How could the pond resist the burley in the water offered by chunks of Caterism and our Henry?

 

Much in the manner of Jeffrey Barnard, the pond is unwell, but couldn't resist the Friday feast on offer ...

First up was the meretricious Merritt in the highly desired far right position of the digital edition, continuing the endless rape of Higgins in the lizard Oz ...

The pond only notes this so it could note Margaret Simons' aside while reviewing the Lehrmann matter ...

Not under examination by Justice Michael Lee was the conduct of The Australian, but in the wider Lehrmann imbroglio, we have seen its columnist Janet Albrechtsen become a player, rather than a mere reporter. She is accused of “infecting” the head of an inquiry with bias.
And now, while accepting Lee’s finding that on the balance of probabilities Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins, she is seriously suggesting that this young woman, the victim of a traumatising crime, should be referred to the National Anti-Corruption Commission over the money she received from the commonwealth by way of compensation.
The headline on Albrechtsen’s piece says that Lee had “put all parties in their place”. He didn’t put her in her place – but I suspect only because her conduct was not relevant to the matters he had to decide.

Well yes, and the rest of the rabid pack too, but none of the clown show - Seven, Ten or the reptiles of Oz, especially Dame Slap - have emerged from the affair with any dignity.

And that reminded the pond of the note it made about Jack Shafer discussing the Murdochian business model ... 

A new example came to light in The Graudian, involving Hugh Grant's need to settle rather than drag the UK reptiles through the court ...

Is this the first time the Sun has settled in this manner?
No. Hundreds of cases have been settled by the Sun’s parent company this way, relating to both the newspapers still being published and the defunct News of the World.
Many of the people who accepted settlements said they did not feel justice had been done as they were unable to air their evidence in open court and have a judge rule on the veracity of their allegations.
The actor Sienna Miller reluctantly accepted a large financial settlement over her claims of phone hacking at the Sun. She said in 2021: “I wanted to go to trial. I wanted to expose the criminality that runs through the heart of this corporation.” Despite being a successful film actor, Miller said she could not afford the “countless millions of pounds to spend on the pursuit of justice” required to take the case to trial.

It's the business model. Carry on like ratbags, then offer to settle as a way of avoiding the mud emerging into light ...

Never mind, who else was keeping the meretricious Merritt company this day ...

This day it's Ben droning on about the missiles, while that talk of hospital crisis is a new angle, better than the one offered up yesterday ...

Wasn't Mike sacked for sundry bits of outrageous behaviour? Still his offer to enlist and serve on the front line was a brave gesture. We need more sedentary males to lead the way ...

As always, the infallible Pope had the ideal solution to the defence crisis ...

And so to search for other treats ...

Not just our Henry, but the Caterist on a Friday ... blathering on in the usual way about green dreams, as opposed to current global warming nightmares ...

Sorry George, sorry Ben, sorry, for some bizarre reason jolly Joe telling the lizards of Oz readership about the trains to Scranton, while the reptiles continue to ignore the real entertainment in the US, whether it be the trials of the orange Jesus or the young earth creationist in hot water, or the GOP gone full Vlad the Sociopath lovers ...

And so to the pond's attempt to renew interest in the Caterist blathering on about renewables ...

A simple question to the Caterist? How much will this climate-change miracle cost us? You know, that talk of average world incomes to drop by nearly a fifth in 2050, not that the pond will much mind, not being around to see it ...

Sorry, of course, how silly of the pond, climate science is merely a cult or perhaps a religion or perhaps both, and so the Caterist continued ...

The pond isn't going to argue, it's enough to feature the Caterist in full flight, but the reptiles did perform one service, which was to help identify Josh.

Why, there might be some who wander around Malvern or Toorak and might bump into Josh without the first clue as to what he looks like.

Carry this handy guide with you at all times ...

Now you know what Josh looks like, head off to Camberwell market and say hello ... mention Petey boy is having one for the family, and he might knock down a used toy cheap ... while the pond carries on with the frothing and foaming Caterist ...

Chris Leithner? Well he's a newbie in Caterist circles, but any port in a storm, and there were plenty of graphs, and a comment that set the tone ...

Another excellent summation and analysis Chris.

If only the climate alarmist lemmings would pay attention!

Or perhaps this one ...

We shall continue to squander valuable time and taxpayer money on pushing this crazy agenda.

Roll on the bleaching and the crazy agenda of a year's downpour of rain in a day ... and the pond only provided the link because of course the link in that last gobbet wasn't to Leithner, it was to another piece in the lizard Oz, an epic groan by Dame Groan, because the reptiles simply can't stand anyone leaving the hive mind for a nanosecond ...

Sadly, the new chum didn't score a snap like Gary Banks...

...and then it was on to the final gobbet ...

What could go wrong? Well they could put a hack like the Caterist in a position where he might have some power, and even worse, attempt to do more than floodwaters in quarries whispering.

Now to be fair, at least the Caterist referenced former chairman Rudd. What reliably astonishes the pond is the way that chairman Gough still carries on serving as a reptile bête noire close to Satanism for the reptiles of Oz.

It's  interesting because of what it suggests about the reptile graphic. 

Does anyone under thirty know or care? Do they rush off and hide as the hole in the bucket man shouts "be good, or Chairman Gough will get you"? The Babadook maybe, but that boogeyman is going on a decade already, while Gough is wreathed in the mysteries of time ...

It was as good a reason as any to get out of bed and hunch over the computer ... though the thesis - never give a Palestinian an inch, they're all despicable Arabs, they're just terrifying animals - was just par for the bucket repairman's course ...

Incidentally the pond loved this headline in the NY Times ... it had a very black knight feel to it ...

It was just an oopsie daisy?

And meanwhile Haaretz was celebrating the next oopsie in the woiks ...

At this point the reptiles slipped in a snap of the demonic figure so that those under thirty had some idea what the hole in the bucket man was furiously scribbling about ...

Before getting on to more period rage with our Henry - where's Thucydides when he's needed? - there were a couple of other items the pond would like to mention.

Did everybody note that hugely comic story about the oscillating fan, per Crikey ... Peter van Onselen named new Daily Mail Australia political editor (paywall).

Not that the pond ever paid any attention, but the pond will miss missing him ...

Former Liberal staffer and Sky News Australia host Peter van Onselen is the new political editor of Daily Mail Australia, a surprise move that generated chortles across the media industry.

Van Onselen is an industry veteran, and has spent more than two decades in politics and journalism academia on top of his media obligations. But it’s safe to say Daily Mail Australia adopts a different tone to the outlets he’s worked at previously.

At the time of writing, Daily Mail Australia’s trending Australian politics section featured articles such as “The correct way to pronounce Anthony Albanese’s Italian last name” and “Annastacia Palaszczuk shares meal and wine with surgeon boyfriend”. The top story was an article from the last federal election about how the eastern European nation of Albania was “DELIGHTED” at Labor’s win, because Albanese “means Albanian in Italian”. 

Indeed, at a recent panel on the use of generative AI in journalism, Daily Mail Australia’s executive editor Barclay Crawford went in to bat for what was described by ABC news boss Justin Stevens as “junk journalism” that was “chasing views over trust”. In claiming that media companies “need eyeballs” and “a lot of stuff people read isn’t great investigative journalism”, Crawford went on to claim Google Search was skewed in favour of left-leaning outlets such as Guardian Australia. 

Van Onselen has not been immune to Daily Mail Australia’s particular style of reporting. At the last federal election, the outlet ran a story about van Onselen’s incorrect predictions, the headline for which asked whether he had “the kiss of death”. The publication also ran multiple stories on van Onselen’s on-air admission he had forgotten to vote. 

Crikey contacted van Onselen about why he took the job, whether he was looking to improve Daily Mail Australia’s coverage, and whether there had been any conversations with Daily Mail Australia as to whether he does indeed have “the kiss of death”. Crikey also asked whether he would continue his teaching positions — van Onselen is listed as the unit coordinator for a masters-level course at The University of Western Australia called “The Business of Politics”, and is also a professor of policy at Griffith University. 

Van Onselen did not respond in time for publication.

The pond rarely links to the Daily Snail, fascist rag of the 1930s, but thanks to Crikey, the pond did visit this one ...

Does Peter van Onselen have the kiss of death? How political guru predicted the 'future of Australian politics' in a single photo... and got it VERY wrong

• van Onselen posted a picture of Josh Frydenberg and Christian Porter in 2020 
• He hailed them as 'future of the Liberal Party' - but both now out of Parliament
• Critics resurfaced  tweet along with flawed 2019 and 2022 election predictions
• van Onselen says he made the leadership prediction as swipe at Scott Morrison 

That Josh, he's everywhere ... and there was this one ...

Peter van Onselen, the Political Editor of Network 10, left his colleagues shocked on election night by confessing he'd forgotten to vote.

The high-profile journalist and academic, 46, made the startling admission live on air on Saturday as the results of the federal election trickled in.

'Sandra, I just realised I forgot to vote,' he told his co-host Sandra Sully, as the entire panel gasped, 'What!?' 

So farewell oscillating fan, and the pond must now return to our Henry having his usual conniptions, because, dontchakno he's a terribly learned chappie ...

One other read the pond should note, Arwa Mahdawi's Will the ‘cancel culture’ crowd speak up about the silencing of Asna Tabassum? Don’t hold your breath. It featured a bit of cancelling and inter alia ...

...What exactly did Tabassum say on social media? The issue appears to be a link on her Instagram page – which the student says she posted five years ago – to a slideshow written by someone else urging people “to learn about what’s happening in Palestine”. Part of this document – which, again, is not written by Tabassum –describes Zionism as “a racist settler-colonial ideology that advocates for a Jewish ethnostate built on Palestinian land”. Another part of the presentation argues that the only way towards justice is the abolition of the state of Israel and the creation of one Palestinian state where “both Arabs and Jews can live together without an ideology that specifically advocates for the ethnic cleansing of one of them”.

It’s perfectly valid to debate, and take offence, at the substance of the content Tabassum linked to. But cancelling her speech under the vague pretext of “safety” is disingenuous. Let’s be very clear: if Tabassum were pro-Israel and her Instagram linked to any of the very many genocidal things that the Israeli government had said about Palestinians, there is little chance her speech would have been cancelled. Jared Kushner, let’s not forget, was just at Harvard advocating for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. (Kushner said that he thought Israel should move civilians out of Gaza into the desert while it “cleans up” the strip. He added that the Palestinians should absolutely not have their own state and mused that waterfront property in Gaza could be very valuable.)

As Tabassum has noted, if this was about her safety, USC could have just hired security guards. Rather, she said in a statement, cancelling her speech seems to be about silencing her voice lest she – who, again, is a student minoring in the resistance to genocide program USC offers – say anything about the continuing genocide in Gaza.

“I am not surprised by those who attempt to propagate hatred,” Tabassum said in the statement. “I am surprised that my own university – my home for four years – has abandoned me.”

I am not surprised. While Palestine has always been a fraught issue, the suppression of pro-Palestinian voices has gone into overdrive after the Hamas attack on 7 October. Speak up about the genocide in Gaza, and you are likely to lose a job, an opportunity, or find yourself smeared as an extremist. In November, the artist Ai Weiwei, who had a show in London cancelled after tweeting about the war in Gaza, wryly noted that censorship in the west was “sometimes even worse” than what he faced growing up in Mao Zedong’s China. “Today I see so many people by giving their basic opinions, they get fired, they get censored,” he told Sky News. “This has become very common.”

People who support the attacks on Gaza seem free to say the most depraved and racist things possible about Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians without facing any consequences whatsoever. The comedian Sarah Silverman, for example, shared (and later deleted) an online post arguing that it was OK to cut off water to the entire population of Gaza, which is very much a war crime. Her career has faced no consequences. A long list of American politicians have openly called for Palestinians to be slaughtered without seeing any real pushback to their speech. The British TV presenter Rachel Riley recently falsely blamed Palestinians for the stabbing attack in Sydney and has faced no career consequences at all.

In the current climate, a US politician can call for Gaza to be “nuked” without being censured

The proliferation of dehumanizing language about Muslims and Palestinians has had violent consequences: there has been a rise in anti-Arab and anti-Muslim hate crimes across the US, including reported offenses on college campuses. There has also been a rise in antisemitism: a very real problem that shouldn’t be minimized or tolerated. What also shouldn’t be tolerated are the dangerous attempts by pro-Israel extremists to label any remotely pro-Palestinian speech, or any criticism of Israel’s actions, as automatically antisemitic.

All that might not seem to have much to do with the hole in bucket man and his topic for the day, but please note that line People who support the attacks on Gaza seem free to say the most depraved and racist things possible about Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians ... 

At the very end of the very last gobbet the pond will offer correspondents the chance to do a thought experiment ...

James Crawford? Well he's no Thucydides, but at least he got a snap ...

The pond is inclined to self-congratulations at not having mentioned the ongoing genocide, the war crime of using famine to wage war, the war crime of collective punishment, and the crime of the reptiles in not providing the pond with distracting entertainment ...

If the reptiles won't do it, the pond will have to do it itself ...

It was by Ginny Hogan, and you can find Trump’s Hush Money Trial Is Peak Manhattan outside the Daily Beast paywall by following the link, which means the pond only needs to offer a teaser...

..So far, this case has been Peak Manhattan. The charges themselves are a mix between very serious election interference and a salacious episode of Sex and the City. Mostly election interference, okay! I know it’s a really big deal.

But still, it’s not inaccurate to call this the Sluttiest of the Trump Trials. If all you knew about Manhattan was from television, you might assume sleeping with adult film stars and then paying them to shut up about it was commonplace in this city. And honestly, it could be! I’m from Manhattan myself and I’ve never done it, but I can’t speak for all of us.

The jury selection, so far, has also felt like a Manhattan cliche. Specifically, how busy Manhattan-dwellers are.

I know, I know: people are busy everywhere. However, there’s data suggesting New Yorkers do work longer hours to pay their exorbitant living expenses, and Manhattan remains the most expensive place in the nation.

Those long, grueling hours of just existing as a New Yorker have already been on display for this jury selection.

There was the prospective juror who responded to a question about his hobbies with “I have no spare time.” There was the one multi-tasker who listened to NPR in the shower. There were several prospective jurors who praised Trump for another peak-New Yorker trait: bluntness.

And there’s Trump himself, who reportedly dozed off on both days of his trial: in the city that never sleeps, take your naps when you can get ‘em.

These people are busy, and Judge Merchan is respecting their time. Many were concerned jury selection could take weeks, but Merchan says he hopes to begin opening arguments Monday. This is a slutty trial full of busy people with other places to be. This is Peak Manhattan.

“If all you knew about Manhattan was from television, you might assume sleeping with adult film stars and then paying them to shut up about it was commonplace in this city.”

With one exception. At this point, despite the power nap, I would not say Trump is at his Peak Manhattan.

He’s maybe the most famous person in the world, so it’s no longer fair for Manhattan to claim him as our personal villain. But he once was.

Before he haunted the world, he haunted the borough. The tacky Fifth Avenue Trump Tower. The ads he took out calling for the death penalty against the wrongly accused Central Park Five. The millions of dollars he’s fleeced from taxpayers and stiffed contractors. The unreasonably-priced tiny ice skating rink (which severed ties with Trump after Jan. 6, but—to be fair—has continued to charge unreasonable prices).

Those aren’t Trump’s worst offenses by a mile, and they haven’t been for a long time. But it is the same man.

To an extent, this case feels like a throwback to an earlier version of Trump. And it is—the alleged crimes took place before he was elected. Unfortunately, I worry that works against it—that the Manhattan vibes of the case undermine it.

Of course, Trump is obviously guilty; Michael Cohen literally already went to jail for related crimes. But I understand why people think that of all the Trump cases, this one is the most trivial or the least likely to hurt his election chances. I worry his crimes simply fit the perceived norm for a rich Manhattan businessman.

Still, I think there’s a reason to be optimistic. I would argue we can position this case to hurt Trump in a unique way.

That ultra-Manhattan version of him is still there—maybe this case can remind everyone that he’s still a wealthy, entitled New York businessman who doesn’t care who he has to step on to succeed. And that means he’s not some kind of Rust Belt hero who cares about nothing but saving the auto industry in Ohio. That means he’s not a working-class icon who will start making his billionaire friends pay taxes.

This is a Peak Manhattan case about a Peak Manhattan asshole.

The pond really does prefer "arsehole", it's what the pond grew up on, but speaking of bigots and arseholes, on to that thought experiment arising in the hole in the bucket man's final gobbet ...

Now imagine transposing those lines, so that they talked about the gradual but alarming increase in the size of the Jewish population in Australia, whether or not they formed "ghettos", and the way it would alter domestic politics, transforming our Henry and the rest of the slavering, slobbering reptiles into hounds baying at the progressive forces set loose in Dover Heights and Elwood, and now, five decades later, after they were shipped over, when nobody really wanted them, because they looked like something out of a Nazi poster, we are paying the price for being surrounded by despicable Jews.

Just a thought experiment, or a way perhaps of spotting a bigot ...

And now to end with the immortal Rowe, sorting out defence matters. The pond must rush to book Sam Neill because you don't get Russian accents like that every day of the week ...

In which the pond joins slackers Riddster and Lloydie of the Amazon and only allows the bromancer to drone on ...

 

The pond is in a state of pending anxiety, because the reptiles are about to enter peak jingoism season ... but for the moment, all is relatively quiet, with more raging by the reptiles about defence - a routine that the pond is now inured to by dint of repetition ... what with the war on China always expected to arrive by next Xmas ...

Eric occupied the top far right digital spot, urging on the benefits of huge monopolies, something the reptiles know a little about, while petulant Peta had the cheek to turn up and blather about old hatreds and nations of tribes, and never mind her work for the tribal onion muncher.

So it was the usual red card for petulant Peta and if the pond wanted a lesson on old hatreds it would turn to Wilcox to sort them out ...

The pond's only hope that something, Micawber-style, might turn up in the commentary below the fold ...

Sheesh, petulant Peta on a loop, and more banging on about defence, including the lizard Oz editorialist grasping the nettle, which only reminded the pond of the nettles that used to litter Tamworth, and which only a fool would grasp...

Why do the reptiles keep yearning for the apocalypse? Cue the infallible Pope this day...

Enough of the genocide and the apocalypse already, and another thing ...

The pond has complained before and will complain again, where's some of that good old fashioned IPA Riddster science? Why has Lloydie of the Amazon turned into a compleat slacker?

Think back a little and remember the good old days of the Riddster delivering the very best science ...

Um, the pond probably shouldn't have left the Riddster on that last line, because his celebration has aged tremendously well ...

Old news now, but how the pond yearns for the Riddster to return to put the likes of The Graudian and The Conversation and the cardigan wearers back in their box ...

Another thing. Note the way that the trials and the suffering and the persecution of the orange Jesus don't even rate a mention in the headlines?

How's the pond going to segue to a Colbert routine with comical illustrations? How to sing along to waking up in Mar-a-lago?

Why is there no lead-in act that could allow the pond to offer a Luckovich?

Why is there no news from Magaville? 

Why must the pond turn to The Bulwark for news of what happens when foolish dogs finally catch the car?

And then there's the young earth creationist and funding for Ukraine - long live Vlad the sociopath - and MTG and more bombs for Israel and so on and so forth ...

And with the greatest respect, that's not a postcard, this is a postcard ...

Okay, okay, the pond has turned into a slacker and a shirker, down there with Lloydie and the Riddster, so now might be the right turn to apologise for the unseemly number of correspondent notes that are heading off to the pond's spam bin ...

Unfortunately the pond has no control over blogger's settings in this area, and unfortunately once sent to the spam trap, it might take days for them to surface and for the pond note them and publish them, and by that time, the caravan has well and truly moved on. 

This also means there's some repetition because some correspondents try again, and manage to evade the spam trap, and the pond is too lazy to go back and see if there's been a duplication.

What a dull day, and enough with the house-keeping already.

Perhaps the best way is simply to finish off with the bromancer droning on about defence - why accept substitutes of the Langford or Stewart kind, why take the rest when you can have the best? - thereby offering a way for correspondents to also take time off ...

Those who've hung around the pond for some time will recognise the same old manic-depressive routine offered by the bromancer...and not even a mention of the four-card trick, revealing something about the bro's childhood, could lift the pond's spirits ...

It wasn't so long ago that the bro was in a manic phase, triggered by AUKUS, the subs and the chance to nuke the country ...

Here's a sample from the wild-eyed enthusiasm days, as recent as 18th March 2023 (sorry, the pond doesn't link to the reptiles as it tries to avoid linking to paywalls) ...

Sure there were conspiracies - there always are in bro world - but there was the bro, happily bigging up a hypothetical future.

Now he's taken to endlessly droning on about drones, such that the pond almost begins to look forward to Friday and a bout of Thucydides with our Henry ...

Indeed, indeed, we do live in an age of drones, and the bromancer droning on is an even better sedative than sipping on a serve of Celestial Seasonings Happy Crime Herbal Tea (caffeine free) ...

Luckily there was just a gobbet to go, and the pond realises it's been slack and offered short weight, but tomorrow is another day ...

Um, perhaps nuke the subs and go full drone?

Never mind, at least the bromancer provided a segue into the immortal Rowe of the day ...

And Golding had just the gadget for the bro's needs ...

mein gott, there's much to entertain entertaining correspondents in this outing, and there's a nattering "ned" too ...

 

What to do with a woman who on all the probabilities has been raped in her boss's office - according to a learned judge running a lion's den? 

Why you keep on symbolically and metaphorically raping her for as long as you can ...

The pond should honour the source of that EXCLUSIVE, spotted last night...

Well played Dudders, you've duddered on for months, and still the pond doesn't dive into the duddering pool, but here's a cartoon for you ...

And here's another EXCLUSIVE that was recently at the top of the digital edition that the pond won't be covering ...

Renewables. Almost as inexhaustible a reptile topic as a raped woman. Well played Rachel, but really where's Lloydie of the Amazon and the Riddster when they're urgently needed, to help explain away all talk of world bleaching events and unseemly temperatures?

And so to today's reptile edition ...

The pond notes that Dudders was still top of the page this morning, while the bromancer occupied the much desired far right position, but the pond decided to red card the fueler of ancient hatreds, because "Ned" had hovered into view, and the pond knew its duty ...

A quick check below the fold confirmed the pond had made the right choice ...

The reptiles thought so much of "Ned" that they had given him two slots, while the pond could only note with disdain that yet again Jimbo had turned up to help the Chairman's paywall ... and does he help out punters not behind the paywall, keen to discover the government of the day's thinking? 

Sorry, the last 'opinion piece' on his very up to date website appeared on 23rd July 2023 ... but the Chairman thanks him for his service ...

Meanwhile, if you believe simple Simon and Claire (the one without the cackle) we should be cool, so the pond could ignore Parker's and Kilcullen's attempts to distract from the ongoing genocide by famine  with their blather about China and Iran...

Enough already with the headlines, and thanks to the splendid burst of correspondent notes yesterday, the pond is convinced it's on a winner with its Mein Gott offerings.

He's prolific to the point of profligate and if you enjoyed him as a defence expert, you must love him as an economics tipster up there with the best of Dame Groan's groaning ...

The reptiles knew that Mein Gott knew wot was wot, so they helped out by flinging in snaps of mighty stock exchanges and even mightier arcades, full of symbolic meaning ...

What a pity they didn't have an immortal Rowe to hand to help with the shopping fever ...

meanwhile, back with mein gott, there are many reasons to enjoy his work ... not least the banning of capitals ...

mein gott, there will be some that might need decoding what "embracing the need for diversity" actually means.

some might have taken it for dangerous radical fully woke d.i.e. stuff, d.e.i. if you must, but relax, it just means embracing the diversity of nuking the country, salivating over sweet innocent coal and and enjoying in major bloodnok style, the pleasure of emitting gases ...

you know, if you look closely, you can see lovable clean dinkum virginal coal still diligently at work everywhere ...

mein gott, you might exclaim,  in all this, not a mention of the singular truth about the state of affairs in the marketplace?

Perhaps you might like the Graudian or the Forbes editor with that ...

Back to Mein Gott ...(not using capitals gets wearing after a time).

Is that not as good a cry of despair, a Ginsbergian howl into the wilderness, as any Dame Groan has produced?

In the spirit of the pond's correspondents, the pond offers this as a cure for impending poverty ...

Of course it has nothing to do with Mein Gott, but the pond will always find an excuse to honour Carl Barks, and besides, Mein Gott was worn out and only had a short gobbet left in him, crying out yet again that we'll all be rooned, though perhaps not to the extent of the famine in Gaza ...

And so, economy wrecked because of a woke lack of diversity, the pond must tackle the Everest known as "Ned", in full Quad ranter mode ...

Warning, there will be cartoons. The pond can't expect anyone to make it to the top of the "Ned" Everest without a few 'toons at way stations ...

But isn't sleepy Don, Don Snoreleone, if you will, a creature of Faux Noise? 

Hasn't the emeritus chairman and his minions done everything they could to sell the snake-oil salesman's snake oil, including but not limited to his sleepy time ways?

Why, he's done so much for the elephants ...

Sorry, back to the grinding climb, one grim foot after another on the trudge towards the top, and warning, there will be dastardly progressives along the way ...

Ah, the end of history man ... and just to emphasise the point, the reptiles offered a huge snap of a man who managed in spectacular fashion to get much wrong, and therefore suitable for quotation by "Ned", always adept at getting much wrong himself ...

The pond would have preferred an infallible Pope reference, which takes in most of the reptiles ...

Back to the trudging, and be assured, there is an end to this bloviating Everest, the end is almost in reach ...

Dear sweet long absent lord, still banging on about the Voice, and still incapable of comprehending all the gifts Faux Noise lavished on the United States, the very same malarkey that Sky after dark would lavish down under if they could just find the numbers ...

At this point, the reptiles helped out "Ned" with a huge snap of Vlad the sociopath, beloved of the Donald and the GOP ...

Luckily the pond had a cartoon to help out with that ...

And so to the last gobbet, which reveals that the pond wasn't joking about "Ned" having turned Quad ranter ... there it was, as bold as brass at the end of the gobbet, though you had to wade through some pompous, portentous claptrap to get there...

Confront the source of the problem? 

The day that "Ned" does a takedown of the Emeritus Chairman, Faux Noise and Sky after dark is the day that the pond can stop delivering reminders of the work and deeds and thoughts of the evil Empire ... and their creations ...

And for those still wanting to Barks at the moon, the pond believes if you click on this you can see the earlier panel in a larger context ...