In which the pond does a survey of the lizard Oz headlines, and consigns the reptiles to the intermittent archive, Dame Slap and Niall included ...

The pond can't begin to count the number of columns produced to commemorate the invasion of Ukraine by Vlad the sociopath, usually with the 22nd February as the date on which the war started, and which has now outlasted the German invasion in the second world war (Stalin delayed the start of that war by doing a deal with the Nazis, worth remembering when the Russians get high and могущественный about ancient Ukrainian flirtations).

Full respect to Ukraine, which has seized the moment to highlight Vlad the Sociopath's war mongering, but the pond prefers to date the start of the war to Vlad's seizing of Crimea starting c. 27th February 2014, though there are arguments that the war started earlier, with "patriots" being funded by the Ruskis, and some turning up in disguise to help create instability.

That dating also encompasses the war crime of shooting down of a Malayasia Airlines 747 on 17th July 2014, with the loss of 298 lives, including 38 Australian residents.

Some might say that the Ukrainians didn't fight back at the time, but what could they do? Obama stiffed them, so did the Europeans, so did the British, with a feeble array of sanctions all that was on offer.

 There were lots of word stews, like the one cooked up by China:  "We respect the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine". A spokesman restated China's belief of non-interference in the internal affairs of other nations and urged dialogue. (The whole sorry story is in the detailed wiki on the conquest and annexation).

So the pond is jumping the gun by a couple of days on the real start, a tale of a country gone rogue under an authoritarian leader (and providing an excellent role model for King Donald and the disunited states, which is busy arranging yet another foreign adventure to distract from the Trumpstein files).

Whatever the date, it was a never no mind to the reptiles at the lizard Oz.

The closest the reptiles got was this effort by Niall.

Wake up, Australia: AUKUS is good, but where’s plan B?
The war in Ukraine is the first drone war, a new kind of revolution in military affairs. But Australia has not fully adapted to this change in the nature of conflict.
By Niall Ferguson
Columnist

Actually Niall, AUKUS is pathetic, and so, ancient colonial remnant, are you. 

Rely on the UK and King Donald for help in a pinch? 

Maybe the former prince and the King are good for a pinch on the bottom, but not much else.

It was with some amused relief that the pond read Trump Tower developer Altus Property Group's David Young has twice gone bankrupt.

Now there's a man truly credentialed to do business with King Donald, only a few more bankruptcies for the apprentice to match the master ...

Sorry Niall, if the pond wants help for the war with China, it will patiently wait the return of the bromancer, still MIA since 24th January, as if in the grip of long service leave. (Thank the long absent lord that China has been discreet while he's been away).

As usual, the pond was distracted by John Hanscombe in The Echnida (newsletter, no link) wondering if we've seen the start of a world war (the theme of all that Russian state media propaganda in recent times as Lord Haw-Haws of the Vladimir Solovyov kind urge the nuking of the world if Vlad the sociopath isn't placated)...

...Even if it's not World War III as we might have imagined it, the conflict has been globalised.
"North Korean troops on the ground. North Korean troops in Ukraine," Ukraine's ambassador Vasyl Myroshnychenko told reporters in Canberra on Monday. "Can you even imagine that North Korean troops are fighting in Ukraine? How far is North Korea from you here?"
Myroshnychenko also claimed the Chinese and North Korean militaries were being trained to use Russia's advanced weapons systems, which might one day be turned on Australia.
North Koreans fighting in Ukraine is startling enough but Al Jazeera's website reports that more than 1000 Kenyans have also been recruited to fight on Russia's behalf. Citing a report released by Kenya's National Intelligence Service, Al Jazeera says there are 89 Kenyans on the front line, 39 in hospital and 28 missing in action. Many of these Kenyans were lured to Russia with job offers, only to discover they'd actually signed up for Russian military service.
In November, Ukraine's foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said nationals from 36 African countries were fighting for Russia in Ukraine. South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa said 17 of its citizens were fighting in Ukraine after being lured there with offers of lucrative employment.
There's an echo from history in this. Among the first Wehrmacht troops captured in the 1944 Normandy invasion were Koreans, who had been pressed into military service with the Japanese, captured by the Soviets, then "liberated" by the Germans, who also forced them into military service.
As well as troops, the supply of weapons has also been globalised. Ukraine claims almost 40,000 Iranian Shahed drones were launched at it by Russia in 2025. With technical help from its Persian ally, Russia is now thought to be manufacturing 1000 drones a day based on the Sahed design.
According to former assistant director of the CIA for weapons and counterproliferation Amy McAuliffe, many of the components needed to get the drones to their targets - the engines, fuel pumps, GPS and semiconductors - get around international sanctions by being sourced in places like India and the UAE via Iran's brokerage network.
"I believe use of Iranian technology has helped Russia develop a fleet of sophisticated drones able to erode Ukrainian air defenses and strain the country's resolve," she wrote in article published by The Conversation in January.
Of course, Ukraine's allies have also globalised the conflict by supplying weapons and ordnance, including Australian Bushmasters and Abrams tanks. At least eight Australians are believed to have been killed fighting for Ukraine since 2022.
There are also opaque signs of the conflict leaching out of the conflict zones, so-called "grey zone" attacks across Europe, with Russia suspected but not confirmed as the culprit. These have ranged from acts of sabotage to mysterious drone overflights of western European airports, arson and kidnappings.
In December, the new chief of Britain's foreign intelligence service MI6, Blaise Metreweli, warned that the front line was everywhere and that "Russia is testing us in the grey zone with tactics that are just below the threshold of war".
Fingers crossed that threshold isn't crossed because if it is Zelenskyy's grim assessment might ring horribly true.

As for the rest of the hive mind pack, the pond has been hitting the reptile books pretty hard and has decided to take an intermittent archive holiday...

If you want more than this from Dame Slap, you'll have to head off to the intermittent archive ...

Just the sight of that uncredited opening illustration produced a profound nausea in the pond.

Sure, it matches the comic book level of insight on offer from Dame Slap, but is that a good thing?

And Dame Slap's ongoing obsession with women is deeply weird.

Having noted it for the umpteenth time, the pond wanted to move on quickly ...

Want to read Ben, packing it in his usual way?

Procrastinating PM’s Andrew stunt is nothing more than a distraction
Anthony Albanese’s pre-emptive offer to help Britain remove Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession says much about the way he plays politics.
By Ben Packham
Foreign affairs and defence correspondent

Nothing more?

If it's just a nothing burger, if it's so distracting, why couldn't Ben's graphic artist minions resist that photo as the opener?

And if there's smoke, perhaps there's some King Donald fire?

To be fair, Ben did attempt to hint at what was being distracted from, including King Donald, only to answer his own question with an "of course", so stupid it was ...

It’s no coincidence the move drowned out questions on trickier subjects, like what the government is doing about the ISIS brides trying to get back to Australia. Or will it cut the capital gains tax discount, as it has hinted. Other hard issues fall by the wayside, like responding to Donald Trump’s invitation to join his Board of Peace. Unlike his intervention on the royal succession, Albanese has kept Trump waiting on whether Australia will back his alternative to the UN.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s spokeswoman told The Australian that the invitation was still “under consideration”, even after the board’s first meeting last week. Of course, there’s no way Australia will join the board, which costs $1bn a seat and will be chaired “for life” by Trump.

Get on with the corrupt King's self-serving appointment for life? 

Do not pass Go, do not collect some loose change, go directly to Niall for help ...

As for the brides affair, Golding had some advice ...

Meanwhile, Cameron was left as the sole contributor to the Australian Daily Zionist News ...

Bell’s focus on antisemitism is certain to be challenged by Palestinian activists
Royal Commission launches to unmask rise of antisemitism behind Bondi terror attack
The stakes are enormous and Commissioner Bell will need a cool head and clear set of priorities to ensure that the royal commission achieves its lofty and important aims. Let the hearings begin.
By Cameron Stewart
Chief International Correspondent

One thing's certain. No one will ever get the lizard Oz reptiles to focus on the ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank, and the Huckster's handing over of the middle East to Israel because that's what the Old Testament says, and in the meantime, it'll be months before the reptiles get to parade their indignation and disappointment at whatever findings finally emerge.

The pond is happy to wait.

And as for this goose ...

AUSTRALIAN VALUES
Labor left urged to step to the right on Australia Day and extremism
Labor frontbencher Julian Hill has warned progressives risk losing ground to extremists unless they stop ‘sneering’ at Australia Day celebrations and address real migration concerns.
By Sarah Ison

Bye bye, Julian. Are you really so needy that you need to score top of the lizard Oz digital world ma, wrapped in the flag and blathering about "Australian values"?

Inevitably the pond was reminded of Yes, Minister, and some desperate, pathetic assistant minister trying to find a space in the sun.

No, minister. That sort of pandering, that desire to fellow travel, is what ensures there's a Tweedledumb and Dee approach to politics that makes the lizard Oz seem like a respectable publication.

You want to do the "there are good people on both sides" routine? You really want to be in Charlottesville with King Donald?

Undercover neo-Nazis led crowds at an anti-immigration rally through Melbourne’s CBD on Australia Day, breaking into racist chants and small skirmishes as a larger crowd gathered for an Invasion Day protest nearby.
One Nation candidates joined associates of recently disbanded neo-Nazi group the National Socialist Network on the steps of Parliament House to give speeches at the March for Australia rally, at times railing against Australia’s immigration policy from a podium built by a neo-Nazi. (L'Age)

Take a tip from an atheist, it's easy to slag off all religions, including Scientology, even if that's a more explicit scam than some of the others, and it's easy to avoid the both siderist notion that there are good people on both sides.

And that's it for the day.

The pond did think of featuring the Brown-out featuring the pasty Hastie, but decided that it was off to the intermittent archive with him, and that a look at the opening gobbet was more than enough ...

How could anyone expect the pond to get past this snap which immediately followed that gobbet?

The pond made it as far as the weird notion of "building more coal" and gave up ...

"Building more coal"?

Ye ancient howling dogs and mewling cats, the pond wept in despair. 

This creationist young earth spawn is a V8 short of a couple of pistons ...

And that's the pond's survey of the lizard Oz headlines, with only the immortal Rowe wanting to go deeper ...

Remember Petey boy being dragged out of some moth-saturated closet yesterday to star in the lizard Oz? In his own words?

The immortal Rowe did ...

A final joke. 

Of late one of the pond's email addresses has fallen into the hands of US spammers, and they contrive to avoid the pond's spam bucket.

So the pond is gifted with this sort of treasure ...

Dersh is the hook? He's this Sun's secret weapon, and a spammer's delight?

Does everything always return to the Trumpstein files?