So much quality FAFO with the Caterist and the Major* (*movie title rights hereby patented and reserved in the entire universe until the end of time)

 

Lately, the pond's logarithms have been flooding the pond with '2022 word of the year' FAFO moments (not bad going for what's an acronym. If only every acronym could become the word of the year).

Many of these have been recycled from TikTok, a strange, alien and deeply terrifying format. (The pond and social media are at two). 

Gone are the days of Proud Boys' usage. These FAFO moments feature migrants who voted for the mango Mussolini under the delusion that they won't be among those lined up for deportation (if the talk is of deporting 20 million, there's no way they can find 20 million violent illegal criminals to make up the total on the tape). 

More poignantly, there were those who wanted desperately to get rid of Obamacare, but found the Affordable Care Act to their liking, only to discover that they were one and the same and likely under the hammer.

A lot of them have featured Morning Joe, with Joe and Mika truly having FAFO'd, to the great delight of Faux Noise and the NY Post, eager to tell tales of the pair being abandoned by viewers with remarkable rating drops in key demographics, and the likes of Jennifer Rubin dumping on them from a great height. (She cruelly suggested you get more from watching a John Oliver monologue than from a day or two watching CNN or MSNBC. Ouch, and that from an MSNBC contributor, though it might be a while before she contributes again).

Not wanting to be left out, the reptiles at the lizard Oz are also big on FAFO moments. 

Some "find out" moments will come more slowly, but likely more surely, with the Caterist's long held climate science denialism sure to meet many FAFO moments in the not so distant future.

The Caterist's brand of denialism has transmuted over the years. 

Lately he's become a caring environmentalist - won't someone think of the koala - and big on saving the planet by nuking the country, but underlying it all is a deep desire to halt renewables, and in the interim, while we await the promised SMRs, let the FAFO moments erupt.

As a result, Mondays at the pond have become something of a dire liturgy, as the Caterist offers his usual sermon. At least it relieves the pond of having to mount an argument or debate faux data and statistics. All the pond has to say is here's a man who's bigly into FAFO ... with the minor league Future Fund furphy an excuse for more of the same, in Future Fund raid a shameless cover for Labor’s renewables deceit, No one in this devious and duplicitous administration is prepared to say how much money the government will need to plunder to pay for the energy transition.

The reptiles threatened the pond with a four minute read, but these days the pond can recite Caterist scripts by heart, and the illustrations, featuring Satans of the day, are equally predictable: Treasurer Jim Chalmers holds a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

If it's to be done at all, then twere well it were done quickly:

Jim Chalmers is hardly the first Australian treasurer tormented by the underappreciation of his genius by the world at large.
Even so, his characterisation of John Howard and Peter Costello as “unhinged and ill-informed” seemed particularly ungracious. There wouldn’t bet be a sovereign wealth fund for him to raid if Howard and Costello hadn’t established one.
Chalmers’ depiction of the Coalition’s defence of the Future Fund as “partisan hyperventilating” betrays the broader frustration of a government carrying the burden of its subprime policy choices.
Leaning on the Future Fund to invest in the energy transition is an indication that the cost of renewable energy infrastructure will be far larger than the government has had the courage to admit.
The RepuTex economic modelling Labor commissioned in opposition was well wide of the mark. It forecast $24bn of public investment would unlock $51.8bn of private capital, and that would be enough investment to get us through to 2030.

Again the reptiles interrupted with another snap of a Satanic figure, Chris Bowen speaks at the COP29 Climate Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.

These tedious snaps of well-known political figures do nothing to lighten the text or the pond's mood:

The same modelling forecast that the retail price of electricity would fall by $275 per household per year in the government’s first term. Labor should be asking for its money back, if it hasn’t already.
In the pre-Covid era, where Australian governments were constrained by budgets, a shortage of capital would have served as a reality check. Cabinets would have been obliged to reassess a government scheme’s ability to meet its objectives and measure it against other demands on the public purse, such as hospitals and schools.
Today, however, we are governed by the anointed and driven by the conceit that they have the perfect solution to every problem that can be imagined. They are people who believe their policies are not merely worth trying but are morally imperative. They are not like the socialist dreamers of old, who eventually will be forced to give up because they’ve run out of other people’s money. They have no compunction against loading liabilities on future taxpayers or extracting a larger share of wealth accumulated through enterprise and thrift.
No one in this devious and duplicitous administration is prepared to say how much money the government will need to plunder to pay for the energy transition. Earlier this year, Chalmers suggested it could be as much as $225bn by 2050, but the figure is little more than a guesstimate. Meanwhile, Labor throws up bogus figures and makes substantiated assumptions to justify its ideological rejection of nuclear power.
With Anthony Albanese and Energy Minister Chris Bowen absent from parliament last Wednesday, it fell to Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles to construct a rational explanation for its entirely irrational policy position. He began with the claim that a nuclear generator would take 20 years to complete, a claim first made by Albanese as opposition energy spokesman back in 2006.

How irritating can the reptile visual interruptions become? Well when they trot out ancient irrelevancies of the John Howard with Peter Costello kind, the pond's brain is inclined to snap:

Are those ancients intended to distract the pond and so swallow whole the usual guff about the need to nuke the country to save the planet, and this from a pontificating pundit whose greatest claim to statistical fame is his measurement of flood waters in quarries?

In fact, the mean construction time for a nuclear reactor is 7½ years, according to research conducted by Scottish energy consultant Euan Mearns. Mearns found that 85 per cent of the 441 reactors he investigated had been built in less than a decade. The four Korean-built reactors recently completed in the United Arab Emirates each took about eight years to complete. Marles’s claim is wrong.
His claim that nuclear would provide only 4 per cent of Australia’s energy is even more ludicrous. It was first made by the renewable energy lobby group, Smart Energy Council, which claims that nuclear will generate only 11GW of the 300GW it claims Australia will need in 2050.
The Council has fallen for the rookies’ error of confusing gigawatts – the amount of power that could be theoretically generated at a specific moment – with gigawatt hours (GWh), the amount generated over time. Wind and solar on average produce power for the equivalent of one working day in five. Nuclear delivers power all week. The error is compounded by including batteries and pumped hydro capacity as generation, instead of storage.
In a week rich with anti-nuclear hyperventilation, Peter Garrett shared his views with The Australian and proved that not all septuagenarian rock singers grow more sophisticated with age.
He described nuclear power as “high-risk, difficult to manage and uninsurable”. The idea that we might use it in Australia “when it has an abundance of sun, wind and flowing water is a cruel joke”.
Garrett clearly hasn’t learned the critical lesson from the collapse of the Soviet economy: that an abundance of natural resources does not translate to an abundance of goods.
Australians in parts of the country blighted by wind, solar and hydro developments understand the economic flaws of the argument somewhat better. It’s not the abundance of the energy source that counts but the efficiency of production, the mechanisms that turn inputs into outputs.


If anyone wants to argue with the Caterist, take it up with him directly. The pond is still attempting to recover from the way that the mention of a name automatically triggers a reptile snap:

Ah Adani, beloved of reptiles, though strangely the pond can't recall them devoting any attention to the recent news:

Never mind, just thank the long absent lord there are still other sources for news, as the Caterist in his final gobbet shifts into his koncerned karing for koala environmentalist mode:

Good things could be enjoyed in abundance in the Garden of Eden, but our fall from grace has cursed us with suffering, mortality and scarcity. Generating renewable energy requires the allocation of large amounts of scarce resources for which there are alternative uses: notably land and capital.
The political class has largely ignored the pressures on land, turning a blind eye to the thousands of hectares of koala habit that have already succumbed to the bulldozers, and the thousands more that are at risk.
However, as the raid on the super fund shows, the Albanese government is acutely aware of the shortage of capital that constrains the rate at which new infrastructure can be built and connected to the grid.
The raid on the Future Fund was foreshadowed obliquely by Albanese in April in a speech to the Queensland Press Club when he spoke about progressing renewable energy by “maximising the strategic value of our government investment funds, and our national superannuation system”.
Albanese’s use of the collective possessive pronoun in relation to retirement savings is ominous. It strongly suggests he regards the $3.5 trillion distributed across more than 22 million individual retirement savings accounts as fair game.
Nick Cater is a senior fellow at the Menzies Research Centre.

In short, all the usual drivel to besmirch a Monday, and all the pond can do is offer a visual distraction:

As for the Major, he's so deep into FAFO that it might be best summarised by mangling Shaksper: I am in stupidity / Stepped in so far, that, should I wade no more, / Returning were as tedious as go o'er.

Just the headers are full FAFO, Trump’s picks will be agents of vital change, Many US voters see the pre-Covid Trump era as a time of prosperity and record employment of African-Americans. They are willing to give their new President a fair shot at the job.

Worse, the reptiles promise a five minute read, together with dullard snaps of dullard American politicians, Florida congressman Mike Waltz has been nominated as national security adviser for the second Trump cabinet. Picture: Ted Shaffrey/AFP

The Major wisely begins with a gigantic billy goat butt:

No journalist knows if Donald Trump will succeed or fail in his second term as president.

Unwisely he then proceeds to explain how the mango Mussolini and his choice picks will likely be an unhinged triumph, and all that's needed is a fair go for the tossers to succeed:

The New York Times remains unhinged about Trump, still two months out from his inauguration. The masthead has been mad since before he won the 2016 election.
Conversely, in conservative media, Trump is already being hailed as the usher of world peace and slayer of the global “woke” agenda.
Here, some political writers have forecast problems for Australia, especially based on Trump’s tariff pledges against China. Critics point to his more controversial nominees – now withdrawn Matt Gaetz as attorney-general, intelligence chief Tulsi Gabbard, health boss Robert Kennedy Jr and defence chief Pete Hegseth.
Yet all were nominated in areas that need change agents. Trump’s first term and the last three years under President Joe Biden have been marked by the politicisation of Democrat legal jurisdictions and federal intelligence agencies – all designed to destroy Trump.
Americans have now voted to fix the system.
Could we use change agents here? Given the inability of our military bureaucracy to secure large defence projects or our immigration officials to meet commitments to reduce migration, would fresh thinking from outside the defence and immigration establishments be a reasonable idea?
It may be worse at our federal Treasury, where climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion seem to take precedence over good economic policy.
Similarly, political journalists mock the idea the Coalition could win government by appealing to formerly working class outer suburban areas of our major cities, once Labor strongholds.
In the US the Republican Party, once the home of big business, now attracts America’s working classes who increasingly see the Democrats as the party of big city elites.
This column, which forecast Trump’s latest win and twice before the 2016 poll argued Trump could win then, argued the week after that election that the Democrats had not been helped by celebrity endorsements. Yet the Democrats rolled out a who’s who of Hollywood and the music industry to support Kamala Harris.
Former Rolling Stone magazine political correspondent Matt Taibbi on Substack on November 7 mused about the Democrats’ reaction in 2016. Hillary Clinton, with zero self-awareness, said: “I won the places that represent two-thirds of America’s gross domestic product. The places that are optimistic, diverse, dynamic, moving forward.”
No wonder traditional mid-western Democrat supporters went for Trump. Two days before that election, on November 7, 2016, this column said out of control immigration and poverty outside America’s major cities could swing voters Trump’s way.
The same factors were in play earlier this month, but with the added rebellion of mainstream Americans against the Democrats’ wholesale adoption of identity politics from Black Lives Matter, through to Defund the Police, and transgender activism.
Readers interested in the election’s cultural dynamics should look at the Republican ad with the tagline, “Kamala is for they/them. President Trump is for you”. An excellent essay on Substack by Julie Szego – shunned by The Age in Melbourne for writing the truth about the trans movement – highlights how out of touch the Democrats have become.
Back to Trump’s controversial nominations. Media critics have pointed to a seeming anomaly in the role of Tesla founder Elon Musk as a reformer of the US bureaucracy for the incoming administration. How can Trump impose a 60 per cent tariff on goods from China when most Teslas sold in the US are made in China? It finally occurred to the New York Times on Thursday (AEDT) that Trump’s position may be a bargaining chip. A piece headed “Is Trump more flexible on China than his hawkish cabinet picks suggest?” observed the appointment of Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary and overseer of the Office of the US Trade Representative may mean Trump wants a deal with China on tariffs.

The pond allowed the Major to ramble on in his FAFO way, knowing that we'd come to an epic snap, US President-elect Donald Trump (L) and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk. Picture: Kena Betancur/AFP

Okay, okay, enough with the UFC and Gladiator II already. The betting is still all about how long the bromance will last, with some suggesting three months, some under a year and some 13 Scaramuccis.

Meanwhile, the Major is all in on RFK Jr.

Many in the media have slammed the appointment of Robert F. Kennedy Jr as health secretary, even though he has promised not to block vaccination programs. A look at the big picture in US health might shed light on why Trump chose him.
Oliver Wiseman on The Free Press website last Wednesday wrote that almost 40 per cent of Americans have pre-diabetes. Three quarters are overweight to obese. More than 107,000 Americans died of drug overdoses last year. US life expectancy plateaued in 2022 at 77.5 years, the same as in 2004 and about five years less than other similar countries. So while RFK has views outside the mainstream, his central idea – Make America Healthy Again – has appeal.

Never mind the anti-vax nonsense, the many conspiracy theories, the abandoning of fluoride, etc, these are just views outside the mainstream, and the man has a bearish, whale head appeal. Only the Major, a FAFO lover of rotting teeth ...

On the Major ploughed:

Gaetz withdrew on Friday as the nominee for attorney-general in the face of allegations against him in a House ethics investigation. Wednesday’s revelation that Defence Department nominee Pete Hegseth paid a woman a settlement in 2017 raises questions about whether he was open and honest with Trump’s team.
Even if he too is not ultimately appointed, the initial selections of Hegseth and Gaetz sent a message that Trump means reform.

The pond is glad the Major mentioned that major loon Hegseth, but struggled to defend him. 

The pond has a bone to pick with alleged Xian Hegseth. Apparently he hasn't read the bible, in particular Leviticus 19:

27 Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard.
28 Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.

Uh huh, speaking of marks upon thee:

Strange that Xians never seem to read or follow the bible, or there'd be a big drop in certain Australian businesses, like the swine trade, rabbits, shellfish and lobsters, etc. Per Leviticus 11:

3 Whatsoever parteth the hoof, and is clovenfooted, and cheweth the cud, among the beasts, that shall ye eat.

4 Nevertheless these shall ye not eat of them that chew the cud, or of them that divide the hoof: as the camel, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

5 And the coney (Hyrax Syriacus), because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

6 And the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof; he is unclean unto you.

7 And the swine, though he divide the hoof, and be clovenfooted, yet he cheweth not the cud; he is unclean to you.

8 Of their flesh shall ye not eat, and their carcase shall ye not touch; they are unclean to you.

9 These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.

10 And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you:

11 They shall be even an abomination unto you; ye shall not eat of their flesh, but ye shall have their carcases in abomination.

12 Whatsoever hath no fins nor scales in the waters, that shall be an abomination unto you.

And that's just the start of all the injunctions and instructions, with the fashion trade also a victim. Back to 19, point 19:

19 Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy cattle gender with a diverse kind: thou shalt not sow thy field with mingled seed: neither shall a garment mingled of linen and woollen come upon thee.

There goes the rag trade.

Oh hearken vile tattooed mixed cloth sinners, there's no wriggle room:

37 Therefore shall ye observe all my statutes, and all my judgments, and do them: I am the Lord.

Sorry, the pond just needed a break from the Major, welcoming climate science denialism and fracking as the way forward (and yes, MM Latino voters, that promise of a big FAFO moment for you).

Tom Homan, Trump’s proposed border tsar, has been criticised for saying he would deport whole families. He now promises to focus on individual illegal immigrants. But no one doubts he has the credentials to succeed in securing the US’s southern border.
This column welcomes the appointment of US fracking pioneer Chris Wright as energy secretary. Wright is correct to point to rapidly expanding CO2 emissions in China and India and the failure of global decarbonisation policies for 30 years to reduce atmospheric CO2.
The nominations of Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio as secretary of state and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel may force Hamas to return its Israeli hostages and bring its backers in Qatar and Iran to their senses in trying to reach a peace deal. Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have failed miserably on that front.

The Hucksterabee will bring peace to Gaza? Or at least hotels with good sea views ...

Meanwhile, the genocide proceeds apace, while the reptiles offered a snap of little Marco, Florida Senator Marco Rubio. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

FAFO hopes and dreams kept gushing from the Major:

The nomination of Florida congressman Mike Waltz as national security adviser will only help strengthen the new administration’s dealings in the Middle East and Ukraine. A former Green Beret, Waltz, 50, is already a highly rated member of the Armed Services, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees of the House.

Waltz?There goes aid to Ukraine, there goes Ukraine to Vlad the sociopathic impaler.

Given Trump’s background in reality TV, his nomination of former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, Linda McMahon, sounds like parody. But Americans are fed up with the federal department’s application of politically correct curriculum demands on state-run educations systems. Much like in Australia.
McMahon was secretary for small business in the first Trump administration and is likely to have wide public support.

Would it have been too much for the Major to note that her brief will be to do this to the Education Department?

There's not supposed to be a federal education department in the new world order, while the states go about the business of installing politically correct fundamentalist Xian dogma in assorted curriculums.

The Major is however right about one thing:

The Washington Post was critical last week of the rumoured nomination of Jay Bhattacharya as director of the National Institutes of Health, suggesting his views on Covid were “contrarian” in 2020.

Poor old WaPo FAFO'd and now they're in a state of almost Morning Joe hysteria:

He seems motivated by retribution rather than efficiency? Who could have guessed, why there were absolutely no clues, not a single hint of what was to come ...

Ah yes, fool around before the election and then find out afterwards ...

And so to the Major running a standard Covid conspiracy theory line, and the long absent lord help the United States or the planet when it comes to the next pandemic, because we'll have FAFO'd again ...

Yet four year later these views look mainstream, and former health boss Anthony Fauci has told congress many of his Covid rules were guesses.
Many US voters see the pre-Covid Trump era as a time of prosperity and record employment of African-Americans. They are willing to give their new president a fair shot at the job. It’s the democracy left-wing journalists claimed to be defending.

A fair shot at the job with that cavalcade of far right clowns, minor TV celebrities and drop kick losers who've drunk more of the kool aid than the average resident of Jonestown?

Good luck with that ...

And so to end with an immortal Rowe, not because the 'toon has anything to do with any of the above, but because it's there and the pond likes to keep up ...