King Donald's negotiating style resembles the Mafia ...
In short, if you don't agree to my deal, I'm gunna kill ya. Or nice country, pity I have to do some stuff to it again.
Of course there other mysteries arising from his crazed social media outings...
Trump baffles internet with picture of woman and message of ‘great daughter’ - but nobody is sure who she is; The 80-year-old president raised eyebrows after sharing an image of a mysterious blonde woman on Truth Social (The Independent)
And then there was this with Faux Noise ...
Referring to the strait, he appeared to threaten to kidnap the Iranian negotiators, saying: “You close it and you won’t have a country. You won’t even make it back to your f*cking country.”
The US president’s threat led to a formal protest by the Iranians to the mediators, and a demand that what they described as his “bullying” was brought under control.
At the talks in Switzerland, Vance played down the impact of violence in Lebanon, saying progress had been made towards ending hostilities there. “These things are always a little bit messy,” he said. (Graudian).
Messy? Like a horse's head on the silk sheets?
Great stuff.
What the reptiles need is some brave soul, brimming with idiocy, to paint a noble picture of the mad King.
Who better than the swishing Switzer?
The header: Trump’s critics must ask: if not this peace deal, then what? Trump deserves credit not for starting this war but for recognising the costs of pressing on were likely to exceed the benefits.
The caption for a snap celebrating yet another remarkably corrupt deal: President Donald Trump speaks after touring the newly designated Air Force One presidential aircraft. Picture: Manuel Balce Ceneta / AP Photo
Trust the swishing Switzer to swim against the tide ...
Whether the memorandum ultimately survives political opposition in Tehran, Washington and Jerusalem remains to be seen. Already, Iran says it has closed the Strait of Hormuz once again in response to Israel’s continued strikes on southern Lebanon. Whether those attacks constitute a breach of Tehran’s understanding with Washington is contested.
Actually whether the memorandum ultimately survives the mad King's interventions might be more to the point, but perhaps the swishing Switzer was scribbling before the latest folly. Even then, he should have known, what with the mad King's determination to keep his feud with Moroni bubbling along, and sundry other fits of madness:
Still, credit where it’s due: Trump is right to try to end a war he never should have launched. His angry critics insist the memorandum gives away too much. They may be right. But what, precisely, was the alternative?
What an expert bout of meaningless blather, and the reptiles interrupted with a snap to remind the hive mind of the winners, Iranians hold pictures of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. Picture: Atta Kenare / AFP
What was the alternative? Wasn't it total surrender, regime change and freedumb for Iranians/
Nah, it was threaten to renew the bombing, as the swishing Switzer tried to sweep up the mess...
Why should anyone believe another round of airstrikes would suddenly have produced a fundamentally different result? More to the point, how long would that campaign have continued before Washington concluded the costs outweighed the diminishing prospect of success?
Neither would the costs have been confined to the battlefield. Another sustained campaign would have consumed scarce American precision munitions when many strategists remain focused on the Indo-Pacific, where the region does face a genuine threat to US primacy – namely China.
More important, military escalation almost certainly would have invited another round of Iranian retaliation against Gulf energy infrastructure and commercial shipping. Tehran cannot conventionally match US military power. But the past several months have demonstrated that it retains the capacity to impose enormous economic costs by threatening the Strait of Hormuz and disrupting energy flows across the Gulf.
Give Trump credit for recognising this reality. His recent comments, however weird, suggest an appreciation that continued escalation carried unacceptable economic and strategic risks.
Critics argue the agreement leaves Iran free to threaten Israel’s existence. That overstates the case. Whatever one thinks of the Islamic Republic – and there is little to admire – its conduct generally has reflected strategic calculation rather than a desire for direct unconstrained war with the US or Israel.
Remember on three occasions in the past two years – October 2024, June last year and February this year – it was Israel or the US, or both, that attacked Iran, the last two occasions during negotiations.
Faced with overwhelming military superiority, Tehran typically has sought calibrated retaliation and deterrence rather than national suicide.
Some argue Washington should simply have tightened sanctions and waited for the regime to buckle. But economic coercion is rarely an instrument of rapid political change, especially against governments that regard the struggle as existential.
None of this diminishes the brutality of the Iranian regime or the threat posed by its regional proxies. The question is whether further military escalation would have advanced Western interests.
What a question, still being posed:
Sorry, the reptiles preferred to drag Obama and Joe into the mess ...Barack Obama, standing with Joe Biden, delivers remarks in the East Room of the White House, November 2015. Picture: Andrew Harnik / AFP
And so did Switzer:
Under that agreement, Iran broadly observed restrictions on uranium enrichment throughout the remainder of the Obama presidency and into Trump’s first term.
It was only after Washington withdrew from the accord in 2018 that Tehran progressively abandoned those constraints, enriching uranium to levels approaching weapons grade. Whatever the shortcomings of the original agreement, it had succeeded in imposing meaningful limits on Iran’s nuclear program. Those constraints steadily unravelled after Washington walked away.
Why be so coy? It wasn't "Washington" that withdrew and walked away. It was mad King Donald, in a fit of pique, envy and resentment, and in a style which routinely marks his narcissistic negotiating skills.
Somehow this malevolent stupidity gets transformed into a form of "statesmanship" by the swishing Switzer:
His harshest critics have yet to answer the most important question of all: if not this imperfect peace, then what?
The broader lesson extends well beyond Trump. From Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, the US repeatedly has discovered that overwhelming military superiority does not necessarily translate into lasting political success. Iran may yet become another chapter in that long and sobering history.
The pond looks forward to the swishing Switzer's next opus, wherein he explains that the real reason for the reflecting pool folly isn't King Donald hiring a corrupt, incompetent mate (and felon) for the job, but the work of treasonous conspirators.
The pond must pause to celebrate the feudin' and fussin' with the immortal Rowe ...
The lizard Oz editorialist also had a stab at the matter, preferring the use of "illusive" rather than "elusive"...
He mustn't give in to Tehran's tactics?
What else? Well the jihad on Jimbo and Albo continues...
Vanishing investors a steep price: warning as housing buckles
Labor should address business concerns on budget, CEDA declares
An early champion of Labor’s CGT package has joined industry groups warning the tax overhaul could destroy jobs and slow wage growth, as the housing market shows signs of falling.
By Greg Brown and Ben Wilmot
And the jihad on the ABC was also flourishing...
‘Ideological capture’: Despite praise, ABC rejects Sall Grover opinion piece
After 37 emails, three drafts and three weeks of negotiations, the ABC rejected Sall Grover’s opinion piece on sex-based rights – without ever revealing the ‘inaccuracies’ it cited.
By Rachel Baxendale
Luckily the intermittent archive was working, so the pond could move on and not indulge the transphobia ... only for the pond to decide that the quarry whisperer whining away could be given the same cornfield treatment ...
Chalmers’ budget reforms are not an aberration. They are the product of a corrupted public policy process.
By Nick Cater
Columnist
It was the sight of the floodwater in quarries Caterist posing as a hands-on carpenter - as opposed to being a loon who makes his living sheltering in a lobby group and occasionally turning up in print - that made the pond seek other entertainment.
There's only so much carry on about the budget that anyone should be made to suffer and the pond is well over it ...
But then the pond couldn't even get excited by simpleton Simon indulging in a seance, and bringing back a ghost to haunt the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way ...
Has the Liberal Party forgotten that it is in the business of politics?
By Simon Benson
A teaser trailer showing the haunted one, and the ghoulish spectre haunting him with advice - a spectre who in his time was a singularly incompetent, ABC-obsessed politician - was more than enough ...
Lordy, long absent lordy, they really do hate the beefy boofhead, but resorting to grave digging of this kind was a form of abuse that almost gave the pond some sympathy for the windmill hater. Almost ...
And that just left the Major, doing what he does best, celebrating Pauline's remarkably affinity with the policies of the lizard Oz ...
The header: How media attacks and establishment sneering are fuelling One Nation’s resurgence; Journalists attacking Hanson’s National Press Club speech on radical Islam and multiculturalism are fuelling the very One Nation surge they seek to stop.
The caption for the snap that suggested the Major would carry on his Zionist duties for the Australian Daily Zionist News: A mourner lights candles as people gather around floral tributes outside Bondi Pavilion in Sydney in December 2025 to honour victims of the Bondi Beach shooting. It’s clear the real spurt to Pauline Hanson’s political fortunes was the murder of 15 people at Bondi Beach. Picture: David Gray/AFP
The Major was fully on board at the outrageous suggestion that the media should take a look at Pauline's policies, and her routine, barely concealed dog-whistling racism.
Why such policies and poses were entirely lizard Oz approved and as pure as the driven snow ...
Oh Crikey's Wanning Sun might carp ...
Rather than challenge the premise of Pauline Hanson’s press club speech with questions about its contents, reporters looked the other way. It proved we’re dealing with a new type of journalism. (sorry, paywall, but the header says it all.
... but the Major would have none of it.
After all, Pauline was just doing right by the lizard Oz, and by golly the Major would do right by her...
This column has spent the past fortnight in a National Party seat on the NSW mid-north coast and has asked many people of different backgrounds about One Nation.
One woman explained why she and her husband had donated twice to the One Nation’s “Fire the Liar” ad campaign that raised $4m in less than a week.
Asked why she would support a party that had only two federal Lower House members, former Nationals leader and ex-deputy PM Barnaby Joyce and new MP for Farrer David Farley, the woman – who has always voted Coalition – said she wanted a party that reflected her views.
She spoke about immigration, multiculturalism, renewables and gender ideology – the main subjects of One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s National Press club speech two days later last Wednesday.
“Listen, the Coalition are no better than Labor on these issues. Just look at renewables. John Howard introduced the RET in his last term and went to the Rudd election (in 2007) with an emissions trading scheme just like Rudd did,” the woman said.
“Tony Abbott ratified our commitment to the Paris agreement. Turnbull had us up for $40bn on Snowy 2.0, and Morrison committed to net zero by 2050. How are they better than (Climate Change Minister) Chris Bowen?”
The details of her assessment were correct.
This column reckons much of the activist media class misunderstands One Nation supporters. People moving to One Nation know exactly what they do and don’t want.
Like populist movements in the US and the UK, they are part of a backlash against the censorious sneering of the political establishment, freed by Donald Trump’s rejection of woke pieties on immigration, gender and climate.
In Australia, they may not approve of Trump’s handling of world affairs, but they feel they can now speak openly against foolish ideology in favour of common sense.
Journalists Sarah Ferguson on the ABC’s 7.30 on Wednesday and Sally Sara on Radio National breakfast on Thursday railed against Hanson’s words on radical Islam, multiculturalism, speaking English at home, criticism of late-term abortion and support for biological truth over gender ideology.
The pair is only helping One Nation – just as surely as GetUp!’s stunt of unfurling an anti-Hanson poster in the middle of her speech at the National Press Club in Canberra helped her.
The reptiles offered a brief moment of comedy ...A banner was unfurled behind Pauline Hanson during her National Press Club speech, and right GetUp media lead David Sharaz. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire
A reminder. How to discuss Islam in a meaningful way, aka reptile style...
That snap courtesy The Economist story ..
It includes actual Nazis
Yet it is becoming ever more clear that the ideology of “White Australia” still appeals to a sizeable number of Aussies. Officials sound worried about violence: the head of Australia’s spy agency says that the majority of terror threats it investigated last year involved racist or nationalist ideologies. This is hardly the time for Australia’s squabbling centrists to be needlessly giving up ground.
Sorry, the Major ain't a squabbling centrist.
He's a celebratory far right loon, and he intends to keep on playing that dog anxious to catch that Pauline car routine ...
Polling is not predictive. Most polling six months before last year’s May election had Peter Dutton in a winning position.
Hanson admitted her party would need to face media scrutiny as its support grew. But scrutiny is not the same as adversarial political activism by reporters.
Hanson, Joyce and One Nation campaign boss James Ashby are taking their operation to a new level. The production values and cut-through in One Nation’s latest two-minute ad, widely shared on Facebook, is better than any the major parties have put out.
And despite all the cogent economic analysis from pollsters and political editors about the effects of the cost-of-living crisis on working class Australians, it’s clear the real spurt to Hanson’s political fortunes was the murder of 15 people at Bondi Beach in December during a celebration of Hanukkah.
The massacre makes up the entire first part of the new One Nation ad, and it’s powerful. The implication is clear – this attack is the fruit of multiculturalism and high migration.
Australians, Hanson said, should be able to discuss radical Islamism. Yet such discussions are seldom had openly, even though they have been in Europe for more than a decade.
ABC global affairs editor Laura Tingle on December 16 told her colleague Patricia Karvelas on the Politics Now podcast that the actions of the Bondi gunmen had “nothing to do with religion”.
Ah, there comes the Zionism, even though it might be argued that a mass slaughter of anyone hardly conforms to a sensible reading of religious texts (except of course for the Crusades, which were entirely necessary and justified).
The reptiles followed up with two snaps contrasting distilled essence of ABC cardigan wearing evil, and distilled essence of bottled red-headed innocence: Laura Tingle, the ABC's global affairs editor. Picture: X; Pauline Hanson at the National Press Club. Picture: Hilary Wardhaugh/Getty Images
Why it's just like those tatts on Robert Mitchum's (and De Niro's) hands, "Love"and "Hate", sadly reduced to "Wait" and "Full" on Javier Bardem's hands in the latest Cape Fear.
The Major reverted to standard reptile fear and loathing of furriners ... one of the lizard Oz's favourite jihads, and with Pauline taking up their policy, what's not to like?
Many journalists have tried to deny the link between high immigration, high house prices and housing shortages. Common sense tells voters the link is obvious.
Hanson on Wednesday repeated figures this column published on April 26 – a third of Australians today are born overseas. In the US, the figure is 14 per cent.
Labor had promised to regain control of immigration but many in the media see the debate as code for right wing racism. Yet many on the left, including former NSW Labor premier Bob Car and the Greens political party, have long advocated for lower immigration.
The Albanese government uses huge federal spending, indiscriminate cash handouts and underwriting of private-sector wages in aged and child care to hide the fact. Australians sense this is only fuelling inflation and making workers poorer as interest rates rise.
In every reptile story of this kind, a comical picture of Albo is a necessity, and again the lizards of Oz graphics department carried out their duty ...Anthony Albanese. His government uses huge federal spending, indiscriminate cash handouts and underwriting of private-sector wages in aged and child care to hide the lack of real per capita growth. Picture: NewsWire / Nikki Short
The Major continued his unctuous celebration of pandering to Pauline...
This column on May 31 quoted former Labor senator, now political demographer, John Black, arguing Labor was no longer the party of the working class. Like the teals in former Coalition seats, Labor targets wealthy city voters. Hence childcare support for families earning up to $532,000.
All this opens the door for One Nation.
In The Australian on Thursday, former Treasury assistant secretary David Pearl wrote the best analysis of Hanson’s speech: “She said that just as ‘every attempt has been made to silence me in Australia’ people have been frightened to speak up.
“People have been ‘demeaned and condescended to’ and ‘civil debate has been paralysed’ Hanson said, with the media being complicit.”
History proves his point.
Discussing the media’s handling of Hanson, this column on February 8 examined that the previous One Nation high-water mark was in the Queensland state election in June 1998, when Hanson was the federal member for the seat of Oxley. One Nation won 24 per cent of the vote and 11 state seats – five from the Coalition and six from Labor.
Some day the reptiles will discover what it's like to catch the Pauline car ...
And if you find a comical picture of Albo, you must find an alluring picture of Pauline, dressed in a flag in a way that sends the adoring hive mind into a frenzy... Pauline Hanson launches her One Nation party in Ipswich in her Queensland electorate. Picture: Nathan Richter
The Major ended by celebrating "thoughtful journalists", aka reptiles, who'd give Pauline every break she wanted ...
The tracking showed two enormous bumps in One Nation support after aggressive national interviews by Ray Martin and Maxine McKew. Labor won the election with the support of independents, ousting a first-term Coalition government.
The more thoughtful journalists at the Press Club seemed to sense that attack would only help One Nation.
Scrutiny is fair. Finger-pointing accusations of racism not so much.
Meanwhile, let confusion reign ...
swishing Switzer:: "It was mad King Donald, in a fit of pique, envy and resentment, and in a style which routinely marks his narcissistic negotiating skills."
ReplyDeleteDid the swish Switz really say that ? Wau, the process of PHONyisation is proceeding at a great rate.