Abandoned, but not shaken or stirred, because there's always rodent Jennie, hausfrau Angelic one, and the "Ned" Everest to climb...

 

To begin the Sunday with one mournful tragedy ... skip past the cracking Crace celebrating the triumph of Brexit, a genuine achievement, forget the heart attack, see the true suffering ...

...what is my contribution to AI? What will future generations unknowingly learn from me? From Vertigo: One Football Fan’s Fear of Success they will learn that being a Spurs fan is a life sentence in disappointment. And it is the hope that finishes you off.

Hope even goner than when he scribbled it, trampled on by Liverpool - yes, the pond has become fixated on his fixations.

To continue the Sunday with another mournful tragedy ...

At last ... a chance to put aside the gibbering orange orangutang, a chance to take a time out with prattling Polonius, sure to seize the chance to ravage the ABC on the Lattouf matter for the pond's Sunday meditation.

The pond refused to break the rule about not discussing matters before the court when it came to the dog botherer ravaging the ABC, but not Polonius. 

Anything goes for him, the pond for him will always bend the knee.

Say what? It's the pond's 'Spurs moment?

Devastation and desolation, inconsolable grief.

Polonius has done a Henry, gone AWOL, is MIA. 

Last he was heard from was back on 18th January with Libertarian Zuckerberg finds common cause with Trump on free expression, He supported Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden against Donald Trump, but the tech titan seems to have shifted his support, welcoming an end to the woke censorship of different viewpoints.

He celebrated the cuck allegedly "libertarian" suck Zuck - only in Polonius's dream world of oligarchic billionaires donating to the Sydney Institute - and then he vanished into the wilderness, disappeared into the hive mind like a puff of smoke in I Married a Witch ...

Oh well never mind, there must be something to take the pond's mind off the Time debacle. 

This one ...Trump Has Memory Lapse on Time Magazine After Musk Cover Art (Beast via Yahoo)

Oh dear, could this precipitate the split? It clearly required an astonishing memory lapse ...

Never mind, salvation was at hand. 

There she was ... hovering into view, Jennie "the rat in the rank" George, rabbiting on about renewables as only she can, and it's only a three minute read ...

Our energy transition needs a serious rethink, The opportunities for a reset and a plan B should have been taken earlier. Instead, Labor doubled down as it presided over ever-increasing power prices.

Naturally the piece had to begin with a snap of Satan's main helper, Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen during question time at Parliament House in Canberra this week. Picture: Martin Ollman

The reptiles flung a lot of snaps at rat Jennie to offer distractions from her mind-numbing monomania...

There’s no better example of the consequences and folly of Labor’s “Reliable Renewables Plan” than the construction of a gas import terminal at Port Kembla.
We’re losing our comparative advantage in cheap energy, having enjoyed some of the world’s lowest gas and electricity prices thanks to our abundance of coal and gas.
We’re now paying some of the world’s highest costs, despite being the world’s largest coal exporter and second-largest gas exporter. It makes no sense.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen is the master of obfuscation and spin, recently explaining: “I’m not about to walk away, and the government is not about to walk away, from our ambitions to make energy as cheap as possible for Australians, and that includes getting more renewable energy, which is the cheapest form of energy available.”

There followed a snap, Squadron Energy is building Port Kembla Energy Terminal (PKET), which is Australia’s first LNG import terminal and the only gas import terminal under construction.

The pond was reminded of that excellent example of the consequences and folly of Jennie's obsession ...Copernicus: January 2025 was the warmest on record globally, despite an emerging La Niña, the one with the map ...

A fine hot January pickle ... never no mind to rodent Jennie ...

Fine sentiments. Who could disagree with the need for cheap energy?
But it’s not happening.
Labor’s priority is meeting its legislated 2030 targets – the 43 per cent reduction in emissions and a grid functioning on 82 per cent renewables.
The brief of the market operator, AEMO, is to devise the lowest-cost pathway to achieve these targets, as distinct from devising a system that provides the cheapest energy to consumers. That’s precisely why AEMO’s chief executive, at a recent Senate hearing, could not promise that Labor’s transition would lead to lower power prices.
We need to be clear about this important distinction.

The snaps grew in frequency ... AEMO chief executive Daniel Westerman told a Senate hearing he could not promise that Labor’s transition would lead to lower power prices. Picture: Arsineh Houspian

There's no need for the pond to link to endless alternatives. The Graudian has them all assembled under the tag "climate crisis" and a rich abundance there is ...

That Bezos yarn reminded the pond of poor old Eugene Robinson. 

The pond caught him on MSNBC the other day, having his column read out, These Republicans should be ashamed of themselves. (archive)

...The GOP’s failure goes far beyond Senate confirmations. With Trump’s blessing, the unelected and unaccountable Musk is trying to decimate and ultimately destroy the nonpartisan civil service, without a peep of protest from Republicans. Foreign aid programs that long enjoyed bipartisan support have been axed — and only Democrats complain. Trump seizes powers that the Constitution clearly gives to Congress, not the president — and Republicans in Congress pretend not to notice.
Rather than push back, leaders of Trump’s party lavish him with North Korean-style praise. I’m confident that if the top Republicans in Congress were meeting with Trump and the president accidentally spilled Diet Coke on his red necktie, they would all promptly spill Diet Coke on their red neckties, too.

But Gene, Bezos just spilled his climate science denialism onto his balding head, and no amount of Diet Coke can clean it off. Democracy dies in a Bezos darkness ...

Meanwhile, rodent Jennie nibbles away, completely oblivious, doing a serious rethink on how we can fix the climate change trajectory to full on nowhere ...

This should be at the heart of a serious rethink of our future energy trajectory.
This is made more urgent with Donald Trump’s election and the global impact of his energy, trade, tax and tariff policies.
Our power prices will continue going through the roof, while reliability falls and energy poverty grows.
The government will have to provide another taxpayer-funded relief package. However, relying on temporary Band-Aids, subsidies and off-budget opaque funding is no solution to the ever-increasing cost of power.
It’s no wonder Labor refuses to make public its whole-of-system costs for its transition.
Cost-of-living pressures and the failure to deliver the promised $275 cut in power bills by 2025 will loom large in this election.
The Ukraine war affected many countries, but it doesn’t explain why our current prices are among the highest in the world.

Time for another distracting snap, The war in Ukraine, including a drone strike damaging this Kharkiv shopping centre, doesn’t explain why our energy prices are so high. Picture: AFP

By this time, the pond just wanted it to end, but the reptiles kept bulking it up with snaps, and rodent Jennie was determined to get down into the statistical weeds ...

Labor’s blind faith in its modelling has failed it, but it hasn’t learnt the lessons.
The opportunities for a reset and a plan B should have been taken earlier.
Instead, Labor doubled down, as it presided over ever-increasing power prices.
At its December 2021 launch, Labor forecast a cut of $11 per megawatt hour in wholesale electricity prices, reducing them from $62 to $51 by 2025.
AEMO’s average cost for the last quarter of 2024 was $88MWh. This $26MWh increase was 72 per cent higher than Labor’s forecast.
The minister’s promises about cheaper energy are hollow, as are his constant attempts to offload responsibility.
Expect the Ukraine war and coal plants to carry the blame for not meeting Labor’s 2030 targets.
In early March we will know the draft increases in our power bills for the next financial year. Another taxpayer-funded relief package is inevitable.
Labor’s 2035 targets have been deferred till after the election, but don’t forget that the Climate Change Authority, now chaired by former NSW minister Matt Kean, previously circulated a suggested increase in the range of 65-75 per cent. This is sheer fantasy considering the present targets for 2030 won’t be met.

Then came yet another snap, another of Satan's minions, Climate Change Authority chair Matt Kean is hoping for an ambitious 2030 target. Picture: Rohan Kelly

At last the arrival of the visionary King Donald I and the urgent need to fall in line with his imperial presence ...

Trump’s election will certainly have global impacts.
How will our trade-exposed industries, such as steel, handle a more competitive environment with cheaper US energy costs and the new trade, tax and tariff regimes?
Domestically, industry will face rising energy costs, uncertainty about baseload supply and, for many that are trade-exposed, an increased carbon price impost under Labor’s safeguard mechanism.
What impact will this have on investment and jobs in the future?
Of immediate concern is the looming shortfall in domestic supply of gas and its impacts on our manufacturing base and the jobs it provides.

Always with the questions, an elegant way to produce fear and loathing, aided with a snap of the Cantaloupe Caligula, US President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement should trigger a reassessment of our energy future. Picture: AFP

And with that rodent Jennie began her end run. 

It's time to nuke the country with SMRs to save the planet, just like King Donald, though the last time the pond checked, the Donald didn't give a rodent rat's arse about climate change or climate science ...

Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement means a changed global environment necessitating a reassessment of our energy future.
The need for a continuing supply of reliable baseload power has never been more pressing.
Without energy security we can’t sustain our present standards of living, protect our national security and ensure a viable manufacturing base.
Business as usual would have us continuing down the present path to economic calamity. Relying on intermittent, weather-dependent renewables would make industrial-scale supplies of electricity so expensive and insecure that we risk losing out on the new wave of energy-hungry investment. While Labor continues its pretence of a reliable renewables future, Trump envisages small modular nuclear reactors attached to plants and data centres. We’re stuck in the past, constrained by a 26-year ban on emissions-free nuclear energy. If we remain ill-prepared for the energy demands of the new world of AI and data centres, we’re short-changing our future prosperity and our national interest.
Jennie George is a former ACTU president and Labor MP for Throsby.

There's always going to be rats in the ranks, mad hatters off to have tea with white rabbits and King Donald, and how the reptiles love them.

And so to an elegant distraction, the Angelic One's Stay-home mums lose out in Labor’s ‘gender equality’, Current ‘family policy’ isn’t really about families, or even all women. It is about productivity. That is all.

It was a four minute read, so the reptiles said, and it began with a snap of the mistress of sock puppets, now with a new sock puppet to hand, Political commentator Peta Credlin and Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, who has lower levels of popularity among women.

Strange. Given the theme, the pond would have preferred the illustration that accompanied Sophie Elmhirst's story in The New Yorker ...

The Rise and Fall of the Trad Wife, Alena Kate Pettitt helped lead an online movement promoting domesticity. Now she says, “It’s become its own monster.” (archive, might be slow)

Speaking of monsters, the Angelic one almost lost the pond at the get go:

Recently, keen fans of Sky News might have seen an interview Peta Credlin did with political editor Andrew Clennell.

Sorry, the pond isn't a keen fan, hasn't watched a single hour ever, and relies on correspondents for updates, though it's expecting a lot from them, a kind of blood sacrifice, a risk of eyesight loss or irreparable brain damge.

But please tell us what the former PM revealed in her interview (sorry, those who thought the onion muncher was in power entirely miss that 'Uncle Leon sitting behind the desk' point):

At the end of the interview Credlin cited a Freshwater poll about the lower levels of popularity of Peter Dutton among women, in comparison to men.
She asked what he could do to improve this problem.
Clennell answered that perhaps the Liberals needed some policies that appealed to women. Credlin’s response was vigorous. She said special women’s policies were an “insult”, reinforcing this view with: “ … we don’t vote with our vaginas!”
An indelicate image, but the point is, what are women’s special policies? This is a valid point.
Curiously, I thought both commentators made a valid point.
On the broader policy front, the Liberals have not grasped the absolute necessity of having radically different policy aimed at women from the present government.
One area, which is not just for women, but women tend to focus on, is the family.

Ah, the family, time for a snap, Quality and affordable childcare, including the practices in place at the Fraser Coast’s Goodstart Dundowran, is one area of interest for women.

The pond's not feeling it ... surely something like this would have been better, a hint of home schooling in the domestic arts and sciences in a properly fitted out kitchen ...

On the Angelic one ploughed ...

Family policy is for men and women too, but in the past women’s policy was code for family policy. This is especially in regard to the problems of work and family and another part of the equation that usually interests men just as much, childcare and taxation.
So why has women’s policy been used as code for the family, especially by Labor governments? For one reason and only one. Current “family policy” isn’t really about families, or even all women. It is about productivity. That is all.
“Gender equality” is not a “special interest”, “gender equality is a matter of national interest”. Thus said Foreign Minister Penny Wong in her speech on UN International Women’s Day at a parliamentary breakfast in Canberra last Wednesday.
Of course, she is right. Gender equality is not a “special interest”. The only problem is that this government, in line with current economic thinking about getting more women into the workforce, has consistently spent far more time and money on one sort of women’s “gender equality”, over another sort of women’s “gender equality”.

Back for another serve of petulant Peta, looking a bit the worse for wear ...

Sky News host Peta Credlin reveals exclusive details in her one-on-one interview with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton. “He [Dutton] is a really different bloke behind the media portrayal of the two-minute grab,” Ms Credlin said. “It was an extraordinary interview.” The feature will air on Thursday at 6pm AEDT on Sky News Australia.

That set the Angelic one up for another piteous cry of pain ...

Consequently, current childcare subsidies have been increased for families on incomes up to $530,000. And remember that also means two tax-free thresholds.
The only benefit for this generosity is to encourage greater participation of women in the workforce. So mothers who want or need to work outside the home are given a distinct financial advantage over home-care mothers to do so.
Of course, childcare is so expensive, families with two parents working on a moderate income need a subsidy.
But contrast that with families whose mothers cannot or do not want to work for wages.
Most families who have one parent in the home to raise and educate their own children will not receive the childcare benefit.
However, to claim family tax benefits A and B, their family incomes must remain below the thresholds. Benefit A stops (for one child) at $122,190 combined income. For benefit B it’s $117,194.
Some families on very low incomes can claim both benefits, and the childcare subsidy.
The real question is not about gender equality, it is whether the government regards women as fully rounded humans or as units of production.

This produced a snap of one of Satan's minions, glowering away ...Minister for Early Childhood Education Anne Aly, like Anthony Albanese, has praised the work of early educators. Picture: Martin Ollman

The pond was outraged. Think of them as units of production? Neigh, a double neigh, it was proper and fitting and ennobling work, celebrated from time immemorial ...

That sent the Angelic one of on a last, seemingly endless rant about being a cog in an Orwellian machine...

At the same breakfast the Prime Minister gave a speech reinforcing yet again the idea that we women are mere cogs in the great economic scheme of things, saying: “Creating opportunity for women is a matter of national interest. It’s more than a measure of our national fairness – it’s a driver of our national success.
“It grows our workforce, lifts our living standards, boosts productivity, liberates the talent and capacity we need to build Australia’s future.”
He went on to pay due homage to shrinking the “gender pay gap”, although it isn’t ordinary women obsessed with this in a country where men and women receive equal pay.
It is a myth designed to placate the ambitions of the far-Left feminist lobby.
The only reason women have an overall pay gap from men is that they tend to do less work, especially over a lifetime, because if they become mothers, they already have a job and they know it.
Albanese went on to praise the 15 per cent pay rise the government delivered for early educators: “This pay rise is about recognising the value of the work these Australians do.
“Making it clear – as we did with aged care – that the people who bring joy and discovery into the lives of our littlest Australians deserve more than our thanks and praise. They deserve fair pay.”
Oh really? One does not begrudge the workers who look after our children. They deserve decent money.
But where is the reference to mothers who also bring “joy and discovery”?
Like most technocratic pronouncements, the assumption is that if you decide to look after your children yourself you don’t deserve any material compensation, not only for what you might have to give up, but also for what you gladly do every day as a mother, because it is done with the intangible impetus of love.
There has been a small backlash against this attitude of women as units of production. Many women confronted with the inherent inequality of women’s roles in society ask which government will have the guts to give all families the same benefit and let them choose whether to use the funds for their own household costs or to fund childcare.
A more radical idea is to introduce family unit taxation with top-up benefits for low incomes. This is not an inherently Left/Right issue, although the Left is consistent all over the developed world in promoting women as individual workers, rather than whole women.
The result now is very low birthrates and general abandonment of the idea that the family is the most important social unit. To misquote George Orwell: “All families are equal, it’s just some are more equal than others.”

Oh dear, perhaps the man in her life hasn't supplied her with all the up-to-date kitchen necessities for this modern world ...

Enough already.

The pond realised that its correspondents needed more than womyn nattering away, even if it was of the finest 'rodent Jennie, Angelic one' quality. 

Without feeling the need for any consultation, the pond felt hey needed a Polonial substitute, they needed a heavy fix.

But oh dear sweet long absent lord, did they need a "Ned" Everest climb, and even worse "Ned" ascending the same peak that was covered at length yesterday?

Harden up, it's time to leave base camp and endure the climb of Why Donald Trump’s naive plan to ‘own’ Gaza won’t work, Donald Trump has shown the gulf between his position and Anthony Albanese’s, wedging Labor on Palestine. But his plan to ‘own’ Gaza won’t work...and it's ten minutes long, so the reptiles say, enough to test the strength of any correspondent.

At least the pond can save eyeballs from the appalling gif that started the action, just give a hint of its two main uncredited, tragically feeble components...

 

Donald Trump, the great disrupter, has launched the ultimate disruption – proposing the re-making of the Middle East and Gaza in a set of ideas that at face value are imprecise, unworkable, chaotic and present more dangers than they do opportunity.

Those images sent "Ned" off into a rage, or what passes for a Chuck Schumer rage, and once again those who enter will be required to abandon much of everything else, the war on Washington, Uncle Leon, racists and Nazis, mass sackings, mass betrayals, mass court actions, with the killings and deaths in refugee hospitals already begun ...

Bye bye special ed and a host of other programs, killed off by the richest man in the world and a man in the grip of dementia or some potent Uncle Leon hold over him (we can't guess at Vlad the Impaler's hidden fortune, and what's Frost still doing X'ing?).

What the heck, it's been done before, it can be done again ...

Trump’s Gaza gambit shatters the paralysed orthodoxy of Middle East politics. It is the repeated failure of the status quo that drives and justifies Trump’s upheaval. But disruption doesn’t deliver its own reward and Trump, as US President, fails to offer an alternative agenda either feasible or coherent.
Being a disruptive visionary isn’t enough. Visionaries succeed or fail according to the workability of their proposals. Since Trump’s mid-week announcement, the White House and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have been backtracking, revising and clarifying – trying to sort out something remotely feasible. This is not a smart way to run the presidency.
Trump’s vision is worthless without the support of regional nations and tolerance of the Palestinian people.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan are the key nations and all reject Trump’s proposals. But Trump is undeterred. He judges they will be driven into a reassessment by his initiative leading to political progress. And he might be right.
Trump’s fusion of identities has been on display – the compulsive disrupter, the narcissistic strongman, the obsessive deal-maker.
His press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, quickly confirmed what Trump was about – smashing the status quo to shock leaders into more flexible mindsets to negotiate. Leavitt boasted that Trump thinks “outside the box”. She said he was speaking with Arab leaders, that he would be negotiating with them and he was operating from a position of strength.
There are powerful positives in Trump’s agenda – he is determined to end Iran’s use of proxies to destabilise the region.
His executive orders apply “maximum pressure” on Iran, attack its oil exports and mirror Trump’s principle that he “will not tolerate Iran possessing a nuclear weapons capability” – a tough line that will appeal to Arab nations.

An AV distraction did evoke some of the Cantaloupe Caligula's other works and deeds From banning trans athletes in women's sports to moving on birthright citizenship, here's how effective Trump's executive orders can be.

The reptiles clearly felt that "Ned" needed some AV distractions, even if it was just to point out the way that Trump's executive orders thus far had clogged the courts, and sent the US government into paroxysms of fear and loathing and confusion and chaos, producing way more noise than benefits ...

Carry on regardless "Ned" ...

But Trump’s declaration really has two meanings – as a strategy, where it is flawed, and as an ideological message to the world. His ideological message is that the radical pro-Palestinian campaign increasingly focused on displacing the Israeli state with its “from the river to the sea” chants, its push for recognition of a Palestinian state devoid of any viable political authority and coupled with rising anti-Semitism across Western dem­ocracies and progressive culture will be thwarted and resisted with American power and the quest to get Arab nations to re-think their self-interest.
This sentiment will have appeal and an impact on Western politics including in Australia. It will be polarising. The reason Anthony Albanese is being careful – sensibly – is that Trump’s stance turns the differences on the Middle East policy between Labor and Trump into a chasm. This is happening on election eve.
At the precise time Labor is trying to recover its lost ground – talking up the danger of anti-Semitism and moving into a “law and order” mode – it will be caught by having an American President promoting a peace plan it cannot support while striving in the national interest to cement cordial relations with that same American President.
The Greens have launched their denunciation of Trump’s plan, sure to run through the campaign. Liberal leader Peter Dutton hasn’t endorsed Trump’s announcement – that would be folly – but talks up its positives and sends the message that the Coalition is supportive of what Trump wants to achieve.
Albanese can’t stay silent forever. He doesn’t need to respond to everything Trump said; in fact, he shouldn’t. But the gulf with Trump will be obvious and the Trump-­Albanese divide on policy towards Israel – over Gaza, a Palestinian state and funding of UNRWA – will be further highlighted.
The risk for Australia is that ­social, racial and religious tensions will be accentuated.
Trump’s Middle East disruption reveals an unpredictable but almost familiar trait – American presidential hubris. Yes, it’s still alive, it didn’t die with the neo-cons, with Bill Clinton or George W. Bush. Trump isn’t their sort of globalist, but he is fused with the deepest instinct of the presidency – the belief in America’s global manifest destiny as “the indispensable nation” shaping the world order, a doctrine Trump had supposedly consigned to the dustbin of history.
Trump believes in tariffs, transactional politics, cutting deals and avoiding foreign wars – but the compulsive faith in American power still beats in his heart and led him, this week, into a Middle East plan, epic in scope, fantastic in its delusions but rooted, ultimately, in the almost mystical faith that America can still shape the world and, with Trump’s own negotiating genius, turn the impossible into the achievable.

Way past time for another AV distraction:

Donald Trump’s plan to relocate Palestinians out of Gaza and place the territory under long-term Israeli control has sparked international condemnation. The proposal marks a major shift from decades of US policy supporting a two-state solution and has been rejected by key regional players, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt. Under international law, forced displacement is prohibited, raising serious legal and humanitarian concerns. While Israel maintains de facto control over Gaza, the UN still considers it occupied territory. With Gaza’s population facing blockade conditions and dependence on aid, Trump’s plan has been widely criticised as destabilising and unworkable.

The pond wasn't sure what the bromancer might make of this "Ned" variant ... it seems that he'd read the WSJ and paid some heed to that notorious ranting criminal, a certain Steve ...

The two untenable claims in Trump’s scheme are that the US will “own” Gaza – a situation the American people would reject – and that the 1.8 million Palestinian population would be removed from Gaza into neighbouring Arab states to allow the rebuilding – implying the Palestinians would walk away from their territorial and sovereign existence and claims. Trump refused to canvass the idea of a two-state solution.
His proposals are brazen and naive. The recent lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan – as Trump knows – show that America cannot successfully impose its vision on other nations, the Middle East being the prime instance.
At face value, his Middle East vision seems anathema to the ideology Trump has championed for years – making America great again by getting out of foreign wars, military operations, costly entanglements and nation-building adventurism.
The Wall Street Journal said there was “discord” among Republicans, that Trump’s long-time philosophical champion, Steve Bannon, was opposed while veteran Republican senator Lindsey Graham, said: “I’ve been on the phone with Arabs all day. That approach, I think, will be very problematic.” The WSJ said senior defence officials who may be involved in Trump’s agenda reported: “Nobody knows what’s happening.” The bulk of Australia’s Jewish community, while supporting Trump’s stance to rebuild Gaza, rejects any forceable removal of Palestinians with Colin Rubenstein, executive director of the Australian/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, saying in this paper any such removal would be “legally and morally unthinkable”.
Despite the failures of Iraq and Afghanistan, Trump said in his announcement the US “will take over the Gaza Strip and we will do a job with it, too”. He said the US would “own it” and “level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings”, thereby “creating an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing”. He was specific. “I do see a long-term ownership position … Everybody I’ve spoken to loves the idea of the United States owning that piece of land.
“I don’t want to be a wise guy,” Trump said. “But the Riviera of the Middle East, this could be something that could be so, this could be so magnificent.” He said people living in Gaza should “go to other countries of interest” and “we should go to other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts, and there are many of them that want to do this, and build various domains that will be occupied by the 1.8 million Palestinians living in Gaza, ending the death and destruction”. They could go to “numerous sites or it could be one large site” since Gaza was now a demolition site.
Trump said if people went back to Gaza “it’s going to end up the same way it has for a hundred years” – the aim instead was for “the Arab and Muslim nations to have peace and tranquility”. Asked who he envisaged living in Gaza, Trump said “the world’s people”. He said: “I think you’ll make that into an international, unbelievable place” and added, when asked, “Palestinians also”. Trump said: “Palestinians will live there, many people will live there. But they’ve tried the other and they’ve tried it for decades and decades and decades. It’s not going to work. It didn’t work. It will never work. And you have to learn from history.”
He spoke from passion and conviction – and with a real estate agent’s eye.

Well yes... a vision splendid...

"Ned" tried to downplay the vision ...

Trump is right in saying “it’s time to do something different” – but that’s a sentiment, not a policy. Within a short time the revisions and clarifications were being made. Should we be surprised? Press Secretary Leavitt said Trump had no commitment to putting in US troops. She said the American taxpayers would not be asked to pay for the rebuilding of Gaza. That’s fine – but who does pay to create the Riviera in the Middle East? Critically, Leavitt, along with Rubio, said the exodus of the Palestinians would be only for a temporary period.
Such clarifications and revisions were predictable. That’s how Trump functions, the tariff saga this week proved the point. One reason that Albanese said nothing on the opening day and didn’t take the media’s bait was because he assumed, correctly, that Trump’s position would be further clarified within hours.

But the reptiles undercut "Ned's" undercutting, with a snap showing the urgent need for action, Palestinians walk near rubble and destroyed buildings amid the Israel-Hamas conflict in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip.

More faith was needed in the vision, the action man dreaming...

"Ned" still sounded a little dubious, lacking the vision that helped the bromancer embrace the vision ...

Trump said Saudi Arabia “is going to be very helpful” and its leaders wanted peace. He said “he felt King Abdullah of Jordan and President El-Sisi of Egypt “will open their hearts and give us the kind of land that we need” – that is, to take the relocation of Palestinians from Gaza.
But they are among the Arab leaders who have immediately rejected Trump’s scheme. Arab countries loathe the political and terrorist problems the entry of any radical Palestinian movement would bring them.
Saudi Arabia has said support for a Palestinian state was its “unwavering position”. Trump is about to meet Jordan’s King Abdullah but the king rejects any effort to “annex land and displace the Palestinians”. Trump has plunged himself into the most daunting negotiation of his career – but it seems difficult to see how he proceeds without making major concessions. Palestinian leaders have been accusing Trump of promoting war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
The questions remain. How will Trump persuade the Palestinians to leave Gaza? What happens to those who refuse to leave? Will Trump pursue this goal or negotiate instead for the Arab states to commit financially to Gaza’s rebuilding? Does Trump envisage Israel being deeply involved in his plans for Gaza?
On the other hand, Trump has raised questions for the Arab states and for the Palestinians. How do they guarantee Hamas has no political role in Gaza’s future? Do some Palestinians prefer to leave during the years of rebuilding from the current hellhole? What are viable security and political arrangements for Gaza’s future? How tenable is the Arab stance of full support for a Palestinian state but denying any more Palestinians on to their own territory?
The ideological message Trump sends is targeted at both Arab states and progressives in Western democracies. The UN backing for a two-state solution is hollow without fundamental changes in Middle East politics. Much of the progressive demand for a two-state solution is bankrupt unless there is progress in denying Hamas its authority and seeking a new security and political reconstruction of Gaza.

How many times can the reptiles undercut "Ned" with a snap showing the need for urgent action? A Hamas militant stands guard near a stage as Gazans gather to watch the release of Israeli hostage Agam Berger to a Red Cross team in Jabalia on January 30, 2025, as part of their third hostage-prisoner exchange.

But it's all ready to go ...

Think of all the work opportunities ...

The omens cannot be missed. Trump has publicly warned Hamas that the hostages must be returned. What might he do, if they are not? Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has pivoted from Gaza to the West Bank. Given Trump’s move on Gaza, would he support an Israel move to annex the West Bank? The Trump-Netanyahu symbolism surely points to further joint action.
“You are the greatest friend Israel has ever had in the White House,” Netanyahu said to Trump. He said Trump’s initiative was taking Israel’s goals “to a much higher level” and praised Trump for his “willingness to puncture conventional thinking”.
So, what comes next?

What comes next? 

And then? There's no 'and then', it's just that "Ned" still refuses to get it ...

Why, there'll be dancing, there'll be sweet music and dancing... a sexy tango or two in ballroom to make The Shining go all bloody with envy ...

"Ned" couldn't shake his negativity, even as he reached the summit ...

Trump’s initiative is likely to accentuate divisions in Australia’s community. Palestinian outrage is guaranteed; it will blow back on Labor. Already some Palestinians say they would rather die than leave Gaza. But Palestinian protest will not work in Australia during an election campaign. The risk is that it will alienate majority sentiment and pose an electoral danger for Labor.
The differences between Trump and Penny Wong’s Middle East policy could hardly be greater. Labor is hostage to Wong’s policy shift and its Muslim voting base. The task for Albanese and Wong will be to focus on Australia’s policy principles and avoid direct criticism of Trump’s policy – but that won’t be easy, since his policy is so manifestly flawed.

Relax, Labor has everything under control. Only the other day the infallible Pope was celebrating another triumph ...

Meanwhile, "Ned" was finally close to wrapping it up ...

Meanwhile, Dutton is positioning carefully, calling Trump “a big thinker and a deal maker” and backing Trump’s effort to “leverage” neighbouring states into working towards a new settlement. Albanese was prudent initially to sidestep early commentary on Trump’s announcement. Most world leaders said nothing. Media criticism of Albanese’s discretion was nonsense. He did the right thing – but he cannot escape the need for a more considered response.

Um, that'd be the Murdochian media, "Ned's" kissing cousins, though he always pretends to be above the fray ...

And so he misses the bromancer dreaming ...

And so to a final thought, almost worthy of a Henry law ...

A final thought – Trump’s Middle East vision confirms his 19th century, old-fashioned imperialism embodied in his elevation of president William McKinley. It was McKinley who acquired stacks of new territory for the US resulting from the 1898 war with Spain. And Trump wants to acquire Greenland, make Canada the 51st state, control the Panama Canal, and now, improbably, take control of Gaza. Territorial ambition seems integral to his quest.

That's not bad Henry, not great, but not bad... though it does raise a question ...

Why is "Ned"surprised? 

All the best have needed Lebensraum, a compliant press, a Faux Noise, a Hannity, a tribe of Murdochians and oligarchs eager to please and to pander and to comply, and the right sort of proper and fitting salute to honour the dear leader ...