Shattered.
To see two men conduct negotiations - and fail to reach an agreement - on a funeral day was beyond the lettuce's most fervid and desperate imaginings.
The reptiles didn't know what to make of it at either, and remarkably there was was no acknowledgment of the fiasco anywhere on the top of the lizard Oz's digital edition this Friday morning.
Instead, an EXCLUSIVE about a "secret plan" about autism aid led the way, followed by an EXCLUSIVE about the ALP banking on inflation-fuelled income tax windfall, followed by a big splash bout a woman killed by the mad Mullahs, followed by Cameron yearning for war ...though the headlines varied between "war" and "military strike" ...
Trump’s three demands to Iran amount to an ultimatum for war
Donald Trump gives Iran three demands that make US military strike more likely
The President has issued Iran three demands the Islamic Republic will almost certainly reject, dramatically raising the prospect of devastating US military strikes in the coming weeks.
The pond regrets that Cameron sounded short on lingo, because surely "special military operation" should have been given a trot?
Below that, Joe, lesser member of the Kelly gang, was actually in Minneapolis, and below him the pond finally landed on an EXCLUSIVE bit of genuine lizard Oz loonacy ...
We need an ‘Aussie Dome’, ex-army chief urges
Peter Leahy says Australia faces ‘rapid and comprehensive defeat’ from new missile technology, and must quickly get an ‘Aussie Dome’ protection system.
By James Dowling
Won't someone give that man the money to build a new Maginot line?
The pond passed on Jimbo's tired rewrite, and saved the source material for later ...
It was only below all this nonsense that the reptiles allowed the bouffant one to deal with the lettuce's most pressing matter...and even then the header was all wrong.
Was Susssan going to outlast the lettuce, which was wilting in the summer heat and browned off?
The pond did appreciate the image of the two pretenders looking like Mafia thugs attempting to get jobs as extras in a fourth Godfather film ... but the rest of the copy was an unhappy experience for the lettuce ...
She holds the office and title, she has a body of support among moderate Liberal MPs and she is benefiting from a burning anger at Littleproud’s attempt to dictate to Liberal MPs on the leadership.
Ley is not going to resign.
Just so you are sure, let me repeat that: Ley is not going to resign.
There will be more disastrous poling to come but if two contenders split the support in the partyroom between them, history shows the incumbent remains in charge.
John Howard survived tough times as prime minister because the two Peters – Reith and Costello – cancelled each other out, as did Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard in their attempts to oust Kim Beazley.
Of course, Ley’s leadership support has been threadbare and declining since the moment of her election; the Nationals’ decision to try to force her from the leadership using a split from the Coalition has delivered it a mortal blow.
Oh sure there was another snap of the gangsters in a pose down mood, emerging like fourth rate thugs from a steal and burn car ... Matt O’Sullivan, Jonathon Duniam and Andrew Hastie arrive together at a Melbourne home. Picture: Liam Mendes
It was so good it deserved bigly prominence ...
But how could the lettuce take comfort from this brief two minute summary? Too many buts ...
During that time failed expectations about Hastie and Taylor will grow, as will the extending real crisis of identity at the heart of the Liberal Party’s survival.
What’s more, as the architect of the current Coalition split – dwindling relevance and loss of more ground to One Nation – Littleproud has bolstered Ley’s support within the Liberal Party and faces his own leadership challenge next week.
The Coalition is no more – for the moment – and that’s not Ley’s fault.
The Liberals are hopelessly split factionally, culturally and geographically but that’s not entirely Ley’s fault either.
Even the poor polling, which had improved after the Bondi Beach massacre in December but has since slumped again amid the Coalition mess, is not all Ley’s fault.
But in the inevitable end, further poor polling will be the tectonic shift that removes the Liberals’ first female leader, not the ambitions of two male pretenders.
Why did they have to do this to the hapless lettuce on a Friday? Was it wrong to expect a decent bit of bloodletting at a funeral ...
The lettuce was inconsolable, not even Golding could help ...
There was another conspicuous absence, with the reptiles having gone very quiet on the matter, so it was best left to the infallible Pope to note ...
Meanwhile, over on the extreme far right, the pond was forced to send the ramblings of Our Henry to the cornfield archive yet again...
While Labor has for years asked us to bear the guilt for deeds committed generations ago, it refuses to be held accountable for the escalation of murderous antisemitism.
By Henry Ergas
Columnist
Generations ago? It would seem the guilt of deeds might be a tad fresher, what with there still being an ongoing bout of ethnic cleansing in Gaza ...cf Haaretz, The Final Expulsion of Palestinians Is Underway - and Your Indifference Enables It... (*archive link).
Devotees will be pleased that Our Henry retained his ability to make pompous and portentous references, though this time with a biblical flavour ...
The authors of the Christian Bible recognised this in stressing the distinction between metameleia – regret without transformation – and metanoia, the reorientation of judgment that follows recognition of failure and issues in new patterns of behaviour. Their predecessors in the Hebrew Bible drew an equally forceful moral divide between charatah, the sting of regret, and teshuvah, the commitment to repair the wrong and not repeat the wrongdoing. In both traditions, what makes the difference, bridging the gap between lofty aspiration and lived conduct, is a willingness to frankly shoulder responsibility.
Will Our Henry ever frankly shoulder responsibility for the assorted war crimes conducted by the current state of Israel?
Probably not, probably he'll parade his dictionary of quotations ...
No democratic political system can retain its legitimacy under those conditions. Without the willingness to confront outcomes – which is at the heart of what it means to take responsibility – there are no lessons learned and no errors corrected; without apologies that rise above mouthing “I’m sorry”, shattered confidence cannot be rebuilt; and without credible promises, there can be no secure basis on which to plan a shared future.
But these are possible only, Weber cautioned, when leaders possess a high level of personal and political maturity: for the capacity “to scrutinise the realities of life ruthlessly, to withstand them and to measure up to them inwardly” requires the “will to adulthood” (Mündigkeit) that turns the resolve to face facts “soberly” into a settled habit. Those who lack that maturity are, in Weber’s words, “not equal to the task they have chosen, not equal to the challenge of the world as it really is” – they are, that is, not equal to “politics as a calling”, no matter how immense their talent may be for politics as a mere profession.
That is why the death-rattles, not only in Australia but throughout the West, of the ethic of responsibility echo an older and darker moral pattern – the world of Shakespeare’s bleakest and most foreboding play, Troilus and Cressida, in which moral language survives solely as a means of self-exculpation, and in which apologies collapse into excuses. Characters acknowledge harm, even genuinely lament it, yet refuse the self-implicating turn that would bind regret to reckoning.
And as Shakespeare sought to show, sensing England’s slide toward chaos and violence, when apology becomes just another way of avoiding having to answer for one’s deeds, fine words can only deepen wounds that cry out for healing.
Weber and Shakspere! But at least the pond could offer a few morsels as chum to lure punters to the archive.
Not so migratory import Brendan ...
What an idiot Brandan Koschel is ... ‘Jews are the greatest enemy to this nation’? Doesn’t he know you’re meant to say ‘Zionist’?
By Brendan O'Neill
While it was perfectly suited to the Australian Daily Zionist News, the pond could live without it, especially as Brendan doesn't seem to have the first clue about Shakspere as a way to make a knockdown argument ...
That sort of artful dodging is the same as employed by Tony Bleagh joining King Donald in his Gaza real estate venture.
Instead the pond turned back to the loon who had generated the Oz EXCLUSIVE, but without the Jimbo re-write, instead in Pete's own words ...
The header: Why it’s time defence builds an Aussie style iron dome; We are in great danger of a rapid and comprehensive defeat at the hands of new technologies. Do something, Australia.
The caption: Israeli Iron Dome air defence system fires to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv, Israel, June 2025.
"Do something" hardly seemed the most precise demand, so an explanation followed...
The Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine are a worrying warning of what could happen. The 2023 Defence Strategic Review placed an emphasis on strengthening and hardening northern bases. This is too narrow an approach. All of Australia is vulnerable to new missile, rocket and drone technologies.
Israel and the US have or are developing their respective domes to protect their homelands. Where is the Aussie dome?
Australia provides a geographic sweet spot for the US as it seeks to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. As it did in World War II, Australia provides an ideal operational launch and support base for combat operations to our north.
Chief of Defence Force Admiral David Johnston has told us Australia needs to be prepared for the possibility of launching combat operations from our own soil. This means existing and planned US and Australian military bases are legitimate targets. So too are a broad range of industrial, resource and civil infrastructure facilities across Australia.
When considering the defence of Australia, we can no longer hide behind a sea-air gap.
We now live in an era where technology has defeated geography. For nearly two centuries Australia’s geographic isolation shaped our political, trade and economic development. This isolation, no contiguous borders, great continental distances and unforgiving topography also provided Australia with security and protection.
During the 18th and 19th centuries Australia’s defence was primarily obtained by guarding our major cities from seaborne invasion with forts and coastal artillery.
Our broad strategy was to maintain defence in depth by a policy of expeditionary warfare or forward defence. Until very recently geography and distance remained our major advantage. Not so now – now our enemies can reach us from any place on Earth, and from space. War will come to us with unprecedented speed, accuracy and destructive power. At the strategic level we are vulnerable to nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles.
At the operational level, the threats include hypersonic weapons such as the Russian nuclear-capable Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile. This weapon, which has been used in Ukraine, has a reported range of up to 5000km and a speed of up to 13,000 km/h. At this speed it could cross the Australian continent in well under one hour. How might we detect and counter this threat?
The reptiles interrupted with just one snap ... irefighters (sic) carry a dead body from the rubble of a government building hit by Russian rockets in Mykolaiv on March 29, 2022.
Irefighters? It seemed to set the ire of Leahy on fire ...
Other technologies that have defeated geography are attacks through cyberspace and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities that can lay bare our capabilities, intentions and actions.
While there are treaties against conflict in, from and through space, we must consider that space, as the ultimate high ground, will be irresistible to any enemy. Anything that clusters, lingers, emits or rehearses in the open becomes a potential target.
Combine this with drones, delivered by conventional or clandestine means, which can loiter and, when controlled by artificial intelligence, can mass to strike targets. Australia is vulnerable to this type of threat.
Warning time at all levels of war has gone and the detection-to-destruction cycle will be measured in minutes, not hours. It will be difficult to prioritise which assets to protect as everywhere, and everything, is a target.
We are not prepared for this new type of conflict, which has blossomed on present-day battlefields. Technology is the new king of the global battlefield. Observe how we are scrambling to secure microchip production capabilities and ensure supplies of critical minerals.
While the search for new technologies has always been a feature of war – crossbows, to muskets, to long-range artillery – we are now facing a new depth and breadth of threats that we find hard to comprehend.
We are in great danger of a rapid and comprehensive defeat at the hands of new technologies.
The big difference is that this time the threat is against Australian-based military capabilities, our civil and industrial infrastructure, and our morale and will to fight. We will need a focus on air defence of all military bases, industrial facilities and many civil assets. Our cities and infrastructure are legitimate targets. What thought are we giving to developing and deploying lasers to counter the enormous speeds of hypersonic missiles?
No nation has yet to devise an effective solution to the technological conundrum that confronts us. In short, the problem is going to get worse before it gets better.
Do something, Australia.
Peter Leahy was chief of army from 2002 to 2008. He is director of the National Security Institute at the University of Canberra and chair of the Defence and National Security Committee of the RSL.
Splendid stuff, and the pond looks forward to missiles being installed at Pinchgut and at Fort Queenscliff, so we can fire a shot across the bows at anyone who approaches ...(is it wrong to suggest Darwin's port would be just the right place to ward off Xi?)
Or perhaps we could just follow the lizard Oz tradition, and wear a flag ...
In desperation, the pond decided to take another look at that offering by Joe, lesser member of the Kelly gang ...
Defiance, grief as Minneapolis grapples with shooting fallout
Grief, defiance: on the ground in Minneapolis
As even US citizens fear leaving their homes and carry their passports when they do, locals have no confidence the situation will improve any time soon.
Why is it always the pond that has to be the first to archive reptile offerings?
You see there was nothing particularly of note in Joe's five minute ramble through those streets ...
Joe didn't manage to do a Faux Noise.
While he gave King Donald a little room in his opening, as the pond read on, it became clear he had spoken to entirely the wrong sort of people ... so that's where the pond dropped in on the intrepid street reporting ...
“I’ve been here several times. I don’t live too far away, about a mile away and thought, well, I’ll just stop here on the way home and pay my respects to Renee too.
“I went to a nurses school that … probably, 50 per cent of my graduating class was immigrants. I love them. And I will fight for them. I live in an apartment building that immigrants live in and some of them haven’t left their apartment in three weeks … They feel imprisoned in their own communities.
“ICE needs to get out of here, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen.”
Donnie McMillan, 71, told The Australian he was “pissed with President Donald Trump and the way he sent people out here to deal with this … He has to respect us. And I don’t feel like he is.”
“I feel like he’s trying to make an example of the people from Minnesota,” he said. “I’m mad. Yeah, Mr President, if you’re listening, come talk to me. Don’t send Tom Homan. He’s not going to tell me what I want to hear. I want to hear that you’re going to stop this and get these people (Border Patrol agents) out of Minnesota.”
“It’s not a Republican/Democratic story when you are killing citizens on the street. This isn’t the Wild West.”
On Wednesday evening, several speakers at a nurses’ candlelight vigil paid tribute to Mr Pretti and the crowd of about 1000 repeatedly broke into loud chants of “ICE Out” as they pushed for solidarity against the federal migration crackdown.
A brass band played and a bagpiper provided a rendition of Amazing Grace. One man, holding an upside-down US flag, sang his own version of Bella Ciao, an anti-fascist Italian folk song, to honour Mr Pretti. Addressing the crowd, one event organiser, Ali Marcanti, a nurse at United Hospital in St Paul, condemned the initial characterisation of Mr Pretti by the Trump administration as a “domestic terrorist”.
“The only domestic terror threat in the state of Minnesota are ICE and Border Patrol agents in our communities causing chaos, tearing apart families and trampling our constitutional rights,” she said.
Speaking at a CNN Town Hall on Wednesday night, Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey – who drew the ire of Mr Trump for his refusal to enforce federal immigration laws – continued to push for federal immigration agents to leave the city.
He said the new footage of Mr Pretti did not justify his killing. “Are we actually making the argument that Alex Pretti should be killed for something that happened, like, 11 days prior to the shooting itself?” he said. “I think we should be talking about the circumstances that actually led to the killing and what took place.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara criticised the tactics of federal immigration officers, saying they “just do not appear safe”.
Earlier in the day, Mr Trump warned that Mr Frey’s refusal to endorse federal immigration laws was “very serious”. On Truth Social, Mr Trump said he was “PLAYING WITH FIRE!”.
Once again Golding misled the pond ...
If "playing with fire"is conciliatory, perhaps people should care when filming masked thugs acting as an inspiration for Liberals down under ...
After all this, the pond wondered if something had gone wrong with the reptile diet.
The reptiles seemed off their game, as if the domestic cavortings and the killing fields inspired and encouraged by their Faux Noise kissing cousins was beyond the pale.
And where was the bromancer when he was so badly needed?
Perhaps he was preparing a magnum opus for later in the day, which could be recycled into weekend fodder.
The pond can only hope, because in the meantime it was left with Clive ...
The header: Donald Trump, Tehran talk tough, but protesters left to help themselves; When Donald Trump declared this month that “help is on its way” to Iranian protesters the phrase sounded ominous and reassuring in equal measure.
The caption for the collage which shockingly and shamefully was actually credited, when Grok was standing by to shoulder the blame: The Ayatollah and Donald Trump in front of Iranian protesters and a Jet B-2 Stealth Bomber with the Flag of Iran. Artwork by Emilia Tortorella
Clive spend a bigly four minutes brooding about King Donald and the mad Mullahs, but it sounded like he didn't think the demented narcissist was actually helping all that much ...
The exchange underlines how quickly rhetorical escalation can return – even as both sides have so far avoided direct confrontation, and the risk of miscalculation now appears markedly higher.
When Donald Trump declared this month that “help is on its way” to Iranian protesters – urging them to “KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” – the phrase sounded ominous and reassuring in equal measure.
It hinted at consequences, suggested leverage, and implied Tehran’s actions were being closely watched. At the time, Iran was gripped by its most serious unrest in years – sparked by economic collapse and currency devaluation – across hundreds of cities. The state’s response was already proving deadly, with mass killings peaking around January 8-9.
Today, however, the picture looks markedly different. Mass street protests have been largely quelled amid brutal suppression, a prolonged nationwide internet blackout (now over 20 days, one of the longest on record, with partial easing in some areas), mass arrests (41,000-42,000 reported), and widespread fear. No mass public executions of protesters have taken place, though death sentences were issued in some cases, and executions of other political prisoners continue. Iranian officials have publicly denied intentions to carry out protest-linked mass executions, and rejected claims that US threats halted any such plans.
The reptiles interrupted with an AV distraction ... United States President Donald Trump is threatening Iran with “major attacks” in a bid to force the country to make a deal over nuclear weapons. The US president has been increasing his threats against the country in the wake of recent deadly protests, where he encouraged demonstrators to take to the streets. The United States has been moving warships to strategic positions in the Gulf, with officials stating the USS Abraham Lincoln is in the Persian Gulf and is in range of Iran.
Clive carried on sounding gloomy ...
That restraint on the most inflammatory extremes was not born of weakness. It was a calculation. Public mass executions would have invited renewed global condemnation, possibly unified Western pressure and unwanted strategic complications. Avoiding them cost the regime little, while allowing it to reassert control through familiar, quieter means: targeted arrests, intimidation, surveillance, enforced disappearances, hospital raids on the wounded, and protester exhaustion. The blackout further obscured the scale of repression, concealing crimes and disrupting co-ordination.
In that narrow sense, Trump’s warning may have worked – not by altering the balance of power inside Iran, but by reinforcing existing incentives for restraint at a critical moment around mid-January. It appears to have drawn a red line around a specific act (mass executions) rather than signalling broad or sustained support for the protest movement itself. Once that line was respected – and protests suppressed – the immediate urgency drained away.
What has changed dramatically since then is the US military posture and framing of tensions. While Washington initially refrained from overt escalation tied to the protests, it has since surged additional assets into the region: the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, F-15Es, tankers, missile defences and more – shifting from precautionary positioning to visible force projection.
Trump’s rhetoric has pivoted toward Iran’s nuclear ambitions, ballistic missiles and refusal to negotiate a new deal, warning the “next attack will be far worse” than prior US or Israeli actions (including the June 2025 strikes). Tehran has responded with threats of unprecedented retaliation. Additional sanctions have been imposed, but there has been no sustained diplomatic offensive centred on the protest movement.
This helps explain the current phase of US-Iran relations. Washington has backed its rhetoric with a heightened military posture, but not yet with direct action. Tehran has taken care not to provoke the situation further, even as it warns of severe consequences. Both sides appear intent on managing friction in the nuclear domain rather than igniting it over internal unrest – though the crackdown’s economic costs have exacerbated grievances and may sow seeds for renewed unrest.
It seemed there was a lot of posturing going down, and the intervention just a splendid way to keep on avoiding the Epstein files, what with the Minnesota murders having provided some relief and a few killing field distractions, but not nearly enough.
The reptiles slipped in a snap designed to warm the cockles of Captain Bonespur, US Navy Captain Daniel Keeler, the commanding officer of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, prepares to fly an MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter in the Indian Ocean. Picture: AP
And then it was on to more disappointment, ending up with Alice ...
So what, then, did “help is on its way” actually mean? It did not mean intervention. It did not mean regime change. And it did not mean sustained support for an uprising. Instead, it amounted to a momentary act of deterrent signalling – a warning aimed at shaping behaviour during a volatile window. Once the most acute risk passed, the warning receded, even as military deployments reinforced broader pressure on nuclear issues.
There is an uncomfortable implication here, particularly for Iranian protesters. Many are acutely aware of how often Western encouragement proves fleeting. Bold words raised expectations that were never fulfilled, breeding cynicism once the spotlight moved on and repression continued. The priority appears to have been preventing escalation that would have narrowed options for all concerned, rather than sustaining momentum in the streets.
The episode underscores a hard truth about Iran. External actors can sometimes influence tactical choices – but they cannot dictate outcomes inside the country. Trump’s warning may have nudged the regime away from a particularly provocative course, but it did not alter the underlying balance of power or prevent massive bloodshed via other means.
In Through the Looking-Glass, Lewis Carroll’s Humpty Dumpty famously claims that words mean whatever he chooses them to mean. In the end, “help” meant exactly as much – and as little – as the moment required.
Clive Williams is director of the Terrorism Research Centre in Canberra.
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