With One Nation having wholeheartedly embraced the policies, attitudes and positions promoted by the lizard Oz these past few decades, the mutual admiration society, and the One Nationisation of the hive mind continued apace early this morning.
The pond hopes that the frenzy will soon fade, because it's already well past the point of existential ennui.
Brownie emerged from the murk to lead with an alleged "news" item ...
Hanson goes to war with Labor, Islam and trans agenda
Pauline Hanson has launched a battalion of policy wars with Labor and the Coalition by pledging massive cuts to government spending while ending the ‘transgender insurgency’ and Islamic fundamentalism in Australia.
By Greg Brown
Transphobia, Islamophobia, Laborphobia, and climate science denialism! What's not for a reptile to love wholeheartedly?
Brownie put forward an immortal sentence, presumably meaning we must all become reptiles:
“Under the failed policy of multiculturalism, all cultures are allowed equivalence to ours,” Senator Hanson said. “Surely opposing that is not racist, it’s common sense. We cannot be a multicultural society. We are a multiracial society, but we must be monocultural.”
The pond wasn't sure what it meant.
Did it mean monocultural like tykes v. proddies v. evangelicals v. deeply weird Xian nationalists, or did it mean the monocultural harmony of little England, Ireland, Wales and Scotland? Or was it just meaningless blather of a bigoted kind, and so at one with the reptiles?
Down below Brownie, Geoff chambered yet another round ...
Taylor invisible as Hanson emerges as unofficial opposition leader
Angus Taylor struggling to be heard as Pauline Hanson takes on Anthony Albanese
Angus Taylor is struggling to be heard. At a press conference on Wednesday, he received just one question from the lone journalist present.
The poor old beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way was swatted to the curb ...
“Scrutiny matters, and, frankly, One Nation is yet to give this country a credible plan,” Taylor said. “Right now, I’m every day subjecting myself to the press, having press conferences like this, and answering those hard questions because they matter. But most importantly, laying out that credible plan for our country. A plan for lower taxes, for more aspiration, for an economy that grows and provides opportunity for hardworking Australians, for affordable and abundant energy, for housing ownership that is within reach for young Australians, for putting Australians first.”
Just four months into the job, Taylor is grappling with a rejuvenated Hanson who has mastered the art of opposition deflection and soundbites. When quizzed about One Nation policies and funding, it is easy for Hanson to shift focus back to the unpopular major parties.
Steady, they're on the job ...
Over on the extreme far right of the digital edition, Jenna did her best to show that her male colleagues were rank amateurs when it came to hagiography by invoking Maggie Thatcher.
Maggie Thatcher said ‘the cocks may crow, but it’s the hen that lays the egg’. Having waited 30 years for credibility and poll success, Pauline Hanson isn’t counting her chickens yet.
By Jenna Clarke
Culture Writer
That's culture?
No, that's a gigantic suck ...
The pond could only swallow a bit of it, because Jenna didn't hold back with the gushing, a gigantic squirt of devotion ...
Unlike the major party leaders, she actually knows her audience.
No fence-sitting like Angus Taylor and no talking out both sides of her mouth like Anthony Albanese.
It’s why her language, which some scoff at for its “bogan” simplicity, is so successful.
Oxley is a long way from Oxford.
As a single mother of four children, she’s used to vacuuming, not living in one.
The 72-year-old used phrases like “sick to the back teeth”, opted for the word “dear” instead of “expensive” and simplified — with varying levels of success — fraught topics like foreign aid and energy policy.
While every government representative appears to have been created in a petri dish on Sussex Street, Hanson sounds, according to various and successive polls, relatable to the majority of Australians right now.
Buried in her bluster and away from the pathetic protests, were some kernels of legitimate vote winning ideas, such as allowing pensioners, veterans and students to earn as much as they like without having their benefits impacted.
It’s wrong to say she is of the “extremist far right”, she’s extreme.
Always has, always will be.
If politics seems like a circus right now, and Australia is indeed going down the same path as other democracies like the US, maybe Pauline could be the ringmaster voters want in order to rein in the clowns of Canberra in two years time.
That abject devotion, that pitiable grovelling on bended knees, is the sound of reptile surrender.
Did any reptile attempt a fight back?
Not really.
The lizard Oz editorialist attempted a token gesture, but no one reads what the lizard Oz editorialist has to say, and the few no ones who do probably couldn't give a toss up against the gushing Jenna ...
Please, make room, bear with the pond ...
Put it another way ...
Now that's the way to treat reptiles.
Did the lizard Oz editorialist read gushing Jenna?
And why did the pond feature the editorialist and send most of gushing Jenna to the intermittent archive?
It's because the lizard Oz editorialist shows the schizophrenia that now saturates the rag, as the reptiles simultaneously cheer on the Hansonites, while at times remembering that once they used to blather about Ming the Merciless and picket fences...
The hapless reptile even tried to downplay the Paulinist embrace of reptile positions:
The rise of One Nation reflects a trend towards populist leaders in other parts of the world. Senator Hanson credits the defeat of the voice to parliament referendum as a wake-up call where citizens rediscovered their own voice.
Uh huh...didn't she mean they discovered a reptile voice?
Pearls of wisdom also arrived to ask questions ...
The header: Pauline Hanson’s outsider status remains her precious superpower;Those at her speech hoping for more specifics on plans to ‘grow the pie’ and pay for her promises would have been disappointed.
The caption for the snap, a reminder of Pauline's uncanny resemblance to Martin Luther (thank you Ughmann): One Nation leader Pauline Hanson speaks at the National Press Club on Wednesday. Picture: Getty Images
The reptiles were, in their usual way, incredibly discreet. There was no snap of a rogue kind to start off the droppings of pearls of wisdom:
And the pearls of wisdom only managed to run for a measly three minutes.
They were polite in delivery, and while there was talk of mixed signals, there were clear indications that some of the signals were right and just ...
Her speech was passionately argued and uncompromising. Hanson covered familiar policy ground: she spoke about immigration and housing, our national identity and values, the cost-of-living crisis and energy, the tax hits announced in the budget and even what she called “the transgender insurgency” in Canberra.
On immigration, she sent mixed signals. Pragmatically, she linked our high intake to the housing crisis, yet in an unscripted moment she commented bitterly about “floods” of people coming here; an echo of her maiden speech in 1996. She called for Islamic “hate preachers” to be deported and said people who weren’t willing to embrace our Judaeo-Christian traditions should not be allowed to settle in this country.
A little oddly, perhaps, she expressed disapproval for the fact that a quarter of Australians speak a language other than English in their homes (even though many of them, I suspect, would subscribe to the values she upholds).
He suspects? That's the sort of deeply researched point that makes the lizard Oz such a sociological marvel.
The reptiles then interrupted with an AV distraction, with the thumb again shorn of unseemly images ... Will Glasgow reports from Pauline Hanson's Press Club event in Canberra
The pearls of wisdom allowed the talk of the hoax of climate change to go unchallenged, which was right and proper considering that the lizard Oz has been climate science denial central these past couple of decades:
She pledged to end every net-zero related grant, subsidy and mandate the government has on its books and build two coal-fired power stations and one nuclear one.
Hanson confined herself to motherhood statements on economic policy questions.
She said she had always argued against “escalating debt”, compared Jim Chalmers’ spending record unfavourably with Paul Keating’s and pointed out – correctly – that this was contributing to inflation and higher interest rates. In response to one question, she said she would not seek to interfere with the Reserve Bank.
Those hoping for more specifics on her plan to “grow the pie” and pay for her promises would have been disappointed.
Hanson’s political rise this year has been spectacular but remains poorly understood by many. We are told variously that it was prompted by the Bondi Beach terrorist attack, or economic pain people are feeling, or the progressive cultural assault on this country. All of these explanations have merit.
The reptiles interrupted with another AV distraction, this one generously offering to the hive mind an IN FULL viewing of the entire 48'06" minutes: One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson makes her first National Press Club address since entering politics over 30 years ago.
Talk about helping the Hansonites infiltrate the hive mind in a bigly way...
And then it was on to a billy goat butt from the pearls of wisdom and an explanation of the phenomenon.
It turned out that it was the hijacking elites, the Beijing-like Covid response to Covid (shades of Killer Kreighton!), the net-zero crusade, rampant furriners, and elite attacks on Australian values, there being no 'leet, none at all, in the lizard Oz.
In short, it was the pearls of wisdom showing he knew how to regurgitate Hansonism 101, as the reptiles of Oz have done over the years ...
This has given us numerous disastrous policies, including pandemic-era lockdowns modelled after Beijing’s, a net-zero crusade that is hurting our growth and living standards (with no discernible environmental benefit), an uncontrolled migration system (appropriated by money-hungry universities) and elite attacks on Australian values.
While each of these things is bad enough, what too few people – even today – acknowledge is that they were foisted on the electorate. They were not demanded by the community. They were not debated and voted for during election campaigns. Their costs and risks were not assessed by a competent and professional public service. They were not scrutinised by a sceptical media.
Instead, they were presented to us as unarguable moral and economic imperatives, sanctioned by experts, by science, by the direction of history or by all right-thinking people – take your pick. We were told by our leaders that if we so much as questioned them, we were mentally deficient or morally reprobate.
Hanson understands this anti-democratic malaise acutely. In the most powerful part of her speech, which much reporting seems to have missed, she drew a strong link between herself and everyday Australians. 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 in this. I couldn’t agree more.
Hanson’s outsider status is her superpower. Not only has it given her an immunity from establishment criticism – about the way she talks and acts, the detail and credibility of her policies, and the quality of some One Nation candidates – but it has allowed her to gain strength from these attacks.
For many Australians, criticism of her National Press Club speech will be a further reason to rally to her cause.
And after that set of ringing endorsements by the pearls of wisdom, there came a last feeble billy goat butt, one likely to be entirely ignored by the hive mind:
This is not a question of competence. By any measure, Anthony Albanese and his Treasurer cannot claim this mantle. Neither can many of those in the Coalition, judging by their performance when last in government.
All the same, it is one thing to give voice to popular frustrations or hopes but quite another to meet these demands successfully in government or coalition. After all, if outsiders succeed in gaining the power they seek, they become the establishment.
David Pearl is a former Treasury assistant secretary.
The pond would have liked an invisible deity to exist so that it could offer a silent prayer for that "former".
Who cares about having the answers?
Did King Donald have any answers?
Do the reptiles think they have any answers?
They have bigotry and stupidity as their super powers ...
And speaking of King Donald, the reptiles were all over the Iran deal early in the morning.
But the analysis and commentary on offer was pitiful.
Instead of the bromancer, the reptiles sent in Jack ...
The header: Iran’s victory claims are a delusion amid the ruins; Iranian generals have declared triumph from the rubble as the regime prints its first-ever 10 million rial note – worth one Happy Meal.
The caption for the uncredited collage, featuring a snap and fatuous imagery: A giant billboard depicting the late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son, the supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, with Arabic writing that reads: ‘Thank you Iran.’ Picture: Anwar Amro/AFP
Jack spent four minutes celebrating the way, or perhaps clinging to the mad King Donald dream, that the mad Mullahs had been given a sound thrashing:
In the US, celebrations have been muted despite President Donald Trump’s buoyant social media posts. Of course, Trump would probably claim the Battle of Little Big Horn was a stunning US victory against the odds.
A lot of ink has been hurled on to the front pages of newspapers around the globe, claiming Trump’s objectives – which initially centred on regime change in Iran, then moved to wiping out the Iranian civilisation, such as it is, before finally resting on prohibiting the Iranian regime’s desire for nuclear weapons – have not been met and may never be met.
Celebrations muted?
That's one way of putting it. Other ways include ...
The president went to war triumphant and will likely leave greatly weakened.
By Jonathan Lemire
The president’s comments at the G7 summit revealed that he doesn’t understand the war he started—or the words that come out of his own mouth.
By Tom Nichols
Sssh, don't disturb Jack's dreaming, even as the reptiles flooded the Jacked up zone with assorted AV distractions, with the first backing up Jack: Deakin University Global Islamic Politics Chair Professor Greg Barton discusses the severe economic impact of the war in Iran on the Iranian people. “Iran has been devastated by this war; the economy is really on its knees, the 92 million citizens of Iran are really suffering, more than they have for decades,” Mr Barton told Sky News Digital Presenter Gabriella Power. “It’s a really tough situation; Iran doesn’t have a conventional air force or navy to speak of; it’s got small, fast boats … but it does have the capacity to project force through ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and drones, cheap drones. “The regime has not gone away; if anything, it’s in its current form perhaps even more hardline.”
Jack was keen to emphasise that the mad Mullahs were on their knees:
Speaking from a pile of debris that was Iran’s military operational headquarters at Khatam al-Anbiya and surveying the smouldering wreck that was once the Iranian military, a chipper Major General Ali Abdollahi claimed “the humiliated … enemies have no option but to accept defeat and surrender before a people inspired by God and the soldiers of the Almighty”.
Moments after emerging from his spider hole, the Speaker of the Iranian parliament, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf (also one of the leading Iranian figures in the peace talks), declared Iran had taken “a long step towards final victory”.
Summoning up the memory of Iraq’s propaganda minister, Comical Ali, predicting a fiery apocalypse for US troops while they sauntered into Baghdad unopposed, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi stated that Iran “defeated the US on the military battlefield”, adding: “Iran’s armed forces will always have their hand on the trigger to confront the conspiracies of the enemies.”
The regime’s state news agency, Mehr, also was in a celebratory mood, pointing to the cash and prizes as the spoils of war it thinks are headed the regime’s way. Reports quoted from a 14-point memorandum of understanding that seems to be a fiction of Mehr’s own making, claiming the regime would be the recipient of “the release of $US24bn ($34bn) in frozen Iranian assets during the 60-day negotiation period” that begins after the framework deal is signed.
The details of the MOA between the two nations have not been fully published and negotiations are expected to begin in Switzerland on Friday. That hasn’t stopped the predictable skiting, bluff and bullshit from this most appalling government.
MOA? Well it's probably no big deal to talk that way about the MOU, no more than King Donald talking about "nuclear dust".
The reptiles next rolled in JD, sans couch: US President Donald Trump is currently in Evian-les-Bains, where leaders are meeting for the annual G7 Summit. During remarks alongside French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump said that an agreement had been signed. In an interview with ABC's Good Morning America, US Vice President JD Vance commented on this. “On the one hand, if they continue to try to rebuild their nuclear program, this deal ensures they will never have the resources in order to do that,” Mr Vance said. “On the other hand, if the Iranians are willing to give a long-term commitment along with proper verification to giving up that nuclear weapon, we are willing to welcome them into the world economy, to lift some sanctions and to turn over a new leaf in that relationship.”
Being something of a couch lover, Jack followed up with more talk of mad Mullahdefeat:
In the Iranian capital, Mehr news agency also showed a gigantic mural – an advertising format much beloved of the mullahs – that claimed: “The US was forced to sign an agreement to end the war.”
It’s not all victory garlands, fist pumps and self-congratulation in Iran. One hardline MP, the deputy chairman of parliament’s national security committee, reportedly has described the draft peace deal as a document that would turn Iran into an American colony.
There came final AV distraction celebrating the way that the mad Mullahs had met their match, with an air about of state regime media, otherwise known as Faux Noise ... Iran's leaders are splashing propaganda posters across Tehran boasting of national unity and victory over a global superpower, just months after crushing protests with mass killings and as war worsens economic pain for their people. This report produced by Jillian Kitchener.
As for the poor hapless Iranian dissidents sold down the river by King Donald and his acolytes, Jack had a few consoling words. Not to worry. According to Jack, it'll be regime change by Xmas ...
Blanket propaganda and collective delusional disorder aside, the regime is overseeing an economy that had been mired in recession before February 28 and is now teetering on the brink of depression. GDP growth in the Islamic Republic has gone from a single negative point to negative 6.1 for the year to date.
Before the conflict the Iranian currency was hardly humming along but the war forced a 40 per cent reduction on the rial. Ten thousand rials will get you 10 Australian cents.
The flatlining currency shows no sign of any real recovery. To avoid grim scenes of Iranians pushing wheelbarrows full of almost worthless cash, the regime has printed a 10 million rial note for the first time. It’s worth the price of a Happy Meal in Australia.
Numismatists with a penchant for collecting worthless currency can add the freshly minted note to their collections alongside Iraq’s 10,000 dinar note issued by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq in 2002 before the world came to pay him a final visit and Zimbabwe’s $100 trillion note, featuring so many zeroes it was exhausting just to look at it.
The biggest challenge to Iran’s corrupt and bloody regime comes in the form of food security.
There already were profound hyper-inflationary pressures in Iran before the war. While these have worsened only marginally since the war began, the cost of basic staples in Iran has skyrocketed. The price of cooking oils, rice and flour has shot up by more than 200 per cent.
Regime change in Iran was always unlikely by sheer force of munitions. Bombing raids and missile strikes by the US and Israel even may have shored up the mullahs’ ugly dominance of the Iranian people.
Food security is another matter and it is at crisis level. Hungry people are angry people. The most recent and compelling example was in Sri Lanka in 2022, when president Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned and fled the country amid critical shortages of fuel, food and medicine.
The Islamic Republic of Iran will be a tougher nut for its citizens to crack, but one certainty is that if enough hungry, angry people hit the streets, it’s time for the mullahs to grab their suitcases and flee, possibly to Russia where the best advice they can receive is to avoid standing in front of windows.
Clearly, the warring parties – one a military superpower, the other a regional middle power – have separate and distinct objectives, but mere survival is not triumph.
Mere survival?
That's what they're calling 300 billion dollars in the lizard Oz these days?
In an attempt to balance the simperings of Jack, the reptiles included a more lengthy analysis, borrowed from the WSJ.
It was a point by point breakdown, and the pond doesn't intend to add to the exegesis.
Rather, it is what it is, but at least it doesn't rely on the vagaries of the intermittent archive:
The authors: Laurence Norman, Alexander Ward and Summer Said
The caption for the snap: A man wave an Iranian flag in front of a billboard displaying the flag. Picture: Getty Images.
This outing was liberally sprinkled with AV distractions, and took a bigly six minute read (according to the reptiles), but at least it isn't Jack sounding jacked-up:
Another official, speaking at the same event Wednesday, said Iran had asked the US not to release the text itself. The Wall Street Journal produced this transcript, along with Journal analysis of the crucial points.
The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran have jointly agreed in good faith on such and such a date on the following:
Paragraph 1 The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran and their allies in the current war, by signing this memorandum of understanding, declare the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other, and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon. The final deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and other provisions of this paragraph.
WSJ analysis: The inclusion of Lebanon is highly controversial in Israel, which is fighting a war there with Hezbollah. This official version includes tougher language on Lebanon’s sovereignty.
Paragraph 2 The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran undertake to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and to refrain from interfering in each other’s internal affairs.
WSJ analysis: President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began the war calling on Iranians to overthrow the regime, a goal that faded as the government in Tehran held firm.
Paragraph 3 The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran commit to negotiating and achieving the final deal in maximum 60 days extendable with mutual consent.
WSJ analysis:The tough questions around Iran’s nuclear program and funds for reconstruction will be tackled in this second phase.
WSJ analysis: This is the meat of the deal, reopening the strategic Strait of Hormuz and pausing the war. The administration official said the deadline for removal of forces is after any final deal on nuclear and other issues.
Paragraph 5: Upon the signing of this memorandum of understanding, 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 demining by the Islamic Republic of Iran, will be reinstated. 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 discussion with other Persian Gulf littoral states in line with the applicable international law and the sovereign rights of coastal states of the Strait of Hormuz.
WSJ analysis: Iran’s main obligation under the deal, lifting its chokehold on the strait. The updated version says Iran agrees not to charge fees for transit for 60 days and blesses an Iranian plan to work with Oman on the future administration of the strait, but says they must involve other Gulf states in the discussion.
WSJ analysis: A new twist on the economic benefits Iran could expect if it delivers on US demands on the nuclear front. Mr Trump says there will be no US funding for this effort. The updated draft says the US will grant sanctions waivers needed for investors to participate.
Paragraph 7: The United States of America undertakes to terminate all types of sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran, including the United Nations Security Council resolutions, i.e. IAEA Board of Governors resolutions, and all unilateral US sanctions, primary and secondary, in an agreed upon schedule as part of the final deal. The Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America acknowledge the critical importance of the sanctions termination issue above mentioned, and expressed their intentions to immediately address these issues in the negotiations in order to achieve mutual agreement on them.
WSJ analysis: The big carrot, an end to economically crippling sanctions if Iran meets American demands. In the updated version, the US recognises the urgency of the issue for Iran.
WSJ analysis: Iran repeats its longstanding pledge not to develop a nuclear weapon. The updated version includes more specific language on the disposal of Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium, with the senior administration official saying Iran has committed to destroy it. This version also specifically mentions future nuclear enrichment, with Iran acknowledging the urgency of the issue for the US
Paragraph 9: Pending the final deal, the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran agree to maintain the status quo. The Islamic Republic of Iran will maintain the current status quo of its nuclear program, and the United States of America will not impose any new sanctions, and will not deploy additional forces in the region.
WSJ analysis: Freezes the nuclear standoff in place.
Paragraph 10: The United States of America undertakes that immediately upon the signing of this memorandum of understanding, and until the termination of sanctions, the US Department of Treasury will issue waivers for the export of Iranian crude oil, petroleum products, and derivatives, and all associated services, including banking transactions, insurances, transportation, etc.
WSJ analysis: A major up-front American concession freeing Iran to sell oil as it likes and reap the financial benefits.
WSJ analysis: The US will let Iran access some of its estimated $100 billion in frozen assets depending on progress in talks.
Paragraph 12: The United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran agree that an executive mechanism will be established to monitor the successful implementation of this memorandum of understanding and the future compliance of the final deal.
Paragraph 13: After signing this memorandum of understanding and subject to the beginning of the implementation of paragraphs 1, 4, 5, 10 and 11 of this memorandum of understanding, and the continuing implementation of these measures, the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran will start negotiations regarding the final deal exclusively on the other paragraphs.
WSJ analysis: Limits the scope of discussion in the second phase, leaving out Iran’s ballistic missile program and its network of regional militias. The updated version expands the list of paragraphs to include Paragraph 1, the cessation of hostilities including in Lebanon.
Paragraph 14: The final deal will be endorsed by a binding resolution of the UN Security Council.
The Wall St Journal
Put it another, algae-laden, American flag green way...
