(Images: AP/Alex Brandon/Private Media)

Trump card Donald Trump’s ascension to — and then time in — office was so chaotic, so unbeholden to mainstream ideas of politics and strategy, so unfettered by traditional ideas of basic intelligence that it was hard to tell if he was an extremely smart 4D chess player or an extremely stupid grifter in over his head.

We feel the events of yesterday conclusively answer this conundrum: he’s a political genius.

There are two Erics leading the Missouri Republican primary for the Senate race: Greitens and Schmitt, both of whom have campaigned hard on MAGA talking points. So who would Trump back? He put out a statement saying he was “proud to announce that ERIC has my Complete and Total Endorsement!” In a further act of genius, when asked to clarify his team would only say the “endorsement speaks for itself.”

As you can imagine, both Schmitt and Greitens agree that the object of endorsement is clear: it’s them:

Our interpretation is that Trump is actually supporting little-known Eric McElroy whose candidate Facebook page has six followers and will surely appreciate the endorsement.

Mark his words Here in the bunker we’re always happy to give credit where it is due, and doubly so when credit is due to us. Yesterday we predicted that whatever difficulties Western Australian emperor Premier Mark McGowan may face, he would be grateful for the profoundly stupid court case where he and Clive Palmer sued one another for defamation. After all, who could have a reputation fight with Palmer and not come away looking better — if only by comparison?

And it turns out Justice Michael Lee agrees, saying in his Federal Court decision that McGowan’s claim of reputational damage “collided head-on with the objective facts”:

… I accept the submission of Mr Palmer that, notwithstanding any presumption that might arise from the extent of publication and the seriousness of the imputations carried, the evidence establishes the inconsequential impact of the publications upon Mr McGowan’s reputation. Indeed, it is more likely that Mr McGowan’s reputation was enhanced. As the coverage Mr McGowan celebrated with Mr Stokes revealed, and as his language in the Cross-Claim Matters made plain, they provided a common foe against which Mr McGowan could unite Western Australians. As Mr McGowan accepted, Mr Palmer was someone with whom Mr McGowan was ‘happy to have a blue with’. (emphasis added)

As is appropriate for such an agreeably pointless exercise, it was found both parties defamed one another.

A good deal Diggers and Dealers, Australia’s leading mining forum, concludes today and it actually has a record three female speakers, bringing female speakers to a grand total of five out of about 70-odd. The sponsors have crammed in several women as panel chairs to make it look a bit better. Maybe worth congratulating Diggers and Dealers for getting the gender ratio up to three out of 25 in one day, a new record?

Meanwhile the objectification of women continues there and the mining industry has a plague of rape and sexual harassment.

Come come, Mr Bond, you value an intersectional point of view just as much as I do We don’t wish to imply that representation is the be-all and end-all. Diggers and Dealers will be a forum for the furthering of an industry that unchecked will eventually make this planet uninhabitable regardless of how successfully it lowers the ratio of white cishet male speakers who appear there. Indeed, MI6 head chief Richard Moore has given us an all-timer in the other direction: the strange compulsion of intelligence agencies in recent years to show a human face. In this case, he wants to celebrate the south Asian contingent of Britain’s international intelligence agency, quoting “S”: “At #MI6 my intersectionality is my superpower.”

We’re sure those Libyan dissidents MI6 handed over to Muammar Gaddafi so they could be tortured will agree: this celebration of diversity is a gamechanger.

A Hotmail type of Guy ” ‘Hey MG, here’s the proposed agreement…” [Mitch] Catlin wrote, in an email obtained by The Age, sent to [Matthew] Guy’s private Hotmail account. Hang on! Matthew Guy’s whatttt? Did he upgrade from Dodo? Is he the One.Tel dude? People are right. These revelations will destroy his chances. Ask not for whom the dial-up goes dweeeeeeee- bdoink bdoink nurgggggggh, it goes dweeeeeeee for thee. Hopefully the Victorian opposition leader can clarify all this on his upcoming Geocities chat.