In which the craven Craven dominates the day with many fine One Nation policy proposals ...

 

Donald Trump does nipple torture?

Not in the discreet world of the lizard Oz reptiles!

The both siderist NY Times certainly stirred the possum and belled the cat in the Haberman/Swan outing, Inside the White House Freakout Over the Epstein Files, The president’s top advisers gathered in a series of Situation Room meetings as they struggled to contain a scandal engulfing Donald Trump himself. (sorry, no intermittent archive link to hand)

And it seems King Donald and a lot of others are willing to hang out with a brutal thug and pimp, at least if you read read Heidi Blake's truly disturbing and appalling report in The New Yorker, Andrew Tate’s Empire of Abuse, How the defining figure of the manosphere built a fortune—and became a political force—by systematically exploiting women. (* intermittent archive link).

Instead of all this, the pond was attracted to the ongoing One Nationification of the lizard Oz, which continued apace for the hive mind this Thursday.

The day was also distinguished by petulant Peta going MIA, with her most recent appearance a week ago in Labor’s AUKUS revolt should come as no surprise, There’s already disquiet about AUKUS and with the Left faction now in control, Ed Husic’s push is ominous.

Ah, AUKUS.

A certain Ms. Moloney was also haunted this day by the sub folly ...

Right now, AUKUS needs public confidence, not political drift
As AUKUS shifts from strategy to delivery, public trust may prove as important as submarines.
By Cathy Moloney

The only notable feature of this outing was the canny recycling of a sub collage at the start of the piece...

Splendid stuff. 

Waste not, want not, in a manner worthy of Uncle Ebenezer, followed by a blather fest ...

The piece wrapped up with a strident plea for understanding, which made the pond doubt even more the entire venture ...

...The central questions are no longer theoretical. Do we have the workforce? Can suppliers qualify at pace? Are communities confident? Is government aligning regulation, skills, infrastructure and industry participation with enough discipline? These are the questions that determine whether strategy becomes capability. They are also the questions ministers should be answering more consistently in public if they want confidence to grow rather than drift.
Of course, Australians should expect, and demand, transparency about risk, opportunity cost, and delivery. But there is a difference between informing the public and cultivating a climate in which each development is treated as evidence of failure or bad faith.
That does not deepen understanding. It diminishes it. And it distracts from the more necessary work of explaining why AUKUS matters, what its success will require, and what it offers to a broader Australian industrial uplift project; AUKUS is about more than just submarines.
What is needed now is not less scrutiny, but steadier leadership doing their best to avoid the ­slipstream of politicisation and partisanship.
Government, opposition, industry and national security leaders need to explain more clearly why the strategic environment has changed, why deterrence and undersea capability matter, why sovereign industrial uplift matters, and why this project must be understood as a national undertaking, not just a defence one.
That conversation should be sustained, open and mature, not triggered only by controversy or reduced to slogans.
Leaders cannot assume that the public will have an innate acceptance just because they have been told this is the only way to secure our nation. There is already good work under way to build workforce pathways, strengthen supplier readiness and improve infrastructure planning. That foundation matters and should be acknowledged. But because AUKUS is a whole-of-nation enterprise, the conversation cannot remain confined to geographic epicentres.
Discussions need to occur with experts and with communities, from local stakeholders to the most senior national leadership, and with everyone in between. Social licence is therefore not only geographic; it is also demographic. It must be built across age groups, sectors, regions and communities, including those that may never see a submarine but will still be asked to support the strategic, industrial and fiscal choices behind the ­enterprise.
AUKUS will secure its place in Australian public life only if Australians understand what is at stake, why it matters, and how the country will share both the responsibilities and the benefits of making it real. This is not call to place Australia on a war footing, but it is a recognition that the era of strategic complacency has passed. If social licence is the basis of long-term national security delivery, then the task now is not to weaponise it, but to lead it.

Credit please ...

Cathy Moloney is vice-president, Australia, of The Asia Group.

Clearly it's doomed. Deeply, deeply doomed ...

Meanwhile, the reptiles were busy discovering that a cease fire actually means ceaseless firing, and that the war that had ended had also continued on its merry way.

Naturally it was all the fault of the Iranians, as Cameron obligingly tugged his forelock in ...

Commentary by Cameron Stewart
Middle East at a tipping point as defiant Iran goads Trump
The so called-ceasefire is fast crumbling as a belligerent Iran flexes its muscles across the region and thumbs its nose at peace.

Actually, as Cameron eventually gets around to noting, Netanyahu is the one who has kept on goading the Iranians, not to mention hapless Palestinians and Lebanese people, and King Donald ...

...This has created a rift between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Trump, with the US President demanding that Israel stop its attacks in Lebanon to give the peace process a chance.
Trump maintains that he “calls the shots” with Netanyahu and that the Israeli leader eventually ended the retaliatory attacks on Iran this week at his request. Trump has warned that if Israel ignores his demands, then it may have to go it “alone” against Iran.
But Netanyahu may not be as pliable as Trump claims. Netanyahu is facing an election and is under enormous domestic political pressure to continue the fight against Hezbollah regardless of what Trump or Iran are demanding.

But never let that get in the way of a reptile headline, because the Oz Daily Zionist News must maintain its standards.

So it goes ...

But the pond has other fish to fry this day, namely the increasing One Nationification of the One Nation rag of choice.

Early in the day came this yarn, given a big EXCLUSIVE splash ...

EXCLUSIVE
Non-compete clause: Angus Taylor confidant Tony Pasin’s shock call on One Nation
Angus Taylor’s close confidant and numbers man, Tony Pasin, has urged the Liberals to divide seats with One Nation.
By Rosie Lewis, Greg Brown and Paul Garvey

Angus Taylor’s close confidant and numbers man, Tony Pasin, has urged the Liberal Party to sit down with Pauline Hanson to identify the seats in which Liberal and One Nation candidates should run so they’re not competing against each other, in an ­attempt to oust Labor without ­cannibalising the Coalition.

Mr Pasin, a Liberal frontbencher and member for the South Australian seat of Barker, in which One Nation came third at the last election, broke ranks to say an agreement must be considered if there is to be a conservative government elected.

The controversial intervention comes as a major split emerges among Liberal MPs on whether to preference One Nation, after new Liberal Party president Tony ­Abbott and the Opposition Leader left the option open.

“We should work hand-in-glove to defeat Labor. We should work together to identify which seats are more appropriately targeted by a One Nation candidate or a Liberal candidate,” Mr Pasin, who is the opposition scrutiny of government waste and accountability spokesman, told The Australian.

“(The Liberal Party could say to One Nation) ‘We’ll support you in Spence, we currently hold the seat of Sturt. We could both spend our money in a Liberal v One Nation contest in Sturt or we could take the lead in Sturt and support One Nation to pick up the seat of Spence’. Conservatives then get two seats for the price of one.

And so on and on, bargain basement thinking, worthy of Uncle Ebenezer.

By golly, by hook or by crook, they're determined to make Pauline grate again ...

Over on the extreme far right the craven Craven heard the call, and that's when the pond really perked up ...

The header: Can the Coalition counter One Nation’s ‘joy rage’? As One Nation gains support, the Coalition faces a choice: chase populism or reclaim a broader, more inclusive Australian nationalism.

The caption for the snap, which once again reminded the pond of the unnerving resemblance of Martin Luther to Pauline (thank you Ughmann, for helping the pond understand): One Nation’s rise continues to challenge both major parties’ electoral strategies.

The craven Craven spent his entire four minutes of verbiage attempting to rescue the beefy boofhead and his brand of onion munching Liberal party ...

Australian conservatives have traditionally looked at One Nation as a cross between a cockroach and a scorpion. It is dirty and unseemly, but it also stings. The best way to deal with it is to avoid touching it lest you become befouled yourself. Better still, crush it before it stings you.
But now the scorpi-roach commands a historic 31 per cent of the primary vote in Newspoll. For the Coalition, a great many of them are your former supporters.
For Labor, this has been a dream come true. If the Coalition reviles One Nation, it sheds votes from the right. If it so much as talks to it, let alone preferences its can­didates, genuine Liberals will desert in droves.
In theory, Labor should have the same problem with the Greens, some of whose positions are truly repulsive. But the vast majority of Green voters automatically preference Labor, so it does not have to defile itself by touching pitch. But now Labor also is shedding traditional supporters to One Nation. Pauline Hanson is the hand grenade that just keeps on giving.
As the polls show, she authorises all Australians, regardless of class, political background, age or economic circumstances, to imbibe the ultimate political elixir. She sells The Joy of Rage. The Coalition remains her chief victim.

Hang on, hang on, selling The Joy of Rage (lizard Oz ™) is the entire lizard Oz business model, and all Pauline is doing is following the reptile way.

Is it any wonder that the lizard Oz is the favourite rag for MAusGA and One Nation types?

Is it any wonder that the dullard from down south struggles to match the rage? Though it does look like he might be able to do a good shouty shout,  Leader of the Liberal Party Angus Taylor. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake / Getty Images

The hapless craven Craven seemed not to understand that abusing minorities and waving patriotic flags was apple pie lizard Oz hive mind stuff ...

One Nation will actually be helped by an economy undermined by oil shortages and the free spending of the Albanese government. As interest and unemployment rates rise – the Whitlam syndrome – so does Hanson’s vote. What the Coalition desperately needs is a viable strategy to deal with One Nation. Realistically, it cannot kill it. Demands it should become a watered-down One Nation itself are inane. Liberal conservatism is ideologically opposed to Hansonism’s race obsessions and poisonous sectional hatreds. Besides, it would be electoral suicide for a classic centre-right party.
The way forward is a bit more sophisticated. It would recognise that many of the vote-garnering stances of One Nation are merely the bastard, lunatic offspring of ­respectable centre-right thinking. These positions have been abandoned by fastidious Liberals as just too populist. But the thing about populist positions is they tend to be popular.
The central point is that the ­Coalition has ceded the high ground of being the party of Australian nationalism and handed the space to One Nation.
Labor is far too addicted to fashionable internationalism and academic critiques to compete. If anything, it is ashamed of Australian nationalism.
There is huge potential for the Coalition to offer an attractive platform of moderate, humane and thoroughly enjoyable nationalism against the shrill stunts of One Nation and a censorious Labor. Take One Nation’s obsession with the Australian flag. It seems to have been copyrighted by Hanson. It dominates her rallies. Why does the Coalition not wrap itself in the flag? Why not promote Howard-style positions protecting it from desecration, requiring it be flown at schools, and mandating that its history and symbolism be taught to the kids?
Of course, the genteel left would hate it, which is part of the attraction. But the common people would love it, as evidenced by the improbable flag orgy every Australia Day. One Nation would be ­outflanked, not by even crazier rightism, but by a strongly conservative, perfectly rational package of patriotic policy.
Speaking of Australia Day, most Australians love it, too. They celebrate in a very Australian way by going to the beach or having a picnic, and in either case drinking the local brewery dry. They have no interest in changing its date.

There, you see, even the craven Craven can't help but indulge the One Nation agenda, especially when that fiend, Satan's helper, is hovering and getting the reptiles agitated... Anthony Albanese addresses a press conference. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Sharon Smith

The craven Craven doubled down on One Nation thinking ...

If they ever found out about the postmodern race theory that underlies the rationale for changing the date – that Australia was founded as an invalid racist settler state and that we all remain ­invalid racist settlers – they would be burning academics on their ­barbecues.

Why Pauline herself couldn't have put it better, though perhaps she might have needed a briefing on "postmodern race theory". 

Second thoughts, postmodern would have immediately triggered alarms... and that mention of "race" would have immediately evoked difficult, uppity blacks, the bane of lizard Oz journalists, and the subject of a reptile jihad which has run for decades ...

Now carry on with the One Nation agenda ... spouting patriotism and doing some flag-clutching and waving ...

Why wouldn’t a flailing Coalition demand comprehensive entrenchment of Australia Day? Why not politely impose it on every self-righteous, nourish bowel-munching local council that refuses to let its citizens celebrate? Why not support humungous Australia Day community street parties? Our thoroughly nationalist immigrant populations would be first to arrive.
The great opportunity for the Coalition is to embrace the force that drove everything from Federation and Anzac to AFL and Sam Kerr – and own it. It would subvert the mean, ersatz nationalism of One Nation with a deep, genuine national commitment, which just happened to be a very attractive political offer.
Think of education. Many Australian parents are dimly aware their kids are being force-fed a ­correct-thought version of history where every white male from Arthur Phillip to John Howard is a war criminal. They look nervily at mentions in the popular media – never read by leftist education tsars – of teaching practices that could not be right, and gender education that seems biologically ­implausible.
This is a policy swamp that Hanson infests. A tough, hard but principled Coalition assault on the current politics of Australian education would outmanoeuvre Hanson, win votes and improve outcomes. Labor would be pinned to the wall by its allegiance to radical teacher unions. Yes, there would be challenges flanking Hanson on issues like migration, where One Nation’s visceral dislike for foreigners will always attract backers. But grabbing the Tony Abbott trifecta of Indigenous heritage, British constitutional government and migrant enrichment is a formula that resonates with most Australians.

Dear sweet long absent lord, he actually went the onion muncher as the solution ...Tony Abbott

So we're now officially back to the days of Knights and Dames ...

The craven Craven expanded on a great set of One Nation policies ...

Endorsing moderate skilled migration, excluding plausible terrorists, maintaining our borders, and not enticing ISIS brides appeals as much to Vietnamese and Chinese Australians as to Anglo-Celts.

Yes, yes, it's Pauline approved!

But wait, it's also very frank, friendly and exceptionally moderate, in the Pauline way ...

This type of frank but friendly nationalism easily embraces, for example, our immensely successful Indian immigration, that has given Australia citizens of hard work, democratic principles and family values. Rational nationalism can do this. One Nation’s politics of dislike cannot.
If the Coalition can recover its historic position as a political force that overtly loves and celebrates our country, but without rancour, it can out-patriot One Nation on the right and leave Labor flat-footed on the left. For a party that is generally regarded at the point of death, there might even be life in the old nag yet.

Most excellent stuff, and it turned out that the craven Craven hadn't done anything credit worthy since his days at the ACU, Greg Craven is former Vice Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University

So there's the craven Craven's solution. 

Carry on carrying on, deplore migration but politely, embrace "rational nationalism", whatever that means.

Make sure to keep on the right side of certain ethnic groups, a handy way of demonising certain other ethic groups, by way of omission.

Pauline and the reptiles know who the craven Craven means.

What else? Well, keep on with climate science denialism, celebrate coal, help in the ongoing ruination of the planet, and soon enough, Gina will be on board.

Off to the knackery with the lot of them. 

If that's the best these oldnags can do, better to do a Boxer on them, and turn them into something useful, like dog food or glue... 

And don't forget to take King Donald and his Faux Noise flock while you're at it...

And that was about it for the pond this day.

Sure the war on China continued, albeit imported from WaPo ...

China is a slave to history – and the Indo-Pacific is paying the price
The CCP offers perhaps the most cynical example of weaponised history in modern geopolitics.
By Miles Yu

But as always the pond will await the bromancer's scintillating insights ...

And Jack the Insider went full Jacinta...

Roll up for the very worst job in politics. No takers? Not one?
Victorian Labor’s dominant Socialist Left faction has turned on Jacinta Allan, with polling pointing to a catastrophic 30-seat wipeout.
By Jack the Insider
Columnist

But they were just providing a little additional reading and policy proposals for their devoted One Nation followers...

Not to worry, the pond isn't that fussed by talk state governments. 

After all, if you voted Chris Minns, you ended up with a splendidly Liberal party government...

Premier Chris Minns won't face legal action as two charged over campaign donations

He's not even LNP lite these days, he's the full quid.

And so to wrap up proceedings with the infallible Pope for the day ... with a great policy proposal for the craven Craven. 

A bit of Nasho is just what he needs ...