In which the reptiles try to distract with ISIS brides and a Press Council war, but King Donald doing a Castro has the floor ...

Today the hive mind returned to the ISIS brides jihad ... but remarkably the reptiles missed an opportunity to have a go at a genuinely offensive aspect of fundamentalist Islamic thinking.

Perhaps it was because the ABC had picked up that angle in Suspected serial offender linked to Islamic State walks free over filmed gay bashing and Gay and bisexual Sydney teenagers lured and bashed on camera in IS-inspired attacks.

It was picked up by the Star Observer, ABC Investigation Finds Multiple Gay and Bisexual Teenagers In Sydney Have Been Bashed In Terrorist Inspired Attacks 

...but any hint of pink always inspires revulsion in the hive mind, a trait shared with Islamic fundamentalists. There's simply no room in the Australian Daily Zionist News for that sort of angle.

Instead this EXCLUSIVE was at top of a page designated "news"...

EXCLUSIVE
ISIS brides camp chief reveals existence of two more ‘extremist’ Australians
Syria’s Roj camp director has revealed two additional Australian ISIS brides classified as ‘extremists’ are held separately from the 11 women and 23 children denied repatriation.
By Amanda Hodge, Mohammad Alfares and Mohammed Hassan.

Off to the intermittent archive with them, and ditto petulant Peta, who followed immediately below ...

Commentary by Peta Credlin
Labor has nowhere to hide on ISIS repatriation saga
The government is hoping Australians don’t work out that Albanese’s tough talk is just a facade, that he and his ministers are up to their eyeballs in rolling out the red carpet for these terrorist groupies.

And over on the extreme far right, Hodge was briefly top of the hive mind world ma, with ...

PM’s tough talk on ISIS brides hides a simple truth
The federal government has boxed itself into a corner by issuing passports to ISIS brides and their kids just as the country reels from the Bondi terror attack. Time to stop the tough-guy talk and show some leadership.
By Amanda Hodge
Asia-Pacific correspondent

No interest in gay hate mongers, but devoted to bashing children? 

Only in lizard Oz la la land ...

The reptiles were also at war with Shane Drumgold and the Press Council, a deeply sordid defence of the deeply sordid behaviour of Dame Slap.

‘Put crisply’: Shane Drumgold disgraced, Press Council discredited
Two of Australia’s most respected silks declare Shane Drumgold ‘wears the consequences’ of damaging misconduct findings, but the Press Council sides with ex-DPP against expert opinion.
The Australian

The Australian?

Yes, the reptiles couldn't even find a name to attach to that reprehensible bile, but just below that big splash, the meretricious Merritt joined the fray ...

Commentary by Chris Merritt
Press Council missed crucial legal truth
Shane Drumgold may have won a Press Council ruling, but the seven damning findings about his conduct still stand and no amount of procedural manoeuvring can rewrite what the ACT Supreme Court decided.

The reptiles will never be able to escape the shameful behaviour they exhibited backing the wrong horse in the Lehrmann matter, fuelled and driven by Dame Slap's bizarre obsessions.

The pond didn't follow the reptiles on the Lehrmann matter or track Dame Slap - the whole affair was a sordid descent into the Liberal underworld - but did think it would be droll to link to the Press Council's statement, dishing out a mild slapping with a warm lettuce leaf ...enough to get the snowflake reptiles sobbing into their cereal...

Such sooks and cry babies they are ...

At least it saved the reptiles from brooding about the former Prince ...

What a relief to be able to leave all that nonsense to the intermittent archive and turn instead to the reptile take on King Donald's latest, record-setting, demented ramblings.

Amazingly, Joe, lesser member of the Kelly gang, could only manage two minutes, though perhaps that's the standard for an Australian reptile ...

Joe managed to be impressed and respectful ...

...Likewise, on Iran, the President kept his remarks brief despite the prospect of a potential US strike against the regime at any time. Trump instead chose to elevate his credentials as a peacemaker.
“My preference is to solve this problem through diplomacy,” he said. “But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s No.1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon.”
The real point of the address was to launch a sharp pitch to American voters, especially younger people, struggling with the cost of living.
This was Trump’s effort to refocus on domestic priorities ahead of the mid-terms amid sinking approval ratings and growing voter frustration with his handling of the US economy after devoting significant time to foreign policy and trade matters.
The address was an opportunity to show Americans that he was listening. The question is whether he convinced them.

The reptiles interrupted with a few carefully curated moments ...President Trump said Democrats were to blame for making the high cost of living an issue, speaking in Washington during the State of the Union address.

Joe carried on, cautiously hinting that it might not have been so fine, in spots at least ...

Yes, there were a grab bag of measures in the speech to protect the dream of home ownership, keep energy prices lower, grow 401(k) retirement balances and codify lower US drug prices into law.
But there were no new major programs likely to reset the national debate in a decisive way, with the risk being that voters will respond to the speech as simply more of the same.
Despite the trademark bravado from the President, the address may come across to many Americans as more defensive than visionary.
Trump also relished the opportunity to finetune his political sales job, speaking for nearly two hours in the longest ever State of the Union address and running through a shopping list of accomplishments.
He reminded the nation about his key strengths including his sweeping tax cuts, the reduction in illegal migration, the negotiation of a ceasefire in Gaza as well as his efforts to drive down drug prices.
By weaving in the personal stories of many Americans, the President was able to more effectively demonstrate the human impact of many of his policies.
His speech leaned in heavily to the upcoming 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, with Trump promoting his presidency as part of a broader push to revive American greatness as well as Christian values.

Ah, Xian values, so it must have been great.

The reptiles then took the big plunge, all 2:0819 of it ...US President Donald Trump has delivered his annual State of the Union address to Congress at Capitol Hill.

As if the pond was a mug punter of the novice kind up for the sucker punch of two hours lost, and never to be regained.

Instead it was left to Joe to celebrate what the pond had missed:

To complete the comparison, he skewered the Democrats as saboteurs of the American experiment.
This political characterisation was highly effective as he repeatedly blasted his political opponents for refusing to stand in support of key policy positions – at one stage labelling them “crazy” and intent on “destroying our country.”
One of Trump’s key challenges is holding together a fracturing MAGA base which is already splintering over the economy, the Epstein files, the Venezuelan military adventure and the prospect of a further attack on Iran.
Yet the speech proved he can still rally them the old-fashioned way, by turning the Democrats into the enemy.

Apparently it was yet another oratorical masterpiece, designed to  dazzled hive minds ...though the pond can remember ancient times when the disunited States used to mock hapless Cubans, whenever they were compelled to endure an endless bout of Castro speechifying ...

Now they stand and applaud:

The pond must confess its response had been clouded by other reports ... such as Susan B. Glasser's in The New Yorker under the headers Donald Trump’s State of the Union Was Long and Wrong But at least the President thinks everything is going great.

Enough of all that - the pond has always been a sucker for TruCoat (at least the Fargo version) - and so must stick to reptile coverage.

Luckily Cam was also on board, throwing out word salads under the "classic" rubric - you know, classic Edsel, classic Tesla Cybertruck, classic Leyland P76.

At least Cam could grind out three minutes, which was nowhere two hours, so the pond bit ... if only because this dish served by King Donald was allegedly "fiery" ...

His second?

He already had a fine track record ...

... and now he's beaten them all, but do go on ...

He was also speaking just days after the US Supreme Court declared his tariff regime illegal, throwing into flux the President’s signature policy. Trump took aim at the Supreme Court justices sitting in the chamber, bemoaning their “very unfortunate ruling” as Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump appointee Amy Barrett, who both helped to vote down the tariffs, watched on impassively.
He claimed, however, that he would find a “solution” to the setback and find a new way to levy protectionist tariffs, which he predicted would one day substantially replace income tax.
Trump highlighted his success in slashing illegal arrivals across the Mexican border, one of his most successful and popular policies. He also focused strongly on crimes committed by illegal immigrants but he avoided the controversy over the overreach of ICE agents, which has led to the high-profile deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Those deaths have turned immigration from a positive into a net negative for him.

Again there was a carefully curated moment ... President Trump said Democrats were to blame for making the high cost of living an issue, speaking in Washington during the State of the Union address.

Cam confessed to a little surprise ...

Surprisingly for a president who is likely just days or weeks from ordering a military campaign against Iran, foreign policy was not discussed until well into his more than two-hour speech
On Iran he hinted at the possibility of military action, saying that he would never allow Iran, the world’s greatest sponsor of terrorism, to have a nuclear weapon. He said he hoped diplomacy would persuade Iran to abandon its “sinister” nuclear weapon ambitions, but warned “no nation should ever doubt America’s resolve”.
He also warned that Iran was developing long-range missiles which could potentially hit America. There was nothing in his comments that would give comfort to the ruling Mullahs of Iran. If anything, his comments only reinforced the probability that Trump will soon order an attack on the ­repressive regime.
On other foreign policy issues, he claimed that the next phase of the peace plan in Gaza was “just about there”, and that the US “was working very hard” to secure peace in Ukraine. But he said nothing more about Ukraine despite it being the fourth anniversary of Europe’s largest conflict since World War II. Trump also boasted about his success in persuading Europe to lift defence budgets and about the successful capture of former Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro.
Trump focused much of his speech on persuading Americans that the economy and cost of living – the two issues which polls say have most disappointed voters – were improving.
The US economy slowed to a 1.4 per cent annualised rate in the last quarter of 2025, the slowest in nine years, while inflation has fallen to 2.4 per cent, but remains stubbornly above the Federal Reserve’s 2 per cent target.
Concerns about the economy have been the main driver of the fall in Trump’s approval ratings, raising fears about the ability of Republicans to retain their majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate in the midterm elections in November.
Trump’s speech was interrupted repeatedly by angry Democrats interjecting, prompting Trump to declare at one point “these people are crazy”.

The reptiles did allow a little moment of dissent... Minnesota Representative Ilhan Omar heckled President Donald Trump as he gave the State of the Union address in front of Congress on Tuesday, February 24. C-SPAN footage shows the moment the congresswoman screams, “You have killed Americans” at Trump while he is speaking. Omar started heckling the president as he asked for “the end of sanctuary cities that protect the criminals.” The congresswoman has previously addressed the “terror Donald Trump unleashed on Minnesota,” referring to the killings of US citizens Alex Pretti and Renee Good in January 2026, as well as the arrests of documented Americans. Omar also criticised “unlawful tariffs and sky-high prices” affecting businesses, as well as the Trump administration’s handling of the Epstein files. Credit: C-SPAN via Storyful

Cam eventually shafted the King by ending on an ambivalent note ...

The speech was full of very Trumpian moments, describing his wife Melania as a “movie star” after her recent documentary and claiming America in just 12 months had gone from being a ‘dead’ country to being the ‘hottest” in the world.
He praised the assassinated conservative commentator Charlie Kirk as a “martyr” and condemned all forms of political violence just days after an armed intruder was shot dead at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
As Trump left the podium to the cheers of Republicans and the stony silence of Democrats, his wide-ranging speech was a reminder of how much has already happened in just one year of this novel and volatile presidency. There are still three years to go so we should all strap in because, as Trump warned in his speech, “you’ve seen nothing yet”.

"Novel and volatile"?!

That's one way of putting it, but at least the endless obfuscation served a sublime purpose, up there with the UFO files ...

Perhaps this was all to set the stage for the bewildered swishing Switzer, who seems to have set up Thursday shop in the lizard Oz as a key part of his rehabilitation campaign ... though admitting he was completely clueless at the get go didn't seem a strong way to start:

A tour de force of bold assertions?

Is that what they call lying in swishing Switzer land? 

But perhaps best to leave the fact checking to the likes of the Graudian, or PBS recycling PolitiFact, or the Beeb, just some of many to be found outside paywalls.

Just don't expect the reptiles to join in that sort of coverage.

The pond must stick to a narrower rut, though the reptiles followed the opening gobbet with a snap designed to gladden the heart of the bromancer ...The USS Abraham Lincoln sails in the Arabian Sea on February 11. Picture: US Navy/AFP

But the bromancer has been MIA since 24th January, and until he returns the pond won't have a clue about the need to bermb, bermb, bermb Iran ...

The swishing Switzer was a tad dubious, as if there was anything wrong with a man who had torn up an agreement, then decided he'd bomb the mad Mullahs back into that agreement ...

Meanwhile, Trump must recognise the political foundations for war are fragile. Public support for military action against Iran is thin. Just 27 per cent of Americans favour a war, according to an Economist/YouGov poll; Trump’s own MAGA coalition is divided.
He has built much of his political brand railing against costly foreign entanglements and so-called forever wars.
The broader strategic climate is equally complex.
American public opinion – especially among younger voters – has grown more critical of Israel, now virtually alone in openly pressing for military action. Key Sunni partners in the region, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states, have signalled opposition to a US-Iran war.
Yet, despite these constraints, the drift towards confrontation still feels real. Is Trump prepared to defy public caution and act? Or will he search for an off-ramp?
One can’t help but think that Trump realises he has boxed himself in – caught between his Israeli and Sunni Gulf allies; between his “America First” instincts of restraint and selectivity and his determination to impose his will on a thuggish regime that one of his predecessors labelled part of the “axis of evil” in a famous State of the Union address nearly a quarter of a century ago.
The so-called 12-day war that Israel and the US launched against Iran last June was initially aimed at destroying Tehran’s nuclear enrichment facilities. If the mission was truly as successful as the conventional wisdom suggested, why is the US even contemplating another strike?
Unlike in June, any US military intervention would almost certainly provoke Iranian retaliation. Tehran is believed to possess about 2000 mid-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching across the region, including Israel.
It also maintains substantial stockpiles of short-range missiles that could target US bases in the Gulf and naval vessels transiting in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most strategically vital maritime checkpoints.

The reptiles introduced an AV distraction ...Turning to Iran during his State of the Union speech on Tuesday (February 24), Trump said: "They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America."

For some reason, the pond was reminded of the weird bifurcated world that Iraq hawks of the Bill Kristol kind now find themselves in, as in The Nation's Those Sometimes-Trump Neocons Are Returning to the Fold Over Iran; As the president backs Israel’s long-awaited war with Iran, his neoconservative critics find themselves in an awkward position. (Sorry, paywall)

That's some 8 months old, but still not stale, as the swishing Switzer stayed bewildered:

Why would Trump risk being drawn into the kind of prolonged conflict he has long decried?
Let’s remember some history. The misguided 2003 invasion of Iraq was justified, in part, as a preventive strike against weapons of mass destruction. Its consequences were catastrophic, not least because the invasion unleashed chaos and civil war across Iraq.
It shifted the regional balance in Iran’s favour, enabling Tehran to establish new Shia proxy militias, and created conditions in which Sunni jihadists coalesced, eventually giving rise to Islamic State.
True, Iran causes regional disruptions, but it poses no direct threat to American security, despite Trump’s claims to the contrary in his address.
It’s also true the clerical rulers of Iran’s Shia theocracy are ruthless and have committed serious human rights abuses against the many thousands of courageous protesters. But if the regime were removed, what would follow? Does Trump really want to risk turning Iran into a failed state – or, worse, a haven for jihadists, as Iraq and Libya became after American intervention?
During his first term, Trump boasted that he had started no new wars. And during the past year his interventions have been limited in scope.
He should follow his instincts and try to reach a diplomatic outcome. Unfortunately, his State of the Union address offered no clue how to avoid a course that could plunge America into unnecessary and potentially catastrophic conflict.

At last came the real point of it all:

Tom Switzer is presenter of Switzerland, a podcast about politics, modern history and international relations.

As for the rest, did King Donald sway hearts and change minds, or did he simply do a Castro?

Who knows, because the Trumpstein files and the swamp still seem as interesting as ever ...