In which the pond forgoes Major Mitchell, but offers Lord Downer in war monger mode, with Cameron not far behind, a smattering of "Ned", and the thoughts of the flood water-whispering Caterist ...

 

What a relief.

After endless tedious excursions into Major Mitchell's Zionist posts for the Australian Daily Zionist News, at last the pond found a reason not to exhibit him to devoted herpetologists.

Trans issues test media’s blind spot
Mainstream left-leaning media has failed to accurately report transgender issues in women’s sport and gender medicine, damaging public trust.
By Chris Mitchell
Columnist

Sorry, but the pond refuses to indulge the reptiles in transphobic mode. It gets the pond's TG friends agitated, and in any case the pond isn't much interested in the reptiles using TG people as a convenient distraction, down there with the Salem witch trials.

If you want an alternative read, you can always try Parker Molloy, whether on specific related trans topics, Reasonable Concerns, The wedge on trans people moved exactly where we said it would. The people who gave it cover are still quiet. 

Or more generally, Go Ahead, Try and Tune Him Out, Nine years ago, The Onion wrote a fake Trump editorial about infecting every corner of your daily life. He’s since gotten a lot better at it.

But don't despair, the pond still has some reptile readings of relevant note, what with the war that mad King Donald won on the first day, and subsequently used to obliterate the Iranian over and over again - so much bigly obliteration - back for yet more obliteration, and mad King Donald, and better still, Lord Downer on a full war footing...

The header: Memo Trump: Drop the jaw-jaw and turn up heat on IRCG; Trump’s trouble is he talks too much. His messages are sometimes contradictory and they are replete with exaggeration.
The caption: US President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth step off Air Force One upon arrival at Dover Air Force Base. Picture: AFP

It was stunning stuff, with Lord Downer determined to put minor acolytes like Pete Kegsbreath and mad King Donald in his place.

His Lordship started by immediately ruling out King Donald...

Great leaders are readers. In particular, they have a deep understanding of history and bury themselves in the historical biographies of leaders who have gone before them. President Donald Trump should take a bit of time off golf and plough through the biographies of people such as Napoleon, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Churchill, Thatcher and even Julius Caesar.

Even Julius Caesar? Big Julie is just an "even"?

Never mind, the real comedy was in inviting mad King Donald to do a little reading ...

The President Who Doesn’t Read
Trump’s allergy to the written word and his reliance on oral communication have proven liabilities in office.
By David A. Graham (*intermittent archive link)

Inter alia ...

Confronted by the reality that mad King Donald can never - definitionally - be a great reader or therefore a great leader, not even any of that additional recommended Atlantic reading, the ineffably stupid Lord Downer ploughed on ....

He will find that in wartime those leaders had some common characteristics. First, they had no fear. They knew that war was a bloody business and would cost lives. They were prepared for those sacrifices because they were unequivocal in their judgment that to wage war, brutal as it may be, was better than the alternatives. And their courage was exemplified by their calmness and sangfroid during reverses.
Second, they defined their wartime objectives not just with crystal clarity but with inspirational appeals to a public they well understood. To use a phrase, they knew how to ring the chimes in the hearts of the people. Indeed, by defining so crisply their objectives, they inspired the loyalty and support of most of the public. They all knew the loyalty and support of their populations was axiomatic in wartime.

How did the pond know that Lord Downer was in full mad war monger mode? By way of his splendid references, luckily requiring cheap snaps from the archives...Abraham Lincoln. Winston Churchill.

Why there might even be the need to do a barbershop Harry and nuke them back to the stone age, and what an inspiration for Vlad the Sociopath that would be ...

Third, successful wartime leaders have shown a streak of ruthlessness in pursuit of victory. Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to the bombing of Germany, which today is criticised by some as excessive and unnecessary. Truman agreed to the use of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. If you go back earlier, then people such as Napoleon, Horatio Nelson and Margaret Thatcher could be brutal in their ruthlessness.

If you go back earlier? Maggie was in action around the same time as Napoleon and Horatio? Do go on...

As Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps again closed the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday, Trump is clearly struggling in the war against the Iranian theocracy to achieve his objectives because he fails to meet some of these criteria. He certainly doesn’t lack courage. It was a courageous decision to set aside decades of equivocation and humiliation of Israel and the West to launch a war against Iran.
Equivocation and so-called diplomacy – which is a polite way of saying endless and meaningless talks with an ideologically driven extremist regime – have achieved nothing, as the recent closure of the Strait proves.
Iranian surrogates have continually attacked Israel. They’ve destroyed the stability of that once beautiful country, Lebanon. They’ve fomented civil war in Syria and near civil war in Iraq. They’ve murdered thousands of Americans. And here was an evil regime trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Imagine what such an ideologically driven extremist regime would do if it could strike its neighbours and near neighbours with such devastating force. For the Israelis, it risks another Holocaust.
This was always going to lead to war. War by the West against Iran’s regime was inevitable. American president after American president has not been prepared to do much about this. To his credit, Trump has had the courage to take on the Iranian regime. But he has so far not met the test of successful war leadership.

The reptiles flung in a snap to remind everyone that there was simply too much peace, and too much swimming ...Children wade in the water with cargo ships at anchor in the background at the Strait of Hormuz. Picture: ISNA

Lord Downer continued his brave chiding of mad King Donald ...

First and foremost, he has been unclear in articulating his war aims. He shouldn’t be. He should make it clear that he will destroy Iran’s capacity to arm and support proxy groups throughout the Middle East, destroy its capacity to project power, particularly in the Middle East, and to terminate forever its nuclear weapons program.
Iran is accountable for the grotesque attacks on Israelis by Hamas, triggering the Gaza war, which is just the latest of many. It is responsible for Hezbollah rocket attacks into northern Israel, leading to the evacuation of much of the population in that part of the country. So, Trump should make it clear that this should be brought to an end.
He has been clear in wanting to end any semblance of a nuclear weapons program by Iran. He should also make it clear that the mighty US military will force open the Strait of Hormuz and maintain a blockade of Iranian ports until the regime complies with US demands.
The President has boasted that the US military has destroyed Iran’s air defences, most of its navy, its air force, and its missile and drone production facilities. He needs to make sure the job is properly done.
The trouble with Trump’s style is that he talks too much. His messages are sometimes contradictory and they are replete with exaggeration. After a while, these messages lose their potency. What is more, they are not inspirational. Trump has failed to articulate clearly enough his war aims, and he has not done so in a way that inspires the American people.
Americans, on the whole, are confused as to why the war is taking place at all. They shouldn’t be. It’s the responsibility of Trump to explain it simply and clearly to them, and in an inspirational and patriotic way.

So much dreaming, and while His Lordship dreamed on, the reptiles slipped in a snap of a villain, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi has claimed Tehran would have sole authority over the Strait of Hormuz. Picture: AFP

Then there was a last bout of inspirational and patriotic dreaming ...

Then there’s the quality of, if you can call it that, ruthlessness. Trump is nervous about the increase in oil prices caused by the Iranians’ capacity to close the Strait of Hormuz as they did again at the weekend. Yet, if he were more ruthless, he would put up with that disadvantage in the short term and the controversy it would cause, ensuring the problem was solved by quick and decisive military victory.
Such victory requires the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, not through some unsustainable memorandum of understanding with an extremist regime such as Iran’s, but by the use of military might. Yet again, Trump is clearly reluctant to use ground forces to force that outcome, failing to employ every means necessary to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. He has appeared hesitant and has lacked that streak of ruthlessness that characterised great war leaders.
As the US launches new strikes on Iran, it is worth re-emphasising that this is a just and necessary war, but it must be prosecuted with clarity of objectives and ruthless implementation in order to achieve those objectives. Trotting off to Islamabad or Doha for negotiations with a regime such as this will never lead anywhere good; it will only leave the American public, and most of the West, with the view that this was a totally unnecessary, unsuccessful war.
If Trump had read more and posted on Truth Social less he’d prosecute the war with Iran with courage, inspire his public and be ruthless in dealing with the ghastly Iranian regime. Still, having said that, it’s in the interests of a safer world that America wins.

Sure, in much the same way as America had stunning victories in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and hasn't that last one improved the lives of Afghani women, and no doubt this current effort will benefit Iranian citizens wanting to see the end of an oppressive regime in much the same way.

Put it another way ...

Trust Lord Downer as an expert war monger? Sure can ...

The pond doesn't mean to play down the offerings of other reptiles.

Cameron was also on a war footing ...

Commentary by Cameron Stewart
Trump accepts reality: Iranian radicals aren’t interested in peace (that's an intermittent archive link)
The US President has very few cards he can play. He can’t be seen to accept Iran’s outrageous and blatant disregard of the Memorandum of Understanding. He has to act.

The pond means no disrespect to Cameron, but sending him to the intermittent archives seemed more than enough ...especially as the AI bots that scrape the site for content wouldn't mind...

Go on bots, have a scrape of this too ...

Cameron ended up sounding - in a tentative, most unlike Lord Downer sort of way - like a reluctant boots on the grounds man, what with the recent intermittent bombing campaign clearly not working ...

This might prevent Iranian attacks on Gulf States and on US troops in the region. But ultimately it is difficult to see how such a ‘holding pattern’ approach will persuade the Iranian regime to surrender its control of the strait, much less persuade it to enter serious talks about its nuclear program.
Increasingly it looks like the US will need to consider a return to all-out conflict if it is to have any chance of persuading Iran to re-open the strait without tolls or other impediments.
There is absolutely no guarantee that the US would succeed in this mission without resorting to ground troops, a move that would risk American casualties in an already unpopular war.
But Trump has very few cards that he can play right now. He can’t be seen to accept Iran’s outrageous and blatant disregard of the Memorandum of Understanding. He has to act.
As the situation escalates, he has only two feasible options left – limited war, or a return to all-out war.

Here's the thing, especially that blather about the MOU ...

If you read the relevant clause carefully, it gave the mad Mullahs just what they wanted ...

5. Upon the signing of this MoU, the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels, with no charge for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa. The traffic of commercial vessels will immediately start, and considering the need for removing the technical and military obstacles, and de-mining by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will be instated within 30 days. The Islamic Republic of Iran will conduct dialogue with the Sultanate of Oman, to define the future administration and maritime services in the Strait of Hormuz, in discussions with other Persian Gulf Littoral States, in line with applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz. (the full text at NPR).

In short ...

Such stupid people, continually doing stupid things.

It was a relief to turn to note that the plugging of nattering "Ned's" opus had slipped well down the page ...

EXCLUSIVE by Paul Kelly
‘Political prostitution’: Morrison and Joyce’s net zero battle (another intermittent archive link)
Scott Morrison came within two votes of losing his government over net zero – now Barnaby Joyce has laid bare the extraordinary price paid to keep the Coalition together.

Those wanting to cut and paste "Ned" could head off to the intermittent archive ... because the pond decided to knock over "Ned" and the obligatory snap of the cover of the tome in a few screen caps ...

Bold, brave SloMo confronting the hysteria head on, and that book again?

Carry on plugging with astonishing insights ...

He's finally launched the tome? There might be an end in sight?

It's out tomorrow, and that'll be an end of it?

Dream on herpetology students, there'll never be an end to the "Ned" nightmare of natterings ...

Meanwhile, other nightmare dreamings carry on, thanks to the immortal Rowe...

The pond is glad however that "Ned" was blathering on about net zero, because it was a great segue to the flood waters in quarries whisperer ...

The header: The great green leap backwards is all about carbon credits, not prosperity; The Rushy Lagoon sale shows government has lost sight of the line between the proper role of the state and the role of private investment.

The caption for the snap of moo cows: Tasmanian farmland is ideal for dairy and beef. Picture Chris Kidd

The Caterist was furious ...

Australian taxpayers may or may not be pleased to know they are now part-owners of Tasmania’s largest beef and dairy farm, which is about to become something quite different.
The Collins Dictionary defines a farm as “an area of land on which crops are grown, and animals are kept”. Under its new owners, Rushy Lagoon will become a giant pine plantation and a harvester of carbon credits, with the prospect of a little grazing and wind farming on the side. To understand why Australia’s productivity has stalled, you could do worse than study what happened last week on 22,000 windswept hectares of prime agricultural land 140km northeast of Launceston.
On Wednesday, Jim Chalmers granted foreign investment approval for the sale. It is doubtful whether the $73m investment from the UK’s largest commercial forestry manager, Gresham House, would’ve succeeded on its own.
With a $69m co-investment from the commonwealth’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation, however, private agricultural bidders scarcely stood a chance.
One of Australia’s largest integrated agricultural enterprises – which at its peak was capable of producing around 25 million litres of milk a year and about 2500 tonnes of beef – is now being transformed into a forestry and carbon project underwritten by taxpayers.

Please a snap of Jimbo so that we can spot him in the street ... Jim Chalmers granted foreign investment approval for the sale. Picture: Martin Ollman

The Caterist was in full "won't someone think of the cows?" mode, but still had time for an example of his August wit...

The real question, however, is not whether pine trees and clean-energy certificates are more virtuous than dairy cows. It’s why the government of a country suffering a chronic productivity problem has chosen to use scarce public capital to repurpose one of the country’s most productive agricultural assets into an instrument of government climate policy.
That distinction goes to the heart of Australia’s economic malaise. The country’s problem is not simply too little investment, but that investment is going into all the wrong things.
The CEFC’s portrayal of Rushy Lagoon as a farming enterprise past its prime is disingenuous, to put it politely. The Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics’ 2026 annual snapshot of the agricultural sector shows farming has bucked the trend of collapsing productivity that is crippling much of the economy.
Productivity growth has been particularly strong in the dairy sector, where deregulation under the Howard government in 2000 drove a move towards larger farms and investment in modern equipment.
ABARE reports that the increase in productivity in Australian dairy has averaged more than 1 per cent for the past 20 years. In northern Tasmania it’s been more than 1.2 per cent. So there is little room to argue that dairying could not have been a going concern at Rushy Lagoon had the new owners been so-minded, capable of supplying the steady demand for milk products in Australia and winning a large share of the international trade currently dominated by New Zealand, Europe and the US.
A fraction of the $69m government investment spent on robotic dairies, smart irrigation systems, processing facilities and AI herd management would’ve produced more food from the same land, in a textbook example of lifting productivity by doing more with less.
Yet the Treasurer’s approach to Australia’s productivity crisis is akin to the Augustinian prayer: “Lord, make me chaste, but not yet.”

Or perhaps Lord, let me decipher the movement of flood waters in quarries, but not just yet.

Others were in the same Caterist pickle ... Liberal Senator for Tasmania Richard Colbeck has raised concerns about the sale of Rushy Lagoon.

It was time for a litany lite, what with all this nonsense about climate change going worse by the day, and heck, everyone knows that the wildfires in Spain don't stay mainly on the plain ...

Chalmers talks the productivity talk with little conviction.
Billions of dollars are being absorbed by transmission lines, Snowy Hydro 2.0, green hydrogen, renewable energy zones and a growing array of government guarantees. Whatever their environmental justification – if indeed there is any – these are capital-intensive projects whose economic returns are likely to be realised only over the very long term, while displacing investment that could lift productivity today.
At its heart, Australia’s productivity crisis reflects a shortage of investment and the chronic misallocation of capital driven by government green policy.
The CEFC’s business case is less compelling than the headlines suggest. It promises 190 green jobs over the 30-year life of the project. That’s an average of little more than six full-time jobs a year.
It claims to be converting “degraded farmland” to a new production model. Yet the solution for overworked pasture is to upgrade the soil using proven techniques such as rotational grazing to maximise ground cover and build organic soil carbon.
Many Australian farmers have transformed previously underperforming pasture through regenerative agriculture, improving drought resilience, reducing run-off, building soil carbon and lowering input costs. Hundreds of thousands of hectares of pasture have been improved through relatively modest investments in fencing and stock water.
Yet the government’s focus is not better agriculture but a different use of the land altogether, replacing an integrated farming enterprise with a plantation forestry and carbon project.
Slowly but surely, Australia’s natural strength of food security is being chiselled away by the great green leap backwards.

The pond has no idea why the reptiles should have seized on this snap of the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way as his preferred profile, but they seem to run it relentlessly ...Angus Taylor should be talking more about the shortage of investment and the chronic misallocation of capital driven by government green policy. Picture: John Gass

At least they didn't have the immortal Rowe, who also captured that feeling of fear ...

And so to a final doom-laden gobbet of terrified dreaming, but not, it goes without saying, from the devastating impact of global warming on land and in the sea ...what with the science of climate change banished from the reptile realm

Historians may come to identify the early 21st century as the years of peak farming in Australia. For two centuries, Australian farming had occupied a world of expanding horizons. Today it is in retreat.
ABS figures show that the area of agricultural land has fallen by around 70 million hectares since 2003. Not all of that reflects the loss of productive farmland, but it does mark a reversal of the long historical trend of expanding agricultural land.
The issue highlighted by Rushy Lagoon is the diversion of scarce taxpayer-backed capital and high-quality agricultural land away from expanding food production and towards other policy objectives. It is fed by the conceit that government is the solution to every problem under an administration intent on centralising and consolidating power in Canberra.
Labor is caught in what Angus Taylor last week called the economic death loop, covering the inefficiencies in government services with billions of dollars of government funds and billions more squandered in green energy policy.
The government has lost sight of the boundary between the proper role of the state and the proper role of private investment, blundering further down the ill-conceived path of green nationalisation by stealth.

He's at one with the beefy boofhead, who once worked at a private consultancy notorious for looting government?

Nationalisation by stealth? Golly gosh, have they been taking lessons from mad King Donald?

Trump knows his Freedom Fuel is kind of socialism, right?
Freedom Fuel? Trump Accounts? TrumpRX? Everything Trump is doing sounds like it would fit into a Democratic Socialist of America pamphlet on how to make socialism work in the United States.

And after all that, who missed Major Mitchell's transphobic bigotry?

Once again mad King Donald had set the pace, and no doubt the world is in a better place ...

Speaking of the Ruskis, they were at it again, saying farewell to Miss Lindsey, making it hard to work out who's worst ...