In which the pond tries to cram all the reptiles into a hearty stew, with Dame Groan, ancient Troy and the bromancer as the succulent bits ...

 

The pond would like to begin the day by boasting how it's boycotting Eurovision, but as the pond has never watched the show, that's a tad hard. 

To the consternation of the pond's gay friends, the pond has always said it would be rather be struck deaf and blind than take in that cacophony of trash, and so it will continue.

And now before beginning this day's reptile tour of duty, the pond was startled to see this story, and in the WSJ  of all places ...

Talk about complete cheek and a colonial, or rather expansionist imperialist mindset..

More of the yarn here...

Israel Built and Defended a Secret Iran War Base in Iraq (*intermittent archive).

And now to the tour of duty, and the pond will confess that in its enforced absence, it will miss the old biddy's groaning into the digital ether.

That's why the pond gave Dame Groan pride of place, especially as she's still blathering on about the "vibe":

The header: The Treasurer is talking up tax reform, but the facts don’t add up; Tuesday night’s tax measures look set to fail the tests of efficiency, equity and simplicity but Jim Chalmers will still claim to be a reforming treasurer.

The caption for the outrageously laughing Jimbo, as he (allegedly) deals death, destruction and woe to the country: Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

It wouldn't matter a brass razoo what's in the actual budget, or what Jimbo did, or attempted to do.

In Dame Groan land, we'll all be rooned by Jimbo. He began by rooning us, he continued rooning us and this will just be the latest example of roonation ...

So the old biddy squawked, so the old biddy still groans ...

There was a time when Paul Keating declared that all the pet shop galahs were talking about microeconomic reform. If you believe many members of the press gallery and progressive commentators, those pet shop galahs are now squawking about tax reform.
You know the sort of thing. What do you want? Tax reform. When do you want it? Now.
It’s important in this context to question the objectives of some of those who participate in this debate. It’s generally about the vibe rather than the facts. Loose terms such as intergenerational equity, social cohesion and young people getting a fair crack are used to justify radical changes that had been explicitly ruled out by Labor in the election campaign.
Take the case of the tax on gas exports, a proposal that was loudly launched by various left-leaning individuals and groups over the past several months. The idea was that a 25 per cent export levy could potentially raise billions of dollars annually and wouldn’t cause any harm to domestic gas users.

The reptiles interrupted this groaning with a shot of the perfidious document in preparation: Production of the 2026-27 federal budget papers enters its final secure phase in Canberra. Picture: Martin Ollman/NewsWire

As always, Dame Groan was gobsmacked. The thought of questioning Japan's ability to mark up our gas to extraordinary levels as it onsells the gas was nothing short of delusional, if not downright treacherous:

The naivety in this idea was breathtaking. The levy would not be paid by the gas producers, but by the customers. The delicate state of trade-related international diplomacy would be significantly unsettled, including our need for imported fuel.
But here’s the real rub: the proponents of this idea were not unhappy with the notion that this tax impost would deter further investment in the gas industry in this country. Indeed, this is seen as an upside of the policy. When it is pointed out that the investments on the east cost LNG industry would never have occurred had such a levy been in place, they regard this as missed opportunity.

Just to rub it in, Jimbo was shown clutching a copy of his wicked text, like some Satanic worshipper of evil: Jim Chalmers receiving his copy of the budget. Picture: Instagram

That snap of the man rooning the country (allegedly) sent Dame Groan off on a wild, extended groaning ...

When thinking about tax reform, there are three key criteria: efficiency, equity and simplicity. The aim should be to raise a certain amount of revenue at the least economic cost and as simply as possible while meeting equity objectives. Changes to the tax code should also be judged as a whole, rather than as individual measures.
There is also an important dictum – an old tax is a good tax. What this means is that the compliance costs are essentially sunk and the decisions made by individuals and organisations are based on long-established parameters in the tax code.
This is particularly important for investments in assets held over long periods of time. It’s also why grandfathering any changes is essential – to stay true to the basis on which legitimate decisions were made.
Having explicitly ruled out changes to the capital gains tax and negative gearing, it now seems likely Tuesday’s budget will contain some significant changes on both fronts. The trouble for the Treasurer is that the consequences, both intended and unintended, of these changes are difficult to predict. There will be both short-term and medium-term effects.
One potentially serious consequence of altering the capital gains tax is the impact on start-ups, and entrepreneurship more broadly. The owners of start-up businesses often forgo current income for years in anticipation of reaping the benefit of a significant capital gain. They may also partly pay the staff in equity to conserve scarce cash.
It is interesting to note here, in Canada’s recent botched attempt to increase its rate of capital gains tax, there was a specific carve-out for start-ups. Commercially savvy Prime Minister Mark Carney at least understood the importance of this aspect of the change.
There is also likely to be a wrinkle to the change to the capital gains tax arrangement: the special deal that applies to superannuation funds is likely to be preserved. (Had this not been the case, we would have heard a great deal of wailing leading up to the budget.) What this means is that a further arbitrage will be created for investments by superannuation funds, entities highly favoured by Labor.
When it comes to negative gearing changes, the exit of individual investors in real estate – many mums and dads – may be replaced by large corporations managing large numbers of properties in a hands-off way. This is common in the US, for instance.
Companies can deduct all the costs of investment from their taxable income and will thus be favoured if the benefits of negative gearing are denied to individual investors. Ironically, some of the current investors with multiple properties – they attract particular scorn from the progressive crowd – may be able to establish companies that own the properties. Save for the transaction costs of the transfer, these investors may end up being no worse off.
The seeming aim of these changes is to tilt the playing field in favour of first-home buyers by discouraging investors. One problem is that many properties attractive to investors are not attractive to homeowners, particularly those with families.
There is also the potential problem of rising rents caused by the loss of the benefit of negative gearing and any increase in the capital gains tax. Investors will naturally focus more on cash flow rather than the ultimate capital increment.
This will make it harder for renters to save up for a home deposit, even the 5 per cent variety. For forever renters – and there is a substantial cohort of them – this will be unambiguously bad news.
There is also talk about changes to the tax arrangements that apply to trusts, including a minimum 25 per cent tax on trust income. Many years ago, the Coalition government toyed with the idea of altering the tax of trusts but concluded there were so many complications that it would simply end in tears.
Just think about it: there are discretionary trusts and unit trusts. There are testamentary trusts and disability trusts. There are trusts associated with superannuation and funds management. There are trusts attached to companies. There are trusts that hold farms over the generations. Many small businesses are set up as trusts.
It simply cannot be a one-size-fits-all. There is also some serious misunderstanding of how trusts work and how they are taxed.
In the case of a vanilla family trust, all income must be distributed each year, and tax is levied at the marginal rate of each beneficiary. Children under the age of 18 are taxed at a punitive rate. Losses cannot be distributed. In many cases, trusts are established to protect assets, not for the purpose of tax minimisation.
For wealthy families, establishing a minimum rate of tax will make no difference. This is not so for struggling small-business owners or other trust beneficiaries.
Excluding farm assets from the change is also fraught. An incentive will be created to include some farm-related assets within existing trusts to qualify. This is surely not an intended outcome.
I come back to those three criteria: efficiency, equity and simplicity. When judging the changes that will be announced on Tuesday night, bear them in mind. On the face of it, it seems highly unlikely that efficiency will be improved, particularly as any significant cuts to income tax won’t be part of the package. Simplicity will be sacrificed, without a doubt. The equity effects will be very unclear apart from damaging existing asset holders.
But Jim Chalmers will claim to be a reforming treasurer, which is what this is really all about.

Case closed. 

Nothing Jimbo could do could possibly have impressed Dame Groan, because she's got his number (allegedly). 

She's got the vibe.

We'll all be rooned, and likely before the year is out, and it has nothing at all to do with mad King Donald rooning the world's economies...

There was other reptile budget coverage, but the pond wasn't tempted ... not even by a canny Cranston EXCLUSIVE ...

EXCLUSIVE
Tax bracket creep will eat Jim Chalmers’ ‘WATO’ budget cash splash handout in financial year 2027
Jim Chalmers’ budget sweetener will only return half of what bracket creep costs average workers, while a 30 per cent capital gains tax looms.
By Matthew Cranston

... even though it began with an astonishing collage which shockingly was uncredited...

Goes without saying. Just as Dame Groan called the vibe, doomed before it even begins.We'll all be rooned, before the year is out...

Nor could the pond find room for indefatigable Geoff, chambering what seems an inexhaustible supply of rounds ...

COMMENTARY by Geoff Chambers
PM and Chalmers are in ‘sync’ and all smiles – but this is an ambitious Treasurer
Anthony Albanese and his Treasurer, whose ambition is undisputed, were all smiles as they met on Monday to discuss their trickiest budget to date.

Does this Jimbo seem ambitious?

Geoff says he is ambitious;
And, sure, as far as reptiles can go, he is no doubt an honourable man.
The pond speaks not to disprove what Geoff spoke. 

Let this teaser trailer cry to the heavens ...

A Betoota analysis. Now there's the vibe. No wonder we'll all be rooned before the year is out ...

And now speaking of slinky seductresses, the pond should note this story, yet another reptile EXCLUSIVE ...

EXCLUSIVE
Hanson’s challenge to Coalition: Let’s get together to beat Labor (*intermittent archive)
Pauline Hanson demands the Coalition guarantee support for a One Nation-led government if it wins more seats than them at the next election.
By Rosie Lewis

The pond only offers that teaser as a further example of the way the reptiles at the lizard Oz continue to do mischief, a form of mischief-making denounced by the keen Keane in Crikey...

Everywhere the Liberals look, the feral right and their News Corp friends are killing them
The collapse of the Liberal vote in Farrer is only the end stage of a process that’s been underway for a long time — the destruction of the Liberal Party as a centrist organisation (Sorry,  possible paywall)

The Murdochians as sleeper agents? So the pond has been doing a Smiley ...

From there it was a natural segue to ancient Troy in the slough of despond ...

The header: Liberal Party faces terminal decline after catastrophic Farrer by-election loss; Losing one of its longest-held seats is a result that threatens Liberals’ survival, yet Angus Taylor is clueless about how to respond.

The caption for the oopsy daisy snap: Opposition Leader Angus Taylor at Lavington Public school polling booth on Saturday. Picture: Simon Dallinger/ NewsWire

To say that the pond enjoyed ancient Troy's four minute tale of woe and misery and despair is possibly an understatement:

Angus Taylor failed his first major test as Liberal leader, losing one of the Coalition’s longest-held seats at the Farrer by-election. He now leads a party with fewer MPs than when he took over just three months ago. Moreover, he has no viable strategy to deal with the existential threat facing the Liberals from the rise of not only One Nation but also the teal independents.
We are witnessing the continued destruction of the Liberal Party, uncertain of its identity and purpose, unclear about who it represents, losing members, voters and donors, and plagued by organisational and leadership weakness. The extremist far-right One Nation, which claimed Farrer with almost 40 per cent of the primary vote, will pose a major threat to the Liberal Party’s viability.

The chief villains in ancient Troy's yarn: Taylor and Senator Matthew Canavan chat wih a voter. Picture: NewsWire / Simon Dallinger

Ancient Troy couldn't resist another recounting of an origin story beloved by reptiles:

Farrer includes the border town of Albury, where the second conference to form the Liberal Party was held in December 1944. It took place at Mate’s Lounge over three days, and delegates agreed on a platform and constitution, structure and operating principles, with the goal of encouraging “individual initiative and enterprise”.
Eight decades on, Liberal tradition is being erased across Australia. I’ve noted before that every seat held by Liberal leaders, apart from two – Malcolm Fraser’s Wannon and Scott Morrison’s Cook – have been lost to Labor or independents. We can add Sussan Ley’s Farrer. It charts how the party has lost its heartland and is disappearing from the electoral map.
The loss of Farrer is directly related to Taylor’s Liberal leadership challenge to Ley in February, the party’s first female leader. Ley’s resignation was always likely if toppled by Taylor. But an opposition losing a seat at a by-election is extremely rare. Farrer was comfortably held by the Liberal and National parties since Robert Menzies led the Coalition to victory in December 1949.

Oh dear: Taylor and Liberal candidate Raissa Butkowski pose for photos. Picture: AFP

And still the unravelling continued, as Susssan was as graceful as she was when she conceded to the lettuce. 

Not like that humbug beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way, the wind turbine wonder:

Ley, travelling overseas, departed the leadership and the parliament with dignity and grace. She said nothing that could harm the party’s chances and gave no interviews. Taylor was given a clear run to defend and hold the seat. “I urge the Liberal leadership to accept this result with humility because the voters never get it wrong,” Ley said in a statement.
Taylor’s speech in the wake of defeat was extraordinary. “This by-election was always going to be a mountain to climb for the Liberal Party,” he said.
Yet it has been a Liberal seat since November 2001. “We have been a party of convenience, not of conviction,” he added.
Like conviction on lower taxes, deficits and debt? As shadow treasurer, he supported higher taxes and larger deficits than Labor.
“The Coalition hasn’t done what it should do: be united, stable and strong,” Taylor also noted. The Coalition did split; Nationals leader David Littleproud did face a leadership spill and later quit. But Taylor, too, has been part of that disunity and instability with his takedown of Ley.
The cost of toppling a leader is rarely factored in; this time it was the loss of a relatively safe seat. The result is that the Liberal Party has lost more of its heartland. The May 2022 election brought a warning that it was in crisis, but MPs, officials, members and past leaders routinely ignored it. Yet that was abundantly clear when voters bundled Morrison’s government out of office with brutal efficiency.
In Farrer, the Liberal Party was relegated to third place with just 12.3 per cent of the vote, a swing of 31 per cent since the May 2025 election. The incumbent party was almost wiped out. In the March 2026 South Australian election, the Liberal Party also came third with a miserable 18.9 per cent of the primary vote. The Liberal Party is going out of business.
While the focus is rightly on One Nation’s triumph, winning its first House of Representatives seat at an election, independent Michelle Milthorpe came second in Farrer with 28 per cent of the vote. The independent and teal movement – Milthorpe denies being a teal – represents another major threat to the Liberals having snatched several seats and (mostly) holding them. Labor could also be vulnerable to One Nation in the outer suburbs.

Then came a snap of the betrayed: Michelle Millthorpe lashed the Coalition for preferencing One Nation ahead of her.

Ancient Troy was inconsolable as he shouted his despair to the high heavens:

The Liberal Party’s task, as ever, is to return to the mainstream centre-right. It should not mimic One Nation’s xenophobic and nativist policies and rhetoric, as Taylor has done on immigration. One Nation has not changed; it is the same grievance rather than solutions- based, far-right extremist party. Most of its voters have given up on the major parties and are lodging protest votes.
It was catastrophic for the Liberal Party to direct preferences to One Nation. Coalition preferences helped delivered a One Nation victory in Farrer. This will keep happening, across Australia, unless the Liberal Party takes One Nation on, critiquing its policies and leadership, and preferences it last. One Nation is toxic to mainstream Liberal voters who have turned to Labor, teals and independents.
Yet shadow treasurer Tim Wilson is open to forming a coalition with One Nation. On Sunday, he did not rule it out. Those words will be an albatross around his neck. Labor’s 2028 election campaign strategy is written: vote Liberal or National and you may get One Nation in a three-party Coalition government. This will only hasten the Liberal Party’s demise.
At the conclusion of the Albury conference that formed the Liberal Party, Menzies spoke in response to a motion thanking him for his efforts.
“We have brought into existence for the first time in the history of Australia the Liberal Party of Australia,” he said. “This is the first occasion on which those of, broadly speaking, our political way of thought have established themselves on an Australian footing.”
That party, organisation, leadership and “political way of thought” have lost their footing. The Liberal Party looks to be in terminal decline without a radical rethink of its purpose, policies, constituency, organisation and leadership.
We may look back on Albury as the place where the Liberal Party was born and where it died.

"We may"?!

Oh come now ancient Troy, that's a fudge worthy of the beefy boofhead himself.

And now the pond will admit in this farewell tour to throwing everything at the wall, including the kitchen sink, knowing nothing will stick, but how could the pond leave out its most prized exhibit, another chapter in the deep thoughts of the bromancer?

Unlike wimpy, creepy ancient Troy, the bro was up for the fight. He was onion muncher mad, fighting fit and ready for a trip back to the future ...

The header: Hanson, Farage and Trump show centre-right must fight or die; To prove they are serious, Liberals must engage on net zero and elect Tony Abbott as party president, otherwise the party could be totally eclipsed.

The caption for the snap of the epic fails: Farrer candidate Raissa Butkowski with Angus Taylor, who did manage to mention net zero in his later speech to the handful of Liberals who stayed for their election wake. Picture: NewsWire / Simon Dallinger

The bro was keen for the beefy boofhead to maintain the rage, and pace the keen Keane, what better way that to go full King Donald, full mad far right climate science denialist?

Here’s a critically important take-out from the Farrer by-election. Almost 65 per cent of all voters chose parties that explicitly reject net-zero emissions targets. Yet for how long have we been told that it would be electoral death for any party to oppose net zero in principle?
The Liberals and Nationals were right to give preferences to One Nation, just as Labor preferences the Greens. On any measure, the Greens, whose policy outlook and rhetoric enable antisemitism and whose actual economic policies are nuts, are vastly more toxic than anything One Nation has ever been.
One Nation, in the way of many right-of-centre populist parties that sustain a parliamentary existence over decades, has moderated over the years. It is certainly no longer racist, if it ever was.
In Farrer, too much of the Liberals’ campaign was directed at badmouthing One Nation, rather than holding the Albanese government to account and offering a compelling economic and social vision for regional Australia. The failure to fight on net zero is key.

But there’s obviously a much deeper story to tell.

Uh huh, the deeper story is to join Pauline in her climate science denialism, thereby ensuring absolutely no product differentiation whatsoever. Bring on the seducer of reptiles: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson.

The bromancer was keen for the beefy boofhead to emulate such feats as the Brexit triumph...

Pauline Hanson, Britain’s Nigel Farage and US President Donald Trump are manifestations – and there are more on continental Europe – of the same underlying impulse. That is a conviction by sizeable numbers of voters that the political system no longer works. Not just that it no longer works for them, but that it’s gone wrong fundamentally.
Of course Trump, Farage and Hanson are wildly unalike. Yet all three evidence similar impulses and syndromes in similar societies. Trump is the most consequential disrupter. But Farage has already fundamentally changed British history. Without him, Brexit would never have taken place. A few days ago he won a staggering victory in local council elections held over most of Britain, and came second to the nationalist party in the Welsh assembly, pushing Labour into a humiliating third. Reform came equal second in Scotland, again humiliating Labour in a former heartland.

Speaking of manifestations, the pond regrets not having found a space for the immortal Rowe celebrating Nige and Sir David ...

Oh dear, speaking of more manifestations, not that scarf again: David Farley, the day after his election in Farrer.

Consider again the many virtues of climate science denialism, and not just an eternally stuffed planet to bequeath to the younglings. Everybody wants to stuff the planet, so why not join the cause?

If an election were held today, Farage’s Reform would go close to a majority. That doesn’t mean Farage will perform that well when an election finally arrives. Like Trump, Farage defies political niceties and orthodoxies, though he certainly is nowhere near as foul-mouthed or verbally undisciplined as Trump.
But consider, again, net zero. Farage is utterly contemptuous of net zero commitments and just won very big. Farage and the Conservatives combined score just under half the popular vote in Britain. They, and a couple of smaller parties, now thoroughly oppose net zero. Even Tony Blair says the Labour government should ease back on net zero, as so many other developed countries are doing, either pulling back their official targets or quietly going for more fossil fuel development and power generation.
Across Asia this is undisguised. In much of Europe, it’s happening a bit more shamefacedly. Almost the last true-believing net-zero governments are Keir Starmer’s Labour government in Britain and Anthony Albanese’s in Australia. Britain, in all its mess, is probably Australia’s future.
I mention all this because it goes to the heart of the Liberals’ contemporary dilemma. The Coalition has renounced net zero. But having done so, Angus Taylor and the Liberals almost never mention the fact. It seems they quietly try to reassure country electorates that they’re done with net zero, but do so in such a sotto voce way that they hope city electorates such as Wentworth and Kooyong won’t notice they’ve changed.

Could the reptiles resist slipping in a terrifying snap of an infernal windmill, the carcasses of dead whales just out of frame so as not to upset the hive mind? 

Of course they couldn't: The Coalition renounced net zero, but the failure to fight on it is key. Picture: Christophe Archambault / AFP

The bromancer pressed his point by conscripting his favourite Catholic scribbler, truly an indication of where his mind resides, an eternal Edwardian (born Victorian):

But here’s a simple law of political physics. Changing a policy then not campaigning on it doesn’t win you the support of those who hated the policy, nor does it win you the acquiescence of those who support the policy you’ve abandoned. As my hero, GK Chesterton, observed, it’s the willingness to die fighting that gives the brave soldier a chance of surviving a terrible battle, where the coward has no chance at all.
One Nation’s winning candidate in Farrer, David Farley, gave a stirring speech to his supporters after victory was declared. It was full of specific things he, and One Nation, wanted to do, among them tearing up net zero in order to once more produce cheaper power for Farrer communities. The Liberals should oppose net zero as economic policy.

Of course. What a vision. Stuff the planet and all will be well.

The reptiles decided to offer the prime Angus a little AV distraction: Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says the Coalition is now “strong” under his leadership. Mr Taylor said “we are back” and ready to work together with the National Party. “This will pay dividends over time, I will guarantee it.”

The bromancer pressed his point. The planet might be facing an existential crisis, but what a chance to get ahead by denying it was happening, or better still, making it even worse...

Angus Taylor did manage to mention net zero in his later speech to that tiny handful of Liberals who stayed for their election wake. Managerial politicians typically try to avoid conflict and hard choices. But especially in the era of populist disruption, politicians who don’t make and stick to hard choices die the coward’s death of a thousand cuts. The Coalition has had one big victory in recent years, defeating the voice. The Liberals were a quiver of indecision on the matter. Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s courage and conviction forced the Nationals to take a stand, and that forced the Liberals to follow. Then Nampijinpa Price and Warren Mundine’s brilliant, passionate campaigning won the day.
Initially, the polls were against Nampijinpa Price and Mundine. They did what’s meant to happen in a democracy – they won the public argument. Initially, the polls were against Farage on Brexit. He won the policy debate with the British people.
The Liberals face existential crisis. They must fight like hell to show they have convincing economic arguments and that must mean fighting on net zero. To have any chance of a centre-right government, they must exchange preferences with One Nation. One task is to beat One Nation on primary votes.
It’s similar in Britain. If the Conservatives enter an election campaign well behind Reform in opinion polls, voters who badly don’t want Labour in office will tend to vote Reform.
One way the Australian Liberals can show they’re serious is electing Tony Abbott as party president. He will galvanise the base, energise the party, project purpose, and he’s a gifted fundraiser who will work hand in glove with his friend, Taylor.
All mainstream centre-right parties face a choice: fight or die. As the old saying goes: if you must be a dog, make sure you’re an Alsatian.
Greg Sheridan is The Australian’s foreign editor.

Why didn't the pond think of that?

 Why does the bromancer always have the most perfect solutions? Bring back the onion muncher so that ludditism, far right fundamentalist, and climate science denialism might flourish one more time.

Yes, if you want to stuff the planet, make sure to stuff it in best far right Brexit fashion, and then we'll all enjoy the return to the days of the onion muncher of yore ...

And if you can't beat 'em, remember to join 'em ...

Further to the pond's opening, is the god of Israel inclined to genocide?

You betcha ... the things that you're liable to read in the bible start with a hearty genocide:

Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

A mass extinction event, and more at the Skeptic's bible showing god willing to get down with it, and urging his people to do the same.

And then there's this ... perhaps a tad ponderous and pedantic, but convincing up against the genocide deniers:

 

So the current government of Israel, which has form, has some pretty impressive biblical verses to quote in aid of its ongoing ethic cleansing ...

The pond is on the move ...

 

In a short time, the pond will be upping stakes lock, stock and barrel, leaving Sydney and moving south.

That means that after next weekend, the pond will perforce cease to trade, perhaps for quite some time.

At such moments, the pond tends to get a bit nostalgic.

It's been a long road, which started way back on 20th July 2008, when a piece by a certain Michael Duffy, Strength of US evangelicals is one of the big myths of our time (*intermittent archive link) sent the pond into such a frenzy that the pond immediately set up a blog and began abusing the hapless chap.

(To revive that ancient argument, the pond trusts that any female friend of the Duffster in a US state run by fundamentalist Xian bigots isn't in search of an abortion, or even, it seems in the near future, contraceptive services. The pond also hopes that the Duffster has caught up on the way the evangelicals gave the world King Donald the redeemer).

In those days, the pond traded under Duffy's name, which the pond regrets, but the pond does take credit for turning the Duffster into a much more useful member of society than being a Fairfax hack keeping company with the likes of Paul Sheehan (oh the texture and the cost of Paddington bread).

Over the years, after dallying with the likes of the fat owl of the remove in the Daily Terror (the much loved Akker Dakker) and little Timmie Bleagh, the pond settled on the reptiles at the lizard Oz, what with them being the most pretentious and dangerous of the Emeritus Chairman's brood.

Some eighteen years of blogging, allowing for medical emergencies of the heart attack kind, and some time off, is a long time to be in the company of reptiles, and in the last few years, the pond has only stayed in the game for the pleasure of reading correspondents' commentary below the fold.

The pond isn't saying never - never say never, because otherwise you could end up appearing in a really bad James Bond film - but perforce the pond will have to focus on making the shift, so this week's tour of duty will be the last major outing with the hive mind for some time to come.

The pond intends to relish the opportunity,  starting with what's on offer this Monday in the lizard Oz.

The pond had hoped to begin the celebrations in a bigly way with Lord Downer's latest insights about the best ways to fix the country and the planet, but he was nowhere to be seen.

Could this be a sign? The pond had been certain his incredible genius would have allowed him to save the Liberal party while still being a scribbler for the lizard Oz, but maybe not. Maybe arcane intrigues distracted him this week ...

Instead the pond was left with the Caterist trying to cope ...

The header: ‘Sick of the lot of you’: Farrer insurgency a warning for both Liberal and Labor; Farrer voters have delivered a stunning rejection of Australia’s major parties, with four out of five casting ballots for minor parties and independents in a dramatic political uprising.

The caption for the Pauline peril showing off her status as Gina's new pet: Pauline Hanson departs from Albury in her new private plane after One Nation candidate David Farley was elected in the federal seat of Farrer. Picture: Ash Smith

That headline including the line insurgency a warning for both Liberal and Labor made the pond wonder just how badly the Labor candidate had done in terms of votes.

When the pond checked the tally, the pond was reminded that Labor hadn't actually bothered to run a candidate.

The TCP battle was between an independent and One Nation, and it was the Liberals and The Nationals that had copped the thrashing.

There's no doubt the Labor government is on the nose in some quarters - the lizard Oz reminds the pond on a daily basis - but this was totally on the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way, not to mention a reluctance to join the Canavan caravan (who has even less to be proud of than that band of ragamuffins' former leader).

Don't drag everyone into a mess entirely of the Liberal party's making, what with the way they reduced one time local member Susssan to competing with a lettuce ...

Now marvel at the way that the Caterist attempts to conflate and confuse...

At the 2013 Tony Abbott landslide election, four out of five voters in Farrer voted for the Coalition or Labor.
On Saturday, the old normal was flipped as four out of five cast their votes for none of the above.
Released from the discipline of choosing the next prime minister, voters were free to indulge emotions normally suppressed and tell the political elite what they really thought. The message, written so large it was visible from space, could be summarised in seven syllables: we’re sick of the lot of you.
The scale and deliberateness of the Farrer insurgency suggest this was more than a knee-jerk reaction to the resignation of a sitting party leader.
It was the clearest expression yet of the political realignment that has ended the political duopoly that has held since the formation of the Liberal Party in 1944. That also happened in Albury, as it happens, where the party convened for the first time in an unassuming room above the Mates department store.
That, too, was a revolt against the elite of sorts. The real life of this nation, Robert Menzies maintained, was not to be found in great luxury hotels, the so-called fashionable suburbs or in the officialdom of the union movement.
“It is to be found in the homes of people who are nameless and unadvertised,” he said, “who see in their children their greatest contribution to the immortality of their race.”

Albury? Again the pond had to check, and as Antony Green patiently explained, around Albury voters were pretty much all in for the independent; it was out Woop Woop way that the voters went One Nation, proving that NSW in spots can be as deep north as any cane toad.

Again don't try to drag Labor into the mud in a seat that has always been held by a Liberal or Nationals party member.

But the Caterist has to do his best to cope at the dire spectacle of a man wearing a scarf ... David Farley the day after his election. Picture: Ash Smith

Eek, a rustic poseur with the fashion sense of a frump.

In classic flood waters in quarries mode, the water whisperer did some field research:

Nameless and unadvertised people filed through the gates of Jindera Public School on the suburban fringes of Albury at the weekend with a peculiar sense of purpose.
These were hardly the dickheads and dinosaurs veteran journalist Ray Martin described in his revealing description of the archetypal No voter at the voice referendum. It’s worth noting that 75 per cent of Farrer voters rejected that elitist frolic too.
Jindera is as conservative as it gets. The absence of a Labor candidate was barely noticed (especially by the Caterist) and the sole Greens representative sat brooding on a wall under an Akubra, hugging a small pile of how-to-vote cards close to his chest.
There were conservative candidates to suit every taste: One Nation, Family First, People First and a bunch of independents. With the Liberals and Nationals standing separately, the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers were the only coalition on the ballot paper, although a split between the gun owners and rod-bearers is surely only a matter of time.
Then there was Michelle Milthorpe, a Jindera local who turned up to vote surrounded by a coterie of the national press. Milthorpe denies allegiance to any party, especially the teals who shun party status. Independence, or its appearance, is the favoured political currency of the day.
My lengthy drive down the Hume Highway to spend a day at a polling booth proved far more agreeable than it sounds. It was also informative. During 10 hours of pleasant conversation among volunteers in the late autumn sunshine, climate change was not raised once. Discussion about fossil fuel was confined to the price of diesel.

The reptiles then decided to remind the pond that it was man who had little to be proud of who drove Tamworth's enduring shame into Pauline's arms ...Barnaby Joyce, speaks to voters outside a polling booth in Albury for the Farrer by-election on Saturday. Picture: Getty Images

Around this moment in his navel gazing, the Caterist seemed to realise that Labor hadn't fielded a candidate ...

At Jindera, delightfully, the old taboos about discussing religion and politics with strangers still hold. So too does the Australian instinct not to dwell on your own bad luck, in the certain knowledge that others are doing it tougher.
Yet it hardly needs stating that in a town in which half of households are paying off a mortgage and three out of four households own two or more cars, interest rates and the cost of energy bite hard.
The Liberals – the party of homeowners and sound economic management – should be romping home in Jindera. The party that believes in rewarding enterprise and thrift should be crushing a loose-spending, big-government government in the polls.
That they are not is no credit to Labor, which by declining to field a candidate denied voters the opportunity to test whether a second Albanese term commands any greater enthusiasm than the first.

It seems unlikely that Labor would have performed better than it did in the election a year ago, when support slumped to 5.6 per cent in Jindera and 15 per cent in the seat as a whole.

So why bother? Why turn up to a flogging so that the likes of the Caterist and the lizard Oz could mock them?

Finally the Caterist had to attempt to deal with the fate of the beefy boofhead, and in the first refuge of the scoundrel, turned to Shakspere, as a way of dragging Labor into the affray in classic both siderest way ...

To say the Liberals performed badly would be comical understatement. Yet the insurrection was not aimed exclusively at the Liberal Party, nor was it a particular reflection on Angus Taylor’s leadership, whatever the ill-judged Saturday night statement from his predecessor might imply. A breach of trust this wide with the electorate cannot be repaired in eight weeks or even eight months. Indeed, eight years might be pushing it, although for the sake of our sanity let’s hope not.
Voters were not railing against a single party any more than the scorn of Mercutio distinguished between the Montagues or the Capulets in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
The sentiment on Saturday is captured in the play’s crowning phrase, “A plague o’ both your houses! They have made worms’ meat of me”, albeit expressed in more prosaic language. Both parties have been given a chance and both in the eyes of Farrer voters have irredeemably blown it.

Nah, the Labor party wisely didn't stand, so it was all on the beefy boofhead ... Liberal Party leader Angus Taylor in Laverton on Saturday could at least enjoy a lighter moment with a young voter of the future. Picture: Getty Images

Then came a final gobbet of the Caterist trying to cope, and sounding a bit like a defamation judgement had been awarded against him, and though it's perhaps wrong, the pond was vastly amused:

Saturday’s result leaves Australia in a dangerous and uncertain position, as revolutionary change almost always does.
It was an emphatic repudiation of the old order without articulating what might follow. Farrer voters clearly want Labor out. Yet the question of how Labor can be toppled under the novel rules of asymmetric politics was left hanging.
Australia’s peculiar instant run-off preferential voting system inevitably reduces general elections to a two-sided presidential contest. Taylor remains the clear favourite for the role of challenger.
What role will One Nation play in this? No one, not even Pauline Hanson, appears to know.
As the federal election draws closer, Hanson can expect tougher questions about One Nation’s true intentions, beyond the eminently achievable ambition of holding the balance of power in the Senate and scattering conservative preferences willy-nilly.
In the meantime, Taylor’s task is not to drag the Liberal Party to the right or the left. That sterile debate in the party has pretty much run its course. His job is to pull a top-heavy party with too many chiefs and precious few Indians back into the real world, the one outside the metropolitan bubble, exemplified by the seat of Farrer, a three and a half-hour drive and half a world away from the Canberra parliamentary triangle.
Amid the multipolar confusion of the new political landscape, Menzies’ conception of the Forgotten People remains the defining reference point.
Our future is in the hands of the great, sober and dynamic middle-class – the strivers, the planners, the ambitious ones. As the Liberals discovered on Saturday, we dismiss them at our peril.

At that point, a Golding 'toon came to mind ...

Or Lord Downer?

After all that the pond had to pass over simpleton Simon's analysis, and here the intermittent archive came in handy, as the simplistic one went full apocalyptic...

How Farrer is rewriting our political history – and our future
The Liberal Party’s collapse in Farrer is not a story of gradual decline. It has been rapid and spectacular.
By Simon Benson
Political analyst

The pond couldn't bear to show the dire opening Leak cartoon, but this teaser trailer will show just how desperate the reptiles are sounding, with the simplistic one going against the Caterist's remedies what ails them, by suggesting an alliance with Pauline, proposing that the Nats might split or just disappear, and calling on the beefy boofhead to somehow fix things ... (as if, this Angus ain't so prime)...

Indeed, indeed ...

What else? 

Saul was over on the far right ...

Equity gas push is more of a socialist ploy in Greens’ clothing
Populist sentiment is now driving energy policy from every direction. But the knee-jerk solution – more government
By Saul Kavonic

For those who came in late, Saul is a reliable renewable energy basher, with a devotion to the private sector (how else to make a living as a consultant?) and oodles of implied climate science denialism.

There's only so much Saul the pond can take, even on a celebratory tour of duty... and so the pond checked the other far right offerings, and as expected of the Australian Daily Zionist News ...

Is anyone listening to testimony at Bell royal commission?
The royal commission’s findings will be critical but it’s the openness of the bulk of the population and their willingness to respond in kind, that will be equally critical in healing our country.
By Vic Alhadeff

Perhaps it was the news of the defiling of a grave by West Bank settlers that made the pond a tad less interested... Settlers force exhumation of Palestinian man from West Bank grave, family says 

Usually at this moment, the pond would turn to the Major for a final word, but the Major had gone there ...

ABC, Nine papers ignore true plight of Indigenous children
Indigenous children will continue to suffer unless media confronts uncomfortable truths
A five-year-old’s death has triggered the same political paralysis that has plagued Aboriginal child protection for three decades.
By Chris Mitchell
Columnist

The pond has more than a fair degree of contempt for anyone attempting to make political capital out of the death of a child, and to use that death to bash rival news organisations, but Major Mitchell has no sense of shame. That doesn't mean the pond has to pay attention to him as he seeks new ways to find new lows ...

So the pond turned back to the triumphalism over in the "news" section, which saw news of the dire straits the world is in pushed down the page early in the morning ...

Always with the renewables bashing, this time with Katy helping the reptiles ...

EXCLUSIVE
‘Supercharged’ climate funding can’t last forever, Gallagher admits
The Finance Minister concedes the government cannot sustain its current rate of climate spending as Labor lays the groundwork for breaking promises in Tuesday’s budget.
By Greg Brown

Well played Katy, and just after that the reptiles dug up an entirely new snap of Jimbo smirking and simpering ...

Enough already, the intermittent archive for all that lot ...

The indefatigable Geoff chambered another round, and what better way to do it than by invoking Comrade Bill?

COMMENTARY by Geoff Chambers
Labor’s budget threatens legacy of division, as voters rage against the machine
Perhaps Bill Shorten’s name should feature as a co-author of the Albanese government’s fifth budget.

Could Geoff have done better? Easily ... perhaps comrade Bill Shorten's and Comrade Dan Andrews names should feature as co-authors of the budget ...

Fixed.

Geoff eventually ended with a whimper...

Albanese and Labor are benefiting from a favourable preferential voting system and the fact that conservative forces in Australia have never been so divided.
Pragmatic Liberals and Nationals realise that dealing with One Nation is not the same as in the 1990s. That means preferences deals at state and federal elections and political alliances to unseat Labor governments will be considered.

That didn't stop Geoff from trying again, this time team tagging to pump up the volume for Gina's pet performing seal...

BY-ELECTION VICTORY
Migrants are on our side, Hanson claims
One Nation believes migrants are on their side as they target Labor
One Nation has set its sights on Labor’s western Sydney strongholds after claiming migrant voters helped deliver its historic Farrer victory.
By Geoff Chambers and Elizabeth Pike

Sure, what ever you and Liz say Geoff...

In that "news" splash there was one other "top of the world ma" story, an accompaniment to Major Mitchell's outing ...

EXCLUSIVE
Where are all these town camp millions going?
Millions in funding questioned as Alice Springs residents decry unliveable homes
Residents live without working doors or taps while the corporation meant to help them outspends an entire city council on wages.
By Liam Mendes and Christine Middap

Finally the pond simply had to admire this latest example of never ending reptile jihads ...

Lattouf unloads at Aunty as she’s allowed back on air
Antoinette Lattouf invited back by ABC to spruik her book and uses opportunity to unleash
Antoinette Lattouf has used her ABC comeback to unleash on the broadcaster, claiming she suffered trauma while admitting she forgets supporters vandalised ABC buildings in support of her.
By Steve Jackson

Once you're the target of a lizard Oz jihad, the elephant never forgets and keeps carrying out the jihad with the ferocity of the Taliban ...

And so to a few notes on weekend reading. This one in Bezos's shame caught the eye, as it's unusual for  the lamestream media to pay attention to this sort of caper ...

How Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire lost its grip on the conservative internet
Once ascendant in right-wing media, the “anti-woke” company now faces contentious layoffs, ideological battles and dwindling relevance online.

The pond loves wallowing in the world of far right American loons.

And close by was a story explaining the level of political debate in the US, whereby posting a snap of seashells can get you in trouble ...

They’re not saying someone should kill Trump. But they’re coming close.
“Somebody should do it” and its variants have become increasingly popular online memes.

Well played Mr Bezos.

And the grifter in chief carries on, and for this one the Variety headline is sufficient unto itself 

Trump Media, Parent of Truth Social, Reports Q1 Sales of $871,000 and $405.9 Million Net Loss (*internet archive link)

And now it's up to the immortal Rowe to have the final word ...

And as one comment on this video noted, "I wouldn't trust Putin to walk my dog".

In which the bromancer does over Sir Keir, the dog botherer does over Albo, and Polonius does the Australian Daily Zionist News ...

 

For the first time in many years, the pond decided to strip Polonius of his "first on Sunday" rank.

The reason will become obvious below, but it allowed the pond to catch up on some other items.

Even so, there had to be some also rans, some try hards, some losers and dropkicks and some whom the pond couldn't feign the slightest interest ...

Off to the intermittent archive with them, with appropriate thoughts and prayers, and all the best for anyone sailing on these ships...

This crisis ‘harder than the GFC was’
From GFC to Trump: Jim rates budget degree of difficulty
Jim Chalmers describes next Tuesday’s budget as having a higher ‘degree of difficulty’ than Labor’s big-spending stimulus response to the global financial crisis.
By Geoff Chambers
Political editor

A shift from butter to guns to thrive in a dangerous world
Our defence has relied since 2024 on a ‘strategy of denial’, which means arming up to the point where an adversary believes the cost of using martial force to get what it wants is too high.
By Tom Dusevic
Columnist

‘Rent-a-womb’ industry looms as review pushes for commercial surrogacy in Australia
Commercialising Mother’s Day sentiment is one thing, but what of the commercialisation of motherhood itself? Two law inquiries are attempting to do just that.
By Angela Shanahan

That stern talk of the need to shift from butter to guns (butter? Another reptile stuck in the 1950s) really should have belonged to the bromancer, always a war monger of the first water, but this weekend he turned his attention to Sir Keir's decline and fall ...

The header: Keir Starmer’s leadership in crisis after Labour election disaster, fuelling fears for Britain’s future; The PM is surely finished after the Labour election disaster. Nigel Farage is the new giant of British politics.

The caption for the thankfully uncredited visual mess typical of the lizard Oz style (what on earth is that grey blob?): Keir Starmer, with his 18 per cent approval rating, has comprehensively messed up leadership.

The pond was reminded of the sort of conversation you can have with an angry Reform voter. 

You're angry about the economy and lack of opportunity? You do realise that Brexit did significant damage to the British economy, and continues to do damage? And that Reform led the way on Brexit? So you'll cheerfully vote for the party that did the country significant harm?

Worked for King Donald, didn't it? Go Nige ...we could have a tariff-led, non-European recovery because the rest of the world is wasting away waiting for British products.

It seems it's still hard to accept the realities of the end of Empire.

But enough of the sheeple, it's time for the bromancer to bury the hatchet:

Keir Starmer is a failed Prime Minister, leading a badly failed government, in a failing politics. The drubbing Labour has taken in local council elections on Thursday, losing hundreds of councillors, and in Welsh and Scottish assembly elections, indicates a party and leader in crisis, a nation barely scraping along the bottom of public policy. In a seismic result, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is the big winner.
Starmer, with his 18 per cent approval rating, has comprehensively messed up leadership. His failure is epic. He’s as unpopular as Liz Truss, as chaotic as Boris Johnson, as ineffectual as Theresa May, as isolated as Jeremy Corbyn, his efforts to explain mistakes and scandals as unconvincing as Joe Biden’s were. He has the charisma of Gordon Brown, the campaigning panache of Peter Dutton.

Ouch, fancy including the mutton Dutton in that list.

The reptiles then quickly interrupted with an AV distraction: TalkTV host Peter Cardwell has predicted the UK Labour Party to do “very badly” and Reform to do “very well”. “The pressure is on already on Keir Starmer. The vultures certainly were circling in regard to his own position,” he told Sky News Australia. “Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, he’s going to be a very happy man later on today.”

TalkTV is still a thing? 

Apparently it's online, but the pond remembers the Emeritus Chairman's glory days way back in 2022,  Piers Morgan ratings dive as talkTV struggles to attract viewers:

Flagship show audience down 80% after launch and rating agency detects ‘zero viewers’ for other key slots
Rupert Murdoch’s talkTV television channel has been rated as having “zero viewers” during primetime broadcasts, as the new television channel struggles to attract an audience despite signing up Piers Morgan as a presenter.
The News Desk, the channel’s hour-long political show hosted by Tom Newton Dunn, did not register a single viewer for half of its Tuesday evening broadcast. Although this does not rule out the possibility that some people were watching somewhere in the UK, it means the television audience was so small that it was not picked up by official rating agency, the Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board.

The pond loves to remember the Chairman's greatest hits, as the bromancer sank in the knife again:

This election shows British politics shattered into shards of incoherence. The government leaks constantly against itself like Richard Nixon’s administration in its last days.
Sharks are circling Starmer. Angela Rayner, who resigned from cabinet because of tax irregularities, Health Secretary Wes Streeting and Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, who isn’t even in parliament, all think they’d do a better job than Starmer. They could hardly do worse. They’re all challenging from the left, when it’s left policies that have failed dismally. Woeful as Britain’s performance has recently been, it could get worse.
British politics is confused, as polarised as American but less coherent. The worst development is the rise of the Green Party, led by the execrable Zack Polanski. The British Greens, who make Australia’s Greens look like Roosevelt Democrats, won big in some Muslim neighbourhoods on the cause of Gaza (obviously central to British local government). They’re normalising antisemitism and racism. They’re worse than Corbyn.
One Green candidates. (sic, later corrected) posted an illustration of a giant serpent, with the Star of David on its skin, devouring the Earth, and also declared Donald Trump “is owned by the Jews”. Two Green candidates were arrested for antisemitic offence

The reptiles naturally featured a snap of the chief villain... UK Greens Party leader Zack Polanski at the launch of his party’s local government pitch in Deptford, London. Picture: Jacquelin Magnay

We're back in ethnic cleansing denialist territory, a feature of the Australian Daily Zionist News that's so regular the pond can tiptoe by ...

Polanski, a deeply weird person, reacted to the arrest of the Somali-born knife attacker at the Golders Green synagogue, who repeatedly stabbed two Jewish men, by criticising the police. The offender was trying to stab the police and they, unarmed, subdued him. Metropolitan Police commissioner Mark Rowley, who never gets involved in party politics, publicly rebuked Polanski.
Polanski is a preposterous character. He falsely claimed to have been a spokesman for the Red Cross. When previously a hypnotherapist, he claimed he could enlarge women’s breasts through hypnosis.
That such grotesque leadership could command strong support in Britain is a withering indictment of sustained indoctrination by the British education system, and the extremism of some Islamic voters, who presumably don’t care what madness the Greens encompass so long as they hate Israel. There’s a faint whiff of Weimar Germany in all this.
Britain boasted for decades, perhaps centuries, deep political stability and competent government. The two-party system, as Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch argues, is now dead, with five genuinely national parties emerging: Starmer’s Labour, Badenoch’s Conservatives, Farage’s Reform, Polanski’s Greens and the Liberal Democrats led by Ed Davey.

Poor old Kemi, she was expected to fail, so nobody much cared, while everybody from the cracking Crace to Marina handing out a Hydeing were all in on Sir Keir ...

The cracking Crace did spare a thought for Kemi's Tories ...

For the Tories it was James Cleverly who was left to hold the fort early doors. Darling Jimmy Dimly. Reliably half-witted. He thought the Tories had had a mixed night. Mixed if you count becoming of relevance only in London and a few home counties. “We are the only party holding the government to account because we are holding the government to account,” he said. You can’t fault the logic, though you did wonder if what Jimmy D really needed was a long lie down. The results from Essex would soon be in and he, along with Kemi and Priti Patel, would all lose their seats to Reform in a national election.

Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch takes a selfie with supporters on the eve of local elections. Picture: Getty Images

Could Ireland at last be free and united?

But British politics is more fractured even than this. In Scotland, the Scottish National Party dominates; in Wales, the Welsh nationalist Plaid Cymru seemingly has displaced Labour; in Northern Ireland, Sinn Fein won the last election. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will thus all have elected chief ministers who want to secede from the UK, who don’t regard Britain as ultimately legitimate. Imagine Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane with premiers all determined to break up Australia.
Given Britain’s first-past-the-post voting system, literally any government outcome is possible at the next election in 2029.
Some of Britain’s worst problems arise from terrible decisions made by Tony Blair as prime minister in the 1990s. Constitutional devolution in Scotland and Wales created the worst type of federalism. Scottish and Welsh governments spend money they don’t raise by their own taxes. So they market every issue as Westminster victimising them by withholding money. In reality the “devolved nations” get huge subsidies from Westminster and receive more money per person than those in England. That then fosters English resentment and nationalism.
Blair also pioneered mass uncontrolled immigration. He misunderstood or misrepresented how many people would come and didn’t establish effective legal or administrative frameworks. He created the anything-goes approach that is proving impossible to get rid of.
Conservative and Labour governments, including Starmer’s, have vowed to change this and failed. Tens of thousands of illegal migrants arrive every year.

Why they arrive in this desolate, failed, comprehensively ruined country - worse than being caught in a war in Sudan - must remain a mystery.

Populist Nigel Farage's Reform party is riding high in polls ahead of elections this week to the Scottish and Welsh parliaments. Reform's tough stance on immigration is appealing to more and more Scottish and Welsh voters, but it remains divisive, and might even boost its rivals.

At last the bromancer found hope, albeit in an unlikely form ...

This fuelled Farage’s dramatic rise. He’s more capable than Pauline Hanson but, like One Nation, Reform lives off the leader’s personal following. Many Reform candidates are eccentric. The councils they newly control will likely govern as badly as other councils. This may offer Badenoch, whose personal ratings outshine her party’s and who has mastered Starmer in parliamentary combat, a way back against Farage.
People who want immigration controlled vote Farage, those who want open borders vote Green. Labour is hurt on left and right and losing votes directly to Reform.
Objectively, Britain’s a mess. Economic growth is persistently anaemic. Britain’s less than two-thirds as wealthy, per person, as America. If it were a US state, it would be one of the poorest. National debt is £3 trillion ($5.6 trillion), equal to its national economy. It will borrow more than £130bn this fiscal year.
Starmer can’t fashion an effective economic or social policy response or narrative. He desperately needs to cut government spending. But he’s also committed, in modest recognition of reality, to a big increase in defence expenditure and he can’t cut welfare. It doesn’t add up.

Then came a photo op ... Starmer meets British military personnel in Bahrain in April during his three-day visit to the region. Picture: AFP

The bromancer wasn't fooled, and took time out to assail the wastrels and the bludgers in approved Tory style...

Welfare spending is completely out of control. One million young Brits are neither working nor in education, including hundreds of thousands on “benefits”. Welfare has grown so haphazardly, and is so elaborate, people can end up receiving more than Britain’s average wage in welfare payments. Working hard is a mug’s game.
The British state ballooned during Covid but has never been less effective at getting things done. In Britain now everyone rorts the system. The interaction of work from home entitlements (an economic death-wish policy in Western nations) and flexi-time arrangements have many civil servants claiming 50 days off a year, beyond their generous holidays, sick leave, social leave etc, and sporadic office appearances.
Starmer has no clue how to fix this. He began by cutting pensioners’ winter energy subsidies (like Australia, Britain has excessive energy prices because of net-zero policies) while giving big pay rises to public sector unions such as bus drivers.
On top of all this, Starmer’s judgment is shocking. It emerged shortly after the election that he’d taken £100,000 ($190,000) in personal gifts from a Labour donor, more than £20,000 for suits for himself and clothes for his wife. Yet he was wealthy, he’d been director of public prosecutions, his wife a successful lawyer. This discredits “moral socialism”, even just playing by the rules.

The reptiles then flung in the dog botherer ... Writer and Broadcaster Esther Krakue blasts UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer for having “no judgment”. “If he was so set on having someone like Peter Mandelson, he clearly didn’t seem that swayed by whatever evidence would have come up against him being appointed. What does that say about his judgment?” Ms Krakue told Sky News host Chris Kenny. “It says something very terrifying for him leading the United Kingdom, that he has none; he has no judgment.”

And now the pond must pick a bone with the bromancer, as he talks of an "inexplicable appointment".

Sadly the desire to get Mandy appointed was all too explicable. 

The hapless mouse (Sir Keir) was terrified by King Donald, and so decided that an affable intermediary of no scruples or competence was needed - two pedophile peas in a pod as it were,  solving the King Donald problem with a quick fix. 

Send in someone who'd have no trouble calling the King a "risk-taker" ...and make it sound like a grovelling compliment.

That worked out tremendously well, and now to the final gobbet ..

Worst of all was the inexplicable appointment of former cabinet minister Peter Mandelson as ambassador to Washington. Mandelson had twice been dismissed from office in public scandals. He had a well-known love of money and the high life. He had deep Russian and Chinese business connections, and was a friend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
When the depth of Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein was exposed it led to his dismissal. Starmer, who had insisted on the Mandelson appointment, grotesquely and implausibly claimed innocent ignorance of all the bad stuff.
Starmer Starmer, the Britain harmer, is surely finished. But changing prime ministers is inherently destabilising.
None of the contenders has a credible plan for Britain. The land of Shakespeare and Churchill could do with a regular, competent, John Howard-style prime minister, someone to begin rebuilding.
There’s no sign of one on any horizon.
Greg Sheridan is The Australian’s foreign editor.

All the UK can do is console itself that it might be worse ...

And so on to the dog botherer, delivering a bog standard shellacking, part of the reptile weekend campaign to distract from the great LibNat Farrer apocalypse...

The header: Anthony Albanese’s trail of broken election promises are catching up with him; The PM’s record of broken pledges could reach a tipping point come budget night. Here are some of his greatest hits.

The caption for the wretched cartoon: The Prime Minister’s lack of honesty and almost delusional disregard for truth has developed such a pattern that it is now revealed as a serious character flaw. Cartoon by Johannes Leak

As an aside, the pond should note that it rarely runs Leak Jr. cartoons.

They only turn up in this sort of wretched propaganda outing.

His presence is only a relief in the sense that it stopped the reptiles from doing a Daily Terror and fitting out Albo in a Nazi uniform, the way they did with former Chairman Rudd.

Whatever the pond thought about Leak Sr. - and the pond thought plenty when he rapidly went downhill after that fall - he at least had technical skills and a facility as a painter.

The pond appreciates that the reptiles stayed loyal to the untalented seed of the apple that didn't fall far from the tree, but loyalty isn't the same as rewarding talent.

Now on with the hatchet job:

It is time to judge Anthony Albanese by his own lofty pledges to political integrity and trust. He set himself a high bar and has manifestly failed to meet it, breaking faith with voters as he has sullied his reputation.
The Prime Minister’s lack of honesty and almost delusional disregard for truth has developed such a pattern that it is now revealed as a serious character flaw. It is also a growing political problem that could reach a tipping point come budget night.
When he addressed the Labor caucus after winning power in 2022 Albanese said: “We want to change the tone of politics in this country. We want to be more inclusive. We want to make sure there’s less shouting and more delivery.” And when he first spoke to parliament as Prime Minister two days later he said: “My colleagues and I want to treat every day in this job in this place in government as an opportunity to deliver for the people of Australia, to fulfil our promises and to prove worthy of the trust that the Australian people have placed in us.”
Since then, this career politician has broken prominent election promises, denied his own misdeeds, flagrantly denied episodes we have all seen and heard, and constantly ducked responsibility for his actions.

What do you do when you have a serve of dog botherer? 

Double down, and serve him up again ... Sky News host Chris Kenny says it’s clear Labor’s budget will contain “tax hikes and broken promises”. “You know the pack drill, they lie to you to get elected, they make promises to get elected, then early in the term they take us all for mugs, break their promises, and sock it to us,” Mr Kenny said. “Anthony Albanese has a very loose relationship with the truth.”

Albo can mount his own defence. 

What's interesting is the way that the dog botherer thoughtfully outlines attack points for the beefy boofhead from down Goulburn way ...

“My word is my bond,” he told Mark Riley on the Seven Network’s Spotlight program in July 2022 in an interview testing Albanese over whether he would break his promise to deliver the Coalition’s legislated tax cuts. “I’ve always been a man of my word, and I believe that when you go to an election, and you make commitments, you should stick to them,” he pronounced. He then broke that very promise. See what I mean? He broke his word over the issue he said he would never break his word over.
Let me walk you through more of Albanese’s greatest hits to flesh out this problem. No doubt there would be more.
Albanese on energy policy

For no particular reason, the reptiles interrupted the walk and the sub-heading with a frankly awful piece of Frank ... Artwork by Frank Ling.

The pond thought it remembered this as being distinctly shop worn, and indeed it was ...

Who knew that the reptiles were keen environmentalists, always busily recycling?

The reptiles then allowed the dog botherer only one par...

In December 2021 Albanese declared that under Labor’s energy policies electricity bills “will be $275 for the average house lower in 2025 than today”. It was a promise he and his frontbench colleagues repeated ad nauseam until election day and beyond.

... before inserting another video ...

That represented a desperate attempt by the reptiles to escape the hive mind and be seen and heard on YouTube.

But they've lurked for so long in a paywall ghetto that their attempts at social media are ludicrous and inept. 

It was two days old, and the pond won't be providing a link. Instead the pond ploughed on ...

Five years on it has morphed from a central campaign promise to a sick joke; power prices have moved only in the other direction, with costs increasing three or four times more than the promised reduction. When Albanese was cornered over this failure last year he duckshoved the broken promise, telling journalists repeatedly that it wasn’t a promise but “it was RepuTex’s modelling based on circumstances at the time”. Did he really expect voters to accept that obfuscation? Does he really want to insult voters’ intelligence in that way?
Albanese on antisemitism

The same thing just happened. There was the sub-heading and then the reptiles were off to show another insufferable outing by the lesser junior Leak ... Nothing to see here. Cartoon by Johannes Leak

Even for a standard bit of reptile slopaganda, that 'toon really lowered the tone ...

When Albanese doggedly refused to call a royal commission into the Bondi terrorist attack five months ago, pressure mounted. He resisted escalating calls from a wide range of people for weeks and was still rejecting a royal commission in early January. But when he caved in, on January 8, Albanese pretended he had been working on a royal commission all along. “We’ve also been working through – these recommendations and the terms of reference weren’t done this morning, they were done over a long period of time,” he told the ABC.
We were asked to believe he was preparing a royal commission at the same time he was publicly dismissing the idea. Sure thing.
Some of the less consequential lies from Albanese have been telling, displaying a brazenness that is breathtaking. Even though we have seen and heard episodes with our own eyes and ears, Albanese has tried to reconfigure these events to provide more palatable versions of reality, presumably to suit his narrative.

Time for another victim of a popular reptile jihad ...

Grace Tame, domestic voilence (sic, so and thus) and ‘The Fall’

And then the Joe Biden angle came into play ...

Television cameras caught him plunging dangerously off the back of a stage while campaigning in the Hunter Valley last April. But in Albo’s world it never happened: “I stepped back one step, I didn’t fall off the stage, just one leg went down, but I was sweet.” Got it. I guess we were supposed to believe the cameras had lied.

The reptiles were keen to provide the visual receipts of a crime which almost having a sheet of toilet paper attached to a shoe: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has fallen off a stage while posing for photographs after delivering a speech in Lovedale in the Hunter region of New South Wales. Mr Albanese is fine and has not been injured from the fall.

The dog botherer maintained the rage ...

In a public word association game in February Albanese described Grace Tame as “difficult” and soon copped criticism from Tame and feminist supporters. The following day, instead of merely brushing it off or apologising, Albanese recast what he had said. “Grace Tame you can’t describe in one word,” he revised. “She has had difficult life, and that’s what I was referring to.”
That story would have been difficult for anyone to swallow. I guess we should be relieved that it wasn’t RepuTex’s modelling again.
In 2024 when Albanese took the stage in Canberra at a protest against domestic violence, he said his earlier request to speak had been denied. Event organiser Sarah Williams called this out immediately as a “full out lie” and later appeared on the ABC doubling down on her accusation that Albanese had lied (he argued it was a misunderstanding).
Albanese was booed and heckled in ugly and threatening scenes at Lakemba mosque in March before being led away under tight security. He didn’t like the media coverage and said the event had been misreported.
“Overwhelmingly, the reception was incredibly positive,” he said the next day. “I walked through the crowd to the mosque and not a single person heckled. There were a couple of hecklers inside.” Again, it must have been those lying cameras.
Albanese’s personal political rise

It happened again. First the sub-heading and then a distracting snap... A young Anthony Albanese, left, leads students in a protest atop the University of Sydney clock tower.

That's a reminder of how the reptiles like to live in the past, and brood for all eternity ...

You might as well hold the onion muncher to account for his pugnacious ways...

On with the axe-grinding...

One of Albanese’s problems is that his entire political persona as Prime Minister is an exercise in deception. He is a Labor radical, a leading light of the Socialist Left faction, pretending to be a centrist so he could win the leadership and then present an electable face to mainstream voters.
We are talking about a man who attended anti-Israel protests even as a federal parliamentarian. He was seen yelling, “The response of Israel has been to meet children throwing rocks, with helicopter gunships, with tanks and with missiles.” Yet now as Prime Minister he has tried to argue that “Australia has stood with the people of Israel” when all his actions have done the opposite.
This is emblematic of his life of political contortions. A lifetime in the Socialist Left, for instance, and Albanese must now pass himself off as pro-business; a lifetime of “fighting Tories” and now he pretends to desire bipartisanship.
This shapeshifting must be exhausting and confusing. And perhaps it smooths the path to untruths. Betrayals in politics are so common that the phrase “political lie” is almost tautologous. Yet the degree matters; successful leaders need an element of trust with voters, some plausible link between words and actions.
Kevin Rudd sealed his demise by walking away from his pivotal emissions trading plan; Julia Gillard torched her leadership by breaking her carbon tax promise; and Tony Abbott broke election pledges in a standard “things were worse than we thought” formulation. In Albanese’s early days in office all the heat was on the other side because of the stunning revelations about Scott Morrison’s secret ministries.
Negative gearing and capital gains tax

Not another sub-heading and another distracting collage of a frankly pitiful kind? Albanese with his Treasurer Jim Chalmers. Artwork by Frank Ling

Consider the hatchet well and truly planted, consider the dog botherer in the noble tradition of Lizzie Borden ...

Now Albanese’s record of deceit is starting to register. Turning his back on clear pledges about negative gearing and capital gains tax (policies that helped kill off Bill Shorten’s career) risks a moment of voter reckoning – come Tuesday night the scales could fall from their eyes.
As a minister, Albanese was exposed for plagiarising a political speech from a Hollywood rom-com, The American President. It is surprising this humiliation did not do him more damage.
Now Albanese and his ministers claim to have made $114bn in budget savings while in office. Yet all their budgets have spent more, and spending as a share of GDP has increased by more than 2 per cent – so what are they spinning?
Albanese and Jim Chalmers have made the mistake of believing their own publicity. They claim to be helping young voters but are saddling them with $1 trillion of debt. Albanese has supported the use of punitive taxes to reduce carbon emissions, tobacco use, alcohol consumption and gambling. Yet now Labor seems to suggest that extra taxes on housing will increase supply – it does not compute.
Albanese was interviewed by Seven’s Riley again last Sunday and was pushed on the question of election promises and integrity. “What you’ll see in the budget is a range of measures consistent with the values we took to the election,” said Albanese.
Ah yes, Prime Minister, we should forget your promises and rely on your values. And what, pray tell, would those values be? “It will be a responsible budget that will be consistent with Labor values,” Albanese said this week. It was perhaps the late Graham “Richo” Richardson who described Labor values best with his phrase, “whatever it takes”.

The pond always finds it piquant when a band of liars, thieves and cheats take to hectoring others about values and morality.

It was, after all, News Corp where Richo found a rewarding later life. How they loved the Swiss bank account man. How they made a home for him, how the then Chairman religiously followed his teachings ... 

Congratulations, dog botherer. Your relentless lurch to the extreme far right, your dissing of Sussssan, your support of the hapless beefy boofhead and his minions, and reptile raging about furriners and the white Anglo-Celtic, Judaeo-Xian tradition has finally achieved its dream result - the LibNat apocalypse in Farrer.

And so at last to Polonius ...

The header: Malcolm Roberts’ dangerous equivocation on Bondi conspiracy theory; A senator’s refusal to firmly reject a ‘false flag’ claim raises fresh concerns about antisemitism, political judgment and media failure.

The caption for the snap: Senator Malcolm Roberts faced criticism after declining to unequivocally dismiss a conspiracy theory about the Bondi attack. Picture: Martin Ollman

First of all, pond send Polonius to third place because this is a pitiful straw man exercise. 

Take a certified loon, climate science denialist and conspiracy-inclined theorist, and almost anything sounds sane by comparison... even an outing in the Australian Daily Zionist News.

As correspondents have noted, Polonius is clearly off his oats, and this was yet another reminder.

Secondly, Polonius uses the prize loon to smear others who might want to make a point about the current government of Israel's inclination to ethnic cleansing, continuing to this day, and currently expanding in to Lebanon.

The reptiles thought so little of it that they didn't bother interrupting Polonius with visual distractions, and the pond will mostly  follow suit:

It was May 1, the day after commissioner Virginia Bell handed the Royal Commission on Antisemitism and Social Cohesion interim report to the Governor-General, that senator Malcolm Roberts made the news.
The One Nation senator for Queensland was interviewed by online comedian Lisa Jane Spencer for her social media channels. A young (gentile) friend drew this to my attention and there was a brief report on the matter in the Daily Mail.
Early on, Spencer asked Roberts whether he was “worried about foreign influence into our politics”. When the senator answered in the affirmative, he was queried about “One Nation’s thoughts, particularly when it comes to, you know, say, AIJAC or even being involved in the Iran war, Israel and all that”.
AIJAC is the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council headed by my friends Mark Leibler (chairman) and Colin Rubenstein (executive director). Spencer was running the line popularised by John Lyons, the ABC’s Americas editor, in his book Dateline Jerusalem. Lyons named AIJAC as having too much influence over Australian foreign policy.
As I documented when reviewing Lyons’ work in The Sydney Insti­tute Review Online in November 2021, his account of the alleged influence of Jewish Australians in this country is grossly exaggerated. It is not clear whether Spencer is aware of Lyons’ book but his polemical conspiracy theory about AIJAC and all that is capable of having an impact beyond the written word. Which may explain her question to Roberts.

One small interruption.

You see? Polonius has no clue about whether Spencer is aware of Lyons' book, but how easily she can be slotted in with Roberts as a conspiracy theorist, which "may explain" why Polonius felt so free and easy in his defaming of Lyons ... it being a matter of observable (Minns) opinion as to wether certain members of the Jewish lobby hold sway over governments, and that opinion in no way a conspiracy theory when the totality of examples are considered.

On with this entry in the Australian Daily Zionist News ...

But then the matter became more serious. Spencer said: “I was going to ask one more question on the Israel thing. Do you think that Bondi was a false flag?” The Britannica website defines a false flag operation as a “harmful, often militant, event perpetrated by someone other than the person or group responsible for it”.
In other words, false flag operations occur when a group wants to attract sympathy for itself. The implication in Spencer’s question is that Israeli operatives and/or Jewish Australians organised the Bondi massacre in which 15 individuals died, most of whom were Jews, to generate support.
This was a despicable implication. The obvious answer to the question was an emphatic “No”. But Roberts could not quite bring himself to do so. His immediate response was to say: “I haven’t got the evidence. I doubt whether it’s a false flag, but I could be” – following which he was interrupted.
Then Spencer said it was all a “bit suss” when legislation on guns and hate laws followed the Bondi massacre. Roberts responded: “You asked me if I thought it was a false flag. If I make a statement, it’s got to be backed by fact. I don’t have the facts yet. I’m not ruling it out – you’ll notice that.”
Yes, it was noticed. Now, Roberts shows no evidence of being antisemitic. But he is at best naive. Or perhaps he did not want to disagree with Spencer. In any event, it was an unwise and dangerous comment to make. Especially since the Queensland senator is well qualified for his position – except for the fact he lacks judgment.
However, to be fair, Pauline Hanson has demonstrated support for the Jewish Australian com­munity, as has her fellow One Nation parliamentarian Barnaby Joyce.
There has been some unjust criticism of the royal commission following its interim report. Some commentators have suggested that it has downplayed the significance of antisemitism in Australia. This is not so. There are close to 200 references to Jew/Jewish/Jewry etc and 350 references to antisemitism/antisemitic in the interim report. There are only a couple of references to Islamophobic or Islamophobia.
Moreover, it is only now that the royal commission is hearing evidence of the experiences of Jewish Australians with respect to antisemitism. This has increased dramatically in Australia since Hamas’s invasion of Israel on October 7, 2023, and the antisemitic and anti-Israel protests that took place in subsequent days, especially in Sydney.
The interim report focused primarily on examining the circumstances surrounding the anti­semitic terrorist attack on December 14. However, the royal commission’s letters patent refers to “the necessity for the inquiry to be conducted in a manner that does not occasion prejudice to current or future criminal proceedings on national security or undermine social cohesion”. That’s understandable. It is in Australia’s interest that any accused person receives a fair trial.
What the interim report makes clear is that in August 2024 ASIO upgraded the chance of a terrorist attack in Australia from possible to probable. ASIO also warned in early December 2025 of the “terrorism threat to crowded places and religious events over the 2025-26 holiday period”. In 2024 ASIO warned of attacks on Jewish and Christian celebrations.
It is also clear that NSW Police did not anticipate the risk of a terrorist attack when Australians were celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach on December 14.
The royal commission’s interim report documents that the response by NSW Police to the request by NSW Jewish Community Security Group for assistance with security was for a command inspector to “take a car crew or two with you and provide a HVP (high visibility policing) presence”. The instruction continued: “No need to stay the entire duration, but your presence will ensure the community feel safe.”
The NSW police officers who attended the Bondi celebration acted with considerable bravery when the massacre began. But they were outgunned before reinforcements arrived. It is not an act of hindsight to state that the warnings of ASIO in general and the NSW Jewish community in particular were not acted upon.
Why was this so? The answer seems to be that the relevant authorities did not take the pre-December 14 attacks on the Jewish community seriously enough. Here the media should take some responsibility.
As Michael Gawenda wrote on these pages last Saturday, the mainstream media – the ABC, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and Guardian Australia – downplayed the reality of violent antisemitism in Australia. For example, Four Corners did not cover the issue between October 2023 and December 2025.
It is this form of denial that makes possible Spencer’s bigoted conspiracy theory and Roberts’ foolishness in not taking a stand for evidence over prejudice.
Gerard Henderson is executive director of The Sydney Institute.

Ah, Michael Gawenda. 

What a pathetic source for Polonius to cite, but it does give the pond a chance to bookend the weekend.

Thanks to the venerable Meade, the pond started with Journalism in decline: a response to Michael Gawenda

That evoking of a notoriously incompetent member of the Jewish lobby gives the pond a chance to close proceedings with Jeff Sparrow's opening ...

They can rail, deflect, deny and downplay all they like, but what's happening in Gaza, Lebanon and the West Bank is there for all to see ...

A reminder: like minds flock together when it comes to the killing fields ...

It's great days in King Donald's America, what with Iran so docile and the bonespurs-clad warrior ready to take a triumphal march through his new arch ... and even better days for Scottish independence...