In which the bromancer and Lord Downer strut their stuff, and simplistic Simon nukes the country to save the planet ...

 

The pond's partner had a question for the reptiles. 

What do they make of a man who has his fingernails painted black? Queensland Broncos Star Reece Walsh Called Out For Wearing Nail Polish.

Guess he had the last masculine laugh.

As that exhausts the pond's knowledge of thugby league, time to move on to the Monday reptile feather display ...

The lead early in the morning...

World holds its breath
Trump warns Hamas to ‘back Gaza peace deal or else’
The US President is pushing hard to get his plan to end the Gaza war over the line, warning the Palestinian terror group to ‘move fast’ or ‘all bets are off’.
By Richard Ferguson and Noah Yim

This is funny (in the peculiar/odd sense) because the tabloid headline was ...

Trump Throws Secret Hissy Fit at Middle East Ally: ‘You’re Always So F***ing Negative”

That was a recycling, in the Daily Mail style, of an Axios story ...

When Hamas came back with a "yes, but" to President Trump's Gaza peace proposal on Friday, Trump called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss what he saw as good news.
Netanyahu felt differently. "Bibi told Trump this is nothing to celebrate, and that it doesn't mean anything," a U.S. official with knowledge of the call told Axios.
Trump fired back: "I don't know why you're always so f***ing negative. This is a win. Take it."
Why it matters: The exchange, which a second U.S. official confirmed, reflects how determined Trump is to push through Netanyahu's reservations, and convince him to end the war if Hamas will make a deal.

Guess King Donald was handing out lots of warnings, but you couldn't expect the reptiles to take note of all of them.

So it goes in the hive mind.

Meanwhile, pushed right down the page, the reptiles were doing their best to help the pond's bet on the lettuce ...

EXCLUSIVE
Newspoll: One Nation surges, as Sussan Ley’s net approval rating plunges
Support for One Nation has surged to its highest level since 2017, as Sussan Ley’s approval rating plunges and Labor records its strongest primary vote in 28 months.
By Geoff Chambers

If the news had been good, what's the bet that would have been the lead?

Instead it was way down the page, and coupled with a yarn that increased reptile anxiety ...

EXCLUSIVE
Moderate Liberal Andrew Bragg dismisses Andrew Hastie’s agenda
Opposition frontbencher Andrew Bragg has declared migrants are not the cause of housing shortages and suggested Australia would be a global outlier if it walked away from net zero.
By Greg Brown

Over on the extreme far right there was the usual roster of reptile ratbags ... 

...with galumphing Geoff brooding on that race with the lettuce ...

Ley digs in for long haul amid One Nation rise and Coalition pains
The Opposition Leader is not panicked about the polls, the loss of high-profile Liberals Andrew Hastie and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price from her shadow ministry, or the rise of Pauline Hanson’s One Nation.
By Geoff Chambers

The pond thinks the lettuce is in with a goodly chance, and it will let its bet ride.

A motley melange of reptiles were all harping on the same matter.

Given the abundance, the pond decided to cut Major Mitchell, always tedious with his fundamentalist Zionism, off to the archive cornfield...(hang in, if it drops out, thus far it usually comes back)

Journalists’ double standards on Hamas exposed
Media critics of Israel should ask themselves if they have applied the same standards to Russian aggression against Ukraine.
By Chris Mitchell
Columnist

Talk about a mindless straw dog, apparently because the Major can't chew gum and rub tum at same time...

Journalistic critics of Israel have not applied the same standards to Russian aggression against Ukraine, where deaths on both sides may now exceed 500,000. Nor do many even mention Islamist pogroms in Nigeria, where 62,000 Christians have been murdered since 2000, or in Sudan, where more than 250,000 have been killed and 14 million displaced in three years.

As if one ethnic cleansing excuses others...as if no one but the Major has noted assorted killing fields ...

Such a deeply clueless barking mad fundamentalist Zionist git.

Off to the archive cornfield with him.

Besides, the pond simply had to make room for the bromancer and Lord Downer...anxiously rubbing hands together ...

The header: As Donald Trump imposes his will on Middle East, everything could still go wrong, It is in the interests of every civilised person on the planet that this deal go ahead. The US President’s impatience is the world’s hope.

The caption: US President Donald Trump with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week. Picture: AP

The bromancer began by pumping up King Donald's hope for that peace prize ...

If this Gaza peace deal goes ahead it will be almost entirely because of the enormous strength of Donald Trump’s will.
Hamas was always going to answer Donald Trump’s peace plan with a ‘Yes but’. Too smart to say no outright, too ruthless and bloody minded to say yes and mean it.
In the past all the emphasis was on the but. Maybe, just maybe, this time Hamas is under so much pressure it may actually say yes in a way which allows the deal to go forward.
Hamas has never wanted peace but it has not before considered surrender.
Yet the essence of this deal is the release of the remaining Israeli hostages, cruelly and infamously held in inhuman conditions these last two years.
This is where Hamas insisting on further negotiations, rather than just accepting the peace agreement in full, is potentially still troubling.
For the brutal, savage truth is that once it gives up the last of the Israeli hostages, Hamas loses all leverage over Israel.
Trump has mobilised the Arab world, particularly Qatar and Saudi Arabia, into supporting the peace deal.
More importantly, he’s persuaded them to put real pressure on Hamas to agree to the deal.
The deal is good for the Palestinians. It gives them an end to the fighting, a new technocratic government, unlocks reconstruction aid, reduces the daily influence of Israel in their lives, involves a range of rich nations in their economic future, even holds out the distant prospect of eventual statehood. Above all it frees the Palestinian people from the murderous tyranny of Hamas.

The reptiles interrupted with a feeble attempt to show the reptiles were down with AV distractions, one of those wondrous EXPLAINERS, reduced by the pond to a screen cap and a tag: US President Donald Trump has unveiled a sweeping 20-point plan to end the two-year war in Gaza, backed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The proposal calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages, a staged Israeli withdrawal and Hamas’ disarmament, with a transitional government led by an international body headed by Trump himself. Supporters argue that it could deliver stability and rebuild Gaza, while critics warn that it amounts to a negotiated surrender disguised as diplomacy. As the war escalates and Gaza faces a deepening humanitarian crisis, The Australian’s editorial director Claire Harvey and Washington correspondent Joe Kelly discuss the implications for the region and for Trump’s legacy.

The bromancer then quickly wrapped up proceedings, a strange strategy for a scribbler rarely lost for words ...

That’s good for the Palestinian people. Not so good for Hamas.
Equally Trump has used the authority, which no-one else on the planet possesses, to force Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire which provides something less than everything he wants.
The far Right elements of Netanyahu’s coalition government oppose the deal. They want to destroy every element of Hamas physically and then maintain Israeli control over Gaza.
The provisions of this deal are, however, actually better for Israel than the conquest Netanyahu has promoted publicly.
This deal allows Israel to keep very significant security control in Gaza, as well as staying probably indefinitely on a chunk of Gaza territory.
To agree to this, Hamas would need to cross red lines it has insisted before that it would never cross.
But if Hamas is allowed to continue to exist as an organisation at all, it can claim to have defeated Israel, to have attacked Israel in the most savage fashion and lived to fight another day.
But for all that, it is in the interests of every civilised person on the planet that this deal go ahead.
A lot of disputes are solved when one or both of the parties reaches exhaustion point.
There is exhaustion everywhere with this dispute.
Added to that exhaustion now is Trump’s will and determination.
Trump is in every way a mixed grill but his involvement here is completely constructive. Even Tom Friedman of the New York Times, who hates everything about the Trump presidency, has hailed this deal.
Trump is insisting to both sides that there can be no delay.
In this case, Trump’s impatience is the world’s hope.
But at this critical moment, everything could still go wrong.

What a downer, everything could still go wrong?

The pond fired back: "I don't know why you're always so f***ing negative

Eek, the bromancer has turned the pond into a King Donald clone.

That noted, surely devotees of the bromancer will cherish that latest variation on his King Donald both siderism ...

Trump is in every way a mixed grill

The pond doesn't have the foggiest idea why the bromancer is inclined to slur mixed grills. 

Back in the pond's Tamworth days, mixed grills were a culinary delight, with grilled kidneys and mushrooms and corn special treats...

Now they're the same as a demented sociopathic narcissist?

Speaking of downers, luckily the bro was only a two minute read, thereby allowing space for Lord Downer, brooding on the same problem for a more extended four minutes, or so the reptiles clocked the piece ...

The header: Will Trump’s ‘Mar a Gaza’ plan actually work? If Gaza ever does return to its former glory, we’ll have the US President to thank. His strategy, to work assiduously with Israelis and Arab leaders, stands in stark contrast to the antagonistic path pursued by the Europeans, and Australia.

The caption for an image which previously had been missing in the hive mind: People rally in Tel Aviv over the weekend, calling for an end to the war and the release of all remaining Israeli hostages. Picture: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Lord Downer opened with an "Our Henry" flourish ...

During the period of the Roman and Byzantine empires, Gaza was one of the most prosperous places in the world.
It was a major trading hub for the Middle East. It was known for its mosaics and, surprisingly by today’s standards, its fine wine. It was regarded as one of the wealthiest Christian cities on Earth. After the seventh century, Gaza began to decline and through the generations since it has never recovered. It has been a marginalised place of no particular commercial or intellectual significance for centuries.

The pond suspects that Lord Downer has been cribbing his homework again, though Christopher Mallan in The Conversation was more on about philosophy than commerce, but perhaps Lord Downer was keen to focus on his own navel-gazing and fluff gathering ...

I mention this because it should give you some hope that Gaza could one day return to its past glory as a commercial centre. As Donald Trump would have it, it will become Mar a Gaza. But to do that it will fairly obviously have to go through a huge transition.
Yet over the past week there has been a glimmer of hope that just may be possible. The extraordinarily bold Trump plan for the Middle East, defying all his critics, is showing early signs of bearing fruit. No doubt there will be setbacks in the negotiations, but so far extraordinary progress is being made. Where Trump has been clever is building strong and close relations with other Arab states.

Mar-a-Lago is still the dream? Albeit transmuted cornball Downer of a joke, and never mind all the ethnic cleansing and the slaughter, it's a laugh a minute in His Lordship's stand-up comedy stylings, perhaps good enough to get him a gig in the next Riyadh Comedy Festival ...

But will there be enough gold gilt for the makeover?

Gilt away without guilt ...

...Vast chandeliers hang from the ceiling in Trump’s penthouse, as they do at Mar-A-Lago. He has these chandeliers in common with a number of discredited presidents from other countries. US satirist P.J. O’Rourke noted that ‘Saddam’s chandelier was the size of a two-car garage. If a reason to invade Iraq was wanted, felony interior decorating would have done’.
York believes brash leaders like Trump got their taste in interior decoration - the ‘Ferrero Rocher look’ - from glitzy hotels, having spent a lot of time waiting in lobbies to schmooze potential backers. ‘For ambitious lads … the local grand hotel was always the good-life template.

...as the reptiles threw in an AV distraction ...Independent Women’s Forum fellow Qanta Ahmed has claimed that Donald Trump’s tour of the Middle East will “benefit Israel”. “Much was made of the fact that Israel was not visited during this trip,” Dr Ahmed said. “But I think all of this alignment and deepening of alliances is ultimately going to benefit the state of Israel. “President Trump most likely had that very much in mind during his visits.”

Lord Downer was also keen on the Nobel prize, though Major Mitchell might be disturbed by the way he was attacking Europeans, as if the Ukraine war was a never no mind ...

A few months ago, the US President visited Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. He was ridiculed by hostile Western media during the trip, but to make progress on the Middle East as well as countering terrorism itself requires strong relations with the Saudi Arabians, the Emiratis and the Qataris.
Trump has also maintained a close friendship with Benjamin Netanyahu that has given him not just access to the Israeli Prime Minister and cabinet but also substantial leverage over them.
So on the one hand he has been able to guide Netanyahu and the Netanyahu government towards peace. On the other, through the intermediaries of Arab leaders, he has been able to push Hamas into the release of the hostages and the ending of the war against Israel.
This strategy stands in stark contrast to the one pursued by the Europeans. Their approach has been little more than pathetic.
First, they have condemned the Israelis on the back of Hamas propaganda, demanding Israel cease fire, withdraw its troops from Gaza and disengage from fighting with Hamas. This was a completely absurd position. It would have made much more sense to pile the pressure on Hamas, which started the war on October 7, 2023.
If the Europeans had been able to influence Hamas to release the hostages and cease attacking Israel and Israelis, the war would have finished long ago. But no; for domestic political reasons they piled the pressure on Israel.
The point is that meant they had absolutely no influence over Israel’s strategy. There was out-and-out hostility to Israel, a fellow liberal democratic country with the most powerful military in the region, denying them any role in contributing to peace.

Then there was the simply extraordinary European initiative led by French President Emmanuel Macron to recognise a Palestinian state. A more stupid timing for such an initiative is unimaginable.

And yet, very shortly thereafter, the head bangers tentatively decided to stop banging heads.

It wouldn't be a reptile piece without a reminder of one terrorist act, and absolutely no reminder of the genocidal, ethnic cleansing terror acts that have followed, The devastating aftermath of Hamas militants’ October 7 attack on Israel’s Kibbutz Be'eri.

Lord Downer continued his ranting and railing ...

Hamas started the war two years ago by killing, raping, torturing, and kidnapping Israelis. Two years later, as the fighting continues because Hamas will not give up the hostages and will not lay down its weapons, the Europeans decide it is a timely initiative to recognise Palestine as a state. There was no legal basis for that. Palestine does not meet the internationally recognised legal criteria to become a state. Politically, this was warmly welcomed by Hamas and seen as a huge victory by Hamas. Given its lack of concern for human life, Hamas saw its declaration of war on Israel two years ago as a well-worthwhile exercise.
Why would the Europeans have done this? For domestic political reasons. Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer have been worried by anti-Israeli sentiment in their own countries. This has been driven by intense hostility to Israel by elements of their media. The BBC performance has been particularly egregious.
It also has been stirred up by weekly marches by pro-Palestinian and anti-Semitic crowds. These crowds have been tolerated by the French and British governments in ways they have not been in the US. Waving slogans calling for the total destruction of Israel; that is, “From the river to the sea” slogans. And with banners proclaiming anti-Semitic bigotry not seen for generations. These have been tolerated.

Um, speaking of that river to the sea thingie, per Haaretz:

 ..For Israelis, 'From the River to the Sea' Is a Reality. For Palestinians, It's a Crime, It is nonsensical, and hypocritical, to arrest or accuse Palestinians of promoting the ideology of 'From the river to the sea,' while in Israel, school maps don't show the Green Line and the government is advancing full annexation

Inter alia...

...Apparently this needs to be said again: Israeli Jews are the last people on Earth who can complain about Palestinian longing for the land from the river to the sea. The State of Israel is the mother of "river to the sea" – using graphic rather than geographic language. It is nearly impossible to find a map in any public space in Israel today, from official maps to public art and iconography, showing the Green Line that would delineate a hypothetical Palestinian state. Maps in Israel show the whole land, undivided – in effect, erasing Palestinian political and national identity.
A private collection of snapshots I've taken around the country or captured from the internet tells a story as clearly as a coloring book: a Judaica shop down the block in Tel Aviv has a blue-glass standing object for your coffee table shaped like the map of Eretz Israel – no Green Line blemish. A charging stand for electric cars in Haifa displays a map of its stations spread generously throughout the Land of Israel – a single unit from the river to the sea (thanks to my partners in this project who snapped the shot).
Every day, the newspapers print weather maps of the whole land, absent any Palestine (Haaretz is a lone exception). In Hostage Square in central Tel Aviv, citizens have filled the place with art, including a triptych of visual images in which the middle pillar bears drawings of families hugging children in the shape of the whole territory of British Mandatory Palestine. The list and the photos go on.
As for inciting children about river to sea: This is the time to recall that Israeli public schools are practically barred from using maps showing the Green Line – no Palestine there either. Israel's river-to-sea is not just the lucky kid who gets the coloring book, but every kid in an Israeli school.
It is nonsensical to arrest or even accuse Palestinians of using the term without mentioning that Israelis live out their own river to sea, every day. Outsiders: If you didn't realize that Israelis view the world through Mandate Palestine-shaped glasses – check your basic understanding of the society you claim to be fighting for. It's better than exposing yourself as a hypocrite or a liar.
But bumper stickers or paperweights aren't really the problem. The problem is that Israel implements its river-to-sea vision on the only map that matters: the ground itself. River-to-sea Israel is hard at work expanding settlements and the supporting infrastructure, transferring military powers over the West Bank to civilian arms of the Israeli state, thrusting the Israeli army into Palestinian cities like Tul Karm and Jenin after helping to collapse the rule of the Palestinian Authority. Support or oppose these policies – but tell the truth.

And never mind the barking mad fundamentalist Zionists who use the notion in their speeches.

Sorry, Lord Downer has always had a rather remote connection to the truth, as the reptiles slipped in a snap designed to distract from ethnic cleansing, UK police say one of the two victims in the Manchester synagogue attack was likely killed by a bullet fired by an officer.

Lord Downer finished with a Zionist flourish ...

Last week’s attack on the synagogue in Manchester has certainly woken the British public up to the huge problem Britain now has with anti-Semitism.
When there have been attacks on synagogues and other Jewish sites, they have been condemned by European leaders in a pro-forma sort of way, but the sentiment that has led to the legitimisation in the minds of some people of these sorts of attacks has been allowed to fester unchallenged by leaders.
After all, Macron and Starmer have been condemning Israel, demanding the Israeli military cease fire. Both have endorsed the International Criminal Court indictment of the Israeli Prime Minister and former defence minister. And finally they’ve recognised a Palestinian state. A more asinine approach to solving this problem hasn’t been seen in a long time.
In stark contrast to all of this, President Trump has worked assiduously to try to solve the problem, working with the Israelis and Arab leaders. Yet the Europeans have quietly sneered at Trump.
First they claimed he was an isolationist, which as events have demonstrated over the past nine months is completely untrue. Then the sneering at his personal behaviour, his jokes and his so far unsuccessful attempts to end the Ukraine war have also brought no credit to Europe. After all, they didn’t do much to stop the war in Ukraine in the first place. And second, they have endlessly criticised the Americans for not doing enough to end it.
So there you have it. If Gaza could return to its former glory (which I admit is a bit of a stretch), then that will be thanks to somebody the media tells you that you have to hate, Trump. It will be no thanks at all to the Europeans.
And by the way, I think you’ve worked this out yourself as you’ve read this column.
The Australian government has followed slavishly in the wake of Macron and Starmer. We have trashed our relationship with Israel, which had been so warm and close for many generations. We have no influence whatsoever in Jerusalem.
Like the European performance, our performance has just been pathetic and driven by a less-than-cunning plan to appease anti-Israel voters.

And not the teensie-weensiest desire to see ethnic cleansing and a genocide in the making come to an end?

That's more than enough of that - the pond suspects that talk of the still ongoing ethnic cleansing will never make it into the lizard Oz - and so to a little light relief.

With the Caterist absent early in the morning - the pond will catch up with the quarry whisperer when he makes his appearance - it was left to simpleton Simon to stay true to the reptile cause...

The header: Nuclear refuseniks have turned us into a global pariah, As the global trend towards nuclear expansion continues, including in our own regional backyard, Australia’s position starts to look just odd.

The caption for that pair of nasty nuke deniers: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for Climate Change and Energy Chris Bowen.

This was a four minute hymn celebrating the need to nuke the country to save the planet, though as every reader of the reptiles knows, the notion of climate change is just a cult religion attracting the devotion of zealots and greenie watermelon fundamentalists.

There was nothing for the pond to do but settle back and enjoy simplistic Simon at his nuking work...

Anthony Albanese continues to lampoon that which much of the rest of the developed world is re-embracing and many developing economies are pursuing: nuclear power. Having withdrawn red-faced from Labor’s juvenile three-headed fish campaign, the Prime Minister and his Climate Change and Energy Minister, Chris Bowen, continue to engage in a counterfactual hoax.
When Donald Trump speaks of an energy renaissance for the US he’s referring to nuclear power generation.

Um, if the pond might rudely interrupt, King Donald often speaks of climate science denialism, and of devotion to coal. But do go on ...

 Likewise his British counterpart, Keir Starmer, who is equally enthusiastic, calls it a “golden age”. But apparently Canberra knows something no one else does. It’s all economic fantasy, Albanese claims.
“See if you can find someone who’s investing in it,” he said last week when asked about it in Britain, which recently announced plans to build more than a dozen new reactors. “No one’s been able to do that, which is why the Coalition went to an election saying that taxpayers would have to do it, because the private sector, it just doesn’t add up for what is necessary for the immediate needs.”
While it may be empirically true to state that investors aren’t knocking down the doors in Australia to build nuclear reactors, it is so for only one reason: it is illegal to build them. This is the fig leaf of obscurity that the government hides behind when it comes to sensible debate about nuclear energy.

Devotees will be delighted at the way that the reptiles have pandered to the nuke mob with a variety of distractions designed to nuke the eye, beginning with ... The Coalition has recommitted to Peter Dutton’s nuclear energy push. Despite losing the election in May with a similar policy, the Opposition is citing “overwhelming agreement” for the policy within the party. The plan involves both large-scale nuclear plants and small reactors. Shadow Energy Minister Dan Tehan says nuclear energy is required if Australia is going to achieve its climate goals.

Dan the man is on the march ...

... and simplistic Simon is marching with him ...

The primary blockage to a civil nuclear industry isn’t necessarily an economic one. At least one nuclear power company – Rolls-Royce – believes small modular reactors will be more than viable in Australia, and provided Peter Dutton a private briefing to prove it. It is contracted to construct the reactors for the AUKUS nuclear-powered subs and says the British government would support development of a civil nuclear industry in Australia.

The SMR dream is still alive, the pond might yet be able to fit out its backyard ...

This isn’t even about community antagonism any more. Polling shows significant support for small-scale nuclear as a clean energy source, particularly among younger voters. The obstruction has always been an issue of political determination. Why Dutton suddenly ditched SMRs for large-scale plants is still a mystery to many of his colleagues and is one of the key reasons the broader policy failed. Any new Coalition nuclear policy will be confined to the emerging technology of SMRs.
Labor’s position is self-reinforcing, based on an assumption that the longer Labor remains in power, the more remote the possibility of a nuclear power industry becomes.
This is also not quite right. If it took another decade for the Coalition to be in a position to change policy – assuming it may be that long before it returns to office – nuclear still could be realised as a post 2040 proposition.
By then the financial case presumably would be more attractive as development of small-scale reactors reaches a greater level of market maturity just about the same time an entire fleet of comparatively short-life wind turbines needed replacing.
It is ironic that while the Prime Minister was in New York talking about Australia’s 2035 emissions reduction target and the renewables-only path to get there, Trump and Starmer were inking a new deal to rapidly expand nuclear power technology sharing.

Steady, beating heart, another visual treat, The nuclear power plant of Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux in central France. Picture: AFP

Simple Simon was in a state of wild-eyed excitement, ready to nuke anyone standing in his way ...

The level of global investment going into development of next-generation small-scale reactors is expected to command a large slice of the estimated $1 trillion forecast to be pumped into all nuclear energy under a net-zero scenario by mid-century. The technology focus for SMRs already has shifted to the next-generation advanced modular reactors. AMR plants are a subset of SMRs. The difference is they don’t require water to cool them. This is already being framed as a game changer for nuclear technology.
But in the pursuit of more nuclear power, fuel becomes an issue. And the one thing that causes US energy officials to lose sleep at night is where it’s going to get its hands on all the uranium it will require for its nuclear renaissance.
Surprisingly, the US doesn’t enrich enough uranium domestically to meet its demand and relies on imports for enriched product. Some of it even comes from Russia.
It’s less surprising, then, that US officials have been making overtures to Australia about supply chains of uranium considering Australia holds a third of the world’s deposits. At the moment we export about 8 per cent of it.

Now just luxuriate in the high tech imagery, as Shackel is unshackled in a way designed to delight pond correspondents, Nuclear for Australia Founder William Shackel says Australia must lift its “nuclear power prohibition” and add nuclear power to its energy mix. “If the public didn’t support nuclear power, you would expect it to have been seeing it in the sites of the proposed nuclear power plants, but in reality, none of them actually changed hands,” Mr Shackel told Sky News host Danica De Giorgio. “For the Coalition, they need to be keeping all options on the table, looking at the vast array of nuclear technologies, whether it's micro reactors, small modular reactors, large nuclear reactors … as we see around the world. “The biggest priority must be lifting the nuclear power prohibition, Australia’s the only top 20 economy with a ban on nuclear power, yet we have the most uranium in the world.”

Just look at that dotty dreaming in blue.

Yet again Danica delivers, and so does simpleton Simon ...

It even has been suggested Australia develop an enriching facility of its own to supply the US with fuel-grade uranium rather than just yellowcake that requires enriching elsewhere. But of course that too is illegal in Australia.
Could Albanese be convinced to go down this path? Unlikely.
But adding uranium to the critical minerals list, and the possibility of processing before export, certainly would add a sweetener to any deal he hopes to secure with Trump on tariffs or defence spending when the two leaders meet in a couple of weeks. The reality is that demand for Australian uranium is only going to increase if the global trend continues as forecast. The question for the government is: How does it respond?
Not only is the rest of the developed world redoubling on nuclear, some of Australia’s closest neighbours are moving in the same direction. This has obvious regional strategic and security implications.
The Lowy Institute flagged non-proliferation concerns in Southeast Asia almost 20 years ago when it was evident that Indonesia, Vietnam and other countries in the region were expressing an interest in nuclear power generation. China is in a competition with Canada for a foothold into Indonesia on the development of a civil nuclear energy program.

A final snap, better than ordinary porn, because how could that sort of mild Playboy bunny porn match reptile-strength nuking porn? The Sizewell A and B nuclear power stations on the east coast of England. Picture: Bloomberg

Was simple Simon exhausted by all that nuking porn? 

No way, he had room for a final flourish, almost a big bang...

Singapore-based company Thorcon already has applied for approval to build Indonesia’s first nuclear power plant north of Jakarta. The Philippines isn’t far behind, having signed a nuclear energy technology-sharing agreement with the US two years ago.
Ironically, it has been an Australian nuclear engineer from the University of Sydney, Helen Cook, who has been helping Manila draft its new nuclear energy security act.
Singapore also is studying whether to deploy SMR plants for its own energy use. The consequence of Australia’s obduracy may become gradually apparent over time considering the demand for electricity globally is expected to double by 2025 as power needs for data storage, artificial intelligence and electric vehicles increase exponentially.
The question Australia may well be left asking itself in 2050 is whether it dealt itself out of the knowledge game long ago. If the global trend towards nuclear expansion continues and is realised in our own regional backyard, Australia’s position becomes increasingly difficult to justify and, frankly, starts to look just odd.

Put it another way ...

The question Australia may well be left asking itself in 2050 is whether it dealt itself out of the knowledge game long ago. If the global trend towards renewables, EVs, etc, continues and is realised in our own regional backyard, especially if Chinese producers keep wiping everyone's clock, the lizard Oz’s position becomes increasingly difficult to justify and, frankly, starts to look just very King Donald odd.

Who knows, the pond won't be seeing 2050, but wishes vulgar youff all the best, and remember, if you're still looking for climate criminals, dig through the News Corp records.

And so back to the beginning, with the immortal Rowe urging on the lettuce ...

It was hard to know which detail was the most irresistible ...

There were those knobs for starters ...

But what about the birds of pray, preying for the pond to score  with its bet on the lettuce?