The Sunday Rumble: 2.9.18

What I do in bed at night:   No, no, not that - behave!  What I do is sleep with an ear-piece from my radio on the pillow next to me so that when I wake, I can listen in, usually to the BBC World Service.  Last night, by good fortune, I came across an absolute corker, a nine-year old repeat of an hour-long question and answer session with the American writer James Ellroy.  Oh boy, what a character he is!  I do remember reading, some years ago, one or two of his books from "The L.A. Quartet" and enjoying them immensely.  Listening to his dry, acerbic and witty talk last night, I am now determined to buy all four books to store on my Kindle.  I suggest you all give his Wiki entry a quick read to get a flavour of the man.

 

Sorry, sorry, I forgot:   I meant to tell y'all that last Wednesday was the beginning of the next series of "Upstart Crow" written by Ben Elton whose laundry list, I guess, is hilarious because he is a very funny fellow!  Anyway, watch out on BBC2 on Wednesday at 8.30.  According to a preview, this episode tells how William Shakespeare (played excellently by David Mitchell), thinks he has written a hilarious comedy but his companions try to tell him that there are absolutely no laughs in his first version of 'Hamlet'!  Incidentally, the title of the series comes from a contemporary and bitter rival of Shakespeare, Robert Greene, who issued a pamphlet describing him as "an upstart Crow, beautified with our feathers" - bitchy or what?!  Anyway, don't miss it!

 

Hmmmn!  So how will that work out?   From two different headlines in The Telegraph today, we have 'St. Theresa of May' insisting that there will be "No second referendum and no surrender to Brussels" and Michel Barnier, the EU's negotiator, warning that "Theresa May's Chequers deal will end the European project and Single Market".  Your guess is as good as mine! 

 

Today's race should be a corker!   Watching qualifying at Monza yesterday, I thought (Sir) Lewis's electrifying run had won him pole position but then the Ferraris squeezed him out to third place on the grid.  However, the delicious news is that instead of that 'damned Hun' gaining pole it was Kimi Raikkonen,  his No.2 team-mate (well, perhaps not entirely 'mate' now!), who nicked it.  The dash into the first chicane from the start should be interesting!

 

McCain's funeral brought out the worst of the living and the dead:   I have fretted, many a time and oft' recently, at the decline in decency in American politics.  The behaviour of nearly everyone involved in the funeral of Sen. John McCain, including the man himself, sank to abysmal depths.  Trump's refusal to keep the Stars and Stripes flying at half-mast was a sign of his petulant, childish ignorance.  Equally, McCain's insistence that the President of the United States should not be allowed to attend his funeral instantly brought him down to Trump's gutter level.  For God's sake, America, get a grip!

 

Then there is the gutter eruption from the British Labour party:   I never thought to see a day when one of the two leading political parties in Britain would sink to the toilet level that Jeremy Corbyn has reached with his vile, anti-Semitic programme - or should that be 'pogrom'?  It is almost beyond reason to try and fathom the depths of stupidity from the likes of Ed Miliband, a Jew himself, and the other dunderheads in the Labour party who agreed to a change in the rules which allowed Corbyn a chance to seize the leadership of their party.  They deserve what is coming their way but the rest of us do not!

 

What's the Italian for 'suck it up'?   I ask because the sound of wailing and gnashing of teeth from the massed tifosi (Ferrari fans) in the stands at Monza is hitting a crescendo!  Of course, (Sir) Lewis has done it again, driving like a demon and taking the chequered flag and poor little Vettel in the Ferrari could only manage fourth - oh dear what a pity never mind!

 

 

No more rumbles today

 

 

Comments

[AussieD]

Another lot of books to put on the list to read?

You are a glutton for punishment Duffers.

I can see the headlines now [although I probably wont be here to read them]

"135 year old man in Milborne Port snuffs it after finishing the last book in his library. Coroner finds he died of radiation poisoning from his Kindle"

[David Duff]

You may be right, AussieD, but only a few years back I was constantly warning of the threat to my person from the 'yuuuuuuuge' and leaning pile of 'waiting-to-be-read' books that was blocking out the light in my attic!

[Whitewall]

After several attempts in two states over two time zones, Mr. McCain has finally been successfully buried. His final formal spectacle yesterday was little more than a #Resistance meet up with everyone is better wardrobe.

[Bob]

The outpouring of national interest and respect for McCain is a reaction to Trump. For all his flaws, McCain's life stood in stark contrast to freewheeling cowardly, malignant psychosis.

[Timbo]

I read that the regulations state that the flag fly for two days at half mast for a dead senator. Trump actually authorized a third day when requested.
I am at a bit of a loss to square the circle of Bob’s comment:
Freewheeling - hotshot, last in class, mediocre pilot.
Cowardly - songbird?
Malignant - took his hatred to the grave and beyond, showing what a mean individual he was.

Trump on the other hand, called Linsey Graham to congratulate him on his eulogy for his (Graham’s) friend. A bigger and better man.

[backofanenvelope]

McCain also came home from Vietnam to find his faithful wife had been badly injured in a car crash and was wheelchair bound. He divorced her and married a much younger and richer wife. What a hero!

[Whitewall]

With the deadline of the 29th of March 2019 at 11 p.m, I am guessing PM May will have no deal reached and will simply allow a general 'flop over' come the following day.

[graham b]

What a weekend ! we win the Test series against India , Charlton Athletic win, Hamilton defies all the Ferrari hype, comes off best against Vettel who is now becoming uninsurable.Italian crowds act as if Ferrari won,poor deluded people .
Spurs lose to Watford and Corbyn is getting beyond help.Upstart Crow was very funny indeed and it's "The Bodyguard" tonight.
A libation is in order I think

[Bob]

Trying to tear down McCain doesn't build up Trump. America is obviously looking for a hero, and Trump obviously ain't it.

[JK]

Bob?

"The outpouring of national interest and respect for McCain is a reaction to Trump."

McCain's liberal media canonization does have to do with Trump Bob but it's not merely that. And for what its worth I don't think the "respect" part of your claim bears much meaningful merit Bob.

True the guy appeared on Meet the Press the most times but I'd suggest a tenure in Washington DC beginning in 1982 and continuing to feeding at the swamptrough until last week probably played a big part of that.

And so far as that "respect" bit goes a, for instance, relatively brief perusal of Rachel Maddow's archives reveals that, prior to his being dead (and as we all know, the liberal media does love its dead Republicans) but anyway prior to his being dead Ms Maddow's listing of "kind things about McCain" pre-dead is pretty scanty.

And I think even you Bob would agree that, for a politician, being on TV is more appealing than a lobbyist paid primerib and and all night beers.

I would suggest Bob that McCain's lionization is more but at the same time less complicated than all the press would now have us believe. "More complicated" by the fact of that aforementioned near 40 year tenure and "less complicated" by the mere fact of his well publicized animus with his Commander-in-Chief.

And as for that latter bit Bob I am finding myself woeful fatigued by the part McCain played in such a *large part inflicting on us citizens who, when we'd like to sit for the news and watch what's happening in say Eritrea or any number of otherwise exotic locales we instead are constantly pounded with ... well I'm sure everybody is aware.

*I refer to the circumstances and the (interminable) saga that led up to McCain's December 9th, 2016 sit-down in FBI Director Comey's office.

[JK]

I would add for the pleasure of my fellow D&N aficionados an observation I was privileged to hear during a recent visit to my post office:

"Ya know JK, until last week the [media] were having us believe the guy was the most recent incarnation of Pol Pot but today, everyone of them are having it that he's Mother Teresa."

[JK]

https://fabiusmaximus.com/2018/09/02/see-thru-the-propaganda-see-the-manufactured-mccain/

I post this link primarily (but certainly not solely) for the benefit of the non-US citizen readers here. Yes, "over-the-top" but I'm sick of what the American media and the Left will surely achieve.

[Whitewall]

A good summary:
http://www.thediplomad.com/2018/09/winning-and-silliness.html

[Whitewall]

And this,

@DavidAFrench
Follow Follow @DavidAFrench
More:
The contrast between the outpouring of love for McCain in his last days and the astonishing vitriol directed at him in 2000 and 2008 demonstrates once again how disingenuous, low, and cheap American politics were well before Trump came on the scene.

[Bob]

Trying to tear down "liberals", the media and the "liberal media" doesn't change anything either. McCain served in Vietnam while Trump took 5 deferments, one of which was for "bone spurs", a favorite draft dodge for the wealthy of the time. McCain operated from Navy flight decks when it was more dangerous than now and endured years of torture after being shot down. Trump remarked he preferred war heroes who hadn't been captured, and that his "personal Vietnam" was avoiding the clap.

Agree with McCain or not, he was a brave man who served his country honorably. All his showboating and political missteps can't detract from that. He's still a sharp contrast to Trump, who has also been known to showboat and make political mistakes, usually in vulgar, meanspirited, pettily insulting and childish ways he says are "non-PC". If that means the opposite of decency, he has a point.

[JK]

Make no mistake Bob,

I honor the guy's "suiting up for service" for the *most part to the nth degree however I would also stipulate, owing to some experience that, McCain's term in our Naval service was obligatory and inevitable.

Prisoner of War status Bob, for certain among us is appreciated as a "luck of the draw" sorta thing. It happens.

Far as "other persons personal Viet Nams" it probably won't surprise you Bob I've spent considerable time pondering on. It seems to me now in this place I've arrived to (with what, ought been Totally Apparent to Those who dispatched our Grandsons and Granddaughters to - Those were tasked with the obligation that a Phoenix Arizona Phoenix Arizona of all places! Veterans Hospital experience must not be allowed to occur.

Too, I realize the zeitgeist of the period on our home-front.

***

Whitewall, You probably appreciate I'd spent some time reviewing Mr Amselem's archives refreshing my memory of what I'd put in comments.