriously disrupt our political system.
Now, that would be Looney Tunes.

Well yes, and the pond always applauds any mention of loonery, but Handscombe should have added "what we've seen from the reptiles in the lizard Oz in recent weeks has been abject incoherence ... first the reptiles said the government was moving too slowly on anti-Semitism, and then it was moving too quickly", and so on, and so here we are ...

To celebrate, the pond believes this is the first sighting of the infallible Pope in the New Year ... and this was waht was in his mind's eye, with a meep meep here, and a meep meep there ...

Ouch, even Wile E. Coyote usually managed to avoid that level of damage ...

Only Jack the Insider remembered the jihad ...

This is the message every politician should shout from the rooftops
When you come to Australia, leave your ancient hatreds behind. It should be a message, a mantra, a motto for entry. It should appear on visa applications and be emblazoned on the walls of air and sea ports.
By Jack the Insider
Columnist

Apparently Jack is yet to catch up with the news that he's working for a foreign corporation that encourages seething hatreds of all kinds ...

Speaking of seething hatreds, as the murders in Gaza go on - including three journalists this time - the reptiles did feature a "news" EXCLUSIVE ...

EXCLUSIVE
‘Ruined it’: Literary doyenne blames Adler for festival calamity
Distinguished writer Kate Llewellyn has penned a poem condemning former artistic director Louise Adler for events that ultimately destroyed Australia’s oldest writers’ festival.
By Caroline Overington

It's a terrible effort - the pond's comments section routinely features better efforts by its correspondents - and thankfully that intermittent archive link thoughtfully eliminated it from the record.

Kinder souls would have walked on by, but this is the lizard Oz, home to ancient hatreds ...

Oh and another reptile jihad and ancient hatred resurfaced just in time ...

‘Invasion Day’ backlash
‘January 26 is a day for mourning – not for international politics’
An organiser of Sydney’s ‘Invasion Day’ rally says January 26 is a day for Indigenous Australians to mourn, not a day to platform international politics.
By Joanna Panagopoulos and Euan Kennedy

Oops ...

Mr Mashni told The Australian that “we need to refute any connection between what happened in Bondi and our rallies”. “Much of the conversation that has been had around this massacre has been that it has been the worst massacre in Australian history, completely negating the Frontier Wars and all the massacres that have occurred for First Nations people,” he said. “Our responsibility as allies of Indigenous people is to show up for our brothers, sisters and siblings. It’s not a day to celebrate, Invasion Day must be commemorated.”

Massacres? According to the pond's lizard Oz understanding, they were merely ways to tidy up the landscape so that colonial endeavours might flourish.

Speaking of colonials, luckily King Donald's obsession with neo-colonialism continued apace, and the bromancer was finally forced to emerge to confront the wildebeest and the gnus of the day ... (apologies, but the pond has to lighten the daily bleakness somehow).

The bromancer did his best to provide his usual balance in the headline:

The header: The madness of King Donald on Greenland on full display to the world; At his best, the US President is very, very good. But at his worst, he’s bloody awful.

The caption for the demented narcissist: US President Donald Trump could destroy the US alliance system if he continues with his stance on Greenland. Picture: AFP

Why is it that the bromancer always insists on this sort of rhetoric, for the worst US President in living memory, and possibly the worst US President in the entirety of Presidential history? At his best, the US President is very, very good

No, he's not, he's bloody awful all the time, but suddenly all that earlier reading about the long march through the far right institutions resonates even more.

The bromancer can never bring himself to say that King Donald is terrible, not without some verbal caveat, some deviant intellectual tic, some mindless gigantic billy goat butt ...

Confronted with this relentlessly bloody awful and demented president, brooding into the wee hours and barking into the ether, the bromancer could only muster a three minute read ...

There are times Donald Trump is a courageous president, taking righteous action no other leader would take, speaking hard truths no one else dare speak. At his best, he’s very, very good.
But at his worst, he’s bloody awful.
Trump’s position on Greenland, that it must become part of the US and he’s willing to use force to achieve this if necessary, is breathtaking because there is no justification for it at all.
It’s also the first time Trump has threatened to invade a peaceful democracy that is also an ally of the US, Greenland being part of the kingdom of Denmark.
The danger in Trump’s sudden burst of madness is obvious and profound.
Denmark is a long-standing NATO ally of the US. If the US persists with seriously threatening force against a NATO ally in order to acquire its territory, this will undermine, if not completely destroy, the US alliance system.
That would be a disastrous result for Australia, for almost no nation in the world is more completely dependent on the US alliance than we are.
And if Trump shatters NATO, it’s very difficult to imagine that AUKUS could possibly survive, not that AUKUS shows much sign of life anyway.
As an analyst, I have always tried to assess Trump’s actions more than his words. And a lot of what he does is pretty good. And some pretty bad. Whereas a lot of what he says is often bizarre.
But some things he does are damaging and ridiculous.

There he is, doing that 'twixt and 'tween routine again.

Pretty, pretty good? On what planet outside Curb Your Enthusiasm?

 ... and all the while with the bromancer never pausing to consider the source of the madness, never acknowledging that this mad King has got a lot to hide from his early days as a model molester... or should that be, molester of models?

Meanwhile, the reptiles slipped in an audio file to maintain the current distraction ...

Eventually the bromancer got around to doing a bit of slagging ...

Imposing tariffs on European allies because they disagree in principle with Trump’s position that Greenland must transfer its sovereignty to the US would be an action that is completely without any schmick of a justification at all.
If China did this, we’d rightly label it coercive economic warfare.
It also makes a mockery of any trade deal Trump has done with any nation. Annoy Trump and the deal is apparently thrown out the window.
This is different from Trump’s previous tariff threats and actions. They mostly at least arose from a US claim of unfair trading practices from partner nations.
This tariff coercion is threatened because allies of the US won’t agree in principle to territorial conquest to be carried out by the US.
This situation is without precedent and completely unimaginable.
Until recently, it would be right to assess this all as overwhelmingly likely to be just another episode of Trump bluster and verbal nuttiness designed as a way of gaining leverage in a negotiation.
But lately Trump has shown a new willingness to take military action. Yet military action directed at a brutal Venezuelan dictator against whom there are outstanding US arrest warrants, or against Iran as it slaughters its civilians in the thousands and with all its record of terrorism, nuclear delinquency and international assassinations and the rest, is completely different from unprovoked military action against a democracy and an ally that has done absolutely nothing wrong.

The reptiles interrupted again ... A protester lets his feelings be known outside the US consulate in Nuuk, Greenland. Picture: AFP

Then came a line the pond never expected to read:

The Albanese government has so far got its response about right. There is no upside in Australia getting into the middle of this dispute. At the same time, it’s right that we make a minimal statement in support of territorial integrity and against punitive tariffs with no justification.

Actually we're still busy shoving billions down mad King Donald's throat with a blind faith that AUKUS is still going to turn out alright ...

Never mind, never mind ...

In this matter, more than any other, it’s hard to make sense of Trump’s mind. His text to Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store is surely the single most deranged message ever sent by an American president to any foreign head of government.
It began with a sentence displaying the emotional maturity of a brattish 10-year-old who was given out in a game of backyard cricket: “Dear Jonas, Considering your country decided not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize for having stopped 8 Wars PLUS, I no longer feel an obligation to think purely of Peace …”

Speaking of 10-year -olds, have a visual interruption courtesy Herbert ...

Despite invoking brattishness, the bromancer amazingly still held out hope for this caterpillar ...

It is still more likely than not that Trump will decide the path he’s on is unproductive, and he’ll start talking about something else, or get some minor agreement and claim that as victory.

Sure, sure ...

The bromancer finished his waffling with a final waffle ...

Short of US conquest of Greenland, it’s hard to know what Trump wants. Both Russia and China are getting more active in Arctic waters. Yet under an existing treaty, Trump could put any military bases he wanted to on Greenland. Neither Denmark, nor the good people of Nuuk, could or would oppose such bases.
The US already has one base on Greenland but could easily expand into more. Similarly NATO nations would certainly contribute more to joint patrols, co-operative surveillance and all the rest.
There’s nothing Trump could legitimately want or need in the security sphere that he couldn’t get right now.
But in this dispute, more than any other in all the long Trump saga, there is a sense that he is operating in some parallel universe in which logic, reason, balance, restraint, and ultimate effectiveness don’t somehow apply.
Any outcome is possible, though it’s more likely than not that Trump will simply drop and forget his most outlandish claims.
The alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.

Say what?

...there is a sense that he is operating in some parallel universe in which logic, reason, balance, restraint, and ultimate effectiveness don’t somehow apply.

Reconcile that with this if you can, if you will ...

At his best, the US President is very, very good

Being very, very good is being the compleat TACO?

n short, the bromancer is tragically out of his depth, his confusions on display for all to see, a bit like poor old Susssan and her mob ...

You have to hand it to the immortal Rowe, his cameo portrait of Tamworth's endless shame (and the onion muncher) is always spot on ...

How are the Canadians coping with all this?

In the usual Canadian way, if you happen to watch CBC's About That ...

Elbows up Canada, because the Ruskis just love the notion that mad King Donald is pretty, pretty good ...