(Image: Private Media)

Devine mysteries With its direct-to-DVD horror-film-from-2006 title and homoerotic photography exhibition cover, Laptop from Hell is the latest chapter in Miranda Devine’s obsessive coverage of US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

The book purports to tell the story of the laptop a “drug-addled” Biden abandoned at a Mac repair shop in 2019 and, in so doing, tell us “what China knows about the Bidens”. It further claims a conspiracy by big tech and the media to suppress the awful truth about the first family.

But the laptop story has been knocking about for a while: back in 2020, then Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani shopped the story around, and after Fox News passed on it due to “credibility issues” (yep, that Fox News) he went to the New York Post because “either nobody else would take it, or if they took it they would spend all the time they could to try to contradict it before they put it out”.

The original reporter was so embarrassed they took their name of it. And while Trump bleated about the media failing to cover it, that wasn’t strictly true — the media covered it plenty, largely pointing out the many, many issues with the story. But hey, we’re sure that Devine, fresh from regaling Tucker Carlson with anecdotes of how much money people will spend on Hunter’s garbage artwork, has uncovered some new stuff.

You better watch out Well, we didn’t get into this game to be popular. This week we were politely informed we weren’t able to be “accommodated” at last night’s Christmas drinks event at the Lodge (it’s apparently more for people who “regularly talk” to the PM but I mean … we’ve been trying, guys …). Ditto a shooting event organised by Bridget McKenzie’s office.

On top of all that, we’re literally not on the PM’s Christmas list. Many other publications in the gallery received a Christmas card from the prime minister’s office (which is kind of weird, but anyway …) but not us. Is this all because we started the trend of out-and-out calling the prime minister a liar? Or because we mused aloud about what it takes to actually get fired from such a corrupt and incompetent outfit? Are you guys really still mad about that?

Fantastic. Great Move. Well Done. It’s a sign of the sheer shamelessness of this government that you could send any minister out to spruik the “anti-trolling” bill designed to unmask anonymous social media accounts… and you pick Angus sodding Taylor.

You may remember that back in 2019 Taylor set the gold standard in “commenting on your own post clearly believing you’re using an anonymous alt-account” when he brightly announced on one of his own Facebook posts: “Fantastic. Great move. Well done Angus.”

Photo bomb Another in the strange genre of politicians aiming for “relatable” content and landing instead in the Uncanny Valley bloomed over the weekend, with Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese and Victorian Labor leader Dan Andrews apparently having a nice little barbecue together.

But a few things stood out: the distinctly office-y clothes they were wearing, the lack of beer and — most damning of all — the lack of char marks on the meat. This formed the basis for Coalition MP Jason Woods pulling out the old “many people are saying this is fake” line on Facebook. The BBQ truther movement has encountered some dissent, though, with a counter-movement arguing that it’s actually that there’s a hot plate section on this BBQ just off screen, and the steaks were moved for the sake of the shot. It’s still far from the dumbest conspiracy theory we’ve heard regarding Andrews.