In which the reptiles drop the Presidential visit bundle, and anarchy and chaos equivalent to a Liberal leadership challenge reigns supreme ...

 

Amazing scenes. 

It was talk of a Chinese spy that swept the Australian Zionist Daily News away from its primary task ...

The pond had half expected that the C.F.M.E.U. yarn or the machinations and treachery of the beefy prime Angus boofhead down Goulburn way might have provided a distraction, but there's nothing like a Chinese spy to send the hive mind into overdrive, and take out the top of the digital page ma ...

Remember Petrov!

EXCLUSIVE
Canberra bakery assistant faces court charged as an alleged Chinese spy
Zheng Siru presents as a hard-working bakery assistant serving busy Canberrans. But federal authorities allege the ‘peaceful life’ Ms Zheng insists she leads is a facade. (older version of the story before the beat up at the archive)
By Liam Mendes, Ben Packham and Elizabeth Pike

To be fair, the reptiles did give the beefy boofhead plenty of attention, because just below the alleged Chinese spy came this motley crew ...

Petulant Peta, a wretched cartoon, a hideous AI gif featuring figures moving like they'reon a shipwreck, with a flag waving behind them as the sun seems to slowly sink! 

Game on!

There was a hearty promo presented as an EXPLAINER ...

EXPLAINER
Who is Liberal Party leadership aspirant Angus Taylor?
Ten years after entering parliament as a ‘man to watch’ in the Coalition, Angus Taylor looks to be mounting his second run at the Liberal leadership. 

For those who care there was a happy snap atop the EXPLAINER showing the beefy prime Angus in his native setting ...

That's as much as the pond could take of the C.V. 

"Prize dingbat" or "delusional doofus" would have sufficed, though to be fair, the lettuce did a little skip, thinking that after much waiting there might be a victory parade on Friday. 

And then the lettuce could return for the next contest, the beefy boofhead v. the pastie Hastie, with a good chance that might take place before Xmas...

As for petulant Peta's peevish question, Can Angus Taylor fix a broken Liberal Party?

That's as much as the pond could take, but to answer the question .... first the hive mind had to wallow through a bout of tedious self-congratulation ...

...Peter Dutton’s problem was that a conservative man was not a conservative leader; nor was there any real attempt at a broad policy agenda, let alone a conservative one. And Ley’s the same: nine months in and, other than moving against net zero, there’s nothing on the table.
Contrast that with Abbott who, eight months after winning the leadership by one vote, put out a full policy manifesto and, through relentless campaigning, achieved a hung parliament in 2010.

If the onion mucher's style is the answer, forget the question, but there was a sort of answer, if you could get past the relentless promotion of one of the country's worst leaders as a role model ...

Enough already ... the pond was reminded why correspondents get agitated when the pond gives any room to petulant Peta,.

The pond should probably have followed US style and done a sensible redaction ...

(Look it up)

On the upside, the petulant, peevish one was already handing away the next election, so the Black Knight syndrome remains an inspiration for the lettuce.

Meanwhile, over on the extreme far right, the bouffant weighed in, and he was in a state of depression about the beefy boofhead and his challenge...

The pond apologises for not caring enough to offer a transcription, but surely the nattering negativity of this nabob is plain enough, especially when he turns from talk of self-destruction to talk of poorly-executed challenges ...

As Jimbo was mentioned, it would be remiss of the pond not to mention his one liner, which called to mind memories of the French clock devotee...

The reason the opposition are divided is that half support the Member for Hume (beefy Angus) and the other half have met him ...

What else?

Over on the extreme far right, the pond paused to note a piece that would shock Polonius and his prattle to the core.

Everyone knows there's not a single conservative bone in the ABC's body, but there was this cringey upstart rabbiting on about Bluey ...

Thanks ABC: Why Bluey is a global triumph for conservative values
Bluey is the most conservative show on TV
Australia’s hottest export, America’s most-streamed show and the biggest children’s series in the world proves it’s still possible to make an old-fashioned, family friendly program.
By Louise Perry

The pond's heart shattered. Tears clouded the pond and forced the pond to stop reading.

Had the reptiles lost all care for Polonius? How could they so callously, blatantly betray his mantra?

Only last week the pond faithfully recorded that Polonius had yet again trotted out his favourite line, one the pond has read at least a squillion times...

The ABC is a conservative-free zone and is all but devoid of viewpoint diversity.

Now some shameless hussy was gloating that the ABC was running the most conservative show on TV?

Words must be spoken, words surely will be spoken, and the pond awaits Polonius's response.

The pond reeled away from the melee, past Jack the Insider...

The serial protester who now wants your vote
Josh Lees, the professional activist behind Sydney’s perennial Palestine Action Group protests has registered a socialist party that could split the left-wing vote. It mightn’t be the doddle he thinks.
By Jack the Insider
Columnist

Jack wasn't much interested in Gaza or such like and ended this way ...

...Rarely discussed is the ideological buffer the Greens have created for Labor. Labor not only benefits from Greens’ preferences, which flowed to it at a record 88.19 per cent at the last federal election (the figure has grown from 67 per cent in 1996 at every federal election since, breaking the 80 per cent threshold in 2013), but the Australian Greens have become a halfway house for the hard left.
Gone are the days of “Baghdad” Bill Hartley, John Halfpenny and the Victorian Trades Hall Council that became his own fiefdom along with Albert Langer’s Maoist Monash Labor Club.
The hard left now infests the Greens, leaving Labor’s Socialist Left faction (of which the Prime Minister is a member) restricted to socialists of the champagne-sipping variety. The loony left has left the Labor building. Premier Minns will not lose any sleep should Lees or one of his socialist buddies take a seat in the Legislative Council in 2027. But there are signs, embryonic certainly, that voters on the left have become disenchanted with centrism and frustrated at how often and easily the Greens bend the knee to Labor.
What we can say is that pluralism in Australian politics is on life support and the patient is not expected to recover.

Speaking of Minns, the pond should note the special tribute paid to him by John Hanscombe in The Echnida.

After recalling the infamous visit by LBJ and Bob "brown paper bag" Askin's famous line "Run over the bastards", Hanscombe celebrated Minns' incredible skills as a leader...

...Fast forward to this week and another NSW premier made an equally silly comment in the wake of ugly scenes at a protest over another visiting president. Don't judge the actions of NSW police on a few 10-second videos on social media, he told a media conference. In other words, don't believe what you just saw.
Video of an officer's fists working like pistons on a protester already pinned to the ground. Another of an officer repeatedly punching a bloke in a shirt and tie, his arms raised in surrender. Yet another, taken after the crowd had dispersed, of officers manhandling Muslim worshippers prostrate in prayer - for which the police commissioner apologised yesterday.
It was Chris Minns' Minnesota moment, with the same Orwellian undertone of US federal authorities in the immediate aftermath of the fatal shooting by ICE officers of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. They, too, suggested the American public should not believe what they saw.
None of this is to say protesters massed outside Sydney Town Hall on Monday night were blameless. Other videos showed some ignoring protest organiser Josh Lees' pleas not to march and others captured protesters clearly being aggressive towards police. Like the clips of the officers punching protesters, I know what I saw. No AI concoction, just ugly, raw footage.
Minns was foolish to ask people not to judge police on the videos they saw but the Bob Askin award for bullet-headed machismo must go to Tony Abbott, who suggested police filmed punching protesters should be commended, not investigated.
"I think we need to see tear gas and rubber bullets if need be - these people who are trying to intimidate the Australian community need to know that it is the forces of law and order who are in charge," he said on talkback radio.
You have to hand it to Teargas Tones - always ready with a jerry can when the temperature needs to be dialled down. But the pugilist former PM in no longer in office while Chris Minns is. No amount of the context he asks the public to consider when making judgment on the police operation excuses repeated kidney punches on a man already restrained on the ground.
Minns is correct in saying police should not be punching bags. Nor should protesters.

What there was of the Australian Daily Zionist News was well down the page...

Perhaps the reptiles were heading the plea ...

Whatever ...

PRESIDENT’S VISIT
Herzog, Albanese united over Iran
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Anthony Albanese have attacked Iran and discussed a ‘new beginning’ for relations between their countries amid protests and security concerns.
By Thomas Henry and Elizabeth Pike

That's got to be worth a cartoon celebrating the Minnisimisation of the temperature ...

The reptiles seem to have turned their take on the visit into the sort of royal coverage and news from the doings in the Gee Gee's house that was once a feature of the SMH in its Fairfax days.

As for the news that they're going to re-open dialogue?

Could the pond make a suggestion as to topics, and recycle a few items the pond had prepared in expectation the tour would stay top of the hive mind?

There was this in Haaretz ...

Haaretz Today EU's West Bank Warning Highlights What Israel Stands to Lose if It Proceeds With Annexation; After the Gaza cease-fire went into effect, the EU's threat to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel faded. With Israel now announcing expanded West Bank control, the EU made clear it still remains on the table (*archive link)

The Israeli government's decision this week to strip the Palestinian Authority of some of its powers and ease the sale of Palestinian land to Jewish settlers has drawn condemnations from Arab countries and Western allies.
In a statement, eight Arab and Muslim countries slammed the decision as illegal and a "dangerous escalation." A German diplomat said the government's move to allow Israeli law enforcement in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank contravenes Israel's obligations under international law, calling it a "further obstacle on the path to a two-state solution."
The German government considers the West Bank an integral part of a future Palestinian state, the diplomat added, and Germany would continue to advocate a negotiated two-state solution.
In Israel, this talk of the two-state solution increasingly feels delusional, as the Netanyahu government has spent the past two years actively dismantling the concept through actions on the ground, with ministers making no secret of their intentions.
"We will continue to kill the idea of a Palestinian state," Israel's far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said (yet again) in a statement shortly after the cabinet meeting on Sunday, during which the measures to expand control over the West Bank were approved.

And so on, and there was this in The Atlantic ...

Trump’s Gaza Plans Are Profoundly Unserious, Conditions on the ground call for immediate humanitarian relief, not gauzy real-estate fantasies. (*intermittent archive link)
By Hussein Ibish

President Trump has extravagant plans for the Gaza Strip. The only problem is that they bear no connection to the grim realities on the ground—nor is there much prospect that the two will align in the foreseeable future.

Trump has declared that the cease-fire in Gaza—such as it is, given that Hamas continues to attack Israeli forces, and Israeli strikes continue to kill Palestinians—has now entered Phase 2. But the only sign of progress has been Israel’s agreement to reopen the small crossing between Gaza and Egypt for individual Palestinians seeking medical care or other necessities. And that development came mainly in response to the recovery of the body of the final Israeli hostage held in Gaza, rather than from any plan of Trump’s.

Washington has, in fact, unveiled an elaborate “master plan” for the reconstruction of Gaza. It is profoundly unserious. It promises industrial parks, educational centers, residential zones, and beach resorts, likely inspired by cities such as Dubai and Singapore. But those cities evolved through decades of careful urban planning. Gaza is, at the moment, a rubbled wasteland. Approximately 80 percent of all structures have been badly damaged or destroyed, and Gazans have nowhere to live except in squalid tents or the ruins of former homes.

Any serious reconstruction plan would have to begin by providing for the urgent needs of more than 2 million Palestinians, which include housing, food, and potable water, as well as basic health and education services. Instead, the Trump plan imagines “coastal tourism” towers; “industrial complex data centers” and “advanced manufacturing,” an airport, a port, trains, parks, and “agriculture and sports facilities.”

The fantasy is beguiling, and its realization would be a magnificent accomplishment—if it weren’t so unimaginably absurd. Trump’s master plan treats Gaza as if it were a greenfield site rather than a partitioned pile of wreckage populated by destitute, hungry, unsheltered people. The plan also totally disregards the historical and religious sites in the Strip. If it all sounds like a real-estate developer’s fantasy run amok, that’s because it is. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, who has assumed a major role in the project, has breezily conceded that the plan presumes conditions contrary to fact—a demilitarized Hamas and an end to the Strip’s parition—but that “we do not have a Plan B.” In other words, reconstruction in Gaza will remain a cruel diplomatic pantomime, while millions of people huddle in tents waiting for the next humanitarian aid box.

In addition to being physically destroyed, Gaza is now partitioned between two hostile, armed entities. The Israeli military officially controls 53 percent of the Strip, and unofficially a bit more, and a resurgent Hamas runs the rest. The eastern, Israeli-controlled side of the dividing “yellow line” is now virtually unpopulated and contains most of Gaza’s arable land. The western, Hamas-controlled area consists mainly of demolished cities and towns and sandy beaches—as well as almost the entire Palestinian population....

And so on, and speaking of genocide, couch molester JD was at it again...

That sent the WSJ right off ...

For all those hoping for the death of King Donald, it's important to remember that this is what you get in his place ... even as the Armenian genocide provides an excellent role model for Benji's ethnic cleansing mob ...

Poor Usha, migrant turned into Stepford wife...

And so, after this sketchy Thursday, a chance  to close with the immortal Rowe, and a chance to mention the C.F.M.E.U.

The pond looks forward to a report in a similar vein on the cavortings of Sydney property developers, and not just an aside, as in The trail of destruction left by two of Sydney's infamous property figures...(*intermittent archive link).